#i realize this is a complicated topic but right now personally i hate it

[wollfling]

My problematic trait is that when I see the ai art hashtag, i care about the artwork 100% less. The ai stealing from other artists is a whole conversation, but like I just watched a video about using ai to create thumbnail references for paintings/illustrations and it's so disheartening.. and apparently it's hard for artists to keep up with ai (competitively for views, sales, etc) so they turn to it to help speed their process... but then so much value of art has been lost... isn't it? Specifically in terms of conceptual pieces. Life drawings etc aren't really what I'm thinking abt here. And I've seen people talk about how like, ai isn't going to last long specifically because it "steals" images and would cause problems legally, but if artists are just using it to "do the thinking for them" for the foundational concept and composition it's a different story? Of course people are allowed to do whatever they want but it just feels so disheartening.. I feel it's just caused by the pressure to post and please algorithms etc to be able to actually make a living off of your art. I think ultimately I feel sad that artists are put in this position.

#i realize this is a complicated topic but right now personally i hate it #how many of us consider art as expression? what are we expressing if we get ai to mash a bunch of keywords into an image for #us to use as the thumbnail ref. like. and ofc it depends whatever type of art it is like i said #im doing my best bc i dont want to offend anyone or hurt their feelings o<-< but if im honest i hate it all. genuinely. #artists saying their using it bc they have to adapt #bc they cant keep up otherwise (and in compitition with ai art accounts) its just. this is so sad. i hate that this is where we are heading #i dont dislike anyone for using it im not trying to come off that way. #i dislike that artists are being pushed into a corner like this. its just sad no other word for it lol #anyways no more negative talk sorry i just wanted to rant about that #pls dont lose yourself and your art trying to please social media. try your best to set aside time to create art just for yourself too ;_; #theyre * not their... whateva lol

[sasukeless]

2 If you’re still doing the controversial ask game

hi

2) was sasuke right?

ahh this billion dollar question isn’t it. i feel like this is the top 1 most discussed thing on this app for years, i have read every side of it.

to give #my opinion, im gonna go with yes. but its far more complicated, like most things are with naruto lol. i believe sasuke is right because he sees there’s a flaw in the existing system around him and to finally do something about it the only way to do that it’s to get ride of the system from the root.

now, as much as i agree with sasuke there i don’t agree with the way he tries to do that revolution. i dont mean this in a “oh violence wont be fixed with more violence” bs. i mean this because where sasuke’s goals are born for and how they affect his plans.

when sasuke finishes listening to the kages and it’s coming up with his thoughts, he immediately is bombarded by memories of itachi (itachi only, not his clan) and itachi’s words to him. when he states he will not let the village be destroyed he does it by adding “itachi’s will”. when sasuke is dying in the war arc his only thoughts again are that he doesn’t want to waste what itachi wanted to die. this shows us very clearly that sasuke’s revolution is very influenced by itachi’ wants. a little different, sure but still the same. which makes sense why his goal at vote2 is destroy the last person he loves and bear the hatred of everyone so the villages can have peace between them as long as they focus all on him. and this is quite what itachi did, just on a bigger scale. naruto = uchiha clan. the villages = konoha. sasuke = itachi.

^this is where many people complain that kishimoto had to turn sasuke ooc to make him evil and i can see what they mean but personally i dont view it as such when i look at what sasuke’s arc has always been. i have seen also that they dislike that post reveal sasuke’s character seems to be focus on itachi more than in his clan like in part 1 which i also disagree. itachi has been sasuke’s main influence in his character since day one. even in part 1, sasuke’s hate towards itachi isn’t just because he killed his clan, kishimoto focuses alot in showing itachi and sasuke having a loving relationship. kishimoto is very specific that sasuke’s biggest grief at the end of the day is not the massacre alone but the fact it was itachi who committed it. this is essentially what sets sasuke aside of other characters that lost their family/clans/parents etc. its not only what he lost but by who’s hands he lost it. so his focus has always been in itachi. so i dont think it was only part 2 that sasuke became more driven by itachi than anything else… anyways going back to the topic because im going off the rails (sorry).

sasuke has always had itachi first imo. and sasuke has always been defined by love too so ofc he’s gonna forgive the person he loves even if he doesn’t deserve it, ofc he’s gonna try to achieve that peace his brother “sacrificed” his life for (even if thru different means that he wanted you to). but while i understand and love sasuke’s character, i still think these are all very personal reasons for his revolution plans and thus why it fails.

his revolution plans are also self destructive but he doesn’t care because he still views it as his ultimate duty (again why he was so distraught when he was about to die without doing anything). he wants to become the bearer of all evil, and pain and hatred and wants to be all alone, even tho that is something that has caused alot of his pain in the past, he even talks about possible immortality and its just, well sad. you can tell hes about to sell his own doom because he thinks thats what he has to do to fix everything. he is ready to become a martyr. and forgive me but i view as that as a very tragic

so while i will always view him as being in the right, because when you put him in comparasion to most characters that doesnt realize whats wrong w the shinobi world, he will always come as one of the few that actually isn’t blind (even if its framed as bad for pointing that the system needs to be destroyed), i still dont think his plans are the right ones

#ask game #whats great about sasuke is that hes a very complex and layered character I will day THE MOST complex and also consistently developed in #the manga #unfortunately theres alot of bias when it comes to reading him #sorry this took me this long to answer i wanted to put all my thoughts but also i dont think i did completely idk #if theres typos in this I am sorry #mine

[eijirousbestie]

where they would work

MHA HCs

Kirishima

Starbucks . ° •

He’s just so happy to be able to make people their favorite drinks.

It’s kind of endearing how he loves the shop as much as he does and he doesn’t even like coffee. Sometimes he’ll be curious about the taste of the various coffees he’s made.

He knows what it’s like to have a messed up order (and misspelled name) so he’s very meticulous with how he serves every order.

When writing a customers name on a cup, he’ll draw little doodles beside it.

Because of his bubbly personality tons of regulars flood the shop whenever he works. If he’s off shift, the shop is ridiculously empty.

His manager makes sure to keep him up front at all times because he brings in good money.

“Where’s Kirishima? The shop’s practically dead.”

“It’s his off day sir.”

Sero

Hot Topic/Spencer’s . ° •

You can’t tell me he wouldn’t work at one of these stores.

I can just imagine him wearing his usual clothes with a little employee name tag on his shirt as he talks your head off about his favorite bands at checkout.

“Look all I’m saying is Sleeping with Sirens were way ahead of their time. Gotta pay respect ya know?”

Will 100% be nosey about what you’re buying if it interests him in any way. Getting a graphic tee of your favorite artist? He’s all over it asking when you first stanned.

He finally found out what was at the back of Spencer’s and won’t stop cracking jokes about it.

Makes use of his employee discounts and shows up the next day wearing a shirt he got off the display for 75% off.

Kaminari

GameStop . ° •

Self explanatory really. Denks is such a dude’s dude he loves all types of games so why not work where he can be surrounded by them all the time?

He works cash and restocks merchandise, games, rentals and such.

When he first realized how broke he was he thought “getting a job” meant he was gonna have to slave away in an office somewhere crunching numbers. Who knew he’d have so much fun at work.

He’s practically best friends with his co-workers… except his discord mod manager. He doesn’t talk to him very much.

He chucks it up with customers who come up to him asking for the latest drops or game recommendations. He knows the ins and outs of their products and always points them in the right direction based on their preferences.

“Oh you’re wanting something similar to Overwatch? Whatever you do, don’t go Valorant. It’s kinda sucky really. Here, Apex is so much better, especially if you main Seer.”

Bakugou

McAllister’s . ° •

Okay now stay with me, it sounds random as hell to say he’d work at a deli but it makes PERFECT sense.

He’s got skill in the kitchen and I feel like he can make a mean sandwich. Bakugou as a butcher also makes sense.

When he first starts working at the deli, his manager puts him on cashier and he hates it. Having to listen to overly complicated orders drives him batty.

Needless to say, his manager put him in the kitchen after that. And thank god for that because he prefers it in the back anyways.

He secretly loves cooking for people so although he might gripe about an insane amount of pastrami going on one sub, he knows someone will eat well because of his efforts.

“What kind of a shit sandwich is this? Shit’s pissing me off I’m not making this.”

#mha headcanons #mha drabbles #mha x reader #bakugou headcanons #sero headcanons #kirishima headcannons #kaminari headcanons #bakusquad headcanons #mha hcs #bakugou katsuki #denki kaminari #hanta sero #kirishima eijirou

[garbinge]

Complicated

Javier Peña & Pena!Sister!Reader (Peña's Sister Reader) Steve Murphy x Peña!F!Reader

For @the-slumberparty's Bingo Challenge! Bingo square: Bondage

A/N: Okay, I KNOWWWW bondage is smutty. I know. but like I had to make it angsty because its who i am as a person. it does allude to smut tho, so it's not completely dry lol.

Word Count: 2.2k

Warnings: Angsty, alludes to sexual situations, flirty, fighting, arguing, cursing, mentions of guns, etc. bondage.

Narcos Taglist: @drabbles-mc @justreblogginfics @narcolini

“It’s too fucking complicated!” Javi’s voice raised. 

“Don’t raise your voice.” You scrunched your face up and waved him off. 

“Don’t make that face.” He retorted back to you in the most little brother way possible. 

“Look, it’s done, Javi. I’m flying out and getting briefed before you even have your flight booked. I’m on the Escobar case, it’s done.” You shrugged, face still scrunched up as you waved him off yet again, grabbing the plates to serve the food you had just cooked.

“Don’t–don’t do that. I fucking hate when you do that.” His voice was lowered but it was still tense. 

“Do what? Be right?” You weren’t going to yell, you weren’t going to argue, what’s done was done. 

Javi was coming around to that realization, begrudgingly, but he was. “Yea, that.” 

You smiled at your brother, not in a condescending way, but sympathetic. You didn’t want Javi to be upset or bothered by this but he also needed to accept it regardless of his opinion on it. 

You and Javi both joined government agencies, at the time of joining you were both in different divisions, but there was occasional overlap. It taught you two how to work together, how to communicate on the job, all of those things. But nothing prepared both of you for this. There had been rumors that Peña had been selected to join the DEA, you just didn’t realize that the rumor meant both of you. It was definitely a conflict of interest, but the DEA definitely didn’t care. Their priority was catching Escobar. 

“Is the food done?” Javi was walking over hiding his attempt to steal from the pot by seeming like he was going to help you serve and set the table. 

“Are both of you done?” Chucho entered the kitchen, frustration laced in his voice and eager to eat. 

“Yes Dad.” You handed him the first plate of food you were serving and he was out of the kitchen as quickly as he entered, not wanting anything to do with whatever you and your brother were talking about. 

Javi’s eyes were on Chucho until he left the room and he leaned back as extra precaution to check he was gone. As soon as he was out of sight, Javi was turning to you. 

“Hermanita, por favor.” He pled with you, like nicknames were going to make you be like ‘okay I’ll drop the opportunity of a lifetime and fuck my career’. Extremely wishful thinking. 

“Javi, I told Dad we were done, so it’s done.” You were aggravated now. “If you have a problem with it, you stay home.” You were grabbing the carrot out of his hand and throwing it into the pot of food, annoyance all over your face. 

You know your little brother didn’t mean what you were feeling. The feeling of being a woman working for the government in the 70’s was trying to say the least. And your brother was trying you right now. Of course he’d assume you’d just be the one to stand down, you knew in Javi’s mind it was more a selfish thing than a sexist one, but that didn’t take away from the underlying misogynistic assumption of why he probably was thinking it in the first place. So you made it clear to him that the only way he’d get what he want, was for him to make the choice to stay home, not you.

“Alright.” He lifted his hands up in surrender, knowing you well enough that there was no more room to push or argue about this topic. But, Javi being Javi, that didn’t stop him from repeating himself from something he said earlier. This time under his breath as you walked away to join Chucho to eat.

“It’s gonna be too fucking complicated.” 

____

“This is fucking complicated.” Those were the first words you spoke when Steve opened the door to his apartment. 

“Apparently that’s our favorite thing to do.” Steve stepped back and waved his arm in a sarcastic manner to welcome you in but you were already well past him and pacing in his living room thinking about the information he had just told you.  

That was true. As if being in the thick of this drug war in Colombia wasn’t complicated enough, you had working alongside your brother to add to it and decided sleeping with his partner was just the complicated cherry on top you needed. 

To be fair, you weren’t just sleeping with Steve, there were feelings there, feelings neither of you ever talked about because being a special agent in the DEA meant you were sent back to the 5th grade when it came to being open and honest about how you felt about people. Also, you were truly in the thick of things, how you felt about each other wasn’t ever top priority. You both met the first day you landed, he had been in Colombia for about a week. He acted like he was showing you the lay of the land there at the embassy, but truthfully, you both were ostracized from the masses. You both needed to earn your way to be trusted by your fellow co-workers and the search bloc. It made getting closer with each other easier because, well, when no one else would talk to you, you had one another. Living in the same building also helped, it’d make late nights feel a bit more romanticized when he’d walk you to your apartment on the third floor and then walk back down to his on the second. He’d do that every night, until one night, he didn’t walk back down to the second floor. Not until the morning to grab his clothes for your morning trek into the office. Since then, the lines got extremely blurry in your professional relationship and when Javi came things got even more complicated. Steve was never your working partner, per say. You might have gone out on raids and things together, but on paper you were just two DEA agents in the same department. You were more of an intel special agent, while he was a boots on the ground type. But you both gave eachother tips and tricks to both. Until Javi came. Once your brother was in Colombia, he was assigned as Steve’s partner. 

“Are you positive?” You stopped pacing and stared at Steve, the coffee table being the only thing between you, that and a mountain of tension. 

“He sold me out to the fuckin’ Cali cartel, he’s blurring the lines.” 

“Yea, well.” Your face said it all when you looked at Steve. You two were doing the same thing Javi was just different scenarios. 

“It’s way different. This isn’t illegal.” Steve defended both of you. 

You brought your hand to your head as the headache began to throb. This wasn’t the time to argue about your relationship, it was different sure, but there was a level of issue with it. Things you thought of more since you’d likely be the one to be taunted, hazed, bullied, and reprimanded work wise. 

Your thoughts were interrupted by the ring of his landline phone. Both of you twisting your heads to stare at the phone before Steve was moving to answer. You resumed your pacing, hoping the call was something nonsensical and you two could get back to your conversation

“I gotta go in. Classified info from the embassy came in, they found out where Blackie’s girlfriend is.” Steve was quick to grab his keys and vest, which meant a raid was approved. 

“I’m coming with you.” You went to turn to run to your apartment and grab your vest but Steve was jogging by you quickly. 

You weren’t expecting him to stand in front of the door and block it like he was doing so the frown on your face grew as you tried to piece together what he was doing. 

“Please stay here.” That was all he was going to say, and even thought he knew that wasn’t going to do anything in your brain, he still held on some hope. 

You laughed at his request. “No, I’m going with you. This is huge.” 

“If Javi is working with the Cali Cartel, with fuckin’ Los Pepes, whoever, this is going to get messy.” Steve gave you the real reason he wanted you to stay back. 

“Steve. Right now, I’m not your fuck buddy, I’m not Javi’s sister, I’m not your responsibility or his, I’m not even your fucking partner, I’m a DEA special agent and I have every right to be on this raid.” You were firm with your voice. 

“You know that’s not why I’m saying this.” Steve tilted his head. He knew how you felt about things inside the agency, the politics of it all. He might have been oblivious to somethings but he was fully aware of others. “I’m saying this because if Javi gets put into a position in the middle of the field, all those agents and search bloc members around, you can’t react the way I know you’ll want to, I can though, he’s my partner.” Steve made a good point, but you weren’t going to give in that easily, or at all. 

“I know how to work in the field with my fuckin’ brother, Murphy.” You were now chest to chest, you had been taking steps closer to the door. 

“But you don’t know how to navigate working on the field with your brother whose possibly–probably working with fuckin Los Pepes.” 

There was his point. He was probably right, even though you didn’t want him to be. You just stared at him, letting the long seconds pass knowing he’d give in because the time was ticking down to him getting to wherever this intel pointed to. 

“Fine.” He said hanging his head low. “But you left your vest here.” He knew that was where you were headed. The memory came back to you, last night coming into Steve’s apartment quickly and quietly after a long night on the streets of Colombia based on a rotten tip. 

Turning to follow Steve’s gaze you saw him pull your bulletproof vest from the coat hooks and lift it up with one finger. It was sarcastic but a part of you couldn’t help but to feel slightly attracted by the face he made at you. With his other hand he grabbed his other things, gun, wallet, handcuffs, and situated them on his belt and threw the vest over his shoulder before coming back over to you. 

He ripped the velcro off the vest and opened it wide, the sound of the velcro detaching loudly filling the close space between you two. Lifting the green bulletproof vest over your head he stepped closer against you, his torso lining up with your own. You could feel his breath against your face, it was cool with the hint of a cigarette he probably had a few hours ago. His other hand lifted your arms up. If you weren’t getting ready to go on a raid you would have pushed him down and taken him right here. As he placed the vest over your arms, he aggressively pulled it down so it was starting to form against your body, the motion of it was making your heart beat faster. His head now was level with yours as his hands caressed around you and you let out a gasp as he tightened the straps so not only was the vest fit around your body but you were brought closer to him. 

He lifted your hands up again, putting both of your wrists in one of his hands and tapping around the vest to make sure everything was secure. 

“Want you to be safe, you know?” He chuckled, knowing exactly what he was doing. He spoke this to you, whispered it actually, right into your ear, his lips tickling your ear before he placed a sweet kiss on your neck that soon became sensual. You didn’t realized it since your eyes closed to enjoy his lips on your neck but you were now against the wall. 

Just as you were about to tell him that you both should go, you heard the clicking and your eyes shot open and looked up. You were handcuffed to the lighting sconce that was attached to the concrete wall. You shook your hand for good measure but there was no coming loose from that. 

“Are you fucking kidding me?” You looked at Steve, shock and a little betrayal in your eyes. 

“Not exactly the kind of bondage I wanted to try with you but I had to do it,” He was turning to grab the sat phone that was on the coffee table before turning back around to see you and how angry you were. “I’m sorry, I’ll make it up to you and call you the minute it’s over.” He was placing the SAT phone in your hand before placing a quick kiss on your lips and running out of the door. 

There was nothing you could do but yell, so that’s what you did. 

“FUCK YOU, MURPHY!”

#javi peña #javier peña #steve murphy #Steve murphy x reader #steve murphy x f!reader #steve murphy x you #javier peña x sister!reader #narcos fanfiction #narcos #narcos fanfic #narcos netflix

[the-cannibal]

I love your writing so much! Can I please request Bo Sinclair (or the sinclair brothers if you’d prefer) with an s/o who is unhealthily obsessed with them? Tysm! I understand if you don’t want to do it and you can completely change the topic to whatever you’d like or not do it !

Awww thank you so much! That means a lot to me! This prompt is so interesting I’ve been thinking about it all morning and I’m so excited to do it for you! Thanks for being the first person to request something, I hope you like it!

Bo Sinclair X Reader who is unhealthy obsessed with him

Gender neutral reader - they/them and you is used

Written on mobile so sorry if the format is weird

You had known the Sinclair’s practically your whole life. The brothers were your best friends. You did everything together, you’d sneak off to each others homes to play, eat lunch together and skip classes in grade school. But there was one Sinclair you were closer to.

Bo. Ever since the first time you met Bo you had a special bond with him. You would always want to hang out with him. Lester wants to play tag? Can Bo come along? Vincent wants to show you how to draw? Well how about Bo join in too!

Bo didn’t think much of your… Clinginess. You were his best friend, so it made sense why you wanted to be around him so much. In fact, he actually quite liked how clingy you were to him. It was no secret after all that his parents were good to him, which is why the two of you usually hung out at your house or outside somewhere. So the fact that someone wanted his attention, wanted to talk to him and listen to him, he adored it.

But you didn’t just “want” Bo. You craved him. You always felt a special way towards Bo. When you were little you didn’t know what those feelings were. It wasn’t until you were a teen you realized you were in love with him. So you began showing Bo your love. You’d bake him his favorite sweets and cook him meals, you’d help him with cars, you’d bandage up his wrists when he had been picking at them and making them raw and irritated. And when his mama got sick you were there to listen to him vent about all the things he was feeling and what was running through his mind. Despite the fact you hated his parents for what they did to him and his brothers, you’d never talk bad about Trudy. You knew Bo had a complicated relationship with her and somewhere deep down in him he still loved her, even though she didn’t feel the slightest bit the same for him. Her world was Vincent. Bo and Lester were just extras she had to “put up with”.

And then Bo killed his father.

Bo would always tell you that his dad committed suicide. That the death of his wife drove him mad. But you knew the truth. You saw it after all.

You were going over to bring Bo a box of old car parts you had stolen found for him, when walking past the window to Victors office, you saw Bo holding up his shotgun and pointing it at the man. You saw him pull the trigger, and Victors blood and brain splatter on the window. The sight made you smile, you were proud of Bo for standing up to that sick son of a bitch and putting an end to everything once and for all. But you couldn’t tell Bo that, so instead you turned back to your home and pretended like you saw nothing. The box of car parts helped cheer Bo up after his fathers “suicide”.

A few years later and the two of you were adults now, and you had finally won Bo over. He was officially yours now and yours only. You moved into Ambrose relatively soon. The town had always been small, but you had began noticing it was getting smaller. And then one day you saw a group of people roll into town, claiming something was wrong with their car. Bo being the kind man he is offered to help them, and told them to go to the house of wax to keep themselves entertained while they waited.

“Darlin can you help me for a sec?” His sweet voiced called out to you.

“Of course, Bo! Whatcha need?” You skipped over to him with a smile.

“Well it looks like they have a broken fan belt, problem is that I don’t have the right size here. Could you go into town with Lester and get one for me?”

You nodded with a smile. And he smiled back down at you. “Thank you, darlin, I appreciate it.” Bo wrote down what he needed on a piece of scrap paper and sent you on your way. You were happy to help Bo, and you got to hang out with Lester! That was a bonus!

When you got back to town with the part you noticed those peoples car was gone, and so was Bo. So you knocked on the basement door to ask Vinny if he had seen them. He shook his head and you thanked him with a smile, turning to walk away but stopping midway. “By the way, those are some neat sculptures you got down there. Trying to keep up with your ma’s art?” You asked with a sweet smile. Vincent nodded. “Ah, I see. Well you did a great job as always! It almost looks real.”

And that was when you found out the brothers had been killing off the town one by one and anyone who crossed in it. You found the pit soon after that, or well, you smelled it. But best of all, Bo thought you were completely in the dark.

He’d wake up, give his partner a kiss before waving goodbye to them as he went out to get some more muses for his twin. Meanwhile his partner was subtly helping him out. They’d make sure their partners clothes was clean of any specks of blood, clean the garage extra carefully, and of course give him the biggest sweetest smiles. You had watched Bo do his special little hobby, in fact watching him became a part of your routine. And he suspected nothing.

“Welcome back, honey!” You shouted over your shoulder as you put dinner in the oven. Tonight was your turn to cook. Bo mumbled a hello back to you and slumped on the couch. You frowned, tossing the over mitt onto the counter, and making your way behind him. “Something happen?” You asked with concern.

Bo sighed, rubbing his temples and leaning his head back. “Jus’ been a long day,” He answered. “I’m so exhausted.”

Without needing another word you wrapped your hands around his shoulders and began massaging them, doing your best to work out some knots. Bo melted into your touch with a sigh. “You always now exactly how I like to relax.” You hummed with a giggle. “I know a lot about you, Beauregard. A lot more than you think.”

“Is that right?” He spoke. “Alright smarty, what else do you know about me?”

You hummed in thought. “Well, I know despite all the blue you wear your favorite color is actually green.”

Bo snorted. “You know my favorite color? Big deal, that’s too easy.”

“I’m not finished,” you spoke, moving your hands to lightly massage his scalp and temples. “You don’t like any green. You like a darker green, like a fir tree. You also hate neon colors because they hurt your eyes.”

Bo simply hummed in response. He was slightly impressed, he’ll admit.

“But I also know things about you that even you yourself doesn’t know.” You said, getting Bo’s attention and making him perk up. You swung around the couch and lightly kissed him on the nose. “Like you ain’t as sneaky as you think.”

Bo chuckled and grabbed you by the waist, pulling you into his lap and covering your neck in kisses. “What’s that supposed to mean? You know where I hid your birthday present or somethin?”

You giggled and shrugged. “Maybe,” Your moment was interrupted by the over timer. You got up and took the dinner out and looked back at Bo. “I think ill take some of this to Ms. Locket , if you don’t mind.”

Bo’s face twisted to a sad pout, a very fake one. Oh how he’s never been good at faking emotions, other than a charming southern man. “Didn’t y’a hear? She passed away this mornin.”

You frowned, slowly setting the food onto the counter and looking down. “Oh…” you mumbled. “She was so sweet…”

“Oh darlin, come here.” Bo held his arms out and took you in, holding you close. You buried your head into his shoulder and could smell gun powder. “I know it’s sad, but you’ll get through it. I know you will.”

You hummed and smiled, gripping your hands around Bo tightly. Around your Bo. Yours and yours alone. He might not know just how enamored you are by him, but that’s okay. Because you know, and that’s all that matters.

#bo sinclair #house of wax 2005 #slasher x reader #house of wax x reader #bo sinclair x reader #request #Bo Sinclair request

[cookinguptales]

travel rambling!! under the cut!! because I do intend to ramble!! a lot!!

like if you thought that wwdits was a hyperfixation of mine, you've never heard me talk about some of the religious traditions I've studied. lmao

SO first of all, religious syncretism is when elements of two or more religions/traditions are incorporated into religious practice. A crossover episode, if you will, and I am obsessed with it. When I was in college studying religions and folklore, it quickly became a driving force in my intellectual curiosity.

I've always been really interested in how people pick and choose from different traditions to create their own personal belief systems, and syncretic religions can be this on a micro or macro level. We could be talking about something as individualized as a self-identified pagan assembling a collection of beliefs and rituals from various world mythologies and written/online sources, or we could be talking about something as established as Louisiana Voodoo, which is a syncretic religion with strong influences from Roman Catholicism, various West African religions, and Haitian Vodou.

Syncretic religions form in a lot of ways... immigration, colonialism, natural spread of tradition, purposeful assemblage of disparate ideas, etc. Sometimes there's a history of blood, sometimes a history of love, sometimes a little bit of both. And man, I feel like there's just something so human about it.

The thing I love best about stories is the way they grow and change within us. When you hear a story, you resonate with certain parts of it. You remember some parts best. And when you retell that story, you can't help but imbue it with a little bit of your own self. The parts you loved and the parts you hated and the parts you want to emphasize or deemphasize or embellish. You can't hear a story without taking it into yourself, and you can't tell one without making it your own -- even if you retell it word for word.

And I guess religious syncretism is the final form of that, a little bit? Taking ingredients from every part of your life, real and imagined and studied and genetic, and mixing them together into the precise stew that nourishes you best, either on an individualized or communal level.

I digress.

I started out with Egyptology in school, abandoned that for several reasons, and realized what I really loved learning about was religion, especially on a practical and/or vernacular level. (i.e. what people actually do rather than the ur version of whatever philosophy we're talking about.) Then Some Stuff Happened and I added on East Asian Languages and Civilizations and really started leaning into learning about Japanese folklore and religions, especially once I started studying in Kyoto.

When I was studying in Japan, I really wanted to learn a lot about Shinto. The concepts behind it had been kind of ill-defined for me, and I wanted to really nail down what people were even talking about when they talked about Shinto. But... to my surprise, even the Japanese people I talked to were really vague on the subject. Which made sense, I guess, as I learned more about it.

I was really, really lucky, actually, because a professor who knew quite a lot about Shinto came to teach at my (American) school shortly before I graduated. It's not easy to find good classes on that subject in the US, especially outside of the west coast and Hawaii. But we had a whole symposium where experts from all over the world came and discussed various research projects on the subject and I was So Happy. lmao

I'm not... gonna get too into Shinto right now. My final assignment for that class, IIRC, was to write a 15 (20?) page paper on the topic "what is Shinto?" so that... might give you an idea of how complicated the question is. lmao.

Suffice it to say, for now, that Shinto is a name that we've retroactively applied to a series of disparate practices and belief systems in what would eventually become Japan. So... in that respect, it's an indigenous religion of Japan, or at least a modern understanding of many of them.

(People think of Japan as one cohesive country because it is now, but maybe think of that period as being more like Ancient Greece? Lots of small little villages and towns (think city-states) that were separated by topographical features and therefore had their own cultures before they were unified into the country we know of as Japan much later.)

Shinto, as a modern concept... ugh, it's still super complicated. There are deities or spirits called kami, and there are several big, important ones like Amaterasu and Susanoo, but also there's just this thought that almost everything can contain a kami because everything has a spirit. (It's animism, baby.) So there is a spirit of that big boulder, a spirit of that mountain, a spirit of that tree, and they're all kami. There are literally thousands of kinds of kami, and they're everywhere at all times. People can become kami after they die, man-made objects can become kami. (Sort of Velveteen Rabbit style.) And in Shinto shrines, these kami are enshrined and venerated and kept happy. Like any deity, they can help or they can hurt, y'know?

There's... a lot more to it than that, some of it extremely political, but that's the essence of it, I think. Kami veneration. (What that entails is... debatable, too! haha)

God, and that was my short version. That's not even what I wanted to talk about.

All that is to say that that's what I was trying to study my first time in Japan. The second time I was in Japan (a few years ago) I heard about Shugendo, which is a highly syncretic mountain-based religion in Japan that has dwindled quite a bit over the years, but not entirely.

Shugendo, to my understanding, is a syncretic religious tradition comprised of elements from Shinto, Buddhism (especially Esoteric Buddhism), and local traditions about local deities. It's extremely mountain-centric, and most important places in Shugendo are on top of mountains. (Which... make them very difficult for my disabled ass to get to.)

The point, though, is the climb. It's a highly ascetic tradition, so practitioners, or yamabushi, would often push themselves to their physical and mental limits. They'd live out in the wilderness, often alone for long periods of time, and make do with what they found out there. One of the places we're going has a very distinct food tradition just because it's largely born out of the increasingly creative scavenging yamabushi would do while out on the mountain. They figured out how to eat a lot of things that most people would not eat. lmao

The important part here, though, is near-constant meditation and going to a sacred place (the mountain) and becoming one with that sacrality. It's trying to find enlightenment through nature and the divine. It feels similar to the Romantic concept of the sublime to me, y'know? And there's stuff about gaining superhuman spiritual powers through all this, too, though I don't know as much about that. (YET.)

One of the reasons why it's kind of hard to learn about is that there are very few practitioners these days. This is partially due to a generally dwindling number of people who identify as religious in Japan, partially because there were never that many practitioners to start with, and partially because... it was illegal for a while! (More on that later.)

Man, though, I wanna learn about it.

Shugendo has kind of become my white whale over the last few years, and there's a lot more information now on the internet than there was when I first started learning about it, but it's still often frustratingly vague!

This time, though, my dad was like "well, we're going to be there for quite a while and you already showed me most of the important tourist spots last time, so is there anywhere off the beaten path you really want to go?"

Now. This was a very brave thing to say to me, considering some of the weird-ass places I dragged him to last time. This man turned and looked me in the eye, the same woman who made him go to the moss temple and the cricket temple in the same goddamn day that we wandered through the bamboo forest in Arashiyama at night after I cheerfully told him that the shrine there was most famous for a ghost story. He said it was one of the creepiest experiences of his life!

haha. memories.

anyway. He looked me in the eye and asked me if there was anywhere unusual I wanted to go. And I slapped open a map of Wakayama and was like I WANNA DO THE KUMANO KODO.

Now... I was not going to hike the entirety of an ancient pilgrimage route. Like I said before, my dumb (but highly excitable) ass is disabled. I cannot physically do that. But I wanted to see the main shrines and temples on the route (shrines=Shinto, temples=Buddhist!) and hike a very small portion of the 1000-year-old route, some of which STILL EXISTS AS A ROAD. *_*

And I wanted to go because... Shugendo!!!! The Kumano Kodo is a popular pilgrimage route for yamabushi!!! That whole Kumano region is sacred for practitioners of Shugendo, and I was like! Heck yeah! I can learn a thing!

But... Dad got injured. ;; And I'm used to pain, but he is not. So I'm not going to make the poor man hike. I want him to heal and get better and not strain his torn abdomen too much.

So I kind of abandoned that idea.

(Side note: I was asking Dad what he thought his physical limits were going to be so I didn't overplan and he was like "well, you can't do that much either, so I don't think we'll do too much" and I was like "what do you mean?" And he said "well, there's nothing that'll hurt me that won't hurt you, too, and you're not going to want to hurt yourself to see things." and I was like "hmm" and I realized that my father does not really understand my existence at all. lmao)

Then I was thinking, though, and I remembered reading about sokushinbutsu awhile ago. I wasn't actually thinking about going to see them initially; Dad and I were just driving up the coast and it's a long drive so I was cheerfully rambling. So I was explaining the basic concept to him and I was like "yes, and I heard that one of the temples is so sacred that you have to go barefoot throughout the grounds, even in winter" and I googled where it was, exactly, because I couldn't remember and

YAMAGATA.

I looked at it and I thought about the Dewa Sanzan and I googled how much climbing those mountains actually require and then I was like

hey dad wanna go to some extremely sacred mountains in northern Japan? they let you drive to the shrines.

And he was like "...why those mountains specifically?"

And then I had to tell him about Shugendo, because yessss that's another very important place for it. I'd always sort of associated the idea of sokushinbutsu with Shingon (esoteric) Buddhism and Kukai, the founder of which, because I knew that it was said that he still rests at Koyasan in eternal meditation.

(YEAH, WE'RE GOING TO KOYASAN TOO! *HIGH KICK*)

But! It turns out that it's actually more of a Shugendo tradition, especially in the Yamagata region, though legend does go that Kukai brought the concept to Japan.

So... what is sokushinbutsu?

(CONTENT WARNING uhhh corpses, religious self-harm, starvation, general morbidity, if you google this know that there WILL be pictures.)

Sokushinbutsu are often referred to as living Buddhas or living mummies. The long and short of it is that highly ascetic monks would be mummified, and they would start this process while they were still alive. It's... a pretty difficult process to read about, so I won't go into a ton of detail here, but if you google "sokushinbutsu" you can find way more information.

I will say that it involves slowly reducing food and water intake and increasing the intake of... well, poison, honestly. Both tea made from the Japanese lacquer tree, which has the side effect of sort of lacquering the organs, and local spring water -- which in the case of Yamagata, involves pretty large amounts of arsenic. People all over Japan attempted this process, but by far the highest number of known successful cases are in Yamagata. This is partially because of the popularity of Shugendo there, and partially, people think, because their water had such a high amount of arsenic, which when combined with the loss of adipose tissue and hydration, as well as the lacquer, sort of mummified the organs while the person was still alive.

This process would eventually kill the practitioner, but... I mean, it takes about a decade. This is not something undertaken on a whim. It is an absolutely grueling practice that is considered incredibly sacred. It's a way to ascend past your mortal body and achieve enlightenment, but only for the most devout and devoted practitioners.

(There's a whole lot about ascending past mortal bodies in Buddhism, but I think that and corpse meditation are a different discussion.)

I say that the practitioner "dies", but... I mean, in a scientific sense, yes. These people would die. Shortly before death, they would be placed in a pit underground and essentially buried alive with only a bamboo tube to allow air and sound in and out. They would be given a bell and would periodically ring it to let others know they were still alive. When they stopped ringing the bell, the tube would be removed. They'd come back and check on the body in a few years, and if it had decayed, it was considered a failed attempt and reburied. If it had mummified, it was considered a successful sokushinbutsu and taken out so it could be displayed for veneration.

This is the important part, though. If the process was successful, these are not considered dead bodies. This is a person who achieved Buddhahood while still alive, and they are considered to be in a sort of eternal repose. You go to them to pray and meditate, and often amulets are made from their robes (which are changed every 6-12 years) so people who come to pray can take some of their power home with them.

So... I want to go to learn about Shugendo, but I knew that seeing the sokushinbutsu would be a selling point for Dad... You just have to know how to sell things, I guess.

(You might know from my other posts that I have extremely mixed feelings when it comes to the display of human remains in museums, but I genuinely can't think of a more vociferous consent than the act of sokushinbutsu. Going to see them feels like honoring their wishes, and I do feel that some of them are very beautiful, in a way. So I am looking forward to the experience, though I'll admit to feeling a little trepidation.)

So we will be visiting the Dewa Sanzan, Hagurosan, Gassan, and Yudonosan!

(-san means the same as Mt. in Japanese! so Fujisan is Mt. Fuji. I usually still use -san with mountains out of habit, and Gassan is... incredibly hard to pronounce without doing that, to the point where it is often translated as "Mt. Gassan." lmao. Japanese double consonants are fun.)

The part of this I am most excited about is... Hagurosan has a museum about Shugendo! IN ENGLISH. I cry!!! Apparently one of the yamabushi currently living on Hagurosan is a westerner! Who really wants to teach other westerners about Shugendo! So the Dewa Sanzan website is excellent and I'm so fucking excited to go there and learn.

(They also had yamabushi training programs if you want hands-on knowledge but again. My disabled ass cannot clamber up and down a mountain, unfortunately. ;;)

Yamagata's a large prefecture, though, so the plan is to drive around a bit. We'll be driving between the mountains (but not up Gassan because it'll be too snowy that time of year and I think that one might be hiking-only access...?) and seeing a bunch of shrines and temples. We're also going to spend a night at Hijiori Onsen, a hot spring town in the caldera of an ancient volcano, and a night at *drum roll* a shukubo!

This is Dad indulging me again. Shukubo is a type of shrine or temple lodging. (Usually temple. But this one is a shrine! For reasons I'll get into in a minute!) Essentially, you stay overnight in a religious lodging. You might be invited to attend morning prayers with the monks, specific rituals (Koyasan's are famous for the goma fire rituals), sutra-copying, guided meditation, etc. Traditionally speaking, these were usually stayed at by religious pilgrims, and some were reserved solely for monks, priests, yamabushi, etc. These days anyone can stay at them!

We'll be staying in two during our trip! One at Koyasan, which I hear has tragically become a bit uhhh influencer-y, and this one at Hagurosan.

Now. Why is this a shrine, even though the building was clearly designed to be a temple? Why was Shugendo illegal for a while? Well... I won't get into all the details, but suffice it to say that during different points during Japan's history, either Buddhism or Shinto have been prioritized by the government, and during those periods, the other tended to suffer.

When Buddhism first arrived in Japan in the sixth century CE, it was introduced from China and Korea and had... some settling to do, I guess? Shinto was largely what was accepted in Japan at the time, and people kind of struggled to reconcile the two concepts with each other. Enter the concept of honji suijaku, which is where this baby gets really syncretic.

It's... complicated, like most of this is, but the basic idea is that kami came to be seen as manifestations, or alternate forms, of Buddhist deities. (Buddhas, bodhisattvas, etc.) The Buddhist deity was appearing in the form of kami to better help people in Japan. So the kami and the Buddhist deities were one and the same, just in different guises. These syncretic deities were called "gongen" in Shugendo, which has elements of both religions in it, and were highly venerated.

But... when politics changed and Shinto was again elevated, there was a forcible separation between Buddhist and Shinto spaces. Like... as in an often violent, state-enforced separation. Shugendo, as a syncretic religion of both, was outlawed. At Dewa Sanzan, most Shugendo and/or Buddhist temples converted to Shinto, and they remain that way to this day. (And RIP to many of the Buddhist statues in the area, which have been sadly beheaded.)

So! There are a lot of buildings around there that are clearly Buddhist in origin but have nevertheless become Shinto. The shukubo we're staying at is one of these.

We're gonna see so many temples! So many shrines! We're gonna go to an onsen! We're gonna learn! Some stuff! See! Some things! Some of which are too sacred to even talk about because it's forbidden!

I am excited.

This is only like three days out of a much longer trip but I am like

every time I think about it.

(Okay, I'm actually a little worried about the shrine I'll have to go barefoot for because it's going to be cold as shit and my joints are... bad. But I can manage!)

okay now this is the longest post on earth so I'm gonna stop here, but we're gonna do SO MUCH and we're gonna see SO MUCH and we're gonna learn SO MUCH and my nerdy little heart is on FIRE.

#long post #very very long post #but I put it under a cut because I love you #the travel bug

[thisaintascenereviews]

Various Artists – Barbie: The Album

Mentioning the phrase “pop music” seems to illicit a lot of reactions, usually within the realms of “I love it” and “I hate it.” Most people either seem to love pop music, or at the very least, certain artists within it, or they loathe it. I wanted to preface this review with my own rather complicated history with pop, because pop music is a genre that I have a rather strange “relationship” with. I got into music during the early to mid-00s, when pop music was in an interesting place, thanks to house / dubstep music being huge, and a lot of well-established artists now were just getting started, such as Lady Gaga, Kesha, The Jonas Brothers, Justin Timberlake, Bruno Mars, and many more, but pop music was starting to become boring and bland. I was also much more into emo, pop-punk, and metalcore, although I would come to realize years later, a lot of the pop-punk that I listened to was merely pop-rock with an emo lens through it. Thirteen-year-old me thought I was the bee’s knees for listening to that edgier and darker kind of music (I did like some “classic rock” at the time, too), and I thought that was “real music,” as every preteen and teenager tends to think during adolescence. I just didn’t find anything to like when it came to “mainstream” music, but that all changed in the winter of 2012.

I remember it like yesterday, because it was one of those things you won’t forget. I was in FYE, and I had just discovered the magic of that store, but I was looking around for whatever I could find. I was always looking for anything at all, and I could spend hours in music stores, but I ended up finding a copy of Michael Jackson’s Thriller. Say what you will about Jackson as a person, as well as his legacy, but Thriller is one of the best albums ever made. Without going detail into it, it’s a record that I knew about without even knowing anything about pop music. It’s one of those albums that I knew I needed to hear, so I picked it up for a good price (they always had stuff on sale, too, and that really helped my decision picking it up), and I ended up falling head over heels for it. What was interesting, however, is that, despite being released in the 1980s, it changed my perception of what pop music is, let alone what it can be. Ever since then, I became a fan of pop music, and for years after, I enjoyed plenty of pop records, such as albums from Justin Timberlake, Carly Rae Jepsen, and Harry Styles’ solo material, just to name a few artists, but listening to that record opened up a whole new world for me.

Pop music, at its core, is escapism. Whether it’s from their own lives, or wanting to live through their favorite pop singers, they want to escape. The same can be said for all kinds of music, but pop music has always been “popular” for a reason. When people think of pop music, they think of catchy, accessible, and “safe” music that doesn’t push boundaries or offend anyone. When I listened to Thriller, that misconception was completely shattered. That was when I took pop music seriously, and every now and again, you can find a great pop record, but a lot of pop music is still relatively safe, tame, and bland. Not that it’s bad, but it doesn’t push any boundaries, although that’s not the point, since it’s to sell records and make money.

I’ve found myself not as interested in pop music over the years, thanks to own tastes shifting, and pop music as a whole changing. It just hasn’t appealed to me, minus a few artists, but every once in awhile, I’ll find something I like and that “something” right now is the Barbie movie soundtrack. This film, released just a few weeks ago, is the latest topic in the pop culture zeitgeist, alongside Oppenheimer, and alongside the film, a soundtrack was released that caught my curiosity by featuring some of the most popular names in pop, such as Lizzo, Khalid, the Kid Laroi, Dua Lipa, Karol G, and Billie Eilish, although one of the big songs from this record is the remix / interpolation of “Barbie Girl” by Aqua that features Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice. That’s a very stacked list of artists, let alone the whole record being produced by Mark Ronson of “Uptown Funk” fame.

Despite not listening to a lot of pop music anymore, I was curious to see how this soundtrack would pan out, especially not having seen the film yet. You can talk about this album in two ways, the first being how it holds up on its own as a soundtrack, and the second as a soundtrack after seeing the film, but because I haven’t seen the movie yet, I thought I’d first talk about it on its own, and then talk about it again once I see the movie, or write a small companion piece to along with this. Soundtracks typically are companion pieces to the movie or show they accompany, and there is often an expectation that they need to be as good, if not better, than the work they’re apart of. I won’t comment on the film, as I haven’t seen it yet, but I will say that the soundtrack works quite well on its own. The soundtrack doesn’t say anything or do anything that pushes any kind of boundary, and it does what you’d expect a Barbie soundtrack to do, which is give you an album’s worth of catchy, fun, and summery jams, and that’s okay! I’ve talked about many times how not everything needs to be deep, and this is a perfect example of that.

The Barbie soundtrack is fun, lighthearted, catchy, and enjoyable from beginning to end. A lot of the songs are quite good, if not great, and it feels like a cohesive soundtrack, instead feeling like a random soundtrack, instead feeling like a random assortment of artists. I’m curious as to how these songs work in the film, but a lot of solid tracks are here, such as “Pink” by Lizzo, “Speed Drive” by Charlie XCX, “Silver Platter” by Khalid, or the “Barbie Girl” remix I mentioned earlier. It won’t blow your mind, or ultimately change the way you think about pop music, but it’s a fun ride through the world of Barbie. There are a few standouts, such as Billie Eilish’s “What Were We Made For,” which I guarantee is going to do some numbers in the coming weeks, but there are also a few songs that don’t add anything or do anything, such as the Tame Impala song “Journey To The Real World,” which seems to have a better purpose in the movie, but it’s only a minute long, so it doesn’t really do anything or go anywhere. Haim has a song, too, entitled “Home,” and it’s a good song, but it’s nothing really that special. I enjoy listening to it, but I wouldn’t pretend it’s one of my favorites. If anything at all, listen to the soundtrack and pick out your favorites, but I don’t think anything on here is worth outright skipping, although Gayle (who’s famous for “abcdefu” from a couple of years ago) does have a weird song that interpolates “Butterfly” by Crazy Town. It’s kind of fun, but also very weird and makes no sense, especially for the Barbie movie, so I don’t know how that song fits into the overall narrative, but it’s a decent song, nonetheless.

I’m interested to see how the songs from the soundtrack fit into the film, so when I go back and listen to the soundtrack after seeing it, I can picture the songs in my head. I’m very excited to see how “I’m Just Ken” by Ryan Gosling, who plays Ken in the movie, fits into the film, because that’s one of the funniest songs here. Nonetheless, this is a soundtrack that works for what it is – a catchy and fun good time. You don’t need anything more sometimes, since not everything needs to be deep, challenging, or have an underlying message to it. Sometimes a song or album can be fun, and you can enjoy it merely on a surface level. Sometimes enjoying things at face value is all you need. Pop music is at an interesting place right now because there’s nothing happening within the genre. I mean, the top three songs in the country as of this moment are country songs, so there’s no trend or overall idea that’s getting traction, unless you look at the trends of artists interpolating songs (the “Barbie Girl” remix is a perfect example of that), or the influence of nostalgia, but pop music is at a crossroads right now, so it’ll be interesting to see how this soundtrack charts and the impact that is has, especially since the film itself is doing very well at the moment. If you’re a fan of pop music, it’s worth hearing, because it has some catchy and fun summer jams on it, even if it won’t necessarily change your life.

#barbie #barbie the movie #barbie the album #margot robbie #ryan gosling #oppenheimer #barbenheimer #lizzo #haim #nicki minaj #ice spice #barbie girl #aqua #pop music #dua lipa #sam smith #tame impala #gayle #khalid #karol g #charli xcx #billie eilish

[alto-tenure]

Was Claire a willing test subject? Yes, and in this essay I will...

I’ve had this essay topic on my mind for a while, but now I’m finally doing the research for it. This will take a look at Claire’s role in the time machine explosion, and how much of her being a test subject was her choice and how much of it was manipulation.

The conventional narrative, as perpetuated by Dimitri, is that Claire was manipulated by Bill Hawks to go into the time machine, and was an unwilling test subject. This is often taken as the truth of it all, and an extra reason to hate Bill Hawks. Bill Hawks is an easy person to hate, after all, for just making money he got from the deaths of many people in the explosion.

But I think it’s more complicated than “Claire was entirely unwilling and was just too nice to say no to her coworker” or “Claire was being manipulated/lied to by Bill”. So this is an examination of Claire’s dialogue when she talks about the time machine, to attempt to study exactly how much she consented and how much she knew about the time machine.

Here goes.

Quick disclaimer -- I have the American version of this game, so it’s the American dialogue used. I don’t know how different the EU versions of these parts are, and that’s an interesting topic, but this is based on the US version.

Let’s start with the cutscene right before the explosion, shall we?

[Image ID: Cutscene screenshot. Claire is in the process of grabbing her coat. The caption reads “We’re running a very important experiment today.” /end ID]

Claire, first of all, was actually aware of the experiment. This is, as opposed to Dimitri, who wasn’t aware that the experiment was happening, saying the following: “By the time I realized Bill planned to go ahead with the experiment, it was too late to stop him.”

(Side note: I think it’s hilarious that both Claire and Dimitri ended up “running late”, in a manner of sorts -- Claire was running late when she left Layton, and Dimitri was also late to the lab.)

The implication of this is that one and/or both of them decided on purpose to not tell Dimitri that they planned on going ahead with the test. After all, Dimitri had expressed apprehension beforehand about going ahead with the test, saying it was too dangerous.

Claire and Dimitri are implied to be fairly close -- they have similar haircuts (which is definitely a purposeful character design choice). Bill has a “distance” of sorts from the two of them; Claire in the future never really talks to him [citation needed]. If Claire had similar apprehensions, she probably wouldn’t have kept the fact that they were going ahead with the experiment a secret from him -- she knew it was important to keep it a secret from him, because he would have attempted to dissuade her from going in. The key takeaway from this is that in spite of any implied closeness between them, she didn’t tell him that the test was going forward. She didn’t want to be dissuaded.

Claire says when she persuades Layton to turn back that “[Clive] isn’t the only one to blame”. Layton just nods. She’s referring to herself in this line as someone else to blame for all this, but Layton believes she’s referring to Bill, or even perhaps Dimitri -- he later alludes to blaming him for what Clive did by saying that Clive was a “victim of a political agenda for progress, no matter the cost”. Remember that Layton had no idea that Claire was/is Celeste when she said that; he had no context for any deeper meaning.

However, we’re going to focus on how she blames herself.

[Image ID: Claire (as Celeste) and Clive’s sprites on-screen inside of the mobile fortress. “Celeste” is saying “After all, so much of this tragedy was caused by the mistakes we scientists made.” /end ID]

She is part of the scientists that made the mistake. She is part of the “we”. She blames herself for what went wrong. She was responsible for the construction of the machine, and she was part of what drove its destruction. This is how Claire consistently frames it; all of them bear some level of blame for the destruction of London. I don’t think she would be as willing to blame herself if she weren’t willing to be the test subject.

[Image ID: A textbox in front of an image of Dimitri Allen examining some data. Claire is saying the dialogue, which reads “There’s no telling what chaos we’d release upon the world if we tried to save the dead from their fate.” /end ID]

One of the threads that runs through the ending of this game is that Claire is resigned to her fate. She’s always known it was going to end like this, with her saying goodbye and going back so that she can die. She is the epitome of “doomed by the narrative”, and she knows it, and she hasn’t deemed it worth fighting. It’s an inevitability. After all, she feels guilty for the destruction that she believes she helped to cause.

[Image ID: Same as previous, but the dialogue now says “What Dimitri, Bill, and I did 10 years ago broke the laws of nature. And now we must pay.” /end ID]

She doesn’t hesitate to implicate herself for the destruction. She is and always has been a part of this. She was responsible for the construction of the machine -- and she was responsible for its usage.

Claire never brings up the part where Bill took corporate funding from the time machine, so we’ll never know her thoughts on that specifically -- all we know is that she believes all three of them responsible, and is willing to hold herself accountable by refusing to fight her fate.

So, after examining what Claire has to say about the explosion, what can we conclude?

Claire was most likely willing to test the time machine. She is willing to take part of the blame for the explosion and the devastation caused by it as part of the crew that constructed the time machine. She was almost certainly not coerced. Whether she knew about the corporate funding or not is a toss-up -- it’s more likely she was motivated by scientific discovery than by greed -- but it doesn’t change the fact that she was not completely coerced into it. There’s room for nuance here -- there could have been some manipulation involved with her that’s caused her to believe she was completely willing, but she definitely wasn’t outright coerced, and I think people (cough Dimitri cough) tend to underestimate the amount of agency and control Claire had over the situation.

Is Bill Hawks enough of a bastard to have gone ahead with the experiment, even if Claire hadn’t consented to being used as the subject? Sure. Do I think that was the situation? Absolutely not.

#professor layton #claire foley #bill hawks #dimitri allen #pl spoilers #unwound future spoilers #meta

[writeawaythepain]

Confidence

Actor!Mark x (gn!reader)

I love the idea of getting all dressed up and going to a fancy party with someone, but haven't yet really had the chance, or the confidence to do so...But that's what writings for!!

Tw: none, I don’t think

Word count: 2.8k

Prompts: I never got the chance to go to prom, and even though I’m not a huge fan of parties anyway…I decided to write this for anyone else who likes the idea of having fun with someone at a fancy party.

Summary: Actor wants to drag you with him to a necessary banquet for his sponsors, but when he realizes you’d never had many experiences with fancy parties like that, he decides to go all out to make sure you enjoy the evening. He wants to show you how fun they could be, with the right person.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

    “I know these kinds of things are usually a bore, but I really don’t want to deal with all those people alone and- “ Actor tries to convince you, but you interrupt him, smiling.

    “Sweetheart, of course I’ll go with you. Though I do warn you, I’m not um…I’ve never really…You know how I am around big groups of people, so I haven’t gone to many ‘social gatherings’ like this.” You try to explain to him, without making it seem sad, or that you hated the idea of parties. Your thoughts around the topic were complicated to say the least. You like people…sometimes, but you never really liked being at large gathering without sticking with at least one friend the entire time, and those kinds of chances didn’t arise too often, so you would usually find yourself staying home. You didn’t feel like you were missing too much, but sometimes you wondered what would’ve happened if you had gone, if maybe it wouldn’t have been all bad.

    “If it would make you uncomfortable, you really don’t have to-” he starts, but you interrupt him again, gently grabbing his hand,

    “No, seriously, it’s fine. As long as you're there, maybe it’ll even be fun?” This makes him squeeze your hand and mirror your smile.

    “I will not leave your side, darling.” he says before planting a soft kiss on the back of your hand. You roll your eyes, but giggle at his dramatics. That’s what you get for dating an actor, after all.

    “Yeah, yeah…But like, could you maybe tell me what you uh…do, at these kinds of parties?” He blinks in surprise and cocks his head to the side a bit. 

    “Do…do you mean to tell me you’ve never gone to a banquet?” You shake your head.

    “When would I have-  love, I didn’t even go to my high school prom!” You laugh out, a bit embarrassed, even though you don’t exactly know why. When you finally look at him, Actor’s mouth is agape.

    “You- How?! I would’ve thought you would’ve won prom royalty! With your good looks and charm, you cannot possibly be telling me you weren’t the most popular person at your high school.” Now it was your turn to looked shocked. Your cheeks heat up, and you laughed at him, shaking your head.

    “While that is incredibly sweet, no- not at all. I was pretty shy in high school, well I mean not all the time, but I wouldn’t call myself popular. Come on, you know I’m more of an introvert.” He frowns at first, hoping that he didn’t bring up any unhappy memories. But then, you can see his eyes light up as an idea forms in his mind. 

    “Alright then, It’s decided.” You give him a confused expression. “I will give you the full ‘prom’ treatment that you deserved all those years ago.” You chuckle and can’t help but smile at his giddy expression. His excitement was infectious. “Except it will be even better!”

    “I mean, you really don’t have to-” You stutter, but he waves a hand to dismiss your hesitation.

    “Nonsense, It’ll make this boring business gathering much more fun. We can go out and buy brand-new outfits, I’ll get you flowers, and of course we’ll need to rent a limo…” Actor lists off, already planning all the different aspects, as he pulls out his phone to shoot a few select texts. It only takes him a few moments before he spins his attention back to you. “And you-” He gently boops your nose with his finger, “don’t have to worry about a thing~ Other than enjoying yourself that is.” You stand there shocked, not really knowing how to respond. “Now, what color combination do you like the most, I always like a good red, but this color matches your hair more…”

The next few days are filled with preparations you were sure wasn’t necessary for just a business banquet, but Actor insisted the ‘before’ was just as fun as the actual party, if you made it to be. The both of you went shopping for new matching outfits that were tailored to fit you perfectly, Actor insisted that manicures were absolutely necessary, and as the day of the banquet rolled up, he hired a personal hair stylist and makeup artist. Mostly for himself, since you knew how to do your own hair, but he offered to pay for you as well, if you so wished.

Finally, you look at yourself in the mirror. Actor had helped you find an outfit that you absolutely adored, it felt so…so you. You never much cared about what you wore every day, but you stood proud, feeling like the most handsome and/or beautiful person in the world. If even for a moment. You laughed at the thought, wondering where this spike of confidence had come from. Maybe Actor's over-inflated ego was starting to rub off on you, but, a little self-confidence never hurt anyone. And right now, you looked fucking badass.

You step out of the room you were changing in, and head to the main hall to wait for Actor. He always took forever to get ready, the drama queen he was, so you sat down on the couch scrolling through your phone as you waited. 

After about half an hour, you finally hear footsteps come down the hall. You feel yourself get a bit nervous for some reason. You get up, fixing any piece of cloth or hair that had shifted from its place as you had been waiting. You unconsciously take a deep breath and hold it as Actor turns around the corner in a black and dark red tux. His hair was gelled back, and he was carrying a black cane that you knew he didn’t need. He just liked the aesthetic and dramatic effect of standing with it. A smile came to your face as you looked at him, he looked stunning.

Actor froze as soon as his eyes landed on you. He couldn’t help himself from scanning your entire form, taking in every ounce of your elegance. For a second, all he can do is gaze at you with a dreamy expression as he finally meets your eyes. “Wow.” Is all he can manage to say. You clear your throat.

“You look amazing, but, we really gotta get going. We’re going to be late with how long your prissy ass takes to get ready.” You chuckle, taking his arm and dragging him out the door before he can realize how red your face had gotten.

“It’s not my fault, you think it’s easy to look this good?” You roll your eyes at him as you open the door to the limo and hold it, gesturing for him to get in.

“Ladies first~” You joke, laughing at his offended expression.

“I’ll have you know that expression is very outdated.” He grumbles as he takes his seat.

“Yea, you right. But it is kinda funny.” And you close the door before he can object, making your way to the other side before getting in your self. You can see Actor checking himself in the rearview mirror, and giggle as he tries to adjust his hair. 

“What?” He asks, glancing at you. You smirk, and gently grab his chin to turn his face towards you. 

“Here,” is all you says as you fix the strand of hair that wasn’t cooperating, and while you were at it, fix his tie which he had gotten a bit loose. You finish by brushing off his shoulders as you look up at him again, seeing that his face had gotten even more red.

“You happy with yourself?” He asks, trying to regain his composure. Enjoying the way he was squirming in your arms, you hold on to his suit jacket and search his face, squinting. Finally, you meet his eyes, which are locked on you, half lidded. You smirk, then pull on his jacket to get him closer to you before kissing him. It's short, but gentle, and full of passion. When you pull away, the smirk on your lips just grows.

“Now I am~” You breathe. Actor smiles at you, eyes full of adoration. You don’t know how long the both of you are there, just staring at each other, but the car stopping for a red light finally snaps you to attention. You grab one of his hands, and look down at it, feeling some of your anxiousness about the whole ‘party’ thing finally seeping in.

“So…you never actually told me what we’re going to be, uh…doing, there?” Actor blinks at your question, a bit confused. But he pulls your hand into his lap, running his thumb over your hand in a comforting gesture as he looks back up at you.

“Some people will give some speeches, you have to give polite greetings and smiles to people you don’t even ever remember meeting, and then you just stuff yourself with food. There’s really nothing to it.” He brings one of his hands to your cheek. “All you really have to worry about, darling, is enjoying yourself~” You smile and giggle at him, batting his hand away, so he couldn’t feel the warmth in your cheeks.

You arrive at the party, the building it massive. Sure, it was nothing compared to the mansion, but the mansion was familiar, and this fucking castle was not. Plus, the mansion had style, this was just excessive. Large walls reach up higher than you could see, and two large fountains framed the grandiose entrance to the banquet hall. As the two of you step out of the car, you lean close to Actor to whisper in his ear. “I will never understand how people can afford shit like this.” Actor just shrugs, not at all impressed by the size of the building.

“Probably with blood money.” You start to laugh, but then notice the grim expression on his face, and go silent. 

“Oh…” You turn back to look at the entrance.

“Or by sleeping with the right person-” You put on a mock appalled expression, but laugh as you gently smack his shoulder. He chuckles as well, offering his arm, which you take. The both of you walk up to the entrance, arms linked, but you freeze when you get right up to the front doors.

“I-” You stutter, heart suddenly beating erratically. Actor looks at you reassuringly.

“Don’t worry, love, I’ve got you.” You take a deep breath, push open the door, and the two of you walk in.

.  .  .

The first hour goes by in a rush, you're introduced to more people than you could ever remember the names of, and are given compliments just as many times as you give them out. It is a bit overwhelming, but with Actor staying by your side, you find yourself genuinely smiling and laughing with some people. Of course there were the common assholes, and some idiots who actually tried to flirt with you, until Actor glared daggers into them, but they were far and few in between. Most of the people were actually rather lovely.

After a little while, Actor pulled the both of you away from the crowds to get some refreshments. As you scan the food table, you encounter many fancy little treats you’ve only ever had at a few weddings, and some you’ve never even seen before.

Looking at your astonished face, Actor chuckles and reaches out to grab the one your eyes landed on. He picks it up and holds it up to your face. Your face flushes red, and you look around, a bit embarrassed.

“Aw, come on, no one’s watching~ Even if they are-” He shrugs, “-who really cares.” You roll your eyes, but slowly open your mouth, taking a bite out of the cracker he was holding. It tasted amazing, and you couldn’t help but smile and snatch the rest of it out of his hands, grabbing a few more. 

…What? All this socializing was making you hungry.

Actor’s eyes widen, but he just chuckles at your actions, trying one of the snacks for himself. 

.  .  .

The rest of the evening is a flurry of suits and dresses. Nice, engaging, conversations and some that left your brain hurting. Words, stories, jokes, and a few drinks all mixed to create an experience you wouldn’t soon forget. The most important part though, and the part you enjoyed the most, was the fact you got to stay at Actor's side the whole night, he was your lifeline in all this and gave you the confidence to add your own two cents into conversations and poke jokes at these fancy rich people, and most of them even laughed. It was the most fun you’ve had at a party…well, ever.

Late into the night, though, you are once again reminded your social battery is not infinite, and you can feel your genuine smile start to feel extremely fake. You were much quieter, choosing rather to listen instead of talk, and were almost leaning onto Actor as your legs were starting to hurt from all the standing. Actor was quick to pick up on your signs of exhaustion, and politely excused the both of you out of the conversation, leading you to a quiet corner of the banquet hall that led to a small balcony. The constant noise of people chattering was still there, but muffled by the distance, and you could feel the light pounding in your head fade away a bit.

“You alright, my love?” Actor asks, holding one of your hands in both of his.

“Yeah,” you smile, “just getting a little tired.” Actor returns your smile.

“I’m not surprised, with how confident and charming you were all evening. I thought you said you never went to one of these things?” He laughed, a corner of his mouth turning up, teasing.

“I haven’t…but I’m not actually as bad at socializing as I thought I was. Probably only because you were here, though. I swear you were the only reason anyone else laughed at my jokes, it’s like they were literally waiting on your approval to laugh.” This makes him chuckle, it’s a deep sound that makes your heart melt a little every time you heard it. You loved to hear people laugh, especially if it was your intention to make them do so.

“I don’t know what  you're talking about, they all love you. If I hadn’t been at your side the entire evening, I think you’d have half of the bachelors and bachelorettes fighting over your attention.” You rolled your eyes, but your cheeks betrayed you, turning pink. 

“Oh shut up, as if they wouldn’t actually fist fight over their beloved Actor. The banquet was literally in your honor.” His cheeks flushed at this, and he turned away from you to instead look out at the beautiful view. You turned your head towards it as well, taking in the gorgeous night sky and the array of stars that were visible, twinkling brightly. 

After a little while of enjoying the comfortable silence, your voice gently breaks it. “Thank you…for all of this.” You look at him, and he turns to meet your gaze. “For everything, actually”

He smiles, his eyes sparkle in the starlight, and you realize you were leaning closer to him. You stop, still lost in a dreamy state, but suddenly too shy to continue. “There’s nothing to thank me for, you deserve every good thing in this world, and more.” One of his hands move to your cheek, gently caressing it. You can feel your heart beat speeding up, but you stand perfectly still. It's as if time itself has frozen. Slowly he starts leaning closer, and you follow his lead. His hand goes from your cheek into your hair, and one of your own hands rises up and finds itself on his chest.

Your lips are dangerously close, but Actor had stopped moving, his lips turning into a smirk. The fucking tease. But you knew what he wanted, and you gave it to him. You pressed your lips against his, all the confidence you had gained from the night filling you as you dominated the kiss, wrapping your arms around the back of his neck to press him closer to you. It felt amazing, having the love of your life in your arms, melting at your touch, as sparks flew through your mind in waves of happiness. 

You’d always treasure the memory of this night, and never really found yourself wondering about what you could’ve missed by not going out to all those parties when you were younger. Because the real thing you were missing was right in front of you now, and he wasn’t going anywhere.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

#actor mark x reader #actor!mark x reader #x gn reader #x gn!reader #x male reader #x male!reader #wkm x reader #iswm x reader #markiplier egos x reader #fanfic #markiplier fanfic #fanfiction #slimewrites #x reader #actor mark x male reader #actor mark x male!reader

[dropintomanga]

At Least Let the Love Remain

I wonder. How many of you have met someone you loved due to your fandom and thought those were the best days of your life? What could be better, right? And then when life happens and suddenly that relationship ends for good, do you take your rage out on the interests that was supposed to bring you joy?

Reading about Akihiko Kaji and Ugetsu Murata's complicated relationship in Given reminds me of how we often don't have enough courage to end things when they should end and sometimes, the right person may not exactly be THE one. And it's going to be okay.

Akihiko wanted to quit music because of his shame over sticking with Ugetsu despite very glaring flaws. But he realized how dumb it was to think that way. It took his bandmate (and new lover), Haruki Nakayama, to slowly open up to a healthier perspective.

I'm always reminded of why people ignore red flags in relationships. We think we can fix people. We believe that people can change with the right amount or won't change despite whatever life brings.

While people can make you love things, they can make you hate things just as much. Hobbies can filled with drama due to various egos. But I feel that the scariest thing that leads to a disinterest in a hobby is when topics like competition, clout and money are brought into the picture. This is apparent when Akihiko notes how much he despised Ugetsu to a certain degree over his talent with the violin, an instrument he originally took seriously before his rock band career.

But Mafuyu Sato, who was ironically helped by Ugetsu, reached out to show how much music can be emotional in a good way with a powerful song during the band's live performance tryout for a festival that spoke volumes. When relationships eventually fall apart, music can still give you a reason to keep moving forward.

Music isn't supposed to be competitive and about hyper-consumerism; its innate purpose is to bring people together from all walks of life with song. I just read a study about a community-based effort to have people with disabilities learn to play music together. They had 3 different groups of people learn music and everyone came out better for it despite one group preferring art over music.

And the best part is that the music made people social and want to talk to one another.

Haruki was the social glue in Given as while he wasn't the most talented of the band, he knew how to motivate them enough to keep at it together. That's what made Akihiko really start to love him.

This year, I was like Akihiko and reminded how much I love music. Although I never played an instrument, I grew up with MTV in the 1990s' and lived through what many fans my era would say was a really good decade. There was so much experimentation. I got into big beat/electronica and wanted to be an electronica DJ when I was in my early '20s.

My interest in music was on and off as I got older. I showed little to no interest in mainstream music. My soundtracks were mostly video game music. And then all of a sudden, I got into K-Pop because of NewJeans' 2022 debut song, Attention. When I heard it, I felt such a strong sense of emotion like Akihiko felt when he heard Mafuyu's song. I was taken back to my adolescence listening to 1990s' music. I started to remember the days when it felt like everything was possible in a time when America was thriving.

Listening to that song slowly got me more interested in other K-Pop acts (mostly girl groups). The more I got into it, the more I remembered, "Oh yeah, this is why I REALLY love music. And I also want to move my body to it." Why did I forget? Maybe because society has beaten into me that I need to act my age in order to stay competitive.

Now, I just dance whenever I can to the K-Pop songs I really like. I think the mental lock I put on myself because of failed relationships took so much out of me. But slowly, that grief has dissipated.

If you're really into music (or anything that you're interested in), cherish it and remember what got you hooked in the first place. Dance, sing, jump, go to concerts, shout with fans, etc. That's what I want to say.

Like Given wants to tell its fans, let the love for music remain. Let the songs that resonate with our hearts be something that binds the strings of connection.

#Given #manga #anime #mental health #emotions #love #fandom #Akihiko Kaji #Ugetsu Murata #Mafuyu Sato #boys love #Haruki Nakayama

[zoeykallus]

Crosshair - My Beloved Enemy 39 - Accusations

Warnings: Dirty and sexual topics mentioned 18+ Angst/Hurt

_____________________

For Wolffe, the next morning is filled with shame and accompanied by a troubling realization. Things are about to get tense, in more than one way. Crosshair makes a discovery that makes his blood boil and evokes turmoil.

Big thanks for beta reading @600yearoldlovecraftianhorrorshow !!

_____________________

What Happened Before:

Part 1 - Crash Landing

Part 2 - Hot And Cold

Part 3 - Hello Kitten

Part 4 - Look Who’s Back

Part 5 - Rebel Darling

Part 6 - Burning Anger

Part 7 - Love And Pain

Part 8 - A Difficult Reunion

Part 9 - The Bitter Taste Of Blood And Failure

Part 10 - Where The Dead Ships Dwell

Part 11 - A Lonely Firefly In Space

Part 12 - Broken Wings

Part 13 - A Helping Hand

Part 14 - The Justifier

Part 15 - The Bounty

Part 16 - Trapped

Part 17 - I Love You Too

Part 18 - When The Past Catches Up With Us

Part 19 - I’ve Never Been Good At Goodbyes

Part 20 - Unexpected

Part 21 - The Question

Part 22 - Sleepless Nights

Part 23 - Sleepyheads And Making Up

Part 24 - Crosshair’s Conclusion

Part 25 - Good Soldiers Follow Orders

Part 26 - I’m Sorry Kitten

Part 27 - Bracca

Part 28 -Rampart

Part 29 - It’s All Tactics

Part 30 - CT 6116

Part 31 - Of Wolves And Sheep

Part 32 - Dying Hope

Part 33 - Hero Of The Day

Part 34 - When The Wolf Eats The Sheep

Part 35 - The Shepherd

Part 36 - The Toll It Takes

Part 37 -Blowing Off Steam

Part 38 - Not Exactly Private

Part 39 - Accusations

Wolffe woke up in the morning and felt a wave of shame roll over him as he heard your voice.

"Hey Wolffe," you asked softly, "How are you feeling? Headache or anything? Heard that can happen with a chip."

He found it very difficult, but looked at you.

"No, not at the moment. Thank you for asking," he replied just as gently.

You smiled and his heart leapt. He swallowed, because he felt a tingling in his stomach and a strange warm feeling in his chest.

Oh no... kriff...

Yesterday had been pure horniness. He was ravenous and you, a pretty woman. He had seen you in an incredibly intimate way and had gotten carried away with it. Indecently. He was ashamed of it, but he hadn't had any other thoughts regarding your person until now. So far, until now, he had not harbored romantic feelings for you.

Wolffe grew more and more uncomfortable. He hated complications and falling in love with you would be very complicated. Then something happened that made all the color drain from his face. The shirt must have slipped out sometime during the night when he had moved and fallen to the floor next to the bunk. You bent down for it and your words made him die a thousand silent deaths

"Oh, there's my shirt"

... That's her shirt?! 

"Y/N, you know what, I do have a pretty bad headache all of a sudden".

You ignored the shirt for the moment and looked at him, startled.

"Oh dear. We should get to Tech right away."

You automatically grabbed his hand, wanting to help him out of bed. He let you and, heart pounding, let you lead him into the cockpit. He glanced nervously over his shoulder at the messed up shirt still lying on the floor and prayed to all the gods he knew that no one would find it and discover the mess he had made.

When Crosshair came out of the refresher, freshly shaved, washed and teeth brushed, you weren't sitting on his old bunk like before. He was about to make his way to the cockpit when he saw something on the floor. He recognized the piece of fabric. It was one of your shirts. Dark green with a V neckline. Gold lettering in Mando'a. He had sneered at the writing, pointing out that the actual translation was nonsense

Crosshair bent down to pick it up when he noticed it was filthy. It was covered with something that had already dried. It was sticking all over the shirt.

"What the hell..."

The Sniper took a closer look at the stained fabric and he realized what was on it, the way it was crusted and stuck together was probably not unknown to most men. He knew for a fact that he had never messed up any of your clothes, at least not in that way.

Anger boiled up inside him, seething hot, white-hot anger.

"TECH!" he roared, stomping into the crowded cockpit with your shirt between two fingers.

You jumped startled when you heard Crosshair roar through the ship. Everyone in the room listened and some reacted tensely. Tech, on the other hand, seemed surprised and confused. He was even more surprised, however, when Crosshair came rushing into the cockpit, grabbed him by the collar, and pinned him against the rear cockpit wall.

Startled, you could only look at the first moment.

Hunter asked calmly but admonishingly, "Crosshair, what's this all about?"

"You stay out of it this time, this is between me and him".

Echo said, „Whatever this is about, calm down Crosshair, act like a civilized person“

„Civilized? Maybe I would if this dirtbag had been civilized“

Tech looked at him indignantly.

"Oh yeah?" he asked "And what exactly is it about?"

"This!" rumbled Crosshair, lifting your shirt in the air.

"My shirt," you said in surprise.

The guys realized pretty quickly what had happened to the shirt and sounds like 'Ugh' 'Oh dear' and 'ew' went around. You were perplexed and not quite sure what was going on.

"So you're stealing my wife's clothes now to jerk off all over them?"

Heat rose to your face and you couldn't believe what he had just said.

Wolffe seemed to be getting smaller and smaller. He knew he would have to say something sooner or later, but at the moment neither his limbs nor his voice obeyed him. Not because he was really afraid of Crosshair, but rather of the exposure and of you finding out what he had done last night.

Wrecker asked, "What makes you think it was him?"

Crosshair growled, "Because he still has a crush on her. It's obvious! Now don't tell me you haven't noticed the way he looks at her when he thinks nobody is looking!"

Tech returned disgusted and hurt, "That's an outrageous accusation! I've never stolen clothes from Y/N, much less masturbated on them!"

Crosshair pressed him even harder against the wall, His face came threateningly close and he said in raspy voice, , "You had made a video of her having sex with you back in the day. And jerked off to that video. Here on the ship.She was already with me then and your relationship was long over. That was a recording of her that she had never consented to. And now I'm supposed to believe that it wasn't you with the shirt?!"

Hunter chimed in, “Crosshair, you’ve been at each other’s throat about this before. I thought this topic was dealt with and no longer an issue”

Wrecker who was visibly tense said, “Yeah, you’ve already beatin’ each other bloody over this. Enough is enough”

Tech looked at you in despair, the thought of you believing this nonsense worried him the most.

"I really didn't, ad'ika, I swear to you on everything I hold dear!"

Wolffe saw the desperation in Tech's gaze and felt incredibly guilty.

"It wasn't him."

The room fell eerily silent. All eyes turned to Wolffe. Crosshair looked over his shoulder with a raised brow.

"How would you know?"

Wolffe sighed, "Come on, let go of Tech. He's not to blame for this, no matter how he may feel about Y/N."

Crosshair actually let go of Tech. As he turned his movements were slow, deliberate, like those of a predator.

When Crosshair spoke again, his voice was low but cutting " I ask you again. How would you know?"

Wolffe collected himself, avoided your gaze and said, "I did this."

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#crosshair fic #star wars #the bad batch #clonelove #clone force 99 #tbb #sw tbb #tbb tech #clone trooper tech #tech #bad batch tech #bad batch crosshair #clone trooper crosshair #commander crosshair #crosshair #crosshair bad batch #crosshair tbb #crosshair the bad batch #crosshair x reader #crosshair x you #tbb crosshair #tbb crosshair x reader #the bad batch crosshair #crosshair fanfiction #crosshair x y/n #crosshair x female reader #fanfiction #star wars fanfiction #the bad batch fanfiction #fanfic

[teawiththegods]

On the idea of Zeus being misunderstood making you angry, I totally get it. My actual dad is a mixed bag (supportive of my art, but on the other hand abusive), so for me, Zeus sort of acts like a partial replacement. When you get to know Him through worship and actual study, you realize the myths are parables based on an itty bitty truth at best (most are just stories). I will defend Him vehemently because He has been there for me when my real father has not. Beyond that, He shows us the ultimate xenia if you ask me by putting up with all the hate thrown His way and still fulfilling His roles. He doesn't withdraw the rain just because some petty mortal called Him some horrible name. He doesn't strike us down for daring to judge His choices. Let's be real: Zeus would be within His right to do any of that and more for how much disrespect He gets from mortals.

Oooo this message got me all excited because you touched on so many things about Zeus that I wanna talk about! Honestly Zeus is probably the god I could really talk about for hours! There’s just so much there and he’s the absolute best! 🥹❤️

Okay so firstly, my personal relationship with Zeus is very similar to yours! I also have that complicated relationship with my father where he’s supportive in certain areas and I know he ultimately loves me but he’s also the main reason I’m in therapy. That whole saying “We go to therapy to deal with people who need therapy but refuse to go” rings very true for me. I’ll leave it at that. But yeah Zeus fills in a lot of the gaps and helps me heal the wounds left by my father. That’s why I call him my Divine Father because that’s what he is to me. He’s my Dad. 🥰

You mentioned Zeus putting up with all the hate and I actually have a story about that! I’ve mentioned it before on here but this moment with Zeus really solidified my respect and admiration for my Divine Father. So as we can all see I get very passionate when it comes to defending Big Poppa! One day I got especially heated over what people were saying about Zeus and he appeared to me to try and sooth my anger. He told me that while he very much appreciated me passionately defending him it wasn’t necessary. He not only didn’t want me stressing myself out on his behalf but he has accepted the role he and his mythology play within humanity. He said he’s very happy and grateful that his mythology can inspire dialogue around difficult topics and give people a place to share their stories. I was shocked when I received this message from him, but to be honest with you it only turned up the flame of my rage. Just as you said he’s showing us the ultimate Xenia! Because that’s what Zeus does. He leads by example. Everything he expects from us HE himself as to be the epitome of. A lot of people don’t understand that. They think he expects more from us than he does for himself but it’s quite the opposite (more on that in the next ask I’m gonna answer which is about Blood of Zeus!)

The other aspect of this I want to point out is the fact that there are SO MANY STORIES about Zeus. If he was as bad as people try to make him out to be you think humanity would feel comfortable enough to write the stories they have and do about him? I mean look at dictators throughout history. One of the fundamental things of being an absolute ruler is to control what people say about you. They inspire fear, promote propaganda, and create their own mythology in order to keep their people in line and hold onto their power. Zeus has done none of that. From antiquity to now he has sat back and allowed us to shape his mythology and his persona as we wish. If he was meant to be feared as an absolute ruler the Ancient would not feel comfortable enough to write so many stories about him as they have.

Not to mention one of the biggest aspects of Ancient Greece is philosophy. How could an entire civilization be able to think so freely where they established so many schools of thought if they were gripped by fear by a power hungry dominate divine ruler?

MAKE👏🏻IT👏🏻MAKE👏🏻SENSE👏🏻

And then we get to mythology itself. See the thing that people keep forgetting when they try to understand the gods through their myths is that funny little thing called ✨CONTEXT✨ When you line up all the myths about Zeus that make people grumpy there is a very clear theme that just goes right over people’s heads. Legitimacy. Notice how every single story where Zeus sleeps with a woman a child is conceived? And typically the story is very adamant about that child and also the location of where that child was conceived. These myths are all about trying to link people and lands to Zeus. The stories are using HIM to create legitimate bonds, establish power and kingship, and create tourism.

And the funny but also sad thing is that this is nothing new. Humanity has always tried to connect themselves to the Divine in order to legitimize power and control yet for some reason this whole concept goes out the window when Zeus is concerned. People would just rather see him as a monster than to actually think about it. Or you know listen to someone who has read more than a mythology book instead of arguing with them.

But whatever, WE know our Father. We respect him, we adore him, we cherish him, we love him, and we will follow him. And that’s really all that matters. ❤️

#zeusdeity #zeus deity #zeus #big poppa

[thefinalboss387]

Xehanort is a character that I have... complicated feelings about.

I truly want to love him, and on paper he has a lot of qualities that I typically like in villain characters. Buuuuuuut...

(This a long and spoilery post, so it’s under the cut!)

In a lot of ways, Xehanort is very similar to the character of Palpatine from Star Wars. I just recently posted a very long, rambly, half-coherant post about how much I love Palpatine and how he checks all the right boxes for me in what I love in a character. I actually just now, a few minutes before typing this, realized that Death Battle even did a Palpatine vs. Xehanort episode... which is pretty cool. I’ve compared the two in my mind for a long time... but, in my opinion, Palpatine is Xehanort done RIGHT.

Don’t worry - this post will NOT be a comparison between the two characters, I only bring this up because a lot of the positives I’m about to highlight are also positives I see in the character of Palpatine, one of my favorite characters of all time. So despite any negatives I’m about to talk about, the potential is most definitely there for Xehanort to blow me away and become one of my all-time faves.

If you are a fan of Xehanort, please don’t come at me with hate or anything like that. Honestly, I want to like Xehanort. There is a reason I’m posting this in his tags - I’m not trying to hate on the character or say he is bad, I’m just laying out my issues (AND the things I like about him!) and why I think he could have been done SO much better. So if you have reasons for loving him, or have respectful counter-arguments to my points, I would love to hear them. Maybe, and hopefully, you can change my mind and make me love the character again.

Xehanort’s past is given to us very slowly, bit by bit, layer by layer, which I actually rather liked. With each game, you learned more about where he came from, what he was up to, what he wanted. Xehanort’s story is one loaded with manipulating everyone around him, finding young people to mentor before slowly corrupting and possessing their bodies, remorselessly discarding people that no longer serve any use to him... all qualities that I LOVED about Palpatine, and his status as a manipulative mastermind type of villain. Xehanort is the one personally responsible for pretty much all of the events of the Kingdom Hearts series.

I love characters, especially villains, that take on mentorship roles. Mentoring youth is a topic that carries a lot of weight and personal relevance to me, and I find it fun to explore all facets of that, even with villainous characters that inject toxicity to those relationships. Exploring how those types of relationships can go so wrong, or even exploring the good that may come out of otherwise irredeemable sociopaths through their mentoring. And Xehanort has a lot of these.

Xehanort manipulates Terra into believing he is the only one on his side, acting caring and supportive, only to eventually possess his body. He takes on Ventus as a pupil, and when Ventus proves to be too soft for what Xehanort has in store, he unlocks his dark side in Vanitas and takes him in as a pupil instead, manipulating the two boys to eventually clash for his benefit. He begins to offer guidance and support to Riku, only to possess his body as well. He takes on disciples in the form of Organization XIII, misinforms and practically brainwashes them all into doing his bidding, and begins a process to eventually - you guessed it - possess all of their bodies as well. He manipulates all of these people, and every iteration of Xehanort is campy, dramatic, and fun to watch. He even eventually makes plans to turn Sora, the hero of the story and his greatest enemy, into one of his pawns and new bodies.

All of that is AMAZING, and lays the groundwork for a really compelling villain.

It’s also worth noting that Xehanort DOES have something I love that Palpatine does not; the ability to transform into cool final boss forms. The final boss sequences of Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II, and the crazy forms that Ansem and Xemnas take on, are highlights of the entire series for me. Even Kingdom Hearts III’s final boss sequence kiiiiiiiiind of counts I guess, though I found it disappointing compared to the others. Give me giant monstrous dragon-esque forms over a suit of armor any day!!

My main issue is.... there’s a point where Xehanort stops feeling like an actual character, and starts feeling more like a lifeless plot device?

Throughout the series, we meet many different iterations of Xehanort. At first, most of them pop up one at a time and that’s fine. But then, as the series goes on and time travel becomes a thing, all of these iterations start showing up all at once, all doing different things and all effectively acting as their own unique characters.

If we take out the Organization XIII members that are far along on their “getting possessed” journey and just have some Xehanort influence on their own personalities, and JUST count the different iterations of Xehanort himself, we haaaaaave....

Young Xehanort, who is Master Xehanort as a youth. This is the iteration that introduces time travel and starts all of these iterations acting independently and existing all at the same time.

Master Xehanort, Xehanort’s “true” form and an old man.

Terra-Xehanort, Master Xehanort possessing Terra’s body. He gains amnesia and begins acting as Ansem’s lab assistant, but it is speculated (but not decisively answered) whether he actually has amnesia or if it’s a ruse.

Ansem, Seeker of Darkness, Terra-Xehanort’s Heartless, who goes on to possess Riku’s body. He also steals the real Ansem’s name to make things just a little more plot twist-y and convoluted.

Xemnas, Terra-Xehanort’s Nobody. Honestly, I’ve come to think of him as probably my favorite of Xehanort’s iterations - he shows so much manipulation in his dealings with Organization XIII, he fights by flinging freakin’ BUILDINGS at you, he has two red lightsabers to REALLY cement the Palpatine comparisons, HE is the iteration that gets closure on Xehanort’s history with Ansem the Wise... Of all of these iterations, Xemnas is the one that, to me, feels the most like Xehanort’s successor in the overall narrative.

For most of the games of the series, only one iteration of Xehanort showed up at a time. Ansem and Xemnas existed at the same time due to the nature of Heartless and Nobodies, but they are met and dealt with completely independently in different games. No big deal. But when time travel becomes a thing, and five different, unique Xehanorts are running around with personalities and relationships of their own, not to mention all of the other characters with a piece of Xehanort inside of them that are beginning to adopt his ambitions and philosophies, things start to feel really muddled. And that’s not even counting things like his secret “No Heart” armored boss fight and things like that.

Can Xehanort be considered a character if he is actually somehow multiple faces, multiple personalities, multiple identities, multiple characters at once? You have to go through so many character pages on the Kingdom Hearts Wiki just to get this one character’s full story and history.

I feel like Xehanort - XEHANORT, the big villain of the series and amazing manipulative mastermind extraordinaire - can’t really be a favorite character. He almost feels like a concept. An idea. Each of his individual parts all feel like fully fleshed-out, complete characters worthy of being a favorite, and sure, they do each carry certain traits in common... but they all have completely different personalities, different quirks, different faces, different voice actors, different relationships with different characters, different abilities and strengths, different weapons... is it really fair to say that all of that is just one character? It almost feels like it’s cheating.

For most of the series, all of these different iterations led into each other, mapping out just how deeply Xehanort’s manipulations and possessing went. When you consider each version of Xehanort to be a different chapter of his story, it still worked. But when the last few games messed with time travel and made all of these forms independent of each other and coexisting, each one continuing the relationships and feuds exclusive to each of them, it just starts to feel muddled and confusing. I would have much rather seen one form of Xehanort bouncing around and causing havoc to all of his old adversaries and pawns, having the memories and experiences of all his former selves, to tie all of his iterations together and add to his continuity. Instead, the series decided to add to the continuity of each individual piece of Xehanort and give each of them closure independent of each other, which does a disservice to Xehanort as a whole.

I’m probably overthinking this. I love Kingdom Hearts. A lot of my favorite gaming experiences ever came from the Kingdom Hearts franchise. I have a lot of fond memories of the series and its characters. Roxas and Axel/Lea are particular favorites of mine, and I’ll always love the series for incorporating Disney characters - especially the Disney villains. It just kills me because Xehanort has so many things that, on paper, would guarantee him a spot on my list of favorite characters of all time. I just can’t get over that hurdle of feeling like he is more of a concept than a character at this point. All they had to do, I feel, was give Xehanort one “self” to fuse all of the past Xehanorts together and give the overall character a sense of continuity and closure, instead of reviving all of his past selves separately.

When the final battle of Kingdom Hearts III happens, it feels like we are taking down Master Xehanort, the antagonist of Birth by Sleep, NOT the antagonist that has been plaguing us throughout the entire franchise.

#Xehanort #Master Xehanort #Kingdom Hearts #Ansem Seeker of Darkness #Xemnas

[lovecolibri]

SaL anon here bestie and *deep sigh* here we are...again. Not to get off topic but have you ever seem The Green Mile?? I have a complicated relationship with that movie but I the thing from it permanently imprinted on my brain is when the warden comes in demands "What in the Blue Fuck was That!?" It a whole ass mood right now after watching that clip and I highly recommend just watching that line to get the full effect.

Why, for the love of God, are we bringing up Shannon again??!! She didn't even really come up during Eddie's PTSD arc but we're just gonna randomly insert her in a episode sort of about death?? Of course we are because KR has literally no new ideas. Oh except for this season where she's like "You know what hasn't been done yet?? We haven't emphasized importance of family by blood so we'll redeem all the horrible parents with zero effort to let everyone know your grudges are petty and just hurt you." You know why that hasn't been done Kristen??!! Because this is a show about FOUND family, realizing your importance and worth in a space that's safe for you to do that, and having the support you need when the bad times come!! She has actually forgotten the very foundation of this show and I'd scream but I'm also so, so tired. You know what time it is then 🍸🍸🍸. Gonna read comfort fic and find a comfort show to put on when that gets hard. Cheers friend!!

Bestieeeee! What. The fuck. Is happening?! I didn't answer this Friday and I should have because yesterday was a WHOLE other mess! I feel so bad for dragging you into this show just in time for it to all go to shit. We survived RNM, we don't deserve to suffer like this again! 😩😩😩

Your "KR has literally no new ideas" line is SO apt after that clip yesterday literally recycling the eddieana meeting. Parallels can be used and be effective but after she literally just re-did Buck's fight with Bobby over returning to work with Eddie (only to not show their apology or Eddie's decision to return to work on screen), and re-did Eddie's "it's time to get back out there after Shannon and figure out what you want") s4 arc last week, this "Buck meets a girl on a call in the exact same way Eddie met Ana" just looks...so so so lazy. Not to mention Buck and Eddie are only ever with women after they meet them on calls, AND we are reverting Buck back to season 1 "a relationship with THIS women must be able to fix me" which is just...gross. Buck was always one of my favorite characters but GOD I dread his personal scenes now because KR just doesn't know what to do with him unless it's trying to get into his pants in some way and she doesn't understand any of the motivations or what drives him as a character. Stop ruining my boy!! GOD I need her off this show like, YESTERDAY.

ANYWAY

This whole Shannon thing has me so 🙄🙄🙄 because as good as Ryan and Gavin are and Eddie/Chris scenes always are because they play so well off each other, this is like, the LEAST interesting thing they could have done and it's clearly not about Chris or Eddie or their complicated history with Shannon, it's just being used to push the "Eddie choosing someone to date for himself" idea. They could have given something deep and emotional this season like Chris now being old enough to start asking harder questions about Shannon leaving and Eddie trying to navigate that with him, or having a talk about Chris starting to be interested in dating and asking Eddie some hard questions about why Eddie isn't dating again since Ana has been gone for so long. But nope! It's "let's pretend this parent never did anything awful and there are zero complex feelings about them" hours once again. Thanks, I HATE it. And for me it ruins the nuance of Shannon's character because she WAS just a person who was struggling. But where Eddie thought his son didn't need *him* so much as he needed Eddie to provide for him and once he found out Chris just wanted to spend time WITH him he fought tooth and nail to make it work no matter how hard, Shannon decided it was too much and cut off all contact because keeping in touch with her son and making sure he knew he was loved wasn't as important as her not wanting to be put in an awkward position. And that's life! And Chris and Eddie should be allowed to acknowledge that they loved her at some point, Chris should be allowed to have good memories of his mom, and still be allowed to acknowledge that she abandoned them and hurt them deeply and there are complex feelings around that!

These complex parental relationships leading to the found family of the 118 has ALWAYS been at the heart of the show and you're right that KR has NEVER understood that and has spent this season undermining that bond across the whole team and any time the story tries to emphasize the found family it's also still pushing the blood family importance so the storytelling comes out confused and in opposition to itself giving the audience emotional whiplash. I'm just so very very tired of this. I'm positive it's too much to hope for but with audiences tuning out and the constant complaints at how the show is handling arcs and pacing and KR's choices, and even now articles by people who often write about 911 calling out the inconsistencies, maybe the negotiations for renewal will come with some stipulations on who gets to be in charge. Even if I didn't love EVERY storyline choice in the early seasons, the episodes themselves were ALWAYS enjoyable overall and there was so much good stuff going on it was easy to let the stuff I didn't like as much roll past, so it would be good to get back to that sort of vibe again and KR has proved over several seasons that she is NOT up to that task. With the Tarlos wedding wrapped up, we might get...I don't want to say "lucky" because I don't think Tim is the greatest thing ever, but we might get some bit of pacing and consistency and flow back in the show (I know LS has some pacing issues as well but that feels to me more like them having to work around RL's insistence on centricity than anything else)

Oof. Lets see if we can make it through these last few episodes with this dating nonsense, the sperm donor arc and L coming back, and maybe even a Tay Kay jumpscare. Can't wait 🙄 At least Ravi is back home and the finale emergency looks like it will be good and we're getting injured Chim so we're going to get *some* crumbs out of this mess. And then it will be summer and I've got a fic idea started soooo, we'll see if I can get anywhere with my astronaut!Buck, NASA medic!Eddie Countdowns inspired thingy. Cheers my friend, we are going to NEED IT. (But hey, if we survived RNM, we can do ANYTHING. But also we shouldn't have to and I need this show to STOP IT.) 🍹🍹🍹🍹🍹🍹🍹

#my sweet nonnie friends #sleeping at last anon #911 #911 spoilers #anti shannon diaz #for blacklisting purposes #*oh ariana we're really in it now.gif* #brb gotta go scream into the woods for an hour #and then binge more fic until i stop wanting to pull my hair out #why can't normal things make my brain produce the good chemicals? this is bullshit

[myreia]

3, 19, and 29 for aurcred :> 💗

Thank you, Azia beloved! 🥰

3. By contrast, what was the moment that first made their ~heart~ Soft for the other person? Not necessarily a conscious realization of “I love this person,” but a moment that had them like “Oh…I adore them…”

The history of Aureia and Thancred's relationship is that of upwards momentum only for it to come to a screeching halt due to outside circumstances, losing touch or falling out of sync because of it, and then having to rebuild things from the ground up.

Aur's had three moments where this is the case.

The first: During the very early days of their friendship. They may have known each other for only a few months at the time. But he showed her Ul'dah, got her accustomed to the sights and sounds, the markets, all the unexpected little gems hidden away in different parts of the city. She would likely have never found her footing if not for this.

The second: Sitting on the roof of a building overlooking the Ala Mhigan quarter at night. Their friendship has been thoroughly tested by this point, they have both gone through a harrowing period of hating each other. Most of those issues have been worked through by now, but there's still a lot of hesitance in the way that they treat each other. He gives her something--the ring Nanamo originally gifted her back in Ul'dah, which she pawned for gil in Ishgard, and then it eventually showed up again in a market. There's a lot of feelings attached to that ring, and the fact that he found it, recognized it, and brought it back to her brings a lot of feelings flooding back.

The third: Walking the sands of Amh Araeng on the way to Malikah's Well. After everything they've just gone through, knowing what he put his life on the line for… He's battered and bruised from the fight, but she knows they're both going to be OK. It's a moment that crystalizes everything for her, but in a much deeper way than the other times.

For him, he's always been a little soft for her--right from those early days in Ul'dah when she was a strange, sarcastic, impatient person out of her element and clearly keeping a multitude of secrets, but with a genuine kindness beneath it all.

19. Are they okay with public displays of affection? Do they like them?

Aur's not a fan of them. She hates the feeling of her emotional intimacy being perceived, especially by the larger public. If she's in a private place with trusted friends, then she's far more open--she and Thancred have a lot of small touches and gestures, a touch on the shoulder or the arm, slipping their hand into the other's, a kiss on the forehead. But if they're around people she doesn't know, all of that goes away.

29. What compromises are they making in their relationship?

There are a number of things they butt heads on or don't agree with. Sometimes these are small things (whose space is whose - Aur needs her space, maybe too much space, is it really necessary for her to have a whole room devoted to weapons???); sometimes these are larger disagreements (how best to support and help Ryne, they don't always agree on this parenting situation they've ended up in since neither of them know what they're doing they're idiots (affectionate) help them Urianger; religion is also a bit of a hot topic for them, but it's complicated by Endwalker's events and I don't think either of them are eager to bring it up and they're leaving it alone).

But they always try to make room for the other and respect each other's opinions, even when they disagree. This probably manifests most clearly in how independent they are. They both go off and do their own things, sometimes they don't see each other in person for months (even after they're married). But when push comes to shove they always have each other's backs. They support each other unconditionally.

#ffxiv #aurcred #aureia malathar #talktag #shadowbringers spoilers #oc tag

[beautifulpersonpeach]

“Or you know, one could actually lay responsibility for actual crimes committed at the feet of those who commit said crimes. ” Can we come back to this pls? Can we pls talk about it cos the way kpoppies choose when to be righteous and not doesn’t even make sense? I’m a different anon but am I the only person who doesn’t understand why people hate Jungkook for dancing in Qatar when he and the whole K-pop industry had danced in Saudi Arabia some years before? What does BTS ‘represent’ now?

**

Ask 2: … that it didn’t represent when they performed in Saudi Arabia? Is Beyoncé who went also to the Middle East now an evil person who doesn’t care about queer people? Don’t the people who talk like this realize they sound like hyper religious nut jobs who apply weird purity tests to artists doing their jobs in complicated systems? Why is special hate reserved for Jungkook when other BTS members (including Jimin who that person obviously likes) have performed in countries with worse human rights records? And didn’t Jungkook say he thought the whole band would perform but they were busy with other things so it fell to him? Can we pls talk about this BPP bc something about that self righteous BS doesn’t sit right with me at all. Like who camps in BTS spaces with barely restrained vitriol just to hate on them regardless of whether they’re making sense or not??

***

Hi Anon,

I too wonder what exactly “BTS represents” but I honestly didn’t care enough to ask lmao. Whatever it is is news to me, that’s for sure. Anyway, like I’ve said before, criticism is always welcome. Neither BTS nor HYBE are infallible and that’s just expected. But we can all tell when someone is offering criticism and when someone is simply being hateful. We can recognize what is what because we all have that emotion, and usually a dead giveaway is when they’re so blinded by hate that they say something completely irrational and then think it’s justified or that they’re making sense.

A couple examples:

- I recall when I first opened this blog, maybe two years ago now, and saw an Anon raging at BTS for (1) going to the UN during Fall 2021 (after being invited and getting vaccinated and several countries were relaxing restrictions), for (2) having Diplomatic passports (that their government unilaterally awarded them), and, wait for it, (3) talking about their dreams and desire to perform (just as several artists were doing at the time, and just as many others in people-facing jobs were doing). This person was apoplectic nearly six months after BTS had gone to the UN and come back. I saw that and pointed out how insane it looked to think this was reasonable criticism, and left it at that.

- I’ve seen k-pop stans claim several times that every BTS member cannot possibly like or support women’s rights because HYBE has a business agreement with Scooter Braun. You read that right. In terms of talking points you see from k-pop stans, this is right up there with ‘BTS have no female friends’, ‘BTS’ Love Yourself series was because of a mental health survey’, and ‘Yoongi probably sexually assaulted women after Jimin sexually assaulted him during Burn the Stage’. It doesn’t matter that none of these things, simply at face value, make any sense at all because they aren’t rooted in fact. That doesn’t matter enough to dull the righteous outrage some k-pop stans feel about these topics. They’re as prevalent as anything else you see in spaces where animosity towards BTS and ARMYs is the norm, not the exception.

Criticism should be first and foremost, rational. In my opinion at least, and all of the above fall woefully short. So when I see these talking points I usually just note it and move on.

And then there’s a wider generational trend in applying moral absolutes in situations that simply do not call for it. And applying what is essentially guilt by association. While it was fashionable in the 1600s during the Salem Witch trials, it’s recently had a resurgence as more people misguidedly try to compensate for crumbling civic/liberal institutions with absolutist moral charges at other people. You’re right too that it has a religious bent, and several studies have already concluded that much. Some people absorb those narratives in spaces that offer no alternative, and so when confronted with the holes in their argument, revert to moral absolutism. It’s weird but just par for the course on the internet these days.

My personality is one that allows me to just laugh and unlook lmao. Maybe I’d feel more hurt or concerned if I cared more, but I don’t.

Anon, just as I was writing this response I got another ask on the topic (I’m assuming it’s from you), so I’ll say now I have a train to catch and will close this topic here for now.

#K-pop #fandom behaviour #BTS #bts army #bts fandom #K-pop fandom