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chronicfandombrain · 2 years

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Byler vs Destiel (Why I have hope for canon Byler after getting baited by Destiel)

Why compare Byler and Destiel at all?

So, the first thing you’re probably wondering about is why the heck I’m writing this meta in the first place. Stranger Things and Supernatural are wildly different shows, aren’t they? Well, yes, yes they are. However, there are some key similarities that I’ve noticed surrounding Destiel and Byler now that ST season 4 has come out and Byler has gotten big. I thought it would be interesting to explain my reasoning in continuing to hope for canon Byler despite having been thoroughly let down by Spn in regards to Destiel.

2. First things first: a quick rundown of Destiel.

If you’ve watched spn you can skip this part. I’m assuming most Bylers have not watched Spn because Stranger Things is a widely popular and acclaimed show while Spn is… well, let’s say more of a cult classic with a niche audience. Supernatural is a Monster of the Week show created by Eric Kripke, which originally began airing all the way back in 2005 (I was 2 yrs old.. gotdamn) and ran for 15 seasons total, ending in 2020. Destiel is the wildly popular ship of repressed bisexual monster hunter Dean Winchester and gay angel Castiel. If you were on Tumblr anytime around November 5th of 2020 you probably remember Spn fans freaking the hell out and filling everyone’s dash with memes, and you have probably received some sort of important news about world events in this delightful format.

This was a result of the airing of Season 15 Episode 18, aptly titled Despair, in which Cas confessed his love for Dean and then immediately fricken died, never again to be seen on screen. Many fans (myself included) were hopeful that Cas would come back in the finale and Dean would reciprocate the confession. That… did not happen. Instead Dean got impaled on a giant nail and died, without his love for Cas ever being confirmed. Without even his bisexuality ever being confirmed (despite bi Dean having been hinted at before Cas even joined the show). Fans were understandably upset about this.

3. Okay, so, what are these aforementioned similarities between Destiel and Byler?

There are some obvious ones, like Spn and ST both being monster shows, but mostly I’ve noticed some Dean & Mike parallels, Will & Cas parallels, and parallels in the ways the ship is perceived by fans. To be clear, I don't think these parallels are intentional on the part of the Duffers, but I think they're worth examining anyway. I’m going to start with Dean and Mike, because that’s where I feel some of the similarities are the strongest. In the interest of comparison, I’m going to look at this through the lens of bi Mike, although obviously gay Mike is a valid interpretation with a good amount of evidence as well (see the byler google slides). Some strong arguments for Destiel and Byler on the sides of Dean and Mike are their reactions when their best friends are in danger, missing, or dead/presumed dead.

(Dean looking for Cas after he goes missing in purgatory)

Okay, I can't find any gifs for this one which is criminal tbh, but just pretend you're looking at a bunch of gifs of season 1 Mike telling everyone over and over that they need to look for Will/find Will.

(Dean falling to his knees after Cas dies in front of him)

(Mike when they pull the fake Will out of the quarry)

(Dean tells Cas he needs him while Cas is being controlled by heaven and forced to attack Dean, this breaks Cas out of his brainwashing)

(Mike tells Will asking him to be his best friend is the best thing he's ever done, interrupting Will's possession enough that he can get a message out)

(Dean reuniting with Cas after he goes missing in purgatory)

(Mike reuniting with Will after he goes missing in S1)

Seeing some similarities? The deeply repressed bi character who only expresses how important their friend is to them when something terrible is happening or has happened? Also, frustratingly, when said friend is possessed or missing and can't hear them. (Yes, both Cas and Will have been possessed and then brought to their senses by a coded love confession from the other half of their respective ships…)

Beyond that, much of the speculation around Mike and Dean by fans comes from body language, specifically micro-expressions and lip-glances.

(This one's a destiel classic)

(the tension is so bad in this one that it's lowkey uncomfortable to look at)

(the infamous triple take)

Mike and Dean are also the characters who are more widely perceived as straight by the general audience, with hints to their bisexuality (or possibly homosexuality in Mike’s case) being subtle enough that you only really catch them if you’re looking for it.

(ah, bi lighting.)

(the one way sign pointing to the closet in Mike's room)

(Dean panics in bisexual)

(okay Mike no one said you weren't....)

Let’s move on to Cas and Will. These are characters who are canonically gay (or bi maybe for Cas?? Idk they’re pretty unclear about it in the show! Most people say gay so I’m going with that for this post) and canonically in love with their best friends. These are the characters who are more obvious to the GA, and are often painted in a light of unrequited love. Their love is also shown in a more narrative way, mostly through intentional writing choices rather than through body language and things that could be chalked up to acting choices. Cas’s love for Dean comes through very clearly in his character arcs, as he betrays heaven for him (multiple times) and allies with their enemies in an attempt to protect him (multiple times) and sacrifices himself for him (multiple times).

(The angel Metatron taunting Cas)

(Cas leaves Dean in purgatory to protect him)

(Cas sacrificing himself to the Empty (superhell) to save Dean. Yes the Empty looks like black goo and not a tunnel of fire.)

Will’s character arc in season 4 is pretty much entirely about his feelings for Mike, and specifically him, you could say, sacrificing his feelings for Mike in order to make Mike happy by keeping him and El together.

(pain)

The natural conclusion that you would come to for the narrative arcs of both of these characters, suffering in supposed unrequited love, is a resolution in which their love is returned. However, this didn’t happen in Supernatural. So why do I think it will happen in Stranger Things?

Looking at all of these similarities felt disheartening to me at first. I only got into the Byler after the end of season 4, and I was almost immediately struck by how familiar the situation felt to me. It was incredibly reminiscent of being a Supernatural fan during the airing of Season 15: reading meta after meta filled with evidence for a Destiel endgame, everyone hyped up and so convinced it would go canon, people jokingly calling themselves delusional for expecting the natural resolution of a story-line that had been dangled in front of them for eleven long seasons. But I have a lot of faith in Byler, even after being let down by the Spn finale, and here’s why.

4. Main character Will Byers vs fan favorite Castiel

Are you ready for even more supernatural lore? Again, you can just skim this if you’ve watched spn. The character of Castiel is introduced in Supernatural Season 4 Episode 1: Lazarus Rising. Funny thing about Cas—he was only supposed to be on the show for like three episodes! Cas’s story-line was actually supposed to go to another angel character, Anna. Due to some actor drama or something Cas replaced Anna and got her story-line. And fans LOVED Cas, so much so that when they tried to permanently kill him off in Season 7, ratings dropped so low that they decided to bring him back. The interesting thing about Cas and Destiel is that it was pretty much all accidental, at least at first. It was much less about genuine writing choices, and much more about insane actor chemistry and casual ship-baiting by the writers. Destiel was a ship that started off without much canon basis, but over the next eleven seasons became more and more textually supported until the writers had pretty much no choice except to address it. This was due to a lot of things: changing show-runners, changing writers, and the actors themselves becoming more open to the possibility of the ship. If you want a full explanation of how Supernatural accidentally trapped themselves into telling an epic gay love story, I would highly recommend this video:

youtube

However, despite the wild popularity of Cas and Destiel, Cas never gained the true main character status of Dean and Sam (Dean’s brother). While Dean and Sam both appear in almost every episode of Spn, Cas disappears for episodes at a time and often only appears for the particularly plotty sections. While I think the changing writers and show-runners allowed for Cas to become more valued in later seasons, his character often gets sidelined in favor of the brothers.

So, let’s now contrast this with Will Byers. Will is definitely one of the main characters of Stranger Things—his disappearance is the inciting incident of the series, and his possession is one of the biggest plot points of season two. While he has been less central to seasons three and four, there is always time devoted in the show to his character, and for the past two seasons his arc has mainly dealt with him struggling as a closeted gay teenager in the 80’s, and him feeling sidelined by Mike with his relationship with El. Unlike Castiel, Will was always meant to be a main character, possibly the main character when you consider that the Duffers originally planned to kill El in the season 1 finale. Will being gay was also planned from the beginning, with hints going all the way back to the first episode. Stranger Things is also known for including a lot of foreshadowing, references, and parallels for watchful viewers to pick up on and analyze. Nothing about Will’s character is accidental, and that gives me hope that he will have a satisfying conclusion to his character arc. Which leads me to my second point—

5. Stranger Things is a really good show. Supernatural… is a mixed bag

To be honest, Supernatural is a mess of a show. It changed show-runners like every four seasons, the writers got switched out a lot and the quality of the writing varies drastically between episodes, plot points were recycled, narrative and character arcs were abandoned, everyone dies and comes back to life multiple times, half of it is shitty filler, and like twice a season there’s an episode so incredibly good it keeps you coming back for more. In short: Supernatural is made for TV. Now, I don’t want to get into my personal vendetta against long-running network television shows, but basically I think that having to crank out a new episode of a show every week for years reduces the quality of that show drastically. Things work best when they have a clear beginning and ending, and they know how they’re going to progress from point A to point B. Not to get off topic, but this is why I absolutely love the Mike Flanagan Netflix shows (Hill House, Bly Manor, Midnight Mass), and why I’m actually glad that Hannibal was forced to wrap up in three seasons. The longer a show is, the more chances it has to fuck up the characters and the plot progression. Stranger Things is right in that sweet spot—I think that it will tell exactly the story it wants to tell, no more and no less. Stranger Things is generally a much higher quality show than Supernatural, and I trust it much more to properly handle its characters and relationships. Supernatural, in my opinion at least, made a massive mistake in killing all the main characters in the finale when all of them had pretty much spent 15 seasons suffering and struggling to survive. The only satisfying conclusion to those characters would have been to see them finally allowed to be happy and peaceful and together, regardless of Destiel. I seriously doubt that the Duffers would ever make this mistake, especially as they have already stated that they’re not Game of Thrones and don’t intend to go grimdark and kill all their main characters. I think that Stranger Things intends to give the characters (and audience) what they want—I think at the end of the day the ST kids will all end up happy and safe. And the way they have set this up, there really isn’t a lot of opportunity for happiness for Will without Byler.

My S5 endgame predictions are pretty much: Byler happens, Max wakes up and Lumax get to go on their theater date, El breaks up with Mike and gets to spend more time with Max (the happiest we’ve seen her is with Max), and Dustin has a big brother little brother moment with Steve that will make me cry (I know people think Steve will die in S5 but honestly I think after Eddie there’s no way they would kill Dustin’s big brother figure TWICE, that would be too cruel to his character). I think Stranger Things wants these characters to end up happy, and I trust them to fulfill the narratives that they’ve been building since season one. Will and El as characters have suffered so much, and I don’t think that they will end up in the same crappy patterns they’ve been repeating for seasons now when those patterns obviously need to be broken in order for them to be happy.

In conclusion: despite the similarities I see between Destiel and Byler, I’m pretty confident that Byler is endgame and will succeed where Destiel (and Spn as a whole) failed, because ST is a well-thought out, high quality show, and Spn was a dearly beloved mess. This is my first time writing meta, so I’m sorry if anything is confusing! I’m also admittedly not the best at media analysis (it did take me four seasons to pick up on Byler), so if any of my fellow Byler scholars would like to chime in and interpret these findings further, that would be very welcome! Thanks for reading! (:

#byler #byler meta #byler vs destiel #long post #Youtube

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foxsimthings · 1 year

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(Constan)Tino Castellanos for @wrixie ‘s Enamoured with Eleanor!

(Yes I’m sliding in just below the wire heehueh what else is new tbh)

Likes:

eating, and will eat anything if it passes the Sniff Test

a good stiff drink on a MonFriday night

arguing with beautiful women not because he actually wants to argue but for A) fun and B) make-up canoodling

all horror movies except thrillers, if he has to think for even a second he’ll get angry, eat all of the popcorn of whoever made the mistake of sitting by him and annoyingly comment on the rest of the film until it’s over or he’s banished from the couch

working out, but more than he likes working out he likes when other guys see his physique and ask him what he eats, and then telling them his entire routine

on that note, being shirtless anywhere and everywhere

people screaming his name (for any and all reasons; anger, delight, fans, etc)

Dislikes:

being in an argument with someone about a fact and having them pull out their phone to look it up(especially if it proves him wrong)

grown people who are still obsessed with plushies and cartoons

that one movie where Eddie Murphy plays all of the characters (he can’t explain why, he just doesn’t like it)

PC gamers (console is king)

people who eat in his car that aren’t him

social smokers (spoiler: he is both a social smoker and a hypocrite, he just doesn’t think that he is)

people who hate cats

Other Stuff:

Tino was a mostly-well-known wrestler until being taken out by a back injury a couple years ago. The time since has been mostly spent in recovery, but now that he’s well again he’s kind of wandering around listlessly. If he goes back to fighting, he could paralyze himself; but is he actually good for anything else?

He’s missing a toe. Which one? Get his little piglets out and find out for yourself.

Shrek makes him cry and even hearing the opening chord of that one sad song from it makes him emotional and angry.

His mom is in his phone as Momster and she and Tino have been to 4 Lady Gaga concerts together.

Tino isn’t a lazy guy, so being unable to wrestle and kind of useless at everything else has him pretty much as stir crazy as can be. He’ll order pizza just to pal it up with the delivery guy, that’s how bad the boredom’s gotten.

He’s not going bald at 31, you’re going bald at 31. He shaves his head because he likes the way it looks, okay?

When he was wrestling he always wanted to be the good guy, but got typecast as the heel early on in his career and made an actual shit-ton of money doing it, so he leaned into it. But secretly, Tino always wanted to be the shining Greek God and not the scummy Greek Bastard.

#elliesBC #sorry I'm so close to late!#and possibly late!#sims #sims 4 #ts4 #sims 4 bc #ts4 bc

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ylizam · 2 years

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tagged by: @chainofclovers

last song: The Loneliest by Måneskin

last show/series: that I finished watching? hmm, High Fidelity. I think. ooh, or Only Murders in the Building (obviously only through the most recent season, but yes).

currently watching: oh gosh what am I not watching? (plenty, obviously, as there is SO MUCH tv these days.) Abbott Elementary is a delight and a must-watch for me every week; I watch it the morning after it airs, and it’s the best way to wake up. the Laws and Order are my bad-for-me copaganda programs, and I spent a bunch of them yelling at everyone not to trust the police but also, look, Olivia Benson and I go way back. I’m enjoying Queer for Fear and Interview with the Vampire so far. Stars Trek: Lower Decks and Prodigy (when the latter comes back). General Hospital. And sometimes Days of Our Lives (it’s not my soap, but I like some of the characters and I’m trying to support the show in this strange, streaming world it’s in).

favorite color: orange

sweet, spicy, or savory: yes, and.

currently reading: Honey in the Marrow by Emily Waters (okay, technically I just finished this, but I was reading it when I was tagged so). This is Real and You are Completely Unprepared by Rabbi Alan Lew. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (re-read). Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (re-read). The Oleander Sword by Tasha Suri. fanfictions when they cross my path (mostly SVU lately tbh).

what i'm working on: hahahahaha. ha. (which is to say that I have been so stuck, so very blocked, on just about everything, even though I have so many things I want to write and I really need.) (but now I have one exchange fic with a hard deadline and then Yuletide so hopefully those will help.) anyway in addition to like seventeen million ideas and things I’ve abandoned and may return to one day but also who knows, these are the official five things for now:

my femslash exchange fic. (it’s a secret.)

the TNG fic I’m co-writing with @summervillen (the goal is to finish before the Picard season 3 premiere date).

the original soap opera romance thing(ies: I have an idea for one story set in the 1980s, at the heyday of the genre, and one set current day when shows have been canceled and gone to streaming etc.; so it’s a duology, I guess?). the first one is fake dating for PR and whatnot. the second is a second chance romance for a background pairing in the first.

the SVU Olivia Benson Becomes a Vigilante fic of the Cabot/Benson/Stabler variety. which stalled dreadfully during summer hiatus times, but I am feeling more excited about now that it’s network television season again.

the Holby City remix fic that I’ve started and re-started and started again many times over the years, and which I really want to finish because I feel like I’ve never gotten any Berena closure for myself and also like I’ve slipped away without meaning to and would like to return.

currently obsessed with: the opening of Wolf Hall (“So now get up.” ugh, I want to roll around in it. it’s so good. I just, how did she do that? how is it so visceral, so there?). soap operas, as form, but also the history and cultural impact and fandom of; the watching of; the way you can grow up watching one, grow up and watch the characters age alongside you, racing ahead through life (sometimes you even get a character around your age that they don’t SORAS, and you grow up with them) (sometimes you get to watch a character age and still have adventures, romances, lives, and sometimes a character will devolve into someone who only shows up to talk to their—her, usually, because even in a genre where you get older woman living full lives, there’s still that pesky societal misogyny at play—grown child or grandchild); the shift from the heights of the daytime soap in the u.s. to now; the cancellations of shows and how that hurts (the way so many of these shows weren’t preserved over the decades, the film destroyed or taped over or whatever). the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation. (found family!) Kira Nerys and where she is now (or in the future, post-DS9, post Lower Decks; where she is now, whereas now is however many years post-DS9). Into the Woods. Russian Doll. apples.

tagging: anyone who wants to answer these.

#meme #about me

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phoenixyfriend · 3 years

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More "de-aged Taka and T7 end up in the Warring Clans Era as Founders' wards" AU

“That’s a thing?” you ask. The answer is yes.

Uh. Kind of. Deaging Team Seven for the sake of tossing them back in time for a Founder to adopt is pretty common, but I’m trash for Taka so this AU started with me brainstorming the asshole team.

I am falling more and more in love with the idea of Tobirama ending up with custody of Team Taka somehow. He’s a science dad, but like. Marginally more ethical than Orochimaru.

Everyone around them is like "This is a terrible idea and it's all going to end horribly" and he's just like "Ah, these are now my children."

I've read so many "Team Seven time-travels and is de-aged, get adopted by the Founders" or "a Founder time-travels forward and adopts Naruto, subsequently picking up the others" and they're good but I now want the same plot with an even more dysfunctional collection of... eldritch mishaps? The AO3 feel of "I want this fic I just read, again, but a step to the left so it feels fresh and new"

I'm considering the tent of tranquility idea (courtesy of @sloaners) and I've come to the decision that Tobirama's... probably going to end up with Several Holes in it, and burns, and cuts, because Karin and Suigetsu never stop fighting, and if they're fighting, they're not paying attention to how soon Juugo's going to lose his grip on control.

"Hm. Tobirama?" "Anija." "Where did you get children?" "They showed up." "One of them looks like an Uchiha." "He does." "Two of them are trying to kill each other." "That's normal." "Are the Uchiha going to accuse us of stealing a clan child?" "Probably." "...Tobirama, did you steal these children?" "No."

(It's not kidnapping if they show up and break into your house first.)

(Also none of them are particularly pressed to ditch the Senju and find their clans. Maybe eventually. Not now.)

They’re assholes but Karin is, even at Supposedly Age Three, babbling at Tobirama about proper lab protocol and chemical reactions and isn’t that just the most adorable thing?

Very few people find Karin as adorable as Tobirama does, because Karin knows more ways to kill a person than most adult shinobi, because most adult shinobi don’t know about things like flesh-eating diseases and specialty poisons from the other side of the continent that can only be refined via chemical processes that won’t exist for another three decades.

Juugo is a sweetheart. Best child. Then he loses his mind but it’s okay, Sasuke is there. Do the Senju trust the clearly-Uchiha child to control the much larger five-year-old? No. But they don’t have any better ideas right now, so.

Tobirama: Hm, we should do something about that. Karin: Here’s a list of ideas and things that have already been tried. Tobirama: Thank you, small child. Where did you get this? Karin: ... Tobirama: Fair enough, let’s see what we can do.

Suigetsu is a little terror because not only is he a Massive Jerk but he also has better control over water than most adults. Mostly because he is water. It’s very hard to find him when he’s avoiding chores.

Karin clings to Mito sometimes because Family! and then Hashirama tries to tease Tobirama about being upset that one of his students/children has ditched him. Hashirama ends up moping in a corner because Tobirama snaps at him, unsurprisingly.

IDK if we have like any canon for Touka beyond skill with genjutsu, but going off of the fanon that she used a naginata, I’m going to say that Suigetsu keeps trying to challenge her to Blade Fights and she’s just like Neat, A Tiny Murder Machine.

Sasuke is very quiet for the most part and Dramatically Broods On Rooftops And In Trees and Hashirama is just like YES YOU REMIND ME OF MY BROTHER AND ALSO MY BEST FRIEND and Sasuke hides.

Sasuke does not need another Naruto, thank you.

Sasuke ends up hanging out with Mito, I think? Like yeah, sure, she’s an Uzumaki, but she’s chill and refined and calm and she has really good tea in stock. Sure he has to learn fuuinjutsu to have an excuse to hang out with her, but that’s fine. It’s interesting. Karin does it too, sometimes.

tbh that probably leaves Hashirama to hang out with Juugo? Juugo isn’t great at Excite but he is great at nature so I feel like Hashirama would be stars-in-eyes about Juugo talking to birds the way Hashirama talks to trees, and Hashirama just gets him a chicken coop like HERE. FRIENDS.

But back to the suspected child theft.

Hashirama is like “That is... clearly an Uchiha. They are going to find out, Tobirama! Someone is going to figure out we have--” “Sasuke, show him your other eye. Yeah, the one you cover.” “...” “Okay, go back to playing.” “...Tobirama.” “Yeah?” “That was a Rinnegan.” “You know those rumors that the only way to get a Rinnegan is to mix the Uchiha and Senju bloodlines?” “It’s true?” “No idea, Sasuke won’t tell me anything about his parents other than their names, and he’s three, but even the chance of it being true means we have an arguable claim.” “...that’s not going to be enough to convince the Uchiha.” “The theory is but one weapon of many in the upcoming battle of wits.” “Tobirama--” “Now if you’ll excuse me, Anija, I need to go make sure Suigetsu doesn’t flood the training grounds again.”

tbh I can’t remember who made the original comment in canon about the Rinnegan being achieved via Senju/Uchiha babies but it’s funny to use here so I’ll pretend it’s a common rumor that nobody actually believes

MEANWHILE WITH THE UCHIHA Madara found and took custody of Team Seven and company, mostly because they’re like... jounin-level despite being less than three feet tall.

It involves a lot of Madara going "I want My New Children to love me!" and being sorely disappointed by half of them. Poor fucker got stuck with Naruto, Sakura, Sai, Kakashi, Yamato, and Obito.

(KakaYamaObito are deaged by the time-travel to 10-13ish. The kids are deaged to 3-4. Everyone has memories to just after the fourth war or so.)

Karin sensed T7 and tagalong pretty much the second they popped out of Kamui, and told Sasuke, but he correctly guessed that Naruto would hunt him down eventually, and said they should enjoy the peace and quiet while they had it.

Sai pulls emotionless creepy smiles in an attempt to freak out Madara but since Madara's whole thing initially was "less children in war," he's... mostly just sad. Izuna wants to know who made his brother cry.

Madara makes a vaguely misogynistic comment that's typical for the period and Sakura just. Breaks his tibia.

Naruto is genuinely trying to treat Madara with the kind of respect a caretaker that Attempts To Care And Do Good By Them deserves, because Naruto is a good egg, but he's... three again. Which means he's a Hellion.

The literal toddlers (Naruto and Sakura are three-ish, Sai is four-ish) are, in fact, toddlers, so nobody really expects them to be able to do anything. Nobody bothers to test them beyond the basics of like. Can walk? Can talk? Can maybe hold knife? Like don’t get me wrong, they’re very competent toddlers, but their hands can barely wrap around a kunai. Their bodies are tiny. Their bones only just stopped being soft!

That said, the “tweens” (re: adults who got deaged but Less) have to get tested for their skills. Kakashi downplays himself to what he imagines a semi-competent eleven-year-old to be capable of. He thinks of, like, Neji maybe? Good, but not suspiciously good.

Obito enters an intangible state and refuses to participate. He has a Mangekyo. His body is half-Zetsu. Stop bothering him. He doesn’t want to do anything. They assign him babysitting duty for Team Seven since he can obviously defend pretty well, and Kakashi vouches for his abilities as a fighter.

Yamato decides to try to be just a little worse than Kakashi but at one point he panics and does Mokuton on instinct and now the entire Uchiha compound is screeching because did they just steal a Main Family Senju kid by accident?

Yamato: Should I tell them I was a science experiment? Kakashi: No.

Pranks galore! None of the other time-travelers even try to stop Naruto, except maybe Yamato.

Obito at the Uchiha compound is mostly "I don't want to participate" and then just uses Kamui to be intangible until people leave him alone. If it's not another time-traveler or Madara, he's not interested. He doesn't even care that much about Sai or Yamato, actually, so if it's not an original T7 member, he doesn't care, and if it's Madara, he's just here to make things Difficult.

The Kyuubi wanders up to the Uchiha compound one day and everyone's preparing for a battle, even Madara isn't confident that he can-- [BANG] "KURAMA!" [delighted squealing]

Naruto now has a pet. The entire clan is terrified. Kurama pokes his nose at Naruto's stomach and disappears into the memory of a seal.

Madara, frantically writing a letter to Hashirama "What do I do if my toddler is possessed?!?"

Hashirama: You have a toddler?!?!?! OMG you should organize playdates with Tobirama's kids! Madara: I'M GOING TO QUESTION THAT LATER, PLEASE HELP WITH THE POSSESSION THING

Kurama hunts down Naruto, and the Jinchuuriki situation is very much in the realm of "Dis Mine" Also a bit of "If I'm in the brat, there's at least one Mangekyo user in hearing distance who can and will risk his life to prevent brainwashing. (Kakashi. It’s Kakashi.)

Naruto: Kurama's one of my best friends! Every time traveler: Yeah, that tracks. Madara: [teakettle screeching]

Per @firebirdeternal: I'm just loving the visual of Giant Nightmare Terror Kurama kneeling down and pressing his nose to Naruto's Smol Chubby Toddler self and closing his eyes while Naruto pets him and giggles and every single battle-ready Uchiha is just. "wat"

Everybody else: Cool so Madara adopted a witch Uchiha Elders: We need to be careful of this horrible creature The younger generation of Uchiha: Okay that was weirdly serene and adorable and frankly the brat is really likeable when he's not being adhd as hell I think this is actually pretty dope.

Madara really wants to be a Good Dad but he has no idea how he ended up being "a dad" in the first place. He just! He cares a lot about this random assortment of kids! Some of them are from prominent clans and there should be search parties for the Senju kid with the Mokuton, or the Hatake brat, or the Uzumaki that doesn't look Uzumaki but definitely feels Uzumaki.... and SURE the only Uchiha of the bunch is a stranger who hates him for no reason Madara can come up with, but! He wants to be a good authority figure!

At least the Uzumaki appreciates that he's trying.

Seriously, though, there are clan kids and nobody’s looking for them, what’s up with that?

Kakashi still has a prize copy of Icha Icha and nobody in the Uchiha compound does a thorough check of his reading material until like three months in.

He is blamed for Naruto developing the Oiroke, because where ELSE would a toddler get such ideas? (Yamato and Obito both tell him he brought this on himself.)

Naruto waits until a Big Important Meeting lets out, something about tithes or a merchant contract, and just pulls a Harem no Jutsu in front of the entire group of Elders And Main Family. First he does a Mass Shadow Clone, which makes everyone turn on Sharingan because Fancy New Techniques to steal! Sure, they were late on the shadow clones, but the kid is clearly gearing up for something! The something is Oiroke.

Anime Nosebleeds everywhere. Most of the elders were hit. Izuna was hit. Madara is not bleeding from the nose, but he is very upset about having semi-accidentally sharingan-memorized his weird adoptee’s Sexy Older Female Alter Ego. There is yelling.

Naruto’s like “Oh, I missed some!” and decides to try again with Reverse Harem no Jutsu because there are old ladies among the Elders, and maybe some straight women representing a guild, and maybe some gay guys he missed! Madara is still not bleeding. (He’s very demi and tbh Naruto only would have succeeded if he’d tried to use Hashirama’s face. Naruto does not know this. He just figures Madara is ace like Sasuke and that no variant is going to work.)

Izuna gets another nosebleed and is just like “Well, this is not how I planned on coming out as bi, but--” “Izuna, I literally do not care about you being bi as long as one of us has an heir at some point, I’m more upset about the fact that my child has been corrupted!”

Back in the Senju compound, there is... a lot of screaming, honestly, but every time Karin and Suigetsu start trying to kill each other again, Tobirama just shrugs and tells them not to break anything.

Very easy-going caretaker, really. He's got some very deadly toddlers in hand, but they're still just toddlers.

Sasuke: Yeah, I might want to go see my clan at some point. Suigetsu: Yeah, I might want to go see my clan at some point. Karin, clinging to Mito: Yeah, I want to go see my clan at some point. Juugo: Please never, ever take me to my clan. Ever. Please. I'll stay with Sasuke, thank you.

Naruto breaks out of the Uchiha compound the first time he enters Sage Mode, several months in (it took a while to get the privacy) because he feels Sasuke and lbr if Naruto knows where Sasuke is, nothing will stop him.

The Uchiha clansmen cannot catch the errant toddler. They fail to inform Madara until Naruto is already in Senju territory because nobody wanted to admit the toddler outmaneuvered them.

Naruto wasn’t sure how to get into the Senju Compound safely so he just goes full Kyuubi, bounds over the wall screaming SASUKEEEEE at the top of his lungs, and then shrinks back down to Tiny Brat size so he could hug his Bestest Friend Ever and cling like a limpet while Sasuke just sighs and stares at the wall.

Sakura ran after him.

Sai painted a bird and Yamato dragged Kakashi onto it to chase Naruto, because Kakashi is at a point of zen regarding Naruto's bullshit and fully trusts the kid to not die.

Obito refuses to look up from whatever he's doing and asks people why they think he cares.

“We told you to look after the toddlers!” “Why would you do that? Seems like poor planning on your part.”

Disappears when nobody's looking. Waits until the Ruckus at the Senju compound (where T7 has crashed in to tackle-hug Sasuke and Madara followed in and proceeded to get shouty, and nobody's dead or battling because they're too confused and also it's a comedy) has started to calm down, and then teleports in and demonstrates Mokuton just to make Madara's life harder when the Senju Elders start demanding answers.

His energy is very "I am here to make Madara's life harder" and Madara still doesn't know what he did wrong.

Madara: That brat has a Sharingan! Tobirama: Well THAT one has Mokuton! Obito: Yamato has it too. [angry teakettle noises]

Madara's first response to seeing Sasuke is to turn to Izuna and point aggressively at the toddler while making a tea-kettle noise "He looks just like you!" "He's four, he barely looks like anything!"

Naruto, tugging at Madara's hakama: You need to make a village with Hashirama so I can see Sasuke more often, cuz I don't wanna ditch you guys, but I gotta see Sasuke! He's my best friend! Madara, who is aware that he could fight this child but really doesn't want to, and also knows that a tantrum thrown by Naruto or Sasuke is capable of leveling mountains: Right, yes, we'll get right on that.

tbh Madara wants the village anyway but "The bijuu-whisperer said he wants it to happen" is a great way to push things forward.

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whenyoulosesmallmind · 2 years

Note

would you like to share some songs you associate with your favourite characters and why?

part one (you are here!) | part two

okay, anon, anon, my dear my lovely anon, you've gotta know that giving my most loved their own little soundtrack is one of my favourite things to do - so, buckle up! that said, since at the moment i have a huge transformers themed brainrot, this will be mostly in reference to my crack au in perpetual progress, but hold up for some unrelated special mentions! (i wanted to do them, but then it got too long, sorry ;w;)

let's start with an odd one: i first started plotting the au up with viva la vida on loop - not my usual kind of music and it doesn't have much to do anymore with the au per se, but it's a fun throwback

TARN, he's a fun one to pick music for, because in my mind he has a specific vibe that is a mix of an actually tragic character and the most stupidly comedic villain so his picks are all scattered over the place. anyway, he gets: 1. votre toast je peux vous le rendre (sang by a proper baritone this time!); obvious stand in for the empyrean suite is obvious, i love to imagine he'd listen to it and think he's cool like escamillo (bestie, you are josè at best <3), it plays right in into all of his delusions imho, 2. stars; people who pick the phantom of the opera as thee tarn theatre musical song i will personally fistfight you. THE lawful evil song - also tarn does parallel nice to javert, if you ask me, 3. tu grillo parlante; you're such a learned man / but that kind of violence / you so often speak of / we're feeling it deep inside / its sold in all the shops in the city / you should buy some, too / you'll see that you'll need it - local man preaches shit he's got all wrong, what will he do next? 4. video killed the radio star; man is so anchored to a vision of the world is blind to see how shit's changed, refuses to admits his own faults, 5. grace kelly/bathtube mermaid (i love both, i can't honestly choose); he’s worn himself so thin, a persona after the other, they’re all bleeding into each other - who are you, tarn, beside your desire to please? bonus track: Tarn & Kaon as il gatto e la volpe; second obligatory pinocchio reference but cmon: you won't regret it / we discover new talents and we're never wrong / we'll be able to make the most of your talents [...] you were so lucky to meet us / he's the cat and i'm the fox, we're a company (?) / you can trust us!, if nothing because imagining tarn and kaon as a couple of talent scouts of serial killers amuses me to no end. also it's nickel's nickname for them! except she's forgot it's the cat who's blind and the fox who’s got the limp, so she's got them switched out.

(i delight in thinking that, minus carmen's aria, tarn would absolutely loathe every song i picked for him btw)

meanwhile, DEATHSAURUS, he's a bit harder to choose for, he has less "screen"time in the comics, less fics and meta written about him, so i'm quite going more with my gut feelings and uh, mostly shit i’ve made up myself for his au version, that's it, i’m sorry. one thing i'll say, though, i think i read this fic (by warlordenfilade i think? i don't want to tag in case i'm wrong ;w;) where the author stated that deathsaurus' taste in music would probably be something like space nickleback and YES perfect headcanon, though i've cranked it up to space soad (who are actual soad, tbh, since. human au). this said, deathsaurus would probably like the picks i've got for him much more than tarn does since, musically speaking, i guess we're floating more or less on the same boat (by which i mean, it's absolutely nonsensical): 1. question!; this is more of an early life lingering feeling vibe that he's carrying on from being fresh off the MTO operating lab, seeing the war from the first time face on, raising the ladder to warwold commander and some of the insensitiveness (mental and physical both) he's developed through it. just. deathsaurus weird feelings time, 2. coming undone/right between the eyes; if i ever get to write the human au version of deathsaurus defecting this is going to be the soundtrack, full stop: the fed-upness, the rage, the blowup, it just fits in like a puzzle coming together (heh!), 3. falling away from me/lost in hollywood; if the songs from point two are the defection soundtrack these are the buildup: you’re trapped in a cicle of violence and the people who depend on you are all dying useless deaths, you have to break it but it is also the reality that you’ve known for all your life and shaped you as the person you are now, 4. i would for you; deathsaurus’ terminal “i can fix them” disease <3 bonus track(s): Deathsaurus/Esmeral as enter sandman; they became something horrible together, deathsaurus even has a couple of lines of the song tattoed on his ribcage - it used to be a favourite, you could even call it their own song. what has become of their relationship: should i stay or should i go? (and the obvious no children) Esmeral’s early pov on deathsaurus and tarn’s relationship would instead be something like somebody told me - because the army likes to gossip and i like some silliness in my drama. meanwhile, Deathsaurus’ early pov on tarn as a whole would probably be something like blame it on the girls and he would be right <3 ...and adding to the series of Nickel’s Nicknames, she calls deathsaurus capitan harlock mostly in reference to the italian version of the og opening, but the english one works as well, i suppose.

some misc: if you want to know what both NICKEL and KAON like to listen, put on some Raffaella Carrà; though nickel’s song is donatella or even lamette, tbh they’re both good for her. babylon gives me deathsaurus’ warworld vibes. i can’t point exactly out why; it’s not really in the lyrics. ride the lightning is how deathsaurus’ Thunder Arrow got its name. beside the note i made in the beginning, what actually kickstarted me to think of the whole djd as humans was this reinterpretation of un’emozione da poco (shrugs) and that’s why my version of human tarn looks a bit like Luca Marinelli ig.

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chaoticpanenergy · 2 years

Note

Hi!! I've been following you for a while, and I saw the post you reblogged about how getting obsessed with your ocs sucks bc you're the only one who makes content for them(mood tbh), but I read your tags and instantly decided that I love Brian and Xeno- this might be completely off and really bad bc I know pretty much nothing about them, but!

*ahem*

Brian fiddled with his hands. “Really, it’s fine-” “No! No it is not!” Xeno cut him off. “No more bad-talking yourself, got it?” They looked up at Brian expectantly. “Okay, okay.” He sighed. “I get it.”

“Good.” Xeno nodded. “So just… No more. Be nice to yourself.” They stood still for a moment, not really sure what to do next.

“I’m sorry.” Brian mumbled after a moment. “What?!” Xeno looked up in mild horror. “Sorry for what?!”

“For… For making you upset? I dunno…” He murmured, rubbing his shoulder. Xeno stood frozen for a moment.

“I’m not upset at you.” They sighed, lowering their voice. “I just… I don’t want you beating yourself up all the time, okay? You’re so nice to other people, and you should be nice to yourself, too.” The two of them both stared quietly at the ground.

Brian flinched for a second as he felt something wrap around his midsection. He looked down to see Xeno wrapping their arms around him in a tight embrace. They hadn’t used words, but they didn’t have to. Brian smiled softly and returned the gesture.

[ID: The "It's beautiful. I've looked at this for five hours now" meme. /End ID]

this????? is so sweet of you??????? alkjhsdkjshflfjhgkk i. i genuinely have no words. this was the most delightful thing to discover in my inbox i seriously do not have good enough words to explain how cool this is aaaaaaajfhfgjkdhgdskflg like sure, it’s not 100% exactly how i would write them, but you do have the general gist of their characters very recognizably there, which is super impressive given that you had like. 4 and a half sentences of me rambling in the tags of a reblog to go off of 😂 which side note holy cow how did you do that it is seriously SO cool and impressive !!!!!

anyway I Love Them So Much AAAAAAAAA have a lil thingy this inspired me to do with them!!! currently they live in my head rent free 24/7 and sometimes get little short stories that are mostly slice-of-life plus one big dramatic piece that will theoretically be the climax of their book. i would like them to have a whole book instead of this current situation. but i do not yet know what the plot of the book will be, is the problem. i know what i want it to be about, i just don’t have the specific way it plays out nailed down yet. but as soon as i figure it out, they will finally get to move from short slice of life scenes to their actual novel. and from there who knows where i’ll go with it. maybe it’ll be the wip i feel is good enough to start trying to find an agent and get published. i kind of hope so lol. i love them sm i want to share them with the world and give autistic and aro teens or twentysomethings a fun fantasy book with no romo and multiple different aro identities, and with multiple autistic characters with very different sensory needs who have learned to coexist and support each other so they both get their needs met. i think that would be neat.

aNYWAY on to The Them (content warning for stims that are mildly harmful to the person doing them, also a couple of swear words):

Xeno let themself into the apartment, hanging their keys on the empty hook by the door and kicking their shoes under the bench.

“Hi Xee!” Brian greeted from the couch, looking up in delight at their appearance. He was curled up in the corner, throw blanket wrapped around his legs, with a book in his lap.

“Where are your reading glasses?” Xeno greeted in response, frowning at him. Internally, they felt a wave of relief that they were home and with Brian and did not have to worry about monitoring their tone anymore today, because Brian didn’t mind if they weren’t expressive or if they sounded angry when they weren’t. They slid their backpack off their shoulders and set it down on one of the chairs by the tiny kitchen table.

“What?” Brian reached up and touched his empty face. “Oh. Shit. Thank you.” He got up, leaving the book open and facedown on the couch, and hastened down the hall towards his room.

“Mmhm,” Xeno responded, opening the snack drawer and staring into it before selecting a squeezy applesauch pouch, this one flavored with mango. As they cracked it open and put the end in their mouth, they went over to where Brian had left his book, selected a bookmark from one of the tiny drawers set in the side of the coffee table, and placed it in his spot, closing the book to save the spine.

Brian reappeared, rectangular glasses with thick tortoiseshell frames—reminiscent of an old man’s—perched on his face, lightly chewing on the knuckle of his forefinger. He resettled himself on the couch, fussing with the throw blanket until it was to his liking, and resumed reading while Xeno finished their applesauce.

They discarded the empty packaging, picked up their backpack off the chair, and went to put it away in their room and go over their homework for the evening. Perhaps ten minutes into this activity they paused and looked up, frowning at the wall of their room.

Brian had been chewing on his knuckle. He’d stopped when he sat down because his hands were busy with the throw blanket. Had he stayed stopped? They snapped their laptop shut, tucked it under their arm, and marched back out to the living room.

Brian had not stayed stopped, and by now was gnawing absently on the whole side of his hand. Xeno huffed out a breath of dissatisfaction and tossed their laptop onto the empty part of the sofa.

“Huh?” Brian looked up, not having seemed to notice them until now.

“Give me your hands,” Xeno demanded, holding out both their hands.

“Oh,” Brian said guiltily, obediently placing both his hands resting palm-up in their smaller ones. “Sorry.” His shoulders curled inwards.

Xeno frowned. “Take that back right now,” they ordered, taking a seat beside him and examining the tooth marks imprinted on his hand.

“…Un-sorry?” Brian tried.

“Better.” Xeno smoothed at a particularly reddened dent in his skin with their thumb. “Where’s your necklace?”

“It broke. Yesterday.” Brian frowned. “I chewed through it. I’m going to order a replacement, I just—haven’t yet, I’ve gotta, gotta get over the old one first, you know?”

“Mm,” Xeno hummed in understanding, still soothing at his hand with their thumbs. “Gum?”

Brian made a face. “I don’t like gum,” he mumbled, but he nodded. “I guess. It’s too soft, though.”

“Better than hands,” Xeno pointed out, heading back across to the kitchen half of the living space to fish out a pack of gumballs. They selected three—two pale green limes and a yellow lemon, the flavors Brian tended towards when chewing gum—and returned, pouring them into Brian’s hand and sitting down beside him once again.

“Thank you,” Brian said, dragging out the end of the “you,” and popped the gumballs into his mouth.

“Thank me by not chewing your hands anymore, dumbass,” Xeno said, but there was no real annoyance behind it. They picked up their laptop and opened their homework once again.

There was silence for a few moments as they did their separate activities, quiet, side-by-side. The only noises in the room were the faintest sound of Brian chewing, the occasional flip of a page, and the soft clicking of Xeno’s keyboard.

“Xee?” Brian said after a moment, quiet and a little hesitant.

Xeno did not look up, but they stopped typing. “What?”

“Can I stim with your hair?—It’s fine if you don’t want me to,” he added quickly, “I can get something else to fidget with, I just—”

“Did I say no?” Xeno interrupted.

Brian blinked at them. “You didn’t say anything.” He sounded mildly confused by the question.

Xeno turned the question over in their mind, now that Brian had stopped talking and they had room to think about it. “Yes,” they decided.

“Oh, you meant I was acting like you said no,” Brian belatedly realized.

“Yes,” Xeno repeated, turning to half-lay along the couch and rest their head on his chest. They balanced their laptop on their stomach so they could continue working.

“Yay,” Brian commented under his breath, sliding his free hand into their vivid purple hair and scratching at their scalp.

Xeno leaned into his touch, relaxing against him, a nice bubble of warmth floating in their chest. This was good. A very acceptable way to spend the evening.

Ah. Content. That was the word for the feeling in their chest, they were almost certain of it. Brian’s heart was beating against their ear, and his fingers were carding though their hair, and Xeno was content.

#xeno and brian #peregrin said a thing #peregrin answers #seriously thank u sm this is probably the coolest ask ive ever received in my life #😭😭😭😭😭#is part of this scene just me being sad abt my own chewelry necklace breaking bc i chewed through it? shhhhh

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stoportotouch · 2 years

Text

okay my special interests are coagulating in an interesting way again; time to make a post about the Pathologic Opera Playing Only In My Mind.

i’ve talked a bit about voice types, which i have admittedly revised in my head a bit as i go, but that’s not all i’ve thought about. here’s a bit about stage picture, themes, musical style, and directorial style.

there is a specific type of somewhat self-referential and self-aware art music dating all the way back to the baroque and before such as purcell’s come ye sons of art! and ode to st. cecilia that is either about music or specifically about performance. it isn’t actually a genre but it’s very much something that you’ll notice after a while. britten also got quite into it, again with some st. cecilia-related music (hymn thereto this time) but also with things like his cantata rejoice in the lamb. this also occurs to a lesser or greater extent in his opera, especially in gloriana thematically and in death in venice.

on a surface level there are a couple of references that you could make, that are just “this sounds like this”. pathologic is also very aware of its status as a game or as a play i always imagined that you would kill probably young vlad on-stage and have something akin to billy’s execution and the subsequent down all hands and see that they go chorus. as russian romantic opera is very much its own thing with its own traditions born out of centuries of russian history i would also be very inclined to lean on that. if you’re doing britten-inspired that could work pretty well -- britten wrote arrangements of folk songs in his youth and retained that interest long into his career so it might be a little pulling around but also an interesting combination.

i keep updating the post with my pathologic playlist which now includes wond’rous machine (from purcell’s ode to st. cecilia) and for a reason separate to what i think about mark immortell, who just has the vibes of a countertenor and for whom i just like the irony of baroque, a very early genre which has a strong convention of historically informed practice, combined with a character who essentially represents pulling apart tradition. wond’rous machine is specifically about progress supplanting tradition -- in this case through the lens of pipe organs supplanting the sorts of ensembles that composers such as monteverdi would have written for. so i’m also thinking that the plague gets a style similar to this.

this is the point at which i will tell you my Separate Thought About St. Cecilia And Potential Uses For Her, and that is basically that victoria snr. and capella both get the symbolism traditionally associated with her. st. cecilia is the patron saint of musicians -- her feast day is actually britten’s birthday -- and the story is that she was an avowed virgin who was forced to be married off to to a man that she didn’t love. at her wedding she sat apart and ‘sung to god in her heart’. the symbolism is broadly “it’s my opera so i get to decide on the religious symbolism” but the self-reference of the patron of musicians is. quite a delightful idea.

unfortunately we must now talk about religion, but don’t worry. we won’t talk about it very much, because tbh the end of Pathologic As An Opera is like... idk how you would even achieve that and that’s one of the two places where it comes into play and that’s more me noticing that the loading screen when you load a save in a game that you’ve finished in p2 reminds me of and i saw a new heaven than it is any particular informed statement. (to be honest the diurnal ending generally gives me those vibes.) i... struggle in vain mostly with clara because her symbolism is so deliberately mixed up even though she’s the most obviously religiously-themed character.

the other thing i was thinking was specifically artemy retrieving the living blood and that is a fairly straightforward “well that reminds me of the nunc dimittis”. there’s a famous russian (or old church slavonic) setting of that by rachmaninov with a very distinctive ending figure of a descending scale for the second basses going down to a Bb1 and referencing that at some point would probably make other people go “oh. ha. nunc dimittis”, which is... really all i would hope for.

anyway. direction. because pathologic is a rare case where regietheater doesn’t just work but is actually probably actively necessary. i have made the joke before that mark is probably a director who didn’t get booed at bayreuth and let it go to his head, but mark-as-character vs. mark-as-director could be an interesting idea dramatically speaking. i don’t really know how you would do that other than what i mentioned above with him singing in a baroque style.

finally, i need a whole section on wagner, despite not being too into wagner. this is purely because i want to discuss the parallel between artemy destroying the polyhedron brunnhilde destroying valhalla at the end of the ring, and also my Pet Thought about the fisher king narrative as it relates/could relate to pathologic. the latter of these i was originally planning to cover in zum raum wird but unfortunately i have adhd and cannot follow a project through to its end. (and i’m gonna rewrite it eventually.) this is... really a bit more regietheater because one could spin the end of the ring into what i mentioned before about wond’rous machine. it’s progress supplanting tradition, albeit in a very dramatic way. it also works equally well for daniil and artemy’s endings (or at least for the diurnal ending).

the fisher king thing is a bit more complicated because there are a lot of places that it applies, not all of which i think it would make sense to bring it up. looking at it thematically though the inheritance of a barren land theme and the progress/tradition theme could (ironically) coexist pretty well so... pointing to either clara’s ending or the nocturnal ending but i think clara’s probably works better with the original theming. idk this post got away from me and now i can’t get it back again. enjoy.

#ollie considers #text #pathologic #opera tag #pathologic opera #<-- gets its own tag now #i should say that i am neither a composer nor a librettist #although who knows the night is young #i might wake up tomorrow and write an entire opera

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chimmyrockbison · 3 years

Text

MASTERLIST Updated 03/20/2021

COMPLETED AO3 FICS [Kim Taehyung/Park Jimin]

1. The Sound of Your Heart

Summary: There was something so easy about it, it was almost scary. Taehyung didn’t want to feel this way, didn’t want to feel this overwhelming fondness; but not unlike his head, his heart was hard to persuade once it had decided a path. And Taehyung was scared that it had decided on the mute new boy with pretty features and a warm smile.

Words: 144,014

2. All the King's Men

Summary: Castle servants Jimin and Taehyung find themselves involved in a game with the Crown Prince.

Words: 52,531

3. golden haze

Summary: Taehyung watches Jimin’s mouth twist into a pout, forming the word ‘fucking’ with his thick lips before he’s whipping out his translation device again. Taehyung doesn’t have time to stop him when various pornographic images pop up on his holographic screen, Jimin’s eyes widening with intrigue, his mouth falling open at the suggestive images in front of him.

(or: lonely college student taehyung harbors an alien fugitive in his apartment. nothing goes as planned.)

Words: 34,850

4. Drag'on Together (Love Is Its Own Magic)

Summary: “I swear to God, Taehyung if you stop to pick up one more rock because you think it might be some sort of rare stone, I’m leaving you here,” Jimin huffs as he tries to sound intimidating.

“Jiminnie, we both know you wouldn’t survive a minute without me, so stop with the empty threats, okay?” Taehyung replies, happily ignoring his dark-haired friend.

Jimin would argue, he would, if it wasn’t for the fact that Taehyung was right.

The time Taehyung and Jimin finds a blue rock and it turns out to be so much more.

Words: 30,554

5. even the weariest river

Summary: It's moments like this that make Taehyung panic. The open derision on each courtier's face, the scorn of his brother as he turns from his prey. The slit of Park Jimin's eyes, just barely open and dark and hateful, as Taehyung swallows and squares his shoulders and says—

"I want to claim him."

The tides of war change, and sweep Taehyung and Jimin along with them.

Words: 152,979

6. i fell in love with the pizza delivery guy (and then i blew him in the bathroom)

Summary: Send your best delivery guy. Preferably cute, preferably packing.

“You're the one who ordered me,” Taehyung says. Not exactly a question; more of a statement.

“Well, I ordered pizza; you just happen to be a delightful bonus,” Jimin clarifies, lips drawn up in a smirk that sets Taehuyung’s blood on fire in a most delectable way. “Although, had I known a pretty face like yours was working there...maybe I would have been more specific with my instructions. At least I know for next time.”

(or, Jimin orders pizza and a little something extra, and Taehyung delivers without really knowing what he's signing up for)

Words: 18,438

7. Grand Jeté

Summary: Refusing to spend another night alone, Taehyung surprises his perfectionist of a boyfriend Jimin at his dance studio with the intent of dragging him home. But their pent-up emotions from spending time apart has the visit ending with a lot of kissing and a little experimenting.

Words: 8,200

8. Already Midnight

Summary: On New Year's Eve, Taehyung is drunk. So drunk that he doesn't recognize Jimin as his boyfriend. When Jimin kisses him at midnight, Taehyung threatens to call his man- aka Jimin.

Words: 3,951

9. Worth The Risk

Summary: The rules are simple: no kissing on the lips, no petnames, no cuddling after sex, no sleepovers, no labels, and no catching feelings.

It should be simple. In fact, it would be simple, if it weren’t for one tiny thing...Taehyung is pretty sure he’s in love with Jimin. And that’s absolutely against the rules.

Words: 23,645

10. Common Ground

Summary: Taehyung is rich, a little bit bratty, a lot a bit spoiled, and failing calculus. Jimin works full time, tutors, and is a straight-A student. There's a rulebook somewhere that states very clearly that people like Jimin should never associate with people like Taehyung. But rules are meant to be broken. And opposites always, always attract.

Words: 44,136

11. This is not a dream

Summary: He would think they were ships in the night if not for the fact that every night, Jimin lays his head in Taehyung’s lap and Taehyung runs fingers without nerve endings through his hair. If they didn't have this false, teasing closeness long enough to learn every detail of each other's lives, long enough that Jimin is the person Taehyung spends the most time with by a mile.

(Jimin leaves. Two months later, he falls in love with Taehyung.)

Words: 12,370

12. Shooting Stars and Silver Moons

Summary: Yoongi and Jimin make a bet, Taehyung makes bad decisions.

(Or: "I'm kind of pissed you didn't choose me to fake date, I'm your best friend")

Words: 20,206

13. the whole world is blue

Summary: Taehyung is not going to confess. That kind of thing never ends well. The movies are wrong. It doesn't always turn out to be mutual. Real life isn't so romantic like that.

Words: 10,829

14. Swipe Right

Summary: As a best friend, Jimin will do anything for Taehyung. This includes being his fake boyfriend to ward off the unwanted attention Taehyung is receiving after using a dating app and agreeing to meet someone.

Words: 26,085

15. Define Me in Terms of You

Summary: This is either Taehyung's greatest idea, or his worst.

“So, let me get this straight. You want me to teach you how to play guitar, join a fake band and enter a competition just so that you can impress a guy you like?"

Words: 9,808

16. i just adore you asking for more

Summary: Taehyung is a successful model looking for a discreet release. Jimin is a professional dom who won’t judge his browsing history.

Words: 90,201

17. Sirius

Summary: "Dude, our entire relationship could be an Ed Sheeran album."

Words: 16,955

18. it's your heart i wanna live (& sleep) in

Summary: The first time Jimin sleeps over at Taehyung's, it's an emergency. The other times after? That's a different story.

Words: 22,658

19. kissing up on fences (and up on walls, i don't want to fall)

Summary: They’ve always been close, Taehyung and Jimin. Where one went, it would be rare to see them without the other. This is a fact Namjoon knows better than most, having coexisted with them in close quarters for such a long time.

Namjoon had not, however, for all his proclaimed wisdom and prudence, had the foresight to see that they’d become this close.

(or: the five times the other members thought they were dating, and the one time jimin starts to wonder if they really are)

Words: 8,738

20. The Usual

Summary: Alternatively titled: The Regular

Jimin will date anyone, except for boys who serve coffee.

Words: 27,935

21. i'm so sorry but it's fake love (tbh, not really)

Summary: when chaebol/commitment anti-fan park jimin learns he's being married off, he does the smartest thing in the world: hire a fake boyfriend he found on the internet (aka Craigslist's personal ads)

all he needs is just three months with said fake boyfriend to convince his parents to leave him alone. after that, he'll get back to his regular programming.

except, not really.

Words: 209,565

22. Gravity//Oxygen

Summary: He already lost his parents.

He'll be damned if he loses Jimin's smile too.

We stay together.

Always.

Taehyung is out for revenge. And he'll do anything to get it.

Words: 180,321

23. A Screenshot of Youth

Summary: There’s a sharp intake of breath, Taehyung’s grip tightening over Jimin’s with a gentle squeeze. “Jimin,” his voice is serious, and Jimin watches him, strangely endeared. “Let’s be friends.”

And it’s like this, that they begin as friends in the heat of a sweltering summer, twelve years old and too young to think much of it, hands twined together under the blanket of a setting sun.

(In which Jimin and Taehyung grow up together.)

Words: 18,496

24. i'll take the desert, you take the coast

Summary: “Everyone I know is a candlestick nearing its demise. They’re afraid of bringing meaning into their lives, of cultivating that glow. But you, prince Park Jimin, you are different. You glow with the passion of more than a thousand suns.”

Words: 30,973

25. just to get a taste

Summary: The one where Jeongguk dares Jimin and Taehyung to kiss and it unravels a lot of feelings. But mostly more kisses.

Or the one where Jimin's heart is stupid and Jimin's best friend is actually irresistible. Who'd've thunk, huh?

Words: 24,375

26. tell them it's the end

Summary: Five months after Taehyung suddenly walked out on him, Jimin finds out that Taehyung has yet to inform his family, who absolutely loved Jimin, about their split.

Jimin tries to swallow his feelings as he once again “dates” Taehyung.

Words: 13,802

27. stay with you

Summary: Taehyung wondered why he always see this blonde man, getting wasted every night. Its such a shame seeing his pretty face wasting every single night of his life in this bar.

Until he saw his eyes, and he understood why.

(Or Jimin is broken and he wanted his happiness back.)

Words: 12,875

28. ring the changes

Summary: That's the nature of one-sided confessions. Things change.

Words: 45,248

29. summer, winter, spring (i'm falling for you)

Summary: The school starts to take notice of Jimin.

Taehyung has always noticed.

Words: 41,786

30. Make Me-al

Summary: In which Jimin starts to work at Jin's restaurant and there he meets Taehyung, the new rookie waiter that kinda gets him off his nerves (the feeling is mutual). Yet, the tension between them is hotter than the ovens from the kitchen...

Words: 26,886

31. such stuff as dreams are made on

Summary: "sir no one, may i have this dance?"

or: kim taehyung, a kitchen boy, sneaks into a royal masquerade. park jimin is the prince he never expected.

Words: 38,753

#ao3fic #bangtan #bts #bts fic #jimin #taehyung #vmin #vmin fic #vmin au

74 notes · View notes

ukulelecal · 3 years

Text

Bloom - Part One

The story of flowers.

Pairing: Poet!Luke Hemmings x Female!OC

Warnings: angst!!!! implied smut. perhaps a swear or two. mostly angst

Word count: 4.4k

A/N: can yall believe that this video sent me so feral that i wrote this whole lil mini series in like five days?? i'm not surprised tbh. ANYWAY omg i really am excited for y'all to read this!!! i hope you love it!!! i would love your feedback, and please please remember that reblogs mean the absolute world to creators!

series masterlist

masterlist // posted on ao3

Devon would never forget the first poem Luke wrote for her.

He was a blushing mess as he handed her the folded piece of paper, insisting she read it later because he didn’t want to see her reaction. He had a lip ring then, blond hair spiked up and a wardrobe full of band t-shirts and black skinny jeans. He certainly didn’t look like how anyone would imagine a poet, but one look at his work would tell anyone that he had the mind for the craft.

Luke’s way with words was unmatched. Devon always called it a superpower; the way he was able to capture readers with words strung together so beautifully and paint a picture in the brain. He made people feel something. He had a gift, no doubt.

All of his poems were breathtaking, and he wrote many for her. The first would always be her favorite.

It was called The Orchids. The poem compared a woman to a field of orchids, delicate and lush. It was simple but sweet. Devon vividly remembered the rush of giddiness she felt as she read it, knowing it was written just for her. She remembered calling Luke after reading it over and over again, gushing about how much she loved it. He explained to her later that he chose orchids because the color of the shirt she was wearing the day they met reminded him of them.

They were only freshmen in college then. First time away from home, getting their first taste of real independence. Of adulthood. They met in a seminar class that every first year student had to take. One that everyone else hated but Luke and Devon loved, just because they got to see each other. A couple of coffee dates lead to The Orchids, which lead to a loving relationship and many, many more poems.

College was just about to come to an end now. Graduation was coming up fast, and that brought the simultaneously exciting and dreadful question: what next?

The future was something that used to delight Luke and Devon. Countless nights, they talked about marriage, a house, a dog, children. Luke would be a renowned poet, Devon a respected social worker. They had it all planned out. Even if their white picket fence dreams fell through, they would be happy so long as they had each other.

With graduation creeping closer and closer, Devon wasn’t so sure about their plans.

It wasn’t that she didn’t want it anymore. She still loved Luke with all of her heart. She wanted everything they had talked about, a future with him. Some deeper thinking into her career led her heart elsewhere.

It came out at dinner one evening, sat at the table of Devon and Luke’s shared apartment that they had moved into junior year.

“I’ve been thinking about going to grad school,” she blurted out. She twisted her spaghetti on her fork to distract herself. His face lit up, but Devon didn’t quite share his excitement. She knew this was something she wanted, but she was about to make a huge sacrifice that she had been trying to convince herself that she was ready for.

“Yeah? That’s great, Dev!” Luke cheered. “Here?”

The proud smile on his face quickly dropped when he saw the look of dread on hers. Graduate school was certainly a good thing, but if she wasn’t thrilled, Luke knew there must be a catch.

“Not here?” Devon shook her head. “Then where?”

The name of the school that she mumbled under her breath made Luke’s heart sink. It was far away. Very far.

“Oh.”

Luke wanted to kick himself for being disappointed. It was selfish, so selfish. He should have been proud that Devon wanted to further her education, and he was. He couldn’t fathom trying to take that away from her, but the thought of his girl being so far away was gut wrenching.

He wiped the frown off his face as quickly as it came. He reminded himself that he needed to be supportive, even if it hurt.

“That’s awesome, baby. I’m really proud of you.”

Devon knew he wasn’t lying when he said he was proud of her, but she could tell he wasn’t as excited as he was trying to seem.

“You don’t have to act happy about this, Lu,” she murmured, still pushing her pasta around. “I know what you’re thinking.”

He sighed and dropped his fork on his plate. Of course she saw through him. She always did. After four years of being together, Devon knew Luke better than anyone.

“I really am proud of you for doing this, honey. Don’t think that I’m not. It’s just…” he trailed off, unable to think of a way to put what he wanted to say without sounding selfish. “It’s so far away.”

Devon swallowed the lump in her throat. She was headstrong, and she knew that she needed to put her career and her own desires first. That didn’t mean it hurt any less to move so far away from the love of her life.

“I know, bubs,” she whispered. “But this is something I really want for myself. For my future.”

“Oh, honey, I know,” Luke sighed, not wanting her to feel bad. “I want you to do this. But the distance...I know it’s selfish of me-”

“It’s not selfish, Luke,” she interrupted, shaking her head softly. “It’s not easy for me either. But this school has the best graduate program for social work. Besides, I haven’t finished my application yet and I’m applying to some other places too. I might not even get in.”

Perhaps the most selfish thing of all was that a tiny part of him hoped she wouldn’t get in. It would break her heart if she didn’t, but maybe she wouldn’t be so far. Luke hated himself for the thought even crossing his mind for a split second.

Devon could see how this was affecting him. She understood; she knew he was planning on proposing shortly after graduation, though they were in no hurry to actually get married until they both had secure jobs. Moving hundreds of miles away for two years undoubtedly threw a wrench in the plans.

She had gone back and forth for a while as she searched for grad schools. As much as she wanted to stay close, her future career was something that she valued greatly. Devon was a first generation college student, and she wanted nothing more than to make her family proud. However, Luke was important too. The distance wouldn’t be easy, but she tried to be optimistic. She could only hope that he would want to try too.

“Don’t think like that, Dev,” Luke mumbled. He let out a deep sigh, running a hand through his hair. His desire for Devon to succeed and his desire to keep her close were battling each other, and it only frustrated him.

He thought about his words for a few moments, but couldn’t find the right thing to say.

“We’ll talk about it later, okay?”

Devon gave a silent nod. She needed to let him feel this out, and honestly, she needed to do the same. Thinking about it was one thing, but actually telling Luke was another. She had been stressing over it for a while, and now that it was finally out, her and Luke had to actually deal with it together.

The couple finished their dinner in silence, the only sounds to be heard being the slight scraping of forks against plates and the occasional sighs.

Devon couldn’t help but feel guilty. Over the years, she had conditioned herself to put her own aspirations first. She had sacrificed a lot for others in her lifetime, but many people had made sacrifices for her as well. She felt she had found a balance between taking care of herself and taking care of the people around her. She knew that moving away for a while for her own benefit would have an effect on her relationship, but she didn’t feel as if she had to choose one or the other. If Luke was willing to try to make things work, then so was she.

Luke took his last bite of spaghetti and stood up from the table. He silently made his way to the sink to wash his plate before turning back to Devon.

“I’m going to write for a bit, okay?” He mumbled, slowly making his way towards the spare bedroom that doubled as his workspace. No doubt a poem was going to come out of everything he was feeling at the moment. Devon nodded and her brown eyes watched as Luke turned on his heel to walk away.

“Luke?” She called out before he got too far. He turned around with a hum of acknowledgement. “I love you.”

Despite the anxiety and dread he was feeling, he smiled.

He walked back over to where Devon still sat at the table. With her face cradled lovingly in his hands, he bent down to press a soft yet meaningful kiss to her lips. The kiss said that even if things were uncertain, this wasn’t over.

“I love you too.”

…

Devon’s breath caught in her throat when an email from her top choice grad school came through.

She had poured over her personal statement and fretted over her interview. No matter how much everyone assured her, she couldn’t help the anxiety that ate her away.

With a deep breath, she opened the email.

Accepted with a scholarship.

“Luke! Bubs, I got in! I got in!”

She ran into the spare bedroom where Luke was hunched over one of his many poetry notebooks. His head whipped up at his girlfriend’s yells, his brain taking a moment to process her words after being in the writing zone.

For a moment, neither of them were thinking about the distance. All that mattered was Devon’s amazing achievement.

Luke stood up to meet her. Devon practically tackled him in a hug and he easily held her close.

“Congratulations, honey,” he mumbled into her hair. “Fuck, I’m so proud of you.”

He held her for a few minutes, neither of them able to wipe the smiles off their faces. This meant a lot to Devon, and Luke knew it. He knew from the moment he met her that she was going to do great things in life. She was motivated, intelligent, passionate. Anyone could see it. It was one of the many things he loved about her.

Luke pulled away in favor of cupping her cheeks in his hands. Devon flushed under his adoring gaze, eyes falling downwards.

“You’re incredible, Devon Murphy.”

She kissed him as a form of thanks, melting into each other’s touch. Their eyes met when they pulled away, bright blue and warm brown. Devon wasn’t the wordsmith that Luke was, but she didn’t have to be. Her eyes and her actions told him and everyone else everything that they needed to know. Devon was in love with him, and Luke, her.

Even with Luke’s way with words, Devon could read his eyes too. They were just as expressive as his poetry. As they gazed at each other, she could see the flash of sorrow as his mind travelled elsewhere. She didn’t need to ask to know what he was thinking about.

“Luke…” she whispered with a softened gaze. The guilt was returning, although she knew she had nothing to feel guilty about. She had always struggled with her determination to put herself first. It wasn’t Luke’s fault either, however; his feelings about her leaving were completely valid.

“No. None of that right now,” he stated, shaking his head. “This is a huge accomplishment, Dev. We’re not going to be sad tonight.”

A grin tugged at the corner of Devon’s lips as Luke pulled away, grabbing his phone from the desk and sticking it in his pocket. He placed a hand on the small of her back and led her to the door of the bedroom.

“I think you deserve a celebratory dinner, honey, yeah?” He offered, handing trailing to the side to hold her waist. She chuckled and leaned into him.

“You could throw in a frozen pizza and I’d be happy, bubs.”

“Hell no,” he scoffed as if it was the most ridiculous suggestion in the world. “You just got into grad school! I’m taking you out for dinner. If you want pizza, we can get pizza, but not a frozen one.”

Devon couldn’t help but throw her arms around him again, burying her face into his chest. He tilted his head down to press a kiss to the top of her head. She knew this wasn’t easy, and she was beyond grateful that he was being supportive.

“Thank you, bubs. I love you.”

“I love you too, honey. So are we getting pizza, or do you want to go somewhere else? It’s up to you.”

“Pizza sounds good. Can we go to the place with the good garlic knots?”

Luke laughed as he slipped on his shoes.

“Of course we can.”

Devon slipped on her own shoes and grabbed her denim jacket from the hook by the door before the couple made their way downstairs. Luke’s beat up Prius came into view as they stepped into the parking lot. Devon had named the car Bertha; she was old and a little rusty, but she got the job done.

Luke drove to the small pizzeria not far from their apartment complex. Once inside, they were seated quickly and ordered garlic knots and a pizza to share.

“We haven’t talked much about your writing lately,” Devon said once the waitress walked away. “What have you been working on?”

Luke shrugged and sipped his water.

“Not much. I haven’t really gotten anything good out.”

Truthfully, he had written a lot of poems about Devon leaving. He wasn’t going to tell her that at their celebratory dinner, though.

“In a slump?” She queried sincerely.

“Yeah, a bit.”

“Maybe next weekend we can go out, go to the park. You always get inspired there.”

Luke grinned and reached across the table for her hand.

“I’d love that, Dev.”

The rest of dinner flew by, conversation getting lost in buttery garlic knots and savory pizza. Luke offered dessert, but Devon was too full to even think about it. A sly joke about having her for dessert at home had the giggling couple paying the check and driving home at record speed where Luke certainly made good on his promise.

Devon and Luke laid in bed that night where whispered I love you’s and gentle kisses put them to sleep. Not a negative thought in either of their minds. They were content, but the future still loomed menacingly ahead.

…

The apartment was once a place of solace. It was a place where Luke and Devon could get away from the stress of college life and simply be together. It was safe and comforting. A place they knew they were always welcome.

As time went on, the apartment slowly shifted from a place of joy to a place of dread.

Graduation day was coming up, and both Devon and Luke knew what that meant.

They busied themselves with assignments and exams, Devon simultaneously preparing herself for grad school. She didn’t say much about it to Luke; whenever it came up, the tension between them only got stronger. It led to them bickering about other things to avoid the conversation.

Before they knew it, graduation had come and passed. Devon and Luke officially had their bachelor’s degrees, Luke in creative writing and Devon in social work. The days leading up to it were a good distraction, celebrations with friends and family taking their minds off the move. But it was over. Devon needed to get to her new city soon to set up her new apartment and get her bearings before school started. It was time to face the music.

“Luke?” Devon mumbled as he came out of the spare bedroom. She had been waiting for him to finish so they could talk.

He sighed and sat down next to her on the couch, knowing exactly what this was about. They both had been dreading the conversation, but he knew just as well as her that they needed to discuss it before it was too late.

“Are you ready for this?” She whispered, glancing at him with sad eyes. He didn’t return her gaze.

“I don’t think I’ll ever be ready to be away from you for this long, honey.”

Luke could feel his guard coming down. He wanted this for Devon, but he was struggling to keep his want for her to stay close suppressed.

“I don’t want you to think I’m not considering you in this,” she began, reaching for his hand in his lap. “Leaving won’t be easy for me either.”

“I know.”

He was too scared to say much else.

The couple was silent for a moment. They racked their brains for something to say that would make the situation easier on either of them.

“Maybe you could come with.”

Devon regretted it as soon as it came out of her mouth.

Luke huffed and sent her a look.

“You know I can’t do that.”

She did know. If he could do that, he would have jumped on the opportunity immediately. Luke couldn’t afford to move. He was working on fulfilling his lifelong dream of releasing a poetry book. He was getting so close. Publishers were starting to take interest in him, and he nearly had enough money saved to cover the costs. It was difficult to save money when his part time job at a local bookstore didn’t pay much in the first place and he still needed to pay for school as well as his share of the rent and groceries, among other necessary things. Devon was a little luckier. Neither of their families had much to contribute, and she needed to pay for the same things as him, but her part time job paid better than his and she had money saved from when she managed to land a paid internship first semester. It was covering the costs of her move and grad school.

“I know. I’m sorry.”

She watched him for another moment, trying to fight back the tears that were welling in her eyes.

“Please say something, Luke,” she whimpered. All she wanted was for him to affirm what she so desperately wanted; for them to be okay.

He finally looked at her, both sets of eyes red rimmed. Devon squeezed his hand.

“Do you really have to go, Dev?”

The break in his voice sent the first tear gliding down Devon’s cheek.

“You know how much this means to me, Lu. I really think we can make this work.”

“Can we? Can we really?” Luke’s tone turned frustrated. Devon’s mouth dropped open slightly. Did he not believe they could last?

“What are you saying?” She whispered, voice shaking.

He sighed and roughly stood up, dropping Devon’s hand in the process.

“We’ll never talk. We’ll both be so busy. You’ll have school, I’ll be working. And you know neither of us have the money to be visiting each other often. There will hardly be anything,” he rambled, pacing around the living room. Maybe his selfish side was coming out, but he felt he was just being realistic.

Luke always aimed for realism, particularly in his poetry. He wrote largely about real life experiences and channeled his emotions into beautiful, flowing rhymes. His best work came from personal connection.

Sometimes, he couldn’t help but write about what he wished he had.

His idealistic poems were never about Devon; his relationship with her was practically perfect. But this was something that no idealistic poem could fix. No words could change what was happening to them.

“I’ll make time for you, Luke. Won’t you do the same?” She questioned, growing frustrated as well. She had wanted him to share her optimism, but clearly he didn’t. A part of her knew he was right, but she wasn’t going to back down.

“Of course I’ll make time. But will it be enough? No matter how much we try, will it be enough to keep what we have going? Look at what it’s doing to us now! You haven’t even left yet and we can barely keep it together.”

“Do you really have that little faith in us, Luke?” Her voice was calm, despite how she felt on the inside. She narrowed her eyes at him. “No one said it would be easy. But we’ve been together for four years. I believe in us.”

Luke took another breath, trying his best to keep his emotions and tears at bay.

“I want to believe in us, Devon. I really do.” He turned to look at her. Her cheeks were stained with tears, and it only made his heart ache more. “I still want a future with you. I want the house and the dog and the kids we’ve always talked about. But I have a bad feeling. We’ve never been away from each other for more than a few weeks. I just...the distance is going to break us.”

Luke’s own words cut him like a knife. As much as he wanted to believe they could last, his own insecurities caused him doubt. He wasn’t sure if he truly believed that or if he just wanted to save himself the heartbreak of being away from Devon for so long.

Devon let his words sink in. Even if it did break them before she finished her degree, she was willing to try until they couldn’t anymore. Maybe he was right. Maybe the distance would break them eventually. But it hurt her that he didn’t have any faith at all. Still, she understood where he was coming from.

There was no winner in this situation.

She thought for a moment, and finally came to the conclusion that they were both thinking about.

“Fine.” She slowly stood up from the couch and looked him in the eye. They were both shattered. Hearts were breaking into a million pieces simultaneously. Devon put on the most stoic face she could muster with tears still leaking from her eyes. “We obviously want different things right now. I have school, you have your book, and clearly we can’t handle both at the same time. Maybe there shouldn’t be an us.”

Although he had essentially been the one to suggest it, her words felt like a punch in the gut.

This wasn’t what either of them wanted. This wasn’t supposed to happen. But the truth was becoming more and more apparent. They couldn’t do this. Not now.

However, Luke mimicked Devon’s actions and put on a blank face.

“Maybe there shouldn’t.”

They stared at each other for another few moments. Reality was setting in. This was the end of Luke and Devon. All of the coffee dates, the love poems, living off Ramen and questionable dining hall food together, walks in the park, kisses, I love you’s, the late night talks of the future, everything gone down the drain.

Devon shut herself in the bedroom before Luke could see her break.

…

The next month before Devon moved was painful. Her and Luke hardly said a word to each other. They ate their meals separately, not bothering to cook together like they used to or order food to share. They both spent time with friends before everyone went off to their new adult lives. When they weren’t out, Devon locked herself in the bedroom while Luke did the same in the spare. They hadn’t slept in the same bed since before their fight.

Devon spent a lot of free time packing. She went through all of her belongings, creating piles of things to keep, things to donate, and things to throw away.

She soon came across something that made all of her emotions about the breakup resurface.

It was the shoebox that she kept all of the poems Luke had written for her in. She kept every single one.

With a quivering lip, she opened the box and gazed at its contents. Piles of folded papers were neatly tucked inside, his declarations of love all written out in one place. They were her most prized possessions. She went back and reread them often, and the feeling of having someone love her like Luke did was the best feeling in the world.

Devon choked out a sob, burying her face into her hands in hopes that he wouldn’t hear her through the thin walls. The fact that he was right next door hurt her even more. The caring, gentle boy that made her swoon with his charming smile and romantic poetry. He made her fall in love with him all over again every day. He was everything, and she lost him.

She slowly read through each poem. Instead of joy and adoration, all she felt was anguish and heartache. She never thought she would feel this way about Luke.

When she got to the bottom, she pulled out the last poem, and her heart completely broke in her chest.

The Orchids.

Devon couldn’t keep her sobs at bay. She clutched the paper to her chest, every bit of pain coming out in tears.

Luke could hear her through the wall.

His heart told him to run in and comfort her. His brain told him it would only make things worse for both of them.

He plugged his ears, trying to block out the dreadful sound. He was in just as much pain as her, but the sound of the love of his life’s sorrow only made his own worse.

Glancing down at the open notebook in front of him, he reread the poem he was writing, and soon he found himself joining Devon in tears.

It was called Wilted. Their relationship that had once been a beautiful flower, an orchid, lost its sunlight and its water, and now it had wilted. Dead, grey, dried up.

Luke dropped his pen and folded his arms on the desk, burying his head into them. He cried.

The broken couple, only separated by a thin wall, might as well have already been miles apart. They cried together, but there was no sense of unity between them. Their pain was past what any poem could portray.

104 notes · View notes

quitetheketch-moved · 4 years

Text

so I’ve been seeing bad taste in youtubers, not like in my mutuals or anything but in general but it made me want to make a like, recommended list of youtubers i like who are pretty chill if not full on comrades so here we are - not prompted by anything specific but an itch I got here some of the channels I like:

Cooking:

BORE.D - Fun cooking channel with a stylish presentation

Chinese Cooking Demystified - Like it says on the tin, informative authentic Chinese dishes from all over the country.

David Seymour - started with buzzfeed taste tests but now covers most big cooking channels seeing if he can recreate them and how they are

Maangchi - Plz cook for me, like i’m begging feed me it all looks amazing

My Name Is Andong - fun cooking videos from all over, especially the ones about Russian food.

Simply Sara Kitchen - good home style cooking

Souped Up Recipes - Traditional Chinese cooking

Movies/Tv:

Accented Cinema - a video essay channel with a focus on Asian cinema

Folding Ideas - Not strictly about film but I tend to watch a lot of essayists who fall into multiple things and I kinda just have to lean into their main aesthetic but Dan is a gif so check him out.

Jack Saint - Jack and Joel have a lot of similar style of content but Jack leans into media stuff more so i’m moving him over here. (although i’ve been working on this post for over an hour going through my alphabetical yt sub list and i’m starting to regret trying to categorize them)

PushingUpRoses - a must watch if you love old tv especially Murder She Wrote

Renegade Cut - Does games too, and frankly they are some of their best work, but quality media analysis.

Ryan Hollinger - Horror movie analysis

Scaredy Cats - More horror movie analysis but my favorite channel of this kind

Gaming Essays:

Adam Millard - video essays about video games - really recommend the video on Frog Fractions and the Longing

Curio - I’m putting them here because theres been a big focus on games lately and they recently started twitch streaming which is fun but really it’s all media essay. Just please check out their four part Witcher series adfkj it’s the most recent so easy to find.

Errant Signal - I dont have much to add other than please check out Errant Signal, they dont post much but I am in love with this channel.

Game Maker's Toolkit - in depth essays about elements of game design

Jim Sterling - Okay not essays but gaming news - if you dont check out anyone else here you should still check out Jim. Especially if you care about the rights of workers in the gaming industry.

Gaming Play:

Biffa Plays Indie Games - mostly does Cities Skylines but sometimes other, great videos to relax to.

GaLm - GaLm deserves so much much than he gets, Love him been watching him for forever and honestly he’s enough of a workaholic that there’s so much content you WILL find something you like. All complete with critical analysis.

GrayStillPlays - one of the few like, non overtly left-os here but listen, if you want some slightly silly slightly more edgy style of video game videos to kinda turn off your brain and just enjoy you cant get much better than grey. He’s chaos but chaos that doesn’t rely on racism. Maybe one too many jokes about addiction but they aren’t usually punching down so???

John Wolfe - chill horror youtuber - not much to say but one of my favorites.

KatherineOfSky - want the most soothing voice ever to gently play hardcore logistic games at you? Well holy fuzzy cats, you’re home.

Many A True Nerd - Partner to Claire in the category below, known for his fallout but plays just about anything. Also loves grand strategy and paradox games. Good playlist management too do easy to find what you need.

Wanderbots - A just, massive amount of indie game content.

Commentary/Other:

Claire Rousseau - Books youtuber who is just a delight, I dont know how else to describe her but even tho I dont read anymore i’d still die for her.

Courtreezy - just the queen of being bubbly and fun (some of these I dont have good sales pitches for just *shoves them at you* give em a shot)

D'Angelo Wallace and dangelowallace - Main and second channel, both the same kind of content but the formats are different. Dont always agree with all his opinions but man, theres no fault in the way he presents and researches them - solid essayist but also just oozes charisma and good times.

Drawfee Show - one of the bigger channels here save D’Angelo above so you may already be familiar with them but just a fun weekly drawing show. Good times.

Foo the Flowerhorn - Watch fish be fed bits of blanched vegetables, like that either sells you or not but it’s Good.

Jarvis Johnson and Jarvis Johnson! GOLD - primary and secondary channels, pure commentary channel on a wide range of topics - i recommend the videos on 5 min crafts and the bachelor.

Life in Jars? - Eco-spheres and terrariums oh me :0

MacDoesIt - Gay chaotic energy, just chock full of Moods and fun times.

Sarah Z - Unofficial tumblr historian

Politics:

Big Joel - kinda variety content, plenty of media analysis but through a strongly leftist lens. Torn between here and commentary but the balance is slightly more overtly political than just media commentary through a political lens so here we go.

Black Red Guard - A black leftist commentary/essay channel focused on black issues and self described as a “New Afrikan Maoist”, this is fairly new channel I found so I’m not as good at describing his content def not better than he does but solid stuff through a perspective I wouldn’t normally get.

hbomberguy - Just watch his video on Pathologic please. Or like, watch 20 mins then go play Pathologic then come back after you’ve beaten it and Pathologic 2 and finish the video.

Innuendo Studios - Frankly I had no idea where to put this one, because it’s a little of everything but mostly media analysis but also please watch the alt-right playbook if you like, want to understand more about how radicalization happens.

KAR - Black anarchist channel, solid political videos but shorter than most of the ones here so better for consuming when you dont have much time.

Leslie Exp - Videos about disability

Luna oi! and NonCompete - frankly best agitprop communist duo. A good place to start learning about mutual aid and what anarchism is, beginner friendly videos on leftist theory.

Philosophy Tube - Videos are super polished and well made essays about philosophy, super theatrical and flashy. Honestly cannot stress enough how fun the production value of these are.

Professor Flowers - Nuanced important discussions about race, media, and the political landscape.

Some More News - Like it says on the tin, news but told to you by a disheveled fed up leftist (I joke because i’m running out of things to say in the comment for each but really, Cody and his entire team deserve a lot of credit for their well researched videos on current events)

Thought Slime - Agitprop but make it a little silly because tbh we all need some jokes rn

Honorable mentions of some slightly bigger channels you may already know but I enjoy: UpIsNotJump , Steve1989MREInfo , SmallishBeans , RTGame , Primitive Survival Tool , Mumbo Jumbo , emmymadeinjapan , Kurtis Conner , Danny Gonzalez , Drew Gooden , How To Cook That , JunsKitchen , Defunctland

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fandom-puff · 4 years

Text

Alfie Solomons on Social Media

Big thank you to @cheekypeakyblinders @peak-a-blinder and @champagneholland !! So much love and support with this lil social media themed project we’re doing! Go read their writing (linked at the bottom!) also can I just say I’m super proud of the moodboards I made for these :)

Alfie is NOT tech savvy. He’s not a complete technophobe, but he’s definitely not down with the latest trends, he doesn’t have a clue what half the pre-installed apps on his phone are for and he’s only just figured out that you can have a contacts list and that you don’t need to manually type in a whole phone number if it’s already saved on his phone.

He often forgets how to turn off caps lock, so his texts can often be misinterpreted as very angry or very excited

He also uses LOTS of abbreviations- like the normal ones (lol, wtf, ffs, cba) but then he also makes his own up which just confused everybody

Example:

It’s okay though bc the younger ones actually teach him stuff (*cough* unlike tommy abd arthur who just take the piss)

‘No right Finn mate I don’t want to fuckin download Tik tok I’ve got a fuckin watch and a little clock on the screen fucks sake’

Alfie’s in a fair few group chats- there’s the main GC that has the Shelby/gray clan (he’s there for banter and because Polly is an admin and she knows it pisses tommy off

Every morning without fail at like... 5-6 o’clock, he’ll send a bright and cheerful good morning text that’s normally not very well received. But he does it anyway bc him and Pol are the only ones awake :)

Alfie on snapchat is a different story. Literally every day there’s a picture of Cyril with a caption like ‘love of my life’ ‘best mate’ ‘don’t know what I’d do without you’

He also posts all his baked goodies onto his story too, and the random women who add him via quick add end up swooning over his floury tattooed arms bc he has a dog and he can COOK

He hasn’t got a CLUE what a private story is so every day, at least 100+ people are subjected to ‘tommy fucking Shelby has a stick up his arse pass it on’ which gets screenshotted and sent to the group chat

He doesn’t get the whole ‘streaks’ thing either

‘No I don’t wanna fucking streak with you isaiah what the fuck??? I thought your dad was a man of god and all that???’

Cue three days later on his story: “there’s fires next to some of your names right and if you die yeah, blame isaiah because he asked me to streak with him and I don’t think Jeremiah likesd that tbh and probs prayed to god to smite yous down lol’

‘Alfie it just means we’ve snapped eachother for three consecutive days mate’

His story that day: ‘sorry you’re not getting smited you lot just like sending me pictures of your ceilings ??’

Snapchat filters took him by surprise too but imagine this man’s JOY when he found out Cyril could wear funny glasses AND have a round face 🥺🥺🥺

Let’s talk YouTube. Despite not knowing how to turn caps lock off, and thinking Finn is having a stroke every time he throws it back, Alfie is quite the vlogger.

What’s starts off as mostly baking videos and rants (he likes to get things off his chest while kneading the SHIT out of some dough) quickly turns into a full on THING

He makes all sorts of videos- at least one weekly vlog with Cyril and him going on an adventure

Honestly those ones are basically asmr bc Alfie will be recording cyril with one hand and petting him and scratching behind his ears with the other and just murmuring ‘what’ve you got there mate? A rock? Tha’s fuckin brilliant that is my mate. My good boy aren’t you? Yeah... good lad... you gonna put the rock down or... no we’re fuckin... taking the fuckin rock home with us... whatever you say mate...’

Like it’s not much of a vlog like ‘hey guys it’s Alfie aka the Wandering Jew and today me and my pal are going to the park’ it’s more of a ‘watch this great big bear of a man talk very gently to a great big dog for fifteen minutes’ type of vlog

He also does the baking vids obvs, but in more of a tutorial format rather than bitching about his mate ‘Timmy’ as he develops the gluten with his sleeves rolled upto his elbows.

‘Well Jamie Oliver will tell you to do it like this’

*like 10 seconds of silence as he stares at the camera*

‘FUCK Jamie Oliver the stupid twat THIS is the right way to do it

There are normally some VERY thirsty comments about his arms.

He does a reaction video to the thirsty comments once

John read them out to him and his audience was DELIGHTED by his blush as he muttered ‘that right, is fuckin inappropriate innit? Fucking filth like that when I’m trying to teach you how to bake my nan’s bread? Terrible.’

Alfie’s new found YouTube success brings some unwanted attention too...

He doesn’t really know what to do about it so he just leaves it...

A week later, however...

Finally, lets talk messaging his significant other

Admittedly his long winded, meandering rants don’t really translate very well into text, so he much prefers to FaceTime or simply ring you

His texts are sweet though

He tries, bless him

If you don’t live together, you get a good morning and a goodnight text every night, regardless of any business.

You quickly learn to mute your phone as soon as you wake up bc he is an early bird lol

You hear the rants he doesn’t put on his story 🥺🥺

He doesn’t really use emojis but he uses them a LOT more when he texts you- mainly the heart ones

Likes your instagram posts literally as soon as they’re posted and always comments on them

‘You’re fucking beautiful you. I love you’

He does it on your snapchat story as well, sensing you your picture with a cute (or flirty) comment

SMUTTY TALK BELOW

You love texting him little flirty messages??? Just subtle ones with a cheeky double entendre.

Maybe you’re thinking about him. Maybe the sausages you had with breakfast really were juicy who knows 🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️

Either way it gets him GOING

You use snapchat to your biggest advantage, sending him cheeky little peeks at your body, but never quite ENOUGH

He clicks off the image really quickly so you normally get a ‘Alfie💖 has replayed your snap’ notification

‘Fuck me love’

‘Later. In a meeting gtg xx’

He doesn’t really take dirty pics himself. He does, however, tell you to grab your headphones ;)

Thank you for reading! Below are the other works in this collab! Make sure to check them out 💖💖

John Shelby by @cheekypeakyblinders

Michael Gray by @champagneholland

Finn Shelby by @cheekypeakyblinders

Tommy Shelby by @peak-a-blinder

Grace burgess by @champagneholland

Arthur Shelby by @peak-a-blinder

Tag list: @the-makingsofgreatness @peakyswritings @haphazardhufflepuff @diksy1112 @zodiyack @soleil-dor @hiddensapphic @fckingpeakyblinders @snugleo @alittlebirds @satanxklaus @glamsaturn @thegirlwithoutaname87 @queenofmankind @awkwardretro @captivatedbycillianmurphy @xshinytrashcanx @hanster1998 @cheekypeakyblinders @champagneholland

#alfie solomons #alfie solomons x you #alfie solomons headcanon #peaky blinders headcanons #peaky blinders #peaky social media #smut #Alfie solomons x reader #collab #social media au

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evakuality · 3 years

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Hanna, episode 3

1. Again with the pretty. I absolutely love that first shot with them all coming up and onto the street. It all makes me want to go to Germany in a way that other seasons didn’t do in quite the same way. I’d forgotten just how much I genuinely love the cinematography of this season. I sound like a stuck record, but it’s so pretty and it fits Hanna so well, and it makes me happy.

2. Yikes this conversation with Jonas is sooooo ugh. It starts well with him apologising. But then he totally undercuts it with the whole ‘we only spend time by ourselves lately, why don’t you hang with friends?’ thing. Like buddy, dude, pal. Jonas, my man. When you plan a romantic getaway with your girlfriend it’s not a normal everyday hang out situation, she has every right to be pissed and this line of conversation is SO off. Stop trying to deflect the blame onto her and take some damn responsibility for your shitty behaviour over the last few days. Making her feel terrible for having no friends is the absolute worst way to ‘make up’ for being such a dick the last week. He tries to turn it around later, but... you know. This whole thing really does seem to be trying to palm off his responsibility to her and make it all about her deficits when this entire trouble has been because he hasn’t been caring for what she really needs and is close to entirely focused on himself and his friends. No sweet talking can cover over that part. Not forever. Which is partly why everything shatters later.

3. This ‘messaging Mia’ thing is again so damn gay. What we could have had.... I mean I know a lot of people saw this in Noora and Eva, but even so. Cutting from the thing with Jonas to this nervous ‘how do I chat up the cute girl?’ vibe fits so well with a storyline that involves figuring out how badly the guy you’re seeing is treating you (even if you have this good chemistry with him) and finding a better fit with a lovely, supportive girl. She even has a special little ‘Mia smile’ which she gets when she’s trying to connect, and the panic when she tries to explain her first message... It’s all sooooooo gaaaaaay. It could have been so GOOD. Le sigh. Eh. Maybe I should write this sometime.

4. Okay so I’ve mostly been focused on the Jonas situation before, so I never really mentioned Kiki. But she honestly is such a good character. Vilde always bugged me in some way and I have no idea why. But Kiki never felt like that to me. The way she just goes ‘oh the girl from the toilet - we are now mates, I shall kiss her cheeks’ is so endearing. And Sam works too. You can kind of see why they’re friends which I never really did get with Chris and Vilde (imo Chris feels like a better match/fit with Sana and I really really miss them connecting in Sana’s season - but that’s something to talk about more when I get to Amira). Anyway, I always liked these girls together. And I forgot how enthusiastic Kiki is here. And, as much as I really like Leonie and Sara in later seasons, once they’ve grown up a bit, they really do work as the mean girls here. The acting is pretty spot on. Leonie does a great job of the ‘hurt so I’m lashing out’ thing alongside being kind of getting off on being in control, and Sara is a wonderful support for her. Their friendship works and makes sense too. Again, Druck is able to build on the work done by the original and I don’t want to discredit any of the groundwork that was done because it’s always easier to refine than to start fresh. But the dynamics of the groups Druck has created work so well for me, and when they sort of combine by season 4 it makes sense. They drift closer and the various relationships have so clearly been crafted with care to be able to do that. It feels like this was always the intention - so many very small things change and those tiny changes make for something quite different.

5. I don’t really understand why Kiki, Sam and Mia are treated the way they are around heroesparty jobs, though. Hanna is obvious and Amira could be because Leonie and Sara are harbouring the same biases as the welcoming committee people. But Mia, while not understanding, seems cool enough and Kiki and Sam don’t seem to be any different from the other people. Unless Leonie really is so petty that she really enjoyed playing with Kiki, promising her the best job and giving her the worst one. Either way, I really do love the visual of them all just sitting by themselves surrounded by all the chairs and kind of starting to gel because of that. This is a nice spin on the original which actually works in this context and I love that they did this as the way to join our girls into a crew.

6. As with William, I do not understand how these girls look at Alex and think he’s all that. I guess I’m not the right demographic because this type of guy has never appealed to me, and the way they both dress also leaves me cold. But it is genuinely funny in both the original and here the way these girls just about fall all over themselves over this guy. And the way Kiki sighs his name like it’s a gift in itself? Comedy gold.

7. Spanish class. Gay. So gay. Both of them. The smiling, the hearteyes, the flirting!!! But I feel again like I’m a broken record with this. So I’ll leave it at that. And maybe do some frustrated fic writing at some point. The urge is getting stronger...

Anyway, overall, I really like this episode as a start to this friendship. Kiki’s attitude to Amira is so cringey and terrible, but Amira just holds her own in such a nice way. And Hanna. My lovely Hanna. It’s so nice to see her supported and accepted. She barely knows these girls and yet she seems happier and more comfortable around them (particularly Mia, ahem) than she does around her other friends, who are tbh more like Jonas’s friends and who really aren’t very nice to her. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again - the format of this show (thank you, Skam!!) works so well because Hanna as a character works so well. We’re so tight in on her, and the way she’s played - the charm, the vulnerability, the way she feels so real - makes this season. There are still some wobbles with some bits but overall it’s working and it’s working well. Because of this character, because of her actor, because of the cinematography which is still a delight, and because when it changes things it makes those changes thoughtfully and with purpose. And I like that. A lot.

#druck #og druck #hanna episode 3 #these are getting longer I'm sorry #I always do this - keep finding more to say

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chaotic-tired-cat · 3 years

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world walker to date is one of my most favorite fanfics ever. it's so well-written! not too op, with real difficulties and plot, but still light-hearted and funny! <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 i hope life smoothens out for you so we can get an update of this awesome story! :D :D :D

Aaaa thanks Anon!! This ask made me super happy - I'm glad you like World Walker and that it hit the right balance between angst and comedic moments (tbh that's one of the things that's really hard to get right). Things are still hectic but as soon as they're not that chapter is getting finished!!!

Since it might be a while, have a post-World Walker scene from the pov of a couple civilians. It was written to try out Cryptid as Izuku's hero name (/^o^)/

(Note: this scene isn't canon to World Walker and was written before I knew how the story would end.)

“Why do you even think this is going to work?” Yua hovers around Mariko’s efforts in the Denny’s parking lot, careful to avoid stepping on the complicated design taking place under Mariko’s second piece of chalk. The first one was sacrificed to ward off a raccoon. They specifically chose to do this after midnight for the ambiance, but Yua is starting to have second thoughts.

It’s very dark, and they’re both fem-presenting teenagers with emitter quirks in a deserted part of town.

This is not a good place to be.

“I got the pattern off a hero,” Mariko assures her. “You know how I was in the gym when Uravity's fight hit school, right?”

Yes, and Yua is trying desperately to forget the worst day of her life, thank you.

“Uravity and Cryptid dug me out, but it was weird, because he drew this symbol on a piece of the roof and it just- stayed. In the air. Even when nothing was supporting it.” Mariko pauses, beaming at the magic circle that’s mostly made of lines and squiggles to complete the aesthetic. One of the symbols doesn't look right. It slides out of focus, and Yua carefully steps back, because hell no.

“How is that supposed to help us summon a ghost-”

“Finished! Start filming, hurry, hurry, hurry!” Mariko drops her piece of chalk as Yua scrambles to swipe open her camera. Before Yua can stop her, Mariko has drawn a pocket knife, cut the pad of her thumb, and is smearing blood on the unsanitary parking lot ground.

Delightful.

Her hand is going to get so infected.

That’s right about when the air above the circle tears itself apart.

Mariko shrieks. Yua almost runs, then remembers herself and makes sure her phone is pointed at the sliver of starlight shining out of thin air. She knows her horror film tropes. Whatever they released into the world is taking them first, but she can at least get a video account to warn people of what they did.

Eaten by a demon or some shit. That’s a bomb-ass obituary.

Pro Hero Cryptid crashes out of the portal, one hand protectively wrapped around a bowl half-full of salad. His Uravity sweatshirt mostly obscures Froppy sweatpants, but Yua is more alarmed by the fact that Cryptid looks surprisingly human. No needle-sharp teeth, no starlit eyes. Spinach flutters to the ground around the hero in a gentle shower of greenery that nestles in his curly hair as if adding to the foliage. He stares blankly at them, then at the scribbles under his feet, before pointing a truly pissed-off look at the sky.

“Are you serious?” Cryptid yells at the city skyline. A spinach leaf falls off his shoulder. “Right in front of my salad?”

“Holy shit,” Yua whispers, and discovers that she can, in fact, be more embarrassed than the time their teacher made the whole class sing ‘Happy Birthday’ while she stood in silent mortification on a chair. “We summoned him.”

Mariko claps both hands over her mouth to keep in her laughter, eyes wide. “We really did.”

This seems to draw the hero’s attention back to them.

“You two okay? Yes? Nobody’s hurt? Oh, thank goodness.” Cryptid stabs a fork into his vegetables, shoves it into his mouth, and makes grabby hands for the chalk. Mariko passes it over with a potent mix of awe and glee.

“I am so sorry,” Yua breathes.

Mariko sniffs. “I’m not.”

“And I’m glad to be summoned,” Cryptid finishes with a sunshine-smile. He’s very… human. The wrinkled eyebrows he directs at Mariko’s chalk art do not resemble the otherworldly creature that showed up during All Might’s last battle. “Better for me to be dropped here than for y’all to get… hm. Yeah, this is good.”

Hm?

Hm??

What does ‘hm’ mean?

Yua reaches over and frantically swats at Mariko’s sweatshirt in an attempt at telepathically communicating her many, many feelings concerning accidentally summoning a hero into this godsforsaken Denny’s parking lot.

“How did you find a stasis glyph?” Cryptid mumbles around his fork.

“Copied it from you. My quirk lets me mimic actions if I see them without blinking.” Mariko peers around his shoulder at the lines taking form.

“That’s such a cool quirk,” Cryptid tells her instantly. “Do you need a clear line of sight? Is it only capable of copying real-life actions or can you use recordings? Oh, are you limited to your own flexibility and strength, or is this a mirror skill instead of a mimic? You could use that for anything, it’s a very adaptable power.”

Yua cautiously edges closer to give the camera a better angle at the ground while Mariko preens. “What are you even doing?”

“Editing. Here, look- right there, you tied it down with intent contrary to the meaning.” Cryptid shuffles over so she can see and points out a circled section. He smudges out the blurry patch.

Mariko watches eagerly as the hero replaces it with a mishmash of lines that Yua can actually make sense of. “I don’t understand any of what you just said, but hell fuckin’ yeah, you funky lil’ cryptid.”

“Oh, sorry. I get called whenever the void gets angry, and this is the language it speaks,” Cryptid says, like this makes sense. He taps the lines eagerly. “Put a stasis glyph on the ground and continents will stop shifting, which is a whole lot of bad news."

"Uh huh," Mariko says. Yua swats at her again, because there's no way she understands and going along with this for entertainment value alone is going to get them into some sort of horror movie B-Plot.

Cryptid just looks amused. "Next time you need to experiment, use a paper base instead of the concrete. It’s safer. And- is that blood?”

“Maybe,” Mariko says, partially as a dare for him to say anything because she isn’t really the type to listen to anyone, regardless of if they’re a hero. “It worked, didn’t it?”

“Huh. Yeah, you got me there.” Cryptid puts his bowl of salad on the ground and fishes around in his Uravity sweatshirt for a tiny med kit.

“Where’d we go wrong,” Mariko asks, like they are ever going to try this again. Yua hisses for her to stop and is ignored with the extreme confidence of someone determined to keep making the same continuous mistake until success is summoned through stubborn willpower alone.

“You didn’t need to hurt yourself.” Cryptid bandages her hand, slips away the medkit, and says gravely, “Blood never brings anything good.”

“Holy shit,” Yua repeats as Cryptid takes a bite of salad and goes right back to his art project like this happens every other Tuesday. Mariko glares at her, but honestly, this is the wildest thing.

The hero keeps saying things.

“Not to lecture either of you, but it’s a bad idea to mess around with unborn languages without supervision.” Cryptid hands back the chalk and takes another bite of his salad. “This stuff can blow up in your face. So, can I escort you guys anywhere? Because it’s a little dark and this isn’t exactly the safest part of town.”

That’s about when Yua realizes something under the spinach is glowing.

#Anon #Tired cat asks #World Walker #Fic snippet

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icharchivist · 3 years

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i try not to get worked up when people don’t like my fav characters because i know that on top of me being really forgiving in term of how much a character can do for me to be pissed at them, i also tend to be driven toward more morally questionable characters especially if they did pretty fucked up things to get there. I find those stories fascinating. But even so in general i do my best to be understanding and not think too much about it.

.... but i’m thinking too much about it, so sorry rant under the cut about what a friend told me about Banri that has been working me up all day

one of the friend i dragged into a//3 who told me initially that she liked Banri fine, started to send me messages about Banri like “oh i’m sure this guy would bully Misumi” and i was so????? Like what the fuck??? i know at this point she only watched the anime but...??????

Banri only ever show overprotection over the summer kids. He genuinely cares for them and act as a protector to them, more explicitly so with Yuki and Kumon, even Muku if we take the coin talks, and he is on a set of mutual respect with Tenma.

I think my friend is jumping to conclusion because of the way Banri treated Juza, but that doesn’t mean “he’s a bully and just want to bully people”, Juza represented something for Banri and this is this something that Banri was attacking. Juza was the first time Banri felt an ongoing thrill since a long long time. His portrait establish that Banri felt dead inside unless he was in a thrill of a fight, and even there it ended quick because he would always win - and Juza being stronger meant that this thrill and battle kept going until after the fight was over. And Banri didn’t know how to interpret that thrill and just thought he had to defeat Juza, until finally he realized he was better growing along with people at Mankai and that he could find his thrill in a place that was neither self destructive nor destructive of others.

His bullying of Juza was more the result of his frustration around what was essentially a depressive mental state, and trying to process this frustration until he could find an alternative, not because he considered Juza weird or that he had to be punished for being outside the norms.

And yeah it sucks that he took it all out on Juza especially since Juza has a history of people always targeting him and attacking him, i’m not saying his actions toward him were okay and i’m not even arguing it wasn’t bullying in some sort, but that doesn’t mean that Banri gets a kick from humiliating people, especially not more “vulnerable” people. He’s shown, on the contrary, to be extremely protective with them. And especially now that Banri found the thrill of a passion that makes him feel alive, and that he’s since shown himself to seek to understand people more and connect with them, i feel that on the contrary seeing them all being so passionate about something is something Banri would want to protect. Imo his speech with Yuki in Into the Night really sums it up.

But i know my friend only watched the anime but it still. rubs me the wrong way, like i did try to nudge by pointing out little details building up to that (mainly that Banri was upset the costumes were destroyed NOT because of the issues with the play but because “who the fuck would destroy Yuki’s hardwork?”. Yuki and Banri’s friendship is really one of my fav dynamic and it is here so early on...) but there’s little i can do without being overbearing and imposing my opinion on her which i do not want to do.

I know my friend has a very hard time with bully types of character and tbh i did tell her originally that i expected her to dislike Banri, so when she told me she liked him it came as a surprise to me.... but now she talks about it a little more and i feel like she’s trying to make him more of a bully in her head than he actually is and it works me up so bad. If she just disliked him, fine, but i don’t like the idea of twisting his character into someone worse than he is just to justify this feeling that is perfectly reasonable to have without having to blow it out of proportion.

She got into the game recently to try to see the stuff the anime cut and she’s waiting until she unlocked the whole story, after which i’ll send her the Act 1 events, and i just hope Into the Night will change her mind on Banri, if not making him likeable to her, just... just not having to make me read that Banri would bully any of the summer kids ever again yaknow?

Especially now right before icwtn that i still haven’t read but i’m pretty sure Banri is supposed to play a teacher who is supposed to help Misumi as a student? so i feel like if a Banri&Misumi is going to be explored there it will continue with the trend of Banri being protective with the Summer kids.

Banri is a character i really love, he’s very high in my top, though i remain aware of the fact the way he treated Juza can really rub people the wrong way.... but i find it disheartening that a character with much more facets of himself is defined by actions that are from a time he was lashing out due to being in a bad mental space. But re: first paragraph i guess. :/

if anything though it kinda makes me feel bad that i got her into it...? tbf it’s not like i told her she HAD to get into it, i think i told her in passing when i got into it two years ago telling her i love it, then it’s mostly that she follows me on twitter so she sees the stuff i post about it there... idk it rubs me the wrong way dkfldjf Like thankfully others people i dragged into a3 have had delightful takes about it and i loved to talk about it with them

this one specifically just kinda makes me hella sad because i don’t want to be forcing my opinion on her either and there’s a line between “i know more stories than you” and just “you’re wrong about how you feel” that can be blurry and i really don’t want to cross it.

And it’s also another layer of meh because it’s not like i liked Banri strongly on my first read either but the moment he realized he liked theater is when i started to genuinely enjoy him and put stuff back into perspective and idk i guess i just. feel sad it’s not that easy for others i guess?

And i’m just kjdhfjd also anxious because yeah so far she just watched the anime and there’s a few things she said about some chara i don’t specifically vibe with (like she finds Sakuya super boring D: my son......) and i get more anxious with the stories to come and well. If you know me you know what i can be really anxious about.

#ichasalty #ichatalks #i'm not putting it in the fandom tag so it doesn't accidentally get in the tags #but yeah a bit sad i just need to vent it out dkjhfdfjl #i love banri so this :/ but well

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phoenixyfriend · 3 years

Text

Madara and Obito... In SPACE

So the preface to this mess: I don’t know jackshit about Star Wars, so a lot of this went through friends who do know Star Wars (the primary of which does not have a tumblr).

(I have watched Episodes 7&8, and Rogue One. Of the first six movies, I remember watching maybe an hour total. I have not seen more than snatches of Clone Wars. Beyond that, nothing but fic.)

Anyway! Let’s go:

As y’all probably know by now, my favorite form of crossover is what I call “intrusive,” so... I'm enjoying the mental concept of "dump Madara on Coruscant and watch him go." (Prequels, probably.)

Does Madara know what's going on? No. Can he understand a word that's being said? No! Is he going to fight the first person to aim a weapon at him, and every person after that? Yes.

Is Madara fighting fit?

Nnnnnnnnnnnnnno, not really, he’s old as balls. This is "I was on cave life support but I'm getting back up to kick ass out of pure spite" Madara.

[Image description: A screenshot of a panel of the Naruto Manga. Uchiha Madara is old and visibly ‘decrepit,’ with spiky white hair and an amorphous black robe. He is sitting on a pale throne, and there is a scythe visible to the side. He has a speech bubble saying “I am... a ghost of the Uchiha.” End Description]

Two wrinkly old guys, staring each other down: There ain't enough room in this universe for the two of us. [Palpatine and Madara start fighting to the death]

Congrats, Palpatine! Your ass is getting kicked by a geriatric malcontent who doesn't speak any language you've ever heard or feel like literally anything in the Force. You may have Sith lightning, but do you have decades of frontline experiences and over half a century of cave-dwelling bitterness?

Both of them, simultaneously, in completely different languages: Get off my lawn, whipper-snapper.

Palpatine: Behold my mastery of the Dark Side, Foolish old man! Palpatine: [shoots lightning] Madara: Oh hey, you're like the seventeenth most dangerous person who can shoot lightning I've fought. Telekinesis? Fought that. Combat precognition? Fought that, have that, and let me tell you hwat, it doesn't help if you're opponent is just that much faster than you.

Now, I’ll take a step back and acknowledge that several people advised me that Palpatine would stand a chance against Madara, likely even win, if Madara just got hacked off of his life support and is down to one eye.

But. I want a shitpost, and also to clown on Palpatine, so Madara wins easily.

Madara also deserves to be clowned on, but the entire situation is clowning on him because he’s not in his cave anymore, and he really wants to go back to his Gedou Mazou statue.

Maybe Madara and Palpatine go Old Man Fight and then Obito just pulls a Ninja Move and kills Palpatine that way. Madara was ranting and Obito just. Ninjas behind Palpatine and slits his throat like “okay, you’re obviously evil so like... bye.”

(I just love causing "Wait what" reactions in characters that are used to having total control. Like. Have you read "Unexpected Guests"? The Bleach fic? Everything that happens in Hueco Mundo and after. That energy. I want that energy.)

Madara waves his scythe around like a cane. Obito just trails after like “Gramps, no” because it’s still pre-Sanbi, so he’s Mostly Innocent (you know, on the scale of how fucked up Obito is as a person), and just wants Madara to like. Stop.

Palpatine dies but nobody's sure what to charge Madara with since he did kind of expose a Sith? And Palpatine attacked first for [handwave] reasons?

Jedi: Well sir, in lieu of charging you with assassination of the emperor, we have decided to ask you politely to return to the elderly person's retirement home from whence you came. Please leave immediately. You are frightening the senate. Madara: [incomprehensible raving] Jedi: Yes yes, very interesting. Jedi, whispering: Does anyone know his caretaker???

Obito looks increasingly put-upon as events progress. You need Obito there to... well, not translate. Nobody can translate. But to at least poke Madara into being Slightly Less Homicidal.

Anakin seems sad about his friend dying and being evil so Obito challenges him to a spar. Madara and Obito get pulled into the Jedi Temple to help train Padawans? My first thought was "they wouldn't trust someone so obviously Weird, Crazy, and Incomprehensible around the younglings" and my second thought was "well they let Yoda do it and he's all those things so I mean? YEAH."

What if they put Madara in the bacta tank and he just freshened up like a daisy because of hand-wave Hashirama cell reasons (Blame Sir Tiddyface).

From “Decrepit and Reliant on Cave Tube Life Support” to “Will Call Down Meteors With Ease”

How many eyes does he have? Whatever’s funniest. Let’s say one Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan and one Rinnegan, for maximum chaos.

Would "half my body is missing" Obito freak out if Bacta regrew his eye? Can bacta regrow something like that? When characters lose limbs they usually just get cybernetic replacements, but the person I spoke with said that apparently they saw somewhere that that kind of thing can grow back it just takes a really long time.

I want to imagine bacta would help Obito with the Zetsu integration.

Anyway! Yes. Have Madara help train people despite being... Madara about it. You know... kind of a dick.

(I’d put example gifs but I don’t feel up to it. Y’all know what Madara’s “weakness disgusts me” ass is like.)

Obito had to get his "these fools could never make me sweat" sass from somewhere, after all.

Do you think Obito could fight the baby Jedi that are around his age while recovering? I have no idea what their skill level is at fourteen, but I want to imagine Obito sparring the Padawans.

Obito + Zetsu + Bacta = he still needs physical therapy but he can spar again!

Madara is delighted to have a baby ninja to bully. He's too old to not bully baby ninjas, and Obito is the only baby ninja. TBH Madara just makes Obito his assistant teacher.

Obito: What are we even doing here and how do we get home? Madara: I'm still working on that. Obito: But I want to go home and see Rin and Kakashi! Madara, who was like two days away from triggering the Sanbi plan: I'm working on it.

Something sticking in my mind rn is Ahsoka&Obito, since Obito is still Baby.

I think Obito would be excited to have someone his age that thought he was Cool and Talented for being able to do Chakra Things instead of writing him off as "the dead-last." Like, Rin is friends with him, but she doesn't look up to him as someone more/differently talented. He'd be excited to get to be "The Mysterious Cool Big Bro" for once.

I feel I also just like the idea of Anakin not knowing what to do with someone Several Years Younger that is also. Ninja Skill.

Miscellaneous thoughts:

Madara is a grouchy old man even AFTER he gets effectively de-aged via bacta dunk, for the record. He's back in his prime and the Jedi have no idea how. They're all concerned about tiddyface*. (When are people not concerned about Sir Tiddyface, really.) The mokuton is a problem.

*Sir Tiddyface is that random Hashirama face that Madara had growing out of his pecs for like... convoluted bullshit reasons.

(Madara doesn't have mokuton, but he has enough Hashirama cells that it interacted very, VERY weirdly with the bacta.)

Obito spends the intervening weeks trying to learn the local language. He's very eager. Not particularly fast. Still doing it though!

I want Obito juggling kunai as physical therapy while he's waiting for Mads to get out of the bacta tank and just gains himself the adoration of a gaggle of small baby Jedi children.

Madara comes out of the bacta tank looking like he did in his prime (which I mentioned earlier but whatever), and it absolutely incites a yelling match of an argument that draws way too much attention.

Someone tries to teach Obito how to access the Force, just to see what happens. He almost turns into a statue because the philosophy behind Force meditation is only a few steps away from Sage Mode Meditation.

Anyway, Madara smacks him with a stick like Fukasaku to make sure Obito doesn't turn into stone.

Madara grumps about the lack of paper and brushes and ink. Bitches about it until someone hits up an antique store or something to get them for him. The day before he and Obito are dispatched on a mission with someone, probably Anakin for plot reasons, Madara very publicly seals things into a scroll and then tells them that no, they can't learn it, because the Force isn't chakra so fuuinjutsu won't work for them, so There.

Obito practices some Teen Rebellion (tm) and like, tries to teach the Padawan friends he's made how to do Chakra Things... but he's so bad at explaining things that nobody can get it to work even if it were possible.

In Obito's defense, language barriers. Not in Obito's defense, he's just really bad at words sometimes.

#Star Wars #Star Wars Prequels #Naruto #Uchiha Madara #Uchiha Obito #crossovers #Phoenix Posts #body horror mention

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