#which just opens up another 5 different cans of worms frankly | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

chayacat · 3 years

Text

Devil’s Sweet Star (10)

Fandom : Dead by Daylight

Ghostface x Female Reader

Rated M for Violence, Language and Smut

***

The sky is clear on this evening, the wind is not too cool, almost an ideal time to go kill or stalk someone. Unfortunately for Danny, this ideal evening is a bit taken by Mr Hoggins' reception. Melina invited you with him and Mattew to come to her house to get ready, so you will quickly be at the reception. As the women prepared in Melina’s bedroom, the boys changed in the guest room.

“Damn I don't like costumes! I feel way too different! How can you...” he starts, turning to Danny before freezing on the spot. “wow...”

Danny was in front of him, putting the sleeves of his jacket back on. His hair was not tied this time, cascading over his shoulders. He had left his glasses in their boxes, revealing his piercing blue eyes. Did I ever tell you that this boy was beautiful? Tell you that, in a suit, he's divine to look at.

“Damn Jed! You've got fucking class like that! You're going to get everyone's attention like that.” said Mattew impressed.

“You... You think so? Well, thank you. You're not bad either.” answer Jed with a little smile while Danny smiles bigger. Of course, he’s handsome. he knows it since a long time.

“Frankly, you should have more confidence in yourself and your physique.”

“Is everyone ready?” said Melina by putting on her earrings. “woah what a class... If I didn't know you, I would have invited you for a drink.”

Danny sighed, shaking his head before he saw you. His heart missed a beat when he saw you in this purple dress, your hair well-coiffed, a very discreet makeup on your face. You looked like an angel. If you had been alone, believe me that Danny would not have hesitated for a moment to explore every part of your body. As Ghostface of course.

“You’re...you’re beautiful.” He said by placing a kiss on your hand.

“So are you.” you respond blushing at this gesture.

“If these gentlemen, ladies, are ready... we have a scandal to find.” replied Melina with a wink.

Danny slit his throat, in order to regain a countenance and then headed with the others to the car. As a good gentleman, he opened the door for you and let you ride the first one before settling down. Melina got behind the wheel and once everyone was tied up, she set out for Mr Hoggins' villa for the reception.

“Well remember everyone, the purpose of our presence is not only to cover the event, but also to find evidence about the plots of Hoggins and McKellan. Jed has to go to Hoggins' office without getting noticed, find the evidence, and then we're off. Got it?” said Melina looking at you and Danny in the rear-view mirror.

“We'll stay in contact with the little earbuds that our boss gave us! If we ever see any movement, we will notify you immediately!” said Mattew.

“if you're not too distracted by the butlers or some of the guests.” said Danny sneering.

Mattew slapped him on the knee, making him laugh even more. Then he put his attention to you, a big smile on his face thinking back to last night. Seeing you as confident but frightened as a little doe amused him a little.

The road seemed endless, almost falling asleep, but after an hour and a half drive, the villa of Hoggins was visible. Danny looked at you and saw that you were slightly stressed when you saw the building.

“Just relax. It's going to be all right. stays natural no matter what, okay?” He said, laying his hand on your shoulder.

“Okay...I’ll try my best, but It's going to be difficult.” You answer with a little smile.

Melina parked a little further and everyone got out of the car looking closer at the building. The group advanced to the front door, Danny warning the security that you were accompanying them. There were a lot of wealthy people tonight, discussing everything and nothing with such arrogance that, if Danny had a knife on his hand, he'd slit them all to the last, before gutting them and cutting them into thin slices.

They had a drink handed to them by a butler and took the opportunity to listen to the discussions between the guests. While some were delighted and surprised about this partnership, others were not really surprised.

Among them was Richard Hoggins, the master of the place. He must have been in his fifties, bald but straight and proud as a prince. Everything about this man was sweating lust, and that's what disgusted Danny to the point.

“You must be the journalists of the Roseville Gazette, I suppose? It's strange, your boss told me you'd only be 3...who is this lovely lady?” said Hoggins, placing a kiss on your hand.

“She came with us.” Said Danny, taking you by the waist to get closer to him. If there's one thing Danny doesn't like, it's to share what’s HIS. And if he doesn't want to end up as a headless rider, Hoggins better leave you alone.

“Well, I count on you to immortalize this evening so that all the newspapers of the state see the magnificence of my success. For the fifth time.”

“Sure Sir! Mattew and I would like to ask you about this, our readers want to know more about this new partnership you signed and its long-term future. it should last... 1 or 2 hours maximum?” Said Melina staying calm looking at Danny who nodded, understanding the message.

Hoggins nodded and took Melina and Mattew to a room away from the noise to chat quietly. Danny took his camera out of his purse and started taking pictures of the reception. If he didn't want to be spotted, he had to play his role. He took the opportunity to take a picture of you, which surprised you.

“A little souvenir of the evening, and the best photo I would have taken.” he said with a smile.

“So... what’s the plan?” you ask innocently.

“We'll take some pictures for the newspaper as planned. We have to go into hoggins’ office and find out what we are looking for. Don't lose sight of me and stay close enough to me. Okay?” he whispered at your ear.

“Okay.”

Danny took a few more pictures before putting his camera in his bag. Noticing that in the next room there was music and people dancing, a mischievous smile came to his lips. And why not enjoy it a little?

“Wanna dance? since we're here... we might as well enjoy it, right?” he asks, reaching out his hand towards you.

“I... I don't know how to dance... I never had the opportunity. And then we don't really have time for that... Don't you think so Jed?” you answer shyly and embarrassed.

“It's true. But it's not every day that you can go to a reception. And don't worry... I never had the opportunity to dance either.” replied Danny with a little smile.

You hesitate a few seconds before taking his hand. You both find yourself in the middle of the dancers and, if you didn’t know how to dance, Danny is an expert. He couldn't help but smile when he saw your desolate look every time you missed his foot or missed a step.

But little by little you pick up the pace. Everyone was looking at you two, Unintentionally, you became the center of attention. Danny doesn’t care, it flattered his ego, his narcissism fed on this attention.

And among all these worms, these rotten bourgeois to the marrow, there is you. An angel among the demons, a sheep among the wolves. You are HIS toy, and only to him. If you must be afraid, if you must feel in danger, it will be only because of him. And his mask. Until he kills you, tired of you.

After about thirty minutes, you finally stop dancing, but you don't let go of each other. Danny ends up being the first, clearing his throat to regain a countenance.

“See? You’re pretty good for someone who has never danced. Come on, we still got something to do.” he said before leaving the room, you at his heels.

He walked to hoggins’ office, but the corridor leading to it was closed and guarded. We're going to have to find another way in. One advantage for Danny is that there is no security camera. How does he know? When Danny does research, he studies everything. Absolutely EVERYTHING.

What? Did you forget who he was or what? It shouldn't surprise you though. Danny went outside, pretending to take some air before beckoning you to follow him discreetly. He was impressed to see how involved you were. You could be a good accomplice... if you were less naïve.

Escaping from all eyes, he saw the window of Hoggins' office slightly open. What an idiot... he is so pretentious that he leaves the windows open. It's an invitation to go home for our dear assassin. he is almost flattered.

“I could pass through the window... But I need to know if Hoggins is still interviewed. Mattew? Do you hear me? Hoggins left the room or not?” ask Danny

“Hey! No Melina continues to interview him. But she'll be soon run out of questions. How about you?” respond Mattew through the earbud.

“I found a way in. Stay careful and watch the door in the main room. It's the hallway that leads to the office.”

“No problem! Be careful! I'll warn you at the slightest movement!” replied Mattew.

“If you see anyone coming this way, stay natural, okay? Just pretend you're getting some fresh air outside.” said Danny to you before getting inside the office from the window.

One thing is for sure, this office is more luxurious than the rest of the villa: statues, paintings, a library going around the room, and an office so large that you could put 5/6 computers on it. This is what serves as an office for one of the most influential men on the market.

“It doesn’t surprise me to see this when you are one of the biggest crooks in the country... Tsk he deserves more than prison.” said Danny before examining the desk.

He opened the drawers one by one, looking for a folder, a letter, something that could be used for the newspaper. He eventually found a printed e-mail sent by McKellan. He said he was just waiting for the green light from hoggins before taking action to sink his competitor with whom he had just signed a partnership. That's exactly what he needed.

“Well, Hoggins...seems like YOU’LL be the one who sink soon. And maybe your head will fall too...just like McKellan. I think I found a new victim.”

“Jed! Hoggins goes to his office. Get the f**k out of here quick! Said suddenly Melina through the earbud.

Danny took a picture of the mail before closing everything and coming out the window, closing it as it was. Taking you gently by the arm, you return to the interior to find Melina and Mattew. But it's hard to spot them with all this crowd. He beckoned Melina when he saw her with Mattew and they both joined you.

“I found something. I'll show you this in the car.” said Danny discreetly.

“Too bad I would have liked to have taken advantage of it a little more …" said Mattew.

“Are you leaving already? I hope you were able to take some pictures...” Said Hoggins, looking at Danny with a smile.

“Don’t worry, I'm the best photographer you’ve never met.” responds Danny before taking a photo of Hoggins. “You will soon be able to admire your face on the Roseville gazette as well as on all the newspapers of the state.” he replied with an Insolent smile.

“Looking forward to seeing you again... Miss.”

You fake a smile and then leave the reception with the trio. You sigh in relief when you finally reach Melina’s car.

“I don't want to see this guy again... Never again.” you said worried.

“I promise you won't see him again. Look what I found.” said Danny before showing the picture to the others.

“Tsk motherf***er. He will pay soon. Let’s get out of here. This place made me sick. Said Melina before starting the car and go home.

The way home appeared shorter, and once you arrived, you and Danny picked up your bags where your clothes were. Then he drove, greeting Melina and Mattew before taking the road with you in the passenger seat. Arrived at your destination and once on the doorstep of your apartment you take off your shoes.

“I'm glad I'm not a woman. I don't think I would have had the faith to wear these things.” said Danny laughing.

“it's real torture. I'd like to be in your shoes. At least the only shoes you're wearing are sneakers.” you respond with a sigh. “but I don't regret this night. I had a great time. Let's hope we don't do this for nothing.”

“With this e-mail, we're sure to make things happen. Even the bribes won't save him this time.”

“Thanks Jed... Good night.” you said, placing a kiss on his lips unintentionally.

Danny was speechless. And it took him a few seconds to regain his spirits. You realized what had just happened and not knowing what to say, you back up to your door and go back to your apartment without saying a word more. Danny quickly returned home and quickly slammed the door, knocking on her.

“Shit! This is not the time! I have to stay focused... I can't destroy everything now. I can't... not right away.”

He goes to his office and get his bag before looking at his hunting board, especially Mike's photo.

He still has some work to do.

He has a gift to prepare.

***

(Done! I'll hope you liked it like the others! By the way, do you have a tumblr page to recommend me about slashers? See ya!)

#dbd fanfic #dbd #dead by daylight #ghostface #danny johnson #jed olsen

21 notes · View notes

black-streak · 4 years

Text

Waiting for the Worms - Bring the Boys Back Home

Part 11

Jason's time up until the blackout. Very few warnings for this bit... Umm, mention of guns and a touch of violence later? This part is a bit shorter than usual, especially in comparison to the last part.

CLOSED LIST. Tickets for the angst express are sold out!!! : @northernbluetongue @thethirdwheelfriend @shizukiryuu @theatreandcomicfreak @michellemagic @karategirl119 @moonlightstar64 @my-name-is-michell @mystery-5-5 @zalladane @queen-of-the-trash-planet-tm @miraculousdisapointment @dorkus-minimus @jardimazul @allthebooksandcrannies @g-arya @worlds-tiniest-spook-pastry @persephonescat @mycupisbroken @luciferge @18-fandoms-unite-08 @dawnwave16 @alwaysreblogneverpost @kris-pines04 @mysteriouslyswimmingfan-blo-blog @weird-pale-blonde-person @you-will-never-know-how-i-think @kokotaru @naclychilli @slytherinhquinn @clumsy-owl-4178 @ladybug-182 @darkthunder1589 @evil-elf16 @dast218 @lysslovsanime @emilytopaz @naoryllis @iloontjeboontje @thepeacetea @danielslilangel @finallyaniguana @i-like-fairytail-and-stuff @vixen-uchiha @yuulxd @bleeding-heart-romantic @magic-inthe-stars @st0rmy-w1th1n

~---~

Explaining why 'Marinette' had a newfound interest in guns and weaponry had been difficult to say the least. Sure, she already took martial arts and Jason added kickboxing and trained with the team regularly, but her parents weren't aware of the latter and quite frankly, the team showed some confusion as well. Sure, Kagami already new fencing and regularly used a bow staff as she saw fit, but guns? That was something else. Jason always had an interest and refused to give up, especially with Bruce no longer able to restrict his training. Tikki, surprisingly enough, fully supported the decision while Plagg actually showed more caution.

Nevertheless, with the excuse of wanting to know how to disarm and be able to disassemble a weapon in case someone were to attack him, Sabine reluctantly agreed to allow him to attend lessons and visit a shooting range. After figuring out the basics and quickly dropping the lessons as to not raise suspicion for the real reason he wanted to learn, Jason took Kaalki and borrowed Plagg so he could transport to isolated locations and use Tikki's creation magic to summon different models and learn them inside and out along with explosives that he took apart and put back together under the careful guidance of Plagg. When he was done, he let Tikki remove it from the world once more, undoing any damage he might've caused.

With graduation in two weeks and Marinette's seventeenth birthday right after, Jason knew he had a few decisions ahead of him.

Honestly, he just felt grateful Marinette skipped a grade when they were younger. He's not sure if he could take another year of living like this. The fight to stay normal, to stay under the radar and appear okay itched at his skin, reminding him at all times that it wasn't his. Back before the nightmares began, he almost settled into the routine, almost adjusted to the too smooth skin, the brush of hair between shoulder blades, the small stature and feminine voice he spoke in. Living as her almost came naturally. Sometimes he forgot Tom and Sabine weren't actually his parents and that his teammates didn't know the truth of who he was. Then the dreams started and horrific imagery flooded his mind every few nights and everything felt wrong again. Suddenly he couldn't forget where he was, who this body truly belonged to, the fact that he was meant to be dead, not finishing schooling.

The methodical rhythm of disassembling and cleaning weapons eased the tension and grounded him in his worst moments. Maybe if he knew how every weapon worked and how to counter them, the constant attacks in his dreams wouldn't terrify him so much. While his dream self seemed to have no issue fighting back and taking out his unseen enemies, his brain couldn't keep up in his sleeping state and threw him into a breathless fit, shaking and panicking as he startled into wakefulness. The panic lessened since starting to learn, so he figured he just needed to learn more and adjust. Really he just wished the dreams would end.

His phone buzzed, startling him out of his contemplative state. Raising it up, he checked the caller ID before answering, the video chat opening up to show Marc.

"Hey, Marc, what's up?"

"Kagami said she needs you to transport back now, something about disappearing too much for your own good?"

"She's one to talk. Alright, heading back now. Have somewhere in mind?"

"Chloe's suite. We're all gathered here," Marc said, shifting in place, more comfortable than they once were, but still shy by nature and unable to hide the edging nerves.

"Oh really? Maybe I should just head home then. Sounds like an intervention."

He watched as his friend jumped a bit, surprised eyes widening rapidly. Before they could even begin to speak, Jason chuckled, cutting them off.

"I'm opening the portal now. See you in a moment."

Hanging up, he opened his bag and woke the sleeping kwami to transport them back to Paris. Upon arriving in Chloe's suite, said blonde launched herself at him, wrapping him up in a hug and swinging them about with the momentum.l, before immediately backing off before he could get annoyed, Kagami coming up from the side and gripping his sleeve in her own form of affectionate greeting. Marc and Juleka looked up from the couch and offered excited smiles.

"You're all entirely too happy. What's happening?"

"Your birthday is in three weeks," Juleka stated softly.

"You're finally hitting our age, oh fearless leader," Chloe drawled out.

"You say that as if you aren't already eighteen," he deadpanned back.

"Semantics."

"There are some highlights to graduating and be surrounded by legal adults," came from his side.

"Like?"

"Your parents agreeing to let you go on a trip with us, no real adults present. Happy Birthday, Marinette."

"What did you guys do?"

Marc spoke up here, "well, we were trying to think of what to give you and I remembered how much you use to talk about leaving Paris all the time and with how much you've been using Kaalki to escape, we figured you wanted out, especially now that Hawkmoth isn't necessarily holding us back anymore and your guardian training is complete. So then we had to think of where to go and what to do and maybe Chloe and I remembered back years ago, no matter how your list of places to go changed, one always stayed the same and-," they rambled in a spiral until Juleka landed a hand on their shoulder, cutting them off gently.

"We're going to Gotham," she offered.

He felt his pulse pick up and eyes widen, thoughts and emotions tearing through him too fast to hold on to.

"Mari? This is an excited reaction right? We can change plans if you no longer want to go," someone spoke. He had to stamp down his anger and tears, to reassure his teammates they hadn't done anything wrong.

"No no, I'm thrilled, I just never thought I'd be going there as an adult is all."

"Oh," Chloe flinched, putting two and two together first, having been the most present back when the connection broke and knowing something bad happened to Marinette's soulmate, "Mari, if it hurts to go there, we won't. I didn't realize," she trailed off.

"I want to."

"Are you sure? This trip is supposed to be a celebration for you."

"It'll give me closure. I want to go. Thank you or this," he forced a watery smile which ended with another hug from Chloe and soft smiles from the rest. They couldn't have realized what type of closure he sought out. Bruce, explaining why he thought it okay to let his soulmate pass on without a proper funeral, without any retribution or justice for their death. The Joker dead. Some people should not be allowed to live, he'd always believed that and the clown was one of those people. Sure, this would look like petty revenge, but how many others lost their soulmate to his hands? This was necessary. And his team had just given him the means to do so without raising suspicion. He felt a type of peace settle over him as he thanked them again for their thoughtful gift.

…

Two weeks came and went and suddenly they were graduates. Suddenly, her birthday was upon them and her parents presented a beautiful cake and invited all of their friends and family over to celebrate. Tom cried over his baby girl growing up and Jason teared up, knowing she never did. He hugged them twice as tight in apology, giving watery smiles mistaken for his realizing his own new status as an adult, if a young one. Gifts were given and promises were made and at the end of the day, it all hit like a whirlwind. She'd been dead for one week short of three years. On the anniversary of her death, he'd arrive in the place where it all began. That godforsaken hellhole of a city. It felt like poetic justice. He struggled to fall asleep that night.

…

His nightmare was more vivid that night. Throwing a blade at a barely seen threat, pinned beneath another, the streak of silver above him and downpour of blood. Moving out and up on instinct, and meeting terrified green eyes.

Moving down a path, a glance at the bodies in another. The woman from before, the other one with the jade eyes, among them. Twisting the kid out of sight and away from there. A dark tunnel. An abandoned building.

He woke then, bright blue and acidic green eyes watching him wearily from the other side of the room. Shoving it down, he shifted over and fell back asleep, use to these restless nights by now.

…

The airport was too bright and loud for this time in the morning. Their flight was at eight in the morning from Paris, meaning they would arrive in Gotham around ten in the morning. Time zones were annoying that way. All of them had stayed up the entirety of the night before and planned on sleeping for the duration of the flight as though that would help. Eight hours in a plane with only two hours difference in time was sure to throw them off no matter what.

Either way, they all boarded, tucked into their first class seats, courtesy of the rich kids, with blankets and reclined positions and went to sleep.

…

Landing, going through customs, and retrieving their bags went smoothly enough, making it to their hotel rooms by ten thirty. Now they were regrouping, having dropped off their things and changed out of their airport clothing. The urge to pass out for another eight hours was tempting, but none of them had anything in their stomachs and food took president for now.

Picking their way into a coffee shop down the road, Jason ordered a latte and a slice of pumpkin bread and settled in a corner table, blocked off from most of the place.

As the others slowly trickled over with their own findings, a tension slowly grew amongst the group. Amongst the entirety of the cafe actually. Looking around he couldn't catch sight of anything out of the normal. Surely none of the rogues would attack here. It was just a cafe, nothing worth holding up. Until he remembered where they were. On the very edge of where the penguin's territory usually landed. Right on the edge of where Scarecrow's usual haunts began. Glancing about more frantically to see why everything had fallen silent, the privacy of his corner table also blocking too much of the view, a scream picked up right as a cloud of smoke spread from the last table to their own.

Stiffening up in preparation for what was to come, the breath knocked right out of him as a sharp yank came from the back of his head. No, his mind. Right as the cloud reached his face, he blacked out.

…

Coming to, he jumped up, dizzy and disoriented. The room spun and he immediately fell back into his seat when a movement in his peripheral caught his attention. His hand instinctively yanked a knife off the counter (counter?) and launched it towards the figure while he twisted to face them.

When the room stopped spinning, he caught sight of the boy standing in the doorway to what appeared to be a bedroom, jade green eyes trained on him as he carefully pried the knife out of the wall beside his head. Once it was freed and lowered in his grasp, he turned fully towards Jason, eyes hardened with a wary glint. Everything went still.

"Marinette?"

#jasonette #maribat #ml x dc #WFTW #part 11 #just playing a bit of catch up #or am I?#next stop - terrible times!#hey i posted on time

426 notes · View notes

whirlybirdwhat · 4 years

Note

Oh I wonder how Katsuki would react to them! If it was an op au he would probably have Zoro's role (wants to be the best and doesn't care about what people think) but I don't know if he would like Zoro if he met him (and I really don't know what he would think of Luffy)

OKAY SO REALLY TINY ANSWER TO YOUR ACTUAL ASK AND THEN UNDER MY CUT MY FEELINGS ABOUT THAT KASUKI AND ZORO OPINION BECAUSE BOY. DID I FIND OUT I HAD EMOTIONS!

So! Kastuki be enraged. here are people who give no fucks about heroes, if bakugo’s better than him, have a drive he can’t match and the ability to cause bigger explosions than he could ever hope (Three Thousand worlds, red hawk, fire bird star... i can go on.) They aren’t bound by science like he is. And they don’t care about heroes, or the government, things that validate Bakugo.

So he’d be enraged. and then maybe ave a lil bit of respect? Because they are, sorry, stronger than bakugo in an objective sense and would wipe the floor with him. Especially since Bakugo wouldn’t have haki. And More, they wouldn’t care about what bakugo thought of them and would just do their thing. I think bakugo would want to be them. And He’d be 100% baffled by luffy who would just think his explosions were cool then show him his red hawk attack lmao.

NOW. Onto my very strong opinions underneath the cut.

gonna be honest i havent watch bnha since i watched one piece, so its been awhile, but i also feel that Bakugo and Zoro are just. very different characters. especially due to the extremely different themes both medias have. Zoro has a goal, an unbeatable, impossible goal that he will sacrifice anything but his friends to get - and in the beginning, when we first meet luffy, he would have sacrificed him if he got in his way. Zoro, however, supports others - he believes, no, knows that luffy will be the next pirate king. He’s the first mate and steps up when the captain can’t (water 7) and knows what need to be done and what he won’t sacrifice (which quite frankly is only his crew mr “chopping my legs off to win a battle is a good idea” fucking dumbass ily).

Bakugo, to my understanding as i stopped watching when Bakugo got captured, is literally. Not that. He has a goal yes, but its a goal shared by several other characters - deku, and i believe todoroki wants to be the number one, etc - and we also don’t know why beyond he wants to be the best. Its a baseless goal, as of right now, one that can only be given meaning through fan speculation. Which is in comparison to Zoro, whose goal to be the best is through a promise to a dead sister-figure and for his need not to be weak and to be strong enough for his captain - his crew - not himself, like Bakugo presumably. Additionally, Bakugo has literally stepped on others in a malicious way to get to the top, and while Zoro has done so, it is simply because he doesn’t care; he’s better than them in skill, and in the one piece world its a dog eat dog world. Zoro is staying true to the values he as a swordsman has. Bakugo wants to be a hero. Bakugo has less compassion for citizens than Zoro has, a world class criminal. Who has destroyed several towns and taken down several kings, tyrants, and government officials.

Too my last point, Bakugo... isn’t really a leader. Zoro isn’t either but Zoro steps up and people listen. Bakugo steps up and yells, and people listen. Its different.

And Bakugo does cares about what people think - he wouldn’t yell, proclaim he’s the best, be as competitive as he is, bully children, or anything if didn’t. He wouldn’t want to be the best with seemingly no motivation if he didn’t care what people thought.

Zoro has quite literally said that it doesn’t matter if he’s a pirate or a marine, or what people think of him - as long as his name rings across the land as the best swordsman, fufilling his promise to Kuina, he has achieved his dream. (Chapter 5 -6 I believe.)

This difference is of course to the themes of both manga. To my Understanding, BNHA is all about being a hero - what does it take to become a hero, what makes a hero, do not give up without trying, help others before yourself, theres a solution to every problem, etc. I looked most of these up because the only one I could think up off the top of my head is what makes a hero/ is it ability or your actions because how bnha handled it esp with its opening line pissed me off but!! thats a story for another time!

One Piece’s themes disregard heroes. One piece’s themes are first and foremost - dreams, the romantic view of the world, sticking to your ideals, being selfish, and freedom. I could go on for hours about it. In fact, I have.

The One Piece world is a lawless place. the government is corrupt, slavery exists, and its heroes are either pirates who saved you only because you were their friend (strawhats, despite not wanting to be called heroes) or marine heroes who are chained to the concept of a ruthless justice and have to let family members die for it (garp). Everything is weird, but only one character in the entire history of one piece has been alienated for being weird - Katakuri, for his mouth, which is fucking absurd considering his brother literally has an oven on his head and his mother is a soul sucking cannibal who wears a polka dot dress. In one piece your ‘quirks’ aren’t celebrated - its just normal. Fun even. Especially on. the Grand Line where the rule is anything can happen, from rubber boys fighting God or islands made out of food.

The world of BNHA is the exact opposite. While they have “quirks” which can be anything, its not something anybody can obtain, unlike one piece, where only Conquerors Haki is an unobtainable skill unless you are born with it. BNHA is a world buried deep in laws, heroes, and villains - black and white for the most part to my understanding. It is a world where if you are villain, you are pretty much expected to be evil or out for blood, and if you are a hero, you are generally expected to help people, even if you might be doing it for money or fame. Unlike one piece where each and every character has a dfiferent moral compass. BNHA is also a realistic world in terms of quirks - you won’t be finding islands of candy or the like, and it is pretty much contained in one setting, which shifts characters characterizations a lot.

How does this affect Bakugo and Zoro?

Well. In a world where dreams and selfishness are valued, you would think Bakugo would flourish. I think he would falter, because of what you pointed out - his willingness to be the best. In BNHA, theres a structure for how you become the best, through school and a career, an official ranking. There’s nothing like that in One Piece, as bounties have been shown to be absolutely fucking worthless, and literally all the top bounties are just puns. fucking puns. I love it.

If Bakugo went around as he does in BNHA, in one piece, a world where he doesn’t have people protecting him from his actions or not hurting him because he’s a kid, bakugo would honestly probably die. Bakugo’s drive to be the best and his normality as typically being the best in BNHA would not translate over well.

In One Piece rookies get knocked the fuck out unless you have plot armor which honestly doesn’t always protect you. See the Baratie. Saboady. Fucking Marine Ford. Wano. Big Mom. Fucking FOXY. You can surrvive by staying lucky - Buggy, but it isn’t often.

What would Bakugo even be the best of? The Marines where he has to listen to the Five Elders? He’d be a less hateful Akainu (because no one can be as bad as Akainu)

In a world without structure, Bakugo would fucking die.

In comparison, in a BNHA au, Zoro has drive and would probably just be like an accidental villain like I have in my au.

In the End, Zoro is a pirate, and Bakugo is a hero in training. Bakugo relies on organizations to help him reach the top while Zoro actively destroys them. Bakugo wants to lead but can’t (as of right now) and Zoro can lead but loves his captain, so won’t. Zoro’s goals are seated in concrete ideals, concrete promises that he has to keep. Idek why Bakugo wants to be a hero beyond being the best.

BNHA could not work in a one piece right down to the fucking morals. Pirates Vs Heroes. The pirates could maybe be the heroes, but could the heroes ever set out to purposefully take down others, obtain land, and be free from responsibility?

Thats just a portion of my thoughts on it. BNHA characters are just... so incompatible with any world that isn’t theirs because their lives revolve around fitting the algorithm of UA and the Hero Career. OP, in its focus on selfishness and disregarding the rules of any place and bringing chaos anywhere, can pretty much go anywhere without being odd because even in their own world they ruin every thing.

Okay. Im done now. Sorry anon you opened a can of worms i didn’t think i had thoughts on!! guess i do!!

#Anonymous #FUCK DID NOT KNOW I HAD THOSE EMOTIONS #op #one piece #bnha #whirlywhat #whirlywrites #zoro #whirlyrambles #roronoa zoro #disc horse>#bakugou katsuki #bakugou #op meta #mha #my hero academia #boko no hero academia

38 notes · View notes

written-prose-things · 4 years

Text

What did you just call me?

Summary: When an unknown hunter walks into Beacon Hills, Derek goes into Over Protective Alpha mode. Everyone gets puts into groups, which they're supposed to stick with at all times. Stiles gets stuck with Derek. Ya know, The Alpha He Has A Crush On. Over the next three days, they both realise exactly how much fun their normal life can be as well.

{this is the third chapter!}

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Ao3

The alpha is extremely vigilant about following the rules he lays down, so not having him in the room kicks Stiles into overdrive. Stiles flings himself out of the bed and towards his false-bottomed drawer. He pulls out the blue felt cover tome. Over the past month, Deaton gives him a book to keep when he masters its content.

Stiles flips through the pages quickly, which are warm with his residual magic. The page he needs falls open on its own.

The Re-Calling spell. Stiles gulps. He should be using a locator spell, but he wants Derek in front of him. Right. Now.

He’s only tried the Re-Calling spell on objects that he’s given to other people. But it has to work now.

He places his hand over the sigil, which has faded over time, on the coffee-coloured page and concentrated on Derek’s face, his smell, his “aura” like Deaton liked to call it.

A second later there was a loud thump against the window as Derek was flung onto it from the outside. Stiles yelped when Derek feel back with the inertia, onto the tiles of the roof.

Stiles rushed to open the window and looked down at Derek, who was groaning in pain. Below them, Scott and Boyd are standing on the ground, looking at Stiles like he’s the crazy one.

Stiles huffs, “I’m not apologising. I didn’t know where you were so I called you back.”

Derek, who’s in the middle of sitting up, stares at him with murder eyebrows, “You used a re-calling spell on me? You could have pulled my spleen out!”

Stiles shrugs, “Then the spleen would be the only part of you that followed the rule.”

Derek grumbles and sits up. Scott says loud enough for Stiles to hear, “So what should we do-?”

Derek flashes his eyes, “We just talked about this Scott.”

Both the betas bear their necks and Scott looks like a scolded puppy.

Boyd puts a hand on Scott’s shoulder and nods at Derek, “Yeah, we’ll figure it out.”

The two betas rush out of Stiles’ yard just as the sun begins to rise. Derek lets out another sigh before climbing in through the window.

Stiles asks in what he hopes is a casual way, “What’s up with them?”

Derek replies just as casually, “Nothing.”

Stiles nods and walks off to the bathroom. He isn’t going to get a straight answer out of Derek just yet.

-x-

The day goes slowly. Jackson, Erica and Allison are missing and Scott and Boyd look dead on their feet.

Stiles tries asking them what the issue is, but he only gets mumbled responses in return. Lydia and Issac keep him company in the classes they share, but they too are busy holding secret conversations when they think Stiles isn't looking.

When the day ends, Stiles is more than happy to run out the door to where Derek is already waiting for him.

Stiles dumps his bag in the backseat and slides into the front seat next to Derek. The alpha smirks, “I didn’t know you could get into a car without falling down.”

Stiles rolls his eyes, “Why weren’t Erica Allison and Jackson at school today?”

Derek shrugs as he pulls the car out of the parking lot, “How should I know?”

Stiles scoffs. How should I know? For an alpha who loves to nag and hound his betas, Derek is acting suspiciously. The alpha is always ready to spam the betas with texts and voicemails when they’re missing. Not that Stiles grudges Derek’s helicopter parenting, considering his past. But the sudden lack of enthusiasm for the same is alarming.

Stiles pulls himself out of his inner monologue just as they reach the turn for the Deaton’s clinic. He has a “class” with Deaton on the days that Coach doesn’t schedule practises.

“I have to go-”

Before Stiles can finish his sentence, Derek’s pulling the car onto Deaton’s street.

“How did you know where I wanted to go?”

Derek replies shortly, “Deaton’s place on days with no practice.”

Stiles quirks an eyebrow, “So, you remember my schedule but not the others?”

Derek covers quickly, but Stiles knows him well enough to see the quick flash of bewilderment on his face, “I’ll remember their schedules when they start spamming me with unnecessary voice notes at all hours of the day.”

Stiles rolls his eyes and drops his feet on the dash, “Whatever, I know you’re lying.”

Derek only shoves his legs off the dashboard as they slow down in front of the vet’s clinic. And that’s answer enough.

Outside, Deaton’s waiting for them in front of the clinic’s door. Stiles and Derek climb out of the car.

Deaton nods at Derek and Stiles, “Derek. Stiles.” His head moving low enough for it to look like he’s almost bowing weirdly.

But Stiles has become used to the man’s quirks. He repeats a parody of the man’s action, “Deaton.”

Derek growls unexpectedly, “Why’re you doing that?”

Stiles looks up to see Derek’s eyes flashing at Deaton, but his question is directed at Stiles.

Stiles shrugs, “He started it.” Which is true. Deaton’s been acting weird for the past month, but it’s not too different from his usual quirkiness, so Stiles just went with it.

Derek growls at Deaton.

The vet replies frankly, “I can’t not Derek. You know how important traditions are.”

Derek huffs and looks away. Clearly, he can’t argue with Deaton’s obscure explanation, but he still doesn’t like it.

Stiles raises his hand tentatively, “Can someone explain these traditions for the novice spark, please?”

Deaton clears his throat and replies slowly, “As the new emissary to the Hale pack, you rank higher than I do. Therefore, traditions state that I must show you respect. However, by returning the gesture, you are establishing my superiority, which can be taken as a challenge to Derek’s authority.”

The druid’s trademark long-winded sentences make Stiles’ head ache. But he’s understood the gist of it.

“So why didn’t you tell me this before?”

Deaton shrugs, “Between attacks by Alpha packs and hunters, this didn’t mean like a pressing issue.”

The druid looks at Derek to gauge his reaction. If his responding grumble is anything to go by, the explanation has satisfied him.

-x-

When they start Stiles’ lesson for the day, Deaton rubs his hands together. Which is never a good sign.

“Today I’m planning on teaching you how to bend the rules of magic.”

“What do you mean?”

Deaton smiles which only serve to set Stiles on edge even more, “Have you ever tried object spells on humans.”

Stiles can’t help the blush that creeps up his face as Derek groans loudly.

Deaton turns to the alpha, “What?”

Derek shakes his head, “You’ll find that your novice has already started those spells.”

Deaton’s head whips back as he stares at Stiles, “What did you do?”

Stiles holds his hands up, “Calm down, no one got hurt.”

Derek growls at that and Stiles amends, “There wasn’t any permanent damage to anyone… I just used the re-calling spell on Derek.”

Deaton’s eyes widen in surprise, “Why did you do that?”

Stiles shrugs, “He wasn’t there when I woke up, I just tried something.”

Deaton nods, “And you were able to handle it?”

Derek interrupts, “No, I slammed into his window.”

Deaton nods, “Right I need you to practise the spell till you can handle it.”

Stiles startles, “You want me to keep banging Derek around?”

“No. I just bought a can of worms in the back for the gerbils that had been admitted. You can start practising on them.”

-x-

By the time Stiles and Derek leave the vet’s clinic, Stiles has seen enough worm guts to last a lifetime.

Almost all his attempts had ended with the carcasses of worms being splattered around Deaton’s back room, which he had to clean up with Derek.

They quickly make their way to Derek’s Camaro as a light rain has started.

Stiles whines once he’s sitting in the car, his head thumping back against the headrest, “ I don’t understand what went wrong! I didn’t pull your guts out and you’re a whole assed human being! Those were just worms. I hate this so much.”

Derek shakes his head, “I’m not a human though. You didn’t pull my guts out cause I’m a werewolf. My body was able to handle the pressure. The worms died cause you couldn’t handle your spark.”

Stiles laughs, “Ohhh, ProfessorWolf.”

Derek rolls his eyes, “Shut up.”

They get in the Camaro and peel out.

-x-

Instead of going to Derek’s loft to pick up Stiles’ jeep, Derek takes them away from the heart of the county.

Stiles looks over at Derek, “You missed the turn for the den.”

Derek smiles wryly, “Oh, I totally forgot!”

Stiles replies with a deadpan, “Ha fucking ha, where are we going?”

Derek shrugs.

A little while later as the rain increases, they turn onto the highway and Stiles realises where they’re going. Stiles’ favourite place in Beacon Hills; No, his most favourite place in the world. Heaven on Earth…

Sadie’s.

Although it doesn’t look like much, a run-down diner tucked into a corner next to the highway, Stiles has been going there with his father for as long as he can remember. Sadie’s cultivated his love for curly fries and milkshakes.

The flickering light of Sadie’s is visible through the car’s window, getting blurred by the raindrops.

Stiles turns to Derek, smiling widely, “I.Love.You.”

He realises slowly, that maybe he shouldn’t be so blatant about his crush on the alpha, if Derek’s surprised face is anything to go by. But he tries to comfort himself because he would have said the same thing to the others if they had taken him to Sadie’s as a surprise.

Derek parks the car and stops Stiles from opening the door. Instead, climbs out and rushes to Stiles’ side, holding his leather jacket over the door, in an attempt to shield him from the rain.

As they both rush from the car towards the warm diner, Stiles feels goosebumps rise on his back. He tries to make himself believe that they’re from the cold and not from Derek’s arms surrounding him as he holds up the jacket.

When they walk into the diner, relatively dry, Derek covers Stiles in the jacket, patting it down to keep him warm.

Stiles knows he should insist on giving it back, considering that Derek is only wearing a henley and werewolf’s high body temperature be damned, he isn’t letting Derek get cold on his watch.

But, the smell of pine cones and soap that emanates from the jacket effectively stops his brain from working. When he wrestles back control from the primal part of his brain, Stiles realises that he’s still standing in front of the door, a hair’s breadth away Derek, who’s looking at him with a look that Stiles can’t describe.

It pains him to admit that Derek’s eyebrows have an emotion that he doesn’t know about. Instead of wallowing in it, Stiles turns away to look for an empty table. Derek walks away a moment later to order their curly fries and milkshakes.

In true Sadie’s fashion, the order takes a long time to be served. So much so that by the time they’ve picked up their to-go bag and walked out of the diner, the sky has cleared.

Only, it’s late enough now that the clouds give way to bright stars. Derek stares at the sky just as they’re getting into his car and says, “Have you ever been to the roof above the loft?”

Stiles shakes his head, “I didn’t even know you had access to the roof!”

-x-

When they walk into the loft, Derek leads him up the spiral staircase. Stiles realises that he hasn’t even seen the alpha’s bedroom.

Stiles reaches the top of the staircase two steps behind Derek to find an average looking room. Of course, due to the fire and his constant shifting, the room is a little sparsely decorated, but other than that, it looks lived in. There is one door on the wall in front of him, which Stiles assumes leads to the roof. Next to the door is a table and a chair, made of thick wood. A queen bed pushed against the wall in covered in fine cotton sheets and a variety of blankets. In front of the foot of the bed is a thick, brown-coloured rug that takes up most of the floor space.

Next to the bed is a cupboard built into the wall, with clothes settled haphazardly. Of course, compared to Stiles’ cupboard, it looks much cleaner. What surprises Stiles the most is the abundance of colour in the closet. Stiles realises that Derek chooses wearing the drabbest colours

Stiles thinks that if he was in charge of dressing Derek, he would make the alpha wear all the clothes that he’s shoved into the corner of his closet.

Stiles’ inner monologue on Derek’s clothing stops when he realises that the Alpha is staring at him.

Stiles also realises that the Alpha asked him a question, “What?”

Derek mumbles, “Is it good?”

“Your room?”

“Yeah.”

“Sure...It’s nice, I guess.”

“Okay.”

Derek abruptly opens the door and walks onto the roof, their bag of takeaway in his hands. That is officially the most abrupt and weird conversation he’s had with the alpha and Stiles wants to pursue it. But when he walks onto the roof, Derek’s already opened the bags of food and Stiles forgets everything under the influence of the smell of his favourite curly fries.

As they munch on the fries and sip their shakes, Stiles stares up at the stars. The sky is exceptionally clear that day, so he realises he can ask Derek for the information he’s been needing in the past.

“Hey, Derek.”

The alpha’s mouth is wrapped around the straw of his shake, but he hums in response listening to Stiles.

“Remember how you said you were going to teach me the constellations?”

Derek’s eyes twinkle in excitement. He sets down his milkshake lies down on the roof. He looks at Stiles expectantly.

Stiles settles down next to him slowly. Stiles realises that maybe Derek knows how important he is. Because Stiles can easily look up all the constellations he wants on the internet, learn their placing, history, discovery and other stuff. Instead, he’s lying on the roof of a rundown building, with only a leather jacket to keep him warm as he listens to Derek describe the constellations.

Stiles hums and nods every time Derek pauses, but his eyes keep slipping shut. Derek slowly shifts his arm under Stiles, allowing his to curl into the alpha’s warm chest.

Stiles falls asleep to the steady thump of Derek’s heart and his soft voice describing the constellations.

#sterek #teen wolf

10 notes · View notes

turtle-paced · 5 years

Text

GoT Re-Watch: Fine-Toothed Comb Edition

This post is also on my wordpress.

Well, this is it. The final push. The worst season of Game of Thrones.

Let’s get started.

8.01 – Winterfell

In one respect, this series has defeated me. No counting. I just want this done. God knows the problems got worse than nudity.

(0:09) It has to be said, the new opening credits are one of the best things about this season. Possibly the best thing about the season. However, we may all have been tipped off by how this was going to go in that we never see ice advance on King’s Landing, and the end of the credits focuses on the Iron Throne.

(2:26) So we start the season with a pretty good idea – a direct callback to the opening of season one when Robert Baratheon arrived at Winterfell, and watching this procession of relevant characters through Arya’s eyes again. I’m not entirely sold on the music cue, however, which is out and out the Baratheon leitmotif.

(3:08) Likewise, this landscape shot is also a good idea. Does some good showing. One, the snowy landscape. These are our conditions for the duration. Two, we see the amount of assistance Dany’s providing, as well as the discipline of the Unsullied.

(3:41) This is the first time Arya’s seen Jon in years and it’s a damn good thing the directors decided to let her show an emotion for it. Everyone suffers from the directors’ persistent idea that power = stoicism.

(4:17) Showing Arya’s got a reaction to Sandor and Gendry’s arrival in Winterfell gives us more than “these people are here now”. Which is why characters should be allowed to emote.

(4:32) First line of dialogue in s8 is a eunuch joke! Not even exposition. Eunuch joke. Like we’ve never heard one of them before.

(4:40) It’s not any funnier for Varys calling Tyrion out on this only to get another eunuch joke in reply.

(4:47) The juxtaposition of Missandei and Gray Worm here shows us another unpleasant thing that’s going to run throughout the season: the racism. This racism, here shown in the North being hostile to people of colour, contextualises the entire concept of Northern independence. This sort of juxtaposition undermines the argument that Northern independence is all about not being ruled from King’s Landing, and brings in a nasty undertone that the Northerners don’t want to be ruled by anyone who – gasp – includes people of colour in their cause. While I think it’s valid to depict the North as pretty well xenophobic, xenophobia and racism are not exactly appealing character traits.

Frankly, I don’t think the writers added it up when plotting out the ending. The North don’t look like they’ve been put upon by bad and unjust administration, they look like racist fuckheads complaining about rescues they don’t like. And yes, this impacts how Dany comes across – she’s the one with people of colour in her advisory team, and she never even mentions removing them to help the Northerners feel at ease. It’s hard not to see the implicit position as being “the North should get over this point.”

(5:12) “I warned you. Northerners don’t much trust outsiders.” In hindsight, this looks to me as the first set up for the idea that ‘Dany wants everyone to cheer her and is very sad then very insane when she does not receive the love to which she feels she’s entitled.’ See above re: complaining about rescues they don’t like. Is Dany so out of line for expecting a little gratitude?

(6:13) Speaking of no emotion. Oh boy. Poor Bran. This is the first time he’s seen his brother for years, and he gets to show mild curiosity. This is the character whose rule we’re supposed to leave off on, feeling good about the future of Westeros. But if he doesn’t care, why should we?

(7:35) Bran drops the bombshell that they’ll be dealing with a zombie dragon, that the Wall has fallen, and the dead are marching south. So there’s our context. Apocalyptic, imminent trouble. Everyone enjoy your episode of people not liking Daenerys against a backdrop of people preparing for apocalyptic, imminent trouble. I think these things probably should have been reversed.

(8:34) More preparing for a final showdown at Winterfell. Again, something else we should have take as a poor sign for the season’s structural integrity, as there was clearly no way they could drag out the build-up for four episodes.

(9:05) “It’s not important.” Ah yes, a great recommendation for this character’s political skills. Let’s just keep that in mind for the people who immediately think ‘oh yes Jon would be way better than Dany as ruler’.

(9:26) “When I left Winterfell I told you we need allies or we will die.” There is that. This is one thing we can get behind show!Jon for seeing better than the rest of the Northern cast. Jon will be proved correct on this count.

Though again, really, there is neither explanation nor excuse for the lack of discussion about a political marriage between Jon and Daenerys as a means of bringing the North into her realm in a position of greater strength and dignity. That’s just a gaping plothole, left unaddressed because otherwise the plot doesn’t work.

The plot didn’t even work anyway.

(9:32) Sansa stink-eye is most obvious here. Barely concealed hostillity to the people here to save you really is a good idea, isn’t it? Great politics.

(9:57) Tyrion gets up here to make a speech. While not being able to keep your mouth shut is endemic to the Lannister family as a whole and a valid character flaw, it’s not come out very intentionally in the last few seasons. Poor Tyrion has been pretty consistently inept from s6 onwards, and it doesn’t change here. Reading the room’s hostility to Jon’s bending the knee, he doesn’t let Jon and Dany speak for themselves, but stands up to speak. Him, a Lannister, i.e. a member of the family that were a huge part of why the North rebelled in the first place. An optics misread as bad as “It’s not important.”

(10:15) Possibly also the wrong way to bring up the fact that the Lannisters are expected.

(10:34) Back to the primary way the writers have to show that Sansa is smart. She’s the only one thinking about logistics. Which is a thing people need to think about – in a series that gives half a damn about this sort of thing.

However, Sansa is also bringing this up as part of the dialogue about whether Daenerys should be here, in the North, helping defend it. She is bringing this up in public (rather than taking strips off Jon in private for not thinking the supply chain through). It is clear from her tone and word choice that she is hostile to Daenerys’ forces being there. This is an open political statement as much as it is a logistical question. And they still have to fight off the ice zombies. This character is allowed to have political preferences, it’s better if she has political preferences, but she’s also supposed to be smart! And one of the things she was supposed to have learned in the first half the series was how to play nice in public and pick her moments!

On top of this, continuing to undermine the depiction of Sansa as intelligent, the logistical matters do not impact the story one little bit. Sansa’s objections are lip service to the idea that the army needs to be supplied.

(10:42) Sansa got enough supplies for Winterfell, but didn’t account for additional allies…when she knew her brother was heading out to get allies. Apparently didn’t even think to send over a raven asking whether Dany was getting the Unsullied to pack a bag lunch.

This is not entirely on Sansa. These are deeper communications problems which, to be fair, have been extremely well established. Whether it’s Jon and the army of the Vale, or Arya and the question of a coup, these problems just seem to feature Sansa disproportionately.

(11:04) Another establishing shot that, if linked to something more concretely, would have been an excellent idea – though having seen that Dany’s come with literal wagonloads of dragonglass, we’re also supposed to believe she brought no food?

(12:06) Sansa’s hostility to Daenerys is one of her overwhelming character traits in this episode. Her concern for the supply situation is expressed in hostility to Daenerys. The context for her confrontation with Tyrion is expressed in hostility to Daenerys. Sansa’s mistrust is not contextualised by any sort of historical reference to Rhaegar and Lyanna, nor Aerys’ murder of Rickard and Brandon, as you might expect if that was the actual motivation of the animus. On the contrary, we’ve got dialogue telling us that the mistrust is cultural and respect must be earned, and a chunk of showing us that Northerners are racist, establishing that this is Northern isolationism at work.

Whereas our establishing moment for Dany this episode was meant to show us how eager she was to make a good impression and to be on good terms with the Northerners.

(12:17) The ‘fixing’ of book!Sansa continues, as show!Sansa says that Joffrey’s wedding had its moments. One of the many, many ways the show is lesser than the books is because the books let characters actually differ. Everyone in this series has the exact same emotional reaction to revenge.

(13:09) Sansa gets to some of the wonky plotting behind season seven. Show!Cersei is not trustworthy! There’s no basis for a peace there. Tyrion, of all people, should have known this. Yet he bought it hook, line and sinker. He had to, because otherwise the plot the writers wanted didn’t work. And yet, Sansa calling it out doesn’t make the issue go away. It doesn’t reconcile anything. It just highlights that massive gap between how people talk about Tyrion, and what Tyrion’s actually shown to have achieved. And the plot hole.

(13:34) Here, have a shot of Bran sitting in the courtyard, watching people.

(14:02) A reference to Jon’s resurrection! Which…actually didn’t matter! So basically we’re bringing this up just to bring it up!

(14:10) Damn it’s so much better to see Arya and Jon both emoting!

(15:01) Similarly, as they compare their swords, it’s a nice little moment where we can see these two starting to negotiate a more adult relationship based on common interests and shared knowledge.

(15:17) “She’s the smartest person I’ve ever met.” Ow. That hurt. Sansa’s got the same problem as Tyrion, in many ways. We’re told she’s smart and shown that…actually, no, not really. To be fair, nobody in this show is smart anymore, but there are only a few characters where the other characters outright say that they’re smart. The writing’s got to back that up, and it doesn’t.

(15:26) Toot toot, all aboard the Daenerys hate train. Arya hasn’t even interacted with Dany, and yet Arya’s framing her backing up of Sansa and Sansa’s overt hostility to Daenerys as “defending our family.” Again without reference to Aerys or Rhaegar, and with the episode showing lots of Northerners glaring at all the people who came with Daenerys to fight the White Walkers.

How on earth did the writers think this would scan? One party’s shown up with her armies and her dragons ready to put herself and her ambitions on the line for the other, and the party getting its fat hauled out of the fire is going ‘ugh, fine, we’ll put up with you if we have to’. Dany’s not just going “I am Targaryen, bow to me,” here. This is a bit of a change from her father. She demonstrates that just by showing up.

(15:41) Capped off with a seriously nasty exchange. “I’m [Sansa’s] family too.” “Don’t forget that.” Just – gross. What the fuck. Ups the framing as Jon’s love for Daenerys as something inherently anti-Stark. It’s so mean-spirited. Isntead of “you look happy, Jon” or “do you love her, Jon?” it’s “remember we come first, Jon.”

(16:33) Here we see the Golden Company. Not that they’re going to be playing a part in events. They’re just there to make up the numbers. Literally.

(16:38) Scene with Euron and Yara starts here. We establish that Yara is still alive.

(16:56) A second eunuch joke! Every bit as charming as the first.

(17:36) If Euron’s side loses, he’ll sail somewhere else. New information! Not in the realms of mind-bendingly plot twistingly important information, but at least it tells us a bit about Euron’s character.

(18:00) And end scene with Euron and Yara. Nothing was accomplished there that could not have been accomplished with an establishing shot of Yara tied up on one of Euron’s ships. The writers continue to use their screentime well.

(18:40) The number of troops Cersei hired, the number of horses they came with, and the lack of elephants would mean more if the show paid attention to detail. And, when Dany has dragons, it’s this sort of detail that might actually help build tension and give uncertainty as to the outcome in a conflict between the two. As things stand, this scene could just be “did you bring soldiers?” “Yes, many soldiers!” for exactly the same plot effect.

We’re long past the days where the show discussed the drawbacks of armour, and past the days where Robert analysed the strengths of the Dothraki in the field. We occasionally still get some great showing of the Dothraki, and for all it totally didn’t belong in the setting and required significant dumbassery on the protagonists’ part, the shield wall Ramsay used in the Battle of the Bastards got the effectiveness of the tactic across. This is just…making up the numbers.

(19:03) You know, one of the most devastating scenes in Cersei’s AFFC plot is where she has sex with Osney Kettleblack, not because she wants to (on the contrary, he reminds her of Robert), but because she feels it’s the only way she can keep him as a political tool. It’s tawdry and risky and emphasises how Cersei’s political method of operating actually reduces her agency.

This scene has some of that feeling to it, but without the book-long context examining what she can and can’t do, and how Cersei’s character and deep internalised misogyny affect her capacity to govern. Here, this scene of Euron pressuring Cersei into sex was preceded by a scene showing his feelings on the situation – a feeling remarkably reminiscent of Robert’s “making the eight” back in season one – rather than something like what we got in AFFC, which is about Cersei’sattitude to this sex she doesn’t want. It doesn’t provoke as much thought, and leaves me at least with just a thoroughgoing feeling of ick.

If there is any saving grace here, it’s Lena Headey, who actually has some acting to do.

(20:50) Oh joy, it’s Bronn. Who’s here for the fanservice. More than one sort of fanservice.

(21:14) Not keen on this, either. Here these characters mention how Ed Sheeran’s cameo character came back with his face burned off. It’s like a more throwaway version of how the Sand Snakes died gruesome deaths last season – this character irritated you? Enjoy their horrible demise! We meant to do it!

(22:45) Now we get down to the meat of the scene. Cersei sends Bronn to assassinate Jaime and Tyrion. Now that we’ve seen the season, we know that this is absolutely pointless. Bronn does not assassinate Jaime or Tyrion. He doesn’t affect their behaviour in the slightest. Tyrion offers Bronn a good bribe, Bronn accepts despite having been screwed over by the Lannisters before, and everyone goes on their merry way. This character has nothing to do. He does not illustrate any aspect of the world this story takes place in. He does not undergo any sort of internal journey. He has no reason to be in this story. He’s just here for the fanservice.

(24:32) One thing I do like about the scripting of the scene, combined with Lena Headey’s acting, is that it is crystal clear that Cersei did not enjoy the sex. Euron is obviously fishing for compliments and outright asking for favourable comparisons to Cersei’s previous lovers, and Cersei phrases things so that Euron can read in favourable comparisons if he likes – but she doesn’t have to say it.

If only this was linked to some sort of ongoing thread about how a female political figure’s use of sex can be counterproductive politically and extremely emotionally damaging.

(24:48) “I’m going to put a prince in your belly.” It’s a double whammy for “the show has no sense of timeline.” One, please don’t draw attention to the fact that Cersei discovered she was pregnant who knows how long ago, and is somehow not showing. Two, Cersei should be 42 or 43! No, it’s not impossible that she’d still be able to have a child, but it’s said so freaking casually, like a woman of 42 or 43 in this medieval-like setting with pretty rudimentary medical care having a baby is no big deal. It’s not treated as unlikely, much less like a potentially serious risk to Cersei’s health and wellbeing. Not to mention the fact that Cersei had three children, and all three are dead – what’s her emotional reaction to a comment like that? That seems like it might strike a nerve, if the showrunners were thinking carefully about what Cersei experienced over the course of the series.

(25:07) Shot of Euron’s ship starts here.

(26:21) And the Greyjoy siblings are free and clear within ninety seconds. At least the writers didn’t waste much of our time, though on the whole this subplot has involved a lot of kicking Theon around the plot like a hackey sack, and a lot of putting Yara in storyline time out.

(27:02) Theon’s kicked over to a new plot once more, for old time’s sake.

(27:42) Another establishing shot of activity around Winterfell I like a lot.

(28:02) In the same vein of the writers forgetting that Cersei is expecting a fourth child late in life, having seen three children make it past the infant mortality stage only to die violently, the writers continue to forget that Tyrion gave the order that resulted in the death of Davos’ only son. We know Davos knows this, but giving Davos an emotional reaction would be too much like work. Plus it might impair the quipping.

(28:29) “You want their loyalty? You have to earn it.” We’re back to the characterisation of the Northerners as loyal, now that it’s convenient. And as we’ll see later, no, Dany cannot earn the loyalty of the Northerners no matter what she does.

(28:46) Finally! Someone brings it up! Dany isn’t spoken for, Jon isn’t spoken for, they can actually stand each other and work together, the match would take the edge off that ‘bend the knee’ thing and turn it into something closer to ‘partnership’, if they have children there’s the benefits of a ruler whose father was from the North – the advantages to Dany’s cause and Jon’s current political position are pretty obvious in this feudal society where marriage is an important tool in creating and maintaining political relationships!

(29:06) aaaaaaand it’s brushed off immediately because apparently Jon and Dany don’t want to listen to lonely old men? What? That is a bad reason for not approaching them and saying ‘hey guys, we’ve had this idea, we think it’s a good one.��

Not that anything’s stopping Jon and Dany themselves from thinking of it.

(29:28) Or is the real reason that Varys thinks that “nothing lasts”? That’s also a rubbish reason. His cyncism is poison, here, because it’s stopping him from making a move to strengthen Dany’s political standing. But never mind that, let’s just take that as a (thus far unfounded) indication that this is going to be a tragic romance.

(30:01) Dany points out that Sansa’s lack of respect is a genuine political issue.

(30:17) The fact that the dragons ate eighteen goats and eleven sheep, and Dany considers that to be barely eating does get across the fact that the dragons consume a lot in the way of resources. Unfortunately, lack of resources is never going to become a material issue.

(30:32) I like that we see the dragons have melted the snow cover.

(30:58) This is…not the best green screen work. Try to ignore it.

(31:02) “Go on.” Dany invites Jon up on one of her dragons. Just like that. This entire sequence is so anti-climactic. There’s no joy in Dany finding new family here, no thrill as Jon explores a new identity of his own. This is not any sort of culmination. This is a man riding on a dragon because that is a cool thing, without much thought as to why in-story dragons and dragonriders are special. It’s got all the narrative weight of Dany offering Jon a ride in her Ferrari – special, yes, but not in any way transcendent or emotionally significant.

(31:17) Especially as Jon’s hesitance to hop aboard is played as a joke.

(31:53) What this scene does have that I was asking for all last season was Jon and Daenerys enjoying each other’s company. They’re smiling, there’s some banter.

(33:54) “We could stay a thousand years.” This call-back to Jon’s romance with Ygritte would be a lot more meaningful if Jon didn’t kill Dany at the end of the season. Oh no, how tragic, how star crossed, their romance ended with Jon murdering her.

(34:41) Simiarly, the significant looks between Drogon and Jon just make me queasy after the finale. I have not rewatched earlier seasons after the finale. There was a time not all that long ago when I loved Game of Thrones, especially those earlier seasons. But this is the last time I’m going to be watching this show. And Lindsay Ellis was absolutely right that knowledge of a story’s ending shouldn’t ruin the experience of the story when you come back to it.

(35:07) Again, decent showing of preparations for the fight.

(35:17) “You know who makes weapons for the wildlings? Cripples and cocksuckers. Which one are you?” What a burn on Gendry. The Hound is likeable because he’s sassy, and he’s sassy because his jokes involve ableism and homophobia.

There is a difference between writing ableist and homophobic characters as part of an ableist and homophobic setting, and writing ableist and homophobic jokes as a reason we should feel good about characters.

(36:04) Man, Arya suffers almost as much as Bran and earlier-season Dany for being instructed to be emotionless. Think about it. If we were seeing this without the context of season two and three, would we be shipping it? Or would we be staring at our screens in befuddlement at the lack of chemistry? On Maisie Williams’ part, which has nothing to do with her acting ability (because as we have ample evidence in this show, she can act) and everything to do with the horrible, horrible idea percolating through this show that for the characters to show that they have toughened up and become strong people, they must be stoic.

(36:33) There we go! Arya cracks a smile, and instantly the interactions between these characters actually feel more natural.

(37:35) Now we’re back to showing the Northerners as disloyal.

(37:50) Here’s the setting for Jon and Sansa to actually have it out. In private. Where she can speak freely, as she does, about not cluing her in. Note, however, that this is the third instance this episode where Sansa’s going ‘ugh, Daenerys, I don’t like her’ either implicitly or explicitly.

Not helped in the least by the extra-textual comments that Sansa’s jealous of how pretty Dany is.

(38:15) But when it comes right down to it, Jon is right – everyone here needs Dany, her armies and her dragons both, and securing her assistance was not an optional perk. Sansa’s right that Jon went about it in a suboptimal way, both because show!Jon is written not that bright and because plot contrivance, but she’s real short on viable options to defeat the White Walkers.

(38:48) I have faith in you, Sansa says…then turns around and suggests that Jon only likes Dany because she’s pretty. Show!Sansa has not been treated well by the script at any point. In earlier seasons she was considerably less savvy than her book counterpart, and now she’s become ruthless and manipulative and often plain mean. (We were also supposed to believe she was undermining Jon in season seven, but that plot didn’t actually show that.)

(38:59) “Did you bend the knee to save the North, or because you love her?” And cut. I’ll get back to this issue next episode, because it’s a lot more prominent next episode with much more significant effects on the storytelling, but yeah, get used to the show posing questions to its characters and not bothering to answer them.

(39:37) Ah, a reminder of last season’s greyscale subplot. Criticise the maesters for not listening to pleas for help from the north, sure, but regarding greyscale…yeah, damn those maesters for forbidding a dangerous medical procedure that might save one patient, but only at great risk to the doctor (and any assistants, presumably) and thereby continue the spread of the disease. Those cowards.

(40:15) The Valyrian steel sword that’s been in Sam’s family for generations would have been his anyway, eventually. I see, I see. The writers kinda forgot about the Night’s Watch and their vows. Also, gross, I do hate this anti-Sam who’s so proud of having taken Heartsbane from his father.

(40:39) Bailed out by John Bradley’s acting. Bradley’s been great when it comes to depicting Sam’s mixed feelings about his abusive father. Get some lights in this scene so we can see John Bradley’s acting better!

(41:57) More wonderful shots of Bran waiting in the courtyard. Not showing any sort of emotion though.

(42:19) “It’s time to tell Jon the truth,” Bran says. No emotion there, either. Bran’s got nothing at the prospect of revealing one of the most explosive political secrets in Westerosi history, nothing at upending his brother’s sense of identity, and nothing over the complete reevaluation of Ned Stark that this information calls for. Nothing.

And again, we know this isn’t a problem with Isaac Hempstead-Wright’s acting, because of evidence provided to us earlier in the series.

(42:26) “I’m not his brother,” Bran says, completely without emotion. What is wrong with this direction? What is wrong with the writing for this character?

(42:45) I nevertheless like that the Starks head down to the crypts to pay their respects on a regular basis. That does show their love for Ned. What I wouldn’t have given to see the Stark siblings discussing Robb or Catelyn.

(43:32) More good writing, which I will take where I can get in season eight – Jon notices immediately that Sam’s upset and asks about Sam’s girlfriend and their son. Not only does this show that Jon knows the things that might be upsetting Sam, it lets the writers just briefly clue us in that Gilly and baby Sam are present and okay, just offscreen.

(43:55) Back to bad writing. Sam is understandably preoccupied with the fact that Dany exected his father and brother. What I don’t get is why Sam treats Dany’s failure to tell Jon as significant. Dany apparently has no idea that Jon and Sam are friends. From the way she greeted Sam in that previous scene, it looks like she only knows of Sam through Jorah. If Dany concealed her actions from Jon out of shame, that’s contradicted by the fact she told Sam the truth. (Nor is it consistent with various other actions she’s taken.) If Dany just didn’t give a thorough account of her actions on the field to Jon, and the Tarlys should have been included as significant casualties, that failing is shared by a whole bunch of people who could have told Jon, and isn’t any sort of personal insult.

(44:29) It’s time! The R+L=J reveal we’ve been waiting for! It’s been a rocky journey, between the lack of early foreshadowing, the really obvious foreshadowing later, that misstep where people thought E+L=J, Lannister style, and HBO had to correct people, and most recently the very obvious setup for Sam to tell Jon this news in the worst way possible, for the worst reasons possible (not a bad idea, just shakier execution). But who cares, we’re here. This is going to have some impact.

(45:15) Okay, well, impact kind of blunted by the fact I can’t actually see much in this scene. Some lights, please?

(45:46) Finally! Someone reacts to what this meant! Yes, this is some drama, this is going to take some time and some fraught conversations to work through.

(46:24) And straight away we focus on what this means for the current fights over the Iron Throne. Blast. Jon bypasses denial, anger, bargaining and depression and gets straight to acceptance and dealing with the consequences of the reveal. There’s no “that can’t be true,” there’s no “why did you tell me this.” Luke Skywalker had the fucking Force confirming the parentage reveal and even then he didn’t accept it as easily as Jon does now.

(46:35) “You gave up your crown to save your people. Would she do the same?” Except that’s not the question that the reveal of Jon’s parentage poses. Jon gave up his crown in trade for an alliance against a pressing military threat. What would Dany be saving people from, in abdicating in favour of Jon? Someone’s got to actually start a civil war over this for her to save people from that threat.

(46:42) In case you can’t see the scene, it involves Tormund and Beric investigating a castle that’s clearly been attacked.

(48:41) Just shy of two minutes before something was said, and even then it was screaming. That was a long time to squint at people walking through a scene so dark it’s hard to tell what they were reacting to. I need something to either listen to or watch, here.

(48:43) And Beric lights the scene as he and Tormund ambush some Night’s Watch refugees led by Dolorous Edd.

(49:30) So that’s Lord Umber dead. Which means presumably that we’re in Last Hearth right now. Establishing that Tormund, Beric and Edd will be coming back to Winterfell, blah blah, not sure that was worth two minutes of screentime when they could have just shown up and said “we passed Last Hearth and everyone was dead,” given the other plot points we could spend screentime on.

(49:49) It’s a good jump scare though.

(50:40) A mysterious hooded figure rides into Winterfell amongst a crowd of people also riding into Winterfell.

(51:09!) It’s Jaime! He looks around Winterfell’s courtyard.

(51:26) And spots Bran watching him. End episode on the held gaze. While Bran sitting in the courtyard waiting for Jaime is actually really funny, I do think this pretty much worked, setting up the idea that Jaime’s going to have to confront the attempted child murder from episode 1. It’s also a reminder of the conflict that’s involved with working with the Lannisters on that more personal level.

Next time – possibly the season’s best episode, and boy is that depressing.

#anti got #fine toothed comb edition #season eight

209 notes · View notes

blue-shaded · 4 years

Text

Disclaimer: I got this from an anon whose tumblr has gone rogue and it decided to only partly put the things in my askbox. They dm’d me the full ask after we decided it only partly showed up in my inbox. None of these words are mine. Consider this as your regular everyday anon ask. Thank you.

Hi, sorry, if I'm bothering, but I need to get it off my chest. So, I've been following Sean since his first collab with Felix (Plants vs Zombies Garden Warfare) and back then I honestly adored his content and personality! Like he was just fun and seemed extremely open, which I really liked. I rewatched his collabs with Felix, Mark and others, almost daily, waiting for a new video to come out (even the Darkiplier vs Antisepticeye one, you know, with Logan fucking Paul of all people). ~1/9 And I almost never saw anything wrong, well until I decided to watch some UNO videos that I missed. And let me tell ya, I cringed. No idea why I had a reaction like that at the moment. (But on the flipnote, if you compare videos where just Bob, Wade and Mark were playing to where Sean was with them, it's like a huuuge difference to me.) So, I just kinda...distanced myself from his content, he appeared on other channels, but I didn't watch his channel. ~ 2/9 I kinda caught up to him again when he was playing Minecraft with Felix. I also watched his "Funniest home videos" and "Meme time" and, I kinda liked it, nothing really out of the ordinary. And...then GTFO happened. Holy shit, I've never seen Mark so fucking tense before. Like, I felt it through the dang screen. I didn't even finish watching the stream. I dipped on the virus joke. ~ 3/9 At first I was like "Wow, insensitive, but, go off..?". And then I was like "Isn't Mark, like, part Asian?". After that the cringe hit me like a fucking truck. I also disliked when he was like telling Mark to "Go outside", just because he was so passionate about the game. I mean, I get it. I like an edgy/insensitive joke time at time...but...why didn't he at least like... apologize? On stream? ~ 4/9 Was it so hard to say "Oh, guys, sorry, my bad, I didn't realize, that this joke is insensitive/bad"...he was 29, was it really that hard, without Bob and Wade telling him that it was BAD? And ALSO he could've done it ON STREAM, after they've said that! His videos on Unus Annus were... alright, I guess, but I just...don't enjoy him as a person as much..? ~ 5/9 Another can of worms, that was recently opened to me, is that how he doesn't really treat his fans that well and...I can't comment on that, simply because I haven't done enough research for the information to base my opinion on. That is also the case with his discord, his girlfriend and much more stuff, that my brain refuses to process, frankly, because I'm upset. ~ 6/9 I know, well, I can't KNOW for sure, but I choose to believe, that he is genuinely a nice and cool guy. But then, once again, I can't know for sure, he just became...so distant, I guess. I still haven't watched his "30" video, but from what I can see, he needs a break to recollect himself. I feel bad. I feel awful, that I grew to...not care about him as much as I do now. Scary stuff. ~ 7/9 "Don't like, don't watch" some say...but here's the problem...I still care. I wouldn't have written so much, if I didn't. I critique him, because I care. Most of his fans do! We want him to be better, we want him to succeed, I, personally, want to like him again! Maybe that does sound childish and naive, but I believe in every person, even irredeemable scumbags have a chance of turning their lives around. Not that I'd call Sean irredeemable, nor scumbag. ~ 8/9 In the end we're all people, who make mistakes. Some grow from them, others learn from them. Sometimes it takes a lot of time, but, I believe that Sean will find his way. Thanks for reading this...thing, I deeply apologize, that it is so long. It's just...when I'm passionate about something, I can't shut the fuck up. ~ 9/9

#anonymous

23 notes · View notes

do-what-the-knight-tells-you · 4 years

Text

Blood is Rare (and Sweet like Cherry Wine): 6/8

Short Ficlets in a Witcher!AU for Sterek Valentines week

Beginning: tumblr / Ao3

5- All Lovers are Poets, No?

Derek had tried to come back to baseline with Stiles after Bath Night, but apparently that little frisson of reciprocation was all it took for Derek to crash headlong into the feelings he’d been avoiding. Their rapport had gotten so easy, Derek had to catch himself several times, before he might have crossed an unspoken line, said too much, and blown the whole thing.

Just looking at his journal filled him with enough emotion to try to fill the whole thing with nothing but poetry and drivel, rhyming, nonsense, searching for the best analogies, descriptions, ways to immortalize the exact up-turn of the Witcher’s nose, and angle of his smile, likening the little dots that covered him to stars, and scars to clouds, and other such nonsense.

There were hunts still, and Derek found himself both more terrified to loose Stiles every time, and also more sure that nothing could possibly separate them, in this life.

Some of the verses were beginning to shape up into something, and he began to intersperse his tales of valiant derring-do, with frankly embarrassingly honest romantic pieces. He wondered if these pieces were going to make the rounds, be picked up by other bards, as his first ear-worm about a bard and a Witcher, carefully arranged to be catchy but false, to stir up support and buff out dents in reputation, while not exposing the little cluster of elves to further scrutiny… as that piece had. If his new stuff made it home, would Laura be able to tell? Would his mother? Would they know what he had found? What the back of his mind whispered that Stiles was to him?

And then came a night where Stiles didn’t go inquiring after contracts. Where he stayed. And listened. And Derek had to play for him.

And Stiles was... Breathless.

Stiles hadn’t expected this. He’d noticed the tempo of some of Derek’s recent pieces was very different from all the hero stuff, but he hadn’t thought, hadn’t let himself think, about why that might be.

But this night, he’d lucked into a promising sounding hunt early, and decided to treat himself, to have a drink and sit, and enjoy the polished versions of some of the things he usually only heard in rough pieces and starts.

And it was gorgeous. Stiles almost couldn’t bring himself to be jealous over whatever lost-love or courtesan Derek was clearly using for inspiration, he was so captivated.

“Oh but she burns, like rum on a fire, hot and fast…”

Partway through one piece, Derek spotted him, caught his eyes, faltered. Stiles smiled encouragingly, and Derek resumed, never looking away from Stiles.

“Her fight and fury’s firey Oh But she loves Like sleep to the freezing. Sweet and right and merciful I’m all but washed In the tide of her breathing

And it’s worth it It’s divine I have this Some of the time”

When the piece ends, and the applause dies (because he’s captivating enough tonight that there is applause, people are watching him, as if they’d come to this particular establishment for no reason other than to listen to Derek play.

Derek finally looks away, and Stiles can breathe again, takes a deep pull from his tankard, tries to decide if he’s strong enough to sit here through any other songs like that.

Thank Melitele the next piece is a light Witcher Ballad, but right after, he almost seamlessly transitions into another slow smooth sweet piece, playing with the silence as much as the sound.

“I’m so full of love I could barely eat. Nothing’s sweeter than my lady, I’d never want once from the Cherry Tree My Lady’s sweet as can be, Gives me toothaches from but kissing me…”

And as Derek drops into a heavier, more driving chorus, Stiles can almost smell brown sugar and honey on the air. The song is beautiful one, sweetness balanced with the darker, sadder themes, and then washed in love and joy again, as Derek and his lover are rejoined, redeem each other, wash each other clean.

Stiles is transfixed, jealous, overjoyed, heartsick with envy, bowled over with so much emotion. The idea of love that feels that way, of a lover with whom you can be that open and honest, is so foreign, and Stiles has been fine, all the decades, with little more than occasional paid company, and occasional comradeship, and he’s always been firm with himself, insisted that he didn’t want that anyway, that the life of a Witcher was inconstant, so he could never promise an adult, that is was dangerous, so it was just as well he couldn’t father a child… and never did he let himself consider his parents, and what they went through to get him, and how much it cost, and the ways in which John still hasn’t, and probably never will recover.

Stiles doesn’t know if he will ever be prepared for or open to a love like that, but he thinks it might be too late to avoid one.

Damn bard.

[Next]

#Teen wolf #sterek #sterek ficlet #sterekvalentineweek2020 #my stuff

8 notes · View notes

rose-tico · 5 years

Note

I saw Jobels IG story but what if they didn’t knew at that point?! Don’t lose hope before we get an official confirmation. There are so many points hinting t a s5. By far more than against.

you could be right, anon. there are a lot of hints about a season 5, even if most of them point to a new generation of characters which is a whoooooole can of worms i really don’t feel like unpacking right now. even if the cast hadn’t known at the time when they finished filming season 4 whether they might get another season or not, the production team could have at least directly told the fans in an official announcement to not to get their hopes up. they could have told us to enjoy amira’s season as it is without holding expectations for another to follow. you know what would have happened if they had done this? i bet we’d all start an online petition to Funk, to NRK, to Julie, on behalf of the Druck cast and crew, for an original season 5. we’d get druck trending on all social media platforms. we’d relentlessly send messages and tag the creators, the network, and the production team about how much we loved Druck and how much we adored the skam universe and how many doors it’d open for an original season 5 in the hands of a team that has historically broken so much ground for representation and storytelling. i assure you, if no final decisions about the show’s fate had been decided yet, this is what we, the fans, would have done. because we care this much about this webseries.

but the druck production did not tell us beforehand. so we went into amira’s season believing it’d have ten full episodes like her white co-stars, hoping the show would get renewed for a season 5, and trusting the team to fix the mistakes of the og. and what did we get instead? we got only 8 episodes with amira with the 1st episode containing half of a clip from amira’s pov and now the 9th episode has been stolen from her, for mia of all people. we then got thrown in for an emotional loop when the cast started dropping behind the scenes photos and videos out of nowhere and reiterating over and over again within the span of 24 hours that the show is over, for good, like forever, dunzo! thus, breaking all of our hearts in the process. and finally, the nail in the coffin, while druck made so many amazing choices and changed a lot of the og season 4 for the better and created such a breathtaking love story for amira and mohammed and introduced us to wonderful new characters, ultimately amira’s season ended up suffering from the same problems as the og anyways, albeit towards the latter half versus the former half, in a different, more complex way than we had all expected. i recommend reading this post if you want a deeper analysis on the hollowness of amira’s season, which might’ve contributed to her shorter season.

the druck production, to put it bluntly, messed the fuck up. and anon, even if this is all just some big joke, if we really are actually getting 3 or 4 more episodes with amira’s pov (hah!), if we really are actually getting a season 5 (doubtful!), that the team is being silent for a reason and the cast are in on this and want to surprise everyone at the fan event on the 22nd, it’s just cruel. like, it’s just simply so cruel to treat your dedicated and passionate fans in this way. there’s a fine line between teasing your fans and keeping them on the edge of their seats, and just outright going radio silence on them while they all lose their shit. and frankly, if we did get a season 5 at this point, i don’t know if i’d even want it anymore. because i’m not sure i’d want to invest my time and energy in a show that likes to pull shit like this. (who am i kidding, druck has me by the neck, but ykwim).

ps: lastly, i don’t think lukas would lie to us. he’s kind. he’s always been very accessible to us. he’s always had good intentions. but ultimately he ripped off the bandage when we weren’t ready (again with good intentions because he saw how much we wanted answers) and it backfired and i’m sad to hear he is facing the brunt of the backlash when it’s not even his fault that this is all happening. he shouldn’t even have been the one to tell us anyways.

this is all i will say on this matter. thanks for reading everything if you did lol.

#druck #sorry if this adds more negativity to the tag but i wanted to get it off of my chest #i still love druck a lot but oof...yall

15 notes · View notes

bethkerring · 5 years

Text

11/11/11

Thank you for the tag, @tayluinwrites!!

1. do you listen to music while you write? why or why not?

Usually, yes! I write in short spurts, though, so it depends. It’s almost always instrumental, usually a movie soundtrack or classical-style modern.

2. which tropes somehow always manage to worm their way into your stories?

Platonic soulmates! I tend to write friendships a bit more intimate (non-sexually) than I see in mainstream, just because I’m the kind of person that likes really close, deep friendships. This can also be between family members. I’m not a big romance person, but platonic soulmates are my jam.

3. what comes first: title, plot or characters? a mix of 2? of all of them?

Almost always characters! Sometimes plot, rarely title. Characters are what come most naturally to me, though, and usually I end up wanting to write a book just because I love the character(s) so much.

4. how do you decide on character’s appearances? do you have face claims for them?

It depends! Sometimes a character’s face just pops into my head and that’s what I stick to, and another times I have to think about it a while. As a white woman who grew up in an almost-all-white town, I try to be very conscious when choosing the races of my characters, and I do my best to consider what stereotypes I might unknowingly be playing into by choosing to make a character a certain race. The rest of their appearance - clothing, hairstyle, etc. - tends to come along as I develop their personality.

5. do you write a story chapter by chapter, or in one big block that you then divide into chapters?

Chapter by chapter, definitely. I also write horrendously out of order: like, snippets of different scenes as the inspiration strikes me. It’s weird, but it works. ;)

6. where do you often draw inspiration from?

Everywhere! It’s easier to say which places I don’t draw inspiration from (actually no, that’s still hard). Books, movies, TV shows, videogames, real people, second-hand stories, my own dreams and memories ... the list goes on for a while.

7. do you act out dialogue between characters?

Not out loud, but definitely in my head! I write the dialogue of a scene before anything else, so I can focus on that conversation before I’m focusing on the description, action, etc. Man, it would be fun to act out dialogue, though ... I really should do that sometime.

8. do you tell your friends/ family about what you’re writing?

To some extent, yes! I’m not secretive about it, but I do find it rather difficult to put my ideas into words in the early stages. My dad usually reads my books at some point, though, and he offers some of the best constructive criticism I’ve gotten.

9. do you keep notebooks?

Uh ... *glances guilty at the pile of mostly-empty notebooks in my closet*

I cleaned out a lot of my notebooks a few months ago, recycling the unused pages and keeping only those I truly loved. I love the idea of keeping a notebook, but frankly, I just prefer typing, and my ideas come at such odd times that it’s just easier to open a Google Doc than to remember to bring a certain notebook everywhere.

I still love notebooks, though, and I do use them occasionally.

10. what do you prefer to write: dialogue or action? why?

Depends on the type of action! Dialogue tends to be about the same level of difficulty for me regardless of the type, but action varies. If there’s a lot of fast movement, I definitely prefer dialogue - I don’t do well with fight scenes, or chase scenes, or any other time of action-intense scenes. But slow scenes full of non-verbal communication or intense emotion? Those are my favorite.

11. (keeping that question bc i really liked it) pretend this is a question and show some appreciation to your favorite writer, whether they’re on tumblr or not!

Oh, wow, it’s so hard to pick a favorite ... but I recently finished reading They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera, so I’m just going to say that wow, that book was incredible and I had a fantastically painful time reading it.

And now for my questions:

1. I know writers often talk about their favorite books, but how about your favorite movie?

2. If your work is translated into other languages, will you buy copies in those languages? If you’re multilingual, what about languages you don’t understand?

3. Describe your ideal writing environment.

4. What is your biggest pet peeve in a book?

5. Where do you want to be, as a writer, in twenty years?

6. Do you have a soundtrack in mind for your book? If so, what is one song you’ve picked for it?

7. Would you like to have your book(s) illustrated? Why or why not? If so, what style would you prefer?

8. Where do you sit on the slow-and-steady versus get-it-all-out-fast spectrum of first-draft writing?

9. What is your reaction when people you don’t know very well hear you’re a writer and ask what your book is about?

10. What is a genre that you haven’t written yet but would like to explore one day?

11. Do you often find parts of yourself or others in your characters? If so, is it intentional or accidental?

Tagging!

@sickgirlchronicles @mvcreates @the-chosen-half-of-one @edgy-english-egg @from-words-to-words @bunnywritesanovel @marniebalboa @candycoatedcatastrophe @blueinkblot @bethanywritesbooks @leave-her-a-tome

#writing #writerblr #tag game

7 notes · View notes

idhruven · 5 years

Text

Connect the Constellations of Dots in our Head

So, when I’m writing about something new, one of the first things that someone notices about me and maybe they say it to me or maybe they don’t – is how big of a nerd I am! At first, I was kind of put off by this label, but over time I’ve come to embrace it in a way I never expected to. Now, I’m a nerd about a lot of different things. Mythology is one of them. I can watch hours of Serials and lectures about Mythology and sometimes I do. I’m a nerd about meditation – I’ve been meditating for about 5 to 6 years. This process of continually bringing your attention back to your breath – it sounds so simple in theory but in practice, it’s one of the most difficult things and one of the most rewarding things in the world. Well, for those who know me, might think I’m talking about Superman, maybe, or DC Comics! But the thing that I’m the nerdiest about and the most curious about is something that you probably wouldn’t expect, and that idea is Productivity. I don’t mean productivity in kind of the really Business-like sense where you boil your life down to a spreadsheet and really become all efficient and you fire up Excel to track your life (well, I know some of my friends would be laughing at me while reading this), but I mean productivity in the sense of making better use out of what limited time we have every day. So, we have more time for the things that are actually meaningful to us.

I was fortunate enough, I have been into this idea of Productivity for about 6 years and I was fortunate enough that even before I graduated the University, I received a full-time Job offer because I was productive up to that point. I figured that if there was a time in my life to do something meaningful with my time, it was then. So, I started looking at what other options I had, and productivity became one of the focuses of that thinking. If I was to experiment with one thing that I really wanted to dig deep into, it was productivity. I was reading a book – The Phoenix Project – one of those corny books where the author puts a cartoon of himself on the cover and I’ve been into this idea of becoming more productive about 6 years and so I started to crunch the numbers, what would this productivity project look like? And they weren’t great! They were okay though. I had about $12,000 that I had saved upto that point. So, relative to most of the projects it’s not as good, but I figured that’s about a grand a month. And that would give me 12 months of following my passion! So, that’s exactly what I did. I brought this curiosity of productivity from background in my life – it had been following me up to that point – to really the foreground of what I was doing. And boy, did I dive in deep! I poured over all of the academic literature that I could find, all the books I could possibly find about productivity, I watched videos and interviews of my heroes, the Greats in the Productivity Space, some people have normal heroes, my heroes are Productivity Experts. But the thing that took the cake as being the most interesting for me and frankly kind of the weirdest, were these Productivity Experiments that I conducted on myself where I used myself as a Guinea pig to experiment with what it means to accomplish more over the course of the day. Every single one of these, I conducted dozens, were designed so that I could push on the limits of how much I could accomplish or how much I could do, both mentally and physically, every-single-day.

I did everything – to measure information overload, it’s kind of a boring topic and there’s a lot of research about it, but to measure that and to really test it and experiment with it, I watched 70 hours of Mahabharata serial over the course of One week. So, 267 episodes while doing things like taking more breaks and taking a siesta and even meditating to see how that impacted information retention.

We’re constantly connected. Maybe you’re on your phone right now. Managing our attention is so difficult especially today when we have so many objects of attention that we can focus on. So, to test that, I used my smart phone for only two hours a day for 2 months. The first few weeks of that were like hell, let me tell you. But after that, I felt like I kind of cleared a bend and a whole new expanse of focus and creativity and productivity opened up for me.

People – I think people are an underrated idea, as it related to productivity. They’re the most important part of our life and so do they affect our productivity? I measured that as well by living in isolation for a week. Cutting myself off from people – which showed me that people are essential for being engaged with our work and being motivated in our work, but people are also the reason we have productivity in the first place. They’re what make it worthwhile!

To test working extreme hours, I worked 90-hour weeks for an entire month alternating between working 90 hours one week and then 20 then 90 then 20.

There’s this saying that, “The early bird gets the worm.” So, to put that to the test, I woke up at 5:30am every morning for 2 months to see how that influenced my productivity and I absolutely hated that experiment. It took me two months to shoehorn that habit into my life until I realized I absolutely hated it. I was less productive under these circumstances and that led me to a lot of research on how there’s zero connection with your socio-economic standing of what time you wake up at. It’s what we do with the hours of the day after we wake up that make the difference in how much we get done!

Fitness is another thing. Elevating our heartrate makes us more productive and lets us bring more energy to what we’re doing. So, to test that, I gained 10lbs of muscle mass over the course of the Productivity Project.

When I was finished, I was fortunate enough to be able to have been able to write a blog about the Productivity Project which I had 1 hour to write it in the middle of the day. Initially, I thought that was a really short timeframe, but I challenged myself to write a good one in a smaller amount of time so here am – I ended up writing it in 48 minutes.

But maybe the experiment, it’s a weird one though, but takes the cake as teaching me the most about productivity is Meditating for 28 hours over the course of a week. I did as much productive work as I could, as much research, and reading and writing during that week as well, but meditation was this curious interest that kind of snowballed in tandem with productivity. I’ve been into productivity for about 6 years, I’ve been experimenting with it, but meditation has been in the background as well for even before that. However, when you look at the two ideas – Productivity and Meditation – they seem to directly conflict with one another. Productivity, Of course we think, about it as doing as much as possible whereas Meditation is about not doing much at all!

So, it’s kind of tough to admit but a couple months into the Productivity Project, I stopped meditating entirely. But, when I stopped, so I could focus more on productivity, I noticed that several things began to happen. I became more stressed out, especially in the first few months. I started being hard on myself and that affected my productivity. I had less energy and motivation because I didn’t know when it was time to take a step back from my work to recharge. I became distracted more because I couldn’t focus well and I wasted more time because of that. I became less focused and so I had to spend more time doing things because I brought less attention to it. I worked more often on auto-pilot. This is maybe, the idea that impacted my productivity the most because I didn’t work deliberately on what was actually important and I worked in response to the work that came my way. I wasn’t able to step back and think about what I actually wanted to become more productive about in the first place. I even gained weight. Meditation and mindful eating were what allowed me to maintain my weight all these years. It’s because I became deliberate about when I was eating instead of eating on auto-pilot. So, seeing these conditions, were what motivated me to conduct this productivity experiment to meditate for 28 hours over the course of a week while trying to be as productive as possible in those situations. So, I did sitting meditation, where you sit down and you bring your attention to your breath. I ate mindfully, I did mindful chores and I noticed several curious things beginning to happen. I felt less productive, first of all because I was less busy than I was before this experiment. But at the same time, I brought this deliberateness to my work that I hadn’t had before. I worked with intention behind what I was doing. So, even though I had less time to spend on my work, I over-compensated by spending more attention and energy on my work instead. Because of this, I wrote a ton. I wrote thousands of lines of code that week and I earned that time back. And I think, this is one of the most crucial things that you can think about when it comes to your productivity is – it’s one thing to read about productivity, but you have to make all that time back. But maybe the biggest idea that this experiment taught me was that productivity is so much more than just managing our time.

Of Course, we all know the importance of managing our time, but I would argue that that are other ingredients that deserve to sit on the same level as managing our time. Our Attention is one of them. The more focus we bring to our work, the less time we have to spend on it. The less we’re distracted, we could hunker down our work and get into these flow-like states where we forget what time it is and we become so immersed in what we’re doing. It doesn’t matter how well we can manage our time if we can’t also manage our attention. Our Energy is another idea that deserves to sit on that same level. Because if we’re burnt out at 1:00 or 2:00 in the afternoon, our productivity becomes toast, if we don’t frequently step back to take breaks and recharge. Interestingly, during the project, I found that every single thing, I researched or experimented with or read about fell into one of these three different categories. So, I think productivity is the confluence of all three.

More than that and what this meditation experiment taught me, even though, it’s a week, looking back, I still get so many little nuggets of wisdom from it, was that it doesn’t matter how busy or efficient we are, what matters is what we accomplish at the end of the day. That’s what I think productivity is about. More than that, it’s about accomplishing what we intended to do in the first place. So, if we intended to have a perfectly relaxing day on the beach and put our feet up and recharge and maybe read to a few books and totally disconnect and then we do, I would argue that we’re perfectly productive. The same is true if we intend to have a really business-like day and submit a couple TPS Reports and ace a presentation meeting. When we achieve what we intend to, we’re perfectly productive and the best way to get there is to manage these three ingredients of productivity – Our Time, Our Attention and Our Energy.

I want to finish by giving you a few practical ways, that fit in with this new way, a more human way, I think, of looking at productivity. So, so much of the Productivity Project was this year-long idea of sifting out the stuff that works, from the stuff that doesn’t work. And I want to give you five to end of with. You ready? I’ll do them rapidfire!

Number One, is the rule of three. The rule is very simple and it’s a very simple intention setting rule every day and here it is – At the start of the day, you fast forward to the end of the day in your head and you ask yourself, “By the time the day is done, what three main things, will I want to have accomplished?” That’s the rule. It’s so simple. It’s almost stupidly simple to be honest with you but let’s you separate what’s important from what isn’t. It only takes a few minutes. You don’t have to spend hours integrating a complex system into your life to managing what you have to get done.

The Second One, is to do one thing at a time. The fewer things we try to do in the moment, the more productive we become because we do not scatter our attention around in a thousand different directions at one time. Instead, we channel it with this laser-like focus at one thing at a time. That forces us to become more deliberate about what we’re working on not only in general by setting these three daily intentions but also in the moment.

Number Three, is a simple one but it’s so powerful as well. It’s to cultivate how much energy you have over the course of the day. This is common-sense advice but common-sense unfortunately, today, when we’re busier than ever isn’t always common action. It’s doing the simple things like eating well, putting good fuel into our body and elevating our heartrate a few times everyday and getting enough sleep. Sleep, I see it as this way of exchanging our time for energy. Why wouldn’t we want to get more of that!

Number Four, is to disconnect from the internet. Something interesting that I found with the highest-performing executives that I encountered during the productivity project was that they see the Internet as a ‘nicety’ instead of a ‘necessity’. They focus on other things because the internet usually isn’t where our most important work lies. It lies in engineering a new product, it lies in doing things that actually change the world. This is one of my favorite stats as it relates to productivity. The amount of time we spend on the internet procrastinating – when we’re connected to the internet, we spend 47% of the time on the internet procrastinating which is insane! Things literally take twice as long as we’re connected. So, when we disconnect deliberately, especially when we hunker down on one of these three daily intentions, we can become that much more productive when we see productivity as how much we accomplish.

Number Five, is another counter-intuitive one but I haven’t found anything better than it for my productivity and it’s to DayDream. If you think to when your most brilliant lightbulb insight hit you, chances are you weren’t hunkered down in your work or doing a thousand things at one time. Maybe, you’re taking a shower and then Boom! From out of the blue, an idea strikes you and you have to get out early to find a place to write it down. Maybe, you’re letting your mind rest and wander and when you’re on nature-walk and maybe you left your phone at home. It’s in this mode, that we connect the dots in our head. There are constellations of dots in our head that are waiting to be connected and we need to get into this DayDreaming mode to do it.

So, I think this, especially today, is what productivity is meant to look like. It’s about this intention, it’s about this deliberateness and becoming easy on ourselves as we strive to get there. Because really the reason productivity is so crucial and so impotant in the first place is we only have so much time. Whether in general or whether everday and most days we feel that. But when we manage our time, our attention and our energy better, we can accomplish so much more, especially when there’s intention behind what we do!

-Dhruven Mihir Shah

1 note · View note

themousai · 4 years

Text

Top 10 Albums of the Decade: Nic Martin

Nightmare Avenged Sevenfold

[2010]

This is a fitting album to start with; I will probably always pin my decision to pursue music as a career on Avenged Sevenfold. 14-year-old me was absolutely crushed by the tragic death of drummer Jimmy Sullivan in 2009, but truly believed in the band’s decision to carry on, full speed ahead, and manifest Sullivan’s vision that he never got to complete; being 2010’s Nightmare.

While I personally never cared for the title track/lead single, it was cathartic and honest tracks like Victim and Tonight The World Dies that really showed me a new and important layer to the band I was already so inspired by. We still had the A7X that has gone on to, frankly, dominate the world stage - the relentless Danger Line and prog-epic-closer Save Me were reminders that these California boys were on to something huge, and they knew it.

Teenage Dream Katy Perry

[2010]

Admittedly: I came to listen to Katy Perry because I had a mad celeb-crush on her in this era. This album is a surprisingly diverse collection of legitimately well written pop songs, front-to-back. Obviously it has the singles we’re all numb to these days (I’m pretty sure California Gurls and Firework were enforced listening for every Jayjay’s across the country), but I found myself using songs like Circle The Drain and Hummingbird Heartbeat as an excuse to enjoy the undeniable pleasure of great pop melodies.

I guess I just feel like this was one of those “cut-above” mega-pop albums, alongside T-Swift’s 1989 and Bieber’s Purpose, I guess I just never saw either of them shooting whipped cream from their chest.

There Is A Hell, Believe Me I’ve Seen It. There Is A Heaven, Let’s Keep It A Secret Bring Me The Horizon

[2010]

I rarely hear people cite this as their favourite Bring Me album; never disregarded, but never the top of many lists; yet you Tumblr-Millennials out there would be lying if you said you never reblogged a grainy photo of a bedroom strewn with fairy-lights and band posters with lyrics from It Never Ends or Blessed With A Curse edited over it. I have no issue in saying that the quality of Oli Sykes’ voice was at a low point for this release, but I will always defend the telling depth and emotion that’s explored in the lyrics and structure of each song.

A dark and pummelling metalcore offering in a general sense, it’s Bring Me’s signature unapologetic approach to the point of difference they’re always pursuing – especially on tracks like Blacklist, the transition between the second half of Fuck into Don’t Go, and the catastrophic closer The Fox and the Wolf – that ensured I would keep tabs on this band’s evolution throughout the decade.

Periphery II: This Time It’s Personal Periphery

[2012]

I have a tattoo dedicated to this album and how much this band + album changed my perception of music, especially heavy metal. With that considered, I struggle to find a way to describe this album in way that isn’t simply “If you like metal, go and listen to this album” because there is bound to be something within this gem that will scratch an itch you didn’t know you had.

No one else sounded quite like this, and no one really has since. Whatever, djent. This album absolutely rips. Spencer Sotelo’s vocals are inhuman (not pitch-corrected on this album, noteworthy), and it contains multiple personal-favourite guitar solos ever, ever (Luck As A Constant and Mile Zero). Listen to the whole damn thing, but check out Muramasa, Facepalm Mute, Scarlet, or Ragnarok if you need convincing.

Parallax II: Future Sequence Between The Buried And Me

[2012]

“Goodbye To Everything”. One hell of an alluring motif, no? There is a LOT to unpack on this album, and if you struggle to resonate with musical journeys that take you across the galaxy and back 10+ minutes at a time, then it’ll take a while to sink your teeth into Future Sequence to the depth that it deserves to be appreciated at. The technicality and intricacy of the music accurately reflects the complexity of the lyrical narrative, only made even less-accessible by Tommy Giles Rogers’ ambiguous, cryptically simple/broad verses.

As necessary as the shorter breather tracks/interludes are, the highlights on this release are the lengthier pieces that all take you on a true journey, taking its time to set each scene and its mood. Lay Your Ghosts To Rest and Telos are integral tracks that really take you to a new dimension and show you every nook and cranny of it; and the final 18 minutes of Silent Flight Parliament & Goodbye To Everything (Reprise) has got to be the single most epic metal album closer this decade; a claim I’m open to having challenged.

Make no mistake, this is literally a 72 minute melting pot of progressive rock and technical death metal, with hearty sides of wack synths and lush orchestration, atmosphere that shifts from grand to crushing, and cheeky passages that skim from surf-rock to noodly jazz.

Altered State TesseracT

[2013]

My uncle introduced me to TesseracT’s first album One in 2012, which immediately cemented the band as one of my favourites. But 2013’s Altered State is one of those “perfectly aligned” albums for me: it was exactly what I needed to hear right when it was announced and released. It’s the only album to feature vocalist Ashe O’Hara (who now sings for Voices In The Fuselage) and is widely considered their crown jewel – although I firmly stand by the sentiment that TesseracT are incapable of writing a song that isn’t stunningly incredible.

The album is 10 tracks split into four “suites”: Of Matter, Of Mind, Of Reality, and Of Energy; so it was a daunting thought to try and absorb the entire thing in that way during my first listen. This is one of those albums that you know how incredible it is, but it’s not until you find yourself going back to it again and again over the years that you get to truly appreciate how perfectly executed the entire 50 minutes really is. The effortlessly impossible, extended rhythmic passages in Eclipse and Singularity; the sound of a heart exploding in Resist; the GOD DAMN SAXOPHONE in Calabi-Yau and Embers, it’s ALL there to make one of the most remarkable progressive metal albums ever; and they did it without a single scream or sub-drop.

To Pimp A Butterfly Kendrick Lamar

[2015]

I have no shame in announcing that hip-hop is a genre I forced myself to like. My brother had a soft spot for it growing up, and a lot of people in my school liked it; so, while I was familiar, I hadn’t found the album ‘for me’. good kid, m.A.A.d City showed me who Kendrick Lamar was and that – like pretty much every other teenager in 2012 – I quite liked his songs. The Blacker The Berry will never not-give me the same goosebumps I got upon first hearing it. I remember seeing the announcement that To Pimp A Butterfly had just been released hours earlier on iTunes, it was probably the first album I ever purchased online that wasn’t anything close to rock or metal, and – once again – I have no shame in admitting that the artwork was a big reason for why I was so immediately drawn to wanting to hear it.

Man, as I sit here listening to the intro to u at 12:30am, driving the entire album into one of its many, many dark and completely out-the-gate corners, I’m reminded that this album was so damn ahead of its time. Kendrick is unpacking SO much. He sits you down and pours you a drink as Wesley’s Theory lulls you in with its sexy groove and upbeat formalities, and he continues to tell you EXACTLY what the fuck is up, and he does it with pure, unapologetic class. The music on this album is just… it literally leaves me speechless nearly 5 years on: there are moments where it feels like the speakers couldn’t possibly handle another layer of jazzy instrumentation or lush, effect-laden basslines. But it’s when you take that, then add Kendrick’s stories, and that’s why this album transcends beyond most other hip-hop/rap releases; listen to How Much A Dollar Cost? or Mortal Man and tell me that he doesn’t have SO much to say that the already-limitless musical landscape can barely contain him.

131 Emarosa

[2016]

Something I had to keep remembering as I considered my list and wrote about each album is that we were asked to talk about albums that were important to us and our lives on a personal level. So, although Emarosa have multiple FANTASTIC albums, 131 was an album that found me and reached out to pull me out of a dark place in my life. Bradley Walden had already proved that he was a beautiful vocalist with a gorgeous voice on 2014’s Versus, but 131 feels so honest and more real in comparison.

This album doesn’t try to be anything more or less than what it is: a collection of meaning rock songs about life and the more personal, intricate emotions and tribulations that most people endure. Songs like Sure and Cloud 9 draw you in with their ear-worm choruses, but they keep you around with the heartfelt stories being told, all of a sudden you’re lying on your kitchen floor with tears streaming down your face wailing to the climax of Never while you think about your bb. This album helped me understand and forgive myself, I hope it can help you too.

Clairvoyant The Contortionist

[2017]

“Wow, Nic put Clairvoyant in his ‘Albums of the Decade’ list? What a genuine surprise…”

Anyone who knows me is probably sick of just how frequently and in-depth I talk about this album. The Contortionist were that band that all my favourite bands loved but I never got around to checking out. That was until my friend Declan showed me Return To Earth, which would easily make my top singles of the decade, too. It’s a perfect representation of the entire album: melancholic, intense, epic, and worth being patient with as it pulls you in with its devastating themes of addiction and loss. Vocalist Michael Lessard has said the album’s lyrics were written as the darker extension of 2014’s critically acclaimed Language; the general story revolves around his close friend’s untimely overdose due to his struggles after losing his mother, with Clairvoyant taking a more subdued, less metaphorical look at the despair his friend endured.

While this album does have its hookier and more upbeat moments - found in Reimagined and the title track – it’s the way these sections are woven into a much bigger picture that really turns every track into one 54 minute journey that you’d be remiss to not repeat a few times on a road trip or during a rainy day in. A personal highlight for me is the closing track Monochrome (Pensive), particularly after having listened to the entire album from the beginning first. As one of the most heart-crushing and honest moments lyrically, the song is ultimately an indescribable piece of art: catastrophically grand, breath-takingly emotional, this album is one of my most highly recommended ever.

Sundowning Sleep Token

2019

My most treasured musical discovery this year; I heard a 7-second-long snippet of Sleep Token’s 2017 single Calcutta on another artist’s Instagram story and was shocked: were you even allowed to pair a voice as lush as Vessel’s with a musical landscape that ultimately builds into a down-tuned breakdown? I was hooked, I needed more than the minimal offerings (heh) that were available – though EVERY song leading up to Sundowning is absolutely stunning in their own rights.

All of a sudden, The Night Does Not Belong To God appears on YouTube as I check my phone early one Thursday morning: fantastic, a new single. Two weeks later, to the day: The Offering makes itself known and has since dominated the band’s ‘popular songs’ on all streaming platforms. Another exact fortnight later, Levitate is an unexpected, yet welcome change of pace as a tender piano ballad topped with Sleep Token’s signature grand-finale-breakdown that can only be described as a wrecking ball levelling everything that was so intricately crafted in the 3-4 minutes prior. A pattern was emerging, and I was HERE for it. Sundowning revealed itself as 12 tracks, each carefully composed but linked together with an emotional lyrical thread, as well as aligned graphics/videos and even merch released with each track. As a working musician, this marketing approach completely blew me away, but when the music being pushed is this boundless, this forward-thinking, this calculated yet so naturally flowing, it gives me hope for the future of heavy music.

Every song is worth giving equal time and attention to, the band knows this and that’s why they released it that way. There are no two songs that sound like each other, but there certainly are various, vivid shades to Sleep. From the brutally thick ending to Higher or Gods, to the cheekily obscure, trap-versed banger Dark Signs, to the gorgeously progressive epics Say That You Will and Blood Sport; this album is one that anyone who considers themselves a fan of music needs to check out. This is what the future of music sounds like.

Listen to our decade wrapped over on Spotify!

Written by Nic Martin / Devilskin + Seas Of Conflict

[more decade round ups here]

#nic martin #seas of conflict #top 10s of 2010s #bring me the horizon #katy perry #periphery #tesseract #kendrick lamar #sleep token #the contortionist #emarosa #between the buried and me #avenged sevenfold

0 notes

thomasroach · 5 years

Text

ESO Builds: The Universal Templar (PvE & PvP)

The post ESO Builds: The Universal Templar (PvE & PvP) appeared first on Fextralife.

Recently I’ve been streaming a bit of Elder Scrolls Online on Twitch, and one of the more frequent questions I’m asked is “What is a good Class for a new player?”. While just about any Class can be played well from the beginning, I happen to be slightly biased towards the Templar, since it’s my main. It also happens to be very good for new players, particularly those who don’t know if they want to Tank, DPS or Heal. In this article I want to show you my Universal Templar Build, that allows you to swap between roles at will, without having to change your Attribute or Champion Points.

ESO Builds: The Universal Templar Concept

The Universal Templar works by allowing you to swap your gear for the role you desire to play, while still being effective. You of course, won’t be 100% optimized, but you’ll be very close, and most content does not require 100% optimization any way. So, if you don’t plan to run Veteran Trials, and you can’t be bothered to spend gold every time you want to do something different with your Templar, then this Build is for you. Let’s start with Attributes.

Universal Templar Build Attributes & Champion Points

Attribute spread for this Build is extremely simple, and all Points will be placed into Magicka. This is done for a few reasons. First, when leveling up or questing you will want higher damage or it will take forever, and having high Magicka contributes to harder hitting attacks. Second, you need a good chunk of Magicka to tank as a Templar, and this allows you to use Sets that focus 100% on Health and Stamina while still having the needed Magicka. And third, if you want to heal then you should play a Magicka-based Build, so this prevents a setup that uses Stamina as its main Attribute.

What my stats look like before food. I use Braised Rabbit with Spring Vegetables to add 5395 Health and 4936 Stamina, which puts Stamina higher than Magicka.

Champion Points are allocated in a manner that allows for Healing, DPS and Tanking, as well as PvP. Champion Points are the weakest area of the Build, because any Build focused on a specific type of role and play will have increased performance simply from their allocation. However, this setup is good enough to get you through all content except Veteran Trials, and this is because of diminishing returns. Champion Points are as follows:

Fighter Skills

Iron Clad 66 Resistant 54 Hardy 37 Elemental Defender 38 Quick Recovery 37 Bastion 38

Thief Skills

Warlord 51 Arcanist 38 Mooncalf 43 Shadow Ward 51 Befoul 71 Shade 22

Mage Skills

Blessed 43 Elfborn 51 Elemental Expert 43 Spell Erosion 31 Master At Arms 51 Thaumaturge 51

With this setup you get a decent mix of healing, surviveability and damage. In addition, there are tools here for PvP in the form of Resistant, Befoul, Shade and Warlord, which are all very good to have out in Cyrodiil. When leveling you want to spread your points around a bit in order to gain the most from each passive. Just make sure that you try to gain exact percentages, or as close as you can, as percentages after the decimal point are not applied. For example, if you have 5.76% Magicka Recovery, you only gain 5%.

Universal Templar Tank Setup

The first role we’ll cover here is the Tank, because it’s the most important gear wise. In order to make this work, you’ll need to use a combination of Sets that allow you to have just a bit more Stamina than Magicka on your front bar, and a bit more Magicka than Stamina on your back bar. The best way to accomplish this is by using Sets that have lots of Health on them, and a bit of Stamina. You can then use Health/Stamina food to boost both these Attributes even further, which should put you over the amount of Magicka that you possess.

It is crucial that you do this because you want to be able to gain Stamina from Shards and Orbs while on the front bar, and Magicka while on the back bar. If you end up with more Magicka than Stamina on your front bar, you’ll likely run out of Stamina from Blocking when facing more difficult content. The setup that I use is Crest of Cyrodiil, Battalion Defender, and Thurvokun (7 pieces of Heavy Armor). All Armor pieces have Maximum Health Enchantments, and both Rings and Necklace have Shield-Play Enchantments. My Shield has Maximum Stamina Enchantment, which allows me to be just higher on Stamina, but then when I swap Weapons, to be just lower.

Race is very important when getting this setup to work! I am a High Elf, with a bonus to Maximum Magicka, so if you’re another Race who has a bonus to Stamina, you will likely be able to change some of these Enchantments to Prismatic ones, increasing your Magicka pool as well. This might take a bit of trial and error, but your Glyphs are the best way to control just exactly how much of each Attribute you have, if you are using these Sets. You can also Transmute the Traits on your Jewelry if necessary, and mine all have Stamina, but this can be expensive. Note that for this Build, Races that have Magicka bonuses are preferred, because you will be Healing and DPSing with Magicka-based Skills.

Templar Tanking Tips

When making any Tank one thing you do not want to worry about is Stamina Recovery. At first glance it seems like an important stat, because without Stamina you cannot Block, and if you can’t Block then you die. However, Stamina Recovery doesn’t occur while Blocking, and there are some fights you frankly just can’t let go of Block. For this reason, try to avoid gear that has this Stat on it if you can. One of the Sets I use has it, but the 5 piece bonus more than makes up for it.

Templars will regain their Stamina a few ways (besides Shards and Orbs). Firstly, players who wear Heavy Armor passively gain 108 Stamina (and Magicka) each time they are struck by an attack, once every 4 seconds via the Constitution Skill. The amount increases with each piece of Heavy Armor, all the way up to a maximum of 757 if you have 7 pieces equipped. This is part of the reason we wear all Heavy Armor, as this translates to 378 Stamina and Magicka Recovery, but works even if holding Block.

Second, Repentance is a very helpful Skill for regaining Stamina when enemies around you die. However, it is very situational, and I like to use it mostly after each trash pull to top up, so that I have full Stamina on every one. This is why I keep this Skill on my back bar, but you will use it during some boss fights that have a number of minions with them.

Restoring Focus is ideal for Templar Tanks, but isn’t for Healers and DPS, so we use Channeled instead. This will help you keep up Radiant Ward, so isn’t a bad substitution.

Lastly, Heavy Attacks. Be sure to Heavy Attack when you have an opening where you don’t need to Block, since you can’t Block and Heavy Attack at the same time. This will net you somewhere around 2k Stamina, which goes a long way, particularly if you can get in a few in a row.

Restoring Focus would provide us with 240 Stamina every 1 second that it is active, which translates to the equivalent of 480 Stamina Recovery, even while Blocking. However, we don’t use it with this setup because it does not work well with the Healer and DPS roles. Instead we use Channeled Focus, which provides Magicka. This is less useful to a Tank, though still good for keeping up your Radiant Ward.

Keep up Radiant Ward as much as you can. This Damage Shield really helps prevent you taking damage in the first place, while dealing modest damage at the same time. Healers get stressed out when Tanks take huge hits, and keeping your Health as close to max as possible will allow them to relax and help DPS. This Skill makes you really hard to kill, and you should have a decent amount of Magicka because of all the Attribute Points there, Channeled Focus and Constitution.

Universal Templar Healer & DPS Setup

I’ve combined the Healer and DPS here because they are pretty straight forward when it comes to gear. You do not need to pay attention to any Stat balances in either of these two setups, but want to focus on high Magicka and Spell Damage, in order to maximize your Healing or DPS.

For Healer you’re going to likely use any set that boosts Spell and Weapon Damage of your group, like Spell Power Cure or Vestments of Olorime, in combination with Worm Cult or another healing oriented Set. Your Monster Helm Set should be one that heals like: Chokethorn or Earthgore.

For DPS you’ll want to use Sets that boost your damage as high as possible. Good Sets include: Law of Julianos, False God’s Devotion, Mother’s Sorrow, Bright-Throat’s Boast and others. For a Monster Helm you can use Grothdarr, Slimecraw, Valkyn Skoria, or Zaan.

There are many good Monster Helms for DPS and Healer. Be sure to check the Wiki to see what they are.

Templar Healing Tips

Besides the usual Healing Springs and Mutagen spam, you’ll be using Spear Shards to provide Stamina to your Tank, and Necrotic Orb to provide resources to your DPS. Don’t be shy when using them, because the harder your DPS can burn, the faster everything dies and the less healing you need to do.

Keep up Channeled Focus at all times to help with your Magicka Recovery, and try to remain inside it if possible to boost your Resistance further. It costs very little Magicka, so don’t be afraid to place it often, particularly if you are in a fight that requires a lot of movement (like PvP).

Heavy Attack with your Restoration Staff when you need Magicka and your group isn’t in danger. You gain extra Magicka from using the Restoration Staff Heavy Attack when compared with a Destruction Staff because of the Cycle of Life passive. In addition, you will gain Major Mending for 3 seconds, and will heal your Tank for a percentage of the damage done.

Breath of Life is your panic button, and you’ll use this to save players that are in danger, but also be sure to keep Extended Ritual down for a small heal over time, and to provide a cleanse to your group. Ritual of Retribution is better for PvE, but because this setup also includes PvP we use Extended.

Templar DPS Tips

Be sure to keep Blazing Spear down at all times to further boost your DPS. This Skill does amazing damage, and when stacked with other AoEs like Wall of Elements, you can really crank out some good numbers. I like to spam this during trash pulls, as the initial hit is very high, and kills things very quickly if excessive Magicka consumption is not a concern. It also procs Burning Light, which further increases its effectiveness.

Vampire’s Bane and Purifying Light are very good against bosses, and you want to keep them up permanently if possible. Vampire’s Bane will increase your Critical Strike Chance, and Purifying Light will provide a small heal around the target after it expires. The heal is much more useful in PvP than PvE, but every little bit helps.

Radiant Oppression is your go-to execute skill and you’ll want to use this when bosses or players get low on Health. This skill is “undodgeable”, so works particularly well against Stamina-based PvP Builds that tend to roll around a lot. If you find you are having difficulty with them, which you likely will as a Templar, then abuse the hell out of this Skill.

Final Thoughts

The Universal Templar will let you play 99% of the content that Elder Scrolls Online has and still be effective. I would not recommend doing Veteran Trials with this setup, but you likely could if you had a good enough knowledge of their mechanics, and you had a full group of others that were built specifically for it.

Unfortunately there is no “Stamina-based” version of this Build, because although it would work for DPS and Tanking, Stamina Healers are not effective in most cases. They are also not new player friendly, making it advisable for only very advanced players, and those players likely have no need of Build advice. You can make a Build that can alternate between DPS and Tank effectively if you don’t plan to heal, but you won’t be able to do all 3 roles.

Echoing Vigor is really the only Stamina Heal in the game, and you need to PvP a bit to get it.

Do not mistake failings in PvP for issues with this Build. PvP has a very very steep learning curve, and it will take you months to get good at it, depending on how much you play. A lot of playing in Cyrodiil is about learning where to be and when, and when to engage and when to avoid conflict. These things are learned over time, in addition to learning how to deal with certain cancer Builds, and various groups. This Build works fine for PvP, but it’s not made specifically for it, so if that’s all you play then consider a different one.

Lastly, you can do this for other Classes as well, if you follow the same concepts. Obviously the tips about Skills and whatnot will be different, but the general idea will work the same. I actually plan to do this for each Class, so if you play something other than a Templar and want to know how to do this in detail keep an eye on the channel. Also, we’ll have our Scalebreaker Breakdown Video up soon, so if you want to know what changes are coming, stay tuned for that.

The post ESO Builds: The Universal Templar (PvE & PvP) appeared first on Fextralife.

ESO Builds: The Universal Templar (PvE & PvP) published first on https://juanaframi.tumblr.com/

0 notes

operationrainfall · 6 years

Text

Title Bomb Chicken Developer Nitrome Ltd Publisher Nitrome Ltd Release Date July 12th, 2018 Genre Puzzle, Platformer Platform Steam, Nintendo Switch Age Rating E for Everyone – Mild Fantasy Violence Official Website

I don’t know what it is with me and chicken-themed games lately. That doesn’t seem like a pattern that would exist in gaming, but lately I’ve played a couple fantastic and totally different video games that had a chicken protagonist. First was Chicken Wiggle, where you play a duo of chicken and worm and use their unique skills to navigate levels. Then I saw Bomb Chicken in a Nintendo Direct. I didn’t know anything about it, other than it looked quirky and had a lot of charm. Fast forward a month after it released, and I decided to take the advice of some friends and purchase myself a copy. The question is, which came first – the chicken or the bomb?

One thing I instantly appreciated about Bomb Chicken was the pure simplicity of the game. That doesn’t mean it’s an easy game or a poorly designed one. Rather, it’s like a haiku, short, sweet and elegantly crafted. The entire game is composed of 29 stages, including three boss fights, but nothing feels extraneous or out of place. Likewise, the game doesn’t hold your hand, but rather gives you little pointers how to proceed. Often you’ll find visual clues that tell you how to progress, and once you get the basic mechanics down, it’s very fun to experiment on the fly.

The controls are easy to learn, but trickier to master. All you can do is move around or lay bombs with any face button. You can’t jump exactly, but by laying a tower of bombs, (You can lay about nine before they explode) you are then able to fall onto things and squash them. By walking into bombs, you’ll push them forward with a headbutt, which lets you hit distant targets. These mechanics comprise the core of the gameplay, but there’s a lot of nuance to it. For example, you can lay as many bombs at a time as you want, but the moment you plop one out, the timer starts ticking. Any bombs in close proximity to another will explode together, and if you’re touching a bomb directly, you’ll perish. However, by standing a little bit away from a bomb, you’ll be perfectly safe.

You can also use bombs for more than offense. Each bomb is roughly the same size as your clucky hero, so by laying one and getting alongside it, it will temporarily shield you from projectiles such as arrow traps. It won’t, however, save you from fiery projectiles, which will prematurely set off your bombs.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Much like the controls, the levels start simple and add more and more twists the farther you go. You’ll have mechanics like switches you need to hit, key cards you need to open gated doors, platforms that burn up when a bomb explodes, blue goo that makes dangerous ripples from your explosions and others. Besides that, there will be many threats to your feathered existence, such as buzz saws, roving turrets, arrow traps and a whole host of colorful enemies. Early on, foes will be pretty oblivious and just let you run up to them and blow them up with a bomb, but then the game introduces enemies that charge you with spears, mandragoras that constantly sprout from the ground, flowery fiends which spit streams of seeds, ghostly foes that can’t be killed but only temporarily disarmed, and much, much more. I was frankly quite impressed by the variety.

Perhaps most impressive were the boss fights in Bomb Chicken. While there are only three of them, each one is completely distinct and offers a robust challenge. I won’t spoil how to win against them, but just remember to pay attention to their attack patterns and look for visual cues which indicate weak spots.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

While it’s true there’s not much plot in the game, there’s just enough to keep you invested. The premise is something like this. Imagine if a KFC was built on a Mayan death temple. Heavy machinery and magic mix together, and you get an lone egg transformed by some really special sauce into your plucky hero. Your only goal is to escape with your life, and the farther you go, the weirder things get. In between each level, you’ll come across a giant chicken statue that lets you trade in gems for extra lives. This is really important to do, since the levels get more and more challenging and one hit will kill you. As you progress, levels will require quick reflexes and quicker strategies. It’s in your best interest to look everywhere for gems, especially since some are quite well hidden in massive chests, usually in a rather challenging trap room. While you’re not forced to get them all, doing so gives you a maximum of nine lives to try each level, which you’ll be glad you have later in the game.

Whatever you say, creepy statue…

Visually, the game is a delectable mix of beautiful colors and delightfully detailed sprites. Everything in the game expresses a lot of personality and humor, which is rare these days. Some examples are the way your chicken waggles his tiny wings when falling, or how he resurrects himself as a bomb that grows wings and feathers. In many ways Bomb Chicken is like a living cartoon, and it helps ground you in this delightfully strange world. Musically, the game is a mix of ambient tunes full of eerie mystery and a little menace. Imagine a mixture of Indiana Jones with a dash of Bomberman, and you have a decent idea. The sound effects are also spectacular, bursting with flavorful effects that not only sound great, but also help you react intelligently to threats in your adventure. Put simply, Bomb Chicken is a feast for your eyes and ears.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

I almost have no real complaints in Bomb Chicken, other than one small one. I wanted to spend more time in this world. 29 stages isn’t too few, but after beating the game in about 5 hours or so, you’ll want any excuse to spend more time adventuring. On that note, it was a little disappointing to me that 100 percenting the game by collecting all the gems doesn’t unlock anything. I was hoping for maybe some bonus stages or a hidden boss or even a slightly different ending, but alas, all you get is extra lives. That said, when the only complaint I can make about a game is I didn’t get enough of it, that tells you it did plenty right.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

In the end, I don’t know if the bomb or chicken came first, and I don’t care. They are delightful when mixed together, and Bomb Chicken is a true gem. It’s a colorful and challenging game that is full of personality, and it’s truly a one of a kind. It plays marvelously on the Nintendo Switch, and is a good contender for one of the best indies I’ve played in 2018. Nitrome have done great work with this one, and I find myself eagerly anticipating whatever they hatch next.

[easyreview cat1title=”Overall” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”4.5″]

Review Copy Purchased by Author

REVIEW: Bomb Chicken Title Bomb Chicken

#Bomb Chicken #Bomberman #Chicken Wiggle #nintendo switch #Nitrome #platformer #puzzle #Steam

0 notes

1989dreamer · 7 years

Text

Chapter 5 of Looking for a Place to Call Home

If I missed anything in the medical way, don’t hesitate to let me know.

~ * ~

Derek wakes up briefly when Stiles lifts him into the tub and he sinks into the few inches of hot water. He whimpers at the obvious temperature change and then he rolls onto his side and drifts off again.

He keeps waking as Stiles scrubs him of the mess, but it’s difficult to keep his eyes open for very long.

He finally rouses when Stiles leaves him seated on the covered toilet lid, wrapped in a scratchy, threadbare towel too faded to distinguish its original color. Derek is cold and shivering. His bowels are still kinked from the worms (but at least he’s stopped releasing them for now), and frankly he’s too tired to try shifting again.

Besides, Stiles returns before he can do anything but pull the towel tighter around himself.

“So it took some digging but I think I’ve got some clothes that will fit you.”

Derek doesn’t respond. He can still feel the barbs of the taser in his skin even though he’s long healed. Stiles is not his friend or his savior. He’s another predator intent on torturing Derek.

“Miguel?” Stiles says softly. Derek glares at him, trying to burn his face off with the intensity of his stare alone. “Not Miguel? Wanna tell me your real name?”

Derek glares harder.

“Okay then.” Stiles sighs and runs his hands over his face. “Let’s get you dressed. Can you stand up?”

The towel is too short. Derek’s butt and penis will be exposed. And he’s still too cold anyway.

“Fine,” Stiles snaps. He grabs the edge of the towel and jerks.

Derek yells in anger, launching himself at the man, pounding his fists against his chest. Stiles catches both wrists in one hand, and Derek realizes then how much smaller he is compared to Stiles. He barely reaches Stiles’ shoulder and Stiles weighs at least triple what Derek does, maybe even quadruple—Stiles is much heavier than Derek.

“That’s enough of that. Either you dress yourself or I’ll do it for you.” Stiles lets him go.

Sullenly, Derek holds out his hand. Stiles gives him a faded graphic t-shirt, the design, a blue-white-and-red bullseye is cracked and mostly peeled off. It’s too big on Derek’s frame but it feels…almost good. The pants, a maroon pair of track pants are also too big and they feel restrictive even though Stiles offered no undergarments.

“Ready?”

Derek bolts for the door as an answer. He hears Stiles swear before his body shorts out and he falls to the ground, writhing as Stiles keeps the trigger on his taser depressed.

“No! No!” Derek cries as Stiles approaches him. “Please, no!” He passes out before Stiles stops electrocuting him.

~ * ~

Stiles drums his fingers on the steering wheel of his faithful Jeep, Roscoe. He changed out of his uniform earlier after cleaning up the bathroom, but he’s still got his belt on with his backup 92 Compact Beretta in the holster instead of his primary 9mm Glock. He also has his taser and stun gun with him. In the backseat, wrapped in a ratty old blanket he’s had since high school, Miguel sleeps fitfully.

The boy is skittish, no doubt. Stiles wonders what happened to him to make him that way. Whatever it was, it probably has something to do with his nearly skeletal frame. Dear God, it doesn’t look like the boy has eaten in years! Stiles doesn’t understand how he’s still going, standing up, walking, fighting. The weight he is and the weight he should be are nowhere close together.

Stiles pulls up to the clinic, relieved to see Scott outside, fiddling with his phone.

“Hey, buddy,” Stiles says when Scott saunters to his open window. “Mind helping me carry Miguel inside?”

Scott gapes at the boy. “That’s not a dog!” He turns an accusing glare on Stiles. “You said there was a worm emergency with Miguel.”

“Yeah, there was. I saved you a stool sample.” Stiles points at the bagged mason jar sitting in an empty plastic ice cream pail. “Now, you are probably going to have a hard time grasping this but the boy in my backseat is Miguel. He can shape-shift into a wolf.” Which means Scott made the boy eat dog food. Stiles would laugh if he didn’t think it was the only food Miguel’s had for at least a while judging by the dirt still caked on his skin.

“You’re right,” Scott says, “I am having a hard time believing that. I mean, Stiles, werewolves? Werewolves aren’t real.”

“That’s what I thought, and then I walked in on Miguel in mid-shift.” Technically, Stiles is positive he scared the boy into shifting, but that’s beside the point.

“I still don’t believe it,” Scott says. “For now, we should really get this boy to the hospital.”

“No, because this is Miguel, the wolf-dog. The lycanthrope. How is a hospital going to help him?”

“Because he’s human, Stiles!”

“But he’s not human, not really.” Scott glares at him. “Fine. I’ll call Lydia Martin and see if she can spare us a few minutes.”

“Seriously, Stiles? This child is ill—emaciated and malnourished and full of worms! What about that says a vet is the best place for him?”

“Um, maybe the fact that he used to be a wolf?” Stiles pulls out his phone to signal the end of the conversation. Scott huffs and turns away while Stiles climbs out of Roscoe. Lydia takes her time to answer his call.

“Stiles,” she says without greeting when she finally does pick up. “What do you need now?”

Ouch. The last time he bugged her was maybe a week ago when he was trying to find out what Christmas gift he should get her and her wife. To be fair to her, nothing Stiles does is subtle, and she’s probably still suffering whiplash from the last time.

“Lydia, light of my life,” he sings into the phone, cajoling. Can’t hurt, he thinks. “My ever-brilliant goddess, my sweet straw—”

“Get to your point, Stilinski, before I hang up on your pathetic ass.”

Stiles winces. Okay, so it could hurt. “I need you to come by the vet clinic. I have a very interesting case for you.”

“Is this a ploy to get me to agree to a date with you?”

Is that why she’s always so frosty toward him? She thinks he’s still burning a torch for her? Stiles laughs. “No, I gave up all hope of ever going out with you when you kissed your best friend senior year at prom. Speaking of Allison, why don’t you bring her along too? I’m sure we could use her expertise in a situation like this.”

“You know I’m mostly a researcher with a medical background, right?” Lydia reminds him. “I won’t be able to help with anything major, and you really should take Scott to the ER if it’s a serious injury.”

“It’s not Scott,” Stiles says. “It’s Miguel.”

“Who, Stiles, in the ever loving fuck is Miguel?”

“My dog?” Stiles winces, waiting for her outburst. Surprisingly, it comes in the form of her laughing uproariously at him.

“Your dog?” she manages to squeak out when she’s gotten her giggles mostly under control.

“Yes,” Stiles says. “Well, he’s not mine yet. I’m just fostering him right now. My problem though is he’s not just a dog.”

Stiles swears he can hear Lydia’s eyebrow rising as her interest is piqued (but he could also attribute it to her finally corralling all her errant giggles).

Stiles sighs. “It’s easier if you just come in. Please?”

“Allison and I will be down in about fifteen minutes.”

“Thank you,” Stiles says to a dead line. He’ll just tell her in person then. “Hey, Scott, Lydia and Allison will be—” And he’s talking to an empty parking lot. Stiles sighs again and stomps into the clinic.

Scot already has Miguel on the operating table, and he’s examining the boy’s eyes with his eye-light thingy.

“Pupils have a slowed response,” Scott remarks, offhand. “Did he hit his head at all?”

“No, not that I saw. Any idea on why he’s still unconscious?”

Scott shakes his head. “Not without knowing exactly how he lost consciousness in the first place.”

“Oh, that.” Stiles scratches at the back of his head and shuffles his feet. “He tried to run so I tasered him.”

“You what?!” Scott glares at him.

“Hey, I’m a cop. I see a threat, I neutralize it…with nonlethal force.”

“How on Earth is that,” Scott stabs a finger at Miguel, “a threat, Stiles!”

“He attacked me and then tried to escape. He’s lucky all he got was the taser.”

“Why am I here?” a small, rough voice asks.

“Now he’s awake,” Stiles says. “You should probably examine him again.”

“I’m a veterinarian,” Scott says. “The very definition of that word is a doctor for animals. His physiology is completely different from what I’ve studied.”

All the same, he moves to the table and places a hand on Miguel’s shoulder.

“How are you feeling?” he asks.

Miguel shrugs.

“Any pain?”

Miguel nods.

“Show me?”

The boy puts both hands on his stomach. Scott palpitates it gently before opening a drawer to pull out his stethoscope. Miguel looks absolutely terrified as Scott blows on the end of it before he places it on his stomach.

Stiles’ phone buzzes, distracting him. It’s Lydia texting him. She and Allison are outside.

“I’m going to get the Martins,” he tells Scott.

Scott only grunts, still listening to Miguel’s abdomen.

Stiles shakes his head and leaves.

~ * ~

MP, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14

#Teen Wolf Fanfiction #Derek Hale #Stiles Stilinski #My Story/My Writing #LfaPtCH

0 notes

viralhottopics · 7 years

Text

Minimalism: another boring product wealthy people can buy

Minimalism is just another form of conspicuous consumption, a way of saying to the world: Look at me! Look at all of the things I have refused to buy!

I hate minimalism.

I hate it as the incredibly tedious piece of personal performance art it has come to be in our society, but I also hate it as an aesthetic: your white-on-white-on-white life and meticulously crafted wardrobe of only the most wispy products Everlane and Aritzia have to offer are, frankly, a saltine crackers idea of what a Cool Girl would wear.

In terms of its visual merits, or as a capital-S style, the hyper-curated minimalism really only conveys one thing: I wanted to take the very safest route to chic, cut away every possible misstep or risk. I saw the French Girl Chic articles and I was like thats pretty damn homogenous, but smoking tests poorly in focus groups and those occasional striped shirts are too bold. Time to reduce my look even further until literally every item I purchase tells people I could get something more interesting, but I have enough money to choose not to.

Because lets be clear about what the minimalist aesthetic, at least as a personal style choice, actually is: its a way of aping the connotations of simplicity and even, to a degree, asceticism, without actually having to give up those sweet, sweet class signifiers.

Our favorite budget backsplashes on RM today. Share your favorite low-cost design solutions at #RMbudgetdesign. (Here: Nina Holst’s -@stylizimoblog – dramatic black ply version.) #rmkitchen

A post shared by Remodelista (@remodelista) on Jan 18, 2017 at 5:35am PST

Being minimalist in this way Stop wasting money on all that IKEA nonsense! With this $4,000 dining table hand-whittled by a failed novelist in Scandinavia, you will never need another piece of furniture! really just means having enough upfront disposable money to invest in your wardrobe and surroundings. Reducing a wardrobe down to a few painfully elegant cashmere-cotton blend tops is only really possible if you can put down at least $1,000 in one go for the creation of your capsule wardrobe.

The visual cues and undercurrents of moral superiority it apes, the no-makeup makeup because youve bought $250 worth of nigh-invisible Glossier products, the vaguely Japanese home decor because we assume literally anything that isnt crowded with color and pattern is somehow automatically Japanese its all about spending an incredible amount of time and attention to look as if you hadnt thought about it at all.

And these are all fine things! You are allowed to enjoy having precisely 10 sweaters in slightly different shades of taupe, or meticulously keeping your all-white dining set on white open shelves, despite the fact that it clearly implies at least once-weekly dusting of your entire kitchen, but what is #problematic about it is pretending that this is somehow a noble or morally positive way to spend your money.

It is just another form of conspicuous consumption, a way of saying to the world: Look at me! Look at all of the things I have refused to buy, and the incredibly-expensive, sparse items I have deemed worthy instead!

#design#interiordesign#interior#interiordesigner#simple######black##fashion#inspiration##grey#white###monohrome##furniture#home##decoration#homedecoration#minimalism#minimalist#mood#white

A post shared by make_it_simple (@make_it_simple_ana) on Mar 3, 2017 at 7:24am PST

And we are entitled to buy whatever we like, but to pretend that the intentional and costly upfront implications of a minimalist-chic life are anything but privileged posturing is ridiculous. But I believe that we feel these things because the minimalism-as-luxury-good phenomenon is extremely caught up with the minimalism-as-faux-spiritualism phenomenon, which is its own can of farm-to-table, artisanal worms.

Long story short, the past 10 years or so has sold us one of the most oddly logical, yet no less cloying, answers to our hyper-consumerist late capitalism: minimalism as a secular kind of religion, an add-on to the cultures of yoga and green juices and general living well by putting together a tapas platter of cultural and spiritual practices without ever fully committing to one.

The premise of minimalism in this way is very vague, and ever-shifting to accommodate the tastes and stomach for consistency of the individual practitioner, but the overall theory is the same: by paring your life down as actively as possible, you are almost guaranteed to appreciate what remains more, and are likely to pick up some serious wisdom in the process, which usually makes for excellent self-serious Medium content down the road.

There are a million variations fitting all your belongings into a single box, small-house or van living, radical de-cluttering, extreme purges of technology or social activity, etc but they all hold the same vague, usually unspoken level of superiority.

Didn’t love today’s outfit for the #winter10x10 so I decided to change it up last minute — see the original outfit on the blog, see the outfit I decided to wear instead in my IG Stories. @leevosburgh is having a similar “How fascinating!” moment in her IG Stories today too — we must be on the same wavelength today. Anyone else having one too? #unfancyremix #stylebee10x10

A post shared by Caroline Joy Rector (@caroline_joy) on Jan 17, 2017 at 11:07am PST

They all imply that they are in some way a moral upgrade from the life of mindless consumerism, and as a bonus, allow you to take on some of the desirable aesthetics and morality of poverty without ever having to be poor. Youre not homeless, youre on the road, doing some chic van-living and following the good weather! Youre not unable to afford basic home goods, youre choosing to pare everything down to a single cardboard box! If life were a video game and there are some scientists who seem to believe it may be minimalist spirituality is a great way to get all the gold coins of poverty without ever having to be one of those icky poor people.

The implication of this kind of minimalism is obvious, and yet it somehow never seems to get addressed: the only people who can practice minimalism in any meaningful way are people upon whom it isnt forced by financial or logistical circumstances.

You cannot choose to declutter if you are already living in a sparse home you cannot afford to furnish. You cannot reduce the food you consume if you are already only able to put one good meal on the table per day. And when nearly half of Americans would be unable to pay their bills if they missed a single check, this forced minimalism is much, much more common than we would like to imagine. We cannot pretend that performative reduction in consumption, or choosing to only consume in certain ways, is not one of the most gratuitous displays of privilege out there, and to frame it as in any way a moral choice is more than a little offensive.

#tinyhousemovement via @emgrayy88 & @getawayhouse

A post shared by #TinyHouseMovement (@tinyhousemovement) on Feb 27, 2017 at 11:24am PST

But the truth is that, as with so many other social phenomena that insufferable white dudes have co-opted, this spiritual minimalism has essentially become yet another competition for who can be the best at whatever youve chosen, even if that whatever is literally having less shit.

Even ignoring the class angles, this idea that any decluttering in your life is automatically a positive thing is simply an aesthetic choice being reframed as a moral one because, lets be honest, its really easy to look at a lot of what (mostly) women own as being totally frivolous. Makeup, more-elaborate wardrobes, cozy home decor, art, supplies for hobbies, nice home goods its not a coincidence that most of the stuff were being told to flush away from our lives happens to be stuff that women mostly accumulate.

And, yes, there is a very strong capitalist-critical argument to be made about buying in more intentional and ethical ways, but color me shocked that very few of these minimalist troubadours ever really take things to an economic or class-based argument. Its about reducing for personal enlightenment and pompous blog posts, its not about arguing for a more equitable society in which people consume proportionate to their needs. (If you need a perfect example of this, note the fetishization of the curated simplicity of the ultra-rich: their clean loft spaces, their designer capsule wardrobes, their elaborately reduced diets. These people are still conspicuously consuming in mind-boggling ways, theyre just filtering it through the convenient prism of simplicity, and that allows their million-dollar wardrobes to somehow be aspirational for someone advocating for minimalism.)

The point is, the points being made by the minimalism crew are neither truly spiritual nor truly socioeconomic. Theyre another style, as superficial as anything else that might come down the runway at Fashion Week, just with an added layer of condescension. At the end of the day, we shouldnt kid ourselves: this kind of minimalism is just another boring product that wealthy people can buy.

This piece was originally published on The Financial Diet