#But they did the right thing and they did it *because* of proper social connections which is such a huge thing in psychology

[hajihiko]

If I may ask, which plot twist hooked you onto DR2?

The "you were the bad guys all along" one!

[sunderwight]

Reverse transmigration bingqiu except instead of Bingge turning up in Shen Yuan's world, it's white lotus disciple Binghe who does.

Shen Yuan, currently in his last year of high school, finds him and thinks he's a troubled homeless kid who has latched onto a character from a web novel as an intense form of escapism. He's initially just going to hand him over to some authorities of some kind but the kid seems so lost and scared, instead he ends up deciding to personally use his family's connections to help him or at least find his actual family or something (of course, doesn't turn anything up).

Baby Binghe is brand new to Qing Jing peak in the timeline he left from, so he doesn't have any idea of cultivating. With his demon blood still locked, he's a normal kid. But he's smart! He figures out basic appliances and picks up other modern facilities pretty quickly, wins over SY's family, and eagerly decides to keep living with him when SY moves out for the first time. SY's almost feeling bad because he definitely got the better end of this deal. His family manages to enroll LBH in school and they get him a bunch of lessons on things he seems interested in, and even so this kid still finds time to do a better job cooking and cleaning than SY, whose schedule is less packed.

A couple years pass. SY is beginning to accept that this is a permanent situation. So is LBH, who is kind of sad that he won't be able to fulfill his mother's dream of him becoming a cultivator, but actually really likes living in the magic shiny future with Shen Yuan and wouldn't change it now even if he could. SY is looking at long-term things for organizing Luo Binghe's further education, travel, etc. He's come out of his shell, is more active in the world and with his family because he needs to make sure his young ward gets proper socialization! (SY's family think LBH is the best thing that ever happened to him, and don't point out that they're actually only a few years apart in age; except Shen Meimei, who is the same age as LBH.) Meanwhile Luo Binghe's life plan is veering towards "housewife" aspirations, but he's still too shy to mention that to the object of his crush. It's okay though, he's got time! He'll get older and then figure out how best to approach the situation! (And in the meanwhile run off anyone else who tries to date his future husband...)

Of course, that's when it turns out that the system sent him here as an emergency measure to get him out of the way while it resolved a major issue with the actual setting. When the issues are repaired, it yanks LBH back. He finds himself returned to the exact same moment he left, in the same physical state, the years he spent living with Shen Yuan seemingly erased.

Going back to Qing Jing Peak after all that is difficult. No, worse, it's almost completely intolerable. Luo Binghe has been treated right and had a good life and now it's just gone. He has no idea how to get back.

But, that's why he has to stay. Because if there is a way to get back, then his best shot at figuring it out is learning how to cultivate, and devouring every single book in Qing Jing Peak's library, and then every other sect's library if need be. It is possible to move between worlds! He knows, because he did it! He just needs to find the way to do it again, permanently. So he stays and he deals with Shen Qingqiu's cruelty and the bullying of his sect mates, but he doesn't hold out any hope for them to improve. Instead he tries his best to hold his own ground, uses things he learned from Shen Yuan's world to steal whatever advantages he can, and pushes his way through any obstacles or competition.

He hates Shen Qingqiu, though. Especially because he has the surname Shen. Shen Yuan's family was good to him, so it seems like a cruel joke of fate that his shizun is so dead set against him. Something that could have been a comfort is instead a bitter twist of the knife.

But then a couple of years into this, Shen Qingqiu... changes?

After suffering a qi deviation, he stops beating Luo Binghe at the slightest provocation. He stops beating any of his students, in fact. He gives Binghe medicine, actually starts teaching classes, rescues Luo Binghe from a malicious skin-stealing demon, takes the blow of an incurable poison to save him from another demon, even gives him the side room of his own house to stay in. The bullying ends and the atmosphere on Qing Jing Peak changes, like night and day. Somehow he goes from being Shen Qingqiu's most hated student to being his clear favorite, even doted on disciple.

Luo Binghe is not going to fall in love with this new reformed Shen Qingqiu, though. He isn't! His heart is not so fickle that he will just fall in love with anyone who is kind to him! His love for Shen Yuan, that was real. And Shen Yuan would tell him that even though Shen Qingqiu seems to have changed, Luo Binghe shouldn't just forget about the past, because what if Shen Qingqiu returns to that behavior? It might not happen, but if it does then Luo Binghe must react accordingly.

But it's difficult, sometimes. This new Shizun, he's... he's really... sometimes he seems just like...

But Luo Binghe won't fall in love with him!

No matter what, he won't stay. He has to figure out how to move between worlds, and get back to Shen Yuan. Who he REALLY loves. Not Shen Qingqiu. He is in love with Shen Yuan and he is not falling in love with Shen Qingqiu.

At all.

[goldsbitch]

Right? p7

part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6

summary: Y/N is a photographer for McLaren F1 team. Hard working, goal oriented professional who would never put her career in jeopardy for some stupid crush, right?

You were a professional. That's what you used to believe, right?

One would wonder how would the teenage version of you felt seeing that you're putting your career on the line because of a boy. Was the pride, dignity and all the hard work worth a one night stand? All those years of hard work, blown away in one night.

It was a mix of ultimate regret and and a massive fuck you to your own sense of what was right or wrong. How could a unique memory like the one Lando gave you last weekend be wrong?

Your heart sank the moment you saw the first photo. And another and another. Your arrival to his house was documented from several angles.

The mystery girl. You were not sure whether to scream or cry. It was just a matter of time before someone would make the connection.

If you were to fall from grace and loose your job, you'd at least try to save your dignity over there. Many people before you had made these types of mistakes. You were not the first one nor last one. But before you made the dreaded call to your boss, you changed your mind back and forth seventy times, cursed yourself out loud in public, and at one point even slapped yourself in front of a mirror. There was absolutely no way you'd ever tell your family. They held you too highly and the fear of disappointing them was too big. Your mother's kind reassuring words were not something you needed to hear in the near future. But your boss, the one that gave you the chance in the first place, deserved to know it from you. After all she did for you, how much of a role model she had been, she deserved to be told directly by you. After all, she was the one who taught you that the worst thing to do when there is a fuck up is to try and lie about it to the team. Open door policy. This was a fuck up. A good one. The best one, right?

Lando called you few times. You did not answer.

Alessia was a mentor to you. Italian super boss who left the Ferrari team to run the McLaren media team. She liked you. Really did. So when you called her on a Sunday evening, she picked up and then spend a good hour on the phone with you. You told her everything, from start to the end. She was surprised, told you that it was your fault that you had compromised your job...but, she did not judge. Understood, as if she knew what you were describing. You dared not to ask.

To your surprise, there wasn't even one moment where she would suggest firing you. On the contrary, together you devised a plan for diversion of attention. Took one of the secret fake social media profiles you had in the database, for moments like these. She also had few prominent gossip profiles set up, which were now used to feed the curious crowd with a diversion - blame a fake person and they will be happy for a moment and then move on. It was not the first time this had been done for Lando, but for the first time without his knowledge or request. And of course, for someone who was a part of the team.

You were also instructed to get rid of all the clothes or things you had on you when you went to his house. Oh and you got a hair cut. Not something too dramatic, but your long hair that used to fall to the middle of your back was now a wolf cut with proper bangs, done hastily on a Monday morning by a private hair dresser.

Alessia was also pretty blunt about the fact you had to stop the affair with Lando immediately if you wanted to keep your job. You'd be assigned either to Oscar or behind the scenes content - not Lando Norris. It was all so fast and cut with adrenaline induced fear that you dared not to object. Or even think about it.

When Lando saw those pictures in the morning, he paid little to no attention to them. Just another attempt of bad journalists to make some easy money. He was not going to give in. Only later on during the day he realized that might not be the case for you. The reality hit him when noticed all those comments during his casual stream session. Were you aware of this? Was it affecting you? Were you about to run away because of this? He decided to call you. And then few times more. When you did not respond, he figured he's just wait until he saw you at the paddock again, which was only a few days away anyway. He figured you were due to a talk about what to do next. In the meantime, he'd try to figure out his response. Because there was something very strong attracting him towards you. And he kinda liked that. At different times during his day, he had to stop himself from smiling for no reason.

By the time you both rolled back to the paddock, he was touch starved and hungry for you attention. He knew there was something stopping you from reacting to his attempts of communication, but he wasn't worried about that. He knew you had an amazing time, had your climax face still in fresh memory and most importantly, he was unapologetically sure and confident that he would sway you away from any doubts you might have by the power of his cheeky wink and few reassuring words. Mr. "not-a-worry-in-the-world" was living on his own cloud 9 while you tried to find something that would suit your new strange haircut.

The only thing he searched for was you. Walked around the paddock, pretending to be heading somewhere, several times. When he finally saw you, walking opposite of him, smile he could not contain in crept in. Was that a new haircut? First he got taken back, but then imagined how your new hair might bounce and fall to your face when you're on top of him, and he decided he was much of a fan. His fantasy of sharing a smile and lightly brushing your hands as the two of you passed vanished into thin air as soon as he realized you were not even going to look at him. In fact, it was like he was the plague you might contract just by accidentaly laying your eyes on him. As you passed and went even further away from him, he stopped, confused and somewhat annoyed. No, this was not going to just happen like that.

He turned around and marched his way right back to you - only to be very aggressively stopped by your boss. Surprised Lando could not ever watch you leave as he shared a confused look with Alessia. She simply looked at him and mouthed no. Lando didn't consider himself smart - that didn't mean he wasn't. It all made sense real quickly. He walked away without a word, the opposite way from you and still without any clue where he was actually going.

//

Your days were now cut with the same level of anxiety as you'd have during your first days at the paddock. Tripping over things, afraid to talk to anyone and generally trying to blend in or hide behind the camera. It was always a good reason why not interfere people's conversations. The fly on the wall. Because it was safe, right?

Wrong. Lando got more frustrated and mad with each hour that turned into another day. He was somehow able to contain it, but was getting more and more worried that it might start showing on his performance. He confided in Daniel during one of their padel matches. He just had to tell someone. Very rarely was he asking for advice from other drivers. But this time he had to. Daniel's stance on this was very clear and straightforward. "Mate, while it's good to have fun and all, it will never work out. Ultimately, she is working for your team and they will never allow it. Plus, she obviously does not want to risk anything anymore if she's not responding." Lando was mostly silent during the rest of their game. A little joke here and there, but with each hit to the ball he became more and more certain that he did not agree with any word that Daniel said. He had to know what you thought. This no contact thing was not good enough. He was cursing Alessia, the whole paddock and probably the rest of the world as well. Getting the number of your room was easy. Probably little too easy, he thought as he walked towards your hotel room, hoping he will not run into your boss again. It was 11PM. He assumed you'd be getting ready for bed right now.

And you were - the stress and loneliness of the past days meant frequent evening baths to ease the tension in your chest. Not that it was working in anyway. You put all your focus into work these past few days. Editing like crazy. Creating double the content that was needed. You didn't even turn most of it in. Would be too suspicious. Many photos of the team and Oscar. Not a single photo of Lando. You were on self induced probation.

The knock on the door surprised you. After a moment of second guessing, you got out of the bath, put a robe on and slowly opened the door. You genuinely did not expect to see his face. Which was strange, as he was on your mind every waking hour and in few of your dreams. He entered without saying a word. You let him in and closed the door, hoping nobody saw him enter. The anxiety was back in full speed. He thought he had a speech ready and put together - he did not count in the factor his own distraction with the fact you were obviously wearing only the robe. He never saw you this raw and human, if that was the right use of the word. Toned down to basics, no glam or work smile. Just you, young woman ready to get to bed. It was refreshing and a sight he had no idea how much he wanted before stumbling upon it. For him, there was no choice. He had to know where you stood.

"Sorry for barging in like that," he stated, trying to get you on his good side. But he was riled up with adrenaline, having hard time to contain himself. "But it's not like I exactly had other way to get to you, did I?"

You were vulnerable. As if he opened the box you managed to keep hidden. The moment he touched the door and the box lid flew away.

The two of you stood uncomfortably far away from each other. You were biting your cheek while burned you down with his stare. He waited for any reply from you, but he saw how frozen you were. His face relaxed, letting a rather concerned sigh out. Where to start?

"Are you avoiding me?" he asked.

Last time you felt this amount of stress was during your job interview. "Yes."

He nodded, disapprovingly. "Okey. Fair. May I know why?"

You wondered if he understood your situation and was just making sure, or whether he was just plain clueless. What a different world he lived in.

"Isn't that obvious? We had one dinner, and I had to cut my hair...It this goes on, I'd be bold in a month," you tried to put it in a humorous way, but it was really forced.

"Is that why?" he said, examining your hair once again from afar. "I quite like it."

It would be a lie to say that you didn't blush.

"Look, I am sorry for any trouble that caused you. We can be more careful..."

You grinned. "Careful. Right. Sounds delightful." You weren't sure where this bitterness came from.

Lando rolled his eyes, seemingly royally annoyed this time.

"Really? So you're just giving up, just like that."

He had enough of your silence.

"Ok, fine. I apologize for interrupting your evening," he said and marched to the door. You did not expect him to leave so abruptly. Panic set in, you know if was now or never - or at least a long someday. This was wrong, all of it. You caught yourself going after him and stopping him leave.

"Wait," you said with a tone of despair. It was easy to get him to stop.

"Yes?" he asked, clearly waiting for you to meet him half way.

Lost for words, again, but you pushed through this time. "It's a miracle it didn't blow up this time. Do you realize how much work went into covering it up?"

"I do. Believe me," he said with a look in his eyes that showed fatigue, as if this was not something he encountered before. "What I came here to say that even though we have had only one official date, I know that it is worth it to at least try and not bury this at the first bump. And I came here to ask you plain and simple, if this radio silence came from your head and reflects your true wishes."

You did not expect him to be direct. How refreshing to hear someone speak clearly after a run of situationships you'd have. This guy just knew how to shut you up and make you melt.

"I panicked when the pictures came out..."

"Yes, I see now that I shouldn't have left you alone with your thoughts."

"I like you," you returned the blunt honesty. If not now, then when? "I really do. You make me feel alive and I want to make you feel the same way."

His face relaxed, as if another protective wall fell down. Yet, there was a strain of pain in his eyes, something you'd never seen before.

"So why are you giving up? I thought you're someone who is willing to fight for what you want," he said, hitting where it hurt. "I've seen you go the extra mile many times before, going where your passion takes you. I sort of hoped this could be applied to us."

Never before has a guy stood before you with such a burning look and straightforward attitude. It was intimidating in the best way possible.

"I never expected you to be interested in anything beyond a fling," you said the first thing on your mind.

It was him now, lost for words a bit. You were happy a bit that you were able to return the bluntness.

"Yet, here we are," he stated simply.

"Here we are."

You both took few second of silence before you continue, finally getting your point out.

"To be honest, I did not expect the media to pick up so easily. I called Alessia, because I didn't know what to do-"

"Why didn't you call me?" he interrupted you.

"-I mean, we don't know each other that much! In the serious stuff anyway-"

"Yet."

"Yes, yet," Oh, was this man ever gonna let you finish a sentence? You took a deep breath in and continued. "I wasn't sure what to do, she on the other hand looked like she knew well enough how to proceed in this damage control and I just followed her lead. I can't jeopardise my career because of a fling, you understand that, right?"

In his eyes, it was a simple thing. "Well, let's make sure you don't."

"Loose my job?"

"Loose your job over a fling."

"Lando...you can't be saying things like that if you don't mean them seriously."

"I do mean them seriously...I meet a lot of people. Famous, gorgeous, fans and what not. I can't remember the last time I actually liked someone. What I do remember is putting other things as a priority, being lead by several different fears and ignoring this feeling. I'm getting older, I don't want to run away. Not until I've done all I could to give this a chance. If you want to, of course."

He was waiting for your response. You could see in his eyes, he was begging for an answer for a question he didn't ask.

"Of course I want to be with you! I want us to go the natural way of things and see how it goes! But, I'm afraid we don't exactly have that luxury," you said, grabbing your short hair to prove your point.

"What's the worst that could happen? In your own view?" he asked, using the same tone you recognized from his strategy meetings.

Ok, let's play it his way. "Well, I get marked as a slut, someone who does not have any real talent and I'll get fired and never get a job again."

"Interesting. Because I think the worst that could happen is us just walking away and never finding out what could have been just because we're scared of what some insecure people online will think. And of course people will doubt your talent, hell there are people still doubting Picasso's talent, so you'd be in a good club! People doubt my talent all the damn time. You can't let them control your actions? And dare I say, your talent is so obvious, even if you lost your job at McLaren there would be thousands of other jobs, maybe even better ones for you. Unlike me, you can do something that's universally needed around the world. It's not a one niche specific thing, formula 1 is not the only option for you!" he said and you felt as if he let his own insecurities creep in this time.

You desperately wanted to hug him. To ease the tension of what felt like once in a life-time conversation.

But maybe he was right? You realized you'd never heard someone verbally acknowledge your talent. Not your parent, who did not understand photography, not your colleagues, who were always focused on the professional criticism. He was the first person to do so.

"You really think that?" you asked, because why the hell not at this point.

His face turned to confusion, as if he did not understand what you were saying.

"What, that you have talent? Bloody hell, of course. A blind man could see that." Surprised face stayed on him for a while. "Don't tell me you don't believe that."

With that, he closed the distance between you two and went to cup your face. "I can't believe you'd be so harsh on yourself," he said, looking deeply into your eyes.

You laughed lightly. "That's rich, coming from you."

Your foreheads touched. "I don't want to pressure you into anything, Y/N. But I don't want to watch you go without a fight. Who knows, it might be a dead end after few weeks. But what if not?"

"I'm scared...but like, the good kind of scared, you know?"

"Yeah," he laughed. "I know." The two stayed in your own thoughts for a moment, foreheads still touching. "Can I kiss you?" he whispered quietly.

"Yes, please do. But only if you plan of staying the night. I want to find out what it feels like to wake up next to you."

He chucked. "Yes, me too. You did run away on me pretty smoothly," he pointed to the fact you were nowhere to be found the morning after your date.

And then- he kissed you.

It felt like opening the windows for the first time after a long winter. Like finally finding the perfume that suit you. Looking into a mirror and liking a new haircut. Realizing you grew out of your old insecurities. Listening to a song you'd heard a thousand times before and finally getting its meaning. A shoe that fits. Laugh that comes from within. Your true self coming out. Letting go of the past. Becoming yourself.

part 8

_______________________

@i-wish-this-was-me @lqvesoph @ophcelia @noneofyourfbusinessworld @formulaal

[witchofthesouls]

AHHHH, I KEEP THINKING ABOUT IT!

Okay, I think the handling TFP/Aligned Orion Pax was weakened by the background inconsistencies that were supposed to ground his personality and motivations.

And that's why Orion Pax can come off as an asshole, weirdly tone deaf, or very naive, yet deep inside the revolution as a competent head.

It's as if the writers took so many cool things to prop up the guy, but let it compete with "How Orion Pax and Megatronus were Different" and made a mess.

And, depending on your view, it either was half-heartedly addressed or done masterfully.

Saltysaltdog did a really great analysis on Megatron's feelings of betrayal and humiliation of letting Orion Pax so close to everything, and it's found here: click

The biggest gripe I have with the whole thing with the characterization of Orion Pax is twofold: 1) the writers didn't leverage Orion Pax's unique, and let's be honest, precarious position, and 2) didn't expand deeper the fundamental differences that essentially broke Orion Pax and Megatron apart and started that catastrophic civil war.

The setup is there. Megatron and Orion Pax are distorted mirrors of each other. The major differences are driven by what was socially appropriate for them to consider as pathways.

The Cybertron that came to was deep in the grips of a well-established and well-entrenched caste system. In that kind of society, it isn't just money that decrees social mobility. The very hierarchy of the society is driven by cultural and religious norms on the "worthiness" of each group at various set levels. And from that "worth," it not only dictates the rights of the members in a caste but decrees the appropriate behavior and outlets as well as dictates how relationships between members of different castes are maintained.

So Orion Pax is a giant "FUCK YOU" to all of that. His very presence would have pissed off so many parties that isn't funny.

As in, I honestly believe he's alive because his initial seclusion from civilization had given him key skills and behaviors that saved his ass and Alpha Trion's personal care.

Yes. There would have been bullying. Yes. There would be complete resentment and hatred. Yes. There would have been social orstracism from his own colleagues.

Even individuals who are lumped with him as "caste climbers" or just sympathetic/pitying would have stayed away by the dangers of their own reputation being tainted.

"You're nothing but a bauble and an ornament. Merely a prized pet for Alpha Trion. One day, he'll lose interest, and that day, you'll go back to where you belong."

Orion Pax flaunted all the appropriate ways of inclusion to their occupation and way of life. He doesn't have a frame or a specialized ability that's related to information. He has no achievements, no accolades, and doesn't even have a sponsored education from a prestigious university or any useful connections.

Orion Pax is both an outsider and a representative. He needs to be extremely mindful of everything: his words, his tone, his body language, his own work... are all subject to scrutiny.

(And it either shows his sneakiness that he's able to shake off all eyes when he descends down to the gladiatorial game, his ability to lie by omission or obfuscation, or his colleagues relief with him out of sight.)

That very grey area would have left deep impressions on him. It would explain his passiveness, the perceptiveness, the way he speaks, and the careful plans he quietly does by the sides in a need-to-know basis.

Violence can come in many forms. And in a world where your worth is tied to your caste, then Orion Pax should be deeply familiar with the various ways it can be soft, sweet, and utterly insidious. A velvet wrapped steel glove. A dagger from the shadows. A poisonous treat. A deal of bad faith. A betrayl from a kind face.

Remember: Ratchet went through the proper channels and with the appropriate frame to match his function. Of course, he has that shield against so many grievances and injustices as well as many prejudices that color his perceptions. Look at the differences in how he recounts the brotherhood between Megatronus and Orion Pax and the outcome of before the High Council.

Orion is both given privileges that Megatron and his cohort wouldn't have, but it's also a noose around his neck. He is severely handicapped by Alpha Trion's deliberate meddling to keep the reincarnated Thirteen/the Matrix's newest Prime nearby and simultaneously well-informed and in the dark.

Unlike the miner-turned-gladiator, Orion doesn't have that option for bloodsport. His too low-caste for the avenues of security by the high-caste, but too high-caste to partake in the low-caste culture. It's acceptable for them to be physically violent, to be in bloodsport, to solve their grievances with their fists.

It's vastly different to the complete ruination of an individual's life that Orion got thrown into the deep end: reputation, finances, personal and professional relationships, involuntary reformat... The power games of the higher-castes are completely different ball-game.

He's stuck with his own thoughts because there's no way he can voice doubts to Alpha Trion (the mech who gave him such a position, advice, and unrestricted access to the archives) nor to his colleagues (who either hate his guts or would sell the information because information is power and the Hall of Records is a major point of power).

Look at the people he attaches himself to. They're rather straightforward: Megatronus, Ratchet, Jazz, Bumblebee, Arcee...

He's drawn to their ease yet still holds himself in a certain degree of formality because that's how he managed to survive in a snake pit. And that's too deeply ingrained into him at that point. People read that negatively. Megatron once saw that but didn't understand what it truly meant. Megatron saw his willingness to give up so much and his privileges, but he didn't understand the extent of the scars that Orion mentally and emotionally has.

Ratchet would be one of the few that really perceives that. The medic may not fully understands but he keeps trying, and the war eventually breaks down the barriers.

It would make so much sense about his strange notions, why he doesn't allow Megatron explore "his" world, why he keeps everything to himself, why he relatively comfortable with others outside his "caste."

This guy would literally ruminate the entire work day (both legal and subversive) until he fell asleep after rechecking the locks 27365837 times so an assassin or unfortunate "pet" didn't come into his room.

This could explain why he basically highjacked the damn meeting. Orion Pax has unrestricted access to many records. He knows his history. He can read between the lines. His A-game was on, especially in this endeavor.

Was it a well-intentioned plan to draw fire to himself because he had Alpha Trion’s strange degree of protection compared to the others? Was it panic because he knew all the ways to kill a person until death was mercy? Was it Plan 27-b because he thought all the ways it could go wrong? Was it his well-honed instinct demanding him to divert and pacify, but careful with the words (soft and fluttering with hidden danger with what is unsaid) to keep avenues open because to have the Primacy bestowed upon them would be an honor and completely legitimized the movement? Did he see the noose closing around Megatron and couldn't bear witness to have it strangle him, too?!

There's so much going on here. It all hinges on cultural absorption and clashes and the meddling by an ancient fart of an oracle, and it's just so tragically fascinating.

[furiousgoldfish]

There was a time, when as a young adult, I'd be reading self-help books, in order to see if I can do something to make my life livable. Sometimes, these books would go very deep into victim blaming, and making a person believe that they can just 'manifest anything', or 'make things happen', and later I trashed all of that nonsense, but as an inexperienced person, I was all up for magical thinking, and taking advice from people who enjoyed making everything a vague concept that one can control with their mind.

Some of these books indeed, touched on parenting, and their philosophy was that parents who are bad, are simply bad because their parents were bad, which is something they love to use as their favourite excuse (i had it worse). But as a young person, how was I to know this was stupid, I believed this. The book went on to encourage the child, to try and be the parent's replacement parent, and to offer them caretaking and parenting they never had in their youth. Now, if you know how child abuse works, you'd recognize this immediately as the encouragement of parentification, making the child responsible for the parent's well being, being the caretaker instead of being taken care of, taking responsibility for the parent's actions and behaviours when the child has absolutely no control or power over it - basically bad. But, how was I to know, right. So I decided to try and take this advice, and try to see; what are my parents lacking, in the form of having their own parents?

This is where things got funny; I analyzed my parents behaviour, and realized very quickly, that what they lack is moral compass, correction of intensely selfish, irresponsible, ignorant and shallow behaviour, and if these were my children I would simply not tolerate that level of malice. My parents weren't lacking in care, they were lacking in discipline. So at that point, I, who had no income, shelter, social power, access to resources, finances, or anything else, thought I was responsible for disciplining my parents and teaching them how to 'not be evil', if I wanted to change them in normal and good people. (Completely normal and possible thing to do.)

And it's not like I had any guidance in how to offer proper 'discipline', all I knew was violence, which I couldn't do for obvious reasons, and the next thing would be scolding, yelling, guilt-tripping, criticism, making them 'feel bad' for 'doing bad things'. And that's exactly what I had decided to do. Next time my father was acting selfish, malicious, shallow and self-obsessed, I dropped him a 'This is why you don't have any friends.' line.

Now I have no idea why, but this actually got to him. He was shocked for a moment, and then started acting defensive. 'I have friends!' he insisted, and then he started listing all of the coworkers he used for his gain in the last week. 'Those are not real friends.' I decided. That had actually gotten him upset. He started listing all the things he did with those people, which were just random work transactions, and it didn't convince me at all.

Looking back, it's funny because I was so low on his hierarchy of people whose opinion mattered, he tried to kill me multiple times, he screamed inhumane slurs and insults at me constantly, he considered me less than a person, less than a thing even, but he was still so offended that anyone in the world could think he had no friends. What I had done is made him worried that his facade and public image of being well-connected and liked wasn't strong enough, and convincing me that he was all those things, was how he thought he'd fix it. He didn't even think for a second that maybe he should fix his malicious and exploitative behaviour, it was all about maintaining an image of being something else.

Obviously he didn't have any friends, because he's a narcissist, and narcissists don't make friends, they keep prisoners. I was a constant thorn in his eye because I could see trough his delusions and would regularly call him out on that, which of course then brought on violence to make me terrified of contradicting him. Because that's how they think reality is generated, if they say something is true, and nobody contradicts them, then that must be the new reality.

Anyway, I didn't try to argue with him on friends again, because it got boring and did nothing to fix his inhumane behaviour, and I didn't like interacting with him anyway. But I still find it very funny that a book that was trying to push abused children into caretaking for their parents, pushed me into trying to punish them for abuse, it was almost Matilda-like in fashion. If I had magic powers I would have changed these people (into people too scared to be evil in front of me).

[tiedsh0es]

Ok Silver. I feel like people just write him off as mean and don’t get how well-written he is, and how actually crazy a character like him staying till the FINAL 4 is. He never, ever would have gotten that far, never ever would have grown as much as he did if viewer voting was still in. That said, it’s because of this that I’m even more heartbroken that he didn’t get much of a sendoff in the finale.

Silver is such a complicated character, while his personality never changes he himself does change a little. He’s egotistical, and puts the show above everything else. But there are also moments where he shows he does try to make connections with people. I remember in episode 4, after he gets OJ voted out. He’s pretty proud of this! And tries to get the others in his team to join in on his enthusiasm, when they don’t take it in a good way Silver sort of shuts down. Crosses his arms and stands away from the group. He never really shows emotion; he just goes to the sideline and ignores things. He doesn’t really have the best social etiquette and because of his abrasive personality people don’t really want to try with him. But Candle actually involves him in things, even when he messes up with OJ she takes his hand and includes him into the group.

And in his speech he knows people don’t actually like him. He has to cross his fingers and hope he can sweet-talk his way out of it.

But Candle is there and he’s been practicing his powers for her, so he tries to show off his powers not realizing how much of an insult this is- and when Candle shuts him down there is a moment where he looks genuinely hurt before he- in silver fashion- shakes it off literally saying out loud to Cabby none of that! He’s never learned to actually show the vulnerable side of him. There is no proper communication here.

-

And the first part of the finale made me so- so hopeful!! The inner flame is such an important part to Silver and Candle’s character. It’s been mentioned and talked about since episode four, it’s what got them to first stick together. 

When the inner-flame takes over- and.. I saw a lot of people didn’t understand that Silver was NOT in control here, it was his inner-flame- it reveals the feelings he’s always hiding, he trusted that Candle believed in him, and “right when I finally felt like more than nothing” he feels betrayed. For a character that acts so egotistical to say that, he’s basically admitting he puts on an affront because he knows he’s unlikable and hard to get along with.

The inner flame is something he’s worked on, and gotten better at for candle. But he misunderstands the true meaning of it. And in his muddled up emotions he ends up hurting candle with it- the one person who has ever actually shown to care about him but not change him. He looks genuinely HORRIFIED that he’s done this. Finally his rash personality has real consequences. 

The first part of the finale was so good.. It put up so many stakes… it made me think I was going to get the silver send-off I’ve been wanting for like… actually a year 😭but then… Silver doesn’t really get to do anything. We never ever really get to hear Candle’s side of things, she just immediately forgives him… 

And they write off Candle as fine, as if she never got hurt in the first place as if her literal inner flame going out has no consequence. Silver mentions how he messed up but doesn’t really do anything besides that… He NEVER even got to conquer his inner flame!! That’s just a loose thread we never get to see! It would have been SO MUCH MORE impactful if Silver used his inner flame for another person, instead of using it for himself. If he mastered it to try and save Candle or even Springy or literally anyone!! But Silver didn’t get to do any of that!! All the consequences, all the episodes of him slowly learning he has an inner-flame for nothing?? Actually for nothing?? I’m actually devastated. He was so clever, so well-written, so complicated and this is how they ended his character?? I’m just so so sad.

I think the final episodes had a sort of writers-conflict, did they not  talk about how they wanted it to end?? Both episodes have very different stakes and feelings. It’s very sad that this is how they decided to end the final ep. I’m not happy with it. I have other complaints but Silver was what I was most disappointed with. Because even if there is a season 4 and he comes back for some reason they’ll never have the opportunity to show how clever he is, and let him grow as naturally as he did in invitational. (ok just realised both episodes had the same writer WHAT HAPPENED??????)

[moonbxbiee]

Contrasting Hearts- Yang Jungwon

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Prologue- In the bustling halls of Yonsei University, 'Yang Jungwon' cut a figure of popularity and prestige. With his sharp wit and grumpy demeanor, he commanded attention wherever he went. Yet, beneath the facade of confidence lay a young man burdened with restrictions and frustrations, yearning for an escape from the unwanted pressures and people in his life.

On the opposite end of the spectrum stood 'Moon Collins', a ray of sunshine in a world often shrouded in shadows. With her carefree attitude and a heart full of love, she floated through life with ease, cherishing every moment spent with her loved ones.

Moon prepared to make the journey from Seattle back to Seoul after six long years. When their paths inevitably crossed, sparks flew as their contrasting personalities clashed. Their initial encounters were marked by arguments and playful banter, each one vying to outdo the other with clever retorts and witty comebacks. Little did they know, fate had a different plan in store for them but don't wanted to accept it.

Unbeknownst to Jungwon, the girl he confided in every night, the one he jokingly referred to as "his therapist," was none other than Moon herself. Their connection, forged through late-night conversations on Instagram with a stranger, was about to take on a new dimension as their lives intertwined in unexpected ways.

Contrasting hearts masterlist

Non idol!enhypen × My original characters

Gener- social media au with written chapters/one shots, multiple pov's, crack, fluff maybe some other things we'll see.

Tropes- Stranger to enemies to lovers, Slow burn,He's dumb and she's even dumber, Grumpy X sunshine, Slight angst

Caution- Mature content (only implied on the legal line and only in some parts), Swearing, Drinking/smoking, Past traumas and violence(I'll add more if I need to)

Author's note - hey! Hope you're having a good day or night. About this story I know I've made a very long prologue and i explained too much hehe... but apart from that I've already started posting this story on wattpad in early February but later I found it a little difficult because of the genre (smau) so eventually I stopped but now I've decided to continue posting this story on both of the platform I mean here and wattpad. (Tho I need to edit a lot on wattpad now)

And maybe you will find some grammatical errors since English is not my native language

Also this story is 17+ in my opinion but maybe 18+ in few parts (if you're a minor please don't interact)

I hope you guys will enjoy reading this. if you wanna get tagged on the tag list just tell me in my ask(☆⁠). Feedbacks will be really appreciated and helpful for me♡

If you read all my blah blah till here, some flowers for you💐

thankyou so much🥰

We'll post a proper introduction soon along with profiles.

Till then bye bye!

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

@moonbxbiee all right reserved. Do not translate or post my work anywhere without permission.

[lookingfornoonat2pm]

One of the things that has been fucking me up the most about Aaron Bushnell's self-immolation is how much I connect to it.

And I want to say that what follows is not meant as a correct take. It is not meant as an opinion or a corrective or as advice or even as wisdom. It may even be outright and absolutely negative. But it must be said, and I must say it.

During the height of the Covid-19 Pandemic, as I was working in total isolation as a mental health professional, I thought about self-immolation a non-trivial amount. I thought about going to the CDC headquarters and lighting myself on fire as a protest against privatized medicine. The failure to provide free healthcare during the pandemic is, to me, one of the most monumental failures of our government, and of our society, in my lifetime. It is a failure to which I feel deeply connected. As a disabled person, as a professional, and as a child of a mother and a brother of a brother, my body and heart scream from the pain of knowing that all of us are alone when we are in ill health. I fantasized that my death could provide a flashpoint around which there could be a rallying cry for meaningful change.

I was also deeply afraid and alone, as so many of us were during the years from 2020 to 2023. Such fantasies, as they often do for the suicidal, offered a fantasy of escape and of righteousness when I worked as part of an indefensible system.

Even writing about this feels like spitting on the cause of Palestinian liberation and of the end of Israel's genocide against the Palestinian people--because I am making a post about myself and about my own experiences.

But what compels me to write all of this is that, as a mental health professional, I cannot stomach the idea that we are all just going to write Aaron Bushnell off as "sick" or "unwell." I'm not even convinced it is proper to call his death a suicide, in the sense we use to refer the terminal ends of depression and despair. We must be able to think and to write and to understand spiritual and political life outside and beyond the medical or the clinical or the merely pleasurable or painful.

We MUST be able to acknowledge the truth of sacrifice. People really do sacrifice for things that are greater than themselves, and such sacrifices are not sick, or wrong, or delusional.

The irony of my demand for universal healthcare coming along with my demand to take seriously the human being beyond the medical is not lost on me. But the contradiction is only apparent. Below both of these--the call for a political and spiritual life beyond the medical or the financial, AND the demand for the provision of the human right to medical care--is a profound belief in the absolute dignity of the free human person. And it is in fact the ongoing war machine, of which the Israeli genocide is a part, that is the other side of the machine which denies me and my clients and my fellow citizens a meaningfully free social world.

If you see Aaron Bushnell's death, and the people who acknowledge and honor his martyrdom, and think that this somehow justifies your own suicidal ideas or fantasies, I beg you to reconsider. If you see Aaron Bushnell's death, and think that the best thing you can do is die for a noble cause, I beg you to think about how much more your living body can do than your dead body can. But I cannot and I will not accept the idea that we must think of sacrifice as meaningless. Aaron Bushnell did not die for nothing, and I, and millions of people like me, will see to it that he did not.

[alpaca-clouds]

Social Media is Nice in Theory, but...

Something I cannot help but think about is how awesome social media can be - theoretically - and how much it sucks for the most part.

I am a twitter refugee. I came to tumblr after Elmo bought twitter and made the plattform a rightwing haven. But, I mean... There is in general an issue with pretty much all social media, right? Like, most people will hate on one plattform specifically and stuff, while upholding another plattform. But let's be honest... They all suck. Just in different ways.

And the main reasons for them sucking are all the same, right? For one, there is advertisement and with that the need to make the plattform advertiser-friendly. But then there is also just the impossibility to properly moderate a plattform used by millions of people.

I mean, the advertisement stuff is already a big issue. Because... Sure, big platforms need big money because they are hosting just so much stuff in videos, images and what not. Hence, duh, they do need to get the money somewhere. And right now the only way to really make enough money is advertisement. Because we live under capitalism and it sucks.

And with this comes the need to make everything advertiserfriendly. On one hand this can be good, because it creates incentives for the platform to not host stuff like... I don't know. Holocaust denial and shit. The kinda stuff that makes most advertisers pull out. But on the other hand...

Well, we all know the issue: Porn bans. And not only porn bans, but also policing of anything connected to nude bodies. Especially nude bodies that are perceived to be female. Because society still holds onto those ideas that female bodies need to be regulated and controlled.

We only recently had a big crackdown on NSFW content on even sides that are not primarily advertiser driven - like Gumroad and Patreon. Because... Well, folks are very intrested in outlawing any form of porn. Often because they claim to want to protect children. The truth is of course that they often do quite the opposite. Because driving everyone away from properly vetted websites also means, that on one hand kids are more likely to come across the real bad stuff. And on the other hand, well... The more dingy the websites are, that folks consume their porn on, the more likely it is to find some stuff like CP and snuff on those sides. Which will get more attention like this.

But there is also the less capitalist issue of moderating the content. Which is... kinda hard on a lot of websites. Of course, to save money a lot of the big social media platforms are not really trying. Because they do not want to for proper moderators. But it makes it more likely for really bad stuff to happen. Like doxxing and what not.

I mean, like with everything: I do think that social media could be a much better place if only we did not have capitalism. But I also think that a lot about the way social media is constructed (with the anonymity and stuff, but also things like this dopamine rush when people like your stuff) will not just change, if you stop capitalism.

[rising-volteccers]

Episode 18 has given me a lot to think about Friede's character. Thus this is my personal thoughts of what we've known from his backstory. I have a lot to say so this is going to be long so if you're planning on actually reading this to the end, well buckle up. This is part one of two posts because Tumblr has a 30 image per post limit and I will not be denied putting in screencaps of the moments I love (which is the entirety of the episode).

Part two of the post is [here].

First and foremost, what interested me was that Friede had an actual proper job before this. When I think about Pokemon Professor, my mind goes to the likes of Professor Oak and Elm that have their own research labs. Of course so long as they were an expert in a particular field and researchers in their own right, they didn't need a base of operations so to speak. To my knowledge, usually they were 'self employed' as in they didn't work for someone. Seeing Friede as he is now, it's hard to picture being under someone's employment. It doesn't suit him, and as we'll learn later, he's not meant to be cooped up in a laboratory doing research all day.

We know from Episode 13 that the Brave Asagi was created from Ludlow's fishing boat so it's implied that Friede, Orla and Ludlow knew each other from before the formation of the Rising Volt Tacklers. We learn that Friede and Orla were childhood friends that used to live in Kanto before Orla moved to the Hoenn region. What prompted Friede to be in Paldea might be related to that job he recently quit but what I want to know is the exact relation between Ludlow and Friede.

Ludlow is clearly trying to cheer Friede from his slump. This speaks of a familiarity between the two and given their massive age gap, a part of me wonders if Ludlow is actually Friede's biological grandfather. He refers to Ludlow as Gramps but that could simply be how he addresses someone who he's close and familiar with. Still, the way Ludlow speaks here implies that this Friede has been coming here to fish for multiple days. Ludlow sees that someone as young as Friede should go and seek opportunities with his own two hands instead of wasting his days away. I really like seeing this and hope we'll get to learn more about Ludlow in future episodes.

Here, there's multiple things that caught my attention. We now know for certain that Lucca was Friede's old school teacher. That's the connection that the had, and one that lasted for years after Friede finished school. They likely had a good bond seeing that Charizard was super friendly to her, not to mention that she kept up to tabs with Friede's life seeing that she knew he quit his job. Friede said she hadn't contacted him in years thus giving me the impression that she had her connections because Friede doesn't give me the vibes of someone who'd use social media and post everything about their life.

It makes me wonder just how much Friede looked up to Lucca. Teachers who left an impact on you tend to last even long after you've graduated I find. It seemed that Friede shared his dreams of becoming a Pokemon Professor to Lucca, so much so that she recalled just how happy he was. I'm hoping someday we could get more insight on that.

Alright, this is going to veer heavily into personal interpretation and headcanons. From the way that Friede spoke about himself being a genius Pokemon Professor where there's nothing that he didn't know about these mysterious creatures doesn't sound like an empty boast. If we considered how he did the Professor Friede segment at the end of the episodes, he'd be on the same footing as Professor Oak, one of the most well known professors of all time. I imagine had he actually done that, then it couldn't just be hosted by any professor. It needed to be by a professor who truly knew a lot about Pokemon.

Friede believes himself to be a genius Pokemon Professor (as he stated this once or twice more throughout the episode) where he knows all that is to know about Pokemon but now he's in a rut and he doesn't know what to do with his life.

Now I've mentioned a few times before that I personally headcanon Friede to have undiagnosed ADHD. To me, Friede just feels like a burnt out gifted kid.

Given the ambiguity of his age yet he was considered a fully accredited Pokemon Professor that had a job before Lucca made that phone call and he looks like he's in his late teens to late twenties, picture this:

You have a strong interest in Pokemon. You happily tell your favorite teacher that you're going to become a Pokemon Professor to do all kinds of research. You are genuinely intellectually smart and loves learning about Pokemon so you go through years of study, pushed by your drive to learn everything and believing you've done so when you became a Pokemon Professor. You were eligible to be hired on as a company researcher, finally showcasing how you earned your credentials. But you learnt that it wasn't all that cracked up to be. You're putting what you've learnt into practice but being cooped in a lab, analyzing data just didn't sit right to you. Instead of forcing yourself through it, you decided that the better course of action is to quit. Hey, you found your freedom at last! After all those years of hard work, might as well take it easy yeah? Still, this is what you've been working towards. That's all you knew what you wanted to do since you shared your dream to your favorite teacher. You have the credentials, the knowledge and the means to do whatever you want but... you're just bored? Maybe not bored but there's just nothing interesting. You've worked hard to achieve your dream but did you consider anything aside from it? Now that you've realized that you're not really suited for researching in a lab, what can you do?

So the gist of it is gifted kid that worked hard towards becoming a Professor discovers that it might not be suited for him. That realization leaves him falling into a rut because he doesn't know what else he can do. He likely never considered the possibility of it not suiting him thus he doesn't have a back-up plan.

In that sense (and again, this is personal interpretation and a touch of self projection) I kind of relate to him. Going through school with good grades being fixated on multiple topics, thinking that this is what I want to do when I studied for my degree because it felt like the natural progression at the time but then finding out that it's not really suited for me. I've hit that wall and still in that figuring out what I want to do stage so seeing how Friede developed in this episode gave me hope that perhaps I can find that spark like him one day.

Anyway I just wanted to point this out cause this made me laugh.

Narrator voice: Let him cook. He will in fact one day imagine and experience it.

Friede would have dismissed that Pikachu entirely because he's still in that mindset of I know all that is to know about Pokemon. What I love about this scene is that for the first time since that flashback, there's a spark in Friede's eyes. He's likely experiencing excitement from have his interest piqued since he quit his job (or maybe even longer than that), to see something that he thought he knew existing outside this neat checkbox of a Pikachu's type, habitat, moves, etc.

Also I love how from his view, it looks like Pikachu's falling when it fact he's ascending. Friede's fallen into a rut but this is his first glimpse of eventually seeing a future where he will ascend high and free alongside Cap.

Funnily enough this is the halfway point of the episode so the second half of this post is [here].

[veintrry]

heart to heart.

wanderer x gn!reader. slight angst, death mentions, sugar-rotting fluff, romance, couples being couples, they have known each other for a long time, wanderer is referred to as kuni by reader, he's bad at expressing his emotions directly but he tries. possibly ooc? but he's just rlly in love imo

an: HAPPY VALENTINE!!! i had to make the hard choice of denying angst on vday. it's okay, i sprinkled some in. also ofc, inspired

The last thing Wanderer was skilled at was romance. That by no means meant he was clueless, he has existed long enough to see what is considered love and what isn't change. He's gotten to witness these social displays of affection and yet, he never understood where they stem from. It turns out, the answer was beyond words. Lucky for him, he was always better at acting on his emotions.

There was no reason for anyone to explain Valentines day. Everyone knew it, everyone. In fact, so many did that Wanderer was beginning to think there is a specific disease that spreads and makes everyone lovesick on this specific day. I mean, really, a day to spoil your loved one? The thing that is astounding to him wasn't it having a day, but rather the fact it was only one day like this isn't meant to be something you do every day.

If you only display such things on this day only without shame then that just seems depressing. Don't get him wrong, he wasn't the kind to go grabbing your hands, or to give you an obnoxiously large gift for everyone and you to witness, but he knows you liked small things, like walking particularly close to him, staying beneath his hat, your fingers grazing each others as you walked, teasing him till he clutches your hand, scoffing at your behaviour. But you knew he liked it; You knew he liked you.

But, I guess this is a proper day for him to reflect, right? To look back on everything?

-

You two were very different people, that has always been evident, but similar to now, you two found an odd connection, though it was hard to discover. He wasn't exactly the easiest to get along with, he knows that, but you stuck around. You stuck around and bothered him. You're still here to do that now. Why? He doesn't know. But he feels it.

You were just someone who wanderers about from time to time outside of your average life. If you could escape the normalcy and routine of life, you did, that's what lead you to him. To your endless days of a new kind of life, one that doesn't pass with time, because such a thing is erased with the existence of one another.

Conversation was awkward at first, only because he would be so reluctant to answer you, and yet you'd patiently stare at him. You aren't an idiot, you weren't oblivious to how harsh he'd be, how he'd push you away, but you'd like to believe you are someone who persists in things that are good. And to you, he felt wonderful.

So, he eased up on you. He didn't regret it, no, not one bit. He started waiting for you, expecting you, recognising the sound of your footsteps. Warmth had become a foreign thing to him, till your embrace became more prominent. Each day, he'd hear the rushing steps of your genta's hitting the ground, he turns to you, he sees your smile, and you pull him in. He always sighed, pretending to be annoyed, commenting about how affectionate you are; Did you miss him that much? ..Did you?

He only ever asked you that once. What he expected was you brushing it off, but you admitted it outright. "I feel lost when I'm not with you." Those words stuck with him, and on that moment he felt something in particular. He had become accustomed to you, understanding his emotions from previous experiences, but this felt different, like an awakening, as if, somehow, in some way, this foggy path of life had been cleared up. You were the one still thing in it, you weren't something he passed by on this path, you weren't his end destination, you were someone who came along the way, and he hoped you'd be there to the end.

The end? Right. You're a mortal. 'The end'? Seriously, what's wrong with him? Ha. So stupid. Stupid.

You'd die before then.

He told you, what he is. You treat him like any normal human being. But, you never bring up death. It's something he knows to avoid with you. It contrasts you, it's cold, deathly cold, much like him. He shouldn't dwell, you wouldn't like that. Still, how can he help it? He loves you. How is he meant to accept that not only will he lose you, but he will have to live with that forever, for eternity. You are his eternity, you make him feel like he can last forever, like another hundred years won't hurt, like a thousand years is nothing. How can he do it without you?

...

You two linked together perfectly, you were rough around the edges, but when you clicked the snap only proved the realisation that dawned upon you two; this sense of completion.

If he doesn't have you, who's going to -

"Kuni!" Oh. Have you come, to break him from his slumber once more?

Your voice is cheery as always, it reminds him how he had to adjust to your greetings before. Maybe he never realised you sounded like that because of him.

He knew you'd come to him, hence why he remained in your teapots realm, strolling around the garden, freshly grown plump fruits, bushes with roses and prickly thorns. You really gave life to everything around you. The trees stretched towards the sky, their branches sprouting like the patterns of their winter leaves. This realm was beyond time, the weather could change with a mere flick of a finger, and yet you chose to stay true to the world outside, choosing to live day by day abiding by these rules. You must like knowing how much time you two spend together with the seasons passing. Wanderer turns his head to you, watching as you run up to him, that same old smile still stuck to your face after all these years. His arm outstretched as his fingers graze the petals of the pure white flowers from the dogwood tree.

Your arms wrap around his right one, pulling him closer, and he can feel your body heat. It reassures him. "Were you just wandering here? You looked deep in thought." Offering you a small smile, he hums. Only you got to see such an unconditionally genuine appearance such as this, his gaze brimming with love that transcends words. You could tell he was particularly happy today, very happy. "Did I now?"

"You did!" God, how much he likes you.

"I was just...thinking of something, that's all." He plucks one of the flowers by its stem. To tell you his thoughts, to expose himself to you. You know he cares, but he's better at showing his love in ways other than words. "Don't make it a secret." An exasperated sigh leaves him, scolding you, "You're so impatient." Turning to you, his hand reaches behind your ear, tucking the flower inbetween the strands of your hairs.

"It was you." He reaches for one of your hands, holding it in his palm as he inches closer to you.

Kissing the top of your hand, his eyes never breaking away from yours as the leaves surround the both of you, the winds swaying your hair lightly, and life seems much more simpler when he knows you're there with him.

"Just you."

Who wouldn't want to do this every day?

[mdhwrites]

How sick are you of the "TOH season 3 was bad because of Disney" argument?

I feel bad that I've been talking about the shortening as much as I have lately and this ask feels like a part of that. XD It's probably the one thing that the troll from a bit ago really got under my skin with and what seemed to piss them off the hardest. The idea that I was 'blatantly ignoring the circumstances' that led to the problems in the show.

But frankly, I just don't hear the argument being used much anymore. That might just partially be because at this point, I feel like I see more Amphibia art than I see Owl House art on my timeline because... Who is really defending this show at this point? It seems like even die hards are glancing back and fidgeting about it, like that person who I reblogged about the glyphs. That was a decently popular post for something that should have been controversial considering how theoretically important the glyphs are to at least the branding of the show.

S3 in general seems to have left a really bad taste in people's mouths and it's not hard to see why. When you had two and a half hours of content to give your story a proper bang of a finish, even if you can't make it all cohere thematically or the like, you should be able to do SOMETHING. That's WAY longer than most movies and TOH didn't have to do the first two act of establishment that most movies need to do. They had their players, they had their villains, they had their stakes and they never have to find an answer on their own to the Collector or Belos so they effectively already had their solution. They were setup to have payoff after payoff after payoff.

But I made an entire blog about how S3 could never have been great... Because what was there to payoff? Beating Belos is about the ONLY thing S2 left for the cast to do, especially once the second special came around and the interesting elements of the Collector were killed. He's just a sad but playful boy, just like Hunter was sad but mad and Amity was sad but smart. We had no other villains that we as an audience were connected to, all the character arcs were done, to the point where they have to make shit up for Willow so they can do SOMETHING with her and even that feels like shipping fodder, and the thematics were left so far down the road that... What can you say about the ending positively besides "I'm happy everyone is alive and seems happy where they are"?

None of these issues only arose in S3 of TOH though and I think that's the real problem for the fandom right now. Literally the longer the show has gone on, the more its inherent flaws in its writing become obvious as well as the fact that these writers simply aren't good enough to improvise off of the flaws in their own writing to make it better. We have no one who is Toriyama during the Cell Arc here where they can change on the fly and actually build off of what has to now be discarded. Or, hell, me, because I don't plan my stories from go but I take GREAT pride in being able to build on surprises I leave for myself on accident. Remember: The Power of Love did not start even with that title or Boscha planned to ever make more than joke appearances. Now it has a lot of people's favorite versions of both Boscha and Amity.

And that story is over a hundred chapters long. I had at least another hundred chapters of plans in mind. But when my brain stopped working for it and I decided I needed to write an ending so readers could be satisfied, I managed to do one in six parts that word count wise was probably at most 15k words. Not that long frankly but I was able to highlight the mended relationship between Amity and Boscha, how far Boscha had come socially as to be able to ignore those who might have gotten under her skin before, her better relationship with Luz, tie up the biggest loose ends and get them all together.

Was it entirely coherent? No. Was it as impactful as it could have been had I done all my plans? Of course not. But it was satisfying and true to the story and none of it wasted my audiences' time while still giving them an ending that was not only poignant to what had come because of how far Boscha had come but also just give the audience what they wanted. I knew what to cut and I knew what was important.

The Owl House never knew what was important to it though. Never met an idea it didn't like. So... How do you end a story that has never had a focus, clear thematics, plot, world or even characters? That throws everything into the kitchen sink and just waves away the elements in the sink that will stop them from adding new elements that will never get past the surface?

In a lot of spectacle that shows you were always a lot more shallow than you claimed and that's gonna leave a lot of people cold. I know it did for me, even well before the finale.

=========

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead, If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

And finally a Twitter you can follow too!

[moonbreezes]

wait George Villiers was a shitty person? what did he do?

Hi! I’d like to preface my answer to this question by saying that I’m not a historian (I have a degree in linguistics and literary studies), and all of my information comes from doing a lot of research regarding George on my own, therefore there might be a lot more info on what exactly he did or did not. So if there is someone more knowledgeable about this, please correct me.

What George Villiers did, and, quite frankly, how his career had gone could be described by a line reportedly spoken by Queen Anna of Denmark to Abbot, the archbishop of Canterbury (and Pembroke), two people who worked together to install George in James’s bedchamber as a favourite “You and the rest of your friends know not what you do. I know your master better than you all, for is this young man be once brought in first person he will plague must be you that labour for him.”

As opposed to the previous favourite Somerset (Robert Carr), Gorge was deeply ambitious as he not only wished to enrich himself while in favour, but he also wanted to become an important player in the political sphere. (If I dare say so myself, I believe, that his time as a politician, would not be half as bad if he had received a proper training. Tho he was undoubtedly a shitty, to put it mildly, person) He knew that key to his success was the affection and love of the king as he could literally take everything that was given to him and make him once again the poor George that he once was. (I really do not want to talk about their relationship as it would take more than a sentence to summarise it). Thans to how rapidly he climbed the social ladder and received more titles and positions at the court which in turn allowed him to have actual sway in the country’s internal and external politics. Geore was also keenly aware that apart from the royal favour he needed connection to face his opposition (the ancient families of England). So patronage, it was something common (even now). He installed his immediate family at the court and secured them positions, (mmm nepotism), the marriage market was also fair play as George slowly but surely arranged marriages for people in his family, win-win situation.

Addressing his now growing family, his wife – Kate Manners, became one as he possibly kidnapped and raped her. (There are some rumours that he “what-a-surprise got locked” with her in one building so after that they just had to get married.) It was a marriage for the money she could bring, and the connections did not hurt either, a nice bonus, one might even say. He also made a deal with Edward Coke to marry off his daughter (her mother protected her fiercely) to his brother. It is said that she cried during the ceremony.

In lieu of the theme of nepotism, as he slowly transformed the royal bedchamber into a place of the de facto lawmaking. He packed every place possible (to an extent) with people what would back him up. For that he was notoriously selling patronages, titles, and land, especially in Ireland where law did not hold him so much. Literally whenever the parliament tried to remove him from power because of how badly (Imo he would have done much better if he had training and not just gone with the general fuck around and find out rule.) he did his job, and people were fed up with him. He started a whole 20D chess match with Richelieu which was pointless, started a few campaigns that ended with him often not paying the soldiers (I mean no one would stab him to death over such thing… right), the last one being a pointless siege that only made England loose troops and money. (He could have one that one, he was so close to it, but he had to celebrate the possibility of victory rather than making people sing papers). He enraged the protestant England by helping to offer help France with fight off Protestants. What else… oh yes, he almost sa’d Anne of Austria which just… mmm the flavour of historical silencing of women, misogyny and men who just have dick measuring contests because.

Tho what I do not believe, and what many line up with, is that he did not poison James (or at least wasn’t aware of doing so??) because I think that he would gain more from helping the king survive than just killing him.

Sources

Bellany, Alastair, and Thomas Cogswell. 2015. The Murder of King James I. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Cogswell, Thomas. 2017. James I (Penguin Monarchs). Penguin UK.

Lockyer, Roger. 2014. Buckingham. Routledge.

Stewart, Alan. 2014. The Cradle King. St. Martin’s Press.

Veerapen, Steven. 2023. The Wisest Fool. Birlinn Ltd.

[ramunehana]

long post, regarding gato situation. not excusing my shitty english because idgaf about this language

i just saw gato deleted all of her socials and her posts on patreon and i'm just. wow. disappointed. saying this as a poc

she literally said and defended racist actions even when it was out of ignorance not to mention the fact she drew n@z1 uniform when she was like 29 💀✋ i am usually not a big fan of bringing up past behaviors unless said person did not changed a bit and in this case gato did not it seemed. she is 35 and should know better, if she did not delete the apology i would still give her the benefits of the doubt but nope, she chose the worst move to pull and now she had deleted all of her socials

i know coming off truthfully about your wrongdoings is hard, yes, saying this as someone who usually gets defensive when being criticized. but it's what you should do! sure, you may lose some fan after, but at least, you admitted your mistake, and people could see your effort of making things rights. hell, the victim even gave you a chance before but she had lost it with her actions. i understand she was mentally stressed about the whole situation, but it was a no way to excuse her actions especially the way she lashed out when confronted. she could have given a proper apology too, but she did not

she is not a kid anymore and she has the ability to take the responsibility of her actions instead of hiding behind her fans and brushing off things. to the point her fans attack a black person calling her out for racism and left them in a bad mental state. i am not saying i agreed with their actions of leaking someone's personal discord channel but i stand with them in calling out gato and her friend's actions

i would still like btd/tpof as it gave me many joy and chances to connect with people who are in same interest as me, since you can dislike a creator personally and still can enjoy their works, seperate the art from the artist is a way to go. but i am quite hesistant to interact with people now, given i have anxiety and lots of people defending gato's actions. however, i do not agree with people dogpiling and harassing btd/tpof fans either, and hijacking gato's username because i know accountability won't be on the list of things they want

well after all fandom is best enjoyed with you and your 5 weirdos you found lurking in the corner

[demacianpuppet]

Of Zaun and their missing surnames

With the hiatus and all the new fans discovering the League lore for the first time, I noticed that many people believe that people from Zaun do not have surnames, which is wrong.

First of all, we have one character from Undercity which gets addressed with her last name all the time - Sky Young.

It is fair to say that we do have places in Runeterra which seem not to use the classical example of the modern surname. 

To list some examples:

Zed introduces himself in his own comic as “Usan of Kéthé”.

Both Cithria and Sylas have a reference to the place they grew up (Cithria of Cloudfield & Sylas of Dregbourne).

Ashe calls herself “Ashe. Daughter of Grena. I am the Bow.” in Ashe: Warmother. 

Even for a person who lacks a proper surname, there is a cultural norm on how to introduce yourself.

For places like Ionia and Demacia it makes sense that their “surnames” are location-dependent - these regions tend to have mostly villages and small towns. You don’t need a fancy surname because everyone knows each other.

In Freljord, the individual is defined by his relationship with their tribe - as long as you haven’t made a name for yourself, you tie yourself to your family. And if you can offer something for your tribe, you wear that title proudly. 

To summarize: All these regions have either small populations so it suffices to mention from which villages they come or have other ways like titles. 

None of these methods would work in Zaun because the Undercity is a big place.

Another point: By watching the way the council operates, we know how much red tape exists in Piltover. Are we all gonna pretend as if getting into the Academy wouldn’t require tons of paperwork, which for sure has to include a full name? So surnames have to exist in Zaun for sure.

However, there is an important narrative point why we know the last names Jayce, Caitlyn and Mel in contrast to the main characters from Zaun.

For all of these three characters, the last names work as stepping stones and safety nets at the same time.

Let’s take a closer look.

Caitlyn is the heir of the Kirraman house. She is the daughter of the councilor member and therefore, every single door is open for her. No matter where Caitlyn would have applied for a job, they would have recognized her name immediately and picked her for the prestige alone.

While Jayce seemed to need a sponsorship to study at the academy, he is not from a bad family. When he gets expelled from the Academy, he actually could simply take over the Talis forge. And while his “name is no good anymore”, I am sure with time people would have simply forgotten about the whole thing and he could have simply stayed in his social circle.

Jayce’s life was not over in any way - he still had a stable future, simply not the want he dreamed of. It was Jayce’s own decision to try to end his life, he was not pushed by actual existential dread.

It is difficult to say how Mel’s climb has been. We know that she has been exiled from her family but we don’t know how. It could be that she came to Piltover with enough money to invest. Even if she didn’t, with her family name it wouldn’t have been too difficult to find someone to help her settle in Piltover before she had the power to shape the city to her own beliefs. 

Every single of these three characters worked hard to get to their position. However, the truth is that their journeys have been so much shorter and smoother than for a lot of other people. The reality is that working hard is rarely enough to actually get to things you want - luck is the biggest factor. Luck in being born into the right family or somehow getting lucky in a different way.

Things are different in Zaun.

Vander is a pillar in the community. Not because he has a fancy family name or because his ancestor did something important but because he helped to create a place of connection in the Lanes.

Silco is a feared man. We don’t know his past but we can assume he worked on the fissure as well since he can breathe that kind of air. A man hellbend to use his power and money to create an independent Zaun, outside of Piltover’s shadow. 

Nobody cares about how Ekko grew up. The people who look up to the “boy savior” do it because he is a symbol of hope.

In contrast to Piltover, Zaun doesn’t have a history it can take advantage of, but instead it forges its own legacy in the present.

TL;DR: People from Zaun absolutely have surnames, since the place is too big for not having such a system. Not knowing the last names of the Zaunites is a narrative choice - every Piltovian had advantage because of their family name, in contrast to the Zaunites who had to climb their way up in spite of everything.

[ryuuaka713]

Really, Tiktok?

ok, first of all. I am not dead. I didn't do much analysis lately unlike the previous years due to the fact that I have a life and it is slowly killing me.

Second and most of all, I was out of the BSD fandom for quite a while when suddenly I saw @nataliaphantomhivesblog 's post regarding of a tiktok user plagiarizing her analysis.

Honestly, I don't care much for tiktok or any of those social media except for their farcicality. But when it comes to this? I don’t like this.

There is a reason why content creators always put a warning that their works should not be reposted or, the very least, give credit to the original creator. Otherwise, it would be considered as stealing.

I saw that the tiktok user did try putting my name on the post, which is fine, but also not ok because the reality behind my posts and/or analysis is that they are all connected to Natalia's posts. In other words, I am merely reblogging what she said and I am adding my own understanding. And I am glad that there are comments that mentioned about the reblogs and collaborations we did because those were the foundations of our content--it was a back-and-forth discussion. And I can't think of any BSD post that we did where one of us is not mentioned.

We ALWAYS mentioned each other because 1) credits, and 2) we are a team.

Moreover, the fact that the slideshow is the watered down version of her analysis just adds salt to the wound. Yes, our analysis are lengthy for a reason--we want to hit the right points with evidence and explain the evidence rather than give an outline of it. That‘s exactly another reason why this is upsetting--the idea that all of that work, only being cut down with missing points. And the thing is, it is not an easy peasy thing to write about them. I know! I became an insomniac doing those analysis.

I really felt so sorry for Natalia. She is the one who put a lot of effort into these and the reason why I started this collaboration with her is because she did a fantastic job and very on-point. If anything, I owe her a lot. And she definitely deserves more credit than I do since SHE IS THE ORIGINAL.

I am not going to cause any further row with the user. We have enough drama in our lives and I dont want another one in my long list. Whoever they are, they owe Natalia an apology (and it is up to Natalia on how she responds to it).

And if you find any of our discussions interesting and want to share it--thank you! But please! Give us proper credit. And by "proper", I mean look up who is the original creator, and TAKE NOTE of THEIR NAME.