#sorry anon I had not intended to go all 'in this essay I will—' on you | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

cherry-leclerc · 5 months

Text

red diamond ☆ cs55

genre: humor, fluff, arthistory!reader

word count: 2.8k

The story of when you and Carlos met and how the mutual connection of art takes you two on a pleasing journey that will leave you realizing a thing or two.

req!... i did a bit of touch ups from the request i got but i hope that anon doesn't mind AHH. hope you guys like it :)

“No, no, no! Ritorno! Per favore!”

Gasping for air, you curl over as you groan in frustration. Punching your bag, you watch lamely as the cab drives away. It was your own fault - you had overslept - but you seriously thought you would make it on time. You moved to Italy a few months ago to study Art History in one of the most prestigious universities. But along with that, there were lots of things being asked from you; volunteering in museums, endless essays, and ridiculous research that even had you second guessing your choices.

“Stai bene?”

Spinning around, you make eye contact with a tall man who secretly made your blood run cold. You shiver as you nod, hoping it would be enough and that he would just leave you alone. But he doesn’t budge, he only digs a single hand into his pocket. Your stomach drops.

“Am I about to get mugged?”

“What?”

Chewing on your bottom lip, you point out his all black outfit and how creepily he kept his hand hidden from plain sight. Bright pink colors his cheeks as he instantly raises his arms up in defense. God no! Oh sh- I’m sorry, he squeaks as he winces. You let out a breath of relief as you rub your arms to help keep warm.

“Do I look like a thief or something?”

Scanning the empty road, you squint as you try your best to find another ride. Maybe it wasn’t the best idea you’ve had to go to the Sistine Chapel at night. “Or something.” He softly laughs. Shimming out of his sweater, he shyly hands it over. “That’s very nice of you, but it’s okay. You’ll get cold.”

“I won’t. Plus, you’re shivering so much that I can hear your teeth chattering. Seriously, take it.” Instead of telling him no, you decide against it since you were two seconds away from getting frostbite. Grazie, you whisper as you tug the sweater over your head. He looks away as soon as your arms swing up and allows him to get a good glimpse of your white lingerie. “What are you doing out alone so late at night?”

Warming your hands deep inside the hoodies pockets, you respond, “I was trying to get a lift to the museum. I have to take some notes for a lecture I have tomorrow morning. I was supposed to go a whole lot earlier, but my nap was longer than I had intended.” He glances at you for a moment before jingling his keys up. You raise a brow.

“Can’t reassure you that the museum will still be open at a time like this, but I could offer you a ride back home.”

Agreeing turned out to be the best thing you could have ever done. Turns out Carlos drove for a living - whatever that means; he had been suspiciously blunt with it - but long before, he had actually studied Art History himself back in Spain. Ever so kindly, he had helped you research about The Creation of Adam. You were extremely impressed when he kept naming facts from the top of his head.

Shutting your notebook, you sheepishly shake your head. “You just saved me from embarrassment in front of my professor. She could be a bit mean when we don’t get our stuff done. Typical Italians.”

“Not all Italians are like that.”

“Sure.” Pause. “But she is.” He nods as he points towards your main entrance. Clapping your hands, you leap up from your couch. “Thanks again for all the help. I really appreciate it. I also appreciate that you didn’t turn out to be some murderer.” He squints his eyes teasingly.

“Thief or murderer, which one is it?”

“Preferably neither.” You open the door slowly as he steps out. “See you around, Carlos.”

“Of course.”

A few weeks later, you’re in a complete hurry. You had overslept, again, and it was looking as if you weren’t going to make it to class on time. You mumble a line of curses at the clear image of Professor Clara lecturing you for the thousandth time. It didn’t help either the way your key got jammed at your quick attempt to lock the door.

“For fucks sake-”

“Need help?”

“Merda!” You drop your coffee as you spin around with a hand over your stomach from the sudden shock. The familiar brunette cringes as he bends down to pick up your thermo.

“I didn’t mean to scare you.” He carefully takes your bag from your arm. “I just thought-”

“It’s okay,” you cut him off as you share a tight lipped smile. “It’s nice to see you, but I don’t have time for this. I’m late as it is.”

“Typical Italians.”

Your mouth drops open as you snatch your things back from him. “For your information, I am not Italian. Also, what are you doing here?” He beams.

“I have a favor to ask.”

Straightening your posture, you chirp as you take him by the hand towards his car. “Me too. Can I have a ride?”

You knew he’d agree. What you didn’t know was how excited he was to be near your presence. From the moment he first saw you he felt a sort of attraction that he couldn’t quite put his finger on. Yes, you were breathtakingly beautiful but there was something about your aura. Everything about you made him crave more. He felt so stupid that it took him this long to see you again.

“Sooo. What do you need?”

“Right.” Turning on his blinker, he quickly glances at the GPS. “Are you free later?”

“Way to make a girl feel special.”

“Sorry,” he murmurs. “It’s just that there’s this painting…” When he notices your lost expression, he taps his finger desperately against the wheel. “Doni Tondo. Ever heard of it?” The mention has you buzzing as you nod excitedly. “Of course you do. Anyways, they’re holding an auction up for it. I need you.”

“You do know I’m a broke college student who lives off of pizza and pasta, right? If you’re looking for money then I’m just going to let you down-”

“Money’s not the issue.” Flashy, you hiss as he smiles. “I have the money, but I need you. I need a date.” Why? He makes a left turn. “Do you know the meaning behind the painting?” You shake your head. “It depicts the importance of family. A healthy marriage.”

“I’m not following…”

The Spaniard becomes distressed as he sees you’re getting closer to your destination. He presses down on the brake a bit. “They want couples. Wealthy couples. Someone who they know that if they buy this piece of art then it’s going to be in good hands. That it’s going to continue serving its purpose.” He turns to you as he cocks his head a bit. “I need it as a birthday present for my mother. She’s been wanting it for ages and…Please.”

Putting the car in park right in front of the university entrance, he hopes to find an answer in your face as you keep it blank. Instead, you gather your things as you step out of his car. A delicate hand waves for him to roll the shiny window down.

“Pick me up at 8.”

“This is coconuts! I’ve never been inside of the Uffizi Gallery,” you whisper-shout as you cling onto his arm. He smiles down at you as he leads you to the small group of potential buyers. There were six in total - making it more intimate and scary. You were scared. His warm hand makes its way to cradle your face as he leans down to kiss your temple. You physically melt.

“It only costs a couple of euros.”

“You’re killing the vibe,” you groan as you pinch his cheek. He shrugs as he hushes you. Enzo, the coordinator, does a quick introduction with a cheerful voice. Everyone else seems to be listening just to listen, but you and Carlos were picking up on all of it like a sponge. “He’s a genius.” You stare in awe. The brunette stifles a laugh. He’s not the one who created these paintings, you know that, right? You throw a deadpanned glare. “You’re killing it,” you remind him. He pokes his tongue out.

“Why don’t we get started, shall we?”

The rich are animals - you come up with that conclusion quick enough. The sum that flies past their lips has you gawking as you hide behind the Spaniards tall figure. €50,000, a man yells with a blonde clinging onto his arm with a wide grin. You choke.

“Anyone willing to go for more than €50,000?”

“€100,000.”

Spinning your head to face Carlos, you have to stop yourself from calling it off. It wasn’t like it was your money anyways. Mrs. BotchedUpBoobsButThinksItsNormal grows red as she whispers to the bald man. He nods. €150,000!

“€240,000.”

“What?” Distangling your arm from his, you freeze as you feel your fake ring fly off your ring finger. Carlos had slipped in on you - he wore a matching one - as a way to make you both look more of a real couple. A nervous laugh bubbles out of you as you clumsily run over to where it lies. “My apologies!” Enzo bends down before handing it to you. Mio Dio! What a diamond! Red and rare!

Walking over to you both, Carlos takes it from him as he slips it back onto your hand. “Good eye.” But Enzo is basically drooling as he takes your hand to analyze it.

“I’ve never seen one so up close and personal! Very exquisite! You must feel extremely lucky, tesoro!”

“Very,” you cheer as you pull your hand away. “How about we get back to it? Excuse my interruption-”

“So, where did he propose?”

“Sistine Chapel.”

Your cheeks burn up from his words. That was where you were trying to get to the first night you two met. To take notes of Michelangelo’s, The Creation of Adam. Much like now, you two were on a mission to retreat Michelangelo's, Doni Tondo. Enzo swoons as he shakes the Spaniards hand.

“Stravagante! What a love story! I could tell - feel - the chemistry between you two. It’s real.”

“Oh, we’re not-”

“Not used to getting such high compliments from someone like you!” Carlos cuts you off as he tugs you closer, large hand laying over your hip. You shiver. He points to the painting. “What do you say?”

“Sold to Mr. and Mrs. Sainz!”

A whole crew follows in black SUV’s as they carry the painting to Carlos’s home, after Enzo had insisted it should be done that same day. Extending your hand out, you admire the ring. “You said it was fake.”

“Did I? I must have forgotten.”

Turning your body to face him, you place a hand on his upper thigh. His body stiffens as he clenches his jaw and squeezes his hands tight against the steering wheel. You let out a cough as you shyly pull away.

“You should have told me. I would have been more careful. Especially since it belongs to your mother.”

“Except it doesn’t anymore.”

Your brows pull in together as your bottom lip starts to wobble. “Did she die?” Taking in your glossy eyes, he shakes his head as he laughs.

“She’s fine.” He doesn’t say much after that as he pulls into a fancy driveway. Jesus, you squeal. He unclicks your seat belt. “My parents are over for the holidays. They’re taking the painting with them when they leave back to Spain. Come meet them.”

You must be in some sort of trance because you let him take you by your hand as he leads you towards the mansion. You wonder why, but when you remember there’s people still around with the painting, you wrap your fingers tighter against his.

“Perfect. Grazie.” The 29 year old admires as he takes a step back to take in the painting. It was gorgeous. You were starting to get jealous that it belonged to someone else. The group of men share a quick exchange of goodbyes before scurrying out the door. Walking back to you, he taps his shoe against your heel. “What do you think?” You scrunch your nose.

“Meh.”

He spins to face you. “You’re crazy. It’s beautiful.” He looks at you as you stare up at the wall where Doni Tondo hangs. He shudders. Tickling your waist he says, “Admit it. Say you love it.” You shake your head as you giggle. I’ve seen better. He gapes. “Liar!”

“I’m not lying.”

He books it to you as you squeal and try to not trip over your dress as you run away. Grabbing you by the waist, he spins you. Admit it! “No,” you wheeze as you grow dizzy and yet don’t want the moment to end. You pull on his bow that matches with the rest of his expensive tux. “I’m going to throw up if you don’t let go!”

“¿Estamos interrumpiendo?”

Pushing Carlos off harshly, the ring flies off your finger for the second time that night. You swallow a curse as you look up to an older couple. They smile fondly. Though you haven't met them before, you are able to quickly identify them as the Spaniards parents. Blood rushes to your face.

“It’s so nice to meet you.” You take a step towards them as you extend your hand. They both shake it as they bring you in for a hug. You let out a small umph. Once they pull away, you pick up the ring from the floor. “I am so sorry about dropping your ring! I know it belongs to you. Carlos told me it was fake and if I had known, then I wouldn’t have flung my hand-”

“Don’t you worry, cariño - it doesn’t belong to me anymore.” Told you, Carlos interrupts. You scowl at him before handing it back to Reyes. She shakes her head as she covers your hands with hers. “Keep it.”

“But that wouldn’t be the right thing to do.” You twirl around as you hand it to Carlos. “Somebody take it, please.” He stares back blankly and you could tell he’s about to say the same thing, but his mother’s words make him take it from you. It’s okay, Carlos. Hesitantly, he obeys. You let out a breath of relief.

Forcing himself to shake off the bitter feeling, he points up at the painting. “Lo hice. ¿Les gusta?” Reyes and Carlos Sr. nod as they hug each other. Nos encanta. She directs her attention back to you.

“What do you think?”

“It’s beautiful.”

And it was. It was the true depiction of a family. Carlos frowns. “You said it was okay.” Discreetly, you pinch his hip. He yelps.

“I was only joking, you should know that.” A beat. “I think it's one of the prettiest paintings I’ve ever laid my eyes on. I’m so jealous that you two get to keep it,” you joke as they laugh. Carlos Sr. wags his finger.

“It’s not ours.” What? You and Carlos slump as you look at each other with as much confusion as shock. The older couple laughs. “It was never going to be ours, but we needed a good enough reason for Carlos to pull the trigger. He’s been talking about this painting for as long as we can remember. Isn’t that right?” Reyes nods.

“I knew that if I said I wanted it then he would get it. Either way, if he didn’t buy it then we would have bought it for him.” She walks up closer to you both. “This painting is not just a pretty sight - it’s also the raw interpretation of love. When two people fall in love, things become so crystal clear that it almost has you wondering if you’ve lost your mind. You start to learn that a family is one of the most important things and what better way than to form that with your other half. Marriage is a sacred thing - and sure, it's scary - but it’s very well worth it. You’ll see.”

Her words make your stomach twist as you catch Carlos’ reaction through your peripheral vision. It sort of looked as if he was having some sort of epiphany as he nodded attentively at his parents. For some odd reason, the image of him starting a family of his own with some random woman makes your heart hurt.

“ A few adjustments may be needed, but I have a feeling this ring will find its way to the right girl. Don’t you think, Carlitos?”

Carlos’ eyes flicker to yours as you look back at him. The connection had always been there, but something felt different. Scarily secure. Neither of you were brave enough to ask if this was something you were both feeling. Not yet, at least.

“I think it will.”

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unknownteapot · 13 days

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I didn’t like Tommy’s story either. I’m currently listening to the episode and so far I love it. You can tell they put a lot of time and effort into it, specially the background sounds. But fans can be disappointed that the format of a series was changed after months of not hearing from it. I don’t think people are ungrateful, they’re upset with how Smosh dealt with this. I think it’s unfair to completely disregard people’s concerns

hiii anon <3

i agree with you, completely honestly, i really don't want to seem ungrateful or like i'm being too negative about this whole thing, i'm going to try my best to listen to the sword af 2 episodes when i can and obviously i understand there's immense hard work and dedication that goes into making something like this, from what i've seen here on tumblr it's great so far- im not intending to disregard that!!

similar to you, though, i'm not too happy the way this was dealt with & announced - my major gripes are that their considerations for people who are deaf/hard of hearing/have auditory processing issues were only made after the backlash of the first announcement? like wdym you're making it into a whole podcast but didn't even think about people who can't listen to it? like not once in the entire process of shifting mediums? as far as i know (please correct me i'd love to be corrected, i hope i'm wrong) there haven't been any steps taken so far about that- i haven't seen any captions/transcripts posted by smosh games or any statements after the 2nd community post on yt where they addressed the backlash on what their further steps are to make this more accessible

it also feels strange to me that they were so silent about it for so long- maybe if they'd made the announcement earlier/gave at least a little info we'd already have had this conversation about inclusivity and captions would be available along with the 1st Ep so everyone can keep following the story they absolutely love as it releases

lastly (and i'm sorry this is an essay anon and anyone reading but i really need to say all this) the community of sword af fans are one of the most dedicated & talented communities i've seen tbh, they have to know the support is there right? i'm so surprised they're not posting any parts of the podcast on youtube (the literal home of smosh), it's so strange to me, it really feels like it's being pushed to the side slightly- but hey what do i know, i'm a silly gal on tumblr pls dont come for me

#ask q #sword af #smosh

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crushedsweets · 9 months

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neeed to hear the context behind ur most recent art. please enlighten us

you guys dont even know how excited i get when someone asks smth like this abt my art or headcanons or au.

i actually wrote liek a fucking essay oh my god im so sorry anon ill have the actual drawing context after the big bolded caps

TW for typical creepypasta story type stuff

anyway ok UNNECESSARY BACKSTORY: liu spent a long time trying to just psychologically recover from everything. he hated jeff and he hated the memory of everything. jeff signature murders would occur every now and again, each time liu would fall into a deep depression. the murders stopped for a while, and everyone believed jeff 'retired' or died. liu was conflicted about it. until Jeff committed his final full-blown 'jeff fashion' murder (janes family) in tuscaloosa alabama. liu had another breakdown and ended up moving to tuscaloosa because he was completely convinced he needed to find jeff again because he could fix it (or die trying and he'd be fine with that too)

nina was always one of those girls obsessed with 'true crime' but like.... the murderers instead of the cases. she was 12 when jeff's first rampage happened and she just fell head over heels in love with this freak. she began to act out, miss school for days, sneaking out to meet older people, etc etc. eventually she did the classic jeff smile cut into her face(she pussied out on making it like jeffs, so she has cleaner, less noticeable scars) . she started getting severely bullied (for being creepy and worshipping a literal murderer) and her parents sent her to live with her grandparents in mississpi. she started stalking liu through social media and whitepages when jeff was presumed dead. but eventually, jeff's final murder happened in alabama(a state away from her) and after turning 18, she ran away to go find jeff convinced he would 'save her' from the life she created for herself. nina got wrapped up in slenderman business because of her constant Tom Foolery. she met her idol

JEFF IS A BAD PERSON IN EVERY SENSE OF THE WORD. he did a beautiful job in using his #1 fangirl and enjoying the worship. she scrambled for pennies to afford an apartment, she'd sleep on the couch if he wanted to use her bed, she's ride her bike hours to go get weed or something from rando drug dealers that give better deals to pretty girls, make him food, do his damn laundry, literally anything and everything bc THATS HER MAAANNNNN (no he isnt.)

jeff DOES NOT GIVE A FUUUCK about everything nina does for him . one day he finds her trying to creepily get into contact with liu (and liu actually responded) and he loses his shit and stabs her and goes on and on about how 'you ruined your own useless fucking life your family is never going to take you back you did this to yourself' etc. he didn't intend to kill her only cuz he knew she'd forgive him and he liked all the shit she gave him

NOW ABOUT THE DRAWING ITSELF:::::

afterwards nina gets patched up from jeff stabbing her, she has some weird 'liu will save me' spiral (not romantically just in a very literal 'he can fix this' way). liu's been on his own spiral since finding out jeffs alive which is the only reason he even gave nina the time of day. eventually she ends up at his house to 'talk about jeff' bc she sent him creepy pics proving she knew jeff yadayadayada.

im not sure the exact conversation i imagined for the drawing, BUT liu eventually says something that sets nina off and she tears at her stitches and breaks down and drips blood all over his kitchen talking about 'I CAN MAKE HIM LOVE ME AGAIN I JUST NEED YOUR HELP PLEAAASEEEE' or something.

liu's a good man, much to his own detriment, and can't help but comfort this kid who's bleeding and crying in his kitchen at the fault of his own brother. he's all too familiar with wanting to repair his relationship with jeff, despite the amount of rage, betrayal, misery, etc he felt at jeffs hands. he doesn't ACTUALLY want to reconnect with jeff, but it's a very deep internal longing for the baby brother he once had that VERY RARELY overshadows his hatred

i want to reaffirm that liu does not feel positively about jeff at all, does not want to see him, and only moved to alabama b/c of a long ass mental health crises and is now too wrapped up in new financial commitments(plus jane) to move again. and now he feels obligated to help nina

he just misses being a big brother :( not so much the jeff part

also none of this at all is shipping at all i am terrified at the idea of people taking anything romantically . even if nina is in 'love' with jeff its purely for the story/horror . ITS ALL REALLY BAD

#creeped #hcs #guys i dont know why i keep doing this LMFAO IM SORRY ANON I TALK TOO MUCH I ... theres something in my brain #asks #soisjkhjdgvdkj #should i tag this as liu and nina... ok fuck it #homicidal liu #nina the killer #i literally have no feelings towards jeff as a character.. but the amount of people he ruined in his path ? damn . ok. got me

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aihoshiino · 7 months

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I saw recently you said that you dont like the current version of akane, and I honestly agree. But what are your reason you dont like post tb akane

Hello anon, sorry for the wait!!! I have actually been pecking at the response for this all week because it ended up dovetailing into some of my broader thoughts and issues with the manga using my feelings about Akane's characterization as a sort of lens/jumping off point. I hope this is still interesting to read even though it took forever to answer lol.

I also want to note that the bulk of this post was written before chapter 128! Some of my issues that are mentioned in this post did get sort of poked at and paid some lipservice in a way that makes me hopeful we'll get some improvement on this stuff as the movie arc progresses. Think of this as 'my pre-128 thoughts' if you come across it in like a post chapter 130 world in the distant future. It's also uh fucking long (it was over 2000 words long when I stopped counting.....) so enjoy this mini essay???

To get my most neutral thoughts out of the way up front, Akane is a character I really like in LoveNow! I think the arc she's given is compelling and her struggles feel super real. The gradual peeling back of her outer layers and the reveal that she's just as damaged by the industry as the people around her was really good and my only real major problem with LN is that I felt like the aftermath of her suicide attempt (at least, emotionally speaking) was glossed over a bit too quickly for my liking. On top of that, I like a lot of ideas about TB Akane on paper and I'm not inherently against any of the things that get put on the table in relation to her. My issues are more to do with the ways Akasaka executes said ideas and – imo – fails to capitalize on a lot of the interesting potential that a character like Akane presents.

I think this issue partially stems from the fact that Akane and Memcho were (iirc anyway) not actually originally intended to stick around with the main cast past the LoveNow arc. Memcho didn't really have a personal arc during LoveNow and during the rest of the manga, she sort of has a "flat" arc, so I think she makes the transition a lot more gracefully. Which is not to say Memcho herself is a flat character lol! Rather a 'flat' arc is when a character doesn't necessarily have some major change in themselves, but their intrinsic traits/beliefs/etc help to advance the arcs of characters around them; sort of like a mentor type character, if that helps.

Akane, by contrast, had a pretty dynamic character arc that felt as though it was intended to be relatively self contained and conclusive but with Akasaka's plans changing behind the scenes, Akane has ended up sort of outlasting the arc she was originally set up to have. That's not to say a character can't still be relevant after their arc is done or that a character needs an active ongoing arc to work within a story but there's a lot of things about the way that arc is simply not resolved that bug me – for example, the arc wrap makes a big point of saying that Akane will probably have to deal with ongoing online negativity for the rest of her career but this never comes up again even in places where it really should be relevant. I also just personally am not a big fan of how quickly and completely Akane's suicide attempt gets swept under the rug and is literally never addressed again once LoveNow wraps but that's more of an issue with OnK's bad habit of dropping loose threads a whole than it is something specific to Akane.

As for the rest of it… uh, this might be a bummer to see in the main tag if Akane is your Oshi no Girlie so I'll put the rest of my thoughts behind a cut. Akane enjoyers, please feel free to pretend I'm just talking about my favourite ice cream flavours or something. Or even go get some ice cream yourself and say it's on me. I don't care if it's October, ice cream is a forever food!!!

SO… To get the most immediate and shallow points off the table first, I just find the character design change between LoveNow and TB Akane really jarring lol. Like, I guess it's not necessarily impossible for her hair to have grown down to her chest in the time between LoveNow and when she pops back up but that combined with the changes in how she starts being characterized really just widen that gulf. The only time she ever really feels like LoveNow Akane to me again is when she takes Aqua to see a 2.5D play and is just so happy afterwards that he enjoyed it – that's cute! That's charming! That's the Akane I liked a lot in LoveNow and I feel like we don't really see her again after that but it's hard to put my finger on what feels so off. It's kind of just Vibes.

Getting into more serious, structural stuff a big part of why I feel post-TB Akane falls flat for me is simply that a lot of the interesting things Aka put on the table for her during LoveNow have been swept away and ignored. There are so many things that could be done with Akane as a character that are absolutely screaming out with incredible thematic potential but Akasaka hasn't really taken advantage of any of them. At the worst points of the manga, it feels like she's being used as a blunt force tool to make the plot go at the speed Akasaka wants it to progress and this has resulted in Akane spending a good chunk of the story doing literally nothing on-panel that doesn't revolve around Aqua in some way. Everything else – her rivalry with Kana, her passion for acting, her relationship with her family and her manager – is paid the barest bits of lipservice if it's even acknowledged at all but when you really get down to the nitty gritty of what Akane meaningfully engages with and achieves in most arcs now exclusively has to do with Aqua.

It's not inherently a bad thing for a character to be motivated by outside factors or for their actions to be driven by devotion or even hatred for somebody else – Aqua himself is a good example of a character whose arc is driven by both of these things, as his devotion to Ai and hatred for the man who hurt her are the main external things driving him through pretty much the entire story so far. But Aqua also has things going on outside of this – other important connections and relationships, feelings and conflicts and motivations that make him feel, imo, more well realized. Not only that, but his arc has a very well conveyed and easy to understand "want vs need" conflict, of his continued pursuit of revenge having clear and tangible friction with his emotional need to let go of his past trauma and move on.

Akane has, since Tokyo Blade, been sorely lacking in a lot of these areas. Her acting career progresses entirely offscreen with no apparent conflict or effort on her part and she has absolutely no strong or meaningful connections to the cast outside of Aqua and arguably Kana, but they haven't really had any sort of meaningful or meaty interactions since way back around, what, the mid-70s, in chapter terms? Not only that but her existing relationships have largely been completely put to the wayside, too. LoveNow establishes her as a person who cares deeply for the people who care for her – her mom, her manager, her friends on the show. Akane felt so bad about people saying bad things about her mom and her manager online – not even harassment actually directed at them, or that we have any reason to believe they saw or received! – that it contributed to her suicide attempt. Contrast this to when she is literally about to walk off and attempt a literal actual fucking murder and all she's thinking is "aqua… let's have crepes together… let's be together forever…". No consideration for her parents, who are about to go through unimaginable pain, or the promising acting career she's about to destroy? Nope! Akane revolves entirely around Aqua now. It feels insulting!

I don't even necessarily hate or even disagree with taking Akane in the direction of her fixating on Aqua in response to him saving her and feeling like she has to cling to him and throw away her life to 'save' him in return. I do think the story is purposely portraying this as an unhealthy fixation and does not want us to uncritically celebrate this aspect of their relationship but I also just think the story kind of fails to really examine Akane to the logical conclusion of that flaw.

In general, Akane is one of those characters who like… I don't quite know how to express this feeling so forgive me if I go in circles on this topic a bit, but there are occasions where Akane will do or say something genuinely shitty or deranged or display a pattern of behaviour that speaks clearly to a flaw of hers in ways I want to be on board and engaged with but as time passes, it becomes clear that the narrative does not actually see anything wrong with what just happened and so it never gets addressed or meaningfully engaged with. There's a lot of little bits like this (can we talk about how Akane leveraged her suicide attempt against Aqua as a manipulation technique in TB and this never comes up again?? lol???) but the thing that really truly sticks in my craw is the way Akane is repeatedly depicted as continuing to use her fake 'Aikane' persona (as conveyed by the star eyes) during her acting career and starts getting famous at least partially because of it.

This is going to sound really dramatic but as someone who deeply, deeply cares about Ai and is so, so compelled by the tragedy that was her exploitation in life and death – this is so horrifying! This is Akane directly profiting off her exploitation of Ai's image. This is Akane digging up Ai's corpse so she can rip out her guts and parade around wearing them. It is absolutely baffling to me that the story at no point pauses to at least acknowledge that this is another way in which Ai is being exploited even in death – that even now, almost twenty years later, she cannot ever escape or be left to rest in peace as a human being.

Honestly Akane's relationship to Ai is SUCH a mountain of missed opportunities it makes me kind of crazy. Like, we get some wishy-washy stuff about ~Ai's emotions that were revived in her~ but seemingly the only thing done with that is to give Akane a cheat code to magically know things about the mystery she should have no reasonable way of deducting. But like - if Akane really does understand Ai so completely and it's so empathetic that she can Sherlock scan the emotions of a dead woman she had never met then why does she never, you know… express any kind of opinion on her? What does Akane think of Ai? What does she think about the way Ai was exploited and abused by the very industry Akane is trying to break into? Holy shit! It should be SO obvious to draw a parallel between Ai's death at the hands of a ex-fan and Akane's suicide attempt driven by fan harassment. But Akane just… never talks about Ai or even really treats her like a person even though she apparently downloaded Ai into her brain by reading Wikipedia really hard.

It's frustrating because there SHOULD be a really great thematic idea here - other characters often treat Ai as this inscrutable enigma but with Akane, there was the opportunity to make a point that Ai was just a lonely, messed up person and that if Akane can come to understand and connect with her post mortem then the people in her life absolutely could have put in the effort to understand and connect with her while she was still alive. The story failing to have Akane treat Ai even the slightest bit like a person ends up making her feel really callous in a way that was clearly not intentional and is, as a result, frustrating to read. This also comes into play in the ways she's so tunnel visioned on Aqua. Like, there's just something really darkly funny about Akane acknowledging how insanely unimaginably tragic the horror of Ai's death is and the way the people closest to her were robbed of the opportunity to publicly heal and grieve and then she just... totally fails to acknowledge Ruby also experienced this life altering trauma? LIKE

"your little sister is on her own, though"

To be clear, Akane being callous and kind of tunnel-visioned is not in of itself something I have a problem with. As a Category 5 Women's Wrongs Enjoyer (my list of favourite fictional women includes Monika DDLC, Akane Shinjo and Junko Enoshima lol) so I actually think Akane having those sorts of nastier flaws or at least having blinders up that make her behave in such a way that contrasts her actually heart would be so good and juicy! It would be a really good opportunity to dig into ideas of like... someone can go through something horrible that negatively impacts them and maybe even makes them behave in poor and destructive ways, but just because someone isn't a 100% pure and sympathetic 'perfect' victim doesn't at all take away from the fact that they were victimized and they still deserve to be helped and protected. But because the story seems to be largely unaware that Akane comes off like this, it fails to be meaningfully engaged with which, again, makes it frustrating to read.

I do have hope that a lot of these issues will be resolved, though! The AquAkane breakup finally forcefully ripped her out of the role of 'Aqua's Perfect Girlfriend' and while she's still orbiting him a bit more than I necessarily would like, chapter 128 has already done a lot to address some of these issues. Even stuff as small as Akane talking to Memcho and Kana and not really having any page time with Aqua and her acknowledging that both Aqua and Ruby (with particular emphasis on Ruby, it seems!) are both still suffering in the aftermath of their childhood trauma. It's small, but a lot of my issues with Akane were of the 'death by a thousand cuts' variety so even having them addressed in these passing ways does a lot to help.

Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if I eventually come around on Akane and end up liking her a lot more. I've sort of had similar feelings about characters in works I like before – off the top of my head, I remember really disliking Naoto from Persona 4 when I first played the game because the section of the story she's associated with has some really bullshit pacing and Naoto is used in some really awkward ways by the narrative that made me associate those feelings of frustration with her. I felt similarly about Megumi from 13 Sentinels where I felt like some of the beats in her story dragged down both her arc and the arcs of the characters associated with her and really disliked her as a result. Upon revisiting both games though, I was able to properly separate my feelings of frustration with the narrative from the characters themselves and ended up coming around on both of them in a huge way.

Once Oshi no Ko wraps and we can see what Akane's arc looks like in its entirety, I fully expect to have a similar turnaround on her. I don't expect that she'll ever be one of my favourite characters but once we can see the totality of her character arc and the full scope of her role in the story, I expect to find more appreciation for her. Right now, though, while I'm still sort of stewing in disappointment, hope, expectation and frustrations it's hard to fully come around on her.

#oshi no ko #oshi no posting #onk spoilers #suicide mention

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vanguard-if · 3 months

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any poly/harem routes? *on my knees BEGGING for it*

OUUUHHH anon i am so glad you asked this question because i have LOTS to say about it. the short answer is yes, long answer is… kind of. aren’t i just soooo helpful. basically there are a few characters that are open to polygamy depending on how the MC brings it about with them, and some characters who are strictly monogamous. however, there is a poly route! and I’ll talk about it below but be aware that this is possibly the largest spoiler if you intend to participate in the romance routes. and for two characters from the main cast. like really. beware.

SPOILERS BELOW!! BE WARNED!!!

Vera and Emilio will have a possible poly route! the thing with these two is that they had a complicated relationship in the past and GOD do i want to post all about it. it was messy. destroyed the two of them. was kind of a situationship. kind of not. by the time the storyline of Vanguard takes place (directly after A Prince in Distress where the focus is on Vera) they both have decided to stay platonic. and they remain this way in Vanguard! will this cause complications? maybe. you’ll have to figure that out yourself when the time comes, huh?

the only other characters that would be open to having a non-monogamous relationship are Cirrus and Charles. Charles will only be okay with you romancing Vera or Emilio, and no one else. Cirrus does actually grow quite fond of one of the royal twins (depending on who you romance) and if you enable him, you can definitely have a relationship with them and Emilio or Nia.

Vera and Emilio are confirmed 100% for being a poly route. this will be implemented. since i have an idea of what my free time is like nowadays, i am unsure if i will actually implement the intricacies of open relationships with other characters. however i am more than happy to explore this strictly through writing, and not in game. i would absolutely love to feature this in game, but again, i am a solo developer and this is a passion project that i work on in my free time.

all in all, relationships are complicated and everyone has baggage. sorry for this looooonng post i can probably write a ten page essay on the way my characters interact with one another. i think it’s always interesting when characters in an IF aren’t immediately just dropping everything they have for the MC (including relationships, status, etc.), because that’s just not how people work.

i am going to shut up now. thanks so much for this ask anon i had a blast answering it!!

#vanguard if #vanguard #ask blog #twine interactive fiction #ask #cirrus vanguard #emilio vanguard #nia vanguard #charles vanguard #vera vanguard #itch.io #professional yapper #god i can’t wait to talk about vera and emilio they make me sick

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chaosandgunpowder · 11 months

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Hi, hello, hey!

This feels weird.

Okay, strap in. In case anyone’s forgotten I don’t really do brief, but I can summarise if needed.

So:

I’m alive, I’m okay, and I wrote something (yay) It’s not ch11 Plausible Deniability (sorry, sorry, sorry)

I’ll hide the rest under the cut, I don’t want to clog everyone’s feeds with my inane rambling.

For the lovely comments and asks/messages I’ve had, thank you, thank you. This update is for you especially. For anyone that’s asked me, I’m doing well, and so is mini-chaos (almost a full, actual mini-person capable of causing as much chaos as expected, and that blows my fucking mind).

Unfortunately, I (maybe naively) didn’t really anticipate just how much of my brainspace would be taken up with going back to work full-time after mat leave, (to a new job, as well, because, yes, I did get it!) and juggling working, a new job and impending toddler-hood just didn’t leave me with any emotional (or physical) energy at all - I took a much-needed but unwanted step away for a while for the sake of my sanity.

But I’m still chugging along, and as of this month, now I feel like I have my shit together, and a routine that leaves me space for it, I’m also writing again (big yay).

Which brings me to the PD update. That sounds super serious, it’s not. It’s just reassurance to anyone still interested and waiting; I’m not done. It’s not abandoned. It’s not cancelled. I still intend to finish it. I still have it plotted to fuck, on file and permanently in my brain.

Though when I sat down a couple weeks ago with coffee and the biggest smile to actually do some writing, I was a teeny bit anxious. I really wanted to work off all the dust on something unimportant, because if the first 5-10k I wrote after a big-ass break was pure, unadulterated rusty bullshit, I really really didn’t want it associated with PD. That shit is my soul.

So I am sorry if anyone’s disappointed that what I have for you is not that. Know that it isn’t PD because I’m too dedicated to the integrity of it.

Luckily, I don’t think my little writing exercise is entirely rusty bullshit, anyway. I do think it’s honestly mostly 10k of pure, unadulterated filth with a sprinkling of pining and angst on top, but I don’t hate it, and so I’m doing final edits today (I’m, in fact, just taking a breather between edits so that I come back to it with fresh eyes).

It’ll be up sometime tonight if it sounds like anyone’s bag, and if not, no big. After it’s up I’ll be easing back into ch11, though I know better than to make date-based promises, they just stress me out and make me somehow less productive.

I’ve gotten such lovely asks while I’ve been taking this break (seeing them made my fucking day, even if I apologise that I wasn’t in the headspace to be able to reply). I don’t know if any of you are still around to see this, but I hope I’ve answered many/most of your questions on how I am/whether I plan to update etc, in this giant ass essay, but a hearfelt thank you to everyone who’s come into my asks with wellwishes and funny shit (you especially, anon who dedicated so much time to lifting me up even if you didn’t know you were - thank you.)

Right. Enough of this procrastination shit. Back to business.

Catch you tonight with a link. Much love, Chaos.

#well this feels wildly self indulgent #but I really did want to update everyone that’s reached out to me

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fantomette22 · 1 year

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(Do not respond if it makes you uncomfy, reading is enough) I am late for the party but IMO it is really hypocritical when people say you can't ship ghrmria if traditionally mourning dolls were made for children and then turn around and ship mria with a woman who addresses her as her superior and is a victim of nasty experiments mria is covering up. Everyone only bothers with nuance instead of just letting people enjoy things when it is the ship they dislike.

Hello anon! Ah I know what post you read hehe (it resume really well the situation!) Thanks for the support as well ! Some people (one person in that case, can really be hypocrite yes).

I want to talk about this. I mean it's been a part of the harassment I got but you understand I don't wanna scream it out loud everything either. I don't wanna discuss some stuff publicly either so I will keep it to the essential. And well I hope I won't get bother bc of this again. (putting the rest undercut it's a big long sorry 😅)

Alright so I never actually show the ask in question I got. Only in dm to some mutuals & friends. Idk if I should share it publicly so if you want just ask me privately there's no problem I will show it. I got tons of other dumb things too but I won't share them publicly. I'm not playing that game. I'm not answering to hate with hate.

Basically, like you read before the person "ask me" more details on my view on their relationship if I think the Doll is a mourning doll (that parents made for their children) (see my essay/analysis I made a few months ago on the Doll. I will need to update it one day XD so this person might have read it). I mean yeah I think she's similar/have a similar purpose as a mourning doll but she's special. She's not your typically victorian child morning doll TM. Then, they wanted to know more about my different interprets, AUs etc

Love when people disagree bc they don’t like you but then agree with people they like who said the same thing as you… genuine evolution ? Hm…

For real I would love to talk about my many interpretations /stories about this 2 characters (with multiple interprets contradicting each others) but I want a genuine question from someone I know / someone I can put a name one. (even sending the ask on anon but telling in dm who is it is ok too! 👍)

Not someone hiding being anon and with vicious intend. Not someone who's stalking my blog (not a follower), previously (and after) fake approval of my ship content* and harassed me repetitiously for weeks if not months because I interact some times to times with someone they don't like.

*before that I got a "backhanded fake approval" over some drawings I did. Telling me "oh it's cute and all. You're doing it the right way" but then twisting it in a disgusting way with some awful sexist comments... trying to pass the fans of the pairing (and myself?) for bad people I guess? I did answer to it but call them out a bit too. It's on private now. I might have a link somewhere (because well I did spend some times writing cool ideas I want to keep for later)

At first I wasn't sure it was the same person (the fake approval, thoughts about the morning dolls and the harassing asks). But I had doubt so I never answer it. I'm glad I did because surprise ! IT WAS THE SAME PERSON all along ! (when I block ip address it was all deleted) Like wow harassing me, trolling me and trying to fake a genuine question before harassing me more? wow people are sure fascinating. (I really want do believe in you bud ! hope you become a better person !)

I took some precautions as well after all of this. That would be a shame to go private or disable anon ask for 1 bad behaved person. I hope it will be alright now and that I won't get bother anymore.

So about the other ship you mention... at first I was positive toward it but because of a few persons well I tend to be way neutral towards it now (and it's still the main thing in a minor AU of mine lol). Personally, I think, because of my view of Blood.borne world, the healing church, the research hall... that after the experiments began on her it doesn't really work/make sense for me anymore... But I won't go bother people who imagine/interpret a softer version just to be happy and have fun ! got for it guys!

But for real the wort ship experience I had so far was in Kingdom H/earts fandom XD (love this series too) imagined you follow smn cool (twi.tter) and they indirectly punch you? "oh I know the difference between who's a friend and not if you ship characters a&b or not" 💀 like wtf sure you prefer them being friends but don't insult people liking the paring ? specially when there's clues about it idk??

I feel it's more a problem of respecting other people (& their thoughts) than proving they're not canon/ accurate or not. it's not even analysis against facts it's just how I think your ideas (and you) sucks because it's my ideas are not the same.

It’s impossible to 100% agree with everyone about everything. But if it’s not hurting anyone/ dangerous ideas just minimum respect pls. That already hurt enough people throw history and still today (but well the internet..)

I would love to talk more about the characters I love really but all this is making me exhaust mentally. Even when people are nice and calm about it I'm still concerned smn is gonna understand things wrong and just decide to go bother instead of just ignoring it.

#my asks #personal #ask drama?#anon harassment #anon hate

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ave-atque-vale-herondale · 10 months

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also (same anon as before) tell me how you felt about qoaad!! any predictions for twp?

if you haven’t, i recommend reading the novella books:

- the bane chronicles is fun especially if you like magnus.

- tftsa was so cute i loved her (read nothing but shadows before you read tlh)!!

- ghosts of the shadow market is definitely super important for world building for tlh and twp, so i strongly recommend reading it before them (it could be a little boring at times, i admit. but jessa is adorable). read cast long shadows and every exquisite thing before you read tlh. the rest is a lot of world building for kit’s background and jessa.

- OH OH also read the tec series if you haven’t (it follows malec) and i think it’ll eventually connect to twp.

- i believe cassie has these short stories about the tlh cast set before chain of gold. i remember reading them every month on her newsletter before the book came out. i think you can find them on her website? they’re not super important but they do get referenced once in a while in tlh

you probably know all of this and i probably mansplained (can you do that if you’re a girl?) everything 😭 but it’s better to be safe than sorry!! i hope you had fun reading everything and def let me know if you have any questions!

I'm gonna do my best to answer this in a comprehensive manner (let's see how long that lasts lol). You're my fave! (feel free to pop into my messages if you ever wanna chat or anything)

Okay I'm gonna start by saying that I had a strange relationship w TDA. I mentioned some of this in my initial post but I'm just gonna go through everything for continuity sake, if you will. Last summer I intended to finish the 3 series before my semester started. I got through all of TMI and TID but finished only LM and 150-ish pages of LoS. I waited till this summer to pick back up. I remember feeling bitter when I started LM because it was strange to have a modern-set book that didn't focus on my fave TMI gang (I watched the CoB movie religiously when I was younger and, before I knew better, watched the show weekly). It took me a while for Emma to grow on me and I initially had a hard time keeping track of all of the Blackthorns because there were so many of them. What kept me going were all of the connections to Mr. Poe (yes, I just called him that. deal with it.) I've started rambling so let me summarize this portion by saying that TDA didn't snatch me up until mid-LoS. okay, onward.

QoAaD was so reminiscent of CoHF and I loved it very much. WARNING SPOILERS FOR ANYONE WHO MAY READ THIS FOR SOME UNGODLY REASON. I appreciate the importance of the Thule portion and know the book would be shit without it, but, despite it still being fantastical, the apocalyptic vibe was not my fave. It was nice to get Livvy back for a bit (can I just say how shocking it was to have her death right after Robert? cause I feel like cc v rarely kills important characters so I thought Robert was fulfilling the death requirement yk?) and I LOVE to hate Sebastian. I'm gonna say something crazy here. I love Kit and Kieran more than I love a majority of the Blackthorns. Kit has been my fave character from this trilogy and I am not ashamed to admit it. The entire Ty Livvy spell shit was crazy because I completely felt Kit and wasn't angry at him for not outright saying that it was a bad idea, especially given the situation. I just can't believe cc had me expecting them to be fully in love with each other by then end, ONLY FOR THEM TO NOT EVEN BE ON SPEAKING TERMS (yes I know I need to be up to date w SoBH, I just need business day or two to marinate in my TDA emotions). The battle was epic, Julien's meeting was genius, Kieran is a great king, and the Malec wedding nearly had me sobbing. I'm gonna stop here w my thoughts on QoAaD cause it's getting out of hand. I am so sorry I am typing you up a full essay.

Predictions:

watch cc give us a 3rd plot that gets crazy because of some questionable heavenly fire incident (I mean, technically all three series plots that I've read have involved it if you count Jace's affect on Jem).

I'm super worried about a main character death because I think it would shatter me but it's also probably necessary? idk I dont wanna think about it

I also feel like something crazy is gonna happen to Aline and Helen because although they were literally exiled, nothing too traumatic happened to them in the main line of the story that the reader got to directly experience

not a prediction but truly me BEGGING ON MY KNEES for Jace and Kit content. I need them to be drama Herondales together. Also, Jace literally told him to come to him for personal advice so Jace helping Kit deal w his relationship w/feelings for Ty would be ideal (I really don't know how that would happen but let a person dream)

Final Segment:

Don't worry about mansplaining, youre good bae. I'm in the loop but I'm also not at the same time, if that makes any sense at all (there goes my promise of writing in a comprehensive manner). The only reason I haven't purchased the novellas is solely because it's more efficient for me to purchase a box set of a trilogy. (I do have the Codex and The Denizens of the Downworld books though). CC has done her best to make her world make sense but that woman writes up a storm and no matter what I'm always behind lol.

#wren answers #tda #the shadowhunter chronicles #tsc #tmi #the mortal instruments #the dark artifices #1st anon #I hope you don't hate me for writing so much in response #I have absolutely no one to discuss any of this with

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ultralightpoe · 2 years

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I have to tell you - I've been devouring Aemond content like a woman with an undying hunger for like the past two days and your fic 'Salt the Earth Behind You' takes the cake.

For me, it's just,,,, I'm licking my fingers clean in my want for more. The story, the angst, the fighting and sour words - I'm a glutton for punishment and good lord the pains I had in my chest in sympathy for our reader character has me addicted. Something about how much reader believes how plain she is, and the punishment she's going through, and then Aemond - words are failing me in my effort to convey how much I liked, and why.

I know life gets pretty rough, and you definitely need to take care and not strain yourself with writing too much - and I know too well some writers don't intend for certain fics to have more parts - but even if I just get another 4k words of pain with an ending that leaves me biting my fist and squirming for even more I WILL BE HERE WAITING FOR IT. Hurt me and I will take the pain willingly.

Take care of yourself op, sorry for the essay lol <3

So I am choosing to answer this response rather than the other extremely rude response I got because this one was the one that convinced me to write another!

I have always been really good at writing angst and I am terrible at writing happy endings so I never really had a plan to continue to a part 2. Then I received a anon message that had me debating deleting the post all together.

But then I received this and it made my whole day. Thank you to whoever runs this account. I hope you enjoy the next part. I just posted it

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csmean · 2 years

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Hello its Zoo!

Hello its Zoo (not the literal zoo, though that would be funny) from Stygians. Sorry it took me so long to track things down, I'm a bit of a boomer when it comes to social media, and it took me longer to actually remember... how to log in.. or use...tumblr because the last time I used it was around 5 years ago...

Anyway, I thought it would be extremely facetious of me to just not address this in the open since I was linked here like 12323 times so here we go. I do want to preface this with, anything outside the Stygians discord and Stygians site/ DA group I prefer not to get involved with because it is none of my business! Nothing and nobody is perfect (and you'd be deluding yourself it you thought so). People make mistakes and poor decisions all the time. Sometimes, they get fixed, sometimes they dont, and its up to you to decide where you want to go from there. I used to be part of Gaiaonline dot com and back in the day we had drama forums instead of asks, and they were all anon random usernames submitting blogs about people they hated, or things they didn't like, or hilariously, ugly adopt designs. The internet is circular, and back in the day I learned just to let those go their natural course as well because sometimes people just need an outlet and/or are miserable and/or just want to see the world burn. Who knows! Anyway sorry longass tangent leading to here:

Regarding guest artist leaks, the juicy part: the reason why I came to directly address this is because it breaks a thousand TOSes (which I'll touch on in a moment) and is a complete breach of contract between the GA posting the leaks, and the species they were hired to be a guest artist on. I mean there's a thousand ethical issues too like, if I am hired to do something somewhere, do I have a right to steal/take that company's assets? Legally, no, but pokemon leaks happen, genshin leaks happen, that kind of stuff doesn't bother me as much. It literally doesn't bother me if people want to post like cropped thumbnails of Stygian leaks from upcoming guests, though it is again, shitty, to do so, its not enough for me to write a 10000 word essay about it, instead of fixing legit site bugs/ working on owed work. What does bother me is ripping off the final sale assets from the guest artists, again this is on me I should have made them more secure, but the catch22 is I didn't expect a GA to actually be this unprofessional as an artist. I'll repeat what I wrote to the guest artists:

"If you worked hard on something, a piece of art, anything, and someone else took that final product from you and distributed in some format elsewhere (coughnfts), in a way other people can consume the design outside of its intended release, then you can see why this is an issue! Especially so when guest artists not only dropped off their pngs, but also extra assets such as extra backgrounds, props, lore notes, psds just for the owners of these sales. I dont think anyone would be happy, for example, if they bought a design, and someone else had also saved a copy to clone as their own with all the assets, this is still a huge breach of trust. I don't want to go on for too long, because this isn't to shame anyone, this is simply to explain, why this is such a huge issue, especially since this is a policy meant to protect all guest artists as well from being exploited @ having their assets reused elsewhere. Stygians itself as a species has so many opportunities for free designs, there really is no reason to leak guest designs unless its literally to spite the guest artists themselves OTL."

That's it! 10000 word essay part 1/2 done. Throughout all of last night, I had to deal with multiple dms, chaos, fire, the usual. But I also had to deal with guest artists who had made accompanying pieces of work they spent days on for the upcoming sales voicing concerns their extra work intended for the sale winner would just be stolen and ripped off, and voicing concerns people would just take their entire .psds uploaded. This is where I truly have the issue: the fact that the artists intended them only for a specific use, very similar to if you sub to an artist patreon and get patreon only assets from an artist, those are meant to be consumed just on the patreon (again still an issue but less of an issue if you guys share this via dms but in public is a huge oof). Its all fun and harmless if you are just sharing, but we don't know the intentions of everyone reading on the blog: assets such as backgrounds, .psds, and more can easily be resold/ redistributed. This would probably be known better as art theft. I mean someone once stole my old 2004 pokemon DA art and printed it off/sold it/pretended to be me. Its hilarious, but it sucks, and nobody would want that to happen to their stuff.

I did some backread skimming here but honestly, I get it. Leaks are fun, they're entertaining! I wish I could stop people but ultimately, but I can only try my best to explain why please do not post a full artist's dropoffs for their sake. I mean if for personal/private consumption you linked images for your buddies on discord thats not going to get me as riled up either. Shit like that happens, just don't make it literally a breach of contract shit @ stealing other peoples works for your personal gain/ full .pngs/ .psds etc!

Thanks again Mushy for moderating this and for reconsidering. It's a wild west out here and I wish you the best. This will be my first and my last submission here, only because I know where I am and I am very aware the fallout from doing this but I feel like this is part of an even larger discussion than just Stygians: to lay groundwork in the future about artist rights, artist permissions, and art theft. Whether you like or hate Stygians, or like or hate adopts in general, I wish nobody no ill will. That's life, you have to take the good with the bad. I'm just here trying to protect 20+ artists and make a stand on why artists NEED to be protected, because so many of them work for pennies, and so many people are just small time artists just doing their best. I'll continue to hire new and returning guest artists for Stygians because again, its hard to get work in these trying times, and I hope other species continue this tradition as well! For those trying to make a new species, you can do it! Its tough work and it involves a lot of crying blood, and your first attempt may end up in failure, but if its a passion you believe in, I think its always possible. Ventures are 50% skill and 50% luck after all.

Heya, Mushy here! Sorry about my delay in posting, I've been out all day with friends on a much-needed zoo excursion 😂

I am really sorry that all of this has happened. I really shouldn't have entertained the thought of posting the leaked designs. It's been awhile since I've bought something from a flatsale or auction due to not having had any money, but with what little I've saved, I was eager to get something finally, and being able to to participate in the next GA wave had me excited.

But the more I thought about it, I realized that it was incredibly disrespectful to the artists who have worked hard and haven't consented to having their work posted early, and decided against it. As a fellow hard-working artist myself, I am ashamed that I was about to act that selfishly just because of my own deer cravings. As much as I preach on here about breaking free of your cs chains, stygs really do have a death grip on me 😭

Again, I'm incredibly sorry. I love stygians and I love this group, and I'm sorry that I very nearly caused problems for people. I know the search feature on this blog is broke af, but the entire stygians tag on here is just filled with me gushing about them and other people saying nice things about em as well. No group is flawless, but stygs are pretty up there in terms of especially good species groups to be in, and I've loved all of my years with you guys, and I hope to have more.

#submission #stygians

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smallraindrops-blog · 2 years

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Hi hi! Can I make a request for Hypnos w/ a reader (male or gn! Either one is fine!) who isn’t very physically affectionate, but one day just asks for physical affection or just starts cuddling up to him and stuff? Thank you in advance, friend! <3

Don’t Let Go.

Hypnos x GN!reader

Word count: 1.4

Warnings: kissing, non-sexual intimacy, miscommunications, no beta.

Note: Hi! Hi! Sorry for the wait Anon friend. I am not sure if I did the prompt right so I hope you like it! <3 <3

Thanks for the requests btw. It was fun!

It was at one of Zagreus’ parties that you noticed it. You were sitting on a sofa with a drink in your hand and Hypnos next to you. Hypnos had reached over to touch your thigh only to pull away the moment he realized what he was to do.

You frowned, glanced at him. That wasn’t normal for him.

“Hey everything alright?” You asked quietly, leaning close. Hypnos blinked at you, and even in the dim lights of the party, his eyes were bright.

“Oh yeah. Are you?” He flashed you a warm smile, the one always made the tip of your ears turn pink. You studied him, not sure what to say.

“Yeah I’m alright.” You said finally. There was something you were missing.

For the rest of the night, you kept a careful eye on Hypnos but he just acted like his cheerful self. Cracking bad puns and eating too much sweets.

Maybe it was nothing, you told yourself doubtfully.

It had been one of those bitterly cold and overcast days when you met Hypnos.

You held your traveling mug of coffee in your hand as you read through your rough draft of your research proposal. Maybe it was a cliché, but you hoped this walk would clear your mind.

You knew you wanted this, that you needed to do this for research funding. But gods, you hated writing this kind of stuff. It was so much easier to just talk about it with colleagues who understood your work, you knew most people didn’t understand the science of your subject.

So, writing an essay to convince random people to give you money was another thing entirely.

You took a sip of your coffee as you flipped to the next page. You glanced up to see a bench and began making your way over to it.

Then yelling. High pitched and panicked yelling.

You glanced toward the direction you heard it, expecting some kids playing or something.

Only see a man moving far too fast toward you and the sound of a skateboard.

“Move! Move! I can’t stop!” He cried, waving his hands as he tried not to fall off. You reacted too late and he crashed into you.

Your coffee and papers went flying and you went down with him on top of you.

You grunted when your back hit the ground, with the man tangled together with you sand from out of the corner of your eye, you saw your coffee soaking into the papers.

You swore and grabbed the man’s arms as you sat up, fully intending to lecture his ears off.

“What were you thinking-“ You stopped when you got a good look at him. His golden eyes were bright and you didn’t know people looked like that. Even his hair was unusual, white with messy curls that framed his face.

He blinked at you then he offered you a shy grin, his cheeks flushed.

This might be the most beautiful man you ever met and he was all but in your lap.

“Oops?” He said with a nervous laugh.

His name was Hypnos, you learned later when he brought you a coffee and you spent the rest of the day distracted and unable to do anything else but think about him.

You asked him out on a date a few days later.

It was during a date night that you decided to do something about Hypnos and how close off he was.

Honestly, you loved these nights the most, you got Hypnos to yourself and for a night you got to forget about the rest of the world. It was a selfish thing to enjoy, that you were only one to get to have Hypnos like this. But you couldn’t find it in yourself to care.

You pushed the ground beef around the pan, listening to the sizzling and kept an eye out for the pasta in the boiling water.

Hypnos was usually in the kitchen with you, getting underfoot and pressing kisses against your face as his thanks for dinner.

You glanced toward the living room, wanting to call for him but you didn’t know what you would say.

You have noticed that he wasn’t affectionate as usual. Normally you couldn’t walk through the door without Hypnos pulling you into a long hug and kissing you between greetings. Or with his hand brushing along your back and shoulders as he passed you. Or him leaning into your side, cuddling with his arm over your stomach.

Yet almost none of that had happened today. He still greeted you with a kiss but that was it.

So you made dinner, half distracted.

It was after a quiet dinner that the idea came to you. You placed a pillow next to the arm of the sofa, leaned back and waved him over as he returned from the kitchen.

"Hey." You opened your arms to him with a smile, "Come here."

Hypnos blinked at you, but he didn't ask questions. He moved between your legs and settled against you, his head on your chest. You wrapped your arms around him, one hand finding its way to his curls.

You let go a breath, feeling sane for the first time in days with him in your arms. Hypnos relaxed against you, tucking himself closer.

You stared at the t.v, not paying attention to the show. You were too focused on Hypnos, of his heartbeat and how soft his curls were against your fingers.

"You know." Hypnos spoke up, "You don't have to do this just to make me happy.'

"What?" You blurted out, staring down at him. Hypnos looked up at you, biting his bottom lip.

"I said you don't have to do this. I know you don't like being touched." Hypnos said quietly.

You sat up, keeping your arms around Hypnos. "What in the world made you think that?" You asked, staring at him in confusion.

Hypnos' white eyebrows went up, "You don't though." His voice changed, sounding doubtful.

You shook your head. "You're wrong, babe." You reached up to cup his face between your hands, "What started all this?"

Hypnos said nothing so you said, “Tell me. Please.”

Hypnos swallowed, his golden eyes looking away from you. Finally he said, "You tense up. When I touch you. And you don't hug me or kiss me nearly as much as I kiss or hug you. And I know I can be overwhelming sometimes."

Oh. Oh.

"I…I. Hypnos. Look at me." You ordered gently. You waited for what felt like an eternity but eventually his beautiful, golden eyes found yours.

"I adore you. The best part of my day is when I get to come home to you and I love it when you hug me and kiss me senseless." You licked your lips, trying to find all the right words. Hypnos was silent, his eyes wide and hopeful.

"And those times we spend the whole day in bed are some of my favorite memories with you." You told him. "I never wanted to make you feel like I didn't want you. I want you in every sense of the word."

Hypnos nodded slowly, his fingers curling into your jeans. "Then why?"

You sighed, "I'm not good with this kinda stuff. I’m not very touchy nor was my family. But let me try. Please. I would like to start by holding you for the rest of the night."

Hypnos did nothing for a moment and you felt your heart sink. Then his arms wrapped around your neck. Then his mouth found yours.

You returned the kiss hungrily, squeezing him in relief. It was a fast and sloppy kiss, both of you too eager to slow down. It was amazing. A heady rush as you and him found each other again and again.

Eventually it ended, Hypnos rested his forehead on your shoulder. You silded a hand under his shirt, running your hand up and down his back. Hypnos was so soft and warm. You kissed his head, his curls tickling your nose.

“I love you so much.” You told him, “If you ever feel that way again, just talk to me alright?”

“Okay, I will.” Hypnos said, his smile warm and beautiful and you kissed him again before you knew what you were doing.

It was the perfect kiss even as Hypnos giggled against your lips.

It was a kiss that said everything and more.

#hades hypnos #hypnos hades #hypnos x male!reader #fanfic #x reader

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dourpeep · 3 years

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sometimes i just think of collage student!xiao. an intimidating and aloof guy who no one dares to approach. someone who was never loved by his family except for his grandmother. idk why i just like the thought of him feeling at ease whenever his grandma pats him or just gives him a geniune smile. he only feels in peace with her. he plays the guitar. yes, and it's an electro guitar. in campus, he stays far from the crowd and just sits under a tree by himself - listening to music maybe (i bet he would like arctic monkeys) then one day he meets you - somehow. proabably you are also someone who is not fond humans and noisy places. you began to sit and read a book underneath the same tree as him once you noticed how peacful there was. when he first saw you invading his area he was annoyed, but obviously he wouldn't tell you to go away. surely, you'd get bored and leave eventually so he just ignored your presence. you weren't that content of him either at first, definitely would rather being alone but the more you spent your time there the more you realized how interesting he was - not to mantion how handsome he was- *cough cough* witnessing the way he plays an instrument was also impressive, and before you know it you grew quite fond of him despite not having a conversation yet so far. but on his end, he wasn't that delighted. still wanting to be alone yet not wanting to leave his tree. though he thinks you resemble his grandmother? maybe personality-wise. so he let's you stick around i guess ummm... i'm running out if ideas lmao i'm sorry this is a little longer than i intended it to be. i'd like to hear your ideas about collage student!xiao too tho haha <3

PRIMOOOOOOOS!!!!!

MY BAD IT'S NOT BUT WHOEVER IT IS PLS BECOME A DEDICATED ANON SO I CAN SHOW YOU MY LOVE

Ooooo what if instead of grandma it's like his elderly neighbor who lives in the same apartment complex that he does? He's been on his own for so long (maybe mid teens?) that she's become his family. Always inviting him over for tea and almond tofu (it wasn't until she first served the dish to him that he realized how much he loves it). Maybe even with the guitar that he plays originated from a conversation he had with her about how one of the things he's always wanted to do is learn to play---

Of course, following his high school graduation (which she ofc attended), they returned to her unit. He's happily enjoying a snack that she's prepared when she shuffles back into the common room and presents a large, wrapped gift. Already, Xiao knows what it is and she gets the tightest hug that he can give-

To her delight, he picks up the instrument incredibly quick and often plays for her! She absolutely adores his passion for it.

(continued under the cut!)

Cut to the middle of his first semester in college. He's still not really sure about what he wants to do but with the unyielding support of his Ahma, he's slowly figuring it out. But for now, he's practicing under the shade of the big ginko on campus. It's ironically his favorite type of tree, as silly as it seems. Especially in the autumn when the leaves start to turn gold and they flutter and dance down like hundreds of butterflies all around.

It's just after lunch that he makes his way to his usual spot when he sees you there. Of course, Xiao is irritated. No one ever comes here, so why the sudden change? But there you are, quiet with a book open in your lap.

A part of him wants to just leave and wait for his next class somewhere else, but he's stubborn. So he walks over and sits right next to you. When you ignore him, he feels ??? a little offended. How can you so blatantly ignore a whole person? Not...not that he's the same way.

This little pattern continues for a week, and then-

"You play guitar?"

The dumbest question ever, to ask someone who's holding a guitar and carries it around often that. But he holds his tongue and nods.

Another week passes and he realizes that you're in the same English course. Maybe next time there's an essay, you'll be partnered up. After these two weeks, he's surprisingly warmed up to you, though it's probably due to the fact that you're more similar than he thought you'd be. In fact, you almost remind him of his Ahma--the lovely old lady that's taken him in.

Not in a weird way though! (he has to shake his head to clear his thoughts)

But you've been patient with him, not invading his space despite existing in it, inquiring about his hobbies and enjoying the quiet when he's enjoying the quiet. It's...nice.

But with the semester quickly coming to an end, there's a pit in his stomach when he realizes that he might not be able to see you- after all, you're taking the same English course but who's to say you're not graduating soon? Or transferring? Or even--the thought makes his chest clench--moving?

It's definitely not unheard of.

So during finals week, he finally gets the guts to ask you if you'd like to study for that English essay coming up. He knows that you're both alright at the subject and don't really need to prepare for it (not when the professor is just doing a rehash of an earlier essay), but the idea of this lost opportunity when so much time has already passed doesn't sit right with him.

His Ahma is the one who actually suggests this. He's told her all about you (and when he finally brings you to visit her, she'll let you know all about the good things that Xiao has said to his utter embarrassment), and seeing how smitten he's become it's only natural that she wants to help out.

It's a cafe. The very place that she had her first date with her late husband (who, funnily enough, she says was so very similar to young Xiao).

You're there and waiting by the time that he arrives, backpack on the floor and binder open with papers spread on one side of the table.

When you notice him and look up, the smile that spreads on your face--

Maybe...he didn't mind you as much as he did that fateful day beneath the ginko tree.

#xiao #xiao x reader #college au #adventures in college #genshin impact #genshin impact xiao #genshin impact x reader #genshin impact imagines #genshin impact headcanons #imagines #headcanons #anon asks #I'm....very passionate about college au Xiao and Albedo #this whole thing was 770~ words oh my god

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jojotichakorn · 2 years

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Just wanted to vent... Whereas I'm happy for Jimmy, and how he got a main role as a newbie (Also, Mix, who's first role was a main in ATOTS, and who's now gonna be a main for 2 other series), I can't help but be angry, you know? That GMMTV has so many other artists under their belts that they just ignore, or cast aside, when they do so something great. Examples: Gunsmile, who's always just a side character for comedic relief, even though his best role to date was in 3WBF as a more mature and adult character; Drake, who was the main character in a badly executed project, so they just started typecasting him into rude and bully supporting roles (Why? Because of his eyebrows?); Podd, who, again, who was the main character in a badly executed project, so they just put him back in the basement. Read somewhere that he's almost dust this year because they let Gawin out the basement. Cannot let one out without the other going in, and it would be funny if it wasn't true. Gawin is so talented, GMMTV is a fucking joke sometimes.

Sorry for the feels.

hello, dear anon!! you've brought up something very interesting, so let's discuss it, shall we? (this is going to be LONG, and as it is not directly bad buddy-related, i am putting it all under the cut. have fun reading the essay lkgkdfglfdjgklfdj).

i think the first thing that i want to say is that gmmtv is first and foremost a business. not a creative group, not a production company - it's a full-on business, with a 'beloved' ceo at the top. and so it works as any business model in capitalism - it works for profit, with absolutely no regard for anything (or anyone) else. now we can put that into a more specific context.

gods bless all earthmix fans, i love y'all and go get your content, but two series together in one year? that's a lot, and we all know why it's happening.

it's no secret that gmm holds on to their duos for dear life, and it feels like a very sell-your-soul-to-the-devil situation. i mean, just look at brightwin. they only let them do something apart from the absolutely enormous amount of things that they did together (no pun intended) after getting what i am sure is an insane amount of money from 2gether and everything connected to it. and i am absolutely sure that much like all other beloved (by the fans) gmm duos (including ones like kristsingto, who somehow still do so much stuff together, despite... i mean, everything???), brightwin will still do lots of bts events together and are now probably attached by the hip with the invisible hand of gmm forever. and this kind of thing affects a lot of actors. and i think that, apart from jimmy (who is a newbie) and gunsmile (who is a separate and frankly rather confusing conversation), everyone you have mentioned in your ask was and is being affected by this exact thing.

despite being among the younger actors, frank and drake are very much one of the ogs in this duo model, and even though 'cause you are my boy' wasn't a good series, frankdrake fucking skyrocketed into fame and became fan favorites. but because the series itself was - as you put it - a badly executed project, gmm knew exactly what to do with them backstage and had no idea what to do with them on screen. 2gether was a very clear attempt to lightly reintroduce them to the enormous amount of new fans that poured in, which was successful. and i am going to be bold here by saying that there is no doubt in my mind that they were planning to do something with frankdrake on screen again, but frank's very unfortunate situation set it back. and i am convinced that they are holding drake back in smaller roles right now in order to not really give any association between him and a fleshed-out lead he could potentially play because they want to reintroduce him opposite frank. because, again, and i do hope that the implication throughout this whole text is clear - this is all done because it is most profitable.

now, as for podd and gawin, i would do the opposite of seeing them as a duo. yes, there was an attempt at making them one, of course - they played opposite each other in a successful series - but there weren't that many fans into them bts, so gawin was firmly locked in our metaphorical gmm basement, and there was an attempt to place podd into a duo with someone else again, which failed even more spectacularly due to how bad the series itself was (which is why khaotung is now going through exactly the same process that podd went through with him - a reintroduction, and an attempt to shove him into a successful duo with first). so i actually don't think there is any connection between what is happening to gawin and podd this year - i think there was previously, in a sense of getting gawin out of sight and out of mind in order to reintroduce podd with someone else - but not right now. besides, gawin is hardly entirely free of the basement - he is not a lead in 'enchante' (yes, he is listed as a "main" on mdl, but that is not quite the same - the leads and the headliners of the series are force and book, 100%), he plays a secondary role in 'not me' and out of the 22 series and 1 movie lined up at the recent event, he only appears in one series in a support role. comparing that to three support roles podd will have in 2022, things certainly look better for gawin, but in the grand scheme of things, he is hardly doing great. and this is all punishment for not quite fitting the very successful and profitable model that gmm loves to utilize so much.

this is a trap that specifically the actors who become popular through bl series fall into, but it is certainly not the only way gmm knows how to profit off of their artists. our very own nanon is a clear example of this. three series, two of which he is the lead in, and one movie, where he is also the lead, all in one year? not to make any assumptions, but that's one disproportionally overworked boy... i believe he is the only actor next year who has that much on his plate. i wonder why? perhaps because he is incredibly popular and is also the best actor (or at the very least one of the best actors) gmm has to offer, so they know that lots of people will be tuning in to watch whatever he stars in, and his acting will be so good that they won't even be tempted to leave? i've made a lot of bold claims today already, so let me leave some question marks here, for balance.

another thing gmm, of course, also does every year is introducing someone who is mostly a newbie, and casting them as a lead - just to see how it would go. it's often done in a duo, just to give that additional support (as a lot of fans specifically become fans of duos, and duos are guaranteed to become at least somewhat popular). jimmy is that lab rabbit newbie of the year, along with the actor he is playing opposite, sea. pretty much a no-brainer here, i guess we should thank the gmm gods that they chose jimmy specifically for this role (as, no matter how much we want actors who have already been around to appear more, the newbies are always here, so yay for the fact that one of the 2022 newbies is - as you put it - our doctor).

i can honestly make an analysis of every single fucking gmm actor i know in this manner (and frankly i have only scratched the surface with the ones i've talked about), but this post is getting long, so i will end on gunsmile, since you have mentioned him. i think his case is very peculiar, and i am almost ready to believe that he feels comfortable in his background roles. but if i try to think like a calculating dickhead, i'd say that his situation has everything to do with the fact that he has been around for many years, in many background roles, but despite his very active and vocal fanbase, that fanbase is indeed quite small in comparison and - apart from the russian roulette gmm does with their newbies - they usually prefer to be sure their series will be at least somewhat profitable due to the actors who play in them.

so, what's the point of this huge fucking thing? well, first of all, i have been around for years, watching gmm do its thing, and no one has ever prompted me to talk about everything i've noticed before. second of all, i just want to show that the company is at fault. and i really want to highlight that. i see an alarming number of people angry at the actors for the way the system they are stuck in works, and please don't do that besties, that's gross af. (NOT talking about the gmm actors that did shitty things here - specifically talking about the things that the company clearly decides but that people blame on the artists). it's also not the fans either, because even if we have some influence, ultimately it is the company's job to make the decisions, protect their employees and wrap it all up in nice packaging for the fans if need be. so this is also by no means a criticism of the fans of any duos gmm created (i am one of those fans too) or the fans of particular actors (i am one of those fans too) - we're actually pawns in gmm's huge and awful chess game, and we not really thriving either. so ready your pitchforks for the ceos and the managers and all that - NOT for the artists or the (respectful and nice) fans.

#ok its almost 3 am and i have classes tomorrow at 9 kgjkjfkjgksjfg #so i am going to sleep now #but if someone who sent me an ask around the time i post this is reading these tags rn #i saw ur ask and i will respond asap tomorrow <3 #archer responds #anon

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percabeth4life · 3 years

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Sorry to just jump in here and drop this on you, but i saw a blog once call percabeth an abusive relationship???? and i was like ?????? but none of my friends read pjo so i cant ask them for thoughts, how about you?

Oh boy anon so this is a thing.

Percabeth is abusive is a common thing those that hate percabeth or ship something else and want to validate it say, and why I have the “anti-percabeth” tag blocked.

I’ve seen people say Annabeth just giving him a dirty look was abuse, people will reach for anything done between them that isn’t perfect, usually to justify why their ship is better.

Honestly, I’m open to most ships. Percabeth is my main but if you ship things that’s totally fine, even if I don’t like it I won’t say you shouldn’t ship it. I read non-Percabeth ships, but a lot of people feel a strong need to insist a ship is abusive if they don’t like it.

It’s fine to just not like a ship.

First off lets preface all of this with a warning that I’ll be discussing abuse here so if that’s upsetting skip it.

It got long, like very long (word count is nearly 3k), so it’s all under the Read More, there’s a TLDR at the very bottom.

Now then, what is abuse?

There are two definitions that pop up with a quick google search

Use (something) to bad effect or for a bad purpose; misuse.

Treat (a person or an animal) with cruelty or violence, especially regularly or repeatedly.

If you look up the legal definition (law.cornell) used to define abuse there are more options, but I’m leaving out 2, 3, and 4 cause 3 and 4 def have nothing to do with this and definition 2 is in regards to child abuse.

Abuse, generally: physically, sexually, or mentally injuring a person.

Now if we want to go deeper in lets define physical and mental abuse. I’ll be leaving out sexual as that has no bearing on this particular situation.

Physical abuse is defined by healthyplace.com as

Non-accidental use of force that results in bodily injury, pain, or impairment. This includes, but is not limited to, being slapped, burned, cut, bruised or improperly physically restrained.

Now lets expand on this.

Something that is pointed to specifically is the mentioned intent. “Non-accidental”. It must be purposeful harm.

Now, I will also point out that Physical abuse doesn’t necessarily say the intent needs to be abuse, but as my lawyer parents state it simply needs to be “intent to harm” and it gets labeled abuse. The legal definition (given above) agrees, it is simply that it needs to be purposeful harm. But then we need to define this harm, especially the bodily injury, pain, or impairment.

Bodily injury is defined by Merriam Webster as

any damage to a person's physical condition including pain or illness

Now what is damage?

loss or harm resulting from injury to person, property, or reputation

So then harm is defined as... damage, so the definition I prescribe to (and I asked my lawyer parents to confirm, unfortunately I have no link for that).

Causes pain (pain defined as suffering)

Pain is defined by Merriam Webster as

a localized or generalized unpleasant bodily sensation or complex of sensations that causes mild to severe physical discomfort and emotional distress and typically results from bodily disorder (such as injury or disease)

a basic bodily sensation that is induced by a noxious stimulus, is received by naked nerve endings, is associated with actual or potential tissue damage, is characterized by physical discomfort (such as pricking, throbbing, or aching), and typically leads to evasive action

mental or emotional distress or suffering

Finally impairment is

diminishment or loss of function or ability

(all of the above definitions except harm are pulled from Merriam Webster linked with Bodily Injury)

Okay, so now lets consider it, physical abuse needs to cause damage to someone, it must be purposeful damage though the intent to abuse does not necessarily need to be the intent. So if your actions do not intend physical harm then it is not physical abuse.

So then, do Percy and Annabeth have a physically abusive relationship?

Lets start with the classic one that everyone likes to bring up, the Judo Flip.

First off, do Judo Flips hurt? [sourcing (1) (2) (3)]

They CAN hurt if done with that intent, but if your intent is to not harm and you are trained properly, No Judo should not hurt. Anyone properly trained in Judo should know how to prevent harm. (1, 2)

On top of that, the first thing anyone learning Judo is taught is how to fall.

All judoka learn to fall safely, by rolling and breaking their fall with Ukemi. This breakfall absorbs the impact of the throw. (3)

Percy should have the basics of this down seeing how he was already in matches (mentioned in book one prior him being claimed) in his first summer at camp, after four years he’s definitely got the basics down.

Therefore, the Judo flip did not intend to cause harm, nor did it appear to. Despite that it was on stone, and Annabeth had him pinned, Percy didn’t even show discomfort. He laughed.

On top of that, when Annabeth last saw Percy he had the Curse of Achilles. As far as she was aware, he still had it. A requirement of Physical Abuse is the intent to cause harm, every factor here shows that there was no intent to cause harm.

This scene was not physical abuse, it was just bad writing.

I can think of other scenes, only a few, before they were actually in a relationship. In book three Annabeth punched Percy in the stomach when he didn’t catch her hint that he should ask her to dance

She punched me in the gut. ‘Me, Seaweed Brain.’

‘Oh. Oh, right.’ (TTC, chapter 1, page 8 of book on my copy)

There doesn’t seem to have been any harm done as he doesn’t even mention it hurting, not even a pause, just went “oh yeah her”. So it was likely a light punch, the kind friends do that don’t hurt just catch attention. Annabeth has been trained since she was 7, she should know how to throw a punch without actually causing harm.

If anyone wants to bring up other examples, feel free, I’m not combing the books right now for examples but I will reply to them (preferably in asks so this post doesn’t get super long...)

I cannot think of any examples of Percy hitting/punching Annabeth nor any other kind of physical interaction, if someone wishes to bring one of those up feel free.

Does this mean that I think they should be hitting each other despite the fact that it’s clear there is no intent to harm?

No, I don’t really think they should be hitting each other.

But! An important thing there is their own boundaries, not mine. I would not be up for being hit but I do share friendly punches with my friends, which is similar in intent. It’s simply that they’ve been trained to fight and have to a lot to survive so their boundaries for what is “harmful” are different.

But that’s a whole different issue and a different academic essay :)

I don’t believe there is any physical abuse in Percabeth.

Moving on, Emotional abuse (which Psychological and Verbal added as they all connect).

Emotional abuse is defined by helathyplace.com as

Any act including confinement, isolation, verbal assault, humiliation, intimidation, infantilization, or any other treatment which may diminish the sense of identity, dignity, and self-worth.

It also covers Psychological abuse and verbal abuse. Psychological abuse does not have a definition available on the site I’m using but it does have a description. If you’d like to read the description go (here). I will add a detail of how it works though

Psychological abuse signs and symptoms may start small at first as the abuser "tests the waters" to see what the other person will accept, but before long the psychological abuse builds into something that can be frightening and threatening.

Verbal abuse definition defined by healthyplace.com is

Any language or behavior that seeks to coerce its victim to doubt their perceptions or their abilities and subjugate themselves to the abuser.

So considering that, we note another important factor here, they also have intent involved. “Test the waters” and “seek to coerce” for Psychological and Verbal abuse.

Emotional abuse is different in that it does not specify intent, except every item mentioned is purposeful. If you’re confining someone then you’re doing that on purpose, you cannot easily accidentally do most of that. Those actions carry intent, even if the intent is not abuse.

Now then, is percabeth emotionally abusive?

Once again I’ll start with the big thing people point out, the Judo Flip.

I’ve seen it point out that it could be seen as humiliation.

Annabeth grabbed his wrist and flipped him over her shoulder. He slammed into the stone pavement. Romans cried out. Some surged forward, but Reyna shouted, “Hold! Stand down!”

Annabeth put her knee on Percy’s chest. She pushed her forearm against his throat. She didn’t care what the Romans thought. A white-hot lump of anger expanded in her chest—a tumor of worry and bitterness that she’d been carrying around since last autumn.

“If you ever leave me again,” she said, her eyes stinging, “I swear to all the gods—”

Percy had the nerve to laugh. Suddenly the lump of heated emotions melted inside Annabeth.

“Consider me warned,” Percy said. “I missed you, too.” (MOA, chapter 2, page 19 of my copy)

If you look at the scene itself you’ll see that Annabeth is very emotional right then, she just got her boyfriend back, she’s exhausted from months of worrying, she’s emotionally very strained, and she judo flips him as all her pain just fills her.

A lot of people with anxiety or high stress or similar issues have times when the anxiety doesn’t affect them during the time they’re stressed, but right after the stressors are gone.

It’s clear that’s what happened here, all her feelings that she’d been burying to work just filled her.

And Percy smiles up at her and says he missed her.

It’s clear from her own comment that she didn’t care what the Romans thought (said right after they almost attacked her) that her thoughts were not on how this looked for Percy, but for her. She knew it looked bad for her to attack him.

She wasn’t trying to embarrass or humiliate Percy, she was trying to get all that pain and stress and anger out. I don’t like how it was done, but it did not physically harm him (nor did she expect it to) and it clearly did not humiliate him.

He smiled and said he missed her.

He understood what she was going through, and made it clear he loved her.

I still think it was bad writing, but it’s not humiliation, nor is it emotional abuse.

Another thing I’ve seen pointed out is Annabeth’s nickname for Percy.

Seaweed Brain.

I will start this with a reminder that both of their nicknames for each other were originally meant as insults.

Wise Girl was first used by Clarisse and it clearly upset Annabeth, it is used twice by Clarisse actually.

Once in TLT, when she and Percy first meet, and once in SOM when they’re attacking Charybdis.

Percy in comparison uses Wise Girl twice as well, both in TLT, once when he was mocking her at her coming along on the quest and once when they were saying goodbye. It’s also used once in HOO, in BOO.

Honestly it’s not much a nickname... only used by Percy 3 times in all the (main) books. There are like 3 other cases in all the side stories and MCGA combined.

Annabeth uses seaweed brain a total of 41 times in all the books combined, in PJO it’s used 25 times, 22 by Annabeth, and HOO it’s used outloud 9 times, all by Annabeth. On top of this, while the PJO cases were all outloud, the HOO cases were not, with 2 (making the total 11) used only in Annabeth’s thoughts.

Seaweed brain is used in TLT 6 times, 5 times by Annabeth.

The first time is when Annabeth is joining the quest, then when he says things are going fine so far when they start the quest, then when at the Ride of Love, then when Annabeth calls him her friend, then when they’re saying goodbye.

If you watch the progression of it it’s the same as with Wise Girl, though used more often. It starts as an insult, and then becomes fond and a term for her friend by the end of it.

I don’t particularly want to label every single instance, but a quick overview of all the PJO books is that it’s used by Annabeth in annoyance a total of 4 times, in fondness/exasperation/worry 18 times. Those times of annoyance were all in books 1 and 2, the time of exasperation (1 of the 18) was in book 2.

The vast majority were done out of worry, and the rest when she was being soft.

It’s not meant to diminish his intelligence, nor is intended as an insult beyond book 1 and 1 instance of book 2. It is rarely used because he’s being ignorant either. You can make an argument for the first case in book 3 being done because he wasn’t catching her hint to dance and thus was mocking his inability to catch a hint, but it was mixed with fondness from my read.

Overall the nickname is not intended as an insult anymore, it has become a friendly name for Percy that shows how fond Annabeth is of him. She does not have nicknames for anyone else.

In HOO all the cases were relatively fond, with one that she didn’t say outloud being used when she was cheering Hazel up by telling stories about Percy (ah the benefits of long time friendships, you get to tell all the good stories).

In the end I think that it’s cute that they have a nickname for each other, and though there could be more flattering ones, the intent that Percy understands from it and the intent Annabeth uses it with clearly show that it is meant in fondness and was a gradual change from a name that was meant to poke at him. It’s meaning is is fond and loving and it was only used 3 times prior with any other (negative) intent.

Also friends give each other nicknames, and commonly they are meant to be teasing.

There is one other thing I’ve seen brought up, being Annabeth thinking that she needs to keep Percy on his toes (specifically about Rachel in this case) when they’re in Tartarus.

‘Rachel?’ Percy asked. ‘You mean our Rachel? Oracle of Delphi Rachel?’

‘That’s the one.’ Annabeth suppressed a smile.

Whenever she brought up Rachel’s name, Percy got nervous. At one point, Rachel had been interested in dating Percy. That was ancient history. Rachel and Annabeth were good friends now. But Annabeth didn’t mind making Percy a little uneasy. You had to keep your boyfriend on his toes. (HOH, didn’t bother to check chapter number, page 109 of my copy)

So here we see that Annabeth is “keeping him on his toes” but in context, they’re sending a note to Rachel through the Hermes temple in Tartarus. It was not Annabeth bringing it up to mess with him, it was her smiling at the little moment where he was thrown off about Rachel.

Frankly, in general Annabeth doesn’t do anything like that. She occasionally teases Percy but he always teases back. After the Rachel stuff in book 5 things were chill with all of them. We’ve seen no evidence of Percy being uncomfortable with Rachel being brought up, nor Annabeth thinking that it should be brought up for that purpose.

If anything Annabeth has shown some serious abandonment issues in fearing that Percy would leave her over other girls (she needs some therapy after that mess of a childhood but Khiron apparenlty doesn’t think so).

I see this as a case of bad writing with nothing else supporting it, including the scene it happens in.

Even had it actually been something supported by other instances, in the context she says it in it seems more like teasing over an ex where the break was amicable and everyone is still friends, which isn’t abusive or manipulative.

It’s just that Rick is tasteless.

So is Percabeth emotionally/psychologically/verbally abusive? No.

If someone wishes to bring up other instances shoot me an ask.

So in conclusion,

I do not see how it is abusive. There are elements I do not like, and some parts that in my own relationship I wouldn’t be okay with. But in Percy and Annabeth’s relationship they have clear boundaries, they are both more than capable of stopping the other if they do something that upsets them. They have both shown fondness towards the others actions even if it is something that we don’t approve of in our relationships.

If Percy showed upset at her actions that would be different. But we literally see into his mind and he shows no upset at her words or actions. He is fond, he is understanding, and he responds to each instance of teasing with teasing of his own.

Notably I never see people saying Percy is abusive, only Annabeth.

I get a feel that people ask for flawed characters then crucify them if they’re not flawed in easily likeable ways. Annabeth is not a perfect character, I don’t like everything she does, but she is a realistic character and should not be demonized.

TDLR: Annabeth has never purposefully harmed Percy, and Percy has never purposefully harmed her. Neither have verbally/emotionally/psychological taken actions with the intent of harming the other when in their relationship or since becoming friends. There have been instances of upsetting the other but they talked and it clearly was not meant to hurt the other but because they themselves were hurting

Percabeth is not abusive

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tortilla-of-courage · 3 years

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ok i want to preface this by saying i am so so sorry for bringing this up again but xx-dark-dart-xx tagged me and the bastard wheels in my brain started working, so.

Before I start, the main point I’m ultimately going to be getting at is that the same event (more or less) occurred twice on different platforms, about a month apart. Obviously the first incident (LU discord onceler day) would have affected the second incident (the tumblr one) to some degree, seeing as there are users on both platforms who happened to witness both events, but I digress.

Anyhow. I’m going to start first with the Link is a tumblr sexyman in the same way the Onceler was/is because that’s where it all started on your blog. While it started on the discord because of a few people just going feral over the onceler alone, we did have this:

It took Gabee about a week to come to the full conclusion afterwards, but the conclusion was reached nonetheless.

(I believe Gabee was discord jailed for saying it.)

So we have our two situations of Link being equated to the Onceler, both on Tumblr and on Discord.

Then we have the Onceler x Link fusions. On the discord, it was Warriors x Onceler (or Warceler), and was first brought up by Buck (Nebulapaws) as far as I’m aware.

(Side note, Buck, Gabee and I are a Trio™️ on the server and I regret to inform you that the three of us have a tendency to be caught in the middle of stuff like this a lot)

Keep in mind, Warceler was not initially intended as a ship! What was intended as the LU Discord ship was this:

And so we get into shipping, in true Onceler-esque fashion. (I would like to make it very clear that never on the Discord did we ship together any of the Links (Warceler Link included) with one another. It’s strictly prohibited there!)

And anyways I went to draw it because I enjoy creating bastard things, but went on autopilot and ended up with Wars instead. Which brings us to the Wars x Onceler art. I’m not going to post it because you’ve already had to see it once and that’s enough.

Coming back to Tumblr, on June 30th anon asked if you had seen the Wars x Onceler art. Prior to that date, I could find no other art of that besides my own (regrettably) and so i once again apologize for that aspect.

My final point is Shringler, or Shrek x Tingle x Onceler (thank you Chel), was more or less the discord’s version of Sans x Linkceler x Onceler on the basis of the following criteria:

1.) Was born of Link and Onceler chaos

2.) Includes three characters who have no business being near eachother

3.)The characters are ones with a reputation in the respective communities that is typically negative leaning and chaotic.

Now that I’m done I very much regret to say that there is basis to the “Link is the new Onceler” claim based on the fact that these two events occurred at least decently independent of one another and both came to similar conclusions. Anyways I was meant to be writing an essay for AP Lang but instead I’ve typed up this historical record of the Onceler Link incidents. I sincerely hope there isn’t a third one that’ll have to be added to this but so far our track record doesn’t look very good.

#okay first of all this is really well documented. nice job i hope you eventually finished that school paper #second of all. im in pain #i know tjis has been in my askbox for like 3 weeks but just know everytime i opened it i had to stop and think about every life decision iv #I've ever madefor about 10 minutes #im speechless i dont know what to say. i cant believe this happened twice #it's like carcinization #but with linkceler #...what do i tag this #acaiia #tortilla asks #the linkceler saga #ask to tag #????? idk help

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