#on surface she acts like a silly adventurer | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

eyelessfog · 7 months

Note

I ALWAYS WANNA HEAR ABOUT YURI !! tell me of the siren au

Okay so i did a silly thing and tried to write this the first time when my phone was on 1% and you'll never believe it, but it died. :(

The meeting

After that:

It's weeks before Cleo returns

It's a burning curiosity they can't help. They know stories of sirens. Know that they don't let caught prey go. The idea of it turns in their head for nights on end. They want answers

Under cover of night, Cleo steals one of Joey's boats and rows off towards the Siren's Sea

It's unlikely that they'll find anything, really. It was a chance encounter, and the chance has long since passed. Besides. The chance of something they don't want to meet coming to kill them is far more likely than anything with answers is.

This was a bad idea

Cleo picks up her oar to row away, and immediately hits something with the paddle. From over the side of the boat, the same blue face, blue eyes, pink hair, peeks at her

"Oh," Cleo says. "Hello."

And then, out of habit: "I'm Cleo."

The siren pulls herself a little further out of the boat and grins.

Meetups happen only every couple weeks. When Joey is exhausted and they aren't out on an adventure, and no one is around to see, Cleo will take a boat out and meet the siren.

She doesn't talk, but she understands, clearly. She nods, and laughs a hissy sound when the situation calls for it, and though they're not talking, they're interacting, and Cleo finds they quite like it

It's probably about... The fourth or fifth meeting that the siren beckons Cleo closer and requests that they offer their ear

The siren immediately pulls them off the boat

of course

Cleo pulls to the surface and gasps for air, and then feels a tug on their foot. That's the only warning to breathe in deep before they're tugged underneath again, and they squint past the salt water between the siren and them.

"Hello," the siren says, voice clear and amused. "I'm Lizzie."

Cleo freezes for a moment, until Lizzie slowly lifts her to the surface, easily keeping Cleo's head afloat.

"Lizzie?" Cleo asks. Lizzie smiles and nods. "Well," Cleo says, a little lost for words. "It's nice to meet you, Lizzie."

Lizzie mimes taking a deep breath in, and Cleo copies. They dunk under the water, and Lizzie says, brightly, "it's nice to meet you too!"

It keeps going like this. Cleo starts storing towels on the boat, starts wearing lighter clothes, starts bringing a rope ladder

Switching between being above and below water to talk becomes habit. Lizzie starts climbing entirely into the ship. Cleo starts seeing how long they can hold their breath. They're trying to adapt to the other in a world they're not made for

At some point, Cleo starts teaching Lizzie sign language. They keep telling stories, just talking about anything and everything, but they're learning how to make communicating easier at the same time

Lizzie starts bringing little trinkets to their meetups. Cleo brings their own in turn

Nights turn to sunrises. Days turn to sunsets.

On a particularly purple sunset, Lizzie pulls Cleo into the water with a care that they've been practicing. They sink down, below, and Lizzie leans in, Cleo meeting her halfway.

It's not their last kiss.

They aren't sure how to describe what it is that's happening between them. Dating, maybe. Love, of course. What they have now is enough, though - Sharp teeth against lips, against skin, against tongue. Stitched hands in hair, caressing scales, pinning against wood.

(Lizzie brings a fruit, one day. Blue, round, a tough outer skin that Lizzie peels off for her. A sweet and tangy inside that runs juice down her mouth when she bites into it. Lizzie pulls her into the water and tells her, "breathe." Cleo inhales, and her lungs expand, and she's fine, and she isn't choking or dying or anything. Lizzie leads her down, down, to the sea floor, and commands: "Sleep.")

(Head resting against Lizzie's chest, her arms wrapped around their waist, tail acting as a blanket over their legs, Cleo can't even imagine saying no.)

It's probably about a year. A year and a half, even, when Cleo rows to their meeting spot and finds nothing. They wait, hours on end, and Lizzie isn't there

Again, the next day

Again, the next

Again

Lizzie?

Two weeks later, a siren comes up to talk to her

The face that climbs onto her boat and pulls her in is green, snarling, angry, sharp.

It isn't Lizzie.

"What have you done with her?" the siren growls. "With Lizzie. What have you done?"

Ah, Cleo thinks. Oh no.

#[asks]#pirate shadowrot au #shadowrot

32 notes · View notes

legendary-defender-of-fandoms · 2 months

Text

Because I’m stuck in the Rot, More Thoughts about Wreck it Ralph

I know, I know. It’s just a stupid kids’ movie about a bunch of stupid video game characters going on stupid adventures and making stupid jokes. This REALLY isn’t something worth obsessing over, especially with the myriad of dumpster fires that is The Real World right now. Who gives a shit about cartoons when there’s at least one active genocide, the US is going back to the Bad Old Days, and trillionaires exist?

But the thing is . . . I DO care. I care so much. And I know I shouldn’t.

I was the ABSOLUTE last person who should’ve liked the first Wreck-it Ralph. I knew no one in the cast by name or reputation, I missed the majority of the video game references (like not realizing Tapper was a real-ass game from the real-ass world until much later), and I only went to the opening weekend showing because I was excited for Paperman (the short that played prior to the movie, not the video game character). I told myself I was going to walk out as soon as the movie bored me. I thought I’d be there ten minutes.

And then, the movie started.

By the time the camera pushed in on the Fix-it Felix Jr. screen & we entered the world of the video game characters, I was glued to my seat. But it wasn’t until we faded in on Ralph sitting in his first Bad Anon meeting, pouring his heart & soul out to his fellow Bad Guys (and the audience) that I realized he was me.

I mean, not literally. Obviously. But as the movie kept playing, I kept feeling like someone had ripped out my soul & put it on the big screen. There have been other Disney characters I’ve liked or related to for surface-level similarities (She likes books? I like books! That kind of stuff).

But Ralph hit SO MUCH deeper. He was this guy feeling stuck in a role he wasn’t sure he was meant to play, feeling literally AND metaphorically out of place even in a world where he SHOULD have felt at home, tired of ALWAYS being compared to someone else and found lacking because HIS talents didn’t match the OTHER’S talents, desperate for someone, ANYONE, to see what he had to offer and say “You have value. You matter.” And there were other similarities - the short temper, the clumsiness/tendency towards accidentally breaking stuff, the gap in the top front teeth, etc. But it was the core of his character - feeling lost, being secure in his identity but looking for someone to see him & accept him - that truly resonated with me.

And the rest of the movie. I could talk about what was IN the movie, but I want to talk about what WASN’T in the movie. Like the Bad Anon scenes. It was silly because of who was there, but they played it DEAD serious in the movie. This was not a “D’oh hoh hoh, silly support group for silly people because mental health is for losers” scene - they paid support groups & mental health the respect they deserve! And it was inspiring that Ralph STAYED IN Bad Anon even after getting his “Happily Ever After.” Sure, it was probably just meant to be a framing device, but I saw it as mental health positivity. And there were spin-off short stories that carried the idea of Ralph staying in Bad Anon, further reinforcing the idea that support groups are helpful & there’s nothing wrong with reaching out for help.

And for a plus-size character, Ralph has a surprising lack of fat jokes aimed at him in the first movie. I think Vanellope has one line about him having a go-kart “hidden in the fat folds of his neck,” but I think that’s because she wasn’t allowed to say “Well, unless you have a go-kart hidden in your ass crack.” And there are scenes in the first act when Ralph is clearly too big to comfortably walk through the Niceland Apartment or when his tummy bulges out when he straightens his stolen Hero’s Duty armor, but I saw those more as “Ohh, this is a visual representation of how Ralph feels out of place because this world wasn’t made to accommodate someone like him and/or he’s not prepared for what he’s about to get into” as opposed to “D’oh Ho Ho, he’s FAT.”

It was just so refreshing to see a movie that didn’t go for as many cheap shots as it probably could’ve. Ralph was treated with so much respect in the first movie, and it felt so nice to see someone who I resonated with so thoroughly not being treated like the butt of the joke. The movie became an instant favorite, and Wreck-it Ralph took over a special place in my heart & my brain. On bus rides home from college I’d be on my laptop making music videos about Ralph & Vanellope (NOT SHIPPING THEM AT ALL!!!!!!! I used songs clearly meant to convey familial love like “BBBFF” and “You’ll Be In My Heart”) I eagerly waited for Disney to give us console games based on Sugar Rush & Hero’s Duty (and yes, I DID buy the micro Fix-it Felix Jr. cabinet when it was offered at Walmart, and if there is ever a full cabinet game offered I WILL be the first to buy it, build it, and set every record possible for a cabinet game). When Motorchickensmile published their Love Bug fanfic on Fanfiction.net & posted their art on DeviantArt, I was HOOKED! If that was the ONLY sequel we ever got to Wreck-it Ralph, I would’ve died happy.

Then Disney announced the official sequel. And like the rest of the world, I was PUMPED! A little confused because Ralph didn’t have anything to do with the Internet and it seemed odd to get the arcade characters out of the arcade, but I was hopeful. After all, the first movie was beloved by old school gamers, new gamers, and folks who only knew Pokémon (I.e. me). SURELY they’d know what they were doing with online gaming!

And then I saw the sequel.

There are a lot of scenes from Wreck-it Ralph that live in my head. I saw the movie at least 4 times in theaters, and when the movie went on sale I was there the day it dropped to buy it & put the digital copy on my iPod. But you know that scene when Ralph destroys Vanellope’s go kart while she’s stuck in the tree, and she’s BEGGING him not to, SCREAMING in agony as he obliterates the first thing he ever made that someone saw value in, the promise of her future, a symbol of their shared outcast status but still being worthy? And you can SEE the misery in Ralph’s face, how he HATES doing this, but keeps going because he thinks he has to for the greater good?

Yeah, that’s what Ralph Breaks the Internet did to my perception of Wreck-it Ralph.

Gone were any traces of nuance, maturity, introspection, or even basic intelligence. NOW Ralph is a gross idiot who is SUPER clingy to Vanellope, regularly abandons his game during arcade hours (which, in case folks forgot from the first movie, was a SUPER BIG DEAL THAT COULD’VE ENDED HIS WORLD & KILLED THE NICELANDERS), throws temper tantrums & blubbers like a baby when things don’t go his way. Ralph goes OUT OF HIS WAY to endanger Vanellope just to keep her close, and he NEVER holds himself accountable! The first movie was all about Ralph learning that self worth can’t be measured in medals, but in the sequel he is CONSTANTLY flashing his cookie medal like it’s supposed to mean something. Don’t even get me STARTED on all the fat jokes. And even BEFORE Ralph ruins Sugar Rush, you get the sense that while HE’S obsessed with Vanellope & their friendship, Vanellope is feeling suffocated by this relationship & is desperate to get away from him.

The press releases said the movie was supposed to be about friends growing apart and going away but keeping the bonds of friendship. But to me? The whole thing felt like Disney was saying “Hey, YOU. Yeah, the IDIOT who thought they LIKED this giant man-baby moron? You’re super clingy and stupid. Don’t bother making friends - you’ll smother them with your attempts to bond. They can do so much better than you, and you’re only holding them back. Now, who wants to watch us add insult to injury by stuffing this gorilla in a dress designed for a 14-year-old princess?”

Again, I don’t think that was the INTENDED message of the movie. But it was just SO mean-spirited, especially when compared to the uplifting messages of the first movie. Which I guess was inevitable for a movie trying to be about the Internet, but still.

So, yeah. I had to step away from the franchise. And it HURT! This story - this character - was such a huge part of my life for years, and I had to cut it out. There were periods of time when I’d forget about the franchise for a bit, or have More Important Things to worry about (like that global pandemic, the nut job & his cult trying to overthrow the US government, normal life stuff). But then I’d be hit with a thought about the first movie out of nowhere, and I’d be happy until I remembered how the sequel killed all of its goodwill.

To this day I still have mixed feelings about Ralph. I get excited when he & Vanellope are included in multi-IP projects, then get sad when I remember the sequel, then get mad at myself for getting excited, then get disappointed when I see more Vanellope merch than Ralph merch, then get mad again when I remember how badly the sequel burned me. AND HE’S NOT REAL!!! I’m being driven insane by a guy WHO DOESN’T EVEN EXIST!!!

When Disney announced their version of Animal Crossing, Dreamlight Valley, Ralph & Vanellope were two of the characters featured in the trailer. Two years later we got Vanellope, but the closest we’ve gotten to Ralph is an in-game chess piece. Meanwhile Vanellope’s getting some great interactions with Mike & Sully of Monsters Inc, with Sully taking a paternal shine to Vanellope. And now I’m constantly begging the Dreamlight Valley social medias for updates about Ralph. I’m excited to see him, but also worried because I don’t know if we’ll get the nuanced Bad Guy from Wreck-it Ralph or the clingy buffoon from Ralph Breaks the Internet. I know John C. Reilly won’t be voicing him (because he NEVER voices Ralph outside of the movies & Once Upon a Studio), but I’m also kind of hoping he will? I don’t know if I want my avatar to hug him, or punch him, or leave him stranded in the Vitalys mines, or love-bomb him with cookie medals, or just leave him off mode. I have a space saved right in front of my in-game house for HIS in-game house, but I might just spend the rest of the game on Eternity Isle so I never have to see him.

And again, this is all for some WHO IS NOT REAL!!!!! I know I have problems, I KNOW there’s SO MUCH MORE to worry about than an imaginary guy with ginormous hands! I WISH I could just not care about him, or his movie, or any fictional stories! I WISH I could go on a Disney Cruise and NOT look for his face in the Art of Animation wall art or in the kids’ area wall art! I WISH I could stop looking for him in Disney Lorcana, or mystery mini lines, or multi-IP books! But I also know I can’t. If I let myself give up on him, if I let Disney WIN? He’ll be Forgotten. Locked in that vault with no chance for redemption. There have been too many other characters to suffer that fate. Like Oswald. And I can’t let characters like Oswald or Ralph be forgotten.

#disney #wreck it Ralph #wir #Ralph breaks the Internet #RBTI #word vomit #pardon my mad ravings #this has been living in my head for years #need to get this out of my system #I feel like Jennifer Aniston in Bruce Almighty #crying in bed begging God to make me stop caring about a friggin’ animated dumpster man #why can’t I obsess over some real guy like a normal person?

11 notes · View notes

fairytale-poll · 9 months

Text

ROUND 2! MATCH 5 OUT OF 8

Propaganda Under the Cut:

Into the Woods:

Aside from giving her several good songs, the plot of the musical explores the lessons she takes away from her adventure and continues past her "Happily Ever After." Her new found maturity is represented by her giving away her riding hood and replacing it with the pelt of the big bad wolf. (And she begins carrying a cartoonishly large knife for self defense.)

She wears the Wolf's fur as a coat after her grandma kills him. She gives her cloak to the Baker to help him. She's a badass. She's only a kid. She taunts Jack into going up the beanstalk again.

She's just a feral child tbh. One of her lines in THE VERY FIRST SONG, delivered totally casually, is "into the woods, to bring some bread to granny who is sick in bed! Never can tell what lies ahead, for all that I know, she's already dead!" Everyone else gets a major life change by the end of Act I - Cinderella goes from being a maid to a princess, the baker and his wife have a child, and Jack goes from being poor to being rich - and Little Red just goes from being a feral child to being a feral child WITH A KNIFE, which she constantly brandishes in Act II! And she gets a cool wolfskin cloak to boot. She also goes through Trauma and Losing Her Family in Act II. Poor meowmeow. She has a sweet tooth too and on the way to Granny's house she eats half the loaf of bread and all of the MANY sweets she has in her basket... so silly. She also has AUTISTIC SWAG!! Constantly misses social cues, super bouncy and excited! Basically she's just the ultimate scrunkly and you should all vote for her

She’s so cool and sings cool songs :)

(Spoilers) Bratty little girl who has no value of life in Act 1, forced to reckon with the consequences of everyone's selfish actions as a mourning and vengeful Giantess widow tears through the land in Act 2.

The most iconic little shit. I love her. Has a knife and laughs while threatening people off with it. Allowed to be more than just naïve. 10/10.

the movie is SO SUCKS and she is SO BADASS i love her. please please i'm begging you use the stage musical version instead of the movie

SHES SO GREAT like ohmygod first of all she’s written in such a real way? like she’s not completely helpless just cause she’s a little girl but she’s also not a cold unfeeling girlboss just cause she has a knife (unless you’re watching the movie but the movie sucks). she acts like a kid would really act in these situations. it’s a little depressing to think about cause it’s so widespread for media not to do this, but for all the shallow, surface level girlbossery in modern media, it’s refreshing to see that sondheim treated the women in his art like people. they didn’t have to be held to any sort of standard just by nature of being women. they are just themselves.

She's got really awesome songs + she's just a hungry little girl who wants some food and also to go see her grandmother. We get to see her process grief and learn how to be on her own and then we get to see her learn that she doesn't have to be alone because "no one is alone". We see her grow from a naive little girl to a girl who lashes out at everything so she doesn't end up in danger again into a girl who wants to look out for and be there for people because they are alone just like she was and she doesn't want them to have to feel like she did. Also she has a knife and she's not afraid to use it. Her first cape is somewhat magical and is used in a potion to reverse a curse and give this couple a baby and then her second cape is really cool and made out of the skins of the wolf. She group effort helped kill a giant through gaslighting, gatekeeping, and girlbossing. (and also in my opinion the wolf-grandma-little red cottage scene is one of if not the funniest scenes in the show) [also Into the Woods is amazing & I love it & my best friend played little red]

Tweenage girl with a lot of anger. There is no stronger force on this earth

she's classic little red but she's a lot more cool she got a knife from her grandmother after the wolf incident and she wears the skin of the wolf she also interacts with other fairy tale characters and uhm she's very much a little girl with a knife she's perfect

Edgar w.bg would want you to vote for ItW

Original Fairytale:

The girl, the myth, the legend. The one who started it all. She skips into the forest with head held high, unknowing of the wolf and the many, many retellings of her story. Something, something, puberty, something, something, men are wolves. Just let my girl wear her red cape and be on her way to Granny's, please and thank you.

I feel like in a lot of modern adaptations they get lost in making Red Riding Hood more a girlboss who fights back or making her secretly (or not secretly) the real wolf or having her and the wolf be love interests, they lose a lot of what made the original fairytale so good. AND SO CHILLING! We have been told this story so often since childhood we can forget how frightening it can really be. A lost young girl, punished for the follies of childhood. I also think that even in the "happy" endings when the huntsman saves her there is this sense that she will never be the same. Her childhood is over. And that's haunting! The horrors of unprotected innocence.

#red riding poll #round 2 #little red ridinghood #into the woods #broadway #broadway musicals #stephen sondheim #fairytales #folktalk #little red cap #little red riding hood #red riding hood #poll tournament #poll bracket #polls #character polls #battle of the moral stories

31 notes · View notes

yellowfield · 2 months

Text

hello its aya here. i have miss lady yoon nana with me and.....yeah hit that like button if you want to plot! very excited to get into writing her & i'm on disc at anakinpics too. about & wanted connections under the cut 🫶🏻

fast facts about her upbringing. from the outside looking in, she was a very normal kid. not lacking but nothing too special about her. she went to school, trained firebending, learned combat, instruments, and art. she never fell behind, performed well but never topped her classes. though known to express her internal thinking constantly even when its socially impolite, she never truly rebelled. something of an outsider with few friends during her stay in school due to her loudness and honesty. behind the curtain, she has always been very very smart. genius-level iq. she figures things out quickly. its this intelligence that allowed her to figure out how the world works much earlier than her peers & helped her adjust her behavior for her own benefit.

on the surface. very energetic, cheerful, optimistic and sometimes downright silly. she's known to be kind, generous and plucky. many know her for not biting her tongue nor holding back from an honest remark -- some find it rude, others find it delightful. she's a known foodie with an aversion to sweet food. can be a motor mouth when excited. aggressively hugs people. can get snarky, especially when she feels offended or dislikes someone. she's adventurous and loves exploring. many believe she's childish and acts thoughtlessly, but she's often forgiven because she's nice & nothing is truly expected of her except to not be a disappointment. she's fashionable, and wears a lot of bright yellows, flowy garments, and gold jewelry with flower or sun motifs &n amber gemstones.

personality. she's a hardcore istp who sees the world for what it truly is—the world is full of war, built by killers, and gods will not save you—and she chooses not to see it. she believes in spirits and likes to pray, but she's also a devout believer of wilful ignorance for personal benefit. she's not emotionally connected to personal values in a sentimental way, and will act without a second thought in the best interest of herself and her loved ones. she uses her smarts for selfish purposes and is not an altruist, but she's not a malicious person. mostly due to her intelligence, and a little because of her relation to the avatar, she is very self-assured. she doesn't act thoughtlessly and is not prone to impulse. her smarts are offset by a lack of ambition. she doesn't want anything from this world, and believes her duty is to herself and her family, not to the world.

wanted connections

good friend who is so happy she's finally moving into the capital. they spend a lot of her first few weeks together. her initial tour guide of sorts. ✿ close friend she wanted to spend a lot of time with after arriving at the city, but they're badly injured from the attack. she sacrifices her time for them & takes care of them instead of sightseeing. ✿ candy crush!!!someone who gets her into sweets. she likes them more than she dislikes sweets. she doesn't get crushes willy nilly, so her affections are actually very real and sincere. further plotting required. ✿ someone who thinks she's rude and has no manners. preferably someone from royalty or a great house. it'll put her face to face with the new rules that govern her new life as a noble, and how she has to fold to them. ✿ someone who wants a change in appearance or style. she very happily helps. she loves dolling people up. ✿ someone from a vassal house. they really don't like each other for some reason. ✿ she often sneaks into harbor city to go to her favorite little food stop. someone she runs into, catches her, or she takes with her. ✿ virtually jobless at the moment. someone please give her gainful employment. i'm thinking she works as someone's lady in waiting maybe but i also see her getting close to someone and becoming their errand runner. ✿ let's brainstorm!

#rs.intro #this fc has no resources (spongebob imagination rainbow gif)#also this is a sideblog so i can't follow back :*

12 notes · View notes

feytouched · 3 months

Note

random OC ask: does your OC have any significant relationships that have defined them, for better or for worse? what do those relationship(s) look like, and have they changed over the course of your OC’s story?

continuing my lyra brainrot.. (my bg3 tav). forgive my rambling nonsense. first two are backstory lore the rest are her dynamics with the companions and npcs

her father was a seldarine drow who instilled upon her the importance of being better than what surface folk expect of her as a half-drow; she grew up as an acolyte in the shrine he kept in the wilderness

hadrian was a tiefling who she travelled with in an adventuring party for some time before the events of the game. he always looked out for her and she trusted him a lot, and developed a crush on him. during the abduction into the nautiloid she assumed he'd died but hoped she was wrong; her dream visitor took on his form so at first she wanted to believe it really was him, still protecting her somehow (this has... become increasingly unlikely even to her int 8 self)

shadowheart was someone she quickly connected with; lyra is her confidant, her best friend, her silly rabbit (shadowheart had a brief crush on her but they decided to remain as friends)

halsin and jaheira are very much her mentor figures, they represent the sort of druid she wants to become and make her feel less alone in shouldering all the responsibilities of... everything

her relationship with astarion started out without any delusions on her side that he actually had feelings for her, but she couldn't help but welcome the comfort of closeness. as he showed his more vulnerable side, she found herself wanting to look out for him much like hadrian once did for her, and he found himself feeling more than he'd bargained for

gale apparently was making moves on her? and she was too oblivious to realise it lmao but she does care a lot about him platonically

(this is as of mid-act 2)

#answered #oc: lyra #bg3 tav

7 notes · View notes

blue-star-doodles · 6 months

Note

I’m curious now tell me more about Leo’s relationship with Big mama and his new relationship with Mikey

I've got you

Leo really wants to make his mom proud of him, and he's willing to do whatever it takes. After all, he owes her everything, the least he can do is be everything she wants him to be and more. Being the son of one of the most powerful figures in the Hidden City, why wouldn't she have high standards? He has to meet them.

They tend to get along. Leo avoids making her upset. Big Mama usually acts loving and doting, but she doesn't have a high tolerance for him straying from expectations.

(To be clear, Big Mama is not a good parent.)

When Leo meets Mikey and the other turtles, he's a little hesitant because he has basically never been to the surface, let alone on his own (he snuck out of the hotel), and they're complete and total strangers. Despite this, he warms up to them and continues sneaking out to try and hang out with these cool new kappa on the surface.

He really likes Mikey. Mikey's cool (he lives OUTSIDE the hidden city and can do whatever he wants), fun, kind, and a Lou Jitsu fan! What's not to like? Leo enjoys hearing his stories about the turtles' silly adventures.

#to be clear #Big Mama is not a good parent #blue responds #spider's web au #rottmnt separated au #I'm sorry for how long this took to answer-

10 notes · View notes

dash-n-step · 1 year

Text

I feel like I've probably typed this thought out before, but every time I'm reminded of the fionna and cake "discourse" (because people bring these two being so stylistically different so much, it's really nothing new) and how some people act towards towards genderbends in general (which, fair, I can get where you're coming from and all, sometimes it's just straight up ridiculous) it always seemed at least a little silly to me in this case specifically because, like, it all stems from

Nat just having a very curvy/flowy style and a whole world being built from said style, after the fact

Fionna and a lot of the characters in her world being similar but still somewhat distinctly different take on Finn's (no, I'm not talking about how the show justifies exploring the idea by making it Ice King fanfiction, that's an in-universe excuse for a real world concept being adapted for the show) like how in the comics Ice Queen was a frozen water nymph with a history with Cake, or in general how Cake isn't just "female Jake the dog" but is a cat dating weird black hole producing unicorn not *just* a male lady rainicorn.

4chan's old AT community being a mishmash of AUs and random OC, admittedly some more "problematic" than others

and just what happens when random people working on the show pop up here and there (I don't know about now, but people who work on shows stopping by 4chan's cartoon board because it was easily accessible and anonymous wasn't too uncommon)

But years after and due to an EXTREME lack of context (or just people who had their issues finding other people who had the same issues and then those posts blowing up to a point of people who didn't have said issues seeing it), some people just say "why does the young tube boy now have curves. Having curves is so fucked up because don't worry about it, by the way."

which on a surface level I understand but is incredibly ironic because at the same time, there were and still are people who liked her because she's largely just a regular looking girl in a similar situation to Finn, with her body type being seen as unconventional because that's kind of just what Nat goes for and why a lot of people like Bee and Puppycat

which very much goes against the "rules" usually used for Adventure Time characters and Finn specifically, and in any other show would probably have been heavily limited if not for how fast and loose the show played around with the concepts it was willingly to explore

Like, for as much as I understand (and how funny it is) making a "Genderbent" Finn be the same design but with a venus sign pointing to her in response to the preexisting Fionna, I don't think this same line of thought (alone) would have lead to anything else that marks just how wildly different the world of "Fionna and Cake" is, because it sort of misses the forest for the trees.

I don't know, I think it's sort of funny how these kinds of general thoughts can change, and how something that can be so wild at one point can end up being mundane and seen as "tropey" later on, especially with something on a mundane level as this. Because the idea that "people were fine with it then, so people should be fine with it now" is dangerous, but "people can voice their complaints now, so it was always kind of messed up" I wouldn't really agree with wholesale, either.

At the end of the day, it's kind of just differing opinions with different understandings of the contexts leading to them, especially since this just started as a silly little drawing that blew up into an AU that then got into the show it was made for, and etc.

It'll be very interesting to see how things change up in the actual Fionna and Cake special.

#dashingposts #dashingthoughts #long post #adventure time #fionna and cake #genderbend #genderbending #genderbend discourse #fionna and cake discourse

27 notes · View notes

brandnewcouch · 5 months

Text

well, well, well, i have finally written my first fic for tumblr. and my first fic for doctor who. lots of firsts. here’s ten being an attention whore and donna being the only sensible person in the room.

~~~~

“You feeling alright, Spaceman?” The Doctor heard Donna ask after he sneezed for the tenth time that morning.

“Hmm? Oh, yes. Quite alright. Right as rain,” he rambled as he fiddled with the TARDIS controls.

He was almost finished calculating the route for their next destination when he buried his face in his shoulder to muffle an intense sneeze.

“Ehh’ESHHUhuh!”

“Bless you…. again,” Donna said with a small smirk.

“Don’t look at me like that,” The Doctor grumbled. “Just the sniffles.”

He expected Donna to question him like Martha or feel his forehead like Rose, but she merely shrugged and leaned back against the railing.

“So, where are we going this time?” she asked casually. “A planet with bird people or something?”

“Actually- sNff- I was thinking Earth,” he waited for Donna’s mouth to drop slightly before he continued. “Earth… in the year 4568.”

“You mean- we are going to Earth? In the future?” she asked, her eyes instantly lighting up.

This was his favorite part of traveling with companions. Getting to see their excitement as they expanded their mind past that of the average human.

“Oh, yes,” he grinned. He locked eyes with an ecstatic Donna before snapping his head away to cough. The coughs were dry for now, mild enough to muffle with his hand, but he knew they would get worse. They always did on the rare occasions he managed to pick up a rhinovirus.

“Well then, what are we waiting for?” Donna exclaimed. “Come on Alien Boy, land the TARDIS and let’s go!”

He flashed her a grin before following her orders. He managed to pinpoint the year, although he wasn’t exactly sure where on Earth they would land. He was personally hoping for Brazil. There was a lot happening there this year.

“And here we are!” he announced as the TARDIS landed. “Planet Earth in the year 4568, how about that?”

“Oh, this is going to be brilliant!” Donna laughed. “Please tell me we are somewhere warm. I wouldn’t mind sunbathing in the Caribbean.”

“Let’s find out,” he grinned. He was about to open the TARDIS door when he was overcome with an itch in his nose. He tried to sniff it away, but the irritation was too strong. He buried his face in his arm and let out a wet triple.

“Huh’MMPSHH! IM’PSSHhh! hh’NXGHhh!”

He attempted to discretely wipe his nose on his sleeve and sniffled rapidly to prevent his nose from running.

“Bless you,” Donna said.

“sNFF- excuse me,” he muttered as he turned to face her. Her face dropped into a slight frown.

“Doctor,” she said as she placed a hand on his arm. “You sure you’re feeling up to this?”

“Never better,” he forced on a tired smile. Of course, he didn’t actually expect that response to work. It was always at this point in the illness that the lies stopped working on his human companions. Donna would surely call off the adventure, make him some tea, and send him off to bed.

“Alright then, onward,” she smiled, holding out an arm to him.

Huh. That’s unusual. All of his other companions (especially the female ones, although he didn’t actually believe in silly gender stereotypes) would be doting over him by now. He always acted annoyed on the surface, but, truthfully, he enjoyed the attention. Did Donna really not realize he was ill? Did she think it was just dust or something.

The Doctor forced out a few more coughs and glanced over to Donna to see her reaction. It was as if she hadn’t even heard him. He suppressed a frown and linked his arm with hers as they stepped outside.

The pair exited the TARDIS and were immediately hit with a blast of frigid air. The Doctor was forced to break away from Donna as the coldness filled his lungs, causing him to cough.

“Oh you have got to be kidding me!” Donna shouted, completely ignoring the sudden coughing fit coming from the Time Lord beside her. “What is it with you and taking me to freezing places?”

“I didn’t know we were going to land in-“ wait, where were they? The doctor tried to smell the air to figure out the location, but his nose was completely stuffed. He used the opportunity to sniffle dramatically, giving a quick glance to Donna to see if she had noticed. She hadn’t.

Giving up on his senses, he pulled out the sonic screwdriver to figure out where they had landed.

“Hmm… Oh! Well, isn’t that brilliant?” he said as he scanned the earth.

“What? What is it?” Donna asked.

“We’re in Antarctica.”

“Antarctica?” Donna yelled. “Bloody Antarctica? What the hell are we going to do in Antarctica?” she scoffed.

“There’s plenty to do!” The Doctor assured. “Antarctica is much more developed in this time than it is in yours. This is rural land, but there’s a town about a mile from here.”

“Ugh, okay, but it better be good,” Donna said in a way that sounded like a threat. “I’m grabbing a coat.”

The Doctor dramatically pulled a handkerchief from his jacket pocket as she trudged back into the TARDIS. He was starting to get annoyed with Donna’s complete lack of awareness. She had to have noticed he wasn’t feeling well. Did she just not care?

He shook his head as he blew his nose. He was considerably less congested afterwards and sighed in relief as he realized he could ever so slightly breathe through his nose. Unfortunately, the rush of cool air to his sinuses only irritated them more.

“Hhh-hAESHhhh! Hh’EESSHhh!”

He quickly pressed the handkerchief against his nose to stop it from running.

“Now, that’s more like it,” Donna announced as she reemerged wearing a thick winter coat. At least that’s what The Doctor thought she said. It was pretty hard to hear while he was blowing his nose.

“Lead the way, Spaceman!” she said.

“Donna,” he said in an exasperated tone as he wiped his nose and pocketed the handkerchief.

“Hmm?” she hummed obliviously.

“I’m ill,” he stated, finally saying it out loud.

“Yeah.”

The Doctor’s jaw dropped. Yeah? That was all she had to say? She must have heard him wrong.

“Donna, I’m not feeling well. Under the weather. Sick,” he pressed.

“Yes, I know what ill means, Dumbo,” she said with an eye roll. “What’s your point?”

“What’s my- what’s my point?” he stuttered in shock. “My point is that I am clearly ill, and you don’t seem to care! You’re still dragging me on this adventure.”

“Oi! Don’t you dare!” she snapped.

It was at that moment that The Doctor realized he had made a mistake. He did not want to face the wrath of Donna Noble.

“I asked you if you felt up to it! I’m not going to stop you from going out with a little cold if you say you’re fine, which you did.”

“So, what? I was supposed to say no? Tell you that I would rather spend the day in bed?”

“Yes!” she shouted, clearly fed up. She pinched the bridge of her nose and took a moment to gather her thoughts. “Christ, you are an absolute idiot.”

“Huh,” he voiced, the cogs turning in his head. “You- you didn’t object to this trip because you trusted my judgement,” he said as it finally clicked. “You trusted me to make the call regarding my health.”

“Yeahhh,” she stretched out the word in exasperation. “Silly me, thinking a 900 year old martian would know how to take care of himself by now.”

“How many times do I have to tell you I’m not from Mars?” The Doctor groaned. His companion gave him a look that screamed “You are not helping.”

“Right, not the point, um-“ he was unable to finish his thought as a fluttering sensation filled his sinuses.

“Hhh’hAHSHEIWW! Hah’ESCHh!”

“Come on, Doctor,” Donna sighed, grabbing his arm and leading him towards the TARDIS. “I think we ought to take a day to relax, don’t you?”

“Mmm,” he hummed in agreement, leaning into her as they walked. “Can my day of relaxation include a nice cup of tea?”

“Sure, if you make it yourself.”

The Doctor frowned and turned towards Donna with an expression that resembled that of a kicked puppy. She rolled her eyes but was unable to hide her amused smile.

“Fine, I’ll make you tea. But if you want soup or something, you’re on your own.”

#i’m hella american #and have never written a fic for a british show #very sorry #this is probably out of character #d/octor w/ho #t/enth d/octor #d/onna n/oble #snz kink #snz fet #snzfucker #sneezeblr #snz fic

4 notes · View notes

theepisceswriter · 9 months

Note

Do you mind if I ask your top 10 favorite characters (can be male or female) from all of the media that you loved (can be anime/manga, books, movies or tv series)? And why do you love them? Sorry if you've answered this question before.....Thanks....

Omggg you’re literally saur sweet, I love this question and you 🫶🏾💜 I haven’t answered a question like this yet so lemme do it for you bookie, in no particular order btw bc I hate doing that 😭:

1. Princess Carolyn from Bojack Horseman: MY HOMEGIRLLL REAL BAD LIKE IF THEY MADE ME A CHARACTER I’D BE HER ! My @ on Twitter is even Princeskiaralynn (my real name is Kiara lmao) because of her. As someone who can be a high functioning depressed person at times, she gets it so bad.

2. Nanami from JJK: MY MAN MY MAN MY MANNN. Besides being fine as hell, I too hate corporate work and would love to escape to Malaysia to eat bread (I just sighed and teared up). I love how he’s a realistic portrayal of how most of us would be if we were in the jjk world; OVER IT!

3. Reiner Braun from AOT: He was my man before I knew he was emo and had mommy issues, but after that he was really my man. I like how complicated he is as a character and how complex his emotions are. What I don’t appreciate tho is how someone bring up that bootyhole picture as soon as I mention him.

4. Alice Cullen from Twilight: I love weird bitches with pixie cuts like its a requirement that I HAVE to like a fellow weird girl. She just weird and vibing with a man just as weird as her, she won in life fr.

5. Lumpy Space Princess from Adventure Time: OH MY GLOB, how could you not love lsp,ugh!? No, but really her ass is actually annoying as hell, but she purple and I love purple and I call my brother lumpy because of her ANDD I have a beanie of her. She my surface level homegirl.

6. Tohru Honda from Fruits Basket: UGGGGGHHH EVERYONE IN THIS SHOW LOWKEY MY BABY FR BUT TOHRU TAKE THE CAKE ! Like my homegirl was living in a tent both parents gone fending for herself and you expect me not to always root for her? I gotta stop typing now before I turn this post into why FB is peak anime.

7. Oj from Nope: I dont like to talk, he dont like to talk, he weird, im weird, and I also have an obsession with extraterrestrial beings and horses. We might just be the same person!

8. Chopper from One Piece: I actually have never watched One Piece (but the weapons away ! ✋🏾😅) but I’ve beeb told by Orange anon and others that I’m just like him and he seems real cute so I vibe with it.

9. Tony Sorprano from The Sorpranos: I actually hate him as a person and he would hate me x10 too BUT, the way his character is written and broken down throughout the show is AMAZING. You’re sitting there sympathizing with a mob boss like “Damn, he just like me fr” bc he be having panic attacks and silly goofy moods like us.

10. Riley from The Boondocks: REAL RECOGNIZE REAL !!! He was the definition of young n turnt and exactly how I act when I get two shots of tequila in me.

#you’re so real for these asks omg how cool of you🫶🏾#Stallion Speaks.#Asks.

4 notes · View notes

borealis-vivarium · 1 year

Text

LIST OF OCS & OVERVIEW OF THEIR PERSONALITIES 🌈 :

Our group of brave adventurers.

↬ 🌿🌙 Sylea (she/they), 26 years old. A half-dryad fire/stone/wind/life mage. Careful and precise, they sealed away their life magic with a sealing tattoo to better regulate it. She absolutely hates when things don't go according to plan, which unfortunately for her happens quite often ever since they travel with some odd collection of people. Although her appearance and demeanor makes her look calm and collected, she has quite the nasty temper. They're the most responsible of the group, adhering to laws and her own personal code with upstanding bravado.

↬🎋🦋 Mersriterra (she/her), 21 years old. She's usually called Mer or Sri for short. A young woman who can trace her lineage to the Ancients. She is a life mage, and though she has never gotten real proper training by going to the academy, she has been practicing under a wise mentor. She's always very curious, and has a calming aura. Her friendly demeanor makes it easy for her to get along with everyone. Deep within her joyous exterior are disturbing visions that she hopes to get rid of. Her guilt over them drives her to be a better person, but it still terrifies her that she may one day act on these intrusive thoughts.

↬ 💎💼 Mycel Daiyn (he/she), 19 years old. A cat ferin born to a wealthy and respected Siren business man/inventor/information broker (who may or may not be a conman) and a cat ferin woman who was formerly part of a network of thieves and has since retired, now a renowned painter. His life of fortune probably sets him apart from most ferin, but it doesn't stop her from having a robin hood-esque personality and mischievous energy. His comfortable life and upbringing further motivates him to fight for equality and ferin rights. She is also Mersriterra's childhood friend (and they're still besties!)

↬ 🦇🌁 Aeden (they/them), 18 years old. A closed-off bat cloudchild with a mysterious background. They don't talk much, though it's unclear if it's just because they don't want to, can't, or if there are other reasons for this. Their friends dont seem to mind, as they help them get out of troublesome situations and is a good companion/ally. They may or may not be on the run from a dangerous person. If you ask them, they wouldn't answer anyway.

↬⚡️🌀 Ripter "Ritz" Fylmirus (he/him), 16-17 years old. A prodigious and incredibly talented lightning mage from a noble family. Unfortunately for them and their honorable reputation, the last thing he wants is to be the picture perfect son. Ripter is a beacon of petty teenage rebellion. Defiant and stubborn in his impulsive ways and disregard for the rules or safety of others, he ran away from home after he got expelled from the Aseran Mage Academy to pursue one goal: find someone who can rival his speed. There's more than meets the eye when it comes to this juvenile and irresponsible boy.

Extra people who also exist, but arent part of the five man band.

↬🗡️🌊 Guntero Fylmirus (he/they), 23 years old. Ripter's (adoptive) older sibling. The golden/normal child of the family, contrasting Ripter's black sheep status. Guntero isn't actually a very flashy person. The stone/water mage is a hardworking and stoic perfectionist, but is otherwise pretty average. He's good friends with Erin in the Academy, even if he's unsure that Erin considers them that in the first place. Specializes in controlling/forging weapons and parting waves/transporting large amounts of water.

↬🔥👑 Rei "Sash" (Insert Surname When We Learn Erin's Mom's Maiden Name) (it/any). A stone/fire/lightning/wind mage and also Erin's cousin. Somewhat of a silly person.

↬ 🩸🫧 Adafer Cinderis (she/they/it), ??? years old. An axolotl ferin who roams the surface, which is rare and unusual for their kind. Unethical experiments which was performed on her since she was a child has hardened her heart, or at least that's what they like to think. Adafer has a soft spot for those who are young and unfortunate enough to be mistreated. In fact, Coda is someone she's taken under her wing (figuratively). Its cunning and eccentric nature makes it a force to be reckoned with, despite its vulnerability while outside of water. They're also a skilled, agile fighter. Besides their average ferin resistance, Adafer's axolotl ferin regeneration also makes her a lot harder to kill die.

↬ ⛲🪨 Coda Cinderis (he/pers), 17-18 years old. A tin metal-caste stone & water mage. Incredibly attached to Adafer, pers caretaker. He was once captured by slavers who didn't know he was already sparked, but was inadvertently saved by Adafer who attacked them and helped the other kidnapped metal-caste children. Coda chose to follow Adafer afterwards, devoting perself to protecting her. Per isn't a pushover who goes along with everything Adafer says though, often he's actually there to be the more level-headed of the two. Currently unsure of what he wants in life but he's always searching for good books to read and people to help.

↬ ⚰️📖 Freyan (he/him), 42 years old. An Ignan truename researcher, funeral director, and part-time necromancer. A standoffish fire and wind mage, although he's not as grumpy as he looks. Probably. He's mostly just tired.

↬ 🦎💠 Fyxis (he/him/they), 19 years old. A chameleon ferin and a paladin-in-training. Has a mischievous and playful streak which makes him come off as a bit of a fool. An old "friend" of Mycel's. He's trying his best to help people.

↬ 🐦‍⬛🏹 Corax Dione (they/she/he), 20 years old. A wind mage and a “Hunter” with an unsettling smile. Behind their lack of strong emotion or empathy is a curious soul who seeks to experience life like other people do. A bit sick and twisted but not that bad of a person, probably.

↬🪙👁️ Pierre Gryne (he/him), 34 years old. A stone mage and bounty hunter / hitman who utilizes coins as projectiles. He's an experienced sharpshooter capable of precise control over the coins he wields. A conscientious, no-nonsense man who's extremely loyal to whoever can pay him generously.

↬ ⚖️🗝️ Thydus (he/him), old. A conceptual god of weight and pressure. Whether it's the weight of burdens, secrets, loneliness, or just physical weight, Thydus manifests whenever heaviness is concerned. His epithet is "the Scale Holder" or simply "the Holder". Has an amicable relationship Graiann, god of justice.

aaaaand that's it. If you read this until the end you're a real legend now get to askin' or something !!!

#pinned #info

3 notes · View notes

xaracosmia · 10 months

Text

ꕥ — WELCOME TO CATA COSMIA, MARCH 7TH. 🌕

ꕥ — OOC INFORMATION;

name / alias: logan age: 24 pronouns: he/she ooc contact: lzirus on twt other characters in xc: Zelda

ꕥ — IC INFORMATION;

name: march 7th age: 21 pronouns: she/her series: honkai star rail canon point: patch 2.0 app triggers: amnesia, imprisonment

personality:

at first glance, match 7th acts like your typical sidekick; peppy, quirky, fun and jovial. she enjoys simple things – cute clothes, taking pictures, exploring, hunting… your typical fun girl activities. she is not shallow however, and is the more social member of the astral express crew, showing herself to be endlessly curious, kind and open-minded. march 7th is really a glass-half full kind of girl. she can come off as a little too excitable, though she usually can tell when is the time to be serious, and when to relief the tension with an awkward joke… her cheeky demeanor does get her into a lot of trouble at times.

she likes a challenge, and never backs down, even when knocked on her ass repeatedly. she is one to never give up – on herself or others. though she sometimes appear innocent and naive, march 7th is not one to be underestimated. a self-proclaimed warrior, she excitedly embarks on any adventure offered to her, sometimes without any regard for danger. that makes her a little unpredictable, and thus dangerous (for her team Or for her opponent, who knows…) nevertheless there is not much to say if you only look at her on a surface level.

underneath all of her fun, charismatic attitude hides a girl who is still trying to find herself, and feels incomplete without the knowledge of her past. how ironic that she preservation character keeps her insecurities guarded. having lost all of her memories prior to being found by the astral express crew, march 7th struggles with finding her purpose amongst her friends. she sometimes feel inadequate and out of place amongst them, the odd one out of the group, and dread being useless or a burden to her friends. because of this, she tends to overcompensate with humor and overall silliness. additionally, march 7th lives with the constant fear of being imprisoned and/or having her memories taken from her once again. though she makes light-hearted comments about it, she reveals to her crew that the main reason why she takes pictures of everything is so that she is never left without mementos ever again.

something your muse struggles with: as someone who lost all of her memories, march 7th struggles with finding her purpose, her likes, dislike and desires. though it’s not necessarily all bad, it can cause her to be deeply impulsive short-sighted. she can sometimes lack focus, and show herself to be naive. your muse’s greatest strength: march 7th is incredibly versatile, declaring herself a warrior of the astral express. she’s very protective of her friends, and yet-to-be friends. she is very optimistic and easy going, choosing to see the good in everything and everyone.

history / background:

march 7th does not really have a backstory per say. called the girl from the ice, march 7th was found by the astral express crew imprisoned in six-phased ice, also called eternal ice, just drifting through space. though her prison bore the name of ice, it was more crystal than ice. awoken from her slumber, march 7th had no memories of her past, from her birth to how she found herself frozen in one of the most solid and impenetrable substance in the universe.

she would then call herself march 7th, in honor of the date she was found (i dare you to guess what date it was!) and henceforth joined the astral express crew as a nameless. she hopes that someday, maybe, through her trailblazing adventures, she will find the solution to her hidden past.

she is still at her first few expedition when the team head to belobog, the only area of Jarilo VI that is deemed “habitable”, to investigate stellaron activity. as the planet comes into view, she can’t help but wonder if this is the planet she comes from. she’s quick to hide her thoughts with her usual peppy and jovial attitude however.

belobog is separated into two tier, which were previously united by a route to go back and forth. even for march 7th, who has an affinity for ice, the planet is almost unbearably cold. throughout her expedition, march 7th becomes deeply involved in the conflict between the “surface” population, and the one left to fend for themselves underneath the city. though no traces of her past was found on the planet, she does not hesitate to offer her help in resolving the conflict ravaging the planet’s population. once the stellaron is contained, the team head back to the astral express to prepare for their next destination.

powers / abilities:

Frigid Cold Arrow – a basic attack using a bow, deals ice damage.

The power of Cuteness – provide a shield to an ally using her ability to manipulate 6-phased ice.

Glacial Cascade – a stronger version of Frigid Cold Arrow that can hit multiple enemies and have a high change of leaving them in a frozen state.

Ability to create and manipulate 6-phased ice

inherent abilities:

trained in ranged combat with a bow

higher resistance to cold/ice

items / weapons:

her camera

her bow

scrapbook + journal

starting ability: affinity to manipulate regular ice – not quite 6-phased starting item: her camera

extra:

im very bad at writing backstories im sorry just know that essentially, march 7th does not have any memories prior to joining the astral express crew but she’ll be happy to share her adventures with you all

i write march 7th as trans mtf!!!

she is a really good photographer i swear (what is lighting? angle? framing? idk she’s balling)

oh god oh fuck she’s full of love

discord id: found.march7th passcode: but its july 23rd!!! or osmething. send tweet

#xc application #mun: logan #cata cosmia

0 notes

fairytale-poll · 9 months

Text

ROUND 1B! MATCH 1 OUT OF 8

Propaganda Under the Cut:

Little Red Ridinghood:

She wears the Wolf's fur as a coat after her grandma kills him. She gives her cloak to the Baker to help him. She's a badass. She's only a kid. She taunts Jack into going up the beanstalk again.

She’s so cool and sings cool songs :)

The most iconic little shit. I love her. Has a knife and laughs while threatening people off with it. Allowed to be more than just naïve. 10/10.

the movie is SO SUCKS and she is SO BADASS i love her. please please i'm begging you use the stage musical version instead of the movie

Tweenage girl with a lot of anger. There is no stronger force on this earth

Jenny:

Jenny is a character who, despite functioning as little red riding hood in the play, has a massive amount of development aside from that. Also: in the end, she goes from playing Red to taking over the role of the Wolf from its previous owner. The play is really cool and I love her character and I'd give you more info on her if I wasn't about to pass out

#red riding poll #round 1 #round 1b #little red ridinghood #little girl #into the woods #jenny #in the forest she grew fangs #little red riding hood #red riding hood #polls #character polls #poll tournament #poll bracket #battle of the musicals

20 notes · View notes

awake-my-oceans · 2 years

Text

Red and blue oni’s, or, how on earth does one characterize Kaito?

Aoko and Akako are foils in some pretty clear ways, but things get complicated and interesting when it comes to how their foils help us understand Kaito and his priorities.

If we look at red oni, blue oni symbolism—which I recommend we do, as it’s common in Japanese stuff—the red oni is the wild, passionate, independent type (think Hattori Heiji, though not always aggressively friendly), while the blue oni is the quiet, thoughtful, traditional type (think Hakuba Saguru, though not always stiff).

Now! Who’s who? Aoko seems a clear pick for red, as she runs around playing and shouting a lot. Akako is fairly independent and headstrong, but is also elegant and seems to be deeply rooted in magical tradition, so I’d class her as a bit of both, leaning blue.

And now comes the catch, because “Aoko” (青子) specifically has “blue” in it (青), while “Akako” (紅子) specifically has “red” in it (紅). In fact, their names are the same aside from the color variation. It’s not by chance, either, since every main character in Magic Kaito gets their own color associated with them, and they line up pretty well. (Kaito is “black,” and with black’s symbolic ties to mystery, power, and sometimes death—yeah. Yeah. KID doesn’t specifically have a color name, but ask anyone and his color is white……….which is commonly associated with death in Japanese culture. Yeah. This stuff is intentional.)

If Aoko is supposed to be blue, we clearly need to reassess some things. I now argue that each Magic Kaito character gets two layers of characterization: the first one is surface level, day-to-day behavior, while the second one is deep values and desires. If we take that criteria, things suddenly make a whole lot more sense.

Aoko’s surface level characterization is definitely red, and it features lots of chasing Kaito with a broom. But her deep desires? She hates KID because he keeps her dad away from her, which indicates a core desire for family and for a stable, loving, present home. At her core, Aoko wants peace and family, though she sees no issue with running around chasing Kaito as part of that. And of note, Kaito grew up together with her, and Kaito spends loads of time eating meals at her house. Kaito basically is family, so her being with Kaito really does fulfill that “family and stability” desire. It’s just, the stable bits of her relationship with Kaito tend to include chasing him around yelling.

Akako is a fascinatingly well-built opposite. Her day-to-day has lots of blue, but her deep-down desires are very red. On an everyday level, she’s aloof and elegant, and even in her private life, we see some of that tradition-and-composure kicking in with her elegant, aloof life as a practitioner of magic who’s above petty mortals. But when we get right down to what Akako wants? Red. She wants adventure, and she wants to cackle wildly in triumph, and she wants things to be a lot bigger than everyday stuff’s scope.

Ok, let’s talk about Kaito’s characterization. This is a very difficult discussion because he has such radical, contradictory extremes, and because he shows very little of his real characterization to the audience or even to himself. He’s not lying with his inner dialogue, but he is narrating in line with the “character” he has on at the moment. As KID, he’s publicly showboating and out together while privately, he’s steel concentration and a fair dose of panicked improv. As “Kuroba,” he’s carefree and silly both in and out. Chasing canon examples of who he is when he’s not putting on an act is a vanishingly difficult task.

His KID characterization is actually more complex than his “Kuroba” characterization, which is a fairly alarming indicator that he’s not investing very much into being present for his life. Diagnosis: trauma. Also diagnosis: identity issues. Like I keep talking about with @redrobin-detective, the fact that he can become so many people with so little warning (think: impersonations) is somewhat down to skill, but also down to his rather frightening ability to stop being himself in order to get the job done. My current interpretation of him is that he straight up shattered when his father died, then when people expected him to get better, he pasted on a sunny smile, committed to the bit, and refused to process Literally Anything until KID happened. It explains a lot.

I got sidetracked. Kaito’s genuine, not-an-act characterization isn't nearly as clear as it looks at first glance, and things like preferences that are consistent across “personas” become vital insight into what’s going on in his head.

Ok, let’s talk about how he acts toward Aoko (surface red, deep blue) and Akako (surface blue-red, deep red)—

Aoko:

very comfortable, teasing relationship with her as Kuroba

flirting, panicking, and/or pining as KID

Akako:

mainly tries to ignore her as Kuroba

mainly tries to ignore her as KID, or, barring that, outmaneuver her before going back to ignoring her

Which one does Kaito instantly, wholeheartedly gravitate toward? Is it “I can be coolheaded and elegant but deep down I’m wanting adventure” Akako? Nope! It’s “I mess around a lot of the day, but deep down I want steady, calm relationships” Aoko. That is characterization worth noting in a character who’s mainly a mystery.

“But maybe it’s the people themselves, not the archetypes.” Maybe, so let’s look at two other foils Kaito gets.

Hakuba Saguru

this child has drama in his soul. I’m about to argue he’s a blue, but he still walks around in Sherlock Holmes cosplay and makes mid-class accusations about Kaito being KID. Definitely got some surface red.

he is a deep-down blue, though. He really cares about formality and the proper way of doing things, which seems to be part of why Kaito’s everything baffles and bothers him so much. And if you go down past the social stiffness, he’s very thoughtful and methodical and (Kaito needling him aside) patient.

Kudou Shinichi

okay LOOK this child is also So Much Drama. I’d say it’s him being fed up with being a child but uh, precanon Shinichi is at least as dramatic, so nope, he just came this way. Surface level modes are snark, wry affection for his children kid friends, paranoia/angst, or Being Completely Extra.

as far as inner desires? If Shinichi could yeet out of his own manga, ignore the investigation, and marry Ran, he would have done it 500 chapters ago. He would probably grudgingly come back because he felt obligated to wrap the mess up, but he would not be a happy camper. He is 100% in Aoko’s boat of “drama is wonderful and necessary but frankly, I would give it all up for real peace with the people I love.”

If Aoko, Saguru and Shinichi independently fit the model of “surface drama, deeply desired stability,” then this is about more than which girl Kaito likes. This is A Trend.

What can we learn from this? I’m the first to agree that Drama Is Life for Kaito, and he probably needs a certain amount of it to process. But, when we get down to what he really wants out of life, it’s not epic adventure. It’s peace. He wants to be with his father. He wants to be with Aoko. If you offered him a stable life with a good marriage to Aoko and his father alive and present, he’d drop KID in a heartbeat and never look back. He’d be Dramatic, yes, because how could he not, but he’d do it in the same way I think Shinichi would be Dramatic in his marriage to Ran. Both of their Dramas would fit quite easily within everyday activities; it’s not a restless call to adventure like it is for Akako. Moreover, they both got their call to adventure and, after some initial excitement, would vastly prefer a calm life with the people they love.

I therefore conclude, somewhat at odds to many fandom characterizations, that Kaito is a Dramatic soul who wants peace, not a Dramatic soul who wants adventure. I’m not sure if he’d be a red oni or a blue oni—he’s got definite traits of both—but if Gosho were to assign him red or blue? Given the way he named Aoko and Akako, I’m almost certain he’d would be blue.

#I’ve been pushing off typing this up since there’s So Much #but frankly the red oni-blue oni is really crucial to how I see Aoko Akako Kaito AND Saguru’s characterization #dcmk #not bnha

20 notes · View notes

ckret2 · 3 years

Text

Alright let’s talk GVK spoilers!!!

My reactions as best I can remember them!

- love how Kong is humanized from the very first scene, like every time he shows up he’s humanized so much more than other titans are. If that was at the expense of other titans being made likable I wouldn’t enjoy it so much, but like, Godzilla is made pretty lovable over the course of Monsterverse, Mothra is too, and all the titans featured for long are given recognizable emotions that let us see them as more intelligent and feeling than “just” animals; so all of them are made understandable/likable/sympathetic. But of them all, Kong is the only one really humanized. Which makes sense, because like, big monkey! Basically our distant cousin!

- And they kept playing, like, normal songs for him, which cracked me up.

- I really appreciated how you could SEE the titans in this movie. After all the weather effects to hide the titans in KOTM, there was such a clear difference in this one from the very start. Kong in the daylight! Godzilla makes his first attack at night, and even then you can see him much more clearly than you can for most of KOTM! Nice!

- after the Iwi were portrayed as silent stoic witnesses in Skull Island, I really appreciated that they took an Iwi character, made her a main character, and gave her dialogue and a real role to play in the story while also keeping her deaf/mute. I think that was a good way to improve on the way that the Iwi got got sidelined in the last movie while still maintaining the worldbuilding!

- I didn’t appreciate so much that, y’know, they murdered the rest of her people off-screen in order to do it. Couldn’t they have gone “her parents died so she got adopted by a Monarch agent that was close to her family, but like, the rest of her tribe is fine”? Or at the very least “their island got fucked up so they had to be evacuated but like they’re settling in somewhere else”? “They’re living under this island dome with Kong and they know what’s up and Monarch’s keeping them in the loop and they decided they’re chill with their new dome home, but this one girl likes to go on adventures with Monarch”? Something? Did we have to kill them all off? Y’all make up an entire fictional indigenous culture and then murder them off-screen when you don’t need them? Just let them live.

- a few minutes in I was like “hold on, we’ve got two characters that speak sign language, we’ve got a giant gorilla, gorillas learn sign language, is there any reason they can’t teach Kong?” and then later I was like “OOOOOH!!” Humans and titans learning how to communicate with each other has been one of my favorite themes to explore in Monsterverse fanfic so I was absolutely tickled to see it getting explored in canon, too.

- That said I think it’s hilarious that the girl managed to teach Kong to sign without, like... anybody seeing. Kong’s hands are above the tree line and there are cameras everywhere, how did NOBODY with Monarch see him signing.

- Bernie’s weaponized being an annoying coworker to such a degree it can only be called an art, and I really appreciated it.

- Godzilla’s extra chonky in this movie and I dig it. Roomie noted he was extra crocodilian and I dig that too.

- “There’s been no confirmed titan sightings in three years” I don’t buy that for a minute. They’re BIG. Rodan NESTS IN VOLCANOES. They found a MOTHRA EGG. Humans have A SCARILY WELL-FUNDED ORGANIZATION DEDICATED SOLELY TO FOLLOWING TITANS AROUND. Like, most of the lore in GVK that I don’t personally like, I can be like “eh... I can tweak it just a little bit with headcanons to make it work for me...” but NO confirmed titan sightings? You expect me to believe ALL of them moved underground when we’d previously seen them all prefer to live above ground? You expect me to believe that now that they’re all AWAKE, they learned how to HIDE?? Uh-uh. And at the end of KOTM there was stuff in the credits about using titan droppings as biofuel, obviously they’re still walking around up top! Can’t take that from me. Nope.

- Who the FUCK is Ren Serizawa and how is he related to Ishiro Serizawa? IS he related? Maybe they just dropped the surname as another “yeah this is a Godzilla movie for Godzilla fans” easter egg but I have a hard time believing that he can’t be somehow related to the other character with the Very Important Last Name who was so important in the last two Godzilla movies. If he is related I’m sure it’s been explained in a tie-in comic or the novelization or something, I’ll look it up later.

- I had to look up how much weight huge battleships can carry while writing a KOTM fic where Ghidorah hitches a ride on one, and y’all, I had to pull weird gravity-negating magic to get him to ride on that boat. Godzilla and Kong woulda sunk that boat like a rock. All I could think during that scene is “this wouldn’t work and I know that because I DID THE RESEARCH and I wasn’t even getting PAID.” I’ll choose to believe that Monarch gets special heavy duty ships designed to carry titans but nobody mentioned it because it wasn’t relevant to Kong’s journey.

- The bit where they could see where Godzilla was swimming because he’d got half a ship hooked to him that was bobbing around on the surface, didn’t Jaws do something like that with a buoy? It’s been ages since I’ve seen Jaws. Anyway good reference.

- Insert “they’re gonna need a bigger boat” joke

- I LOVED the part where they shut down all the ships to get Godzilla to leave. Both because, one, it’s a spectacular callback to KOTM’s “turn off all the guns so he knows we’re not a threat” that makes it seem like now that’s just what Monarch knows what to do to get G to chill out, and two... we know that Godzilla backs off either when he’s killed his enemy or when his enemy has yielded to him. At the end of KOTM—and the end of GVK—the act of yielding is presented as very ceremonial and uniform across species: everyone lowers anything they’ve got that could be dangerous (claws, fangs, beaks, axes) and bows to show Godzilla they’re not gonna fight. Battleships, obviously, can’t bow, but even without being inducted into whatever secret titan cultural intricacies might be going on, humans have figured out their own way to “bow” to Godzilla: cut all the power, so their ships can’t move and can’t use weapons. I know the movie presented it as “playing dead,” but c’mon, if Godzilla could hear MechaG power up from halfway around the planet then he could hear that Kong’s heart was still beating, and he’s been around enough boats to know humans can turn them off and on when they want. The humans bowed to Godzilla. He accepted that they yielded and left.

- Mark Russell looked like such a dad in this movie, like he’s retired 100% from being a rugged action hero and now he’s just Pure Dad. I like him better when he’s a dad, it’s a good development for him. He got like 3 lines and I’m like “I appreciate this character development.”

- Despite all my qualms about how conspiracy theories and extremist groups are handled in Monsterverse (and WHICH conspiracy theories they decide to reference), I really love Madison and Bernie’s dynamic. The adult man who’s the excitable wide-eyed believer in every BS conspiracy you can possibly imagine; and then the serious, severe Teenage Girl On A Mission who’s hypercompetent because she was raised for five years by a friggin doomsday cult militia; and despite having wildly different personalities they’re just, in total agreement about everything. Handled just a BIT differently (like, leaving out the more gross IRL conspiracies) they would be a wildly fun comedic duo—especially with Josh the Only Sane Man coming along as the hapless sidekick. And they all play off of each other so well! Both in a comedic sense, and in more serious moments—when Bernie talked about his wife, there was a real moment of empathy between him and Madison with very little said. I’d watch an entire movie just about the three of them. I’d watch a TV show.

- On the one hand I wasn’t too much of a fan of KOTM’s “all titans... are inherently In Tune With Nature... nature has a Balance, because that’s a Real Thing and not an anthropocentric concept to describe how we like nature to act, and they automatically restore it... because they’re like, some kinda borderline divinities or something... we should probably be worshipping them...” thing; but, now that it was totally absent in GVK, I sorta miss it. Like I feel like there needs to be a balance, a few humans who are like “i lowkey worship these dudes?” and a few others who are like “they’re cool but like, that’s a lil extreme” and that neither side be presented as Right in how they regard titans’ relationship with nature.

- “All titans come from THE HOLLOW EARTH” nah I don’t buy that it’s silly. Basically, what I object to is the idea that all titans have some sort of intrinsic similarity (they all come from the same hitherto-unknown location; they all are part of the same pack that has the same alpha; they all are fueled/fed by the same energy source; etc) rather than letting them be SEPARATE species whose only unifying traits are “they’re all big enough to fuck everything up everywhere they go” and “they’re big enough that the typically-insurmountable barriers between different biomes (mountain ranges, valleys, long distances with terrible weather) aren’t insurmountable for them, so even if they’re specialized in different environments they still all have to deal with each other pretty often.” I’ll make some exceptions for convergent evolution (i.e., claiming multiple titans developed similar traits that are relatively easy to spontaneously evolve and a prerequisite for a creature to survive at such a large size). But I can’t buy “this big gorilla has more biologically in common with this big crocodile-iguana than he does with, say, gorillas,” or most of the other “all these titans have THIS IN COMMON” claims that Monsterverse makes, including “everyone’s from hollow earth.” So I’m tossing that out the window and substituting my own headcanons. Some might’ve evolved there but some evolved on the surface. Maybe a majority of them like ducking in and out of the hollow earth like some kind of titan shortcut system. Kong’s species, I can buy, IS native to hollow earth, considering that they built a whole-ass society down there with tools and architecture.

- I’m SO curious about the little underground Kong home, the Godzilla motif in the floor, and the axe that appeared to be made with a Godzilla scute. What’s the story there??? We know Godzilla’s species and Kong’s species are ancient rivals. Is it because Kong’s species hunted Godzilla’s to steal their scutes to make weapons, seeing them as a valuable resource the way, like, early humans considered woolly mammoths a valuable resource—thus making that Godzilla on the floor equivalent to cave art of mammoths made by people who hunted them—until the Godzillas got pissed and started fighting back en masse? Or were Godzillas and Kongs already enemies when Kongs decided to start making weapons out of their corpses? Did they use to be allies, fighting together, with Godzillas voluntarily offering shed scutes and/or bones of their deceased members to Kongs, and that place used to be a shared home until they started fighting?

- What about that power source, is it something that was already there that both Kongs and Godzillas started to deliberately harvest for technology/atomic breath? Or did Godzillas automatically channel that stuff and Kongs exploited/borrowed/traded with Godzillas to utilize it too? Or is the power from Godzillas who collaboratively poured a bunch of power into the place thus that Kongs were able to use it too? I doubt Godzilla’s species CREATED all that weird energy but the question remains of whether, like, they channel it FROM underground, or naturally produce the same thing in their own bodies, or what.

- Godzilla using his atomic breath to dig a hole STRAIGHT TO KONG just to KICK HIS ASS is hilarious. How lucky that Hong Kong just HAPPENS to be straight over Kong’s house! Were all the tunnels to the hollow earth made by pissed off Godzillas who wanted to kick monkey ass??

- I loved the aesthetic of the battle scene in Hong Kong, with the brightly colored neon building outlines, VERY cool look. The choreography of the battle scene was great too, especially

- we literally broke into applause when Kong shoved the axe handle in Godzilla’s mouth. Love it, perfect callback, that was the ONE thing from the original King Kong Vs Godzilla I was hoping to see referenced and there it was.

- You could really see a difference in how Kong and Godzilla fought—Kong doing a better job at using tools and the environment, Godzilla fighting more like a reptile. They seemed to emphasize Godzilla’s more animalistic behaviors in this movie to accomplish that contrast—he was down on all fours and moving like a crocodile more often, he was clawing at Kong’s chest—but even though it seemed a bit different of a combat technique it also didn’t seem out of place compared to how he fought in prior movies. And we’ve already seen that if Godzilla’s involved in a fight and one of the combatants knows how to use the environment, it’s typically not gonna be Godzilla. (See: Ghidorah using the reflection in a building’s windows to see what’s behind him, and recognizing a nearby power source and biting it to juice himself up.)

- So many of Godzilla’s enemies seem to have specialized in negating his atomic breath in order to combat him! The MUTOs directly suppress his ability to use it—and it makes sense that that’s an inborn ability they have, since they evolved to use Godzilla’s species as prey. Kong has a weapon that both acts as a shield to absorb the breath and turn it back against Godzilla’s species—they didn’t evolve to counter Godzilla, but they developed tools once a rivalry happened. Ghidorah’s the exception—which makes sense, since he came from space—but even at that we see him using tactics specifically to take into account Godzilla’s most powerful weapon (such as keeping one head on lookout for when he starts glowing so that they know when they need to dodge).

- LOVED the reveal that MechaG was based off of Ghidorah’s brain, it has vibes of both the Kiryu Saga and the way that Heisei MechaG is based off of Mecha-King Ghidorah. Not the most surprising plot twist, since we’d theorized that they might use San to make MechaG, but I wasn’t 100% sure they were gonna go with it until they finally did. Even when I was going “huh, the mecha pilot’s chamber looks weirdly organic” I didn’t make the connection to WHY until the reveal, lol.

- “Ghidorah’s necks are so long that the heads have to communicate with each other telepathically” that’s COMPLETELY WILD but I love it, it follows very well from their prior portrayal as telepathic empaths in Heisei, it lines up with their emphasis on electricity (because BRAINWAVES AND ELECTRICITY, hey ho movie monster pseudo science!), and it very much compliments my own private headcanon that they’ve got some psychic/mind control abilities.

- The movie ended with both “Godzilla won, technically” but also “since they teamed up as equals, the ending doesn’t FEEL like ‘Godzilla wins, Kong loses’ but rather ‘they both won against a common foe’” and since I’m on both Team Godzilla and Team They Should Be Friends, I’m happy with this outcome. Plus since the last time they fought, the Japanese movie company graciously let the American monster win, so it’s only polite that the American movie company graciously let the Japanese monster win.

- There were just a few too many humans in this movie. I was intrigued by Ren but we didn’t get much out of him, but like I guess somebody had to be in the pilot’s seat other than the Apex CEO. Didn’t care for the author of the hollow earth book, I feel like his role was superfluous. Didn’t need the Apex CEO’s daughter there at all, coulda done without her. How about this, combine all three roles. Instead of having a whole-ass author who knows about the hollow earth, just casually reference that Rick from KOTM wrote a book about it since he was the expert, and (since he wasn’t in this movie) say that he tragically died going to explore the hollow earth himself, and that way we’ve got the book with the “titans are from there” theory AND an excuse to share the “humans die when they go underground” info. Now, have Ren be working for Apex as a pilot for Mechagodzilla, but have him be MechaG’s pilot because he’s also a good pilot in general, and can fly those HEAV things. Have Apex send him to Monarch to be like “hey, you guys trust me right, since I’m Ishiro Serizawa’s relative? We at Apex have heard all about your failed hollow earth expedition, and due to Ishiro I’ve got some past ties to Monarch so I’ve got high clearance with y’all, so I could bring over this useful Apex tech that’d let you go underground and use what I know about hollow earth from my past time at Monarch to help guide things.” Once they’ve got the little chunk of energy stuff and go topside, he hustles it straight to Apex and straps into his seat to run MechaG. Bam, you’ve combined “person who knows enough about hollow earth to help the expedition,” “person who represents Apex’s interests and gets the energy,” and “person who pilots MechaG” into one character, in a way that takes three flat/underdeveloped characters and turns them into a single interesting character with a lot going on and some intriguing ties to the rest of the cast.

I think that’s everything?? Hoo.

#gvk #godzilla vs kong #gvk spoilers #godzilla vs kong spoilers #godzilla #meta

214 notes · View notes

sugarcubetikki · 3 years

Text

Bitter Beginnings

Summary: Despite reaching home, the only thing that Anne can seem to think of is Marcy Wu.

Notes: True Colors absolutely destroyed me and I had to write something to pour my emotions into. Besides, I wanted to explore Anne's reaction to this fully. She saw one of her best friends who she’s secretly in love with being STABBED right in front of her eyes. Like, how the hell is she meant to process that? Regardless of her being home or not, that has to have an IMPACT.

AO3

When Anne used to picture returning home, she’d always assume that the first thing she’d do was run straight into her parents’ arms, engulf them in a hug, whisper in between tears how much she missed them, how sorry she was for disappearing like that and with the gentle reassurance that everything was going to be fine.

But nothing was fine.

She was back home. Finally, back home. She’d been picturing this perfect moment for months now. She’d been expecting this wild rush of euphoric frantic emotions when she came back. She’d been expecting to scream out loud in joy and cherish everything around her.

But what she wasn’t expecting was this.

What she wasn’t expecting was this lone feeling of pain that throbbed within her.

What she wasn’t expecting was this disastrous entrance. She knew nothing was close to perfect. But this was even worse than she could’ve ever imagined.

What she wasn’t expecting was this feeling to crash back into Amphibia. And it was for all the wrong reasons. The things she dreaded the most.

What she didn’t expect was sobbing amidst the familiar signs of shops and streets. Things she couldn’t cherish. Things that just hit her with even more nostalgia. Even more grief.

The Plantars held her in their arms steadily, a gesture of comfort, she appreciated it. But it couldn’t heal her pain. And onlookers stared with their phones, snapping pictures at her pain, under the assumption it was all part of a façade, that it was all just an act. A silly little acting gig. With the frogs as people in costumes. And the tears of the girl in pain just being a raw talent for charades.

No. No. It wasn’t a façade. It was all real. God, she wished it were a façade. She wished that all she’d been through was just a terrible nightmare. But she couldn’t refuse to face reality. Refuse to face the truth. And invent her own silly adventure inside her head.

Unlike the girl who’s name she was screaming. Clear in her ears.

“Marcy!” She yelped one more time. She felt Hop Pop squeeze her tighter into the embrace each time she yelled the name. “Marcy!”

Her sobs grew louder and so did the commotion of the onlookers. More and more came to watch, dropping coins, she’d just about had it. And it appeared that Hop Pop could see that.

“Alright! Alright! Gig’s over!” He turned to the onlookers and gathered the money they had thrown into his hands, stuffing them into the pockets of his oversized trench coat. After being blasted onto the car of a nice family, they had given him that coat under the tangle of many excuses they believed.

After the applause and tossing of coins, the crowd began to subside, Hop Pop wrapped the coat around her, it was warm, nice, consoling in a way. It also shielded her agony from pedestrians on the street.

“Do you want to take this somewhere else?” Hop Pop gently whispered into Anne’s ears.

Anne contemplated for a moment, before staring blankly at the ground, the place vivid in her head: quiet, small, and full of nostalgia.

“Yes.”

---

“It’s still strange that you humans don’t eat bugs.” Hop Pop commented as he took bites into his strawberry ice cream with much discomfort.

“Their digestive system is too sensitive.” Polly muttered, pushing her own chocolate ice cream aside in protest.

“Meh.” She blandly replied, taking another long bite into her mint chocolate chip ice cream, lounging her head onto the surface of the table.

Any other time, she’d have complained at Polly’s comment, or cracked a joke about how the roles had been reversed. But she didn’t really feel like it. At all.

“This was Marcy’s favourite flavour.” She simply stated.

The Plantars froze in dead silence.

“She wouldn’t eat any other flavour. I mean, she would talk about trying something different each time. Act all indecisive, analysing which choice would be the best.” She chuckled half-heartedly and felt that painful pang in her heart. “But she would always pick this one. Always.”

She gazed fondly at the ice-cream, the overwhelming grief rose to the surface again, and her eyes building up with tears again.

With a slight stifle, she turned to glance at the walls of the ice-cream parlour. Butterfly-patterned walls. Oh no.

“Sh-she loved b-butterflies.” She said shakily, tears rolling down her face. “Th-that’s why I d-designed her a butterfly costume for the battle of the bands…b-because sh-she l-loved them.”

A loud sob escaped her mouth, and she buried her face in her arm.

Hop Pop’s comforting hand once again landed on her head, brushing her hair in an assuring manner.

“Anne.” His voice drooped as he merely said her name. Nothing following it. Neither a ‘it’s all going to be alright’ nor a ‘we can fix this’.

Because it wasn’t alright. They couldn’t fix it.

How the hell could they fix Marcy getting stabbed like that?

Right in front of their eyes. Right in front of her eyes.

“I c-could’ve s-saved her. I COULD’VE SAVED HER.” Anne’s voice went from a frail sense of longing to a shriek in pure anger. Her breaths and sobs grew heavy, she felt herself shivering as Polly and Sprig rushed over to hug her again.

“Anne, please. Don’t put this on yourself. You’ll regret it.” Hop Pop warned.

“No! Hop-Pop! It’s the truth. I couldn’t help her! I had to watch Andrias pierce that sword through her chest without being able to anything! The strength of the portal held me in place. I couldn’t move!” Anne’s voice grew louder. There weren’t any customers at the parlour on a Tuesday morning, and no staff was at the counter as they were having lunch. They were on their own. Alone with their agony. “She knew it! Okay! I saw it in her face! She knew she was a total goner! Yet…y-yet…the o-only words she managed to say in th-that m-moment w-were…I’m sorry for everything…before…b-before…dropping dead to the ground.”

A harsh silence hung thick in the air.

All of them froze at the reminder of the moment. She watched the devastation dawn over the Plantars’ faces, before pulling away from their grasp, straightening up. Her vision blurred with tears as she stared at the melting mint chocolate chip ice-cream.

“Sh-she didn’t deserve th-that.” Sprig meekly said as he blindly fell back into his own chair. “Sh-she was nice, smart, sweet and despite what she did…she was good to you, Anne.”

“I-I know.” Her voice cracked in response.

“She let me into super cool facts and information. That you guys would think I was too young to understand! I liked how she didn’t think like that. When I asked her why she’d tell me all this, she said young was the best age to gather knowledge.” Polly murmured as she squeezed against Hop Pop firmly.

“She w-was very open-minded. Liked a lot of stuff and had an incredible nature to persevere ahead.” Hop Pop added. “She absolutely didn’t deserve that…but…Anne…don’t put it on yourself.”

“I-I s-still c-could’ve s-saved her though.”

“I could’ve saved Sprig and Polly’s parents too!” Hop Pop burst out and the tense cloud in the room grew thicker at the mention of their parents.

“Hop Pop- “Anne began meekly.

“Don’t! Don’t! Anne, we keep tying the grief we face on ourselves, try to go back and see how we could’ve stopped it, but the truth is…w-we d-don’t know what else to do. We don’t know how to get through this. Or how we could’ve.”

Hop Pop’s words broke something out of her chest that she didn’t even know was there, leading her to wail once more.

“I-I d-don’t know what to do, Hop Pop. Things were never meant to be like this. Marcy and Sasha were meant to be with me here today. We were supposed to celebrate our homecoming together. Or at least that’s what I thought we all wanted! But none of us got what we wanted. I’m back without them. Sasha…she’s never going to get back the way things used to be. And Marcy, M-marcy…she won’t get anything back.” Anne acknowledged woefully. The dreadful thoughts in her brain pouring out. “All I know is that I can’t stay here forever. I have to find a way to get back to Amphibia and do something, Hop Pop. I can’t leave things like this. I don’t know what I’m going to tell my parents when we meet them. Or Sasha’s. Or Marcy’s. I don’t know. But I’m not leaving things like this. We need to get back to Amphibia…somehow…”

“I know.” Hop Pop replied. “We do need to get back to Amphibia. We won’t leave things like this.”

“We have your back, Anne. Always.” Sprig added. “The Plantars stick together.”

“We lost Frobo. We lost Marcy. We lost a lot. But we’re not losing anything again. This time, Andrias will be the one who loses.” Polly finished indignantly.

“Thank you, guys.” She wrapped them into a hug, which they greatly reciprocated.

She was going to find Sasha.

Regardless of all complications, she was going to find her.

She was going to find Marcy.

Regardless of whether she was dead or alive, she was going to find her.

And she was going to find King Andrias.

Regardless of how much power and force he had, she was going to find him and stop him.

#sugar writes #amphibia #amphibia spoilers #true colours #amphibia fanfiction #amphibia fanfic #marcanne #marcy wu #anne boonchuy #amphibia s2 #hopadiah plantar #sprig plantar #polly plantar #sasha waybright #king andrias #amphibia angst #sashannarcy

127 notes · View notes