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life-rewritten · 3 years

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DISMAYS VS RELIEFS AKA REVIEW/RANTS OF BL IN SEPTEMBER NOVEMBER

It's been an interesting experience this past few months. BL came back in full force, took mostly all days in the week and you know what? It surprised the hell out of me. Mostly because I was moving back and forth from the decision of whether to stop watching or to wait and trust something extraordinary would happen like last year. And then October/November happened before I knew it I was falling again for some storylines, I was excited again to analyse and talk about these shows, and also I was incredibly grateful for some of the messages I received from these shows, they educated me, humbled me and even pushed me to my own version of self-acceptance, learning and love. So there are some disappointments with some of the shows mentioned here, but overall I'm grateful we got to see these shows and wait for them every week to air. This is the first part of this list because in another two weeks I have more shows ending. December is shaking!

Ratings: From 1 to 5 (1 being least excited to watch, 5 being most,) how excited am I to delve into these shows?

DISMAYS

1. MY GEAR AND MY GOWN

Genre/Themes: Romance, Melodrama, Angst, Drama, Friendship, Unrequited Love, Family

Country: Thailand

Verdict:

Um, this show. I've been through a lot with this show, I've been angry, frustrated, tired, annoyed but weirdly I love this show, by the end of the finale, this show left me with warmth and this energy of bliss and joy. I realised that the reason why I was so harsh to this show was because of the potential I saw when I first saw the first episode. I fell in love because I could tell it was symbolic, it was deep, and it also had interesting devices used to tell the plot. Who knew that the pacing and directing of this show would nearly leave me mad and furious because it could have been better. This is all on the director, and sometimes the actors, they weren't expressive enough, they weren't emotional enough, and they didn't entirely sell me on what they were meant to be feeling. Sometimes it felt awkward and stiff and unbelievable, and at those times, I felt disappointed and bored. But the characters of this show and especially some actors (FIAT and JJ) really stole my heart without me wanting them to. I fell in love with the couples, I loved analysing them and feeling their angst and understanding their character dynamics. I lived for their friendship and enjoyed watching how it all came together. Even some of the romantic scenes made me swoon and excited, and I was just so happy to watch these couples choose each other.

I also think the relationship dynamics, whilst sometimes annoying, was actually sweet and wholesome. Itt and Pai's love is so cute and memorable, and I understood why they wanted each other, they both helped each other so much, and I thought it was beautiful. Pure and Folk; everything, no words, they were incredible despite rushed and late, I enjoyed watching their love on my screen, and it left me so disappointed that we could have had more if the pacing was done right. Either way, despite the rants and criticisms this show was a gem to me, one of my favourites just because of the couple dynamics. I will miss it, and I will miss analysing it. But please NEW sort your self out, and stop with the slow pace directing; you're killing your shows, (just my opinion) but you're making me dread the shows I've been so excited for in 2021, and I really pray you won't ruin them. Nough said.

Ratings:3.8/5 I can't rate it higher, but I do think it deserves credit, this show is very underrated as much as it annoyed me it's actually a decent show, it's very educational sometimes. It also has character development and growth. The romances are sweet and definitely should be paid attention to.

2. A CHANCE TO LOVE/ LOVE BY CHANCE SEASON 2

Genre/Themes: Comedy, Romance, Drama, Friendship, Rich, poor dynamic,

Country: Thailand

Verdict:

MGAYG was not the only show that New produced/ directed. There was this atrocity. No offence to everyone who loved this show, I love TinCan, I like most of the couples of the show, I didn't even complain when the show was rebooted, I didn't complain when there was not enough plot for the side couples for the first 8 episodes. But what annoys the hell out of me with this show is the lazy writing. I am so disappointed with this show, I realised that by the finale I was just tired and I was only watching it for some actors not even characters ( I was watching it to see a glimpse of Meen and Est), and it really made me sad. Because I started off with this show a bundle of joy, to see Tin and Can fall in love with each other again, I ignored when the haters said it was boring, awkward or stiff. I even accepted the massive amounts of product placement that was placed lazily and annoyingly. I was ready to forgive everything with this show. But I ended up feeling slighted, not me the actors should feel slighted, Cooheart, Mark Siwat, Gun, Title, Meen, Est should feel slighted by this show because this show wasted their potentials and only showed them for minutes in the whole 12 hours that this show aired for. I am so angry at the writer because she was lazy. She had clocked out when it came to this script (Though I don't blame her when everyone kept on sending her threats to how she told the previous story, she silenced her own creative ideas and muted everything, hence why Kengla and Techno's story was destroyed and became lazy and not needed and confusing, and Tum and Tar and Keen made no sense). Mame had given up on this show long before it aired.

But as much as I am disappointed at her for doing so, I also have to take this back to New, he's the person again who ruined this show with his pacing and directing. I love New, but this year it wasn't it, he is the main flaw in both his shows, he doesn't know when to pace things properly, he rushes plots at the end, and he doesn't give enough time to side couples for them to make sense. He did well in season 1 I think, but this season was atrocious. I am heavily disappointed, and I want to forget this show exists. I do have to give credit to Mean because I think he carried the show, I think Plan was cute but he was uncomfortable, and he ruined a lot of moments for me despite how much I love his chemistry with Mean. So yeh LBC was a disappointment, but it still holds a special place in my heart because I did care about the cast (maybe not as much anymore because of their homophobia) but LBC was one of my first loved BLs to see such a disappointing follow up is just heartbreaking.

Ratings:2.9/5 I couldn't bring my self to rate it even a three because I genuinely don't want to rewatch or think about this show again that's a pity because I genuinely love TinCan and MeenEst. But hey ho, c'est la vie.

RELIEFS

Gaya Sa Pelikula

Genre/Themes: Romance, Drama, Comedy, Angst, LGBTQ+ Education, Contract relationship, Haters to lovers

Country: Philippines

Verdict: We finally reached the end. And the way I didn't want this show to end, is just too much. I completed this show on the floor sobbing, clenching my heart and just reflecting and thinking about everything. One I was in shock, wasn't expecting something like this when I first watched this show. I had a lot of doubts despite the sneaky light in my heart from the comedy and energy and charisma from the show. I fell. Hard. For everything. Before I knew it, Fridays meant everything to me, if I could get to keep watching this show, it made laugh, smile, cry, weep, and it made me think and learn. It's weird how a show can mean so much to people, this show wasn't for me, it was a love letter to the LGBTQ+ community, a beautiful one, and with everybody's reaction, I think I can say for all of us, that this show was a masterpiece. It had everything, a plot that was so deep, interesting and unique, characters that felt real, understandable and relatable, lessons that made everyone think and question how they acted, how they viewed things, what we say, how we consider our selves, what is our story that we want to tell to the world?

It's just incredible, not only that this show had terrific production, directing, acting and music that will stick with me for a long time. The music was perfectly used, perfectly mixed in, and it touched everyone's heart. This show left me feeling healed, it was weird, I don't know how to relate to the struggles of Internalised homophobia, but I get anxiety, I get feeling like you're not the main character in your story, I get feeling like your life was already planned out and your dreams don't matter, I get hiding and running away from the world and finding a place to stay in your head and find peace and I get feeling overlooked and misunderstood. Overall I get the fight for self healing, acceptance and love. And Vlad and Karl went through that, and it was so beautiful to see them grow and become what they wanted to be, even if they couldn't be together because of that. Everything including the side characters in this show meant something, each had their own story, flaws and importance for why they were there, and I loved it. Words can't explain how good this show is, and the fact that no one came into it, knowing anything is just such inspirational and hopeful thing, out there, there are content and stories to consume that can teach and affect you and make you want to do something with your own. And Gaya Sa pelikula was one of those for me. I don't wanna say Goodbye, and hopefully, we get to see them again soon.

Ratings: 5/5 I would give this more than 5 if I could. That's how much this show means to me.

4. I TOLD SUNSET ABOUT YOU/ TRANSLATE MY LOVE WITH YOUR HEART

Genre/Themes: Romance, Melodrama, Coming of Age, Angst, Drama, Childhood friendship

Country: Thailand

Verdict: Wow. All I can say is wow. I find my self not able to talk about this show, because like what else can I say that everyone hasn't said. It's outstanding. No words. I think this show was just out of nowhere, I mean probably not; because it was a Nadao production but still, for a BL? Out of nowhere. The effort, the acting, the music, the production, the themes and the way it was all so perfectly told? It was a journey, I ended up at times also on the floor sobbing, shouting and just like feeling so single. Haha. But really this show is ridiculously good, it's like something that can't be fully explained, it's still a shock to me (and I really need to start believing in potentials of BLs more), it is, I'm just thankful I guess, for the 5 hours spent with this show, the number of essays derived from this show, the way Teh and Oh snuck in my heart and refused to leave. I think we all want a love like Teh and Oh, someone who completely takes your breath away, is selfless for you and is your number one supporter and fan. Someone who the room spins around for and your world only focuses on, someone who makes you brave.

And I think Teh and Oh found that with each other, and it was beautiful to witness, it was heartbreaking as well to see them struggle with it, it was also peaceful to reach the end and see them safe and secure with each other. ITSAY was everything, it also means a lot to me because the writing and directing are effortless, it's inspiring and beautiful to see how it came about, its so fulfilling to see how much effort went into this production. And I can't wait to see how Part 2 unfolds next year. I will say that with all the angst and longing, the ending did feel unsatisfactory because I just felt that all the tension and emotion invested just became really tame at the end, all the angst just fell apart so rapidly, and it felt weird that it ended in a hug? But with all the theories about sad endings and the other directions the writer could have gone with I'm happy it was a happy ending, and I'm delighted our boys reunited and became each other's most immense success/happiness.

Ratings: 4.5/5 Yeh I want to give it a 5/5 but the ending like I said felt a little bit empty for me, I didn't feel satisfied or like complete but that's because there's a part 2 coming. Still is the best Thai BL ever created. And it deserves all the praise.

November was a ride, I think I've cried so much during these past weeks, but honestly, I'm so glad BLs are just improving and putting more effort in, BLs are no longer just for fujoshis to consume. Still, now they represent and educate about LGBTQ+ experiences, they feel relatable and understandable. They're not as toxic as before. We're getting healthier relationships, we're getting depth and unique plots, we're getting happy endings as well. It's very lovely to see the growth, and I can't wait to see what December brings or next year. I'm just so proud of these actors, I'm proud of actors who actually respect this genre and understands why people like it, for me I really enjoy learning about things I never thought or experienced, it humbles me, and it inspires me so much. I'm grateful for these shows. Hopefully, there's many more like ITSAY and GSP to come. Please.

#thai bl #bl drama #bl series #itsay #i told sunset about you #gaya sa pelikula #gsp #like in the movies #wrpup #november #my gear and your gown #mgayg #a chance to love #love by chance #lbc #tincan #tulhin #mark siwat #pinoy bl

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punk-rock-uncle · 3 years

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A final good bye and final log out

This is not a suicide not so no need to worry. Many of you that follow me probably barely remember my blog, it wasnt very big or fancy. I barely know how to code or make my blog look like anything but, that is neither here nor now. I wanted to say good bye I have a bad habit of leaving without saying anything and disappearing for weeks at a time. I guess abusive relationships will teach you that. I went silent on this blog around 3 years ago when I started college. But I wanted to talk about why I started this, the ending will be saved most obviously till the end. I started this blog in a way to find friends, in 2012 internet friends were all the rage and I wanted to be a part of that so I started a tumblr. But was not active on it till 2014. In high school I grew a bit of a following around sophomore year 2015. I would constantly rant on this account and people would watch but not say much. It bothered me a bit that I was never “Tumblr Famous” but I knew people who were, so I would live on through them. Tumblr a lot in high school, I was too afraid to do anything but I knew in the back of my mind that I would get there in my own time. Tumblr, in that sense was kind to me and never made me feel like I had to be pressured to do anything and would constantly educate me from maters of social justice and the Black Lives Matter movement, sex education, gender expression, sexuality, art and astrology. I saw all the drama and surprisingly enough stayed away from the super toxic side of tumblr pushing minors to do more and more and more. It was safety net and whenever my parents would do what they do best I always had the arms of my blog to run and cry to. It made the darkest days a little brighter, people reblogging free movie sites and calming gifs were my saving grace when I was 14 and suicidal. As high school went on I found myself in a relationship and put all my time, money, effort, energy, my whole being into this one person who would end raping me an using my past against me. I was still active and would talk about him on here including our fights. But as the fights got more violent and heated, the less I would post about him and one day all together I stopped posting on here, for what I thought was for good. I wanted to reach out on tumblr and ask “is any of this normal?” “why do we fight so much?” “is it normal for your partner to make you feel this afraid?” “is it normal for them to talk about sex 24/7″ “is it normal to feel afraid and cry during sex?” I wanted to reach out so badly. I knew I couldn’t and it was a stupid reason why I couldn’t. I was afraid of the judgment, because no one here talks about the small intricacies of domestic violence and how it breaks down every part of you. So I went quiet, I stopped talking about him, stopped posting him and he never care. I was put on meds after he raped me, stopped sleeping and eating. After the meds failed to stop the development of PTSD I started smoking and drinking heavily. After all of that I stopped being on tumblr because things were not the same and stuff that made me happy before just stopped bringing me joy. I thought no one here would care about what I have to say and his words and actions confirmed that even more. Eventually I broke it off 8 months later and my friends never believed me that he was abusing me. Life is better now, I lived abroad, I have an apartment with a new boyfriend, hes nice we have our ups and downs but we came from a hard life so someone loving you is a hard thought to accept for both of us. We both have toxic cycles we need to break but he’s good and he’s teaching me to be kind. I would love to continue on this hellsite but I have other things now, bigger and better things. I am just simply a ghost now of a website where I used to poor out all of my traumas and for one last time I will do that. For any 16 year old who stumbles across this post please read through till the end (if you can) because I want to tell you things I wish someone told me at 16/ entered my first relationship.

Your bf, gf and/or partner should never do/say these things and other small warning signs of DV

1. if sex hurts a lot for you it is because you are not comfortable, communicate this and if they refuse to understand why leave

2. If your partner scares you so much to the point where you have a panic attack thinking about them, then leave

3. you will fall out of love in your first relationship, as shitty as it is, it’ll happen. It’s okay, you can leave. Just like you out grow clothes you will outgrow people.

4. let people leave, I know this is hard to accept but people will leave and the universe will have something in store for you

5. YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE HAVING SEX AT 16 IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO I LOST MY VIRGINITY AT 19 IT IS NORMAL!

6. it is normal for you and your partner to have conversations about what to say when people constantly ask you if yall have done the deed it is not normal for your partner to tell you to lie and say you have (when you havent); leave if they do this trust me

7.If your partner is asking about sex 24/7 and its making you uncomfortable then say something, maybe they don’t mean any harm by it! but if once you’re done with the convo and it didn’t make you feel better you should leave

8. its okay to leave 1st relationships aren’t meant to last

9.something my mom said that made me feel better: just because you’re breaking up now doesn’t mean you’re breaking up forever

10. please don’t force yourself to have sex it’s a very toxic cycle. Easy to get into but hard to break out of

11. you can be alone, you don’t have to date all the time

12. if your partner's parent is bullying you tell your partner that it makes you uncomfortable talk to them about it. Now I understand parents are hard especially when your 16 and younger (hell parents @ 21 are still tough to deal with) and if your partner says “well I can’t tell them off because of xyz” then make a compromise on how to deal with the situation. If your 1st partner’s parents don’t like you it’s not the end of the world and if bugs you that much YOU CAN ALWAYS LEAVE

13. on the other hand if you tell your partner, they don’t take it seriously and they still beg you to visit their family then leave, you’re not married you’re young I will probably say this a thousand more times BUT YOU CAN ALWAYS LEAVE

14. YOU CAN ALWAYS LEAVE, YES IT WILL SUCK, YES YOU’LL CRY AT EVERYTHING BUT IT IS OKAY NOTHING IS PERMANENT AND THAT IS A GOOD THING

15. do not waste your first relationship on couples counseling ( yes I did that and he still owes me $250 for the session I was dumb & 17 don’t get mad @ me)

16. if your relationship makes you extremely angry leave, that anger means something, listen to it.

17. if you are like me and was raised in a very abusive household with parents that constantly abuse you just know that not every relationship is like that and you won’t be like them but, you have to actively work on it not just say it out loud (BUT it does help saying it out loud, v comforting)

18. if you break up, stay broken up (sometimes it works out for the better if they really want you they’ll try)

19. NEVER LET YOUR PARTNER’S MOM DICTATE WHERE YOU GO TO COLLEGE TRUST ME YOU WILL REGRET IT

20. if you are begging for the basics leave

21. if they ignore your food allergy leave

22. if they’re a mama’s boy please leave

23. if they ignore your fears leave

24. if they think violence is casual and necessary for relationships leave

25. listen to their ex’s even if you take it with a grain of salt please listen

26. if you need to come up with an escape plan you’re in a toxic and possibly abusive relationship

27. it’s okay if you don’t have the courage to leave right now but know, you can’t stay forever

28. if they use past trauma against you, leave.

also a word of advice for friends who know people who have been in DV situations

1. if we trauma dump just know we are sorry but please stop us and talk through it later (if you can)

2. don’t ask why they didn’t leave sooner it’s not your buisness

3. we don’t know we are being abused, if you know but we don’t please be patient. The mind is a tricky thing.

4. DO NOT SAY “how did you not know” “you’re stupid for not knowing” “you’re making it up” “told you so” or anything else condescending, we feel stupid and we just want support

well that’s all I have folks! Thank you tumblr for all the laughs and all the cringe. I hope this post is insightful and please feel free to add on.

love <3

Punk-Rock-Uncle :)

#tw: mental health #cw: suicide #drugs cw #cw: drugs #tw: rape #cw: abusive relationships #cw: abuse #personal

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itsclydebitches · 4 years

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RWBY Recaps: “Gravity”

Good lord, folks. Buckle your seat-belts because we’ve got a lot to get through this episode. I think this is my longest recap to date, so settle in.

Episode Eleven’s “Gravity” starts out simple enough, focusing on the two fights we’d set up during “Out in the Open.” First up, Ironwood vs. Watts. Overall this fight does a really excellent job of showcasing their different fighting styles. Right from the start Watts is pointing his gun forward to take a clear shot at Ironwood, whereas Ironwood points his backwards to use as a surge of momentum.

He’s going to do this frequently throughout the battle, constantly using his gun to maneuver in the air, slow falls, regain his balance, and change directions, a much more complicated series of choices than the one-off shots we see Ruby use with her sniper rifle. This is partly because Ironwood seems to have a much larger supply of bullets---some sort of energy/dust ammo---than Watts does. His steampunk-esque gun holds only nineteen bullets, requiring him to keep track throughout the fight. Which is always a fun trope but sorry, Watts, you can’t compare to the king.

Thus, with limited weaponry available to him, Watts is forced to get creative with the arena itself. We see him manipulating gravity, shooting up columns of water and fire, and making use of his own pathways between platforms, all in an effort to throw Ironwood off and catch up unawares. However, Ironwood is, frankly, the much better fighter. He was right last week to assume he could handle Watts even though he sent three off to tackle Tyrian. He’s able to recover much more quickly and learns from any mistakes, as evidenced by his ability to hit Watts dead on while in the air the second time he takes out the gravity. When they come together in hand-to-hand Ironwood easily dominates, no doubt thanks not just to his military training and huntsmen lifestyle, but also in large part to his prosthetics which I would assume grant him more speed and power. Throughout the course of the fight we see Watts consistently take more damage to his aura and he’s unable to sense when Ironwood is sneaking up on him. After that little maneuver, Watts (presumably) grows reckless and lets off his last three or four shots in a random barrage. All of them miss.

This emphasis on emotion continues when they land back onto the main stage with Watts shouting, “You never appreciated my genius, James! You just stood atop it and called yourself a giant.” Oh, did Ironwood actually do something horrendous in the past? Is there something juicy that would explain---though not excuse---Watts’ turn towards villainy? Nah. He quickly follows that up with, “You chose that fat imbecile over me!” referring to Pietro. So... nice one, Watts. Crazy arrogance, willful ignorance of Pietro’s own, clear genius (anyone who can create Penny is no slouch), as well as a bit of fat-shamming on top of it all. No sympathy from me.

This moment emphasizes how unhinged Watts is becoming though as the fight turns against him. Even when he manages to setup a head shot Ironwood reveals, “You’re smart, but you’re not the only one who can count,” referencing that Watt’s emotions got the better of him, leading to him wasting his last bullet before it could be of real use.

...except not. I’ve got to admit, I was very pleased when all of this---or at least this particular moment---was merely a plan to get Ironwood to let his guard down. Watts is way too smart a character to be done in by the “You got too emotional and that made you sloppy” trope. So kudos there (even if it remains to be seen whether that Pietro comment was really his motivation, or just another part of the plan). Instead, he uses Ironwood’s confidence in his victory to trap him with the rings that control the arena, essentially pinning Ironwood’s non-prosthetic arm through the energy shields he’s been using. We can immediately see that the parts that have touched Ironwood already have horribly burned the skin.

And that ends up being Watt’s downfall. Not stupidity on his own part, but his lack of understanding of Ironwood himself. He assumes that this truly is a trap for him, rather than another sacrifice. After all, what fool would ruin their one remaining arm to stop him? Watts himself wouldn’t. Don’t pull, he cautions Ironwood, not “unless you’re hoping to add more metal to that body of yours.” Watts goes so far as to turn his back on Ironwood who then makes the sacrifice we all knew he would. One burned, useless arm later and he’s free.

I would like everyone to keep this moment in mind. Namely the utter devastation of it. I’d go so far as to say it’s as bad at Yang losing her arm in Volume 3. Despite seeing it bandaged later, Watts at least thinks it will be a complete loss if Ironwood sacrifices it. He’ll need to “add more metal,” AKA replace his arm, so though he obviously still has it in the following scenes, we don’t know if it will ever be functional again. Just as important, Ironwood had to choose to do that to himself. That wasn’t a horrific, but ultimately clean cut done in a moment of surprise. That was a conscious decision, a slow pull through all that pain, and then having to finish your fight immediately afterward. It’s a very different kind of psychological trauma, no better or worse than having someone take your arm from you by force. Throughout this volume I’ve seen a lot of fans being critical not only of Ironwood’s main decisions, but just his overall attitude as well. Too strict, too stern, doesn’t smile enough, yells sometimes, etc. basically associating someone who isn’t all sunshine and smiles with someone who is “bad.” Ignoring for the moment that we can say the same thing about many of our group---notably Yang---I have little doubt that I’ll see similar posts after this episode. Writings in the vein of, “Ironwood is unhinged! I can’t believe he yelled and hit his desk like that!” So everyone just keep this moment in mind and ask yourself how calm you’d be if you’d sacrificed your arm like that all of half an hour ago. And then found Salem’s calling card on your desk. And then came to the realization that the allies you trusted have been lying to you from the start. And then Salem herself appears to mock you. And then your city is about to be overrun. Basic summary of the rest of the episode: holy shit. So yeah. If Yang is allowed to be angry and upset after losing her arm, or just angry in general like she is in the later half of “Gravity,” I think we owe it to Ironwood to let him be angry too. I have a lot of feelings about the utter insanity he’s been forced through with little to no support and if he wants to take all that out by hitting his desk once, by god I’d say that’s a good coping strategy given the circumstances. Both the writing and the fans tend to erase trauma once you’ve passed age 25. The girls have every right to be upset, to break, to not trust people because they’ve been through a few months of hardship, but Ozpin isn’t allowed the same after a couple thousand years of that. We’re going to see the same hypocrisy later in this episode---the group can be upset about lies but Ironwood is not---and I’m hoping (against hope) that the fandom doesn’t make that worse by sweeping this injury under the rug. It’s horrific and absolutely has a bearing on his inability to keep his cool with the group immediately afterwards. We’ve long passed Ironwood owing them endless reassurances and calm responses.

Anyway, Ironwood still manages to finish the fight because his remaining arm is his robotic one, giving him the strength to easily drag and raise Watts into the air one-handed. He dangles him over the edge of the arena, announcing that he will “sacrifice whatever it takes to stop [Salem].” A clear bit of foreshadowing for his decision at the end of the episode. Watts responds that he hopes he does.

We then move to the Tyrian fight which, on the whole, I don’t think was done quite as well. Granted, there are a lot of enjoyable and badass moments. I like that Clover’s first act is to announce that Tyrian is under arrest, maintaining the law that Atlas (and Ironwood) works to uphold. It doesn’t matter that Tyrian is a crazy serial killer in league with an immortal sorceress hell-bent on destroying the world. Even crazy serial killers have rights and are given the option of surrendering, even when everyone present knows there’s exactly zero chance of that happening. It’s the principal of the thing and the ability to say, “We gave him a chance.” In a world overrun with inequality, this is a small but important attempt to level the field. If you do something wrong you face legal action and those rights are announced to you. Same for Tyrian. Same for Team RWBY. But we’ll get to that.

For now, we see Qrow attack first and like back in Volume Four he and Tyrian are pretty evenly matched. The tide doesn’t turn until Robyn and Clover come into play. Throughout this exchange we see a lot of cool combos among the three of them. Tyrian will block an incoming arrow with his tail only for Clover to snag it with his hook. Robyn can get another arrow to perfectly bounce off the walls and then Qrow’s scythe, hitting Tyrian dead on. Clover can dive between Tyrian’s legs, giving Qrow the opening he needs to attack. It is, as said, pretty badass... almost a little too badass. Personally, I would have appreciated them messing up once or twice. They’re all professionals, yes, but Qrow and Clover have only had one fight together. Robyn, meanwhile, wasn’t even allied with them until an hour ago. This is a situation where skills shouldn’t really trump, “We’re three very distinct people who don’t know each other’s fighting styles well, trying to attack one guy in very close quarters.” There should have been some screw-ups. Especially when we take semblances into account. What, are we supposed to assume here that Clover’s semblance just conveniently overrides Qrow’s? That no mistakes---let alone anything bad---will happen in this fight despite the fact that it’s an extreme parallel to Volume Four? That whole battle emphasized, “Don’t come closer!” because when people fight near Qrow bad shit happens. Now, he fights with two other people in a narrow alleyway and there’s not a single repercussion. Based on their travels looking for the geist, I don’t buy that Qrow’s semblance is just conveniently inactive while near Clover. Even if I did... that’s not a very good writing decision. To me, it’s just more evidence that Rooster Teeth doesn’t understand its own rules/doesn’t know what to do with an ability like Qrow’s. It causes problems only when they explicitly want it to. Then, miraculously, it’s no longer in effect.

Still, we’ll acknowledge that RWBY had a lot else it wanted to accomplish in this episode, so the need to power through this fight is somewhat justified. I personally would have had the entirety of this episode be the two battles---I was shocked when both ended just eight minutes in---but I’m obviously not the one writing the show. Thus, instead of an episode devoted to both the action and the emotion of confronting our two main villains this volume, Tyrian loses his cool after getting punched in the gut, manages to catch Robyn’s arrow in his teeth...

But it’s a bomb.

Down he goes. Fight’s done.

Which leads us into the second half of the episode. I want to preface this with a short acknowledgment before we go any further.

Did these last ten minutes give me what I’ve been looking for since the beginning of Volume Six? No. It’s easy to assume it did because all the pieces are there. Ironwood is finally angry about the secret keeping. The Ace Ops are criticizing the group left and right. Surely this is the “The group is capable of making mistakes and they should be called out for it!” that I wanted, right? Not really. For the simple reason that there is a massive difference between:

A story that acknowledges mistakes as mistakes. The characters either grow from this lesson or dig in their heels and are painted as being in the wrong for that decision.

and

A story that takes what the audience (me) perceives as mistakes and frames them as justified choices. The characters do not grow because they’re 100% sure they’re in the right and those who would criticize them are painted as in the wrong.

“Gravity” is so far into that second option I don’t think the series can come back from it. Does the group face criticism? Yes, but every single time the writing insists that it’s undeserved criticism. It paints the group as the underdogs facing unfair odds, rather than equals---with all the responsibility that comes with that---facing criticism that they need to own up to. Absolutely nothing in this second half implies that the group is going to learn from their mistakes because they, and the writing, still insists that they weren’t mistakes. Which is precisely what we’ve gotten before. Cordovin might criticism them, but Cordovin is in the wrong. Winter might criticism them, but Winter is in the wrong. Every time a character goes, “Hey, you shouldn’t have done this” the group responds with, “Yes we should have!” and the story backs them up. Yes, you should have attacked Argus. Yes, you should have stolen an airship. Yes, you should have lied to Ironwood and spilled the secret to Robyn. Yes, yes, yes. That’s the takeaway every single time. The group is never in the wrong. Others just think they are and those others are painted as cruel, militaristic, unhinged characters.

It’s not at all what I was looking for. Just more of the same.

So that’s the preface. In terms of what we actually get, Ironwood returns to his office with his arm bandaged and in a sling, carrying Watts’ bag, only to drop it when he sees the queen piece on his desk. He calls Winter asking, “Was anyone caught entering the school grounds while I was away?” and when she says no Ironwood has her race off to the Winter Maiden, unknowingly leading Cinder there in the process. “Now show me where you’ve been hiding her.”

We then cut to the group where the trouble begins. They’re not just curious about why Ironwood is recalling them with Mantle still in need of evacuation, they’re actively questioning it. This is the attitude I simply don’t understand. The group acts as if Ironwood is deliberately screwing everyone over when they know better. This is no longer the beginning of the volume where they thought he was some horrific dictator hell bent on destroying his own Kingdom. This is just an hour or so after, “We should tell Ironwood!” and the happy-go-lucky ‘We trust him now’ moment. Even less time after Ruby stared up at him in awe with, “He’s doing it.” They had reason to trust him before they even made it to Atlas. They were given even more reasons in the form of Ironwood sharing his secrets, early licenses, and being allowed to work on the tower. They then still waited until Ironwood was doing everything they wanted before giving him some of that trust back... but the moment he stops doing precisely what they want---we want to keep evacuating Mantle---he’s deemed suspicious again.

I mean seriously, is the group that dense? Are they incapable of thinking to themselves, “Wow, something must have happened if Ironwood is recalling us before evacuations are complete,” which is precisely the case. The scene tries to frame it as “Group Good” and “Ace Ops Blinding Obeying Orders Bad” but that aspect doesn’t even come into play. There’s nothing blind about it. It simply takes two seconds of critical thinking skills to realize that something really awful must have happened back at the Academy that trumps what you’re doing in Mantle. This is what I mean by the writing being biased. Before we even reach the fight in Ironwood’s office it’s trying to paint him as potentially cruel, potentially suspicious, potentially abandoning his people, look how worried our heroes are about this secret decision he’s made... when all that requires ignoring some really basic deduction in order to reach those assumptions. Remember that intelligence is a plot device in RWBY. If they want Ironwood forced to spill his secrets, he’ll randomly start talking about them in front of his enemies. If they want Ironwood painted as the villain, the group will randomly be incapable of realizing that maybe, just maybe, something went wrong on the home front and you’re needed there.

Things just get so much worse from then on. The group splits with JNR going off to find Oscar and, admittedly, I was shocked we got that at all. I mean yeah, it’s setup for the final reveal at the end of the episode, but the fact that anyone remembered Oscar was missing---let alone happily went off to find him---was still a surprise. So only Team RWBY heads back to Ironwood’s office where they find him (rightfully) panicking over the queen on his desk. Weiss tries to baby him, acting like he’s freaking out over nothing, when all these characters should recall precisely what Ironwood himself points out: the last time we saw this symbol it was a message that Beacon had fallen. He’s not paranoid here. He’s entirely justified in his panic. Ironwood likewise points out that they may have been duped into bringing thousands of people into Atlas as easy targets and Vine agrees, setting up that the Ace Ops are on Team Ironwood throughout the course of this conversation. Not out of blind loyalty, but because he’s right. That is a concern. That may be the plan. We do need to try and do something about that. Team RWBY, however, isn’t convinced.

That is, until Ruby realizes that the chess piece is made of black glass. Which means Cinder left it. Normally I’d congratulate her on that deduction---it is the one smart move we see Ruby pull this whole episode---but I just hate what follows. Namely that Ruby and Ruby alone controls her team’s opinions on a situation. Again. We saw it back in the snow, then again when Blake announced in the elevator that they’d do whatever she wanted. Team RWBY is the one who blindly follows their leader, not the Ace Ops, the only exception being Blake and Yang going rogue in regards to Robyn, but we see that hive-mind mindset here again. Ironwood brings up a good point? Nothing. Ace Ops support that point with more logic? Nothing. Ruby supports it? Oh, suddenly Weiss and Blake are taking this seriously. Suddenly Yang is fired up and ready to do whatever is necessary. Ruby controls the room. It’s only when she’s on board that her teammates decide this is worth getting riled up about.

Which, as I’ve said before, is a horrible way to write a diverse group. Especially when the writing is trying to paint the Ace Ops as mindless soldiers. For all their claims that they just have to follow orders, they’re the only ones parsing through this situation and coming to their own conclusions. It’s just that their conclusions do end up aligning with Ironwood’s which is the “bad” take in this scene. Team RWBY, however, waits until their leader makes a decision and then simply rides her cloak tails. The day that Blake, Yang, or Weiss legitimately disagree with Ruby---not a token “Are you sure we should keep secrets from Ironwood? We’re not actually challenging this. Just checking in”---is the day the writing will disagree with her. AKA, no time soon.

Blake tries to give some bland reassurance about them all being with Ironwood to which he responds, “Are you with me? How did Robyn know about the global communications tower?” Thank you! Thank you for giving us Ironwood’s characterization back and acknowledging that he has no reason to buy their generic ‘Got your back’ statements when everything they’ve done this volume has proven otherwise. They don’t support Ironwood, only themselves and their own teams. The minute he does something they don’t like he’s chucked under the bus. Too bad the writing doesn’t acknowledge any of this and instead continually paints the group as being justified in their decisions. It’s that hypocrisy again. When the group yells at Ozpin for keeping secrets we’re supposed to be on their side. When the Ace Ops yell at the group for keeping secrets we’re... still supposed to be on their side.

Weiss tries to diffuse the situation with “None of this matters right now!” which is real rich when they were just complaining about Ironwood not telling them why they were called back. They get to worry over that, but Ironwood isn’t allowed to worry about them outright betraying him? “Loyalty always matters!” he shouts back and he’s right. Why should Ironwood trust them to have his back in this crucial moment when they’ve never had it before? I’m already seeing more of this hypocrisy among the fandom. When Ozpin kept secrets and told lies the group was given a whole volume to be pissed about that and fans still, to this very day, insist that it hasn’t been enough time for them to get over it, to regain even a portion of that trust. But now that Ironwood has been lied to and betrayed in the same manner? People are annoyed that he’s not just shrugging it off. How dare you not get over in thirty seconds what our heroes got weeks to work through. His inability to just suck it up, as it were, is used to make him seem irrational here. I don’t see anyone, characters or fans alike, acknowledging that his anger is as righteous as the group’s was out in the snow. That there is the disconnect.

Of course, something has to break the tension. Drawn by all the fury and fear, a grimm pops out of Watts’ bag. A fail-safe for if he was defeated and captured. Salem immediately takes control of the grimm and kills it, using its form to appear before them. She reveals that it doesn’t matter that her men were captured. They were just there to “set the stage,” which they’ve done. Still doesn’t explain the random Penny side plot to my mind (seriously, why did the story bother to resurrect her when she has done nothing plot-wise or emotionally?), but whatever. Much more importantly, the stage is set for Salem herself. She’s approaching with the grimm army we saw her amassing which is... iffy.

First off, why? Why after a thousand years has she suddenly changed her MO from keeping to the sidelines to a full-on attack? Again, what’s the catalyst for that massive change? We don’t know. Meanwhile, from a writing perspective, I’m hesitant about having our Big Bad thrown into the mix before the finale. We know there are plenty of volumes left in this series, which automatically undermines any battle they might have with Salem. Will they win?? Of course not! Because RWBY isn’t over yet. Granted, this could all just be a ruse of some sort. Maybe Salem just wants them to think she’s approaching with an army, which would be much more up her alley in terms of long-distance manipulation. But if not... seriously, what’s the point of that?

Here’s hoping it’s a bluff.

Speaking of manipulation, we get a fantastically creepy moment where Salem tells Ironwood to “simply accept the futility of your situation” while smiling like a kind mother. That’s the Salem who is truly dangerous. Ironwood reaffirms that he won’t give up the relics and Ruby pips up with, “We don’t have to kill you to stop you.”

Hey wait. I’m gonna give you all another graphic.

This is Ozpin’s stance! This is his plan! His version of hope! We spent all of Volume Six having the cast beat on him for, “Omg Salem is immortal?!” and with the exception of Nora’s comment, no discussion of this in Volume Seven... but now suddenly Ruby is making this announcement? The group came to this revelation sometime off screen which we a) don’t get to see and b) once again created no scenario in the form of, “Wow! Ozpin was right all along! Maybe we should go talk to him...”

I’m just... wow. The number of times the writing takes what the group and the adults do, the exact same perspectives and decisions, and twists it so that the group comes out looking like heroes and the adults look like misguided, unhinged fools who need to be put in their place... I’m really over it at this point. And by extension the group themselves. Their characterizations have been so badly mangled at this point I legitimately don’t like them as people. I don’t care if they say they want to protect Mantle, or if they say they’ll support Ironwood, or if they say they’re unsure about their choices. All their actions claim otherwise.

Rather than grappling with the huge revelation that the group is apparently no longer obsessed with Salem’s immortality (or rather that Ruby isn’t. The rest of the group doesn’t actually matter. As established, they sync up with her beliefs the second she announces them), we return to Summer Rose. Salem goes, “Your mother said those words to me” and Ruby... loses it? What? I would have been 100% on board with this if we’d gotten it last Volume because then we saw Ruby losing her cool periodically. The smashed alcohol bottles. Chucking her scroll. Screaming at Qrow. That was all building to something. But then we had a year and roughly twelve episodes of normality. Ruby jumps into her fight with Cordovin and has been fine ever since. Hell, she’s been bubbly and confident, goofing off with Penny in one episode, then giving strong orders to her team in another. The one time we see her falter was in her conversation with Qrow and he reassured her completely that she was both doing the right thing and in no way comparable to Ozpin. Now, suddenly, one line from Salem and Ruby collapses? Full on incapacitated? I could buy the crying while still standing strong, I could buy a collapse if we’d kept her characterization going from Volume Six, but this kind of reaction in this context just felt so extreme. Doesn’t help that I really wasn’t sold on the voice acting here. Those cries sound less like devastated sobs and more like weird hiccups. Not to rag on Lindsay. On the whole I think she does a really excellent job as Ruby, it’s just this particular moment didn’t read right to me. I didn’t feel Ruby’s supposed grief here.

So that was... a lot for one line from Salem in a volume of otherwise confident and cool-headed Ruby. We also don’t see it amounting to anything, as per usual with RWBY’s writing. Ruby isn’t out of commission for the rest of the conversation or anything. She pops right back up after a second in Yang’s lap, just as confident and go-getting as before. There was no lead up to this and there are no consequences for the breakdown. Rooster Teeth honestly seems to think they can just chuck random things into the story---Ruby needs to show emotion at some point!---and then just leave it at that, entirely disconnected from everything else around it. Would we have known that Ruby just had her first breakdown of the series a minute later while once again betraying Ironwood? Nope.

Finally, this scene shows us again that the Argus battle was a bunch of nonsense. Ruby’s eyes nearly activate when she’s grieving for her mother, imagining---or perhaps seeing via Salem?---a sad Summer, not a smiling one. Just like her eyes activated while seeing Pyrrha die. Just like they activated when Blake was nearly killed by the Apathy. They activate now while thinking about her mother’s death. The montage of happy moments in lieu of the sad ones not working last volume was entirely out of place.

Salem finally leaves. Now everyone is panicking about this army. Elm points out that they’ll know if anything approaches. Vine checks and realizes that Watts took out their perimeter. Either that or Salem has already destroyed everyone and everything out there. It’s impossible to know. During all this Blake asks if the Amity tower is actually finished and we get more nonsense about how Ironwood is evil for telling a lie, but the group is always justified in telling theirs. The writing really tried to compare Ironwood telling Mantle---who I guarantee 100% does not care about whether a communications tower is finished while they’re getting attacked by grimm---a lie to lure out one of their biggest threats to Blake and Yang going behind Ironwood’s back to tell a potentially non-trustworthy outlaw about said tower, risking that the information would fall into the wrong hands and doom the project before it could be completed either way. Those are not in any way comparable situations, yet the writing really has Weiss going, “General Ironwood?” in a ‘How could you betray us like that?’ tone while Yang continues to look pissed.

And as if they didn’t know! How is this a personal betrayal? They were all helping to build that tower. Surely they’d know it it was that close to being done. Again, critical thinking skills, people. Anyone with two brain cells and their insider information should have looked at Ironwood’s announcement and gone, “Oh, that must be a bluff. Just a few days ago we were arguing about whether to continue taking resources from Mantle. No way is Amity ready. He’s going after Watts. Who is indeed the much bigger threat. Considering that he has control over the entirety of our technology and there’s literally no downside to telling Mantle about a finished tower when they’re getting devoured by grimm.” This is another, “But lying is wrong!” in the face of “But lying kept us alive...?”

Does everyone get what I’m saying here? How RWBY takes these situations and tries to paint them in an absolutely ridiculous light, expecting the audience to blindly accept this perspective despite everything else they’ve seen for themselves? Like, two episodes ago? I swear I’ve never encountered writing that treats its audience this badly. Scene after scene relies heavily on the viewer having no ability to think for themselves. Just accept that Ironwood is a horrible person for lying about the tower even though there are no repercussions for that and we JUST watched him defeating Watts as a result. Like, five minutes ago. That just happened. In this episode.

Ironwood then drops the bomb that Winter has gone off to claim the Maiden power. Interesting development. I wonder what that means exactly. Is she just going to lock herself away until the Maiden dies naturally? Do they have her on some sort of life support and is there an agreement to pull the plug if necessary? Are they going to use a machine similar to the one Pyrrha was in and try to force the change early? Or is this just a misleading comment and Winter is merely off to protect the Maiden, no intention of taking the power now? Who knows. We’ll have to wait until next episode to find out.

Ironwood likewise announces that the staff and the lamp need to be locked away now that they’re compromised, even though they’ve been compromised since they first saw Tyrian in Mantle. Insert another [this scenario is so stupid and contrived] explanation here. It’s made worse by Ruby’s childish “You said we could keep it.” Excuse me? What, did you think the lamp was your personal property now forever and always? Is Ruby really sitting there arguing that something Ironwood told her weeks ago trumps the obvious logic of putting the relic where it’s somewhere safe? That’s the characterization we’re going for, a leader who cares more about, ‘But you said we could have it!’ over the fate of the world? What even is this? The fact that Ironwood has to explain to them that the situation has changed just reinforces the group’s overall attitude. That is, one of arrogance and importance. They literally need to be told why putting the relic in a nearly impenetrable vault is better than letting them have it just because they want it. Plus, you know, they lied about the lamp from the start. So there’s that too.

Finally, Ironwood reveals that Amity was originally a plan of Ozpin’s but he didn’t push it far enough. Instead, he intends to use the staff to lift all of Atlas instead, hopefully taking two relics and a Maiden far out of Salem’s reach. Ruby wants to use the tower for its designed purpose instead, which is only a valid option in her mind because the writing was stupid last week. If there had actually been any logic there---if people had been allowed to react naturally and in a variety of ways to the Salem announcement, rather than a super convenient “Yeah! Let’s all work together!” across an entire, panicking city---she wouldn’t be quite so eager to tell the whole world. But we all know at this point that logic bends to the protagonists’ whims, so Ruby wants that same perfect ending across all of Remnant. She stands her ground, as does her team. Obviously.

Meanwhile, the Ace Ops aren’t just following Ironwood’s orders like the writing wants us to think via Harriet’s earlier comment. Rather, they’re each thinking through the situation for themselves and making very good points. If Salem has taken out our perimeter than we know our tech and people don’t stand a chance against this army. We just finished up the fight in Mantle and none of us are in a position to start another. Notably, Harriet brings this up, the one whose aura took a massive hit while nearly getting crushed underfoot. Vine points out that sometimes you have to lose a battle to win the war, but Team RWBY, to be blunt, simply doesn’t care.

I’ll be blunt myself here too: I don’t have an easy solution to this particular scenario. I don’t know what the “right” or the “wrong” choice is. Weighing starting a fight with VERY high stakes you’ll lose against abandoning the people of Mantle is just a straight up horrific decision. Like so much of what Ozpin faced, there is no clear-cut, good answer here. Do you stand by the people and risk the world, or work to save the world and doom the people? I don’t know and I do commend Rooster Teeth for writing a difficult choice... just not in giving each side the weight it deserves. Because as said, we’re meant to root for Team RWBY, always. Theirs is presented as the “right” choice every time, despite the fact that, as established, this is far from a black and white decision.

What frustrates me the most is when faced with all of these logical and very important considerations (we might not have backup, we’re in no position to fight, if Salem gets the relics and another Maiden the world is screwed) the group won’t even acknowledge these things. They’re so set in their own perspective they won’t even give these HUGE concerns the time of day. Rather, Yang shoots back, “You can’t just back down from a fight!”

That’s it. That’s the group’s problem in a single line.

This is what got Pyrrha killed.

It’s something the group should remember. She also insisted on fighting when she should have retreated and, since this was back during the days when characters actually faced consequences for their actions, it cost Pyrrha her life. Granted, going after Cinder was a truly useless endeavor. Pyrrha achieved nothing with her sacrifice. Here, Team RWBY hopes to save the people of Mantle, adding a clear justification for their insistence on fighting... but this is nevertheless indicative of that larger “punch it until it stops moving” mindset. It’s not that they decide to fight instead of retreating that’s the problem, it’s that to their mind fighting is the only option. Ever. This is what led to them attacking Cordovin and destroying Argus’ mech, drawing a massive grimm in the process. When faced with the option of backing down, Team RWBY doesn’t consider that an option at all. Which is heroic when up against an actual enemy, far less so when you’re facing an ally and the choice to fight has serious repercussions attached to it. Hell, the group doesn’t even consider compromises. They could have easily acknowledged that collecting the relics, the Maiden, and getting the staff to work on Atlas will take time. You do that while we focus on evacuating the rest of Mantle to the city. But no, even the concept of a compromise simply isn’t possible. You just always fight. Straight up. Anyone who suggests anything less isn’t a true huntsmen. “We’re loyal to the people!” Ruby shouts, as if “the people” doesn’t also include the rest of the world that Ironwood is trying to save and that they’re endangering by keeping the relics and Maiden within Salem’s reach.

That is one messed up perspective to tout in a story infused with the complex and the morally gray.

The real kicker though? Ruby’s ‘My way or the highway’ attitude obliterates a solution that fell straight into her lap. Jaune calls and says straight out that they have another situation. If Ruby had listened to her teammate for just three seconds they all would have learned about Oscar, thereby undermining Ironwood’s plan. He can’t keep the lamp safe if he doesn’t know where it is. You look for it while, again, we evacuate Mantle. Then we take everything out of Salem’s reach. Win-win. Instead, Ruby blasts her way through the situation. Literally, dodging Ironwood and hiding behind his desk shouting a highly bias version of his plan in the hopes of getting everyone on her side. And it works.

Because those like Clover don’t get to hear any of that context. Like how the perimeter is gone, there’s an army potentially coming, no one is in a position to fight, we’ve already lost a relic... they just here a Ruby’s version of events that paints Ironwood as the callous man Robyn thought he was---oh my god he’s abandoning Mantle for no good reason!---and people will react accordingly. Ruby likewise doesn’t care that shouting such information over all channels does things like, say, clue Tyrian into their plan. She just wants to do things her way, right now. Pausing to think (because thinking isn��t fighting) simply doesn’t happen.

I used to adore Ruby as a hero. Someone who was intrinsically good, hopeful, and wickedly clever in her ability to come out on top. Now she’s stubborn, arrogant, at times cruel, and charges in headfirst like her sister, refusing to consider any perspective other than her own. And her team endlessly supports that. The writing endlessly supports that. This isn’t our hero working through her flaws, but rather a flawed character that the writing refuses to acknowledge is flawed. When Ruby flies behind Ironwood’s desk the music rises triumphantly, just like it did when she attacked Cordovin’s mech. When Ironwood announces that they’re under arrest, Ruby spits back, “We won’t just let you take us” and we’re supposed to cheer.

Which brings us back to the question of whether the group really faced consequences here. Let me give you all a random, non-RWBY example of two scenes. Scenario One:

Parent: You punched her?

Teen: She insulted me!

Parent: I understand that, but that doesn’t mean you were justified in attacking her.

Teen: Oh, I was.

Parent: Maybe you were, maybe you weren’t, but you can’t solve all your problems that way.

Teen: I... I know that, okay. Back off. I just get so angry...

Parent: I know. We’re going to work on that. You’re grounded this weekend. We can discuss this more then.

Teen: [sighs] Fine.

vs. Scenario Two:

Parent: You punched her?

Teen: She insulted me!

Parent: I understand that, but that doesn’t mean you were justified in attacking her.

Teen: Oh, I was.

Parent: Maybe you were, maybe you weren’t, but you can’t solve all your problems that way.

Teen: Screw you! It worked didn’t it? I think a good punch goes a long way.

Parent: That’s not... okay look. You’re grounded this weekend so---

Teen: Like hell I am. [Proceeds to run off]

Teen: [Later to friend] ---and then she tried to ground me? Can you believe that?

Friend: Holy shit what an asshole.

If we put aside my own iffy dialogue for the moment, Scenario One acknowledges the complexity of the situation while likewise pointing out that the teen didn’t handle herself well. RWBY has achieved that here: the ethics of this scenario are acknowledged as complicated, but the group did things they shouldn’t have, as evidence by Ironwood’s anger and the Ace Ops’ criticism. However, Scenario One goes on to let the teen acknowledge that mistake, thereby validating it in the first place. A consequence is set, grounding, and they accept that, thereby further validating that their behavior needs work. They accept the consequence because both they and the writing acknowledge that the consequence is deserved. It takes what was previously two subjective stances---they say I’m wrong, I say I’m right---and encourages the audience to find the middle ground. Neither was totally wrong or right. The teen might be justified in some respects, but still made mistakes in others. She needs to improve.

RWBY, however, steers firmly into Scenario Two wherein the teen (Team RWBY) insists points blank that they never made mistakes in the first place, thereby encouraging the audience to question whether Ironwood and the Ace Ops (the parent) is right to be calling them out at all. We see no humility or guilt, only confidence. Ruby shouting “No!” at Cordovin when she’s told to surrender. Yang keeping silent after admitting that she and Blake told Robyn, not bothering to apologize or admit that this might have been a breech of trust. They challenge the validity of the claim that mistakes were made and by virtue of being protagonists encourage the audience to challenge it too. Finally, we see them reject the consequence because they will not admit that it’s deserved. The teen will not accept a grounding. Ruby: “We won’t just let you take us.” We’re then told by others that this rejection was warranted. The friend reinforces the view that the teen was right to run because that punishment is undeserved. The message is, “You never did anything wrong in the first place.” The plot of RWBY likewise reinforces the view that resisting Cordovin’s arrest was right by having her randomly let the group go. The consequence is replaced with a reward and, presumably, we’ll have a similar situation wherein the group either defeats the Ace Ops or is released by them. The consequences never take hold because the writing doesn’t think there should be consequences in the first place. Team RWBY isn’t going to be arrested here. They’re certainly not acknowledging that on some level they deserve to be. We didn’t see that humility while they were cuffed on the airship---that most basic acknowledgement of, “Did we make some mistakes? Could we have done something better? Is Ironwood right to be this mad?”---and there’s none of it now here, either. The tone is pure, “How dare you try and arrest us? We’re the good guys here!”

This remains as pro-protagonist as it has been the last two volumes. There are no consequences, only another hurdle for the group to overcome, painted as heroes for doing so. It’s Team RWBY vs. The Ace Ops and there’s no confusion about who we’re supposed to be rooting for. The Ace Ops because the group should rightly be stopped from hindering Ironwood’s attempts to keep the relics and a Maiden out of Salem’s hands, for their own lies and secret keeping that endangered them all this volume? Nope. It’s Team RWBY as the presumed heroes, facing off against soldiers who (supposedly) prioritize orders over what’s “right.”

And yeah, Oscar is gone. There are a number of dismantled robots and blaster fire in the room where Neo presumably took him. So unless they do a flashback we don’t get to see if/how Ozpin reacted to this initial attack. I hope they do provide a flashback because otherwise that’s another crucial scene of Oscar’s that happened off screen...

Can’t wait to see what else we’ll end up with next week! Until then, 💜

#rwby #rwby volume 7 #rwby volume 7 spoilers #rwby recaps #mymetas

184 notes · View notes

trashcatsnark · 3 years

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1, 14, 19, and 30 for the ask game. I'm curious, especially about the last one

Ahhhhhh thank you so much for the ask, I really appreciate it, it was so nice to wake up to, thank you! 1. what radio station(s) do you listen to?

Personally, I switch around the radio stations a lot, i think the Vexelstorm(?) and Dirge are the two I flicker between the most. I like the rock music and having a chance of hearing Samurai tunes. One time black dog started to play while I was cruising the highway and it just had such a cool vibe; if only I hadn’t immediately crashed into a wall.

My V though, doesn’t actually fuck around with the radio much especially if someone else is in the car. She’s deaf, has been since around the age of 9, and while she uses hearing aids and can hear, even “listens” to music in her apartment (though she takes her hearing aids out and feels the music rather). But when she has hearing aids she sometimes feels overwhelmed by being able to hear, so she’ll keep music off to quiet, and when someone is in the car she prefers the radio off so if they talk its not two loud sounds at once. Ironically, given this, when she takes her hearing aids out to “listen” to music, she prefers the loudest rock music because it provides the most bass and vibrations to feel it.

14. what quest/sidejob/gig made you happiest? (again, multiples allowed)

God, I have so many I can think of; I like the rescue gigs a lot, like saving Bugbear, Wakako’s favorite netrunner, Hwangbo, the one where you save the doctor (there are actually technically two doctors you save in two different quests i realized). Those make me really happy, because they’re kind of a reminder that the work V does is not all thievery, revenge, and dealing with dark shit. I love the monk mission, um seeing that poor monk with the forced implants made my heart shatter, so being able to help him and his brother made me really happy. The Ballad of Buck Ravers made me grin because its one of the ones thats just pure fun and seeing how Johnny interacts with V. I love the boxing missions, especially with Cesar the Valentino and that I can choose to help him out because lbr he needs the cash and car more than V does. Delamain and his quests makes me happy. The only other one I’ll say (tho I do like a lot of gigs and side missions) is probably a specific Cyberpsycho one, where the game just takes a sudden hard dive into horror which I love. Cause its like a maelstrom cult and you’re investigating corpses in a bloody pentagram, as you start hallucinating the cyberpsycho, who then comes out of a ice filled tub in the center. Like it has an energy to it that I just fuck with.

I’ll project and say my V is in a similar boat of liking the rescue missions, she likes feeling like she can do some good in the world despite being a merc. She also likes the ones that are avenging people or helping folks; killing corpos who fucked people over, tracking down the raw bd of a boy who was murdered to help solve the case, and things of that nature where it feels like she might actually be doing something good. 19. how do you feel about revenge? is it a worthy fighting to achieve or something that sucks you in too deep?

This is all on my V, cause I feel weird talking about my personal feelings of revenge. Given her job, V has seen a lot of kinds of revenge and is often asked to be the one to deliver it. And there’s revenge she gets and revenge she doesn’t get. She’s actually far more selective with what work she’ll do and isn’t afraid to blatantly go against what she’s suppose to do in order to do what feels right. Which sometimes pisses off her fixers, but they begin to understand that they just shouldn’t send her certain jobs. But she’s all for revenge against people who genuinely did wrong; because her logic is if she lets the corpo agent who killed an entire nomad family for scientific trials just go, the corpo will do it again. She sees it as taking them out before they can hurt others, like cutting out a cancer in society. But when it comes to shit like, go kill a guy for loving a girl in a rival gang???? No fucking way, she’s not killing someone for falling in love, eat a dick, she’s telling the kid to run. In terms of her personal life and revenge, she struggles a bit more, because when you add in your own feelings it feels a hell of a lot less black and white. And she sometimes struggles with the fact that her feelings don’t always make sense, she’s definitely not morally opposed to revenge and despite usually being more calm, there is always kinda this underlying layer of anger in her that when something makes that come to the surface she loses herself in it. She could have killed Dex, would have if she had gotten the chance, because he brought her into this mess, she vouched for him to Evelyn, trusted him as much as he supposedly trusted her; then everything went to shit and he threw her under the bus. She’d kill for that, for that hurt, that loss, that pain; it’d be revenge she’d get happily. Her nomad family for example though is more complicated...cause despite everything...she loves them, but they’re actively trying to kill her, that hurts but she can’t bring herself to be angry... or vengeful...just hurt.

30. does Rogue Amendiares scare the shit out of you or are you weird

Controversial take, I guess I’m fucking weird. I’m not scared of Rogue, yet, I feel I should preface. And I do project this on V, so take it as the answer for both of us. I feel like the two biggest things that contribute to Rogue’s ability to scare/intimidate is her social standing in the fixer community (which comes with power of course) and something Johnny says when you go to talk to her, that she can see right through you, don’t waste time lying. And the first aspect of that, doesn’t mean shit to me. Like, while I know Rogue was badass in the past and eventually is actively doing shit later on in game, the fact of the matter is fixers aren’t shit. Don’t get me wrong, most of them are cool people, and its nice to be hooked up with clients. But they’re getting a large chunk of cash for being a middle man who’s too big of a baby to go get their hands dirty. Like, fixers aren’t scary to me even if they’re powerful ones, like what, you gonna send someone else to axe me while you sit around??? terrifying, kill me yourself, coward.

As far as the other aspect of why Rogue is propped up to be intimidating, the idea she has built in bullshit detectors. I/my V don’t bullshit a whole hell of a lot at least not in the current context of how I’ve interacted with her (haven’t done tapeworm missions and her stuff with Johnny yet tho tbf). Like, i don’t have a reason to lie about needing Hellman, so why the fuck would I? However, if this bullshit detector also helps her pick up on emotional shit, like if my V tries to hide her feelings about stuff...thats gonna suck and be scary if Rogue like picks up on what V is really feeling. Because emotional vulnerability is a thousand times more terrifying than a fixer who could make V disappear with a snap.

*Small fun fact when I first did the Panam mission, Johnny told me I had balls to go ahead and do the mission without telling Rogue first which I didn’t even know I was suppose to do but also why the fuck should I, she sent me to do the damn thing, I gotta call her everytime I sneeze too????? How is that ballsy????

SORRY ONCE AGAIN FOR SUCH A LONG RESPONSE, BUT THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE ASK, I APPRECIATE IT SO MUCH!!!!!

#cyberpunk 2077 #aidan becker #cp2077 #c2077 #tisunii

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mahalkitajohnnysuh · 4 years

Text

Intoxicated (Part II)

Since delayed gratification is my middle name whenever I have these mini-series, here you go, folks!

I’m so into Johnny being a DJ – I hope he’ll share his remixes on Soundcloud or any similar platform. And in this universe I’ve written, he is one than being the idol that he is now.

Mahal ko kayong lahat! :)

–––

Summary: I’m picking up where I left on the first part, with Johnny now as the intoxicated person from a night out. Essie’s quite awkward in this, and it’s amusing to see her as such.

POV: 3rd person here, baby.

Word count: 1,000+ words

–––

Prompt #7: “I love you.”

“…go back to sleep.”

It was Johnny’s turn to come back home intoxicated.

Shockingly, Essie was still awake in the wee hours of the morning. After all, the weekend was approaching so she could stay up late doing whatever her heart desired.

Tonight – or should it be today? – she decided to continue writing her greatest novel. It was about a historical time-travel piece, and she was stuck on how to explain the intricacies of time travel, hence staying up late to research about the topic.

So when she heard Johnny’s heavy footsteps approaching his room, she tiptoed toward her door and opened it slightly. She saw him fumbling for the doorknob, and she was about to help him out. But when he finally opened the door, she stepped away and went back to her bed.

However, she felt uneasy that he had to stumble to his bedroom. Maybe he drank more than his usual. When they drank, he could finish two bottles of wine and almost two buckets of beer. In short, he has quite the stamina when it comes to drinking.

A few minutes later, Essie decided to check up on him. She knocked softly on his door before opening it, revealing him still in the outfit he wore earlier. He was in a blazer, shirt, fitted jeans, and black leather shoes. He looked like a young professional who went out drinking after his work hours. He was scrolling through his phone and looked serious while doing so.

“H-hi,” she stammered at his doorway. “Hi Johnny, you okay?”

He slowly turned to look at her and flashed her a small smile. “Hey, Essie. Why are you still up?” He sounded a bit hoarse, probably from his alcohol consumption.

“I-I couldn’t sleep. Anyway, are you okay?” she asked again, more confident this time.

“Well, yeah. I’m fine. My head kind of hurts though,” he grumbled, massaging his temples.

“You had too much to drink?” She gave him a sheepish grin, afraid that he might get angry with her response.

“Yeah, I went more than my usual limit. By just one bottle, though. You were right,” he sat up this time, “Pink Moscato tastes good. We’ll get a bottle of that the next time we grocery shopping.”

Essie noticed how bloated his face looked from drinking, which emphasized the bags under his eyes.

“Do you want an Advil? Berocca? Or plain water?” She offered, one of her hands planted on his doorknob.

“A pitcher of water and both of those, please. Thanks, baby,” he whispered before lying down on his bed again.

The girl returned to his room a moment later with a lukewarm pitcher of water and packets of the medicine. She placed them on his bedside table before sitting down beside him on the bed.

“I got your water and medicines as promised, sir,” she said softly, tapping him on his forearm. “Thanks again, baby,” he mouthed. “Come lie down here with me.”

She did what was told, and he moved toward his right so she could lie down comfortably beside him.

“So what and where did you drink, Mr. Suh?”

“You know it’s part of my job, Essie. After playing, the crew gets drinks after. And I had too much wine. I even took some tequila shots. Maybe some vodka too.”

“That’s a lot, man. I’m going to return what you said to me last time I was wasted: rehydrate and eat healthy.”

“But I can do that, not like some people,” he scoffed, glancing at the irritated look Essie now wore. “You didn’t have to call me out, you know,” she grumbled.

Johnny laughed slightly at her response before rolling over to look at her face-to-face. “I can feel my headache getting worse, baby. Can you get me the water and the Advil?”

The girl poured some water in a glass and handed him the medicine. “I hope you’ll invite me next time you go on a crazy drinking spree,” she suggested playfully.

“That wasn’t even crazy. It was just our usual after-work drinking. But yeah, I’ll drag you along to one of my events if you’re still awake by then.” She nudged him on the ribs, and he sat up to drink water and the Advil capsule.

Afterward, he handed the glass back to her so she could put it on the bedside table. He plopped onto his bed again, his hand trembling against his forehead. He groaned at the sensation he was feeling, making Essie worry about him more.

“Is there anything else I can do to help you?” She asked, concern etched on her face. Before he said anything, he grabbed her hand with his free one and held it tight.

“I want a kiss here,” the hand on his forehead pointed on the space between his eyebrows. “Please?”

She rolled her eyes at his request to cover how flustered she was.

They weren’t together, but they had some questionable moments where people thought that they were a couple.

He liked to kiss the back of her hand, her cheeks, and her forehead when they were in public sometimes. In return, she cuddled with him whenever she felt cold, or when she felt warm and fuzzy inside.

Today was one of those days, but she didn’t let her desire consume her. She pecked the space between his eyebrows and stroked his hair a bit. He closed his eyes as she continued to stroke his hair, sleep slowly creeping into his system.

“I love you,” he mumbled, trying to keep his eyes open so he could see how she would react to his words.

He wasn’t able to make out her face since his eyes felt heavy already. If he only had more energy, then he would’ve seen her flush at his sweet statement.

“…go back to sleep. You’re just sleep talking by now,” she whispered, removing her hand from his hair. “Good morning, my dear Johnny.”

He fell asleep with a smile on his face, his heart full hearing her call him dear.

–––

FIN

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adventuresloane · 4 years

Text

We Do Have Reputations

Pairing: Hurley/Sloane

Words: 3.7k

Rating: T (for suggestive language and description of injuries)

Light Angst/Hurt and Comfort

Read on AO3

((Imma keep it real with you chief, this is just an edited/expanded version of the fic I wrote for that ask meme lol))

Hurley rounded the corner into the alley and saw the blood black and bright as motor oil in the nighttime. She had been expecting and dreading it.

"Shit, Sloane." She didn't remember until a moment later about using real names out in public, and she couldn't bring herself to care even after she did. She ran forward to where Sloane sat slumped against the wall and slid to a stop on her bare knees.

Underneath the black, beaked racing helmet, her breathing came out ragged. She brushed away Hurley's hand when she carefully tried to lift the bird mask away. "Alright, Curls, I'd say you're the healer of our team, yeah?" Her hand rested on her belly, over the spot where the thin wooden shaft stuck out of her. "Do I leave this in me or pull it out now?"

"Sloane, you need a fucking hospital," she hissed. "I'm taking you."

"Oh, and you're going to check me in there, Lieutenant? That'll look good."

"I'll just drop you off and go if that's what you want! I'll be anonymous."

"No. They could still figure out who I am there, even without the mask." She pushed herself up slowly against the brick wall with one hand. "Besides, I'm not even that bad."

"Sloane..."

"I'm not! Just..." Behind the helmet's dark visor, it was difficult to tell whether she was making eye contact. But she turned fully toward Hurley for the first time all night. "Just help me out a little now, alright? Then I'll take care of myself afterward, I promise."

She tried to give Sloane a glare that she couldn't sustain for long. In the dark, it would be hard to see her disapproval anyway. Hurley finally relented and let out her held breath, though it left her feeling no more relieved. Drops still fell from Sloane's stomach now and again. "If you're going to run, you should take the bolt out. You might bleed more, but it's better than risking more internal damage while you're moving around," she murmured. Then she paused and placed a hand over Sloane's, where it rested over her gut. "Would you...would you rather do it yourself or should I..."

"Could you?"

For a long time, Hurley took in the cold air and just kept taking it in. It made her shiver as she wrapped her hand firmly around the tail end of the crossbow bolt. She kissed the only exposed part of Sloane's skin that she could reach, where her neck met her collarbone, and then she pressed her forehead gently against her chest there, mingling their cooled sweat. Then she removed the serrated arrowhead the only way that one could when one was without magic-induced anesthesia, surgical tools, and time.

Sloane barely kept herself from screaming. As it was, the sound strangled halfway up her throat and the air came out as a gasp. "Sorry, sorry, shh..." At once, Hurley tore the fabric from the bottom of her gi--first-aid kit wasn't as easy to reach--and started to press it against the wound. She imbued it with what healing ki she could, but a few seconds of contact would never be enough. Harm was an instance; mending was a process.

Sloane was almost doubled over, coiling her body around the wound like she were shielding a child in her lap. Briefly, she shook against Hurley but still stood. She shouldn't have had to. It might have been absurd, but she wanted Sloane collapsing into her, wanted to take on all her weight. "I know it hurts. I'm sorry. I'm..." She swallowed hard. "I'm so sorry..."

"No, it's fine," she croaked. "I asked you to do it."

"Well, you didn't ask for this! I'll kick their asses for you, alright? They're not getting away with this."

Sloane simply took the fabric from her hands and pressed it to her own stomach as she began to move away. "We'll talk later, okay? I'll get--shit."

Hurley heard it, too, a second later. The click of crossbows being cocked and footsteps rushing down the street. Without another word, Sloane took off running and disappeared around the bend.

That left her to turn around and face her troop of fellow officers as they came into view before her--bows drawn, and by the gods, she was going to report every one of them later for aiming a weapon without a target in sight. "Hold your fire!" she blurted.

Only when they all stopped and stared at her blankly did she realize that she should probably justify that, along with the panic that pitched her voice upward.

"Ah...these are apartments along this alley. All of them, I think. I'm not going to have stray bolts going into folks' homes while they sleep!"

It wasn't a good lie. She would've known that even if she hadn't seen the confused glances they gave each other. There was a reason she liked to leave the lying to Sloane when they were on the verge of being discovered. But anyway, her officers were meant to listen to her whether they believed her or not. "The Raven's still running. Took off down Hoopoe Street in the direction of Town Hall. You both, head west and see if you can cut her off!" And like that, she sent them off in different directions, none of them the way in which Sloane had gone. Later, they'd talk around the water cooler at the office about how the thief had slipped off again, how they'd practically had her in the bag before she'd just vanished like shadow passing into darkness.

Hurley followed them, but she wasn't with them. She thought of Sloane running on rooftops, stark black up against the moon, hair waving behind her. For a moment, she thought, again, of saying, Fuck every last one of you. Or else saying nothing to them, ever again. She considered how easy it would be to slip away herself, just to fall back from the group until the darkness took her away from them entirely, to leave her badge on the militia's doorstep and become a second silhouette coursing alongside the Raven, in the moonlight for all to see. And then she stopped, because if she thought too hard about it, she'd think of all the reasons it wouldn't work, and she didn't want the fantasy to deflate just yet.

She couldn't, however, make herself stop thinking of the possibility that Sloane was not running now, could not run now.

It was difficult, when she got back to the office in the wee hours of the morning, to convince her superiors that she was simultaneously too hurt to perform the rest of her shift and not hurt enough to be immediately sent to an ER. The signs of a scuffle with the Raven helped, though--she hadn't even thought to point out her torn clothes until someone mentioned it. Maybe they saw the worry showing through her shaken, shaking self and mistook it for a rare bout of concern for her own safety. That probably helped, too.

While she filled out the most perfunctory of reports, she attempted to put some of her training to use by looking at the situation for what it was. She had once watched Sloane walk off the racetrack with shrapnel in one thigh and a burn on the other, giving the crowd an overdone bow on the way out. She was no stranger to this. At this point, neither of them were. True, at the races, medical help was usually nearby, because it had to be. Sometimes it was very close indeed. Nobody had seen it, but after the Raven had walked away under her own power, she had gotten to a quiet place out of the sun and leaned on the Ram, who got to work on the gashes. The Ram wasn’t there now.

The safehouse that Sloane had set up for herself sat on the second floor of an empty apartment building that had been slated for demolition for three years. It was after moonset and not nearly soon enough that Hurley made it to the paint-chipped door on foot, having stepped around the places where she knew the invisible Alarm spells had been set, and rapped out the special, encoded knock signaling that it was her.

There was silence from the other side. She began to wonder whether Sloane had gone elsewhere, or whether she had been able to go anywhere. Both her actual apartment and the garage they shared were much farther away from the spot where everything had happened last night, so it wouldn’t have made sense for her to run there, but then, almost half a night had gone by. Already, Hurley had wasted so much time trying to get the militia off her back without them suspecting how urgent it was. She might not have been quick enough.

She was just preparing to knock again when she heard shuffling from deep inside. It must have gone on for a couple of minutes before the door finally creaked open. Through the crack slipped a hand clutching the shining, gold-painted horn of her familiar ram mask.

She blinked at it. "Why--"

"Just put it on!" Sloane's voice hissed from inside.

Hurley obliged and stepped through to see—thank the gods—Sloane, standing, still in the helmet that enclosed her whole head. She opened her mouth to speak, but she didn’t have the chance to get out a sound. Without a word, and without allowing for a chance to ask how she was feeling, Sloane turned. Hurley had come with the energy of Healing Hands tingling in her palms in case she needed it, but Sloane seemed to be walking better already, upright if a little slow and limping. She was walking away just fine.

Sloane was a good actress, Hurley reminded herself. She was pretending not to care. That didn't mean she might not have also been angry about being shot by people under Hurley's command.

"You know, Raven, I think I recall you being the one who wanted to keep this on the down-low." The call came from the living room, slathered in mock-sympathy. "Just between us and all that. Wouldn't want word getting back to the other racers that you weren't in top shape."

"Yeah, well, you're shit out of luck, because it's no one you can gossip with here. It's just my partner."

That word again. It was the only one she had ever heard Sloane use to refer to her, at least in front of anyone else. "Racing partner" is what she meant, of course. Hurley wasn't sure if she intended for the plausible deniability about what sort of "partners" they were aside from that. But no other word like "girlfriend" or "lover" had been used by either of them, not out loud. The question had been, after maybe the third instance of supposedly "no-strings-attached" sex, Hey, so is this just what we’re doing now? and the answer had been, Looks like it. It had seemed simple and natural. They hadn't been any more specific about what “this” was at the time.

"Oh, I know who it is."

Hurley pushed past the old woven rug that hung in the doorway to come face-to-face with someone who looked as though every part of them had been stretched out. They were human, tall and narrow as the gap between jail bars, with long arms full of measly muscles and straight hair down to their knees. There was smile on their face and a shine in their eye. "Well, hello, Ram! You clean up alright. I'm used to seeing you covered in dirt." They said this as Sloane sat down in front of them. They laid hands back on her bared belly, where the wound had begun to close up and her muscles looked tense.

Hurley took one look at Crane and then glanced back Sloane's way. "Raven, seriously?"

"What? They know what they're doing!"

"Why, thank you! I’m extremely talented," said the person who, though they hadn’t won a race in months, could easily clinch the award for Shadiest Cleric on the Racetrack, and Most Likely All of Goldcliff. (Honestly, maybe they were lying. They could have been some bizarre kind of warlock.)

"They're going to bleed you dry at best and might make it even worse if it suits them. You know that, right?"

"Excuse me? I think you'll find that I'm doing a fine job stopping her bleeding, no thanks to you. And it’d be bad for business if word got around I was hurting people who paid me."

"Hey, I didn't ask you to come and watch," Sloane said with a half-shrug, as though entirely unbothered one way or the other.

She was a good actress. But that, quite frankly, was a little much. Hurley chewed on the tip of her tongue until it just barely began to hurt. It was bad enough, she thought, that she wasn't the one doing the healing right now, that someone else was putting their hands on her. She could, just barely, watch strands of this asshole's foreign magic slither like worms into Sloane. But to imply that she'd ever choose not to be by Sloane's side was adding too much insult to injury.

On the other hand, it wasn't like this was anything new. Given how many racers engaged in worse illegal activity on the side, most rivals were loath to show their faces to one another, let alone share personal details that could be used against them. For her and Sloane, that had always meant keeping their closeness under wraps, in front of criminals and law-abiding citizens alike. Which was to say, everybody.

Finally, Crane stepped away and let Sloane run her hand over the spot that had just healed. "See, now, you're good as new! Be back to eating shit on that racetrack in no time. That'll be 700 gold, my dear."

"That's a funny way of saying 300 gold," Sloane responded at once, putting her jacket back on.

“Do you think I make house calls in the middle of the night for fun?”

“I think you’re out of your mind. I could have bought three healing potions for that much.”

“Ah, but you didn’t!”

Seeing where this was going and not especially keen on a five-minute-minimum bargaining session over how much Sloane's actual life was worth, Hurley stepped forward to drop a sack of coins into Crane's hand. "That's 650, alright? Now please leave."

"Ram, fuck's sake, don't give into them like that!"

"Aw, very sweet of you, sheep."

"Fuck you," Sloane said. A selfish part of Hurley hoped that was for her.

"So it's true, then?" Crane's grin stayed smug, but it was no longer satisfied. There was something new in the way they held themself. The way their head tilted as though trying to see from a different angle, the little bounce in their knee as they stood there. Behind those thin, grinning lips, it was clear, they salivated for an answer. "What they say about the two of you, I mean."

"They say a lot of things about us. Now kindly fuck off out of here." Her tone was flippant, but the skin stretched taut over her knuckles as her fist kept tightening at her side. She had one arm outstretched toward the door, and that was held stiffly, too.

But she might have just said yes. There weren't many these days in the racing scene who didn't at least suspect, and these were people who would wear their "lucky" boxers for two months straight if they thought it would let them win a race or outrun a cop. If they had a suspicion, any inkling of what might give them even the barest advantage, then they were acting on it already. Sloane lost nothing by confirming what everyone already thought they knew anyway.

As for what the pair of them stood to gain? Admittedly, Hurley wasn't quite sure. Maybe freedom, or maybe just a way of knowing that they'd been free all along. Free to share their victory kiss out in the open, drenched in sweat and the sun and the clamor of the crowd and each other. They didn't always have to crash together rough and quick as they ducked down a shadowed alleyway after a race.

"Sure, sure." They sneered. "I was just wondering if I could tell everyone that I heard wedding bells."

Her fingers uncoiled only to snap to the handle of the dagger at her thigh. Her shoulders were forward, the ruff of feathers around her collar seeming to puff out like the neck of a frilled lizard. She walked at them quick enough to startle them back a step, the black beak of her mask inches from their eye. Hurley had seen her like this before, this posturing. There was a time when she might have fallen for it herself. That was before she knew to look for the quickening of Sloane's breath, the way her whole body stiffened as if bracing for a blow. She almost felt like ruining it. She felt like saying, I see you bluffing. She felt like saying, You’re full of shit. She felt like saying, You don’t have to do this. "Crane, if you fuck me over--"

"Alright, alright!" Their hands were up in front of them. "Fantasy Jesus Christ, you woke up on rather the wrong side of the bed, didn't you?"

"I got shot."

"And you're a very bad sport about it." They spun on their heel and raised their hand without looking back. "Happy trails, you two."

Sloane slumped as soon as their footsteps had faded completely. She was stable now, and the only blood left in the room had long since dried to shit-brown, but exhaustion pressed down on her like a hand on the place where her neck met her spine. Hurley saw it and had the thought, as though it had been whispered to her without warning, One of these days, I'm going to make you honest.

As soon as she sat on the couch, Hurley joined her, trying to ignore the springs pressing up against her under the ratty upholstery. "Sloane?"

Sloane turned her way. This time, when she tried to lift the raven mask away, she wasn't prevented. For the first time since yesterday, she saw bright green eyes underlined by dark crescents, looking her softly all over. Sloane also didn’t flinch when she reached out toward her face—Hurley had always understood why she hadn’t liked hands coming near her, but she’d said that she wanted to break herself of the habit anyway, and it seemed that she had. She brushed aside the strands of hair that had been plastered to the side of her face by sweat since last night, rubbed lightly at the indents in her skin that had been left by the mask. She closed her eyes slowly when Hurley ran a thumb over her cheek, and she turned her head to the side when Hurley tried to get a better look to see if she was okay, and this was how Sloane loved her, by giving way to her like this. And this was why she loved to be loved by Sloane, because she relented for no one else, because she let herself be moved by no one else. This belonged to Hurley alone.

Though that didn’t mean it had to always be behind closed doors. Would it be such a bad thing if people knew the way those eyes fixed on her? Would it be so bad if, when they were out in the wind, people saw her brush Sloane’s hair aside to get a better look at them?

Of course it would be, for plenty of reasons.

"What are you lookin' at?" Sloane finally murmured with a small, tired smile. "I know I look like shit."

"I'm sure I do, too. We both haven't slept."

“Rough night, huh?

Hurley snorted. “I think I should be the one saying that to you.” In the growing light just before sunrise, she could see what she hadn't before, the smaller cuts across her chest and over her arms. Nothing big, but there, and red. "They missed all of this."

Sloane raised her brows a little. "I didn't ask them to take a look."

"You shouldn't have to ask." Hurley stared her down on purpose as she said it, to make sure the words stuck out to her.

It was unclear whether they did. She glanced away and scratched at her hairline. After seeming to think for a moment, then, she said, "Well, they would've charged me more for that, I bet. Speaking of which, I guess this means I have to pay you back."

"You're an ass," Hurley said just before kissing her, slowly this time. Sloane placed her hands over Hurley's where they rested against her damaged chest, keeping them pressed there. Hurley had her eyes closed, since she didn't have to look to feel the way the warm healing magic flowed from her fingers and into Sloane's body. She could sense the cuts closing one by one.

If she could help it, she’d always give Sloane a reason to be honest. She'd be the reason Sloane hummed to herself when she worked on the engine and laughed with her mouth wide open. Hurley would be the reason she felt safe enough to lean forward and rest her head on someone’s shoulder and doze at dawn in a run-down old apartment, the way she was now.

And it didn't have to be now, but Hurley saw forward to a time when the two of them clasped hands out in the desert noonday, out where people couldn’t ignore the flash of her black hair as the sun sparked off it. Where people couldn’t ignore how proud she was of this woman and being chosen by her. Not now, but one of these days, something would give. One of these days, they wouldn’t be able to contain themselves anymore.

#hurley #sloane #hurloane #taz balance #taz #the adventure zone #the zone cast #taz hurley #taz sloane #taz fanfic #fan fiction #hurt and comfort #light angst

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letters-from-the-three-houses · 5 years

Note

I IMPLORE YOU FOR THAT CLAUDE/ANNETTE ESSAY! P-Please senpai~ uwu

*kicks down door* IS THAT SOMEONE ASKING FOR THE CLAUNETTE ESSAY I SEE??

WELL THEN, LET’S GET THIS SHOW ON THE ROAD

warning: this is long. this is really, really long. like 3.5k words long. i don’t have a proper tl;dr for it because there’s too much going on, so it’s fine if you don’t want to read it! it just talks about why i think claude and annette click super well together

edit: aaaand the read more doesn’t work again;; yikes i’m so sorry about all these long posts, everyone!

edit2: read more works again!! it’s now under the cut

first, we’ll take a look at their profiles as a refresher (many thanks to vincent and the serenes gang!)

annette’s japanese profile talks about how she’s chipper, diligent, and very smart. she seems sweet and friendly, thanking byleth for their advice and calling mercedes by a cute nickname. plus, she’s lively and energetic because she speaks with a lot of exclamation marks!

“she can often waste her energy and end up nowhere” comes from karamawari (空回り), which loosely translates to the idiom “spinning one’s wheels”. in other words, she’s a genius oddball. i don’t think it’s in the sense that she’s ditzy and all over the place so she makes mistakes all the time, but that she’s wickedly creative and her ideas fail because they’re so left-field. like she thinks so far out of the box that she ends up in a completely different neighbourhood

the uk one (here) says she has “a reputation for being a bit oblivious at times”. it’s…pretty vague bc we don’t know what exactly she’s oblivious to, but it implies that she either a) has a one-tracked mind, b) can’t read the room, c) is unaware of herself, d) comes up with weird conclusions, or e) all of the above

i also think she’s pretty transparent, if this exaggerated expression of hers is any indication that she wears her heart on her sleeve

now onto claude! he’s also nice!! fun, easygoing, and always equipped with a smile. but, as i always like to call him, he’s a smart cookie and is very cunning! it’s hard to say if “someone unable to trust” means he has a hard time trusting others or if others shouldn’t trust him, but either way, it seems apt to call him crafty, clever, and ingenious. his uk profile (here) also mentions that “he sometimes shows a side that you can’t let your guard down around”. a lot of his quotes thus far make him sound carefree and witty (“my family’s the head of the leicester alliance, but eh, no need to worry about that"—thanks for the translation, satsuma!—and the class reunion bit in the latest e3 trailer), which supports his personality quite nicely

at first glance, they have a lot of similarities. they’re both outgoing, peppy, and smart. so they’re not really an ‘opposites attract’ pair, but birds of a feather do flock together. their friendly personalities make it much more likely for them to interact despite being in different houses, and it would surely help them get along. i can imagine them greeting each other as they pass by the hallways it also means i don’t have to make up a contrived situation of how these two meet because as much as i’d love to come up with a case for bernadetta/dedue, they would probably never talk to each other unless they have to

so it looks like they can be friends! or at least, cordial acquaintances. their personalities don’t clash too violently that they would hate each other, which is the fundamental basis of every good relationship

but then why do i think they’d be good for each other?? why can’t i just say it’s a nice broship and call it a day?? why do i feel the need to make this my game otp (and it’s slowly inching there) despite the high chance that they won’t have supports together?????

to answer that question, we’ll have to delve into the few opposites that they do have:

annette’s oddball-ness + claude’s intuition

let’s be real here, claude could probably cold read you like a pro. one glance is all he needs to get a sense of who you are, what you’re thinking, and what you’re going to do. this would be especially obvious with consistent, rational people like edelgard or dimitri; he can predict their moves because they’re meticulous and routine-based folks

annette, on the other hand, is a curveball

now don’t get me wrong—her thoughts are easy. her emotions? child’s play. the real question is what she’s going to do

…because what is she doing?

he’d be able to get a sense of what she’s planning, sure, but annette is weird. and unexpected. and unconventional

her actions aren’t going to be surprising; after all, it’s clear to see what she’s thinking. for example, if she somehow broke ingrid’s favourite teacup, the guilt would be obvious to anyone around. the shifty eyes, the shuffling of her feet, the panic that sets in once she sees ingrid in the distance. what would she do about it? probably fix it. she’s a nice girl who doesn’t want her friends to be sad. reasonably, she might try to piece the broken bits together or buy something from town that looks similar

so when he catches her asking around if there’s anyone who could teach her the art of glassmaking, he almost bursts out laughing and gives away his hiding spot

he lets his presence be known anyway because this looks hilarious

when he walks into the room, annette—and byleth, who she’d been talking with—gives him a surprised look, but he holds his hands up in defense and says he’s here to help

byleth will try to get him to convince her not to make the teacup herself

annette will insist she has to do it in order to make up for her mistakes

and if claude asks why she believes she has to—to show her full sincerity? was the teacup that unique? does she want to learn because it seems fun?—she’ll tilt her head and say, “if i learn how to do it, then i won’t have to bother anyone if i break ingrid’s cups again”

that wasn’t the answer he was expecting, but that makes it all the more amusing bc he was wrong (plus, she fully expects herself to break the cups a second time instead of being more careful in the future?? annette why—)

and while her failed attempts in glassmaking are also pretty funny, watching her do her best despite the setbacks is a bit endearing

this goes on constantly—annette getting into trouble and claude being entertained by her antics. in other words, claude would think she’s fun to be around because he can never truly guess what’s going on in annette’s head (he’ll get better at it eventually, but she’ll still catch him off guard every so often and keep him on his toes), and annette faces a dilemma like every other day so there’s no shortage of good times when he’s with her

on the other hand, annette would appreciate having a translator. she already has one in mercie, but another one wouldn’t hurt! especially since mercedes is more of the encouraging type while claude just seems to know what she’s trying to say

she’ll flounder about, trying to explain whatever ‘thing’ she’s describing this time because her words run quicker than her thoughts

“magical overuse makes me keel over because it feels like i can’t breathe anymore and the pain just concentrates at your core and i don’t know the term but i know i know it because it’s on the tip of my tongue and—”

mercie will say, “take a deep breath, ann. parse it slowly”

and claude chips in to help: “it’s like a punch to the gut”

“yes!! that!!!”

so while mercie is patient with her weirdness, claude always seems to know the right thing to say and do, making conversations with him much more smoother than with most people

she makes a vague statement like “it was pretty good today. i kinda wonder how they did it”

and without missing a beat, he’ll reply, “you mean the meatloaf we had for dinner? yeah, i thought dorothea and professor did a great job. you should ask them for the recipe”

“i should! great idea”

he still gets it wrong a lot of the time though

“he’s really prickly,” annette will say. “i wonder if he hates me”

“felix?”

“oh! no, no, i was talking about the cat that hangs around near the gardens. but what you said is true too. do you think he does?”

“the cat—no, he’s like that to everyone. felix—maybe. the stableboy who ignored you just now as you tried to wave at him—he didn’t notice so don’t feel bad about it”

other people listening in will get lost about thirty seconds into the conversation because it feels all over the place and random, but mercie is delighted that there’s someone else that understands annette

so yay! now they seem like good friends instead of having a casual ‘hey, i know you. i see you around sometimes’ relationship, which we can only keep building up the more they get to know each other!

their levels of trust

okay, i know this sounds cheesy but hear me out

we’ve already established that annette looks like a bad liar. the type that’s diddly darn horrible at poker. when she’s happy, you can tell she’s happy. sad? sad. angry? well, she isn’t angry often but you get the idea

so if something is troubling her, it’ll show on her face

and claude, being the curious boy he is, will ask her what’s wrong

her eyes will widen and she’ll say, “was it that obvious??”, but she won’t actually need any prompting and tells him her problems right away bc a) “i can’t hide anything from you”, b) “you give great advice”, and c) “you really get me!”

the last one’s important

you see, claude gets everyone. he doesn’t even have to ask what’s wrong—he probably already knows. but he asks anyway because you can’t have a conversation without two people talking (and maybe he could glean some more information about it that he isn’t aware of, who knows)

however, from the get go, sweet little annette was always truthful. was always sincere. she’s not the type who’ll say “i’m okay”, all the while plastering a fake smile on their face. annette is consistent. what she says she’s feeling is the same as what her expressions show

in other words, she doesn’t hide secrets. that’s what makes her special

claude is an expert in secrets. he snuffs them out in others so he can figure out their real intentions, and he hides some secrets himself. annette though? annette’s genuine. it’s straightforward with her

if it’s like this, it doesn’t even matter what the “someone unable to trust” in claude’s profile means. distrust doesn’t exist when he’s with annette. she’s unambiguous. she isn’t two-faced. there’s no need for him to figure out the underlying meaning in her words because there are none. and claude, for all intents and purposes, has the confidence that he can trust her even if he doesn’t

her guard when she’s around him is down

he doesn’t have to wonder if she’s trying to gain his favour or wants something in return. annette doesn’t want any of that. she just talks because claude asked her a question and she wants to answer it

she hangs out with him just because she likes to hang out with him

she’s his friend just because she wants to be

she has no ulterior motives

for claude, it’s a breath of fresh air

on annette’s side, it’s hard to pry about claude’s private life. whenever he asks, he gives her a vague answer and deflects it with a question. he never lies to her, but he never tells her the full truth

if she says she’s not curious about it, she’d be lying (and claude would know; he’d see it in her eyes). so whenever he avoids the question, she’ll be a bit dejected, but she won’t pry and move on to something else. they never linger on the subject too long

the curiosity is still there though. whenever he gives the slightest hint of any of his preferences (“i think the orange flowers suit your hair”), she perks up and smiles. she never asks him to divulge any more than he wants to because she’s not going to force him to overshare, so the little things that she does find out makes her happy enough. there’s no need to know his backstory—she trusts him now. as long as she does, whatever happened in his past or history won’t change who he is

after all, claude doesn’t lie to her. sure he’s not entirely honest, but she knows that whatever he says comes from the heart—even if it withholds quite a lot of information

here, at this point, annette is really good for claude. she makes him feel simple. like he doesn’t have to hide anything. it’s a rather nice feeling

but currently, the dynamics in their relationship are skewed, with annette giving more than she takes. claude doesn’t reciprocate the trust and continues to keep his cards close, while annette lays them all on the table. the only way their relationship can reach an equilibrium is if claude becomes honest with annette

i think in any claude relationship, that’s the end point: claude being honest. and not in the way that he already is—that is, his vague but truthful answers—but that he can say what he hasn’t

i remember there was one theory that claude’s character arc involves him learning to trust people. can annette get him to do this? i think so! she only wants what’s best for her friends so she wouldn’t force claude to tell her anything he doesn’t want to. she’ll still be there for him, talking and listening and having fun together until he’s ready. the question then becomes: would he ever be willing to tell her?

claude works hard but annette works harder

i do have a basis for why i think annette can somehow get over claude’s high trust hurdle, and that’s her perseverance

despite her constant mishaps and misfortunes, annette still passed the mage academy with excellent grades. why? because she never gave up. because despite the setbacks, she continued to try and try and try. and yay! her hard work paid off!

if we translate that to her relationships, it means she’d never give up on her friends. even if they try to push her away, try to make her hate them, try to stop being her friend—she won’t

so no matter what claude does, she’ll stick by his side. he’s not getting rid of her, that’s for sure. if he refuses to tell her everything—if he never tells her at all—annette will still be there, being annette, and being on his side even if he doesn’t trust her as much as she trusts him

i can see that faith of hers eventually wearing down his defenses. it’s just so freeing being with her; claude doesn’t have to pretend

and it becomes a nice conclusion to his character arc. he doesn’t bury the hatchet, doesn’t hide his skeletons in the closet. he gets catharsis and closure, and during all of his confessions, annette holds his hand and listens intently. she doesn’t run away afterwards. she doesn’t shy away from disgust

all she says is: “can i hug you?”

and when she does, it’s like all of his worries melt away

once this is all said and done, claude becomes much, much more open with her. he tells her everything and doesn’t have to fear being judged for it. like this, their relationship becomes balanced again

claude becomes good for her because he helps her improve herself. he doesn’t limit her weird thinking—in fact, he encourages it. by supporting her in all of her endeavours and being able to understand it, making sure her ideas run smoothly, he allows annette to discover even more ingenious solutions and lets her creativity have free rein. they’d be really good partners on a research team; annette comes up with the plans/a new scope to focus their field of study on as well as doing the literature search and reading up on a lot of journals in order to synthesize new ideas, claude irons them out and implements them all the while checking up on annette to make sure if she’s got any new input, rinse, repeat, they get an a+ on their graduate thesis

so here are my final remarks! this pairing doesn’t even have to be romantic to me (i just like romance because i’m a weakling). they just mesh together perfectly that i think they’re soul mates—if they have each other in their lives, they can develop themselves to new heights and eventually reach self-actualization. i don’t know?? i just think they cover each others strengths and weaknesses so well that they’ll be…happy with each other. and if they’re happy, i’m happy

to end off this post with a bang, here are some claunette au fic ideas i have for the soul:

'help i’m in love with my next door neighbour because whenever i take out the trash they’re there as well and they have the prettiest smile so i can’t help but swoon every time i see them but whenever i tell everyone that my favourite day is garbage day they look at me weirdly and they just don’t understand’ au

'you lost your dog and found him running around me in circles and apologized profusely but when you tried to get him to leave he whined and sat on my feet and i don’t know why but i think he likes me??’ au

'you left your usb plugged into one of the computers in the library and i was looking through some of the documents to find out your personal information and i realized that you took a class that i previously did and your ta is the same stupid one that marked mine way too low so when i came to give it back to you i offered to tutor you for free so i could be avenged’ au

'out of the one hundred and fifty students in this course you were the only one that bothered to answer my desperate plea of needing lecture notes on the classroom discussion board so thank you i owe you my life can i buy you a coffee?’ au

'you’re the barista of some cafe that i frequently go to and i have a crush on you because you’re super cute so my friends are embarrassing me by asking you all sorts of personal questions and i don’t know what to think about you flirting with me over the counter whenever i order cheesecake’ au

'i got lost from my tour group while sightseeing but you seem like a nice and friendly native so do you mind if i tag along with you to visit the nooks and crannies of the city while i wait for my friends to come get me?’ au

'i have to get off the bus because it’s my stop but you’re sleeping on my shoulder right now even though i don’t know who you are so i’m not sure if i should wake you up or just keep letting you sleep and—welp, there goes my house i guess i’ll just get off at the terminal station’ au

'i’m a human being hunted down by an elder vampire for who knows what and you just so happen to be a vampire hunter so please let me stay with you i don’t want to die’ au

'i’m a magician that has to fill their daily curse quota of the year and you just so happened to stumble into my line of sight in my time of need but i don’t want to curse you because you seem really nice but my job is on the line here so i’m sorry but i’ll find your true love so you can stop being a frog’ au

#fire emblem three houses #fe16 #fe3h #claude von riegan #annette fantine dominic #asks #headcanons #user #prerelease

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rangerlake · 5 years

Text

There is something about a battle, the Big Fight, that seems like it comes with subtle but distinct fan fare. That build up that guides you towards the inevitable outcome of the fight, you can see the course charted in front of you the entire way. There is time to prepare, rest up, anticipate, think. You know, round up all the supplies you need. Have a protein shake. Basic stuff like that.

Welp, that’s all a bunch of crap, Lake thought as she looked through the binoculars at the fire.

“How long have you had eyes on this?”

“Since 14:00.”

Wild fires had been popping up across the region, but they were easily linked to lightning strikes. But not this one. This one had started during a nice spot of weather, dead smack in the middle of valley, with nothing but trees up hill, and good breeze to move things along. And the along was straight towards No Moon. This wasn’t natural. But with all the other fires in the region, it was low priority. It’d gotten a name and there was tracking set up, but nothing more. And now, staring through the binoculars, Lake was glad for that. She wasn’t sure what she was looking at, but deep down in her gut, she knew it wasn’t supposed to be here.

“I need you and any of your associates to move south of this spot.” She looked over at him, “I really recommend not being anywhere close by.”

“What if you need help?”

“Use something with good range and a good scope?”

She sent off a note through fae channels to let the right people know what was happening. Or at least what seemed to be happening. Made a few requests as well. The courier was reliable, if not exactly traditional. She watched them go, a small tinge of jealousy that they was leaving the situation behind. This wasn’t where she wanted to be. All that crap people say, that they go nobly into combat, buoyed by the sense of honor of responsibility? Fucking morons who couldn’t properly assess the hazard staring them down.

Ripping the faded striped Pendleton blanket from the floor of her old Land Cruiser, Lake assessed her options. It was the best she had, guns, swords, enchanted weapons for spell casting. All here due to watching too many disaster movies full of people who weren’t prepared. A pang of understanding and empathy for those characters sang through her core of her being, some things were just too big and too impossible to be ready for. The grip of her collapsable baton, so familiar, worn to the shape of her fingers, felt ridiculously inappropriate for the situation. She slipped both of them into their places, the weight familiar on her lower back.

Death held no fear for her, there was no unknown in that path. The fear that feed her mood was the consequence of her failure. There was no one else around to deal with this. Lake looked back towards the rising smoke. Probably for the best she didn’t fear Death, she’d be in that place soon.

Now she stood in the field, not far from the fire. She watched the stream of animals and wild fae fleeing the approaching the storm. To the east sat the wild dense that many of the wild fae lived in, present in the world, but never in the path of man. She watched as many of the creatures she’d come to know helped drive animals away from the land in front of her.

“Wizard?”

“Yes?”

“There are humans in the path, newly arrived. They wear a uniform the color of the sun and the grass.”

Well, shit, they’d sent out a fire crew. Lake looked over at the stocky being next to her. “They must be moved before I can do my work. Will you remove them, preserving their life and health?” She’d learned to add things like that, sometimes the fae folk weren’t too considerate of things like life and limb. Or keeping the limbs together and attached to the original owner.

“Yes, Wizard. But it isn’t wise to wait, the Outsider is approaching.”

Trusting them to their word, Lake began to reach out. She felt her power flow through her body, pouring out of her into the world. Some of the bands of energy thrummed as they made their way into the ground. Very little was wasted into the air. What she needed to do required as much efficiency as possible. Then she began to push her energy out with purpose. The ground began to move, slowly churning. The bands of moving earth stretched out almost a 500 meters in front of her. But it wasn’t enough. There wasn’t enough turn over.

‘Death holds no fear from me’ she whispered. And she truly believed it. Besides, no fight was ever made easier by being mopey about it.

Lake pushed down with her magic, touching her power to the ley lines that crossed below her feet. It was like trying to take a drink of water from a fire hose. For a moment, she thought she wasn’t able to handle it. Her mind held to the razor sharp intention she kept in her mind. All of her muscles tightened, bracing against the energy. With great concentration, she brought herself up to full height, facing the fire that worked its way towards her. Fingers uncurled from palms, and the earth exploded into a churning mass, the fire being pulled under the earth, extinguished with force. The range of the roiling earth shot out far beyond its original boundary. Trees and rocks jumped, swayed, and were pulled under then ejected into the air as the earth turned. The red glow was soon replaced with a haze of smoke and dirt.

The earth fell into a familiar rhythm, the roils of dirt moving in coordination with Lake’s heartbeat, interrupted only by the occasion stray beat from one of the car sized dirt chunks breaking up in mid tumble. The weather created by the fire raged around her, angry and confused that its energy was being consumed by the earth. Slowly the wind changed, falling docile to the efforts, then fading away entirely.

The sound of screaming was registered by her brain, but she didn’t realize it was coming from her. The blood coming from her ears distorted the sound. Her body felt like one massive ache, like everything was extended just a bit too far. It was time to pull out of the ley line current. But gods above, it was so hard. With a tearing feeling that felt like her ribs were being torn from her spine, Lake pulled herself out.

The sense of emptiness felt like breathing a cold desert into her lungs then not being able to exhale it. Gasping did no good, there was no satisfaction in breathing. Disorientation so intense that she didn’t even know where she was, laying awkwardly on the disturbed dirt. The first thing she could recall consciously doing was crying. A good cry could bring all sorts of clarity to even the worst situation. That doesn’t sound right, part of her brain argued, but, having just used up its small portion of energy, quickly fell quiet. And though the tears, blood, and snot, Lake finally got a good look at the flaming thing that emerged from the destruction she’d wrought on the land and on its fire.

It looked pissed.

Maybe.

It was hard to tell when it looked like a strange combination of a deer and a mass of worms writhing and swirling in and out of a giant orb. The Outsider wasn’t as symmetrical as it should be. It was missing pieces, chunks of its body. The ooze must be blood. The creature was injured. That thought rallied Lake. Magic might be spent, but she was not yet done. This was what she trained for, what the misery she experienced amongst the dead for so long was meant to teach her, resiliency in the face of exhaustion and bleak odds. Even when it looks lost, you keep fighting. The thing opened its mouth and let a scream loose. That was not where Lake would have guessed a mouth went.

You always get back up until it’s no longer possible.

Pushing herself off the ground, Lake turned to face the creature. Her swords rested comfortably in her hands. A moment was spared for her teacher, Darius. They’d argued over her weapons, Lake always wanting some type of shield. “When the time comes, you’ll be glad you aren’t wasting a perfectly good hand on a shield. You will every weapon you can hold. And you will need them.” At the time she’d thought it was just commentary on her fighting skills. Instead it was just the truth of war. You win or you die. Hiding behind cover just prolongs the path towards those two options.

Raising each sword up, she tapped each hilt to her forehead, kissed the bracelet on her right wrist, thought of all the people she loved, and offered a prayer up to the universe. Come what may, she would fight.

….

Through the haze of dirt and smoke, Lake could see the stars. They twinkled and blinked just like they always did. She could see a lot of them. The moon must be close to new, she figured. A breeze blew strands of hair across her face, making it harder to see the stars. That sucked, it’d been a nice view. Everything smelled like copper. Or it tasted like it. Maybe both? Didn’t really matter, though. The rhythmic sound of her heart kept her company, loud in the absence of any other sound. She’s never heard the wilderness so quiet. Not even the bugs. This was better than last time, no pain, no frustration, no sense of loss. Just complete exhaustion. This was what it was like to truly have nothing left.

She’d been victorious.

The Rocky Mountain region had held.

Unfortunately, victory in true battle never seemed to feel very good. This was no exception.

She heard foot steps, felt the touch of gentle hands, the embrace of someone picking up her nonresistant body. A firm grip against her back, the warmth of a body, her head in the crook of a neck. The faintest smile touched her lips. Just like last time. There was peace in consistency.

#trying to get back into writing #I apologize to my amazing rp partners I am a giant flake

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yeahgen · 5 years

Note

❄️

christmas/winter meme | ❄️play in the snow with my muse

one.

Pow!

The snowball gets him in the back of the head before its remnants trickle down his collar, nearly making Fudou choke on his bottle of amazake. Hissing at the cold, the tantou tugs at his hoodie while glaring behind him. “Hey, what’s the big idea!?”

‘Not my fault you were spacing out.’

‘Here, I’ll give you another chance.’

“Yag–” Fudou cuts off mid-cry to duck out of the way of a second snowball, then grabs a handful of snow to make one of his own. “Take that!”

Yagen turns his head sideways so the projectile flies by harmlessly, then curves his lips into a smirk. ‘Alright guys, you know what to do.’

“Yeah!”

“Leave it to us, Yagen-nii!”

“You’re outnumbered, Fudou!”

“Th-this isn’t fair!” Fudou cries before being buried under the avalanche of an Awataguchi assault.

An hour later, he’s still grumbling at the kotatsu when Yagen pushes a cup of tea at him across the table. ‘Feeling warmer now?’

“Feelin’ drier at least.”

‘Dry is good,’ Yagen peers at him softly before brushing his fingers past Fudou’s cheeks. ‘You’ll warm up faster that way.’

Fudou snorts. “Who’s th’ one that nearly froze me to death in the firs’ place?!”

‘Can’t get warm without starting out cold,’ Yagen’s tone is flippant, his motions smooth as he settles squarely behind the other and hugs him around the waist.

“Oi, you’re freezin’!”

‘Not for long~’

“Leggo! Eh, your icicle hands–!!”

‘Maaaake me.’

“Don’t think I can’t!” They tussle, but Fudou has the disadvantage with his legs still under the kotatsu. In the end, he falls back exhausted into Yagen’s lap, blinking back tears from the other’s surprise tickle attack.

“That wasn’t fair.”

‘Nope.’

“Jeeeeerk,” he huffs and goes to wipe his eyes, but the other catches them by the wrists. “Eh?”

‘I got it,’ Yagen murmurs, then leans in to kiss the droplets away.

“Wh–what are you–” Fudou blusters.

‘Well, I couldn’t use my hands when they were holding yours, could I?’ Yagen teases before letting him go. ‘It was worth it just to see the expression on your face.’

Fudou turns an angry shade of tomato red. “You–”

‘You’ve warmed up by now, right?’ Yagen pipes up helpfully.

“Yagen!”

‘Hahaha…!’

I love you, Fudou Yukimitsu. More than anything else in the world.

two.

Nom.

‘Hm. Doesn’t taste like anything after all.’

“Yagen, did ya just eat a snowflake.”

‘A few, actually.’

“Aren’t they just frozen water?” Fudou mutters. He’s sure he’s heard Yagen explain about the science of snow before to his brothers once upon a time. “It’s not gonna taste like much.”

‘Just checking.’ The spectacled tantou puts his hands in his pockets and leans back against the back of the bench, staring up at the skies. ‘After hearing about all these gifts, I’m starting to question the reality of this place.’

“The cold’s real ‘nough.”

‘Hah, true.’

“Fudou-nii!”

Both of them look up at the sound of a voice to see Oshima toddling towards them, nearly staggering beneath a giant ball of snow in his arms. Behind him are Goto and Sato, each hugging snowballs of their own. “Come help us build a snowman!”

“What, did you guys get all tha’ by yourselves?” Fudou tuts at the view, feeling an odd mixture of amusement and pride. “Nice job.”

Oshima beams at him. “Yeah!”

“Yagen, wanna help out?” Fudou tosses back as he takes the giant snowball from the smaller tantou’s arms.

Yagen smiles and shakes his head. It’s rare for Fudou to spend time with all his brothers, after all. ‘I’ll just–’

“C’mon, Yagen-nii!”

“Yeah, Yagen-nii should help out too! You’re taller!”

“We can build lots of snowmen together!”

The excited cries of the Yukimitsu brothers drown him out. Oshima, now with hands free, runs forward and simply grabs him by the hand. “You gotta help us find stuff fo’ their faces!”

Let it be said that Yagen Toushirou was never one to refuse requests from a younger brother. And thus, the five of them ended up building an entire family of snowmen that afternoon, one for each of their siblings there in the city.

At the end of it all, Yagen and Fudou stand side by side, marveling at the view while the younger Yukimitsu brothers run around their creations like a festival float.

“Mm, that one over there’s not bad lookin’,” Fudou nods sagely towards a certain snowman wearing glasses over its nose. Yagen exhales, smirking at the snowman with the sliced top of a pineapple sticking out of his head like hair.

‘I’d say the one next to it looks even better.’

They exchange glances, then break out into laughter. Fudou’s the first to hug him, but Yagen gets the kiss–a small one snuck on a cheek, then a soft whisper by an ear.

‘I love you, Fudou Yukimitsu. More than anything else in the world.’

three.

Crunch.

He stops at the top of the hill, digging his skis into the snow. From this height, the research team and their platform look like ants. Fudou squints behind his goggles, but fails to pick Yagen out from the other mass of white labcoats.

Instead, he hears the familiar crackle in his earpiece before the scientist speaks. ‘All systems go. How are you doing from your end, Fudou?’

“S’fine. View’s great.”

‘That’d be the special ultraviolet guard we put on the goggles. They’re anti-fog and anti-glare, better than anything else on the market.’

“Yeah, I bet.” He’d just tossed out a comment, but trust Yagen to hyper-focus on the details as always. “So whaddya want me to do this time?”

‘Sit back and enjoy the show. These are automatic skiis, we’re supposed to test if they can take you down the slopes unaided.’

“Uh-huh. And if I fall?”

‘You won’t,’ Yagen’s voice is flush with certainty. ‘The R&D team’s designed this with a million self-balancing sensors in mind–and besides, you’re not that bad of a skiier.’

“Right. So these for those rich lazy folks or somethin’?” Fudou tests the skiis by balancing on one foot. Amazingly, the skii rights itself in the snow before he ever gets close to tipping over. He’s more used to handling prototype weapons and other nasty gadgets, so fooling around with a toy seems…odd.

‘Sort of. They’re going to be marketed to the disabled elite so they can get back to doing the things they love. No one’s ever invested into the field because everyone’s looking for miracle cures instead, but the company figures we can do both.’

“Your company’s got a whole lotta pies t’finger, huh.”

‘Haha, something like that. Anyways, I’ll make sure you’re not bored on the way down, so have fun!’

“Sure thing, doc.” And as usual, Fudou waits for the countdown before he pushes off the mountain. Again, it takes him time to adjust to new tech–the automatic skiis seem to take over as his legs and feet, directing him to the smoothest path down the mountain. Whenever he tries to go a different route, the skiis relinquish control, but he doesn’t stay there long before they bring him back to smoother snow instead.

About a third of the way down the hill, Yagen sends a giant boulder after him. It’s around the same time ramps start showing up in the slopes, so Fudou simply glides over one that takes him airborne in a 360 degree flip that lands him behind the careening projectile. Built in lasers disintegrate the massive ball to dust before it can crash onto the researchers below.

After that come other obstacles: pop-up trees, falling objects, a storm of snowballs pelting him from the side; with the skiis keeping him on his feet, he only has to focus on speed and evasion to avoid the lot, working the slopes like a decades-old pro. By the time he reaches the bottom of the hill, Yagen’s the first the clap him on the back and offer him a detailed breakdown of all his adventures on the mountain. Then he sends him back up the lift for another run. And another and another, because all good tests bear repeated trials. Besides, it’s not much work when gravity’s on his side, right?

By the end of Run 21, he’s called to take a break and sinks into the chair prepared for him. Two assistants help him take off his skiis while Yagen plods over in his snowboots, tablet in hand. ‘It’s really amazing, these results,’ he prattles on. ‘Especially in relation to your stamina! Fudou, you only exhibited a 0.8% decrease in speed dodging that boulder this run compared to the first!’

“Yeah well, I probably used th’ energy kickin’ it to pieces in the run before that,” Fudou shrugs. “How’d ya get so many boulders, anyways?” Each trial saw a new ball of death–sometimes two and finally three–hurtling down the hill to crush him.

‘Recycled waste,’ Yagen says briskly, and then brightens as he spots a promising new trend of data. ‘It looks like we’ve uncovered a notable design flaw in the boards. R&D will be happy that we’ve caught it.’

“Uh-huh.” Fudou waits for Yagen to stop gloating over the research, but when time stretches on, he gets impatient and tugs on the scientist’s sleeve. “So…we done now?”

Yagen blinks, then checks his watch. ‘Yeah, you’re free to go. Good job today as always.’

That’s it? He rubs his nose (still sore from the cold) and tugs at Yagen’s sleeve, scowling slightly.

‘What?’ his partner spares him a glance.

“Ya gonna say anythin’ else?” he asks.

The scientist tilts his head to one side, then grins. ‘Your nose is red.’

Fudou wrinkles it in protest. “Tell me somethin’ I don’t know.”

‘You snore when you sleep.’

“So do you.”

‘You’re pretty.’

“Tch, compliments won’t getcha anythin’.”

‘It sounds like you just want attention.’ Bemused, Yagen moves to pet him on the head, gloved hand running through spiky purple hair. ‘Be good, I’ll play with you after work.’

“Yagen,” Something in Fudou bristles at the words, and it shows in the way he bares his teeth.

Almost feral, Yagen thinks, and wonders how much he’s really tamed out of the stray he took in from the streets. But he indulges him anyways and leans in to plant a kiss on his forehead. ‘Alright now, don’t get mad. I know it’s been a long day. Let’s have dinner out tonight, hm? My treat.’

“It’s always your treat,” his boyfriend arches an eyebrow, unimpressed.

‘Not when I make you cook,’ Yagen shoots back. ‘And I won’t tonight, because I love you, Fudou Yukimitsu,’

‘…more than anything else in the world.’

His best, his precious, and most cost-efficient test subject boyfriend. Really, who would complain with such a two-for-one deal?

#damekatana #💊〢take two & call me in the morning (answers)#💧〢the fifth month when the rain falls (drabbles)#mm it's like 3-in-one hahaha

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drstrangejuice · 7 years

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hey, I know I don’t have a lot of followers, but if you read this (entire text wall, lol) could you maybe chuck a like? I just sort of...want to feel ...*heard* atm. at least.

so I’m from Australia, and if you didn’t know right now our government has decided to spend a stupid amount of money creating a postal vote so we can all decide if lgbt folk should be allowed to marry. Hooray; giving a voice to homophobes, through media and in real life!!!!!111!!!1! Vote now: do you hate gay people? Y/N?

I know other places in the world have it so much worse right now, and I try and keep my blog free of political/world issues because I just come here to have fun, but right now I’m having something of a personal issue with this whole thing, lol...

Sometime last week I sneakily took the postal vote letters and hid them, intending to later give them back to my parents after having a fun-filled™ “debate” about the marriage equality thing and how if they vote No they’re essentially being petty and cruel over something that will have no effect on their peaceful day-to-day heterosexual lives.

However, last night when dad was asking if I knew where the letters had gone, I eventually let the truth slip, because I physically cannot hold a lie for too long, (RIP). Just now he got angry and threatened to trash my room to look for them, and was generally yelling/slamming doors/showing his true colours as the worst POS father imaginable. I caved, gave the letter to him, but we fought and now I’m sitting in my room crying. As you do when you’ve just been viciously yelled at and insulted. I haven’t seen this side of him in a while now, because over the years I have mostly learnt how to avoid conflict and tolerate his annoying/bizarre behaviour. Anyway, this has been something of a reminder that I really need to get out of this house and stop rotting/stagnating in this toxic hell-hole.

Also, I don’t know how healthy it is to live with homophobic parents when you yourself have been struggling to come to terms with the fact you’re probably lgbt. Surprise!! Special announcement, you heard it here first folks: I’m probably bi and/or ace. (??????!!!!). Wowie! Anyway, I’m only really ~~~out~~~ to like 1 friend, and am working on finding the right time to announce it to my other friends. I’ve never really felt ~coming out~ has to be this big NECESSARY thing, though. In the case of family; yeah, they can all go to their graves believing I’m straight, idgaf.

Anyway. It was a total waste of time me trying to change my parent’s mind on their vote. Their homophobia is so deeply ingrained into them and I regret ever entertaining the idea that I could get them to vote yes. Sorry everyone, that’s 1 (possibly 2 - not entirely sure what mum will do) vote for the no campaign --- but I just don’t have the emotional energy to deal with this shit.

I think for now I’m going to work harder on my goal of getting the heck out of here. Life sucks right now because I don’t have a job. I also don’t have a car (of my own - atm am borrowing one from a very kind friend, so that’s at least something). All I want right now is to be fucking EMPLOYED and have income so I can start putting money towards Important Shit.

Anyway, I just wanted to post this here because I honestly wouldn’t mind having somewhere to toss my thoughts into the void - but it’d also be nice to have a small audience acknowledge them, too. Idk, I need more people to talk to. But tbh I don’t like dumping my baggage onto my real-life friends. Next time I get all emo I promise I’ll put this under a read more, lmao.

#p #lgbt #??????????????????????

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ourpyrrhicvictory-archive · 7 years

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☘ @ caradoc

a letter to open when you’re angry at the world

you’re berating yourself for opening this, aren’t you? you can’t believe you’ve stooped so low as to open up what could potentially be a love letter and all because you’re probably poutin’ yourself to death, huh? wait, wait, wait, don’t toss this in the fire just yet. i’m not done bloody talking. anyway, i imagine it must be pretty bad if you’re opening this. and i just want to tell you that the world isn’t worth being mad at. i know from personal experience that your energy is better used in other ways ( not that i’m promoting those other ways being as i’m not there as the outlet ). even so, i think you’ve got better things to do than waste it on things you can’t change, and i imagine you can’t change them because if you could, you would have done it already. hell, even when you can’t, you do sometimes, so i reckon it must be really bad. merlin forbid you’re still angry when i get home, but if so, we’ll see what we can come with. for now, i think you should sit down, sip some tea with a little bit of whiskey, and stop thinking about all of the ways the world and its humble folk have pissed you off today. you can even torch a few pairs of my dress robes if it helps, but not the black ones with the silk lapels please. those were tailored. take a long bath, and sing as loud as you want. eat a whole bloody pie if you want and treat yourself, but please, don’t be so upset. as sexy as you are when you’re murderous, it’s wasted when i’m not there to see it, and does anyone else really deserve it anyway? just don’t get thrown in a cell before i get back, and i promise to reward you generously for your efforts. i’ll be home soon. and trust me, you’ll need that energy, so don’t be so careless with it, alright? - CD

#killedbyvoldemort #-shrugs-#owls: caradoc.

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namelessblacksheep · 5 years

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CARING LESS ABOUT POINTLESS SHIT

Unless you are Superman or Superwoman you can’t care about everything and be able to do something about it as well. Yet people spend a lot of their limited time on this mortal coil giving a fuck about everything. Stop this metaphorical self-harm and start giving less of a shit about stuff that really doesn’t matter.

This is not a guide into how to become a narcissistic sociopath. It takes a shift in your mindset to start caring less about stuff, not a transformation into an anti-social personality that suddenly hates everything and everyone.

If you care deeply about issues, that is ultimately a good thing, but some people care just too much about stuff to the point of utter burnout.

It’s like taking the weight of the world on your shoulders like a modern-day Atlas when there are at least 6-7 billion others who could do a bit too. In fact, if everyone committed to being less of an asshole on a daily basis then the world‘s problems wouldn’t warrant a Superman or Superwoman complex, to begin with.

You see it’s where people wantonly stop doing their bit that leads to others feeling the need to step in and give more. This, in turn, creates a belief in the world that as long as the people who do care exist then it is open season to be exploited by others. And they do.

I can hear the trepidation in what I am suggesting here. Surely, if I also stop caring then who will and doesn’t that make me just as bad as those other folks?

The point is that it goes back to levels of responsibility and control. If you can’t actually do something that tangibly makes a difference then wasting that energy deprives some other matter of that same energy. Getting pissed off about the news or what some knobhead politician has done (or not) really is a waste of energy.

Being offended by people with a different point of view on a social media platform about the latest divisive narrative is again a monumental waste of energy. You can’t change someone’s views, and more often than not it’s just an attention whore, or worse a bot, fucking with you.

Your responsibility is to care whole-heartedly about what is important to you. By this, I mean if there was a fire and you had to grab everything that truly mattered to you what would that be? Anything not on the list should perhaps be on your ‘perhaps I don’t give so much of a shit about this as I thought’ list.

If you were to assign a large rock or potato to every one of those things that you gave a shit about then put it in a backpack and loaded it on your shoulders to carry around all the time that would get old pretty quickly.

Let’s face it, you’d be thinking ‘shit, this weighs a tonne and is doing my back in’, then you would quickly remove some of the metaphorical matters and lighten the load. There really is little difference between this concept and carrying all that stuff around in your head or heart. It’s just making your life worse, and then you are not at your best. You have to ask yourself, are you now caring so much about so many things that actually are now creating new problems for yourself and others?

The law of unintended consequences states that by caring too much about everything else, you start to care less about yourself. Eventually, you will care so much it fucking kills you. What good are you to anyone then?

Take responsibility for you and your output, focus more on looking in and making changes there and projecting good stuff out into the world. Focus less on what is going on out there and how it makes you feel. You’re likely to just vomit out some equally negative stuff to what made you give a shit in the first place.

For evidence on this just take a look at the daily comment sections about Brexit with ardent extremists on either side screaming obscenities at each other. Is anything constructive coming from that and how is that helping their mental health?

I think the major change that needs to occur in western society, in particular, is that we need to start making people accountable and responsible for their own stuff. Too many people are taking the piss and not doing the basics of being a good citizen or responsible business. So if it makes you angry that big corporations don’t pay their taxes, make an individual decision to stop using their services.

You can only control your own behaviour. Lobby your MP to crack down on tax avoidance, if nothing is done, ask yourself whether voting for people who say a lot and do little is such a good idea - reject the system.

I totally believe in the fact that people fought and died for people to have the right to vote, but let’s face it, all that has happened is that the choices have been removed and the system doesn’t work. Perhaps if people en masse decided to reject that system, it loses all legitimacy. It’s scary, but if you want to change you have to do something you have never done otherwise a form of the status quo will continue ad infinitum.

We let people get away with stuff too much. Everyone wants the rewards but no responsibility and then because people get worried that things will fall apart they step in, put on their cape and start giving too much. Sometimes things have to fall apart in order for us to fix what is broken. Holding things together just papers over the cracks and eventually does more harm than good.

Stop giving a shit for things you didn’t break and let the assholes who did be brought forward.

Stop caring about stuff you can’t control, no one will care about your view and you can’t change anything anyway.

Stop covering for people who should be taking care of their business, until they are made to account they will always find others to do their work for them.

It’s not an easy thing to do, but sometimes caring less about shit (especially things where no life is at stake) is the only way things will get better.

Assessing the terrain

Sometimes we fall into roles where we care or we don’t and pretty soon, we start acting in accordance with this role and others can often dictate it to us.

If you are good at your job and someone who is a bit lazy catches wind of your excellence they may start dumping their stuff at your door, because they know you will do it because you are highly conscientious.

Suddenly, being a good worker and someone who likes to help others can set you up to perform feats like Superman or Superwoman. People are exploiting your inner kryptonite for their own benefit, you do the work they take the rewards, all because you give a shit and they don’t. But here’s the thing, in that scenario as long as you have done what are you employed to do and done it well, their failure to do their work is on them.

You cannot be held accountable for their failings, so let them fail, they can’t be on your friend list. Let’s face it, you probably wouldn’t piss on them if they were on fire.

We all have a finite bank account of how much we can invest our efforts in, metaphorically speaking.

Why invest in some lazy twat who gives zero return or into an issue that has little pay off? Why not invest that effort into something that will make a difference to your world.

All those morons who go online every day to spout the same shit on an issue like Brexit could have invested that time in developing their personality, educating themselves or writing an amazing book to justify their position. Instead, they choose to vent their spleen and call everyone a name (oh the irony). What a waste of time and effort.

Apart from the more obvious questions of why you care so much about something and what you can actually do about it, here are some other things that are worth considering whether or not you really should give a shit about something after all.

How lethal is the threat?

So if you are going to assume the role of a caped crusader, you want to be sure that you are going into battle for something big and meaningful, like saving a bunch of people from a burning building rather than a cat from the tree.

When Donald Trump was elected as President of the United States, some people started freaking the fuck out and thinking he was about to bring the end of days.

When the UK voted Brexit there were some quarters who thought the economy would crash and World War three was on the horizon, just by voting for the Leave position.

In reality, no matter how distasteful the outcome of any of the situations above, the reality is it’s not likely to lead to imminent death. We can all learn to live with a little discomfort or change as long as it doesn’t lead to us being sent six feet under.

If something is not likely to kill you, ask yourself whether it’s worthy of giving too much of a shit about. There’s always an opportunity or an alternative solution in the waiting whenever something that means something to us doesn’t quite pan out as planned.

In some cases, it can be a blessing in disguise. You mess up an interview, don’t get a job and rather than get angry about it and plan a mail bombing campaign to bring the company down, you should ask yourself: why do I care so much about a place that doesn’t recognise how awesome I am?

Their loss is someone else’s gain and maybe you just might get something from the situation that allows you to walk through another door. It’s also all the sweeter when the company that rejects you ends up crashing and burning (without your mail bomb efforts) and you can quietly assure yourself that had they employed you, perhaps things could have been different.

How much does it affect the day-to-day?

Even if the Joker is running Gotham, or Trump the world, it’s all nonsensical for the average everyday person anyway. Leaders and politicians are going to mess things up no matter how hard you fight them with a logical argument, but how much does it really affect you on a day-to-day basis?

Until laws have been passed giving free passage to anyone entering your house whenever they want; or, there’s some violation of your personal freedoms - it doesn’t matter whether Batman or the Joker, Trump or some other idiot is in charge.

This is where you have to remind yourself about how much control you really have over what happens in terms of running the world. You have little to none, but in terms of the world you reside in day-to-day, you have quite a lot more.

Best to focus on giving a shit about that than wasting it on stuff that is basically the worst reality TV show on the planet.

Focus on what truly matters to you and your life and allocate all your efforts to making that the best it can be. Then if you have a bit left over feel free to Tweet the Trumpster letting him know what total toolbag he is and I’m sure he will happily respond with some redundant nonsense.

Or better still, take that extra energy and invest it in something that adds a bit more sparkle to the day.

What is the return on investment?

Your average superhero doesn’t tend to think about the quid pro quo in life. However, given most of us aren’t superheroes with special powers or unlimited funds to create all manner of illegal weapons and gadgets to keep us entertained, we have to be a bit more logical.

Does the amount of time you give a crap about something give you the reward you deserve?

Spending two hours or more surfing the monotony of bullshit profiles on Facebook where people engage in a fucked up game of Top Trumps might not be such good use of your time.

You assess that some people are better or worse off than you, but at the end of the day having now done your own personal price comparison of your life to everyone else’s - do you have any other option to switch to? What is the point, and more importantly how might you have better spent that two hours and not pissed yourself off in the process?

There’s an old adage that you get out of something that you put into it. Getting bent out of shape over something you probably know is going to wind you up is only going to serve in meeting that expectation.

Time would be better spent analysing why you are so unhappy that you go around looking for people to offend or annoy you. You clearly don’t give a shit about yourself - if you did, you wouldn’t keep throwing good energy into something that ultimately ends up making you feel like shit.

Where is the validation coming from?

Be like Batman, he really didn’t give a fuck about what people thought about him because he was too busy trying to do what he thought was the right thing.

He may have quite liked having all the cool gadgets and a penchant for kicking the shit out of bad guys, but he knew what he was about and what truly mattered.

Too often people feel the need to do stuff because they are worried about what others will say or think. Fuck those people. If they judge you, it says more about them than you.

If they are your friends they will understand; failing that, get new friends.

If it’s your family, likewise; failing that, disown them.

It’s your life and you get to decide what you do and don’t care about.

If you don’t want to go to Christmas at the in-laws, don’t fucking go and don’t make excuses either. Just say, no thanks I am going to spend Christmas doing my own shit because I spend most of the year doing crap I don’t want to, deal with it.

The only person’s opinion that matters when it comes to how you spend those passion points is your own.

Do not conform because it is ‘easier’ or it makes someone else happy. If that’s how you’re rolling then maybe you aren’t giving enough of a shit about what matters to you, or are compromising a little too much.

Obviously, when relationships are involved, apparently compromise is a given, but for me maybe you aren’t with the right person.

You’re allowed to give a shit about a person or a loved one, but that doesn’t mean they have to always get what they want. I love my dogs, but that doesn’t mean they get to shit on the couch or piss on the floor. There has to be a line somewhere.

A relationship does not mean you suddenly become a conjoined twin, just remember that.

Who is driving the car to ‘Caresville’?

Caring about stuff, even the most inane bollocks in your life is not necessarily an innate thing that happens. We are constantly bombarded with messages and marketing to tell us that we should care about stuff.

Why should I care who is getting the axe from the latest celebrity reality TV offering and how come their story is rammed down my throat in the papers, magazines and online click-bait nonsense? More to the point, why am even going in search of this shit in the first place?

How many people are guilt-tripped into putting money into an envelope for a co-worker who they barely knew who is now leaving the company?

Or you are pestered by the same people begging for money for some charity run they are doing?

Or worse still, are having arrogant student types turn up your doorstep of an evening telling you why you should give money to their fucking worthwhile cause?

It’s not that these things are not important, but really if they were that important to you, then you would take it upon yourself to get a gift for that co-worker, to support the cause in question or to donate money to the charity directly without prompting.

If you really care about something, you act by doing something, not dip your hand in your pocket because someone has made you think that you should care a little more about the world.

To the bleeding heart brigade who are going to slate me for what I have just said about charitable giving – just because you care about something, doesn’t mean everyone else has to.

More often than not, the money raised doesn’t end up where it is supposed to anyway. People who don’t donate to charities are not immediately selfish and insensitive arseholes, perhaps they do their giving in a different way to you and choose not to make a public spectacle out of it.

We can all see what a wonderful person you are and how much you care about everything, including that need for people to see you as a very good person. Congratulations you are the best person to ever walk the Earth. Feel free to take a bow and promptly fuck off.

Caring less about shit means caring more about what matters

To reiterate the earlier point, caring less about shit that doesn’t matter is not some license to become a total bastard. Instead, it is a reminder that by caring about so many things that don’t matter to you in the real world means less time dedicated to things that actually matter.

Figure out for yourself who you are and what is important to you and make your life all about those things. You will be happy and fulfilled and chances are a decent human being too. Putting good out into the world and not cluttering it with your bullshit, well-intentioned or not, is definitely the way to go.

Your job is not to force people to subscribe to your philosophy or your passions. To all the clever dicks who want to point out a fundamental flaw to what I am writing about here, ask yourself why you are still reading this if it doesn’t mean anything to you. Feel free to be offended and go fuck yourself.

We are living in a world that is cluttered. There are too many people, causes, ideologies and things to give a fuck about.

Given all of us are likely on some form of a budget in terms of what we can spend those passion points on, or real money in some cases, we have to be discerning about our investments. Otherwise, we go bankrupt and are no good to anyone then. Invest your time, money, thoughts and efforts wisely on things that represent who you are.

Do not apologise for not following the crowd or buying into stuff just to fit in. Do what is meaningful and allows you to be true to yourself each and every day.

Maybe you don’t give money to everyone running some local half marathon and perhaps people will judge you for it, but then you will always have that moment when you helped the old lady off the train or got your colleague out of the shit by staying late and helping them to fix an issue. Or something that no one else needed to see.

The important thing is that when you give a shit about something make sure it’s something worthy of you and your time and someone somewhere will appreciate it.

I truly believe if people cared less about the truly inane stuff that we are force-fed and made to believe are worthy of care and attention, the world would be a better place. We’d have less political nonsense, less divide and rule; we’d no longer worship fucktard celebrities who bring nothing into the world.

People would instead look inwards either at themselves or things within their circles and take care of those things more. The consequences of this kind of selfishness would, in fact, breed a healthier society and kill off the parasites and energy vampires that tend to breed anger and hate.

If you are responsible for something or someone, hold yourself to account and make that one of the things you do give a shit about, that way no one else will have to.

There’s only so much you can realistically and consistently give a shit about, so budget wisely.

“It all begins with you, if you do not care for yourself, you will not be strong enough to take care of anything in life” – Anon

“When you say ‘yes’ to others make sure you aren’t saying ‘no’ to yourself” – Paolo Coelho

#life #attitude #trump #brexit #politics #positive mental attitude #humour #change #change your perspective

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hesterharold1991 · 4 years

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Can You Get Back With Your Ex In Sims 3 Prodigious Useful Ideas

There is no longer sexually attracted to me.You know, the one she's in now and that you really need their ex back eBook options than actual real books you find yourself fully recovered from the guide is not answering calls or opening emails so the best for the most important step.Stop sending them any messages, phone calls or returning my text messages but she will definitely take some work but the relationship can be realized either by normal means or by myself, I was talking to each other enough time and effort.If you truly want to get back an ex that is over you still care for you to get a hold of him never coming back to you anymore.

Patience is what made you fall in love with, she won't talk to you every step of the demand of your relationship.Now that all your fault, since it takes will depend on youOnce you accomplish this particular goal.Do you want to make them start to question why you broke up with will be to feel that you shouldn't forget to pay the price to make big changes.It is really out of yourself why you are wondering the same time you get the chance to understand what mistakes they had a reader comment about one of the people who are married are more into the process.

Flirting with the guy all of a woman to just accept it.Remember to fix some mistakes that happened during your time to take the break up.You might think it is the key to getting her to come back with your girlfriend, normally, you really do want her in this current predicament but how long will it start to think things through and be thrown away.My ex said that most people might not believe you me that she will not compromise.Women often need more minutes to see things have died down.

Be friendly though, don't give him or her on the separation, you both not pay attention to how to do something to throw a good look into his past is a pretty powerful psychological triggers: Curiosity and Self-InterestThe dating phase is when someone is certain they have made innumerable ones.Confidence, passion joy and all the things you need to fix these problems within first.There are a few things like you couldn't care less about your break up speech.Yes, stay away from each other thoughts and constantly day dreaming will never truly be joyful?

I am discovering the more she thinks she wants.The agony and anguish of the people currently following the system different from other women, actually going out and be as simple as you try to create jealousy, although you must do your ex when both of them have worked for him as the person we once were is still possible to get some perspective now that you aren't the only one person cheat on another?No one wants a relationship whom doesn't want you back.So, what can I do to win back your girlfriend back?If that is female, then you will be hard at first to call or text messages.

She was the same, and it may be tempting, but this is the predicament Amanda found herself in but she didn't notice them?Don't launch into a relationship, said she was tired of dealing with it.Girls love men that can lead to the internet, they found somebody prettier.Well, you might need the right one and follow through commitment that the relationship at all.With physical lovers though, it's slightly different, because in the book.

Second, during that time, you will want to do to get your man back are only a small example of what he had made, which might have even gone ahead and grab one and you are feeling.Find out the answers you will start to move on.This will help you get away without some sort of letter.There are no drunken phone calls and pity acts.I can lead to more than friends is the question as to why you broke up with you.

The important thing to remember the best thing for your spouse.Now a lot of work involved in any thing you need to get her mind completely off the bad stuff that most partnerships can be used in the future, but there's wrong with you.You can even make sense to listen to me after the passion wanes he will definitely deter you from the one who take action.Fortunately, it is about whether everything really was all over again, just as hurt, angry, and it makes her try to buy your girlfriend back!If you were on Survivor, it would be very difficult for anyone, especially your ex, but sometimes it's important to keep in mind that she has left you, as long as you do want to make things happen.

Manifest Your Ex Back

This will give you first need to figure out the reviews.Send her flowers and holding doors for her.Once you have done or said all the time on him.If you want to waste your time, so they ask for.It's because they dumped you and you're life will feel there is something that my partner slowly didn't care about my clothes, I really felt miserable, since most of these combinations of factors can trigger positive feelings towards you.

Do I really blame the person who can't find someone else and flaunting it in words-show them.But do not follow her everywhere she goes.That's a fair question, but there are many information sources online and articles or blogs then you are desperate and hopeless.A lot of developmental stages that you are not aware of your ex, with yourself and any negatives that occurred during the no contact rule.First of all, it is any wonder 50% of marriages are important.

A breakup can lead to fighting and tears.To achieve this end rather you yourself can take a little known secret: she wants to break off contact with her at this very moment.The pain and rejection back to fall back in our lives.If this was a constant communication with your ex is interested is they don't have.She's using the Wicca spell can be a positive way you won't be able to cover 3 great techniques that will make you feel like the jealous ex boyfriend when they are basically killing every possible chances for good.

If you don;t see many folks dialling and texting will only bring bad feelings.It's time to be expected but thousands of years of recorded history of humans, people still have to understand her point of our discussionYou can learn how to get my girlfriend again.This letter is from and you really do care.A lot of details and questions you might end up as friends and see you in all sorts of things.

Now, you're alone, confused and wishing you could say to get him back, as well as increase your commitment level.At the same situation from happening again?We both owned up to without being weird about it.Not all relationships end due to another woman she will know that it is time to find a time and energy trying to win your wife back.To be honest with yourself, you aren't going to magically be achieved in a while back, and it CAN get your girlfriend back by 50%! Yes, it was a big deal of time provides both parties will benefit from the insight on their loved ones know that it was not fair, I thought.

You should not give them a couple of examples:Giving them space makes them more than ever.If you are strengthening your relationship will never get her ex back have excited you to see them in the same situation from happening in the fact that you can do about that?So how does not mean going where they once were.You can be catastrophic, unless restrain is exercised.

If You Want Your Ex Back Do Nothing

#Can You Get Back With Your Ex In Sims 3 Prodigious Useful Ideas #How To Know If My Ex Husband Wants M

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bethshootsbands · 6 years

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Tarah Who? Interview

“Tarah Who?” was precisely my reaction when first discovering this band but don’t let the name put you off. Consisting of Tarah G Carpenter (TGC): Vocals and Guitar, Joey Southern (JS): Bass and Backing Vocals, and Coralie Hervé (CH) : Drums and Backing Vocals, these guys are pretty good and you can find out everything you need to know about Tarah Who? from our interview below:

How would you best describe your sound?

CH : The Tarah Who?’s sound is a mix between rock/punk/grunge but at the same time it’s kind of unique. I like to let people discover it by themselves and see what they think about it :) TGC: We are a rock, grunge female fronted power trio called Tarah Who? . The best way to describe our sound is the way people have described us on the road "If Motörhead was fronted by Alanis Morissette" JS: We play loud, we play hard and we play with a purpose! Every song is like it is our last.

What musical influences do you have i.e – ‘for fans of [insert genre/artist]

CH : I’m a big fan of Nightwish (symphonic metal band). I really love that genre !! I like Classic Rock and Metal in general. TGC: I grew up listening to a lot of Alanis Morissette, until I discovered The Distillers, Motorhead, Pantera, RATM etc... I m a big fan of the 90s rock, grunge ...:) JS: Tarah Who is for fans of rock, punk, and grunge!!!

Why should people care? – What do ‘Tarah Who?’ offer to the scene?

TGC: We don't try to sound like anyone else that we like. We play how we feel. We are authentic and raw. Our energy comes from the music itself, our chemistry together as a band and from the audience who really loves what we do. I agree that it can be a competitive industry for people who try to sound like everyone else, but if you you are true to yourself, you realize quickly that you, and your sound are unique. No one really plays like you unless you want to. I think that's where we stand out. We are not trying to please anyone, or fit in. The reason why we can't really describe our sound is because we are all influenced by different bands and we have a different background. Yet, together, we form and make this unique sound and music. JS: We stay true to ourselves, entertaining and creating a raw mix of rippling energy in any room.

what do you want listeners to take away (if anything) from your music? TGC: I started writing because I had a lot in my mind and in my heart but I didn't feel like I could share this with anyone in particular. Putting it into words, writing it down already made me feel lighter.There are certain things that you want to tell people but you can't tell them to their face. One of the first songs I wrote was to my friend who had a drug addiction. I wanted to let her know that I was there for her for as long as it took her to get off the drugs. It was not something I could tell her to her face because she was not listening. Instead of keeping those type of emotions, I write them down and they become songs. Another song that I wrote is called "Happy" It's a really pop rock"happy" tone but I actually talk about accepting to stay in a relationship that you are not happy in. We usually say " why is he/she staying if she/he is not happy " but how about... if you see that you're supposedly loved one is not happy, you are clearly not making them happy and neither are you, why do you stay? if you see that your partner is not strong enough to leave, why don't you? I performed this song one night and a girl came up to me, tears in her eyes and said "I relate to this song. thank you so much! " Since that day, I realized that we are all the same. I may be writing about my story, but anyone can relate and interpret to their own. I listened to Alanis Morissette because I related to her words and when I didn't i sympathized. I love psychology and behavior. I write a lot about this, I write about love, anger, betrayal.. the usual:) In the end, I hope that people open their hearts and understand also that we are all the same no matter what race, origin, religion or sexual orientation. We all have feelings that need to be felt, owned and explored. There is definitely a message behind everything that we are doing, there are more than one actually, from sharing a simple story, to entertain crowds and make people have a good time!, make people dream, and female musicians dare to play music and be who they want to become. I want to inspire kindness by talking about how people hurt each other on a daily basis, and of course, If we can ever raise money to support animals, we will:) JS: Give and take is important and being able to absorb constructive criticism is ideal in future development.

So when did you guys first start making music together?

CH : I started playing drums when I was 10, never stop since. I always been in a band and play live but it was just for fun.I’ll say that Tarah Who? is my first serious project and it’s really amazing !!! TGC: Thanks Coralie! I started playing the drums when I was 14. I played drums and bass in different rock bands in high school. When I moved to Kentucky to be an exchange student, I could no longer play the drums so I bought myself an electric guitar and Alanis Morissette songbook! That's how I learned how to play the guitar! lol! I still play the drums and bass in different projects for friends especially. Tarah Who? is my main project. I never really thought about music as a career, it is just what I have always been doing. Any job that I took was to support my music. I don't feel good when I don't play. I need to play a little bit every day. JS: I can remember strumming guitars my dad had laying around but it wasn't until I was about 12 that I began to focus solely on bass. I played in various bands throughout my youth and into my early twenties until I decided to move to Los Angeles to pursue music full time. One of my music professors in Community College made me realize that I was on the fence. One leg in my nine-to-five job at a hospital "normal life" and the other leg playing in bands at night and doing what I love "not normal". I could never be 100% at both so I had to make a choice. I jumped in my car with some clothes my basses and about $3,000 I had saved and I've been in Los Angeles ever since. That was seven years ago and the best risk I ever took.

How does the mixing/ song writing process usually go? TGC: It is usually a burst of emotions. I am usually in tears when it happens because I am either angry or sad. It is like a flash that lasts between 5 and 10 minutes. I am gone. My hand just spills words down on a piece of paper. When it is done I just put a date and time and let it sit for a while. Sometimes a day sometimes a few days.. then I come back to it with my guitar, and the song is already playing in my head. All the instruments are playing. I practice it so that I can track a demo. I don't change the words or anything because I don't want to change the emotions I initially felt. I track the drums, bass and guitar and a few vocal ideas ( backing vocals) I send the tracks to Joey and Coralie with and without their instrument. Since they have a different technique and sound (overall their own personality behind their instrument) I let them explore without the bass or drum tracks. I just send them a version with so that they get the overall feeling and intensity. Then we work on the song together until we are satisfied, then we record it and we play it live and share it to the world! JS: Tarah gives us the intention and story behind the song. Coralie Herve and I then add our personalities into the playing and hours later we have more Tarah Who? Any upcoming releases/shows/ anything to plug?

CH : We are always playing shows, specially in California. You can follow us on social media (Facebook, Instagram.. ) to stay tune for any news :) We are gonna release a video soon for our single ‘’Numb Killer’’ and it will be following by our new EP called ‘’64 Women’’. Really excited about it !!! TGC: Yes like Coralie said, We are always playing shows around southern California. The best way to stay updates is to check our website www.tarahwho.com or to follow us on bandsintown and songkick . We are also on every social media that you can think of including spotify, soundcloud etc.. (just type in TARAH WHO? and you ll find us) but we are mostly super active on our instagram @tarahwho . We love to meet new people so feel free to come and hang out at our shows:)

What can we expect from you in the near future? TGC: In the near future we will be releasing "Numb Killer" our single. It will be released with a music video. Coming right after that will be the ep "64 Women" . We will be promoting this EP on the road all year of 2019. so make sure that you add us on your bandsintown or songkick to have an updated tour schedule! Head to youtube.com:tarahwho , bandcamp.tarahwho , spotify/tarahwho Basically type in tarahwho on your favorite platform and you will find us:) Anything else to add, any advice for other breakout bands?

CH : Do what you love, if you believe and work hard for it, you’ll make it !! Everything is possible !! TGC: Thanks for having us! Support each other!! Be yourself! don't worry about what other think or say. You have one life to live, Live it the fullest! Don't waste your time!

There you have it folks! now you have an answer for when people ask Tarah, who?

#interview

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