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ask-whitepearl-and-steven · 1 year

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You don't have to answer this if you don't want to, but how has your opinion changed on Steven Universe now than when it first aired? Like I have fond memories of watching the show while it was airing but now I realize that it had a lot of problems that I feel like a lot of fans either flat out ignore or bend over backwards to make sure their rose tinted glasses stay on.

... okay, fair question. Let's talk about this.

I'll try not to wax poetic too long, but there are a lot of things to be said here.

First and foremost - how has my opinion changed since the show has ended?

Simply put - it hasn't.

When I started watching Steven Universe over 7 years ago, I didn't have much knowledge of it. I sat down, saw a few of episodes and went 'well, this is a silly show for kids with a goofy but loveable protagonist... but it seems like it's also incredibly charming with its delivery and has some nice, more complex themes about loss and healing and grief throughout.'

And if you ask me what Steven Universe is now... I would probably say that exact same thing.

Am I wearing rose tinted lenses? Interesting question.

What ARE 'rose tinted lenses' in this context anyway?

What do these lenses represent? What do they obscure?

Since you didn't go into specifics, I can only assume what you're referring to when you say that many fans ignore the show's problems.

There have been many discussions surrounding various aspects of the show and how it might be read as 'problematic' (ahhh how I've come to despise that word.... without context, it has all the descriptive power of the word 'icky' - none of the critical details and all of the emotional punch of scrunching up your face like a cat that just sniffed a lemon...)

Is this about something as simple as the 'SU doesn't have a consistent size for its characters' debate?

Because that has been gone back to, over and over again, and proven to be a point of opinion. SU favored allowing storyboarders to show off their personal flourish, and even though Peridot was 30% hair in that one episode, it did not overall take away from the plotline being told, which was their goal. If you wanted to watch a show with consistent styling throughout, you can always watch a 3D modeled show, but keeping that up was simply never one of SU's main pillars. And I feel like it didn't have to be.

Is this about something more complex such as the way Rose was presented?

...and how her arc was shown backwards instead of forwards - showing first the person she became in the end, and afterwards revealing all the growth she had to have to get there?

That was on purpose! And I don't think this is a problem. It's a feature, not a bug. Rose was never meant to be an ideal character - she was meant to be complicated and messy, and I think the fact that the fandom is so split in their opinions of her shows that the Crewniverse pulled that off really well!

She fucked over Bismuth! She forced Pearl to be silent! Those are both parts of her character arc that were never resolved because she died before she could resolve it - that's BY DESIGN. Sometimes, you just do something absolutely stupid and cruel, and you cannot go back to fix it.

Is this about the Diamonds? The fact that they were not put in space jail, after being put on trial for space crimes, and then publicly executed for space eco-genocide?

Here's the thing - most people I know who watched and loved SU are fully aware of that. But simply put - Steven Universe was not a story about Revenge.

Steven Universe was a story about love. A story about family. A story about truth, and lies, and hurt, and healing. About how sometimes healing doesn't happen. And how sometimes it will, but you won't be around to see it.

But it's not a story that can be all things for all people.

That is the thesis of my reply: It is a story.

It is not a manifesto. It is not a bible. It is not a Complete Truth.

It is a single story. Made by a group of very talented people, who cared about these characters, who did their best. They made a funny, emotional, well-drawn and complex cartoon show about the things THEY personally wanted to tell stories about.

Does it answer all questions the way everyone wants them answered? No. That's impossible.

Everyone wants a different story. Everyone wants a different solution, a different resolution. A different ending.

Steven Universe is one story. It cannot satisfy all people.

So when you ask me 'has your opinion of Steven Universe changed'? The answer is 'no'.

I went in, expecting to see a story. I saw a lot of what I liked! I saw some parts which I thought were interesting. I saw some parts which, yes, I disagreed with a little.

But overall, it's a good story. And that's what I expected, and that's what I got, which means I'm pretty satisfied. I love that story.

I feel like recently, there's this expectation of media, to be Everything For All People. And it's a bit unrealistic. No one call tell the perfect story. We are all simply telling the stories we want to tell. And people will vibe with that, more or less.

A single story, made by a small group of people, will never be that for you. There will never be an Unproblematic Cartoon that you watch that will be devoid of things you disagree with.

Being critical of media doesn't mean 'Criticize the FUCK outta that media, and the one with the least criticisms is the best one'.

Critical thinking is about evaluating things critically - that means being critical of YOURSELF. Being critical of your OWN reactions. Asking 'why did I like this?' and 'why did I dislike this?'. Asking 'this doesn't mesh with me, but who WOULD it mesh with? It isn't for me, but who is it for? Who would it hurt, but also who would it help?'

Some people HATED how SU: Future ended. They beat their fists on the wall and cried about how Steven was leaving his family behind, and how THEY could never imagine doing something like that, and how he was running away from his problems just like Rose had.

Me? I loved it. I think it was the right choice, and I COULD imagine it and thought it was in character. I thought he needed to be his own person, instead of shouldering everyone else's responsibilities for once. Was one of us more right than the other? Maybe not? Maybe that was the whole point?

Loving things is not about putting on rose colored glasses. Sometimes, choosing to love something with flaws is an act of rebellion. It's about knowing you have differences, but understanding that there is value in the things you DO agree on, and knowing you can consume that.

Healthy consumption of media does not mean throwing the whole cartoon away as soon as you notice something is wrong with it, like a bruise on an apple.

Healthy consumption of media involves critical thinking AND feeding yourself. Acknowledging you may disagree with parts of it, but not starving yourself just because your apples all have small imperfections.

Eat, for fuck's sake. Feed yourself. You'll feel better.

Thassit.

#chekhov answers #steven universe

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ultralightpoe · 5 months

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Can you do something with eddie and someone from scream? That don't really make sense but like the reader is a survivor of ghostface and kind celebrity for it. Like Sydney through the movies? There would be a time change but like that? That would be so amazing. I would give my left nut for that tbh. I don't have a left nut. But i gove one if I could.

Final Girl - Eddie Munson

Authors Note: This was from march, and I am cleaning out my drafts for y'all

Warnings: Slasher, wounds, eddie being a confused lil bug.

Word Count: 3813

Description: Eddie meets a final girl, and apparently trauma bonds

Enjoy!

College life sucked.

This wasn’t an actual shock to Eddie Munson, since he had never been great at school in the first place. Come on, he had been a super senior. Eddie Munson, who normally spent his life in fantasy could at least be realistic about ONE thing, he was not really meant for school.

But…. not many people got a second chance at life and not many people were given a full ride scholarship from the government.

Jason Carver, the ‘King of Hawkins High’, had taken the fall for Chrissy Cunningham. Eddie was released of any and all convictions, and the government had ‘thanked’ him. But he didn’t stop there, Eddie demanded something in return since he nearly died from the bats. So, Eddie Munson the super senior graduated with the help of his friends and Eddie Munson got a full ride scholarship from the government.

Wayne was able to open up his own contracting business and Eddie was able to move to his new college knowing that he would not die in Hawkins.

But that meant actually attending classes in college, something that Eddie found himself despising. More grumpy than not in the mornings he found himself ignoring the life around him, grumbling to himself as he trudged through the autumn leaves, his converse beginning to soak through from the rain that drenched the earth.

There was one good thing about mornings though, and that was who he sat by in his intro to Shakespeare class….You.

You were everything. Or at least Eddie thought so.

You always had a book with you in class, mostly fantasy which drew him in. You always looked angelic, even on days where you definitely just woke up, and most importantly you never talked to him like he was stupid which most people at this school had done. But most importantly he liked that you seemed to be fine on your own, whereas most of the class was desperate for friends. You were just fine sitting in the back like you didn’t care.

But that led to his next problem, he desperately wanted to get to know you.

He had tried to make conversation in the past, but the words never came out right and class was always packed with work so he never really got the chance to break the ice with you, but everyday he told himself that ‘Today is the day I’m going to talk to her’.

So he talked himself up on the way to class, fixing his rings as he tried not to focus on how cold his feet were before he was sitting beside you, the chain on his pants scraping in the chair as everyone bustled to their seats around him.

He waits patiently for you to join the class, taking a moment to survey the room of all your other shared classmates.

The front row held a cheerleader that reminded him of Chrissy, the sweet angelic smile and the same ponytail, the only problem was he had heard this version say a few icy things to her classmates and Eddie liked to think that Chrissy would have never.

There was a kid named Paul that sat just a row below him, three seats to the right. Whereas Eddie was more of a leather jacket rock and roll type Paul was all about the punk, mohawk dyed neon colors and piercings decking out his face. He always gave Eddie a rock on sign whenever they made eye contact and Eddie liked the minor alliance.

Before he could recognize anyone else you were pulling into your seat, rubbing your arm as if you were in pain as Eddie whips to smile at you. He gets nervous when you raise an eyebrow before giving him a tight lipped smile like he was crazy, then he realizes that his smile was a little too wide and he was the one sending crazy vibes so he simply clears his throat and taps his pencil on the tiny desk.

The seats on this campus were all made of cheap plastic that had bus cushions on the butt of the seat, and little desks that you could flip to the right to escape. He liked to think of it like he was buckling himself into a rollercoaster each time.

“Did you do the homework?” He blurts, trying to act cool as you stare at him.

“We had homework?” You ask, eyes snapping to the daily checklist before turning back to him. “Are you sure?”

“No, that’s why I was asking you.” He blushes, pushing some hair back behind his ear. “Because I didn’t remember if we had an assignment or not.”

“Well normally you can see when we do because our professor writes it down.” You whisper, using your pencil to point at the board the assignments usually are. You were leaning in like you were telling him a secret and Eddie couldn’t help but bask in your scent for a moment.

“Right….. I knew that.” He blushes, leaning in himself. “But if we are being totally honest here I might need some help with-”

“Alright settle down students! Let’s begin!” The professor calls and Eddie tries not to kick himself as he draws back to pay attention. So so close.

College life sucked.

You had talked yourself into going to college after the horrific events you survived, seeing it as a chance to make yourself a new person. Leave the bloody history behind and live your life.

It wasn’t everyday people got a second chance at life after all.

It had taken you months to convince your parents to let you go, and it had been a rough time to say goodbye to your close knit group of friends or as your hometown liked to call them ‘The survivors’. Tear stained goodbyes and tons of promises to stay in touch before you left and at the time you had thought it was for the best, but now that you were here you realized what a mistake you had made.

You had always thought that being away from the place where it happened might help you heal, but it only seemed to make it worse.

The winter cold made your wounds ache, which made it hard to move. You couldn’t seem to make a friend to save your life and whenever you get close you can never get over the fact that they might stab you just as he had. The nightmares grew worse since you didn’t know this place well and you didn’t really have a security set up which meant your roommate hated you and often whispered about you with other girls living in your dorm hall.

But the worst part was you saw them everywhere.

You saw Maya sitting with the cheerleaders at lunch, giggling and being the life of the party, no longer dead. You saw Dylan drumming on a desk rather than paying attention, and when he turned back to smile at you he didn’t have his throat slit.

You saw all your friends, or what could have been your friends, making themselves known in the world and each time you just felt like a huge imposter. You were wasting your life, it should have been you.

But the worst was when you saw them. Standing outside your window in the masks, watching from the doorway of your classes or trailing behind you at night.

You saw them everywhere, you saw flashes of that final fight every time you close your eyes. An ironic feat considering the news articles always read how lucky you were to ‘escape with your life’.

But there was no escaping them. You were trapped in an endless cycle of fear. You could trust no one and hurt no one.

That’s what made the chocolate eyed boy next to you so confusing. He had been seated next to you since the beginning of the year and you often caught him staring as if he was trying to think of things to say, and whereas you tensed around most people you never did with him.

Maybe that’s because you could feel the nervousness coming off him every time.

You were actually shocked that he spoke to you this morning, and you were even more shocked to find that his voice was a raw sort of calm that drew you in, which made you ashamed to admit you were a little upset that your professor interrupted because you were desperate to hear him talk forever.

But that spell broke as you watched the board up front, taking the next 40 minutes to regain your composure and think of all the things that could go wrong. He could know who you are and be an obsessed freak, wouldn’t be the first time. He could be a copycat, he could stab you. He could be worse and actually succeed this time.

What are the chances? You tried to remind yourself, taking a deep breath in only to stop when you see Stu standing in the doorway with his shirt covered in blood, smiling from ear to ear. You cough loudly, choking on your own hair as tears spring from your eyes, drawing attention from everyone in the class as the boy next to you reaches to hand you his water bottle.

You take it, chugging quickly as the soft bell goes off, setting the bottle back down with a quick thanks and bolting from your seat. You hear him yell out a ‘wait’ before he rushes to stand, hitting the desk harshly since he hadn’t put it up and cursing at the pain.

You use this as a chance to escape, dashing out the doors and barely turning back to see if Stu would follow.

He’s not real.

But he could be, and he could come back and he could-

“Wait wait wait, Jesus you are fast.” The stranger calls, panting as he catches up, a ringed hand flying to his right side as if he were in pain while staring at you. “You okay? Had a bit of a coughing attack in there.”

“Yeah, I just choked on air.” You half lied, not making eye contact. “Thanks for the bottle by the way…”

“Eddie. Well Edward but everyone calls me Eddie. Munson. Eddie Munson.” He blushes, holding out the hand that wasn’t holding his side.

“I’m-”

“Y/n. I know.” He smiles and you draw your hand back quickly, panic clawing at you as the fall wind hits your spine. Of course he knows, everyone knows. They are laughing at you.

“You know?”

“Yeah. You introduced yourself on the first day of class? You told everyone your favorite book was Frankenstein?” He chuckles, pink singing at his ears and cheeks as you nod. Jesus you paranoid freak, he’s just trying to be nice.

“Right. Yeah.” You smile, fixing your bag and moving to walk away before he walks with you slowly.

“I was actually going to ask for your help.”

“With?”

“Homework. Or well, just classwork in general. You see I am more of a fantasy kinda guy. Elves and goblins and dwarves but this whole classic literature is kicking my ass. And you seem to devour it like no other so I was hoping maybe you could help out.”

“Like do your homework?”

“No!” He laughs, moving to scratch the back of his neck. You notice then that his hand is still on his side, and when he catches you looking he snaps it back down and fixes the leather jacket to cover himself even with the shirt. “Maybe just tutoring sessions? I’ll get dinner or something.”

“Oh…” You think back to all the things you could say to get out of it, maybe that you just didn’t want to but then you see Maya walking by with a laugh and remember why you were here in the first place.

A second chance at life, right?

“I… okay.” You agree, something in your stomach easing at his smile.

You both agree to meet up Sunday night at a pizza place right off campus, which gives Saturday free of any and all obligation. With no classes and waiting to do homework tomorrow you find yourself with a free day, so you use it to call home.

Not your parents since you just know they will pick up on the slightest hint of sadness in your tone and demand you come home. Instead you call Randy, one of the other survivors from that night, and eagerly listen to all his news in bed.

He catches you up on everything back home, from the gym being redecorated to the radio station he works at, but it was only a matter of time before you both had to talk about it.

“They knocked the house down, there were too many break-ins lately.” He explains and you hear a slight shuffle on the other side, knowing him that meant he was pacing. “Nothing gets people hornier than death.”

“Figures.” You try to laugh, your throat tight as tears spring to your eyes.

“Actually Y/n, I am glad I got ahold of you. I wanted you to hear it from one of us rather than the world…” He starts and you take a deep breath as you try to control your panic.

“What’s up?”

“Kelvin…. He uhm, he sold the story.” Your heart lurches in your chest at the words, the tears falling freely now.

“He what?”

“A movie company reached out, bought the rights to the story-”

“But we all agreed we wouldn’t!” You snap.

“He said they offered him a lot-”

“I won’t sign off, they can’t use-”

“They won’t use your name. Trust me I’ve already tried on my end.” Randy sighs. “It’s being released soon, called ‘Slashed’ and-”

The second he says the name you recognize it. You had seen a poster for it on a walk through campus but hadn’t actually stopped to look at it. Oh my god.

“Randy, I have to go.” You rush out, a sob slipping past your lips as you hang up the phone right as your roommate comes back, glaring and rolling her eyes at the scene before her. You don’t hear what she mumbles under her breath, too lost in your own world.

“Yes Dustin, I heard you.” Eddie sighs, searching his mess of a dorm room for his leather jacket as Dustin lectures him over the phone.

“My flight lands in two weeks at 3, do you hear me Munson? You better have the couch clean enough for me to sleep on-”

“Dustin, dude, you need to have more trust. The room is all set up for your arrival.” Lie. “And I have so many fun things planned for you when you get out here.” Double lie.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah.” No. “And we’ll go see that movie you have been prattling on about-”

“Slashed is going to be so epic. Think Halloween but better Eddie-”

“Nothing is better than Halloweeen.” Eddie snaps, eyes finally landing on the leather jacket where he actually hung it up and snagging it, throwing it on and giving himself one last look in the mirror before he rushes a goodbye to his friend.”I’m running late and have togobye!”

Before he knows it he is on his way to meet you, books in hand as he walks across the street and towards the pizza place that sits right off campus. When he gets there he finds you already seated in a booth, your own books already open in front of you and he tries his best to remain cool when he walks up.

“Hey, how was your day off yesterday?” He asks, sliding into the seat across from you with an easy smile.

“Busy.” You smile, and he tries not to notice the way it doesn’t meet your eyes. “You?”

“Promised myself I would clean my room…..didn’t.” He jokes, and that finally cracks an actual smile out of you which makes his heart skip a beat. “Now I am ready to read shakespine and shove my face with pizza.”

“Speare.”

“Huh? Is that a type of pizza?”

“No. You said shakespine, it’s shakespeare.” You laugh and his eyes widen.

“I think I know why I failed the last assignment then.” How is he supposed to fight off that feeling of pride when you let out a loud laugh?

You had only expected to spend an hour with Eddie, but ended up spending four and closing the place down, to which he kindly offered to walk you back to your dorm. You said yes, partly because it was way too dark outside and partly because you wanted to spend just a little longer with him. More than you wanted to admit.

So you walked side by side, listening to him tell you about the funniest thing that had ever happened to his band ‘Corroded Coffin’ in detail before the conversation came to an easy lull. “Do you miss them?”

He looks over at you with a curious expression, waiting for you to explain. “Since you are here now, do you miss all your friends and family?”

“Well family wise it’s just my uncle Wayne and I, and I miss him greatly. I went from spending every day seeing him and never realized just how much I relied on him. He raised me and now I’m living in a world where I can’t dash to him with every bloody nose or black eye. And I just miss him a lot. My friends? I find that I miss some more than others. I miss my band, I grew up with them and they have known me since middle school, playing guitar doesn’t feel the same without them. But the Vecna crew? Jesus, I miss them all the time. Just thinking about them makes me feel like I’m lonely and ready to go back home.”

You knew that feeling all too well.

You spot the entrance to your building, taking the lead in walking up the steps until you get to the door, turning to smile at him softly. He is looking at you with the softest look you had ever seen, and you begin to get butterflies in your stomach.

“How about you?”

“My family and friends are….. Complicated.” You blush, the sound of Maya’s scream tearing through your mind.

“How so?”

“I wanted to escape them, but they are the only ones that know me.” You whisper and he nods in understanding, something flashing in the brown of his eyes. Like a scarred memory. He knows he knows he knows.

“I…. well I can’t say I know you as well as them, but I can say even knowing a quarter of you is a gift. And I would love to get to know more.” He says lowly, leaning in slightly and you find yourself leaning up yourself before the groan of the metal door behind you sounds out.

“Look who's back.” Someone snickers and you take a quick step back from Eddie who shoots you a curious look, only for you to wish him goodnight and rush inside the building as the two girls leave.

Your cheeks are pumping from your heartbeat, all the blood rushing to your face as you make a quick dash to your room.

This cannot happen. You can’t be so stupid again.

The next morning Eddie doesn't grumble to himself, and he doesn’t complain about having to wake up so early. Today he walks with a pep in his step as he makes his way to class, eager to see you.

As per usual he arrives first, sending a rock signal to Paul as he takes his seat, flipping the desk down and pulling out his writing tablet as his side begins stinging in pain. Taking a hand and rubbing at his side slowly to help ease the soreness of the scars when he feels you come near, eyes already planted on him rubbing his side in pain.

“Morning.” He greets, bringing his hand back down and giving you a smile.

“Good morning.” You smile back, taking a seat, your eyes casting to the door for a moment before your face blanches out quickly and you turn to him. “I had a lot of fun last night.”

“Me too, we should do it again sometime. Not to mention it will really help my grades.” He teases, smiling at you like a conspirator.

“We could always study for the test tonight?” You offer and Eddie feels like his body is on fire.

“I would love that.”

Dinners and study dates become a nightly thing with Eddie, and you find that you love them. You also find that each night he walks you home you are absolutely desperate for him to kiss you, and you keep getting closer and closer.

Like tonight, your shoulders had been bumping each other the entire time, laughing gently as you recalled the jokes you made at dinner, your pinky grazing his own as he stared at you before you made it to your building.

“Once again this is goodnight.” You blush, reaching a hand out to fix his leather jacket. “Same thing tomorrow?”

“Sadly not, I have plans with my friend Dustin.”

“Right, you guys were going to go watch a movie together on his first night back.” You smile, before your mind is brought back to the posters of the screaming face all over town. “Do you know what movie you’re seeing?”

“Sealand or something?” Eddie shrugs, eyes hooded a bit as he steps closer. “You okay?”

“Me? Of course.” You smile, pressing your nose against his as you lean up to trace your lips against his own. He hesitates for a moment before leaning and taking your lips on his own, his hands flying to your hips softly as he kisses you deeply. Butterflies erupt in your stomach and you make the mistake of opening your eyes, only to find Billy standing behind Eddie’s shoulder with a smile.

Drawing back with a sharp gasp that has Eddie staring wide eyed. “You okay?”

“Yes!” You rush out, kissing his cheek before moving to rush inside.

“What?” Billy laughs from behind you, following you into the building. “You didn’t forget about me did you? You didn’t wanna tell your boyfriend about me?”

“Go away.” You whisper.

“Didn’t want to admit how you killed me?”He laughs bitterly as you slam your bedroom door. Hesnotrealhesnotreal. He. Is. Not. Real.

Dustin is a big ball of excitement as Eddie leads him through the movie theater, watching people come out with shocked and excited faces.

“This movie has to be good.” Dustin rushes out. “Did you know it’s inspired by a true story?”

“What are we watching again?”

“Slashed.” Dustin smiles. “And it’s going to be so awesome.”

(Part 2 soon)

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biteforblood · 7 months

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[ HEADCANONS #3 ] various.

✶ notes : gn!reader, “fluff”, cursing, brief mention of a knife, regulus, 0.4k

caelum has really fluffy, really curly baby pink hair

darlin’ is so bad about asking for help when they’re injured, this we already know after the whole bleeding on sam’s couch incident. but. it goes beyond the big moments, it also applies to the smaller ones ; the paper cuts, the slips of the knife, the migraines, ….

sam, david, asher, whoever it is has to damn near fight tooth and nail just to get them to say where it hurts, then from there it’s practically pulling teeth to get the why, how bad, how long, so on

gavin is always touching fl. i don’t just mean like thighs or arms pressed together, knee bumping against theirs, though that is some of the ways. no, i mean like an arm around their waist or shoulders, hand on their thigh or lower back, fingers laced together

he has to have at least one hand on them at all times, if not both when possible. and, yes, this does become a good problem very quickly ( this also applies to the other clingy bois )

guy is an ass man. argue with the wall. it’s basically canon >:p ( /hj )

regulus talks in his listener’s head, but i feel like if they ( we? ) were to actually physically see him that, when he’s talking, his mouth is like right next to their ear. like, his head is next to theirs, he whispers and growls right into their ear, eyes half-closed yet staring into theirs, his expression occasionally tightening or hardening when his control slips

similarly, when his voice takes on that growl, i imagine his face…darkens or distorts, like a shadow over his face or a screen glitching and bugging out ; it’s as if his eyes haven’t properly loaded, his smile is too big and sharp

david and asher have definitely kissed before ; maybe it was a dare, maybe they were drunk, maybe they were curious. don’t know the specifics, but those to have so kissed before

likes anton, damien loves animals — especially birds and bugs. he can identify the species, has memorized their latin names and facts about them, knows where they’re commonly found

uh, however, he does not like spiders ( back on my projecting .3. ) deathly afraid, fucking despises them, even the little bitty ones. huxley has to come and get every single one while damien stands as far away as possible

speaking of huxley and spiders actually, he is the only one out of the damn crew ( aside from coworker maybe ) who isn’t scared of spiders and is okay to go near them. everyone else? fuck no.

#[ ✶ . blood loss ]#redacted asmr x reader #redacted audio x reader #redacted asher #redacted caelum #redacted damien #redacted david #redacted gavin #redacted guy #redacted huxley #redacted regulus #redacted sam #redacted darlin

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hislittleraincloud · 7 months

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French is my second language. (Basic French pet names within.)

When I was ten years old, I was forced to learn French, Italian, and German (mostly French, because we were going to live in France, but just travel to Italy and Germany...at the same time, I picked up some Romanian as well, since I loved vampires/the real Dracula at the time). I retained spoken French and Italian, but my spoken German and Romanian suck, and I'm much better at Spanish (which is my father's first language...I was just never formally taught it, and had to pick it up on my own after we came back from France since it's what my grandmother spoke). I am literate in several other languages, but my strengths are French, Spanish, and Italian (including "Italian" from the Renaissance Era...which is another thing that bugs the crap out of me re: the show, because modern Italian on an espresso machine owner's manual does not equal the Florentine dialect that Machiavelli wrote in, so that was a piece of dialogue hit me weird...probably a Me Problem).

The languages are much different than English, especially French. It's not just about how much Netflix Wednesday hates being compared to her parents. It's about the language itself that's kind of important if you want to insist that your Wednesday use French (or other non-English language) pet names for Enid.

In my other post about this, I made one small error in judgment: AB Sheriff Galpin is a little cultured since he was married to a Frenchwoman, so he would know some French. However, I still don't think Wednesday would pull any French terms of endearment on him, for that very reason...she wouldn't to be compared to Francoise and she wouldn't want to trigger Donovan like that. IF Donovan were to relax his trauma around Francoise, he would definitely be calling Wednesday "ma crevette"...i.e. "my little munchkin" (literally means shrimp 💀...he might just do so in some way yet, I'm thinkin' about it).

But before I get into the French, y'all need to be strongly reminded of just how much Wednesday despises the way her parents relate to each other romantically: She hates it SO MUCH that her hatred for it caused birds to die. Birds that look like they're supposed to be mourning doves.

The backs of their tails look like mourning dove tails:

Though their undersides don't, but I'm going to chalk it up to lazy CGI and lazy detailing, like the extremely, extremely lazy prop masters/set dressers who made the damnably inaccurate articles on Sheriff Galpin's cork board. All the articles and information in them were terribly inaccurate to what we were told on screen.

Regardless, birds DIED. That's how strong her hatred for how they behave romantically is.

But if you must insist on having Wednesday behave like her parents, at least get the language correct.

French is a heavily gendered language. I'm not even going to get into the current war over gender neutral French for the nbs, because that's not what this is about. Wenclair is a lesbian couple, and we are definitely dealing with females 99.9% of the time here w/the ship.

Thus Netflix Wednesday, being proficient in at least Spanish and Italian, would know how to use the next romance language properly, and would know proper pet names for males vs. females. She's cultured like that, and anything less would make her look stupid...and none of us want to make her look stupid.

Now to get to what's been bugging the Hell out of me:

It wouldn't be "mon loup". It would be "ma louloute" (though a literal translation of "my wolf" feminine would be "ma louve", which is kind of cute and looks like "love", but when the French want to get cute, they get cute). "Mon loup" is to refer to a male, so if Wednesday was dating Xavier or Tyler, it'd be "mon loup".

When I was growing up in France, one big pet name was "mon chou" (literally "my cabbage", even though it refers to a chou à la crème, i.e. a cream puff). My mother used to call me "mon petit chou", even though at the time I was still *living within my young AFAB body (corrected for clarity, I'm AFAB of course, this was long before my transition); she wasn't and isn't ever accurate with her French, because the feminine of "mon petit chou" is "ma chouchoute/choupinette". (I could see a Wenclair Wends getting creative and creating her own word, "lupinette" based on this.)

Other gendered* appropriate terms of endearment Wednesday would use if so compelled:

"ma biche"/"ma bichette" (my doe/my little doe) (Enid: WHAT did you call me??? 🤣)

"ma tigresse" (my tigress 🐯)

"ma poule" (my hen) or "ma poulette" (my little chick 🐣)

"ma princesse"

"ma douce" (my sweet) (Enid: DID YOU JUST CALL ME A DOUCHE? 💀)

"ma puce" (this is another I heard often, it literally means "flea", but in French it's affectionate)

"ma petite femme" (my little wife)

"ma reine" (my queen)

Finally, it's not "mon chéri", it's "ma chérie". That's the most basic one there is.

There are a ton of others out there, but these are the classics that I remember, and classic is what I assume all canon Ortega Wednesday is. Traditional, allergic to technology, sticks to old fashioned behavior like Donovan (I mean, did you bother to read that one page of her novel from Episode 7? Her writing vocabulary is off the charts and typical of someone raised/trained classically... that's the real reason her publishers probably rejected her).

*I say gendered appropriate (not "gender appropriate") because I'm talking about the language and there are French terms of endearment that do not have a feminine form, like "mon cœur" and "mon amour". These terms you can use for women/girlfriends that are 'masculine' gendered (yes, I realize there are a lot of animal ones, but that's French for ya):

"mon petit monstre" (my little monster)

"mon petit oiseau" (my little bird...oh hello, Sandor, where'd you come from 💩)

"mon poussin" (my chick 🐣)

"mon chaton" (my kitten 🐾)

"mon trésor" (my treasure)

"mon doudou" (my cuddlebug, basically)

"mon coco" (literally coconut, but it's like saying "my dear")

"mon ange" (my angel)

"mon lutin" (my elf...which might by apropos for Enid 🫠)

This is not at all meant to be an exhaustive list; there are several other pet names and probably new ones since language is constantly evolving. It might help to poke around online and/or join forums dedicated to those who speak your target language.

I realize it can be confusing. Non-English romance languages can be, if you don't know anything about them. As a writer, I'm very appreciative of my experiences in France and Italy*, and I think the newer writers need to think outside of the Anglocentric box when writing for a character like Netflix Wednesday. (I need to take my own advice, because I programmed one of my deleted scenes in English audio without thinking of the non-English speakers who read my fic. That's a whole other issue tho 🧠💥.)

Huh. That wasn't as bloody as I could've made it. I must be getting soft in my old age.

Anyway. We all want Wednesday to sound like someone who knows what she's doing. We should do better with our conversational dialogue than the actual writers. We don't want our Wednesday to be embarrassed or embarrassing, again...

youtube

*And all the other countries I visited as a kid and adult...I know she's there right now, but I was in Buda in 2014 and while it's one of my favorite cities, Hungarian is the worst language ever 😭 EVER.

#writing problems #writing wednesday #writing fiction #writing #enid sinclair #wednesday #wednesday addams #wenclair #wyler #wavier #wenovan #black bubblegum #writing reference #jenna ortega #emma myers #hunter doohan #percy hynes white #jamie mcshane #and all the rest of the cast

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songoftrillium · 3 months

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Hey, so I'm reading your Hearthbound Supplement, and I wanted to ask why the Fianna were such unified enemies of theirs. From what I can tell, (this is more something that just bugged me) Fianna are one of the tribes with a stronger, healthier relationship to their Kinfolk (inasmuch as any tribe broadly has a good relationship with their Kinfolk) (though I have been known to miss Implications from time to time). Plus, it seems like the younger Fianna have a much kinder view of the Crinos Born, so I'd think they'd be heavily split along generational lines on whether the Hearthborn are enemies or not

Now, granted, my knowledge of WtA is only deep in certain areas, so this might just be me not having gotten to certain books yet, and the Finna really are Like That.

(Or it could be my draw to the whole keeper of history and knowledge, craftsmen, and tendency to adhere to the "Canon is a box of scraps in a cave and I'm Tony stark baby" approach)

Thank you for reaching out! I'm glad you asked, and I have hoped someone would ask me about this. I'm gonna give a wordy answer that addresses your concern and elucidates how I analyzed all the tribes to draw my conclusions.

I want to preface my answer by voicing my fondness for the tribe. At the top of it all, I completely agree that their biggest strengths are their existence as master artisans and storytellers. These aspects are absolutely worth holding onto and even expanding upon. I also appreciate their Celtic origins, but I wish it encompassed all Celts, not just the Irish. That veers a bit off-topic from your question, though.

My depiction of them as the primary antagonist of the Hearthbound stems from both their treatment of the crinos-born, as well as the objectification of their Kinfolk. In the book I call them crinos-born, but in WtE the writing team and I settled on Warborn as the title of choice, so I'll be using that term from here on out.

Different editions were never meant to supersede each other, but rather, build on one another to depict a continuous meta reflecting the evolution of Garou Society in response to their developing war against the Wyrm. For example, the Storytellers handbooks from 2nd edition, revised, and the companion all offer unique tools with very little overlap.

While more experienced people versed in the literature like you and I can read between the lines and handpick the bits we like most, it ignores that the flaws inherent to the tribes are intentional and meant to be confronted by players at the table. To that end, I conducted my research behind my writing with consideration paid to the narrative voices depicting each book, the Garou within them sharing their subjective knowledge, and use that to coalesce a perspective behind my group. When I started writing Hearthbound, I decided to form my conclusions based on three narrative perspectives:

The way a tribe's leadership wants other tribes to view them, their kinfolk, and their warborn.

The way the kinfolk within that tribe feel like they're being treated.

The way the warborn within that tribe feel like they're being treated.

Hearthbound makes a more naked depiction of these problems specifically to confront them, though I admit I should have taken more of an effort to make it clear that these depictions are reflecting the worst aspects of these tribes, rather than the whole of them. These problems represent the worst outliers from each tribe, and are not meant to entirely replace these tribes. When it comes to systemic oppression, it's not always the laws and customs that cause the problems. Still, there are those who hide behind the veneer of hierarchy to abuse those customs in a way that they seldom face repercussions for it, and the Hearthbound are those repercussions. This is a reflection of other forms of systemic oppression, like laws alleged to be 'tough on crime', which on the surface looks great, but glosses over the way those crimes unfairly target marginalized groups and keep them from rising to prominence.

I draw my conclusions on each of the tribe stances from three sources:

Kinfolk: A Breed Apart offering a depiction of Kinfolk the way the tribes represent them, or rather, the way they want other tribes to see them. It does hold many positive depictions on the relations between Garou and Kinfolk.

Kinfolk: Unsung Heroes, in contrast, represents a perspective from Kinfolk that is a little less flattering and is more closely representing the perspective of the Kinfolk themselves (and is taken as such.)

Guardians of the Caerns has a chapter dedicated entirely to the Warborn, and lends their perspective on what it was like growing up in a Sept of a particular tribe. This represents the sentiment of what it's like being a Warborn from any one tribe, opposed to the way these tribes want to be seen.

To answer your question in short, yes, the worst of the Fianna really are that way. They are more likely to outright kill a Warborn and their parents than to accept them, and those Warborn who do exist within their tribes seldom hold rank, are often hidden from view, and subject to rather terrible abuses by their fellow tribemates.

Contrast that with the blatant and plainworded phrasing in the tribe description of them trending towards violence:

Combine that with their lackadaisical ways of speaking of their own families in Guardians of the Caerns, pg. 94:

Merryck's comments: It's not without a certain sense of irony that the Fianna, self-avowed masters and mistresses of passion and abandon among the werewolves, despise the [Warborn]. They believe that physical deformity shows a malevolence in the spirit as well. But at the same time, they're really into having wild, raucus parties, orgies if you ask my opinion. The Fianna dismiss any potential risk with this kind of activity their answer to slowing those driving passions is "find a Kinfolk to slake your lust." How practical. Don't kid yourself; there are many [Warborn] running around with red hair and green eyes, both in their tribe and outside it.

When you combine multiple sources and add a human perspective wrt consent, it starts to paint an incredibly unflattering canonical picture of the tribe, and a narratively compelling one, to boot.

For others reading this, below is a link to my supplement in question OP is referencing, if anyone wants to take a look!

#world of darkness #werewolf: the apocalypse #werewolf the apocalypse #werewolves #werewolf #werewolf the essentials #wta #hearthbound #fianna #warborn #crinos-born #Ask a Storyteller #Mundus

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ruthlesslistener · 2 years

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If you're alright with answering what is the difference between a conquerer and a coloniser? Or is your issue more based in the fact that people call PK a coloniser to remove guilt from the radiance rather than the term itself? Not trying to be smarmy here, I genuinely don't get the difference between the terms, is it just a difference of settlers?

Yep, there's a lot of difference! A conquerer is someone who takes over a territory that wasn't originally theirs, whereas a colonizer is a foreign power that sends groups of people to settle in a foreign territory to establish control over it. They're both terrible, but the means of control is very different; when a foreign power conquers another state, the populace largely remains the same, but the style of life/rule may change, or conquered peoples may have to pay a tax to the state that conquered them. Historically, it could vary between the conquered peoples having no change in life at all to them being placed under a tyrant regime that they despised, which makes it vary in how horrid it is (but it's still bad. Cannot stress enough how bad it is!!). The Pale King falls under this title because both him and his wife ruled over the beetles, which were native to Hallownest, but they did not displace any native species; there was merely a change in religion and (presumably) a way of life.

Additionally, we canonically know that the Moth Tribe allying themselves with the Pale Gods was what allowed him to displace the Radiance, though I hesitate to place any blame on them at all because the Pale King has a notorious trend of speaking half-truths to get bugs to stay under his thrall, which means that they very likely did not understand what they were getting into at the time. However, the main point remains clear: the arrival of the Pale King did not displace any of the native tribes from their homes, even though it caused a vast variety of other problems. We also do not have any canonical proof that the Pale King had any hand in the actual downfall of their numbers, either, which makes sense because getting rid of them = getting rid of a significant chunk of the worshiping resources that he needs as a god. He likely still fucked them up terribly, but that's another post to be made entirely. The point is, he is a conquerer.

Colonization, on the other hand, directly involves the displacement of native peoples or species in order for the invading forces to exploit their resources. This is where the concept of settlers comes in, and it is always verified to be a brutal, awful business, because the end goal of it is to wipe out all the native peoples and species and to remake the earth into either Kingdom 2.0, or a mining spot for resources to enrich the empire back home. To colonize an area requires either the genocide of the previous inhabitants or the forced assimilation into the culture of the settling group, as well as the destruction of native habitat and any other landmarks that are important or sacred to the native peoples of that region. The land is destroyed and remade to the settler's desires, or it is drained dry of resources to be sent back to the motherland. The whole point of colonies is to brute-force their way into new territories in order to bolster the strength of the ancestral land, which does not come in the form of the natives sending tithes and taxes, but comes from direct seizure of the land. Both the people in power and the individuals of the original nation are involved in the colonization effort, with the settlers often being brainwashed by propaganda into believing what they are doing is 'righteous' and that either enslaving or murdering the natives is 'doing god's work'. There's typically a religious or eugenics perspective applied to this as well: the native tribes are seen as 'less civilized' than the settlers, and so it is the settler's god-given duty to subdue and 'civilize' them, usually by either enslaving them or by forcefully assimilating them into settler families and culture. It's evil. It's fucking evil.

As for my issues with the Pale King being called a colonizer: I primarily hate it because it both removes guilt from the Radiance and places blame on the beetle tribe, but a not-so-insignificant portion of it is because I fucking love history, and seeing it used as a buzzword for problematic characters makes me want to scream. There is almost no greater evil in the world than colonization (well, apart from capitalism), both from the social and the ecological perspective. Because it is evil. There is no nuance to it. And there are still people to this day who suffer from the effects of it, and still get abused by the nations responsible for it, so not only is this something that should NOT be used flippantly and VERY MUCH SHOULD NOT be used as a buzzword just because you hate a fictional character, writing a story where a colonizing force is being challenged should always view the native group as the ones in the right. Because they are. They're being shoved out of their homes and killed and having their culture destroyed because some greedy fuck and their braindead populace with a superiority streak saw them as less than human. There is no fucking way that you can take any sort of rebellion against that evil and claim it was wrong without allying yourself with the colonizing force. I'm normally all for nuance, but here, there is none.

So when you claim that either the Pale King or the Radiance is a colonizer*- which they canonically aren't- you are inherently setting the other up as the victim. And because you're doing that, you're automatically setting them up as the group whose actions are justified, because if you condemn it, you fall into very, very dangerous territory. And given how fucking horrifying the Radiance's actions were? How she's the main antagonist of the story, how she's shown to be directly responsible for mass indoctrination and genocide, how she forced herself into the minds of the other native tribes that were separate from her conflict with the Pale King and made them preach about giving in to her light and then killing them afterwards because they were only tools to her? There's no fucking way. There's no fucking way that you can make that comparison. Equating the horrors that she did in her selfish rampage for power and revenge to the actions of people desperate to get their homes back is fucking horrifying. She killed millions of people and tortured many more so that she could have complete dominion over a kingdom that wasn't her own, and forced her control on unrelated parties to boot. There's no fucking way that you can place any of her actions in good faith outside of maybe 'her infecting everyone was her scrambling to come back from the brink of death', but even that doesn't account for the infection of the Mosskin, the forced preaching from the Moss Prophet (someone who belongs to Unn!!), the ruin she made of Deepnest, and the pacts she made with the mantises. She's just as bad as PK, and she's just as much of a selfish, power-hungry control freak as he is. The only difference is that she's more openly violent while he was outstandingly neglectful, and that's not even getting into the whole possibility that she was the one who caused the downfall of the original Void Civilization that founded Hallownest.

(Also Bardoon's dialogue on the infection seems to imply that she mind-controlled the bugs in the kingdom in the past which is a whole other can of worms. But since I don't think that the Pale King's 'free mind' shtick was any better for various other reasons, I'm not going to go there)

And NOT ONLY THAT, because colonziation requires the effort of the populace, you're also laying the blame on the tribes correlated to both of those gods- tribes that both suffered immensely from their strife and had nothing to do with any of the crimes that they committed. The Seer may bitterly remark on the foolishness of her ancestors, but there's no way that they would have been able to understand the full consequences of their actions. That's something that the foresight-having God of Mind would have known, and is a guilt that she or her people have absolutely no reason to carry. The Beetle Tribe certainly existed pre-Hallownest and likely lived in the caverns that made the Forgotten Crossroads and the City of Tears before the Pale King arrived; there's fossilized remains of them everywhere, and Lemm has dialogue on the bugs of Hallownest worshipping the Void even before the Old Light came along. Not only that, but they were not a militaristic race, and all of the evidence of their architecture in the territories of the other tribes seem to be there for trade or transport, as the bulk of their territory is composed of the Forgotten Crossroads (very literally a trading hub), and the City of Tears (where they actually lived). Additionally, they canonically had very little contact with their ruler because he was a fucking recluse, so they weren't exactly following his orders to take over areas that weren't theirs. Hell, they didn't even know the truth of the Infection because their coward-king wouldn't tell them the cause of it; both the beetles and the moths were innocent, as well as all of the other tribes that got swept into the conflict and destroyed, and that is the core tragedy of the game's main story. These were not settlers. These were innocents. And them helping the Knight on their journey- who was a victim of both the Pale King and the Radiance-is significant because of that very reason. They all were innocent.

So long story short, yes there's a difference, yes people misusing or pretending otherwise seriously bothers me, and yes I have a very good reason to be extremely concerned about those misinterpretations and the spread of them outside of technical accuracy, thank you very much.

(*I can argue that the Radiance was not a colonizer despite most likely having a claw in the Void Civilization's downfall because her territory appears to have been in the Crystal Peaks/Resting Grounds, as evidenced by her strong affinity with the refractive crystals, the pink and gold hues, the iron gates wrought in her image in the Resting Grounds, and the fact that the Grounds themselves have a purple hue to them, a midtone between the pinks of Crystal Peak and the blues of the underground caverns. So even if she destroyed the original civilization-likely because void magics pose a direct lethal threat to her- she did not settle in their territory. The White Lady is hard to tell, but given that her roots are massive around Kingdom's Edge/the place where the White Palace was built, it's very likely that she sprouted and grew in Hallownest. And the Pale King is for sure not a colonizer, because we know with 100% certainty that he came from over the Wastelands, shed his form, and became ruler of the Beetle Tribe with the help of the Moths; he had no worshipers from where he previously was. Likewise, he married the White Lady and shared territory with her, so no actual displacing of native tribes or gods occurred, it's just that he and Radi had an absolute shitfit over who got to be in control over those two populations.)

#Hollow Knight #the Radiance #the pale king #the white lady #hollow knight lore #hollow knight meta #pale king #white lady #anon #reply #YES i am tagging all this shit #NO you cannot stop me #its fucking important okay i cannot overstate this enough #this whole thing is a shitfit and pretending otherwise has VERY FUCKING CONCERNING AND DEEPLY RACIST IMPLICATIONS

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eveindtub · 8 months

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i know we're tired by now, but i have one take on only friends characters that i think we might be overlooking because of our own personal attachments (to them AND the actors).

you might have heard before of mirror/parallel characters (if you haven't, i'd recommend the read about it because it's very interesting) and whether it's the writers' purpose or not, i think we have these in the main six.

"Parallel characters, also known as mirror characters, are characters who share many similarities with each other. These similarities can be related to the characters' personalities, backgrounds, or motivations. By having so much in common, they are then able to highlight the differences between their decisions. The characters complement each other while revealing truths about each other that would otherwise have been difficult to spot."

my two cents on who is mirroring who in only friends is:

top - ray

mew - sand

boston - nick

if you leave favouritism at the door and pay real attention to these characters' background and personalities you'll see they're actually very similar, but they're moving on different directions because of, obviously, their different realities, surroundings, etc. what makes us, us.

top and ray are both rich kids with a sad past, and apparently problems with their parents, who ended up turning to drugs as a coping mechanism; both used to getting what they want, when they want and not taking a no for an answer. and funnily enough, maybe that's why they both despise each other (and fell for mew). i think these two are the most obvious mirror and it's what makes funnier to watch how different are the fandom's reactions for their actions every week. they're pretty much the same font, in different notebooks.

mew and sand are also easy to notice: quiet guys that are mostly worried about doing their own things and not messing with anyone's business; both very vocal about their needs and intentions and the only ones who seem to know how to draw and not to cross a line. the fact they end up getting involved with top and ray draws another interesting mirror: we can see two pairs with people that are pretty similar, but with very different routes.

it's almost like saying: hey, look at a&b and now look at c&d - this is what a&b could've been, under these circumstances - with different choices.

for boston and nick, i feel like it's more of a reach, but you can see they also have their similarities or they wouldn't have hit from the start (like let's be for real, that was insanity). i see them as the only ones that could understand each other, to the point that boston might not even think nick bugging his car was creepy (just be pissed bc it was behind his back). but then again, boston wears his insanity proudly while nick is more reserved: still, deep down they're very alike (in nick's own words, he's also nasty).

on another note, we have the public view on all of this: you just don't see them reacting with the same fervor about the similarities of the characters. for example, top has been painted as a red flag for doing things ray has as well - but ray is a lonely guy who needs love and care; not top. meanwhile, sand have been clapped as the most unproblematic character, but mew is definitely plotting something behind his good guy act. on boston and nick, there's just not much discourse even tho boston is pretty much the drama, so i'll leave it at that, but i think we took longer to judge nick for his actions, since he is quieter.

there's a quote that says:

"It is funny how different mirrors reveal different aspects, it must be like people you meet, you get to prefer the ones who show an image of you that you like." — Alain Bremond-Torrent

which i see like: even though these characters are very much alike, people keep picking this or that side because of their own perspectives on life, which don't necessarily means this or that character is in the wrong or is better than the other, but some interpretations have been muddled because of their own traits (or preferences?).

back to my first point, i don't know if the writers intended to make them like this on purpose, but the weekly discourse is showing how the reactions on very sensitive topics are just not the same if you just switch the character (or may i say, the actor?), to what i believe is one of the reasons behind writing mirror characters.

but the conclusion is, none of these characters are blank pages and they all have their wrongs. it doesn't make them villains or protagonists - they're all just parallel lines going through this mess and i wish we, as viewers, could be more impartial when judging those actions. when something is wrong, it is, no matter the one behind it. so let's stop witch-hunting some while patting the head of others.

#i think this got long but i had to say it #as we progress through the eps and the characters pov of things #it gets clearer and clearer how they're all flawed and their reasons #so can we PLEASE #only friends series #topmew #sandray #bostonick #only friends

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palettepainter · 1 year

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It’s mothers day in the UK tomorrow, so here’s a little piece featuring mama Magakure and her army of country bumpkin kiddies (from left to right: Hono, Higrai, Chikara, Suru, Taiho) - They’ll be more mothers day drawings like this piece to come soon to my Redbubble in time for Mothers Day in the US, but for now it’s just Magakure! (some facts about the kiddos below)

You can get this design available on my Redbubble as a:

Sticker/Magnet - https://www.redbubble.com/i/sticker/Maijima-Family-by-Palettepainter1/142451137.EJUG5 // https://www.redbubble.com/i/magnet/Maijima-Family-by-Palettepainter1/142451137.TBCTK

Poster (I’ve always wanted to try doing posters so if there is a certain character you want on a poster let me know!) - https://www.redbubble.com/i/poster/Maijima-Family-by-Palettepainter1/142451137.E40HW

And Travel Mug - https://www.redbubble.com/i/mug/Maijima-Family-by-Palettepainter1/142451137.V33QC

Since it’s been a decent while since I’ve posted any headcannons here are some drabbles about Higari and his siblings

Higari was a pretty shy kid at first, around his parents he was passionate about cars, frogs and collecting a variety of bugs. Around other kids his own age Higari didn’t really feel like he belonged, so often kept quite and preferred to stick to the side lines, happy to entertain himself by watching the worms wiggle about in the dirt making sculptures out of the earth. Higari liked to help his mum out with yard work when he was old enough, and despite Magakure’s often blunt attitude she enjoyed having Higari about to keep things entertaining - she was also happy he had a passion for being outdoors. When Higari got some little siblings to show off to he grew some confidence and became a much more confident kid

Hono, Higari’s rowdy, energetic younger brother. Higari was very excited to have a little brother to keep him company, even more so when he got to show off to him. Hono like any baby was impressionable so him and Higari share a lot of the same interests and dislikes. They both despised bath time as kids and bath time often started with a wild goose chase of their mother trying to round them up to the bathroom. That being said they weren’t entirely the same, Hono from the get go was a lot more daring then his older brother, Hono more often then not taking the lead on their many adventures. Hono was often the one who had to stand up for his brother who would still get anxious around the other kids in their school. Hono takes the most after their mother in appearance, but is also quick to irritate like her, when he was a kid he could throw quite the tantrum when he wanted to

Chikara and Taiho, the twins, where much easier then Higari and Hono - being twins Chikara and Taiho where happy to play amongst themselves when Higari and Hono didn’t feel like playing with them. Alas with Chikara being the only girl her older brothers sometimes pushed her out of playing games with them, which caused a lot of conflict between them when Chikara got older and wanted to hang out with them more. Chikara as a kid grew up to be a quick thinker and a little scamp, often outsmarting Higari and Hono just to get back at them for not including her in the fun. Eventually, when Kaigo sat Higari and Hono down to explain why Chikara wanted to play with them so much the two worked harder to include their baby sister in their games - though naturally she was still quite a scamp, wanting to be like her brothers. Taiho was a lot more quite, often acting more as an accomplice to his sisters shenanigans and overall a lot less prone to cause his parents problems. Taiho was a quite kid but he wasn’t shy, he just liked to have his quite time to himself. Whereas Chikara was more of a daddys girl, Taiho was a mummas boy and liked to help Magakure out with stuff in the garden and especially helping her cook

Suru, the youngest and last child in the Maijima family, had a lot of older siblings to help raise her. Chikara naturally clung onto Suru the most in the beginning, eager to have a baby sister, but Hono was the one to eventually act as her sibling role model after the passing of their dad. Suru took a lot after Hono growing up, always following him around like a duckling. She grew up with quite a potty mouth and feisty temper, which often lead to Magakure telling Hono he needed to do better for Suru. The home at the time was a bit all over the place with the passing of their father and Higari shortly after going up to stay in the city to attend UA. Hono didn’t realise at the time, but he clung to Suru so much in hopes she would fill the gap Higari left when we went away - when Suru realised this years later in her late teens it led to a bit of a rebellious phase, which only put more of a gap between her and her mother. Suru in the present is blunt and indifferent to a lot of crazy things, gets her head stuck in her work and still isn’t entirely sure what she wants to do when she’s older. She is very unsure at where her bond with Hono stands, as she fears Hono still views her as a replacement for Higari (it doesn’t help her and Higari are very similar in looks and have similar quirks)

DO NOT REPOST/EDIT/COPY/TRACE MY ART OR OC’S!!!

#MHA #Magakure #Higari #Hono #Taiho #Chikara #Suru #Mothers day

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dragonoffantasyandreality · 1 year

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While its still March, let me introduce to my little bug babies from my crossover fic, Kamen Rider Thunderbirds X3 (yes I noticed the watermark is from 2022 since I made those pictures during November. But now I have the time to show them off XD)

Click on “keep reading” for a quick info for each of the characters (from left to right) ^^

@uniwolfcorn @teapotteringabout @skymaiden32 @knyee @janetm74 @the-original-sineater @amistrio @thundergeek59 @riallasheng @soniabigcheese @inertplanetary @katblu42 @dreamycloud @godsliltippy @commandermac @kamenriderserotonin

Yuuki Tsugami (Kamen Rider Agito)- The brave and kind young man with psychic powers. Much like his father, he’s really good at committing to his double-life role, to the point that most people (aside of his friends) could not distinguish from his silent, noble warrior of Agito to his happy-go-lucky, pun-loving guy personas. The first to jump into battle when monsters are in the vicinity.

Taira Kaoru (Kamen Rider Kuuga)- The optimist with nearly 2000 skills, with the goal of giving people smiles. He’s the go-to guy when his friends needed comfort and getting the spirits up. While he despises the use of violence, he feels it is a necessity to stop monsters from causing harm.

Koji Sumiko (Kamen Rider G3-X)- A half-Japanese and half-British ex-cop, who is a smart and courageous badass. When his mind is put into work, he’s a serious hacker, operator and fighter. When off duty, he’s laidback, chill (most of the time) and the type to crack a good joke or two. Though, he does get irritated when there’s chaos in the room, sometimes.

Recko Ashihara (Kamen Rider Gills)- The serious one and the “Reality Hammer” of the group. Although he has trust issues with people, he always follows his friends and not afraid to speak the truth when he feels the situation needs it. He also has a low-content woldog companion named Raider.

Tensai Kiryu (Kamen Rider Build)- The eccentric narcissist but good hearted genius of the Rider gang. While his ways of invention and problem solving could be described as chaotic and he’s a certified troll, he will do anything to keep his friends and everyone around him safe and kick some baddies’ ass for Love and Peace.

Sakiko Hino (Kamen Rider OOO)- The “big sister” and the voice of reason. Sweet and fierce, her love for adventure and her deep caring for her friends made her the person that keeps everything together when times go sore. She got super-strength that she had inherited from her grandmother, which she’s a bit embarrassed about it.

Leo Hidari and Soren (Kamen Rider W)- Two in one Rider, a pair of expert detectives from an obscure Japanese city of Fuuto. While Leo is the resident half-boiled drama queen of the group, his compassion and empathy is essential when faced with the criminals he arrests. Soren is his close partner with mysterious wind powers, who is an oblivious nerd, but very helpful when it comes to find important information.

Akira Hiden (Kamen Rider Zero One)- The youngest of the group and the CEO of an android company of his family heritage, Hiden Intelligence. Cheerful, caring and humble, he’s the type who tries his best to support his friends no matter how dire the situation is. Even when cracking one of his many terrible puns. He has a sentient android secretary named Izu, who accompanies him and act as his close support.

#my art #my ocs #march of the ocs #march of the ocs 2023 #Kamen Rider Thunderbirds series #crossover #Fanfiction crossovers #kamen rider #thunderbirds #thunderbirds 1965 #kamen rider fandom #Thunderfam #kamen rider fanart #thunderbirds fanart

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damien-wolfram-art · 6 months

Text

It’s Just a Bit

“It’s just for a scene,” Sasuke told himself as he lay in his plush bed surrounded by many pillows. “We’re almost done with this movie.” He clutched one tightly with his arms and legs, imagining it as the object of his current obsession, Naruto Uzumaki. “We’ll never see her again.” He thought, but there was a burning jealousy seething inside him.

Yukie Fujikaze was a beautiful dark-haired woman with skin like porcelain. She was also a talented actress– one that many in Sasuke’s profession looked up to. This included his long-time coworker, Naruto, who for the sake of a bit, had taken a nap on set after being patched up from his stunts. While he snored away, she approached him, kissing his left cheek gently for a photo.

Naruto would have loved to have been awake for it. That idea only made Sasuke’s bitter resentment grow deeper. This wasn’t the first time he’d felt this way though.

After years of working with the dimwitted goofball that Naruto was, Sasuke had grown inexplicably yet undeniably attached. He didn’t understand why, but whenever anyone strayed too close to his orange glowing ball of sunshine, he despised it. Naruto was his–only his. Sasuke had it bad for the little idiot.

He couldn’t tell him that though. They were just kids and Naruto was a guy like him. Not only that, but Naruto very obviously liked girls.

This was only made more obvious by how Naruto reacted to the candid photo– blushing like a schoolgirl at the idea of being kissed in such an unflattering state. Sasuke didn’t think of it as unflattering though. He considered the image of his beaten blond drooling and snoring away to be quite endearing. The only unflattering part was that stranger kissing him.

If only it could have been him. He would have kissed him better. He would have sat in bed with him afterwards and held his hand. They would have joked around and laughed together.

Sasuke thought back to the early days of shooting with Naruto. They were both talented in their own right, but they were strangers to each other then. He remembered when the idea for them to kiss on camera was pitched. Naruto was super excited. “Such a cool idea, right?” Naruto asked him, getting far too close. “I mean, what other rivals get to kiss, y’know?”

Sasuke gave in to Naruto’s ecstatic passion that day. The kiss was brief, harsh, and not very pleasant, but it awoke something in Sasuke. His character may have wanted to surpass Naruto, but he, simply wanted him. He just didn’t know how to say it.

So he didn’t. He just let his desire embitter him. He kept on wanting Naruto and hating anyone who got close, but he worried now that he’d lost his chance. Sasuke, the character, would be going on hiatus soon. It was what the plot of the show called for, but Sasuke, the actor, feared that he would be forgotten by his friend. They spent plenty of time together outside of work so that wasn’t the problem. Something else was bugging him. “What if he meets someone else?” He thought, clutching the pillow even tighter and shoving his worry flushed pale face into it in a way that ruffled his already disheveled midnight blue hair.

Only time would tell.

@narutokinktober

@bitchbot3000

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shadesofdeviant · 1 year

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Tarlos Thoughts

I'm honestly struggling to write anything Tarlos related at the moment and I entirely blame season 4.

Listen, I can accept TK and Carlos' flaws, they're human beings not caricatures and I do not expect them to be perfect at all times. Equally I do not suddenly despise one of them when they make mistakes, I want 3-dimensional characters that seem real and flawed, not perfect idols of worship. But my god this season is testing my patience and I'm putting it beneath a read more because I will ramble.

TL:DR I fucking hate miscommunication and Tarlos is looking far too unhealthy in this series. I do not blame this on the characters or the actors. I'm looking at you Tim.

Also, just incase anyone needs it, trigger warning for 2x12, spoiler warning for 4x12 and more importantly a trigger warning for discussions of actions that could be interpreted as abuse.

I got why Carlos was married. I appreciate that he was lost, feeling very much unaccepted and it was during a time at which the idea of marrying another man was little more than a fever dream. So he has this close relationship with his best friend, and honestly if my best friend wasn't already married, she'd be the only one I would ever consider marrying. I Get that.

What I DON'T get though. Is how long it took for him to bring it up to TK.

Listen miscommunication rubs me the wrong way. Whether it's in TV, Movies, Asian Dramas, Fanfiction etc. If I see any form of miscommunication I will back out. I have the tag blacklisted on AO3 because I don't like it and so I choose to avoid it. Because I get feral and just end up screaming "Just fricking talk to each other OMFG!". It's also why I don't watch too many TV shows.

The thing about the marriage that bugs me is that Carlos seemingly had no intention of telling TK. TK proposed, spent weeks, months? (LS timelines elude me sometimes) planning the wedding, visiting venues etc. and not one peep of Carlos telling him or even trying to tell him. Again, I get Carlos is a control freak and tries to fix everything himself and does not like admitting when things are beyond his ability and he is very much captain deflection and does not like to share his own problems ever.

And honestly, with the way TK runs away at the slightest sign of issues within the relationship and explodes like a minefield, it's not explicitly mentioned, but I can very much imagine that this humongous flaw played a part in Carlos keeping the issue to himself. And I will admit I was...surprised...TK was so calm when Carlos admitted he was married, I was fully expecting him to end up back at his Dad's for a few months again.

But it feels very much a disservice to himself and TK for it to get to the point it did. It felt very much like he was hoping to divorce Iris and then marry TK without TK being any the wiser. Which is too much on the side of lying for my comfort.

Especially since we've often seen him trying to get TK to talk to him about things.

Now this discourse about kids.

Again I get it. I do not want kids EVER. I will gladly be the godparent and cool relative who gets them hyped on sugar then give them back with an evil grin.

Carlos' wants for the future sound very much like a "Not yet" rather than a "not ever" and look, the pair of them are still young and haven't been together that long in the grand scheme of things especially considering breakups and comas etc. But how has this conversation never come up before? It's just drama for drama's sake.

But what really really irks me about the entire season....is the jokes about his wife and being married that he just peppers into conversation constantly. How long has it been since the truth was revealed? Are Carlos and Iris even divorced/annulled yet? What part of TK's reaction to the marriage made Carlos think it was okay to joke about it?

Carlos you lied to TK about the marriage, then you seemingly got angry and blamed TK for when Iris disappeared, you then lied again when you told TK you were staying at the hospital overnight. How does any of that equate to TK being okay with you making "my wife" jokes?

Honestly with all this miscommunication drama that the writers/producers are putting in seemingly for the sake of creating drama...all they're doing is making Carlos come across as mean and TK come across as being baby-fied and uwued or whatever the current terminology is.

I wont go as far as to say the way Carlos talks to TK is gaslighting, but its coming very very close with the way he deflects and responds to some of the things TK says (especially in the parental discussion) and how he often seems to trivialise TK being upset. And let me be clear I am blaming poor writing for that, not Carlos as a character or Rafael.

Equally the way TK jumps to "So you're saying you think I'll be a bad father" whilst obviously intended to be a show of his lingering insecurities, could be argued as quite the gaslight as well. And don't get me started on TK's explosive reaction in season 2 or the way he ran away and didn't communicate prior to season 3. Honestly, if I was the one dating either of them, I would have ran for the hills like my name was Owen Strand, months, if not years ago.

STOP GAP FOR A MOMENT.

Just to reiterate. I AM NOT ACCUSING CARLOS OR TK OF BEING ABUSIVE. I am saying that POOR WRITING and a lack of understanding of healthy relationships by TIM and the WRITERS are allowing for actions/words to be interpreted as borderline abusive.

But...honestly Tarlos used to be one of my comfort relationships and it's very much drifting into the typical media territory of never letting the gays be happy. It started at the end of season 2 with how TK reacted to the news Gabriel arrested Owen and it's just been getting worse as the seasons go on.

We're drifting dangerously towards the "bury your gays" trope and I don't care how much reassurance we get from Tim or Ronen etc. that Tarlos is endgame, I'm starting to not believe it, or...dare I say it...want it.

I don't know if I can make it to the end of the season at this rate.

Please bear in mind this is my opinion. If you do not agree with this fine. I will not accept anyone coming at me in my ask box to defend or vilify Carlos or TK for their actions and I am not team TK or team Carlos I have issues with both of them, they both have flaws as characters and are the direct equal cause of issues in their relationship

But finally, I would like to point out this:

Dotted moments of cuteness and lightheartedness do not a healthy relationship make.

#9-1-1: Lone Star #9-1-1 ls spoilers #Tarlos #rintrash #I have opinions #I'm probably inviting hate with this #but I am beyond caring right now #Listen #I love Tarlos #I love Carlos and TK as characters individually #But I am so done with this season already

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eternal-armin · 2 years

Text

a pearl.

struggling with their emotional stability, [y/n] vents their heart out to jinx after she urges them to do so.

reader: neutral.

cw: mentions of suicidal ideation, self-hate, traumatic pasts, internalized 'i deserve this'

this is kind of a vent 'shot. i struggle with these thoughts very often, minus the support which is afforded to reader.

curled in a ball atop your bed, you stared at the wall, though you didn't really see it. your arm slumped over onto the controller of your speaker. every time the song ended, you hit replay, letting it fill your ears non-stop. maybe you were crying, but you didn't feel it- you preferred not feeling at this point. what would happen if you felt again? the mere thought of finding out made you nauseated.

you had jinx. you could ask for help, and she would help you, but you didn't dare speak out. this time- what if this time was what broke her? what made her angry at how sensitive you were, at how many problems you had? you couldn't risk it. you couldn't lose her, too.

your ear was numbed to the music. but it was such a beautiful song, it always made you cry.

someone knocked on your door, but you let it go unanswered. surely they knew you were in here. whoever it was- silco, sevika, jinx, whoever- would be better off not seeing you right now. hell, if you saw someone, you would be sent into hysterics. funny how that works.

"hey, sweets?" jinx called. your blood ran cold. cold enough to ache, but not cold enough to make you move. "you've been listening to that song for a while~," she joked. hope seeped into her voice. probably hoping you would respond in any way. but you didn't. like a pest, you hoped she would go away on her own.

how fucking dare you call her that. who the hell do you think you are?

your eyes stung. she didn't leave.

you rewinded the song again.

"toots, i'm not leavin' until you open up!" jinx called again. you were still too scared to respond, praying to god that she would go away, come back when you could offer her anything more than sobs.

god, huh? why would he care about someone like you?

you could just barely hear her scoff behind the door. it wasn’t a disgusted sound or anything. fittingly, it made your heart ache more.

"i'm comin' in, alright?" the doorknob jiggled after a few seconds. it was a hurried sound. she opened the door to a dark, haphazardly cleaned room, books scattered across your bed, and you laying atop it. you looked dead- or close to it, you were so statue-still. your favorite hoodie hung loosely from your body for the fourth night in a row, the only solace from the chilly early-spring air you let the rest of your body be exposed to.

she was quiet for a second. you half expected for her to just leave. maybe she could lock the door behind her and let you starve to death like you wanted.

can't control anything else, might as well choose how you die. and you deserve to die violently, mercilessly, don't you?

"heya, gorgeous. you feelin' alright?" you simultaneously adored and despised the caution, the carefulness, in her voice. you didn't deserve it and yet you felt you needed it.

jinx got no answer from you.

she sighed curtly, stepping closer to the bed. "look, bud, whether ya like tellin' me or not- and you probably don't- i need to know what's going on. if someone's bugging ya, i can fix that. if something's bugging ya, i can fix that. name the problem and poof, it'll be gone, alright?"

you knew she was just trying to persuade you into spilling your feelings, so might as well bite the bullet.

"can you make me disappear?"

those five simple words stunned her into silence. "s-sweets, wha... what the hell are you talking about? no. no, i'm not gonna disappear ya. why would you wanna disappear? what's going on?" at first she laughed through her words, thinking you were joking. but the lack of movement of any type reassured her that she was dead wrong. that raw concern lined her voice clearly.

now you knew all too well that you were crying. you bit your lip till it hurt, trying not to break out into sobs.

"i-i dunno. i just- i wanna..." you didn't finish that sentence.

you rewinded the song again.

the bed sank behind you as jinx took a seat, scooching closer to you. "can you talk to me, snookums? please? i-i- i'm not that big a help but you can't die. you can't disappear."

"why not?"

jinx stumbled over her own thoughts and words, trying to think of what to say. when you wouldn’t even look at her, it felt so close to hopeless. "think about everything you've yet to do! you wanted to explore the world, see the stars, learn your family recipes, go to school! y-you still can, and you gotta...! even... even not everything you wanna do, even the things that make you happy. cooking, baking, watching the same shows over and over. tomorrow could be the happiest day of your life. please just- just stick around to see it. please."

"tomorrow isn't today. tomorrow won't fix me. i don't wanna be happy if it just means i'll feel like this again in the future. i'm so tired, jinx." your face contorted as you tried not to sob. your lungs screamed, and your face was wet, but you couldn't just humiliate yourself like that.

"you don't need to be fixed to deserve happiness. life is- it's all about circles! nothin' stays the same, but it gets better every time." you could hear jinx's attempt to smile whither in her voice.

"i need to be fixed and i don't deserve happiness."

there it is.

jinx stammered for a moment. "w-what?"

you felt angry. with no tears left to cry, you sat up, hitting the speaker to shut it up. "out of everyone, you know how this feels! your family fucked you over and you'll never recover from it. everyone you reach out to for help either uses you or abandons you and eventually you just break. how am i supposed to heal from this? i’m nowhere near as strong as you. i need to be fixed but you can't just glue things back together and say 'ooh, you're fixed now, you're solved!' glue weakens too, y'know! and everytime that the glue breaks it just gets worse and worse and the world gets a little smaller." you took a breath, filling your crying lungs. spilling your guts- not in the way you wanted- simultaneously lessened the burden and made it feel heavier upon your shoulders.

"i-i don't wanna go through this 'circle' anymore, jinx. if everybody treated me like that my whole fuckin' life, maybe that's how i always deserved to be treated. i don't deserve anything better than that." your bottom lip trembled. never before had you raised your voice at jinx, never even thought about it. she didn't deserve your yelling just because you were too immature and frustrated to solve your own fucking problems.

jinx's gaze was focused solely on you, and for the first time ever, you hated it. she should gaze like this at anyone else.

"you don't deserve that, [y/n]. nothing close to it. no matter what happened in your past, it doesn't change the fact that you're human. you're a person, an incredible person, who deserves the world. your dickhead parents and the assholes from your past don't change the fact that you're smart, you're creative, you have so much love in your heart you could give it to the whole world and still have some left over!" jinx faced you with a strength you almost envied, carefully grasping your hands to help ground you. her touch almost scared you at this point, but you craved it. you needed it, at this point.

she pulled you into a hug after a few seconds. another wave of tears threatened you to fall. you took a breath and let it out, and let the tears out with it.

"the past is a bitch. y'can't just fight it off, no one can. so it follows you around day in and day out. that's just what it does." her words, though without comfort, still reassured you just a little. "and of course the world thinks it's funny to give the worst challenges to the best people. make you struggle and scrape and crawl your way through every single day until you either break someone else or yourself. but, you...

"you've gotten through so much. your mind is a pearl. something beautiful, to be treasured, formed from the worst of the worst. it hurts so bad to make a pearl, and it always sticks around, which means that the worst of your life does, too."

your tears steadily stopped falling. jinx skipped the bullshit sugarcoating, and that helped you more. even if it didn't give you much hope.

"i'm not gonna say it gets easier, pretty boy, because i really don't know if it does. but i will say that the burden's a bit easier to face when you've got someone you wanna face it for. you're that person for me, y'know. 'ts why i'm always so eager to give you all the love you want. you’ll learn to grow around it like a flower grows through concrete. but the worst part about it is that it takes time. time is a bitch! time is such a bitch, i hate it so much.”

you couldn’t help but laugh a bit. “time is an asshole,” you added. she laughed a little too. it brought you the greatest relief you’d felt in a while.

“exactly! i don’t blame you for wantin’ to disappear and all that. you’re not alone in that thought. you never were, never are, never will be. you’re stronger than y’think, y’know. but please, sweets, please tell me when you feel like this again. okay?” arms still wrapped around you, she looked you in the eye.

even when you were surely a mess- eyes red, cheeks stained, hair messy- she looked at you with nothing but love and appreciation.

you nodded slightly. “okay. i’ll tell you.” only now did you realize how hoarse your voice was. you had definitely been crying for a while, judging by the amount of dull pain in your throat. “thank you for… caring, i guess.” and even when you had been free of tears for so long, they came right back up when you realized that, well,

jinx still loved you.

even after you aired all the grief you’d been experiencing, a web that couldn’t be untangled, she loved you enough to really care. at least enough to pull you out of your funk.

“look, my precious snookums, i would give you the world because you deserve it! i’ll love ya no matter what, alright? and i will always, always be here to help you because you’ve always helped me through my shit! it’s the absolute least i could do, handsome.” jinx gave you a smile, and it made your heart flutter. even now. she was magical.

“i love you, jinx.”

“i love you more~!” she chirped right back, peppering your face with loving kisses until you giggled.

“impossible.”

“uh, incredibly possible! i’ll show ya if i must!” she pulled you back into a tight bear hug. “how ‘bout we get you out of this bed? whaddya wanna do, hm? we could take a nice warm bubble bath, cook together, pull an old-fashioned all-nighter and watch your favorite movies and eat all your favorite snacks? whatever y’wanna do!”

you still didn't want to move just yet. your body was plagued with an exhaustion unique only to powerful crying and venting. you snuggled into her shoulder, and she pat your head lovingly.

"can we just, uhm... stay here, for a while? and cuddle? i-i just need affection right now."

"that sounds absolutely phenomenal, pretty boy. if that'll make ya feel better, i'll cuddle ya to the moon and back!" she pressed a kiss to the top of your head with a dramatic 'mwah!', rocking you gently back and forth.

"thank you so much for... for all of this. i love you so much."

the little cracks in your voice made her heart ache. but knowing she would continue to hear your beautiful voice, it didn't ache as bad.

"once again, i love you more, precious. and i'll always be here for you. and i will do it with a smile and a hug and a kiss and as much affection as my gorgeous honey bunny pumpkin pie wants!"

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chalkxtabletxtowers · 2 years

Text

My contribution the 2Dace fandom:

Explanation down below

•I feel like they switch, one night it's 2-D whose the big spoon and one night it's Ace. They're both pretty tall so it's convenient in either position. They just see what the other needs right now and then adjust.

•They both tend to borrow clothes more, than they give them back. Either because they simply forget, or because they're too comfortable to take the item of clothing off. Sometimes, one of them will go to bed, wearing a shirt, and the other will go "...didn't this used to be my shirt" "Emphasis on the used to be"

•They both use pet names. Pretty self explanatory and incredibly cute. Not much else needs to be said.

•They both strike me as being pretty extroverted though sometimes 2-D tends to get sensory overload in public and kinda shuts off, or is just a bit more awkward in situations so Ace chimes in and helps him. It's very sweet <3

•Ace is the one for compliments and gifts every once in a while, 2-D is also one for compliments but he's more of a gift giver. I'm talking flowers, chocolate, etc

•They both talked to each other, it slipped out of them, they were like "Wait, you're in love with me too?" Then the realisation hit. Pretty chaotic.

•2-D doesn't like bugs. They creep him out. So, naturally, when he sees one, he doesn't react the best way, but it doesn't bring it over himself to crush them either. Ace, who probably used to crush bugs as a teenager has no problems of getting rid of the bug by killing it. 2-D complained about it being dehumane though. "You can't just kill a bug like that..." 'You hate bugs' "Yes but they also just want to live. Imagine I was a worm and you'd just crush me" 'I haven't viewed it like this yet'

•2-D literally doesn't have a license and god forbid him drive with THAT vision, Ace also doesn't have a license but probably picked up some driving skills as a teenager, they both shouldn't be let behind steering wheel to be honest.

•They both kinda can't cook but they try? Ace is most familiar with those 5 minute microwave meals and literal canned food, but 2-D despises both after Plastic Beach, so they both either just risk it and try to cook something easy (still making a mess in the process) oorrr they get takeout.

•2-Ds kinda shy about affection in public and he also doesn't really want to see him holding hands with his boyfriend on the first page of a newspaper, so he never really initiates it. Ace has less of a problem with it and likes to hold 2-Ds hand or wrap a arm around him but he also understands his boyfriend and holds back bit more.

•I wouldn't say 2-D is overprotective per se, he's just incredibly afraid of losing someone again or catching them cheating. He knows Ace isn't that kind of person but the fear is still there. He tried communicating it though so Ace understands his point of view. Ace is a lot more chill, he knows 2-D likely wouldn't cheat on him and trusts him, and he has no intention to cheat either but respects 2-Ds fear. Communication is key with these two.

•2-D kinda has relationship experience, but the relationships he did have weren't good to say the least, so his experience is mostly negative. Ace knows how to behave in a relationship theoretically but practical experience he lacks too. They both grow with each other <3

This ship is my guilty pleasure please these two deserve each other.

#gorillaz #2d gorillaz #stuart pot #ace gorillaz #ace copular #2dace #pls they're so cute #one of the only gorillaz ships i fully stand behind

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squeeneyart · 1 year

Text

Curses - Chapter 4

AO3

The edge of the wood inches closer, and the end of their journey with it.

Jon reconsiders his travel plans.

Given more room in his journal, Martin would have gleefully berated his own stupidity for nigh on ten pages. There were no pages to spare, so it seemed he had no choice but to enjoy himself.

Jon was nice. Sort of? Nice enough to put most of Martin’s larger concerns to rest. And they’d exchanged names, which Martin should not have along with eating food offered by a member of the courts, and it was all fine, wasn’t it? All a gesture of good faith. It could even mean they were friends, and friends helped each other. Not with the expectation of help in return, God no. He wasn’t about to ask any favors.

Why ruin the last pleasant days they had with problems Jon had no obligation or ability to solve?

And the day was pleasant. After the reintroductions they enjoyed their semi-shared lunches, Martin’s boot sitting upside down on a rock in the hopes that the remaining water would drip out. The ground was dry after days of wet grass stains and discomfort, and some of the flowers around them had opened up fully in the sunlight to reach for warmth, like they too knew that winter was finally behind them.

Things would have stayed that way, but Martin had a quick eye for particular creatures, including one that had already crawled halfway up Jon’s sleeve.

“Oh, Jon, don’t move,” Martin said, enjoying the feel of the name. “You have a little spider on your-”

Jon’s brows shot up and he jerked upward, thrashing his arm about and slapping at it without any thought to where it might be. “Did I get it?” he said rather forcefully, examining himself up and down.

With a slow blink, Martin stood up and looked at Jon’s sleeve. The spider sat defiant, still clinging around the bunched up fabric at the elbow. Martin put a hand up.

“Stay still and I’ll get it,” Martin said.

Jon froze. “You-”

Without another word Martin’s hands snapped forward and grabbed the offending bug, checking between his fingers. He found the spider stock still, presumably in terror. He held back any comparisons. “There he is. No harm done.”

“You say that as if it’s a good thing-”

With only one boot on he walked a good few meters away towards a bush and released the thing to its business. “And it’s gone. You’re welcome.”

Jon brushed off his sleeve as if the spider could’ve left something behind. “I would appreciate it more if it were dead.”

“It all ends the same, doesn’t it?” Martin said as he walked back. As he got closer Jon’s rather frazzled expression came starkly into view. “Sorry. I didn’t think someone like you would be that scared of spiders.”

“Disgusted. I’m disgusted by them. And my wings should have been a giveaway on how I feel about a natural predator.” Jon gestured at his back, the large moth wings fluttering with irritation. “I’d say it’s a very appropriate reaction.”

“You’re so much bigger than all of them, though!” Martin exclaimed, making a pinching motion with his fingers to show the difference in scale.

“Most of them, and it’s not as if I’m actually scared of being eaten by the little ones.”

Martin didn’t want to think too hard about the implications of that first part, but he continued, “Even if they’re not all tiny, you have magic-”

Jon scoffed. “And mortals have boots. It doesn’t stop them from hating the creatures and their legs and eyes a-and moreover, I’d say I have just as much a right to despise a part of the natural world as you or anyone else.”

“I suppose,” Martin said. He sat back down, as did Jon after inspecting the rock he’d been sitting on. “I sort of figured you’d all be above that? Something about nature and the necessity of every living thing, or something. Spiders are important, eating gnats in the summer.”

Eating one of his berries, Jon replied, “I’ll gladly disparage one of the many ‘gifts of nature’. No matter how bright it burns, my personal hatred of them can’t eradicate every spider on this earth.” He muttered the last part as if it was some great injustice.

“Well… it could’ve been a magical spider? Bent on haunting us beyond the grave when it's killed?” Martin posited, understanding immediately the dumbfounded look Jon gave him. A haunted spider? He shouldn’t have been reaching that far just to be contrary.

“Have you considered that stories of this place might’ve colored your judgment?” Jon asked. “I don’t doubt I need your guidance to exit these woods, but so far your paranoia seems unreasonably heightened.”

“That-” Martin started, then stopped. What was he to say to that? He felt his neck turning red and sputtered out, “It always looks that way when caution makes for safer travels. You don’t know what would’ve happened otherwise, so… yeah. You can believe what you want, but I know to be careful out here!” God, he was talking out of his ass.

“Right.”

“And-” Martin continued nevertheless, “you threatened to curse me less than a week ago, and some sort of water spirit tried to get me.”

“You said yourself that it was harmless!” Jon retorted. Looking back where Martin placed the spider, he sighed. “Anyway, no, the spider was not magical. It was just a horrid thing that I’m glad to be rid of. Thank you for removing it.”

“Only more of them as the weather improves.”

“And less of them bothering us indoors. Another reason to leave the woods on your schedule.” His mouth twitched slightly, though in which direction Martin couldn’t say.

Martin let out a sigh of his own and looked up into the trees. It was getting to be that time, but it was a lovely day for sitting and chatting in the shade. That was just selfishness, though, pure and simple. They would need to move soon.

“If you don’t mind me asking,” Martin said, playing with some grass, “what’s in Thornsbury that you walked all the way out here?”

When a reply didn’t come immediately, Martin looked up to see Jon threading his fingers together and apart, face contorting in indecision.

“Or… we could not talk about it,” Martin added quickly. He hoped he hid his disappointment well enough.

Jon shook his head. “I was told to go there on the advice of someone who seemed… knowledgeable. Probably.” He looked down at his hands, one of his pointed ears twitching, then looked at him with a self-conscious smile that had Martin’s heart stuck in his throat. “Truthfully I don’t know what’s there, but it should come as little surprise that I’m hoping to find information I don’t currently have.”

If Jon looked at him like that one more time that day then Martin would fall down dead, and all that over an answer so incredibly vague that it really told him nothing except that Jon was mildly embarrassed.

But that was the most important part, wasn’t it?

Instead of lying on the ground and closing his eyes until the world moved past him, Martin asked, “What are you hoping for?”

At this Jon seemed to relax, as if he’d had this particular answer rehearsed. “First, I want to be clear that I have interests outside of my general hunger for knowledge.”

“Okay…”

“So, much like mortals, I'm not born with some internal sense of everything I can do. Individuals like myself need to go out of their way from time to time to learn about themselves. My hunger comes the most naturally, as does my ability to sense when something is hidden, but it often doesn’t lead to much in the way of… practical magic. I have some things sorted out, but there are plenty of abilities others have which allude me. And I find that frustrating.”

This took Martin aback, but really, what had Jon done since they met? An amount of flight that looked more like slow, sustained jumping. Martin assumed asking a fae to help with anything physical was a bad idea, but perhaps in this case it was less to do with secret rules of politeness.

It would be rude to bring it up, though. “What kinds of things?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Elemental magics, telekinesis. One of my neighbors is very handy with making items move on their own to complete tasks. That would be helpful. I’d appreciate having something that could write down what I say in my own hand, for instance.”

“So one of the other fae told you Thornsbury was the place to learn magic like that?”

“...Something along those lines.” That embarrassed look again, strained but not uncomfortable.

Was Jon basing this whole trip on a single piece of vague advice? Was that the extent of his motivation, the word of a few people at most that maybe this random human town had something that would develop his abilities further?

And here was Martin, assuming something complex or sinister. He could’ve laughed if he didn’t think it would come off as mocking. Sure, Jon could be trying to learn something dangerous, but deep down he couldn’t see him looking to hurt an innocent person somewhere. No, this was a man who ran into the woods, got lost partway through, and then he fell out of a tree and got mad about it because someone caught him in the act in more ways than one.

Glamour brought to mind a picture of irresistible grace and beauty. The ridiculous pull in Martin’s chest at twitchy ears and nervous hands gave him no plausible deniability. Not that Jont he wasn’t nice-looking, too, especially when he was in a good mood-

Shit.

“I know it doesn’t sound like a sure thing, but I won’t learn without taking risks so-”

“So we’d better get moving!” Martin interrupted. He grabbed his boot and slid it back on before pushing himself up off the ground. “Said I’d get you there after two nights. Don’t want to make a liar of myself.”

“That’s-” Jon stood, brushing himself off and taking one last look for hitchhikers on his person. “I won’t hold you too strictly to that. It’s not like I have an appointment.”

“I know. Getting there is important to you, though.”

It seemed to be the end of the conversation, as Jon nodded and let Martin lead him onward. Whether it was an amicable silence was hard to determine, but Jon was clearly lost in thought. Had he pried a bit too much? Taken advantage of some fae rule of honesty after they’d exchanged names? No one ever talked about what giving one’s name entailed to the letter, or what it meant when a fae gave theirs. Or when a fae and a mortal exchange names-

Before Martin could spiral down this particular rabbit hole, Jon cleared his throat to get his attention.

He shook his head. “Sorry, did you say something?”

“Not yet.”

“Oh. Um. What is it?”

“If you don’t mind me asking, what’s your reason for travelling? You mentioned family?” Jon asked slowly, as if measuring his own words. “I would be interested to know what brings you here often enough to know this place so well.”

For a moment Martin panicked, waiting for words to be forced out of him, but nothing came. He put that particular fear to rest and let out a long breath. “My mother lives down this way. Um. Lived. Passed away in the winter.”

Jon’s face fell, and he turned back towards the road. “Oh. My apologies.”

“It’s fine.” And it was, really. Nothing stuck in his throat as he spoke about the loss. In his own way he’d come to terms with it. “Someone needs to go through her things, and I’m the only one she had, so… yeah.”

“And was she… old by your measure?”

Despite himself Martin snorted. “A bit old, I guess, but mostly it was illness. It’s been coming for a while now. As natural as anything.”

“It seems a long distance for a mother and child, even if they’re both fully grown.”

There was an implied question, but Martin just shrugged. It was a long distance. It’s why he never wanted to walk it. “I suppose it is.”

“And risky.”

Very. “You could say so.”

At that point Jon ran out of insinuations and was left searching for something else to say. Martin knew it was difficult to talk about from the outside. It’s why he hadn’t bothered to tell many people in his village of his reason for leaving besides those who could see to his home every couple of days. He wondered idly if they still did so, or if they’d already grown tired of doing chores for someone they barely knew.

Martin let Jon search for the right words for a good long while. The effort was worth more than anything a member of the courts could ever think to say on the subject, or the people of his village for that matter.

If he found any, Jon kept them to himself and fell back to arguing about the benefits and drawbacks of the seasons. They would most likely never come to a conclusion because, despite Martin having most of the same complaints as Jon about winter, he wasn’t going to risk ending the conversation with a concession.

The emotional whiplash of that day was more than enough to put Jon to sleep within minutes of reaching Martin’s next preferred camping spot. He didn’t even make it to a tree this time, and why bother? The nights were still cold and he didn’t mind falling asleep while basking in the warmth of the fire. He had no final thoughts, just one last goodnight to his friend before they both left the day behind. If Martin wrote anything in his little book, Jon couldn't recall.

When he woke the next morning Martin still slept with his back to Jon, using his heavy cloak as a pillow. A small leaf had lodged itself in the end of his ever-loosening ponytail in the night, and Jon couldn’t resist the urge to pick it out with all the artfulness his fae blood granted him. Then he lay on his back to judge the day ahead. The dew had settled over everything in the early morning, but the sun would almost certainly dry it all up in the coming hours. Their last full day would be a beautiful one, neatly mirroring the weather from the day they met.

What an irritating thought. He didn’t need nature smugly bookending their travels.

It wasn’t long before Martin awoke, groggy and stiff from lying on the ground. He patted the area around him, face scrunched and squirting, and Jon leaned over to grab Martin’s spectacles off a nearby stump.

“Here, before you knock them over.”

“Ugh, why’d I put them there?” Martin mumbled, pushing them up the bridge of his nose.

“I suppose I keep throwing you off,” Jon remarked, stretching his arms out in front of him. From behind, his wings opened out in a similar motion. They were growing stronger by the day, and in his mind much nicer to look at. “Too many exciting changes like sleeping on the ground or getting ahead of you while crossing a stream. I’ve disrupted your routine.”

“You make up for it by having good eyes,” Martin said, removing his spectacles again and wiping them with his shirt. “Thanks.”

“Mm.”

Without much else to look at, he kept his gaze on Martin gathering his things together and found himself mentally appending plans for the future with him as a presence in it, small as that presence may turn out to be. Mortal lives were fleeting things; what was he but a longer-lived fleeting thing, strong one season and fragile the next?

Impulsive decisions had one great flaw and benefit: the ease with which one could change them. Thornsbury was a destination and he would follow up on his tip, no doubt about that. Summer had just begun, though. What was another day, another week even, when he had so many? He certainly wasn’t in a hurry to return home.

The only thing he needed to know was Martin’s thoughts on the subject. Clearly Martin was in a hurry himself and needed to complete the business with his mother. Would Jon be welcomed along in such a solemn task? Or would it be better to go to Thornsbury and meet Martin at a later date once the deed was done? In a few weeks Jon’s strength would be greater and he could offer assistance if anything needed to be removed. Would that be the right time?

If Martin noticed the scrutiny he didn’t jump or make a fuss, though his ears did turn a slight pink. Perhaps if Jon looked hard enough for a glint in the eye or a turn of the head, he would be able to tell if his friend shared his thoughts.

All he saw was the soft, continuous line that made up the cheek and neck, stubble dotting the skin all the way down and only curving to gather at the chin.

Martin kept his eyes down, shifting things around in his bag. “Ready to get started?”

Jon blinked a few times. “Yes, but if there isn’t some final gauntlet at the end of this I’ll require an explanation of your services.”

“You really want to know all the things I’ve learnt to avoid in this place?” Martin’s humorless smile struck a sympathetic chord.

Jon kept on. “Once we get out of here I’ll take a list so I know where to steer clear of on my way back. Unless you’ll be conveniently standing at the crossroads waiting for me to trip into you?”

The smile fell and Martin kept rooting through his bag, though Jon doubted he was looking for anything in particular. “If you plan on coming this way again, I can tell you the way I would take. I’ve done it for people before.”

It was a kind offer that felt like a door in the face. He mumbled some agreement and they both began the walk forward, a repeat of the many days past.

Silence followed. The thought crossed his mind that he wouldn't mind a bit of rain to cool things down a little that morning. He knew none was coming and should have been glad of that fact. That he wasn’t was one of many facts he’d stowed away to think about at a later time but had begun to pile up when he wasn’t looking.

He was certain now that the secrets the man reeked of were nothing but the kind one kept out of habit or politeness. What did Jon know about the relationship between a human and their parents? Normally these details would sit in the background, a low hum of the unknown, but a death? Perhaps that could pull all sorts of things to the forefront of Jon’s detection. It lifted a weight off of him to piece it together and see Martin clearly. To put it simply, Martin was a man who wanted to help Jon succeed, even if it meant rushing through what could be the last day they spent together before they went their separate ways. Or maybe he needed to get to his mother’s home more urgently than Jon realized, and no other thought to the future entered his mind.

Really, would it be too much to ask for some rain? Even a summer court fae needed cooling down, and Martin had proven willing to shield him from getting wet.

“Are you feeling all right?” Martin asked. “You’ve slowed down quite a bit.”

Jon finally noticed Martin a few feet ahead of him, all concern. He picked up his pace. “I’m hoping for some shade soon. We won’t be getting any more rain, I think.”

No rain came, and neither did any large events occur to hinder their travels. No felled trees, no mudslides or aggressive animals. It was a perfect day; they spoke of nothing important at all. With each hour Jon felt his opportunities slip away, and Martin was more than helpful in making the time pass by asking questions about Jon’s interests, his life back home, whether he’d ever been this far north before, anything he could think of with a genuine interest that pulled the words from Jon’s mouth, no magic necessary.

They ate lunch, backs against the same tree, and he shared his food with Martin to earn another big smile. As far as he was aware no spiders crawled on him for Martin to catch. Once, as they ate, Martin bumped his knee against Jon’s and he teased him for his paranoia about the creepy little things. Jon bumped his knee back and said if any more came near him it was Martin’s fault for attracting them, and so on and so forth.

They walked, and walked, the sun sprinting ahead of them toward the west and already brushing against the treeline. Soon a clearing appeared before them, and Martin stopped with some surprise.

“Wow, we’ve made really good time. We’ll camp here and take it easy the rest of the evening.”

Jon whipped his head up towards his companion. “Really?”

“Yeah, I’m done walking for today. Sorry if I pushed us a bit too hard,” Martin said sheepishly, stretching his arms towards the sky. “But you’ll be off to Thornsbury by tomorrow.”

With a dry laugh, Jon remarked, “Right now I’d be glad to sit down for a week, Thornsbury be damned.” And with Martin’s blessing he sat on a stump, rubbing his ankles.

“Don’t say that when you’re almost there,” Martin said with a hint of sincerity. He began work on the fire. “I don’t know how curses work, but I’d rather a whole town didn’t suffer because I insisted we keep walking.”

“Even at my strongest I don’t think I could pull off something like that,” Jon said, rubbing his eyes.

“Still. Watch your language,” Martin said, smiling.

Jon watched in silence as the fire was built in deliberate steps by a well-practiced hand. In the last week he’d never paid much attention to the process. What else should he have been doing on their final night? What else could he say?

Pulling his knees to his chest, Jon said, “I wouldn’t have been able to, you know.”

From the young and crackling fire, Martin turned. “Hm?”

“Curse you. I can’t actually do that sort of thing. I was embarrassed when we met so I said the first thing I could think of, but I don’t know much about curses at all. One of the many topics Thornsbury might have for me, actually.” He allowed himself a self-deprecating chuckle.

“...Oh.”

Jon’s heart sank. What did that mean, that blank ‘oh’? He’d already said he wasn’t going to curse Martin, but had the man not believed him? Had Jon misread the situation somehow, and Martin had been acting all this time under the belief that he was under implicit threat?

“Even if I was able, I wouldn’t have. That was true when I said it and it is now. But I can’t. Really, there aren’t a lot of ways I could harm you as I currently am? Physical strength only really comes further into summer, and you already know how I am about my own magic-”

“Jon?”

They locked eyes, and Martin’s mouth tilted into a smirk. “I take back my apology. It was your fault you fell out of that tree, and if I hadn’t caught you, you would’ve been just as snotty to me. So there, you prick.”

This must’ve contorted Jon’s face horribly as Martin’s lit up in a snorting laughter. Heat shot up Jon’s face and ears and he hated how pleasant it felt and how nice Martin looked when laughing at him. If he could have cursed the fire for its flattering light he would have, but everyone involved knew it to be impossible.

So he reached into his bag, took out what remained of his non-foraged food, and began to eat. “Yes, fine, I was in the wrong. Enjoy eating your unpleasant crusty bread.” It didn’t mean much considering they’d be out of the woods tomorrow, but it was what he had.

“Guess I would be without it eventually,” Martin replied, though a grimace snuck through the unbothered acceptance. “I appreciate you sharing it before, though.”

“You’re trying to make me feel bad,” Jon deadpanned.

“No! Well, not entirely,” Martin admitted, then turned his face away slightly. “But I did want to thank you. It’s been nice travelling together… I’ll miss it.”

With a calmness he didn’t quite feel, Jon said, “I know you have things to take care of, but I wouldn’t mind if you accompanied me further down the road.”

“What?”

“I-” He wasn’t familiar with the landscape. Signs could be unclear. Thornsbury could look like any place. All the excuses that came to mind made him sound incapable of finding his way through a one-room barn. Unthinkable. “I’m sure I could find my way, but it would be reassuring to have your knowledge of the area, and going on alone sounds miserable once you’ve enjoyed someone’s company long enough. No one will be there to fill the space but myself.”

With the sun falling behind the trees and the red light of the fire casting everything in a similar tone, Jon almost missed Martin’s cheeks growing dark. “I… My mum-”

“I could come along with you, then. Whatever is in Thornsbury can wait a few days,” Jon said with a dismissive wave of the hand.

Martin pushed the bangs off his forehead, knocking his spectacles slightly askew. “Why?”

“Why? Wh…why not? We have different destinations, but from what you said they can’t be more than a few days away from each other. And it’s not as if I need to be a part of whatever business you have if that’s what you’re concerned about.” He looked down and scratched at his face. “In fact coming into town as I am may cause a scene. Same for Thornsbury. Hadn’t thought about that part as much as I should have.”

“Seems like an important detail,” Martin said, though he seemed to struggle with the words. “I- Listen-”

Apparently Jon’s reasonable requests were too strange for his companion, as Martin opened and closed his mouth like a stranded fish. It wasn’t a straight rejection, as Jon had feared. In fact, a smile was trying to find purchase but each time was dragged down by something Jon couldn’t place. A rising pressure pushed at the back of Jon’s skull, screaming at him to tear down a brick wall crumbling before him.

The will to do something about this vague and frankly baffling feeling left him in the dust as an internal struggle reached its completion and Martin slumped in place. A very different kind of laughter, resigned and regretful, bubbled up between his lips before petering out into a quiet, “I’m sorry. We can’t.”

Jon frowned. “If it’s my company you’d rather be rid of-”

“No! God, no,” Martin exclaimed. “I’d love to spend more time with you. I just… can’t.”

“I don’t follow.”

“I can’t. I can’t stay here. I can’t leave. I can’t do anything.” Martin leaned forward and buried his face in his hands. “Shit. ‘Course this happens now.”

In spite of himself Jon pounced on this near-confession of something like it was a dangling piece of meat. “What do you mean you can’t?”

With the most miserable expression Jon had seen yet, Martin lifted his head from his hands and groaned, “I’m already cursed.”

#tma #the magnus archives #jonathan sims #martin blackwood #jonmartin #curses fic #ao3 was down last night but i ended up making a bunch more edits so thanks ao3 lol

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