#those who take it as a personal attack if you disagree and then blow it up and vaguepost about the green boi XD

[sophieinwonderland]

"DARVO"

For the love of the gods!

You made an entire blog to attack me because you were upset at how I responded to a fakeclaimer who threatened to bash my head in by saying that bigoted anti-endos like them should be and will be ostracized.

You...

Wait... I need to screenshot that don't I? Because if I don't, people might think I'm making it up that this was the reason for the blog's creation!

There we go! (Also, "anyone who disagrees with me" was actually "anti-endos" and "people like the anon." Those were the groups I specified. But I digress.)

So you make a blog because of my comments that weren't targeted to or about you, then you immediately start attacking me, suggesting my comments could be considered criminal threats. (Again, not how the law works anywhere.)

And these false accusations of criminality are before I ever interacted with you.

Then when I completely debunked that ridiculous talking point, you quickly moved to calling my words violent, (not what that word means), "suibating," (also ridiculous,) accusing me of taking people's rights, and comparing the scenario presented to the torture of solitary confinement.

None of this is secret or happened behind closed doors.

Anyone can go over that thread and draw their own conclusions.

In my first post... what was the absolute meanest thing I said about the person falsely accusing me of criminal actions?

Most of it is just flat debunking.

I umm... I guess I said that accusing me of a crime was absurd. And I had one line saying "there are comically huge leaps being made to blow my comments to that anon way out of proportion beyond what any rational individual would."

And so I guess that implied that the person falsely accusing me of criminal behavior was being irrational, if you really want to look for an attack in that post.

But it's a pretty tame reaction to defamation by false criminal allegations.

And yes, in the subsequent post after they claimed my statements were literally the same as suibaiting, trying to take away people's rights, said my words were acts of violence and other ridiculous reaches, I did say this:

I'm going to be blunt. This reads like emotional manipulation. "People need to be friends with me and accept me no matter how dangerous or harmful I might be because otherwise I might harm myself" is an all-too common manipulation tactic.

I ALSO said immediately after that I wasn't suggesting they were an abuser or that this was intentional. Which is being conveniently ignored.

I don't mean to say that you're an abuser or that this is intentional. Only that I don't like the broader implications of what you're saying because I have seen a lot of abusers use this sort of tactic to keep loved ones, especially significant others, from leaving them. And I could easily see someone vulnerable reading this and using it as a justification to stay with someone who is toxic or harmful to them because they prioritize that person's health above their own. I want to be 100% clear that it is not morally wrong for people to reject someone because that person has dangerous beliefs which may harm them or others. Everyone has a right to choose who they associate with.

Because regardless of the intent, I do worry that this will be people's takeaway from this conversation. That if they're in a relationship they don't want to be in, they have a responsibility to maintain it for the benefit of the other person. Especially if that other person has a small support network or no support network besides them.

I don't think this was the how it was meant. I don't think it was a consideration at all how this might influence people in abusive or toxic relationships. But I do worry that it would be the result regardless.

But YOU, on the other hand, seem very intent on trying to paint me as an evil, abusive person.

Which brings us to "DARVO."

An acronym that typically is used to apply to sexual abusers, but you want to apply to a Tumblr argument with someone who literally didn't know you existed a week ago before you started spreading allegations of criminality about them, and said some slightly mean things online.

And I have to wonder... is this intentionally trying to draw an association between myself and sexual and domestic abusers? To an audience made up of many people who have suffered this sort of abuse??? Is that what we're doing in syscourse now to people we don't like???

DARVO is also typically used in he said/she said positions, where it comes down to the credibility of both sides. Again though, everything here is publicly available. Anyone can read all of my posts on the subject, and all of theirs. Nothing is being hidden. Nothing happened behind closed doors.

DARVO doesn't apply here because this isn't a matter of credibility. There's no Denial of any facts.

And this may be controversial, but I think DARVO does have some problems and can be used to shutdown legitimate natural defenses against false allegations if you use it as proof of wrongdoing.

For example, someone says "Hillary Clinton is secretly a cannibal eating babies in the basement of a pizza joint," and she's probably going to deny it, attack the people making the accusation, and present herself as the victim of obvious lies. And the more outlandish and heinous the accusation is, the more it's likely to invoke this sort of response. Basically, while being aware of DARVO is helpful when evaluating a situation so you don't automatically believe whoever is the most indignant, using it as proof of wrongdoing to discredit any defense people have of themselves is going to lead to a lot of false positives.

Back to the matter at hand, the mention of DARVO is obviously to portray themselves as victims.. So let's just recap the timeline of events...

I'm sent a hate anon threatening physical violence and/or death. I respond saying that people like them should and will be ostracized for bigoted beliefs as plural acceptance becomes more common.

A group of syscoursers immediately jump on this with absurd claims that my comments were worse than death threats, suibait, etc. This system, that claims not to be anti-endo and would therefore not even fall under the category of people I said would be ostracized, makes their entire blog to hop in to the dogpile wrongfully asserting it would be a literal criminal threat if made face-to-face.

I respond to this libelous claim in a post, thoroughly debunk it with reference to Californian law, and the absolute worst thing I've said up to this point is implying that reaches like these are irrational.

This system then compares my post that wasn't about them to suibaiting, violence and solitary confinement. They argue that ostracization is harmful to the people ostracized, so therefore my statements amount to threats of violence. (They seem unclear if this is criminal or not, saying in one line that I'm not a criminal, but in another that it would still amount to criminal threats. 🤷‍♀️)

I say this feels like emotional manipulation I've heard in other contexts, but also specifically make it clear that I'm not saying I think they're being intentionally abusive or manipulative.

Every single interaction I've had with this system has been in response to personal attacks against me.

And my own replies have also generally been kinder and less severe than the personal attacks and false accusations I'm responding to, IMO.

Oh! And then they went on to call my followers a cult!

Because I can't simply be a person online with some opinions that you find offensive or hurtful. No. I have to be an evil violent abusive suicide-baiting cult-leading criminal.

This might sound callous, but if you are having breakdowns because a stranger on the internet who you falsely accused of a crime implies you're being irrational and says you are acting in a way that comes off as unintentionally manipulative, you might need to take a step away from internet discourse.

I really do wish you the best healing.

At the same time though, I would encourage you to grow up and move on. Making an entire blog dedicated to a random blogger you dislike is weird, a little creepy, and I can't imagine it's particularly healthy.

#syscourse

[gayerthanevertbh]

conversations with your demons - part three.

pairing | step-mom!natasha x fem!reader (romantic)

summary | you and natasha have a little vacation in france with her friends and feelings are starting to get involved for the both of you. 

warnings | DARK THEMES INVOLVED! fluff (somehow), slight argument, natasha’s pretty unhinged here, mentions of panic attack, and more. 18+!

notes | i loved loved LOVED this part. i think it was well written for me, i don’t know about ya’ll but i do hope you enjoy this chapter. <3

series masterlist | masterlist | taglist for this series

The time I spent with Natasha on the plane was quiet. Too quiet – if I’m going, to be honest. I was by the window while she was reading a book from her phone on the plane, swiping once in a while and I would catch a glimpse of her chuckling to herself. Maybe I was investigating her in a way that I find uncomfortable, but hoping she doesn’t know that – it’ll be too awkward. But then sometimes, she would ask me how I was feeling or if I wanted to watch something on her computer. Though I’d tell her I was okay and she would give me a sincere smile that sends these tingling feelings all the way to my stomach.

I had a lot of questions for her and wanted to understand and know about the infamous Natasha Romanoff – I exaggerated there – but it leaves me all curious at how quiet she was. I wanted to ask: are you a jovial, playful, or prude woman that likes to stare at me once in a while? But that was metaphorically considering that she would turn those questions down. It probably meant nothing, I would, later on, think she was just kind and sweet.

When we landed safely on the ground, I realized that we were in Les Estables – somewhere in South-central France. Natasha mentioned to me that a man will pick us up; probably Steve. I never knew her friends that well, maybe because I don’t ask a lot about her personal life nor did my mom ever talk about it with me once. But Steve seemed like a nice guy, was he the guy who has a beach house?

“You’re quiet,” she mentioned, lighting up a cigarette that was in between her lips. “Are you okay? Motion sickness?”

I shake my head to disagree, and she nods.

“I don’t know,” I shrugged my shoulders while I watched her blow out a thick puff of smoke in the air that swirls around my head crazy. I added, “I hope this will take my mind off of everything.”

She shoved her lighter back into her pocket and turned her head side to look at me. She said, “It will. I hope you and I can bond.”

Then, Natasha smiles and gives me a pat on the shoulder – squeezing it with utmost care that I wanted her to hold me like that. It felt so reassuring in some way that I can’t really begin how to explain it like it’s an abstract painting that you’re just so baffled and confused; yet you know what it means. Though you can’t word it out. But it’s there.

An old conversion van comes along our way and I watch intently as the man gets out of the vehicle, looking buff and tall with a beard around his mouth. He didn’t look threatening because he smiled at me – then at Natasha. He gave her a warm hug and asked how was our flight. I hear Natasha murmuring that it went well and he smiled kindly at her. Then, his eyes flickered to mine and shook my hand like it was a business meeting.

“Good to meet you, Y/N,” Before he gave me a chance to say a word, he said: “Your mother shared so many things about you.”

I was thinking if he was referring to Natasha for a second, then realize it was my mom who he was talking about considering that his face fell for a good two seconds then quickly added, “I’m sorry. I know that’s pretty insensitive–”

“No, you weren’t,” I cut him off with honesty coming out of my mouth. Then, I smiled at him, but not also in a bright way – it was an early morning, and I was extremely exhausted. “It’s good to meet you too, Steve.”

We both smiled at each other.

                                                   —

When we got to the house, there was a dog that was waiting outside. It looked like an Australian Shepherd and was brown but had white fur around its chest all the way down to its stomach. I grabbed my duffle bag that was inside the drunk and walked with Natasha into the entryway of the house. The house had a huge sandstone facade, with white-painted shutters on the windows and a huge brown door at the back. I looked further and saw how beautiful the ocean was right in front of the house, which made me a little excited since I have a fascination with the sea. Natasha had her hand on my lower waist and brought me inside the house, seeing how extremely tidy and smelled like lavender in every room. I saw a man walking downstairs and gave Natasha a smug look, hugging her quickly.

“Welcome!” he said, throwing his hands up in the air. While I looked at him questionably, Natasha murmured to my side: “That’s Tony Stark. He’s one of my good friends. Tony, this is my stepdaughter Y/N. Although we consider each other friends.”

Tony gave me a wink that I immediately thought it was friendly and gave me a brief hug, pulled away, and said: “This isn’t my house but I will definitely make you feel at home. Come, you should see the patio. We have a fireplace where we could melt marshmallows–”

“Tony, she’s eighteen.” Natasha cut him off with a nonchalant tone as she crossed her arms tightly around herself. That word eighteen sprang around my head, feeling surprised and cringed by the fact that she had to mention my age. I knew how old I was, but knowing how young I was made me feel small and everyone else will treat me like a kid. But I usually don’t mind that, I just find it quite funny that Natasha had to say it like that.

He rolls his eyes – rather playfully – and whispered, “Your mother is always like that.”

I didn’t like the way he said the word mother, either. God, what was wrong with me?

Natasha and I walked to the other house and saw that there were two rooms inside it. She opened the door for me and we walked inside, hearing the door close gently. It felt intimidating to be in a small place with her like something felt odd right yet wrong. I try not to mind it, but it keeps relapsing in my head. There was a room by the left and opened the door, gasping when I was faced with the ocean. The room was just in the right size, not too big and not too small. The bed was on the floor but was neat because the blanket is so tucked under the mattress. I looked behind Natasha and I could see her leaning against the doorway with a slight smile on her face – as if admiring my joy.

“Where are you going to stay?” I asked.

There was a pause, and then she answered with a grating tone.

“In the other house since someone else is staying in that room that is in front of yours.”

Was I a little disappointed when she wasn’t going to sleep near me? A little, only a little. Though, it was sort of hilarious and disturbing to think that way – I was a little baffled at myself. Especially when she’s looking at me with those eyes that she always uses whenever I look at her.

“Thank you for this, Nat,” I said, turning my head as I sat on the edge of the mattress. I added, “It really means a lot to me since you’ve seen how I am. I may have thought you were going to ditch me since I’m not your blood.”

Her face slightly went pale when I told her that I wasn’t her blood. She knew it deeply well that we aren’t related, and we never considered ourselves that way since we have this bond of friendship. She dismisses me and responds with a trembling voice, “You know you’re like my friend, Y/N. Please, let us keep it that way except for maybe a motherly relationship with you if you get too mean sometimes.”

I chuckled but almost in an awkward way as that thought deepened inside of me until it kind of spread all over my head. What did she mean by that? She was never a motherly figure to me before, so what was she trying to imply?

I was going to answer her but quickly she says, “I’ll leave you alone for now, okay? I’ll be in the kitchen if you need me. You might have some company later.”

She left without looking back and I sat there, feeling dumbfounded by everything that she has said. I still can’t figure out whether she was joking a few seconds ago or not, but hopefully, she was.

It was around late noon when I woke up from a long nap that I didn’t even realize I fell asleep on the bed. I could feel my skin being sticky and tight, so I stretched out my back and decided to wash my face so I don’t look like I came home from a dreaded flight. After that, I walked outside and saw two unfamiliar faces that were talking to Natasha. I had a look of a sleepy face, so I merely hoped that I didn’t look too tired as I approached them with a kind face.

“Good sleep?” Natasha asked, I nodded but then laughed audibly.

“You could say that,” I responded and sat down beside her on the cushioned seat that had no support on the back. She smiles at me and points to the two people in front of me with her hands.

“That is Peter and Michelle,” she says, introducing them to me as I smile and give them a little wave. I could’ve stood up and shook their hand, but my body disagreed with it. “They are just talking about their stay in Steve’s shitty beach house.”

“Language!” a faded masculine voice was heard from afar and I saw Steve roasting something that I couldn’t see much. Natasha chuckled and brought the glass to her lips, noticing that it was red wine. Of course, she likes it red. It’s either whiskey or red.

“How long have you guys stayed here?” I asked in a matter of mannerism and politeness.

“Two weeks,” the girl – assuming it was Michelle – answered me, placing the glass back down on the table. “You look like you came out from a shitty nap.”

I chuckled in response.

“Yeah, I did. It felt so hot that I forgot to turn on the air conditioning.”

“It’s quite cold here, don’t you think?” the boy, Peter, says with a shivering tone that matches the body movement he made. I nodded but dragged my hum – sounding curious but agreed with his statement. “Sorry, I’ve never been to any country other than London and France. Mr. Stark gave me and MJ sort of a… holiday getaway.”

I could hear Natasha laughing but not in a rude and profound way, she was probably amused by Peter – and I was too. And they looked like my age, so I couldn’t help but ask: “Are you guys eighteen?”

They both nodded and Michelle began to respond to my question, “Were you afraid that you’re going to be alone with a bunch of adults?”

I laughed and nodded, she smiled fondly at me.

“Don’t worry Y/N,” Natasha inches closer to me and wraps her arm around my shoulder, pulling me into her body but not in an awkward way – but like in a way that was appropriate, somehow. “Clint and Tony are kids. They’re definitely not adults.”

When we were all at the same table, I was beside a man named Bucky and to my right was near the patio door. Tony mentioned that he wanted to go hiking tomorrow while Steve said it was a good idea but thinks that the younger adults wouldn’t appreciate it; referring to us. Me, Michelle, and Peter gave each other that look and almost laughed in the middle of the conversation like little kids. Never once in my life, I’ve ever felt like being in this big group of people that Natasha considers family to her. I hear Peter say: we would like to but I think all of us “young adults” would go for a swim tomorrow.

And when I look away from my plate, I see Natasha gazing at me with those typical eyes again that she uses only when I’m around. I watch the way she bites her lower lip as if being tempted into something sinful and regretful but as soon as I was about to say something – she quickly looked away and ate a mouthful of steak, munching it harshly. It’s making me think that she has an interest in me, like developing a silly crush. Although this is speaking theoretically, I’m almost leaning into that assumption. There was once when I was sleeping on the plane, I could feel her warm knuckles sliding down against my cheek. I was going to protest but the way that she did that was so caring and sweet, I decided not to mind it and instead be buried into that type of thing.

It was obvious, too obvious; and I was a little scared by the actions that she makes that aren’t so subtle.

Yet it’s truly alluring and addicting at the same time.

“Have you got any into colleges yet, Y/N?” asked Tony with a beer that he was holding. I felt intimidated whenever people would ask me these questions, especially after the tragic passing of my mother. Natasha knows the struggle with the bat in her eyes as she looks at me and says you don’t have to answer that look. But instead, I turned to Tony and smiled at him politely.

“Not yet but I plan to apply to NYU after this year.”

“You’re going to NYU?” Michelle then says from afar, who has her eyebrows scrunched. I nodded, wondering if that was offensive but I guess it was not. She’s probably curious about why I’m not going to school this year – I’d rather not explain it. Sometimes it can get difficult. She nods slowly and added, “Good luck. It was hard for me to apply.”

I could feel the sense of heavy feeling that felt like a rock that was in my back, pressuring me to fall onto this table but I kept my head high – tried at least. I was feeling a little dizzy after the question that Tony mentioned and after maybe fifteen more minutes, I excused myself from the table. Natasha’s eyes starts to worry as I walked back to my room that wasn’t so far away from the main house, and when I disappeared into her eyes – part of her was that she wanted to chase me and asked what was all that about. Instead, she kept her head low and listen to Tony’s jokes for the whole dinner that was presented that evening.

                                                   —

Natasha was alone in the pool area with a cigarette in her mouth, playing with her feet in the water like a little kid as she thinks about what happened at that dinner table. She thinks about Y/N heavily, that girl cannot be left in her mind. In fact, she starts to develop these unwanted feelings toward the girl that in the first place shouldn’t be involved. It happened when her mother died, and she wasn’t guilty about it.

Why would she be guilty about it?

“You okay?”

She turns her head and sees Steve with a beer in his hand, sitting down beside her as he tries to cover his nose with the beer he’s holding. Natasha shakes her head and takes out the cigarette from her lips, throwing it across the wilderness that was near them.

“I don’t know.”

There was a brief silence until he asked: “Was it about Y/N?”

Within three seconds, she nods. And with that simple agreement, Steve understood that little statement that she gave silently. They always considered themselves siblings because they acted like one and understood each other that way. He watches as Natasha smoothens out her arms with her rough hand that was trembling a little, he began to understand what was going on – with a glimpse of action; a simple one.

“I know what you’re thinking–”

“I don’t need your judgment,” Natasha defends and didn’t let him finish when she quickly added: “I don’t know why I feel this way about her. It’s like–It’s uncontrollable, Steve. Ever since Ellie died, I began to have an interest in her daughter and sometimes I think maybe I just miss my wife when I don’t even miss her.”

“Natasha, I think it’s a very bad idea to fall for your wife’s daughter.”

The redhead tries to say something in order for him not to think that way but nothing comes out of her mouth. She struggles as she tries to think of the words properly to elaborate, but instead, she lets out a defeated whimper and throws her hands up in the air – feeling like a fool. Her love for Ellie wasn’t a spontaneous love, or maybe it was. She simply married the woman because she thought that it could help her with the career she was building, but maybe she did fall for her. And with Y/N, she never took an interest in the girl at that time. She saw her as a friend, nothing more.

But after she died, Natasha develops these sinful feelings toward the innocent girl and she can’t help but have this hatred inside of her. There were no regrets, though.

I didn’t mean to.

“You’re going to take advantage of her.” Steve started with a stern voice.

She shakes her head, “I'm not. Unless she doesn't feel that way.”

“Natasha, this is dangerous!”

“You’re not understanding the situation,” Natasha stands up from the ground and places her hands on her hips. “I know I shouldn’t. Yes, I’m aware. But I can’t help it.”

“Yes you can,” he said with his voice rising, but not to the point where everyone could hear them arguing. “This is just a crush. I’m sure it’ll go away soon.”

Natasha scoffed loudly and turned around, kicking the pebble that was by her feed a few seconds ago. She wanted to yell at Steve and punch him in his chest, trying to defend herself for being such a clueless woman that is having unidentified feelings for a girl who should be her friend or even worse, a daughter. To the lack of judgment she had, her mouth was closed, and instead tried to hold tears behind her eyes. Steve sighs.

“If that girl does not find anyone else in her life,” the redhead turns slowly to him and takes a few steps closer to her friend, who looks broad and tall, she immediately added, “I’m going to do reckless things. I want her to find someone, and let them love her. And maybe eventually I’ll lose these feelings. So if you don’t fucking find her that someone then I might as well steal her away from them because she’s mine.”

Natasha couldn’t put up with Steve’s brotherly antics, the way that he wasn’t on her side was confusing and angered her heart. She looked at him for one last time and walked away with a condemning heart. In each step she makes, she remembers how stupid she was when she couldn’t stop staring at Y/N. It’s not like she could help it, but simply – she was beautiful and Natasha was this vile creature that shouldn’t be getting attached to a girl that she has been living with for a long time; maybe not too long.

I had to do it.

                                                     —

Midnight occurred and I was on this small wooden desk with a journal in my hand. I was going to write my thoughts for today, but instead – nothing comes out in my brain. I began to think I was just tired from the travel and decided to take off my clothes and go to bed. I usually have them off, because I saw in an article once that it’s healthier to sleep that way. Plus, I think clothes aren’t necessary for bed sometimes. But before I even do that, there was a knock on my door and quickly I think it was Peter or Michelle since we were talking about going to the store tomorrow.

When I opened the door, I see Natasha who was standing right in front of me with her tired gloomy eyes. I gulped, nodding my head to give her permission to come inside my room. She shakes her head and leans against the doorway, smiling at me even though she looked extremely tired.

“Are you okay?” she asked with a slightly hoarse tone, but I heard her perfectly well.

“Yeah,” I replied, looking down at my feet shamefully when I remember what happened at that dinner table. I could feel her staring at me and I whispered, “I’m sorry about that. I was very tired and I had a headache.”

“It’s okay, detka.”

I remained silent, biting my lower lip in nervousness.

“I hope you’re having a good time here,” she finally breaks the silence between us – although it was brief – and I lift my chin up and saw that she was smiling softly at me, kindly even. “I was thinking if you want to go to the city with me. Maybe just the two of us, perhaps.”

She sounded like she had planned for this a long time ago, and I could tell from the depth of her voice. She sounded meek, inviting, but tired. I was supposed to say yes, but then eventually remembered that I was going to the city with Peter and Michelle – unless they won’t mind. So, I nodded slowly at her and I could see her grinning with her teeth showing.

That was the first time I realized how gorgeous and alluring Natasha was.

That’s also the first time I realized that I’m having a little crush on her.

“Good, I’ll come to pick you up tomorrow here. Okay?” I nodded and she pulled me into a hug, a warm one. I could hear and feel her heart beating against my ear and I immediately thought that she was having a panic attack despite the pacing of her heart. I was so comfortable with the lovely embrace that I felt Natasha’s lips pressed against my forehead, pulled away after a few seconds, and smiling down at me. She whispered close, “Goodnight, Y/N.”

When she left, I could feel her kiss lingering on my forehead; feeling safe.

thoughts? <3

taglist: @sayah13 @lizzieolsen89 @marvelwomen-simp @when-wolves-howl @cmfouatslota77 @riles-is-an-idiot @ygtft-chen @aru-son @karmasgxrl  @natszn @d14n4ol @hitthatsnappy @natasharomanoffswifeyyy @simpforolderwomen @fluffypanda1603 @whore4nat @trashbod​ @katherineromanova​ @aliancvnas​ @its-just-geek (i’m sorry i can’t tag any of you, it won’t work :( )

#natasha romanoff x reader #natasha romanoff x you #dark natasha #natasha angst #natasha romanoff fanfic #natasha romanoff #natasha romanoff x female reader #dark!natasha #black widow x female reader #black widow x reader #cwyd series

[bcacstuff]

I know you don't like to block people because a blog who allows different opinions is most interesting. But, when - and I mean the same mean spirited Sam onlys and shippers who for the most part have always been Sam onlys send you insults, it's time to block, especially when they all sound the same and many are sent by the same S obsessed women. For the life of me I don't understand why anyone is so taken by such a mediocre actor who is only interested in making as much money he and his partner can make of them. I see no sense of dignity and self respect for themselves allowing themselves to be used like this. He could have told them to stop being nasty and attack fans who don't agree with them but hasn't because he needs their wallets. He created, allowed and perpetuated this horrendous behavior of his fans and never once tried to curtail it. Now, it's a monster that can't be tampered and it has only gotten uglier. If we see this, I'm sure outsiders looking in see it too. They're not doing him any favors and he's not helping himself for allowing it to take place in his name.

I did block a number of them. And of course they do not have the slightest idea about the true reason I blocked them. It is exactly the way they are not able to have a constructive and healthy discussion, the only thing they are able to is twisting someone's words and insulting. They're in some sort of an echo chamber, only hearing their own voices and believing that is the way forward.

They do not understand the true meaning of being open minded, or agreeing to disagree. The only thing they have is a prejudiced opinion, they will never listen or even consider that another opinion can have merit in it too, even if you disagree. Never see more sides of the medal, just the one narrow view. In fact it is sad they will never see opportunities or chances as change is something not in their vocabulary.

Again, it is mind blowing how just a suggestion can trigger so much craziness in a fandom. Like when I posted those 2 pictures 3 weeks ago... Mind blowing how much they have to write about my posts or what I write. If it is so minor, why do they even care and pay attention to it?

I actually don't know if it would have helped if he had said something about the nastiness of attacking people that have other opinions. Maybe at some point, but the way things always get twisted to fit their own narrative makes me think it would always fall to deaf ears. I mean, after all these years and all the evidence out there, they still believe he's C's husband and the father of her son. And the onlies still can not see the difference between him as a person or JAMMF.

I'm quite sure outsiders will see it. They're not loud about it but just shake their heads in disbelieve and will think like you, what is the fuzz all about, what a bunch of crazies.... and no, they're certainly not doing him any favors.

[dream-meister-translations]

THE TALE OF FOOD

SPRING NIMBUS - PART 3

━

YOUNG TAO : Wh- Why did you come with me? If there’s nobody to get us from the outside, we can’t leave the maze!

MASTER : I didn’t think we’d all fall in, you’re heavier than I expected…

Young Tao ignores my complaints and looks around, his brow furrowed.

YOUNG TAO : I underestimated him. He didn’t just copy and paste our defense system but, instead, developed a whole new setup based on it…

YOUNG TAO : These trees switch places the moment they are touched. While my lightness skill is exceptional, there’s nothing I can jump from to get around in such an unpredictable environment.

YOUNG TAO : Dammit, has all this hard work been for nothing?

I don’t know why he’s so distressed, but since he’s helped us…

MASTER : Why don’t you try jumping off my shoulders? I trained in the horse stance with Braised Pork Hock as a child. It should be fine.

He gazes at me in a mixture of pleasure and fascination. Starting a few meters back, he sprints toward me and leaps, the tips of his toes touching my shoulder!

Young Tao is like a bird out of its cage and springs into the sky. On the other hand, though, the large impact makes me lose my balance and slide on the muddy ground. Just as I’m about to crash into the tree stump behind me…

??? : Watch out.

All of a sudden, I smell the refreshing fragrance of tea.

Something lands lightly behind me and, in an instant, pushes me away from the stump.

LONGJING SHRIMP : You’re not leaving like this after coming such a long way now, are you, Young Tao?

The person behind me is elegantly dressed in white. The color is dignified, yet also glimmers splendidly. It’s been months since we last met, but he is still dressed the exact same way. His eyes seem sharper and brighter, with hints of a frostiness I am unaccustomed to.

YOUNG TAO : Longjing Shrimp? You’re just in time!

Just as I am about to speak, Young Tao lands on a branch and charges straight toward Longjing Shrimp.

YOUNG TAO : Return the land deed for Taohua Island right now, you thief!

LONGJING SHRIMP : Pfft.

Longjing Shrimp is unafraid and, instead, takes a small sip of his tea and grins.

LONGJING SHRIMP : Preparations for the tea house are ready and premium tea is awaiting guests. You are well aware you have a future waiting for you, so why come here?

LONGJING SHRIMP : Just who is the thief who stole whose home, here, hm?

━

*FIGHT*

━

Before they are done speaking, the two are already exchanging blows. Young Tao takes out a few intricate peach blossom darts and is ready to use them.

Why are the two of them fighting the moment they disagree with each other? Out of worry, I charge forward…

I’m surprised those darts are enough to block the path behind Longjing Shrimp. At this point, we can’t attack nor retreat. It’s a tough situation.

YOUNG TAO : Tsk, I have no idea what you’re saying. Who can win your Way of Tea you set up at the entrance, anyway?

He avoids Longjing Shrimp’s folding fan and, with a quick dart forward, grabs the brocade in his sleeve.

YOUNG TAO : Haha, the land deed is finally back with its rightful owner! Goodbye!

He turns and leaps away. Like a blushing cloud at dusk, he eventually disappears into the horizon.

MASTER : So he just took it? The land deed to Taohua Island or whatever? Who does it belong to?

LONGJING SHRIMP : It’s fine. He will be back.

He looks calm, as if everything had gone according to plan.

Now that the maze has been damaged during the battle, I have no idea how to leave this complex forest without Young Tao’s lightness skill…

LONGJING SHRIMP : Watching above, awaiting the return of Spring, the snow dissipates, the winds calm and the swallows return.

Longjing Shrimp stands in the shade of a tree, his face slightly obscured by the shadows. He recites a line from a poem and, all of a sudden, a loud flapping can be heard coming from above.

A huge shadow gently passes, blocking all light for a moment.

MASTER : Wh-What’s that?!

#The Tale Of Food #ttof #ttof story #ttof script #Otome #食物语 #食物語 #食物语新马版 #ttof event #event #ttf spring nimbus #ttf-spring-nimbus #spring nimbus #spring nimbus event #tof-nimbus3 #ttof event story

[kagekitsuneoflight]

Genshin Twitter is genuinely insane they cannot stop picking fights with other gacha game fandoms.

Every week I see a tweet where genshin fans are quote tweeted into oblivion because they are terminally online. They are so stuck in their bubble of ‘Genshin is the best and any criticism or statement of someone enjoying one thing over genshin is a personal attack against me’.

This week some person, in response to someone calling Ayato’s design lifeless to their own opinion, and compares it to an Arknights character that they like.

Instead of ignoring the tweet -which was one of many in replies to a criticism to the reveal of a Sumeru enemy npc, which featured a much buffer body type than any that was available to a playable character, alongside a noticeably darker skin tone- they felt the need to defend Ayato, who, by looking at their profile, wasn’t even a favorite of theirs?

Specifically they called the character’s, who’s called Goldenglow, design quote “shit . Just a bunch of random design choices thrown together meanwhile ayato derives inspiration for the actual Meiji era of feudal Japan. But sure “lifeless” end quote. This in of itself is something that would be worth a couple dozen quote retweets, but meaningless in the end. It’s what they say next that sparks almost 2,800 quote retweets.

Quote “Like, the AK character design is just blatant hypersexualization for the sake of pandering to horny teenagers meanwhile Ayato has actual thought and inspiration put into it. You really thought this was a good comparison huh?” End quote.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with Goldenglow, this is her design.

She’s just wearing a short skirt and thing highs. That’s the only thing that stands out that could be seen as sexual. And it’s not even close to the focus of the art here. And that tweet blows up.

People are are comparing Genshin and Arknights characters, pointing out that oftentimes it’s *Genshin* that sexualizes it’s characters, with Mona being the main example used.

I have never seen the Arknights fandom be so bloodthirsty. In my experience, the Arknights fandom doesn’t usually get involved with drama like this. They seem comfortably in the “if you aren’t a fan that’s okay, just don’t bash.” type mindset. They aren’t afraid to poke fun at themselves either, and usually have a decent sense of humor. Most of Arknight’s drama centers around the devs and specific content creators.

I realize that Genshin has many young fans, and is a young fandom in of itself, but they need to learn that you can’t escalate every little criticism or opinions that disagree with your own. If someone responds with “I think this character’s design is pretty lifeless, I like this character from this game instead.” You cannot escalate it to “how DARE you say that?! Because HER design is HYPERSEXUAL!” You can always, always ignore it. And if you want to make your opinion known, keep it civil. “I disagree with you. I think her design is way too busy, I like my character because even though it’s simple, there’s still plenty to enjoy.”

And if you do have a Bad Take and get ratio’d into oblivion, try not to double down. Just slink back and lick your wounds so to say.

To keep in example with the catalyst of this post, this same person keeps doubling down. They’ve even gotten into some mild slutshaming in their replies. There was some art someone drew of three Arknights characters beating up Ayato, I’m pretty sure like the last panel as the one jojo meme where a guy sips some wine before joining the beat down. Clearly more of a joke than any actual malice behind it. Someone comments, quote, “This is what you get for calling Goldenglow design hypersexualized. It’s like calling someone’s little sister a hoe.” End quote. I genuinely don’t know much about Goldenglow, I stopped playing Arknights a good while ago. But from what I glean, she just wants to be a fashion designer, and struggles to control the electric powers she has. A wholesome, if slightly sad character. And of course, their response is, quote, “if your little sister is out wearing stockings with lingerie straps and a shirt ass skirt, I’ma call her and YOU a hoe. The fuck you on about ? 🤨” end quote.

Just by scrolling through the replies they make, anytime someone seems to mention them, or respond to them in a way they deem unacceptable to leave alone, they need doubling down. Keeps saying they’re right. Attacks people. To one tweet they responded, quote, “I’m literally in y’alls head rent-free.” End quote.

But I think the most ironic part of this all, with how they came after one character for being “hypersexualized”, is the fact they retweet anime girls with the boobs very very visible, with oftentimes the focus being on the boobs, or attention drawn to the boobs. Even twiters automatic crop seems to favor the boobs with some of these retweets.

I also took the effort not to mention or add screenshots of the tweets, mainly so people are less likely to waste their time on this, and to also make this more accessible for those with screen readers. I’ll do my best with the image alt image description feature as well, but I don’t promise quality.

This post isn’t here to spread drama, mainly to point out how often Genshin Twitter starts stirring the pot, and maybe convince people that they should practice ignoring and blocking more when they disagree with someone online.

#genshin drama #genshin impact #arknights #technically speaking. #long post #Twitter drama #hopefully I put the right tags so people can easily ignore it? #no but seriously genshin drama goes messy fast #shut up kage

[joeey-dee]

I don't get people.

Why do you read a fic you obviously won't like because you don't like the main couple and then leave a rude comment. And just to be a complete asshole, block the author of said story so they can't reply to you.

People seriously suck sometimes. Why read something you don't like? Why comment if you have nothing nice to say? And why not even giving me a chance to reply to you? How miserable and cowardly does one have to be? Seriously!

What is so difficult about the concept don't like don't read and don't be an asshole for no reason.

Write your own damn story instead of bringing down the mood on my stories.

Seriously the one thing I can say is the Canarrow people are all really nice, positive and encouraging people. While my limited experience with Olicity people was rather negative, except for one who's a complete sweetheart and loves my Canarrow fic and doesn't mind my frequent rants and criticism about Olicity even though she disagrees with most of it. Which is how one should be. Or if you can't handle someone criticizing your OTP don't read stories that clearly state that they are not going to be the end goal.

Just move on. Don't read, don't be rude in the comments and if you are incapable of doing that, at least have the guts and give the author a chance to reply. It's the least you can do. Especially when you are too deluded to admit that Oliver loved Sara and Sara loved Oliver and claim Sara is gay and that is why she and Oliver can't be endgame. WTF?! 

There would be no Green Arrow without Sara. Their affair is the reason the Arrowverse even exists. If Oliver and Sara hadn't been involved, Oliver and Felicity would've never met.

Sorry, for my rant but this person just pissed me off and I can't even let them know because they have the audacity to block me and then comment on my fic.

Joke's on them, I let AO3 know and made a harassment claim. Should've just let me reply. Also this is not the first time they left rude comments simply because they don't like Canarrow and some of my fics have both the Canarrow and Olicity tag, because those are accurate for those stories, the main couple is always obvious though. At the beginning I could reply and they ended up deleting their comments, now they blocked me and still leave rude comments.

It is very hurtful behavior, I always get excited when get the notification from AO3 that someone commented on my fic, only to then get a very rude, unnecessary comment from someone who seems to enjoy just being mean and tearing people down. It takes a very long time to write a fic, and then to get comments like those… I don’t mind criticism, it helps me grow as a writer, but I hate the comments people make just to ruin someone’s day for no apparent reason.

I’m sorry if the reason is that the Olicity writers in general aren’t that good, because most of them are teenage girls, no offense, they are still learning and need to do it somewhere, the stories I wrote as a teen were pretty bad too, but I kept at it and have grown as a writer. It can be frustrating if the only stories you get about a couple you love are badly written ones, but that still is no reason to attack the author of a not badly written story simply for not writing the couple you want. Write your own fic if you don’t find what you are looking for. It is one of the main reason why I write, there are almost no Canarrow fics out there, which blows my mind, they are by far the best and healthiest Arrowverse couple out there.

Okay, I think I’m done, lol.

#rant #i just needed to get this off my chest #some people suck #don't be an asshole #otp: i chose you / i'm gonna stay with you #don't block me and then comment negatively on one of my stories #such cowardly behavior #if you attack me at least give me the chance to reply #why can't we just respect each others opinion and get along #arrow fic #canarrow fic #anti bullying #anti toxic olicity people #don't like don't read it's no that difficult #and Sara Lance is not gay! seriously! #there would be no arrowverse without Oliver and Sara's love (affair)

[zenruption]

How to Discuss Politics While Keeping It Civil

If you've ever had a discussion on politics, online or offline, you know that things can get heated. Even when you agree with the other person you're talking to, it's easy for things to get loud. And when you don't agree, there's a potential for there to be a real blow-up between you. But discussing politics doesn't have to turn into a fight. It's possible to have a civil discussion where you listen to each other, even if you really don't agree with each other. 

Of course, it's not always as easy as people might make it seem. When you're talking about a subject you're passionate about, what starts as a fun debate could rapidly escalate. But if you make an effort to treat other people well, they'll return the favor.

Keep Your Temper

A discussion on political matters can rapidly devolve into a shouting match if you're not careful. It's easy to get angry when you feel like someone isn't listening to you or their opinions and outlook offend you. But it's important to keep your temper if you want to have an actual discussion and understand their position. If you get angry with them, they are more likely to respond in anger too. If you feel your temper rising, take some deep breaths to allow yourself to calm down. You might need to step away for a while so that you can collect yourself.

Image from Pixabay - CC0 License

Find Common Ground

You can often find that when you're discussing politics, you share something in common with even those who have very different beliefs. One of the recommendations at liberal8ball is to try and find common ground with people you're talking to. It's rare that there's absolutely nothing that you agree on. For example, you might agree that a certain problem exists but just have different ideas about who is to blame or what the solution should be. You could discover that you have more in common than you first thought if you keep your mind open when you're talking.

Have Empathy

When things start to get kind of heated, it can be hard to remain empathetic. When it's difficult to understand where someone is coming from, characterizing them as someone who is unfeeling or stupid feels like the easy thing to do. But if you can have empathy for whoever you're talking to, you might find that you can have a much more productive discussion. People rarely want to do the wrong thing and usually have good intentions. Understanding where they're coming from and how their personal experiences inform their opinions helps you to keep your discussion as civil as possible.

Be Careful with Your Words

The words that you use when you're discussing politics can have a big impact on the way the conversation goes. If you sound confrontational, other people can feel attacked and the discussion can quickly get away from you. Whether you're asking a question or replying to a point they've made, be careful about the words you choose. Try to make your questions non-judgemental and unassuming, leaving space for your conversation partner to answer however they want. From the other side, try not to react to words that you might find offensive, even if they weren't intended that way.

Avoid Personal Attacks

It should go without saying, but making personal attacks isn't going to result in a productive conversation. Although you might question some of the things other people say, you should avoid criticizing their personal beliefs as much as possible. You're not going to get them to change their mind about a deeply held belief by berating them about it, so it's best just to avoid it. Not to mention that, even if you disagree with each other, you should still try to treat each other as kindly as possible.

Know When It's Time to Stop

Not all discussions on politics are going to be useful or even a good idea. There are times when you have to know to end the conversation and perhaps even walk away from each other. If things are getting too heated or someone is getting upset, you may need to put the topic to bed. If you're just going around in circles or you've both said what you want to say, it's probably time to move on to another topic. Agreeing to talk about something else allows you to take a break from politics for a while.

There's no reason you can't have a civil discussion about politics. But you both have to treat each other kindly and respectfully.

[slavy77]

In all honesty, I don’t think I have any enemies, at least I don’t see anyone as an “enemy”.

There are people who greatly annoy me. There are people who I disagree with, but I don’t see them as enemies.

The level of hate for someone to be an enemy is just something that’s not present in my life. When I was younger I would have said anyone from Wolbach, Nebraska was an enemy. They stole my high school 6-Man football championship from me back in 1996. But I finally got over that…I think.

I don’t want to go through life having enemies. I see people who I butt-heads with more as opponents. People who aren’t on the same page as me or think differently, but not enemies. While this can be annoying it also can be eye-opening.

We tend to see things from only our point of view, which has been set based on our past experiences. We naturally assume everyone has gone through what we have, especially if we’ve had an easier go of it. We forget everyone has different experiences.

When people oppose me, push back, annoy me and attack me, I initially have a more aggressive reaction. My response to negativity is not strong, but when I think about it, those people are acting that way because of some other reason.

We want to take negativity towards us personally. Sometimes it is, but often there are underlying reasons. Bad days, hates their job, struggles in the home life, debt, pain - some kind of suffering.

We often don’t take into account what the opposer is going through that led to their aggressive behavior towards us.

As I get older, I try to stay calm and think bigger. Think about why someone would attack me, would not like me. Did I do something - maybe. Or is it something we aren’t seeing? Most of the time it's something we don’t see.

When Jesus said we should love our enemies and pray for them, it was just as mind blowing then as it is today. It was just hard to do then as it is today, but when you take that perspective, your life starts to change. You see vulnerability in people, not anger. You see pain in them, not hatred for you.

Next time you have a negative experience with someone, take a second and try to think about why that person is reacting this way. Give them the benefit of doubt and either ask if you can help or just keep moving.

#enemy #love #Faith #Faith in God #Follow Jesus

[pissturbed]

BRING BACK REAL DISPUTE RESOLUTION

look at these nerds, standing infront of everybody like they think they're tough shit, hiding behind their big box thingies and TALKING like a bunch of bitches. What do you have a microphone for? Do you seriously think I want to hear what you have to say? I don't want to hear your side of the story, I want to see you FIGHT for what you believe in, you sopping wet dweebuses

The worlds gone soft, I'm telling you.

And don't think gun duels are safe just because they involve death. This has got to be the weakest way to kill a man ever conceived, you have someone tell you to take steps away from your enemy and turn around and shoot and just hope that you hit them first. Absolutely pathetic. What if I just shot them in the back before taking those steps, what are you gonna do about it? I'm now the only living person here that has a fucking gun, idiot!

Just look at these fools. look how goofy they look. That guys hats flying off and he's trying to catch it. Embarrassing. It's a stupid hat anyway, you should be glad it got shot off. And I just know the other guy is dizzy from spinning around so quick, he's lucky he even landed that shot anywhere near him because you know what happens if he misses? They have to stand there and reload, and these are old guns, they'll probably take forever to reload, plus it might even blow up in their faces because old timely people are dumb and can't make things good.

Their clothes are stupid too

Okay this ones not too bad, it's got cool monsters and if you lose you get sent to the shadow realm and everyone who ever disagrees with me deserves to go there. This is definetely a big step up, however, you have to read in order to win. Fuck that. Not only that but they stand so far away when they're dueling, like they're scared of getting caught in the splash zone of a blue-eyes's attack, if it were me, I'd get right up in my enemy's face, I'm not scared of some bitch-made dragons.

And another thing, they are way too calm in these duels. Where's your anger? Where's your fucking rage?!

Now this, this is how you settle an argument. You're up close and personal, it's intense, you look fucking majestic. Just two big men working up a sweat, going to town on each other, not a word spoken, unlike those moist-ass 'debaters'. Gotta love it. We need to bring this back

Perfection. Fucking Perfection. It's like a sword fight but way cooler. The swords burn man, they burn! And in this one you can use magic to like, jump kinda high or throw stuff at your enemy. And these men are way sweatier, it's so hot, the temperature I mean, there's lava AND laser swords and the guys are just going absolutely ham on each other, doesn't get much hotter than that.

This is the absolute peak of dispute resolution, we NEED to start doing this more

Tha k you for coming to my TED talk

#real men #hotmen #big hot men #big hot men going to town #bringbackmasculinityandhotmen #debates suck #fuck debates and guns

[worstloki]

i love the loki fandom because there are so many sides and each one feels like a whole new brick to the face

#it's so much fun #you've got people who absolutely do not want loki to have a love interest ever which is cool #then you've got people who want loki to not only be pan but also do the deed with any and everyone he makes eye contact with #then you've got the sect which makes it their duty to thirst over every frame of glorious hair bouncing #people being torn between wanting loki to be s*xy but also not wanting him sexualized #people who want loki to be a permanent he and others who would kill for genderfluidity to come into the picture #a huge bunch of people everywhere don't acknowledge that loki was tortured during avengers 1 #people who have spent the past 10 years arguing and successfully digging for proof that he was #tik tokkers thought lady loki was loki's wife a while back #people who knew asgard was colonialist all along vs people thinking ragnarok introduced that idea #uhhhh frigga has a lot of people absolutely whipped and some people think odin apologized to loki #people who ship mobius and loki havdgsfudbsjkkkkhgfv #those who take it as a personal attack if you disagree and then blow it up and vaguepost about the green boi XD #don't get me started on grandmaster/loki or how thorki has the most fics out of all the loki ships on ao3 #people who literally just want the funky knife boy to get some development and have some fun without love fixing everything #people who are literally only running because the funky knife boy has suffered and they want him to get to be happy and loved #people who hate whatever tf marvel is doing with loki's characterization and caricaturing him #people who love the new direction and don't see any change #saw someone thirsting over loki's wrists the other day #people who see new points and go Woah!! Thank you!! #some people who get so mad when you have receipts from canon to support a point XD #people who never want to hear about canon again ever #people who don't share their opinions because they'd be under fire if they did #people who have gigantonormous themes fly over their heads and also those who are just here to chill and those who ship what they ship #oh! those who aren't afraid to share their unpopular views! #there's a lot of variety #it's very fun #it's like a giant salad bowl where some missed the memo that this is a fruit salad and then someone sprinkles chilli and whipped cream in #mmmm i like how 'discourse' can cover the range of what type of clothes he would wear to how damaging badly handling identity themes was #and you can find people equally passionate about any niche topic around here and there's such a diverse mix of experiences it's wonderful

[joyaphoria]

[7:25 PM - OSAMU]

osamu doesn’t remember how to breathe.

it could be because of the panic attack he just had, or simply because he cant bring himself to get out of the car.

what if you changed your mind?

what if he took you out, and mid-celebration, you decided that you chose the wrong person? the wrong twin?

saying that osamu felt inferior to his twin is atrocious, because no, he didn’t. he didn’t feel like a lesser being when he stood next to his other half, and he sure as hell didn’t feel like he was below him.

what he does feel like, is a second choice — a rebound — because while osamu may not feel like his twin is better than him, the people around him might disagree.

osamu would be lying if he said that he didnt hate his twin for it sometimes — for the days he spent looking into the mirror, trying to figure out what set them apart. what was it that made osamu so unlikeable, next to his brother?

it became an insecurity as they grew up, a rot that was eating away at osamu’s self worth. he shared a face with his twin. he shared a sport with his twin — and for the nights that tsumu needed someone to confide in, he shared a bed with him, too.

they were almost the same, and yet so different.

the insecurity then turned into and inferiority that osamu had sworn to never feel against his brother. the words, the looks, the stares, they all said the exact same thing.

he would never leave atsumu. he would stay with his twin; forever by his side, forever in his shadow.

but then there’s you, and osamu has never wanted something as bad as he wants you.

when it comes to you, osamu doesn’t give a shit about comparing to atsumu. he’s been used to girls that would double cross him to get to his twin, and over time, he lost the ability to care anymore.

but he doesn’t know what he’ll do if you end up to be one of those girls. he doesn’t know what he’ll do, but loosing you would mean taking another blow to his pride; the pride that had so effortlessly withered away, and now rested in the hope that you wanted osamu, just as bad as he wanted you.

but he’s so used to the thought that you might leave him, that it’s getting harder and harder to trust you; to trust what you say, to trust you when you tell osamu that you love him more than anything.

he’s heard it all before.

and its selfish of him, so selfish, to put the burden of his insecurities upon your shoulders — to charge you with the responsibility of loving him, of rebuilding his self-worth, that was reduced to almost nothing.

you said you would do it, because you love him.

there was so much truth in your voice, that osamu had been afraid it was a lie.

all the promises, and yet osamu can’t get out of the car.

he can’t find it in him to get out and knock on your door, to thank your mom and dad for allowing him to take you out.

he cant handle the thought of being rejected by you, and the voice in his head yelling at him to protect the bit of sanity he has left is convincing.

and maybe, if not for the knock on his window, he would’ve found it in him to breathe again, and drive away. he would’ve told himself that he’s better off protecting his weak heart, than to give it to someone he is so undeserving of.

to the person who knocked on his window.

osamu looks up, and watches as you walk around the car to get into the passenger seat.

he looks away quickly, wiping at his eyes with the back of his hand — and yet he’s not quick enough, because you’re in the car now, and you’re turning his face to yours.

your face is pampered, proof of the effort you put into getting ready for your date, while osamu was in the car crying.

“i love you,” you whisper, and osamu shakes his head. you should be yelling at him, calling him pathetic. you should feel betrayed, for his lack of trust in you. “i love you.”

you say it again and again, over and over, until osamu is slumped in your arms, body trembling in your embrace. you whisper it into his ear, against his forehead, against his lips.

you repeat it, as your fingers rake through his hair, soothing him. you say it as a promise, as an oath.

“i see you, osamu. i understand how you feel, and we will get through it together. we will stand together, and i will not leave you behind.”

and you whisper that three-word-promise many, many more times, against his temples, along his arms and fingers, and into his hair.

when you spend your entire life believing that you could never be good enough, it’s nearly impossible to simply change that for someone who claims to believe otherwise.

but nearly impossible isn’t impossible, and you are determined to reveal the worth you know osamu holds, so that he may see it too.

#—joylovesyou #—joyisromantic #—joysministuffs #—joyfeelsbetter #haikyuu #haikyuu x reader #haikyuu angst #haikyuu fluff #haikyuu comfort #haikyuu drabble #haikyuu drabbles #osamu #osamu miya #osamu fluff #osamu drabbles #osamu x reader #osamu angst #osamu comfort #ill add the headers later #theyre on my laptop

[min-jpg]

can i request zhongli , kaeya and xiao with a fem!s/o that comes from an extremely rich family and the boys get kidnapped and held for ransom and then out of nowhere their s/o comes and beats the group of people that kidnapped the boys , gracefully😋😋

Note: we stan a baddie s/o! Anyways, enjoy the drabbles with a word count averaging 0.5k for each character :) I'll make the setting at an abandoned warehouse, classic

---

Kidnapped Genshin Boys x Fem Rich!reader pt.1

Part 2 (Childe, Diluc, Kazuha)

Characters: Kaeya, Xiao, Zhongli

Genre: fluff, established relationship, some woman kicking ass action, (TW: mentions of blood and violence)

---

KAEYA

Your boyfriend would deliberately act like a damsel in distress with no fighting aptitudes. Exaggerating his emotions to fabricate fear, he voluntarily let himself be held hostage, thinking they caught an easy target. Kaeya went along with his abductors' antics because he intends to bring them down once they reach the hideout.

While they were camping in the warehouse, Kaeya was not worried at the slightest. These people were no vision bearers, just mere greedy criminals that do not know who they were messing with.

Kaeya is aware of how affluent you and your family are. He already anticipated something similar to happen one day. Lowly tactics like these do not budge him at all, especially his unyielding loyalty towards you. As if the Cavalry Captain of the Knights of Favonious would be shaken by something as childish as this.

While he was improvising a plan in his mind, one of the men yelled, "Intruder!"

They all assembled at the source, but glanced at each other in confusion, "Intruder? Where?"

While an altercation sparked between them about the unseen intruder, their attention successfully diverted away from Kaeya. Thus, using the containers and blind spots to your advantage, you sneaked your way towards your boyfriend. While freeing Kaeya from the ropes that bound him to the chair, you giggled as well, "Are you lost, baby boy?"

Your unexpected appearance left him stunned, but it was a pleasant surprise, "Lost in those eyes, baby girl." He smirked back. By the time you finished, the men realized that the intruder was you.

Now that you are actually here, Kaeya's concerns began sprouting because he wanted to ensure your safety first before carrying out his plan since your arrival was not formulated in it.

You fueled his worries when you stepped forward towards the group. You dropped the bag you carried along in front of them, "Here. You wanted the money right? Take it."

"Well, that wasn't so hard." The gung ho group laughed boisterously among themselves, the leader leaning down to pick up the bag. You swung your foot, landing a clean kick on his face which caused him to stumble back. He pressed his nose, blood trickled down, "You-"

You refused to let him finish by sending another vigorous kick, this time at the center of his stomach, causing him to hunch as he grabbed onto his stomach and surpassing his coughs. To finish it off, you plunged your elbow down the back of his head and connected with an uppercut. The force was strong enough to send their leader flying back and never stood up again, completely knocked out.

The rest of the gang blinked. It was not even a fight. You took him down with only a few moves, barely breaking a sweat.

"You guys want some more? Or just take the money and leave us alone." You taunted them. They hustled along, grabbing the bag, and left their leader in the warehouse. Little did they know, the bag was not filled with money, but just some rocks to give it some weight.

Kaeya walked up behind you, clapping his hands, "That was superb, babe. I didn't know you were such a fighter." Needless to say, Kaeya is so proud of you and praised the way you executed your beautiful course of movements. He will also keep in mind to never mess with your temper too much in the future.

XIAO

Your boyfriend could take out all the adversaries he wanted to, driving them to regret that they wished they never premeditate this abduction. Unfortunately, his hands are tied because the group threatened that harm would come your way instead if he did not comply with their demands.

"You just have to sit here until your girlfriend bails you out. I'm sure she has some extra cash to blow to save you."

You did warn Xiao beforehand that similar incidents happened in the past and it is bound to occur again, to which he glazed over as a simple matter since he is confident with his combat experiences. But you did not explain how the incidents were settled. Xiao did not know that you have the capability to defend yourself, so obviously he reluctantly listened to them to protect you.

If they were to resort to hurting anyone, Xiao would rather have them hurt him instead if it meant they could spare you. He will never forgive them or himself if they even attempt to graze a single strand of your hair.

While worrying for your safety, he heard one of the men shouting a yelp, but it got cut off as his body fell, passing out cold on the ground.

The group huddled together, "Who's there?!" Their eyes darted around to search for the one responsible.

While they were bewildered, you jumped down from one of the containers at the warehouse, sending your knee flying directly towards one of the members to knock him down. In a kneeling position to pin the person below in place, you sent a swift strike to his neck, making him faint. As you stood up, the gang and also Xiao all looked at your abrupt appearance with wide eyes.

Glaring at the men in front of you, "Now, if any of you touched my boyfriend, one doctor visit wouldn't suffice." Without giving them any time to react or respond, your palm curled into a fist, dashing forward to begin taking them down one by one with your nimble feet.

Your calculative movements were sharp and precise, leaving no opening for your foes to attack. As the battle proceeded, your hair flowed gracefully behind along with your bold actions. Although Xiao was itching to help, he only managed to stare at you in awe, marveled by your bravery and poise stance that showed no weakness.

Before you both knew it, the fight ended with you emerging victorious.

You ran over to Xiao to free him immediately, "Oh archons! Xiao, are you okay?" Caressing his cheeks, you frantically inspected his face for any external injuries. Those men will face your wrath if they did anything to him.

Xiao was still processing what happened, his pupils fixed at you, lips parting, "That was really... amazing of you." He wanted to tell you that you looked so gorgeous that it made him breathless, but kept his mouth sealed after. For now, he enjoys the sensation of your hands that were used to unleash such fury now stroking his face so lovingly. It is also worth mentioning that Xiao has a new profound respect for your charming side that he never knew of.

ZHONGLI

Your boyfriend maintained a tranquil state of mind when he was kidnaped. Not portraying any signs of retaliation or profound panic, it even caused the group to be unnerved with how silent Zhongli behaved.

While held hostage, the head of the abduction blabbered about how they intend to lure you here, exploiting you through Zhongli's situation for some quick money grab.

Upon hearing that, Zhongli's eyebrows twitched in a displeased manner, "So you'd rather take advantage of someone for money instead of working for it? Don't you have any dignity left?"

"Obviously! If there's an easy way to earn money, who wouldn't want to partake? Someone as sheltered and rich as your girlfriend will never understand. Don't act like you never took money from her." They ridiculed his righteous morales by bringing you in the conversation, implying Zhongli only dated you for your status.

Zhongli leaned back against the chair with an inscrutable demeanor on his face. He knew that surely someone would point out the disparity in social status between you and him. But, if they thought he only valued your wealth and nothing else, then he will have to disappoint them.

"Oh, I'm very lucky to have a wealthy partner. Something you will never understand, yes? That's why you turn to disagreeable schemes such as this." Zhongli stalled time by making mindless talks with the leader.

Not appreciating Zhongli's remark, the leader raised his arm, ready to swing at full force to land a hit, except you obstructed him. Appearing out of thin air, you found your way towards Zhongli and held a tenacious grip on the man's arm from behind before he could potentially scar your boyfriend's precious face.

The group was alarmed by your arrival and the way you constrained their leader's strike. Applying even more force to twist his arm, you contorted his limb. It caused him to arch his back and bawled in pain as he attempted to wriggle his arm out of your grasp. In contrast, you reinforced your strength and kicked the back of his knees.

Once you let go, everyone watched him squirmed in agony on the ground with your grip leaving a red imprint on his arm. Turning your head towards Zhongli, you sent him a cheeky wink, "You're one lucky man indeed."

Now channeling your attention at the group, "Who's next?"

The group charged towards you, assertive that their strengths in numbers will have more odds in winning against you, a woman who stood alone.

Thus, to prove them wrong, not only did you beat their egos to pulps, but also the entire gang. Keeping a composed manner, your limbs carried your movement with great finesse and elegance. You dodged and blocked every incoming attack, never allowing them to get a clean hit on you. Your presence dominated the flow of the battle.

Eventually, only one victor is appointed, that victor being you.

You walked back to Zhongli to untie him. You placed your hand on your hip, huffing your chest to stand proud, "How was that? Not only is your girlfriend rich, but also powerful."

Zhongli nodded in agreement, softly patting your hair as he watched you with affectionate eyes, "That was a remarkable performance to remember down the road. Guess I have a lot of things to learn about you." Although Zhongli is fully competent to defend himself if things went wrong, he found it absolutely charming of you to protect him. You were reckless, but he acknowledges your ability to fight so gracefully.

#kaeya x reader #kaeya genshin impact #xiao x reader #xiao genshin impact #zhongli x reader #zhongli genshin impact #genshin impact x reader #genshin impact imagines #genshin impact headcanons

[masterthespianduchovny]

I’m going to be honest: I dislike Nate right now.

And that’s perfectly fine.

I understand that this show loves to redeem people, however, as I said in another post, you can only redeem someone if there are negative feelings and/or you believe that person wronged someone or whatever. If you have positive feelings and excuse what they did, what exactly are they being redeemed for?

Despite loving Rebecca’s character, when I rewatch season one, I don’t like her at times. I dislike a lot of what she did back then. It doesn’t matter that I know she tells the truth eventually, the stuff she did was still fucked up. I’m not going to preemptively excuse her actions because I know the end goal.

Take Jamie for instance, his behavior was not okay. We know why he behaves that way, but it still wasn’t justified. We are still allowed to dislike him and what he did then. We talk about the negative effects of the bullying Nate received from the players, yet some try to excuse Nate’s bullying and his actions?

Wrong is wrong. Jamie being verbally abused by his dad didn’t justify how he treated others just like how Nate’s father (and bullying by others) is emotionally abusive doesn’t justify Nate’s behavior.

Although we understand the context, Nate IS being a fucking backstabbing asshole right now. Some may hate to hear that, but this isn’t an unfair opinion or unflattering light of him. This is exactly how he’s behaving.

There are some who has a ton of sympathy for Nate, but I’m not one of them. Please believe, I do hold some sympathy for him, but I have a limit.

So here’s reasons why Nate is on my shitlist and I’ll wait until he’s actually redeemed to forgive him.

1. Calling Rebecca a shrew. It’s not the fact that he literally called Rebecca this, but that he immediately verbally attacked the woman. We can say, “oh no, she’s the owner so he had reasons to think…”

No, Nate literally attacked Rebecca for no reason at all. She had little to no interaction with him and has never disrespected or harmed him in anyway, yet he has these intense feelings of dislike in the moment based off what exactly?

Nate attacked Rebecca because she is a woman. If you disagree, what other reason it might be? The reason I believe it was due to her gender is because she’s been defanged so to speak. So he doesn’t fear her like he used to. But Nate also practices in casual misogyny ie his shoe remark to Rebecca and Keeley. That may not seem like a big thing, but how is that an involuntary response??? With him believing he got fired, he doesn’t wait for answers, he immediately attacks her. And I had to ask myself, would he have done this with a man? With someone like Rupert? No fucking way. Nate can’t even directly challenge Ted who is a ray of sunshine, but attacks someone who he literally ran away from in fear in the pilot. Although Nate respects power, he respects male power the most. He skipped over Ted and Beard and went straight towards Rebecca. The fact that this even happened has always been disturbing to me. And Nate is fucking lucky that he hasn’t said any of his comments to old Rebecca (not age, but personality. 🥺) because she would have fired him. Only due to her relationship with Ted and him getting to let her guard down and find her old self that she frowned and shrugged Nate’s comments off. Most bosses at the very least would’ve talked to Nate and he didn’t get even that.

2. Projecting his daddy issues onto Ted. I understand that nate is going through some tough shit and has been for literally decades, however, that doesn’t mean make someone your stand in dad because they were nice and kind. Ted treats Nate like he does the other coaches, but Nate wants a special and unique relationship that will never exist. Ted is not his father and he didn’t ask for the job or the responsibilities.

I understand that people go through shit and latch onto those who made the rough times easier. I get that. However, all this animosity, scheming, and resentment because Ted isn’t giving the attention he wants. That fucking unfair to Ted. He didn’t ask or sign up to be Nate’s father figure. Yet he’s being punished for not being something he never wanted to be. Never even thought about it.

And because I’ve seen/partially experienced this shit, people getting mad at you for not being who they projected onto, it makes me upset at Nate. Because people like this really do become resentful and manipulative and that is not okay despite their own hurt that they’re dealing with. Why does the person you projected on have to suffer for something they’re unaware of and have no obligation to fulfill?

Nate isn’t just trying to blow up Ted’s professional career, he’s doing it via one of the cruelest ways: using his mental health against him. Thereby exploiting Ted’s trust in him.

Ted has literally changed Nate’s life for the better and rather than have a man to man talk with him, he cowardly tries to sabotage Ted in one of the worst ways imaginable.

3. His cognitive dissonance about how coaching works!!!

This seriously irritates me because, on some level, Nate knows that the very system he’s criticizing is how it works across ALL team sports and with reason.

He wants to be a damn head coach soooo bad—does he think ideas, plans, plays, etc only comes from head coaches???

What does he think assistants are there for?

For those who aren’t familiar with sports and coaching, literally every team sport has a head coach and then assistants under them. These assistant typically specialize in a given thing.

In American football, I believe there are like defensive coaches, strength and conditioning coaches, etc. there are coaches who watch a lot of tapes to learn the opposition and how to make plays to hold them exploit their weakness and tailor plays around that.

Like on the professional level there are so many types of coaches and, hell, not all of them want to be head coaches. Some of the greatest coaching minds aren’t head coaches.

For example, the American basketball team the Chicago bulls fired their coach Doug Collins in like 1989, I think. He was a good coach, but one of his assistant coaches had a basketball IQ out of this world. Doug refused to listen to him, but management fully supported this assistant coach. Now the other assistant coach they were grooming to take over, Phil Jackson, if you’ve heard of him, DID listen to this basketball genius. So much so that when he became head coach after Doug was fired, he continued to implement The Triangle offense that came from this basketball genius, which Phil was known for until he retired.

Nate’s upset that Ted gets all the credit for if they win, he does realize that Ted also gets all the blame for if they lose. Ted has always highlighted his coaching staff and everyone who helped him. He has always stressed that he wouldn’t be where he is without them. And when he loses, he takes full ownership. He doesn’t pass the blame at all.

Does Nate seem like someone who’d take ownership for losing?

Does Nate seem like someone, at this moment, who’d appropriately give credit to assistant or anyone else who helped him?

Would he even listen?

What makes Ted a great coach is that he gives others opportunities to step up to the plate and if/when they succeed, he allows them to shine.

Ted sees the fuller picture, for the most part, and knows how to address his weaknesses and who’s stronger than him in what area. He realized that the team needed a presence like Roy on the team. He knew he needed someone like beard who could absorb insane amounts of knowledge. He saw that Nate had potential coaching ability.

But Nate doesn’t understand the importance or value of this. He also doesn’t understand how instrumental Ted’s philosophy has been in transforming the culture of the team. That this is also a reason why the team is playing better.

So like, yeah, I’ll forgive Nate when he’s redeemed. But these three things are what really irks me about him. Just because I understand why he is acting this way doesn’t mean I have to excuse it when he’s being a dick to others, complaining about shit only due to his ego, and doing fucked up shit like leaking someone’s mental health struggles so he can gain an advantage over them.

Does he think that if Ted leaves/gets fired that he’s getting the job??? I mean hopefully whatever he has going on with Rupert works out (before it inevitably goes wrong) because this isn’t going to turn out how he thinks it will.

#ted lasso #ted lasso spoilers #Nate Shelley #I wonder if Rupert is trying to get Richmond back and has some big master plan #I do not want that to happen of course #but what is he planning #probably trying to steal Nate away #and if that’s the case #good riddance #lol #Nate can come back once he calms down and gets himself together

[shihalyfie]

A guide to the 02 kids’ personalities and overall demeanors

I’ve already covered the deeper details of each 02 kid’s character arc and development throughout the series, but I figured I might dedicate a more specific post about the complexities of their outer personalities, and their behavior patterns on a day-to-day basis. 02 is the kind of series that doesn’t really spell out what the characters tend to do or don’t tend to do, or what boundaries they will and won’t cross, which means it can be a bit of a challenging task to track their behavior over fifty episodes and figure out the patterns. Fortunately, these characters are written remarkably consistently over said episodes, so we have a lot to work with!

Disclaimer before we continue: In general, all of my 02-based meta is specifically written for the Japanese version in mind, but this especially applies to this one, because the majority of the nuances of the demeanor and personality traits described below were not retained in the American English dub at all (please see this post for more detail). As a result, please understand that if you’re working from the perspective of having only seen that dub, and the contents of the below post sound completely different, that would be why.

Daisuke and V-mon

Believe it or not, I would say that Daisuke is actually the most difficult to nail the nuances of out of this entire cast. This is probably a really weird thing to hear when the usual fandom mantra is that he’s “flat” or “lacking in development”, but I think the deceptive part is that while he’s simple-minded and himself doesn’t think in complex terms, analyzing his behavior as a whole and how he approaches things actually involves a lot of very delicate balances, and getting that exactly right can be very easy to mess up. Daisuke’s not a rude jerk who looks down on anyone, not in the slightest -- but he’s also not a saint who can do no wrong, either!

I think the easiest analogy (which I’ve brought up several times on this blog already) is that Daisuke is like a puppy, but not just any puppy -- a tiny puppy that barks very loudly at anything it perceives as threatening (regardless of whether it’s actually threatening), makes its feelings very clear with obvious likes and dislikes, and can do some phenomenally stupid things in a bid to please others, but in the end means no malice and only wants you to be happy.

This is to the point where I’m just going to have to bullet-point this, because there’s so much going on at once:

Excessively emotional: One of Daisuke’s earliest profiles refers to him as having “an excessively large range of human emotions”, and really, a lot of the humor surrounding him has to do with the fact he has incredibly dramatic, overblown reactions to nearly everything around him. So if he gets a little annoyed or suspicious of people making fun of him, he tends to get really dramatic about being upset, and when he experiences only a minor setback, he acts like it’s the end of the world, and when he’s emotionally hurt, he sometimes even gets set on the verge of crying (you can especially hear this in Kiuchi Reiko’s delivery). Even Daisuke himself doesn’t tend to get caught up in it for too long and gets over things surprisingly quickly, so you can take it as him just constantly being too wrapped up in the mood -- but when it really is a serious situation, he gets truly emotionally invested in it, too.

Too easy to read: Because Daisuke wears his heart on his sleeve and is dramatic about everything, he’s awful at hiding anything. Any attempt at trickery or trying to disguise his intentions quickly blows up in his face because he’s too simple-minded and too transparent.

Not malicious: Daisuke only ever lashes out or gets angry at others when he thinks others are doing something he disapproves of, or when he thinks he’s being attacked; he’s very warm and kind to everyone otherwise (even in the earliest parts of the series, when he’s at his roughest, you might notice he’s very soft around Chibimon, as if understanding that his partner is now in a very small and delicate form and needs to be treated accordingly). In other words, Daisuke is very quick to get defensive, but he has no malice or reason to be condescending towards anyone otherwise, and he’s perfectly friendly with people even when they’d provoked him earlier (because he doesn’t really hold grudges). He doesn’t attack people without reason; even when he voices dissent against what someone is doing, he very rarely, if ever, insults a person or their character directly. Even when he’s trying to state his opinions (such as when he bids for the others to accept Ken), he never forces them down others’ throats and accepts that they disagree with him, even if he’s clearly not happy with their disagreement.

Easily critical and suspicious: Daisuke is a very bluntly straightforward and honest person, and he seems to get most set off by people who act suspicious; note how his early-series outbursts towards Takeru tend to be when Takeru’s acting evasive, and in Hurricane Touchdown, he catches onto Wallace’s shady behavior even before he starts flirting with Miyako (Daisuke’s own method of trying to seem attractive to others involves just “doing something cool and hoping it’ll impress others”, so he seems to dislike the concept of flirting as a whole). Because of that, he catches easily onto “things looking off”, so he tends to call it out (even if sometimes he’s overdoing it and there isn’t actually anything significant to be upset about).

Supportive and adoring of others: Other than the moments when he gets set off, fundamentally speaking, Daisuke likes other people, is perfectly willing to acknowledge them or heap praise on them when they do something awesome, and generally cares for their well-being. He’s easily defers to others when he understands they’re better than him at something, and he even has a decently realistic scope of his limits (see how he’s perfectly aware he’s likely to lose the soccer game in 02 episode 8, and figures he might as well enjoy the experience). This is even taken to its logical conclusion in the Kizuna drama CD when he “credits” his friends for giving him amazing and insightful advice when all of it was actually pretty ordinary stuff they’d done offhandedly. It also means that, given his penchant for getting emotionally invested in everything, he has a huge emotional stake in making sure his friends are doing okay, and supports them accordingly.

Deferential to seniors/elders: Tying into the above, you may notice that Daisuke takes a properly respectful and soft tone towards his elders and seniors in nearly all occasions, even to the point of occasionally using proper polite-form language around them. All things considered, Daisuke is a pretty well-behaved kid.

Constantly getting strung around: As much as Daisuke looks like he’s aggressive, in actuality, it’s very easy to get him to back down if you argue against him strongly enough, and since he has such a “the heck is that?!” attitude all of the time, you can see him constantly getting strung around and at the mercy of things happening around him. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t have enough will to put his foot down when it becomes a really important subject (especially in the second half of the series), but it’s very often when he’ll be talked down by others around him and shrink with an “oh...okay...” In fact, this is why a lot of his actions aren’t nearly as reckless as they might be otherwise; as much as he’s a bit hot-headed and likes to lead the attack, he also has a sense of self-preservation and intimidation when things look a bit too dangerous, and will only push forward in such a case when there’s something he really believes in at the other side of it.

Lacking in self-awareness and insecure as a result: While Daisuke doesn’t have any signs of persistent self-hatred (on the contrary, there are times he arguably comes off as overconfident), it also seems that he has practically zero awareness of how he himself is doing -- which means that he ends up rolling over like an idiot trying to get others’ approval and trying to impress them, even when it’d be clear to anyone else that he already has that approval. This also likely ties into the fact that he’s perfectly capable of acknowledging others’ accomplishments and skills (see above), so you might even think that the problem isn’t so much that he thinks he’s bad as much as he keeps comparing himself to people he perceives as being that much more awesome. (Perhaps symbolic of this, he apparently has a complex over being shorter than Takeru and Ken, despite the fact that he seems to be of perfectly average height for a kid his age.) It seems that his only bar for how he’s doing is dependent on everyone’s reactions around him, hence why his ridiculous antics are significantly less pronounced when he has proper emotional support and friends to keep him in check. It’s also important to consider that this applies to his apparent crush on Hikari as well; his crush mainly manifests in wanting her approval very badly, and it’s mostly visible in terms of him losing a ton of brain cells in her presence and bending over backwards to please her or impress her. He never actually says in words that he’s interested in her, nor does he ever show signs of intending to seriously ask her out, so it’s something that’s only apparent because of this behavior, and it’s very likely he hasn’t even seriously thought through what would happen if she actually accepted him in return. You can basically see this as an extreme version of the way Daisuke tries to get approval from everyone else, and this trait of his noticeably dies down whenever there’s more important things at hand, or when he seems to be in the midst of getting proper validation from those around him.

Simple-minded and pragmatic: What’s usually referred to as Daisuke being an “idiot” comes from the fact he doesn’t play well with complex thinking, tends to settle for very simple explanations or answers, and more thoughtful types like Ken or Iori will often have to fill that part in for him. However, because Daisuke is so simple-minded, he’s sometimes the most pragmatic person in the group, because he doesn’t overthink things or get principles of theory caught up into everything. So if Ken is clearly not showing any indication of doing bad things anymore and is actively working to help, Daisuke believes he should be allowed to help regardless of what he’d done in the past, and if they’re dealing with the situation of potentially having to kill a living enemy, Daisuke points out that hesitation would have resulted in even more casualties. In essence, in a situation where everyone’s running mental loop-de-loops, Daisuke will usually be the first one to snap them all out of it and go “uh? Guys?” Moreover, this trait of his makes him very good at spotting glaring threads or asking questions about the elephant in the room, because since he works best with things that are right in front of him, he can’t not notice it.

Enjoys the little things: Because Daisuke is so simple-minded, it’s very easy to please him (this is why his chosen career path is something as simple as ramen making). Daisuke likes his friends, and appreciates even simple things around him, so he’s happy with even simple pieces of happiness -- hence, why he’s fine with potentially losing the soccer game in 02 episode 8, because he’s ready to simply just savor the experience of getting to play against a respectable and formidable opponent.

Note that the main reason Daisuke never seems to bring up any of these issues with himself within the series proper is simply that he doesn’t seem to be aware of them -- he’s too simple-minded to understand what’s going on with his own behavior in depth, and hence, this is how he can say he’s not worried about too much by the time of 02′s finale, especially since by that point he has a proper support group that’s already helping him deal with most of his issues anyway.

Daisuke also has the roughest speech pattern out of any of the 02 group (similar to Taichi and Yamato in Adventure); he has a tendency to shorten words a lot and use “rough” variants of words (for example “-nee” instead of “-nai”).

Mischievous, friendly, and playful, V-mon is pointed out even by official sources to be much like his partner (far more so than usual), and it’s likely a byproduct of the fact that Daisuke himself is very honest and straightforward about his emotions and thoughts, and so since he has nothing to hide, V-mon is pretty much exactly like him -- with the major difference being that he’s a little more outwardly friendly and less likely to lash out angrily. So he’s effectively Daisuke without that very thin abrasive exterior, and because both of them are so like-minded and friendly, they get along extremely well (albeit with quite a bit of comfortable bantering on the way there).

Ken and Wormmon

Ken is the more intellectual type that Daisuke isn’t, and even after his stint as the Kaiser, it’s clear that he’s still quite studious and naturally interested in studying things. Looking closely at his style of dress and way of carrying himself (note how he lays down his chopsticks in 02 episode 36) indicates he’s also a rather tidy person in general. Being someone who’s capable of thinking things thoroughly, this makes him able to have a lot of deep insight into both intellectual and emotional issues, but because he takes things too seriously sometimes, he can sometimes come off as a bit overly stickler or insistent (note Daisuke and Ken’s Shopping Carol, where he subjects Daisuke to a long-winded lecture about the history of Christmas, because, really, he’s a nerd), or lead himself down the wrong direction when he’s having a hard time being straightforward (such as when he comes up with some very flimsy theories about why Jogress might be dangerous in 02 episode 28).

In fact, Ken’s disposition could be considered to be the opposite of Daisuke’s in many ways; while Ken is much softer and more conciliatory on the surface, he’s actually much more assertive and strong-willed by default, and it’s made clear that, even after his reformation from the Kaiser persona, he could still be vicious if he wanted to, he just doesn’t enjoy it because he doesn’t like it and it goes against his belief system (note that he even offered to "dirty his own hands" in lieu of the other kids if push came to shove and Archnemon had to be killed in 02 episode 29, even though he clearly wasn't enthusiastic about the idea). In fact, he has a very strong sense of responsibility and believes heavily in making up for what he’s done -- recall that 02 episodes 26 and 49 involved snapping him out of it by reminding him that there were things that needed to be done, and that he himself still had many things he wanted to do that wouldn’t be addressed if he’d stayed fixated on his past. Thus, Ken doesn’t deny nor avoid anything he’d done, and he isn’t even all that prone to self-pity -- it’s just that his tendency to put too much responsibility on himself means that he also takes a while to accept everyone’s support, too, because he doesn’t like the idea of putting burdens on others.

Because Ken is actually one of the more straightforward people in this group and a fairly honest person (at least, as long as he’s not lying to himself), he might hold himself back a little bit in order to not be rude, but he doesn’t do it nearly to the same degree Takeru or Hikari would and is much more willing to speak his mind when he has an opinion he wants to voice or needs to sort out his thoughts on something. Conversely, he’s not nearly as cold as Iori can get when criticizing things (he’ll certainly be firm, but not as incisive). Most post-02 materials also indicate that he’s not above being a tease or even a little mischievous (see Armor Evolution to the Unknown, Diablomon Strikes Back, Daisuke and Ken’s Shopping Carol).

Ken uses a speech pattern that’s slightly more casual than Takeru’s, but not nearly as rough as Daisuke’s. While anime will often have speech patterns substantially change between different personas of a character, other than Park Romi’s delivery of a more condescending tone for the Kaiser and a significantly softer one for Ken, nothing about his speech pattern is substantially different between the two personas (not even the first-person pronoun), indicating that, in the end, they’re really the same person after all, just manifesting the same personality traits in different ways.

Wormmon is affectionate and clingy, unfailingly loyal to Ken, and his biggest advocate during a time when Ken is trying to relearn how to love and accept himself -- meaning that he ends up very important to providing Ken the initial support he needed before Ken allowed other friends into his life. Wormmon isn’t all nothing but clinginess, though -- he has some insight about the weight of his experiences when prompted (02 episode 46), and in fact is more than capable of calling out Ken’s behavior when he’s being unreasonable or throwing himself into denial (see 02 episodes 27, 30, and 49).

Miyako and Hawkmon

Miyako approaches everything she likes with an attitude that makes her come off as constantly having bubbles and hearts around her. When she likes something, she says so. When she doesn’t like something, she says so (and she will go off when she’s on a roll; see 02 episode 14). In fact, part of the reason she so infamously voices her opinion on people being cute is, quite simply, that it’s her honest opinion. (Note that she never actually tries to ask them out or anything -- she just wants to make it very clear that they’re attractive.)

For the most part, she adores the people around her, and, like the others in the 02 group, she’s perfectly respectful towards elders.  She also loves poking her nose in others’ business and trying to be as helpful as possible, which is good in that she ends up being a huge help to others, but also not good in that sometimes she overdoes it a bit (when Hikari calls her out for being a “handful” in 02 episode 31, the word she uses is one that literally means "a little too overly involved in others' business").

Miyako is the one who gets everyone up in high spirits by being cheerful, and whose cheer rubs off on everyone else around her (see her cheerfully leading the charge into the Digital World with her “Digital Gate, open! Chosen Children, let’s roll!” catchphrase). This is something the rest of the group catches onto very quickly, asking her to supply the “usual cheer”, and the later episodes of the series especially drive home the fact that her presence and antics bring happiness to those around her.

Miyako has a similar “chaotic, sloppy, and straightforward” demeanor to Daisuke, but there are some key differences. Unlike Daisuke, who’s bluntly honest about his opinions mainly because he doesn’t really hide things in general, Miyako’s opinions will be out of her mouth before she can control it. In other words, she has a nasty case of foot-in-mouth syndrome. In addition, while Daisuke tends to have a very thin skin and lashes out defensively out of instinct, Miyako takes things much more at face value and doesn’t blow a fuse nearly as easily, but because she’s significantly more assertive and aggressive, she’s much more prone to doing what she wants on her own whims instead of backing down to anyone. In fact, Miyako is significantly more emotionally sensitive in the long run, so while Daisuke tends to blow a fuse more easily, he’s also able to shrug it off and move on more quickly, whereas Miyako has a thicker skin, but when she does take emotional pain, she takes it much more deeply and harshly. She also tends to get overwhelmed easily by stress and panic, which makes her one of the more prone to running around in circles and doing frantic things in the midst of it.

One thing you might notice about Miyako is that she’s actually more critical of herself than anyone else in the group is; most of the time they act with mild exasperation at her antics but don’t tend to criticize her directly, whereas Miyako is very aware of her own shortcomings and is constantly either criticizing herself or comparing herself negatively to others (see: 02 episodes 10, 14, 18, and 31 especially). If she slips up and does something that stepped on someone else’s toes, it doesn’t take her long to realize that she’s messed up and want to do better. So while she generally tends to act the most in-your-face and aggressive, she also doesn’t necessarily want to be this way, and suffers from self-confidence issues and a poor opinion of herself.

Miyako uses a feminine speech pattern that’s a bit more casual than Hikari’s (she noticeably is willing to use the word anta for “you”, which has a bit of a connotation of being abrupt and in-your-face, especially with Daisuke). She’s also the most likely to physically manhandle things, both in the affectionate (hugging people) and aggressive (grabbing things and jumping on them in order to attack) senses.

Hawkmon is repeatedly referred to as being like Miyako’s “knight”, since he has absolute loyalty to her (in spite of her ridiculous antics often meaning he gets strung around by her) and is effectively in charge of minding her so she doesn’t get too out of control. While his overly polite and gentlemanly demeanor initially seems like a sharp contrast to Miyako’s aggressive and messy personality, you might also notice that, at their cores, the two aren’t all that different -- both are unfailingly loyal to others, and both also have a penchant for dramatic theatrics and being a bit overly proud of themselves.

Iori and Armadimon

The key thing to know about Iori is that he’s not stoic because he’s not feeling fervent emotions, but rather because he’s constantly holding them back (this is especially apparent if you look carefully at his facial expressions and Urawa Megumi’s delivery, where you can tell his facade is often “slipping” even when his words would indicate otherwise). Since Iori is trying to live by the ideal of being a model citizen, especially under the very formal environment he was raised in, he comes off as mature for his age, but it’s very important to not forget that, underneath all that, he’s still an impressionable nine-year-old child with the wide range of emotions and immaturity of one, and when he does emotionally fall apart, everything tends to burst out (see 02 episodes 16, 44, 47, 50). In addition, Iori is never condescending about the fact he usually acts more mature than the others; the impression is that he’s much more strict with himself than he is with others, and in fact still does look up to his elders in the 02 group even when they’re obviously a lot messier than he is.

The “need to be a model citizen” is something looming over Iori’s head at almost every moment, and it’s the easiest way to understand the way he acts in a nutshell. Iori is focused on the idea of “becoming a proper adult”, which means that he’s adhering to all of these principles because he feels they’re necessary to live a proper and honest life as per the formal manners that his family background trained him into. But like a young child who insists “you have to do this because those are the rules!” all of the time, Iori is over-applying all of this, and even his own grandfather advises him that he really needs to chill (02 episodes 5, 24). In short, he struggles with thinking flexibly and understanding that life isn’t all that clear-cut, because he’s a young child. Since he also tends to bring out these things in relation to “what my father would do/say”, it’s implied that he’s basing all of this off of having only hearsay to work off of in regards to what his father was actually like, to the point of aspiring to an impossible, saintlike version of him he’d created in his head.

Note that Iori’s “rules” have less to do with institutional rules (that would be more of a Jou thing) and more to do with self-imposed personal rules; for instance, he doesn’t mind sneaking into school during a holiday when it’s obviously not hurting anyone (02 episode 6), but he struggles with things like wasting food (02 episode 3) or not formally introducing himself to an elder (02 episode 5). So in other words, his adherence to principles has heavily to do with “the right and proper way to live” more than anything, and what he believes is the right thing to do in a given situation.

Iori’s journey in 02 is largely fueled by the fact that, as an inheritor of sorts of the Crest of Knowledge, he has a sense of “I want to know and understand more” whenever he sees something that makes him curious, but unlike Koushirou’s desire to learn more about the world around him in terms of its technical workings, Iori mainly wants to know more about people. The reason he begins to let go of his inflexible mindset is that he has the humility to understand that he still has a lot more to learn and understand, and when he sees behavior from others that doesn’t make sense, he does his best to learn more about it -- hence how his aggressive probing into learning more about Takeru allows them to reach an understanding and eventual Jogress, and how he’s able to eventually reassess his own view of human morality and emotions.

Iori sticks out in that he almost always uses the formal variant of Japanese in most situations (nobody else in the 02 group does this). However, formal in this situation doesn’t necessarily mean polite; Iori doesn’t believe in flattery and will bluntly state his opinion in said formal tone, and will be very cold towards something he sufficiently disapproves of or doesn’t have any respect for, which can make him even come off as passive-aggressive at times. (Noticeably, while he still asserts his own opinion, he does refrain from criticizing the others in the 02 group too much, presumably because he respects and looks up to them a lot as his elders, regardless of how chaotic they can sometimes get.) In addition, because a lot of his demeanor comes from him restraining himself, when his emotions are sufficiently pushed over the edge, he loses grip on the polite form and starts “lapsing” back into the casual one.

Because Iori was so young during 02, and because the events of its story ended up really upending his view of the world, the huge eight-year gap between 02 and Kizuna makes it difficult to predict certain things about his demeanor at the time of Kizuna (especially since his own voice actor commented on the difficulty of conveying the nuances of Iori’s character, thanks to only being able to work with the limited time frame of a movie that doesn’t put him in the kinds of emotionally drastic situations that push him to his limit). That said, everything we’ve seen of him in the movie itself and the drama CD makes reasonable sense; now that he’s much older, he comes off as having much better restraint on his emotions and coming off as genuinely calm, but he’s still not one for flattery, and you can still see very minor slips in his facade every so often.

Armadimon also initially seems like a sharp contrast to Iori in terms of demeanor, in that he’s much more casual and laid-back, and he’s indeed a huge factor in reminding Iori to chill once in a while -- but, much like Iori, he prods and asks questions about anything he’s curious about. This initially seems to be out of simple-mindedness because, being a Digimon, he doesn’t understand human society that well, but his very basic questions often end up snapping Iori back to reality in realizing that he’s getting hung up on things that don’t actually make practical sense. Urawa also felt that Armadimon fills in some of the void that Iori’s late father left behind, in that he provides Iori with unconditional love and helps guide him.

Takeru and Patamon

Takeru is the kind of person who seems to dislike major disruptions to the status quo, so he doesn’t say anything inflammatory that’ll rock the boat. It’s very difficult to get him to talk about serious topics related to his deeper personal feelings (02 episode 17, 35, Spring 2003), and even when it’s clear he might have more misgivings on the situation, unless it’s an urgent situation where it needs to be brought up, he won’t voice his misgivings too clearly for the sake of not causing trouble (hence why Daisuke is so unsure what to make of him in the early episodes of the series, because Takeru constantly fails to clarify his own position in favor of a “good for you” or “sure, you keep believing that if you want” attitude). This also makes him the most likely to awkwardly change the subject or try to distract with small talk, and it means that, even when he’s saying cheerful, pleasant things, it’s very likely there’s pain or uncertainty under that initial facade. (Note that while his suspicions of Ken during 02 episodes 25 and 27 aren't nearly as vicious as Iori's turn out to be, we learn that he's still willing to quietly accuse Ken of working for his own self-satisfaction in the latter episode, but he never brings this up to anyone but himself.)

Because Takeru isn’t  necessarily doing this to be consciously dishonest, it does mean that he also has positive applications of this tendency to take everything in stride and keep the peace, because he ends up keeping the more extreme personalities in the rest of the group in line and acts as an effective mediator. You could say that he has a pretty high amount of tolerance and a capacity for taking everyone’s points of view in mind. However, since it’s also very difficult to tell what he himself is thinking, his use of this as a poor coping mechanism for his personal trauma leads to a tendency for him to suddenly explode in a mess of emotions whenever something gets too personal, leading to sudden conflict, and with others at a loss in terms of how to deal with him (the most extreme example being 02 episode 19, but also present in 13, 11, and 34). This “two-sidedness” is why it ends up having to be the more consciously methodical Iori who steps up to try and understand him better as his Jogress partner.

Fortunately, Takeru shows signs of becoming more straightforward in the aftermath, although you can see that he still has a penchant for mild flattery and “trying to hold back for the sake of not being rude” all the way up to Kizuna (but, again, this can’t be said to necessarily be a bad thing when it means he has a valuable skill as a mediator).

Takeru has a fairly neutral speech pattern that comes off as casual but not too aggressive or assertive (not as absurdly polite as Iori’s, but slightly less assertive than Ken’s).

Patamon initially still seems to be “immature” in the same way he was in Adventure, which initially seems to widen the gap in personality between him and Takeru, but looking closer reveals that the differences aren’t as big as they seem; Patamon seems to have gained a capability for slyness and active trolling behind his playfulness (see 02 episode 7), not entirely like Takeru starting to use his evasiveness in a teasing-like manner. Moreover, Patamon does actually seem to have gained a bit of proper maturity in the meantime; see how he instructs the Baby Digimon on convenience store food in 02 episode 3, and in general seems much more willing to take independent action in ways he didn’t always in Adventure. Noticeably, Takeru’s difficulty with his own convoluted feelings means that he can’t even have a proper heart-to-heart with him about it on the situation (most glaring in 02 episode 34, where it’s implied that Takeru would rather leave Patamon to be happy right now instead of bothering him about it), especially because he’s clearly having difficulty even working it out with himself. However, despite their ostensible differences in mentality, Takeru and Patamon have no difficulty getting along at all in 02, and, other than Takeru pampering Patamon a bit, there isn’t all that strong of an impression of them being so mismatched -- perhaps because, in the end, they really aren’t all that different.

Hikari and Tailmon

Taichi stated in Adventure episode 48 that Hikari has a problem where she's so selfless and thinking of others that she'll never speak up about her own problems. Hikari states in 02 episode 31 that she compulsively cannot speak out about her own feelings even if she wanted to, to the point she’s jealous of Miyako for being able to be more open (even if it means being overkill at times). As a result: if Hikari’s talking about “the right thing to do”, or something for everyone’s sake, or something that’s relevant to other people and what’s best for them, she will be extremely vocal and quick to act, and she’s not above even chipping in with criticisms (see: 02 episodes 19, 32, 44). In fact, she’s fully capable of being playful or toying with others if she really wants to (see how she casually manipulates Daisuke into calling a lunch break for everyone in 02 episode 6).

The moment the issue at hand is about herself, though -- her own feelings or pain, or something that might hurt others’ feelings (hence the presumable reason she dodges Daisuke’s affections rather than proactively doing anything about it), or something that would put a burden on others for her own sake -- she completely clams up and refuses to do or say anything, and when bad things start happening to her, she resigns herself to her own fate and concludes she can’t do anything about it. Hence, why she takes such a defeatist attitude towards the Dark Ocean swallowing her up in 02 episodes 13 and 31, and why it’s such a big deal if she even so much as asks for help. 02 episode 31 indicates that Miyako reaching out to her is an important step in breaking her out of her shell, and the Kizuna drama CD -- which has Hikari assertively declare something she personally wants -- heavily implies further that Miyako was instrumental to this becoming possible.

Hikari is compassionate for others to the very end, expresses pity for BlackWarGreymon as early as 02 episode 31, and catches on quickly to Ken’s feelings on himself in 02 episode 37 (and even back when she’d been more skeptical about him in 02 episode 25, she never seemed to have real personal distaste against him as much as she still wanted to make sure he was trustworthy first). But although she’s one of the most compassionate in the group, she’s also one of the most assertive in the group. This leads to something that initially seems like a paradox: she’s actually more fervent about the need to fight than the more aggressive Miyako is. Miyako is, ultimately, emotionally caught up in everything and briefly falls apart at having killed LadyDevimon in 02 episode 44 (even despite knowing how horrible of a person she’d been), but Hikari is the one who points out that there would have been more victims if they hadn’t. 02 episodes 25 and 43 had made it abundantly clear that Hikari didn’t like it at all, but she states in 02 episode 37 repeatedly that they need to prevent there from being victims -- meaning that she values the importance of protecting all lives, including those who would be hurt in the process, and thus has some of the more resilient guts when it comes to the prospect of fighting to save others. Again, her hesitation only comes into play at its worst when it has to do with herself; working to save others is a no-brainer.

Hikari uses a casual feminine speech pattern that’s less in-your-face than Miyako’s, but she’s still a bit more casual than she was in Adventure, when she used the more polite watashi instead of atashi. Interestingly, Tailmon herself seems to have mirrored this as well, presumably because now that she’s had more time to recover from her miserable life under Vamdemon, she’s able to enjoy her life a bit more freely. This means that, while Tailmon is still the most mature and put-together of the Digimon partners in the 02 group, she sometimes acts a little more casual and playful in a similar way to Hikari, and while she has a certain degree of stuffy personal pride (see how she wasn’t very amused at how frivolously the other Digimon were playing around in 02 episode 3), she’s still open to enjoying herself a little more freely. Hikari, for her part, becomes surprisingly like-minded with her during those times -- see them in 02 episode 12 -- and, as stated earlier, it’s not like Hikari isn’t up for making tough decisions when they’re needed, either.

#digimon #digimon adventure 02 #digimon adventure last evolution kizuna #shihameta

[sockablock]

(TW for panic attacks and discussions about trauma)

— — —

The thing is, Beau's friends are shit fighters.

To be clear—she's not saying that they're bad at fighting, gods know Veth's a force of nature with her crossbow and all of the spell-slingers can kill with a word—it's just that when it comes to fighting, actual fighting, that down-and-dirty fist-on-flesh shit, her friends suck. Most of 'em just run, or they’d sweet-talk a surrender, or go back to slinging spells.

Beau would never admit she misses the Soul, but at least those people knew how to block. At least Dairon would make her work for it, wouldn't tell her to please, gods, Beau, stop punching me, I give!

Fjord's better these days, but not good enough.

Which is why, on their third morning back in Nicodranas, when Beau opens the door to see Yasha looking restless, she knows exactly what's up.

"Should I get my staff?"

Yasha shrugs. She usually does.

"I'll grab it. Down in five."

Beau considers grabbing some toast too, but she remembers how antsy Yasha seemed and figures she should try to avoid puking in Marion’s yard.

Yasha is stretching when she gets there. The gate swings behind her with a gentle clunk, and she kicks her shoes off, curls her toes in the grass. The sun is barely broken above rooftops and towers, and the first chime of church bells ring out overhead.

Beau yawns a little, but it’s just for flavor. Mind games. She’s not actually sleepy.

“We do not have to—” 

She quickly waves her hand. “It’ll wake me up. You know, get the blood pumping.”

Yasha smiles a little at that. It’s always such a small one, but it’s getting to be familiar.

“I got up early. I couldn’t sleep. Er...sorry.”

Beau doubles her effort to be dismissive. “Don’t apologize to me, Yasha. C’mon. You think I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t want to?”

This seems to be a winning argument. Yasha nods, like she can’t imagine Beau doing anything she doesn’t want.

Maybe it’s the crisp ocean breeze, maybe it’s the way they circle each other in the yard. Maybe it’s the fresh brush of gauze on her fists.

Beau wants to win.

She dives in, pulls low, uses her quick movement to catch Yasha off-guard and get in as closely as she can. Yasha’s tall, broad, strong as an ox, and even holding back, she could wind Beau with a punch. She presses even closer, limiting Yasha’s motions, sweeps out a leg and cuts up when Yasha moves. The two of them duck and weave and push, neither allowing the other an inch, fists flying, blows being blocked and sweat beginning to pour down their backs. Beau lands a hit that leaves Yasha grunting, then stumbles when a wild haymaker knocks her back. It’s clear that Yasha was never taught any form, just scraped it all together by surviving on the moors and her chaotic movement, high endurance, and reckless confidence just make her deadlier.

Beau tries to close in again, but a lucky kick forces her a pace too far. Her knuckles are bruising in that numb, seething way, and so she darts to the side, grabs her staff, vaults up and then arcs her foot to Yasha’s face—

The dance starts again, this time hardwood hitting forearms and on anyone else, Beau might even feel guilty about it. But Yasha barely seems to register the thwack, her teeth bared in a sideways grin, her eyes hard and excited and alive. Beau’s probably wearing the same expression. She hears herself laughing, and knows that she is. Up-swing, down-swing, slide left, throw a punch, block one, dart back, duck and then—

Yasha’s fist catches her right in the gut, sends Beau lurching flat into the dirt. She chokes her own breath, coughs up dust, barely gets an elbow up with Yasha leaning over her, blotting out the sun, raising Beau’s staff for a finishing strike—

Halts.

It’s like watching a tower fall. Yasha staggers back. She drops the staff. She lifts her hands and stares at her palms and Beau hears a mangled breath. Her knees give. She collapses on herself.

Beau scrambles up, aching limbs forgotten.

“Yasha?” she says. “Yasha? Are you—is—what’s wrong?”

Yasha sucks in more air, but that just seems to make things worse. Her shoulders tremble and her lungs sound ragged.

“Aw, shit,” says Beau, “I mean—fuck—uh—”

She half-runs, half-crawls, ‘til she’s at Yasha’s side. She wants to put her hand on Yasha’s arm, thinks better of it, panics a little more. She wishes she were Jester. She wishes she were Cad. They’d know what to do, they’d be better at this than her, anyone, hell, Marius would be better at this than her—

But it’s her, and everyone’s still in the house, so she shakes her head and stamps the fear down. 

“Yasha, I...aw, fuck, I’m—I’m here, it’s okay, nothing’s wrong—” clearly something is wrong, idiot, “—I mean, um, you’re safe here, okay? It’ll be alright. I’m here, and I’ll stay if that’s what you want, okay? I won’t go anywhere, if you don’t want. Uh...can you shake your head if you want me to go? Is that...possible, can you—”

A frantic shake.

“Oh good, okay, thank fuck, then I’m here. I’m right here, Yash. I’m not going anywhere.” She tries to pitch her voice calm, takes deep, long breaths, and continues to murmur as reassuringly as she can until after...seconds? Minutes? Yasha’s trembling slows. 

There’s a pause. Yasha inhales and lets it go. It’s shaky, but apparently good enough because finally, eventually, she turns and looks back at Beau.

“I’m...okay. I am okay.”

Beau sinks back into the grass. Then she lies down. “Oh, cool. I’m, uh, glad.”

“I’m so—”

She holds up a hand. “Nope. C’mon.” She pats the ground beside her.

“Er...what?”

She pats it again, emphatic. “Lie down. C’mon. I think we’ve earned a break.”

She stares up at the sky while Yasha shifts around, and eventually there’s a gentle thud as she lies down. Seagulls cry in the distance and clouds drift slowly past their heads.

Beau swears, but mentally. A private thing.

“So, uh...do we...want to talk about it, or...?”

Yasha is quiet for a moment. That’s not surprising. Then:

“It...reminded me of when I killed you.”

“What? Oh—” 

“Almost killed you,” Yasha amended. “Both times.”

“Right,” says Beau. “That’s...right.”

She thinks about saying—almost. You only almost killed me, so really it’s fine. There’s nothing to worry about. And you kill people all the time anyway, right?

She blinks. “Wait, you kill people all the time, Yasha. Is it always that bad? Shit, does it always...does it always make you feel like this? Only...I don’t think I’ve ever seen you...break like that...”

She regrets the words immediately. Stupid, Beau, that’s a stupid thing to say. 

But Yasha answers the question earnestly. “It’s usually different,” she says to the sky. “It usually...doesn’t matter. Er...no, not that it doesn’t matter, it just...”

“Doesn’t matter,” Beau sighs. “No, I...sort of get it. Man, that might be fucked up. Of us.”

Yasha shrugs, which rustles the grass. “It’s how it has always been for me. That is just what life is like.”

“I’m sure Jester would disagree.”

“Jester is...nice. I am not. I...have hurt a lot of people. And not just people who were fighting me, or trying to hurt me, but people who were innocent, who did not need not to be hurt, people who care about me, and, and people who I...”

She trails off. Beau can’t see her face, but right now, selfishly, she is glad for it. She feels anger bubbling up in her stomach.

“You were being controlled,” she says fiercely. “You didn’t do it. Someone made you do it.”

“But...part of that...part of it was still me. Since...since you all freed me, I...I remember parts of it. I remember doing it. Those were my hands.” 

Beau can practically hear Yasha’s fist tighten. She definitely feels it when Yasha hits the ground.

“If I was better, or if I was stronger, if I had broken free faster, none of that would have happened, I could have stopped him sooner—”

This time, Beau doesn’t hold back. They’re lying down, so it’s incredibly awkward, but the first thing she can think of is to grab Yasha’s hand.

She sits up, and waves it over Yasha’s face.

“But you didn’t,” she says, then falters, then wants to smack herself. “Fuck, no, that’s not what I mean. What I mean is...” Then she stops. “No, you know what? Fuck it. You didn’t break out faster. And that’s because it was a miracle you managed it in the first place. Yasha, you were being controlled by a devil. You were being controlled by the Chained Oblivion. The fact that you were even a person the first time we met—and you were a person, you were funny, you charged me money to, to, well, you charged me five gold, remember that?”

Yasha blinks. Her wrist is slack in Beau’s grip.

“I...do, yes, I remember that.”

“Right. The fact that you were a person then meant that they couldn’t keep their claws in you. Because you were strong. You were better. Better than everything they tried to make you. You kept breaking free.”

Yasha does not try to squirm away, only stays there.

“But...I needed help every time that I did escape. I never managed it on my own. First it was...it was Kord, and then you all—”

“Of course!” Beau throws her other arm into the air. “Who the fuck could do it on their own?! All that means is that when you had a chance, the second you had a chance, you were outta there. In your heart, you knew what was right. You knew it, and held onto it, even when I’m sure it would’ve been so easy to stay there, to stay in that hell and just go through the motions and lose yourself in...in grief, and loss and...and all that. But you didn’t. And now look at you.”

She cracks a goofy smile, all desperation to make what she’s trying to say heard.

“You’re an angel, Yasha. Remember?”

Yasha slowly sits up too. Her hair cascades down her shoulders, black turning white, with little blades of grass.

Beau is made painfully aware of the fact that she’s still holding Yasha’s hand. She lets go. Then she swears again, and hopes that Yasha doesn’t think it’s because of anything s—

“I am, aren’t I?”

Her gaze shoots up and Yasha's wearing a goofy smile too. Small, a bit nervous, but real and warm.

It’s getting to be familiar.

Beau snorts. She snorts so loud that it might dislodge something in her chest. She hits Yasha gently on the arm.

“Yeah, yeah, don’t, uh, don’t let it go to your head.”

She can see Yasha nodding in the corner of her eye.

“Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it.” Then, after a brief battle over whether or not to bring it up, “I don’t...I don’t...for the record, I’m not mad about you stabbing me. Or whatever.”

Yasha looks stricken, and Beau regrets it instantly. “Shit, should I not have reminded you of—”

“No,” Yasha sighs, and her face softens. “No. I am...glad that you are not mad at me.”

“Should we, like...go to a cleric about this?” Beau asks. “Is this going to be something that happens in, like...fights? Because if it does, it might put you in danger. Also, it’s...it probably sucks for you. Right?”

Fjord would probably have something to say about the way she’s handling this conversation. He’s not here now.

“I...don’t know,” Yasha says eventually. “It hasn’t happened before. It was only...just now. And...just with you. It...hurting you reminded me of being controlled. It...brought me back to all the times that my mind was not my own.”

“I’m sorry,” Beau says, because she’s not sure what else to say.

“No,” says Yasha. Beau looks up, surprised by the weight in her words. “If I am not allowed to be sorry to you, you cannot be sorry to me.”

“Ah,” says Beau. She feels a grin pulling. “In that case...I’m not sorry.”

Yasha nods, like this is sacred, and Beau can’t help but snort again. 

“C’mon,” she says. “We can...work this shit out later. Or start to. With a cleric if you want, or not, if you don’t. But I just got my ass kicked, and I’m thirsty. What do you say to some drinks? I think there’s juice. Do you like juice?”

She stands up, and sticks out a hand. 

Yasha takes it.

“Okay. I like juice.”

— — — 

✨ Ko-Fi Link in Bio! ✨ | Requests are OPEN

#critical role #critrole #critfic #beauyasha #fic #fanfic #long post #I REALLY HOPE YOU LIKED THIS AND THAT IT IS HANDLED TASTEFULLY #yasha's just been through a lot and hjsdkg #cr2 #fanfiction #jay writes #beauregard lionett #yasha #tw panic attack #tw trauma #tw ptsd #tw flashbacks #thank you for reading gang <3 #text

[your-brilliant-lady-m]

Part 2 - Basic Concepts of Miraculous Ladybug: Kwami

Kwamis are a fun concept and one of the main draws of the series. They make sense story-wise because, firstly, our characters need some support system. And since a lot of conflicts are centred around secret identities, characters should be able to discuss their double life with someone. As magical beings they could also be used to expand the lore, introduce new concepts and drive forward both the plot and character development. It doesn't always happen but Kwamis are a good idea. Some people who write AU's think that Kwamis are redundant, but I have to disagree.

Origins and nature

Where do Kwamis come from? What are they? It's never explained. Oh wait, it was explained in a comic people can accidentally find. You decide to explain the origins and nature of magical beings who are one of the key elements in your magic system and worldbuilding IN A SIDE COMIC, which has zero effect on your main story. Sounds legit.

Here it is.

So, Kwamis are abstract creatures. They can become tangible and interact with the world because of the miraculous jewels. Essentially, each Miraculous acts as an anchor to the material world for Kwami. They existed since the beginning of time and were invisible observers of the universe. Until they settled on Earth and observed how humanity came to be. This is where things get interesting.

Kwamis are the embodiment of abstract concepts. But, some abstract concepts were created by people (like everything mentioned in the comic: beauty, math, love, etc).

Kwamis wanted to help humans. And then, a human, who couldn't see, hear or touch a Kwami creates miraculous jewels. And now these beings can interact with the world, use their powers and grant them to humans. Yet, they are completely under control of their holder. I'll discuss it later, but why did Kwamis accept this deal? They are practically enslaved. At the same time they care about people and generally love humanity.

According to the wiki Kwamis grant powers because of "the privilege of having the ability to be perceived by mortals". What? Did I read that right? Kwamis agreed to be enslaved and used as a power source, because they wanted to interact with material world. That's it, guys, end of the story.

We also know these things about nature and abilities of Kwamis from the show:

1) need food, but only to provide the power for the holder;

2) can't phase through precious metals (Chloe's bracelet in "Rogercop"), their own miraculous and humans;

3) they can control if they phase through things or not – meaning that if they want to, they can (this way Tikki can stay in Marinette’s purse without much trouble and Plagg sleeps on Adrien’s pillow);

4) they can perform magic without a holder but they don’t control it very well, there are certain types of things that they can’t do without a holder;

5) they are immortal but can get sick for some reason, a non-magical reason mind you;

6) technology can't detect them in any way, you can't film, photograph or record their voices (writers establish this many times, but promptly forget all about their own rules in "Optigami", where Marinette talks with Kwamis over the phone without any problems).

If I missed something important, then let me know.

Look, the questions related to origins and motivations of Kwamis might not be very prominent in your story right now, but you must answer them in case you might need to involve these facts in the plot down the line. It's important to avoid contradictions in the serialised story with liquid plot, that can't be set in stone. It's a made up world for the sake of everything sacred! You can make up explanations and rules, of course as long as they don't contradict common sense.

Plausible ideas for origins and nature of Kwamis:

1) Kwamis are immortal spirits, whom humans accidentally summoned and bound with spells to Miraculous stones. They remember their existence before this. This version doesn't really explain their desire to serve people and love for humanity, however. It would be more logical for Kwamis to resent people for enslaving them. It doesn't explain how humans could create those spells and Miraculous stones either.

2) Kwamis are physical manifestations of abstract concepts who existed simply as fragments of matter for a very long time without sentience, until they were accidentally summoned through the Miraculous stones and bound by humans to serve them. Kwamis do not remember their existence before Miraculous. In this version Kwamis serve humans and love them because they have never known a different kind of existence. Unfortunately, it doesn't provide any explanation on the creation of Miraculous and spells.

3) Kwamis are gods, who created the universe with all its elements and concepts including humanity (similar to Valar and Maiar in Tolkien's Legendarium). They wanted to help their creations but discovered that their power was too wild and unpredictable for that. So, Kwamis decided to give up their free will and magical independence to help humanity. Together they created Miraculous stones for humans to use and sealed themselves inside. Kwamis as gods were abstract concepts, who didn't have a body. The act of sealing their power in the Miraculous gave them an opportunity to interact with outside world (an anchor) and each Kwami chose an small animal form (because humans easily formed bonds with animals, had animal companions (pets), small animals look non-threatening and familiar). Kwamis intentionally choose certain animal forms to suit the human symbolism. Humans later used magic that Kwamis discovered for them to place spells upon small gods (spells related to identity protection and so on). This version answers most questions, but if Kwamis are gods then powers they grant to people seem to be rather small.

Feel free to add more. I would be interested to hear your ideas.

Identity Protection

In "Origins" we learn that Wayzz can sense the aura of Butterfly Miraculous, a negative aura of activated Butterfly Miraculous, to be more precise. And yet, Tikki and Plagg are genuinely surprised to discover the identities of their holders in "Dark Owl". There are several things wrong with that.

Can Kwamis sense each other's presence? They shouldn't be able to do this to protect the identities of their holders. On the other hand, they are ancient spirits. So, their inability to sense each other seems weird. Unless it's the same situation as with the spell that does not allow them to speak the name of their holder aloud.

But if they can sense each other like Wayzz did, then it means that Plagg and Nooroo were living in the same house for over a year and nothing happened. I mean, Plagg could have just come upstairs, take off the brooch from Gabriel, while he is asleep and return it back to Fu.

This question lies right here, on the surface. And that's only one massive and very obvious plothole. How to fix it? Establish that Kwami can't sense each other for identity protection. In "Origins" Fu meditates on his balcony and Wayzz sees a charged Akuma flying by. That's how they discover that Butterfly is in Paris and the Miraculous is in the wrong hands. Perhaps, Gabriel akumatizes someone for the first time to survey the surroundings and general public is not aware of this. This works better in the narrative, giving Fu time to select holders for Ladybug and Black Cat. It also establishes whether Hawkmoth can remove the Akuma from someone without Ladybug and discharge it. Maybe it depends on the circumstances (sometimes he can, but if this person was akumatized many times or their emotions are too strong and their mind doesn't want to let Akuma go then Hawkmoth can't pull the butterfly out with his magic). This scenario allows for Volpina to happen on "Heroes' Day". Silly recurring Akumas like Gigantitan and Mr. Pigeon could still happen. In this case Gabriel didn't want to akumatize the guy more than 70 times on purpose. It just keeps happening against his better judgement because evil butterflies are automatically attracted to Mr. Ramier. This way repeated attacks of Mr. Pigeon annoy Hawkmoth just as much as they do the heroic duo of Paris (I did not sign up for this Nathalie!).

Let's come back to the spell mentioned earlier for a moment. Kwamis can't say the name of their current holder out loud, but apparently, they can exploit a loophole in the spell by confirming the identity of their holder in another way. The spell doesn't work with other holders. Kwami can say the names of other holders if they know their identity. That being said, can the holder order the Kwami to tell them the identities of other heroes if they know them?

Kwamis know how each Miraculous looks with or without camouflage. Can the holder order the Kwami to tell them how each Miraculous looks in disguise (I liked that Grimoire doesn't have pictures of camouflage for identity protection)? Guardians can recognise Miraculous in any mode (Su Han). Did Fu teach Marinette this? Does she know how each Miraculous looks like unactivated?

Oh! Since we are discussing camouflage, let's take a moment to appreciate the Mother Of All Plotholes. Plagg didn't recognise Peacock because of the plot.

Relationship with Holder

I absolutely loved the idea that Kwamis must obey their holder introduced in "Sandboy". This concept opens tons of plot opportunities. It's such a great idea that makes sense, has potential, can create conflict. Why, oh, why didn't writers develop it more?

Like, it was so good. It can be a great push for character development. This concept resolves so many existing inconsistencies within the plot. It's mind-blowing.

Why can't Nooroo simply leave Gabriel, so that he wouldn't be able to transform? Because Gabriel bound him with Miraculous to always stay near.

In "Sandboy" Tikki asks Marinette's permission before going to the meeting. Plagg lies to Adrien instead. This implies that usually Plagg's holders weren't kind to him or feared his power (Su Han's remark in "Furious Fu"). Perhaps, his holders were taught to keep the Kwami of destruction under constant control. So, Plagg in turn has learned not to ask, because if he doesn't ask permission then his holder can't deny him freedom with magic.

Can Kwami lie to their holder? Maybe they can't lie to their holder about their nature, origins and powers and other Miraculous (but Kwamis can't reveal the location of Miracle Box, Guardian's identity and can't confirm identities of other holders known to them in any way). Kwami would be forced to speak even if they don't want to. That's why Nooroo told Gabriel everything about the abilities of the Butterfly Miraculous and the wish secret of Ladybug and Black Cat.

But Kwamis can lie to their holder according to Plagg in "Sandboy". If Kwamis can lie about everything (including powers) then Nooroo didn't have any reason to be honest with Gabriel way back in "Origins".

Speaking of Gabriel and Nooroo. Can Kwamis harm their holder? Maybe doing so would harm the Kwami as well. Can they do it only when the holder is not wearing the Miraculous? Can Kwami take their Miraculous from their holder? Will they disappear if they try to do so? It seems like Kwami disappears only when the holder takes off the Miraculous with the intention of renouncing power, the words "I renounce you" are not necessary.

Other Kwamis can take the Miraculous from people if it's not their own (Wayzz in "Feast"). But what if it wasn't possible. Imagine what could happen if it's not possible to take the Miraculous by force from the transformed or untransformed hero. Just like Lady WiFi couldn't remove Ladybug's mask. A person has to willingly give up the Miraculous. Only in this case, it's possible to take it. For example, somewhere around the middle of season 3 Hawkmoth could have trapped Ladybug and Chat Noir and cut off any escape routes. His Akuma tries to take both Miraculous, but they don't budge. Then afterwards, every Akuma tries to manipulate the heroes using hostages, illusions or mind control. It's hard to say whether this version will be better than canon, but it's a fascinating theory.

You can use the idea of obedience to create more situations contrasting the relationship of Plagg and Adrien, Gabriel and Nooroo. I liked how canon created a storyline about Plagg learning to control his powers without a holder and Adrien helping him. However, why would you stop here? Give us some flashbacks about Plagg's previous holders, tell us what kind of people they were. Expand the lore and add some character development for Plagg and Adrien. The same thing goes for Marinette. What kind of battles did they have in the past? What kind of people past holders were? Did Ladybug and Black Cat heroes always get along well? Were they allies or enemies? Were they always lovers?

Give us more information about Butterfly and Peacock holders. Perhaps Nooroo has dreams about his past holders who were good people. Show us what kind of things a Butterfly holder with good intentions can do. Tell us more about Duusu and her past holders, sprinkle in a few bits of info about Emilie and Duusu's relationship, just a few vague hints to preserve the mystery. You have a lot of screentime each season and instead of doing filler episodes dedicated to love drama, you can use them for developing minor characters, relationships between them and lore.

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