#other than that... just judge materials on if you can understand the main idea. if you can? its comprehemsible enough

[rigelmejo]

I hope the posts I make about comprehensible input are useful and help people understand things.

I see soany people confused on language learning forums about comprehensible input. Asking about what it is, if they have to use it to learn a language, if it's "better," if it's 70% or 98% or if it's about reading or lessons.

It's just a term. A term that people confuse for more than it is, since it's used in many contexts.

Comprehensible input is input (so listening, reading, watching) that you understand the meaning of. That's all.

In reading, many classes refer to 95-98% comprehensible input (aka reading material with only 2-5 unknown words out of 100) as ideal extensive reading material. Extensive reading material is reading material where you read and can easily guess new words from context - it's a big activity we did to learn to read in our native languages. Ideal intensive reading material in classes is usually 90-95% comprehensible (as in you don't know 5-10 words out of 100 on the page), and usually in classes and learning material the unknown words will be provided in a glossary or vocabulary list so you can comprehend 98-100% with the help of using the glossary/vocabulary list/looking up the meaning of unknown words. That is how comprehensible input as a term is used in literature classes, in foreign language teaching discussions about intensive and extensive reading. It's about specifically how many words you comprehend (understand) in the reading material, and then if that makes it better as extensive reading material where you can simply guess the unknown words from context, or if you need to read it intensively (look up words) in order to make it more comprehensible (understandable).

In learner forums, comprehensible input often vaguely means "anything you can comprehend the main idea of with or without tools". So a graded reader for your language level would be comprehensible input as it is (as you'd kmow enough words to understand the main idea with no tools), a textbook dialogue with a vocabulary list would be comprehensible input (where the tool of the vocavulary list helps make the dialogue comprehensible), a show where you look up every unknown word until you undersrand the main idea would be comprehensible input (by intensively looking up unknown words with a translation tool). Comprehensible Input lessons for learners are (usually) a video or classroom where teachers use visuals like gestures, objects, pictures, and expressions to make the main idea of what they're communicating very comprehensible even if you don't know any words they're saying. Comprehensible input lessons made for intermediate students tend to use more of words they expect learners to know, and less visuals, more like graded readers and learner podcasts.

Learners refer to ALL of those things as comprehensible input. Even though they're different! Even though some would require tools to comprehend! If you comprehemd the main idea, it's comprehensible to you. If you can't comprehend the main ideas, you can use tools to Make a material comprehensible by looking up enough unknown items to understand the main idea.

If you comprehend input enough to understand the main idea of something, then you can guess some more details from context - and gradually learn more stuff from the material just from context. So if you make it so you comprehend input, then you can further learn more words and details and grammar from the context of the portions you understand. So if you use a Comprehensible Input Lesson for beginners, and understand the main idea using visual images, the idea is you'll learn some words you're hearing by guessing/understanding based on the context of the images (which you understand). If you use a graded reader and there's 1 unknown word in 100 words you don't know, the idea is you can guess or infer the meaning of that 1 unknown word in context. If you read a news article and look up enough key words to understand the main idea of the article, chances are you'll be able to guess a few additional words in that article from context (without having to look all the words up). If you watch Peppa Pig in a target language, and can follow the main idea using the visuals of the objects on screen, chances are you can guess a rough meaning of some of the words they're saying (maybe they're holding an apple and keep saying a word so you eventually guess that means apple).

Some people say they comprehend as low as 50% of something, and where those kind of guesses come from is probably visual media more. Maybe they comprehend 50% of the actual words in Peppa Pig, but they understand most of the main ideas that are going on in the story thanks to the visuals. People might say they comprehend as little as 20% of a Super Beginner Dreaming Spanish video if say they learned few words, but thanks to the visuals explaining everything visually they understand 90% of the actual main ideas.

My way of deciding if a material is comprehensible enough to start learning some things from context, is if I can follow the main idea. Whether that's a learner podcast and I just happen to know most of the words so I can follow the main idea, or a novel and I look up enough keywords while I read (use a tool) to understand the main idea, or I watch a cartoon where I know few words but visually can understand the main idea going on.

It is comprehensible input, if you comprehend the main idea. That's all. Use tools if you need to, or don't if you understand the main idea without tools.

Learning material designed specifically to be comprehensible to learners tends to be labelled "comprehensible input." I think confusion here comes when someone is studying using ALG or Dreaming Spanish method, and then tells someone else "comprehensible input" is the name of the METHOD they're learning through and it involves no textbooks or classes. The method they're studying with is a specific method. The Dreaming Spanish method, or the ALG method. The method involves using a specific kind of comprehensible input - lessons made for learners, then materials designed for learners to use extensively (as in understandable without tools), then materials for native speakers. But ALL language learning methods utilize various types of comprehensible input. These study methods (ALG, Dreaming Spanish) just specifically use "comprehensible input learner materials" and recommend not using study materials which require tools (by which I mean lookups, translations, explanations in another language, any intensive kinds of study where you look up explanations and translations).

On the other end of the spectrum, some learners call all immersion comprehensible input. And by that they tend to mean, they ARE using tools (anki decks, translation apps, grammar guides) to look up enough words in material to comprehend the main idea. So they are using tools to understand some materials, and perhaps also using comprehensible input made for learners (such as comprehensible input lessons and learner podcasts), and eventually material made for native speakers Is comprehensible enough to them without tools to follow the main idea. This would be Refold method, and some other learners who use the term "comprehensible input" to mean immersion, learner podcasts, CI lessons, broadly.

Textbooks are comprehensible input, designed to have the tools BUILT in to make it comprehensible (vocabulary glossaries with translations, grammar explanations). Language/Target Language sentence audio like Pimsleur and Glossika are comprehensible input - they make it comprehensible by giving you the translation so you understand the input.

All immersion you understand the main idea of, is comprehensible input. Which all learners will do EVENTUALLY when they one day read, listen, watch, speak with someone, write back and forth with someone in the language. All learners get comprehensible input in some form, usually multiple forms. Sometimes comprehensible input you just understand the main idea from context alone. Sometimes you make something into comprehensible input by using tools to understand the main idea. As long as you understand the main idea (however you can), then you can learn additional bits of language from the context of the parts you do understand.

I hope that makes sense.

[mbti-notes]

What is your opinion on the site Personality Database? It's a website where people comment and vote (by majority) on a fictional character or celebrity's MBTI type. I notice people use different theories in their arguments, such as the 8 function stack one, that conflict with with 4 function stack, which isn't very conductive for a debate. This, and the majority vote system, means that many profiles get mistyped. Would you say debating there is of any use to study type theory?

You're asking two separate questions. The first is what I think about the website. I know about it because it pops up in searches but I don't use it myself, so I don't really have a strong opinion. With the voting system, the results are only as good as the people who've voted. Generally speaking, if you understand and accept the limitations of a system, then you're in a better position to get something useful from it.

The second question is whether it is of any use for studying type theory. This is a more complicated question to answer because it depends on several factors:

(1) Different people have different learning preferences. When your study materials match up well with your learning preferences, it helps you stay engaged and motivated to keep learning. So, the more important question is: What are your learning preferences and does the website align with them?

I was a philosophy major and worked as a debate coach, so debate is basically my second language. I'm fine with debate but I much prefer to learn through dialogue and discussion. I've known plenty of students who hated debate and couldn't engage because they found the atmosphere too antagonistic or polarizing.

The problem is that most people don't really know how to debate. A lot of "debates" are really just people shouting over each other and putting forth mere opinion as fact. Ideally, debate should be about bringing to light all the relevant points, evaluating them fairly, and determining where the truth lies by exposing falsehoods and fallacies.

However, since debate has a performance element, it's all too easy for ego and emotions to take over and derail noble intentions. If you're the kind of person who has a hard time concentrating only on the merits of ideas and keeping them separate from the people doing the speaking, then debate is probably not your ideal form of learning.

(2) The quality of the information provided in a debate can only be trusted to the extent that the debaters are knowledgeable people.

Beware that a lot of people are good at speaking confidently despite not really knowing what they're talking about. The problem with communicating anonymously on the internet is you don't immediately know who you're talking to and what level of education they have. An open comment section could easily include anyone, from 10-year-olds to college professors.

In order to benefit from the comments, you'd have to be able to judge their quality. But this implies that you already possess a certain level of foundational knowledge in order to judge well. But... if you already had that knowledge, how much more could you gain from a comments section?

As a general rule, when I'm a total noob at something, the first thing I do is seek out experts to learn from, people who've spent a significant chunk of their life devoted to the subject. I never want to risk being misled by inexperienced/ignorant people. I'd much rather slog through a dense book written by a well-respected person in the field than listen to a smooth-talking social media influencer with questionable credentials. I value my time and this is one way I protect myself from making costly learning mistakes or wasting my efforts.

(3) A debate is only educational to the extent that the information presented is representative of the subject as a whole.

Generally speaking, there are two kinds of debaters you ought to avoid when learning is your main goal: "egoists" and "dogmatists". These people don't take learning seriously and the way they present information can seriously bias your view of the subject.

- Egoists are skilled at "framing" a debate to make themselves look good. They believe that debating is about winning and they'll do anything to win, even if it means obfuscating the truth. They mainly care about getting attention, obtaining rewards, and/or feeling superior, so they only learn what is minimally necessary to achieve those ends. To them, knowledge is relative rather than objective, all smoke and mirrors.

- Yes, there are a variety of theories, so it can be difficult to reconcile them, or it can lead to people talking past each other. This can also produce tribal mentality as people pick sides. Dogmatic people usually start out as insecure or directionless students, so they're unconsciously looking for ways to compensate for their lack of confidence. By picking what they believe is a "winning team", they gain a more solid identity and feel more emboldened to debate and argue from a place of "authority". Unfortunately, dogmatic people end up having glaring blind spots because they're not willing to consider counterevidence and alternative viewpoints. Their learning is incomplete, and they like it that way.

This isn't to say that egoists and dogmatists can't be right about anything; it is to say that they only grasp a tiny sliver of the bigger picture. Have you ever flipped through introductory college textbooks? You'll notice that they all share a similar structure. They break the entire field up into subfields and then provide a review of the most important research for each. When you're new to a subject, getting a full and objective view of the entire subject is important for structuring your learning process logically. You won't get that breadth from egoists and dogmatists.

.

I'm a "holistic" learner, whether I like it or not. This means I have to be able to visualize the bigger picture or the final outcome in order to learn smoothly. For me, learning is like trying to put together a giant jigsaw puzzle, so it really helps to have the box with the picture on it as a guide. As a holistic learner, I welcome rather than decry the existence of many different and conflicting theories. I'm always looking to fill in the missing pieces of the grand puzzle, and one theory alone usually doesn't cut it.

If you've ever studied the history of science, psychology, or philosophy, you'll realize that there's a running narrative behind the development of major theories. New theories arise because people are responding to deficits in the theory that came before. Each new theory tackles the subject from a slightly different angle that was previously missed. I love when theories conflict with each other because that reveals the most important aspects of the subject to examine.

I don't subscribe completely to any one theory because I believe every theory has something valuable to contribute to the ongoing development of a subject. Observing a debate, I'm open to different theoretical viewpoints because I want to hear things I haven't considered yet or wasn't able to think of on my own. This fast tracks my learning. Thus, I only find debate useful to the extent that it adds something new to my understanding.

With my training in philosophical debate, it's easy for me to organize information quickly and ignore everything but the key points. I take key points from different theories and then assemble them into a framework that I can personally use and apply (this is how the study guides on my blog came into being). Similarly, if I want to type a person/character, I appreciate people bringing up details that I forgot/missed and then add them to my analysis. Also, different people perceive human behavior differently and divergences in perception often reveal important information, so I'm all about seeing exactly where people disagree.

However, not everyone learns well this way. Some people are easily overwhelmed because debates often present too much information too fast, in a messy, nonlinear format. It can be hard to pick out the key points and it's easy to get distracted by the "tone" of voice or the "dynamics" between the speakers. Whether the format will work for you, I don't know. Your mileage may vary.

[booktomoviebrawl]

We are not judging how bad the movie is, we are judging which adapted the book the worst. There are good movies that are bad adaptions.

Propaganda below the cut (spoilers may apply)

Ready Player One:

Personally, I think the movie was infinitely better than the book because the main character in the book is such a BITCH and he just radiates incel musk, but I loved the movie a lot more. However, the movie did way more show and pizzazz with the easter egg hunting than in the book

THEY CUT OUT THE MASTURBATION SCENE

the movie barely followed the book plot and took a lot of creative liberties with character designs that completely changed certain themes within the book

Tales from Earthsea:

I don't think it could have been better, but it was just so off from from the books it was mainly drawing its inspiration from (I mean, I had no interest in seeing that weird weaver guy decide to off himself in the boat, but still).

Studio Ghibli is the perfect studio to capture the Le Guin vibe and yet Goro torched it so hard for no reason

To give credit where it is due, the film has some good settings and animation. Unfortunately, its beauty is only on the surface, and it is the worst Studio Ghibli movie I’ve seen. (I’ve seen almost all of them but Earwig and the Witch.) The plot is a collage of random bits of context from the first four books of the series, as well as its own stuff. It really is not the same story at all. I may have enjoyed it more if I had seen it as a child before reading the books, but not covering all the events exactly isn’t the only issue, it’s just worse. It takes the moral complexity and sensibility of the original and turns it into a typical fantasy war between good and evil (the Japanese title even translates to Ged’s War Chronicles) with emphasis on physical violence, in which evil is personified as a goth queer-coded villain whose death resolves everything. It completely misses the point of the books, which gives no such simple answers and is more focused on the darkness within everyone than an external battle. Where is the nuance? It also whitewashes everyone: most of the characters in the book are dark-skinned, but in the movie…

I was also bitter that they did my favourite character, Tehanu/Therru, dirty. She’s supposed to be horribly scarred and disfigured on half her body and reviled by people as a monster but in the movie she’s just a pretty girl with a red mark on her face. In the books, she doesn’t appear until the fourth book, Tehanu, which takes place after Lebannen is grown up and ruling a kindgom, and in which she is a mostly-nonverbal child. But here she’s aged up and thrown into the earlier story to give the protagonist a love interest and the film has him stay with them so it can focus on their romance. Even though a plot-relevant part of his character as well is his lack of interest in women and not settling into a relationship despite the people’s wishes.

Basically, they whitewashed, heteronormatized, macho-ified, and de-nuanced the narrative, and also took out the feminism.

On top of this, trying to cram the whole series into one movie is just not a good idea, and it would have been better to just decide on one book to adapt and do more justice. And yet they still added in so much that didn’t happen. When you have that much material to cover, you don’t have time or budget to be putting other things in, mate. Turning four books into one results both in a mess. Abridgment is one thing; taking particular aspects of different parts of the timeline and combining them in different ways is another. It doesn’t make a lot of sense. It’s in an unfortunate middle area where it doesn’t follow the source material but also doesn’t give enough context that people unfamiliar with the source understand. For Earthsea fans, it’s infuriating; for others, it’s confusing. Also, why did they name it after the fifth book, which is a short story collection that it doesn’t reference whatsoever?

The failure of the movie is upsetting because the books are sooo good. Yet, it was the highest-grossing Japanese movie of the year, and did win a couple awards… The Bunshun Kiichigo awards for “Worst Director” and “Worst Movie”.

[the-great-ladyg]

Hey there!

Welcome to my blog, name's Lady G, you can also call me Lady or Gaby, and this is my place for everything I enjoy or I'm interested in like selfshipping, some discourse, fandom and a bit of politics.

I identify as a genderfluid person, so you can use any pronouns when talking to me, I really don't mind.

I enjoy reading and writing, and I hope to start posting about my ideas in here, I'm eager to share my thoughts about my shipps and ideas, but maybe I'll post them in Spanish. I also like to draw and will post my drawings, maybe, I'm not sure.

I'm a selfshipper and also support oc x canon shipps, so this is your safe place for everyone that enjoys this.

I'm cringe, but I'm free.

I really suck at editing and "aesthetic".

Currently accepting anon asks.

You can find my AO3 here.

BYF

- English is not my first language, so I'm sorry for any grammar mistake, sometimes I might use Spanish when I post an opinion when I really get angry about something that I don't want to translate.

- I'm a proshipper/anti-harrassment/anti-censorship, I don't support any policing of art or the idea that kinks or the pixels someone enjoys is evidence of any crime, actions on real people are evidence, not shipping FlowerPunk.

- This is a 18+ blog, so if there's a minor they'll get blocked, and if someone is uncomfortable with this kind of blogs you can unfollow or ignore me.

- This is also a kink friendly blog, I might not share some kinks with other people, but I won't judge them, this is your safe place.

- If someone comes here to cause any problem, is an instant block, I don't want to deal with trolls and people who want to argue over stupid things.

- I don't really mind sharing F/Os with anyone, just don't bring canon x canon shipps or be obnoxious about your selfshipps with them in the way of "I love them more than you/I write/draw them better than you/I understand them better than you/You're loving them the wrong way", I'm kind of possessive in that way and want to avoid toxicity.

DNI

- Minors

- Antishippers, antiselfshippers, safeshippers, anti oc x canon

- Bigots (conservatives, TERFs, SWERFs, LGBTQphobes, islamophobes, racists, etc.)

- ED, SH, radqueer or related blogs

- If you use he/him or they/them pronouns as a way to try to misgender me thinking I'm a cis woman or treat me like a cis man

- Pro Israel/justify what Israel is doing or has been doing all these years

- Pro AMLO/support and/or justify AMLO (current Mexico's president) and his political party's actions/think any of Mexico's presidents since 2000 is the bad guy except AMLO/think AMLO is Mexico's messiah or best president

- If you'll try to lecture me on economic, cultural, social, etc. aspects about Mexico or being a Latin person and you're not Latin (like with all the "Oye Primos" thing), or you get offended in the name of Latins by things that concern us and you're not Latin (like the Mario poncho thing, or the Encanto drama, we Latins didn't get offended with that, but we did get offended with the American response, when they were trying to lecture us on what really offended us)

- Pro contact MAPs/pedos, zoos, necros, etc.

Favorite characters...

This is a section for characters that wouldn't only fit on a category of my F/O list, but also are characters I like a lot over others from their source material, or are just my favorite ones

- Sauron/Mairon/Annatar/many other names from Lord of the Rings

- Daemon Targaryen from House of the Dragon

F/Os list and tags

(there's no specific order, I'll list them in the order I remember them, might add more in the future)

If you wish to interact with any of them feel free to do so, but they can be OoC

Main

- Miguel O'Hara from Spiderverse movies (🩸🕷️)

- Hobie Brown from Spiderverse movies (🎸🕷️)

- Gladiolus Amiticia from Final Fantasy XV (🛡️⚔️)

- Maegor I "The Cruel" Targaryen from A Song of Ice and Fire (🩸🐲)

- Jean-Pierre Polnareff from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (🥖⚔️)

- Robert Edward O. Speedwagon from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (🎩👔)

- Syzoth/Reptile from Mortal Kombat games (🦎🥷🏻)

- Fujin from Mortal Kombat games (💨⚔️)

- Tenya Iida from My Hero Academia (🏃🏻‍♂️🟦)

- Brienne of Tarth from A Song of Ice and Fire (🗡️💎)

F/Os I also love

- Mike Zacharius from Attack on Titan (👃⚔️)

- Reiner Braun from Attack on Titan (🏃🏻‍♂️🛡️)

- Phoenix Ikki from Saint Seiya (🪽🔥)

- Aries Mu from Saint Seiya (🐏🔨)

- Scorpio Milo from Saint Seiya (🦂🪡)

- Gemini Saga from Saint Seiya (♊🌓)

- Thanatos from Saint Seiya (💀⬛)

- Dende from Dragon Ball (🟢🏔️)

- Raditz from Dragon Ball (🩸👊)

- Supreme Kai from Dragon Ball (💜🔮)

- Broly from Dragon Ball (🐶🥦)

- Mezo Shoji from My Hero Academia (🐙🔵)

- Thomas Hewitt from Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies (2003-2006) (🎭🩸)

- Brahms Heelshire from The Boy (🎭🧸)

- Yautja/ Predator: Scar (☠️⚔️), Feral Predator (☠️🐻), Fugitive Predator (💀🔪) from Predator franchise

- Drax the Destroyer from Guardians of the Galaxy (👊🔪)

- Ragnvaldr/Outlander from Fear and Hunger (🐺🪓)

- Nicholas D. Wolfwood from Trigun (🚬✝️)

- Millions Knives/Nai from Trigun (🪴🔪)

- Takeda Takahashi from Mortal Kombat games (⛓️🟡)

- Erron Black from Mortal Kombat games (🩸🔫)

- Kuai Liang from Mortal Kombat games (❄️🧊 as Sub-Zero) (🦂🔥 as Scorpion)

- Zeffeero/Rain from Mortal Kombat games (🥷🏻💧)

- Alucard from Hellsing (🧛🏻‍♂️🩸)

- Toshikazu Hazamada from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (🤏🏻🎾)

- Mikitaka Hazekura from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (👽🍦)

- Rykiel from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (🧑🏻‍🚀🐄)

- Keicho Nijimura from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (🪖🏹)

- Firelord Ozai from Avatar: The Last Airbender (☄️🔥)

- Santana from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (🗿☁️)

- Oingo from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (🎭🧢)

- Vincent Valentine from Final Fantasy VII (⚰️♦️)

- Glossu "Beast" Rabban Harkonnen from Dune (🦅🩸)

- Chase Young from Xiaolin Showdown (🐉🥣)

- Kevin Levin from Ben 10 series (👽🚘)

- Adam/The Creature from Frankenstein (🪡📚)

- Aegon II Targaryen from House of the Dragon (🐲🟢)

- Cregan Stark from A Song of Ice and Fire (🐺❄️)

- Cooper Howard/The Ghoul from Fallout TV series (☢️🐶)

Platonic F/Os

- Yuga Aoyama from My Hero Academia (✨💎)

- Narancia Ghirga from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (🍊🛩️)

- Finrod Felagund from Lord of the Rings (🧝🏼‍♂️🎻)

- Lúthien Tinuviel from Lord of the Rings (💃🏻🐺)

Familial F/Os

- Ned Stark from A Song of Ice and Fire (🗡️🐺)

- Aragorn Elessar from Lord of the Rings (👑🗡️)

- Samwise Gamgee from Lord of the Rings (🥔🍳)

[margorin]

Not all my ideas at four o'clock in the morning are good, but, nevertheless.. Meet this AU invented by me for Pizza Tower - Freak Circus. Let's start with why such a concept came to my sick head at all. In other words: the history of this AU.

Of course, after the destruction of the Pizza Tower, all the characters who lived in it, but to be more precise, mostly bosses and secondary characters, remained in Peppino pizzeria. And most likely, at least somehow helped him with his pizzeria. But after some time of such a life, Peppino himself realized that his not very pleasant inhabitants of the pizzeria, who acted as service personnel for him, were not, let's say, adequately perceived by visitors.Just look at their appearance! Is an adequate person, if he sees this in real life, he will actually have an adequate reaction.? Most likely not. Well, our dear Italian realized that his affairs were clearly not going uphill, and he needed to change something. One not so beautiful rainy day, while he was walking, away from his pizzeria, he saw a typical ad for a traveling circus. He stopped in front of him and looked at him for a long time.. It was that day that a great idea was born. Since its attendants scare visitors, why not do it under the guise of entertainment? And with a similar thought, he went back to the pizzeria and, of course, told everyone about it. Of course, no one liked this plan in principle, and no one wanted to make themselves look like a laughing stock. But, however, they had no choice. Either they acted according to the plan that Peppino came up with, or they simply had to leave. And since there is no Pizza Tower, they basically have nowhere to go (most of them). And so Peppino's freak circus appeared, in which obviously not everyone was happy.

And I will tell you a little, perhaps, about the role, in principle, of the main actors.

Peppino himself, of course, is the owner of the circus and is mainly responsible for the performances. Who should come out with what number, announcement of numbers, performs himself together with Fake Peppino, in general, is responsible for the organization. His character, to put it mildly, has changed for the worse. At some point, he can even be considered a little crazy, but, however, in public he behaves benevolently, flatteringly and quite adequately.

Gustavo, as before, remained his faithful friend and assistant, but he is already more responsible for the budget and profits of the circus. Sells tickets, buys the necessary materials. He's not too good, like most, about this idea, but as long as everyone is alive and well, and his friend is not completely insane, he does not consider it necessary to change anything. Yes, working with finances turned out to be much more difficult and painstaking than he thought, and because of this he gets very tired, but at least now he sees a really joyful smile on his friend's face.

The Brick itself is one of the animals. Which is not surprising, because even though he is a rather smart rat, Peppino did not think so and decided that Mr. Stick would perform with him. And Brick must perform various tricks to entertain the viewer. On the other hand, he obviously does not like it, and he has already tried to escape several times, but judging by his appearance, these attempts were unsuccessful for him.

Noise and his wife on the Noisett they mostly perform together and perform various acrobatic or dangerous acts, where Noise of course uses his favorite bombs. Oddly enough, Noise was the only one who wasn't too opposed to the whole idea. After all, he is popular, the public admires him and he can do what he wants. However, the question arises: Why is Noisett still here? After all, she is just the person where she has to go, and she can take her husband. But seeing that his tricks do not bring much harm to anyone yet, and he is happy, she can be said to voluntarily stay here. Although they both do not understand that it is unlikely that Peppino will give anyone a chance to leave his circus.

Pizzahead even though (I think) he is quite powerful, he acts as a magician. His appearance, in principle, is unusual, in fact, a man with a pizza head. But doing various not-so-remarkable stunts, occasionally failing at it, he looks just ridiculous and people love it! Plus, due to the fact that the circus is quite stuffy due to the large crowds of people, cheese constantly flows from it at all its performances. For people, this is only confirmation of his certain ugliness. For Pizzahead himself, this is only confirmation that without his tower he is a complete zero.

Pepperman, as he wanted, remained an artist, however, too much time is not given for his performance, so he is forced to do everything quickly and sloppy. His paintings do not turn out so good, rather ridiculous. Since he is an unusual-looking person, he also draws, but draws, according to the audience, clearly having no talent, it makes them laugh. At several of his performances, his talent was even ridiculed aloud. Because of what, specifically, his self-esteem has dropped so much, and now he does not consider himself so beautiful..

The Vigilante had the same little problem as Pizzahead. It constantly spreads due to too high a temperature. But in his performances, he shows his skills in handling firearms. But because of the high temperature, it all turns out to be crumpled, sloppy, and the reaction of the audience, I think, is already clear to you. Of course, Vigilante himself is insanely annoyed and his dignity is greatly omitted because of this. But because of the sometimes too strong weakness and overwork, he does not even have the thought of somehow struggling with this.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, Fake Peppino ended up in the animal section. So he also performs with Peppino himself, performing tricks that are not particularly pleasant for him. This happens due to the fact that Peppino himself believes that he is not smart enough to be an artist and does not know how to control himself enough, so Fake Peppino cannot perform alone. Fake Peppino tried to fight such a dictatorship, but in fact, like Brick, he did not succeed very well. So he remains in the role of an obedient little animal.

Mr. Stick, who, in fact, was supposed to deal with just the same money business, but however, he is one of the trainers, and, as mentioned earlier, performs with Brick. Why isn't he in charge of the circus' finances? And the thing is that Peppino harbored long-standing grievances against him and simply does not trust him in this regard. So also in order to humiliate him to some extent, Mr. Stick is dressed and as much as possible those clothes that clearly show his skinny body structure. Mr. Stick himself, in principle, is glad that he was not recorded in the section of animals and does not treat him too disrespectfully. As long as he does what he is told, he can feel safe, at least in some way.

Well, if you read all this, then.. Thank you for spending your time on this at all and good luck!

[lucianalight]

You say the show characters weren't divided to "good" and "evil" but they are still stripping people and putting collars their necks which personally I find pretty messed up. This is my problem and why I can't bring myself to watch season 2 because everything I end up seeing seems like the TVA is still doing horrible things and not treated with the weight it should. Like, there's torture scene, but it's supposed to be okay because turns out it wasn't really physical? Like thats still torture that crosses the line way past grey in my opinion.

It's these two images for me is why I can't be asked to see any of the TVA as just grey especially it's asked while Loki is still called a villain. He didn't do a fraction as bad as they did.

If what I saw was Mobius owing up to being wrong about believing in the TVA and how his glorious purpose hurt people instead of seeing Loki say he invaded New York because he was mad at Thor and Odin, maybe I wouldn't still mad at the show

The actions are wrong, it doesn't matter who they're against what justification they have for using them. I rather have a story the condemns those actions and finds a better way than one that keeps the system with only a promise that now they'll only target the bad people

What I've been trying to say and said before in my s2 review, is that the narrative is neutral this time. It just shows you the story and leaves you to decide for yourself how you want to judge characters and their actions. That's sth very important for me in a story. I always have an instant knee jerk reaction to any blunt sort of message/framing even if it's a good one. I hate it when I feel like the writer is holding up a sign and telling me "look look it's a bad/good action or you should love/hate this character". No, thank you very much I can think for myself. The writer's feelings towards the characters can also bleed through so you understand when a character is treated by distaste and another with adoration.

These were the most important issues I had with s1. Because it stopped me from doing what I love most, in-universe analysis. Sth the fandom were doing before TR. No one told us, what happened to Loki before Avengers, we were shown clues. No one told us the reasoning behind every sentence of the characters and what they meant. But we analyzed every single action and expression. We put the pieces of puzzle together and built the picture. I was happy doing just that, until with TR the in-universe analysis didn't make sense so we had to look what caused it from out-universe pov.

Now with s2 having that neutrality I want, I don't care what the creators wanted to say as long as the characterization and actions make sense and are consistent with how I see the canon material. That's why Loki's line about New York didn't make me angry.

That hatred and dismissal toward Loki we felt in TR, IW and S1 is also gone. So having that irritating narrative of s1 out of the way and a better writing, the characters look grey to me. Which means like any other human they do bad things and good things. I didn't got the feeling that any of wrong actions are framed as sth good. Not putting collar on people(they were actually uncomfortable), not the torture scene(which I hated as I explained in my review) and not what TVA was doing all this time. In fact one of the few instances of framing in the narrative is that their atrocities were acknowledged.

The promotions of S2 were terrible though. I have no idea what they were thinking. None of the trailers were interesting and who would buy TVA merch? They're not even aesthetically beautiful and why would anyone want one of those creepy posters anyway? Although that's what happens when you sideline your main character in s1 and then you have nothing except creepy totalitarian merch for promotion smh. So yeah I get what you mean.

The ending also wasn't like now they're targeting the bad guys. It was shown that they won't interfere with what happens in timelines unless one of HWR's variants start a war and their intervention was needed. I haven't watched ant-man 3 but I assume they were referring to it when they said one of his variants made trouble but it was handled and their intervention wasn't needed. So they just intervene when the people of a timeline can't handle sth themselves. I also got the impression that they were changing their whole system to sth new.

In the end I hope it's been clear that by posting about the series, I'm not insisting, encouraging or recommending others to watch it. Because I know what Loki means to us. And Because I've seen many of my mutuals didn't like s2. Some did. S1 still makes me as angry as the first time I watched it but I liked s2(that doesn't mean I won't criticize it though). No two people are ever gonna agree with each other on everything. So it's ultimately a choice everyone need to make themselves.

[thegalleonsnest]

I have been in this fandom since the start of 2021 and I've been around the block. I did not grow up the same way as most people when it comes to the internet and joined this fandom as an adult. I don't even think this is considered an unpopular opinion or not, but I've kept to my corner of the internet and kept to my circles, but if there's one thing that's constant that I always see without fail, is how serious people take shipping and discourse around it.

And I do want people to know, this is coming from the perspective of a 25 year old man. I know this is not everyone and only a small number, and from what I can gather, this mainly pertains to teenagers/young adults (with a few outliers), but it eventually grows to become this weird moral stance people feel the need to end up taking with shipping; and with particular characters too that really becomes a confusing, and just weird argument to surround yourself with. And for some, it's the determining factor for whether or not to judge someone of who's worthy of their presence or labeling them as weird and uncomfortable when literally all the characters are adults.

And let me preface this with, yes, I understand very SPECIFIC ones that some people ship might as well be considered crackships or borderline weird given the contexts of each character's relationship that I'm not a personal fan of, and potential age gap between adults, but I'm not gonna give people the stink eye and play moral high grounds with others for doing that stuff on their own time. Let alone police people about what's an acceptable ship or not. It ain't for everyone, but it's something that happens anyway.

I also know that there are people out there that are very protective of particular canon couples and judge the hell out of people for doing anything different, whether making them poly, or changing their sexuality to make another ship work that isn't an oc. I do wanna clarify, I feel very neutral about this particular subject. And on one hand, I completely understand in the sense of maintaining that proper representation in a character's sexuality, cause that's what makes them who they are and means a lot for those being repped. And on the other, I see people trying to be diligent of that fact even while expanding and exploring ships with those couples, they more often than not don't want to destroy that existing relationship but make it open with others. And in the end, becomes a fight within the community to determine the fate of BugsnaxFan97356 for wanting to share their thoughts/art on X couple being poly with X character. (And I want to clarify, this is different than straight up just destroying a character's entire sexuality/relationship for the sake of shipping them with a particular character. That shit sucks and is basically character assassination and destroying the representation we had)

Intent is what's important here, and I truly believe that most of the time, people are literally doing it just for fun and don't usually have malicious intent. (especially when the main demographic here is teenagers and young adults)

(Side note: I did talk to friends about this to get a second opinion about this particular subject, and brought up a fair point, like some people don't like the idea of making a gay monogamy couple go poly just to date a different gender. That is also completely understandable, but again, for me personally, it does boil down to the intent behind it.)

Like people are fighting over the very nuances of character relationships, ships, and everything in between and making it an argument and debate on where you stand morally. Cause if you ship a character, and it's not an oc, with one that someone considers not good, weird, or crackship material that very small groups like, they made it clear they want nothing to do with you and consider you a "weird," "uncomfortable," or straight up a "bad" person instead of just talking like mature people.

And if for any reason someone thinks I'm singling people out, I'm not. I have legitimately seen this happen throughout my time here in the fandom, and with people I personally knew. Entire relationships were ruined/destroyed because people took shipping so seriously, they treated it as gospel and the determining factor to maintain their existing relationships if they even mention liking something they didn't. It's not a healthy mentality, because in the grand scheme of things, shipping opinions like these will not matter because most people will not think the same way you do or treat it as seriously as you do. We will move on with our lives because the shipping state of your favorite blorbos will not affect whether or not you get irl business done in 5 years. And if you are using fictional shipping as a moral scale to determine your relationship with real people, you're gonna have a hard reality check when you realize most people don't give a shit cause they got a job to be at in the morning.

bugsnax fandom what’s a opinion that will get you like this

[fayewoodss]

https://www.tumblr.com/fayewoodss/763267785641082880/i-have-such-a-moral-dilemma-with-my-favorite?source=share

i feel u, a while before i suspected i might have autism (which was also nearly 3 years before i got diagnosed) i also read an rpf fic where one of the main characters was autistic, and i had really mixed feelings reading the comments. they were all constantly calling him cute or infantalising him, and while i was glad they weren't judging or finding him 'weird', it felt odd knowing that those readers saw him as a child or younger than he was. then i had a moment where i realised this was how ive been treated my entire life but less in an 'aww cute' way and more in a 'you can't do anything yourself' way 💀 now though, looking back i can see those commenters were just ignorant about autistic people and didn't know that what they were saying could've come across as disrespectful. they were also clearly on the young side, and fortunately i find that as people grow and listen to others' experiences, they learn how to respectfully treat those around them and understand them better. for me it also helps to be around my fellow nd ppl to talk to them about these things and hear about their experiences too :] (also wow i just finished this and realised how long it was sorry about that 😭)

I'm so so so glad you understand! I completely agree about the infantizilation and how it's like, on one hand people aren't being negative, but on the other it's at the expense of being seen as a person. Because, let's face it, most people do not see children as people, and since neurodivergency is viewed as juvenile, they are also not seen as people.

On the other hand, I feel I'm faced with more negativity as I unfortunately see the side that's more so vilifying autism and autistic traits, taking the "childlike" and turning it into "childish." Just like you mentioned, that idea od "you can't do anything." Personally, that hurts me more because it so far removes autism from being human that it makes it feel impossible to ever think of any space or time where I could be "normal."

I think there can be some good to adding a bit of whimsy or wonder to the representation of the autistic experience, but it's very different when it comes from someone who is autistic or otherwise very well researched and sensitive of the material, as opposed to people who take autistic/neurodivergent traits and go, "ohhhhh, cute!!!"

I also want to say that I would never diagnose or "truth" a real person as being autistic, but I know when recognize autistic and/or neurodivergent traits in people and I don't think it's a bad thing to want to discuss that. I think it's just always received horribly. There is also the issue of people throwing ADHD as a diagnosis or "truth" for every goddamn person but then clutching their pearls at someone making an observation of autistic traits in someone. Just an interesting note, in my opinion.

Also, I'm a super yapper, so never be afraid to send long asks! I love them!!

[applestorms]

responding to this post about fanfiction from cryptotheism in my own post since i can't add it in a reblog apparently:

this is a really interesting analysis. someone else has probably said this in the notes (i'm kinda scared to check there =3="), but to give my own take:

i think what you're picking up on here comes from the fact that all fanfiction is inherently based on another story, and therefore is fairly preoccupied with responding to that story in one way or another (both positively & negatively). in my own experience of reading it, the best fanfictions are the ones that seem to truly understand the source text, not only in terms of the pieces (characters, settings, etc.) but how they function together and why that does or doesn't work, which is typically demonstrated by taking those pieces and reworking them to fit an entirely different context. this seems to be why characters are so often the main thing that carries over from the source material while the context can change so drastically: character's are some of the most obvious "parts" within the greater "machine" of a story, and are also the part that people get the most attached to (and thus do the most deep analysis of), so changing the setting (often with an AU/alternate universe) is a quick and easy way of changing up the location of each part while still trying to see if you can keep the machine running smoothly.

my argument is thus that fanfiction just as much an analysis of the original story as it is it's own attempt at a creative work, and some of the best fanfictions are the ones that begin with strong analysis. the creation of an entirely new symbolic language just isn't as necessary in that context, since it's more about understanding why the original did or didn't work, what characters or ideas or (at least in some fandoms) ethical/philosophical claims were strong or ultimately failed. "[s]et dressing, objects, even actions," are thus less important overall since the ultimate goal in the vast majority of cases is character study.

to clarify, this kind of analysis i'm getting at isn't just about "what could make the story better," though that may definitely be the case in fandoms where people ultimately feel failed by the original story (e.g. harry potter, game of thrones; the somewhat infamous homestuck fic theater of coolty kinda does this too, actually, since it's more of a character study of the creator than any fictional characters), again it's more out of understanding & refiguring the original pieces, approvingly or critically.

i will say this though, it seems a bit harsh to say that most fanfic authors have never done any deeper study of other literature or poetry. i dunno, that's certainly the case for some of it (just as it is for any other type of writing tbh), and there are a lot of younger fanfic authors that maybe haven't had the time to delve into much more literature than a high school english class offers, but that does feel like a strong judgement to make overall. if the goals of the medium itself are different since it's not "original" fiction, it doesn't seem fair to try and judge it by the same metrics, or to make a judgement of character of the authors themselves when their ultimate objective is just an entirely different thing.

to give a more specific example of a fanfiction where the author has clearly done some studies outside of the work itself, detective pony (two links there) is a now infamous homestuck fanfiction that has gained a lot of traction in recent years after video productions of it were created by naked bee (makes more sense in context, i swear). it utilizes a ton of references to other more formal philosophy and literature, but what i think makes everything work, fundamentally, is the fact that all of those references and the over the top prose is done within the context of what is essentially a character study, which becomes very clear by the end of the story. of course, this is just one potentially outstanding example, but again i think this gets at what i'm saying about the ultimate goals of fanfiction.

TLDR: the goal of fanfiction is, more often than not, analysis of the original work (and specifically character study, typically) just as much as it is the creation of a new story, which means that it may be more useful to adjust our appraisal of it accordingly, rather than trying to judge it by the same metrics as original (well, "original") fiction.

[ytrairom]

Sherlock MBTI analysis

Disclaimer: I’m not a professional when it comes to psychology, I’m also not planning to become one. I researched a lot on MBTI types, read about other people’s thoughts and experiences with their type and also read a lot of character analysis, not only for BBC Sherlock but also for other shows. I also included the cognitive functions that are the base of the MBTI types. I respect other opinions. That being said let’s dive into this analysis :>

Sherlock Holmes – INTP the Logician

Since Sherlock is the main character of the show, we have a lot of material to analyze and giving him a MBTI type was therefore easier than for side characters.

Sherlock is clearly an introverted person; I doubt anyone would object to that. He doesn’t like interacting with people and prefers to do things alone. If he would take the personality test himself, he’d probably get a relatively high score in introversion, above 90% I’d say. He doesn’t get his energy from interacting with people.

Moving on to the next letter, the N which stands for Intuition. I’ve seen some people arguing that he is in fact a sensor (an ISTP) but I’m quite sure he’s an Intuitive. He is able to completely ignore his surroundings, he was talking to John for hours without noticing that John wasn’t even there. Typically, sensors are very aware of their surroundings and find it difficult to ignore what is happening around them. Sensors live in the present while Intuitives live more in the future. Intuitves are also people who tend to see possibilities while sensors like to rely on experience. The reason why people confuse Sherlock for a sensor is because Sherlock is very detail oriented when inspecting a crime scene and when he wants to be he is very aware of his surroundings and notices every small detail. However, Sherlock always notices the big picture. INTPs also like to think through a lot of ideas, they spend a lot of time thinking while ISTPs always start doing things. Sherlock’s mind palace and how he uses it is extremely untypical for an ISTP or a sensor in general but fits an INTP very well. Also INTPs are better at longterm planning than ISTPs and Sherlock is actually good at planning things if he wants to.

Sherlock prefers thinking over feeling, I’ve never seen anyone type him as a feeler. Sherlock makes his decisions based on logic. That doesn’t mean that he is coldhearted or devoid of emotions and empathy, he just prefers to do things based on logic not on feelings.

Sherlock is also more perceiving that judging, I don’t see why anyone would type him as a judger. In the original ACD books he may an INTJ (which I don’t know because I didn't of them, shame on me) but definitely not in the BBC adaption. He doesn’t follow any routines, is always open to new things and goes through life and his cases how it seems right in the situation. That doesn’t mean he is unable to stick to plans, we have seen him making plans and following through with them, it just doesn’t seem to be his preferred way of doing things. He can adapt to unforeseen circumstances and find a solution in the moment. He is also a risk taker. Maybe this is a bit of a stereotype, but Judgers tend to be more organized with their belongings and living space. Sherlock however can work in the greatest chaos and doesn’t even mind it, I sometimes think he works better in a little chaos.

Cognitive functions: Ti-Ne-Si-Fe (These come from the 4 letters his MBTI consists of. You possess 4 cognitive functions: 2 introverted ones and 2 extraverted ones. All of these are developed differently, your primary function is your most developed one and your inferior function your most underdeveloped one.)

Primary function: Introverted thinking. He constantly keeps is mind open to new information and concepts that help him understand the world. He uses Ti to solve problems and quickly understands complex ideas.

Auxiliary function: Extraverted Intuition. He sees possibilities everywhere. He uses Ne to experiment with what could be and find new innovative ideas. He likes to learn about multiple possibilities and gets restless when the environment doesn’t promote experimentation.

Tertiary function: Introverted Sensing. He recalls logical concepts and ideas quickly. He stores and effectively recalls past information when needed.

Inferior function (underdeveloped function): Extraverted feeling. He feels strongly for other people but is unsure how to express feelings for them. He prefers to rely on logic and facts though. He can be very emotional under stress.

When giving someone an MBTI type I always consider the cognitive functions and in this case, they made me fairly sure of my decision because to me Sherlock is an Ne-Si user not a Se-Ni user or a Te user.

[swallowerofdharma]

Out of context, and looking for clues

I don’t want to discourage anyone here from reading novels poetry comic books or watching movies and shows from different countries and cultural backgrounds. On the contrary, I want to encourage it, because it is so enriching and rewarding, and can really help to put into perspective the things we grew used to. You can use everything you have easy access to: translations and subtitles, and when you think you need them also dictionaries, maps and verifiable online resources.

Reading manga and watching anime is first of all fun, relaxing or cathartic. Being unserious about it is absolutely legitimate and in most cases kind of the point. In a manga like Berserk, there is action but there are also events and situations very emotionally charged, and reading it in its English translation is good enough to get involved in the story and being moved by it. It’s enough to understand the characters to a certain degree, and if you are reading it for fun or for the feelings it provides, you are getting enough. It’s not a problem when you form your own personal interpretations or take away some kind of personal message or meaning or encouragement. We are free. But when we forms very strong opinions about what the story or a character is about and we lose flexibility and insist that our interpretation is the right one and who disagrees doesn’t get it - or doesn’t have enough reading comprehension, which is a little bit rude - maybe it becomes more relevant whether we are reading a translation or we have enough context to make assumptions and filling in the blanks. The moment we claim that this interpretation or that one is the best or textual or “canon” and that should be the best way to read and interpret the story for everyone, then I believe we should be able to check and verify a little bit more if we still are in good faith, keeping always in sight the source material, the manga itself as the first irreplaceable source of information.

The main reasons why I started looking further into Berserk is because this research is fun to do for me. Simply put, I enjoy the investigation like maybe other people enjoy getting into true crime and do their own research. If it wasn’t fun then what are we doing here? There are other complicated emotions too, I won’t deny it. Why I see myself so easily in a certain character’s traits and why I understand some choices better than others, and how the majority judges those traits and choices can make me question myself in the first place, but also how people are judging things so harshly and unequivocally. I felt that some elements were missing from those interpretations, something that the manga had in abundance, like empathy for example, or complicated feelings around human nature. So I decided that the manga itself should be my main focus, and I shouldn’t base my opinions on other people’s perceptions, regardless of how helpful it is to exchange ideas and impressions and how important it still is to have conversations. As I said, the translations are a valuable ally but also something that prevented me from getting more clues: see my observation on kanji.

I ordered the complete manga from Japan, I am nothing but a dedicated detective! And I am going to have fun with it. And no, I haven’t taken Japanese lessons. All I know right now are things I picked up reading notes, using dictionaries and watching movies, shows and anime with subtitles, listening to the words spoken out loud. I lack enough knowledge of syntax, so I won’t be able to translate a Japanese sentence. What I am going to do is reading the translation beside the original text and look into keywords, especially if they are originally written in kanji. Then I will use dictionaries and other resources to understand the roots and the layered meanings of the kanji used. It’s not perfect, but again, it’s not like I am going to publish my discoveries in academic journals or making money from it. It is just my preferred approach. When I was in high school, I complained loudly to my philosophy teacher: “How do you expect me to get what Hegel is saying and make sense of these concepts when I just discovered that in German time is called “die Zeit” and it’s a feminine noun! They use the feminine article in front of it!” [The Italian “il tempo” is a masculine noun and we use the masculine article for it. Thinking of time in feminine terms was scrambling my brain and opening up multiple new perspectives that confused me a lot]. I was a joy to be around as a teenager. Now I know that the reason why I couldn’t get Hegel was a different one. Hegel had adopted a vision of humanity that wanted to appear universal but his definition of humanity was “men first, men above or men only, thanks” and I was already excluded as part of the humanity that mattered in his view. So Hegel felt unwelcoming to me for a variety of complex reasons besides my bad attitude and laziness.

So that one is an anecdote that also brings me to the last point I wanted to make. Looking at the text in its original language isn’t for the sake of a better translation at all, I can’t and won’t attempt to do that. Kanji will give me access to look at ideas and concepts and seeing how they are used in the manga. To do that I also need to learn more about other aspects of the Japanese culture as well. I hit a wall in this regard, that is why I haven’t written much about Berserk lately. At some point I have to deal with how big of an impact Buddhism [more than Shintoism I think] has on this manga. And touching that feels very hard to do. Mostly because as deep as certain Buddhist concepts have reached into western culture in the last couple of centuries and as relevant as they already have been to thinkers like Shopenhauer, Nietzsche and Jung, those concepts have been filtered and diluted into my cultural sphere and I don’t want to repeat mistakes or inadvertently fall into Orientalist attitudes. Although Buddhist texts are accessible, and sources as well, they are not the easiest to interpret and there is always the risk that I encounter some explanation in the form of gurus trying to make a profit or converting people, which, you know, I am not here for that. So I skirted around this topic. It is not new for me either. Other manga and anime, but also books and popular culture had put me repeatedly in front of concepts that originated from Eastern religions. When I was protesting with my teacher in high school because I hated being made to suffer through Hegel’s philosophy, in my cd player at home I had on repeat Ok Computer by Radiohead, and the most popular song from it in my part of the world was titled “Karma police”. And I was reading Jack Kerouac, who wrote among other books a novel titled The Dharma Bums. But with those things I didn’t need particularly careful mediation because they were so much closer to my own cultural sphere than Berserk actually is. This manga seems to be very much accessible from an European perspective with its setting and aesthetic, and there are lots of influences from fantasy as we know it here. But those elements were used by Miura to build a big epic story that has more familiarity with Japanese storytelling traditions and overall sensibility than what currently available analyses I encountered in Italian or in English have shown. So, since I am not satisfied, I shall investigate.

@alittlebyrdietoldme This is a more adequate and complete answer to your question but it is so long that you can just read the short ones I gave instead of this embarrassing wall of text 😝

As usual I might have expressed my thoughts inadequately, but I don’t want my words to be misunderstood. So just to be clear, when I said earlier - “Maybe less in the case of Saezuru, but for a very philosophical complex manga like Berserk I think that not being able to look at the kanji used is like looking at the page half blind” - I was NOT implying that Berserk is some high brow, higher level manga and Saezuru isn’t - but that reading the translated version felt for Berserk more inadequate to me, like being half blind as the translation was able to convey a mere 50% of the meaning. While for Saezuru I feel like the translation gives me a little bit more, like a 70% so that I can supply a little better what context is missing.

When Berserk brings in themes like karma destiny casuality human’s willpower dreams and illusions and multiple realities and things like that, paired with violence gore and sexual violence too, not having the proper means to understand how they are used or intended in the proper context and cultural sphere can bring in vastly different interpretations. No wonder western Berserk fandoms are so messed up…

[cornfieldofbabylon]

Nebraska Legislature Bills for the first session of 2023

Updated as of 3/25/2023

One of the main objectives of this blog will be to monitor the bills currently introduced and making their way through the legislature. Specifically, I will be keeping an eye on ‘good’ legislation that either reduces government authoritarianism or defends conservative values, bad legislation that advances far-left agendas and other legislation that may be suspicious or have generally bad ideas. 

Out of the 800+ items of legislation they craped out this session, many of them aren’t named in a decent way or given a useful summary to help you understand what they do without reading the whole thing. This makes it very hard to comb through the whole mess it try to identify the legislation that might actually be worth reading and separate it out from the “heres a bill to correct a grammar error in that thing we wrote 50 years ago about regulating obscure banking transactions” bills.

Furthermore, it seems that while a few really great items of legislation have been introduced this session, the committee process is planning to mostly ignore them to instead advance completely ignorant and petty nonsense like “Pet Insurance” regulation. And the SJWs from Omaha and Lincoln have declared that they are going to filibuster EVERY bill that makes it to the floor for debate, not because they actually care about most of them, but just to slow the entire legislature down to a crawl so that nothing can get done. Any bill not marked as a “priority” probably has no chance to pass this session, and with many pointless ones (yes, including “Pet Insurance”) being marked as priority, there is a high chance that most of the good legislation won’t see the light of day. 

Good/Conservative Legislation:

LB43 - “Require hearing officers and judges to interpret statutes and regulations to limit agency power and maximize individual liberty.” This could be a HUGE benefit, if it does what it claims it will do. Clarifying that the law should be interpreted to limit the power of unelected bureaucrats and give maximum consideration to individual liberties would greatly aid in battling nonsense like what we saw during the “pandemic” of the last few years. This may be the smartest piece of legislation proposed for the entire session. Status: Had a hearing on February 9th and now apparently being ignored. Not marked as a priority and therefore probably has no chance. 

LB71 & LB374 - Two laws to protect the rights of parents and force public schools to make their teaching materials available to parents for review. Generally a good idea and would likely help to combat leftist indoctrination taking place in public schools... but my honest take is that this is still missing the point. The real solution is to get the government out of the business of “education” entirely by encouraging and empowering parents to homeschool and/or send their kids to private schools of their own choosing.   Status: 71 was marked as priority and advanced to the general file, so it has a small chance of success. 374 has not been touched in almost two months and is probably going to be ignored for the rest of the session. 

LB143 - Eliminate daylight savings time. Short, simple and makes sense.  Status: Actually made it to the general file but is not marked as a priority and is thus probably going to be ignored. 

LB177 - “My choice, My Student” Act. A school choice bill. Unlike the other items of education mentioned above, this one is a slightly better approach to the problem of public schools, while still being a few steps away from perfect. It would allow public funding to be used to pay for private schools, tutors, computers and other educational expenses. In other words, rather than public schools exclusively deciding where your tax dollars go, you get to decide what to do with at least some of it (but not all of it). Although some people are promoting this as helping homeschoolers, it doesn’t actually explicitly mention homeschooling, and thus doesn’t alter the existing laws about homeschooling in the state. The law also doesn’t fully defund public schools if parents withdraw their kids either, as it has language in it about “stabilizing” public school funding and still allowing public schools to demand more funding. So this still would not end public schools and only marginally help parents who are trying to get kids out of public schools.  Status: Had a hearing but nothing further accomplished. Not marked a priority and probably will be ignored from now on. 

LB178 - Would require “display” of “the national motto” in public schools. The motto in question being “In God We Trust.” While this would be an obvious slap in the face to atheistic teachers and their leftist agendas, it would also undoubtedly cause a massive controversy and inevitable lawsuits from numerous activist groups. I don’t think this would pass and could easily be more trouble than it’s worth. As I said above, the solution is to get kids out of public schools entirely, not troll the teachers.  Status:  Had a hearing but nothing further accomplished. Not marked a priority and probably will be ignored from now on.

LB194 - “Second Amendment Protection Act.” It would prevent state and local law enforcement from aiding the federal government to enforce gun control laws/regulations. Keep in mind this doesn’t prevent federal law enforcement from still enforcing gun control, but without state and local authorities to assist them it would be much harder to do. A good first step, but we should be doing much more to distance ourselves from the federal government agenda. Status:  Actually made it to the general file but is not marked as a priority and is thus probably going to be ignored.  

LB228 & LB230 - Voter ID. Good idea. Status: Had a hearing but nothing further accomplished. Not marked a priority and probably will be ignored from now on.

LB277 - “First Freedom Act.” That is to say, “first freedom” means the right to freedom of religion. This would provide a lot of broad protections for religious freedom and limit the power of the government to punish or censor people for their religious beliefs. No doubt it would be highly controversial and result in a vast array of activist causes claiming it is “racist” and “homophobic” in some way. It also specifically mentions allowing Native Americans to wear tribal religious items in public schools. The language of the bill is a bit weak and does still allow the government to get away with shady things if they cite a “compelling” reason... Status: Made it to the general file and has been marked a priority. So there is a small chance for success here. 

LB371 - Ban children at drag shows.  Status: Had a hearing but nothing further accomplished. Not marked a priority and probably will be ignored from now on.

LB457 - Require video surveillance of vote counting in elections. Makes sense.  Status: Had a hearing but nothing further accomplished. Not marked a priority and probably will be ignored from now on.

LB574 - “Let Them Grow Act.” Restricts sex change surgeries on minors. Status: This bill has become the central battlefield for the session. The SJWs constantly rant and rave about it every day, even when debating completely unrelated issues. Republicans just barely managed to get it passed the first round of voting and may or may not have enough votes to get it all the way to the finish line. In response the SJWs have vowed to not only filibuster this bill each time it comes up for a vote, but filibuster ALL bills to slow the legislature down so much that they can’t pass anything.

LB575 - “Sports and Spaces Act” - Keep sports divided by gender and prevent “transgender” players from switching sides.  Status: It had a hearing a long time ago and has been marked a priority, but the committee has not allowed it to advance. 

LB626 - Nebraska Heartbeat Act. Pro-life anti-abortion legislation similar to what other states have been launching in response to Roe being overturned. You can already tell democrats are SUPER MAD about it, as they have been spamming it with amendments and demands to “indefinitely postpone” it.  Status: Another major battlefield. It has been marked a priority and placed on the general file, but hasn’t made it to a floor debate yet. 

LB636 - Prevents crazy left-wing efforts to ban natural gas and propane. Hank Hill would approve.  Status: Had a hearing on February 8th and now apparently being ignored. Not marked a priority and thus probably dead. 

LB642 - Would require the Nebraska National Guard to allow soldiers who were kicked out for refusing to take COVID vaccines to reenlist. This is good, but I wish they would go one step further and also allow soldiers from other branches and states to join the Nebraska National Guard if they were kicked from their previous branch due to COVID mandates.  Status: Had a hearing but nothing further accomplished. Not marked a priority and probably will be ignored from now on.

LB730 - “Fair Access to Financial Services Act.” Prevents banks from punishing conservatives by closing their accounts and/or otherwise refusing to do business with them.  Status: Had a hearing but nothing further accomplished. Not marked a priority and probably will be ignored from now on. .

LB743 - “Investment Neutrality in Public Funds Act.” Opposes big corporations using social justice motives (particularly global warming propaganda) in their investment schemes.  Status: Had a hearing but nothing further accomplished. Not marked a priority and probably will be ignored from now on.

LB807 - One license plate per vehicle (Nebraska currently gives out two plates for your vehicle). I imagine the purpose of this from the government perspective was to save money since they are proposing a bunch of stupid new license plate changes this year and it would save money to only produce half as many plates. But the benefit for US is that you would only be legally obligated to have one plate on your car (likely on the rear) and would thus be harder for automated speed enforcement devices (and other monitoring technology) to catch. A small but important win for us if it passes.  Status: Had a hearing but nothing further accomplished. Not marked a priority and probably will be ignored from now on.

LR24CA - A constitutional amendment that would eliminate the “Board of Education” and give the governor the power to directly appoint the Commissioner of Education. Generally a good move in my opinion, as the board of education simply serves as leftist activism and giving control of education directly to the governor (which in Nebraska will likely always be a Republican) would greatly limit the power of left wing activists. Unlike the other proposals above regarding education, this would also benefit homeschoolers and private schools, as it may reduce government intrusion into those areas.  Status: Had a hearing but nothing further accomplished. Not marked a priority and probably will be ignored from now on.

.

Suspicious or otherwise questionable...

LB75 - Adds to some existing laws and gives the department of “Health and Human Services” the power to investigate “severe maternal morbidity.” Given that it is simply expanding powers they already have the change here is minor, but I dislike the idea of any expansion of bureaucrat power and don’t honestly trust “Health and Human Services” to be an unbiased investigator into such things. Sketch at best.

LB163 - A mishmash of various things to punish the department of corrections for being a terrible agency with no idea what they hell they are doing. This would include likely ripping their plans for a shiny new prison out from under them. I’m a bit torn on this. On the one hand it would be amusing because NDCS is an admittedly terrible agency which deserves to be punished. But on the other hand this legislation (and several others I won’t list here) are honestly going to do more to punish the rank and file employees rather than the administrators who are actually at fault. 

LR20CA - A constitutional amendment to include a “right to privacy” in the state constitution. Its very short and actually sounds good, as it “shall not be infringed without a compelling state interest.” But on the other hand it is introduced by a democrat and endorsed by two other democrats, so there must be some ulterior motive. A supposed “right to privacy” was behind the previous supreme court Roe ruling that effectively legalized abortion, so this could very well be some under the table method of trying to sneak abortion into the state constitution.

LR22CA - Giving themselves a third term in office. You didn’t do anything productive with your first two terms and now you want a third? You must be joking. 

And there are quite a few other items of introduced legislation which are “suspicious” to say the least, but I will omit them for the sake of brevity. Hopefully most of them will just die in committees. 

.

BAD and/or Obvious SJW Activism:

LB22 - The first of THREE proposals for legal weed this session. Yeesh Democrats, just admit you want to get high and go away.  Status: Appears to be getting ignored. Not a priority. 

LB53 - SJW Holiday.  Status: Sadly made it to the general file, but has not been marked a priority, so hopefully SJWs will screw their own bill with all their filibusters. 

LB54 - “Racial impact statements” on all future legislation. Basically just a way for SJW activists to give official commentary on legislation they don’t like.  Status: Appears to be getting ignored, for now.

LB161 - Supposedly “prohibits” private employers from “contact tracing” of their employees, UNLESS a “state of emergency” is declared... Status: Made it to the general file but is not marked a priority, so hopefully it won’t get any further. 

LB169 & LB670 - Adds “gender identity or sexual orientation” to Nebraska anti-discrimination laws. Every unique snowflake with tight pants will want you to bake them a cake and will sue if you refuse. Status: No major progress on either, yet. 

LB179 - Ban “Conversion Therapy.”  Status: Had a hearing but doesn’t appear anything further will happen with it. 

LB291 - “Require implicit bias or diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) training” for pretty much anyone who is required to get any kind of special “license” from the government for their job. DEI is one of the terms leftists use for Social Justice Warrior brainwashing. It basically teaches people that they are inherently racist just for being alive and that they can only atone for their crimes by putting a rainbow flag in their front yard. And this bill would require darn near everyone in Nebraska to take this training, including asbestos abatement professionals. Because we all know how many people get discriminated against by those naughty asbestos abatement professionals, don’t we?  Status: Had a hearing but doesn’t appear anything further will happen with it.

LB316 - Removes terms like “man” and “woman” from laws pertaining to marriage. Gay marriage maneuvering.  Status: Had a hearing but doesn’t appear anything further will happen with it.

LB588 - Legal (medical) weed. Toke up for your glaucoma bro! Status: Had a hearing but doesn’t appear anything further will happen with it.

LB634 - Legal weed, Colorado style. As someone from Colorado, let me assure you that you DO NOT WANT THIS.  Status: Had a hearing but doesn’t appear anything further will happen with it.

LB668 - Allows “mental health professionals” (“the experts”) to place anyone they want “into emergency protective custody.” These “professionals” are the people who no longer say that claiming to be a different gender is a mental illness but that refusing to be vaccinated IS a mental illness. Now the government effectively wants to give these people the power to arrest you without being charged of any crime and leave you with limited options to defend yourself. EXTREMELY BAD. Status: Had a hearing but doesn’t appear anything further will happen with it.

LR18CA & LR19CA - Constitutional amendments for abortion.  Status: The lefty senators are trying to get it moved to the Judiciary committee where they think they have a better shot at getting it past the committee. 

LR26CA - Remove marriage from the state constitution. Proposed by a Democrat and supported by other Democrats. Obviously more maneuvering to weaken Nebraska’s stance on Marriage and pave the way for the federal government to enforce far-left positions on this issue.  Status: Had a hearing but doesn’t appear anything further will happen with it.

Analysis:

Sadly, a very big chunk of what was introduced is really amazingly pointless. There were 800+ items of legislation introduced and only perhaps three dozen or so were even worth the paper it took to print them. We live in an age where our most basic and essential freedoms are being stripped away from us, but even supposedly conservative Republican senators are busy talking about how to regulate PET INSURANCE. That is just so infuriating. Get your priorities straightened out!

Democrats seem to have accepted the fact that their own proposed bills are likely dead in the water and will never make it out of committee. So their only objective as the small but incredibly vocal minority is to sabotage any chance of ANY bill getting passed. If they can’t get things their way, then nobody gets anything. The babies throw their tantrums every day when debating every bill, effectively filibustering every debate and slowing progress to almost nothing. Any bill not marked as a priority is basically already doomed. Some of the ones marked priority still may not make it. Republicans don’t seem to have a strategy to combat this other than to quietly put up with it, call for cloture as soon as the rules allow and pray they have the votes to move a bill to the next step. 

At this point, if a bill wasn’t marked a priority, assume it won’t pass during this session. We have a small chance to still get wins on banning transgender surgeries for minors and restricting abortion, but a lot of the really good legislation that could have protected us from future government authoritarianism such as what we have seen the last few years isn’t going to even get debated much less passed.  

[anhed-nia]

BLOGTOBER 10/26/2022: TERRIFIER 2 (and various other TERRIFIERS)

I've been trying to wrap my head around the Art the Clown phenomenon for a minute now, and I may be developing a kind of begrudging respect for it, but I still don't know if I really get it. The thing that keeps me from dismissing it outright as just a bunch of edgelord nonsense is that even at their worst, these movies seem like a ton of work to make, featuring elaborate gore gags that would be a huge pain in the ass for a small, independent crew to create. On their tiny budgetary scale, movies like ALL HALLOW'S EVE and TERRIFIER 1 & 2 really have to run on love and desire, which I think are the most important ingredients in any production. What I struggle with is the everything-else part: I'm not sure these movies are motivated by anything other than the urge to offend, which is kind of lame when it stands alone. The best thing about them for me, personally, is that they challenge me to question if I really am offended by them for reasons other than their prurient nature—and if so, how and why.

The Art the Clown trilogy is less like a collection of three movies starring a central character, and more like a single movie that has been gestating over the course of three releases. TERRIFIER 2 is inarguably the most creative and mature (am I really saying this?) of the three, amalgamating choice elements of its two predecessors into something that is more like a "real movie" and less like an excuse to try out a bunch of fucked-up ideas. And I don't mean to shit on the idea of making a movie as a sandbox for special effects; people have been doing that from the earliest origins of the horror genre. But, there's something a little different about modern projects that should benefit from the films that have gone before. I find it hard not to judge movies a little more harshly if they've come out during my own lifetime. I assume that those filmmakers know what I know, and I might expect them to use that knowledge a certain way.

When Joe Bob Briggs ran John Carpenter's HALLOWEEN on The Last Drive-In, he remarked (approximately) that it was the first time a violent slasher movie starred a psychopath, where audiences didn't have to worry that the film itself was made BY psychopaths, unlike the gnarlier material that circulated in the Times Square grindhouses of the 1970s. HALLOWEEN was obviously made by UCLA-trained professionals with mainstream aspirations, and if it suffered from accusations of misogyny and sadism, this was because it was being compared to more mainstream fare by people who saw it in suburban theaters; those critics didn't have the context of the world's many LAST HOUSEs (ON THE LEFT, or ON DEAD END STREET, or wherever), movies made by former pornographers and angry young men whose main motivation, besides making a quick and dirty buck, was just to be extremely antisocial. As a modern viewer, when I watch something like HOUSE ON THE EDGE OF THE PARK, I understand that it comes from a different universe than the one I live in; it's darker, more desperate, forged by different historical and socioeconomic forces, and I relish the opportunity to delve into that psycho-social space without being directly subjected to the grim reality from whence it came. It's all sort of academic for me. Nowadays, people who make really antisocial movies are all nerds; their movies tend to be an act of fandom, and even if they're trying to one-up young Sam Raimi or Peter Jackson in the fucked-uppedness department, you can tell where they're coming from culturally. You don't have to risk life and limb to see their movies in the woebegone grindhouses of yesteryear, and if you've even heard of them, you're probably a nerd, too. All this can make these productions less threatening and more familiar, regardless of how demented their content is.

As a brief aside, though: Apparently there are reports going around of people vomiting and fainting in theatrical audiences for TERRIFIER 2, and who knows if that's true or just an exciting rumor, but it's astounding to me that A) a movie like this is playing in the kinds of theaters that serve vulnerable normie viewers to begin with, and b) the rumor of this visceral audience response has been repeated in USA Today. I mean when I was growing up, if something like EVIL DEAD or DEAD ALIVE turned up in an extremely mainstream publication, it would be because of the Satanic Panic, it would be because the 700 Club was going after it or something. And in my mind, the TERRIFIER series is in a sub-basement way beneath the level of EVIL DEAD; it's from a grimy, underground place that's barely even connected to the world where fans of SCREAM or Chucky live. The fact that it's in movie theaters when fewer and fewer films are getting theatrical releases at all is wild enough to me, but a spotlight in USA Today is way, way beyond my comprehension. It's like if Olaf Ittenbach's BURNING MOON were reviewed by Leonard Maltin. I almost love that this is happening. It's like, am I on another planet?

Anyway.

Where was I?

Oh yeah, whether it's fair or not, I tend to hold modern creators of "fucked up" movies to a different standard than their predecessors. I think the new kids can be accused of lacking the innocence of the exploitation artists of previous decades. Someone like Herschell Gordon Lewis would have been aware of the rising tide of social change, but he wasn't raised with political correctness as the norm; he was an entrepreneur who knew that the then-new splatter subgenre would be a must-see novelty for contemporary audiences. And, on some level, misogynistic anger was ordinary and unquestioned. On the other hand, when you make a movie in 2016 at the beginning of the Trump era where a crazed killer saws a teenage girl in half vagina-first, it has a different vibe. The ironic pleasure of seeing a really uninhibited film from a more ignorant era is nowhere to be found, and you have to ask yourself: What the fuck is this movie's problem?

To be really, really clear, I don't think that media should be constrained to saying whatever we think is good for society in real life. I think artists have as much right to say whatever they want, as audiences have to criticize it as harshly as they like, or to simply change the channel. (I'd put a boundary on this only where we're talking about out in the open political propaganda whose obvious motivation is a call to action, but fortunately, that's not what I'm dealing with in this piece) There is no level on which I'm suggesting that filmmaker Damien Leone shouldn't be doing what he does, and in our intensely moralizing cultural moment, I hope that nothing I say about his movies is taken as a recommendation to censure him. I just find it impossible to talk about his invention of Art the Clown without addressing the extreme, misogynistic hostility that pours out of these projects. It's probably reasonable to assume that creators of this ilk stage gonzo attacks on female victims out of an affectionate nostalgia for films like MANIAC and THE TOOLBOX MURDERS that so worried second wave feminists. In the case of the TERRIFIER movies, though, one might feel like they push things past the point of homage and into what can come off as a real love of the thought of chopping up girls.

Damien Leone's 2013 anthology film ALL HALLOW'S EVE is best known as a container for his 2011 short TERRIFIER, in which a young, horror-loving costume designer is tormented by the silent, psychotic Art the Clown. In that segment, after decorating a gas station bathroom with his own excretia, Art hounds the young woman, whipping her with a scourge made out of all sorts of sharp objects, and eventually amputating her limbs and carving slurs like SLUT and CUNT all over what remains of her body. Some of these images made their way into the feature version of TERRIFIER five years later, though notably not the latter bit, which—and I know this is going to make me sound insane considering the context—is just really unnecessary. Art the Clown functions best as a chaos agent who dismantles everyone and everything in his way purely for his own amusement, so there's something off about him focusing on a hatred of attractive young women specifically. You kind of want Art to be like a slasher movie version of Bugs Bunny; when he expresses this incel obsession with women as sources of sexual frustration, it's limiting and distracting. It feels like something the movie insists on to its own detriment…and like, why?

2016's TERRIFIER may have disposed of the idea of vandalizing a woman's body with "whore"-type epithets, but it sticks with the notion of targeting attractive girls and taking away their beauty to punish them. Sure, there are a few male victims in this movie, but who could possibly remember them when the movie's centerpiece is a nude teenage girl who Art bisects with a hacksaw, beginning at her crotch? The doomed men don't quite get the same gender-specific treatment as a bag lady whose severed breasts Art parades around in, or the girl whose face Art eats, leaving her as a circus freak version of herself whose outrageous ugliness drives her insane. TERRIFIER moves so single-mindedly from one gore gag to another, without anything resembling character or plot development, that it's hard not to focus on the rather specific spectacle of violence against women and their femininity.

By comparison, 2022's TERRIFIER 2 is a masterpiece of dramaturgy. Sure, it takes almost two and a half hours to make its point (?!), but this movie has distinct characters, a story, and more experimentation to offer than its predecessors. Interestingly, it also represents a culmination of all of Damien Leone's creative work. All three have an opening salvo that involves a bunch of literal shit, a cat o' nine tails scene, and the idea of women losing their minds when they lose their attractiveness. TERRIFIER 2 also brings the realization of failed plans Leone had for his first short, THE 9TH CIRCLE, which was originally meant to involve an angel figure battling Art the Clown. Finally, the latest film blows up a detail from the least of the three components of ALL HALLOW'S EVE, and makes it a central piece of the puzzle: The middle section of the anthology features a woman being terrorized by an alien invader, but a stray piece of that story is that her absent husband makes disturbing paintings featuring Art. That's a loose thread in ALL HALLOW'S, but in TERRIFIER 2 it becomes the key to the protagonist's destiny. I may not love these movies, but I respect Leone's long-term focus, and it has brought him a long way from his humbler origins.

TERRIFIER 2 finds aspiring costume designer Sienna (the very appealing Lauren LaVera) painstakingly assembling a She-Ra-like Halloween costume based on her late father's designs. Sienna and her little brother Jonathan (Elliott Fullam) have both inherited his interest in dark fantasy, but where Sienna channels it into productively chasing after her career goals, Jonathan is haunted by their father's visions. He pores over an old sketch book containing images suggestive of the Miles County Massacre that took place in the first TERRIFIER film, and plans to go as Art the Clown for Halloween. Sienna and their mother Barbara (Sarah Voigt) worry that Jonathan is a burgeoning psycho, but we see him as a sensitive young man who his ambivalently drawn to what frightens him—a relatable characteristic for any horror fan—and moreover, these images are all he has left of his dad, who committed suicide after a battle with brain cancer. The family speculates that their patriarch's disturbing visions resulted from his tumor, but both Sienna and Jonathan suffer similarly: while Jonathan fixates helplessly on Art, Sienna has disturbing nightmares about the clown, and is already being medicated for psychological issues. Art (David Howard Thornton who, let's face it, makes these movies), meanwhile, is having his own familial experience with a new character credited as the Little Pale Girl (Amelie McLain), a psychotic tot made in Art's image who accompanies him on his new killing spree. Only Sienna and Jonathan can see the Pale Girl, suggesting that she is the product of whatever supernatural force resurrected Art at the end of the first TERRIFIER film; furthermore, it becomes clear that Jonathan and Sienna's father was not deranged by illness, but he had actually channeled a vision of how his children could put a stop to the clown's rampage.

Whether or not this story achieves real coherence is beside the point, which I posit is about how you channel your id material. The kids' father was tormented by it unto death; Art and his daughter (?) enjoy it shamelessly; Jonathan tries to understand what scares him; Sienna makes herself into an avenging angel that can defeat it. It's an interesting meditation for a series of movies that appear to be all about pure aggression and the pleasure of stirring people up. After fifteen years of hard work, Damien Leone has refined his vision into an essay on the faces of horror fandom: Many people are happy to accuse horror fans of psychopathy, ignoring the fact that fans are often sensitive types who use the genre to safely explore difficult feelings and experiences. Sure, some of us turn into assholes, but others find paths that are creative and productive, not destructive. And this is how, after hours of sometimes-painful viewing and chewing, I have somehow found my way to finding something nice to say about the TERRIFIER series. I may not have enjoyed it, but I came to respect it (or at least, the incredible work ethic required to get it done), and I think maybe I finally get it. Still and all, I'm glad I can finally stop watching it. Onto the next!

[ddaengtae]

see you around || jjk

pairing: jeon jungkook x reader

genre: college, strangers (idiots) to lovers, fitness instructor! jungkook, fluff, smut

word count: 13.9k

summary: you know those beautiful strangers that you admire from afar and obsess over with your friends, but know there’s about a one percent chance they’ll ever talk to you or even know who you are?  that’s precisely what jeon jungkook was to you; a piece of delicious eye candy that you could daydream about all you wanted, but had to accept that it was too unrealistic to ever happen.  or so you thought.  after an embarrassing accident at the gym that makes your worlds collide, maybe you had been wrong about your chances all along.

a/n: when i came up with this idea in my head, i guessed it would be around 5k words.  guess my hands slipped.  this is only my second bts fic, but after getting good feedback for my first one, i decided to give it another try and this is what happened.  i tried to edit closely, but there may be a few types so i’m sorry!  thanks for reading & pls lmk what you think. :)

Another week, another million reasons to be stressed.  It really seemed like that was the never-ending pattern of the college lifestyle.  The weekend was never long enough to truly allow yourself to unwind.  Sure, those two days were great, but how was two days enough to destress from the agony of multiple all-nighters to keep up with the shitload of work that all of your professors always deemed it acceptable to assign?  There was no way for you to prove it, but you believed in a conspiracy theory that all of the professors would meet up at the beginning of each semester and choose to make all of their huge assignments due on the same days just to fuck all of their students over.  There could be no other explanation for the hell that was midterms season.

While during your first two years of college you would barely be hanging on by a thread during the busiest weeks of the semester, you were now a junior and had at last adopted a regime that helped you burn off some steam when the tension became all too much.  Somewhere along the way, you started to realize that inhaling mozzarella sticks and Red Bull at two in the morning the night before an exam did very little to make you feel better and that it would probably be a better idea to take up a healthy lifestyle and better time management skills sooner rather than later.  In the process of getting your life together, one Tuesday evening in the spring of your sophomore year, one of your roommates had convinced you to accompany her to a group fitness class at the gym on campus.  To your surprise, you fell in love with it and the feeling of adrenaline and accomplishment that came along with making it through the hour.  From that day on, you vowed to yourself to make it to the gym most days of the week.

There was something about group fitness classes that made you feel much more comfortable than going to the gym and working out on your own.  Perhaps most glaringly, the classes were dominated with like-minded girls who just wanted some peace of mind for an hour.  Most of the instructors were girls too, except for a few guys who seemed to understand why a lot of women chose to avoid the rest of the gym.  It was quite unsettling to work out by yourself on the main floor and be surrounded by conceited guys who always seemed to either be undressing you with their eyes or judging you because, god forbid, you couldn’t squat three-hundred pounds like they could.  The whole place just always reeked of toxic masculinity, or so that was what you had thought until you found out about the group fitness classes that the facility also held.  They seemed to be a sort of heavenly escape from the rest of the place that resembled a fraternity initiation ceremony.

That was precisely where you found yourself this Monday evening.  In dire need of a break from studying, you found yourself sitting on the floor of the group classroom surrounded by your equipment and waiting for your favorite instructor to arrive.  The concept of a high-intensity circuit training class had initially terrified you when you first decided to try it out last semester, but it had quickly become your favorite class and one that you attended every week without fail.  It was incredibly satisfying to track your progress and watch your body evolve as you adapted to be able to lift heavier weights and make it through the cardio outbreaks without feeling like you were going to drop dead every second.

Taking a long sip of your water, your eyes remained down on your phone as you heard the door of the room open and close again.  As it was still ten minutes before class, you didn’t think much of it and assumed it was probably just more people piling into the room and rushing to get their equipment ready.

“Uh, hi guys!  The usual instructor for the class is unfortunately sick so I’m filling in for her tonight,” an unfamiliar-- but yet also eerily recognizable-- male voice echoed through the room.  “I was just recently certified so this is actually the first class I’ll be teaching here.  I promise I’ll try to live up to her hype.”  The unknown source let out an awkward laugh, which was met with relative silence from the rest of the room.

The moment your eyes moved up to fall upon the new instructor, your breath hitched in your throat, causing the water you had been attempting to drink to flow down the wrong pipe.  This wasn’t just any unmemorable college boy filling in to instruct the class.  There at the front of the room stood none other than Jeon Jungkook.  The breathtaking Jeon Jungkook was going to be leading the class and you were supposed to be able perform-- let alone breathe-- properly?  Oh no.

You and Jungkook were not friends by any means.  Hell, it was highly likely that the boy didn’t even know who you were.  You know those beautiful strangers that you admire from afar, yet know there’s about a one percent chance that they will ever know who you are or ever speak to you?  The ones you tell all of your friends about and you go out of your way to use your FBI-level stalking skills to find their social media in hopes of finding out more about them so you can daydream about your nonexistent, fantasy future together?  The ones you’re always hoping you’ll cross paths with while walking to class because even a glance of them will make your day a little more exciting and give you something to talk about with your friends?  That was what Jungkook was to you.

Jungkook had become known as ‘hot coffee shop boy’ amongst your friend group after you had noticed him studying in the same coffee shop as you one day in the fall of your sophomore year.  As you always chose to study at the least favorite and therefore least populated coffee shop on campus, it was shocking the first time someone as beautiful as Jungkook sat down at one of the tables across from yours and settled in to do his homework as well.  His presence offered you a paradox; while seeing him looking like a model wearing his oversized clothes and sighing at his laptop screen was certainly a distraction at times, it also served as a form of motivation to force you to focus because you didn’t want him thinking you were slacking off.  He seemed to enjoy the quiet ambience of the specific shop because after that first day, he began to frequent it almost as often as you, always sitting at the same table by the third window.  On some occasions, one of his friends who always seemed to be changing hair colors would accompany him.  After some research completed by your enamored friend Jennie who sometimes accompanied you, she discovered his name was Park Jimin.  He quickly became known as ‘iced chai’ after that seemed to be his regular coffee order.

It was an exciting day amongst your friends on the first day of classes in the spring of your sophomore year when Jungkook happened to enroll in the same Earth Science lecture as you to satisfy the science gen-ed requirement at your university.  Rocks and rivers weren’t exactly interesting, but the back of Jungkook’s head from the row in front of you certainly was.  The group chat really blew up the day he spun around in his chair and asked you if he could borrow a pen.  They were right that it would’ve been easier for him to just ask one of the people next to him, but you were smart enough to not think into it too much.  Maybe you just seemed like the type of person to carry around an abundance of stationery materials (you weren’t, and you ended up not taking any notes that day after giving him the only pen you had).

So here you were, practically choking on your water as Jungkook started to set up his own equipment at the front of the room.  How dare he invade your safe space?  You suddenly felt as if you barely remembered how to do a jumping jack, let alone have the facilities to pick up a weight.  

After organizing his weights at the front of the room, Jungkook’s eyes began to scan the participants in the room, likely counting how many people had shown up.  The moment his eyes met yours, your whole body froze in place.  Oddly enough, his seemed to do the same.  His doe eyes became wide and his mouth fell into an ‘o’ as he looked at you for a few seconds too long, and you swore there was an expression of recognition on his face.  Before you could convince yourself that anything of the sort had truly happened, Jungkook was blinking rapidly and shaking his head at himself before his eyes darted away to scan and count the rest of the room.

“Alright everyone, we’re going to get started in a minute here,” Jungkook announced a minute later, looking down at his phone as he connected his music and began blasting it through the speakers.  “Just remember to follow my lead and please don’t hesitate to wave me over if you have any questions or are struggling with form.  I’ll try to keep an eye on all of you and come over to help you out anyway.”  His eyes crinkled into crescent moons as he offered the class a big bunny smile.  Oh god, you were going to pass out.  “We’re going to be starting with a pretty intense cardio circuit here to bring those heart rates right up and set the tone for the rest of class.”  Great.  Your heart rate was already accelerating through the roof just at the sight of him.  “Try to keep up, but if you need to grab some water or take a break at any point, please don’t hesitate to do so.  We’re going to get started in 3… 2… 1… Go!”

To your surprise, you were able to make it through the first couple of circuits without too much trouble.  You made it your mission to zone in on each of the exercises you were doing, and that every time you were forced to face forward you would fixate your gaze on the back of the girl in front of you.  It was shockingly easy to forget about the beautiful man in front of the room while you were gasping for breath after numerous rounds of burpees and mountain climbers.  The goal was to look calm and fit without calling attention to yourself.  Outside of your heavy breathing that was likely being drowned out by Jungkook’s loud music, you could say you were succeeding.

About twenty minutes into the class, Jungkook signaled a transition into an upper body circuit.  While you were delighted to get a break from cardio and to allow your heart rate to calm down for a bit, following the exercises now required you to face forward and watch for his cues.  This would be fine as long as you didn’t focus on his gorgeous face that was currently glistening with sweat in the most pleasing way possible, right?

“Alright, we’re going to start off here with some overhead shoulder presses for the first minute.  I’d recommend something on the lighter side, but make sure you’re challenging yourself.”  With a slight nod of his head, Jungkook picked up his own weights and counted down the class to begin the first exercise of the circuit.

Shoulder presses weren’t bad.  You could do this.  Inhaling a deep breath, you made an attempt to wipe your sweaty palms off on your leggings before picking up your dumbbells and getting in position to begin your shoulder presses.  After the first few reps, you quickly fell into a rhythm that was both comfortable yet challenging, feeling that delicious burn in your shoulder muscles.  At the halfway mark through the minute, your eyes had remained glued to the same girl in front of you.  You finally felt a sense of peace.  One look at Jungkook couldn’t hurt, right?

Wrong.  

Against your better judgement, you decided to shift your eyes to the front of the room and take a good luck at a combination of both Jungkook’s back and the reflection of the front of his body through the mirror before him.  

The string of events that occurred immediately after that moment was a blur.  As Jungkook pressed his set of dumbbells above his head, his baggy shirt slid up his body, exposing his sweaty, toned abs that looked as though they were sculpted by the gods themselves.  What was likely an audible gasp escaped from your lips as your eyes remained frozen on the sight in front of you.  It was unclear if it was your mesmerized state, your sweaty hands, or a combination of both, but seconds later, the dumbbell in your right hand slipped out of your grasp and quickly went crashing downward.

“Oh my... Fuck!” 

There was a moment of dissociation before you realized that the loud cry had, in fact, come out of your mouth, and that the dumbbell that had glided out of your hand had, in fact, come crashing down onto the big toe of your right foot.  Your head was spinning as you began to process the throbbing feeling radiating throughout your entire foot, as well as the weight of what had just occurred.  Within moments, the eyes of all of the participants were on you, as well as the eyes of the one person whose attention you really did not want in such an embarrassing moment.  No, no, no.

“Oh my god, are you okay?” Jungkook’s panicked voice echoed throughout the room as he spoke into his headset and he quickly dropped his weights on the ground.  “Um, okay, the rest of you can keep going!  I’m going to get someone else to come in within a few minutes so I can help her.”  Within moments, he was shoving his way through the room until he was right in front of you and pulling the microphone away from his mouth so the rest of the class wouldn’t hear your interaction.  “Are you alright?  Oh my god, you shouldn’t be putting pressure on it.  Let’s get you out of here and get some ice.”

You genuinely thought you were going to pass out.  It had little to do with your toe, and a whole lot to do with Jungkook’s sudden closeness.  His concerned face was just inches away from yours as his eyes scanned yours for any sort of explanation for what had just unfolded.  His presence was intoxicating.  You could smell the combination of his cologne and sweat, and you had yet to tear the image of his gleaming six-pack out of your mind.  Oh my god.  That had really just happened.  The first impression you made on Jungkook, AKA hot coffee shop boy, was you making an absolute fool out of yourself and possibly breaking your toe while doing a simple exercise.  You were never going to live this one down.  You were going to throw up.

When you hadn’t responded to Jungkook within a few seconds, he took it upon himself to drape an arm over your shoulders and pull your body against his side.  “Here, lean against me so you’re not putting weight on it.  I’m going to bring you to the first-aid room and get you some ice…  At the very least.”

It was quite possible that your brain had chosen it was better to black out the memory as Jungkook began to pull you out of the room, yelling to one of the workers at the front desk to quickly find someone else to take over the class.  Your legs felt like jelly as they moved beside his, only functioning out of muscle memory rather than true volition.  Here you were, body pressed against that of the guy you had admired from afar for over a year.  In any other circumstance, this would have been like a dream come true.  Instead, you wished the ground would swallow you up and put you out of your misery.

It wasn’t long until you were pulled into what was likely the first-aid room and instructed to sit on top of the counter by a very stressed Jungkook.  The more you thought about it, the more horrible you felt.  Not only was this the Jeon Jungkook of your fantasies, but it was also the Jeon Jungkook who had informed the class before it had started that this was the first class he had ever led.  You had quite literally ruined his first class, and had set an appalling example of what he would expect going forward.  If your toe hadn’t been throbbing, you would have seriously considered running right out the door.

“Okay, if you don’t mind, just take off your shoe and sock while I try to find an ice pack,” Jungkook commanded as he nervously raked a hand through his already-messy hair, frantically rifling through the cabinets.  Your eyes watched his back as you followed his instructions, guilt filling your entire body.  He seemed stressed.  Nervous, even.  It made sense, if you thought about it.  Your foolish accident had just become his responsibility, and he was a new employee.  You would be nervous too.

“Found one,” he breathed out, hitting it against the counter a couple of times to activate the coldness.  As he turned around to face you, his eyes wandered down to your exposed toe.  “Oh no, that looks pretty swollen.  Does it hurt really badly?  Are you okay?”

“It doesn’t feel great, but I’m okay.”  No, no you were not okay, but you needed this to be over.  Meeting his eyes, you realized those were the first words you had spoken to him since this whole debacle had unraveled.  He probably thought you were crazy.  Taking the ice pack from him, you chewed on your lower lip.  “I’m… I’m really sorry.”

Jungkook furrowed his brow as he looked up from your foot to meet your gaze, tilting his head to the side.  “Huh?  You have no reason to be sorry.  Accidents happen.  I get it… I’m pretty clumsy too sometimes and have hurt myself much worse than this for much stupider reasons.  Really, don’t worry.”  He was rambling, and if you hadn’t been so distraught, you would have perhaps realized just how nervous he really seemed.  Offering you a shy smile, his eyes averted away from yours as his cheeks flushed a shade of bright red.  Redder than they should have been from just working out.

Looking down at your foot, you placed the ice pack on top of it and shook your head.  It was difficult to form words with him so close, but you knew you had to if you wanted to redeem yourself at all.  You already had created a mental plan to avoid him at all costs and hide from him whenever that wasn’t possible, but this was the least you could do.  “No, I’m really sorry.  You said at the beginning that this was your first class and I… I kind of ruined it for you.  I’m sure you were really excited about it.”

Jungkook remained occupied with your toe as he moved the ice pack to the side, feeling around the bones and moving it gently in various directions to see how bad the pain was.  “I don’t think it’s broken.  Definitely pretty swollen, but not broken.  However, I’m clearly not a doctor so you might want to get a second opinion.”  Standing up straight, he offered you a warm smile.  “But seriously, don’t worry about it.  There’s always going to be more classes for me to teach and I wasn’t just going to let you suffer there.  I’m happy to help.”

God, not only was he gorgeous, but he was also this friendly?  It was possible that he was just being nice to keep you calm and keep his job, but regardless, he just seemed so perfect.  So perfect that you feared being so close to him, for your endless flaws felt as if though they were being magnified.  Clearing your throat, you forced yourself to return the smile.  “Thanks.  I really appreciate it, but I’ll be fine.”  You needed to escape.  You needed to get out of there so you could cry to your friends about just how mortified you were and how you now really never stood a chance with hot coffee shop boy.  “I should probably get going.  Don’t want to hold you up any longer.”

“You’re not holding me up at all, I promise,” Jungkook responded a bit too quickly, but yet again, you were too focused on your own embarrassment to notice.  Crossing his arms over his chest, the tall man tilted his head to the side.  “How are you going to get back to your dorm?  Do you have a ride?  You definitely shouldn’t be walking on your toe.”

Fuck.  He had a good point.  Regardless of the pain flowing through your foot, you were willing to walk on it just to escape this situation.  However, you knew you couldn’t tell him that.  “I, uh, one of my roommates has a car and I was going to call her to pick me up.”

“I have my car here.  I could drive you.”

Wait, what?  Had he really just offered you a ride?  If you had met his gaze, you would’ve seen that he looked just as surprised that such an offer had slipped out of his lips so casually.  Instead, you stared down at your lap as you attempted to process his suggestion.  If the situation had been even slightly less humiliating, a car ride with the Jeon Jungkook would have sounded like one of your fantasies come to life.  However, at the current moment all you could imagine was the intense awkward silence that would likely fill the car as you contemplated how to successfully fling yourself out of the window.  That would not do right now.  You were not in the right headspace to muster up any coherent form of small talk.  The offer was likely just extended out of pity anyway.  He was a good guy and deemed that that would be the righteous thing to do.  No need to burden him and actually make him follow through with it.

“No, no.  I wouldn’t make you do that.  I’m going to text my friend right now,” you assured him, weakly smiling as you moved the ice pack to the side to retrieve your removed sock and shoe.  “You have a workout to finish anyway.

“It wouldn’t be any trouble,” Jungkook insisted, watching intently as you carefully put your sneaker back on and tied it up at lightning speed.  When he realized you had no plans of speaking again, a defeated sigh pressed through his lips.  Why was he so set on helping you?  “Okay, okay.  As long as your friend is coming soon, that’ll work.  I can walk you to the lobby though.”

Realizing he wasn’t going to let you just run out of the room alone, you forced yourself to nod your head in agreement.  You were being dramatic.  You could handle one more minute in his presence before you imploded.  “Sure, thanks.”  The response came off a bit snappier than you had intended, but did that really matter at this point?  You weren’t going to be able to show your face around him ever again to begin with.

Once you pushed yourself off of the counter, Jungkook encouraged you to lean most of your weight against him as he led you out the door.  As you were already on the first floor of the facility, the walk to the lobby luckily didn’t take too long.  Upon arrival, you plopped down in one of the plush chairs by the door, fishing your phone out of the pocket of your hoodie and pretending to draft a text.  In all honesty, the moment Jungkook disappeared, you intended to wobble your way back to your dorm by twisting your foot to the side to avoid putting pressure on the big toe.  You were well aware that you were going to look ridiculous, but nothing could be more mortifying than what you had already experienced.

Jungkook stood over your chair, rubbing the back of his neck as he rocked from side to side on his feet.  Something about him just exuded nervous energy, and it was making you feel even more on edge.  “You’re sure your friend is able to come soon, right?”

Nodding your head in response, you lifted your hand into a thumbs-up that you regretted the second your hand formed it.  God, you might as well have hit him with some finger guns.  Could you be any cringier?  “Yes, don’t worry.  She’s on her way.  Really, thank you though.”

Shoving his hands into the pockets of his athletic shorts, Jungkook’s eyes scanned your face one last time.  It was almost as if he was searching for any hint of a lie, but if he had been, he wasn’t able to find it.  “Okay, okay… If you insist.  I’m sorry this had to happen to you.  I hope it heals quickly.”  His lips stretched into that signature bunny smile you had witnessed so many times while seeing him with his friends in public, but it almost looked a little more… Bashful.  “I’ll see you around, okay?”

No, no he would not.  You weren’t even sure that he had recognized you from being at the same coffee shop so often, but regardless, you had already planned to avoid the location at all costs.  You couldn’t stand the thought of him possibly approaching you out of pity to check and see if you were okay.

Instead of expressing any of these concerns, you twisted your lips into a small smile and nodded your head at him.  “Mhmm.  See you around.”

After lifting his hand in a wave, Jungkook smiled at you once more before turning on his heel and slowly starting to make his way back toward the main area of the gym.  You watched as he began to disappear, as you planned on rushing out the door the moment he was out of sight.  Right before he rounded the corner, his body twisted to face you once more.  If you hadn’t been so fixated on your own embarrassment, maybe you would’ve noticed the way his cheeks flushed a deep shade of red before he nervously laughed to himself and rounded the corner quickly so he was out of your line of vision.

The moment he disappeared, you gathered your belongings and rose to your feet a bit too quickly, immediately noticing how you forgot to avoid putting pressure on your toe.  Fighting through the pain and fighting to maintain any sense of pride you had left, you began your walk-- or rather, wobble-- home.

God, you needed some wine.

The rest of the week passed by without much trouble, but maybe that was due to your advanced avoiding skills.  Due to having three midterms throughout the week, most of your time was spent holed up alone studying.  While you usually would do most of your studying in your favorite quiet coffee shop, you made it a point to steer clear of it at all costs.  You were well aware that Jungkook also spent a lot of his time in that specific location, and you weren’t ready to show your face to him if it could be prevented.  He had been right; your toe wasn’t broken, but instead just badly bruised.  While your toe may have been fine, your ego certainly wasn’t.  After stumbling home after the incident on that Monday evening, your roommates had a laughing fest at your expense over a few too many bottles of wine.  They attempted to convince you that what had happened really wasn’t that embarrassing, that Jungkook seemed to be really sweet about it, and that such a chaotic event would be ‘the most epic story to tell people about the start of your relationship at your wedding.’  Although you indulged in their pipe dreams for the time being, you were going to stick to your plan: avoid Jungkook at all times possible until enough time had passed that he likely forgot about your humiliating catastrophe.

After a week of cramming for exams and perfecting your evading abilities, you were beyond ready to take a night to unwind and destress. That was precisely why you found yourself out at one of popular college bars by your campus with your friend Jennie on Friday night.  The pair of you weren’t exactly the type to go out and let loose very often as you tried your best to prioritize your studies, but once you allowed yourself to get dressed up and had a few vodka-crans running through your veins, you understood why a lot of college students went out so often and remembered why you used to so much during your freshman year.  The sensation of being tipsy and laughing with your friends was truly therapeutic and a much-needed antidote to counteract the toxic environment of never-ending stress.

Having been at the bar for over an hour, it started to get quite crowded.  As you twirled your straw around in your half-empty drink, you watched as Jennie began to look around at all of the new faces in the bar before freezing and pursing her lips. “Okay, not to make you freak out or anything… But hot coffee shop boy AKA sexy fitness instructor boy AKA Jeon Jungkook is here,” she whisper-yelled at you as she leaned toward your ear.  “He seems drunk… Like really drunk.”

Blinking rapidly as you tried to process this new information, you pulled back from her and began to shake your head.  This certainly was not what you needed to hear right now, but the alcohol in your system calmed you down at least a little bit so you didn’t immediately book it out of the place.  “So what you’re telling me is that I need to hide in the bathroom for the rest of the night?”  Despite your fears, you really wanted to get a glance of him.  Although the bar was quite large, you told yourself it would be too risky.  If experience had taught you anything, it was that even one glance at him could be fatal for you.

“Stop being ridiculous,” Jennie scoffed, shoving your shoulder before taking a long sip of her drink.  Her gaze remained set on the area of the crowded bar that you refused to look toward.  “He’s…” She paused for a moment before her eyes widened.  “Okay, I might be a little drunk, but I’m almost positive he keeps looking over here.”

“Maybe because you’re staring at him and drawing attention to us,” you scolded, narrowing your eyes at her.  “Please stop before I jump over the actual bar and hide behind it.”

Jennie laughed at your dramatic suggestion, eyeing your nervous persona up and down.  “Relax, relax.”  She looked over your shoulder yet again.  “Oh, wait.  He’s on the move now so I don’t think you have to worry.”

Letting out a sigh of relief, you took an extra long sip of your drink.  “Thank god.  I don’t need to relive my earlier trauma on a night out.”

“Wait, fuck.  I think--”

“Ah, is that toe girl?!”

Your whole body froze as you heard the close proximity of a very familiar male voice behind you.  You wanted to believe that your initial guess of what was occurring wasn’t true, but the mixture of shock and amusement on Jennie’s face as she looked over your shoulder at the sight behind you confirmed that your worst nightmare was, in fact, true.

Sucking in a deep breath and downing the rest of your drink before placing it down on the bar, you gave yourself a mental pep talk before slowly turning on your heel to face the source of the voice.  If there hadn’t been a decent amount of alcohol in your system, you were quite certain that you would’ve passed out right then and there.

There before you stood Jungkook with a cheeky grin spread across his lips and arms crossed over his chest as he stared down at, unfortunately, you.  He was sporting a pair of tight, ripped black jeans and a matching black t-shirt.  The clasping of a beer bottle in one hand and the way his arms were folded made his bicep muscles protrude in a manner that had you ready to start drooling.  Jennie had been right; his face was glowing a bright shade of red, likely due to a great deal of alcohol consumption.

Clearing your throat, you forced your lips into a shy smile as you folded your hands together in front of you.  You wished you hadn’t finished your drink so you had something more natural to do with your hands.  It felt as if though your heart was going to explode through your chest, but he was here now and there was no escaping.  “God, is that really what I’m known as now?”

“I mean, kind of.”  Jungkook let out a loud laugh, the corners of his eyes crinkling as he did so.  How was he so fucking gorgeous?  And why the fuck was this beautiful man going out of his way to talk to you on a night out?  “But I won’t call you that anymore.  It’s Y/N, right?”

Your brow furrowed as your mouth opened in surprise.  Wait, what?  Jungkook knew your name?  It felt like your mind was moving at a million miles a minute trying to process just how that could be possible.

A hand reached out from behind you to squeeze your shoulder, Jennie stepping forward and revealing herself after you had forgotten about her existence for a minute.  Her lips were twisted upward into a mischievous smile.  “I see a couple of my friends from one of my classes.  Gonna go say hi to them.  I’ll meet up with you later.”  After not-so-discreetly wiggling her eyebrows at you, she mouthed what appeared to be “good luck” before sauntering off.

“Looks like you’re stuck with me now.”  Jungkook chuckled quietly as he watched Jennie walk away before setting his eyes back on you and smiling warmly.  You were convinced that his smile was going to be the death of you.  “Hopefully you won’t try to run off as quickly as you did the other day.”

“I did not run off!” you scoffed immediately, crossing your own arms over your chest as you feigned offense.  Once again, thank god for alcohol, for you were well aware that this conversation would not be happening without it.  He was right, but you hadn’t realized he had noticed your urgency in escaping that day.  ‘I… I wasn’t even aware that you knew my name.”

“Suuure you didn’t.  You couldn’t get away from me fast enough,” Jungkook teased, leaning forward a bit to nudge his shoulder against yours.  The area of skin he touched immediately felt like it was on fire, as did your cheeks.  “But of course I know your name.  We had Earth Science together last year and you’re always studying at the same coffee shop by North campus that I do.  You’re kind of hard to miss.”

You?  Hard to miss?  Not to mention, the Earth Science class was a lecture with over one hundred students in it, and the professor hardly ever took any form of attendance.  Sure you could say the same thing about you knowing his name, but that was only because you had gone out of your way to find out who he was after becoming captivated by him upon seeing him at the coffee shop.  This didn’t make any sense.  Were you dreaming?  Hallucinating?

Raising an eyebrow at him, you decided to keep your response simple.  “You’ve never talked to me, though…”

“I know, I know.”  Jungkook unfolded his arms and clasped both of his hands around his beer bottle, staring down at his fingers as he tapped them against the glass.  Maybe it was the dim lighting in the bar, but you could’ve sworn his cheeks darkened as he avoided your eyes.  The aroma of cologne and beer coming off of him at the close proximity had you feeling light-headed.  “I’ve always wanted to.  Planned to talk to you at the coffee shop this week, but you were nowhere to be seen.  You just… I… You’re really pretty and you’re always smiling and I kind of freaked out when I saw you taking that class on Monday.  I’m pretty shy and not exactly the most confident person so I have no idea why I’m saying this right now… Definitely all of the beer I’ve drank… But I probably shouldn’t be overstepping or saying any of this anyway since I’m starting to realize that you’ve probably been avoiding me or think I’m weird or something.  Sorry for offering to drive you home the other day… I realized after that that probably seemed creepy coming from a total stranger.”  He looked to the side as he began to nervously tap his foot against the floor.  Something that sounded like a nervous laugh pressed through his lips.  “Fuck.  This is why I barely ever drink.”

Your body remained frozen as you stared at the side of his face, fully aware of the fact that your jaw had dropped and you were visibly gaping at him.  No.  There was absolutely no way that those words came out of his mouth and he meant them.  It had to be the excessive amount of alcohol in his system, right?  Or maybe he was just sweet talking you to try to get laid.  That had to be it, right?  You weren’t sure if you were going to throw up, pass out, or do both at the same time.  The vodka taking over your own system was preventing you from being able to form any sort of coherent thought.  Still, he deserved a response.

“What?  I don’t think you’re weird at all,” you reassured, chewing on your lower lip as you tried to read the expression on his face.  God, you really could have come up with something better than that.

Jungkook’s doe eyes at last met yours again, a disbelieving look in his eyes.  “Then why’d you lie and say your friend was picking you up and end up walking home on a possibly broken toe instead of letting me drive you home?”

Oh my god, he had seen you do that?  You were certain he was completely out of sight when you had dragged yourself out of the building.  To be fair, you hadn’t taken into account the fact that the place was covered with windows that would have given anyone access to see outside the front of the building, but why would he have been looking anyway?  Just as you thought that day couldn’t have gotten any more embarrassing, it did.  

The mix of alcohol in your system and your heart pounding in your chest was quickly becoming too much to handle and making you lose control over your faculties.  Maybe that was why you blurted out, “I-I don't know… You make me nervous.”

“You make me nervous too!”

Before you could even begin to comprehend the weight of his words, another male figure popped up beside Jungkook and draped an arm over his shoulders.  His bright pink hair made him easily identifiable.  It was iced chai, also known as Park Jimin.  If Jennie had noticed he was there, she certainly would have been freaking out.

“There you are!  I’ve been looking for you.  You just disappeared on me,” Jimin informed Jungkook, his gaze quickly moving to set on your distraught form.  If you hadn’t been so out of sorts, perhaps you would’ve noticed the look of recognition in his eyes as they set on you.  “I’m sorry, is he bothering you?  He never usually goes out with us and gets drunk like this, so I’m sorry if he’s a little chaotic.”

Shaking your head at Jimin, you offered him a comforting smiling.  You could feel Jungkook’s concerned eyes burning a hole into the side of your face.  “No, no.  He’s not bothering me at all, don’t worry.”

“Oh, thank god.  I was worried he might do something stupid.”  Jimin let out a sigh of relief, looking between the pair of you.  Could that ‘something stupid’ be what had just occurred?  At last, he gave Jungkook a firm pat on the shoulder.  “We have to get going right now.  Hoseok thought it’d be a good idea to down five tequila shots in a row after all of the beer we drank back at the dorm.  He has his head down on the bar with his eyes closed and I want to get him out of here before he starts puking everywhere.  Afraid you might end up in the same state if you keep drinking at this pace too, dude.”

“I’m fiiine,” Jungkook snapped back at him, rolling his eyes as he shrugged Jimin’s arm off of his shoulder.  He peered at you for a quick second before his eyes averted downward, the nerves that had been there before refusing to go away.  After taking a few moments to ponder what his friend had just told him, he let out a defeated sigh.  “Fine.  We can go.  Only because it’s Hoseok though.”

“I’ve already requested the Uber so we should head outside now,” Jimin urged, glancing over toward where Hoseok likely was sitting at the bar.

“Um.” Jungkook at last forced himself to look at you, his lips curving upward into the slightest smile.  It seemed forced though, and you knew it was because you didn’t have the opportunity to elaborate on and finish the conversation you were having before Jimin butted in.  You also felt as if though you were about to self-implode and needed some time to comprehend what had just unfolded.  “Sorry.  I have to get going, I guess.  I’ll see you around though, okay?”

Nodding your head in agreement, you allowed yourself to return a reassuring smile.  “Okay.  I’ll see you around.”  This time, it was possible that you meant it.

After he gave you one last anxious look, he turned on his heel and followed Jimin’s lead, disappearing out of your sight.

Where the fuck was Jennie?

After scoping out Jennie in the corner of the bar, you had convinced her that it was absolutely necessary to immediately take an Uber home to debrief on what had occurred.  Within half an hour, you had managed to arrive back safely to your dorm and had replaced your uncomfortable clothes with pajamas and your vodka crans with a bottle of wine.  Although your mind felt quite foggy from trying to piece together everything that Jungkook had said, you were able to provide Jennie with at least the majority of the details.

“Wait, hold on.  Let me think about this.”  Jennie threw herself back against your bed, staring up at the ceiling after her head hit the pillows.  “So basically what you’re telling me is that you are to Jungkook what Jungkook is to you?  Like he pretty much admitted to admiring you from afar and being too afraid to talk to you all of this time?” she questioned, eyes wide in amazement.  “God damn, why can’t shit like this happen to me?  This is like some fairytale shit.  You’re so fucking lucky.”

Taking a big swig directly out of the bottle of cheap rosé, you let out an exasperated sigh.  “I don’t know.  It seems too good to be true.  Like, what if he was just really drunk and didn’t know what he was saying?  You even said he seemed really drunk.  Or like, what if he was just being nice because he was trying to get laid?”

“Y/N, don’t be ridiculous.  I know this all seems so unreal because we never thought something like this was possible, but the things he said to you were way too specific to just be a fluke.” Jennie sat up straight again and pulled the bottle of wine out of your hands, taking a sip herself.  “Besides, I was watching you guys from across the bar.  He looked absolutely smitten with you and ridiculously nervous, drunk or not.”

“Fuck, I’m so much better at just daydreaming about guys than actually knowing how to talk to them and attempting to form actual relationships,” you groaned out, closing your eyes and resting your head on Jennie’s shoulder.  “What am I supposed to do?”

“I hate to break it to you since I know this is very out of character for you, but you’re going to have to make the next move.  He laid his cards on the table, and now the ball is in your court.”  Jennie allowed her head to fall on top of yours and passed the bottle of wine back to you.  “Based on what you explained to me, you didn’t really provide him with a whole lot of reassurance that the feeling was mutual and he’s probably feeling super embarrassed right now… Like, definitely more embarrassed than you felt after the whole gym incident.  You have to let him know that you’re interested in him too.”

Letting out a huff, you tapped your fingers against the glass of the bottle of wine.  Jennie did have a valid point, as much as you hated to admit it.  Regardless of Jungkook’s intentions and just how drunk he may have been, he had seemed incredibly flustered after rambling on and exposing what he had to you.  As much as there was still a part of you that was convinced that he hadn’t meant what he said, there was a bigger part of you that was excited about what this could possibly lead to if you followed through with it.  You would have to throw away your nerves and muster up the tiny bit of confidence you had if this was ever going to happen.

“Okay, so what’s the game plan?”

The plan you and Jennie had concocted ended up being a lot more difficult to follow through with than you had initially imagined.  The original scheme involved you approaching him at the coffee shop you both always studied at, but despite the numerous occasions you dropped by and spent hours studying there over the next week, he was nowhere to be found.  It was almost as if he had adopted the same avoiding technique you had the week prior after being embarrassed at what unfolded at the gym.  You weren’t exactly surprised, but it was making this whole thing a lot more complicated for you.  Furthermore, the longer it dragged out, the more anxious you got that maybe this was all a bad idea and that you had misunderstood what he said at the bar.

After a week with no luck, Jennie had convinced you that maybe it would be a better idea to try to track him down at the gym.  Despite going almost every day and keeping your eyes peeled for him, he was nowhere to be seen.  It wasn’t until a few days later that it dawned on you that the group fitness class schedule was posted online, and that it was possible that he now had some classes that were officially assigned to him.  Sure enough, upon checking the recreation website, you quickly discovered that he did have a couple classes that he was set to teach.  While this information certainly was helpful, it was quite unfortunate that every class he led happened to be at the ass-crack of dawn.  God, were you really interested in the type of guy who gets up extra early to work out?  Apparently so.

So that was precisely how you found yourself rolling up to the gym at 6:45am on a Tuesday morning, eyes heavy with exhaustion as you searched for the room the class was being held in.  Your heart was pounding and your palm was sweaty against your water bottle, but you were too dedicated to turn around at this point.  You had spent over a week trying to track him down, and you at last had.

When you entered the room, Jungkook had not arrived yet.  There were already quite a few girls in the room setting up their equipment, so you followed suit.  As most participants were often too intimidated to take the spots up front and center in front of where the instructor stood, you took it upon yourself to do the honors.  Of course you knew this would make Jungkook want to run the other way, but the thrill of making him as nervous as you were that last time was too exciting to turn down.

The door of the room opened and closed once more, and you didn’t even have to look up to feel his presence.  Here we go.  “Hi, everyone!  Welcome to class.  My name is Jungkook and I’ll be your instructor toda--” His voice cut off at the end of his statement, and when you finally allowed your eyes to set on him, he was already looking at you with wide eyes and tinted cheeks.  Within a millisecond, his eyes found the ground and he apprehensively took his spot directly in front of you.  The poor guy didn’t have a choice.  “U-Um, if you guys have any questions before we get started, please don’t hesitate to wave me over!”  You had a very strong feeling he was praying you wouldn’t wave him over.

The plan you had created before arriving was to wait until after class was over to ask him if he could talk for a few minutes.  You knew it wouldn’t be fair to put him on the spot before class, and you didn’t exactly feel comfortable confessing your feelings for him in front of twenty other girls who were probably drooling over him as well either.  

You managed to follow through with the plan, not communicating with Jungkook at all before and throughout the class except for a few soft smiles and some attempted eye contact.  The eye contact thing didn’t go over so well though, for whenever you did manage to get Jungkook to lock eyes with you, he’d immediately turn bright red and force himself to look everywhere but at you.  His nervous stammering through the microphone when giving instructions was almost too cute to handle.

When the class finally did come to an end and you were a sweaty mess, you sucked in a deep breath as you watched the rest of the participants start to put away their equipment.  Setting your eyes on Jungkook, you smiled slightly.  “Hey, can we talk?”

Jungkook looked up from his phone, eyes wide and clearly panicked.  He scanned your face carefully, almost as if he was trying to guess what your intentions were.  At last, he swallowed the lump in his throat and shoved his phone into his pocket.  “U-Um, sure, I guess.  Let’s just wait until everyone clears out.”

Nodding in agreement, you sat back and watched as the rest of the participants put their materials back in the closet and slowly began to file out of the room.  With each person that left, you could sense Jungkook getting more and more anxious.  He seemed to be mindlessly checking things around the room, his eyes darting back and forth between the door and any part of you that wasn’t your eyes.  By the time the last girl exited, your heart was pounding in your chest as well.

Clearing your throat, you watched as Jungkook walked to the front of the room to shut the door, seeming to take as long as humanly possible to pull it closed.  Just as you were about to speak the pitch you had practiced in your head and to Jennie numerous times over the past week, he opened his mouth.

“Look, I’m not sure exactly what’s going on here and I know that I might have been a bit overbearing when I was drunk last week, but if you’re just here to make me nervous and make fun of me and my awkward self for having a crush on you, you can just leave.”  He at last whipped around to face you, a sad expression taking over his features as he began to pace back and forth, running a hand through his sweaty hair.  He resembled something like a wounded puppy, and the longer you stared at him, the more you noticed just how exhausted and agitated he looked.

That definitely was not what you had expected and you felt awful that he had spent over a week thinking that you were probably teasing him with your friends for what he had said to you at the bar.  Furrowing your brow, you pushed yourself up to your feet and crossed your arms over your chest.  The planned speech was not going to do in these circumstances.  You would have to cut straight to point.

“I dropped that weight on my foot because I’ve been ridiculously attracted to you for over a year and got embarrassingly flustered at the sight of your shirt riding up during class.”

Jungkook stopped dead in his tracks, clasping both of his hands behind his head as he at last allowed himself to look at you.  His eyes were wide in shock, his head tilted just slightly to the left.  “Wait, what?”

“I didn’t want you to drive me home because I was already so embarrassed and was so nervous that I would’ve only embarrassed myself more trying to talk to you without making a complete fool out of myself.”

As you spoke again, Jungkook hesitantly took a couple of steps in your direction.  It seemed as if though his expression was slowly softening, and what almost appeared to be a small smile was fighting to form on the corners of his lips.  “I asked you to borrow a pen that one time in Earth Science with plans to work up the nerve to talk to you at the end of class when I had to give it back, but instead I just kept it and ran out of the room because I got too nervous.”

Unable to hide your own smile now, you allowed yourself to take a step toward him.  The closer you got to each other, the more the tension in the room built.  “I lied and said that I had an extra pen that day, but really I gave you my only one and just didn’t take notes that whole class.”

At last, that familiar bunny smile stretched across Jungkook’s whole face, his chest bubbling in laughter as he threw his head back.  “I once tried to ‘accidentally’ drop a book near you at the coffee shop in hopes that you’d pick it up and talk to me, but instead I just dropped it and tripped over it.”  Another step forward.

Giggling quietly, you chewed on your lower lip as you advanced forward.  “My friends and I have collectively referred to you by the code name ‘hot coffee shop boy’ ever since the first time I saw you there.  Also, ‘sexy gym instructor boy’ since last week.”

Jungkook’s eyes were boring into yours at this point, his body inching forward just slightly as his toes finally bumped against yours.  The tension-- not just from what was happening at the moment, but also from a year of pining after each other-- was so close to bubbling over.  “My friends and I know you as ‘hot coffee shop girl.’  Also, ‘toe girl’ since last week.”  The warm smile on his lips had twisted into a sort of mischievous smirk.

Leaning your head forward the slightest bit, your breath hitched in your throat as you could feel the warmth of his breath against your lips.  “If I haven’t made it clear yet, I’m extremely into you.”

Jungkook’s eyes-- which had darkened quite a bit over the last minute-- flickered down to your lips, his own head leaning forward an inch.  With this movement, the tip of his nose brushed against yours.  “And if I haven’t made it obvious yet, I’m extremely into you too.”

Before you could utter another word, Jungkook closed the minimal space remaining between the two of you by crashing his plump lips into yours.  His hands moved up to cup your cheeks, one moving along the back of your head to tangle into your hair.  Your own hands gripped to the front of his shirt as you stumbled back a bit due to the impact, your back bumping against the mirror in the front of the room.  The tension that had previously been building had popped the moment his lips met yours, but as his fingers tugged on your hair and his tongue found its way between your lips, you felt it resurfacing, this time between your legs.  You felt a bit flustered getting turned on this quickly by him, but when you put it into perspective, you had been waiting for this moment to unravel for over a year.  As your hands slid up the front of his shirt to rest on his defined core, you were certain you could feel his length getting hard against your thigh.

Pulling away after a minute, Jungkook rested his forehead against yours and stared deeply into your eyes as he breathed heavily.  There was a playful smirk on his lips as he dropped the hand from your face and rested it on your hip.  It was nice to see that he had finally let his guard down.  “So, I have to ask.  Are you more for sex first or a fancy date first?  I’m happily offering both, but we’re both kind of coming off a bit impatient here.”

Biting your tongue to hold in your laughter, you couldn’t ignore the way that the heat in the pit of your stomach was quickly sinking down lower between your legs.  “You know, if you hadn’t been so difficult to track down this past week, I may have taken you up on that fancy date first.”  You ghosted your fingers over his stomach, eliciting a surprised jolt out of him.  “But after you made me wait so long, I think you just might have to fuck me first.”

Jungkook’s eyes widened in surprise at your lewd words before he smirked and pressed his body against yours a bit harder, leaning forward to kiss a trail of wet kisses down your jawline.  “I’m happy to be at your service, but we’re kind of out in the open here.  I could drive us back to my room, that is if you’ll actually get in the car with me this time.”

Rolling your eyes at his teasing comment, you shoved at his chest.  Regardless, you couldn’t deny the fact that you were feeling incredibly impatient and weren’t sure you would be able to handle the wait while he transported you across campus.  Chewing on your lower lip, your eyes scanned the room.  “Equipment closet.  It’s spacious enough, it locks, and there’s no windows.”

“Jesus Christ,” Jungkook muttered under his breath, eyes searching your face for any hint of a lie.  When he didn’t find any, he smirked and pulled back, grabbing your hand in his.  “You know, I had planned on doing a lot of things today, but fucking in an equipment closet at the ripe hour of eight in the morning certainly wasn’t one of them.”

“Get used to it, hot coffee shop boy.”  Smirking to yourself, you allowed him to drag you towards the closet, pressing your back against the door after he closed and locked it behind you.  “Are you complaining?”

Rapidly shaking his head, Jungkook leaned forward and peppered kisses along your neck and collarbone, only pulling back to tug your shirt and sports bra over your head.  “No, no.  Just concerned you’re going to be the death of me before I even get started with you.”  Taking a step back, he pulled his own shirt over his head before allowing his eyes to rake up and down your body.  A combination of lust and admiration filled his eyes as he stepped toward you again.  “God, you really are so beautiful.”

Despite the fact that you had both been completely open with each other and the current situation being far from romantic, you felt your cheeks heating up at his compliment.  Shaking your head, you poked him in the stomach.  “Speak for yourself.  That’s the reason why I almost broke my toe.”

Throwing back his head in laughter, Jungkook stepped forward and wrapped his arms around your waist, lifting your body up and placing you down on top of a few stacked crates full of equipment.  “Mmm, I can make it up to you right now.”

Leaning forward, you pressed a few kisses along the corners of his lips and his jaw.  “And how are you going to do that?”

“Shhh, patience.”  Jungkook grinned as he bent down, slowly kissing a trail down your neck and collarbones.  When he reached your breasts, he slowed down his pace, carefully taking one of your nipples between his lips and softly sucking at the skin.  Once he established a rhythm that he was satisfied with, he lifted a hand and latched it around your other breast, kneading the skin between his fingers.

Letting out a soft moan, you threw your head back in pleasure and closed your eyes.  Your hands fastened around his neck, gently tugging at the hair on the back of his head.  The longer his lips and hands worked at your breasts, the more the heat between your legs throbbed.  “How am I supposed to be patient when I’ve waited so long for this?”

Jungkook’s eyes flickered up to meet yours, his lips making a popping noise as he removed them from your breast.  “You make a fair point.”  Kissing down your stomach, he urged you to lift your hips as he tugged your leggings and panties down your legs and allowed them to fall into a pile on the floor.  Kneeling down on the floor, his lips trailed their way up the inside of your thigh.  “Mmm, so wet already and I’ve barely even touched you.”

Whimpering softly at the feeling of his lips so close to where you needed them, you bucked your hips upward in an attempt to feel any sort of friction.  “P-Please.”

Chuckling quietly, Jungkook’s dark eyes remained on yours as he ghosted his lips over your dripping pussy.  The shy, insecure boy that he claimed to be earlier was nowhere to be found.  Instead, he was now indulging in the power he held over you.  “Who made you this wet?  Tell me.”

“You, J-Jungkook.  You did,” you whined out, attempting to push down on the back of his head.

Jungkook flashed you a satisfied smirk, nodding his head.  “That’s all I needed to hear, babe.”  Without another word, he gripped his hands around your thighs roughly and lifted your legs to drape over his shoulders.  Leaning forward, he closed the remaining space and attached his lips to your pussy.  Rather than making you wait any longer to have the tension relieved, he immediately went to work on your throbbing clit, gently sucking at the sensitive bundle of nerves.  Once he was pleased by the moans leaving your lips and the clenching of your thighs, he pulled his lips off and replaced it with his tongue.  Expertly circling his tongue on your clit, he reached one hand down and, without warning, began to pump one of his fingers in and out of your pussy.

“F-Fuck, oh my god, Jungkook,” you moaned out loudly, pulling harshly at his hair with one hand and reaching the other up to pinch at one of your nipples.  “R-Right there.”

“Mmm, need to get you stretched out and ready for my cock,” he murmured against your heat, quickly inserting another finger and curving them at the perfect angle to hit your g-spot with every pulse.  After circling your clit with his tongue a few more times, he encircled the bud with his lips yet again, this time humming against it to add an extra feeling of friction.

The sensation of his tongue and fingers working on your pussy and the sight of his glistening face was quickly becoming too much to handle.  With every movement, the bundle of nerves in your core was getting closer and closer to snapping and sending you into that blissful state you so longed for.  Biting down on your lower lip roughly, you closed your eyes tightly.  “I-I’m close.”

“Open your eyes.  I want you looking at me while you cum all over my tongue,” he rasped out after pulling back slightly, only leaning back down once you obeyed his command.  After a moment, he wet two of his fingers on his tongue before quickly beginning to circle them on your clit, moving his tongue in and out of your cunt at the same speed.

“F-Fuck, Jungkook!” you yelled out, forcing your eyes to remain open and fixed on his as you were quickly sent over the edge and into a state of ecstasy.  Your walls spasmed around his tongue as your vision became blurry and filled with stars.  The feeling was only prolonged as Jungkook kept moving his tongue until you couldn’t take it anymore and reached forward to push his head back slightly, left completely breathless as you stared at him.

Getting off his knees and onto his feet, Jungkook stared down at you in awe, leaning forward to press his forehead against yours.  The sight of your release on his lips that he refused to wipe off had your core already begging for more.  “God, that was so fucking hot.  You’re so fucking beautiful.”  Letting out a deep breath, he pecked your lips a couple times.

“How are you so fucking good at that?” you muttered against his lips, blindly reaching forward in search of the tie on his sweatpants.  Once you found it, you tugged roughly at it, sitting up straighter to urge both his pants and boxers down his thighs.

Chuckling to himself, Jungkook assisted you and pulled the articles of clothing down the length of his legs, stepping out of them once they reached the floor.  “I’d like to think that I’m a gentleman in the streets and a freak in the sheets…” His eyes wandered around the room for a moment.  “Or in the gym equipment room, apparently.”  

Rolling your eyes and giggling at his joke, you pulled him forward again to peck his lips.  “You know, if you moved to the side and let me get up, I’d happily return the favor.”  Your eyes wandered down the front of his body until they set on his hardened cock resting against his stomach, the sight of it causing you to clench your thighs together.

Shaking his head in response, Jungkook flashed you a shy smile.  God, how could he be so sexual yet so cute at the same time?  “As enticing as that sounds and as much as I would never turn that down on any other occasion, I’m afraid I’m not going to last if I don’t fuck you right now.”  Stepping forward, he looked down before cursing under his breath.  “Fuck, I don’t have a condom on me.  We don’t have fuck to if you’re not comfortable.”

“Wow, you didn’t bring a condom with you to your 7am fitness class?  How irresponsible of you,” you joked, shoving his shoulder before pulling him closer to you.  “I’m on the pill and I’m clean, so as long as you’re clean it’s fine with me.”

“You know, you’re going to regret teasing me,” he warned, laughing softly as he nudged his nose against yours.  “But yes, I’m clean too.”

Wrapping your arms around his neck, you raised a mocking eyebrow at him.  “Oh yeah?  And why am I going to regret it?”

Without another word, Jungkook reached down and grabbed his cock with one of his hands.  Rather than pushing it right inside of you, he instead slowly started to rub its angry red tip up and down your folds.  His eyes remained on yours, a teasing smirk tugging at the edges of his lips.

Biting on your tongue to suppress your whimpers, your eyes wandered down to the area between your thighs.  “W-What are you doing?”

Pressing his lips against your jawline, he let out an amused chuckle.  “Nothing until you tell me what you need.  Use your words, sweetheart.”

Reaching around him, you dug your nails into the skin on his upper back.  It wasn’t in your character to beg during sex, but the sight of the tip of his cock glistening in your juices from your first orgasm was enough to make you give in.  “P-Please fuck me, Jungkook.”  You forced yourself to lock eyes with him, hoping that the desperation you were exuding would be enough to make him cave.

Grinning in amusement against the skin of your neck, he nodded his head.  “Good girl.”  Sliding his cock down your folds one last time, he slowly slid it inside of your entrance once he reached it, a loud groan escaping his lips as he pushed all the way inside of you.  “F-Fuck, you’re so tight.”

Moaning out in pleasure at the feeling of fullness, you whimpered as you watched the sight of his cock disappearing inside of you.  The spectacle alone was enough to make the heat in your core reemerge, and your body was pleading for him to do more.  “M-Move.  F-Faster, please.”

Grabbing one of your legs, he extended it upward and propped it over his shoulder.  After getting a good grip on it, he quickly began to thrust in and out of you.  “Yeah?  You like that, babe?” he breathed out, his eyes screwing shut in pleasure before he buried his face into your neck again.

Dragging your nails down his sweaty back, you were sure you were going to leave some marks behind.  It only took a few moments for the feeling of overstimulation to wash away, and a new, deeper pleasure to replace it.  With your leg hanging over his shoulder, his cock managed to hit you at just the right angle with every thrust.  Using your grip on his back to press your body closer to his, you took the opportunity to wrap your free leg tightly around his waist.  The new position made it so his cock brushed against your clit every time he pulled it out of you, the feeling nearly having your eyes rolling to the back of your head.  “O-Oh my god, right there.”

Jungkook’s half-lidded eyes remained fixed on yours as he lifted one hand off of your thigh, pressing his index and middle finger together and moving them toward your mouth.  “Open.”  Once you complied, he inserted his fingers into your mouth.  His teeth dug into his lower lip as he watched the way you closed your lips, swirling your tongue around his digits a couple of times before sliding your lips back up and releasing them with a loud ‘pop.’  There was a mesmerized look in Jungkook’s eyes as his thrusts slowed for a moment.  “J-Jesus fuck, that was hot.”

A cocky smirk initially tried to spread across your lips, but it was washed away the moment he began to circle his lubricated fingers over your clit, his cock pounding in and out of your pussy at a pace that had you ready to unravel at any second.  “I-I’m close.”

Letting out what sounded like a combination of a groan and a whimper, Jungkook leaned forward and brushed his lips over yours.  “Cum all over my cock for me, babe.”

“J-Jungkook, f-fuck!” The sound of his raspy command and the feeling of his cock inside of you was all it took to push you over the edge again.  Your second orgasm hit you even harder than the first, a sensation of rapturous bliss overtaking your senses as your toes curled and your thighs were left convulsing around his body.  While your mind went foggy for a few seconds, the strain that was left in the back of your throat suggested that you had yelled out in pleasure quite loudly.  The euphoria was dragged out even longer as Jungkook had yet to reach his own high, his thrusts becoming sloppier as you stared up at him with hazy vision, gasping for breath.

“I-I’m close too,” Jungkook whimpered out, eyes screwing shut as your walls continued to twitch around his cock in the aftershock of your orgasm.  “W-Where do you want me to cum, babe?”

Coming back to your senses, you blinked a few times until your vision returned back to normal.  Finally processing his request, you used quite a bit of your strength to push him back a bit, ignoring the confused look on his face.  Using the space in front of you, you pushed yourself off of the elevated surface before getting down on your knees.  “My mouth.”  Reaching forward, you grasped his shaft in one hand, pumping his length a few times before leaning down and capturing his tip between your lips.  After circling your tongue around it a few times, you hollowed out your cheeks and began to bob your head up and down.

“O-Oh my… F-Fuck, Y/N.” Jungkook quickly adapted to the new sensation, his hands reaching around your head to tangle into your hair and urge your head down his cock further.  He locked eyes with you from above, his legs trembling around your head.  Taking notice of just how close he was, you forced your mouth down further to accommodate the rest of his cock in your mouth, swallowing around his length at the bottom.  The motion and the feeling of the tip of his length hitting the back of your throat was enough to make you gag, and that was all it took to push Jungkook to his climax.

Jungkook was a groaning mess above you as he released his load down your throat, unconsciously thrusting into your mouth further a couple of times to ride out of high.  After a few more spurts of his hot cum filled your mouth, you worked your mouth back up his length.  Once your lips popped off of the tip of his cock, you pulled back and swallowed thickly, the salty taste of his release lingering in your throat.

After taking a few moments to catch his breath, Jungkook reached down and grabbed your hand, pulling you up onto your feet in front of him.  Despite the crude nature of what had just occurred, the smile stretched across his lips seemed so… Innocent.  “Well… That happened.”  He reached up and pushed the sweaty hair that was sticking to his forehead out of his face.

Laughing softly at his words, you bit your lip and crossed your arms over your chest.  “I mean, that’s certainly one way to work out at the gym.”

Jungkook’s whole body shook as he erupted into laughter, leaning down and beginning to grab all of your discarded clothing articles off of the ground.  He sorted through them and handed you back yours, beginning to redress himself after.  Once he was dressed, he grabbed a towel out of one of the crates and made sure the area was clean.  “Don’t forget we worked out before too.  That’s two whole workouts.  We’re going to need to fuel up with some electrolytes or coffee or something.”

Forcing your damp leggings back onto your sweaty body wasn’t exactly the easiest or most enjoyable thing to do, but you managed.  Once your shirt was back on, you looked back over at him and feigned an exaggerated amount of excitement.  “Oh my god, am I going to be able to get coffee with hot coffee shop boy?”

“Only if hot coffee shop girl would be so willing to accompany him,” Jungkook jived, nudging your shoulder with his before unlocking and pulling open the door of the closet.  To your relief, the room was still empty and there seemed to be no one lurking outside of it.  Grabbing his backpack at the front of the room, he slung it over his shoulder.  “It might be a good idea for us to shower first, though.  I have a strong suspicion that we probably smell prettttty bad.”

Grabbing your own bag and water bottle, you laughed in amusement as you followed him out the door of the classroom and into the main area of the gym.  “I have a feeling you’re right.  Should we shower and plan to meet up after?”

Walking through the lobby, Jungkook held open the main door for you before following you outside.  It was much brighter out now than when you had arrived at the facility almost two hours prior.  Time really does fly by when you’re having fun.  “I feel like we can’t really be trusted with the whole ‘see you around’ thing and going our separate ways just yet after the shit we both pulled avoiding each other the past couple weeks.  Plus, I’m not quite done with you just yet.”

Snickering at the reminder of your past dramatic behavior, you nodded your head in agreement.  “So what did you have in mind?”

Stopping in his tracks, Jungkook turned to face you.  “So first, I was thinking you could come back to my place and we could both shower there.  I could provide you with some clothes for the time being, but if you need to change later, I can bring you back to your place.”  The corners of his lips began to twitch upward.  “However, that would require you getting into my car with me, and history suggests that doing so ‘makes you nervous,’ or something like that.”

“Hmm, I’m pretty sure I remember something about me making you nervous too.  I think some weird drunk guy told me that.”  Scoffing at his flirtatious teasing, you playfully shoved his chest.  “Anything else planned?”

“Hey, that ‘weird drunk guy’ is the reason we’re here today,” he scoffed, grabbing one of your hands off of his chest and lacing his fingers with yours.  “Then I was thinking we could go to our favorite coffee shop.  But… And I know this is kind of a wild idea... I’m thinking we sit at the same table for the first time instead of dropping pens and books to try to get each other’s attention from across the room.”

Squeezing his hand, you began to follow him as he led the way to what you assumed was going to be his car.  “A bold suggestion, but I’m into it.  Might have you drop a book at my feet and I’ll stare at you across the room longingly just for old time’s sake.”  When you reached a shiny black SUV, Jungkook unlocked it and walked around the passenger side, opening the door for you.  “So I’m guessing these plans involve us skipping classes today?”

“Well, obviously.”  Jungkook flashed you a bright grin as you climbed into the car, shutting the door gently once you were in the seat.  He ran around the front of it and quickly hopped into the driver’s seat, leaning over to look at you once inside.  “And then once the evening comes, as I suggested earlier, I would still love to take you out to dinner, if you’d let me.”  Despite everything that had just unfolded and all of the confessions you both had shared, there still appeared to be a glimmer of nervousness and hesitation in his eyes.

Leaning to the side, you reached over and placed your hand on top of his.  Your lips formed into a reassuring smile.  “I would love to.”

Jungkook lifted your hand that was over his to his lips and pressed a gentle kiss against your fingers.  “Good.”  Turning to face forward, he started the car and began to back out of the space.  As he looked at the pathway in front of the gym, he directed a mischievous smirk at you.  “Remember that time you walked back to your room on a swollen toe to avoid getting into my car with me?  Good times.”

Letting out a groan, you covered your flushed face with both of your hands.  “If you don’t shut up, I’m about to hit you with a ‘see you around’ and roll right out of the side of your car while it’s moving.”

“Okay, okay.  I’m sorrrry,” Jungkook laughed to himself, grabbing the wrist closest to him to pull your hand off of your face.  “As compensation for your shame, I will make another embarrassing confession.”  He knitted his brow together as he thought for a few moments before chuckling to himself as a memory came to mind.  “I once accidentally liked one of your Instagram pictures that was like… 72 weeks old and almost considered moving to another country and changing my identity.  I unliked it right away and you probably didn’t even notice, but I was stressed.  There.  Does that make you feel better?”

Gnawing on the inside of your cheek to hide your smile, you glanced at the side of his face.  “Mmm, a little bit.  I think I’m going to need you to keep going.”

Jungkook scoffed as he placed your hand that he was holding down on his thigh, shaking his head in disbelief.  “How is that fair?  I think I deserve some form of payment if I’m going to keep exposing myself too.”

“Fine, fine.”  You gently squeezed his thigh, your mind sifting through all of the embarrassing things you had done in the past due to your embarrassing infatuation of the boy who was now sitting beside you.  “I tried to order you, like, a sort of secret admirer coffee on Valentine’s Day, but the barista ended up giving it to the wrong guy and I ended up leaving the shop because I was so mortified.”

“Aw, I’ve always wanted to have a secret admirer,” Jungkook teased, parking the car in front of his building.  “God, we really could go on forever with these embarrassing stories, huh?”

Nodding your head, you reached your hand up and playfully poked at his dimple.  “It sure seems that way.  We’re kind of the worst.”

Unbuckling his seatbelt and hopping out of the car, he met you at the front of it and draped an arm over your shoulders.  “Good.  Just gives me another reason to keep you around longer.”

And while ‘see you around’ hadn’t been a promise that either of you kept before, keeping you around from then on certainly was one that he fulfilled.

[active-mind-15]

I love the description of Rakuzan because it really is so accurate. With all their crazy ass abilities, an intelligent 5 y/o child truly is the least of their concerns, LMFAO.

And yes, I love interacting with people who come across my work! In the face of so much kindness and excitement, it'd be discourteous of me to ignore that, especially when it brings my energy up like this. 😆

In this world, Mayu absolutely has friends. Mainly as an excuse to include him in my fic but also he's probably friends with this person because they go to the same anime conventions or sumn. I would not put it past him. But I also love the idea of Mayu coming back to Rakuzan just for the rooftop. Imagine if that becomes a regular tradition and he's just known on campus as that one weird alumnus who sleeps on the rooftop.

Mayu would absolutely keep his mouth shut. Less so because he's an Akashi ride-or-die (at least he pretends not to be) but because he refuses to be named as an accomplice for any of Rakuzan's shenanigans. He's like that one grandpa or uncle who catches you sneaking out at night and is like "I ain't see nothin but you better be responsible wherever you're going to".

I will also have to inform Akashi he lost his idgaf award to Mayu he might not be happy about that

And MayuAka is very much a hilarious dynamic because both believe they are normal and the other person is weird but in reality both are just different brands of insane.

Oh wait Akashi got another award yaaaay. I feel like Akashi's passive-aggressiveness/complete tactlessness in certain situations is underrated and needs to be talked about more because I love the idea of Akashi being so baffled or disgusted by something that he just starts speaking his mind freely with zero filter. It makes great material for hilarious dialogue.

Also, the whole Boku-chan thing was truthfully unintentional but I'll pretend like that was my plan all along. Pass me the "being delulu is the solulu" medal. 🏅

Yeah Rakuzan is absolutely the family and Bokushi is the baby and I know this because I was the judge

Speaking of baby Bokushi, I went through great pains to balance his character between being childish and being mature. I do have my own separate observations of Akashi in the main series canonically slipping into this sort of bratty prince role around certain people (mainly Midorima, since you can see how Akashi speaks and behaves more casually around him when they're alone. And Akashi genuinely gets a kick out of pushing Midorima's buttons.) So, I envisioned Bokushi's dynamic with the original Seijuro to be like that but turned up a notch. Because OG Seijuro knows everything about Bokushi, which means Bokushi has nothing to hide and, therefore, no need for keeping up facades. That's why he feels more comfortable indulging in childish behavior compared to their other Teiko friends. I would say if it were a tier list (in terms of who Bokushi feels most comfortable being childish around), it would be Seijuro -> Rakuzan -> Teiko gang.

(And yeah, I had a lot of time on my hands when I was 17. KNB, especially Akashi, was a MASSIVE fixation of mine. It took up almost all of my thoughts, and I remember having so many conversations about Akashi with other Akashi lovers just picking apart his character and trying to understand him more. I was truly buried deep into a very niche part of the fandom at that time.)

But you bring up a very interesting point about watching a younger version of himself receiving the care he should have gotten as a child. I deffo think that Akashi finds something comforting about Bokushi's childish behavior. There is a saying that goes something like "i'd rather have a child be comfortable enough to act out in front of me than have a child that is afraid to act out at all". And this is me paraphrasing the actual quote but basically it speaks to the point of emotional regulation and how children who grow up in hostile environments can sometimes as a result learn to keep their emotions to themselves so as not to anger or inconvenience others. They hold themselves back from being a child because they are growing up in a place where being a child is simply not allowed. So if a child is, you know, acting like a child in front of you, they are doing so because they feel safe to behave like that in front of you and are not afraid of how you will react to them. Akashi grew up in a household where he wasn't even allowed to grieve after losing his mother, so I'm sure as to not repeat his father's mistakes, he gives Bokushi room to be childish as much as he'd like (within reason, of course, because I'm sure Akashi doesn't want to be the victim of another water attack).

Also LMFAO at the self-care, I'm giving him a medal for that too 🏅 (but you're right he still needs the therapy aha x).

These chapter-by-chapter commentaries are so entertaining. Thank you for reading, and I look forward to any future thoughts.

I finally updated my Akashi fic

After six years of writer's block, I finally did it. I'm sure if you've been seeing my posts within the past few weeks, you'd know I was working on trying to update one of my old KNB fics, and now I think I'm finally comfortable with sharing it with everyone else.

The fic is called Accidental Siblings, based on fanart by one of my fave Akashi accounts, @clubakashi (they haven't posted in a long while, but I hope they're doing well). I liked this piece of fanart so much that almost eight years ago, I decided to make an AU where after the Jabberwock vs. Vorpal Swords match, Bokushi is reborn again but as a five-year-old child outside of Akashi's body that has retained all of his knowledge and memories from when he was still in Akashi's subconscious.

I actually wrote a lot for this story, but eventually, life got in the way, and the lack of official content from the KNB realm when the series officially ended just really put a damper on things. And I ended up moving away from the fandom for some time.

But now that I'm back and my passion for KNB has been reignited, I wanted to go back to finish old stories of mine, and this one was at the top of my priority list. So I dug up the latest unfinished chapter for this fic a few weeks ago and managed to complete it. The latest chapter (chapter 20) was written at two different time periods. The first 5k words were written when I was between the ages of 18 and 20 (I'm almost 25 now for context as to how long ago that was), and the last 6k words were written by me over the past two weeks. I only made minor edits to my old chapters in order to preserve the essence of my old writing style, but I did clean up the formatting and correct the timeline to match the canon just so it's an easier read.

Anyway, here's the link if anyone wants to start from Chapter 1, so I hope you enjoy, and let me know what you think! I would be fascinated to see how people perceive the writings of my jobless 17 y/o self. Go easy on me, though. 🤭

[cienie-isengardu]

Erron Black. Arguably a character I don't know much about. Is Erron Black feminist, sexist, or just soft on girls? Now I know MK everyone can fight everyone, but in story mode...

In MK10 Milenna impale his hand with a knife, but he doesn't fight her. I'll except injury for that one.

But then with Cassie Cage later, he fights her, only after she engages him, but once he knocks her down he stops fighting her to fight Kung Jin in the market.

Later on the bridge fight, we do see him fighting Jacqui Briggs, in the background, but she charged him, so she initiated it, and when they focus in he is fighting Kung Jun again.

In MK11, when young Erron Black goes after Jade and Kotal, he let's Jade leave without so much as a glance.

In the Black Dragon fight pit, even though she is right next to him, he ignores Sonya Blade until she actually attacked him. He doesn't even point the other gun at her, he points it up and looks away, until she punches him.

The only time it looks like he initiated a attack on a woman was when Sheeva got shot in her shoulder armor (and shrugged it off), but we immediately see him chasing down Nightwolf, so that looks like a accident. And they only fight after she punches him across the room.

And in the comic's when he kidnapped Cassie and Jacqui he defended them against Kano, telling him not to hurt them, and when he realized they were in serious danger, tried to free them and help escape.

Unless I'm missing something, well he doesn't avoid it, he doesn't fight initiate fights with women.

Before I will talk at length about Erron Black and his attitude toward women I wish only to emphasize this is my subjective opinion and there is no need to agree with me on this. Because no matter how much source material will be brought into discussion, there are many ways to interpret his mindset, especially since A) what Erron says is not always compatible with what he is doing and B) the specific game mechanics that limit and/or adapt his “personality” to the needs of the storyline.

Long text ahead!

Mortal Kombat X’s stated Erron Black was hired by Shang Tsung 150 years ago. So he was born and raised at least the previous century and half, thus his approach to women may be old-fashioned but I wouldn’t say he was somehow deeply concerned per se about gender to begin with. Yes, the mentioned examples suggest otherwise but their context is as important as Erron’s action alone. Because the context of the game will not always work well with in-universe logic. I’m talking here stricte about game mechanics that are built around chapter’s main hero that must win against the opponents and in the mentioned examples Erron was sadly just an obstacle to beat down so it is not like he could headshot Mileena, Sonya or Sheeva or any woman and be done with the problem despite how marksmanship is his forte. Also, the game mechanic in MKX kinda made me joke that Erron shouldn’t be left on his own for too long because his competence in those chapters seemed that bad (from Outworld’s main cast only D’Vorah looked to me as a competent character and she was a traitor, that says a lot about Kotal’s team doesn it?). Anyway, on the basis of the specific nature of the game alone I wouldn’t go so far to judge Erron’s mindset, especially since he was a background/supportive character in MKX and MK11 story modes. So far, Black didn’t have his own chapter - thus the story isn’t told from his POV.

To be honest, games and comics present Erron in different lights, thus his approach to women may vary from one source to another. Because of that let’s firstly look at the sources separately.

In MKX, on Kotal’s voiceless order, Black was going to kill Rain. Mileena attacked Erron by surprise before he could shoot down the rebel but it was Kotal’s chapter so the emperor was the one that dealt with her. Erron was part of the background during chapter 2 without any impact on the story.

Then we have chapter 4 about Kung Jin.

When Cage Team met Erron Black for the first time, the man demanded to know what is Special Forces’ business here including “a reason why we shouldn’t kill you”. Despite the not so friendly welcome, Erron was willing to address Takeda’s remark (“I can read you… You’re not from Outworld.”) and did not resort to violence once Cassie’s explanation did not satisfy him. Looking at the uncertain situation of Outworld, Erron’s lack of trust is understable - Kotal was still at war with Mileena thus in constant danger. Of course, it is up to interpretation, did Erron listen to Jin solely because the prospect of money spoke to him so much or there is some bias (thus the cynical remark about Raiden’s seal and dismissive attitude) against Cassie, the woman in charge. I personally tend to think Erron was simply cautious because the last Earthrealm that got close to Kotal tried to kill the emperor. And yeah, Kano is nothing like Cassie, Jacqui, Takeda or Jin but there was no way for Black to know that for sure, especially since Outworld and Earthrealm weren’t really at the best terms at that time and Raiden’s name did not foreshadow anything good.

The next sequences may be interpreted as Erron being soft on women but I’m gonna present here different possibilities:

Once Jin went ahead to disrupt the execution, Erron’s first reaction was to shoot him yet Black took aim instead of shooting blindly without care for the crowd (or at least the slow down of his action is how it looked to me). Because he was focused on Jin - the main culprit whose action caused unwanted riot, Cassie easily stopped the attack. Should Erron be more focused on the female soldier at his side? Most likely, but all of this happened in mere seconds so I can understand why stopping Jin acting on his own accord was priority to the mercenary since it was related to his job and he was the one that agreed to take Earthrealmians to Kotal. Which may be the reason why Black just knocked down Cassie and immediately ran after Jin. And mind you, Erron knocked down Cassie by hitting her on the head with the butt of the pistol, which is not a gentle way by no means.

The chapter 6 is focused on Takeda and partially on Cage Team’s run from captivity. The Earthrealmians were important hostages, even if falsely accused of working with D’Vorah. So it makes sense that “Outworld Champions” weren’t trying to kill them. Otherwise Kung Jin would be shot down for good yet Erron kept him just at gunpoint. Once again, the game mechanics don’t make much sense considering how Jin stayed behind as air support but somehow ended up on the bridge while Jacqui disappeared somewhere in the background. Also, the same as with Cassie in Chapter 4, Erron did not kill defeated opponents nor tortured / injured for fun (Rain is a different matter because Erron went for killing only after Kotal’s voiceless order to finish the traitor).

In Chapter 11, Erron is even more degraded into a support role and he did not attack nor take part of the skirmish in the forest until Jacqui beat down Kotal. Personally I suspect he could be (in universe) too injured for hand to hand combat but once Team Cage was surrounded and Kotal gave the order for execution, Erron was aiming at Jacqui and if Sub-Zero did not show up, Black most likely would shoot to kill.

(Also, he did not shoot any enemy from a distance, so the women and men were treated the same although if this is a matter of game mechanics or Erron’s own moral code, hard to tell. Black recognized himself more as Outworlder than anything else so he may actually follow the common there idea of one on one fight.)

So, MKX story mode alone does not tell us much about Erron’s mindset about women because he has never been the one starting fights in the first place. This kinda makes sense since he is a mercenary and kills or injures only those who Kotal wishes to see dead or punished. Besides that he didn’t injure / kill Cassie when he had a chance but he didn't do so with Jin either. MKX!Erron gives the impression of a collected, detached type of person who is far from macho stereotypes or psychopath/sociopath like Kano.

Thankfully there is additional information like dialogue intros and Erron’s ending (from what we learned about Erron's approximate age) that aren’t canon per se but at least give some insight into his psyche.

The best counter argument for eventual Black’s habit of going easy on women is his own ending in which he ambushed and killed Cassie, Jacqui, Takeda and Jin (this situation was repeated in Briggs’ ending except this time Cage Team was saved by Jax). This is a rare moment in which Erron was the attacker and on his own initiated the violence toward others. In this case, he attacked women and men alike.

Then we have intro dialogues in which Erron usually deals with people in a professional manner, some even sometimes addressing in a polite way. Like “Mr. Kung” to Lao, “Mr. Hasashi” to Scorpion and “Mr. Takahashi” to Takeda. Surprisingly, he addresses Cassie and Sonya by their military rank (Sergeant Cage and General Blade respectively) which suggests that whatever Erron learned a century or two ago about gender-related social norms most likely evolved accordingly to his own life experiences, especially those gained in Outworld.

At the same time, it seems some of outfashioned - harmful - convictions are still enough deeply rooted in him to say stuff like that:

Kenshi: The friendless wanderer.

Erron Black: Least I don't take orders from a woman.

Kenshi: Which century are you from?

Which is kinda ironic since Kenshi takes orders from Sonya whom Erron addresses by high military rank without any snide comment about a woman in the army. But as far as I managed to check the intros, this is the only(?) one outright sexist thing Erron said to anyone and surprisingly, he didn’t say that to any woman, just to Kenshi. Frankly, if the idea of taking orders from women was so offensive, why would Erron bother to call Mileena the Crownless Queen or Kitana the Fallen Princess, if both titles by itself imply facing women that are used to give commands or even hire people like him? Once again, there is little to no sexist attitude toward women in context of their power over other men. Which suggests that whatever prejudices Black may have, he does not allow them to affect his interaction with other characters. Usually, at least.

Okay, the insult toward Kenshi could be some of Erron’s deep-seated sexist beliefs adding to the reason why he didn’t support Mileena in the fight for the throne. Yet, at the same time, if that was the case, he could outright say he doesn’t agree to be bossed by a woman to her (or he could be accused of that by her or any character really). Of course, it could be something similar to Black’s claim to care only about money with MK11 strongly hints he is saying one thing and doing differently but I will come back to this topic in a moment.

Another argument against this insult: Erron was one of the characters that did not mock Mileena’s look, origin or called her crazy. If he really thought listening to women's orders was so bad, then he didn’t show that when interacting with her or other female characters.

At the same time, like many other male characters, Black is not immune to the beauty of women around him and some of his comments sounds disrespectful and are unwelcome by the ladies:

Sonya: The gunslinger.

Erron Black: I could take you away from all this.

Sonya: I must be a jerk-magnet.

→ Sonya is not amused by Erron’s words at all.

Erron Black: Hello, beautiful.

Jacqui: Messin' with the wrong girl.

Erron Black: But it feels so right.

Jacqui is like the only one woman described by MKX!Erron as the beautiful one, the other he usually referred to along the lines of hot / sexy. Yet once Jacqui outright warned him to not mess with her, Erron deliberately ignored her because it amuse him. Whatever it is a sign of an old-fashioned mindset (a remnant of the times he grew up) or just simply (male’s) egoism on his part, Erron likes to flirt with women but he does not always respect their opinion or wish to be left alone.

At the same time, Erron rarely tried to change women’s minds about him or their eventual relationship. So far, only the intro dialogue with Kitana seems to be the exception:

Kitana: Stop!

Erron Black: We've barely begun, my lovely.

Kitana: It will end quickly.

Black may put his own amusement above other people's personal comfort, yes, but didn’t act creepy like Kano did, especially toward Blade-Briggs-Cage family as a whole.

So we have this

Jacqui: I really don't like you.

Erron Black: I really don't care.

Jacqui: As long as we're straight on that.

in which Erron doesn’t care for Jacqui’s dislike of his person but doesn’t impose himself on her. He does not resort to the common rapist “excuse” that woman says no but her body says otherwise, like Kano did (“Your mouth says Kano, but your eyes say Kan-yes.”) and this contrast puts Black in a more positive light. Similar thing happened in the intro dialogue toward Tanya.

Erron Black: My friend, Tanya.

Tanya: We are not friends, bounty hunter.

Erron Black: Have it your way...

Again, whether trying to be friendly or ironic, once Erron was “turned down”, he simply accepted the situation without any additional crude remarks.

Interestingly, interaction with Sonya showed that Black was capable of rethinking his statement about hot/sexy women:

Erron Black: Girls with guns? Always hot.

Sonya: I'll shove 'em up your ass and fire.

Erron Black: Almost always hot.

Those examples suggest Erron may treat women differently, depending on their “fighting experiences”, age and origin and maybe even how sexually / aesthetically appealing they are to him. For example, veteran Sonya’s threat was taken seriously while (novice / new generation) Jacqui’s warning was ignored. At the same time, the intro dialogues didn’t hint at any romantic or sexual interest in Ferra (a young female symbiote) nor D’Vorah (Kytinn) and relatively good looking Mileena who deserves a separate paragraph.

To be honest, Erron, Johnny and Kano are like the main three men openly showing their (sexual?) interest in women around them. Understable, Black’s flirting / comments rarely were appreciated yet he still was less creepy or aggressive towards others than Kano. Erron didn’t bother to hide his eventual (sexual) interest in beautiful women but it can’t be said A) he had no control over his sexual drive and B) has rapist / sexual predator tendencies.

Another interesting thing: with few exceptions like Kano or Quan Chi, Erron threatened people with violence usually after they offended him and most of the time maintained professional neutrality toward his rivals. In that regard, Erron treated other characters the same regardless of their gender.

This is something worth keeping in mind how Black, as mercenary, in general is not the initiator of violence. Unless someone will pay him. For money, Erron would attack (kill) anyone, including women (to Tanya, “The Kahn wants your head.” + Erron’s Epilogue).

The last detail to talk about: one of the intro dialogue with Cassie suggests Erron thought she was an easy opponent.

Cassie: Is something funny?

Erron Black: I'll win this easy.

Cassie: You're going down hard.

but to be fair, he thought the same about Sub-Zero

Erron Black: You're an easy target.

Sub-Zero: As are you.

Erron Black: Bullets beat snowballs any day.

so I wouldn’t say it was the bias toward Cassie because of her gender and just Erron’s own arrogance (and maybe lack of good judgement on his part).

In summary, MKX!Erron in game alone tends to act in a professional manner. He had an occasion to shoot defeated opponents but did not seize the opportunity against not only Cassie but Jin as well. During the storyline he was rather collected, emotionless. In intro dialogues he openly expresses his interest in tough, relatively attractive women yet the banter is far from the creeping tone of Kano’s interaction with female characters.

Then we have Mortal Kombat 11 in which past and future timelines are messed up. Sadly, Erron’s characterization departs from the neutral-polite one seen in the previous game. Of course, this could be blamed on the younger version of Erron, but frankly, twenty years for someone living at least for a century and half shouldn’t make that big difference in behaviour and well, MK11 outright claims Erron is prone to violence for violence’s sake instead of just money. Which is one of many plot-holes and divergences between both games I guess.

Anyway, Erron, again, was the background character to beat down, so it is worth remembering that he couldn’t permanently hurt or kill anyone from the main cast. In chapter 2 he let Jade get away when he was facing Kotal and frankly, there is little explanation for that in-universe wise. I personally suspect it may be related to Erron’s own sense of honor, as in respecting one on one fight without cheap moves like shooting someone’s beloved person. Not practical in the mercenary job but it is possible for someone born and raised around two centuries ago. Also, Shao Kahn’s anger was focused mainly on killing Kotal for taking the throne. Because of that Erron could be not interested in Jade who simply did not have any significant political matter at that time. Sadly, it is really hard to say for sure what was on his mind.

In chapter 6, past!Erron stormed the Special Forces Base alongside Black Dragon members. There were women in that group but sadly, Black did not interact with anyone beside Johnny Cage. We can at least assume, Black did not mind fighting side by side with women.

Similary, present!Erron in chapter 7 showed up in the background during the alliance attack on Coliseum. The attack was led by Kitana (albeit did Erron join her to save Kotal out of loyalty or for money, it was not explained) and there were female fighters in the group. It seems then Erron does not mind fighting side to side with women.

During the pit fight (chapter 8), past!Erron faced the past!Sonya and the past!Johnny. Frankly, the same as in the previous chapter, game mechanics make little sense because there was no real reason for Erron to open the ring and face the characters when he could simply shoot down both from a safe distance. This really undermines the whole point of Black being a gunslinger, isn’t it?

Anyway, Cage took the forward position (which I think is both because despite his injuries he tried to shield Sonya AND because he actually met Erron during an attack on a Special Forces’ base) and got shot in the arm. After a short skirmish, Erron knocked down Johnny and aimed to kill the injured man.

The most logical thing for Erron in this situation would be to shoot down Sonya first and then finish already beaten down and exhausted Johnny. In defense of the Black though it is worth emphasizing that he didn’t completely ignore Blade nor turned away from her.

Most likely the weird slow-down action of aiming at Johnny was a moment of distraction that Sonya simply used to attack. Similar to MKX, game mechanics do not allow Black to headshot the main heroes, even though, in-universe, he should do just that and be done with the job. There is also a possibility that past and present Kano still wanted to keep Sonya alive for their own amusment (torture and sadly most likely rape) what could explain why Erron didn’t shot her from safe distance. I mean, the game alone did not voice what Kanos really ordered Erron to do.

I know that MK games like to slow down action for dramatic effects, but I strongly believe it was actually a matter of a few seconds of distraction (Erron looking aside to shoot Johnny and aiming) that Sonya took advantage of rather Black ignoring her on purpose. Even more since Black did not hesitate to shoot at her and seemed to enjoy facing “the legendary” Sonya Blade.

The same as MKX, Mortal Kombat 11 does not explain Black’s mindset. He does not shoot Jade or Sonya when he has a chance but he does not make any rude remarks toward women in general. However the intro dialogues shed a light on the complicated relationship that Erron has with women.

From what we learn about Erron, his childhood was far from normal or safe. We don’t know details, but what he shared with Cetrion and Cassie strongly suggest that Erron’s both parents were abusive people:

Cetrion: You shot your own father, Erron Black.

Erron: Sonofabitch had it coming.

Cetrion: Honor thy parents, mortal!

or

Erron: My Ma would’ve loved you, Cassie Cage.

Cassie: Aw, sounds like you miss her bunches.

Erron: I hated Ma.

or

Erron: I grew up around tough women.

Cassie: Didn’t they teach you respect?

Erron: They taught me to hit back.

The last statement suggests young Erron was abused by women (most likely including his own mother) to the point he is now willing to hit back anyone regardless of their gender without remorse. Erron himself says “I ain't above shootin' a lady” (intro dialogue vs. Sonya).

Beside that, an abusive mother alone could influence Black’s approach to women - and most likely she did, since he admitted to hate her. Surprisingly, Erron uses the past tense (“I hated Ma”) so there is a chance he gained distance over time in that matter. It also seems like whatever he feels about mother usually doesn't affect his relationship with other female characters. For example, in the mentioned banter he did not insult Cassie for reminding him about the abusive parent. Despite the bad childhood intro dialogues hint Black actually likes dangerous women.

Erron Black: I stepped out with Nitara before you.

Skarlet: You clearly have a type, Erron.

Erron Black: Just like living dangerously.

Like in the previous game, Erron openly shows his (sexual) interest in various women. The interesting change however is how:

His interest extends now to more alien-looking female characters like Nitara or Sheeva. Surprisingly, Mileena’s advances are still rejected. Also, Erron has like zero respect for the goddess Cetrion but to be honest, he does not respect any god.

Erron is more disrespecting by using nicknames like Legs or Baby Doll for Sonya or Sugar for Cassie. Of course, it may be just the “charm” of younger Black - hard to tell in most cases which version is speaking - but it creates an overall feeling of ironic, at times irritating or insulting approach to female fighters. At the same time, there are women that Erron refers to in a rather consistently respectful manner - Jacqui (Miss Briggs, Little Lady), Jade (ma’am, missy), Kitana (Princess, Kahn).

Before I will focus on the complex situation with Mileena, I need to talk about Erron’s important trait: he often says one thing but does the opposite. This is especially noticeable in intro dialogues concerning money and loyalty. Both games agree the main motivation for Black is a good payment, albeit MK11 highline also the thrill of danger. Anyway, Erron admitted he is willing to betray Kotal, a current employer, if someone offered a better deal (“Until a better offer comes along.”, “There's always a better offer, Kotal”). This strengthens the impression Black cares only about himself yet he rejects all propositions coming from Kotal’s enemies such as Shao Kahn, Rain or Mileena, Quan Chi, Shinnok and Kano/Black Dragons. At the same, he is willing to work with/ for Kitana who happens to be the best friend of Jade, Kotal’s beloved. Which makes Erron still operate in a group wishing no harm to the ex-emperor.

I’m bringing this into discussion because there is strong possibility that under the tough guy act, Erron still follows some “old-fashioned” sense of morality and is decent enough to not attack or harm women (and in my opinion, people in general) unless A) it is part of the job or B) is self-defense. Which could explain why he let Jade walk away or why he didn’t shoot Sonya from a safe distance but faced her in hand to hand combat. Depending how long he lived in Outworld, he could simply adapt into local customs - the people of Outworld are a combat-focused society and because of that have a strong sense of honor code. Erron’s eventual softness toward female fighters would get him in serious problems and I doubt he could afford such weakness when serving Shang Tsung or Shao Kahn.

So, why did Erron not want to serve Mileena, the designated successor? As the Empress, she was in position to offer the best (materially wise at least) deal after all.

In MKX!banter Erron claims Kotal paid him better:

Mileena: You aided the usurper.

Erron Black: He offered more coins.

Mileena: ...and no protection.

Meanwhile, MK11!Black outright says it was not a matter of money but of Mileena’s behaviour. Considering how prone to violence she was, it is no wonder why Erron decided to work for someone else.

Erron Black: Now what's got you all rip-snorting mad?

Mileena: When I gained the throne, you abandoned it.

Erron Black: Wasn't no pay worth dealing with your crazy.

This brings me back to the MKX’s banter suggesting Erron may dislike being bossed by women. Considering the implication he is currently negotiating a proper deal with Kitana Kahn (“New Kahn, same deal?”), the problem is more complex than judging someone by gender alone. I mean, Erron worked for Shao Kahn who himself was a cruel tyrant so sadism shouldn't be anything new for Black, right? Except, he was hired by Shang Tsung and because of that I think it is highly possible Erron had just indirect contact with the Emperor. Thus Erron could be not ready for Mileena’s unstable nature(?) and cruelty.

I mean - Erron comes from a pathological family and grew up around tough women. In his opinion Cassie has some traits or behaves in a way for which his mother would’ve liked the girl. So there are certain things that Black connects to hated mother. Now, Cassie is more of an extrovert type of person, showy and with sharp ripostes but she is one of the good guys and cruelty for fun is not her thing. So, if someone like Cassie can somehow make him think of a hated parent (that most likely is dead for decades now), how much Mileena could trigger Erron in the wrong way? To the point he chooses his mental health over money and/or thrill of danger?

If this is true, we may further wonder if bad experiences with tough women in childhood are the reason why despite flirtatious nature, Erron’s interest in female fighters usually is strictly sexual attraction? Because it really looks like he does not try to emotionally connect with women. Even his “thing” with Skarlet seems to be more a matter of thrill than a serious relationship, considering how Erron was okay with her eventual death.

(The possibility of Erron being freaked out by Mileena also rises an interesting question about her mental state between MK9 and MKX)

This is why I think Erron did not have a problem with working for women as long as they did not remind him too much of past abuse. And this is pretty nice implication, considering how tough guy Erron is for most of the time.

Because of that, Kotal questioning if Erron is jealous of Jade could be read in different way too:

Erron Black: So, you and Jade, huh?

Kotal Kahn: Jealous, Erron Black?

Erron Black: She's quite the looker, Kotal.

And yeah, Erron brings this to the matter of appearance alone, but hopeful as I proved earlier, Erron sometimes says one thing but does (thinks) something totally different. Because of that I suspect he may not be really jealous of Kotal for having a sexy lady but actually of the relationship itself. You know, build on respect and love than just build on sexual drive.

Like I said before, the game cutscenes and character banters may be interpreted in many ways but for me MK11!Erron Black - at least the older version - seems to mask his trauma and/or complex nature of his relationship with women under the act of tough guys. At the same time, there is a high possibility he still follows an out-fashioned sense of honor and though he is not above shooting women, he does not attack them unless it is demanded. Though to be fair, in my opinion this is how he approaches everyone. A mercenary’s mindset that distinguishes him from the likes of Kano.

In Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermatch, Erron met Sheeva, when the Shokan Queen in the company of Fujin, Nightwolf and Shang Tsung carried a coffin to the Soul Chamber. Black and Baraka decided to confront the Shokan woman and it quickly turned into a fight (and the typical game mechanics).

There is a question though - did Erron really take Kitana's offer or did he stay with Kotal? Because it’s really suspicious that he happened in the place where defenless, injured Kotal was in the healing process. Anyway, whatever the case, Black directly or indirectly worked for the new Kahn so it is highly possible his actions were dictated by Kitana’s best interest rather than his liking or disliking anyone.

Let’s just look at the situation - Kitana is the empress but she promised to treat her allies as her equals. That means Sheeva, as well respected Shokan Queen, plays an important role in the new regime - killing her or permanently injuring was out question, otherwise Shokan people could rebel against Kitana and in result the freshly established peace would go straight to hell.

In my opinion, this is why Erron asked Sheeva’s group to go with them quietly so the situation could be explained to Kitana without unnecessary violence. Black actually was okay with Sheeva go to Soul Chamber as long as Shang Tsung (Shao Kahn’s sorcerer) and the suspicious coffin was returned to him. Thanks to Shang Tsung, one of Tarkatan warrior died and thus the situation got out of hand. It makes sense Erron was more focused on Shang Tsung (hated by Kitana), Nightwolf (whose current self is revenant) and Fujin than on Sheeva who, potentially, was protected by political immunity.

When the Shokan Queen beat down Baraka, Erron in my opinion did not try to hurt her, only fired a warning shot. Maybe to make sure Sheeva will not kill Baraka (another important leader whose support Kitana needed to uphold the peace in Outworld). The Earthrealmers on other hand were another matter. Maybe Erron was too trusting or too reckless to not pay more attention to Sheeva or simply didn’t really think she was the traitor. It was after learning she is trying to resurrect Kitana’s evil mom - a dangerous, not consulted with Empress decision - Erron faced Sheeva in hand to hand combat.

Not much to analyse here, especially not with limitations of game mechanics yet I strongly believe Erron’s course of action was dictated by political situation and Kitana Kahn’s best interest so killing or seriously injuring Sheeva could be out of question. Also, like I said previously, Black is rarely the aggressor, what I believe is related to his mercenary’s mindset.

The last source, Mortal Kombat X comics series, requires a little clarification: I treat it as a potentially additional insight into Erron’s psyche than any real canonical material. Partially due to many plot-holes but also because of overwhelming violence used for violence’s sake alone. That said, here what happens:

Earthrealm (Special Forces) and Outworld (Kotal Kahn) weren’t on the best terms. To help Kotal, Erron and Black Dragons kidnapped young (under 21 years old) Cassie and Jacqui and took them to Outworld. During the journey through the dangerous jungle, girls tried to run away but got hurt in the process by Kano. Erron openly talked against brutal treatment of prisoners.

Looking at the difficult situation of Kotal, it was in Erron’s best interest to keep Cassie and Jacqui in one piece. Otherwise the whole plan would fail and then Kotal would be forced to deal with really pissed off Sonya Blade. And that would take a bad turn for Black himself. But like I said earlier, the tough guy act could also cover Erron’s more empathic nature that in the mercenary world was seen as a weakness to exploit. I personally think he did not like torturing people if that was unnecessary but also that he would have spoken against it even if Cassie and Jaquie were boys.

Then the Red Dragons attacked to take over hostages.

(Once again, a tough guy act with the “girls are Kotal’s property” as in cover up his worries about the situation or his true mindset, or mix?)

When the fight started, Erron went to tied hostages:

One one hand, Erron needs the girl to stay alive and not be taken by the enemy. On the other hand, he does not promise them safety nor ask them to run away. He is freeing them so the two girl (both under 21 years old) will fight against experienced criminals armed with swords and other dangerous stuff. This is actually an interesting detail, because it suggests Erron thought Cassie and Jacqui had a chance against thugs or that at least that way they wouldn't be a burden to him.

Jacqui punched him and Erron, either was taken by surprise or did not want to hurt her, was “saved” by Kano. And then betrayed by the Black Dragon leader.

Kano’s worlds raise a question, how much Erron is driven by the money and how much he uses the tough guy act to actually hide his unwanted “vulnerability” (as in, having moral sense and not being the heartless psychopath like Kano).

My general conclusion about Erron is that, for a side character he has a really complex relationship with women around him. I strongly believe that Erron sticks to some old fashioned sense of honor that mixes well with a mercenary's mindset. Thus rarely he is the one attacking first. This most likely influences his interaction with female fighters but at the same time, Outworld is not a place where people are judged by gender but for their skills and powers. So, Erron living there for decades for sure got influenced by that mindset to some degree.

I would not call him a feminist - not because he couldn’t be one but for lack of proper material to analyse. Feminism has many shades but in the most general sense is about establishing the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Erron does not show much opinion on that matter and does not interact with “common” women; those truly weaker than him, disabled or anything else other than warriors, soldiers or queens. With lack of such interaction there is no chance to come to a proper conclusion.

Does Erron have a soft spot for women? It is possible but that would not stop him from hitting back or killing them if the situation called for such action. I think the safest option is just that Erron is in general a more emphatic and honorable human that he wants to admit, to not look weak or be exploited by others. In contrast to Kano, Black for sure has some moral code he follows no matter what. Even if this get him into trouble more often than not.

Hope it answers your question!