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telehxhtrash · 4 years

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I originally wanted to make two separate posts about this but i’m actually making a single one : the overarching theme of love, redemption, second chances and Togashi’s overall positive and optimistic writing are leading me to believe a few things concerning Killua and Gon’s relationship, namely that we’ll get an explicit romantic confession to canonize their relationship, but also that Gon is actually the one who fell for Killua first.

First of all, I know I say it a lot but I really, really do believe that by the end of the manga, Killua and Gon’s relationship will be a canon romantic one. I wrote a short post about this already, but I’m gonna explain briefly my point of view on this as I believe it’s important and relevant to the points I want to try and make in this post.

• Killua is pretty much canonically in love with Gon. There’s just too much subtext concerning this matter, and the “shinjuu” line single-handedly canonizes that fact. Togashi is a very, very smart man, and doesn’t throw random words around, he knows the weight of the word shinjuu and what it implies, and the entire chimera ant arc focuses on Killua’s feelings towards Gon, so there is no doubt in my mind that Killua canonically has romantic feelings for him. These two tweets live in my head rent free because it’s so wonderfully written, so here you go :

• I also deeply believe that Togashi would never leave this ambiguous. I wrote a full post about this if you want to read it, but basically, it doesn’t fit Togashi’s writing style. A lot of people say that Togashi’s queer rep is ambiguous in HxH, but it’s unfair because HxH is literally not over yet. There are still ambiguous things because the manga is still developing. Thing is, Togashi has put queer characters in his previous works, and it was never ambiguous. It was always explicitely stated. Same goes for the relationships between his characters. There’s no reason to believe this wouldn’t be the case for HxH.

• Togashi’s positive writing is echoed in Killua’s story arc, in the sense that Killua reflects Togashi’s optimistic writing style and the overarching theme of love, redemption, second chances and the power human connection.

Killua’s character arc is one of slowly changing your life around, becoming your best self with a little help from someone to show you the way, it’s about positive growth, healing from trauma and going against what people think of you. It’s about healing and becoming your best self, no matter what.

It’s a very positive character arc, and one that’s been thoroughly demonstrated during the entire story.

That’s why Killua’s romantic feelings towards Gon could never stay unrequited one way or another, because it just would defeat the entire positive narrative of Killua’s character arc. Because Killua’s character arc is about healing and growing, and even though you thought you could never do that, learn how to love. It’s about finding love after abuse.

And to me, the only way to complete that story arc, when we know that Killua canonically has romantic feelings towards Gon, would be for Gon to return those feelings. Because Killua’s character arc isn’t only about learning how to love someone no matter what, but also about being loved in return. That’s how you complete Killua’s positive story arc.

I’ll come back to this theme a bit later on, though.

• There’s no way Shonen Jump can intervene and censor HxH. Now, I think I’m one of the few meta writers who actually believes this, but I’m 100% convinced that Shonen Jump always knew that HxH is queer work. I wrote multiple posts about this : the first post I linked mentions why SJ probably knows ; on the general gay subtext in both anime adaptations ; on 99 specifically and finally on the fact that it’s weird that gay subtext was emphasized in 99 anime when there was none in canon material only for it to appear later on in the manga.

But to summarize, there’s just no way Shonen Jump doesn’t know.

First of all, Hunter x Hunter is published right after Yu Yu Hakusho. Thing is, Togashi ended YYH for a few reasons, but one of them was because he didn’t feel free of doing what he wanted to do with his story, because Jump kept on declining his ideas.

This led him to completely drop the story. Now, if you’re a manga writer who’s been deeply disgusted by how your last manga was controlled, what would you do ? I’m sure you would make 100% sure you could take your next story wherever you wanted. And I’m certain that’s what Togashi did. Because to be able to write his story the way he wanted, he had to make sure SJ would allow him to go anywhere he wanted. That includes his characters and their relationship dynamics, which are the basics when you pitch a story.

Togashi also emphasized in one of his interviews that he’s free to do whatever he wants.

Furthermore, Togashi’s editors and Shonen Jump aren’t dumb. They can definitely pick up on the gay subtext. If they didn’t want gay things in HxH, they would’ve never let Togashi publish some chapters, ESPECIALLY the chapter where Killua declares he’ll commit shinjuu with Gon. SJ isn’t dumb. Shinjuu hits HARD, especially in japanese, so they definitely know what it means (it’s literally the equivalent to saying them dying together would be like Romeo and Juliet).

Finally, and that’s half crack-theory half serious, but one of the main reasons I believe SJ knows is because of the 99 anime adaptation. It was HxH’s first anime adaptation, and Togashi was involved in it to some extent. Now, 99 is extremely gay. I linked the posts where I talk about it above, but basically, it’s rainbow flags overlay on top of the characters in the opening, gay opening and ending song lyrics, over the top gay lines and situations.... which is interesting. Because like i mentioned in one of these posts, it’s interesting that this gay subtext was present and highlighted in the anime adaptation when there was none in the manga at that stage. It’s very, very interesting that gay subtext appeared later on in the manga, after the anime adaptation went crazy with it. I firmly believe it’s because Togashi pitched his manga as gay to the 99 animators, and if so, that’d mean SJ would also know.

Anyways ! In short, I believe Killua and Gon’s relationship will become canon by the end of the manga because there’s no risk of editorial meddling since SJ probably knows this is where the story is going. Killua’s romantic feelings are also pretty much canon, and the only way to complete his positive character arc would be to have Gon return those feelings and prove that you’re worthy of love no matter what. Finally, Togashi would never leave it ambiguous, because that’s something he’s never done before, and Killua and Gon’s relationship has never been portrayed as ambiguous nor subtle, it’s still developing.

Now !! This was just an introduction to what I wanted to talk about in this post, I’m sorry you still have a bit more reading to do HAHAA

But !

With this belief in mind that Killugon will be canon in the end, there are two things I want to talk about.

• First, I genuinely believe we’ll get a romantic, highly emotional love confession scene between the two of them. For the sole fact that it’s something deeply intertwined with Killua’s character arc.

Like I mentioned above, Killua’s arc is about overcoming trauma and having a second chance at life, a chance to be better, a chance to be your best self. His arc is about opening up his heart to new experiences and new feelings, and learning how to love and pass that love around. His story arc is representation for trauma survivors that things can and will get better, and you can overcome anything, turn your entire life around, heal, and thrive.

And to me, the completion of that story arc is definitely to show that not only can you learn to open up your heart and love someone, but that you can be loved for who you are. That someone can look at you for who you are, accept you and love you no matter what. You can be loved by someone the same way you love them, in a romantic way.

To me, that’s where the story is going. Considering Killua’s canonical romantic feelings, and the overall positive themes surrounding his character arc, there’s no doubt in my mind that this is the message Togashi wants to convey.

And in my opinion, this message wouldn’t be delivered ambiguously or subtly. This narrative of being loved has always been enforced through highly emotional scenes throughout the manga, to highlight the message that yes !! you, trauma survivor !! can be loved for who you are !!

It’s been expressed through that emotional scene where Nanika tells Killua she loves him, for example.

It’s also been displayed in the countless scenes where Gon expresses his love for Killua, expresses his admiration for him, how he’s glad he’s met him, how happy he makes him, how Killua is his best friend in the entire world.... It’s been conveyed through the stargazing scene on Whale Island, through the entire Zoldyck Family Arc where Gon waltzs in the Zoldyck Mansion to rescue Killua, through the scene in Greed Island Arc where Gon tells him he’s glad to have met him, through the dodgeball match scene where Gon declares that it can only be Killua holding the ball, through the moment Gon says that the first thing he’ll do when he sees Ging is introduce him to his best friend in the whole world, Killua.

Togashi could have chosen to show and not tell that Gon cares a lot about Killua, and that he finally found someone who loves him for who he is. He could’ve made them hang out normally, and we would’ve understood that Killua found someone who accepts him. But no, this has always been the main theme of HxH. Seeing the both of them grow closer and closer and grow and heal together. He chose to highlight the fact that he’s loved and cared for through words of affirmation to emphasize the narrative of being loved after surviving trauma. For the purpose of providing an extremely clear message of love to trauma and abuse survivors who identify with Killua : that you can find someone like Gon, someone who will love you for who you are. Togashi wanted to make it explicitly clear.

So now, since all of these words of affirmation were “platonic” (i’ll come back to the quotation marks in the last part of this post), but still highly emotional :

Wouldn’t it make sense that the romantic application of this narrative would also be portrayed through a highly emotional scene ?

For the sole purpose of highlighting the final message of Killua’s story arc of overcoming your past and being loved and accepted for who you are, in a romantic way this time ? Of being loved the same way you love ?

Since we’ve had so many platonic reaffirmations of this idea, I think it’d be fitting for the romantic part of the narrative to be conveyed through a highly emotional scene. Like a confession scene under the stars that would parallel the stargazing scene on Whale Island, for example, since stars are thematically fitting since they are linked to Killua’s story echoing Tanabata.

An open love confession would be the final and ultimate way to cement that narrative of loving and being loved. A highly emotional scene, just like we’ve always had, to demonstrate the romantic application of the theme of being loved after experiencing trauma. The ultimate, non-ambiguous message of unconditional love for trauma survivors.

Showing that you, trauma survivor who identifies with Killua, can learn to love yourself, love someone else and be loved in return.

• Keeping Killua’s character arc in mind, I want to adress a final point that I deeply believe is true.

To me, Gon is the one that actually fell in love with Killua first.

Thing is, Gon is that type of character that acts first and thinks later on. He always does things on instinct, only giving it thought after the thing happened. So it 100% makes sense that it would apply to romantic feelings too. That’s why, to me, it’s very likely that Gon fell in love first but just didn’t realize it was romantic feelings, because he’s 12, never really thought about it and feelings are confusing. And to me, Togashi is setting up feelings realization on Gon’s part.

Gon has always behaved very intensely with Killua, always reaffirming how much he means to him. He’s always taken onto that role of providing Killua with love from the moment he met him. He accepted him for who he is, and always made him feel cared for.

Togashi definitely planted the seeds for a possible interpretation of this idea of him falling first. The stargazing scene on Whale Island is just.... so romantic in nature. Gon tells Killua that he’s happy when he’s with him under a starry night sky, tells him he wants to travel the world with him and stay with him, because his presence next to him fills him with joy. Then we have his constant words of affirmation towards Killua, and how cool he is, how amazing and strong he is...

But to me, what really convinces me that Gon fell first is Greed Island arc. Gon’s behavior towards Killua during this arc was extremely emotional. It was deep, deep care and love for his best friend. We get to see him blush as he tells Killua that he’s really, really glad he’s here with him and glad he’s met him.

We get to see him declare that the first thing he’ll do when he finds Ging will be to introduce his amazing best friend to him.

But honestly, what made my brain explode is the dodgeball scene.

Because as I mentioned in this post, the phrasing Gon uses is one that is used in romantic contexts to confess to someone. It’s a love declaration, literally. And I don’t believe Gon meant it as romantic, because he probably has no idea his feelings are romantic in nature. But. Togashi is a troll. He really, really enjoys toying with his readers.

To me, the fact this sentence is romantic in nature could be Togashi putting Gon’s feelings right in front of our faces, hiding it in double meaning but still plainly there for us to see. It could be Togashi toying with us in the process of setting up Gon’s feelings, so that when it gets canonized that Gon fell first, on a re-read of the manga, you go “oh. that sentence is romantic. it was literally right in front of our eyes the entire time”. I’m probably reaching !!! but!!!! the fact is, this sentence is still romantic in meaning. It’s still coated in romantic subtext. And that’s intentional on Togashi’s part.

I’ll link this magnificent post by Quintessence that basically explains what I just said much better.

In short, it would totally make sense that Gon fell first. It wouldn’t come out of nowhere, since Gon’s behavior from the beginning of the manga can definitely be interpreted as romantic in nature. The countless emotional scenes where he asserts how much he cares for Killua can definitely be read as romantic, and Gon’s behavior can definitely be explained by him having a crush on Killua, despite him not knowing.

Now, the thing that makes me further believe this is true is the fact that symbolically speaking, it makes sense that Gon fell in love with Killua first. It would enforce the narrative of Killua’s character arc of being loved for who you are and not having to earn love.

It would literally dismiss everything Killua believes about having to earn the right to be loved. About having to earn his place right next to Gon. About having to change to be good enough for Gon.

Because if Gon fell first, then Killua was loved for who he is from the beginning, from the moment they met. Killua didn’t have to earn his love, like he thought he had to, especially in CAA, because he was loved the same way all along.

It’d show that Gon didn’t start to love Killua because Killua earned that right by changing for Gon. He didn’t start to love Killua when he started to heal and change his life to become a good person. He was always loved for who he is because Gon always saw him and loved him no matter what.

And that would once again highlight Killua’s character arc beautifully. It’d show that you are worthy of love even if you literally just came out of years of abuse. That someone can look at you and instantly fall in love with you, no matter how broken and unworthy of love you think you are. You never, ever had to earn that love. It was always here to begin with.

It’d break Chimera Ant Arc completely, it’d break Killua’s belief that he was unworthy of staying by Gon’s side and that he had to earn his place. Because he was always loved and never had to earn his right to stay by Gon, because Gon wanted him there all along.

And that is a beautiful, deeply symbolic meaning that would complement Killua’s character arc perfectly.

It’d be Togashi showing trauma survivors that you can heal and love yourself, learn how love someone else and be loved in return.

Showing trauma survivors that you don’t have to prove your worth to be loved. That just like Killua, even if you came out of years of abuse, a broken, scared person, you’re always worthy of love. That you’re worthy of love at any stage of your healing phase. That you’re worthy of love no matter how broken you feel you are.

Someone will always love you and accept you for who you are.

Anyways !! Thank you for reading this !! Those two headcanons are really precious to me and I really do believe they could come true. Because it’d make sense in so many ways !

I know it’s hard to imagine such a thing happening, because queer representation has always been ambiguous that it’s hard to fathom a manga being openly gay, but I really want to be optimistic about it. We got the subtext, the author interested in LGBT-rep, the positive narrative and virtually no risk of being censored.

So I want to stay optimistic on this and believe that we’ll get a romantic love confession as a way to canonize their relationship, and that it’ll become evident one way or another that Gon fell in love with Killua first.

Thanks for reading !!

#hxh meta #killugon #meta #my meta #welp i hope im not reaching too much #but i really really really love the idea of an open romantic confession #and i wanted to explain why it could very much be possible #and i also love the hc that gon fell first #and it makes so much sense on so many levels #and would work with killua's story arc so well #anyways ty for reading this if u decide to do so !!!

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ladyyatexel · 3 years

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I Went On A Manga Binge

So you don't have to

For those of you who have wisely avoided the shreds of it I've left around the blog thus-far, I had some weird notion to go re-experience Yu-Gi-Oh uuuuuh a week ago? We'll go with that. Time is meaningless.

I'd been able to read a good portion of the early manga at the end of highschool, and somewhere in my stacks and stacks of paper is fanart from this dark time, so you know I cared. I also still own a Dark Magician action figure somehow, so. I'd also watched a large portion of the anime with my brother because it had been laced with some kind of crack and we couldn't look away? I remember when we both were just like shit, wait, don't change the channel, I can't stop looking at it. And the next thing we knew we were waiting for new episodes and I was doing research on the Japanese original because I was that kid.

Anyway, unnecessary backstory out of the way, here are some... let's call them Observations and Consequences of having read somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 chapters (and growing) of a manga primarily hinged on card games from a spectrum of sources ranging from boringly lawful to sketchy as fuck.

Surprise actual character that develops in typical shounen fashion being Jounouchi. My limited experiences with the 4Kids dub and only early manga had not painted him in a particularly good light. I don't know if episodes were being aired out of order or if I had just missed the ones that established that he was making shit up as he was going along, but Wow I liked him a lot more going through the manga than I ever did watching the (dubbed, heavily edited and censored and thrown into a slurry machine) anime. I'd managed to come out with the impression that he was just as reasonably experienced with the game as Yugi back in the day. Wild.

I'm now reading every single comic-style post on Tumblr backwards.

Striking inverse to first point, wow, I don't like Seto Kaiba. Though he gets points for his general philosophy of the future, and the line I read in my sketchy online combo of scans and scanlations in which he said, "If God is in your way, you run him down," was Metal As Fuck. I somewhat shame-facedly admit to enjoying him a lot more as an Abridged Series character. (I watched Abridged as it came out back in the day! The experience of watching the anime with my brother had been so fresh that I got all the in jokes about the way things were edited and dubbed, it was great. Series remains influential part of my life to this day, which is hella weird.)

I almost understand how Duel Monsters works now. I don't want this.

That said, wow a lot of the decisions made in the anime made everything a lot more ridiculous than the admittedly already ridiculous original. I got the distinct feeling in the manga that the Duelist Kingdom stuff we were seeing was designed to be used and exploited in ways that don't make sense in an actual cardgame just played on a table like a normal person and this was part of testing everyone to think higher, differently. Maybe this is obvious to everyone already, I don't know. I had always liked that it was very, 'Not so fast, I'm going to blow up the moon to change the tides,' but I'm not really sure the anime gave enough explanation that this was an extra layer added to things for that event? You can see people actively getting used to it in the books, and people who aren't considering the real or 3D nature of it getting owned, but my memory of anime version is everyone just like, 'oh, shucks, fuck me, I forgot to consider the phase of the moon before i played this card, can't believe I forgot.' No one calls Yugi on any of this stuff because it's valid play in that situation. Plus Yami Yugi had mad trickster energy in the beginning and it suited him to think of ways to do things inside these little simulation boxes the way it suited him to set perverts on fire. I imagine the real card game trying to emulate this element as something that would be to its detriment, but I neither know nor particular care haha

Ryou Bakura.

Really, though. I think he became kind of casualty of 'wow, we have a lot of characters who really aren't able to do anything in this story anymore,' despite the fact that his whole inner life could have been as interesting as Yugi's. I always like thinking about the possibilities of stories in which main character falls into magical world and is given magical item and told they're the hero and then they find out they've been the bad guy the whole time. The first several volumes of manga were about the quiet weirdo kid that no one talked to who was always blacking out and turning into a fucked up version of himsef because he was so attached to his ancient Egyptian jewelry, so like, Bakura could have much the same shit going on. I want to know what's happening with him so much. He clearly doesn't love being possessed, but he's also so drawn to the ring. Despite it having stabbed him at least twice and him knowing it's a danger to him and his friends, he keeps being pulled back into it. You see so much more of him being like, 'Oooh, a creepy thing, I love that! :D' in the manga than ever in the anime, which I'm all about. Also more blood. I'm very about that as well. Though my memory of the anime also made it look very much like normal regular daily Bakura was just a weird facade in places before he ever would have been. I think that was it trying to compensate for what people didn't see from the Toei anime, but okay whatever, that I love everything about this guy is not news, I don't need to talk about Bakura excessively here, I'm pretty sure that's gonna show up on my blog by itself

On a related note though, damn, more of these people need to talk to each other. Can we have some existential crisis support clubs or something. Can we get like some apologies or something? "I respect you as a duelist." "Cool, but you literally built a tower designed to specifically assassinate me and my friends? You were supposed to get Better after I retaliated by putting you in a coma, but you kinda didn't." "Why would the coma have made it better" "I just told you it didn't" ---- "Sorry I went along with the plan of your evil parasite stabbing you, misled you, and then also jumped in and took up some real estate in your head too." "I understand, I also have an evil thing inside me that does things while I'm blacked out." "...no, I was conscious for all of that." "Oh." "..." "..." "..." "Do you like Ouija Boards?" "sure okay" ETC. Like damn we are reading shounen manga because no one is talking extensively about their feelings here and I'm tapping my foot angrily.

Holy shit there are so many mythologies happening at once. The ancient family guarding the Egyptian Pharaoh has a surname that's a Mesopotamian goddess. None of the god cards make any Egyptian sense except Ra, and just like. Baaarrrrely. Somewhere either Evil Ring Bakura or Mar/lik makes a reference to cremation and spirits being taken to heaven with smoke which several things, but definitely not Ancient Egyptian. Marik/Malik meanwhile is clearly trying to head Arabic, along with Rishid, but then, hey, our sister is just Isis. Goddess McGoddess. Sometimes they're the same goddess! Her name could be Isis Isis or Ishtar Ishtar. Meanwhile, all the obviously 'occult because Christians think it is freaky' stuff. ~ancient egyptian pentagrams~~~This isn't a complaint, I guess so much as a 'Wow, I can kind of see the cultural spot the author was coming from and where he was aiming' kind of thing.

Wonder where things would have gone if the card games had not been latched onto the way they were.

Managed to forget how gross the pre-cardgames stuff was on the sexual harassment front. I'm glad there was a sort of explanation of everyone drifting away from being dick heads and that that decision was made. It got way more comfortable to read after no one was bringing Yugi p*rn on VHS.

Yugi looks better with a nose, glad we got that upgrade.

Interesting to watch the series style shift as it goes away from being horror to being over the top cardgames and friendship (with blood!). The first picture of Mokuba is fucking Jarring. Also noticed that the nicer a character is, the less their teeth are defined.

Glad manga did not go as completely off the fucking the rails about Marik's face. I never got as far as seeing him back in the day because college occurred, but I remember seeing pictures and stuff and being like, "what in the Fuck happened to that dude, I think the house style has collapsed in on itself"

Things the author Really Likes: motorcycles, belts, SHOES, holy shit the shoes. These are some of the most lovingly rendered sneakers I've ever seen. All the detail on his characters goes straight to their feet and then it's stretched upward until it forms stiff peaks. Gently fold in 3000 years of trauma and bake face down in a crumb coat of scattered mythology. Remove when you roll two zeros.

Where the fuck am I going to put the extremely large omnibus volumes of this comic I purchased in order to balance out how much I would be reading for free on the internet. I should have grasped that a three in one edition would be Thick and yet somehow I was still :O when it arrived. Have I strategically purchased volumes that contain my favorite parts, maybe, what's it to you will i eventually get the whole thing because incomplete book series gnaw on my soul? yes

Wish the transition from "I've murdered several people in delightfully karmic ways" to "all you need is friendship in your heart and cards in your hand" Yami Yugi/Pharaoh had been discussed more/transitioned better. Buddy, where did you get this approved for television high horse? Please go back to strangling people with yo-yos or at least tell me why you stopped.

I still can't tell anything that looks like a big robotic monster apart from any other big robotic monster. My dude, I can't tell cars apart, all these monsters look the same.

Yami Yugi fascinated me way more in highschool? Maybe because it was still super early and the anime was like 'we need to torture you about his origins WeEkLy. Now I'm just like 'wait hold on, can we go back to Bakura and Marik for a minute, there's some extreme unpacking to do here?' Those two are paying so much more in baggage fees here my guy wow

Violently uninterested in any of the spinoff media

#yugioh #yu gi oh #ygo #there you go i can't imagine any other way you would decide was necessary to tag this #perhaps now that i have thrown this up i can #something #i don't know how i was going to finish that sentence #shut up lady

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makeste · 3 years

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BnHA 6th Popularity Poll Reaction Post - Risky Spoiler-Dodging Edition

hey guys, so seeing as the results from the 6th popularity poll were leaked today, I figured I would do a separate reaction + analysis post this year, rather than piling it in as an extra on top of the chapter reaction post tomorrow. I figure this makes more sense anyway, since they’re really two completely different things. also this way I can write as much as I want lol.

also, just fyi, I am still completely unspoiled for chapter 293. and probably the smart thing to do to keep it that way would be to log off tumblr and hold off posting this until tomorrow, but I apparently have no impulse control today so oh well. anyway, so I’m hoping you guys will keep this spoiler-free if you don’t mind! as always, I would prefer to just jump right in completely unaware tomorrow like Troy returning to the study room with the pizza boxes lol.

okay so this first part is just going to be my predictions. fyi I am writing this part on Wednesday night, and then I’ll add on the results part on Thursday or Friday (ETA: Thursday, apparently, since I am impatient.)

okay so first of all, just as a refresher, this poll was open to Japanese voters from Aug 3 to Sep 30. meaning chapters 279 through 285. meanwhile last year’s poll took place around the tail end of the MVA arc. so between then and now we had Heroes Rising, the Endeavor Agency arc, and the War arc up to the part where the 1-A kids took on Gigantomachia in Gunga, and started battling Tomura in Jakku. so technically only a couple of arcs, but a LOT of stuff going down in them. oh and season 4 of the anime as well

so! firstly, I predict that my truculent africanized honeybee son will hold on to his crown at #1, coming off a year in which he did some internship-boosted soul searching, borrowed OFA in movie canon, and finished out the voting period as the my-body-moved-on-its-own character development MVP. like CALL ME CRAZY lol, but I’m pretty sure his title is safe. and then after him will be Deku and Shouto as usual

Aizawa should hopefully also have a strong showing because the dude had a banner fucking year. reunited with his old dead friend, took on Tomura with his hopelessly inept hero pals, and then chopped his fucking leg off. he had better be in the top 10. his fucking leg died for this, idk what else he has to do

Endeavor also stands a decent chance of doing well given the internship arc and the final episode of season 4. which I’m sure will go down just swimmingly if that does happen lmao. especially if he somehow manages to rank higher than...

Dabi, which I don’t think he will btw, but you never know. anyways though, but I’m thinking Dabi’s going to have a stronger showing than in past years (in the last poll he only got 367 votes and was ranked 19th). mostly because of his fight in the Gunga mansion, and his cheekily censored name reveal to...

Hawks, who is also going to rank pretty high here, I think. might be he loses some points for killing off Twice, but his back was basically to the wall there. and he has always been very popular, and I think season 4 will also give him a boost, along with his heavy involvement in the first half of the War arc

Tomura was already in 6th place last year and I think he cracks the top 5 this year. he’s gotten exponentially more popular since the MVA arc, and got a boost in the last poll even though his flashback had only just barely happened, and he hadn’t finished Awakening yet and all that stuff. anyway, so he’s only gotten cooler and more tragic since then so I think he makes a big play here

Kirishima, Momo, Tokoyami, and Mina should also hopefully do well, since the poll opened right in the middle of all that Gigantomachia action, and Toko had just got done being an absolute badass and protecting his birb dad. I don’t think he’ll quite make it to the top ten, but he should

and last but not least, I’m hoping that Mirko will come out and take the polls by storm, although I have no clue how popular she is in Japan lol. she’s clearly Horikoshi’s favorite though. she SHOULD be everyone’s favorite, but I mean, we’ll see how it goes

anyway that’s it as far as predictions! and so now, through the magic of writing stuff at different times, we will fast-forward to the part where we actually find out the results!

OH MY GOD YES, STEAMPUNK KHLKSLLKL. HERE FOR IT. JOLLY GOOD SHOW. 5 STARS

Kacchan looks SO COCKY and SO HAPPY and SO ADORABLE, YES I SAID IT. he is adorable as FUCK. I don’t quite know what it is about this particular Kacchan that just screams “LOOK HOW FUCKING CUTE MY STUPID, LOUD SON IS WITH HIS BIZARRE WINDOWPANE-LOOKING CONVERTIBLE SUNGLASS GOGGLES and his POORLY TIED CRAVAT”, but I think it’s because he looks like if a Digimon character and a FMA character had a baby

anyway, so it looks like most of the people present here are more or less who we expected to see. except that I can’t tell for sure if that’s Dabi or Shindou, and if it’s Shindou I’m going to punch somebody in the face so you will have to excuse me

Iida wearing a TRENCHCOAT and a TOP HAT with ENGINE EXHAUST GOGGLE ACCENTS is my new favorite Iida of all time. take note how there is no possible way he can wear those goggles with them sitting on top of his hat like that. plus he’s already got glasses on. these are just purely for aesthetic and IF THAT AIN’T JUST THE STEAMPUNK WAY

Deku out here speaking softly and carrying a lead pipe. Kacchan you best look out. seems like he’s done watching you take first place year after year while he languishes in the number two spot. your only hope is that he trips while attacking you because his boots are unbuckled

Shouto’s standing over there with the rest of the non-first-and-second-place characters, but what are the odds his results are actually within spitting distance of Deku’s same as always. anyway he doesn’t mind, though. also his outfit is by far the most sensible one here, but if you look closely he’s got some sort of fire extinguisher/jet pack thing strapped to his back that’s got a control switch on his belt. Shouto are you jetpacking or putting out fires

Kirishima out here all “I’m not sure what steampunk is so I’m just going to take off my shirt and pose”

AIZAWA WITH THE EYEPATCH SKLKSDLKFJLSKJLDFKJSLDFFJLDKSJFL:KS. SIR. SIR. also, lowkey furious that Horikoshi refuses to show us the automail leg that he is clearly sporting here but which we just can’t see, SHOUTO MOVE GODDAMMIT

Endeavor has TWO fire extinguisher-slash-jetpacks. THE BETTER TO... WHATEVER. look at you here in the top ten again. you really live for that controversy

HAWKS OUT HERE WITH HIS STEAMPUNK BEATS BY DRE AND HIS WEARING A RING ON EVERY FINGER. nice to see you’ve still got your wings there, kiddo. then again Deku still has both of his arms too so who even knows what is going on

BUT SERIOUSLY THOUGH, IS THIS DABI OR SHINDOU. as if I don’t know the truth deep down in my heart. y’all I am gonna flip lmao. it’s not that I dislike Shindou, strictly speaking. but just... I can’t explain what it is, but if you put him and AFO next to each other and told me “you can only punch one”, I would be having a serious crisis. just, THIS FUCKING GUY, idek. STOP SMILING

Tomura looks like he just wandered onto the set here by mistake and has no idea where he is or what is going on. it’s because you’re wearing a bigass severed hand that’s blocking your entire view, Tomura. just take the hand off your face my sweet murder dumpling

anyway! so I managed to also find a link to the full poll results while somehow managing to avoid spoilers, and then I wanted to compare the results to last year’s poll, and so I made... this

hopefully you can all see this. if you’re on desktop you might be screwed, but on mobile you should be able to click and enlarge it. I mean, assuming you actually give a fuck about boring poll analysis spreadsheets lmao

anyway, so there were actually 13k fewer votes cast this year which is a bit of a surprise. is the series not still growing in popularity? do people apparently have better things to do during their quarantine lol

anyways but despite this, and despite getting 8k fewer votes overall, Kacchan still managed almost twice as many as his closest competitor. well fought, Deku. please put down that pipe

I somehow always underestimate the power of ship popularity to influence these things. but for example, it looks like Present Mic got that Vigilantes Trio bump. ride that wave for all it’s worth my man! hell, you got me on board

Iida fucking Tenya somehow got some sort of POWER BOOST out of NOWHERE which I can’t explain at all lmao, but I’m here for it. NOT BAD FOR AN OLD MAN

Sero managed to get the exact same number of votes in both 2019 and 2020. clearly the most loyal fans in the business

Mirko being all the way down at #20 is, of course, a travesty, and I hereby nominate her to be the one to punch Shindou in the face

ngl though, the lack of a single female character in the top ten hurts just a bit. it’s not overly surprising, but still. the worst part of it is that even if you kicked Shindou to the curb and moved everyone else up one slot, it would still be all dudes since Mic beat out Momo by a margin of a little more than a hundred votes. hard to stay mad at Mic for too long, though. ah well

Tomura actually lost a bunch of votes which is a genuine surprise to me. I know the villain standom isn’t as dominant in Japan as it is in Western fandom, but still. you can go ahead and punch Shindou too I guess

Tokoyami lowkey doubled his vote count over the past year while hiding down there at #18. he is slowly becoming more powerful. biding his time

anyway so I think that’s it! I mean not really, but I’m getting kind of tired lol. so just, you know, insert the usual gripes at Overhaul’s ranking here, although we can be happy about Magne making her way onto the list (r.i.p.), and Mineta and AFO taking a very satisfying slide down (all the way out, in AFO’s case; good riddance you bum). Hadou also got a huge boost which is awesome. Mustard’s persistent ownership of the #36 spot will forever remain a mystery to me, but oh well

anyways, this was fun. and I really do feel like everyone is looking away on purpose so that when Deku brains Kacchan with that pipe in about two seconds from now, there will be no witnesses, oh my fucking god

#bnha 293 #bnha popularity poll #bakugou katsuki #midoriya izuku #todoroki shouto #aizawa shouta #shigaraki tomura #bnha #boku no hero academia #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #bnha manga spoilers #makeste reads bnha

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esepoimipullula · 3 years

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Two Duckverse Odyssey AU Ideas

... not to be taken seriously in any way, very unlikely to ever be developed into anything more than this post here. Just a bunch of random notes and feelings on two different castings that have been living rent free in my head for a while. Unless someone wanted to use them as inspiration? Idk, they’re here, if you want them.

Warning: Scrooge/Magica with no happy ending, anti Scrooge/Brigitta stuff, Scroldie endgame in the first concept. Donald/Kay K with no happy ending, Donald/Reginella also with no happy ending, Donsy endgame in the second. Tagging only the endgame ships to avoid negative stuff getting into other tags, but if it does end up there... sorry, wasn’t my intention, tell me if I can fix it by censoring names. No bashing meant, on any characters. I like all of them.

First idea: The Odysseus!Scrooge Casting

(actually thought-out, painfully nerdy, up for a serious/angsty treatment)

- Scrooge as Odysseus: Cunning, tough, driven, stubborn, harsh, ruthless in pursuing his goals, vindictive. Also an arrogant ass who keeps getting himself and the people around him in trouble... but when he cares about someone, he cares. A larger-than-life figure who’s been involved in legendary, heroic (in the epic sense, not the modern “always good and moral” sense) deeds and isn’t about to stop now. Firmly rooted in his past, either because it keeps coming back to him or because he’s the one to seek it again, but always going forward. An adventurer and a wanderer, wise and skiled but always curious, investigating, drawn to new discoveries. Polytropos, with a versatile, agile intelligence that turns in many ways and tends to many things (yes, it is a little more complicated than just “complicated” - ask Cornelia, or Jolanda, or Francesca, or dear Rosa, or Giovanna, or Dora).

- Magica as Circe: A witch, of course. Powerful, skilled, and independent. Cunning, deceitful, adaptable and resourceful. Unwelcoming and prone to turning people into animals, but smart enough to know when to ally herself with those who have proven they can best her - yet never truly cowed, and always ready to come back to the self she’s never truly abandoned. A rival and a lover at the same time. (Also, Italian. ;))

- Brigitta as Calypso: A soft, caring love turned grasping, smothering, jealous. A static, unchanging, cloying paradise. He wants, needs to leave, and despairs endlessly because of it, and she just doesn’t get it, she still argues up to the last, and builds up what she could be for him, what she could make him into, even as she lets him go, even after divine intervention.

- Goldie as Penelope: The perfect match, the true equal -- homophrosyne, like-mindedness, mutual understanding and similarity. Cunning, resourceful, skilled, subtle, stubborn, strong, daring. Bit vain, too, and perhaps not so constantly faithful. Always loving and devoted in her own way, but not quite trustworthy nor trusting, calculating every move. When he comes back, they challenge each other, put each other to the test, and that’s how they recognize each other, fall right back into each other’s arms even after being separated by destiny, years spent apart, themselves. (Also, the whole “woman with no life of her own” misunderstanding.)

- Donald as Telemachus: Unlucky, angry, undermined, mocked -- but brave, and determined, and stubborn.

Second idea: The Odysseus!Donald Casting

(the “you know what would be fun? lol” kind of random idea, much less developed or mythologically sound, probably comedic/cracky but potentially serious/angsty)

- Donald as Odysseus: Unlucky, angry, kind of an arrogant guy. Surprisingly resourceful and smart despite a worn-out, dejected appearance. Pretty good at keeping his identity secret.

- Kay K as Circe: Changeable, ambiguous, enemy or ally depending on the occasion. Indipendent, sharp, cunning badass.

- Reginella as Calypso: A seemingly ideal love, but removed and isolated from everyday life. Oblivion, separation from the past, leaving so many things behind. Pacificus as a paradise, but one faraway and unknown. Destiny coming in between them.

- Daisy as Penelope: The endgame. Always coming back together despite everything, every trouble and every stroke of bad luck. Very similar in character regardless of their differences, always understanding each other in the end.

- Huey, Dewey & Louie as Telemachus: ... would just be fun to watch them run around Ancient Greece, tbh.

#duckverse #this is more a mess of canons than anything else #there's comic stuff and 'i'd like to see this in dt17 style' stuff in here any i just have to deal with that #because that's how my brain works #*and #scrooge x goldie #scroldie #donald x daisy #donsy #anti scrooge x brigitta #anti scrigitta #otp: love lost yet always there #otp: it's the only reason that matters #otp: hear my voice #pullula's scroldie aus #pullula's donsy aus

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tinyshe · 3 years

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Why I’m Removing All Articles Related to Vitamins D, C, Zinc and COVID-19

source

Over the past year, I’ve been researching and writing as much as I can to help you take control of your health, as fearmongering media and corrupt politicians have destroyed lives and livelihoods to establish global control of the world’s population, using the COVID-19 pandemic as their justification.

I’ve also kept you informed about billionaire-backed front groups like the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), a partner of Bill Gates’ Alliance for Science, both of whom have led campaigns aimed at destroying my reputation and censoring the information I share.

Other attackers include HealthGuard, which ranks health sites based on a certain set of “credibility criteria.” It has sought to discredit my website by ensuring warnings appear whenever you search for my articles or enter my website in an internet browser.

Well-Organized Attack Partnerships Have Formed

HealthGuard, a niche service of NewsGuard, is funded by the pharma-funded public relations company Publicis Groupe. Publicis, in turn, is a partner of the World Economic Forum, which is leading the call for a “Great Reset” of the global economy and a complete overhaul of our way of life.

HealthGuard is also partnered with Gates’ Microsoft company, and drug advertising websites like WebMD and Medscape, as well as the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) — the progressive cancel-culture leader with extensive ties to government and global think tanks that recently labeled people questioning the COVID-19 vaccine as a national security threat.

The CCDH has published a hit list naming me as one of the top 12 individuals responsible for 65% of vaccine “disinformation” on social media, and who therefore must be deplatformed and silenced for the public good. In a March 24, 2021, letter1 to the CEO’s of Twitter and Facebook, 12 state attorneys general called for the removal of our accounts from these platforms, based on the CCDH’s report.

Two of those state attorneys general also published an April 8, 2021, op-ed2 in The Washington Post, calling on Facebook and Twitter to ban the “anti-vaxxers” identified by the CCDH. The lack of acceptance of novel gene therapy technology, they claim, is all because a small group of individuals with a social media presence — myself included — are successfully misleading the public with lies about nonexistent vaccine risks.

“The solution is not complicated. It’s time for Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to turn off this toxic tap and completely remove the small handful of individuals spreading this fraudulent misinformation,” they wrote.3

Pharma-funded politicians and pharma-captured health agencies have also relentlessly attacked me and pressured tech monopolies to censor and deplatform me, removing my ability to express my opinions and speak freely over the past year.

The CCDH also somehow has been allowed to publish4 in the journal Nature Medicine, calling for the “dismantling” of the “anti-vaccine” industry. In the article, CCDH founder Imran Ahmed repeats the lie that he “attended and recorded a private, three-day meeting of the world’s most prominent anti-vaxxers,” when, in fact, what he’s referring to was a public online conference open to an international audience, all of whom had access to the recordings as part of their attendance fee.

The CCDH is also partnered with another obscure group called Anti-Vax Watch. The picture below is from an Anti-Vax Watch demonstration outside the halls of Congress. Ironically, while the CCDH claims to be anti-extremism, you’d be hard-pressed to find a clearer example of actual extremism than this bizarre duo.5

Gates-Funded Doctor Demands Terrorist Experts to Attack Me

Most recently, Dr. Peter Hotez, president of the Sabin Vaccine Institute,6 which has received tens of millions of dollars from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation,7,8,9 — with funds from the foundation most recently being used to create a report called “Meeting the Challenge of Vaccine Hesitancy,”10,11 — also cited the CCDH in a Nature article in which he calls for cyberwarfare experts to be enlisted in the war against vaccine safety advocates and people who are “vaccine hesitant.” He writes:12

“Accurate, targeted counter-messaging from the global health community is important but insufficient, as is public pressure on social-media companies. The United Nations and the highest levels of government must take direct, even confrontational, approaches with Russia, and move to dismantle anti-vaccine groups in the United States.

Efforts must expand into the realm of cyber security, law enforcement, public education and international relations. A high-level inter-agency task force reporting to the UN secretary-general could assess the full impact of anti-vaccine aggression, and propose tough, balanced measures.

The task force should include experts who have tackled complex global threats such as terrorism, cyber attacks and nuclear armament, because anti-science is now approaching similar levels of peril. It is becoming increasingly clear that advancing immunization requires a counteroffensive.”

Why is Hotez calling for the use of warfare tactics on American citizens that have done nothing illegal? In my case, could it be because I’ve written about the theory that SARS-CoV-2 is an engineered virus, created through gain-of-function research, and that its release was anticipated by global elites, as evidenced in Event 201?

It may be. At least those are some of my alleged “sins,” detailed on page 10 of the CCDH report, “Disinformation Dozen: The Sequel.”13 Coincidentally enough, the Nature journal has helped cover up gain-of-function research conducted at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, publishing a shoddy zoonotic origins study relied upon my mainstream media and others, which was riddled with problems.14,15

So, it’s not misinformation they are afraid of. They’re afraid of the truth getting out. They’re all trying to cover for the Chinese military and the dangerous mad scientists conducting gain-of-function work.

You may have noticed our website was recently unavailable; this was due to direct cyber-attacks launched against us. We have several layers of protective mechanisms to secure the website as we’ve anticipated such attacks from malevolent organizations.

What This Means for You

Through these progressively increasing stringent measures, I have refused to succumb to these governmental and pharmaceutical thugs and their relentless attacks. I have been confident and willing to defend myself in the court of law, as I’ve had everything reviewed by some of the best attorneys in the country.

Unfortunately, threats have now become very personal and have intensified to the point I can no longer preserve much of the information and research I’ve provided to you thus far. These threats are not legal in nature, and I have limited ability to defend myself against them. If you can imagine what billionaires and their front groups are capable of, I can assure you they have been creative in deploying their assets to have this content removed.

Sadly, I must also remove my peer reviewed published study16 on the “Evidence Regarding Vitamin D and Risk of COVID-19 and Its Severity.” It will, however, remain in the highly-respected journal Nutrients’ website, where you can still access it for free.

The MATH+ hospital treatment protocol for COVID-19 and the iMASK+ prevention and early outpatient COVID-19 protocol — both of which are based on the use of vitamins C, D, quercetin, zinc and melatonin — are available on the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance’s website. I suggest you bookmark these resources for future reference.

It is with a heavy heart that I purge my website of valuable information. As noted by Dr. Peter McCullough during a recent Texas state Senate Health and Human Services Committee hearing, data shows early treatment could have prevented up to 85% (425,000) of COVID-19 deaths.17 Yet early treatments were all heavily censored and suppressed.

McCullough, in addition to being a cardiologist and professor of medicine at the Texas A&M University Health Sciences Center, also has the distinction of having published the most papers of any person in the history of his field, and being an editor of two major medical journals. Despite that, his video, in which he went through a paper he’d published detailing effective early treatments, was summarily banned by YouTube in 2020.

“No wonder we have had 45,000 deaths in Texas. The average person in Texas thinks there’s no treatment!” McCullough told the senate panel.18 Indeed, people are in dire need of more information detailing how they can protect their health, not less. But there’s only so much I can do to protect myself against current attack strategies.

They’ve moved past censorship. Just what do you call people who advocate counteroffensive attacks by terrorism and cyberwarfare experts? You’d think we could have a debate and be protected under free speech but, no, we’re not allowed. These lunatics are dangerously unhinged.

The U.S. federal government is going along with the global Great Reset plan (promoted as “building back better”), but this plan won’t build anything but a technological prison. What we need is a massive campaign to preserve civil rights, and vote out the pawns who are destroying our freedom while concentrating wealth and power.

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trying-write-fanfics · 4 years

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OverhaulXreader part 15

Warning there is violence in this part

She left the restaurant after hours with a head full of worries. She was falling up with opournity. She wandered around, not going straight home feeling uneasy. Y/n pulled out her phone and wanted to call her mom. She stared at it, annoyed she was holding back. They should have made up by now. She hit the call button, that woman is her mother.

“I know you.” an unfamiliar voice said.

Y/n looked up as the phone rang. A man she did not know pointed at her, and then charged at her. Who the hell was he. She took a step back, but wasn’t fast enough. The man closed two hands around her neck and started squeezing. Y/n dropped her phone.

“You’re that damn Chisaki’s girl!” He growled.

Y/n tried pulling his hands off her neck, but it was no use. Irritated and terrified, she wanted this man to suffer even though she had the under hand. She clawed his arms, scratching them, getting his blood under her nails.

“That damn deserves to suffer, even if you’re his favorite whore.” He squeezed harder.

It was hard to focus at this point. Spots began to block her eyes. It was happening again. The struggle to survive was going to end because she’s not strong enough. Powerless, going to die because of her yakuza connections. This was it, the end. She could feel the air wah being closed off, throat touching opposite sides.

“Tell me, was it worth selling yourself out-“

The man released after meeting some sort of impact. Y/n fell to the ground, caught herself on her hands. Blood came out of her mouth and then she collapsed on the sidewalk. She could hardly breathe even being freed.

“Miss, miss! Please stay with me! Help is on the way. I promise.” She heard a new voice say shaking her.

Everything was a blur. When she came through, she was in a hospital room. At first no one was there until a huge man in yellow came in shortly after waking up. He wore a black mask. He had a box of donuts in his hands. He was not the doctor. That’s all she could. It was confusing and she was hurt. No one came to see her, but how long has she been here?

“Looks like you’re awake!” The huge man said.

“Yeah...what...what….who….” her voice was so hoarse from her injuries.

“Calm down, calm down, don’t hurry yourself. You’ve only been out for less than an hour. The doctors are taking good care of you.” The jolly yellow Santa told her. “Do you remember what happened?”

It came back to her too fast. She looked down at her hands and saw the blood was still under her nails. She winched and out her fingers on her neck. She then nodded.

“I’m sorry I didn’t get to you sooner.” He told her. His eyes widened after he said those words. “You might not even know who I am.”

She shook her head no. He sighed a little bit. There were too many heroes to keep track of, especially for normal civilians .

“I’m Fat Gum, the number 59th hero!” He tried sounding happy. “From what I’ve heard your (first name last name)”

She nodded at the sound of her name. Why was he here? Didn’t he still have patrolling to do?

“I have a couple questions for you, if you don’t mind.”

Did she really have a choice? This whale of a man saved her life, and was the only one to visit her in the hospital.

“I’ll start by telling you the man who attacked you is in custody. He was under the influence of some drugs. Did you know the man?”

Shook her head no.

“He said you knew a man by the name of Chisaki Kai, do you?”

Her stomach dropped. She pulled a confused face.

“I might.” She hoarsely said.

“You might?”

“I have a lot of customers...I pretend to know them just cause .... they recognize me.” She had to talk slow.

“What’s your field?”

“I’m a manager at the...Wicked Sparrow.”

If Mr. Fat Gum was drinking water he would surely spit it out. This young woman is already a manager at one of the most fanciest restaurants in the city.

“You?”he was in disbelief.

She nodded with a little less weight in her face.

“I went to culinary school in France.” She told him.

“That’s impressive!” He smiled at her.

It hurt her that this man was the only one here. She knew if Kai was here he would tear down those doctors. If her parents were here they would make their presence known. No one she knew was here, worried except for the hero.

“How about a free meal.” She told him. “You and someone else.”

“What? No, I’m a hero, it's my job to save civilians in trouble.” He waves his hands.

“I insist. Just wear your costume. It’s good for business.”

“So that’s why you’re a manager. Striking up deals best you can.”

“Just tell the staff my name.” She told him.

“Well I haven’t been there yet. I guess I just have to try.”

He kept Y/n some more company because no one came. Fat gum did have to leave her though. Her insurance covered the incident.

“Did you get any information on the yakuza?”

“Only that they probably eat sometimes at the Wicked Sparrow. She’s just a nice manager who had someone misunderstand her kindness to a customer.”

It took three days for Kai to find out about the incident. Y/n hadn’t reached out to him, and she even ignored a text he sent. His crew were able to piece together the extra stress Chisaki was feeling once Chrono informed them the mysterious not girlfriend hadn’t contacted him when he tried calling her. The news came on and at first the news story went over his head. It was labeled when a woman gets strangled and saved. The woman was kept anonymous. Chrono found a fuller article with quotes from strangler. He dumped the article on the Chisaki’s desk.

“I don’t care.”

“Read it, it might have to do with you.”

The articles censored, but he recognized the strangler. The attacker thought the woman was his drug dealer’s “call girl”. The man did feel guilty for attacking a woman who had nothing to do with yakuza. What?

“What I don’t get it….” he was stuck for a second. “Are you implying Y/n is the woman in this article?” His voice was calm and collected but he was terrified.

“I went to the hospital, she checked out later that night. Work also said she’s off.” Chrono explained. “But you can ask her yourself.”

The drive over to her apartment was nerve wracking. His precious Y/n couldn’t have been attacked. Of course he sold bad drugs to the market and this is what he gets for walking around in public with his angel. He can’t protect her every moment of the day. Or else things like this happen! She had to rely on a low level hero to rescue her. It couldn’t be her, she would have told him! She would have been afraid! She would ask him if she could stay the night because of the trauma and he would destroy that filthy attacker. She would call him in the hospital because she would need him by her side.

Knock knock.

He waited.

Knock knock

“Y/n, it’s me.”

Heard a sigh and the door began to unlock. His love has her hair up, a hoodie and sweatpants. The marks were on her neck, he knew she was the woman from the article now. Her eyes were tired and bags hung under them. He was stumped at what he wanted to say, knew what happened.

“Do you need anything?” She asked, not able to look in his eyes.

“I haven’t heard from you.”

“It’s been a rough couple of days.” She breathed.

“Can I come in?” He asked, taking a step closer.

“Kai...please...I can’t right now.” She said on the verge of tears.

“Y/n, please what can I do.” He took another step closer.

“Please!” She sobbed and covered her arms around her head.

He reached for her shoulder, but then noticed his glove was missing. He stopped himself. Unable to comfort her the frustration grew.

“Y/n let me do something-“

“I almost died!” She cried at him turning her head. “I was terrified and alone, and powerless! I can’t...I can’t be around anyone right now.” She was hyperventilating at this point. She couldn’t breathe. “I can’t ask for anything, I know you can’t.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I’m not going to force you to comfort me, it's not worth it if it’s not natural.”

Him unnatural?

“Move in with me, I’ll be able to protect you-“

“And what quit my job? Never see sunlight again? Hide so no one can ever touch me again? I’m going to be hurt again and again and that’s just life!”

That would be ideal.

“Just listen to me-“

“Kai, I can’t. I can’t rely on you, my parents or anyone!” She sobbed even more.

That was his breaking point. She can’t rely on him? He’s trying his damn best for her. She already knew he wasn’t perfect. She hasn’t even told why she chose him. Was this all just fun and games? It happened too fast. There was a hole in the wall and his hand was swollen yet again. Instant regret pumped through his veins. He looked over to see Y/n arms covering her face, afraid to see the damage she would have to explain to her landlord. He put his hand over the hole to fix it.

“Sorry...it’s fixed.” He told her.

“Just leave.” Her arms went to her sides.

It was hard to tell what he did wrong. The attacker chose to strangler her.

“Y/n…”

“I need to be alone right now.”

“I’ll check on you in a couple days….” his tone sounded more like he was asking.

She shut the door on his face and it was followed by the sound of locking. Privacy. It’s what he’s giving her for now despite wanting to do the exact opposite.

Next https://tryingfe-imaginesblog.tumblr.com/post/613891397705220096/overhaulxreader-part-16-the-next-couple-of-days

#overhaulxreader #overhaul #chisaki kaixreader #chisaki kai #bnha #bnha fanfiction #xreader

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spaceshipkat · 5 years

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Myth & Kat Read WS

before i dive in, a quick request: please do not send this to the author, as this is not meant for her but for any and all readers. we censor the name of the author, the characters, and the book title to help prevent her from accidentally stumbling across them thanks to tumblr’s fucked algorithm. my inbox is always open for anyone with reactions, questions, or thoughts as i read, so feel free to hop in there if you don’t want to reply directly to this post.

if you don’t want to see spoilers, block the tag “ws spoilers” and Myth and i are both using the tag “myth & kat read ws” to keep everything organized. we’re calling this a practice run for when we read CCity together when it releases next year, so bear with us while we figure out what works best. Myth’s post on WS can be found here, and her comments will be at the bottom of this post.

and to preface this, i go into every chapter with an open mind, but (as Myth points out) i did get more annoyed the more i read, so make of that what you will

and with that out of the way...

Chapter 1

this is a multi-POV book and chapter 1 begins with Nadya peeling potatoes. riveting. apparently people really like this beginning, so i’ve heard, but eh.

also, this is a personal nitpick, but i’m not the biggest fan of authors using the character’s first and last name when introducing them at the very beginning of the book, a la:

Nadez/hda Lap/teva glared up at the mountain of potatoes threatening to avalanche down over the table.

we’re five 2-3 sentence paragraphs in and already we’re supposed to feel fear for what’s happening, despite the only normal to exist so far is that Nadya is peeling potatoes and grumbling about the clerics who care for her (and who we’re supposed to care for later on, when Nadya starts worrying about their deaths, despite the fact we’ve met none of them)

“Did you hear that?” Konst/antin acted like she hadn’t spoken. His paring knife hung limp in his fingers as he listened.

grammar. why.

“Did you hear that?” Konst/antin asked, freezing with his paring knife pressed to a potato.

was that so difficult?

She tried to be glib, but the idea of the High Prince anywhere near the monastery made her shiver. He was rumored to be an extremely powerful blood mage, one of the most terrifying in all of Trana/via, a land rife with heretics.

ahhh i love a good exposition dump first thing. this could easily have waited until later on, when the High Prince (why is that capitalized) actually makes an appearance. at the very least, she could’ve just left it as “but the High Prince was rumored to be an extremely powerful blood mage, making her shiver at the thought of him attacking the monastery.” it’s not good, but better (as always, when i rewrite things, i try to stay with the author’s words rather than using ones of my own, simply to show that it can be done with their words--it’s not the words’ fault, but the author’s). plus, we know nothing about the monastery or why Nadya is even there, apart from peeling potatoes and making bad potato jokes that i’m sure ED hoped would add some levity to the book, so we have no reason to feel worried about the High Prince making a surprise appearance.

Filling Father Alexei’s washing bowl with a red dye that looked like blood, though, that was what had done them in.

Blood wasn’t a thing to be made light of, not in these times.

the chapter should’ve started with this prank so we’d 1) have more of a connection to Nadya and Kostya’s friendship, 2) see more of the world-building in the sense of how important blood is, and 3) actually meet one of the clerics we’re supposed to care for. also, please just write it like this, ED:

“Filling Father Alexei’s washing bowl with a red dye that looked like blood had done them in.”

again, not great, but it’s better

Father Alexei’s rage didn’t end in the cellars. After they scaled Potato Mountain—if they scaled Potato Mountain—they still had hours’ worth of holy texts to copy in the scriptorium. Nadya’s hands were already cramping just thinking about it.

this? this isn’t enough to make us care for him. in fact, the way Nadya talks about him makes us not care about him, even though we’re supposed to worry about him later on in this chapter and the next. (Potato Mountain just hurts my brain. is this supposed to pass for humor?)

Cannons only meant one thing: blood magic. And blood magic meant Trana/vians. For a century a holy war had raged between Kaly/azin and Trana/via. Trana/vians didn’t care that their blood magic profaned the gods. If they had their way, the gods’ touch would be eradicated from Kaly/azin like it had been from Trana/via. But the war had never reached farther than the Kaly/azin border. Until now. If Nadya could hear the cannons, that meant the war was slowly swallowing Kaly/azin alive. Inch by bloody inch it was seeping into the heart of Nadya’s country and bringing death and destruction with it.

why couldn’t she have found a better way to tell us this than an ill-timed info dump? we’re supposed to be worrying about an attack (with all the number of times cannons are mentioned) and yet here we’re being given a lesson.

also, i’m particularly not fond of these four sentences in particular:

But the war had never reached farther than the Kaly/azin border. Until now. If Nadya could hear the cannons, that meant the war was slowly swallowing Kaly/azin alive. Inch by bloody inch it was seeping into the heart of Nadya’s country and bringing death and destruction with it.

for one, fragments hurt me on a physical level when they’re used this often, and for another, i don’t care that the war has come, i don’t care that Nadya’s country is being invaded, i don’t care that Trana/vians want the gods eradicated. i’m typically fond of third person, and usually prefer both reading and writing it, but this is all happening so distantly that i might as well be hovering over the entire scene.

Nadya looked at Kostya, whose gaze was flint-eyed but fearful. They were just acolytes with kitchen knives.

they both actually hold their own in the fight, so no idea why this is even here besides trying to build up suspense.

Kostya grabbed her hand and shook his head slowly, his dark eyes solemn.

“Don’t do this, Nadya,” he said.

“If we are attacked, I will not hide,” she replied stubbornly.

“Even if it means a choice between saving this place and the entire kingdom?”

now would be a good time for exposition. if you have to use a reader’s lack of knowledge to build up suspense, especially in chapter 1, especially when you’re bouncing around the truth that anyone would have naturally thought of first irl, you need to revisit your stakes.

so a couple paragraphs before this:

She would protect the only family she had; that was what she was trained for

she was saying that she and Kostya were just acolytes with kitchen knives. if that’s the case, what have they been training in? (and no, i’m still not connected to the monastery at all. we’ve only seen Potato Mountain, the kitchen, and the cellar, though neither of the latter two have been described as clearly as the former, which is a problem bc they’re just floating heads rn)

Nadya had been told the protocol countless times. Move to the back of the chapel. Pray, because that was what she did best. The others would go to the gates to fight. She was to be protected.

we are seeing none of this, fwiw, and i still feel no fear

Can I have that?” Nadya reached for Anna’s dagger. Anna wordlessly handed it to her. It felt solid, not flimsy like the paring knife.

“You shouldn’t be here,” Anna said.

Kostya shot Nadya a pointed look. In the monastery’s hierarchy, Anna—as an ordained priestess—outranked Nadya. If Anna ordered her to go to the sanctuary, she would have no choice but to obey.

if Nadya isn’t supposed to fight, why would Anna hand over the fucking blade in the first place? Nadya also takes off to fight and Anna does nothing to stop her.

Nadya once wished she could blend in with the other Kalyazi orphans at the monastery, but the truth was, for as long as she could remember, when she prayed the gods listened. Miracles happened, magic. It made her valuable. It made her dangerous.

why can’t she blend in? as far as i know, she doesn’t have “i can talk to gods” tattooed on her forehead, so there’s no reason she couldn’t blend in. and for that matter, we’ve met only three people and heard of two more, so how are we to know that Nadya really doesn’t fit in?

this:

To the left ran a path leading to the men’s cells; to the right, another trailed off into the forests where an ancient graveyard that held the bodies of saints centuries gone was kept by the monastery.

should’ve been written like this:

A path on her left led to the men’s cells, the one to her right leading through the forest to an ancient cemetery holding every saint who had once lived in this monastery.

and this:

It snowed most nights—and days—on the top of the Baikkle Mountains.

should’ve been this:

Rarely did it stop snowing on the Baikkle Mountains.

still not great, but still better

Nadya scanned for Father Alexei, finding him at the top of the stairs. The priests and priestesses who trained for battle waited in the courtyard and her heart twisted at just how few of them there were. Her confidence faltered. Barely two dozen against a company of Trana/vians. This was never supposed to happen. The monastery was in the middle of the holy mountains; it was difficult—almost impossible—to reach, especially for those unused to Kaly/azin’s forbidding terrain.

it’s been hinted at that Nadya is in the monastery thanks to her power to commune with gods so she can be protected from those who would use her for that purpose (although why the Trana/vians want her is a mystery, considering they seem to be an atheist culture), so why isn’t she more well-protected? it’s common knowledge the Trana/vians are bred for war, so it shouldn’t come as too great a surprise when they decide to attack the monastery.

Nadya raised her eyebrows expectantly, willing [Father Alexei] to accept her place here. She had to stay. She had to fight. She couldn’t hide in the cellars any longer, not while heretics tore apart her country, her home.

WE HAVE SEEN NONE OF THIS. WHY ARE WE SUPPOSED TO CARE ABOUT HER COUNTRY? WHY DOES SHE CARE ABOUT HER COUNTRY? for that matter, she’s been told that, in the event of an invasion, she needs to hide in order to pray, and yet suddenly Father Alexei is cool with her standing there to fight with him???

How could the Trana/vians know she was there? The only people who knew Nadya existed were in the monastery.

Well … there was the tsar. But he was far, far away in the capital. It was unlikely news of her had spread into Trana/via.

The spell was a ploy for time; if the Trana/vians had a blood mage who could counteract her magic, it wouldn’t last.

her magic is literally given to her by the gods, and yet blood magic can counteract that? beyond that, how can she form the gods’ magic into spellwork in the first place? they’re fucking gods???

But the possibility of a Trana/vian lieutenant or general—a mage promoted because of sheer magical power alone—made her feel like running back into the sanctuary where she belonged.

[The goddess] Marz/enya scoffed at her doubt.

1) does ED realize that the ranks of general and lieutenant are nowhere near each other?

2) yay more immortal beings acting like teenagers. i love when gods scoff

imma rewrite this:

A hard chunk of ice slammed into her back, pain ramming down to her toes. She was thrown onto Kostya and they both went crashing to the ground.

like this:

A chunk of ice slammed into her back and threw her onto Kostya, knocking them both to the ground.

it’s not good, but it’s better and keeps the narration active, not passive.

The courtyard became thick with magic and steel as soldiers swarmed up the stairs.

if the cannons were just firing at the mountain (and the city at its base?), how tf did the soldiers march up 7000 steps in a matter of minutes, especially since Nadya had just frozen the stone? yeah they have blood magic, but it’d take them a few minutes to realize the ice was magicked and not natural.

Panicked prayers to the gods would only be met with more magic; Nadya had to decide for herself how it was used.

she hasn’t once wondered why the gods give her magic. sure she may have accepted it, but this is a book and readers need to at least be aware of the fact she doesn’t know why she has magic (or, if she does, that she knows why)

Pure, white light followed her touch and though she wasn’t entirely sure what it would do, she found out quickly enough when she sliced a Trana/vian soldier. She only caught his arm, but like a poison, the light blackened his flesh at the point of contact.

*squints at Sha/dow & Bone*

She staggered back into Kostya. The urge to drop her voryen needled at her hand.

I killed him. I’ve never killed anyone.

okay but she literally just said that every child of war-torn lands need to know what to do when the enemy comes calling, yet suddenly she’s quibbling over killing an enemy soldier?

Just when she thought she could take no more, [the god] Vece/slav’s presence swept in, enveloping Nadya like a heavy blanket. He soothed out the magic, pushing it away until she could breathe. She hadn’t called on him; he had simply known.

suddenly she doesn’t need to talk to the gods to make them help her? is it too much to ask that we’ll know why???

There were whispers of the Trana/vian High Prince throughout the monastery. A boy made general a mere six months after venturing to the front when he was sixteen years old. One who had used the war to fuel his already terrible grasp of blood magic. A monster.

maybe general means something else in the Trana/vian army, bc there’s no fucking way he would be made a general at age sixteen

It was a slaughter and it was her fault. The Trana/vians wouldn’t be there if not for her. If she died, would that make this massacre worth it?

yeah i don’t really care? she’s still given us nothing to base our feelings about the monastery and everyone in it on. we don’t even really have a reason to care about her yet.

She stared at him, horrified. Run? After everyone she loved had been cut down she was supposed to flee to safety? What would that make her, if she ran to save herself? The monastery was the only home Nadya had ever known.

no matter how many times you tell me that it’s her home, i still don’t care. the chapter started with her complaining about her chores, which was the first impression of her home we got, so why are we suddenly supposed to care?

She couldn’t break free. She could only stumble as Anna pulled her to a mausoleum, kicking the door open. The last thing she saw before Anna pulled her into the dark was Kostya, his body shuddering as another bolt thudded into him.

in case it wasn’t clear, i still don’t care

to conclude, this scene should’ve happened in chapter 2. the book throws us into the action far too quickly, without any buildup to make us see the normal become abnormal, to make us connected with any of the characters who we’re clearly supposed to care for, and does nothing to prove that Nadya really loves the people who look after her. if chapter 1 had started with the prank, sent them to the kitchen to peel potatoes, and ended on the attack beginning, it might’ve been different. i’m always a character reader, so i prefer slower beginnings, but i can sometimes appreciate a fast-paced one. this is not one of those times.

Myth Responds:

Welp, Kat was both more thorough and more annoyed than me, though we agree that we needed more time with the characters to care as much as the book tells us N/ady/a does. Also the awkward phrasing. This really does feel like it should have come later in the book (second or third chapter, maybe?) just to let us understand life and form a connection with other people. K/osty/a could have been a fully realized character who we mourned. We all know I’m not usually a fan of Look At This Feeling kind of writing, either.

THAT BEING SAID. I’m hopeful and nobody can take that away from me!

Bonus for Tulio gif.

#myth & kat read ws #ws spoilers

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grovestep · 5 years

Text

Ghostwatch: Chapter 2 [R76]

Title: Ghostwatch Chapter: 2 - Intermission Rating: M Ao3: Click here, remember to leave kudos! Summary: Gabe, Jack and Ana plan their next episode, and employ the help of everyone's favorite cowboy.

Gabriel sat on the couch at Jack’s apartment, feet propped up on the coffee table and his laptop balanced on his knees. He worked on editing the Poltergeist House video while Ana and Jack bickered over the idea for the next episode. They were committed to posting a video a week, despite having jobs and classes to attend to. Sometimes, Gabe felt ran absolutely thin, but he loved his work. Filming and editing were two of Gabe’s passions.

He was thankful that he met the blond man from Indiana in one of his film courses. The guy stuck out like a sore thumb. Gabriel had figured he was a football player getting a creative arts credit in, but was pleasantly surprised when he found Jack was majoring in theater. He wasn’t a prodigy by any means, but Jack had an air about him that just commanded the camera. Ana was one of Jack’s best friends. Gabe was skeptic about how a finance major could be passionate about film (perhaps he bought into just a fewstereotypes), but Ana had a talent for special effects makeup, and never failed to impress him when they needed something bloody. She was the official co-host, and while not being as a commanding a presence as Jack, she gave as good as she got, and played one hell of a ghost.

He drummed his fingers on the touchpad of the laptop as the video processed. He felt good about the shots he managed to get, though this episode was strenuous to cut, edit and censor. He really needed to watch his copious use of the F-bomb in the moment. It only lead to more work later. It didn’t help that there was a giant purple phallus on the wall (that was not there when they checked the house).

Gabe sighed, scrubbing a hand over his face as he looked over his shoulder at Jack and Ana. Jack was gesticulating wildly, talking about Mothman.

“Jack, honey,” Ana said, her voice slow and pointed, like talking to a child. Gabe smirked. He knew Jack was in for it. “Mothman is from Virginia. We are in Los Angeles.”

“So?” Jack huffed, crossing his arms. He may as well have pouted his lip.

“So, we’d get more flack than praise for a California Mothman,” Gabe said. “Let the Virginians have their bug dude. You’re not fitting this ass in spandex.”

“Fine, then what’s your idea, huh?” Jack challenged.

Gabe stroked his goatee in thought, setting the laptop onto the coffee table. He got up to look at the idea board Jack had on the wall. It was covered in pictures, post-it notes, and push pins. They’d covered plenty of hauntings, alien encounters, the occasional cryptid.

“I don’t want another episode where one of us is the monster just yet,” he said. He ran his fingers over the corkboard, stopping at one of the images tacked there. “How about werewolves?” He pulled down the picture of a hulking, hairy beast.

Ana laughed, leaning back in her chair. “Gabe, werewolves? How is that not one of us dressing up?”

“Hear me out, pendejo,” he huffed. “There’s been reports of bizarre animal attacks up in Big Bear. It could be a two-part episode. The viewers eat that shit up.”

Jack steepled his fingers, leaning forward on his elbows. “Go on,” he said, drawing out the ‘o’ sounds.

“So, we take a trip up there. It gives me a chance to get some shots of the scenery and take a break from heavy editing,” Gabe said, going to sit with them around the kitchen table. “We get some exposition. Plant some footsteps, or pawsteps, or whatever.” He waved his hand. “Really set the mood and shit. Then we end on a cliffhanger.”

Ana still looked skeptical, her brow knit in thought. “Okay, but who will be the werewolf in the second part? It would be odd if one of us disappeared after being there for the first half.”

“We can get Jesse to do it. He’d barely need any makeup,” Gabe said.

“McCree? The guy that talks and dresses like he’s in a John Wayne film?” Jack asked incredulously. He leaned forward farther, encroaching on Gabe’s personal space. “The guy who is still undeclared in our junior year?”

“Can you name a better werewolf, Jackie? Or are you volunteering?” Gabe asked, leaning forward to challenge Jack in his space.

Jack elevated his chin, keeping eye contact with Gabe. He grit his teeth. He knew that Gabe was right, but he didn’t want to admit it. The editor drove him up a wall and challenged him at every corner. Sometimes he just wanted to punch that sly smirk off his face.

Gabe was relentless. He wanted Jack to know that just because he was gorgeous (come on, anyone with eyes could see that) and the head of the trio, he didn’t get final say in everything. Gabriel had dealt with plenty of his kind. While he wasn’t a jock, he was still that type of person that thought he could bat his stupid blue eyes and get people to conform to his will.

Ana sighed, rolling her eyes. “Are you two done posturing?” she asked, waving a hand in front of her nose. “It reeks of testosterone in here.”

“Once Jack stops being a diva,” Gabe said. He crossed his arms, eyes never leaving the blond.

“Me? A diva?” Jack said, clutching a hand over his heart. “I’m hurt, really.”

Gabe reached out and flicked Jack’s nose, making him scrunch up his face. The tension dissolved as quick as it arose.

They bickered more than she and Jack did. They were both so passionate and sure of themselves, it was natural for those energies to clash every so often. Ana loved how they could have a heated argument, then reset like nothing happened. Even if they were to beat the hell out of each other, they’d end up laughing it off.

Jack grunted, crossed his arms, and leaned back in his chair. Gabe took it as a victory. He poked his tongue out at Jack, who flipped him off.

“So, Jesse is our werewolf?” Ana asked.

“On one condition,” Jack said.

Gabe quirked an eyebrow. “Let me guess. So long as he dresses up as a werewolf and climbs into bed with you?”

Jack’s face reddened. “N-No! Why would you say something like that?” he stammered. “I was going to say so long as we can use his van to drive up there!”

Ana pulled a disgusted face. “Let me get this straight. You had an issue with Jesse coming, but you have no issue climbing into the back of his van. His van that smells like stale Pabst, cheap cigars, and In-n-Out?”

Jack put his hands up, the blush on his cheeks slowly dissipating, “Hey. If you want to use a ride service to get there, feel free. Sorry, Gabe, but your motorcycle and my shitty junker aren’t going to cut it.”

“Maybe if you hadn’t totaled your pickup,” Gabe grumbled under his breath.

“What was that?”

“Nothing,” Gabe said. “We leave for the forest this weekend, then.”

Getting Jesse on board was easy. Gabe showed up to his dorm room with a case of beer (carefully smuggled in) and a box of cigars. He knocked on the door. There was a clatter and a groan from the other side before the scruffy face of Jesse McCree peered out at him.

“Oh, hey Gabe,” he drawled. He was shirtless and clad in boxers, his cowboy hat casting his face in shadow. His eyes immediately landed on the six pack tucked under the editor’s arm. “Whatcha need this time?” he asked, opening the door to reveal his room.

It never failed to make Gabe balk. The man lived in chaos. There were clothes, beer cans, and fast food detritus everywhere. Jesse clicked his tongue, taking the beer from Gabe. “C’mon, now. You always look like yer about to implode every time ya stop by.”

“Jesse, there is a pair of underwear on the ceiling fan.”

“Oh, that there is,” Jesse said, snatching the boxers down and tossing them into the corner.

“What does your roommate think?”

“Who, Genji? Half this stuff is his,” Jesse said, kicking aside a pair of neon green boxers before plopping down on his bed. He pulled one of the cans from the plastic rings, cracking it open. He tipped the can toward Gabe. “So, what can I do for ya?”

“Well, uh…we need a werewolf for the shoot this weekend,” Gabe said, sitting beside Jesse, careful not to touch any of the stains on the sheets.

“Werewolf, huh?” Jesse stroked his beard, taking a long sip of the beer. “Dunno if a six pack a’ Blue Moon is gonna cut it.”

Gabe sighed, taking the pack of cigars out of his pocket. He threw them into Jesse’s lap. The cowboy beamed, turning the pack over in one hand. “You know me good, Reyes. You got yourselves a werewolf.”

“We also need your van.”

“Figured. Wasn’t no way Jack would have me along without my baby. How is Jackie boy doin’, anyhow?” Jesse asked, watching Gabe out of the corner of his eye.

Gabe flexed his jaw and crossed his arms. “He’s good. Still an asshole. Still stupidly good looking,” he said measuredly, unsure what Jesse was looking for.

“Sooo...you tapped that yet?”

Gabe thought he might actually combust. His face heated and he tugged his beanie down over his ears, hiding their red sheen. He glared at Jesse, who was smiling around the rim of his can.

“Fuck off,” Gabe snapped. “Jack is just an asshole friend who happens to be hot, like you.”

Jesse raised his arms and shrugged his shoulders. “I’m flattered, doll. But if you don’t, I will.”

Gabe snorted, rolling his eyes, “Jack wouldn’t touch you with a ten foot pole. It was hard enough convincing him to let you come.”

Jesse winked, crumpling the now empty can in one hand. “He just ain’t seen me lay on the charm.”

“Have at him, cowboy. I bet he shoots you down the first time you wink at him,” Gabe sneered.

“You got a bet,” Jesse said, punching Gabe in the arm. Gabe smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes.

—

The back of Jesse’s van smelled like bad decisions. The white panel van was painted with a desert mural on one side, while the other had “It’s High Noon” scrawled in towering font. The back of the van had shag carpeting that reeked, and the only seating was the front bench made of peeling red vinyl. Gabe was crammed in the back alongside Ana and their equipment. Jack was at the wheel, not trusting Jesse to get them there without a near-death experience. Jesse rode shotgun, not trusting Jack to drive his baby.

And, Gabe thought, to “lay on the charm.”

Jesse leaned close to Jack, talking in hushed tones. To Gabe’s surprise, Jack smiled and laughed.

“Gabe, you’re brooding,” Ana said, resting a hand on Gabe’s shoulder. Gabe grit his teeth, prying his eyes away from Jesse’s courting. He looked at Ana, who had one eyebrow cocked at him.

He rolled his eyes. “What? I brood. It’s what I do. When am I not brooding?”

“I can name a few instances,” she said.

Gabe held his tongue. He ran his hand across the dingy shag carpeting. He tried not to think of what was hiding in between the pieces of red fabric. He looked back at Ana. “He’s winning the bet.”

“What bet?”

Gabe cast a glance at the duo, making sure they were too busy to pay them any attention. “I bet Jesse that Jack would turn him down as soon as he even tried any of that charm shit.”

Ana rolled her eyes. “Never make a bet with that man, Gabe. He’s been gambling since he popped out of the womb.”

A sudden crooning came from the front seat. Jesse had his feet propped up on the dash, a cigar in his mouth and his head back. He belted out the lyrics to Hound Dog at the top of his lungs. Jack laughed along and tapped his fingers to the beat. Ana couldn’t help but laugh. She clapped a hand over her mouth.

Shoot me, Gabriel mouthed. He fell back onto the carpet, the film equipment prodding into his back.

“Jack, you better stop at the next scenic pull-off before Gabe melts into the shag,” Ana said over Jesse’s raucous singing.

Jack gave a thumbs-up in the rearview mirror.

When they came to a halt, Gabriel threw open the back doors, almost throwing himself over the side of the cliff that overlooked LA. He scowled at Jesse as he loped over to the edge. Gabe briefly debated pushing the cowboy off.

He decided murder wasn’t something he was prepared to go to jail for and grabbed his camera from the back of the van instead. He toyed with some of the settings before turning it on and panning across the view. If they had had more time, he would have loved to do a timelapse.

Gabe shooed McCree out of the shots, since he was supposed to be their werewolf. He got a shot of Ana leaning over the rails, looking off into the distance while her hair blew in the wind. She turned toward the camera and smiled, as though she had been caught. It made Gabe grin from ear to ear.

He panned the camera to Jack. He looked like a Boy Scout troop leader. All blond hair and blue eyes and tanned skin. He sat on the rail with his legs dangled over the side. Gabe was afraid he might fall, but the blond man had a sure grip on the rail. He leaned back on his hands and tossed Gabe a look over his shoulder. It was a cocky grin, one he was used to when they were getting into trouble.

Ana pressed into Gabe’s side and craned her head to look at the digital image projected on the camera’s screen. She smiled and pinched his side. “Your turn,” she said as she took the camera from him. Gabe shot her a glare, but didn’t argue. He disliked being on camera, but couldn’t object to making a cameo in some B-roll shots.

He leaned against the rails beside Jack. He took out a cigarette and lit it up. The smoke wraithed around his face and obscured his features. He smirked at the camera as he flicked his ashes toward Jack, who laughed and took a jab at Gabe’s shoulder. Careful not to send Jack sailing over the side, he grabbed the back of Jack’s shirt and gave him a tug. Jack lost his balance and tumbled back onto the ground. He glared up at Gabe, who was taking another drag from his cig.

Jack grabbed Gabe’s ankles and yanked them out from under him. Gabe landed on his ass with a momentous thump.

“Smoking kills!” Jack said between gasps of laughter.

“Yea, and I’ll kill you after that!” Gabe said and flicked his cigarette to the side. He grappled with jack on the ground, getting him in a headlock. Jack bit his arm, not hard enough to draw blood, but enough to make Gabe wince. “Hey, that’s dirty!” he laughed, not relenting his grip.

“Like you fight clean,” Jack said through grit teeth.

“Tell me in the best editor ever and I’ll let you go,” Gabe said, unaffected by Jack’s squirming.

Jack huffed, his hands in Gabe’s arms in an attempt to pry them off. His eyes flicked up to Ana, who was still rolling. He bit the inside of his cheek and grumbled.

“What was that, Jackie?”

“You’re the best editor…” Jack said louder.

“Ever.”

“Ever,” Jack sighed and rolled his eyes.

Gabe released Jack, earning a punch to his arm. Jack rubbed his neck and laughed through his nose. Gabe gave him a shit-eating grin and flipped him off.

Jesse leaned against the van, one leg propped up while he puffed on his cigar. He watched the two tussle with an easy grin. Jesse had competition, whether Gabe realized it or not.

#r76 #reaper76 #morreyeson #overwatch #jack morrison #gabriel reyes #ana amari #Jesse McCree #Genji Shimada #overwatch fanfiction #fanfic #fanfiction #ghosts #cryptids #AU #alternate universe #ghost hunting AU #overwatch AU

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nikatyler · 5 years

Photo

I’m currently trying to play my bpr again. Keyword trying because that save hates me. I might just move the family to a new town, we’ll see. I’m actually installing a few custom towns as I’m writing this. I might pick one of those even though they’re not berrified. But oh well, I don’t need to have a bright and colourful town for them. I mean, I don’t even use the berrified names of towns, their names don’t sound very berry-like either (they’re just colourful), and you will probably never see my berry sim say “oh my berry”. Though I should probably consider doing that because I swear too much and censoring it by saying berry and fudge and stuff could help :D

I’m going back to school on Monday. I don’t want to. It’s going to be hell from now on until the end of May, I can tell. I’m already exhausted just thinking about it.

alfalfalegacy replied to your post “˜º Sammy Rose”

The Sammy/Cassandra one

My heart ❤️❤️

I knooow!

Also, their story will start super soon. FINALLY. I’m so excited.

alfalfalegacy replied to your photoset “While I was shooting the scene with Annabeth, Will and Micah, there...”

A mood honestly

myopiccc replied to your photoset “Lydia: I’m getting bored…when are they saying their I do’s? Sammy:...”

Please! Sammy. LUL

harmoniouspixels replied to your photoset “Let’s check up on Sammy, shall we? She’s still upset.”

Sammy’s a mood

myopiccc replied to your photoset “Let’s check up on Sammy, shall we? She’s still upset.”

LUL!!!

alfalfalegacy replied to your photoset “Let’s check up on Sammy, shall we? She’s still upset.”

Sammy is a big mood

So the moral of the story today is that Sammy is a mood and I 100% agree with you

Also she’s relatable because this is actually my mood 24/7. Getting upset over little things? Check. Hating everyone? Also check.

harmoniouspixels replied to your photoset “Liam: “I’m getting married! I really am getting married! Ohmygosh I’m...”

Dylan no

Imagine if this became on of the things I do religiously in my saves

Welcome to simmeronnie, we’re abducting guys named Calebs and leaving our loved ones at the altar, enjoy your stay. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

tiny-tany-thaanos replied to your photoset “Felix: “They both look so good.” Lydia: “That’s gay, Felix.” Felix:...”

Lmao looking at my notifications all of my sims who aren't gay are bi or panXD

To be honest, my blog is only getting gayer with time and I’m totally down for it

desira-sims replied to your post “I’ve already finished two requests! I’ll probably upload them...”

Have fun on your trip!

Thank you! It was an interesting one. We visited a library in the capital city of my region. It was great! I mean, I’m a nerd for libraries, I’m actually studying librarianship now (and maybe I’ll continue studying it at uni, I don’t know yet) and this made me go “wow I could imagine working here” so...you can tell it was a good trip. Modern libraries are great. And I’ll stop rambling here.

myopiccc replied to your photoset “Aurora: Great…what were my wedding vows again?”

They are STUNNING! T-T

I know, I couldn’t believe my eyes *-* Didn’t expect them to turn out so gorgeous!

desira-sims replied to your photo “Sim Request: Tallulah Winton for @cafeheart The first request is done!...”

She’s cute! That dress came with the free patch the celebrated the Lunar New Year.

Thank you! Oh, it makes sense that it’s been added with a recent pack. I haven’t actually played sims 4 too much lately, so I completely missed it.

desira-sims replied to your post “I would like to request a Sim, if you don't mind. Game is TS4. Either...”

Oh. I love him. ��

cloudberry-sims replied to your photoset “Sim Request: Azura Dewy for @cloudberry-sims First one of the sims 3...”

Oh my precious little blueberry! <3 I love her!

poisonfireleafs replied to your photoset “Sim Request: Elodie Bell for @poisonfireleafs Okay, I truly love this...”

OMG she's so cute��

kymmaisims replied to your photoset “Sim Request: Richie Carver for @kymmaisims You said you wanted him to...”

Oh thank you so much!

simtonomy replied to your post “Oh, oh, oh! I've been following you for a while and I really like your...”

Haha, don't worry, he's very handsome! Thank you so much

I’m glad you guys like them! I had a lot of fun creating them.

myopiccc replied to your photoset “This game really loves to cancel things for these two. First, Dylan’s...”

You're the winner Sammy! after all!!

Oh wait yes that makes sense! It’s karma for what he had done to her earlier! :D

myopiccc replied to your photoset “Y'all I’m crying. Look who came to see his children’s wedding.”

........ my heart............T-T

I live for these coincidences but then I always end up crying

Why do I care so much about them they’re just sims and it’s not real ahh

create-a-sim replied to your photo “Bold the Facts Yes, I’m doing this again! I was tagged a few more...”

I love Sharon! Also, I have the exact same shirt irl :D

I’m happy to hear that, she’s one of my faves as well! And man, I’m jealous! I don’t even know why, but I’ve been wishing for a Guns N’ Roses T-shirt for a while now. I just desperately want it...even though I usually only listen to like three of their songs so I don’t feel like I can justify buying it. Like...I’m a fan but not that big of a fan. But I want it ;-;

alfalfalegacy replied to your photoset “Uhh…those sounds, that’s not police, is it?”

That expression tho

We love absent minded sims here

myopiccc replied to your photoset “Everybody wants kung-fu pillow fighting”

I DO love the Roses. LUL

That means a lot to me ♥

tiny-tany-thaanos replied to your photoset “Regan: “Crap, Lydia, you scared me. What do you mean by ‘still’?”...”

I wonder how many people thought that ?? Was a mysterious stranger

I was the one ��

It could have been her future girlfriend but I didn’t even think about that :D Also I’m now imagining if she turned around and saw one of the ghosts, that would have been pretty funny. And sad at the same time.

keynekysims replied to your photoset “Kids, today we’re going to learn to drive with Miracle Rose.”

When in doubt, ram the car in front of you!

I’ll keep this in mind when I finally start attending driving lessons

Spoiler: I’m not planning on attending driving lessons anytime soon because driving fucking scares me

igglemouse replied to your photoset “Uhh…those sounds, that’s not police, is it?”

They are coming to appreciate your art!

Yesss that’s totally it! They want her to decorate the police station!

#replies #alfalfalegacy #myopiccc #harmoniouspixels #tiny-tany-thaanos #desira-sims #cloudberry-sims #poisonfireleafs #kymmaisims #simtonomy #create-a-sim #keynekysims #igglemouse

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dracox-serdriel · 5 years

Text

Tumblr Horror

If you want to skip this post, tap the ‘J’ key to jump to the next one. You can also tap the ‘K’ key to jump to the previous post.

(Note: This post contains spoilers for content from various media of the X-Files, Hannibal the TV show, and Grimm.)

I’ve had this blog for years. I started off (a long, long time ago) on LiveJournal, and moved to Tumblr when I realized the platform had more interactive functionality for building online communities and general dialog, which made the site very appealing.

The lack of censorship for public posts with so-called “adult themes” was also highly appealing to me because my favorite genre is horror. When sites start to censor “offensive” content, horror is always on that list. If it’s not directly stated as “offensive material,” then the ever-widening gray area of censorship swallows it up bit by bit.

Want an example? Here’s a post from earlier this year where Tumblr expands its content restrictions. I don’t remember hearing much uproar about these new restrictions... and at first glance, it seems to focused on things like hate speech and threats of violence. Yet take a good look at this excerpt:

Don't post content which includes violent threats toward individuals or groups - this includes threats of theft, property damage, or financial harm. Don’t post violent content or gore just to be shocking. Don’t showcase the mutilation or torture of human beings, animals (including bestiality), or their remains. Don’t post content that encourages or incites violence, or glorifies acts of violence or the perpetrators.

One could argue that horror doesn’t have violence or gore “just to be shocking,” but it’s also 100% possible to argue that horror does exactly that, particularly horror subgenres like slasher, splatter, and torture (just to name a few), but it also impacts pretty much everything under the horror umbrella.

It also puts a lot of things that aren’t considered under the horror umbrella but are... horror-adjacent. For example, dramas about serial or spree killers, including procedural dramas like Mind Hunters and Criminal Minds, as well as true crime based on them.

Where does the line fall here, exactly? If I had tons of posts about how cool fictional character George Foyet (aka The Reaper) is, does that qualify as “glorifying” acts of violence? If I had tons of posts about the character’s crimes, complete with screenshots from the show and maybe a few fan illustrations to fill in the gaps, would that qualify as “glorifying” acts of violence? Would it qualify as “showcasing the mutilation or torture of human beings”?

Let’s move away from the spree and serial killers for a second. Let’s assume that Tumblr views anything other than their mug shots qualify as “offensive” or “adult” content, despite the popularity of shows/fiction/general content.

What about shows like the X-Files? In the second movie, X-Files: I Want to Believe, there’s a two-headed dog that exists by way of unethical science experiments. It’s also killed in self-defense by a main character. Animal mutilation and torture? Check! There are countless episodes that focus on illegal human experimentation by the government, including the discovery of mass graves (02x25 Anasazi), testing infectious diseases on prison inmates (02x22 F. Emasculata), TV-induced mind control (03x23 Wetwired), and stealing/experimenting on human embryos (05x08 Emily). And that’s just a few of the things perpetrated by the government. That’s not including the town of cannibals (02x24 Our Town) or the more selective cannibals, like the guy who killed people for their fat (03x06 2Shy), the guy who ate people’s brains (07x03 Hungry), or the guy who drained melanin (04x03 Teliko). Don’t forget the demon who slaughters people - including having one eaten by a giant snake (02x14 Die Hand die Verletzt), weaponized bacteria-turned-killing-machines (05x18 The Pine Bluff Variant), and even a crocodile (03x22 Quagmire), which is an episode where both a beloved pet dog (RIP Queequeg) gets eaten and a crocodile is shot and killed.

Then there’s shows like Grimm, which has plenty of violence with the added bonus of the mythology of the show blurring the human/animal line. It’s got everything from the main character mailing two decapitated heads to Jack the Ripper possessing a main character to continue his killing spree. And that’s the “mostly human” violence... let’s not forget the animal-like violence from wesen characters fighting each other with tooth, claw, venom, etc.

I probably shouldn’t even touch the TV show Hannibal, even though it handles violence so beautifully and in such a creative way. It still contains tons of gore, violence, psychological manipulation/trauma/abuse, and, of course, cannibalism. One could easily argue that many of the crime scenes depicted on the show are “just to be shocking,” such as the totem pole of bodies (01x09 Trou Normand), people disfigured to look like “angels” (01x06 Coquilles), and people who have been savaged by what appears to be “some kind of animal attack” (02x09 Shiizakana), and people who are still alive despite being sewn into a giant corpse mural (02x02 Sakizuki) or having part of their brain removed to accommodate a beehive (02x03 Takiawase).

Now, before we get much further, there’s this question that people always ask that I know I’ll need to answer. So let’s get it out of the way.

What’s the point of horror?

When it comes to most genres, people who don’t like a certain genre often regard it as “boring” or “hard to follow” or, well, just not their cup of tea. But for a genre like horror, people who don’t like it often regard it as “gross,” repulsive, or maybe just plain cheesy (depending on what’s being discussed).

For example, a person who doesn’t like historical documentaries will almost never describe them as “offensive” or “gross”; whereas, many people who don’t like horror describe their dislike in exactly those terms (e.g., “that’s gross!” or “all that violence offends me!”).

I understand the response. My point here isn’t to criticize the responses of others when it comes to horror - there’s nothing wrong with being grossed out by a slasher flick. My point is that many people don’t simply dislike the content - they’re offended by it. There’s also a strong general tendency (regardless of personal opinion) to draw assumptions about the people who like “offensive” content (including porn-level sexual content).

For example, people who like horror “like” to be scared... that the unrealism of horror (meaning, the fact that it’s fiction - or a fiction-ified version of a story) gives us the distance we need to enjoy and process the gore/violence/other elements of horror.

I can’t speak to why anyone besides than myself likes horror, but look at how the topic is written about and even studied. Type “why people like horror” into a search engine. Open another tab and type “why people like comedy” into that same search engine. Compare the articles from the top results. For me, most of the horror results are from psychology or psychology insight sites; whereas, the comedy results have less technical papers and more, well... humor. There’s only 1 article about people who don’t like comedy (framed as a joke), compared to over half the horror results also mentioning people who dislike/hate horror.

This small example can show you how different the conversations about horror are from comedy. But feel free to compare other genres - documentaries, for example - and you’ll see a very similar trend in terms of contrast. Keep in mind that many documentaries include plenty of disturbing content, such as the details of war crimes.

So, when it comes to horror, conversations tend to be polarized. It’s reasonable to classify most horror as “adult” content because, yes, it often includes gore, violence, murder, etc. But people will often brand horror-related material as “offensive” and will sometimes even argue that it “encourages violence” or “glorifies violence,” especially for horror materials that defy traditionally codified aspects of horror (e.g., movies or stories that don’t contain “poetic justice” or the antagonists being caught/stopped/punished).

So... what’s the point of horror? The question is annoying because there’s a ton of answers - and of course, it varies by person - but it’s also annoying because people often ask it to support the idea that horror is superfluous and/or gratuitous (aka “just for shock”). Much of modern censorship focus on “the gratuitous” - if the violence is “important to the story,” then it passes muster. If not - or if there’s just too dang much of it - it’s described as “gratuitous” (and thereafter, often censored). Sometimes, the act of answering the question “what’s the point of horror?” in a way plays into this kind of censorship... because it operates on the idea that you need a reason/a point for horror for it to be valid.

Related questions: Does viewing violence “inspire” or “encourage” it? Doesn’t seeing so much violence desensitize us? Even if a catharsis - a release - is experienced, doesn’t horror doing more harm than good?

Returning to the new content restrictions, check out the post A better, more positive Tumblr:

Over the past several months, and inspired by our storied past, we’ve given serious thought to who we want to be to our community moving forward and have been hard at work laying the foundation for a better Tumblr.

...

We spent considerable time weighing the pros and cons of expression in the community that includes adult content. In doing so, it became clear that without this content we have the opportunity to create a place where more people feel comfortable expressing themselves.

Bottom line: There are no shortage of sites on the internet that feature adult content. We will leave it to them and focus our efforts on creating the most welcoming environment possible for our community.

(emphasis mine)

I had been holding out hope that horror would not fall into the “offensive adult material” gray area on Tumblr, but if these changes are actually about creating “the most welcoming environment,” then horror is definitely on the chopping block, regardless of whether or not it has sexual content.

After all, plenty of people view horror as gratuitous and/or “offensive” and/or gross. Which means horror posts are (and will continue to be) reported as abuse/bad content.

Tumblr is saying that sexual content (which people could choose to ignore and choose to block with a number of tools) is being banned because its inclusion has an “unwelcoming” or “uncomfortable” affect on the community of this platform, that’s ultimately rooted in the fact that Tumblr sees sexual content as gratuitous. This is backed up by the fact that, despite the popularity of adult content on this platform, Tumblr believes that cutting that content out will have more positive affects than negative ones.

I haven’t found solid numbers on how many people like horror, but a lot of sources suggest that approximate 1/3 of the population has an inclination toward horror, but nearly 2/3 of the population dislikes horror... Even if these numbers aren’t entirely on-target, I feel confident in arguing that, statistically, more people like sexual content/porn than horror.

If cutting objectionable (yet popular) material will benefit Tumblr, I doubt they’d worry much about cutting objectionable and fairly unpopular material.

To be clear: for the moment, I’m not going anywhere.

But I have a feeling that many of the things I use Tumblr for will soon be gone and/or fall under the constant eye of censorship scrutiny. From my experience, this results in content drying up (why post material to a platform you have to battle to keep it live and public?).

According to Tumblr, there are a lot of sites that “feature adult content,” which means relocating shoudn’t be a big deal, though I’m not sure if this applies to other similar platforms. But, of course, it is a big deal. And it’s a pain.

Exporting content to sucks pretty much all the time, regardless of where you’re going. Especially for those of us who’ve accumulated thousands and thousands of posts over the years. Sure, if I export it from Tumblr, I’ll have a record... but all those records will point to Tumblr URLs - many of which will be defunct in two weeks because “private” posting will be engaged, making the URL no longer visible/accessible. That’s not even talking about all the defunct blogs that will be dotting my dashboard and posts because the users have moved on...

#tumblr #horror #woes #yes I'm pouting deal with it

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makeste · 4 years

Note

Are there any headcanons that you would like to share? About anything you want.

anon in the absence of specific guidelines I have managed to make this post pretty much entirely about Bakugou. I apologize if you really wanted to know all of my headcanons about Kouda or something lol. but all joking aside he really is the character I think about the most and so probably like 80% of my headcanons are about him, including close to 100% of the headcanons I actually have a solid enough grip on to put into words. anyway here goes.

he does not know how to tie a tie. he was a rowdy little free range knee-scraping grass-staining run-don’t-walk child whose parents only ever managed to wrestle him into formal attire a handful of times for special occasions when he was younger, and then he went to a middle school that used gakuran-style uniforms so he never learned then, either. his dad offered to teach him when U.A. rolled around, but he was all, “fuck off dad, I know how to tie a stupid tie,” because by that time he had grown into a cocky little brat confident in his own skill and naive as to the reality checks of the world, and he genuinely believed with the conviction that only a fifteen-year-old can muster that when the time came he would just magically know how to do it. on the first day of school he got as far as draping the loose tie over his neck and holding one end in each hand before staring at the mirror and abruptly realizing the hole he’d dug himself into. and so rather than admit defeat, he just straight up decided not to wear it. which became a permanent life choice once he got to school and saw how badly Deku’s tie was tied and realized there was no way he could ever risk that kind of humiliation.

in a similar vein, I know there’s a popular fanon that because of his parents’ influence Katsuki has a good sense of fashion, but my own personal headcanon is that this could not be further from the truth lol. it’s not that he has a terrible sense of style, mind you; it’s just that he doesn’t care about it at all. he’s a nerdy jock who spends all his free time studying and lifting weights. this kid literally only wears one color, and that color just so happens to be the easiest possible color to coordinate. he owns like three pairs of shoes max. he wears his pants three sizes up and they drag so much that the hems are all frayed from him constantly stepping on them (literally canon, and one of my favorite details from chapter 218). he just doesn’t give a fuck, so long as the clothes are comfortable and don’t look stupid. he has about a million things he’s more concerned about than what he or anyone else is wearing. in fact I’m 90% sure that his mom still buys most of his clothes, and about 70% convinced he does not even know what size he is.

he’s good at household chores (because he’s good at everything), but hates doing them. aside from cooking, which he enjoys, he will bitch and whine nonstop if forced to do tedious-yet-necessary things like washing dishes and folding laundry. that said, he is a perfectionist, and he also has a lot of experience because his mom made him do chores all the time during the seven trillion times he was grounded while growing up (that’s his estimate, btw, so it may be slightly exaggerated. he was not an easy kid to raise. when your kid’s fuse is about a millimeter long and he has a tendency to literally blow up whenever he throws a fit, you end up with a lot of objects in your house that have been replaced at some point), so if you do actually manage to get him to do the chore, rest assured that chore is getting fucking DONE.

when he was very little he watched an Avengers Endgame-style All Might film where a bunch of bad guys attacked earth and various assorted heroes tried and failed to stop them. then at the climax of the film, All Might showed up and said “I am here”, and everyone got super pumped up and excited because they knew the heroes were going to win with All Might on their side. this scene remains Katsuki’s favorite scene in anything. not the fight -- just the moment where All Might shows up and grins and the audience knows right there and then that he’s going to win. this is the feeling that inspired his dream. he wants to be the one who shows up and everyone is like, “we’re good now; Katsuki is here.”

when he was six or seven he got into a big fight with an older boy over that scene because he said it was fake and that there was no way All Might could have beaten those guys in real life. Katsuki insisted he definitely would have because All Might never loses. the other boy replied that everyone loses sometimes. Katsuki kicked his ass and got suspended for a week.

ten years later, Katsuki watched All Might battle All for One at Kamino and realized two things. one, that the other boy was right and that anyone can lose. and two, that he, the one who had so proudly defended All Might back then, was going to end up being the reason why he finally lost.

for a long time afterwards, he couldn’t bring himself to watch that movie again.

when he and Izuku were three years old their moms sent them out on a first errand (google Hajimete no Otsukai if you’re unfamiliar with this tradition, I promise you it is the cutest fucking thing you’ll ever see) to buy ingredients for katsudon. Izuku was full of bouncy childish enthusiasm and could rattle off the full shopping list of ingredients front to back, but when the moment finally came his confidence wilted as soon as their parents were out of sight. Katsuki also had a moment of panic when they first rounded the corner and he couldn’t see his house anymore, but rallied once Izuku burst into tears and he realized that he had to be the one to take charge. he proceeded to morph into an absurdly over-the-top caricature of his own mother for the duration of the errand, to the point where in addition to telling Izuku to stop crying he also ordered him to stand up straight and tuck in his shirt. the two of them went on to complete the errand flawlessly and their moms were PROUD AS FUCK and took a billion pictures. Izuku and Katsuki have only a few scattered memories of this milestone in the present day but it’s enough to send both of them absolutely reeling with embarrassment whenever they’re reminded of it.

he and his mom don’t often get along but sometimes they’ll bond over roasting a mutual target. they have watched many a trashy reality TV show together for this purpose. Masaru lives for these moments but never comments on them lest he spoil the rare moments of peace.

Katsuki is perfectly capable of using keigo (i.e. normal polite Japanese with no rude language/cursing), otherwise he would not be one of the top students in his ivy-league high school. code-switching is a thing guys! anyways his teachers are aware of this, because all of his essays and homework assignments are written normally. he merely chooses to go about his daily business acting like a wannabe yakuza stereotype because that’s just his personality, and he’s not about to start censoring himself and acting like some weird little goody two shoes robot person just to please people he mostly doesn’t give two shits about. but if you put a gun to his head and told him you’d pull the trigger if he said “fuck”, he would probably be all right; he’d just have to concentrate.

when he was little he went through a phase of collecting cicada shells and leaving them EVERYWHERE -- in the bathroom sink, on his mom’s pillow, you name it. Mitsuki often tells people this is when she started getting gray hairs. one time she opened a box of cereal and there was one in there and a little bit of her soul died that day.

he generally doesn’t care who calls him Kacchan. it doesn’t particularly bother him and it never occurred to him to pretend like it did just for appearance’s sake. also secretly for some reason the thought of Deku ever calling him anything else really bothers him. he’s not sure what it would mean if that ever happened, or what he would do.

all of his workouts are designed to strengthen his arms and back and shoulders because those are the parts of his body that take the most abuse from his quirk. other than that he avoids building up excess muscle anywhere else because the more weight he puts on the harder it is to fly around. for this reason he is never going to end up being a big bulky guy like All Might. one day Deku is going to surpass him in muscle, but he doesn’t care because he’ll still be a match for him in firepower and speed.

he’s one of those kids who will not so much as take a sip of alcohol until he’s twenty-five. partly because he’s experienced enough concussions that he doesn’t particularly want to give hangovers a try, and partly because he’s a control freak and honestly afraid of getting drunk and making an idiot of himself somehow. the rowdier members of class A try virtually every trick in their wheelhouse and then some to try and persuade him over the years, but not even the reverse psychology “aw, don’t worry, it’s okay if you’re... scared :)” thing works, because that’s only actually effective when he secretly wants to do the thing.

then one day he just wakes up and is all “you know what, I’m gonna try it”, and for the next few days his google history is basically just “how many drinks does it take to get drunk” and “how to avoid getting drunk” and “how to prevent hangovers.” somehow word gets out through the grapevine (he probably told Todoroki, who is the one person in class A you’d think wouldn’t be a big ol’ gossip but in fact IS) that Bakugou is finally going to get his drink on that weekend, and pretty much EVERYONE shows up at the izakaya that Friday night excited as FUCK.

Katsuki proceeds to drink a grand total of two beers over the span of several hours, and drinks like five glasses of water in between, and literally nothing happens to him at all except that Kaminari almost fights him out of frustration. the rest of class A never fully gets over their disappointment.

he actually knows like 90% of class 1-A’s names by this point. there are still a few people he doesn’t and will never know, though. twenty years from now Aoyama will still be “that weird fucking french kid” in his mind.

he had no idea who Eri was until the Christmas party. sometimes he’d hear the other kids talking about someone named Eri, and from context clues he somehow ended up thinking it was one of Aizawa’s cats. when Eri came to the party he had a brief moment of curiosity wondering if she was Sensei’s niece or something, and then he heard someone say her name and he was all “THAT’S ERI?!” and his entire worldview was briefly shaken up.

he pulled Kirishima aside to ask him and Kirishima basically gave him Eri’s whole entire life story which was way more than he actually wanted to know. he’s now kind of terrified of ever being in the same room as her for fear of having to interact with her because he’s pretty sure he’d do or say the wrong thing. most of the time being intimidating is something he strives for and puts a lot of effort into, including when he’s around kids (who are basically just smaller, sloppier adults in his mind), but he doesn’t want to be the guy who scared an abused kid, so he basically just hopes the others will have enough common sense not to ever go “oh hey you know who should totally interact with each other?? Eri and Bakugou!”

that being said, if circumstances ever arose which forced Katsuki to protect Eri, the two of them would totally bond and they would have a really sweet relationship in which Eri looked up to him just like she looks up to Deku and Mirio and the rest, and where Katsuki was constantly trying to be on his best behavior around her, like genuinely, sincerely trying, and kind of failing at it a lot but still being sweet in a gruff sort of restrained-disaster way.

...and after sitting there for a while trying to think of more I couldn’t come up with any so I guess that’s it! basically most of my headcanons are about how secretly boring Katsuki is. honestly if it weren’t for him having the vocabulary of a 52-year-old sailor whose foot was caught in a bear trap, he and Iida would probably be best friends.

#bnha #boku no hero academia #bakugou katsuki #bnha meta #bakugou meta #bnha headcanons #don't think there're any spoilers here except for the detail about his pants in 219 lol #sorry if I have spoiled anyone for that #makeste reads bnha #asks #anon asks #long post #oh whoops it was actually 218 my bad just edited #wait a second the christmas party is spoilers isn't it lol whoops #bnha spoilers #there we go

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sduswdnd · 5 years

Text

Campaign 1 Part 3

From part 2

When last we left our adventurers, they’d delivered their wagon of crap and explored the town. They were told that an old 90s band were terrorizing the masses and decided to help. They also were recruited into three other money making schemes and were asked to help Orlando Bloom find the man that ghosted him on Druidr. After scoping out the hideout, they decide to enter it under disguise. After freeing prisoners, they encounter the Rancor, who just wants to run away. They spot a cracked out rat and follow it to the missing wizard, Knowing he’d been found out, he starts to spill his guts about the whole crafty tale. He and a guy named the Black Spider, who wanted to steal the Wokscraper brothers’ timeshare. They finish looting- I mean clearing the ruins before heading back to town.

Part 3

“Hello! Hello? Is it over yet?” Korrin comes wandering in with a full flask of whiskey and a five-foot frozen lemonade. “Hello?” He wanders into the ruins, looking around. He spots a body in the crevasse. “Hope I didn’t know that guy…”

“You didn’t.” Baze stows his blades and looks down at the body. He notices something sparkly down in the darkness and says, “Shiny!” and jumps down into the crevasse.

Silvan says, “Shiny?” and jumps in too.

Korrin starts to say, “Maybe check forrr not…”

“Hey guys! It’s a shiny! And it’s stuck in the wall!”

Gerrol looks at the rancor (whose name is Roger). “Well, you’ve seen these guys. They’re gonna go ‘Link’ on this whole place and crack open everything that moves.”

Roger says, “No, I’ll never get my security deposit back. Just take what you want, but get the hell out!”

Teiris looks around, noticing a censor bar near Iarno’s quarters. “Hey, what’s behind here?

Korrin touches his holy symbol, then moves his hands, drawing mysterious sigils in the air. The gold glyphs shimmer in the cold air then flash, seeking the obscured area, fluttering as the energy charges and darts into the darkness, then back to Korrin, circling him before compacting together, then exploding like tiny fireworks.

Korrin looks at Teiris. “Porn.”

Capt looks around wizard quarters, puts her right hand in the boxes, pulls her right hand out, puts her right hand in and shakes it all about. The rest of the group is compelled by copyright to do the hokey pokey and turn themselves about.

Because that is actually what it’s all about.

“Found some sparkly things!

Baze looks at the sparklies, and a strange look comes over him. “A glassy, translucent stone, Carnelian is an orange-colored variety of Chalcedony, a mineral of the Quartz family. Its color varies from pale pinkish-orange to a deep rusty brown, though it is most known for its brilliant orange and red-orange crystals. Its name comes from a Latin word meaning "flesh." In antiquity, as well as today, Carnelian is believed to help timid speakers become both eloquent and bold. Ancient Warriors wore Carnelian around their neck for courage and physical power to conquer their enemies.”

“So you’re saying they’re valuable?”

“Dibs!”

The last loot box is found and opened, and back to town they go.

~~~~****~~~~

Silvanhost and Gerrol drag Iarno to the town hall, leading the rest of the group. Sildar looks up, shock and surprise on his face. “You’re alive…” he breathes softly.

Iarno looks sheepishly at Sildar. “Hey, bae…”

Sildar struts up to him and, with a silver gauntleted hand, strikes him, yelling as he strikes:

“WHO (SLAP) THE FUCK (SLAP) ARE YOU (SLAP) TO GHOST (SLAP) ME, BITCH (SLAP)!”

Mirea and Teiris snap in Z formation. “UM HMM!”

Sil and Gerrol hiss, “Daaaaaammmnnnn…”

Sildar grabs his collar and starts to drag him off. Iarno starts to stammer, “Bae, I can explain…”

Sildar cuts him off. “Don’t you ‘bae’ me. I found your Druidr profile, Mister Glasscock. Ain’t nothin needs explainin…”

Sildar then looks at our heroes. “This fool has a lot to answer for. I have to take him back to his homies, but we still need to find Clockwatcher. I can tell you he was taken by this idiot and a Drow called the Black Spider. If you wait for me to take care of him, I can help you get Rackstuffer.”

Our heroes look at each other. Maik and Baze fistbump. “It’s whiskey and wench time!”

~~~~~***~~~~~

The next morning, our heroes check their messages with the front desk clerk. Mirea had to get her armor mended. She threatens bodily harm if we storm the castle without her.

Traxion pulled a muscle posing for AQ. He’d be laid up for a few days but wanted to get his headshots done at the castle too, so don’t leave without him.

The group gathered up in the common room for breakfast. “So, no Pockmarker today.”

“No Sockwalker.”

“So whaddayawannado?”

“Didn’t those folks that we rescued offer us cash or something?” The group stare at each other, then scramble out of the inn.

Several minutes later, they’re in front of Nards’ home.

[Editor’s note: Nards?]

[Author’s note: That’s what the notes say.]

[Editor’s note: Did they hate their kid?]

[Author’s note: eh]

In front of the home, the young man comes to the door. “Oh, no, we didn’t actually have any money, but if you check out our storage unit, you can have whatever looks good. I think there was some jewelry and stuff.” Discouraged, they leave.

Back at the inn, everyone is draped all over the common room.

“BORED….” says Gerrol.

“We told them we’d wait to storm the castle.”

Maik repeats, “BORED…”

Korrin looks up from sharpening his blades. “Weren’t there orcs we were supposed to beat up?”

Everyone looks at Korrin, then to each other, then scramble out the door.

~~~*~~~~

Our heroes head east for several hours.

“Are we there yet?”

Korrin hisses, “If you don’t stop, so help me I’ll turn this party around.”

Baze looks around and points. “Do trees grow sideways?”

They all look at him, then to the area he’s pointing to. There were trampled trees, dried grass, and a large green screen.

“That doesn’t look suspicious at all,” says Gerrol. “But let’s poke it with a stick.” He and Baze make their way to the screen and poke at it. It falls over, revealing a small cave opening. “Hey guys…”

Suddenly, somewhere, the battle music starts.

They discover a lone orc at a watch post. Baze quickly dashes behind a nearby sunflower. “Stealth!” he shouts at the orc, who spots him, confused. Its confusion was more than enough to give Baze a moment to take it out. He ded. They hide the body under the green screen and enter the cave.

Heading into the cave, they realize caves are dark. “Who has dark vision?” Three of them raise their hands. “Cool,” Baze says, attaching an LED lantern to his head, effectively blinding the other three. Deeper into the cave, they came across another familiar scent.

[Editor’s note: Waffles again?]

[Author’s note: That’s what it says.]

[Editor’s note: Is this going to be a thing?]

The scent of waffles filled the air as they round the corner. The brunch bar was in full swing. Several orcs were in line for fresh waffles, while others loaded up on the free mimosas. Two orcs see new arrivals and break away from the line.

“Hey, you! This is for card holders only. Did you show your players club card at the door?”

Gerrol pats his clothes. “Yes, I have it right… HERE!” he says as he shanks the first orc and joins the one-shot club.

The second orc looks yells, “Hey, I don’t think you guys are members!”

Baze yells, “Stealth!” and hides behind the yogurt machine. He then dashes out, slips on the spilled sprinkles and misses his strike.

Silvenhost comes up and yells, “No cuts!” as he slices the orc once, twice, three and down.

Another orc comes up to the yogurt machine, angry that it wasn’t working. He turns his anger to our heroes. Cap responds with an arrow. Teiris tries to help, but breaks her bowstring. Maik casts entangle, and ties up the rest of the orcs charging them.

The two floor bosses come up, one of them a large one with a nametag reading “Axebiter-Manager.” Korrin charges the manager, but gets hurt in the process. He says he’s gonna heal himself. Silvenhost whispers, “Touch yourself… slowly.” They both recover hit points.

Teiris notices orcs going to the buffet with dirty plates. She yells, “YOU NEED TO USE A CLEAN PLATE EVERY TIME YOU RETURN TO THE BUFFET, YOU BLOUSE WEARING POODLE WALKERS!” The orcs in the area are stunned and embarrassed, shuffling away.

Maik preps to attack but hears Korrin moaning behind the party. He goes to heal him, “You may feel some discomfort…”

“That’s what she said!”

Silvan and Teiris notice one orc trying to call security. They intercept him. Teiris breaks another bowstring. Silvan snorts at her, then strikes the orc, taking him out.

Finally, it’s just our heroes and the manager. Axebiter starts swinging wild. Cap and Silvanhost keep swinging at him. Teiris tries to diffuse the situation with a joke:

“What’s the difference between a dirty trolley stop and a lobster with breast implants? One's a crusty bus station, and the other's a busty crustacean.”

** crickets **

“You guys suck!”

The battle continues. Everyone flails ridiculously, setting the salad bar on fire and destroying the yogurt machine, and but finally the battle is won. Silvan lops the head off the last orc and ties it to his belt.

“That’s a bold fashion statement.” Silvan twirls, then smiles.

They get back to the mayor, and the orc head gets tossed to the floor. The Mayor screams, tosses his cookies, and passes out. When he awakes to everyone staring at him.

“Please don’t tell anyone I passed out, and I’ll give you 400 gold instead of 200…”

They all agree and head to the pub. Cap gets sauced and says, “Bard! Entertain us with a song!”

Teiris is happy to comply:

How does a bastard, orphan son of a human and an elf, dropped in the middle of a forgotten spot by the imperium By providence, impoverished, in squalor, grow up to be a hero and a scholar?

With ten gold he set out, leaving his father, got a lot stronger by working a lot harder, by being a lot smarter By being a self-starter, then Rockseeker placed him in charge of an escort charter

And everyday while gold was being taken and carted away Across the fields, he struggled and kept his guard up Inside he was longing for something to be a part of The brother was ready to beg, steal, borrow or barter

Then a zaratan came, and devastation reigned Our man saw his future drip, dripping down the drain Put his sword in his satchel, connected his belt around And he killed his enemy, the ones that could be found Well the word got around, they said "This dude is insane, man!" Took up a collection just to send him to the main man "Get your education, don't forget from whence you came And the world's gonna know your name. What's your name man?"

Traxion the Paladin My name is Traxion the Paladin And there's a million things I haven't done But just you wait, just you wait…

And the pub goes wild.

The next morning, they go shopping. Maik finds a mysterious set of runestones and is drawn to touch them.

“Dude, if you touch them, you have to rub them.”

Maik backs away.

Somewhere, the Ghostbuster theme starts. They head off to see the banshee.

On the road, an unusual feeling comes over the group. They look out and see four wolves coming closer.

Maik says, “I got this.” He turns into a wolf, sits down and starts licking himself.

“Now is not the time!” yells Cap.

Maik whines then goes to one of the wolves. They start sniffing each other, making friends. The second wolf doesn’t want to feel left out and wanders over, joining the sniffing parade.

Teiris shakes her head and casting Thaumaturgy, causes a small earthquake, scaring off the other two wolves and lowering property values on the coast. Yay! No blood, no report!

Off to Aggies! Maik starts running, dodging Silvanhost’s attempt to hop on his back. He does allow Baze to hop on and away they go.

[Editor’s note: What’s with Baze always wanting to ride Maik?]

Cap yells, “Don’t kill anything until we get there!”

Soon, they get to Aggies. Baze wanders inside, begins getting hosed by the spirit. Silvanhost cuts in, speaking in Elvish. Gerrol starts translating for the group:

Silvanhost: So… you come here often?

Aggie: giggles in Elvish

Silvanhost: (holds out comb) I think you left this on my bedroom floor last time…

Aggie: giggles more in Elvish

This goes on a few minutes longer, and they get the location of the book the sister needs. Back to the town they go!

[Editor’s note: Well, that was anticlimactic.]

[Author’s Note: Yeah, but to be honest, if they had to fight a ghost, it would probably be a TPK.]

[Editor’s note: That’s fair.]

Back in town, Teiris, Silvanhost, and Gerrol return to the temple. The Sister bustles up excitedly.

“Did you get it?” she asks.

“Yep…”

She jumps with glee. “Thank you so much, have some red bull!” She eyes them carefully. “Have you ever considered Scien… I mean the Harpers…”

Next up: All together now…

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likeabulletyoucanhurtme · 5 years

Text

Another horror film... Fender Bender

I decide what to watch films from listicles and stupid articles posted from facebook. I decide to do reviews/re-action blogs/liveblog posts, not because of the film but just if I have time/effort to put in. The Wikipedia entry for this film make it sound like a modern day slasher film/tribute. I like those films, Halloween, Nightmare On Elm Street, Scream etc, so let's hope this is a worthy successor. Ominous repeated music, not quite the Halloween piano but building tension Woman pours a tiny glass of wine, pauses, and then fills up the glass. Nice. Why is she wearing her housecoat from the bedroom to the bathroom? You live alone there's no need to be shy...or was that just for the censors? Closing the door when getting into the bath. Even when we know we are alone (or at least we think we are) then we still need to close the bathroom door for privacy. Wonder why? Too many bubbles in this bath so for those looking for a quick peek you'll be disappointed She drys one hand to pick up her phone but uses both to type her text, surely this will still get her phone wet? Also her fingers look too wrinkled for her to have just sat down in the bath, but that's just continuity and was probably the 20th take or something The texts are from her "Fender bender friend", woo movie title is mentioned! Her keyboard makes typing sounds. Does anyone still have that? Do we not all just mute it and have our phones on constant silence? He told her to enjoy the bath. Definitely freaking out now. I guess this is gonna be more of a stalker than a whodunnit The bathroom door just creaked open. I get its to add to the tension but hes not on the direct other side of the door so that was what, wind? She goes downstairs (in her housecoat) and one of the windows is wide open. Now surely if you're a psycho killer sneaking into someones house, you'd shut the window after you to avoid detection. Or at least I would...or I will now... Now she's given up on her bath and pulled the plug. Poured half her wineglass down the sink but didn't rinse it so thats a waste of a good glass AND gonna leave a stain She got into bed and the dude was literally lying in her bed like how did she not realise someone was there before she got in? And what kind of plan is that, to lie in their bed? Now she's out and halfway down the stairs before he's even got out of the covers! Also, what kinda gimp mask is he wearing? She tries to get out of the window she closed earlier and gets caught halfway. No fight. No resistance. Just screaming. Poor show. Three stabs from his weird knife thing but not a lot of blood spray or gore. Guy just put his change slowly on the counter at the petrol station. Customers like that are dicks. Give it to him in his hands! Girl's facetiming her friend, crying in the car as her bf and random cheerleader slut are on a date. Fuck him! Dry your eyes girl, you can do better! Andy (cheating bf prick) sees Hilary (crying gf) in the car and runs over saying the cheerleader doesn't mean anything. Hope she heard that and they both leave you, asshole She stops and The Driver (as the credits called him) hits her and causes the accident. He's lucky that shes not been paying attention or she'd realise he's been following her all the way. A more observant victim and you'd be in trouble mister, not a good serial killer plan really He calls her a virgin cause its her first accident, like if I didn't know you were a killer I'd still think you're a creepy dude It's her mum's car and it has a DNCEMOM personalised licence plate, maybe the car deserved to be scratched! She got in the car to get her information and I wonder what would have happened if she'd just drove away then and there? I also wonder if he gives over the real information to his victims. I guess there's no reason why he should, but I bet he's so full of himself that it probably is his right name. Now she's driving away and facetiming with her obviously-gay-best-friend... now I'm sure if I was just in an accident I'd be driving extra carefully and not keep looking at the phone screen every two minutes! Back home and her mum says she almost called the police because she was missing. Bit of an over-reaction; when your licenced daughter and your car are both gone it's not rocket science. Hilary has dance trophies - ok so the licence plate is justified, that still doesnt make it right Her dad says shes not to leave the house for any reason over the next day while they go on a trip, guess she's limited with hiding places when the driver comes for her later. Ok so you're not going on the trip with them Hil's but still - YOU HAVE AN EMPTY! Get over your boyfriend with a tub of ben and jerrys and wine... maybe keep a knife handy too, k? The car insurance woman is called Davidson. That's not a name, that's a surname! Oh ok apparently she's friends with the car insurance people and it's Mrs Davidson. Why would you answer the phone with your last name tho, that's just confusing? And who's on chatty minor-life-details-sharing basis with their insurance providor? She notices the drivers car going round her house-nows the time to get a big knife and carry it with you everywhere you go! I wonder if the phone number she gave the providor actually works? And who would answer? Hilary take your shoes off before you lie on the bed! You're just getting the place dirty! Her bear is called Harry Manilow...I'm sure barry is very proud Hilary's bedroom still has glow in the dark stars on the walls. I like it. She gets a txt saying sorry about today and she thinks its her ex. Surely you'd have his number saved? And there'd be a message history? He's calling himself a "fender bender friend" again, like this is not how you meet people. Especially when you're at least 12 years older. You don't need to be creepy with people before you kill them mate Her phone makes the noise when she's typing too, omg why? He's mentioned her parents leaving in another car, like obvious warning sign, do you like your victims to be scared first before you attack? At least he can't hide in her bed cause Hilary's not left hers yet Also once he's killed them I hope he deletes their message history because itd be pretty easy to track him down if not. There's a package left on top of her mums car that she was driving. Nope. Fuck that. You can get it in the morning. Leave it alone Hilary! The package was a cake that said sorry - could be from him or the ex, not sure I'm guessing he sneaked in while she was getting the package but seriously if he's in her bed I'm gonna start calling him the bedspread killer and not fender bender. Nope he's not, thank god. Well, not yet at least. Nice slow artistic panning camera shot...of Harry Manilow. Now she's going for a shower. No free nudity shots though you pervs Back in her bedroom she sees her phones been moved, and the last photos on if were her in the shower...nows time for that big knife Hils Instead, she's went back to the bathroom just to see, as if she doesn't know what her own bathroom looks like in pictures There's muddy footprints outside the bathroom but not anywhere else in their clean whitetiled house Ok so not a knife but shes got dressed and now has a baseball bat - its a start :) She's shouting out who's there though, like he's gonna actually answer her... Ok now it's her obviously-gay-friend and unnamed-blonde-lesbian-vibe friends from earlier. They have pizza :) That doesnt answer for who took the shower pictures though... Obviously-gay-friend says he took a picture of himself on the toilet "for shits and giggles" yeah cause thats a normal thing to do... Obviously-gay-friend is confirmed as gay, ha! He wants dessert but they havent actually eaten anything. Like no time lapse or anything. Full slices of pizza sitting right there untouched. Not impressed dude Obviously-gay-friend trying to defend creepy older man txting Hilary saying maybe there's some decent people left in this world. Sorry to disappoint you but nope, he's genuinely creepy Unnamed-blonde-lesbian-vibe confirms they didn't take pictures of Hilary in the shower Andy's at the door, drunk and being a prick. But he has muddy boots so maybe it was him taking the shower pictures? Hilary stays firm, smashes a vase and threatens him - you go girl! Aim for the head next time! The driver catches Andy at his car and kills him with the knifey thing. Three blows, one obviously in the head but again a distinct lack of blood splatter :( Ah well he deserved it. And also was he gonna drive away drunk? Did he drive drunk getting there? Driver might've actually saved more lives by killing him Obviously-gay-friend says although he's a stalker and creepy its a shame to let the apology go to waste - yeah fuck him eat the cake! She gets a phonecall from Mrs Davidson at the insurance place - like its obviously really late at night now - what you doing? Go home! Ok so the information The Driver gave Hilary was from the woman he killed at the start, just changed the first name. And that person reported as dead yesterday so this is the very next day. He moves fast. There's a powercut and suddenly he's in the middle of their living room just standing there chilling with his bloody knife. He smashes Hilary's phone before chasing them - takes care of the pictures and creepy txts I suppose, but still there's a trail with the insurance company and with her service providor if the police were to look Both gay friends who ate the cake feel ill - obviously drugged. Hilary takes obviously-gay-friend down some stairs and the rest of their house looks like its still being built because reasons. unnamed-blonde-lesbian-vibe's hiding under Hilary's bed, the driver walks around the bed then lies down beside her until she notices like why does he like lying beside people? He couldve pulled her out by her feet and saved himself the hassle! Rachel. Blonde-lesbian-vibe is now named! He trips up and she almost hits him over the head. He's not an invincible killer-if she wasnt drugged he'd have been in trouble He stabs her and she goes through a window-increasing likelihood of a neighbour hearing that or hearing her scream in the driveway. Not a good plan. All you serial killers, keep your victims in the house if possible to avoid detection Now he has to go outside to finish her off - lot of avoidable hassle He drives the car over her-messy. And I don't get why she didn't roll out of the way. Obviously-gay-friend's real name is Erik, but I'll stick to obviously-gay-friend He seems to be taking his time to search through an empty room of plastic sheets and only two other doors. I don't know if hes trying to build the tension and freak them out or if he just cant see because of that mask He leaves via the other door somehow and Hilary starts talking and moving, like no - stay hidden until he actually leaves ffs! Theyre heading for the same exit The Driver took, seriously? The Driver stabs obviously-gay-friend and finally there's a whole lot of blood. Took them long enough! Blood from his neck has somehow got on the back of his hand and dried into the shirt - continuity people! Hilary goes outside and finds Andy hung from a railing/fence - not subtle at all! The Drivers now back in his car and chasing Hilary around slowly - because reasons Rachel's also been hung on a fence in a different area for reasons which will be unexplained. It's like he wants to get caught. Hilary looks like she's now decided to fight - you go girl; you'll probably win, he's easy Finally grabs the big knife I've been telling her about She stabs him and he drops his bladed thing - TOLD YOU IT'D BE EASY!! She pours petrol over him though, and tries to light a match, when shed be easier just to keep stabbing him Hits him with a crowbar AND KEEPS HITTING HIM WITH THE CROWBAR - YES! GO FOR IT! She hits him again while they're walking outside - maybe the whole creepy txts and drugged cakes are to scare the victim to make up for his own inadequacies as a killer Looks like he managed to cut her arm but there's no blood or show of pain so maybe he missed? She sits in his car and notices on the roof inside is licences of all the other girls he's killed. But how has he managed to get away with it for so long? He's sloppy, and messy, and not that good a fighter. She throws the cigarette lighter at him and sets him on fire - but really she was doing so much better with the crowbar tbh. Takes him a good while to remember to stop drop and roll - if he did that first she'd have been fucked - stupid plan, but stupider killer She's going to get a phone from his pocket when what she should really be doing is hitting him with that crowbar first to make sure he's dead Also - I thought he smashed her phone earlier... Hilary's went inside to her bedroom like what the hell girl, phone the police! Oh yeah, house phone died earlier with Mrs Davidson. But yeah mobiles not really working either She looks out and he's not lying outside where he should be. Told you - shouldve kept at it with the crowbar He's watching her and she just backs away saying no - where'd your fight go? You can take him! Nah shes just a scared mess now, shame. He cuts her knees and we have blood! More blood from her legs than from the first victim... He says her life's meaningless but her death will be legendary. Not really getting a motive here are we? He's getting changed in Hilary's bedroom - leaving a whole lot of trace DNA and evidence everywhere And now he's using her shower - I tell you how this guy gets away with anything is beyond me, All the dead kids are in their own cars in the driveway, while he drives off - now with the DNCEMOM licence plates on his car. They're still not acceptable. Ahh so the money he uses for petrol is what he's stolen from his victims. Still doesn't explain why he didn't just hand it to the guy, dick

#Fender Bender #Hils #obviously gay friend #unnamed blonde lesbian #bedspread killer #get a big knife #always confirm the kill #DNCEMOM licence plate #horror #film #liveblog #me #thoughts

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takaraphoenix · 5 years

Text

In light of tumblr actually committing suicide, I’m feeling nostalgic and would like to tell you all about my first real online community experience. Because everybody always has their MySpace or LiveJournal stories... and I was never on either of those.

I want to tell you about a site that is called Animexx. And... it changed a lot since I was really active on it and it was by far never perfect, but at its skeletal structure, it’s something I am still seeking out and I genuinely don’t understand why such a type of site doesn’t exist in a broader, English context. Let me rephrase that to make it clearer: It’s a German site... well... there seems to be a .com version that’s actually English, but somehow everything still shows up in German so I don’t know about that. And, as the name might suggest, it is primarily focused on anime/manga/Jpop.

So, this is less of a recommendation and more of a... pitch of my dream online-experience, based on how that site worked, with some side-notes on upgrades. But, at its core, it’s essentially a mixture of DeviantArt, Fanfiction.Net, tumblr and then some more.

(I’ll be talking in past-tense because I haven’t really been on the site in 10 years so I genuinely don’t know what changed and what is still the same.)

Fanworks

Obviously. Only that the site had different partitions for different types of fanworks. Not like tumblr where everything is just one endless pit that you get lost in.

You had fanarts, that were sorted by TV show/movie/book/band/whatever so you could actually go and properly look for them. It’s one of the things I hate about DeviantArt; that you don’t have specific categories to post fanarts under in the same way you’d do it with fics on FFNet/AO3 so you can browse specifically for them. In my ideal world, we would also add a tagging-function like on AO3 for it, including things such as pairing tags and character tags so you could actually find shit easier.

You had fanfiction. WITH a tagging function - just like on AO3. AND you had ONE feature that I AM STILL DEARLY MISSING. Seriously, both FFNet and AO3 make me bemoan the loss of the Character Descriptions.

See, you’d click on the fic and firstly be presented with the fic’s main page. A list of all chapters, the tags, the summary and the stats. And above it are tags.

You can (still, as proven by fresh and new screenshot) upload character profiles, including a picture of the character and a chart with whatever information you want to give - name/age/whatever. Which, particularly in AUs is immensely practical. “Wait what magical creature was that again?”.

And not just that. The tab right next to “Characters”? “Illustrations”. Since the site itself hosts fanarts too, you could directly mark the art you upload as an illutration to a specific fic and they’d then be linked to connect with each other.

Now, granted, their fanfiction system is not perfect - there are a lot of rules/censoring. But this very system? The system of including additional character information and allowing a direct link between a fic and its illustrations? That is perfect. And I miss it very dearly.

And fanfiction and fanarts aren’t where fanworks end. It also had its own doujinshi - comic - site. Because that is also a thing I hate on DeviantArt. If you’re lucky, someone posting a comic will also include a link to the last page in the description. No. On here, comics worked just like fanfiction in that you have it all together. They too are separated into chapters, if the author so pleases, and you can just subscribe to a comic like you’d do to a fanfiction. Seriously, how has this function not reached DeviantArt yet...? This site has had it for literal eighteen years now...

Photos also had their separate sub-site, like cosplay photos and such.

Now, nowadays and with my experience here on tumblr, on an ideal website we would also add a separate GIF-site to it.

Community

For one, your profile is way more elaborate than on... any other site I’ve seen. Aside from many options on what to put on it - like multiple profile pics, multiple tabs on your biography (mostly used to linking to other things... that is actually why my FFNet profile looks the way it does, because that’s how I used to keep it in the olden days, only that I would actually be able to separate the timeline and the updating schedule onto different tags for easier access...).

You also had a guestbook, much like how you can publically comment on people’s profiles on DeviantArt.

It also had a direct link to your personal blog. Which, you don’t have to use obviously, but yeah. There’s also a blogging function.

Of course it also has a private messaging function. Only that it’s actually a good and proper one. I love that FFNet has one, but it sucks because it’s just all clogging up your inbox. No, this site has one that works essentially like your average e-mail account; you can create folders and sort your fucking mail like a civilized person.

Additonally to the private messaging function, there is also a chat on here.

There is also an RPG community. Not like on tumblr where just... everything is everywhere and whatever. It’s neatly separated, just like the fics and fanarts and comics and photos. Everything has its place. Seriously, why are American sites so fucking unorganized, it drives me crazy.

Now, the best part about the community were the Circles. That’s what they were called. They’re forums, really. Clubs, kinda.

You could start one about... whatever. Like, dedicated to a particular ship. And you, as the admin, could then proceed however you want. Public? Or only after applying, meaning that the admin had to let you in. Especially after meeting the phenomenon of antis, I miss this dearly, because... just imagining having a Circle for fans of your “problematic fave” and moderating who gets in - meaning only letting in actual fans of the character - so they can safely post about them there.

Each Circle included multiple forums, however many you want. Say, one generally talking about the ship, one about that chara, one about the other, another about gift exchanges, fic recommendations, or literally whatever you want.

And a Circle could directly link to its members’ fanfiction and fanarts - or well those relevant for the Circle at hand.

Those were really where the sense of community came from. You had your... yeah, your safe space to talk about whatever you loved with other people who also love it. No risk of publically posting about your fave and some dumbass hijacking the post or bullying you about it. You just had your forums inside the Circle and got to talk about what you love.

There is much more that the site had to offer - a direct shop where fanartists could sell merch and printed versions of their comics, an event page where you could easily find fan-events near you (or far away from you, depending on what you’re looking for), heck it even doubled as a dating site - but that just to sum up what I really miss about this site and how it worked.

And I just... I genuinely don’t understand why such a thing, in this day and age of fandom being so huge, doesn’t exist on a broader scale, in a mainly English-speaking context. A site that seamlessly unites the different aspects of fandom - fanarts, fanfiction, fan-comics, community and blogging.

Both DeviantArt and tumblr are a garbage mess, let’s be very clear on that, because they allow absolutely no way of properly and easily accessing only fanworks to one specific fandom. It’s not like sorting into fandoms is a new thing; fanfiction does it even on fucking Fanfiction.Net so why does it seem so wild for non-fanfiction sites to also include such a function...? Not to mention, when talking about those two examples, a proper and neat separation of the different types of fanworks. Yes, a rudimentary system exists, but... not a clear-cut and simple one, for some reason.

For me, who I come from a site that united all sides of fandom so easily and for free, it has always been absolutely beyond me that you need different accounts on different sites for your different fandom-experience - tumblr for blogging, DeviantArt for a half-way good system on fanarts, AO3/FFNet for fanfiction (and yes, I know many just post everything on tumblr, but with how it is indistinguishable when it comes to looking for specific things, this is clearly not what tumblr was really meant to do...).

I just want... one site to unite them all but also do it systematically and not in one hot-mess pile of EVERYTHING where you have to entirely rely on luck and tags, instead of sub-categories of a) types of fanwork and b) fandoms. Seriously, it can’t be that hard and it has literally been around for eighteen years now in Germany. Is it just because we Germans like to be organized, or what...?

And, to end this post: If you actually know such a site, drop me a link. If you feel inspired and make such a site, also drop me a link.

#fandom life #fandom experience #tumblr actively committing suicide 2k18

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southeastasianists · 6 years

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Two years ago, Malaysia’s opposition leader was in jail, the nation’s independent media was being censored or shut down and colonial-era laws were being used to jail activists. The idea of a democratic transition wasn’t even a pipe dream – yet it happened due to a perfect storm of events on 9 May when the opposition Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition, led by former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, beat Barisan Nasional (BN), which had ruled uninterrupted for 61 years.

“The people of Malaysia felt like it was an independence day. We regained our freedom,” Bala Chelliah, president of the NGO Global Bersih, told Southeast Asia Globe.

This does not mean everything has been solved in Malaysia. The first question that many had after the result was simple. Could Mahathir, who had himself led BN as prime minister for 22 years, from 1981 to 2003, really be a reformist? That period saw numerous assaults on civil liberties, including the use of legal tools to suppress the opposition.

So far, the answer is a surprising yes. The incoming cabinet is full of respected experts rather than political cronies. Moves are being made to repeal a controversial anti-terrorism law. Controversial trade deals with China were suspended and tabled for renegotiation. High-dollar infrastructure projects, including a high-speed rail link with Singapore, have been axed. And Mahathir is not acting like the Mahathir of old, but taking his caretaker role seriously.

Some things, though, are taking longer than many had hoped. One of the key demands of Malaysian civil society has been the removal of laws that restrict freedom of expression, some of which predate the country’s independence from the United Kingdom. They include the 1948 Sedition Act, National Security Council Act, University and Colleges Act and, in what was one of ousted Prime Minister Najib Razak’s last attempts to entrench power, the Anti-Fake News Act, passed in April.

PH ran on a platform calling for overturning all of these laws, but so far they are still under review. But in one positive development, in late July, a Malaysian court dropped nine charges of sedition against cartoonist Zulkiflee Anwar Ulhaque, known for his satirical drawings of Najib. Karin Deutsch Karlekar of Pen America hopes that this is the first step towards removing these laws.

“It remains to be seen whether it is a one-off event or an ongoing commitment of a government newly dedicated to the free press,” Karlekar said in a press statement. “The Sedition Act and other laws used to suppress free expression are still on the books, so other Malaysian artists and thinkers are still vulnerable.”

One reason legal reform has been ignored could be Mahathir’s focus on holding his predecessor responsible for his role in the 1MDB scandal, in which $700 million was allegedly funnelled from a government-run development fund into Najib’s bank account, and billions more went missing. Najib was restricted from leaving Malaysia days after the election, and an investigation was quickly launched. His homes were raided, and in one apartment, investigators found $28.6 million in cash. Less than two months after the election, Najib was formally charged and will face trial soon.

“Conducting a serious investigation into the 1MDB scandal, along with justice departments in other states, is important to show a signal that the era of impunity in Malaysia is ending,” said Josh Kurlantzick, a Southeast Asia expert with the Council on Foreign Relations, a US think tank.

This is especially remarkable because in Southeast Asia, corrupt former officials often get away. Neighbouring Indonesia never tried former President Suharto despite evidence that he had stolen an astounding $35 billion – an amount that makes Najib’s crimes look like peanuts. He was even named the world’s most corrupt leader in modern history by the NGO Transparency International. Yet, during Indonesia reform years, around the turn of the millennium, he was never charged. That has led to the sad irony of his son, Tommy Suharto, wanting to run for president on an anti-corruption platform.

This begs bigger questions. Will what is happening in Malaysia influence the region? Southeast Asia has seen widespread democratic backsliding in the past several years, with press freedom also under increasing threat. Malaysia is swimming against this tide.

But until recently, Malaysia resembled other countries in the region: Cambodia, which saw its opposition and independent media squashed before the most recent election; Vietnam, where an entrenched party is limiting freedom of press and assembly; and Singapore, where another longtime ruling party continues to manipulate elections and suppress dissent.

It could take a while to change Malaysia after 61 years of BN rule. A turning of the tide may not happen in the next year or so during Mahathir’s caretaker role, leaving the question of what exactly a post-Mahathir coalition will look like. Pakatan Harapan is an unwieldy coalition, made up of the centre-left Democratic Action Party, the Islamist-oriented Amanah and two other smaller parties. They united in opposition to BN and remain united under Mahathir, but will they stick together after he departs?

That is why, for Malaysians, the transition from Mahathir to, as many expect, former PH leader Anwar Ibrahim, will be worth watching, but even more important could be who follows Anwar. After all, both Mahathir and Anwar are former BN leaders themselves. Malaysia might have an opposition government, but it has not yet had a leader who wasn’t connected to the BN machine.

“The people who follow after Mahathir, they will have political considerations,” Chew Chuan Yang, documentation and monitoring coordinator at the Malaysian human rights NGO Suara Rakyat Malaysia, told Southeast Asia Globe. “This system that the former regime ran has always benefitted those in power. Is that really going to change? I may start having doubts about that.”

This article states that the Anti-Fake News Act is still in effect, which was true at the time of writing. However, the act was repealed on 16 August 2018.

#Southeast Asia #Malaysia #Mahathir Mohamad #Anwar Ibrahim #Politics #Democracy

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