#since shes relatively prominent in the story | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

bloodynereid · 7 months

Text

Reapers & Ravens

<< prev | chapter i | next >>

pairings: jordan li x oc

tw: canonical violence and gore, allusions/talk about sex, alcohol and drug consumption and misuse (i don't condone the actions of the characters so remember to drink wisely), A LOT of mentions of death, iffy morals?? - if there are any more pls lmk

description: the story of a girl. a girl cursed by compound v to live a life without touch.

a/n: hiii and welcome to the first chapter of my new fic. I haven't written a multi-chapter fic in a while so be patient with me. some little disclaimers: as of the moment of writing this chapter i have only seen the first 3 eps of gen v so if something doesn't work plot wise with future eps i will try to come back and change it, secondly i do not support chance perdomo's actions - i felt like this needed to be stated cause his character andre will be a prominent part of the story and i would change it but he literally is the only one that really makes sense in his role in vic's backstory. vic's wonderful roommate was created all thanks to one of my mutuals (not sure if you want me to mention you by name) so all credit goes to them for gemma. FINALLY i hope you enjoy! the second chapter should be out soon and i'm always open to feedback so lmk your thoughts either in the comments or in an ask. love you and ty for taking the time to read my fic - my a/n will not be this long all the time i promise.

19 years ago…

A little girl lay peacefully in her wooden cot, the walls surrounding her were painted in a beautiful pastel lilac and a snowflake mobile lay spinning above her little head. The night was serene, the wind rustled the leaves of the great oak outside the girl’s window and a soft lullaby was echoing through the room.

The girl’s mother smiled down at her perfect bundle of joy as she laid the pads of her fingers right against the soft silky skin of her daughter’s hand. Everything was perfect for another few seconds before the mother started to feel herself fade away. She deliriously looked down at her hand where she suddenly saw her skin going gray.

The baby’s eyes flew open and she let out a happy gurgle as her mother started to wither away in front of her just because she held her daughter’s little hand.

“I love you my darling girl.” Were the last words that came out of the mother’s mouth before her soul was taken far far away. Too far for her daughter to follow.

The second that the tingly feeling that the baby experienced faded away she let out a loud cry. Her mama wasn’t moving and she looked all wrong. The little girl cried and cried and cried until finally the door to her nursery flew open.

Her papa filled the doorway as he let out a horrified gasp before kneeling next to his wife. His dead wife.

“Victoria, what have you done?”

Present Day…

I pressed skip to the song playing on my phone and shifted my gaze to the flashing scenery, music resonating through my headphones as I was being driven to Godolkin. It was absolutely insane that I was actually doing it. I was actually going to GodU. The whole situation just felt so unreal. Distantly I heard a voice calling out so with practiced precision I moved my headphones away from my ears.

“Sorry, could you repeat that?”

“Of course Miss. I was just saying that we’re nearly there.”

“Ok thanks Rob.”

I sent him a smile and replaced my headphones before taking a moment to examine my newest pair of gloves, the carefully crafted design on top of the white leather made me smile. Dad didn’t really pay that much attention to me ever since the incident™ but at least he seemed proud of me for getting into GodU. He had gifted me these gloves after stuttering out that they had once belonged to my mother.

I promised myself that I would try to wear them as much as possible since I barely had anything to remember her by anymore… other than the power my parents decided to inject me with. Life-force absorption isn’t all that common, as my relatives put it: ‘those powers… they’re a curse!’

Everything that touches me dies basically. It’s how my mother died and it’s how I kill plants and sometimes people (by accident I swear). I absorb their energy and it sort of works like a drug - I get a shot of life. Other people aren’t so lucky, they slowly turn into a gray statue and die.

Sometimes I’m able to stop before they're totally gone but with the potency of my powers they’re kaput by just 3 seconds of physical touch. I know it sucks, I can’t even shake hands for Christ’s sake!

“Miss? Miss?” I’m shaken out of my string of thoughts when I heard Rob’s voice echoing through the interior of the car.

“Yes yup sorry.” I took off my headphones and quickly shoved them into my canvas bag before looking out the window. There stood Godolkin University, the end goal of all my relentless studying and hard work.

“We have arrived. Are you okay Miss?”

“Yes I’m more than okay Rob. Thanks for driving me.”

“Of course, do you need any help with any of your boxes?” He asked as he unlocked the car and we both stepped out into the warm September air.

“It should be fine but thanks Rob really. I’ll see you at Christmas?”

“Definitely Miss Oaks, have a good semester.” He finished placing your 3 boxes and suitcase onto one of the many trolleys and sent me a smile.

“Thanks.” I gave him a little wave as he got back into the SUV and drove off. Turning to the big metal gates I took a deep breath to steady myself. Time for the start of the rest of my life.

Okay maybe I really should have asked Rob for help with these idiotic boxes. I’m a goddamn super hero. Why was I struggling so much with this? I was already regretting this as I walked past the Lamplighter School for Crimefighting, failing to push both the trolley and my suitcase.

“You look like you need some saving from a gracious prince.” I heard an eerily familiar voice as I looked up from my tortuous task. Andre Anderson. An old friend whose friendship was sort of forced on us by our dads, who happened to have been in the same class at Godolkin.

“Andre! Fucking hell I’m so glad to see you, please help me. I’m dying here.” I said dramatically as I sunk down to the ground next to all my stuff.

“You know you should consider majoring in Performing Arts if you keep up with that.” Andre said with a smirk but he still started to help by pulling my large suitcase towards the freshman dorms.

“Haha. You know I’ll be joining you at Crimefighting, my powers will probably render any makeup artist dead.”

“Oh please become an actress I would love to see that.” I narrowed my eyes at him and lightly punched him in the arm as he took a sip of his latte.

“Hey!”

“You deserved that.”

“Ok maybe I deserved that. So Vic, what are your first impressions?”

“It’s huge for one thing.”

“That’s what she said.” I rolled my eyes at his immature sense of humor before stealing the latte out of his hand and taking a sip, only to scrunch my face.

“What the fuck do you put in this? It’s literally pure sugar.”

“Hangover cure.” He said with a shrug as he stole the latte back. “You should come hang tonight. I can introduce you to everyone.”

“Mmh sure. I think you mean getting me into trouble.”

“When have I ever done something like that before?” Andre asked as his eyes twinkled.

“Oh just about every time I hang out with you.” Stopping in front of the freshman dorm room Andre looked at me and tried to make his usual puppy eyes.

“Please.”

“Fuck fine. You need to stop doing that.”

“Why? It works every single time.”

“I’ll see you later then?”

“Definitely, enjoy being around the freshers.” Andre gave me a military salute making me roll my eyes as I started dragging all my stuff into the building.

Weaving my way through a shitton of supes was way harder than I expected, at least I had a jacket on or a few of them would be very dead right now. Finally and by finally I mean, FINALLY I found my room, I clutched the handle of the door and pushed in when I realized I definitely had the wrong room. Two girls were already all set up in the room and swiveled to look at me weirdly.

“Uh hi? Shit I’m sorry, I'm in the wrong room.”

“Wait! Are you Victoria Oaks?” asked the shorter blonde one.

“Uh yes?”

“Holy shit I follow you on Insta hi! I’m Emma and this is Marie.”

“Oh cool hi.”

“I can’t believe you’re on the same floor as us. Want to go check out the Golden Boy’s workout? We’re going to head down in a few.” Right, okay, I should make friends. So time to compromise.

“Uh sure? What exactly would we be doing?”

“Oh you’ll see.” Emma says with a mischievous smile.

“Righttt that sounds incredibly ominous but I’ll see you in a few. I’ve got to go put down all my stuff.”

“Ok see you!” I smile and retreat back into the busy hallway but not before catching Marie’s remark.

“Who is she exactly?”

“DO YOU LIVE UNDER A ROCK?” Emma replied loudly, making me snort. Taking a deep breath I once again clutch the handle of the door across the hall and push it open to see a girl lying on the bed closest to the door. She smiles up at me and bounds over to the door in an instant.

“Hi! You must be Victoria. I’m Gemma, nice to meet you.” She says before extending her hand. I carefully move my gloved hand over to hers and shake it.

“Hi, it’s a pleasure to meet you too.” I took a moment to scan her appearance, she was absolutely stunning. Her red hair trailed down her shoulders and her smile seemed to light up the very room. “You’re so beautiful wow.”

“Aww thank you so much! You are absolutely stunning as well, like this blonde totally suits the whole vibe you give off.”

“Is it a good vibe?”

“Oh definitely.”

“Ok whew I was worried for a second there.” We start laughing and Gemma helps me sort out all my stuff in the huge boxes.

“Actually with the talk about appearances would it be okay if I ever shift into you? I love being able to get to know people more through their faces and stuff but only if you’re cool with it.”

“Shifting? You mean like shape shifting.” I ask as I look over to her curiously, picking up yet another pair of gloves which I placed on one of the shelves in the closet.

“Yup!”

“Oh I wouldn’t mind at all, that's such a cool power!” Her entire face brightened as her hair slowly started to shift and match the shade of my bleached one.

“Brilliant! Thank you. So… what’s your power?”

“Oh umm here let me show you.”

Carefully taking out one of my older plants out of the box I place it on the window sill and pull off my leather glove. Within just a few seconds of my fingertips placed on top of the delicate leaves the plant withered away and died. I could feel the zap of energy encase my being and I smiled. Life absorption feels incredible, it’s so encompassing. You quite literally feel full of life. For a second as I turned around I could see the blood and energy from Gemma’s cell move around her body but I shook off the stupor.

“Wow. Can you just do that with plants or?”

“Uh no people as well. Anything alive that touches my skin just dies.”

“So you can’t do human contact?”

“Nope, unless I want them dead.”

“What about sex?” I chuckled at her slightly incredulous tone.

“I think you need to reevaluate what you consider sex.”

“Oh okay wow” Gemma laughed and we continued to set up my plants on the windowsill and chatted about our favorite movies, surprisingly enough we had pretty different tastes but there were a few that we had in common - like our love for Clue. That was when we heard a knock on the door, Gemma looked at me with a clear question in her eyes.

“I met our dorm neighbors a few minutes ago and they invited me to go see Golden Boy train.”

“Ooo I’m so coming with you.” Gemma shifted her hair back to red and waltzed over to open the door as I finished placing my last plant pots.

“What’s the deal with his workout sessions anyway?” I ask as she pulls open the door to find Emma and Marie standing sort of awkwardly outside.

“Oh he’s like super hung, and when he blazes up his clothes all melt away.” Emma answers my question but when she catches sight of Gemma her jaw drops.

“Right, uh Marie and Emma meet my roommate Gemma.”

“Holy fuck you’re so hot.” Emma says, almost as if the words involuntarily jump out of her mouth.

“Why thank you, love, you are as well.” Gemma flashes her a dazzling smile.

“Alright then enough flirting. I have been promised to see some hot supes. Let’s go!” I exclaim as the little group makes their way towards the arena. Hanging back so I was walking next to Marie, we watched the two girls flirt.

“Oh that’s going to be very interesting. I don’t believe we’ve talked much yet, but I’m Vic. It’s nice to meet you.”

“It’s nice to meet you too. Emma gave me a full on lecture on why I should know who you are but I kind of zoned out halfway through.” I let out a laugh at her admission and gently nudged my shoulder with hers.

“Oh don’t worry, it’s kind of nice having someone who has no idea who I am or who my dad is.”

“I’m glad, everything is so…”

“A lot, I know. My dad homeschooled me for the last few years of high school so being among this many people, especially supes can be overwhelming. If you ever need to chat or just need someone to hang out with, I'm your girl.” Marie gave me a grateful smile, “So what are your supe powers?”

“Blood manipulation.” My eyebrows shot up and I looked at her with astonishment.

“Holy fuck that’s awesome. I basically drain the life force of any living being.”

“Really?”

“Yup so don’t touch my skin unless you’re covered up.” I throw up jazz hands to showcase my gloved hands which elicits a short laugh out of Marie.

“Got it. You’re really nice by the way. Everyone here seems so like aggressively in your face.”

“Yeah I know. I’ve had to live around supes my whole life, it really isn’t at all like Vought or the movies say.”

We finally arrive at the arena and I take a seat next to her, Emma is sitting next to Marie and Gemma is still trying and succeeding at flirting with the blonde. Leaning over the railing I peer out into the main arena and spy Andre making his rounds with the group.

“Yo Andre.” I scream out into the stadium making him turn around, trying to find me in the crowd. The people seated around us had now turned to look at me as I smiled down at him. He smiled back and tilted his head towards where Golden Boy and some other dude were gearing up to fight, inviting me to come down.

“You sure?”

“Yeah get down here.” I turn towards my new group of friends and say: “You guys okay if I go down?”

“Since when do you know Andre Anderson? You know what don’t answer that question go, go, go. Tell us everything when you get back.” Gemma and Emma urged me out of my seat as Marie kind of sat there awkwardly but with an encouraging smile on her face.

I carefully picked my way down the stands and vaulted over the fence to get over to the sidelines of the fight. I poke at Andre’s shoulder as I fall in next to him as I watch the fight playing out. Golden Boy was obviously winning and wow Luke Riordan really had some moves.

“Oh hey Vic. It’s earlier than I expected to see you.”

“Well I did want to honor you with my presence more than once today.” I sent him a sarcastic smile which made him respond by pushing my shoulder.

“Wow Andre I can’t believe you have more friends than us, I feel betrayed.” I turned to the source of the voice and there stood a beautiful blonde, who had a big smile on her face. Little butterflies exploded in my stomach - how was everyone so damn attractive?

“Cate, darling, I hate to break this to you like this but I have a lot more friends than just you guys.”

“Oh how will I live knowing this information?” Cate said with a dramatic gasp and pretended to faint into Andre’s arms. He just pushed her up and they stuck out their tongues at each other.

“You guys are going to be perfect for each other. Cate Dunlap meet Victoria Oaks.”

“Hi! Nice to meet you.” I say as I extend a gloved hand only to be met with a similarly gloved hand, only that it was covered in brown leather instead of white.

“Oh my god, your gloves! I love these designs, you have got to tell me where you get yours. My collection needs adding to.” She says excitedly as she quickly shakes my hand and turns it over to inspect the handiwork. We continue to nerd out about gloves as the fight finishes and Andre throws Golden Boy some clothes, before they head over to us.

“Hi sweetheart you did great out there,” Cate throws her arms around him and they make out for a few seconds as I kind stand there awkwardly with Andre.

“Do they usually do this?”

“Yes. There is so much PDA I’m surprised they haven’t had sex in front of us yet.” Andre’s voice was raised in volume a little at the end which caught the attention of the couple.

“Oh right, Luke meet my new best friend, this is Vic.” Cate said as fixed her now slightly messed up lipstick.

“Hi, it’s nice to meet you Vic. Andre has told us a lot about you.”

I cringed but shook my head trying to forget about the many instances the idiot had nearly gotten us arrested and the one time he did.

“Yeah well, I hope it’s all nice things because any time I do spend with this guy somehow ends with us breaking a law.”

“Oh we can relate. I remember this one time…” We started making our way out of the arena as Luke started to recount one of the insane adventures that Andre managed to string them into. It felt nice to actually be part of a group again and it was easy. Way easier that I thought it would be.

After a few hours of touring the grounds and eating at Vought-a-Burger, I finally trudged back to my dorm absolutely exhausted. Not that it wasn’t great getting to know Cate, Andre and Luke but the whole day had absolutely drained me.

When I finally opened the door to my room I was surprised to find Emma sitting on top of Gemma’s bed reading some random fashion magazine.

“Uh Emma?”

The girl basically jumped out of her position on the bed and whirled to face me. Suddenly her entire body shifted and there stood Gemma, looking rather embarrassed with a sheepish smile on her face.

“Look, I asked her if I could change into her body! This wasn’t without consent and she’s just so stunning and it’s the-”

“Hey hey, Gem. Chill, I get it, you have a crush on our neighbor.” I smiled a little teasingly as I tried to reassure her. Thankfully Gemma’s panicked look faded and was replaced with a grateful smile.

“Sorry.”

“It’s all good, you guys would look great together.”

“Do you think that Emma might actually like me?”

“Oh Gem, I think anyone would be lucky to have you. From the few hours that I’ve known you, you're genuinely one of the sweetest people out there. And that’s saying something cause you’re also a supe.” I gave her a small smile before opening up my arms to signal for her to hug me. She flew into my grasp and I was careful not to let my exposed face anywhere near her.

“Thanks I needed this.”

“Hey I’m here anytime, just don't touch any skin.” I sent her a teasing smile when she finally pulled away. “How about we have a chill night in? There’s this new show I’ve been meaning to start.”

“Great! We can have our first girl’s night.”

“Fuck yeah! I’ll just get changed into my pajamas and grab some of my snacks from the stash.”

After spending the night doing absolutely nothing except watching Yellowjackets and raiding snacks from the vending machine after my relatively large stash ran out, Gemma and I woke up sugar hungover. Somehow we managed to make it down to the cafe and bought some coffee, which was thankfully enough to wake us up.

“So you heading over to Performing Arts?” I finally asked Gemma after the caffeine started to kick in.

“Yeah, Marie and Emma said they were going to meet me there as well so…”

“Can you believe we’re actually doing this?” I ask as we slowly walk out onto the common, I readjust my favorite pair of black gloves, knowing that if we were doing any sort of combat sessions at Crimefighting I would probably end up damaging my mom’s ones.

“Nope, it’s still surreal that I actually got accepted.”

“What are you talking about? You literally have some of the most interesting and versatile powers.”

“Yeah but I’m on scholarship, if that somehow falls through…” I smiled at her reassuringly as we stopped at the fork in the walk.

“Look you’re super fucking smart and you have more control over your power than most of the supes I know. Gem, you’re going to be great and never let anyone tell you otherwise.” Gemma smiled at me after she thanked me and we both went our separate ways - time to see what orientation was going to be like.

I navigated through the slew of students making their way through the halls of the Lamplighter School for Crimefighting when I suddenly bumped into someone. Thank whatever entity out there that I had just thrown out the remainder of my iced coffee.

“Shit sorry- Oh.” I caught the eye of the person I had bumped into as I helped them gather the assortment of books, all Brink’s for the looks of it.

“Right yeah, it’s fine just be more careful next time.” The person just kind of ran off after I helped them with the books. Strange and kind of rude but also so very attractive. I smiled at myself, if bumping into people meant getting to meet more enticing supes then this year was going to be incredible.

“Hey! Hey! Victoria. Vic. Vicky.” I finally stopped and turned to look at Andre who had been relentlessly pursuing me for the past few minutes. Orientation went well and I got to meet some of the other supes - mostly it was just for selfies but still.

“You know I hate when people call me that.”

“Well it was a last resort, you weren’t stopping.”

“You don’t think there may have been a reason behind that? Maybe my dad is dying and this is the last chance I get to hear his voice.” I remarked in an overly bored tone, I could already tell from Andre’s whole face that he was about to invite me to do something illegal… again.

“I know for a fact that isn’t real since it hasn’t been on any gossip sites-”

“Wait since when do you frequent gossip sites?” I ask incredulously as he somehow starts to lead me towards the opposite direction I was going in the first place.

“Not the point. You’re coming out with us tonight.”

“Do I get a say in the matter or?”

“Nope, go get changed into something hot and meet me in front of Lamplighter in half an hour.”

“Excuse you, but I always look hot. Thank you very much.” I say scoffing but we both know I’m silently agreeing with his plans - like always.

“Oh I know darling. Now hurry up.” He pushed me softly (as softly as a supe could push someone) and I made my way to my dorm.

“Hey Gem. Good day?” I said as I threw my bag on the bed and started to look through my outfits, I needed something that would cover all exposed skin - I really didn’t need another incidental death on my roster.

“Yup! We really should plan out more ways to- wait what are you looking for?”

“Andre invited me out with his friends you’re welcome to come if you want.”

“Nope it’s okay. I’ve got some auditions I need to tape.” She said with a smile.

“You sure?”

“Yeah I’m not really in the mood for partying tonight, orientation was a lot.”

“Tell me about it. You can use my bedroom if you need any extra space by the way.” I shouted out from behind the wall as I laid out the different materials that made up my outfits - it was a mismatch of blacks, whites and reds. Cute.

“Thank you! Holy shit you look fucking incredible.” Gemma remarked as I walked back into her bedroom now wearing my going out outfit.

“Why thank you. I haven’t been out clubbing for a while so I thought it would be best to go big.”

“Always the best choice. Make sure you don’t get too smashed okay?”

“I will try. Byeee.” Her laughter echoes into the hallway and the door shuts behind me. I flash the security guard a smile before leaving the freshman dorm building and making my way to the Crimefighting school.

“Oh god please don’t tell me Andre has dragged you into one of his schemes.” I say when I catch sight of Marie standing next to Cate, Luke, Andre and someone I had a vague inkling that I’ve met before.

“Vic! You came!” Cate smiled and pulled me into a little hug when I was close enough to the group.

“Hi guys.” I said with a smile before turning to the stranger of the group. “I don’t believe we’ve met yet, I’m Victoria.”

“We have actually, I’m Jordan. You bumped into me this morning.” A giddy smile slowly spread out over my face.

“Oh right, you were the hot and mysterious person I nearly killed this morning. Pleasure to meet you.” A dusting of blush appeared on their face and we held eye contact which was annoyingly broken by Andre’s screech of:

“You nearly killed someone AGAIN?”

“Ok dude chill it really wasn’t that bad.” I roll my eyes at his antics and thankfully the exchange gets interrupted by Luke.

“Come on, we don't want to be late.” Luke said after removing his arms from around Cate and heading over to the driver’s seat. Andre makes a whole thing of opening up the passenger seat for Kate and I get into the back seat with Jordan sliding in next to me.

The entire car ride was spent awkwardly avoiding whatever feud Jordan and Marie had going one and trying to get everyone better. Cate and I talked more about our glove choices, mine were black with a red heart detail and hers were stunningly sculpted brown ones. The playlist was (thankfully) controlled by Jordan, which ended up with music that could have been stolen from my own playlist.

When we finally got to our first destination, my jaw dropped - I had only been to Seven tower a handful of times. Mostly to deal with lawsuits from accidental deaths, there were surprisingly few of them for the amount of death that seemed to follow me everywhere. Luke and Cate managed to get us up on the roof, and I couldn’t help but wonder if Homelander could literally hear us up here. Better not to think about that.

So I took a hit of coke after Andre passed me his little vial - drugs were a way to kind of quell the murderous impulses my power demanded plus they were fun to do when around friends. Doing coke alone does not have the same effect - trust me.

“Hell yes! I forgot you did this stuff.” Andre said as I spied Luke wandering off to talk to Marie.

“Eh sometimes. I usually stick to weed or shrooms. The harder stuff messes with this whole thing when I’m hungover.” I said as I raised my hands to try and illustrate my point, wow okay this was strong stuff. I could quite literally already feel the haze starting to form around my brain.

“What exactly is your power anyway?” Jordan asked as we continued to do some more bumps.

“Oh well basically everything I touch dies.”

“So your skin is poisonous?”

“No, I absorb energy or rather life force. Here.” I wander over to one of the randomly placed potted plants and take off my glove, only to place my fingers on the red petals. The plant started to shrivel up and die about a second later.

“Awesome.” We were both clearly starting to feel the effects of the coke. We started to laugh as we made our way back to the main group.

The next stop on our little unsanctioned outing was some fancy club that Andre had been raving about the entire drive over there from the tower. I lean against one of the golden walls as I watch Cate do her thing.

“We don’t have one but you don’t give a fuck. Right?”

“I do not give a fuck.” The doorman leads us straight into the club and I smile widely at Cate.

“You are such a fucking badass.”

“I know.”

After getting some much needed drinks I lean back against the red seats and stretch out my arms. This many people were making me antsy and drugs and alcohol can only settle so much of my power.

“So yeah, basically this fucking idiot decided we should have a lightsaber duel in the middle of Grand Central and someone must have called the cops cause they randomly pulled up and we were arrested for ‘disrupting the peace’.”

The entire group burst out laughing and one of the many stories I had from when Andre and I would hang out as teens - we sort of drifted ever since he got to GodU but it felt just like old times.

“Alright, alright, enough embarrassing stories about our arrests. You guys in?” Andre asks as he holds up a bag of Molly and Jordan snatches it from his hold.

“Is that cocaine?”

“Nah we finished all the coke. It’s Molly. Vic?”

“Ooo yes please.” Jordan smiles charmingly and passes the little bag over to me.

“Hey I don’t really fuck with powder. But I do microdose shrooms.” Luke says with an almost triumphant tone as he also pulls out another bag.

“Hey where do you get yours from? I need a good dealer now that I’ve moved from LA.” I ask Luke before passing the bag containing Molly back to Andre.

“I’ll send you my guy’s number.”

“Thanks man.”

“So, what do you say, freshman?”

“Uh-”

“Hey Marie, you don’t have to - we are not trying to peer pressure you but… it’ll be funnn.” I smile widely and wiggle my eyebrows making her laugh, Cate also joins in on my teasing and she relents.

“Yes, let's go Marie.”

“Whooo. Come on, let's dance.”

That’s when I suddenly feel a little part of me sober up, fuck. It was a bad memory - the last time I danced was homecoming. A really sweet guy had asked me out and of course I had said yes. It was one accidental touch of my cheek against his and a few seconds later he laid dead in the middle of the dance floor. I ended up changing to homeschool after that whole incident, there had been issues across the years but overall this was one of the worst.

“Vic?” I shake out of my stupor as I look up at Cate extending her hand in invitation.

“Nah I don’t dance.” She must have seen something in my eyes cause she smiled softly and retracted her hand.

“Ok, just know you’re missing out on a great time.” She pulled Marie off towards the dance floor and I took a sip of the whiskey I had ordered.

“Any reason you’re not dancing out there? I remember all those clubs we sneaked into and you fucking killed it everytime.” Andre asked as he leaned back against the cushions.

“Andre, darling, that’s not proper club conversation. I’m going to go get another drink, you guys want anything?”

“I’ll come with you.” Jordan exclaimed as they sprang up from his seat and started following me towards the bar. I could quite literally feel the smirk that Andre and Luke had on their faces. Suddenly I heard a small pop next to me and I turned to see that Justin had shifted.

“You want anything specific?” I asked with a slight tilt of my head.

“I’ll have whatever you’re having.”

“Wise choice.” I winked at them and leaned over to wave to the bartender. He, obviously trying to flirt, ended up giving us a bunch of free vodka shots and 2 whiskies, the top shelf stuff.

“So how are you liking GodU so far?”

“It’s greatish. There’s so many bloody supes.” Jordan just raised their eyebrows at me as she helped me carry over the drinks.

“Oh I definitely know what you’re talking about. Have you met Rufus yet?”

“No?” I look at them in question and she looks at me with relief.

“Pray that you don’t.” We dissolved into laughter for a second time that night and finally set our drinks down at the booth.

“Well don’t you two look cozy.” Luke remarked.

“You changed? Why?”

“Cause I fucking felt like it. And more free drinks.”

“Here here.” Luke agreed as we each held up a vodka shot.

“To the Seven.”

“No way.” I look at Luke in minor awe, he actually got a place in the motherfucking Seven.

“I literally just told you.”

“Yeah well you do know that I’m an open book, plus you have to invite me to the tower sometime. I crush so hard on A-train… imagine that man in bed.”

“And that is exactly why he won’t be inviting you.” I added after taking my shot.

“It’s the least surprising surprise ever but congrats. You deserve it. When are you leaving?”

“More like when do you get to be number one?”

“Please, the trustees think I’m too confusing. I’ll never get number one.”

“They put you in the orientation video.”

“Yeah so they can suck their own dicks about how progressive they are.”

I listen to each of them debating the merits and the downsides (mostly Andre) of getting ranked number one when I start to feel it. Goddammit. Every life force around me seemed to pulse. I could see literal life running through each person’s veins and the conversation started to grow further and further away.

Quickly fishing in the pocket of my jacket I pulled out a few tablets of the experimental drug Vought was testing out on well… just me. I place one of the cylindrical neon green pills on my tongue and wash it back with another shot of vodka. A few seconds later everything went back to normal and I watched Luke and Andre have a whole bro moment. It was actually quite touching.

“By the way I forgot to mention but you’ve looked so fucking hot tonight.” Jordan turned to look at me with a slight smirk on their face.

“Oh you haven’t seen anything yet.” She winked and I felt a blush start to color my cheeks. Okay game on baby.

We all end up dispersing after a while and I start walking around all the warm bodies, being extra careful to avoid my face touching anyone’s exposed skin. That was extra hard when you’re in a club so I decided to just take a step out onto the balcony. Spying through the doors, I took in breaths of sobering air and watched as Jordan easily flirted with a group of girls.

Fuck Vought and fuck my dad for this stupid power. I turned towards the ivy growing over the balcony railing and without a second thought I ripped off my gloves and pressed my palms to the stems.

Life thrummed through my veins, I sucked it in deeper and deeper until I finally reached the roots of the ivy. I felt them start to rot away and die as my power crept into every crevice and cell. Stealing away vitality. Suddenly I was wrenched away from my ivy killing by high pitched screaming. I leave for a single second…

Quickly pulling on my gloves I looked into the chaos that was created over a woman’s body whose throat was punctured by a tiny metal hummingbird. Andre you fucking idiot.

Calculating how to get out of the club without actually having to go through the chaos I saw a few window sills that would easily get me close enough to the fire escape on the next building.

Using my supe strength I jumped between each sill until I was near the fire escape. Taking a few deep breaths in and out I jumped and let gravity take over. It was a few seconds of bliss before my entire body slammed against the hard metal railing with a resounding bang. Goddamit sometimes I wish that I got pain tolerance when I was injected with V.

The next few steps down were easy and I was able to get to street level and disappear into the night without getting noticed. My phone dinged as I started putting on my headphones and I looked down to find that I had been added to a group chat:

(possibly Cate Dunlap): vic you good?

you sort of disappeared

we’re on our way back to GodU.

Me: yup all good

god Andre u need to be more careful.

A.A.: u don’t think I know that

u need us to pick u up?

Me: that would be appreciated

*you have now enabled geotracker with the group*

(possibly Jordan Li): see you in a bit!

Waking up after a night out was a bitch. Carefully maneuvering out of bed without activating my headache too much was even more of a challenge.

“You good there?” I heard a shout loud enough to rattle my very soul reverberating through the room.

“Fuck Gemma a little quieter please.” Her laugh twinkled in the air but even it's usually nice sound zapped my brain.

“I thought supes didn’t get hangovers.”

“Yeah they don’t- it was all the people.” And the experimental Vought pill I felt like saying.

“Oh shit yeah sorry.”

“Right, I'm going to have a shower.” Gingerly grabbing my shower essentials I picked my way through the already busy hall. Communal showers sucked.

Thankfully, 3 coffees later I finally started to feel a little more like myself. Andre had made me promise last night that I would have to help him with some power drink promotion. So off to commons I went, the sun seemed to burn my eyelids so a pair of slim blue lenses adorned my face. The shade perfectly matched my gloves.

What I didn’t expect to find outside the school of crimefighting was Luke. Completely flamed out and Andre stepped closer and closer to him. My eyes widened and I started running - the blue gloves were torn off and I nearly collided with Marie when Luke (thank the universe) stopped flaming out.

“What… Marie, what is going on?”

“I- I found him murdering Brink.” If my eyes widened any further I was pretty sure my eyeballs would quite literally jump out of my head.

“WHAT?” I turned towards Luke again to find that he had started walking away from Andre, muttering apologies under his breath. I could identify that crazed look in his eyes. He knew he was cornered and he didn’t want to run anymore.

Luke started flaming out and suddenly flew up into the sky… only to make himself completely explode. Blood, guts, muscle, bones and brains started raining down.

The ‘materials’ that managed to touch my uncovered face and hands thrummed with power. That was strange. It was as if they were still alive somehow. The cells oozed energy.

My power started to immediately absorb whatever life-force the cells had remaining and then I felt a foreign kind of ache. It felt like a cold burn spreading all over my hands and my face, bringing my palm up to my face. I was surprised to see a tiny flame start to sputter on.

What the actual fuck?

did you know that human cells can stay alive for hours and sometimes even days after you die? so yes the ending makes sense - I did research. also Vic has never "absorbed" another supe before - her mom was human.... so we shall see how that affects her hehe.

if you want to be added to the taglist lmk!!

251 notes · View notes

ofindigoskies · 1 year

Text

while I do agree that it is funny to assume the characters in the fell xenologue are simply personality flips I also think it would be so much more fun to take it as an examination of the characters, what changed to make them different from their counterparts, and how it reflects on the ones that we know in the main story

so with that said….. here's my essay on why despite the fact that it looks like personality flip with no basis, alternate Alcryst (Altcryst) is actually not that unbelievable, just a version taken to the extreme due to the nature of the alternate world

"must I do everything for you, my pathetic excuse for a brother"

a good example that it is not simple swaps can start with Celine, I have seen many point out that the alt version of her is not necessarily a personality swap, just her ruthlessness to do whatever it takes for the benefit of her people taken to the extreme in a harsher world

"if they must suffer in order for our people to live, so be it"

(and this is just from her B support with Alear)

Celine cares deeply for her brother, and by extension the nation of firene.

(A support with Fogado)

Now this version of her has grown up in a world where peace isn't a norm and has to be fought to assured, pushing her ruthlessness to achieve it to the front.

I wouldn't be surprised at all if alt Fogado turns out similar to alt Celine

(A support with Celine)

ultimately they are willing to do the extreme for what they believe is for the benefit of their family and kingdom, but since they have grown up in relative peace, they do not often have to act on it and as such this side is rarely shown.

Due to the world fell xenolgue presents which is much less peaceful, this tendency and side is pushed to the forefront. This I believe can be applied to Alcryst as well

(images you can hear)

From just one line, it is already a shocker that 1. Altcryst is extremely harsh and 2. he is demeaning alt Diamant (not giving Diamant a funny nickname sorry)

regarding the first point. (slapping alcryst like a car) this guy can fit so much rage and hate in him. This negative energy in general is primarily seen directed towards himself but we have seen it directed at others before, mainly towards those he does not respect and consider his enemy

(chapter 11 where being a hater overrides respecting diamant)

this cold brutality also can be seen in his introduction scene, he has an aggressiveness that is quite fitting for a country of might, and has a very attack first, apologise (profusely) later policy

this is also seen towards Ivy and Hortensia who used to be his enemies and he does not drop that attitude towards Ivy until their C support when he realises that she no longer needs to be considered a threat

Camilla notes in her bond conversation with him that he is different on and off the battlefield. She also says that they are similar in their duality of kindness to their allies but lack of mercy to their enemies

(from their A bond conversation)

this is especially shown in how his critical lines are quite different from how he normally speaks, in the eng version this comes across as him being confident and assertive and in the jp version he comes across as being steadfast and serious. (I enjoy both and I'm not trying to pit them against each other but think there is enough difference to point it out)

I was going to insert clips but tumblr doesn't allow more than one video per post :/ you can look at the eng version here and the jp version here

notably, Alcryst's attitude and manner of speaking while in battle is similar to the personality Altcryst shows in the trailer. This leads me to believe that this is the aspect of Alcryst more prominent in the universe

so while Alcryst is a sopping wet cat, he has absolutely the potential to snap and bite, the gap moe is vital to his characterisation even

which brings us to the second point, that Altcryst does not seem to have those boundaries and is able to berate even alt Diamant. so. why?

first let's look at why Alcryst has low self worth in the first place, and why he puts Diamant on such a high pedestal.

Conveniently, Alcryst's B support with Fogado lays it out because Fogado straight up was like hey Alcryst can you tell me about your childhood so I can understand why you are Like This

which, in short, Alcryst was born with a significant age gap between him and Diamant, and as such grew up hearing everyone praise Diamant and compare him negatively in regards to Diamant's achievements, ultimately making him internalise it as having no worth at all. which. uhm. why are you comparing a child's achievement to someone probably in their teens.

(support B)

Alcryst has put Diamant on such a high pedestal that he is flawless in his eyes. (this also isn't helped by Diamant's own issues that is afraid of showing weakness) He seems to have his world blown when he learns that Diamant actually has fears and weakness.

(Support B with Diamant)

It is important to note that Alcryst in fact does have a good relationship with his family, we see Diamant and Morion be nothing but supportive towards him and his mention of his mother in his support with Saphir imply a good relationship there as well.

the impact that outside influences can still have on someone should not be underestimated though. I imagine this dissonance of being doted by his family and criticized by outsiders (who are likely nobles and private tutors who he still interacts a lot with) complicates his feeling of self worth and exacerbates his imposter syndrome

and the thing is that Alcryst is actually pretty skilled! It is straight up stated in his Ally notebook

(from serenesforest)

and in his A support with Diamant he scores 8 out of 10 in their archery competition while Diamant scored 9 out of 10

(A support)

which, you can take at face value like Alcryst that Diamant performed better than him, or note that it is actually pretty impressive for him to be so closely matched with Diamant considering their large age gap and thus the amount of experience they have

he is also very strategic that is noted in both his solo and paired endings, as "brilliant yet humble strategist" and "unrecognizably composed and powerful force in government" respectively. he also seems to naturally note the strategic effectiveness of areas he's in based on some of his exploration quotes

(from serenesforest)

lastly... regarding inner strength...... Alcryst may be far more stronger in it than Diamant. He is more decisive than Diamant, who is more hesitant and struggles with self doubt and his readiness for the throne. Ironically this may be due to the expectations Diamant has experienced since young, leading him to be far more reserved and careful due to potential repercussions. Meanwhile Alcryst already thinks he's at the bottom and as such has no qualms making a potential mess to fight for what he thinks is right. Basically:

diamant: oh I asked for no pickles :/ ah well

alcryst: EXCUSE ME !!! he asked for NO pickles !!!!!

this particular decisiveness is actually what makes Morion say this:

(chapter 8)

actually this whole part shows a pretty important glimpse into what kind of enviroment the Brodia Bros grew up in so I'm going use my singular video embed on it.

(girl I did not notice the promos at the top until I downloaded it and clipped it on my phone I am not going to bother redownloading another video)

someone out there in Diamant Nation has probably dissected this more thoroughly than me but when Diamant expresses his worries, Morion does not outright dismiss it, but still brushes it away, not taking it very seriously. Morion is still a pretty good dad! both his sons clearly love him deeply but he also unknowingly contributed to a lot of their mental health problems, which Morion himself likely acquired from the environment of Brodia as well. he straight up says that he does not fear death, but fears being known as a king who runs from battle.

Diamant is similar to his father in that way, carrying a fear of not being a proper ruler and king for Brodia. Diamant struggles to uphold the values he was taught with but to instead use it to bring peace and separate it from a nation that uses it to wage war. and amidst all that he worries and worries and is told yet again that fear has no place in Brodia.

and despite all of Alcryst's low self worth, he does not hesitate or worry, he is decisive and quick to make harsh decisions. He does what he believes needs to be done, including dealing the killing blow at their father to spare Diamant from the guilt of having to do so

(and the tone of voice he says this in both eng and jp is the same one in his crit lines and therefore what Altcryst uses YESSSSS I am COOKING)

also this is a bit [guy with conspiracy theory strings] moment here but it may very well reflect in how they work as units as well. fe engage's gameplay encourages the player to go on the offense, which Alcryst excels at, Diamant on the other hand is has sol and geared more for defensive play (and the sol barely activates due to his low dex oof) while alcryst with luna that scales off his high dex is activating it every other attack. this is also an excuse to link a funny video I found

so!!! due to the environment Alcryst was raised in, he grew to believe that Diamant was better than him in any way and as such placed him on an incredibly high pedestal. He in return perceives himself as having very little worth, when in truth is very skilled and possesses many traits that one could argue are very "Brodian"

well what kind of enviroment did Altcryst grow up in?

we can see that Altcryst is harsh to alt Diamant, Diamant is no longer on the high pedestal our Alcryst has placed him at (or arguably never there at all? there's not enough information to know)

so what's going on with alt Diamant? from the trailer, the way he speaks sounds much meeker to the Diamant we know. from a surface glance of that, it might be assumed that the brothers simply swapped personalities, but you have already read my argument on why the world is not a simple swap, just a change of circumstances that brings sides of the characters we know that is not so easily seen pushed to the front. and the same can be said of Diamant, who we've already seen struggles with anxiety, self doubt, and hesitance on his readiness for the throne.

Morion notes that Diamant has increased worry lately, from what I can assume is from the threat of a full war. I don't find it difficult to believe that alt Diamant, who grew up in a much less peaceful world, will be much more anxious. as such, the anxiety and fear that Diamant keeps buried is brought to the forefront in this world.

Altcryst interestingly says "must I do everything for you" implying that he believes he can do a better job than Diamant and take over the task, that he has done this multiple times before, and maybe even a frustration that he has to do so. If it's difficult to imagine Alcryst believing he can be better than Diamant he actually achieves this in their A support!

in this context he follows it up by saying

(which is another important part of Alcryst's character, that he will push past his boundaries for the sake of his loved ones)

there's no direct connection, but I do find it interesting how he says this after he realises that Diamant isn't as perfect and flawless as he thought

going back to Alcryst and Fogado's B support, this very interesting idea is brought up:

and Alcryst's response to why he wouldn't is:

which poses the question of, how would Alcryst have turned out if he realised much earlier that Diamant isn't as flawless as he thought?

well the fell xenologue is right there

half joking, while I do think that is part of the reason, the other reasons that I have mentioned play a role as well. along with the fact that due to the restless state of the world, Altcryst is put into "battle mode" more often bringing out that side of him more

okay so here comes my own interpretation that has less of me pointing back to canon and more of me going a bit delusional (I say as if I am not over 2k words deep in this)

In this world with more prominent conflict, alt Diamant is unable to cope with it like our Diamant can. As such, the worries and anxiety that our Diamant already hides is brought to the forefront for alt Diamant, making him come of as much more meeker than the one we know.

Due to this Altcryst does not place alt Diamant on such a high pedestal that our Alcryst does. I won't be surprised if the comparison still happens though, because it was already illogical in the original world. However, instead of taking it lying down and internalising it, Altcryst instead channels the rage and anger that our Alcryst is already capable of to prove them wrong. and from the competency already seen in our Alcryst, this is entirely doable.

I also believe that due to the state of the fell xenologue world, there are more conflicts thrown at them. and compared to Diamant's hesitance, Altcryst's quick thinking decisiveness often leads to him stepping in and taking charge. (much like how alt Celine is more ruthless in this world and alt Alfred, while reluctant and hesitant, still calls for the invasion to Brodia)

"must I do everything for you"

and while Altcryst's harshness to alt Diamant probably adds to alt Diamant's list of Problems (tm) it is likely a compounding addition. with their large age gap alt Diamant didn't grow up with this and likely developed his meeker personality from the other factors previously discussed

I still think that Altcryst cares in some way for his brother. much like how Celine and Fogado's ruthlessness is tied to the love for their family, Alcryst's capacity for rage and lack of mercy is strongly tied to how much he cares for his loved ones

(rotates this comment from their A support in my head in contemplation)

IN CONCLUSION

the fell xenologue world is not a simple swap but the aspects of the original counterparts that were not so obvious being brought to the front due to the harsher world they are in

the aspect that is brought out in Alcryst is his rage, brutal competency, and cold decisiveness

due to not placing Diamant on such a high pedestal, Altcryst does not suffer from as much lack of self worth and is able to channel his rage more easily (because this guy cannot cope properly in either universe)

Alcryst's capacity for harshness and lack of mercy goes hand in hand with his capacity to love, and I think Altcryst still cares for alt Diamant in his own way

thank you for coming to my TED talk

no seriously if you read all of this thank you so much

#alcryst #fire emblem engage #fe17 #fe engage #fee #um....... who wrote this lol #I think I used up my quota of being cringe and free for the next few months #I am not exaggerating when I say its an essay btw I am scared of checking the word count

238 notes · View notes

skelezomperman · 7 months

Text

Random thoughts the second - On Hostility in the FE Community, Part 1

This past weekend, more or less, marked a year since an incident that took place here on Tumblr regarding the Fire Emblem: Three Houses community. Specifically, it involved an artist being run out of the fandom due to harassment. Even as a relatively uninvolved person, this incident has stuck in my mind for the past year as perhaps one of the most egregious things to come out of the four years of discourse over this game. If you, my audience of two or three, will indulge me, I have a few rambles - so much in fact that I have to split into two parts. The first part will focus on 3H specifically, and the second will be on the broader FE community.

As I was saying, about a year ago – towards the end of September 2022 – there was an incident which took place on Tumblr. This incident involved a fanartist for Three Houses who was a fan of the Blue Lions. They were rather obscure, or at least obscure enough to where I had never heard of them before this. The artist deleted their social media after allegedly experiencing harassment from Edelgard fans which was allegedly over a comment over Sitri. Afterwards, their Tumblr URL was hijacked by someone else and used to reblog a rant from a prominent Edelgard fan. In that post, the person denied responsibility but they said that the artist “got what they deserved” and that they “fucked around and found out.” While the posts in question have been deleted, I do have screenshots of this happening in case anyone wants to examine what was actually said rather than taking my description as fact.

Generally, this person and their followers have been held responsible for what happened to this fanartist, and this story has been passed around as fact to this day. I was personally angered when I heard of what happened, especially because of the brazen URL stealing, the lack of shame regarding what happened to this person, and how irrelevant they were in the grand scheme of things. (It's one thing if this happens to someone who compared Edelgard to Putin or called Dimitri a racist or something like that - as poor of an excuse it is to point to that, it's at least an excuse. This was beyond the pale.) It pains me to admit that I allowed anger to get the better of me, and I apologize that I did so.

Since then, there’s been an interesting allegation.

I’ve seen that when this story has been brought up, other peoplehave claimed that the artist was harassed off the Internet by “their own fans” and that members of the…we’ll say “anti-Edelgard” group had framed Edelgard fans as being responsible.

Sadly, I cannot immediately disbelieve this allegation. Some of the reaction to this incident was quite exaggerated, especially with the attempt to drag Edelgard's VA (Cristina Vee Tara Platt) into this drama and with the digging up of years-old Discord posts. While I won't elaborate, I also have reason to believe that the anti-Edelgard crowd also has a complicated relationship with the truth. It may be simplest to believe that it is the Edelgard fans who are lying and that whoever stole the URL sympathized with them or collaborated with them, but as things stand, it's a he said-she said situation. I am not God and I don't know for sure what the harassment entailed or who stole the URL, so I cannot make an impartial judgment.

(As an aside, while I'm not interested in debating this incident publicly, my conscience does weigh on me for having possibly spread calumnies in the past. If anyone per chance has evidence that there really was a conspiracy to frame Edelgard fans as responsible for harassment, I ask that this evidence be emailed to [email protected]. If you convince me that there really was a conspiracy, I will publicly apologize. If you send evidence but it doesn’t convince me, I won’t say anything in public, so don't feel afraid to reach out.)

So this is where things stand, one year after moonlitboar was run off Tumblr. It would be one thing if this quietly faded into the background, but to this day I still see people spread this story (probably because nothing happened with any of the people involved, as far as I know) and to this day I see people play the blame game over this. To me, the fact that this incident happened and that it continues to linger is symbolic of the fact that an entire section of our fandom has been turned into a wasteland where people are fearful to speak their mind. It was egregious, but certainly not the only incident. And I do not mean to be an "enlightened centrist," but this kind of thing certainly does not exclusively happen to BL fans and it is not exclusively perpetrated by Edelgard fans. Many different people from many different cliques are responsible for this petty conflict and I would say that it has left a negative impact across the broader FE community. At the very least, I hope we can all agree that this shouldn't have happened and this person did not deserve this, regardless of what they actually said. I freely admit that I am naïve, but I hope that one day this will be resolved - that not only will the actual truth be known, but that all those responsible will apologize and turn a new leaf.

I will address this last part to everyone who continues to be involved in debates over FE3H, whether it is here on Tumblr or elsewhere. I recognize that with some of you, I have lost credibility due to past actions, but I hope you will still listen. When we are at the point where there are accusations of conspiracies being lobbed between cliques, there is something wrong. Some people may be more to blame than others, but I do not believe anyone who continues to be involved can truly claim to be innocent. I recommend that you do an examination of conscience: in other words, to review if your activities to fandom are truly bettering yourself and others or if they are detrimental. Those who are fanning the flames of conflict are quite possibly hurting themselves more than other people! I will get more into this in the second half of the post, but please, I really recommend stepping back and taking a long look at what exactly you are bringing to our community.

If you are spending inordinate amount of times getting into arguments with other people about 3H, or if you see yourself as part of some kind of war, or if you are looking down on other people, or if you see yourself as a martyr, you should take a step back and consider if you actually being a positive influence or if you are part of the problem. Yes, some people do say really stupid, mind-blowingly dumb things, and I understand the temptation to rebut it - I feel it a lot. But it’s worth remembering that sometimes it’s best to just leave them alone and lay off. Lack of discretion is a big reason why many people have been made to feel unsafe in a community discussing a game that they love. Let me say this again: this entire conflict has made people feel unsafe to discuss a game that they love. Putting everything else aside, this alone should be enough to make anyone in this community feel ashamed. It is very regrettable and we should all review to see if we have contributed to that and what we can change to prevent that in the future. This includes being a bystander - if you see stuff like this happening, even if it's from someone you consider a friend, do not be afraid to step in and say something! Your small, humble action could make a huge difference for other people.

To those of you who have made it to the end...congratulations? You are probably asking: how is this thing that involves a few dozen people at most relevant to the broader FE community? Tomorrow or Friday, I will post the second half of this ramble in which I address hostility across the entire spectrum of intensity, from a simple backhanded comment to outright harassment like this. From there, we can perhaps truly discover what it means to be a welcoming community and better ourselves and each other.

Edit: The second part is finished! Go take a look. It's much more positive and uplifting than this post, a reflection more about how everyone can help solve the problem of hostility.

#skele gets on a soapbox #fire emblem #fire emblem community #fe

52 notes · View notes

yakysanny · 9 months

Text

Netflix's official press has released episode titles and descriptions for One Piece Live Action

Some of my thoughts under the cut!

Seems like Syrup Village has been changed pretty drastically, which is not surprising - it's widely considered one of the weakest arcs in the entire series. I think here the live action actually has a chance to improve upon the source material, hopefully the changes will be positive!

Love that Kaya is a ship yard heiress, now we have a real tangible reason for why she's wealthy

Trio of overbearing house staff? There's Merry and Kuro, but who's the third one? Am I forgetting someone? Is this even important?

I wonder if we'll get Usopp's little friend trio or will they be cut

The action seems to have shifted from the slope to the mansion. Good change imo, more interesting location and the slope antics probably would've been to cartoony for live action anyway. Also the mansion has become a prison??

More Koby focus!!! This is a big one, he's a recurring character in this! I feel like not only are we gonna get the Koby-Helmeppo-Garp cover story, but even more importantly they'll feature prominently in other arcs (really curious about how they'll fit into the Syrup Village arc, also Usopp was the one who called them??)

No mention of them but when do we get Luffy and Zoro's backstories? Will they go the manga route and give them pretty much as soon as we meet them, or the anime route and hold on to them for a while

I have a feeling that Krieg plays a relatively small role in Baratie, again probably for the best since he's the least interesting part about that arc. I'm gonna be really sad if we don't get Gin though :(

We saw in the trailer that Arlong pirates were at the Baratie so they will probably replace the Krieg conflict and be the reason that draws Nami away (rip Johnny and Yosaku, I think we won't be seeing them either)

We most likely won't get Loguetown either. We've seen the barrel scene in promotional material, but I think they moved that scene around and we see it right after leaving Arlong Park. Now this works well if we get a second season. Arlong Park, the emotional climax of East Blue, is the finale and then Loguetown is going to be a great new season opener (many would probably consider it a stronger start than Reverse Mountain arc too). So fingers crossed for season 2!!

#one piece live action #opla

147 notes · View notes

mrbensonmum · 1 month

Text

TV Show - Dr. House | House M.D. IX

Over the weekend, I finished watching the fourth season, what a wild ride!

The team breaks up and only House remains. Of course, one could say that he also needs a team because he is the top diagnostician, but that would be short-sighted. Without the constant brainstorming and influences of the others, the diagnoses would never come together. Unless he's at Wilson's and has a brainstorm again. Still, he needs the team or a team to go down this path, a lesson House doesn't really need to learn, but it seems Foreman does. He briefly has a team and behaves like House, but it's a completely different dynamic.

What's really interesting, though, is that the old team never really goes away. While the new team is very different, because it's familiar, you still get to see the old faces here and there, namely Chase and Cameron. Foreman is always around anyway. It's a bit like changing your diet, where you're eating completely different foods but still occasionally have a cheat day, so your head, not just your body, is on board with the whole thing.

I especially like that they've thought about the nerds with the new team. Kutner often waves this flag by bringing in pop culture topics, asking about Star Wars stuff, or just being a bit childishly naive. I don't mean that derogatorily; in such a serious series, I think it's pretty good and necessary.

Since the production of the fourth season falls during the writers' strike of that time (2007-2008), we have a very short season with only 16 episodes. This gives us relatively little time to process everything that's happening. First, there's the selection process for the new team, then Wilson's new relationship with Amber, and before we know it, we're first in "House's head" and then in "Wilson's heart". The impactful double feature at the end of the fourth season really throws the world around House out of whack, not to mention Wilson's world. This is also where the rift between the two begins, which lasts until House's father's funeral. I particularly like the reconciliation between them, or rather House's welcome back to Wilson. First a prank, then a donut and a carton of milk; that's true friendship and yes, also a bromance, for sure.

As I write, I always pause the current episode I'm watching. Right now, I see that I've already reached the tenth episode of the fifth season. The episodes themselves, I don't want to say are standard, but they don't have major implications for the overall House world, except for dealing with Amber's death (important topic!!!).

However, two important new story arcs are starting. First, we meet Lucas, the private detective hired by House to shadow Wilson. We'll see more of him in a prominent role later, but it's still quiet around him for now. But an even bigger impact is Cuddy's increasingly strong desire to have a child, which has been around for a while but is becoming more concrete until the episode where she's almost there but then gets disappointed by the mother of the child she was going to adopt. Kudos to Lisa Edelstein, because the pain she experienced in that scene, or rather her role, came across very convincingly, and she manages to carry that pain subtly through several episodes. And yes, I noticed the kiss between her and House, don't worry. But I also count that as part of this pain.

But the moment that impressed me the most was at the end of the fourth season when House is sitting on the white bus with Amber (what an incredibly good metaphor). Perhaps this is indeed the only scene where we get to know a House who is happy, and not just a part, a small piece, or a fragment, but 100%. His words that he wants to stay there because he has no pain hit me to the core because I also suffer from chronic pain. I don't mean to say that they are as severe as House's, but they are there, and I can relate to that so well. This has nothing to do with suicide or anything like that, please don't get me wrong. It's just the desire for a certain form of normalcy. To wake up in the morning and have no pain, not to worry about whether you'll make it through the day or have to take a step back somehow. I felt incredibly understood in that scene, and I think that, in turn, is an important point of the series. Showing people that they are not alone with their problems, that they are seen, and giving them a pleasant form of representation so that other people also notice that they exist. Especially because in my case, except for a slight limp, you can't tell, just like with House, for example.

So much evidence that this series is incredibly good and that on so many levels. I don't watch many medical series anymore, except for the first season of The Good Doctor, but I can't remember much beyond the first scene with the little boy. And unfortunately, I feel like it's the same with many of these series because they just don't have the impact that House does. I don't want to badmouth the other series, absolutely not. They have their place, no question, but they just don't have the scope that House does; they're more for pure entertainment and have chosen medicine or a hospital as a setting.

#tvshow #house md #greg house #dr house #gregory house #wilson #dr wilson #james wilson #star wars #the good doctor #cuddy #dr cuddy #lisa cuddy

17 notes · View notes

gemsofgreece · 2 months

Note

Because unfortunately the internet doesn't have any lists of famous couples in Greek history aside of course... Greek mythology.. i know of Pericles- Aspasia/ Theodora- Justinian but i am very sure there are many more.

Can you make a list of famous couples in Greek history starting from ancient times until 20th century?

I am not perfectly sure how to approach this though. Are we talking about couples both members of which contributed to history? Or just a famous couple we know existed? Also, is this only about history or does it include famous couples culture-wise? Do they both have to necessarily be Greeks by descent? There are many questions I have but I will give it a try.

Periclés & Aspasia (5th century BC)

Aspasia was the sister-in-law of Alcibiades who brought her too with him in Athens from her hometown Miletus in Asia Minor. Aspasia worked as a high-class courtesan, a hetaera. She is perceived in two different ways by Ancient Greeks: either as a vulgar promiscuous woman or as a philosopher and an intellectual. Maybe the truth was somewhere in between. She had a son with Pericles, the most prominent politician of Classical Athens. It is suggested that Perciles heard her council and took her opinions regarding politics into account.

Socrátes & Xanthippe (5th-4th century BC)

Not exactly a role model of a pairing but a famous one nonetheless. For one, the most famous Greek philosopher, Socrates, must have been a LOT older and his marriage to Xanthippe might have not even be his only one. On the other hand, many sources seem to agree that Xanthippe was a notoriously temperamental person and she would mistreat Socrates, who viewed this as an opportunity to practice the values of patience and forbearance.

Crates & Hipparcheía (4th century BC)

Crates of Thebes was a cynical philosopher, whom Hipparcheia of Maroneia met and fell madly in love with. She insisted that (the unattractive) Crates would be the only one she would be having, leading her wealthy parents to despair. The parents asked Crates to talk her out of it himself and Crates complied! He removed his clothes and showed himself to Hipparcheia, telling her: "That's all you'll be getting in a life with me". He did not phase Hipparcheia one bit and eventually the parents ceded and allowed Crates to marry her. They are notorious for a little too much PDA (they were having sex publicly) which scandalised Ancient Greeks a great deal. Their relationship was one of mutual love and respect and living on equal terms together. Hipparcheia not only embraced but started practicing philosophy and totally immersed herself in the respective lifestyle of cynicism as well.

[???] Cleopatra & Antonius (1st century BC)

I don't know if they count since Antonius AKA Mark Antony was not Greek, however Cleopatra was a member of the Macedonian Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt and their story essentially sealed the Greek future. Mark Antony was a Roman general who opposed to Julius Caesar´s assassins and allied with the latter´s relative Octavian. Later, however, their relationship was strained leading to a form of civil war in the Roman Empire. The reason was that Mark Antony had a long affair with the Queen of Egypt Cleopatra, even had three kids with her, and now favoured promoting Caesarion (Cleopatra´s son from her past affair with Caesar) to the Roman throne instead of Octavian. Mark Antony was defeated by Octavian in the Battle of Actium in Greek territory and then again in the Battle of Alexandria. Knowing there was no hope for them at this point, Cleopatra and Antonius committed suicide together and this generally is viewed as the "official" end of any form of Hellenistic hegemony in the now completely Roman empire.

[???] Justinian & Theodora (5th - 6th century AD)

The question marks are because Theodora was of Greek descent but Justinian was not. Justinian was one of the most successful emperors of the East Roman / Byzantine Empire, making it reach its widest borders, including "reconquests" of the fast dissolving Western Roman Empire. He also achieved or rather imposed the peace in the internal affairs of the empire, sometimes with the use of a lot of violence. It is believed that he was very influenced by his wife Empress Theodora, who was hardened by her very humble origins (she was likely a prostitute). Theodora was extremely strong-minded and contributed a lot to the strong image built around her husband. Furthermore, she contributed to the making of laws for the improvement of the position of women in the society. Most sources agree Justinian was crazy for her, while it is uncertain whether Theodora was loyal to him.

Surviving mosaics of Justinian and Theodora in a Byzantine Church in Italy.

Kassianí and Theóphilos (9th century AD)

These two have become a romance in legends more than they might have actually been in their real life. Still, their affair or lack thereof, technically, has a significant enough impact on Greek and Greek Orthodox culture so they should be mentioned. The Byzantine Emperor Theophilos invited all the prettiest maidens of the empire to his court in order to pick a wife. Amongst them, Kassiani was the one who stood out both in looks and intellect. The emperor stood before her and offered her a golden apple, token of his affection and proposal. It is totally unclear what was happening in Theophilos' brain at the moment but of all things he could say to impress her, he chose to tell her something very sexist. Kassiani ended him on the spot with her response and did not take the apple. The emperor, humiliated in front of all his court, gave the apple to Theodora (another one!), another fine lady standing next to Kassiani. For all we know, this could be the end of it. But Kassiani's choice to never marry and isolate herself in a monastery instead has created legends and speculations that it was due to her heartbreak. In any case, Kassiani proceeded to become the most (or only) significant female psalm composer and poetess in the history of the empire and her psalms and hymns are used in the Service of the Orthodox Church during the Holy Week of Easter. Meanwhile, Theophilos fell ill early in his life and died young. It is said / speculated that when he felt death was near, Theophilos visited Kassiani in her monastery to see her one last time. Kassiani saw his carriage approach and hid herself in a closet to avoid the temptation. Theophilos entered her cell and saw nothing but the psalm she was composing at the time on a table. He read it and added the last line himself. He understood she was hiding from him, respected this and left. Kassiani got out, read the hymn and kept Theophilos' addition. Since then, the last verse of this hymn is attributed to Theophilos. For more about Kassiani and what exactly were the notorious exchanges they had that separated them as well as how the content of this hymn is essentially what led to these speculations, read this older post I had made.

Mantó Mavroyénus & Demétrios Ypsilantis (19th century)

A romance that flourished amidst the years of the Greek Independence War. Demetrios led many of the battles against the Ottoman army, however he is a little overshadowed by the more tragic story of his brother, Alexander Ypsilantis, who was the overall leader of the Friendly Society (the secret organisation which plotted and spread the fervor for the Greek Revolution). Meanwhile, Manto was the daughter of a wealthy aristocratic Greek expat in Italy, who was also a member of the Friendly Society. When the war broke out, Manto first tried to raise awareness about the Greek cause in France. Soon, she departed for Mykonos island, the place of her descent, with a large part of her fortune. She bought ships and created her own fleet, sending them and her men to many battles in the islands. She later participated in several battles in mainland Greece as well. There she met Demetrios and they got engaged. She became renowned in all of Europe at the time for her beauty and activity. The couple was in love and they were adored by the Greeks, who really liked that union of brave noble Greek role models. A prominent and very corrupted politician, Ioannis Koletis, did not share the sentiment. Fearing that the couple was gaining too much power and influence over the public, that could eventually turn political, he started a relentless defamation of Manto to her fiancé. He spread his lies so that Manto's reputation was ruined. Ashamed, Demetrios broke up with her. Manto returned to her home island heartbroken and penniless as she had given all her fortune for causes of the war. After the official indepedence of the Greek state, the enlightened governor Ioannis Kapodistrias restored her reputation and gave her the honorary title of Lieutenant general. Around the same time, Demetrios passed away young as he had always frail health.

Penelópe Delta & Ion Dragumis (19th - 20th century)

A famous love story rather than a couple. Ion Dragumis was a prominent young politician and the biggest adversary of the famous Greek politician Eleftherios Venizelos. He was very sophisticated, seductive and a smooth womanizer. He drew the attention of the slightly older author Penelope Delta, who at the time was already a mother of three. Delta fell so madly in love that she had the guts to reveal the truth to her husband and ask for a divorce. Her husband refused, trying to protect both his and her reputation. However, Delta's passion for Dragumis was so fierce that neither the husband nor her father could fight it. They eventually gave her an ultimatum that she had to choose either her children or leave the children to the father and go away with Dragumis. Delta chose to stay with her children but her desire was such that she attempted suicide multiple times. Meanwhile, Dragumis went on with his life and started an open affair with the famous actress Marika Kotopuli, without any intent to marry, which was very scandalous for the time. When Delta heard of this affair she started dressing in black, as if in grief, and kept doing it until the end of her days. At some point, there was an attempt at an assasination of Venizelos in Paris. Fanatic supporters of his in Athens, believing mistakenly that his big adversary Dragumis was behind it, trapped him and shot him in the middle of a street. Delta dedicated some of her later activity to sort out and copy a lot of Dragumis' drafts full of thoughts and ideas, that his brother had entrusted with her. Apart from this, Delta kept writing novels that made her the most prominent female writer of her time in Greece. She had reached her sixties when, in 1941, the Nazi Germans invaded Athens. On that day, she finally committed suicide by drinking poison. For more details, read this older post about Ion Dragumis' love life.

Kostas Karyotakis & Maria Polyduri (20th century)

Two young people, brought apart by their very different personalities and brought together by the fact that they both happened to be poets. The young couple fell madly in love. Karyotakis was a very timid and bashful man, full of insecurities and suicidal thoughts. On the other hand, Polyduri was a raging emancipated extrovert, which caused judgement at the time. Although they were very much in love and dreamed to elope together, Karyotakis was afraid of the bold lifestyle of Polyduri and the judgement it caused. When the girl even took the initiative to propose to him, the young man was so taken aback and panicked that he lied to her that it was no use, because he suffered from syphilis and therefore they should not consumate the marriage. Polyduri did not believe him but she was very heartbroken by his rejection. She departed for Paris where she continued her bohemian lifestyle, maybe taking it too far, until they found her unconscious in a narrow alley. She was diagnosed with tuberculosis and was taken to the sanatorium in Athens. As she was fighting for her life, she learnt that in her absence her past lover had finally committed suicide. His suicide note is very famous, as he describes how he initially tried to kill himself by drowning in the sea but failed because he was a skilled swimmer. He resorted to a pistol. The tragic news had very adverse effects on Polyduri's fragile health. A friend of hers, maybe taking pity on her, handed her injections of morphine, with which she ended her life as well. She has left a suicidal poem, which confirms that grief was the reason she took her life.

Maria Callas & Aristotle Onassis (20th century)

A very dark couple but the lovers were two of the most internationally well known Greeks of the century. Maria Callas was a Greek American who distinguished herself for being the most famous soprano in the history of Opera. She was born in the USA to Greek parents but soon they were divorced and little Maria followed her mother and sister in Greece where she received her operatic training. Later, she spent most of her time in Italy and France for her career where she enjoyed huge success and glory. She became a symbol of music and finesse. Despite all this, Callas was a tortured soul because she constantly felt unloved and exploited, both by her family and her Italian husband at the time. She suffered from great insecurities and was often deeply melancholic. Meanwhile, Aristotle Onassis was a Greek from Smyrna (now Izmir, Turkey) whose family experienced the atrocities of the Great Fire of Smyrna (in Greek known as Asia Minor Catastrophe). He emigrated to the Americas and started building a colossal business and fortune. He became one of the globally most well known tycoons by accumulating the largest privately owned shipping fleet. His power was immense. He was insanely ambitious and wanted to taste and own all the finest things in the world. He was impressed by Callas and courted her, although he was still married to his first wife. Callas succumbed and broke up with her husband. It was certainly a status affair, however Callas saw something in him, maybe his intelligence, his ambition, that made her fall in love with him deeply. She was pushing for marriage, as she ultimately dreamt to have kids and a conventional love life but Onassis was giving her the hot and cold treatment. One day, Maria Callas famously turned on the TV in her apartment, only to see in the news that Onassis had married the widow of American president John Kennedy. I can only imagine the impact learning such a thing from the news had for the sensitive psyche of Callas. Onassis went mad with the sense of status it gave him to marry the wife of the American president. However, he never loved Jackie and they barely even interacted in their marriage. Onassis would often pay visits to Callas which did no good to her but she found it very hard to resist him even though he made her sadder and sadder still. Despite all his cleverness and strategies, Onassis became miserable with tragedies that struck his family, so much that there is a talk of the "Onassis curse", generally insinuating that he was paying for his wrongdoings. Onassis could not suffer the untimely death of his son and his health deteriorated fast. Callas visited him in his deathbed and there were sources claiming he expressed his regret to her. Callas too had a very fragile health for many years. His death is believed to have contributed to her own premature death from a heart attack two years later.

King Constantine II of Greece & Queen Anne-Marie of Greece (20th - 21st century)

Because the majority of Greeks have no positive views about the constitutional monarchy, this may seem like an odd choice, however the truth is that before the graceless fall and exile of the king, the young royal couple was adored by the Greek public because it was viewed as the quintessential romantic image of a royal fairytale. He was young and super handsome, she was super beautiful and graceful, he was the Greek king, she was the Danish princess. Their marriage may have been one of the most grande events that took place in Athens in the 20th century. The media were delirious, one magazine declaring how "we" had the most beautiful royal couple in the world and, you know, as bold a statement as it may seem, it was perhaps not far from the truth. The image of the king was forever ruined after his catastrophic choices to tolerate the Greek dictatorship and then organize a childish coup against it. The fallen royal family lived in exile for the following decades - and we can accept that they sincerely resented this - until the ex-king was allowed back in Greece in the 00s. Regardless of anything else, the two of them were a rare example of marital success and mutual devotion in the royal circles. Despite all the drama and resentment against Constantine and the institution of monarchy, the Greeks retain respect for former Queen Anne Marie, who remained graceful all this time, viewed as a perfect role model of a wife and respectable royal. Constantine passed away a year ago.

They were literally Disney.

Aliki Vouyouklaki & Dimitris Papamichaél (20th century)

I thought of ending this with a celebrity couple, certainly the most famous Greek celebrity couple. Much like it happens in such cases, the image was so very bright but the truth was darker. Despite all the toxicity, it is generally believed Vouyouklaki and Papamichael were each other's love of their life. Vouyouklaki and Papamichael were the most promising and charismatic actors of their generation. They were in the same theatrical school and developed a love-hate relationship with constant bickering. When they rose to stardom, they simply tranferred this energy to the movies they starred in together, which led to great success and immense adoration from the Greek public. Aliki Vouyouklaki retains the title of the "national star". When the two got married, their fans were losing their minds. The marital life was not peaceful as their youthful bickering had now transformed into the much darker career competition. Papamichael was a very conservative man and he was poisoned of feelings of injustice and envy when Vouyouklaki attracted more attention and acknowledgement than he did, because he thought of himself a better actor than she was. Now, that was generally true, Papamichael was a great actor with a big range for comedy and drama. Vouyouklaki has posthumously been accused of bad acting, however this is not entirely fair. She was indeed bad in drama but she was exceptional in comedy. A problem that could negatively affect her performances was that she refused to spoil her looks for a role, no matter how essential it was for the plot. Anyway, the marriage was often violent and neither of the two ceded to the other, as Vouyouklaki was extremely sharp and refused to sacrifice anything from her image, her career and her decency. Eventually, they broke up in a bad way as well. Both went on with their lives but Papamichael found it harder to cope without her. In later years, they reached a sort of mutual understanding and formed a platonic friendship of sorts. Aliki Vouyouklaki was prematurely diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. In her deathbed, Papamichael would visit her and lament, and implore her to rise and go away together. After her death, which shocked and deeply grievened all of Greece, Papamichael would regularly visit her grave for the rest of his life.

And one from when they were far less glamourous but finally healthily loving / respectful to each other, with their son, because I want to end this on a good note.

Is this an early Valentine post? lol idk it takes some serious left turns

#greece #europe #history #greek history #ancient greek history #byzantine greek history #modern greek history #culture #famous people #greeks #greek people #greek culture #anon #ask #long post #long text #tw long #cw violence #cw abuse

15 notes · View notes

ae-azile · 18 days

Text

Azile's OC Round Up, Part 3 - Progression OCs.

Since I am actively updating this story, I decided to make the list of my prominent Progression OCs. I will likely add Fern and Milan to part 4.

Vice

Introduced in: Chapter 1 of Progression

Age: 36

Profession: Major Family Bodyguard

Characteristics: hardworking, morally ambiguous, loving brother, quick to feel resentment

Importance: Chay's first sexual partner.

Origin: Ex-cop, orphan. Became a bodyguard to bail his troubled younger brother out of jail. Became enamored by Chay's growing confidence, abilities, and muscles. Despite their age gap and first time being sudden, they slept together a few more times. Chay declined the offer to go out on a date, then slept with Vice's roommate not too long after. This was a problem because Vice has been in a FWB situation with his roommate for a while, so he felt betrayed by both of them.

Sand

Introduced in: Chapter 9 of Progression

Age: 26

Profession: Major Family Bodyguard

Characteristics: Loyal, quiet, friendly, relatively strong moral compass despite job

Importance: Chay's previous sexual partner, the only one he considers a friend.

Origin: Has very little family outside of the compound. Comes from foster care. Took the job for stability and a place to live, stayed for the friendships. Would have been open to dating Chay, but okay with being friends too. They work out together and sometimes have semi-heartfelt conversations. Honestly a pretty good guy.

Lane

Introduced in: Chapter 7 of Progression

Age: 33

Profession: Psychotherapist

Characteristics: Patient, understanding, trustworthy, calm, professional

Importance: Kim's therapist, and she has actually made some strides with him.

Origin: Lane is the older cousin of Tay. She is his mother's sister's daughter. While her immediate family is not directly involved with the mafia, she grew up close enough to Tay to know some of the traumas that occurred. Kinn already knew her and was on good terms with her due to Tay, so he reached out after it became clear Kim needed extensive treatment in order to feel better. Kim genuinely likes her, and would probably not be able to switch to a new therapist easily, or possibly at all.

Malai

Introduced: In Progression, Tankhun mentions visiting her in Chapter 20, and she is introduced in Chapter 22 officially. Versions of her character are also mentioned/included in The Masks Series, Lay Me Down to Sleep, and I Do (Not Understand What's Going On).

Age: 34

Profession: Litigation Paralegal

Characteristics: Kind, ambitious, maternal, excellent multitasker

Importance: Arm's older sister

Origin: Malai as a general character was first introduced in 5, 3, 1, and On, which is a novel length prequel to Giant Dancing Hedgehogs are Nightmare Fuel told solely from Arm's POV. In that, she lives with her younger sisters and is characterized as a hardworking sisterly/motherly figure due to rescuing Arm and the girls from the human trafficking situation they were all in. In this universe, she is more career oriented, but still a motherly figure at heart. She adopted her foster siblings after becoming of age from a really abusive and traumatic household. Arm is six years younger than Malai, but the next oldest and the only boy in their family. He often feels a need to make up for her sacrifices, but she makes them happily. A year before Progression, she had a close friend pass away, leaving behind twin toddler girls. While she balanced the motherly/sisterly role with Arm, Hansa, Nalin, and Preeda, she sees Tida and Priya as her daughters now. She doesn't have much interest in marriage or romance. A history of abuse partially plays into this, but it just isn't her thing. She likes being independent in that regard.

Hansa

Introduced: Chapter 22 of Progression, but versions of her character are also mentioned/included in The Masks Series, Lay Me Down to Sleep, and I Do (Not Understand What's Going On).

Age: 26

Profession: Horticulturist/Florist

Characteristics: Quiet, Non-judgmental, cautious, kind, carries a lot of trauma, but has been doing better

Importance: Arm's younger sister, Pol's love interest.

Origin: Roughly 18 months younger than Arm, Hansa was the person he was closest to growing up. In both this story and in 5, 3, 1, and On (although she had it even harder in 531). But in Progression, they grew up in an extremely abusive home where they were all traumatized, but the foster father took a particular interest in Hansa. Arm is protective of all of his sisters, but particularly her. She has been hurt a lot and struggled with her mental health when she was in her late teens to early twenties, but found solace in gardening and watching things bloom. She wants to find love, but the last time she tried went horribly. Other than Arm, she struggles with feeling comfortable around men. She was surprised to find Pol so friendly, fun, and approachable. Now that Arm and Tankhun are together and reach out more to spend time as a group, they often bring Pol. She actually looks forward to seeing him.

Nalin

Introduced in: Chapter 22 of Progression, but versions of her character are also mentioned/included in The Masks Series, Lay Me Down to Sleep, and I Do (Not Understand What's Going On).

Age: 20

Profession: Robotics Major, student librarian at university library

Characteristics: Highly intelligent, quick witted, smooth, tech-savvy, a romantic deep down.

Importance: Arm's younger sister, Macau's love interest.

Origin: Basically a mini female Arm, but more charismatic. Her main interests lie in further integrating and advancing robotics when it comes to the medical field and to help those living with disabilities live more freely and comfortably in their day to day lives. While she works hard and is a top student at her university, she is occasionally known to have fun. She did meet Macau at a party and had a night with him that felt magical. Is he an idiot for dropping his phone into a grate? Yes. Did she hold a grudge so she wouldn't feel sadness and rejection? Yes. But that's cleared up now, and they have been talking multiple times a day since her brother's party. She doesn't know if Arm will be thrilled about her potentially dating his boyfriend's cousin, and she loves and looks up to her older brother so much. But she likes Macau, so...🤷🏻‍♀️

Preeda

Introduced in: Chapter 22 of Progression, but versions of her character are also mentioned/included in The Masks Series, Lay Me Down to Sleep, and I Do (Not Understand What's Going On).

Age: 18 going on 19

Profession: Gap year. Looking into colleges, having fun until then.

Characteristics: confident, flirtatious, indecisive, attention seeking, challenging, family-oriented.

Importance: Arm's youngest sister

Origin: The youngest of Arm's foster siblings. Despite being the youngest when removed from their abusive situation, she witnessed a lot, which has caused certain rebellions, impulses, and avoidances in her. Her family worries, but keeps communication open. This helps, because she feels free and happy to talk with her siblings and share things with them. Came out as a lesbian at 15 and never looked back. Wishes Arm were more flamboyant and obvious in his own gay-leaning tendencies, so she's glad he's dating Tankhun, who is fabulous.

#oc round up #progression spoilers #progression ocs #progression preview #kimchay fic #armkhun fic

10 notes · View notes

omarera · 4 months

Note

Tbf it was Omar's ex who didn't respect his privacy. All that intimate information came from him, he loved telling fans all about it, chatting with them on instagram. So it's not surprising that fans had opinions about their relationship and were worried.

There were no “to be fair” reasons. It is not fair to bully people because you don’t like their actions or their look. That’s such a strange concept to me that if someone does something I don’t like or agree with, or look in a certain way I don’t like, it would somehow justify me to have the right to bully them. It does not. It’s just the normal bully shitty way trying to justify hate logic and the right to express it. And there is a fine line between expressing “opinions” and “worries” and hate comments. This way of trying to justify “fans” shitty behavior is one thing that really upset me. As you can tell lol. And they have no way of meeting “opinions” or “worries” expressed since doing that will only spiraling things.

And the info people get on Insta is just a tiny tiny tiny tiny fraction and then they go and base a whole character judgement on that. And especially only on the comments and actions they don’t like. It’s not possible! We don’t know them or their relationships.

I bet not even your friends or relatives know the full story of your own relationship with your partner (for the ones having one). None the less people you don’t talk to but that follow you and your partner on Insta. They don’t want or need our “opinions or worries” about their relationships. It’s just offensive imo. I would be so upset if some stranger would somehow write negative opinions or worries on my relationship based on some Insta stories or hating on my spouse and giving me advice or telling me their psychological analysis of our relationship they would clearly know very little or nothing about. Or attack the looks of my partner. And especially if they would do it on my Insta or openly for everyone on X. But for celebs people think that it is somehow ok. And I assume the ones doing that would find it ok for strangers to voice their opinions and worries on their own SM and their own relationship as well (but I guess not) We are not their close friends. They are also not some characters in a tv show that we can twist and turn and openly make analysis of. I get we are curious and want the best for our favs but voicing it the way some people do is just crazy. And then ofc they have to face the full on trolling hate accounts whose whole existence is to feed on hating on people.

And in the case of Felicia, honestly, the misogyny she is facing is just so sad. It doesn’t matter what she does, some will always hate. For her, as a white women, the focus of hate becomes misogyny and her looks. It’s so predictable. And for Nurbo racism was instead prominent in some hate. Also predictable.

Rant over. Wandered off from the ask maybe but this ask got to represent other asks and people justifying bullying behavior even though you used the words opinions and worries.

#ask #got a bit upset #tired of people justifying fans shitty behavior

16 notes · View notes

meimi-haneoka · 3 months

Note

Thanks for answering Cinzia! No, you are right 😂. I should not be using older art style as any standard of indication of timeline. That was an interesting exposition. I had never read the CCS manga (or doujinshis) as a kid, but the number of *ahem* works which feature junior high aged SS I came across over the past few months is pretty concerning. On a second note, I was also wondering about Akiho's ancestry. As you once suggested, Akiho's clan might be the Reed clan, the clan on Clow Reed's father's side. From what I understand, the Reeds would be (again I am not trying to be politically offensive but still trying to be direct to the point) white-skinned. Clow, from what I understand, was very much biracial. Then if Akiho indeed is from the Reed clan, how was it possible for her resemble Sakura that much, enough for pass off as her twin? Even if we are to assume that Lilie was the Reed (with perhaps white Germanic ancestry) and her husband (who perhaps can be assumed to the one who had Shinomoto name and was thus Japanese in all probability) married into the clan and they had Akiho who was biracial (with presumably German and Japanese ancestry), it is still very unusual. Until and unless of course, one assumes that Sakura herself is not of a fully Japanese ancestry, especially given that her father literally appeared when Clow died (gave up his body?) and Fujitaka (and Eriol) were created from some kind of magical cellular fission (?). So, Sakura (and Touya) are of part-white heritage, that too from the Reed clan, explaining the resemblance. I am just thinking too much, am I not? I should just let it be, at this point. 😰 Also, what ethnicity does Kaito belong to? I originally thought he was some kind of East Asian looking Russian but his real name is of French origin? What even is going on there?

P.S. Dear God, this went into a very different direction from what I originally wanted to write.

Ohohohho this is a topic that has crossed my mind more than once, especially during the "happy sisters" chapters after Kaito activated the forbidden magic!! 😂😂😂

Long story short, the final solution to the dilemma I came up with is: suspension of disbelief! 😂😂😂😂 Yeah, I think this is one of the most prominent cases where you're supposed to look at them literally for what they are "on paper" and not what kind of ethnicity they should represent in the story.

I'll elaborate further; first of all yes, I've always had the theory that "the clan of the most ancient magicians in Europe" might have been the Reed clan, which also Clow came from. I thought it was just the perfect fit for Akiho: it's based in England, and we know the Reeds were an English clan; this clan got rivalry with the Li's in Hong Kong and again it would make sense if they were the Reeds, because those two families have ONE illustrious relative in common: Clow Reed, the most powerful magician of his time! In fact, it's stated in the Clear Card story that the "Squids" do have lots of resentment towards Clow. The reasons are unknown, but if they were the Reeds, we can easily guess them: he ditched that side of the family and decided to get closer to the Chinese side, living in Hong Kong for a time and leaving some of his magical tools with the Li's. And also, it would've made PERFECT sense for Kaito to turn to the Kinomoto family to leave Akiho with them: if Akiho was a Reed, and we know for certain that Sakura in some way does have a little bit of Reed blood in her (she is explicitly indicated as having "Clow's blood" in the story, and that's so important that they made the characters point that out in the anime too, where TECHNICALLY she shouldn't have any blood relations with Clow, since Fujitaka was never confirmed as Eriol's 'other half' of Clow's reincarnation), that would've ALREADY made Akiho a distant relative of Sakura in some way. So it would've felt way less forced and much more reasonable. Everything fit so well that I was almost sure we would've had this confirmation before the end of the story; sadly, we never did.

There's a VERY terrible translation mistake in volume 6 of the English version by Kodansha USA, where they made the Squids say this:

Please be informed that in the JP original the Squids never said "For the blood of Clow Reed...to be bested by the Li Family....is an unbearable disgrace", because that basically made them refer to themselves as "blood of Clow Reed", hence indirectly confirming they are the Reed clan. That's absolute bullsh*t and what they actually said is "THEY are of Clow Reed's lineage. We can't allow to fall behind them" and that connects with what Kaito said in chapter 68: the Squids checked every movement from the Li family because of their resentment towards Clow (and the Li's were connected to him). I know my theory sounded legit, reasonable and could've made everything more interesting and well connected, but a theory remains a theory if canon doesn't confirm it. And translation mistakes should never be so bad that they end up portraying things in a way that makes you believe what it was actually NEVER confirmed in the story.

Up to this day, we don't have a "name" we can call this clan with: they're simply addressed as "that clan" or "the most ancient magicians in Europe" in THE WHOLE the story (trust me, I've monitored that detail very well, because of my theory). They're NOT the Shinomoto clan, as many people like to report in order to simplify things. I honestly not even believe that Akiho's father's last name was Shinomoto, as Akiho seems c-o-m-p-l-e-t-e-l-y foreign to Japanese culture throughout the story. He didn't marry into the clan from "outside", because Lilie specifically says that he's a "distant relative", so he's very much part of this European clan himself. And if we have to go by how awful they are in the story, I'm pretty sure these people would've done anything to keep their blood line as "pure" as possible, without "interventions" from outside, if you know what I mean. Additional to that, Akiho doesn't even remotely mention a possible "tie" she might have with Japan: I know her clan never really answered her questions about her parents, but I'm pretty sure that if she was half Japanese they would've told her and she would've sort of mentioned it along the story. She's portrayed by CLAMP as someone completely foreign to Japan. And with a last name like that, if she was really half Japanese, if would've come up at some point (Sakura doesn't even ask about it, "how come you have a Japanese last and first name if you don't have any connection with Japan?"). I mean, Akiho did "confess" at the end that her true name is Cosmos, and I think that is the only true part of her name that we were allowed to know about her. Just like the rest of her clan, and Kaito, her last name is none of our business, basically 😂 I mean, even Eriol adopted a Japanese last name to fit better, even though he shouldn't really have any tie with Japan (if he's a reincarnation of Clow and got Clow's blood just like Fujitaka, then he should have Caucasian and Chinese traits in himself). As you pointed out, that should be the same with Fujitaka.

As for Kaito, I definitely thought that he could be Chinese at some point: one of my craziest theories was that he was actually a "lost Li", because the shape of his eyes is exactly the same of Yelan. Yeah, check it out if you don't believe me! 😂

The moon power, the fact that he's often portrayed with chinese-style clothes.... Alas, this theory went down the drain too. Or, at least, we were never given concrete hints about it. And then the fact that in his backstory he's potrayed in a cold land with a typical Russian hat made me think that he could've been of Russian's origins too, but that one seems to be even less plausible at this point. His true name is French, so it is legit to infer that at least in part he must have some French genes in him, although it's anyone's guess where exactly he comes from. I do identify him as coming from France, at this point, and that would be reasonable because it would still be in the "area" of the Magic Association, if they operate in the entire Europe (man, CLAMP must think that there's lots of evil people in Europe, wtf 🤣). It wouldn't have been difficult for them to go fetch little Kaito in France, coming from the UK, is what I'm trying to say. But as we never got any other confirmation than his true name (and CLAMP must have chosen a French word instead of an English one for a reason), it's really anyone's guess.

So all of this makes me just conclude that we shouldn't really wonder too much about things like "how is it possible that Akiho and Sakura resemble eachother so much that they could pass as twin sisters, if they're supposedly from two different ethnicities?", because I'm pretty sure that CLAMP didn't go that far in planning all of these details to the situation. 😆 You should just rememember that it's a fictional story (with magic, at that), so we should apply a bit of "suspension of disbelief! 😅

#reply #this ask was fun because this is where CLAMP really remind us to have fun and don't take things too literally when it comes to lore #but focus on the messages of the story #or what situations they're trying to portray #let these characters make you emotional and don't wonder too much about the technicalities ❤️#ccs #clear card arc #ccsakura #thank you Aubretia!#akiho shinomoto #yuna d. kaito

7 notes · View notes