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anonymouspuzzler · 3 months

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you know what? fuck you (heartbreak gulch's my own guys)

(@heartbreakgulch courtesy of the inimitable @strangegutz & collaborators, also miscellaneous Thoughts under the cut bc it's my blog no one can stop me the doors have closed behind you)

HEARTBREAKER BULKHEAD:

Probably does not have superpowers anymore but still came from a family of considerable influence and was under pressure to inherit, pressure which he very much Broke Under.

Turned to a life of crime, definitely got in over his head with it, and essentially got rescued by Eddie, who he is Utterly Obsessed With And Heartsick For.

Has spent literal years as one of Eddie's attack dogs and generally jumping through hoops for him for Whatever Scraps Of Affection He Can Get, though he's still kind of squeamish around Literal Murder and thus tends to be assigned to supply runs and such most of the time.

Amateur mechanic and car enthusiast. Probably did a lot of McGyver-ass fixes around the Gulch-slash-generally assisted Ami til Davey was recruited.

Speaking of, was still the guy who recruited-slash-rescued Davey. They fell for each other hard and are in a committed relationship now, which has helped Buck take a little bit of a healthier step back with whatever the hell he and Eddie have going on (and helped him be a little less jealous and curmudgeonly about the Hot Young Things In Town, ie Zeki and Felix).

Absolutely not prepared to be a guardian to Minnie which has led his and Eddie's whole Relationship to enter a fun new stage of "hey man can I ask you for parenting advice nothing weird"

HEARTBREAKER DYNAMO:

Pretty similar backstory to the Villain-Coded version. Civilian turned criminal, lost his arm when he got in over his head on a job and Buck rescued him.

Has a bunch of different prosthetics he swaps out for different purposes, ie. one for combat, one to use for mechanic work, a kinda general use/everyday one, etc. That said, he goes without a lot to make sure he's prepared for a situation where he doesn't have access/one breaks or fails on a job/etc.

An alarmingly good recruit; I feel like originally Eddie kind of let him stick around as a kind of "gift" to Buck, but now that he's actually got him on jobs he's become a real rising star. Real good in a scrap and is a little more flexible with his moral lines in the sand compared to Buck. Outside of that he works with Ami a lot doing mechanics and repairs - probably interested in learning CompanDroid maintenance/repair but figures it'd be skeevy for him to push that point too much.

He and Eddie have a complicated relationship I think. They'd be kinda suspicious/distrusting of each other but also have a LOT of similarities and work really well together. To say nothing of their respective relationships with Buck.

I don't think he's Trying to Uncle the younger recruits in the Gulch but he definitely Does. He likes White a lot. He and Ami would also definitely get along really well. He is being The Bigger Man and Mature Adult and not giving Felix a wedgie no matter how badly he wants to

HEARTBREAKER(?) MINNIE:

From the same family of prominence as Buck and is currently very much on the run after a failed attempt to kill her own dad.

Extremely a city kid and is Not necessarily adapting well to Middle Of Nowhere Self Sustained Living.

Knew Of Buck but never met him before this so his whole Life and Little Criminal Commune featuring Multiple Guys He's Got SOMETHING Going On With is. it's a lot

Would like to do some crime actually but is A) still a little traumatized and adjusting to the whole Situation and B) 13 Whole Real Human Years Old.

Fascinated by Zeki's whole deal and his work but I think they would absolutely bring out the worst in each other they would fight so much. Autism to autism hostility

Having a very complicated response to White and Ami wherein she thinks they're SO cool but interacting with them at any length would make her realize Things About Herself that she's not consciously ready to confront so just like. Imagine being White and looking over your shoulder and that 13 year old is just Intensely Staring At You Unblinking from around a corner and as soon as she realizes you've seen her she turns around and runs off as fast as she can directly into a wall

Zarita absolutely hitting that Cool Just Slightly Older Kid niche for her.

#anonymous puzzler art #anonymous puzzler originals #villain coded comic #heartbreak gulch #strangegutz #long post #it's fun to put your Guys in a New Situation! love that!!!#fun and interesting to think ok what about you is inherent no matter the setting and what changes when your situation is different #(the funny thing being I don't think a lot would fundamentally have to change about the HBG gang in villain-coded)#(like sure why not we can have compandroids. we can have the criminal haven in the desert. that all makes sense.)

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evieelyzabethh · 10 months

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Hi me again! 👋🏻

I was wondering if you had time maybe to write a small fic (or one shot whatever you’re comfortable with) where the reader is Buffy’s cousin ( also library assistant or whatever you would like ) and the reader and Giles are in a secret relationship ( maybe smut?? ) and they’re navigating that and Buffy finds out and it’s this whole thing. If you’re busy I totally understand or if you just don’t want to, again it’s okay. I really do enjoy your work 🥰.

Not Unavailable, More Unimpressed

pairing(s): Giles x Summers!Reader

summary: what started out as a short term fling has gotten increasingly complicated when the reciprocity and sincerity of feelings is called into questions. pt.1 of ???

warnings: smut, fem!reader, drinking, hand job, a bit of breast worship, clothed grinding, riding, slight choking, age gap (Giles is in his mid to late 40's, reader is in her late 20s/ early 30s), reader has nipple piercings bc I said so and I think they are hot

an: This fic will contain smut so be warned. You are responsible for your own media consumption, read at your own risk.

The man at the bar was a mystery to you. He didn't quite fit into the bar atmosphere. He wasn't one of the barely legals or illegals who snuck in eager to drink, he wasn't one of the old guys who came to hit on the bottle girls, he didn't smell like a smoker or shoot whiskey like a drinker. He was also British, something that left an odd taste in your mouth.

You couldn't call yourself a regular here, more often than not you found yourself at the Bronze, purely per Buffy's request, which had okay enough booze and slightly better music. Here, some place clearly meant for an older crowd called Jack's, is where the older man sat. Alone, he sat at the far corner, sometimes looking longingly at the stage like he was a performer. He didn't look like a performer though.

He was older than you. He was greyed out and looked like he came from when TVs were still in sepia tones. He looked like Gregory Peck in To Kill a Mockingbird, like he was always a moment away from scolding someone. It didn't help that he always looked tired, like a lot of his age came from stress. If that was the case, it still didn't make sense as to why he chose a bar to be his spot to wind down.

It was loud. Not in the way that the Bronze was, a type of loud filled with life. A loud spurred by rowdy souls, people who couldn't let loose at home, so they came to one of the only shitty bars in the small town to drink a shitty beer and watch their favorite sports team lose. Not to mention the countless barely legals who got into fights with the bartenders after they failed to get their underage friends a drink. Jack's wasn't a place to have fun, it was the place to avoid doing something reckless during your midlife crisis. You were only there because of convenience, and after being there for a half hour were already beginning to get a migraine.

Job hunting was rough. When you moved to Sunnydale on behalf of your aunt, she offered to let you stay under her roof, but being a grown woman who got up to grown woman shenanigans, it would be more than distasteful to do it in Joyce's home. You were lucky enough that the housing market was great in the area, with all the supernatural happenings so one chose to move to Sunnydale, but that still didn't mean that a decent looking apartment wouldn't cost you a nice sum of money every month.

I could just work here, was your first thought. You were once a young college student also desperate for money, you had bartended, you could always go back if you lacked self-respect. You had a degree dammit, sure you didn't have a doctorate, but you shouldn't need one to get a nice quiet desk job. Neither option was all that fulfilling, but something told you that bartending in a town when demons just roamed the streets didn't seem like a great idea.

The mystery man looked like he had a nice job. Maybe a nice car. Possibly a nice house. He looked financially stable, and fuck was that hot. What did he do? What was there to do in Sunnydale? You could ask.

You looked at his hands to see if there was a ring or any indication that there was someone waiting for him wherever he came from. Maybe a picture of a kid, maybe a photo of a significant other. Nothing. Nothing.

You slinked over to the seat beside him, not meaning to make your presence immediately known yet he still looked up as he felt the heat of someone else beside him. His glasses perched low on his nose and his grey hair tussled. His eyes were green. He was pretty.

"Hello?" He looked at you confused. He took a moment to drink you in. Younger, gorgeous, clearly bold.

"Hello."

"Are you waiting for someone?" You shook your head.

"No. Are you?" and he'd be lying if he said he was.

☽✯☾

"You know, I don't do this often." He said between the rare breaths that were allowed in between suffocating kisses. Whatever he took up in his free time must've involved a great workout regimen. His hand sat comfortably at your neck, and you basked in the warmth that it provided in his cold apartment. His other held your cheek, his thumb mindless rubbing against it in a way that was hypnotizing. It almost had a numbing affect, your skin not being able to get past the feeling making your brain pause as he kissed your lips.

He tasted like fine wine. He smelled like old books. You half expected him to quote a classic at you, you didn't know him well enough to gauge if he was the type. His tongue contradicted his previous statement. These weren't the kisses of a man out of practice, that or he did it so much in his youth it was impossible to forget. Something like riding a bike.

"For a man who doesn't do this often, you're mighty good at it." He smirked; you could feel it against your lips. You wished you could see it, but he had the lights in his bedroom turned low and you weren't sure you wanted to open your eyes in the fear that you were dreaming. It was warm, he was so warm. So warm it was noticeable when his lips left yours and moved to your neck, hovering under your ears. His breath fanning against your neck was enough to send shivers down your spine.

"You haven't even seen how good I am, darling." The pet name alone made you weak in the knees, but you would be damned if you swooned at someone called you darling. Granted, you couldn't help how your mouth went dry or how your pussy clenched at nothing, but he didn't need to know that. He was going to find out, but he can find out later when your lust ridden brain stopped listening to reason and pride.

"Show me, then."

He dipped his head to kiss you, grabbing a fistful of your hair to tip your head back and you let him, grabbing on to his broad shoulders to stabilize yourself. You were pressed between the wall and him, pressing him even closer as you fisted his shirt to pull him closer, but he was hesitant to oblige. He was teasing, you could tell by the way he smiled into your kisses, pulling away like he needed air while you chased after his lips.

"You having issues breathing, old man?" The hand at your neck squeezed, not enough to choke you but enough to make your head even dizzier. His other hand travelled to any piece of skin he could get his hands on. Feather light, his fingers ran across your arms, then your collarbones, before knocking the straps of your dress off your shoulder. His kisses moved slow, his tongue damn near like languid waves that you were somehow managing to drown in.

Still, you chased after him, and still, he ran. His lips ran to the corner of your mouth, to the skin of your neck his hand didn't engulf, to where your strap lay useless. His kisses scorched your otherwise cold skin, his mouth sucking hickeys and then immediately soothing them.

He was so soft. Soft in how his hands found the back of your dress, soft in how his eyes looked into yours, asking permission without even saying a word, soft like the way the fabric slipped of your body and onto the floor. Soft like the bed he laid you on. Even soft in the way he continued to tease you, his knee meeting the crotch of your panties and him meticulously unsnapping your bra as if you couldn't tell he knew how to do it.

He then paused for a minute, finally coming across something he hadn't experienced before. His fingers took the ball of cool metal between his fingers, and you moaned at how it pulled ever so slightly at your nipple.

"What are these?" You chuckled.

"I got 'em pierced ages ago. Drunk night out with a few friends my senior year." He continued to play with the metal ball, well aware of how you keened and ground yourself into his knee.

"So, I can play with them." Fuck. It was how he said it. Like a nerd you might've messed around with in school because he was a good tutor but also because he had that nerdy charm to him. Like playing with your body was a game of Operations he had been so eager to play and was determined to get good at. It was easy to imagine Giles like that, fogged up glasses, eyes concentrated and focused on figuring out what buttons to press to get a prize. There was the curiosity in his lust-blown eyes, and in your lust addled brain you were fine with being his toy.

"Please do." He didn't need to be told twice. Avid learner he was, he went in, his large hands easily covering your breasts. His fingers pulled at the bars, drawing whimpers out of you the more he prodded. It wasn't too rough, Giles was too soft to ever be truly rough, but the feeling of his gaze, your clothed pussy rubbing against his soft slacks, and his large hands over your chest was getting a bit much. And he hadn't even put his mouth on you yet.

It didn't take long for him to realize the feeling of your pierced tits in his mouth was one of the best things he's felt, and it felt even better for you. A wet patch had long since been growing and he certainly felt it too, it egged him on. He wasn't even in you, he hadn't even tasted you, and you were almost there. You were so close.

You grabbed at anything you could, his shirt, his sheets, his hands that held yours as you rocked yourself onto his knee until you saw stars. Then he grabbed your face and swallowed your moans as he kissed and kissed you until you came down. A moment of clarity hit you, and you pulled on his shirt. "Off." you told him simply, and he obliged. You smashed your lips into his, peeling off button after button until the shirt was thrown to the side and his undershirt beneath was discarded with even less care.

"Issues with patience, darling?" You shook your head.

"Not fair I'm practically naked and you were fully clothed." His retort was cut off by your lips as you sat up to meet him, his hands absent-mindedly finding your breasts and yours finding his belt and making quick work of it before he even realized what was happening. You kissed him through it, anyway, still chasing after him as he pulled away to curse at the feeling of your hand around his dick.

"Gods." he muttered, words tumbling out clumsily as you rubbed the tip of his cock. He never had the control to pull away fast enough for an adequate breather, just a second to get a breath out and pray. You were flattered. His hand seemed like it wanted to swat you away, but it didn't have the strength to betray his brain like that. It felt good. Too good. So good he couldn't even think, and Giles never stopping thinking and now he was drawing blanks. He was sure you had mocked him once or twice, which went through one ear and out the other.

He caught himself thrusting into your hand before he caught himself, grabbing your wrist. "Hang on." He choked out, but you didn't listen. Your hand moved up and down his shaft terribly slow, and it was almost worse. Watching you spit on your hand and collect pre-cum from his tip and spread it like some sick simulation of what it would be like to be in you, and yet he couldn't help but watch his hand completely cover yours as you pumped him. Don't cum yet.

"I said hang on." His breath was ragged and his voice was deep. This time he meant it. "There are condoms in the top left drawer. Take one out for me, love." And you did as such. Did it with so much assurance that you slid it on without him even needing to ask you. Slid your panties off and sank down so fast neither one of you was ready.

You both sat there a moment, feeling your nerve endings tingle and burn, like you were both on fire. But you were on fire together. Like you could feel every atom in your body, like it had all been reduced to nothing but water, you were both feeling everything and anything yet absolutely nothing at the same time. So much feeling any nuance got lost in the moment. Just being there, breaths away, with a complete stranger you were sleeping with because he was pretty and looked financially stable.

You kissed him, a real kiss. Spontaneous. One with a feeling neither one of you could decipher and both assumed meant nothing. You rode it out until you had both exhausted each other, you falling on top of him and him catching you.

"Would you like to use my shower before you go? Did you need a ride home?" You cheesed to yourself. And they say chivalry is dead.

"Yeah, that would be nice." You had already rolled out of his bed in search of your dress and waiting for feeling to return to your legs. "I never got your name."

"Giles. Rupert Giles." You giggled as you shook of your dress after picking it up from the floor. Sounds about right.

"And what do you do for a living, Mr. Giles."

"Do these things typically end in interviews?" He made no effort to get out of his bed, he even had the decency to turn away while you get dressed as if he wasn't just balls deep in you.

"No, but I am new to town and would like to not be broke."

"I'm a librarian." Of course, you are. "Have you any interest in literature?" You did. You were a nerd. You had tried convincing yourself you weren't for years, but you majored in philosophy and minored in classic literature; and no one likes philosophy majors.

"I dabble a bit. Got a degree from all the reading I did if that counts." He looked at you like he knew you were trying to make yourself sound cooler. Nerd calls to nerd.

"Well, plenty of places are always hiring. The turnover rate is quite atrocious here." And even new to town, you believed it.

"I just might."

☽✯☾

You did end applying, you even ended up getting the job. Apparently, your little cousin's high school was in desperate need of a library assistant. You also had the pleasure of freezing when you saw Giles again and watching your little cousin greet her favorite teacher.

It was almost worth it for the look on his face, though.

#btvs #btvs imagine #btvs x reader #buffy the vampire slayer #buffy the vampire slayer fanfiction #buffy the vampire slayer imagine #buffy the vampire slayer x reader #rupert giles fanficion #rupert giles smut #rupert giles x reader #giles x reader #giles smut

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bitter-hibiscus · 13 days

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Hey hi you have piqued my interest and I would love to hear your thoughts on Jason and Roy's interaction in New Titans #20-21 :)

OKAY OKAY OKAY!!! SO THOSE ISSUES ARE SO SO SO IMPORTANT TO ME BC THEY SET THE FOUNDATION OF JASON'S RELATIONSHIP WITH AUTHORITY HERO FIGURES AND. ROY IS PRETTY MUCH THE ONLY POSITIVE ONE

Sorry for rambling about more than just Roy and Jason but I had to set a foundation for my points.

The only three people who actually speak to Jason at any point for more than a single line in those issues are Donna, Hawk, and Roy.

Donna, as is plainly stated in the text, is not actually talking to Jason, but to Robin, and she expects him to act exactly like Dick Grayson does.

In the beginning of the story, this isn't particularly an issue, since Jason is very excited to be included and Donna isn't actually putting any kind of pressure on him. HOWEVER, as issue #20 progresses, it becomes really, really serious. Particularly in this scene:

Donna, who up until this point Jason generally worshipped in that way children always do, just showed him she's not only capable of extreme violence against her teammates, but also willing to completely leave the people depending on her behind. (I may not be the biggest Donna lorehead but I'm pretty sure this isn't something she does often. It is, however, what Jason sees her doing, and that's important.)

Jason, kindhearted, boneheaded Jason, immediately calls her out on this. He trusts that Donna is a capable and trustworthy hero and team leader, but the image of a perfect heroine has been broken.

Donna puts almost the... complete opposite kind of pressure on Jason that Bruce does. Bruce has trained Jason to obey, and to try and force him into a leadership role while three of your teammates are literally unconscious is, to say the least, stress-inducing to a little kid.

(oops, the Donna part got long. I have a lot of feelings about them, okay?)

The second person who interacts with Jason in those issues is Hawk, who is, you know. Hawk.

The first thing he says to Jason is mocking his age, which Jason seems to be pretty self-aware of in a negative way, being the only child in a group of 20-something-year-olds.

Then, he actively stops Jason from joining a fight and doing his part as a Titan:

It's the polar opposite of how Donna treats Jason in this issue. Hawk sees Jason as incapable and unfit for being a Titan. It's both demotivating and incredibly insulting, especially when Jason was trying to do the right thing.

So we're 0 for 2 for grown-up superheroes being dicks to Jason.

Enter Roy Harper, stage left.

Roy is the only member of the team to both acknowledge Jason as a teammate and still speak to him like the child he is without being patronizing or mocking, despite his conflicting and complicated emotions on the mission they're going to, because Cheshire. He keeps himself friendly and inviting to Jason, forces himself to joke around, because Jason is a child who shouldn't be responsible for Roy's Whole Ordeal.

He actively humors Jason's worship and wonder of superheroes, but still jokes around with him like Jason is an equal and not a kid he's babysitting.

He offers Jason company and empathy, and encourages him to share his view of the situation, once again treating Jason as a team member worthy of being listened to, but not particularly of being in charge of anything. Jason, for his part, pays attention to what's happening with Roy, and expresses concern over what Roy's feelings on the situation might be.

(long pause to admire how beautiful Jade looks in this story. anyway)

This scene is also really important, I think. Not only for the obvious reasons of Lian Being Revealed, but because even though Roy is reeling from the knowledge that he has a child, he still has space in his thoughts to care about Jason and want him safe. Even though Jason's attempt to lighten the mood was... less than optimal. Lol. I love him so much

Jason is there for what some may argue is the biggest part of Roy's development as a character, and even though he's secondary to everything that's happening, Roy still considers Jason an important part of the situation. He still takes Jason into account, despite desperately wanting answers from Jade.

I have nothing to say about those panels but look at them. my babies. jason is so so worried. his new friend is not ok and he cant help :(

TLDR: Jason's interactions with most adult heroes are.. pretty bad, (Not all. Shoutout to my men Joey Wilson and Garfield Logan,) but Roy is a major exception to that rule. He's compassionate and funny and a hurricane of emotions, and he's the first adult outside of Batman and Nightwing to canonically show Jason a little bit of kindness. While not in any way backed by canon, I do think that Jason's interactions with Roy filled him with determination to be a good hero and earn other people's trust. Those two issues have very small interactions, but I do believe they're some of the most important pieces of original Robin Jason content, largely due to Roy's presence.

#sorry this is a veery long post kind #youre one of my favorite mutuals so I wanted to make it especially good for u #i also got so fixated on replying to your ask that I forgot to take my flu meds on time. oopsie #hope the answer is satisfactory. feel free to send me another ask or rb this post w questions if not!!#ramble ramble ramble #dc comics #jason todd #roy harper #robin dc #speedy #red arrow #arsenal dc #red hood #teen titans #character analysis #long post #royboy ask

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utilitycaster · 1 month

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I haven't seen WBN, so I can't comment on the comparison, but on the subject of Liliana, one of my favorite parts of last night was how Matt anwsered Fearne's question about how Liliana got involved with Ludinus. The whole scene with Liliana was stellar, but that answer made it so clear that is she is in a cult. The way Ludinus found her while she was unsure and looking for answers, mentored her, and showed her the "truth" about Predathos is a classic cult recruitment story. And her reasonings for staying in the cult after having recognizing some of its faults also rang true. She needs to "protect the children", the methods are wrong but the "truth" at the heart of their mission is right, the us vs. them mentality and fear of the exandrian authorities, etc. And I can see how that can make her sympathetic. She was taken in and conditioned by a charismatic, powerful leader. But Matt and the others have also made it clear, including in that scene, that she is complicit, and that the pcs at least recognize that her guilt does not absolve her. The members of the Manson Family who committed the Tate Murders may have been indoctrinated by Charles Manson, but they still killed 5 people in an incredibly grusome manner. The fact that they were following orders doesn't absolve them of their crime. And historically, cult leadership (which Liliana seems to be) who attempt to "fix" a cult either don't make any meanful change, or actually make it worse. I, at least, am very curious to see what will have happened in that regard when she next shows up. In short, people need to learn about nuance, and maybe sociology, and the Liliana scene was fantastic.

Hello anon. Are you spying on my Discord messages. This is not an accusation but I literally brought up the Manson Family there in discussion of how a lot of the WBN fandom in that like, people see wizards of the citadel (rightfully) as The War-Mongering Establishment, but forget that actually, there exist plenty of counterculture groups that also suck and just bc the US Government does horrible things doesn't mean the Manson Family doesn't. What if the Citadel AND a lot of Witches fucking sucked.*

To get back to Critical Role though, YEAH the Vanguard has been hitting every single aspect of a cult, and look. I get that the best way to get people irl out of a cult is to just be present for them when they decide to leave and not cut them off (the same is true for how to help people in abusive relationships) but also once they start murdering I feel that is no longer the move. The Liliana scene made me deeply uncomfortable and unsettled in the best way, namely, I knew they were talking to a cult member who is in too deep for them to get her out right now, and who has done terrible things to innocent people in service to that cult. Which brings me back to the first paragraph: a very true twist on "what if both sides of a conflict sucked" is "what if the victim of a system can still perpetuate the harm of a system onto others". (Also, if we want to throw Midst into the list of things where people have no-nuance no-sociology takes, and talk more about Steel? "what if someone with power within a system can still be a victim thereof."

Like, that is a really consistent set of issues in media analysis, actually. There's a lot of "this is the good side, and this is the bad side," and "this is a victim, and this is a perpetrator" and no understanding of "both sides are bad (or even complicated)" and "wow it's almost like the way systems and especially cults keep running is because everyone except the very top is to an extent a victim, but also everyone is a perpetrator." Very few people are unfettered evildoers doing it just for kicks. You can have sympathy for Liliana and also acknowledge that it's pretty valid for Orym to have no room for that sympathy. Traumatized and manipulated people can still be shitty people.

*I'm neutral-to-faint-positive on Suvi/Ame as a ship but actually "wow both our establishments really suck, how can we make something better together" is a great basis for a ship and "oh my god no witches are perfect and right and wizards are Bad and Wrong you're so correct about everything" is a dogshit basis for a ship which I think is worth highlighting given that we are in fandom spaces here although I may come to regret this when I'm sober.

#cr spoilers

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your-turn-to-role · 1 year

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is there a canon reason why percy and vex broke up? did tal or laura ever say why exactly?

not to my knowledge? they mentioned a lot about the secret wedding, but the break up was mentioned offhand in the campaign wrap-up talks machina, when they were asked if there was anything anyone did during the year off that never came up in the campaign

i will say though that in quite a few talks machinas tal and laura talk about perc'ahlia like a celebrity relationship (or specifically say "yeah we're one of those couples"), and that's a thing you tend to see fairly often with celebrities that end up in tabloids - they have a complicated life, they break up and get back together quite a bit, so i think part of it is tal and laura having fun playing that drama and letting them be those disaster celebrities

if you want my speculation on an in-canon reason though? i think the commitment freaked them out

like vex has always had issues surrounding stability, she's not had it in her life since she was a little kid, and she's just made excuses to herself her whole life that she's fine because she doesn't want stability - she just wants her brother and to keep moving and to never have to worry about putting down roots or forming emotional attachments because it hurts less that way. it's why she gets so jealous and snippy when vax starts showing interest in keyleth, and why she keeps shutting down his attempts to tell her he's moving to zephrah - she can't keep being flighty and only attached to her brother if he wants to settle down with someone else

as much as she loves percy, and they're good for each other, we know from the grey hunt trial that the idea of settling down with him scares her, because it's new, and because it means for the first time in a long time she has something to lose

percy is almost the opposite, he lost his entire family once already and he doesn't ever want to do that again. it's why he gets so vicious when scanlan leaves, because vox machina is his new family, and no one's allowed to tear that apart again (also why we get the really tentative "i know we don't always agree and i know i can be unkind, but... you know you're family, right?" to grog immediately after)

but a relationship is a whole new step, he trusts vex about as much as he does anyone, but this isn't just trusting her with his anger issues, or trusting her with his city, this is trusting her with the future, with his future, with always being around. i don't think he's confident enough to believe she loves him that much, that anyone could, and if he lets himself take that step fully, he has so much more to lose if something happens like it did last time

so it's all well and good when the relationship is new, when they're still trying things out, when it's flirty and it doesn't have to be serious if they don't want it to

even in moments where it's emotionally heavy, like percy's resurrection, it's still new and in the moment, they're not looking past what's immediately in front of them

(and even after that heavy moment, vex got nervous percy didn't like her back and decided to push it all to the back of her brain and not think about it - vax straight up told her to go chase him bc she deserved to be happy and she instead got drunk and changed the subject)

but then the fighting's over. they're not worried about their lives every day. no one died, they're both still here. and it starts to sink in with them that this isn't going anywhere. that this can be their forever, if they choose it. and that scares both of them, and when they get scared they tend to either wall themselves off or lash out, and both would cause a schism in their relationship. and then one day it turns into an argument and in the heightened emotion one of them says they should break up and the other agrees

and now they're emotionally safe, because if they cause the relationship to end on their terms it can't be pulled away from them unexpectedly

but they're not actually happy

and maybe they come to that realisation on their own, more likely they talk about it with their friends and vax and keyleth tell them they're being idiots

and then the question is what to do about it

it's possible they went slowly back into it

or, since we know their first marriage proposals were a dare, maybe they weren't even together again yet

i could see that being exactly the sort of thing they'd do if they wanted to get back together but they didn't want to be the first one to admit that they wanted to

skip the dating phase we already did that i dare you to marry me

and maybe they talk about it much later, maybe they don't

but i think by the time they got to the marriage, they'd realised they wanted this to be more than a casual thing, and it's still probably scary, but there's no one else they'd trust to get them through that fear and come out the other side

#cr1 #percy de rolo #vex'ahlia #ask #meta #cr thoughts

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spidercookie18 · 7 months

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I've had this idea in my head that Paul uses M&M tubes to keep his joints in! They're perfect, they start out having candy AND they're air tight! If you can make anything out of that for the love of all that lives, you gotta.

Summary: Paul is a fiend, and makes it grandpa Emerson's problem Word Count: 2.5k

Great ask! I love this one a lot, you’re gonna get a crack response, but it’s a good response. Cause I’m smoking a crack pipe full of these fruity little bitches!

So, I’ve been toying with the idea of the boys going to COSTCO; hear me out. Any TLB AU where everyone survives, means Lucy will take the boys in; no if’s and’s or buts about it. She is the best 80’s mom ever, she’s for sure adopting them. Which makes the whole David x Michael thing weird bc they would be…stepbrothers? Whatever, vampire relationships are complicated. She would also have to be feeding like 10 people. Hold on, lets actually count. It’s the boys, that’s 4 + Lucy, Sam, Michael, Grandpa E, another 4, then Star, and Laddie, which is 2 AND maybe Max, and the Frog brothers… depending on how that goes. Anyways, that’s still at LEAST 10 mouths to feed.

So, Lucy, being the mom that she is, would get a COSTCO membership to get all the things that her new, big family would need. Now, you’re probably wondering, “Ari, where the fuck are you going with this?”

WELL

Lucy would get a COSTCO card so she could get these rambunctious fuckers what they need. Max would foot the bill, and everyone would be ‘happy’ about it and shut up forever. (FYI, Costco in the 90’s looked more like a Home Depot, which I hate).

Lucy notices, IMMEDIATELY that her new sons have some interesting snack choices to say the least.

David is waaay too into eggs, to the point where she doesn’t know if he’s even eating them, or if he’s just hiding them somewhere. Marko goes through wheels of cheese like they’re apples. Dwayne likes… pickled fish and marshmallows. And Paul… well, she’s concerned for all of them, but she’s most concerned for Paul.

He’s quickly becoming her favorite. He always helps with chores, even if he doesn’t want to. He changes light bulbs for her, even catches and releases the bugs that get in the house for her. Sure, he’s screaming and yelling the whole time it takes him to get the damn bug outside, but it’s the thought that counts. He's a mama’s boy through and through.

Lucy started worrying for him though, the second she noticed he would go through candy so quickly. And not just go through candy, he would go through the damn candy. Paul could eat a whole box of candy, within a few minutes. When she got trick or treat candy for one Halloween, Paul went through several hundreds of dollars’ worth of candy within a few hours. Specifically, she noticed, he would tear through the mini m&m tubes like nobodys business.

Which, if you asked Paul, he’d say it really was, “nobody’s business.”

She would buy the giant COSTCO boxes that had 24 tubes and he would just walk off with the whole box. After he’d done that three or four times, she brought it up to David.

Lucy: I’m worried that Paul is… going to make himself sick.

David: *Leaning against the kitchen counter* We’ve been worrying about that for a lot longer than you have, he’s just like that.

Lucy: No, I mean, he keeps stealing these… little… *gestures with her hands* tubes of candy and I don’t know what he’s doing with them.

David: Oh, *rubs his chin* well that would be concerning… if it wasn’t Paul.

Lucy: Can you just make sure he’s not eating all that candy, can you boys process sugar fine like that?

David: *shrugs*

Michael: *walks into the kitchen, and grabs something from the fridge*

Lucy: OH, oh, Michael, *waving her hands* tell David about the thing.

Michael: *closes the fridge* Oh, no, not this again. *To David* Is she bothering you with this? *To Lucy, pointing with the soda bottle* Are you bothering him with this?

David: *snorts* This is a real hot button issue, eh?

Lucy: I’m worried about him, is no one else worried about him?

Michael: He’s a weird guy, mom. He’s just like that.

Lucy: But-

Michael: Mom if it’s that big of a deal why don’t you ask him about it?

Lucy: I TRY. But every time I try to ask him about it, he bolts. And, *pointing at Michael and David* with all that damn candy, I might add.

David: *laughing* Yeaah, that sounds like Paul.

Michael: Don’t encourage her.

Lucy: *glares at Michael*

David: Listen Ms. E, I wouldn’t worry about it making him sick. But if it means that much to ya, I’ll talk to him about it.

Lucy: Thank you, David, *pats his back*

David: *already halfway out the room* okay byeeeeeeeeee

What lucy didn’t know, was while, yes, Paul was a fiend for sugar, he was hoarding the m&m tubes for a much more nefarious reason.

Paul was like a pack rat. Step one foot into the cave, and you’d think it was just a mangled mess of shit. But, if you looked closely, you’d notice all the little things hidden away.

Paul had been, for the last several months, eating, emptying, and refilling the plastic, airtight containers with grandpa E’s marijuana. He had been sneakily snatching the sticky green buds in the middle of the night and stashing them away for safe smoking.

Albeit, not as sneaky as he thought. Cause, on more than one occasion, grandpa E had been waiting outside in the garden with the spray hose for Paul. Whenever Paul would slosh into the cave the boys knew he got hosed again, and they’d laugh at his ass.

But, Paul, the ever persistent, learned grandpa E’s habits, and how to better sneak the weed away undetected. He’d crawl on his belly across the roof of the house with a bag slung across his shoulder (think army style, when they make them crawl through the mud; that’s Paul). He would peep his little face over the side of the roof and watch for grandpa in the garden. The first few nights, grandpa E stood outside for a few hours with the hose, waiting for the wild blond.

His persistence paid off, after a few days, grandpa E thought it was safe, and Paul snatched up his goodies. Paul thought he was being sneaky by hovering above the ground and not leaving boot prints; but the next morning, when Lucy, Sam, and Michael were having breakfast and they heard a string of old man cuss words, they knew ‘smokey the bandit’ struck again. Lucy didn’t believe for a second that sweet Paul could steal from her dad, so she chalked it up to her dad smoking too much and being old.

The next night when the boys went to visit for ‘pizza night’ grandpa E railed into Paul. He would not stop ranting and raving about how he was, “going to hog tie his ass,” and, “turn him into the ugliest taxidermyed vampire there ever was.” Lucy gave the boys some money and sent them to get the pizza to let her dad cool down, but when grandpa E insisted he didn’t want Paul back in the house until he apologized, she told the boys to just go out for pizza.

Marko: Paul, you asshole, just apologize so we can go back.

Paul: If I apologize, then that proves I did it- which I didn’t.

Dwayne: Dude, we all know it was you.

Paul: Hey, he’s getting old, that’s 100% not my problem.

David: You know, if you strip the stalk, that kinda makes it more obvious, dumbass.

Sam: You shoulda heard him this morning,

Michael: Yea, it was pretty bad. I’ve never heard him blow up like that.

David: Really? What happened

Sam: He went crazy! He wouldn’t stop screaming!

Marko: *giggling*

Sam: It’s not funny dude, okay? He said words I’ve never even heard before!

Dwayne: Like what? ‘Dagnabbit?’

David: *snorts*

Michael: *Pulling Paul’s jacket by the sleeve* You know if he catches you, you’re dead.

Paul: I’m already dead, also, I’m so not scared of your ‘pappy’.

Michael: Hey, it was a fair warning.

After that, grandpa E went through with operation: catch that flying asshole. He brewed pots of coffee to stay up all night and traded in his hose for a shotgun. Grandpa E sat outside with a chair and his shotgun across his lap, just waiting for Paul to show.

Paul, the ever persistent, waited over a week for his prize. Lucy watched from the kitchen window, as her dad sat outside and stared at the night sky. Her, and Sam were beginning to worry about his mental state. He’d been forcing himself to stay away for hours, and whenever he did fall asleep, Paul would chuck pebbles at him to see if he’d gone to bed for good. Grandpa E would immediately wake up, startled, and one time he’d rang a shot off into the night. Lucy scolded him, saying what if he’d hit a bird, or one of the boys. And his response was, “good! Those fuckers need to learn to stop stealing my stuff!”

One night, after almost 10 nights, there was an opening.

Paul laid on his back, staring at the night sky, rolling the little grey pebble around between his fingers. He was getting sick of waiting, and if he wasn’t worried about what Lucy thought of him, he would have just gone and taken the whole damn garden already. He stared up at the stars, watching the clouds roll in.

Clouds.

He listened to the water as it began to fall softly onto the roof. The pitter-patter came slowly, then faster, then it came in a downpour.

Grandpa E: LUCY!

Lucy:

Grandpa E: LUUUCYYYY!

Lucy: What dad?

Grandpa E: Lucy! Bring me the umbrella!

Lucy: No Dad!

Grandpa E: WHAT?! But it’s a downpour!

Lucy: If you want the umbrella, you gotta come get it yourself!

*Lucy had had enough of her dad’s shenanigans and was determined to get him to come inside from the cold. She hoped this rainstorm was the wakeup call he needed. *

Grandpa E:

Grandpa E: SAM! MICHAEL!

Lucy: They’re not here dad!

Grandpa E: LUCY, YOU BRING ME THAT DAMN UMBRELLA BEFORE I CATCH MY DEATH OUT HERE!

She was done entertaining the notion that Paul, her sweet, kind, always there to help anyone, Paul, was stealing from her dad. He would have to come inside one way or another.

Grandpa E grumbled as his button-up shirt started to get soaked.

Paul turned to lay on his belly and watched his nemesis shift around, trying to determine what to do next. “Go inside, you old bastard,” Paul mumbled to himself. The rain was coming down hard now, if it wasn’t for his vampire eyes, he wouldn’t be able to see anything through the rain. Paul could stay out in the cold and wet forever if he needed to, but he knew grandpa E had to go inside, “go in,” Paul insisted.

He watched as grandpa E pulled the shotgun off his lap and scampered inside. He could hear him mumble something about an umbrella as he ran through the screen door into the kitchen.

Now was his chance!

Paul quickly flew down to the garden. He planted both feet firmly on the ground, what did it matter if his boot prints were in the ground, grandpa knew he was there, and also the rain would wash them out. Paul’s boots squished under him in the wet, burbly mud, he squatted down and grabbed the plant from the base of the stalk and ripped it out of the ground. The roots of the plant dripping down with mud and rain. He repeated his process a few more times. “Fucking old bastard,” he grumbled, as he pulled another plant up by the roots, “making me come out here in the - *grunts* FUCKING RAIN.”

He grabbed a few stalks, tucked them under the strap of his bag and flew off into the night.

Grandpa E heard the “woo-hoo” as he was reaching for the screen door. He ran outside, looking for the umbrella was a flop, it took him too long to search in the cramped closet, so he gave up and decided to return to his green patch of goodness. He scampered back to the kitchen and saw a hurried mess of hair shifting around in the garden.

Grandpa E: Look! There he is! *Pointing out the window*

Lucy: *Walking to the window* Dad, I don’t see anything?

Grandpa E: What do you mean?! He’s right there!

Lucy: *straining her eyes* Dad, it’s a downpour, I can’t see anything.

Grandpa E: *running to the screen door* I got your ass now!

But, as we all know, by the time he got out there, it was too late. Grandpa E, stared at the ground in defeat. He watched as the holes where the stalks used to be burbled and filled with mud and water. The boot prints were fading before his eyes. He knew no one would ever believe him now, and he knew Paul knew that too.

If he didn’t hate him so much by this point, he’d might have applauded him. But for now, he just fell to his knees, the mud sloshing under his pajama pants, and he wailed into the night.

Paul laughed the whole way back to the cave.

When he finally landed, he happily stomped down into the cave. He leaves of the stalks rustling, mud dripping off the stalks and the roots.

His boots squelched under his weight and the mud tracked in behind him.

The other boys and Michael watched as the cocky, rain washed out blond walked into the cave.

Marko: No fucking way.

Dwayne: Oh, Paul you didn’t

David: Atta boy!

Michael: Oooooh, I’m not here.

Paul hummed happily to himself; he ignored his brothers’ jeers as he walked to his alcove. He slung the bag off around his head set the stalks down next to his bean bag chair. He sat down on the tattered, ratty thing with an oomph. He looked at the stalks, he’d clean em and prep em for use later. Paul intended to pluck the seeds out and plant them near the cave, entirely done with being ‘smokey the bandit’.

He shifted to one side and reached a hand under the bag. He rifled around under the chair for a second before he produced what he was reaching for, an m&m tube. He patted his jacket for a lighter and popped open the blue plastic container. He wafted the open container under his nose and turned the tube upside down. A joint slid out into his open palm.

Paul plucked the twisted white paper and set it in his mouth. He flicked the lighter on and lit the end. He took a deep inhale and laid back further in his bean bag chair, still ignoring his brothers half-assed remarks.

Victory never tasted so sweet.

#the lost boys #the lost boys 1987 #tlb 1987 #tlb paul #tlb david #tlb marko #tlb dwayne #tlb michael #lucy emerson #grandpa emerson #sam emerson #paul the lost boys

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elvenbeard · 1 year

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House party scenes 2/5: River and Panam and Kerry and V

Simply given the fact that River and Kerry are the two love interests that always stay in Night City after the canon endings of the game, I think River is the one of V's friends that Kerry gets to know first and knows best. I mean, I even wrote that oneshot where they're invited over for dinner at River's, and I think it just becomes a more or less regular occurrence after that. River and Vince got along good from the start, both having an inquisitive nature and good heart under a hard exterior, despite Night City continuing to try its best at teaching them that compassion is futile. Vince is fully supportive of River doing his own thing, helping him out where he can with his P.I. business once it's up and running, and River remains an important contact to Vince's Afterlife operations as well.

Panam's and Vince's relationship is quite different and a lot more complicated than that (and damn, one day I gotta make a long post about it bc yeah, I won't be doing it justice in this context here xD). Like, they have so much in common actually, careful and mistrusting at first, have a hard time opening up to others, but deep down, behind the loud and gritty exterior, they also just wanna connect to others and be loved. Given the circumstances at the time, and adding Vince's misconceptions about the nomads as a whole, he and Panam didn't really develop a deep friendship over the course of the game's events. To Vince it really just was a "You scratch my back if I scratch yours" relationship for a long while, and he assumed Panam thought the same. By the time they reached a point where they could both openly talk to each other finally, the Aldecaldos were about to pack up and leave. They stayed in contact afterwards though and I think only then started to develop a real, deeper, long-distance-online-only-friendship (sidenote: I absolutely love Panam's text messages in game, how you can talk to her about the other main NPCs for example, I wish there was something like that with everyone).

The birthday get-together is the first time they see each other in person since the Raffen attack on the camp, and yet it's not nearly as awkward as either of them would have feared. Panam is accepted as part of the group right away, probably a bit awestruck still by Kerry just being there and talking to her like normal. She can finally put faces to all the names Vince always talks about, too, River and Judy and Takemura, and so on. If she's ever stranded in NC for whatever reason, Vince's home is her home and safe place, the same way she's offered it to him with the Aldecaldos camp numerous times.

And finally, I wrote before about how Kerry and Vince have this little routine of making up all kinds of batshit stories of their first meeting when people they don't care about ask about it. V's friends though get to hear the real story, even though it's probably even crazier than anything they could come up with.

#cyberpunk 2077 #male v cyberpunk #cyberpunk v #river ward #panam palmer #kerry eurodyne #kerry eurodyne x v #cyberpunk vp #cp2077 #cp2077 vp #cyberpunk virtual photography #my vp #vincent ezaki #my headcanons #low-key dying at river's 'whaaaaa' face XDD I love him so much

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serregon · 5 months

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thinking about an au where Niënor survives her fall and has a hurt/comfort thing with Mablung anyway here’s a bunch of rambling thoughts about a very niche ship

so the narn story doesn’t change much, this is basically just a bit of a sequel where Niënor survives her suicide attempt and Mablung finds her in the river

even though she survived, the river was not kind to her. several broken bones, half concussed from hitting her head, multiple infections from river grime entering open wounds and sores. she survived, but only barely. she wishes she was dead bc she’s in so much pain she can’t even move

not to mention the mental trauma. she just found out that she has been living a life that was not her own for the past three years, in which she was in a relationship with her own brother and got pregnant with an incest baby. she has to process all that while lying in the river half dead from her own suicide attempt. fun

Mablung, after frantically scouring the river for a full day without a minute of rest and almost declaring his efforts to find her vain, finally finds her and pulls her out of the river.

Mabs and his companions take care of her and dress her wounds. it’s a long healing process, she’s been through a lot

Niënor’s in no place mentally or physically to have a baby. it wouldn’t have made it anyway, falling off a cliff and all. elves aren’t very familiar with abortions since they literally can not have unplanned pregnancies, but they have heard of practices among the edain and they find an abortifacient from a Haladin herbalist. no moral hang-ups, they’re just like yeah this is what needs to happen if we want to save her life

when Niënor’s broken bones have healed, she goes out to see the stone bearing her name. it’s surreal to her, she feels like a ghost seeing her own grave. Mablung asks her if he should remove her name, but she wants it to stay as it is, her old self is dead and she’s a new person

Niënor’s thoughts on Túrin are. complicated. she hates him, she loves him, she hates herself for loving him, she will never forgive him, she will never forgive herself for loving him, she’s disgusted by those memories, she wishes she never knew the truth, she never wants to think about him again, she misses him. but mostly she mourns for the life that they could have had together, for the brother she never got to know as a brother

the attraction she felt towards Túrin immediately died upon the sibling reveal, but like she had someone who truly loved and cared for her, she had a pretty sweet domestic life with him for a little while. and she has to reconcile the fact that the relationship that once felt so good was actually this horrible traumatic thing. she hates the fact that a part of her still longs for that relationship

Niënor and Mablung had bit of a prior relationship in Doriath, and they do eventually fall in love with each other again, but between the suicide attempt, an identity crisis, and coming to terms with unfathomable trauma, romance is at the bottom of their list of priorities

it’s a slow process but they fall in love with each other again. Mablung still loved Niënor the whole time, but he’s patient and won’t push her if she’s hesitant to love again after everything that she went through. Niënor falls for Mabs again and for the first time she’s glad she survived her fall

they have sex for the first time—or at least, they try to. the sex triggers a flashback to the incest and Niënor freaks out. once the initial panic dies down she’s all “oh no I’m broken and unlovable :(“ and Mabs reassures her that he loves her and that she can take all the time she needs before they are ready to be intimate again, and it’s ok if she is never ready. and he cuddles with her and tells her how strong she is

they are eventually able to have sex again and it’s very slow and sweet and loving and Niënor starts crying a little and Mablung gets worried but she reassures him that she’s overwhelmed in a good way

I know babies ever after is a tired cliche but hear me out. Niënor wanted to be a mother, and she’s finally able to have a child with a relationship that is actually like, consensual

#narnposting #nienor #mablung #suicide tw #incest tw

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fluffypotatey · 22 days

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*kicks down door*

ANY HEADCANONS AND/OR THOUGHTS ABOUT OUR LADY AND SAVIOR MEI DRAGON!? 👀 👀 👀

i had a whole fucking list. i was on fire. AND THEN MY PAGE REFRESHED AND NOW ITS GONE T^T

let’s do this one more time:

Mei has a complicated relationship with her family

not that she hates them. no she loves them. truly

but sometimes she wishes she did hate them because maybe she’d be able to stomach their disappointment and disapproval better than she currently does

because while her love for them feels unconditional and on instinct, her parents’ feel like an indefinite list of conditions that Mei will never complete perfectly at the expense of their acceptance of how she lives her life

and it’s not like she’s dependent on their approval, but living in a house that acts more like a museum does a lot on a kid’s psyche when all they want to do is roughhouse and stick their hands in the dirt and paint on the walls

so she learned very quick that her definition of herself did not coincide with her parents. though the unsolicited advice and backhanded comments did enough to cement that

and she did her best to tell herself that her worth does not need to rely on her parents’ approval but the self talk didn’t really improve until she moved out

(personal hc that she moved out of the house after high school because of her feeling stifled at home. she lives in a studio apartment probably. somewhere close where she can work on her bike. mostly bc idk the vibes i got from 1x03 was that she only ever visited home when her parents ask her to house sit now. like they’re all avoiding the huge issue and the parents maybe realize that Mei needs her space, so think that asking her to house sit helps keep that distance and gives Mei her agency. idk that’s what i personally gathered)

also her social media fame can be pointed to her posting updates and trio videos of her working on her bike and implementing ways to incorporate her own magic into it

(there are so many trial videos of her trying to find a way to make her magic compatible with the bike. every new trial is Mei being like “ok so THIS time we won’t mess with the engine but what about the wheels :3”

eventually, the trial videos are just her live streaming and you can see a scrawl of comments of unsolicited advice, people being like “Mei’s at it again”, or just bets on the trial’s success)

with her claim to fame, Mei used to to help give her some interest in being selected for races (which she excels at)

she also branches out from just showing her workshopping on her bike. she does gameplays, react videos, and fashion videos

she meets MK at a Monkey Mech tournament

they play against each other in the semi-finals and Mei ends up winning the tournament but the two clicked so well that MK invited her over to Pigsy’s Noodles to celebrate and they have been inseparable since

also, last one:

Mei had admirable the dragon sword king before it ever chose her

it held so much history for her clan. it was held by heroic ancestors that Mei has looked up to since she was little. and she had longed to hold it since the first day her parents showed it to her

and then it chose her. it found her worthy to be the next wielder. it thought she was deserving enough to be someone the clan could depend on to protect them. that her distaste in the sterile walls and floors was not a dealbreaker, or her passion for things on the opposite side of what her parents wanted from her was okay enough

and that all i have rn off the top of my head. i love her <3333

#lmk #lmk mei #asks #lego monkie kid #the keep reading button was always there what you mean?

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graceful-not · 5 months

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Uhh a response to @ccbcrazy 's video on Conya except it got too long and I put too much effort into it to just make it a reblog. So uh. VERY LONG rambling about why my feelings on Conya are complicated that somehow managed to have way too much Jay in it. why does he keep sneaking in here goddamnit.

OKAY SO FIRST OF ALL YEAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!!! THE SILLIES EVER!!!! I love the way you organized the bullet points! Made everything very easy to follow (other than all the times the audio cut out RIP 💀) but. yeah . yeah them. they are sooooo. SO! UAUAUUA.

I agree with most of your points (and relate very very much w/ that bit about being ace and the Love At First Sight trope, though I'm aro and not ace), and ESPECIALLY with how Skybound handled everything (I could say so much about how much I hate despise the way they resolved Jaya in Skybound it's so icky I hate it I hate it I hate it I HATE IT), but I don't really have much to add to them, so I'll here are my random disjointed thoughts that sometimes and sometimes do not align with yours:

at some points, the emphasis on how it's something guilty and forbidden and how she "wants him but she can't have him", to quote that one Cole fangirl. It.. sat weirdly with me? As well as the phrasing of "the narrative wants him to be self-sacrificing", when talking about Cole on one of the slides. It feels weird to phrase it like that, as if the narrative is pushing him into that role rather than it being part of who he is, y'know? And the reason that the "yearning for what you know you can't have" aspect felt strange to me was that Cole putting friendship over his romantic relationships is a VERY significant thing about him for me. He values his friendships and family over any kind of romance, and would rather forfeit a potential romance than lose a friend, even if that friend hurt him. Which felt weird when the rest of the slideshow made it clear that you, like me, enjoy Conya because above all else, Cole loves Nya as a comrade and an equal. As a friend, before and even IF he loves her as anything else, which as you point out, isn't something we can definitively say about the other relationships (especially Jaya. I like it, I really do, and I'd say I think I like it more than Conya? but it's. it's VERY complicated and messy and they aren't really stable like. At All. for a while.)

And that part of Cole resonated with me a lot; the part that's perfectly fine not pursuing Nya because he doesn't NEED that connection like Jay does, because he's satisfied and content with where he is in their relationship now, after they both calm down and he realizes it isn't worth it, because it isn't even something he wants all THAT much. (The larger issue is that Jay was against him spending time with her at ALL, even as friends, because he was being possessive and insecure which is a whole host of other things-)

And actually? Y'know what? I'm gonna talk about Jay for a bit bc I feel like, though you did have a few slides on it and touch on it, you didn't really talk about how Jay is a very fundamental aspect of Conya's dynamic in-canon, as Nya's Yang and Cole's best friend (A title which he bestowes upon himself, I might add.) Jay is... Not Very Secure In His Relationships for the first few seasons. It stems from feeling inferior and weak compared to everyone else, which grows into clinginess and possessiveness for the ones that DO choose him, because he's afraid they'll leave, which in turn pushes them away because he's being Weird About It. He has this habit of... sorting those closest to him into neat little boxes that reassure him (Nya as his girlfriend who loves him and finds him funny and won't leave him and Cole as his best friend who's loyal and supportive and also won't ever leave him, and, as you'll note, he's the one that starts both of these, with asking Nya out and proclaiming Cole as his bestie during Skybound.) And when those people step out of those boxes, the change unsettles him, and he panics and doubles down on his tactics, sometimes even resorting to violence (which makes things worse and pushes them away more and... you get it. it's a whole cycle.) So.. Nya and Cole and their interactions are very defined by What Jay Will Let Them Do, for the first few seasons. What won't set him off, what is Good and Innocent and won't make him insecure. S1-7 Jay would NOT have let the hand nuzzle happen. But I believe S8-15 Jay WOULD. Because he's actually secure in his relationship with Nya and they trust each other, and he trusts Cole, etc. etc.

And I feel like them having an undercurrent of romantic tension kind of spits in the face of that?? I dunno. It makes the intention a little wobbly. I like the idea that it comes from a place of camaraderie, where platonic love can also be deep and intimate and layered, and not just repressed romantic feelings. Because the thought that either of them are just pining and never having that resolved makes me sad for all three of them :(.

But I DO like to think that Cole is a little bit madly in love with all of his friends in different ways (just like me fr..) and Nya's the one he latched onto back in S3 because she's a girl and heteronormativity. Cole has a lot of love in his heart ok and he cares about them very very much 🥹. And he loves and supports them and maybe he wants to kiss some or all of them but he can't do that so he's fine where he is. really he is. he's fine. HES FINE!!! he's okay when she puts a hand on his shoulder and he doesn't know how to express that he loves her so so so much and he missed her but not in the way that Jay loves her, in a different way, but he feels like it's just as important but Jay obviously didn't see it that way and he doesn't know if he does now, and how he loves them all different but so so strongly and how can she and Jay even make it so simple it's so EASY for them to wear the Yin/Yang relationship label it just FITS even though none of those relationships are alike how can the same label work when the love is obviously so different and he doesn't know if Nya even could understand that, understand how much his heart bursts with affection and fondness for her and the others, but she DOES she DOES get how you can love someone so much that there maybe aren't correct words for it, that's why Jay was the one to propose because she was just happy the way they were, and she's happy the way they are now and she's happy the way she and Cole are now except she can't be because they keep getting TORN APART and they can't ever really be happy because they're all always in danger ALL THE TIMe- sorry got carried away aha.

but yeah. And then Jay is there. and i can't let myself think Abt Conya too long because I get really sad about him. bc he's not LIKE THAT. He doesn't Get It like they (and I haha was it clear I am maybe projecting) do. The labels are comforting to him, rather than unneeded or even restricting in the way they could never encompass the full force of the feelings. They're like signifiers that the love is real, is there, is Official, which isn't something the others need because they already take the loving as a fact and a given, and Jay doesn't! He doubts his relationships and needs the reassurance of the labels, to be able to say, definitively, "This is my Yang, which means we love eachother romantically and complete eachother and are missing a piece without eachother and" (do you see where the problem is. The proposal scene was so cute but I think about his little rambly speech a little too much BUDDY WITH ANY OTHER PERSON ITD BE CUTE BUT WITH YOU AND YOUR TRACK RECORD ITS CONCERNING) But that also means that when the "rules" are broken he thinks it means the love is also broken because now the label has been dismantled and that's! NOT TRUE!!! AHH!!!!!!!! I truly think he would be cured if he made out with someone other than Nya (w/ her permission obv) for like ten seconds but he would literally never do that. but it would fix him I know this in my heart if Nya told him to go out and get some bitches he would be cured of All of His Complexes he would experience Enlightenment through the knowledge that he could do that and his relationship with Nya would still be valid and their feelings wouldn't change just because he did it and he would ALSO get to kiss someone about it. Literally win-win. Maybe it could even be Cole. this is how mudshock shippers stay winning.

And THATS always been my biggest issue with Conya. They never know what to do with Jay. Because if he found out Nya doesn't love him and is IN LOVE WITH HIS BEST FRIEND he would literally never recover all of his self worth issues that he overcame down the fucking drain bitch!! because everything bad he thought about himself has been proven true! AND THE REASON HE ACTS LIKE THAT IN THE FIRST FEW SEASONS IS BC THATS EXACTLY WHAT HES TERRIFIED OF HAPPENING!! And because he's so insecure and also has so much amatonormativity entrenched within him because the rules and restrictions reassure him, he's diametrically opposed to Conya! so I can't let myself have a Conya AU without Jay unpacking all of that and being Okay with people experiencing love differently, and then maybe realizing he doesn't have to love so restrictively anymore either, and THEN Conya can be whatever the fuck is going on with them in peace. Or he finds out Nya is in love with Cole and almost loses his shit before they both tell him they are also still in love with him. And he's like "oh thank God wait Cole ur in love with me" and that would fix him. Imagine thinking you're literally the worst and then you pull both Nya AND Cole while actively being kind of a jerk to them. how do you have the self worth issues after that shdbsjdb.

anyway go watch the video 👍

#ninjago #conya #jaya #mudshock #cole brookstone #nya jiang #nya smith #jay walker #the reason i dont talk a lot about Nya's POV is because it would be mostly about Skybound and that wasnt really relevant to anything else I #was talking about here. but i have sooo many thoughts about Nya and skybound and how she views relationships and commitment so.#if people want a part 2 to this weird rambly post??#bruiseshipping #←technically #tldr of this entire post is uhh. Aro Cole real??? Conya QPR real???? idk man #mudshockshipping

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noemitenshi · 6 months

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@marrecarandgi

ok so, the mommy issues: he does have them though i don't think they are sexual in nature (which is also why i don't like to call them 'mommy issues'--- theres always a certain… connotation attached (and on top of that it sounds, to me, like blaming the victim. not saying you're doing it! not at all! Just describing my aversion to that particular phrase as best as i can)).

So what that whole thing boils down to is that he never experienced the love of his parents, that's where it stems from. That's part of why he fixates on Madison so hard. BC already in the first ep of s3, moments after he greets madison, he watches her declare her love for her kids and for travis. "do you love him more than your life?" he asks her and the way he looks at her… like that's such a strange thing to him and at the same time he'd wished someone would love him that much. or like even half as much. hell, he'd take a quarter! It's kinda heartbreaking. He's drawn to such a love and jealous too. Of course he is, he never got it. And then he finds out who her son is she got in such danger for and… is angry at him. Angry that he has such love in his life and just--- treats it with such disrespect (=bc he's a junkie and also bc he clearly ran away from his mom). I think it reminds him of the relationship with his own mom, how HE had such love for her and how she had only disdain for him and for his love. And while he can't hate his mom - i mean i think he does. but he also loves her. feelings for his mom are complicated… but with NICK it's not complicated. He can just hate him. So yeah there's a lot of projecting going on. None of it sexual though, I don't believe so. Explains part of his fixation though. AND THEN on top of her apparent love, she immediately turns around and tries to manipulate him. "My, my son, he's out there, somewhere. Alone. I'm sure if you were lost in the wasteland, your mother would do anything to find you" Definitely he loves the way Madison could play his games (the way she did even as she was disadvantaged, even as she was scared), the way she tried to manipulate him AND also the way she loved, those two things drew him to her. Personally I think he was most taken in by the 'she keeps at it even while she's afraid what he'll do' thing she had going on. Pushing onwards despite. Does it remind him of himself? Most certainly. He loves to draw that out of her, that bravery, that opposition. After all, he likes people pushing back it's attention, it's caring enough to engage with him, not just dismissing him… And I think a third aspect in their relationship is that he also wants her to.. teach him, in a way. Because they're pretty similar - both manipulative and clever, wanting to control all others around them and not afraid to do what needs to be done (in their eyes) - but then! She's got a family that loves her. If she could just teach him how she did that… he could have a shot at that too. At long last he could have that, too! If only she could teach him her secret.

So yes, his family did fuck with his head badly, he's certainly got issues. And it comes out as desperate to make connections, as soaking up attention and affection wherever he gets it, no matter how dangerous it is. He knows full well Madison is playing him but he just can't NOT engage, at least in s3. I'm so fucking happy for him he got over that in s8. How heartbreaking would that have been otherwise… And I think the reason he got over it is because he finally got what he was craving - someone that loves him. Not wanting to use him or someone who merely tolerates him, but honestly, truly loves him. First Serena (I assume) and then definitely Tracy.

Now about the 180 he did wrt killing Madison - honestly that's just bad writing in my opinion and having everything rushed because they wanted to do too much for 12 eps. That's how it felt while watching haha. (Same btw for Tracy suddenly saving Madison what the fuck come on get out of here with this shit omg). Anyway, what I could imagine is going on here: he knows he's fucked (chances of surviving this and actually getting tracy to safety pretty low) so he does what he thinks will most likely ensure Tracy's safety. Getting on the good side of these people (by saving Madison).

It's still a stretch, I know, but makes more sense than 'he saw into her eyes and realized bla bla bla' come on! Orrrr maybe he realized her dying now, without anything she believes in is no punishment for her. She *needs* to believe in the same shit Serena did so it really hurts her when she dies. She'll feel like she's losing out on something, or whatever. Now it seems like she welcomes death. She even said it to him didnt she. Something along the lines that padre will be safe without ppl like them around. She wants to die. So. He saves her. (Just like she didn't kill him when he begged her back in s3. she just sent him into exile). I kinda see this one as the most likely explanation. Also makes sense he wasn't paying attention to Madison, just worried about Tracy. Because that's his number 1 prioority.

---

Now naming Tracy Tracy still has me scratching my head and calling bullshit. Sorry, no in-universe explanation for it, writers were being stupid. Probably thought 'oh this will show he really really cares about family bc he named her after his mom' or whatever.

#troy otto #madison clark #tracy otto #ftwd #ramblings #fear the walking dead

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kobiiioo · 6 months

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hanpunk relationship development (oc x hobie)

fyi this is me rambling about my spidersona and hobie so if you don’t like oc x canon just scroll 🤗

alrightieeeee so i don’t think i’ve ever explained their relationship that well because it’s technically a ship but it’s not at the same time ?? their relationship is so complex and i love how complicated it is because i have a whole buildup in my head of how their relationship develops through time !

this is actually their first meeting and she wasn't supposed to go on a mission but since gwen had emergency back to her universe, lihan decided to go instead for her because gwen helped her the day of her *COUGH* first canon event. so the situation here is that they had to capture an anomaly and she was supposed to go with hobie but he wasn't at HQ at that moment so she decided to go alone first and when she arrived she was already planning in her head what to do and how to capture the anomaly anddd

of course.

that lad just pops outta nowhere to knock the sh*t out of the anomaly almost killing it which WASN'T WHAT HE WAS SUPPOSED TO DO OF COURSE!? and yeah she just start having a crisis since she's already pissed that he didn't came on time and she was still overwhelmed by the death of her brother, trying to grief over his death and this silly dude manages to push her to the edge.

so yeah, i think you can tell that her first impression of hobie wasn't the best.. and she's legit being sarcastic when she says she's going to quit if miguel puts them together again but she's being so fr at the same time 😭 i just LOVE HOW DIFFERENT THEY ARE AWUAAUWUAU (opposites attract each other 😔)

aaaanyway, after that unfortunately for lihan, hobie just continues to interact with her (he tries).

it’d be like whenever he sees her wandering around HQ, doing wtv just minding her business he’d pop outta nowhere and wave at her or say “hi” as if they’ve known each other 4ever and he literally knows she HATES him and it pisses her off (which is exactly the reason why he’s doing this) and she always freaks out even though she sees it coming and simply ignores him as usual. 😀

but it actually gets worse because at first it was just him saying hi to her for few days but after that, whenever he saw her around he’d stop what he’s doing and immediately rushes to her just to mess with her. there’s one time when he started running towards her and she literally thought he was going to jump on her or literally harass her and she started running away bc she got scared (HC but i swear, i bet that when this man runs, his stomps are so damn loud.) so it was a chasing game in the whole HQ LMFAOOO

he simply finds it funny and enjoys seeing her angry and she's definitely done with him and can’t really do anything about it because he’s not specifically being mean towards her so she can’t really blame him either. but they eventually kind of get used to each other's company since they start to go on missions together more often (even though she warned miguel she’d quit if he does that but we ain’t talking about that ! 🤭)

so yeah, later on, she tries to adapt in the Spider-Society, trying to socialize with other spider people and talk with them but her social anxiety kicks in and she’s like “nope 🫡⁉️” and runs away from them.

now she’s on the HQ’s roof just trying to relax and enjoy her evening alone but ofccc it’s him again, as always he pops outta nowhere (it’s his thing literally).

fun fact about them is that this is only their second time seeing each other without the mask which explains why lihan gets so embarrassed because when they first saw each other’s face without the mask, it was in this exact same spot. (omg coincidence)

ngl, when she first saw him she wasn’t intimidated at all bc she only saw him as a unorganized, irresponsible, disrespectful punk. but she got sooo intimidated after seeing his face like she was acting kind of odd and hobie noticed that but he just plays it off bc he finds it even more funny to see her act like this and he enjoys pretending he’s clueless when he actually sees everything.

anw anw anw thanks for reading this long ass really bad paragraphs of hanpunk this is so silly and so corny and so cringe and embarrassing but let me dream about them a little bit because why not guys ?! don’t we all love oc x canon ? 😰😤

#lihanlore #kobiverse #hanpunk #spidersona #oc x canon

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cartyrs · 4 months

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How do you feel as a CielDoll shipper with recent chapters

this just reminded me that a new chapter is out and i just read it and i'm in the brain dimension. throwing this ask under a readmore bc it got long but it basically just sums up my opinions on the series as a whole rn:

my feelings on kuroshit have been complicated the past few years ngl! more than anything i'm very frustrated with how the story's been paced since the twin reveal, and i've found it very hard to stay engaged as a fan with how slow things are progressing. but that's also not what you asked so i won't rant about that LOL

I have very mixed feelings on this current arc - it's what finally got me back into reading bc DOLL! MY FAVORITE CHARACTER EVER! IS HERE AND I WAS RIGHT THAT SHE'D BE RELEVANT AGAIN!!! I'd really, really like it if Doll lives past this arc and is able to confront Ciel again. I think I might actually drop the series entirely if she dies here because it feels very pointless to me after all these years to bring her back if her whole point was just to [207 spoilers]. I'm really interested to see Ciel's reaction to her rebirth, esp if after coming clean about his true identity that he's able to be honest about the guilt he harbors over killing her. (SINCE YANA PUT DOLL AND JOKER IN THE SAME PANEL AS MADAM RED, CIELS PARENTS, AND R!CIEL IN CH 100, OVER 70 CHAPTERS AFTER NOAHS CIRCUS, ID GO CRAZY IF IT DIDNT MEAN ANYTHING)

I've always seen Doll as being one of if not the most significant character into understanding Ciel - his sympathy for her in Noah's Arc shows that despite how emphatic he is that he's forgone his soul, he does still care about people underneath it all. I'm pretty sure Yana's even said that if circumstances had been different (plot wise and also wealth wise), they could have been really good friends. I think Doll as a foil for Ciel reveals a lot about him - the biggest being her double-identity and reveal, as well as her playful, childish side vs. her cold, killing side (which even then, Doll doesn't want to kill - she just has to. I think deep down, Ciel is the same way). Same with Doll discovering Ciel's brand and having that empathetic moment with him over it, they don't go too deeply on it but Doll's backstory prior to living on the street is that she was abused by her parents and they scarred her face. She knows better than anyone else in the story what that permanent mark of abuse means for Ciel, and that's why she's so sorry she accidentally exposed his brand.

I've never shipped Doll/Ciel in a "canon" sense (like it just wouldn't make that much sense post-doll's "death", she despises him for killing her family, and after knowing what the circus did, she's nothing but a child kidnapper to him, criminal scum that's not worth anything). Their dynamic to me is so much about the "what if things had gone differently?" - which I also apply to Ciel's other friendships, particularly with Soma, Lizzy, and Alois (though season 2 is it's whole own discussion LOL). So much of Ciel's characater arc is about how he was willing to throw his own life and soul away thinking he had nothing after his parent's and r!ciel's deaths, as well as his own disgrace, but kuroshitsuji has shown us time and time again that there are people who deeply love and care about ciel, and if things had been different, if he hadn't sold his soul to the literal devil, he could have lived for them. i love Doll for him in this regard, because she's someone who doesn't know what happened to him. I think a big crux to Ciel's relationship with Lizzy (ignoring the incest aspect because of the period accuracy, but also because of the incest aspect I obviously do not ship them in a romantic sense) is that she knows more than most people about what happened to Ciel and his family, and that humiliates him. Pity and vulnerability humiliate him. This is a huge reason why he can't be honest with Lizzy about what happened - he doesn't want her pity, it only makes his reality that much worse. When he meets Doll, she's a stranger. And despite knowing nothing about him, she worms her way in and tries at every angle to befriend him. Also, given that his betrothal to Lizzy was by force (esp with how he steals her actual fiancees identity lol), I think if Ciel had been able to choose his own partner, he might have chosen someone like Doll.

ANYWAY - that's why I'll be really disappointed if they don't reunite at some point. I have some vague hope, since this is the last of the servant's arcs, maybe we'll get back to Ciel soon and Doll will get the confrontation she deserves. I actually really wasn't expecting [207 spoiler], that changes a lot for the character dynamics in this arc. I unfortunately haven't been a huge fan of Doll's actions in this arc, it feels horrifically out of character for me to believe that after her moral values are laid explicitly clear in circus arc (she feels guilty for kidnapping children and doesnt want to do it, but fears her older siblings retribution and fears Kelvin and feels an obligation to keep her family safe above all else), that she'd be willing to both make connections with the children at this orphanage as well as let them be used to keep her body alive... for what? To kill Ciel? Obviously she was brought back by Undertaker, but I doubt that Undertaker's true intentions are to kill Ciel, given how important the Phantomhives are to him (I think he's probably way more after Sebastian, but that's another thing entirely). So, why did Undertaker bring her back at all? Why is it Snake and Finny that find her, and not Ciel? Her personality once Snake and Finny discover the truth too is just all over the place, I don't particularly buy it.

I've felt that Yana's writing has seemed rushed and lazy since the twin reveal, whether it's her shifting her focus onto TWST, or that she's just trying to wrap up the series as fast as she can, while also still attempting to churn out monthly chapters (if you compare recent kuroshit volumes to old ones, old volumes had maybe 4-5 chapters, while new ones fit about 10 chapters at the same pagecount, so it's also waaay shorter chapters each month that don't quite move the story along). It's obvious to me that now that R!Ciel is out of the bag, the servant chapters have been a way for Yana to finally write plotpoints that she's had on the backburner since early on in the series (Meyrin, Bard, and Snake's backstories) - but IMO, terribly integrated. Finnys backstory in witch-arc is still some of my favorite parts of the series - because the arc itself is incredibly written, and Finny being highlighted fit in so well. It feels like with these mini arcs that Yana's just like oh shit what kind of plot should X servant's backstory come up in, and none of the newer plots/characters have felt deserved (i.e. the maids in meyrin/ran mao's story). Same thing goes for the characters in this arc, the children dressed like the phantomhive servants are just so weird and out of place to me. Why is this a thing??? An orphanage dedicated to making children act like ciel and sebastian and others and then sacrificing them as blood for Doll????? Why???? The whole scenario is weak and far-fetched IMO, I would've rather Doll's reentry (as well as Meyrin/Bard/Snakes backstories) been introduced in a more natural way, it genuinely feels like Yana is throwing all her cards on the table to wrap the series up without any loose strings.

SO, I don't have like, a TON of hope for Ciel and Doll's story to be wrapped up in a way I personally find satisfying for their character arcs, I'm vaguely hopeful that they'll at least just meet again, but as you can read I've had very mixed feelings on the direction that the series has taken for years now (servant backstory arc has been going on since MARCH 2019 LMAO..), so I'm sorry that your very simple question turned into a rant HAHA but this is like, the crux of my relationship with Kuroshitsuji atm.

Kuroshit has had its fair share of problems, many of which I'll be the first person to go out of my way to critique. I've been able to rationalize being a fan by touting just how good the manga's story is. Nowadays, really not so sure I can stand by that opinion! However, Doll's also like... is The character of all time for me. I've even been contemplating getting her tattooed lately LOL. So, regardless of the direction the series takes, even if it just absolutely tanks, she'll always remain incredibly special to me, as will Ciel and all the characters I've loved over the years.

#blackbutlerfandomnerddomain #asks #SORRY THIS GOT WAY INTO OTHER OPINIONS BESIDES CIELDOLL but my feelings on cieldoll = my feelings on the state of kuroshit as a whole #i kinda wanna tag this but i dont know what to tag an analytic kuroshitsuji post.#if you also are frustrated by the current arcs feel free to reply with your opinions!#cartyrs.txt

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chirpsythismorning · 1 year

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What makes me not be on board with Will and El being twins and Hopper and Joyce's biological kids theory is that it'd ruin the aspect I love the most about the Hopper-Byers family: found family.

Hop, a divorced man, adopted a girl and found love again with a divorced woman who escaped a toxic relationship and her two sons. It shows that a straight romantic relationship doesn't need to generate descendents to be valid. I also like the idea of an "alpha-male" like Hopper ending up not passing his genes forward and being ok with the idea of not having biological children.

So, I still think it's more probable Will and El being Lonnie's kids. Anyway, I'm looking forward to find out what the writers prepared for us.

I totally get that! And that's how I felt about it too! So no hard feelings at all.

I think for me it sort of got to a point where I had to put aside my feelings and what I had grown comfortable with for so long, based on my interpretation as the series was happening, and how there is evidence going against our assumptions we've had up to this point, going back to the beginning (same applies to byler as well).

I would also argue that found family is equally as epic as estranged family finding their way back to each other in every universe, despite all of the obstacles in their way. Though, not many things are equally as beautiful as found family, so the standards are very high.

I do want to make it clear that I agree completely about the found family side of why the instinct is to sort of not want to consider this.

Found family is beautiful, and I think it's wonderful that more stories these days are working to de-stigmatize our societies idea of what a family even is, because it's not this cookie cutter concept we've all grown to believe it is. Family comes in many forms and it doesn't have to be blood-related.

It just so happens that in this case, there are too many unanswered questions, going back to the very first episode, all tying these characters to each other.

Hopper more than anyone has so much crypticness revolving around his character (he gives off dad deja vu constantly in s1, like it's actually terrifying), and not only that, but David has alluded to unknowns surrounding his character for years. He's talked about how the truth behind Sarah is more complicated than it seems and that she could have connections to the lab. He even went as far as to say that there were easter eggs in s1 that fans wont get until the end, and that it will make the end of the story beautiful. Assuming he was talking about revelations related to his character, it fits very well with a lot of the evidence hiding in the details connecting all of these characters.

This is also a supernatural show dealing with time-fuckery implications and repressed memories going back to s1. Like just rewatch 1x01 by itself and you'll see what I mean. There is a lot of stuff fitting a little too conveniently to not all be connected.

If this was a regular show then of course I would chalk it up as found family bc there obviously couldn't be anything else to it. But it's not and we're dealing with revelations in s5 that have apparently been hiding in the details all along and are beautiful...

I just don't see anything beautiful about revealing Lonnie is their bio dad, when Hopper is right there with heavy hints surrounding him connecting him to Will/El...

You could say that found family is this thing they've been hinting at this whole time and that's all there is to it, but I would argue that we've already got that vibe by the end of s1, and so, where is the beautiful surprise in that revelation happening in s5? Technically found family isn't even a revelation seeing as it's something we subconsciously recognize as being obvious as time goes on. With s5 said to hold answers to questions unanswered since the beginning, while I do think found family is beautiful, I don't think it's the surprise at this point that connects all of these characters.

The good news is, if this theory does play out, they would explain things. It wouldn't just come out out of nowhere, in the sense that there is evidence pointing to it from the beginning (just like byler).

The main thing that makes this theory beautiful to me, is the light that is constantly being associated with Hopper/Will. Like it happens A LOT. One of the most mysterious scenes to this day is the scene in 1x01, of Hopper in the shed with the lights flickering. That has never been explained (nor has Will being able to contact Joyce through the UD been explained) and we all kind of just went along with it back then, but I think it ties into a lot of repetition we're seeing with these characters in reference to light.

Here are just some of my favorites from s1:

This next one is one of my favorites, where we're given Lonnie's priorities after Will's body is found:

And this is Hopper's, in the scene (literal first shot) directly after that scene with Lonnie:

And this:

Is followed by, this:

Same episode. Deer portraits in both Joyce and Hopper's houses as they're freaking out over lights and their kid(s) going missing, while being watched by the lab...

One of the most incriminating though has to be Hoppers' memories of Sarah kicking in at points in moments directly connected to Will:

I'm just going to jump to s4 because this is hilarious to me that this trend carrys out throughout the entire series:

We all joke about Will being Jesus, but idk if it's a joke anymore...

Not saying he is Jesus like literally, we're talking about a show that pulls inspiration from a bajillion different things, but, like... there is definitely some lighting emphasis being applied to Will along with the word Jesus... And the events of s4 happening around easter and this whole resurrection storyline going on with Hopper in s4.

El also has a role in this. The whole time in s1 we're seeing them look for Will, leading to Hopper saying 'What if all this time I've been after the wrong kid?'. How he starts s1 saying that when a kid goes missing 99 times out of 100 they're with a parent or a relative: El and Hopper in s2 just chillin'...

Again, I would agree with you fully if there weren't the supernatural implications at play. If this was just a regular story, I would be eating up the found family storyline like I always do.

However, we're dealing with a show that enjoys hiding the truth in plain sight, and has the capacity to pull this off tremendously, with a lot of the evidence to back it up. If it can do that, why not?

I won't pressure people to believe it if they don't want to! TBH I'm at a point where I'm confident enough in it, like byler, where it's just a matter of waiting for s5 atp to find out for sure. Seeing people's surprise after the fact is going to be more rewarding than convincing them beforehand. So it's like, it is what it is!

It's something that people aren't going to be able to say came out of nowhere, bc pretty much the entire show hints at it along the way. And so same with byler, post s5 anyone can try argue they don't like it for xyz, but it isn't going to take away from the fact that there was in fact evidence pointing to it.

Just going back and looking for stuff to reference in this ask, I found a shit ton more, like... This revelation does seriously make the show rewatch value skyrocket bc you're seeing these characters all be SO close to the truth, yet so far away. Like it is legit beautiful.

#byler #stranger things #twelvegate #willel twins #willel wondertwins #willel literal twins #joyce + hopper = willel twins + jon

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