#i simply don’t think he should have been portrayed as such to begin with

[roobylavender]

do you believe Bruce is emotionally abusive? ik fans prioritise physical abuse and ultimately ignore emotional abuse tactics like parentification etc because it’s not “that bad”. I don’t believe Dick ever resents Bruce for letting him be robin (he’s grateful for it) , but in ntt he mostly resents him for being emotionally closed off, and rejecting him as a partner. Bruce worries for his kids safety so he pushes the whole “if you’re not perfect you’re dead” mentality onto Dick which ultimately is harmful to him. He’ll never regret being a hero but the rift between the two isn’t just a “we want different things” scenario but more that they’re incapable of giving the other what they want.

bruce being emotionally closed off from dick is what’s revisionist about that version of canon though. i think bruce can be bad at communicating sometimes esp when he’s deeply pained (like in knightfall, for example) but for the most part he and dick are shown to have great communication for decades before new teen titans and the adjacent post crisis starlin canon starts to rewrite that dynamic into something else entirely. per that version of canon i do believe he’s emotionally abusive but it’s not a version of canon i particularly appreciate bc it requires overriding the dynamic they had previously where they could certainly be prone to disagree at times but bruce was nonetheless willing to have an open and understanding conversation with dick about whatever the disagreement was. even the whole idea that bruce is responsible for dick believing that he has to be perfect or he has to be dead is one that new teen titans cements (or that issue of batman where bruce makes dick quit and jason is introduced thereafter)

i get that it’s easy to take new teen titans as gospel bc it is in essence the textbook source for dick but i think there should be some awareness too of how it twists that relationship between them and not necessarily for the better. i’m not opposed to bruce having faults he has to answer for. i absolutely agree he’s not cognizant enough of the complexes dick develops as a result of wanting to be seen as an equal, and thereby can’t realize the effect it has on dick for him to still be protective and fearful even if it’s ultimately out of goodwill and love. and there’s also the fact that even if he gives dick the space he desires to lead his own life it doesn’t mean he should be hesitant to reach out bc he’s afraid he’ll overstep by doing so, as a parent he should reaffirm his love for dick regularly regardless of knowing he might get some pushback bc dick is growing into his own (again, knightfall is a really superb example of this). but i also think those are tensions you can wholeheartedly explore without rendering bruce into a controlling and abusive figure, and i’m not sure who it benefits to write bruce as such in the long run

some of dick’s problems have to be his own, and he’ll never escape bruce’s shadow if the only source point of issues in his life is his relationship with bruce. that’s something i would actually apply to the robins at large. hardly any of them are allowed to explore problems entirely unique to themselves and i think that’s in large part bc writers simultaneously portray a mildly to explicitly abusive bruce at their leisure while refusing to ever actually address the elephant in the room that is literally of their own creation. a lot of people believe the bruce shouldn’t be an abuser argument is framed entirely as a resistance to bruce’s character assassination and for me i can admit that’s part of it, but a more pertinent part of it should also be the fact that bruce being written as an abuser is what truly chains his children to him forever to the point that they can never grow beyond that abuse bc writers refuse to allow them to. imagine the problems the robins could be addressing individually in their lives if not everything came down to them being fucked up bc that’s the way bruce raised them or failed to thereby. there’s a lot about the robins as individuals that’s deeply interesting and i think it’s not just a disservice to bruce but to them as well to write the relationships this way bc it obscures their own agency and ability to be explored for more than a haunted legacy narrative

#sry this is so very long. please know it is not me venting at you i simply have many thoughts 😭 #but yeah like i think something that gets lost in translation is like. i absolutely do think those portrayals of bruce are abusive #i simply don’t think he should have been portrayed as such to begin with #starlin era bruce is very bewildering for me in all honesty i dislike it deeply #the issue where dick meets jason is one of my least favorite for the way it portrays bruce it feels so out of character for me #considering bruce was more than happy for dick to go off to college or to find his own place with the titans #and even with that famous issue where dick meets bruce after learning jason has died the writing is quite odd to me #i think bruce is very much someone who directs blame and frustration inward as opposed to outward #he’ll let himself get dog walked if he thinks he deserves it. which i think knightfall illustrates fabulously #the beginning of no man’s land as well #what i don’t think he would ever do is lash out at others when he knows the blame lies with himself. bruce is very self critical #so honestly that whole scene in the cave with him and dick. doesn’t exist to me i would literally rewrite it 😭 #and i think it is very significant that wolfman chose to recreate that slap three times if memory serves while every other write in bat #editorial at the time straight up ignored it and acted like it never happened. like idk that plus the way bruce was characterized during #knightfall to me says a lot about how that was not supposed to be the status quo at all #anyway. sorry this has devolved into a whole other rant please do not mind me 😔 #outbox

[lightlycareless]

How do you think make up sex with Naoya would be? 🫣🤭

Heya anon 😏

Well, I hope this will offer some insight.... (more at the end)

warnings: smut. MINORS DNI. breeding kink I believe. Naoya would give you everything in the whole universe just to make you happy.

Make up sex with Naoya normally occurs after he teased the living hell out of you, and you got really annoyed by it. And of course, the way for him to fix that is to proceed by teasing you even more…

But let’s make it a bit more serious, let’s say Naoya acted stupidly, said something he shouldn’t have and instead of apologizing, made it worse. Probably prodded at an insecurity of yours.

Or more specifically, didn’t defend you from his imprudent family.

“You know I don’t like it when your family says that!” you’d gasp once the two are alone, eyes silently telling him you wished to speak. “Why didn’t you do anything?”

“What was I supposed to do? You know how they are—it’s better to just stop wasting your energy and ignore them.”

“I don’t think ignoring them is doing any good anymore! By doing nothing it’s like we’re telling them there’s no consequences to their actions!” you snap back.

“I’m not going to spend my efforts on fighting a useless battle! There’s nothing I can say or do to make them change their mind! If you want to do that, go ahead!”

“So what? You’re just going to leave me alone, then?”

“Don’t say things I didn’t say.” He frowns. “You know damn well I wouldn’t do that.”

“Then you should at least try to do something… or am I not worthy of that either?”

“Where did that even come from?? Do you even know what you’re saying?!” Naoya scowls.

“… I don’t want to talk anymore.” You say, quickly turning around and retreating, faster than Naoya could attempt to hold you back.

Though honestly, he lets you go, for he too is bothered by the way this conversation went on, a seemingly silly issue that shouldn’t have gotten that much attention to begin with (before his eyes, at least) moving on to focus on his other duties instead, thinking that in time you’ll come around.

You have to, since you were well aware that his family had always been like that: with their annoying, unwanted commentary. It’s not like you ignored that, nor accepted it when marrying him!

But though you knew what you were getting into, he was greatly miscalculating your willingness to tolerate it, for everyone had limits, especially for someone who grew up in a completely different environment to him.

Just as it did today.

Yet, what Naoya believed to be the problem, it turned out to simply the tip of the iceberg when it came to your feelings, the issue being much bigger, deeper, always, than what was seen at a simple glance—and that much he’d understand when the day went on and you were nowhere to be found, besides your shared bedroom.

Naoya was elated to see you on the bed, fearing that he wouldn’t given your prolonged absence, yet, as much as he wished to convince himself everything was fine, it wasn’t.

He wasn’t to simply lay down next to you and act like nothing ever happened. Move past this issue without speaking about it, or without feeling wrong about it.

Guilty, in other words.

So, your husband does his best to close that gap between the two, let you know how sorry he was…

If not by his words, then by his actions.

“Y/N.” Naoya would murmur. You know it’s serious when he doesn’t call you by any of the millions of pet names he has for you, but still, as much as he wished to portray assertiveness, you do not acknowledge him immediately. “I’m sorry, you know that right?”

“No. I don’t.” you snap quickly, and Naoya, who now laid down on the bed, proceeds to embrace you—only for you to try and move away, failing in the process. “Naoya—”

“What? I’m just getting more comfortable.” He adds nonchalantly, resting his chin in the crook of your neck in the same manner. Hands just below your waist, he pulls your hips towards his, keeping you close and steady even when trying your best to fight against him. “This is my bed too, you know?”

You frown, letting out a small grunt in return before eventually accepting your unwanted fate.

After a few seconds of quiet and realizing you were not to do anything else, Naoya acts next by moving his hands further down your body, fingers taking in the softness of your nightgown (incomparable to your skin, he notes) before stopping just by your thighs, fingers quickly clinging to the edge of the fabric and lifting it up, just enough so his hand could gain access to your underwear, and soon enough, your mound.

“Naoya!’ you cry, tensing when feeling the touch of his fingers hovering over your slit, before pushing past it and deep into your slick, warm walls. “Stop—”

“I’m just checking how she’s faring.” Naoya adds, rubbing his clothed member against the cleft of your ass, giving you a tease of what is yet to come. “He wants to know too, hm?”

You always hated the ridiculous way he had when referring that; it was childish, stupid, and above all embarrassing…

But most of all, you also hated how hot it got you, the lewd connotation making your walls tighten for the slightest of seconds, a gesture that did went by unnoticed from Naoya given how he chuckled, further sliding down your panties, enough so he’d be able to do the same with his pants and move his cock in between your thighs, right next to your slit—he smiles the fact that, even when upset, your body will never deny it’s true feelings for him.

“D—Don’t move…!” you whine when he starts to do so, the heat of his member rubbing against your slit, alongside the girth and the hardness itself makes you instinctively tighten your thighs, pressuring his cock in a way that makes his movements falter for a second before continuing, exactly the opposite of what you asked. “You shouldn’t—”

“But we’re the ones having problems, my mochi.” He murmurs against your ear, you could feel him smiling, clearly enjoying teasing you. “Our issues shouldn’t come in between them.”

“Stop saying that!” You gasp at the particularly harsh trust that gives you a jolt of pleasure, instinctively leaning back onto him as you struggle to reject his advances or succumb to them. “It’s—It’s weird!”

“Yet, the truth.” Naoya adds, his hands sliding their way up to your breasts and comfortably resting them there, occasionally kneading and pinching them in the way he knew you loved, though you’d always whine otherwise, further igniting your guilty pleasure. “They never like it when we get angry, princess… me neither; so why must we hurt them?”

“Naoya—I’m going to—you should—” you grith your teeth, trying your best to hold back the orgasm building up in your cunt. “I don’t want—to—"

“I know—I can feel it.” He smiles, pressing a kiss against your cheek before giving you another sharp trust and making you shriek. “See? They feel so good together, and when they’re apart they always miss each other so terribly… so why put them through that painful endeavor, when we can always be like this?”

At the feeling of his and your orgasm fast approaching, the heir quickens his pace, the air soon filled with the lewd noises of his body slamming against yours, followed by his breathy grunts and your whines that solely demonstrated how deep both were getting into their carnal enjoyment.

“Or feel like this every night? All day too, if you want.”

It wouldn’t take long after that, just a few more thrusts and squeezes before he finally cums, cock twitching as it spurts his seed into your soft, warm thighs, engulfed soon after by the slick of your cunt, a sensation that has you instinctively clamping even more around his member and Naoya moaning louder while resting his face deep into your neck.

He keeps you so until your release eventually dissipates, alongside your breath slowing down, and soon enough, silence.

Naoya hoped that by his gestures he was granted the opportunity of an apology, the reflection of his true feelings and the understanding of how much you truly meant to him—and perhaps on a deeper, selfish level, a repeat of this endeavor, hopefully from your desire as well.

But far from obtaining the simplest indication of the former, he gets a soft, almost undetectable sniffle instead, which to his anxious, attentive ears was nothing but loud, making him tense up and immediately rush to your aid.

“Y/N, what’s wrong? Did you—did you not like it?” or worse. “Did I hurt you?”

Not necessarily, at least not at this moment.

Having spent the past few hours ruminating on your last discussion with him, you get back to your room tired, still battling through the turmoil of whether to continue being angry with him or simply move past this issue and accept that indeed, you knew what his family was like.

But sensitive from this battle, his actions would provide you the last piece needed to achieve an answer, reminded of how much you truly loved him, enjoyed spending time with him, day and night, anytime whenever possible—and how hurtful it would be to not be with him anymore.

Especially for issues caused by others, ones that perhaps maybe wasn’t even yours to struggle with, yet still affected this relationship.

Now you agree that this was a situation that shouldn’t have grown as much as it did; you shouldn’t have avoided him for the rest of the day, and Naoya shouldn’t have acted as dismissively as he did.

Both should’ve instead communicated, expressed the things that bothered the two from this problem and worked on a solution from there.

But if there was a silver lining to make out of this moment, is the realization that even when anger clouds their judgement, they still looked for one another, for love prevailed far more than any obstacles life might send their way.

“I never wanted to be angry at you!” you sob, now allowing your tears to freely fall down your cheeks, the same as your emotions. “And for something so stupid too! You were right, I know what your family is like, and yet, I still allow it to bother me and take it out on you too! Like you’re responsible for their actions! I’m so sorry for all I did—It’s all my fault—”

“No, Y/N, I’m the one that should be sorry.” Naoya murmurs, hugging you tighter against him. Your cries will always feel like a stab against his heart, no matter how many times he hears them. “I should’ve been more sensitive with my approach, especially with something I know only hurts you.”

“…Not all of your family hurts me.” You sniffle, reaching for his hand and intertwining his fingers with yours. “I didn’t mean it that way.”

“But enough of it does.” He answers, squeezing your hand. “I promised to keep you safe and happy, and yet the place that is supposed to do that only brings you harm.”

“It was never issue for me to do so.” You confess. “I wanted to do this so you can continue your duties as heir, and eventually, leader. But sometimes… It’s just too much.”

“If that is the reason of your suffering, I can do that somewhere else. I can make it possible—I’d rather die than to see you like this.”

“Don’t say that.” You frown, he chuckles. “But… will you do that for me? Would you really do something that will anger your family… just for me?”

Wouldn’t be the first time, nor the last.

“The only thing I fear is that I might need time to arrange something different.” Naoya adds. “But for a long time, my family has only been you—it might take a while before I can get a house where it’ll only be us, but I’m determined nonetheless, if… you’re willing to wait for me.”

You slowly turn around to see him, a smile on your face as you gently hold his face. “I waited years to marry you, surely I can wait a bit more.”

Naoya’s heart tightens at your words, motivating him to turn you over completely so he could get a better look at you, before leaning down to take your lips into a soft kiss.

“Though I will not make you wait any longer to show how much I love you.” Naoya reassures, taking your lips into another kiss and marking the mere beginning of his promise to cherish you through thick and thin, which his heart always knew he was meant for since seeing you for the first time all those years ago.

“Naoya—don’t—don’t do it so quickly.” You gasp, tightly holding onto the blankets beneath you as he heatedly slams his hips against you from behind, pushing his cock as deep and deeper as possible, bruising your cervix each time and making you shriek in response. “It’s—It’s too much—!”

“It’s only my love for you, princess.” He groans, completely hypnotized by the way your ass jiggles whenever slamming into you; so tempting, Naoya naturally needs to raise his hand and strike it, leaving behind for you to always remember in the subsequent days who is the only one that can make you feel this way.

Whom you belong to.

“But if you don’t want it, I can simply—”

“No!” You gasp, leaning back onto him the moment he begins to slide out from you, a reacting that has him laughing, amused by your debauchery. “Don’t you dare leave!”

A reward is only expected with a wife so dutiful…

“Can you feel that? —Can you feel my cock deep inside you?”

You whine, agreeing with his words as you continue to move against him, the mere thought of being empty is enough to fill you with unparalleled eagerness, which you did not hesitate to show.

“Nnghh, Naoya—you’re so—you’re so big—!” you gasp, and your words alongside your lovely whines, make him grow even harder. “Ah, it’s—it’s getting bigger—how?!”

“Because you keep squeezing me like that.” He growls against your ear, taking your breasts into his hand and kneading them tightly, you cry. “That’s what you do to me, my wife—your lewd cunt is squeezing me so tightly, it’s like you don’t want to let go.”

“I don’t want to….!” You whine. “Don’t stop, please don’t stop—I’m going to die if you do!"

“Keep saying that, whore—keep telling me what you deserve.”

“My pussy—my pussy deserves your hard, hot cock!”  you breathe.

“It's like falling in love with you all over again.” he murmurs.

“I love you, Naoya.” You gasp, mind hazy from the pleasure yet keeping you conscious enough to keep seeking him. “I love you so, so much…  I never want to be away from you!”

“You won’t.” He darkly promises, having long made up his mind on how exactly he plans to do that. “I won’t let you—!”

Naoya’s hips begin to move faster and faster, each time his cock prodding onto your sensitive spot that he knows will have you undone in a matter of seconds, just around the same time he comes to the conclusion that will ultimately make his promise real.

“I’m going to get you pregnant.” He darkly declares, gritting his teeth as he pushes his cock deeper as he utters those words. “I’m going to fill you with my seed until you have a baby—and even then, I’ll keep filling you until all you could think is when you’ll get pregnant again.”

“Nao—Naoyaaa…!” you moan at his promise, his words washing over you with another layer of pleasure you never considered possible, although the thought has crossed your mind before, bothered you enough late at night, wondering about the arduous attempts the two would have to commit to make it happen…

“I can’t wait to see your breasts full of milk—I bet it’ll taste just as sweet as your cunt.”

“Don’t—Don’t say that!” you shriek, feeling impossibly lewder at his connotation and tightening even more your walls, making his breath hitch.

“But it’s true.” He groans, moving his hand down to your clit and beginning to rub it eagerly once feeling your orgasm just a few instances away, frantically desiring to be engulfed by the choking sensation his cock deserves after it’s diligent work. “All that comes from you is unbearably sweet…”

“I’m—I’m going to—I’m going to cum!”

“Do it. Do it now!” Your husband hisses. “Cum, Y/N!”

A few thrusts later, you do, followed by a quick gasp and a long groan, the knot in your stomach snapping undone and making your vision go white, eyes rolling to the back of your head as you moan, falling limp onto the bed while Naoya’s seed fills you to the brim, the burning promise to make you pregnant reiterated by his lips taking yours into a heated kiss…

“Can you—Can you feel that?” he murmurs, cock twitching as it spurts the last ropes of his cum. “It’s my love for you. And now, our baby…”

“Naoya…” you whine, squeezing your walls ever so slightly when feeling him twitch; he groans. “I want it—I want your babies…”

“Take it—take all of it—” he smiles, looking down to your cunt. “Looks like she also wants that—can you see how eager she is to milk me?”

You glance downwards, eyes hazy by pleasure but still capable enough to see what he meant, unwilling to deny his words… before gasping when realizing the gravity of what transpired next.

“Naoya! It’s spilling! Don’t let it spill!”

“If you think we’re done, you’re gravelly mistaken.” He smirks, fingers quickly cleaning up his seed and pushing deep into your cunt, where it belongs, before adjusting you into the next position. “I’ll give you as much as you want, my love, whatever is necessary to make you a mommy.”

You moan when he begins to move again, feeling impossibly fuller the deeper his cock went, an endeavor that would go on and on until you were unequivocally reassured of his feelings for you, his immeasurably desire…

As well as the first semblance of a future together, hopefully soon, as a family.

“I love you.” You breathe once he finally unsheathes himself from you, many hours later from the beginning, as you laid beside him and rested your head over his chest.

“I love you too.” Naoya responds, wrapping his arm over your shoulders and holding you tight, his head resting over yours while his hand made way to your full stomach. “And our baby.”

“It’s still too soon, love.” You say, gently reaching for his hand, smiling. “But hopefully it’ll take…”

“Guess we’ll have to do it a few more times, just to be sure.” He chuckles, you pout.

“I don’t think I can fit any more, I feel so full already…” His cock invertedly twitches at the thought of proving you wrong, which you don’t fail to catch immediately after. “Naoya? We’ve just—it’s 3 in the morning!”

“Then why did you say something like that?” he asks, already adjusting you into position yet again. “If you wanted to rest, then perhaps you should control your words.”

“I didn’t even say anything!” you gasp, cunt twitching when he rubs the head of his cock against your slit. “Naoya— I don’t think—I don’t think I can take anymore! What’s gotten into you? Aren’t you tired?!"

But for a man like Naoya, that was impossible.

To ask him to be tired of his beautiful wife, the same one that has endlessly doted on him, shown him a world of color where previously all he’s seen was darkness, as well as demonstrated the future the two could create, by simply setting their minds into it, was like asking him to stop breathing.

He just couldn’t, because doing so would kill him.

And all for one particular reason:

 “I’m not, Y/N.”

“H—how?!”

“Because I simply love you too much.”

This could really go down like a:

Naoya: My wife is angry... what can I do? Oh, I know! *gets her pregnant*

I mean you do want to have a family with him!! but not like that hahaha.

Anyways, I've had this thought for a while but guess it finally came out with this small drabble: The Zen'in estate is not a good place to have a family lmao. I keep writing our favorite couple there but lets be real, Naoya wouldn't want her there.

Naomi is out of the question too! I literally just thought about how neither you or Naoya would allow her to have sleepovers at the estate because the Zen'in are just a bunch of pricks.

I like to think that he'll either have a whole area secluded for his family, or just live somewhere else. Maybe when he's leader tho he'll change a lot of things.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this small thing!! Naoya and his domineering ways will always come to bite you in the butt some way or another much to your dismay, but it'll also be the reason you remember why you love him so much 🥺

Take care, and hope to see you soon!!

#ask #naoya zenin #naoya zen'in #naoya x reader #naoya zenin x reader #naoya zenin x you #jjk naoya #naoya zen'in x reader #jjk x reader #jjk smut #jjk x you #prompt series: jujutsu kaisen

[licorice-tea]

Don’t Fall In Love With Me (Yet) Pt. 2

Pairing: Trafalgar Law x reader

Content: mentions of fights/canon typical violence and weapons, sooo much pining, can be read as a stand alone or as part of the mini series, allies to friends to lovers (soon!?), etc!

Word Count: 1.5k

A/N: hmmm where do i start? i changed the pov from third to second person, (the first part was third person) the writing style of this is a little different from what i usually do but i still like it so hopefully you do to! pls enjoy and ty for reading <333

edited 1/8/24

Part 1 | Part 3

Law finds y/n leaning on the starboard railing of the Thousand Sunny.

You feel Law’s steps on the wooden planks and look over your shoulder to see him approaching. you swear you can hear your own heartbeat, and only hope that he won’t be able to hear it, too. Your thoughts are interrupted by his presence to your left. Law leans over the railing, mug of coffee in hand. A moment of silence passes while he watches you watch the sea from the corner of his eye.

“Can you even see anything?” he questions, his words coming off much harsher than intended,

A bit caught off guard, you simply respond, “Mhm, everything.” you have good vision, so you’re sort of the natural choice for keeping watch if Zoro doesn’t feel like staying up.

You can feel Law’s gaze on your profile. You can also feel your cheeks heating up, but those two things are completely independent… It doesn’t even matter though, because the darkness of the night should be enough to hide that from him.

“Are you having a good time on board the Thousand Sunny?” 

“It’s alright. You guys are really loud.” He says in a near scoff.

“Oh… Sorry about that.” Did you really bother him so much?

Law mentally kicks himself and is quick to wave a hand in front of his face apologetically, “No, I just mean… you’re all very energetic. Not you specifically, either. You’re actually really, uh…”

You wait patiently, now peering up at him through your lashes. He meets your eyes with his own, much more frantic gaze.

“You’re… nice.” He finally averts his eyes with a turn of cheek.

“Oh… thank you.” You smile to yourself. “I think you’re really nice, too.”

Law releases another scoff, though it comes off as more surprised than mean. He struggles with accurately portraying his feelings for you, who remains equally oblivious to his feelings as he does to yours. “You must be thinking of someone else.”

“Why’s that?”

“I’m not known for being nice.”

“People must not really know you, then.”

“And you do?”

“Not as much as I’d like to, but well enough.”

“… What?” He finds that you make him feel dumb sometimes, be it through quick rebuttals or patient stares.

“I just mean, we could be friends. But I understand if you don’t-“

“I do.”

“… Ok.” You grin once more.

The pair stare out to sea, and Law takes another sip of his coffee.

“How come I never see you in fights with your crew?”

“I try to stay out of the way. Plus, I don’t really like fighting in the first place- that’s not why I joined my crew. It’s more of a last resort.”

“Interesting.”

“You think so?”

“That you would rather play support than have to get into a fight? Definitely. It’s not very pirate-like.” He nearly sneers- he has certain beliefs on what a pirate should be in order to be of use to their crew.

But, ever the optimist, you simply laugh, “So I’ve been told,” you start. “I guess I’m a little… strict about my morals. Just never really want to hurt someone, you know? Even if it makes people think I’m weak, because I know I’m not.”

“At least you’re self aware.” Law begins, but for some unknown reason feels compelled to continue. To give you some little piece of himself in return for what you’ve told him. However, after he tells you, “I don’t enjoy fighting much either, I just do it to protect my crew.” he feels like he’s talking too much.

You listen intently, “And do you have a family? If you don’t mind me asking.”

He shakes his head no, “Gone.”

You nod solemnly. “Well, I’m sure they’d be proud of you.”

“Have you… lost someone?” Law immediately regrets asking such a personal question.

But, you aren't offended. “No, I’ve been lucky in that way. Though we aren’t really… We don’t… Well, we’re not close.”

“Why’s that?” he mimics your earlier question, which you pick up on and smirk at.

So you sigh; “I guess the whole running-away-with-a-pirate crew thing kind of soiled their opinion of me.”

Your eyes meet again after your confession, and after a moment of silence, you both break out in laughter. Except, Law’s is more of just the shake of his shoulders, while you actually laugh.

“It’s not funny-” Law says through broken exhales.

“No, it’s really not!” you shake your head, still caught in a fit of giggles.

Eventually you both still yourselves, and Law concentrates on his half empty mug while you look up at the stars above head. Then you look at him from the corner of their eye, just for a split second, but find his eyes are already trained on you. So you offer a smile, like always, and go back to star gazing. Another moment passes, and your enjoyment of conversation gets the best of you.

“What’s it like living in a submarine?” Law raises a brow and gives a sidelong glance at your question. “Don’t you miss land and the sky when you’re down there?”

“Yeah. I miss land sometimes, I guess.”

You explore the answer to your question further by standing up on the ledge before you, and leaning over the railing to look down into the waves being split by the Thousand Sunny. It’s not a particularly dangerous stunt at all- there’s the floor, a 3 inch raised ledge, and the railing on top of it. When you stand on it, your height is barely altered; that’s how non perilous what you are doing is, for context. You simply want to lean over to see the waves.

But Law’s hand shoots out to grasp your shoulder, acting as a tether. You look at him with a concerned expression, which turns into a smirk. You could stay up there, maybe even turn and lift yourself slightly to sit on the railing itself, but you decide to come back down to the floor on your heels instead of giving the surgeon something else to stress over. Law then pulls his hand back rigidly and scratches the back of his neck with near painful awkwardness due to his sudden display of concern for your safety.

“I don’t think I could trip all the way over the railing unless I tried.” You tease.

“No, I- I know.” he coughs. Did he really just stutter?

“See? You are nice. You care.” you punctuate your statement with a smirk and the side to side tilt of their head. An occasional habit that, if someone were around you often enough to witness, they would know signified a feeling of triumph.

Law is at a loss for words at the moment, thoughts clouded by the growing warmth in his chest that seems to fluctuate up and down his neck and face, but never disappears completely when he’s around you.

“Sure.” he takes to mumbling again.

“You know, I really like having you here with us.”

“…You do?”

“Yeah. I love the other Straw Hats of course, but… I don’t know, you’re different.”

“You’re different from my crew, too.”

“Oh yeah? In a good way, I hope.”

Law shrugs, “Yeah.” He pauses, then mutters something under his breath. “In a good way.”

You’d blurt out your feelings here and now, if it were anyone else. But this is Law, and you kind of like him a lot, so you want to do things right. Besides, that would probably only scare him away- he seems like the kind of man who carefully works his way up to a relationship. With a friendly smile, you accept his statement. Because now that you know he considers you a friend at the very least, and more than likely shares your affections… you’re in no rush.

The night goes by quickly in his company, and soon enough you spot the golden rays of the sun peaking over the horizon.

“We should do this again sometime,” you tell him as the sun starts to climb higher into the sky (quicker than you’d like), “I had fun talking to you.”

Law nods, “Just let me know when you’re keeping watch,” he waves over his shoulder as he walks away, “I’ll be there.”

And when he makes it back to the privacy of his room, Law replays the night in his head. Over and over and over again, until he comes to a not-so-shocking conclusion. “Shit:”

“I’m falling for y/n.”

#one piece x reader #one piece x you #fanfic #one piece #x reader #law x reader #law fluff #law x you #trafalgar law #law x y/n #pining #late night conversations #straw hat reader #straw hat pirates #fluff #one piece x y/n

[beauspot]

Beau is Afraid is the movie I have been waiting for

!Spoilers Ahead! *LONG POST*

TW: Child Abuse, Gaslighting, Narcissistic Abuse, Strangulation, Discussions of Severe Anxiety

Like many people I knew Ari Aster as the guy who made Hereditary and Midsommar. Weird and trauma focused horror and that is definitely what Beau is Afraid is classified as, but it is nothing like his previous films.

To summarize, Beau is afraid starts off with Beau meeting his therapist (well it literally starts with Beau being born but i digress) and here we learn that Beau has a severe and crippling anxiety disorder. From the moment Beau starts talking about his mother I knew exactly what this movie was going to be about(though i don’t think anyone could guess the plot). We see that he is planning to visit his mother the next day because it’s the anniversary of his fathers death. Due to unforeseen circumstances Beau oversleeps and as he is rushing his keys get stolen out of his door along with his suitcase. Beau calls to tell his mom just wanting to tell her what’s happened and as she began to speak I got immediately triggered. You can see him sink into a shell of himself as she tries to make him feel guilty for thinking he should stay at home since someone has access to his apartment. She hangs up on him and Beau begins to lose it a little bit.

A lot of things domino fall and this leads to Beau getting locked out of his apartment (this also leads to the first time we see Beau experience something i’ve never seen so perfectly portrayed in a film. executive dysfunction. and it happens multiple times, he simply freezes in place even though he knows he should move. Part of it is definitely his anxiety as he is afraid to move because thats a decision and he doesn’t want the responsibility of what comes after a decision)and learning that his mother was killed by a falling chandelier. Then we see him get hit by a car. He ends up in the care of a family and long story short he has to run from them and ends up in the woods with a theatre troupe.

This is important because we learn that Beau’s biggest dream is to simply have a job and home of his own with a family that loves him. That’s his perfect future, but even as he’s seeing it playing out his kind can’t help but conjure up the worst case scenarios. We also see it repeated here that Beau can’t have kids because he can’t have sex because of a genetic heart murmur that killed his father. After Beau is separated from the theatre troupe he makes his way to his mothers house(though he should have been healing after being hit by a car and being stabbed his ONLY CONCERN was his mother not being humiliated by not being buried). When he sees her body he isn’t at peace yet but he lays down and gets his first night of good rest in days. When he wakes up he is greeted with his old friend Elaine who asked him to wait for her and he did. Long story short, Beau and her have sex. He is under the direct impression he is going to die when this happens.

But he doesn’t. However, Elaine does. He is rightfully terrified and cowers in fear until the music Elaine was playing suddenly shuts off and he looks up to find none other than his mother staring back at him. She faked her death to get him home and then tries to turn this on Beau saying he couldn’t wait for her to die, when Beau admits he knew she was alive because of the birthmark on the hands on the body. But she’s not done. Out of the shadows steps Beau’s therapist as his mother begins playing a recording of one of his sessions where Beau admits reluctantly that he felt his mothers love was conditional. Since he feels like he has nothing to lose he chooses to finally confront his mother about the dream he has where he sees an identical version of himself ask about his father because Beau isn’t brave enough and he asks where his father is.

His mother takes him to the attic from the dream and tells him to go up there telling him it wasn’t a dream, it was a memory. There Beau meets his twin brother and his father(it’s a lot more batshit than this but that’s the gist of it). He begs to go back down and his mother finally lets him and he LITERALLY KISSES HER LEGS telling her he’s sorry. But she’s still not done. She goes on a whole tirade about how her mother blamed her for her mothers mistakes completely missing how she’s doing the same to Beau. She continues to berate him until she finally says what she means. She hates Beau. And at that point Beau puts his hands around her throat, strangling her. He eventually comes to his senses and lets her go, shocked at his own actions, but the damage has been done, she collapses and dies.

Beau leaves the house the look of shock frozen on his face and he reaches a motorboat on his mothers private little beach. He starts the motor and begins to drive the boat towards a cavern. For the first time the whole movie Beau seems like he might no longer be afraid. Until the motor mysteriously sputters and here’s where shit gets VERY REAL. SERIOUSLY IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE MOVIE GO WATCH IT BEFORE CONTINUING.

Beau is sitting in darkness for a few seconds and suddenly this cavern is flooded with light and he sees no, it’s not actually a cavern at all. It’s a stadium filled with people. They are all watching him. Through his (and the audiences) confusion a voice booms from a microphone. When Beau finds the source he is shocked to see that it is coming from a man on a mini stage high in the stadium sitting next to his mother. From a giant 4 sided jumbotron video plays of moments from Beau’s life dating back to when he was NINE. YEARS. OLD. All of of which is taken out of context. Beau’s only “defense” is a shitty lawyer who has yell because he wasn’t given a microphone and even when he is heard and things his lawyer says are reasonable his mothers lawyer simply writes it off and moves onto the next thing he’s “done wrong”. (To me this represents all of the times Beau tried to reason with his mother and make her see his side before he just had to succumb to her will for survival, because you can’t reason with a narcissist.) When his defense is literally thrown from his stage and dies on a steep rock Beau is left to defend himself. Through his anxiety and fear he still tries to make them see his side, but Beau is found to be guilty. He never really loved his mother, he was a manipulative child who took from her and never gave anything back.

As this is all coming to a close the motor on the boat begins to flame and the boat begins to sink. Beau is begging, pleading, screaming, for his mother as she watches him in distress. As the entire arena of people watches him struggling and does nothing. We can see the exact moment Beau succumbs to his fate, he says nothing and for the first time in the whole film his shoulders droop. All of his anxiety is gone. He knows his mother won’t help him, that no one will. And the look that crosses his face is one I understood so deeply. One of anger that he dedicated his life to this woman, one of realization that he couldn’t trust anyone, one of sadness that he was truly alone. And I relate to that so deeply.

I remember people talking about the relationship between Joy and Evelyn in Everything Everywhere All at Once and while I definitely relate to their story somewhat there was something missing and I didn’t know what it was until I saw Beau is Afraid.

On the one hand there’s the constant twisting of Beau’s actions that is particularly triggering to me. Him living in one of his mothers apartment buildings and using a card with her money is turned on him when for one thing the apartment is shitty and he is constantly in fear for his life. Number 2 the card was given to him by her to use, because Beau is literally agoraphobic because of HER ACTIONS. He can’t hold down a job even if he wanted to. His whole life is his therapist and his home. I find it so strange that mothers like this will stifle any interest their child has that falls outside of what they want for them and literally block them from opportunities to advance, but then get upset when their kids aren’t able to function on their own as adults.

But that’s not the main thing that stuck out to me and made me realize I had been carrying this massive weight with me I couldn’t explain.

This ever present fear I felt living with my mother that just never left. This feeling that she was always watching me even when I wasn’t with her and that I couldn’t trust anyone because they would turn them against me eventually. That I couldn’t say bad things about her because the words would find their way back to her. When I was actively going to therapy I would triple check my phone to make sure I didn’t accidentally dial her and she could every word I was saying. That’s how terrifying it feels and I’ve never seen that captured on screen. Tears were streaming down my face as I watched Beau’s cries be ignored and as people just let him die. In the silence of the theater I simply stared at the place Beau had been and thought “you have to leave, you have to get out.”

!End of Spoilers!

It’s a great movie and I think you should definitely go see it if you have 3 hours to spare. I’ve personally seen it twice and I relate so much to Beau it’s kinda scary. Sorry for this long post I wonder what anyone who saw it thinks though, i’d like to hear new perspectives. Now time to watch Queen Charlotte for something lighter 😭

#beau is afraid #joaquin phoenix #film #ari aster #long post #narc abuse #malignant narcissism #narcissistic abuse #trauma #trauma bonding #child abuse #tw abuse #anxiety #gaslighting #patti lupone #nathan lane #parker posey #horror #hereditary #midsommar #spoilers #executive dysfunction

[barbariccia]

so i’m being taken through fftactics (wotl version) for the first time in my life (shocking, i know, but i gargle bollocks at tactical games and my inability to be able to do those unfortunately trumps my desire to play every ff ever) by my love, my light, my absolute nemesis @reflectionsofacreator​

guess i should keep an ongoing thread on my thoughts and feelings!

chapter 1 (the lookbackening)

very much enjoying myself with this so far! i knew i would but i think i vastly underestimated just how much i thought i would

despite knowing that some Whack Ass Shit is going to happen later on wrt the lucavi et al, i honestly would be really happy with just a standard fantastical story the way it’s being presented in chapter 1. no traditional ff bullshit, just a good scathing look at a highly unequal class system and the people that fight against (and perpetuate!) it.

for a surprising not-a-lot-of-scenes-in-chapter-1-all-things-considered, the characters are strong from their introduction and don’t feel hackneyed or clichéd (even though they’re from around the time of Man Those Clichés Sure Are Beginning To Exist).

the spritework and diorama-esque scenery are absolutely gorgeous for their time and their simplicity. i’m honestly kind of blown away by how simple the sprites are but how much they’re doing and portraying. every little lean, every glance over the shoulder, the light, the colours,,, stunning, honestly. i even enjoy the difference in text boxes (to what i’m used to) - how they feel like they read naturally, at a decent pace, clearly signposted as to who’s who!

i do not , however, care overmuch for the portraits - while i very much appreciate that they’re giving us a nice little slice of life in ivalice and its members at the top of the food chain, everyone looks too similar for me to be able to differentiate immediately. as much as like akihiko yoshida’s artwork, i also think the stylistic lack of noses in the portraits doesn’t do them any favours in a. helping to look different enough for my liking and b. unfortunately takes away from some of the seriousness of the scenes. i’m sorry, wiegraf, your hard calls are very moving, but... how do you smell? (baadly god i’m so sorry for that one. i already know he turns into belias. i can only apologise.)

however, a good conversation with azly/reflections about the absolute goofiness of dycedarg’s hairstyle ended up being a really good talk - to me, ivalice is (has been, always will be) very theatrical. it makes sense, then, for the sprites (and portraits) to be somewhat theatrical in nature - big silly hairstyles to show you who’s who, a uniform of sorts - it all adds up and looks very natural, even when some of the design choices are... well, sure designs!

who the fuck is naming their kids shit like larg and zalbaag et al?

it’s interesting playing wotl when azly/reflections has previously played the psx version - i get a nice insight into what they’re used to considering as the “true” names (and the same with places et al), and then double-checking the kana via the ffwiki. “mol” i hear you say “what is the truth: argath or algus?” to which i say neither, i am taking a third path and simply calling him algath which i think flows better and is in keeping with the kana. if they did not want this they should have called him ア―ガス and not アルガス and should have anticipated that one day i would make this decision, quite fucking frankly.

similarly wrt translation differences, getting “this is what X said in this scene in the psx version” makes my evening. i keep making comparisons to lotr and tolkein’s usage of low language because... damn, i really feel like that sort of thing would work in this setting. great, i love ye fake olde manners of speaking and being all fun and theatrical about it! still works for the ivalice setting, but there’s some lines that really would’ve worked better had they not been... on par with everything else. i’m thinking specifically at ziekden: after hearing algath prattle on, and on, and on--

Delita (WotL): Is our forked tongue done flitting? What I'd hear from your lips are not words!

Delita (PSX): Is that it? Is that all, Algus?!

i know which i’d choose. unfortunately a cursory look for the script actually seems to indicate that people... prefer the PSX version and think the wotl version is too... wordy? silly sounding? whatever. it’s a shame, is what it is.

so, the characters themselves, now:

knowing that algath is capital-d Dead by the end of chapter 1 is a relief, because i’m not sure how much more i, a veteran xiv player, could take of hearing his fucking voice from rabanastre and yell them aloud once the appropriate line is spoken.

pictured: three perfectly normal* ivalice fans all taking equal psychic damage.

i’m a little ashamed to admit how much i enjoyed algath’s brief debut. oh my god, what a shitheel? what an absolutely pathetic pile of mediocracy. i have got to do something about those zero-redeeming-quality characters that i keep enjoying, yeesh. on his own he wouldn’t even ping on the interesting scale, it’s just his association with ramza and delita that makes me go 👀hello? dynamics? tasty dynamics?

i’m really enjoying delita, who’s name i cannot spell correctly on the first try, as well. not that i think the “commoner invited to live above his station” is an overdone trope or anything like that, but he’s just such a... genuine little dude that i want desperately to know what his role in the rest of the story is going to be. or not be! fftactics: the Delita Not Appearing version. especially considering how much of algath’s diatribe he was party to, knowing that he was very earnestly not on the same wavelength as ramza all this time... even though they were friends without any problems til now. (onscreen, at least.) thanks, algath. jerk.

it is WILD to see ramza as a sweet little  thing with pinchable cheeks rather than the absolute ass he was in the RtI raid series. he’s very naive. i like that about him - he’d be terrible as a protagonist if he didn’t try and grow from any of this, so of course he’s going to be doing some of that, but... i dunno, something about growing up and losing everything you ever had. being changed by the hero’s story etc etc tale as old as time etc etc we can never go home for it no longer exists etc.

a delight to be listening to fft tracks again as well, even if i feel like i should be doing mechanics instead of sitting peacefully watching it all play out. azly/reflection is gonna jumpscare me with tgcid or something, i can taste it in the air.

i swear to all the scions of light and darkness if we pick up a random unit with the generated name of orella i’m going to shriek so fucking loudly every person on the original team is going to hear it

#final fantasy tactics #ff tactics

[abittersweetraisin]

It hasn't been only Chloé...

Before season 5 goes cold, there are a couple of things I still want to say.  The quality of the writing has affected more than just Chloé. The thing is that it has been way more noticeable in her. And also, people tend to blame it on the characters, as if they wrote themselves.

-Marinette’s friends.

I know I’m not alone in this one. It is annoying how they love and trust Marinette one second, but then Lila opens her mouth and they distrust her right away. It’s a kid’s show, ok. But come on, that’s forcing it too much. And Alya,… please, even after she learned that Marinette is Ladybug, she still trusted more in Lila’s words. Poor Alya, she deserved better. And she seems different. I don’t know what is it. But her personality seems different. Less interesting.

-Adrien. 

I bet this section is going to be a very unpopular opinion area.  I don’t like at all how all of the sudden he just forgot his feelings for Ladybug. Just from one episode to the other his mind changed to “oh yeah, I now realize I’ve actually always been in love with Marinette”. Excuse me? Just like that? Instead of having all those filler episodes with the akuma of the day, they could had written him slowly falling in love with her. 

Something else I don’t like… It seems like in the beginning the writers thought it was funny all the kissing jokes that Chat Noir said to Ladybug. They didn’t read in time all the complains from a portion of the fandom. I hated how his behavior was labeled as a sexual harassment.

In real life if a person tells you to stop you have to stop. Yes, of course. And you don’t have to touch another person for it to become sexual harassment. But that’s the thing, Chat Noir never did any of that. He never tried to force a kiss (like Felix did). He never gave her an inappropriate look (Of course not, it’s a kid’s show. That would had been preposterous.). Yet, the fandom labeled, and I don’t remember having seen a scene where the writers tried to defend him.  No, instead we had Gladiator 2, where while he’s shielding them from an attack she just grabs him and throws him to the trash bin. But that was supposed not to be overreacting. 

-Marinette. 

She and Chloé are the opposite sides of the same coin. 

We’ve all seen how the writers have not wasted opportunity to make Chloé as evil as possible. The very same thing has been forced to Marinette, just in the opposite direction. She’s super good. She’s the protagonist, I get it. But, wouldn’t it make the story more interesting and relatable if she weren’t portrayed as so extremely good and perfect? You may be thinking “but she’s made many mistakes”. All her mistakes get easily forgiven, or erased, or justified, or left without consequences or simply used to portray her as a martyr for whom we need to feel sorry. To a certain degree that could work, but it’s been taken too far. And that’s become annoying for many of us. She was funny and endearing back in season 1 and 2.

But as the series progressed… 

You may think I’m exaggerating in what I’m saying,… Let’s see:

Chat Blanc. If she hadn’t sneaked into Adrien’s room he wouldn’t had found out, no reveal, no Chat Blanc, no destruction of Paris (and the world?). That reality, those consequences got deleted when she went back in time to erase her message. So, all good. No harm done.

Strike back. She got tricked and got all the miraculous stolen. Ok, that’s a mistake that could had happened to anyone. Still, what happened? Su-Han got on his hands and knees and apologized to her. It was his duty to help protect the miraculous, yes, but why did she need to apologize to her? If there’s a guardian superior to him, then that’s who he should had apologized to for not having taken the miraculous box back in the beginning of season 4. It should had been his responsibility to hand the miraculous to at least young adults. Back then Adrien and Marinette still had time restrictions. Ladybug’s words to Su-Han while he was apologizing: “Fine, fine but please get up. You know, everybody makes mistakes”. One would think that an adult person would know that.

There was a a brief scene in this 5th season where Plagg refers to Marinette as the best girl in the universe. It was one of the latest episodes to be released, but I can’t remember which one it was. I’ll update if I remember or if I get into the mood to go look for it.

I came across a video in youTube that was a title “Why does everyone hate Marinette now?”. It mostly dealt with the lack of consequences for her actions. In my opinion, what I find annoying is how all the characters work to put her in a pedestal. Everything twirls around her and how good she is. There was the story of the Agrestes, but nop. That was a given way less attention than how awkward she felt around Adrien. Or the plans to tell Adrien she was in love with him, etc. 

Ladybug and Chat Noir are supposed to be equals. Just alone the placement of their miraculous in Master Fu’s box highlighted that.  As someone said, when the mega akumas came up they could had said that his cataclysm would be needed to break the object, but no. 

In season 4, Marinette broke Luka’s heart. Then a few episodes later she’s talking to Luka about her feelings for Adrien. That was very insensitive of her. The writers didn’t have time to excuse her behavior in that same season, but of course they addressed that in this 5th season. In the Migration episode she brings out how insensitive it was of her to talk to him about Adrien when she had broken his heart. And what was the reply the writers wrote? “You didn’t break my heart, you enriched it”. Yeah, right, there was no scene in season 4 showing Luka devastated. And just to make extra sure the fandom understood that Marinette is super good the writers had her saying “So,… you’re saying I’m not cruel or pathetic?”. I could almost see Astruc’s face sneaking in “See people? All good!”.  This is a good example of what I mean when I say that the characters work to make her look as good asa possible.

I have read some Adrien salt complaining how he does nothing yet he receives the reward. What reward? He’s been demoted to side kick at best. Sometimes he’s a little better than a flowerpot. How many times when Hawk Moth gave his boring little speech he said something like “I will defeat you Ladybug”, completely forgetting there’s supposed to be two of them. And all season 4 he kept being ignored and replaced. That’s a reward?

Just because a character is a main one doesn’t mean that everything needs to be focused on them all the time. 

Buffy the vampire slayer. Her name is the show’s name, yet, there were episodes completely focused on other characters. There were things going on with Buffy, but the show also showed what was a going on the lives of the rest of the gang. That made it more rich and interesting.

Same for “Sabrina, the teenage witch”. The episodes were around 20 minutes long, yet they reserved time to show the lives of her aunts and of Salem.  

For obvious reasons I had hesitated to make this post. People are bound to think that I’m only writing this because I support the redemption arc that had started with Chloé. But that’s not true. I would be thinking this even if Chloé hadn’t been written in the show at all. 

By the way, it seems that the rules of making a wish have changed. I can’t help to wonder and cringe at the thought of how they’re going to handle things in season 6.

#mlb #mlb analysis #mlb salt #mlb writing salt

[the-ghost-of-jason-todd]

i am honestly a little bored with all the wfa discourse about whether jason’s trauma reaction is realistic.  “if he had a panic attack every time he heard metal scrape he couldn’t be a vigilante” “finally they’re actually portraying a realistic reaction to trauma they should do this all the time” “blah blah blah”.  there’s a little truth in all of it, but the bigger truth is that there’s nuance to trauma.  if you think about these episodes in a larger framework, they absolutely make sense--but so do a lot of other red hood comics and the maybe less-obvious portrayals of his trauma in them.

i just would like people to realize that not all triggers and not all reactions will be the same--even for the same person, even on the same day.  that’s the crux of this issue, i think.  people assume that someone will always act the same way when dealing with a trigger but nah, that isn’t always how it works.  it can be true that he isn’t usually so affected by the sound of a crowbar on concrete, but that it may have caught him off guard in just the right way (maybe the echo of the cave reminded him of the warehouse?) to trigger a flashback when it normally wouldn’t.  also... trauma has this neat little trick where sometimes you won’t begin to process something like that until well after the event has ended--years past, sometimes.  sometimes safety is the permission your body needs to actually feel how deep the wound is. 

wfa is different from most other jason/red hood media because he’s been depicted as a regular family member who spends a lot of time at or around the manor, which gives him a kind of stability that we don’t often see in red hood comics.  it would not surprise me if his triggers actually got worse after some time hanging around at ‘home’, simply because he had time to slow down and start to really process things for the first time.  the most important thing about part 2, in my opinion, is that he didn’t just brush off the flashback/episode and snap back to normal right away--THAT is the part that i think comics usually get wrong.  they never slow down to let traumatized characters feel the ripples from a trigger like that, and only bring up the trauma when it makes a BIG splash, you know what i mean?  comics are dramatic and they sometimes go for theatrics over emotional resonance, but wfa didn’t do that.  it slowed down, too, so that we could see the process of jason coming back out of the hole.  that means a lot to me.

#wfa spoilers #yes i got the fast pass specifically for these two eps #don't even @ me #i've lost my mind #liveblogging wfa #liveblogging batfam #my thoughts are all over the place but #i have a lot of thoughts about depictions of trauma #jason todd meta

[animesimp93]

I actively write and share this story on AO3 but I’m curious to see how it’ll do here. If you like the story, please go support me on AO3 under the surname of ‘animesimp93’ as I an much more active on there. So please enjoy the first part of this ongoing story

Placebo

Summary: Being offered one of her absolute dream jobs, Y/N quickly accepts the offer. Even if she’s just a very low paid intern, she’s now working at the JYP building as a low paid, and even lower level intern. Her dream of one day meeting the group she idolizes more than anything else, Stray Kids, might just come true. After working at the company for a couple weeks, she hasn’t once seen them. Still not giving up hope, she continues to come into work each and every day. One night while staying late and cleaning one of the larger practice rooms, an all too familiar person finds her and introduces himself and thus, their relationship begins from the night onwards.

This story is a work of pure fiction and should be viewed as such. I own no rights to the characters portrayed in this work of fiction, however the story itself is mine. Reader discretion is advised as there will be heavy sexual and explicit content.

Story categories include but not limited to: smut, fluff, consensual intercourse, dominate behaviors from Christopher, slice of life, Trigger warning: implied suicide mentioned later on

Chapter 1

“They’re doing fantastic aren’t they?”

I glanced away from the stage towards the voice that came from behind me and smiled. It was their manager, Min, his face beaming with pride as he glanced out at the guys. “They’ve really worked incredibly hard to get to this point.”

I looked back out towards all of them and could feel the huge smile on my face. “They have, and it shows with every move they make.” I felt an overwhelming amount of pride and happiness surge throughout my body as we both stood there and watched them. I still couldn’t help but wonder just how I made it to this point and found myself reminiscing once again.

I've been with JYP now for almost a year, and with Stray Kids for almost as long. I started off as a simple intern; I was there to simply help do whatever needed to be done. I didn’t mind it, even with the pay being practically nonexistent, I was happy to be at the JYP building. My hopes of possibly one day seeing and meeting Stray Kids one of my end goals, it kept the motivation high to do anything anyone asked of me.

The first couple weeks I was here, I never really saw them, just heard about them constantly. I never imagined I would ever reach the level of working or interacting with them as I am now, but at the time just knowing I worked in the same building as them was enough to make me happier than I had ever been. One day when cleaning one of their practice rooms, an all too familiar person walked in on me.

Normally when I clean, I always have my earbuds in and the music turned up to a deafening level. It was particularly late that night and I wasn’t expecting anyone to be in the building, so of course that meant I could sing while I cleaned. I became lost in it until I finally looked up in the mirror and felt my whole heart on the verge of convulsing out of my chest.

“Shit!” I screamed much louder than I intended. The small bucket I was holding with water now rolled across the floor, its contents glistening everywhere as I had thrown it up in the air when I jumped. “I’m so sorry!”

The man quickly ran over to the small counter in the room and grabbed some paper towels before he came towards me. “No it’s my fault! I’m sorry, I just…I heard someone singing and wasn’t sure who it was.” I watched in sheer amazement as he bent down and laid the paper towels on the ground, waiting as it quickly saturated each towel with the spilt water. “I think I created an even bigger mess for you. I’m so sorry,” he said through a small, embarrassed chuckle.

I shook my head and dropped to the floor to help him finish drying the water up. “You don’t need to be doing this! I—I got it.”

He quickly glanced up at me, his dark eyes sparkling from behind his blonde bangs. “Absolutely not. Not only did I cause this mess, but I scared you, watched you without you knowing, and almost gave you a heart attack. The least I can do is fix the issues I caused.” He looked back down and meticulously gathered the paper towels into one neat pile. “Plus this is a much easier mess to clean up than I’m used to.”

I wanted to speak but my mouth wouldn’t open. I couldn’t believe he was here…talking to me…and treating me as if I’m just—well, a normal person and not a low ranking employee of his company.

He stood up and ran back towards the corner of the room where a small trash can sat and brought it back to where I was. He quickly gathered all the wet paper towels and tossed them into the trash can, clapping his hands together once he was finished. “I can take this out too. It looks like you had already emptied it.”

I still sat on the floor, my gaze locked on him and unable to say a word. He looked down at me, his smile growing wider by the second. He chuckled softly and bent down, setting the trash can off to the side of him. “Hey? You uh…you didn’t have a heart attack, right?”

I came back down to reality and quickly shook my head. “I’m so sorry!” I half yelled at him. “I just…I never thought I would get the chance to talk to you!”

His smile never leaving his face grew wider as the tips of his ears burned a fiery red. “You’re clearly a STAY it sounds like.” He ran his hand through his hair and looked away, his cheeks now matching the same red hue as his ears.

“Y-yeah I am…I’m sorry this must be weird for you.”

He looked back over at me, his eyes locking with mine as he tilted his head to the side. “Actually, no. You're not the first employee here to be a fan of ours.”

I felt a slight twinge ping in my chest at the word employee. He wasn’t wrong though, in fact I was kind of lower than an employee as my status of intern. He seemed to notice the change in me as he quickly started apologizing again. “That’s not what I meant!” He said, his hands waving in the air as he sat down on the floor next to me.

I couldn’t help but start to laugh. I rubbed at the corners of my eyes, the warm sensation of tears pooling in them as my laughter became more difficult to stop.

“I think I broke you…” he said before he himself started laughing softly.

I shook my head and took a deep breath. “You’re exactly how you are in all your live videos, you know that?”

His eyes grew wide as he quickly looked away again. “Ha, you mean awkward?” He said in a shy tone.

“No, not awkward. You’re more intimidating than anything if I’m being honest.” I felt my nerves start to take over as he looked back at me. I quickly turned away and rubbed my fingers along my arm. “You’re just…I don’t know…you’re…you.”

He held his hand out towards me as he motioned for me to stand up with him. I hesitantly took it and felt as if I was in some sort of dream state once our hands met. “Well I would certainly hope I’m me. I’d hate to be anyone else.” He let go of my hand and looked around the room. “Did you clean this all by yourself?”

I nodded and looked around. “Yeah, it wasn’t all that bad. Honestly, cleaning all the mirrors is the hardest part.”

He nodded and snickered under his breath. “Wow, I’m impressed. This is one of our larger practice rooms.” He looked back over at me and tilted his head. “By the way, your singing is very beautiful. That’s what drew me here.”

I felt my whole face reach a temperature of a thousand suns as I quickly looked away from him. ”Th—thank…y-you” I said slowly.

He brushed his hand against my arm and once again chuckled slightly. “Hey, calm down. I’m nobody special.”

I jerked my head up and locked eyes with him. “Yes you are!” I quickly slammed my hand against my mouth and took a step back. I can’t believe I just said that out loud.

I expected him to turn and walk away but instead he took a step closer towards me. “Thank you, that means a lot uh…” he looked at my shirt, a puzzled expression gracing his face as he locked eyes with me again. “What’s your name?”

“Y/N”

He smiled his huge toothy smile and extended his hand once more. “It’s a pleasure to meet you Y/N, my name is Christopher, but you probably know me better as Bang Chan.”

I shook his hand and found myself starting to calm down. His grip was tighter this time compared to when he pulled me up off the ground as he finally let go of my hand. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and let out a small sigh. “Hey sorry but I have to take this. I hope to see you around!” He waved as he turned and headed towards the door, his phone quickly going to his ear.

And just like that he was gone. I stood in the same spot for I don’t know how long. Long enough that my feet started to go numb. I gathered my supplies and headed toward the door myself, looking back in to make sure I left nothing behind. I flipped the lights off and pulled the door shut as I walked down the hall, my mind still replaying what had unfolded not too long ago.

“I met Christopher Bang….I actually met him!” I replayed that same statement over and over in my head the entire way outside. Somehow managing to drive myself back home, all while still reliving that small interaction that I had with him.

It was a sheer stroke of luck at that point that I even saw him that night and for that, I was happy. I never dreamed I would see him again, let alone reach the level of relationship I have with him today. If only I knew then what I knew now, I might have been able to win him over sooner.

“Hey….Y/N.” I finally snapped back into reality to see Min snapping his fingers next to my face. “Where did you go? I’ve been talking to you for the past ten minutes and you’ve been in a complete trance.”

I shook my head and felt the small droplets of sweat bead on my forehead. “I’m sorry! I got caught up reminiscing again I guess.”

He crossed his arms and swayed on the heels of his shoes, the sound of his laugh drowned out by the loud music. “You know you’d think the woman who captured Chris’s heart would pay attention when he’s on stage.”

I looked around and noticed the many different members of the production and stage crew around us. “Min!” I hissed through clenched teeth.

He smiled and leaned down to speak directly to me. “You’re fine. No one could hear me over their performing. Besides, they’re paying extra close attention. This is their job after all.”

I slowly looked back around and noticed he was right. Not a single one of them was paying any attention to us. They were all focused on multiple different things involving the stage, the guys, the lighting. Min and I were nothing more than furniture at this point.

I looked up when I heard the ending of Maniac draw near. This was the time when they would take a short but well needed break. They’d only have about ten minutes, but ten minutes was more than some venues would allow.

Min tugged on my sleeve as we both headed towards one of the back rooms. This is where they had left the majority of their personal items as well as where all the snacks and drinks were. I looked around at the vast assortment of drinks and laughed. “What?” Min asked as he grabbed a bottle of water off one of the tables and took a large drink.

“Nothing. I just couldn’t help but notice the surplus of pomegranate juice here.”

Min shrugged his shoulders and winked, a little tik of his he has when he's in a good mood. “I’m tired of hearing Han complain about there never being any when we have shows. So I put that at the top of the list. Think this is enough?”

I counted all of them and shrugged my shoulders. “I don’t know, 12 bottles might not cut it. You might be getting demoted, buddy.” I gently pushed his arm as we both laughed amongst ourselves. We took a seat on one of the small couches and waited for the guys to show up. They had just left the stage and were more than likely being escorted here before they had to change their outfits.

“They’re doing incredible,” I said quietly. “I figured they’d be nervous with this being the first tour concert in a long time.”

Min leaned back and pulled his leg up over his knee. “I think they are nervous, but the excitement of it all is keeping that hidden. All of them, regardless of the stress it may bring, they love the stage. But,” he took a quick drink and looked back at me. “I guarantee you they’re going to sleep like the dead tonight. This has been a toll on me so I can’t imagine what they're feeling right now..”

We both looked up as the door opened and a unanimous “Snacks” rang out across the room. Changbin and Hyunjin were the first two in and immediately headed towards the tables full of snacks and quickly chose their favorites. Han trudged in behind them and slumped down on one of the other couches in the room, a very dramatic sigh escaping his mouth. Lee Know, Seungmin, and I.N joined in at the snack table, their excitement echoing throughout the room as they all seemed to choose something different. Last but not least Felix and Chris came in. Felix quickly ran over to Han and sat down on his back, his huge smile beaming from ear to ear as he lightly bounced up and down. Han laughed underneath him as he squirmed, trying to get free.

Min and I stayed where we were. We didn’t need to interrupt the small break they had and we certainly didn’t want to put them behind. I glanced away from Felix and Han when I felt someone sit down beside me. “Alright you two, break it up.”

Chris weaseled his way in between Min and I and continued pushing Min further away. I felt the all too familiar redness rush to my face as I felt the overwhelming heat radiating from his body. They’d already performed over ten songs and still had well over 15 more left to go. He leaned back against the seat and lifted his arm up to rest on the back of the couch. “What did you think?” He asked happily. He had very unique ruby colored contact lenses in his eyes tonight and I couldn’t help but find myself staring at them. They almost shimmered when the light hit it just right.

“You guys are doing amazing! I seriously don’t know how you do it!” I said excitedly.

I felt him lean in closer as he shifted his weight around in the seat. “Hmmm, well, it's definitely not on my part. I know the rest of the members are amazing but I’m just kind of…well me.” He laughed a very small laugh and shook his head. “And don’t you even think about telling me I’m wrong. Either of you!” He pointed a finger at both Min and I, knowing we were going to say something. Chris always puts himself down and both Min and I always fight him on that. Lately he’s been trying to shut us up before we have the chance to say anything but that’s never stopped us before.

But before we had the chance to say anything to him, a young woman knocked on the door and drew all of our attention towards her. “You guys have around five minutes left. You’re all needed in dressing room 1 and 2.” She nodded her head and quickly ran back down the hall.

“Hhh, some break this was,” Lee Know grumbled from the chair he’d claimed in the short amount of time he was here. They quickly all gathered their trash and headed back out into the hall. Chris however stayed where he was. “Aren’t you going to go with them?” I asked curiously.

He shot Min a quick look which made him get up and follow the rest of the guys. He took a deep breath in and laid his head on my shoulder. “You know we have a fan signing after this right?”

“Yeah, I do.” I slowly leaned my head down on his but quickly chose not to. I was afraid to mess up his perfectly styled hair, and the last thing I needed was Kimberly from hair and makeup to come and hunt me down.

His hand made its way up to my thigh as he started tracing small circles against my silk slacks. “You don’t need to stay that late for me. Why don’t you head home after the concert?”

His light touch sent shivers throughout my body as if it were the first time he’d ever touched me all over again. I leaned away and watched as he raised his head up off my shoulder so he could look directly at me. “But why?” I asked, the undertone of annoyance not hidden at all in my tone.

He lifted his hand up to my face and gently caressed my cheek. “Because I said so.” He leaned in closer, his voice dropping lower as he locked his eyes with mine. “And you’re going to listen to what I ask of you, aren’t you.” The hold this man had on me was unrealistic. I slowly nodded without realizing as I watched his dimples peek out on his cheeks from his smile growing. “Good girl.” He quickly kissed my forehead and ran towards the door, his jacket already completely off of him before he made it out into the hall.

I let my head fall back against the couch and stared up at the ceiling as my heart continued to race. I still could feel the ghost-like feeling of his fingers against my leg as once again my mind started to race with the many thoughts of him.

My name is Y/N, and I’m an average girl living a not so average life. I’m the secret girlfriend of one of the world's most famous K-Pop idols, Christopher Bang, leader and overall founder of Stray Kids. And this is the story on how that came to be.

#chan smut #bang chan smut #stray kids #skz #bang chan #placebo

[auld-a]

Let’s talk about Billy

Would like to preface this by saying that this is not my usual TWST content so anyone who is here for that I apologize. I’m currently trying to create a schedule for it so it will be up and running soon

(If you take a shot every time I say “that’s not an excuse” or some variation of it you’d die)

Okay I’m gonna start this post off by saying this is no way written to defend Billy Hargrove’s actions or even get Billy antis or whoever else to like him, it’s simply to clear up a huge miscommunication in the fandom that I’m honestly tired of seeing.

So it’s pretty clear that a lot of ST things fans hate Billy, and honestly? Fair. He’s kind of a piece of shit I won’t even deny that

He’s coded to be racist or at least act out of some sort of prejudice and somewhat of an abuser so if you don’t like him due to this THATS UNDERSTANDABLE. But you also frequently get onto other ST fans who actually do like him.

So I’m here to tell you why you’re wasting your breath and making the ST fandom very irritating to interact with

From the beginning Billy was portrayed as a Top Tier A hole, threatening his little sister for something minor, trying to fucking run over children, beating the shit out of Steve, just overall a dick. And all of that is 100% true and valid reasons to dislike him

But it was also shown that he doesn’t have a good home life with his dad beating his ass for Billy just, existing. NOW BEFORE YOU LEAVE. That. Is not. An excuse. It never has been and it never will be. He should be absolutely held accountable for everything he’s done up until this point because he’s done a lot of inexcusable shit. So you can shit on him for that I don’t really care

But believe it or not there are actually people who were interested in his character writing and chose to look deeper into him and who he is past what they gave us in seasons 2 and 3😐

Speaking from my point of view, I don’t like canon Billy. Like I’ve said several times he sucked a lot. But to be honest I don’t think that’s who the character Billy actually is. I think that all of that is a response from being abandoned as a child and dealing with years of physical abuse. Again, since I don’t want you to misinterpret my words, not an excuse, but it gives us a lot of background.

Season 2 and 3 Billy does a lot of things that could be born from underlying racism, even if it’s not outwardly said it’s there, but I personally do not think that’s because those are things he genuinely believes himself. If his asshole father sees his step-daughter hanging around a person he doesn’t like due to prejudice, did it ever occur to you who would be the one inevitably getting punished for it? Billy would. Not Max, I don’t think Neil has the balls to lay hands on his partner’s kid but he’ll do it to his own since we already know Max’s mom won’t do shit about it. Not wanting to get his ass handed to him for something that’s not his fault he’s obviously gonna try to cut the interaction between Lucas and Max. Not because he dislikes Lucas, not because he’s racist, but because otherwise he’ll get beat half to death

All this to say, I know he can be better. I don’t think all is lost for him. I think there’s more to him than what we see on the surface and if he were to be separated from the negative environment and allowed to experience life for himself instead of clouded by fear be wouldn’t be such a shit head

Trauma is not an excuse for the shit he’s done, but the moment trauma response/survival instinct gets ugly and isn’t just anxiety and flinching when someone raises their hand, you don’t believe they deserve an ounce of sympathy or a chance for redemption

I know he not only has the potential to make amends with those he hurt but completely forget the ignorant sentiments he’s been forced to abide by. That doesn’t mean any character is required to forgive him or you are for that matter but you really need to understand that when people talk about liking him they’re usually separating canon Billy from the Billy we never got the chance to see.

And I know some of y’all cream your pants at the fact that the duffer brothers confirmed Billy to be racist, but to be honest with you I could not give a flying fuck what the Duffer brothers say. They’ve proven more and more with each season that they may know how to write a story but not a character. If it weren’t for the actors pushing for certain scenes or refusing to do others these characters wouldn’t be half as fleshed out as they are. We owe a lot of the character writing to the people that portray them, therefore i hold a lot more weight in what they say than i do the creators. What the Duffer Brothers say is not Gospel to me, and it would be smart of you to not consider it as such either.

You can hate canon Billy all you want, I don’t care, but don’t get pissy at people who choose to look deeper than the surface of who he is and miss what they could’ve had for him because he was just being built up to be a throwaway.

If they support what season 2 or 3 Billy did that’s a different story, definitely not okay, but I’ve yet to see anyone do that all I see is people who don’t feel comfortable watering down his entire character and role in the story to ‘racist’ because at the end of the day, that truly is just an opinion based on how you choose to read into his character

TLDR; don’t put anti billy crap in spaces that like billy just because they wanna appreciate a character that had potential and is more than what most of you want to see

If you don’t take anything away from this, fine, just be respectful in the notes if you choose to interact

#stranger things #billy hargrove #harringrove #mungrove #harringroveson #steddilly #anti billy hargrove #whatever other tags apply to this

[strawberrystar7]

Ngl I am kinda jealous. I’m not from the USA so I don’t have access to the movie Ladybug & Cat Noir on Netflix. You guys can just watch it as many times as you want. We had a movie theater release of the movie in the country I live in, starting in the beginning of July. I went to the movie theaters on the first weekend the movie was out and it was nice. Don’t get me wrong, watching a movie in a movie theater on those massive screens is great. The movie was nice too. The animation was great and I loved the songs but I did have a few problems with the writing. I felt like it was a bit rushed in a sense. Not in the way that they took too little time to write the story but I felt like they put too much into the movie. I felt like some things should have been kept out and put in a second movie so that they could focus more on specific details without having to neglect other stuff. I did like the overall story and how it was portrayed, tho there was something about how Gabriel was handled that I didn’t like.

Gabriel couldn’t get himself to hurt his own son. Yes this makes him a more sympathetic father figure compared to the show but I feel like someone who would go so far to hurt an entire city for selfish reasons would also hurt their own family. The fact he didn’t just goes against everything I know and have experienced myself. And yes, I know that Gabriel in the beginning of the movie didn’t want to terrorize Paris but the thing here is that he got more and more corrupt the more he used the Miraculous. Someone who falls into that kind of corruption will eventually hurt their own loved ones. Maybe in the beginning he wouldn’t hurt his son but I feel like by the end of the movie he would have fallen down so far into this hole of corruption where his love for his son would not be enough to make him stop wanting to pursue his goals.

Anyway, Gabriel aside and while I do think the movie has it’s issues I also I think the movie is good. Maybe not the greatest but I think it’s good. I have to admit that while I had enjoyed watching the movie in the movie theaters back then I wish I could just open Netflix and watch the movie whenever I want. The only way for me to watch this movie legally for a second time would be to either go to the cinema again (the city I live in still has viewings of this movie) or to wait until they publish the movie for home video and streaming in my country but that usually takes a couple of months after the movie stopped airing in theaters. I mean there still are viewings of the movie at the movie theater in my city so I could technically go and watch it again but that would cost me around 10€ just for a one time viewing of the movie. It’s just not cost efficient. Homevideo or streaming would mean I either pay a monthly fee of around 10-12€ (streaming) or a onetime payment (DVD/Bluray) and could watch the movie as many times I want. So yeah… I’m kinda jealous of Americans since they have the Movie on Netflix. Idk I just want to rewatch the movie since there are some details that I simply can’t appreciate in the movie theater because you can’t exactly pause or rewind a movie in a theater.

#ladybug & cat noir: the movie #miraculous movie #ngl I’m jealous of Americans since you guys can watch the movie as many times as you want. #Wish Netflix in my country had the movie but it doesn’t. #You are lucky to have the movie on Netflix USA. #miraculous #ladybug & cat noir awakening

[sheltershock]

Sashamilla is such a nice ship. I just want to gush about my otp, so sorry if this isn’t organized as neatly as it could be. But thinking about them, their dynamic, and how they’re portrayed just gives me so much hope and makes me feel happy. Like suddenly throughout my day I’ll just break out into a big, goofy smile and that’s just nice. 

Also: warning, this is a long text post. 

I like how we get personally introduced to each of them separately, and that they get to be their own characters first and possibly in a relationship second. In the first game we get to meet Sasha, get a feel for his personality, run experiments, explore his mind, discover his traumas, and then get directed towards Milla. Sasha’s a complete, standalone character with personality, quirks, and a backstory by the end of his level without any mention of romantic relationships. And then we meet Milla. We don’t get as much time with her, but that’s because she shined more in the opening of the game. She’s already established with her job as an international secret agent, we see her character design which is colorful with lots of circular/spiral patterns, and we see that she’s motherly, kind and responsible. And then we enter her mind and get both  an expansion of that and a subversion. She's a bubbly party girl who’s always pumping everyone up, and has probably one of the most tragic backstories in fiction. Although her trauma memory vault is hidden, it is 100% accessible before her second one even if you’re playing the game for the first time. So before you get to her second memory vault you get her personality, a few quirks(overprotectiveness w/ the explanation of why), and her super depressing backstory. She’s a stand-alone character. And only after we have two complete standalone characters do we get to see her second memory vault where we get the implication that they’re both in love with each other.

But both of them have already been built up so well that they got time to be their own characters instead of simply being “X’s love interest.” It prevents this problem that happens in a lot of heterosexual couples in media where often it’ll just be one full character split into two roles. So the couple “completes” each other, because neither character was actually a complete character to begin with. I actually have a bit of a distaste to the idea of “completing each other” in romance, and I heavily dislike how it’s leaked into real life in the form of “your other half.” You are your own person, and absolutely complete as yourself. I like the terminology of “complimenting” instead of “completing,” specifically in the analogy of color theory. For example the colors red and green. You can make an entire painting in just shades of red or just shades of green and no other colors and it’s a complete painting. But if you put red and green together, it looks really nice because they’re complimentary colors. People in romantic relationships should compliment each other, rather than complete them. 

Sasha and Milla absolutely compliment each other as a couple. It helps that they’re clearly apart of the “opposites attract” trope, but the literary term would be a foil. They are so badly and fully themselves that they can’t help but highlight the other person’s qualities. Control vs. Chaos. Monotone vs. Colorful. Flat vs. Expressive. Logical vs. Emotional. But the reason they compliment each other so well is because it isn’t as easy to say that they’re just opposites, because they’re also extremely alike. For example, you can’t say that Sasha is emotionless, cold and uncaring. You just can’t. Milla is absolutely emotional, warm and friendly, but you can’t say that Sasha is the opposite of that. Firstly, because emotional baggage exists in his mind, which would imply, y’know, emotion. He sympathizes with Raz enough to step up to be his mentor, and when he believes Raz has mistaken a “scary, flaming-eyed demon” for a Censor, he doesn’t berate Raz for wasting their time, but just gently encourages that problems often seem larger in our heads, and that it’s alright. And in Rhombus of Ruin, Sasha tries extremely hard to be as comforting as possible to Lili, to the point that he actively tries to imitate Milla with slow speech, a softer tone of voice, and even throwing in a “darling” at the end. 

The same can be applied vice versa, too. Sasha is clearly a smart, intellectual character. But Milla can’t be called stupid. Except for the times where she is literally brainless, she proves herself to be really smart and capable. She can easily put herself in other’s shoes to identify problems, she knows how to read ripples in emotional oceans and trace its source, she’s extremely knowledgeable about children and their development, and in RoR she can rally the Psychonaut team from their emotionally charged, personal tasks to work together to achieve a goal. Milla isn’t stupid. She just has a different version of intelligence. Instead of Sasha’s logical-mathematical intelligence, Milla has really high emotional/interpersonal intelligence. And that’s the beauty of complimentary characters, that lean towards comparing and contrasting. 

Speaking about how Sasha and Milla compliment each other…well, they compliment each other. Literally. Their version of flirting is just them hyping each other up. Which is really cute. Complimenting their work ethic, ideas they come up with, talents and abilities, etc. Never in the games do they really talk about the other’s physical appearance. Which makes sense since they’re both psychic. But it’s refreshing to see a relationship where both people value their personality and talents instead of physical attraction. The famous scene in PN2 where they are both inching close in way that’s so obvious that they’re going to kiss, they’re talking about how fucking talented and good at their jobs they are. 

Since we see that this is how they flirt with each other, you can actually go backwards in the series and see that they’ve been kind of doing it for all three games. In RoR, when Sasha suggests the idea of tracking a constellation, Milla says “oooh~ great idea, Sasha!” Or in the first game when Sasha refers to Milla as “one of the world’s foremost levitators,” which Raz repeats to Milla as “the most powerful levitator the Psychonauts had.” And Milla’s response for her tone to get really soft and go “Sasha said that? Really? I didn’t know he noticed…” Which, uh, they went on multiple missions together and she’s in the air for most of them. I think he noticed. Then Raz goes on to say that he only works with the best teachers and Milla calls him a flirt. But armed with the knowledge from the sequel that they’re literally always talking to each other, and can do so while having a different conversation, I personally like to think that she was referring to both of them as a flirt. 

And that’s another thing, they’re always talking to each other. Which communication, yay! And it also hints that they like each other enough that they always want to be available for conversation. But surprisingly, when this is revealed in PN2, I think it’s the first time a two-way telepathy connection has been brought up. Of course, characters have been projecting their thoughts into Raz’s mind during all three games, but in these scenarios, Raz always responds out loud. You’d think in an organization of psychics, this kind of two-way communication is normal, but it isn’t? When Sasha, Milla and Hollis go on the casino mission, they’re using radios to communicate. Out loud. Radios. This is a stealth mission and they picked a type of communication where you have to vocally express your thoughts? At one point Milla is saying into her earpiece, “I’m approaching the front desk, I’ll distract the clerks.” That’s not something you want to be saying out loud, within earshot of the target you’re going to distract. Of course the argument can be made that this choice was because the interns were coming and they needed to hear what good correspondence sounds like. But there’s got to be a more effective, less life threatening method right? Unless, of course, that two way mental links aren’t very common. 

Projecting yourself into a mind doesn’t seem to be very hard, but manipulating the mental world does. Within all the games, Raz has to play each level and mind by its own rules. The same is probably true in the real world, that each mind is different and has its own vibe and rules. Solutions that worked in previous worlds are viable in new ones. For example, in Hollis’ mind you have to disconnect the ideas of money and risk to destroy the Lady Lucktopus. Bob’s mind seems to work with a similar boss idea, each plant represents a person in his life that has caused pain, and realizing that his view of them determines if they’re a monster. So if Raz really wanted to optimize his therapy speedrun, all he’d have to do is disconnect whatever thoughts Bob has with these people. But that’s not the solution, Bob has to do the disconnect himself. Like Hollis said, the Psychonauts are there to help people fight their own demons. Because it’s almost like trying to go in and manually changing someone’s mind usually fails in some way, because everyone’s mind works differently. 

What I’m trying to say is that psychically linking two people is probably extremely difficult. You probably need to have a good understanding of each other, get on each other’s wavelength, etc. The only other time something like that has happened was with the Meat Circus, which was terrible, and multiple characters said that untangling Raz’s and Oleander’s minds would be difficult. So thinking about how Milla’s and Sasha’s minds are linked in such a way that they can communicate without it going horribly wrong is extremely impressive. Especially with how stated previously that they’re really different from each other. But seeing how they can get on the same wavelength, it again shows how similar they actually are. It seems really symbolic of a healthy relationship. 

I don’t really know what else to necessarily say. They have their own identities, they compliment each other, they have subversive banter, they’re psychically linked and are probably really good at communication. Just watching them being in a relationship is cute. Even if the games don’t make it clear what exactly their relationship is. They love and appreciate each other for being themselves, and that’s just so hopeful and adorable to me. 

#psychonauts #psychonauts 2 #psychonauts rhombus of ruin #rhombus of ruin #sasha nein #milla vodello #sashamilla #part analysis essay part headcanon #entirely cute shit #two precious people in love #I’ve just never seen a het couple as good as them #I didn’t even talk about their trauma or how perfect their dynamic is for hurt comfort #like they have to know each other’s baggage right? and they just love each other anyways #they probably know better than most how secretly broken their partner is and they still think they’re amazing because of course they are #they deserve a happy ending together after all the pain and heartbreak and loneliness in their lives

[katnissdoesnotfollowback]

If peeta hadn’t been hijacked and Katniss had gotten the loving reunion in d13 she wanted so badly, how long do you think it would have taken for them to do the dirty? Would they have lived together in d13?

Unpopular opinion alert. I am answering this based on a storyline where everything is the same up to the point that Peeta tries to strangle her in Mockingjay. With that, I assume that he’s still been tortured to some degree as well. Given those implied conditions of your ask, I don’t think they would have had sex at all in District Thirteen, even without the hijacking. And here is why:

Katniss constantly pushes back against and resists being told how to feel, and how to love. 

“He means there’s only one future, if I want to keep those I love alive and stay alive myself. I’ll have to marry Peeta.” Catching Fire, chapter 3.

“Everything he said was true about the Capitol’s expectations, my future with Peeta, even his last comment. Of course, I could do a lot worse than Peeta. That isn’t really the point, though, is it? One of the few freedoms we have in District 12 is the right to marry who we want or not marry at all. And now even that has been taken away from me.” Catching Fire, chapter 4.

I don’t see her dropping this attitude or suddenly being okay with being told who and how to love and how to feel just because she’s suddenly in District 13. In fact, she does balk at her affections and love being further used as a propaganda tool in District 13:

“With you how? Off camera? By your side at all times? Do you want him presented as your new lover?” Coin asks.

She hasn’t said this with particular malice -- quite the contrary, her words are very matter-of-fact. But my mouth still opens in shock. “What?”

“I think we should continue the current romance. A quick defection from Peeta could cause the audience to lose sympathy for her,” says Plutarch. “Especially since they think she’s pregnant with his child.”

“Agreed. So, on-screen, Gale can simply be portrayed as a fellow rebel. Is that all right?” says Coin. I just stare at her. She repeats herself impatiently. “For Gale. Will that be sufficient?”

“We can always work him in as your cousin,” says Fulvia.

“We’re not cousins,” Gale and I say together.

“Right, but we should probably keep that up for appearances’ sake on camera,” says Plutarch. “Off camera, he’s all yours. Anything else?”

I’m rattled by the turn in the conversation. The implications that I could so readily dispose of Peeta, that I’m in love with Gale, that the whole thing has been an act. My cheeks begin to burn. The very notion that I am devoting any thought to who I want presented as my lover, given our current circumstances, is demeaning.” Mockingjay, chapter 3.

Emphasis added by me. Her relationship with Peeta is and always has been complicated because it is a simultaneous development of real feelings at one pace, and a public presentation of feelings at another pace. And it should be noted that the public pace has always made her uncomfortable. Here, in the early stages of Mockingjay, she’s appalled not only at the idea of them showing her tossing peeta aside so easily, but also at the continued use of her emotional attachments for propaganda purposes. Half this conversation that I’ve quoted happens about her, not including her, and even the parts of it that are about Peeta are clinical and presented in terms of not what Katniss wants, but what the audience wants. Therefore, I have difficulty believing that a non hijacked Peeta being dropped in her arms is going to change Plutarch or Coin’s attitude about their relationship and its usefulness in the propaganda machine. Real or not real at this point, I imagine that this continued use of their relationship would chafe at Katniss and she’d continue to be resistant to admitting her growing feelings for him or making any steps forward because it would not be happening on her terms and at her pace. It would still be influenced to some degree by what “the audience” wants to see. It isn’t necessarily a relationship or even a romance with Peeta specifically that she’s been rejecting for two books, it’s the being forced into any relationship on terms other than her own that she’s rejecting.

So what happens then, since they’ve maintained the star crossed lovers act, when non hijacked Peeta is brought to District 13?

“We have the food and I’m about to orchestrate a propo that’s sure to be popular. After all, everybody loves a wedding.”

I freeze in my tracks, sick at the idea of what he’s suggesting. Somehow staging a perverse wedding between me and Peeta. I haven’t been able to face that one-way glass since I’ve been back, and, at my own request, only get updates about Peeta’s condition from Haymitch. He speaks very little about it. Different techniques are being tried. There will never truly be a way to cure him. And now they want me to marry Peeta for a propo?

Plutarch rushes to reassure me. “Oh, no, Katniss. Not your wedding. Finnick and Annie’s. […]” Mockingjay, chapter 16.

The fact that Katniss doesn’t even say anything but Plutarch figures out why she’s freaking out suggests that the possibility actually came up, maybe even before they knew about the hijacking. Or it could imply that Plutarch knows she doesn’t want to get married to Peeta at this point. Given that, I do not for a second doubt that a non hijacked Peeta brought to District 13 is eventually going to lead Plutarch down the throwing a wedding for Katniss and Peeta path. Which, again, would not necessarily be at the pace that they want nor at the pace they are comfortable with. It also shows the lengths to which Coin and Plutarch are willing to drive their propaganda golden geese, as it were.

Let’s say that it does happen. That Peeta is brought, not hijacked to D13 and the powers that be decide to marry them for a propo. The conditions are not that much different. This isn’t their choice. And you’ll note that I’ve switched to the use of “their” because Katniss isn’t the only one who is upset by and reluctant to take steps in using their relationship for propaganda unless it is on their terms, i.e. the “baby bomb” which included a lie about a secret wedding by the way. In terms of the propaganda machine, a non hijacked, did not try to kill Katniss Peeta being rescued almost guarantees that they would have to get married in District 13 and that will not go well with either Katniss or Peeta:

“Back in our old quarters in the Training Center, I;m the one who suggests the public marriage proposal. Peeta agrees to do it but then disappears to his room for a long time. Haymitch tells me to leave him alone.

“I thought he wanted it anyway,” I say.

“Not like this,” Haymitch says. “He wanted it to be real.” Catching Fire, chapter 5.

I cannot fathom Peeta being thrilled at the idea of marriage in District 13 being used for a propo to stir up rebellion any more than he was at using it to quell the rebellion. In other words, the mere fact that they are in District 13 and their relationship is still being used in a very public way is not going to endear either of them to the idea of getting married to each other, and as such… I’m sorry, but it’s going to complicate things between them in District 13, not in the same manner as the hijacking, but it would still be complicated.

Alright, I hear the sex doesn’t have to happen in the confines of marriage argument brewing in the background, and I’m with you buddy. Clearly if you’ve read my fanfic you know there’s zero judgment from me on that front. BUT…If I can reiterate that they are both traumatized teenagers dealing with the memories of two arenas, the loss of their home, and for Peeta the loss of his entire family and torture. I really can’t see them keeping him prisoner without trying to scramble up his mind a little bit just to hurt Katniss, so even without hijacking, I doubt Peeta would be rescued unharmed. This kind of trauma often complicates or hampers sexual desire. Add to that the mess of probably being forced to get married and you’ve got a recipe for unhealthy sexual contact. In all honesty, the scenario you’ve detailed here, I see them forced to get married and then returning to a nights on the train, platonic method of comforting each other because neither of them wants to be married to each other under those circumstances. 

Next reason why I don’t think Everlark would have sex in D13 at all: potential pregnancy. 

This enthusiasm was interpreted as kindness. But a man named Dalton, a District 10 refugee who’d made it to 13 on foot a few years ago, leaked the real motive to me. “They need you. Me. They need us all. Awhile back, there was some sort of pox epidemic that killed a bunch of them and left a lot more infertile. New breeding stock. That’s how they see us.” Mockingjay, chapter 1.

So District 13 is having some sterility problems and needs “new breeding stock.” I seriously doubt that District 13 is handing out or making birth control available to anyone. I feel like it’s generally accepted canon that the Capitol is not interested in allowing medical birth control in the districts, and for similar reason, District 13 would be the same. They need sex to happen and to result in pregnancies, hence why I am not surprised that Annie wound up pregnant so quickly. Just like the Capitol needs tributes, D13 needs soldiers. And in the case of a Katniss and Peeta baby, I think they’d be foaming at the mouth to make that happen. So just like the getting married becomes something forced on them, so too does the having a baby. Again. Which again complicates their relationship and turns what should be their joint and joyful choice into something that is taken away from them and used for public consumption.  

Horny teenagers, you say? Again, refer back to the level of trauma these two have recently suffered. It seriously does mess with that. Not only that, but it wouldn’t be a healthy sexual development under these conditions. And even if they were able to feel the desire to engage in sexual activity with each other, the implication that they would go from kissing to full on sexual intercourse with no pauses for doubts, misgivings, or “hey we should slow down” to creep in is, I think, and unfair representation of teenage sexuality. Kissing and even touching, does not make sex an inevitability. In the case of an Everlark together in District 13, I don’t see it happening.

A lot of times, the beach kiss is used as an argument to suggest that Katniss and Peeta are ready and raring to have sex, primarily because we equate that “entirely new kind of hunger” as sexual desire, which it absolutely can be interpreted that way and I am one of the people who reads it like that. However, sexual activity, even as a teenager, is not inevitably zero to kissing to sex on the beach on live national television (to include your siblings and parents) in sixty seconds. Even if they kept kissing and the lightning hadn’t hit the tree, there are still moments of natural pause during kissing and physical exploration where doubts and misgivings and “whoa we should maybe slow down,” can creep in. This happens when teenagers are making out in private, so I find it implausible that it wouldn’t happen on live television. Katniss has already kissed Peeta in front of cameras before, so the act itself is not new. What is new are the feelings she’s experiencing. Not to mention that this would be her confirmed canonical first time having sex. It’s entirely plausible that it would be Peeta’s first time as well, and while I understand the argument of “both of them believe they are dying soon,” I do not see that as strong enough to overcome their boundaries in terms of privacy and confidence to actually have sex on the beach.

I make that case to help explain why I don’t think they would necessarily give in to a moment and have sex in District Thirteen either. There is still too much at stake. Given the conditions of District Thirteen, I think they would want and possibly even force an Everlark marriage, casting them back into the role of having to pretend and create a narrative rather than live their lives and their relationship on their own terms. I think District Thirteen would encourage them to have sex, which would result in them both pulling away from that and instead existing much as they did on the train in Catching Fire — as a comfort and source of protection and healing but not as a source of sexual exploration. Do I think that in D13 hands and lips might wander a little more? In the hypothetical you put forth, yes, I find it possible, but I do not see it going all the way to sexual intercourse. Again… kissing doesn’t always lead to sex. Touching doesn’t always lead to sex. 

Peeta wants it to be real, and honestly so does Katniss. She does not and has never wanted her feelings to be used for public consumption and resists their development when they are, and Katniss also dreams of “a world where Peeta’s child could be safe.” These are two conditions that can and do coexist. And while D13 is not D12 and there are no Reapings, Snow is still in power and their future without him and the Capitol and the Games is not yet guaranteed. To me, that means Katniss will not want to get pregnant until after the war is over, regardless of hijacked or not hijcaked Peeta, and with no birth control, I seriously doubt that she’s going to give in to the moment and have sex with Peeta.

We also cannot deny that in this hypothetical situation, both of them are dealing with trauma and grief from two trips into the arena, the loss of their home, and for Peeta the loss of his entire family and friends. To me, there is still too much for them to overcome in this situation for them to let those guards down and actually have sex. And I actually think they’d have a few key allies in their corner helping them resist Coin and Plutarch shoving them together like that — Finnick who has a history of forced prostitution and for whom shoving a sexual relationship on two teenagers, regardless of their burgeoning feelings for each, would probably trigger a few strong emotions; and Mrs Everdeen, who seemed to understand from almost right away that her daughter needed space to figure out her feelings and vocalized it, when it was relatively safe to do so because it was said to reporters not to Snow, so I imagine she would continue to do the same in District 13 and help her daughter push back against that pressure.

Bottom line: I don’t find it plausible, even in a nonhijacked AU, that Everlark had sex in District Thirteen. Obviously I am not Suzanne Collins and cannot provide us with a definitive answer, but you asked what I thought and here it is. Also, in a fanfiction world, anything goes and people can write those AU’s all they want. In fact if you’re looking for such an AU, I’m sure there are plenty to choose from. Just not from me. I much prefer that Everlark be given the opportunity to retreat to District 12 after the war, out of the spotlight, where they can explore their emotional and physical relationship at their own pace and on their own terms.

#thg meta #let my babies develop at their pace #everlark #katniss everdeen #peeta mellark #anonymous #look at that ask

[adultswim2021]

Space Ghost Coast to Coast #70: “Snatch” | October 15, 1999 | S06E02 Alternate ending version aired January 28, 2000

Snatch is a very memorable one, because it’s pretty singular and story-driven and has a specific atmosphere AND! It had a GIMMICK that yielded variations of the episode. In fact, if you are the type of person who likes to pay attention to italicized text under headlines, you will note that I made mention of the “alternate ending” version airing a few months after this. I assume that was the first rerun of this episode. But before I talk about that, I should say other stuff. 

This one features Steven Wright, deadpan comedian who I remember loving around this time. He’s one of those very specific guys that is easy to glom onto and think is a genius. I never formally stopped loving him, per se, I haven’t seen him on my TV screen in a very long time. I don’t know why I made it sound like I was going to denounce him or something. He is a great Space Ghost guest, and plus I think he’s cute. 

A bunch of Invasion of the Body Snatchers style pods show up and threaten Space Ghost and co, including the guest monitor. Long has been the custom to treat the monitor itself like a sentient being and not just a communication tool, hence Wright being in mortal danger. They can’t flee Ghost Planet because the blob has covered the building. Also the pods are feeding off the rays!!

The interesting thing about this is that it’s a single guest episode, but they dispense with the guest roughly halfway through the episode when he is consumed by the pod, and screams for way too long about it. The rest of the episode is just Space Ghost and co. being menaced. No second guest needed, baby except for the city of New York (where Space Ghost takes place).

This one originally ended with Dave Willis as Colonial man, who, as we all know, is a the owner of Burger Trench (as well as a fascinating Colonial book). Space Ghost and company succumb to a decaf-induced slumber (not shitting on the episode but “decaf” rivals “paycheck” as one of those adult-sounding words meant to make children laugh that just hits my ear poorly), and we cut to Colonial Man announcing that the show is auctioning off the ending on eBay. This was in script form. According to the lost media wiki, the script has yet to resurface, and I don’t think anyone officially knows who won it.

The “alternate ending” version is simply a slightly animated title card reading “The End” after Space Ghost et al fall asleep and the pods begin to descend on them, clearly about to do them in. There might be variations on this, or maybe not. (Colonial Man voice) I don’t know! 

EPHEMERA CORNER: 

Dinner with Steven (Unaired episode)

Found on the Volume 4 Space Ghost DVD (or on archive.org) is this recorded, but not animated episode of Space Ghost featuring the same Steven Wright interview. In this one, it seems to be a stage production of a My Dinner With Andre style play (note: My Dinner With Andre was not based on a play). Clay and George recorded for it, but the soundtrack is unfinished. There’s a scene where it seems like somebody is walking out while Space Ghost holds everything up to glare at him. 

The problem with this one was likely that it involved too much new animation/backgrounds. Moltar plays the waiter. Zorak, as announced in the beginning, is being portrayed by understudy Kathy Kinney (aka Mimi "big bitch" Bobeck from Drew Carrey). This only comes up in one scene, when Steven demands Space Ghost fly around with Zorak on his back, and this is expressed by showing Space Ghost with a TV monitor on his back, which presumably was going to include a clip of Kinney saying something kooky (they did not include a clip in the animatic). 

This one has a really great moment: Space Ghost starts stuffing his face and asks Steven what the worst thing he ever did was. Wright claims to have “axed” somebody to death. George Lowe gasps as if Space Ghost is genuinely shook to his core. It’s really fucking funny. Then it’s followed up with Steven Wright laughing at his own ad-lib, and how it’s inappropriate for a children’s show, which I guess this sort-of is.

MAIL BAG 

I have to let the record stand on this: I'm pretty sure the DVD version of chambraigne uses all different stock footage during the chambraigne commercial, and the footage the aired version uses is funnier imo. So it's still a mixed bag of an edit.

Thank you! This was on my mind but I failed to mention it because for some reason I tricked myself into doubting myself and I just didn’t have a handy way of checking it.

#adult swim #adultswim2021 #space ghost coast to coast

[pudgy-planets]

What’s wrong with recent mha?

MHA has always had some glaring flaws. But the type of story it’s attempting to tell has gone completely haywire.

In recent times I’d say it’s due to Horikoshi’s desire to cram so much into one period without letting things flow naturally and diverging too much from the main plot constantly.

That and wasting perfectly good/interesting characters without much impact. Like Cathleen for example. An amazing character concept with an extremely broken quirk with vast possibilities that died, ultimately contributing little to the overall story.

It wouldn’t be so bad… if she weren’t hyped up the way she was. You cannot put expectations like that and subvert them, it creates disappointment when done poorly.

That and certain story telling thematics that just… doesn’t make much sense to me as a whole. It’s infuriating to read with all the nonsense that just seems to happen nowadays. It feels difficult to follow and grasp, which isn’t a good thing for a series like it.

There’s nothing wrong with long stories, but if it feels like we’re going NO WHERE for a long time that becomes exhausting.

It also feels like elements of the world, that should’ve been introduced early on, begin appearing much later than they should. If that makes sense.

And that’s not getting into the issues with how characters are being portrayed and written…

Izuku, Toga, Shigaraki, and Ochaco feel like wasted potential. I think Izuku is a great character, but he’s not a good protagonist. Simply because he’s not interesting enough. As opposed to the likes of Ochaco, who I feel gets shafted solely because she’s been reduced to the love interest and her relationship with Toga. Shiggy and Toga are products of a flawed society who have failed them, but it’s like they’ve progressively gotten less interesting on account of AFO wanting to posses his body and Toga’s overall decline in quality.

Bakugo is one my least favorite characters, even if he’s the best of a shitty archetype. Todoroki has his ups and downs, and this is just scratching the surface.

I’m gonna be real: your past experiences and feelings do not give you the grounds to treat someone shitty.

Real life or fiction. I’m so tired of this. It pisses me off, I don’t care if it’s human or not, it is still not correct. Which is what I dislike about Bakugo. Sure he’s had his moments, but that’s besides the point.

I have a love-hate relationship with this franchise, because it just does so much wrong or nonsensical after going pretty strong for the first major half.

There’s just way too many issues I could get into. Tl:dr, Horikoshi makes a lot of questionable and outright stupid narrative decisions.

#mun answers #anonymous

[whyamistillwatchingtheseshows]

Honestly, I can’t complain about what we got, because it’s more VegasPete than I expected. I anticipated barely anything, but then they came swinging. Pete with them boxing hands, Vegas with the “if I die today…” and then by the pool. Plus, how I didn’t know how much I needed that whole scene of Pete resigning until I had it? Shedding some of those bodyguard clothes. Shedding a part of that mask. Don’t get me started on “I’m hungry.” About it being about real food and being a metaphorical hunger that only Vegas can fulfill. Whatever it’s fine.

Also, joke is on me, because I wallowed in that scene of a crying, anguished Pete holding onto a maybe dead Vegas…me who doesn’t watch post credit anything. So, I open tumblr and right there is a screenshot of this mysterious motherflippin scene…what the hell? Then I go watch it and my soul returns to my body and all is (sort of) well. I felt content. Like I’d be okay with this ending, because ultimately what mattered was Vegas and Pete choosing each other? The same goes for Kinn and Porsche…

However, I’m a bit muddled on the whole thing. What exactly happened there? The only thing and recount we should trust is Porsche’s unlocked childhood trauma repressed memory. Right? We inherently want to trust Porsche in this matter, but even his head is going what the fuck? And even more so with two recounts that change the story in their favors? Though, someone on here had pointed out that Gun’s story matched with Porsche’s memory. The words he heard or something…

Really, I am still stuck in a Vegas and Pete vacuum, that I might’ve glazed over details…but Vegas and Pete be giving me Dean and Cas (Destiel), Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian (WangXian) feels? Plus, I’ve always thought about Patroclus and Achilles? Hades and Persphone does work too as some people have pointed out…but Patroclus and Achilles in the sense that Patroclus was taken by Ares the God of War (a god bent on death, violence and destruction). Then a fire is lit underneath Achilles (the goddess of Love, Aphrodite stoking that with some charm) and still a war is waged to avenge the death of a loved one. Simply jampacked in one scene with the rage and anguish that fuels Pete to not even hesitate to pull that trigger. Do think I might have it backwards as to the fictional juicy things surrounding Patroclus and Achilles? (An aside: some of my use with the Gods might come from the video game Hades and how they portrayed Patroclus' and Achilles' association with the Gods). Achilles might’ve also been fueled by Ares too, but it’s that just the balance thing, a symbiotic thing. Patroclus and Achilles fulfilled each other in a way they only understood. Funny enough, I’ve also thought of Vegas and Pete as the Gods themselves. What is one capable if Aphrodite weaponizes love? What lengths would a human go? They very well could create what Ares feeds on: death, violence and destruction. And yes, Vegas creates that path of destruction Ares would be proud of, while Pete weaponizes love. In the end, both start sharing this path that only has one ending. They choose each other.

And in other words is VegasPete representative of sheer gut-wrenching Greek Tragedy and Shakespearean Tragedy? Yes, it is. That’s part of the allure. The soul ache of it all.

Ps. I still have no idea what happened overall and if anything was answered. They did say at the beginning that she’s a foster sister…but now I’m like what if…then I’m like no, we deviated right? We’ve deviated, but I’m kind of wondering why the fuck you’d want that family ring anyway? Sure, ooh it’d be nice to have some power for once…but it all feels ominous? Because I’ll be honest, the couple I thought that could hightail it out of this business would be Kinn and Porsche. Vegas and Pete be super addicted (like the God of War Ares) to this death, destruction, violence, danger and so I suspect they’d be bored trying to integrate back into society? Also didn’t think that KP would integrate too much into society, because a beach bar can be somewhat off the grid, but enough on the grid to make a business out of it?

Please, if you have a bullet point of details about what exactly happened with Porsche’s mom and all of that? Do give it to me, besides it’d be better off to try and understand that than remain inside the dark (yet BRIGHTLY soul transcending) VegasPete vacuum because that soul aching really does damage a psyche.

#this is not coherent #these are not mind blowing thoughts #vegaspete #kinnporsche

[wildcreativemastermind]

I’d like to talk to you about a 5th dimension, beyond that which is known to man. It as a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. It is a dimension which we call

The Twilight Zone

So, I’ve recently been getting into classic Twilight Zone. So far, the episodes have been pretty good. The one I want to talk about today (and is my favorite at the time of writing this post) is Season 1 Episode 2, One for the Angels.

warning: this review will contain spoilers

The main character is Lew Bookman (played by Ed Wynn), a 69 year old pitchman who is friends with the local children.

Note on Lew and the kids: this episode originally aired in 1959, and the way Lew’s interactions with the children are written and portrayed makes it clear that it’s simply intended to be a man who’s good with kids. However, there are a couple lines that, while something the original audience wouldn’t have found anything wrong with, may come across not so well to a modern audience. Since I’m reviewing the episode, I figured I should mention this.

Lew returns home after an unsuccessful day pitching on the sidewalk, giving presents to some of the kids. When he walks into his apartment, he finds a certain Mr Death (played by Murray Hamilton) there.

yes that gif is necessary

Mr Death tells Lew that he will die that night at midnight. Not wanting to die, Lew makes a deal with Mr Death that he won’t die until after he makes a big pitch, one for the angels. Mr Death agrees. However, Lew reveals that he never intends to make a pitch again, making him immortal. Mr Death is obviously not happy about this and informs Lew that he’ll take someone else. Who is that someone else? An 8 year old girl named Maggie, who Lew cares about, and who is hit by a car.

The rest of the episode is basically Lew trying to convince Mr Death to take him instead of Maggie.

Later that night, when Mr Death comes before the deadline to take Maggie, Lew decides to distract him with a sales pitch. So he makes the pitch, convincing Mr Death to buy ties from him and spinning at least one outlandish tale about how he gets the thread. It works, Mr Death misses his appointment, Maggie gets to live, and Lew accepts that it’s time for him to go.

General Thoughts

I already mentioned that this is (at least currently) my favorite episode. It is a bit on the predictable side (at least for me it was), and it’s clearly from a different time, but I still found it to be a good watch. Ed Wynn is enjoyable to watch as Lew Bookman and Murray Hamilton was good as Mr Death. In general, I really the portrayal of Death here. I especially liked watching Lew’s and Mr Death’s interactions with each other. By the time the episode ends, I simultaneously want to see more of them interacting and think what we got is enough. Maggie (played by Dana Dillaway) was also adorable. In general, I recommend watching the episode.

I noticed when looking at other reviews (since I was curious what other people thought) that I don’t the share the same interpretation a lot of others have of the pitch scene, I’ll get into my own interpretation under the cut. Basically, everything under the cut is my interpretation.

From what I can tell, a lot of people hold the position that Lew truly distracted Mr Death, but Ed Wynn doesn’t really manage to portray a fast talking salesman, so the scene doesn’t really land.

1. Lew is not shown to be a good pitchman. No one is buying from him at the beginning, and he tells Mr Death that he wants him to let him have a chance to be successful for one moment in his whole life. Basically, I don’t think Ed Wynn was supposed to portray a fast talking salesman at all.

2. I don’t think Mr Death was actually fooled during the climactic pitch. I think it was more Mr Death letting himself be distracted and playing along. Why would Mr Death need ties and thread? Also, look at his face when the pitch really gets going and Lew isn’t looking at him.

Does that look like a man who’s being distracted or a man who’s getting exactly what he wanted?

I think it looks more like he knows he’s getting what he wanted.

#twilight zone #one for the angels #review #late night posts #lew bookman #mr death #i had to much fun making gifs from the episode #that last gif could just be a picture but i already had the gif so i figured why not use it? #in case you're curious #i spelled it as lew instead of lou since it's mentioned that the full name is lewis j bookman #so it's a nickname for lewis #i also thought it was kind of interesting how mr death never uses lew's first name #he only calls him mr bookman #also during the apartment talk scene #mr death is in a chair #and he teleports around the room a few times #and the chair always teleports with him #so i keep imagining murray hamilton finishing a line and then just getting up and dragging the chair across the room #and while i don't think mr death was genuinely distracted during the climactic pitch scene #the idea that death himself is really into ties is an objectively amazing idea