#He isn't a kicked puppy he has flaws too

[altocat]

Okay. I feel like I have to say this because I saw this argument earlier. Zack and Sephiroth WERE friends. They were friends caught up in a strained, stressful situation beyond their control. With this said, there's some understandable tension between them during the game. But Zack is NOT cruel to Sephiroth during CC, nor is he at any point responsible for Sephiroth's trauma or actions. When Zack gets annoyed at Sephiroth during the story, there are VALID reasons for him feeling this way. And, moreover, Sephiroth is not the ONLY victim of CC compared to the OCEAN OF TRAUMA Zack experiences.

For starters, Sephiroth is technically dumping all his responsibilities onto Zack, causing him to bear the emotional burden. Sephiroth is also aloof and not always communicative. Zack was mad at him in Junon because Sephiroth was not returning his calls. Zack being pissed at Sephiroth because of Nibelheim? He just murdered a ton of civilians there's realistically no way you can be nice and gentle with someone after that. Zack not checking in on Sephiroth? Well he actually MIGHT have been. How else does he know what Sephiroth is doing in there? How does Cloud have memories of Sephiroth telling him to go away? Zack likely DID express concern for Sephiroth's wellbeing and WAS rebuffed. Zack even expresses concern at the Nibelheim reactor by trying to physically comfort Sephiroth, only for SEPHIROTH to push him away. Zack was also the one telling Genesis to shut the hell up because he could see that Sephiroth was getting upset. Zack DOES care and DOES emphasize with Sephiroth. The game just isn't dwelling on it.

Sephiroth is not the only person in pain during CC. I think Zack had to deal with the MOST shit since he's the one who had to kill Angeal. He got to watch Genesis seemingly die in front of him. I think Zack has MORE THAN A FEW valid reasons for being occasionally upset and angry at Sephiroth. But even AFTER what Sephiroth did in Nibelheim, Zack still chooses to honor him at the end. Sephiroth is shown in Zack's memories of people he loves during his last stand. AND Zack stands in Sephiroth's place when he fulfills Genesis' wish to share the apples. In Opera Omnia, Zack is very clearly upset with what happened with Sephiroth, and doesn't seem to be able to truly hate him. And Sephiroth killed innocent people and tried to destroy the world. I think if Zack can still pity Sephiroth afterwards, it wasn't just an unempathetic relationship.

Also, and this is something that the game tries to convey but doesn't do a good enough job, Sephiroth and Zack spend pretty much 2 years in each other's company. The DMW cutscenes explore this idea as it shows them training together. What you are seeing are only a handful of moments in what is otherwise a period of them actually befriending each other and forming enough of a bond for Sephiroth to have grown some level of fondness for him. Nomura himself has said that Sephiroth really trusts Zack, and appreciates that Zack treats him like a human being and not a hero. He LIKES that Zack calls him out, likes that Zack challenges him. He is THANKFUL for that.

Crisis Core is a flawed game. But Sephiroth is not the only victim or the only one suffering throughout. Genesis and Angeal suffered. And god, Zack MORE than suffered. And no one was nice to HIM throughout. No one cares about HIS mental health. No one gives HIM special treatment. He has to kill his friends and deal with it. And then he dies. I love Sephiroth, you all know that. But part of loving the character is accepting the very real truth that he is STILL a villain and that he is NOT the center of suffering. His pain does NOT invalidate the pain of others.

Anyway, Zack and Sephiroth were still friends despite all this. They weren't as close as they could have been, but they were. It was a relationship with occasional bitterness, drama, and heartache, but they were still good enough friends for it to count. But we need to take into account that Zack is NOT to blame for anything related to Sephiroth's pain and actions. If anything, he is completely blameless.

[kzele]

Unpopular TSSM Opinion

Sha-Shan was a better example of a serious moral compass love interest to Flash than Gwen was to, well, anybody.

The gal clearly has no problem turning a guy down until they've proven he isn't a too much of a douche. And she doesn't care how popular they are. If they make make the right, but hard choices, then they've got her interest.

Gwen, on the other hand, can’t seem to judge any of her friend’s moods or situations correctly and make an appropriate decision. For instance, whether as friends or love interests she and Harry are a dumpster fire. When the guy passes out in the courtyard and then avoids her, what does she do? Does she (a) tell her COP dad about it at home, (b) tell Harry’s father, (c) tell a teacher/coach/school counselor AKA any other figure in a position of actual authority? Nope. She tells Peter that something’s wrong with Harry, but doesn’t elaborate enough for him to take her concerns seriously, so he puts it among the lesser problems he has to deal with. Because if Peter was actually told the specifics, this would be MUCH higher on his problems list. There’s no way he’d have to be bullied into talking with Harry, otherwise. (Also, how is it possible that she couldn’t sense anything off about Eddie after he returned to the lab? He’s obviously creepy and fake and you’ve known him since you were both in single digits. If it was just Eddie this happened with, I wouldn’t be having my doubts about her judgement.)

This brings me to my next point about boundaries. Peter respects hers more than she respects his. Thus, she can only enforce her boundaries and/or will if someone already respects her. Harry and Gwen’s full-on couple status is proof. Harry’s shoved her against a locker, jumped over her during a villain attack (did he ever apologize for that?), and the first thing he does is ignore his new girlfriend in favor of calling his dad about having a girlfriend. Oh, and she’s ignoring all these red flags in an implied attempt to make Peter jealous. Nuff said about that ball of toxicity they got going on.

Flash saw Sha-Shan as a hot nerd/rebound, then as a challenge, and finally as someone whom he wants to be respected by. She didn’t let him get anywhere by being a jerk or overstepping. Granted, she had the benefit of not caring about Flash’s opinion of her, like Gwen would with long-time friends. And yet, despite being very judgy about him at the start, once they’re together she understands that Flash will say/do dumb things but it doesn’t take away from his good heart. Sha-Shan accepts him and his flaws. Ironically, despite Gwen being in love with Peter over Harry, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a time where she cuts Peter any slack for anything even when it’s not his fault. Including and up to not dying.(Not actually joking about that. See Christmas Tree aftermath s2ep3.) Maybe it’s just me, but I swear Harry and Eddie could be be kicking puppies off the Brooklynn Bridge in front of her and she’d be giving Peter the silent treatment for missing her calls trying to stop it.

I'm aware that Gwen isn't evil whatsoever but I find her immensely frustrating when TSSM has better female characters to choose from. And this post is for other people who agree with me. I'm not denying the flaws of anyone else here, be it Peter or Harry or whoever else, but I can't cover my thoughts on all the dynamics at play here without overloading my laptop and this site. I feel like Gwen's actions in the show get glossed over a lot. I've seen Peter and Harry get criticized for their actions and sympathy for their differently bad lives within the show, but Gwen. . .doesn't get that same scrutiny. She makes objectively horrible/stupid choices about how to go about things in her relationships but somehow she seems to get less spotlight shed on those things. Instead, the responsibility is often shoved the two guys for screwing up, despite either having far more on their plate or a bad home life. Anyways, I've rambled incoherently enough. Hope it brought you some food for thought even if you don't agree with everything.

[alovelyburn]

This became ranting halfway through so feel free to delete/ignore.

Related to recent discussion but not necessarily confined to Berserk. Lately I've just disliked calling antagonists or characters I write 'evil' at all. I tried introducing a new OC of mine to an acquaintance once and their immediate question was 'are they good or evil'?

What does it matter! Are you banned from liking them if they're evil? What if their morality and actions are too complex to sum up in a good-or-evil dichotomy? What if they begin as a hero and undergo a corruption arc? What if they begin as a villain and undergo an atonement arc? What if I just made them for a cutesy slice-of-life comic where the stakes are so low there don't need to be heroes and villains? What if they're super ambiguous and there are no right answers about their morality? And again, even if they were evil, does that somehow prevent you from liking them?

I just feel like labelling my characters as 'evil' makes them more boring, or misleads certain audiences into thinking the story will go a certain direction when it won't. I like putting my villains through redemption arcs and my heroes through corruption arcs. Not to mention how... I am a weird writer who has to understand my villain and what they desire and why they do what they do completely before I can make them do anything. I can't just have them kicking puppies for funsies, that just causes my brain to stutter to a halt and go 'but... what's the point of this????? to what end???'

I dunno. Maybe I'm too idealistic?

But overall I just. Find evil-for-the-sake-of-evil villains so unbelievably boring. They feel more plot device than character, and the longer they spend on-screen, the more I start to get bored by them. They can catalyze fun situations but they just... don't feel interesting. Griffith, and other villains and ambiguous characters who fandom tends to flatten, is more fun and interesting as a deeply flawed person than as Secretly Satan Incarnate All Along.

So one of the conversations I used to get into a lot during my days with the DC Fandom was this idea of Evil Villains, right like... people complaining that all the villains these days have tragic pasts and aren't just evil for the sake of being evil anymore.

This is also a complaint a friend of mine had when Aizen's motivations came out in Bleach back in the day - she was disappointed that he wasn't just a power hungry bastard. And then Gin's motivations came out and she was even more unhappy about that.

And this is one of those things that I'm never going to understand, I think. In part just because I think in most cases, characters who can be easily labeled as "evil" are kind of, you know, boring just like you said. They're flat. This isn't definitely all the time absolutely true, but it is I think true as a general rule, at least to me. It's also not realistic. Even the most evil people in history weren't sitting around like, yes today I will grease and twist my mustache and go out there and be Evil.

Fiction being fiction sometimes you can sometimes get away with it, I think, but that's the other thing: IMO when you do have a character who can be described as evil by nature, just evil - a Joker, or a Darkseid, that kind of thing - their absolute pointless malevolence pops more when they are a rarity. If you consider every character being plotted somewhere on a hypothetical graph where their point is placed at the intersection of the reasonableness of their goal and the tactics they use to get those things done, I feel like very few characters should be like... at the all-for-nothing extremes right like, if you have a character that's at 0 on reasonableness and 100 on extremity of tactics you've created an Absolute Monster, which may or may not be what you're going for but something that extreme should really stand out in my personal opinion. It shouldn't be just like one heartless monster in a crowd of thousands, that makes them less memorable and honestly it makes the story less memorable because one absolute monster can be chilling but a crowd is so over the top as to be unbelievable.

All of which is a long long winded way of getting around to, yeah I agree with you. I don't really think it's too idealistic - I mean I think the same thing and I'm a cynical realist so. Rather, I think the tendency to imagine that people who do awful things do those things because it's just fun to cause pain or even "because they're evil" is a little reductive. Everyone has motivations - some are better than others, but everyone has them.

On the subject of whether a character being evil means you can't like them, though, I think to some people the answer to that is "Yes..." but the thing is, I'm not really sure if I believe them. Is that actually a thing? Because in my experience when I actually talked to them a lot of the time I ended up feeling like that's not true, they just frame "liking" the character differently because Morals.

It's like all the people who are like, "I don't understand how anyone could like Griffith, I mean sure maybe if you like him as an interesting character and a well-constructed villain but how do you LIKE HIM?" Because I'm not sure what they think Griffith fans actually mean when they say they like Griffith, but it's usually something like "what a well-constructed and fascinating character." Speaking for myself, anyway, I just don't feel obligated to put up "BUT ONLY AS A VILLAIN YOU GUYS" disclaimer up when I say it.

[brokenrobot2004]

DeerHead EMC-V2

My 3D printer is probably done for good (or for a very long time) after I've looked into it's situation further and tried a few more things to get it functional again, but I wanted to keep working on this robot so bad that I'd gotten corrugated plastic, and paperboard to try and do a cleaner recreation of it's original form, in something that won't collapse beneath itself; I think it's working awesome so far, currently any problems I'm experiencing are now due to my own design flaws, one pesky servo (One for the in-and-out movement of the back right leg that seems over-greased, even after I'd tried to clean alot of it off which was maybe a dumb idea but it was worth a shot; it can move, but moves very slow and often if I try to make it move too far from it's last position, too fast instead of easing into it slowly, the power surges), and my servo controller being quite noisy, leading to it having jitters that sometimes get so bad they make the Arduino reset; if there's no way to get to the bottom of that without replacing the controller, I feel like I probably will eventually just because it seems like this one (PCA9685) isn't really supported at all anyways compared to other controllers out there and I've already thought of replacing it earlier on in the project but wanted to power through! I think it's good enough to work on for the time being though :] though at the same time, the animations I'm doing are being based in Tim's Servo Program, which is written in binary specifically for this controller; meaning if I got a new one, it better be early on and not after I've done most of, if not all of the core animations! (Sitting, standing, walking and turning, walking at different speeds, anger, sadness, excitement, fear, kicking ball and other ball-related interactions, things along those lines; just baseline animations!)

I only have one picture for now, taken with my ultra-HD 4K 10 million billion trillion megapixel laptop camera XD I took another one, but the stupid camera app seemed to eat it, since it wasn't in the gallery. He's way more chihuahua-like in head shape now too, featuring big floppy ravioli ears like little puppy chihuahuas have in particular ^_^ which wasn't entirely intentional, but because they turned out that way I think it's super cute so I'm happy with it anyways! I tried to make a walking animation for him, which I filmed, but the video has my face in it; I may censor my face and upload it to YouTube sometime, alongside the video there is of EMC-V1 walking; which surprisingly, turned out better than when I made this iteration walk which I'm a little worried about ,':1c I actually think that's soley because I didn't remember to make the dog enter a slightly-crouching stance to take it's steps, like an Aibo does, which was written right on my sketchbook but I was too tired to have skimmed past it because by the time I was finished actually building the new body, it was very late O_o'

Epic laptop camera moment!!! Surely you can comprehend the writing through those like, five pixels? Looks like it was taken on a 3DS, the bloody thing! ToT Anywho, that's the scoop on DeerHead for tonight!! I'm hoping I'll get him to successfully move around without help soon, but if not, I feel like I should get a servo controller that's more specifically meant for projects like this and have software to work with, or compatible Blender add-ons (Robotics and Blender working as one?! I'd nearly want to jump for joy if I got to use that kind of workflow!!) anyways; then I wouldn't have to deal with those rather nasty jitters too, and only having the servos rapidly jerk through the basic frames of animation because I don't currently know if there's a way I can make smoothing happen on Arduino, and I'd otherwise have to boot up the raspberry Pi and stick the animation into there, and be at the mercy of it working.. Actually, the more I think about this process, the more I want to get a new servo controller XD I'm going to look into that a little bit!

[angryteapott-archive]

I actually (personally) like anthony's arc in the show a bit better too. In the book there's this p&p esque emphasis that he's core good all along w/ rough edges. But Anthony isn't just a little judgey but overall kind to strangers like Darcey, Anthony is repeated a Giant Dick in both the show and the book,, NOT ONLY by modern standards but as told by people in his world. That's an issue for a romance lead.

The books tries to solve by him standing up for penelope at a ball- he does that because she's a family friend, and I'm not personally convinced he's a nice person from that considering the shit he's said/ done to other strangers thats pretty much the bullying he's saving her from. He loves his family but in a way that is dismissive, controlling, and doesn't line up with how he treats others, ie him throwing a key to see kate crawl on the floor after being such a controlling dick to Daphne because "simon doesn't treat women right" BETTER THAN YOU DICKHEAD. The conflict that is instead addressed in the book is his resistance to love due to trauma, and to resolve the other issues the book decides "he might be a rake but he's also something else entirely " like who cares? Volunteering at the soup kitchen doesnt absolve you of kicking puppies??

The show at least attempts to link both things- he's a callous misogynist who's too controlling while having a dutiful heart for his family and trauma BECAUSE he has a dutiful heart towards family and trauma. He's not kind/honorable and separately a swashbuckling rake, his kindness is tainted and mirrors his actions as a rake because it comes from his terrified certainty that his family can rely only on him. He's allergic to being wrong and condescends constantly because he's caught up in this narrative. I need a mistress because I need affection without being vulnerable with my family because then I'm putting the burden on them that mom put on me and I can't possibly be wrong in treating my mistress as subhuman because my duty to family means she's unsuitable for my reputation and if I'm wrong about that SHE needs to fit into MY world. Edwina's a good wife candidate, I'm the only one who can support my family, if I'm wrong about something my family faces dire consequences (baby or mother?), I cannot be wrong, if I no longer want to marry Edwina my previous decision was wrong, I must marry edwina to never be wrong for my family. Thus him not pursuing kate and pursuing edwina actually makes more sense then it does in the books- instead of it being due to a fear of his own death that doesn't touch his relationship to his family, it is in line with his actions towards daphne, his mistresses, his brothers etc as a fear of a loss of control. It's completely irrational but justified to himself as self sacrifice. In the show everyone is baffled by his decision except for kate, who has the exact same fear and the exact same flawed arithmetic. Why can't she also find a match? Because Edwina's the one who's important! She's not afraid of a loss of control and being legally separated from her family at all! She's doing it for them! It makes no sense until its viewed through the lens of her trauma. Anthony resisting being together is less drawn out in the books, but while the starter reason is similar (edwina makes a good wife) the secondary reason (I'm attracted to Kate and thus will be too sad about my upcoming funeral) rings a little hollow for me because we don't see that fear of death in other areas.

In the book, Anthony's issue of trauma making him not want to love Kate is resolved by him deciding to not let fear make him not want to love Kate. His previous callous behavior is completely forgotten or presumably continued. In the show, Anthony's issue of trauma making him want to never be wrong and control everything by saying he's self sacrificing is resolved by him realizing that very fear puts him in the wrong a lot of the time and his sacrifices aren't actually what people want or need. Whether it's putting too much pressure on his 13 year old brother, bribing an institution to accept his 20 something year old brother, or lying to a lovely young woman about the circumstances of their engagement- it's NOT for their own good, what he's sacrificing for is his fear, and he needs to learn to love in a way that takes into account other peoples input. Daphne's line was deafening - "All of these decisions that you seem to make and then resent us for. Though they do not make you worthy of your family's respect. They simply make us pity you." !!!!!! !!!!!! ! ! ! He realizes he's failed! And only through that does he realize it's now safe to fail! This culminates in him confessing he loves Kate while understanding he can't control what she does in response, but more importantly it is preceded by him making amends with his mother, brothers, and generally admitting he was wrong. Instead of an arc that's indulgent of his bad behavior and where trauma only impacts one facet of his life substantially, he begins to change how he moves in the world!! Way more consistent of a motivation.

Now, was how we arrived there better than the book to me? No. Once he realized he should dump edwina it really was annoying that they pushed it to the wedding day for drama. Why wasn't kate's arc equally fleshed out. Why was so much time devoted to penelope and the featheringtons. There's flaws. But i think the writers at least realized "anthony is nice to penelope at a ball and loves his fam" wasn't going to cut it to present anthony as a good man, and the arc they gave is actually pretty nuanced. Deffo think the book was better paced though, and Edwina and Mary are MUCH better done in the book.

[tartagliaxx]

Heloo congrats on 500+ and happy (late) birthday

I really likes albedo × jasmine one Do u think u can do kaeya x jasmine too Its oki if it's a no 💫 stay safe

“ KAEYA + JASMINE ”

━━ ☆ PAIRING: kaeya/reader

━━ ☆ GENRE: fluff

━━ ☆ SUMMARY: jasmine | love, beauty, sensuality, modesty

━━ ☆ WARNINGS: lightly suggestive at one part

everyone in mondstadt and their relatives ten times removed knew that kaeya was a conniving and cheeky and intolerable person who enjoyed watching people flounder about from his unpredictable antics. with teeth clenched and patience long thinned out, you decided that enough was enough and you would exact vengeance against his... his charming smile and witty lines that never failed to keep your blood rushing to your cheeks.

"now, now... isn't it pretty rude to glare?" there he was again, opening that annoyingly pretty mouth of his to mess with your head.

"shut up," you seethed out, prompting kaeya's loud cackle as he took a sip of his drink, "one more word and i'll—"

"you'll what?"

you could feel him, his warm breath against your lips, his cheeky little smirk, and his gaze — his gaze, alluring as wine yet as heated and immoveable as molten rock. too close, your head screamed as he inched even closer but your heart wanted to drag him until he's right over your chest.

"i'll castrate you, you evil bastard!"

disappointingly, the head always wins.

laughing light-heartedly, kaeya reclaimed the distance that he haphazardly crossed and you'd be lying if you said you didn't immediately miss the pleasant aroma of spices with just the right hint of fruits.

"what's got you so bothered today?"

you, you, and everything about you.

"it's because you keep doing these... things."

"things?" kaeya hummed in that faux innocent tone he loved using on you, "pray tell, what exactly are these... 'things' you speak of?"

sending him an unimpressed stare, you lightly kicked his ankle from under the table, "you know what they are."

"but i really don't."

nothing was ever easy when it came to him though you supposed that easy was boring.

"whatever. maybe you'll understand if i give you a taste of your own medicine."

"oh-ho! is my little puppy finally going to bite me?"

a sigh, a deep breath, and whatever else is there. anything to keep your composure. on any other day, you would've scolded him for his... little pet name but today...

"why? are you into that?"

you were on a mission.

kaeya grinned at you, teeth and all, as he propped his head on his hand, "is this some attempt to fluster me?"

"and if it is?"

"sweetheart, you're doing a horrible job."

there was one flaw in your brilliant plan and that was kaeya's admirable ability to keep cool. always with a counterattack and always a leap ahead of you. very little, if any at all, has caught him off guard which made your situation even more problematic than it should've been.

"you don't get to say that just because you're mr. suave who charms everyone with a single smile!"

"hm? everyone? so it worked for you?"

"i— no! that's not the point! stop twisting my words!"

"what can i say? you make it so easy for me to do whatever i want."

pouting, you moved your gaze back to your long-forgotten meal, stabbing the poor side dishes with your fork as if willing it to turn into kaeya's face. it's infuriating how well he got on your nerves; how easy it was for him to set your veins on fire to the point that you couldn't do anything but freeze.

"cat got your tongue?"

"i'll wipe the floor with that smirk so shut it."

absentmindedly running a hand through his hair, you hated how insanely attractive he looked and even more, how your eyes followed his pretty hands as it was drowned by rivers of deep blue.

"why are you so affected by me, anyway?" gasping, kaeya mockingly covered his mouth. leave it to him to make the situation sound like a scandalous affair, "could it be that you fancy me?"

"it's not that. why must you be so tiring to deal with?"

chuckling, he crossed his legs as he slung an arm across the chair making him look far more... tempting than he already was. tempting to punch, you mentally corrected, not tempting to ogle at. "if not that, then why?"

narrowing your eyes, you instinctively reached for your drink but kaeya beat you to it, holding your hand that was still around the cup in place, "ah, ah, ah... answer first, darling." a beat before a near-malicious smile appeared on his supple lips. "unless you have a secret to hide?"

"hands off."

"what's the magic words?"

"before i cut it off."

huffing in amusement, kaeya didn't comply, as always, and instead, leaned closer to you just as he did earlier. "what are you hiding from me, hm? you should know by now that i love unraveling mysteries."

"why are you so interested anyway? is your ego too big to stand the fact that one person in this city doesn't care about warming up your bed?"

"hah, far from it actually but don't answer my question with another."

"listen here, pretty boy—"

"you know," kaeya released your hand which you promptly took away with a half-hearted glare, "i never got why people use 'pretty boy' as an insult."

an unimpressed quirk of your brow.

"call me 'pretty boy' again."

"what is this about—"

"i dare you. i'll be the prettiest boy you've ever seen."

what an infuriating little piece of— taking a deep breath, you decided that this was it. either you bury yourself a bigger hole or you tear him apart, piece by piece. it was a high-stakes bet but it’s exactly how you both liked it.

"you already are."

a reply that kaeya didn't expect, sure, but not enough to have him keeling. "excuse me?"

"you're pretty." clearing your throat, you nudged your head in his direction, "everything about you is pretty."

"your eyes are pretty. they're like the stars above. they twinkle when you find something amusing or when you're planning something. sometimes, they get darker. that happens when you're mad and they end up looking like hurricanes."

averting your gaze from his, you hated how you noticed the way they widened ever so slightly.

"your hands are pretty. they're nimble and quick. you have this habit of twirling the things you're holding around and it always catches my eyes because you make it look easy especially if you're doing it with your sword."

you hated how you noticed his hands clench and unclench as if trying to hide the small tremors that suddenly appeared.

"your lips are pretty. they say the most frustrating things but sometimes... sometimes they utter words that comfort other people. your cursed silver-tongue or whatever... that saved this city a lot of times and... ah, forget it. my point is you're pretty! that's it. end of discussion."

and you hated how you noticed the way his lips parted as if wanting to say something but, for the first time in a while, couldn't.

"you wanted to know why i'm so affected by your antics? it's because i can see that all of this — all of the sides that you're showing to everyone... all of it is fake and i hate," pausing to catch your breath, you nibbled at your lips nervously, "i hate how i see the true you — the lonely side of you — and still find you pretty."

a second and another. the silence that came very rare when you're around him suddenly coming in abundance. finally gathering your wits to meet his eyes, you're surprised to see kaeya looking away, a pretty hand lifted to hide the lower part of his pretty face from you.

"did i—" you laughed incredulously, "did i fluster you?"

"fluster me? me? sweetheart, you must be dreaming."

kaeya moved his gaze back to you when he heard you laughing. not one of your usual mocking ones or even the small huff of amusement. no, it was pure, genuine laughter, and despite only being the first time he heard it, kaeya decided he could never have enough of that pretty sound.

"sure, pretty boy. i'll let you think you won this one."

you didn't hate how you noticed him tense up at the sound of the nickname you gave him so much anymore.

━━ ☆ NOTES: thank you so much for joining! i hope you liked this and that you stay safe too! view the rest of the event shorts here! 💐

[wh6res]

spectator | jeno

"don't cry, little dove. i'm not even done yet." — ljn

TW mafia au, blood, violence, mentions of prostitution and brothels, mentions of past torture, extreme power imbalance, dumbification, they used a tranquilizer

A/N first half is told in renjun's pov also this is for dino anon hehe thank u for the inspo babes!!

DISC i don't condone anything. this isn't love.

WC 1.4k

renjun was fairly new to the mafia but it didn't take him long to realize the outrageous things they considered are the norms here. one of the first things he noticed is a cute little bunny dressed in scraps that always seemed to tail jeno wherever he went. jeno was his superior, albeit they were the same age, so it sucked that renjun had to use honorifics.

oftentimes he ignores you when jeno stands before him giving orders, or when they pass by each other in the hallways and stop to exchange pleasantries.

as renjun quickly climbed the ranks thanks to his agility and cunning mind, you, unfortunately, remained in the same position—always sitting by jeno's feet like a puppy, a body, a plaything, a whore. there were rumors that the boss gave his executives a chance to pick from the litters before they're shipped off to brothels, kind of like peace offerings in exchange for their compliance.

people said the stoic, muscular young man never really indulged himself in such temporary matters. until probably two years ago, until jeno first laid his eyes on you and decided then and there you were too pretty to become a random whore in the chain of brothels the mafia owned. the petite boy believes maybe it's a disguised blessing on your part, at least you'd only have to deal with one man every night, right?

renjun can only look at you from afar, keeping in mind not to stare too openly nor too intrusively that your owner notices. he's seen the bruises. the purple and black patches of your skin and renjun never gets used to it. his stomach turning at the idea of jeno deliberately marking your skin where the oversized shirt you wear won't be able to cover. the chinese immigrant would be stupid not to notice what that meant—it's jeno's clear sign of dominance, of the severe power imbalance, and not a single man in this building can stop him from doing whatever he wants to you.

renjun managed to piece things together thanks to his naturally observant nature. jeno never punished you for what you did, he punished you because he knows he can't touch his subordinates for something measly such as bumping or staring at his whore. the young mafia executive decides to take it out on you instead, albeit the flawed logic and unfairness of it all—proof that every person in this criminal organization is fucked up in the head.

despite jeno's maltreatment, renjun never heard a single complaint from you nor can he detect a feeling of rebellion out of you. you were so eerily compliant that the chinese can't help but think of what other horrible means jeno did for you to become so broken. renjun tried thinking about it, once, but never again. he can be cruel if he wants to be, but not without purpose. not because he gets a kick out of seeing a face twisted in terror. he wasn't like jeno, who smiled and laghed after blowing someone's brain up in the mafia's torture rooms.

this is why jeno is the only man fit for the job, the reason he became an executive at such a young age—there's no man he can't break for information. renjun doesn't know what jeno does to the poor people in the torture rooms but the piercing screams are enough to decide never to go against his superior.

renjun never thought he'll live the day to hear your screams coming from one of those rooms.

"what?" he does a double-take, eyes wide and unbelieving. "what do you mean she's in there? that's her, right now?"

haechan shrugs, wincing when he hears another scream coming from inside the room. he'll never know why these rooms aren't soundproof, maybe it was a way for jeno to keep his subordinates in line—"hear that? just be grateful that's not you."—you wouldn't want to cross a man who has no moral compass. "yeah. i heard she tried to escape."

renjun doesn't like the cool, amused smirk on haechan's face as he leaned back against the door, looking like everything is okay when it's not. "heard she got like… what, ten feet? give or take—yeah, i think ten feet out the door before jaemin's men tranqed her so much she would have slept for a week."

it was easy for renjun to detach himself, disregard his own set of beliefs and sweep them all under the pretense of "it's just work, nothing personal" but with you, it felt different. he knows you. well, knows of you. it's different, personal even, when he can match a face to those gruesome, ear-shattering screams that wracked through his bones.

he wanted to help you.

renjun wanted to help you.

but no, he didn't want to get shot in the head for insubordination.

jeno manually props you against the wall, cringing at the trail of blood that stains the tiles and pools underneath you. your shirt—rather, jeno's—was soaked through with the crimson liquid, your hair sticking to the side of your head. it feels like you were burning from the inside with every breath you take.

maybe months, years, of compliance made you forgetful. after all, jeno is a man of his word, through and through. he can only threaten you so much until he snaps. maybe he deemed the swift punishments and his harsh words insufficient. but who were you kidding? with the stunt you pulled… fuck, why did you even think of making a run for it? you should've known you won't even make it across the street! stupid. stupid. stupid.

you swore never to make him angry enough to bring you back down here in the torture chambers—this is his domain, and you shivered in fear with every fleeting thought you have about what he does behind those cement walls.

the first time jeno took you down here had been granted by the boss himself (see, the man running the mafia has favorites). jeno's men held you by the arms and made you watch as he killed a poor guy with his bare hands. slowly, excruciatingly, bleeding out because of the wounds jeno inflicted with his fists alone.

the second time was because of your first escape attempt. ah, you had been so energetic back then. always talking back, snarling and cursing him out. after that second time, you've become more compliant and have thoroughly embodied whatever sick fantasy jeno had of you. his broken doll, unseeing, unthinking, who breathes and lives only because he wanted her to.

you've heard him countless times say how much he missed that energetic personality you had. but only because you knew at least then he'd think the cruel punishments are justified.

oftentimes, he'll say it when you two are alone, in his room at headquarters, too disgustingly intimate like lovers and not a whore and her owner. his cold lips leavees a sweet trail on your neck, blood-stained hands soiling your skin underneath the dirty shirt, before finally slotting himself next to you as the cot creaks with the extra weight. he reeked of sweat and metallic and his eyes hazy from that post-bloodlust high.

jeno's boots squelch when he steps closer. never crouching, he wanted you to feel that severe power imbalance between the two of you.

"i won't ask you to apologize. not when i know you don't mean it."

you don't bother to reply. not because you don't want to but because you can't, voice utterly hoarse and scratchy from screaming while jeno breaks and tears you down as if he doesn't whisper the words i love you at night. you're his lover only when he needs you to be. sad, that he rarely felt the need of a lover and more so needed a cunny to fuck.

finally, he crouches. slow and never breaking eye contact. he raises a hand to push a strand of hair away from your face probably. you flinch. he doesn't care. "jeno, please don't touch me." but he touches you anyway.

you feel the callouses in his palms as he caresses your face. the calm before the storm. the deep inhale before the plunge. jeno grabs your chin and tilts your head up, a serene smile ghosting his lips. he looked at peace. satisfied. and you have never been more scared of him than you ever did in the last four years.

"don't cry, little dove. i'm not even done yet."

jenoluck (c) all rights reserved

[bearwiththe-goldenheart]

Lillian White (Ozmafia OC)

@yukinonshi and @lavendel080 practically dragged me into this hell and now I can’t escape so without further ado, introducing Lillian! Credit to @a-scarecrows-love for the template!

Basic Information

Name: Lillian White

Name Meaning: 

Lillian: "Purity and Beauty"

White: "Innocence and Pure"

Age: 22

Nickname(s):
Lil/Little Bunny by Soh

Lil by Everyone

The Picky/Indecisive Bear or Bear by Kyrie

Race: Human

Ethnicity: American

DOB: November 10

Sign: Scorpio

Appearance

Hair: Lillian has light brown hair that she usually keeps it in a side ponytail or a braid!

Eyes: Golden Yellow 

Height: 4'9

Weight: 118 Ibs

Any scars, birthmarks, etc: Like every person who is apart of a Famiglia, she has the Adelheid tattoo on the right side of her chest, however she also has her former Famiglia crest on her lower side of her hip. She also has a few scars in some parts of her body, when she was still apart of her old famiglia

Professional Status

Famiglia: ???? (Former Famiglia), Adelheid (Present)

Social Class: She's a subordinate for the Adelheid famiglia, however when she was apart of the ???? famiglia, she was a soldati.

Weapon: Lillian doesn't like violence, she doesn't feel the need to get her hands dirty nor do someone else dirty work, however because of her job she's required to have at least one weapon on her at all times. She prefers to use something small and hidden that won't attract to much attention like a spear or a knife.

Fairy Tale: Goldilocks and the Three Bears

Personal Status

Relatives:

Lilly Ana White (Mother)

Aryld White (Father)

Personality: Lillian comes off as stuck-up and bratty, with the way she portrays herself, there's always something she has to complain about. She is very picky about the littlest of things, and often is very indecisive when making decisions and that tends to make her waste time and choose at the last second. Her complains and indecisiveness often contradict one another, she says one things is 'too cold' but later says its 'too hot'. Lillian always has something to say and there's hardly anything or anyone that impresses her. She's very noisy when it comes to gossips concerning other famiglias and likes to use them to her own advantages. Lillian is quite moody and likes to stick to a daily routine, so whenever something that doesn't go her away, her mood would be sour for the rest of the day. She is quite stubborn when it comes to work and goals of her own, and isn't willing to listen to reason when her mind is set or if it doesn't benefit her.

Strengths: Hardworking, Loyal, Honest, Organized, Resourceful, Independent, Persistent

Flaws: Indecisive, Picky, Stubborn, Silver-tongue, Noisy, Hot Temper, Arrogant

Fave Food: Lillian takes her meals very seriously, it's one of the many things, she's very picky about so she has a handful of least favorite foods than favorite, however there's three expections. She likes anything made by Heidi, she also is very fond of sour flavored food (chips, etc), no matter who is cooking it and last but not least the bread that Soh usually sells on the weekends.

Curious Facts: Lillian often has nightmares about her old famiglia, it gets to a point where it's a struggle to get some good shut eye without waking up in the middle of night sweating, to avoid this problem, Lillian doesn't sleep often and heavily relies on caffeine and energy drinks to stay awake. Since she doesn't sleep much, she often does unfinished work from that day or start a new assignment.

Relationships

Soh (love interest): Lillian first impression on him were anything but nice, she couldn't stand the fact that a member of the gang who supposedly attacked her famiglia, was allowed to walk the same street as her much less even breath the same air as her! She didn't like how he always so nice to her when she clearly insulted him, she didn't like the puppy dog eyes he gave whenever she glared at him, she didn't like the smile he wore on a everyday basis, it felt fake to her, she felt like he was trying to taunt her with his kind gestures. However Soh had no ill will feelings toward Lillian, he pitied her and saw the cracks in her mask and couldn't help but feel bad for her, he genuinely wanted to help her. He didn't share the same hatred she had toward him, yet he knew it was hopeless to try to reason with her because all she saw was a monster and in some ways she was right.

Caesar: Lillian despises his entire being and the feeling is pretty neutral on Caesar side as well. Being the leader of the gang who killed her famiglia, Caesar did get the most burnt of Lillian anger and fury, she feels unsafe and always on edge when Caesar is around, always paranoid that he might strike her out as well. Lillian does plan on seeking vengeance for her famiglia yet hasn't been able to land a strike on him yet, too afraid of the consequences. While Caesar doesn't think much of her expect being 'The lousy bitch who stirs shit up all the time'.

Heidi: Lillian is forever grateful for Heidi taking her in when she lost everything of her famiglia, even though Lillian does get annoyed at Heidi tactics, she wants to be useful to Heidi and the Adelheid famiglia. Heidi is like a big annoying sister that Lillian never had and wants their relationship to improve further, she wants someone Heidi could rely on -just as much as Peter- so Heidi won't have a reason to kick her out.

[portugalisinsa]

Telling my Friend, Who Still Hasn't Watched Gotham, All About S03E13 (and Why I Haven't Told Her Anything Else)

Me: So let's start with something neither of us gives a shit about: Catwoman.

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Me: Selina is quite reasonably angry about her mother abandoning her when she was five or something. I posit that if she was this annoying when she was five then I kinda see where her mother comes from, but understanding is not condoning and all that.

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Me: And you think, okay, so this boring dribble about her being angry about her mother abandoning her is going to be her plot for the season, I see, I hate it but it's not like I was really paying attention when she happened anyway. However, you'd be wrong, because two scenes later Bruce says "being an orphan sucks" and she discovers that her mother had a box full of things that reminded her of Selina, so she's instantly forgiven.

Friend: ...Then what was the point of this?

Me: I have no idea. My theory is that somebody told the writers "no, there's always drama when people find their estranged parents, so we must have this" and the writers were like "ugh, FINE, here's your stupid DRAMA".

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Me: Alfred has a crush on Selina's mother. There's nothing much to say other that it's embarrassing for everyone involved, most of all the audience.

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Me: Done with that, let's go on with the next completely useless drama: Lee. I'm pretty sure she didn't see her husband running towards her with a knife for reasons too unlikely to explain, so she's pretty angry at Gordon for killing him. Which is understandable, I'm not saying it isn't, but does it warrant her causing a scene in front of the entire GCPD in which she calls out Gordon? Wouldn't a call have sufficed?

Friend: Imagine being part of the crowd and seeing that, though, it must have been amazing.

Me: Oh yeah, I assume someone was passing the pop-corn.

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Me: So you think, oh, this must be her plot for the season, right? Well you would be wrong.

Friend: Jesus christ, does it get solved the next scene too?

Me: No, the next scene has her and Falcone posing while discussing how they both hate Gordon and he must die.

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Me: By the way, I never told you about Zsasz, I think, so very quickly: he's awesome. He's a hitman, but I swear to god I can't understand who the fuck he's working for. He was very loyal to Falcone the first season, but then he was taking orders from Penguin, then from Ed, then from Falcone again. I assume he's freelance, but in my heart he works in a waffle house. He also usually works with a crowd of leather-clad women who are apparently called 'the Zsaszettes'. As I said- fucking awesome.

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Me: Lee then talks to Barnes, you know, I Am The Lawwwwwww, to ask him about the virus. I have no idea why she doesn't ask Mad Hatter, the guy who actually infected him, but whatever.

Friend: Maybe because he's a fucking hypnotist.

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Me: Barnes is all "no, I totally like killing and I want to do it forever" and Lee is like "that instantly makes me change my mind" and sends her to Falcone to beg him to spare Gordon. Falcone thinks nostalgically of times gone by, when people angered the mafia and their bodies ended up in a barrel of acid with no 'ifs' or 'buts': then he remembers he's the kind of idiot who had a woman who wanted to kill him and get his criminal empire tortured rather than killed, and brainwashed the right hand of the aforementioned woman because, I don't know, there's no person who knows how to keep a club who also hasn't tried to betray him, I guess, and spares Gordon.

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Me: So thus concludes another one-season-plot in one single episode. In my mind, an image of the writers mumbling "there, you have your fucking former-lover drama now, you happy now? Are you being entertained?! ARE YOU, YOU LITTLE SHITS?!" appears.

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Me: On to Nygmobblepot. Edward has disappeared, leaving a guy who looks a lot like Draco Malfoy behind. Penguin, no longer the most Slytherin guy in the room, pouts.

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Me: Then this woman appears and she's all "come on my show, so you will be revealed as a horrible person in front of the whole US and be ruined forever."

Friend: ...I see at least two problems there.

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Me: Okay, so, long story, I never told you about Penguin's father, but basically he was this nice guy who met Penguin when he was reformed, and he was the best, and he was married with a wicked woman and her two children, another wicked woman and a guy who I honestly kind of loved, he was too dumb to be malicious in his dickery and I think he actually wanted to pounce Penguin. Like, in a sexy way.

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Me: -he made her eat her children, then chopped off her head and mounted it somewhere in the mansion where I think it still is

Friend: God I love Penguin

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Me: His father appears and he's like "beware the birthday boy", and I was like 'the birthday boy better not be Edward, because 'Edward' has way fewer syllables than 'birthday boy''. Then it turns out the birthday boy was Draco Malfoy, and I was like "oh, okay, he just had no idea what was his name, got you".

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Me: The woman now goes "be ready, mr Cobblepot, the world is watching". Somehow, that is not supposed to be a joke.

Friend: Why the fuck would the world care about an interview to the mayor of some city? Do they translate it for other countries? Are you telling me that, in Gotham's world, Japan is watching the interview to the mayor of Modena?

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Me: We then discover this was all a plan by Edward to... something something ruin Penguin in front of the people.

Friend: ........I still see at least one glaring flaw in this plan.

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Me: My main problem with this is, I'm pretty sure that's what counts as an April Fools in Edward's world. Like, tell me stealing the corpse of Penguin's father and then hiring a shapeshifter to be the father's ghost and make Penguin slowly lose his mind and kill a random person isn't Edward's version of sticking a 'kick me' sign on his back.

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Me: So that was a couple of episodes ago. Now you might be wondering, what happened after that? The answer is, I only have a vague idea, because I don't really care to find out.

Friend: Oh? Why?

Me: Well, Gordon's and Harvey's plot was that there's a group of people who want to bring Jerome back to life, so I'm now debating whether I care enough about Nygmobblepot to suffer through Jerome. The answer is, I don't. God, I so don't.

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Me: I just, look, ignoring the fact that I don't like him as a character- I saw some gifs of Jerome in the following episodes, alright, and apparently it was him trying to make Bruce kill someone, and for fuck's sake, if I have to live through another fucking villain that wants to destroy the hero's ideology I will punch a fucking puppy.

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Me: The truth is that Christopher Nolan ruined us. He made his Batman movies, and now villains are too fucking fancy to just want to kill people with a big laser. What is wrong with wanting to take over the world? What's wrong with wanting to kill the hero with a rock? Big rocks are good. There's no shame in being practical.