#this post was mostly seriously but partly a joke to see how much I COULD actually analyze

[demonslayedher]

Shinobu's Goldfish, "Fugu"

While this fancy but hearty goldfish started as a simple sketch with a couple of tank mates, given the round shape and characteristic hump behind the head, it seems Ufotable has gone full speed ahead giving Shinobu a Ryukin goldfish.

Ryukins, for what I gather especially from here and here and here, are less prone to in-breeding than older varieties of Fancies. Besides her subjective aesthetic tastes, Shinobu might had chosen them with their health in mind. After all, this is health-minded Shinobu, and Fanbook #2 states that she seems to have chosen the name Fugu ("pufferfish") out of the hopes that it will be raised big and round and energetic/healthy/"genki."

Is it, though?

(Grab your snorkels and come dive below the cut with me for some fishy meta.)

If Ufotable's animation choices are anything to judge by, Fugu is very healthy with colors that bright. They thrive on a varied diet but are prone to digestive issues, which Shinobu of all characters would be attentive to. It appears there are two red tank mates, likely of the same Ryukin variety, as they are faster than other round goldfish (and therefore likely to pick on the slower ones), but also not as strong swimmers as narrower fish, whom they can't compete with. To add some unnecessary character analysis, this almost sounds like Shinobu among the Corp (and Giyuu) versus Shinobu among the Pillars. As the other two are never as detailed as Fugu and weren't given names (and might be other compatible varieties that can stand up to Ryukin bullying), Fugu can almost be mistaken for a lonely single fish, but they are clearly not tank decor because Ufotable animated them moving. Hmm, these unnamed two remain mysterious.

As for what decor is there, this was an interesting choice on Shinobu's part. Plants can be difficult, as Ryukins can be ruthless to them. However, Ryukins are prone to injury, so bumpy rocks should be avoided. Either Shinobu searched long and hard for the right object, or she's still figuring this out.

And, based on Fugu's size, she may still be a beginner in this hobby.

Ryukins can get big, 15-20 centimeters even if not in a large enough tank, and they'll grow especially fast when they're young. Tank conditions might slow this growth, though, and this tank is a bit on the small side, and might benefit from a longer water surface to allow more oxygen. So which is it, Shinobu? Do you want Fugu to grow big and healthy and round, or are you subconsciously wishing to keep it small, like yourself for aesthetic purposes? After all, Fugu's tank (with the exception of kidnappings) stays in the decorative alcove, in place of, say, a flower arrangement. Did flower arranging become too painful for the memories it stirred, and a goldfish seemed like a good hobby to take up as a replacement? Shinobu did always have an interest in naming things after fish, after all.

Either Shinobu is smaller than Zenitsu (yes, by 13.5 centimeters) and Nezuku (well... typically yes, by 2 centimeters), or she's gotten a bigger tank. After all, this young goldfish and her tank buddies will grow fast in the first months of their potentially 10-15 year life span. There's also no decor now; perhaps as Shinobu is getting more experienced in this pursuit, she's learned the error of her rock decorating ways. While those unnamed tank pals remain mysterious, perhaps they are fantails? Why, perhaps even butterfly tails?? How curious these little unnamed silhouettes make me! And what fish are they named after?

Going back to the health and care of this creatures, with the size of that tank and lack of filtration system, Shinobu probably would have watched that water quality like a hawk (hmm, bad metaphor, I wonder if hawks will eat goldfish?) to have Fugu looking that bright. Likewise, with their delicate digestive systems, they'd have needed small meals throughout the day, and with Shinobu's Pillar missions, this was likely impossible to keep up with on her own. Either that, or she keeps and extremely rigid schedule in order to accomplish everything she already takes responsibility for, and she managed water tests and increment water changes around all her other usual tasks. Was this really the right hobby to take up, Shinobu? Were you actually able to relax with this extra responsibility?

I'd like to think the girls all help, especially knowing that the sight of Fugu brings Shinobu joy. If taught how, they'd probably be as careful with the goldfish trio as they are with the injured Corp members (which the Kamaboko trio might argue is not careful at all, depending on what stage in treatment you ask them).

Perhaps one more panel will shed some light on this--wait

WHERE ARE THE TANK FRIENDS???

Maybe Shinobu did keep this hobby possessively to herself, and taught them nothing about what she had so far learned in the care and keeping of goldfish? While mourning Shinobu, have they had to go through the pain of letting two of her beloved fish die, and then felt triumph together as they nursed Fugu, her favorite(?), back to health? Did the other two die of sorrow at Shinobu's passing?

...no... did...

...did Kaburamaru eat them????????

(Oh my gosh. Initial search results imply he'd have been in for a tummyache, but this is possible. Oh no. OH NO.)

#this post was mostly seriously but partly a joke to see how much I COULD actually analyze #because I'm clearly not satisfied at satisfying my 'what breed is it' curiousity #MOST LIKELY the missing goldfish are either continuity error or retconned #sorry fish you weren't important #kochou shinobu #kocho shinobu #kny references #kny reference #kny fandom theories and meta

[haileyyanneupton]

under the stars (just you and i)   🌌

pairings:

hailey upton x jay halstead 

prompted by tumblr post by @snowwhite013​ and post by @upstellaride (on twitter)

| masterlist |

Chicago was chaotic by nature. The Intelligence unit had been completely and utterly slammed for months now. With increased gang activity not only in the 21st District but all over the city, everybody was being stretched to their absolute limits in every way possible. Jay and Hailey — whose romance had been placed on the backburner when the surge began — were no exception to this; they were both equally as overworked and exhausted as one other. Their apparent inability to pass up a case was costing them not just their precious beauty sleep, but quality time to spend together as a couple, leaving them both frustrated every time the phone rang. 

“You and me, Bartoli’s.” Hailey glanced up from the paperwork in her hand at the sound of her boyfriend’s voice. He was sitting across from her on his side of the desk that had slowly but surely become their communal desk over the years, his feet up on the edge of the surface as he stared at the blonde haired woman, awaiting a response. “When?”  The question was simple, but it was one that hung in the air for longer than either of them would have liked. It was a simple question that in theory required a simple answer, but with the unpredictability of work as of late, both Jay and Hailey were unwilling to offer up a time or day without proper thought being put into it. “What about after shift tonight?” Jay offered, hesitation evident in his voice as Hailey’s eyes flickered to the rest of the unit — it was relatively empty. At least, the emptiest it had been in a while. “It’s been kind of mellow today, right? I mean, the fact that we have time to be here doing paperwork is usually a good sign.” “Tonight. After shift. . .” Hailey considered it for a moment, humming lightly to herself in thought. “Sure. Tonight after shift sounds good.” Jay couldn’t help but grin as he hid his face in his coffee — caffeine was the only thing keeping him going at this point — he had been dying for a night out with his girl. It had been far too long since the two of them had been able to just talk, and his Hailey withdrawal symptoms were coming in fast and hard with no place to go. Sure, they worked together every day — but with how spread out the Intelligence unit had been, they were lucky if they even got to say hello to each other. All of these reasons put together were contributing factors to his particularly pissy mood when Voight made his way back upstairs and informed everybody that they wouldn’t be going home until they could pull up a lead on the drug-bust-turned-triple-homicide they were working out in Jefferson Park. “Guess this means we’re cancelling. Again.” Hailey sighed deeply as she stood beside Jay, the pair of them watching as Kim placed the victims photos up on the board. “This is what — the fourth time now?”

“It’s not my fault, Hailey,” Jay mumbled under his breath. “Don’t blame me. Blame the guy who shot three people for his fix.” Hailey’s eyes snapped over to him, the blue of her irises darkening as she made it very obvious she wasn’t about to put up with his bullshit for another long night shift when they were both exhausted. “I know it’s not your fault Jay. Did you hear me say it was? Because I sure don’t remember those words coming out of my mouth.” Jay mumbled again, although this time it was a practically silent sorry that Hailey’s Vulcan hearing only just managed to pick up on. She could feel his frustration and despite knowing it wasn’t intentionally being directed at her, she also wasn’t about to let her get pushed around to make him feel better, even if he was her boyfriend.  That’s how the next week or so went. Both Jay and Hailey were snapping at each other left and right, and although they both were mature enough not to hold a grudge against the other for longer than a few minutes, neither of them were exactly enjoying themselves. Their triple-homicide came and went, and before they knew it they had been thrown into an arson case — they couldn’t catch a break, no matter how hard they tried.  Jay had walked into the locker room one evening after Hailey had disappeared for a while, his search for the woman coming to an end quickly as he spied her sitting on the bench with her head in her hands. Just when he thought he’d give her some time alone, (he figured she was probably trying to gather her thoughts or something) the sound of almost silent cries coming from the blonde caused his heart to ache painfully. At first, he wasn’t sure — but when the sight of her back rising and falling sharply with each cry, Jay practically bolted over to her in panic. “Hails." Jay sat down on the bench beside his girlfriend, his voice soft as he placed a hand on her shoulder. “Hails, what’s the matter? Why are you crying?" Hailey shrugged his hand off of her shoulder — not in a cold way, just in a 'I don't want you to see me like this' kind of way. Nonetheless, Jay persisted as he wrapped his arm around the woman's torso, pulling her closer to him until her head was resting in the crook of his neck. Hailey tried to wipe away her tears roughly, the woman clearly worked up as Jay ran his fingers through her hair in a feeble attempt to offer up some comfort. "Hailey?" "I'm fine, Jay." Hailey's response was much too quick for Jay's liking. Even if she hadn't been crying, her response alone would have provoked concern from the man. He only frowned down at his girlfriend sadly, his heart aching; Hailey wasn't one to show her emotions to anybody. Any time Jay saw Hailey this way, he felt his entire body tearing apart in some inexplicable way — he had the overwhelming urge to find a way to fix it. Because seeing Hailey upset was the absolute worst thing he could ever see. It was so heartbreaking and tore him apart so severely that it could (and would) keep him at night. "You're not fine," Jay's voice was gentle and unthreatening, but he still balanced on the line of pushing as she took a deep breath against him. "You don't have to be fine. But I think it'd help if you talked to me — you're the one who taught me that, remember?" Hailey stayed silent, not daring to utter a sound. Instead, she fixed her gaze upon one of the lockers standing in front of her, studying it as if it were the most interesting thing in the world before she found her breath getting caught up in her throat all over again. Before she knew it, tears were pouring down her cheeks all over again, half of them sad and half of them angry, partly because she had no idea what the hell she was crying for. "Please tell me what's going on," Jay practically begged his girlfriend this time as he rubbed circles on her back, his brows shaped in a concerned V. "Please tell me so that I can — I don't know." "I'm just so tired," Hailey breathed, her sentence being interrupted by a hiccup as she ran her palms down her cheeks. "I haven't slept a full night in days, Jay — neither have you. I'm tired of fighting you and arguing every time we're in the same room together for no other reason other than the fact that we're both exhausted, I'm tired of the lumpy couch and sleeping without you. I miss you, Jay. I miss you so goddamn much it's physically painful right now and I genuinely just don't know how to deal." Jay was sure he could feel his heart breaking into two right there and then, his grip tightening upon Hailey as he held her close. Hailey only sunk into his hold in response to the gesture before sniffling softly, barely moving as the pair froze in time for a short while. It was Jay who broke the silence a few minutes later, his hand still circling her back as his words were muffled slightly by her head. "I'll tell Voight we're both coming down with something." "Jay —" "I'll get Platt to cover for us." "But —" "No buts. We're working something out right here, right now so that you don't have to spend another minute here in pain because if you're in pain. . . I'm ready to kill, maim or otherwise seriously injure whoever's responsible." Hailey let out a small snort of amusement despite her mood. After all — how could she not? It was Jay. Cracking-jokes-at-the-most-inappropriate-of-times Jay. Her Jay.  And despite the fact that she was still weeping silently in frustration and all of the other emotions that had decided to make themselves at home without her go ahead, her Jay was always able to put a smile on her face. "Let's just finish this shift." Hailey exhaled deeply, using a few fingers to wipe away her tears once more. "I'll be okay, Jay." Jay didn't seem all too convinced. "Are you sure?" "I'm sure," Hailey nodded as she wrapped an arm around her boyfriend and rested her head on his chest. She could hear his heart beating beneath his skin; the sound was oddly calming. "I just had to have a little cry." Although Jay was still hesitant to let Hailey go (mostly because he loved having her close and she was so, so warm) he knew that his girlfriend was one of the most headstrong women to ever walk the earth; once she said they were finishing the shift, they were finishing the shift. As soon as six o'clock came around, Jay and Hailey were out of the 21st district and packing into Jay's truck, switching their phones off so that they could have plausible deniability if they were called back in for a case. Yes, the detectives were dedicated to their job and by extension, the city of Chicago, but tonight was a night for them. A night where they could breathe a little bit. God knows they needed it. Hailey had no idea where they were going once Jay passed the turnoff for not just his house but her's too, but quite frankly, she didn't care. She didn't even question it when she saw the "Thank you for visiting Chicago" sign, she and Jay sitting in silence until they arrived in an empty field. It was dark by then, the sky being lit up by nothing than the moon and stars above them. "Come with me." Jay wore a lopsided smile on his features as he spoke, heading around to Hailey's side of the truck as he opened the door up for her and helped the woman out with an extended hand that she gratefully took. Hailey couldn't help the suspicious (and slightly concerned) expression she wore on her features, just as Jay couldn't help laughing at the very same expression.  His lopsided smile turned into a grin as he pulled Hailey along, almost giddy as he pulled down the back part of his truck so that it laid flat. She wasn't sure how she hadn't noticed it before, but now that her attention had been bought to the back tray, she could see the pile of blankets of pillows that had been packed in there along with a 6 pack of beers calling her name from the back corner. Hailey's look of concern brightened into one of love and affection almost immediately, her eyes softening as she snapped her head up to meet Jay's. "You did this?" "I did." Jay was clearly very happy with himself. "You like it?" "It's absolutely sickening." Hailey's sarcasm didn't go unnoticed by Jay who grinned smugly as he watched his girlfriend clamber up into the back of his truck. Its height momentarily posed a challenge for the woman, but it was just another challenge that she overcame as she vaulted herself inside and practically pulled him in after her.  With the mountain of blankets pulled over each of them, Hailey and Jay sat side by side as Jay held two beers in his hand, handing one off to the blonde who took a sip as soon as it was made available. Neither of them had the words to verbalise it, but they both knew this was what they needed. They both knew this was perfect. As the night grew older, Hailey found herself laying with her head on Jay's chest and a hand comfortably resting on his thigh; his hands were running through her blonde locks absentmindedly — he had always found Hailey's hair remarkably soft. The pair of them were still sipping on their beers, but the conversation had shifted to a much calmer and heartfelt topic. "I love you," Hailey had declared suddenly, though, it wasn't the first time she had uttered the three words to her boyfriend and partner. "I love you and your grand gestures, and your smile, and your laugh." "I love you. I love you and your eyes, and the way you scrunch up your nose when you find something funny, the way you're impossibly stubborn but yet incredibly reasonable." "I love you and how you make me feel okay, and how you can understand what I'm trying to say without me ever having to say it, and how you hold me at night and when I'm upset. I love you and how you showed me a million shades of colour that I had never experienced before." Jay's lips curled up into a warm smile, though his eyes showed it more. It was hard to distinguish whether or not it was the way the corners of his eyes creased or if it was the sparkle among the green that did it, but she didn't mind the not knowing. When she was with Jay, she didn't need to know anything except that she loved him and that he loved her — that was enough. It had always been enough. An exhale escaped Hailey's lips as she gazed up at the sky above them, the twinkling orbs that were even brighter away from city lights filling her vision as she studied them closely. They twinkled and shimmered beautifully — almost entrancing — Hailey could barely peel her eyes or focus away from them for more than half a second. "They're amazing, aren't they?" Hailey wasn't expecting a response, but she wasn't shocked either when she received one. "The stars?" "Yeah," she nodded her head against Jay's chest lightly. "They remind me of you, in a way." Jay chuckled with a puzzled look on his face. "They remind you of me? How?" "They're pretty. They're perfect. . They're also everywhere, just like your freckles are. Not to mention that half of them are on the brink of exploding, just like you." He poked her in the side playfully as Hailey laughed heartily in response. "It was so sweet, and then you decided to make fun of me." "Making fun of you is my only hobby, Halstead. How else am I meant to fill my time?" "I don't know! There's a whole world out there — you could take up boxing, or knitting!" "You see me sitting still for long enough to knit?" "No, that was a stupid suggestion. I should have known." Jay's chest rose and fell beneath Hailey's head as he laughed. "Since you're you, I guess I'll let you get away with it. You're both far too dangerous and far too attractive to stay mad at." Hailey only smirked as she turned her head, finally tearing her eyes away from the night sky and gazing into Jay's impossibly green eyes. "Oh yeah? Far too attractive?" "Well—" Jay shifted slightly as his hand brushed up against Hailey's bare arm beneath the blankets. "— maybe — maybe you'll have to remind me just how attractive." "Oh, I can do that." 

🌌🌌🌌🌌🌌🌌🌌

aaaa okay i hope this was good! i don’t know if i did it justice lmao

#chicago pd #one chicago #upstead #hailey upton #jay halstead #hailey upton x jay halstead #jay halstead x hailey upton #cpd

[bvccy]

Hey lovely Polly! Can you please explain to us why you love Soldat so much? I don't like any stuff about him, cause it's so wired, almost all stories are stupid!

Hello dear anon! 😘

Now, how can you see this

and not fall in love?

Those legs. That waist. The strut. The big broad chest that is just asking for a head to lay down on it. The soft hair and those cold eyes. He's just waiting to be fallen in love with.

That said, it took me a long time to get into all the affection I now have for him. By "long time" I mean about 5 years. I don't like that they basically fetishized torture, brainwashing, and the Siberian gulags for this character. I think americans in general don't treat communist atrocities at all seriously. So I definitely have to shut off a part of my brain to be able to enjoy the character, and I think I'm one foot out of the fandom at all times.

With that aside though, the character in its bare bones is very enjoyable.

He's a stoic and precise killer, which is appealing if you have a competency kink (and I think we all do), but he also has his own personality, in my opinion - I take this mostly from his little exchange with Steve, the "Who the hell is Bucky?". Just the fact that he cursed a bit was pretty interesting and funny to me, it doesn't sound like a robotic character the way he is often portrayed!

Bringing Bucky into the picture makes it more fun, because WS is like an extension or extreme version of Bucky, and extremes are intriguing. All the murderous seriousness and lack of humour that we see in the WW2 Sargent are present in WS, in the absence of his niceness and playfulness. But, because WS is Bucky, the playfulness is there, so as a fic writer you can bring that out selectively if you like. This is partly why he is interesting to me, just all this potential there.

And I think serious men are generally more appealing to women, but this is wholly speculation because I never really talk to other girls about what they like. But guys who are playful or joke around, Idk they seem immature and I feel like, "what could I possibly do with you?". It's why I prefer WS to Bucky. He's not a little fuckboi, he's all man.

But because, when he is "cut off" from his past and identity, he can be a lost little puppy, that opens up the opportunity to care for him. And sometimes you just want someone to take care of and pay attention to, and support, and WS makes these scenarios more probable than Bucky does - even when you're dealing with post-WS/recovered!Bucky and WS is, seemingly, absent. Even there, he is present through his absence.

Now, I get what you're saying when you mention that almost all stories about him are stupid. You're not the only one who thinks this way. @offcast-plus1 is writing WS fics that really give him a personality, a distinct identity, and she does a great job with this, but she also approaches it carefully in order to make it realistic and compelling. I think most writers just go off of what we have from Marvel, and Marvel themselves don't seem to have taken the character all that seriously in the end - it's like they tried to, but they cut so much content, so many scenes, that no wonder writers have practically nothing to go on. I don't blame fic writers nor the character; it's not only easy but also kind of canon-compliant to write WS as a monosyllabic robot with no thoughts or feelings. This is what we were left with.

Also, there's the awkward situation that he was mostly in Hydra's hands, story-wise, so how do you set up a fic in this context? Inevitably, a lot of them will involve reader being a victim of Hydra. The alternatives are, what? Being another WS recruit, maybe a soldier or something along the lines of Black Widow, or an actual Hydra agent which most writers shy away from. Or a victim of the WS, but that brings in issues of: how does WS resist the orders to kill you or whatever it is? It's OOC that he would. It's really hard to make it work, and when you have Bucky as an alternative no wonder there's few WS-centric fics.

So yeah, as a reader it's hard to be into WS, and if you're into him it's hard to find stuff that does him justice. But as a writer, there's a lot there to write about if you have the time.

Thank you so much for this ask! I love discussing WS 😭I wish I could write more stories about him to show all this love I have for him.

#bv;answers #Bucky Barnes #James Buchanan Barnes #Winter Soldier

[the-girl-with-the-glass-heart]

I wanna make Logan autistic in my high school au and I figure I should share my notes about it in case there’s anything I need to be corrected on

I want to make Logan autistic because as a neurodivergent person myself I figuired it would be good to add more neurodivergent representation in my Au.

I have done a fair amount of research such as reading blog posts about writing autistic characters from actual people on this sight with autism, fact checking various misconceptions or questions I have about autism, reading published news articles about writing autism from people with autism (completely avoiding anything autism speaks has ever said) and basing it a little off of personal experience because while I don’t have autism, I have ADHD and they tend to have an overlap of symptoms.

So please, if you are autistic please read and correct any information that you feel is incorrect or could be improved anyway, I really want to portray this right!

FYI I also tried to mention a bit how this affects his personal relationships since this is a big part of his identity.

-He was diagnosed when he was 12 years old and entering middle school.

-He stims by pacing, sorting things by color, hand flapping, fidget cubes and chewing pens.

-His special interests include: Sherlock Holmes, Star Trek, psychology and even though he’s some what embarrassed to admit it, Crofters (he collects the jars after he’s done eating the jam and keeps them all nicely arranged on his desk for decoration, he knows a lot about how the company was founded and the personal lives of its founders)

-He has poor motor skills so he doesn’t partake in physical activity much, he can understand how sports are played but when it comes to actually playing the game he just can’t get the hand eye co ordination right, so he decides to sit on the benches instead.

-He’s sensitive to a lot of certain noises like balloons popping, books slamming on a table, really loud clapping, ect. so patton bought him a really fancy pair of indigo noise cancelling head phones for his birthday.

-For a while he was insecure about his stimming so he would sit on his hands to prevent it, Virgil actually encouraged him to be more open about it since he knows the importance of stimming.

-He doesn’t understand quite a few jokes and has trouble expressing himself partly due to a fear of being too childish and needy since he knows how often autistic people aren’t treated seriously because of their autism and are seen more as permanent children, he also can’t really express himself in the same way as others because of his autism, he often says something and it completely comes across the wrong way.

-He’s a picky eater hence why he eats crofters on toast so often since it’s one of the few foods he likes the taste and texture of.

-when he was first diagnosed he was very scared to tell his friends and honestly started to feel insecure about his intelligence, their town is very small so the autistic community was practically non existent so Logan didn’t have many resources to learn about his autism, his parents had to sit him down and talk to him about it in order for him to understand what autism fully was.

-Patton and Remus absolutely adore every time Logan infodumps about his special interests since Remus loves when people rant about weird stuff and Patton just loves how happy Logan gets when talking about it.

-Logan attends physical therapy every two weeks and has a friendly relationship with his therapist, he also sees a regular therapist every two weeks since his moms wanna make sure their little boy is doing okay all the time since they know he’s kind of a stoic over achiever.

-he often gets crushes on guys who share the same interests as him or just any guy who lets him infodump on them with out any shame *cough* Patton and Remus *cough*

-his friends always try to comfort him during meltdowns by staying calm and patient, with the expecting of Virgil of course who will panic and feel the need to leave which everyone understands, even Logan told him at one point that he doesn’t have to stick around if he thinks the situation is too stressful.

I considered making science, reading or math one of his special interest but since most resources I got for writing a character with autism told me to avoid that since it’s mostly a stereotype associated with autistic people being genius’s so instead, While Logan is smart and loves science it’s not one of his special interests, the best way I can describe it is I have ADHD so I have hyper fixations (examples: monster high, Cinderella and sander sides) and I also love art and do it all the time but that’s more of a general hobby than a hyperfixation for me.

So yeah... tell me if I should add or take away anything, don’t be shy, your feedback is definitely appreciated!

#Logan sanders #logan sander sides #sander sides au #sander sides Logan #Thomas sanders #sander sides #sanderssides #sandersides #sanders sides

[gliese710]

Love - The Punishment: Part 1

Pairing: Kyungsoo x Y/N

Genre: Fluff/Angst

Summary: Y/N is a low ranked devil who finds her joy in the smallest of mischiefs. If only a certain angel could mind his own business.

Warnings: Swearings I guess?

Masterpost

Note: This is my first story. I'm still not sure if it's readable at all or if posting was a good idea. Still if you're reading this feel free to make suggestions ^^

----------------------------

"Smash the TV, it's tit for tat," you whisper in the enraged boy's ear. His mother just broke his gaming console. As, of course, you were successful in provoking him to play all day long despite his finals knocking on the door. And when his mother hid the console maybe you also convinced him to steal it. Teenagers should have fun, you thought.

You watch as the boy picks up his baseball bat and storms through the door. A small smirk plays on your lips as you spread your wings to follow him, not wanting to miss the show.

Goal. You step in the living room excitedly. But-

What the fuck is he doing? A frown takes place on your brows upon seeing the boy hesitant to execute the action.

Once again you reach out to him, "Come on, do it. You'll feel much better if you take your anger out. She deserves it anyway, never letting you do anything you want. This is your life, you are the one to decide how you want to spend it. She has no right to dictate you."

Still, the boy doesn't budge from his position. You watch as guilt flashes in his eyes and he slowly starts retreating to his room, leaving the TV intact.

Realization hits you like a truck after a moment. Angel. 

You move your head left and right to confirm your suspicion. And there he is, sitting on top of the dining table, legs hanging below, white wings tucked behind his back with all his grace, glaring at you with big bright eyes.

You huff out in annoyance. There's no point being here anymore. Shooting back a death glare at him, you fly out of the house.

Fucking snob. He just had to ruin your day. Now you need to find another prey. Not that it's hard, the world is full of shits anyway.

You find your target pretty soon, a small kid with his mother in a convenience store. And it's winter so-

"You want ice cream," you command, lips twitching upwards as the boy obeys you. And surely his mother denies.

So you proceed to the next step, "Chocolate ice cream tastes so good. She'll have to buy you one if you get on the floor and cry."

You were so ready to enjoy a little drama, and yet...yet the kid nods in obedience. Forget throwing a fit, he doesn't even argue.

Impossible. A small kid just resisted your advances.

You stand baffled for a second before narrowing your eyes on the source of your disruption. Of course he won't leave you that easily. 

The saucer-eyed angel from before is staring at you from outside the store, with the blankest expression of all time and you get a sudden urge to claw those eyes out.

That jobless piece of shit, why the fuck is he following you?

You decide to ask him the right way, the violent way. He bought this upon himself.

However, as you were just about to stop throwing daggers at him through your eyes and move outside so that you could maybe punch some sense into him, he flies away.

You hurriedly run outside the store but he's already gone.

Sneaky bastard.

You decide to call it a day. He just sucked up all your energy.

-------------------------------

Fucking unbelievable. You had been in a great mood lately, having spent a good productive week. And here the ass of an angel had to ruin that by destroying your sweetest treat.

You spent so much time provoking that girl with the princess syndrome to bully the other girl who's wearing a wristwatch probably from the Joseon era. Seriously though, why would she even wear a model this old?

And finally, when the bully was about to break the watch he had to interrupt.

Now you are beyond mad. What is he even doing here, again?

You're not going to let him get away without settling the scores this time. He'll have to pay for your loss.

You were expecting to see him flee like before. So you get a little surprised when he doesn't even move from his position seeing you approaching.

"It's her mother's. She is wearing it because it's her death anniversary and she feels lonely, " the creep says, eyes fixed on the girl, not even sparing you a glance.

You furrow your brows in confusion. Why is he telling you all these? Is he trying to get you more worked up, by rubbing the fact in your face that you missed a good chance at witnessing a catfight when triggered enough?

He turns to look at your confused form glaring murderously at him and sighs heavily, before getting ready to run away again.

Huh. Like he could.

You too take flight after him. "Hey, dickhead! Mind telling me why the hell are you following me?" you ask, tailing behind him.

"It was a coincidence, I'm not following you," he retorts with a cold emotionless voice, looking straight ahead.

"Yeah, right," you scoff.

He keeps flying, still refusing to look at you.

"Where are you going?" you continue chasing him.

Silence.

"Do you stalk other devils too?"

Silence.

"I'm sure you were a stalker while alive, old habits die hard you know. You were accidentally put in the heaven, righ-"

He finally stops.

"I told you I wasn't following you," he speaks with a slight rise in his voice. "Stop with your tactics and please leave me alone."

"Oh! How can I leave my perfect source of entertainment alone when he willingly walked into my den?"

He glowers at you and you raise your brows, giving him a mischievous upturn of your lips.

After that day, the angel had never been left alone. You clung onto him like a leech. He tried hard to get rid of you, giving you fierce glares or sometimes trying to sweet talk you into leaving him. Nothing worked, so he gave up eventually, resorting to acting like you were invisible to him.

You're enjoying the time of your life though. Annoying him is so much fun.

"I bet that tastes nasty. What do you think?" you say, sitting beside him on the couch, watching as the newlywed husband tries hard to swallow the food his wife cooked for him. He smiles afterward, telling her this is the best food he has ever eaten.

You snort at this.

"Such cheesy lines! Aren't angels supposed to be against lying?"

He doesn't pay you any attention, instead keeps his gaze glued on the couple. The girl is now laughing hard at some joke her lovesick puppy of a husband has told.

You're itching to ruin this moment. A few days from now, they're going to be at each other's neck anyway. Why pretending now!

But your power is too limited to do anything in the presence of your companion. So pestering him would have to do for now.

"What's your name?" you ask him for the n-th time, also to get completely ignored for the n-th time.

You sigh dramatically, " It's rude you know. I've given you my name and you still refuse to tell me yours. Angels aren't supposed to be rude like this."

You get his attention this time.

"Will you leave me alone if I give you my name?" he slowly turns to look at you.

"But why would I do that?" you chuckle, "I'm not leaving you alone and that's the reason you should tell me your name," you continue, batting your eyes innocently, "We're going to spend a lifetime together."

He rolls his eyes and looks away again.

"Come on. I'm not that bad as a company and it's not like you have any friends anyway. I'm doing you a favor by keeping you entertained, " you say, now hovering over his face so that he has no choice but to look at you.

"I have friends..." he scowls, "and you just keep my headaches incessant."

You smirk and he stands up, pushing you aside to leave the house. His job here is done.

You follow, humming and swaying like a child behind him, leaving the giggling couple alone.

-------------------------------

Kyungsoo can't believe his eyes. He has spent the last hour practically begging her not to do this, telling her over and over again that this shall pass, that everything will be fine again, that this is not her fault so she shouldn't be the one to commit to eternal suffering. He barely has any energy left. So, when she jumps off the cliff despite all that, he feels devastated, worthless even.

Grief covers his heart. He stares blankly at the hollow space in front of him, standing completely still.

"See..." you yawn, "Told you it's a lost case. It would be more fun to see her rip that cheater boyfriend's head off, but at least the world is ridden of a coward now. Why did she even have to love him so blindly, it always ends up the same. She had it coming anyway, being so fooli-"

"Shut up!" he snarls.

You visibly flinch. He looks outrageous. You shudder a little under his blazing gaze.

"You did this! If only I could concentrate more...but no! A useless piece of filth had to be even more of a burden," he scoffs, "Why do you even exist? The world would definitely be a better place without you!"

You stand dumbstruck. Partly because you have never imagined him to be anything other than the epitome of patience, but mostly because of how you are feeling right now. You should feel angry or happy even that you triggered him, an angel! But strangely those feelings are nowhere to be found, instead you feel...sad?

"The next time I see you I'll make sure the world gets ridden of atleast one piece of it's burdens," he growls and with that flies off to somewhere, leaving you too stunned to move.

You stand there, unable to move your eyes from the spot he stood a moment ago, utterly shaken.

Your chest feels heavy for some unknown reason. Snapping out of it after a while, you too fly, though this time not after a certain someone.

You feel lost, not knowing where to go or what to do. You curse under your breath when you realize that a few days of entertainment has done more harm to yourself than good. 

You've never been so directionless before.

#exo #exo scenario #exo fanfiction #exo fanfic #exo series #angel exo #exo fluff #exo angst #devil au exo #kyungsoo #kyungsoo scenario #kyungsoo fanfic #angel kyungsoo #kyungsoo fluff #kyungsoo angst

[random-imagines-blog]

Feral Roots {M Shadows One Shot}

Requested by: Anonymous Wordcount: 3387 Summary: The Full Moon is coming up, and the leader of your wolf pack needs some stress relief. Notes: Smut, Breeding kink.

The full moon was only three days away, and all of the pack were beginning to get antsy. Tension was brewing beneath the surface, and even a hint of sarcasm was enough to send the men biting at each others necks. Your own body felt like it was starting to betray you, giving into urges that were not all that convenient. It didn’t help that the Alpha of the pack, M, had his dark eyes on you most of the time these days. It was those eyes that made you feel detached from your own will, and want to submit fully to his. However, you didn’t like to give in too easily. He liked a challenge, and you enjoyed giving him one.

You were one of the young women who worked mostly on cooking duty. Roasting big pieces of meat, and adding in some vegetables because you were all still partly human, took up a big portion of the day. Wolves needed their protein - especially with the stressful change coming up. You had a full pig roasting on a spit, and you were making sure that it was being turned properly. “What’s cookin, good lookin?” One of the main pack came over to you, the smell tempting his nostrils.

“Don’t you know a pig when you see one, Syn?” You asked the long haired man. He snorted with laughter and took a seat on the grass to really take in the view. “You never come out here while we’re cooking, what’s up?”

“Shads is in a mood,” He rolled his eyes. “You know what he’s like this time around. He needs to get fucking laid. Why don’t you go help him out, you are his favorite.”

“Cooking duty,” You said, smiling slightly at being called the favorite. It gave you certain advantages - like you could get away with more things. As a woman in the pack, you were pretty respected. You could carry on the line. You protected. You took care of everyone. But you still liked to get up to some mischief at times. “Why don’t you give it a try? You’re rather pretty yourself with those cheekbones. Most of them women here envy you.”

You normally wouldn’t have been able to get away with saying something like that.

Syn, or Brian as was his true name, glared at you, then went back to looking at the meat. You could almost see the drool coming out of his mouth. “It’s going to be another couple of hours,” You told him. “I mean, if you’re willing to help out with peeling the potatoes, I can make sure that you get a prime piece.”

“I’m in,” He said. You got him situated with a bucket of potatoes and a knife to peel them with, then went back to your post of turning meat. It was the slow roast that helped the meat taste so good - perfectly juicy, just the way that the werewolves liked it.

-

Being part of a pack meant living in a very communal sort of place. It was more like a trailer park than anything else that you  could describe, just inside a large privately-owned forest. There was a rather large house on the property, which the strongest of the pack shared, while the rest lived in rather luxurious trailers dotted around the land. It helped you all to feel closer to nature. And it made it easier for the nights when you were doomed to shift.

This meant that all of you ate together.

Picnic tables were strewn around, some with umbrellas to stay in the shade, but most without. The strongest of the pack, the main five, sat together at the biggest one, and their plates were often piled high. Syn seemed to be relishing this meal more than usual, probably because he had a hand in making it. You sat with some of the other women at a shaded table, your plate still full of food but not nearly as much as the men’s. You ate what you needed and left what you didn’t for the others, such as the kids who were running around playing after eating. People were talking, it was a wonderful day until...

“SHUT THE FUCK UP!” M yelled, throwing his plate on the ground, half eaten chunks of food flying across the grass.

“M!” You shouted, getting to your feet. The whole pack went quiet, staring at the large man who had stood up and was glaring at Zacky, who was one of his best friends. You left the picnic table behind to go to his, and pick up the plate which had surprisingly not shattered. “Go and take a shower and cool off,” You said, looking up at him, setting the plate on the table.

“Don’t think you can tell me what to do-” M started, but you growled at him before he could call you a name.

“You’re scaring the pups,” You said, motioning your head to one of the younger kids who ran to hide behind his mom at the yelling. Tempers may fly but swearing wasn’t something that happened around the young ones. “Now go inside while I clean your mess up.”

“Fine,” M said, slamming his hand on top of the table, sending all of the cutlery flying up into the air. He stepped out from the picnic table and stormed towards the house, clearly in a bad mood. Were this a cartoon, you’d be seeing steam coming from his ears, or a black swirl atop his head.

“Now why did you have to go and antagonize him like that?” You snapped at the raven-haired man.

“What, I’m not allowed to speak?” Zacky asked, his anger still bubbling beneath the surface.

“You knew what you said was going to get a reaction,” Syn chimed in, wiping his mouth with his napkin as if the tantrum hadn’t happened. “It’s your own fault, dumbass.”

“Let’s go take a swim, cool you down,” Johnny said, getting onto his feet, pulling the dark haired man towards the lake that was in the forest that you all often used for bathing and exercise. You got back down to the ground and started to pick up the bits of food so you could properly dispose of it in the compost, shaking your head and muttering about what idiots men were.

“You shouldn’t have to clean up after him,” Brooks said, bending down to help you out.

“You’re right, it should be Zacky cleaning this,” You sighed, wiping your forehead with the back of your hand once everything was back on the table. “But we all  know he won’t lift a finger.”

“You should go see M,” Syn said, back to eating the meat off the bone. “He’s pissed.”

“Well now I am too. I hate when you guys scare the pups. Seriously, it’s a hard time for everyone right now. No need to act like children.”

“I hate to say it but he has a good reason to be mad this time,” Syn told you, making your curiosity peak.

“I don’t care if he gets mad or not, he has to keep his temper in front of the kids,” You said, not backing down. Syn put up his hands in innocence, throwing in the towel on the conversation. “I am going to go check on him though, and make sure that he’s alright.”

You didn’t miss the sexual motion that Syn made to Brooks, but you decided to say nothing about it this time. The last thing that pack needed was another argument during dinner. You just gave him the finger, then walked up to the house, slipping in through the back door. Other than M, it should be empty.

You followed the sounds of grunting to the built-in gym. Most of the pack just used the woods - strong branches for pull-ups, balance training, logs for strength etc - but M seemed to like punching bags over bark. He was working up a sweat, clad only in his shorts, hands not wrapped or anything, going to town on the bag.

“Do you want me to get you a picture of Zacky’s face? I have one on my dartboard,” You joked, coming up behind and held the bag steady. He kept hitting it, but his eyes averted to you and he was a little more careful. “You should at least put something on your hands, you’re going to make them raw.”

One good punch sent the bag out of your hands and it flew a dozen feet and landed on the mats. “He’s an asshole.”

“I know - but why in particular today, hmm?” You took an ice pack out of the freezer that was above a fridge that held energy drinks and water bottles, and lightly pressed it onto M’s knuckles. The discarded bag could wait.

“He says that it’s about time that you get bred,” M said, anger coming through in his voice. You were a bit surprised by how defensive he had gotten over that topic. You bit down on your lower lip in thought as you nursed M’s hand, attempting to stop the swelling before it started.

“I mean, he has a point,” You said, gingerly. “I would love to have a pup or two of my own by now. And you’re the reason that I don’t, M. I know we have our thing going on but you gotta drop me as a favorite eventually and let me find a mate.”

“Don’t you fucking start,” M said, tearing his hand away from you. “I’m not going to let you go and be some stupid mutt’s mate. You’re too good for everyone here.”

“As true as that is,” You started, attempting to lighten the mood, “-that’s my fate here. And the sooner you realize that, the sooner I can get on with it. And I think the only reason you’re mad is because Zacky wants to be the one to do it.”

“He’ll never have you, y/n. We both know that you could never love him.”

“I know, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t someone else in the pack who could be good to me. I deserve a mate, M.”

“And you never stopped to fucking consider me, did you?” M said, his voice going softer than it had before. You squeezed your hand around the ice pack in an attempt to keep you grounded. You never had this conversation with him before although you had always hoped... He never gave any sort of indication that he wanted you for anything other than sex.

“You’re just feeling the full moon coming, that’s what is making you say that,” You said, your voice going just as soft as his had. You tossed the pack onto the table, then approached the muscular man, putting your cold hands on his chest. He hissed slightly at the sensation but didn’t back away. “But if that’s how you really feel, we’ll talk about it after, okay?”

“It’s not the moon fever,” He insisted, grabbing you roughly around your waist before you could depart. “I may be jealous because of what that shithead said, but you’re both right. You need a mate and it’s time that you’re bred.”

“Are you asking me, or are you telling me?”

“I’m saying that I want you as my mate, for the rest of my life, and I want to put my baby in your stomach.”

“You can’t take that back, you know.”

“Oh, I know,” Matt said, smirking, his bad mood seemingly to have dissipated. Roughly, he dragged you to bench where he often lifted weights, got you onto your knees and bent you over it. His hand went through your hair, then grabbed it and held it at the base of your neck. “I can smell you,” He said, sighing happily.

And it was probably true. He had very keen senses and from the moment he hinted at wanting to be your mate, you had felt yourself becoming aroused. He lifted up the skirt of your dress, resting it on your back, and pulled your panties down to be around your knees. The cool air conditioning hit your skin and caused goosebumps up and down your thighs.

“Are you going to keep it slow or are you going to make me scream?” You asked, smiling though he couldn’t see your face. It was pressed against the bench, cheek down. He pulled at your hair harder, causing your head to jerk up.

You don’t know when he had the time to push his sweatpants down and get onto his own knees, but he had - and he started to thrust into you roughly from behind. His one hand was still tangled up in your hair while the other was holding your dress onto your back, keeping you steady. Your mouth opened unwillingly at the sheer force and suddenness of it all, but it certainly wasn’t to complain. You moaned loud enough to feel the bench rumble beneath you. He kept pushing your head up so that he could hear you louder. He loved the sounds that you made. He craved them. He yanked your arms behind your back for more leverage, went quicker and quicker - and then began to slow down. This wasn’t supposed to be just some quick fuck. Five minutes isn’t enough for stress release.

You took in deep breaths of air as he slowed, all of the jostling around had made all of your breath leave your lungs. He let go of your hair so you rested back down against the cool bench. Beadlets of sweat were already resting on top of the leather from your forehead.  He left you for a moment, and you felt bare. Empty. Cold. But when he came back after only thirty seconds, he had a jump rope and started to tie it around your wrists. You trusted him entirely. You were still in euphoria from being asked to be his mate. That combined with the knowledge that he was going to give you a child made you entirely pliable in his hands.

He grabbed hold of your shoulders and entered himself again, making you cry out. There was never any foreplay with M. It was a lucky thing that you were always aroused while around him. He lightly slapped your cheek, then shoved his index and middle fingers into your mouth. You started to suck on them immediately, knowing what he wanted. You relaxed against him, feeling safe, feeling loved.

“Oh my God,”  You cried out, raising your ass as high as it could go.

“Yes,” M hissed. “You’re mine. I’m going to breed you like the bitch you are.”

After another couple minutes of rough thrusting on the bench, he pulled out again, and helped you up to your feet, holding onto your binded wrists as if they were handcuffs. He paraded - yes, paraded - you in front of the windows and over to the sofa. You weren’t ashamed at all. Nudity was perfectly normal among the pack, since it was a natural way of being. You were nude when you transformed into a wolf, and nude when you came back. It was rarely considered to be a sexual thing, though it felt like it now, with the way that M was holding onto you. The way that he threw you down onto the couch. He didn’t go straight back into you, but rather, rubbed your ass and took in the sight of your pussy on display. He spanked each cheek, then grabbed them roughly.

You were on your stomach once again, a position that you were finding yourself in quite a bit today. M spread your legs then went back in with a satisfied groan. You were whimpering into the couch cushions as he entered you at a slight angle, riding you hard. He lowered himself, his weight on you, his hand covering your mouth making it a bit harder for you to breathe. He liked that. He enjoyed the struggle. It was rough, it was crushing. It was enough to take you out of your head.

M was groaning and moaning, as his face was turning red from the exertion. He wanted to make sure to give you the best and the strongest seed. He slid off, the sweat between your bodies turning it into a slip and slide, and flipped you around so you were on your back. Your hands were still tied up behind you and it was extremely uncomfortable, but the strain just added more to the experience. You gasped as you saw M’s face looming over you, his body between your spread legs. Goddamn, he was so fucking beautiful.

There was no doubt about the fact that there would be evidence on your body of this for days to come. His fingertips pressed into your neck, the binding on your wrists causing chafing. You might not be able to cross your legs for a few days with how hard he was going on you. But oh, how blissful it was in this moment.

“Cum in me, M, give me a baby,” You moaned, wishing you could run your hands through his hair. Or even over his muscles. The sheen of sweat over his muscles gave him an otherworldly glow. There was a reason why he was the Alpha and why everyone put their complete trust in him. He had a silent power hidden behind those eyes that were staring into yours right now. This wasn’t just a rough fuck, though he was squeezing your neck tighter than before.

Your head was hanging off of the side of the sofa as he continued to plunge in and then pull out. You saw love and respect in his eyes. You were his mate now - the bond was formed, and it would be cemented once his sperm was inside of you.

“Take it, make our baby strong,” M said, throwing his hand back. He let go of your throat, which brought color back to your vision, to play with your clit as he got closer to his climax. As your own came, overpowering you with white waves from head to toe, M’s hit him. He shuddered, releasing himself inside of you with a beastial growl worthy of a bear rather than a wolf.

You struggled to get your breath back, laying limp against the sofa. You would have to disinfect it before the rest of the guys came in, but th sex was worth it. Your chest was heaving when M slowly pulled out, taking his time to make sure that his cum didn’t seep out of you. “Do you feel better now?” You asked, bringing your head up onto the couch to be a little more comfortable. Your eyes caught onto the sight of his cock, still mostly stiff but starting to soften. He was still so big, it was no wonder why you were so sore and unable to move. “Enough stress release?”

“I meant what I said,” M said, finally moving and helped you adjust so your whole body was on the couch, and untied your hands. He knew modesty wasn’t an issue, but he draped a throw blanket over top of you. “I want you to be my mate.”

You snuggled into the couch, taking your arms out from beneath the blanket to hold his hand. “Are you asking me or telling me?”

M chuckled, looking away from you to the windows, seeing the cleaning going on outside. It was an after dinner ritual. “Both.”

“Silly man,” You shook your head. “Go get something to eat. You’re going to need your strength back after that.”

“Taking care of me already?” M asked, getting to his feet.

“Uhh - I’ve been doing it for ages, thanks for noticing.”

“That’s my girl.”

#M Shadows #M Shadows x reader #M Shadows oneshot #Avenged Sevenfold #Avenged Sevenfold oneshot #matt sanders #matt sanders x reader #matt sanders oneshot #oneshot #oneshots #request #mshadows

[safflowerseason]

Idk if this is weird but where do you think Amy and Dan are on the sexuality spectrum?

It’s absolutely not a weird question at all! Although I’m not sure I can give an answer as thoughtful as my usual Dan/Amy posts….I’m obviously a major Dan/Amy shipper, lol, but of course I am very aware there are plenty of fans who ship Amy/Selina and Dan/Jonah. And I think it’s especially significant that for the most part, the textual foundations for those ships are actually found in the Iannucci era of the show (and, as usual, my answer to this question is mostly about Iannucci-Dan and Iannucci-Amy). You have Dan, obsessed with the physical/aesthetic trappings of masculinity, who seems to primarily view sex with women as a conduit to professional gain while there is little textual indication he enjoys it on its own merits (except with Amy). And Amy is a ball of ambitious anxiety who can’t unclench long enough to be in a sexually satisfying relationship with a man. Both characters also have fairly intense relationships with other members of the same sex, in addition to one another—Dan with Jonah, although mostly in S2 and S3, and Amy with Selina throughout the course of the show.

If I had to bet money, based on what we see in the show, whether it was Dan or Amy who had a consensual sexual encounter with another member of the same sex, it would probably be Dan, for a few reasons. On a very superficial note, Dan’s absolutely the type of guy who would be in a fraternity, and fraternities are some of the most deeply homoerotic institutions in the United States (there is extensive academic research about this. See also Dan pushing Jonah up against a wall, smashing a burrito in his face, and calling him “handsome.”). For another, his relationship with Jonah in the early years of the show is partly bound up in their competing performances of masculinity, and it’s not a stretch that their sexual hostility toward one another (or Dan’s with another man at some other point in his life) could actually turn, well, sexual. I do not think the show ever means to seriously imply that Dan and Jonah are interested in fucking one another, but the reading of their relationship works that way, if you want to take it there. Reid Scott and Tim Simons do have a particular spiky kind of chemistry that the early seasons of the show very much leans into—I believe that the S1 episode where Dan uses Jonah for intel was originally called “Dan Dates Jonah” or something like that. By late S3, the Dan/Jonah dynamic has faded into the background, and then Mandel takes their energy into this kind of less charged, bro-y territory in later seasons.

As for Amy…it’s harder to evaluate her because Veep is such a male-dominated show. She is presented as more sexually repressed (I find this concept problematic, but the show is pretty explicit about the framing) and also a lot more emotionally guarded…and considering her suburban/slightly blue-collar middle class socialization, I’m not sure she would have ever explored her sexuality enought to really consider sex with a woman. She’s vaguely propositioned by Melissa from Clovis, but the sexual implications seem to go right over her head. Amy’s primary female relationship in the show is with Selina, and while they are deeply drawn to one another for various reasons, personally none of it feels sexual to me as a viewer. As for whether or not Amy would be interested in exploring a relationship with another woman, I think she’d have to go through a lot of intense self-reflection and discovery first, and I’m not sure Amy is primed to ever do that for herself. Of the two of them, I think Dan on the whole would have a more fluid sexuality, whether or not he feels the need to identify as something other than straight.

Does that answer your question enough? I’m not sure I can give you, like, a number on the Kinsey scale, lol, but that’s my inital take on where things might stand. I don’t think Veep isn’t especially interested in exploring the sexuality of its characters insofar as they might differ from privileged heterosexual, cisgendered norms…it's a pretty small-c conservative show in that sense. Most mentions of same-sex relationships/sexual encounters are played for laughs, unfortunately…the way Gary’s sexual orientation is called into question by the other characters in the show is basically a bunch of off-color jokes about how gay men like “feminine” things. And the lack of attention paid to the sexual harassment of women in the workplace is another example of this curious distinterest in using gender and sexuality to criticize the political institutions at the heart of the show. But this absolutely does not and should not preclude a deeper examination from fans. What else is critical analysis and fanfiction for?

As a final sidenote, it has been interesting watching Succession as a Veep fan, knowing the two shows share the same creative DNA. Succession is also fairly small-c conservative, but the writers seem to be more consciously exploring performative masculinity in the workplace (not to mention the intersection of family and power, a intersection that is primarily defined by sex). The Boar on the Floor sequence, just off the top of my head. But even in a broader character sense—the way Tom acts when he’s in the office versus around the Roy family, the contrast between Roman and the other men in the office, Roman and Gerri’s connection, etc. The Succession writers also seem more interested in constructing complicated relationships between male characters that are purposefully sexually ambiguous, like Kendall and Stewey.

#veep #succession #dan egan #amy brookheimer #selina meyer #jonah ryan

[jawnkeets]

How are you so clever??? I’m new to your blog and I’ve been looking at your posts (not in a stalkery way but because they’re so cool) and you seem super intelligent! Like you always reference things I’ve never heard of and use fancy words and it’s just really awesome. How did you get so clever? Do you read a lot or are you just naturally clever? If it’s from reading then what books would you recommend to someone who’s interested in literature and also broadening their general knowledge? Thanks

awwww. well thanks for the lovely ask!! this is way too much detail bc i’m procrastinating work but

i read a ton as a kid, mostly horror books - i was obsessed with the supernatural, and especially vampires, and the idea of things changing into other things (in a magical way, but also stories where characters develop and end up very different, tales of betrayal etc). my favourite series when i was little was the spiderwick chronicles, followed a little later by the saga of darren shan. i didn’t read any classic literature at all though, as i’d decided i hated it for some reason. as a kid i always prided myself on my creativity/ imagination rather than my intelligence (it’s a distinction i’d always drawn and still do after a fashion), but i was and have always been obsessive, and also used to sit and play memory games for hours, too; i remember one where i’d have a list of cards and i’d put one down, say what it was, turn it over, add another one, say what the previous one and this one was, turn them over, and continue until i couldn’t remember every single card in order, and then i’d start again. i wrote a lot, especially poetry, and used a thesaurus often because i loved words. i had a very very vivid imagination and refused to live in the real world until the age of about 11 or 12. then from 14 onwards i read almost nothing (apart from like idk two of the hunger games books) until i was 17, when i finally started reading classic literature, triggered by the great gatsby, which changed my attitude to learning completely. until then i’d despised secondary school partly because of the way learning was presented (i got good grades at gcse but went through the syllabus and exams mechanically with little genuine love) and partly for… other reasons, and had almost given up on taking academics seriously. but i got very lucky and had an incredible english teacher throughout sixth form, who encouraged me to take risks and break from methodical, formulaic writing. at the end of the first essay i had to do for him i still remember that he wrote ‘literature is for you. now and always. carry on.’ at the bottom, and that changed my life. he also introduced me to philip larkin and romantic poetry outside of class. after that, i was gripped by the desire to read and discover as much about the humanities as i could, make links between works, discover new ones, recover the feeling that i was possessed by after finishing gatsby. tumblr genuinely helped with art, literature quotes, and making it all seem accessible, e.g. seeing text posts making jokes about shakespeare, keats, etc helped to demystify a bit. yes, dark academia, i’m also looking at you for making learning seem exciting, but tentatively and with narrowed eyes. general knowledge-wise, it helped me to begin to break down the barriers between ‘subjects’ at school (even if you’ve left school, it’s pretty branded into our brains); they’re sometimes very fuzzy and even arbitrary, and to separate into strictly-defined categories like this is not the only way learning can or should happen.

a work that i thoroughly recommend to everyone who asks where to start is letters to a young poet by rainer maria rilke. he relates so perfectly this idea that the first step is to let yourself be filled with how amazing and vast the world is, and how much there is to read, listen to, and see. that’s not something you can learn from reading, and it’s not something you can be taught by anyone (unless being inspired by someone counts). it’s instrumentally important because it will drive you, but i also think it’s inseparable from understanding (and to me, it is understanding, just understanding without the right words yet). this is the highlight, and it was the mantra stuck up on my wall at 17 when i decided i wanted to learn, and learn seriously:

Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.

i was relatively articulate before i started reading the classics/ reading widely, but not exceptionally articulate. here’s an example of two essay openings - one i wrote when i was 16, and one i wrote during my first term at university (2 years apart):

i’d say that since then my essays have probably improved by a similar proportion, as i’m as embarrassed to read the second as i was the first when i wrote the second, and the typos r annoying me (am too embarrassed to post recent writing :’( - doesn’t count if over a year and a half ago, hence posting the second :p). obviously, then, this isn’t natural intelligence (everyone has to get knowledge, big words, etc from somewhere, right?), this is natural receptivity and willingness to learn, which i genuinely believe anyone can gain at any point, coupled with A LOT of reading the opinions of others (i.e. literary criticism and theory), and reading literature from many different periods to discover how language is moulded by individual poets and by ‘eras’ more widely. but this is also synthesising everything i absorb into a personal vision (this is the hill i will die on soz i don’t think theory should be ‘objective’ like what does that even mean). you can and should put yourself into it!

in terms of what to read - if you like the rilke (really hope you do!!) then depending on what you like about it, you can search from there. try some of rilke’s poetry. or if you like that ineffable feeling it brings, try the romantics (keats’ ‘ode to a nightingale’ and blake’s songs of innocence and experience are good to start with!), or larkin’s ‘high windows’ and ‘the mower’. also try shakespeare’s hamlet, because that is INCREDIBLE (watching it is always easier, and the more shakespeare you watch/ read the easier it gets! andrew scott’s hamlet is the best imo). from there it’s a question of asking what you liked about what you just read (time period/ vibe/ themes/ subject/ style of writing) and finding things similar - often google works and i made use of it a lot to start with, tumblr too, otherwise ask people who you know (on the internet/ teachers/ friends etc). this is a personal journey, especially to begin with, i think (you have to jump in somewhere), and there’s no one who can give you a list of books to read in the order best for you, because - annoyingly, i know - that’s something it’s best if each individual works out through trial and error, and part of the fun in truth. there are western canon lists out there, e.g., which contain some fabulous works, but have very obvious problems. 

a really really rough chronological development of english lit: beowulf, any of the canterbury tales, hamlet, paradise lost, pope’s satire, romantic poetry, victorian novels (e.g. david copperfield, jane eyre), the waste land, waiting for godot (it would also help to read the iliad, the aeneid, and metamorphoses too, and as much of the bible as you can, especially genesis, exodus, isaiah, job, and the gospels, but genesis and the gospels first if ur stuck/ overwhelmed). this is the lightest of pencil sketches, but if they’re works that go some way towards defining each ‘era’ or ‘period’, then it becomes a little easier to search for works branching off from these that are influenced by or chafe against them. you can always come back to me if you’re struggling with what to look for next :+) also, i have a list of my poetry favs, if you want to check that out (it includes the stuff mentioned in the previous paragraph, as well as others).

hope this helps (?!) ❤️

#asks

[immortalled]

Slapping these all together instead of making a ton of ooc posts, but.... s3e2 live reactions and final thoughts.

- Simon continues to be cute.

- Lowkey wondering if Overman has the pee fetish...

- Kelly and Alisha hanging out and getting ice cream is adorable. I hope we see them actually hang out in this season.

- Alisha is talking SO loudly in the graveyard. Seth is literally just right there. ALISHA PLEASE.

- Even without invisibility Simon manages to scare people by sneaking up behind them lmao love that. Never change, weird little man.

- ???? Okay, I don’t understand why Curtis wants to keep his whole “my power is turning into the opposite sex” thing secret? His friends KNOW that’s his power, why hide what he looks like? Why does it matter? 

- This episode is quickly turning into one of those “uh oh big misunderstanding, now everyone is going to think Simon is cheating on Alisha even though this could have just been solved by talking to each other” plots and... man, that is my least favorite trope. I swear if it turns into this, I’m gonna scream. Curtis, I will throttle you, and then I will throttle Overman.

- ...Cute girl is gonna get Ruthed isn’t she? Gosh, Curtis... c’mon...

- S I G H S. I take it back. Curtis does need to drink his Respect Women Juice. 

- Simon’s looks of horror are pretty golden lol

- OOF OOF OOF. This episode does not shy away from uncomfortable issues women have, huh? Yikes! I feel unsafe just watching lmaooo why’s everyone in this show a creep? Why!! Not a bad thing, it’s realistic, I suppose, but everyone? Everyone? Give me one nice man, Misfits, please. I miss Ben. Bring Ben back.

- Ohhhh, Curtis, honey... This is why women guard their drinks like HAWKS at parties...

- SKGSJGK RUDY SPITTING HIS DRINK INTO A GIRL’S HOOD IS SENDING ME I hate to keep comparing him to Nathan but at this rate I might actually have to make a Nathan/Rudy parallel gifset. That gave me bowling alley flashbacks.

- Emma what the heck?? Who just leaves their girlfriend passed out? Who assumes that was their fault? Excuse me? 

- I AM SO SCARED FOR CURTIS OH NO

- .................I didn’t need to see that. I did not want to see that.

- I swear Curtis better own up to Emma. But now I’m not happy with either of them. Emma shouldn’t have left Curtis, and Curtis should be honest. This is such a mess.

- Simon is a mood. Simon is me. I too have no idea what the heck is going on. Curtis is making everything so difficult.

- Oh my stars, I love Kelly to bits. What a girl, what a pal. 

- However, I am going to throttle Curtis and Overman. I hate this trope so much. Kelly being a bro for Alisha is literally the only good thing about this.

- Well. Curtis is certainly chugging his Respect Women juice now. He’s drowning in it. 

- Seriously, why didn’t Curtis just tell them???

- I’ve said it before, but why do they always choose to film like this? What is this focus? It’s less awful than S1 when they’d put faces partly out of focus when they’re the only thing on screen but??? I really wanna know the thought process.

- Good job Curtis. Go do the right thing. GOOD JOB, DO IT. DON’T SCREW THIS UP.

- O h.

- O h n o.

- This episode is legitimately terrifying. IDK if I can watch this one again. I am so uncomfortable.

- SAVE HER CURTIS OH M Y STARS I HATE THIS

- GOOD YES GOOD THANK YOU BABY 

- Holy crap that revenge though. Deserving, for sure, but. Wow lmao alright, then. 

Final thoughts: That episode was w i l d l y uncomfortable. Lots of nonconsensual stuff, high even for Misfits. It’s not uncomfortable because it’s made out to be a joke, though, but this episode takes it with a shocking amount of seriousness. It’s really good at showing just how scary it can be as a girl and for that reason alone, I don’t know if I can watch this again any time soon lol. It’s just... a little too real. I didn’t expect Misfits of all things to have an episode that tries to teach a moral lesson about consent but, despite its flaws, color me impressed.

My only issue is that I really don’t see why Curtis needed to learn this lesson? Out of all the main male cast, he’s always been pretty considerate and aware. I guess we never get to see too many of his faults since Curtis-centric episodes before have mostly been centered around his time travel power and his guilt over wrecking his athletic career. But... it just seems sort of left field that he’s the one who needs to understand what it’s like to be a woman? IDK. I’m both glad this is an episode because maybe male viewers could learn something, but from a character standpoint, it strikes me as strange lol. If anyone needed this lesson, Nathan (if something similar could have happened in S1 or 2) or Rudy would have been my choice.

Anyway. Not a terrible episode, not a great episode. Squicky. Very squicky. There were times when I felt that some writing was being repeated, too. A few lines and actions from Rudy felt like rehashes of Nathan and some elements reminded me a lot of S1E2, namely the whole issue with Curtis starting a relationship with Emma while he’s in his girl body without telling her who he really is. And then everyone teasing Curtis about the thing with Rudy felt like a weird callback to them teasing Nathan about Ruth. It doesn’t ruin anything, it just really pops out to me when it happens. Not sure if it’s because it’s actually that noticeable or if I’m just extra sensitive to it because I write Nathan and pay the most attention to his scenes.

Despite all that, I’ll say that Simon and Kelly were the real highlights of this episode. Simon had some moments that were just really adorable imo and I love love love Kelly confronting “Melissa” (Curtis’ female persona) when she thinks Simon is cheating on “her” with Alisha, and then she goes after Simon too LOL like. I appreciate a girl who doesn’t let friendship get in the way of ripping into both parties responsible for cheating. It’s also pretty cute that Kelly goes to check on Curtis after it’s all explained and Curtis is upset. That’s sweet. Kelly has such a big heart.

#spark watches misfits [liveblogging]; #out of immortality [ooc];

[masterbeta29]

My review of Pokemon SwSh!!!! (or just Shield, cuz it was the version I play, LOL)

Finally, after finishing the game (including the Post game) and fully exploring the region, I think it’s time for me to say what I think of this 8 gen…

I know it’s obvious, but I mention it just in case: This is MY OPINION!!!, if someone disagrees with me its totally valid, I just ask for respect.

ALSO, English is not my first language so I might have certain lack/erros of spelling out there, or I repeat many words, hehe.

It is important to clarify that this review is based on SwSh base, everything that refers to DLC will NOT be included here, my opinion of the game is already done, the rest is extra content.

I wanted to give this review a more ‘’silly’’ tone, since giving negative opinions on the internet can be quite delicate and I wanted to relax the mood. Do not take this seriously, I still have my CONS with the game, but it is still genuinely enjoyable, which for me is the most important thing in a game.  I will talk about everything in general, so I will try to summarize certain points.

LET’S GO!!!

NEW FEATURES

Poke Camp, Curry Dex, Boxes and more

It’s like a dream come true for me, visiting other camps, seeing my whole party next to each other in the screen playing, discussing, running, is something really magical helps, me connect with them and know their personalities better, although I admit that I miss petting them lol and the minigames like in Gen 6. I also really liked the concept of curry as an alternative way to cure your Pokémon maybe I just wish there was a simpler way to know how to create new recipes (ALSO TMs).

Access to boxes anywhere is wonderful especially when you are breeding, just like, changing the name of trade Pokémon and the move reminder.

Rotomphone

It is not used as much as a phone, more than in the post Game (I can be wrong tho) but it serves as Dex and that’s what’s important really, the new feature is that now it includes the bicycle, that can ride both on land and water and in my opinion it is a degradation of what the concept of  “Poke Ride” was, but as I said before, it fulfill the function it should.

Trainer Cards

The concept of being able to share and customize them with other players is super entertaining, although it is a bit annoying that you always have to make a new code for each small modification. As for the cards of the main characters of the game, I will talk with a little more detail later. 

Dynamax

At the beginning it was fun and exciting, but in the end it just became a gimmick that sometimes I had to use by obligation in raids. It is not as epic as the Megas and does not have the weight of the lore and cultural/regional connection like the Z-moves.

The Giga forms, although some are great, and I am happy that they gave Pokémon like Garbodor love, I also think that there were many missed opportunities, starting with the starters of the region or in giving forms to Pokémon that in previous generations already had like Gengar and Charizard.

Raids

They are incredibly fun, it is an activity that you can spend hours and hours enjoying, especially with friends but if we talk about NPCs… OOF, I understand that the purpose of Pokemon is that we all make friends and work as a team, but DAMN, if it is stressful when you lose a raid with 3 friends and an NPC, because the Pokémon only killed the NPC, it is almost impossible to defeat a 5 star raid with only NPCs, and as I said before I understand why they do them weaker, but there are some that are completely useless, I see you Martin Solrock lol.

Poke Jobs and Rotom Rally

I  will be honest, I have not used these features enough to have a solid judgment on these lol.

CHARACTERS

Magnolia

OK, I need to get this off my chest: I am incredibly disappointed and sad with this character, especially since she is/was our first old female professor, to be simply pulled into forgettable land.

It started pretty well, but then it just disappeared until almost the end of the game to give the role of professor to Sonia … REALLY ?! I hate to say this, but she felt more like a device to give character development to Sonia, when she could have been used in scenes with Rose or repeatedly going into further detail about Dynamax for the MC (you know because she’s an expert about that topic…), before give the paper to Sonia. At least I am grateful that I had a little more screen time in the post game, although not even as a professor.

Sonia

Thank you Sonia, for allowing us to discover and know the story with you, honestly she was the one who saved mostly my interest in the story. 

But speaking of the character, I like her, I like her dedication to get out of the shadow of Leon’s achievement and to show her grandmother that she is capable, which she finally manages to fulfill, she still has certain insecurities, but that makes her more human, she’s the real professor (I’m still salty for Magnolia tho)

Leon

Everyone knows from the posts on my PT on Twitter that I constantly bullying the character, but I really like him a lot, he is an excellent guide/brother through the game, charismatic, EXTRA, but very involved in his role as champion, in the sense that he is always aware of what is going on and helping in the process, in addition to being strong (one of the most difficult battles in the game). Definitely among my fav champions with Cynthia, Steven and Kukui (I count him as champion, SU!)

Gym Leaders

I love them, their designs, personalities, the animations, they are all incredibly memorable, my favorites are Opal, Kabu and Piers. 

But even so, I wish I had more to go on besides the lore on the back of their cards and their battle animations, I would have liked to see them more integrated in the story, and I feel that it lack a little more interaction with some of them, especially Allister and Melony in my case, but at least the trainer cards were a good addition to know them a little more, outside of being a Gym Leader.

RIVALS

OK, I’m prepared for everyone to hate me, *sigh*:

I… I DONT LIKE BEDE AND MARNIE THAT MUCH?… I mean, I don’t hate them, and they are both far from being the worst rivals, but I did expect a little more from both…

Bede

I am one of the few of the fandom that does not like rivals flat jerks, because for me, that is not a character but rather  a trait.

But I wanted to give it a try, and when I was just beginning to gain interest in him, they force his backstory in my face… And as I said, I like trainer cards…but more in characters, like G.leaders because these are characters that we don’t see much around the trip, but in the case of rivals, that appear several times and develop in the story, I personally like to get to know them little by little, discover their story and understand them in the course, here I felt it more as an excuse for me, to feel bad for him, especially at the moment he gives you his card.

His relationship with Rose is not explored enough imo. 

And a complete turn-around that happens offscreen, like no joke, the MC literally didn’t see any of it, he just disappears after the Opal scene (but to give him credit, that scene is one of my favorites in the game).

But you know, I understood that he was just a lost boy, and I’m happy that he found a better place, and I admire his effort to want to change, so in the end I ended up liking him a little more.

Marnie

Marnie is interesting, because although I agree with many people that she would have benefited from having more screen time, I consider that a good character does not need all the screen time in the world, is about what but what they do with it, and the problem I have with her is that her time was not well spent.

I like her dream and I really like her relationship with her brother, however there was no moment when I really connected with her. I feel partly, that I don’t know her character, like her various personality facets. 

Untapped opportunities: fight with her more times or with her…would have helped the character a lot imo.

Hop

Hop is the best rival of the three hands down, his trainer card contains the right and necessary information to make us have an interest in the character, but also the story lets us know him more: a competitive boy, but who has insecurities, fears of failure, that is reflected not only by the dialogue but also in his Pokemon team (no really, it broke my heart when I realized that he didn’t have his Wooloo in his team), that he is frustrated and suffers, but he gets up, discovers other tastes and with these finds a new path, ugh perfect, I adore him.

Forcing the player to defeat him is torture, it is like defeating Hau in USUM and Wally in ORAS breaks my heart.

Rose

In short: ok character, decent /meh antagonist, and a horrible villain. 

Like the climax of the story, Rose is forced in the end to be the villain, when he worked best as an antagonist, his plan makes no sense, his battle is disappointing, although his battle theme is awesome, but it just does not fit the character, the plan, nor the situation at all.

But the character has a certain charisma, especially in his ‘’suit especially in his incognito suit.”

Oleana

Interesting character, with a potential backstory, with motives and characterization, who is underused in the story * sigh *… I LIKE HER THO

Overall, I would have liked to see much more of the relationship between Rose, Oleana and Bede, I think it would have benefited the 3 characters…

Team Yell

They are … ok, it is cool to have a team that is not villain, that bother the player from time to time even for good reasons, I admire his dedication and loyalty.

THE REGION

The region is aesthetically beautiful, the details, the structure, the contrast for example between Hammerlocke and Ballonlea, and despite not living in the UK or having had the opportunity to travel to the destination, according to my friends the region in which the games are based is very well related, which I think is excellent. However, despite the visual beauty, when it comes to routes and exploration it feels a bit limited, there are really some towns, where the most interesting thing to do is complete the Gym, there are almost no reasons to return to the previous town after having passed them…

But, what I missed the most was the lack of exploration, discovery, the charm of the NPCs…

Many have told me: what about the Wild Area? Because of the ability to explore in an open area, it is probably the best in the franchise! and yes, the Wild Area is a very attractive part of these games (I will talk a little bit about this, later), but as I said, everything that is considered part of the capacity of the new console, I will not take it into account, it is unfair, because a portable console can NOT stand a concept such as the Wild Area although the developers had the idea before, not at least at SwSh scale.

And as I said before and again, the T.Cards are an incredible idea, but for me NOTHING compares to getting to know the characters through the world, dialogue, interaction… I’m going to use pokemon Moon as an example to make me understand better: (because it was the last main pokemon game I played before SwSh and that’s why I have it more fresh lol) Where you can enter Olivia’s shop, buy jewelry and visit her room and discover that she is a desperate single woman, or enter Gladion’s room and talk to the receptionist and that she tells you part of his story, that kind of things…

Let’s see for example Melony, we know she has more children besides Gordie, but only for concept art, and yes, probably do unique models would take a while, but I honestly wouldn’t have be bothered  if they use generic NPCS, they did it with Lana’s sisters, then the anime can dedicated to giving them unique designs.

Speaking of NPCs (mainly of those inside the houses), many lost the charm and authenticity they had… I mean, where is the lady who told us the story of her husband’s accident or the men of the coffee shop, who every time he prepares us a drink told us the story of where such a drink came from, ect… the NPCS on that side are boring…

EXCEPT BALL GUY, he / she is awesome!

I know this look like extra or unimportant things, but these little details really give life to the region, personality to characters that are secondary, it makes everything feel more united and also makes the main characters feel more inside the world, and honestly that is why on this hand, some cities felt empty for me…

But the other hand, I really liked what they did with the NPCs fans, see how the number increasing every time the MC wins a gym battle, makes the trip to become a champion feel more rewarding, It really helps you feel like a true champion when you got it. 

Other examples like the girl NPC who is going to support  you in the Gyms while their pokemon is evolving, or how the NPCS react and change their dialogue corresponding to what is happening… beautiful, for this part the worldbulding is 10/10.

The wild Area

Probably the closest we have for now of an open space area in a Pokemon game, I have to admit that I get lost at least 1 half an hour trying to find the next destination (I understand you Leon), it was hilarious lol, at the beginning of the game it turns out to be a fairly limited area, and you really can enjoy it in its entirety when you finish the main story, but I don’t see so much trouble with that, since it’s partly the point, for balance. In general, it is a fantastic idea although I feel that it is necessary to polish it in certain parts, and NO, I don’t mean THE TREE, but I don’t want to be so hard on GF at this moment, because is the first time they experiment with such concept…

Pokemon and Music

I put these two together because they both share a very curious characteristic: EXPERIMENTAL. 

The pokedex is super solid, I love how these last generations, GF is doing its homework and is striving to make the pokemon belong to the region, as for animals, myths, culture…muah I LOVE IT, BRAVO.

For me a good OST movie or video game not only has to be for the piece n yes, but how it is composed to accompany the events that occur on the screen, how it adapts and fits a certain scene of the story or character, and although I admit that in general it is not my favorite compared to other gens, there are tracks that have become part of my favorites:

The crowd, the screams, the build up as you gradually approach the last pokemon, ugh. Dynamax is cool and everything, but THIS is the basis for me, of why these battles feel so energetic and exciting.

That mystical atmosphere that catches you, is beautiful but at the same time mysterious, and perhaps many disagree with me, but the addition of the howls of the legendaries… I love it.

STORY

I think the game started extremely well, the introduction to the characters, the exploration, the introduction to the starters, the mystery of the legendary, everything is on track to me to enjoy this adventure to the fullest, but later I felt like it began to fall.

I understand that this is Pokémon and sometimes Pokémon does not need a complex story to make it enjoyable, as long as it makes sense and is entertaining, the problem I have mainly with the story is how they constantly get you out of it. I understand the concept they wanted to do: to take a more realistic point of view, in which adults take responsibility or in this case the champion and that later when you become champion you now can do what the champion did, and I like this concept, but the phrase of “you focus on the gym, we take care of the problems ” they say and they repeat it several times in the game like, I understood the first time!!! 

Indirectly I felt like they were trying to took me out, and in consequence I lost interest in the story of the game, if it hadn’t been because Sonia bothered to explain to me the lore and a little of what was happening. 

It’s more like “tell us” and not “show us”

and that’s the risk of this concept: you play as a main character, because you want to be a main character or share the role.

The climax feels incredibly forced and confusing, I felt that there was no build out, almost no foreshadowing for what was happening at the moment, everything comes out of nowhere, and thats why, I started making Okami jokes with Eternatus, because I don’t felt that emotion of the ‘’Climax’’.

Definitely in the part where the game shine was in the gym Challenge, as I said before, the gyms, the leaders, the atmosphere within them, the scale, the music that changing every time, until reaching the final pokémon, the challenges that we have to do before, the fans, becoming the champion, all this really is the identity of the game. 

Pokémon returned to its roots, where this story is the story of us again, and becoming the champion here is everything, it is one of the most exciting and most satisfying Gym challenge in all generations with gyms.

ADDITIONAL

Here I want to give opinions according to the experiences I had with certain things within the game, which I think are quite PERSONAL, because each person plays different Pokémon, by the team of Pokémon, because he decided to level up more or stay at a lower level or how you decided to follow the story of the game.

Difficulty

Decent, by the standards of Pokemon of course, I try not to leveling to much, and if I do, there are maximum 3 levels and only one pokemon… So, gyms were easy in general, perhaps a pair that were difficult (Allister and Melony), but I never did black screen as in other games, but definitely the most difficult battle in the game is Leon, which I think is appropriate.

Online

Its horrible lol, There were not only once but several times in which I lasted like 1 hour trying to connect with a person, it is ridiculous.The signal falling every so often. But in general the biggest problem I have is connecting with very specific people, not even with the infamous Festival Plaza had so many problems.

Gameplay / Pacing

It is normal the same as always which is fine, some drop of frames out there in certain scenes but nothing serious, some cuts and lack of scenarios / designs that if you should in when they took me a little at the time, but absolutely nothing compared as the haters make it look, the game is still incredibly enjoyable, and it can be played perfectly.

The pacing started pretty well/decently, but from the fourth gym onwards, everything became very very fast, and not to mention the climax and the Pokemon League, honestly all this last arc felt super stuck….

So my opinion in general is: I enjoy the game like any other Pokémon game, it has its entity, it has new and interesting things that I would like it to expand more in future generations and it has personality. Is it my favorite game or my favorite generation? No, I definitely enjoyed other generations more, there were many missed opportunities that they could take more advantage, and I feel bad for GF for making them release this game for this year and these dates, because unfortunately some cuts are very noticeable. But the generation just starting ,so we will have to wait and see what we have for the future. For now, Thanks Pokémon SwSh, for another adventure…

#pokemon #pokemon sword and shield #pokemon swsh #swsh spoilers #my op #my post #review #I probably forgot something and I also have a lot of types cuz im trash lol

[sweetsummerchildofmine]

Catra vs Zuko - or, how Catra got the redemption arc we never dared to dream for Azula

Ok so since She-Ra’s finished and ATLA’s back on Netflix and everyone’s having a super fun time comparing the two, here’s a long rant about redemption arcs that absolutely no one asked for.

[spoiler warning for both obviously??]

So Prince Zuko is still, correctly, held up as the redemption arc ideal.

Look at this boy of course he is.

As an excellent recent post I can’t currently find why don’t I ever tag things reminds us, the great thing about Zuko is that we always want to see him redeemed. Even though he starts out with bad hair and a bad attitude and on the wrong side, he’s a main character and a sympathetic one.

Iroh is introduced as a wise and lovable uncle to us all, so if he believes in his nephew, then so do we.

But it’s not all about how Iroh sees him. As this brilliant video from Melina Pendulum that I’m essentially just riffing on here rightly points out, Zuko always has a strict code of honour. He generally believes he’s doing the right thing, that the Fire Nation is doing the right thing, and that he can and must make a difference in the world… and is kind of a huge dufus. Now that’s getting a lot less Catra and a lot more…

In a lot of ways, Zuko is wayyy more of an Adora than he is a Catra. As another post that I can’t fucking find points out, it would have been incredible and hilarious if Zuko had somehow turned out to be the Avatar he was searching for all along. Mostly, I’m thinking that if a magical destiny and a new support group hit Zuko square in the face in the early ATLA episodes, we might have got something like the instant turnabout arc that Adora got. But Zuko didn’t get a magic sword – he had to figure out the evil of the Fire Nation slowly, coming to the final understanding that he couldn’t continue fighting for it, not even when it meant giving up all the love and prestige he’d ever sought in his life.

But much as Adora left the hoard and had to unlearn a lotttttt, she hadn’t exactly done anything bad out in the field yet. It’s Catra that’s our redemption arc poster-girl here. Because she actually causes a lot of innocent deaths and nearly destroyed the world but hey nobody’s perfect.

Like Zuko, Catra is introduced as one of our main characters, and she’s even more of an instantly loveable one than he is. She’s not an honourable follower of rules – that’s hammered home in her first scene - 

- but she’s relatable. She’s in love with her best friend, she struggles to take things seriously, mostly as a defense mechanism, and she’s bitter about the fact that she’ll never be anything but second best. When it comes to Adora, despite her jealousy and teasing, she’d do almost anything to protect her. This is something we see throughout season 1, right up until The Promise – the friends might be at odds, but she doesn’t want to see Adora hurt. Especially not if that hurt is coming from their childhood abuser.

So many people have written about the great ways both shows handle the trauma of child abuse and how it won’t necessarily look the same across a family, so I’m not gonna go hard on that. But as a recap – Zuko literally walks around with half his face badly burned off because he embarrassed/disappointed his warlord father. Thanks to a lifetime of negative reinforcement Catra believes herself to be worthless, and she’s noticeably twitchy whenever someone touches her unexpectedly. Growing up with Adora, Catra was the scapegoat kid, taking on most of the blame for all their perceived failures (and giving Adora her intense responsibility complex and belief that everything is somehow her fault yay).

It’s a less clear-cut dynamic for Zuko and Azula – partly helped by the fact that we never get much of Azula’s POV. 

..she’s kinda Catra without the benefit of narrative sympathy. 

Where SPOP never stops reminding us that Catra is a vulnerable, lonely, insecure teenager beneath it all, ATLA barely ever lets us glimpse it in Azula. And maybe it’s not really there yet.

When Catra gives her infallible villain speeches, we know that’s not all there is to her, and the narrative pokes fun at the heroes for believing she’s really that cool or unstoppable or evil.

The joke is…. That’s not Catra. But for most of ATLA we have no reason to question it in Azula.

When Catra has her breakdown after getting everything she ever wanted, but with no loyal friend left at her side, it’s Azula she most resembles. We get our madness, our lashing out, our losing it publicly. But unlike with Azula, Catra is able to learn and grow from that. Because unlike Azula, Catra has always been a prioritised main character, whose feelings constantly help drive the plot.

For Azula, this moment was a private one for the audience. It let us know how much her friends’ abandonment had affected her, and gave us an excuse for her approaching defeat.

The ATLA writers did have a plan for Azula’s arc from there, which involved Zuko being pivotal for her and every day I remember it existed I want to die a little –

"Azula loved Zuko, more than anyone save her father. She also felt competitive with him for their parents’ attention of course, but since she had alienated herself from her mother, she focused her energy on pleasing dad… which of course meant acting in more and more intense and possibly evil ways. By the end of the series, of course, her loss of her friends shatters the part of her identity that she could somehow control affection and love through intimidation. As a result she spirals… I did however intend to leave a kernel of humanity, and had we made a season 4 Azula would have completely bottomed and we would have explored the possibility of a path to redemption. True story!"

-       Aaron Ehasz

This is uhhhhhhhh...

...this is Catra’s story. She just gets to hit that rock bottom and has that hand up held out to her.

- but it’s pointless to speculate about how well or meaningfully the ATLA team would have handled this particular redemption arc because they didn’t get the episodes for it. Azula’s story ends with her, the new Fire Lord’s insane little sister, defeated and locked up to stop her hurting anyone else. yes I know the comics exist I am not gonna talk about the comics.  

No adult ever seems to worry about Azula. Not even Iroh expresses belief that she’d ever be better than she was acting. Which seems… unfair, considering his infinite patience for Zuko, and the fact that he himself was the biggest most effective bad guy the series never saw up until his son’s death.

So back to the Zuko/Catra comparison. Although Catra starts out reluctant to do much damage to Adora and therefore the rebellion hopes she represents as She-Ra, and Zuko starts the series at his most inflexible and serious, they follow a similar journey. Both reach a point where they’re allowed a period of happiness, and the audience hopes that if they do rejoin the war it might be for the good team.

Hurt and discarded by the hoard for daring to show sympathy towards a prisoner, Catra’s sent out into the Crimson Wastes on a fool’s errands, with only her loyal, loving only friend beside her, urging her to choose happiness, to choose herself.

Catra definitely has more fun in the Crimson waste than she does throughout most of the show.

Zuko too, when he lets himself ease into his customer service job, starts to smile. He goes on a DATE, he mellows out, he has fun being a vigilante on his own terms, he’s making his Uncle proud.

But they can’t choose it, because they’ve been forced into it. They need to get the thing they think they want first before they can decide to give that up. So when the chance to return triumphant to their old life falls into their laps, it’s too big a temptation to give up.

And though they want similar things – prestige and respect as part of a colonialist war machine – their motivations for wanting them are completely different.

Our good boy Zuko believes he’s a good boy. He has that strict code of honour and he never wants to let anyone forget that that’s what he’s all about. It’s not until he’s subject to the cruel effects of the Fire Nation himself that he understands how wrong it is. Until then he believes the Fire Nation is in the right, and needs to be proven that they’re not – again, Adora vibes.

Catra, again, does not care about honour. She’s all about trickery. No one needs to convince her she’s the villain of the tale – she’s fully self-aware of that.

And the thing is……. She thinks she deserves to be bad, that they all do, but her especially.

This isn’t an angsty revelation for Catra. This is something she did on purpose as vengeance on a world she feels has only ever hurt her. She genuinely feels that hurting people is all she’s ever been good for, that the best one good thing she could do would be to make the ultimate sacrifice and take herself off the chessboard.

Zuko has never had to doubt that he mattered. His choices always mean something, and if he’s ever in danger of forgetting the truth or weight of that, his uncle is always there to offer love and patience and council.

Zuko’s issue isn’t that no one ever tried to get him to try harder or be better – it’s that so many different people tell him this that he doesn’t know which version of better is right.

Catra’s never had anything resembling a loving and guiding parental presence in her life. No one really holds her accountable to her actions until that rad time when Adora punches her in the face.

The first time Catra sees that there’s an option to deal with bad mistakes that isn’t just giving up and doubling down is when she sees Glimmer work to fix hers.

No one was ever going to stand patiently and unconditionally by Catra’s side. Adora couldn’t (rightly). Catra always kept Scorpia as much at arms length as she was able to, because she knew that one day she’d go too far and lose her. (and she does! again, rightly.) And of course though Shadow Weaver briefly fakes being the caring parent she never was, she’s in this for herself.

Catra didn’t need to be told she was fighting on the wrong side – she knew that - what she needed to learn was that she was loved, so that she could believe that she was worth making herself something better.

She needed to know that there was an option to turn back and stop slipping further down the villainy slope.

Family drama aside, Zuko grew up loved and in luxury. He grew up used to hugs, presents and fancy things. Up until season 2, he goes around with his own warship, his own room, and no one to answer to. Catra has none of that she’s hoping to get back to, or to win.

No matter how high Catra’s star rises in the hoard, the closest she ever gets to luxury is in Adora’s dream vision for them. Unlike most of SPOP’s female leads, Catra is no Princess. Not only has she never known parental love and support, she’s spent her whole young life as a child soldier, training to be a weapon. Adora and Catra have never eaten cake, or petted a horse. They’ve never not worn some kind of uniform. They’re used to bunk beds and a sky grey with ugly fumes.

The most we ever see Catra get for herself is a slight addition to her outfit. There’s no fine clothes or room or food for the chief strategist of the hoard – she’s just a cog in the same machine. It’s control and protection Catra’s chasing – not materialistic gain.

She doesn’t even want power– she just wants to be respected and safe and trusted.

On ATLA -  as brilliantly pointed out here  – Zuko gets his big moments with Aang, Sokka and Katara, but not with Toph. I do think that was because there was nothing personal he needed to make amends to her over (recent assassination attempt aside), but more practically it was about the others needing to learn to trust Zuko. Yes, Zuko needed to make amends but we don’t actually see much of that in season 3 - what we do see is the Gaang learning to trust him.

The Best Friend Squad basically trusts Catra immediately. Unlike the Gaang with Zuko, they’re not worried that Catra’s about to betray them- she’s already made the ultimate sacrifice for them, and has no bargaining power with Prime. Where Zuko was a new friend when they did make him one, Catra was already everything to Adora and that’s not news. Glimmer and Bow love Adora, and they know she needs Catra.

Catra’s redemption is important for her story, but it’s not what our heroes need from her. Before she can have a chance to be redeemed, she needs to be rescued. Save the cat indeed.

Again, it comes back to the fact that Zuko had things back in the Fire Nation to give up, but by the end of things with Catra, she has no one, and she’s a brainwashed pawn. Unlike Zuko, who they worry might betray them again for the family, girlfriend and title he left behind, the BFS have no reason not to trust Catra.

There is nothing for her to flip to. She’s on their side because she has nowhere to go.

Zuko approaches the Gaang, seeing in them his new and only path to honour – the Best Friend Squad go out and get Catra, because she’s part of the hero’s prize.

To even make himself tolerable for the Gaang, never mind a prize, Zuko needed to change – to let his pride turn to humility, to let his prickly lone wolf act die. But Catra needed to mostly stay who she is – a tactical genius, a suspicious rebel who’s “never listened to anyone in her life” who is desperately, selfishly in love with Adora, our painfully self-sacrificing hero.

Zuko, unlike Catra, basically trusts his new friends, because he chose them. He’s known them on some level for years, and is prepared to take any punishment they feel he’s earned. But Catra spends most of the immediate time after her rescue terrified that someone’s about to enact revenge on her – she needs to learn to trust them.

There was no reason it HAD to be Zuko who taught the avatar fire-bending other than it making a nice narrative circle with his family history and because we’re already invested in his development. But to save She-ra and Etheria, it had to be Catra. Because only Catra was the thing Adora selfishly wanted for herself – only Catra loved her completely as Adora first, She-Ra second.

So what fuelled the fire of this messy disjointed rant was seeing a lot of people claim that no redemption arc since Zuko’s has been written so successfully.

Certainly, Zuko gets forced to reckon with his actions and make an active choice to do the right thing and make amends. Our heroes don’t all immediately forgive him and the narrative doesn’t imply that they should. I can see how, with less episodes interacting with the group (but really only just) Catra can be seen as “getting off easily”.

In getting into arguments about redemption at all I think we’ve got to look at justice and forgiveness. Justice is good and important to seek in a story for kids about writing the wrongs of an unjust war. But justice should be about the people who have been wronged getting what they need, not about punishing the character who wronged them. No single character that’s been wronged owes the one who hurt them their forgiveness - but if they give it, what then?

In the same way Aang letting the Fire Lord live had nothing to do with Ozai, and everything to do with Aang and what he’d be comfortable with as a pacifistic child, Catra doesn’t have control over the fact that the people she’s spent seasons scheming against or hurting are instantly prepared to put that behind them.

On a morals front? Sure, it’s good to let kids know that when you fuck up and act like a bad guy that you work to earn redemption from those you’ve harmed. But it’s also an entertainment show. And what we want to see as an audience for our wayward heroes is the reconciliation with the person who loves them the most, that they let down most personally - the closest the two of them have to loving family. For Zuko that’s Iroh. For Catra it’s Adora.

Zuko meets Iroh last, so when they do hug it out, we’ve watched him change and grow a lot - it feels earned. But Adora is the first one Catra sees - who doesn’t even ask her to change yet, just to keep fighting, to live.

“That’s how she would have gotten out, and changed. With the faith and love of someone she had hurt, but who stuck by her anyway. Just as he had been saved by faith and love from someone he had hurt, but who stuck by him.”

-          Aaron Ehasz on Azula and Zuko 

I might wish we’d gotten more episodes of She-Ra for Catra to interact with the whole crew and make amends, forming individual bonds just like Zuko was allowed to do, but I’m so grateful, that, unlike in Azula’s case, we got those episodes at all.

Noelle said in a recent interview when asked about whether Adora had gotten over the whole believing-her-worth-was-based-on-what-she-could-do-for-others thing that it probably wasn’t something she’d fully worked through yet. But she’d started working on it. At the end of the show, Catra hasn’t finished with her issues either – so maybe the bulk of any real amends she needs to make are still to come.

Zuko does get a more complete “redemption” but his journey was always different to Catra’s, and in many ways much more like Adora’s. The very nature of Catra’s story is about questioning how much she needed redemption in the first place, or at least, how much more than the rest of them. Scorpia, Entrapta, Hordak’s a whole other ball-game, Adora, Glimmer, Huntara, Lonnie, Rogelio and Kyle were all involved in doing bad, and some of them got the time to strive to make up for it. Catra’s redemptive moment doesn’t just come right after she just got everything she ever worked for and hates it – it’s when Glimmer, someone she arguably did the most to hurt, is also at her lowest.

SPOP may give us less of an epilogue, but there’s a certainty now that the hoard is gone. The Fire Nation very much does not go away, and only limited attempts at reparations are made. So yeah, maybe Zuko gets a harder time before getting crowned the new Fire Lord, but Catra gets no prize out of her redemption. Just life, and the knowledge that Adora loves her.

None of these characters make for exact mirrors of each other that are easy to compare. Their creators were telling different stories and She-Ra had that all-important gay agenda to work in. To preserve that, Noelle Stevenson’s talked in multiple interviews about them having to make Catra and Adora’s romance central to allowing both their plotlines and the endgame for the show to function.

(Though as correctly noted here I’m not saying that it wouldn’t have improved things if Avatar had felt like pushing for that)

I’m not gonna lie – I have not always been a ride-or-die crewmember on the good ship catradora. I mean I was here for it, I saw and loved and hated Buffy season 3, I knew what was missing in my life, but maybe I just hadn’t seen enough stories like theirs work out in either fiction or real life before and didn’t dare to hope it would all work out ok.

And tbh the crew crafted such wonderful characters I was in a very comfy multishipping place as a viewer for most of the show. (as late as 5x03 I was still yelling that glitter/catra and scorpia/adora were both underrated ships which deserved way more screentime.)

Again, really not the best person to say it without a load more research, but neither show is perfect, especially as it comes to exploring colonialism through fantasy worlds. But I think it’s definitely wrong that Avatar which has a lottttt of well-documented criticism against it is held up on a pedestal as the only way for characters like Zuko or Catra to make amends. Also, because no other story is hopefully ever going to be telling the exact same story for its world or characters. She-Ra certainly wasn’t. And that’s a good thing!!

So Zuko had to learn he was wrong about everything and give up the life he’d been dreaming of for so long. The thing Catra needed to be proved wrong about to allow her to change wasn’t morals. It was her belief that -

#prince zuko #catra #zuko redemption #catra redemption #azula #adora #she-ra #spop spoilers #atla #a rant that got too long #i have so many screencaps #redemption arcs #i still haven't seen ros and i'm ok with that but that bitch kylo wants what they have #this is the closest thing i've come to writing a comparative essay since my undergrad dissertation lol #if anyone made it through all of this forgive me for the amount that i just straight up repeat myself here #please forgive the messy screencaps #spop meta #atla meta

[khadij-al-kubra]

Worst Impressions are the First

Characters: Logan, Patton, Roman, Virgil (Human AU)

Pairings: Romantic LAMP

Words: 990

Summary: In a Soulmate AU where the first thing your soulmate(s) thought when they saw you shows up written on your body, four very different high school students are used to being taken as they appear to be: the jock, the geek, the pastel boy, and the brooding emo kid. Yet there is so much more to them than just first impressions. For Virgil, Roman, Logan and Patton, all they have to comfort them during high school-a time where images are everything-are the words on their skin. Their soul tattoos reassure them that someone out there sees them for what’s beyond the surface. It may take finding their unknown soulmate(s) to help them feel less alone in a world that has always judged them so quickly. That is, if they can learn to see past each other’s preconceived stereotypes first. (admittedly, not my best summary)

Author’s Note: So this was actually a specially requested fic based on not one but two prompt posts. The first being this, requested by @everphantom, and the second by my good mutual @quoth-the-sparrow based on this. It’s taken me a looooong while to finally get around to it (to everphantom and sparrow, I’M SORRY! ) aaaannd it’s going to take me longer than anticipated to finish it. Partly because i’m back at school, partly because i’m working on another fic as well, and mostly, well...I’d originally intended to write this as a oneshot but, surprise, I realized that it works better as a chapter fic. So without further ado and much overdue, I present the first chapter of my LAMP Soulmate fic. As always any likes, comments and/or reblogs are much appreciated. Also, if you’d like to be added to this tag list or my general tag list for all my fics, please do send me a message and i’ll be happy to add you. I hope you enjoy!

Chapter 1 (POV- Logan)

“Better watch where you’re going lady.”

A member of the wrestling team shouted this at Logan after ‘accidentally’ bumping into him hard enough to make him drop his books.

“Troglodyte,” Logan mumbled as they walked by, rubbing his arm, which had started to tingle. Likely from the rough impact.

“What was that?” Another athlete asked.

“Apologies…” Logan was no fighter. And starting conflict with a jock that had five or six other teammates with him was asking for trouble.

The wrestler sneered at him and continued down the hall with the rest of his pack in tow, leaving Logan to pick up his belongings.

Logan despised jocks. Ordinarily he tried his best to steer clear of stereotypes towards other people, but sometimes they were just too on the mark, and in his experience all jocks were either bullies or buffoons. Sometimes both. And Sanders High School seemed to have a mixed bag of such sports inclined youth who took joy in belittling those deemed weak or odd by themselves in their spare time between classes; Clearly an attempt to compensate for something.

As Logan picked up his papers, a shadow fell over him.

“Sorry,” it muttered.

The voice belonged to Virgil Alighieri, well-known multi-sportsman of the school. His letterman jacket displayed patches for the wrestling, track and swimming team. Logan immediately disliked him. Yet he couldn’t help feeling pleasantly surprised when Virgil’s tall frame knelt down and began helping to pick up Logan’s books.

“Sorry ‘bout them...they uh…I mean...they just…y’know they’re…m’sorry.” Virgil said, handing Logan back his Chemistry textbook, eyes averted.

Not the most eloquent guy, Logan thought, but at least he has some manners. He also cut a pretty attractive figure. All those physical activities left the fidgeting teenager before him with lean muscles that peaked out from Virgil’s opened letterman jacket. He also had good bone structure and skin, despite the bags under his eyes, broad shoulders, and his dark hair fell into a swoop that just barely obscured his view and made him look ‘cool.’ Even his dark purple sneakers were admittedly stylish. All around, he was aesthetically pleasing for a jock. Not that Logan would ever admit that aloud.

“Yes, well, I must be getting to class now.” Logan quickly got up and was about to leave, but turned back at the last second. “That was decent of you.”

Virgil looked about to say something, but was called back loudly by his pack mates in wrestling. Then he left without a word back to his laughing friends. Typical.

They laugh because they envy your confidence. Logan told himself this repeatedly until he believed it again. For each time he was pestered for answers to tests he refused to give, teased for his glasses, shoved into lockers for his academic prowess, and especially mocked for his choice in attire. Because although clothing doesn’t have a gender, evidently enjoying pastel colors and flowy garments traditionally deemed feminine warrants being called lady or pussy or other such terms in a derogatory tone. Today Logan was sporting a knee length peach skirt with mint green flower patterns, a baby blue blouse that tied into a tasteful bow at the neck, and of course his mother’s monarch hairpin to keep the bangs out of his eyes. Such clothing was soothing, comfortable and made Logan happy. Especially when he put them together in nature or space themes. He had enough confidence and self love as a man to wear such things proudly. If those meatheads couldn’t appreciate that, it was their prerogative.

…That doesn’t mean the bullying didn’t get to him sometimes. And it wasn’t just the jocks. Other members of the student body gave Logan odd looks, choosing to judge him for that rather than take him seriously for his outstanding academics or sharp mind. And being openly gay probably didn’t help his ‘image’ either. Everyone at school saw him as a joke. Logan hated that more than anything.

Well…not everyone.

Logan knew that there was someone in this school who took him seriously. One person who didn’t look at him with mockery, but instead saw him as a thing of beauty; Logan’s soulmate. And he knew they went to South Bay High because the writing on his arm, the first thoughts of his soul mate upon being seen by them for the first time, appeared on his inner forearm last semester. True he hadn’t found out who they were yet, but it was a small school, so it was only logical they’d cross paths again at some point.

Normally he was not the type to waste his precious grey-matter on frivolous notions as true love and casual romance, but when that tattoo appeared on his skin it…comforted him. Gave him reassurance that someone out there, platonically or romantically, was meant to stand beside him with love and pride. Any time Logan felt low or frustrated, he would look upon those light blue letters and find comfort in them: ‘The promise of spring after a heartless winter.’ That was how someone saw him, as someone beautiful and full of promise.

He’d looked at those first impression words so often they were engrained in his memory. Still, he could use the cheering up right about now, so Logan rolled up the sleeve of his blouse. Logan’s lip dropped. Now there was not one soul tattoo but two! In purple letters beneath the blue tattoo it read, ‘oh wow he’s pretty. wait, don’t stare you idiot!’ It wasn’t just the fact that Logan apparently had more than one soulmate, an uncommon but not unheard of thing. It was the fact that this hadn’t been there a few minutes ago. That meant he was spotted by his new soulmate only moments ago. Which only meant one thing.

“I have a jock for a soulmate,” Logan groaned.

And he had no idea which one of them it could be.

Next =>

Tag List: @everphantom @quoth-the-sparrow @altruistic-skittles @em-be-lievable @justisaisfine @broadwaytheanimatedseries @thekeytohappiness-is-you @jynxlovesluck @queer-human-being @phlying-squirrel @ab-artist @grey-lysander @a-valorous-choice @xx-fandom-potato-xx @impatentpending @book-of-charlie @randomslasher @tinkslittlebelle @insanelycoolish @ironwoman359 @icecoldparadise @bluebloodstains @purpleshipper @patchworkofstars​ @axyzel @hissesssss @beautifully-terribly @pink-and-purple-flowers @thatsanswitch @6tick6tock6​ @hanramz-the-fander​ @azlinne @helplesscreator @thestoryofme13 @bibbidi-bobbity-booyah @accidental-sanders @moonstone-fox​ @smokeyrutilequartz @madly-handsome @puns-and-patton​ @notveryglittery @eequalsmcscared @safesandersides​ @lizziepopanime @anxiously-unsatisfied-world​ @unikornavenger  @fuck-my-life-i-want-food​ @mycatshuman @punsterterry @journalanxiety @stuck-in-a-surrealist-painting @elementalshadowwitch @the-psycho-pie @satanblessi @thesassiersilv101 @bat-fangirl77-fan @icantbeme71097 @chituri @dangerfishie @grade-a-trash-blog @justsomerandomhooman @romano-cheesy​ @llamaavocado @pinkbea09 @aliceofscarletflames @backatthebein​ @mephonic @impatentpending @paperghastly @ravenclawangst @iamtrashcans @loganberrysanders @icequeenoriginal @ierindoodles

#KDsWriting #sanders sides #sanders sides fic #logan sanders #roman sanders #patton sanders #virgil sanders #lamp fic #romantic lamp #polysanders #soulmark au #soulmate tattoo #First Impressions AU

[libtard-blazkowicz]

Alright, I’m going to do the thing I said I might do. I’m going to make a post responding to the attention surrounding my “Conservative Girls TM” shitpost.

This will probably be longish so, here’s a continue reading thing in case you don’t care and you don’t want this clogging your dash. Also, here’s the link to the original shitpost that I’m writing about.

Part 1: Why did I make it in the first place?

The main reason is that it was a shitpost that I didn’t put a whole lot of thought into. I was mainly trying to be funny in a way that would appeal to my list of followers who are mainly left leaning. However obviously, it isn’t “just a joke”. There was a specific butt of the joke and a mentality I was trying to satirize. So this is partly a coherent explanation what my feelings at the time were making it, as well as my sort of post-hoc interpretation of what I want it to mean.

So basically I’m making fun of conservative anti-feminist girls. No, it’s not a demand that every girl be a feminist. I’m not even necessarily a feminist myself even though I do hold several third-wave/intersectional feminist beliefs. It’s not my place or anyone’s place to force people to wear that specific label or even conform to all of those beliefs. It’s making fun of them for being outright “anti-feminist” and then using that to condescendingly maternalize men who feel underprivileged and as if their voice isn’t heard. It’s making fun of these anti-feminist women not for simply being non-feminist, but for holding reactionary beliefs and having a “sorry for my pussy-privilege ):” self-loathing attitude. 

It’s also about hypocrisy that I see on the right surrounding their interpretation of how the left talks and how they very frequently use the same rhetoric when it suits them. The right frequently complains about how “Everything is looked through a myopic lens of privilege vs oppression”, “I hate virtue-signalling!” and “I hate identity politics!”. The fictitious conservative/anti-feminist lady is using those things to express her anti-feminist/pro-man point of view. 

And that about sums it up.

Part 2: Addressing specific reactions and brainlet arguments surrounding that shitpost.

Now, I’m not going to name and shame anyone and I also am not really interested in debating most people who responded personally. I think most of them are smoothbrained marsupials who are not worth my time, and me trying to engage their bad faith and sub-humanly stupid cringe takes would seriously compromise my mental health and intelligence. I’m mostly going to try to read and respond to the rough approximation of what a lot of people were getting at.

“This is straw-man argument!!” 

A straw-man is a fallacious debate tactic where you take your opponents argument and then you deconstruct an inaccurate and rhetorically weak version of what they said because that’s easier than honestly examining the complexities and nuances of what they said. This wasn’t me arguing with any particular person. This was a comedic exaggeration of some general things that I’ve seen from people with the intent of making people laugh, not purposefully misconstrue a specific person’s point of view. I after all used to be an anti-feminist edgelord and that’s the kind of people I hung with, so I remember what the kind of things they’d say.

“This is misogyny! You are man-splaining how wamen should be!” 

Again, what I said I said about how people on the right use the same talking points and rhetoric that they say they don’t like. I’m not making an exact normative claim about how I think women should be. For the most part, they should be how they freely choose to be. It’s more so mocking that specific self-loathing “I have so much pussy privilege. It’s men who do all the hard work and they are so oppressed!” attitude. 

“Girls like that are based/queens.”

I mean the fictional lady was intended to sound self-loathing, but that’s your idea of based. Cool. 

“You’re a male-feminist who has the ulterior motive of getting laid rather than authentically advocating for women.”

Yeah. Saying what I say on tumblr where most of my mutuals are all across the world and nowhere close to where I live will definitely get me laid. Also, I don’t have this toxically-masculine attitude of “The number of people I sleep with is what makes me a man. I will get more coochie by any means necessary.” That’s probably you though if you’re making that accusation. You’re projecting that onto me. Again, this was a shitpost. This was mainly meant to make people laugh.

“Why are you shaming women who are empathetic towards the struggle that men face?”

Men struggle a lot. I think in many aspects I think they struggle more than women. After all, men successfully commit suicide about double the rate that women do. Women should be empathetic to the struggles that men face. Men should be empathetic to the struggles that women face. This isn’t about being apathetic towards men. It’s mocking the mentality that “I sit on mountains of privilege”. I’ve seen cis-het white male feminists do that before too. If you’re one of the people who reacted negatively, you’ve likely seen white male feminists do that yourself. So you probably thought that was me doing that. I wasn’t. Lol.

“’Woke’ people demand how you should be. Conservatives just live the way they want to.”

I’ve generally observed the exact opposite to be true, but I do sometimes see dumb liberal feminists saying shit like “We need more wamen billionaire CEOs and war criminal presidents, and shame on women who just want to be simple housewives!”. Fuck them. I hate dumb liberals like that, and I’m not one of them.

Part 3. Why are people so triggered?

A common stereotype of the left is that they’re “triggered” and argue with their feelings. They don’t think with facts and logic. Maybe you’re conservative or you just didn’t find my shitpost funny. You could have ignored it then. I see stupid bullshit all the time that gets on my nerves or maybe even offends my sensibilities. I most often just ignore it. 

This was a reaction of anger and insecurity that I received. And nothing that was said at me displayed an honest or accurate understanding of what the shitpost was about. It was mainly a wash of “YOU HATE WOMEN WHO AREN’T LIBERAL FEMINISTS. REEEEEEE” or “HOW DARE YOU CHASTISE WOMEN FOR SHOWING BASIC EMPATHY FOR MEN’S STRUGGLES.”. 

Plus it was basically just as I described it and tagged the original thing. It was a shitpost. 

#discourse #response #conservative girls tm #long

[maitre-kuroneko]

Top 10 of the 2010′s

I was tagged by @joi-in-the-tardis list off my Top Ten of the 2010′s, and as usual it took me forever to do it ^^;

I’ll begin with a warning: I was in a really dark place at the beginning of the decade. For too many years, I was already locked in a constant dark mood that I later identified as depression, that huge monster really has it claws deeply on me and was slowly instilling suicide ideation. I honestly could not project myself in the future because, “if life was already as it is now, these years all adults around were in the opinion shall be my best ones, why live to see the rest?”. I was convinced it would be endless suffering and something was bound to happen before I turned thirty. I tried not to focus on this because obviously this post is supposed to be about accomplishments, but I’m bound to mention it in a few points:

My student life came to an end… and it was a struggle, I still don’t know how I managed to juggle all the learning, multiple reports and the hellish study trip to Africa while having a massive depression with suicide ideation. In the end, I had my diploma but I was a very average student, had next to no relation with my fellow students – who (except two girls, and even them I kept absolutely no contact with afterwards) did not understand me and wanted nothing to do with me. As soon as all exams were over I got the hell out of here and only came back to fetch my diploma (and it took me nearly a year). But the thing is: I did it. It took me a year more than it should have but against every odds, sleepless nights and breakdowns, I did it, out of sheer stubbornness.

I had my first jobs: hello my social anxieties… you were really a drag for this step. Sending applications? That’s alright. Anxiously waiting for someone to call me back? Go to an interview? Do a job with a lot of interaction with people? Urrrrgh… I remember my first days as a cashier: a lot of blushing, sweating and a long internal litany of “don’t forget to raise your voice, don’t stutter…” My first days on the phone? “oh thank gods there’s a script to follow”, said she, while shaking. When I left, after two years on the job, my manager said I was the best example of a shy, nearly silent person who turned out to be a good employee… (but they still didn’t want me back – ahah). Working did so much to quell my stuttering and general anxiety at randomly talking to strangers. 

I fell in love: it did morph into a huge toxic mess and it took me months, if not years, to disentangle myself from it all BUT I’ll never throw it away because it saved my life: when I was travelling through the darkest part of my life, thinking seriously about ending it all, that man came and loved me, broken pieces and all. It proved me there was something loveable about me, even if most people would say I’m cold, unexpressive, terribly awkward and haughty, there would be people to see past all this.

I left my parent’s house: another struggle… it took time partly because landlords were not interested renting their place to a part time worker, and partly because I was very afraid to live alone. I firmly believe that part of my depression was manageable because there were people around me I had to pretend to be – mostly - alright for. Pretend comprised: eat at least a full meal a day, make jokes and go to school. People, even people who didn’t know or didn’t want to see my mental state or whom it was really hard to live with were still part of my survival plan: what would happen without them? But it was just becoming too difficult to live with anybody, I’m just a bear wanting to be left alone, I can’t be nice and sunny as soon as I leave my bed but people kept insisting talking to me at an unreasonable volume. From the day I moved… it was a liberation, and my depression bouts turned out to be way easier to navigate when I was not under scrutiny. If I want to stay silent and not use facial expressions all week-end I can do so and, wow, all the spoons I have on Mondays. My relationship with my dad is so much better since we don’t see each other every day.

I learned I didn’t need someone to do things: no one wants to go with me on conventions, concerts or simply to the movies? Do it with yourself girl! That’s basically what I said to myself after being disappointed at missing too many events – and I discovered it was ok. Very ok. I still can’t manage things far from home (that would require a night or two in a hotel), or eating alone at a restaurant, but maybe I just need some more years to achieve this.

I travelled : no big journeys around the world but I live in a country with a large variety of reliefs and flora, near oceans and seas, so I managed to have some nice vacations, mostly with family but I also traveled alone by train, which was a big no-no ten years ago ^^;

I asked for help and followed a very informal therapy, just having someone listening without judgment can be a huge improvement to one’s mental state and self-esteem, which leads to… 

I made peace with myself: most people find me weird, inadequate, have no problem drifting away and never speak to me again. So what? Is it telling something about me or about them? If what they perceive is not attractive, does it mean I’m not interesting or undeserving of having a good life?

I became a vegetarian: for a long time, to evade hypothetical remarks and bad jokes, I entertained the somewhat weird idea I could put aside meat and fish at home and eat normally at people’s places… it didn’t work. This diet was ridiculously easy to adopt once I was living alone, then I began to be sick, mentally and physically, after eating anywhere else: my stomach was rebelling against the food it was not used to ingest anymore (the last Christmas I ate meat I was sick for three days afterwards. GREAT) and my mind clearly did not agree with the paradox of abstaining because of my principles but then throw them away just to please disrespectful others. After two years of this I took the leap and stopped completely, I lost the count for how long (three years?) and, despite the jokes and unwelcomed opinion, I live way better with myself, which is the most important thing. You only live partly with others but 24/7 with yourself.

I tried: better failure than regret. It may be a weird accomplishment but it takes me so many time (hello again anxiety) to dare doing new things that every failure means a prior victory anyway – I tried zumba, Aikido, Qi Gong, to learn guitar, to mend things with friends, to make new ones, I went in search of companionship, I tried to buy my own flat. Every failure can be more or less depressing but can also give a better understanding of oneself and of circumstances, of what can be accomplished in the future.  

It took me weeks to write this, first because my initial reaction at being tagged was “I’ve not accomplished anything a thirty-something person is supposed to have”, oh dear. Before my stupid anxieties over everything took the better of me I decided the best course of action would be to just do the thing, prove to the low self-esteem part of my brain it’s not because one does not reach society’s expectations that they do nothing. Obviously, time was needed to dig up ten accomplishments I’d want to kind of brag about, and then some more to find a way not to morph something supposed to be light into the boo-boo story of my life. Let’s say this post simmered in the background for a while. Ten years ago, I’ve already been a pessimist for a long time, joy and simple pleasures squashed by bullies and my general lack of social skills, I ended basking so much in the negativity I forgot there could be nice things in life.   With all the gloom I’ve been experiencing in the last few months I needed to remember my “lowest of the lows” and all that was accomplished to evolve into a more optimistic version of myself. Work is still in progress and people are often puzzled over my ability to joke about past me and present problems (if I don’t the alternative is complaining, if I complain I’m doomed, got it?), which might be contributing to that weird image they have of me but – meh. Don’t care.

I’m ace, I’m bi, I’m poly, maybe aspie, a bookworm and serievore, sometimes a gamer, a lover of imaginary worlds, a cat person without a cat, a great hugger without people to hug. Nice to meet you.

#I DID THE THING #things i'm tagged in #i'm soooo happier in my thirties than in my teenage years and twenties

[keylethwasleft]

i honestly do think its interesting what sam's characters and both the immediate and the wider reaction to them says about the people who identify with them most (this is secretly a post about MEEEE). it shows that hiding everything about yourself thats vulnerable under even the thinnest veneer of Comedy/Class Clown antics, even self deprecating joakes, Works.

before nott's real backstory came out, there was a more prevalent (or at least something i noticed due to heavily identifying with her and trying to understand her early on) resistence to taking her very seriously, both within the game and in the fan content. there wasnt NOTHING trying to delve deeper into her, but there seemed to be a lot more people willing to take her at face value (including icly, which i assume the other players know sam well enough by now to know Better, but their characters may not have). when people focused on her attachment to caleb, from the start people assumed caleb was Her protector, and when she outlined how false that was, there was still a focus on how she can help Caleb. how good she is for Caleb. less on what it meant for nott. which is probably partly how sam managed to hide the most maternal character ever actually being a mom under all our noses. how easy it could be to lie about her backstory when no one sees it necessary to dig deeper into her (often self deprecating) reliance on comedy!

and it was MORE obvious with scanlan! even when he started turning to illegal drugs to deal with trauma, scanlans personality as someone who always wants to deflect from himself with Humor made the biggest takeaway that it was meant to be FUNNY. even to the players (who knows how their characters would have reacted; they largely didnt know). there was some concern from fans, but from what i saw few thought it was more than a joke. because scanlan presented himself as someone to be laughed at!

in fact, even after having to bring scanlan back to life two days in a fucking row? the other characters didnt think he might be completely traumatized by dying TWICE in TWO DAYS, and went so far as to prank him for when he woke up from his post death coma. THE PLAYERS WERE ALSO SURPRISED WHEN THIS BACKFIRED ON THEM, because of how scanlan presented himself normally.

it wasnt until scanlan had a full public breakdown at them that anyone, including a majority of the fans, realized how messed up he was at that point. because he wasnt being funny anymore. he was lashing out. he was being vulnerable.

and whats funny is... tary had less of this as a part of his personality, but he was a comedic trope. clueless rich boy longing for glory. and there was still hints of this going on with him, until he revealed the extent of his fathers abusive nature. BUT, because he was OPEN TO BEING VULNERABLE - playing his real fears straight, being honest about his background, being Open to changing (after some threats from pike) - and possibly also because he came in so soon after sam's bomb dropped with scanlan - people were more concerned about him emotionally very quickly. directly after doty died, before he had a chance to react, Most of the fans realized and were concerned that tary had just lost the only real friend he had that he didnt have to pay to let him stick around.

and since a good portion of the fans started at campaign 2 and didnt experience campaign 1 (and many still havent, and thats fine), even though nott has been a slightly more vulnerable character than scanlan - she has little of his confidence, and she is a ball of anxiety - she deflects by making it a joke... and many took it at face value. sure, she was obviously anxious and obviously full of self hatred, but shes Mostly funny, so shes not meant to be taken too seriously.

i dont know, as someone who mostly interacts with my own trauma and general Issues by joking about it... im really interested in what this shows about how people react to other people. its practically a cliche in the "comedy world" - though i have no claim to be a part of it - that people who are funny are hiding some deep insecurity or trauma. but people are still surprised when Funny People are human. ITS WILD! and makes me wonder how people react to me, whose main sense of humor is "its frankly hilarious that im traumatized" and etc, who pretty much is hesitant to be vulnerable without peppering some Joakes in there.

anyway shoutouts to my fellow idiots who identify way too much with sams characters

#critical role #cr spoilers #cr2 spoilers #cr1 spoilers #nott the brave #scanlan shorthalt #taryon darrington

[roonilwazlibb]

KEIYNAN LONSDALE? No, that’s actually HARRY JAMES POTTER from the GOLDEN TRIO ERA. You know, the child of LILY POTTER (NEE EVANS) and JAMES POTTER? Only 22 years old, this GRYFFINDOR alumni works as an AUROR (FOR NOW) and is sided with THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX. HE identifies as CIS MALE and is a HALF BLOOD who is known to be MERCURIAL, BULLHEADED, and PRIVATE but also EMPATHETIC, BOLD, and SELFLESS. — &&. ( LIZ, GMT+2, SHE/HER, 22. )

pinterest.

Instead of writing the longest intro possible I’m just gonna ignore Harry’s background BECAUSE WE ALL KNOW IT ALREADY !!!!!!!!!! thx

depression tw, death tw, war tw, PTSD tw

AFTER HOGWARTS.

So, the war is over ( a war that Harry has grown up fighting, mind you, the boy hasn’t had time for much else, has he now ? ) and people look to a teenager to continue being what he has been for the last seventeen years ( but what they’ve also rejected, when it suits the current tide of war ). But Harry James Potter doesn’t care much for being a beacon of hope ( of clarity, of light ), anymore. He’s not their symbol ( but at the same time, he knows that he will always be just that ).

The aftermath of the Battle of Hogwarts itself is a blur, for him. Tugged in every direction. Not so much a man, more of an object, something that his entire world feels entitled to. But he’s exhausted ( has he been able to breath properly for the last year, at all ? ). It’s too much for any seventeen year old, yet people expect him ( the boy who lived, never just Harry ), to carry it with gratitude, with a smile, with bravery. 

The days after the final battle, he feels very little, barely anything at all. All he really does is sleep.

The mark on his back is gone ( the one on his face isn’t ), but it doesn’t feel like it. Sure, he doesn’t have to fear for his life anymore, but the crowds are relentless. Suffocating him. He’s grieving, and all the masses ( the strangers, people who think that they know him because he’s famous ) want to do is hug him, shake his hand, clap him on the back. He tries to be understanding ( they’re grieving too, logically, he KNOWS that ). But by now, Harry is growing a little bit tired of being everyone’s emotional-support-boy-who-lived.

Anyways, a few weeks after the war ends, Harry falls off the map. Disappears from the grid. Could not be found, through any means. Some of his friends say that he rented a muggle car and drove through Europe. Others say that he just slept, refused to leave his house, so exhausted and depressed that he couldn’t be reached. Others are firm in their belief that he was busy hunting down the last of the Death Eaters. No one truly knows what Harry did, during those months. Only those closest to him have a vague idea.

He eventually returns, a little bit better. The weight on his shoulders lighter. Back to his former self ( though, he’s not quite sure who that was, this war has tried to consume him since boyhood ). His smile comes easier, it’s less weary. He has that Potter sparkle back in his gaze ( the one that makes his eyes look less like Lily’s, more likes James’, despite what the color might tell you ). He’s not at peace yet, but he will be ( his scar hasn’t hurt in months, that’s a start ).

Harry finds solace in his friends, that much has not changed. It was them he fought for, and it’s them that he continues to live for. The war never changed Harry’s capacity for love.

So, he’s back. People still look to him ( and they think that they know what he will do, ALWAYS always, always ). He can’t escape their eyes, their whispers, how they think that they know him. Most of the time, he hates it. But he’s also the type of guy to poke fun at it, doing his best to not take himself too seriously. Everything’s easier, that way.

Maybe he does it out of habit, or out of duty, but he does what he thinks will make the most people happy and joins the Aurors ( they had been nudging him in their direction ever since Voldemort fell, who wouldn’t want the famous Harry Potter in their ranks against the dark? ).

But Harry is just Harry, and Harry is so tired of being Harry Potter. For the first year after the war, the poor guy could barely go out for a drink without being mobbed, you know? The excitement eventually ebbed out ( thank god ) and became less exhausting, but it was still there, in smaller waves.

ANYWAYS ---- so he’s an auror. He doesn’t hate the work by any means, but he feels as though he has just gone from fighting one war, to fighting another. Which is really the last thing he needs right now? He still suffers from night terrors, about his friends dying, about Voldemort ( not so much Voldemort as other people remember him ----- in his dreams, Harry sees the Voldemort in limbo, at King’s Cross ). Eventually, those will go away too. Partly.

The Wizarding Wars have taken a lot of things away from Harry, and for that he is silently angry, a little bit, all the time. The war he fought may have ended —— but it’s still taking things from him. His agency, for one thing. Did he want to become an auror? Well, it would have been ONE possible path, but perhaps not the one he would have chosen first. Ever since the war, everyone just keep looking to him, to have him continue being the symbol of hope and greatness that he was during the last year of the war. But Harry is just Harry, you know?  Not much has changed since that evening when Hagrid came to get him, all those years ago. But people just assume to know what The Chosen One will do next, and Harry’s just sort of…. along for the ride, for the most part, when it comes to that and his public image. Right now, he is just doing what he thinks is right, for the greater good. He does what he thinks is expected of him, what he thinks will make the most people happy. He’s not thinking of himself, at least not yet. I don’t think Harry even realizes that he has grown resentful, a little bit bitter, angry. 

With that said, I really like the idea of post-war Harry as the biggest troll possible when it comes to the media. All those ridiculous rumors you read in the papers about The Boy Who Lived are often started by Harry himself !!!! It’s his way of gaining some of that agency back but also he just thinks it’s a fucking blast. 

Constant bad jokes about how 'he didn’t die for this’ and ‘did we really defeat Voldemort so that you could’.... are PRIME coping mechanisms too!!!! 

Never actually finished school but totally got away with it because he’s Harry Potter. Finally some perks, am I right.....

Overall, Harry IS concerned with being a good role model for the younger kiddos, but that year after the war? Harry was in a dark place, not fit for returning to school. Not fit for returning to anything, really.

Harry is a really good teacher and we ALL know this, so why isn’t this man teaching? It would be much better for his mental health too. Damn it.

With that said ----- I think this version of Harry will either continue down the auror route, eventually become head auror, but devote his life more to teaching the new aurors and reshape the auror department. BUT I have also always adored the idea of Harry returning to Hogwarts as a professor, taking up the position as the Defense against Dark Arts professor. We love full circles in this house !!!! I also think that would be really good for Harry, to be surrounded by kids ( who wouldn’t have really lived through the war, the boy who lived would just be a myth to them, it would be less dramatic, they’d soon forget that Harry has ever been anything other than their professor ).

Never really replaced Hedwig. These days, Harry uses various messenger birds and owls, mostly borrowing those of his friends. He did adopt a dog, though. 

I don’t think Harry will be fully at peace until more time has run its course. He has been through so much trauma, way more than any man ( much less a boy ) should ever have to experience. The scars may fade ( no, not THAT one ), but they will never quite heal, not for him. BUT he will be at peace, eventually.

TLDR: Harry is an auror, right now. He hasn’t washed off his past, but he has come to terms with it, in a way. 

PERSONALITY & OTHER FUN STUFF.

Harry Potter is compassionate, selfless, kind. Good at seeing the good. But also petty, impulsive, seething, moody. Bad at letting things go.

So incredibly brave, but shouldn’t have had to be? An eleven year old should not under any circumstances be led into the lion’s den and that’s that on that.

Has a hero complex, but it’s one that was forced upon him ( do not get me started on Albus Dumbledore, it will take up the rest of the intro ). Harry was LITERALLY just Harry, until suddenly, he wasn’t. 

The sheer dumb bitch energy of this man sometimes....... Thank god for Ron and Hermione is all I’m gonna say.......

Masks a lot of his trauma and pain with bad jokes, sarcasm and a seemingly carefree attitude. Tries his best to play down a lot of things ( his pain, his fame, his trauma, what he did during the war ). But he has a really serious streak too.

With that said, Harry does struggle with PTSD and survivor’s guilt. 

A total smart ass ( there’s no need to call me sir, professor? ). Harry has a sharp tongue aND is often much sassier than he should be, especially when challenged / when he sees something as unjust / when there’s someone that he just doesn’t like. But that sharpness can seep into his everyday life too.

Like I mentioned earlier, Harry is a total troll and will leak the most outrageous rumors that have 0% truth to them to the press. It’s all in good fun. Most of the time.

Honestly that thing Dan Radcliffe did when he wore the same shirt everyday for a month so that the pictures of him would all be un-usable is peak Harry behavior.

Harry would ultimately LIKE to forgive the remaining Death Eaters, the ones who has repented ( eg. The Malfoys ), but he is having a hard time with it. He is prone to spite and pettiness, and forgiveness ultimately doesn’t run easy in his veins. But the attempt IS there, and he doesn’t want to live with a sliver of bitterness in his heart, you feel?

The war hasn’t so much hardened him though, as it has softened him. Sure, it has made him weary, careful, closed off. But it has also made him kinder, more empathetic, more understanding, stronger in his sense of self.

Isn’t as rich as he used to be. Used a large chunk of his fortune after the war to help victims of the war to get back onto their feet. Anonymously of course. Harry has no desire to make headlines, ever again.

Refuses interviews. Most of the time. Only The Quibbler will get an ounce of truth out of Harry.

TIME CLASH.

Harry has always had a family ( a found family, his friends, family doesn’t end in blood ), but suddenly everything has been amplified, he has his parents back, his godfather, their friends. But they’re all his age, they don’t recognize him ( but he barely recognize them, either ---- if it hadn’t been for staring himself blind at their photographs, he wouldn’t know them ). It’s basically like The Erised Mirror Extreme Version, for Harry.

But there are also The Death Eaters ------- and the fear of having to go back, be the figurehead of yet another war that he has to sacrifice EVERYTHING for. Frankly, Harry has had quite enough. He doesn’t want to be their Atlas, anymore. But at the same time, his parents are back. And he doesn’t want to lose them again. AND he knows that they’d fight this war for him. Which makes him want to fight this war for them. Can you see where I’m going for this? It’s a really tumultuous time for Harry, he’s confused and just a little bit lost.

AND then there are the KIDS !!!!!! HIS KIDS !!!!!!!!! It’s a total mind fuck, Harry doesn’t feel ready to be a father, nor does he feel that the world is ready for him to have children. But his children are all grown up and from the future. He wants to protect their future, their peace. 

It’s a little bit selfish too. Harry wants that peace for himself. He wants all to be well, you know?

#quantum intro #this is my MESSIEST intro yet #ha