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#my executive functioning is non-existent at the moment
ot3 · 1 year
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What Is ORV?
The number one question I get asked on this blog, now answered better than ever. Today I am going to formally introduce you to Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint
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To start off this recommendation: ORV might very well be my favorite thing I've read. Ever. If I could only reread one thing for the rest of my life it'd be this webnovel.
My elevator pitch is this: something with the cosmic-scale goofy video game nonsense and intricate setting comparable to Homestuck in its prime, paired with the deft emotional poignancy and emotionally-driven fights of Mob Psycho 100, topped off with the sort of compassionate and heartwrenching metanarrative of Undertale.
ORV is a love letter to it's own readers. ORV revels in the joy of losing yourself in fiction, even when it's the kind of fiction that tends to be considered lowbrow or worthless. It's something that dances the delicate line between recognizing the difficult nature of using media as escapism without condemning it. I've rarely seen anything else that accomplishes everything it sets out to do in its narrative with such remarkable precision. Frankly if you're reading a tumblr media recommendation post in 2023, I can almost guarantee ORV has the kind of meat you're looking for in a narrative, whatever that may be.
The story follow the antics of protagonist Kim Dokja, a 28 year old office worker on an expiring contract, whose only real joy in life is reading his favorite massively long and massively boring webnovel. One day, the novel’s events - worldwide deathmatches aired for the entertainment of mysterious higher beings called ‘constellations’ - begin playing out in reality in a sort of reverse-isekai. Kim Dokja, the only longterm reader of this webnovel, finds himself uniquely poised to succeed based on the advantages given to him by his knowledge of future events, but the webnovel’s actual protagonist, Yoo Jonghyuk, is a violent monster who will stop at absolutely nothing to complete his goals, no matter the cost to anyone else. Kim Dokja finds himself in a delicate dance of guiding the events of the story to play out more favorably than the version he read while trying to avoid being massacred in the fallout, all while trying to see it through to the story’s end. 
Below the cut I'll go into a more in-depth (but non-spoilery) explanation of what exactly makes ORV so unique and worthwhile, and what you're in for if you choose to read it.
Clocking in at 550 chapters, and over 1.3 million words in English, ORV may seem incredibly daunting to dip your toes into, but I assure you it's worth every moment. I would read 1.3 million more words if they had them for me. Here are some things about ORV I consider to be selling points, not necessarily in any particular order:
The tone. Its funny, for starters. It is extremely funny, which is very high up on my media priority list. In ORV, there will be incredibly grim things that make you laugh, and incredibly cringe and silly anime bullshit that will hurt you as heavily as any other media you’ve seen. I always love this kind of tonal whiplash when it's well executed, and ORV probably executes it better than anything else I've seen to date.
It’s got fun and fascinating worldbuilding mechanics. the core concept being ‘reality now operates on the rules of a shitty novel’ means that the worldbuilding doesn’t have to function logically, it functions thematically. It’s explicitly stated in ORV canon that some of the internal rules governing this new reality are objectively really stupid and illogical, but they just have to roll with it because that’s what was in the book, and i think it’s a really enjoyable way to do it. This may at first sound like a copout to excuse bad worldbuilding, but I promise it isn’t. The worldbuilding is actually incredibly deeply thought out, but it doesn’t exist for the sake of rational function, it exists for the sake of furthering orv’s thematic arcs. The rules by which this universe operate do a magnificent job of strengthening the core concepts the authors are exploring.
It plays with the trappings of isekai/litrpg in a really thoughtful way. These are genres I'm not super familiar with, so I can't comment on this point too heavily, but with my limited knowledge ORV feels a lot less of a deconstruction of it's genre and more of a celebration/interrogation of it. Despite that, it's still accessible to readers such as myself who are not super familiar with these genre conventions.
It deals with morality in a really wonderful and nuanced way. there are almost no characters in ORV’s extremely large cast who are just explicitly morally condemnable, and almost every conflict allows you to understand exactly why the antagonists believe they’re in the right by opposing the actions of our protagonists. The central conflicts are never pure right and pure wrong; they’re always about contrasting goals, conflicting worldviews, and different priorities between ends and means. this makes the conflicts all feel so much more dynamic and engaging than those where the only stakes are physical harm.
The characters interpersonal relationships are some of the most interesting I've ever seen. ORV is very slow burn and it takes a long time for a lot of these to come out of the woodwork, by design, but by god once they do they fucking hit. Similar to the plot conflicts, the interpersonal conflicts also almost never occur where there’s one side clearly in the wrong. The characters are almost all genuinely attempting to do their best by each other, and the tension comes from the ways in which human communication is fundamentally imperfect and part of our feelings and intentions get lost in translation. it’s very heartwrenching and heartwarming to see unfold, in equal measure.
Following from that, it’s a narrative that really meaningfully prioritizes non-romantic relationships over romantic ones as the central focus. Orv is about love, but not about romance. Obviously there’s shipbait and the ot3 is real and good and my friend but if you’re looking for deep complex platonic, (found or otherwise) familial, and antagonistic relationships that never get ruined with forced romantic arcs, we got em baby!
The pacing is unlike anything i’ve ever seen before. from a purely technical standpoint, it is genuinely a fascinating case study in how to execute a narrative that is almost constantly escalating without exception. there is very little downtime or breathing room in orv, which is insane for something that clocks in at over a million words, and somehow, it still works. i’ve never felt more like a frog in a pot of slowly boiling water than i did when i was reading orv and i can’t believe they pulled it off. it’s so interesting to read something like that.
It is a tragedy without resorting to cynicism and a very adult narrative that’s really steeped in childlike wonder. I’m a big fan of cartoons made for children. Cartoons made for children are some of my favorite things to watch, but of course children’s media will always be simplified and not very relatable to an adult audience. ORV is very much a serious and heavy adult narrative, and a deeply tragic one at that, but it never delves into torture porn. It’s a very compassionate piece of media overall, that holds a lot of reverence and sympathy for the ‘naive’ optimism of children that gets stripped down over time. if you, like me, feel more like a grown up child than an adult some days, I think it’ll hit for you.
It is extremely cathartic and meaningful. I am not exaggerating at all when I say that reading it gave me the closest thing I have ever felt to any sort of spiritual breakthrough. It helped unfuck my head a ton during some very grim times and i think the perspective it offers on the value of human life and our relationship to storytelling is a really really good one.
And if my word isn't enough, here's some reviews from satisfied customers. With that, I'll leave the rest to you, and hope you one day reach the end of the story.
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forabeatofadrum · 11 months
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Do you have zimbits fic recs? I’ve never really gotten into Check Please fic, but I just got Madison in the mail and now I wanna read more zimbits but don’t know where to start!
YOU GOT MADISON?????? ASAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGHHHHHHH!!! My order hasn't been shipped yet so no spoilers, but you ask and you shall receive. It got long, so I am putting it under a cut in no particular order. ALSO the new Tumblr post maker is absolutely fucking terrible and it took so long to format this because of it. The whole idea of creating "blocks" in posts is stupid and it doesn't function well ANYWAY FIC TIME.
Set Your Old Heart Free by IBoatedHere
Jack doesn’t find Bitty after graduation. They don’t kiss. Jack doesn't go to Madison for the 4th. They still fall in love.
It's a simple premise, but so well executed. I uhhh always cry at the end and I love to read Jack's thoughts.
when it’s over (you’re the start) by @whoacanada
Jack goes to sleep in Providence next to his boyfriend and wakes up in Montréal to discover he's been in a coma since 2009. Refusing to believe Samwell, Bitty, and the Falconers were all a dream, Jack tracks down the real Shitty, Lardo, Ransom, and Holster to find they’ve shared the same group hallucination for years. Now, they’re on a mission to find Bitty, the love of Jack’s non-existent life, and the only member of SMH they can’t seem to get in contact with.
What it says on the tin. It is a "what if" story and it is great.
i'll see you with your laughter lines by the_one_that_fell
Eric Bittle was fourteen when his soulmate died.
They'd never even gotten to meet.
This is a great story, but heed the warnings. It's an interesting spin on the soulmate trope, because yeah, you can argue that Jack died when he overdosed, even if it was just for a small moment.
like a handprint on my heart by the_one_that_fell
"Dude, we've got an over-competitive golf dad, a badass art freak, a pre-med lax bro on the verge of a breakdown, a chronically naked rugby player, a beat-boxing giant, and an itty-bitty, baking figure skater - there's no way we came together accidentally. This was fate."
"Or it's the normal progression of human beings making friends. Chill out, bro."
(Or, the one where no one plays hockey, but it still manages to bring them all together.)
I have so much to say about this story. SO MUCH. It once gave me a breakdown when I was feeling super lonely, cause the fic is about friendship. Zimbits is just a part of it, though. Everyone gets a moment to shine and it's so good.
don't you look charming (here in the eye of a hurricane) by @whoacanada
In 2009, Jack Zimmermann doesn't just walk away from his future, he packs a bag and runs.
ANGST ANGST ANGST!! This fic captivated me so much. I don't know what else to say!!!
My Words on Your Skin by There_Once_Was_A_Girl
Jack and Bitty have a unique soul connection, they can write back and forth to each other by writing on their own skin. They know each other long before they've ever met. But when Jack overdoses Bitty thinks he's lost the love of his life forever.
Just like the other soulmate AU fic above, this takes the soulmate idea and runs with it. What do you do when you believe the other is dead?
you’ve got my number by ambrosius
It’s not as if Jack was totally inept when it came to technology. He could handle his Tweeter (Tweety? Twits? Twitter? Did it really matter?) just fine and if he’s honest, he much preferred texting to calling most days. So when he gets added to a group chat full of strangers, well, he’s pretty sure he can handle whatever comes next.
This one is so good. I am a bitch for epistolary stuff and I am glad it exists.
Graduation Dayby IBoatedHere
It takes Jack 50 days to finally see what's been right in front of him for the past two years.
Groundhog Day AU, but make it Zimbits. Jack doesn't kiss Bitty when he graduates, and that's fine, right? Well, looks like the universe disagrees. Also this fic has a real good platonic Jackshit moment.
Will Wonders Never Cease by @porcupine-girl
Eric has landed his dream job: social media manager for the Providence Falconers! Not only does he get paid to tweet, for an NHL team at that, but it’s a job where he’ll be able to make good use of his magic - when nobody’s looking, of course. Everyone on the Falconers is a joy to work with… with the notable exception of Jack Zimmermann. Eric understands that Jack doesn’t like social media, but he could certainly be a little more polite about it.
Luckily, Eric has support from his Samwell buddies, as well as his best friend - a man whose face he’s never seen, and whose name he doesn’t know. They met on an online forum where witches can gather anonymously, since it isn’t safe for them to advertise their existence in a world where magic isn’t trusted. They’ve been friends for years now, but Eric is only just starting to realize that he might have deeper feelings for someone he can never meet face-to-face.
THIS FIC!!! Jenna, I don't know if you read my fic Ebb & Flow, but I mentioned this fic in the author's note, because it was a huge inspiration. It's a secret identity magical She Loves Me AU. It sounds bonkers, but it is so goooood.
if you're going through hell (keep going) by @whoacanada
Eighteen years ago, Samwell suffered the tragic loss of one of their most promising young athletes. Ever since rumors have circulated that the school is haunted by the ghost of Eric Bittle. At least, that’s the only way anyone can seem to explain why the locker rooms smell like freshly baked apple pie on game days instead of the usual, omnipresent hockey funk.
Now in the twilight of his career, Jack Zimmermann is facing his own mortality and the last item on his bucket list?
Return to Samwell and disprove the rumor that his long-dead boyfriend is haunting Faber Memorial Rink.
MAIN CHARACTER DEATH!!! WARNING!!! And not like the previous soulmate AUs where the one thinks the other is dead. Bitty dies and Jack moved on, but he has to face the past, because people claim Bitty's ghost is real. Jack decides to find out himself.
Inertia by @foryouandbits
At the age of seven, Eric Bittle is tackled so hard in peewee football, it feels as though he's been knocked into another dimension. At the encouragement of his father, he avoids contact sports until he receives a scholarship to play hockey at Samwell University. The result is the same: every check on the ice hurts so much that Eric hallucinates another world. Eric spends the rest of his freshman year attempting to prove himself to his captain and his coaches. He questions his worth, his talent, and his sanity, and in his search for answers, he uncovers long-hidden secrets that change everything he has ever known.
I loved this one. It is an interesting take on dimension travel and Coach in this story is so great as well. I highly recommend it.
Ice Crew Please! by @petals42
Jack Zimmermann was drafted first by the Providence Falconers when he was eighteen years old. He is good at hockey. Very good. His team won the Cup his second year and now, in his third year, they are looking good. Jack should be on top of the world. And some days, he manages to convince himself he is.
He’s not, of course.
Enter the Ice Crew.
AKA: The Ice Crew AU
This sorta!fic is a fic about friendship thawing Jack Zimmermann's heart. Jack realises he's kind of a dick towards the ice crew of the Falcs and so he gets to know them, including Bitty. It's a good fucking friendship fic.
All shall know the wonder by me, lol
When Bitty decides to skate on Sunday mornings, he didn’t expect to meet a nice, handsome man who cannot hear. The Sunday mornings lead to a deep friendship that slowly leads to more.
Yes, I am finishing this list with a shameless self-promotion. I have 28 fics on AO3, 27 of them being Zimbits (one Holsom) and this is my favourite. Yeehaw.
That's it for now. There's a lot more in my Check, Please! fic tag. Also, hi to the people I have @'ed. If y'all know the tumblr URLs of some writers mentioned on this post, lemme know so I can add them.
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azeriairis · 6 months
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Absolutely having a breakdown over Calculus, and the annoying thing is I learned all this in a couple of weeks literally like 4 months ago. But guess what? My memory's like a sieve and the moment it's not relevant I forget it. Paying attention in class? My sleep schedule and health is shit so even when I am able to attend I am on the verge of collapsing all throughout class and the teacher's teaching style really doesn't mesh with the way I learn. Studying on my own time? My memory's again shit so I forget to study, not helped by my complete lack of executive functioning skills, and the fact that all memory aid strategies I've tried absolutely fail, and guess what? I've never had to study at all throughout (regular) highschool so my study skills are non-existent and I can't focus on a single thing for more than like a couple minutes.
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actualaster · 1 year
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Hm, so, some thoughts on The Ending (still partially processing)
Obviously massive endgame spoilers below for Scarlet.
I kind of figured pretty quick that we were dealing with a non-legitimate entity rather than the professor, but I was thinking maybe they were recordings and the time machine thing was involved--using the time machine to know who would show up and make the recordings accordingly or something. (Yes that theory has holes, look I'm running on very little sleep over the last several days and I only beat the game about 7am after being awake... Fuck, like, 20 hours okay give me some slack on the lack of brain processing power lol)
Was wondering if maybe she'd sent herself to the past and was somehow able to observe or communicate to a degree with the time machine but unable to send her physical body back to the present or something, as well.
I was kind of, for a second there, like "...dude holy shit is that a corpse or something? that's too dark for pokemon right? wait, no, i mean they absolutely had pokemon getting sentenced to execution via being torn apart in one of the PMD games..." and was very much relieved to find out it was a robot XD
Not surprised to find out the professor was dead, but was interesting to find out how long she'd been dead and when she had died. Definitely feel real bad for Arven, though--like suddenly all the neglect he went through makes sense, but on top of that he gets confirmation that his mom is very much gone and that's just.
Somebody get that kid some therapy, he's gonna need years of it to process all that, I think.
Also very interesting how the AI did, in the end, deviate somewhat from the original Sada and her goals. I wonder if the original Sada would have changed her views had she survived? Is that why the AI eventually decided there wasn't any good logic in striving endlessly for that goal once it was made clear it was destructive...? Had the original Sada survived, would she have modified the defensive systems to account for such a view? Or would she have persisted in trying to force her dream to come true without adaptation?
Since she died and all, she obviously never had the chance to change her mind and the programming would obviously never have been properly updated to stop trying to force that dream through at all costs.
I was also definitely worried for a moment there the AI would self-destruct. It wouldn't be the first time a character has willingly done something that ensured their own end for the greater good in a Pokemon game after all. Gotta wonder, though, how well that damaged body of hers held up on the transit to the past--did she survive the transit? How long was she able to keep functioning? ...Does she still exist somewhere, waiting for somebody to unearth her--or her remains, at least?
Now there's an interesting line of thought--an excavation of fossils, and finding (the remains of) a robot modeled after a contemporary figure or something. Probably gonna be chasing that line of thought for a little bit, that's an interesting one to play with.
Anyway Arven should go home with the MC and get adopted by their mom so that they're siblings now, IMO. I have decided that is my headcanon and I'm sticking to it. If anything in the post-game contradicts this no it won't because I will reject it. :p
Overall, the game had a lot of flaws (most of them technical, to be honest), but it was a very fun game so far and I definitely plan to run through the post-game shortly. I enjoyed the various storylines quite a bit, honestly--and at least cautiously looking forwards to the (highly) probable upcoming DLC.
Hoping that they can take things that worked well both here and PLA and incorporate them together in future games. (Some of how PLA handled the box sorting system I preferred, for example). Also that they can be given enough time to figure out what to do to remove the horrendous lag and weird shit like "there are so many fucking pokemon Inside The Walls Of Everything" lmao. Technical issues and stuff mean the game should definitely have been delayed until mid- 2023 at the earliest (though I get several possible reasons why they didn't--but my getting them does not mean I agree with them.)
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frontproofmedia · 2 years
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Dolo Flicks: NOPE - Jordan Peele Brings His Vision of Spectacle And Grandeur With NOPE
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Published: July 27, 2022
"This Dream You're Chasing... It's One You Never Wake Up From."  -- Antlers Holst (Michael Wincott)
Jordan Peele, one of the film industry's prominent filmmakers, returns with the third film of his career, NOPE.
 The film stars Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer, Steven Yeun, Brandon Perea, Michael Wincott, and Keith David. 
 Peele is one of the few directors working today that commands an audience whenever his name is associated with a project. In 2017, his debut film Get Out shocked moviegoers and critics by delivering one of the most exceptional horror movies of the decade. In a rare occurrence for a film in the horror genre, Get Out was nominated for three Academy awards. Peele would win for Best Original Screenplay. 
 Before the release of his horror classic, Peele was more known for his involvement in the world of comedy. He was a cast member of Mad TV for several years and hosted his own sketch comedy show, Key & Peele, with longtime friend Keegan-Michael Key. 
 The perception of Peele changed dramatically after Get Out. Many were surprised and not expecting such a high-quality movie from a first-time director with a background in comedy. 
 Two years later, Peele released his follow-up US  to wide critical acclaim. Although the film did just as well at the box office as Get Out, it wasn't as universally beloved by general audiences. While Get Out transcended into the mainstream firmly into 2010s pop culture, US missed the mark with its somewhat divisive storytelling and lack of cohesive writing. 
 While NOPE does stay within the horror genre as a UFO-Monster film, it is a slight departure from the body snatchers of Get Out and the slasher, US. NOPE is much grander in scale, but within that scope, it remains contained with a relatively small cast that focuses primarily on a brother and sister. 
 The film follows Otis "OJ" Haywood Jr. (Daniel Kaluuya) and his sister Emerald "Em" Haywood (Keke Palmer) after the strange death of their father Otis Haywood Sr. (Keith David). An unexplained phenomenon that turns out to be a UFO (unidentified flying object) or UAP (unidentified aerial phenomenon) begins to cause havoc on their horse ranch as they risk their lives to capture proof of its existence. 
 Whether horror fans want to admit it or not, the genre is a niche one, with a majority of the most prominent actors and directors avoiding it altogether. Rarely does a horror film come along that gains a broad audience that reaches beyond the world of terror. Peele has purposefully set out to make his movies more appealing for non-horror lovers bringing in elements that most relate to or enjoy. 
 "I always like to kind of get into the head of my audience," said Peele in a behind-the-scenes feature for NOPE. "And I feel like there's a lot of people that don't want to see a horror movie and don't want to see something that's dark or that's fucked up. Nope, to me is an invitation to them."
 NOPE does fall into the sci-fi horror genre, but Peele's ability to blend in moments of drama and comedy keeps a level of fun to his films while still producing tense scenes with a sense of dread. The humor is well executed and well-placed without undercutting any dramatic moments. 
 Keke Palmer as Emerald Haywood brings an energy to her infectious character and juxtaposes Daniel Kaluuya's stoic and composed OJ Haywood. At times Palmer's character can feel overbearing, and some moviegoers may feel off-put by her. The character of Angel Torres (Brandon Perea) also brings some comedic moments to the film as the salesman at a local electronic store who helps set up the camera equipment around the ranch to help capture what the film calls "the impossible shot." 
 Out of Peele's three films, NOPE feels like his most ambitious. Not just in the story but behind the camera as well. The film was shot entirely with IMAX cameras giving the movie a range that allows Peele to use his skill to pay homage to some of his favorite filmmakers, such as Steven Spielberg. 
 "I mean Close Encounters of the Third Kind is the quintessential UFO film and Steven Spielberg knew that when he was making it," Peele stated in an interview with Comicbook.com. "I have so much admiration for how far he pushed and how far he pushes himself with how ambitious he is with the scope of his stories. I wanted to bite off something with that scope in that sub-genre that isn't ventured often enough in my mind."
 The film was shot by Dutch cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema, best known for his work with Christopher Nolan on movies like Interstellar, Dunkirk, and Tenet. Undoubtedly, this is the best-looking film from Peele.
 Also standing out and differentiating itself from his previous films, NOPE, utilizes more of a film score than popular songs of the time. With most of the film-taking place on a ranch set in Agua Dulce, California, the score delivered by Michael Abels gives the movie a western aesthetic and a grandiose sound, specifically in the final act. 
 The stories that Peele tells his audience all have some underlying message. Some are more deliberate than others. The character Ricky "Jupe" Park (Steven Yeun) is a former famous child actor who now owns a nearby ranch and theme park called "Jupiter's Claim," which brings about the film's exploration of a spectacle. 
 "The film is about spectacle and our addiction to spectacle," says Peele. "The fact that we are being drawn to it but its also about our inner need whether we have it or not to be a spectacle. To be seen. To be recognized for who we are and what we are." 
 One side story connected to the main plot is the inclusion of Jupe's appearance on a television show set in the 1990s called Gordy's Home. During a taping of an episode, a balloon pops that puts the chimpanzee playing Gordy in a bloody frenzy attacking the cast but leaving Jupe uninjured. The horses, along with Gordy, are used by Peele as part of the spectacle that human beings tend to exploit for entertainment and monetary purposes. 
 This idea of exploitation is shown throughout the film, with the main characters attempting to get footage of the UFO and Jupe trying to make a show of it as one of his park's attractions. 
 "Ian (Cooper, the film's producer) was the one who first gave me the book on Eadweard Muybridge, who is considered the godfather of the motion picture for some of the experimental photography that he took," said Peele in a behind the scenes interview. "That was really the end to kind of uncover some of the commentary, the exploration of this industry, the media of Hollywood, and the film industry itself. The exploitation that is kind of inherent in this industry and always has been. 
 "That became an underlying theme that is woven throughout the film. Without the film sort of hitting you on the head with some kind of quote-unquote message. I think the DNA of the movie has this big question about the addiction to spectacle, the human addiction to spectacle and what happens when money becomes involved in that."
 The reveal of the UFO not being a flying saucer with otherworldly aliens aboard but, instead, its own creature will be divisive for some audiences. The design of the flying saucer resembles an eye, and in the film's conclusion, the flying alien creature's true form is shown closely resembling an angel of some kind. 
 "The central theme of horror, of the horror engine for me came with this idea of what if the truth is a lot simpler and darker than we even could ever imagine," said Peele. 
 The climax of the film may be when the movie hits its peak. The relationship between Emerald and OJ is the foundation of the movie, and the family dynamic between the two is what keeps you drawn into the story. 
 In what is possibly the best moment on film of 2022, an exchange of looks between OJ and Em before OJ distracts the UFO so Em can escape with Michael Abels' score playing induces goosebumps. It's at this scene that Peele triumphs in reaching his goal of creating his version of a Spielberg-Esque blockbuster. 
 In the final shot, after Emerald captures a photo of the UFO using the wishing well photo booth at Jupiter's Claim, she sees OJ on his horse Lucky under the sign "Out Yonder." Whether OJ survived is up for the audience to interpret. 
 With the release of NOPE, Peele has garnered comparisons to all-time great director John Carpenter. Peele shut down any notions of comparisons to Carpenter as he holds the director in high regard. 
 However, the former sketch comedy host-turned-director may fall victim to some of the same types of scrutiny the Halloween director experienced in his prime. 
 Peele's films are likely to be more accurately judged over the course of time. Carpenter's 1982 film The Thing was lambasted by critics of the time, and now, with its revolutionary practical special effects, it's considered one of the greatest horror films ever made. 
 A more apt comparison may be to M.Night Shyamalan, whose first three major studio films, The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Signs, also gave him worldwide acclaim. Much like Get Out, the Sixth Sense also entered the pop culture zeitgeist of the time and received multiple Academy award nominations. 
 Much like Carpenter and Shyamalan, Peele is a storyteller that isn't afraid to be vulnerable to tell the stories he wants on the big screen. NOPE is another chapter in his story as a filmmaker. While it may not be perfect, it has enough memorable moments to be considered another strong addition to his catalog.
4/5****
(Featured Image: Universal Pictures/Monkeypaw Productions)
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cockroachgirl1997 · 2 years
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you know, taking medication that counteracts your executive dysfunction is pretty amazing. though what they did not consider are the tasks i am forced to do sober when my executive function is basically non-existing. you do not want me to take the medication on an empty stomach and i understand the reasoning behind it, but are you aware that the moment i sit down to eat i am damning myself to an eternity (or at least 1-2 hours) on the sofa? while i am thinking about my problem here i am realizing that maybe taking the pill with me to the sofa so that it is ready for taking after i have finished my meal could be a solution to this problem. though this new-gained insight is of little help to me now while i am already stuck in the situation. but we learn for the future.
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codehunter · 2 years
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Python async and CPU-bound tasks?
I have recently been working on a pet project in python using flask. It is a simple pastebin with server-side syntax highlighting support with pygments. Because this is a costly task, I delegated the syntax highlighting to a celery task queue and in the request handler I'm waiting for it to finish. Needless to say this does no more than alleviate CPU usage to another worker, because waiting for a result still locks the connection to the webserver.Despite my instincts telling me to avoid premature optimization like the plague, I still couldn't help myself from looking into async.
Async
If have been following python web development lately, you surely have seen that async is everywhere. What async does is bringing back cooperative-multitasking, meaning each "thread" decides when and where to yield to another. This non-preemptive process is more efficient than OS-threads, but still has it's drawbacks. At the moment there seem to be 2 major approaches:
event/callback style multitasking
coroutines
The first one provides concurrency through loosely-coupled components executed in an event loop. Although this is safer with respect to race conditions and provides for more consistency, it is considerably less intuitive and harder to code than preemptive multitasking.
The other one is a more traditional solution, closer to threaded programming style, the programmer only having to manually switch context. Although more prone to race-conditions and deadlocks, it provides an easy drop-in solution.
Most async work at the moment is done on what is known as IO-bound tasks, tasks that block to wait for input or output. This is usually accomplished through the use of polling and timeout based functions that can be called and if they return negatively, context can be switched.
Despite the name, this could be applied to CPU-bound tasks too, which can be delegated to another worker(thread, process, etc) and then non-blockingly waited for to yield. Ideally, these tasks would be written in an async-friendly manner, but realistically this would imply separating code into small enough chunks not to block, preferably without scattering context switches after every line of code. This is especially inconvenient for existing synchronous libraries.
Due to the convenience, I settled on using gevent for async work and was wondering how is to be dealt with CPU-bound tasks in an async environment(using futures, celery, etc?).
How to use async execution models(gevent in this case) with traditional web frameworks such as flask? What are some commonly agreed-upon solutions to these problems in python(futures, task queues)?
EDIT: To be more specific - How to use gevent with flask and how to deal with CPU-bound tasks in this context?
EDIT2: Considering how Python has the GIL which prevents optimal execution of threaded code, this leaves only the multiprocessing option, in my case at least. This means either using concurrent.futures or some other external service dealing with processing(can open the doors for even something language agnostic). What would, in this case, be some popular or often-used solutions with gevent(i.e. celery)? - best practices
https://codehunter.cc/a/flask/python-async-and-cpu-bound-tasks
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casual-eumetazoa · 4 years
Text
being autistic during this uh Thing is sure a wild ride
on one hand i am better at coping with social isolation (even though right now it is not at all easy for me) and typically feel much more comfortable at home
on the other i am really bad at coping with changes to routine (and this is a massive disruption to basically everything) and even worse at coping with uncertainty 
and of course the second part won
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mhynvxii · 2 years
Note
Hello I would love to know what you think are Kuroko, Kagami, Akashi, Midorima, Murasakibara, Kise and Aomine's Myers–Briggs personality?
Hii ! Idk why I left that bath in my inbox when I already planed a response to it since I got it but let’s ignore it. I don’t know if you are accustomed with functions but I choose to not talk much about it in depths for the exception of some just in case as I don’t want to loose you mid explanation and wants to vulgarize things a little.
I think you can rely on personality database for most the character you listed except for Kise. And for the one you didn’t listed there also be cautious with Kasamatsu and Mayuzumi.
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Akashi breathe and smell INTJ, there is no doubt about it. His Ni dom is one of the most mind blowing, his Te aux is really solid and show up when he’s executing his strategies : Think about how he stopped Midorima and Takao combo and his tactics during his match against Shutoku, Fi tertiary obvious by the nature of his mental breakdown and need to find himself and his Se inf that you can notice if paying attention to how observant he is of what’s going on around him especially in his team.
Kuroko is 100% INFJ, he as well not only fit the stereotype and looking at the functions everything matches and makes sense. Huge Ni, big Fe lmao, Solid Ti and efficient Se.
Kagami is a cliché of the ESTP 8w7 it’s hilarious heavy Se dom and tertiary Fe who’s underdeveloped. He doesn’t take anyone shit and follow his own kind of logic what’s very Ti of him, he also has a need to execute things his way on his own. Finally he also quite frequently use his inferior Ni when playing basketball as well, Taiga may try multiples things but he’s not brainstorming stuff he goes for the idea he find really great and solid on the moment and if it fails he goes for something else as much solid while people who uses Ne have like multiples ideas who aren’t all that much necessarily realizable and can possibly not even use the best of them for the sake of experience but at least the information they get form the results helps the others possibilities what will allow them to hit harder new turn and always have ressources.
Midorima is an ISTJ, I remember the days people confused him with an INTJ but you can see his concrete SI dom every time like : he doesn’t feel right playing basketball when he don’t have his lucky item and gives a lot of importance to his own sensations and contact with the ball and others : preserving his precious hand and not getting over it every time his teammates get touchy tapping his head or shoulder. He’s also very track minded, following a routine and he’s not lenient on it or he feels bad about it. Solid Te and I think I don’t even need to elaborate on this because they’re no way this dude is using Ti, Fi tert underdeveloped as he has an hard time admitting how he truly feels internally and to others as well but still values more the introversion of his feelings and takes what he do seriously. If he’s doing something it’s first because he knows he can and want to and not because it’s possibly fun and let fate decides if he will enjoy it. His has an inferior Ne that he occasionally uses but it gets sharper when he’s talking with Takao, the ultimate Ne dom as an ENTP, they brainstormed together multiples times to finds combos and seeing potential progression for Kuroko drives and Kagami aerials fights.
To be INTJ, Midorima has to have Se but it’s non existent, like it’s reason why everyone is making fun of him on a basis : going out with weird lucky items and not understanding why it’s weird, having weird taste in cans he dares drink in public, he has been mocked for his beans cans hasn’t he ? Not getting that Momoi had a crush on Kuroko and Akashi predicting he wouldn’t know by the end of junior school in Replace Plus and the only thing that could make up for it is an Fe function in his stacks that he definitely can’t develop that and that he doesn’t have. Is lack of Se is also the reason why Akashi managed to find the weakness of his combo with Takao…
Murasakibara is an ISTP with solid Ti and chaotic Fe inf, I didn’t except someone to be worse than Aomine in this show especially since his enneagram is 8w7 not the most Fe axed one especially paired up with an ISTP but guess what.
Also Aomine is an ISTP like Murasakibara I know some even if it’s a unpopular opinion confuses him with ENTP and honestly it’s not a so bizarre combination it could actually fit him but no. Aomine is definitely aware of his surroundings, he has that heavy Se when playing basketball and just in general life really being a man of the instant and moment. He is really earth grounded and don’t enjoy much of the internal struggles ENTP enjoys to inflict themselves by thinking about nonsense not even existing just look at him when he’s drinking tea with Momoi and you will understand that for him thinking about fate theories isn’t even considered normal and it’s ridiculous.
He’s also so low on Fe, the tertiary Fe is hard to believe even for an unhealthy or sad ENTP. He literally cut off his relationship with Kuroko once he thought what he was doing wasn’t making sense anymore as a Ti dom and didn’t even bothered to engage in a conversation or clear things off properly before and then slowly fading away like the Fe tert would probably have done for the sake at least of their friend because magically Aomine except Kuroko to get over it and understand. And finally his tert Ni is really showing up when he’s playing basketball, he doesn’t brainstorm what are the possibilities he can came up with he has one idea and execute it by how he think it will works instinctively.
And finally Kise the one who’s mistyped in my opinion on this site is an ESTP and not an happy go lucky walking stereotype ESFP. It’s easy to type him ESFP has he fit so greatly in the stereotype of the entertainer because of how he behave around Kuroko and his anime persona but there is just no way Ryouta Kise has an Fi aux even when you’re an anime watcher only he has a clearer Fe in tertiary. I think people confuse him because Kagami as well is ESTP and they don’t behave the same at all but you would be surprised by how similar they are in reality at least in their thinking process just that Kise has a well rounded and developed Fe people ignore because relying on stereotype ESTP are quite insensitive and machines thrilling for actions.
Kise is at ease with his emotions because he learnt it and not because it’s natural in him, always surrounded by people because for his talents or beauty he got accustomed of playing of his own charm and people trying to get emotionally close to him what does explain why he get some thing to win his respect and for him to warm up to you. ( what is a Fe ugly tendency) But the truth is that he’s an idiot who only seeks out for challenges and fun things to do more than chatting even if he likes it and he can be insensitive when his pleasure is not satisfied. He grew having to be picky about who he’s hanging out to form genuine relationship and that’s why around people he really like he turn into a so affective ball. To develop his own thinking and opinion about basketball Kise relied a lot on what Kuroko said after his defeat and not what feels like good to him or common sense even if it was contradictory to what he was thinking at first and payed a lot of attention on Aomine the one he admired to develop himself. But even after all that he felt contradicted and didn’t set on an opinion because it wasn’t the one he developed by himself what proves his Ti aux and Fe tert, when playing he thinks much more about his opponents ( the one he respects) and teammates than himself and when he think about himself you best believe he’s going to few seconds after talk about the one he respect may think of him or how he may look ridiculous from an exterior perspective. Kise is all about finding a challenger he will have fun playing along, what is very Fe and no way Fi aux. And in reality he quite have an hard time realizing things about himself : his rivalry with Kuroko and Kagami, that in reality he never agreed that much with how things were going on at Teiko, that he never wanted to see Aomine loose until the inter high, that he genuinely likes his teammates more than simple camaradery bound and liked to be associated with the Kaijo team and even then I bet he’s not realizing he’s much more emotionally attached to Aomine than he think outside of basketball and considerate GOM as his only true friends besides Kaijo.
Kise has a solid Ti showed multiples time by when he’s playing : he’s not simply imitating but learn the technique and reappropriate it to himself and ameliorate it even composing multiples combos with them with the Perfect Copy : he’s doing the weirdest combos I swear with his Ti, even another Ti aux can barely keep up just think about that time Kuroko is trying to stop him and he switch to faint Midorima but then makes a pass and Moriyama makes a new pass as he head toward the basket. In general life his Ti aux come off as insensitive mostly : multiples times telling Kuroko he should come rejoin him as following his logic it make sense for him to just leave and come to Kaijo, but he’s surprisingly not totally Fe blind at this moment, after that telling Kuroko what he thinks about Kagami even though no one asked him. But when it’s most obvious he use Ti is in his Teiko days when unlike a Fi aux would do he’s comparing himself with Kuroko throughout the days as his tutor and openly bash him on his abilities to Aomine and excepting explanations on what that dude is doing in the A group instead of talking about how much more worthy he is to be in the team or either internally reprimand how deceived he is and and stuff. He’s much more calculating than people think as he be thinking about how he will plan to gravitate stages in the basketball club and pay attention to what peoples perceive him as to keep in check his progression and get information. And like Fe user he don’t like to be tied down to set morals society or himself he may indulge ( doesn’t mean he’s doing weird or bad stuff but like for example he’s probably the type of guy who’s very loyal but won’t marry his partner that quickly even if he knows he will. As except the symbolism of the ceremony , he don’t find it really important.) So he’s always open to opinion and he’s versatile, changing and keep evolving. He’s also has a very instinctive a well developed Ni inferior, he uses more than Kagami and is from the same level of even superior surprisingly as/than Murasakibara when playing but just in general life as well getting geniuses ideas to his standard out of nowhere and predictions. And his Se is just that great and enormous I think it’s unnecessary for me to talk about it. The dude literally just mimic what he watches physically and when he’s annoyed he hears the wind and hate it proving he’s a guy of the instant.
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cybernaght · 3 years
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Guardian rewatch: episode 10
The tone of this recap is going to be the crackiest so far. The production quality plummets dramatically here, in a way which is as unintentionally hilarious as it is endearing. I have very little of import to say on events of this episode, and there is nothing much for me to hyper focus on, so a lot of this write-up are snark and bad jokes. Apologies in advance. I would not be getting annoyed at a show I did not care about. 
Day two of the Road Trip starts with Zhao Yunlan waking up with a splitting headache and his own jacket draped carefully over him. I choose to believe Shen Wei left it there. 
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Zhao Yunlan wakes up - and discovers that Wang Zheng had slipped a sedative into the party’s water, effectively knocking them all out. He even discovers that she left her doll-body behind as a decoy; thankfully, it’s still Li Siqi and not the blow-up doll from the previous episode. 
With the daunting realisation that he’s been betrayed, Zhao Yunlan instantly spirals into hurt and anger, and this is the moment Shen Wei chooses to appear out to nowhere. He enters offering comfort, his entire focus on making Zhao Yunlan feel better by assuring the man that his subordinate is not one of the bad guys, but rather one of the self-sacrificing ones. How SID manages to function when it’s full of people with non-existent sense of self-preservation is beyond me. 
“Professor Shen, why are you okay?”
Zhu Hong narrows her eyes. Zhao Yunlan’s look is the one of vulnerability, not suspicion, almost as if he is silently asking to please not be betrayed by his newest partner.
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“I didn’t drink the water she gave me.”
Another thing I would like to question here is the reasoning behind Shen Wei waiting until the morning with this. He knew that Wang Zheng was about to do something, since he refrained from drinking the water she offered. Everyone else being unconscious would be a perfect opportunity for him to go full Hei Pao Shi on her, or follow her quietly, or do literally anything but wait for the morning. 
“What is your purpose of coming here?” Shen Wei asks because he needs to know how much Zhao Yunlan knows. He does so with a perfect set of puppy eyes. 
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We cut to Wang Zheng entering the chamber which houses the pillar/totem, and witness the absolute devastation of her hearing her love’s voice for the first time in a century, as he mistakes her for the enemy and calls her a rat.
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I should say that while I’m not always on board with Li Siqi in this show, props to her for acting her heart out opposite a literal pillar. Her reunion with Sang Zan is incredibly touching; she really is wonderful here.
Flashback 1. The execution of Ge Lan. 
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This method of execution seems so inefficient, I actually tried to find if it has any legs in history. As my research yielded exactly no results, I am guessing this is the producers showing hanging without actually showing hanging. They kind of accidentally made the whole affair infinitely worse. People are weaker than gravity, the angle offers no possibility of the neck being broken, so this would be a very slow, and very painful death. Yikes, is all I can say. 
Flashback 2. The montage. 
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Sigh.
This imagery is so carelessly contemporary it’s killing me. I’m not saying it’s completely impossible for the heart shape to have been known to represent love in this fictional tribe on a fictional planet. I’m just saying it’s a boring shorthand for romance, made worse by the fact that so much of the show’s imagery is otherwise fairly intelligent. I am not angry, I’m just disappointed.
Wang Zheng and Sang Zan’s reunion triggers another earthquake, which is felt all the way back in the village, and shortly thereafter Zhu Jiu interrupts the couple, knocking Wang Zheng out. This - her being knocked unconscious - cuts to Zhao Yunlan wincing while clutching at his temples, which almost implies that he can feel it when his people are in danger. Which would be very cool if true. 
Shen Wei, in the meanwhile is remarkably good at keeping his Professor’s mask on the whole time, offering enough information without betraying his own knowledge or motives, but it is clear by now that Zhao Yunlan starts to see right through it. 
The chief sprints into action when Chu Shuzhi and Guo Changcheng arrive, instructing the two to join him in investigation. Shen Wei opens his mouth to volunteer to come with, but ends up hesitating before saying anything out loud. 
Zhu Hong, too, makes a move to go after the three men, but is firmly instructed to say behind and look after Shen Wei. She proceeds to loudly explain that this is the wrong time and place to be fussing over this guy. 
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Shen Wei looks like he has no idea what to do with this display of emotion. 
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Zhao Yunaln whispers to Zhu Hong to watch the professor for him: which could equally be him manipulating the Yashou into staying, or a sinking realisation that Shen Wei will actually try to join them either way, or genuine desire to find out what the professor will do next. Or, indeed, a combination of the above. Zhu Hong will attack her task with conviction. 
Sure enough, Shen Wei finally voices his desire to go with the group. Zhu Hong reminds him that he has his own people to look after and instructs him to return to the house with barely contained resentment. 
Shen Wei will predictably try to sneak out very shortly afterwards, and will be, equally predictably, caught by Zhu Hong. Why the man who can teleport would not just teleport out of the house before proceeding on foot is anyone’s guess. 
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“He surprisingly views you as a good friend”, says Zhu Hong when she stops Shen Wei from leaving. “You surely noticed it, right?”
He certainly did, although he will always have trouble realising that he is actually cared about in a way which is anything but casual. 
Shen Wei obediently sits down and follows Zhu Hong’s instructions as she attempts to hypnotise him. Those instructions are anything but subtle. 
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“Professor Shen, look at the flame closely”.
Meanwhile, the other party has successfully deduced the location of the Hanga tribe cave/shrine, and heads there, only to find no visible entrance. Thankfully, gaining access to the mountain is not particularly hard for the party. Mostly because this part of the mountain is made of foam.
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This is where I want to metaphorically pat Guardian on its non-existent head, cooing, “Oh, Guardian. Baby. What have you done.”
On the bright side, this is also where Guo Changcheng accidentally shocks Zhao Yunlan with the Fear Stick, and Chu Shuzhi literally gives him a thumbs up. Those two are a duo for the ages. 
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Youchu appear to fight our heroes, and after the first wave is eliminated, Zhao Yunlan decides to go inside, leaving the other two fend them off near the entrance. Considering that the beasts are all hiding inside the cave, rushing in without backup seems incredibly ill advised. Zhao Yunlan instructs Chu Shuzhi and Guo Changcheng to run away if the danger becomes too great. Which he must know surely that they would never do: his department does not leave people behind, and his subordinates will never abandon him. 
To no one’s surprise, the cave is crawling with Youchu. Zhao Yunlan goes on the offensive, kicking the feet out of the monster, but failing to incapacitate it. I am going to do my best to ignore how the scale of the beast fluctuates as it falls down, and focus on Bai Yu’s excellent reaction when his character realises that he is about to very much die.
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Luckily for our protagonist, Hei Pao Shi sends a ward his way with a note, warning him of the danger ahead and ordering him to return. Zhao Yunlan makes no move to do as instructed and uses the upper hand he’s gained on the Youchu to get out his gun. Before he can fire however, he once more experiences the painful flashback of the devastation this gun carries, and freezes.
This is when Shen Wei shows up in person, jumping in front of the gun and gutting the beast.
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The jumping in front of the gun part of the action is sweet, because it indicates, albeit indirectly, the absolute trust Shen Wei must have in Zhao Yunlan’s instincts, knowing that the man will not accidentally shoot him in the back. 
The gutting itself happens in reverse grip, with Shen Wei being easily within reach of the beast’s long stabby claws, and as such really questionable to me in terms of logic. I would have not minded it if he had been moving through the space in front of the beast, slicing it while passing through. That would be at least an indicator of both speed and dexterity enough to make me believe Shen Wei made a clever avoidance of the claws. But he doesn’t: he just materialises dead-on in front of the monster and the later just.. lets itself be killed. 
Let’s just say that maybe the beast is supposed to be deliberately slow here, and park the long essay in regards to the bladework until the next episode. 
“Chief Zhao, are you alright?”
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Everything about Hei Pao Shi in this moment screams of Shen Wei-ness. Well, maybe not the sword. But the obvious concern, the tone of voice, the general air: it’s all Shen Wei. It’s remarkable that Zhao Yunlan does not see it. Or maybe, I suppose, he does, without even realising it. His cheeky grin suddenly appears; the corners of his eyes crinkle, as he goes into a very long-winded, almost flirtatious away about thanking Hei Pao Shi, teasing him for not always arriving on time. 
Unperturbed, Shen Wei chides Zhao Yunlan for not listening to his warning, and Zhao Yunlan defends himself in a very playful kind of manner, adding that he’s not leaving his people behind. To Shen Wei, this is to be expected, so instead of arguing he goes into a lot of detail on how the road ahead is dangerous, as if he is not really expecting Zhao Yunlan to accept help. 
He is wrong of course: proud though he may be, Chief Zhao knows when he is outgunned and outnumbered, and only grins, happy for the Envoy to join him on his mission. 
Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan exploring the cave is interspersed with pretty damn harrowing scenes of Zhu Jiu torturing Wang Zheng as her trapped lover screams for mercy. It’s a lot; in fact it’s so much even the cave ghosts attempt to intervene, because while they may be very much pro-murder, they are evidently anti-torture. 
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As the two keep exploring, they bump into another three of the beasts, which Shen Wei slays in three slick moves. It’s actually pretty cool, despite slightly sketchy teleportation effects.
“Wow!”
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(Apparently, this “wow” made Zhu Yilong corpse so much he nearly laughed his mask off. Which sounds adorable)
Shen Wei proceeds to inquire Zhao Yunlan about the gun, party to confirm that it is indeed the dark energy weapon he knows, and partly having noticed that the other man failed to fire it. I wonder how many times Zhao Yunlan froze in the past, considering how easily he once again slips into his mask of playful deflection, claiming that he never planned to fire the gun at all. It’s almost tragic how this person keeps feeling like he needs to prove his own capabilities over and over again. 
Interestingly enough, in this particular case Hei Pao Shi actually does own up to a weakness. It’s calculated: he knows this is something Zhao Yunlan must already be aware of, but still, “full disclosure” is not something Shen Wei usually does when it comes to his own capacities. 
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What he admits to, on the other hand, does not seem very consistent with the rest of the show. He says that he can only use half of his power above ground, which - okay. But he also states that he can’t spend a lot of time here, and I am a little bit… confused? He lives above ground. He spends absolute majority of his time here. I really don’t want to think of this as a writing inconsistency, so please let me know what I have missed; I’ll appreciate it. 
Hearing the admission, Zhao Yunlan grows serious for once, asking which they they should be going next. Shen Wei barely smothers a smug smirk seconds before he scries the surroundings with unbelievable panache.
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Show off
Unfortunately, his search does not yield any result, as whatever readings he is getting are muddled by the Hallow. Luckily for them, and to Shen Wei’s great dismay, Zhao Yunlan has the Dial on him which he is uses as a compass. 
Shen Wei’s wordless reaction conveys a million questions from “what the hell?” to “are you completely stupid?”
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Instead of asking any of those things, he settles for a more neutral “I’ve told you not to use the Hallows.”
“You are very much like a friend of mine”, remarks Zhao Yunlan. 
Which is, incidentally, also the title of this episode. 
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Even behind the mask it’s clear to see Shen Wei’s blind panic as he realises he may have just blown his cover sky high. Fortunately, Zhao Yunlan reads the reaction as bashfulness rather than existential despair, and laughs it off. 
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Now that they know which way to go, they finally make it to the chamber which houses the pillar/totem, which now has Wang Zheng tied to it. 
This show sure does like tying their characters to totems containing souls of people significant to them, huh?
In all seriousness though, as parallels go, this one is… uh… unparalleled. 
(I am so very sorry.)
Zhao Yunlan makes a move towards his trapped subordinate, but Hei Pao Shi, again in a way which is extremely Shen Wei-like, grabs at his arm, stopping him in his tracks. 
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Zhao Yunlan obediently halts, and calls Zhu Jiu out, correctly guessing that the Undergrounder lured them here deliberately. Shen Wei, on the other hand, relays in a hushed tone information what he had observed so far: namely, that the Hallow stored here is the Dire Awl, and that something is incredibly fishy about Wang Zheng.
As he does so, he is staring at Zhao Yunlan’s lips. It is neither the time, nor the place, but hey, I’m not complaining.
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They have a brief discussion about the next moves, in which Shen Wei just says he would like to try something, and Zhao Yunlan nods, letting him do it without asking for any details. 
Flashback 3: the Backstory. 
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We hear the full tragic tale of Ge Lan and Sang Zan: how they met, representatives of the warring sides of the conflict, two people from two different worlds; how their love did not stop the awful bloodshed; how it could not be enough to overpower the politics; how it lead to Ge Lan’s death, and, finally, how Sang Zan could not bring her back to him. They hear how the man changed once he lost the only person he cared about. 
Zhao Yunlan is visibly moved by this story, recognising echoes of it in himself. 
“The most basic dignity of a man is to ensure that the person in his heart stays safe. If the person I love gets destroyed in my own hands ruined under the system I established myself, it’s very likely I’ll hate these people more than I hated the former tribe leader.”
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How much did he harden after his mother was taken away from him? How much of his initial hatred of all those from the Underground stems from that day? And, of course, how much will it break him when he will not be gifted this dignity in his own future? 
Shen Wei is near vibrating with how much his very soul resonates with the tale he has just heard. He, who has met someone from the other world, who was lost that person, is visibly weighed down by his own memories.
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“That’s right. Even if they’re cut into a myriad of pieces, the hatred would be hard to dissolve.”
Zhao Yunlan stares at the other man, astounded, wondering what hardships and losses the Envoy endured in his long and eventful life, as the episode draws to a close.
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And I am left here trying to soothe my aching heart, bruised once more by this show’s relentless fatalism. 
Next up, episode 11: Oh Boy Do I Have Sword Opinions 
---
Notes. 
Look. It’s been a long week okay. Besides, I am basically marathoning my way through Zhu Yilong’s entire filmography. 
The normal service in terms of analysis will hopefully resume next week. 
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maglors-anion-gap · 3 years
Text
Fic Writing Asks
Thanks to @samarqqand for the tag! Sorry for the late-ish reply!
how many works do you have on AO3?
I have 8 fics on AO3, with one WIP that I have been neglecting for Ages (so sorry to the anon who requested it, and to user findrahil for helping me beta in, like, march...), and three Tolkien Reverse Summer Bang fics coming very soon!
what’s your total AO3 word count?
Currently 36,972
how many fandoms have you written for and what are they?
Mostly Tolkien. One sad MCU fic (it's not finished, please ignore it, I started it in a brighter era where I wasn't exhausted by the MCU movie industrial complex)
what are your top 5 fics by kudos?
"Why Breaks Thou the Wand" - Gimli/Legolas (qpl) Tam Lin!AU
The MCU fic that I will not be linking to
"Your Mouth is Poison (Your Mouth is Wine)" - Celebrimbor/Sauron, the events leading up to the sacking of Eregion, also known as "how to bottom in the most manipulative and vindictive manner possible"
"There are Roses That Come Without Seeking" - Curufin/Finrod, midwinter masquerade celebration turned hook-up
"Turning Shadows Into Shapes" - Feanor&Fingolfin, brotherly loveloathing and the aftermath of Finwe's death
do you respond to comments, why or why not?
Every single one. I don't get a Ton of comments so it's pretty easy for me to do and I talk non-stop so.... it's a natural instinct. I love to see what people have to say abut my work, and I love to let them know I appreciate their commentary
what’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?
Angstiest ending is hands down "Where the Spirit Meets the Bones" because it ends with Maedhros yeeting himself toward his doom... In general a very angsty fic because it's all about failed obligations, self hatred, and being a flawed person.
do you write crossovers? if so what is the craziest one you’ve written?
I've never written a crossover, I haven't really found universes that I desperately wanted to smash together. The closest I'll ever get is AU works.
have you ever received hate on a fic?
Yes but not on anything posted on my AO3. The commenter left me something mildly obnoxious, but when I checked out their profile they were a huge bigot. Bidoof's law for general assholery.
do you write smut? if so what kind?
Yes. More often than not. Excuse #1: the pandemic is keeping me from being my slutty self and I am projecting. Excuse #2: self-introspection. It's no coincidence that my smut fic is most often either something I find kinky, or an exploration of my identity or something I want to communicate in my life. "Halos Made of Summer, Ribbons Made of Spring" was me exploring my attraction to women (when I still thought I was a woman). A lot of my other stuff was me coming to terms with being transmasc (though I haven't included trans themes in my fics yet - that's gonna change tho).
have you ever had a fic stolen?
Nope! I don't think my stuff gets enough traction for that (rare-pair hell, my beloved). I also don't think I'd notice if themes were lifted from my work. I treat fandom like a soup pot. It would be rude to take the stock wholesale and say it was your own. That said, it's likely that at some point two or more of us are going to come up with similar flavor pairings. If you're inspired by my work, it's good grace to say so. But swapping ideas is pretty par for the course.
have you ever had a fic translated?
Nope! But you guys are always welcome to do so! I've been meaning to translate my stuff into Spanish, it's good practice for me and I know that fandom can be pretty English heavy.
have you ever co-written a fic before?
Nope! I would like to at some point, I think the closest I've gotten is like, trsb exchanges.
what’s your all time favorite ship?
Probably Fingon/Maedhros because of my penchant for self-flagellation and bad decision making. It's an old standby pairing for me, and I like its Romance, in the classical sense. Celebrimbor/Sauron is a close second because I like working through how I feel about deception and betrayal and really unhealthy love.
what’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?
Um... I don't want to say the WIP that's currently languishing in my drafts. I have Got to finish it because I went out of my way to get people's opinions on it. Um, probably this thing I started for Gimli/Legolas, I don't think it was imaginative enough, I have a hard time being imaginative and it feels derivative. I need to significantly re-tool it.
what are your writing strengths?
Setting up a central theme, and characterization. I like implicit meanings.
what are your writing weaknesses?
Dialogue is hard, pacing is hard (it's really hard for me to read, so I always want to pare my stuff down when I should expand on it). Executive function is non-existent so the writing process itself is just. odious (/humorous).
what are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?
Ah, like adverbs and epithets, it serves a purpose (to indicate something specific). I think about a) can readers understand this b) is this respectful and does it fit the situation or characterization c) does it add something special d) do I have a good enough grasp of this language. For MCU fic I won't be linking I taught myself some very basic russian to include some russian dialogue because I wanted english readers to be temporarily out of the loop like one of the characters (like, in dramatic irony the readers know something the characters don't - I wanted a situation where the readers didn't know either). Don't go looking for that fic, my russian is embarrassing to me and others.
what was the first fandom you wrote for?
The lord of the flies :( I was 13
what’s your favorite fic you’ve written?
Probably "Halos Made of Summer, Ribbons Made of Spring" for managing to write something long and detailed :)
I’m tagging @galadhremmin @arofili @undercat-overdog @findrahil @dialux (some of you may have already done this, sorry) - this is the moment where I forget every single one of my followers and mutuals... I'm so sorry, if you're reading this please consider yourself tagged and back-tag me with your replies
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cant-blink · 3 years
Text
Favorite and Least Favorite Ghidorah Incarnations
Probably gonna regret making this post, but it’s been a long time coming, so let’s do it. I guess I should warn, not suitable for people sensitive to opinions that might be different from their own. Can’t believe I have to say that about a list of fav Ghidorahs, but alas...
Anyway, enjoy!
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Let’s start with my Top 5 favorite Ghidorahs! Going from my most favorite down! All five of these are amazing and any one can easily become my #1 at any given time! :D But at the moment, my number 1 is...
Showa Ghidorah
Showa Ghidorah should come to nobody’s surprise, given how much I’ve been writing about him lately! I admit though, it wasn’t always like this. It took some time for him to grow on me, and he actually used to be one of my least favorite through design alone. But he has grown exponentially on me, and now I love everything about him! The manes are unique and I love the crescent moons on his heads too. His eyes are so big, and I feel they have more expression compared to other Ghidorahs. And the inspiration of the more traditional Eastern-style dragon is there in his face too. 
His backstory and personality, though, is what really got me to change my mind about the character. His personality is perfect as far as I’m concerned! Coming from space to destroy planets just for the lolz, cackling maniacally all the way! Even the fact he was mind-controlled was something for me to delve into in my stories, on how such a thing impacts the character. It really opened my eyes to the more subtle parts to his personality, like I realize that Ghiddy wants NOTHING to do with Earth. He tried to destroy it once and that failure is all he needed to know to stay away. The plot device of mind-control is used to keep him coming back in future movies! Even when he defeated Godzilla and Rodan, he chose to fly away back into space! There’s layers to his character if you look deep enough!
There’s just so much story-potential to this guy, I love it! Even in real life, he has an arc, going from one of my least favorites to being the top of this list! That’s definitely special!
Overall, a lot of love for this character, often wrestling with Legendary for the number 1 spot! Speaking of which...
Legendary Ghidorah
The one that started it all for me and they’re second on the list?! Blasphemy!! Nah, seriously though, Showa and Legendary really do often switch places for me all the time! Just right now, Showa has squeezed into the top spot. For now........
Anyway, Legendary Ghidorah needs no explanation for being a favorite incarnation of the character. Whilst Godzilla has always been a very vague presence in my life, KotM’s is what had me diving headfirst into the fandom, all because of Ghidorah. Their design is amazing, sleek and intimidating! The detail that they whip up storms just by flying creates an awesome menacing atmosphere everytime they’re on screen!
The personalities between the heads is unique, providing all sorts of material for my writer side to explore! Their backstory is left open for me to explore as well, like where they came from and how their species functions! It’s been a lot of fun! I may be slightly burnt out from how much I’ve written and posted about them, but make no mistake, I still ADORE this Ghidorah and I have them to thank for starting this whole page in the first place! 
Shin Ghidorah
That’s right, Shin Ghidorah exists in official TOHO canon and he needs more love!!
Shin Ghidorah was one I was introduced to not long after I learned Kamata-kun (oh, and Shin Godzilla) was a thing. With my obsession with Ghidorah, I wanted to know if there was a Ghidorah in the Shin universe and after some digging, I found that there was! Featured in a ride in Universal Studios Japan! And better yet, videos of it exists on youtube! I loved it the second I saw it! 
The design is amazing and surprisingly unique! This is because Shin Ghidorah was originally a scrapped concept for the original Showa Ghidorah! Like, Shin Ghidorah is basically an oversized three-headed Skullcrawler with wings! Because you see those “legs” he has? Those are actually ARMS!! Ghidorah could’ve been a giant Skullcrawler all this time!!
I also love his movements, oddly enough. He doesn’t just fly, he SWIMS though the air, something I don’t recall seeing in any other Ghidorah!
The only thing I don’t like about him... is the fact that he wasn’t around longer! A shame the ride is so short, I would’ve LOVED to see more of him in a movie. Oh well...
Grand/Cretaceous Ghidorah
Both are the same individual, so they’re both in this entry! I remember learning about him through a video talking about Ghidorah’s most sadistic moment and this was it. Grand Ghidorah kidnaps children with the sole intent to devour them, but he doesnt eat them right away, no. He holds them hostage to stew in their terror, returning to them every so often just to listen to their screams and cries. You know he’s enjoying every minute, knowing he’s torn families apart. Without a doubt, all this is just a game before he destroys the world as Ghiddys do. The way he toyed with Mothra Leo, leaving him to suffer after beating him to near-death. Or the way he possessed one of the Mothra twins to try to kill her own sister! It was great! He has such a regal design too! I can see why the fanbase have come to call him Grand King Ghidorah, he’s absolutely majestic. Shame he’s overshadowed, likely due to not being in a Godzilla movie.
Cretaceous Ghidorah has a more Western-dragon look to him and it works. He is basically a baby Ghidorah and he is so cute! His big eyes and squeaky roars, I love it! He also SOMEHOW made me feel sorry for my least favorite dinosaur! That's some true power right there!
The regeneration ability too, is amazing! This is likely where Legendary got the idea, but Grand does it better by regenning from just a small piece of tail left behind. Just badass, all around!
Void Ghidorah
A controversial pick, I know. I made a whole post about my detailed thoughts on Void Ghidorah, see here. Long story short: I think he has great potential, just suffered from piss poor execution. I love the idea of turning this alien dragon into an interdimensional GOD, with followers and everything. His full-body model looks amazing! He’s the biggest and most powerful Ghidorah yet, the biggest kaiju in the entire franchise in fact, and I don’t see him ever being topped. Granted, I dun really judge how much I like a kaiju based on how strong they are, but it’s a bonus here. He needs all the help he can get!
Adding more, his roars are insane, not just a combination of Showa and Heisei Ghidorah! But sounds that are truly otherworldly.
Void Ghidorah deserves love, and a better movie. Guess I’ll just settle on Godzilla: Star-eating Wings as the go-to Void Ghidorah video!
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I have no real opinion on the new ride Ghidorah, as I have yet to watch the full "movie” and thus, can’t judge how well I’ll like it compared to the others. So for now, tis neutral.
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Now I’m totally going to get hate for this list of “least favorite Ghidorahs”, but this is my opinion. I don’t like any of them, and they’re all outshined by my favorite non-Ghidorah kaijus, and some even being beaten by my “meh” kaijus! Anyway, this is gonna go from “best” least favorite to my “worst” least favorite. Here goes:
Heisei/Mecha-Ghidorah
Tis no secret that I don’t particularly like Heisei’s version of the character. I’ve mentioned it more than enough. Oddly though, I liked the design when I first looked through Ghidorahs from past movies, and I DISLIKED Showa Ghidorah’s design. How things have changed when I learned more about both of them... 
Now I’ve grown to not like Heisei very much. They took Ghidorah as an alien dragon that destroys planets for fun, and turned him into pets that I’m sure are meant to be cute, but just remind me of Furby’s in how creepy they are (tis not the good kind of creepy either!). I like the scrapped idea of him being an attempt to clone Showa Ghidorah from DNA left behind when he destroyed Venus, so I keep that canon in my head just for some attempt to like him more. Tis why I call him “Kitty Ghiddy” whenever I write him, I legit cannot take him seriously. Such a shame that he’s basically replaced Showa Ghiddy on merchandise, so it’s harder for me to find said Showa Ghiddy because of this thing. Oh, well.
Oh, and he replaced the BIDIBIDI of Showa with generic Rodan calls. And he also turns into a good guy at the end of the movie with Mecha-Ghidorah, and.... well, go down to the next entry for my thoughts on stuff like that.
GMK Ghidorah
He’s a good guy here. They nerfed the fuck out of him by having him be a juvenile (not even done well like Cretaceous Ghidorah), and turned him into a good guy. Granted, he was never meant to be in this movie in the first place and it shows. I’m a villain kind of person, and Ghidorah’s evilness is one of the biggest draws to his character for me. So taking that away... It just doesn’t work for me. It says something when I like GODZILLA more than Ghidorah in a movie. His design is okay, so at least he has that going. But...
Desghidorah
I really don’t like the design of the character. That’s literally it. I think four-legged Ghidorahs are very awkward looking; Ghidorah has a lot going on as is, three heads, two wings, two legs, two tails. Adding more legs... it’s just too much going on that tips the scales from ‘awesome’ to ‘messy’ in my mind. I can’t explain too well why I really don’t like the four-legged look to Ghidorahs, I just really don’t. But credit, he does pull off the look slightly better than the last one on my list.
AND MY LEAST FAVORITE GHIDORAH AND LIKELY TO GET A MOB ON ME IS.....
Keizer Ghidorah/Monster X
“An awkward horse” is what someone described him to me as, and I can’t help but agree. Again, that four-legged look breaks it for me but somehow, he looks EVEN MORE awkward than Des. I just can’t look passed it. Maybe it’s the front legs, or the wings looking too small for his body. Des just LOOKS a bit more natural in his four-legged-ness. 
Making it worse for me, Keizer has a second form that I REALLY don’t like: Monster X. They don’t even resemble each other. I can’t help but feel MX was supposed to be his own Kaiju, but they felt pressured to make Ghidorah the final boss so they combined them. Dunno if that’s the case, but it feels like that to me. Not even getting into the “how the hell does a dragon come out of THAT, where does it all GO when he changes back?”. And the biggest thing: I don’t like human-looking characters. I don’t care for human characters at all in any sort of media, or anything that resembles humans too closely. I skip human scenes entirely just to get to the monsters. Tis why I don’t really care for gijinkas either. As far as I’m concerned, I like the kaiju for being kaiju, and making them human just takes away all things interesting.
If Ghidorah kept everything intact about his personality, but you made him human... I wouldn’t even give his character a second glance, much less devote my Tumblr page to him! But yeah, tangent over. Monster X just looks too human for my tastes. 
Plus, tis hard to compete for my attention when you’re in the same movie as FW Gigan! It says something when Showa Gigan and Showa Ghidorah can share the screen and I love them both, but FW Gigan completely outshines FW Ghidorah...
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So there we go, a complete list of my thoughts for every Ghidorah incarnation that I can think of. Hopefully I didn’t miss any. Again, these are my opinions and you’re free to like whatever Ghidorah. I’mma sleep now.
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sparxwrites · 3 years
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(to people who follow me for quality content from high-class fandoms: i’m sorry. to the people who follow me for everything else: you’re welcome! gift for the lovely @thequackcity​ (who is nonetheless deeply problematic for making me watch dsmp content; it’s a good thing i like you), based off of this post of hers. if you want 2.5hrs worth of context, the video this is a partial redux of is here.)
cw for blood, gore, violence, (canonical) temporary character death, eye trauma, non-consensual hair cutting
[ao3]
“I can’t help but feel that this whole trial thing is kind of a farce, here,” says Technoblade, as calmly as he can in what is functionally a cage. He presses his face up against the bars, and offers his captors a deceptively pleasant smile. He hopes they get a good look at how large and pointed his tusks are, jutting out from behind his lips. At the fact he doesn’t, technically speaking, need a weapon to tear their throats open. “Like, maybe, you’ve just already…”
Quackity grins right back, his teeth small and human and underwhelming. “Technoblade, Technoblade,” he interrupts, unbearably smug, unbearably boring.
The same asshole that spent his time riding around on Schlatt’s coattails, trying to pull the man’s strings with inexpert fingers and failing dismally, is now trying to be condescending. To act superior to him, Techoblade. It’s laughable. He’s doing a better job puppetting Tubbo, Technoblade will grant him that – but that’s not exactly hard. The bar is on the floor with that one.
The whole thing is, in Technoblade’s opinion, vaguely pathetic. The whole president play-pretend, the whole farcical execution, the whole of Quackity’s sad little existence… all of it.
“…Like you’ve already determined the outcome,” he continues, because the last thing he’s going to do is let this damn stooge interrupt him. He has no interest in contributing to Quackity’s depressing delusions of power and control.
There’s a sinking feeling starting in his stomach, though. Or rather, there’s a sinking feeling completing itself in his stomach, because it’d started the moment he’d realised there was a hunting party out for him.
“This is not actually a trial,” Quackity says.
What a surprise, Technoblade manages not to say, through an exercise in supreme self-control and a creeping sense of dread.
“Do you see that shadow on top of that?” Quackity points upward, to the enormous tower looming over the cage. “When we press that lever down there, what we’re gonna do is– it’s gonna drop on you, and it’s gonna fucking kill you.”
“Ah.”
The creeping sense of dread solidifies into a cold sort of certainty. The totem of undying suddenly feels very heavy in his pocket.
“This is not a trial, Technoblade,” crows Quackity, and honestly, he doesn’t have to look so happy about it. “We’re going to kill you.”
“Yeah, this is an execution,” echoes Tubbo. The determination, the righteous anger, in his voice is kind of entertaining. It’d be more entertaining if Technoblade wasn’t the executee under discussion, but hey, he’ll take what he can get.
“Y’know,” he says, “seems to me like you could’ve saved me the world’s worst Uber ride by just murdering me back at my place, if this is what you were planning all along. Would’ve been much easier for everyone involved.”
“Listen here, you little shit,” Quackity snarls, and sticks a hand through the bars to grab Technoblade by the hair, yanking him forward, nearly chipping a tusk on the iron and pressing his face uncomfortably against the unyielding bars. “This is democracy. This is– this is justice, alright. We’re not going to just kill you in a field, like we’re animals. No. There’s a process that’s got to be followed here. This isn’t a murder. It’s an execution. There’s a process, okay?”
“Sound like,” manages Technoblade, twisting in Quackity’s grip, “you’re making excuses for yourself.”
“He’s winding you up, Quackity,” drawls Fundy, from somewhere beyond Quackity’s line of sight. “Ignore him, c’mon, let’s get this over and done with.”
“Yeah, well. I can do that too.” There’s suddenly a knife in Quackity’s other hand, and the blade flashes through the air close enough to Technoblade’s face that he flinches, and then it’s gone before he can even really tell what’s happened. “We’ve won, Technoblade. Don’t forget that. I’ve won.”
His braid is still in Quackity’s grip. There’s no longer a tugging at his scalp from the pull. There’s something brushing against his temples, the back of neck, faint and feathery. His braid– is no longer–
He stumbles backwards in horror, hands flying to map over his head, the suddenly-unfamiliar contours of it. The hair beneath his fingers is short, unthinkably short, the ends ragged, the length uneven. Ruined.
Technoblade’s never liked to think of himself as a vain man, but there’s a rage that sets itself burning in his veins at the realisation of his loss. Taking his weapons – that, he could understand. It was practical. A sensible precaution. He himself would have done the same thing, were the situations reversed. But this? This is humiliation, pure and simple. This is a coward’s play.
He’s never liked cowards, either.
“Happy dying, Technoblade,” sneers Quackity, face pressed up against the bars, teeth bared in a nasty grin. He brandishes the stolen braid like a dead snake, a war trophy. “I’ve heard anvil’s a bad way to go. I hope it fucks you up real good. I hope it hurts.”
Technoblade roars, slams himself back up against the bars – he might, if he’s lucky, be able to gore Quackity through them with his tusks, the overconfident, cowardly, weaselly bastard. But Quackity dances backwards, light on his feet, untouched.
“Tubbo,” he says, and smiles a smile that should be illegal, a smile that should be knocked off his arrogant fucking face, a smile that should be shattered, “could you please do the honours of explaining to our whole entire team what’s going on here?”
Blood, chant the voices in the back of Technoblade’s head, blood, blood.
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There’s Punz, and there’s dynamite, and there’s so many damn projectiles flying everywhere that Technoblade is briefly dizzied by it. And then there’s Ghostbur – sweet, stupid Ghostbur and his blue goddamn sheep and complete goddamn lack of situational fucking awareness – and then the bars of the cage won’t bend or break or shift, and then Quackity pulls the fucking lever– and then–
And then–
Quackity was right. The anvil hurts like a bitch.
The resurrection hurts worse.
His hair does not resurrect along with him, but he has bigger agonies to deal with in the moment. Shattered bone and smeared flesh pull themself together from streaks across the floor. His skull rearranges itself, picks fragments out of pierced brain and pieces them back together like a puzzle. Organs reshuffle and un-pulp, blood fights gravity to flow back into his veins, teeth re-find their place in re-forming gums. One leg twists itself through one-eighty degrees with a series of sick, almost mechanical crunches.
Technoblade laughs through it, through the feeling of wet, punctured lungs struggling to reinflate, manic and hysterical and not fucking dead.
The cage around him lays in shattered ruins, metal bars bent and twisted from the impact. The Butchers are howling, furious and bewildered by the sudden proof of their own failure. Their own powerlessness. Their own impotence.
And Technoblade? Technoblade has never felt so alive.
He jumps free of the wreckage with a whoop, ignoring the shouts that follow him, ignoring his left hand still reconstituting itself in layers of muscle and fat and the cartilage of his snout crunching back into place. There’s his horse in the distance, and– Dream, which is a little out of left field, but whatever. He can work with that. He can work with anything, right now, as long as it’s not the Butcher Army with another fucking anvil.
And so Technoblade – alive, so gloriously alive, with no cage capable of holding him, no weapon capable of killing him, no need to ignore the baying for blood that sings loud and beautiful through his skull any longer – runs.
-
“Did you really think, Quackity, that you could kill me that easily?” Techoblade says, teeth bared, head bare, hands white-knuckled around the shaft of the pickaxe. “You think death can stop me?”
It’s dark, down here in this weird cave system that Dream’s led him into, lit only by torches. Not too dark to commit a murder, though. His plait’s tucked into Quackity’s apron strings, stark pink against dark blue, an obscene trophy – and for that alone, for that insult alone, Quackity has to die.
For the desecration of Technoblade’s dignity, for the insult of parading Technoblade’s shame around like an accessory– for that, he plans to make it hurt.
“I don’t care how long it takes me, or what I have to do to get you, Techno, I’m going to fucking kill you,” promises Quackity.
Though he doesn’t know it yet, he’s just told a lie. Technoblade has no intentions of dying, let alone at Quackity’s hand. What an embarrassment that would be, taken out by the guy who couldn’t even properly manipulate his own puppet presidents. No. No, that wouldn’t be happening any time soon. Or ever, in fact. He intends to ensure that every word that’s just come out of Quackity’s mouth is a lie.
“I have a pickaxe, and I’l put it through your teeth,” Technoblade promises in return. Unlike Quackity, he’s not lying. He means it.
Though– technically speaking, he lies too, in the end. And Technoblade… Technoblade is all about the technical details.
He puts the pickaxe through Quackity’s eye, technically speaking. He digs it into the eye socket deep enough to shatter something, drags the wicked-sharp point down Quackity’s face. The reverb of metal grinding against bone vibrates up his arms, makes his shoulders ache, until he shoves the pick into Quackity’s mouth and wrenches it free with a spray of blood and gore.
Two teeth pull loose with the motion, skittering through the blood spattering the floor, and Technoblade considers his promise fulfilled.
Quackity barely has time to scream. But god, that half a second of howling pain– the sound of it, sweet and high and full of horror– that brief moment of audible, incandescent agony before the brain realises it’s dead–
Technoblade stands over the corpse, blood-spattered, shaking with the adrenaline hit, grinning. He’s missed this. Oh, how he’s missed this.
The voices have, too, making their clamouring, raucous approval known somewhere just behind his right ear. Blood, they sing, blood, blood!, as though Quackity’s face ripped open in a mutilated line from forehead to chin just isn’t enough for them.
“Play stupid games,” he pants, slinging the pickaxe over his shoulder and staring down at the corpse. It’ll fade in a moment when the fine mesh of the respawn grabs it, drags it under, but for now there’s brain leaking out of Quackity’s eye socket and crimson pooling in his mouth and Technoblade’s blood sings at the sight of it. The smell of it. “Win stupid prizes. You should’ve known better than to fuck with me, Quackity. You should’ve known better than to face me one on one. You should’ve known.”
The corpse, unsurprisingly, has no reply.
That’s fine. He doesn’t need one. He’s gotten pretty good at talking to himself, in his retirement. The voices are all the audience he needs.
For a moment, he considers taking his hair back – and dismisses the idea as pitiful almost before it’s fully formed. What is there to do with it? Keep it as a relic, to be mourned over? Use it to fuel his revenge? Try to glue it back onto his damn head? Even thinking about it makes him feel vaguely pathetic.
He takes Quackity’s teeth, instead. They’re tiny, fragile, and he briefly considers grinding them to dust beneath the toe of his boot. Instead, he stoops to pick them up, delicately, between thumb and forefinger. Perhaps he can do something fun with them. He’s been wanting a new pair of earrings for a while now.
“Enjoy your trophy,” he says, bouncing the teeth in his palm, absent, casual. Quackity’s corpse succumbs to the respawn, dissolves into light and then darkness and then nothing. “Hope it was worth it.”
He slips the teeth into his pocket, takes hold of Carl’s bridle with one hand, drags the other through his newly-shorn hair. His head’s cold, and the weight’s all wrong, and the texture beneath his fingers makes him shudder. No matter. In time, it’ll grow back. In time, he’ll regain what he lost.
Somehow, he doesn’t think Quackity’s eye will be so lucky. And if it is, well… It’s a good thing Technoblade’s found himself newly out of retirement. They’ll be able to try again. And again. And again.
As many times as it takes for the message to stick.
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lazyliars · 3 years
Text
A Theory on Canon Lives
Canon lives have always been a subject for debate, both within the story and in the meta around it. The idea has received mixed responses from fans; criticism for how it confuses the storytelling (namely, what constitutes a “canon” death, versus a normal one) and punishes non-PVPers, who need to walk on eggshells when dealing with geared people, and praise for adding a heightened sense of stakes and weight to character’s decisions.
However, I’ve been sitting on a theory about canon lives since they were confirmed by Wilbur, and recent events have me re-evaluating it’s relevancy in the current story-line.
So, lets start by looking at the two* canonically dead characters we have so far.
Schlatt: Jschlatt was the first person to lose all three lives and die.  His first death came from Techno at the festival, in the crossfire of Tubbo’s execution. His second, from Quackity after Schlatt basically disowned him. His final death was via heart attack or stroke, when he was alone and surrounded by the people he’d hurt and failed.
Wilbur: Our second canon death was Wilbur. He lost his first life in the same place the rest of the L’manberg OG’s did, the final control room, with Eret. His second was by Punz during his escape from Schlatt at the election. His third was by Philza, after he’d blown up L’manberg, begging his dad to kill him for what he’d done.
*(Note; Mexican Dream and Jack Manifold have also lost all three canon lives, and Jack came back again with all three lives restored.
However, the validity of considering them canon with regards to this theory is uncertain, for two separate reasons:
Mexican Dream because his existence is one of the most enigmatic on the server and his life and deaths follow suit,
And Jack because he hasn’t to my knowledge been involved with the writing of the greater SMP story-line, so his take on canon lives might only apply to himself. )
The pattern remains consistent throughout – the final death occurs at a moment of hopelessness, when the character in question cannot imagine a way out. Neither of them technically die to suicide, but they both lose the will to continue living - Wilbur actually begging for death.
So, I propose that third canon deaths cannot occur unless a person wants to stop living. This would mean that for a bulk of the server, canon deaths functionally do not exist.
But this would make the entire cast basically immortal! Why would they treat their lives as precious if they only risk dying when they actually want to?
And that brings me into the second half of this theory – that NO ONE on the server knows that canon deaths are optional, except for Dream.
Now how would Dream learn about the canon lives? How would he know that they weren't real, even after death was demonstrated in front of him just as clearly as the rest of the SMP?
Jschlatt was the first Canon Death. Before he died, he made a deal with Dream; In return for fighting alongside him, Schlatt gave Dream a book containing information that Dream believed was dangerous even to him. The contents of that book are still unknown to this day, and we still don't have a good grasp on what someone like Schlatt could've possibly had to tempt someone like Dream.
Considering Schlatt was the first to die, It's possible that his death itself was part of the deal; a deal made by an alcoholic man with nothing to live for, willing to die to spite the people who would survive him, and leave them under the thumb of an even bigger tyrant than him.
Wilbur too, made a deal with Dream just before he died. Both the people who made deals with Dream died soon after, one entirely of his accord, permanently. Something that had never happened before on the server.
People have criticized the Canon Life System for unfairly favoring the PVPers, perhaps none more than Dream himself – and it's true, after canon lives were introduced, Dream suddenly became an even bigger threat. But if canon lives are a lie? Then a huge portion of the power Dream holds over the server is also a lie.
Dream's goals always orient around gaining control over others, to what ends we still don't know. But his go-to method of dealing with rebellious groups and individuals has always been to contain and threaten important objects. He threatens to kill only when his other methods fail. We see this most obviously with Tommy's Exile.
During the exile, Dream constantly focuses on punishing Tommy using things – his armor, his builds, Logstedshire – and only ever threatens death when Tommy asks to go back to the SMP. He also stops Tommy from Looking Menacingly Into Lava, which could actually kill him; but if canon lives aren't set in stone, and Tommy wasn't far gone enough for the death to actually take? The ruse would be up, and Dream's power would be drastically diminished.
There are many times that killing someone outright would be easier for Dream; Exiling Tommy in the first place could have been replaced with taking his last life. Or threatening to kill him, or Tubbo or any of the Cabinet. But instead, Dream opts to build a wall around L'manberg. It's almost like Dream has a vested interest in no one losing their third life.
Cat and Mellohi alone are basically Dream’s main method of controlling Tommy and Tubbo, who are both on their last life and have little means to defend themselves. He could threaten to kill them in order to assert control, but what if they called his bluff? Would he actually kill them?
It also makes sense why Tommy is so frustrating to Dream; he’s the worst combination of suicidally reckless and unendingly determined, that if he died there’s no way he wouldn’t come back, and there is also every chance he’ll get himself killed. He’s the most likely person to see through the lie.
And in my opinion, that's the lens through which Dream's actions make the most sense; if he's doing everything he can to prevent anyone from learning that he isn't the only immortal, it puts all of his actions into perspective.
...
So, if this earth-shattering, red-string, challenge-the-fundamental-rules-of-the-story type theory turned out to be true, what would that mean for the future of the server?
Well, it comes back to the Status Quo. Control. Chaos. Amusement. For the server to be one big happy family. Each of these pillars is benefited by people living in fear of death. It makes them easy to control, makes them run like mice in the face of the powerful, and can end with them growing closer due to the shared trauma.
But what if someone learned the truth? What if someone was killed in a way that couldn't be anything but canon, and came back anyway?
Then there would be need of a place to put those people. Somewhere secure, isolated. Somewhere they couldn't ever spread the word and disrupt the game. Somewhere that could house people who can't die.
Somewhere with enough room to hold an entire server of people who can't die.
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35 notes · View notes
kbstories · 3 years
Text
impression//expression
“It’s not like Kirishima had come all this way to U.A. to immediately break the promise he made to himself upon arrival.
It’s just that Bakugou is as feral as they come, and the moment Kirishima recognizes it’s fear he felt crawling up his spine that day, he makes it his personal mission to face it head-on until it’s gone.”
(Or: Being friends with Bakugou Katsuki is anything but a linear experience. Kirishima Eijirou would have it no other way.)
Tags: Kirishima POV, Developing Friendships, Domestic Fluff, Bakusquad, An Extended Scene About The Joys And Pains of Dyeing Hair
Chapter 1. Chapter 2. Chapter 3. Chapter 4. Chapter 5. Chapter 6. No additional content warnings apply. Chapter 8. Chapter 9.
***
⚡💖⛰️🎸📼
You have added Best Bakubro 💣💥!
You have changed the name from “⚡💖⛰️🎸📼” to “⚡💖💣⛰️🎸📼”!
hehehe we’re all set (sent 12:10)
welcome baku!! 💪🏻 (sent 12:10)
God 💡: 👀 (received 12:11)
Simply Mina: 👀👀 (received 12:11)
MT Tape: 👀 (received 12:11)
Best Bakubro 💣💥: shitty hair (received 12:13)
you promised!!! (sent 12:13)
no take backs 👀 (sent 12:13)
Best Bakubro 💣💥: fuck (received 12:13)
Best Bakubro 💣💥: okay two things (received 12:13)
Best Bakubro 💣💥: one i’m muting this so @ me or fuck off (received 12:14)
Best Bakubro 💣💥: two give me your names (received 12:14)
God 💡: wait srsly?? (received 12:15)
God 💡: c’mon bro it’s been months :( (received 12:15)
Simply Mina: yea wth blasty that’s so cold :(( (received 12:15)
MT Tape: answer the people explosion man @Best Bakubro 💣💥 (received 12:17)
Best Bakubro 💣💥: fine you’re staying random numbers then (received 12:18)
God 💡: OH (received 12:18)
God 💡: kaminari denki here!! (received 12:18)
MT Tape: this is sero 🙏🏻 (received 12:18)
Simply Mina: mina!!! (received 12:19)
Simply Mina: @Guitar Hero is kyoka 💖 (received 12:19)
Best Bakubro 💣💥
who? (received 12:19)
-
jirou!! (sent 12:19)
-
? (received 12:19)
-
🔌 (sent 12:20)
-
ah (received 12:20)
⚡💖💣⛰️🎸📼
Best Bakubro 💣💥: k (received 12:20)
God 💡: anyways (received 12:22)
God 💡: this is the best day of my life (received 12:22)
Best Bakubro 💣💥: shut it jolteon (received 12:22)
God 💡: dude i didn’t even @ u asdfkjsfk (received 12:22)
God 💡: wait omg is that an upgrade?? (received 12:23)
God 💡: did i get upgraded from pikachu to jolteon omg omg (received 12:23)
MT Tape: DIBS ON UMBREON (received 12:23)
MT Tape: we’re picking eeveelutions right? (received 12:23)
-
!!!! pls pls flareon pls!!! (sent 12:24)
-
Simply Mina: espeon or sylveon (received 12:24)
Simply Mina: espeon or sylveon??? (received 12:25)
Simply Mina: GUYS (received 12:25)
Best Bakubro 💣💥: this is a nightmare (received 12:25)
Best Bakubro 💣💥: and wtf espeon of course (received 12:26)
Best Bakubro 💣💥: better stats and none of that affection shit (received 12:26)
Simply Mina: the council has spoken (received 12:26)
-
what about flareon??? (sent 12:27)
plsplspls (sent 12:27)
-
Best Bakubro 💣💥: kirishima (received 12:27)
Best Bakubro 💣💥: it’s red. (received 12:28)
-
HELL YEAH ❤️ (sent 12:28)
-
Guitar Hero: hi what the HELL are you guys spamming about (received 12:30)
Guitar Hero: oh hey bakugou (received 12:30)
Best Bakubro 💣💥: plugs you’re glaceon (received 12:31)
Guitar Hero: i’m cool with that (received 12:31)
Best Bakubro 💣💥: good (received 12:31)
MT Tape: ok kiri i think i get it now (received 12:34)
MT Tape: putting every decision thru the baku filter is so much more fun (received 12:34)
right??? (sent 12:34)
-
Best Bakubro 💣💥: don’t fucking start (received 12:35)
Simply Mina: too late <3 (received 12:35)
God 💡: our trap card activated the moment you stepped into this chat man (received 12:36)
MT Tape: Bakugou Katsuki has been designated Chief Executive Brain (CEB) of the squad, effective immediately. (received 12:36)
Best Bakubro 💣💥: i’m leaving (received 12:37)
-
:( (sent 12:37)
-
MT Tape: … 👀 (received 12:40)
MT Tape: he ain’t leaving huh? (received 12:44)
God 💡: kiri’s puppy eyes once again confirmed as world’s strongest force (received 12:45)
Simply Mina: it’s kiri so we’re all safe tho <3 (received 12:45)
-
<3 (sent 12:45)
-
Best Bakubro 💣💥: for the record i hate all of you (received 12:46)
*
⚡💖💣⛰️🎸📼
Simply Mina: hey hey blasty (received 14:48)
Simply Mina: which eeveelution are you? (received 14:48)
Simply Mina: @Best Bakubro 💣💥 (received 14:50)
God 💡: 👀👀 (received 14:50)
👀 (sent 14:50)
-
MT Tape: 👀 (received 14:51)
Guitar Hero: ^ what they said (received 14:53)
Best Bakubro 💣💥: eevee, duh (received 14:56)
Best Bakubro 💣💥: i don’t need a type advantage to win (received 14:56)
-
😭 bro so manly (sent 14:56)
also (sent 14:57)
You have changed the name from “⚡💖💣⛰️🎸📼” to “🦊 Eevee Squad 🦊”!
-
Best Bakubro 💣💥: fucking fantastic. can we shut up now? (received 15:00)
*
Best Bakubro 💣💥
see? told u it’s fun 💪🏻 (sent 15:01)
-
i guess (received 15:02)
-
like i said u can just ignore the chat if ur not feeling it (sent 15:10)
they’re cool, they won’t mind (sent 15:10)
+ i’ll text u stuff directly if it’s important (sent 15:12)
-
kiri (received 15:12)
-
ok ok hhh just saying (sent 15:12)
i know (received 15:13)
you got that shit for ectoplasm yet? (received 15:17)
-
ummm (sent 15:17)
-
fucking knew it (received 15:17)
you coming or what? (received 15:22)
-
!!! o7 (sent 15:22)
*
Bakugou is staring.
Eyes on the page, Kirishima tries to focus on the function he’s been struggling to get for fifteen minutes now. Something about tangents and right angles? No, cotangents, which is different from a non-cotangent tangent because–
Bakugou has stopped writing a while ago, the fabric-covered pen resting loosely in his hand, his head propped up on a fist.
–the cosine does… something with the sine of X. Division? Maybe? X pops up in a bunch of places, actually, and Kirishima longs for the days math still featured numbers and not whatever nonsense this cos-sin-tan stuff is–
Bakugou is staring right at him, has been for ages now and Kirishima can’t help it. He looks up, only to catch Bakugou looking away, and huffs a nervous chuckle.
“Bro, c’mon. What’s up? Is there something on my face ‘cause you’ve been–”
“It’s black.” There’s a pensive twist to Bakugou’s brow. He breezes through the part of the problem Kirishima’s stuck on like it’s nothing, scribbled down in permanent ink like the monster he is. “Your natural haircolor. It’s black, right?”
“Uh, yeah?”
Kirishima picks his head up from where he’s slumped across Bakugou’s desk, the bean bag he’s sitting on shifting under his butt. Since when does Bakugou care about his hair? It hasn’t been black for over a year, anyways, so what does that have to do with…
“Wait, why do you–”
Bakugou’s eyes wander back to him, landing on Kirishima’s hair for barely a second but it’s enough. With a mortified noise, Kirishima slaps both his hands over his forehead – or more specifically, his roots.
Because Kirishima completely forgot he’s overdue on a redye for a good week and styled his hair as he usually does: gel evenly spread into carefully towel-dried strands, quirk on until it dries, done. He hadn’t looked into a mirror before heading to class or he would’ve seen his tips straying from cherry red to berry pink.
And that jet-black line where it’s growing back out. The roots that are the bane of Kirishima’s existence and that Bakugou saw.
Kirishima groans, curling into himself until his head hits wood with a dull donk. “How bad is it? Don’t spare me, bro, I need to know.”
That rhymes, the part of his brain not burning in the hellfire of shame chimes in. Kirishima firmly tells it to shut up.
“Your hair?”, Bakugou asks from an unknown realm beyond the bit of desk Kirishima’s staring at, a beat late. Probably to treat him to a glare he can’t see.
Kirishima rubs his forehead across his math homework in a miserable nod.
“It’s not more or less shitty than usual, Shitty Hair.” Bakugou scoffs. “What’s the big deal?”
“Oh, nothing”, Kirishima shrugs, his voice a fake-cheerful mumble, “Just that I’ve been walking around like this all day. A whole ass day. Kill me, now.”
“Nah. Wasn’t the idea to ‘die like a man in chivalrous battle’?”
Kirishima shoots him a dirty look. Bakugou doesn’t even bat an eye; he flashes his teeth in a bright smile and knocks his fists against each other, whispering “manly” under his breath and okay, why does Bakugou have to be good at everything, including impersonating Kirishima?
“I hate you”, grumbles Kirishima. Bakugou breaks character to cackle, only stopping after Kirishima balls up his pitiful attempt at math to throw it at his head. Bull’s eye, right on the forehead.
“Oi! That’s your homework, moron.”
“You started it”, Kirishima points at him with his pencil. His notepad is pulled closer with a deep, long sigh. “Now I gotta do this stuff again and stress about my hair. Amazing.”
Ah, the God-help-me eyeroll. It’s been a while. “Just go fucking dye it and come back if it bothers you so much. Can’t be that hard.”
“Says the blond guy”, Kirishima huffs. “Dude, do you even know how long getting rid of this” – a gesture to his roots – “takes? Black hair is a pain to bleach. Literally.”
Bakugou considers his hair with a frown. “…How long are we talking here? Like, an hour?”
A laugh, louder than Kirishima intends. “Try three. Sometimes more, it depends.”
“Three hours?!”
“Or more.”
A little smug, Kirishima watches disbelief bloom on Bakugou’s face. When it comes to this, destroying the innocence of the uninitiated is the only joy he’s got. There’s really nothing fun about sitting through those hours every six weeks, give or take – just plain, boring routine. At least he isn’t anxious about making mistakes anymore, not like his first few times.
It’s definitely worth it, though. Kirishima loves his red hair.
“And it, what. It hurts?”
Bakugou is still processing it seems, a hand going to his own hair. (It looks so soft, that even light color Kirishima has envied since the beginning of time. Such a nice base for any type of dye, especially bright ones or pastels.)
Kirishima scrunches his nose. “The developer does, yeah. Anything over 9% makes your scalp burn like crazy so I stick to 9% and do multiple rounds. I can’t go light enough for the red I want, otherwise.”
“And then the dye?”
“Then you dye it, yeah. Roots first, then the lengths in small strands, let it sit for twenty more minutes or so, rinse it out and then you’re done.”
It’s weird to explain things that have become totally obvious to him step by step, but Bakugou looks strangely fascinated by what he’s hearing. He does likes things to be more complicated than simple in basically any regard, Kirishima muses with a private snicker. Perhaps it’s not that surprising, after all.
“I use pure red on everything but you can mix colors, too, there’s a whole science behind that. And if you decide ‘Hey, I haven’t suffered enough!’, you can do individual highlights as well. But that’s a production all in itself! Ask Kami, he does some wild things to get that lightning bolt just right.”
Bakugou slowly shakes his head. “You people are crazy. That can’t be worth it.” He squints at Kirishima, hums to himself and starts nodding, instead. Vaguely terrified of what’s brewing in that brain of his, Kirishima waits for him to finish thinking.
“Let’s do it.”
There it is, a suitably terrible idea. Also: What?
“Color or highlights?” Kirishima sputters. “Wait, you or me? Bro, I can live with my own mistakes but dyeing your hair is too much pressure. Like, I’ll do it if you really want me to but, um–”
“Color. And you, obviously. Who of us is freaking out about hair, huh? Sure as fuck ain’t me.”
I’m not freaking out about it, Kirishima wants to say. Okay, he had been freaking out a little. Maybe. Not anymore, not with the mental image of Bakugou with Riot-red hair sort of making his braincells implode.
It’s impossible to imagine. Kirishima tries to anyways, fails, shakes his head. Focus!
“But…”
He draws a blank. Actually, Bakugou helping him with his hair does sound kind of fun. Until his patience inevitably runs out and he explodes the pot of dye, or something. Which could be hilarious, too.
“…Homework?”
(Not that he particularly wants to go back to puzzling over non-tangent cotangents – Ectoplasm always seems to know when he didn’t do the thing, though, and Kirishima hates disappointing his teachers more than he does the variable X.)
Bakugou sparks off in his direction. “We got three hours. 'nuff said.” He snatches up the math book they were sharing, Kirishima’s notepad and even the pencil out of his hand, and is out the room before Kirishima has fully registered they’re doing this.
“Shitty Hair!”
Kirishima jumps to his feet.
“Coming!”
*
“This is so damn messy. How’s your bathroom not stained to hell already?”
Coming up on their third round over his bathroom sink, Kirishima feels little sleepy as he blinks up at Bakugou. That expression of intense concentration hasn’t budged all three rounds, Bakugou’s hands steady yet gentle where they’re starting to dab red dye over freshly bleached roots.
There’s a dot of crimson on his cheek already. After forcing gloves on Bakugou and explaining to him how red pigment is the hardest to wash out – on clothes, skin, hair, wherever it lands – Kirishima isn’t inclined to point it out to him just yet.
“I asked admin about it. They said everything in our rooms is practically indestructible, including the sinks.”
“Huh.”
“Yeah, right? They thought of everything, it seems.”
Bakugou continues. Kirishima dozes.
“Your hair is dry as fuck, by the way.”
Kirishima shrugs with his eyes closed, following the nudge to turn his head so Bakugou can get to the back. This is so much more comfortable than doing it by himself.
“Can’t be helped, man. The dye by itself is fine, actually, it’s the bleach that’s causes most of the damage. Oh well, with the gel it’s hard as concrete, anyways.”
“Mhmm. You’ll go bald by the time we’re outta here.”
“Hey!”
“Bald Hero: Red Riot”, Bakugou muses out loud, easily evading the kick Kirishima blindly aims at his shin. “Stop it, you’re gonna fuck up my hard work here.”
He’s smiling though, Kirishima can tell. It’s all in his voice, roughness replaced by warmth when it’s the two of them in Kirishima’s tiny bathroom.
“Stop dissing my hair, then. Besides, I know your secret.”
This Kirishima wants to see. He opens one eye and yup, Bakugou’s brows are doing the thing where they twitch and pull together. Not exactly a frown, more caught off guard than anything. Bakugou’s lips press shut, stubbornly silent as he brushes dye on every inch of Kirishima's hair.
Then: “I’m done. What am I s’posed to do with this shit?”
Kirishima glances at the pot Bakugou holds out to him. There’s still some of the thick liquid left.
“Just pour it on top. Can’t hurt and it’s better than throwing it away.”
Bakugou does exactly that. He tosses the empty pot and the thoroughly stained brush into the sink. Kirishima helps him wrap his hair in cellophane and a towel to reduce the possible mess, relocating to the closed lid of his toilet so Bakugou can take off the gloves and wash his hands.
“Okay, I’ll fucking bite. What secret?”
Lingering on the tension between them, Kirishima grins with all the confidence in the world. “That you like my hair.”
Bakugou barks a laugh. “After I went all Van Gogh on it? You better believe it’s good.”
“Nope, I mean before that”, Kirishima challenges.
“Proof?”, Bakugou shoots back without hesitation.
“Oh, I can give you proof.” Kirishima’s arms cross over the ratty shirt he always wears for this, its fabric dotted and streaked in interlacing shades of red. “One, it’s the first thing you noticed about me, hence ‘Shitty Hair’. Two, you were distracted by my roots growing in so you pay attention to how it looks–”
“I don’t–”
“–and three, you just spent hours dyeing it for me.”
Bakugou’s mouth snaps shut. He growls in his throat, grabbing an additional towel and drying his hands. Kirishima wasn’t aware those are actions that can be done aggressively but hey, he’s learning something new every day.
“Maybe”, Bakugou finally concedes. The towel is thrown in Kirishima’s face when all he does is smile. “Shut up.”
“I didn’t say anything.”
Bakugou’s cheeks are dusted pink. Still, Kirishima shows the guy some mercy: Bakugou spent all afternoon fixing both his hair and his math homework, after all.
“Hey, Baku?”
“… What?”
“Thanks, man. You’re a good friend, you know that?”
Somehow, that makes Bakugou look even more flustered. “Whatever, Shitty Hair.”
Because Bakugou is Bakugou, namely a man who doesn’t know when or how to quit, he sticks around until Kirishima can rinse out the dye. He emerges from the shower feeling fully restored, a towel wrapped around his waist and his shirt draped over his shoulder.
“And that’s how you do it.”
Bakugou throws him a look from his sprawl on Kirishima’s bed, manga in hand. His gaze flicks to his hair immediately; his lips twist upwards, obviously satisfied.
“Told ya, it ain’t hard.”
Kirishima chuckles, shakes his head. “You’re so full of shit, dude.”
Now that the hair situation is under control for a few weeks, he realizes how hungry he is. The evening has barely begun, too, which means there’s time for a movie before Bakugou’s ridiculous sleep schedule comes a-knocking, either taking him out or making him cranky. Each scenario has about a fifty-fifty chance of happening.
“Hey, you wanna–”
Out of nowhere, his door bursts open to reveal one Kaminari Denki, out of breath and clutching a very familiar book to his chest.
“Kiri! Please tell me you guys figured out the–”
His eyes fall first on the splattered shirt on Kirishima’s shoulder, the trails of watery red dripping from his hair to his naked chest – and then on Bakugou, hands stained a faint red despite the gloves, that smear of color on his cheek Kirishima forgot to tell him about still very much there.
“Is that blood? What happened? Oh my–” Kaminari gasps. “Did you kill somebody?! Oh fuck, we have to hide the bo–”
“Kami”, Kirishima tries between bouts of laughter, “No, what the hell!”
A familiar cackle behind him does absolutely nothing to help their case.
>>Chapter 8.
41 notes · View notes
the8thsphynx · 3 years
Note
p,,, p l e a s e ? I mean, please don't feel pressured to tell us about Herc either though!!! but if you want to ramble about her I'll very happily listen,,,,, as a greek mythology buff with fate brain rot your Herc makes me,,,, very happy,,,,, 🥺
HECC YEAH!
Alright, so as a disclaimer, she looks Like That(tm) because I’ve had Heracles as an OC since I was like an 11yo, so LONG before I even knew Fate existed and I’m not planning on changing the way she looks to look more like FSF/FSN Herc.
I also think that the armor I already have designed on her looks closer to Achilles/Jason/Asclepius/Odysseus’s more mecha-centered looks for Fate Greek Servants.
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Next, I’ve established that the reason she is female is two separate reasons, and this has to do with compatibility for Roleplay:
When I did roleplay with others, I just had it set that she was from Musashi’s timeline and she isn’t actually the Heracles/Alcides of our timeline.
For my personal writing, it’s like an Artoria situation where history chose to remember her as a man because misogynistic Ancient Greece being like, ‘well there’s no way a woman could be a child of Zeus and this powerful and skilled at being in charge, so you must actually be a man’.
Second Disclaimer: no one has permission to take my designs and recreate them or use them for RP or fanfics.
SO listed below are the major points about her history in this verse and also how she currently operates as a Servant!!
In her history:
Same song and dance as the beginning where her powers surfaced at a young age, so Chiron found her and took her in to train her to be a hero. However, the change-up here is that Zeus gifted Heracles a portion of his power when she was born because he had the intention of this child being the hero that would guide Greece into a new age as his tickcet for his bet with Hera (this was in the 12 Trials original writing). Basically she never had a choice on whether or not she would be a hero.
When she traveled to Thebes in order to attempt to enter the Thebian Army, a whole situation happened with a coup and an attack with a hydra from Lernaea that got lured to Thebes from a nest by the people doing the coup... It was an entire thing. Heracles defeated the hydra and helped identify the traitor guards, so she was able to prove herself to Queen Eurydice and King Creon, who immediately had her married to their son Megara (below).
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(he may have been in line for the Thebian throne and an incredibly skilled warrior, but he was THE Malewife.)
A bit before she moved to Thebes, when she was staying in Athens, Eurystheus met her and fell in love with her, but when she rejected his feelings that was when Hera came to him and ‘chose him as her champion’ so she could start her dirty ass scheme.
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Heracles had a happy and loving marriage with Megara and they had one daughter and two sons. She would frequently go out with the Argonauts, but always came home to them as soon as she got back on shore.
When the Hera Snake Shit(tm) happened, Heracles was... broken. After the fact, the shock and grief made her go mad all over again until she dragged herself to Thebes and tried to convince Eurystheus to execute her, but because he was in cahoots with Hera he forced Heracles to the 12 Trials instead to ‘redeem’ herself... and this shit lasted 12 years, btw. So that’s 12 years of retraumatizing herself by being forced to do these impossible feats to be forgiven for the murders she was forced by Hera to commit... on top of Hera also sabotaging the Trials wherever she could.
When Heracles completed the initial 10, Eurystheus tricked her into two more, and after completing those two she snapped and nearly killed him, screaming at him to free her. It was then that Eurystheus bitched out and confessed everything to Heracles; Hera’s hatred, her whole plan... all of it. Heracles then stormed her ass out of Mycenae and Thebes and never returned.
She spent the rest of her life until her death by Nessus being cruel, cold, and tyrannical. Heracles had 1 (one) last biological child that she left with a king who would eventually raise that child to found Sparta (Leonidas’s ancestor), but the rest of her very numerous children were all actually orphaned or less fortunate children that she adopted so they could claim the title of ‘child of Heracles’ to help themselves get ahead in life (this is where the Heracleidae came to be). Even so, she usually left them on their own and didn’t open herself to them as a mother-figure.
Her life as a Servant:
She may have manifested as an Avenger class, but this is because of Megara becoming a part of her soul and manifesting with her as the manifestation of her hatred for the gods; he’s made the active choice to turn himself into the arrow meant to kill Hera.
If it weren’t for Megara bonding with her Spirit Core, Heracles would qualify for Grand Berserker class. Because of this, Heracles still has a Madness Enhancement factor that will kick in when she encounters a god. Very similar to when Penthisilea goes buckwild at the mention of Achilles, except it only activates and makes her black out when she is face-to-face with and aware that someone is a god.
Despite being an Avenger, she has an incredibly sweet disposition, especially towards kids. A habit from her life that stuck with her as a Servant is that if she sees a child (Heroic Spirit or not) who has no parents or awful parents, she WILL adopt them and start calling them her child, and no, not in the creepy weird m*mmy k*nk way, foh. In some cases, she’ll just adopt someone because they look like they could be her child. One fucking hilarious instance of this is that she has adopted Archer Emiya even though he gripes all the time that they look the same age physically. Does she care?? NO, that’s her son, babey!
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Her Noble Phantasms are the almost the same as FSF Archer Alcides, especially Reincarnation Pandora and King’s Order... and Reincarnation Pandora is actually the reason why she would up contracting with Goetia. But she also has the manifestation of all 12 Trials, albeit in a different form than what Archer Alcides can bring them forth as, and this is because by some handiwork by Daedalus, Heracles can alter the King’s Order to adapt to whatever situation she needs them for.
ex: Cerberus can become a motorcycle aside from also being a three headed hellhound and the famous Lernian Hydra can turn into a Mercedes Benz aside from also being the fuck-off giant Kinghidorah.
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Daedalus messing with Heracles’s Noble Phantasms is the most shown in her (Daedalus is a woman in this verse bc fuk u) alteration of Nine Lives to be a multi-adaptable weapon with nine different functionalities that Heracles can flip them to at a moment’s notice. These alternate forms include: bow, twin swords, double-ended spear, polearm, long barreled rifle, twin short arms, bludgeon, battering ram, and can even conform to the braces on her arms and become gauntlets (yes, her and Ruler Martha would vibe).
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(I realize that this isn’t the best design, I’m still working on drawing weapons)
Oh, I almost forgot about her other non-combatant quirk: she fucking LOVES blond men. If a grown dude is a blond and NOT a Greek-- regardless of anything else about their physical appearance-- it cranks their attractiveness scale up by at least 2 points for her. Goetia, Fionn, Arthur/Artoria, Gawain, Kintoki, Gilgamesh (he’s on thin fuckin ice), Jekyll, Goredolf... none of them are safe.
She also very much loves modern era fashion and dressing up. Heracles quickly befriends a lot of the female Servants/staff and goes on periodic ladies nights out with them.
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