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#it's about what the problems are and how they handle them
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✯my entry for the @croptopjames fest✯
jegulus | 1.3k | non-canon/magical au
summary:
It was revenge, they say, for a prank they played on the other houses. So if Lupin and Pettigrew got their trousers turn into shorts, and Black got his shirt turn into a crop top, then that means Potter—
“Did you hear what happened?”
“They say it was revenge for a prank on the other houses,”
“Seems like a weird way to take revenge,”
“Someone said it was a new statement for the dress code,”
“Of course those Gryffindors would come up with something like that,”
“Mila from my transfiguration class says someone charmed their clothes to transform into something else whenever they wear it. You know, trousers turn into shorts and—”
“Oh, so that’s why Lupin and Pettigrew were wearing shorts! But why was Black’s shirt cropped? Not that I mind the view but—”
“Maybe the spell worked in pairs? If Lupin and Pettigrew got shorts, and Black’s shirt was cropped, then maybe Potter got—”
But Regulus had heard enough.
He should’ve known something was off the moment he crossed Lupin and Pettigrew earlier that day wearing shorts of all things, but if he was completely honest with himself, his mind was somewhere else and didn’t even think twice about it. But now, after eavesdropping on a conversation of some sixth years, maybe he shouldn’t have been so dismissive.
Entering the Great Hall for lunch, Regulus makes a b-line for his seat at the end of the Slytherin table and starts filling his plate absentmindedly, trying to ignore the sight of his brother at the Gryffindor table, talking animatedly to Lupin and Pettigrew, still in those ridiculous clothes. His mind inevitably going to the person who’s conveniently, not among them.
The thing is, Regulus isn’t capable of thinking of a piece of clothing that would look bad on James Potter.
He has seen the guy practising on the Quidditch pitch for Salazar’s sake. He has had a front row of what James’ body looks like when he leans on his broom, quaffle in hand, gaining some speed over his fellow teammates. He has seen how his forearms look when he grips the handle hard and how his thighs squeeze the rear of the broom when he’s doing a particularly hard move so he doesn’t fall.
So no, he doesn't think there’s a piece of clothing that would look bad on him, he could pull any look, especially a crop top, and that is the problem, isn’t it?
Regulus could feel his cheeks warming at the thought. Oh no this is bad, what he’s going to do if he sees him wearing that? He’s going to make a fool of himself and he can’t afford that. No, Regulus needs to get the fuck out of there if he wants to make it with his dignity intact.
Practically stuffing his face, Regulus tries to be as quick as possible, cursing in his mind at the idiot who hexed James Potter to be stuck with that particular piece of clothing, or lack thereof, more like.
“Let it not be said that we don’t do anything nice for you, Regulus,” a voice comes from behind and Regulus freezes and then groans.
Looking up from his plate, he eyes the pair who has taken the seats in front of him, both looking smug as fuck, “You guys are unbelievable,”
Evan hums in agreement, “Aren’t we just?”
“Wasn’t a compliment,”
Barty tuts disapprovingly, stealing a piece of food from Regulus' plate and popping it in his mouth, “Why Regulus, we thought you would be thrilled by this, can’t believe you’re this ungrateful.”
“Crop tops, really?” He huffs, stabbing whatever is left of his chicken, “And don’t get me started on the shorts.”
“Those were my idea,” Evan mentions.
Regulus doesn’t get it, “Why though?”
“We couldn’t be so obvious and only hex Potter, we had to cover our traces,” Barty says, turning his head slightly to look at the Gryffindor table. “Besides, the others look ridiculous, minus your brother of course, the bastard is fit as fuck.”
“Why though?” Regulus repeats, this time even more aggravated at the notion of Barty ogling his brother.
Evan gives him a pointed look, “You know why,”
Regulus drop his gaze, sniffing lightly. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,”
Barty smirks at him, “You will,”
There’s a sudden ruckus at the entrance. The voices grow loud and you could hear some whistles here and there but what actually catches Regulus’ eyes when he looks up, is the man at the doors.
Something inside him is pleased to notice he was right about James looking good in any piece of clothing, especially something that would show his really fit body. James is looking a little dishevelled, but that only makes him look even prettier. Still enthralled by the sight of James Potter wearing something this sinful, Regulus notices a little too late a voice shouting really close to him, efficiently taking him out of his rivery.
“Looking good, Potter!”
“Barty!” Regulus hisses in embarrassment as James looks in his direction. And oh, the way he smiles at Regulus as soon as their eyes connect.
Regulus is incapable of doing much else under the intensity of that look, he wants to run like he had planned before. He wants to hide, not only from James but from the way he feels when he’s near. Pathetic as it is, the only thing Regulus is capable of doing is following James as he makes his way to the Slytherin table.
Regulus blinks hard at that. Wait, Slytherin table?
Before Regulus can process that, James is already standing right in front of him.
“Rosier, Crouch,” he greets them, still not taking his eyes off Regulus.
“Potter,” Barty nods in his direction. “Nice shirt, does it come in men’s?”
James grin turns sharp, “You don’t want me to answer that, Crouch,”
“Okay, time to go, have a great one!” Evan practically drags Barty aways as the latter cackles like a madman all the way out of the Great Hall.
When his laugh fades, James is still in front of Regulus and Regulus is purposefully looking at anything but his face, so his gaze inevitably fall at the only thing at his eye-level, James’ stomach.
There are beads of sweet running down over that beautiful golden skin and all Regulus wants, is to touch it to see if it’s as soft as it looks. Wondering how it would feel under his teeth.
James clears his throat to catch Regulus' attention. Unnecessary, since he hasn’t lost it the moment he entered the Great Hall.
“So, Regulus,” he starts.
“Yes?” He can see the trail of hair disappearing under the navy trousers. He’s having a hard time not to reach out and touch it.
He’s being so brave about this whole thing, someone should notified his mind-healer.
A beat of silence and then a hand, reaching for his chin and turning his face up, callous fingers against his soft skin. The sight of James’ playful smile makes something inside him melt.
“My eyes are up here, love.”
His cheeks get warmer out of the embarrassment of being caught. Not that he was subtle in the least but still, embarrassing.
James doesn’t seem to mind in the least.
“You’re blushing,” he notices.
Regulus' face is practically red at this point.
“Shut up,” he grumbles and James chuckles.
“No, no, I like it,” he says, voice soft. “Red looks good on you,” and then he proceed to fucking caressing his cheek.
It’s settled then, Regulus is living inside a romantic novel where making a fool out of yourself in front of someone you fancy is necessary and crop tops are a thing.
“What do you want?”
“Just wanting to say hello,” James says, eyes softening. “Hello,”
“Hi,” Regulus says, like an idiot.
“Fancy a Quidditch game with me?”
Regulus frowns. “Right now?”
“Why not?”
“You’re not wearing the proper gear,”
James smirks, “I think I will manage,”
This is a bad idea, a terrible one and Regulus knows it, everyone knows it and yet— “Lead the way then,”
James lets his hand drop from his face, and it takes all of Regulus not to chase the touch, but the feeling of loss is quickly replaced with excitement when he sees James holding his hand up for Regulus to take.
Regulus does, of course he does.
Hand in hand, they make it to the Quidditch pitch.
Together.
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theemporium · 2 days
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blues lagoon, quinn, "you look like hell" "i feel like it" 👉👈 🥸
thank you for requesting!🫶🏽
18. "You look like hell" "I feel like it"
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“You look like hell.”
And honestly, Quinn didn’t doubt it. He felt like hell, so he could only imagine what a state he looked like. He wasn’t even sure why he was here, or what he was doing. All he knew was that his brain shut down a long time ago and his body was moving on pure muscle memory. 
And, apparently, that led him straight to your doorstep.
“I feel like it,” was all he managed to get out. 
Because he did feel like hell. He felt like pure and utter shit and he was at his breaking point. 
It was an honour to be appointed as captain, one that Quinn was eternally grateful for. He knew they didn’t just give them to anyone. He knew that he had earned the right to wear the ‘C’ on his chest. The team wouldn’t have done it otherwise, the boys wouldn’t follow him and look up at him if they didn’t believe in him.
But sometimes—in the deepest parts of his head where he was sure nobody would ever find out—a small part of Quinn wished he said no. 
Because sometimes it was too fucking much to handle. Sometimes, it felt like he was Atlas and the weight of the world was on his shoulders. Sometimes, it meant he had to stand there and take the harsh questions and the rude ones and the ones that cut too deep after a loss. Sometimes, he was just expected to bear it all alone. Sometimes, it felt like he was alone.
Because Quinn is only human and he can only take so much before he breaks. And, as it turns out, the shutout loss earlier that night was his breaking point.
Seeing the other team celebrate goal after goal was bad enough. Seeing the arena half-empty by the final buzzer because the fans had had enough was worse. Getting yelled at and berated and scolded in the locker rooms made him feel like utter shit. And having to deal with the media asking him the stupidest points and painting him out to be the problem with the team was the final straw before Quinn felt his patience crumbling. 
He didn’t say anything to the other boys. He didn’t linger in the locker room like he usually did after losses to comfort his teammates and reassure them, like a captain was meant to do. He didn’t even give them, or anyone, a chance to say anything to him before he slipped out and rushed to his car. 
And then he just fucking drove in utter silence for hours on end. 
He had no destination in mind. He didn’t even care about the rain getting heavier and the wind getting stronger. He just kept driving and driving until his whole body felt numb, until something made the emotions swirling around in his head stop. 
And then, somewhere in the middle of that, he found himself standing in the pouring rain as he knocked on his ex-girlfriend’s door.
The same ex-girlfriend he failed to appreciate. The same ex-girlfriend who broke up with him because he was hardly available in his own relationship. The same ex-girlfriend that he lost when he became captain because he didn’t know how to balance the two. 
The same ex-girlfriend that he was still in love with, months on. 
“I–” He paused, the band around his chest tightening until he was sure his lungs would collapse from the pressure. “I can’t fucking do this.”
“Quinn,” you whispered in a soft voice before you pulled him out of the rain, before you wrapped your arms around him and pulled him into your chest as. Because you knew. Because even after the breakup, you found yourself keeping tabs on Quinn and the team because you couldn’t let go of it all just yet. You couldn’t let go of him. 
“It’s too much,” he rasped, his face pressed into the crook of your neck and, fuck, he missed the smell of your perfume. He missed the way it overwhelmed his senses. He fucking missed you. “They made a mistake. I made a mistake. I shouldn’t have accepted—”
“Quinn,” you said in a firmer voice, pulling back enough so you could lift his head in your hands. “You don’t mean that”
“They look up to me,” Quinn whispered, his voice breaking. “And I can’t do shit. They look at me to support them and I just fucking run out of there like I’m a coward. Like I don’t believe in them. I was fucking stupid for thinking I could do it.” 
You shook your head. “You may be the captain but you’re still a team. You rely on each other. You have to be there for each other. None of them expect you to deal with it all yourself and be okay.”
“I’m letting them down,” he muttered. “The same way I let you down.” 
You let out a shaky breath before you pulled away. “You should go shower before you catch a cold. You’re shivering.”
His heart clenched when you stepped away. “I—”
“I’ll find some clothes for you,” you continued, pretending you didn’t see the way his face crumbled, pretending like your heart didn’t feel the exact same way at his words. “I’m sure I have some of yours lying around somewhere.”
“I’m sorry,” was all Quinn could say in response.
“What’s done is done,” you said with a strained smile. “But for what it’s worth, you are a good captain. Don’t doubt that, Quinn.”
.
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oceanisty · 2 days
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Hello, you can skip if you want.
After reading your anemo boys harem fic I just wanted to ask if you can give us headcanons or another one shots, I just like the way you write them and your writing is great.
P.s. love your writing
Hello! I'm glad that you enjoyed my anemo harem fic! and thank you so much! I'm so happy that you love them <3 I'm currently forcing myself to get outta the writers block cause MY GOODNESS it's draining me. I am SO SORRY that this took TOO LONG cause I'm getting more and more burnt out lately cause I'm gonna enter my senior year of highschool in like a few months (Damn I'm getting old...) Also, 2 blogs in a day? Damn that's a personal record. Anyways, MORE SHORT KINGS! I decided to make a few headcanons for them individually but this is STILL AN ANEMO BOYS HAREM!
Part 1
YOU ARE A TRAVELER IN TEYVAT, BUT YOU ARE NOT THE TRAVELER!
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➼ Venti who would wait for you at the gates of Mondstadt whenever he heard from Aether that he's coming for a visit with you.
➼ Venti who would greet you with his cheerful giggles and tight hugs like he hasn't seen you in AGES! (It was only for a month but it felt like ages for this little man)
➼ Venti who would give you a personal performance, a song he wrote dedicated to you. His precious windblume <3
➼ Venti who would not even try to hide the fact that he is really, literally WHIPPED for you.
"[Name]! Could you do me a favor? A tini tiny one!"
"What would it be?"
"Can I have a kiss?"
"....what?"
"what?"
➼ Venti who demands you to play and braid his hair in any style you want, he will wear for the whole day with a proud grin.
➼ Venti who would go around and tell people that you're his favorite person and his beloved flower, you had to keep reminding people of Mondstadt that you and Venti are not dating whenever you visit.
➼ Just Venti being Venti, very deeply in love with you.
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☆ Xiao who would wait for you at Wangshu Inn, hoping to see you once he got the words that you're coming to Liyue for a visit.
☆ Xiao who would uncharacteristically be worried about how he looks for the first time in decades cause he doesn't want to look different from the last time you saw him.
☆ Xiao who would hand-make jewels using pearls, crystals, pretty rocks, just anything he finds beautiful in the wild to give it to you.
☆ Xiao who tried to hide that he wants to spend time with you but fails miserably.
"[Name]... if you don't mind, would you like to join me to watch the stars again?"
"Didn't you told me that you're mostly busy at night, fighting off demons?"
".......... I sensed earlier that tonight, they wont be much of a problem to handle unlike the usual days. So... I assumed that I could take a break for once in a while."
"That's... very unlike you. But alright!"
☆ Xiao who accidentally called you "Qingxin" once when he was admiring you watching the night sky.
☆ Xiao who would watch over you if you fell asleep, putting some crystalflies on your hair. How dare you being the most beautiful glowing star in his live. It makes him feel weird.
☆ Just Xiao being Xiao, obviously in love with you.
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𖥸 Kazuha who would purposely go to places you would visit on the same day just so he could run into you and join you.
𖥸 Kazuha who would accompany you on your adventures most of the times and didn't even realized it until later on.
𖥸 Kazuha who would collect flowers that would remind him of you and keep it in a special box.
𖥸 Kazuha who would obviously write a poem to you, purposely using fancy words so you would have a hard time understanding what it means.
"That was so beautiful... could you write me another one in this second?"
"Why of course, my dove. Anything for you..."
"By the way, what did it mean?"
"That's for you to figure out <3"
𖥸 Kazuha who would play with your hair anytime, anywhere. Even place some soft kisses. That little blush that appeared on your face makes you look so cute!
𖥸 Kazuha who would be very affectionate to you both in public and private, makes other people wonder if you two are a couple. He doesn't even bother to correct them if they asked.
𖥸 Just Kazuha being Kazuha, hopelessly in love with you.
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༄ Heizou who would immediately look for you once you arrived in Inazuma.
༄ Heizou who would walk beside you with his arm around your shoulder like it's not a problem. Ignore the stares and focus on our mission!
༄ Heizou who would flirt with you 25/8 non-stop, your flustered face is just so adorable!
[insert Heizou leaning close to your face]
"U-Uhm... Heizou?
[insert Heizou holding your chin with his thumb and index finger]
"H-Heizou?!"
"Hm... your eyes are much more beautiful up close."
༄ Heizou who would stare at you with the FONDEST, THE SOFTEST SMILE whenever you're happy or excited. You're just the prettiest person in his eyes.
༄ Heizou who would tickle your tickle spots just to hear those melodic laugh of yours.... and to also annoy the hell out of you.
༄ Just Heizou being Heizou, head over heels in love with you.
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❥ Wanderer who would place his hat on your head whenever it's sunny or rainy.
❥ Wanderer follow you everywhere and anywhere you go in Sumeru because Nahida "told him to" and that he has "nothing better to do" currently.
❥ Wanderer who would make so many excuses, just to engage in a physical contact with you. Your body is just so warm against his, he couldn't help it. He likes the feeling of warmth...
"Uhm... Wanderer?"
"What?"
"Why are you holding me close?"
"This forest is dangerous to travel if alone, bet you'll get lost if I don't keep you close."
"There's literally little to no creatures roaming around this area, the forest rangers said it."
"..."
"..."
"Listen, who knows if-"
❥ Wanderer who would be a clingy little octopus in close doors, our man has no shame to cuddle up to you at night like you're a little plush.
❥ Wanderer who couldn't hide his jealousy if you came to Sumeru accompanied by Aether or Kazuha.
❥ Just Wanderer being Wanderer, totally in love with you.
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✭ Aether who would go around collecting flowers, just so he could have a bouquet ready for you whenever you cross paths.
✭ Aether who would tell you stories about his twin sister, his little secrets, and even hinting some small confessions to see if you caught onto it. You didnt
✭ Aether who would ALWAYS help you with anything in any way, even if you don't need any help, he insisted that he should. Sometimes, his eagerness shows a little too much.
"Hey [Name]! I heard that you've taken a commission from Neuvillette. Let me help you with it?"
"Oh! No need, Aether. He just wants me to deliver a few boxes of important documents for Wrio-"
"Great! Let's go get them!"
"Wait, I didn't agree-"
"It's fine, c'mon! More time to spend with you, the better!"
✭ Aether who would take you to the BEST places in Teyvat to spend time together. Thanks to him being a very active traveler, he knows which places would make your jaw drop.
✭ Aether who would insist on making his teapot your second home, he even made you a room right next to his! He also insisted that he wouldn't mind if you go to his room to sleep with him- wait what?
✭ Just Aether being Aether, extremely in love with you.
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Made by @oceanisty on 27/03/2024.
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seekingflowers · 20 hours
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Future Husband Pick a Card (1-3)
I'm sure you all know how it works! Just relax and let your intuition guide you to choose your pile 🌕. Take what resonates and leave the rest. I am very honest and will not sugar coat what I see. Please don't hesitate to tell me what resonated with you! I welcome all to interact 🤝
Hello everyone! Welcome to my tarot blog. This is my first post ever, and a pick a card reading (1, 2, 3- cards) 🥰😍🥀
Pile 1:
Page of Wands
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- First and foremost, it COULD indicate he's younger- if not, he may seem younger with his demeanor. More than likely, he may have approached you first. He'll be the first you one hear when you walk into a room.
In the beginning stages, this person will feel like a breath of fresh air. They are lively and outgoing. Always inviting you to join them on outings with friends or see and experience new places.
They are very social and ready to be on the go-go go. If you're not, it doesn't matter. They'll go because they're ready. Decisive and quick. However, it may not always be thought out. This person tends to be optimistic and may seem naive, but do not berate them. Sharp and witty, they stand their ground. They do not like to be held back and smothered. They seek fun and spontaneity, keep them on their toes. At times, you may feel like this man flakes out on you because he is so quick to do other things or entertain himself with others. He may forget things easily, such as planned dates or activities, anniversaries, or make sudden changes.
Their curiosity and openess will show you how to appreciate the moment and accept changes. It's okay to experience new things. If something is wrong, they will confront you, and they will expect the same from you. Be open and honest, and communicate with patience. They're not afraid to voice their opinion and say it how they see it. Friends and family love and adore their presence, which brings warmth and laughs all around.
Please remember, we all change with time, and some things may remain, but nothing lasts forever. Take what resonates and leave the rest.
Pile 2:
King of Wands Reversed.
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- He's definitely the one to approach you. Could be someone older or someone in an authority position.
This man may appear aggressive, often displaying signs of frustration or impatience. Can be very controlling and dominant overall. He has natural charisma and a fiery intellect, making it difficult to get a word in with him. Stubborn and hot-headed, he will likely dislike opposing views or opinions. People's views of him are black and white. Few understand him. There could be a problem with respecting those above him or taking consideration from others in general. There are few to maybe none that he cares for, but if he does care, he is fiercely protective over them and will come to their side to defend them. Even blindly.
About action, he's the one to get it done and have a go get it now attitude. Either do it or don't. Prone to impulsiveness and hypocrisy, his actions may bring upon consequences he isn't ready to handle and will break down in a tantrum.
Not afraid to approach others, he is relentless with his pursuits. On the good days, his humor and smiles are a sight to see and hear. Captivating and charming, people are drawn to him or are intimidated by him. His humor isn't everyone's cup of tea. It may be crude.
Highly competitive, spats between him and others are frequent. He hates losing and hates being wrong.
To be with this man, thick skin is needed along with groundedness. With you, he can be very loving, but ill tempered and stubborn.
He's very likely a traditional man who wants a traditional wife and family with him as head of the household. Although earlier in life, he may have had a desire of the opposite for the short term.
Please note that the future is not set in stone. Take what resonates and leave the rest.
Pile 3:
Ace of Cups
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- This man off the bat is an emotionally intuitive man. More likely to be reserved with his words, but expressive with his love and affections. Expressive eyes with intent prying into your soul. He enjoys private moments with you and goes out of his way to get you alone. It may seem unintentional, but it's not. It may be a love at first sight, or rather, when they fall in love- they fall hard.
There could be this feeling of a deep connection between the two of you that feels familiar yet so foreign. However, do not drown with the feeling. Learn to swim with it, or it will create false imaginations of the other person. You open up this person's inner world, and they want to pour into your cup endlessly. Sometimes, feelings can become intense, and a struggle to sort through emotions with each other can be difficult. Therefore, there can be spurts of emotional outbursts. Clear communication is very important with this man.
Being one to love deeply, he can hold a grudge and keep score of what wrong he thinks you've done to him. He might think he loves you more than you love him. This man wants you to be open with your love and reciprocate his feelings with the same intensity. When you are in an emotional frenzy from work or a bad day, he's the one to comfort and feel you. He'd go out of his way to make you feel better. If he can't, he will beat himself up for it. People close to him are few, even if it seems like there is a whole crowd around him. He's the go-to therapist or listener for folks, and it may get to him from time to time, so please allow him some space when needed.
Some days, he may seem hot and cold, but that's just likely because he isn't feeling anything that particular day or hour. Or he is in his head thinking about anything. As all humans do.
Love each other truly and not just love itself. It is easy to get lost in love and forget the person. Take what resonates and leave the rest.
Please remember, take what resonates, and leave the rest. One card does not describe everything about a person, and it is not the end all be all. Nothing is set in stone. People change - we all change.
Once again, please let me know what resonates and tell me what'd you like to see from me. 💫
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damiansgoodgirll · 1 day
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can you please write about rhea x reader where rhea is into women let’s pretend!! and reader is her best friend and she doesn’t know if she’s straight or bisexual because like she’s attracted to women but she can’t understand so she’s very naive and she asks rhea for help? it can be fluff and smut i really don’t care! thank you so much if you do this ❤️❤️
rhea ripley x reader
‼️this is based off on some experiences i had lol, mention of sex, sweet rhea, i need her in my life lol, slow burn? kinda long-ish i guess and smut so stay away kids‼️
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new experiences
“what you mean you don’t know?” rhea asked, sitting on the couch right facing you.
“it means i don’t know!” you kept pacing around and honestly rhea couldn’t handle it anymore.
“it’s a simple question, are you attracted by women the same way you are attracted by men?” she asked, again.
“again, rhea…i don’t know…yes, i guess” you replied.
“okay, let me ask you this…does liv, becky, shayna…i don’t know, beyonce, attract you?” she asked.
“i mean…yes, they’re all attractive women, like damian and finn are handsome men but that doesn’t mean i want to be with them…you know, sexually” you said, avoiding her look.
so this is what it was about.
rhea always knew you were attracted physically both by men and women. she knew, you didn’t. but as far as she can remember you always dated men, you’ve never been with a woman before and she knew this thing was scaring you.
“what is exactly that you don’t know love?” she asked, a little more serious.
“i don’t know if - well - if i like women the same way i like men you know? everytime i see a good looking woman around i wonder what it would feel like dating her you know? like, dating a woman in general because it’s new to me…and i don’t understand, i can’t understand if what i feel is just simple attraction or something more…” you said, giving up and sitting next to her on the couch, facing her “it’s not just about being attracted by them…who wouldn’t be attracted by beyonce?” you joked, making rhea laugh too “but i don’t know if i would like something more the same way i would simply date a man…”
“have you ever tried? have you ever met a woman that your mind, said - fuck , i wanna date her and have sex with her so bad!?” she asked you.
“not really…because i don’t what i’m feeling…it’s all so confusing”
“i know, i’ve been there…and it took time for me too you know…you should start experiencing…meeting new people, meet a woman who can actually help you and have your mind cleared” she said, cringing at her own words.
rhea always had the biggest crush on you but she never said anything, until now at least. she didn’t know what you were feeling and she didn’t want to confuse you but the fact that you just confessed to her that you were “possibly” into women just made it easier for her.
“don’t you think i’m way past my age to experiment? this is something you do when you’re sixteen” you joked.
“absolutely no…i didn’t realise what i liked until i was twenty…it’s never too late love”
“okay…then how would i be able to meet women? how do you do it? gay bars? that would just make me really uncomfortable…i don’t know if…or even what i’m doing…” you asked her desperately.
“gay bars?” she laughed “what kind of shows are you watching?” you looked at her weirdly “yes, gay bars are a thing, and they’re actually very helpful if you just want to have and sex and then never see each other again…it’s not where i would start tho…maybe you can download some meeting app, you know start from there and see where it goes”
“i would love to do that rhea but the problem still remains…i don’t have experience with women! i don’t know where to start or what to do and honestly i don’t see myself opening up to them the same way i’m doing with you right now, i love talking and doing this with you because you’re not judging me and i’ve known you for years and i always knew you wouldn’t judge me for something like this but i don’t know what their intentions are…maybe i should just drop it…” you said, exhausted.
“you shouldn’t drop it…not if it’s making you feel like that, it’s okay and normal to be confused love…” she smiled at you.
“i know that but”
“no buts…you’re confused and i get it, it will take some time maybe for you to get to know you better but i promise you, in the end will be worth it” she said “plus sex with women is more pleasurable than sex with men” she joked, making you blush.
“that’s what i’m talking bout re! how am i supposed to know what it feels like if i never got the chance to experience it?” you said throwing your hands up.
she simply laughed. she didn’t expect you to over react about something like that. being curious? yes, but over reacting? she wasn’t expecting it at all.
“okay…let me ask you this simple question” she said and you nodded “have you ever kissed a girl? like in the past…a friend maybe?”
“never”
“never?”
“no rhea, never…” you said.
“not even as a joke?” she asked again.
“no…that’s probably why i’m also so confused…i told you, i never had any kind of experience…”
“would you like?” she asked.
“to what? kiss a woman?” you sarcastically replied and she nodded.
“kiss me” she smiled and your jaw dropped.
“are you sure?”
“i’m sure…you’re my best friend” how painful it was for her to say that “and since you’ve spent the last hour complaining how you never got to experience that, let me help you”
“won’t this ruin our friendship?” you asked a little worried.
“why would it ruin our friendship? it’s just a kiss…it doesn’t mean anything right?” she said and you nodded.
it means everything to me - she screamed internally.
“okay, you’re right…” you smiled at her as she moved closer to you. her hand gently caressing your cheek making you shiver “don’t be scared” she encouraged you “it’s like you’re kissing a man”
“but it’s not” you whispered “you’re not a man…”
“oh really?” she smirked, making you laugh “hey…if you want to stop or if i’m making you uncomfortable please let me know…it’s the last thing i wanna do” she said and you nodded.
it’s not like she wanted to take advantage of you or the situation - maybe a little - but you’ve been driving her crazy for the past years and now she saw a little hope to have a future with you. she knew she had to play her cards very well otherwise she would fuck up everything and the last thing she wanted to do was to scare you away.
“come closer…” she whispered “it’s okay love” you did as she told and moved closer to her. you were now face to face and having her so close was making you feel things…
“it’s just a kiss” she whispered softly and before you could say something back she laid her lips on yours. it took you a few seconds to reciprocate but you couldn’t deny how good you were feeling. when she felt how positively you were reacting, she deepened the kiss, teasing your lips with her tongue, asking for permission. you definitely didn’t back up. you let her do it, smiling into the kiss. her hands went behind your back, making you come closer to her body while your hands went back into her hair, softly massaging her scalp, making her whimper into your mouth.
you broke the kiss just to catch your breath and in that moment you realised in what kind of weird position you got yourself into.
if it was just a kiss why were you now straddling her lap?
“so?” she asked you, breathing.
“it was good” you smiled.
“yeah? you liked that?”
“yes but…”
“but?”
“i need something” she didn’t even let you finish.
“more?” she smiled.
“more” you nodded.
“do you trust me y/n?” she asked you, making sure you were comfortable.
“i do”
“good…lay on the couch for me beautiful” she said and you did as she told you.
“rhea?”
“mh?”
“are you sure this isn’t going to ruin our friendship? i care too much about you and i don’t want anything to change between us…” you said timidly.
“i promise you, this isn’t changing anything, i’m giving you the experiences you wanted to experience” she smirked and she smiled at you “but if at any point you want me to stop, you need to tell me okay? i don’t want to make you uncomfortable love” you nodded at her words.
she kissed you again, softly, biting your lips and sucking on them, making you shiver. it’s not the first time you’ve been kissed, but it was so different with her that you liked it even more.
“what do you usually like when you’re with men?” she asked softly.
“i-uhm…i don’t - i don’t know…”
“girl” she joked “i need more than that” making you laugh “what do you usually like when you’re having sex with men? there must be something you like the most…”
“i mean…we just have sex…” and in that moment rhea realised how important talking about this was. by the answers you gave her, she understood how you’ve never had this kind of conversations with your previous partners, making her wonder if they even knew what you liked or not. a part of her hated how careless your partners had been with you, they didn’t even take time to learn your body and that was making her mad.
“how does it feel when they first penetrate you?” she asked, your eyes opening to watch her.
“i mean…good? what kind of question is this” you slightly laughed.
“does it hurt? how is your body responding to that?”
“it hurts…but just for a moment, i think it’s normal tho…” you said, not sure of anything.
“yeah, if you’re a virgin…i’m not saying this to make you feel bad but your exes were pretty bad in bed, did they at least took time in getting you wet enough for them?” she couldn’t believe of what she was hearing.
“if they wanted -…”
“if they wanted? i’m so happy you’re single at the moment, please, stay single for a while” she joked again making you chuckle “forget about everything you know…i’m showing you how good sex can actually be” she said and you nodded.
she continued kissing you, not rushing anything. she wanted to take her time with you, making you feel good, showing you how sex was supposed to be. bonus point that you were her crush and she actually wanted to make you her priority.
she slowly began kissing your neck, leaving soft marks and bites. she was observing the way your body was reacting to her, watching if she was making you uncomfortable but when she saw no sign of hesitation, she continued.
“can i remove your top beautiful?” she asked gently and you nodded. she saw you in just your lingerie before but this was a completely different situation. her eyes fell open when she saw the black lacy bra that you were wearing. it was made for you.
she began kissing your breast, leaving marks and bites, making your whole body shiver.
“is it okay if i remove it?” she asked.
“yes” you barely whispered. lucky she was so close to you otherwise she wouldn’t have been able to hear you.
she let your bra fall onto the floor as she slowly teased your nipples, making them hard. she loved the effect she was having on you.
you, on the other hand, were more than confused. you loved everything that she was doing to you, but you realised that maybe you were loving it because it was her who was doing it with you. you always thought she was a beautiful woman but nothing more than that. you’ve never even thought about what it would have been like dating her and having a life with her.
your core pooled at just the idea of what rhea had in mind for you, and, smart as she was, she sensed it.
her soft lips touching and sucking on your nipples, making you moan in pleasure. her tongue traced your soft stomach, prepping it in kisses, making you feel loved.
her hands went to unbutton your pants, tracing them down and discarding them somewhere on the floor.
“rhea?” you softly called her.
“yes?”
“what-what…uhm…how do women do this?” she swore she tried her best not to laugh, not at you but she thought you looked cute when you were curious and, in some ways, innocent “don’t laugh” you scolded her.
“i’m sorry love…see, we have different ways of doing it, i can show you some…” she placed a gentle kiss over your thigh and you nodded.
her hands slowly moved your panties down, her face shocked when she saw how wet you were, and she barely touched you yet. she kept kissing your thighs but you stopped her the moment she was about to kiss your pussy.
“rhea?”
“mh?”
“what…what are you doing?” you whispered. everything was kinda new to you.
“what you mean?” she asked confused.
“i mean…is it normal? like, you know, what you’re about to do…no one ever done it so…i was just wondering” you confessed.
she was shocked.
no one’s ever went down on you and this was making everything even more exciting for her cause she had the opportunity to show you everything new.
“it’s more than normal baby” she reassured you “and i’m so mad that no one ever done this to you…if you were my girl i would spend hours buried in this sweet pussy” she said before gently kissing your clit, making you shiver.
she kept teasing you until you begged her for something more. and she listened to you begging as it was a preyer. she started sucking and licking at your clit, making you arch your back.
silently you were cursing your ex boyfriend for never doing this to you but in some way, you were actually happy that rhea was doing it to you instead.
your moans were filling the room. rhea’s experienced tongue continued the work while her eyes were switching from being close to watch your face.
to her, you were the most beautiful person in the world. especially in that moment.
mouth open, eyes closed, your hands grabbing and holding tightly the pillows on her couch, your legs beginning to shake.
it was pure bliss for you but it was pure bliss for rhea too.
“rhea…i-i think” you couldn’t even speak properly “i’m -…”
“i know princess…i can feel it, just let it go” she whispered against your pussy, making you come right there.
“oh fuck…” you moaned, your legs tightening around her head as you were shaking.
rhea helped you recoveries from your orgasm but didn’t stop there as one of her finger teased your entrance.
before you could say anything she silenced you with a kiss “you taste so sweet baby, you’re like a drug to me…taste yourself on me” and you did as she said. you could taste it on her tongue and it was making you trembling all over again.
“give me another one…” she whispered this time against your neck. her middle finger entering you in a swift move. gently thrusting in and out, her thumb circling your swollen clit. her free hand went to the back of your head, moving you closer to her face, she was making you watch her.
she needed so see how good she was making you feel.
“open your eyes love” she teased “look at me” and so you did.
it was hard keeping your eyes open, specially when she added a second finger inside of you.
“rhea…oh fuck”
“that good uh?” she smirked.
how she wished she could have you naked on her couch every single day.
“please…”
“please what love?”
you don’t know what you were begging her for, you just loved the way she was making you feel and even if it was a little too much, you couldn’t help but ask for more.
“don’t stop…please”
“i don’t plan on doing so…” she smirked keeping her eyes on you. staring at her was making you wetter and you felt you were about to come any second.
“rhea…” you moaned.
your mouth fell open and the your head touching the pillows beneath you. it was a silent scream, your breath sucking it and your eyes squeezing so hard. rhea thought for a moment that she broke you.
she was watching carefully how your body was reacting to the aftermath of your second orgasm. you were shaking and your breath still uneven.
when you opened your eyes again you saw her right in front of you.
“you okay there?”
“more than okay…” you whispered, still catching your breath.
“so…this is just a few ways of how we enjoy sex” she cracked a joke making you laugh.
“there more?”
“many” she whispered against your lips, kissing you softly “but i think it’s enough for today…”
“wait-…”
“is everything okay?” she asked a little worried.
“you didn’t…how can i…?”
she stopped you before you could continue “it’s not about me today, it’s about you. hopefully i’ve helped you a little more with your sexuality, or maybe i’ve confused you a little more…and if you want to learn more on how to please a woman i’ll be happy to help you out” she winked at you “but for today i think it’s enough…you’ve been so good to me, and i thank you so much for trusting me with this”
you took a few minutes to realise just how much care rhea was putting into this. it wasn’t just her helping you out with your sexuality, you realised there was something more. some unspoken words between the two of you. the way she was treating you, with such care and almost…love.
a tear fell from your eyes and rhea noticed too.
“hey…is everything okay?” she worried, thinking that maybe she overstepped too much and made you uneasy.
“yes…” you quickly wiped your tear as you slowly covered yourself with a blanket “it’s just…it’s more than okay…rhea, i can’t help you enough for this”
“you don’t have to-…”
“i have to…because for the first time in my life i’ve felt like someone really cared about me and i loved it…and i know i shouldn’t say this to you because you are my best friend and there’s nothing between us but you really made me feel loved…and i liked it” and in that moment you understood, it was rhea.
it has always been rhea.
the reason you were so comfortable around her, it came naturally. the way she always treated you, making you feel special, in some of her ways. it was her that you wanted, not any woman, but her.
you just didn’t want to admit it to yourself. maybe because you feared her rejection, or maybe because you feared your own rejection of liking women. but it didn’t matter anymore, not when you were feeling like that.
“i really care about you y/n…way more than just a friend” she confessed.
“what?”
“it shocked me that you didn’t realise it before. i’ve never dated other women because the only one i wanted was you” she said, timidly.
“but you’ve been with other women before…”
“nothing lasted tho” she said “not when those women weren’t you…”
“you mean that?”
“i mean everything i said. everything ive done with you tonight…it wasn’t just for a night…i’m here to help you to get to know yourself better, to teach you if you want to learn, i will always be here for you love…we don’t have to rush anything, we can take it slow and see how things go…if you want me” you’ve never seen rhea so vulnerable before and seeing this side of her was making you realise that you didn’t fully know her.
but god how you liked her. how you liked this new side of her, how you liked the protective side of her when you two went out, how she knew how to treat you.
“yes…yes i want this rhea…just…it’s all new for me, can we take things slow?” you hesitated asking her this. she said it wasn’t a problem but you’ve never met someone who was willing to take time in get to fully know you.
“love…come here” she hugged you “i promise you i will be patient with you…i want this new experience to be enjoyable for you, i don’t want to pressure you or anything…i promise you” she kissed you, softly. her hand caressing your cheek.
“okay…” you whispered.
“okay” she smiled against your lips.
maybe, for the first time in your life, you found someone who was really interested in getting to know you better, and you couldn’t believe that the person you were talking about was rhea.
115 notes · View notes
4amvampz · 16 hours
Text
━╋ SHE WAS BORING
✿ umich cheer au part one ⬚͒ㅤㅤㅤ♪
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ⓘ all works for this series can be found on the #wrong time is an inconvenience au tag! ❤︎
fem!reader x mark estapa
mentions of fem!reader x cole sillinger
mentions of mark estapa x fem!oc
faceclaim: jules leblanc
find the series masterlist, here!
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colesillinger
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colesillinger: my girl. ❤️
liked by adamfantilli, bluejacketsnhl, and others
user1: uhh did y/n dye her hair??
↳ yourusername: i very much did not. still very much a brunette. 🙃
↳ user2: wait what? yourusername
user3: i’m so confused
user4: dude did you mean to post this.. cause..
jadewinters: what the fuck??
↳ colesillinger: is there a problem jaden?
jadewinters: watch yourself sillinger.
user5: what is going on??
user6: isn’t y/n back at uni..?
↳ user7: yeah y/n is also NOT A BLONDE.
liked by yourusername
user8: he just openly posted about him cheating.. ok..
user9: y’all act like a man can’t have friends 🤣🤣
↳ user10: they’re kissing, if that’s friends then 💀
user11: interesting.. 🙃
(PINNED) colesillinger: coming at me like i care, she was boring so i traded up 🤷‍♂️
↳ user12: you’re so fucking odd bro
yourusername: good to see where you stand. this definitely could’ve been handled privately; but if this is how you want it, so be it. have a good life, and an amazing nhl career, cole. 🩷
↳ user13: this is actually so upsetting. she’s genuinely too kind to be treated like this.
user14: i thought you guys were end game wtf
adamfantilli: yk i love you dude, but what the fuck is wrong with you bro
↳ user15: even adam knows ts is wrong
this post has been deleted.
yourusername
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yourusername: been a very productive day! 1) got cheated on. 2) went to a hockey game! 3) went to a post hockey party! 4) met some of the team 5) got absolutely shit faced with jadewinters oh! and i took this beautiful picture of dylanduke5
liked by edwards.73, luca.fantilli, and others
(PINNED) yourusername: i have practice tomorrow, and jade let me do this. whatever #goblue 〽️
lhughes_06: i really shouldn’t have left you alone at umich. 💀
↳ yourusername: can’t believe you never introduced me to your team, especially since they’re this fun to be around
↳ lhughes_06: ?? that’s EXACTLY why i didn’t introduce you to them. yourusername
user16: THERES ABSOLUTELY NO WAY
user17: SHE MET THE TEAM?
user18: cheerleader meets hockey players
markestapa: hope to see you again y/n
↳ yourusername: boy i gave you my number
↳ jadewinters: oh did you now 😏 yourusername
lhughes_06: so it’s YOUR fault that y/n met the hockey team. jadewinters
↳ jadewinters: shut up mr nhl
user19: they seem like such a fun group 😭
user20: DUKER 💀
umichcheer: the second slide is correct! (also we’re ignoring the caption.)
↳ yourusername: oh… thanks guys love you
user21: the cheer account being in the comments LMFAO
user22: ETHAN AND MARK
user23: y’all on about the umich guys when y/n is RIGHT THERE HELLO???
liked by yourusername
user24: can’t wait to see more of y/n at the hockey games 🥅🏒〽️
luca.fantilli: OH YEAH
user25: the picture of y/n and jade awe 😭
user26: hope you had fun!
user27: puck bunnie
↳ yourusername: i prefer umich fan but thank you!
↳ user28: LMFOOAOAOOA yourusername
dylanduke5: oh i look dashing!
↳ yourusername: of course you do duker pooker 🥰
edwards.75: me and y/n become bestfriends if anyone is wondering
↳ yourusername: he accidentally drank my drink three times and kept apologizing, + said he’ll be my bestfriend & buy me whatever i want if i forgave him
user29: so many unexpected duos omg
user30: beauty
user31: WHY IS NO ONE TALKING ABOUT THE CAPTION??
↳ user32: SHES SO UNBOTHERED IM CRYING
user33: cole fumbled and she’s living her best life LMFOAOAOA
rutgermcgroarty: no one talk to us we’re doing hot girl shit *hair flip*
↳ yourusername: boy go to BED 😭😭
user34: y/n it’s 3 am. 💀
its 5 am i’m so tired but i wanted to get at least one chapter done since i haven’t really worked on anything recently. find my masterlist, here!!
taglist | @wnderify (comment 2 be added)
also little psa! i love cole, so don’t even start with that please, it’s for the plot guys trust!
85 notes · View notes
emergency-plan · 2 days
Text
DPxDC Idea
I had a little idea an have no time to actually write a fic, so I just wrote a sorta-summary and am posting it like this.
This is inspired by the game Home Safety Hotline and may contain hints to spoilers for that game. It's really clever, I really like it. I recommend you play it if slightly spooky without any "real" horror appeals to you.
Alright, Danny's been Ghost King for a few years and has realized more than just his usual rogues make their way to the living world, and a lot of those ghosts don't stay in Amity. By himself, it'd take forever to track down all those spirits and specters that are out causing mischief. Luckily, not many that escaped his notice are all that powerful and could only cause minor disturbances, just enough to get noticed by the living.
Many people outside Amity don't even recognize the activity as ghosts, so they blame other sources. Scratching in the walls is mistaken as mice, whispers and apparitions are mistaken as hallucinations and carbon monoxide hallucinations, attempted overshadowings mistaken as stokes or migraines. In this day and age, where does everyone turn to when looking for advice or how to solve problems? The internet.
Team Phantom devise a method to try and track down ghosts that are stuck or tormenting the living by building a website meant to look like a help hotline, and with some algorithm trickery make it one of the top options when searching for signs similar to ghost presences. Add some bits and bobs to make it appear as a more normal-looking website on any computer affiliated with government organizations, and you’ve got some protection from the GIW.
Calls start slowly, so the three of them can handle it by themselves. Once more people are calling, they decide to start a call center. They hired some trusted people around Amity and even a few ghosts who want to help. To get around worrying about the ghosts messing with the tech while personally taking a call, they decide to automate the system to record caller’s reports for the employees to listen to, and then send a report back, offering their services to bring the spirit back to the Realms.
It’s been surprisingly lucrative, and Danny hasn’t had to dip into his kingly funds much other than at the start. He still keeps prices low, just enough to not garner suspicions at offering a free service while paying his workers fairly (he doesn’t want to know why some of the ghosts want mortal money). What he’s started having more trouble with is not enough employees to take the calls. Sometimes ghosts lose track of time and don’t show up for their shifts (he doesn’t blame them, time gets weird in the Ghost Zone), and he’s run out of people he trusts who want the job.
Eventually he decides to put out an ad, deciding he’ll slowly trust whoever takes the job with a little more information over time, see how they react, and measure to see if they’re trustworthy.
What he doesn’t think about is how posting it on the website will let more people than just those that live in Amity apply.
Meanwhile, in Gotham, one Cassandra Cain is looking for a job. She doesn’t need the money, B gives her access to way too much, but she wants the experience. She’s at the age she’s heard most kids get a job, and she wants to see what it’s like.
And she quickly found out retail and fast food are NOT for her. She doesn’t think those conditions are fit for anyone, honestly. She’d have to see if she could get Bruce to work on that. But that still leaves her out of a job. She got overwhelmed with a lot of people, so virtual options would probably be best, and something that let her interact with people without having to speak. There weren’t a lot of options out there, and she wasn’t skilled enough with a computer yet to take programming ones.
That’s when she found the listing for the hotline call center. Based in a small Illinois town, but had virtual options, listen to recorded customer calls, diagnose their issue, and send an information packet on potential next steps. It was indirect, could also help her practice her reading, and flexible. It was perfect.
It didn’t take long to hear back after she applied (Danny was freaking out, he didn’t think anyone outside Amity would apply. He’d turn this kid down, but she’d mentioned her difficulties with speaking in her application and SWEETY YOU DONT MENTION STUFF LIKE THAT ON AN APPLICATION. But she said the job would be perfect for her and he just couldn’t…) and she got the job!
Her first day rolls around and she’s given access to the database. A lot has been redacted, but she has descriptions for common problems like mice, carbon monoxide, black mold, etc. she gets her first call recording and carefully reads through the entries before selecting the one that sounds right. She sends it off and waits for the next. The calls come a little too regularly, with too similar intervals between them, so she figures her new employer is testing how well she’s doing (Danny’s giving her previous resolved calls that weren’t anything supernatural. She even got the ants right! He had even gotten that wrong!)
Eventually, her shift ends and she tells her family how well her first day went at dinner. They congratulate her and go on patrol as usual. The next day, things ramp up a little.
She logs into the database at the beginning of her shift and noticed some new entries. She now had access to descriptions of shades, blob ghosts, will o’ wisps, and more minor spirits. She gets a recording reminding her all this info is confidential and that she’s not allowed to share it with anyone. She’s a little confused, but she reads through each just as carefully. The calls come less regularly, so she figures she’s actually connected to the system now (Danny gave her access to the most common ghosts they get calls about and is listening in while he’s handling ghosts to make sure she doesn’t get anything she’s not prepared for).
Her shift ends and over dinner, she mentions that she’s had to diagnose some odd things. They assure her there’s more pests and hazards out there than you’d expect. She doesn’t tell her family about the distraught woman haunted by the Ecto-Echo of her husband’s habit of making her coffee every morning after he passed a few weeks ago. Or the person who had a Shade masquerading as their shadow. Just about one of her caller's cockroach problem.
The next day follows a similar pattern; more entries, slightly more powerful ghosts, reminder that the info she's been given access to is confidential and could get people hurt if it got in the wrong hands, congratulated for her good work, read through carefully and learn signs of each, diagnose calls, before calling it a day (Danny was so proud of her, she'd only confused a blob ghost with a ghost animal once, and it hadn't caused him any trouble when he went to collect them).
She'd used the bat-computer to check up on some of the callers she'd diagnosed, and they seemed to be doing fine. Some had posted about their weird experiences on their social media and how her employer had somehow helped them, but often didn't quite know how (Danny liked to hide his powers, so most of what customers saw was him using ghost tech. When it couldn't be solved with just a quick souping, he had to pull a little ghostly trickery while the customer wasn't watching). She didn't know how her boss was somehow across the world multiple times a day to help clients in different countries, but he seemed to at least be helping people. She started not having any stories she could tell her family at dinner.
At some point, she heard reports that one of the speedsters probably messed with time travel again before clocking into her shift. She had almost all the available entries and had gotten very good at recognizing tricky cases. She answered a recorded call, just like at the beginning of each of her shifts, but this one was a little different. Danny had sent out an announcement to be on the lookout for a specific phenomena that often occurred after shifts in reality, as they were highly dangerous and needed to be dealt with swiftly.
She studied each entry and paused on what she was supposed to keep a careful eye out for. Revenants, corpses that came back to life, often seen shambling around the graveyards they were buried in. Something about that sounded familiar. A section in their entry said the person brought back often had a ghost in the Realms (which she still didn't know what that was) that was in terrible pain from shifts in reality trying to pull them back to their body, but the separation of dimensions preventing them.
Expectedly, she did get a call from someone convinced there was a zombie wandering somewhere along the east coast. She double checked it couldn't be anything else before submitting it and notifying her boss.
Curious, and she knew no one would be in the batcave around this time of day, she brought her laptop with her down to the bat-computer. She found cameras in the area the caller reported, and froze at what she saw. Shambling across an abandoned street was a rotting corpse. It really did look like a zombie. It was covered in dirt, wearing an old-fashioned suit, and had skin sloughing off its bones.
But what Cass could only focus on was how much its movements read that it was in pain. It was suffering in such a horrible way its mindless being didn't even deserve. It was horrible.
Then, there was a flash of green and an area of the cameras were covered in static. The glitched portion somehow read with kindness and pity. It slowly approached the corpse, simple reaching out gently (what was presumably a hand), ignoring the way it lashed out. It suddenly fell, caught and slowly lower to the ground by the strange being she couldn't see. It closed the thing's eyes before carrying it off in the direction the map said a graveyard could be found.
After that, she finished her shift and went to dinner. Her family asked if she was alright, and she only replied it'd been a long day.
She clocked in early the next day and messaged her boss for more information on Revenants. Dinner that night was one of the few times Jason agreed to come by, and if he noticed how she kept glancing at him, he didn't say anything.
A week later, she asked her boss what might happen if a Revenant was exposed to, as it was called in its entry, a "Corrupted Ecto-Spring" ("...an ugly hole in the fabric of reality that connects the world of the living to the Realms. The ectoplasm that leaks through the tear stagnates and festers into toxic pools that kills humans and makes ghosts sick."). Danny requested a video call.
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agoddamn · 3 days
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Tales of Duviri is a storybook written by Euleria Entrati for the purpose of teaching children how to handle the manic flood of emotion that comes with Void exposure.
I pose a question: why does Euleria feel so strongly about this?
Her interactions with her own children are... let's call them wanting, and dialog implies that the negative aspects of their relationship--her denigrating, controlling nature, the distrust, etc--did not begin only after the Infestation brainrot set in.
We also know that she holds her father in extremely high esteem, but Albrecht did not think much of Tales of Duviri (see: him talking about his previous disdain for it in his own Duviri notes). Euleria put resources into writing Tales of Duviri instead of more traditional science, and Albrecht did not think much of it.
So why did Euleria write Tales of Duviri?
Let's rewind a step. Void exposure-induced mania, the whole thing Tales of Duviri is written to help manage.
How was that discovered and studied? It clearly was studied, enough to be a recognized condition and for the Orokin to build the iso vaults and for Euleria to write Tales of Duviri. But who would they have observed this mania in if Void research was an abandoned dead-end line of study?
Perhaps...the man obsessed with the Void who'd survived an unshielded Void dive?
Euleria had patient zero of Void mania sitting at her dinner table. Albrecht is the character who's undoubtedly had the most Void exposure.
Albrecht himself must have exhibited the Void mania and mood swings that Tales of Duviri exists to teach caution of.
And that's why Euleria wrote it; she had this gyroscope of a mood swing at home. She admired Albrecht too much to consciously deride his lack of control as irresponsible and so she channeled her energy into writing Tales of Duviri instead.
The emotion spirals of Duviri are loosely based off of what Euleria witnessed in the Entrati household and particularly Albrecht himself.
I don't believe that any courtier is a 1:1 translation of a member of the Entrati household, but more that their toxic interactions and dramatic heights reflected things that Euleria herself saw--or lived.
This reading of the Duviri characters and story--that they mean things to Euleria specifically--gives us a fun new lens to look at all of the chapters with.
For example, Mathila.
"Two children, and no memory of her husband. Poor Mathila."
Two children like Euleria herself, eh?
Mathila loved her husband. He also textually does not exist. He's not on the screen or in the text. He is a memory, and one that Mathila herself cannot even remember. There is no portrayal of their love.
Pivot to a writer's perspective. You need to write a loving relationship. You look to real life for inspiration, right? If you're a married woman needing to write a married woman in love, you naturally look to your own relationship.
And if you can't find anything to base that love off of? Well...move that character offscreen. Just tell about the loving relationship, don't show. Actually, do you even have anything to tell about? Well. Move the entire loving relationship offscreen, then. She's got amnesia. Nobody needs to talk about the love to sell it or make it feel real now. The narrator can simply mention it as a fact and it need not be challenged. Euleria doesn't have to imagine a loving family life between a husband and wife and their two children and question why that's hard for her. There. Problem fucking solved.
Another parallel that fairly started screaming at me once I started considering that the Duviri courtiers had meaning to Euleria specifically: Luscinia.
"I was created to be Sorrow, written into being, to serve as a lesson... can that change?"
Luscinia knows that she is a tool. As much as she dreams of being more, she knows very well that she is a tool--both a literal narrative element to teach a lesson and within the story itself Thrax's servant (his personal songbird).
Is there anyone in Euleria's life who might have some angst over their position as a tool? A servant who wants to escape the limited definitions of their role?
And so... here I am, back to my old role. The diligent servant. Albrecht would have smiled at that, I think.
Loid. It's Loid.
Luscinia: "This structure and I share much. Both of us once useful, both of us discarded, both of us now derelict. Both forgotten." Loid: "How might this relic make himself useful today?"
Both Luscinia and Loid are also capable of surprising amounts of ruthless violence. Luscinia has no hesitation telling you to kill the Dax or otherwise wreak vengeance on her jailers. Loid's Necramech lines feature him ranging from being excited for ensuing violence to coldly promising the Murmur regret.
The Duviri Tales were a subconscious form of therapy for Euleria herself as well, allowing her to write a story where emotional explosions were a problem that must be addressed rather than a social struggle to be suffered through at the whims of the more powerful.
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scoobydoodean · 17 hours
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Actually I'm about to take this little exchange between Dean and Cas and Sam in the opening of 6.03 seriously, because why not? The conversation in the hotel has been an example used by deancrit casgirls for years to sell a story that Dean is always inconsiderate and demanding things of Cas.
Except Dean hadn't asked Cas for anything in a year as far as we know. He hadn't bothered him once. He hadn't asked him for anything. We know Dean was doing research on how to get Sam out of The Cage over the entire gap year (6.01) but we aren't told that Dean asked Cas to help him. As far as we know, he didn't "bother" Cas—much less demand his aid.
For many, that isn't necessarily the issue though. The issue is the lack of communication in of itself—the lack of "checking in". Setting aside that this isn't Dean's sole responsibility in the friendship and that Cas controls the means of communication between them, when Cas left at the end of 5.22, he spoke as if he was going off on his own solo adventure. Bolstered by a second resurrection, he planned to pursue his faith (and he and Dean clashed briefly over faith). Cas was excited by the idea of becoming "the new sheriff in town" up in heaven, and he didn't give the impression that he planned to maintain a relationship with Dean. He flew off without saying goodbye as if it didn't even occur to him that their connection was important and that parting deserved any sort of recognition, and I think that's how Dean received it—that Cas was at the very least, going away for a while and didn't care to be bothered.
At the same time, Cas didn't give the impression that he thought taking charge in heaven would be difficult. When we next see Cas a year later in 6.03, Cas echoes this sentiment, saying, "I expected more from my brothers". He thought he'd have more help from the other angels in creating (non-apocalyptic-leaning) order. To be honest, I don't think Cas or Dean expected Raphael to be a problem for Cas when they parted ways in 5.22. The Raphael that Dean and Cas had met in 5.03 was tired—barely past neutral in the apocalypse. In fact, Raphael didn't seem to actively take a role in making anything with the apocalypse happen. His only role seemed to be to guard The Prophet Chuck. He seemed like he just wanted to be left alone and outright said he didn't want to be in charge anymore.
"[God] ran off and disappeared. [He] left no instructions and a world to run. [...] We're tired. We just want it to be over. We just want...paradise."
I would guess that Raphael's attitude in 5.03 (and the fact that he never actually came after Cas between 5.03 and 5.22 as he threatened) left both Cas and Dean with the belief that Raphael was weak—beaten down by life, and unlikely to be a problem—that if someone came along and said they wanted the keys, he'd just say, "Whatever" and hand them over and ask to be left alone. Even if he'd fought, Cas hoped to organize the angels on his side first according to his reflection in 6.03, and he believed God would be on his side (even the fear of that possibility was enough to scare Zachariah). God brought Cas back to life twice after he was killed by an archangel—once in 5.01, and again in 5.22. This likely bolstered Cas's confidence as well, made him feel he could gain the favor of devout angels, and made Dean believe Cas would be safe.
What's more, the Cas that Dean is familiar with from season 4 to season 5 isn't shy about asking for help. All Cas did all of season 4 was come to Dean asking or telling or demanding Dean do things for the angels. He was never shy about it. He was nosy and lacked any sense that he might be bothering anybody or even intruding on personal space when he came wanting help with something. He was more likely to show up unannounced and threaten and guilt than he was to think he was being a burden or that he had to handle everything on his own (though he was certainly happy to handle certain things on his own when he thought it would be easiest not to consult with anyone in advance). In 5.03, Cas showed up out of the blue asking Dean to be his meatshield against Raphael. In 5.04, Dean had to explain the concept of sleep when Cas wanted to pick Dean up to help him with a search for The Colt. When Cas needed help, Dean helped—practically and sometimes also emotionally. There were no questions about putting Dean at risk—the mission always came first.
So Dean between 5.22 and 6.03 has no reason to believe Cas would not come to him if he was in need—emotionally or practically. He simply assumes Cas is busy in a healthy way—busy governing with his angel buddies—busy with other relationships and his faith.
When Cas arrives in 6.03, it's because, for the first time in a year, Dean prayed to see if Cas had any ideas on their case. It wasn't a big deal—but seemed like it might be up his alley. It wasn't a demanding request. Hell—maybe Dean sees being on a mission for the first time after a year as a good excuse to get in touch. However, he also finds out just now from Sam that Cas had ghosted Sam when Sam was resurrected and prayed over and over. Over an entire year, Cas never took the time to show. Even if they don't consider each other friends, Dean figures Sam is owed a response at some point over the course of a year after sacrificing his life for everybody.
So when Sam and Cas start squabbling about Cas suddenly appearing (it seems at first) just because Dean prayed instead of Sam, Dean picks Sam's side—and when he says, "When Sam calls, you answer", I don't think he's trying to give orders—I think he's trying to quickly end an unproductive squabble between two more-volatile-than-usual parties who are already prone to butt heads by addressing what he thinks is the root of the issue: Cas simply not grasping the basics of communication and human courtesy.
Dean's had to explain that it isn't okay to fly people places without their permission. He's had to explain that humans need time to eat and sleep and can't assist you at a moments notice at any time day or night. He's had to explain personal space. He's had to explain that watching people sleep is creepy. He's had to explain that showing up in people's rooms or bathrooms out of the blue is startling. This is just one more thing he feels he needs to explain based on his assumptions about Cas ghosting Sam—which are also built upon Cas's own claim—that he ghosted Sam for an entire year simply because he didn't have an answer to his question and for no other reason.
Cas then proceeds to make it clear that he didn't come because Dean called, but because of why Dean called. Cas is interested in the staff of Moses. Cas then proceeds to say "I need your help", and Sam and Dean help him instead of holding a grudge or demanding more explanations. As the case progresses, it becomes more and more clear that Cas isn't going to explain anything and he just keeps darting around and doing things like torturing a kid. So Dean finally demands to know exactly what's going on with Cas. Getting Cas to explain is really difficult—Cas doesn't want to. His responses are short and scattered—he doesn't want to take the time—he's still darting around while he talks.
When they finally get the picture that there's Apocalypse 2.0 brewing, Dean asks outright why Cas didn't ever tell them. The implication here is clear when you realize that up to this point, Dean knows Cas as someone who isn't shy about asking for help when he needs it.
Cas admits,
"I was ashamed. I expected more from my brothers."
He's still using Dean while he talks—literally yanking his wrist over to cut Dean's palm open and use his blood for a spell without asking.
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xerith-42 · 3 days
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Why Blaze is MyStreet's Most Failed Character
Blame the big bang discord for this post, I wasn't gonna write it until those fucks encouraged me.
Anyways here's an entire essay about why Blaze is the most wasted character in the entirety of MyStreet and I will literally fight Jessica and Jason Bravura with my bare hands.
To get us started on our harrowing tale of wasted potential and the best improviser Jessica ever hired, we need to go back a little. Back to Phoenix Drop High Season 2. We won't stay here long, I promise, I hate it more than you can possibly know. But the single saving grace of this absolute mess of a season is ya boi, Blaze. Introduced in the 18th episode of the season, airing on April 12, 2017, with the airing of Phoenix Drop High Season 2 Episode 18, Blaze was a character who started his brief tenure series with a bang!
Literally dude showed up and the first thing he ever did on screen as a character in a piece of media we can engage with is throw someone out of a window. We do not know this mans name yet and he's already left a lasting impression. Sure throwing people out of a window is common in werewolf culture, which I don't care what you say that's objectively funny, but it is bold to start a characters entire introduction with that. Blaze comes out of the gate swinging before he's said a single line.
And then after introducing himself he throws a dead bird at Aphmau to show off his hunting skills?? Okay so he's just that fucking weird and overly enthusiastic about things I guess! That's amazing! MyStreet always shines when it just lets it's characters be fucking weird without making a big deal out of it or talking them down for it. Dottie even says that it's romantic which is again just a great showing of Blaze's enthusiasm and lack of what might appear to be common social decorum because of said enthusiasm.
This is all punctuated and brought to a hilarious breaking point when Blaze's final showing of why he should be the new top dog at his school is when the crazy mother fucker rips his shirt off to literally flex about how he's one of the hottest guys in the school. And I'm going to be real with you, given Blaze's later characterization as a himbo, I'm pretty sure he doesn't actually care about this. He just says it because he thinks it'll boost his chances. Blaze is later shown to be a character willing to throw away his reputation for the things he cares about, but he does get a rather sincere moment with Aphmau, even if she's blushing the entire time.
It shows that Blaze is not only physically affectionate, but also weirdly comfortable with his shirt off. Because this is purely objective character analysis I will not be shoving my Blaze is autistic and has sensory problems with things touching his chest propaganda down your throats, but now that I've mentioned it once you won't stop thinking about it when this comes up.
The show admittedly fumbles the bag a little by having Blaze say in his internal monologue that he thinks Aphmau is cute and acts kind of like a tsundere, but this is Jesson writing so there's always bound to be a bit of That Shit. But in spite of that, Blaze is a character who has an instant impression that leaves a lot of room for comedy potential, and just good ol' fashion silliness. And while the werewolf plot of Season 2 is... bad, Blaze and the Werewolf Pups are stand out characters in the sense that their characterization leaves a lot of potential if they're in a different, better written story.
And even if the arc is bad, Blaze still is a quality part of it. His shallow but hilarious initial characterization gets built on in some really solid ways. Namely in how he acts as a force for good in Aphmau's life even if she doesn't realize or give him permission to do it. This entire season is about how the different men in Aphmau's life handle helping her in a crisis, and funnily enough, in a season centered around Aaron literally overthrowing Aphmau's new love interest, Blaze is the one who was consistently doing what was best for Aphmau.
Aaron fumbles the ball more than a few times, Ein is shown to be actively malicious, and Kai gets hate crimed. But Blaze, who's barely even a contender in this ship war, is constantly working to actually make things better while everyone else is pulling Aphmau away from what actively matters about her position. While Ein is manipulating her and Aaron is trying to prove that, Blaze throws caution to the wind and just does what he thinks is best to restore order.
But more important than that end conclusion is his true goal of standing up for Daniel. A wolf it is established he barely knew before this year, that Blaze is willing to throw his reputation and standing in a bull shit hierarchy because he's seeing how this hierarchy is hurting someone who doesn't deserve it. Blaze is the one who is baring his fangs and willing to throw hands when Daniel cowers away from bullies. By the end of the season Blaze has been given adequate screen time to not only show off his fun and maybe a tad out of touch side, but he's been given a real level of sincerity that's tied into the things he's enthusiastic about. He loves being a werewolf, and he extends that love to all the werewolves around him, until they start being dicks to other werewolves who are literally just sitting there.
At the center of Blaze is that inherent goofiness though. He's always cracking jokes, or the joke when he's on screen, and in a series that was originally pitched as a light hearted slice of life comedy in contrast to MCD's general misery, that sort of character is needed to keep the tone. Such is show in episode 22 when Blaze is reading a book on the Scientific Method to just learn more about science, but realizes the book is upside down.
But he actually understood it enough to properly apply the scientific method to this situation?? Iconic. It's played off as a joke of Blaze exploiting a loophole to get out of class, but even that's pretty smart honestly. Blaze may be a dumb ass but he's always willing to cheat an unfair system.
Episode 22 is basically a Blaze centric episode, which I did not expect, but now that I'm rewatching it for this post it might be the reason I love this character so dearly. It's not only the episode where Blaze manages to learn the Scientific Method upside down, but also stands up for Daniel in a really substantial way. Blaze is loud, enthusiastic, and strong, all traits that are celebrated by werewolf culture, and whether he realizes it or not, him just being around Daniel can do a lot to get bullies to back off. Everyone has seen Blaze toss a mother fucker through a window, they do not want to be on the receiving end of that.
He spends the rest of the episode trying to figure out what Ein's deal is when he hears that Ein went behind Aphmau's back on werewolf matters, landing Daniel in this situation. He hears Ein actively plotting against Daniel, but that is normal werewolf behavior. He concludes that he'll keep an eye on Ein. And this through line of "normal werewolf behavior" informs a lot of Blaze's decisions once he comes to the conclusion that Ein sucks and deserves to be undermined. He resorts to letting his actions speak louder than words and goes to violence after realizing that the wolves aren't listening to reason, they're listening to instinct.
He fights fire with fire, and while Aphmau might not approve, it's more effective than her soft rhetoric has been in getting people to be less of jackasses. This eventually lands him in hot water where he steps in for Daniel after Ein tries to get his goons to beat him up, and even if Blaze is fighting in a five v one, he still goes down swinging. And I'll say it, I think it's sweet that he calls Aaron after this happens. While it's clearly meant to be a thing of Blaze calling the last alpha because he's probably the only person who anyone will listen to, there's an important detail I think is easily overlooked.
He has Aaron's number.
He says he got it from the werewolf pups, but that means that Blaze went out of his way to make sure he could contact Aaron. He's the reason that Aaron even realizes Ein is playing all of them. Blaze is the catalyst for his undoing because unlike Aaron who's nearly imprisoned, heartbroken, and been hesitant to act in the plot as a result, Blaze doesn't actually care that much if Aphmau currently likes him because he's more worried about her physical and mental well being than whether she wants to kiss him or someone else.
How many Aphmau love interests can say that?
Can any of them say that?
Blaze can.
Blaze actually consistently shows a level of selflessness that's unfitting of how I've seen some people characterize him. He gives up his real chance to be Alpha because Daniel is so compassionate and earnest and genuinely deserves it. Blaze wants to believe in a future lead by people like Daniel and Aphmau where he might not have to keep fighting people to keep things sane. Blaze constantly gives up his pride, his power, his safety just to make sure that his friends are taken care of, or to effect real change in a school he's about to leave.
It wouldn't be long after Phoenix Drop High Season 2 ended that Blaze would make his debut in the main series My Street in the second episode of Season 5, airing only a few days after the end of Phoenix Drop High Season 2. Just like before he really shows up with a bang, literally throwing himself through the air between Lucinda and Kim just to catch a frisbee because Blaze is the most extra mother fucker ever, and then immediately proceeds to flirt with them. Iconic as ever. Short but sweet.
It's in episode 3 that it's revealed that Blaze and the werewolf pups kept Aaron company during his rehabilitation year. But from the way it's worded it sounds like Blaze was called in before anyone else by Aaron's parents. Based on the way they talked and actively planned together before, I wouldn't be surprised if Blaze was the first person who came to his mind when Aaron thought of a werewolf friend.
I think Aaron reached out to Blaze when he needed it.
And even though I've previously stated that I don't think Aaron's parents initially liked Blaze because by this era he's old enough to fully take on his persona as the cool stoner friend who's also a little insane in the most charming way possible, he has a good impact on Aaron. Aaron likes being around him, and maybe they smoke weed to help Aaron relieve some of the lasting pain when no one's looking.
Regardless of his methods, Blaze does an ultimate good in Aaron's life as a result of being there for him when he needed it. So much so that he was invited out to Starlight and is shown to be one of Aaron's main pillars of support. We are given scarcely little of this actual friendship, which is where the problem lies. While before Blaze was a surprisingly engaging part of an other wise terrible story, at least in season 5 the story is a lot slower and character focused. And Blaze can work in these moments, we saw him have real moments of sincerity before.
He gets some of it, but the issue is that Blaze isn't allowed to be alone anymore. The cast of MyStreet is huge, and Blaze is a character who is making his second major appearance, while some characters in the cast have been present since literally episode one. It's hard to justify giving him solo screen time when he's been in the series for such little time and we barely have enough time for certain significant characters to really have arcs (Lucinda). Most of Blaze's scenes are scenes with at least four other characters on screen, he's never allowed screen time without at least two other werewolf characters attached to him.
I don't object to Blaze hanging out with his friends, or even making new ones though out the season but... Would it kill the writers to let him have a scene with Aaron? Like. A single scene. Where it's just Blaze and Aaron. I mean just Blaze and Aaron without Aphmau there. They've done this before. They did it in the season Blaze showed up in. Just one scene where the two of them get to talk about literally anything would do so much. Even if they talk about Aphmau, it's better than nothing. It would strengthen both of their characters so much to be able to get a scene where they talk to each other not as conspirators who kinda know each other, but as real friends supporting one another.
Show that even though Blaze said Daniel was more compassionate than he was, Blaze still is a compassionate and even empathetic person. Show why Aaron was grateful to have him during his recovery. They have those scenes of Aaron at physical therapy, right? Why not have Blaze take him one time and just show how they interact then? The possibilities with this unrealized idea are endless, and that's genuinely upsetting. Opportunities like this present themselves every time Blaze makes an appearance, they even tease me by giving me scenes where Aaron is alone with a character he has little to no connection with, Maria.
Maria was a foil for Aphmau. And Ein was a foil for Aaron. And Blaze was a foil for Ein. There is no reason for Maria to really have a rapor that matters with Aaron. He doesn't really know her that well, she's clearly a friend by association, and it seems like an odd thing to focus on when Blaze is LITERALLY RIGHT THERE IN THE BACKGROUND OF THIS SCENE.
Why won't they let Blaze talk to Aaron? It's so infuriating. The closest we get is in episode 7 when Blaze attempts to calm down Aaron, but he's shown to be ineffective and it comes down to, of course, Aphmau being the one to talk him down. I swear to Hatsune the writers are making fun of me at this point. They're going "Oooooh you want Blaze to be an actually helpful and supportive figure in Aaron's life soooo bad." AND I DO!
I'm serious when I say the show is teasing me. I've been skimming through Season 5 and only watching the episodes when Blaze is on screen, and so far he has never been in a scene with less than 4 people in it. Never. And even in scenes where he gets to be at least a focal point, he's always limited because he has to share that moment in the spotlight with FOUR OTHER CHARACTERS.
Episode 14 is a great example of this. When the werewolf gang gets told they aren't allowed to eat at a restaurant because they're werewolves, Blaze makes it abundantly obvious that he's put up with this before and really doesn't feel like being hate crimed on his vacation. And he knows that actions speak louder than words and therefore joins Maria in saying they should "teach this establishment a lesson." Personally I think Blaze would've just thrown the manager through a window only to realize it's an outdoor establishment and throw him into the ocean. Which would be objectively funny and deserved because that owner was being cringe and racist.
I love the conversation that happens because it shows the unique way that Aaron sees things from passing as a human for most of his life. This has never happened, but he knows that further acts of violence as a result will only make it happen again. This is a great scene for Aaron. Not really good for Blaze, and the next scene makes him worse. I love the detail that Blaze is an instinctual person more than a planner, but it feels wrong that he doesn't even let Aaron consider planning. I know he wants Aaron to be more spontaneous but he should have more awareness of his friend and his habits and be able to accommodate it, not talk over it.
But it's Jesson, so misunderstanding even their simplest character is par for the course. At least episode 15 gives me Garroth and Blaze talking in the background, and I'm starved for good Blaze content, so I was eating this shit up. The problem with watching MyStreet this way is that Blaze... Just doesn't get a lot of moments... At all. There are some episodes where he doesn't even speak at all, and when he does get to talk in episodes, he gets a few lines in one giant ensemble scene.
I don't object to a show having an ensemble cast, or even a lot of characters with a few central ones, but it really is a detriment to the show that Aaron never gets a scene alone with any werewolf he isn't related to. Nana gets to talk to Blaze when she's having a crisis of her relationship history and experience, but it's just so Blaze can tell her the opposite of what she wants to hear. It's not a scene that feels like it was written for Blaze, because it wasn't. It was written for Nana.
And before some jack ass says it "Blaze is a side character he's not supposed to get a lot of focus" and I'm not asking for a lot. I watched every scene he's in in PDH to prove that it works
BECAUSE IT DID.
Blaze showed up officially in episode 18 out of 30, and he wasn't in every episode after his introduction. But the writers gave him a solid introduction, one good episode that spent most of its run time with him, and really good moments throughout the rest of his time in the series. All I'm asking is that Season 5 at least give me one of those things. Either a good episode where he and his relationship with Aaron is brought into focus, even if it's used as a vector to study Aaron's character, or just more sincere moments for him.
It feels like Blaze is a joke character now when he previously made it very clear he's far more than that.
And then they just forget about him. During the first part of the 3 part finale Blaze is there. He's the one who got everyone to gather at the docks because an mf wants to eat some scrumptious food. But when Aaron sees Ein and starts freaking out, Blaze is literally just not in the scene. At all. Not even as like a throwaway of someone who could've helped but failed, he just is not in the scene at all. It legitimately feels like the writers forgot about him entirely.
Blaze the minute the plot shows up:
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He's there after Garroth gets turned and was apparently at Garroth's bedside trying to calm him down which I will be thinking about. A lot. I'll be thinking about how we deserved to see or at least hear some of it, about how the writers continue to tease me with an interesting scene that involves my favorite little fucker, about how heartbreaking it would have been to see Blaze and Melissa try to calm Garroth only for him to scream in pain and try to push them away only to reveal that Zane and Nana are able to hear the entire ordeal downstairs and Zane is panicking when he hears his brother screaming in pain. Just thinking about what we could've had if the writers actually cared about any of these characters.
And then after that he dies.
I'm not watching any of When Angels Fall because I know what's good for my health. I know what happens in Season 6 Episode 9 and that's all I need to know. It doesn't matter if the writers may have finally given Blaze an emotional scene, it doesn't matter if they finally gave him even a hint of character development, it doesn't matter if he made a connection in a real way. Because no matter what he did the result is the same. No matter what quality the writers might've pulled out of their ass, it would ultimately be in service of one end. From the start of this season these writers knew what they wanted to do. They wanted to up the stakes and add more drama to the show, and they wanted to do it by killing Blaze.
And I think I know why.
This is 100% a limited view, but I was on Aphmau Instagram at the time that this season was airing. And I ran a Blaze fan account. I talked to a lot of MyStreet fans during this time and I was constantly upset and disappointed that people didn't understand Blaze's character, or just didn't appreciate it as much as I do. Most people liked Blaze on a very surface level, or because he was attached to another character they liked. I found very few people who genuinely cared about him as an individual, probably because Blaze stopped getting scenes alone by the end of PDH, and because the Aphmau fandom (at the time) had more of a focus on shipping than character work and quality. Blaze was easily shippable with a number of characters, canonically shipped with Dottie a little, and had enough characterization that people cared about him, but not enough to get a large dedicated fanbase.
He was the perfect one to kill.
Enough people liked him because he was hard to hate, he was stapled onto Aaron's character with little regard for a story of his own, and his death could be eventually inconsequential. And it was! Blaze's method of dying is so bad it makes me physically angry!
I know the whole story for the last few seasons has been all about Forever Potions and turning people against each other, but just mind controlling Blaze and having him die while under mind control is such such a missed opportunity. There's been a disappointing lack of proper Aaron and Blaze friendship content, but they could have made up for it in this scene with just a few tweaks. Just have Blaze not be mind controlled at the end. He can still go on that rant about Aaron being the cause of all the bad that's happened, but then the words start to become... disjointed. Jilted. As if Blaze is struggling to say them because he knows that they're wrong. Aaron's his friend, there's no way he'd say that about him.
Have it break.
Have him look at his friend in a worse state than he's ever been in, and instead of approaching him with intent to harm, it's intent to heal. A final attempt at getting through to Aaron. And like the times before, it doesn't work. Aaron's angrier than ever and he isn't seeing or thinking straight thanks to Ein's bull shit. All he can see is an enemy in his way. Maybe he sees Blaze's eyes but Blaze's green eye is still Emerald Green, even if the control broke for a moment. Whatever reason, Aaron still attacks.
He doesn't realize that Blaze wasn't trying to hurt him until it's too late. Aaron's anger already ruined a friend's life, it already pulled all of them into the hell they're in, and now it's killed one of his best friends.
ONE CHANGE. THAT'S ALL IT TOOK. ONE SINGLE CHANGE TO MAKE BLAZE'S DEATH ACTUALLY MEAN SOMETHING.
Ideally I'd like it Blaze just didn't die at all, least of all before the finale, but if you're going to kill him off unceremoniously at least make it have some emotional weight. You've been neglecting him for an entire season and now you just kill him off? Just like that? Oh he gets to show up in heaven? How nice. Is it a scene where he gets to express regrets, remorse, or even give any insight into his feelings?
Of course it fucking isn't! Are you kidding me, that's not even close to what happens. I said i wouldn't watch When Angels Fall but
I LIED!!
I watched Blaze's death scene and his scene in heaven to make sure I knew well and good how badly they failed to kill off my favorite character! And man, the scene in heaven is just the worst! Blaze does a genuinely kind thing for Aphmau and decides to stay with her when she's alone because he doesn't want her to hurt. He saw how much pain Aaron was in without her. He just wants to fucking help her.
But Aphmau's too self absorbed to realize that and instead goes on a whole rant about how she always needs other people to take care of or protect her and how everyone else would be better off yadda yadda. What she doesn't realize and what Blaze eventually gets to tell her is that people were around her and took care of her because they just wanted to. Because she was nice to be around. And they never expected anything else, and never saw her as a burden.
And that's actually a really nice moment. Sort of. There's two major problems. First, Blaze gets cut off from telling Aphmau this at first because Irene has to go on a whole rant about Aphmau being selfish. And she is right in everything that she says, but it feels weird for Irene, who literally doesn't know her, to be making this judgement. This scene should have been Irene observing a conversation between Blaze and Aphmau were Blaze just tries to make her feel better.
And that would hopefully solve problem number two. Which is that what Blaze says is very genuine and heartfelt, but severely handicapped by the fact that he and Aphmau were only friends for a short period of time in High School, and an equally short period of time within the last few months. What Blaze says about why he likes being around her is true, but it would have a lot more weight if there was a chance for Blaze to have been around her as a friend more.
Fuck it, if you need Blaze to be on screen with at least two other characters, why was there never a scene of Blaze, Aaron and Aphmau just talking? Would a single scene of that fucking killed you? Just one scene would have made their friendships a lot more solid and therefore heartbreaking to lose when it gets torn apart.
Third problem, the scene ends with a focus on Irene. Blaze's words echo in her ears, and remind her of her friends. And I like that idea because I'm an absolute sucker for MCD, but it takes the scene away from the focus. This should be a scene about one of Aphmau's friends encouraging her to not give up even if it all seems lost. At least don't let her death be in vain by saying such awful things about her friends while they may be grieving. But Irene is brought into focus again because the show isn't about Blaze, or Aphmau apparently, I guess her Aphmau Main Character Powers overrides Aphmau's. She has more experience with them.
Blaze and Aphmau's very heartfelt dialogue is brought down by the fact that these two characters lives didn't intersect very directly out of high school. Through the course of Season 5 I never got the idea that Blaze was Aphmau's friend. Not to say they weren't friendly, I think Blaze adored her just as much as he did in high school, but as a viewer I was never shown that they cared particularly for one another. I believe that Blaze sincerely cared about her even after all this time, but that's not because of anything the writers did with him in these seasons. It's just because that's the kind of person Blaze is.
But their friendship not being strong really weakens the scene. This is a scene that I know for a fact worked as intended when I watched it as it was coming out. I was an overemotional mess of a 15 year old who hated how this series was going but kept watching it because it was almost over and I might as well get it done with. It pulled on my heartstrings and they sang and I cried. I cried a lot. This scene made me incredibly emotional, and it still got to me as an adult, but the devil is in the details.
Blaze and his arc might work on the surface. They work if you don't pay that close of attention to it. They work if you care more about the characters he's constantly around more than Blaze. And when I first watched Seasons 5&6, I still had a very deep attachment to a lot of these characters, especially Melissa, who he shares a lot of scenes with. So I felt... satisfied? I would've liked more, but I probably wouldn't have complained about what I got (his death scene not withstanding I always thought that was bad).
My my, how the times have changed.
If it wasn't obvious from the four thousand or so words you just read, Blaze is a rather unique case of these writers failing as writers. A rather unique case where the perfect character to fix a lot of problems with their show practically jumped up in the air waving his arms around and they still brushed past him to focus on a predetermined story he was shoved into. I don't think the writers ever really had a plan for where Blaze would go or what he would do.
A lot of Blaze's best character moments are when he isn't being written by Jesson. The reason I love the minigames so much is because there, Blaze's incredibly talented voice actor Jason Lord is actually really funny and pretty good at improv. Obviously some bits of the mini games are scripted, but a lot of them are just seeing how much voice actors can get into their characters, which he's fantastic at. A lot of Blaze's funniest moments come from this too, which is great when the writers turn him into a comedy character but the characters voice actor is funnier than they both are and is only a funny character when they don't have direct control of him. Lord is able to bring life to a character who may have been lacking it due to the simultaneously focused and unfocused way the series was written.
Blaze is proof of what happens when writers don't bother to develop their characters beyond the outline. The draft notes for PDH Season 2 said "there's going to be a wolf character who tries to become Alpha and instead stands up for Daniel when he's bullied." and then Blaze was born. The writers gave him some characterization as a treat to make the story work better, and then were done with it then and there. We fleshed him out enough, good character, time to put him in season 5 so people stop criticizing us for not giving Aaron enough friends.
But the problem wasn't a lack of quantity in friends, it was a lack of quality. It was a lack of scenes that let Aaron interact with other characters without Aphmau present. It was a lack of characters to point to that were real emotional connections Aaron had that weren't his last minute family or his girlfriend. It was a lack of attention given to the few characters that could've filled that role. Dante almost filled it in season 2, and Aaron and Garroth could have arguably become closer after everything in season 4, but at that point Aaron's entire arc became centered around Aphmau.
It was the fact that Blaze was one of the few people who ever directly reached out to Aaron and then was never given a scene alone again. It was because the writers wrote too many characters, tried to give the series a more direct focus, and then failed to account for the characters that were dragged along even if they didn't necessarily know what to do with them.
So when Season 6 came around and they decided to make the show super serious no really stop laughing, they needed characters to kill off to up the stakes. It's not like Blaze's character was going anywhere. It's not like they had a plan for him. Nothing was really being lost.
It's not like Blaze was one of the most sincere and dedicated characters in the series. It's not like he had one of the biggest potentials in regards to his relationship with Aphmau or Aaron. It's not like there was time spent proving that he could be a solid pillar of support in both of their lives even under dire circumstances. It's not like he was set up that way through individual scenes where he got to talk to each of them on a personal level. That definitely didn't happen.
TLDR: MyStreet peaked at season 2 and they fumbled the bag with the best chance to make it peak even higher and I'm forever bitter about it. Now get out of my house.
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misc-obeyme · 23 hours
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i had a thought, cc, because of the recent event being about sports. when I was in highschool and college after sports (specifically swimming) we would all shower together. there's just 0 shame with a swimmer, we'd be side by side chatting while showering. I've noticed in my life that a lot of people don't really take that well! like I'm okay taking off all my clothes in front of a classmate, casually, without even really thinking about it; swimmers are kind different that way.
I'm kind of giggling trying to imagine any of the brothers who may be showering in the communal and MC just casually sliding up next to them (there's a ton of other spouts but they pick the one RIGHT next to him?) and making conversation. (They're not even TRYING to hide their body.. not showing it off either but-)
Since I don't know them as well as others who have been in the fandom a lot longer than my month and a half, what do you think their reactions might be?
Like who's team freak out, or just mildly uncomfortable, or just as casual as MC? Oh god and who's (NSFW) peeking inappropriately?
- 🐌
Oh well I can tell you right now that Mammon and Levi are both on Team Freak Out and Asmo is on Team Peeking Inappropriately.
I'm assuming this is something where they're all at RAD and in some kinda PE locker room situation lol. There does seem to be a communal bathroom in the House of Lamentation, but it also seems to me like they take turns using it rather than using it all at once? So I'm not sure if it has a communal shower situation. And honestly I don't think the brothers could handle something like that on a regular basis.
Okay so here's what I think would happen with the bros:
Lucifer wouldn't be bothered. I don't think he'd even be mildly uncomfortable. I think he'd be just as casual as MC in this situation. Lucifer has a lot of self confidence so in that, he would be unconcerned. I also don't think he would be overly bothered by MC's nakedness. Now if MC was in a relationship with him, then things might get inappropriate, but only if you were alone with him. He'd be far more bothered by the entire situation if the others were there.
Mammon and Levi would both freak out, but for different reasons. Mammon is so in love with MC, he wouldn't be able to handle seeing them naked. Unless MC is in a relationship with him and then he wouldn't be able to keep his hands to himself, no matter who else was around. Levi, on the other hand, would be so self conscious and embarrassed, he would probably just run away lol.
I see both Satan and Beel being mildly uncomfortable. Like they're not gonna say anything, but they are definitely blushing profusely and trying not to look at MC. Satan would probably be a little more bold if he was in a relationship with MC. Beel probably has a little bit of that sports team camaraderie experience, but it's also a little different because it's MC, you know? I think he would be shy unless MC made a move.
Asmodeus would be so thrilled. He has no problem with nudity, either his or someone else's, and he would be gushing about how beautiful MC is. He might get a little worked up, even. Asmo would be excited, but he would also appreciate that MC was taking care of themselves, you know? Plus he's easy to distract if MC just starts asking him about his shampoo or something.
I think Belphie would be like Lucifer. Unbothered. Might not even notice, actually. Just kinda like oh hey MC. I think he'd only react if MC deliberately teased him or something. He just has that general sense of "can't be bothered" you know? And I don't think it'd be a big deal to him.
Anyway, this is just my opinion of course! Everybody headcanons the characters a little differently! But this is how I think it'd go. I kept this pretty sfw, mostly just implying the potential of other shenanigans. But things could get nsfw very quickly too imo...
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squeakadeeks · 8 hours
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i havent overshared something extremely complicated and personal on here in awhile so its time to fix that
you might recall that after this past summer i've been trying to recover from anorexia. progress has been....ok. i suppose better than nothing but im certainly in the rocky/awkward phase of it now. Thats part of why i've been doing more illustrative art/doll art as opposed to sharing images of myself/things that relate to my appearance like cosplay.
which brings me to the primary thing thats on my mind which that historically, whenever people give accolades or shout out my strengths as a costumer, a majority of the time its on my shilloweete. and sure, i do work a lot with petticoats and padding to make things more dramatic, but fully and genuinely 90% of that is just because of how disproportionately weird my measurements are with respect to my head and skeleton. its not actually a skill, talent, or anything i've put effort into, its just a consequence of anorexia. and its hard because when people draw attention to it, i cant be like "thanks. its because ive been intentionally and resolutely trying to off myself for the past 10 years."
i guess this is something that i shouldn't be picky about, i feel bad getting upset over compliments but i do wish i could be recognized more for my design work, material strategy, and actual craftsmanship over how i look. especially because of the next thing, which is the fact that i get...a not insignificant amount of feedback from people saying they wished they looked like me in a post, or saying that they dont feel like they can cosplay the same characters because of their body.
and at the risk of being controversial, i know that oftentimes the response to statements like that are "COSPLAY IS FOR EVERYONE <3" or a similar sentiment, but this ignores that fact that cosplay is not the same for everyone. because look, there was a brief period in 2016 when i actually was at a healthy weight and my treatment in the cosplay community was like night and day. i dont know what to say when i know that the way we're going to be viewed for doing idential things is going to be significantly different, and i think back to how much praise i get for things that are disordered behavior. If those comments wernt there...would anything else actually fill that void? if that person wasnt giving me a compliment on how much i "actually look like that character", would they have said anything at all?
one of my goals is to eventually get to the point where i can make good on my word and my internal morals and try to challenge those ideas by existing in spite of them, but dawg. i just simply do not have that mental resolve yet. at the very least ive wanted to address it on tiktok and IG where this problem happens the most, but i both dont know how to approach the topic responsibility and if i could handle the upsetting comments, be them well intentioned or otherwise.
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redditreceipts · 1 day
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So this is the answer to an ask that @wild-wombytch has sent me, and I chose to answer it in this format because the original ask contains a link to a post that I'd rather not share, to maintain respectful of OP.
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Thank you, I'm fine! and cool that you like the cat pictures ❤️ I'll make a separate post for you just containing cat pictures
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and thank you so much for saying that! ❤️❤️
yeah, so @wild-wombytch refers to a post that deals with a person who got a tumor from HRT. They have made a post in a mainstream trans subreddit and the people on there got mad at them, because they didn't want to recognise the downsides of HRT:
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So this is just a whole other level. People hating on OP because they got a brain tumor is so despicable. These people can rot in hell
(Also, if you want to use my post to make fun of OP for having a brain tumor, enjoy getting blocked 🥰 I try to make this a welcoming place for people who are transitioning, detransitioning or having problems with their medical transition. If you can't handle that, please fuck off)
The specific kind of tumor this person is talking about, a pituitary brain tumor, is (as stated) probably linked to HRT in trans women. This reminds me of the myriad of posts by trans women talking about galactorrhea. Galactorrhea refers to the spontaneous lactation without having given birth or breastfeeding a baby, which can occur in women and men. And what is the most common cause for Galactorrhea?
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the most common cause of galactorrhea is a benign tumor in your brain. Even though benign tumors are not as dangerous as cancerous tumors, they can still cause severe dysfunction over time, because they can still grow slowly and compress vital areas of the brain. It's definetly not a topic to be joked about.
I was able to find a ton of "I am spontaneously lactating as a trans woman, is this normal"-posts in the span of seconds. Remember: Galactorrhea, a condition that is most commonly caused by a brain tumor. And what are the responses?
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keep in mind: this person probably had not only been lactating, but even had blood in their nipple discarge. Up to a fifth of women who have that sign of discharge have a malignant cause for it - I can't imagine that the prospect for biological males on HRT is much better.
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so yeah, instead of telling them to go see their doctor or anything, they link them to r/AdultBreastfeeding - it's a fetish subreddit for people who have a lactation fetish and want to induce lactation.
I mean, a large amount of the stuff I post here is kinda funny and absurd, but if you get a bit deeper in these online echochambers, it gets really dark real quick. Where did we go from "everyone should live their lives as they wish" to "downplaying brain cancer to own the terfs"? And this doesn't mean that every trans woman should immediately stop their HRT just to prevent that from happening. That's not what I'm saying here. I'm just saying that these people genuinely don't seem to care about anything other than their ideology, and even medical professionals are seen as "lying" and "bigoted", and people with brain tumors are accused of "attacking the trans community". How is this not a cult??
Also, I wish the person who made the original post all the best :) I hope they find people who support them and help them heal
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I know this is an unpopular opinion but I have to be honest I see people already trying to bully korbin online and I have to be honest cyberbullying and our own hateful comments gets us nowhere and it needs to stop. The perk about social media is you can block people or simply not follow them or even filter posts but going out of our way to start being asses is so unnecessary. The girl is 20 we have no idea what all she herself has been through or why she has these views but going on her socials just to to start the bullying is so unnecessary let her teammates and coaches handle it. On top of that if her teammates can keep it professional and she can keep it professional then why do we always have to add to the dumpster fire? Why can’t we just watch the fire burn by itself?
To be clear I knew when she signed to PSG she would be this type of person so I just didn’t follow nor do i comment on her posts or anything of the sort which isn’t hard to do. I don’t even like her her picture and biblical post already were red flags for me i could care less if she likes someone like me or not. Does it suck that she reposts or retweets that stuff? Absolutely but at least she’s showing who she is and not hiding it which I would rather she do than pretend like she’s okay with me. I have known people like her personally and overtime these things handle themselves.
If there is such a problem with her rather than doing cyberbullying and/or spreading more hate on her socials how about we write the coaches and so on. It’s literally the best way to remove her. Most of us will never interact with her in person so what is the point of us becoming hateful and starting up this hate filled speech with someone else that’s hateful does it really get us anywhere? Believe me when I say I didn’t want her at PSG or the USWNT and I want her and her beliefs gone but me being a keyboard warrior with everyone else does nothing but mentally hurt someone else and with everything our generations have been through and interviews I have heard from players I might hate her but I don’t hate her enough to break her and then hear about her kicking the can on the news.
Like i said it’ll probably be an unpopular opinion and I’m sure individuals will say she deserves everything coming her way tenfold but I don’t want to be associated to anything having to do with woso or lgbt if it gets to a point where there’s serious harassment and bullying happening that causes her or some other athletes to break or 🪦.
*** TRIGGER WARNING FOR TALKS OF SELF HARM*****
I agree that bullying her does nothing but stoop to her level. However, using the fact that she is younger as an excuse for her behavior is also something I won't let pass. She has been sharing this stuff up until very recently, she knows what she is sharing, and she knows who she is harming. Being 20 does not excuse bigotry. We don't know the environment she makes within a team and we don't know if her teammates are actually just dandy with playing with her but have to due to this thing called a contact.
You might be ok with her being like this, but many aren't. You mention how you don't want to basically add on to the risk of her hurting herself, but what about the kids and others she is affected by the words she is spewing. At the end of the day she does represent the team many have found safety in and while we all know other players share the same views they have all seemingly been very accepting of queer individuals, having a player so outwardly hostile towards the majority of the fan base is a different level. I don't agree with bullying her to cause her harm but she should face public backlash for shitty opinions.
Mental health is a major issue in athletics, but her opinions that do nothing but harm others and cause others to end their own lives don't get brushed under the rug because people worry she will hurt herself. AGAIN I state forcing someone to stand behind their statements and opinions and forcing someone to see the harm they are doing is not harassment or bullying it is her simply having to live up to the shit she says.
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cadybear420 · 2 days
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Cadybear's Reviews- Murder at Homecoming
Welcome to the thirty-seventh official Cadybear's Reviews! Today I'll be talking about Murder at Homecoming, which I have ranked on the "Platinum Tier" at 9 stars out of a possible 10. My last and only playthrough of this was during September-December 2022.
This is definitely one of the better, if not the best release, of 2022, and it’s easily among my personal faves. 
A MC who is proactive and gets shit done, multiple LIs, highly compelling story. How can I not love that? All three of the LIs are amazing characters– and Tyler especially is just precious. I think he’s the first love interest I have ever adored nearly as much as I’ve adored Aiden. I miss when we had male LIs that are just so babygirl. 
The incorporation of mature topics and queer themes was especially excellent. MTFL, take notes! Because THIS is how you write a teen story that talks about queer sexuality and mature behaviors. Besides maybe BiBound I mean BloodBound, this is probably the first book in Choices where each LI has some degree of confirmed sexuality outside of their LI option status for the MC. 
One thing that’s especially notable is how Tyler will talk about how he used to think he was straight if you romance him as a male or enby MC. I normally don’t mind much when LIs in GOC stories are made with the “playersexual” style of writing, but these sort of little changes are a good show of effort and give Tyler more character.
But of course, it’s not without a handful of problems. 
Like COP (1), the story is incredibly linear and none of the clues or choices really affect your story. Sure, they give you a bit of extra background, but that’s about it. 
The only choices that really have any impact are the stuff related to the queer discussions, Tyler’s romance route, and how the options for how your MC can talk about their queer experience can change based on your MC’s gender and romance choices. Which is still highly praiseworthy, don’t get me wrong, but I’d have loved to see some variation in the other elements of the book too.
And as much as I did enjoy this MC and do consider them one of the more refreshing ones, they were also a bit too rigid and pre-set for me at times. I get that some MCs will need to have pre-set details about them, and to some degree that does apply to this MC, but it was a bit much at times. Like, there was especially no need to give them a default first AND last name. I do like the aspect of MC preferring to go by their middle name, but we still could have been allowed to change their first and last names too, to be honest. 
I found it really hard to feel for the loss of Perdita for this reason; the traumatic event backstory didn’t feel as well established, compared to that of ILITW and ACOR MCs. Though to be fair, I do remember there being a handful of premium scenes to see a memory with Perdita, and I do remember skipping all but two of them. 
But even then, I never felt she had quite as much importance as the writers clearly wanted her to have? Outside of being a motivator for MC to solve Gabbie’s case and allowing MC to connect with Donovan better. Maybe my opinion on this might change after I give it a replay, though. 
That being said, I’m actually fine with the story not telling us what really happened to Perdita, as much as I’d have loved a continuation for this book. MC not knowing what happened to Perdita is what motivated them to solve Gabbie’s case, and in that regard, the two cases kind of juxtapose one another. Whereas MC is able to get closure for Gabbie’s case, they don’t do that for Perdita’s case. And that’s fine, because sometimes we don’t always get closure for these kinds of things. 
That makes the ending a little more nuanced in my opinion. Sometimes, we don’t always get closure for these kinds of things. While I’m still mixed on how well the story integrated Perdita, this message was handled decently and didn’t feel like it was in bad spirit. 
So if there were a continuation for this story, I wouldn’t mind it being centered around MC finding Perdita, motivated to work on that case more actively after their success with Gabbie’s case. But rather than having them solve the case, it can mostly center around them struggling between whether they should keep up that search, or leave it as a cold case and move on. 
Overall, definitely a higher-tier and very respectable story that definitely deserves a replay. 
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Lessons from "The Spider Within"
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When we bottle up our emotions or ignore them, they intensify and get worse. This is the main lesson of the short and I'm so happy to see how well it's handled. Hiding emotions or masking them is not healthy and will often make them worse.
Talk to someone you trust when you're struggling AND it doesn't have to be a big deal. Miles's relationship with his dad is incredible. Jeff loves his son and spends quality time with him on a regular basis (scary movie night!). He knows when something's up with Miles and asks if he's ok, but also gives Miles the space he asks for initially. Later, when Miles approaches him, Jeff takes the time to walk and talk. He listens and doesn't immediately offer to fix Miles's problems or tell Miles how to fix it. What's key for me here is that it's not a big deal when Miles asks if they can grab some air. Miles knows he can talk to his dad about what he's going through casually. That healthy communication is already established.
Everyone is going through something. Mental health struggles can happen to anyone at anytime from anything. Being Spider-Man is a heavy mantle to bear and Miles is a teenager trying to get through high-intensity school at the same time. He's got difficult homework and girls—well, one girl—on his mind. He knows all too well the phrase "With great power comes great responsibility." He has great expectations to meet and he feels like he's failing.
Just because a battle isn't physical doesn't make it any less terrifying, difficult, or hard to go though. People experience mental health challenges in various ways. For Miles, he experiences vivid nightmares with sleep paralysis, potentially hallucinations as well. He has a panic attack. Some people experience this, others don't. Regardless, the struggle against mental health challenges is real and hard.
When you struggle, you are no less of a hero than when you didn't. Miles Morales is Spider-Man. He has mental health challenges. He is a hero. All of these statements are true and not conditional upon one another. The same is true for each of us. We do not lose our inherent value when we struggle with our mental health.
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