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jdsdreamdrops · 2 years

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Chapter two of ‘Timeless Feather’ is up on Scribble and Wattpad! Here is a sample of the beginning, if it interests you please go check it out!

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“Here this is the guest house, this is where you will be staying here for the night.” Samay pointed to a midsize studio house on the northern side of the courtyard. “You can go ahead and leave your things there.”

Each house in the heavily inspired Siheyuan grounds looked unique compared to the guest house. Enzo could tell the many different human cultures that were etched and fused within the architecture and materials of each home. The courtyards were no exception either, while the first yard containing Samay’s house had a very calm zen feel, the second one felt like walking through a small meadow. With a few pathways and a very cute pond attached with a small streaming waterfall. Where the stream came from would have been anybody's guess, but the surrounding stone structures did a good job blending in the small portal.

The two now stood in front of the plain teal door, Samay placed his hand on the knob turning and pushing it open. Revealing a quaint room decorated with Asian and European furniture that oddly mixed well together. Enzo step inside giving a nod of approval

“It’s really a cute place, do you mind if I put things away quickly before we go to eat?”

“Take your time,” Samay said leaning on the door’s frame.

Enzo reached into his side pocket pulling out a small leather backpack that was obviously bigger than the open fabric seamed in his pants. There was no noise other than stretching leather upon it hitting the floor. He placed his hand inside the top compartment and pulled out a long bending metal rod. He stood up still pulling on the metal pole, but now carrying a variety of clothing. The clothes rack being fully formed bore crisp neat men's outfits dangling on hangers. He placed it next to an open wall and headed back to the bag to pull out a few more. A sudden wave of judgment cast over his back as he felt Samay’s eyes observing the amount and styles of clothing he had brought. If this was enough to cause him to get criticized, he wondered how the other would react to his other clothes. Just as he thought it wise to stop before pulling out the wrong clothes his hands had already revealed the top half of his women's attire. He quickly glanced towards Samay’s direction hoping he didn’t see anything before shoving it right back in and closing the bag.

Samay’s laid-back position shifted to investigative upon seeing Enzo’s reaction. He did notice Enzo and Sera had a more slender feminine body, but it didn’t cross his mind that they could be a woman since he knew many men and non-binary masculine beings that were of the same figure. However, for whatever reason, these two were somehow special, and any information they let out gave him a strong desire to know more about them, even some of the smallest details. “What was that?”

“O-oh,” he choked from embarrassment as he quickly stood up, “It's just, um, uh…” a growl from his stomach interrupted his train of thought, his hunger was making it difficult to come up with a proper excuse. “ it’s- it’s just fabric.” he paused for a brief moment to make sense of what he just said. “Oh yes, it’s fabric! It’s the fabric I sell, I like to sew up some designs so people can… so people can see how they can best be used.” He gave a feeble smile before continuing to an afterthought, “Ah! The rack you just saw was filled with prototypes so they are not ready to be seen yet…”

Samay was impressed by his quick wit and would have believed his words if not for the small tells Enzo would display. He nodded slowly as he made his way in thinking how it was kinda cute that the other would think he could easily be deceived.“Enzo, what are you? A male or female?” He decided to ask bluntly.

He looked up to meet the taller man’s gaze only to then look away quickly, worried about the response he would get if he told him the truth, “I…”

Samay’s desperation to get quick truthful answers were starting to make him believe it would be easier to ask Sera. Without hesitation, he chanted his name.

The first time the name was said Enzo felt puzzled, the second time he felt a massive pulse ripple throughout his body taking his breath away, but the third time his whole being became enveloped by darkness as his consciousness faded.

#jdsbittersweetartblog #fantasy #writers on tumblr #writblr #story #storytelling #lgbtq #lgbt nsft #gods and goddesses #demigods

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asexualone · 3 years

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(pls take the time to read)

Signs I should have known I was aro: Disney edition

I think this topic has been stressed a lot already. But here is my take, anyway.

Of course, romantic love had been, is and will always be one of the main themes in kids' movies. Why, I can never fully understand. I'll explain below how I like other themes more.

Some time ago, I did a post on the kiss/hug scenes in Rapunzel which depicts how much more I value acts of showing love that don't include kissing.

Not only those two. I have a history of hating Disney on-screen smooches. As a kid, I thought, "Well, maybe, I don't like seeing these characters kiss because it's a grownup thing."

Could you blame me? When my parents were in the room and a kissing scene appeared on the screen, they changed the channel. So my toddler brain concluded that the reason I didn't like watching kisses was because I wasn't of age to like it. Or something.

At the time, I had no idea that I was hand-picking my favorite movies by the level of romance they had in. Or lack thereof. And I was a very judgemental kid. Let's go through my original thoughts on some Disney classics.

Snow White — No. Just no. She's a child, fourteen. Marrying an older guy she doesn't even know. After he kisses her corpse. NO.

Cinderella — The age difference is a little better, I guess. So is the age of consent. But they only talked one (1) night and he relied on that slipper to find her instead of asking to meet all women and see for himself. Fairytale logic I guess. I didn't like how she called it love immediately and kissed the prince at least once that same night. Or how they got married immediately.

The Sleeping Beauty — Must I even explain? Aurora didn't even know Philip that much, had only met him once (if you exclude the "dreams"). And yet, he's her true love, the only one who can revive her corpse. Ridiculous. And yes, kissing a comatose body, ew. Also, the arranged marriage trope pisses me off, royalty or not. Aurora was engaged as a newborn baby, come on.

Mulan — Cinematic gold. I didn't know it back then, but the fact that romantic love is such a pushed-aside aspect in this movie gives me life. The songs give me life. Especially when the trio dresses as concubines and "Be a Man" plays in the background. An absolute gem, lmao. The sequel however ruined the story somewhat for me, too much lovey-dovey stuff. I like Mulan more when she's fighting than when she's acting all sappy towards Shang, sorry not sorry.

Peter Pan — Loved it, still do. But I did dislike the mermaids, the image of fangirls who are petty towards other girls. And Pan's brief "relationship" with Tiger Lily was nauseating to me. I couldn't explain it but when Pan blushed at her nose-nuzzling thing, I always pulled a face.

The Princess and the Frog — In my opinion, (remember, always my opinion): Tiana, this hard-working girl who doesn't belong to anyone, was lost to love. Well, not lost. But falling for Naveen in the course of three days? Unrealistic and kinda unnecessary. Sweet, but still. I adored the "relationship" between Ray and Evangeline more. Either way, it's a movie that I enjoyed when love wasn't that prominent on screen.

Aladdin — I love this movie because of the Genie. The relationship between Jasmine and Aladdin is meh. She forgot his face and didn't recognize him until later. Their coming together is a lot like that trope "first guy who treats her right sets the expectations and wins her heart". Usually that's a thing, not only in Disney movies but media in general. The female lead settles for the first guy that treats her right because the bar is that low. A good movie, all in all. Love how Jasmine stands up for herself at least. Not a lot of princesses fight against the objectification of women.

Pocahontas — I used to hate this movie. I didn't sit right with me: the racism in it, the manipulation, the murders. And the romance, yes. Pocahontas fell for the strange man who tickled her curiosity in the span of two days. I also hated how her father just sold her to marry Kocoum like that. I know it's tradition. Heck, that's a tradition that still goes on in my country. Maybe that's why I didn't like seeing it on screen. And Pocahontas doesn't even end up with John Smith. The second movie definitely ruined the story. So yes, she's the first princess who fell for a man in three days, TWICE. Needless to say, only the songs kept me from blacklisting the movie entirely.

The Little Mermaid — I actually loved this movie for some reason. I can't explain why, maybe it was my obsession with mermaids. Yeah, that was probably it. But I was pissed when Ariel exchanged her tail for legs. Not to mention human periods and overall, all the bad in the world, for a man she'd only seen once. As I grew up I realized just how f*cked up that story was: Ariel giving her entire lifestyle, family and identity up for a guy she hadn't even spoken to. I don't know why I loved that movie, alright? Hell I still do a little. The sequel too. Say what you want.

Brave — (I know this is technically Pixar, shut up) Much like the paradox with Ariel, I didn't like this movie. I can't explain it. Maybe because Merida wasn't the typical Disney princess I had been used to seeing. Now though, I ADORE that story. No, it's not because Merida knows archery... Okay, yes maybe a little. I love the aro-arrow word play, alright? Anyway, the way Merida fights against being shipped to a husband like the "tradition" I aforementioned asks her to, has always had my heart, even when I didn't like the movie. The focus on the mother-daughter relationship is special, I love it. Stellar movie.

Tangled — One of my favorite Disney movies, my favorite princess. But her relationship with Eugene.... Well. Again, three days. That's all it takes to fall in love. Classic of Disney. Not only that, but Eugene is literally the first man person Raps has ever since, besides Gothel. The bar is nonexistent for her, she would have fallen for anyone. He lied to her and she still... Well, I won't stress that any longer. Their relationship in the end is sweet, one of the few cases where we are actually shown that they would risk their lives to save each other. Respect that. Mostly, I love her magical hair and Pascal. And the guys of Snuggly Duckling.

Moana — EPIC MOVIE. The story, the culture, the character growth, the plot twist, everything! Loved it at first sight, at second and forever. Even more when I became aware that there's no romance in it. I don't think I need to say more.

Frozen — My opinions on this movie have always been changing, accompanied by mixed feelings. So the relationship between sisters was cute, but Lilo and Stitch made that more realistic. Anna's relationship with Hans, ugh. I think that for a long time I used the fact that he was the antagonist to justify my absolute hate for the way Anna "fell" for him in one evening. Again, Anna sweetheart. This is the first man you've met. The bar is nonexistent for you too. God bless Elsa for forbidding her to marry Hans. And while it's cute to think Elsa as a lesbian, she has aromantic vibes. Sorry not sorry, but she's also a God by the end of Frozen 2. Gods are beyond attraction, I said what I said.

Raya and the Last Dragon — Loved it, still do. Say what you will about "dragon Elsa". Sisu is her own character, and I adore her. And yes, I love the lack of romance in the movie. Make no mistake, I shipped Raya and Namaari from the first moment they smiled at each other. I swear on my name that I paused the movie and screamed, GAYYYY, at the top of my lungs. Luckily, I was home alone. If only Disney directors would do the right fcking thing and give me a queer main couple!! I swear I wouldn't mind the lovey-dovey romance one bit.

Of course, I've left dozens of movies out. This post is already way longer than I wanted it to be. But I think that was enough to make a point.

While I'm not romance-repulsed, seeing animated kisses (and unnecessary relationships) on screen makes me uncomfortable. As a child and as a grownup. It just doesn't sit right with me. Not to mention all these princesses who identify with their princes and specifically their relationships with said princes when they're perfect on their. Wreck it Ralph 2 made them a favor, I think, by making them work together and showing their strengths. Another movie I love.

Friendship just makes an overall better theme to apply to kids shows, my opinion. Family, work, self-discovery, mental health, happiness. These are all better themes to portray in media dedicated for children. Which is, again, my opinion.

And yes, Disney has been getting better. They've fixed the age difference and the age of consent. The female characters no longer depend on the male ones, at least not as often. They understand the assignment, alright. There are still many questionable things about Disney's reputation though, things we all choose to overlook for the sake of the good movies. But who knows? They might change. Hopefully soon we'll also have an obviously queer couple in a movie. Hope dies last.

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nevertheless-moving · 3 years

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I always have mixed feelings about Jedi!Leia, like, on the one hand, she’d be SO powerful, and that’d be so cool to see. Literally all I wanted as a kid was to see Leia kick some ass w/ the Force, AND SHE COULD. She’s literally the embodiment of protective instincts and justice. But on the other hand, she’d be SO POWERFUL, and Leia is... an angry person. She has every right to be, too, but that kind of thing doesn’t vibe well with ‘partially-trained powerhouse’. But then on the other side of THAT, her NOT using the force feels like denying an important part of who she is and what she could do, and Leia is the sort to do EVERYTHING SHE CAN for those she loves and feels responsible for.

Do you think she’d do the responsible thing (Anakin could never) and more or less give her powers a hard pass, or do you think she’d figure out some way to make them work for her?

There are a lot of ways to channel the force, right?

Jedi Knights are trained in the most obviously badass methods, with the clearest physical impacts. But the jedi order had other branches (and I realize canon's probably a mess about those so good thing im overwhelmingly informed by fanon).

I think wanting to be a jedi knight is similar to wanting to be a firefighter or cop- it's a job that's description involves saveing people and ALSO comes with the chance to kick down a door. That's appealing, and necessary sometimes. But unfortunately not all problems can be solved by breaking a window dramatically with a chair, and fortunately there are other ways to do good.

So we've got medicorps- force healing and using that understanding of the living force to direct medical research.

Exploracorps- these are the jedi who probably use the force most in the way that untrained forcesensitives do, but on purpose. the successful spacers are the ones who listen to their 'instincts' and 'gut feelings' when 'something' tells them to drop out of hyperspace now or approach that stranger over there. There's an energy field that binds the universe together. People who listen to it when it's loud or follow it when its twisting around something are probably going to be more successful in general, and that edge is going to be most OBVIOUS in high risk professions.

We've got agricorps- and kriff as someone whose done hands on conservation and farm work isn't that one dreamy. A trained jedi who can just reach their hands into a layer of soil and over the course of a year speed up nitrogen fertilization and healthy root growth and all those other things that might take a hundred years to make a noticeable impact DAMN. I'm not saying it's as cool as being a knight, backflips and laser swords are objectively cooler but it's definitely as HELPFUL if not way more so.

And then educorps and diplocorps right? That last one might be fandom so let's talk educorps- how do you use the force to teach? If i could read a kids mind to understand what they didn't understand sure maybe it would be creepy but it would honestly be more helpful and less fucked up then all the impacts of repeated testing! Do you have any idea how much less stressful your education would have been if you never had to take a test because your teacher just KNEW what you were struggling with and partnered you with another student and overt the course of a conversation it all clicked into place? If you could just clear the bad vibes out of a classroom with a wave of your hand when something scary happened in the community, allowing children in low income areas to critically think and learn without the interference of a prolonged stress response, thus giving them the opportunity to excel in the way their core world peers do? Karking one generation of psychically enhanced education, just doing that alone, could lift a planet out of institutional poverty.

And then diplomacy, politics. I'm not sure if this a cadet branch of the jedi order or LITERALLY their primary role prior to disenfranchisement and conscription. Either way it's leia's chosen profession pre and post original trilogy, and I'm gonna say she could ABSOLUTELY be doing that as a trained jedi.

Well as trained as any jedi can be at that point in the timeline.

There's one really good au out there about crechemaster anakin. And honestly? If you have severe trauma and anger issues, your culture should probs be encouraging you towards pursuing a career that does not include violence. Maybe before their numbers were depleted and conflicts became increasingly violent, the most volatile jedi were encouraged as far from physical ass kicking as possible, not out of exclusion, but because it's only going to make their problems worse, while creating brand new problems for everyone else. The tendency of the culture I live in to encourage people with violent tendencies to become cops and soldiers has CAUSED SOME ISSUES FOR EVERYONE, INCLUDING THE COPS AND SOLDIERS. Look there's no such thing as a rule that's perfect for everyone but as far as healthy outlets for agression go, vulnerable people in high risk situations are really low on the list.

Yeah so jedi leia would probably be taught how to Not accidently on purpose kill people with her brain by willing their spaceships to crash into asteroids or screwing with their blasters in a firefight so they consistently miss, or all the other ways she unintentionally but gleefully force murdered people in the original trilogy.

And then she'd be taught to use her skywalker-bullshit-level powers for politics.

And holy SHIT.

Do you know how many problems are caused by miscommunication? In international security theory, rational actors pretty much ONLY go to war because of unavoidable communication errors. If you could have a trusted neutral party guaranteeing treaties with demonstable magic SO much less military spending would happen. I'm sorry but that is LITERALLY how the vatican became a political powerhouse. As it lost its credibility, so many wars happened. So many.

And that's just one of the big most clear cut things.

Domestic politics? Government reform? Jedi politicians would be INSANE. I - look.

When a policy workgroup is trying to make a change in a democratic society they genuinely try to use mind tricks. Fearmongering is the easiest- imagine if the nra was able to put a little force suggestion behind the idea that criminals were trying to break into your home and murder your family and if you give up your gun then only criminals will have guns. You're already scared- and now there's a supernatural element pushing it along.

On the other side of the political spectrum, again, the most successful campaigns uh, also involve fear, the left is just less good at structuring the entire argument in those terms (shame is the more common go to). Pushing the fear that anyone could get sick and lose everything, even you. You could get cancer and lose your job and then you wouldn't have insurance so that's why EVERYONE needs government health insurance. Shaming anyone who does racist shit publically was so effective that racist people started getting so quiet that they accidentally raised way less racist children.

A jedi would be unbelievably effective with the 'negative' emotion public outreach, but that might be darkside stuff. 'righteous' emotion driven social change does happen sometimes, compassion is at start of most human rights movements.

Tho not going to lie anger and shame is kindof what keeps those movements going so...

Jedi Politician Leia using vaapad to reshape the galaxy?

#star wars #ask #nevertheless meta

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apenapaperandadoofus · 3 years

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Can i request the RFA with a mexican MC?

Hellou! Aight so I'mma make it a bit more general latinx MC bc I am not mexican BUT I am a latina pft so yeah! Also should I add the minor trio and maybe Rika on another post? 👀

(psttt also if you're into BNHA @cafedanslanuit made an awesome hc post about the BNHA boys with a latinx MC if you want to check it out: x

RFA members with a Latinx MC:

Zen:

This man absolutely loves the MUSIC

Salsa? Merengue? Rumba, Samba, Bachata, THE CHA CHA CHA!?

He is an absolute BEAST he seriously loves all the dances and he has some friggin HIP MOVES.

Honestly you're kinda jealous he dances better than you

Some days while you're cooking or just chilling at home, you'll put up your favorite music, and soon enough you'll be swaying to the rythm of the beat, swaying your hips and signing along to the music

Zen will come back from work and find you dancing, so he'll come up behind you and wrap his arms around your hips, the two of you dancing together

At one point he'll probably try to sing but absolutely butcher the words too lmao

Yoosung:

The first time you met for a date, you actually broke the poor boy

He was NOT expecting the kiss on the cheek, he wasn't prepared!!!

Especially since Korea saves the whole touchy feely things for people that are either family or couples, usually they aren't really ones to come and hug their friends or kiss their cheek to say hello as a greeting

Meanwhile, in your culture if you don't do it you get a glare from your mother and probably a chancla beating for being rude AKSJSNSJS (been there too many times 😅💀)

After you start dating though he absolutely loves it. He didn't realize how much he loved being hugged or kissed until he met you!

He finds it pretty funny whenever you get mad and go on a swearing spree, especially when you hit your foot or elbow against something. You just start yelling and curing their mother, their father and their children, and he just loves you so much, it's weird, but he loves it.

Btw, COOKING TRADITIONAL LATIN FOOD AJSJSNSJSBS

At first it's an absolutely mess but he soon gets the hang of it

Jaehee:

MORE FOOOOD

Jaehee absolutely loves EVEYTHING about your culture, especially the food.

Whenever you are having a bad day she will cheer you up by making you your favorite foods!

On Christmas she makes a mix between korean and latin foods that you both enjoy, her favorite, of course are tamales! (Who doesn't love tamales, also they're a MUST for Christmas akkssnsn)

She also likes cooking you for breakfast gallo pinto (it's basically rice and beans but it's friggin delicious.)

Some of her favorite's are chalupas and chifrijo too!

listen you basically won the lottery with this woman, she is such a GOOD cook and she makes the most delicious food.

Sometimes you will find her in the kitchen trying to sign some of her favorite songs. She only knows the chorus but she definitely has the spirit!

Jumin:

One word:

Telenovelas

Listen, it's already been confirmed that Jumin has seen a few soap operas (and been influenced by them hence the kiss scene in his route ajsjsjsj)

Now k-dramas can be pretty dramatic.

BUT HAVE YOU SEEN THE SPANISH TELENOVELAS!?

Seriously if you get this man near them there's no telling what he'll do.

Our sweet and adorable Jumin can get influenced by Tv like that pretty easily, let's admit it, so at one point you may wake up and be in a spanish telenovela lmao

Honestly, when it all started, you were chilling at Jumin's place, ironically watching (but actually who are we kidding, you were pretty invested) one of the stupidest telenovelas you had seen in a while. You loved making fun of the characters and watching as chaos unfolded. It eventually became a routine and every Thursday you'd sit on your couch and stream the new episode.

That day Jumin came home early, and he saw you watching TV. You kissed him to welcome him home, but kept your eyes on the dramatic 'cat fight' scene on the tv. Jumin got pretty curious about what you were watching, and so he sat beside you, watching the whole episode in silence.

Once it was done, you felt a bit shaken up by the cliffhanger, but then got up to make some dinner. However, before you could leave Jumin grabbed your hand making yoy raise an eyebrow, confused.

"Jumin? What's wrong?"

"....MC. Why are you leaving? The show hasn't ended yet, has it? We still don't know what happened to Emilio, and Maria still hasn't figured out that Elena tricked her into leaving. Not only that, the 'salon' is about to close down. Love, we have to keep watching to find out what happens."

You let out a laugh and squeezed your boyfriend's cheeks. "Jumin! I didn't know you got so into it. Well sadly, the next episode comes out until next week so we'll have to wait. I can record it though, and wait till you come home so we can maybe watch it together?"

Jumin nodded and you couldn't help but compare him to an excited child that had suddenly found their favorite TV show. Soon, every Thursday the two of you would cuddle in bed together and watch another episode of the soap opera. Jumin enjoyed those moments so much. Not only because he was focused on the story, but because he loved the way you would suddenly gasp or randomly curse at the screen whenever something happened

(ALSO C&R cat telenovela coming out when??? -pfttt poor Jaehee but I'm 100% convinced Jumin would do this lmao)

Saeyoung:

Ohhh boy

You should have never told him about every single leyend that you grew up with as a child.

One day you were sharing with the RFA about all the spooky ghost stories, since Jumin had been asking about a few of them.

Saeyoung came in, heard spooky ghost stories and was immediately sold. That night you told him about La Segua, La Llorona, El Cadejos and more.

The thing is, you were not prepared for the chaos you had suddenly unleashed upon the world.

The next day while Saeyoung played LOLOL with Yoosung, you heard him retelling one of his favorite leyends that you had told him.

La Segua. The story was about a woman that would appear before sunset, asking for help with directions. The thing is, as soon as you helped her and night came, she'd turn into a horse and kill you. (I know it's weird AKSKSJA but I remember being SO scared of this when I was a kid, honestly these legends are so freaking good lmao, everyone in primary school would just be scared of a lady with a horse head pfttttttt)

As soon as you heard him tell the story to Yoosung, you knew that he was planning something. And were you going to stop him? No :D

A few days later, you invited Yoosung out to eat. As the sun was setting you led him towards Saeyoung's home, and then while you walked you met up with a very beautiful lady asking for directions. Yoosung immediately said 'nope' and tried to get you to quickly run away, but you insisted on helping the poor woman. After calming down a very shaken Yoosung, you explained that La Segua was just a story, and that Saeyoung was poebably just trying to spook him when he told it to him. Yoosung calmed down and apologized to the lady, offering to help her go home.

Suddenly you ended up in a very deserted place, making Yoousng feel a bit uneasy. As Yoosung walked, he turned around to tell you something along the lines of 'fuck this, let's go back to Saeyoung's.' he found that there was nothing behind him. He looked around, trying to look for you, but you appeared to have suddnely vanished.

Yoosung felt his throat get dry as the woman's arm tightened around his, and he tried to look anywhere but beside him

"Yoosung~" the woman whispered.

He yelped as he slowly turned around to look at the woman.

And he found a horse head staring back at him.

Later both you and Saeyoung had to look for him for about an hour and a half, and you found him under a bridge, shaking.

Yoosung did not find it funny at all, and you tried to nag Saeyoung telling him that maybe you had taken it too far, but you both couldn't help but laugh.

Of course you made it up to him, Saeyoung got him very exclusive Lolol costumes for his avatars, and Yoosung, even though he developed a trauma for both women and horses, ended up forgiving him and totally forgetting about the incident.

So the next time Saeyoung told him about La Llorona and gave you a mischievous smirk, you prayed for poor and innocent Yoosung, who obviously hadn't learned his lesson.

(this also happened a few more times until you had to intervene bc by now Yoosung wouldn't even go outside pfttt)

Also a few years later, while at the RFA Halloween party, Yoosung got stuck on the top of a tree and wouldn't come down.

Why you may ask? Because as he was drinking some wine, he felt a tap on his shoulder and turned around to find a big ass horse head staring back at him.

Rip Yoosung 😔✊

#mystic messenger #jumin han #saeyoung choi #mysme #yoosung kim #jaehee kang #jihyun mysme #choi bois #mysme zen

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itsclydebitches · 3 years

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ngl voyager gets a whole lot of very disproportional hate from the fandom and i'd hazard a guess that a lot of that is just garden-variety misogyny (and probably racism mixed in, considering how many of the most prominent characters are women, poc, or both). like, is voyager perfect? absolutely not. and no spoilers but there was a lot of executive meddling that wound up leading to the finale/conclusion being lacking and there's a lot of reasonable dissatisfaction with that--but again that was largely thanks to the execs fucking the show over and i recommend looking into that if you can once you've finished the show. but overall? voyager is trek right to its very core--it has heart, it's about family, and it never loses sight of that imo, even if some episodes are weaker or just duds (but, like, would it be a trek series without some episodes that just kinda suck but are still fun to watch???)

anyway, i absolutely love that you're getting into voyager, it is my all-time favorite trek series to this day for a lot of reasons, and i hope that ppl like that anon dont put you off bc i'd love to continue to see your thoughts as you watch the series!

Oh, it would take a whole lot more than some anons being salty that others enjoy things to turn me off :D

Thus far (I lost internet last night so I’m still only on Episode 7 of Season 2), Voyager is the Trekiest Trek I’ve watched. Which is a weird sentence, but I mean it in the way you said it’s “trek right to its very core.” What is Star Trek, if we strip the intent of the story down to its basics? It’s about exploration, discovery, that “wagon train to the stars,” wrapped up in the argument that life is fundamentally good. We have problems, but we can work past them. We have differences, but they strengthen us. Diversity is the lifeblood of the universe and the future will continue to improve so long as we embrace that.

Voyager is (again, from what I’ve seen so far!) basically a love song to that premise. I didn’t do too deep a dive because I’m trying to avoid spoilers, but I did look at a couple threads discussing why Voyager is so hated. Again and again I saw the same reason pop up: wasted potential. Now, a lot of fans left it at that (as if the answer to what potential Voyager apparently missed out on is self-evident. It’s not), but those who did expand on the idea consistently claimed that the show needed to be darker than it was, even if they rarely said it like that. Why aren’t the Federation and the Marquis at each other’s throats? Why isn’t the crew going crazy under these circumstances? Why aren’t characters getting killed off left and right in hostile space? “Anything could have happened out there and they played it safe!” but the “anything” here is always... awful. There’s this very pervasive idea that the world is inherently cruel, people are inherently divisive, that when pushed to the brink everything will fall apart... and that (while making for one kind of great story) is very much not Star Trek.

See, Voyager created an unimaginable scenario--lost in space, 75 years from home, forced to live indefinitely with strangers--and their answer to the question of “What happens?” is “People make it work.” They learn to respect one another, they uphold their ideals, they maintain a love of life and discovery, and they create a family. And that’s fucking fantastic. That’s Star Trek! I’m not going to pretend there aren’t problems with the show, with plenty more to come, I’m sure, but I don’t think this is one of them. Why do so many viewers think that hatred, horror, death, and growing jaded is the only potential here? Why would they expect that in a Star Trek show whose premise is the very antithesis of those things?

“But they don’t do enough with those things, even if they have happy outcomes.” They do plenty, they just do it in an episodic rather than serialized nature. I can point to multiple episodes where the replicator rations or Maquis differences are driving the characters’ actions. “But without that horror there’s no conflict.” There’s plenty of conflict. Hostile aliens aside, I just watched an episode where Tuvok and Chakotay are pissed as hell at one another because they fundamentally disagree over how to handle problems, but--because they’re adults with a well-tested respect for one another--they apologize and work through it. “But the characters don’t develop at all.” You mean they don’t grow harder. That’s not the same thing as no development. Tuvok is figuring out how to be more flexible, Chakotay is becoming more willing to accept cultures he doesn’t agree with, Harry is growing more confident now that he’s far from home, the Doctor is learning to see himself as a person, Paris is grabbing his second chance with both hands by making strong ties, and Janeway is learning to command and care for her crew simultaneously. I honestly believe that a lot of people think of “character development” as the character becoming a fundamentally different person, unrecognizable from where they started out. But characters can also grow into the people they wanted to be in the first place. “We’re far from home, in hostile territory, tempted to do horrific things to survive... but no. Right now at least, we’re holding onto who we are. We’re scientists, so we’re going to explore and learn. We’re peaceful, so we’re going to make friends with as many species as we can. We’re members of a society that teaches acceptance, so we’re going to form a family on this spaceship.” That’s incredible!! Did fans miss why Seska was an antagonist in the episode she was unmasked? Because she was trying to convince them to give up everything they believe in in the name of survival, an ends justify the means argument. And the crew said no, we will not give up what we believe in just to make it through. I legit saw a ton of fans saying some version of, “I can’t believe they were that far from home and actually followed Starfleet’s rulebook.” It’s because those rules don’t exist for the hell of it. Overlooking their practical function, they’re a philosophy that the characters believe in, and they’re figuring out how important that part of their identity is to them under these circumstances. Am I willing to steal a specie’s technology if it gets us home? Am I willing to die to help another uphold their own philosophy? (Chakotay in “Imitations”). What regulations should we bend or change to accommodate our new situation? The first two things Janeway does are a) giving the guy who just came out of a penal colony a rank and b) deciding that she needs to be more familiar with her crew than is normally encouraged for a captain because she’s essentially their mom now. Developing doesn’t have to mean characters do a 180 on their initial personality, or characters getting killed off when stuff gets “boring” so that others can do edgy things in response.

Voyager upholds Trek’s premise and runs it to its logical conclusion:

Voyager has the most literal trek--a trek back home.

Voyager has the most diverse crew--a woman Captain, Native American First officer, black Vulcan, Asian-American communications officer, and a White Dude pilot that realizes he wants to be soft and kind towards those who took a chance on him because Toxic Masculinity who?

Voyager has the most literal family--not just a 5+ year mission, but a crew who expects to raise the next generation. They have no choice but to work together, so they indeed come together rather than pulling apart

Except they do, of course, have a choice. In “The 37′s” the crew is allowed to stay on the Earth-like planet with a city of other humans and Janeway is convinced that a sizable number will choose that. After all, they may never get home and this is a safer, kinder future for them. In fact, the real question is whether so many will stay that they can no longer run the ship... but Janeway would never dictate her crew’s choices in that manner. So she swallows her worry down, opens the door...

... and finds that not a single person decided to stay behind. And the show has ensured we understand that this is not just because they all have some unshakable belief that they’ll get home (many don’t), but because this is their family now. This is home.

And fans want to toss that out for a generic, gritty, sci-fi adventure where hope is scarce, the universe is cruel, and people need to be pushed to the limit just to admit that they maybe, sort of, like each other?? Obviously like what you like, but that’s a hard pass for me. I’ll take the bridge crew comforting each other in “Twisted,” thanks. Besides, we already have shows like that. And we already have DS9 which grapples with many of those dark, pessimistic themes. Voyager feels like a breath of fresh air, even within the breath of fresh air that is Star Trek as a franchise. It’s a show that says, “Yes, when everything goes wrong people will come together. They will love each other. They will make it through.”

What’s more Star Trek than that?

#star trek #ST #mymetas #Anonymous

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viciousgracearc · 3 years

Text

sh.adow & b.one thoughts ( contains spoilers! ) tw: racism ( this is just a thought dump and to explain why i’m not adapting the show’s racist elements in my portrayals )

disclaimer: just because i will not adapt the racist element as it appears in the show doesn’t mean i won’t acknowledge the book canon, in-universe prejudice and discrimination against the poc characters in grishaverse.

so. the racism in shadow and bone. having watched all of the show, i now have some mixed thoughts about it. in the books, alina is assumed to be white for the most part. it is only at the end when we ( or at least i ) suspected that she is not entirely ravkan, and then the casting confirmed it. the kind of racism alina ( and mal ) faced in the show was never a factor in the books, despite rampant anti-shu and anti-fjerdan sentiment. the suli are painted as people who are displaced and mostly neglected by the ravkan government, and definitely treated with prejudice, but as far as i recall there is no specific slur directed at them either in book canon.

however, whereas alina’s ethnicity is vague in the books, it is crystal clear in the show that she is a biracial woman. i know that for biracial folk, experiences vary across the board, especially if you’re a biracial person and an immigrant or a refugee. alina is a war orphan. her mother’s country of origin is at war with her current country of residence. to an extent, i understand the level of animosity ravkans have against people who look like the threat / the enemy. people of color face racism and prejudice day in and day out, sometimes from white people, sometimes from fellow people of color. this is a grim reality with a long and studied history of racism and racial superiority creating divides between minorities and pitting them against each other.

was the racism necessary to the plot? it definitely adds layers to it. you have an orphaned girl of color in a mostly white people country. they discriminate against her and her best friend for most of her life, using slurs such as “rice-eater” and “half-breed”. but this country has a huge problem, and it turns out only this orphaned girl of color can save them from it, despite them alienating her consistently. now they need her help, now they call her a saint. this girl, who based on show-canon, feels so different and abnormal from the rest of her peers because her ethnicity is always pointed out and considered a bad thing. now she has to be a hero for a country that despises her... and not only that, now she has to do it under the tutelage of a white man. white man looks older than her; there is an obvious imbalance in their power dynamic, but he looks at her like his hope come at last and places her on a pedestal she doesn’t ask for. this same white man puts a collar around her neck and then effectively subjugates her by taking control of her power.

it... it kinda sounds bad, doesn’t it? it does. “but wait,” the volcra screeches. “via, are you fucking stupid?” it asks. “that’s not how the story ends! she overcomes!”

well, yes. but does it really make the rest of it any less insidious? alina is denied food, consistently picked on, and mocked, for being half-shu. it is prevalent in her show storyline and difficult to ignore. and thus it will be woven into everything that happens to her, and every decision that she makes will in turn, make us, the viewers, look back on it even if she herself doesn’t do so explicitly. i know the intent of including this racism element into her ( and mal’s ) story is to portray an accurate depiction of the POC experience as they maneuver white or mostly white spaces, or just spaces not catered to their specific ethnicity. but does it work? is it necessary? the irregulars, which is also a netflix show, did a great job at casting a young chinese woman in a lead role and a black man as dr. john watson without ever having to define their characters or their capabilities to move in the world by their race alone. as a half-chinese woman myself, it was empowering to watch a chinese girl able to take the lead and make bold statements and brave decisions without ever being bogged down by the limitations of her race.

at the end of the day, it is a fantasy world. do you think if the racism isn’t there, the story’s going to be worse off than it is? personally, if they left it out, i think the story will be just fine. there are a lot of things that tie these characters together outside of their racial struggles, like... i don’t know, personality? circumstances? the need to save their country from a powerful tyrant? the struggle for survival in a constantly at-war nation? there is also the fact that this racism element they’ve introduced is inconsistent. so much directed against alina and mal because they want the viewers to sympathize with these two characters. some of it directed towards inej, another protagonist, whose story has a lot to do with how she was exploited because she is suli. but where’s the racism directed at zoya? at botkin? if there’s racism against the shu and if they call them rice-eaters, where’s the anti-fjerdan racism and what do they call fjerdans? ice-shavers? cold-dwellers? aren’t fjerdans ravka’s enemies too? but oh wait... fjerdans are white. nevermind.

speaking of zoya: in the books, especially in RoW, it was implied that she is white-passing, which is why she was never treated differently for being suli. however, show!zoya is NOT white-passing at all. she is very obviously a woman of color, and while i acknowledge that yes, poc can be racist against poc, i don’t really see zoya -- bully, mean girl, attention-starved, ambitious, ruthless zoya -- resulting to such a low blow. sujaya dasgupta herself admitted that in show canon, zoya experiences racism ( though it was never explicitly shown to us ), and consciously turns it against alina in the hopes of hurting another woman of color. don’t get me wrong, zoya is definitely a terrible person at the start of the series. she was classist and mean and she had a superiority complex, and that superiority complex comes from being a powerful grisha, something she worked hard for. she thinks alina doesn’t belong in the little palace, not because alina is shu, but because alina appears out of nowhere, is untrained but is already considered powerful / the solution to everyone’s problem, and has nabbed her old place as the darkling’s favored. the “you stink of keramzin” jab is more than enough to drive her point home and i don’t think “half-breed” is necessary at all. besides, from what it looked like, alina isn’t the only mixed-race grisha. grisha comes from all over, taking refuge in ravka because they’re the only nation that treats their grisha under acceptable conditions. so one would expect some diversity there, which zoya, having been at the little palace since age 9, would have been used to by now. i don’t really think there’s a lot of incentive for her in using a racial slur, and she’s lethal enough with words that she doesn’t need them to injure somebody.

“via, stop barking and tell us what you’re going to adapt in your portrayal!”

okay, well. personally, i’m not interested in including the show’s racist element in any of my characters’ storyline ( alina, zoya, mal, ehri ). i acknowledge the anti-shu, anti-fjerdan, and anti-suli sentiments as they appear in book canon, but i will not use alina’s ethnicity as the basis of her “otherness” because i like the book canon explanation for that better. nor will i acknowledge that zoya called alina a half-breed, because my zoya is not white-passing zoya, and she knows infinitely better ways to inflict verbal harm than racism. zoya will also be grappling with being half-suli because she was exposed to anti-suli sentiments by her own mother as a young child.

all my characters are of asian-adjacent ethnicities, and as an asian person myself, do you really think i am interested in reliving my traumatic racism experiences through the characters that i write in a fantasy world? with alina especially, it’s like she couldn’t breathe without someone pointing out that she’s half-shu. i think as much as it is important to show authentic poc experiences in art and media, it is also equally important to show poc solidarity, and to stop defining people by their race alone and to just let them exist as people.

it doesn’t help that the show’s way of depicting racism is gratuitous, insulting, and feels like it’s catered more towards the white gaze than... you know, actual POC viewers? i understand people will disagree with me on this and that’s fine. this is just how i feel. given that shu-han as a nation didn’t even feature much in the books and we don’t know ANYTHING about them in a cultural context aside from the fact that their appearance is coded as east asian, the discrimination towards them really just hinges on shallow factors like how they look, what they eat ( ???? ), and how they are viewed as ravka’s enemy. it boils down to an east vs. west type of scenario ( and considering the barrage of anti-asian sentiment in our current political climate it’s... questionable at the very least ), and the racism element is not a profound expression of the poc experience but more like... a caricature version of it, once again, in my opinion.

“via, i can’t believe you used that many words trying to tell us you won’t include the racism in your portrayal.”

hey, i know. but a girl be having thoughts, a girl’s two brain cells be rubbing together, you know? this is me deep cleansing my brain by yoting my thoughts into the void. but yes, this is my take! i understand if you don’t feel the same way, but i just... i can’t feature the racist elements of the show in my blog, sorry (not really).

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

#* ic. / headcanons #headcanon: alina starkov #headcanon: zoya nazyalensky #headcanon: malyen oretsev #headcanon: ehri kir taban #racism tw #sab spoilers #asian ppl who disagree are valid #& pls remember not to tell POC what they can be iffy abt #also this seems like a lot of thoughts i just had to put them somewhere #shadow and bone spoilers

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lunarmessenger · 4 years

Note

So we know that mysme is korean.. I was wondering if you could do the RFA+ Saeran reacting to MC being latina🙈

Please and thank you 😊💜

GIRL YES me being Latina too I’ve always wondered....what it would be like...if they had a lil bit of flavor....LMFAO but i gotchu girl - Luna xx (P.S. I may make MC lean towards the hispanic side a little more because I’m hispanic LMAO)

translations will be down underneath all the headcanons for my non spanish speaking readers!

warnings: none! just some cuteness

RFA, V + Saeran Reacting to Latina!MC

Zen

• He was already so excited to finally meet and see you in person and it doubles when he finds out that you’re not from Korea/Korean

• “MC oh wow...you’re gorgeous I—”

• Is a lot more flustered than he intended to be

• Takes this opportunity to really broaden his knowledge on other cultures!

• He absolutely swoons when he wakes up one morning to see you cooking breakfast, the smell of eggs and jalapeño’s enticing him out of bed

• But then he’s also furrowing his brows because what kind of music is that???

• That’s when he sees you; wearing his shirt and side stepping by the stove, hips moving effortlessly as you hum along to the tune of the song

• He kept quiet, not wanting to disturb you as you continued to sway, swinging the spatula around as you quietly sang

• “No, no es amor, lo que tú sientes se llama obsesión*,” He would’ve passed out right then and there if he knew it wouldn’t freak you out; he’d never heard you speak spanish before, let alone sing it

• He wrapped his arms around you from behind, trying to sway his hips with you as you leaned forward to turn off the heat

• “MC, promise me that you’ll teach me how to move like that.” He whispers in your ear, causing you to giggle

• “And please speak Spanish more often.”

Yoosung

• He’s surprised but not in a bad way obviously

• You didn’t really have an accent when you spoke over the phone, so he never really suspected that you wouldn’t be Korean

• “You’re so pretty MC!”

• Begs you to teach him your favorite dishes from your culture and childhood

• “How about tamales? Winter is coming soon so it’d be something nice for us to bulk make for dinner and breakfast!”

• He’s already foaming at the mouth at the idea of getting to cook with you, especially a dish that he’s never even had before

• The two of you spend all day making the masa and filling, ranging from refried beans, chicken, and beef

• “Oh Yoosung we’ve made so many; should I ask everyone in the RFA if they’ll want some—”

• “No!” He yelled a little too quickly, making you stop reaching for your phone as you furrowed your brows with a smile

• “Why not?” He was blushing now, not meeting your eyes as he finished folding the last corn husk and placing it into the steamer

• “Because we made them together. I want them just to be ours, MC.” You grinned, placing a soft kiss to his forehead before nodding in agreement

• “Sure, mi amor*. We’ll keep these to ourselves.”

• He definitely blushed a deeper red after hearing you call him that in Spanish

Jaehee

• It didn’t really bother her that you weren’t Korean and she was actually quite excited

• Especially since you’d both be opening the bakery soon; she would love to introduce some non-traditional items to the local area

• “MC; if there are any sweets you would like to showcase in our bakery please feel free.”

• “Oh, actually! There are some that I think you might like!” You spent the entire day hunting for ingredients just so you could bake them for her so Jaehee could try them

• She was already enticed by the smell, her brows raising in curiosity as they finished baking and you poured the two of you some milk

• When you pulled them out of the oven she was excited to see the brown, bright pink, and white toppings on the bread, their patterns similar to a conch shell she’d seen on beaches before

• You excitedly plated them, placing them between you two at the dinner table and then gesturing for her to grab one

• “What are they?”

• “Conchas!* Dig in, honey!”

• She grabbed one, surprised at the soft feeling of the bread.

• At first she didn’t really know what to think? Or how to eat it? They were a little bigger than the pastries she was used to

• She sneakily watched you pull it apart with your fingers, alternating between putting the pieces in your mouth or dipping them straight into the milk

• She copied your movements, and as soon as she’d gotten the first taste her eyes widened in surprise

• “What do you think?” You asked in anticipation, hoping she loved them as much as you

• “We’ll put these on the menu immediately.”

Jumin

• Like Jaehee, he isn’t really phased that you’re not Korean

• With the many business trips he’s had he’s pretty knowledgable with his Spanish

• But only when it’s spoken at a normal pace and not so...fast

• You were visiting him at his office, patiently waiting for him to finish a meeting with clients who’d happened to be from Mexico City

• He came out of the meeting speaking a bit of Spanish, the clients responding rather quickly

• You could tell he was struggling a bit with their finishing statement, so you decided to try and listen in

• Your brows furrowed as you realized that the last sentence spoken from the clients was directed towards each other, even though they were looking at Jumin

•What they said caused immediate rage; you stood up and speed walked over

• “Este tonto ni siquiera sabe que ya le hemos vendido nuestra empresa a su competidor. ¡Conseguiremos el doble de dinero!”*

• “Perdóneme*.” You immediately interjected, Jumin looking at you in surprise while you saw the client’s faces immediately pale as you hurriedly told Jumin what they were saying

• His eyes darkened as he immediately called security, having the clients escorted out of C&R

• “Thank you for catching that, MC. I will definitely have to bring you in to translate every once in a while, kitten.”

707

• Of course he already knows you’re Latina due to the background check he did

• But that didn’t make meeting you any less exciting, and when he finally gets to see you he’s practically vibrating in excitement

• He knows Spanish much like Jumin, but he’s way more advanced at it so you two sometimes held private conversations when people pissed you off

• This was the second party that the RFA was holding after you’d joined, and a guest had been extremely rude towards you

• Saeyoung was ready to interject but you signaled that you were fine, keeping a polite smile as the client finished their rant towards you before leaving the party early

• He was on his way to check on you as soon as the guest left, your smile immediately gone as you rolled your eyes and crossed your arms.

• “Maldito hijo de puta.”* You cursed, and immediately Saeyoung was doubled over in laughter while the RFA members looked at you two with curiosity

• You were blushing, insanely embarrassed that Saeyoung had heard you as you pouted

• “Stop it, it was not that funny!”

• “Oh it was hilarious, please do that again.”

• “Wait, what did she say?” Yoosung interjected

• “Don’t worry about it!” You snapped, leaving Saeyoung to chase after you as you grumpily walked away from embarrassment

• “MC please I’m so sorry I just omg it was so funny I’m sorry I swear.”

• He’s very much intrigued with you and your upbringing

• It was obvious that the longer you two were together, the more likely you were to mix cultural traditions and rituals.

• He got a taste of that for the first time since you two had gotten together

• One day he came home from a job overseas to see soft lighting coming from one of the spare rooms, his brows furrowing as he called for you

• “MC? Is everything alright?”

• “In here, V!”

• He followed the dim light to see that you’d set up a table filled with marigolds, a couple of pictures of your family members accompanying the table

• “What’s all of this?” He was breathless, taken by the absolute beauty of it that it took him a second to notice that you were setting up a third picture; his mother.

• “Well, seeing as tomorrow is the last day of October, I’ll be celebrating Dia de los Muertos* soon. I wanted to make sure that we keep the memory of your mother alive with my other family members. It’s what we do in my family.”

• You were a little embarrassed, that is, until V suddenly brought you into a tight hug, a warm kiss pressed to your lips before he pulled away

• “I think that’s a wonderful thing, MC. Thank you for thinking of my mother. I know she would have loved to meet you.”

• You beamed in response, leaning against him as you pressed a kiss to the photo of your grandparents.

• “I’m sure that my family that’s already passed is enjoying her company too.”

Saeran

• He had already seen something special in you, and being Latina in his eyes was just an added bonus

• You told him about your hometown and the delicious frozen treats you always looked forward too, and that made his ears perk up in curiosity

• “Do...do you think we could try to find something similar here, MC?”

• You of course obliged, the two of you searching endlessly online until you found a shop that was similar enough

• The two of you had made an entire day of it, holdings hands while walking into the shop

• His eyes were wide with awe, the different fruity flavors catching his attention as you casually spoke to the owner of the store in fluid Spanish

• “What would you like, honey?”

• He was slightly embarrassed that he didn’t know what he wanted, shrugging his shoulders before nervously answering

• “I guess whatever you’re having.”

• “A-Are you sure, Saeran? My taste is a little more traditional than you might like.”

• “Well now I definitely want to have what you’re having.” He smirked, taking it as a challenge while you sighed

• “Alright, but don’t blame me if you don’t like it.”

• Soon enough your treats were ready, Saeran staring at his portion with wide eyes while you happily took a scoop and placed it in your mouth

• It was mango flavored, with drizzles of red decorating the scoops; spicy flavored powder sitting on top.

• “Go on, try it baby.”

• He hesitated, but nonetheless tried it; grinning from the taste and immediately going for a second scoop

• “This is delicious, princess! ...What is it?”

• You laughed before explaining, “It’s mango flavored sorbet with chamoy and tajin on top. It’s my absolute favorite, I’m so glad they have it here!”

• The two of you sat inside the shop together, happily eating your spicy and sweet treats before going home together.

translations:

No, it is not love, what you feel is called obsession*

My love*

Conchas* A sweet bread with sugar toppings shaped like a seashell

This fool doesn't even know that we have already sold our company to his competitor. We will get double the money!*

Excuse me.*

Fucking son of a bitch.*

Day of the Dead*

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lunarsaga · 3 years

Text

EPISODE 1: Here Comes Trouble

[[HERE WE GO, BITCHES! Fanfic and Fanart combine to make some unholy mix of Time Consumption that will not leave me alone.

THE LUNAR SAGA, EPISODE 1, START!

Note: the text in the panels doesn't match the actual written portion of the fic ^^; I tried my best but I didn't wanna redraw all of this... ]]

===============

Kagome had been gone longer than she usually was, and Inuyasha was getting impatient.

They’d finally gotten their first lead on Naraku since his disappearance—that he was heading in the direction of the Ox and Tiger (Kagome called it “noh-rth-eest”?)—this was no time for her to be going back to her world! He tried to tell her that when she left, but she insisted that she was going home to bring back something that would help them.

She’d been gone for almost ten days now! What could possibly be taking so long?!

The half demon sat beside the well, seething as he waited for something to happen. He’d been at this pretty much constantly since the day after she left. He had half a mind to follow her down the well to her world and drag her back here; he’d done it before, he could do it again.

“Don’t you dare follow me!” Kagome had said before she left, “I might be gone a while, but I promise it’ll be worth it!”

“Ain’t worth it if we lose track of Naraku because you’re taking so long,” he growled to no one in particular. Obviously, he got no response from the dry well, so he stood up and raised his voice: “HURRY THE HELL UP, KAGOME!”

“Inuyasha?”

Inuyasha jumped from surprise when he saw Kagome hop up out of the well. She sat on the edge, smiling just softly. A little embarrassed that he was yelling at the well, Inuyasha folded his arms and cleared his throat.

“It’s about time you got back, Kagome,” he said. “What took you so damn long?!”

Kagome sighed, still smiling as she set her feet on the ground and stepped closer to him. “I told you, I had to get something. It took a second, but I said it’d be worth it, didn’t I?”

“I hope you’re right,” he snorted, “Because if Naraku gets away cos you took too long over there—”

He didn’t get to finish his thought. He hadn’t been paying attention to the well at all; usually, he wouldn’t have needed to. This time, he would definitely regret it. From the depths of the well came a voice he’d never heard before:

“HEADS UP!”

He didn’t even have time to wonder who the hell’s voice it was. Seconds later, something heavy flew out of the well and smacked him square in the face.

“WHAT THE HELL?!”

Kagome laughed nervously, holding her hands up, “Uh… that would be her.”

Anger boiling and holding his freshly bruised nose, Inuyasha shouted back at her: “WHO?!”

“Keep your pants on!” Came that same voice again. Inuyasha turned his attention back to the well as someone he’d never seen before pushed herself out of the well.

She dressed strangely—that was a given, she seemed to be from Kagome’s time—and carried a large, oddly-shaped bag on her back. She had thick waves of black hair, much longer than Kagome’s, but pretty much the same shade of jet black. Not only that, she seemed to resemble Kagome in a lot of ways, even if she looked much older. They had the same shape of face, the same nose, and the same round, brown eyes—although, if he looked close enough, he could see a strange pattern in this girl’s irises: little flecks of pale gold, asymmetrically surrounding her pupils.

Inuyasha was immediately on edge, his hand going instinctively for his sword hilt. Kagome saw, and shook her head, setting her hand on his arm.

“Relax, Inuyasha,” She said, “This is who I went back to get.”

“Sorry, did my bag getcha?” The girl asked as she hopped out of the well.

“Inuyasha,” Kagome continued, gesturing to the older girl, “Allow me to introduce you to my older sister. This is Luna.”

For a second, it didn’t set in. Inuyasha blinked once… twice… “Your… sister? You have a sister?!”

“She sure does,” the girl—Luna—stood tall, grinning and holding out her hand. As she did, she said something he didn’t understand. It sounded like weird gibberish. When she saw his face, she laughed and smacked her palm to her forehead. “Right, sorry. Still getting used to speaking Japanese more than I do English.”

Once again confused, Inuyasha just stared at her. “In-glesh?”

Luna nodded. “It’s the common language where I live.”

“Inuyasha, Luna lives in a different place than the rest of our family,” Kagome explained, “She lives in a country that’s across the ocean, called America.”

“A-mare-i-kah…” Inuyasha tried to say. “Sounds weird.”

“Oh it is, definitely.” Luna laughed, going to pick up her bag.

“Is that what took you so long?” Inuyasha asked Kagome, “You had to wait for her to travel across the ocean?”

“Didn’t take as long as you’d think, had to visit mom and gramps and Sota, too.” It was weird how casual this girl was about everything. “But I can explain why I’m here and where I’m from once we get to where we’re going, right?”

“Right,” Kagome agreed, smiling as she led her sister back toward Kaede’s village. “You gotta meet everyone else, too!”

“Looking forward to it.”

Inuyasha wasn’t sure how to process what the hell just happened. It was a lot of information in a very short amount of time, most of which he didn’t understand, and all of which he didn’t really like. He wasn’t sure how to feel about a new person joining their group, nevermind that he never knew Kagome had more family than the ones he’d met before. And the fact that she threw a heavy bag at his face certainly didn’t help. (Well… it was an accident, but still. It hurt.)

Well… at least Kagome was back, and the most important thing was that they could get on with their search for Naraku.

~ ~ ~

Alright, time to back up a little bit.

Now, there may have been a reason why Kagome didn’t really mention her sister. Part of it might have been that it would be hard to explain that her sister lived on another continent, but another part might have been that it would be even harder to explain why. And the reason it would be so hard to explain—for Kagome specifically—would be because of their father.

Now, the Higurashi family had quite a long history of shrine keepers, priests, and priestesses, dating back several hundred years. Along with that lineage came a propensity for spiritual magic and a connection to the supernatural, as well as the metaphysical, and Keiichirou Higarashi—father to Kagome, Luna, and Sota— was no exception. However, he had bigger dreams than shrine-keeping.

A bit of a rebel, Keiichirou spent some time in America during High School as a part of an exchange program. It was there, through the family that hosted him, that he found a world that he never would have imagined.

The underground world of Supernatural Monster Hunters.

He spent his high school years in America learning all about it: how to fight and protect people against different monsters, some of them like the ones his father told him stories of growing up. When he returned home, he declared that he’d found his calling, and when he could finally afford to, he would move to America to follow it.

His father worried about the fate of the Higurashi Shrine if his only child were to abandon their family’s legacy. Keiichirou wouldn’t back down, but found when he returned home, that the Hunting world extended even to Japan—not quite to the extent that it was in the States, but he could still find a middle ground between what he wanted and what his father did.

And in the interim, he fell in love and married a wonderful woman named Mei, who accepted his weird, secret world wholeheartedly.

The Higurashis’ first child was born on the first day of November, during a very full Harvest Moon. When she opened her eyes for the first time, the doctor immediately diagnosed her with partial Heterochromia; her hazel-brown eyes were speckled with gold just around her irises, making it look like she had little crescent moons in her eyes. Keiichirou chose her name for these reasons; he’d heard it when he was in America, a name that meant “moon”. Luna.

It was seven years until their next child came into the world: Kagome, named for the eight-pointed star Mei saw on her chest after she was born. Keiichirou was excited when he heard about that; he said that both of his girls had special gifts, and hoped they would one day do amazing things with them.

But another six years passed… and things weren’t so happy in the Higurashi house. Keiichirou had already started teaching Luna about the Supernatural world, where Mei thought she was too young. Keiichirou had grown weary over the years, still longing to go back to America, where the Hunter culture was strongest.

When Luna was thirteen, Kagome six, and Sota only a newborn, their parents separated.

Luna was old enough at that point, that her parents let her decide where she wanted to be. Enthralled by the idea of being a Hunter, she wanted to follow her father, even if it meant leaving the rest of her family.

Travel between the two countries was difficult; Luna was lucky if she saw her little sister and brother once a year. But they kept in touch as much as they could: by letter, by email, and a phone call every once in a while.

Then, just four years after he and Luna left Japan, Keiichirou passed away very suddenly of an illness. Despite her family’s insistence that she come back and live in Japan, Luna remained in her father’s house. She knew, by then, that she was too far into the Hunter world to leave; not to mention that she had Alice (an old family friend, let’s say for now), who had been helping take care of her anyway. So she stayed in America, as five more years went by.

She hadn’t talked to her sister in months, when she got a call from her out of the blue:

“Hey Luna, um… So, I’ve got quite the story to tell you…”

~ ~ ~

So here she was, Luna Higurashi, a 22-year-old American Monster Hunter, standing 500-ish years in the past, explaining herself to a half-dog-demon, a kitsune, a nekomata, a Demon Slayer, and a Buddhist Monk. All of whom were extremely surprised to find that Kagome had a sister.

“Nice to get to meet you all,” She said, “Kagome told me all about your adventures. She brought me here to help you get rid of that Naraku guy.”

“Kagome never told us she had a sister!” The little kitsune—Shippo—piped up first.

“So I’ve heard,” Luna chuckled, crossing her arms.

Sango, the Demon Slayer, looked rather interested in the guitar case Luna was carrying on her back. “You mentioned you were a Slayer too? That must be an impressive weapon you’re carrying.”

“Huh? Oh, no,” Luna shook her head, tugging on the strap. “This is just my guitar. It’s a musical instrument—all my weapons are in my duffel bag.”

While her attention was on Sango, Luna failed to notice the monk approaching her until he took her hand in his. “A demon slayer and a musician! To think Kagome never told us she had such a beautiful and accomplished sister.”

Luna just stared at him, but she could feel the tension rising from the Slayer next to her. It was like standing next to a crackling thunderstorm with lightning bolts ready to strike. But she had nothing to worry about, Luna wasn’t about to fall for it.

“Never did mention me, huh?” She reversed the gentle grip Miroku had on her hand, grabbed his wrist, and twisted it sideways; a warning. “But she did tell me about you. And if you value your hands, you’ll keep them to yourself.”

Miroku laughed nervously, “Ahahaha—ow! Th-there’s no need to be rash! I meant nothing by it!”

The thunderstorm was gone. Sango was smirking as Luna let the monk go. “Oh, I like her.”

Kagome sighed, shook her head and smiled. “Welcome to the group, sis.”

#inuyasha #inuyasha fanart #inuyasha oc #the lunar saga #lunar saga episodes #luna higurashi #kagome higurashi #sango #miroku #shippo #inucrew #inuyasha au #oc #my ocs #my art

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firelord-frowny · 3 years

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this is Hashtag Problematic lmao but i honestly kinda feel like one way to encourage people to be proactive about mitigating the effects of racism is to play up the negative impact it has on white people.

bc like... face it, y’all. we all know good and well that even Generally Decent white people tend to kinda thrive on a victim mentality, and the reason why so many white folks are loathe to address racism is because they belong to the demographic that is perpetrating the victimization of Actual Victimized Peoples, and any effort to help those victimized peoples must inherently confront the fact that the aggressive acts/policies/attitudes are being carried out by white people. So the minute we start talking about all the ways ~white supremacy~ hurts people of color, half of them are already sticking their fingers in their ears and refusing to take even the slightest bit of responsibility for Making Things Better.

but i BET that if we framed the conversation in such a way that it highlights the ways white people harm OTHER white people via racism, a loooot of folks would suddenly be all ears.

OBVIOUSLY the list of Ways White Supremacy Hurts White People is not nearly as critical or painful as the ways white supremacy hurts people of color, but the list includes stuff like:

(for creatives/artists) being Too Afraid of representing minorities in your creative work because you’re afraid of offending anyone if you Get It Wrong

uneasiness of not knowing whether you’ve been given an opportunity because you genuinely deserved it, or because a person of color was discriminated against

racist whites voting against their own best interest JUST because they don’t want The Blacks to benefit from anything, effectively keeping many white communities in poverty/without health care/without good housing/etc

white people sometimes - though VERY indirectly - have to pick up the tab in terms of the ways racial inequality effects an entire population. for example, poverty is correlated with homelessness is correlated with crime is correlated with drug use is correlated with illness, blah blah blah, either causing regions to be Dangerous And Unsightly, OR forcing communities to allocate taxpayer money toward ~treating the symptoms rather than the disease~ by, for instance, deterring homeless people from sleeping on park benches, but not giving homeless people a way to get on their feet and secure safe housing and/or eliminating the conditions that lead to homelessness in the first place.

the fact that whiteness is the default in terms of beauty/professionalism/media/etc, has made whiteness invisible to white people, rendering them unable to Feel Special in the same way that they assume poc must Feel Special when we get recognized for being a person of color with a Positive Trait. For instance, Viola Davis gets hailed for being a beautiful, gifted BLACK actress. Meryl Streep gets hailed for being a beautiful and gifted actress, but her whiteness is “ignored” because it’s The Default. A lot of white people just straight up lack the ability to truly understand this, and so feel ~left out~.

White people may feel obligated to Not Complain about things because it’s ~not as bad~ as what poc are subject to. A lot of them feel like there’s never a good time to discuss their own concerns, because it would inevitably mean drowning out the concerns of groups who need more support.

These are things that white people wouldn’t have to grapple with if racism wasn’t so thoroughly entrenched in the dominant culture’s values and legislations. So, I kinda theorize that some white folks would feel more inclined to denounce racism and participate in its dismantlement if the narrative was “Let’s End Racism So We Can Go To Trader Joe’s Without Having To Step Over A Homeless Negro” instead of “Let’s End Racism So More Black People Are Able to Become Home Owners.” Or “Let’s End Racism So I Can Brag About My Beautiful Blond Hair Without Being Accused Of Being Racist” instead of “Let’s End Racism So Black People’s Natural Hair Won’t Deter Employers From Hiring Them.”

lmfao it’s SO fucking stupid, but like. racism itself is so fucking stupid and i guess sometimes you have to fight stupid with stupid??? idk!

Like, SOOOO often I hear white people lamenting about how unfaaaaiiiir they think it is that there are scholarships specifically for people of color, and that they shouldn’t have Special Opportunities just because of their race, and i’m like!!!

glad we fucking agree! it IS unfair that the past and present of racism in america has created a social climate where it’s necessary to give minorities a perceived advantage! it IS unfair that hard work/talent/intellect isn’t the only criteria that’s considered when deciding whether or not to admit a student/hire an employee/etc!

RACISM IS THE CAUSE OF THE THING YOU’RE UPSET ABOUT!!! FIX RACISM, AND YOU WON’T HAVE TO SPEND SLEEPLESS NIGHTS WORRYING ABOUT THE RARE MEDIOCRE BLACK PERSON GETTING AN OPPORTUNITY THEY WEREN’T BEST SUITED FOR! FIX RACISM, YOU WON’T HAVE TO STEP OVER ANY HOMELESS NEGROS! FIX RACISM, AND YOU CAN SING AND DANCE ABOUT HOW MUCH YOU LOVE YOUR ~PORCELAIN SKIN AND BLOND HAIR~! FIX RACISM AND YOU CAN FINALLY FREELY INDULGE IN YOUR DISTURBING FIXATION ON THE CUTENESS OF MIXED BABIES!!!

IT’S RAAAAACISM THAT’S MAKING YOU POUT LIKE A JEALOUS CHILD, NOT PEOPLE OF COLOR!! IT’S RACIST WHITE PEOPLE WHO ARE FACILITATING THE OCCURANCES THAT UPSET YOU!!!!!!! OUR ENEMY IS YOUR ENEMY, TOO, YOU FUCKING OSIFGUJRLTRGJTYBEY

OHHHHHMYGOD

#obligatory disclaimer that the reason why i tend to use black people in most of my examples #is just because i'm black and that's the experience i'm knowledgable about

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lin-dorie · 4 years

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Cuties/Mignonnes, from the project to the meaning and international public interactions

OK Let’s talk about it.

Let me tell you what Cuties is really about, the meaning behind it and what you need, as an international public, to understand it properly.

/!\ Spoilers needed.

So Mignonnes/Cuties is French-Senegalese movie produced by Bien ou Bien Production in collaboration with Netflix for international distribution. Maimouna Doucouré is an award winning director, she’s french-senegalese, 35 years old, grew up with a dad and two mothers surround by a big religious family. Nothing wrong, just a little girl having thoughts and dreams like any others.

Mignonnes, her very first long metrage, is based on a study she conducted for the project. She interviewed hundreds of young people with her team (pedopsychologist included) to collect a lot of infos and ressources to built a movie dealing with young people anxiety, sexual discovering, bullying, social media and young black people representation in movies.

I. Story telling from someone who watched it.

Amy is 11 year old, she came in France with her mom and little brother. While hidden, she discovered that her dad is in Senegal and will soon come back with a second wife as it is authorized by Islam and accepted in Senegal. Her mom and aunt don’t tell her anything but she saw her mom crying about the topic, not knowing what’s happening, she ressents her dad and her condition as a refugee, the typical “it was better where we were before”.

Her family is muslim, she wore a hijab to her religious ceremonies and practice like she was told to, without the opportunity to do otherwise. In her building there’s a girl, Angelica, she has a rebellious side in opposition to her workaholics parents and she dances hip-hop style which Amy has never saw. She befriend her and her circle of friends and decided to dance with them at a local championship. In order to learn the dance and prove to them she was “cool”, she stole her cousin’s phone, got herself instagram and started relooking herself as a young woman instead of the pre-teen girl style she got before. But, she gets her periods. She’s afraid, she’s anxious, but most of all she doesn’t understand because nobody told her. Her aunt take care of her telling her “you’re an adult now” and how she wish she’ll live a beautiful life like they are. This is a problem as Amy doesn’t know what it is to be “an adult” nor does she know what it is to grow up, and the only roles model she has at home are her sad mom and her ultraconservative aunt. So she starts acting out, comparing herself to more developped girls, tries to be like them and starts mimicing them for their dances. While fighting for the phone she stoled with her cousin, she locks herself in the bathroom and posts an intimate photo of her on instagram as a last proof she’s a woman. Obviously, she’s getting bullied in school for that, her mom come, slap her across the cheek, call her names and ground her. Amy became depressed and in her anxiety, tries to reach out for her friends who turned their back on her so they won’t be associated with her. Nonetheless, she succeed into entering a championship with her former-friends and are disqualifies due to highly innapropriate behaviour on scene. She go back quickly to her house during a panic attack, her mother comfort her telling her she doesn’t have to attend her father’s wedding if she doesn’t want to. Reassured, she skip the wedding and go play with kids her age. -END-

II. Producing and interpretation.

DISCLAIMER : Self-made interpretations as someone who’s into thoughtfull movies. It may changes from one person to another.

As sais before, it was produced by Bien ou Bien Production which a french production corporation based in Bordeaux. They are producing movies dealing with diversity, social issues, minority representation and religious debunking. They also produced Doucouré’s award winning short film “Mom(s)” that was dealing with the topic of polygamy in Senegal, and was based on her own life.

Being produced by them again for her long metrage was a financial security and a very good deal. She got a France TV (public channels organisation) financial deal and scored that spot into Netflix international catalog making her one of the only black french-senegalese woman director into the international catalog.

Obviously, as it is not a movie for children/teenagers, there’s few meanings behind the already well written script :

Growing up without ressources : Amy is a stereotypical 11yo girl who doesn’t know anything about relationships, sexuality and woman body. It is well know that parents tends to have “the big talk” with their children when they are around 15-17yo, but puberty starts around 13yo and with that : sexual desire discovery, gender identity crises and body changes. Innocents idioms like “you’re a big girl now” or “you’re not a child anymore” shortenned childhood, leaving young girls without ressources to develop themselves and, often, shame to ask for answers.

Female representations and social media : We can’t criticize this movie without putting a context around it. Our society has been developped around certains standards, weither they are socials, professional, personnal... Social media and main stream TV promote a way of life that is unattainable for 90% of us but they give us the opportunity to act “as if”. In this movie, Amy is just like one of us except that she is way too young to understand the behaviour she is immitated. You can see it when she doesn’t understand why her friends are lying about their ages, when she’s pushing a girl into the water (possibly drowning the girl), when she cries on stage in front of those parents judging her... What Doucouré is trying to show us is that little girls are little girls, they aren’t tough enough to be shown anything just because it’s socially accepted.

Children education : To me, this is the main purpose of the film, showing that it is important to educate children. Predatory behaviour, public image, false advertisment, relationships... There is no “right time” to talk about it, and most of the parents are too late, the fact is protecting your children is also making them understand why this behaviour is dangerous, why this outfit is innapropriate and never blame your children for mistakes they can make. Amy is the exemple of what could happen if you don’t educate your children, and she is brave enough to rise when her my mom take a step toward her to comfort her.

Religious family and sexual education : As an atheist, I won’t talk about metaphors behind the prayers or anything, someone who believe in their God the same way her family does will be more adequate to talk about it. But it is one of the main critic and thus, I have to share facts : The movie isn’t centered around it, the only reason it is here is because they needed a traditional figure such as the aunt, they needed a strict environment such as a religious family and they needed a twist that would put the little girl into a negative feeling, they needed her to ressent her situation as a refugee in order to criticize how it is to grow up without help. So why Islam ? Well, in France, we have two main religions : Roman Catholics and Islam. Using Islam as the main religion of the film helped them showing the good sides of this religion such as love, family devotion and loyalty. Added 22/08/20 : Islam has a lot of branches like any other religion. In Senegal most muslim practice Soufism, find differences between the way you practice and theirs mights come from that. Especially regarding the hijab, it’s common for young people to wear their hijabs only during ceremonies.

III. Streaming plateform and international public :

If you’ve read all this, you know now that it isn’t about girls twerking or pedo porn normalization, in fact, until Amy came into the group, the girls are doing basic hip-hop dance (well, at least they try...). So how a movie mostly acclaimed by those who saw it can be the center of such a scandal ?

Well, first let’s talk about culture appropriation. As a 25yo white european woman I’ve had my share of culture appropriation story, did I mean anything bad when I did it ? No. Was I ignorant ? Yes. As everybody with a little bit of dignity I reflected on myself and stopped whatever the f*ck I was doing that was innapropriate as a white woman. That said, we can’t denied that the world has absorded some part of the black africans culture when it got popularized.

Twerking is actually a mixed between dances from African diasporas (especially Mapouka and Soukous from Ivory Coast and Congo), it is known nowadays a sensual hiphop dance and there is nothing wrong with doing it when you’re a grown up in your right mind doing whatever you want to do. So why using this dance in the movie ? First, it’s part of the heritage of Amy, a 11yo girl who hasn’t lived in a occidental culture before. Second, it is a way of telling you, public, that what you do has consequences. Suggestive dances on TV, sexualized hiphop dances in the streets, rated r music video available on YT... Adult contents are available anywhere, anywhen by anywho. Children included. It is what the director, who study the subject of the impact of oversexualized content on young girls, is trying to tell you through the film.

Now, Netflix and the art of communication. Netflix has first released a trailer, a poster and a pitch that aren’t the one used to promote the film in the first place (France included). After the start of the backlash they released another set that are stil not the one used to begin with. Why ? Because Netflix is an industry, they aren’t cinema professionnals, they aren’t critics, they are a company like any others. They didn’t watch the film, didn’t understand it and didn’t advertize it as it should : A movie for adults who want to know what they could do to help the younger generations.

Because a movie isn’t just for entertainment, there is no film just made to amuse you, everyone is trying to tell something thanks to their art. Yes, those same young girls who acted in the movie won’t be able to watch it because they are too young, not because it is inapropriate but because the subject is too thick for them to understand it fully at such a young age. The way Netflix handle the promotion of this movie was also bad because international public can’t resonnate with it the way we do. And I include myself because I was the age of Amy not long ago, in the same country she came to. Cinemas from every country is proper to this country, we have the chance to be able to watch films from other places made by people whom don’t speak our language, have their own religion or not at all and try to reach us with their own issues and traditions.

I’m not saying this movie will be the best of this year, and I’m not saying that everything inside of it is perfect, what I’m trying to say is that it’s easier to agree with the majority than to forge your own opinion but if you take the time to watch you’ll be able to understand others and empathize with them.

I hope it will help some of you understand the purpose of the film, that some will be kind enough to watch it before throwing their critics and that most of you will still enjoy movies for watch the director is trying to say instead of what the politics want you to see.

#cuties #mignonnes #pavé César ceux qui t'ont lu te saluent

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starkerforlife6969 · 5 years

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What if peter was like a pack omega, not necessarily in a relationship with the whole pack, but he calms everyone down and cooks and cuddles all the avengers who just adore and dote on him.

TW: a/o dynamics, housewife Peter

Tony doesn’t quite know how it happened. Natasha and Clint went off on some super secret spy gig that Fury won’t tell him anything about. Wanda and Vision are off travelling the world, and then all of a sudden the tower has become a bit of a boy’s club.

It’s just him, Steve, Bucky and Thor.

It was kinda fun, at first. Like being in a fraternity back in college. Of course, he’d been quite young when he was a freshman, so the drinking and partying had been…not absent, but definitely the shadier side of legal.

Now, the four of them eat pizza and train and go and save the world when they have to. Tony tinkers in his lab, Steve and Bucky play the never-ending game of catch up, and Thor imbues himself in earth-culture.

But still, they’re four alphas. And sometimes they’re training gets a little rough, and sometimes they snarl at each other and get wound up.

After a particularly bad day, Steve wades through the trash all over the living room. He kicks aside grease-stained thai-take out boxes and empty wrappers- nearly trips on Thor’s hammer- before reaching Tony.

Tony arches an eyebrow at him, and takes a long sip of his black coffee.

“This place is becoming a real state.” Steve says meaningfully and Tony laughs.

“I hope you’re not suggesting I clean it. I opened up my home to you rascals-“

“Don’t you have a cleaner?” Steve grumbles, rubbing at a smudge on the countertop with his thumb.

“I did. Lovely woman. But you’re not gonna find a beta willing to live with four Alphas, Steve. And we do need a live in. I’m pretty sure Thor ate raw chicken the other day.”

“Why not an Omega, then?” Steve asks, and Tony hums thoughtfully.

It’s not a bad idea. Omegas are a pricy investment, because they’re so rare, but they handle Alphas beautifully. They cook and clean and soothe. Tony thinks they could all do with a little soothing. There’s a hell of a lot of Alpha pheromones everywhere, and it’s making him antsy. It’s tough to concentrate in the lab, and only he goes in there.

“I’ll look into it.” He promises, and Steve nods: satisfied, before wading back through the trash.

When Bucky gets back from his run in the late afternoon- he freezes.

The penthouse is sparkling. The balcony doors are open and the cool summer breeze is rolling in. There are- new cushions everywhere- and a vase almost bursting with fresh flowers on the coffee table. Everything’s polished and clean, and smells of freshly baked cookies. There’s another smell. Something sweeter than the cookies, more fragrant than the flowers. Something he can’t quite put his finger on.

“What the hell…” he whispers. Did someone finally clean up? He can’t imagine who. And who would go and pick flowers?

“You must be Bucky!” Comes a delighted voice, and Bucky turns to see- probably the most gorgeous Omega he’s ever seen in his life. He’s a tiny little slip of a thing, with huge eyes and fluffy hair and a blue sweater. He’s barefoot too, and there’s flour on his cheek.

“Uh…” he says unintelligibly, following the Omega towards the kitchen.

“I like your metal arm! I’m making cookies, would you like yours warm straight from the oven?”

Bucky takes a seat at the kitchen counter and blinks in surprise when he can see his own face reflected in the marble. “Sure,” he stammers, and then before he knows it, a plate heaped full of warm cookies and a glass of cold milk are being presented on a flowery tray.

“I’m Peter,” the omega says, and his eyes are like sunlight mixed with amber. He’s got skin like fresh cream and lips so pink Bucky wants to reach out and touch-

Instead, he crams a few cookies into his mouth and groans. Goddamn, they’re delicious.

Peter beams at him with glee. “You like them? I’m so glad! Tony said that he didn’t know if you preferred chocolate chip or blueberry, but I went with chocolate, because everyone loves chocolate! I’m gonna make steak with quinoa tonight, do you like that? I also bought some pastry for apple pie for dessert- that’s Steve’s favourite right? That’s what he said- but I’d already bought it, so maybe he was just being polite and-“

“Ah, Bucky,” Tony waltzes in, chuckling, ad Bucky blinks at the sight of him. He looks remarkably better than yesterday. The dark circles under his eyes are gone, his beard’s groomed and hair brushed, and he’s in new clothes that smell of laundry detergent. “I see you’ve met Peter, quite the little angel, isn’t he?”

Peter blushes, and it’s possibly the most beautiful thing Bucky’s ever seen. “Did you have a good nap?” Peter asks, plating up some cookies and milk for Tony.

“None for me thanks, gorgeo-“ he cuts off, and Bucky watches as Peter pouts; his eyes huge and disappointed, hands still holding out the plate and glass as offering.

Bucky thinks he’d lay down his life for those eyes.

“Fine,” Tony grumbles, taking a cookie. He snorts at Peter’s happy smile. “You’re gonna make me put on a couple of pounds, aren’t you?”

“I’m gonna make sure you get all the nutrients you need.” Peter corrects, and Bucky drains his milk to ask:

“Are you Tony’a new Omega?”

Tony answers for him. “Gorgeous, isn’t he? Super expensive, but definitely worth it. He’s for all of us, and have you seen the place? He’s folded the towels into little swans-“

“You bought him for all of us?” Bucky gapes, and Tony’s eyes soften a little.

“Well, yeah. We all live here, we could all use a little love. And look at him,” Tony squeezes the nape of Peter’s neck and the Omega lets out the most melodic little moan. “Help yourself, ask him for anything- Peter’s happy. He has his own bedroom- near mine, obviously, but I doubt he’ll spend the nights there, right, gorgeous?”

Peter blushes again, and subtly nudges another cookie towards Tony.

Bucky thinks it would probably be impolite to ask Peter to bend over the counter right now, so he saves it for later.

* After two weeks with Peter, everything is perfect.

The penthouse has never looked better, Tony’s never felt so well-rested, so well-fed. The fresh vegetables and new recipes- each more exotic than the last- have left him feeling stronger. Healthier.

Peter’s gotten Steve into Yoga, and more often than not, Tony will wake up to see the two of them out on the balcony under the New York sun, stretched out on yoga mats.

He likes to appreciate the view for a moment.

Before Peter makes them all a big breakfast. Smoothies for all of them and Tony gets pancakes, Thor gets a full english, Steve gets a fruit salad and Bucky gets waffles, all of them on rotation.

Peter spends a lot of time out and about with Thor. The god can hoist Peter onto his shoulders and is clearly completely smitten with the tiny omega. He keeps regaling him with Asgardian fairytales and giving him little gold trinkets.

Bucky gets deep tissue massages- he likes the way Peter’s fingers work into all of his muscle. Often Tony will see Bucky lying on the couch chest-down, with Peter straddling his thighs and working onto all that scarred tissue.

Everything’s just better.

And then of course, when Peter was cleaning up and he’d moved Thor’s hammer- picking it up for a moment, dusting underneath it- then setting back down, humming sweetly all the while, and the four alphas had just stared in absolute amazement.

Tony likes buying Peter silks and satins. Or sparkly diamonds that Peter wears around the house. Steve gives Peter his sketches- leaves them lying around the house for Peter to find as he’s cleaning, and the little omega lets out a pleased sound of delight every time.

It’s just better. Effortless.

Tony stirs (his sleeping pattern is so much better now) when he feels his mattress dip, and he smiles lazily with pleasant surprise, as he tugs Peter into his chest.

“Mm, haven’t seen you for a few days, gorgeous.”

“Thor had a lot of pent up stress,” Peter mewls, one soft hand already sliding into Tony’s pants. Peter is a selfless lover, as all omega are, he peppers Tony’s face with kisses, whispers praise, and teases him just the right amount.

“I want you to knot me, please, alpha,” Peter whispers sweetly into his ear, already moving- he does all the work, Tony doesn’t have to lift a finger- and he’s already slick, and he manoeuvres Tony’s throbbing cock to his hole easily. “Do you want that?”

“Fuck, yeah, baby,” Tony grunts, eyes still lidded. “Make me feel good.”

Peter moans like it’s his pleasure, and gets to work.

#starker #winterspider #spidershield #thor x peter #peter x tony #peter x steve #peter x bucky #omega peter #alpha tony #alpha bucky #alpha steve #precious peter parker #abo dynamics #tony stark has a heart #fluff

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hellyeahheroes · 5 years

Photo

Preview Pages and Interview for SUPERMAN SMASHES THE KLAN

Superman Smashes the Klan launches Oct. 16, with the first of three 80-page perfect bound issues. The collected edition of the story will be released in 2020. DC’s official solicitation for the first issue is below, followed by artwork from the issue.

“The year is 1946, and the Lee family has moved from Metropolis’s Chinatown to the center of the bustling city. While Dr. Lee is greeted warmly in his new position at the Metropolis Health Department, his two kids, Roberta and Tommy, are more excited about being closer to their famous hero, Superman!

“While Tommy adjusts to the fast pace of the city, Roberta feels out of place, as she tries and fails to fit in with the neighborhood kids. As the Lees try to adjust to their new lives, an evil is stirring in Metropolis: the Ku Klux Klan. When the Lee family awakens one night to find a burning cross on their lawn, they consider leaving town. But the Daily Planet offers a reward for information on the KKK, and their top two reporters, Lois Lane and Clark Kent, dig into the story.

“When Tommy is kidnapped by the KKK, Superman leaps into action — with help from Roberta! But Superman is still new to his powers — he hasn’t even worked out how to fly yet, so he has to run across town. Will Superman and Roberta reach Tommy in time?

“Inspired by the 1940s Superman radio serial ‘Clan of the Fiery Cross,’ Gene Luen Yang (American Born Chinese, Boxers and Saints, The Terrifics, New Super-Man) brings us his personal retelling of the adventures of the Lee family as they team up with Superman to smash the Klan.”

I’m really curious: How did this get started? Obviously, there’s a history to the Klan of the Fiery Kross and the Superman radio show, but how did you get your in on this particular story?

I first heard about it through the book Freakonomics; they actually devote an entire chapter to the whole thing, how this one storyline in the Superman 1940s radio show dealt a huge public relations hit to the Ku Klux Klan.

I remember reading about it and learning that the incident that set the whole thing off in the original show was a Chinese American family moving into Metropolis. So, I’ve been a superhero fan since I was in the fifth grade — the very first comic I bought was a Superman comic — and I’ve been reading Superman comics since I was a little kid, and I can’t really remember any other Chinese, or Chinese American characters showing up in any of the comics that I’d read. So, it kind of piqued my interest.

Then, I started working for DC in early 2015; I did a 10-issue run on the monthly Superman comic, and after that I’ve been part of the DC comics family. I had the opportunity to have lunch with Marie Javins, who is one of the legendary editors at DC, and this came up as an idea of what to do.

I’m super excited to be working with the artists Gurihiru. I don’t know if you’re familiar with their work, but they’re so good; they’re a Japanese art studio, but it’s really just two women — one does all the pencils and the other does all the inks. Early on, the editor and I talked about going for an art style that’s just like the old Fleischer Superman cartoons but mixed with a manga influence, and I feel like they totally delivered on that. That’s exactly what they did.

The acting is so good. It looks so simple, but what they’re doing on the page is so clear.

The acting is what puts them over the top. It’s what makes them masters.

One of the things that I like about the first issue is that you show Superman as an inspirational figure not only to the "good guys," but also to Chuck, who’s the child who doesn’t necessarily understand what Superman stands for. The iconography of Superman is shown to be this nuanced thing.

One of the things about the Superman radio show, and the original version of this story, is that it actually comes relatively early in Superman’s career. He was first published in 1938, and the story was broadcast around 1946, so that’s just eight years, and he was already a worldwide phenomenon. And especially in America, he was wildly popular. But I do feel that the Superman that we all know and love today, he wasn’t quite formed yet [at that time].

There were still pieces of him that were being solidified. And as much as the radio show impacted the real world in terms of bigotry and racism, it also helped shape Superman’s character. It was at this point where Superman really did become a symbol of American tolerance, American justice and American hope.

The subject of Superman not being a fully formed character is something you play with in the text of this book, as well as the subtext; Clark is still learning who he is — his power set, his abilities and his cultural heritage. He’s literally a character in flux, just as he was at the time when the original radio show was broadcast.

The more I read about the radio show, the more fascinated I was. When Superman first appeared in 1938, he was essentially a glorified strongman, you know? He couldn’t fly. He was superfast, superstrong, he could jump high, but even then, there was a limit put on how high he could jump. It was specifically said that he could jump 20 stories.

A lot of his development actually happened in the radio show. He actually flew for the first time in the radio show; the radio show was where Kryptonite showed up for the first time. A lot of that comes from the fact that the radio show got so popular that it became a daily thing, whereas the comic was still monthly; they really needed to develop Superman — his mythology, his world — really quickly.

So, when I learned about that, I thought, this is a comic book adaptation of this old radio show — we should play with some of those elements. We should play with the fact that he doesn’t fly, or that Kryptonite is a brand-new thing.

But despite that, he remains Superman as we know him. There’s this essential Superman-ness that comes through on every page. You talked about reading Superman when you were a kid; is this something that you just inherently “get”?

My parents were born overseas, and growing up, I went through this period of time when I had a hard time vacillating between two identities. I had a Chinese identity at home, I had an American identity at school, I had two different names! When I was a kid, I did gravitate toward Superman, but when I got into my teenage years, I started getting into characters I thought were more “cool” — cool in quotes! [laughs] — but one of the things that drew me back to Superman was realizing that he was an immigrant from Krypton.

Like, all of those things: vacillating between two different identities, having two different names, having two different sets of cultural expectations. All of the realities of my childhood, all of it was encoded in Superman.

I actually have a theory about this — the reason why Superman presents himself as “perfect” is because he’s an immigrant. I saw it with my own parents; they came here and people perceived them as “foreign,” [and] they were always cognizant of this. The way they dealt with that was by trying to be perfect citizens. I think Superman does the same thing; the reason he tries to be a perfect citizen is because he knows he’s an alien. As I built a connection with the character, that’s what it became. He really became an icon for me after I saw all of this — [Jerry] Siegel and [Joe] Shuster knew all of this, they were children of immigrants. They put all of this in the character.

I think a lot of time, when we see him on cereal boxes, or whatever, we miss that, but it’s the core of the character. The core of Superman is that he’s an immigrant from Krypton.

That ties in with something else I enjoyed about the first issue — that there is so much about Superman being confused about his cultural identity. It plays against what’s going on with Tommy and Roberta’s family — it’s a connection that you’re not hitting people over the head with. You’re showing that Superman is an immigrant even as he passes as, as you said, this “perfect citizen.”

I hope so. All of that was in the character from the very beginning. His immigrant status has been there since the very beginning and is, I think, closely tied to his being an American icon. Those two things go hand-in-hand. The immigrant story and the American story are pretty much the same thing.

How much of that is present in the original story? Was the original radio serial as interested in Superman as an immigrant explicitly? Did Tommy and Roberta play such important roles, even though they were Chinese American characters?

For the radio show, I would say that the lead character was definitely Superman, and after that, the focus was on Chuck, then Tommy. Roberta, Tommy’s sister, didn’t even exist in the radio show. For me, I wanted to center the story on this Chinese American family. I really do think of this book as an Asian American book — maybe not just that, an immigrant book. By putting this Chinese American family center stage, it really highlighted the specific immigrant side of Superman.

Spinning off that, there’s the fact that this story is being published today. We’re at a point in history now where even the discussion of immigration in America is this impossibly charged topic. It feels important at this moment to have a story — specifically, to have a Superman comic — that pushes back so clearly against bigotry and racism, that does make the appeal for tolerance.

It’s not just America. You read the news about Europe, India, or the Philippines. I started this project because I thought it was something that I needed to understand. There’s a Chinese tradition that you use the events of the past as a way of talking about the present; I did come onto this project thinking about that, thinking, if I can understand the historical context that there was something about the present that I’d understand a little bit better.

One of the things that came out of this — we’re at the tail end of the third and final book right now, as we speak; I’m just about done with the revisions — and one of the things that I’ve learned is that the world learned something about tolerance after World War II. Not just America; all of us learned something about tolerance. World War II was the worst nationalistic instincts of the world come to a head — the worst instincts of our species had manifested themselves pretty much everywhere in the world. And then, this Superman story, which arrived a year after the war ended, was primed to convey the lessons the world had learned to a younger generation.

I just think that, maybe we’re so far removed from that period that we’re beginning to forget those lessons. That was the impression that I got.

Did you go into it with the idea that this was a lesson that needs to be retaught? This is, after all, a project aimed at younger readers? Were you thinking in terms of, lessons needing to be relearned in today’s culture?

To be honest, I was more going into it thinking that there were things that I personally wanted to understand better. The original storyline was very didactic, but I don’t think it was just about the lesson that was explicitly said in the story. It was also about the historical context in which that story came out. I wanted to go in to try and understand that a little bit better. I’m hoping that me wrestling with those issues comes across in the story.

You said that Chuck was one of the lead characters in the original version of the story, and one of the things that’s compelling about the first issue is Chuck’s story. He’s a character who’s leaning toward bigotry and hatred, and is pretty explicitly being taught that by his family, but you don’t write him off; there’s the implication that he can go another way, he can learn to be better.

Chuck’s a character in the original radio show, and in the comic adaptation, we kept all the big pieces of who he is. He begins as kind of a bigot, but he has an arc. To fill out that arc, I did read a book called Rising Out of Hatred, it’s written by a guy named Eli Saslow. It’s the biography of Derek Black, who is David Duke’s godson; he went from being the heir apparent of the American White Supremacy movement, and he’s the exact opposite now. When he’s not in hiding — he had to go into hiding — he’s speaking out against the views he was raised with. I read that book wanting to understand how someone could make that transition; I wanted to embed some of that in the character of Chuck.

Changing gears somewhat; you’re a National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, and comics specifically. When you’re working on a project like this, especially on a character as iconic as Superman, is this something that you can see as a tool for new readers to use to get into, not just Superman, not just comics, but stories about things that are happening in the real world? Stories that matter.

I actually feel really lucky to be working in comics today. I think over the last, maybe 10 to 20 years, we’ve seen this shift in the public perception of comics. More and more, people are open to the idea of comics dealing with serious topics, and I hope this project fits in with that. I do think that there is a growing wave of comics that want to tackle the very heart of what it means to — do you know the book Bitter Root? It’s an Image Comics title that’s coming out right now.

Yeah, Sanford Greene and David Walker’s book.

I think that book is one of the best examples of using genre to talk about very important and serious topics. I’m trying to do something similar with this Superman book.

- Admin

#Superman Smashes the Klan #Roberta Lee #Tommy Lee #DC

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springday-aus · 4 years

Text

Werewolf!AU with Chanyeol

moodboard link

Group: EXO

Member: Park Chanyeol

Genre: fantasy, fluff, romance

Type: Bulletpoint AU

Word Count: 3k

so the alpha is obviously Suho bc

leader, duh

Yifan and Minseok are co-betas

and the exo boys all live together in a house in the woods

but this is more of a house they can go back to

they all live within the city/suburb

(depending on what they do)

Chanyeol lives in the city since he works part time at a music shop

he likes the hustle and bustle of the city

despite the pollution, crowdedness and rude people that are there

but when he found the whole in the wall music shop

he absolutely fell in love with it

the owner loves him btw

(Chanyeol brings in a lot of customers)

anyways

I don’t want to say werewolf!Chanyeol is just a giant puppy

but that’s exactly what he’s like

he needs to go on frequent runs in his wolf form

someone always needs to come with him because he rolls around a lot in mud

oftentimes, he has to stop himself from peeing on trees

Sehun: “dude, that’s been marked”

Chanyeol: “yeah… BY ME AHA SUCKER I OWN THE WOODS”

Sehun: “oh god”

Chanyeol is also super hyper

like he’s got more stamina and energy than the other boys

which is why he goes on the most runs

pent up energy is a scary thing

(so the exo boys have learned)

that also means he’s one of the best fighters of the pack

(Kyungsoo is a near second, but he’s really good when he’s angry)

but I mean fighting when necessary

so Chanyeol’s wolf form is………. huge

since he’s really tall, his wolf form literally towers over the others

he almost looks like the alpha

almost

this also gives him an advantage in fights bc intimidation usually works the fastest and results to the least amount of violence

anyways

so his fur is a light brown, mixed with white—there are some dark brown spots too, but you really have to squint to see it

you know how his ears are really big and stick out

best believe his ears are literally the same in his wolf form

they’re so big and fluffy and if his eyes don’t give away his emotions, his ears do too

his paws are also big

but that’s also bc his hands are big

Kyungsoo: “what did you eat as a child?”

Chanyeol: “jealous, shorty? no one can be as tall as—oW sTOP HITTING ME”

they can hit him all they want

bc by the end of the day, he, Sehun, and Yifan are the only ones who can reach the top of the cabinets

despite his tall stature and formidable fighting skills, this man is the clumsiest

he causes the most accidents in the exo house

in his apartment building

but he hasn’t had an accident in the shop

(not yet anyways—Jongdae and Baekhyun have a side bet going as to when that’s gonna happen)

it happens a lot in the city too

but it’s not his fault

he….. just has really long limbs and don’t know how to control them 100%

it’s fine tho because he was able to meet you through because of his clumsiness

okay so mates are a thing for supernatural creatures

including werewolves

while some mates are wolves too

others are human……………

……… like you

so Chanyeol was on the street, walking back to his city apartment

he was with some of the other guys (Baekhyun and Jongdae)

and then he smells something

something sweet

and alluring

so he follows it

in fact, he runs after it down the street

(with the others chasing him)

he’s running past all these people and he’s getting closer and closer

that’s when he runs into you

and I don’t mean the cute kind of running into you

I mean this man full on tackles you

obviously, it’s by accident but

it doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt less

while you were curious to what just happened

he was completely enamored

he’d heard of finding one’s mate

mate meetings can happen in wolf form

and others in human form

the main thing was that your body would just know they were the one

he had no idea how he was going to meet his mate, but this is was definitely not how he pictured it

meanwhile, all you knew was that you were walking back to your apartment

and next thing you knew, you were on the ground

and looking into a pair of brown eyes that sparkled down towards you

Chanyeol: “hi”

You: “hi”

Chanyeol: “I’m Chanyeol”

You: “hi, I’m (Y/N)”

Chanyeol: “that’s a nice name”

You: “thanks”

Baekhyun: out of breath from running after Chanyeol’s long ass legs

Baekhyun: “hey, as cute as this is, maybe you should get off of them?”

You: “I agree with the short one”

Baekhyun: “RUDE”

Chanyeol gets up and pulls you up along with him

when he gets a hold of your hand, he gets that feeling

that feeling that he never wants to let it go

unfortunately, when you do, a part of him cries on the inside

(that’s the big puppy coming out)

Chanyeol: “I’m sorry about ramming into you like that”

You: “apology accepted”

Chanyeol: “can I make it up to you…?”

You: ???

Chanyeol: “like…. a… dinner?........ date?.... if you want……”

you don’t know why, but there’s something in you that makes you say yes

maybe it’s bc this gigantic dude who towers over the crowd

looks like the softest lil marshmallow with his red cheeks and big ears

so you go on the date

and you actually have a great one

he takes you out to a drive in movie theatre, along with dinner

it’s simple

but it’s perfect

so you go on a few more dates and next thing you know

you’ve been in this relationship for like seven months

he’s great—he’s super supportive and radiates optimism

Chanyeol and you.... just click

but like there’s something kind of weird......

like there are periods of time when he says, “sorry, I’m gonna be busy that night :(“

and that’s fine, but he tells you like… a couple of months in advance

you wanna mind your own business

but you’re also kinda curious bc he never tells you what for

and things kind of get weirder when you officially meet his friends for the first time

you already knew Jongdae and Baekhyun from the first meeting

and you met them a couple of times after

but now you were going to meet the whole group

you’ve heard horror tales of Kyungsoo and Minseok

(courtesy of Baekhyun, but Jongdae says to ignore it—something about Baekhyun being annoying lmao)

you’ve also heard a lot about Jongin and his alarming chicken consumption

along with stories about Sehun and Tao

(and their inability to agree to anything—they’re like babies that way, at least that’s what Chanyeol says)

Suho is like a mother hen and Yifan is like the father bear

apparently, Yixing and Luhan are the nicest so you’ll bond with them the quickest

they’d be the least chaotic members, so you were advised to stay close to them lol

so this all sounds super cute and you are ecstatic to meeting them

and then the time comes for you to meet them

at first, the meeting is just………. kind of odd to you

because it’s at the exo house……………….

so he takes you into the woods to go to the house…………

but listen

if a man took you into a deep part of the woods

where you are very unfamiliar with—wouldn’t you be concerned about being murdered?

yeah, Chanyeol didn’t really think this through bc.....

that’s exactly where YOUR head space is

lowkey you were like

hahahahaha pls don’t kill me

and just as you’re at the acceptance stage like

okay, this is fine—I’ll just die

the house comes into view and y’all enter

Kyungsoo made dinner

they planned a game night

it was so much fun—you could really tell these boys were like family

and for a second you forget that you are isolated in the woods with 12 rowdy boys

and that this is not normal……. at least, not for humans

unless they’re some frat boy that can’t get over the fact that they peaked in college

anyways

after this meeting, it was more and more common for you to join those group meetings

you’ve met the others’ partners too—well, at least those who have them

despite you getting along with all of Chanyeol’s friends, which is great

there’s still something a bit off

and the thing is

is that Chanyeol knows you don’t know that they’re wolves

so he made sure to tell the boys that

one, you’re human

and two, you don’t know that they’re wolves so they need to keep it lowkey

but.......... exo is anything but lowkey and this was something you kind of picked up on

not just with all of them being in an isolated mansion-like house

the main thing with the boys is that they let it slip that they own the land here

but what do they do as jobs to have the house?

and sure, Suho is like a mother hen, but like they also kind of do like a reporting thing

like………… some kind of boss…………..

and yeah, Yifan is the father figure……. but there’s some type of hierarchy thing that Yifan is “reporting” to Suho too……

it’s all really weird

and you can’t tell if it’s a bro culture thing or something, so you don’t really say or ask anything

and yeah, Chanyeol thinks he’s slick

he is not bc

there’s also a couple of things about Chanyeol that’s kind of off to you

like he’s weird, but then there are some things that are just………. Weird

for example, he’s very affectionate, right?

but like, he seems to hold himself back for you

yeah, skinship is a thing for you both

but

let’s just say second base seems to be the farthest you’re going, even tho you’ve made it every clear you are willing to go all around and do a home run twice

there’s also another thing, which is fine, but like

weird

he really likes tummy rubs

like really likes it

and you’re just kind of like

What

and like sometimes, when he feels like it, he’ll eat really really rare meat

he doesn’t eat it in front of you but sometimes when you buy raw meat

it just

goes missing

it’s just really weird

and then one day

you were at the exo house

at this point, you two have been together for about a year (?) now

and you were chilling in woods with Chanyeol

he looks super super serious

Chanyeol: “I have something I need to tell you and I don’t know how you’re going to handle it”

You: “um, okay, sure—what is it?”

Chanyeol: “I am a werewolf”

You:

Chanyeol:

You:

Chanyeol:

You: bitch what

You: “are we going that thing where we just talk in vines bc you’re not making any sense and you’re doing it wrong”

Chanyeol: “no, I’m serious”

you…… just laugh

like uncontrollably

because this is the most ridiculous thing you’ve heard

Chanyeol’s just kind of…… watching you lose it

in retrospect, maybe he should have thought this through

after you finish laughing, you wipe a couple of tears from your eyes

You: “phew, Channie, that’s pretty fucking funny”

Chanyeol: “(Y/N), I’m not kidding—I’m a werewolf”

then, what he says………………… sinks in

and now it’s your turn to look at him like he’s lost it

You: it’s not too late, maybe I can take him to a therapist

You: “um, Chanyeol, you know this prank isn’t very funny”

Chanyeol: “don’t say that, I can prove it”

You: oh no

he steps back and takes off his shirt

(to which you snap a mental image)

he climbs onto a higher rock, where he towers over you

You: “hey, Chanyeol.. you might, uh, wanna get off that”

Chanyeol: “I got this”

You: he’s gonna die

and then he jumps off

there’s a flash of light and he transforms, landing on the ground on all four paws

all you saw was a giant wolf that’s at least twice your size

you could only stare

you tried not to move

that’s not very hard considering how frozen you were

for a second, you think you’ve gone insane

but it’s there in front of you

the wolf moves closer to you, slowly and carefully

when it gets close enough, it bows his head to you in submission

and when it opens its eyes

you see the familiar, warm, brown eyes that sparkle at you

the gold specks in them shine a bit more

I want to say that you were able to accept it real quickly

but you don’t

it’s kind of a shock……

so you take a little break from all of this

while Chanyeol understands, it doesn’t mean he’s not upset

his other half is apart from him and he feels like his heart’s slowly being ripped out of his chest

it’s not that you had a problem with it

it was the process

yeah, he lied but like

it’s bc he’s a supernatural being

(that you can empathize with)

but that means other beings probably exist

what if that one waiter was a vampire who could have eaten you

or that one swimmer was a mermaid

this is just a collision of so many worlds

at this point, you were just trying to understand what actually happened

time passes and you don’t even know how much has

until Suho and Yifan end up at your apartment door

they both came with like a fruit basket or something (in their defense, they didn’t know what you would like)

Suho: “hi~ can we come in?”

Yifan: “we just wanted to talk and check-in”

they end up at your place for hours

they really did come to check in with you and see how you were handling the whole thing

and took the time to explain how things worked for them

(the impact of full moons, the concept of soulmates, imprinting….. the whole package)

and they answer any questions you have had

they really were super sweet about the whole thing

and eventually, you ask about Chanyeol

You: “is… is he okay?”

Yifan: “he’s been acting like a kicked puppy since you left—oW”

Suho rolls his eyes at Yifan, not apologizing for hitting him

Suho: “yes, he’s upset, but he’s more concerned about you and where this relationship is supposed to go now?”

Yifan: “we’re not rushing you or anything, but he…. he’ll need an answer eventually”

Suho: “just think about and sort out your emotions, and when you’re ready…. you’re welcome anytime at the exo house”

it was real eye opening for you

when they left, they also left their numbers for you

Suho: “call anytime, a mate of an exo member is a member of ours”

later that night, while you in bed, you thought about it

you should really talk to Chanyeol, he deserves an answer

but, it wasn’t until another couple of days pass that you actually talk to him

it’s a rainy day and you were sitting on your couch, watching tv and eating cereal

all of a sudden, the sadness hits you

and you really miss him

and you really wanted to see him

so you do

you grab a pair of shoes and your keys—immediately heading out

you drive through the rain, thinking about what you were even going to do or say

next thing you knew, you were at the exo house’s door

you really should have thought things through, but

you didn’t really know what else to do

you knock on it, hoping that Chanyeol was there

Tao and Sehun open the door, seeing you standing there—soaking wet from the rain, in your sweatpants and with mismatched shoes

You: “uh, hi guys”

Suho pushes in between them and sees you there

Suho: “oh my god, (Y/N), come in, come in”

they get you in

Kyungsoo gets you some green tea

Yixing gets blankets for you

Luhan picks out some warm clothes for you

and Minseok dries your other clothes

the other boys and their mates keep you entertained for a bit

amidst the chaos, Jongin rests a hand on your shoulder

Jongin: “Chanyeol went out for a run, you can wait in his room if you want”

when you find a chance, you do—you go up the familiar stairs and hallway

and you just

wait

there’s a bit of a lull of silence and then you hear his voice

Chanyeol: “(Y/N) is WHAT?”

you can hear him running up the stairs and before you can say anything

he tackles you onto the bed

You: “CHANYEOL WE TALKED ABOUT THE TACKLING”

Chanyeol: “I’m sorry, I got excited” :(

you and Chanyeol settle on the bed and just………. talk

you get things sorted out and it’s great

after you figure out things, everything’s kind of back to normal (as much as it could be)

you lowkey kind of live in the exo house now

like your things are in Chanyeol’s room

anyways

werewolf!Chanyeol is a lot more fun than people would think

he’s a lot more relaxed about things

now he’s most likely to be lounging around in his half form, with the whole ears and tail thing

you give him a lot more tummy rubs

you scratch his ears too

the whole dog package

I mean wolf

you actually came to one of the full moon nights and it was super fun

Chanyeol spent the whole night right next to you

he’s also a lot more openly affectionate

I mean the whole package: hand-holding, lap-sitting, public cuddling

he knows no boundaries

he is super careful about his strength tho—always checking in with you and making sure you’re feeling safe and comfortable

and it’s safe to say that y’all are way past second base

I’m not saying anything else for the kiddos

other than the whole full moon transformation thing

there’s no real difference between the boy that tackled you and the wolf that you’re with now

and you can’t wait to spend the rest of your life with him as his mate

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skvaderarts · 3 years

Text

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Here’s my yearly Christmas fic if your interested! I love all the art you’ve been posting! Repost with links to your art and fics! Let’s make a thread!

Gathered for Greetings

I’m going to end up writing a Christmas fic every year, aren’t I? That’s okay. I just hope that next year I’m no literally writing it on Christmas day! Curse you, procrastination!

-~-

When they’d received the invites in the mail, they’d been skeptical.

Togetherness wasn’t something that none of them were used to, but it was something that they were willing to play at, if only because of the simply apocalyptic year that they’d all had thus far. Due to obvious circumstances, the majority of them had little to no experience with planning holiday events, let alone even attending them, but that wasn’t going to stop them from trying. In a strange turn of events, Nero and Kyrie were probably the most well acquainted with how holiday parties worked due to the addition of the orphans a short while back, but even then they had never thrown a party. After all, there weren’t exactly a lot of people they could invite, and they didn’t have a very spacious living area. Try as they might, there was only so much that they could do, especially on their limited finances.

But there was one unexpected additional point of intrigue that made this particular holiday get together a bit more interesting than it already seemed to be at first glance, and that was the setting that it was set to take place in. That, and who’s idea it was in the first place. Towards the start of the holiday season, V had approached Nero with a very much out of character proposition:

“... I think we should do something this year… at my house.”

Nero remembered looking at him as though he had grown a second head. Had V lost his mind? From what he knew about his generally socially challenged sibling, this particular request seemed like something he’d come up with after a particularly traumatic head injury or as the result of a late-night cheese binge. Was he caught in the middle of some kind of irreverent fever dream?

“Why do you wanna do that? I thought you hated parties.”

V had looked away from him, obviously uncomfortable with the reality that he was now going to have to explain what he was thinking. He’d figured that he’d more than likely have to do that, but that reality did little the quince the feeling of unease that he felt in the pit of his stomach. Voluntary honesty was difficult, especially when it forced him to speak on matters that he could frankly do without digging out of the lower recesses of his mind. He’d prefer to keep his problems buried deep, and this certainly counted as a problem, but he’d brought this up, so he was going to follow through.

“You’re correct, I do… but this is the first time I’ve ever had a family to actually commemorate the occasion with, and as such, the first time I…” he paused for a second, looking down at the floor with an earnest look of sadness.” I’ve never actually celebrated Christmas. Ever. Even as a child. I was hoping to change that.”

So naturally, not being a heartless psychopath, Nero couldn’t turn down such a heartfelt plea, especially from such a close member of his family. It was rare for V to ask for anything, and after the frankly hellish few months they’d had since his resurrection, he couldn’t think of a logical reason to dismiss his idea. He’d had an opportunity once or twice to do something for the holidays once he’d met Kyrie’s wonderful family as a younger child, but the idea of literally never doing anything for it at all… It actually hurt his heart a little to imagine that. Aside from cultural or even religious reasons, how on earth did that even happen?!

That was a question for another day. If his older sibling wanted to have his house destroyed by their extended family, then he was happy to help him in that regard. So in the last days leading up to Christmas, Nero, Kyrie, and Nico had brought the children over and they had spent several long hours decorating, wrapping gifts, and generally trying to keep V from having a protracted anxiety attack from the prospect of having everyone they knew at his house. Planning it was one thing, but actually doing it was another thing entirely, and he’d never been the best at long periods of social interaction. It drained his social battery to even think about it.

“Do you think they’re actually going to come over? Hell, do they even like Christmas? They barely like each other!” Nero shouted down to V over his shoulder as he shrugged and secured the last of the lights over a doorway. He was dead tired of climbing this ladder, and he hoped that the architects that built the place and decided that it needed close to fifteen-foot ceilings were burning in hell right now. But if he ever saw V climb a ladder again, he was going to have an anxiety attack.” I can’t see our old man even being the festive type. Maybe Dante but…”

He shrugged, fussing over the bottom of the gigantic Christmas tree that Lady and Trish had brought over early that morning. Where they had managed to find a real twelve-foot tall tree on Christmas day was anyone’s guess. It was probably Morrison’s handiwork, considering the fact that he’d helped them bring it over in the first place. That man could find ice in hell. Lady and Morrison were in the kitchen with Kyrie and Magnolia. They were helping taste things while the two of them finished up the last of the cooking. V had helped them cook a short while before deciding to turn his attention to the entirely bare tree. Three people in one kitchen was a bit of a crowd, but considering the fact that this had once been Magnolia’s family home, not inviting her would have been extraordinarily unkind. In an ironic twist, he’d managed to find ornaments but nothing to actually put them on. How fortunate that they’d arrived when they did.

Nico and Trish were on either side of the tree, attempting to help him get the last few ornaments on and clean up the bristles that had fallen on the tree skirt. As it turned out, V was actually horribly allergic to pine needles. They made him break out in an extremely itchy rash, a fact that he’d gone his entire life without knowing due to the fact that he’d literally never gone near a pine tree. It made the process of hanging ornaments slow and slightly nervewracking, to say the least. He imagined that this was what it would feel like to try and decorate poison oak.

“I’d imagine that they have mixed feelings about this time of year, to say the least. It more than likely brings up unfortunate memories.” He stepped away from the tree and allowed himself to slump over on the couch. All this standing didn’t agree with him.” Admittedly, I was pleasantly surprised when Dante agreed to come over. Even more so when he called back only a short while later to inform me that Vergil would be following suit. I suspect there was violence involved in that negotiation.”

Trish scoffed slightly, trying and failing not to laugh.” Oh, I’m sure there was. I don’t think either of them like parties. It’s one of the few things they agree on!”

With a relieved sigh, Nero climbed down from the ladder, thoroughly done with hanging things.” Sorry, but those are gonna have to stay up until next year. No way I’m going back up there.”

V nodded, equally tired and ready to get started with the festivities..” Agreed. It is quite a hassle. Thank you all for tolerating my request. It seems that none of us particularly enjoy large gatherings or decorating for that matter. I’m flattered that you would do so for my sake at your own expense.”

Everyone present waived him off nonchalantly. None of them minded on this one occasion. It was a welcome moment of normality in their entirely supernatural lives, and they couldn’t say that those happened very often.

“Yea, well as long as this goes better than that damn beach trip, I think we’ll all be just fine.” Nico said as she walked towards the kitchen with a bag full of pine needles.” Now don’t touch that godforsaken tree again or I’ll skin you all alive. I’m tired of cleaning!”

An awkward silence washed over the room as they thought about that trip. It had been a stressful year, hadn’t it? Between that and Belial… “yea, well if you aim low, you can’t be disappointed, can ya? That’s how I talk myself out of bed every day.!”

They all turned in the direction of the doorway, surprised to see who had spoken. Standing before them were Dante and Vergil, the two of them seemingly taking in the surprisingly festive atmosphere. It had been Lady’s idea to play Christmas music. She’d even brought over wine for the occasion. She was perhaps the most excited person there besides Magnolia and the children who were playing in the next room over with Lucia. Getting the redheaded guardian there in time had been nothing short of a logistical nightmare, but they had pulled it off nonetheless. Even Matier had managed to come over for the occasion, no doubt surprised to be invited in the first place. There were still a few stragglers who would be coming later on such as Patty, but the number of people who had agreed to come in the first place was enough for V.

Much to their collective surprise and disbelief, V actually laughed at that statement. It was a sentiment that he honestly had to agree with. It was rare that V actually agreed with Dante on something so wholeheartedly, but this was one of those occasions.” You make a valid point, Dante. I suppose I’m just glad you both came.”

Dante and Vergil almost seemed flattered by the statement, unsure of what to really say. It had taken quite a bit for them to talk themselves into coming over, but seeing everyone there wasn’t something they expected and as such, they were a little unsure of where to start. But they were willing to try, and that was what counted, wasn’t it?

Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad after all…

Looking notably uncomfortable, Vergil glanced in the direction of the tree. It had been a long time since he’d seen one of those… It brought back vague but vibrant memories he thought he’d lost to the void of despair that was his life a lifetime ago. Perhaps actually attempting to make a few new ones wasn’t such an awful idea after all.

“... Thank you for inviting us.”

With that statement, the entire room fell strangely silent again, everyone collectively surprised to hear Vergil say something so… agreeable. It was a nice change of pace. One could only assume that he was genuinely pleased to be included in something like this, but it was hard to tell. They had no point of reference. But if the barely concealed look of surprised pleasure on Dante’s face was anything to go off of, they had done something right.

It was Nero’s turn to break the silence. He was admittedly starting to get hungry, and he was sure the children were probably driving Lucia insane in the next room. It was actually time to celebrate.” Anytime. Now let’s go eat. Kyrie and V were cooking and magnolia brought over desert again.”

Dante practically teleported into the kitchen.” Well, hell you shoulda started there! Speak up next time!”

Vergil shook his head and followed after him at a much slower pace. He was in much less of a hurry to get to the kitchen. He hadn’t really come there for the food.” At least he’s eating something besides pizza.”

Nero and V nodded in agreement. The holidays were supposed to be about the little things. It was about time they went and enjoyed them. After all, it wasn’t every day that they all got to spend time together without it being a life or death situation. They were going to savor that. Well, that and the food. The food was probably going to be amazing.

-~-

Thanks for reading this little holiday fic that I threw together! You’ll all see how this ties into the main story once we get there in Hirathe. I thought you might like this. Happy Holidays everyone! See you on New Years! I hope next year is a little better!

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mxrcayong · 4 years

Text

the avatar series: 01.01

masterlist.

previous | next

The whole city was bustling with excitement. Vibrant colors streamed the streets as everyone prepared for the celebration that is Avatar Day. It’s funny, the old holiday used to defame the Avatar is now used to celebrate the end of the 100-year war. Every city celebrates differently, although most include a dance performance utilizing all four elements and parades. Sooman City is known for having the most eccentric festival of them all. SM city has the biggest parade that runs from 1 to 4 in the afternoon and dance performances with talent shows everywhere possible. There are dramatic retellings of the story of the Avatar, a special feast, a carnival, and occasionally the descendents of the previous Team Avatar come to speak at the main stage. Additionally, there’s a huge fair in the central park and numerous street bazaars selling Team Avatar themed foods and souvenirs. Children and adults alike run amuck, enjoying their day off from work and celebrating the anniversary of the day the world was saved from eternal darkness.

Tari always had work on the day of the festival. It usually consisted of spending her shift drawing the faces of the previous Team Avatar with foam on the coffee of the customers. The most difficult face? Funnily enough, was Momo. It’s hard to capture the colors of his face in a distinguished manner. Tari is just glad that ‘Iroh and Me’ café is most known for their tea, cause all they have to do for tea orders is add a cookie with the special Avatar Day design of their choice. Most businesses are closed today, from the gyms to the schools, however customer service never stops for anybody – even the Avatar. People would come in, dressed up in traditional garbs compared to their usual outfits, laughing and feeling grateful for the existence of the Avatar. However, this year, the boss of ‘Iroh and Me’ designated Hendery to be the one in charge of the shop for the majority of today (much to his dismay). So, today was the first day in a while Tari was able to sleep in and will be the first Avatar Day she’ll be able to experience. However, her priority is a good twelve hours of sleep. Working in a café usually means being awake at unholy times - normally five in the morning so she could get to work by six and open up by seven.

Stretching in bed, Tari was awakened with the sight of the bright sun shining into her bedroom, alarming her of the time. It felt unusual - she’s always so used to seeing the sun rise on the coast first thing in the morning when she walks towards the closest tram station. Consequently, she was momentarily panicked - fuck, I’m late to work - she thought to herself. A wave of relief hit her as soon as she remembered her plan for today: stay inside and relax. With a breath she didn’t even know she was holding, she fell back onto her pillows and nuzzled into the comfort.

On any other work-free day, she’d be out with friends - usually annoying Johnny in his studio, following Doyoung to the gym, checking out local shops with Kilara, helping Roddie study, or assisting in Sonan’s store. But all those workplaces are closed – except for Johnny’s, but he loves the festival; always trying to get Tari to get an ‘off day’ on work to participate in the festival with Doyoung and him, and any of the friends he invites or bumps into later. Not only has she been avoiding this day since she’s heard of it, but she just hates the fact that the streets will be absolutely flooded with people. Walking today will be like swimming in the ocean when the tide brings you the other way; difficult.

Climbing out of bed, she quickly threw on a pair of sweatpants and brushed her teeth in her bathroom. She wanted to get ready to spend the day at home, planning to cook her favorite comfort food of seaweed noodles with traditional water tribe soup. It’s her favorite go-to meal, reminding her of the home she doesn’t have vivid memories of. She may potentially also put on a movie or read a book. She’s been meaning to read “To Rock and Flow With It”, a love story between an earthbender and a waterbender.

Through her bedroom door, she could hear soft mumbles of a conversation from the living room. Hoping Doyoung hasn’t gone insane, Tari stood up to figure out where the other half of the conversation is coming from. As she opened the door, the brightness from the whole wall of windows blinded her temporarily. “So you don’t have work today.” A voice that certainly wasn’t Doyoung’s commented. Once her eyes adjusted to the light, she saw Doyoung behind the kitchen counter, whisking a bowl and Johnny sitting across the counter on a stool. He looked mischievous, as if he was up to something. Both of them were dressed. The two of them always spends the holiday exploring the city and the different fair activities. Johnny was in a cream sweater and black jeans, a gray shirt poking out from the neckline while Doyoung wore a black hoodie and dark blue jeans.

“Nope,” Tari popped the ‘p’, walking towards Doyoung to see what he was cooking. “Eggs?” Doyoung nodded, “Can I steal some?” She pleaded, widening her eyes and pouting to convince him – despite knowing he wouldn’t need that look to comply to her request. She quickly turned to face Johnny, now sliding towards the fridge. “Johnny, I swear, your home is on the other side of town but you’re always here.” She’s not complaining - she loves his presence, but they just tease each other. It’s the nature of their relationship.

“Yes, but, this place will be so lonely without me.” He fake cried, motioning to the small apartment. “Who else will sleep on your couch every once in a while?” Tari chuckled, before rolling her eyes.

Doyoung smiled, staring at the eggs he was now pouring into the frying pan. “I mean, at this rate, you should just move in rather than pay for rent at a place you don’t even stay in.”

“I’ll hold you to that offer,” Johnny winked, “But for now!” Johnny clapped his hands and rubbed them together. “You know what Tari’s freedom means, Do!” Tari looked at him questionably as she opened up the fridge, grabbing the ingredients for seawood noodles.

Ignoring her confusion momentarily, she turned to look up at Doyoung. She already knew if Johnny was here, he’d want to eat anything that he could. “Seaweed noodles?”

“Yes please.” Doyoung grinned, before Johnny took over the conversation once more.

He put his hands on the top of his head, “I’m just saying this will be your first time in two years to experience the novelty of a Sooman City Avatar Day. C’mon, where did you live before right? You said they hardly celebrated.”

The water bender shrugged, using her powers to speed up her cooking time by gently steaming up the water in the pot with the seaweed noodles and other ingredients in. “I hardly celebrated, I always had to work.”

“So, this will be your first time!” Johnny further contested, making Tari roll her eyes as Johnny now came up towards her, standing beside her in an attempt to convince her more. “I mean come on! Out of your 20 years of life, you’ve yet to experience a culturally important, iconic” He exaggerated his pronunciation of the long list of adjectives that he probably have used in his most recent articles, “... event.” Usually, he was more relaxed and open about her not being able to go - although usually, she also has a solid excuse. She looked to Doyoung. One thing they developed quite well over the last almost-two years of living together was a silent language, purely using their eyes and facial expressions.

Doyoung chuckled at her flustered face just begging him to answer why Johnny is so desperate for her presence, “He has to report on the festival this year.”

She chortled. “Ooh, that’s fun!” Tari teased, “Mixing work with pleasure. What angle are you taking? ‘Why the carousel should be your must-go activity’?”

The journalist leaned against the fridge as his two friends cooked for the three of them. “No, it’s actually about how this day is used to celebrate the previous Avatars and consequently, also bending and thus,” He grabbed a piece of the pile of dry seaweed Tari would sprinkle on the top of the soup and took a bite of it, “shows support against the anti-bending regime.” He obviously rehearsed that, and Tari can only assume that he signed up to report on the event. Surprising, she thought to herself, Johnny usually wants this day to relax.

The air bender nodded, liking the idea. “You could get some really cool perspectives on that. From both like the police officers patrolling, influencers, stall owners, families, so on.” Doyoung imagined the article’s success already. Johnny was one of the best reporters in the local newspaper and it’s easy for him to gain a lot of attention on his articles. Him writing this article - as a non-bender - may bring awareness to the issues benders currently face, “I’m getting kind of sick of people pointing at the bending gyms and yelling that it’s ‘anti-equality” He sighed.

“Okay first, Doyoung that sucks and you need to report to the police for harassment.” Tari started.

The airbending instructor was quick to interject, “It’s not to the air gyms, at least – not a majority of time. It’s usually at night and to the fire bending gym. I don’t have any place to report on behalf of anyone else”

“But that’s still society, so this anti-bending regime is just anti-pro bending.” Tari commented, furrowing her eyebrows. She hasn’t noticed any particular hatred for bending other than the pro-bending, which was why it was banned around 20 years ago – just before she was born. Yeah, as a result of this ban – there has been discrimination against benders, often seeing them as violent or leading them to be ostracised – but it’s been improving over the last few years due to the amount of protests and parades hosted to support benders. “Maybe just focus on the societal perspectives?”

Johnny tsked, “I heard from an inside source that there are rumors of something escalating.” He sighed.

“You must be glad you’re not a bender then.” Doyoung chuckled, trying to lighten the conversation from the news regarding perception of benders and trying to hint at Johnny to change the topic. He always notices that Tari gets quite awkward when talking about bending. She’s comfortable doing it – not much actually talking about it.

Johnny winked, “Always.” He turned back to Tari, following Doyoung’s lead and changing the topic, “can you please come? You can help interview people rather than do things.” That didn’t elicit a response, Tari just shrugging - not in the mood to be doing work she normally does when she has a day off anyway. “Okaaaaaayyyyy, how about while Doyoung and I check out the actual festivities and do interviews, you can look at the bazaar stalls?” Tari pouted her bottom lip, getting slightly intrigued. “I heard Sunmi will have a special stall full of exclusive stuff!” He practically sang.

“Hey, wait, when did I sign up to help?” Doyoung lifted his hands defensively as if he was caught in a crime. He’d help regardless, but it’s always nice to be asked.

Johnny cheekily smiled, “You signed up when you became my friend.” Doyoung stared at the ceiling, laughing, before putting his hand back on the spatula to scramble the eggs.

“Tempting.” Tari bit her lip. Out of all the local stores in Sooman City, Sunmi owned a shop called ‘wonder girls’ which sells some of the most beautiful re-worked thrifted items. It’s where Tari actually bought her favorite carpet reminiscent of air nation patterns that now adorns the living room and the tapestry in her bedroom which is reminiscent of the patterns reported to be in the Northern Water Tribe spirit oasis.

“Fine.” She growled out reluctantly. “Let’s go, but after we eat. And we have to stop by Sonan’s shop.”

She wasn’t sure if Sunmi’s stall was worth it. Most of the things she sold were old items reminiscent of the different past Avatars. Yeah - they all fit Tari’s aesthetic and likes, but they just weren’t what she wanted hanging in her room everyday because of the specific designs. The only thing that caught her eye was an old-looking book on “the lessons we could learn from the previous Avatars”. The cover was decorated with minimalist sketches with a traditional edge to them. It called out to her because of the fact that on the front cover, they promoted the fact that the self-help book was apparently approved by Tenzin and Pema. So, she looked through it - and while her fingers flipped through the crisp pages, particular phrases in bold seemed to shout out to her: “No matter how strong you are, individuals cannot maintain harmony alone” and “do not doubt your greatness and do not run from your truths.” At the same time, the last phrase made her scoff and put the book down. Thanking Sunmi and wishing her goodbye, she slowly left the white tent - letting her eyes linger on a necklace similar to Katara’s (but bronze rather than blue), a boomerang with air nation carvings and Aang’s tattoo on it, a headband reminiscent on Toph’s but in different colors, and a silk robe which took inspiration from Zuko’s vest.

Leaving the white tent, she looked around the city that’s already vibrant on it’s own - nevertheless with the purposeful use of colors to heighten the celebrations on the street. She looked at all the children who were carrying around prop-gliders, grinning and smiling. All the booths and stalls sold cookies in the shapes of the Avatars and their teams or of the symbols of each element. Balloons in the shape of Momo and Appa marked the sky while Flying Bisons were used as an attraction, people paying a number of yuan to be able to board and ride the Flying Bison over the city for just thirty minutes.

While walking down the bazaar, she saw Johnny and Doyoung interview people attending the festival and hosting the stalls. Johnny was equipped with his camera around his neck like a necklace and a notepad which he was intently scrawling notes from the interview. She chuckled at Doyoung’s bored expression; looking around the festival as he held Johnny’s microphone so that he could replay and get exact quotes later. Doyoung caught her eyes across the crowd and lifted one arm up as a wave, so Tari responded similarly - before chuckling at Johnny slapping Doyoung to pay attention. He immediately had to rrub the spot he was hit on and turned back to the interview. If there was one thing Tari learnt while joining Johnny for multiple interviews, it’s that Johnny hates it when there’s anything that can negatively affect his rapport with an interviewee. This means whoever he’s with has to look equally engrossed in the conversation.

Despite how much she has been avoiding these celebrations, the bustling crowd didn’t prevent her from seeing the beauty she saw from the street’s vibrant colors and festivities. Everyone looked so happy and in bliss. This is what peace and harmony should look like; happiness. I’m not needed, she’d tell herself. She stood blankly in the middle of the street, ignoring the very minimal and light pushes from other people as she observed the world around her - mentally slowing down everything thats happening. Mental note, she told herself, ask Johnny to send me some photographs from today.

Walking down the streets, everything was so lively. Animated story tellers, grinning parents, young adults exploring, children learning history - this felt amazing. Why do I avoid these? She questions herself, before her eyes caught sight of the reason she does.

Her eyes fell upon the statues of the previous Avatars standing in order, taller than most buildings on the street but only half the size of the Aang statue that guards the coast. Some people were bowing down in front of the statues, some were just observing it. Most people stared at up in awe - afterall, these are the people who save the world and whose purpose is to protect mankind. These are the people who will forever live on through a different reincarnation, a different life. They are the people with immense and extraordinary power. Despite her trembling steps, she decided to approach it, allowing the large and otherworldly statues to stare down at her - eyeing her up and down, reminding her she’s not of similar status.

She felt her breath get trapped in her throat as her memories flash back to the last time she lived with her parents.

“We don’t normally tell them when they’re this young,” She overheard someone telling her parents; a voice she’d grow familiar with as she grew up, “But your daughter is showing incredible skill and we want to train her early.” The same voice’s smile was evident in their voice as they continued to speak in conviction, “If we do it right, she can be considered the greatest of them all.”

She was only four years old when the person who raised her took her away from her family who resided in a traditional water nation village. Ever since then, despite being put into circumstances where it may seem impossible, she kept trying to run away. Not just physically, but mentally. Trying to leave everything behind. All she wanted was a new beginning, a new identity, a new face. She knew if she had the opportunity, she may ask the Mother of Faces to change her face - but at the same time, that doesn’t stop the fact that she’s Tari. That she was born like this.

Trying to catch her breath, she looked around and saw a stage with a list of performances next to the entrance to the audience area. This should be calming, she falsely presumed. She approached; noticing how some of the famous local dancers like Jungwoo and Winwin are at the front of the audience, probably preparing for their act. She always loved seeing them dance - they were always enchanting. Whenever she hears they will be performing, she always drags someone - usually Sonan or Doyoung - to watch. Although intrigued due to her interest in watching the dancers, as she got closer she noticed that the current show was a play and the actors were standing in line as if they were about to bow. All of them dressed like the statues from earlier, except theres an addition. At the end, right next to Aang, there was two waterbenders holding a newborn child. She tried to focus on what’s being said by the narrator.

“All we know now is that there is an Avatar in this world and they are from the water nation.” The narrator’s voice boomed, mumbled by the distance. He grinned as if reminiscing about the time he heard the news of the birth of the Avatar, “There’s no other information about him or her, but we know that whoever they are; the spirit of Aang, of Roku, Kyoshi, Kuruk, Yangchen, Bayu, Salai, and Wan lives on through them.”

It started to become overwhelming. She quickly turned back and started heading anywhere she can catch a breath - but that means she has to get away from the bustling crowd. Okay, time to go. Her thoughts were running a mile every minute, nothing focusing - everything in a fast-paced motion. She was planning on going to Sonan’s booth once Johnny and Doyoung started heading in the same direction, as it was set up on the opposite end of the street and she was not going to brace this festival alone. But, she just can’t be here anymore. She quickly texted Hendery telling him she’s on her way and she’ll take over his shift, no problem. His response? A series of celebratory gifs and a promise to a future favor.

Quickly texting her, Johnny, and Doyoung’s group chat – she informed them of ‘an emergency at work’ where ‘Hendery got burnt’ and she has to step in It’s better to text them rather than approaching them because all they’ll do is convince her to stay. That, and Johnny may actually hold her to him throughout the event. She then texted Sonan she’ll see her later tonight for dinner, which Tari now promised she’ll be providing. She quickly sprinted to the closest tram station, but even there – despite how it’s not as crowded as usual due to people exploring the festivities, everyone who got off the train were in traditional garbs. Especially the orange outfit and red cape Aang was famous for. I just can’t escape, can I? Staring at her quickly shuffling feet as much as she can, she made her way to the cafe within thirty minutes.

“You’re a savior.” Hendery praised, hugging his friend and passing over his apron. She chuckled.

“Go have fun, donkey.” She lovingly called him his nickname, making him chuckle. As soon as the door chimed, signalling that he has left - she watched him waddle towards the same direction she just came from. “Because I know I won’t.” She mumbled under her breath as she tied her apron behind her back and prepared herself to serve numerous patrons dressed like the very same statues who stared down at her like gods half an hour earlier.

request anything for future parts / penny for your thoughts here

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