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#they own my actual entire wholeass heart
tiredassmage · 1 year
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falling asleep on the other’s shoulder for whatever pairing you’re feeling
Still sitting on a few of these, I promise! The end of the semester is just kickin' my butt. xD
Time to release some Dash x Leo content into the wild, methinks. 👀
[touch prompts]
x-x-x-x-x-x-
“Departures for Coruscant are currently operating on a three standard hours delay. We apologize for any inconvenience. Please see the nearest departures assistant for further details.”
Leo groaned as he shifted in the narrow, hard bench seat beside him, propping a shoulder into the unforgiving seatback. “I’m gonna have that engraved in my skull by the time we get out of here,” he grumbled.
Dash frowned, gaze drifting over the roving crowds of dock workers, merchants, and soldiers idling through the spaceport. “I’m going to shoot the next droid that tries to apologize,” he mumbled.
Leo craned his neck to eye his companion. “Don’ start that,” he said. “Your little security friends already loused me once for lookin’ at ‘em funny. We’ll be here even longer then.”
Dash rolled his eyes and sighed as he leaned back. “Suppose you’re right.” Sometimes it was a real shame they had to go through official Republic channels constantly for deployments. This all wouldn’t be a problem if they could just haul jets. “How’s your ship? I’m thinking we should’ve just taken it.”
“Better still be where I docked,” he said. “That Rodian bastard looked shiftier than a loanshark.”
“Why’d we take the shuttles again?”
“‘Cause you’re on leave and I am allergic to Republic Customs, remember?” Leo shrugged one shoulder. “Fuck, they prattle more than the bloody theater junkies back ‘ome, y’know?”
Dash rolled his eyes fondly with a puffed breath of amusement. “Alright, alright, I get it. Still, what’s the point of being friends with a starship captain if I can’t get a few free rides, huh?”
Leo stuck his tongue out. “My knight in shining armor gonna protect me when your fellow hounds start sniffin’ ‘round tryna steal my whiskey, then?” His eyes narrowed with the beginnings of a smirk, as if he was about to win whatever ‘argument’ he was playing at.
Dash shook his head, eyes making for the list of departures on a screen across the room - covered in far too much orange and red for delays for his taste. But it beat acknowledging the way a bit of warmth rose to his cheeks.
Leo knew he’d do a hell of a lot for him. But it was never a favor that went unpaid.
The smuggler puffed out a chuckle behind him. Smug bastard. Guess it took one to know one.
“You alright, man?” Dash asked rather than spin wheels any further, fixing him in a pointed stare. “You’re the one that looks like you’ve been steamed over by a Corellian tram.”
Leo waved a hand with another grunt. “‘M fine,” he muttered as he rubbed at his left eye - easier to not scrape the cybernetics that crossed the scarring on the right side of his face that way.
His eyes were a deeper blue than most horizons he’d seen.
“Take it easy, why don’t you?” he suggested. He tugged on the other’s shoulder. “C’mon,” he coaxed when he groaned stubbornly. “Look, it’s not like we’re goin’ anywhere fast and I’m not listening to you gripe later when you can’t sleep on the shuttle because it’s too crowded.”
Leo rolled his eyes. “Yeah, you would,” he muttered as he relented, scooting back to prop against Dash’s shoulder and kicking a leg out across the remaining seats.
They both ignored a few disgruntled looks from some passerby.
“Yeah,” Dash sighed as his arm settled around his shoulders, “I wouldn’t have much of a choice though, would I?”
A smile slipped across his lips even as his eyes closed. “Suppose so.” Dash’s shoulder was exponentially more comfortable without all of that stupid Republic armor on. Guess it kept him alive though.
And he was a helluva lot better alive than anything else.
Dash wasn’t waiting long before Leo was out cold. A smile flickered faintly across his lips as he shook his head. Idly, he tucked a stray lock of bangs back behind his ear. Idiot had a terrible semblance of a sleep schedule at the best of times, let alone when he decided to move gravity itself to put himself in the same sector when Dash got leave from service.
That was just the kind of shit you did for your best friends though, right?
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gnomishcunning · 1 month
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Re: requests, literally any nsfw for Zevlor? I love one (1) sad old tiefling
i, too, love one sad ole' tiefling. he and karlach own my wholeass heart. some of my own headcanons/portrayals of him snuck into these, hope ya don't mind.
(please send me more asks about zevlor i love him so much)
nsfw below the cut! MDNI
in general-
zevlor's a hopeless romantic in the truest of sense. his entire life has been about devotion - he joined a group of soldiers that you can't quite, he's a paladin who lived by his oath for decades, and he followed the literal god of guardians. he believes in devotion, and that undoubtedly leaked into his concept of relationships
maybe back in his young soldiering days, zevlor had some one-night stands, maybe an occasional fling or two. but his devotion to his duty came first, and he sadly never found time to fall in love like he wanted, or start a family.
so, if you somehow managed to lure zevlor into your bed? you need to know it's because he loves you. even if he hasn't told you.
he's an old, broken paladin. he's not willing to risk heartbreak and further grind down his sense of self-worth, not with everything he's been through.
he's already lost everything that made him who he was. he can't loose you, too.
the first time around? it's all sweetness. he approaches your naked body with a sort of reverence, like he can't quite believe what he's seeing. that this is actually happening.
his attention to detail is paramount. he's trimmed all his talons to a dull sort of safety, he's got warming oil tucked into his belt-pouch, hell - he brings his own contraceptive herbs, if he's with the type partner where that's a concern. he'll eat em in front of you if that helps.
consent is the sexiest thing, and he unwraps you like a present, carefully asking with every piece of clothing removed, dipping his head to press kisses to every new bit of your beautiful self revealed to him.
His hands tremble as they travel over soft skin, careful on every curve he covers. he's constantly checking in, making sure you're okay- can he touch here? caress you?
it's admittedly a very vanilla affair, but it's probably the most tender, loving sex you'll ever have.
he's going to want to top, and gods, how can you say no to that face?
you'll come first. no matter what. he presses kisses down your body until he can attend your clit or cock with careful flicks of his tongue, he'll dribble oil onto his fingers in front of you so he can slowly work you open, taking one finger, then two-
and gods, you just know he'd have amazing hands, right? callused and dextrous after a lifetime of sword-wielding, but ever-so careful and exact.
he won't want to take you until you've made a mess of the bedsheets, and when he does? he wants to take you in missionary so he can reach you everywhere, kiss every bit, and watch - commit every bit of this to memory, just in case he never has the opportunity take you apart, ever again
he's going to do his gods-damned best to insure you both cum at the same time. he'll press careful kisses to your mouth as you fall apart, one hand cupping your chin, just so he can watch your face as you cum
he's not a very loud moaner, but he repeats your name on loop until he finishes.
he gets hella clingy afterwards, and if you two have the right kind of relationship where he feels safe enough to be vulnerable which of course you two do, he'll probably cry afterwards
thankfully, this becomes a regular occurrence for both of you
in terms of kinks? zevlor's a bit of a mixed bag. he's got a lot of things he's passingly thought would be very hot to try with a partner, but he may carry some weird guilt about it.
in kinky, bdsm terms-
i'm a firm believer he's a switch, and he's equally willing (and wanting, tbh) to take both roles on, depending on the night. while bdsm wouldn't be a lifestyle-like thing for him and the majority of y'all's sex is vanilla, there's definitely occasions where he wants to indulge. and they're usually like, specifically-planned and orchestrated occasions, set to consume a whole evening, for both the kinky sex and the aftercare.
safewords include the faerun equivalent to the stoplight system (which i'm still working on), or something simple and straightforward that both of you can easily remember.
'bridle' is what comes to mind off the bat
he's absolute delighted if his partner wanted to take care of him, and yield without a fight. if he verbally protests he should be taking care of you, just say you wanna show him how much you love him. he'll fall apart in moments.
as a submissive? his biggest kinks would be praise and body worship, especially contrasted with some light verbal degradation. he's got some guilt to work through, and it's nice to do that with someone he trusts implicitly. but focus more on rewarding good behavior, rather than punishing bad behavior. he's disappointed enough in himself.
it's worth mentioning, this man is the furthest thing from a brat (for the most part). he wants to be good and get praised, since nothing else gets his heart beating as fast - but if you're being a tease, he's not above squirming and cursing at you in infernal
bondage is a yes, but he prefers one particular facet: rope. shibari's equal parts art form and bondage, and he'd appreciate the care and attention to detail that goes into it.
ironically? you wouldn't need bondage to hold him still. he's pretty damn good at following orders, and he's definitely eager to please. i don't think he'd be into 'good boy', but call him a 'sweet lil soldier'??? hahahaha oh wow
sweet and reassuring aftercare is a necessity, there's like a 95% chance he'd cry in a weird, cathartic sorta way. he's definitely a candidate for subdrop, so watch for that.
regardless of how pretty he is when he falls apart, he'd additionally play dominant with just as much eagerness. just say you trust him implicitly, he's incredibly handsome and attractive when he's in-charge, and you want him to take control. he'll more than happily agree - he's enthusiastic about it, especially when he sees how excited you are about the concept
speaking of- titles. Master sits weird with him, but "Sir" and "Commander" are both on deck. he kinda a fun lil illicit thrill using his old title in the bedroom. it'd go a long way to restore that ole' Hellrider Commander confidence, ngl.
he's a very firm, but very kind dominant, if that makes sense? he issues his commands, wants and expects them to be followed. his rewards good behavior with praise and petting (hair, or elsewhere on your body)
he's got a very good understanding about the lengths and limits of subspace given how well he knows you, he's incredibly attentive about how far his submissive has sunk, mentally, and he'll take them as far as they're looking to go- whether that's just taking their mind off a situation with some sweet tending and an orgasm or three, or totally obliterating their brainpower in a positive way with the paladick(tm) treatment
very into getting his partner to the point all they remember his name, designation, and 'please'. equally as fond as leaving hickies/marks/love bites all across their body, especially where people might be able to see. leaving physical evidence of his effect on his lover is a big turn-on
as equally into bondage and rope as a dominant as he is a submissive. it's a hobby he occasionally indulges in, and he enjoys prettying you up in fancy hemp ropes he probably dyed himself
he's fan-fuckin-tastic with aftercare, it's kind of insane. he's soft and careful, getting you a glass of water, he draws you a warm bath and helps you clean up, and then lures you back into your body from the weird, floaty world of subspace with soft touches and sweet praises. he'll get you snacks afterwards if you need them, and do just about anything you'll ask - from reading a book out-loud so you can listen to his voice, to granting you another orgasm if needed.
for the record if y'all want deets about how he is with a brat or an obedient submissive, someone needs to bite the bullet and send the ask, otherwise this post is gonna extend into forever
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haik-choo · 4 years
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karasuno first years out late w/ their s/o
request: Could you write how 1st years (yachi too pls🥺) going out with their s/o late at night ?
a/n: this is such a cute little concept i -- 
[KARASUNO FIRST YEARS OUT LATE AT NIGHT WITH THEIR S/O]
-tsukishima, kageyama, yamaguchi, hinata, yachi
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tsukishima kei.
not gonna lie, he’s often awake late at night. he’s a night owl and doesn’t mind sacrificing his sleep to watch some youtube videos
occasionally, he even goes out late at night, slipping past his parents and brother’s room and softly closing the front door with his headphones covering his ears and his hands stuffed in his pockets
so when you text him at 3am and ask if he can go out with you to the convenience store, he agrees in seconds to meet you at the halfway point between your houses
wastes no time in putting on his sneakers and a hoodie; he wants to get there quickly so that you aren’t left out by yourself
tsukishima knows there’s creeps out there, which is exactly why he jogs to the halfway point and is relieved when he’s the first one there
as soon as he sees you in the distance he fast walks to catch up to you, and slips his hand into yours
he totally brings bluetooth earbuds so that you two can listen to the same music instead of his wired headphones <3 uwu
is always on the lookout for any weirdos, and if he spots someone eyeing you up he shoots them the nastiest glare
eventually wraps his arms around your shoulder while your hand is sitll in his and its that cute little thing where your arms is across your chest holding his hand </3
pays for whatever you get at the store, ignores your complaints and tells you to shut up when you continue to insist on paying
“im trying to be a good boyfriend for once, for the love of god PLEASE shut up”
secretly takes a candid photo of you at some point in the night and sets it as his home screen -- NOT his lock screen, and when you see it he outright denies having taken it
tsukishima: you told me to take a picture of you
you: stop lying i know you’re a closet hopeless romantic 
convinces you to stop at the park and eat the snacks you both got there, music still humming in your ears as the moonlight washes you both in cool tones
tsukishima when he’s alone with you is so soft -- he literally kisses your hand and temple and mutters very softly “love you” 
all in all, tsukishima kei is the perfect night-owl boyfriend to go on snack-runs with 
kageyama tobio.
"why would i go out right now. do you know what time it is. i have practice in the morning”
kags really out here kinda hurtin’ your feelin’s ngl boy doesn’t understand the vibes LOL
honestly you probably woke him up, he’s asleep at like ten every night (even tho he still has homework to do he just flat-out ignores it LOL) 
only agrees to go out walking with you because you said he could bring his volleyball and you’d toss a few for him....and also because he’s a little worried because it’s so dark out
doesn’t walk with you to the park but meets you there LOL
he deadass has his wholeass duffel bad with the ball, two waterbottles, two towelettes, volleyball sneakers and everything
“you know,,,,we’re not playing a game, right, tobio?”
“yeah???? and??? what’s your point”
acts nonchalant but is totally having fun and is lowkey glad you asked him to go out so late because it’s cool out, there’s no one to bother him, and you just look...really good under the stars
he’s not a cheesy person but...god you just take his breath away sometimes. not that he’ll ever say that though
you ask to take a break like thirty minutes in because you are LITERALLY dying meanwhile he hasn’t even broken a sweat (”you’re already tired? maybe you should workout more” “shut UP kageyama”)
you both sit on the bench, and you’re lowkey waiting for him to reach for your hand but they’re just folded in his lap as he stares out in the nothingness of night
kageyama can’t take a hint. we know this. he’s incapable of knowing what you want unless you flat out tell him; so you have to be a very honest person
he doesn’t even really initiate skinship, not because he doesn’t want to, but just because it never really crosses his mind
plus he doesn’t feel the need to constantly show affection because he thinks it’s obvious that he likes you
despite this, he is good at spotting weird people, and he’s pretty protective of you, so you’re completely safe with him. trust him, he’ll keep you safe
all in all, have patience and stamina because kags will play volleyball with you until you pass out. also, he loves you 
yamaguchi tadashi.
is in bed by 11pm but doesn’t actually go to sleep until two am because he’s scrolling through tiktok on his phone
sees your text about wanting to go out for a late night walk and maybe go through the little forest near your house and automatically sends a text that says “ill meet you at your window! can you pack some snacks? :)”
he walks all the way to your house, even if it’s more convenient to meet halfway because he wants to protect you! he’s not the strongest nor is he the most intimidating, so all he really has to offer is his presence
despite not being strong nor scary, yams literally has eagle eye. you can’t tell me that he can’t read people in a heartbeat -- he’s extremely perceptive 
also texts you to not bring a jacket because he’s bringing on of his own for you !!! so sweet what the hell
he waits at your front door and when you step out he automatically pushes his volleyball jacket into your hands and he takes the bag of snacks from you and sticks out one of his hands UGH such a gentleman
lets you ramble about anything and stares at your side profile as he listens 
joins in with a few quips here and there but ultimately is pretty quite and lets you speak or lets the silence cozy into the conversation
sees that there’s a guy sitting on a bench up the road and he switches places with you so that you’re further away from the stranger 
also wraps a protective hand around your waist until you both are past the random dude but yams will glance behind yall every once in a while
when you two reach the mini forest he ends up taking the lead claiming that he knows a good spot
and damn, he’s right
it’s a little clearing that is illuminated solely by the moonlight and he sets the bag of snacks down beside him before sitting down himself, apologizing for not bringing a blanket that you two could sit on 
pats the spot next to him so that you sit right beside him and he leans back with his hand on yours ONGMIRG 
is the super cheesy type and tells you that you look really pretty and that,,,he kind of wants to kiss you
you: *experiencing heart palpitations* and you did this for what. 
yamaguchi: ...because i love you?
you: *K.O*
all in all, yamaguchi is the boyfriend that completely indulges your late-night escapades <3 
hinata shoyo.
is either completely fast asleep and doesn’t see your text or was awake and not planning to sleep for the next five hours, no in-between
but if he’s awake and sees your text, he agrees right away and asks where you want to meet up and what time because homeboy probably has to bike to get there AgAGAGAGA
literally doesn’t even show up in sneakers. he’s wearing sandals and shorts with a short sleeve top 
“i came in my pjs”
“i see that.”
asks if you two can bike around instead because he doesn’t want to have to wheel his bike around for like an hour 
he tells you to hold on tight because the bike was built for one person, and when you press against his back his warmth is literally so,,,comforting 
has no sense of awareness and will scream going down a hill in the middle of a neighborhood, no fucks given
so, no, he doesn’t notice any weriod people even if there are some around
you always end up running into some weird people and you get new interesting stories every other day because let’s be honest hinata is a magnet for crazy shit and crazy people (usually crackheads) 
you both just ride around as he talks about his day, usually his sister always comes up in the conversation( “she asked me to marry you the other day” “doirhgAEROIHFGRE SHOYO WHAT” “what? i told her i would. i keep my promises!”)
after like thirty minutes he begs for a break and you stop at a little 24/7 ice cream store that is run by the sweetest elderly couple
you share a sundae because you don’t want to eat too much this late at night
he plops on the bench right outside the store with his bike leaning against the metal handles, and h snuggles up to you and watches you scroll on your phone
he talks a little here and there, but for the most part, he goes quiet, and it’s during this time where you’re unaware of his gaze that he just takes his time drinking in your features in the yellow light of the lamppost 
he can’t read the mood most times, but this time he does, and he stays quiet, and he thinks to himself
that he really will marry you one day
all in all, hinata gives you the impulsive young teenage experience of late night bike rides while eating his fair share of ice cream
yachi hitoka.
another either or, except this time she’s either fast asleep or stressing over homework and the nine tests she has the next day
when you ask if she can go on a walk with you she’s hesitant because she doesn’t want to get in trouble with her mom and she’s a total goody goody and terrified of doing anything reckless; but then she remembers that her mom was on a business trip and so she, very cautiously, says yes
you: good. i’m outside your door btw
yachi: i never had a choice did i
you have to meet her at her house because she’s way too scared to walk by herself at night; she might even make you factime her as you commute because she’s worried for you
jumps at every little thing, even the crows cawing make her shit herself
instictively grabs onto your sleeve and nervously look around the entire time, to the point where she doesn’t hear what you say
so you offer to go to a little cafe that’s still open and right away she nods
she’s so adorable, she bows really deeply when you two walk into the store and apologizes for it being so late
and finally, because you two are safe, she’s calm and smiling as she sips at her strawberry smoothie
awkwardly and very shyly reaches out for your hand on the table and gently lays her palm on yours
canon: yachi totally has freckles and you can’t convince me otherwise 
her face is red and her freckles are just on display you can’t help but coo at her and tuck some hair behind her ear because god could she get any cuter?
you two end up staying for like a hour and a half and very shyly she asks if you could walk her home 
and this time on the walk she’s not overly cautious and seems to enjoy the nighttime breeze and your hand softly clasping hers
does that cute thing where she lays her head on your shoulder or arm while you both are walking and looks up at you through her eyelashes and asks if you could give her a kiss on the cheek </3
you: stop. please. im going to die.
when you’re at her door she literally just stands there awkwardly for a few seconds before tilting her head upwards and pressing her lips to yours and then promptly running inside
video calls you three seconds afterwards to make sure you get home safely 
all in all, you might need to be the impulsive one, but yachi enjoys spending late night time with you more than she admits. also please kiss her thanks      
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oreo-massacre · 3 years
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mild pet peeve that i need to get off my chest:
People thinking Ichika's name is a combination of Ichigo and Rukia's name - how?
Like, Ichika being named after Ichigo is true in many ways, but where does the Rukia part come from? It's an actual word, much like Ichigo, but instead of a pun (one protect in ichigo just sounds like "strawberry") its literally "strawberry flower" (because its the flower Orihime embroidered for Rukia's wedding).
And mind you, I get people not knowing anything about WDKALY, or not even simply googling what she's named after lmao. But is it the "ka" part that trips people up? Like, where does Rukia have a "ka" in her name? There's a "ru", theres a "ki" and theres an "a".
At this point, with this kind of shaky basis I'll go on and declare that Rukia called her "Ichika" in Kanonji's honour too (ICHI go + KA nonji). I mean shes a big fan and all that. 🤨🤨🤨 Also, even if say, in some super unlikely circumstance, Rukia'd sneak in her own name into her kid's (because its always rukia doing the naming in people's assumption, because ship lmao) like I almost guarantee you it'd be symbolic and less awkward than "strawberry flower", because Rukia has fuckall to do with flowers in the entire series anyway.
I'm no poet but just the Kurosaki naming convention alone "Isshin" (one heart) "Ichigo" (one - from isshin, protect - for Masaki/his family) Kazui (one - following Ichigo, brave - general theme of the karakura kids especially and of the series, hence he ties into the last speech of the last chapter)
Even the Ishida family where you have Soken (ancestor bowstring) ryuken (dragon bowstring) and uryuu (dragon rain). Like, you can see how packed with meaning they are.
Shiba clan having the kanji for birds in their names and the clan's connection with the "sky" (the "ku" in kukaku is literally sky, like her tattoo), Jidanbo and Jirobo following a suffix convention. Rukia's name doesn't even have any kanji to do that with, let alone the absolute stretch that is converting "kia" to "ka" willy-nilly. Kubo takes care picking out his names - virtually every character, foreign or not has a basis or a namesake - especially the japanese cast. Which is why this whole thing is so ignorant, especially in the goddamn cheating aus. And the absolute confidence of these fools too. Like its "haha, funny" once or twice if you indulge in it, but the stupid ass ignorance pisses me the fuck off.
Besides, if you do read/know about WDKALY Kubo pre-packaged the joke for you. The joke of "youd think Ichika was named after Ichigo? No, you fool, it's Orihime's favourite flower and Rukia is playing favourites," but deep down its also a reference to Ichigo so win-win.
Frankly, if you dig symbolically with the assumption that its a reference to two people, and assume the strawberry kanji is for Ichigo and the flower "ka" kanji is for someone related to flowers, well......there are a couple of flower named or related people, and on first glance, Orihime, the real origin of Ichikas name has just as little to do with flowers as Rukia, but literally all the shun shun rikka, and rikka ( lit. six flowers) as a word itself, are named after flowers, a wholeass six of them, so essentially, Rukia named her kid after her goddamn otp whether you follow Kubos naming sybolism or not, and you dont even have to skew Orihime's name for that. Cool. 😃
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ask-artsy-oncie · 3 years
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i'm sorry, talespin fans think the name "cloudkicker" IS WHAT
To be fair, this was like an older fanon thing that I don't think has survived to the current day. I should hope people's perceptions of indigenous peoples has changed enough for them to drop it.
But yeah there was this idea that Kit was Native American (and no, nothing was ever tribe-specific from what I could tell), based purely on "Cloudkicker sounds like a stereotypical Native American name". Extremely gross in my honest opinion, especially when it doesn't take a lot of thinking to realize that Kit gave himself his own surname, so his ethnicity would have nothing to do with it.
The earliest instance I can find of this was a Talespin fanblog (part of the geocities Talespin Webring) run by a white Canadian guy who wrote, on the page meant to explain who Kit was as a character, something along the lines of "the name 'Cloudkicker' is Native American in origin and means [yada yada yada]" presenting this wholeass racist headcanon as fact. If you look at some older fics or fan discussions, it wasn't entirely out of left field to hear this brought up, and, once again, presented as fact. Because of the nature of fansites and the undeserved credibility they were given that I mentioned in the post that brought you here, I believe this fansite was the actual source of the claim.
Thankfully this was all entirely misguided speculation, Jymn Magon's actual origin for the name is as follows
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Some other funny things to note: I found the fansite while desperately looking for some high quality version/stills/audio of "Home is Where the Heart Is" that might have been burried somewhere, out of my field of vision. It didn't have any media related to the scene, but it did have a review of Plunder & Lightning claiming that cutting the scene ruins Becky's character because she's "irredeemable", otherwise. Lmao. The guy running the site also said he didn't watch the show for a good few years because he considered it an "insult to Walt Disney's final film" and. I know that in the late 90's/early 2000's people weren't anywhere near as willing to disrespect Walt Disney, but I'm sure I've made myself clear on how I feel about holding onto the visions of stuffy old white men who died decades ago. Double lmao.
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percyjacksonfan3 · 3 years
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The Last Olympian Thoughts
So because I have absolutely 0 self-control or restraint when it comes to this series and its characters, and for The Last Olympian in particular, I could not put TLO down. Because of this I figured I couldn’t do the usual photo reaction posts I have been so far, because the spam would just be ridiculous, so I am stealing the idea from @yourstrulytaaay​ to do a masterpost instead. (Adding a Read More cause this got ridiculously long)
Fun fact, TLO came out right after i finished reading the series for the first time so it's the first PJO book i bought  and my only hard cover one for the og series. I checked the year and turns out it was published 2009, which means i was actually 9 when i read the series for the first time. I realize this is not really a fun fact but i thought i was older when I first read the series so it's blowing my mind a little ‘cause now I’m 21 and everything hits different and i still have so much love for this series and the characters Okay onto book thoughts: - i was right that this book is gonna destroy me, the first line alone made me so excited and nostalgic it's ridiculous - I love Rachel and Percy sm tbh. Her being a bit of peace and normalcy in his life without always reminding Percy of who and what he is is so good for him. Just a little escape
- of course by the end of the book that's not the case any more but by the end he's lived his prophecy so he doesn't need it as badly, plus he and Annabeth are solid again - Percy saying Annabeth has been hard to be around lately... Ouch my heart. Luke really is the last thing that keeps them from being together and Percy is so jealous and Annabeth so torn and in pain, i feel so bad for them both
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- Beckendorf 🥺🥺 - the telkhine with the Lil Demon lunchbox!! I forgot about him. Percy: 'i left him alive, partly because his lunchbox was cool' is one of my absolute favourite lines tbh - Paul taking Percy crabbing and being imperative in helping Percy kill the giant crab 💖 Paul Blofis is important and deserves the world, okay? - aw Percy, you can't save every demigod bb
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- 'i had to fight him eventually. Why not now?... What difference would a week make?' Oh Percy you have no idea - real talk tho, the fact Kronos possessed Luke's body would also mess me tf up. Percy keeps forgetting it's not Luke anymore and yeah, that would be so so hard and confusing af, like what another smart little mind game for Kronos to pull on top of everything else - the fact Percy fights Kronos before getting the Achilles Curse and actually doesn't die within seconds is... Astounding. He kicks him in the chest! And yeah Kronos is weaker and still adjusting to Luke's body, but Percy is having trouble fighting Luke cause they used to be friends - Percy breaks Kronos' time magic!! Like?! Boy is POWERFUL.
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- OUCH - honestly Luke, Thalia and Annabeth's family breaking the way it did... Don't talk to me. Poor Annabeth, Luke betrayed them, Thalia joined the Hunters because of Luke's betrayal so she's pretty much AWOL all the time and then Luke dies. Like Rick wtf, my heart can't take it? -Percy and Tyson having each others backs when talking to Poseidon in the underwater palace is the brother-brother relationship we love to see - Percy trying to stick a sand dollar in the vending machines at school 🤦🏻‍♀🤦🏻‍♀ - the whole underwater interaction at Poseidon's palace? Perfection. Awkward family drama and all - Connor falling out of the tree when he sees Percy because he's so excited 😂😂
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- 😭💖
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- k, ik Clarisse isn't perfect but tbh if i was a child of Ares whose father was disrespected and hated by my fellow campers (ares deserves it but still) and that disrespect trickled down to how the other campers treated ME (which if Percy is reliable here, it obviously does) then i would also be irritated at being used for muscle and nothing else? And just expected to fight with the people who act as if they'd rather not have Ares kids around the rest of the time. Like Clarisse isn't totally wrong - Percy reading the prophecy, seeing he's meant to die and just being like 'i do not see it' and refusing to outright think about it makes me so sad for him - (but it taints every action after and he's super reckless afterwards bc of it- including finally breaking and accepting the Achilles Curse) - (also him taking this as the last straw and finally beginning to show Annabeth how he really feels, cause fuck it, he's dying anyway) - Give me more info about Rachel's backstory and family Rick!! -  how did i forget Percy willingly eats chocolates that taste like cardboard because 'i didnt have anything against cardboard' like sir? Ik Silena didn't want them but still? - 'she'd always been cute, but she was starting to be seriously beautiful' STOP, MY HEART CAN'T TAKE IT - Percy staring at Annabeth and forgetting what they're talking about cause hes so distracted 👌🏻
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- hmm yeah... For some strange reason.... - i forgot how Percy totally bombs this convo bw them and now want to cry 😭 Annabeth is trying to talk about what's important and Percy, you sweet oblivious man, you're shooting her down without even realizing - love that they're both on the same wavelength tho. Percy two lines before, hmm it's cool to date ppl from other cabins, wonder why im thinking that around Annabeth, my best friend in the world, and then Annabeth a beat later, hmm, let me bring up Silena and Beckendorf and how it's important to be with the people you love when you have the chance, no way Percy will miss this huge hint right? - they're the best - k i honestly forgot Percy full on physically intimidates Leneus like that - luke telling his mom if he ran away the monsters wouldnt get her..i can just imagine luke crying when he says good bye before running away because he thinks it's his fault his mom is like that and he cant take care of and protect her anymore because it's too hard - uh oh now i have angsty pre-lightning thief luke fic inspo... Him, Thalia and Annabeth on the run... The ANGST -  Rick holds absolutely nothing back in this book and i am in pain - HESTIA!! 💖💖🥰 - actual loml - i love that Rick titled this book after her and that he wrote such a great series about the importance of family (biological, found or otherwise) and home, and that he said actually Hestia is the most important bc shes the most humble and keeps the peace and knows when to fight and when to yield and you protect what you love, which is your home - i just... Adore Hestia - Grover! Missed you babes - Hades is so so horrible to Nico, always comparing him to Bianca :/ - but i do love Hades, Persephone and Demeter together they make me laugh - oh god the River Styx - Achilles 🥺 - Annabeth being Percy's lifeline is, and continues to be, A Lot™ - 'my name was Percy Jackson. I reached up and took Annabeth's hand.' LOL Why am i crying? - Like the fact there is no Percy without Annabeth, and that remembering her literally reminded him of who he is in his very soul... It's fine im fine - i won't even get into the parallels of her being his lifeline now and then later when Hera takes his memories but leaves the memory of Annabeth for Percy to fight to get back to (anyone who wants to yell about it with me... Feel free to message) - badass Percy is my fav Percy tbh - him defeating Hades?? Like? Hades is arguably the most powerful god, okay - i feel bad for Nico but if i was Percy I'd do the exact same, Nico, sorry man but this is a high stakes time crunch deal and Nico is literally the only hope of persuading Hades and distracted by his own internal stuff - flashbacks to Luke, Thalia and Annabeth hurt, ow - George and Martha are the best - damn i forgot Hermes full on nearly kills Percy here, yikes - Luke stop cockblocking Percabeth challenge
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- i love!! Percy's love for New York!! So much!! - Percy leaving to live in New Rome in HoO is a lie and this is all the proof i need for why - the fact the entire last half of the book is the battle and aftermath... Such great buildup and pacing. All the tricks and twists and battles in this War of Manhattan? I would not take out a thing, Rick, you legend - of course then the final battle in hoo with the gods is what? Two pages? Ugh, don’t talk to me about my hatred for BoO and HoO - 'no detours you two' is still the cutest thing!!! - THE HUNTERS!! Thalia i missed you - good job Percy, you finally spent your sand dollar - Minotaur!! - 'dont i get a kiss for luck? Its kind of a tradition right?' Percy finds out he's gonna die and is out of fucks to give and honestly I support him - also Michael just standing beside these two while they're flirting like umm 👀 👀 while a monster army marches towards them, nbd - Annabeth taking Ethan's knife meant for Percy!!! Cause she just knows his weak spot without him even telling her! They literally invented love - Feral Percy is so scary omg, i love how well Rick incorporates the Achilles Curse in this novel, with the whole heightened weaknesses and stuff ans the parallels to Achilles arrogance being what killed him and Percy's loyalty, fierceness and protective instinct being his own heightened weakness - the fact that Percy is the one who inadvertantly kills Michael Yew tho, I'll never recover from that - the fact Hades offers Maria di Angelo a golden palace by the Styx like how Poseidon offers Sally a palace under the sea tho. Let's talk about that parallel - the entire talk with Prometheus is so so good - not me picturing young Luke hiding in the closet to get away from his mom when she has an 'episode' -i love callbacks in stories and all of the callbacks to the rest of the series in this book make me very happy (medusa, minotaur, the underworld, Rainbow!! My baby!!, Daedalus and more) - Percy summoning a wholeass hurricane against Hyperion - the Party Ponies! They're so chaotic, i love it - Dionysus! 😁 I can't help it, i love him - Percy absolutely losing it when he sees Sally and Paul asleep in the car 🥺 - Rachel telling Percy he's not the hero screws with him so much :( poor bb - although i really really love how Rick wrote this, it's so refreshing to not have one chosen one save the world, but a combination of people - the drakon, Silena and Clarisse make me cry - the Patrochilles references, im not okay - Annabeth giving up on Luke after hearing what he did to Silena and Percy telling her that doesn't make him happy 😭 that whole interaction makes my heart ache - Percy giving Hestia Pandora's pithos 🥺 - and Hades, Nico and the others coming for a final attack is so badass, i love it - listen im glad the og trio were the ones to confront Luke on Olympus but the fact Thalia got so close and then pinned by a statue of HERA makes me so sad. Ik her and Luke were finished and she coped by cutting him off completely and giving up all hope but i would pay money to know what they would have said to each other to say goodbye - Ethan 🥺 - Poseidon joining the fight against Typhon is so cool, such a great scene - 'PEANUT BUTTER!' - Annabeth you brilliant badass you - RIP Luke, you werent great but you werent the worst either - the gods just rolling up seconds too late, wondering wtf happened in Olympus and who the dead body is - the chapter where the Olympians meet and give out rewards is one of my absolute favourites (again i am incensed we didn't get anything like this in HoO) - will Percy turning down immortality ever not make me scream in glee? No? Alright then - Annabeth being relieved like Percy was relieved at the end of Titan's Curse tho - oh Hermes :/ - its so hard reading all this and knowing what comes in HoO... Like it's such a cathartic, earned and mostly happy and peaceful ending and then HoO comes along and undermines it all - aww Rick let Paul see Olympus somehow pls, he deserves it, he killed a dracanae - (i would also love to see it) - Percy being more upset Rachel took his pegasus than her going to Camp and possibly dying, lol, priorities dude - i honestly think that Rick had other ideas for the second Great Prophecy and how things would go down in BoO, cause the prophecy like... Barely applies to BoO, Doors of Death are in book four, and explabations of it is all so unclear when Rick is usually pretty good with that stuff - PERCABETH - lol Percy complaining about privacy when he and Annabeth are caught kissing literally in the middle of the very open and public dining pavilion, okay - BEST UNDERWATER KISS OF ALL TIME - that's it and im a glass case of emotion - very happy to say that this series remains my favourite of all time 💖
 If anyone ever wants to come gush about anything Riordanverse related feel free, because as you can see I have a lot of thoughts about it all
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vaguely-concerned · 3 years
Text
The Mandalorian season 2 ep 1 AGAIN! it’s the rewatch folks
- The entire last season reminder/intro scene is kind of clunky and we’re-hitting-you-over-the-head-with-this, but I think it’s important to note that it’s probably meant for the vast majority of people who watched this stuff once a wholeass year ago, and not for me, the crazy person who watched each episode at least five times lol
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I like the way mando & bb walk from darkness into brief light and back into darkness here... the directors keep finding such cool ways of using the armour cinematically, there must be some lighting considerations to be made when your main character is essentially a walking disco ball. I enjoy the mood of this planet too -- the distant lights, the way the sky isn’t quite dark like there’s a city providing some light pollution nearby (it’s a bit clearer as he walks further into the... town? that it’s not just sunset, the sky is lit up weirdly) 
also when din moves towards the camera and out of sight in this first appearance, the signet is the very last thing that leaves the frame! I just thought that was sweet, a clan of two :’)
- shotout to these two lads and their boldly absolutely inexplicable hat choices (I love gratuitous star wars crowd scenes you guys)
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those tacky gold sequins on her sleeves... immaculate, beautiful, someone sat through like full body makeup application to be on screen a literal split second, that good good sw nonsense
- oh I didn’t notice before but I think those gladiator dudes are using vibroaxes! I guess they have the technology to portray it in live action now after the vibroblades in the first season
- the way bb glances up at din like ‘hey dad. dad what the fuck???’ as one gomorrean nearly chops the arm off the other fjaslfds
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- when you look for it it’s comically obvious that those guys are working for the dude mando’s meeting, they’ve all got more or less the same dark uniform and don’t look much at the fight haha. they might as well have ‘hired thugs’ stamped upon their foreheads
- I like how pared down and spare the music is in this fight scene, it’s just the faint whine of the electric guitars under the thuds of meat hitting metal 
also still love how din fights, the fact that he doesn’t even try to not get hit a lot of the time, he’s just tanking through it waiting for someone to fling themselves at him in a way he can exploit to take them out
the bouncer seems to be holding something like sci-fi handcuffs when he grabs din and lifts him off his feet, so he probably meant to restrain him quickly. bonus: I didn’t notice it the first time around, but din really went straaaaaiiight for this dude’s gentleman area once he dropped him back on his feet lol (you can even see him taking a split second to orient himself and take aim first fhsdkfhas). good job space cowboy dad, sometimes fighting smart means fighting dirty
- leaving this awful dude hanging upside down to get eaten after employing some very deliberate phrasing so he’s not even breaking his word is the ruthless HEIGHT of mando’s hilarious petty streak and it makes me cackle, gives me life, waters my crops    
- oh, the palpable loneliness and longing in din’s voice when he says ‘if I can track down another of my kind’ ;_______; I’m sorry buddy
- may we speak for a moment about the fact that din carries his son around in what seems very much to be a saddle bag sdafjkhsa
- the way din checks in with peli (to see if she’s fucking with him? he’s very confused anyway haha) over the map before saying “I don’t see anything” is so precious. he already seems much more socially tuned in and responsive compared to the beginning of season 1, you love to see it, coming out of that freeze response baBEY
- I can’t get over how much the baby loves speed, this is coming back to bite you so hard if you’re ever going to have to teach this kid how to drive one day mando
- awwww the little patented mando finger curl as he enters the bar <3<3<3 that’s sort of his tell for being preoccupied/anxious; I think finding other mandos, someone to trust and to get help from, means A Lot to him  
once he sees the marshall in the armour his shoulders drop down and he stands up straighter :’) hope is a powerful thing (I guess all of this might add even more to how angry he is too)
the DEAD STOP when cobb takes the helmet off sdkfhkajsldhfsdk
- yodito putting his lil mouth on the lip of this jar thing is such a well observed little quirk of baby behaviour, I’m crying
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(there is liquid of some sort in this thing; I’ve seen some people theorize it’s a spittoon but for my own peace of mind I’m going to forcefully declare that it is not thank you)
- so much stuff packed into that “He’s seen worse”!! dismissal, self-deprecation, sorrow, resignation, warning. 
- the contrast in this standoff of vanth’s eastwood eye twitch and the complete deadpan impassiveness of din’s helmet and general demeanor... wonderful  
- upon rewatching I’m actually wondering if some of these scenes with the baby on his own were filmed independently of the actors and that it might add to that slight distracting feeling of disconnect/distance you get through the episode. (it’s sort of odd to me that mando doesn’t even glance down at him as the whole place starts to shake, for example) there must be a lot of stuff that comes down to technical considerations with the baby; I suspect it takes a lot of time and resources to have him walking around too much, which is why The Waddle is kind of a rare treat   
what I’m saying is that they may be saving up dad & baby interaction resources for episodes where it’s more relevant or important
- so is this a one bantha town or is it just for convenient film language reasons it was all alone in frame like that lol
also cobb’s ‘mondays amirite’ look fdsakjfhsjk 
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- since I think it every time I get to this part: this is a very neat hairstyle this person is rocking, suits them! 
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- ah the stern pointer finger of emphasis. din TALKS, no, COMMUNICATES so much in this episode you guys!!!!! 
- rip this tusken, the bravest person who ever lived
- the delivery of “...they might be open to some fresh ideas” is the funniest moment of this entire episode don’t @ me
- oh the kotor-ness of it all lol
- jill (the girl who hands cobb the detonator) is so cute with her hat and everything ;____; 
- I suppose these tuskens are really the bravest people to ever live considering they saw what happened to the last guy (or gal I suppose I don’t know how sand people gender works)
- baby needs some goggles to protect his giant eyes from wind and sand Y___Y
- they’ve nailed how to make the jetpacks work in live action, it looks really cool and I suspect it easily could have uh. not 
- this poor sacrificial bantha... it even tried to get away
- ooooh the heart eyes -- cobb 100% has a crush on this man jfsdflhsad. (with it being sort of unrequited/’oh man I’m behind about 150 layers of dissociation too many to even really consider that one way or the other bud’ from mando’s side #personal headcanon disclaimer)    
- my take on why din doesn’t get dissolved in acid in there is that that stuff is released from a specific gland or something that the dragon can unleash at will and that the spit itself doesn’t have that quality on its own (or at least it’s a lot less potent) 
- seems pretty well confirmed by now that yodito is a carnivore huh hahaha
- I find it obscurely satisfying that cobb seems to be wearing exactly his old outfit under the armour -- he did just strap it on on top of what he already was. (there’s something there -- he’s a whole thing still without the armour, and at this time at least din would not be I don’t think) just some good narrative foil stuff going on here under the surface
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also once again props to the costume design; without the armour he looks so vulnerable again, they have dressed him to emphasise his height and slenderness (especially compared to mando, who actually seems to have bulked up a bit? fatherhood suits him I guess)    
plus, the way the baby looks questioningly up at din while he watches cobb walk away? yeah, din is lonely, let this poor man have a friend who stays around soon T______________T
- heeey boba, nice threads! my guess is that he’s not going to be there for the armour if he does track din down, since he hasn’t seemed to be in any haste to get it back before (which is interesting!). he might also have been unable to go looking for it before because he was still recovering from being half digested, of course, they could play it a lot of different ways
I wonder if we’ll get more of him in the next ep or if they’ll let the tension ramp up through the season 
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@theeyethatbinds​ Girl SING IT. SING IT LOUDER FOR THE GIRLS IN THE BACK, SWEAR TO GOD.
Like I’m gonna be real wit y’all I was looking forward to le Comte for a while, but I was always side-eyeing Jeanne. He’s a blunt hermit and grump and 100% mood, so I hoped his route would give me more insight into how I feel about him.
Ladies. When I tell you. It was EXCELLENT. I mean there are so many gr9 routes in the game, I don’t want to take away from them, but there was just something about his that hit me so hard???? (MY KOKORO BROKORO)
More under the cut since his route won’t be out for a little while (we still got Isaac, then Theo, then Jeanne), as a little treat. As usual, pls don’t read if you don’t want spoilers, thanks!
Okay so going into this route I was fully expecting the big sads. I mean, if history has taught us anything it was that Joan D’Arc was a badass but good lord, that doesn’t mean the people of her time were kind to her. (I need to do more thorough research on her, so if I’m getting any of her pronouns wrong or neglect something, I do apologize.)
That being sad, I was like aight DECK MY SHIT WITH TRAGEDY, JEANNE. And at the beginning it’s p fascinating. He’s very ornery and resistant to any kind of consideration or attempts at friendship MC extends. But eventually, after a good deal of persistence, he relents little by little.
I’d also like to level with y’all for a sec. Being someone who knows a great deal in regards to the kinds of mental and emotional shit Jeanne struggles through, I think they handled that part of the route so, so well. Granted, I’m not the kind of person to launch a crusade over different writing styles--but for me it just feels all the more poignant when it makes sense; when certain dispositions or trauma are conveyed with that depth. To me, it made 100% sense that Jeanne would be so against accepting other people into his life immediately.
He and Mozart vibe because they’re so similar, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s comfortable letting just anyone in--much less a complete stranger. I think it’s more that Mozart and Jeanne share a kind of indelible bond/mutual recognition through their talent, actually. They were both prodigies, absolute geniuses in their fields (military vs. music) but their social skills were shot to hell for the very same reason. To be brilliant--beyond one’s potential posthumous legacy--tends to mean being hated. Plus, they’re both principled to absolute extremes. When they’ve decided on something, they will not waver. They’re stubborn and austere, but behind those walls lies a molten core of sensitivity.
This is important to understanding him, I think, before I move forward.
While one could argue that their reaction is a result of that deficiency of emotional and social support (which I entirely concede does contribute to the matter at hand, it shouldn’t be overlooked) I think the real crux of the matter here is control. Think about it. Among the oldest residents in the mansion (let’s say that were born more than 100 years within the range of the present period of the game) are Mozart, Jeanne, Isaac, and Shakespeare. What do they all have in common?
Extremity. For Mozart, it comes in the form of a kind of OCD, as perfectionism. For Jeanne, it is generalized anxiety and PTSD. For Isaac, it is primarily social anxiety--but it’s still noticeably severe. And Shakespeare runs around with a knife, insecurity through the roof, literally unable to trust anything or anyone (psychosis? schizoaffective? I’m really not sure, these are all ballpark assessments based on the evidence I have). In order to adjust to their new surroundings, there was a cost--and in some ways their coping mechanisms become noticeably maladaptive. They were born into eras that were mercilessly unpredictable, and the only way they knew how to cope was to was to either take the blame--make it a personal failing that tragedy struck--or try to immerse themselves into their craft. They all seek to regain some kind of control (this is even visible in Vincent, to a degree--painting was an escape from his emotionally turbulent world).
Granted that’s not to say that the others don’t struggle with such issues at all, I just feel like the characters from more unstable time periods tend (as a general trend) to mirror that instability within their personalities.
All that being said, (I apologize I am a tangent-monger and love meta), Jeanne’s self-imposed isolation is only partially caused by the above dynamic. Yes, he is unwilling to let people into his heart for fear of betrayal. (It’s almost like an entire nation clamoring to watch you burn for something you didn’t do after spending your entire life and talents trying to protect them would do that to you, but I digress >:| ). But there’s another devastating and potentially less obvious reason for keeping people out.
He thinks he deserves it.
Loneliness, melancholy, aimlessness. These are all the punishments that he incurred on himself after a life of what he conceives to be considerable sin (hahaha battlefield enemies go ripppp). Whether or not he was operating purely out of a sense of duty, even if he felt sympathy for his enemy combatants, it’s not enough. And the condemnation of his king, of his entire nation, only served to magnify that self-loathing to a dangerous degree. (Don’t get me started on his parents I’m still so angry >:| they more or less disowned him since he was constitutionally weak as a young boy, and thus could not serve as an adequate farmhand. Don’t work? Don’t eat/live).
It’s hard enough living in a reserved way because you’re afraid of getting hurt, but to think that you deserve it when hurt finds you, no less? And my favorite part, that he’s so profoundly sure that it is an extension of a personal, fundamental failing? That for a person to survive, they must be strong, that there can be no other way--that there is no time or space for ruminations on fairness or unfairness, there are only those who manage to survive and those who die.
Now my friends, esteemed comrades, legendary sluts. Is that enough for us, Cybird asks, are we feeling enough pain quite yet? Fuck no.
Most of his route after we get over the hurdle of his hesitation is just him. Being. Bashful and gentle as all FUCK. Like he is the definition of “I'll kill you, but also I’m babie.” For instance, she insists on teaching him how to read and write at night when she finds him trying (and not succeeding) to read “The Ugly Duckling”. Yes I mean the children’s book. I CRIED THE FIRST TIME AND I’M CRYING NOW. So, naturally, MC buys him a notebook to practice with and he puts his name in big letters on the front. When MC sees this, she asks him about it--wondering why he would given he’s so self-conscious of his own writing (boy writes all squiggly like a little kid because he’s never done it before ;-;).
The scene goes a little something like this:
MC: Wh....whatcha go there Jeanne? Jeanne: ? My notebook? MC: I...mean that you wrote your name on it? Jeanne: Yeah? MC: Why? Jeanne: ._. It was a gift from you, and I figured it'd be hard to practice if I lost it...so I put my name on it... (HE WAS SECRETLY TOUCHED I BET AND IM--) MC: Why such big letters? Jeanne: So people can spot it quickly, obviously MC, inches from crying and laughing: Jeanne: Mademoiselle??? Why are you laughing? MC: Because you’re cute, Jeanne!
Like. They start out so rocky and Jeanne is so SIGH. I guess I’ll agree if it’ll get her to stop looking so sad and ask me to join her for stuff. But then he just can’t help but go full softe at how patient and kind she is, starts feeling comfortable just...being who he is deep down. A man that’s always hoped for better in life, a person that only ever takes up his sword to protect--that has an incredibly pure and clear heart, despite so much pain.
And good lord, they are GOD TIER romantic slow burn???? Swear to everything holy, I was BEGGING for them to make out by like chapter 10, I was just suffering for most of the route until the bangarang premium. Here’s probably my favorite moment in the entire route:
Basically Sebastian and Mozart pull out all the stops trying to bring Jeanne and MC together (once they see Jeanne show some interested in her). And so Jeanne asks her to join him in the courtyard the next morning, and they’re playing with Cherie (Jeanne’s pet baby white tiger). Besides being ungodly adorable--because Jeanne invited her for the sole purpose of hoping to see her delightfully surprised--Mozart begins to play a love song nearby. They don’t name the tune, but Jeanne canonically starts singing along (I wholeass cried, I WANT TO HEAR HIM SING????). And so she asks what the song is about, and he explains that Mozart once played it for him, but he couldn’t make out the words at first. Mozart explained that it was a love song that speaks to the difficulties of being in love (the worry, the strife) but also the beauty of the intensity and passion. He goes on to say that even when he learned the words, it never made much sense to him back then--it never resonated.
He’s singing softly with a fond look, and so she asks, does he understand it now? And he looks her dead in the eye, and says “...I think I’m starting to.” Like. AM I SUPPOSED TO NOT LOSE MY MIND AT THE TENDERNESS????? WHAT A SMOOTH MOFO????? MAN RAISED TO BE A SOLDIER, NO KNOWLEDGE OF ROMANCE OR WOMEN, AND KILLS ME IN MILLISECONDS?????? I DEMAND JUSTICE. (Or it’s just me thinking sincerity is the best aphrodisiac, but that’s beside the point.)
This has been your quarantine 2d boy meta and yelling, provided by your local mod Minnie. Now if you’ll excuse me, it’s time to get to the things I’ve been procrastinating on while reliving/dissociating about one of my favorite rts in the entire game. Stay safe and well out there y’all, peace out!
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cha-mae · 3 years
Text
back on my Ghosted rant because im rewatching it rn and UGH
This show is so cringey and was written so poorly and it progresses WAY too fast for anyone to get attatched to any of the characters or the plot and they definitely tried way too hard for humour but IT HAS SO MUCH POTENTIAL
I WANNA REWRITE THIS SO BAD AND MAKE IT ACTUALLY GOOD
like literally within the first two minutes max and leoroy had already been snatched by the bureau with a really shit excuse of an intro to their characters. then 13 minutes in theyve already found the hidden storage unit, figured out the code left behind, found out how and where to break into, faced a guy with some batshit crazy thing about him, found out what the coils were syphoning energy from, and by 16 minutes max and leoroy have their heart to heart and Lack Of Faith conversation while steaking out where the agent could be held and leoroy has his I gOt My PaRtnER kILLEd AnD ThAtS Why i gOt LeT gO FroM LAPD aNd i hAD To LoCk You In ThE cAR talk
like i get that they want each episode to have a different case/mission, but this could be paced SO WELL otherwise. sure they had 24 hours to find Checker, but what if the entire season, which is why theY EVEN GOT DRAGGED INTO THE BUREAU IN THE FIRST PLACE AND MET EACHOTHER BC THEY ARE COMPLETE STRANGERS, is about them FINDING checker. like the first episode they realize oh something else entirely is at play and so obviously we cant just take 24 hours for these two amature agents to find our OWN AGENT who we were SO DESPERATE TO FIND THAT WE HIRE TO RANDOM GUYS THAT AGENT CHECKER MENTIONED that they arent just let go at the end.
also?? max and leoroy just get hired right off the spot when they say they dont wanna to back to their day jobs? no one at the BUA is worried about testing their faith and making sure they wont try and turn on them?
AND THEN MAX FINDS OUT THE BUA HAS HIS MISSING WIFE BY THE END OF EPISODE ONE? ITS NOT EVEN LIKE THEY ARE 40 MINUTE TO AN HOUR EPISODES THEY LITERALLY ARE 20 MINUTES LONG
trying to find agent checker, the BUAs top agent, should be what the enite first season is about. they still have their road blocks every episode with some bizarre supernatural case but while those happening lets see max and leoroy also be working with higher ups on trying to debunk codes agent checker left behind or figuring out what power source the coils are using. have the fun halloween episode where theres a full moon and all supernatural creatures are going nutters, but make it so when theres a full moon there just so happens to be some random energy plane or something thats stronger and it reveals a missing piece to a larger puzzle theyve been working on for agent checkers disappearance. i dont know im just talking off the top of my head rn and really distracted.
THE POINT IS: THERE NEEDS TO BE A REASON BEHIND EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENS, AND THERE NEEDS TO BE ENOUGH SPACING BETWEEN EVENTS AND CHARACTER BUILDING FOR PEOPLE TO GROW ATTACHED TO THESE CHARACTERS AND THE PLOT. GHOSTED DIDNT DO THAT BUT IT HAD SO MUCH POTENTIALLL
i legit wanna rewrite a wholeass script for ghosted, but make it GOOD. seriously there is so much that can be done and i wanna see a revival of it
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coredrill · 3 years
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alright here are my rwby8 thoughts now that i’ve had a few days to sit on ���em!! spoilers for the entire volume under the cut
so if anyone happens to open this and is like “wow this is more words than i’ve seen you use ever” lol yup! it’s probably the most words i’ve written since high school lmao. feel free to read through if ya really want but this is mostly just my own way of organizing my thoughts for this kind of stuff rather than making a million different posts on random parts of it. this way if i want to look back in the future and say “haha wow can’t believe i thought THAT” it’s all in one easy location! i don’t expect anyone else to be reading all this shite lol
thoughts on the volume as a whole:
honestly i loved it!! there’s very little that i would’ve changed and most of that is nit-picking stuff. i’m very impressed that this volume was made in quarantine lmao. the animation in and of itself was STUNNING (shout out to the finale’s water animation...the aura break particle effects...the cinnamon topography of the amity scenes...all of the facial & body expressions...the whale disintegrating...)
i’d honestly say that it’s probably my second favorite volume?? volume 4 is still my beloved but v8 was so good. i’ll probably need to watch it through a few more times but god. i LOVED IT.
honorable mention cause idk where else to put it: some of the scores were breathtaking!!! i tend not to notice background music on my first watch unless it really sticks out to me and there were quite a few scenes where that happened in a good way this volume. the ones where cinder breaks into the atlas control room and the one at the end when atlas is flooding are probably my favs!!! also there was this one part where it was just screeching over ironwood and it worked really really well.
okay so now for individual characters. let’s start with ruby:
i would like to fund her therapy
very surprised that she didn’t “break” this volume! i was sort of expecting it to happen--between ironwood, the amity plan only kind of working, the hound, the virus, and the fact that she was separated from her usual support system (qrow, yang, and jaune), i was definitely expecting her to. i’m glad she didn’t though cause it’s gonna be so much harder when she actually does (probably when she finds out that cinder has the relics and penny’s dead...)
massive shout out to lindsay jones for managing to make squeaky-voiced ruby still sound like ruby even while going through a whole host of emotions we’ve never seen ruby go through before!
god. that scene where crescent rose fell into the drink and ruby scrambled after it. my heart dropped lmao.
also. this is likely because i’ve got an engineering degree (which came with a free stick up my butt when it comes to technology in media) but the line where they say “mass no longer matters” wrt her semblance??? WHAT??? bro splitting mass up into smaller chunks doesn’t change the actual mass of the material itself what is going on here 😭😭😭 (this isn’t a real criticism of any kind i just yelled WHAT after they said that line lmao)
weiss:
i have one single weiss criticism and its that, in the scene where she’s leaving whitley to go fight the hound, she says “we still need to work on your attitude” and for whatever reason, the voice track doesn’t sound like it was quite mixed right? like it sounds like she’s just standing there rolling her eyes but my girl is BOOKING it out of the room lmao
other than that: weiss you are PERFECT. she really spent this entire volume saving and taking care of the people she loves!!! and i loved every second of it!!!
i would’ve liked to see more of her and klein/whitley/willow. i think there’s a lot of great stuff in that dynamic (not me crying when klein showed up at the manor...) and especially between weiss and her mother. i hope we get one big schneeuinon in vacuo once they + winter are all in the same location (but that’s gonna be a while i think lmao)
it’s been said a million times before but weiss?? shaking and crying but using gambol shroud anyway?? even though she thinks her teammates are all dead?? giving ruby the staff and pushing her out of the line of fire and pulling blake back to safety??? fighting cinder, a fucking wholeass maiden, with no aura because she needs to protect penny?? only unable to get up and keep fighting after she watches gambol shroud (the last physical piece she has of her teammates) go over the edge??? bro. BRO. i’m legit tearing up just TYPING THAT. god she’s gonna find her team at that island resort and never let them go. gonna be like v4 jaune all over again huh??
blake/yang:
not as much here since they didn’t get a whole lot of focus this volume, but i enjoyed all their scenes! yang just fuckin going at salem was 1000/10.
i will say...i think blake’s gonna kiss yang when they meet up in tropical paradise. and good for her!! (especially if this volume’s been planned since the beginning, it makes sense that this would be the writers’ idea for where they wanted their first kiss to be)
jaune:
going from ren saying “he has no fear. he believes that we can do this” about jaune to, five chapters later, forcing jaune to deliver a killing blow to penny was just CRUEL
the fucking dissonance of jaune haha!-awkward-renora-moment-exit vomit-boy-through-the-portals hit-in-the-head-with-a-rock arc being the one that penny asks..............bro. don’t hmu.
it’s going to be such a long time until we see him smile again.
also. the moment when crocea mors snaps in half...again, my stomach dropped.
but it’s okay! he’ll be fine without a weapon! he’s the ~strategist~! *breaks the fuck down*
it hurts so much too to think about, like oscar mentioned.....even if/when he does reunite with ren and nora, he’s not gonna be the same person he was when they last saw him. he’s not gonna be their goofy, wholesome, soft, snarky, healer team leader anymore. he just got his shit sorted out, he just stopped being actively suicidal, and tbh i think this might affect him worse than what happened with pyrrha. especially since they were compounding in his brain--what he did gave penny more of a choice than pyrrha ever got, but GEEZ.
pain. just. pain.
nora:
NORA MY BELOVED
okay. OKAY. so like she was passed out for half the volume but what we did get of her was fucking amazing
nora’s mom i am going to find you and have some words. i’ve mentioned this before but this woman has the same energy as the mom from grave of the fireflies who was like “i know we’re actively being bombed right now but i’m going to abandon my children and get myself to safety.” SQUARE UP BITCH. i hope we never see nora’s mom in the show because i will become filled with rage
but nora herself??? flawless. perfection.
i really did love her journey this volume. realizing that she wants to become her own person apart from ren, and then telling him that when he says that he loves her?? nora sweetie that was heartbreaking but i am SO SO PROUD OF YOU.
nora putting herself first for once and being told that people love her WE FREAKING LOVE TO SEE IT
except NOW that’s all gonna go haywire 😭😭😭
like...the moment in the finale where you can see she’s hesitant to leave jaune to to go vacuo but she goes anyway because he’s her leader and he doesn’t like splitting up either and she loves him and she trusts him only for her to get STUCK ON THE OTHER SIDE BANGING ON THE PORTAL. that scene fucking BROKE me. you just KNOW she’s gonna be hating herself for going through and leaving jaune (even though nobody knew it was one way!!!) and when the portal dissolves and he doesn’t come through........
she really thinks that she’s lost TWO teammates now. that’s TWO teammates that she wasn’t able to save. she saved ren from the nuckelavee but pyrrha’s dead and as far as she knows jaune’s dead too
and jaune’s her fucking family!!!!!!!
and like. when we see her on the vacuo side of the portal, we see that she’s got the happy huntresses behind her. she did her job and she gathered them but now she can’t get back through and AHHHHHH. FUCK. when she drops to her knees because she realizes.........that fucking killed me. i’m tearing up now just typing this sdmndbm
and like. the worst part is that she just realized that she wants some time away from ren. but everyone else is gone and just like when they were kids he’s all she’s got and they are gonna lean on each other harder than ever because this time they both lost EVERYTHING. not just jaune, but ruby, who was their teammate for a while too. weiss, who took such great care of nora while she was injured. penny, who nora helped with blake’s advice. yang, who ren had time to bond with this volume. FUCK
it’s gonna hurt so bad to watch but i cannot WAIT to see what nora does next and how she moves forward. god. this is gonna kill her. it’s killing ME and i’m just a viewer lmao
ren:
remember that one week where neath went on twitter and was like “i love renora and i’m gonna make that everyone else’s problem”??? yeah. that was a good week lmao
speaking of neath. MASSIVE PROPS TO HIM FOR HIS WORK. he managed to give ren every single emotion in the book this volume and none of it sounded ooc despite ren being such a repressed character before. he did incredible!!!!
I LOVED REN SO MUCH THIS VOLUME GOD. i mean i love him in every volume BUT HE HAD SO MANY GOOD MOMENTS AND SUCH A GOOD ARC
i’ve already talked about it at length but the scene where his semblance evolves is one of my favorites in the whole show. he’s so fucking full of love that it’s literally tearing him apart and when he finally accepts that fact his ENTIRE SOUL levels up!!! he looks at himself and there are pink petals falling off of him because he can’t contain the love in his body anymore!!! it’s there in a literal, physical manifestation and it’s so. fucking. GOOD. FUCK.
and also my obligatory remark about how he was thinking about oscar and pyrrha and his parents in that moment. people he loved platonically and familially. rwby goes so fucking hard for platonic love and i can’t ever thank them enough. to see ren have this realization because he was thinking about oscar.....god i’m gonna cry again LMAO
and then after that the way that he just. looks at jaune in every scene with the biggest fucking heart eyes. i’m gonna fucking combust he loves his  leader SO MUCH. (which. as i mentioned in the nora section. pain now)
and the nora stuff........JUST AS GOOD
another thing i’ve talked about a lot but to see him apologize, be emotionally open, listen to what nora’s saying and what nora needs, TELL HER THAT HE LOVES HER FIRST, not holding a single thing against her, agreeing to wait for her to be ready.........literal perfection holy shit
romance is normally not one of my favorite aspects of any media but i will make an exception for whatever the fuck ren and nora got going on
basically as a ren stan / jnpr stan i was thriving this volume and then that finale hit me and i know i will be in pain until they reunite again
i have a handful of jnr gifs that i was planning to make during the hiatus but now they’re all PAIN aksjhdasjdh
oscar:
deeply worried about the quickly approaching merge. i’m really hoping that oscar and oz stay separate but i also love seeing all the animation/voice acting nuances that indicate that they’re getting closer to the merge.......AH
this volume really hammered home just how strong this kid is. he stands up to SALEM and does the right thing even despite the torture cause he’s so BRAVE and STRONG and when he trusted hazel with the password DESPITE IT ALL. ugh. so good.
i love oscar so much and i’ve loved seeing him grow!!!
penny:
serious stuff coming in the next bullet point but. GOD. her model’s head is so big and i don’t know WHY but this stuck out to me every time she was standing next to someone else. it might be because of the volume of her hair (but yang’s hair also has a lot of volume, and her head is normal sized)??? idk it just threw me off a lot. every time she was like, talking to ruby or something, all i could think about was how her head was bigger than ruby’s ENTIRE TORSO lmao. (also why didn’t they give her human body shoes skdjhaksjh)
that said.........oh, penny 😭😭😭😭😭
i’m surprised that she died but only because i thought her plot armor was pretty thick LMAO. narratively it makes a lot of sense and i’m glad her story ended the way it did.
i’ve seen a lot of people interpreting her actions in the finale as “choosing to die,” but i don’t think that’s the case?? penny’s friends all saved her every single time that she presented her own death as an option. that’s what makes this so tragic, is that they successfully saved her every time she offered that, and that in the end, she still died. she was gonna die anyway. she was impaled by cinder--jaune didn’t have enough time to heal her before cinder defeated weiss (who had no aura!!) and turned on them again. penny made her own choices when 1. she asked to die at the hands of a friend, rather than by cinder’s soul-sucking grimm arm and whatever horrible fate that includes and 2. to choose her successor. and i don’t blame her for making either of those choices! she wanted to die with as much dignity as peace as she could and to choose whose life she would be intertwined with. and while it’s very sad, i’m glad that penny finally got some sense of control over herself and her legacy.
and like...she was so happy when she met up with winter!! she was so happy to have full autonomy for once!!! that scene was both heartwarming and heartbreaking!!!
i also think that penny’s death reinforces the idea that remnant is gonna be very different by the time rwbyjnorqe is done with it. now not one but two kindhearted girls have gotten killed because they got tangled up in the maiden powers—which were originally meant to be a gift!! and i’m very interested to see what the resolution is gonna be!! (i know it’s gonna be in like. volume 52 or something alsjfndnx but still!!)
also, if nothing else, i am very glad that whole “pietro sacrifices the last of his aura to revive her” theory is gone. i hate that theory lmao
i will say, while i enjoyed penny’s role this volume, i do think that maybe some of her screentime could’ve gone elsewhere. i get that there needed to be a lot of focus on her, so that we would be attached when she died, but i think it would’ve been beneficial to spread that screentime elsewhere just a bit, especially since she wasn’t really developing at all. hitting the same point with her like seven times did start to feel a bit repetitive lol. my vote would be for extra time with the schnees, or the jn(o)r reunion at schnee manor, or maybe a scene checking in with pietro and maria!!
emerald:
EMERALD MY BELOVED
YOU DEFECTED!!!! GOOD FOR YOU GIRL!!!!
i hope we get a LOT more time with her in the future. she’s still gotta work out the cinder thing of course but i also think it’s gonna be super interesting to see how she acts now that she (alongside oscar, ren, nora, the hh, and winter) is one of the closest things their group has to a “leader”
also like........good for her for being one of the LEAST traumatized people this volume despite being THREATENED BY SALEM
somebody give emerald a nice long hug
i love her
that is all
winter:
WINTER OH MY GOD
seeing her struggle with her emotions all volume.....only to finally accept them and save marrow’s life.....and because of that choice she realizes how long overdue it was and goes all in on helping the heroes.....and is eventually chosen to become the next winter maiden by the girl who challenged her to accept her emotions in the first place......😭😭😭 chef’s kiss
“you chose nothing. this was a gift.” *demolishes ironwood but doesn’t stick around cause he’s not worth it* *fights cinder* POETIC CINEMA!!!!!
also i cannot wait to see her schneeunion with willow, whitley, and klein.......even if she does have to be the one to tell them what happened to weiss 😭
cinder:
CINDER I HATE YOU BUT ONLY BECAUSE YOU’RE SUCH A GOOD VILLAIN
her backstory was pretty self explanatory but i think this was a good time to spell it out especially while we were in atlas. the culmination of that, her consistent failures to achieve her goals after v3, and watts dragging her really all just came together to make her so much more intimidating and efficient and i loved watching it.
like i know there’s people who don’t like her as a character but she’s always so fun to watch and her va does AMAZING and she’s just. so INTERESTING
also. i cannot wait for her to find out that ruby and neo are both alive (and especially when salem finds out they’re both alive LMAO)
also also her line to ruby about never being born feels.......awfully specific??? i wonder if it’s a hint at some other part of salem/cinder/ruby/summer lore (like her “and i refuse to starve” line from last volume)
also also also CINDER.......lying to salem is gonna backfire on you at one point or another.......HM
salem:
gosh i love salem. she’s such a good villain and i loved all her scenes (especially the fight scene...SO COOL).
very interested in whatever she does next!! since the only remaining lackey she has is cinder (who is now starting to try to manipulate her) and tyrian and mercury, who are in vacuo, i’m curious about her next steps. is she gonna keep recruiting, now that people know who she is?? is she gonna come to vacuo herself?? she could definitely do a WHOLE LOT OF DAMAGE with the refugee situation there, so i’m super excited to see how her next moves play out!!
hazel/tyrian/watts/merc/neo:
rip hazel. glad we were able to get an INSANE fight scene out of him before his death BUT ALSO WHAT’S WITH YOU BEATING THE SNOT OUT OF A 14 YEAR OLD HUH
listen. listen. i know merc-rescues-oscar was never a possibility BUT i still love that idea. it lives in my mind rent free!!!
i feel like mercury’s gonna be so insane after the worst road trip ever in a confined space with tyrian that he’s gonna be immediately redeemed by team sssnn and the power of himbofication upon landing in vacuo LMAO
real talk though, i am VERY interested in what happens when mercury sees emerald again and learns she defected. like, this is his friend, who he’s tried to keep safe the only way he knows how (by keeping his head down and not angering their abuser) and she got out but he didn’t. GOD. AND in the first fight she was in after defecting, she used the move that she learned by watching him!!!! that’s gonna be SO GOOD and i can’t wait to see it!!!
neo is a wildcard and i love watching her fight and i think it’s SO INTERESTING that she went over the side with rwby and jaune and i CAN’T WAIT to see what she does next.
WATTS MY DUDE. what a GOOD volume for him. like the stuff where he yells at cinder was SO COOL to see and it was so funny that he thought that wasn’t gonna come back to bite him LMAO. i think this was super fitting for him and while i like him as a villain, i think this was a good place for his story to end. i had a lot of fun watching his scenes this volume.
qrow/robyn:
I LOVE THEIR SIBLING ENERGY. robyn talking qrow down and them bonding over their semblances together was so great.
i also loved qrow’s semblance...evolving?? changing?? idk what exactly happened yet, but i know that if i too hung out with robyn hill for 48 hours straight my outlook on life would improve dramatically.
i do hope robyn makes it to vacuo soon because she will be invaluable at handling the refugee crisis there.
on the other hand, if qrow gets to vacuo and finds out that ruby and yang (and three more of his adopted kids) never made it........PAIN. oh my god it’s gonna be like summer all over again 😭😭
aceops:
did not expect to get teary-eyed when vine died. and yet i did. that “themes of death” cw on the finale was CERTAINLY SOMETHING HUH
hell yeah marrow!!! what a good boi!!! i loved his defection ofc and him going off on ironwood...chefs kiss
i hope marrow sticks with the main cast. he’s my favorite and he deserves to see his friends again!!!
as for elm and harriet, i’m not sure?? i think harriet still has a lot of work to do before she’s redeemed in my eyes. maybe they can be dropped off at beacon to help glynda fight the grimm/rebuild so that they can be back for the show’s ending but the cast is somewhat trimmed for vacuo lmao
also. i know they’re not aceops. but WHERE ARE FLYNT AND NEON ARE THE MEME KIDS OKAY
happy huntresses:
may marigold is literally perfect in every way
loved them! would’ve loved to see more of them lmao. maybe even just cutting back to them in the crater reacting to some of the stuff going on.
i very much hope we get to see them in the future! i know the vacuans aren’t gonna be happy with the atlas/mantle people showing up unannounced but i feel like if there’s anyone who’s gonna be able to earn their respect, it’s the organized-and-saved-the-lives-of-those-downtrodden-by-atlas-happy-huntresses.
maria & pietro:
okay. SO. my thoughts are either that they made it to vacuo (penny did see where amity would touch down, so it’s possible that a portal was placed in that location and they made it through) or qrow picks them up.
either way, i hope we get to see them again. I LOVE THESE TWO GEEZERS!!!
oh, pietro......... *cries*
ironwood:
not much to say here except that i loved it. i loved how he got more and more paranoid, i loved that he vaporized jacques schnee, i loved that he only went cartoon-villain at the last moment, i loved that he died unceremoniously surrounded by the thing he thought would save them all. i love that cinder got in one final chess reference beforehand. 10/10
the hound:
it feels like a lifetime ago that this guy died but holy shit. holy SHIT.
i want whitley to summon the hound!! it was an enemy that pushed him to grow, i think it would be neat!!
ambrosius:
LOVED THIS DUDE. i LOVE how his powers work!!! like, even though it’s magic, it’s so realistic because that’s how creation works!!! you gotta design the EXACT thing you want or else its gonna be fucked up!!!
like. okay. so (back on my engineering bs again lmao) for example. let’s say i’m writing a program where the user enters a number from 1-10 and it’s displayed on the computer screen. so i write whatever code i need that says “take user input and put on screen.” that’s what ambrosius did when he created the portals and the pathways between them!
and then let’s say i also put a warning to the user that says “only enter numbers from 1-10.” that would be ambrosius saying “do not fall.”
but...the user can still enter whatever they want. what happens if they put in the number 100? what happens if they type a letter? this program only puts numbers from 1-10 on screen, so who knows what’s gonna happen. and that’s what happens when people fall off the railings!!!
“oh, but you told them what numbers to enter” yeah but humans are unpredictable and ya gotta account for the human element when doing stuff like this!! team rwby didn’t account for people falling off--because why would people fall off if they were told not to? but the human element messed that up anyway!!!
anyways i’m a fucking nerd apparently but it was super cool to see that reflected in ambrosius!!! i’m a big fan!!!
like whenever people call him tricky or sneaky...no!!! he was just doing exactly what he was told to do!!!! so good!!!
also i wanna see him hang out with his sister jinn lmao
alright and here’s my thoughts/predictions for v9:
first off i just wanna say that this entire section (this entire post really, but especically this section) is just me spitballing lmao. we literally have ZERO clue what’s happening next or where they are, i’m just throwing out some stuff that’s crossed my mind! whatever crwby gives us is gonna be infinitely better than whatever i come up with lmao
that said, i have two ideas for what could be happening in madagascar.
option one is the one i’ve seen other people toss around, which is the whole wonderland-land-of-the-dead thing. i’m kinda torn on this because i think it could be good for penny’s storyline, but not really anyone else’s?? sure, yang and ruby could see summer, but weiss would see...jacques?? and blake would see...adam?? i’m not sure what weiss and blake would have to say to them/learn from them the same way ruby and yang would.
on that same idea, jaune could definitely see pyrrha, but again, i’m wondering what purpose that would serve? obviously jaune’s actions in the finale were guided by pyrrha (or specifically her mom, and realizing that pyrrha never had a choice either), but it’s clear that that’s the case for all of team jnpr, and it will be probably forever. their scene together at pyrrha’s memorial felt like they were closing the door--specifically--on their grief. on the other hand, those actions are super relevant right now and i will never turn down the chance to see pyrrha!!! it’s just free waterworks babey!!!
neo also has roman, but i can’t really see roman admitting to anyone that he got swallowed by a grimm 😭😭 just seems too embarrassing for him LMAO
for penny, i think this could work nicely. all she ever wanted was to not have her life controlled by others--kind of like alice in wonderland (the disney movie version because i am fairy tale illiterate lmao). if penny gets to exist after death in a land where she gets to choose everything for herself i think she would be very happy!
again, if this ends up being the case, crwby could 100% make it work! (and i am 0% opposed to maya model pyrrha.) i just personally am not as sold on this being the case as some others are.
option two imo is vacuo but in the past. which i know seems kind of weird BUT i have reasons!
so we know a few things about vacuo. one, it used to be an oasis and was considered a paradise until atlas and mistral destroyed it for the dust. two, it has giant motherfucking crabs that people like to eat. yes this is all i have to go off of BUT both of those things are in the end credits scene we got!
also, them landing in past-vacuo makes sense on ambrosius’ level. their “one way ticket” probably didn’t include all four dimensions of coordinates--so i could see them landing in the same x, y, and z as the official doorway, but at a different time. the creation would still do exactly what it was asked to do--drop them in vacuo.
there’s also a couple other things. “vacuo” means “in a vacuum” which i’ve heard v9 is supposed to be. also in before the dawn, sun saw some bigass magic tree that awakened his semblance which this one definitely could qualify as
(okay. side note. when i first saw the tree i thought of the glowy tree from james cameron blue people avatar. IDK WHY, i haven’t seen that movie in years??? i also had to google it to make sure i wasn’t making it up and apparently it’s called the “tree of souls.” which would also make sense if it helped sun awakened his semblance. i don’t think rwby based something off of blue people avatar, it’s probably more likely that blue people avatar is based off of some fairytale/mythology that i don’t know anything about LMAO)
i don’t actually think option two is gonna happen, but it was fun to think about!!
also either option opens the opportunity to time not passing 1:1 in current vacuo & rwby’s island getaway which???????? AHHHHH
alright so now to the actual characters lmao. i mentioned wby earlier. i honestly have no clue what neo’s gonna be up to, she’s such a wild card and i LOVE IT.
ruby and jaune is gonna be...........PAIN. NO MATTER WHAT. i have no idea how ruby is gonna react--she might just be so overwhelmed by everything that she snaps/yells at jaune which. PAIN. but she also might not?? which. ALSO PAIN. i feel like no matter what ruby does, jaune’s gonna blame himself anyway. god. i love their friendship SO MUCH and this is gonna HURTTTT
and on that, he doesn’t have ren and nora this time to pull him back from the ledge. this dude’s guilt complex is gonna go crazy especially since he doesn’t have his team and double especially if ruby/rwby blames him for what happened. god it’s gonna HURT TO WATCH.
on a wildly different note, i hope we do get to see vacuo/qrow throughout volume 9. if i go a whole volume without ren and nora i WILL cry lmao.
also it’s gonna be super interesting to see how their group fares!!! vacuo’s fuckin nuts and i’d love to see winter just destroying the grimm there (3 headed giraffe my beloved) and see how the atlas/mantle refugees handle the climate--and how the vacuans react to all of them LMAO
ALSO!!!! THE SULFER FISH WERE THERE!!! very glad to see that they’re in vacuo too because from the concept art it seems like they have super unique abilities and i’m excited that we may get to properly see them, instead of just cameos!!!
team cfvy pspspspspspsps theodore and rumpole pspspspspsps team sssnn pspspspspsps
and, of course, i gotta mention that any possible jnr reunion WILL tear my heart out and i will probably cry for days. i gotta start emotionally preparing now LMAO
alright and that wraps it up!! if anyone makes it down to the bottom props to you!! i don’t expect anyone to actually read this mess lmao. tldr: INCREDIBLE volume and i’m so hype for v9 already!!!
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babysgarage · 3 years
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disclaimers: * i don’t know what the fuck i’m talking about ** i did not want him redeemed, so i’m not actually gonna write him a new redemption arc, i’m just gonna add canon compliant scenes to the existing one to make it easier for me to swallow *** you’ll notice that i don’t mention a certain topic at all and that’s because it’s the main reason why i don’t want him redeemed so i’m going to pretend it doesn’t exist so that i can write this at all. Also there’s a wholeass debate about it and i don’t feel competent enough to weigh in rn
So the problem i have with this whole thing is that it feels so unearned, he didn’t do a single redeemable thing before, during or after, he faces 0 consequences, he showed 0 changed behavior and his change of heart felt very sudden, there were no signs of him second-guessing himself at all, and this post is only gonna change that last point ..ok no wait, i honestly thought that his beef with cherry was supposed to show there were still traces of the old adam left somewhere
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… and that him smacking cherry in the face with a skateboard in the end was meant to show he willed himself to do the ultimate cruel move and prove to both himself and cherry that their bond was a thing of the past that means absolutely nothing to him now and that he is more powerful now that he’s on his own and other sasuke-esque things yadda yadda but then the smack turned into a ‘technique’ that he uses against everyone like he’s a videogame character and that’s his signature move, and now it just looks more ridiculous because it lost the shock value and the potential meaning behind it
next up i gotta address that i get that the way he acts is obviously the result of this;
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obviously the way he was raised gave him a completely distorted, fucked up view of what love is- aka it made him equate love and abuse
plus this scene
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he also thinks love is earned by performing well and rising up to your shitty relatives’ expectations
so my suggestion is: add a scene after the end of Reki & Adam’s beef. Reki lost, but everyone at S is cheering for him, all his friends are huddled around him in support, and also there’s Langa, tending to Reki’s injuries, maybe adding a band aid in the exact same where Adam running his fingers on his forearms (like in the screencap above where he’s talking to Miya), where the ruler marks used to, and then it hits him – maybe that’s what love is actually supposed to be like-
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Just use what you’ve already established in the story- that Adam notices there’s a strong bond between Reki and Langa that he’s kinda jealous of maybe. but also i don’t mean the focus is just reki&langa, it’s a big detail in a bigger picture of the *power of friendship* w/ other skaters 
Of course, when one comes across a realization that could shatter their entire world view and disprove everything they were taught from a young age, their first instinct usually isn’t to immediately accept it, but to clamp down on their long-held beliefs and fight the doubt – that leads him proceed to that poor tailor’s shop and continue on with the events of episode 12, but except that whole internal struggle thing makes it a bit more understandable now why he’s spinning out
He still has his beef with Langa who makes him confront the fact that he is full of shit and obviously doesn’t wanna be alone his whole life
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now onto his issues with tadashi 
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The dude obviously has some abandonment issues, and Tadashi feels really guilty and bad about Adam’s life in general, in the end he was like ‘I’m not gonna take your only escapist mechanism away from you, i’m gonna let this teenager remind you of the joy you used to find in it’
and this is where i verge off into this-will-never-happen-in-the-show territory but what if after their whole ‘you’ll take the fall for me’ convo, Tadashi decides to go with that plan and to take the aunts down with him by planting false evidence or something. Now ainosuke is free from people trying to dictate his every move like forcing him into a marriage (Tadashi always pulled a face when they mentioned it). Now Adam’s a bit more free and can hopefully lead a happier life. One problem tho is that Adam’s all alone now (which he doesn’t really want as we established) and being all alone after going thru some stressful shit and earthshattering revelations isn’t a winning combo for mental health in my experience so guess who finally gets some therapy!  And since he’s still a corrupt & rich politician, he bribes someone to get Tadashi a very short/light sentence and when they meet again he hires him back immediately because ‘where else are you gonna get a job as a convicted felon’ and you basically have your ‘be my dog forever’ moment without anyone being called a dog  and no, idk what any of this would do to his career
also maybe cut the scene where he crashes langa’s party in his matador costume
Also yknow how Adam obviously invests in that building where Miya trains at? What if he partners up with Cherry and he makes mini Carlas for the trainees like in those high-tech gyms where they assess your movements and enhance your performance using advanced scanners and robots and yadda yadda. That comes after they mend their relationship, idk how, but i doubt the sk8 writers would be vehemently against making them make up so
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greensconnor · 4 years
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i’m asking about your dragon age characters
molly i would KILL for u im ur personal hitman now
anyway i said my city now because the entire bioware writing team sucks shit xoxo and i’m so much smarter than all of them but also fully incapable of having a normal amount of ocs for anything (see: the time i made 20 rwby ocs in less than two weeks) so i have. five worldstates here r some assorted thoughts
uhhh so the worldstates r as follows
eira mahariel (two-handed berserk/champ spec), rhett hawke (two-handed berserk spec), alas lavellan (mage knight enchanter spec), romanced alistair/fenris/dorian respectively
shiv tabris (dual wield duelist/assassin spec), radella “rads” hawke (mage spirit healer spec), kat adaar (two-handed reaver spec), romanced morrigan/isabela/cassandra respectively because im a pc gamer and i think i should be able to date whatever video game woman i like because im infinitely better than cishet men
this world state said yeah i respect mens rights. mens rights to shut the fuck up
twins bronson (sword/shield reaver spec) & bryant cousland (archer ranger spec), carmine hawke (archer assassin spec), syracuse trevelyan (dual wield tempest spec), romanced zevran/anora/josephine/bull. if ur wondering how that works my city now and the warden, hawke and the inquisitor should all meet and so they do because i Said So
riva amell (mage arcane warrior/battlemage spec), graham “gray” hawke (mage force spec), hellathen “hela” lavellan (archer assassin spec); romanced cullen/anders and later blackwall because hawke only likes men who will break his heart. hela doesn’t have a romance because she’s literally 20. who let her lead the inquisition (me it was me). also it should be noted the version of cullen i have in my head only vaguely resembles actual cullen because i write better than dragon age writers ever could and i gave him an Actual Cohesive Narrative and he gets bullied relentlessly for being scrawnier than his mage boyfriend
malien “mal” surana (mage spirit healer/keeper spec), jules hawke (sword/shield reaver spec), ash adaar (mage rift spec), romanced leliana/merrill/krem because i should have been able to kiss krem and its a Crime that i am not allowed to
knight enchanter is a Very op specialization and by Very op i mean it makes a mage with their built-in low constitution stats able to solo the biggest baddest dragon in the game on nightmare mode in under five minutes so like. alas lavellan fist fights dragons for fun send tweet
i think lavellans should be able to hit ppl with bricks for all the shit they endure. thus solas gets pranked by mahariel and alas by which i mean they just tip buckets of water onto him from the rookery
kat might be my only competent inquisitor but she did also try to knock out the right hand of the divine and attempt to gap even tho there’s fucky magic burning up her hand so does she have a brain cell? you decide
also its fantasy land and i do what i want so kat has blue/gold sectoral heterochromia
gray “mage rights” hawke is best friends with fenris which surprises literally everyone. their friendship started because they got into a fist fight and then they were like okay i respect u now. hawke is like hey fenris give me ur sword i have a fun trick to show u [uses his sword as a foci to zap carver in the ass with lightning]
i am Always thinking abt like how cullen could have been one man anti-chantry propaganda machine if he hadn’t so blatantly been shoehorned into every game past origins so anyway bioware forgot about a wholeass moon i can write what i like. [holds up cullen by the scruff of his stupid armor] not only are you bisexual you are also a bottom
i also Hate the whole uwu mage haters get fixed by romancing a mage
unlocked secret dialogue option where my inquisitors verbally cuss out dorian’s dad instead of whatever sympathetic narrative the writers were going for cuz its bullshit.
riva is a showoff and a Menace about being as good as he is because he unabashedly loves being a mage and hes like oooh look at me im sexy i dont need to use my hands to cast magic because i’m just that good ;)) and you know what. hes right.
gray, on the other hand, does Not want to be mage. he wants to be a druffalo farmer and retire in the hinterlands and be left the fuck alone. unfortunately he is gay and has one brain cell and terrible, terrible taste in men. ribbed relentlessly for this by riva (altho does he have room to talk hes been hung up on cullen since he was like 13)
shiv is trans n kieran is the result of doing the dark ritual with her wife and he looks a Lot like shiv (dark skin pointed ears, shock-white hair) and morrigan always just Assumed she dyed it or did something magic with it so seeing their kid come out like that was a WEIRD time for her
leliana almost Murdered by cassandra in worldstate 5 because the warden is Actually There The Whole Time, but its been 10 years, mal’s cut off all her hair and gotten full facial tattoos and she’s like “no one will know its me its fine” and she’s right. she gets away with it. only cullen like, Knows, because he knew her before the blight but he doesnt have a death wish n he like. will Not piss her off
shes dalish by birth n she was stolen from her clan by templars and thus is vehemently anti-circle and anti-chantry in general
uhhh the vallaslin (elf face tattoos) of my 4 dalish characters are:
eira = ghilan’nain (chose em cuz shes rlly interested in the navigation aspect of the goddess)
alas = falon’din (god of the dead n he picked them because he’s Also the god of fortune and alas is like tee hee fun but also he can and will kill u if u fuck with him so yk its fitting)
hela = june (god of the craft bc she likes to Make things but june is also the god who taught the elves 2 hunt and hela is. a hunter.)
mal = elgar’nan (allfather/god of vengeance bc. she is Vengeful. she is Angry. but yk fucking with shem politics and fucking their divine is like. mal may have little a retribution. as a treat.) yes she has the full half-face solid colour tattoo she does NOT fuck around.
bronson and bryant r not genetically identical but they Look similar enough 2 anyone who doesn’t know them well enough 2 play spot the distance. anora and bronson think this is a super fun game to play, especially when nobles realize they’ve swapped out the king but they’re too nervous to say anything
eira mahariel has two hands. one is for holding hands with alistair and the other is for throttling elven gods, apparently. she’s killed one before so solas she’s coming for your bitch ass next. watch urself.
speaking of eira and alistair are married thru dalish tradition and humans don’t recognize it n alistair loves 2 re-propose to her with random things. he’ll just pick up like. a bit of cheese and be like “marry me ;)” and she’s like GASP but whatever will the chantry say!!!! all of their friends r sick of them
“vhenan if you love me bring me a sword” “you think i could do better than a sword made out of space rock?” “:)”
eira is my youngest hero at 18 at the start of her game and kat is my oldest at 32 at the start of her game.
none of my hawkes are under six foot. rhett is the tallest (6′8″) and rads is the shortest (6′2″).
syracuse trevelyan would have been the Perfect inquisitor if he were not a pretty boy himbo and a gay bastard who does Most Things just to spite his parents.
[corypheus pointing at syracuse’s visage in his crystal orb thingo] i want that twink obliterated
i love the companions from older games return thing i truly do so i make it a point for Every companion to return in inquisition so the gang rlly is all here because i am a Slutte for found family
i lie in my keep worldstates because i dont want to choose between hawke and alistair during here lies the abyss but i never make him king and every time i play inquisition and cole has the wicked grace line it makes me Scream. alistair baby im so sorry i did this to you but i didnt actually do this to you
yes this is my everyone lives au but like. all the time. i have never left hawke in the fade and i do not intend to.
fuck whatever nonsense about wardens not being able 2 have kids. by sheer divine power (me) anora and bryant have three daughters; eleanor, sabina & cecelia n both bronson and zevran make Excellent uncles because i think anora deserves good things because i’m tired of bioware being like women bad, actually,
so like most of the time i have the warden & hawke turning up after the move to skyhold n then staying on, with the exception of bryant, carmine & mal. mal is as mentioned previously just There the whole time with her girlfriend. bryant steps in as king of ferelden w/ interests in closing the big hole in the sky spewing demons in2 his kingdom yk. carmine shows up because she wants to help & she wants protection for bethany but she outright says she’d rather die than be inquisitor so cassandra is shit out of luck.
“CHANGE HER MIND VARRIC” “she once doubled down on insisting amaranth was a shade of blue because she didn’t want to admit to being wrong. no one’s changing her mind seeker”
alas is the middle child of eight and is thus very good with children and also bossing around people older than him. 2 of his older siblings come to the inquisition when stuff in wycome has been settled
i left ash with the basic canon background with Some variation (he grew up under the qun and left of his own free will when his magic was discovered n he realized he couldn’t take living as a saarebas
kat on the other hand was raised tal-vashoth and has bounced around basically all over thedas and leads her own merc company when the conclave blows up. she also speaks multiple languages. is there a language she doesn’t speak? probably not
just realized how long this got so im gonna like. stop my general rambling now but lmao yeah theres some basics. waves hands.
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incarnateirony · 4 years
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Taking an example from Christianity, when Jesus brought Lazarus back to life did he ressurected or reincarnated him, or are those concepts interchangeable?
Whoo! Here’s a fun one. Also sorry for delay Nonnie, I passed the fuck out.
Answer: Nyes?
Okay so first note, generally when we talk about reincarnation it’s in the idea like, you die, and then go through the great big beyond processing some way or another, and then decide or get voluntold you aren’t done yet, and then come back. Depending on the belief system, you may not even come back as a human, and generally, you come back as a wiggly human bean that has to try over top to bottom.
But depending on the exact abstract boundaries of reincarnation, you may very well take it such. After all, the entire principle of Christianity is to be “born again”, isn’t it?
But one could argue a difference, especially since Jesus endorsed like, actual fuckin’ reincarnation like that.
(Everyone, probably:)
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Okay so hold up let’s take a fun ride down Christianity lane even if this isn’t my personal sandbox. But since I got a Christian ask, I’ll give a Christian answer as best I can.
“Behold, I will send My messenger, who will prepare the way before Me. Then the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to His temple–the Messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight–see, He is coming,” says the LORD of Hosts. – Malachi 3:1  
Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD. And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. – Malachi 4:5-6
“Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” – Matthew 11:11
Anyone remember John the Baptist coming before Jeebus?
Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been subjected to violence, and violent people have been raiding it. For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John.And if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who was to come. – Matt 11:11-14
As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus instructed them, “Don’t tell anyone what you have seen, until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.” The disciples asked him, “Why then do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first?”Jesus replied, “To be sure, Elijah comes and will restore all things.But I tell you, Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but have done to him everything they wished. In the same way the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands.” – Matt 17:9-12
Which basically boiled down to, “He came back. He got beheaded. Great job guys!”
But in this example, John the Baptist’s birth was a lot more literal form of reincarnation. Elijah lived way back in the wayback machine. Then a new bb was born a lil bit before Jeebus came back, and lived a wholeassed new life over-again. So in this case, we are talking about the literal common form of address of reincarnation rather than the more abstract or philosophical reincarnation attached to the idea of, say, being Born Again, or debating if Jesus’ resurrection counts in that wheelhouse.
“But I tell you, Elijah has come.” (Mark 9:13)
The idea of reincarnation was condemned by the church around 500 AD and even strickened some now-aprocryphal texts that endorsed being able to get chances out of hell by Do-Over, so it became sort of alien to attach the related concepts (and other people would argue that older parts run against the idea of it, because of the idea of “death, then judgment”, but even that’s a WHOLE kettle of fish to argue the semantics of).
But it’s floating ‘round in there in the Bible.
Now, the thing is, be it Christ’s resurrection or being Born Again are a DIFFERENT kind of reincarnation, a more proverbial one than, say, Elijah shooting out of another vagina and growing up all over again as John the Baptist.
“But someone may ask, ‘How are the dead raised?  With what kind of body will they come?’  How foolish!  What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.  When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else.  But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body.  All flesh is not the same:  Men have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another.  There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another.  The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor.  So will it be with the resurrection of the dead.  The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.” (1 Corinthians 15:35-44).  
It is to be reborn in a new form; and really not all so different from the purpose of alchemical work in the remastering and recreation of the self long term. Jesus just kinda for the super ultra express route or something because Messiah? *shrug emoji*
So that said, when talking about say, Christianity, I would only call Jesus’ resurrection a /proverbial or metaphorical reincarnation/, as /more literal and direct reincarnation/ exists within the script, but it’s a fun thing to discuss anyway?
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gohyuck · 6 years
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into it - m.l.
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some of the lowest parts of your senior year with mark, and one of the highest
warnings, a/n, etc. under the cut <3
wc: 6.3k
warnings: school, misuse of prescription medicine, windrawal, angst (dw it ends fairly happy i would say), uhhh some smutty themes. maybe. there’s no actual smut in this it just gets close ig
a/n: this is literally just me projecting onto mark mixed with some other stories from other competitive schools from around me - if anyone wants to talk about how shitty school is with me they’re free too! i’m a slave to gpa. yeet. i think i might’ve projected onto the reader too please don’t @ me...
description should’ve been “in which mark is the author and the reader is the author and the author is barely a person”
idk this fic seems kinda pointless but . anyways
anyways enjoy <3
song: into it - chase atlantic
Yeah I've been catching planes for the fun of it Then I'll be watching fame turn to punishment The weather's only sunny when I'm under it And I haven't really changed, yeah I'm just confident
33 school days until Graduation
Living fire begets cold, impotent ash.
Mark can’t help but reread the line once. Twice. Thrice. 
He’s studying to distract himself. That, and he’s studying because he needs to, but mostly, it’s a distraction. 
From what? 
He’s trying not to think about it. 
A small part of Mark wonders why he’s rereading Things Fall Apart. While it’s definitely one of the better school-assigned books he’s been forced to dissect - Chinua Achebe knows how to make a point - its attractiveness diminishes every time he opens it again to page one. 
The first time he’d read it, Mark had been captivated without his special little boost. The main character, while terrible, was too relatable - Mark isn’t a fan of failure, either. 
The second time was to study for the 60 question test on the novel. It was less interesting this time around, but Mark still diligently annotated it, spending three days with his eyes glued to the page and fingers cramping around his lucky pencil. Every time he closed his eyes, Achebe’s land of Umuofia appeared. It was there when he opened his eyes, too. 
The third time was to find evidence to use in his analysis essay on what type of hero Okonkwo is. At this point, all that Mark was sure of was that Okonkwo sure as hell wasn’t his hero. Still, Mark typed until his fingers felt raw. 
The 97 scrawled across the top of his printed copy, returned a week later with a slightly smeared red smiley face alongside it, had made it worth it. The knowledge his teacher disclosed to him after class while gushing over his word choice - that nobody in the grade had scored higher than him - doubled his (short-lived) satisfaction. 
Now, Mark’s eyes are laser-focused on the novel in front of him. Their teacher had mentioned in passing that there would be a couple of questions pulled from the book on the last test of the marking period, and he can’t afford to miss anything on the test. He’s got a 98 in the class, and the idea of it dropping makes him squirm. 
It’s nearing 3 am, and he’s desperately wishing that he’d opted to stay at home and study rather than go skateboarding with Jeno and Jisung right after school.  He chides himself on not considering the opportunity cost (God, he’s even thinking in economics now. Economics. Fuck.) before going out. Reaping rewards before sowing them has never worked before - there’s no reason it would’ve today, either. 
There are about four bags of Cheez-Its, a half gallon of water, and 20 milligrams of Adderall lying at the bottom of his stomach. He’s kind of hungry, but he can’t be made to give two shits. Mark tells himself that he can eat later. He hasn’t had dinner yet. It’ll be a reward for finishing the book. 
Mark’s phone buzzes. Once. Twice. Thrice. He pays it no mind. He’s getting nearer and nearer to the end of the novel, and once he finishes he can let himself go for the night. Calculus is done, as well as French, Physics, and Economics (fucking Economics). There’s nothing in his other classes. He’s got swim practice after school, but there’s no way for him to prepare for that. At least - he hasn’t found one yet. 
I'm just fucking lucky I was born with it A hundred million people couldn't deal with this I've been tryna grow cause people kill for it This mental pressure got me popping pills and shit
“Have you considered sleeping early and waking up early to study?”
You don’t answer with a hello when he calls you back - you never have and never will. It’s 4:14 in the morning and you know that Mark’s calling you back now because he’s finished everything. There’s probably Adderall still in his system and a crease in his forehead from worrying that it still isn’t enough studying or time devoted. 
“Good morning to you, too.” Mark’s voice is low, lower than usual. It’s the lack off sleep, you know this. You shouldn’t find the huskiness in it attractive, but you do. It’s one of the less fucked up side-effects of the stress both him and you put yourselves through. 
“Would be if I wasn’t up at ass o’clock in the morning.”
“Hey - be proud of me. At least I have it in me to work hard like this. The way we’re both going, if we don’t die before college, we can get full rides to the fucking Ivies and end up some crazy millionaire couple on the front of Time magazine. Making 40 million before 40.”
“I love it when you maladaptive daydream to me, babe. Really gets me going.”
Mark chuckles at this, and you hear a rustling sound in the background on his end. He’s putting all of his things into his backpack for tomorrow, you guess. You’re right. 
“And I am proud of you.” You continue, knowing that he’s listening, probably with his phone tucked between his shoulder and ear as he tidies up his desk. He can’t put you on speaker - both of you shudder to think what will happen if either of your parents find out that you’re up at dawn, talking to the significant other neither of you are allowed to have. They think you’re both just best friends - two kids too wrapped up in school to have the time to date, anyways. “But, I think you’re nuts. I think I’m nuts. You’re worse, but... anyways. I’m proud of you, but you never call me back this late. It’s usually a “ttyl” text, or some shit. What’s wrong?”
The line goes silent. He’s stopped moving altogether on his end. 
He sighs. It’s heavy, and kind of empty, and you immediately know that he’s already cried this out. You wait.
This is what he’d been trying to distract himself from with Things Fall Apart. 
“My rank dropped.”
On impulse, you wince in response. The first semester ranks your school had given out not a week earlier are your and Mark’s second to last ranks as seniors - there’s only one semester left to redeem yourself if you fuck up. Even though college applications have been submitted for months and acceptances are about to start coming out, you know that falling still aches.
Top 10% of your class get recognized. Top 10 get special honors and get to walk first. Valedictorian and Salutatorian get to give speeches, five minute pieces that will be forgotten by everyone but them the next day. You’ll all be free for three months before starting the best and worst years of your lives. 
Graduation day is the focus now, as it has been since the first day of ninth grade. You’ve managed to stay well within the top 5%, to your own merit, but Mark’s always been in the top 10 - with walking honors. 
At least, up until last week. 
He’d been 10th at the end of Sophomore year, and now, apparently, he isn’t. 
You can’t begin to imagine how he feels. 
“How much?”
“Two. My GPA went up a wholeass .1, though.” He’s looking for the bright side by himself, now. It’s progress from last year. A part of you is glad. The other half of your heart aches. 
Before you can convey this, or even begin to formulate a response, Mark continues speaking. “I’ve been trying to remind myself that other people would kill to be 12th.” He inhales sharply. “Fuck.”
“And you’d kill to not. You’re killing yourself to not.” 
“I -”
“Mark.”
“I’m fine, baby.” His petname sounds forced, as if he can’t believe his own words. “I’m lucky, I have a good memory. You know this. I don’t work myself nearly as hard as you think I do, or as I should be.” 
“So you don’t pop pills all the damn time so you can study a week’s worth of material in a night?”
Your voice is tight - you’re no stranger to work and overwork, but Mark is on another plane. It feels like he’s so far gone, sometimes, that you can’t touch him. He’s on the other end of the line, but he’s a million miles away.
He lets a puff of air pass through his lips. Seconds tick by. 
Mark breaks the silence.
“It’s getting late. We have class in a few hours. I’ll pick you up at 8?”
You blink. Your anger at him, at the system, and, for almost no reason you yourself can discern, at yourself, wanes just slightly. It really is late - early - and, as if your body realizes this only after Mark says it, you yawn. Mark hears it clearly, letting a small smile grace his features for a split second because of it.
“Night.” It’s short and sweet, but he’s always been able to tell how much you love him. At this point, it doesn’t matter how much or how little you say.
“Night.” His response is just as succinct. “Love you.”
“Love you, too.” 
He called, so he hangs up - it’s been your system since the eighth grade. It’s worked surprisingly well for four years.
You wish everything was as easy as who gets to hang up. 
After plugging your phone into its charger and turning into your blanket, you stifle another yawn. Before sleep finds you, you can’t help but whisper it into existence, your words muttered into your pillow for whatever higher power finds them-
Let him Be. He deserves it. Let him Be. He works so, so fucking hard. Let him Be.
Your thoughts are muddled, but that’s because it’s nearing 4:45 in the morning. You aren’t even entirely sure of what you’re saying. For what feels like the millionth time, you wonder how you’ll be able to get up in time for school within 3 hours. You wonder how Mark will do it. A part of you hopes that he forgets to set his alarm and gets the sleep he so desperately needs and deserves. 
He’s leaning against his car, scrolling through something on his phone when you open your door. You don’t bother checking the time. It’s about 7:54. You’d checked your grades about five minutes ago at 7:48. You’re wearing his favorite sweatshirt - the blue swim team one that’s too small on him and too big on you (it’s his damn shoulders, and that’s the only reason why). He appreciates your outfit, checking to make sure that your parents aren’t outside and leaning across the center console to slip his cold hands under the sweatshirt while finding your lips with his own to show you the extent of this appreciation. 
It isn’t until you pull away from him to see that it’s 8:02 that he shifts to Drive, though not before sending you a smirk while buckling his seat-belt and checking his mirrors. 
You check your calendar. 
32 school days ‘til Graduation. 
But I'm into it, I'm into it Say she wanna fuck me later Girl I'm into it, I'm into it, I'm into it This mental pressure got me popping pills and shit But I'm into it, I'm into it
25 school days until Graduation
You see it as a well-deserved break. You aren’t quite sure what Mark thinks. A distraction? You hope not. You’re more than just a distraction. You should be, at least. 
There’s not much time to mull this unpleasant thought over, though, as he teasingly nips at the sensitive skin of your inner thigh. One of your hands flies to his hair, while the other keeps you sitting up in his bed while you’re still leaning back. One of his hands is on your thigh, while the other is splayed across your stomach, hiking your camisole up. His shirt is off - it has been for a while. There’s hickeys dotting his collarbone. 
If your mind was working, you’d be admiring your handiwork. 
“Your underwear’s still on,” He moves back slightly so his eyes meet yours, your fingers still entangled in strands of dark brown hair. His lips are red from kissing you earlier. You know for sure that your pupils are blown as wide as his are. “Can I change that?” Mark’s fingers are running over the elastic waistband that separates him from your skin. 
You blink. You swallow.
A voice in the back of your mind begs you to say yes, begs you to guide his head back to where you want his mouth. You haven’t fucked him in weeks, it whispers. If you don’t now, it’ll be even longer.
“Mark,” His name comes out as more of a whine that you expect. He dips his head down, pressing a chaste kiss on your knee.
“Hm?”
You’re this close - this close - to begging him. You can practically feel him on top of you - inside you - already.
Until, of course, your logic prevails.
“Mark,” You say his name again, without the rawness this time. His gaze bores into yours, awaiting your response. 
“Calc.”
Mark stays on his knees for a moment, and in that moment he seems hesitant to move. That’s dangerous - if he stays down any longer, you’ll beg him to continue. 
Thankfully, he presses one last, reverent kiss over your underwear before pushing himself up off of the floor. You’re still holding your breath. 
“I can’t believe I just got cock-blocked by math.” He grins at you, not perturbed. Mark’s nothing if not respectful. He tosses you your shorts before beckoning you back over to the floor beside his desk. 
Mark sits down, cross-legged, in front of you, but not before handing you your math notebook and grabbing his own. Your calculus textbook goes between the two of you.
“We can rain check.” You say. He quirks an eyebrow. 
It’s hot. He’s hot. 
You imperceptibly shake your head - you’re still flustered, and would give anything to be underneath your boyfriend. The only reason you aren’t is because your math grade depends on you acing tomorrow’s calculus test. 
“Come again?” Mark knows what you said - his teasing ass just wants to hear it again. You know what he wants to hear. 
“I want you to fuck me later.” You look him in the eyes, pleased to see a hint of a blush. Sometimes you miss the early stages of your relationship - where Mark had been constantly tripping over his own feet and as red as a fire hydrant. You’d been the smoother one, then. 
One corner of Mark’s mouth turns up, and he leans over the textbook to give you a short kiss. 
“I’m into that.” 
I'm getting way too deep I'm fucking into it I'm into it, yeah I'm into it I wouldn't change it for the world I'm fucking into it
He pulls a pill bottle from a box he keeps in the bottom right drawer of his desk. It’s where he stores everything important to him - polaroids of him and you together, his calendar, the swim team schedule and his list of swim times, his phone charger, his planner... and his Adderall. 
Mark takes his typical dosage into the palm of his hand, swallowing the pills dry. He moves to put the pill bottle back. It’ll be some time before it kicks in, but the rest of the day is ahead of both of you. 
He always takes some before studying, but never asks you to. It’s not something he wants for you. You’ve never asked, too - it’s not something you want for yourself. 
Your tongue feels like sandpaper, though, and every breath you take makes it feel as if there’s more lead in your lungs than air. Your math grade flashes through your mind. You need to ace the test for your grade and, by extension, your sanity. 
“Babe.” Without being fully aware of yourself, you place your hand on top of his. Neither of you will move from the floor in...hours. You’re sure of this. You may as well make the absolute most of it. 
“Give me some.”
I’ve been on the road since I was sixteen They don’t really notice I how I see things These girls they come and go between my bedsheets And I’ve been doing blue and causing big scenes, yeah
17 school days until Graduation
"Remember when we were sixteen?”
“Like... last year? Yeah.”
You turn over onto your side to face your boyfriend, only to find your nose in his bare chest. Mark chuckles. He moves back, allowing you to shift so that you’re face to face with him. 
“Fifteen and sixteen, at least. For sophomore year. Do you remember any of sophomore year?”
“Less depression.” His hard words come out soft, paired with an even softer smile. Mark wraps an arm around your waist, pulling your body into his. Skin on skin. “Less getting laid, too.”
“Shut up,” You’re smiling now, too. The melancholy presses against your thoughts.
“I was talking about the less depression part, actually.”
“What about it?” Mark seems and sounds slightly antsier, all of a sudden. 
As he always does when you bring up things he might not want to hear. 
“Nothing big, just like... don’t you miss it? Going out sometimes and actually feeling like highschoolers?”
“We went to libraries, babe, and to the mall like every couple of months. It wasn’t anything special.”
“It was easier, though.” You bury your face in the crook of his neck, breathing in. His skin is warm - you aren’t surprised. “No drugs and shit.”
Mark pulls away from you, very, very slightly. 
“Adderall isn’t a drug.” His voice is adamant. The speed of his switch from soft to rough is almost alarming. “You’ve had it once. You aren’t addicted.” 
You sigh, choosing not to respond. You’re too fucked out to fight him. Instead, you run the pads of your fingers over his collarbone. 
“No, but I’m addicted to you.”
Pull up and I’m higher than the big trees, yeah She don’t really like it but she needs me, yeah She saying she don’t really miss me But fuck it, now I’m faded after all things, yeah
12 school days until Graduation
“I can’t fucking believe you.” 
He pauses his notes to look up at you, taking in how your eyes are flashing. Your voice is controlled, but the fire in your eyes is unrivaled. The pill bottle is on its side - empty. The last time you’d seen it, which had been the last time you’d thought you’d ever see it, there had been one dosage left. A dosage that you’d been led to believe had ended up being flushed. 
You aren’t mad that he lied - at least, you think you aren’t. You’re mad that he, for the first time in years, broke a promise. 
Mark is unbothered by your tone. You’ll calm down eventually - whether its sooner or later makes no difference to him. Your boyfriend isn’t actually hearing you, anyways. It’s another reason as to why he isn’t really responding. His silence isn’t an invitation for you to continue, but it’s something nonetheless.
You take it.
“Ranks came out three days ago. You’re back in the top 10, Mark. You’re graduating in the top 10. We’re about to graduate, and you’re spending your time still fucking studying even when there’s only two weeks left of our senior year. You’re still on those goddamn pills when you promised me-”
“Just because I reached one goal doesn’t mean that everything else doesn’t matter anymore.” Short. You expected nothing else. 
“What’s everything else? What else is more important than your health? School? We’re pretty much done for three months. We don’t even have any fucking grades left to go in the grade book. We’re done, Mark. Senior year is over.”
He doesn’t respond for a beat of silence - two, three, four beats - fully focused on whatever is in front of him. It isn’t until you cease your pacing to stand directly behind him, hands on the back of his chair, that he even considers gracing you with a comment. 
“I’m looking over my times, trying to make a better workout regime so I can shed milliseconds.” Mark is straight with his words - he wants you to stop talking so he can politely ignore you. His shoulders are hunched into himself, his glasses digging into the bridge of his nose. The way he’s staring at the slightly crumpled time sheet in front of him makes you wonder if it’s possible to re-kill dead trees. 
“Your times are your lock screen.”
“So?”
“So- so? You always have them with you and you’re always looking at them, you don’t need Adderall to work on a workout schedule. You don’t need it at all, if I’m being fucking honest, and-”
He cuts you off for the second time in less than five minutes, his voice as sharp as a knife.
“You have no damn clue what I need.”
Your hands release his chair on reflex as you step back, everything about your body screaming that you’re offended. Mark pays this no heed, turning back to his desk.
It’s just one sentence, eight words, and part of you wants to argue. Part of you wants to bring up all of the times he’s leaned on you, the times you yourself have been exactly what he needs, but you know that that wouldn’t be playing fair. 
He’s gotten like this before, where he’s frozen everyone - frozen you - out without not so much as a thought. You’ve fought before, too, out of inevitability.
He’s never, however, been so blatant or blunt. Nothing he’s ever said before has hurt this much, for some reason. It’s jarring, and, before you know it, your throat is heavy. There are no tears pooling, but you know that they’ll come to you later. 
Without a word, you pick up your belongings. You’d worn one of his sweatshirts to his house, but opt to go home without it. 
Being petty can be subtle, after all. Mark deserves it, you think, anyways. 
You call a goodbye to his mother as you walk out the front door to your car. You make it to the end of his street before having to pull over and park, resting your forehead against the top of the steering wheel. A stray tear finds itself tracing a wellworn track down your face, leaving you to sigh. 
God, crying over a boy? Pathetic.
Your intrusive thoughts are screaming - laughing, hysterically, at your state. You dismiss them, willing yourself to think straight. 
Not just a boy, I’m crying over Mark. 
Sniffling, you beg yourself to get it together. Staying still can only lead to reminiscing over elementary school Mark, who promised you that he’d never leave your side (after, of course, you accidentally eating a worm and bursting into tears out of a fear of dying from it), to 8th grade Mark confessing his feelings for you in PE, moments before getting hit in the face by a particularly well-thrown dodgeball from Yukhei. Mark is as much a boyfriend as he is and almost always has been the most comforting and reliable presence in your life. With him so firmly, without a second thought, dismissing you...
You breathe in. Sharply.
It’s either drive home to avoid the reality of how much of a stronghold Mark has over your feelings or stay parked and traipse down memory lane, like, as you remind yourself, a goddamn pansy. A voice of reason tells yourself not to be harsh on yourself - you’ve known Mark for what? 12? 13? years and it’s normal to be hurt by him brushing you aside. A louder voice tells you to quit pitying yourself.
If Mark hurts himself mentally, you hurt yourself emotionally. 
Blinking away forming tears, you sit back and turn the ignition.  
5:53 pm
mark...us zusak 
>>did you get home safely
                                                                                      maybe<<
>>im glad
                                                                                          cool<<
6:12 pm
>>picking you up tmrw?
                                                                                          sure<<
>>ok
>>i’m really sorry
read 7:09 pm
But I’m into it, I’m into it Say she wanna fuck me later Girl I’m into it, I’m into it, I’m into it This mental pressure got me popping pills and shit
5 days until Graduation
You have to give him credit - after a somewhat teary but controlled argument in his car on the way to school, focused on why Mark really doesn’t need Adderall in his life, and on why he really doesn’t need to carry it with him to college, he really has tried giving it up. All seemed to be going well, even, for a couple of days.
You hadn’t realized how fast withdrawal would hit him. 
It isn’t as if either of you are wholly unprepared - you’ve both seen it happen to others. Adderall withdrawal can be dangerous, heightening both depression and anxiety. Even a slight dip in Mark’s mood has the inside of your mouth drying up. 
You can’t imagine what it feels like for him.
After all, neither of you are strangers to mental illness, but withdrawal is somewhere you can’t say you’ve been. 
Currently, Mark’s tongue is down your throat. The back of your mind screams at you that this is his way of dealing with withdrawal - by getting himself addicted to you. You know that this is the truth - that whatever he’s doing can end up being unhealthy for him - but you don’t have it in you to deny him as his fingers dip beneath the waistband of your jeans and his other hand makes its way under your shirt and bra. 
You can’t help the moans that escape you. 
The pads of his fingers are rough against the skin of your back as he unclasps your bra, pulling it off of you along with your shirt. In the same arc, you hastily pull his shirt over his head, unzipping his jeans not long after. 
It isn’t until you’re splayed out on your bed, eyes already fucked out before he’s even touched you, that Mark breathily asks if you’re sure. As he always does.  
A part of you wants to deny him - for his own good, you tell yourself. Maybe for your own. (Is it possible to get addicted to a person when you aren’t running away from something else?)
The other, larger part of you wants you to pull his head to yours - his lips to yours - by his neck with one hand, taking the condom out of his grip with the other and telling him that you can put it on him yourself. The other, larger part of you wants Mark everywhere, engraved into your skin and lingering on your body.
The other, larger part of you wants - needs - to say yes.
Majority rules. 
But I’m into it, I’m into it I’m getting way too deep I’m fucking into it I’m into it, yeah I’m into it I wouldn’t change it for the world I’m fucking into it
12 hours until Graduation
You find your head against Mark’s shoulder as the two of you recline on the patio’s couch, watching the two of your families interact your joint graduation party. There’ll be a bigger celebration after tomorrow’s ceremony with a bigger crowd, so you cherish the small gathering in your backyard for tonight. Graduation is tomorrow - it almost feels too damn good to be true. The stars are all out, fairy lights have been strung overhead to add to the festivities, there’s laughter rising up from every direction, Mark’s arm is welcome around your shoulders, and you find yourself thinking that you could get used to this. 
“You know, I’m glad that we’re going to college together.”
Mark’s voice brings you out of your thoughts, causing you to look up at him - albeit slightly sideways. You nod, unsure of what to say in response. You’re in agreement with him, of course - even though you’ve both had your ups and downs, a life without as much Mark in it as now is one that you don’t want to imagine. 
He’s been such a constant presence for so long that you’re almost incapable of remembering a time without him. The thought scares you as much as it fills you with love. 
Wow.
You really are starting another chapter in your life. In your lives.
A fresh start - Mark’s still going through withdrawal, and you’re well aware, and just because your high school education is over doesn’t mean that life is automatically easier, now. Still - the next three months and four years after that are something to look forward to, not fear.
You aren’t sure how to voice all of this just yet, opting instead to repeat your awe at high school having ended. 
“High school’s really all over, now. We never have to step back in that building again.”
Mark chuckles at your revelation, running his fingers through your hair absentmindedly.
“What about reunions?”
You roll your eyes at this, resting a hand on his chest momentarily before remembering that your parents aren’t aware of your relationship. Wriggling out of Mark’s grasp before inclining your head towards all four parents, you remain within a comfortable distance to him. He radiates warmth.  
“I’ll only go to them if you and our other friends do. Maybe.”
Mark grins. “Maybe I’ll drag you to them.”
“You wouldn’t.”
He smiles. “I wouldn’t. You’re all I need, anyways.”
“Hyuck? Renjun? Yeri? Jeno?”
“...You’re the one I need the most.”
“Glad to know that you’re an honest man, Mark Lee.” Your teasing tone makes your boyfriend laugh, and you’re hyperaware of how you could get used to this - smiley, lighthearted Mark. 
“Your roommate’s going to have fun with you.” He responds, nudging your shoulder with his. 
“Hey! I’m not the only one who’s a handful. Lucas? That’s your soon-to-be roommate’s name, right? Lucas has his work cut out for him. For his sake I hope you spend time outside of your dorm room.”
Mark grins as he presses his lips to your temple, simultaneously making sure that everyone else’s attention is elsewhere. He moves away as quickly as he’d kissed you, much to your mental chagrin. 
“What? You worried that I’ll leave you for him?” 
It’s your turn to nudge your boyfriend. Before you can respond, Mark’s mother’s voice cuts through the air. 
“Mark? (Name)? It’s time for the cake!” 
Mark gets up first, reaching his hand out to pull you up. 
“We’re coming!” You call, before turning to Mark with a half-grin on your face. “This isn’t over yet.”
Mark squeezes your hand before letting go of it.
“Can’t be over if you never started it.”
“Mark Lee!”
Girl I’m into it, I’m into it Say she wanna fuck me later Girl I’m into it I am into it, I am into it
conGRADs, Mark and (Name)!
The sign is both massive and incredibly cheesy, but the amount of happiness it gives you is immeasurable. It hangs over Mark’s front porch, visible from the other end of the street, and as you and Mark pass by them, any neighbors that are out make sure to congratulate you. 
You aren’t sure whether to laugh or cry. 
The two of you’d escaped the clutches of your overexcited parents a little bit over an hour prior, around 11, under the guise of taking a walk around the neighborhood to talk about your upcoming collegiate futures. That was how you’d ended the night, of course, but before that you’d both beelined to your house, wanting to sit and talk in your bedroom for the time being.  
Discussion of your coming lives had sputtered out after a while - after all, it’s all you’d both been talking about for years, now - and you’d wound up situated in Mark’s lap, laughing against his lips.
“We should have graduation night sex.”
His tone is matter-of-fact, so much so that you roll your eyes at his bluntness. “We’re going to have to get back eventually.”
“We have time!”
His laugh against your collarbone is enough to tell you that nothing’ll happen tonight, that time together will just be time together. Still, you can’t help but respond.
“Yeah, time enough at college. We’ll be out of the house in 3 months, baby.”
Mark wraps his arms around your waist and pulls you impossibly closer, pressing a chaste kiss to the junction of your jaw and neck. It tickles. 
“We won’t have to sneak around and shit, either.” You continue, lightly running your hand through his hair. 
“We didn’t sneak around much this year, anyways. Our parents are just oblivious as fuck.”
“True-” You feel your phone vibrate, causing you to squirm around to reach it for a moment before Mark pulls it from your back pocket and hands it to you, mirth in his eyes. You scrunch up your nose at him before answering - its your mom.
“Where are you?” She sounds slightly worried, so you’re quick to mention that you’re with Mark and near your house, both safe and sound.  
“Come back quickly - Mark’s cousins are planning on sleeping soon because they start their four hour drive back at 6 in the morning, and we don’t want them to miss their chance to say good night to him.” 
You reply with a quick “I’ll tell him - love you.” before she hangs up. Sliding off of Mark’s lap, you help him up.
“Did you hear what she said, or?”
“Yeah. Your call volume’s always been too loud.” 
“I, for one, like to think that it’s just loud enough, thanks.”
Mark grins, choosing to loop an arm around your waist instead of replying.
The moment the two of you step inside, careful not to stand too close to each other, you’re bombarded by exclaims from family and friends and family friends alike. It’s getting late, and people are starting to gather up their belongings. You yourself are staying the night, however - otherwise, Mrs. Lee would riot.
You don’t mind. 
You close the front door behind you, being pulled into the group of people the moment that you do. 
As Mark is dragged into the ending remarks of a conversation with his aunts about something that you can’t quite hear, your mother’s friend’s young daughter tugs you down to her level to congratulate you, shyly placing a pipe-cleaner flower - clearly made by her - behind your ear. 
You kiss her cheek before she runs away out of shyness, far quicker than you expect her to be able to. Laughing, you stand up, only to be pulled into a discussion about your plans for college with your parents and one of your uncles. 
You briefly make eye contact with Mark - who’s also been given a pipe-cleaner flower - once, winking at him discreetly before turning back to nod along to your uncle’s rant over how you shouldn’t push your passions under the rug for your profession. You don’t see your boyfriend make his way through the throng of people gathered in his foyer - most have started filtering out, leaving by foot or by car - until you feel his hand against the small of your back for a quick moment. 
He shakes your father’s hand and hugs your mother before introducing himself to your uncle, who knows of him but doesn’t know him. Time passes quicker with Mark by your side, and, before you know it, it’s 2 am and the only people left in Mark’s how are both of your direct families and your uncle, who’s staying at your house for the night. 
“You have everything? Toothbrush? Pajamas?”
You sigh, looking pointedly at your father. 
“I’m a college student!”
“Doesn’t mean that you’re responsible.” 
You and your dad grin together before you shake your head. Both of your parents and your uncle bid you and the Lees goodnight before Mark’s parents follow them outside, probably to continue talking for a little bit more. 
Mark closes the door behind them, turning to you immediately after only to find that you’re already halfway upstairs. He shakes his head affectionately before following you up to his room. 
“(Name), you did remember a toothbrush, right?”
“Yeah, but I forgot clothes.”
“I guess you’ll just have to sleep naked - ow!” Mark rubs the skin on his arm where you’d lightly smacked him. It doesn’t erase the playful grin from his face. “Fuck you, fine. You can borrow some pajamas, or something.” 
You laugh as you flop down onto his bed before humming inquisitively to yourself for a moment over a question you’ve been mulling over in your head for a short while. You know that summer’s just started, but you can’t help but wonder how it’ll go.
“What’s your plan for this summer? Other than getting ready for our courses and stuff.”
Mark furrows his brows at this while he strips, changing into shorts and a shirt before throwing you one of his longest shirts. You change as well, folding your clothes neatly and placing them on his desk chair to take home tomorrow. 
“I haven’t thought about it, honestly. Why?” Mark turns off the hallway lights and opens his door halfway - a rule his parents have for his bedroom door whenever you sleep over. It’s fair, you suppose, even if they don’t know that you’re together. Maybe it’s especially because they don’t know that you’re together. 
Mark turns off the light after laying his sleeping bag down on the floor, giving you the bed as always. 
Tomorrow, you’ll wake up on the floor next to him, also as always.   
“I was thinking...” 
“Yeah?”
You turn on your side to face your boyfriend in the dark.
“I was thinking that we could take a road trip.” 
A long silence follows your statement, and you begin thinking that you’ve made a mistake asking until, in the dark, you can see the faint outline of Mark’s smile.
“I’m free all summer, babe. Just tell me where and when.”
“For real?” 
The excitement in your voice is almost tangible, and you’re half embarrassed at how childish you must sound. Mark, to his merit, just nods while smiling.
He looks up at you, and, even in the dark, you can see the softness in his eyes.
“Yeah,” He pauses, grinning at you. 
“I’m into it.”
fin... for now?
im shit at endings but also this has been like...a month coming...i’m gonna come back and rewrite this someday but yeet enjoy.... i should’ve reread before posting but w/e 
2K notes · View notes
auctes · 6 years
Note
1-6 (too lazy to switch to gungilded lol)
01 .   FAVORITE  GAME ?
dr1 ,   without  a  doubt .   there’s  something ,   for  me ,   about  dr  and  firsts :   the  first  trial .   the  first  murder .   the  first  execution .   something  about  the  first  of  everything  sets  the  tone  for  what’s  to  come ,   and  that  was  the  first  game  for  me .   i  prefer  the  cast ,   the  story ,   the  trials ,   and  the  executions  far  more  to  anything  else  the  series  gave  me .   ( with  a  few  notable  exceptions . )   dr1  did  something  very  special :   it  took  a  familiar  and  interesting  premise ,   made  very  straightforward  modifications ,   and  produced  something  so  outstanding  in  its  simplicity  that  no  installment  in  the  series  to  date  has  been  able  to  rival .   it  was  uncomplicated ,   messy  fun  at  its  finest .
02 .   FAVORITE  PROTAG ?
you  all  thought  i  was  going  to  say  komaru ,   and  i  was  very  close .   overall ,   kaede  is  my  favorite  protagonist .   you  can  actually  fight  me ;   for  the  single  chapter  we  had  her ,   she  was  so  refreshing .   someone  who  wanted  to  assume  that  leadership  role ,   who  wanted  to  take  responsibility  for  everyone ,   and  who  experienced  immediate  pushback  from  her  peers  because  of  it ,   was  exactly  the  turn  i  was  hoping  the  series  would  take .   am  i  bitter  that  we  lost  her  in  favor  of  your  standard  reluctant  hero’s  journey ?   well ,   yeah .   but  i  can  still  appreciate  kaede  for  the  character  she  is ,   and  how  much  i  genuinely  enjoyed  her  chapter .
03 .   FAVORITE  ANTAGONISTIC  CHARACTER ?
i  wanted  to  say  genosyo / fukawa ,   but  neither  of  them  are  truly  antagonistic .   objectionable ,   sure .   but  insofar  as  antagonists ...   you  guessed  it .   tsumugi .   you  all  know  that  i  adore  shirogane  with  my  wholeass  heart  because  she  is ,   to  me ,   an  excellent  antagonist .   she’s  a  corporate  puppet ,   rabbiting  the  ideals  of  a  cultural  phenomenon  that  has  totally  ensnared  her ;   she  loves  nothing  more  than  danganronpa ,   and  the  comforts  of  a  fictional  world  that  only  tsumugi ,   who  is  so  dependent  on  fiction  as  a  source  of  strength ,   agency ,   and  identity ,   in  a  way  that  really  only  she  could  enunciate .   she’s  manipulative ,   callous  &  detached ;   she  has  no  regard  for  human  life ,   because  she  has  surrounded  herself  in  a  hyperfictional  narrative  of  her  own  design .   i  love  that  they  went  all  out  in  making  tsumugi  so  off - the - wall ,   and  yet ,   so  inherently  sad .
04 .   FAVORITE  CHARACTER .
look  at  my  fucking  blog  and  tell  me .
05 .   BEST  GIRL ?
see  above .   fukawa  is  best  girl ,   i  don’t  make  the  rules .   ( honorable  mentions  to  shirogane ,   kirumi ,   celestia ,   and  tsumiki . )
06 .   BEST  BOY ?
i  thought  about  this  for  a  longass  time .   but  i’m  going  to  go  with  my  gut  and  said  that  oowada  is  best  boy .   he’s  not  necessarily  my  favorite  male  character ,   but  i  find  his  arc  to  be  one  of  the  most  emotionally  compelling ;   the  impotence  that  he  derives  from  his  guilt ,   his  unconditional  respect  of  the  qualities  he  believes  to  be  noble ,   and  his  undying  fealty  to  his  friends ,   were  turned  away  from  the  traditional  hero  / antihero  margin  and  were  instead  shoved  into  someone  who  is  insatiably  volatile .   i  cried  throughout  the  entire  second  trial  for  a  lot  of  reasons ,   but  one  of  them  was  definitely  oowada .   ( honorable  mentions :  chihiro ,  gonta ,   kuzuryuu ,   twogami . )
                           KICK  ME  OUT  OF  THE  FANDOM .    /      ( @cleankill . )
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