#our relationship is truly the opposite cat+human relationship

[monodipita]

COPE (Yandere!Getou x Reader)

Word count: 1,914

Warnings: Yandere content warning, drug-related themes (curse used as a drug)

He couldn’t cope with the rejection. You wouldn’t see Getou again—maybe weeks or months would pass of constant no-contact with him, until suddenly, your phone rang with his name as the caller ID. “I want to see you again,” he said smoothly into the phone.

This was your chance to make things right. “Yes, I’d love to. Where would you like to meet?”

”How about the usual cafe? If you remember where that’s at. I know you'd like to play with the cats and kittens. They recently told me that Narnia gave birth to some kittens a few weeks ago, and that they're already attached to the customers that come in.” The cafe that you frequented with him when you were with him. “Of course.” You responded with a small, oblivious smile pressing into your lips and cheeks. Kittens were always fun. “I’ll see you there.”

This was exciting and anxiety-inducing, wrapped into one meeting. You couldn’t wait to see how he was doing, but you were also nervous to see how he was faring after… well, after you rejected him. Your friendship was far too valuable for a relationship to come in and possibly ruin that, and plus, you were dating someone now. You just couldn’t date your best friend. You couldn’t.

You threw on something casual and nice, and began to head that way, toward the cafe. It was a cutesy cafe for cats. You always dreaded coming to this place because of your allergies, but the cats and their cute presence always made it better when you were there. After taking the subway station and hailing a cab, you were staring down the face of the building. The sign read ‘OPEN’ in large, adorable paw-print letters. You looked in through the window, but there seemed to be no sign of Getou. Curious, you step inside.

The sound of the familiar bell jingling overhead you while you stepped through the door gave you a strong sense of nostalgia. A soft, homely sigh escaped your lips and a smile spread across them. It was so long since you two last came here. If you had the gall to come here by yourself, you would’ve.

”You must be [Y/N]! Welcome, we’ve been expecting you. Right this way, please!”

You hesitantly looked up to see a smaller woman speaking to you. You nodded at her words and followed her over to a table that was already set-up. Getou sat in the seat facing the wall, with his back away from you, but you could tell it was him. That jet black mane of his, and those large ears, were unmistakable characteristics… or just characteristics you happened to associate with him. “Getou?” You called his name sweetly to call his attention, bringing another smile to raise itself on your lips. You see him turn to face you.

He’s as handsome as ever. It’s hard not to swoon at the sight of him—he always had that about him where he was so devilishly handsome. And the smile on his face was equally charming as it spread from corner to corner of his cheeks. “[Y/N], it’s good to see you,” he was relieved. He turned before he stood completely and wrapped his arms around you, pulling you in for a tight embrace. You kissed his cheek welcomingly before pulling away and staring up at him to absorb more of his features up close, marveling in his beauty. He was so gorgeous! To go with that beautiful personality of his, he was truly the perfect man!

You pulled away and went to take your seat. The woman who lead you here was long gone by that point to go aid people who wanted to play with the cats that all lounged in the center of the beautiful cafe. Meanwhile, your eyes looked to the drink that he sipped on. “Looks good,” you hummed.

“Thank you. I got it for you.” Getou stiffly responded. You raised a brow with surprise. “You did?” You took the drink off of the table and observed the top of the cup. “What’s in this?”

”It's your favorite.” Oh… he still remembered. That was so cute. It was months ago, yes, but you truly expected him not to remember or care about what your favorite drink was. It was a kind gesture, though. You took his offer to drink it and did so. It was nice, and it made you happy.

Silence overcame the both of you. You didn't mind, though. Your eyes wandered to those who played with the kittens, primarily children. It was an adorable sight. The cafe itself wasn't packed, but it was still enough to make an introvert uncomfortable. Moments had passed when you realized that you were far too caught up in enjoying the sights, and not a word had been uttered between you two. It must've been awkward for him, right?

“So, I…” you started.

“I was hoping you could reconsider everything. About our relationship.” Getou overrode whatever you had to say. You stared at him, baffled by his words. Reconsider what? Not being in a relationship with him? “Why is that?” You asked. Getou folded his hands over his lap. His head hung a bit while his eyes lingered on the drink on the table. ”I just don’t think that there’s anyone else in this world that is worthy of being in the position to be with you,” he responded, “I don’t think anyone can protect you like I can. Like I would be able to if it was necessary for me to.”

You sat back and absorbed this information. Your eyes looked everywhere before landing back on his, and to your surprise, he was staring right back at you, as if his gaze was on you the entire time. Why were you even considering this? You had a partner.

”Getou,” you quietly cooed. “It’s a bit too late for that, now.” You assumed a worried expression. “I’m… dating someone now—“

His expression remained unchanged. “Break up with them,” he said bluntly. Your eyes widened with shock. Did he not respect what you have and what you were, now that the two of you weren’t together? “What the hell, Getou?” You furrowed your brows. “You don’t mean that—“

“I do. Break up with them.” He interrupted you.

”Did you invite me here just to say this?” You narrowed your eyes. “This isn’t funny.”

”I didn’t realize I was saying something that solicited a humorous reaction,” He was being completely serious. How terrifying. "Umm, no," you folded your arms over your chest while you glared at him. "If this is all we're going to talk about, then I'm leaving." You checked him over for any signs of a reaction before you reached down to grab your belongings. "It was nice seeing you," you said. However, Getou grabbed your wrist and squeezed it firmly, making you look up at him with an exasperated expression. "Please don't do this." You say softly. "Not in front of all of these people. Not in front of these children."

Your eyes began to feel heavy. You were beginning to feel heavy, like the world was putting all of its weight on you.

"Then I'll make it easier for us both,"

Getou stood with you, making the both of you rise. Instant attention came your way, as it often did when someone did something out of the norm. Behavior that was introduced to humans as children, where they'd watch someone walk in and out of a room. As you were older, it didn't make you any less uncomfortable. You smiled worriedly and forced yourself to grab his hand, threading your fingers together while a smug grin rested over his expression. He reached into his wallet with his free hand to produce the yen necessary to tip off the waitress who would be attending to the table, and then he began his trek away from the area. You were forced to follow him out of the cafe and into the street.

At this rate, you were depending on him to keep yourself afloat. You found yourself leaning into him and clinging to him. His hand squeezed yours, and you looked over at him. "It's just like the old days," he spoke softly, a gleam in his eye, and a smile on his face. You felt the entire opposite. "I'm feeling unwell..." you meekly coo to him, "I need to go home."

"Then I'll call a cab for you. It's the least I can do, right?" He said cheerfully. "You are going through a lot right now."

"Thank you..." you gently moved away from him. He let your hand drift away from his. You stumbled to the side, nearly into someone else. Getou pulled you back to his side, just as the person spoke up to voice their concern. "Are they okay?" They asked Getou, referring to you. He looked down at you and wrapped his arm around your body. "Feeling unwell. I'm getting a taxi, don't worry."

"Alright... well... I hope you two feel better." They say and wave their hand goodbye to you as they stepped away. You watched, feeling much like Tom while he was drunk, your eyelids lazily blinking as a car pulled up into your peripheral. Oh good, your taxi. "Thank you so much, Getou. I don't know what's come over me..." you utter.

He helps you into the taxi. You utter your thanks and focus on seating yourself and strapping yourself in. Thinking on it now, having your significant other pick you up would've been the better option, but you trusted Getou enough to help you leave.

But to your surprise, Getou gets in the car. "W-what..?" You stir from your tired state and sober up a bit to glare at him. "What's going on?"

"Did you think that I was going to let you have a say in this?" He asked you. He held his hand out to your nose and waggled his fingers in a beckoning motion. "The curse did a good job, didn't it, [Y/N]? Now I don't have to see you put up a helpless fight. You can come out now, Kiri."

You only caught a glimpse of the mischievous blob of black that resembled Kiri before your world went black.

Your eyes opened. Groggily, you rise and scratch your head. "[N]?" You call for your significant other. There was no response. This was your home, right? "Doesn't it look cozy?" That answered your question. You could see Getou emerging from around the corner. "I made sure to copy it down to the smallest detail. Anything for you and the life that we could've had together, [Y/N]."

"Could've had..?"

"I've been pining for this exact moment. To be able to finally call you mine in a house that I'll no longer be alone in!" He made his way over to the bed you laid in. You started to move away from him. "No!" You shouted at him. "Get away from me!"

"Don't deny me this moment! I have spent months, months trying to get into this exact position!" Getou snapped at you. He clambered over your body and forced you to stare into his eyes. "You don't get a say in anything. We're going to live as we should've lived. I'll take [N]'s place as your beloved. We'll live happily together, you and I."

He couldn't cope with the rejection.

#yandere x reader #yandere #yandere getou #getou suguru #getou x reader #jujutsu kaisen x reader #jujutsu kaisen geto #jujutsu kaisen #gender neutral insert #reader insert

[wisehq]

Mission Debrief: Chapter 43

...IT’S HAPPENING! IT’S HAPPENING! IT’S HAPPENING-!

Alright, before we get into it- full disclosure; the hivemind is in full swing at the Operation Strix discord server, so pretty much anything I write here is going to be an amalgamation of all the conspiracy theories and reactions we vomited out as soon as the chapter dropped. On that same note, I think writing these the day after will start to be the norm. Just so I have the chance to calm myself before going on a twenty-page tangent about everything Endo may or may not be planning.

Okay [deep breath] let’s get into it.

First, let’s start off with Franky, before we get into the juicy stuff.

When the chapter first started, I thought we were going to get backstory on Franky. Endo seemed to be alluding to this on his twitter page, and I was actually interested in possibly seeing more about his and Twilight’s relationship. Of course that didn’t end up happening; instead we got another side story about Franky trying to get some action by finding a lady’s lost cat, but seeing as how it’s Franky we’re talking about it seemed appropriate. Also, how can I be upset when-

The princess herself arrives! I gotta say, I loved the lightheartedness of most of this chapter. Yor’s always a delight, and pairing her together with Franky was a smart move on Endo’s part. They built off each other’s wackiness and I love this moment with the two of them. Just like with Twilight, we see that Franky genuinely wants to make the world a better place (and also get rich along the way) and Yor’s so impressed with him. I also liked that moment where Franky is surprised to find Yor still playing Loid’s wife even when he isn’t there- much like how he was with Anya while he was babysitting her. Just another little nod to the fact that he sees the Forger girls as being more than players in a game of elaborate house.

Then- just a quick thing before we get into what I know we all want to talk about- it’s interesting to me that Franky isn’t a one-man operation. He has a whole network of informants that he works with, and it makes sense that someone in his line of work has a many ears on the wall as possible. It’s a surefire way to stay plugged into the goings-on of the Ostanian underworld, unless of course...

...They get taken out by Garden.

AGHGHGHGHGH ALRIGHT, OK LET’S GO-

Garden. We finally have a name for Yor’s group now; we thought it was The Shop for the longest time, but apparently that’s only part of it. Yor alluded to this briefly back in ch. 29 when she described The Shop was being in charge of information gathering, and once their job was done it was Yor’s turn to come in and do the actual assassination. In this sense we see The Shop was being more of a support role in the same way that Franky is, though it’s still safe to assume the Shopkeeper is still in charge of both The Shop and Garden. At least for now- until we get more information to say otherwise, anyway.

Of course, the interesting thing is our silhouetted figures standing in this panel- not to mention the fact that Franky states that all the members are capable of taking on a whole troop of soldiers (for reference, a troop ranges between 9 and 100 men, though it usually hovers around 50). We know Yor is capable of doing this, but now that we also know the other assassins of Garden are as well, it begs the question; is Yor’s strength truly a unique thing in this world? And if it isn’t, what could be the source of it?

OSO-R, the drug used during the Tennis arc, was described as being in its trial stages. I originally chalked up it’s fast development time as just being part of manga logic, although I’m now starting to question that theory. It’s possible the roadmap for OSO-R has been around for much longer than first thought, and may find its traces back to when the war had just ended. Loid describes Garden as having been around for some time. We also know that Yor was just a child when she started up her assassination gig, so it’s possible that she and others like her may be have been exposed to a serum similar to OSO-R a decade or so before. Given Ostania’s track record of human experimentation, the scenario is possible.

Also going back to what Franky describes as “the shadow government”; it’s interesting that we’re hearing rumblings of a government operating outside the public’s view literally one chapter after we were just introduced to the concept of a royal class at some point in Ostania’s past. There’s a lot of things that cab be construed from this (such as Garden serving an authority that doesn’t necessarily align with Donovan and the government) but listing everything would just turn this review into one long-winded mess. So instead, we’re gonna entertain a fun theory- one that may or may not be true, but if it *does* end up being confirmed later on down that road, you heard it here first.

*ahem*

Mr. Green is a part of Garden.

Allow me to state my case.

When ch. 39 came out, I found it very unusual that a brand new character we haven’t seen before got a majority of the panel-time alongside Damian and the boys. It wasn’t very suspicious at the time, given that we’d just been introduced to Becky’s maid Martha, so we all just assumed Endo was building up his side characters a bit. For all intents and purposes, that may very well be the case.

However.

I know one person in particular who latched onto this panel right here, and for good reason; why would a security guard stationed at a school nowhere close to the border know about code words being used by people trying to cross over illegally? Yes, he was supposedly in the navy, but the way he phrases it here heavily implies that these code words are a recent affair, or at the very least are still being used currently. Why would he know that? Even if he was in the military, it’s information that has absolutely nothing to do with being in the navy.

Mr. Green is also very strong; strong enough to make the boys think they were going down rapids when in actuality it was just him rowing so fast. Now, I don’t know if you’ve ever paddled a boat before, but it’s hard work- and it’s certainly difficult to the get that boat going at cruising speed, let alone fast enough to cause rapids. Yor’s the only one we’ve seen with strength like that and- yes, Green was supposedly in the navy, but at this point in time we don’t know anything else about him. We don’t know what he did after the war, nor do we know how he wound up in Eden Academy in the first place.

This is where we start going deep down the rabbit hole. Hang on.

This gentleman who we’ve never seen before is clearly aware that Garden exists, or at the very least is privy to Yor’s actual job. Much like how WISE has plants within Loid’s hospital, this man likely works to support Yor in some way. If such is the case, we can likely assume that- because the shadow government is supporting Garden- they would have their assassins posted in key areas for various reasons, likely to keep an eye out for traitors or to keep them spread out to cover a wide area should the need ever arise to deploy them.

We’ve only ever see Yor target traitorous politicians and outright terrorists (I realize this one is just a daydream, but you get my point). It would make sense, seeing as how she works at city hall and it would likely put her in an advantageous position when hunting them down. Of course, politicians aren’t the only people who might catch Garden’s attention. Given the amount of political and economic unrest that is currently going on in the country, there likely would be some people who would be fed up with the state of things. Such people may not be like Franklin Perkin- someone who would take direct action against the government- but instead would rather try to steer others towards a mindset that stands in opposition to Ostania. Such a person may try to target more impressionable people- people who are likely to listen and learn from an authority figure in their lives. People like...small children.

Eden students.

Garden. Eden. I see what you’re doing there, Endo.

Traitorous professors? Renegade academics? It would make sense to have a Garden assassin stationed at the most prestigious school in the country; the amount of information and contacts that are positioned around there are second to none, and what better way to suppress insurrection than at the source, at the very foundations of knowledge itself? Also, for kicks and giggles, let’s not forget that the name Mr. Green certainly fits with the plant motif Endo is going for with his assassin group (Garden. Thorn Princess. Briar. You catch my drift?)

Am I grasping at straws? Probably lol. I’d also like to reiterate that this is in no way all my thinking- a lot of crazy people put their brains together for this one, good or bad. But hey, it’s about all we can do until the next chapter! And at the very least, it’s a lot of fun to wonder what-if!

Also, BONUS

...She’s coming.

#spy x family

[your-brilliant-lady-m]

Part 3 - Basic Concepts of Miraculous Ladybug: Transformations, Potions and Power-Up's

Welcome to my analysis of basic concepts in Miraculous. Let's talk about transformations, potions and power-up's. This one is going to be interesting.

Apparently, only child superheroes have a time limit and can use their power only once. And adults can use their powers many times and maintain their transformation.

I don't take Thomas Astruc's Twitter statements seriously, but he said that adults don't have to detransform because they can feed the kwami with their energy. What happens when energy runs out? Does it mean that holder of the miraculous dies and transformation drops? Or does transformation drops when the kwami grows tired enough? However, according to "Silencer", transformation can't be released until the holder says detransformation words or uses their power (applies to children only). Is that why Master Fu doesn't transform these days? Because he is old and doesn't have enough energy for Wayzz.

At the same time, Bunnix/Bunnyx held her transformation for several thousand years in "Timetagger" and she was still alive. Moreover, not only she was still alive, she hasn't aged a day. Alix still looked around 25 even after spending so much time in stone. Her sanity was also still intact. Does that mean that as long as people are transformed they are immortal and can't die of natural causes, can't get sick or be killed? Does the Miraculous pause all inner processes? Do people stop ageing when they are transformed? Does that mean that prolonged transformations essentially slowed down puberty for Marinette and Adrien because every Akuma attack (their transformation during this attack to be precise) acts as a pause for their growth process? Does that mean that transformed heroes don't need food, sleep or oxygen? And Alix doesn't experience any negative side-effects after prolonged transformation. A lot of questions must be answered here.

But apparently, the "adults can use their power many times without detransforming" rule does not apply to Gabriel. In "Heroes' Day" he turns Nathalie into Catalyst who gives Hawkmoth the power to "release as many akumas as he desires". Does that mean that he can't normally do it? On the other hand, in "Queen Banana" he creates another Akuma right after the fight with akumatized Chloe ended.

Do you remember this? In "Origins" we find out that akumatized butterflies can multiply. That's why Ladybug needs to purify them. So, does that mean that Scarlet Moth and Catalyst weren't necessary?

Hawkmoth's plan in "Heroes' Day" was actually very smart. However, it can fall apart when you remember that butterflies can multiply. How does that work? Why do they multiply? Could Gabriel akumatize Nathalie into Catalyst (akumatized object is something not very valuable, like a piece of paper), then break the akumatized object and release the Akuma into the world? Would that turn people only into copies of Catalyst? I wouldn't call this thing a plothole, exactly. I'm just curious because it's an unclear moment. Perhaps you could explain it as the element of a soft magic system with unclear rules. Because the magic system in Miraculous is a mix between the hard and soft system.

Adults without time-limited power have a serious advantage over children. Why does Master Fu give Ladybug and Black Cat to teenagers then? In the beginning, Fu doesn't know that Butterfly holder is an adult. Isn't it safer to give 2 most powerful Miraculouses to adults just in case? If Butterfly Holder is a child then 2 adults with more powerful Miraculous would win much faster. If Butterfly Holder is an adult as well, then the fight is more even.

We know the out-of-universe reason for doing this. There would be no story then. Miraculous holders have to be kids since it's a kids show. But in-universe it doesn't make sense. In "Furious Fu" Su Han even says that children are not allowed to handle the Miraculous at all according to the rules of the Order. Fu knows that children have a time limit. It looks like he deliberately sets them up for failure. Why?

Is that because children are easier to manipulate as they are most likely to trust Fu's judgement no questions asked? This reasoning doesn't look good for Fu, who is supposed to be a wise and kind mentor. Is that because children won't abuse their powers? Find a trustworthy adult then. Give us some kind of in-universe explanation!

If you can't explain it then do something with the time-limit rule. It's an important plot device, which contributes to tension and raises the stakes during fights. So, removing it is unwise. Consider giving adults a time limit as well then.

Or you can create different rules. Maybe Black Cat and Ladybug can't be wielded by adults, unlike other lower-tier Miraculous? Maybe Miraculous and Kwami can choose the wielder in some capacity, and this magical bond can't be changed? Do Kwamis feel a pull towards several people and Guardian then chooses the final holder? If there's no pull whatsoever, then Kwami won't be able to grant powers to this person? How much weight does the decision of a Guardian have?

I actually like this last idea the most. It makes sense and avoids plotholes at the same time preserving the time-limit rule. I spent less than 20 minutes figuring this out.

This way Fu gave Ladybug and Black Cat to children because he didn't have a choice. Plagg and Tikki gave him suggestions but these people didn't pass his tests. Marinette and Adrien are the last ones and they do pass. It adds some tension and showcases desperation on Master Fu's part. Magical pull doesn't always mean that potential holders are good people. That's why Miraculous sometimes end up in the wrong hands.

Insert a conversation between Marinette and Tikki or Plagg and Adrien about this choosing process, have them wonder about the bond Nooroo and Hawkmoth share.

Then add more information about bonding. The magical connection can be formed just like people form relationships if human and Kwami spend some time together. It nicely adds up with the reason why Master Fu gave Ladybug and Black Cat to teenagers. He could have given both jewels to adults without a bond and waited for the connection to form but alas, there was no time. He needed active holders right now, and waiting for some adult to come around wasn't an option. But here's the catch. Only decent, kind people with good intentions can earn and create a magical bond. And this has the potential for a truly delicious scenario (more on that later).

It's a very tricky situation. But these rules must be stated and figured out in the very beginning. Because it can create plotholes down the line.

Unification

Combining several different Miraculous is an interesting concept and fusion of powers has been used for a long time as a storytelling element. It's important for the plot in several episodes of seasons 3 and 4.

However, there's "Kwamibuster", where the worldbuilding is broken one more time. It is awfully inconsistent within itself just like "Chat Blanc", "Timetagger" and "Furious Fu". (How do writers keep doing this? I have no idea. But then again even "Avengers: Endgame" contradicts itself numerous times. It's truly miraculous how they managed to do this with their budget, I'm impressed).

For a moment let's ignore all absolutely awful priorities that Marinette has in this episode as well as the rule "you can't know the identity of your partner or else you will have to give up your miraculous". This rule is literally never mentioned again before or after this episode. It's just there and it doesn't make sense. I know it's hard to ignore, but one must try. Instead, let's focus on this dialogue below.

Master Fu clearly states that you can't merge the Miraculous. It could make you lose your mind. The only more or less acceptable unification is that of Ladybug and Black Cat.

What happens next? Marinette puts on every Miraculous without any problem just "to free Kwamis" and transforms into Multimouse. The only sign of her discomfort is a moment of dizziness that's gone in a few seconds. Moreover, it never happens again, it's never mentioned. Then she does the exact thing that Fu told her not to do and starts merging Miraculous left and right. She continues to do so in season 4 every other day. What? Of course, how could I forget Shadowmoth? Gabriel merges 2 Miraculous every time in season 4. He doesn't lose his mind.

You can't tell us that merging can make you lose your mind and then in the next scene show us the complete opposite. That's bad writing. If you need the concept of unification to work then cancel the "lose your mind" rule and instead say that the merging process tires you out. There's no lasting harm, just that you will be very tired. If you want to raise the stakes, then say that wielding more than one Miraculous requires a strong will and practice. It's possible, but you can't perform unification just like that.

In this case, you lay the groundwork for the plotline of Marinette and Adrien for season 4 and 5. This plotline is about mastering unification. Show us how our heroes practice with different combinations of Miraculouses outside of Akuma battles. Show how they are improving. Maybe, Ladybug and Chat Noir nearly lose in the season 3 finale because the unification still drains them. However, in season 4 they put more effort into their training and by the time season 5 rolls around they are good at this. They became a stronger team and partners because of that. Their training sessions are also a good set-up for the development of the love square. Nothing like this will happen, but a girl can dream.

Look, I get it. You want Marinette to be special. Unfortunately, you have made her too special. She starts to break the laws of your magic system. We don't see the process. One moment she has 0 knowledge about something and then she is already an accomplished master of the thing in question and often it happens in the same episode. Marinette somehow just knows about the properties of every Miraculous on-screen, but her training happened off-screen. We as the audience are left confused and wondering. Wait, how does she know this? Was there a missing episode? Was this mentioned in some comic? The audience keenly feels the lack of plot-relevant content and explanations.

Potions and Power-Ups

They are a marketing ploy to sell more toys and merch with character transformations. That's it. Are they useful for the story? Yes, they are sometimes. Do power-up's make sense as a worldbuilding element? I'm sorry to tell you this, but no.

Miraculous Grimoire contains lots of potion recipes for Kwamis. I liked that Kwamis can't read the grimoire to avoid giving information to malevolent holders, which implies that they can't lie to their holder about their powers. I talked about this in my previous posts.

Let's start with Ice Transformation. Apparently, in-universe its only useful characteristic and the thing that sets it apart from normal transformation is skates. Maybe, this transformation also has additional protection from the cold. Maybe. Miraculous makes heroes nearly invulnerable and enhances their physical abilities. I find it hard to believe that protection from elements is not included in the package. And that's it. If we remember that Miraculous holders have subconscious control over transformation's appearance, we can also assume that a person can have conscious control as well. The laws of the magic system in Miraculous allow Marinette to ask Tikki to create skates for this particular transformation. Potions aren't necessary for this. This way you can still sell new toy, but in-universe this works better.

Our next stop is Aqua Transformation. It gives heroes the ability to breathe underwater and fins. That's all. In "Syren" it appears that this transformation also makes them more agile and fast in the water. However, Ladybug's yo-yo worked just fine before Aqua form when she tried to drag Kim to the surface. Her movements underwater weren't restricted either with normal transformation. So their fighting ability is not affected by the potion.

Kwami can live without oxygen. I mentioned earlier that Bunnix with normal transformation in "Timetagger" spent several thousand years in stone without oxygen and probably in some kind of stasis. Do transformed heroes need oxygen? No. Then their inability to breathe underwater doesn't make sense. Therefore, a potion isn't necessary for this.

Next, let's talk about fins. They could appear through the conscious desire of the holder just like skates.

Honestly, "Timetagger" and "Chat Blanc" completely destroyed worldbuilding in Miraculous. These episodes just shouldn't exist. They aren't even consistent within themselves, nevermind the rest of the show, which is why I still don't understand why fandom has such a weird hard-on for them and for Bunnix. Oh, wait. On second thought, I get it. They were just fanservice after all.

Cosmo Bug an Astro Chat. Space power-up give heroes the ability to fly and exist without oxygen. Ancient grimoire had the recipe of space potion, apparently. And humans got into space in the second half of the 20-th century. Ok. That totally makes sense.

If ancient people invented a space potion, that could also mean that back in Ancient Egypt Ladybug and Black Cat holders could use advanced technology. But Su Han in "Furious Fu" is surprised to discover that Ladybug can just call Chat Noir. He assumed she would send a bird with a message. That means that unconscious control over transformation extends to the weapons of heroes. For Marinette and Adrien communication means smartphone with navigation, messages, trackers and Bluetooth earbuds. That's why magic gives them smart weapons. Su Han's words prove that the invention of the space potion is not possible. Unless space potion was also subjected to unconscious control over transformation. People couldn't imagine the possibility of space travel in Ancient Egypt, but they could imagine flight. So, perhaps, for heroes back then space potion simply meant wings.

We've established that heroes don't need oxygen. So, a potion isn't necessary for this. The ability to fly also could be achieved through conscious transformation.

That's all for this part of analysis. Let me know what you think. Stay tuned for the next meta. See you!

#miraculous ladybug #ml #miraculous analysis #miraculous meta #ml meta #ml analysis #miraculous transformations #miraculous critical #miraculous ladybug critical #miraculoustalesofladybugandcatnoir #mt of lb and cn #miraculous potions #astro chat #cosmo bug

[ladyloveandjustice]

Fall 2020 Anime Overview

I started out watching the a ton of anime for the Fall 2020 season, but then ended up not being caught up with most of them by the the time the end rolled around. I still pretty much intend to catch up with Yashahime Princess Half Demon someday (I do like the three leads, it just the plot’s been dull as dirt and the fights aren’t very inspired either) and though I dropped Wandering Witch after bad press started rolling in (I CANNOT deal with pointless tragedy in my current state of mind) I might check out a few more episodes someday just to from my own opinion. For now, let’s just quickly review the anime I DID manage to finish on time this season.

Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle

Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle is exactly what it says on the tin: Princess Syalis isn’t too bothered about being captured by demons and locked in their castle, but she does value a good night’s sleep, and she is absolutely ruthless when it comes to getting it- so ruthless, in fact, that the demons realized it might not be that she’s trapped in here with them, but that they’re trapped in here with her.

Sleepy Princess is top tier comedy comfort food. It rarely got a huge belly laugh, but it always but a smile on my face and was a great thing to watch before going to bed. Syalis’s single-minded search for some shut eye is a joke that could have gotten old very quickly, but the show consistently found creative ways to expand on the gags and build it’s world and a fun cast of characters along the way. 

Though Syalis is downright brutal to the demons when it comes to getting what she wants (and has a knack for getting herself killed at well), thanks to a demon cleric that offers easy resurrections, you never feel too bad for anyone involved. In fact, the demons and Syalis form a strangely heartwarming bond over the course of the show , and it’s clear by the end that Syalis definitely has the ability to come and go if she damn well pleases and just finds this castle a fun place where she can find respite from her princessly responsibilities. 

A nice bonus for those of us who like a little subversion is that the show has a lot of fun playing with standard adventure tropes- the demons often lament that Syalis is not at all what they expected from a captive princess, for one, but my favorite fun little twist is how Syalis feels about the hero currently on a (seemingly endless) quest to rescue her- she manages to both hold him in contempt AND consistently fail to remember his name. That level of disregard takes some impressive effort.

The show has the same director as the Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun anime and as such has a similarly nice comic and visual flourishes throughout. It definitely gets two sleepy thumbs up for me.

Jujutsu Kaisen

Jujutsu Kaisen follows a young man named Yuuji Itadori who, after tangling with a demon, ends up with one inside him. With a death sentence hanging over his head, he’s inducted into a school for “jujutsu sorcerers”, and begins training to use his newfound powers to defeat demons and curses.

Jujutsu Kaisen quickly tells you on no uncertain terms it is Action Shonen, introducing a huge cast of a characters and powers and super high stakes and hey there’s even gonna be a tournament arc soon. It is really, really pretty to look at, with a killer opening and ending, some seriously great animation and cool visuals for the fights especially. But is it particularly memorable otherwise? Noooooot really, so far. The sea of technobabble it tends to descend into when trying to explain how the various powers work often has me zoning out and wishing they’d just let me watch the pretty punches. The villains and the general plot isn’t particularly compelling. The characters are nice enough, but haven’t given me much to be attached to so far. Though I do appreciate this one dude who is the embodiment of millennial ennui:

I’ll keep watching though, because it is a visually stunning, action-y thing to my turn your brain off to and god knows I want to turn my brain off all the time lately. 

And the characters do have potential- the One Girl of the main group, Nobara, has a really fun personality in that she’s a total shitlord doofus brawler who can thus doof around with our equally dumbass protagonist, which is an pretty fun, unusual personality for the One Girl to have! Her interactions with Maki, the weapons expert senpai girl, are promising too. I’m just waiting for her to actually, you know, DO something that really shows off her skills- I’m told she DOES eventually get to (gasp) win fights on her own and do cool stuff, but so far show has kind at that of failed miserably and underused her like most action shonen underuse their girls. Plus, taking Yuuji out of the group for such a long stretch seems like a weird choice, we’ve been deprived really seeing him for relationships with his peers. The pacing seems off. But maybe the upcoming tournament arc will make up for that and actually be worthwhile!

Talentless Nana

In a world where kids with superpowers are sent to island schools to fight mysterious “enemies of humanity”, one class of such kids is thrown into chaos when they find themselves targeted by a deadly force.

It’s pretty much impossible to talk about Talentless Nana without discussing how it deviates dramatically from what its premise appears to be in episode one, so I’ll just say if you like stories with superpowers and intrigue, you should definitely sit through that first episode and see if the plot that’s eventually revealed is something that you’re here for. But if you want to avoid spoilers, DON’T GO BELOW THE CUT, because I’m about to get very spoilery.

Basically, Talentless Nana pulls a bait and switch, starting it’s first episode posing as generic superhero anime where the protagonist appears to be your standard meek-but-powerful anime boy (Nanao) who just needs some support and encouragement from a pink haired mind reading manic pixie dream girl (Nana) to unlock his self-confidence and ~true power~ (ugh)...only to take SHARP swerve when  Nana ruthlessly murders Nanao and reveals she’s been sent by the government to take out the superpowered kids one by one because THEY are the considered the true enemies of humanity. Oh, and she doesn’t have any superpowers, or “talents”- she was just able to sus out everything Nanao was thinking through basic deductive reasoning because he was so flippin’ obvious and basic.

As my love for a certain character in a certain game may have clued people into, I am ALWAYS delighted when what appears to be a generic, underwritten girlfriend character is then revealed to be an interesting, ruthless mastermind. And having an anime appear to be about a bland boy with a Dream Girlfriend but then actually turn into a show about a deeply cynical, morally dubious girl who’s clearly holding down a lot of messy feelings as she considers everyone her enemy...well, it may be a cheap trick to some, but it also feels a little bit like justice for all the underwritten female characters sacrificed to bland male leads. It’s still rare enough that I dig it when it happens. And the metatext of Nana zeroing in on this kid as the most standard of main character boys, assessing him as the biggest threat because of it and knowing the perfect way to take him out, is pretty inherently funny to me.

But if the show JUST banked on that twist and was about Nana brutally and cynically slaughtering these kids, it would get boring quickly and Nana would be a bland character herself. Fortunately, it doesn’t go that route. Nana struggles and grows a lot over the course of the show. She finds opposition in transfer student Kyoya, a stoic (and socially awkward) young man who pretty quickly becomes suspicious of her. A lot of the tension from the early episodes comes from her sweating as she tries to outmaneuver him and she makes plenty of mistakes along the way. She also slowly but surely starts to question her mission, and we get an idea of her backstory and how the government specifically has groomed her into believing people with powers to be evil. That belief is one that’s challenged by her friendship with another girl, and it’s pretty rewarding to watch Nana’s feelings and world expand little by little.

The show is definitely a little schlocky-some of the plots (as well as the general premise of the government thinking this is the optimal way to get rid of their superpowered kids problem) fall apart if you think too much about them, and some of the kids Nana goes up against are sleazy and unlikeable in over the top ways (which makes it easy for her to stick to her convictions all these kids deserve to die at first). In particular, I have to give a heads up for some sleazy guys doing and saying sleazy things, though the show never gets too overbearing or graphic with it (and the gore is generally PG-13 level as well). 

Basically. There are some truly ridiculous happenings in this show. But how ridiculous and pulpy and over the top it is can be part of the appeal, and it’s fun to just sit back and watch the spectacle of Nana and her peers head-scratching machinations. 

So, while certainly not an anime with airtight construction or flawless quality and depth, I found Nana an overall entertaining watch, especially as a fan of cat-and-mouse murder-y shenanigans, and thought it has a very compelling main character and managed to end on a heartwrenching (but earned) note. I definitely wouldn’t say no to a second season and would be interested to see where things go from here.

#anime overview #sleepy princess in the demon castle #jujutsu kaisen #talentless nana #munou na nana #maoujo de oyasumi #fall 2020 anime #anime #my reviews

[cybernaght]

Guardian rewatch: Episode 3

First of all, wow. When I decided to post those online, I was expecting that they would be read by two people, both of whom I personally know. It was in equal part surprising and terrifying that so many of you ventured here. Thank you for reading, I really appreciate it. 

Episode 3 is probably my favourite case. It’s not perfectly strung together, there is little actual investigative work in it, but it’s a beautiful story of boundless love and devotion, which echoes through the relationship between our protagonists

Professor Shen is looking at some materials that are looking suspiciously like research into something supernatural, when Zhang Ruonan makes an appearance at his office, claiming that she is absolutely fine, while clearly being very far away from fine. This is something Shen Wei can certainly relate to, because he is the king of hiding his ailments from others. 

Zhu Hong’s one-sided affection for Zhao Yunlan starts to show already in this episode:  while he has the cold, she nags him to take care of himself, shoves tissues into his hands, and presses him to drink his meds. It’s easy to imagine even this early on that she will be the woman drunk dialling him one day. 

I know this could be seen as straightbaiting, but I honestly thing that the actual purpose it serves in the show is the opposite; I’ll talk more about it when we get there.

Zhao Yunlan spends a lot of this episode in Shen Wei’s office, starting with this scene, in which is obviously flexing. Not only does he sneeze all over the office, he goes to eat Shen Wei’s cake after specifically being told not to eat it.  He also takes his opportunity to mix questioning with flirting, as is his usual way. He keeps eye contact while spooning cake into his mouth, as he explains, jovially, that another mysterious death on his campus cannot possibly be a coincidence. And, to be fair, he is not really wrong. We are meant to believe that this is all set in motion by Zhu Jiu, aka the least scary villain in the history of villainy, and an owner of your staple baby goth wig. I will not mention him again until the plot makes it impossible for me not to do so. 

Zhang Ruonan comes in, and Zhao Yunlan introduces himself as Shen Wei’s good friend. Which is half-way between a flex and an act of kindness. On one hand, he could have said he was from the police - which would be absolutely true - and risk tarnishing the professor’s good name. On the other hand, he could probably look less pleased with himself. Shen Wei, at the very least, looks neither grateful, nor amused. 

Zhao Yunlan asks her if she new the victim and she looks incredibly shifty as she flees. He is right to think that something is up, and he correctly assumes trauma, rather than guilt. We can now start to see that he is very very good at reading people. It must be equal parts thrilling and disconcerting for him to have met something who he decisively cannot read. Shen Wei vouches for the woman, partly, surely, because his Hei Pao Shi sense is tingling, letting him know that someone is eavesdropping. 

Despite feeling uneasy, Shen Wei still offers Guo Changcheng, who is left to collect various paperwork from his desk, a little smile. He has a reason to like Xiao Guo, of course: he was the one to see the young man’s kindness and understanding, and he is already growing protective of him, way before he will start seeing members of the special unit as his people. This reminds me of how many months later, he will subtly, but decisively stop a barrage of verbal abuse against Xiao Guo by dropping a pair of chopsticks. 

Zhao Yunlan is taking Xiao Guo with him on the case rather than anyone else, partly, supposedly, because of Guo Changcheng’s familial connections. The young man looks more sure of himself, asking correct questions, dutifully records answers. He also tries to look after his Chief by asking him to go home and rest. He does phrase it badly, but Zhao Yunlan has a thing against his own health and well-being, so he reacts extra poorly.

Soon after, Zhao Yunlan’s at Shen Wei’s office yet again, as Shen Wei tries his best to ignore him, in the hope that he… well, maybe not goes away, but does not ask him anything that will require him lying. Instead, Zhao Yunlan is asking Shen Wei why he is bad at reading people, which is a very strange thing to ask. Shen Wei answers his question with a question, “Will seeing through people really lessen the hurt and disappointment?” Adding, “Many tragedies were destined from the beginning”. He looks well.. like this as he says it. 

This is loaded. On first glance, it’s a pretty good set-up to the way this story will unfold, as a tragedy of two individuals who let their devotion to each other nearly ruin each other’s life. A fragile human and a dangerous powered Undergroundian: what else is that, but a tragedy, waiting to happen? But this story - this one right in front of us - will not end tragically, at least not for the two people it enters around. It could do so, but it will not. Maybe, this truly is the first hint that this entire narrative, so carefully set up from the very first time Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei meet, is destined to be a tragedy. Moreover, that it must be one, for some cosmic reason. 

(… I apologise while I go have a little cry in the corner. Damn you, Guardian, why do you make me hurt so much?)

Da Qing inexplicably morphs from black cat to a human in white t-shirt while doing night shadowing, and promptly falls asleep on patrol. Why is he being sent to stake anyone out? He is least suitable for it.  He is literally a cat. He sleeps 16 hours a day. 

Surprisingly, when pressed, Zhang Ruonan comes clean very easily, revealing that she was a victim of the three students she failed (two of which are already dead and one one standing right next to them), who lured her out at night, which left her vulnerable to be attacked. Zhao Yunlan listens to this story, and instead of… oh I don’t know, perhaps asking her the identity of the third student, leaves to go find that out for himself. It is heavily implied that he does it on purpose, which is definitely not okay.  

Moreover, he goes and... asks Shen Wei. This makes me suspect that he’s not really thinking with his head at this point. As he does so, he is brandishing a letter opener. 

Shen Wei is looking even less impressed with him than he did during their last few conversations. 

Zhao Yunlan is a little bit flippant when it comes to students’ lives this episode. And yes, they have done something really quite horrible to another human being, but that's not a very good excuse to let the last of them just die. As it happens, the situation Yunlan created - perhaps on purpose - did lure out Zhao Ruonan’s murder girlfriend, but it also cost a student his life. Which is far from ideal, but is somehow never even mentioned. Instead of being aghast, he sits on the table as he goes into full interrogation mode. (As he will continue to do a lot. Sometimes he crouches on tables instead. There is no further point here, apart from: I like this character quirk. It’s a nice character quirk.)

He brings some of his team in at this point, and asks Zhu Hong to continue interrogation. It would be a nice gesture is he did not interject two questions in. 

“How do you regard your relationship with Wang Yike?”

“We are family.”

They are definitely, decisively not going for sisterly bond here. Which is kind of incredible. This is one of the moments the amorphous being that show is looks at the censors, wiggles its battered low budget eyebrows at them, and then proceeds to flip them off. Well done, Guardian. 

Wang Yike calls Zhang Ruonan, saying there is one more victim she needs to take care of, and Lin Jing traces the call back to campus. Zhao Yunlan, who did not even bat an eyelid at a dead student earlier, now looks decisively worried  

“Oh no. Professor Shen.” 

The only reason Shen Wei is attacked is jealousy. Wang Yike does not know this of course, but trying to kill him is a bad move, because a) he has long ago given his heart away, and is definitely not interested; b) this is probably the only thing she could do to make the man on the case very very upset; c) Shen Wei’s immune to her powers. 

“Someone like you will never understand what she means to me!” Wang Yike shouts eventually. “As long as I can protect her, my life has worth!” And, even as Wang Yike has no way of knowing it, these are the words that ultimately save both her and her loved one. Because Shen Wei does in fact understand what Zhang Ruonan means to her. His own endless and ultimately self-destructive devotion is his main driving force.

Shen Wei pretends to be hurt, again, which earns him a half-hug from the object of his devotion. If Zhao Yunlan does notice that Shen Wei should really come out of this attack grey haired and dead, and not just mildly inconvenienced, he chooses not to say anything. 

Worried about her murder girlfriend, Zhang Ruonan rushes in and accidentally touches her. Zhao Yunlan Freaks The Hell Out. Shen Wei does, too, but in his own, reserved, way. They are both emotionally invested in those two people, although for very different reasons: Shen Wei is acutely feeling resonance of his own past in their story, and Zhao Yunlan, I think, wants to fix it, he wants to be able to make it better. Instead, Shen Wei fixes it for him, turning the tide on this tragedy, and giving it a happy ending. He heals Zhang Ruonan right in front of the officers of SID, albeit with much subtlety. (“Have someone saved her right under our noses?” Zhu Hong will snort the very same evening, and she will be 100% correct.)

Shen Wei also lets Wang Yike go despite the undeniable fact that she did kill three people. Here, he is looking at the picture of this human/Undergroundian couple, surviving despite all odds, and touches his only reminder that Kunlun really was in his life. 

He then burns the picture as the only evidence that Wang Yike was not punished by him for her crimes. 

In the end, Guo Chengcheng is making first of his many diary notes about the events, recounting a conversation between Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan we had not witnessed, in which Shen Wei mentioned a relationship based on devotion that can last a thousand years, and Zhao Yunlan called such a relationship “guarding”. Finally, Guo Changcheng hopes that he can become a guardian of all. 

And this is making me think that this absolutely should be a set-up for him becoming a wick of the guardian lantern, as per every single other decision that was made prior to the last two episodes. Right? This is a perfect foreshadowing, and mentioning it here, so early in the show would not make any sense if it were a deliberate subversion. So, was Guo Changcheng meant to become the wick after all before... what, some rewrites happened? What made the final episode be what it was in the end?

(This is a genuine question by that way, if anyone has any insight on the matter.)

The episode would end here, if this was a western show, with a familiar monster of the week structure, but it does not. At least, the way it ends is reminiscent of a cliffhanger, with Zhao Yunlan catching Shen Wei in a middle of a crime scene, and looking betrayed. 

Next episode: Lynchian Nightmare, aka people without faces. 

PS.

I did not have a seamless way to stick this in anywhere but... Shen Wei’s technological ineptness at the max: he does not know how to use a Polaroid camera. Help him, he is so lost.

——

Second point of housekeeping to say a few things: 

I don’t think I will be consistent with certain things being transliterated versus translated. I am more likely to use Hei Pao Shi rather than Black Cloak Envoy (because the later reminds me of Tuxedo Mask, which makes me inwardly giggle every time) but at the same time I am also more likely to use Underground/Undergroundian rather than Dixing/Dixingren. I am more likely to use Xiao rather than Little, but have called Chu Old rather than Lao before. I hope that’s not grating, but do tell me if it is

My recaps are Shen Wei-heavy. I have no real explanation for this, apart from.. I like Shen Wei. 

I realise that there will definitely be things here that are head canon and speculation rather than flat observations; this show is a work of fiction and a work of art, which cannot be interpreted objectively. If you have alternate takes on anything I write in the future, let me know! 

#guardian #shen wei #zhan yunlan #recap #rewatch #I still don't know how to tag

[worldwidemochiguy]

expectation ≠ reality (18+)

When you first met Jungkook, he was so kind, with wide eyes and a sweet smile, but soon enough he dragged you into a tumultuous marriage where you were barely allowed to draw breath on your own. But, when you meet Taehyung, the cute delivery boy with blond hair and a penchant for flirting, you start to wonder if you’ve found your second chance.

Masterlist

Warnings: Yandere behaviour, possessive behaviour, slight dub-con, graphic penetrative sex, DO NOT READ IF YOU ARE A MINOR pls im not tryna get arrested or anything

Word Count: 4K 

a/n: thanks to @gucieguciekook​ for requesting !! hope u enjoy lol <3

Expectation ≠ Reality

You have had enough.

From the moment you agreed to marry him, Jungkook had been getting steadily worse and worse. He had always been possessive to a fault, but you mistakenly saw it as a sign he truly cared and treasured you. You cooed over his obsession with littering hickeys all over your neck, blushed when he called you ‘Mine. Only mine.’ When he asked you to move in way too quickly, you thought it was a sign he was committed to your relationship.

How wrong you were.

Not that he isn’t committed, of course. God, if there was ever a word to describe Jeon Jungkook, it was committed. He is obsessed with you. He slowly started cutting you off from the outside world, persuading you to stay in when your friends invited you out, and convincing you they were terrible people when they inevitably stopped interacting with you. You had cut out everyone else in your life because of him. 

Your parents:

babe, they don’t approve of our relationship because they don’t want you to be happy with your own life, they want to control you and treat you like a kid. you don’t need them anyway, you have me. 

Your coworkers:

i called in sick for you today, babe. you don’t need to go there anymore, i have more than enough money for the both of us. 

Even your pet:

your cat? oh, i’m sorry baby, she got hit by a car. no, don’t cry, baby, now you can give all of your attention to me instead of that rancid furball. 

Jungkook had isolated you and exhausted you to the point where you agreed to marry him, convinced it could not make your life any worse. 

Again, you were wrong. 

With his ring on now your finger, Jungkook is even more assured of his ownership of you. You are no longer allowed to cook or go into the garden, both deemed as dangerous activities where you could somehow be harmed by a vegetable peeler, or maybe grass cuttings. You have no access to the internet, and the only books you are permitted to read are simple, dull books with no plot or dusty old historical text books, obviously the only things Jungkook is certain wouldn’t give you ‘silly ideas to confuse your pretty little head.’ 

~~~~

“Jungkook,” You murmur, voice muffled as he presses your face into the pillow.

“Yeah, baby, say my name just like that.” He grunts, attempting to tug off your skirt with one hand while the other is fisted in your hair. You roll your eyes and shift your weight so he can take it off properly. After he had separately ripped all your pants at some point in his haste to take them off you, you had realised it was simply easier to wear something less finicky.

As soon your lower half is bared for him, he starts running his large palms greedily over your skin, for his own benefit rather than yours.

“Fuck, look at you.” He mutters, before digging a thumb into a bruise he had left on your ass. You yelp and he chuckles lowly behind you. Just as you expect, he presses firmly on the bruise and you clench your teeth, burying your nails in your palms and refusing to make a noise. He waits for a second, but you remain stubbornly silent. 

“Huh,” he says, “I guess baby’s pain threshold has risen a bit, yeah?” He strokes a possessive hand between your shoulder blades and you repress a shiver, before he loops his arm around you and lifts you onto your hands and knees.

“I guess I’ll just have to fuck you harder then.” He resolves, before shoving himself into you roughly.

Jungkook is not small, putting it lightly, though you hate to afford any kind of praise to that bastard. He is long, and thick, and you really hadn’t been very turned on at all, just letting him do what he wanted so that he’d leave you alone, so you don’t blame yourself too much when a scream bursts out of your lips. You can barely hear his smug laugh behind you over the burning sensation in your core. He doesn’t give you any time at all to adjust, roughly pumping himself in and out as you try to hold in your whimpers.

“So fucking tight, baby.” He grunts in your ear, punctuating his words with harsh slaps against your thigh, “You sure you can handle my cock?” This is his offer: Admit that I’m hurting you, admit that you’re weak and at my mercy, and I’ll stop. That’s all you have to do.

You clench your teeth and press your face into the pillow again.

He sighs behind you, though you can tell he’s quietly pleased, before pulling out of you and walking away. Him yanking out and leaving you roughly stretched and exposed to the cold air is almost as painful as when he shoved into you in the first place, and when he returns you resent yourself for feeling the slightest hint of relief. 

He is carrying a bottle of lube, normally used for when he decides he wants to fuck your ass instead. You tense up, preparing to swallow your pride and beg him not to — it’s been a while and you’re not sure you can take the pain — but he senses your fear and smirks.

“Don’t worry baby, I’m just gonna make it a bit easier for you.” As he speaks, he’s slicking up his cock and soon enough he’s getting back up on his knees and taking ahold of your hips, pushing himself in slightly gentler this time. 

The coolness of the gel soothes — but doesn’t eradicate — the burn and Jungkook has started to move in long, rolling strokes inside you that are almost pleasant. 

“See, baby?” Jungkook coos as his hands move around to stroke your stomach, “I don’t want to hurt you, you have to know that. I hate hurting you, but you never tell me to stop. You have to know your limits, baby girl. You’re just not strong enough.”

His words — though patronising, and awful, and the kind of thing that make you want to whack him in the neck with one of those massive historical tomes he provides you — are spoken in that soft, Jungkook tone that he used to make you fall in love with him. It reminds you of those days when he was just Kookie, your cute study partner with a bunny smile and a pretty singing voice and broad muscly shoulders that flushed along with the rest of his body when you complimented him.

The Jungkook that you know him as now — the one swiftly bringing you to a reluctant and resentful orgasm — is the opposite of soft. He is rough and impulsive and controlling and you honestly fear what would happen if you tried to ask him for a divorce. He wouldn’t let you go, probably. He’d just laugh at you, and then shove you down and fuck you to make you remember who you really belonged to, like he is doing now.

You try to contain your pants as Jungkook starts a series of staccato thrusts. You are sure Jungkook would hear you, even over the obscene sound of his hips slapping into the back of your thighs, and would be obnoxiously proud about it for the next month. He would already be smug enough having made you come, which you have given up trying to stave off because Jungkook — damn him — is really good at fucking you until you can’t remember your own name. 

He reaches around to pinch your clit harshly and you decide that now is as good a time as any to give up your last remaining vestiges of pride. You come with a piercing whine, clenching around him rhythmically until his hips stutter and you feel the unpleasant sensation of warmth spilling into you. He doesn’t stop, pumping every last drop into you and then dropping on top of you, pinning your body to the mattress. 

After a while he rearranges himself so that he is spooning you, arms wrapped stiflingly tight around your waist, and his now-flaccid cock still tucked inside you. You grimace. Jungkook had always fallen fast asleep after sex, but now you are wide awake, hyperaware as he snores behind you. You don’t know what you’ve become. You hate him. But sometimes he says things that make you wish he wasn’t a monster, that make you wish he was the boy with soft smiles and expressive eyes that you had fallen in love with. You live for the resurgences of that humanity, because it is the only thing you have to look forward to, apart from the eventual day when Jungkook finally snaps and kills you.

~~~~

“Jungkook,” you say over breakfast, and he looks up with his cheeks full of pancake.

“Yes, my angel?” He asks, eyes twinkling — he loves when you say his name — and your breath catches, and for a second everything is perfect and you are having breakfast across from a boy who loves you more than anything. And then you see the annoyed glint in his eye — you hadn’t immediately answered his question — and you come crashing back to bitter reality. 

“I-” You start, then stop, unsure of how to phrase the question into a compliment, that way Jungkook is more likely to give you what you want.

“Say what you want to say, baby. You know how I hate to be kept waiting…” He gives you a shark’s smile. 

“I… I really loved all the books you gave me.” You tell him, making sure your voice is exactly the correct tone of gushing admiration.

“Really?” He replies, a pleased expression on his face as he strokes your hair back gently.

“Yes, and I- I was wondering if maybe… I could have some more?” 

His hand drifts down to rest at the hollow of your throat. It curls slightly.

“N-not that I’m not grateful-” You stammer, “B-But… I liked them all so much I read them too quickly, and now I have nothing else to do with you’re gone.” You end the statement with a playful pout, and you feel your self-loathing level up a notch. 

“Baby, you have to remember to take your time with things like that.” Jungkook grinned, standing up and getting his briefcase. You move to the door where you are supposed to administer a farewell kiss before he goes to work, just like always. 

He smiles, satisfied, before looking sideways slightly so you can get up on your tiptoes to kiss his cheek. He reaches around to squeeze your ass quickly, smirking when you squeak in shock.

“Don’t be greedy baby, take what you’re given.” He tosses a ‘Love you!’ over his shoulder as he goes, and when you call it back the words taste sour on your tongue. You wonder if you had ever uttered those words sincerely. 

~~~~

You had been thinking Jungkook had forgotten about your request for books, so when the doorbell rings at six o clock and you answer it to see a cute delivery boy with a bundle of books tucked under his arm, you are surprised to say the least. 

“D-Delivery for Jeon Jungkook?” He stutters, and you had been expecting him to have a slightly high, nervous voice so the deep, thick drawl shocks you in more ways than one. You can feel yourself melt just looking at him. His eyes are so… innocent, just like Jungkook’s when you first saw him. His nose cutely scrunches as his blond hair — longer than Jungkook’s — falls in soft clumps over his eyes. He huffs a lopsided breath and the light strands flutter about momentarily, before settling back just where they were. You think you’ve fallen in love.

You realise you’ve been staring at him this entire time, but to be fair, he has been staring right back, and you feel yourself become flustered.

“Uh, yeah, that’s me. That’s my package.”

“Sorry ma’am,” He starts in his honey voice, before grinning. He seems to gain confidence due to your flustered state. “-but this package is addressed to a Mr Jeon Jungkook, and you certainly don’t look like a ‘Mr’.” He mutters as his eyes drag up and down your form. You are only in your nightie — Jungkook always likes it when you wear pretty, flimsy things — and this stranger’s gaze is making you blush in a way you know Jungkook wouldn’t be happy about.

“Yeah, that’s… uh, that’s my husband. Jeon Jungkook.”

“Your husband, huh?” The delivery boy does not seem put off by the mention of a husband, in fact, he seems almost spurred on by it. “And where is Mr Jeon Jungkook right now?”

“He’s working late. He would normally be back by now but he called and said he’s spending the night at the office.”

“Working late, huh?” The delivery boy repeats in that cocky drawl, and oddly enough, it reminds you of Jungkook. “You know, if I had a wife like you waiting for me to come home, I don’t know if I’d even make it out of bed long enough to go to work in the morning, let alone stay there overnight.” 

Your eyes widen as your cheeks darken, and his open, bright laughter is the nicest thing you’ve heard in months.

“What happened to the nervous delivery boy?” You spluttered indignantly, and his laughing slowed down, though his eyes were still twinkling. Just like Jungkook’s used to do.

“He relaxed when he realised you were just as affected by him as he was by you.”

“Who says I’m affected by you?” You ask boldly, and then immediately retreat a step when he moves towards you. 

“You’re giving yourself away, sweetheart.” He smirks, before advancing another step into your home. “You know… empty house… husband at work… it seems a waste not to use this opportunity.” He waggles his eyebrows at you, and you scoff, forcing him back with both hands until he is outside the door again. He lets you push him with a brow raised lazily.

“That sounded like a line from a bad porno, and I’m pretty sure Jungkook would literally kill me if he found out.” You fake a laugh, covering up your very real and valid fear that Jungkook would actually kill you.

“Jungkook’s the possessive type, huh?” 

Yes, you scream internally.

“Well, I’m pretty sure no husband would like delivery boys sleeping with their wives.”

“What about delivery boys visiting their wives during the day?”

You pause, hands floating in midair, about to take the parcel out of the delivery boy’s hands.

“Huh?”

“I could come around in the day while your husband’s at work-” He sped up when you raised your brows, “-not to do anything, or at least, anything that you’re uncomfortable with, but just to talk. I can tell you’re lonely.” You scoff and roll your eyes, ignoring the fact that he’s absolutely correct. You turn back to him, ready to decline his offer, when you see his puppy eyes. Your resolve crumbles.

“I don’t know,” You had no way of telling what punishments Jungkook would submit you to if he found out. He didn’t even let you talk to your parents, so you could hardly imagine he’d be pleased with you chatting to young, attractive men while alone at your house.

“Come on!” The delivery boy wheedled. “He’d never know. He’s practically asking for it, he leaves you alone day after day, all you have for company are these stupid books!” A dismissive gesture to the collection of Austen, Dickens and Shakespeare you are carrying. “Aren’t you bored? Don’t you want a little excitement?”

You tiredly fumble around for an excuse.

“I don’t even know your name.”

“My name’s Taehyung.” He introduces himself promptly. “I’d like to visit you tomorrow at lunch time, if that’s alright.”

“You sure you don’t have a delivery then?” You ask hopefully.

“I don’t.”

You release a weary sigh.

“You’re going to come no matter what I say, aren’t you?” He responds with a blinding grin.

“I love that we’re learning things about each other! You can already anticipate my actions,” He starts listing off ‘facts’ on his fingers, “you know my name, I know you’re trapped in an unsatisfying marriage-”

“I’ll see you tomorrow Taehyung.” You shut the door firmly, cutting him off.

You hear a muffled ‘can’t wait!’ from the other side of the door and if you happen to blush and giggle like a lovesick schoolgirl it doesn’t matter because no one else is there and therefore it cannot be proved.

~~~~

Taehyung starts paying you regular visits. He keeps up his job obligations even when he’s off the clock, bringing you food that Jungkook wouldn’t let you eat, newspapers since Jungkook doesn’t let you know what was going on in the outside world, and even snapshots of his day. 

Taehyung is an aspiring photographer. He has a small apartment outside of the city and an obsession with strawberries and a dog called Yeontan. He has a life, a life that you are desperately beginning to yearn for. Taehyung tells you once that he wishes he could take a photo of you outside, because he knows this perfect spot — a field full of wildflowers and sunshine that would compliment your beauty perfectly — and you burst into tears. 

You tell him, as he rocks you gently in his arms, that you are trapped by Jungkook. That you hate your husband more than anything. That you can’t remember the last time you felt the sun on your skin. And so, quietly, carefully, the two of you begin to plot.

It is not as simple as calling the police. Jungkook has enough money that there is no crime he cannot buy his way out of, no officer he cannot bribe into submission. No, you have to disappear completely. You begin passing along your possessions to Taehyung so he can take them back to his place, gradually, so that Jungkook doesn’t notice you are withdrawing from his life one pair of shoes at a time. 

You daren’t risk taking any money of Jungkook, but Taehyung tells you it isn’t a problem, which is slightly strange since you know Taehyung must have quit his delivery boy job so that he could see you every day, and surely he could do with some extra cash. You tell yourself it’s sweet that he doesn’t care about material things, he just cares about you.

“What are these?” Jungkook asks one morning, when he is greeted not with eggs sunny side up and a kiss, but a stack of papers.

“A divorce contract.” You tell him, trying to ignore the waver in your voice. He only raises an eyebrow at you, and you blanch.

You had been expecting yelling, threats, maybe even violence. Taehyung had begged you to just leave without a trace, and abandon Jungkook to his own horrid life of loneliness, but you just can’t do that, even if it is the safer option. There is still a small, pathetic part of you that clings to the idea of Kookie, the boy with wire-rimmed glasses and carefree smiles who always accepted your help with questions he couldn’t answer. Even though you know that side of him is now long-dead, if it ever even existed in the first place.

However, Jungkook is currently subverting all of your expectations. He sits there calmly, leafing through the papers.

“These don’t make any sense.” He remarks. You attempt to snatch them back, but he holds them out of your reach.

“Yes, well, I wasn’t really expecting you to read them.” You reply, embarrassed. The fake contract had been your idea, a way of telling Jungkook you wanted a divorce without actually saying the words. Of course, you had expected him to fling them into the fire, or something equally as dramatic, not read through them carefully and snort at all the typos. 

“I understand.” He declares eventually. “You want my attention, so you’re pretending that you want to leave me. Very funny, baby.”

“That’s not true!” You burst out, cheeks burning. “I am leaving you, divorce contract or not.” 

“Hush, baby, you know I don’t like it when you lie.” Jungkook purrs, his eyes burning dangerously.

“I don’t care what you like anymore, Jungkook.” You respond, suddenly furious, “I’ve spent so many years as your wife, being terrified by you, being controlled and miserable. Now I’ve got Taehyung, and I’m finally happy! I love him, Jungkook, not you. I’m leaving.” 

You turn away and storm to the door, but hesitate when you hear Jungkook chuckle.

“If you think you are liberating yourself by going to Kim Taehyung… you are wrong, baby.” 

“H-How do you know his family name?” You ask, fear starting to invade your mind.

“I know a lot of things about Mr Kim,” Jungkook spits, and his anger starts to bleed through. “He is not who you think he is, baby. Are you sure you want to go?” His patronising tone is the last straw for you. 

“I’d rather die than stay here with you.”

“Who knows, baby, Mr Kim might just fulfil your wish.” You blanch again, hesitating with your hand on the lock, a breath away from freedom.

“Y-You’re just trying to scare me.” You stutter, and you hear him sigh behind you.

“No, baby, I’m trying to warn you, but you insist on being so, so dumb. I don’t like to see you hurt, remember? But, if this will teach you a lesson about how lucky you are to have me, I guess I’ll have to let you go. Just remember, baby, when you’re with him and it’s not all you expect it to be, I will be coming for you.” As he speaks, he rises from his seat and moves across the room until he is right behind you, his breath ghosting on the back of your neck as you stubbornly refuse to turn, hand still poised on the latch.

“I’m not coming back.” You whisper, and you feel a huff of laughter against your neck.

“No, baby, I’ll rescue you, and take you back. I promise, you’ll be counting the days until you’re in my arms again.”

~~~~

Jungkook watches from the window as your harried form disappears into the distance. Cursing softly to himself, he turns on his phone and pulls up a number he is loathe to possess. 

“So, she left you, huh?” A cocky voice drawls across the line.

“Shut it, Kim.” Jungkook snaps, “She’s still my wife, she still belongs to me.”

“Oh? You didn’t sign the divorce papers?”

“Yes, very funny by the way, Kim. ‘I hereby announce that Kim Taehyung has been our mother’s favourite from the moment of his conception.’ You should’ve become a comic instead of a criminal.” Jungkook reads a line from the fake files. 

“Well, I could say the same to you, baby brother, allowing your wife to leave you like this. It’s the funniest thing I’ve heard in years.”

“Half-brother.” Jungkook growls. “And she hasn’t left me.”

“The tracker I planted on her begs to differ.”

“She’s just…” Jungkook huffs, “Confused.”

“No, she’s just got good taste, obviously.”

“You really are pathetic, stealing your little brother’s toys like this, hyung.” Jungkook taunts. “Soon, very soon, I’m going to come and get her back. I better not find her too broken when I get there.” 

Jungkook hangs up, mutters a curse under his breath, and then starts planning the inevitable gang war he’s going to have to embroil himself in because his wife can’t keep her damn legs closed.

#yandere #Yandere jungkook #yandere bts #yandere jungkook x reader #jeon jungkook #bts jungkook #jungkook #jungkook x reader #yandere kpop #yandere taehyung #yandere taehyung x reader #bts taehyung #bts taehyung x reader #bts fanfic #bts fic #bts fanfiction #bts smut #jungkook smut

[menalez]

Re: "i think straight ppl seem to face attraction very differently from gay ppl based on the stuff u mention 🤔 i wonder why" My theory, as a straight woman, is that people are not repulsed by their own bodies, which makes same sex attraction more vibrant than opposite sex attraction. Also I am a bit of an essentialist lol and I'm unsure, when learning about sexual inequality in the animal kingdom, if hetero pair-bonding is a good idea for human women. Maybe straight sex is meant for reproduction only, which is why the clitoris is above the vagina and the prostate is stimulated through the anal cavity.

I am truly sorry if sending this to a lesbian will cause more problems for you among the hetfems. One I had to unfollow asked last night, ""There is nothing inherently oppressive about engaging with the opposite sex. Are other female mammals oppressed for acting naturally? No? Then perhaps it is not fucking intrinsic." But that's objectively not true, when you look at animals as disparate as ducks, cats, and koalas, among others, and there's a specific term for this: sexual conflict. She interpreted my comments as meaning being female means oppression is innate. I just meant reproduction is a biologically hostile act to the female. It doesn't mean our subordination is guaranteed. Female ducks evolved a corkscrew vagina to avoid penetration! We aren't biologically helpless! And those who don't have physical defenses have social ones, communities run by older females who kick males out of their group after a certain age.

This is controversial because so many feminists spend their energies on wanting men to treat them better as romantic partners. W grow up with the patriarchal propaganda romantic love is the most important part of our short existence. But I spent a long time helping women try to improve their lives and relationships and deconstruct patriarchal female heterosexuality and discuss raising standards and recognizing and shutting down at red flags and unlearning the aspects of our socialization that support toxic relationships, but it's impractical because men are either like this naturally or by choice and won't evolve, so the toxicity never goes away and women end up in a compromised position. Males are a parasite. They give only to get, if they ever stop taking in the first place. They take years off our lives. I got fed up. I am not responsible for making men better. I am responsible for liberating myself and helping other women. I can't do that if all my energy goes to men and how to deal with men and making excuses for the one(s) I love.

Does any of this make sense to you? I see how the certifiable hetfems compare themselves to lesbians and pout why lesbians get to love each other and they have to give up love for ideological purity, when nobody asked for purity, we showed evidence doesn't lie and women who are single do better than women who are with men, and they don't have to give up on love if they invite more people into their lives than men. I bet that gets old. Because lesbians aren't more likely to die at the hands of intimate partners. Because patriarchy opposes two women together but patriarchy allows men to either choose to or naturally exploit the woman who gets with them. It's apples and oranges, and I need to apologize for how lesbians are blamed when straight women like me disagree with straight women who defend their husbands and sons no matter what, then reduce this nuanced and constructive analysis down to "they think I'm a cockworshipper, they're misogynists" when...nobody's said that.

i had the same theory with the same-bodies thing tho im not that convinced on it. if people will appreciate the bodies of their same-sex partners, i can’t make evolutionary sense of why opposite sex partners are often the opposite and will be unimpressed and sometimes even repulsed by the opposite sex’s body. so it still feels like there’s smth about this we’re missing. im not sure 🤔

with the other stuff, yeah i noticed the most vocal separatists are almost completely bi & het women and yet the anti-separatists can’t keep lesbians out of their mouths. there’s like 5 vocal lesbian separatists on here? and yet every time separatists say anything, anti-separatists come in to say a bunch of lesbophobic shit as a Gotcha when they’re not getting anyone. i saw ppl claim im a separatist and oppose a bunch of shit that i hardly even commented on, simply bc im a lesbian n for some reason they keep imagining every lesbian on here doing this

[betweengenesisfrogs]

The Triumph of the Marginalia

Marginalia, n.:

1 : notes or embellishments in the margins (as in a book)

2 : nonessential items

-Troll OED

Is it just me, or is Nepeta and Equius’s arc the most slept-upon piece of brilliance in all of Homestuck?

A brilliance, might I add, that culminates in possibly the most triumphant, fulfilling emotional moment in the entire work:

https://www.homestuck.com/story/7928

*stands back and beholds its majesty while from the background comes the sound of James Roach brutally murdering ska*

No, but actually, I mean this 100% unironically, and by the end of this post, I think you’ll agree with me.

By now, I think we all understand the Act 6 double metaphor: the series of temporal loops and universes that Lord English commands is paralleled with, and in fact totally identical to, the narrative of Homestuck. Our characters’ lives exist within this context. They struggle to escape it, and are defined both by it and by the rejection of it.

Enter Nepeta.

The metaphorical meaning of Nepeta in Homestuck is irrelevance, and that’s why she’s the most relevant character in any discussion.

Nepeta was one of the characters killed off during the Murderstuck arc. Hussie argued that she was perfect for this role. In fact, I believe he said something like “Nepeta is sweet, but if you look up the dictionary definition of ‘expendable character,’ you’ll see a picture of Nepeta playing with a ball of yarn and looking very cute.” She’s an endearing combination of shipper girl and apex predator, but not one of your Vriskas or Terezis in being a driver of the plot. Hussie, it seems, created her just to round out the troll cast. He described one of his purposes in Murderstuck as being to axe some of the less necessary trolls to reduce the scope of his character list.

Except that didn’t really happen, did it?

Like a cat with nine lives, Nepeta just keeps coming back.

Equius is another addition to the troll cast who gets pushed away from the main action. He was a character-writing challenge: how do you make someone who’s gross, uncomfortable, and racist kind of likable anyway? I’d argue Hussie succeeded, in large part because of Equius’s relationship with Nepeta. By the time you finish with Hivebent, you’ll probably have a little fondness for their moraillegiance. And if that doesn’t do it, the conversation that serves as their swansong in Equius: Seek the Highblood will tear your heartstrings to shreds.

Because Equius dies, tragically clownmurdered. There was, at the time, some stink over this from Equius fans. Would he have really let himself be killed so easily? Hussie countered: yes, and it was the most in-character thing he could have done. He died doing what he loved: being asphyxiated erotically and horrifically by a superior. Truly, there could be no more fitting end to his character than that.

And yet.

No sooner did Hussie complete his self-appointed story cleanup challenge than he immediately began to undo his own work. It’s almost as if, in declaring his intention to own those who preferred more characters to narrative economy, he immediately had to own himself??

By the time we get even a little way into Act 6, we’re deep in the dreambubble landscape, meeting dead characters left and right. And who should show up there but Equius and Nepeta? Equius attempting to get it on with a bunch of Aradias, who dump him. And Nepeta, living out her romantic dreams as a representative of a timeline where she got together with Karkat. They both appear as symbols of this deadness, this irrelevance. Except that that brings them back into the story, into the spotlight – the opposite of where they’re supposed to be!

Like many bits of commentary, Hussie continues to incorporate the metaphor Nepeta=Irrelevance into Homestuck. Karkat’s remark on their journey that he would love to meet “FIFTY FUCKING NEPETAS” and embark on “NEPETAQUEST” alludes to formspring remarks to the effect that, no, Homestuck was not going to have much time for the minor characters. Except it clearly did.

Why couldn’t the narrative let the meowrails go? Was it that despite the economy of Murderstuck, something was still incomplete? After all, one of Equius’s charms was that he appeared to be growing into a less repressed, kinder person. In Seek the Highblood, we see him letting his guard down enough to roleplay with Nepeta for a change. Their love for each other: wasn’t that ultimately what could redeem Equius in our eyes? So his dying and thus failing to protect her–isn’t that something that should be addressed?

You could imagine many a Nepeta and Equius fan saying this to Hussie back in 2011.

But Hussie was already saying it to himself.

The duo come roaring back into the story in the Trickster mode arc, mid Act 6, thanks to Gamzee’s ridiculous resurrections. True, Nepeta is still reduced as part of Fefeta, the character formed from killed-off girls who never speaks onscreen. But doesn’t using that fact as a running gag kind of draw our attention to it? Doesn’t the fact that Fefeta talks to Roxy constantly offscreen inform us that once we get outside the frame of the narrative, Nepeta has a rich inner life and countless stories to tell?

And it’s here that Equius gets something he never got in his original “arc:” the chance to apologize to Nepeta. You’d be forgiven for missing it since there’s so much else going on at the time, but he does, while fused with AR. Here’s what you’d miss, though: he’s grown as a person in the afterlife. He’s come to regret that moment of weakness, where his fetish kept him from protecting his moirail. Impossible as it seems, he’s continuing his character arc.

The scene ends with Fefeta exploding (she’s also, after all, dealing with Eridan), but it leaves us with a tantalizing question:

Will Nepeta forgive Equius? Is there even a plausible time and space in that story when she could respond to his words?

Do you see what’s happening here? Instead of being erased, Nepeta and Equius are starting to slip the bounds of the story that killed them. They leap in and out of the frame, half-mythical figures. Marginalized, they write their own stories in the margins. They exist in complete defiance of the original logic of Homestuck.

Lord English is an alt-Author figure, a dark, brutal reflection of narrative control and narrative necessity. His world, in which horrible choices are necessary, in which the alpha timeline is a ticking clock leading inexorably to his manifestation, is one that beats down people not deemed important enough by his narrative. Which makes it identical to the one we’re reading. Throw all the unnecessary characters in the trash. Kill them off, if it suits my purposes. The world doesn’t need Nepeta.

Which is precisely why it does. Because isn’t defying Lord English the entire point? Isn’t it what Homestuck reveals as truly heroic?

What might Nepeta be capable of?

Let’s talk about two other victims of English’s forces of marginalization. Davesprite might be the most quintessential example. He teaches us what the alpha timeline is and how it works, by going back to fix a doomed timeline and submitting to being doomed himself. Except he merges with a bird and avoids that fate. Okay, but he clearly gets killed off fighting Jack in Jade: Enter. Except he comes back and hangs out with Jadesprite. Okay, but he dies in the planetsplode in the Retcon. Nope, he comes back from that, too. Huh. He keeps slipping the fate decreed for him by – who else? Lord English.

But it’s a struggle, clearly. He’s caught up in various cycles of guilt and shame. Over being “not the real Dave.” Over his feeling that he has to be a hero in the sense Bro demanded he be. Hussie describes Davesprite as fitting the “way of the unbroken sword:” his experiences have led him to believe in being strong and capable at the expense of all else, in contrast with the other Dave, whose belief in Bros’ toxic ideas is beginning to slip – the “way of the broken sword.” And where did Bro get his toxic ideas from? At least in part, the whispering voice of the soul of Lord English.

Now we turn to Dirk. Like Dave, Dirk has a marginalized, “less important” splinter self but it’s more of a pressing concern. AR shows Dirk’s darker side: exhibiting manipulative tendencies that human Dirk is trying to move away from. He’s also a copy removed from humanity, who feels an understandable amount of disillusionment about being removed from physical existence and his own identity. But as much as Dirk may splinter, like his dumb anime sword, he never breaks. What this means in the symbolic language of Homestuck is that Dirk lives fully, instinctually, in the way of the sword. He believe in a world of hard choices, masculine heroism, and necessity. Ultimately, this, too, is part of what makes Bro so harmful to Dave. In AR and Davesprite, we have a strange parallel: two splinter selves, both of whom are enmeshed in the logic of LE.

Except AR, unlike Davesprite…kind of is LE.

What is Lord English composed of? Well, there’s Caliborn, the most unrepentant shithead of all time. There’s Gamzee, embodiment of horrifying clownery. And then there’s AR, a version of Dirk even more removed from the person he wants to be.

And…Equius?

Allow me a moment to get really indulgent and take a big puff on my Homestuck scholar’s pipe.

The metaphorical meaning of Equius in Homestuck is: sort of growing out of being a creepy racist.

Or maybe let’s say: the opportunity to do that. We said that Equius was on the verge of being redeemed (even had been, in the eyes of many readers). What does it mean to stick him in with Lord English’s souls? It means two things:

1) Equius is a product of his society, which was shaped by Doc Scratch, aka by Lord English, both of whom are kind of him, but Scratch picks up on his traits especially. This is a recognition of that fact: the part of him that sucks is, itself, Lord English in a dizzying loop.

2) Equius’s story is a tragedy. It is the story of a kid who started to escape his society’s tendencies, but was sucked back in by the evil force behind them.

Although…maybe that’s not the whole story.

Because both Equius and AR aren’t really that bad. AR’s pretty understandable, and by no means beyond the possibility of goodness. And the combination of the two? Honestly, pretty harmless. They counter each other’s worst tendencies by devolving into a weird goofball. In fact, AR even says he wants to do something heroic: to sacrifice himself for something really important. He does, kind of, mustering a last-ditch robohorse assault on Caliborn. But at the same time, this is the substance of his tragedy. A hero whose defeat of a great evil forces him to become the substance of that evil. Which could not be a more fitting summary of how these characters function in their story.

But maybe that’s still not the whole story.

Enter Davepeta.

At first glance, the creation of Davepeta seems like Hussie’s most batshit troll move yet. I feel pretty confident in saying that even those who predicted either of these characters returning didn’t see that one coming. However, a few pages of Davepeta’s presence reveals a fundamental truth:

Davepeta is fucking amazing.

In them, Davesprite’s depressive moods are buoyed up by Nepeta’s upbeat optimism. Nepeta’s reclusive shyness is balanced by Dave’s tendency toward brash banter. Both of them gain confidence from being the new person they are. They quickly let go of ideas inherited from the world that kept them from self-knowledge and happiness. Dave, his toxic masculinity; Nepeta, her fear.

A great point I’ve seen made is how much Jasprose and Davepeta resemble fantasy selves for Rose and Dave: indulgent, technicolor manifestations of people they could be if they let go of inhibitions and limitations. But I think Davepeta is the most unambiguously positive of the two.

The metaphorical meaning of Davepeta in Homestuck?

Growth.

Not giving a fuck about what the world thinks. The world, aka Lord English. Because Lord English could never have predicted that his machinations would also spawn a confident, powerful fusion of two beings he had discarded as totally irrelevant.

They’re also a multicolored non-binary furry, so that’s even more points in the pissing off shitheads column.

They are someone Lord English never conceived of, never could have conceived of, but which lay as potential within his domain all along.

And if Lord English is a reflection of the author, of what Hussie feels one has to destroy or sacrifice, than Davepeta is an indulgence existing in defiance of all that.

And this makes Davepeta the most powerful person of all.

They are the light at the end of the tunnel. They are the person you could be, if you could get past your mental shackles and just grow. It may not be possible to ever get there as a mortal human, may only be for a godlike sprite, but striving to be like them matters, is purpose and fulfilment enough.

And they love ARquius.

Nepeta believed in Equius, believed he could grow, and was growing. So as much as ARquius traps himself in a Lord English loop of his own making – grown, perhaps, out of Dirk’s belief that there should be a loop, that importance is admirable—Davepeta pulls from him, in his last scene, his finest qualities. His love.

Equius asks forgiveness again, and this time, Nepeta’s able to give it. Davepeta easily accepts ARquius’s apology, an apology which never could have existed within the confines of a normal narrative. A reconciliation that both of them fought for by defying their narrative, by existing outside it. By being not the trolls who lived and died, but their broader, conceptual selves, who exist beyond lifetimes. Beyond the comic page. And they consummate that reconciliation with that most cherished and loving of gestures:

A hug.

And even as this is Equius and Nepeta’s reconciliation, it’s also Dirk and Dave’s. Which, I should mention, is also taking place, simultaneously and circumstantially simultaneously, just below. It’s a more difficult one, certainly, especially as filtered through the splinters of Davesprite and AR. Here forgiveness is not quite the right word. But – knowledge, and recognition, and a kind of peace. It’s Davesprite’s chance to reunite with the part of his brother he loved, while also being a person who’s grown beyond him. And it’s AR’s chance to be loved.

Oh, sure, the art is ridiculous, the pose absurd. But that’s what makes it sublime.

I mean, what did you think that Sbahj comic was really about?

A boy distancing himself from his feelings through irony, never acknowledging that the story he’s telling is about two bros who desperately want to hug each other, but don’t know how.

Here’s the hug.

I want to dip into Epilogues territory for a moment, but it’s territory which is fairly well implied by Davepeta’s statements and role in Collide. The Meat Epilogue, I think, only illuminates what was already there.

Lord English is uniquely vulnerable to Davepeta.

And why shouldn’t he be? They, like so much else in Homestuck, are a consequence of his actions spiraling far beyond his control. But it’s more than that. Davepeta is finally able to lay the unbroken sword to rest by following the “prophecy” about Dave defeating Lord English. On the one hand, that’s kind of what happened. But it’s also completely different from what English intended, antithetical to his desires and goals. Which makes the victory all the sweeter. But at the end of the day, Davepeta doesn’t fight for the reasons Davesprite did. They’re free of that, now. Instead, they fight from a place of genuine compassion. Because Davesprite, like Dave, knows the true meaning of being a hero: caring about one’s friends.

But the most important thing about Davepeta is that they know Lord English, on a level that perhaps neither he nor they recognize. Both AR and Equius are in there, and both are capable of redemption. It’s only Gamzee and Caliborn who are truly beyond it.

How does Davepeta defeat Lord English?

With a hug.

They wrap their claws around him, and carry him into the sun like a piece of garbage. It’s an aggressive hold, but it’s also effectively an embrace.

And I have to wonder: in those final moments, did they sense a connection there? Did Equius and Dirk stir somewhere within Lord English? Did they give him a moment’s pause? Resist him? Make it just the tiniest bit easier for Davepeta to do their work?

If so, then that, too, is heroism.

At the very least, it’s circumstantially simultaneous with the hug we see in Act 6, and so it carries the same message:

Redemption.

Not for the shitheads, but for those who wanted to be better.

And if this isn’t enough, there’s a third reconciliation here, too: between author and reader, or to put it in other terms, author and character.

If Lord English is a shadow of the author, what part of the author can be redeemed? Maybe not the destructive, antagonistic urges. But the part that plans and designs and philosophizes as Dirk does. That part of Hussie wanted Davepeta to be there, to strike that final blow, and made it happen.

Because, when you get right down to it, as much as Hussie pretends to be antagonistic toward his readers and the characters they enjoy, it’s the fans, the shippers, the furries, those whose hearts go out to a cute, shy cat girl that he most celebrates.

Hussie fucking loves Nepeta.

Nepeta and Equius are, sneakily, the best characters in Homestuck, because they understand its fundamental message: that to succeed in Homestuck is to defy Homestuck. They defy everything it throws at them, and somehow, improbably, come out on top.

All of this is there on that page, a whole edifice of storytelling culminating in that singular, grand, supremely indulgent expression, a feast of looping leitmotif and color and imagery and meme and sound. It’s all there, if you know where to look.

Nepeta and Equius love each other, and that’s pretty fucking great.

See? I told you.

<> Ari

#nepeta #equius #davepeta #homestuck analysis #arquius #meowrails #davesprite #hal #trying to get out ahead of hussie's commentary for a change #happy 4/13 :33 #<3 #stay tuned #feast of homestuck 2020

[beneaththetangles]

Shoujo and the Bride of Christ (II)

FRIAR LAURENCE I’ll give thee armour to keep off that word: Adversity’s sweet milk, philosophy, To comfort thee, though thou art banished. ROMEO Yet ‘banished’? Hang up philosophy! Unless philosophy can make a Juliet…

Well, yeah, that’s how it usually goes. Were I Fr. Laurence, I’d probably have gone for something more like, “Go play some Renaissance baseball analogue to exhaustion, sleep well, and let’s speak of this again tomorrow.” And yet, I think the poor friar has a point here. Because romantic love between man and woman is not only a life-changing discovery and a call to fight the good fight, but also, unavoidably, something of a comedy of errors, misunderstandings, and absurdities, some of that would benefit from some reflection and wisdom, especially taking into account that, given the centrality of love and its signs in human life, the errors may very well turn the comedy into a tragedy (which, as a matter of fact… but no spoilers).

I fondly remember my first date of sorts, during my Freshman year at university. It was a great time, I deeply cared about the girl, and I´ll always pray for her, wherever she is. But, you may have noticed the “of sorts” part. Man, it is amazing how two human beings can interpret the same set of facts so differently. You miss the signs, and in retrospect, suddenly, it is obvious. Not everything is as meant to be as it seemed. Ahem. Where was I. My point was that hope, self-deception, wild assumptions, strikingly different understandings of what is happening, rose-colored or black-colored glasses, dubious rationalizations or whirlwind rides from the summit to the pits of desperation are part of the experience of being in love, and may take us to absurd, or dangerous, or hurtful, or simply unhelpful paths. And there are some things we can prevent, too, if, without losing the hopeful, fiery, courageous impulse, we learn from our experiences, and try to discern carefully.

In the fallen world, we need this kind of armor, even if we also need to avoid become trapped in them. It may not be sweet milk, but we may need some of adversity’s Georgia MAX Coffee. To set our hearts ablaze, and yet think and decide carefully, soberly, set of being kind and just. We need a sense of humor, and a willingness to correct course. We need patience, to interpret what is happening rightly, to differentiate between truth and hope without rejecting either, to accept the less glamorous aspects of loving someone. Reflection certainly cannot make a Juliet, but may help me, well, knowing, courting and loving the real Juliet, and not just the one in my head.

In my last article, I mentioned how anime has a gift for vivid personal worlds which leads to great depictions of the discovery of romantic love. It also has a natural tendency towards introspection and flashbacks (slow motion means there is less drawing to do, while flashbacks sometimes mean that you can reuse some takes, or so I have heard). But from these technical conveniences, it has gone far beyond, and developed a remarkable artistic tradition of adding layers to the past and the present.

And so, you have many great stories in which you see again what you once saw, and everything falls into place. Tragedies and comedies alike rely on this tools, and so we have tricky stories of love, heroism, mysteries and fate like Madoka and Erased, Oregairu, Fate Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works and Mawaru Penguindrum, Haruhi (like the protagonist, I just can’t escape Haruhi) or Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Teasing Master Takagi-san and Princess Tutu.

In the shoujo genre, this tradition is just as strong. Reminiscence, interpretation, doubt, memories, hopes, the past, are often put to great use. So, let’s go on with my crazy (but St. Paul-sponsored) idea that the depiction of human love between man and woman, as well as a profound mystery, illustrates the relationship between Christ and the Church. What if I were to say that the illusions of love and their comical and tragic consequences are also helpful there? Once again, please bear with me.

Tohru Honda, and the Ugliness in the House of the Twelve

Just as compelling, super-strong warrior maidens, childhood friends in love since forever and ice queens who happen to be all interested in the same regular-looking, not-especially-popular guy are far more common in anime than the average high school, shoujo has its own wishful tropes. Rose-colored ambiences, Cinderella stories, roses framing the scenes, golden bubbles, and legions of strikingly good-looking characters with secret pains that only the protagonist can heal are among them. Fruits Basket (2001) takes some of this approach to the extreme. As a child, Tohru Honda would weep when the cat of a fable her mother told her was excluded by the twelve animals of the Chinese Zodiac. She was the same, as other kids at school excluded her, telling her that she was the onigiri (rice ball) in their fruits basket game, and letting her wait in vain to be called like the rest.

Since then, she has grown into an ever-optimistic, hard-working, generous, and extremely kind girl. Her mother has recently died, and, not wanting to bother anyone, she now lives…in a tent near a river. She cooks for herself, goes to school everyday, and works part-time in the evenings. But, when her place collapses during a storm, the elegant but distant school ice prince, Yuki Sohma, who lives with his older (yet also good-looking) cousin Shigure, takes her to his home. Soon, a loud, messy, athletic, troubled (and… yeah) cousin of Yuki and Tohru’s age called Kyo comes to live with them. As it happens, the family is cursed: They are the incarnations of animals of the Chinese Zodiac, and transform into animals when they are hold by someone (non-cursed) of the opposite sex. Learning of Tohru’s extraordinary circumstances, they offer her the job of housekeeper. And so it begins.

So, as you can see, not so much MAX Coffee so far. In the episodes that follow, Tohru increasingly becomes the loving, beating heart of the cursed Sohma family, able to help healing their wounds with her kindness, honesty and simple commitment. Everyone, or almost, is enchanted. It is a bit excessive. Honestly, I had to endure some parts of the story. And yet, why do I like it so? The answer is that, despite all the sometimes far-fetched circumstances, Tohru’s kindness is genuine. And I will never disdain genuine kindness, or laugh at it. And it did pay off. I won’t be too specific, but it did. “I have described it” says our Sensei of the entire Fruits Basket manga “as a giant wave of blessing, crashing on and overtaking one person after another after another in ever widening circles, all thanks to an unseen and unacknowledged God who also breaks real curses in real human lives.”

The Church of Christ, the prophesied new Covenant, is also like that. It’s the ultimate Cinderella story. Each of us Christians has been chosen by Christ. He has brought us home to a love like no other, to words of eternal life, to true communion, to forgiveness, to the Bread of Life, to miracles and wonders. To the key truths that the truly simple and the truly wise perceive. To true hope, to a love our deepest being is thirsty for, that transforms and solidifies us, that makes us ourselves. Open to those we love, too, and to everyone in this world. The joys in my life in Christ are unlike any others I have experienced. And that light, that goodness, are very real. But from there, precisely because it is so powerful, it’s easy to get things wrong. The Apostles imagined themselves reigning in a political Kingdom of Israel. St. Joan D’Arc thought she would return home to Domrémy. Lovers say that everything will be Eden now that they have each other. I may conclude that something is a date.

Tohru is a very optimistic character, and a very hopeful girl. But those are not always the same. While she feels blessed and fights her daily battles, both the evil and the good around her are beyond her understanding. When Israel, freely chosen by God, became a powerful nation free from its slavery in Egypt, completed its Exodus, sealed its alliance with God, conquered the Promised Land promised to Abraham and eventually became a great kingdom with a temple, everything seemed right. God walked with them, fought for them, was present. The Law described true goodness, in opposition to the idolatry, ignorance and self-enclosement of the Pagan world. There were miracles. But the real, deeper danger was there, mostly unbeknownst to them. So the Lord sent them inspired prophets, to awake them, to make them able to discern, to provide them with the right interpretation.

And then, He sent them His own Son, and He gave testimony to the truth, and was rejected and killed. And so the true darkness of Israel and the entire human race, the true enemy, came into light in all its ugliness. God tortured. God killed. But He is risen, and He has shown us a way: Himself. This is the story St. John tells us at the beginning of his Gospel. There is a moment (again, I won’t be very explicit) when Tohru’s previous love and kindness are not enough. When her commitment is tested and no one can help. When everything she has experienced, everything she has achieved, is put into question, and she has to acknowledge that she was wrong. When there are no easy answers. When she is forced to confront the genuine ugliness at the heart of the house of Sohma, the cursed monstrosity, the law of this world, without assurance that all will be well. It is the time to listen with faith. To embrace Christ in the Cross, and walk beyond anything we can see.

You may have heard the story of Emmaus. After the Crucifixion, two disciples walked away. Everything had collapsed. They had seen miracles and walked with Christ, but now their hope was dead. That is our Tohru, too. But a stranger walked with them, and asked them what had happened. They explained. And the stranger said: “O foolish ones, how slow are your hearts to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and then to enter His glory?” It was. “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He explained to them what was written in all the Scriptures about Himself.” “Were not our hearts burning within us as He spoke with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” Tohru’s Gethsemane experience was also necessary, and, for me, it was also the high point of the series. The character invested with a prophetic role also pointed her the way. And what happens in that place of darkness is believable, human, moving. Helpful.

From there, Tohru will be fruitful in a new world, because she can love in a way that can truly break the unmoving iron structure of her world. New possibilities of love are open. Being in the dream house of Sohma was not enough. For the Israelites, reaching the Promised Land was not enough. For a man and a woman in love, the moment of confession and corresponded feelings is not enough. For us, entering the Church, a personal bond with Christ, is not enough. We have also to experience, to witness, that whatever is born of God overcomes the world. That is our hope. From Pentecost to our days, Christ’s Church is prophetic, partaking in His mission as the teacher of true hope and true love. “He who hears you hears Me, he who rejects you rejects Me, and he who rejects Me rejects Him who sent Me.” She teaches us, warns us, reveals us the true meaning of what is happening, if we continue to listen, if we are humble, if we remain disciples.

How may this discipleship look in our lives? Tohru has many teachers. As the disciples of the first hour, we have the Gospel. In Emmaus, Christ pointed us to all the Scriptures. Also, the Catholic understanding is that, just as in Pentecost the inspired Apostle Peter stood up with the Eleven and proclaimed to the crowd the true meaning of what has happened, he being the spokesman, so their respective successors are invested with the charism in their announce and teaching, the Bishops in union with Peter. To them, it was said, “I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth.” I do believe that, from Pentecost and on, it has continued to be so. Also, Tohru had Saki, and Paul and the Acts tell us about prophets in the Church, and of ways to distinguish the true from the false. As the Spirit also lives in us, we have the signs, inspirations, even miracles, we may come to receive in our own prayer life. And lastly, we have a mind, created by God. We can reflect, taking all the above into account. And, as Tohru, the Bride of Christ, ears open, will learn how to be the Bride of Christ. I will. So I hope.

Only God knows what will happen in our lives, or why. Loving makes us both strong and vulnerable. We can be tempted, scandalized and hurt, sometimes terribly, even in the Church, by our teachers, brothers and sisters. We may discover we have hurt them terribly. In the course of life, we may suffer blows we didn’t expect. Our sins, our wounds, may overcome us. We may enter periods of spiritual darkness, or of depression. Signs may disappear. Everything may seem to collapse. But it is not over. The fight to truly love, to be ourselves in Christ, goes on. We will need to be vigilant, to check our assumptions, to be open to be corrected by God through the teachings of His Church. Because we need an armor.

“Finally,” St. Paul says to the Church, “be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.” Fight with courage, Honda-san, and remain open. A deeper love, a new world, a path of salvation, lie ahead.

Yeah, I know I should watch the 2019 remake and read the manga. I will, eventually. No Divine Comedy for now, but it is near. And, as you may or may not know, the lady at the top is Mademoiselle de Jarjeyes, protagonist of another iconic shoujo, which is… not coincidental! Until the next time, stay strong, and Happy Easter.

=====

Fruits Basket (2001) can be streamed at Funimation, Crunchyroll and Amazon Prime Video.

#Anime #Christianity #Fruits Basket #Fruits Basket 2001 #Shojo #Shoujo #Articles #Author: Gaheret

[surveys-at-your-service]

Survey #362

(this is actually from yesterday but i never posted it and now i don’t feel like updating the answers, so yeah)

Have you ever been cheated on? No. Who’s car were you last in? My mom's. Have you ever thought about getting your nose pierced? It's been pierced multiple times, but each time the hole closed after my piercings had to be taken out at the psych hospital. The final time though, it closed because the damn stud fell out in my sleep for the billionth time, I couldn't find it, and I let it close out of annoyance. Have your parents ever smoked pot? My dad has. Do you tend to make relationships complicated? I mean, I don't think so. I hope not. Are you good at giving directions? NO. Like, I can't. I would accidentally lead you to the middle of the ocean. Would your mom care if she found condoms in your room? She'd be confused as fuck because I live with her so she knows for sure I'm not seeing anyone. Did you speak to your father today? No. Did you kiss someone before you were sixteen? No, it was actually a month after turning 16. Could you go a day without eating? Nooo. I've said before and I'll say it again, I don't deal with abdominal pain well, so yeah. Are your nails always painted? They never are. Have you ever met any bands/band members before? No. What color is your hair? Boring 'ole brown. .-. Your best friend needed somewhere to stay, could they live with you? She absolutely could. I know Mom would welcome her without hesitation. Have you danced in the rain? No. When you said something naughty when you were little, did your parents wash out your tongue with soap? No, but it was threatened. What do you think of spanking little children when they do something wrong? Okay or not? No, it is absolutely not okay. You do not teach children through fear, ever, nor do you show children that it is ever okay to hit people when you're upset. Who was the last male you hung out with? Uhhh, I think Girt? I haven't truly hung out with a guy in a long time. Who is your favorite person to text? Sara. Who did you last take a picture with? My sister. What’s your favorite brand of jeans? I don't have one. Which show is better: Spongebob or The Fairly Odd Parents? The latter. Both can be funny, but Cosmo cracks me up. Has anyone ever told you that you looked like someone else? I actually think the only time I was ever compared to someone else (make-believe, at that) was when I dressed up for Halloween one year and a friend told me I looked like Eileen Galvin from Silent Hill 4: The Room. Do you enjoy the sound of crickets at night and birds in the morning? Yesssss. Who is the most overrated singer? Idk, I don't even know who's "in" right now. What is your favourite planet? Saturn. Do you have any pets that you had since you were born? No. Do you own anything that you had when you were a baby? Yes, stored away. Do you enjoy Mario games? Mario Kart is fun, but otherwise I'm not a massive fan. What’s your favorite online game? World of Warcraft. Have you ever been hit with a ball in gym class? I think so. I was always terrified of the days we got to play dodgeball or whatever, like that shit hurts. Do you ever turn your cell phone off? No. Who was last to cook for you? My ma. Do you check your texts right away when you receive them? Usually. Who is your most trusted person? My mom, probably. How late did you stay up last night? God, I don't even know. Last night was my sleep study, and I was so uncomfortable in that bed that I slept maybe only an hour or two. Hell, or less. I also couldn't sleep on my stomach, which really didn't help because that's always how I sleep. I'm exhausted now and have such a headache. When/where are you most likely to sing? In the car, I guess. I very rarely sing anywhere. Would you ever wish to explore a cave? FUCK YES. You see the person you fell hardest for. What do you do? Panic like a motherfucker internally, avoid eye contact, and try to evade him (not like he'd actually pursue me) without being too obvious. Have you been/are you depressed? Both. Are your pop-ups blocked on your computer? Yes. Have you ever ridden in a car with someone who was high? Yes, because I was afraid to tell her I didn't want. Thank fuck we got home safe. I was absolutely, positively terrified we'd be pulled over. Who is the best hugger you know? Ha, actually the person I just mentioned. Have you ever had to be put to sleep for an operation? Yes. Does anybody have any proof of stupid things you have done? Oh, Facebook comments... Why did you text the last person in your inbox? I was replying to my mom. Have you ever been able to do a split? No. Did you ever date the last person you kissed? Yes. Are you intimidated by the last person you know talked badly about you? She doesn't "intimidate" me, no. She just gets on my last goddamn nerve every time she opens her mouth. Have you ever cried in school? Yes. Last person of the opposite sex you screamed at? I've never screamed at a guy because I'm afraid of them. I've sobbed at Jason, so like my voice was raised, but it definitely wasn't screaming. Do you have any weird sleep habits? Well, speaking of screaming, my nightmares have me shrieking in the middle of most nights. I also talk in my sleep like, a lot. Do you consider yourself an emotional person? Very. When was the last time you had a headache? This morning, I'm sure because of how shitty I slept. When was the last time you encountered a puppy? Prepare for a rant... We have one right now, even though our landlord told us specifically no puppies because of all the housetraining they require. My mom has been wanting a dog, and Tobey finally agreed to it, and she's been looking for a while. So my sister Ashley randomly shows up with a stray puppy a friend was keeping, terrified and LOADED with ticks, and she's reminding Mom and I why we DON'T WANT A PUPPY. She's peeing everywhere BUT outside (specifically on a stupid fucking expensive carpet that Tobey will have a cow over just ONE stain), is terrorizing my cat, and has an overwhelming amount of energy. Ashley specifically told me that if Mom doesn't let Ash know, I needed to tell her if the puppy was stressing Mom out, "because this isn't supposed to be a stressful experience for her." Well, she's been sobbing again and again and I literally just came back mid-question from comforting her because she broke down so hard she could barely breathe because now she had diarrhea on the fucking carpet. Ashley's all bitchy now about it for no apparent or even remotely valid reason, and by God do I want to cuss her the fuck out over this bull she brought on. Safe to say we're not keeping the dog, but not quickly enough. When Mom hurts, I hurt, and I am so goddamn furious. Is there anything that happened a long time ago that you still laugh about? Yeah, a number of things. Do you ever try to interpret your dreams? No, given I don't believe most have any meaning. It's brain word vomit, lol. What was the last thing you bought impulsively? I don't have the income for impulse purchases. When I get money, what I'm after is well-planned. How do you feel about singing songs out loud in front of other people? I don't, usually. I'm very self-conscious about it. When was the last time you were feeling really, really nervous? That nervous, I'm unsure. I've been nervous, sure, but I haven't had a massive anxiety episode in a while. If you’re no longer in school, what is something you miss about it? If you’re still in school, what’s something you think you’re going to miss about it? I miss feeling productive and like I was going at least somewhere. Do you use your turn signals when you’re driving? Yes; I hate when people don't. How exactly are you feeling right now? Mad at my sister. Have you ever had to board up your windows because of a hurricane? No. Do you tell anyone to chew with their mouths closed? No, to avoid "confrontation" that is too negligible to even quality as conflict. I'm just a lil bitch when it comes to stuff like this. Have you ever ordered pizza and sent it to someone else’s house? No. What was the first thing you drank when you woke up this morning? My nurse or whatever her position is (I don't mean that dismissively, I genuinely don't know her title) brought me some orange juice. Do you think stretch marks from having a baby are ugly or badges of honor? Oh my god, fuck off. Anyone who can carry a child for nine months and then endure what I assume is the worst pain (usually) survivable has every ounce of my goddamn respect. The natural result of making room for a like 6+ lb. human being is not "ugly." It's a part of life and to me shows an incredible amount of bravery and love to be willing to go through something I could absolutely never. Ever done a keg stand? Haha, no. My dizzy ass will pass. Who is the last person you lent money to? My mom. Do you share clothing with anyone? Mom and I will share bras or pants sometimes. Have you ever visited anyone in a rehab? No. Was the last thing you drank a Coke or Pepsi product? No, I have lemonade right now. Honestly, do you think that you’re going to be an overprotective parent? IF I wanted to be a parent, I feel like I definitely would be. Not like... overbearing, but still extremely protective in cases I think it's called for. What was the last kind of chips you ate? Veggie chips yesterday, actually. They're honestly not that good, but it's a doable snack with salsa. What is one thing that you really wish you could understand, but don’t? Economics. I dread taking care of my own money because idk what the fuck to do with taxes and such. What is the last thing you charged? My phone. Have you ever held a snake? I've held plenty of snakes, I love them.

#survey #surveys #questions

[masked-buffoon]

Chapter 12: Curtain call (Part 6)

Warnings: none

Author notes: and this is the last part... I hope you liked the chapter...! Do tell me what you think about it in the comments...! I’ll take a moment to write the next chapter, then I’ll come back...!

"Eh? Not yet…?"

I felt disheartened when Dazai told me I was still unable to obtain my detective license.

It had been a couple of days since the case had ended. Sakunosuke-kun had gone back to his mother, who had immediately taken fate in her own hands. She was a brave woman and, despite how mentally weak she had been described to us, she had not dwelled too much on the past events, determined to give her son the best life possible. After thanking us for everything, she had left to a hotel, pending to find a proper home. Ever since, I had rested and taken care of a few minor cases with either Dazai or Kunikida. But I was still not a detective…

"There are things that need to be done before~ That's all I can tell you~" My friend answered as vaguely as ever.

"Thanks for your wonderfully useful advice." I rolled my eyes.

So, the entrance exam was not over… Even if the case was completed…

The Agency was unexpectedly calm in the afternoon, so I decided to go out and have a walk. I had bought a brand new computer for the Fox and wanted to deliver it to him myself. What kind of face would he make, I wondered… He would most certainly be surprised… Or shocked? Messing with him was terribly fun and I was terrified to realise I was getting used to it… Why, it was true that he had interesting reactions…

I had had the large package delivered to a shop near the abandoned building, so I would not have to carry it for too long. At this hour, he was either looking for clients in the old underground casino or working at his place. I tried my luck, without trying to be discreet, this time.

"Fox…!" I exclaimed upon seeing him.

He calmly turned towards me, and grinned, visibly happy.

"Ogawa…! You came back…! Well, I did see you on the surveillance cameras I installed after the panicked attack you gave me last time… But still, I'm glad to see you…!"

"I'm happy to know you enjoy my company so much." I chuckled "I also heard you set your bomber friend free?"

"Indeed." He confirmed "Thanks~ What's that thing you're carrying around by the way?"

"Oh that? It's for you. As an apology for the one I broke, and a thank you gift, too."

"I thought you had no more money…?" He accepted the present.

"I officially am ruined." I smirked "But, you know, I still have one or two offshore accounts from my days in the Port Mafia…~"

"Oh… I see. That's a valuable information you're giving me there~"

His eyes widened when he opened the package.

"Seriously…?!"

"... Is it not to your taste…?"

"You have to be kidding, that computer is…" He paused "It's awesome…! One of the best currently on the market…!"

"Well, I figured, since you'll work for me in the future, I need you to be more efficient than you are now." I declared, satisfied.

"So you officially got accepted into the Agency?"

"Not yet…" I sighed "There is still something left to be done, but I don't know what…"

"Only you can find that out. Except if you can read their mind…"

"That'd be cheating…"

"Didn't you already cheat to solve your case by coming to me?"

"That was… Another type of cheating." I crossed my arms.

"If you say so… Well, I hope for you that you'll get that job. I have something that might interest you about that, if you want, by the way."

"About the Agency…?"

"Its director. He has an ability which allows his subordinates to control theirs. Isn't that something you'd be after…?"

I looked down.

"It's true that, a week ago, I would have tried everything to get my hands on such an ability… Controlling The Sweet Appeals… That's something I've yearned for since… Since my birth, I guess. But if I don't meet the criteria to become a detective, I don't care anymore… I did my best, and I spent wonderful moments by their side… With that memory, I feel I don't even mind dying." I admitted.

"Is that so…?"

"Yes…! I think I am happy now, Fox. When you're happy, it doesn't matter whether you die or not."

"... Shouldn't it be the opposite…?"

"When you're miserable, you want to die, of course, but it'll leave a bitter taste when it's time to go… I know that feeling, I've experienced it, once. But when you're happy, you can leave without regrets. That's the most important to me." I smiled.

"I see… Well, I'm not here to discuss philosophy with you."

"I'm sorry, you were surely in the middle of an important work…"

"Obviously…! I finally found my neighbour's cat and I got another client… I was just talking to them when you came in."

"Oh, my apologies, then…! Please don't mind me, I'll leave…!"

"It's not a big deal." He snickered "Actually, that client wants to talk to you, too."

"Don't tell me…"

He turned on the screen of his computer. Sitting with his back turned towards us, Dazai was swinging on his chair, humming a song only he knew of.

"Dazai…" I groaned "I should have doubted it…"

"Oh, Ogawa…! Here you are, finally…!" He turned towards me.

"You heard everything?" I deduced.

"I, and, in fact, the entire Agency did."

I blushed, embarrassed. All these sweet and naive words… They had heard them…? What about my image of a stern young woman…?!

"Goddammit… You set me up…!"

"Kind of." He laughed "I asked the Fox a favour. We still needed to see what you would do with the information about Fukuzawa-san, after all. To see if you weren't going to threaten him, for example~"

"Who are you taking me for…?" I raised an eyebrow "Really, you…"

"Give me some space…" Yosano-sensei groaned, pushing Dazai aside to sit in front of the screen.

"Sensei…"

"That's me…! You remember our last talk?"

My heart thumped in my chest, painfully.

"Vividly…" I said.

"I understand. I'd like to discuss it with you again, if you'd like. I have something you may want…"

"I'm coming."

I immediately made my way back to the Armed Detective Agency, where the doctor was waiting for me. She offered me a drink in the cafe beneath the offices. I did not dare talk, afraid of what she would tell me. I had had to reflect on my relationship with my deceased mother and admit I had been loved… The only person I had talked to about this matter was Dazai, but that was because he knew the identity of the real murderer. I looked down, barely touching my black tea, as she took a look at a file. She pushed it in front of me.

"First of all, I want you to know that you really are your father's daughter."

I blinked at her.

"What…?"

"I had a paternity test done to see whether Taikin-san was your father or not. He had a suspicious behaviour, mostly regarding the picture you found..." She told me "The results are negative. I'm sorry, but you truly are an Ogawa…"

"It doesn't matter… Being a Taikin would have been as disgusting, anyway…" I mumbled "And they're all dead now..."

"So… What answer have you come up with?"

"Regarding my mother…?"

Her eyes were enough to answer me. I thought for a moment.

"Before I tell you, sensei… There is something you must know." I raised my eyes at her "The massacre I have told you about… I am the one who committed it. With my own hands, I murdered the ones who had given life to me, and spared my sister on purpose."

Her look was one of horror. I was expecting just as much. Sitting in front of a disgusting person like me, who had sinned and gone against the world itself by killing her parents. There was no redemption possible for a parricide like me. There was not even a chance, for no one would ever be willing to give it to me. No human on this Earth was able to smile and say I was forgiven.

"I thought so…" She simply sighed "Your behaviour… You were not appeased the least, as though you blamed yourself… I understand better why you reacted so strongly when I told you that your mother loved you… You felt guilty because, deeply, you already knew so… Am I right?"

"In fact… You can't be righter…" I chuckled bitterly "I killed someone I shouldn't have… But killing isn't like hurting; you can't go back on your deeds. So, indeed… My mother loved me, dearly, and, to thank her, I took her life. Am I not loathsome? Am I not someone you won't ever want to see again?"

I had not noticed that, as I was pronouncing these words, I had gradually stood up from my chair. I was oddly panting, distressed, and barely containing my tears. Yosano-sensei did not say a thing. Instead, she brought a hand to my head, and patted it gently. Why…?

"I am sure that, from where she is, she is happy that you finally understood her feelings, even if you cannot tell her directly anymore…"

I sat back, astonished. Did she not… Hate me…?

"I… Are you not… Grossed out, by me…?"

"Why would I be?" She put a reassuring hand on top of mine "I'd rather try and empathise, instead of judging you. You are Ogawa, don't let your past define you. I know the you now. Perhaps I would have detested the previous Ogawa, but I like the present you and it is all that matters to me. The only thing I wanted, truly, was for you to recognise your mother's love, not to be unfair to her… Had I known that the burden was this heavy, surely I would have asked you to take more time, but… You should know you don't have to live with that guilt forever."

Her opinion differed completely from Dazai's and mine. How could I not feel eternally guilty for an unrepairable crime…? Was it not my punishment for being so blind…? I asked her.

"It is true that guilt will haunt you, but…" Her face darkened a second "You'll learn to live with it. Your mother wouldn't have wanted you to carry that weight forever… Eventually, you will have to let go. You said you were happy… Please, look forward to tomorrow instead of remembering that terrible past. Let ghosts be what they are; ghosts. You can only move on…"

"So I… I should focus on what I should do next… Shouldn't I…?"

"That's exactly it. You're a detective of our Agency. Be proud of it, and don't lower your eyes."

"Well…" I attempted a poor joke "I'm not yet a detective…"

"That's because I forgot something…"

Hidden under the paternity test she had shown me earlier was an official card from the government. My name was written on it and it was signed by the director himself. My detective license…

"Yosano-sensei… Truly, I —"

Dizziness got the better of me without any apparent reason. The world turned around me and I fell from my chair, only to be caught before hitting the cold floor.

"A predicted reaction…~" Dazai's voice echoed in my ear.

"That weird sensation…" I muttered "As though I can actually… Control these voices… That's the directory ability, isn't it…?"

"Mmh… You worked well, Ogawa." He put a hand on my head "Just rest for now… Kunikida-kun will forgive you that much~"

"... I guess he will… Can I decide to… Sleep…?"

"You're in control now." He assured me, before adding, lower "You're really going to live, now…"

I closed my eyes. Yes, I would live, day after day. I had been reborn as a new person, as a detective. These years of torments were finally over…

A single tear rolled on my cheek as I lost consciousness.

#bsd #bsd fanfic #bsd oc #bsd imagines #bungou stray dogs #bungo stray dogs #bungou stray dogs oc #Dazai Osamu #bsd dazai #kunikida doppo #yosano akiko

[carriemaya]

Stuff as Sacred: The Spirituality of Things

Hyperspirituality alienates us from our physical environment. Space for our belongings cultivate belonging.

Last week, I wrote a piece about moving into my forever home.

Until my mum and sister officially find a place, though, my boxes remain unpacked; stacked in the far corner of what’s technically my room but definitely doesn’t feel like mine.

And I think this is because I don’t have the freedom to take up space yet

Yes, little bits here and there: I can clear out the shaving cupboard and put my toiletries in there. And I can connect my laptop to my mum’s WiFi (which is great because I work on the Internet).

But I’m struggling.

I’ve been living out of bags and boxes for nearly three months now. And not being able to unpack properly (or at all in some cases) causes my mood to drop. Not having a desk to work at makes me feel anxious. And not being able to let my cat Ferdinand out of the one room he’s living in because my mum’s dogs have free range of the house makes me sad.

I love her dogs. They’re beautiful souls. But I struggle with dogs, personally, in terms of cleanliness. Definitely more of a cat person. So sharing space with a giant one who’s tail is as strong as my right arm, and another who sheds every three seconds, just makes me feel dirty, claustrophobic, and a little bit powerless.

It’s not one’s fault. It just is what it is for now. But this waiting period has me thinking about the way that having space to survey, define parameters for, and then curate and personalise is a form of freedom.

Here are a few musings on the topic.

SPACE. As in the cosmos. As in outer space. As in not on earth. As in not here. As in out there.  As in atmospherically incompatible. As in can't breathe.  As in floating. As in ungrounded, and vast, and ever-expanding.  As in unfathomable. Unknown. A dark forever ocean of unknown. As in it makes us feel small in comparison. Because we are small in comparison. Space as in no thing. Earth as thing. Earth as in map. As in scribbled with arbitrary borders. As in I wonder if aliens looked down at us, they’d mistake the checkpoints we've erected at state lines as our altars to separation. Earth as in location. As in a place that exists at a specific point in space.

If I don’t have space, I don’t have freedom. And if I don’t have space, I can’t locate a point within it to create place. And without place, I cannot make a home.

EARTH. As in place. As in tether. As in force of gravity. As in a touchstone between somewhere and nowhere.   As in the statue of David not the slab of marble from which he was sculpted.  As in this (not that) and here (not there). Earth as in terrain. As in planes, meadows, mountains, oceans, and deserts. As in soil. As in oil. As in metal, crystals, nutrients. As in sowing seeds and yielding produce. As in dependant on it for survival. As in solid. And surface. Earth as in habitat. As in trees, rivers, rocks, sky, wind, mammals, reptiles, and insects. As in ecosystem. As in bodies and breath. As in human creation. As in building shelter. As in hunting and gathering. As in making fire. As in eating. sleeping, reproduction, ritual,  information, education, commerce, government. As in culture. Culture as in hub. As in cauldron. As in us. As in art that rings true. As in language. As in feeling understood by you. As in feeling heard by you. As in feeling so heard by you that here is where I want to be.  

As in resonance.    

If I don’t have space, I don’t have freedom. And if I don’t have space, I can’t locate a point within it to create place. And without place, I cannot make a home.

If this is true, then it must also be true that having infinite space can’t be freedom. Because if I have space without any definition whatsoever, then what I am isn’t free but lost. And the opposite of being lost is being where I belong.

BELONGING. As in connection. As in emotional ties. As in memories; sharing them and making them. As in trust. As in knowing I'm not going to be hit or punched. Or yelled at. As in communication. Belonging as in voice. As in what I have to say matters as much as what you have to say. As in apologising when we hurt each other. As in saying I love you. As in saying well done. Belonging as in generational. As in wisdom passed down from grandparents to parents to grandchildren. As in shared history. As in doing whatever it takes to keep the tribe safe.

Making place within space should be a negotiation, a dance. Never an act of Imperialism.  

HOME. As in a point and place that exists within the vast space of earth as terrain. As in house. As in a pocket of thing in the fabric of no thing. As in eating the root not just the leaf. As in compatible atmosphere. As in I can finally breathe. As in habitat. As in ecosystem. As in the culture that exists beneath my roof.  Home as in mine. As in not yours. As in occuppied not vacant. As in territory. As in protection from the elements. And landlords.  As in tether and force of gravity. As in doors. That lock. As in ownership. As in home. As in home. As in home. As in home. As in home.

Space becomes place when it’s occupied. House becomes home when it’s occupied. Terrain becomes territory when it’s occupied.

* * *

I can’t decide if I made the right choice by listing belonging before home. Should I have put it the other way around? I don’t know. These two concepts confuse me and scare me.

Maybe because I’ve never had a good grasp on matter.

Space is what I know. It’s the familiar daydream of floating in the ether.

The Christianity I was raised in taught me that the body, possessions, money, and even the planet weren’t as important as “living in the spirit”. It instilled in me a doomsday fear of putting stock in anything that I can’t take with me when I die.

If I stay hovering above the ground in the heavenly realms, I can let God move me wherever He wants to. Because I have surrendered my agency to Him. I stay alienated to my physical environment out of obedience to my Divine call.

In a nutshell: I feel like the physical realm is an upside down world. I cognitively understand its importance, but on an emotional level I struggle to care about it (hello terrible relationships with food, money, and housing).

Belonging and home? They’re the worldy, human, ungodly realms of density.

Sending my spirit earthbound is to bind myself to sin, retribution, and hell.

This is the deep programming that’s starting to rear its ugly head as I begin to get used to the idea of occupying a house in forever-home fashion.

I want to TRULY believe in the sacredness of life on earth. And maybe learning to make a house my home can help me to do this.

I’m in the process of surveying the walls, floors, and cupboards. And when they’re empty, I’ll make them my own through personalisation—an act born of freedom to choose; curating the feel and flow of my home with colour schemes and carefully-placed possessions.

The off-white Victorian-style clock that I plan to sit on the fireplace mantel.

The Boston Fern I plan to hang from the ceiling in the bathroom.

The makeshift alcove I plan to create from the unused window in the living area.

What if stuff is sacred?

What if the house is a voicebox and possessions are the voice?

What if the freedom to set up my belongings is what creates place for me to belong?

What if, because I matter, so do the things that matter to me?

1.  What are the stories you tell yourself about the importance of you body, possessions, and physical existence?

2.  Do you feel your life shows that you value both spirit AND matter?

3.  In what ways can you bring greater balance to your relationships with both spirit AND matter?

4.  If you're struggling to find this balance, where can you turn for help? If you don't know straight off the top of your head, is there someone who can point you in the right direction?

#journaling prompts #journalling prompts #lifestyle #possessions #sacred space #mental health #housing #homelessness #homeless #spirituality #healing

[rwby-redux]

Deconstruction

Worldbuilding: Genetics

If any of my Deconstruction posts were going to turn heads, I had a hunch it would be this one. You’ll probably find this topic incongruous with the others simply because—unlike Aura, Semblances, Dust, and Grimm—genetics isn’t one of RWBY’s unique gimmicks. If I’m being entirely honest, part of why this post exists is because I still had some miscellaneous talking points to address, but lacked a proper heading to file them under. Call it what it is: a dumping ground for wayward thoughts.

But there’s a bit more to it than just that. The reason why I want to talk about this is because, much like the other mechanical aspects, genetics does have a bearing on RWBY’s worldbuilding, and the stories that were subsequently built around it. It has an undeniable impact on the sociopolitical human-Faunus schism that set the stage for Remnant’s immediate past, and the present-day terrorist acts committed by the White Fang. Genetics is also an extension of RWBY’s adherence to color theory, reflected in the hair and eye color choices of the ensemble cast.

Before we can finally conclude Part 1 of the Worldbuilding posts, we need to discuss this topic from both a narrative and a production standpoint. Genetics is firmly rooted in the development and design choices of the writers—choices which, as you’ll quickly see, had long-lasting consequences for the show.

Today we’re going to be dividing this topic into two sections. Since I’m sure it’s already on your mind, let’s get the obvious one out of the way first:

The Genetics of the Faunus

The Faunus are going to have an entire post dedicated just to them, but it’s impossible to talk about genetics without at least a passing mention of one of Remnant’s two main species.

Subspecies.

Races?

Yeah. You can quickly see where this is going.

Before I get ahead of myself, let me provide some context. Just like the conception of the Maidens, the Faunus can trace their developmental history to a rather impulsive design choice:

“Monty really wanted a character with cat ears,” admits Miles Luna. Shawcross expands on how Blake Belladonna’s look resulted in a cornerstone of the show’s lore. “So if Blake has cat ears, does that mean anyone can have cat ears? Could they have other animal traits? It’d be cool to see someone with scales or a fox tail…” [1]

Let me clarify by saying that there’s nothing wrong with basing a decision on aesthetics (in principle, anyway). And RWBY isn’t the only franchise guilty of doing this. It only takes a few seconds of consulting TV Tropes to see that zoomorphism is extremely pervasive. And while I have a tendency to complain a lot on this blog, I’m not such a kvetch that I’ll deny that animal-people with lion tails and ram horns look fucking sweet.

The problem I have with Faunus (from a genetic standpoint) is the way they’re inconsistently described in relation to humans. While Qrow unambiguously refers to them as a separate species, [2] we have Faunus characters that contradict him by describing themselves as a race. [3] This leads to the inevitable issue of whose account do we trust? On one hand, the information provided to us by Qrow is through World of Remnant, a spin-off series whose entire purpose is to clarify information and teach the audience about core worldbuilding concepts. On the other hand, what we’re told about the Faunus being a race comes directly from Ghira Belladonna. In this context, who would you expect to be the better authority on Faunus—a human, or a Faunus?

Even if we set aside the complicated implications of an outgroup member talking over a minority, we’re still left with the issue of well, which is it? Are they a race or a species? And why does it even matter?

Before we can answer any of those questions, let’s quickly define both terms:

A species is a taxonomic rank used for classifying groups of organisms together on the basis of being able to participate in genetic interchange via sexual reproduction, to produce fertile offspring.

A race (in biology) is an informal/unrecognized taxonomic rank below subspecies, defined as unique subgroups with either geographic, physiological, or genetic distinctions from other subgroups within their species. In anthropology, however, a race is typically regarded as a social construct. In this case, it refers to an identity held by members of a population that share physical or social qualities that are seen as categorically distinct.

The answer, if we’re being objective, is probably something along the lines of “RWBY’s writers thought that the two terms were interchangeable, or they didn’t think the distinction mattered enough to do the research and settle on a definition.” Unless someone specifically reached out to a Rooster Teeth employee and asked, we’ll never truly know. Speculation will only get us so far, and where this blog is concerned, we need a definitive answer—or at the very least, we need to talk about why the distinction matters to us.

So, are Faunus their own race? Meaning, are they a self-identifying ethnic group with a common language, ancestry, history, culture, nation, or social treatment within their residing area?

Common language: That’s a definite no. RWBY still hasn’t managed to explain how everyone across the four kingdoms speaks the same language, let alone develop any conlangs.

Ancestry: We actually don’t have a canon answer for this. The show has yet to tell us where the Faunus came from, so we can’t make any assumptions about how related they are to one another.

History: Technically, yes. But the series has a gross tendency to homogenize the experience of Faunus across Remnant, so the history of Faunus in Vale is virtually identical to that of Mistral. This trend results in storytelling discrepancies, like the Faunus in culturally-unprejudiced Vacuo [4] being equally threatened by and involved with the Faunus Rights Revolution, when there shouldn’t have been an in-world basis for this scenario.

Culture: Don’t make me laugh. RWBY couldn’t even be bothered to give any of its four kingdoms distinct cultures. Apart from a few scenes in Menagerie where you see a bunch of background characters hanging out in the Shallow Sea district of Kuo Kuana, there really isn’t anything culturally unique to the Faunus.

Nation: I guess? I personally wouldn’t consider Menagerie a nation, simply because it’s not one the Faunus originated from, but were rather given in the aftermath of the Great War. As far as we know, Faunus have always been just as widespread across Remnant as humans.

Social treatment: We’re told that social treatment for the Faunus as a whole is shitty, but that the degree of shittiness varies from place to place. Forgive me if I don’t buy that. Not after we’ve seen students in Vale physically harass a Faunus, [5] shops in Mistral refuse service to Faunus, [6] and companies in Atlas extract labor from Faunus. [7] If social treatment is contingent on shared experiences, then why are we told that these experiences change depending on the kingdom? And if the kingdoms vary in levels of racial acceptance, then why are we repeatedly shown the exact opposite?

Based on the aforementioned criteria, I’m inclined to say that Faunus don’t fit the definition of race.

So, are the Faunus a separate species from humans?

“History gets a little fuzzy past a certain point, but we do know that their kind and ours are completely compatible, from a—a biological standpoint.” | Source: World of Remnant, Volume 4, Episode 6: “Faunus.”

That’s a resounding no.

As much as the taxonomist in me wants to talk about things like the multiple competing species concepts, or the fact that plants frequently violate the definition of species by producing fertile hybrids through polyploidy (chromosomal doubling), I have to restrain myself. For simplicity’s sake, we’re accepting that Faunus and humans are members of the same species on the basis that they’re not reproductively isolated.

The reason why genetics matters in regards to the race-species discourse is because we have yet to learn what the Faunus truly are. If we ignore the fact that they exist because Monty Oum wanted to stick cat ears on a girl, then we have to figure out what their existence means to Remnant’s past: Did the Brother Gods intervene in the early evolution of Humanity v2.0, by creating a subset of people with animal traits that would sow discord, for the sole purpose of giving Ozma another obstacle to overcome? Did Salem (who watched Humanity v2.0 evolve) try to influence their evolution, and somehow managed to bestow animalistic traits upon select groups of early hominids? Is Dust like a magically-radioactive fossil fuel that by pure chance mutated early people through exposure, resulting in their animalistic traits? Are the Faunus’ animal traits completely irrelevant to the plot, and are only there for the sake of style?

That’s why the Faunus’ genetic background matters—because as the story progresses, it’s going to inform what questions the audience asks.

There’s a good chance that all of this will end up being nitpicky conjecture, and there won’t be any storytelling payoff. But I think it’s still important to address, if for no other reason than to illustrate why pre-production worldbuilding is essential for telling a coherent story. But I digress.

Genetics, and Its Relationship with Color Theory

It goes without saying that RWBY is defined by color. It’s reflected in nearly every facet of the franchise—team names, wardrobe, Dust color, Aura color, emblems, characters’ names, even the show’s title—and it’s just as important from a worldbuilding standpoint as it is from a narrative one. [8]

Where color theory and genetics cross paths is in the field of character appearance—specifically, hair and eye color. For the moment, let’s set aside eye color as a visual device for foiling and paralleling characters (like Yang Xiao Long’s purple eyes compared to Blake Belladonna’s yellow eyes). Instead, we’re going to talk about these phenotypes from a hereditary perspective.

We’re going to streamline this discussion a bit by focusing on hair for the moment, and picking three colors that would be considered unnatural by our world’s standards. Let’s go with blue, green, and pink. Here’s a handful of characters who have these traits:

Blue hair: Neptune Vasilias, Ciel Soleil, Henry Marigold, May Marigold, Nebula Violette, Sky Lark, Trifa

Green hair: Emerald Sustrai, Marrow Amin, Bartholomew Oobleck, Reese Chloris, Russel Thrush, Sage Ayana

Pink hair: An Ren, May Zedong, Nadir Shiko

Now we’re going to take those lists and swap out the characters’ names for their inferred country of origin:

Blue hair: Mistral, Atlas, Atlas, Atlas, Vacuo, Vale, Menagerie

Green hair: Vale, Atlas, Vale, Mistral, Vale, Mistral

Pink hair: Mistral, Vacuo, Mistral

We can conclude that these hair colors are natural on the basis that we never see characters dying their hair, and that similarly unusual eye colors (red, pink, purple, yellow) would also be natural in Remnant. Unless we’re assuming that everyone is wearing custom contact lenses, then it’s safe to say they’re legit. With the example of hair color, you’ll notice that they’re distributed across a wide number of nationalities, with little hint of consistency among them.

At the end of the day, it’s easy to write this off as “the writers wanted to have cool character designs and not have to think too hard about the worldbuilding implications behind them.” But there is a worldbuilding implication behind them, and it’s one that I’ll be focusing on in later Deconstruction and Amendment posts, so I want to make sure we talk about it now:

RWBY has repeatedly shown us that people are fairly geographically isolated from each other, and travel between kingdoms has always been difficult due to the Grimm. It wasn’t until eighty years ago, when the Great War ended, that a combo of international political cooperation and technological advancements made travel safer and more commonplace. Keep in mind that when populations of humans are geographically isolated from each other over prolonged periods of time, it results in those populations evolving specific anatomical traits.

Let me give you a few real world examples. Epicanthic folds are predominantly found in East Asian, Polynesian, and North Asian ethnic groups. Red hair, while not exclusive to any one nationality, is statistically highest in people of Northwestern European ancestry. Darker complexion is most common in equatorial populations, where high melanin production (especially eumelanin) protects against UVR exposure.

RWBY has every reason under the sun to ascribe certain phenotypes to the ethnicities of each kingdom, and for some reason it just doesn’t. Like, why not make green hair a trait common to people with Sanus ancestry? How about red eyes originating from Anima?

Avatar: The Last Airbender pulled this off by making dark skin, brown hair, and blue/gray eyes features of the Water Tribes. The Fire Nation, to reflect its broader geographic distribution, has a much wider range of phenotypes, with both light and dark skin tones and black or brown hair. However, it still retained golden, amber, and bronze eyes as a distinguishing characteristic of people descended from this ancestry. Frankly, I love that the show took the time to establish those traits among its ethnic groups. Not only was it a great way to visually communicate to the audience the ethnicity of the characters, but those traits took on entirely new meanings in the sequel Avatar: The Legend of Korra. When we meet the brothers Mako and Bolin for the first time and see their respective eye colors—amber and green—we’re immediately able to deduce that they’re the products of successful multiculturalism, something that would’ve seemed impossible seventy years ago when the world was gripped by war. It’s a powerful statement that was conveyed through careful attention to detail and excellent worldbuilding. Given that RWBY also takes place several decades after a global war, the writers had the opportunity to pull off a similar feat. And I don’t think it ever occurred to them once.

At the end of the day, it’s not the worst thing RWBY could’ve done. I think I’m just disappointed by the missed opportunities. The show already has so little going for it when it comes to shaping the identities of its four main kingdoms, so with color being such a vital motif for the show, this feels like it should have been a natural progression of those ideas.

On a more positive note, we’ve finally reached the end of Worldbuilding (Part I) - Mechanical Aspects! Next time, we’ll get to introduce the second section of worldbuilding topics: history.

-

[1] Wallace, Daniel. The World of RWBY: The Official Companion. VIZ Media LLC, 2019, page 42.

[2] World of Remnant, Volume 4, Episode 6: “Faunus.”

[3] Volume 5, Episode 3: “Unforeseen Complications.” Ghira Belladonna: “[Adam’s] actions not only tarnished the reputation of an organization originally created to bring peace and equality to all, but to our entire race.”

[4] World of Remnant, Volume 4, Episode 4: “Vacuo.”

[5] Volume 1, Episode 11: “Jaunedice - Part 1.”

[6] Volume 5, Episode 6: “Known by Its Song.”

[7] Volume 7, Episode 1: “The Greatest Kingdom.”

[8] Wallace, Daniel. The World of RWBY: The Official Companion. VIZ Media LLC, 2019, page 44.

#deconstruction #worldbuilding #writing #genetics #oh thank god it's done #time to go slither off to bed

[fyrapartnersearch]

18+ Roleplay Buddy!

Hello, hello! I am 18+ and looking for an 18+ NSFW Partner.

-My name is Erika

-I’m 21 years old (Soon-to-be-22)

-From the USA (Eastern time-zone)

-Currently in College

Hello! Anyone that sees this is welcome to message me if you are interested and you see this post. I’m an experienced role-player that has been writing for around 4-5+ years now. I’m open to any types of pairings while RPing a story. Especially looking for partners to message. Someone who is casual and fun and we can just both write together. Have as much creative freedom as you want for whatever story that we are able to create. I want to have us both be able to enjoy it. Don’t be afraid to tell me any ideas, suggestions, stories of your own, and so on and so forth! I like to make sure that my partner is comfortable whenever the two of us chat!

Also a small note, I do have a life outside of writing such as school and working in general. I try to understand with my partner or whoever a chat with so with that being said, I have a busy schedule and I can’t message all the time so I just ask to understand that this is long term for a reason and if I happen to miss your message it is because I am busy, working, and possibly sleeping. I try my best to reply whenever I can but sometimes I do miss and hope that you can understand that happens. I like to be understanding myself and if there is the chance that you can’t talk or RP then I completely understand and rather you focus on life than feeling obligated to message me.

Besides that, I myself am looking to start a long term mature and mostly smutty story, I love fantasy, romantic, action, darker themes dabbled in, and most storyline RPs, if you have an idea that I haven’t tried I’m willing to do it too along with more realistic plot points. I’m very detailed and like a detailed partner too, I usually roleplay in the first person but I do the third person as well if I have to if it is better fitting for the roles within the story. Just tell me which one that you prefer. If you don’t have a preference in mind then I’m sure we can discuss further to settle on something enjoyable. As much as I love smut I do like to have some kind of story so that the constant sex will not get boring. So basically some porn with a plot!

-I do also have a few mini-plot ideas that I can share below to get some creativity going for whoever is interested but nothing is completely set in stone and I am more than happy to change things around to fit both of our needs or come up with something fresh entirely! Just want to help get people brainstorming and see some of the ideas that I have in mind at the moment too.

First, an innocent person unexpectedly being dragged into the crime world when they become the affection and obsession of a mob boss that is not easy to avoid or escape from. The innocent person knows their evil and wrong but it’s very hard to resist them in any way. The more the innocent person tries to stay away the stronger the obsession becomes to the point of being drawn into each other no matter how bad the relationship may be for one another. This plot can have a darker theme and tone to it but I am more than happy to do a much more of a redemption arc to this one.

Second, is an asylum plot, a newbie that enters and is eye-catching to a few other patients that have been living inside the hospital. All having the same thing in mind, leaving the hospital but it’s not as easy as said with the other patients inside and corrupted doctors around. There also could be an alternative plot or side plot in general with a doctor and patient-focused relationship dark theme mostly for this plot and can be supernatural as well.

Third, is more of a pairing with a goody-good and the delinquent, having a more of an opposite attraction sort of situation between the two, maybe starting off with bullying or dislike for one another and having the two interacting. Possibly a dominant bad boy/girl, overpowering the submissive and innocent of the pair. The makings of a possible relationship being able to develop between the two of them or having it eventually crumble apart. I have some more brainstorming that I want to do with this but I would be happy to hear any ideas that you may have if interested, feeling that this will be another more casual and a slice of life in general.

-Those being the more realistic plot points above I have in mind grounded in reality but here are my more fantasy-based plots below.

First is a vampire and human plots as I have a few different ideas that could be used for these roles in general, a human that becomes the bride and/or groom for a ruthless vampire that has been looking for their soulmate all their life. But the soulmate is a human of course and doesn’t know of supernatural life or even in possible denial of there being supernatural beings in the first place. An alternative plotline for the arranged marriage is the human’s parents had been in debt years ago right before they were born, deciding to make a deal with the vampire to be able to provide a good life for their child. But of course, there has to be an equal exchange, that being their hand in marriage once at adult age. With that agreement in place, the human is allowed the chance of a normal life without worries, unaware as their next mid-stone birthday they will have their whole world turned around. Those are the two main ideas in my mind but I am happy to hear anything that you may have. This being more character development and a plot-focused one if you have an interest in this one.

Second is a damsel in distress plot, a princess of a well-known kingdom that gets kidnapped by a group of bandits. The princess is held by them to get as much money as they could for having a ransom. But the more they travel the closer they get to each other. Or it could be the opposite and the princess is actually saved by a hero of the kingdom. Possibly a knight in shining armor, a wanted criminal looking to get some treasure, or even the so-called village idiot. Either way, there is a princess that needs saving! Both developments go over the course of classical fantasy adventure land. Monsters, magic, and everything in between. With this one, I wanna do plenty of world-building, plenty of establishing of characters, and making it feel like the environment is really alive around our characters too.

Third is a human becoming the affection of a wolf’s pact. A lost human in the forest runs into wolf territory unknown to the human. Leaving them completely trapped as the wolves take the human and use them as the housemate. The plot could also be an alpha finding their mate after years of searching but now has to claim them along with the troubles that their mate is a human. But with a human in wolf territory, it can be quite hard with the rising tension in the air. This one could be of course one pairing or multiple pairings depending on those who are interested in playing multiple characters throughout the story.

Fourth, more sci-fi fantasy alien focus plots! An alien has been tracking along and stumbled upon Earth, out of all the millions of places that they could have ended up, the alien is right within the human’s home. Different avenues could be made here, maybe the human taking care of the alien and helping them adapt to life on Earth. Another could be that the alien is being tracked down by the government and changes to the two of them being on the run from the law. With that in mind, we could do the reverse of the story, the alien decides to take one of the humans from Earth and travel along with space. Humans being a species in which are quite rare at this point and nearly on the verge of extension. Leading to some otherworldly beings stepping in to ensure that the human lives life enough to repopulate. Another more action-driven plot is an alien and an android, one being a galactic criminal and the other a bounty hunter that is trying to stop them and end their crime spree around space. Much more of a cat and mouse chase with plenty of encounters in between. Who will really win this game in the end? All of these ideas of course either taking place in a more general modern-day Earth or the bounds of space. Since there are three separate ideas just specify which one you would like to go more into planning with.

Fifth, much more futuristic or steampunk theme plot. A mad scientist and their Frankenstein creation, one would call them a mad person for trying to bring someone to life, whether mechanical or a real being either way after trial and failure over and over again, Their creation finally comes to life! Their greatest accomplishment is finally complete yet it’s unlike anything they ever expected. Sure bringing something to life is amazing in itself but when that life is rather lacking in intelligence, it can be quite troublesome. As mentioned this will have a more futuristic setting with some world-building in mind, a dystopian future can be used along with this too if wanting to give a chance at that too.

Sixth, a bit more of a large idea retaining inside of a home. A human, rather down on their luck, not much family and not having the best of life always passes by an old home, large and intimidating in size. Practically having the look of being abandoned. Even with retaining the look of nothing inside, the home always seems to call for them. Beckoning them inside yet the human always ignored the call and walked along by day after day. Growing the urge to follow that call as it gets louder and louder each time until finally, the human decides to end it and see what’s truly inside. Now, for this plot, I would like it to have a bigger scaled version of symbiosis. Beings that are occupying the same space despite having a history of not coexisting together. Some depend on one another for their own reasons while others use the living space to benefit off of what comes inside the trap. A labyrinth of sorts once inside, would the human truly have what it takes to escape or will they be completely swallowed up whole. This being a rather bigger idea on my end with playing multiple characters and such but you are always more than welcome to play more too. If this one piques your interest then just let me know so we can start discussing more.

Seventh, a more fantasy-themed world in general with this one. I have been really craving something with being suddenly dropped into a world that is much more intimidating and overwhelming around them. Think Alice in Wonderland or Little Nightmares and such where the goal of the main character is to return home again. Having to rely on wits and watch their step every way in fear of making the wrong move at any time. Though with further exploration of this land will you get swept up and trapped inside or manage to crawl your way back out. With this one, I am open to hearing any ideas that you would like to add along with the overall tone as I see it being a wonderous trip through unexplored lands or a gritty survival trail to home. Either way, I am happy to explore more on it.

Eighth, more Sci-Fi fantasy in mind with this one. More groundhog day in mind. Being trapped repeating the same day over and over again only to wake up and do the same. It seems that only you have the memory of what happens which makes you seem to be the one responsible of breaking this loop. Trying multiple ways, trial and error day after day, all seems lost until finally one day you meet someone that remembers your name.

-As stated above all the plot ideas that I mentioned are open to change and I am happy to hear any other ideas that you may have. I myself am a very open-minded person and am happy to hear whatever ideas, kinks, fetishes that you may have in more detail as we chat alone. Everything and anyone is welcomed to message me!

+I do wanna mention a few things here since most people scroll to the bottom and I just wanna make sure I get across the most important information here.

+18+ only partners

+I usually play female characters, I have played male characters in the past but do not have nearly as much experience with them. I could give it a try if you request but it will probably be some of my more shaky work.

+I like to control my character and I would like to keep control of my character. Please do not control my character in any way. I hope that I do not come across as rude but it is a small pet peeve of mine.

+Also apologies in advance but I do not really much fandom stuff really, things with pre-established characters and history are not my strong suit, and feel that I make them more of my own version of that character than anything else so I would rather just do my own OC’s then do a character from something else made.

+I also would like to make this clear once again, I do have work and I am a college student, this is why it’s a long-term roleplay and I am looking for a recurrent partner. If I am busy then I am busy. I would much rather be doing something fun but alas I cannot spend all my time writing and I just want that to be a clear understanding before you decide to message me.

TL;DR: I’m looking for a new detailed long-term roleplay partner and I am more than happy to hear any ideas in mind. As far as contacting me goes you can always message me but I will warn you that I usually don’t do my roleplaying on Reddit since I tend to not get notified about messages so if you are still interested after that I am more than happy to share my discord. Please be patient, as I try to get to every message I can and I apologize if I do miss yours in that process.

And if you are having trouble adding me there then please message me here and let me know!

Discord: BbwCandy18#9717

#oc rp #long term #original #submission #long post

[miss-tc-nova]

The Cat’s Meow - Jumin Han x Fem!Reader Pt 13

Drama drama drama. I love it. Maybe too much...Oh well. 

Part 13: Do You?

                Today’s the day. For months I’d been avoiding and ignoring the man I loved; not that any of it did any good—I still love him. At least he’d finally gotten the point, but I still dreaded today—today is the day of Jumin’s wedding.

                Since I’d gotten the invitation, I’d had considerably more drinks, but not as many as that first night; I still had my clinic and wallet to think about. I tried every trick in the book to shove intrusive thoughts of Jumin out but they come back in every spare moment I have.

                As for the friends between us, they’ve been going above and beyond to distract me. Luciel offers to hang out more, Yoosung tries to get me to talk about work much more while making it look like he’s getting extra serious about our jobs, and Zen becomes a regular hang out buddy. It’s Jaehee that I’m sometimes still on the fence about. I’m not as close with her as I’ve gotten to Zen and Luciel, but I want to. She’s so loyal and sweet and down-right incredible, but I can’t help always thinking that Jumin sent her when we get together. Still, I elect to ignore who her employer is and get my dose of girl talk in when we do see each other. But it’s going to take a lot more than their antics to distract me from today.

                Against my better judgment, I prepare myself for probably the worst decision of my life thus far. Even though there’s a rift between us, I find myself wanting to support him; I want to show that I think he’s made the right choice and congratulate him. So a little red dress with three-quarter lace sleeves becomes the outfit I’ll face him in. Mako gets an early dinner and I pull on a pair of black heals when my ride arrives.

                Zen’s waiting at the door. “Hey. Are you ready?”

                “As I’ll ever be,” I sigh, picking up my purse and the gift bag from my sofa.

                Those silver brows furrow. “Are you sure you want to go?”

                “Yeah. He’s made the right choice and I want to support that,” I say.

                “If you say so.”

                We head for the red sports car waiting in front of my home. Yoosung pops up from the other side. “Hey, _____. Do you want the front seat?”

                I laugh a bit. “No. I don’t mind sitting in the back. Nice car, Luciel.”

                “Isn’t she just a babe,” he coos, stepping out to let Zen and I into the back.

                “Is this the new one?”

                “Nah. The new one I got is silver. But I figured this one fit the colors.”

                I giggle. “Fair enough.”Having three goofy guys escort me to the wedding is a bit odd, but it’s nice to have a support group.

                The event is huge, but what else could be expected of the heir to a major corporation. However, I do think it’s a bit much for even Jumin. The guys had gossiped a bit about this Sarah Choi that Jumin is supposed to be marrying. They don’t seem all that fond of her and some have even said they think she’s in it for the money. My stomach churns if that’s true. Unfortunately, even Jaehee has expressed that Sarah has very easily adjusted to having access to Jumin’s money.

                We show our invitations at the door since they’re keeping out the paparazzi. The smell of roses is almost overwhelming as they’re peppered everywhere as the red decorations. They’re twisted around banisters, placed on the table, petals across the aisle, rose everything everywhere. There are a few other red items to tie in the color, but mostly, just flowers. It’s like trying to force the image of love with the only image of love you can think of. I guess they could’ve used hearts, but then it might look like a Valentine’s party in here.

                We veer off to the side when Jaehee finds us, followed by a vaguely familiar man with mint-colored hair.

                “You all made it. We have seats reserved for you at-” She hesitates when she spots me. In response, I give a sheepish grin.

                That’s when the gentleman addresses me. “Hello. You seem well acquainted with my RFA but I don’t think we’ve ever met.” He offers his hand. “They call me V.”

                “V? How mysterious,” I say with a bit of a laugh. He now wears the sheepish grin. “My name’s _____.”

                That smile disappears to a blank void. “_____? You’re _____?”

                Against that expression, I’m very quickly second guessing my presence here. “Yeah…”

                V seems at a loss, simply staring at me. There’s no anger, no pity, nothing. He just stares. I feel the blood rushing up my back, into my ears, and across my face. Nervously, I glance to Zen.

                “I-Is there something on my face? Should I-”

                “Oh! No! Sorry!” V interrupts. “I didn’t mean to stare; it’s just…I’ve heard a lot about you.” He pauses, still with that blank stare. “I’m the best man.”

                I know who this is now, somewhat. I’ve heard plenty stories of him. The word comes from my mouth barely above a whisper. “Oh…”

                “If it’s not too much to ask…why are you here?” Reaching into my purse, I pull the invitation and pass it to him. It’s got my name scrawled on the front along with my address. “And you came?”

                I can feel all their gazes on me, which doesn’t help my anxiety. “I want Jumin to move on. He deserves someone better than me and I’m glad he found her. I support his decision.”

                V looks the envelope over very carefully. “Jumin had all the invitations written by other people. Even mine was written by, I assume, Jaehee. But this…” He passes the envelope back to me. “Is Jumin’s hand writing.”

                He personally invited me? Does his fiancée even know about me? Maybe I should go…

                Before I can make a decision, Jaehee seems caught up in another conversation and grabs V’s attention. “It’s starting.”

                “Oh. Right.” V gives me one last look of unreadable interest before following the woman to his place.

                The boys and I get ushered to our seats and I sit between Luciel and Zen. Music begins to play and a door off to the side opens. My breath hitches like I’m falling back into my old, stupid ways. I feel a hand slip into mine and give Zen a grateful glance.

                In all honesty, Jumin doesn’t seem any different than normal, suit and all. Sure, he’s wearing a red tie to match the colors and there’s a rose sticking out of his chest pocket, but he seems normal otherwise. Actually, looking a bit closer, he seems rather bored of the whole ordeal. As a man about to get married, I would’ve expected him to be a bit brighter. Then again, I heard that it was Jumin’s father who set the two up and insisted he get married after only a few months. Maybe I shouldn’t be supporting this. I wanted Jumin to find someone better for him, but if he’s not even excited to get married to this woman, he’s still making the wrong choice.

                Shut up! He’s probably nervous. He never was great at showing emotions in front of people.

                The groom and best man stand at the alter and the doors behind us open. People awe and coo over the train of bridesmaids and groomsmen, and even more at the ring bearer and flower girl. And then the wedding march plays and the bride reveals herself.

                Sarah Choi is beautiful; I can see that, I can say that. But everything about her also looks so fake. I’m pretty sure there’s more hair on her head than her skull can grow and she’s put on more make up than she needs. I’m no expert, but she looks like she’s had a few surgeries done before. Even something about her dress screams ‘barbie doll’ and less ‘human being,’ and it has the longest train I’ve ever seen.

                To each his own…I guess.

                Sarah, head held high and bursting with pride, makes her way to the end to meet Jumin. His best man is smiling, but Jumin certainly is not. Even when he faces her, it’s like he’s not really looking at her.

                And we settle in for the ceremony. The officiant talks about love and the new chapter of life and blah blah blah. I zone out his words, looking over the bride and groom. They appear so opposite that I wonder how his father could even recommend these two. Over and over again, I tell myself that I know nothing of their relationship and they could already be best friends. They might be madly in love with each other.

                Okay, new thought!

                And then my brain does the terrible thing of inserting me into this wedding in place of Sarah.

                NO! No nono! Stop it! Get a hold of yourself!

                “Jumin, do you take Sarah to be your wedded wife?”

                Of course, of all the times for me to zone back into the ceremony, it had to be during Jumin’s vows. A cold pit grows in my stomach as I look at the couple holding hands, currently vowing their lives to each other.

                “To live together in marriage? Do you promise to love her, comfort her, honor and keep her for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and health, and forsaking all others, be faithful only to her, for as long as you both shall live?”

                I almost want to jam my fingers into my ears. My grip tightens around Zen’s fingers and he rests his second hand over mine. Then I realize that it’s completely silent; the entire room hanging, waiting for him to say those famous words. Refocusing on the front, I see Jumin staring down at their joined hands, silver eyes full of something that wipes the smile from Sarah’s face. We can all hear her hiss his name from the microphone.

                Suddenly, Jumin drops Serah’s hands and the entire room gasps. Even I cover my mouth in shock. “I don’t.”

                “What?!” Serah screeches.

                “Jumin Han!”

                His father is on his feet, but Jumin takes the microphone. “I apologize for wasting everyone’s time today, but I have come to the realization that marrying this woman would truly be a mistake. I don’t see a reason in making a pledge that I know will end in failure.” The entire room is murmuring and gossiping. “Thank you for your attendance. Please feel free to reclaim any gifts you have brought and enjoy the refreshments.”

                Those eyes lock on me and I know the reason he’s cancelled this wedding. Terrified and shocked into stupidity, I leap to my feet, scramble over Luciel, and bolt from the room, losing shoes in the process. Outside, I’m instantly met with flashing lights and people shouting, but I race down the pathway towards the street. Thankfully, a cab pulls over as soon as I hail and I request a ride home. The phone in my purse rings and meows repeatedly and I power the device down to get it to stop. When we arrive, I hurl some bills at the man and jump out of the car.

                “_____!”

                My blood turns to ice. Stopped behind the cab is a familiar black car and Jumin is stepping out. I didn’t expect him to chase me all the way home, especially right after the chaos he’d just caused. My feet pound against the sidewalk as I race for my front door. If I can get inside, I can lock the door and hide away from him.

                My fingers fumble with the keys but I manage to get the door open. Jumping inside, I push the door as hard as I can to slam it shut. A second later, it lurches but does not give as Jumin pounds on the other side.

                “_____, open up. We need to talk.”

                My throat is threatening to close up. “I don’t want to talk to you!”

                “_____!” I flinch away from the door. “Let me in!”

                “Go away!”

                “Haven’t I proved my feelings for you yet?!” he shouts. “I don’t understand! If kissing doesn’t work, and cancelling my own wedding doesn’t work, then what do I have to do to prove I love you?!”

                My brain is running on fear and defiance. “I know you love me!” I hit the door back. “I know you do and I hate it! I hate it so much it’s suffocating me!” I should reign myself in but I can’t. “It’s not supposed to be us! We were never meant to be together! And when I know you love me, it hurts so much because you’re not supposed to! YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO LOVE ME BACK!”

                “_____?”

                I pound away on my own door. “And I knew better! I knew I shouldn’t have let you in! I was your vet and that’s all I should’ve been! Not your friend! Not your scheming cohort! Least of all your lover! But I couldn’t help myself!” My knees hit the floor.

                I can hear the commotion of other cars arriving. Flickers of flashing lights get through my curtains. People are shouting, but Jumin continues pounding on my door and calling my name.

                “JUST GO AWAY!” I scream.

                “Mr. Han, we need to go,” I hear Jaehee.

                “Jumin, come on.” That’s V.

                “Let go of me!” he snaps. “_____!”

                “You’re not doing anyone any favors! Let’s go!”

                His shouting dies down and I hear Jaehee directing various people. Before long, there’s a significantly lighter knock on my door. “_____?” Yoosung calls.

                “Go away!” I wail.

                “Hold on.” I hear the key slipping into the lock and the doorknob turns. The door pushes up against me but I don’t really fight against it and Zen squeezes through. I now regret giving him that key he insisted on after my second breakdown. “Come on,” he grunts, scooping me off the floor.

                The man sits on the sofa and cradles me against his chest. Yoosung, Luciel, and Jaehee enter and try to console me but I lose myself to my own little world of wallowing. 

#jumin han #jumin x reader #jumin han x mc #jumin han x reader #jumin x mc #mysme jumin #mystic messenger #mysme #fem!reader

[paradoxicalpatton]

Wearing Our Hearts On Our Sleeves (Ch. 1)

Title: Wearing Our Hearts On Our Sleeves Chapter: Prologue, Chapter 1 Word Count: 2054 Ships: Logicality, Prinxiety, Dukeceit  Summary: Logan Bright, a Police Officer, is trying to find his father’s killer, and solve the case that led to his death once and for all. Throughout his investigations, Logan meets an eclectic bunch of people. A paramedic who owns 2 cats yet is deathly allergic, a 911 operator with severe social anxiety, twins who happen to be a firefighter and a forensic scientist, a cps worker who is a compulsive liar, and a 7-year-old boy who’s parents were murdered. Warnings: brief mentions of drugs, guns, and hostages. implied past murder Taglist: @tinysidestrashcaptain @avocados26 @shadycreatorrebelpersona @jadedmidnight @suicidalcitrusfruit @virgils-angels @human-being-kinda AO3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23046337/chapters/55408117

[July 12th 2019, 8:03 am]

Walking into the Police Precinct as an officer for the first time was, admittedly, a huge ordeal for Logan Bright. It’d been his dream for many years to follow in his father’s footsteps, to become a detective like he was, and to finally be recognised as an officer reinforced the fact that he was one step closer to achieving that goal. After he had signed in and introduced himself to the captain, Logan made his way down to the equipment room to officially receive his gun and badge, as well as the other necessary items he needed. However, as he turned around to leave the room, he was stopped by a group of 5 or so detectives, each one giving him a look up and down as if they were deciding for themselves whether or not he should be employed there.

“Well fellas, look at what we’ve got here. Fresh meat. I wonder how long this one will last.” The detectives began to laugh, making Logan feel as if he had to adjust his appearance with his posture straightening and his hands clasping together behind his back.

“Say, rookie, what’s your name?” Logan looked the man who spoke in the eye as he replied, trying to hide the proud smile threatening to form on his lips.

“Bright. Officer Logan Bright.” It was then that the laughter faded, the detectives glancing between each other as if trying to find an explanation. Only a few seconds passed before one of the detectives at the back of the group stepped forward with a look of disbelief in his eyes and hesitantly placed a hand on Logan’s shoulder.

“Logan… You’re Daniel’s son, aren’t you?” Logan nodded and a smile broke out onto the man’s face as he pulled the young officer in for a hug.

“I’m Clark, Clark Phillips, I was your father’s partner. He used to tell me so much about you. You were so little the last time I saw you.”

“You knew my father?” Logan gently hugged back before pulling away and adjusting his glasses, a small action that caused Clark to chuckle.

“I did, yes. You’re so much like him, you know?”

“No I- I didn’t know that.” Before Clark could respond, Logan’s radio crackled and a voice came through, calling Logan to go and begin his first patrol. With a quick goodbye to Clark and the rest of the Detectives, Logan was on his way, a small smile resting on his face for the rest of the day.

[March 3rd 2020, 12:38 pm]  

Logan had finally gotten back to the precinct after a busy morning on patrol. He’d been an officer there for a little under eight months and Logan had enjoyed every minute of it. And although he enjoyed structure and schedules, the monotony was starting to become just a little tedious. He’d become an officer to give back to the community, but deep down he knew he was far more focused on finding the man that destroyed his family. So Logan decided he’d talk to Clark and see if he could take a look at his father’s murder file, a small favour he could pay back one day. Luckily, Clark was kind enough to sneak out a few case files for Logan to read through when he wasn’t out on patrol.

Clark had given him the files a week ago and Logan still hadn’t read a single one. He’d had plenty of time to go through them, his patrols had been quiet and he didn’t have anything to do during his breaks, so why hadn’t he read the files yet? If he was honest, he was scared. He was scared that when he’d open up those case files that all the pain and hurt that he felt would come flooding back. He was scared of finding out what happened to his father. He was scared that he’d never find the killer.

Logan was afraid.

He’d spent his whole life hoping that his father would walk back through his door, that he’d finally come home after so long and rebuild a relationship that was once lost. So he was afraid of those hopes being shattered if he opened the files. Logan was tempted to give them back, to keep pretending that someday his father would return. But he’d made a promise to his mother before she died that he’d find the murderer, and Logan Bright has never broken a promise. So this was where he was now, sitting at a spare empty desk, his father’s files in front of him, and a shaky hand hovering above the manila folders; and with great hesitancy, he opened them.

[November 29th 1997, 11:54 pm]

Detective Daniel Bright pulled into the car park opposite the abandoned factory. He’d recently been investigating a case regarding one of the biggest drug dealers in all of Florida and had followed a lead to where he was currently sitting, watching and waiting for any movement at all. He was so close to finally cracking open this case if he could get even just a photo of the transaction and the parties involved.

Before he knew it, a black SUV pulled up across the road, multiple men with guns exiting the car. Daniel picked up the camera sitting on the seat next to him and started taking pictures of the men, but as he did so his blood ran cold. Emerging from the other side of the car was a young couple with guns to their heads. Any wishes Daniel had to stay in the warmth of his car and gather intel were thrown out the window, he knew more men were bound to arrive with even more guns than the last car full. So without a second thought, Daniel got out of the car, his fingers gripped tightly around his gun and made his way over to the factory, looking for another way in.

Slipping through an open window in the back of the factory, Daniel snuck along the inside of the wall, going from stacks of crates to shipping containers to find a better vantage point. Eventually, he found the perfect spot to sit and hide where he could see the couple, kneeling on the ground hand in hand. Daniel sat in silence watching and waiting until finally, the factory doors opened and another group of men walked in. As the second group got closer, one of the men from the first stepped forward. Daniel shuffled closer in an attempt to hear what was being said.

“Y’all can stop right there, that’s close enough. Where’s the boss?”

“He’s taking care of some other business real quick, he’ll be here any second now.”

Daniel carefully began to move more to the right to try and get a better look at some of the men from the second group of men when he felt cool metal touch the back of his head. Slowly, Daniel put down his gun and stood up, being sure to let whoever as behind him that he didn’t want any trouble. As he turned around the gun that was previously on the back of his head moved to his forehead, the safety clicking off as he did so.

“I’m sorry Daniel, I didn’t want to have to do this. I’m sure you understand.”

[March 3rd 2020, 10:23 pm]

Logan’s apartment that night was eerily quiet. All the lights were turned off except the television in the living room, a soft blue glow being cast across all the furniture. A plate with half-eaten dinner was left on the small dining table and all the pots and utensils used were left piled in the sink.

Quiet sobs could be heard coming from Logan’s bedroom. There, lying curled up in the fetal position under his duvet was Logan, dressed in a baggy shirt and sweatpants with tear tracks down his face. After he’d read his father’s murder files he’d gone straight back to work and kept busy for the rest of the day. Logan didn’t want to go home that night and be alone with his thoughts. He knew that the walls he’d built all those years ago would come tumbling down if he was left by himself, and that’s exactly what happened.

For 23 years Logan truly believed his father might have come home and in a heartbeat that small slither of hope he had was snatched away. That night Logan finally came to a realisation that was a long time coming, it was just something he didn’t want to admit. He was really, truly, alone. Logan doesn’t have any friends, it’s just a rule of his. He’s worried that if he lets people get too close to him that he’ll lose them. So he keeps everyone at a safe distance, but after being alone for so long, it began to take a toll on him.

Logan had moved from his position on his bed so that he was sitting in the corner of his room, staring at the adjacent wall with his legs pulled up to his chest. The tears had finally stopped, but the deep feelings of brokenness and emptiness inside of him were still there, haunting him. He wanted his Mom back. He wanted his Dad back. He wanted his family back. He wanted to fall asleep and wake up the next morning to the smell of his mother’s blueberry pancakes and the sound of his father complaining about the news. Logan just wanted to feel loved again.

Wiping his face with the back of his hands, Logan pushed himself up off the floor and slowly made his way to the bathroom, turning on the tap and splashing his face with cold water before grabbing his glasses. Once he’d dried himself off Logan walked out to the kitchen, turning on a light and rinsing off the dishes before putting them into the dishwasher and turning it on. The sound of the dishwasher beginning its cycle was more than welcome in the silent apartment, the feeling of loneliness that’d been hanging over Logan’s head slowly disappearing. As he wandered into the living room Logan picked up the large knitted blanket that he kept on the back of his sofa and wrapped it around himself before he sat down, grabbing the television remote and scrolling through Netflix until he found a documentary on space he hadn’t yet watched.

~*~

“Look Lo, a shooting star! Make a wish!” Logan looked up at his mother from her lap, she had her eyes closed and a soft smile on her lips.

“Mommy, what’s a shooting star?” Sarah opened her eyes and admired the young boy in her arms. Logan smiled as she turned him around, resting his head on her chest.

“They’re little pieces of rock that fly through the sky called meteors.” Daniel wrapped his arms around his wife’s shoulders and placed a gentle kiss on her cheek as he explained what shooting stars were to his son.

“Wow...” Logan tried to stifle a tired yawn by pressing his face further into his mother’s shirt, to no avail. His parents laughed quietly as Daniel carefully tried to pick Logan up so that Sarah could stand up. Once she had, the pair walked down the hallway to Logan’s room and tucked him into bed, both of them sitting on either side of the bed.

“Why doesn’t Mommy sing you a song to help you sleep, huh?” Sarah smiled at Daniel and leant down to press a kiss to Logan’s forehead before beginning to softly sing.

“When you wish upon a star, makes no difference who you are.” Logan closed his eyes as his father joined in, the blanket around him being tucked in ever so gently.

“Anything your heart desires will come to you… If your heart is in your dream...” Logan slowly drifted off to sleep, the sound of his parents quietly singing to him comforting him.

~*~

Logan placed the television remote on the coffee table in front of him along with his glasses and pulled the blanket tighter around him, making himself comfortable lying on the sofa and closing his eyes, a sweet melody escaping his lips.

“No request is too extreme… When you wish upon a star, as dreamers do."

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