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raven-at-the-writing-desk · 1 year

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book 7 part 4 thoughts!!

***THIS POST CONTAINS MASSIVE SPOILERS FOR BOOK 7, PART 4 OF THE MAIN STORY!!***

Usually I would put this in bullet points, but I have so many thoughts that I have to format it as paragraphs. (If you’d like to watch a rough part-by-part summarized translation, please check out this archived stream!)

Please note: this is NOT meant to be a summary or a translation; these are only my initial thoughts on the events that unfold. There may be details overlooked or misunderstood in this post, so PLEASE do not use this as a translation.

LILIA'S SO DIFFERENT 🤡 His voice is deeper, and he speaks more gruffly. He definitely comes off as more combative and having disdain for humans. HE'S POPPING OFF ABOUT HOW BAD SILVER/SEBEK/GRIM ARE AT MAGIC??? Damn, what happened in the following years to make him change????

The contrast between current Lilia telling Silver "there's nothing left for me to teach you" and past Lilia being like, "there's nothing for me to teach you, are you trying to make fun of me?"

The human faction they're fighting at the moment are the Silver Owls!! There are also people who dress in iron (a metal which harms fae in irl mythology), I'm not sure if they are synonymous with the Silver Owls or not.

IHBFIOASBFIAADSI LORD, THE FAE SOLDIERS ARE ALL MIDDLE SCHOOL NEKO GIRLS HISSING AT US

AYO, SEBEK GRANDPA REVEAL????? ??? ? ? ????? BAL/BAAL/BAUL REAL, I CAN SEE WHERE SEBEK GETS HIS LOOKS AND HIS PERSONALITY FROM

Silver's asking to team up with Lilia and his group (Lilia was about to just leave them there because he's concerned with the Silver Owls setting up camp at the base of the mountain)? Bruh, book 1 we're calming down an angry classmate and book 7 is like, HEY KIDS LET'S TAKE A FIELD TRIP INTO AN ACTIVE WAR ZONE.

Silver's hoping to shock him awake via a fight, here comes a Sebek and Silver tag team battle!! RIP Lilia beats them up a little :v (Sebek. Don't fanboy over his strength, WE ARE FIGHTING FOR OUR LIVES HERE)

Oop, they disorient him with light and Lilia's mask off!! It's treated like a big reveal????? Sorry, but how does Yuu not notice this is Lilia automatically 😅

Lilia voice) you are not my son (and here you can hear Silver's heart breaking/j)

Oh boy, we get to be prisoners of war/j

NOT LILIA ASKING SILVER AND SEBEK HOW THEY KNOW HOW TO FIGHT SO WELL WHEN IT WAS LILIA WHO TRAINED THEM TO BEGIN WITH

"Fae don't go back on their word" AH SO THEY LIKE TO KEEP PROMISES EH

"May the night bless you" seems to be some kind of salute for nocturnal fae?

LOL Lilia's against being called a father OTL THE IRONY HERE IS SO STRONG

Not Sebek's grandpa telling them off for not showing Lilia respect and saying how great he is... Fanboy genes run in the family/j

DOES YUU STILL THINK THIS IS A PERIOD DRAMA OR SOMETHING

BAAL IS CALLING SEBEK A HUMAN KEK

BAL/BAAL/BAUL REAL DROPS THE CROC MASK???? ?? ?? ?? ? He's got SCALES instead of facial hair???? ???? ? ? Oh man, he reminds me so much of Seteth FE3H OTL The scales are a signature trait of the Zigvolt line! Sebek says his mom has the same scales.

NO NOT SEBEK HAVING TO CONFESS THAT HIS DAD BEING HUMAN, IS THIS THE START OF HIS CHARACTER ARC

LILIA TOLD BAAL TO BABYSIT US...

AW Sebek's so excited about seeing his grandpa in his prime... I'm happy seeing Sebek happy OTL

Lilia's dreaming about the past... I wonder if it's because he was thinking about his life and what he has achieved before leaving his loved ones with his legacy...

Lilia first got the invite to NRC 500 years ago??? So NRC has been around much longer than we expected.

Ahhhh, crap 🤡 The return of book 6 limited battles but now with a battle map. There is a new mechanic where HP carries over from each battle; if a card's HP gets knocked to 0, you cannot use them. (5 cards be restored at random if you get to a heart space on the battle map.)

SEBEK'S ACTING AS OUR OLD FAE SPEECH TRANSLATOR (He's throwing his own angry commentary in, which is hilarious)

The humans arrived on a boat ~100 years ago. Now they have a settlement in the east and are mining around Briar Valley + taking the fae's natural resources. (I think this is why Mystium, that shape-shifting magic green ore that Lilia's weapon is made of, is no longer as plentiful; it was likely mined into obscurity.)

Magical creatures are now coming down from the mountain and causing trouble in Briar villages; the fairies cannot handle all of this. Damn, this is just the plot to the first Shrek movie 😂 They're invading Shrek's swamp--

Oh, interesting! So there are different kinds of fae language (depending on the type of fae they are; think of the diurnal fae from Fairy Gala speaking in bell tinkles), but they infuse their voices with magic so they can understand one another. In modern Briar Valley, there is a common tongue. Omg, Sebek speaks it with his mom and grandma! BILINGUAL KING, HE'S SO PROUD OF HIMSELF... Silver tried to learn from Lilia, but he struggled with it; Sebek's dad had the same issue so the problem must be that human ears cannot pick up on the same range of sounds as fae ears can. This is true of real life as well; different creatures have different auditory thresholds and auditory detection ranges.

Bruh, not Lilia sending out literal children to fight for him on the battlefield...

Eh, new character named??? Some human soldiers are talking about Henrich?? Henrik??? Henric??? He's a commander of the Silver Owls who is conceited and dumps his work onto his subordinates. Errrr he apparently also has a little sister named Leia? Lea??? Leah???? Who is rumored to be in a relationship with someone called the Dawn Knight.

More interesting lore????? Kind of???? Some pixies (small fae) come and warn Lilia about something up ahead, then heal them too. This is notable since in Fairy Gala: What If, we learn that diurnal fae (which I believe pixies are) and nocturnal fae (which Lilia and Sebek appear to be) do not like each other. It seems they got along well enough in the past to confront a common enemy?

They reach a Silver Owl camp!! ... Aaand Lilia tells his soldiers to boot them out so they can take over the camp. I mean, it IS technically the fae's land to begin with, so. Uhhhh, yeah I think I'm with Lilia on this one 💦

I don't think iron affects fae negatively in Twisted Wonderland?? Lilia and co. are having no trouble fighting them even when the humans are clad in iron armor.

HMMMM they've named dropped a formidable person on the human side called the Dawn Knight (Lilia mentions them once, then the human soldiers do). The Dawn Knight is the captain of the Silver Owls and even Lilia considers them a strong opponent. Methinks they'll become a key player later...

OH NOOOO 😭 Sebek’s like, “let’s change this fate!!” but since it’s just a dream, reality won’t be altered at all… Then Sebek suggests just. Staying in the dream???? Which makes darkness spawn… The light from Silver’s ring thing (the trinket he got from Lilia as a sign that he is now a full fledged adult) protects them???

Silver fears the dream will tempt him to stay too 😭 He asks Yuu to snap him “awake” if it ever comes to that… Silver, sweet boy… OTL

NOT SILVER AND SEBEK JUMPING IN TO STOP LILIA FROM COOKING FOR THEM (Come to think of it, how have Lilia's soldiers survive this far with him cooking for them???? ?? ??? ?? ?? )

LILIA THINKING THEY'RE GOING TO POISON THEM, THAT'S SO JAMIL ENERGY

Omg... They're acknowledging their Master Chef training (this is the only time they've referenced events in the main story, if I recall correctly)... Silver even prepares a risotto for them all~ (His own favorite food is mushroom risotto, so I like to think of it as he's sharing a piece of himself with the fae.)

asldiuhaodasidba Lilia complaining about the tiny portions in fine dining...

SEBEK PREPARING A ROAST CHICKEN FOR THEM, they're going all out for this one meal??? ? ? ??? ? ?? Poor Sebek though 😭Baal refuses to eat anything Sebek made, he'd rather starve or eat rations than a human's cooking...

AW BAAL BOUGHT SEBEK BOOKS????? And encouraged his love for reading... 😭

Grim taking Baal's portion of food... (Of course... Did we really have any doubts about that?) Sebek really did get his attitude from Baal... Now Baal's going, "Gimme my food back!" after Grim started digging into it... And then Baal has three entire helpings of risotto... THEY HAVE THE SAME INTIMIDATING-YET-ALSO-PATHETIC VIBES

AYO SILHOUETTE FOR MALLEUS'S MOM????? Her name is (Princess) Mallenoa, the only daughter of Maleficia (Malleus's grandma). She lives at a separate palace and commands the military. Lilia also describes her as being extremely powerful, fickle, stubborn, selfish, and easy to anger. He's just tossing out allllllll the adjectives ahdbayodqdq

Ah, so it sounds like humans greatly outnumber the fae??? So they're at a disadvantage. Normally a royal would handle diplomatic stuff like this but for some reason Lilia is being sent? They're traveling on foot to deliver a message to the human encampment to the east; the last messenger (that travelled there via magic?) did not return. Ominous...

Fae nobility are repulsed by the smell of iron? I'm confused, are fae in TWST impacted by iron or not????

Aww, Silver... He's asking his dad to come to school not to learn, but to make special memories there 🥺 Back to "our Night Raven College"...

NOOO NOW THEY'RE FLASHING THROUGH ALL THE DORMS... while Silver and Sebek monologue about how everyone at NRC is very different, but despite how weird they all are, there is a lot that can be learned from their differences. Silver's spreading what he learned from his dad... and the fact that even Sebek pitched in... 😭

Lilia voice) let's make these high school students our pack mules and unpaid chefs and if they fuck up we leave them for dead in these woods where there are monsters lurking about

Man, he's so ruthless????? Lilia will use anyone he can to succeed in his mission... But then the next second he lays into his princess with a smile www

Lilia knew the princess since they were kids ~300 years ago, which puts the current conflict at ~400 years ago from modern day (since present Lilia is ~700 years old).

asdjbasbldbasdi Gotta love the lowkey jabs at classic fairy tales... Lilia says that human princesses may need protecting but not theirs???? (Yet Mallenoa still stays in her castle all day like she's waiting for a prince.)

THE PRINCESS HAS AN EGG... MALLEUS????? IS THAT YOU???? ???? ????? ? ?? ? ? (LOL at Sebek calling it Tamago-sama asghdyqovywqdwp9qbpacpasb) JAHAJAAH BAAL SUS OF THEM BEING INTERESTED IN THE EGG????

Oooh, so dragon eggs only hatch after receiving enough love and magic from the parents??? (Otherwise the egg will not mature and hatch.) The "power of love" is real, you guys 🥺

ANOTHER new character name drop?????? Levan/Revan??? It's a fae that went missing (probably the messenger from earlier??) I-Is that. Is that Malleus's dad???????? (Lilia says that both the princess and Levan/Revan have been pushing their tasks onto him; he has known them both for a long ass time.)

Baal voice) I still don't trust you

Fandom, back at Baal: Sorry (grand)daddy. Sorry. (Grand)daddy? Sorry. (Grand)daddy? Sorry.

Malleus is 178 years old in current day even though his egg existed 400 years ago, so it seems there was a few hundred years of delay before he actually hatched (normally the egg would hatch in 2-3 years). That means Lilia was ~522 when Malleus hatched and ~683 when he found Silver as a newborn (Malleus was ~161). Silver and Sebek think it’s weird that the timeline does not add up; it means Malleus was dormant for quite a while?? Or is the dream world wonky to accommodate for a “happy ending”? Or maybe the history they know is not correct (since earlier in book 7 Lilia mentions how true history can be distorted over time.)

Very sus, apparently there is not a lot known about Briar Valley's history??? Lilia never talked about the past around Silver, and Baal did the same with Sebek. None of the books Sebek read really goes into that history either. In current day, the palace where Malleus's mom resided isn't even there anymore, it's just land. It suddenly became a mystery...

MAN, I've been wondering this whole time why Lilia's happy ending is wartime but maybe. This is the period where Malleus's parents both died???? Maybe his happy ending is saving them??? Instead of them dying and him having to live with the guilt of not being there to protect his friends and his future prince's parents???? (I previously thought it was during war that Malleus hatched and/or Lilia found Silver, but I guess the timeline doesn't make sense there.)

According to Silver, they cannot stray too far from dreamers or else the darkness will return and try to drag them into a deeper sleep.

asdhbasdobasdbas Sebek is SUPER hype to see baby Tamago-sama Malleus...

Sebek points out that Silver is not nodding off (good catch, I actually did not notice this because I was too busy screaming about the lore); sooo when Silver is dream walking, he's consistently alert. It looks like Silver's narcolepsy is an important detail??? (Lilia took him to lots of doctors that didn't know how to help him, Silver does whatever he can to sleep well and to have a sleep schedule.)

OH MY GOD, I DIDN'T REALIZE THAT YUU AND GRIM STILL DIDN'T KNOW LILIA IS SILVER'S DAD. They thought it was a friendly nickname this entire time??? Kind of late to get to that, but alright 😅 We have acquired the Forbidden Knowledge... (SEBEK'S MOM IS WAY OLDER THAN HIS DAD BUT LOOKS WAY YOUNGER?? I mean, I kind of expected that but to have it confirmed just hits different.)

One of the soldiers tells the kids to stfu so they can sleep and so Sebek yells at everyone to stop disturbing them (you know, in his LOUD AS HECK voice).

Water in the Briar Country is cold because it is located up north (it snows a lot!). The lake water usually comes from melted snow. Checks out, I guess?

They're packing up to leave the camp... Reminds me of Mulan!

[Insert boring trek to the Silver Owls' base. Interesting tidbit: some soldiers we run into comment that Silver resembles the Dawn Knight/they didn't know the Dawn Knight had a lover?????? So... that's obviously gotta be an ancestor of Silver's, right??? Also??? The Dawn Knight apparently never removes their helmet, even around subordinates... VERY SUS, SIR

NAYUUURx NOT SeBEK CAViNG TO THE DATKNESS 😭 I feel like??? This is a really big character development moment for him?? He’s always been pretty blindly loyal to Malleus and hateful of humans, but this marks the first time he willingly does something against Malleus’s will and he calls Yuu and Grim by name… Sebek, sweetie… 😭 (Side note: Silver’s been so strong-willed through all of this, but I’m glad that TWST showed he isn’t perfect and infallible; he, too, was tempted to stay in the dream when Sebek started to consider it too.)

bchsheoxndle Something else I enjoy is Baul being so… tsun?? He complains about the kids but keeps an eye out for them anyway (and Sebek in particular)… The paternal vibes are too immaculate to completely squash 😎]

They made it!! Finally!!

UHHHHH THEY'RE FIGHTING A BIG MACHINE AND. LILIA INSTINCTIVELY BLOCKS SILVER?? (He’ll be fine, he’s in his prime 😌)

Oop, Heinrich and the Dawn Knight were supposed to be in the eastern base but they aren't??? Oh no, it looks like. It was a diversion?????? While Lilia and co. are busy at the base, Heinrich launched an attack on the palace where Malleus's mom is???????

AND OF CORUSE THAT'S WHERE WE CUT OFF?????????? BRUH.

OKAY, so this entire update was focused just on Lilia's dream. We have no clue what's happening in Idia's dream or the real world with Ortho??? Which I'm totally fine with; I feel like we learned SO much about Briar Valley's history and important figures in it. That's a very fair trade-off. I loved getting to learn about the conflict between humans and fae, fae culture, and about how Briar Valley (or Country) works. I'm surprised that the characters themselves know so little about the history, but that just makes me worried that that's because it's a dark part of history that was purposefully censored from the textbooks...

There were a lot of new characters introduced in this part, most of them just mentioned by name or silhouette. It really feels like we walked right into the most dire part of a history textbook... So much tragedy has been set up, so many key players put into place... But being that this is Lilia's promised happy ending, surely he must reverse fate and save the day in the end????? Right? Right??? ?????? ?? ??? ? ? ? ? ? ?????? I have my eyes glued to the Draconia family lore and history, I'm READY to absorb it!

Something else I found really fascinating was learning more about Sebek this update! He still has a very arrogant attitude about him (that much hasn't changed), but I loved seeing how he acts different around his grandfather and how excited he gets over little things like seeing Malleus's egg. I think this part also marks the start to his character arc; he is constantly put down time and time again by his grandpa, someone whom he really loves. Sebek is used to his grandpa accepting him for who he is, but now his grandpa is shouting hateful rhetoric and discriminating against him for being half human. It's the same ugly behavior that Sebek slings to other people, but now the shoe's on the other foot and HE'S the victim in these situations. It must no doubt be extremely uncomfortable for Sebek, but it's also forcing him into a situation where he has to look at his own bigotry head-on, and it gives him a chance to reevaluate himself. It's similar to how Vil had to challenge Epel's outdated gender views even when Epel kicked up a fuss every time Vil did. asdhbsaisdbabdil I'm just really invested in Sebek's character arc!!

I think there's a high probability we'll see all of the silhouetted figures in full in a future update, it's clear that we'll eventually be rushing back to check on Malleus's mom at some point. I'm super interested in seeing how Malleus's parents, the Dawn Knight, Lilia, Baal, and Henrik tie together. (And, of course, we NEED to check in with the Shrouds as well.)

I have heard people say that Henrik may be a reference to King Henry from the live action Maleficent? Then that means that the Dawn Knight may be TWST's equivalent to Stefan/Stephan (Aurora's dad) and Henrik/Henric's little sister is Leah/Leia (Aurora's mom)??? Then I've heard other theories that since Malleus's dad vanished, we have no corpse to confirm he is for real dead and maybe he's actually Crowley who went off to buy some milk and never came back???? (Because “Levan” sounds like “raven” and you know who else is a black bird? CROWLEY. Is he. Is he really going to be the Ultimate Absentee Dad by pulling off his mask in front of Malleus and go, “Luke, I am your father” at him????) And then there's those of us who are drooling over new character designs and screaming about how hot Sebek's grandpappy is. Point is, there are so many wild parallels, theories, ideas, and thirst posts flying around right now. I love how this wild update reinvigorated the whole fandom into a new period of theory crafting and other creative works. asdhabsdasdbasdi Every new book 7 update gets more and more hype... I just hope we get part 5 in July!!! Super intrigued by the history of the Briar Valley~

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notfreetoday · 1 year

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MPW Ep 4 Subtitle Correction

Masterlist: EP 1 || EP 2 || EP 3

We have another change in director this episode, to Yasumura Emi, though the script is still being written by Funabiki Shinju (the director for Ep 3). This week's twitter space didn't have much info, so I won't be including it.

M: いや～瀬ケ崎さん強かったわ～ M: あの物腰で*マウンティングされて M: いっそ快感を覚えてしまった M: No but, Segasaki-san('s presence) was really strong M: The way he *asserted (his relationship with Yoh) like that M: (rather than being upset), I felt even more delighted! *This is a (rather unfortunate) loan word from English - "mount" or "mounting" 😅, in this case, pretty much means to "one-up" someone else, or to brag about something to another. If you do not wish to have a weird mental image in your head, please skip the next paragraph. This word appears to have morphed from the observation that monkeys, when trying to move up a rank in the chain of command, tend to jump on the back of another to assert their dominance (not scientist just translator also low-quality source don't keel me plz). - In other words, if I watch the Jp RAW MPW a full 8 hours before everyone else and spazz about it knowing full well no one else understands what was said then I'd totally be moun--- AHEM (sorry 😂)

What I mean to say is, in this episode, Segasaki all but screams "MINE" in the most thinly veiled, polite manner possible, so let's see how he does that. If you read nothing at all, the last scene with them cuddling has an important correction you should skip to. Same translation disclaimer applies, Ep 4, let's go~!

(I see a lot of people saying some of their thoughts/suspicions were confirmed in the tags of the previous posts, so feel free to chip in with what you think! MPW deserves more discussion!)

Sorry I am incapable of summarizing, the post is crazy long and I've hit the 30 image max. As such, not every scene will be screen capped and I won't be transcribing the original subs anymore...

Y: あ、いや、友達の漫画を手伝いに行ってきます (-masu form) Y: Ah, no. I am going to help a friend with their manga.

Yoh shifts up a speech level here, (he started the episode out speaking casually) using the -masu form to make an announcement -he's trying to emphasize his determination to go because he’s nervous about saying it.

S: はあ？どういうつもりで S: Huh? For what intention?

The "haa?" here has a more "excuse me?" feel, and the next line is interrogative - so all in all it has the same energy as: "Excuse me? What is going through your head?"

S: つぅか友達って誰だよ Y: よく通話してる…あの S: やっぱりあの女か S: Actually, when you say "friend", who do you mean? Y: The one who… I speak to a lot on the phone… S: So, it’s that woman after all huh?

S: だめ Y: え？なんで？(plain form) S: 俺が家にいんだから家にいろ (word contraction)* Y: でも約束したし (plain form) S: あの女には行けなくなったって言え* S: No. Y: Huh? Why? S: I'm staying at home so you stay at home* Y: But, I already made a promise S: Tell that woman that you can’t go any more** *This line, together with the starred line below, is extremely direct, (said in the same style as his not-proposal actually) and is clearly an order. **This line is literally "to that woman, say 'I am no longer able to make it'" (Though the speaker may not actually mean to use those exact words)

Segasaki has dropped a speech level here not so much by using "rude" forms but by being extremely blunt and direct. What he's saying implies he's being possessive of Yoh, but the way he says it also stresses his power in their relationship. But again, note that Yoh's replies are all in plain form - he hasn't shifted up a level in response, as he usually does when addressed so directly. In fact, the way he words his protest carries some indignation - using "し(shi)" at the end like this indicates that this "promise" is but one of the reasons he has for going - which is why Segasaki cuts him off. Yoh might sulk and pout about being ordered, he's still comfortably seated in his usual informal speech level, which means at this point he's still feeling secure about where he stands and definitely isn't intimidated.

S: お前さ*、何で自分がこの家にいるかわかってんの？ S: You*… do you even know why you’re in this house? *Here Segasaki uses the sentence-end particle "さ(sa)" after the word "you", which in this case has the same feel as "now look here". He also ends off his question with "の(no)", which can have many meanings, but here functions again as an assertive particle, implying that this is a rhetorical question, because he thinks Yoh should know the answer. Unfortunately, Yoh has the wrong answer 😅 (which Segasaki will realize and attempt to address in Ep 5)

Y: この人のやばさ*を一瞬でも忘れていた俺がバカだった Y: I was an idiot - to forget, even for a second, how insane* this person is *やばさ (yabasa) - this word comes from "yabai" and is a slang word that has evolved much like the words "crazy/insane" and "shit" have evolved in English - it can be used both positively and negatively to describe someone who's extreme, for eg "that guy is yabai (so cool!!)" vs "that guy is yabai (stay away)". Here, Yoh's referring to Segasaki as yabai for even thinking up this so called "slave contract" - which is what he assumes Segasaki is referring to.

Y: ごめん、いろいろあって Y: あ、いや、まあ、なんていうか、家にいろって言われ Y: あ、いや、なんでもない。とにかく本当にごめん Y: 今度なんかでお返しするから Y: Sorry, a lot happened Y: Ah, no, well, how do I say this... I was told "stay at home" Y: Ah, no, it's nothing. Anyway, I'm really sorry Y: I'll make it up to you next time, okay?

S: よくできました S: Well done. This is the same phrase we talked about in Ep 3, the stamp of approval. Again, Segasaki is emphasizing his role in relation to Yoh here.

Y: あの満足そうな後ろ姿 Y: 本当腹立つわ Y: That silhouette of his, so full of satisfaction as he leaves, Y: Really makes me irritated!* *Yoh ends off with the particle "わ (wa)", which mostly just emphasizes his emotion, but is a softer assertive particle than the ones Segasaki uses.

S: 夕飯、作ってくれてもいいんだぞ Y: はい Y: 俺はいつでも稼働する家事ロボットじゃねぇんだよ S: Dinner - it's fine for you to make it for me, you know Y: Yes Y: I'm not some housework robot that you can just activate at any time you know! The original subs made it sound like Segasaki was asking Yoh if he could make dinner, but that's not the case - he's literally telling Yoh to make it, and on top of that, he says it like he's doing Yoh a favour (by allowing him to make dinner) 🤣🤣 This time though, whether it's just cause Yoh's been caught by surprise or not, he answers properly with "Yes (Hai)".

Y: いっそロボットになってこの感情を無にしたい Y: (If it was going to be like this), I rather just become a robot, and turn these feelings into nothingness.

The focus of this line is mostly on Yoh preferring to become a robot in order to mute his feelings, but the sentence structure suggests that there is something to be inferred preceding this sentence, hence the bracketed bit. (It becomes clearer later on, especially in light of his monologue)

"Dayo-chan" is a pretty familiar nickname, something you'd expect a child to be called rather than an adult, unless it is a nickname between childhood friends. It implies a closeness/intimacy between the speaker/listener, hence the the look of horror on Yoh’s face (because he knows that is going to kick Segasaki into high gear) and the surprised disbelief (that someone would dare make a grab for Yoh) on Segasaki’s face. Kills me everytime 🤣

S: もしかして例の女か S: 家まで押し掛けるとはいい度胸してんな S: Don't tell me it's that woman from earlier? S: She's got some nerve, turning up at the house like this

Y: それはだめ　それだけは絶対だめ Y: No, not that, anything but that!

S: うれしいな　葉がいつもあなたの話をするので S: 一度お会いしてみたいと思っていたんです S: はじめまして、瀬ケ崎瑞貴といいます S: 葉がいつも　お世話になってます S: What a delight, Yoh speaks of you often so S: I've always thought it would be nice to be able to meet you. S: I'm Segasaki Mizuki, pleased to make your acquaintance. S: Thank you for always taking care of Yoh.

This is like, textbook formalities🤣 Practically every statement is a "standard" greeting and is very polite (hence the weirdly stiff english translation) except Segasaki says it in a way that makes it clear he speaks for Yoh, that Yoh is part of his in-group. (Legit, might as well plant a flag in the soil that says "Yoh is mine".) He sounds exactly like how parents sound when they meet their child's teachers, or how a spouse/older family member might sound when meeting their loved ones' co-workers. This is how it comes across: What a delight, Yoh speaks of you often so I've always thought it would be nice to be able to meet you - Sounds distinctly familial. Implies Segasaki is close enough to Yoh that Yoh shares his thoughts with him often. Also shows that Yoh tells Segasaki about Man-san, rather than the other way round. I'm Segasaki Mizuki, pleased to make your acquaintance. - standard, formal greeting Thank you for always taking care of Yoh. - standard greeting, literally "Yoh is always in your care" - You usually say this (for yourself) when you thank your teacher/senior/boss/important client. So, when you say this for someone else, you are claiming this person as your family, or someone in your in-group (a close friend, or at work, a junior).

S: すみません　今朝　葉が体調をくずしてしまって S: 家でゆっくり休んだ方がいいんじゃないかって S: 僕が言い聞かせたん*です S: ご迷惑をおかけしてしまってしまってすみませんでした S: I apologize, this morning, Yoh wasn't feeling well so S: I convinced* him (not to go) saying, S: "wouldn't it be better to stay at home and rest properly?" S: I sincerely apologize for the trouble this has caused you. * 言い聞かせる (translated as convinced here) this word is usually used when someone of higher standing tells/explains something to a person of a lower standing, and carries the nuance that they've managed to get the latter to accept/agree with what they say. It can also be translated as "told/persuaded/instructed/warned/admonished", and used in sentences like "I warned the kids not to run" or "The teacher told the students lying was wrong" - so that might give you a better idea of what Segasaki is implying here. I've used "convinced" here rather than "instruct" because Segasaki is, in general, speaking very tactfully to Man-san - but his meaning is still clear to anyone paying attention - Segasaki has a big enough role in Yoh's life that he not only can apologize on behalf of Yoh for not being able to fulfill the promise to Man-san, he also has a big enough say that Yoh will listen to his decisions.

M: いや、あんたがダヨの体調不良を詫びるんか M: むっちゃ身内面*するやん M: Wait, you are apologizing for Yoh being unwell (and unable to come help)? M: Isn't that a super intimate* (gesture)? *身内面する is literally "to show one's inner-circle face/side", ie the side of you that you show to your inner-circle/in-group ie your family. Hence this line reads more like "Wait, you're apologizing for Yoh?? Who are you, his family??"

Because of the emphasis on group identity in Japan, it's very common to apologize/take responsibility for the actions of another group-member, even if you had nothing to do with it. So here, Man-san has picked up on what Segasaki has been implying since the beginning - that Yoh is part of his in-group, and a very close one at that.

S: お茶目な方なんですね S: You've got such a sweet and funny personality, don't you? The word Segasaki uses here describes a person who tends to be naturally sweet and lovable, maybe a little silly but without any ulterior motive. It's a compliment in most situations - which is why Man-san gets all embarrassed - but can sometimes come across as slightly patronizing, like how calling someone "naive" can. Note that Segasaki is still being very polite here and effectively holding Man-san at arm's length, despite the seemingly friendly/open dialogue.

S: だから　そう言っていただけると　うれしいです S: So, to hear such nice words from you, makes me really glad.

S: ところで　可奈美さんはどこで　葉と　お知り合いに？ S: By the way, how did Kanami-san come to be friends with Yoh?

The whole dialogue where Segasaki responds to Man-san's fangirling basically sounds like how an idol would speak to their fans - it's very polite and uses deferential/humble verb forms to further indicate gratitude for the support, because Segasaki is answering Man-san in the context of his work. When he asks about Yoh, he switches back down to a normal speech level, but also uses her first name - Kanami-san, which whilst very charming, is totally NOT normal (with the sparkle effect and the wine, I can't help but get host club vibes from this lmao) because you only do that with people you are close to. Man-san is obviously flustered by this, and Yoh is understandably unhappy about the sudden familiarity Segasaki displays with Man-san (I personally think he's still trying to be disarmingly charming whilst he evaluates just how big a threat Man-san is🤣🤣)

S: ずいぶん飲んでると思ったら S: I thought he'd been drinking quite a bit

Again, this implies that Segasaki knows Yoh well enough to know his alcohol tolerance.

S: 寝るなら部屋いきな* S: If you're going to sleep, then go to the room alright? *いきな (ikina) - the "na" here is different from the sentence-final particle "na" we saw in Ep 3. This is short for "nasai", as in, "ikinasai", which is a polite but sharp way to say "please go (somewhere)". This sort of wording is most commonly used by parents towards young children when giving instructions like "please sit properly" or "please eat your food quietly". It's used between teachers/students, seniors/juniors etc, and sometimes amongst friends too. You absolutely should not use it with someone above you in the social hierarchy. The short version used here though, softens the tone a lot, and adds a very tender, homely feel to the sentence. Segasaki is literally coaxing Yoh to bed as a parent would a very young, sleepy but reluctant child.

M: 本当に恋人なんだなって感じです M: ようやく現実味が M: "(You two) are really a couple!" - that's the kind of feeling I get M: It's like it finally feels real

The way Segasaki literally puffs up with pride and hugs Yoh closer... (ಥ◡ಥ)

M: ダヨちゃんって彼氏の前だと　こんな甘えた*になるんですね M: なんかちょっと意外かも S: いやお酒様様ですね S: ふだんはそっけないですよ M: So Dayo-chan actually becomes so cute and affectionate* in front of his boyfriend M: I kind of didn't expect that, I think S: No, it's really all thanks to the sake S: Normally he's pretty indifferent *甘えた (amaeta) is the kansai dialect version of 甘える (amaeru), referring to the concept of amae.

Amae is a rather complex thing to explain in English and really deserves its own post. For simplicity's sake, what Man-san means here is that she's surprised that Yoh is actually able to express his desire to be treated affectionately and indulged in - something that requires a lot of trust in Segasaki and a willingness to be vulnerable in front of him.

M: おぉ、確かに。ダヨちゃん素直*じゃないからな M: あまのじゃく**っていうか　まあそういうとこあると　困っちゃいますよね M: Ohh, that's true. Cause Dayo-chan isn't able to be honest* with his feelings M: "Contrary"** is not really (the word to use) but... he does have a bit of that in him so.... (dealing with that) can be a bit of a handful don't you think? The way Man-san phrases her last line implies that she also has to deal with this side of Yoh, and by ending off with the particle "~ne", she is seeking Segasaki's agreement that they are both sort of in the same boat when it comes to that (she doesn't do this consciously though, which is why she freaks and apologizes later) *素直 (sunao - translated as honest here) is another term you'll often see when talking about feelings/relationships, and is also somewhat of a complex topic with many different possible translations, depending on context. It is closely related to amae, because in order to express your desire to be indulged or to receive affection, you first need to be able to admit to yourself that you want that.

**あまのじゃく (amanojaku - translated as contrary here) - this is a small demon from Japanese folklore, who was of an extremely contrary nature and would often mimic both humans and gods. It had the ability to see into one's heart and would then do the exact opposite of what one desired. Thus, this term is now used to describe people who intentionally go against the wishes of others, who are stubborn/unable to admit when they are wrong, or who twist themselves into a pickle/cannot be truthful about how they feel. It's not used in a complimentary way, which is why Man-san says Yoh's not quite like that, but there are some parts of him that do sort of fit the description.

S: やだな*　葉の素直になれないその不器用さが　余計にかわいいんじゃないですか S: ね？ S: That's not nice*... Yoh's inability to be truthful about his feelings - it's precisely that awkwardness that makes him even more adorable, isn't it? S: Wouldn't you say so? *Segasaki's first line "やだな (yada na - literally "this is unpleasant/I don't like that")" is not directed at Man-san, it's a form of soliloquy (which is common in Japanese), aka he's talking to himself here. We know this because it's informal and ends with the emphatic particle "~na". He then switches back to polite speech for the rest of his sentence, which is directed at Man-san. So, "that's not nice" is actually him remarking on the unpleasantness he feels after hearing Man-san describe Yoh as contrary, just as you might walk past a pile of rubbish on the street and remark, "well that's unsightly". Of course, the fact that he's actually saying this at a volume that Man-san can definitely hear and the way he sort of drawls it out, makes it clear that he definitely meant for her to know his disapproval behind the politeness of his following sentence (See what I mean by "thinly veiled politeness"?). On top of this, ending it off with a "ne?" (the same ending particle she used to seek his agreement) as he looks up right at her makes it clear - this whole sentence is a (mild) rebuke.

M: 分かったような口を利いてすんませんっした S: どうされました？ M: では私そろそろおいとまします M: I'm incredibly sorry! I spoke as if I knew everything (when in fact I knew nothing) S: What's the matter? M: Then, it is about time for me to take my leave. In response, Man-san ratches up the formal speech in both these sentences, though (as befitting her character) she pronounces it in a rather comical way (she sounds and acts like a samurai would in the movies 🤣). Also, don't mistake Segasaki's "what's the matter" as true confusion - his indirect rebuke was met with a direct (albeit over the top) apology - so here he is helping Man-san to save face, or recover the face she lost (by sounding presumptuous and by apologizing), by not calling attention to the actual apology. It is enough that she has recognized his superiority over her when it comes to understanding Yoh. This is also why later, when Man-san voluntarily offers up the information that she has a husband (and thus is not a threat to Segasaki's claim over Yoh), that Segasaki gives sort of an embarrassed but happy smile as he says "I'm sorry". That's not just "I'm sorry I can't send you to the station" (which is basic manners) but also has a little "I'm sorry for the unnecessary posturing over Yoh".

S: なんださっきから　やだ　ばっか言って S: お前はイヤイヤ期*か S: What's gotten into you? All you've been saying since just now is "no" S: Are you in your "no phase"*? *イヤイヤ期 - yes, the term he uses here specifically refers to the "no phase" of toddlers in their terrible twos. This isn't condescending though - Yoh's repeated "やだ (yada - "no" or "I don't want it")" is distinctly childlike, but this behaviour is precisely a form of amae that we talked about earlier. Yoh is asking to be indulged here, and Segasaki is responding both in word and in physical comfort.

Y: もうやだ S: だから何が Y: 俺　万さんのこと��きなのに S: は？てめぇ* Y: あんたなんか嫌いだ Y: へらへらしてんじゃねぇよ Y: 何　ちゃっかり横に座ってんだよ Y: 名前で呼ぶ必要はねぇだろう Y: ふざけんな Y: 俺のこと好きなくせに Y: I don't want (this) anymore! S: So again I ask, (don't want) what? Y: I... even whilst... liking Man-san S: Ha? You little...* Y: I hate the likes of you Y: Don't freaking sit there laughing so carelessly Y: What were you doing taking the chance to sit next to her like that Y: There was no damn need to call her by her first name, right? Y: The hell are you doing! Y: When the person you like is me. When You talks about liking Man-san, he ends off with "なのに (nanoni)" which is used to show contrast the preceeding/following topic and to express frustration - except he hasn't mentioned the preceeding topic, so it isn't immediately clear what he means until he starts complaining about Segasaki's behaviour. That's why Segasaki is caught by surprise and follows up with an angry "haa?" and an emphatic *てめぇ(temee) - A very very rude way to say "you" which he first used in Ep 2 when Yoh said he was going to leave. It's not until later in Yoh's monologue, that we learn that he's upset that he feels jealousy/bad feelings towards Man-san because he's supposed to like Man-san (as a friend).

S: お前　お前それやだったんか S: お前の方が*　そう思ってたんかよ S: あ　もう最っ高 S: You... so that was what you didn't want? S: So, (all this time) it was actually you instead, who's been thinking like that? S: Oh, this is the. best.

S: よしよし S: 取られちゃって　やだったな S: There, there S: You didn't want me to be stolen away, did you?

Monologue time: Y: こんなふうに感じること自体が嫌だったんだ万さん相手に　友達なのに女々しすぎるって幼稚だろう　ダメだろうって　分かってるのに気付いたら頭ん中　ぐちゃぐちゃでどうしようもなくなってたあんたのせいだこんなふうに囁いたり微笑んだり優しく触れたりするからいつもあんな偉そうにああだ　こうだ命令してくるくせに突然まるで恋人*みたいに勘違いするだろこんなのもしかして好きってこんなみっともない気持ちのことなのか Y: The fact that I was feeling this way was specifically what I didn't like. (Feeling this way) towards Man-san, even though she's my friend... It was too petty (of me). Even though I knew, that it was childish, that I shouldn't (feel that way), Before I knew it, everything in my head was all messed up. And then I couldn't do anything about it. It's all your fault, Because you do things like this, Whispering softly to me, Smiling at me, And touching me so gently. Always so arrogantly ordering me around, Saying do this do that, and yet, You suddenly (start treating me) like a lover* Of course, I'd get the wrong idea with all of that! Could it be that, "Liking someone", Really is a feeling as unseemly and disgraceful as this? *恋人 (koibito - lover) - Lover in English can sometimes imply a more sexual than romantic relationship, but in Japanese "koibito" usually refers to "boyfriend/girlfriend" and may not imply a sexual component at all.

S: お前から抱きつくとかできんだな S: ずっと酔ってりゃいいのに S: So you actually can initiate hugs and stuff huh? S: If only you could stay drunk forever...

And we're done!! Ep 4 marks the turning point where Yoh begins the journey towards accepting and acknowledging his feelings - the concept of "sunao". It also clearly shows the preferred way these two reinforce their relationship - through "amae". Remember how in Ep 3, Yoh talked about how he felt that an "unspoken understanding" of each other's feelings was important in a relationship? Well, this is it - Yoh saying "no" and "don't want", or leaving the room to be by himself - these are all examples of amae. He doesn't want to ask for affection directly, because he can't. So he does it through amae instead, and as we can see, Segasaki really enjoys indulging in Yoh's unspoken requests for affection and gains fulfillment from that.

#my personal weatherman #taikan yohou #体感予報 #MPW subtitle corrections #mytranslations #segasaki x yoh #amae is a very important aspect of building connection in japanese relationships #as is the concept of sunao #these aren't concepts with easy direct translations to english #but they feature very heavily in this relationship #if you felt a little weirded out because their relationship sometimes can feel somewhat parental in nature #it's because the interdependence that results from amae is fundamentally different from the independence that is prized in the west

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cyxnidx · 2 years

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Hello! Can I request part 2 of “What’re you reading?” But with Scaramouche (Wanderer), Heizou, and Albedo?

WHAT’RE YOU READING ? V. 2

sure thing luv <3

part 1 here

characters: Scaramouche, Heizou, Albedo and Tartaglia

summary: they finding you reading/writing smut

a/n: i decided to add tartaglia for this one! hope you dont mind

scara was the curious type, especially with you. so when he felt bored, and decided to see what you were doing only to find you reading, he couldn’t help but be tempted to see it.

“can i see?” he asked timidly, reaching for the book slowly. you couldn’t help but let him take a look, watching as he admired the cover and back.

though, your heart rate when from a calm pace to a panicky one as you watched him open the book, slowly admiring the drawings and speech bubbles.

and just as you tried to take the book, he landed on one of the more mature scenes. you sighed like a disappointed mother as his eyes widened, hands eventually dropping the book out of pure shock.

“at no point in time should i have seen that..” he said, now stunned at the hardcore graphics.

“give it back, heizou!” you scolded, face puckered and annoyed. your boyfriend had taken your phone while you were on ao3, and to say the least, you were more annoyed than you usually would be.

it was your favorite fic, and one of your favorite scenes was coming up. that was until your eyes were too full of anticipation and excitement for heizou’s liking, tempting him to take it.

“what’s so important on it anyway?” he asked, still clueless of the mess he’s gotten himself into already. you sighed, not wanting to tell. “just give it back, and make it easier on yourself.”

“easier?” he asked, somewhat offended by the use of the word. were you looking down on him? “why would you think i’d want to make it easier on myself? do you think there’s something i cant handle here?”

smirking, you shrugged. “maybe. i mean, it may be new as to be a bit hard to comprehend.”

you laughed as you watched him look at your phone, reading the many words that made up such interesting paragraphs, only to give it back in a shock.

“that. i never thought it’d be that.”

albedo had seen it all at this point. from point A, to point Z. though, as much as he had heard, and even watched, he’d never thought that he’d read such descriptive words. Words that made everything seem to realistic.

and with his vivid imagination? oh, it was a field day.

“you see what happens when you use my stuff, albedo?” you asked, hand on your hip and face having a smart look to it.

a particular snarky look he seemed to hate. a cocky expression.

though, there wasn’t much he could do with how shocked he was. he was absolutely stunned. “this is what you read..” he said, almost seeming scarily surprised.

“oh? but i thought you’ve seen it all?” you asked in an unimpressed tone, only to be caught off-guard with his next question. “can we try it?”

“so? what do you think?” you asked expectantly as you watched Tartaglia’s eyes read the words you’ve written for a post.

you frequently wrote online, and he had no problem with it at all. if anything, he loved that it was how you expressed your creativity, emotions and just random thoughts.

he found it beautiful.

however, out of all the things he’d usually proof-read for you, this was the first one he’d consider extreme.

“Tartaglia..?” you asked again, taking into account that he’d went quiet. he should be done reading by now, it wasn’t like it was a lot. just about 3 paragraphs.

“you’d like to know what i thought of it, yes?” he asked, checking for assurance.

you nodded eagerly, wanting to hear his opinion on it or if you’ve made any mistakes describing something.

“honestly..” he began, turning your phone off and placing it on the bedside table. “..how about we test it out first?”

happy thanksgiving to those who celebrate🫶🏼

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preciadosbass · 23 days

Text

23/8/24 [draft from friday — key + significant photos at end]

yay i can finally post this!! woke up at 6:30 and said goodmorning to boris. he was inside again, i think because of how cold it is out. i then got dressed as soon as i could so i was completely ready before the time we had to leave to go away. i put on a light gray low cut shirt, but then started freezing alive so i changed into my sleeping with sirens shirt as it was the only shirt out that i hadn’t already packed. i paired it with black ripped skinny jeans, gray + black striped arm warmers, knee high converse, danger days my chemical romance zip up, my kellin quinn necklace, a surfboard shaped wood carved necklace — and no cuffs/bracelets as this outfit is just to be worn for the car ride to the campus and then ill get changed for swimming.

after getting ready, i had a snack and painted my left hand’s nails with black nail polish. i surprisingly did them pretty neatly to how i usually do it and considering how small my nails are. within a few minutes of them being dried, half of my second smallest nail’s polish came off halfway lmao - i was going to put some more on to cover it up, but i was in a rush and i needed to do my teeth, i finished at 7. i then checked on boris again and replaced the pins on my bag. ive needed to ever since i took a ton off to put onto my jacket. all that’s left now is: incubus pin, spider-man pin, the last of us pin, t-rex pin, saliva pin, kittie pin, shark pin, beetle pin, brendon urie pin, chi cheng pin, soulfly pin, collide with the sky [pierce the veil] pin, and a silent hill pin. which sounds like a lot, but because of the way they’re set out, it dosent look like many. at least not compared to what i’m used to.

once i was done [7:18], i packed my bag. i packed: my camera, skeleton gloves, collage scraps, my collage journal, camera charger, headphone charger, extra bracelets, my spiral earrings, battery packs, my hairbrush, my wallet, hand sanitizer, meds, and my phone charger. after doing that and a few other odd bits around the house [turning off switches, making sure i’ve packed everything, etc] i went to see boris properly at 7:40. i told him about everything that’s going to be going on [who’s taking care of him, that she’s not comfortable letting him out, when we’re getting back, things like that] and said goodbye to him. i finished officially at 8:20. i’m gunna miss him so much while we’re away, but i’m excited to see him again afterwards and tell him everything.

everyone [me, my sister, my parents] got in the car at around the same. unrelated, but i also forgot to mention in yesterdays journal, archie was taken over to my sister’s friends house to be looked after. we set off at 2:30 and i looked through soul punk patrick stump videos along with a few pretty odd era panic! tiktoks. also watched my chemical romance’s song 2 [blur] cover, i don’t know why i haven’t seen this before i’m obsessed. i started journaling at 9:16 and wrote all of the paragraphs above. than at 9:30 i took a break and started listening to some music. [just surrender, fall out boy, gerard way + ray toro, frank iero, falling in reverse, blur, my chemical romance, death of a bachelor panic! at the disco, a static lullaby.]

i had a nap somewhere near 11:30 [on my seal plush] and woke up at around 12:40. i continued listening to music [CKY, HIM, frank iero, darling you should be ashamed, linkin park, lovehatehero, before today, a bullet for a pretty boy [[so underrated]], and sleeping with sirens.] i did so until 1:44 when we arrived at the resort. my dad pulled the car into the drive through place where you get your keycard/folder of leaflets and after driving round to our car park, we started unpacking into the room. on our holiday guide, it said that we could only get in our room at 3, so we were lucky to get in early. as soon as i found me & my sisters room and claimed my bed, and hung up my necklaces on the windows’ handle. along with taking a few things out of my bag + putting cuffs/band bracelets on. we did plan on going to swimming as soon as my extended family arrived, but that ended up not working out as they had to leave late.

i then took out my collage journal and started cutting up the leaflets from the folder into separate letters [etc] to make a collage tomorrow. well i say tomorrow, when i started cutting everything up, i intended for me to put everything together today. [photo at end] but i only got round to collecting the bits of paper i need. i used my stamps to print stars onto a yellow sticky note and took a couple pictures of the leaflets incase we needed anything off them after id cut them up [e.g wifi support]. me, my parents and my sister left for a show and arrived at the venue at 3:12. on the way to the venue, we met up with D [one of my cousins, his girlfriend — L, and her son, W.] we got the time wrong so we thought were really short on time, but it started 20 minutes after we found a table.

first up was a beatboxer, except he made more sound affects than sounds to make into some kind of song. he was also really funny with the way he made and timed the sound affects. it’s impossible for me to explain with unless you were there and saw him, but he was really good. next was four breakdancers, ive never really had much interest in breakdancing, but it was quite cool to watch them. one had come all the way down from japan or something.

after was one of those big hoop acts. there’s not much to say as there’s not much to explain — following on from that, a bmX rider came out and started doing all kinds of crazy tricks. i somewhat remember seeing the show itself around a year ago, but this bmX guy was different than last year. its tricky to explain a bmX show generally, but its even trickier for people to read id they don’t know what it is. so i recommend looking up bmX tricks. once he’d done his thing, a basketballer came onto stage. he was manipulating the ball and circling it around him shoulders etc. behind him was a fake button with “do not push” plastered above it. obviously, it’s a show, he ‘pressed’ the button and everytime another ball would roll out from backstage.

in the end, he was working with 5 different basketballs. it was super impressive. before the show finished, everyone came out and did all their tricks side by side. during the entire show, the beatboxer was singing and making even more sound affects. he actually had a pretty decent voice. at 4:30, after we’d all packed up our stuff and gotten ready to leave and do something else, me, my parents and my sister headed back to our room. D, L and W went off to their rooms aswell. upon getting into our chalet, i went to have a nap but ended up putting on my skates. my sister stuck on hers and we circuited a section of the resort, looking for D’s room. it didn’t take us long before we found it. but during skating around and checking door numbers, i stupidly sped round a corner on the second level of chalets and nearly fell headfirst down a huge staircase.

i assumed that it’d turn and go round the other side, so i could look at the numbers on the other rooms, as a few other of the second story ‘balconys’ or whatever you wanna call them - don’t have stairs and just follow on around the other side. but i was wrong. i slightly toppled down the first two stairs and then grabbed onto my sister’s back. luckily i didn’t make her fall over lmao // at 5:30, all of us [all of my family] went round to our restaurant for dinner. it was a little cheeky of us to even eat together as everyone in the family apart from my parents & sister have reservations for another restaurant.

after dinner, i went back to the room and stayed there for 30 minutes alone before me, my sister and my parents made our way to yet another show. we arrived at the venue and i sat near the front on the floor with my sister. my mum sat on some stairs and my dad stayed standing. it was a magic show, which is quite a complicated thing to explain, especially because i actually didn’t understand how any of the tricks were done, but i enjoyed it. also while the backstage staff were sorting out some more props the start of my generation by limp bizkit played!!

the show finished at 8, and me and my immediate family went round to the rest of the family’s chalets to check them out. i went into the more cousin based one first, the people staying in it were: RY and H, and R and E. i sat on R’s bed and just people watched [mostly] until H offered to paint my right hand’s nails dark purple as id forgotten to paint that hand in black when i was at home. then i went to see the rest of my family’s room. the family members in this chalet are my aunt and uncle, and L/W. when i came in my uncle had a jumper over the radiator and it smelt so bad and was clearly just about to light on fire. i went back into the cousin’s room/s and went to see E and see what she was doing.

she was applying gems to her eyelids with some kind of makeup glue. she asked if i wanted some and i agreed so she sat me down and gently glued the gems onto my face. [photo at end] when she was done and if verified i was happy with it, i went back to my room to quickly get something — i’m not sure what it was as im writing this on the 27th. when i got back at 9:10, we had to leave for another show. we walked across the resort and arrived at the venue to get ourselves some seats. me and E tried taking pictures of our gemmed-up eyelids together but wasn’t able to because of bad lighting. the show was advertised as a ‘rock’ festival, however the music that played was things like lizzo and ed sheeran.

i was kind of disappointed because i thought it’d be punk rock or something else i would be able to sing along to, but it was funny that we were catfished so bad. me and R just sat there making faces for eachother, indicating that ‘this isn’t rock, wtf is this’ - the performance ended at 10:20 and we went straight to another venue to join in with a ‘music dance party.’ as you can imagine, the music was dance music, but i like dance music. i somewhat danced with my grandad, E and R. R spun me around and my sister stayed swaying across the dance floor with my dad. [photo at end]

i haven’t really ever seen my dad dance before, but his favourite ‘party’ track came on and he went mad. he was doing all sorts of weird dance moves but it was cracking me up. if only whoever is reading this saw it in the moment. we parted with the rest of the family and went back to the chalet at approximately 11:30. i started to do a bit of my journal, made a picture collage of the day, and had a little nap. after my nap, i asked my parents questions about boris, said goodnight to boris via a picture of him [the picture in question is at the end] and went to sleep at 1:45.

🗝️ — boris/my cat, archie/my immediate family’s dog, questions about boris/i ask my parents questions about my cat to verify he's okay + will be okay in the morning. its a compulsive thing and i'm hopefully going to be tested for OCD in the future.

have a good day/night O_o

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xmoonlitxdreamx · 3 months

Text

OW2 Junkrat & Roadhog Relationship (part 3)

Part 1: [click] Part 2: [click] Part 4: [click] Part 5: [click]

Hello!! Here's part 3 of this series where I look closely at Junkrat & Roadhog's characterization in OW2 content. This post will be looking at the 2024 short story A Friendly Rivalry. This post is really long compared to my other ones, and I apologize for that...!!!! There's just a bit more to say here since this is a short story and not just voice lines.

This short story is available to read for free here. The page numbers I’ll be referencing are from the PDF on that page. I talked a lot about this short story in these posts here and here, so some of this stuff may be the same as what I’ve said there. I may also interpret the narration to partially be from Junkrat’s point of view, so keep that in mind for when I make commentary using quotes from the narration. Anyway, enjoy (?) and thanks for reading!

A several-paragraph summary can be found at the end if you don't feel like reading all my bullet points lol

Page 1

“…Roadhog, [Junkrat’s] much larger, much more heavily shackled partner…”

The narration recognizes Roadhog as Junkrat’s partner

If the narration is biased toward Junkrat’s perspective, this also suggests Junkrat thinks of Roadhog as his partner

“Junkrat wasn’t listening. He had a strong suspicion his best mate was nervous. ‘Relax!’ he said. ‘I’ll do all the talking.’”

Junkrat thinks of Roadhog as his best mate

Junkrat tries to understand Roadhog’s emotions

Junkrat feels inclined to calm Roadhog’s nerves if he thinks Roadhog is nervous

“Roadhog said nothing. / ‘Come on,’ Junkrat said…”

The two of them have “conversations” where Roadhog says nothing and Junkrat responds as if Roadhog is participating in the conversation

This can be interpreted as:

Roadhog doesn’t want to talk to Junkrat and frequently ignores him, but Junkrat isn’t aware of this or doesn’t care and decides to carry on conversation anyway

Junkrat is particularly good at reading Roadhog to the point that he can “understand” Roadhog without him saying anything

Some mix of these two interpretations

(Junkrat speaking) “’[The queen and I] are tight as marbles! Not like you and me,’ he added hastily.”

Junkrat considers himself and Roadhog to be “tight as marbles”

This isn’t a real idiom, but it’s probably a good thing meaning “close friends”

Junkrat suspects that Roadhog would be jealous if he was closer to someone else than he is of Roadhog (hence why he quickly added “Not like you and me” to the end of his statement)

It’s unclear if Roadhog actually thinks this way, and it’s likely that this is just an imagined impression that Junkrat has of Roadhog (based on lines on the next page)

“Roadhog gumbled. Junkrat took this as a positive sign.”

Junkrat tries to interpret Roadhog’s non-verbal cues (unclear how successfully he is at this)

Page 2

(Junkrat) “’Maybe we’ll spend a few days in the clink. […] Is that what you’re worried about?’” / “Junkrat snapped his fingers. ‘You think we should escape now! You’re right.’” / (Junkrat) “’What is it, then? What are you waiting for?” / “For the first time in a long while, Junkrat was speechless. Roadhog sighed. ‘Finally.’”

Here, Junkrat cycles through a few different attempts at reading Roadhog’s silence. All of his attempts at understanding why Roadhog is quiet are incorrect, suggesting that he’s not actually good at reading Roadhog even though he acts like he understands him.

When Junkrat and Roadhog are having these sort of one-sided conversations, it’s likely that Roadhog is usually just quiet because he’s waiting for Junkrat to shut up.

Junkrat does earnestly seem worried about Roadhog here.

it also seems like Junkrat uses these “conversations” with Roadhog as a way to organize/understand his own thoughts and feelings by verbalizing them.

(Junkrat) “’Let’s do this thing!’ / Roadhog did not leap to his feet and rip the chains from the wall. Junkrat was losing patience with him.”

Junkrat commands Roadhog to do things and visualizes Roadhog following his orders when he comes up with these commands; he possibly takes it as a given that he would have some sort of authority to tell Roadhog what to do

Junkrat gets annoyed when Roadhog doesn’t go along with his plans

Roadhog doesn’t always go along with Junkrat’s plans

“Roadhog tapped [Junkrat] on the shoulder.”

This is just me being delusional but I interpret this as Roadhog sometimes using a delicate touch to get Junkrat’s attention lol

(idk I think I was just surprised it wasn’t like “Roadhog grabbed Junkrat’s shoulder and yanked him toward the blahblah” or something LMAO idk it’s kind of uncharacteristic of him so it stood out to me)

Could also be an indication that Roadhog keeps Junkrat focused/etc in situations where Junkrat gets distracted

Page 3

“This is outrageous!” gasped Junkrat. “Roadhog and I are loyal subjects.”

Junkrat sometimes speaks on behalf of Roadhog

Roadhog doesn’t stop him from doing this, so even if what Junkrat says isn’t necessarily reflective of Roadhog’s actual thoughts, it’s possible he’s fine with Junkrat speaking for him

JQ lists off a bunch of “allegations” that Junkrat and Roadhog did together (demolition of Junkertown’s main gate, blasting Outback Bill’s Premium Sausage Stand to chunks, the Biscuit incident)

The two of them cause trouble in Junkertown together, presumably for fun

Judging from the “explosive” theme of the allegations it was probably Junkrat who came up with the idea for these schemes, but the fact that they’re both being tried together by JQ suggests Roadhog also participated (probably willingly)

Kind of an aside but I sometimes see the comment that “Roadhog only hangs out with Junkrat for the money/for his treasure”; considering these schemes that they got up to don’t really seem to have a monetary goal in mind (Junkrat probably just felt like blowing stuff up), it seems more likely to me that Roadhog also just likes causing trouble (even if he doesn’t act like he’s as into it as Junkrat) and hangs out with Junkrat because he wants to be a menace too sometimes (?)

“’We—’ Junkrat paused and glanced at Roadhog, who nodded. “Right, we did do that one. Sorry, mate!”

Junkrat goes to Roadhog when he’s unsure about something (unclear if this is a faulty memory thing or not); Junkrat trusts Roadhog to be his back up on things he’s unsure about.

“…Roadhog wound his chain hook around his meaty forearm.”

If we take the narration to be somewhat from Junkrat’s perspective, Junkrat thinks of Roadhog’s forearm as meaty. (this is such a stretch LMAO whatever this is my post) (I won’t be making more comments like this unless it’s more obvious that it’s from Junkrat’s POV and not specifically the narration’s POV)

“’You die,’ Roadhog said. ‘I’m living.’”

Roadhog is not particularly tied to his partnership with Junkrat; verbally expresses that he’s more concerned with his own safety than Junkrat’s

Roadhog is blunt and snarky (?) when talking to Junkrat

Page 4

“…a huge ball-shaped mech swung into the air. Roadhog grabbed Junkrat by the bandolier and hurled him out of the way.”

Despite expressing like .02 seconds ago that he doesn’t care if Junkrat dies, he pulls Junkrat out of danger

Suggests that the things Roadhog says verbally are not necessarily indicative of his actual feelings (eg: says “whatever man you can die” but doesn’t actually want Junkrat to die); suggest his internal self is maybe not as harsh or indifferent as his external self

Roadhog is physically willing to save Junkrat from dangerous situations (even if he verbally says otherwise)

“’Keep moving, idiot,’ Roadhog said.

Another indication of Roadhog’s words being harsh (calling Junkrat an idiot) but having good underlying intentions (wants Junkrat to keep moving so he doesn’t get hurt)

“Junkrat raised a finger to retort, but Roadhog was already hurtling toward the far wall at unconscionable speed, wrapped around the bulk of the champ”

Suggests the two of them bicker so often that Junkrat instinctively wants to argue even when they’re in the middle of battle

Roadhog got hit by Wrecking Ball while Junkrat was preoccupied with arguing with him; could suggest that Junkrat is not as good at looking out for Roadhog as Roadhog is at looking out for Junkrat

Possible that Roadhog sacrificed his own focus on the battle to tell Junkrat to stay safe, and then got injured as a result; could suggest that Roadhog actually does prioritize Junkrat’s safety over his own (despite saying otherwise previously). (honestly this isn’t strongly indicated in the writing so I don’t exactly think this was necessarily the intended reading.)

“’Roadhog!’ [Junkrat] shrieked as he shot toward the ground. ‘Catch me!’ / Roadhog did not catch him. Roadhog lay at the far end of the arena, unmoving.“

It’s possible that Junkrat relies on Roadhog to get him out of sticky situations so often that he just instinctively calls out to Roadhog to help him when he’s in trouble. (It’s unclear from this line if Roadhog would have actually helped him since he’s currently passed out)

Page 5

“Junkrat and Roadhog dove apart as bullets screamed past.”

They were standing next to each other. :)

“’It’s all right, Roadhog!’ Junkrat panted, ripping another grenade off his bandolier. “All we’ve gotta do… keep our distance…”

Junkrat tries to comfort Roadhog if he thinks Roadhog is worried

This is also another instance of Junkrat using Roadhog as a way to verbalize his own personal concerns (He’s personally worried, but he instead expresses that/comforts himself by saying “It’s all right, Roadhog”)

Junkrat attempts to be the tactical authority between them (unclear if successful)

Page 6-7

“’Junkrat,’ [Roadhog] said. / ’Junkrat, you’re a genius?’ Junkrat said hopefully. / ’Knife,’ Roadhog said. / ‘Oh, what a relief. I thought you were gonna say idiot.’ / ‘Knife,’ Roadhog said, because one of the Wreckers had thrown one.”

Junkrat is worried that Roadhog was gonna be mad at him for revealing his treasure/getting the town to turn on him

Junkrat is more concerned about Roadhog’s opinion of him than the increasing danger around him (aka the knife coming toward him)

Roadhog feels inclined to warn Junkrat of danger

Roadhog uses concise language when talking to Junkrat (though tbh he just does this with everyone)

“’Mako,’ [Junker Queen] said, ‘is he lying [about his treasure]?’ / ‘Don’t know,’ Roadhog said.”

Junkrat never told Roadhog what his treasure is (it’s more or less revealed later in the story that Roadhog’s “don’t know” is truthful)

This could contribute to the notion that Roadhog just sticks around with Junkrat because he feels like it and not because he has particular investment in Junkrat’s treasure

Could be interpreted as indication that Roadhog doesn’t know now to read Junkrat (or doesn’t care to learn to read him) in that he can’t tell if Junkrat is lying or not

“’I was really looking forward to watching you die,’ [Junker Queen] said. / ‘Me too,’ Roadhog said.”

Roadhog expresses verbally that he’s tired of sticking around Junkrat and wants him dead

Contrasts with the couple times he tried to stop Junkrat from dying in the previous pages, so likely more intended as a way to express his annoyance than to be taken literally

“Firing a grapple through the crowd, Wrecking Ball surged forward. Roadhog charged after, laying about with his hook to keep the path clear. Junkrat followed…with the Queen’s knife at his back.”

Roadhog immediately starts following Wrecking Ball (aka presumably doing what Junker Queen wants him to do), suggesting he doesn’t have strong affiliations and will just go along with whatever, or that he possibly is more willing to take orders from Junker Queen than Junkrat.

For me this comes out of nowhere; JQ doesn’t even command them to start doing stuff or explain what she wants them to do other than saying “Champ! Lay out the red carpet!” (which I don’t think would be something Roadhog understands)… so for me idk if this is really indicative of anything about Roadhog so much as it is strange writing lmao;; but that’s my personal take, obv the above reading is still possible.

Being totally honest I also have no idea how to visualize the way they’re walking here. I guess they’re following like… single file? Behind Wrecking ball? Anyway.

Page 8

“’Roadhog,’ he whispered. / ‘No,’ Roadhog said. / ‘What do you mean, no?’ / ‘No more plans.’

Roadhog actually is good at reading Junkrat, as he predicts what Junkrat is going to say here. Either that or Junkrat is just predictable (in that he’s always scheming).

Junkrat tries to work together with Roadhog when things go bad for them

Roadhog is uncooperative with Junkrat and doesn’t listen to him

“Junkrat almost exploded. But he decided, rather cunningly he thought, to save his temper for later.”

Junkrat and Roadhog likely argue over things, potentially because Junkrat loses his temper easily

(Junkrat) “’Once Queenie gets the treasure, we’re expendable. Right?’ / Roadhog said nothing.”

Possible that Roadhog doesn’t respond to Junkrat when he’s annoyed with him.

(Junkrat) “’So, once we get through the door, wait for my signal. All right?’”

Junkrat again taking on a leader sort of role between the two of them and asserting a situation where he makes the decisions while Roadhog waits for commands

Unclear of what Roadhog thinks of this (the narration doesn’t comment on Roadhog much here)

Page 9

“On [Junkrat’s] left, someone was making the funny bubbling sound people made when Roadhog got angry in their vicinity.”

“funny bubbling sound” = presumably the sound of someone choking/being strangled or sth

Kind of playful language used for violence, I think this primarily signals that Junkrat thinks of violence as something fun; but since this sort of language was specifically used in reference to Roadhog causing violence, this could suggest that he’s particularly entertained when Roadhog gets into fights.

Page 10

(Junkrat) “Roadhog! Catch m—”

Junkrat tries to command Roadhog again, has a habit of relying on Roadhog

Roadhog doesn’t catch him/doesn’t listen to his orders

“’Get him up,’ said the Queen. / Roadhog lifted Junkrat into the air and dangled him there.”

Roadhog is more inclined to follow orders from Junker Queen than Junkrat

Emphasizes that he doesn’t think of Junkrat as someone with authority over him

(Junkrat) “’Roadhog! Now!’ / Roadhog stared at him blankly. / ‘I’m giving the signal!’ Junkrat added desperately. / Roadhog scratched his elbow”

Driving home that Roadhog has no interest in taking orders from Junkrat, despite Junkrat’s constant attempts at telling him what to do

“’Forget to tell him the plan, didya?’ said the Junker Queen […] / ‘I suppose I did,’ [Junkrat] said sadly.”

This is actually weird to me, there wasn’t really any indication that he had a specific plan in mind or that he forgot to say something to Roadhog; it was more like JQ interrupted them during their discussion before Junkrat told Roadhog anything.

Kind of suggests that rather than Roadhog deliberately not following Junkrat’s orders, it’s just that Junkrat forgot to tell him what to do. (I think this suggestion is strange because throughout the rest of the story we’ve been given suggestions that Roadhog dislikes taking orders from Junkrat, so that would be his main reason for not following Junkrat here)

Anyway imo this dialogue between JQ and Junkrat is more just a weird writing inconsistency than suggestive of anything between how willing Roadhog would be to take orders from Junkrat

Page 11

“Roadhog peered around them, his mask failing to hide his awe.”

Confirmation that Roadhog didn’t know what Junkrat’s treasure was (either never asked him or Junkrat never told him)

Summary (?):

1) Junkrat thinks of Roadhog as his partner in crime and his friend. He tries to read Roadhog's non-verbal cues and worries about Roadhog if he believes Roadhog is worried. However, he's not actually skilled at reading Roadhog's emotions or understanding Roadhog's intentions. He believes that Roadhog considers him a friend and that Roadhog would be jealous if he was closer to someone else. It's unlikely that Roadhog actually thinks this way. That said, Junkrat sometimes speaks on behalf of Roadhog in conversations with other people; Roadhog doesn't stop him from doing this. Roadhog also seems to have some skill in understanding Junkrat's intentions and emotions, suggesting he does pay attention to Junkrat to some degree.

2) The two of them have one-sided conversations frequently, where Junkrat talks to Roadhog and Roadhog says nothing in response. It's likely that Junkrat uses these "conversations" with Roadhog primarily as a means to verbalize his own thoughts and come up with solutions to problems he's personally experiencing. Roadhog is usually silent during these conversations because he thinks Junkrat is being noisy/annoying and he's waiting for Junkrat to shut up.

3) Junkrat tries to act as the leader between the two of them and frequently commands Roadhog to do things. His commands are primarily directed at Roadhog with the intent to save him from sticky situations. This could suggest that he either trusts Roadhog's abilities, that he likes having authority over someone, or that he relies on Roadhog to be responsible while he behaves recklessly. Roadhog is never shown to follow Junkrat's orders in this short story, and is instead shown to follow Junker Queen's orders. This suggests that Roadhog doesn't think of Junkrat as an authority figure over him, but he is willing to take orders from people he actually respects. Junkrat gets annoyed by Roadhog's "insubordination," but he continues to command Roadhog to do things regardless of whether Roadhog ever follows through.

4) Roadhog is shown to be gentle (?) with Junkrat in one instance. This is also an instance where he was redirecting Junkrat's attention away from distractions, so it may be the case that Roadhog sometimes takes on the responsibility of keeping Junkrat focused in situations where he's not paying attention. Junkrat has also been shown to look to Roadhog for confirmation when he's unsure of something (memory, etc).

5) Junkrat and Roadhog have caused a lot of trouble together in Junkertown (New Junk City? idk) in the form of blowing things up. These schemes are likely orchestrated by Junkrat, though Roadhog is indicated to have participated as well. It is possible to interpret from this that Junkrat's treasure is not the only motivator for why Roadhog hangs out with Junkrat (as these schemes did not involve money or treasure), and that Roadhog hangs out with Junkrat because he likes to cause trouble with Junkrat for fun. It is also revealed that Roadhog doesn't know what Junkrat's treasure is, meaning he either never asked Junkrat or Junkrat never told him. This could further support the notion that Roadhog is more motivated to hang out with Junkrat to cause mayhem than to take his treasure.

6) Roadhog is shown on multiple instances to speak harshly toward Junkrat, and also expresses verbally that he doesn't care if Junkrat dies. This is contrasted with his actions, where he saves Junkrat from getting hit by Wrecking Ball and tries to warn Junkrat of oncoming danger. This suggests that Roadhog's external demeanor and words are not always indicative of his internal feelings, and that he doesn't earnestly want Junkrat to get hurt or die. He is also somewhat suggested to put himself in danger for Junkrat's sake and prioritize Junkrat's safety over his own. Junkrat is not shown to be good at looking out for Roadhog, and sometimes prioritizes bickering with Roadhog over both his and Roadhog's safety.

7) Despite his posturing, Junkrat is shown to care about what Roadhog thinks of him, and he doesn't want Roadhog to think of him as an idiot when his plans go awry. He at times may care more about Roadhog’s opinion of him than of any danger that may be happening around him. He is also shown to find it entertaining when Roadhog commits acts of violence as his ally.

---

ANYWAY!!!!!! thanks for reading if you did lol I know it's like way too long... I'll prob do one more post after this, looking at things like their character profiles on the OW2 website, promos from twitter/etc, details in ow2 skins, and event-specific voice lines. If anyone has any leads (?) or points that they want me to include or talk about, feel free to message me or send me an ask! I'm just going off of stuff that I'm aware of, so I'm sure I'll miss some stuff haha;;

Thanks again for reading!

Part 1: [click] Part 2: [click] Part 4: [click] Part 5: [click]

#info #overwatch #ow #ovw #ow2 #overwatch 2 #junkrat #roadhog #mako rutledge #jamison fawkes #rereading this the pacing on this story is still a mess #like it actually does have elements i think could b interesting but. idk. not rly utilized here #i keep having the insane idea of rewriting this story. im not going to but idk its killing me

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rose-riot-johnson · 2 months

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Hey Tumblr Peeps... For those who didn't know this, here's my confession... I have been fascinated with Chuuya for months, considering I was occasionally reblogging posts involving him... And since I have been reblogging more Bungou Stray Dogs, especially alot of Chuuya posts, as of late I do want to try writing about him to be honest😁👍

*This fanfic contains 1 or more long paragraphs and contains pronouns😅

🧡🦊Chuuya Truly Knows How You Feel🦊🧡 (Chuuya Nakahara x Female Reader)

Genres: Angst and Comfort (Warning ⚠️: Murder (with Mentions of Murder), Mentions of cheating (Neither Chuuya nor the reader had any part of it), Break-up (with Mentions of Break-up), and Language)

When Chuuya first met you, he saved your life during one of his missions from an enemy he was supposed to kill, which he ended up completing this particular mission of his (which involves killing the enemy he's is supposed to kill) that night. Despite of Chuuya having deep feelings for you, due to you understanding him and accepting him for who he is, he is aware you had a special someone who you consider your significant other, which he is happy for you and respects your space with your special someone. You even mentioned to him a few times of you and Chuuya hanging out with eachother on his free time that you're willing you have him and your special someone meet eachother one day.

When Chuuya is alone by himself, he tells himself that he should get over his feelings for you and accept that you're happy in a relationship with your special someone, however deep down his heart is hurting from the feeling of not being able to confess how he truly feels about you. Yes, he accepts that you're with someone else and is truly happy that you seem happy with your special someone, it's just that what he truly couldn't accept is his feelings for you, as his heart consistently bleeds for you and he's unconsciously (and unknowingly) feeling hurt from not being able to be with you or finding anyone like you. One night, when Chuuya completed his mission completely he decided to go straight to visiting you, however what he doesn't know is it won't be like the usual visits you and Chuuya have with eachother.

That night when Chuuya visited you, he noticed you're acting different than usual. You even asked, "Hey, Chuuya... Can we have a talk for a little bit? It's very important...". "Sure, (Female Reader Name)...", he answered, as he began to wonder if he did anything wrong to make you act differently than usual, as he then continued, "Did I do something wrong? If you feel that I did, I need to know...".

You replied, "I promise you did nothing wrong, Chuuya... It's just that I am very sorry that my special someone won't be able to meet you, after all... You see, Chuuya... My special someone has broken up with me, then a day or so later come to find out the special someone was cheating on me for somebody else... Both the break-up and finding out about being cheated on, hurt like hell, so much to the point where I wonder what's wrong with me, if I'm not good enough, and how could I be a fool to love (him/her/them) so much to the point where the person I thought finally would fucken, love me back decided to play mind games with me, especially to break-up with me and cheat on me!", before you started to hug Chuuya and cry on his shoulders. You sobbed, as you continued, "I just don't know, if I should even bother trying to love anyone anymore for my mistake! Yes, I am maybe free, however I still have been hurt in the matter of days, because of the hurt I have endured and have been enduring. I mean who would actually want me for me and not as someone they want to use, while play mind games, especially cheating on me, until after they leave me to die! Am I a damn, fool and completely at fault for what has happened and has been happening to me?". While a shocked Chuuya tries to hide his anger for what your former special someone has been doing to you and has done to you and trying to be calm as he can, he said, "I'm so sorry to hear for any of this has happened to you... I can assure you this isn't your fault... Yes, you got hurt and manipulated from what I am understanding, however don't be hard on yourself, because you're not to blame as you think, which I doubt if any of it is your fault... Sounds like to me that ((s)he/they) hasn't treated you well, so I feel it isn't you at all... I think it's (him/her/them) for what ((s)he/they) has put you through and has been putting you through... You deserve better than this, (Female Reader Name)... As for the fear of feeling unwanted, being pushed away, falling in love to get hurt, feeling of eventually not being good enough, and other stuff, I know how you feel...".

Before Chuuya was able to proceed to pet the back of your head, you stopped hugging him, pushed away from him, and snapped, "How dare you even claim to know how I feel?! Are you trying to say I shouldn't feel how I am fucken feeling?! Are you even trying to poke fun at me and play with my feelings to make jokes about my feelings?!". Chuuya was very shocked at how you reacted to him, however instead of snapping at you back, he calmly assured you, "Look, (Female Reader Name)... I never said that you shouldn't feel how your feeling and I would never play with your feelings like you think... I may have not been exactly in your shoes... I'm just telling you that I have history of being pushed away, rejected, misunderstood, not accepted, used, under the impression of feeling like I'm not good enough, and afraid of falling in love with someone only to get hurt... When I first noticed you were sad I wa frightened something was wrong, then when you first told me me what your former significant other put you through, I became angry, however I did my best to stay calm for you and I still am. And also to be honest with you, I always had been happy for you when you with the other person, however I had never believed in genuine love, until I met you... You were always kind, accepting for who I am, never judging me, always by my side, and always understanding me... I know deep down that I could never find anyone like you... Which is why I never pursued a relationship... I was very scared that you're sad... I became angry with the person you were with, because ((s)he/they) manipulated you... I have compassion and atleast a little empathy about how you feel... Things will be hard at first, however I do hope things get better for you... Not only there will never be enough words to describe about how I feel for you, but you're also the best friend I could ever had... Just because I have feelings for you, doesn't mean you have to rush with me... I would never push my love for you on you and you may never want to love again right now, however I hope you heal and things will get better for you...". You they went to hug him again, only this time you hug him very tightly, as you then let him pet the back of your head, as he said, "While healing does time and for some people it takes more time than it does for others, I can promise things will get better for you someday, (Female Reader Name).", as he also began to hug you tightly.

Once you began to feel better, while understanding why and how Chuuya knows how you truly feel, plus knowing that he respects you and his feelings for you, you decided to cook some food for him and even offered for him to spend a few nights at your place, since he mentioned to you that he is currently on vacation. You even thanked him for giving you some clarity of what he meant and realized it was the special someone you had that was completely at fault and not you, especially the manipulation ((s)he/they) was putting you through. Chuuya also madesure to keep a very close eye on you, until you are completely healed from everything you were put through and all better.

🦊🧡The End🧡🦊

To be honest, I was going to work on another genre with writing a fanfic about Chuuya and even write differently about him, however I decided to dedicate this fanfic who are also fans of Chuuya and/or those who has ever went through heart break, wheather it's recently or somewheres in the past, etc... Even if you are a fan of Chuuya and haven't went through a break-up in anyway you can still read that Chuuya fanfic I have written. So my Tumblr Peeps, I genuinely hope this fanfic makes your day and/or night, enjoyed this Chuuya fanfic, and you feel better from reading this fanfic about Chuuya (if things aren't going well for you or something like that)☀️🌞🌕🌝🦋🫂👍

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zanarkandfayth · 1 month

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Would love to read your answers to questions 3, 9, 13, 17, 18, 26, 29, 31, 32, 50, and, if there's another number (or several) you really wanna answer, please add those too ✨

thank you for the ask!! <33 I wrote you novels in return gjdskglj

3. In your opinion, what’s your best fic?

oooh this one is so hard because I love most of my fics for different reasons, even my older ones (at least the ones on ao3. we ignore the ones left behind on ffnet lmao). hhhh, of completed ones that are posted, imma have to say monsters honestly, because damn did I put some heart into that. but the one I'd probably consider absolute best is the still ongoing, not yet posted 600K+ beast of a fic I usually refer to as "nanofic" that I've been working on since 2019. it won't be everyone's cup of tea, but it just gets so deep into noct's trauma that I inflict on him and his slow recovery from it, more than I've done for any other fic, and I've poured so much blood sweat and tears into that thing, it's kinda everything to me.

9. Have you ever written for a fandom without watching/reading/playing the source material?

written, no. been tempted to in the past, but it was too much effort and I already had too many fics for my main fandoms. I have read fandom blind for both harry potter and supernatural in the past though, like lates 2000s into mid 2010s. both were kinda on accident. supernatural in particular is because it kept getting crossed over with MULTIPLE of my fandoms. psych, house md, and criminal minds. so I started reading non-crossover supernatural fics in self-defense gsdklgjdks

13. What’s the biggest change between your style when you started in fandom and today?

I mean… this is the first paragraph of one of my fics from my first fandom when I was fifteen. you tell me 😂

"Relena smiled as she sipped her tea and mentally reviewed the day's schedule. 8:00 am- peace talk to the world. 10:00 am- conference with Romefeller. 1:00 pm- try to convince Dorothy to become a pacifist because she was to stupid to understand that Dorothy loved war. Rest of the day- annoy the HELL out of Heero Yuy. Smiling happily again (PLEASE! Her smile is SO annoying), she stood up and was just about to take a step when …. suddenly a freak falling cow killed her!!! =^.^= The gundam boys all burst out of closets around the room and rejoiced."

the biggest change is probably that I actually write well now lmao. and don't character bash. and don't throw author's notes and emoticons in the middle of fics, and have learned to format better, and, and…

17. In your opinion, what’s your most overrated fic?

oh god. let me hide before I answer this. hands down, it's shadows growing. like let me be clear, it's not bad by any means. I'm still fond of it. but I did not have a clear plan when I started writing it, and I really feel like that shows. it was not meant to be a fix-it fic. it was not meant to be a longer fic. it was not meant to be much of anything, tbh. I saw the prompt on the kink meme and the prologue literally started writing itself in my head and I was like "nah idk what I'd do with that" and I scrolled past, but I couldn't focus on reading other prompts and so I went back and just started typing the fic in a reply to the prompt. honestly I figured I'd write whatever I could and then when I left it unfinished, no one would know because I was anon and I had like one fic posted on ao3 for ffxv at the time and I was used to being a complete fandom nobody. the fact that shadows growing got me even somewhat noticed was unexpected and I was not prepared gdjskgjdskl

it definitely affected the fic because once the readers started picking up it made me feel suuuuper stressed and I was so afraid to stray too far from canon because I thought people would hate that??? for some reason??? no there's logic there. I was just overwhelmed. and I do get why people love it, because the whump and the friendship between the boys is really good. but I cannot help but look at it and remember how out of my depth I felt at the time and wish that I had been brave enough to diverge more from canon and smart enough to come up with a better ending. I still suspect there were quite a few people who felt let down by the ending and that's fair honestly. anyways, yeah, it's a good fic and I'm fond of it and most of the attention and the recs it got were in the first couple years of the game being out and I don't begrudge it being my most popular fic, I just. have better ones now I feel like gjsdgjskgsj but maybe not ones as many people would want to read. which is fine with me tbh.

18. What’s your most underrated fic?

the gladio oneshot in my "fayth's daddy issues week" series! (I wrote all those fics so back to back that I can't remember the titles for any of them whoops.) I adore that fic and it got so little attention compared to most of the other fics in that week, or my fics overall tbh. the only one that got even less was the one about iris 🤣 but I don't care much for the iris one either, even though I think it has some stellar banter between the boys and cute/funny prompto/gladio moments. I really love the gladio one though, because it was fun to revisit gladio's pov in a fic and I got to develop a bit of backstory for him that's been evolving into headcanon and there's a good chunk of ignis and gladio friendship that was the precursor to all their friendship in monsters, plus I got to make gladio cry, so. I love it <3

26. What aspect of your writing do you most enjoy to see praised?

characterisation, for sure. it's the one thing I agonise over and actually worry about what readers might think at times, especially as I get further away from having played the game to keep it fresh in my mind. so anyone commenting that it feels right makes me roll around on my bed in glee. the other aspect I equally enjoy is people commenting on the emotions. like, that the ones I wrote the characters having feel real/deep, that it made the reader feel them too, etc. stuff like that. cos the emotions are literally why I write fic lol.

29. Does the division of your writing across fandoms line up with your reading? What’s the biggest discrepancy?

I am dumb and am struggling to understand what this question is asking, tbh. is it like, do I write for as many fandoms as I read, or something? because fuck no in that case, haha. the only fandoms I've done major writing for (more than one or two fics) are gundam wing, digimon adventure, final fantasy x, and final fantasy xv. and I've read for something like 100 fandoms, idk. at one point I had a list but I stopped keeping track eventually.

31. Who’s the one character you’ve just never managed to get perfectly right?

well… I didn't really understand the concept of characterisation for fanfic until a little before I started writing for ffx. so uh, it's kinda non-existent in my gdw and digimon fics. but once I actively started trying for it… honestly maybe just yuna from final fantsy x. I had some things featuring her meant to be longer fics that were set during the game (most of my posted stuff is set pre-canon, with no yuna in sight) but I never finished and/or posted them because I always felt shaky on yuna's characterisation. I don't think I've majorly struggled with anyone in ffxv to the point that I've felt too dissatisfied with characterisation to post. but at the same time I'm sure none of them are actually perfectly right xD but they FEEL more or less right to me, which is all I care about.

32. Who’s the one character who shines without you even trying?

noct. I mean. he's my blorbo for a reason xD my beloved, I relate to him so much and the rest of it I just project lololol. I make a point to not actually just write myself as noct, cos I personally ain't about that, but it feels very easy to write him without needing to think too deeply about his thoughts/feelings/reactions most of the time. they feel instinctual to me, even when it's something that would differ from my own thoughts/feelings/reactions if I was in a similar situation.

50. Has writing fanfic had a significant impact on your life? Would you say it’s entirely positive?

YES and the answer to this question is one of the reasons antis/purity culture upsets me so fucking much. it's a personal/sensitive answer though so skip if you don't want to read that xD but. reading rape/sexual abuse & aftermath fics as a teenager is what helped me to understand that, even though there was no outright rape happening, I was still being abused. seeing my favourite characters have the courage to tell someone about their abuse and get help is what encouraged me to tell one of my friends during an AIM conversation late one night when I was sixteen, and she convinced me to tell my therapist at my next appointment, who then told my mom, and yeah let's just say that was a very significant and eventually positive impact (it was a rocky road) on my life. if none of that had happened I genuinely think the CSA would have continued escalating into eventual rape. so thank FUCK for fanfic and I seethe with rage every time some shitfuck anti tries to claim there's no good to be found in such fics. plus in general it just helps with my mental health and I've made plenty of friends through fic over the years, even if they come and go I'm still grateful to have known them for that time, and writing fic is the one thing that gives life any meaning for me, etc. so yeah I'd say at least 99% positive.

and now, I will add a few to answer, because you said I could lmao

7. What’s the fic you most want to continue (unfinished or no)?

it is a toss-up between horizon road, an ffx fic featuring a toxic, fucked up relationship between tidus and auron that I still really love, or endless skies, a really self-indulgent digimon fic. they're both old at this point, horizon road I started in 2005, and endless skies was in 2016. horizon road suffers from me having no solid ideas for it beyond the three chapters I wrote, and endless skies is painfully fully outlined, but it was such a hard, research-intensive fic to write for a number of reasons, and now looking at it also just reminds me of an ex-friend who I feel very negative towards (because I talked to them a lot while plotting/writing and they even wrote some of the smut scenes for me, though I've since removed those) and even if I wasn't still deeply entrenched in ffxv, I don't think I could bring myself to ever work on it again :/ which sucks because I did adore it very much.

35. Have you ever written a ship into a fic without meaning to?

…okay, I think anyone who has read shadows growing and then has also read or even looked at my ignoct fics knows that the ignoct is very much present in shadows growing gjdskgjsk as much as I will swear up and down it's platonic, and people certainly can take it that way if they want, like. come on. it's there. at a point, it very much was intentional. BUT. it did start out accidental. the og prompt asked for either gen or OT4 and I don't ship OT4 so I was gonna do gen but noct and ignis kept blurring the lines when I started writing scenes with them gdsjkgdjkl aaaaand actually I didn't start monsters with the intention of it being ignoct either. (the ignoct bits in the first chapter I actually added in a rewrite of that chapter lmao.) nor the tiny little epilogue in heavy is the burden that nudges into hinting at ignoct territory. fuck, even the ignoct in my very first ffxv wasn't meant to be so overt as it was gjdsklgjks there's also tiny hints of it in some of my fayth's daddy issues week fics (not counting the one that's deliberately and stated to be ignoct).

…actually now that I'm writing this I'm realising very little of my ignoct has been deliberately planned at the start 😂 the sequel to shadows growing, grey skies, was planned, at least xD the promptio that shows up towards the end of the fic was an accident though gjsdkgljslk it just. happened??? I didn't even LIKE promptio when I started writing that fic. huh. maybe accidental shipping is just my thing in writing ffxv fics.

40. Do you feel like you put out enough content?

wanted to answer this one, because, I'm NOT talking in terms of other people here. I don't mean to sound dismissive or ungrateful, because I do appreciate the people who read my fics, it makes me happy, but like. it's not why I write OR post. I'm not "producing content" for people; if someone is unhappy with me for not posting more fics, that's their problem. but in terms of myself… yeah, I do wish I had more to post. not because I feel like I've got some kind of arbitrary quota to meet. like, quite frankly, I have over a million words of fic posted on ao3, and given that I have a single unposted fic that's over 600K alone, I'm positive I have at least 2mil total words written. it's just that I wish I could write more consistently/frequently? I feel like I never write as much as I want to, and I know a lot of it is because of my worsening health, so maybe that's why I just feel so frustrated and dissatisfied with my output, but man, sometimes I look at my number of posted works on ao3 and feel like it's such a low number for how long I've been writing ): both for ffxv specifically and for all my fics total. I know it's silly, but the feeling persists nonetheless.

thank you again for the ask!! I feel happy getting to answer questions and ramble about my fics :D and it was really fun to think about my answers and realise a thing or two haha.

#I assume most people use the auto-hide/click to expand long posts setting on tumblr now #but if you don't then rip your dash I guess #cos I don't wanna stick any of it behind a cut #I didn't mean for it to get so long though #I just cannot help but be wordy gjkdsgs #ask game #my fic

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gwenllian-in-the-abbey · 5 months

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apologies for being callous in asking this, but seeing as so many aegon-centric (or those who had tagged him) blogs, no matter how good their dissertion and dissection of aegon is, gets called/is assumed to be a rapist defender/apologist, have you ever received an ask/comment calling you that? if so, i hope it never bothered you at all. apologies for bringing it up but i feel like getting called that would probably stopped those from actually enjoying/talking about him and his other qualities (such as his alcoholism, his bond with his dragon, his actions during the dance, his desperate survival.) because it actually stopped me from enjoying his character (because i initially felt so bad liking a character like that), going through his tag as well as looking for fics because of the vitriol. well that was until i stumbled upon your AKAB and OFCiR, which gave me so much perspective on aegon. and your opinion on the dyanna scene (which is oh boy, such a hot topic) was so beautiful.

No worries anon! So actually, I've never received an ask or comment with the rape defender/rape apologist accusations (and now that I've said this, I'm sure I'm sure someone will want to break that streak lol). I've participated in discussions in general in which those sorts of attacks were tossed around, but I've never had them aimed at me directly.

I'm honestly pretty surprised it hasn't happened, but I sort of chalk it up to two things. 1) I block prodigiously and pre-emptively and 2) I tag my discourse posts judiciously and try not to antagonize other fans by posting critical things in the main tags. And although I know opinions vary on this, using anti tags and team tags is also another way of making sure that people who have certain tags blocked will not see my posts, so I do use those when I feel it's appropriate. Beyond those two things, I think I also have a habit of writing pretty detailed responses and providing evidence to back up my assertions, which probably discourages people who are just looking to get a rise out of someone and don't want to read a five paragraph essay about why they're wrong.

I'm really sorry that those sorts of accusations have stopped you from enjoying Aegon's character in the past, and I'm glad my fics helped you to enjoy him again. Obviously I think he's an interesting guy with a compelling, tragic story! I will say this: I've been in the greater asoiaf fandom for well over a decade now, and characters who are far more morally dubious than Aegon have always had fans. Ramsay has fans. Euron Greyjoy has fans. I don't know if you were watching GoT when the show first aired, but so many show only people hated Jaime at first, not knowing his arc, and by the end he was one of the more beloved characters on the show. And by the end of the Dance, no one's hands are clean. Rhaenyra herself allows Dalton Greyjoy to reave along the coast of the Westerlands, which results in hundreds of women being taken as salt wives (and we know what that entails!). If we can only enjoy the most morally correct characters, our choices for the Dance era are pretty slim, and mostly limited to literal children.

I doubt most people throwing out those accusations could even spot actual rape apologia in a fandom context, considering all of the other types of apologia I see flying around unchecked. Rape apologia is not the existence of rapist characters, enjoying those characters, or even analyzing why those characters did what they did. Rape apologia is not questioning why the show decided to make Aegon a rapist, or hoping he might get more character development in the future. Rape apologia is making excuses for rape, or outright denying that it happened. So, saying "Dyana was probably lying" or "Dyana was probably into it" or "Dyana was scamming the royal family," or even what Aegon himself said in the scene, "it was just a bit of harmless fun," that's clear cut rape apologia. And here's the thing, when something is wrong, it's usually because it causes harm, and unlike simply enjoying a character, actual rape apologia does cause harm. Making excuses for or denying even fictional rapes perpetuates rape culture in ways that make it harder for women to speak up against assault, and harder for rapists to be prosecuted effectively. But again, I have never seen actual rape apologia among the team green fans I know.

Finally, I'll just say that while fandom in general can be a fun, positive thing that helps people connect with each other based on shared interests, that drives people to think and to create and to do, on the other hand, fandom can also feed some pretty shitty modern impulses. It creates cliques, empowers bullies, and worst of all, it encourages a kind of brand driven consumption that in turn perpetuates this idea of fandom as activism. Activism is getting involved in your community, volunteering, fundraising, protesting, labor organizing, boycotting, etc. Activism is not scolding people online for enjoying media the wrong way. People who think this way need to reconnect with the outside world, and anon, I hope you continue to enjoy whichever characters fascinate you, including Aegon.

#i have seen a lot of posts about how daemon is NOT a groomer #but not many about how show!aegon is not a rapist #just saying #asks #aegon ii targaryen #tw sa #team green #hotd critical #anti hotd fandom

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methed-up-marxist · 1 year

Text

This is my reading of the first chapter of the first book of a multi-media project I've been working on for over a year now but hoping to resume making serious progress on. It's about how the boy i had a crush on in secondary was really mean to me, about being physically disabled and loving football in primary and ofc about the relationship between militarism, autism and the body aswell as how I really love stupid sci-fi shit. I'm sure you've seen me post some aspect of it before and ignored it, and if you tried to read it but got bounced off by the clunky grammar and tone, but if you would ever engage with it I encourage you to engage with this - I think I've made something atleast exciting to listen to and genereally more clean in purpouse. Most direct influences are starship troopers, "queer new wave" or whatever and warhammer 40k. This is really important to me and if u consider me important to u I'd really recommend giving it a go. Below the readmore is the first 3 paragraphs, to access a transcript of whole thing and read along click the hyperlink

“WAKE UP, WAKE UP THIS IS A DRILL, I REPEAT THIS IS A DRILL” the 2am drill alarm rang out through the barracks. “I guess it’s drill time” thought Fuckjaw to himself as he rubbed his eyes and slowly swung his legs around so they hung off the bed. “I love drill time” he murmured to himself. “I know you do” came the voice from the bottom bunk, that was Shitarm and Fuckjaw would’ve done anything he could to have been waking up in the same bunk as him, but the rule was one marine per bunk and if Fuckjaw liked anything more than cuddling marines he liked rules. Tragically the rule was part of a larger collection of regulations, guidelines and dictates known as the parameter protocols designed to prevent any affection getting out of hand. “Do you feel we talk too much?” Asked Shitarm as they put their armour on, the alarm blaring constantly. “Well you definitely do” Fuckjaw responded, gently helping him place his helmet on. They weren’t allowed real power armour for training, the barracks coup near the start of the war had made sure of that, and the pliability of the far weaker plastic made it possible to feel the hole in the back of Shitarm's skull where a bug had skewered him last year. Both of them sunk their shoulders in a despondent recognition, but they had agreed not to talk about it. The rest of the room was going about much the same. The armour, even its weaker version, was too cumbersome to put on alone. Formally the protocols insisted no one help another put on his equipment, but you try to find room in the budget to put an armour-equipper in every bedroom.

Marching, albeit with little care for pacing or formation, out to the training arena revealed the same wide open space as usual. Grey fortification-like walls lined the perimeter while the area was little more than a sand pit filled with target ranges and cabinets holding guns, knives and the remnants of first aid kits. In all honesty it was a deeply impractical arrangement, the corridor through which they had marched was the only point of access to the arena and yet the targets mostly lined the space near the entrance/exit (many people had been accidentally shot upon entrance/exit) while the cabinets sat on the far side in the middle of it all stood instructor Verbnoun. Verbnoun barked at them as soon as the first two of their formation set foot on the sand "Decaysquad! Line up against that wall: the drill was not a drill, I repeat the drill was not a drill". As the squad fanned out and stood with their backs fast against the wall, exactly an arms length plus just a little bit more apart from each other, their minds raced with questions. This was explicitly a training camp for injured marines. "We woke you up last, given your undiagnosed damages” the barking continued, although "undiagnosed" is a cumbersome and hard word to yell even for a man as used to yelling as Verbnoun and it stumbled out of his mouth. "The city is under attack" he continued, less loud now clearly embarrassed by his difficulty with the word 'undiagnosed', “obviously we don't trust you right next to the bugs but conveniently… almost too conveniently” he muttered suspiciously “we have 6 turrets that we need the 12 of you to operate”. Lieutenant Fuckjaw couldn’t restrain himself in the immediacy of his correction “it's not a coincidence sir!!! the turret batteries are designed to be operated by one squad in an emergency” he blurted out as quickly as he could, already covering his mouth with his hand in apology before he had finished the sentence. The gesture was itself pointless, the communication module of the armour was located in the chest due to its clunky nature, but Verbnoun’s embarrassment led him to accept it as sufficient apology and simply point to the turret battery sitting on the far side of the base with a subdued “get going”.

Back into the entrance/exit corridor they ran, a glance back to the closing door showed a frantic instructor yelling into his mic as the two diagonal metal panes finally slammed shut meeting in the middle. “What do you think he’s doing?” Shitarm asked, looking to Fuckjaw as well as one can while running. Before there was a chance to respond, sergeant Exilethroat yelled back from the front of their formation “he’s doing his job, which is exactly what you should be doing”. He always was a bossy little bitch, that’s why they made him sergeant. Barreling through the absolutely empty military industrial complex (complex like the building) would have most likely been a deeply eerie experience, if there had been someone to turn off the 2am drill alarm. The bugs always attacked at night, or at least they did following the breeding accords [of (date)] signed with the bats - echolocation was a distinct advantage in the dark. Arriving now at the turret battery entrance after a good 20 minute run, the newer members of the squad were visibly exhausted, used to the mechanised armour doing most of their running for them. Fuckjaw and Shitarm always ran up the back, their war torn bodies a threat of embarrassment to anyone who found themselves struggling to keep their distance. They huddled into the elevator to take them up to the controls. It was a service elevator, the exact same one used in the construction of the tower the controls were at the top of in fact. With each step someone took they felt it move gently, then creak slightly less gently. There was piss on the floor and frankly it could've been the piss of the person who built the thing. As it only went between two floors the control panel was just a cracked little glass button - press to go up if you're down and down if you're up. Pressing it began the ascent and every bump or wobble as it moved up rippled through the marines, armour clanking together. Fuckjaw’s arms dropped to his sides, trying to make himself as small as possible and while he couldn't get a proper look through the needlessly large shoulder pads that displayed their rank and squad he was sure he felt the pressure of Shitarm’s hand pressed against him.

#Bandcamp

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sansaorgana · 2 years

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Saw this post and couldn’t stop thinking about this:

Grumpy old grandma Vhaegar adopts a hyperactive hatchling. It’s like watching an elderly cat interact with a kitten/puppy, just climbing all over it and (pointlessly) biting her legs and Vhaegar shows her love by tolerating it and not immediately eating it and only occasionally smacking it away at 1/4 strength. But if any other dragon tries to hurt her annoying baby? It is ON SIGHT.

Kid!Aemond starts off arrogant like ‘look how pathetically small your dragon looks next to mine, it’s practically a lizard’, then annoyed like ‘get your stupid lizard off of her!’ and you being like ‘why? she seems fine with it, stop being a baby’

Because she’s so old Vhaegar mostly sleeps when Aemond isn’t with her, so your dragon usually just wriggles around in her general proximity or sleeps near/on her, though Vhaegar is seen to be more interactive/aware with this dragon, opening her eyes or lifting her head to watch.

Watching them get along forces Aemond to think about you, how the two of you interact, and the massive crush he’s been aggressively repressing for ages. He kinda wishes he could be as tolerant of your teasing/playfulness as his dragon is of yours, but after a lifetime being on the receiving end of far less good natured jokes he just can’t help but get defensive all the time, especially when he’s young and hot-blooded and hasn’t quite learned how to control himself yet.

Imagine seeing each other after years apart. While you and your dragon are just as playful you’re both gentler. Your dragon will still roll around or lay on top of Vhaegar there’s no more biting, as if it recognises Vhaegars age now, and while you’re definitely still gonna tease him, relentlessly, you don’t poke his sore spots.

He’s mellowed out, at least enough to control his worst impulses and has grown a thicker skin, every joke doesn’t feel like a personal attack anymore, he’ll even tease back. He no longer feels, or acts as if watching your dragons irritates him, he actually seems… pleased?

Whyyyy can I never just send one paragraph aaahhhh

omg don't apologize at all for sending long messages, I love seeing people's ideas and headcanons in my inbox!

and honestly, I already had an idea for a fic based on this post and I have a whole story in my head but somehow I find it difficult to write it down for some odd reason... it's frustrating...

now, speaking of your idea... it would be adorable as hell. also, dragon riders being like their dragons. grumpy x sunshine dynamic + if Reader is small (or at least smaller than Aemond and I think most women are) then they would totally be like their dragons. I can imagine Reader's dragon being small for a dragon in general and unfamiliar with any sort of fighting. Aemond wouldn't feel the urge to make fun of it and the Reader anymore, though. now, seeing them after years, he feels the urge to protect.

#mywinterivy #House of The Dragon TV Show #Game of Thrones Universe #aemond Targaryen x Reader #sansaorgana: Answered

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weishenmewwx · 1 month

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Stars of Chaos 杀破狼

Vol 2, Notes 1. Pages 21 - 46.

A very kind tumblr user had to educate me that, yes, Priest edited her work after it was published (stolen on to?) on pirate websites, and so, yes, the translators were working off of a different version than I read.

But I LOVE the version I read, so I'm sharing it with you. You get BOTH.

Please excuse my angry "MISSING PARAGRAPH!" hand-written notes, as I did not realize that official edits were made post-pirate-publication.

Below are many possibly-unnecessary cultural notes that I think are just really neat, plus differences between versions. (I love the old one!)

Here we go:

Very cool word, 帅。

Usually, I read or hear it in reference to some guy being very cool. Devilishly handsome. Dashing.

Here, 大帅 is used as "Commander-in-Chief," which is the same thing as "Marshal," which can mean (dictionary.com) "a military officer of the highest rank" as well as the one I'm more familiar with, "chief of a police or fire department in some cities."

I just like how, in Chinese, I can also-interpret that everyone is calling him "Big Handsome."

Yah, Chen QingXu is a Boss. Who introduces herself as, like, a snake-oil peddler.

讷于言 The young soldier was bad at words. Not sparing, not careful; just bad.

悬壶济世 hang pot save world, because so much of Chinese medicine is boiling herbs for patients to drink.

No one is putting powder in leather sachets. It's dried herbs.

I usually agree with the Seven Seas' formatting, but I think it would be more clear if those sentences were broken into the original two separate paragraphs.

Top: Gold Tank = container for violet gold. It took me a second to figure that out.

Bottom: 小兄弟. I love how you can combine the "older brother" 兄 with the "younger brother" 弟, add a "little" 小 in the front, and it becomes, effectively, "Bro," but respectful.

In case you can't read my tiny bad handwriting: there used to be another paragraph here about how Gu Yun wants to see Chen QingXu because his meds are losing effect. The effects of drinking the meds used to last for months, then weeks, and now they only last two days.

And on the facing page, in the illustration, Chang Geng should be ON his horse.

It hits a little different, I think, to say You have to bathe and change your clothes just to walk your horse? And it has to be this exact time and place?

锋芒毕露 "sharp point must expose"

After years spent guarding the Silk Road, Gu Yun's propensity to show off had gradually faded...

OK. I think ten is enough for this post. More to come...

My DanMei Literary Adventure Masterpost

Stars of Chaos - All Notes Links

#novel #Sha Po Lang #Stars of Chaos #volume 2 #Priest #杀破狼 #顾昀 #长庚

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sam-glade · 10 months

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Reducing verbosity, improving clarity

Part 3/3 of my editing process. Part 1 link. Part 2 link.

This is what I do to a novel or a novella before showing it to anyone (including beta readers). I’m posting it in hopes that it will help someone, and I’m not expecting it to work for everyone. Take any parts that help you!

The goal of this step is to make the style more crisp and direct. If you're going for a slow or very poetic style, this may not be as applicable.

Two things up front:

‘Imperfect’ doesn’t mean ‘bad’. Good writing can have imperfections.

The goal is to get the manuscript to a stage where the imperfections won’t be distracting to beta readers.

The idea is to convey the maximum amount of meaning in the minimum number of words. Be as specific as you can.

Large paragraphs

I go over the manuscript and compare the size of paragraphs. If they look close to square on a laptop screen, I’ll see what I can do about them. I personally don’t mind a paragraph of description or exposition, but the one rule I adhere to is that it must be immediately connected to what the character is thinking, feeling, or talking about.

E.g. I need to give a description of the uniform most of my characters wear.

‘So he sat there in the ashen coatee with white facings, unbuttoned to reveal a white waistcoat, both creased after a long day. Little swords on his shoulder straps signified his division, and three stripes on the buttons of his jacket marked him as a sergeant. His long slim Sword was at his side — not as slim as a rapier, and with only a simple cross-guard over the grip. And yes, it looked more silvery than cold iron should, and it glowed faintly in the dark, but when it was sheathed, it looked very ordinary. I’m just a simple Sword, Ianim’s appearance said. Move along; there’s nothing interesting about me.’ → I deliberately highlight the details about the weapon that are out of ordinary, AND explain how Ianim feels about the outfit.

If it doesn’t do that at the end, and is still long, it needs to be shortened or tied into the current situation.

Laundry list of actions

Here, I’m looking for paragraphs that list a handful of actions, without any introspection or description. It usually means I’m spelling out every little action, when the reader will fill in the blanks easily if I remove a good portion of them. It’s things like ‘looked around and located X’ or ‘walked across the room’.

E.g. ‘He rolled his eyes around, trying to locate whoever was speaking. He felt a faint touch on his left shoulder and twitched, promptly hissing in pain. The hand was withdrawn. He gathered his strength and turned his head in that direction.’ → I don’t lose anything by cutting the first sentence. In fact, it works better without a convoluted description of looking around.

Too many clauses

Another kind of sentence that I come across in my drafts is of the form ‘Something was X and Y happened to it’, which can be rephrased as a single clause.

E.g. ‘The roof had collapsed in one corner, and water dripped through it.’ → ‘Water dripped through a hole in the corner of the roof.’

E.g. ‘Once Master Varré had returned and deposited the supplies in the kitchen, the four of them sat down to a simple meal.’ → ‘Once Master Varré had deposited the supplies in the kitchen…’

Reiterating spoken words with actions

I want my dialogue and action tags to add something new to what’s said, not reiterate it. I look for actions like ‘sighed’, ‘frowned’, ‘nodded’, ‘shook their head’. I’m NOT advocating for removing all of them by any means. They’re sometimes needed to induce a pause in dialogue, and are slightly better than saying ‘he paused’. Quite often, an ellipsis will work just as well.

Examples of reiterating dialogue:

“It’s taught in the second year of the cadet course, but…” He frowned. “I don’t see why not? → remove ‘He frowned’

Gullin nodded sharply. “Yes, ma’am.” → the line of dialogue can be cut.

“I can’t deny it. It is regrettable, but I don’t think I can deny it.” He sighed. “I wish it wasn’t the case though.” → remove the dialogue tag. Yes, when I read this sentence, I instinctively hear a sigh there, but nothing hinges on it being there, and removing it doesn’t mess up the rhythm.

“Do you not want to take it outside, sir?” Gullin checked. Master Varré thought about it, but shook their head. “Not necessary. We are not going to release our Swords.” → remove ‘not necessary’

Dialogue thing that I do

On a similar dialogue-related note: as I write I ‘hear’ the words spoken in the character’s voice in my head. As a result, I VERY often end up with dialogue, where the action in the tag is performed by a character other than the one who’s speaking – usually to indicate a pause or a non-verbal reaction.

E.g.

Master Varré sprang out of their chair and started pacing around the hall. Lissan watched them warily.

“We need evidence, solid evidence before we can mention this to anyone. No offence, kid, but your word won’t cut it.” Lissan nodded seriously; he’d expected nothing less. “I’m going to Redguard to check [their] records.”

→ This is spoken by Varré, not Lissan, though the action tag indicates something to the contrary. I need to add something like ‘they said’ to clarify it.

Another dialogue thing that I do

A couple of my characters deliberately hide their emotions, and their reactions are measured. I tend to indicate it with phrases like ‘he allowed himself a sigh of relief’ or ‘he permitted himself a small smile’. Now, I want to bring it to the reader’s attention, when the character’s control is important in the scene – e.g. they’re keeping their cool during an argument, and allowing themselves a small smug smile when they come out on top. However, it’s not adding anything when their self-control doesn’t contribute to the conversation – which is most of the time. Even then, not every controlled reaction has to be preceded by a phrase like this; a few mentions are enough to establish the background tension, but soon it gets repetitive.

Hence, I’ll remove it:

Every time – in conversations where the characters can relax, e.g. when talking to their buddies at a pub.

Most of the time when the character’s self-control is important. I’d leave it in no more than half of the gestures (smiling, sighing, rolling shoulders, rubbing their eyes, etc.).

Thesaurusising/rephrasing

Especially in narration and in longer paragraphs, I find sentences of the form ‘they tended/liked/had a talent for doing X and Y’, where X and Y are close in meaning. I can remove one of them or replace them with a more generic word that covers both.

‘She had an incredible talent for reading hints between the lines and figuring out what was not said’ → Yes, that’s exactly what reading between the lines means. I’m removing the second clause.

Sometimes, especially in dialogue, I leave the rephrasing for dramatic effect, but only when I’m confident that it adds something.

E.g. “Because ever since I’ve met him, he wanted to be seen not as the Prince Successor, not as a grandson of the White Dragon, but a normal guy.” → this stays as is.

Describing the obvious

There’s usually no reason to describe something that the reader can reasonably assume to be the case. E.g. if you say it’s raining, you don’t need to follow it up by saying the clouds covered the sky.

UNLESS

The few exceptions I can think of:

One of my characters focuses on their surroundings to avoid doing something. E.g. they aren’t in a mood to talk and they let a conversation happen around them without listening, they focus on the chips in the walls or the grain of wood on the table.

When a character is bored or waiting for something, they might look around their surroundings. Adding descriptions to pass the time is often a good alternative to saying ‘they waited’.

When the ‘homely’ is surprising. E.g. the character has been on a run for a while, squatting in abandoned buildings or sleeping outdoors. When they finally get home, I’d elaborate on the comfort of it, to pull the reader out of the default atmosphere of the last few chapters.

I still consider these tricks to be exceptions to the rules – best used sparingly.

#editing #writing #writing tips #writing advice #novel writing #creative writing #writeblr #writeblr community #writers of tumblr #writing resources

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xmoonlitxdreamx · 3 months

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OW2 Junkrat & Roadhog Relationship (part 4)

Part 1: [click] Part 2: [click] Part 3: [click] Part 5: [click]

Helloooo I'm here with another long post lol. I'll be looking at Junkrat's OW2 profile in this post! I got kind of distracted with my goal because I also wanted to compare the current profile to his old OW1 profile, so the goals of this post are:

to point out any changes made to Junkrat's OW2 profile compared to his OW1 profile, and the implications of those changes

to summarize how Junkrat and Roadhog's relationship is characterized in Junkrat's current OW2 profile (including any information carried over from his OW1 profile)

Since I'm doing like two things at once in this post, my points kind of jump around a bit LOL;; hopefully it's still interesting to read though. I also put links to both the OW1 and the OW2 profile under the cut.

Anyway, feel free to read if you're interested! A summary is at the end of the post as usual for anyone who doesn't want to read my individual bullet points. ^^

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OW1 profile: archived here, sourced from 9/17/2022 (soon before OW2 was released; though I also checked the 2016 profile and it was exactly the same)

OW2 profile: referenced the current version on 7/4/2024 for this post, available here

OW1: “Junkrat is an explosives-obsessed freak who lives to cause chaos and destruction.”

OW2: “Junrkat is an explosives-obsessed demolitionist who lives to cause chaos and destruction. […] Growing up in the irradiated wasteland surrounding Junkertown, Junkrat is an unhinged, explosives-obsessed oddity.”

Softening of Junkrat’s characterization in OW2 (he’s no longer a called freak, but an oddity).

Also refers to him as a demolitionist (instead of a freak), emphasizing a scientist/mechanic angle to his character.

The demolitionist bit is on his OW1 profile, but as a bullet point under "occupation"; I actually missed this my first time reading it lol my bad

Removes some agency from Junkrat’s actions in the OW2 description (implicitly blaming his unhinged personality on growing up in irradiated Australia).

The “Junker” section on OW2 profile is exactly the same as paragraphs from his OW1 profile. (No analysis here because there’s nothing about Junkrat and Roadhog’s relationship)

First half of the "Wanted Criminal" section in the OW2 profile is exactly the same as his OW1 profile. The new elements of his profile start at the line “After a string of offenses…”

OW2: “After a string of offenses against the Junker Queen, Junkrat and Roadhog were officially exiled from Junkertown.” (no parallel section in OW1 profile)

This is probably in reference to the OW1 cinematic The Plan, where Junkrat and Roadhog are shown to be thrown out of Junkertown after causing Junker Queen trouble:

Junkrat: “Well, that’s a fine how-do-you-do. What was it you think that got us the boot? Stealing the queen’s cash? Blowing up her summer shack? The beat down at the bar? Whatever it was, you really ticked off the big boss this time. I don't think they're gonna let us back in.”

Tbh this kind of conflicts with the plot of A Friendly Rivalry, where it looks like Junker Queen intended to execute them for a completely different set of offenses against her rather than exile them.

OW1: “Now, with Roadhog in tow, Junkrat has left the Outback, and embarked upon an international crime spree leaving nothing but havoc and bedlam in his wake.”

OW2: “They turned their sights beyond the Outback to embark upon an international crime spree, leaving nothing but havoc and bedlam in their wake.”

OW2 description has been changed slightly to include Roadhog more explicitly; the two of them both decided to leave Junkertown together, and they wreak havoc during their crime spree together (instead of the implication in OW1 that Junkrat did the crime spree primarily on his own with Roadhog sidelined).

OW2: “’No job too big, no score too small.’” (no parallel section in OW1 profile)

I think this is the originator of this phrase in OW2, seems to be intended as Junkrat and Roadhog’s tagline; it’s possible it was added specifically for OW2? Unless I’m misremembering. Feel free to correct me if this phrase is used in reference to Junkrat and Roadhog somewhere else too.

As I mentioned in my Roadhog voiceline post, Roadhog references this tagline in one of his voice lines (I think it was a summer games voice line or something)… I’m not sure which came first.

Regardless it’s interesting that Roadhog references something specifically from Junkrat’s OW2 profile. Again I think this reiterates that Roadhog is at least aware of how Junkrat conceptualizes them as partners in crime.

OW2: “Though they racked up a considerable bounty on their heads, they’ve been able to evade capture through the very same methods they’ve used to acquire such a bounty: mainly those involving loads and loads of bombs.” (No parallel section in OW1 profile)

Uses “they” (aka Junkrat and Roadhog) as the subjects/agents of the sentences, emphasizing that Junkrat and Roadhog do everything together.

Junkrat and Roadhog’s schemes primarily utilize bombs, suggesting Junkrat is the main person in charge of their crime spree plans (since Roadhog’s arsenal doesn’t include bombs iirc)

This sentence also kind of implies that even though they get into a lot of trouble because of Junkrat, Junkrat is also the one with the resourcefulness allowing them to evade that trouble. (? weird sentence)

Other Junkrat and Roadhog relationship notes (based on elements found in both the OW1 and OW2 profiles):

“…[Junkrat] was nonetheless pursued by bounty hunters, gangs, and opportunists wherever he went, until he made a deal with the Junker enforcer Roadhog, who grudgingly agreed to be his personal bodyguard in exchange for a fifty-fifty share of the spoils.”

Junkrat was in danger because of his treasure and partnered up with Roadhog primarily for protection against this danger.

This is reiterated in the OW1 comic Wasted Land, where Junkrat is getting mugged by some of Junker Queen’s men and asks Roadhog to save him for a share of his treasure.

The notion of Junkrat being pursued by bounty hunters/etc is somewhat contradicted in the OW2 short story A Friendly Rivalry, where Junkertown citizens seem unimpressed with Junkrat’s not-so-secret treasure. Junker Queen even says “No one cares about your treasure.”

Roadhog’s primary motivation indicated here for having partnered with Junkrat is the 50% share of Junkrat’s treasure that he’ll get for being his body guard (“grudgingly agreed” = he doesn’t want to partner with Junkrat but he does want treasure)

Iirc this is slightly contested in OW1’s Wasted Land where Roadhog internally remarks “The world deserves him. Deserves both of us” or something, implying he has other philosophical reasons for choosing to be Junkrat’s bodyguard.

This profile leans slightly in Junkrat’s perspective, hence why Roadhog’s internal motivation from Wasted Land would not be revealed here. I'll talk about it in another post, but Roadhog's profile does slightly imply that he has reasons other than Junkrat's treasure for teaming up with Junkrat; so this could just mean that Junkrat is unaware of Roadhog's real reasons for partnering with him.

Summary

Junkrat's OW2 profile does not characterize Junkrat as harshly as his OW1 profile (they don't call him a freak anymore). More blame is placed on Junkrat's life in irradiated Australia as the cause for his erratic behavior. He also has a slightly scientific angle added to his character. The OW2 profile references events from The Plan, but does not reference events from A Friendly Rivalry. Roadhog is specifically described as being hired as Junkrat's "personal bodyguard"--the profile suggests that Roadhog's main motivation for being Junkrat's bodyguard is so he can have a share of Junkrat's treasure. Junkrat's desire for protection is also indicated as his main motivator for initially partnering with Roadhog.

Some pronoun usage in the OW2 profile slightly emphasizes Junkrat and Roadhog's status as a duo compared to the OW1 profile. The catchphrase "no job too big, no score to small" is introduced here, which Roadhog also references in one of his voice lines. The two of them are described as being able to evade authorities using "loads and loads of bombs," suggesting Junkrat is the one primarily in charge of the duo's plans. This also suggests that Junkrat has some success in keeping the two of them from getting caught.

This profile raises some lore inconsistencies when compared with events described in A Friendly Rivalry--the profile describes Junkrat as someone constantly pursued by bounty hunters/etc for his treasure, while A Friendly Rivalry suggests that no one in Junkertown actually cares about Junkrat's treasure (until they learn what it is). It is unclear which of these suggestions should be taken as canon.

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Anyway!!! That’s that. I’ll make a separate post about Roadhog’s OW2 profile just to keep things organized. (I’ve already written it; I’ll post it in a little bit... Tbh Roadhog’s profile is a little more interesting than Junkrat’s.) But yeah, thanks again for reading!

Part 1: [click] Part 2: [click] Part 3: [click] Part 5: [click]

#blab #info #overwatch #ow2 #overwatch 2 #junkrat #jamison fawkes #roadhog #mako rutledge

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