#this brings us to at least three such instances however | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

red-hot-kick · 5 months

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Theory: Ryuji was popular, before.

I'm not entirely sure if anyone has really talked about this but I maintain my interpretation that, in the canon of Persona 5, Ryuji used to be very (or at least moderately) popular prior to the events of the story.

This is something I've gotten into before when talking to friends who like the game and the character, but I haven't really considered writing it down until now. The main argument I have is based on three things:

Things Ryuji alluded to in canon (but no one believed him on)

The deliberate choice of making him a track athlete

Typecasting for voice actors

1: "There were girls all over me!"

I don't really have the time to go on a deep dive through all the instances in which he hints at his reputation before the Kamoshida incident, but I think the most clear-cut representation of this was during the scene where he and Ann spend the day with Futaba during her post-palace social rehabilitation:

So here's the thing...I don't think he's lying about this. Nobody in the room would be that impressed to find out whether Ryuji was popular since they are already friends (or in Mona's case, he really just doesn't care), so it wouldn't make sense for him to lie.

Regarding everyone's reactions though, here's my impression: Ann was simply not aware of what was going on with the track team, being predominantly focused on dealing with rumors, her friendship with Shiho, and her modeling career (and eventually Kamoshida's advances once he started doing that shit) and she mentions a few times that she and Ryuji weren't actually close before joining the PT; they were just in the same class in middle school. Futaba hasn't interacted with anyone her age in years and isn't the most reliable source when it comes to what people generally find attractive; just because she doesn't have any interest in Ryuji doesn't mean that nobody her age would. And Morgana is a cat that brags constantly about how cool he is, so he shouldn't be throwing rocks.

There are many other times in the game when you get little glimpses of his social savvy, and from my understanding of Royal (I'm an OG vanilla P5 player and haven't done 3rd-semester yet, so don't kill me) when the track team returns to "how it was", he is getting along extremely well with everyone. Not only was he the team's ace: this kid was also expected to become the captain by his senior year (as briefly mentioned when he bumps into his former senpai at the gym, iirc). That's huge! If his team held him in such high regard, then the general student body of Shujin surely had a similar opinion. This brings me to my next point:

2: Girls like boys that run fast(???)

This is honestly something that baffles me. It's also really difficult for me to substantiate; any source material on this is obviously in Japanese and if I could find any of it, I sure as hell can't read it. The only English-language source I know of I cannot find anymore; I think it was an old Tofugu article? However. If you've watched any romance anime set in a high school during the last 20 years, you might have seen this trope at some point: the school sports festival is happening, and the relay race is kind of a huge deal (it's the final event! a make-or-break moment for the class!). The boy thinks to himself "If I win this race, I'll be able to win her heart/ask her out/etc." Low-stakes drama ensues. Maybe a confession happens.

This is (from what I've been told) based on a long-standing trend of girls and women self-reporting in surveys about how, oftentimes, their crushes in junior or senior high school were simply "the boy who ran the fastest in the races". I have no idea what this means in a broader cultural context. It makes no goddamn sense to me at all. Do not cite me on this. But I think it's worth keeping in mind, even if it's almost entirely speculative (and possibly outdated) information. And even if it's just based on rumors, don't you think it's pretty in-character for Ryuji to go for a track scholarship—despite being adept at other sports like baseball and football/soccer, as mentioned in P5 and P5D—because he was aware of the potential of being more popular with girls? Of course, his priority would be getting the scholarship and paying his way through school to lighten his mother's burden, but hey, getting a girlfriend on the way up wouldn't be half bad!

I think this could also inform us as to why Kamoshida (as a predator who wanted attention from high school girls) felt so threatened by the track team in particular, and why he felt a need to specifically knock Ryuji down a peg and sought out a weakness to do so (as opposed to targeting any of the probably just-as-popular boys on the many other athletic teams and clubs in the school). Just some food for thought on this one! Also, if anyone can find a source or has any insight on the relay race thing, please share. I am so confused about it.

3: Typecasting

So this is something that you really only notice if you are very into keeping up with seiyuu in Japan. I am not one of those people. But I do have some favorite voice actors! One of these being Mamoru Miyano.

So I freakin' love this dude. He's voiced a lot of my favorite characters, sings incredibly well, and has an unreal sense of comedy. He's stated in interviews that his acting inspiration is Jim Carrey, and let me tell you: it shows. He is also quite consistently typecast into certain roles, predominantly as princely pretty-boy types, Coolguys, or complete fucking nutcases. Sometimes all three at the same time (shoutout to my boy Ling FMA!)

ATLUS definitely cast him for P5 because of his comedic chops. But I think they also cast him because having him voice someone like Ryuji is a great way to subvert expectations for the player. I think it's supposed to give you whiplash—"what do you mean the voice of LIGHT FUCKING YAGAMI is coming out of this guy's mouth?" "why does the delinquent character sound like king of the host club Tamaki Suou?" "isn't that Rin Matsuoka's voice?" etc. etc. etc.

(here's a quick list, just to really get the idea across. maybe you recognize a few.)

This is obviously a non-comprehensive list, but something that a lot of the characters he's voiced over the years have in common is that they were considered cool, handsome, or popular. Not just for fans, but within the canon of their stories! So...what does that mean? What does that say about how we should see Ryuji?

I think players are supposed to expect that he will fall into one of those categories too, and then be surprised to find that it's not the case—that he's been isolated and made bitter and resigned by what happened to him the year before.

Speaking of his tone, I think it's very telling that Ryuji actually forgets to keep up the delinquent act a lot in the original JP audio, which unfortunately doesn't really carry over in the ENG translation. The delivery of his JP lines sounds a bit more subdued in comparison too—yeah he's got a lot of energy and is very hotheaded, but when he gets to talking about serious shit, he sounds a lot more regretful and melancholy as opposed to the EN delivery which depicts him as more resentful and outwardly angry. I think before Shit Went Down, he probably had the Coolguy vibe. Still a bit of a rowdy idiot and a showoff, but I think he probably came across to most people as a very friendly, sincere, and popular guy.

So yeah, the girls probably were all over him, at least for a short while.

#persona 5 #ryuji sakamoto #character analysis #LONGASS POST SORRY #I JUST REALLY LIKE HIM AND WANTED TO THINK MY THOUGHTS FOR A WHILE #pita.txt

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thesherrinfordfacility · 8 months

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i did not break my own heart last night thinking about the missing 1941 scene and have it sat in my brain all of today spinning around like a fucking microwave in order to not make you lot suffer with me. and i somehow feel i may be right about this so buckle up and lets break it down.

so yes, following on from this post, i think that there is going to be a third 1941 scene. twice is a coincidence, three times is a pattern. it's been literally set up like that by even bringing back 1941 into s2 in the first place. but we're missing a crucial detail because it does not - at all, really - explain how they went from evading danger from hell and having a cosy candlelit bottle of red to celebrate, to the bastard 1967 scene. we all know this, this is nothing new.

the symbolism of nightingales is probably going to cast a shadow on this. these two excellent analyses look at the meaning of nightingales in the context of R&J, and the relation that the song has to this point in time, respectively. in summary; it's a song that should be around in 1941 courtesy of vera lynn and others, and the nightingale itself carries the meaning of love being hidden and forbidden by way of it singing under the cover of darkness, before being replaced with reality and soberness - represented by the lark. the Dinner of '41 scene is set in the bookshop at night; this would parallel - that they are safe and concealed, and truths can be shared, but the writing is on the wall that stepping outside would be to shatter the illusion, so to speak. it might be that the song itself gets miracled up onto the record player, or a wireless lying about - whatever. note: i don't think they'll dance though, not given crowley in ep5, "you don't dance"... but then again, if there ISNT a kiss in s3-1941, an aborted dance seems like the next best option... the cowardly one, but i'll take it

this would also track with aziraphale having his epiphany after the church in s1-1941; specifically, in my eyes, that he doesn't necessarily just realise he loves crowley, but that crowley by way of saving his books loves him too. this is only supported by the whole of the s2-1941 scene of trusting in each other as the only way to pull off the trick, the subterfuge. this is then, again, also important in the context of what i think happens in s3-1941.

i do think aziraphale is going to bring the books up again, and what crowley did, because it needs to be addressed. the Nazis/furfur confrontation has scared him, regardless of whether he saved them both, more than he realised. its put things into startling perspective. i think he's going to bring up the books, and actually question crowley a little more as to why he did it. the repeated use of, and subsequent weird reaction crowley has to, the use of the term "friend" in s2-1941 would indicate that this is going to be a focal point in s3-1941. are they just friends? is crowley disappointed that aziraphale is still referring to him as that, after what he did? 'saving' aziraphale in the church, and then saving his books? or is aziraphale just saying 'friends' so hesitantly in both instances because he's not completely sure where crowley stands?

we as the audience know the answer to this, but they obviously do not. if one of the crucial themes of s3 is going to be resolving miscommunication, it makes sense for this scene to be the first, and last, time they communicate properly... at least, until they sort out the issues that culminated in the Final Fifteen.

so let's say they start getting into a very roundabout way of discussing what they mean to each other. there will need to be the sobering, ice-water-over-the-head realisation however, as s2-1941 demonstrated, that they cannot belong to each other, because they manifestly belong to heaven and hell respectively. crowley is still being spied on, and it firmly places aziraphale in their line of sight too. it's going to bring up the holy water discussion; why crowley asked for it - to protect himself, whether by taking out demons or taking out himself, as long as it means he - and most importantly, aziraphale - does not get hurt.

they actively confess that they want to be together, in a way that is more than they are now. aziraphale wants to, but says that they can't, because it's too dangerous. crowley suggests that no one ever has to know, they can hide it (there, in the bookshop, whilst the nightingale is singing), and even if they are found out, they can run. "hell won't just be angry; they'll destroy you..." // "no one ever has to know".

aziraphale doesn't want to have to hide it, doesn't want a halfway measure- is still thinking in black and white. crowley however thinks that something is better than nothing - thinking in the grey. but ultimately, as long as they are still shackled, they cannot do what they want, and it puts the other in danger. "surely the great thing about being a demon is that you can do whatever you want" // "you sound jealous, angel...". instead, aziraphale promises that the day that they are no longer tied to heaven or hell, they can be together; crowley scoffs, thinking that that will never happen, so they will never happen, "you're so clever! how can someone as clever as you be so stupid?!"

the reason they can't right now is because they could be caught. they would have to skulk around, be ashamed, feel guilty - and aziraphale is tired of feeling like that. because only having crowley in secret would hurt more. not being able hold his hand, or dance with him, or kiss him, unless it was in the bookshop. if hell were to find out, crowley would be killed, true, but if heaven were to find out, aziraphale could be cast out. and if crowley survived hell long enough to see aziraphale fall - he'd never forgive himself, and in a way, i don't think he'd ever forgive aziraphale either.

it's tearing them to pieces, but they have to stop whatever is happening between them in its tracks. it's acknowledged, but it's not named. this gives them plausible deniability; if they called it 'love', it would be undeniable. so, aziraphale asks for crowley to go; asks him to leave before they do something they can't come back from. crowley doesn't listen - crowds him, gets in close, and aziraphale is powerless to stop it. doesn't want to stop it. he's selfish by nature, a selfless kind of selfishness, but he wants this with all his being. and then - "this is too fast, crowley, please don't..." // "im sorry, angel. please... please, forgive me". aziraphale never gets to answer, to grant him that, because boom - the actual first kiss.

so. now that i've had to make you read that, i'm going in for the kill. let's look at everything that follows - and look at how the above might recontextualise it.

1967: the offer of the picnic, the Ritz? ie. the literal lyrics of berkeley square? aziraphale has caved in the interest of giving crowley a weapon to use if all else fails, to protect him, but that's as far as he's willing to progress. everything else is still too painful; he's on the brink of tears, promising that one day they'll be able to do what they want, to be open about how they feel, but not yet. they can't. crowley tries to push, "ill give you a lift, anywhere you want to go..." (him offering again to run away? a second chance to leg it?), and aziraphale reminding him that they can't, he can't... don't make him go too fast again, it's not fair. it also sets up perfectly that aziraphale and crowley don't speak for the next 40 or so years (as far as we're aware) until armageddon is threatened.

bandstand: mostly this is still centred around the apocalypse contextually, but i think with the above hypothetical scene in mind (the offer to hide, to run away, to be together), aziraphale is sent back to remembering their mutual confession that they've nonverbally agreed not to bring up, because it's not safe, and it's too painful. they've skirted around it, and returned instead to a tentative kind of friendship at the beginning of s1, but they're still not safe to address why seeing each other again, being so close to each other and not being able to touch is so painful. anyway - aziraphale refuses their side, but the above scene would re-view this as 'our side can't exist yet, you know this! you know why it can't!', and crowley leaves, again after pushing a bit more than aziraphale can stand.

alpha centauri: basically a facsimile of the above; same steps, same dance. but this time, crowley harks back to aziraphale's foolish (?) hope that they will be together, without having to run away, when the day comes that they don't have to answer to heaven or hell. and aziraphale smacks him right back, echoing crowley asking for aziraphale's forgiveness in kissing him, "i forgive you." crowley knows exactly what aziraphale is getting at, there - he's answering crowley's whispered plea to forgive him for pushing, for trying to force him, for acting in desperation. but he's also not answering that - he's skirting around that very thing, forgiving him like a knife would, slicing back at crowley for not only insulting aziraphale on something that is likely a genuine insecurity of his, but also putting him back in his place, for their safeties, because them being together just cannot happen. not yet.

and "please forgive me" in 1941 might seem out of character, but idk if it is; crowley knows that doing what he's about to do will hurt aziraphale, aziraphale has (hypothetically) told him as much, but he needs to do it - and seeks not benevolence or forgiveness as crowley-the-demon, but actually seems aziraphale's forgiveness, as crowley-the-person. the echo would certainly match the tone given here, in multiple ways:

the ritz: i mean, what is there to say? yes, their song is literally playing on the piano, and heralds the shift in their being out from heaven and hell, the day has finally come where they can - again, going by this entirely hypothetical scene that ive concocted - actually be together as they want to. and the nightingale literally singing outside, but as @shoemakerobstetrician beautifully pointed out, god remarks that it's covered up by traffic. so actually, if we again refer back to R&J interpretation of the nightingale, the love is still hidden, still somewhat under wraps, but can only just about be heard over the noise of the streets outside. the prohibition of them being together, of loving each other, is dwindling. and one day, it'll stop singing altogether. that day is coming, it will come, and then they can do what they please. so whilst the ritz scene may well be a mark of them starting the next chapter, it's slow to take hold, there's still hesitancy - which absolutely makes sense when we see that they are still very tentative with each other come the beginning of s2.

s2 general: aziraphale realises their freedom first; he gets excited by the dance, and being able to show his love to crowley, completely and without barriers, in the form of the ball - what he has read to be the best way to do so. he touches crowley more. he shares his bookshop with him, gifts it to crowley as being his as well as aziraphale's, this safe space that is so wholly theirs that crowley has the power to grant entry. the same with the bentley - aziraphale sees it as theirs, and crowley silently agrees, granting aziraphale the same power. crowley is comfortable in the bookshop to remove his glasses, has a place for them. the bookshop becomes tidier, more minimalist, to make crowley more comfortable in it (it is more cluttered in s1, im certain of it). it might just be the grading between s1 and s2, and lack of clutter, but the yellow is more prominent - his literal favourite colour. everything just screams that aziraphale is ready to make good on his promise from s3-1941.

crowley... for once, is the one not quite catching up. not realising the little dates here and there are literally poses them as a couple (although yes, the coffee shop one is to prep crowley for the goob jumpscare), that aziraphale has granted him the power to grant entry. aziraphale literally asking, practically begging, crowley to help him hide goob. the mf colour of the walls. the colour of the bentley. it's not until nina outright asks him if they are together that he realises how careless they've been - but wait, is it careless if they have nothing to be careful of? well, arguably crowley does, hell are still hanging around him like a bad smell... but this is what he wanted! this is what he was pushing aziraphale for! so, does he risk it? he's not sure, but he's certainly realising that aziraphale is ready, if nothing else. and by the time the ladies stage their little intervention, crowley finally realises that the confession he started in 1941 now can be fully aired, can come out into the open.

the Feral Domestic: *fingers at temples* i know i have been fairly vocal about my interpretation of this scene, and frankly - until we get this hypothetical s3-1941 scene, i stand by it - but let's say this speculation about the scene is true, and re-examine the key points in the Final Fifteen that would completely turn on their heads in terms of meaning:

literally, harking back full circle to what aziraphale promised in 1967 as what they would do when they could fully acknowledge their love, and what they did as soon as - on paper - they were free at the end of s1. this is however before he's spoken to by nina and maggie, so maybe this is what crowley was planning in terms of confessing fully to aziraphale, but after their meddling he realised that yes, they need to actually talk about it again. he doesn't understand why they're telling him what they are - because he's existed so long in gestures and gifts and not talking, literally dismissed it now as a viable option, that it doesn't even occur to him to try talking again.

which is why he does something brave, and tries to tell aziraphale instead (say it out loud, make it undeniable, put a name to it, "i love you", something that i think was crowley's actual intention before aziraphale interrupts him) when he comes back to the shop... he's so nervous, because it's vulnerable, and because the last time he did, they ended up hiding for 50-ish years.

next up:

now, im reluctant to think that aziraphale lied in the Feral Domestic, because i do think the key thing at work is his paramount need to do the Right Thing (ie. make a difference in heaven). whilst metatron obviously manipulates him, im not entirely convinced that aziraphale wholly sees through it. i don't think he knew that metatron was up to something, i think the shaking off of this naivety is going to be part of his s3 character development. but this sentence - again, especially in context of the hypothetical s3-1941 scene - must on some level frighten him. especially if you take this meta into account, aziraphale must realise at least that they were never safe, even when they were denying what they were and how they felt, it didn't make a bit of difference. now, metatron could have just been talking about the arrangement, not referring to any romantic elements of any kind, but the threat of it? no wonder he pushes for crowley to join him in heaven; he could keep crowley safe there. they could be together, and heaven - in his eyes - would be able to say a word against it.

then:

the fear sets in; crowley was too late in telling him, acknowledging that they could be together, realising what aziraphale was saying to him without words, and now heaven has come for him. plonked them right back where they were in s2-1941, but perversely mirrored; instead of hell coming for crowley with violence, heaven came for aziraphale with kindness. crowley doesn't have a magic trick he can just do on the fly, perform it perfectly when the need for it is greatest, and has to cling to the hope that aziraphale still sees them as the barrier to them, the reason they can't be together. and in true miscommunication fashion, i think aziraphale does see it, but what metatron said lingers, and in addition to being inside the institution, changing it from the inside out, in order to make a difference... he knows that whilst it's exactly the opposite of what they wanted, he needs to make them safe. better to be inside the tent pissing out, than outside the tent pissing in.

but aziraphale doesn't tell crowley what metatron said, because instead he either deliberately tries to deny the implications of it (cognitive dissonance king behaviour), or he doesn't want to panic crowley and is trying to convey to crowley that he can't speak his concerns, not when the metatron could still be watching, and instead just needs crowley to trust him, take his hand, and join him in heaven where they can be safe. doesn't tell crowley that heaven hasn't captured him in shackles again, but he's willingly held out his wrists because it's the safest thing for him, and them, to do.

so it's one thing to look at what crowley's saying, but aziraphale's reaction? before, i just found it to be out of confusion, him not really understanding what crowley was saying, but tbh i never paid much attention to it (david stole this bit of the scene - not to put down my beloved michael here, but he did). and i know others have remarked here that aziraphale is flitting his eyes to the window and looks scared and stressed, but i don't completely think that its because he's scared that metatron is watching (although, now, i will accept with the rug thing and hypothetical s3-1941 in context it is definitely playing a part), but also because he's just starting to recognise that this is a repeat of the s3-1941 scene, "this sounds familiar, we've been here before... oh, we've definitely been here before... oh shit. i still can't do this, not unless he comes with me. we still can't be together, not in the way crowley wants. the way he's trying again, now, to ask for."

but the issue is: crowley wants to run away together. again. and i totally get why, but once again, going back to 1941: it's exactly the solution that will not work. they cannot run from this. heaven, and hell, will find them. they will come for them. it wasn't an option in 1941, it wasn't an option in 2019, and it isn't an option in 2023. aziraphale begins shaking his head - crowley is confessing, but a) aziraphale doesn't run from things, it isnt in his character, and b) it's just putting them back where they started - something that they have to hide. it defeats the purpose.

and this? yeah, im sure on neither side it was meant the way im about to interpret it, more of an unspoken thing, idk... but if the bookshop is indeed their place of safety, and is where they (as far as crowley sees it) can speak and keep their love, it makes sense that crowley is telling aziraphale he needs to stay. the bookshop can be interpreted so many ways - it represents their relationship, or that crowley means him, himself - but what if we looked at it like crowley is trying now to covet it, because it's protecting them? what if he's saying, "well, if you won't run away with me, we can't be free to have our relationship as we wanted it, not unless we stay here... heaven has come for you, has come for us, and whilst they're here we can't move. so what other option is left remain in this bookshop? to never leave it, and what we have inside it, because there's no other option in which we can be together if you won't run with me."

and what if aziraphale is saying, "no, i have an option, and that's to be together in heaven! they won't be able to do anything, not when im in the position the metatron has offered me, that can be our new bookshop... nothing lasts forever - this bookshop won't last forever, it's compromised, and we can't continue to secret away what we feel inside it, it's time to move forward."

welcome to the line that breaks my heart the most in this whole goddamn scene - and tbh i think is fairly self-explanatory in the hypothetical s3-1941 context. that aziraphale is trying, once again, to tell crowley that he is offering himself, letting them be an 'us', as crowley says shortly after - that before he couldnt do it, and these arent the best of circumstances, but they can finally do it and not have to hide in the bookshop. but crowley reminds him, "hey, i was in your shoes, remember. i wanted us to be together then, and you told me you couldn't, didn't want a halfway measure - well, now i don't either. and this will be a halfway measure, because i don't think us being together in heaven is going to go the way you hope it will. i understand a whole lot better than you do." in any case, it would explain why aziraphale choses this moment to look so devastated. this is what he promised crowley, but now crowley - to his mind, in the things left Unsaid - doesn't want it... him.

and then... back to the nightingales. they're not singing at all, not even under the rumble of traffic, like they were at the Ritz. they're completely absent - day has broken, the things unspoken have now been said, and there's no denying them anymore. from crowley's point of view, there was nothing to stop them this time, but if aziraphale won't run with him, then they have to go separate ways, because there is no other way. aziraphale knows there's the possibility that the only place they could actually be safe is heaven itself, that the bookshop was never as safe as they hoped it had been, but that crowley might actually come to see that. but the fact that crowley is resigned to just... returning to 'reality', to a world that's still turning where they aren't together? despite everything they've just said? "we could've been... us." well, that hurts.

and then... the kiss. now. im still of the mind that the kiss was an Issue. i definitely think it was meant out of love and desperation, and out of possibly being a goodbye. this would echo the hypothetical s3-1941 kiss... but it was hurtful. it was abrupt, and harsh, and not at all romantic (imo). it was possessive, and almost cruel. i do think still it was a last ditch attempt, a temptation, to get aziraphale to change his mind, before crowley leaves the shop and returns to the 'real world'. but it hurts aziraphale in many different ways - but with 1941 put in there, too? crowley is just testing his resolve, trying to push him, come around to giving in. crowley asked him to forgive him the last time he kissed aziraphale, and this time - this time, aziraphale is giving him what he asked for.

#did i just do a whole ass meta based off of a completely hypothetical non-existent hc of the third part of 1941?#yes - yes i did #but the Implications would not leave my brain #make of this what you will if you even got to the end and if you did frankly congratulations #good omens

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mngo-jii · 8 months

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“ CAMPUS CRUSH ” d. page

wc: 1.8k ++ gn reader ++ they/them pronouns ++ apparently MC is canonically charming. i did what i had to do w/ this info

"[MC] is so lovely. Don't you think?" Ivy muses as she bids you goodbye.

"Huh?" Daniel eyes her with a puzzled look, before shrugging indifferently. "Well... I suppose."

She turns to him, a confused look on her face.

"Why? You don't think they're lovely?" She tilts her head.

"What?"—the sudden query causes him to tense up, and he awkwardly looks away, scratching his cheek.

"I didn't say that..."

A muggle-born—seemingly just there as if destined to help your friends with their rather messed up backgrounds in comparison to your little-known one.

In spite of this, Daniel was aware that you weren't as commonplace as you appeared to be. It's undoubtedly beyond the powers of an ordinary young wix to so easily overwhelm dark wizards that they're forced to flee.

And that's only one of the things that makes you a touch... outlandish to him, despite how much more bizarre your other friends seem to be.

...However, other than your excellent skills in wizardry, Daniel was also well aware of the effect you had on people.

It swirls from even way back during your first year—who would have thought an eleven-year old like you could charm people just like that? And by people, that also includes your superiors, apparently.

That very instance of when he had tried to explore the Forbidden Forest in search for an ingredient—only to, alas, be caught by Hagrid himself.

"Uh...then, it'd be okay if you went with us?" Daniel cringed inwardly, hoping that his little attempt would work even to some small degree.

Hagrid does stammer a bit—at least that's what Daniel accomplished.

"Hang on, that's not what I was sayin'. It's true, o'course. but I were tryin' to warn you and—"

"—And keep us safe, right?" You quickly interrupt, eyes practically shimmering as you tilted forward with an innocent grin. "That's so thoughtful, Hagrid! So- you'll come with us then?"

Your sudden intrusion to maneuver the situation brings Daniel's eyebrows to raise, though even further more after Hagrid's response:

"Oh. Well..." The half-giant hesitantly scratches through his thick mane-esque hair. "Only because I need to check on somethin' myself. Suppose a quick look couldn't hurt."

Not only just your first year, no, no—but preeminently your first day.

"I don't want detention. Just leave me out of it." Daniel crosses his arms, frowning at the three of you.

Naturally, it was logical at the time—to be wandering around the castle at the dead of night, in search of a girl you barely knew was absolutely nonsensical to him.

Getting in trouble in the first day is the least Daniel needs right now, and to think you, his housemate, insists on coming along is beyond him. Are you trying to mitigate your house points?

Just his luck, said housemate steps forward towards the blonde Gryffindor—"What about you, Kevin? Are you with us?"

"We could definitely use someone as clever as you to help find Ivy." You beam—as opposed to Daniel's lour.

"Oh! Oh… Thanks for the compliment, I-I think," Kevin scratches his chin and clumsily pushes his glasses. "I suppose I could give it a go…"

Robyn cackles, and Daniel's lips part in disbelief.

At that moment, he would've had to squint to be able to foresee the spark you'd light up in people. The spark you'd light up in him.

"You know, you've changed drastically since the first year."

Daniel's eyebrows raise at you, expression turning to one of interest. "What... What do you mean?"

He tilts head to one side. Then he grins amusedly, his head remaining in that tilt.

"I have? How?"

You put your finger to your chin. "Well... You were a bit dismissive when we first befriended you, and you refused to help us find Ivy on the first day because you were worried we'd get caught and all. You were more on the serious and awkward side, you know? And now you're more than willing to break a rule or two for the benefit of your friends… or yourself." You grinned back.

Daniel turns to one of embarrassment as you note his past behavior, though it's a warm embarrassment... He's glad that he's made that sort of progress, somewhat.

He clears his throat, turning slightly pink.

"I guess I've grown more since then, huh?" He lets out a breathy laugh, turning back to you—and you swore something twinkled in his eyes.

"I can't believe that I let something like the threat of getting caught stop me. I guess all the crazy stuff that's happened... It changed me, a bit."

No. It did. Maybe, yes.

But truthfully, beneath your palms that kissed each other, and your fingers that intertwined with one another—you're the one who changed him.

Would he have been able to foretell the way he was going to change over the years? If he hadn't been so dismissive at first, could he have altered earlier? Had more friends earlier? You saved him, somewhat. And he felt like Merlin had blessed him upon the very moment you two finally became proper friends.

How did you do it?—he'd ask you. And it feels a bit silly to ask how you became friends with him. But it was such a pondering thought that stumped him for majority of the first year. After all, he had insisted you to not sit with him on the train simply because "no one wanted to."

Yet you answer with—I just did—with a smile so kind he would have almost understood your answer.

Almost.

But it was as clear as day to him, that from the very start, you wanted to sit next to him. You weren't just "no one."

What he didn't know, was that he'd be bewitched by your charms himself. And just his luck, he didn't know how to respond to this revelation either.

He felt as though he had fell down a rabbit hole, one where it had pictures of your face plastered upon its walls. And said rabbit hole eats him, chews him up, and spits him out. Making him stumble to the ground with a loud groan.

When he opens his eyes, he sees a hand. Then he looks up and realizes its your hand, looks up to see your face—with the same smile you flashed him back when you were eleven years old, right by the cauldron shop at Diagon Alley.

Ridiculous, he told himself.

But he took your hand anyway, and flashed you a dopey grin back.

Before this all, he sort of had a grasp of it. Like, yes, you're attractive. And while you weren't necessarily popular, you were quite well-known.

Not because you were good-looking and were skilled in dueling just like Cassandra; not because you were nothing more than a troublemaker who apparently reeks like the Frey twins; certainly not because you were a "bloody [Last Name]" just like he was—but merely because you were kind. And you remained as nice as pie throughout all these years, and he prays you'll continue to do so.

But Daniel thought, was that all it took to be liked?

He was different from you in that he had rather, well, deplorable social skills. He wasn't rude, not unfriendly. He was a good boy. But he certainly wasn't sociable enough to be liked like you were.

He thought it was a bit ridiculous. At one point he was convinced you had gulped down on an everlasting beautification potion, or you had cast a specific charm on those nearby—though of course it was just by jest.

He just doesn't understand. Can't grasp the truth of how you could cause such an effect on some people—whether platonically or romantically.

It's one thing to be kind, though. Daniel knows a lot of kind people—Lottie is kind, Ivy is kind. But they don't charm people the way you do. So what exactly about you was so special?

Well, you did manage to befriend him years ago in the first year when he was just a wee bairn, who hated any form of attention shining on him. Maybe that's something. But he wasn't that effected. A lie.

Of course your loveliness didn't have an unrealistic, comical effect on people—but it was still pretty impressive, and rather amusing to watch how some people just give in to you by asking nicely.

Though you hadn't quite got to him, personally, merely because he doesn't get it entirely.

At least that's what he liked to tell himself.

Until one fateful day, you're asked which one of your friends was your best friend. Which one knew you better? Who was your favorite?

And several eyes shot up to you, full of what looks like thinly veiled hope, anticipation, trapped by a somewhat menacing aura accompanied by the painful silence—waiting for your voice to cut through it.

You nervously giggled, waving your hands in dismissal with a sheepish grin. "Personally, I'm close with everyone! I'd say Ivy and Daniel do know me better, but I don't have a favorite, necessarily..."

And everyone decides to unpluck the fish hook they just stabbed in your cheek to move on to the next.

Daniel watches as you sigh in relief, and you meet his staring eyes—causing the boy to jolt slightly.

But you give him a grin and lean towards him, beckoning him to move closer to your shielding palm. And he does.

"Dont tell anyone this, but, you're my favorite."

And oh, oh. He finally gets it. He fully gets it. And he gets more than what was needed.

Now he gets why you're the type of person that people linger around the area for. Now he understands that one boy who so desperately tries to impress you in Quidditch—who points to you with a wink before shooting.

And now he understands the slight warmth blossoming on his cheeks whenever you were too near—understands how his heart seemed to gradually beat faster around you as the years went by.

And Daniel wonders if he's still your favorite when another guy tries to court you.

...And he cheekily smiles to himself as you awkwardly reject the bouquet of flowers.

Yes, he's still your favorite.

But he still wonders, and wonders, and wonders.

Do you feel the same way he does?

Do you mirror the same flushed and frustrated look on his face on nights he can't sleep because of you?

Do you ever stare out the classroom window thinking about him?

Ever stop to stare at the cauldron beneath your chin because the potion had changed into his favorite color for barely a split second, like he does to you??

And when Robyn gently smacks her broom against the top of his head—he decides it'll be best to find out once Quidditch class is over.

So he turns away, begrudgingly following Robyn up in the air as he tries his best to let the wind mute down Robyn's queries.

—unaware of the lingering gaze you cast him when he does.

#(*ᴗ͈ˬᴗ͈)ꕤ*.ﾟ— written by lnr #hpma x reader #hogwarts magic awakened x reader #daniel page x reader

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greatwyrmgold · 22 days

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Dungeon Logistics

Between the currently-airing Dungeon Meshi anime and my recent binge of the manga (I finally got past the 40% mark), I've been thinking about the logistics of long-term dungeoneering.

The Problem

Military theorists and historians have some rules of thumb about what soldiers can be expected to do and need. [citation] For instance, they usually need around three pounds of food per day and can carry around 90-120 pounds of stuff. (The total varies less by strength and more by how much of that strength you can convince soldiers to use carrying stuff the general cares about.)

Theoretically, this means soldiers can carry a month or two of food; however, hardtack makes a pretty terrible weapon. Most of their carrying capacity is taken up by inedible (and also important) gear; the standard rule of thumb seems to be that soldiers can carry about ten days' worth of food.

The same is presumably more or less true for dungeoneers. A wizard's robe, staff, and spellbook probably weigh less than a sword and a suit of armor, but that space is going to get taken up by the miscellaneous tools you need to survive in a dungeon that aren't necessary for armies walking through inhabited lands.

In short, in the absence of Senshi, dungeoneers can only spend about a week and a half in the dungeon. Obviously, you need to set aside time to return to the surface, so you can't go deeper than five days. Well, you can—starvation doesn't kill you instantly—but you really shouldn't.

Extra Cargo

What if we added some people who only carried food? That would help some. Including two porters per three dungeoneers would roughly double the group's operational endurance, from ten days to twenty.

But the number of porters grows rapidly as the desired trip into the dungeon grows longer; operational endurance to 30 days requires four porters per dungeoneer. Even if the dungeon is spacious for a party of dozens to be possible, having that party be 80% or more noncombatants is a recipe for disaster.

What about pack animals? Mules require about five times as much food as humans (assuming they can't graze in the dungeon), but they can carry close to 300 pounds of supplies. One mule per three dungeoneers extends operational endurance from 10 to 15 days, a second to 17.

That's not bad, but pack animals work better when they can graze. If the dungeon has grass or equivalent foliage, one mule per three dungeoneers increases operational endurance to about 26 days, a second to 35, and one mule per dungeoneer increases it to 39. But most dungeons don't have much to graze on.

For the spendthrift dungeoneer, pack animals have one advantage over porters: You can eat them.

Butchery

I can't find any actual data about how much meat you get from butchering a mule, but combining other data lets me estimate 300 pounds (with large error bars).

So you could theoretically buy a (relatively) cheap mule at the surface, bring it with you through the dungeon, butcher it when you'd eaten through the supplies on its back, and live off its meat for a while. In this case, you probably don't even need to feed it on the way down! I have been informed that you do, in fact, need to feed it.

Five dungeoneers could live off the supplies carried by an increasingly malnourished mule for about 19 9.5 days. The mule would probably lose weight during that time, but the butcher could probably get at least a hundred pounds of decent meat off the poor critter. That would give them at least a week of extra rations, plus whatever they carried on their own backs, for a total operational endurance of at least five three and a half weeks.

This strategy probably works best if the adventurers are planning to go establish a camp after a few days and linger there for a few weeks. That would let them slaughter the mule as soon as they reach their base camp and free them from somehow carrying a whole mule carcass worth of food around afterwards.

This kind of strategy could enable supply depots relatively close to the surface. If we increase the party from five dungeoneers and a mule to five merchants and twenty mules, they could supply adventurers going a bit deeper. They'd need to charge a pretty hefty surcharge—at the very least, they'd need to cover the cost of killing so many mules!

It's also possible to create supply depots without slaughtering pack animals, but they would need to be smaller, closer to the surface, or both.

It would, strictly speaking, be possible to make a deeper supply depot, supplied by a larger depot. It would probably be impractical, though.

Conclusion

Dungeoneers weighed down by their own equipment can only spend brief periods of time exploring a dungeon. If they include some porters or pack animals in the party, they can increase that to maybe a month (two weeks down, two weeks up).

A sufficiently profitable dungeon economy might enable a set of outposts where adventurers can rest and resupply between treks deeper into the dungeon. If enough pack animals were slaughtered, they might be able to bring supplies a week or two deeper than the surface market.

In the right circumstances, dungeoneers might be able to delve a full month below the sunlit world without eating anything except wheat bread and mule meat. But this requires a small army of merchants and herdsmen and porters and butchers and so on, feeding not just the dungeoneers themselves but all the people supporting them, and all the people supporting those people, reaching through countless miles of cavern and across acres of farmland.

And of course, all of that assumes that no step in this process gets disrupted by the dangers of a dungeon; no wargs killing your mule, no warg packs overrunning the outpost, no getting lost in the twisty little maze of passages all alike. The higher you build that house of cards, the farther you'll far if it fails.

Senshi had the right idea.

#fantasy #logistics #worldbuilding #dungeoneering #dungeon meshi #(inspired by)#random thoughts #food #dungeon logistics

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peaterookie · 9 months

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Most of us know by this point that the Lupin III manga series doesn't particularly have the best reputation, but why is that?

Is it simply because of the content itself, or is there more behind it?

It is August 10th, the 56th anniversary of the og manga, and I will be exploring the causes of the manga's poor reputation in the Lupin community with as most detail as I can try to be.

Bluntly put, I will not hide the fact that the manga series as a whole contains extremely problematic elements. All three series, OG manga, New Adventures, and Shin Lupin III all contain instance of Lupin and other characters raping and sexually assaulting women.

It certainly gets better as the series goes on. At the last three major arcs of Shin Lupin III, Lupin becomes almost entirely sexless, with some instances of plain pervertedness. However, it is not an issue that cannot be glossed over and it is the by far biggest burden that this series has to carry over its 56 years of existence.

OG manga is the biggest culprit of this, barely two chapter goes by without an instance of Lupin pulling his sexual advances onto random women and succeeding. Those moments of the manga are extremely gross and uncomfortable- and it really makes our protagonist extremely unlikeable, which brings me to my next point:

The fact that the OG manga is the first of the three manga series contribute heavily to its poor reputation.

"Aiee!! No way that the biggest manga preacher in tumblr is slandering the manga! Isn't that out of character!?"

It quite is, luckily I can think. As someone who has spent about 5 months reviewing almost all of the chapters, I can say that I know quite a bit about what it does right and what it does wrong... and it sadly does many things wrong.

Of course, the main thing is the sexual violence, but it is also the series with the least interaction between each member of the Lupin gang, who are characters people already come to really like. Lacking that element takes away what many people regard to be the best part about the series.

The beginning chapters of the og manga are also poorly paced. A bunch of things are going on, and the panelling certainly makes it hard to follow as well.

And to even add to the original issue, the english translation provided by Tokyopop also fucked everything up too!! Many of the extreme dialogues that you come across, including ones that make jokes at Monkey Punch's expense, are done by Tokyopop. Tabbiewolf explains this much better than I can:

"Just remember: a LOT of the…more offensive stuff in the manga is from the TokyoPop translations. I’m not excusing ALL of it, mind you — it was the 1960s and this was an adventure/spy manga marketed at cisdudes, after all — but the script writer for the English version was extremely, uh, artistic, with his localization of the translation."

"it was the early 2000s, manga was trying to appeal specifically to people who didn’t read it: teenaged cisboys who watched South Park, basically ;) So a fair amount of the stuff was very much the new English script, NOT the creator ‘s original work! Some plots got changed entirely just because the Japanese slang from the time didn’t translate."

First impressions matter, and the OG manga makes a very bad impression for people attempting to get into the manga series. Many readers are most likely taken back by how different it is from what they are used to, and they are definitely not going to like the problematic elements.

Those who still try to give it second chances are going to be met with disappointment when they find out these glaring issues are only partially fixed further into the series. Believing that it won't get better, they end up dropping the manga altogether and generalizing the rest of the manga series as depraved nonsense.

And I can't simply blame Monkey Punch for all these issues!! It was the first of what's to come, and he was not aware at the time just how big Lupin III would become in Japan and eventually worldwide. The og manga is very experimental, and you can tell he was only trying to figure out what works. I also cannot blame the people that dislike the manga. People naturally dislike something that is problematic and different.

Heck, most manga fans feel indifferent about the og manga as well, with the majority of them liking Shin Lupin III much better.

I have the statistic right here!!! It's not a lot of people, but there's an obvious majority choice here.

(By the way, if you're enjoying reading this so far, you should totally join my Lupin III server ahem cough cough nudge nudge)

So not even the manga fans love the OG manga. In my opinion, I would definitely not recommend people to read that as their first Lupin manga either. It is the type of media that if you really love the source material in general, then it'd be ok to read.

It is quite a shame to say that the series that does a better job at getting people in the manga, is the third one of the bunch. Most people aren't going to know that however, and they end up reading something that is going to likely give a bad image of the manga.

Ok so I dont have a good segway to the second part of this post so have a panel.

Now I'm gonna talk about how the fandom itself screw up it's reputation!!

(Before you get further I have to say that I have nothing against anime fans, if I do sound like I don't like them it's just sort of poor wording on my end)

Many fans of Lupin III start with the anime, if not probably all of them at this point. This causes a huge skew in public opinion, where those who are pre-exposed to the anime are probably going to view the manga as something lesser than its animated counterpart.

This can be seen particularly in CloudConnection's video of his manga analysis, which is concerningly just a portion of this 18 minute video, but I'll look over that. The portions of the video where he analyzes the manga contain a large amount of negative opinions about it.

A lot of his points are very good, and a lot of them I agree with, like his issues with the rape and sexual assault and how its a good time capsule but definitely not something that people should start off with. But a rest of the points seem a bit unreasonable to make and rather biased, like how the characters feel inconsistent, the bad pacing, and really emphasizing how dark and grim the manga is (it is very goofy and nobody ever talks about that)

And I have to state- It's totally valid for someone to prefer one thing over the other, but my point is that when this opinion is overwhelmingly the majority, it is going to cause the general public's opinion to unfairly be against something, ignoring what it does good and pinning the focus on what it does bad.

That video example was very popular, and I know someone personally that got the wrong memo from it and hated the manga without reading it for a long time, so you can see how it can probably effect the rest of the people that viewed that video.

So what can we learn from this?

We now understand that two of major reasons responsible for the manga's bad reputation is one: the unfortunate circumstance of the OG manga being the first series, and the overwhelming public opinion being unfairly skewed against it.

To wrap this up, I ask you to please give the manga a chance!! Read Shin Lupin first, and be aware of its flaws while also appreciating what it has contributed for the franchise and anime as a whole. I hope you enjoyed this little essay I wrote, and happy birthday Lupin III!

#lupin iii #lupin the third #lupin iii manga #monkey punch #peater rambles

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victimsofyaoipoll · 9 months

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Round 2

Propaganda Under Cut

Casca

She is part of a weird fucked up love triangle with two dudes. All three of them are honestly kind of terrible for each other but she gets shoved aside in favor of the two dudes in most fics and is not allowed to grow past the toxic relationships of her past. Also she’s a cis woman who dresses pretty masculinely (because she’s in a mercenary band) so she gets type casted as the mean lesbian friend, when she’s straight in canon

Probably an instance of this being taken to canon, as Griffith (Traitor) tortures her to victimize Guts (protag), because Griffith's psychosexual desires to control everyone, especially Guts. Fandom types side with Griffith because he is an attractive white boy.

She's an incredibly interesting character in her own right with really good dynamics and parallels to Griffith and Guts, and the way those three play off of each other is integral to the story, but most of what I've seen completely ignores her in favor of focusing on only Griffith and Guts

Kaede Akamatsu

She is a good person with good intentions in canon, and she takes care of the people she likes. However, in fanon, especially with a popular pairing, she is again the WOMAN who is either homophobic or the mean lesbian. Justice for Kaede tbh

I hate to be bringing up Danganronpa. But oh my god. This fandom used to be KNOWN for it's toxic treatment towards the female love interests of the male protagonists, and she is notoriously known as THE victim of yaoi for the entire fandom. She's a pianist and the supporting character, having some really cute moments with Shuichi Saihara, the (male) main character. Especially in 2019, she suffered immense hate because of the amount of Saiouma shippers, the most popular V3 ship and in the top 2 for the entire fandom which is the ship between Shuichi and Kokichi Ouma, the (also male, just like Shuichi, hence the yaoi victim) antagonist of the game. If I had a dollar for every time I saw people hating on her, specifically just because she "gets in the way" of Saiouma, I would be able to buy V3 at least sixteen times.

classic yaoi victim- most fics have her so OOC it hurts, what is it with 12 y/o saiouma shippers and turning her into a homophobic fuckass for the sake of their shitty wattpad yaoi-

#poll #round 2 #berserk #casca #casca berserk #danganronpa #kaede akamatsu

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eisforeidolon · 3 months

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Alrighty- Whaddya think of this?

I’ve been rewatching the show and am now at season 8. I shake my head at all the known moments in the show that hellers claim are canon ship bs, because you’d have to be stretch Armstrong to reach that far..

But something did nag me. There were times that Cas WAS the emotional support for Dean where I really thought it should have been Sam conversing with him. For the majority of the series we saw Dean be the caretaker, emotional support etc for Sam, and it never really came from anyone else- lest he was being manipulated by some evil person. However there were many times where that wasn’t reciprocated on screen. Cas would almost stand in for Sam when Dean needed someone, showed Dean a lot of compassion. (Please believe I’m being objective and not a stan in hiding). I think THAT dynamic confused people. Why didn’t they have Sam having those convos with Dean more? I mean, narratively I understand the need for Cas to move the plot forward with his specific role, but so many times it was an angsty Dean who I think NEEDED his BROTHER more than a convo with Cas. Now there are people who just wanted to sexualize Jensen/Dean and couldn’t possibly be linked the wincest as their puritan sensibilities just wouldn’t allow them. But OTHER fans seemed to have latched on to the dynamic of Dean and Cas because they saw Dean have emotional moments with him.

Now during my rewatch it pissed me off, because I realized that the writers were making some conscious choices to have Sam NOT fill that role for Dean. Like it seemed like they went out of their way at times to make Sam seem more indifferent to Dean. This is why- wildly unpopular opinion here- I didn’t like Sera Gamble! I think she isolated Sam away from Dean and had Cas fill in for Sam. That codependent brother thing I LIVE FOR, was kinda washed out during her seasons (in my opinion), but more so from one side. I think she didn’t really like Dean, period, but whereas I know Sam fans LOVE Gamble, I think she mischaracterized Sam a lot.

In my mind, Sam is just as in love with Dean as Dean is with him (whether that be wincest or brotherly is up to your interpretation). You remember when Rowena started really having a relationship with Sam? And then Jack, too? That was really the first time we’ve seen Sam have that type of side character interaction depth. It’s why Sam fans love those two characters because they related to Sam! Well, isn’t that why Dean fans loved Cas, too?

I dunno I’m ranting and probably make no sense, but I was definitely annoyed with the writers in quite a bit if my rewatch during seasons 4-7 because it seemed such a purposeful choice to NOT show Sam being for Dean what they chose to show Cas being. I think knot blurred the lines and did such a disservice to Sam. Ironically, I think Carver rectified this a lot! Even with the angst and separation, Carver’s seasons demonstrably showed the codependency and intense brotherly love. I prefer seasons 1-3 and then all of Carver’s seasons!

I couldn't remember any instances of Dean leaning on Castiel when there wasn't some obvious reason it wasn't a conversation with Sam. So I went through season by season, and ultimately, I think you have to look at what the plot arc between the brothers is. As I've said before, the one thing that I actually like about Dabb as a showrunner is finally dropping the constant circling back to brother conflict drama that, to me at least, felt more and more artificial. Even if we're talking about seasons 4-7, we have to start at the beginning, because I think the first three seasons are pointedly bringing the brothers back together closer than ever in preparation for all the apocalypse shenanigans to attempt to tear them apart.

In terms of Dean opening up, specifically, consider what happens in those seasons between them from Dean's perspective.

In season four, he comes back from hell traumatized only to realize Sam has been lying to him about using his powers and working with Ruby. When he asks Sam to explain because he's scared of the powers, Sam refuses to talk about it and says he wouldn't understand (4x04). So how can it be a surprise that when he wants to talk in the next episode, it's Jamie the bartender he chooses instead? Is it really strange he basically mirrors what Sam said about Dean not being able to understand when Sam confronts him about what Uriel said regarding him remembering hell (4x08)? Castiel (4x07) and Anna (4x10) conversing with Dean are more about their own fears and insecurities more than Dean's. When Dean does finally open up and is ready to actually talk about what happened in hell, it is to Sam (4x11). Except, it's pretty soon after that (4x14) where Sam throws it back in his face under the influence of the siren, calling him a weak, whiny burden who is just holding Sam back. Can it really be a surprise then that, again, next time Dean opens up it's to Tessa (4x15)? And then, when the doubts are basically exactly what Sam said, i.e. that the apocalypse really is too big for him to deal with and he is scared, he says it to Castiel instead (4x16)? Which I think is only validated to Dean when Sam says the same kind of thing all over again without the siren's influence when they fight in 4x21. They're in conflict and being torn in opposite directions, which is kind of the point. Actually communicating – if they both weren't too stubborn to do it – would basically halt season 4's entire plot in its tracks.

Without making this post five miles long, those kinds of things happen again and again in 5-7, too. Sam is literally not there to talk to when he leaves at the beginning of the season, and they don't get back together because they've actually sorted out all the shit between them from the previous events, but because Sam has realized he can't get out and Dean doesn't trust that Sam will continue to say no to Lucifer if they're apart. So when Dean opens up, it's to his hallucination of a therapist instead of Sam. Blow after blow follows thereafter. What they see of Sam's heaven being an entire absence of Dean. Everyone leaving Dean to grieve at Lisa's for a year knowing Sam is back(ish) the whole time. Soulless!Sam's actions, which (as unfair as it might be) Dean clearly had trouble separating out from regular Sam's. Sam's sanity hanging on by a wall, then being plagued by Hallucifer. Similar big conflicts and obstacles to frank conversation continue on into seasons 8 and 9, too.

I think you can fairly go fifty layers deep into what's going on in both of their heads in any of those instances and see where they're coming from, but Dean isn't going to be doing that as the one living it. From his perspective? There are a lot of reasons to not open up to Sam because of what's going on in their lives and how they each feel about it. So sometimes he does open up to others – which includes Castiel.

I definitely remember way back when I was a multishipper that a lot of D/C shippers said they started shipping the ship because Castiel didn't have that fraught history with Dean that Sam does with all the conflicts and misunderstandings. That's fine (although IMO it hardly held true for very long). However, to me it seems like Dean is just as likely to turn to a stranger (or the hallucination of one) as he is to turn to Castiel instead of Sam, so I don't really see it as some huge thing in the canon that really justifies thinking the ship is anything but certain fans over-investing in what they particularly like. I also think that Sam was just less and less likely to open up to anyone at all as the series went on – but when he does, it was also often with Castiel or Jody or Charlie or Rowena instead of Dean. Because the season conflict didn't rely on them being unable to communicate effectively with those other characters and the judgement of those other characters couldn't do as much damage if it was negative.

None of that even gets into the whole other issue of the underlying dynamics carried over from their childhood which also plays into things. Where Dean still sees his primary purpose as protecting Sam as his little brother rather than always seeing him as a true partner. Where he has self-worth and abandonment issues that make him unable to understand why Sam would value him and not be able to just get over his death. Where Sam is not only all too aware that Dean doesn't value himself and gets frustrated with that? But has spent so long fighting against what everyone else wants from him that he still sometimes treats Dean as a substitute for authority instead of a partner and pushes back at any disagreement with his (not always as) brilliant (as he thinks) plans as “bossing him around”? Where he also gets very agitated whenever Dean is not okay because he needs Dean to be okay to the point he insistently tries to fix it by making Dean talk when Dean isn't ready to. In short, they both have huge underlying issues that skew how they see each other and they're both stubborn as hell.

Then when you add on top of that how the writers had such a tendency to revolve the action arcs around Sam and the emotional ones around Dean as the viewpoint character that Sam's emotions and thoughts often seem like a mysterious locked box through large parts of the series? I do get why some fans can read that as Sam being indifferent to Dean, but I don't think that's the underlying intention or the case. Because of that focus choice, to a large extent we only see how badly Sam needs Dean when there's a threat of Dean not being there or Dean is taken away – but I would argue that we do really see it then. From not caring about Marshall Hall to wanting to try Doc Benton's solution to trying to suicide by demon to initially allowing himself to be manipulated by Ruby to taking on his Cage memories to the Rowena and Oskar debacle to how his montage life was entirely blurry except for his son and his grief over Dean.

#askboxery #anonymous #spn discussion #long post #I know there was some other stuff in there #I didn't get to #but this is already A Lot

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shywhumpauthor · 1 year

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Day Off

The people have spoken

Cw: workplace abuse, overworking, injuries, sadistic hero, a lot of ignorance on Villain’s part—there’s a lot of funky dynamics and stuff. Implied torture, potentially a teeny bit suggestive

Henchman didn’t mind their job.

The work wasn’t always easy, the hours were unpredictable with many occasions of them being woken in the middle of the night to go assist with some heist or whatnot. There were a lot of long days sitting behind a desk in an empty office, typing up plans or signing papers or proofing whatever scheme Villain had conjured. Their quarters were small and empty, but they supposed that was their own doing. They didn’t exactly reserve time in their schedule to go out decor shopping.

But that was all fine. Being on a federal wanted list was worth it, because they got to work with Villain.

“Bring them a hot coffee when their work drags into the night” Villain. “Leave a snack and something sweet on their desk after they complete a successful mission” Villain. “Stop by their office despite their own cramped schedule just to ask how they were doing” Villain.

They were going on just shy of three years. Three years since they had stepped away from their life and devoted everything to a criminal whom they thought wouldn’t even know their name. Stupid, sure, but it worked out.

Until Hero came along.

It started normal, at least, as normal as kidnappings could go. Henchman was given orders to at the next battle, ignore any other agency scouts and target Hero. Of course, they followed those orders, and soon Hero had been tied to a chair in one of Villain’s holding cells.

They should’ve caught a hint then. The lightbulb should’ve gone off right when Villain stepped into the small room and smiled. Not a malicious grin, not one craving, ready to feast on the other’s pain. A small, genuine smile. They walked by Henchman as of they didn’t realize the other still stood there and crouched down next to the chair Hero was bound to, frowning as they examined a small scrape on the hero’s jaw.

That was the first instance that stood out to Henchman. The first hint that looking back, they would want to smack themself for not catching on. From there it only got more and more obvious.

Villain was a good boss—was being the keyword. They used to check on Henchman after even the easiest of missions, make sure there wasn’t a single bruise on them, and if there was insist they take the next day off from work. Now, they didn’t even see Henchman. They were completely invisible to the eyes of the criminal, which bugged them much more than they thought it would. They were perfectly capable- they could walk themself down to the medbay, or better, just use the first aid kit tucked in the bottom drawer of their desk.

They weren’t even kidnappings by this point. It was becoming regular, more than regular, multiple times throughout a single week. Often, Villain would be the one who went out to collect the Hero, but on a few occasions, when Villain wanted to surprise them, Henchman would be the one sent to capture Hero.

And for however willingly they went along with Villain, the bastard did not make Henchman’s job easy. They didn’t raise a finger to fight whenever it was Villain tying their wrists, but the moment Henchman cornered them in an alley, their hand was out brandishing their knife. The fight would never last long, minutes at the most before Hero would surrender—even if they were winning—and seat themself calmly in the back of the van. They were doing it just to be a dick, and Henchman could not for the life of them think of why.

Just three days before before, Henchman was sent out to collect the hero, while Villain was busy putting together a delicate dinner for just them and Hero. The asshole knew, and yet they decided to sport a little brawl anyways, one which Henchman had not at all been prepared for. Hell, the hero had even attacked them, striking from behind as they were shutting their goddamn car door. That was fucking low. And it had left Henchman with multiple little scrapes, a budding bruise across their jaw, and a nasty gash weeping scarlet down their side.

They hadn’t bothered going to the medbay for that one. They patched it up themself. They were stubborn, yeah that’s for sure, it wasn’t worth going.

Part of them hoped throughout that night, as they tossed and turned on their bed as blood slowly colored in the white bandages, that Villain would come check on them. They would’ve been happy with just a message, but even that was too much to ask for, clearly.

And now, Henchman was sent out again, the keys to Villain’s van simply left on their desk. They didn’t even get instructions anymore, they knew what that gesture meant. Would it have killed the villain to at least fucking ask? To see if they were alright with going out? No, they knew that if they just left their goddamn keys on top of an ever growing pile of paperwork that sat on Henchman’s desk, that the other would run out like the perfect little minion they were and continue this never ending game of fetch the hero.

And that was just what Henchman did. They shook two ibuprofen from the bottle in their desk’s drawer and swallowed them dry, biting back a string of very clever curses. God, anyone in their position would have quit by now, but not Henchman. No, not them. Of course not. They were fucking loyal. No matter how much of an asshole Villain was being, or how much their blind eye hurt, Henchman wouldn’t quit.

By now they had Hero’s work schedule memorized. Their evening patrol shift finished at six thirty sharp, so if Henchman were to wait in the alley two blocks away from the agency’s not-so-secret entrance, at approximately six fifty-five hero would come walking by, leaving them open to strike. That was, if the Hero was oblivious. Now it was more a matter of avoiding the hero’s punches until they decided they’ve had enough fun and complied.

Henchman could already feel the aching in their ribs, the pain exploding across their sides as they leaned against the alley wall, keeping their eyes open and ears listening. God, if only they could drug the hero. Or maybe tase them. Or both. Repeatedly. But they knew Villain would flip out if anyone harmed their previous nemesis more than a few bumps and bruises.

Hero was early today. Henchman had been watching both ways down the alley, and they hadn’t seen them coming. They usually came from the right, occasionally from the left, but this was the first fucking time they had come from above. It nearly startled Henchman out of their skin as they jolted back into a fighting stance. Did they jump from a fucking fire escape-?!

Henchman didn’t have a moment to fucking think before the Hero was grabbing the collar of their uniform and throwing them to the ground, their enhanced strength only aiding the pain they intended to cause as Henchman gasped, the air leaving their lungs in a rush as a sharp pain like lightning crackled up their spine.

The hero was never this fucking direct. Usually they let Henchman go in for the first fucking attack. Fuck.

Hero was clearly not in the mood for their usual game, which to be fair, neither was Henchman—ever. They pressed their boot to the other’s chest, leaning a good portion of their weight onto Villain’s right hand-turned-assistant. If they could even be considered an assistant anymore. A pawn was a better word for it, perhaps.

“What’s it this time?” Hero asked, their voice casual as if Henchman’s ribs weren’t threatening to crack under their foot. The other brought their hands up, shoving at their leg but Hero didn’t budge. “A candlelit dinner for two? Another movie night?”

“T’s a ss-s’prise,” henchman grit out, their voice shaking with uncharted annoyance and more than a little bit of pain. If Hero cared, they certainly didn’t do shit about it. In fact, Henchman was almost positive the Hero leaned to put even more weight on them.

“Oh, really? Well, I suppose it can wait for a bit just a few extra minutes.” Hero’s fingers danced as they made their way to their belt, wrapping firmly around the handle of their knife.

The hell-

“Today has been so boring,” Hero let out an exaggerated sigh, moving their foot off of Henchman’s chest, not giving the other a moment to draw in a breath before they swung their leg over them and just sat, letting the entirety of their weight fall on Henchman’s stomach before adjusting to simply straddle their waist, one hand moving to grasp the other’s wrists as they tried to shove them away.

“The hell is this-” Henchman tried to spit, but Hero brought the knife to their lips, letting the sharp of the blade press against their skin, successfully silencing them.

“There was only a robbery at the gas station downtown—I mean, what am I supposed to do with that? I haven’t gotten to use my knife since Saturday. I don’t think Villain will mind if I use their little pet, just for a little bit, do you? Oh why do I bother, of course they won’t mind.”

In a split second, Hero tugged the knife downward, splitting a shallow gash from Henchman’s top lip to their jaw. Henchman let out a small cry, the moment their mouth opened unable to taste anything other than the bitter metallic taste of blood as it practically poured into their mouth.

Hero snickered, watching Henchman choke for a moment before bringing the knife to drag against their neck, dancing below the collar of their shirt before hero split a sharp line down towards their shoulder.

“Don’t worry, pet, I’ll make sure you get the day off tomorrow.”

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transformers-mosaic · 5 months

Photo

Transformers: Mosaic #557 - "Loyalty Rewarded"

Originally posted on November 15th, 2010

Story - Zac DeBoard Art - Kei Tomoe Letters - Franco Villa Edits - Juan Pablo Osorio “Chopper” design - Andy Short Whirl design - Paul Vromen

deviantART | Seibertron | TFW2005 | BotTalk

Later revised and annotated for Transformers: The Lost Seasons

wada sez: The last of three Sunbow-version-of-Animated-character strips. On the Machine Wars Starscream color scheme used for Scrash, DeBoard said on Seibertron: “I believe Scrash's coloring was a way to differentiate between he and Skyquake (even though they were pretty much consdered to be the same character), as well as being a shout out to MW Screamer.” Onslaught’s seeming death here appears to be an choice, as he’s alive and well later in the Sunbow timeline—but Cattleprod points out that the Combaticons first appeared reduced to personality components after a failed coup, so presumably this is intended to lead into that, with Onslaught just heavily damaged but alive. The blue character is an OC based on the Diaclone helicopter who, in later official sources, would variously be given the names "Fumes", "Rotorbolt", and "Skyklik"—the creators of The Lost Seasons apparently used a common fan-name at the time, "Chopper". I've tagged him as Rotorbolt, because of the Wreckers connection. On the strip’s ending, DeBoard said: “Personally, I love ol Luggy and I just assume that while his body may have been destoyed, his spark survived....like they put it in a machine like they have a Garrus 9 or something.” He explained the strip’s plotting as follows: “Again, this is just "in my head" but Megs was probably obsessed with The Autobots on The Ark (at least for the moment) and didnt bother to take attendance, so to speak, and therefore didn't notice Lugnut. Another thing to keep in mind is...we were kinna working within a set continuity and trying to fit stories and characters where we can. Obviously Lugnut wasnt in G1 originally so it's a tricky thing to do. I just kinna thought it was a pretty neat way to introduce him and explain his "absence" from the show. Believe me, I try to take all of this stuff into account when I write, but if I overthink it, I'd never get anything written! Hehe. As for the faces of the "transplanted characters. It seems to be harder to translate the facial features of the TFA bots into a G1 style (for instance, I felt Lockdown's face in the Drift mini was just horrific), but I think Lugnut came out very well in this. [...] We are floating around some more stories featuring G1 Lugnut so hopefully he will be fleshed out more in later stories. Personally, I hope to bring his personality closer to the fanatic he was in TFA, which is what made him one of my favorite characters. With the space limitations of the Mosaic, we really didn't get to do a lot of it (though it was more prevalant in the script).” This strip evolved from an earlier script of DeBoard's, which went unused: “Unfortunately, I realized there was already a Mosaic piece essentially telling this same story. This one however was set in the G1 universe”—I’ve reproduced the full text below, alongside the usual Italian translation. The earlier strip with a similar idea was “False Saviour”, in case you were wondering.

Before I was little more than a thug. Making a living by robbing those less fortunate than me. Feeling I was destined for a greater purpose, I had applied numerous times to the Cybertron Military Academy only due be denied due to what the Head of the Academy deemed was an aggressive attitude.

This would haunt me in my future endeavors as I could find little work.

Eventually I found the Arena.

It was there than I unleashed my aggression and anger, my strength was unparalelled and I became known as the Kaon Crusher.

And, as quickly as I embraced my newfound outlet, I soon found myself longing for more.

Was this all I was meant for? Mindlessly destroying mechs for little more than a thrill?

Blastburn lies defeated at my feet and I feel nothing. I walk away, feeling just as beaten as my foe.

"Your designation Lugnut?"

I nod.

"It is."

"My commander has had an optic on you for over a Vorn. He has seen your indifference and longing."

"What do you or your commander know of me?!"

"He believes he can provide you with a sense of purpose--a new life, if you will."

The blue mech (Soundwave) has my attention.

"And what do you call your glorious leader" I say to him mockingly.

"His name is...Megatron."

At the end would be a close up of Lugnut's single red optic, with an image or a shadow of G1 Megs in it.

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accirax · 1 month

Text

Disventure Camp All Stars Power Ranking (Round "5")

Hey everybody! So, I've recently gotten into Disventure Camp, just in time to catch the third season near its beginning. As it's been occupying a good chunk of my brain activity for the past couple of weeks, I've really wanted to write something about it just to let some of the brain worms out. Coincidentally, I also started watching Gordon Holmes' Survivor Power Ranking series as season 46 has been airing (although I've watched Survivor since I was a kid), and really enjoyed the format and the questions it incited. So, I figured, why not mash them up?

The Power Ranking format is essentially a way of ranking how well each player is doing in the game. So, in essence, this is a long form way of predicting who I think will be eliminated from the competition in the next episode. If that sounds interesting, I invite you to read on!

Alright, now that we've made it past the Read More, I'll explain the game in a bit more detail, given that this is the first time I'm posting a "theory" like this. (It's "Round 5" because this is off the heels of the 5th episode, but there are no power rankings prior to this one.) The way Gordon's Power Rankings work, you rank each player not based on how likely they are to win overall, but how likely they are to survive the next episode. For the sake of example, let's say I've ranked Kristal as #1 (least likely to go home), Derek as #2, Trevor as #3, Emily as #4, and Oliver as #5 (most likely to go home). When the next episode comes out, you go back and lock in the score of the person who was eliminated. So, back to our example, if it's Derek who winds up going home, then I get 2 points. Bigger scores are better, so, as you can see, it would have been better if I'd ranked Derek lower. Derek's score is the only one that matters for the week, so the rest of my placements don't factor into my score at all.

This format makes more sense when you can compare your score against someone else's (as what happens in Gordon's videos). But, I still think it's a fun format to use, and it'll be interesting to me to see if I perform better or worse than average at the end of the season. Also, if anyone wants to make their own version of the power ranking and fight me, I'd love to see that! (You don't have to write as much as I will, if you don't want to.) I'm actively trying to mansplain manipulate malewife my way into convincing people to watch this show, so the more the merrier in analysis land.

Although I will be making some of the same analytical remarks that Gordon and co. do for the Survivor season, I want to point out that I will be actively acknowledging that Disventure Camp is a work of fiction. Both Survivor and DC create an "edit" by budgeting their screen time towards specific characters and plot lines, so both can be analyzed in that way. However, Survivor is a story constructed in retrospect, based on the reality of who happened to win the game. DC has been a fictional story since the very beginning, and therefore an episode of the cartoon may be more... "controlled" than an episode of Reality TV. For instance, Survivor players irl might not manage to keep all of their tribes at roughly the same number of people, but Odd Nation Cartoons may have built the season in a way that doesn't eradicate one team of All Stars at the very start.

I bring this up because, for this week in particular, I think that a character originating from Season 1 will likely be packing their bags. We've had four eliminations so far, one from the Season 1 cast (Miriam) and three from the Season 2 cast (James, Lake, and Hunter). Given that both casts started out with 9 competitors, this means that 33% of the Season 2 cast is already gone. I don't think it's impossible that a Season 2 character could be eliminated this week, but I'm definitely inclined to believe that it'll be a season 1 character that bites the dust.

Also, as the contestants on Gordon's show are able to use the "Next Time on Survivor" segment in their analyses, I think that using the trailer for next episode is entirely fair game! Spoilers for the Episode 6 trailer, if you're trying to ignore that. I don't know how much I'm going to reference it, but it'll probably be at least a little bit.

With that out of the way, let's start with the character who I think is the least likely to go home!

#1: Tess

Tess is in a really good position right now as the Cyan Team's swing vote. Aiden will want to take out Ellie as a member of the villains alliance and the one behind Lake's elimination. While it's unknown how much stock Ellie will continue to place in the girls' alliance, she still sees Tess as her friend, and therefore the best option to reach out to for a third vote to take out Aiden or Tom. Therefore, neither Aiden and Tom nor Ellie and Gabby should be looking to eliminate her.

I also feel like they're going to want to have Tess reunite with Ally at the merge, which is another reason why she might stick around. Then again, I might've thought the same of Hunter, and we saw how that went for him last episode. Still, as both Tess and Ally's characterizations revolved around Hunter in Season 2, I at least have interest in seeing how the two girls would progress without their collective crush around.

And, on top of all that, Tess is a Season 2 character. I find it very hard to believe that Tess will be eliminated next episode.

#2: Aiden

Alright, this choice is definitely leaning more on the meta side than the gameplay side. Gameplay wise, if Tess decided to side with Ellie and Gabby, it could be very easy for Aiden to be the target of their votes. But, I just don't think that Odd Nation Cartoons would want to eliminate Aiden at this point in the competition. The man is a fan favorite!

Of course, that was true of James as well... but, that only furthers my point. Given that James and Lake have already been eliminated from the competition, getting rid of Aiden would wipe that entire friend group of characters out. In my opinion, it would be odd for Aiden to have that confessional about playing for James, Lake, and himself, only to be eliminated three episodes after Lake. Aiden is also still a major plot point in the Jake/Tom romance that I think they'll want to keep around for a little longer.

Also, if the theory that James will return to the competition at some point (because he hasn't had a "reading the patrons names" segment yet) turns out to be true, I suspect that they'd want Aiden to still be in the competition for his return. Aiden should be safe.

#3: Jake

You know who else is a part of the Jake/Tom plotline? Jake. I don't think our favorite(?) whiny idiot has his head on the chopping block right now, despite being a S1 character.

Although, Jake's safety is actually mostly not a meta read. I just straight up think that his elimination would be the most baffling on the Magenta Team. Ally could go home if the Jake/Ashley/Fiore alliance decides to finish what they started when they eliminated Hunter. Fiore could go home if, now that the couple has been split up, Jake and Ashley unite with Ally to take out one of the villains. Even if Ally and Fiore somehow had the power to band together and use a totem or something to send one of Jake or Ashley home... I still think it would be Ashley. That's partially based on meta logic of considering Jake a more important character than Ashley, but there are in-universe reasons why they might choose to eliminate Ashley over Jake, too. For Fiore's sake, Ashley has more of a vendetta against her specifically. Ashley is also an athletic and friendly person who could situate herself very well if she made the merge, whereas Jake (who's already demoralized at Miriam's exit) would likely only incite more conflict and use his vote in petty ways. (Sorry to Jake fans lol, I'm kinda slandering your boy.)

Anyways, any other Magenta elimination makes more sense to me than Jake, so I think he's pretty safe.

#4: Tom

Rounding out the Jake/Tom/Aiden love triangle, we have Tom at #4. It's a lot of what I've already covered with Jake and Aiden. There's so much drama yet to be had with this trio that knocking down one of its legs (specifically, the central leg) at this point feels like a loss. Also, I really don't understand why the Cyan girls would choose to eliminate Tom instead of Aiden, which means I'm basically predicting that both of the Cyan boys are safe. That includes Tom, so, good for him!

#5: Ally

And once again, we're looping back to a prior entry. For Tess to reunite with Ally at the merge, Ally has to make it there, too. So, despite her boyfriend's fate, I think Ally will be sticking around for a little while longer.

It's a bit counterintuitive, but I sort of think that Ally will stay because it would be too obvious if she went home. Jake, Ashley, and Fiore eliminating Ally in a 3-1 vote is exactly what you would predict would happen looking at the tribe on the surface. So, for the sake of intrigue, I feel like something would happen to prevent it. In the preview, we see her having one-on-one conversations with Ashley and Jake, so maybe they would feel bad for her and decide to flip on Fiore. Maybe Ally could pull an epic gamer move and find an idol to play on herself. That could be in conjunction with Fiore and her connections to the villains alliance, or it could not.

Tess, Aiden, Jake, and Tom I was pretty confident about, so Ally is the first entry where I'm a little worried putting her this high. But, I have faith in her (especially as a S2 character) to not get the boot in this upcoming episode.

#6: Fiore

This might just be the Fiore stan in me, but I don't think she'll be going home next episode. I mean, she's literally been blessed by the gods! What am I supposed to do against that?

Fiore is in a pretty decent position, being allied with Jake and Ashley while also being on pretty decent terms with Ally. She's also just, like, way smarter than the majority of the competition, so if she found herself in a tight spot, I could see her manipulating someone to weasel her way out of it. Fiore is also a potential winner pick of mine (again, I'm a Fiore stan), and her elimination at this stage could prevent her from making the deep run that would result in her return to the Final 2.

Despite all of this-- and this is a slight aside-- I actually think that Jake and Ashley may have made a mistake in eliminating Hunter over Fiore last episode? They said it was better for their strategy, but I don't think that's necessarily true. It would be a good move for their strategy if they could count on Fiore being a solid alliance member at the merge, but it's pretty obvious she has no allegiance to the S1 duo. She literally already has an alliance-- the villains alliance-- that she would most likely bail to if she makes it to the merge. If Jake, Ashley, Hunter, and Ally all voted to eliminate Fiore, they could diminish the threat of the villains alliance and put their own feud on pause. If Hunter is correct, and getting rid of Fiore prevents them from losing any more challenges, than the feud never has to be unpaused, and all four of them make the merge. The only way that Jake and Ashley could run into trouble is if Magenta does have to go back to Tribal as a foursome. Then, it could be problematic for them if they were forced to turn on each other at Hunter and Ally's whim, because the couple (who were already fighting with each other!!!) could be unwilling to turn on one another, preferring to leave things to chance.

It feels like the narrative has already saved Fiore twice-- once via Alec and once via Jake and Ashley's "strategy"-- so I believe that the narrative has greater plans for Fiore yet. It could be reuniting with Alec. Who knows? (Please be reuniting with Alec. Please be reuniting with Alec--)

#7: Ashley

Um... so I just straight up don't think that Magenta is headed back to Tribal next episode. Surprise!

Like I said, these predictions are just about the next episode. And, given that Magenta just went to Tribal and is low on numbers, I don't think that they'll be headed back there. Therefore, none of them would be next episode's boot.

It's not a given, as the Purple Tribe got pretty demolished in S1, but for an All Stars season, I don't think Odd Nation would want the eliminations to be so unfairly stacked in one direction. I could be making an incorrect call here, because, logically, I really don't know why the Magenta Team would be any good at the musical challenge that's shown in the preview...? I just believe in them, I guess. You can retroactively apply this same reasoning for bonus points on Jake, Ally, and Fiore's entries as well.

Anyways, Ashley! Out of the Magenta Team, I do feel like she's the most expendable, perhaps because she was the earliest elimination from S1, and came back without most of her allies from S1 (Will, Lill, Nick). We also already got the resolution to the fire plotline that was left dangling in S1, which means there aren't many more questions I have about her character.

On the other hand, why bring Ashley back if you didn't have bigger plans for her this time around? They've eliminated a lot of people who made it close to the end at the beginning this time, so it would stand to reason that some of the people who were eliminated closer to the beginning might make it closer to the end. The potential of Ashley bonding with some of the S2 competitors at the merge is great for bringing some new iconic relationships to life.

Even if I think Ashley may be the most expendable, I don't really think that any of the Magenta players are narratively expendable, which is why I placed them all so high. I'll be eating my words if they're headed to Tribal next time, so these guys had better rock on at the immunity challenge!

#8: Riya

And now, for Magenta's counterpart, a team composed of people that I feel like all have an argument for leaving sooner rather than later... the Yellow Team.

I don't remember if it was on YouTube or Tumblr, but I recall seeing someone theorize that Riya might be the next boot because of how much she's annoying her team. She's pushed Connor away, stirred up drama with Yul, and is shown hogging the team's shower in the episode preview. It would make sense if Riya's selfish and villainous actions led to her downfall, so, at first, I liked this logic, and planned to put Riya near the bottom.

However, when I actually started counting votes... I just didn't see it. Even if Connor and Riya's relationship is strained, I don't know if he would be willing to eliminate someone he cares about. Yul believes that Connor voted for him last time, so he'll probably be out to take revenge on Connor. Grett, at this point, would most likely vote with him. Alec too, as long as he lets his strategy of keeping the villains team in power beat out the friendship he's begun to form with Connor. Where are the Riya votes? I'm not really sure.

I think that the theorizer is on the right track with predicting that Riya's bad attitude will eventually lead to her elimination. However, I don't think she'll be off the Yellow Team just yet, so she lands at #8 for me.

#9: Connor

Counting votes made it seem like Connor would be the next boot from the Yellow Team... so why do I have him as the second least likely to go?

Well, much like Ally, I feel that Connor's elimination is so obvious that it wouldn't pan out that way if a Yellow Tribal actually happened. There are definite cracks in the seams that could lead to votes not going in an obvious direction-- with Miriam's blow to the alliance, Alec might see Connor as a better confidant than any of the villains, and/or Grett might see what a terrible boyfriend Yul is and decide to flip on the villains. We also don't know exactly how Riya feels. She certainly acts as if she doesn't care if Connor stays or goes, but the truth is that she hasn't actually been "forced" to vote for him yet by her alliance. If push came to shove, who knows what she'd choose?

Combined with the fact that he (and Riya) are S2 characters, I think Connor would manage to survive a vote if Yellow is headed to Tribal. I'm not that confident about it, though, so he lands at #9.

#10: Yul

And here's Yul, our lowest placed S2 competitor in this ranking. If a S2 character is headed home this week, I think it would probably be him. He was a terrible person in S2, and has continued to be a terrible person in All Stars, so it's easy to see why the players (and the audience) might want him out of the game. Grett, my beloved, please lead the charge in kicking this asshole off the tribe.

However... there's also evidence to suggest that Yul won't be going home so easily. Beyond just being a S2 character, the end of this episode (and part of the preview) established that Yul has some sort of connection with Emily, our mysterious new staff member. I don't know exactly what this relationship is-- my original guess was that Emily could be Yul's manager, but their interactions in Episode 1 (as well as Grett's interactions with Emily in Episode 1) make me feel like that wouldn't be the case. Regardless, there's something going on between him and Emily, which adds some intrigue to Yul's character.

I have also considered that this relationship with Emily might be a one-episode thing, an interaction that actually spells doom for Yul instead of longevity. However, as this is one of the first major things we've seen Emily do, I feel like her connection to Yul may be a major aspect of her character and even why she exists. If that's the case, Yul may be quite important to the season, and be set up to make a very deep run.

However, my uncertainty on why Emily has summoned Yul and belief that the Yellow Team has good reason to eliminate him prevents him from taking one of the top spots. ...There's still a good amount of space below him, though.

#11: Gabby

A good part of why Gabby is ranked this low is because she's a S1 character, I'm not gonna lie. But I do genuinely believe she could be in trouble next episode, and here's why.

As opposed to S1, in which she was a staunch defender of the environment, insecure and petty, and a little bit insane, Gabby's character in All Stars seems to have been simplified to "Ellie's peppy girlfriend." She did refuse to eat the chicken last episode, but I feel like S1 Gabby would have, like, threatened to take their heads off if they beheaded the chicken. The portion of the preview for next episode where Gabby has the crazy eyes makes me hopeful that that aspect of her character will be making a comeback, but we'll have to see what happens.

For now, her role has been pretty limited, which makes me think that she could be an early boot from the season. She doesn't seem to have any new plot threads introduced, new developments in her character as a result of what happened in S1, or important relationships, other than with Ellie. If she were eliminated next episode, that could be because Gabby is in little enough of the show that there wasn't enough time to give her a proper character arc.

The reasons behind why the Tribe (presumably minus Ellie) would unite to eliminate Gabby are a little fuzzy, but not completely implausible. If Gabby were to be eliminated, I think it would be as a blow to Ellie, getting rid of her closest ally. That could tie in to why so much of her characterization this season has been linked to Ellie-- if being in a relationship with Ellie is the reason why Gabby is eliminated, then that's all we need to know about her in All Stars.

#12: Alec

Oh Alec... I hope you make it out of this episode alive.

This may come as a surprise to some people, as I've seen speculations that Alec may be set up to be the season's main villain. However, I'm worried that his strong entrance may be a front intended to get him some screen time before he exits the competition shockingly early.

You see, while Alec is currently the mastermind of the Yellow Team, it's a rather precarious position to be in. The villains alliance seems to have remained stable enough to near-unanimously take out Miriam last time they went to Tribal (even though Riya didn't wind up voting for Miriam, she was conceptually fine with it). However, I doubt that Miriam's silver "Alec is untrustworthy" bullet will go unused. If Alec attempts to push his luck by trying to force people into votes they don't want to make, or if his friendship with Connor causes others on the team to suspect that he's playing both sides, the alliance could revolt against its leader.

I still think that Alec will probably survive until the merge, just so that we can see his relationship with Fiore evolve further. Who knows, maybe he really is the season's main villain, and will finally make it to the final 3 he feels he was robbed of in S1. However, I think that Alec's vote could be a reasonable blindside on the audience, which makes me worry that it's the right narrative move to take.

#13: Grett

Oh Grett... I'm even more worried about you than Alec. Clearly. Because you're directly beneath him.

Look, I really want to believe that Grett will be able to stand up for herself this season and absolutely demolish Yul, getting to play the rest of her game after his departure in whichever way she sees fit. However, sometimes the villains have to win in order to create stakes, and I could see a temporary Yul-over-Grett victory doing just that.

An unfortunate step in her journey to becoming a better person, Grett has totally tethered herself to Yul, a relationship in which she seems far more invested than he. As opposed to her bossy demeanor in S1, she's taken too many steps back, and seems to automatically yield to whatever Yul has to say. Her characterization this season is very linked to his presence, which makes me wonder what she would do if he left the show. She could go align with the villains alliance herself, but... is she really that much of a villain anymore without Yul?

And, that's part of the problem. I can very easily see a plot line where, next episode, Yul continues to put Grett down, and does so increasingly after Yellow loses the challenge. Grett finally musters some of her old courage and lashes back at Yul a little, saying that it's not her fault that they lost. Then, Yul reports to Alec and Riya that Grett tried to backstab him, and doesn't want to work with the villains anymore. Alec and Riya, who both didn't really want to vote for Connor anyways, agree to take out Grett to 1) split up a potentially problematic duo and 2) make their alliance look like it's weakened. Grett goes home with a broken heart, but has at least learned that she shouldn't stand by Yul any longer. Maybe she could get some revenge from beyond the grave later on in the season somehow, like cancelling him during the finale or something like that.

Really, the biggest flaw I can see is that... I don't know if Yellow is going to be losing the immunity challenge. Part of their performance was in the preview for next episode, and it looked pretty good! I feel like Odd Nation Cartoons wanted to show us something super cool to get us hyped for the next episode, so getting us really excited over the team that turns out to be the losers would be a little confusing. Who knows, maybe there could be some level of sabotage for the Yellow Team that causes their otherwise excellent performance to fail.

I don't know if I would have come to the conclusion of Grett being a possible boot if I didn't think a S1 character was going home... but now that I have, I'm afraid that I've seen the writing on the wall.

#14: Ellie

And yet, Grett is not in last place, because Ellie is.

Call it a gut feeling, but I kinda get the vibes that Ellie might be the season's next boot. It doesn't make sense, right? Ellie has strong relationships with so many characters, from Tess to Alec to Jake. She, too, could be in contention for the title of season villain. Why would they get rid of her so early?

Well, much like Alec, I fear she may have been too villainous too fast. Her negative connections to so many different characters leads to it making a lot of sense to vote Ellie for a lot of reasons. Does Tom want to get revenge for his and Jake's breakup last season? Vote Ellie. Does Aiden want to avenge Lake and keep himself and Tom in the game? Vote Ellie. Does Tess want to decrease the numbers of the villains alliance? Vote Ellie. That's three votes for Ellie, and Ellie is eliminated. I don't even think she would be saved by a totem, given that Ellie has already been saved by a totem once before, and it would be kind of repetitive for Gabby and Ellie to do that again.

Now, you could argue that eliminating Ellie here would cause the same problems for Gabby as it would eliminating Yul for Grett. I struggled to see what Grett would do in the game if Yul was eliminated. Wouldn't Gabby be the same, after I detailed why I thought her character had been simplified to be tied to Ellie?

Not exactly. A post-Yul Grett confuses me a little because I think that getting rid of Yul would uplift Grett. It would remove the struggles that her character is facing, and leave her characterization less complex for it. On the other hand, a post-Ellie Gabby makes sense because getting rid of Ellie would create more problems for Gabby. Once again, she would have been stabbed in the back by her tribemates (including Tom and Tess, who she considers friends), but not even have Ellie or a totem to lean back on this time. She might want to burn her tribemates to the ground, but if she acts up too much, she could be next in line. And despite her desire for revenge, she would have to wonder... who was really the bad guy in the elimination, her tribemates or her girlfriend?

I think it's possible that Gabby's character may have been simplified for now because the inciting incident of Gabby's All Stars characterization is Ellie's elimination. Prior to that episode, we establish how much Gabby cares about Ellie, so that when Ellie exits, we feel how much it hurts Gabby. We've seen how Ellie acts after Gabby was eliminated before, so I think it would be far more interesting to see the opposite in All Stars. Also, Ellie has made it to the final before-- twice, if you count the original "Adventure Camp" season-- so it would make sense if, this time, she was kicked out closer to the beginning.

Much like with Grett, the main issue I have here is that I don't know if the Cyan Team would lose this competition, either. They have a lot of artistic people on their team, which makes it seem like they would thrive. However, if Cyan isn't losing, and Yellow isn't losing, that would mean that Magenta is losing, and I've already said why I don't think Magenta is going to lose. So, maybe Cyan is overconfident in their performance, or maybe another team (Magenta?) tries to sabotage them so that the team can take out Ellie (or Aiden, if it's Jake's idea). Maybe the performance has to be a rock song, and the Cyan team is all really bad singers. (Okay I just learned that apparently Aiden's VA is a very talented singer. Maybe Aiden won't sing or something.) I don't have enough details yet.

And, that's the end! I've never done a power ranking before-- not even for Survivor, which I've been watching for years, as opposed to Disventure Camp's "less than one month"-- so I have no idea how well I'll do. Are my instincts good, or are my expectations and the writers' decisions worlds apart? I guess I'll have to see when the next episode airs, and create my round 6 predictions accordingly. Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed this new project of mine!

#disventure camp #disventure camp spoilers #dcas #dcas power ranking #okay. hopefully this will keep the brain worms at bay. hopefully #you don't understand i've been thinking about this post for DAYS i had to expell it from my mind #but it was fun. and i hope to do it again after e6 >:)#btw i promise i am still working on time loop stuff i just got distracted by this new (to me) series and this is a lot easier to write #this is not a change of fandoms moment. i just like to be in multiple fandoms at once #step 1 is to force people to watch dc step 2 is to force people to watch survivor itself. i believe #ally disventure camp #ashley disventure camp #fiore disventure camp #jake disventure camp #aiden disventure camp #ellie disventure camp #gabby disventure camp #tess disventure camp #tom disventure camp #alec disventure camp #connor disventure camp #grett disventure camp #riya disventure camp #yul disventure camp

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sapphire-strikes · 1 month

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▪︎Some LEGO Monkie Kid Headcanons Pt. 2!▪︎

Ayoooo~ Part 2 finally! Decided to write some more headcanons to warm myself up after another massive break. These headcanons have all been pretty general so far, but I will absolutely be adding some reader-insert elements eventually since they are kinda meant to tie into my Ao3 series.

Part 1 Part 2

• You know that common anxiety a lot of people struggle with where you worry that all of your friends secretly hate you? Well, MK's thought process works completely opposite of that.

• He's so genuinely earnest in how much he cares for his friends that it comes full circle, and it's hard for him not to believe that they feel the same way. (And luckily, in his case, they absolutely do.)

• It does play some into how oblivious he can be though, because a lot of times, he will not pick up on it if someone is mad at him unless blatantly told. Basically, as long as you're sharing a space relatively peacefully with him, he automatically assumes that everything's okay and you're on good terms.

• I think that explains his relationship with Red Son and the Demon Bull Family pretty well.

• What's that, Red Son? This ceasefire is just a temporary truce until Demon Bull Family's next opportunity to rise to power? Too bad. The SECOND they stopped actively acting as antagonists and worked together, MK began considering them friends. Want to change his mind? Gonna have to start trying to kill him again. Otherwise, get used to the sleepovers, noodles and beach parties.

• Mei is absolutely the type of person to ~grip~, smack, hang off of, or cling to the person closest to her when she starts laughing. MK does this as well to a lesser agree, but it amplifies when Mei's around and they happen to be standing next to each other, just because they feed off eachothers energy so much. The two often end up in absolute hysterics when they're together and something funny happens, leaving them clinging to eachother mirthfully, OR to whoever has the misfortune of standing in between them when they begin cracking up.

• I like to think that Macaque and Wukong both hold primarily vegetarian diets, y'know, on account of them both being monkeys.

• There's a part in JTTW where Wukong and the rest of the pilgrams are trying to bring the emperor of a kingdom called "Crow-Cock" back to life. Wukong goes up to heaven and extorts some soul-restoring exlier from Lao tzu, but even after giving it to the emperor's corspe, one of them has to "breath life back into him" as the final step. Zhu Bajie actually volunteers but Tripitaka stops him, saying that among the three disciples (Wukong, Bajie, and Wujing), Wukong was the only one of them with "pure breath", having sustained himself in nothing but fruits and nuts his whole life.

• Technically, I have seen one part from the book referenced where Wukong supposedly implies that he has eaten human before, so either I'm not there yet, I missed it or I don't remember it, and if true, it would be a direct contradiction to the moment mentioned above. So that's where the headcanon part of this comes in, and I'm gonna run with the idea that in that particular instance, he was joking.

• For Wukong, his diet is just a preference. It's mentioned at least once in JTTW that he's not a fan of cooked food, and eating raw meat doesn't appeal to him in the slightest.

• Macaque, on the other hand, can't stand the taste of meat. Cooked or raw, to him, it tastes like blood either way. Secretly wishes he could stomach it just because, being a monkey, he subconsciously views eating meat as predatory behavior and has always been a little baffled by that fact that humans are consistently meat-eaters despite their docile, unintimidating nature.• Macaque also, however, doesn't dislike cooked in the way that Wukong does. He's actually a big fan of tofu in almost any form.

• Oh, but yes, they do both eat bugs.

• All the monkeys, and I mean ALL of the monkeys on FFM, retire to water-curtain cave at night. The little guys like to sleep with their king, so there will be hundreds of them sleeping scattered about the inside of Wukong's shack and around the surrounding cavern. Anyone spending the night will inevitably find themselves completely surrounded by morning.

• After the events of season 4, Macaque actually returns to Flower Fruit Mountain to live. He and Wukong still aren't on good terms, but it's a big island, so they never have to see each other.

•According to Macaque, Wukong can call himself it's king all he wants, but it was his home before he and Wukong were friends, and now that things are mostly peaceful, it will go back for being his home for a long time afterwards.

• He has his own little hideout in an underground cavern on the other side of the mountain. The little monkeys actually come in to visit him all the time, but he has them sworn to secrecy so that none of them tell Wukong exactly where he lives. He doesn't care that Wukong knows he's back, but he'd rather not give him the means to drop in if he ever felt like it.

#lego monkie kid #lmk #mk lego monkie kid #mei dragon #sun wukong #macaque #six eared macaque #SMDMAEIB #I say series but as of the time I'm posting this it only has one installment lol

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allzelemonz · 2 years

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Dinner Mystery of Love: Rajesh Koothrappali X Male Reader

It’s been three weeks since you and Raj started dating in an official sense. Before that there were instances that seemed quite a bit like dating, but you’d never put any sort of label on it. Your hands might linger when they brush while flicking through comics at the store, you might meet when Sheldon says something odd, or you might navigate to one another to stand close in an awkward situation. It all came together three weeks ago, and you both agreed not to tell your friends right away.

However, recently, Raj had that dinner party itch. The one where he has to throw a themed night full of mystery or he’ll turn to a ball of pure whine. He’ll mope around about how no one ever wants to come to his parties and how he loves throwing parties and you’ll tell him how much you adore the parties and the little mysteries. It’s a whole thing. So, you convinced the group to enthusiastically agree when Raj invited them and to keep their complaints for later on.

In the grad midst of his planning, the apartment looking like a conspiracy theorist with a knack for color coding was let loose, he had an idea pop into his head.

“You know, this would be a perfect time to tell everyone about us.”

Your adorable boyfriend, pen still in hand, says this out of nowhere and nods along as if it’s a new hot take. The cup in your hand nearly slips at the sudden idea.

“What?”

“That could be the final clue!”

He turns back to the papers in front of him and he starts scribbling again.

“Woah, woah, woah. You want to tell them that we’re together through your dinner mystery?” You sit down next to him on the couch.

“Of course, it’s perfect!”

The bright light in his eyes makes your heart melt, but something about telling them this way is concerning. Raj’s pure enthusiasm spreads over to you as he begins to ramble about how the whole dinner can be a subtle love theme.

“As long as you rig it so Sheldon doesn’t find out first, you can do whatever you want.”

Raj launches back into his excitement, planning out every little detail for the Friday night dinner. You have to make him go to bed as he gets so caught up in how fun the night will be.

When the dinner rolls around you arrive at Raj’s to find it decked out in roses and candles. The subtle romance theme has turned into full on romance. His outfit is the most dapper thing you’ve ever seen him in, cane and top hat included. He makes it work.

His excitement spreads to Howard and Bernadette when they arrive. Penny and Amy get wrapped up in it as well. You have to elbow Sheldon to get into things, but he shows his effort with a smile. Penny brings Leonard around after you convince Raj to let them play the mystery as couples.

It’s not as elaborate as some of his other parties. Everyone stayed in the same building at least. It didn’t stop Bernadette from practically picking up and throwing Howard across the room when he got in her way of the next clue. In the end it’s Penny that finds the final envelope and reads it.

“I can't be bought, but I can be stolen with a simple brush of hands. I am shared with many, but most recently, between the two most handsome men in the room. What am I?”

“Well that’s subjective.” Sheldon whines. “You can’t put opinions in a riddle, it ruins the riddle.”

The group is quiet for a moment and you wonder if they’ll see through Raj’s wording.

“Oh,” Penny breaks the silence. “Was this all just to tell us you guys are dating?”

Raj takes your hand in his with a grin on his face. “Penny wins.” His gaze stays on you, and you find yourself almost as lost in his eyes as he is in yours.

“We already knew that.” Howard says.

“What?” Raj turns to the group.

“It was rather obvious.” Amy chimes in.

“Yeah, you guys are always staring at each other and stuff,” Penny says from the snack table, pouring a glass of wine.

“We are not.” You laugh.

“Your eyes might as well turn into hearts when he’s talking.” Howard raises his eyebrows at you.

“I think it’s sweet.” Bernadette smiles.

“Thank you.” Raj nods.

“Sheldon, I think you owe Leonard something.”

Sheldon looks at you with annoyance. “Rats.” He mutters as he gets out his wallet and hands Leonard five dollars.

Two months ago, you overheard Sheldon betting that Raj and Howard would engage in coitus before Raj got into a serious relationship, according to relevant statistics. Leonard challenged, and now it’s paying off.

#rajesh koothrappali #rajesh koothrappali x reader #rajesh koothrappali x male reader #the big bang theory #the big bang theory x reader #x reader #x male reader

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strawbrygashez · 1 year

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Postal OC (Beachtime Dude) x Postal 2 Dude

The worst

Hiiii :) I made a postal oc a while back called Beachtime Dude but never made a fic with him until now! Like his name suggests he’s a beach themed Dude! He’s a stereotypical surfer Dude basically. The idea for him kinda came from just Ken from Barbie and doll swimsuit lines being called stuff like “Beachtime fun 🤪”. His nickname is Ken bc of that :D uhhhhHHH YEA I HOPE U ALL LIKE THIS 👍

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“Yknow, you’re probably the worst version of myself I’ve ever came across.” Dude said matter-of-factly from across the table as he took another scoop out of the ice cream the other Dude had bought for him. Yes the same one who he was currently bad mouthing. The blonde raised a eyebrow but didn’t look too fazed as he tossed the frisbee Champ and his own dog, Pal, had brought back to him. “Is that so? Would love to know why.” Was all he replied with as he watched Champ and his golden retriever kick up sand as they carelessly chased after the toy.

‘Would love to know why’ Dude repeated in his head with a scowl. There are so many reasons why he was the worst but they all pretty much equated to this version of Dude being too perfect. He was too sane to be a Postal Dude..and just too different in general. The man had blonde hair and a sculpted body for Christ sakes. He honestly looked sculpted by the Gods while most Postal Dudes Dude knew were ginger and on the skinny side or like in his own case, flabby. It pissed him off. Not to mention that the blonde, in the three days Dude had been stranded and stuck with him, hadn’t shown a single moment of his mask of sanity slipping. He hasn’t seen one instance of the other seeming pissed off by the world or pissed at himself. It just didn’t make sense. He wasn’t even annoying sly like the Postal Dude with the brown trench coat was. He was just some ‘ordinary’ Dude by the looks of it…it wasn’t fair and oh god did he hope there wasn’t more like him. He couldn’t take another version of himself that was basically a ‘what could have been’ being rubbed in his face.

Of course he didn’t need to really know that right now however. Dude just sighed and watched the blonde for a moment longer. “Ken?” He asked. The blonde looked over and took his sunglasses off before he began to rub the lens against his the bottom of his tight shirt, probably to get the sand off or something. “Hm?”

“Do you really spend all your time just chilling at the beach? Like.. you aren’t always running around.. living the busy life?” Dude asked before again, taking another bite of his ice cream, trying to ignore the fact this other Dude had insanely mesmerizing light blue eyes (another thing he hated him for). “Mhm. Well- occasionally I help organize events for the beach or beaches near by.. or help bring awareness to keeping them clean by having people sign petitions. Other than that I mostly just take it easy.. and get up to things I wanna get up to.” Ken explained as he continued to rub away at his sunglasses and once he was happy with them, he slid them back on.

Dude felt like if he scowled anymore at the other he’d get stuck that way. Really? This guy was one of those ‘keep the earth green’ hippie guys too? He was more like a young Unlce Dave if anything else. Ok not that Dude was against the message but y’know…again he wasn’t like any other Postal Dude he’d met.. he seemed like too much of a goodie two shoes. Dude decided to yet again basically repeat himself from earlier “You suck.” Ken rolled his eyes with a grin before taking the spoon Dude was using from his hand and taking his own scoop of Dudes frozen treat. “For what? Caring about something important? I’m so sor-”

“Has anything shitty happened to you before? Ever?” Dude blurted out without really thinking about it.. and by Kens expression, he could tell that he was maybe catching on to Dudes jealousy.. or at least train of thoughts. Ken only looked at him a moment longer before bringing the spoon up to his mouth and yep, put it in his mouth even though it had just been in Dudes. “Yeah? I guess… Had a bit of a uh..traumatic at home life with my parents. But I don’t exactly wanna get into it.” Oh.. well Dude of course wasn’t going to celebrate that but at least Ken seemed a little more relatable with this now known fact. “Oh… sorry.” was all Dude offered in return.

They sat in silence for a bit in the sunset as Ken took a couple more bites. The silence had been alright for them both for awhile but Dude could tell there was something on Kens mind. It only just now occurred to him that maybe just randomly asking someone you didn’t exactly have the closest bond to yet about their possible troubled past wasnt the best idea. He was about to try to get some sort of apology out until Ken held up a finger as though he was about to speak before he swallowed his spoonful of ice cream.

“If you don’t have the best uh.. mental health or if you wanna change your mind set, have you tried exercising? It-” Dude interrupted Kens thoughts with a scoff before propping his elbow on the bench table and resting the side of his head on his hand. “What’s next? You’re gonna sell me crystals?” Dude joked with a roll of his eyes. Everyone always said the same thing when it comes to this kinda shit. Do people think it’s honestly that easy t- “if you’d let me finish…” Ken continued, now interrupting Dudes thoughts “I was going to say, I know it’s not for everyone but it helped me. I don’t even think of surfing and swimming as exercise half the time. It’s more of a hobby. I was going to say you could try finding a hobby too asshole…” he said with a tease as he just twirled the spoon a bit in his hands, still watching Dude in front of him, even ignoring when the dogs came back with the frisbee and dropped it by his feet.

“Don’t have time for ‘em. It’s always something or another going on with me. I haven’t quite figured out the way to be a beach bum and relax all day in a little travel camper thing like you yet so..” Dude trailed off with a grin. Ken ignored the ‘bum’ part for now as he sighed and looked over to the ocean to the left of him. The waves had calmed down quite a bit and not many people were still hanging around.. not many people stayed very late on weekdays anyways. The few people who were still on the beach were just relaxing near the shore line while others were swimming in the water.. and that’s when Ken got a idea.

He turned back to Dude and was suddenly grinning but before Dude could say anything, Ken took another scoop and held it up to Dudes mouth. “Here. Hurry up ‘busy boy’. I got a idea”

Dude felt his cheeks heat up a bit at the nickname as he roughly pulled the plastic spoon out of Kens hand and into his own, making the scoop of ice cream fall onto his own pants. “Whatever…I can feed myself you weirdo. Just give me a second.” Dude grumbled. Ken didn’t seem to mind though as he suddenly got up and tossed his own trash away in the nearby garbage can and made his way over to his little camper parked right on the sand not far away.

Dude watched with a frown as he quickly finished before tossing the empty cup out and catching up to the blonde who had opened the back doors of his camper and was rummaging in what looked like a pile of clothes for something or another. “What the hell are you doing?” Dude asked as he leaned against the back of the truck. Ken shuffled a couple things around a moment longer before he held up a pair of swimming trunks. “You said you didn’t have a swimsuit yesterday right? Well you’re going to try swimming now.”

It took a bit of convincing to make Dude actually try them on. Ken had to tell him that yes they were washed (even though he knew Dude really wasn’t one to give a shit about wearing clean clothes), and also yes, they’d fit and he wouldn’t look stupid. There weren’t even many people around anyways even if he did. He obviously could tell that despite the tough, rugged persona Dude put on he was pretty easily embarrassed and self conscious.. but it wasn’t anything some positive reinforcement and praise couldn’t fix. And eventually, Dude did emerge from a nearby changing stall in the ‘stupid’ trunks Ken had picked out that were just black with flames on them.

“Here. Happy? I hope you don’t expect me to go very deep by the w-”

“See!?” Ken cut him off. “Look at you! You look fine! You can even keep those if you want. I barely wear them anyways. I get so many from companies and brands that I don’t even wear the same ones more than once anymore.. anyways cmon, let’s go.” Ken said with a grin before taking Dudes wrist before Dude could go on just standing there, complaining further. Dude followed him though confused as he did so. “Companies send you shit? Why?” He asked. Ken however didn’t answer and instead slipped his hand into Dudes as they approached the shore line. Dude felt his face get a little warm again but didn’t really make move to take his hand away..he just didn’t hold Kens hand back.

“Ok. So..there isn’t anything to be afraid of okay? I don’t know what horror movies you’ve seen but it’s really not that dangerous until you swim wayyyy out.. wait do you even know how to swim?” Ken asked. Now Dude took his hand out of Kens grasp. Of course he knew how to swim. He was 26. He wasnt a child… Dude huffed. “I’m not stupid Ken. Just shut up already would ya?” He asked as he finally took a couple steps in. He was fine. The only thing bothering him was he was pretty sure he already stepped on a sea shell but it didn’t matter. Ken watched him with a grin before shrugging. “Whatever man. I’m still making you actually swim a bit.”

And the whole thing.. turned out less annoying than Dude thought it would. The water felt really refreshing against Dudes already ‘old’ and warn our body.. especially when Ken wasnt making actually swim out some (with his help.. Dude had gotten a little rusty and forgot how to really swim so some help was needed. Which Ken actually kindly gave) and allowed him to relax. The time together actually made Dude a lot less pissy with him earlier as they shared some laughs, stupid life stories, and some nice moments together. They barely had noticed when the sky had gotten darker until the last other person on the beach had gotten out to get dried off some.

At least Dude had watched that person leave anyways. Ken was being stupid and was under the water for some reason or another until he popped up beside Dude and flipped his wet hair back out his face and grinned. Dude wouldn’t admit it but.. damn did Ken look nice with his hair all messy with that stupid grin. “Necklace.” He randomly said. “Huh?” Ken lifted a arm out of the water and presented some necklace he definitely hadn’t had on earlier. This one had a nice, pretty sliver butterfly charm on it “Someone lost it I guess. It’s mine now.” He grinned as he moved to put it on Dude, only rolling his eyes and chuckling as Dude swam back away from him a bit at the action.

“If it’s yours why the hell are you putting it on me?!” Dude asked as he went to grab a hold of it. “Because? I wanna. Chill out. If it’s mine I can give it to whoever I want.” Ken replied with a shrug, still grinning. Dude was quiet a minute before letting go and leaving it on. “Hm.. I guess you are a little bit of shitty person then. Stealing some poor girls necklace to give to a guy you barely know.” Dude finally grinned back. “Eh, if someone loses something while swimming here they rarely have hope they’ll be able to find it again. I’ve seen like maybe.. one or two people try though and I actually helped them thank you very much.. and it’s not like I pawn the stuff I find off anyways.”

“Oh so you give them to whoever lucky girl.. or uh guy.. I guess.. you’re with for the day?” Dude teased, now slicking his own messy wet hair back too. Ken smirked and moved a bit closer to him. “Mm.. nah. I might give some away but I actually use most accessories I find in my photos online! Well the ones someone can’t be like .. totally sure it’s theirs anyways.” Ken explained. “Ah.. you post a lot of pictures online? What? You got a ‘onlysurfers’ or something?”

Ken chuckled and shook his head. “Nah. Remember how I told you I get people sending me things? I got a good social media following.. I guess you can kinda say I’m a model. It’s usually like beach life brands sending me shit. I get paid to promote their crap.” Ken explained before he glanced over to their two pups who were now just laying about on the sand. “Ugh… you’re a social media influencer? I think me and Champ are going to have to leave you soon now.” Dude teased, shoving him playfully. Truth be told, it really didn’t surprise him that Ken was a bit of a model though. Hell, if he looked like him he probably would post pictures everywhere of himself too. “Aww don’t hate me because I’m beautiful.” Ken joked as he looked back to Dude. Okay now he really was sounding like that one other ‘Postal Dude’ with the brown jacket.. maybe he was a more sane version of that specific Dude.. though he honestly didn’t give a shit about thinking about all that anymore at the moment.

They swam for a bit more, just talking until something felt.. really wrong and painful. Dudes face twisted into a pained look as he hissed and lunged forward onto Ken since the pain was in his foot and he knew he wouldn’t be able to keep himself up right with the painful muscle spasms. “AGH! Shit!” Dude cursed only just now realizing he’d thrown himself against Ken when Kens arms wrapped around him.. oh god. “Are you alright?” Ken asked in concern as Dude still gripped on. “Ah- sorry yeah. Got a fucking cramp from all this swimming though. Didn’t mean to grab you though let me just-..” Dude tried to shimmy away to maybe swim back to shore himself as quickly as he could but it seemed like Ken had other plans as he held onto him as he started swimming back to shore.. Dude was pretty sure he’d never been more embarrassed in his life. This shit was something out of some girls diary where she wrote about some blonde hot life guard man coming in and saving her. Dude couldn’t help but to groan and cover his face once Ken got out of the water but still held onto him, now bridal style. Ken only grinned though as he happily walked Dude over to his camper. “Poor thing.. see this is why you need to keep swimming! You can build up your tolerance and-”

“Or I could just not go swimming in the first place” Dude spat glaring at him but for some reason.. still not telling him to put him down. “Pfft. But where’s the fun in that?”

Eventually Ken had gotten both dogs back in the camper and shut the doors as he had Dude sit on the bed as he digged for some kinda medicine to help Dude with his pain. Dude hated how bright it was in his little camper but it was somehow better than his own trailer home.. even though it was much smaller. It was nicely decorated and not cluttered somehow and he’d somehow managed to fit a sofa in there which is what Dude had slept on the past two nights.. hell there was even a little spot inside the camper for Kens dog. How he managed it, he didn’t know.

“Sorry you’re feeling bad.. I shoulda realized you probably couldn’t swim as long as I can.” Ken said as he finally found the medication he was looking for and grabbed a water bottle before handing both to Dude. Dude shrugged and took the meds before speaking. “Not the worst pain I’ve been in. At least I had a idea that it was coming…”

Ken wasn’t exactly sure what Dude meant by that but as he looked over his body… he could probably piece it together. The other man had many odd shaped scars all over his body and with the way he was talking earlier, it wouldn’t surprise him if Dude really did get up to more.. dangerous things around town all day. It wasn’t a ugly look though, more interesting than anything else really. He’d have to ask about it eventually but as he looked up to Dude, he noticed he’d probably been checking his body out too long because his face had gone red.. it was so easy to see it too since he was your typical pale ginger. “W-what?” Dude asked, only now just remembering to turn and grab his shirt he’d left on the bed and toss it on.

Ken shook his head. “Nothing. Just.. you can take the bed tonight. I kinda accidentally pushed ya too hard. I’ll take the couch.” He said as he began to shut the blinds to some windows. It had gotten pretty late and Ken really seemed to have a much better sleep schedule down than Dude.. Dude watched for a bit, thinking to himself… The couch wasn’t terrible but, god would he be pissed if he had to let some basically ‘homeless’ guy take his bed while he slept on his couch.. that’s what Dude told himself his thought process was at least before he awkwardly coughed before speaking up.

“Uhm… you don’t- I wouldn’t mind…” Of course Dude couldn’t actually get what he wanted to say out, it was too fucking weird and embarrassing. He scratched the back of his head and looked away from Ken as he tried to think of how to continue. “Hmm?” Ken asked as he turned a light off. “Get on the damn bed.” Dude spat out awkwardly.

Ken rolled his eyes and just thought Dude was being hardheaded. So he tuned off one other light before grumbling a “fine.” And climbed onto the bed, thinking Dude would stand up but he never did. It was only when Ken laid down and Dude followed his action until he got what Dude wanted. “Oh…” He smirked, now flipping to lay on his side toward Dude. “If you wanted to cuddle you could have just asked” he teased. Dude grumbled before taking his sunglasses off and rubbing his eyes. “I can get up if you’re just going to be a ass.” Dude huffed. “No~ I’m sorry. You’re just trying to be nice. I know it’s hard for you.” Dude ignored that and just moved to actually get under the covers, which Ken did as well. Once they were both comfortable, Ken spoke up again. “Hey Dude?”

“Yea?”

“I get a.. little lonely at night. Can I hold you?” Ken asked barely holding in the laugh at the end though he was serious. Dude opened his eyes to give a mean glare at him. “Whatever. This is already gay enough as it is.”

“ I don’t know why you’re acting like it was my idea for this mr moody.” Ken said before snaking his arms around the other. Dude didn’t dignify that with a response.. well more like he didn’t know how to respond to that. He was just so tired and it did feel nice to have someone hold him like that so he just stayed quiet. And it stayed like that until they both fell asleep, gayly in the same bed.

#postal dude #postal oc #postal dude x oc #postal fanfic #sorry for any mistakes #THE LAST SENTENCE WAS A JOKE THING BTW JSJDKDG

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invisible-storyteller · 1 year

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Part 1: Lydia is not Stiles's anchor (pre-6A)

First of all, let's discuss why Lydia is NOT Stiles's anchor.

(And here, let me take a moment to say that I'm not trying to bash Stydia. I do think, however, that just because you're romantically interested in someone - I use the word "interested" here because I'm gonna mainly talk about Seasons 3-5 when they weren't officially together yet - that doesn't mean that the person of your romantic affection will be your anchor.)

The idea of Lydia being Stiles' anchor was introduced in Season 3, and consequently, that was the season when TW writers tried on multiple occasions to use this new-found prospect of their relationship as a plot device.

The first time Lydia was implied to be an anchor to Stiles was in Episode 11 when Stiles, Scott and Allison sacrificed themselves to the Nemeton to save their parents' lives. Seemingly, Lydia worked as an anchor here but I also have to point out the (imperfect?) execution of this idea. The purpose of the pairings in this scene, according to Deaton, was to pull the person back from (what I assume was) bardo but we also saw that when the three of them reemerged from the water, none of the others was standing beside them. (In which case, I don't understand the importance of such "emotional tethers". Was just the thought of Lydia supposed to bring Stiles back? Because Stiles was clearly not thinking of Lydia, the three of them got basically thrown back as soon as they found the location of the Nemeton.)

Additionally, the person serving as an emotional bond to the one being sacrificed wasn't necessarily an anchor in this situation. Despite their close relationship, I doubt that Scott had Deaton as his anchor, even though the vet was the one holding him down. Therefore, Lydia might not have been an anchor in this episode, only an emotional connection to Stiles - someone who could have been easily replaced by Scott himself if he had been available at the time.

The second instance suggesting Lydia's role as an anchor was within a series of nightmares Stiles experienced at the very beginning of Season 3B - courtesy of the Nogitsune trying to crawl into his head. Stiles had this dream with Lydia being in his bed when he suddenly noticed that the door to his room was ajar and he got up to close it. My question is: Why did dream!Lydia tell him to leave the door open? If she was supposed to be an anchor and Stiles was supposed to use her to keep - and in a way, guard - his sanity (like Derek did with dream!Stiles when Kate broke into his loft), shouldn't Lydia have encouraged him in closing the door to his mind?

Deaton made it clear that the problem after the ritual sacrifice was the metaphorical doors remaining ajar inside their minds which the Nogitsune was using as a rift to take control of Stiles. So why wasn't Lydia protecting him like an anchor? Maybe I'm just misinterpreting this scene. But if the writers decided to use Lydia as an anchor, then at least she should have succeeded in doing that, right? (Unless she's not an anchor here, which I'm gonna come back to in a bit.)

Another scene where Lydia could possibly be viewed as Stiles's anchor was the time when she entered a possessed!Stiles's mind alongside Scott to banish the Nogitsune. Lydia did make an attempt to get through to Stiles but her struggle to get his attention came to no result.

If she was his anchor in this scene, shouldn't she have been able to get Stiles to hear her? Scott reached him, though, and I know it was because of the Power of the Pack (which is nice, I actually liked that) but that only proves that Stiles here had to rely on something else to reclaim control over his mind.

But is Lydia really an anchor? And more importantly: Did Stiles actually choose her to be?

The first time around it was Deaton making that important decision, pairing them up because of the obvious romantic interest (and because there was no one else there to help Stiles, but that is beside the point). The second time, it might have been Stiles's brain conjuring up Lydia after being basically told that she should be his anchor. Alternatively, it might have been that Lydia was just a small part of the Nogitsune-induced nightmare - something created and used by the fox spirit to keep the door open inside Stiles's mind. On the third time, Stiles didn't even have a say in it. Lydia just got sent into Stiles's head by Peter and that was pretty much it. Stiles never actively chose to rely on Lydia as an anchor.

The only time Lydia could be considered a successful anchor to him was during Season 6A when she managed to bring Stiles back from the wild hunt. (I strongly believe that the anchor aspect of their relationship was the key distinction and explanation for why Lydia was the only person who could ultimately bring him back when even Scott - Stiles's best friend - and the sheriff - his literal father - couldn't succeed in doing so.) Consequently, this might mean that Stiles, along the way, changed his anchor as Derek had been long gone from his life by that point.

Still, before the events of Season 6A, Lydia doesn't function as an anchor. Which leads us to...

Part 2

#teen wolf meta #sterek

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zazzander · 1 year

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The Traits of Slytherin, based on etymology.

I want to do a deep-dive into the traits of Slytherin and how the ideals of the Founder may have been obscured over Hogwarts’ 1000 year history.

So the Sorting Hat speaks in Modern English in the books – but that’s obviously not the language the Founders used. What it’s trying to convey are concepts from a thousand years ago. Almost inevitably, certain ideas will be lost in translation. So, let’s look at the words the Hat uses:

"Or perhaps in Slytherin, You'll make your real friends. Those cunning folk use any means, To achieve their ends."

A lot of people hear “any means to achieve their ends” and make judgements based on that – however, look at the earlier section: “you’ll make your real friends”. That doesn’t sound like the back-stabbing, self-serving House we’re told Slytherin is.

Shrewd Slytherin, from fen.

And power-hungry Slytherin / Loved those of great ambition.

Said Slytherin, "We'll teach just those / whose ancestry's purest."

For instance, Slytherin / Took only pure-blood wizards / Of great cunning just like him.

So we can assume all of these are traits important for Slytherin house. Since Slytherin wanted students “just like him” we can assume that Shrewdness was also on the list. We also learn from Dumbledore, who might or may not be a useful source, that Slytherin valued “cleverness, resourcefulness, determination, and ‘a certain disregard for the rules’”.

In this post I want to consider what words Slytherin may have originally used to convey these ideas – and if certain messages have been mistranslated or corrupted over time.

So what language did Slytherin speak? Well, let’s look at his name: Salazar Slytherin.

Basque and/or Arabic

The name Salazar is actually a surname seen in what was Castille. It means Old Hall, combining Castilian: sala “hall” and Basque: zahar “old”. In the 10th century there was actually a noble family called Salazar in Northern Burgos, Castille. If he was a relative of that noble family, then he likely spoke Basque. Considering the character of Salazar, it’s highly likely that – in this HP world – Salazar was a nobleman from Spain. Or, at least, his family was. The Sorting Hat says he’s “from fen” but that might be where he or his family settled after leaving Castille.

I wanted to investigate if this cultural context might have given use clues for his world view – as if canonically differed from those of the other three Founders. However, looking into Castilian virtues – such as early Spanish chivalry and religious orders, I find little overlap between them and Salazar’s ideal traits. It seems unlikely that he drew from that cultural context when recruiting his students.

I have seen people online argue the possibility of him being Moorish (i.e. Muslim). Castle building technically was very limited in Scotland / England in the 10th century. Their designs nothing like what we might expect from the origin Hogwarts. Furthermore, the architectural technology implied by Salazar’s Chamber of Secrets and its entrance, point to someone from a castle building region. The Moors of Spain were at the cutting edge of technology at this time, building both castles and sewage systems.

Much like with Castilian virtues, I don’t find much in the way of a correlation between Salazar’s ethos and Islamic virtues.

That being said, I did come across the concept of zaneem. “In the Arabic language zaneem is a person who is adopted among a group of people (i.e. he is not truly of them). […] this word is used for a person who is notorious among the people for his evil doing”. It’s possible that this attitude was adopted by Moorish wizards. They may have seen muggleborns as people who were not born to wizardkind and thus, intruders, inherently untrustworthy. So if Salazar was Moorish, or perhaps part-Moorish, he might have been raised in this belief – unlike the other three Founders, hence their famous disagreement.

Old English

This all brings up to the second element of Salazar’s name: Slytherin. A name with clear origins in Old English. This would have been the lingua franca of the Four Founders. Both Rowena and Godric probably spoke Old English natively (based on their name), with Salazar and Helga learning it at some point before or during their settlement in Hogwarts. It’s possible the founders spoke Latin, of course, but if that was their common language, I think Salazar’s nickname would have been Latin derived. A name such as Colubrinus “snake-liked one, cunning one” or Volvotor “one who moves like a snake”.

And Slytherin is almost certainly a nickname. As we established, Salazar would have been his surname – so we can guess Salazar Slytherin means Salazar the Slitherer.

In Old English, this would be either: Slidriend, Slideriend, Slidoriend, or Slidriend, eventually becoming: Slytherin(d). The “y” alternative spelling became common in Middle English, as did the use of the “th” sound. Why Salazar’s original first name was lost, who’s to say, it’s possible that his early departure is the cause.

When the Sorting Hat was created, the thoughts and ideas of Slytherin would have been rendered in Old English. Here are the traits I think Slytherin once called for:

Cunning / Shrewdness(by extension: cleverness, good judgement, cautiousness, wisdom). This is perhaps the easiest idea to translate of all. There are words in Old English that link cunning with deceit, but personally, I don’t think Slytherin wanted that (see “real friends” above). Here are possible words that Slytherin may have used in his lifetime:

Aberd, “crafty, cunning, callidus, sagacious” – further elaborated as “wise, expert, skilful, clever, experienced, ingenious, wise, shrewd, showing keen mental discernment and good judgement”.

Orþanc, “cunning, skilful”

Searuþancol, “cunning, shrewd, wise”

Gæp, “cautious, shrewd, subtle”

We see this in play when Slytherin are often slow to act. They consider the terrain fully before launching into battle. According to the wiki, they “weigh all possible outcomes before deciding exactly what should be done.”

Ambition / Power-Hungriness / Determination. The primary issue with this trait is that Old English simply did not have a word for ambition as we know it. Nor, really, the concept of being “hungry for power”. The word ‘ambition’ comes in Middle English from Old French between the 13th & 14th centuries. When it did come into use, it was always pejorative, referring to inordinate or overreaching desire. The neutral / positive sense of the word is a modern concept.

So that begs the question, what word did Salazar use back in the 10th century? I believe it could have been “riceter”. This seems to align, in part, with the traits we see in many Slytherins.

Riceter, in a positive sense this meant, “power, dominion, rule, greatness, glory; ambition”. It did have a negative side, “power improperly used, violence, force, tyranny, oppression; arrogance”. We know well enough that Slytherins are susceptible to that negative side of this trait. It might as well be a summary of Voldemort. The wiki also says that Pride is a known attribute of Slytherins, and I would say that also falls under this concept (pride = arrogance).

Geornfulnes / geornnes, this is another term I think could fit. It means “eagerness, zeal, diligence, desire, industry, endeavour”. This would certainly match the ideal of determination that Dumbledore mentioned.

There are a couple other words in Old English that mean determined which I think would still match up with Slytherin: stíþhygd “determined, resolute, constant”, ánstræc “resolute, determined”, áræd “prepared, resolute, determined”.

Okay, now we address the elephant in the room: purity.

Much like ambition, the word pure comes from Old French. So that means the word “pureblood” had to a later translation of Salazar’s origin wording. In fact, while “blood” is of Germanic origin, it wasn’t used to refer to one’s family until the 12th / 13th century. Hundreds of years after Salazar.

So what did Salazar actually say? Old English has a lot of words that have the translation “pure”. For example, bilehwit, this means “pure, sincere, honest” or héore “pleasant, secure, gentle, mild, pure”. These don’t fit at all, so I’m ignoring them. Instead, I think he either used:

Hlutor, “clean, pure, bright, sincere; free of impurities; clear intellect, free from obscurity; splendid, glorious, illustrious; clear from evil, guilt or deceit”

Or Mære, “famous, renowned, illustrious, pure, sterling”

With, Gebyrd, “birth; parentage, lineage; nature, condition”, as the original second element. This lines up with the phrase “whose ancestry is purest”.

Therefore, I think Salazar was actually calling for students from noble families (noble in both senses). Which does beg the question – why is blood purity ascribed to Salazar?

Descended From Gods

In this era and region, it was pretty common for nobles to claim descent from gods (or, when not calling them gods, powerful sorcerers). We know that wizarding families adopted this practice as well, with the Irish Sayre’s claiming to come from the powerful Animagus, The Morrigan. The Gaunts as well, may credit their origin to Gontia, another Celtic goddess (or “witch” as the wizarding world would view her), since that’s the origin of their name. We know that the Peverell family had ties with a being known as Death (in the Tale of Three Brothers).

Such heritages may have inclined Slytherin to believe his students would be more powerful than others. Based on the idea of riceter, we know Slytherin wanted his students to be powerful in magic. At the time, it wouldn’t have been so strange to assume that someone from a powerful magical lineage would also be powerful. So, we can guess that at least one of the prospective student’s parents needed to come from one of these lineages.

However, if we are to believe the 20th century pureblood supremacists, the requirement would be your entire family much come from such lineages to join Slytherin. We know this is simply not the case since the Sorting Hat admits half-bloods into the House.

So when did “of noble heritage” become “of only wizarding heritage”? And why?

Slytherin’s Trade & Goals

I came across a really insightful series of essays here: https://wellingtongoose.livejournal.com/32705.html

The author argues that, by the virtue of their time, the Founders would likely have been master-sorcerers who took on apprentices. There was mutual aid between all four Founders (and they were no doubt friends) but like with all apprenticeships of this era, they taught their students in the manner they saw fit without influencing each other’s teaching. Each Founder likely had a specific craft that they practiced and prospective students would apply for an apprenticeship in that magical trade.

WellingtonGoose (WG) guesses the trades of the three other Founders as:

Gryffindor: beast tamer or monster hunter. Such a profession requires bravery, boldness (and more than likely, a desire for fame). His sword is another clue.

Ravenclaw: scholar, healer, record-keeper. She prized wit and learning for this reason.

Hufflepuff: physical work such as farming or blacksmithing. She required apprentices who were hard-working and unafraid of toil.

WG suggests in their essay that Slytherin was a master architect, but this is where I disagree. I believe he trained magical advisors for royal and noble courts. If you’ve ever watched the Witcher, think along the lines of Yennefer & the sorcerers who are paired up with kings and queens. They position themselves in a place where they can quietly manipulate rulers.

You might be asking: where’s the evidence?

Merlin. This ancient and powerful wizard is – mistakenly – believed to have been Slytherin. Now, Merlin was alive long before Slytherin, so why would the wizarding world believe he was a Slytherin? Well, his profession. He was the magical advisor to the legendary King Arthur. (* btw, I’m aware that harry potter lore says he actually was a student at Hogwarts but Merlin was most likely alive in the 6th century – not the 10th!)

Lucius Malfoy (of the 16th century). This man served in the court of Queen Elizabeth. He was powerful and noble enough to offer his hand in marriage to the Queen (though she rejected him).

Purebloods in the Ministry. Purebloods, especially those from very notable families such as the Malfoys, Gaunts and the Blacks have never made themselves Ministers of Magic. Instead, these families influence policy from a distance – much in the way their ancestors would have influenced kings and queens of England.

By my reckoning, Slytherin required a prestigious lineage from his students because they would struggle to gain admittance into royal courts and noble hosts without it. They needed to be able to rub elbows with high society. This is why I think it’s likely that Salazar himself was Castilian nobility. Furthermore, shrewdness, cunning, ingenuity, guile and – yes – manipulativeness would be ideal traits for such a profession.

Salazar, being a shrewd man, knew as well that his apprentices would be tempted by the power offered by the muggles around them. If they were in anyway disloyal towards wizarding society, they could very well jump ship and help their king rather than their fellow wizards, resulting in potential disaster. After all, wealth and advancement would be there for the taking. Why not?

Thus, I think Salazar had one final requirement: a lack of loyalty towards muggles. Perhaps even strong distrust. This would have been most easily sourced from the population of wizards who had two magical parents. If they did have a muggle parent, they would need to fully and completely rejected their muggle heritage before becoming one of Salazar’s students. We see examples of this Snape & Voldemort, both of whom hated muggles by the time they arrived at Hogwarts.

We know that, at some point, likely around the 13th century, the term “pureblood” came to be used. This concept would have been influenced by Slytherin’s legacy. However, I don’t think it would have matched up with what we see in the 20th century. Instead, it probably worked like this:

Pureblood (either pur-burde or pur-blood): two magical parents

Pur, meaning “real, true, genuine; spiritually pure or perfect; total, completely, absolute; excellent, perfect, unblemished; unmixed, uncontaminated”. This word displaced Hlutor in the Middle English period.

Burde meaning “nobleman / noblewoman”. OE: gebyrd, displaced by ON: byrthr, becomes burde. Replaced in this context with blood sometime after the Middle English period, but retained the meaning of a term applied to a person.

Half-blood: one magical parent, one muggle parent

This one is obvious, I think.

Magbob: two muggle parents

Magik, Middle English “magic, sorcery” (from Old French)

Bobbe, Middle English “cluster of fruit; a twig with its leaves”, possibly from Goedelic, pobb, “shoot, tendril”.

Meaning: Magic-Shoot

I think there’s evidence for this as well with the Lucius Malfoy I mentioned earlier. If pureblood supremacy was the same as in the 20th century, then such a man would never have considered marrying a muggle queen. However, if the terms were a little looser, then this would be a very strategic move. With one magical parent, the next king or queen would be a half-blood. Have them marry another wizard and boom, pure-blood monarch.

I suspect the terminology didn’t change until after the Statute of Secrecy. Before wizards isolated themselves, they would freely intermarry with muggles. It would have been near impossible and, honestly, implausible to keep a track of every single ancestor of every single marriageable wizard.

However, after isolation, especially in the early years before the laws were relaxed, it would be evident that a lot of wizards would have two magical parents. Suddenly the word “pureblood” has very little weight at all. So the meaning shifted. The noble families, who already had anti-muggle sentiments, would have significantly less muggle ancestors. They could claim that “pureblood” meant having only magical ancestors. By the time we reach the 20th century, this idea is deeply rooted into wizarding society.

WG has a theory for why – genetics. See here: https://wellingtongoose.livejournal.com/31909.html

Magic is not a skill one can learn. It’s inherent. It’s genetic. In the time before seclusion, this wouldn’t have mattered so much. If wizarding parents had a child without magic, they could apprentice them in a different trade. Easy. However, in the age of isolation, having a squib is a disaster. Squibs are doomed to live half a life, never quite in the world of magic or muggle.

Using WG’s model of wizarding genetics, we can see why purebloods may have a decreased chance of having a squib child. And while wizards most certainly don’t understand genetics, they would doubtless have noticed this as well. I think the fear of having a squib, of having their own child condemned to the tragic existence that all squibs endure, would push along this new ideology.

It is odd to me that, in canon, the purebloods / Slytherins are the ones who want to remove the Statute. Or even that they supported it to begin with. You’d think that those against pureblood supremacy would support a return to the old ways. Though, if we consider that Slytherins are almost completely unable to practice their original craft under this new system, I can begin to understand why. Furthermore, I can see why many Slytherin talk about being “overlords” since, without a monarch to influence, their traditional craft is defunct. Thus, they must take matters into their own hands and reinstall absolute rule.

TLDR: Salazar Slytherin was master sorcerer whose primary profession had been as a royal advisor. He took on apprentices who wished to follow the same path. Salazar needed students who were cunning and shrewd and ambitious – the kind who could manipulate the kingdom from behind the scenes. He also wanted students who would never think to sell-out their own kind (wizards) in exchange for power, thus desired apprentices who were loyal to wizarding society and distrusted muggles. A thousand years later, this mentality has grown and corrupted, resulting in the infamy of the House.

#slytherin #salazar slytherin #hogwarts #hogwarts founders

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