#i mean let's be real he's never truly coming out he is definitely just baiting as usual | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

galacticlamps · 2 years

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your posts about how /obviously a trap/ Waterfield's plan is made me think hey, what if he did that on purpose, not knowing how truly stuck Two would be without the TARDIS and hoping he might just walk away? and now your tags about Two potentially building warnings into the traps for Jamie and Kemel have me like. what if Evil is just one big nest of 'I'm being forced to do something to you but I'm trying so hard to subvert that as best I can but you don't realise it and think the worst of me'

ooh that's interesting! & definitely not something I thought of before! with Waterfield I was just looking at it from the perspective of him being under-prepared and unenthusiastic about playing the role of a schemer, and turning to tropes from fiction to craft his trap because that's easier than coming up with something totally original, especially under pressure

but this explanation would honestly make a lot of sense (I mean, in the novel, he literally does choose to let Ben & Polly walk away, and I can't imagine the Daleks presented it to him as 'hey, do what you want about these people, it's cool'). Plus, judging by some of the things he says in episodes 2 & 4, Waterfield really hated what he was doing in the '60s, and didn't even feel totally satisfied with it all being justified by the fact that they had his daughter - so, yeah, I definitely think it's possible he was kinda hoping his own plan would fail before dragging anyone else down with it.

On the Doctor's end I'm, like, fighting with myself - because I don't want to just read things into the script solely because I'd like to see them, of course, but also, Episode 4's camera script is particularly messy compared to the others, so I'm a little bit hesitant to base anything off of it alone.

But then on the other hand, what if the only reason that explanation never occurred to me before looking at the script is just because the episode’s missing? Plenty of surviving serials from the era make a point of linking up cuts between a plots & b plots with shots that juxtapose the two directly - you can even find some evidence for that style in this serial in the surviving episode 2, when we get a crossfade from the portrait to Victoria, or before that, when we cut from a live close up of the Doctor's face to the photograph Waterfield's about to use as bait for his trap - and the antique shop sequence is full of brief shots of Waterfield that have no dialogue, including some of him checking the device he has that shows him when doors have been opened, and can lock/unlock them remotely, to let Two, Jamie, and Perry in to find Kennedy’s body. I feel like if that episode had been a recon, those moments would probably have read as more of a general “Waterfield’s carrying out his plan simultaneously” and less of a direct cause-and-effect - so maybe if we still had the visuals, in real moving time to the soundtrack, that linkage in Episode 4 would've also been an obvious conclusion? And the fact that they scripted that line for Jamie & also that it got cut (possibly because it wasn't getting the point across clearly enough?) is a pretty compelling idea...

But also, even if there were no basis for it at all in anything 'canon' I would still argue it's not a bad interpretation of what's going on in the serial - that whole 'yes I'll be the one to do it, not because I want to, but maybe because I can do it more mercifully than anyone else' thing fits with both the Doctor & Waterfield's reluctance to work with the Daleks, even after they both know that Jamie & Victoria, and their respective homes are all at stake. And it's a serial already full of mind control and manipulation and henchmen/subordinates with varying degrees of commitment to their superiors, and competing loyalties among people who perceive themselves to be on the same side - all in all I think that'd fit right in, whether the writers were trying to imply it in that one scene or not

#sorry if this is a non answer #i think im still trying to convince myself one way or another without being majorly biased #but of course i am!#because if the doctor really did have some ability to protect jamie then i think his not mentioning it later when they argue is significant #almost an admission by omission - proof that he knows how serious what he did was & that trying to make the experiment safer #was literally the very least he could do #idk i just feel like that'd be a nice touch #bc we dont really see the doctor apologize #and i get that in the moment it's more important for him to explain to jamie the whole reasoning behind the experiment #(rather than just saying sorry i hurt you)#but i feel like if he's done more to help him than he admits to in that scene #then in a way it's saying he knows that doesn't absolve him? and that jamie's right to be angry #but he needs to understand what the experiment was all about & where they stand now that the doctor's not being forced to lie to him #and that's why he focuses on explaining all about the human factor instead of actually apologizing #idk this story will never feel like it has closure for the two of them without imagining an additional scene or two #but i still think two finding a way to undermine the daleks' traps for jamie would add an interesting context to their arc in this serial #so yeah i'd definitely like to read it that way

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mercuryonparklane · 1 year

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I’ve been out of town, so I just saw an anon I received last week regarding Taylor and bearding and the possibility of late-stage Tayliz that sparked some thoughts. The Anon asked that I do not post their theory, so instead I will just share some of my own thoughts based on recent events.

As I have mentioned in the past, I personally believe Taylor is a lesbian and that every public relationship she has had since she became famous has been a bearding situation (sometimes mutual, but not always). Thus, I do believe that Joe was a beard. And, for what it’s worth, I also do not believe that she secretly dated any other men like Martin J, Will A, etc.

I usually prefer not to delve too deeply into the men because, tbh, I don’t really think they are relevant in any material way other than as cover for her private life and identity and real relationships/flings/hookups with women. They are, and always have been (from Joe J to Joe A) part of her marketing strategy and it has been extremely successful.

I don’t really care to speak on Joe too much, especially now that he seems to be out of the picture, but in light of recent events, I will reiterate that he truly is/was a mirrorball. Which is exactly why he was the perfect beard. He was a working actor, in Oscar bait movies, but not famous enough that it would distract from Taylor’s public persona. He was “private” and she was able to feed enough of the few tidbits he threw out about himself/his family back into the music to strengthen the narrative and keep up appearances. It was all about holding up a narrative that they were the perfect couple. It was all about giving the Swifties enough to keep them satisfied, but not giving away too much, in order to keep the narrative flexible.

Obviously, there was never going to be an easy way out of this relationship because of how much Swifties bought into them being “End Game”, but it will definitely be interesting to see where she goes from here.

I won’t get my hopes up about her actually finally coming out, but I still stand by the idea that she is either someone who has used the lgbt community for clout/image or she is gay. There has been too much signaling and you just can’t make yourself the sheriff/mayor of the gaylor park and say that “gay pride” is one of the few things that makes you who you are and be a well-informed/well-intentioned ally who is 100% heterosexual.

And to the anon, in terms of late-stage anything, I’m not really convinced that she has reconciled with any of her ex-girlfriends (at least not recently), but who knows… I think she has learned how to be a lot more careful the last 6/7 years about letting people see her as openly vulnerable as she was with Karlie. Speaking about Tayliz specifically, I think there could have been some kind of hookup later on (maybe in the 2015-2019 timeframe… honestly, same goes for a potential Swiftgron hookup), but I don’t think they ever had a full on, committed relationship at any point (even in the early days).

And, in terms of the bearding being beneficial PR for both parties involved, it has absolutely continued to be good promo for both her and all the men she has allegedly (but I believe she has not actually) dated. Hell, it’s still being utilized by most of the parties involved to this day. They’ve all gotten a lot of mileage (media attention/fan interest) out of these alleged relationships.

Also, I completely agree that the whole idea of “Taylor is a bad actor” is such bs. She is extremely talented at performing live. Now, does being able to convincingly perform her own songs live on stage or being able to charm an audience mean she has the skills to disappear into (or even just convincingly portray) another character? No. But she is the best when it comes to playing the role of Taylor Swift, the public persona. So, do I believe she could convincingly fake emotion while performing her own songs? Yes, and I don’t think she’d be as successful as she is if she couldn’t.

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cursedwriter · 3 years

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Cursed! - Gojo Satoru

Jujutsu Kaisen Masterlist

Synopsis: After running some errands you’re caught off guard by a curse user. Unbeknownst to you, he has something up his sleeve that would mean a fate worse than death to you. How will you get out of this? And what role does your boyfriend - the Satoru Gojo - play in all of this?

Words: 2.6k

Author’s Note: Feeback is - as always - highly appreciated! I’d love to hear your thoughts! Requests are still open, btw!

“Hey, there. Are you okay?” You hesitantly approached a man who had just stumbled upon a protruding cobble stone on the sidewalk. The street lamps were just lighting up, signaling for another day to approach its end. The air felt chillier on your skin and you briefly wished you had taken a scarf with you, or at least put on a warmer jacket.

“I’m fine. No worries,” the man grunted and waved you off, but you didn’t stop, opting to check on him nonetheless.

“Are you sure?” Your feet stopped just a few inches away from him, hand already outstretched to help him get up and off the ground. Hesitantly, he reached out for it. His movements slow, but not in a timid kind of way. It was more like he was anticipating something to jump at him at any given moment if he touched you. As if he was scared you could poison him with a single touch.

Suddenly an uneasy feeling swept through your body. A shiver ran down your spine and the hair in your neck stood up. A familiar sensation overwhelming your senses. Blood running cold in your veins, freezing still, numbing your nerves. The chill of the night was suddenly no longer noticeable on your skin. Instead, the breeze felt almost warm now. This was the presence of a curse. An acidic taste spread through your mouth, making you swallow hard as you subtly roamed your eyes around the neighborhood, trying to find out where the curse could be hiding.

To your surprise, nothing seemed too out of the ordinary. The only thing that was ticking you off was that there were no longer any people in sight. It was just you and the man in front of you now. Everyone else had suddenly vanished. Cursed energy was flowing through the air, probably causing everyone else to feel uneasy too, hence why they left in a hurry. People relied on instinct much like animals did. So even though they might not know why, they could definitely tell when something bad was about to happen. Much like how animals could sense when a storm was approaching. Therefore, this really wasn’t all that surprising. What surprised you was that everyone else had been quicker than you to notice the alien presence in your midst. It was almost like someone had been concealing it from you specifically. That was what was worrisome. And then it hit you… the lack of a curse running around, you alone in an empty neighborhood with only one other man right in front of you and the fact that you had only been able to even sense the cursed energy floating around the moment you had reached out for him… This was a trap. A trap specifically designed for you.

Everything inside of you was screaming for you to run away. Just run. Run. RUN!

But you couldn’t move.

You couldn’t even retract your hand that was still outstretched to help the stranger get to his feet. You looked down at him. The shock in your eyes as the realization hit you must’ve been obvious, because as soon as he noticed the fear glimmer in your eyes, a menacing smile spread across his face. It almost looked like he was bearing his teeth at you.

Without breaking eye contact, he got up from the pavement, ignoring your hand and dusting his pants off.

“Ugh, the look on your face,” he laughed. “It’s truly hilarious, I wish you could see it.” His eyes lit up and he held his index finger in the air as if he just remembered something groundbreaking. “Wait, hold on. A right,” he laughed again, “as if you have another choice.” He stalked around you, reaching for your back pocket, hand lingering on your ass longer than was necessary in order for him to get your phone. Bile was rising up in your throat as you send a million death threats his way. You wanted to scream at him to tell you what he wanted, but even your tongue remained unmoving, pressed to the roof of your mouth. It felt like you had transformed into a stone statue.

It was obvious that the man in front of you wasn’t a cursed spirit. So he either had to be a curse user or, like Yuji, swallowed a cursed object and absorbed its power. Whatever he was, whatever he wanted, though, by the way he looked at you, it wasn’t anything good.

“Okay, now say cheese.” He held your phone in front of your face. It was close enough for you to reach out and swat it out of his hands, but much to your dismay, your body just wouldn’t listen to your commands. Everything you could do was stand there helplessly and watch as he did whatever he pleased. “Ah, right. Almost forgot, you can’t talk,” he shrugged unimpressed. “Well, no matter. This’ll do just fine.” The clicking sound of your phone camera rang through your ears. The sound completely out of place compared to the eerie silence that surrounded you.

The man turned your phone around to show you the picture he’d just taken. At first glance, you almost didn’t recognize yourself. Your eyes were blown wide in horror, mouth slightly opened in a silent scream.

“So, what do you think’ll happen if I forward that little picture of you and send it… let’s say, to your boyfriend?” He raised one eyebrow in amusement, gauging your reaction, obviously toying with you. “What do you think he’d do if I’d do that?” This guy evidently knew who you were and he also knew who your boyfriend was… Then why did he sound so delighted at the prospect of Gojo – the Satoru Gojo – coming here and probably tearing his limbs off? It seemed to you that he was almost counting on it. That he, in fact, looked forward to it.

Okay, so this guy wasn’t actually trapping you. You were just the bait and Gojo seemed to be his real target. Which got you thinking… Was he just another egomaniac thinking he could take on Gojo and defeat him and in return make a name for himself? Did he have a death wish? Or could he be that one in a million to have an actual chance at defeating him?

“It’s really not any fun when the conversation is this one sided,” he complained, scratching the back of his neck in thought. “Okay, because I’m in such a good mood today, I’ll let you talk. But no funny business, alright?” He held a daunting finger up in the air as if he was an adult scolding a child for misbehaving.

Suddenly your tongue felt loose again and you could move your mouth, though, the bitter taste remained. It felt like someone had poured acid down your throat, leaving your tongue to feel like sandpaper in your mouth. Except for that, everything remained the same. Not a single muscle in your body would follow your commands of making a run for it or, at the very least, get a good punch in.

“What the hell are you doing to me?” You croaked out, voice hoarse and cracking at the end. “What do you want with Gojo?”

“Uh uh.” He shook his head in displeasure, though, the sick grin on his face remained. “One thing at a time, love. Don’t get ahead of yourself or I might revoke your talking rights.” The way he referred to you as ‘love’ made you physically sick. And the way he talked so happily, as if you were old friends catching up on lost time, made you want to punch him all the more. What was his goal? What could he possibly want?

“Just spit it out!” Your patience was wearing very thin at this point. And though, it might be reckless to talk to this visibly crazy man in such a manner, you didn’t really care. You always had a problem with your temper.

“My, you’re a feisty one, aren’t you?” The man cooed in delight. He was still holding your phone tightly in his hand, looking through God knew what. Ugh, now you really wished you had put a password on it, but before now you never really had a reason to. You weren’t hiding anything in it, but still, it felt like he was roaming through your head while you had no idea what he was searching for.

“Aren’t you two just adorable?” He dangled your phone in front of your face again, fake sweetness dripping off his words like poison disguised as honey. On your screen was a picture of you and Gojo where he was kissing your cheek. Your face was flushed, totally embarrassed when Gojo made Fushiguro take the picture a couple days back. But still, there was this love drunken smile on your face, eyes glistening in a way that radiated pure joy. You remembered how happy you were that day. Actually, you were always happy when you were around Satoru. “You’re so cute together, it makes me sick!” He stood up straight again, nose wrinkling in disgust as he scrolled through your phone some more. “You know, you’re a hard woman to get alone. You’re always with him… Frankly, it was quite frustrating to watch you two be all lovey dovey. But here we are at last, right? So I guess, it was worth it in the end.” A throaty laugh escaped his throat, causing every hair on your body to stand up. So this guy has been watching you? Following you around for God knew how long? A shiver ran down your spine at the thought of all your intimate moments being tainted by some weirdo watching you from afar.

“So, what is it that you want from us?”

“Right,” he clicked his tongue, shoving your phone in his back pocket and out of sight. A small sigh of relief left your lips. Finally, it didn’t feel like he was digging through your head anymore. “You see; I was in love once, too. We were as happy as you can imagine. Our future together was already within reach.” Suddenly the man reached forward to hold onto your shoulder. At first it seemed like he needed the additional support to keep himself upright, but as his fingertips dug deeper into your skin, you guessed this wasn’t all there was to it. He needed a vent to release some of the anger that was burning in his eyes… and you just so happened to be the closest thing nearby. “Everything was perfect. Suki was pregnant and we were planning to get married… Everything was perfect,” he repeated. There was a strain on his voice now as he talked about the woman that he loved. But you were still confused as to what that had to do with you. “Suki was a good person. The best, in fact. There wasn’t a single bad bone in her body and still… and still, someone cursed her. And not just any curse… No! They turned her into one! Into a monster! My Suki! MY SUKI!” Describing him as furious wouldn’t even come close to the burning hatred you saw searing in his eyes. The grip on your shoulder impossibly painful at this point.

“I’m sorry for your loss.” The sincerity in your voice caught him off guard. You could feel his grip loosening ever so slightly, but the flame in his eyes seemed to blaze more intensely than ever before.

“You don’t get to say sorry!” He spat in your face. “Because your precious excuse of a boyfriend was the one to kill her! HE KILLED HER WITHOUT BATTING AN EYE! WITHOUT EVEN TRYING TO FIX HER! HE KILLED HER! AND HE DID IT RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME! SO, YOU DON’T GET TO SAY YOU’RE SORRY!”

Suddenly everything clicked together. Everything started to make sense. This was a man with nothing to lose and he was out for retribution. If you weren’t scared before, you were definitely scared now. People with nowhere to go, people who didn’t fear death or didn’t care for it were the most unpredictable ones. He probably already knew that there was no way for him to defeat Gojo… and that in turn meant that he must have something planned that would make him suffer the same way he had. Because what do you do if you can’t kill your opponent? Right… You make them wish they were dead. And you had the dreadful feeling that the role you’d be playing in all of this wasn’t merely to lure Gojo in.

You tried to gulp, but a lump was forming in your throat that made it hard to swallow or even breathe. You didn’t care about the things that could happen to you, but if you were to be the reason Gojo had to suffer, you would never be able to forgive yourself.

The wheels in your head started turning, eyes blown wide in horror. The man in front of you could visibly feel your distress. He wet his lips in anticipation. Almost like a famished animal waiting to finally feast on its prey.

“Please, I beg you… just let me go, okay? Please!” It was a pathetic attempt, you knew that. There was no way in hell he would let you go now, but you still had to try, at the very least. “This won’t bring her back, okay? Torturing me won’t bring your Suki back… So please, I beg you… just let me go.”

His head fell back in his neck as a bitter laugh ripped through the night. His whole body shook with the action. The sight caused your heart rate to speed up, hammering against your rip cage like the wings of a hummingbird. This was a mad man with nothing to lose and with nowhere to go.

“Torture you? No, no!” He shook his head, finally letting go off your shoulder as he clasped both his hands together in pure delight. “I have something way better planned for you… You see, my cursed technique is mind manipulation which you might have already noticed.” Ah, now it made sense why you couldn’t move and only talk once he allowed you to. “It’s a rather straining technique, but that won’t matter…” The smile on his face didn’t falter, if anything, it got even bigger. His eyes almost sparkling with perverse glee as he hungrily looked you up and down. His hand reached for his back pocket again, getting a hold of your phone. The screen illuminated his face, highlighting a single scar that traveled across his right cheek. “So, I’ll call your boyfriend now, okay? I think you two have a little catching up to do.” He winked at you. “But before that…” He lowered your phone slightly, intently looking you in the eyes and capturing all your attention. Even if you wanted to look away – and you did – you couldn’t will your body to do so. Never in your life have you felt so helpless. “Y/N, when you see Satoru Gojo’s face again, you’re overcome with the sudden and unbearable desire to kill him and you will stop at nothing until you accomplish your task… or you die trying.”

You stopped breathing, blood freezing in your veins as your brain absorbed these horrible words.

No. No! NO!

This was a fate worse than death! Not only did he make you fight his sick battle, he probably counted on Gojo having to kill you which would… break him. If you can’t kill your enemy… make them wish they were dead. And God did you wish he would’ve just killed you and left you for Gojo to find you. This would’ve been more merciful.

“Oh, he picked up.” Your eyes snapped up to see he was already holding your phone flat against his ear. “Gojo Satoru, I believe I have something of yours in my possession. Please be so kind and pick it up, okay? She really can’t wait to see you.”

***

Part Two

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hatterstan-shameblog · 3 years

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Smut, you say 👀

You're this cute, kinda innocent woman that gets the help of this handsome gigolo to not be as... innocent.

💕 The Professional: Chapter 1 💕

Chapter Two

Rating: PG-13 (for this chapter only)

Pairing: Danma Takeru (Hatter)/Reader (she/her

Tags: flirting, suggestive conversation, alcohol consumption, smoking, kissing

“Well, darling,” he says, voice low and smooth and so much closer than before, “I think it’s high time we got to the heart of the issue. The root of the root and the bud of the bud, as it were.”

“Uh,” you say, unsure of where he’s going with this but very much enjoying his simple touches, “what do you mean?”

“I’m just wondering,” he clarifies, pausing to let out a soft sigh, “when you’re going to give in and kiss me.”

Notes: This is a kind-of sort-of AU—in the show, Hatter references his involvement with the host club business, and mentions that he “would do anything” to be the best. Although host clubs do not usually involve sex work (as far as I know), I believe that he would definitely offer that “off the books” in order to win over his clientele.

You’re nervous. Nervous and jittery and—oh, dear, there’s a lot of feelings going on in here, and all of them seem to fall under the umbrella of ‘mild to moderate discomfort.’ Not that feeling uncomfortable is anything new; in fact, there are very few times where you happen to feel truly comfortable outside of, say, the warmth of your bed or the soothing calm of a late-night bath. Places where you feel safe. Places where you can let yourself breathe and be, unhindered by expectation.

The place where you currently find yourself—this strange little pocket of a room in the buzz and bustle of a Friday-night Kabukicho—is full-to-bursting with expectation. From the polished wood floors to the glittering gold chandelier that hangs from the center of the ceiling, there is an inescapable sense of opulent whimsy that is tinged pink with a blush of sensuality. There are even fresh flowers on the table in front of you—a vase of ranunculus, blooming bright and orange like a green-stalked bunch of tiny setting suns.

Something like an itch tickles your sweat-damp palms, making you ball your hands into tight fists around the fabric of your skirt. Oh, you should have worn something different! Something sexier, maybe, with a deeper neckline and a shorter hem, that hugged the shape of your body as opposed to ghosting over it in fluttering chiffon. Not that you actually, you know, owned anything like that, but—

The pop! of a champagne cork makes you jump. Hell, you feel like you’re about to pop, too, from the nervous energy boiling and swelling in your chest. It’s so very difficult not to fidget, to keep your toes from tapping out a frantic little rhythm on the rug.

Looking back, you realize that the paperwork had been the ‘easy’ part. Not that it had been particularly easy—who knew there would be an application process for this kind of thing?—but it was less stressful to fill out a (surprisingly comprehensive) questionnaire in the privacy of your own home as opposed to this agonizing waiting.

And what, exactly, are you waiting for?

Why, you’re waiting for him.

His name is Takeru—or, at least, that’s what he’s asked you to call him. Whether or not it’s a stage name is difficult to tell; but what you do know is that it sounded so very nice in the deep clear of his voice. The only thing that sounded better was your name, which he said in a gently-sultry half-whisper that made you feel…many thing, and not all of them innocent.

In a devastatingly well-tailored suit of lipstick red—a vibrant pop of a color you would so often consider buying at the makeup counter but always put back—it’s nearly impossible to look at anything but him. A small collection of rings glisten from his fingers, most of them delicate little things that wink a tiny gleam when the light hits them just right. The dizzying black-white-gold pattern of his shirt is unbuttoned just a smidge too low, offering you a tantalizing view of his chest.

And although his back is toward you, concocting some kind of magic at the bar cart along the far wall, you can all but feel the warm-dark of his eyes on you. Oh, he has beautiful eyes, dark and warm with the glitter of laughter—or perhaps mischief, if the situation calls for it. A slim nose leads down to a shapely mouth, handsomely framed by a neatly-trimmed beard and mustache.

Also, his hair—oh, that man has a great head of hair.

Aesthetics aside—he has been undeniably lovely. Slipping the coat from your shoulders when you walked into the room, fingertips skimming the slope of your shoulders with only the barest of touches. Offering you a glass of champagne (“Yes, thank you”) as he leads you to sit on the green velvet settee, hand hovering above but never touching the small of your back. A serene smile on his lips as he talks, as he tells you that your dress is lovely (“Blue is definitely your color, darling”) and letting out an airy chuckle when you mention that this was as good occasion as any to dig it out of the back of your closet.

It is impossible to ignore the way he is so very provocative—subtly so, in a way that makes you second-guess whether his flirtations had happened at all. Did his eyes really linger over the shape of your legs, or was he simply taking a moment to admire your (new, very cute) shoes? Did his fingertips slip over the curve of your shoulder as he removed your coat, or were you just imagining it?

His gaze tiptoes over your shape as he sits down beside you, two flutes of pink-tinged something in hands.

“I’ve taken the liberty of making something a little special,” he says, “Hope you don’t mind.”

“Oh, uh, thank you,” you say as he hands you one of the glasses, “it…it looks nice.”

“Know what it is?”

“Uh,” you say after a moment of silent deliberation, “Maybe alcohol?”

He huffs a short laugh at your half-joke—a rather polite response, and it manages to soothe the bubble of regret that had risen up your throat the moment you’d said it.

“You’re not wrong. More specifically, though, it’s a Kir Royale—or, my take on one, at the very least,” he watches the bubbles fizzle to the top of the glass, “I find myself more or less incapable of keeping with convention, even when it comes to alcohol.”

“Well, uh,” you say, “it’s pretty. I like the color.”

You taste the drink, bubbles like tiny fireworks tickling over the surface of your tongue. There is a dry bitterness, no doubt from the champagne, but it’s softened by a fruity sweetness. Something familiar, something that reminds you of summer and shaved ice and walks along the river and—

“Cherry,” you say, half-lost in the hazy-warm memory of days gone by—until you remember where you are and snap back to reality, “it’s, uh, it tastes like cherries.”

“Very good. Usually, the drink calls for creme de cassis, but I used Kijafa instead. It’s a dessert wine from Denmark, made from cherries,” his brow raises just a smidge, “I thought it appropriate, given the situation.”

And it takes you a minute to understand what he’s talking about. Cherries. You. Ah. A rather crass comparison, but accurate all the same.

“Oh,” you say, picking a very uninteresting spot on the rug to look at in an attempt to avoid meeting his eyes, “I, uh…”

“It’s nothing to be embarrassed about,” he adds, “In fact, virginity isn’t even a real thing. Completely made up. Means nothing, really.”

There is a kind of lag—he’s speaking, you know he’s speaking, but it takes your brain a few extra seconds to figure out what he’s actually saying. It’s strange, hearing someone talk to you so openly about sex. Not unwelcome, by any means, but you need a moment (or two, or ten) to adjust.

“That being said,” he continues, as if he’s discussing the weather, “just because it doesn’t mean anything in the grand scheme of life doesn’t mean it’s nothing to you.”

He’s fishing. He’s fishing, and you kind of want to take the bait, but…well, you’re finding it difficult to get your thoughts in order. He’s the very picture of calm, all while you’re floundering over a simple conversation.

“Apologies if I’ve overstepped,” he says, taking a slow sip of his drink, “I thought you might prefer to talk it over a bit. ”

“No, uh, you’re fine,” you answer quickly, “I’m just…I thought the paperwork kind of covered all that.”

“More or less,” he answers, “however, I’ve found that the person who fills out the forms and the person who ends up sitting across from me are not always of the same mind.”

He reaches a hand into the inside of his jacket and pulls out a silver-plated cigarette case. Although he is not gentleman enough to ask your permission to smoke, he is gentleman enough to offer you a cigarette before taking one of his own. You decline. He shrugs and quickly snaps the case shut before laying it on the table.

“In fact, it’s not uncommon for my clients to have a complete change of heart the second they walk through the door,” he continues, reaching into the inside pocket of his jacket, “Or, sometimes later on, for that matter. Depends on the person.”

Cigarette held between his teeth, he retrieves a lighter from his right trouser pocket. With a sharp little snick, he ignites it, pulling the little orange flame towards his face and hiding it behind his hand to let it catch.

“Really?”

You watch him intently, the way his eyelids flutter closed at the first inhale. The way his lips pucker around the filter and release, the red-pink sticking slightly as they pull away and let smoky white flow out and fade into the air.

“Really,” he confirms, “once, I had a client step inside, take one look at me, and promptly walk right back out. Never saw them again, which is fine. I’ll never fault someone for doing what’s right for themselves.”

“Are you, uh, trying to talk me out of it?”

“Not at all. Just making you aware of your options,” he says, “Doing anything for the first time is scary. Driving a car, swimming in the ocean, traveling abroad—sex is no different.”

“Yeah, well,” you respond, “you also get to do most of those things with your clothes on, so…”

“Depends on who you’re with.”

You can’t help but laugh a little.

“Well I still want to…you know,” you answer, “uh, do it. The…the sex part.”

“I’m happy to hear it.”

“Yeah, well, you’re supposed to say that.”

“It’s the truth,” he insists, “I can’t imagine anyone being upset at the thought of having a pretty thing like you in their bed.”

“I’m not—“

“Don’t,” he interrupts, taking on a tone that brokers no arguments, “I will suffer many things, but a liar isn’t one of them. You are an attractive woman and I refuse to be told otherwise.”

“Sorry, I,” you say sheepishly, “I guess I just…wasn’t expecting you to…like me?”

“Why wouldn’t I?” He ashes his cigarette and takes another long, slow drag, “You’re very sweet. A bit shy, maybe, but I happen to like the shy ones.”

And there is something about the way he says it, the way his voice wraps around the words—oh, there are implications to those words, and you find yourself growing warm at the thought of what exactly those implications could entail.

You sip your drink. He smokes. The quiet between you is almost comfortable. Maybe it’s the alcohol working it’s bubbly magic, but you’re starting to feel a bit more at ease in this strange little place.

Moreover, you’re starting to feel a bit more at ease with him. The thought of kissing him crosses your mind, then doubles-back and crosses it again. Oh, that sounds nice. He would be good at it, too; starting gently, mouth pressed soft and sure against your own, and then just the tiniest tease of his tongue—

“And there you go, biting your lip again,” he says, snapping you out of your impromptu fantasy, “You have no idea how sexy that is, do you?”

He is sporting a devilish grin—not only is he aware that you had been daydreaming about him, but he’s relishing the fact that he was able to catch you so off-guard.

“Didn’t even realize I was doing it,” you admit with a shrug. But you can’t help but feel a thrill at the thought of being considered ‘sexy’—you never really let yourself feel that way, but now that it’s happening…oh, it’s nice.

“It’s absolutely delicious, darling. Makes me wonder what else you do when you’re turned on…”

And he’s got you—like a knife held under your chin, his sharp gaze pins you in place. He is impossible to avoid. Not that you particularly want to avoid him—there’s something irresistible about this man, something that you can’t quite name but definitely want more of.

It’s scary.

It’s exciting.

“I’m,” you say with a nervous chuckle, “not really sure, myself. Guess we’ll have to, uh, figure it out together.”

His gaze darkens. He takes one last lungful of nicotine before stubbing out his cigarette.

“I suppose we shall.”

And he’s moving now, sliding himself down so that he’s closer to you. He stops when there is barely an inch of space between the outside of his thigh and your own. His right arm has draped itself over the back of the sofa, the fingertips of his hand now skimming the skin of your shoulder in loose, mindless sweeps.

“Uh,” you say, unsure of where he’s going with this but very much enjoying his simple touches, “what do you mean?”

“I’m just wondering,” he clarifies, pausing to let out a soft sigh, “when you’re going to give in and kiss me.”

He plucks the champagne flute from your grasp and sets it on the table in front of you.

“I, uh—“

The fingertips on your shoulder continue to make their idle little circles, almost hypnotic in their swirling pattern. His left hand catches your right wrist, his thumb pressing above where your pulse thrums beneath sensitive skin.

“Bit fast,” he observes, pulling your arm closer as if inspecting it, “Could be nerves, but I think it’s more from excitement, don’t you?”

You have no choice but to lean into him as he brings your hand closer. Your shoulder presses against his arm, and you feel the solid shape of him through the smooth of his suit. He’s strong underneath all of those layers—warm, too, judging from the heat that radiates from his person.

“I’m—“

The thumb that had been testing your pulse inches higher, stopping when it’s pressing into the center of your palm. His eyes lock with yours, a heartbeat of a moment, and brings your wrist closer and closer until his lips are ghosting over your flesh. When he finally decides to make contact, you gasp—it’s a delicate sensation, but sends your heart skipping in a shaking staccato.

And, then.

Then he sucks.

The sound you make is halfway between an oh of surprise and a desperate little moan—oh, wow, that’s really weirdly unexpectedly hot—and you don’t even have the presence of mind to feel embarrassed by your own reaction. He’s not even doing much, not really; just a little bit of pressure, lips parted just enough to let his tongue slip out and have a taste of you.

But, oh, it feels…it feels filthy, it feels decadent, it feels like something you should not be doing but very much want to keep doing for the rest of your life. Takeru’s eyes have since fluttered shut, and he hums the tiniest sound of pleasure as he maintains his seductive tease.

“Please,” you manage to sigh, sounding as breathless as you feel, “please, I, I want you to kiss me.”

His lips release from your wrist with a pucker-pop noise—which was no doubt intentional on his part, and does nothing to quell the thrill of desire in your belly.

“Hm. I’ll make you a deal,” he says, shifting a bit to the left so that he can turn to face you better, “I’ll kiss you for the rest of the night, but right now…you kiss me.”

And what a deal that is—you don’t even have to think about it, head bobbing in an affirmative nod as you wet your lips in anticipation. The hand that had so lovingly held yours is now guiding you to rest your palm just above his knee. You reflexively reach your other hand out to steady yourself, and it lands against his chest before you can stop it.

He’s so close now. There’s barely any space between your faces, barely room to breathe—

“Go on, darling,” he whispers, “if you want me, have me.”

And you do.

You kiss him like it’s the easiest thing in the world. The anxiety that has plagued you since the moment you entered the room hasn’t completely dissipated—it would be foolish to think it’d be that easy to banish those feelings completely—but all that is now secondary to the feeling of his mouth on yours.

Kissing Takeru is warm. It’s soft and it’s sure and it’s…comfortable, in a way. Safe, even. He does not press, doesn’t do much of anything except mirror the way your lips slide against his own. A gentle rhythm, a push and pull between the two of you that feels as natural as the moon guiding the tides to shore—yes, kissing him is good and right and something you want to do many times over.

Unfortunately, you have to pull away to breathe. He doesn’t let you go far, though, one hand cupped behind the nape of your neck and the other pressing into the small of your back.

“Oh, you are sweet,” he purrs, his gaze dropping to your freshly-kissed lips, “and, seeing that I’m a man of my word…”

As it turns out, being kissed by Takeru might be better than kissing him, yourself. He is still so very careful when he presses his lips to yours, but this time…this time, there’s fire. He tastes like the best part of a cigarette, like warmth and alcohol and cherries, and it only intensifies as he tests the seam of your lips with his tongue.

Little by little, you begin to test him, too. Hands cradle the curve of his jaw, feeling the way his face shifts as he moves against you. Fingertips run through the soft dark of his hair—oh, he likes that, if the half-sigh that slips from his throat is to be believed. And when you nip at his lower lip with your teeth (he had, after all, very much enjoyed the way you bit your lip earlier), he genuinely moans and pulls you even closer to himself.

It’s when he begins to wander lower, with his mouth skimming the sensitivity of your neck and his hand splayed across your lower back in a way that flirts with the idea of indecency, that you begin to want more. Fear—and maybe that’s not exactly the right word for what you’re feeling, but it’s the only one that comes to mind—begins to creep up the column of your spine.

The “what-if’s” start filling your brain; what if you mess something up? What if you do something he doesn’t like? What if you freeze up later and—

“Alright, darling?”

His voice is a low soothe against your ear; he’s retreated, just a bit, and his hand has wandered to a chaste and respectable area of your mid-back.

“I—“

You want him to take you to bed. You want him to take off your dress and kiss you in all the places you thought weren’t worth kissing, to let his hands trace sparks along the curves of your shape and let him be close to you in a way that no one else has. You want him, despite the uncertain ache that burns between your ribs and bids you to hide yourself away and leave behind the pleasure of his touch.

…But all you can manage is a nervous glance to the bed behind you (the one you had been avoiding thinking about up until this point) and a stammered “Can we, uh…?”

“Ask me,” he says, his index and middle fingers idly skimming the notch in your collarbone, “I’ll give you anything you want, as long as you ask me.”

It’s difficult to make eye contact with him—every time you try, you feel embarrassment swell up beneath your tongue.

But Takeru is, as you have come to learn over the last hour or so, decidedly patient. He shows no sign of relenting, appearing to be perfectly content with giving you an expectant grin and continuing his little touches as you try not to squirm in your seat.

“I,” you gulp, “I want…“

You bite your lip—oh, wait, he likes that too, and he’s staring at you with those sharp and sultry eyes, and it makes something behind your heart squeeze and unsqueeze itself and punches the air from your lungs and—

“Take me to bed,” you manage to spit out, and it all sounds like one word with how quickly you pushed the words into the air. The “uh, please” you tack on at the end is an afterthought, but perhaps it’s polite enough to pass muster.

“Was that so hard,” Takeru asks with a good-natured chuckle, “but since you asked so nicely…”

He takes your hand in his and brings it to his lips for a kiss—and even that, after everything, still has you feeling a flutter of something giddy in your stomach.

“Darling,” he says, “it would be my pleasure.”

🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸

…and now, you’ll have to wait until chapter two to get to the “good stuff!”

It’s been a challenge writing this—I’m trying to make the scenario believable while still keeping it vague enough to allow for people to make up their own little details. It’s also been unexpectedly difficult to write him, since he’s kind of being himself while also playing a character who’s trying to mold themself into their client’s fantasy…it’s a lot of layers, but it’s been fun trying to figure things out!

#alice in borderland #hatter #danma takeru #writings and such #spicy boy #alice in borderland netflix #takeru danma #we did it fellas. we finally wrote the first chapter.#I’ve been working on this for WEEKS #now to write the actual spicy stuff lol oh geez

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dialovers-translations · 3 years

Text

DIABOLIK LOVERS Do-S Kyuuketsu VERSUS Ⅲ Vol.5 Shuu VS Yuma [Track 2]

Original title: 在りし日の証

Source: Diabolik Lovers VERSUS III Vol. 5 Shuu VS Yuma [CD not owned by me]

Audio: Here

Seiyuu: Toriumi Kousuke & Tatsuhisa Suzuki

Translator’s note: Sly Yuma is the best kind of Yuma. I honestly really love the tension between him and Shuu. They have such a cute past together and a lot of potential to still be good friends despite their vastly different personalities. I feel like they would get a lot out of the friendship though. Yuma could get Shuu to stop sitting on his butt all day while Shuu could teach Yuma a thing or two about thinking before acting, haha.

Track 1 ll Track 2 ll Track 3 ll Track 4 ll Track 5 ll Track 6

→ LIKE MY TRANSLATIONS? SUPPORT ME ON KO-FI!

Track 2: Marks of the Past

The two of you are walking through the forest.

Shuu: ...I’m pretty sure that once we make it past here...Mmh. Seems like I wasn’t wrong.

*Rustle*

Shuu: This tree is still here, huh? ...If I recall correctly there’s an escape route by the root...

*Rustle*

Shuu: Yeah...It should still be useable. ーー Oi, don’t stand there spacing out. Get over here already. Do you want to be left behind in a forest full of monsters?

You ask Shuu if they are going the right way.

Shuu: Haah...? Are you making fun of me? This is Vampire territory. In what world would I get lost?

The two of you continue walking.

*Drip drip drip*

Shuu: ...This place hasn’t changed at all.

You ask if he has been here before.

Shuu: I used to play here as a child, that’s all. ...!

Shuu suddenly comes to a halt.

Shuu: These doodles...

You look at them in confusion.

Shuu: It’s written in this world’s language. I guess you can’t read it, huh?

You ask what it says.

Shuu: I’m pretty sure that back then, he also...

You tilt your head to the side.

Shuu: It’s nothing. More importantly, let’s hurry aーー

He flinches, sensing a presence nearby.

Shuu: Oi, you! Come here!

*Rustle*

Shuu: Shh...! Somebody’s coming!

Approaching footsteps can be heard.

Shuu: ...!! Mukami...Yuma?

Yuma: ...!?

Shuu: What are you doing here...?

Yuma: That’s what I’d like to know! Don’t give me a fuckin’ heart attack!

Shuu: ...Let’s go.

Yuma: Wait!

Yuma grabs hold of his wrist.

Shuu: Don’t touch me!

Yuma: Don’t try and run.

Shuu: I’m not running.

Yuma: Heeh? Then while we’re here together anyway, why don’t we take a lil’ trip down memory lane, huh? ...There happens to be someone here to listen to our stories as well.

Yuma glances over at you.

Shuu: Ridiculous...If that’s what you want to do, suit yourself, but I’m leaving.

Shuu starts walking away.

Yuma: I mean, fine by me. ...But in return, leave this chick behind.

Shuu: ...!?

Yuma: Ya don’t mind, do ya?

Shuu: ...Be my guest.

Yuma: Hah! As to be expected of a lil’ rich kid, you’re quick to understand. Couldn’t be me. ...I mean, in the end, I’m nothin’ but a filthy farm boy. I refuse to let go of what I want, no matter what. ーー Especially when I’m ‘bout to lose it to some aristocrat. Well, I guess that sort of stuff doesn’t matter to Mr. Rich Boy who always has everythin’ go exactly his way.

Shuu: ...Please don’t assume that everything always plays out in my advantage.

Yuma: Hah! Ya tell me.

Shuu: You can only say that...because you don’t about us at all, no?

Yuma: ...Now don’t be mockin’ me. I know ya.

Yuma walks up to Shuu.

Yuma: We were pals in the past ーー Nah, pretty much best buds, no?

He grabs hold of Shuu’s collar.

Yuma: Have ya forgotten ‘bout that already? Doesn’t lookin’ at the words written on this wall bring back any memories?

Shuu: ...!! Don’t tell me...Your memory has...?

Yuma: So it really is true...

Shuu: ...!

Yuma: I’ve only regained fragments of my memories. So I tricked ya into revealin’ the truth.

Shuu: Che...

Yuma: You’ve only got yerself to blame for takin’ the bait. ...Well, I’m sure ya would have much preferred if I never remembered at all. ...I’ve been wantin’ to ask ya this whole time. ‘Bout the fire which broke out in my village that day, for example.

Shuu: ...

You perk up your head.

Yuma: Hehe...You’re curious as well, aren’t ya?

You nod.

Yuma: Come on, tell me. You’ve got somethin’ to tell me, don’t ya? On the day of the fire, what did ya see? What did ya think? We’ve both gathered here, so let’s use the opportunity to get things straight...Shuu.

Shuu: There’s not really...anything I have to tell you.

Yuma: Cut the crap!! ...That side of ya is exactly what pisses me off!! If ya think ya can get away with keepin’ quiet, you’re gravely mistaken! You witnessed the truth with yer very own eyes that day, no!? Then why are ya tryin’ to hide it!?

Shuu: ...Hah. Aren’t you getting the wrong idea here?

*Rustle*

Shuu: I’m not simply remaining silent. I just don’t feel like I need to tell you. Don’t try and act like you know me, when you barely remember anything. It’s annoying...

Yuma: Che...Spare me the bullshit.

You run up to them and try to stop their fight.

Shuu & Yuma: ...!?

Yuma: Oi, don’t butt in.

Yuma: Shut up, keep quiet!

Shuu: Haah...Whatever.

Yuma: Aah!? Hold it! ...You’re fine with this chick bein’ taken away from you!?

Shuu: Go ahead? You’re the one who asked me to leave her behind, remember? Well, one of those ‘rich kids’ you hate so much is being generous enough to lend her to you, so why don’t you happily accept the offering?

Shuu walks away.

Yuma: ...Ugh!

Yuma punches the wall.

*THUD*

Yuma: Fuck...!! I don’t like this one bit...!!

*THUD*

Yuma: Makin’ fun of me like that...! Ugh!

*THUD*

You try and stop Yuma.

Yuma: Don’t stop me! Buzz off...!!

You seem worried about the drawings on the wall being destroyed.

Yuma: The doodles...? Ya really think I give a damn ‘bout what happens to thoー ...Haah...My bad. I lost my temper for a sec there...I guess I’m havin’ trouble bein’ honest with myself as well. ...Altho you wouldn’t say so at present, we were actually reallly close back when we scribbled these.

You ask Yuma what is written on the wall.

Yuma: This was my name when I was still human...and this one’s his. His real name. ...His ‘Vampire name’, in other words, what he is truly called. Don’t ask me ‘bout the details. I can’t read these after all. ...But I’m certain that when we were kids, we both wrote our names on here. Guess ya could say this was like our secret hideout.

You seem surprised.

Yuma: Hard to believe, huh? I don’t remember everythin’, but it’s all too weird to be just some fantasy made up by me. These should be...definite memories of our time spent together.

You ask why the two of them don’t get along at present.

Yuma: We’ve both changed. ...The fire which broke out in my village. And the fact that I became a Vampire. Regardless of my memories being intact or not, the cirumstances are just far too different. I can’t imagine...the two of us will ever get along again. Besides, I don’t think I can ever forgive him for all those years he simply turned a blind eye to everythin’. Right now...He’s nothin’ but a coward runnin’ away from the reality he doesn’t want to accept.

*Rustle*

Yuma: Tsk...Anyway, I don’t know if it’s ‘cause I’ve been reminiscin’ ‘bout the part, but it’s as if my mind is shrouded in a fog, I feel like crap.

You voice your concerns.

Yuma: I’m not that weak, I don’t need ya worryin’ over me. I’m sure I’ll feel better if I just leave this place. ーー Let’s go. I don’t know if it’ll make much difference to ya, but I’m gonna take ya someplace nice.

You seem worried about Shuu.

Yuma: Don’t let it bother ya. He said he doesn’t need ya, remember? ...Come on, follow me.

Yuma grabs hold of your wrist and drags you along.

ーー TO BE CONTINUED ーー

#diabolik lovers #dialovers #shuu sakamaki #yuma mukami #diabolik lovers versus III #diabolik lovers translation #diabolik lovers drama cd #drama cd

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alittlextrathatway · 3 years

Text

So I had a thought...

Season 9's miscommunication was totally foreshadowed in 8x09.

And by foreshadowed I don't mean because Gabby came back and that's the source of the problem.

Some people may not find this shocking because, like me, you head canon that 8x09 was closure for Matt and Gabby, but I'm here to propose that it's not just a head canon or an "interpretation".

Because I'm here to say, it was literally closure and the first time Brett put a meaning behind Casey's words that he didn't intend to fit her own assumptions about his feelings for Gabby.

Let's look at that scene between Brett and Casey at the end of the episode, shall we?

"Hey!"

"Good morning."

"How'd it go with Dawson?"

"Great, actually."

"Oh, that's...so so good to hear."

"Thanks for talking me into that."

That was it. That was the extent of the conversation. And Sylvie's response is to assume that being with Dawson is what made Matt happy which, in turn, allows the audience to assume that as well.

(Inserting cut here because this is gonna get long.)

But I'm here to suggest (as I've done in fanfic time and time again) that being with Dawson isn't actually what made Matt happy. (Not that he'd explain that to Brett and certainly not with Foster standing right behind her.) What made Matt happy is finally achieving closure with Dawson. Why do I think this was closure even though Derek wants us to think it wasn't?

Well, for starters, both Monica and Jesse have called it closure.

But aside from that, before their hook up Gabby asks if it's a mistake because she's leaving in the morning and Matt says, "I know and I'm staying. But that doesn't make this a mistake."

That is not something you say when you want to seriously rekindle a romance, guys. That's something you say when you know you're in the middle of a one night only event. Both Gabby and Matt knew this one night wasn't going to lead to anything else. Nothing had changed between them since she left at the beginning of season 7.

Gabby is living a life that makes her happy far away from Chicago and she's very successful at it so why would she stay? Matt is settled in Chicago. His family and work family are there along with the job that he loves. Why would he leave? This wasn't some romantic reunion intended to be the beginning of them fixing their marriage. This was the goodbye they never got the first time around, for Gabby at least.

For Matt this was a chance for him to have a say in how their story ended. He chose to go to Gabby's room and he also chose to leave without saying goodbye the next morning. Also not something you would do if you were wanting to rekindle a relationship.

Matt closed the door on Gabby that night and decided to move on with his life. That is the real reason he's happy when he shows up at the Firehouse. So, when he thanks Brett for talking him into it he's actually thanking her for helping him achieve closure only she doesn't know that because, once again, Matt answered the "How'd it go?" question in the vaguest terms possible.

Does that remind anyone of "You were right. I needed to hear it."? Or is that just me?

The more I think about this the more I am convinced S8 was about Matt achieving closure and finally moving on. As much as S9 has hurt my heart, it is slowly allowing me to see the larger journey from a different perspective (When Derek says Brettsey is years in the making I truly believe him. The evidence is all there.)

S7 was about proposing the idea of Brettsey to both characters. By the end of it, Sylvie thinks she's reading too much into it and I think Matt thinks Sheffield's return is a sign that he and Sylvie should stick to being friends.

Upon reflection, I think the early part of S8 was about Matt trying his damndest to stay friends with Sylvie Brett. Likely because he wasn't sure if he was ready to move on or completely over Gabby. So early in the season we see him hooking up with Smart Girl and then trying to simply be a good friend to Sylvie. We see a little jealousy with Ryan but ultimately he does encourage her when it comes to him and then continues to encourage her when things with Ryan come to an awkward end.

We all love what he says to Sylvie there but I think we can agree that while it shows how much he values and respects her, it's a largely platonic sentiment. He's trying to be her friend despite the crush we can obviously see he's still harboring (though this is the only episode in the early part of the season where the crush truly shows itself).

Gabby's return is only a couple of episodes after that. Matt is hesitant to go to the gala and I think that's because he's not sure it'll help him achieve the closure he wants. He may have a bit of a crush on Sylvie but above all else they're friends and he trusts her to give him fair and accurate advice. So, in my opinion, he goes and finds out it was exactly the closure that he need it. (Except for that voicemail which I am convinced is Derek ship baiting again as he did in 9x09 and probably also him planting the seeds for the doubt that caused Matt to say "I don't know" in 9x02.)

Now, what begins to seriously happens after Gabby leaves?

Yep, you guessed it, Brett and Casey begin to grow closer. Matt begins to seek out reasons to spend time with Brett and actively invest in their friendship. It slowly develops into a deep connection that is well beyond platonic as the season progresses. To me, it appears that he's leaning into his feelings and beginning to let himself move on. Maybe he doesn't realize that's what he's doing as it happening but that's definitely the end result.

It is not a coincidence that all of that begins to happen after his one night with Gabby. He was holding back in 8x01-8x09 but after he gets his closure all bets are off. He wants to be around Sylvie -- to be near her, talk to her, and learn everything he can about her.

The timing of that should not be lost on us and that timing means that 8x09 is actually the very first time Brettsey miscommunicated and is, in fact, the source of all our problems in S9.

My theory: Derek brought Gabby back not to further Dawsey but to cause a complication for Brettsey.

I am convinced and I will remain convinced until the show explicitly tells me I'm wrong.

Derek has been playing the long game with them this entire time. He'll continue to mess with our heads however he can because that's simply what he does, but it's clear he truly has been planning this journey between Sylvie and Matt for years. Brettsey endgame is coming, but Derek's gonna drag us through hell to get there so buckle up, guys.

Buckle. Up.

Sorry, this got so long, but I had an epiphany today and had to type all of it out immediately to get it out of my head. I found it very encouraging so hopefully someone else will too! <3

#Brettsey #chicago fire #sylvie x matt #brett x casey #matt casey x sylvie brett

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thoughts-on-bangtan · 3 years

Note

What a coward ass account. I’ve asked about several questions but I bet you won’t answer it because apparently you ship a fake ship and have 0 backbone and you can’t argue with anyone because you’ve nothing to back up your fanservice ass ship. Namjin is merely a friendship and a professional one at that. Wake up. Jin is never intimate with Joon, never tells me he loves him, never goes out of his way to spoil him, never possesses over him. Never shows any sign of jealousy so how tf are y’all so fucking delulu and blind?

You know, normally I’d just delete something as rude as this but honestly you gave me a good laugh with it so I’ll take the bait. But FYI, while I planned on answering these questions sooner or later, because imagine this, some of us have jobs and things we need to take care of and thus sometimes just don’t have the time to write posts, especially when some of them take a lot of time and research, even more so when an average thematic post from me is somewhere between 2 and 5k words long. That takes a hot minute to write. Not that you’d care, but now I don’t think I’ll answer them because I truly don’t appreciate you coming into our asks and being this unnecessary level of rude. If you felt like I skipped your question or was taking an oddly long time to answer, it would’ve sufficed to send in a small question about it and you would’ve gotten a normal answer for it, but guess not.

There are several things I find extremely interesting and also hilarious about your ask, especially since they confirm basically every suspicion I have about shipping when it comes to Bangtan and mlm ships in general.

But I’d like to start with this first because it really made me pause there for a minute: “because you’ve nothing to back up your fanservice ass ship” Since your ask is about Namjin I will assume this part is as well, yes, and I really am struggling to see how they, of all ships, are a “fanservice” one considering both Namjoon and Seokjin aren’t really big on skinship and initiating hugs and touches. What, exactly, about them is fanservice? Even more so since you go on to say this: “Jin is never intimate with Joon, never tells me he loves him, never goes out of his way to spoil him, never possesses over him. Never shows any sign of jealousy” so if these are your definition of what constitutes a) fanservice and b) a relationship, yet you claim Namjin is just fanservice, how can that be if you say they never do any? This math doesn’t math, you know.

Before I get ahead of myself, let’s break this down point by point, shall we?

1. “Jin is never intimate with Joon” – Tell me, dear anon, how exactly do you know that? Are you their friend? A fly living on their wall and watching over them 24/7? And also, how, exactly, are we supposed to be shown that by them? Is Namjoon supposed to walk over to Seokjin and, I don’t know, make out with him while Bangtan B*mb Noona stands a meter away and films the whole thing? What even does intimate mean in your definition? I have a sneaking suspicion of what you’re asking for but I will give you the benefit of the doubt.

Since I like language, let’s get into the literal definition of the word intimate, shall we, because you might be surprised to find it doesn’t just mean what you think it does. According to the Cambridge dictionary, intimate has several meanings, and what Namjoon and Seokjin show us and tell us that they have is actually several of them:

“Being a close, personal friend”, does that ring a bell? It does, doesn’t it? Namjoon and Seokjin have known each other for ten years almost, have spent a considerable amount of time together, have had dinner with each other’s families, Namjoon was at Seokjin’s brother’s wedding, and Namjoon is the person he turns to when it comes to his lyrics, always makes sure to thank Namjoon in his Thank You section in their albums, and supports him however he sees fit. Isn’t that intimate?

I know you mean the sexual kind of intimate, and truly that is something neither you nor I have any knowledge of and, surprise, it’s none of our business either. If I remember correctly, we’ve never brought up anything really sexual in any of our posts because I don’t believe in this whole “sexual tension” thing that toxic shippers go around preaching about. Even if it were there, that’s not for us to discuss because their sex life is none of our business.

Next.

2. “never tells me he loves him” – Never tells you he loves him? And why, pray tell, should he tell you, specifically? Yes, I’m being petty, so what. Love speaks many different languages, and saying the words “I love you” is just one of many, many different ways in which you can let someone know you love and cherish them, romantically and platonically. Years ago when Seokjin posted a cover on SoundCloud he said in the accompanying post that he prefers saying I like you over I love you, so I guess that means he just doesn’t love anyone, yes? Besides, is he obliged to stand in front of the camera and profess his undying love to Namjoon for you to believe he loves our dearest leader?

Isn’t it enough that he shows his love and respect for Namjoon in other ways, like praising him when Namjoon was being hard on himself so Seokjin told him he did well and that he always does well even in tricky situations, or being by his side during red carpets and other such things because Namjoon once asked him to do so because he feels calmer when Seokjin is by his side? Isn’t that a beautiful way of showing someone you love them, regardless if it’s romantic or platonic love?

Next.

3. “never goes out of his way to spoil him” – Is Seokjin Namjoon’s sugar daddy? Did I miss something?

Next.

4. “never possesses over him. Never shows any sign of jealousy” – now this point I have the biggest rage at because neither of these things—possessiveness and jealousy—are good things, especially not in a romantic relationship, but really, they aren’t a good thing in any kind of relationship. Possessiveness is a slippers slope, as is jealousy, the former being a great gateway toward an abusive relationship and while that might be “”””cute”””” in raunchy romance novels and movies, it isn’t in real life. And neither is jealousy. The only thing jealousy really tells and shows you, in the context you are going for, is insecurity and a lack of faith in your relationship and especially your partner. And that, again, isn’t a good or healthy thing for a relationship, especially not a romantic one. I know toxic shippers eat up this whole jealousy bs, YouTube is full of it after all and brings in hundreds of thousands of views (and dollars), but that has nothing to do with real life. So, the fact that we never see Seokjin, or Namjoon, jealous or possessive over the other? That is a good thing. Besides, enlighten me, how is this jealousy supposed to look like because true jealousy doesn’t appear written across your face in neon letters. I’m curious.

Next.

5. “Namjin is merely a friendship and a professional one at that.” – if that is your opinion, I’m happy for you. I won’t go out of my way to prove to you why I think differently or why you should because that’s not what I’m here for. Yes, I have a certain opinion on Namjin, that’s true, but I’m not a toxic shipper who will fights someone tooth and nail over it because that’s stupid. And won’t change anything anyway. Besides, my opinion doesn’t in any shape or form negate that they are friends. Every good relationship should have friendship as basis, and I very much believe that they are very close friends, while your phrasing makes it seem like you think they are only work friends, as in people who are friends during working hours but stop once they clock out of work, just saying.

The purpose of this blog isn’t to somehow convert people into shippers or convince them of something, instead it’s simply supposed to be a happy space where we share our opinions, have fun with Bangtan, their music and everything else, and can have civil conversations without calling anyone out or calling each other names. It’s literally in our blog description “Sharing thoughts on everything Bangtan, as well as vmin and namjin”, meaning it is a blog “designed” for both OT7s as well as people who already are vminnies or namjinists, or both, and yet if someone happens to start liking one of these two pairings because of our posts, like I’ve seen happen with some readers and namjin, that’s great, but that’s not our primary goal in any kind of way.

This is our blog which also means we have the freedom to answer whichever asks we want to and however quickly we want or can. Chances are, perhaps, the way you phrased your ask simply didn’t sit well with us and thus we decided against answering it at the time. Just some food for thought.

Lastly, there are a lot of blogs that surely represent your opinions and agree with you, so what, exactly, are you looking for on our blog? Do you think by sending an ask like this, or questioning my opinions in such a manner, you’ll be able to convert us away from our opinions? Neither of us forces anyone to agree with everything we say, so you don’t have to either, and we also don’t force anyone to read our posts. If you don’t like what we post, you are free to look for a different blog with which you’ll be able to agree and find your opinion represented, I won’t stop you. Enjoy.

#answered ask

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thinkingisadangerouspastime · 3 years

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So, this may sound weird, since I don't ship ZK, but I think the reason some dislike EIP is because they realize it was the first part of a busted enemies-to-lovers arc. EIP was part one, where Zuko and Katara see how others see them, and it weirds them out. Yet, Zuko insisted on sitting next to Katara and Katara pushes Aang away, suggesting there might be something there that they don't want to acknowledge. (1/3)

The first part of the finale was Part 2, where June reiterates the "Hey you're with your gf again!" Zuko and Katara deny it, but there likely should have been an undercurrent of 'Why do people think we're together? Do we act like it? Should we be? S/he is kind of cute.' During this time, Zuko defers to Katara and despite Toph likely being more helpful, asks Katara to be the one to take down Azula with him. (2/3)

Last part of the finale should have been the money shot, Zuko taking lightning for Katara, and in a parallel to CoD, Katara healing him. Dante Basco is right in that there probably should have been a kiss at that moment and the end scene of the gang at the Jasmine Dragon with Zuko and Katara shyly proclaiming their interest in each other. (3/4, sorry I have one more)

Again, ZK is not my ship, but EIP seemed to set up a ZK endgame that jumped the tracks at the end. By all the "rules" of a good narrative, Zuko and Katara should have ended up together, otherwise EIP should never have been countenanced or storyboarded. Full disclosure that I'm not a huge Kataang fan either, but Kataang was done a disservice by having EIP exist. It either should not have ever gotten written, or the ZK enemies-to-lovers arc should have been concluded. (end)

Disclaimer: I don’t care if someone ships Zvtara. Never have, never will. If the takeaway you (the general you, not anon specifically lol) get from this post is that Zvtara is “bad,” then I’m going to assume you didn’t actually read anything I wrote, because that is the farthest thing from my point here. Also, this post is strictly my personal response to these asks. I don’t expect everyone to read this and be like “YEAH” lmao. I am sure some people have different opinions, and that is a-okay!

In short, I think we will have to agree to disagree, anon.

Do some people consider EIP the beginning of a busted enemies-to-lovers arc? Of course they do, they’re “rabid zkers” who wear Zvtara shipping goggles 24/7 lmao. EIP couldn’t have been the beginning of an E-L arc because such an arc was never in the cards for them in the first place! Katara forgave Zuko in the previous episode. Trying to cram a romantic relationship into five episodes after months of hatred between Zuko and Katara would have been awful writing (and thus probably would have been a decision mercilessly criticized until the end of time, lmao). So it’s honestly better that Zvtara gets to spread its wings in fanon instead (much less pressure)! Also, realistically speaking, Katara and Zuko probably still had so many issues to work through in their friendship. Like yes, she forgave him and recognized he was trying to do better, but that doesn’t erase what Zuko has done to her and her friends. There is still plenty of forward progress they need to make before romance can even be considered between them. If that makes sense?

Also, let’s be real: EIP and bit with June afterwards were 100% ship bait. Just an attempt to add to the “drama” of who Katara would end up. A technique only effective while it was airing, for the record, because if you watch the show straight through, it becomes glaringly obvious that Zuko and Katara’s relationship - while gorgeous - was always meant to stay strictly platonic within the canon timeline.

Anyways. I’ll try to break down your ask one piece at a time!

“Zuko and Katara see how others see them, and it weirds them out”

Yes, they are definitely weirded out! The transcript says, “Zuko and Katara inch away from each other, slightly uncomfortable.” Which is just a longer way of describing that they were weirded out by the depiction of their relationship in EIP, lol. However, the play is not how others see them. The play is the Fire Nation’s imperialist propaganda, meant to demean the entire Gaang. I talk about in specifics how the entire Gaang is belittled here, but this is the key stuff I noted about Zuko and Katara:

it’s important to situate that and more importantly situate eip zuko and katara’s relationship within the context of the show. the fire nation is an imperialist country. the southern water tribe has suffered heavily beneath them. we know from “the headband” that fire nation individuals are fed pro-imperialistic propaganda from birth; that combined with zuko and azula’s degrading comment of “peasant” towards katara demonstrate very clearly how the fire nation views every other nation - put simply, they are superior and everyone else is inferior. that attitude is therefore reflected in the eip play:

- katara, an indigenous woman, is highly sexualized and portrayed as overly dramatic and tearful, because the fire nation objectifies women not of their own people and views them as less intelligent and less emotionally stable

- she is thus paired as having a “romance” with zuko in eip because naturally, via fire nation logic, zuko would be able to “score” an “easy” woman of one of the water tribes

- furthermore, the eip “romance” between zuko and katara emphasizes zuko’s position as a traitor to the fire nation; the implication is that as a traitor, he’d only be able to achieve a relationship with a “lesser” woman, e.g. a woman not of the fire nation

That is not how other people truly view Zuko and Katara’s relationship. That is how the Fire Nation depicts their relationship in order to degrade and dehumanize Zuko and Katara. To misinterpret that as “evidence” that Zuko and Katara should have been together romantically is… disturbing, in my opinion. (I really try to stay far away from zkers who use EIP as “proof” of supposed Zvtara interest in each other like honey that is imperialist propaganda please don’t 😭).

If you want to talk about how other people actually view Zuko and Katara’s relationship, look at the Gaang, who were around them most of all! They never tease the possibility of romance between their friends. Why? Because within canon, there wasn’t one. Simple!

“Zuko insisted on sitting next to Katara”

Nope! This is all the transcript says: “Zuko [Removing his hood.] Just sit next to me. What’s the big deal?” He doesn’t even mention Katara! Zuko is literally just like I’m already sitting. Why do I need to move? lmfao. It’s no thoughts head empty for our favorite firebender 😂

“Katara pushes Aang away”

I’m assuming this about the kiss, which I’m going to make a post about in the future because I am TIRED of the tomfoolery. Anyways, I’ll keep this brief - yes, she does push him away. She does not deny that she likes him. For Katara, the issue is the timing: “This isn’t the right time.” Both Katara and Aang know they like each other, plain and simple (which is why Aang doesn’t ask if he returns her feelings - he asks if they’d be together, because he knows their feelings are mutual). Katara pushes Aang away because, as she says, they’re in the middle of a war. She’s already seen Aang die once. He might die again. She doesn’t want that, of course, but it’s a reality Katara is forced to consider.

Anyways, her decision has nothing to do with Zuko. Lol.

“June reiterates the ‘Hey you’re with your gf again!’ Zuko and Katara deny it, but there likely should have been an undercurrent of ‘Why do people think we're together? Do we act like it? Should we be? S/he is kind of cute.’”

June’s assumption - especially because it is a repeat of a gag from earlier in the series, when it is incredibly concerning to assume a Fire Nation citizen would be with someone of the Water Tribes because of the war and its consequences - is comic relief. Not even good comic relief, lmao, because of the horrific implications I just mentioned that come with it, but it’s supposed to be comedy. There was no need of any “Zvtara” undercurrents there because a) Katara and Zuko had never expressed romantic interest in each other in the past, b) it wouldn’t track with the show’s narrative of Katara as Zuko’s surrogate sibling because of her position as Azula’s primary foil, and c) it just doesn’t make sense in general. Katara likes Aang. Zuko likes Mai. There was never a love triangle there, plain and simple. Fandom invented it.

And again, if you want to talk about how people actually see Zuko and Katara, don’t look at June, who has never had a proper conversation with either of them. As I said, the Gaang is a much better example, since they’re with the two 24/7. If they never tease Zuko and Katara about romance, why should we trust this random lady who doesn’t even know them?

“During this time, Zuko defers to Katara and despite Toph likely being more helpful, asks Katara to be the one to take down Azula with him.”

As I mentioned, Katara is Azula’s primary foil, so from a literary perspective she absolutely needed to be the one to take her down. Zuko needed to face Azula, but taking her down - again, from a literary pov - was always meant to be the end of Katara’s journey (she was the only person besides Aang who was ever a match for Azula, after all, as we see in CoD). Also, how would Toph be more helpful?? Not saying you’re wrong, btw, I just don’t understand what you mean. If I was Zuko, I also would have brought the waterbender that I’d already witnessed almost take down my sister already 😂. But even if Toph would have been more helpful, sometimes practicality must be sacrificed for a fulfilling narrative arc, lol!

“Last part of the finale should have been the money shot, Zuko taking lightning for Katara, and in a parallel to CoD, Katara healing him.”

Honestly, anon, this part of your ask baffles me 😂 I totally understand why rabid zkers might make this argument, but taking into account the rest of the show… It just doesn’t make sense? It’s been talked about a hundred times, but Zuko taking lightning out of romantic interest would ruin his redemption arc, regardless of if it was Katara or Aang or Sokka or anyone in the Gaang that he was taking it for, so that should be the end of discussion, full stop. I’ve talked about this issue here and here before, and someone else does a great job breaking it down in this post, too. But seriously. Zuko having romantic interest for anyone in the Gaang would ruin!! His!! Entire!! Arc!! I hate when people don’t understand that 😭 Zuko had to learn selflessness, to learn how to put others before himself, and to unlearn the imperialist rhetoric he’d been indoctrinated with from birth. Romantic interest during canon for Katara, Sokka, Aang, whomever, I don’t care, completely disregards all of his growth of breaking away from the Fire Nation. Plain and simple.

“Dante Basco is right in that there probably should have been a kiss at that moment and the end scene of the gang at the Jasmine Dragon with Zuko and Katara shyly proclaiming their interest in each other.”

I learned in a discord I’m in that Dante Basco apparently hadn’t seen the whole show until this year lmao. He didn’t know what energybending was nor did he know A:TLA ended with a Kataang kiss. Take that with a grain of salt, of course (you can watch the livestream this is revealed in here, and it was also mentioned in the recent StageIt A:TLA reunion), but I think it’s safe to conclude Dante Basco can be treated like any other Zvtara shipper. He likes the ship, which is totally cool, but he is not one of the writers, so his opinion meant naught in constructing the canon narrative.

ANYWAYS. My point is why would Zuko and Katara proclaim interest in each other if such interest would have to be crammed into five measly episodes?? Especially when four of those episodes were the finale?? That is awful writing, of course the A:TLA writers wouldn’t do that, lmao! They’d built up Kataang and Maiko already. Why scrap it and needlessly rush a romance from an excellent - and, important to note, a newly established - platonic bond? Nah.

“EIP seemed to set up a ZK endgame that jumped the tracks at the end. By all the ‘rules’ of a good narrative, Zuko and Katara should have ended up together”

Nope. Idk what rules people have been teaching you, anon, but they were lying!! You deserve better than people who would lie to you like that 😤. But yeah, narratively speaking, Katara and Zuko getting together would have made no sense. It would have undermined Zuko’s and Katara’s arcs, it would have completely disregarded Katara’s established feelings for Aang and Zuko’s for Mai, and again, it would have been totally rushed. Who wants that?? Normal people don’t, lmao. This might be hard to believe considering I occasionally rag about BNF zkers, but I actually have several friends who are Zvtara shippers! They agree that canon Zvtara would have made no sense, and that it’s better to play out a potential Zvtara dynamic in post-A:TLA fanon. I swear, it is only the rabid shippers who think Zvtara should have been canon, and trust me when I say no one should want to associate with them, lmao.

(And again, as I touched upon earlier, Zuko and Katara’s canon narrative relationship was surrogate siblings because of Katara’s position as Azula’s primary foil. The show wrapped their arc up perfectly! With a lovely bow and all. So no complaints from me!)

“otherwise EIP should never have been countenanced or storyboarded. Full disclosure that I’m not a huge Kataang fan either, but Kataang was done a disservice by having EIP exist”

What EIP did right:

- accurate (and horrifying) depiction of pro-imperialist propaganda

- recap of previous seasons

- a lesson on consent (Aang kisses Katara, it is depicted as wrong, and Aang reacts appropriately by admonishing himself and by giving Katara space afterwards. like, people call Aang an incel/entitled/whatever, BUT HE HAD THE PERFECT REACTION?? he literally backed off and never pressured her again. i would have killed for the guy who kept getting in my personal space during my junior year to have backed off when i told him to. spoiler alert: he didn’t)

- hit some good humor beats

What EIP did poorly:

- honestly it’s not very interesting just based on watching it (deconstructing it as propaganda gives it better depth), but that’s to be expected from filler

- stupid shipping drama

- not having an additional conversation/explicit apology between Aang and Katara

HOWEVER. This final point is actually very subjective. For one, A:TLA has a clear trend of not showing apologies on screen. Ex.: Katara doesn’t apologize to Sokka for what she said about their mother, Zuko doesn’t apologize for anything he did to the Gaang, Song, or really anyone (closest we get is “Hello, Zuko here” lmao), Ty Lee and Mai don’t apologize for putting the Kyoshi warriors in jail, etc. etc. So while an explicit apology would have been great, the lack of one admittedly tracks with the show’s pre-established standards. And two, while I of course would love a conversation between Aang and Katara (that’s literally MORE KATAANG. why would I refuse 😂), it isn’t… necessary, to be frank. Aang’s mistake is treated as such - kissing Katara was wrong and he should never have done that. Like I said, Aang acknowledges this error and gives Katara space afterwards. Thus, it is Katara who chooses to be with him when the war is over. She respects the time he gave her to come to a conclusion, and the choice she makes is that she loves him despite his poorly-timed kiss (I mean, she forgave Zuko for being complicit in Aang’s death. Katara is clearly a very forgiving person!). So like,, it gets to a point where if someone doesn’t recognize that, they’re probably the kind of weirdo who labels anything they don’t understand in a story as a plothole, lmao.

All of this is to say that EIP wasn’t a disservice to Kataang. It certainly could have been better, of course, and the kiss was obviously only put in to hype up drama (“will they, won’t they” blah blah blah), but overall it handled consent well for a kid’s show.

“It either should not have ever gotten written, or the ZK enemies-to-lovers arc should have been concluded.”

On the whole, EIP is absolutely an unnecessary episode, yeah. It was just a recap before the finale. The only important thing is its accurate depiction of pro-imperialist propaganda, but most people’s minds don’t immediately go to that, I’ll admit lmao 😂. And as I’ve already said, there was no Zvtara E-L arc - fandom completely made that up. Which is totally fine! That’s the point of transformative works. But they are still fanon. Plain and simple.

TL;DR - Zvtara was never in the cards for A:TLA. I wish rabid zkers would stop pretending it was and have fun in the sandbox like the rest of us 😭

And for the record, anon, you absolutely, 100% do not have to be convinced by any of this! It’s just my own, personal thoughts on the whole dealio. No worries either way!! 💛

#emphasis on my use of rabid zker. if you know you don't fall into that category then it's obviously not about you lol #(general you. not anon specifically)#amy answers #anon #amy analyzes

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ladybirdwithoutdots · 3 years

Text

do you really need to bring shipper wars in the Austen fandom too?

Full offense but people who deny Emma is in love with Mr Knightley and hate on him because they ship her with Harriet, and pretend she should’ve ended up with her, are bullshit. I’m tired of these posts (including the Harriet stans whom I saw bashing even in some emma/knightley posts when fans of the latter are the first to make cute posts about Harriet too), and honestly, you all just make me feel very negative about Harriet and unable to truly appreciate her scenes with Emma.

Maybe I just don’t care about being a bitch but here’s what an Emma fan who is just tired of the anti Emma/Knightley crap honestly thinks about your nonsense:

Hating on the last Emma adaptation because Emma is in love with Mr Knightley and marries him in the end is as disingenuos and idiotic as hating a Pride and Prejudice adaptation because Darcy and Elizabeth are in love. Le duh! You can ship him with Bingley and her with Charlotte (or Wickham, if that’s your mood I’m not judging shipping choices here) but if you watch a movie based on an Austen’s book you know what you are getting yourself into, especially when her canon romances tend to be very important plot elements for the protagonists and their character growth.

I get it’s 2021 and hating all het romance makes some people feel woke and edgy, and I totally get alternative readings and things like that, but out of ALL Austen ships and all her female heroines, Emma is the one female character who doesn’t even need, neither want, to get married and truly only does that in the end because she is in love. Emma is the LEAST Austen heroine whose romance you should even question because she honestly only married the guy because of love and no other reason. Furthermore, unlike most of romances from that time, the guy Emma marries isn’t just some random guy she has met two seconds ago, it actually is her best friend, someone she knows since years and the one person who knows her best and loves her in spite of her flaws. Austen was very forward for her time with their romance, especially given the fact her male love interest actually decides to live with Emma and her father in the end instead of doing what every married man had the right to do at the time (take his wife to his own home where she’d have little to no power). Knightley and Emma are the (original) best friends to lovers relationship. He’s the best friend Emma had loved from the beginning without realizing it. It’s one of the main points of her story and the great irony of the novel that she thinks love isn’t for her, and she had never been in love, but she already is in love with him without realizing it because of their friendship. I’m sorry bro but that had never been Harriet, and it seems hypocritical tbh for some of you to want to give Harriet the story that Mr Knightley has with Emma, all the while hating on him and the romance. Even with the last movie, you have people take quotes de Wilde said about Knightley and Emma (e.g., the one about the movie making you think about ‘the best friend you maybe should have kissed’) out of context to manipulate others into thinking she was talking about Harriet instead (and queer baiting, which would be homophobic)

On one hand, we really do need more stories that put an emphasis on female friendships too and on other relationships that aren’t just the romance. On the other hand, it’s completely useless for writers to try to give us that (e.g. de Wilde in the last Emma) if everytime two characters care about each other and share screentime together, people claim that relationship (and all scenes that make perfect sense with a normal platonic relationship) must be romance and romance only. It’s almost as if some of you never had a friend and therefore believe that everytime a character cares about another character they must be romantically in love with them. It also makes me believe, more than anything, that romance is the only kind of love that exists or is important for many of you. And if that is the truth, why even bother with fictional friendships then? Why even complain when writers don’t give us that if we are unable to appreciate those relationships as something of equal importance with romance?

I really can’t take people serioustly when they overinflate Harriet and her relationship with Emma all the while they minimize Emma/Knightley’s mutual feelings. I read people who apparently find it harder to erase Harriet’s baseless crushes on every guy who gives her attention, than erase the actual love story and feelings of the protagonist! Tbh, even if you wanted a gay adaptation of Emma (and not one that is that just for the sake of), it would make much more sense to simply turn Mr Knightley into a female character, therefore still respecting the canon couple and Emma’s character arc, than ship her with Harriet. The latter is a weak alternative and frankly baseless for me because the only things she and Emma have in common is the fact they are both girls and they have an ‘e’ in their name. Full stop. Intellectually, Harriet is no match for Emma and their ranks in society are so apart that their relationship could never ever be equal (and it never was). I don’t want to be harsh but tbh I was never convinced they are actually friends in the novel, and the last movie made it even worse for they emphasized Harriet’s blindness about Emma’s feelings, and how one sided that dynamic is for it’s just Emma who makes an effort to be a friend in the end. Let’s be real here, Harriet doesn’t even know Emma and never really acts as a friend to her, unless your definition of friendship is ‘someone who worships you, and pretends you are the best and right even when you aren’t, as long as they perceive you as a savior who can help them'. That’s not what being a friend means to me. It speaks volumes to me that the one and only time movie-Harriet actually notices that Emma is a human being with flaws and feelings too is when she gets angry because Emma wants the same guy she wants. I don’t know if Austen’s ‘naive and completely clueless Harriet’ is worse or better than de Wilde’s version but the latter really emphasizes one of the biggest issues of Emma/Harriet even more, to me. As a book Emma fan, before an adaptations fan, I read all kinds of comments about this novel and character but honestly, I never read any real convincing argument why Harriet and Emma should be a couple instead of her and Knightley. Most of what I read boils down to people taking things out of context and/or claims that Harriet is ‘better’ for Emma just because she’s a woman and she agrees with her all the time, while Mr Knightley is the bad guy because he’s older than her (he’s only 37, btw) and criticizes her ( as if Emma doesn’t need someone to criticize her, and her character growth isn’t dependent on precisely that). I get some people wouldn’t like to have someone who is criticizing them but worshiping someone is =/= being their friend or appreciating their real qualities. I also read people point up how much Emma praises Harriet in the book as proof that she’s in love with her, but the same ignore the many instances, especially after Harriet tells her that she loves Mr Knightley, that truly show Emma’s real colors and how much she still considers Harriet her, and especially Mr Knightley’s, inferior to the extent she regrets their friendship and thinks Harriet is ‘uppity’ for thinking Mr Knightley would ruin his reputation to marry someone like her. When I read those arguments it seems, if anything, that people want to have the cake and eat it by saying that Austen’s own story doesn’t matter (and she doesn’t understand her characters’ real feelings) when it comes to the things those people don’t like (eg the fact Knightley is the one Emma is in love with and all the explicit hints about that ), all the while still selectively using some of her writing to support their alternative version of the story. Now with the last movie adaptation, it’s even worse for me. It’s telling that the two scenes people romanticize as pro Emma/Harriet are two phrases/moments that actually emphasize the bad side of their relationship, and why their friendship isn’t good for either of them. The first is the scene when Emma says she ‘wants to keep Harriet for herself’: not only there is nothing romantic about that ( that line is in the book too as well as Knightley’s ‘your infatuation is blinding you’. You are reading a book written in 1800 with modern goggles though, and that alone doesn’t really work) but that phrase should actually make you cringe for it emphasizes how selfish and manipulative Emma is by treating Harriet like her new pet project just because she’s lonely. She doesn’t care about the girl’s feelings for Robert Martin, and what is truly the best for her due to her rank (and how dangerous it actually is for Harriet to not marry and find someone who can offer her protection), even if it’s what she tells herself, she only cares about her own desire to have a new female friend because she lost Mrs Weston and she feels lonely and bored. It’s also true, though, that she is still lying to Mr Knightley too because she does actually want to match Harriet with Mr Elton, that which is obvious in the other scenes, but even that is an expression of Emma’s selfishness and not really a hint of her caring, let alone loving, Harriet as a human at this point. If you read the book, it’s particularly obvious given the fact that Emma isn’t blind about Harriet’s feelings for Robert Martin for she knows that her behavior is bad and the girl actually cares about the guy, but she manipulates her into thinking Mr Elton is better because it’s her choice and she prefers him (until he proposes to her, of course. Then she thinks Mr Elton is trash for being so arrogant to believe someone of his rank could marry her) The second phrase people romanticize is only in the last movie and it’s that annoying ‘I refused Robert Martin because of you’ phrase by Harriet later in the movie. I hate that because, once again, that phrase has nothing ‘romantic’ about it unless you obviously ignore the context and what is actually happening there. Harriet is being passive aggressive with Emma there, gaslighting her and blaming her for the loss of her first suitor BECAUSE HARRIET WANTS MR KNIGHTLEY for herself. Harriet is angry with Emma there because she realizes she loves Mr Knightley TOO and Emma has more chances than her. The most likely sentiment behind that flippant phrase for me is something along the lines of Harriet impulsively telling Emma to move aside and let her have Mr Knightley because she made her lose Robert Martin already. She is trying to make Emma feel guilty, subconsciously or deliberately, but this surely is how Emma herself perceives Harriet’s words too for the poor girl really thinks it makes her a bad person to accept Knightley’s proposal in spite of loving him back. Harriet made her believe she was stealing her man and yet, AND YET, had Harriet been a real friend, to begin with, she should’ve realized Emma’s feelings for him way before she deluded herself into thinking the guy wanted her. But Harriet never cares about Emma’s feelings and even their reconciliation in the end is all, still, about what Emma needs to do for her. Not a word from Harriet about being happy for her friend too. Nothing.

Listen, I really appreciate de Wilde’s attempt to make the Harriet/Emma dynamic better than it is in either the novel or other adaptations, even if it personally doesn’t convince me it’s friendship. But I get it. Like I said at the beginning, it’s important that movies display different kinds of love too beside romance and if you can’t do that with characters like Emma who are the protagonist then when you can even do that? I think it was valid for her and Catton to want to emphasize the fact that Emma, at her core, is truly young and lonely and she doesn’t have friends in the truest sense of the word (Mr Knightley is one, of course, but their point is more about her having a female companion too whom Emma could do more ‘girl’ things she can’t do with her husband or father) but, honestly, I maintain no adaptation ever truly got their relationship right. No one. Overrating them and pretending that they are best friends forever when there is no substance for that is as incorrect as an interpretation of Austen’s writing as it is treating Harriet as a silly girl Emma barely tolerates. I appreciate the movie shows Emma’s conflict about Harriet when Knightley proposes to her because most of adaptations don’t do that: in the book she really, for a moment, feels so bad for Harriet and feels simultanously happy Mr Knightley loves her but also bad for taking the guy Harriet wants. She is no hero who wants to give up about him to let Harriet have the guy instead, though, but it isn’t like she doesn’t care either. She does and it’s a source of anguish for Emma and part of her character growth that she actually cares and feels empathy for Harriet.

However, if you want Emma to have a real female friend that’s not Harriet and that’s not really the story Austen wrote and the role she gave to Harriet. Like many academics pointed up, like many of Emma’s ‘mirrors’ in the story, Harriet is put there by Austen to emphasize Emma’s immaturity at the beginning and the fact she deliberately doesn’t choose her equals as friends and picks Harriet, instead, as her new pet project because her inferiority makes her easier to manipulate and, like Mr Knightley very eloquently points up, she makes Emma feel superior and more accomplished than she is. Emma doesn’t want to be friends with Jane, for example, because not only she could be more her equal but she actually does see her as superior in the aspects that make Emma the most vulnerable and insecure.

It’s great the movie gave more space to Emma’s relationship with Harriet, and I get that if you want to put the spotlight on female friendship too it’s either Harriet or Mrs Weston but also, let’s not pretend the movie wasn’t focused very much on her romance with Mr Knightley too, perhaps more than other adaptations did. People commend this adaptation for showing his feelings for her more and it’s true, but I will also argue that this movie does emphasize her feelings for him more than adaptations usually do for you really see Emma’s feelings and jealousy towards him before she even realizes her feelings. It’s obvious since their first scene when she’s waiting for him and runs to her piano because she wants to get noticed by him. Her breath constantly hitches when he’s close to her or because of her feelings for him, and she definitely reacts to dancing with him. She may not know her feelings from the start, she might be in her own ‘work in progress’ to figure everything out, but the movie makes it obvious to me that she loves him. If there is any adaptation where you want to be disingenuos about their chemistry and deny their romance, this really isn’t the one tbh. Look, if you want to headcanon Emma as bisexual you’ll find me agreeing with you, but pro LGBT readings and actual representation doesn’t mean, for me, shipping two characters together just because they are the same gender and the writers make them care about each other a bit, or give them screentime. Like I said at the beginning, if I wanted a gay adaptation of Emma I’d rather make Mr Knightley a woman than ship Emma with Harriet or Mrs Weston or Jane. Because regardless their genders, it’s the Knightley character the one Emma loves and wants to be with, and it’s this character who truly represents her best friend and the person who knows her best. It’s Knightley the only one who cares about her well being so much that when she is being the worst version of herself and no one cares, he is the one willing to tell her even if he hates doing that and he feels he’s destroying every chance he has to make her love him back. It’s the Knightley character who ultimately inspires her to be a better person and loves her in spite of her flaws.

#emma 2020 #emma woodhouse #emma #harriet smith #mr knightley #emma x knightley #may delete later but I needed to rant because some of you are getting old

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oumakokichi · 4 years

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Welcome back!!! I’m not sure if you’re taking any requests regarding analyses/meta, but if you’re looking for any ideas/when you have the time, do you mind doing a character analysis on Shuichi Saihara? I understand that he’s the main character but there is a lack of analyses about him. Although there are few, most explore his role as a protagonist/relationships with the others rather than digging deep into his character/personality. I just feel like there is more to him.

Hi anon, thank you so much! I’d be happy to write a character analysis for Saihara. I’m pretty sure I wrote some pieces specifically about his character back in the day, but those are all pretty old by now, and there’s definitely so much to talk about with his character.

Obviously discussing Saihara in-depth will cover spoilers for the entire game, so be careful when reading!

It’s interesting that you bring up the fact that Saihara tends to lack more character analyses, because I feel like this is kind of the result of a few different factors. First of all, there’s the fact that he was never originally advertised as the game’s protagonist. I know that the bait-and-switch with Kaede left many people conflicted; even years later, I see a lot of people saying that while they like Saihara a lot, they would’ve preferred for Kaede to live, or that they still don’t know quite how to feel about his role as a protagonist as a result.

Combine that with the fact that Saihara is simply so different in his role in the game than either Naegi or Hinata were, and I think this leaves a lot of people either uninterested in analyzing him as an individual character or unclear of where to start. Ndrv3’s themes as a whole are such a drastic departure from the Hope’s Peak arc of the first two games that Saihara himself sometimes tends to get overlooked, despite the fact that I firmly believe no one would have worked better as the protagonist of the game precisely because of these very different themes.

This itself is an interesting proposal, because at the same time, I also believe that ndrv3’s cast had the biggest potential for every single character to be the “protagonist” of their own narrative. Not only is this just straight-up alluded to with the reveal that Kiibo was actually the audience proxy, and therefore the “protagonist” through which most of the audience were experiencing the killing game in chapter 6, but we even get brief playable moments with both Maki and Himiko, further driving home the narrative that these characters all had the potential to be the main character. You could even argue that the abundance of ahoges in the ndrv3 cast is a tongue-in-cheek joke about how many people must have had “protagonist syndrome” when auditioning for the show.

But having a cast full of potential main characters still doesn’t negate the fact that Saihara was simply the best choice possible for the protagonist of ndrv3 specifically. I don’t believe we would’ve had nearly the same experience without viewing most of the events through the lens of his inner narration and character growth, and that his specific role in the story as the detective was the perfect way to encapsulate the game’s themes of truth and lies.

Let’s begin by discussing Saihara’s actual personality: he’s timid, riddled with anxiety, and incredibly prone to doubting himself and his own abilities. These traits are at the core of his arc of character development throughout the story, as he constantly struggles with his own feelings of inadequacy and lack of self-worth despite being the most vital contributor to everyone’s survival in the class trials.

Even before he’s revealed to be the true protagonist of the game, these traits are incredibly easy to see from an outside lens. By playing as Kaede, however briefly, we nonetheless get a good look at what Saihara is like even in chapter 1; his lack of self-esteem and debilitating issues with anxiety and doubt are, if anything, even more noticeable when put into such stark contrast with Kaede’s optimism, self-confidence, and attempts to bolster the group into working together and believing in one another.

In fact, it’s through Kaede that we first get a glimpse of Saihara’s backstory, and slowly come to understand that his timidity and anxiety are largely shaped by his past trauma. Saihara feels personally responsible for ruining a man’s life after accidentally uncovering the truth of the man’s crimes, then later learning that he was attempting to get revenge on the person who murdered his entire family. The knowledge that he not only ruined this man’s attempts at revenge, but that this person actively hates him with a passion, has left Saihara emotionally scarred and deeply afraid of even maintaining eye contact with others.

As simple as this little bit of backstory is, I really love it in all of its presentation, because even in chapter 1, it begins to paint a much clearer picture of what Saihara is like. His inability to say no to people and attempts to please everyone begin to make a lot more sense knowing that he is incredibly afraid of being hated or blamed by other people. His reluctance to come into his own as a detective or acknowledge his obvious talent makes perfect sense knowing that he can never fully “bring justice” to a number of crimes, and that his job is by definition one that sometimes makes other people miserable by shedding a light on the truth—even when, sometimes, it might be better to leave the truth covered up.

This established backstory also immediately sets Saihara apart from previous protagonists like Naegi and Hinata, by first shaping him into a separate character who we get to know in chapter 1, and only later re-introducing him as the actual protagonist of the game. This isn’t to say that Naegi and Hinata don’t have established character flaws, or that we don’t know anything about their life prior to the killing game. But these two are very clearly set up to be more of the “everyman” protagonist than Saihara ever was: characters who the reader can insert themselves into by some degree, and whose primary traits tend to revolve around feeling “average” or “mundane” in a way that your typical reader will usually relate to much more quickly.

This makes sense for the Hope’s Peak arc shared by both dr1 and sdr2. These games in particular are centered around the narrative of a “talent-driven society” where only the most talented, elite in their field are rewarded with entry into the “best school in the country”—a narrative that is no doubt supposed to be commentary on Japan’s extremely competitive academic system and society in real life.

With Naegi, we see perhaps the best example of a truly average, normal person thrust into a group of these whacky elites. We trust Naegi almost instantly as a protagonist, specifically because his lack of any particular superpower-like talent makes him more relatable to the reader. And his contributions to the trials and eventual friendships with the other students are meaningful precisely because they prove that you don’t need these incredible talents or make outstanding contributions to society in order to be a fundamentally good person who helps others and forges real, genuine bonds with people.

Hinata’s narrative takes this idea of averageness among “the elite” and takes it a step further in terms of narrative complexity: not only does Hinata lack any sort of talent or trait that would make him stand out, but specifically because of this, he desperately craves a talent of his own. Hinata is incredibly easy for readers to relate to as someone who, in a competitive society where talent is everything, feels useless and meaningless without an elite-level talent of his own. This struggle with identity and self-worth in a talent-driven society is something that most readers will also have experienced on some level, and so makes Hinata instantly relatable and likable for most people.

Which takes us back to Saihara—again, I want to stress how different the setup for his backstory and even his personality are from our previous two protagonists. Saihara isn’t meant to be a self-insert for the reader, or instantly identified with the same way Naegi and Hinata were.

Even other bits and pieces of his backstory and home life, which we learn from his FTEs with Kaede in chapter 1, as well as portions of their salmon mode together, show how incredibly eccentric Saihara is compared to the other two. Saihara doesn’t come from what one might call a “typical home life.” He’s estranged from his wealthy, celebrity parents, and lives with his uncle, who is also a detective. His FTEs reveal that he’s spent his time wrestling alligators and, to put it nicely, being a huge weirdo for most of his life. He’s not our “everyman protagonist” by any means; he’s yet another whacky Danganronpa character who happened to be thrust into the protagonist spotlight through his role as a detective.

In short, Saihara is not what most people would expect from a protagonist in any story, let alone a DR game. He’s certainly not the “everyman,” between his established backstory and somewhat eccentric home life. And he doesn’t have the usual set of traits most people would expect from a protagonist, either. Unlike Naegi and Kaede, who are by and large optimistic, cooperative, and somewhat confident in themselves, or Hinata, who is assertive and forward-thinking, Saihara is… extremely pessimistic, anxious, and lacks any confidence in himself whatsoever.

And yet, in spite of all this, I think many people can and do relate to Saihara. I know I certainly do. Having a character who explicitly struggles with issues like anxiety and depression, not only as the result of the killing game itself (which would understandably fuck anyone’s mental health up irreparably), but even before entering the game, is something I absolutely love about ndrv3. Saihara is hardly the only character to struggle with these issues within the DR franchise, or hell, even just within ndrv3 itself, but it’s hard to ignore how textually canon his depression is when he spends multiple scenes in chapter 5 lying in bed and thinking, “there’s no reason to live, there’s no reason to live” over and over again.

Saihara’s specific set of character traits may set him apart from the “average” reader, but for people who struggle themselves with mental health and self-worth, I think his character hits close to home in a very different way. Over and over again, throughout the narrative, Saihara is called “weak”—by the people around him and even by himself. This “weakness” is a fundamental part of his character that simply wasn’t there with Naegi or Hinata; while the two of them were certainly considered “average” in one way or another, they were never described as “weak” or “lacking what it takes to survive” the way Saihara consistently is.

And it’s true, on some level, that Saihara is what most people might consider “weak.” At the very least, he’s dependent: quick to latch on to anyone who shows him even the slightest sign of affirmation or support, reluctant to admit to his own talent or take credit for his own accomplishments, and unsure of whether he can actually meet other people’s expectations without some kind of helping hand or support.

We see him immediately grow attached first to Kaede, then later to Momota, constantly seeking out a larger, more charismatic personality to hide behind. He’s so unsure of himself that he would rather let other people who he sees as “more likable” or “more crucial” to the group get all the attention and the spotlight; we see this lampshaded somewhat in chapter 4, when everyone nonetheless begins to single him out as the main reason they’re still alive, and he’s clearly baffled and uncertain as to how to reply to the praise and recognition.

Even what little we see of his pregame self from his audition video fits within this framework. Despite a lot of fan portrayals of pregame Saihara (often called “Inchara” or “Kagehara” in a lot of Japanese fanworks) as someone undeniably “evil” or “irredeemable” for actively wanting to participate in a killing game… in the end, all we really know about him is that he is desperate to die. He talks about wanting to kill people, yes, but the emphasis is placed on how much thought and effort he put into his own execution. Even before entering the killing game at all, we can clearly see that Saihara went in with the specific intention of dying.

He wants to play a detective if at all possible, but it’s clear that he’s desperate, nearly feverish, at the idea of “being a part of the world of Danganronpa” at all, in any capacity. This obsession itself feels like a form of unhealthy attachment, and is a clear sign that he (and most of the participants, if we’re reading between the lines) is so damaged and downright suicidal that he views getting 15 minutes of fame on his favorite TV show as the absolute best way to go out. In a word, he’s still “weak,” long before becoming the fictional character version of “Shuuichi Saihara,” and it’s this weakness that Tsumugi herself says she wanted to encapsulate in the show, by making him “weaker than anyone else.”

It’s this “weakness” that I honestly love best about Saihara’s entire character. Because while a large part of his character arc is certainly about becoming stronger and more confident in himself, it’s also a fact that his “weakness” never explicitly goes away. His depression isn’t just magically cured by the end of the story, and he doesn’t wake up one day deciding that his struggle with suicidal thoughts or feelings of worthlessness are over. If anything, chapter 6 ends with a huge subversion of this “magically cured” trope in most fiction, by having Saihara embrace his own weakness as something that actually helps him arrive at a third option when presented with the seemingly black-or-white choice of “hope vs. despair.”

Saihara is, as he admits himself, “weak.” He’s unable to choose the forward-facing optimism that “hope” represents in the killing game—moreso if that “hope” only contributes to the cycle of the killing game itself, enticing people into wanting to see more and more of it. But he doesn’t pick “despair” either, exactly. His inability to choose between this forced dilemma is specifically because he realizes how sick and cruel it really is, and empathizes all the more deeply with the suffering he and his classmates went through. It’s this “weakness” of his that allows him to really put into words how much pain they all went through, and how their pain matters, regardless of whether they’re fictional or not.

It’s an incredible moment in the game, and probably the point at which he became my favorite protagonist in the DR franchise, as well as one of my favorite characters in the series overall. Saihara’s character arc, unlike Naegi and Hinata, was never about “moving forward” or “choosing hope.” He says himself that he’s not the kind of person who can simply make a choice like that. Rather, his arc is about toeing the grey line between “truth” and “lies.”

As we mentioned earlier, Saihara is a detective. In any mystery novel, a detective’s role is to seek out the truth and expose it, no matter how tragic or upsetting the outcome might be. So it’s interesting, then, that by the end of the game, Saihara ultimately comes to understand and even value the concept of “lies.” For someone who knows exactly how painful the truth can be, and who is unable to simply live life optimistically in spite of that truth, the recognition of “gentle lies” told for the sake of helping someone cope, of finding meaning in an otherwise meaningless or cruel life, is incredibly important.

Unlike the Hope’s Peak arc, which sort of placed “hope vs. despair” as some very black-or-white battle with a clear winner (even when some aspects of the series, like dr3, also sort of suggest the idea that it’s an ongoing cycle that keeps repeating itself), there is no real battle or winner between the concept of “truth and lies.” In the end, both are equally important. Saihara both embraces his role as a detective and acknowledges the power that the truth has on people, while simultaneously acknowledging that lies (and therefore fiction) also has power and can be used to influence people and even inspire the world.

This character development is just absolutely fantastic to see, after watching Saihara struggle with so much pain and grief over the course of the game. Seeing a character actually acknowledge the importance of “lies” and “fiction” precisely because of how important of a motivator it can be to depressed, broken people is incredibly satisfying, and not something we often get in most stories. The fact that Saihara is so undeniably “weak,” that he isn’t the type of character you would usually expect to live to the end given how suicidal and deeply traumatized he is, makes his survival at the very end all the more of an uplifting message.

You don’t need to be “cured” to find a reason to live. You don’t have to magically wake up with the most positive, forward-facing outlook in life. You can be “weak” and depressed and hurting inside, and in the end, you still deserve to live, and have the opportunity to find meaning in your own life, whether it’s through truth or fiction.

This has gotten pretty long by now, but I hope I could make it clear exactly why I love Saihara so much. I understand people’s dissatisfaction with the protagonist-swap, and while I perfectly understand that he isn’t for everyone, he’s still a fantastically written character in my opinion, with a wonderful and meaningful arc of development that really resonated with me, as someone who also has struggled with similar mental health issues. I think the decision to do something extremely different from Naegi and Hinata was an excellent decision, and while I still love both of them as characters in their own right, Saihara is just so compelling both as an individual character and the protagonist of ndrv3.

Thank you for the question anon, and thank you to those of you who read to the end! I hope I could offer a decent character analysis!

#danganronpa #shuichi saihara #saihara shuichi #shuuichi saihara #ndrv3 #ndrv3 spoilers //#ask #anonymous #my meta #okay to reblog

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the-golden-ghost · 3 years

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For the First and Last, no.24? o w o

24. First/Last Secrets

~~~

I chose Lupjig because I'm weak and I love them. The first part takes place in the Early Gang Days, shortly before Lupin decides to fake his death for the first time.

The second part takes place in the Late Gang Days, a little before the events in Castle of Cagliostro.

I hope you enjoy!

~~~

“Ammunition?”

“Yep.”

“Getaway car?”

“Yep.”

“Getaway chopper?”

“Absolutely. Grappling hooks, smokescreens, personal flotation devices?”

“Everything.”

“So it’s all in order?”

Lupin and Jigen were running down their checklist of all they’d need for tomorrow’s job. This one was going to be wild, and dangerous, but they were ready for it, even if there was a very real possibility that one of them may not survive.

In fact, in Lupin’s case, it was a certainty. The one where Lupin III, in all his unsavory glory, finally joined the world of the dead! Sometime tomorrow, the grappling hooks he’d been in charge of would fail, and he’d fall fifty feet down into a steel trap laid out for him by one of the world’s most notorious leaders of the criminal underground, and from there on out, nothing would ever be the same.

A year ago it would have been hilarious. Now, it still was, but he had to admit he had some misgivings. Mostly because he’d spent a year assembling this team, and against his better judgement, well...

He was glad Fujiko was on the other side of the world in Dubai where she wouldn’t have to see, and he was glad that he’d summoned Goemon, even if in truth he could have done this without him. He’d considered sparing Goemon too, until he realized that once the heist failed as planned, Jigen would have to stagger back to the hideout alone.

Lupin could not do that, not to him.

Looking over at Jigen now, Lupin tried to imagine what his reaction would be. Maybe he’d handle it well. Jigen was a pretty tough bastard and he’d had his share of suffering so maybe this would just be another knock for him. Maybe he’d shake it off easy and walk away like the past year hadn’t happened. Maybe his heart wouldn’t break. Maybe Lupin didn’t mean as much to him as he’d come to mean to Lupin.

Maybe everything would be okay and he could go on and be happy, somehow.

“You’re kinda quiet,” Jigen said, flopping down on the couch and lighting a cigarette. Goemon was sitting close by, deep in meditation but in reality, probably listening intently. “Usually you’re talkin’ my ear off about how great it’s gonna be.”

“It’s gonna be great, Jigen!” Lupin said, giving his best smile. He hoped it was more convincing than it felt.

A year ago Jigen had joined up with him, drawing away from kind gestures and bristling up at anything other than cool professionalism. It had taken Lupin months to coax him out of that dreary, guarded state, but by God, Jigen knew how to smile, and how to laugh, and even how to sing when he set his mind to it.

True, he was still a grouchy, wary alcoholic but he didn’t flinch anymore when Lupin touched him and he would joke back and forth with him all night without clamming up in sudden fear that Lupin would tell him he’d gone too far and retaliate with cruelty.

And now Lupin was going to wipe himself off the map and send Jigen back into the world that had made him that way in the first place. All that effort, gone. So yeah, he had a couple of misgivings.

If he’d had time... if he could have primed Jigen better, maybe he could have let him in on it and trusted him to follow through, but...

“You sure you’re okay?” Jigen asked. “You nervous?”

“Are you?”

“Maybe a little,” Jigen said with a shrug. “What about you, Goemon? Are you nervous?”

“No.” Goemon probably wasn’t, in all honesty.

“Hey,” Jigen said. “We’re gonna be fine,” he was looking at Lupin when he said it, and it almost was enough to kill Lupin then and there, because in the year they’d been together he couldn’t recall even one time Jigen tried to offer comfort. He’d come so damn far, and now this.

“You think I don’t know that?” Lupin scoffed. “You must think I’m losing my touch.”

He’d be losing a lot more than that, though, before it was over.

~~~

Lupin usually slept pretty well. Oh, sure, he’d stay up a few nights before a job prepping, or he’d be on high alert when they were being tailed, but otherwise he’d always prided himself in his ability to shake his troubles off and sleep through the night unhindered.

Lately though his thoughts tended to nag at him and keep him staring at the ceiling long into the night.

Jigen was beside him because Jigen was always beside him. Tonight he was snoring. And usually that sound was a comforting one to Lupin, a sure sign of safety. If Jigen could rest easy, then there was definitely nothing to fear.

Lately, Jigen had been resting easy a lot, but Lupin had been having troubles.

He sat up, stared out the window for a long while, and then turned back to look at his partner. Same old Jigen, drowsing with his hat pulled over his face. But he wasn’t the same. Lupin remembered the sharp-eyed, rawboned man he’d allied with more than a decade ago. A rangy, callous sharpshooter with a quick hand and a quicker tongue who nevertheless had stuck close to Lupin like a burr and wormed his way into his life.

And now? Now Lupin would always think of Jigen foremost as a warm, steady man with a rough disposition and a soft heart. The years had changed him physically - adding lines to his face and scars to his skin, most of which Lupin had been there to bear witness to. His body had filled out over time, too, leaving him looking stronger and healthier than Lupin could ever remember.

Lupin sighed. Jigen had a lot of life left in him to take him wherever he wanted to go. But he didn’t know if the same was true for himself. And he wanted sometimes to say it - to just voice it aloud so there was no question. That he’d never planned to live past his youth, but the years had caught up with him and somehow, it had just... happened.

He was still planning how to die. But now, more and more, it was looking like it would have to be for real. No more playacting, no more dress rehearsals or bait and switches that left everyone guessing. One last stand and it would be over.

Surely it would be easy? It couldn’t hurt more than anything else Lupin had ever done. And after that, nothing at all.

He’d have to make it perfect, though.

The thing that got to him was that after all this he didn’t want to leave Jigen behind. Goemon would be okay. He still joined up with them when they called, but he’d been spending less and less time with them - he stuck around for the jobs, but between them, he was barely around. And he hadn’t seen Fujiko in months. She was okay, he was sure, and they’d meet again, but...

He missed them both.

Jigen was still here, though. And he didn’t show signs of leaving. He’d be the one to bury Lupin, Lupin was pretty certain of that, and he’d do it well, giving him all the honors befitting a thief and a swindler and a beloved partner and friend.

But then what?

Lupin could imagine Jigen striking off alone and purposeless, all that life still in him but nothing to do with it now. He pictured him just wandering, falling slowly back into his old bad habits until the years shed from him and he joined Lupin in death, reverted back to the same bitter man he’d been when they first met.

And Lupin tried to tell himself no, that would never happen. Jigen is stronger than that.

But he remembered that he’d stopped faking his death a few years ago, after the two of them had stood and watched Goemon be killed right in front of them. It was a cruel trick, and Goemon was alive and well to this day, but Lupin had never seen Jigen truly break before and for the first time in his life he thought he was going to lose both his partners for good.

When Goemon returned Lupin had made an uneasy joke about how Jigen would never have mourned like that for him, and Goemon just shook his head.

“You have no idea.”

So...

It wasn’t even that Lupin really wanted to die. That was the truth of it. He didn’t want to die, but he didn’t know how to go on living. He’d always promised himself he wouldn’t die a boring, pointless death and if he allowed himself to grow old and doddering and just... withered away in a hospital room somewhere... what would the point have been?

He just wanted it all to have some bigger meaning. Maybe it was an impossible wish. Maybe the best he could do was say he changed a few lives and made a few headlines and would die loved.

Someday.

Lupin lay back down and snuggled right up next to his partner. He needed some sleep, and after all, even if the clock felt like it was winding down, there were still some adventures to be had.

And time, thankfully, to choose what the world had in store for them.

#Lupin III #my writing #long post #I am always saying Lupin should cherish Jigen so here's a fic where he finally and unabashedly does #that being said I also think I finally got the hang of making these feel more like two parts of the same story #rather than just two random snippets

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crusherthedoctor · 3 years

Text

Sonic Heroes: Sweet or Shite? - Part 1: SILVER

There are some heroes I like. And there are some heroes I don’t like. But why do I feel about them the way I do? That’s where this comes in.

This is a series in which I go into slightly more detail about my thoughts on the heroes in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, and why I think they either work well, or fall flat (or somewhere in-between). I’ll be giving my stance on their designs, their personalities, and what they had to show for themselves over the course of time. Two things to keep in mind:

1. These reviews will be focusing mainly on game portrayals. Though alternate media will occasionally be mentioned, it'll be for the sake of adding onto a point if a portrayal is similar enough, or to compare and contrast if a portrayal is different enough.

2. These are just my own personal thoughts. Whether you agree or disagree, feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions! I don’t bite. :>

Anyhow, for today’s installment, I decided to challenge myself by starting off with a complicated one. Born from the future, and never content to stay put in said future, it's the saviour whose debut came from the most unfortunate game... Silver the Hedgehog.

The Gist: Once upon a time, in the distant future, there was an idealistic young hedgehog named Silver, gifted with the power of telekinesis for reasons unknown. With his amazing potential, he was truly destined for a wonderful, prosperous li-just kidding, it was shit.

“All two of us.”

For as long as he knew, the world was forever plagued by Iblis, the terrible Flames of Disaster. Cities stood in ruin, flames stood high, the floor was lava... it was a bitter life to be certain, all thanks to Iblis. Not even defeating the titular creature did much good, since it would simply come back to be a shitty boss fight another day. What was he - and his friend, Blaze, a character we definitely never saw before and definitely didn't have a completely different backstory before - to do?

Trust the first person he sees, of course. Even if they look like they might be related to the same Flames of Disaster that he fights so constantly.

If he had eyelids, he'd be winking at the camera.

This mysterious fellow, Mephiles the Dark, informed Silver that if he were to wipe out Iblis for real, he would need to take a trip into the past, and eliminate the root of the problem... Sonic the Hedgehog? That was what Mephiles claimed, yes. What was his proof? There was no proof.

That was good enough for Silver.

Oh look, it's Fleetway Sonic.

After an elaborate series of events, which should sound exciting but really isn't because it was just Silver going “Iblis Trigger grrr” in varying tones of voice, he was finally able to corner the blue hedgehog... twice! And despite having less fighting know-how than the hero who saved the world plenty of times, he effortlessly came close to killing the blue hedgehog... twice!

This looks like a jobbing for...

Why twice? The first time was halted by Sonic's friend Amy Rose, who Silver had met beforehand after she mistook him for Sonic, an understandable mistake that even the keenest of eyes would be forgiven for making.

The second time was also interrupted, this time by Shadow the Hedgehog. There's only room for one controversial non-blue male hedgehog in this franchise, sonny boy. Actually, his reasons were more benevolent than that: he wanted to show Silver the truth about what was going on, by time travelling to the incident that gave birth to Iblis. Why was one able to to this, so long as more than one Chaos Emerald was present? No one knew.

That was good enough for Silver.

“I challenge you to a dumb-off.”

As it turned out, Iblis was one half of a sun god called Solaris, the other half being the aforementioned Mephiles. The Duke of Soleanna wanted to reunite with his late wife by harnessing Solaris' power, which succeeded from a certain point of view since he's dead now too. The resulting blunder split Solaris into two halves. One half was all brawn, with little capacity for intelligence. The other half was Iblis.

Understanding the error of his ways, and after making peace with Sonic, Silver went back to the future to try something different, which consisted of doing the same thing he always did. Luckily for him, the script decided it would work this time, albeit at the cost of Blaze sacrificing herself... Maybe? Sort of? It’s not entirely clear what happened to her, and it’s not like this was the last we ever saw of her.

~La laaaaaa, la laaaaaa, la laaaaaa, heading to a better game, la laaaaaa~

But ohhhhh nooooo, turns out THAT didn't solve anything either! In the present, Sonic was killed by Mephiles, after the latter realised he should probably do that already if he wanted to make any progress at all with his plan. This incident led to Iblis being brought into the present, and they fused to become the omnipotent Solaris once more. Such power... such divinity... such devastation...

Actually, he was really easy. The antlion from Underground Zone was harder.

Manchild robots - 1, god of time - 0.

With their super forms in tow, Silver, Shadow, and the revived Sonic joined forces to defeat Solaris, with Sonic in particular going the extra step in retconning Solaris out of existence entirely. Since time itself reset, meaning Iblis was no longer a memory, Silver's timeline was given a second chance. What was he to look forward to in this new, promising future?

Shit.

The Design: Let's take a closer look at Silver's appearance, shall we?

Or rather, a certain thing that's wrong with it.

He's holding up fifteen fingers.

Yes, you all know what I'm pointing to: the hairstyle. Let it be known that I'm very aware of the intention behind this design choice. It's supposed to be based on the Japanese Red Maple Leaf, which holds a lot of relevant symbolism for Silver's character. This is a fine idea in theory, and I can respect the intent and the creativity.

But here's the thing: If it looks like a ganja leaf, people are going to say it looks like a ganja leaf. I know some fans will gnash their teeth at me saying this, but the fact of the matter is that intentions and ideas, no matter how good they may be on paper, don't always translate well into the final product. Unleashed Secret Rings Black Knight Sonic '06 in general is certainly no stranger to showcasing examples of that, and Silver's hairstyle is no exception. There are ways to incorporate symbolism in a character’s design without making them look like meme bait in the process, and no amount of “umm ackshually” will change that, I'm afraid.

That said, there's another reason why I'm staying clean of Silver marijuana: it doesn't work for a hedgehog character. With the other hedgehogs, their hairstyles are simple and get the point across: Sonic's goes without saying, Shadow's is more angular to befit a slightly rougher hero, and Amy's is a cute bob cut of sorts. But Silver? Even without the ganja, you've still got the two tentacles making up the back of his head.

I'd rather not be reminded of hentai quills, thanks.

“I thought Crusher-san would like it :’(”

I do find it hilarious that they went through numerous designs for Silver, and this was what they chose to go with. Some of his prototype designs may have fared better had any of them been used instead... but we didn't end up with any of those ones. We ended up with this one, therefore I'm judging this one.

But don’t worry, it’s not all bad with Silver...

The Personality: As far as actual character goes, Silver's personality is as straightfoward as most characters in the series, yet it's no less interesting, because it took a while for it to fully evolve to what it currently is. The seeds of his character - a good-natured yet awkward and rather insecure kind of guy, who doesn't fully understand how the present time works - have always been there, but it was often downplayed in earlier titles due to him being hungry for Iblis Trigger blood... or being an arsehole for no reason.

Although to be fair, everyone in Rivals is an arsehole for no reason.

Eventually though, after the writers gave him a Snickers, these traits got more opportunity to shine. Mostly in side media admittedly, but it's been noted in the games as well. With no Iblis to angst over, he's proven to be a surprisingly bubbly chap, who just wants to know how you're all doing, fellow anthro kids. And whereas his naivety was previously used for intended tragedy to benefit the evil plan of a guy who thought taking the -istoph- out of Mephistopheles would make him inconspicuous, now it's been used for a bunch of low-key contexts that do a much better job at endearing him to the player.

Finally, something I can relate to.

Hell, he even seems to have learned from the Mephiles incident, as he was quick to make it clear to the next shadowy deep-voiced anthro with demonic eyes he met that he wasn't gonna fall for any of them fibs no more, ya hear?

“YouTube and Twitter don’t count.”

All in all, it works well enough, in my opinion. His personality does pave the way for some funny and wholesome moments, and since they’re no longer trying to build him up like he’s Shadow 2.0, he's nowhere near as much of a tool as he was before. So I guess you could say... I like it?

Does this mean I can say that I like the character as a whole then, design and '06-induced idiocy aside?

Well, not quite...

The Execution: This is where the complication part comes into play. We know now that I like his personality, not so much his design, but that's only the half of it. It would be more accurate to say that I like his personality... and dislike everything else.

Aside from that, obviously.

For starters, the creation process for his character and story was summed up with, in their own words, “Think Trunks from Dragon Ball Z”. So he comes off as rather lazy and uninspired. Now I'm not expecting my Sonic characters to be 100% unique, there's always going to be similarities to other franchises no matter what you do, even if subconsciously or by complete coincidence. Taking inspiration in itself is no big deal at all.

But... was that it? Copying a DBZ character to such a blatant extent? Was there no other thought put into it?

Naturally, this ties into an overarching problem: the franchise's mid-00's habit of trying way too hard to be the anthro Dragon Ball Z. Sonic has had DBZ influences since the early days, with the Chaos Emeralds and Super Sonic, but it didn't assimilate itself into every waking aspect of his universe. It was merely an additional flavor that added to the complete package, in the same way that a Death Star with a moustache didn't mean the franchise was suddenly Star Wars the Hedgehog.

But come the turn of the millenium, nearly every main title in the series ended with Super Sonic and/or Super Shadow saving the day, while everyone else either stood around being useless, or only helping in ways that no one actually cares about. Including the in-universe President apparently, since only Sonic and Shadow were featured in the photo on his desk.

Amy smiled. “I guess the rest of us can go fuck ourselves, huh?”

This reached its peak with - of course - Sonic '06, with Silver in particular being an obvious result of this then-ongoing trend. And yes, it would be unfair to use him as a scapegoat, considering it was already a problem long before he turned up. But moreso than even Shadow, it's an era that Silver is forever a relic of, for better or for worse.

But it doesn't stop there. Since Silver is considered a mainstay character, his gimmick of being from the future also creates problems of its own, because in order for him to make further appearances, he keeps turning up for little explained reason, and thus he suffers the Deadly Six problem of being shoved into places where he doesn't belong, for fanservice's own sake. Take Sonic Colours DS for example, where he went back in time JUST to check out Eggman's theme park... Okay...?

On one hand, I’d visit it too, since it's made by Eggman. On the other hand, I’d stay clear of it, since it's made by Eggman.

And when there IS a justification with more weight to it? It's just recycling the '06 routine of trying to avert his ruined future, which isn't much better. The cause may differ depending on the story, but if his future is a permanent shitehole for one reason or another, he might as well cut out the middle man and stay in the present altogether, since that's where his friends are anyway. But they seem intent on not doing that, despite the future schtick being a noose around his neck at this point.

In hindsight, maybe this was a hint to how the rest of the arc would turn out.

And then there's his dynamic with a certain purple cat... No, not Big. The other one.

“I’m here, by the way.”

Simply put: I don't like this dynamic. At all. Or rather, I don't like how they keep milking it. Blaze's backstory was radically changed to justify her presence in Silver's future, and it really shows, since she barely even shows up half the time, as if the developers themselves forgot she was in the game. But her backstory has since been restored to her original alternate dimension interpretation, so hanging around with the grey hedgehog is all good now, right?

To be brutally honest, I probably wouldn't care for this dynamic regardless. But I would be more willing to tolerate it, and I'd refrain from groaning every time they're seen together... if they weren't intent on playing it up so much in spite of '06 being wiped out, sometimes with a bit of commentary involving their thoughts and memories, which only succeeds at making things more confusing. If Blaze is around, Silver will be nearby, and if he's not at first, he will be soon enough. This franchise does have a problem in general with restricting who's allowed to interact with who (I personally believe Sonic Heroes may have led to this, or at least it accelerated it), but I'd argue it's at its most insufferable here, with Blaze's potential and her entire world taking a backseat to being the sidekick of Ganja Man.

And you might say “Well, it's part of the franchise now, so you'll just have to accept it”. To which I ask: Have you accepted Two Worlds? Have you accepted Solo Sonica? Have you accepted Sonic's friends not doing much as of late?

Yeah. That's what I thought. “It’s just how it is” doesn’t mean you can’t criticise it.

Meanwhile, Marine is lucky enough to get so much as a shout out.

So yeah, I have quite an extensive list of grievances involving poor Silver. But... very little of it has to do with him, right? They're all indirect problems that he just so happens to be linked to, as opposed to someone like Chris Thorndyke, who is genuinely a shit character through and through. This is more comparable to Tails being bitchy in Lost World, or Amy being manipulative in Chronicles, or Sonic being a smug dumbass in IDW, or Shadow not wearing a Hawaiian shirt in Boom. Frustrating, regrettable, but not really the character's own fault.

Yet even after all that, there's one last kick in the teeth... How do you fix all this? And how do you fix it when he's since gained a sizable fandom, many of whom like him for these very attributes? If you leave it as it is, you're stuck with this big, awkward mess that everyone pretends to ignore. If you try to do something about it, you'll get complaints about disrespecting the True Silver Spirit, and you’ll get questions about why you didn't create a new character instead... And if you did use a new character for the sake of a clean slate, THEN you'd get complaints about not using Silver.

It's a tough call to be sure, and it's such a shame because like I said, I do appreciate his personality, so I can't say he's bad outright. But with all this... clutter, I can only put him in the average category. So, in he goes.

Crusher Gives Silver a: Thumbs Sideways!

Well, I'm glad this one's out of the way. Putting my thoughts into words with Silver was harder than it should have been. I do slightly regret starting this series off on a rather downer note, but rest assured, it's a lot more positive from this point onwards, since while I have higher praise for some heroes more than others, the hero characters as a whole fare a lot better than the majority of villains not named Eggman.

I guess you could say that I hope to show why Sonic's friends aren't as shitty as the haters would suggest. ;)

#Sonic Heroes: Sweet or Shite?#Opinion #Sonic the Hedgehog #Silver the Hedgehog

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diva-1-online · 3 years

Text

Ike x Reader (Nolan’s sister)

Ike x reader

It’s hard being the adopted sister of a world famous lawyer, especially when you don’t live up to those same standards. And more so when the adoptive father was so sure you’d succeed in the business too. Boy was he surprised.

She just didn’t have the same way with words her brother did. The favoritism was obvious. Instead of her being able to pursue her dreams she was stuck being dragged to parties and used as arm candy with men she didn’t enjoy being around. Tragic honestly.

So here she sat, staring out at the ocean in the night. She had to get away from her brother and his snarky words to her.

“(Y/n)?”

Oh. Him.

“You’re not calling me my nickname anymore?”

“Well, the last time I called you “Bunny” you yelled at me.” Ike shrugged while walking closer to her.

“I’ll do it again.” She groaned and lifted her head from your knees. “What are you out here for?”

“I could ask you the same thing. But if you’re curious, fishing. They’re more active now. What are you doing out here? Did Nolan kick you out?”

“No, I’m just” she let out a deep sigh and looked up at the stars, “just stargazing.”

“It’s a good thing I came, little bunny, someone could’ve hurt you out here if you aren’t careful.”

“I think you’re more dangerous.” She laughed and looked out to the ocean. He was right, the fish were more active. Ike smirked and rolled his eyes, ignoring the comment:

“If I had known you’d be here I would’ve brought another pole.”

“No need, I don’t like fishing.” As she said that, Ike gave her a strange look. “I mean, I haven’t done it but I just know.”

“How do you know if you’ve never done it?”

“Well-“

“Exactly. So here,” Ike baited the hook and grabbed (Y/n)’s hand, helping her up. He walked up behind her and placed it in her hands, helping her cast it out. She felt her face heat up from the closeness and had to internally calm herself.

“Ok (Y/n),” she thought, “just calm down. No need to get flustered over him being so close. He’s just helping you fish.” No one needed to know she had any sort of feelings for him.

Especially not Nolan.

She hadn’t liked him at first, always seeing Ike as an instigator, but seeing him without Nolan around changed her mind. He was kind. He helped her when she had spilt coffee on her outfit, when she needed directions. He always in the right spot at the right time.

Suspicious almost.

As long as Nolan isn’t nearby, her and Ike were close. They were friends in a way. He taught her more about the courtroom than Nolan and her father ever could. He was in it more than for money. He was in it for justice.

She admired that. She grew up seeing people so bent on how to make more than enough money that she grew tired of it. Seeing someone be helpful for more than a cash or charity award was refreshing.

“You got a bite.” Ike told her, helping her reel it in. Tugging it, a fish flipped onto the dock. Her eyes widened as it got closer to her.

“Ike. Ike do something.”

Ike laughed as he took it off the hook and tossed it gently in the water. “Scared of a fish, Miss Zarek?”

“As if,” she rolled her eyes, sitting on the dock again with her legs dangling off. He laughed and patted her head, to which she quickly ducked from. “Get your slimy fish hands off me!” She shrieked, pushing him away. He smirked and sat down next to her.

“I didn’t think you’d be so scared of a fish.”

“I’d take a fish over you.” She laughed and leaned back onto the dock, closing her eyes.

“Aw, you don’t really mean that.”

“Maybe not. Doesn’t matter.”

“I think it does,” Ike leaned back next to her and smiled. “And I think you care.”

“About what?”

“My opinion.”

“…”

“You always seemed to care so-“

“That doesn’t matter! Look- I… ugh. You’re impossible.” She groaned, turning away from him.

“Me? You’re the one who keeps switching up. One moment you’re sweet and the next you’re sour. C’mon, pick a side.” (Y/n) stayed silent at that. He was right, she tended to switch up around him. It’s only because he kept teasing her though! What else is she supposed to do?

A couple more minutes of silence passed before Ike spoke up again. “(Y/n)?”

“…”

“(Y/n)? Are you,” Ike leaned up and saw her body breathing softly, eyes closed. Her chest rose and fell slowly as the night passed by. “Oh. You’re asleep. Well… I can’t leave you here.” He shrugged and got up, picking her up before walking off to his car to drive her to his house.

He set her down on his bed and tucked her in, careful to not wake her up. He left the room and began to get ready for bed, deciding to sleep on the couch.

As morning came, (Y/n) woke up in a comfortable bed, confused as she looked around. This definitely wasn’t her room. It didn’t even smell like her. It smelled like coffee and cologne and… and Ike.

That’s right, she fell asleep at the dock. He must’ve taken her back to his house. She got up and walked out of the room, glancing around for him. She saw a counter with him standing a couple feet from it, stirring his coffee.

“Well, good morning sleeping beauty.” He glanced towards her with a smile.

“You brought me to your room?”

Ike nodded and leaned against the kitchen counter with a coffee in his hand. “You fell asleep. Should I have left you out at the dock? Or better yet, bring you to Nolan’s room?”

(Y/n) tried to hold on a laugh, already imagining the scenario.

“What should I have said? Hey Nolan, here’s your sister, she fell asleep while we were fishing at midnight. Do you really think that would’ve gone over well?”

“Mm, maybe not.”

“I don’t think your brother likes me too much.”

“Hates your guts.”

“Good to know,” Ike smiled and took a sip of his coffee. As she went to pick up her phone, almost dead, she saw over fifty messages. Nolan.

“Oh dear.” She muttered, immediately typing as fast as she could. Ike raised an eyebrow to her as she focused completely on the phone. “It’s Nolan, he wants to know where I am. I have to go, thank you so much! Oh uh,” before she went out the door she thanked him once more. “I can make it up to you… if you want! There’s this club nearby that’s not super high end and I could pay for drinks-“

“Of course. And no need to thank me. I’m just doing what’s right. Now don’t let Nolan know you were with me,” he laughed as she nodded and ran off, hurrying to call her brother.

“Wait- do you want me to drive you there?”

“And risk Nolan seeing your car? No way!” She laughed and kept running further from his house. He smiled and leaned on the door frame wistfully.

“She’s certainly something.”

—

“I was afraid you wouldn’t show up,” (Y/n) laughed awkwardly as Ike stepped out of his car. He laughed and took her arm as they walked in together and began drinking. The club was definitely more casual than what they usually went to but she enjoyed this. It wasn’t too often she could be more than a decorative doll.

So they started drinking together. And she kept the drinks coming. Maybe she should have thought more about how much she was drinking versus how much she could tolerate. She was REALLY letting her emotions spill.

“Y’know, you’re the only one who treats me like a person. To the rest I’m arm candy or stupid and can’t handle the real world. They never let me talk about me, only them.”

Ike nodded as she ranted, clearly having an effect from the drinks now.

“I mean, I’ve had them try and “teach” me how being a lawyer works and how court happens. I’m not dumb! Just because I’m not one doesn’t mean I don’t know how it works! I’ve seen it since I was ten for heavens sake!”

And then she couldn’t stop talking.

“And I guess that’s why I like you.”

Oh.

OH.

“You like me because I treat you like a person?” Ike took away her empty drink, keeping away any others.

“More than that. You teased me but I could handle it, it wasn’t like the others. And when I fell asleep you brought me to your house instead of leaving me outside. And you,” as she kept going on and on about what she liked about him, Ike drew her closer and whispered into her ear.

“Is that why you would always blush when I’d get near you?”

She nodded, leaning in closer to him. “It’s why I won’t regret this.” She pushed her lips into him, pulling away just as quickly as she came. Once she kissed him it seemed that she realized what she admitted. She had kissed him. The person her brother hated the most.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have.”

“I’m glad you did. I had been wanting that for a while,” Ike told her, pulling her close. He leaned in once more to her, tightly holding onto her waist.

“Ike, I- somewhere else. Not. Not here,” she groaned, pulling away to look at the bodies on the dance floor. No one seemed to be watching them but at any moment they could.

“Aw, getting shy now? Here,” he took her arm and led her away towards another room. Before they entered he leaned back in, kissing her cheek and stroking her back.

“(Y/n)?”

Ah shit.

That’s an awfully familiar voice.

“Barnes, what are you doing with my sister!”

“Tch.” Ike glanced to the side and pulled (Y/n) closer in his arms.

“That’s not a good enough response. (Y/n), I thought you knew better than this. What are you even doing at a club like this?”

“Well what are you doing here?” She shot back, sick of his double standards.

“I was looking for you. You leave in the middle of the night and don’t come back until noon one day and the next you just disappear! I had to track you down through your friends. I refuse to babysit you anymore-“

“Then leave me alone!”

“Not until he does.” The attention was turned back on Ike, still holding (Y/n) close in his arms protectively. She could feel the anger from Nolan, not needing to look at his face to see his disappointment.

“(Y/n) is an adult. She can make her own decisions. And it looks like she decided to be with me.”

Nolan stared down at the two of them before sighing and taking a step back. “(Y/n), if this is truly what you want then I won’t stop you. Just know what you’re doing. I won’t defend you after this.”

(Y/n) hesitated. She wanted to move away from Ike, to go to her brother but… she wanted to do what she wanted. She wanted to be more than Nolan’s sister and that’s what Ike gave her. He let her be her own individual. But with one glance at Ike, she felt the surge of emotions she always did. She tightened her grip onto him as Nolan nodded and walked away.

“I’ll have your bags packed tomorrow.”

Wait what

“What? Did you think I’d still be living with you? When you date my court room enemy?”

“She can just move in with me,” Ike said, hands on her shoulder and kissed the top of her head. Nolan rolled his eyes and walked away.

“He really kicked me out…”

“Do you. Should we go back to my place?” Ike hesitated, unsure of what to do with her. On one hand, she could live with him. On the other, she did just get kicked out by her brother.

“Yea. Yea we should.”

So they left to his house. Night fell on them as they walked in, silence filling the house. He took her to the bedroom and let her get into bed, planning to sleep on the couch once more.

“Ike-“

“Yes?”

“Could you… sleep with me? You don’t have to, I just-“

“Of course bunny.” Ike smiled and laid down next to her, pulling her closer to his chest.

“Thank you.”

#swd #love tangle #shall we date #Ike #Ike Barnes #Nolan #nolan zarek #Ike x reader #love tangle fanfic #swd fanfic

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thatsaweirdwaytospellundead · 3 years

Text

Senribana Monogatari 11/11

Summary: Due to Citron’s work as the Zahran Minister of Culture and Arts there has been a surge in interest in foreign culture in Zahra. Prince Tangerine gives his brother a call, but it seems he has more on his mind than just an invitation..

Note: This event references a popular Japanese fairytale titled “The Story of the Old Man Who Made Withered Trees to Blossom”, I encourage you to read it here!

This is a 10 part story with an epilogue.

[part 1] [part 2] [part 3] [part 4] [part 5] [part 6] [part 7] [part 8] [part 9] [part 10]

Epilogue “The Story of the Old Man Who Made Withered Trees to Blossom”

Azami

Our Zahra performance made the online news.

Chikage

This is the first time I’ve seen a general news site write about our performance. Usually we only make the theatre news.

Itaru

All according to the keikaku (keikaku means plan).

Izumi

Our play and the finale went over smoothly and became a huge success. I am so glad!

Tsumugi

Even without our subtitle device it seemed like the audience had a lot of fun.

Homare

Art transcends all spoken language!

Guy

We have prepared snacks for everyone.

Citron

Wooooott, let’s get this party started!

Chikage

Huh? Is this all the alcohol we have?

Tasuku

This won’t be enough.

Izumi

That’s true, a lot of members from spring and winter troupes drink.

Itaru

We should call for reinforcements.

Citron

Oh, well if that’s the case—

Tangerine

Hello everyone, great job on your performance yo! It was so amazing, the people of Zahra were so happy.

I have some celery bait curry from the king.

Izumi

DID YOU SAY CURRY!?

Itaru

Um I don’t think the words he is saying mean what he thinks they mean, this isn’t curry.

Tsuzuru

I am not sure what celery bait curry is but it is definitely not that.

Masumi

Celebratory, right?

Citron

And also we have the king’s special secret brand of sake.

Izumi

That’s not curry..

Itaru

Special secret brand? Wow we pulled an SSR here.

Homare

Looking forward to trying it!

Tsumugi

We need to drink it slowly to savour the taste.

Azuma

I am not sure if Sakyo will.

Tangerine

And for the people who don’t drink, we have some freshly squeezed fruit juice.

Sakuya

Wow, it looks good!

Azami

It’s full of fruit.

Yuki

Oh, I gotta send the others a pic of this.

Izumi

So then, let’s dig in!

Citron

Oh, make sure you don’t drink too much!

Izumi

But we have off tomorrow, what’s the problem?

Citron

There is a place I want to take you guys to.

Izumi

A place you want to take us to?

Azuma

Fufu, and we also need to buy some souvenirs.

Izumi

Yeah, okay. So then, cheers to drinking modestly!

Sakuya

Cheers!

Tangerine

<< So then, I guess I will take my leave.. >>

Citron

<< Wait a moment.

I have a message I would like you to give to Orange and Navel. >>

Izumi

Wowww, this is amazing. They even have different colours of lamps.

Yuki

I want to buy everything just looking at it all.

Tsumugi

We won’t have trouble finding any souvenirs here.

Sakuya

They have different colours for other things aside from the lamps.

Hisoka

.... I will get this.

Chikage

No surprise this guy could spot a delicious snack from a hundred metres away.

Masumi

The spices are over here.

Izumi

Woooww this is a treasure trove of goodies!

Homare

The stall over here sells antiques. Ohh everything here is truly a work of art.

Tasuku

What is this soft thing over here? I don’t recognise it at all.

Shopkeeper

<< You sir over there, would you like to check out some hair accessories? >>

Azuma

Hair accessories?

.. Hmm, maybe I should buy a little keepsake for myself. They all look so beautiful, I don’t know which one to get.

Citron

Ohh a jewelry shop?

Azuma

I don’t know which one to get. Could I ask for your input, my prince?

Citron

Mumumu.. Hmmm the one that would suit you the best is.. THIS ONE!

Azuma

Fufu, you have quite an eye for beauty, my prince. They have this one in different colours too. All the variations are so beautiful, I don’t know which to get.

Citron

I think this one would suit your brother.

Azuma

Huh?

.. But my brother doesn’t have long hair. I don’t think—

Citron

Maybe his hair got longer since you last saw him!

Azuma

Long hair..

Fufu, I think it would suit him.

(I can’t even begin to imagine where my brother could be living now. I have things I want to tell him, but for some reason I can’t even picture what he could look like now.)

.. Thank you. I will buy one for my brother too.

Citron

I am sure he’ll be happy.

Shopkeeper

<< Thanks! >>

Citron

— Oh, it’s almost time.

Citron

<< Sorry we were late. >>

Orange

<< So why did you ask us to come here? >>

Navel

<< A-Are you going to publicly shame us? >>

Tangerine

<< No no, we would never do anything like that. >>

Citron

<< We have clear skies today so why don’t we all look up and admire the colour. >>

Orange

<< .. The sky? >>

Citron

<< It’s The Story of the Old Man Who Made Withered Trees to Blossom! Look! >>

Navel

Orange

<< S-Sakura? Ahh, no it’s just pink balloons? >>

Citron

<< I hope you will see real sakura blossoms one day. You are always welcome to visit me in Japan. >>

Orange

<< .. W-We look forward to it. >>

Azuma

Hanasaka Jii-san project, big success.

Sakuya

I heard Hanasaka Jii-san, wow that brings me back.

Tsuzuru

I am sure we all remember reading it when we were children.

Izumi

(Huh? Why do I feel like I have heard the name ‘Hanasaka Jii-san’ before.. ?

Oh, wait, that’s right. It’s the pseudonym of the producer who wrote for one of my father’s act offs.)

Citron

Soo then, everyone make a wish!

Sakuya

Oh, that’s right! Hmm I wonder what I should wish for? I hadn’t thought of anything!

Chikage

We gotta be quick before the balloons disappear.

Itaru

SSR.. SSR..

Tsuzuru

That’s too superficial.

Hisoka

Marshmallows, marshmallows..

Tasuku

To nobody’s surprise.

Izumi

(What a beautiful blue sky.. I wonder if my father is under this same sky making the flowers bloom too.

I promise, one day, we will surely meet again father.)

END STORY

#a3 #a3! translation #エースリー #a3:citron #s:senribana monogatari

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xae-in-a-coat · 3 years

Text

Various doodles to fight the insufferable art block

Concept design/reference sheet for Xaje’s Lesser Nobodies(Bards):

Xaje’s joke weapons(the Pointless Quill & Eraser-less Pencil):

A newly recompleted Jae & tiny protagonist:

‘Shoo! Get away you bothersome creature of light! This here is my bread! Mine! Not yours!-’ :

Battle description + doodle:

As previously stated during my first rendition of Organization members I, II, & III, yours truly is currently(& quite unfortunately)caught within the throes of an art block. &, as painstakingly desperate as I am to get the progress moving along, that bloody motivation sucking monster simply won’t allow me to do so without a fight. So, here I am now, chipping away at smaller, more manageable, subject matters(including that of a soon-to-be-posted comic). Hopefully you’ll all still be patiently waiting till then. Here, take two of my latest unanimated cutscenes:

*Standing atop the balcony of an undisclosed building, our hero & villain find themselves eyeing an obliviously lovestruck duo strolling dreamily below. Protagonist, with admiration, & Xaje… Not so much.*

Protagonist: Aww, they’re together! Isn’t that just the most romantic thing!

Xaje: Ugh, romance this & romance that, don’t you light dwellers ever grow tired of the sappy genre?

Protagonist: Well it isn’t my favorite thing of course, but still- There’s just something magical about seeing… You know… That.

*The camera pans down onto the couple once more, now revealing that they’ve embraced each other in a sense(much to Xaje’s disgust).*

Xaje: Oh the things love will make people do, such foolishness simply cannot be handled without at least the slightest whim of violence. Here, allow me to demonstrate.

*He snaps his fingers, swift & sudden, summoning a manageable, but nonetheless shocking, amount of his Bards. Watching with malevolent satisfaction as they interrupted the lovers in their moment.*

Protagonist: XAJE NO!-

*In a haste to halt the unnecessary attack, our Protagonist summons their Keyblade & rushed to jump down towards the scene, would Xaje have not removed the creatures himself. Which, luckily, he had. Using his free hand, he grabbed their arm in a vice grip seconds before they could leap.*

Xaje: Tch, save the heroics for a better time P/N, that was simply a brief demonstration of my words, remember? Besides, these two can handle themselves.

*Nodding towards the sweethearts, who were now in a state of utter shock rather than dreaminess, he scowled.*

Protagonist: YOU SCARED THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS OUTTA THEM YOU SOULLESS RAT!

Xaje: ‘Soulless Rat?’ Heh, well that’s new.

Protagonist: & DON’T FORGET DARKNESS DRUNKEN, PEN COLLECTING, ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS OBSESSED, ANGSTY FANFIC WRITER!-

Xaje: Wow, I’m impressed. How long did it take you to come up with all that?

Protagonist: A lil while I guess, I’m not exactly sure what goes on in that misshapen brain of mine when I’m all fired up, you know?

Xaje: I’d understand that more than anyone P/N.

*They stood in silence for a short moment. Xaje’s hand still closed tightly around Protagonist’s arm. His grip steadily increasing as the seconds ticked by.*

Protagonist: Hey uh- Xaje, my arm-

Xaje: Oh- M-My apologies, I forgot.

*In an attempt to hide his embarrassment, he released them, dusting his hands off as he did.*

Protagonist: It’s fine. Just- Maybe don’t send a mob of Nobodies after innocent bystanders next time.

Xaje: Tch, I’ll send a mob of Nobodies after anyone I please, they do belong to me after all. It’s only right that I use them to fulfill my duty.

Protagonist: & your ‘duty’ is to harm innocent people who’re just trying to be happy? Xaje… You know that’s not-

HEY ARE YOU TWO OKAY UP THERE?!

*Suddenly interrupted by one of the partners’ concerned voice, Protagonist made to reassure them. Xaje however, had other plans in mind.*

Protagonist: YEAH! WE’RE- I MEAN, I’M FINE! THANKS! SORRY ABOUT THOSE NOBOD-

*Heckled once more, Protagonist abruptly felt themself getting pulled back, now unable to complete their intended statements.*

Xaje: Silence yourself fool! These are mere commoners! We can’t risk being seen-

Protagonist: NO! YOU CAN’T RISK BEING SEEN! YOU’RE ALWAYS RUNNING AWAY & HIDING SOMEWHERE IN THE DARK REALM! ARE YOU TRYING TO MAKE ME DO THAT TOO?!

*Knowing that it wasn’t a good time to argue, let alone fight, Xaje promptly awakened his shadow & ordered it to keep our struggling Protagonist subdued before summoning a portal which lead back to the Castle That Never Was.*

Xaje: Come along now P/N, we’ll settle this elsewhere.

*In they went, a Nobody, his shadow, & a captured Hero reduced to nothing.*

-𝙵𝚒𝚗

*Upon their arrival at the castle, & specifically the more so secluded half of it, Xaje unlocked one of the many corridors before him, revealing a vast expanse of ivory emptiness. Regal white walls coated in ebony shadow. Carelessly releasing our Protagonist into the lovely abyss.*

Xaje: Stay here, It’s not like I’ll be allowing you an easy escape anytime soon. Not until I get what I want that is…

Protagonist: Xaje, what do you want?

*The question caught him off guard, leaving the Nobody with a blank slate rather than a witty comeback.*

Xaje: I… I don’t know…

Protagonist: Well… Whatever it is, I’m sure you’ll be able to find it if you’d just choose to accept the light for once-

Xaje: NO! IT MAY NOT COME AS OBVIOUS TO A DIMWIT LIKE YOU, BUT THE SECOND I LEAVE THIS STATE OF NONEXISTENCE I’LL REVERT BACK INTO THAT USELESS BOY WHO COULDN’T DO ANYTHING BUT CRY OVER ALL OF HIS IRREPARABLE FLAWS! HAVE YOU NOT A MIND TO UNDERSTAND HOW HARROWING THAT WOULD SEEM?! HOW AGONIZING IT WOULD FEEL?!

Protagonist: But just for once you’d be real! You’d be YOU!

Xaje: WHAT IF I DON’T LIKE ME!?-

*For a moment, he could almost feel the ever so familiar trickle of teardrops making their escape from the prison of his eyes. A distant memory he longed to forget. One that belonged to a heart whom he wished to permanently discard. A feeling that was far too tired of being caged. But still, he refused to let it out, not here, not now, & especially not in front of this overtly gifted hero. Thus, he silenced himself, just as he had done countless times before, he denied his being of a true release, masking the pain with a false sense of anger & cruel empowerment instead. Destroying the bud of a newly sprouted heart.*

Xaje: I- … Look… My motivations may not be the clearest, but I know there’s one thing I’ll definitely need in order to get to them: Power, & you along with your little companions can provide me with just that. So, till the time comes, you’ll stay put & do as I say, you’re the bait in this operation of mine, is that clear?

Protagonist: Xaje please-

Xaje: Is. That. Clear?

Protagonist: … Yes…

Xaje: Good.

*Upon successfully implementing the forced agreement, Xaje swiftly turned to leave the otherwise vacant quarters, intending to keep the Keyblade Wielder locked up until they would become of further use.*

Protagonist: Wait!-

*Reluctantly, he stopped in his tracks to look back at them, a distinct scowl evident in his gaze.*

Xaje: Ugh, what could you possibly need now fool?

Protagonist: Promise me something, please-

Xaje: Tch- & just what might that be?

Protagonist: Do whatever it is that you must, destroy me if you have to, but please, don’t hurt my friends! They may seem a little hardheaded at times but that’s only because they never knew you like I did!… They never knew how different you used to be… How kind you once were…

*The everlasting gratitude could be felt in their words, still gentle & so very patient despite their captor’s deeply contrasting demeanor. I suppose you’d expect no less from a hero.*

Xaje: Fine… Though I’d prefer not to keep any promises, I’ll do my best to uphold your wishes this one time. But be warned, don’t allow yourself to become too expectant now P/N. When the time comes for me to fight, I’ve nothing left but to do so. Understand?

Protagonist: Yes, I understand…

Xaje: Very well then, I believe now would be a good time for me to leave?

Protagonist: O-Of course…

*Resisting the urge to roll his tired eyes, he advanced towards the threshold. Nearly making his escape when a certain naively gracious voice called out to him from behind… Again.*

Protagonist: Hey- Uh Xaje?- Just one last thi-

Xaje: WHAT IN THE NAME OF KINGDOM HEARTS COULD YOU POSSIBLY HAVE LEFT TO SAY?!

Protagonist: T-THANK YOU!- I really mean it by the way…

Xaje: … Whatever… Your cheapened gratifications mean nothing to me either way. In fact, I’d appreciate it so much more if you’d just learn to quiet that insufferable voice of yours. Hmm? What do you say?

*Shrugging in a rather sarcastic manner, he left. For real this time. Listening with his eyes closed as the door shut behind him, sending a melancholic echo all throughout the elegant palace of sorrowful souls. Leaving his prisoner to wallow in their accepted despair.*

-𝙵𝚒𝚗

Progress shots:

#kingdom hearts #Organization XIII oc #organization xiii #organization 13 #kh #my art #my quotes #my sona #flipaclip #sora #donald #goofy #nobodies #nobody #protagonist #joke weapons #xaje #jae #xj

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