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boop-le-snoot · 3 years

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@buckyownsmylife hey babe! Remember that one time you threw that cool challenge? Here's my entry. Prepare to get absolutely ruined because daddy!Bruce is exactly that sort of man.

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emotional support nerd

Your best friend's dad, Dr. Bruce Banner, is hotter than you thought he would be. 6k words, NSFW. Kind of Alt!Reader - she refers to herself as 'goth' in one instance. Tony Stark makes an appearance because God forbid I write a fanfic without him in it.

This is filthy pron, ft. age difference (reader is college aged) daddy kink, throat fucking, dirty talk, praise kink, cream pie, possessiveness, belly bulge and ending with a hint at a threesome. I really crammed all I could from Eyre's wheel in here, didn't I. Oh well.

"How much longer, dad?" Lyra's annoyed voice struck a chord within me. I tried to hide my snickering - unsuccessfully might I add - causing my best friend to shoot me a hurt look, equally fed up with me as she was fed up with her forgetful adopted father. "You know what, we'll take the subway."

Lyra's father's voice, both agitated and apologetic, reached my ears in bitten-off phrases as the traffic noises around us grew in volume, NYC rush hour rapidly approaching its peak.

With a sound huff, Lyra removed the phone from her ear, staring me down with the most amount of petulance I've ever seen on her usually reserved, placid face. "It's twenty more minutes. Apparently he's driving Tony's car," she offered in the way of explanation, like it actually did anything to better the cold, wet situation we found ourselves in. "Please, and I can't stress this enough, please don't be weird."

I felt a flood of amusement at Lyra's pleading tone. "Darling, if you wanted a normal friend, you should have looked elsewhere," I gestured to my outfit. I looked like a goth boy's wet dream: chunky platformed boots, fishnets, heavy eyeliner. Of course, all in black.

"You know what I mean," she whined, waving off my pointing hand and fixing me with a hard stare. "The least my dad needs is someone that is terrified of him just because sometimes he turns into a big green monkey. It's not as exciting as internet thinks, anyway," the last part of the sentence was mumbled but I heard it nonetheless as Lyra stared out into the traffic, clever eyes looking for a particular car model.

What Lyra didn't know was that I was not at all considering to be terrified by the man who dosed himself with radiation and developed an advanced version of split personality disorder. I could be intimidated by him, sure, because he was incredibly intelligent, a world class scientist with more PhDs than I had zeroes in my bank account, but even despite his green problem, Dr. Bruce Banner was about as far away from 'scary' as a man could be.

The few scarce pictures of him on the internet showed a short, stocky man with kind eyes and salt-and-pepper curls, always dressed in un-ironed, crumpled button-ups with dorky patterns. Looking at him, I mused that there was a high chance he spoke with a stutter and that fact amused me to no end. Jekyll and Hyde, alright.

Lyra was much the same way. Shy and reclusive, with curly brown hair and doe eyes, she spent a good chunk of her first semester in college being avoided by everybody because of her last name; I, on the other hand, avoided everyone out of habit, I'd never been a social butterfly, but the way people subtly made sure to exclude Lyra from all the activities filled me with quiet, seething rage, and I stepped over my general distaste of people and removed my bag from the seat next to me so Lyra could at least study in relative peace.

Yeah, yeah, you've heard it all, I'm sure. Weird goth chick adopts a socially awkward, shunned nerd and they become best friends forever. I had to admit that under the shy exterior, Lyra was smart, witty and even funny sometimes. She was willing to entertain my crude jokes without moaning, at least, and I was perfectly okay with listening to her rant about science every now and then.

Rain banged on the slanted roof of the café we were hiding in, the autumn wind howled, making both of us shiver at the prospect of having to go outside, even if it was for a short moment to run to Lyra's dad's car. The day had started out warm and sunny, but much like a badly calculated chemical formula, it all went downhill a split second after we had set out to leave campus.

"There he is," the grouch in Lyra's expression had me once again unsuccessfully attempting to conceal my snorting.

Nonetheless, I followed her out into the rain, struggling to keep up with the brisk running in my platformed shoes, unceremoniously crawling into the car behind her without sparing a glance at the driver in my eagerness to get out of the freezing downpour.

"Hi, dad," Lyra's tired voice spoke up at the same time as I angrily shook out my hair.

"I've just about McFuckin' had it with New York," I was afraid the dye in my hair would bleed out into my clothes, or even worse, the nice, cream-colored car seats.

"Hello, ladies," the voice that greeted us was low, gravelly and apologetic to boot.

My eyes shot up, meeting an expression full of surprise and amusement. I stared at the shockingly handsome face of Dr. Bruce Banner like a deer in the headlights.

The fine mimic wrinkles had stretched into a resemblance of a smile, soft, plush lips revealing a set of straight, white teeth. The five o'clock shadow framed his jaw, giving it a sharp, defined edge, his clever brown eyes slid down my form, faltering on the pentagram on my belt and my fishnet-covered legs, settling on my chunky boots before hastily snapping back up to my face.

"Dad, this is..." Lyra's voice was full of suspicious bewilderment as she attempted to dissipate the sudden awkwardness.

"Oh, yeah, I'm Dr. Bruce Banner, but you can call me Doc or Bruce," he cleared his throat, turning himself towards the windshield and starting up the car.

"Nice to meet you," I busied myself with putting away any stray hair just to occupy myself with something during the time I needed to recuperate from being just... Looked at by Lyra's dad.

It sounds ridiculous, I know, but I was so taken aback by his handsomeness and his aura of a gentle but powerful man that the ride to Stark tower, however swift, went on in slightly awkward silence. The streets outside were, thankfully, noisy, and the lack of an attempt to have a conversation could easily be attributed to Bruce's need to focus on the road, but Lyra's increasingly concerned looks did very little to settle the sudden racing of my heart.

"C'mon, I'll give you some sweats so you can let your..." Lyra's vague gesture towards my upper body disappeared behind her side of the door. "Hey, Tony," she suddenly interrupted her sentence, very obviously addressing another person who I managed to miss as Bruce parked in the spacious garage.

"I've been told you're finally bringing your friend, Green Pea," a voice I'd heard a thousand times on the TV poked fun at Lyra.

She bent down to retrieve her bag, shooting big eyes at me and mouthing an exaggerated "Sorry!"

Tony Stark looked about a week in debt on sleep, a contrast to the way he usually appeared in public. The exaggerated eyebrow raise made me shuffle awkwardly in my spot; the Led Zep tee caught my eyes as I lingered on it, aware of my own Mötorhead top on display. He noticed it too, causing his face leave the snide territory.

"Wow, I didn't expect kids these days to have any resemblance of taste in music but you've surprised me, Corpse Bride," he gave me a quiet wolf-whistle, watching me through lidded eyes.

I felt my eyebrow crawl upwards at his attitude but Bruce spoke up before I could say anything: "Tony, no," so firmly, I had to raise both of my eyebrows. I felt a smile tug at my lips, the situation strikingly familiar in it's essence. Like father, like daughter...

"No," Lyra's identical expression, fond and annoyed, topped up with an accusing finger pointed in my direction had everyone snorting a giggle at the situation.

"Lyra," I whined, just so I could coax her grin that she was very obviously trying to conceal. "See, I told you, every crazy genius needs their emotional support nerd," I fixed her with a pointed look.

She promptly grabbed me by the arm, leading all of us to the elevator as the two men behind us shared a hearty laugh at my well-timed joke. It was either that or I would have completely embarrassed myself by gaping and drooling over both THE Tony Stark and Lyra's father.

The rush didn't stop there. I was promptly and generously offered not only a spare pair of pants but also a whole room to stay in after an invitation to dinner I simply could not refuse. Dr. Banner firmly coaxed me into staying overnight with his pleading eyes and a hearty seasoning of guilt tripping, softly crooning how he simply could not let a young woman to wander the cold, rainy night in NYC alone.

Tony added something too, in a tone way too surefire and patronising. I guessed he noticed my eyes lingering on Dr. Banner, being a genius and all.

In a short amount of time, I found myself seated at a dinner table next to a happy, giggling Lyra who'd downed a glass of wine and was well into her second. I found it adorable how much of a lightweight she was; not hesitating in the slightest to point out that fact when she made hands for a pitcher of water.

Tony was the first one to snark back something vague about his college days and all the wild parties he used to throw, booing Bruce upon discovery that he, in fact, actually studied in college in favour of partaking in various illicit activities. That had both me and Tony giggling with Lyra promptly joining in, both of us losing it over the running joke or her being either a test tube baby or the result of immaculate conception.

Bruce's face blushed scarlet. He sputtered, a few stray drops of his lemonade landing on the (ironed!) collar of his purple shirt, cough disappearing in the wake of Tony's truly amused cackling. Dr. Banner was well on his way to either choke on his Lo Mein or turn green; thinking quickly, I decided to defuse a situation by sharing a harmless, funny story that happened to me as a freshman.

"I went on a date with this guy who said that music was the most important thing in his life, and I thought, wow, that's so beautiful!" I began my story over Lyra's incessant snickering. "So we had dinner and went back to his place because I'm a whore," the whole table erupted in laughter at my deadpan remark, Tony reaching over to give me a high five.

"And as we got there, he put on one of his demos which was just a bunch of sampled and remixed Guns'n'Roses songs, and I thought wow, that's gotta be one of the worst things I've ever heard," I pointedly looked away as Lyra's cackling grew in volume, having heard the same story several times by now and the outrage I expressed at the situation first hand.

"But instead of that I said, wow, that's so cool! Then we did the thing and his whole bedroom was covered in Axl Rose posters and I'm sure at some point Mr. Rose stared right up my asshole," there were tears streaming down Lyra's face as Tony flopped his upper body onto the table and Bruce convulsed helplessly in a silent fit of giggles. "And then I thought to myself: wow, I would have to pretend to like his music if I dated this guy and I just couldn't do that..." I breathed out, succumbing to the mirth at the dinner table. "It was good but not November Rain good, y'kno?"

Bruce snorted loudly, sliding down his chair with a hand over his face. The table shook with the force of Tony's cackling; I didn't see his expression but the howling, rasping noises sent me into another fit of laughter, right on par with Lyra.

"Is this..." Tony rapidly inhaled the much-needed oxygen. "Is this why you keep wincing whenever I play the 'Roses in the lab?" Tony wheezed and Lyra nodded.

"I just... I can picture it, and I-" she made a vague, encompassing gesture and a face.

"Please, don't," I urged with a snort. "There are better ways to get disappointed."

Dinner went on by smoothly after that, everybody happily making remarks on my dating fail, the topic of Lyra's birth and Tony's college shenanigans dismissed.

I caught Dr. Banner's pointed look as we finished our dessert - he was studying me, eyes searching for something that he very obviously wished was there. From the damp roots of my hair to the soft, cotton top clinging to my chest, I wasn't left unscrutinzed and unexamined. Like one of the many specimens he studied on a daily basis, Bruce lingered on the many characteristics that made me stand out in the grey crowd.

"Would you like to see the labs?" He asked, appearing behind me without a single sound.

The freshly cleaned dishes clattered in my arms. I'd almost dropped them, startled, but Bruce's hand landed on the top of the stack right before the top plate would have slipped off and shattered into pieces on the cold tile of his kitchen.

Blood rushed to my ears. "I'd love to," my brain had briefly returned to reality, the rush of meeting both Stark and Banner succumbing to logic and reason. My and his fields of study briefly overlapped, the question he posed was more than reasonable. In fact, many people would cheat, lie and steal to be in my position.

Bruce smiled, opening a cabinet and taking half of the dishes I was holding to stack them up in their proper place. The sleeves of his shirt were rolled up, exposing wide, muscular forearms littered with dark, coarse hair.

I was sure my face was flaming. After waving off Lyra's attempts to put shoes on me and leaving her to watch her TV show, a wide, warm palm rested on the back of my waist, gently steering me towards the elevator.

I tried to keep my eyes off Bruce in the large mirror on the walls of the car as it swiftly moved down, scrutinizing my appearance instead. My throat bobbed, the elevator car suddenly too small and too hot.

His eyes left marks on me - invisible ones, the kind that I knew were there just from the scorching heat sizzling on my skin.

There was a certain je ne sais quoi about him. Perhaps, it was in the way he was acting - a polar opposite of what I'd had expected, Dr. Bruce Banner possessed a quiet confidence and his patience appeared to be endless, heartily doused with an appreciation for his closest ones. The way his eyes lit up in response to people smiling around the dinner table was hard to miss.

When Bruce spoke about his research - whatever wasn't classified, anyway - the spark expanded into a mischievous fire. I could hardly understand the nuances in his work, scratch that- I could not understand a single word he was saying, at all. The individual syllables registered as they should, but my traitorous brain could only focus on the way he licked his lips in between quickly inhaled breaths.

"You're not... Following, are you?" The corner of his mouth lifted upwards, clever brown eyes fixed on my face.

God, I hoped I wasn't drooling. But to deny the obvious would have been a stretch. "No, not really," I swallowed, willing my eyes to lift from the large veins on the hand that was pointing at a set of equations. Reasonably good at math any day, they looked like the scribbles of a madman to me at the time.

Dr. Banner sighed, letting silence creep among the whirring machinery in the lab for a brief moment. "I don't scare you?" He removed his glasses, cleaning them with the corner of his shirt.

The question reeked of self-doubt and, perhaps, insecurity. "No," I answered simply, not giving him the slightest chance to find doubt in my words. I was barely holding my voice from shaking, afraid he'd misunderstand my reaction to the sudden change in atmosphere.

He was closer to me than I recalled. My hip was almost brushing his, the bulk of his shoulder millimeters from touching against my bare skin, the smell of something herbal, like tea, and sharp chemicals clouding my senses. It was such a contrasting experience.

Bruce turned to me, an expression between hunger and regret forcing me to shiver and look him straight in the eye. A hand landed on my waist, holding me in place with gentle firmness. "I'm a monster, I could hurt you," he whispered, leaning into me like a touch starved kitten. The man screamed contradiction. "We shouldn't."

Vivid images of the Hulk and the rampages years prior flashed through my mind; the rubble, the collateral damage in the form of many lives. I barely remembered it, having been too little to really understand what was going on. One thing, though, I knew for sure: ever since the world became aware of Lyra's existence, there had been no incidents. Sure, the Hulk still appeared when there was a threat, but there were no documented incidents of the green creature running amok, accidentally.

"You won't hurt me," I spoke with conviction. Perhaps, I was bluffing just slightly but I wouldn't lie like that to myself. The variable, the... Twelve or so percent chance of things going... Awry, it made a small, malicious worm inside of me rejoice and fill my limbs with familiar adrenalised yearning. "You're not a monster. Far from it, actually," I used the hand that was not supporting me against the desk to gently cradle the side of his face, letting my fingertips brush over the rough five o'clock shadow on his cheek.

Bruce emitted a sound somewhere between an agitated grown and a pleading whine, sagging with the sound exhale, pressing himself flush with my chest. His face slipped from my palm, the warm tip of his nose running a steady line up my neck, sending goosebumps running wildly down my back as his hot breath tickled the arch of my throat.

"Baby," the nickname punched a stuttered gasp out of me with the intensity contained in just that one word. "I've been hearing all these amazing things about you," his voice dropped, low baritone rumbling straight into my ear. "I won't be able to hold back. I'll want you all to myself," his bicep flexed under my hand.

My knees would have bucked if I wasn't grasping onto Bruce for dear life after those words. I had some sense of personal pride in me, so while my body was an easy, traitorous thing, my mind was more than eager to participate in this game, to ping pong a little bit before... "Yeah? What things?" I breathed.

Teeth briefly closed around my tender skin, nipping for just a second. "You're kind, beautiful," his hand took a steadfast hold on the back of my neck, exposing my throat to his mouth. More skin to mark, more time to whisper. "Intelligent, bright and clever," the more he spoke, the fiercer he became. Bruce's grasp tightened until I was pliant in it, willingly following his silent commands. "A bit of a pain in the ass," a healthy dose of humour was added into the mix as my ass was roughly grabbed, our fronts pressed together at his insistence.

"That sounds about right," I didn't resist the sudden urge to snark, thoughts lazily floating in my head, like clouds on a bright sunny day, fleeting and sparse. None of them caught on. I was focused on feeling the need, on my need to feel.

A sharp smack landed on the plump of my ass, the sound resonating in the eerily quiet lab. The sounds of machinery had dulled at some point, leaving just the two of us panting our lust into each other's space. "I know you can be a good girl. Will you, princess?" His fingertips dug into my flesh, surpassing the soft sweatpants as if they weren't even there.

I could only nod, dumbly, overcome by the sudden rush of blood to my body. The life coarsing through me sang, demanding a release of the pent-up tension.

"What's that?" Bruce removed himself from my neck, catching my unfocused eyes with a crooked smirk on his lips.

"Yes," I swallowed, breathing through my mouth.

"Mmm," he hummed, running both hands over my sides, over the frayed edges of my Mötorhead top. He admired it, briefly, setting his eyes on the band logo that was right over my breasts. Having decided something to himself, Bruce promptly removed it, lifting it over my head with ease and leaving it right on the science lab table.

Taking hold of my hand, he walked over to a hidden set of sliding doors that revealed a rather large, frequently used bed, shutting them just as I walked in, wearing only my bra and borrowed sweats. My back was pressed to the door in mere seconds, hot palms chasing away the chill of the lab as Bruce slotted his lips over mine.

He tasted like something I've never had before. His lips - so plush and supple, took hold of the kiss with practiced gusto, sucking me in without a chance or the desire to escape. I drank from him, sucked on the bottom lip as his tongue explored my mouth, danced with mine.

The room was spinning, the ringing in my ears growing in volume. I was only partly aware of the sensation of sliding down the wall; our knees thudded on the carpeted floor simultaneously, heavy breathing the only noise I could distinguish.

"Breathe, baby, that's it," Bruce coaxed, gently stroking my nape. The soft cotton of his shirt crumpled under my fingers where I held onto him, desperately searching something to ground myself with.

The buckle of his belt clattered and then clinked again as he wrapped the worn leather around my wrists, bringing them together in front of my chest. I exhaled sharply at the intimate gesture, a whine bubbling up from my chest when Bruce used a single fingertip to raise my chin.

My eyes met his; a brown iris tinged with the faintest of green around the outer edge. "This okay, princess?" He sought my face for confirmation, for agreement, for anything.

I nodded, stuttering mid-gesture, remembering our previous interaction. My mouth did not want to cooperate but I forced it to, even if it came out as little more than a pitiful mewl. "Yes, daddy," the word, sweet and sticky like fruit syrup, poured from my lips.

My eyes slid shut as my conscience - or was it common sense? - took hold of the situation. I was on my knees in front of my best friends dad, a virtual stranger, and I'd just-

Bruce's soft chuckle stopped the negative spiral of my thoughts. "That's my girl," he sounded a tad more breathless now, a hairliner in his perfect façade of self-control. As if he'd sensed my indecisiveness, he tugged on the makeshift restraints, pulling me closer, closer and into his lap.

A warm, solid chest with a healthy amount of fluff greeted me. Bruce let my lax, pliant body fall into his arms, catching me effortlessly and bringing my face to his lips. "You have nothing to be ashamed of, you're my good girl," he peppered soft kisses all over my flaming cheeks, my twitching nose, my fluttering lashes.

"Please," I begged, shame giving way to the flood of arousal that seemingly hit me all at once. I was aware of the dampness collecting in my panties, the stiffness of my limbs from holding back the ravenous desire to paw at Bruce like a wild animal. "Please, daddy..."

"I know, I know, baby girl," he soothed, not stopping his tender assault on my face. "Daddy will make it all better. I know just what you need," Bruce finally pulled away. I heard the sound of him undoing his zipper and then the awkward shuffle of him shucking off his pants.

Somewhere in between of all that, he'd ended up sitting down on the bed, wearing only his boxers, his shirt hanging open. The red crawled down his chest, partially masked by the coarse salt and pepper hair; his lips were cherry red and his hair was sticking out in odd directions. Bruce looked sinful.

My eyes inadvertently landed on the impressive bulge in his boxers; in response to my widened eyes, he reached out for it, stroking the outline of his thick cock through his boxers. "Like what you see, baby?"

"Yeah," My mouth watered.

"Baby wants a fat cock?" He teased, sounding like he knew exactly what he was doing, testing my self-control like that. With a flick of his wrist, it sprang free, slapping against his tummy, coating the fine hairs with drops of clear, musky fluid.

I swallowed, feeling the taste of him from afar and yearning for more where I was parked between his spread legs.

In a gesture almost loving, he tugged on the belt still wrapped around my wrists, bringing my face to his leaking shaft and my hands to the base of it, letting me feel the weight of his balls in them. The cock throbbed, neglected, weighed down by the heaviness of his full balls.

"Go ahead, baby, suck my cock," the encouragement came with a gentle push to my head.

I obediently followed, wrapping my lips around the pink, moist crown of it, a hum beginning in the back of my throat. My God, Bruce tasted heavenly... I whirled and slipped my tongue a around his head, I dipped into the slit to drink the nectar right from the tap, idly coming to awareness of the broken, choked moans coming from the man above me.

Raising my head got me a view of his chin; head thrown back, the lax O of his mouth glistened in the meager light. My eyes slid lower, to the flex of his abs. Bruce fought hard to stay still. The desire consumed me, a sudden rush of power at having Dr. Bruce Banner's cock in my mouth and the man at my mercy; I inhaled, sliding my mouth further and further down his throbbing length.

"Fuck," I heard him mutter before his hands gripped the sides of my face. "Hungry, baby, are you?" His eyes glowed a faint green; I shuddered at the power he held within himself. Held back for me. "Tap my thigh twice," he spoke and I had no choice but to obey. "Okay. Do that if it gets too much, alright?" I nodded. He gave me a wide, beaming smile. "Good girl," he praised, experimentally bucking his hips into my mouth a few times.

In and out. I focused on my breathing, sharp, little inhales: his girth took up all the free space in my mouth, the tip of it barely fit into my throat. The burn, the stretch; I felt every tenth of an inch, every bulging attempt of my body to accommodate Bruce's huge cock. It was delicious, I couldn't help but crave the same stretch in my neglected, sopping wet pussy.

"Fuck, you're taking it so well," Bruce moaned wetly. "Your mouth... S'like heaven... Could fuck it all day, that's my good girl," the rambling increased in it's intensity as the pace of his hips hastened. Drool and tears flowed like a river; my chin was dropping with it, spit connected my face to his pelvis. "Oh," there was a brief pause to his movements; suddenly, he pulled out, fisting the base of his cock, staring me down with a ferocious gleem in his eye.

I must've looked a straight mess; my face like a crime scene, my clothes disheveled, covered in fluids and most of all - I was desperately grinding against my own feet, too focused on the glorious cock in front of me to notice the weakness of my own flesh. "Daddy?" I questioned, wincing at the grating of my own voice.

Without a word, the belt was tugged once more; in a set of movements just slightly north of acrobatic, I found myself laying on my back in the middle of the bed, my sweatpants suffering a haste demise in the corner of the room.

Bruce crawled atop me, leaving a trail of sloppy kisses on every inch of my skin he could reach, mouthing something inaudible into every pore of my body. As he drew closer, I discerned bitten-off phrases, stringing my desire into sticky, tangy mess at the apex of my thighs.

"My perfect baby girl," the words reached me; all tongue, he kissed me once more, arching into me as much as I arched into his hot grasp. A brief inspection of my face - he was satisfied with what he saw - and Bruce crawled back, settling in between my spread legs, breathing hot air on the lips of my sex still covered by a sopping wet piece of fabric.

"Oh fuck," I yelped, feeling him smooch it soundly, the hot wetness of his tongue penetrating the meagre lace barrier with ease.

He moved it aside anyway, with a single finger, giving my pussy a broad lick, moaning into my cunt like a man gone mad. It took a few more licks for him to feel sated enough to surface, all the while holding my hips down. I was so sensitive, I felt even the tiniest flicks to my clit, I was sure if I didn't cum then and there, I would explode.

"Such a pretty pussy, princess," his heavy breathing paused briefly. He nipped my thigh. "So wet, is that all for me?"

"Yes, yes, daddy," I rasped, pushing my cunt into his face, losing all shame and trepidation.

"So tasty," he continued the torture, outlining my lower lips before taking another nosedive right into it, swirling his tongue around every fold, sucking onto my clit.

Bruce ate my pussy until my thighs shook, until my core quivered and I could no longer hold back the choked, ragged screams starting somewhere in the low of my belly and coming out as unholy, all-consuming yowls filled with unadulterated lust.

"Louder for me, baby," he inhaled rapidly, and then, he sucked on my clit.

The world stopped, halted on it's axis, every muscle going rigid in my body and every nerve ending simultaneously coming alive. Faintly, I heard a chant, repeating two syllables over and over, it sounded like my voice - but I had no control over myself. All I could do was weakly grind my hips against Bruce's mouth, faltering when the crashing waves of my orgasm began to recede.

The infuriating overstimulation stopped; blinking hazily, I saw Bruce's eyes glimmer brown and green in front of my face. His nose and his chin was glistening with a thin coat of sticky fluid; disheveled and red, he looked a man on the verge of a revelation.

Something hot and blunt nosed at my cunt, bringing back the moment to me - I realized, with a great deal of impatience - how empty I felt. The decision was minute. "Daddy, fuck me, please, I want your cock," the words came easily.

"That's my girl," his eyes fluttered shut as the first inches squeezed through the snug of my cunt. I was sopping wet and as relaxed as I'd be, but even then, it was a stretch. "Good girl, good baby," the mumbled praise made me whine and my pussy clamp on his cock. "Relax, let daddy fill you up." Breathing through it, I consciously unwound myself around him, letting my palms rest freely on his shoulders. "Let daddy take care of you."

Like melted sugar, his husked words stuck to me inside and out. Short, sharp thrusts; Bruce was patiently burrowing himself inside of me, making his way to reach the deepest parts of me I didn't even know existed. His cock head pressed against something hard and spongy inside of me; stars burst behind my eyes I'd clamped shut on reflex.

I moaned weakly, tugging on his arm, pressing myself closer. It felt so, so good. Like a raw nerve had been exposed and he was stroking it, pushing that little switch with every stroke of his hips.

"I'm not gonna last," he muttered as once again, my cunt squeezed him snugly in place, just as greedy as I was to feel that tiny explosion spark up within me again.

"I want..." I panted. Bruce set in a punishing pace after that, a palm under my ass, squeezing it so hard there would definitely be bruising. I craved it, I needed to see the evidence this was not some elaborate fever dream. "I want... Daddy to fill me up," words came out garbled; it sounded like gibberish to my ears but Bruce - they spurred him on.

"Oh yeah?" That breathless, boyish cockiness was back in his voice again; despite how fucked out he sounded, I prepared myself for something truly out of this world. I just knew.

He sat back on his shins, dragging me by the hips with him, making me shiver and moan and twitch and clamp onto him again as his throbbing cock hit that special spot again. And again. And again.

"Look at me, baby," a hand on my belly and his eyes burning right through me. As they slid down, towards the apex of my thighs where he was still moving within me almost lazily, I saw it.

"Oh fuck," I couldn't utter much more than a two-syllabled profanity. There was a bulge in my belly, just above my pelvis, moving in rhythm with Bruce's hips. And then he pressed on it and I-

Something, someone, somewhere was screaming. The noise was loud and pitched, but even then, I could barely hear it though the neverending waves of bliss that enveloped my whole being. Gold and silver at the edges of my rapidly darkening vision; I was drowning in something that smelled and felt like Bruce. The safety of his arms, the warmth of his heated body, the rapid snapping of his hips-

Oh.

"I'm gonna, fuck," the last word was but a ghost of a human speech. Growling low and filthy, Bruce leaned into my ear, his breath hot and moist. "Mine," his hips stuttered, his cock nestled deep, the sensation bordering on painful, forcefully extracted pleasure. It throbbed with every spurt of his seed; each one felt like a solid punch in the gut to my abused pussy.

"Daddy," I mewled, my body jerking away from him but my mind and my soul yearning for more. His rapidly softening flesh made the idea of being separated unbearable.

"S'good, s'my good girl, m'so proud," he mumbled, looking slightly disoriented as he removed himself from me, immediately pressing me to his side and interwining any free, flailing limbs.

We laid in silence, each of us slowly coming back to Earth after the completely unreal experience we just had. I didn't know what to think, didn't know what to do as the realization set in, the post-orgasmic haze giving way to a sudden rush of clarity.

"I can hear you overthinking," Bruce's voice was fond.

Before I could muster up the courage to snark back, the divided doors opened, one very concerned Tony Stark standing there, armed with a tranquilizer gun in one hand and a pack of cookies in the other. His mouth, previously open to (probably) yell at us, remained as open when his eyes had registered the scene in front of him.

I stared at Bruce. Bruce stared at Tony.

"The noise," he offered in the way of explanation, dangling the pack of cookies, looking, for once - speechless. He recovered quickly, however, even if the remark was a thin ghost of his usual sass: "You pick the nerd over me? I'm hurt," he scoffed in mock irritation, although I was pretty sure I saw some satisfaction in there, too.

Bruce looked at me. I looked at Bruce.

A mischievous grin slowly crept up his face, an identical one beginning to appear on my own face seconds after.

"Hey, two nerds is better than one, right?" My response is what did it; or, rather, it was the evidence of my previous throat-fucking clearly audible in my voice... Tony dropped the cookies and then, the tranq gun.

Bruce Banner taglist: @pilloclock @mikariell95 @letsby @sleep-i-ness @toomanyrobins @persephonehemingway @mostly-marvel-musings @schemefrenzy @lillsxd @bluecrazedandbeautiful @slothspaghettiwrites @sapphicnoodle69 @couldntbedamned @xoxabs88xox @marvelsbanner @tripleyeeet @tatestripedsweater @stuckybarton

#bruce banner x reader #bruce banner smut #bruce banner x you #bruce banner x y/n #Bruce Banner #bun writes #I haven't written shit in a month and boom #6k words in three hours #i don't like the ending #I'm bad at them #okay #okay .

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delusions-of-shakespeare · 3 years

Text

I think I've finally found some words to express my long-time irritation with how bards are typically represented and implemented in RPGs.

The most common phrase I've seen to describe the Bard class, in any game, is "Jack of all trades, master of none."

In other words, the bard is seen as a "filthy casual," someone who dips their toes into every skill-pool enough to be a crappy second-choice for any role, but never good enough to actually substitute for a missing role - at least not without optimizing for that role to the point they may as well have gone with a different class - and not the person you'd choose to group with for something truly difficult. They're seen as lacking the focus, or the skill, or the dedication to become truly good at anything.

This description has always bugged me. I love bards - I consider myself to be one, so I will admit to personal bias - but my image of a bard is cut from a different cloth, I suppose. I don't think of the tavern-crawling, bar-room brawling hedonist that seems most heavily represented in D&D tropes. My model for bards and bardic behavior came from the Harpers of Anne McCaffrey's Pern series, and I've spent a good part of my life internalizing that model.

So the idea that a bard is just a lesser-skilled, second-rate support class that has nothing to offer which another class (support or otherwise) can't do at least as well if not better, has always grated.

Focusing on this "master of none" concept as a limitation ignores the strength that a diversity of knowledge provides, and reinforces impostor syndrome with the reminder that, no matter what you do, you'll never actually be *good* at X, only tolerable. You'll never be as knowledgeable about Y as someone else. In short, there's always going to be somebody better than you at anything, so the message becomes "don't feel too proud or certain of your abilities."

So what is the strength that comes from a broad, if at times shallow pool of knowledge?

A bard may not know as much about a particular topic as a specialist, but they probably know the basics. The specialist can talk about their work, and the bard can - to a point - follow along, ask questions, possibly serve as a "rubber duck" to bounce ideas off of and catch simple mistakes that may have been overlooked.

A bard is the writer who researches various topics to bring realism to their work, because you "write what you know." Why does the bard know about metallurgy? Because they once wrote an epic about a legendary dwarven crafter, and it would not do to get the details wrong.

A bard is the advisor or counselor you go to with your problems, because their breadth of experience means they may have heard of more ideas to solve them - there's more than just a hammer in a bard's toolbox, so not every problem looks like a nail - and because they can empathize with and understand your problems, and you, better than anyone else. You talk to the bard because they make you feel seen and heard and understood, and even cared about.

(Side Rant: This is where the Horny Bard/"Seduce All The Things" trope misses the point, I think. Any character can be physically attractive, and most are - regardless of Charisma score. But the bard knows how to be a compassionate listener, how to connect with people in a way that many simply aren't used to experiencing. Sure, some might take advantage of this, but that's a matter of character personality rather than character class.

People would be rightly outraged if a spellcasting character used Charm Person to achieve the same results, even though mechanically there's no real difference. We can only be ok with the Bard doing this if we assume some level of agency and consent on the part of the NPC, something that is generally glossed over when this trope comes into play.)

A bard is the negotiator you bring in for a difficult situation, because they can read people, they understand how people think and can influence them, because they've met and studied so many people. Their knowledge of current events, politics, trade routes, agricultural practices, or even languages could be the deciding factor in getting to an agreement, whether that's just a better reward for the party or talking someone into releasing a hostage.

A bard is the person who is well aware of the fact their own skills are limited, but also well aware of the skills of those around them. The bard knows what their party members can do individually, as well as how their talents can work together. They know when to push, and when to retreat and try again later. The bard is the strategist, the mastermind.

A bard is a leader, but not the kind that takes credit for leading. The bard whispers the words that inspire an idea in the mind of the one who "looks the part" of a leader - the heroic, chiseled champion; the head that wears the crown; the peasant revolutionary. When a bard is praised, they are lauded for their skill in lifting others up, making them larger-than-life, encouraging them to be better than they think themselves to be. As part of a group, the bard is both the glue that holds the party together and the one who pushes each individual toward improvement and growth: the Team Mom, the Space Dad.

Yes, they can also be the obvious leader, or "face" of the group, but the bard can be just as effective behind the curtain. Some even prefer to be the stage manager, rather than the performer; the power behind the throne; the second-in-command, because they don't see themself as the leader type. But in their element, when they're not trying to be the leader, they inspire others to follow regardless.

How do you represent this, mechanically? The Inspire songs from 3rd Edition weren't a bad idea, but overall a person chose Bard for the aesthetic, not the mechanics. Other classes had spells that could duplicate the effects a Bard could achieve with their songs.

You have to make the mechanical advantage to having a Bard in the group better than what could be achieved by doubling up on another class. You have to make their inclusion propel the party as a whole into something greater than the sum of its parts, including the Bard. No, a Bard shouldn't be mechanically necessary but having one should make enough of a difference that it's always desirable - even to the point that not having one can feel like a penalty - and that can't happen when everything they can do can be reproduced by other classes, or when the benefit they do provide is considered a minor bonus at best.

But it seems clear to me that a Bard's abilities should always be enhanced by having greater knowledge, even if the benefit of that knowledge isn't immediately obvious to the given situation. Not enough to replace having first-hand skill, but perhaps similar to how skill synergies worked in 3rd edition, except that a Bard's Knowledge or Lore skill would synergize with every other non-lore skill, and even influence the benefits they grant to others through Inspiration.

If we're going to insist on the Jack-of-all-trades as a basis for the class, we need to get rid of the "master of none" appendix. The bard is a master at interpersonal relationships and of lore, of inspiring others to be the best versions of themselves, and of leading from the rear.

#bards #D&D #Pern #knowledge is power

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uncloseted · 3 years

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What are your thoughts on critical race theory and how it's being taught or should be taught in schools? Everyone seems to have a different idea of what is being taught and it's hard to keep up. I've heard extreme stories about certain schools but I've also heard that those are mostly people on the right exaggerating. Thank you for answering these political questions and giving such well thought out responses!

Okay so... there's a lot to unpack within the discussion of "critical race theory". I'm going to give a primer of what it is, how it is (and isn't) being used in schools, what the controversy is, and then I'll give my opinions at the end.

What is Critical Race Theory?

"Critical Race Theory" is a previously obscure academic concept. It's an approach to studying US policies and institutions and is typically taught in higher-education institutions like law schools or schools of social work. It's been in use since the 70s, when law professors began considering how racism shapes American law. Basically, Critical Race Theory states that intentional and unintentional racial bias are baked into the way our institutions and legal system functions. CRT is a way of examining how "racism is sustained more through law, policy and practices than through individual bias and discrimination," in the words of Boston University law professor Jasmine Gonzales Rose. It's focused on shifting our attention away from individual people's bad actions (what we commonly think of as being "racism") to instead center how systems uphold racial disparities.

Where did the Controversy about Critical Race Theory Come From?

After the murder of George Floyd last year and the resulting Black Lives Matter protests, these same topics were introduced to public consciousness. Is our police system racist? Are people of color disproportionately likely to be arrested and imprisoned for crimes, even though white people commit crimes at the same rate? (The answer to these questions is yes, just so we're clear). Are there ways in which racial bias is baked into our legal system? There were a lot of people around that time who became aware that our systems are discriminatory, and, as with everything, a lot of people who pushed back against anything actually changing.

Here's where the whole thing gets a bit convoluted. The debate over "critical race theory" can be traced to just one person- Christopher Rufo, a fellow at a conservative think tank. On September 2nd of 2020, Rufo appeared on Fox News's show, "Tucker Carlson Tonight". On the show, Rufo claimed that "critical race theory" had "pervaded every institution in the federal government" and called on President Trump to ban "critical race theory" in federal workforce trainings. It's somewhat unclear why he thought this to begin with. In that same conversation, Rufo deemed "critical race theory" "divisive, un-American propaganda". From there, this idea that "critical race theory" (used as "a catchall phrase for any examination of systemic racism" or even as a catchall phrase to denote anything advocating for social change, as opposed to the principles of Critical Race Theory that are actually used in educational institutions) is infiltrating our government took off on Twitter.

By September 17th of 2020, Trump was denouncing "critical race theory" and had created the 1776 Commission to "promote patriotic education". The 1776 Commission was in direct opposition to the 1619 Project, a Pulitzer Prize winning, long-form journalism project developed for The New York Times, which aims to explore American history through African-American perspectives. The 1619 Project was being used as a tool in public school curricula to help students understand the impact of slavery on modern society. It's important to note here that at no point was Critical Race Theory being taught in schools except at the university level, and that the 1619 Project is not based in Critical Race Theory. When discussing the 1776 Commission, Trump said, "we want our sons and daughters to know the truth. America is the greatest and most exceptional nation in the history of the world. Our country wasn't built by cancel culture, speech codes, and crushing conformity. We are not a nation of timid spirits."

To recap: Rufo introduces this concept of "critical race theory" to the conservative media on September 2nd. In his context, "critical race theory" has no real definition and has been divorced from actual Critical Race Theory. 15 days later, Trump adopts "critical race theory" as a major theme in his campaign, using the 1619 project to justify his claims that "critical race theory" is being taught to "our children" in schools, and he founds the 1776 Commission to provide an alternative narrative of American history. Conservative media outlets jump onto the "critical race theory" debate, but without a clear idea of what Critical Race Theory is (which is why it seems like there's a lot of different ideas about what it is and what's being taught) in an attempt to push for limits on teaching practices relating to racism.

In 2021, Joe Biden dissolved the 1776 Commission, but bills were introduced in Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas to "restrict teaching critical race theory in public schools". In some cases, these bills single out the 1619 Project in particular, even though it is not based in Critical Race Theory. Other bills have an even larger ban on programs that involve social justice in general.

I'm not familiar with any "extreme stories" about "critical race theory" being taught in K-12 schools, but if you want to send ones you come across my way, I'm happy to discuss the veracity of those claims.

As for my opinion, I think it's good that students are being introduced to the ways in which our country's history has impacted the way our country's systems are built, and it's good that they're being introduced to the ways in which those systems are discriminatory. 48% of Gen Z are POC. 50%(ish) of Gen Z is female. 15.9% of Gen Z is LGBT. We're becoming more diverse as a society, and so the ways in which people are discriminated against are more visible, even to kids. It's important that kids understand (in an age-appropriate way) what discrimination is, why it happens, and what they can do about it.

Kids who are POC or female or obviously gender-divergent don't get the luxury of being able to ignore discrimination. Black kids are aware of "critical race theory" (the way that society systemically discriminates against them) from the get-go. Nobody is arguing that we should be telling white six year olds that they're evil for being white or that their parents are evil for being white. They're saying that a white six year old will notice that they're being treated differently than their Black best friend, and they'll know that's unfair. It's better to respond to their questions about fairness with an acknowledgement that things aren't fair, but we can work to fix them, instead of insisting that there is no problem, and that we are the "Greatest and Most Exceptional Nation In The History of The World".

Our current educational system does a lot of whitewashing when it comes to US History. Just think back to any celebration you had of Columbus Day or Thanksgiving in school, where they make it seem like the colonists and Native Americans were friends. It's important that instead of whitewashing our history, we acknowledge that many people were, and still are, hurt by that history. It's important to center non-white voices in those curricula, because without them, the story we're telling isn't true. History classes should not be a stage for American nationalist propaganda, and yet that's what they become when we insist on only teaching about the "good" things we've done.

Do I think that the 1619 Project is the way to go about that goal? Not necessarily. There are legitimate criticisms that can and have been made about that project, and I agree with some of them. Likewise, I think actual Critical Race Theory is too advanced for your average K-12 student, and it's not the best framework for teaching these topics. There are educators much smarter than I am who can (and have) come up with age-appropriate curricula to talk about these topics. But it's important that we allow for and encourage discussion of those topics, and putting a blanket ban over anything social justice related isn't going to make that happen.

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nerdygaymormon · 3 years

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Thank you for this blog, it has helped me so much :) I was wondering if you have any advice on talking to God/receiving revelation when you have anxiety and don't really ever feel calm or peaceful? Especially when you're praying for a testimony. Do you also have advice for getting a testimony in general? I don't really have a testimony of anything, so I've been trying to figure out whether I believe that God and Jesus are real, because that seems like the best place to start. 1/2

I kind of just hope that they are there, but I don't really believe in them. I'm not sure what the best way to figure it out would be. It's really hard for me to read the scriptures, and I know that's how we're 'supposed' to get a testimony. Do you know of other ways I can gain a testimony or ways to make it easier to read the scriptures? Thank you so much!

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Hmmm, anxiety is one of those things that can overwhelm us. I have social anxiety disorder and when the anxiety kicks in, it’s game over about trying to feel anything else.

When I’m anxious, I put on some music, I sit in my car, I do breathing exercises, I distract myself maybe by playing a video game, I go for a drive. I do a bunch of things to try to calm the anxiety down. But those may not be the same sorts of things that work for you. If you know some triggers of your anxiety, you can avoid those. For me, one of those would be not giving myself enough time to do something.

I’m a musician and music really speaks to me, it helps me zone out the outside world, it affects my breathing and pulse rate, it can soothe me.

Think about things that you’re good at, perhaps something about those can help you feel more calm. This could be knitting, swimming laps, cleaning (I’ve heard several people mention this), watering plants, going for a walk, baking.

I know some people live with a level of anxiety that they don’t ever truly feel calm and restful. But they still can experience periods of lower levels of anxiety, that may be good enough.

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We hear people share their testimony and it’s almost always “I know this” and “I know that.” And sometimes I wish I knew, maybe I don’t have that same gift of belief to know the way that they do.

Whatever level of faith you have is fine. We all are at different spots. I hope it’s true I think it’s true I believe it’s true I know it’s true

I have a few thoughts I hope will be helpful.

1) A testimony begins with a hope or a desire. It's fine to not know if there is a God, but to think there might be, or hope there is.

Does God exist, I don’t know for sure. But when I prayed and asked if God loves me as I am (gay), I felt warm & had goosebumps and had the thought “you are not broken,” and that is good enough for me to say perhaps God exists. I got an answer, and whether it’s from God or it was just my own mind & body, I can’t be 100% positive, but that’s what faith is, taking that leap to say God might exist.

2) Are there principles or teachings that resonate with you? For example, my heart reacts to the idea that if there is a heaven it would be a place where I can be with the people I love.

My testimony is about faith in individual principles and that God loves all people regardless of who they are.

3) Some principles we can have a testimony of in theory, like I can think Tithing makes sense, I support things that tithing pays for such as youth activities, a building to meet in, and so on. Same with modesty, it is a good concept. If I live & present myself in a certain way, does that change the way I carry myself and how the world perceives me? Is it a better representation of my values?

Doing provides a stronger testimony than thinking.

4) You can pray and ask God a question.

I find the question I ask makes a difference. For example, God wants to answer the question “Does God love me?” “Is it okay I'm queer?” God is silent when I ask if He will change me.

Personally, I find I don’t get much response to prayers phrased like “what do I do about...,” “which choice should I make.” Instead I have to come with a specific plan and let the feeling of the spirit confirm the decision. For example, “I want to DM them and say such-and-such, should I do this?” “I got accepted to 2 colleges, I think this one makes more sense based on the cost and location. Is this a good choice for me?”

Typically the answer comes by a feeling, only rarely do I get words or thoughts. Do I feel content, settled, peaceful, happy, distracted, troubled, a sinking feeling?

5) Am I praying to God sincerely? Sometimes saying, “Hey God, WTF?!!” is more honest than a lot of prayers I’ve said. Actually communicate with God instead of just saying words.

Prayers are for our benefit, God already knows what is going on with us. If all the formal language gets in the way, then change how you speak to God to be less formal.

Also, pray when you want to pray, it doesn’t have to be on a schedule. There are times I pray more and times I pray less.

6) You mentioned that reading scriptures can be difficult. You can try listening to audio versions of the scriptures. You can use the illustrated Book of Mormon and illustrated Old & New Testaments which are meant for children, but still contain the message of the scriptures. I find the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) edition of the Bible easier to understand and it is available to read online.

7) For me, it’s easier to have a testimony of basic gospel principles. Things like to love one another & to love ourselves (the 2nd great commandment). Help the poor, the disabled, the oppressed, the imprisoned (this is what Jesus said He came to do in Luke 4:17-21, these are things I can get behind even if I’m not religious).

—————————

I feel like I gave a 20-part answer to your questions. I hope some of what I wrote feels like useful advice. I’m wishing you all the best, you seem very sincere in wanting to believe and I hope you find some answers that help you in that quest.

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sendnotes · 3 years

Text

books i read in april.

this is going to be my thing from now on. i'll compile a list of all the books i read in a month and share my thoughts on each one every end of the month.

just so you know, i'm a little forgetful, and i have a tendency to forget names, plots, and other details. i'm hoping that writing these will aid my memory in recalling how i felt about each novel.

you can also find me on goodreads

so, let’s begin, shall we?

101 essays that will change the way you think (wiest, brianna)

self-help book

this book got off to a good start! some of the essays written (or should i say a collection of articles originally published on the thoughtcatalog website) made me think and consider my outlook on life, love, and so on.

the title overstates the case though. when i think of an essay, i picture something more argumentative and philosophical. not to mention that the majority of the ideas in this book are redundant. it made it difficult to get through. nonetheless, i was able to get past it because there were so many fantastic concepts and topics discussed.

overall, it's an interesting & worthwhile read for those who enjoy thinking outside the box.i lost count of how many times this book gave me aha moments. i swear, most of the entries soothed my mind and provided a great pick-me-up when life seemed to be frustrating.

the midnight library (haig, matt)

science fiction, fantasy fiction, psychological fiction

regrets, self-remorse, what ifs, family approval, drugs, dreams, love, passion, hatred, death, afterlife, multiverses, quantum physics, and a plethora of possibilities packed into a 304-page book.

i'll be honest: this book is already on my list of favorites. i'm simply blown away by how well-crafted and diverse the entire story unfolded.

a sci-fi novel with a dash of fantasy and a smidgeon of philosophy. if that's your thing, you should give this book a shot.

the first few pages of the book gave me an impression and led me to surmise it was going to be a cheesy ass chick lit novel that i'd only read and find enjoyable in high school. i was completely off base. it proved to be very mature, full of lessons, but delivered in a fun and entertaining manner— exactly my cup of tea.

it reminded me of a disney pixar film called soul, in which the afterlife is depicted in vivid detail. they differ on so many levels, but they both imagine life after death for people who are unsure of their path, purpose, and passion.

every chapter served a significant concept, so this book is well-deserved of a 5-star rating!

norwegian wood (murakami, haruki)

fiction, romance novel, bildungsroman

as i read the book and neared the end, all i could think about was how this book became one of murakami's most popular and influential works.

murakami offers a sprawling glimpse into the lives of a group of severely damaged youths grappling with the realities of what emptiness entails. take what you will from it.

i know a lot of people like it, which is fine. but please keep in mind that this book hit me square in the gut. it alternated between making me angry, sad, annoyed, and disgusted almost constantly. there isn't much else.

this book should come with a warning: "this is not a good place to start if you're new to murakami's works. this is not a representative of murakami's brilliance."

fist and foremost, the characters in this book are all repulsive.

toru watanabe was a fuckboy and a softboy rolled into one. what could possibly be worse than that? he'd have as many casual sexual partners as he could while also buttering a girl up by appealing to her emotions and displaying a "sensitive" and "vulnerable" side.

this book was made even more depressing by the fact that each female character was needy, weak, dysfunctional, and dependent. since they're all the same, i'm not going to go over each of these female characters one by one. you already get the idea.

reiko ishida, imo, was one of the best rendered sections of the novel. most likely because she had a better grasp on her emotions and goals than the still seeking youths... until, *spoiler alert* she wanted to do it with toru as well. a big disappointment.

to summarize, this book is primarily concerned with two topics: sex and death.

hidden meanings are everywhere, but when you get to the core, that's all that remains.

the four agreements: a practical guide to personal freedom (ruiz, miguel)

self-help book

first agreement ⏤ be impeccable with your word

this essentially means that you should not spew gossip or use words to harm others. because words have tremendous power and can cause significant harm. you are not only negatively affecting others with your hateful and thoughtless words, but you are also hurting yourself. this is something with which i generally agree. how i see it, when people are unhappy with themselves, they turn to others to make themselves feel better. as a result, they gossip about others in order to divert attention away from themselves.

second agreement ⏤don't take anything personally

alright. sure. don't let what others say about you bother you. it has everything to do with them and nothing to do with you. well, i don't entirely agree, but i think it's a fantastic idea in general. however, achieving this goal will be extremely difficult. i believe it would take a lot of practice to reach this level of zen. plus, i honestly believe that other people's opinions still matter because they keep you in check. the best advice is to not be swayed by these opinions, but to consider why they were expressed in the first place. see what you can do to improve yourself from there. sure, it can be difficult to deal with; after all, no one likes being told they're wrong or whatnot. but it's not all bad news because you can sometimes use criticism and judgment to give you a competitive edge. i mean- don't you think hearing someone else's point of view is also an opportunity to learn and progress? ruiz should have stressed that it's not just about "not taking it personally because you know you're not that person," but also about not retaliating with an extreme knee-jerk reaction even if you believe you're being unfairly criticized.

third agreement ⏤ don't make assumptions

this is a real eye-opener for me. i've noticed that whenever i become enraged by someone's words, it's usually due to my tendency to assume. personally, i can't help but make assumptions. i don't know what other people's motivations are, and i can't help but draw conclusions based on the information i have. even if the other person had no intention of causing me harm, it's too late. the thought has become ingrained in my mind, and i never ask for clarification out of pride or fear of appearing overly sensitive.

fourth agreement ⏤ always do your best

this section did not seem particularly useful to me. i mean, aren't we all reminded of this all the time? this section is filled with sloppy writing, in my opinion. as if he badly wanted to finish the book and impulsively thought: "okay, fourth agreement: always do your best. that should suffice. lmao"

overall opinion: the third agreement was my favorite, but the rest were a no-go. don't get me wrong, i appreciated his ideas, but i've heard them all a hundred times before. basically, the book's sole takeaway is that we are all suffering in some way in our daily lives, and we are all dealing with different issues. regardless, we all need to be kinder and gentler to ourselves and others.

the song of achilles (miller, madeline)

romance novel, historical Fiction, war story

i'll keep it short and sweet:

i really wouldn't have had this book any other way. miller's writing is breathtaking, so rich and full of lovely detail. it's incredibly a unique concept to me that authors are rewriting such ancient history and stories to make them lgbt+!

some suggest it's tedious, but i disagree. it isn't slow; rather, it is just right.

'cause at the end of the day, it's not about war, tragedy, or heroes - it's a slow-burning, organic love tale between two young men and their inevitable connection.

it's sad, tender, and painful, but in the best way possible.

circe (miller, madeline)

novel, historical fiction, fantasy fiction

"greek mythology, but with a feminist twist"?! sign me the hell up! this piqued my interest... only to leave me feeling completely let down. seriously now. circe was described as a "badass empowered woman," which was the single most compelling selling point for me, and thus the most wrenching disappointment, i must say.

sure, it demonstrated the value of feminine power, but it also did represent how this power can be a force of good or evil.

not to mention the fact that circe fucked a married man or two in this book- i mean- how is that an ~empowered woman~?

let's be clear right off the bat: madeline miller's follow-up to the song of achilles is epic in scope but not necessarily in execution. to me, this read more like a tedious island tale. regardless of how many five-star reviews this book has received... i just don't think it's well-deserved. don't get me wrong here. miller is a fantastic author with a lush writing! istg- i'm blown away by how beautifully she wrote and carefully chose her words. even the most mundane phrases were written poetically. after-all, it’s greek mythology. but how did she manage to make circe seem so... bland?

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21secondsofchristoph · 5 years

Text

Here is a full translation of the interview with the FAZ:

Mr Waltz, statistically you're a rarity. Only five percent of all actors in Los Angeles manage to get enough jobs to get accepted into the SAG. And out of that group, only about five percent earn enough to make a living out of their art.

Becoming an actor is like becoming a father: really easy. Being and staying an actor is much harder.

We're meeting today, because you're not playing the villain for once, but some kind of action-hero in James Cameron's Manga movie "Alita: Battle Angel"

As a futuristic doctor you revive a cyborg from Mars, so you're basically working on the interface of human and machine

Haha, you could put it like that! I like that!

When the story was published as a comic in 1990 it was considered Science-fiction. Today, people like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos actually work on brain implants and dream of colonies on Mars. Have you dealt with such things as preperation?

I don't take Elon Musk seriously. His behavior strikes me as ridiculous and you can't forget that he has a commercial interest in the topic's sensation. I've already watched moon landing's and flights into space as a child. Is it really necessary to introduce billionaires into space tourism? Well, we will see what happens. I am interested in new technologies but it's difficult to seperate them from journalism of sensation, even if it's dressed seriously.

In time, a lot of things might be possible that I can't even imagine right now. But there is another question: the question of necessity.

The market economy drives our world into an orgy of uselessness. It damages our planet and our lives on it. Who wants to live on Mars? That we will all be unemployed and the environment destroyed is in no relation to any use.

Can one stop the progress if it's useless?

Not as long as someone benefits from it.

What about the desire for disruption?

Disrupting something is an easy action, replacing it with something useful is not.

I'm always ready to disrupt something if there is a useful counterproposal. Not necessarily until then.

A lot of things are turned upside down in film industry. Netflix not only revolutionized the concept of television, it also produces exciting movies. And Youtube even has its own celebrities among the new generation.

Over the past few months I've watched some movies which hadn't been produced without Netlflix. For example the winner of the Venice Film Festival "Roma". Movies like that wouldn't run longer than 3 weeks in theaters. Through the premiers and prices it now receives the attention it deserves. And after that it's on Netflix. As superficial as I can see that, it's not the worst thing.

In contrast to that, I don't have a hard time with not watching Youtube. It's probably a cultural matter and depends on how we want to shape our lives. Of course it's also a generational matter. But why is that? Just because someone is younger, it doesn't mean they are predestined for entertainment through videoclips.

You have 4 children. You have to be familiar with this world. Where do you see the difference to your generation?

In school we were always confronted with things we didn't like, but which we couldn't dispose of.

That's where the wonderful word "Bildung" comes from, which doesn't exist in English. Education refers to an information value. "Bildung" goes further than education through its cultural formation. When I was in school I also didn't understand why I had to study Latin. But not wanting to learn Latin would have never occured to me. Just because no one speaks it anymore and learning it seemed uncomfortable.

And did you like it?

It created connections within a language, trained precise phrasing, as well as logic and discipline. It's certainly more challenging to learn an abstract language than watching a funny Youtube video.

About for or five years ago you warned Facebook might be a breeding ground for the fast growth of terror organisations. Are you surprised that it also seems to threaten western democracies now?

Not at all. History has taught us that medium and structure can be more dangerous than the message, because it's easier to handle the problematic movement than the well oiled machine that keeps it going. Especially when algorithms control the dynamics in the networks, those networks can become independent.

Some hope that societies might improve through a "Wutbürger"-culture and a crazy government.

At best, all of that just has entertainment value.

So maybe not anyone should always add their opinions?

If you don't have anything clever to say you should shut your mouth. But actually it's the other way around. Apart from this choir of stupidity being really annoying, people who haven't developed the resistance and sensors might fall for the noise. Whoever shouts the loudest ends up being heard.

You are known for keeping your private life private. How does that match marketing's and fan's expectations?

Fame is an unsolved problem, not only for me.

You either remain an anonymous observer without a bigger platform to present your realizations. That is an unfortunate paradox because the people who get the chance to move in public have to deal with growing fame while they also distance themselves from the influences and experiences of real life.

Studies have shown that introverts would handle most jobs better. But they tend to get cast out by the loudmouths.

I can imagine that. Self- and foreign perception are a tricky thing. I can remember the first Loveparades in Berlin which I saw on TV. I always avoided the event myself. In the interviews, people were saying things like: "We celebrate our individuality!" And there were one million people that all looked the same. The music was a monotonous bum-bum-bum and I always tried to spot a moment of individuality.

You've been living in the centre of individuality for a while now. Do you still consider the United States of America governable?

Maybe not as a federation. The question I'm interested in is whether the USA as a federation are still worthy of governance. California alone is the fifth largest economy in the world.

In an interview from 2003 you talked about posing, about film makers who eroticise themselves and about how to stand yourself

Oh God, I remember.

Are you currently able to stand yourself?

Sometimes. But it's not easy.

At that time you weren't a Hollywood star and you made yourself very clear in interviews.

"Schindler's list" is mendacious because Spielberg might have thought "that type of movie still lacks from my collection of movies about dinosaurs and UFOs

Or that Roberto Benigni's "Life is Beautiful" is "crap" because it communicates that it's alright to laugh about concentration camps. "when it's a tender laugh"

Do you still dare to say such things now that you constantly meet other Hollywood stars?

In Germany, yes. In America, no.

Do you believe it's better to become famous later in life? And does aging feel better when you're at least famous while you're aging?

Hopefully both, right? As a young man you often experience the world through tunnel vision, because you impatiently want to experience everything, even though you can't sort a lot of things right. If the attention hits you at that point in life, you get in danger of stirring towards a dead end where you don't develop well.

Do you believe you became more careful and more lenient over the years and success?

You're becoming more careful and more lenient. I never thought of that before. I thought: Now I suddenly step back a little. You become more lenient when you connect yourself to it. In a strict German way you could call it cowardice, because you gain another point of view, the insight. And apart from the experience and the success it might be due to the abrasion of the testosterone-related edges.

#christoph waltz #alitabattleangel

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blessedarethebinarybreakers · 6 years

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Hi!! A question I've always struggled with about liberation theology - don't get me wrong, i agree that God is on the side of the downtrodden and marginalized - but does this mean he doesn't care about the successful and accepted?? I realize this may not be the right place to ask, but you seem to know a lot about the subject. Thanks regardless!!

Hi there, wonderful question! As you can probably tell from my blog, I love liberation theology. And something I’m learning about it is that there isn’t one “version” of it – different liberation theologians may have different answers for you, so I’ll give my answer based on what I know of those theologians whom I’ve read and what I think myself.

What does a “preferential option for the poor” even mean?

First, let’s clarify what liberation theologians (and others) mean when they claim that God has a “preferential option for the poor.” Does it mean that God loves the poor more than the rich, the oppressed more than their oppressors?? And does it contradict the places in scripture that state that God shows no partiality (Acts 10:34; Romans 2:11)??

God does indeed show no partiality, and loves no one person or group of people over any other – and liberation theology actually affirms this, rather than contradicts it. It is because God loves all people that God “prefers” the poor – a word that, in liberation theology, does not mean “likes better” but rather something like “focuses more attention on” or “takes special care of.”

Gustavo Gutiérrez explains this preference in terms of what takes precedence: “Preference implies the universality of God’s love, which excludes no one. It is only within the framework of this universality that we can understand the preference, that is, ‘what comes first.‘” So it doesn’t mean that God is ignoring the privileged but that those who are marginalized and vulnerable come first.

I think an explanation of why “Black lives matter” does not mean that other lives don’t matter can help explain why God’s preference for the poor does not mean greater love for the poor or a hatred of the rich/oppressors/privileged. The purpose of the phrase “Black lives matter” is to point out that Black lives, which are treated in American society like they don’t matter, actually do – to emphasize Black lives because they have been de-emphasized, because they have been treated like nothing, because their inherent worth has been denied through systemic violence. Its purpose is not superiority but equity – to raise Black people’s lives and rights up to the same level as all other lives.

Likewise, the analogy I’ve heard used by Black Lives Matter about firefighters is a good one for our purposes too: if there is a burning house and a non-burning house, firefighters are going to pay much more attention to the burning house. It would not actually be “equality” or “loving both equally” for the firefighters to use half their water on the burning house and half on the non-burning house – it would be an injustice to the burning house. The firefighters give more care to the burning house because the burning house needs it more.

God gives the poor special attention and care not because God loves them more or because they are necessarily more “worthy” of attention and care, but because their worth has been denied and dishonored by the world. As the Puebla Conference held in 1978 in Lima, Peru, explained it, “The poor merit preferential attention, whatever may be the moral or spiritual situation in which they find themselves. Made in the image and likeness of God to be [God’s] children, this image is dimmed and even defiled. That is why God takes on their defense and loves them.”

In his book On Job, Gustavo Gutiérrez also describes how it’s not about who “deserves” God’s love or care: “God has a preferential love for the poor not because they are necessarily better than others, morally or religiously, but simply because they are poor and living in an inhuman situation that is contrary to God’s will.”

In this way, Gustavo Gutiérrez claims, “This preference for the poor…is a key factor in authentic divine justice.” Because God is just, God must show particular care to those most in need of justice.

God’s preference for the poor in scripture

This idea of a “preference” for the poor/oppressed/marginalized has biblical basis. This webpage notes this fact in describing the history of the term:

“The phrase ‘preferential option for the poor’ was first used in 1968 by the superior general of the Jesuits, Father Pedro Arrupe, in a letter to his order. The term was later picked up by the Catholic bishops of Latin America. In its early usage, particularly, the option for the poor referred especially to a trend throughout biblical texts, where there is a demonstrable preference given to powerless individuals who live on the margins of society. The liberation theology movement fully embraced the concept, particularly when they closely associated the poor and vulnerable with Jesus himself, citing Matthew 25, ‘Whatever you did for the least of these, you did for me.’”

In On Job, Gutiérrez uses Matthew 11:25-26 to explain further just what it means for God to “prefer” the poor. The passage:

At that time Jesus said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.”

Here we see that God does indeed have a “preference” for the poor – here, for “infants” over those who are wise. It is the uneducated whom God favors with “hidden things” – why? Gutiérrez says:

“The condition of being privileged addressees of revelation is the result not primarily of moral or spiritual dispositions but of a human situation in which God undertakes self-revelation by acting and overturning values and criteria. The scorned of this world are those whom the God of love prefers.

…The real reason, then, for Jesus’ gratitude is his contemplation (in the full sense of the term as a form of prayer) of the Father’s goodness and love that reach out to the simple and the unimportant, and give them preference. This predilection, which does not imply exclusivity, is underscored by the hiding of revelation from the wise and important. An entire social and religious order is hereby turned upside down.”

Some other examples in scripture of God choosing the poor/marginalized/oppressed over the rich/oppressors/privileged:

God’s choosing of younger sons over their older siblings in a society in which older siblings got everything (I’m talking about Jacob, Joseph, David, and so many more)

God’s choosing of and special care for women in a society in which women were marginalized and vulnerable (think of Hagar, of Deborah and Jael, of Hannah, of Jesus’ interactions with various women, his respect for them and sharing special wisdom with them)

God’s special care for people who are depressed, downtrodden, unloved or rejected (think of Leah, Elijah, David when he’s an outcast and on the run from the law, Ruth and Naomi who are foreigners and widows)

God’s various declarations of care for the oppressed, such as in Isaiah 56 (a message to foreigners and eunuchs that they have a place in God’s house), and Jesus’s quoting of Isaiah to proclaim he has come “with good news for the poor” and to set captives free (Luke 4).

Hannah’s song of praise in 1 Samuel 2 and Mary’s song of praise in Luke 1 both speak of God’s preference for the poor – “God has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; God has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.”

Using this theology to carry out justice

So what does all this mean for us, in how we act out our faith on an individual and systemic basis, on our own and with our church communities?

Gutiérrez says that recognizing the option for the poor will inspire us to solidarity: “Belief in God and God’s gratuitous love leads to a preferential option for the poor and to solidarity with those who suffer wretched conditions, contempt, and oppression, those whom the social order ignores and exploits.”

In this way we will be moved to stand with the poor and even to suffer with them. Hopefully we will be inspired to confront injustices ranging from economic and social injustice to racism, homophobia and transphobia, xenophobia, islamophobia and anti-Semitism, sexism, and all systems that pit some groups over others, that dehumanize and trap people in cycles of suffering.

Bishop Desmond Tutu lauds the way that liberation theology gives voice to the suffering of the innocent: “Liberation, theology more than any other kind of theology, issues out of the crucible of human suffering and anguish. It happens because people cry out, ‘Oh, God, how long?’ ‘Oh God, but why?…’ All liberation theology stems from trying to make sense of human suffering when those who suffer are the victims of organized oppression and exploitation, when they are…treated as less than what they are: human persons created in the image of the Triune God, redeemed by the one Savior Jesus Christ and sanctified by the Holy Paraclete.”

Thus liberation theology can help us give voice to our own suffering and compel us to hear others’ suffering, so that we will be moved to right that suffering. Lamentation and crying out to God is something many of our churches are rusty at – because it’s not easy, it’s not comfortable, and we often fear that it’s “blasphemy” to yell at God. But from Job, Habakkuk, and the Psalms to Jesus in the garden and on the cross, scripture shows us that God invites and encourages us to cry out, to bring all our messy emotions to Them – and to let others give voice to those emotions, too.

Good news for the rich and privileged, too?

Finally, what good news is there in liberation theology for those who are not “the poor” whom God prefers – for those who are the rich, the privileged, the oppressors?

I wish I could find the passage (I think it is in Gutiérrez but it might be from a some other theologian I’ve read in seminary), but I know I have heard this somewhere: God being on the side of the poor means the spiritually poor too! Those of us who are oppressed by our own sins, our own corruption, our complicit-ness in sinful social structures, are part of God’s preference.

As Jesus puts it in Luke 5:32, “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” Luke 19:10, then, says that “the Son of Humanity is come to seek and save that which was lost.”

Think also of biblical figures whom God chooses even though they are not perfect by any stretch of the imagination: Moses was a murderer, and Paul was too; Jacob was a trickster and yet was even blessed for “striving with God and with people”; Jesus ate with tax collectors and chose disciples who would doubt and betray him; and on and on.

God’s preferential option is thus at work on the oppressors, and on those of us who benefit from oppression whether we want to or not. It reminds me of feminists’ argument that feminism helps men too – because it can free them from the constraints of toxic masculinity.

Now, God’s preferential option may show itself in different ways for the privileged than it does with the oppressed – it may show itself in the Spirit’s urging us to do the hard work to combat sin, both our individual sin and the systemic sin from which we benefit. It may show itself in God’s refusal to leave us to our sin that harms others, in God moving us to empathy and solidarity with the oppressed – which is never comfortable, and often painful. But it is how we move towards God’s shalom, the wholeness and abundance of life God is bringing about for all people and all creation, and so I thank God for how They unsettle me from my own comfortable privilege.

Note, I’m not sure all liberation theologians would agree with this idea of the privileged being counted in God’s option when it comes to “spiritual poverty” in this way; I’m not even sure I fully agree with it – so in that case, even if there is not any good news specifically for the rich/privileged, at the very least there is not “bad news” for them in liberation theology. God still loves them intensely; the preferential option for the poor doesn’t change that.

Still, I would argue that those of us who are privileged in one way or another should rejoice at God’s option for the poor whether or not it directly “benefits” us, because it is directly benefiting other members of the Body of Christ. We should long for and be striving toward wholeness, dignity, and justice for the oppressed and marginalized. After all, in this Body of Christ to which we all belong, “if one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together” (1 Corinthians 12:26).

Some more resources

I hope this helps you out, anon! Let me know if you have more questions. And if anyone has more thoughts on this topic or any comments on what I wrote above, I’d love to hear them!

For more on liberation theology and explanations of God’s option for the poor:

– you can read the first bit of Gutiérrez’s On Job for free here.

– I like this article’s explanation of the preferential option for the poor, calling it an “option that’s not optional” and applying it to today’s context

– this webpage lists some more reasons God might have an option for the poor

– see all the quotes collected in my liberation theology tag

– see this post for book recommendations for liberation theology as well as theologies sometimes considered to be “subsets” of or at least related to liberation theology, such as queer theology and Black theology

– does anyone have more resources? Share them!

#liberation theology #option for the poor #god of the oppressed #gustavo gutierrez #queerly christian asks #anon #long post #queerly christian posts #essays

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yujachachacha · 7 years

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HiHi! same anon who asked you about Yakkai hehe (how did you know my true intentions? jk!) Just to cut you some slack I did try googling it myself before asking again but all I got were results for knb character songs(?) and a bollywood film(???) Frankly, I really do want to know because I've heard the term used in passing. Particularly from reports about the 2nd live Kobe leg. I heard about people doing it in KoiAqua?? To the point where someone got strangled in the Korean LV?? Is it that bad??

Hey there! Not gonna lie, I’m still lowkey pouting in the corner because you did that, but I’m glad to see that you’re genuinely curious. Thanks for trying your best! (☞ >ω･)☞

I have no idea what schools are teaching y’all these days, but research doesn’t mean typing a single word into Google! Also, if you’re gonna look up a Japanese term, you’re not gonna get the right results if you type the word in English without any additional parameters. Here are three methods you should try using when Googling a Japanese term you don’t know:

1. Write it in Japanese, i.e. “やっかい”. The first Google result is in Japanese, but let’s assume that we’re not so good at reading Japanese (since if we were, we’d probably be able to figure out the meaning of “yakkai” pretty quickly), and skip over this one. The second result gives you a Wiktionary link, which is in English and perfect for our purposes. It defines the word 厄介 (yakkai) as “troublesome” or a “burden”. This is literally what “yakkai” means, but for the purposes of idol fan culture, we’ll be adding a bit more meaning to this.

2. If you’re doing your search in English, add the word “Japanese” to your search term. After all, if we’re not so good at reading Japanese, who’s to say that we’ll be able to type something in Japanese? Try Googling the phrase “yakkai japanese”. This guarantees that what you’re typing won’t be mistaken for a word from another language (which is why you got results for a Bollywood film). The Google results are almost the same as in method #1, except that there are a lot more links in English rather than Japanese. So in short, this is basically an alternative to the first method for those of you who can’t read Japanese so well.

3. Include context for your term, i.e. add things like “Love Live” and “idol”. We can now try to figure out what the word means in the context of the LL fandom by googling “yakkai love live”. A bunch of the image results are Bollywood-related (because of yakkai + love, lol), but the top two links give us threads from the /r/LoveLive subreddit. The very first link in particular, “Aqours 2nd Love Live Discussion [Kobe]”, actually contains exactly what we’re looking for.

If you use the “find” function (“ctrl + f”, or “cmd + f” if you’re on a Mac like me) and search for “yakkai”, you’ll eventually see that someone on this thread asked what people meant by yakkai calls in the discussion about the live. /u/MasterMirage himself (a mod of the LL subreddit and a member of Team ONIBE) gives a great explanation:

Um, so if you’re aware of the standard “Fu fu”, “fuwa fuwa” and “hai” chants, these are the standard go to chants to do at lives.

The Koi Aqua Yakkai (troublesome/burden) calls are out of place calls that you normally don’t do at lives since they interrupt the flow of the concert and are considered disruptive by many people.

I guess this video explains it pretty well since the calls here are what you should not do at a live:

https://twitter.com/dan_chii/status/882024909995556864

A common call “IE TAIGA” is something that people are getting annoyed at because people think it’s funny.

Sat from Fripside even called out on these alternative/disruptive calls:

https://twitter.com/Jsan_san/status/896918057397829634

I highly recommend you check out those Twitter links to give you a better understanding of what yakkai calls are (video in the first link) and why you shouldn’t be doing them (translated quote in the second link). For the first link, the yakkai isn’t too bad, at least until you get to the rap portion of the master mix at about 55 seconds in. But just imagine how annoying it would be if the fans were screaming that during a live rather than at a casual wota session at a convention. :’)

Also, I’m gonna go ahead and write down a part of the material in the second link here, because it’s really important:

“That part was made with the idea that the silence could be felt before the hook, you know? It has a purpose. I didn’t want [it] to be destroyed!”

Keep in mind that this was said by Satoshi of fripSide about his own song, while on stage during a concert tour. That’s how annoying these calls are. Instead of respecting the mood that the artists worked so hard to create for the song, yakkai concertgoers try to be as disruptive as possible for their own amusement.

So yeah, “ie taiga” (for those of you who aren’t familiar with this term, here’s my explanation from a previous ask) and similar calls/wota are the essence of yakkai. If you’re wondering why it enrages people so much, consider the following:

After spending a lot of money and praying to the gods for luck, a fan manages to score a seat at an Aqours live. At the concert, the fan is enjoying the fact that they’re listening to the Aqours seiyuu singing and dancing in front of them, live. Holy crap! :D But then comes along some asshole who thinks it’s funny to ruin the mood by screaming in the middle of a song. Opportunities to attend an Aqours live aren’t common, so it’s understandable that someone would end up getting very upset.

The same goes for a live viewing. A live viewing is an opportunity to see the seiyuu perform in real-time, and it’s a precious one at that. Footage shown at screenings differs slightly from the more polished versions we get in Blu-rays, so you get to see the raw performance at a viewing. Plus, you’re cheering and jumping and screaming along with the audience like you would at the actual live. “Ie taiga” distracts you from recreating the atmosphere of the performance, and is a huge sign of disrespect towards the other attendees.

Korean LL fans in particular have a deep-seated hatred for “ie taiga” (I’m not quite sure why it’s so intense - perhaps it has to do with the nature of the LLer culture over there?). For example, popular YouChika artist GamGam (@gamjolno on Twitter) has complained heavily about it happening during lives, and even resorted to plugging their ears at the pivotal moment in KoiAqua just to avoid hearing the phrase. As many Korean LLers were at a live viewing for the 2nd Live tour, the combined murderous rage they held for yakkai LLers exploded when they heard it actually happen during the screening.

Of course, I don’t approve of them trying to strangle (or physically harm in general) a yakkai LLer. What I will say, however, is that I can at least see why someone reacted that way.

If you need another example to understand why they went that far: I assume you’re familiar with “Snow halation”, and the famous part of the song where the µ’s members stand still before the audience cracks their UOs. There’s a brief moment, before Honoka’s emotional solo and the explosion of bright orange filling up the concert venue, where everything is silent save for the jingling of bells leading up to the climax (3:08~3:09). It’s a beautiful, almost holy silence, revered by many for this sacred and beloved performance.

Now, imagine if someone suddenly screamed “YEAH TIGERRRR!!!” right at that moment.

(ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻

Understand now? It’s not funny. It’s not impressive. It’s downright infuriating.

First, yakkai LLers took away the enjoyment of the “I miss you~” You solo line in KoiAqua and the build-up to the chorus (see ~1:22 in this video for an audio demonstration). Then, someone decided to ruin the dramatic silence before the final chorus of “Aozora Jumping Heart” (~3:30 in the song). And now, there’s been reports of someone at the Saitama live screaming “IE TAIGAAA” right as the song slows down before the “la la la~” ending portion (~3:33 in the song).

I would hesitantly say that the “ie taiga” for KoiAqua is on the borderline of being tolerable. The song is full of chants anyway, and that part after You’s line does sound like it could accommodate some kind of call - but still, you should save it for a fan mix rather than a live. It’s the kind of thing that’ll make some people giggle at the weirdness, while others roll their eyes and mutter about the newest generation of LLers being yakkai af.

But for AoJump and MiraTicke, the yakkai incidents have been happening at solemn, quieter portions of the song rather than the cheerful and noisy sections. I have seen various posts by LLers claiming that they’re proud to “ie taiga” at a live as the ultimate expression of their wota skills, plus they’re doing it just for teh lulz. Again - it’s highly inappropriate, and disrespectful to both the audience members who are trying to enjoy the performance and the performers who are trying to make the performance enjoyable. If you want to prove that you’re a devoted LLer, your actions shouldn’t be damaging to the community.

To wrap things up: if you happen to search for “yakkai idol” instead, the first result that Google gives you is a blog post that talks about the concept of yakkai at idol events. The author includes some sound wisdom at the end:

What people really mean when they say “don’t be yakkai” is just that don’t go crazy and enjoy being annoying, and taking your entertainment at the cost of the enjoyment of others. Like, it’s fun to troll people, but that’s not good if the other party doesn’t enjoy it. It might be fun to go nuts, but don’t do it when it’s inappropriate.

Basically, it’s okay to go crazy during karaoke sessions or casual wota sessions with friends. Take that tweet in the first link from MasterMirage’s comment. I happen to know one of the people in that video, and he’s an awesome guy who knows a lot about concert calls. These wota bros were being “yakkai” for sure, but they were doing it at the Lumica booth at Anime Expo rather than a live. It was actually pretty amusing, and was almost like a free ad for the booth: “See these LLers partying with their lightsticks? You too can join in on the fun by purchasing a Lumica blade and/or UOs at this booth!” But for the sake of other fans, make sure you keep it clean during actual lives and public screenings.

tl;dr: “Yakkai” literally means “burdensome/troublesome”, and refers to antics of this nature by fans during performances. Notable examples include particularly annoying fans who scream “IE TAIGA” not only during KoiAqua, but also in highly inappropriate moments from other songs. Don’t be like this during a live unless you want to be heavily criticized for disrespecting the performers and lacking common decency for the people around you.

#love live! sunshine!!#love live sunshine #aqours #aqours 2nd live #happy party train tour #yakkai #info #my ramblings #anonymous #yujachask #queuetie panther #today on yujacha's blog: i give lessons on how to do research #smh do schools not teach kids how to do proper research these days #AND NOW Y'ALL KNOW WHY I ITALICIZED 'BOTHER' IN THE PREVIOUS ASK #AREN'T I CLEVER? :D #...okay i'll leave now #again apologies for leaving this to my queue #my family just celebrated korean thanksgiving lol

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allisonawakened · 7 years

Note

Thank you for the answer about free will, it's something that has really bothered me lately, I've always believed in free will but certain things like when people talk about karma and astrology that confuses me a lot but I'm not sure I believe in karma anyway except just consequences and thought cycles and patterns. Could I also ask what play astrology has to do with this if free will is a thing and astrology is very fixed? Especially Vedic astrology, or their beliefs about astrology. Thank you!

( part 2 ) Oh and I must say that I’ve started to get a weird feeling when I focus on certain things, it’s like I’m more aware of how things I do everyday interact with my past and present and how my focus could really change my personality and who I am in the long run. It’s very subtle energies but at the same time very powerful bc right now I’m making decisions and needing to plan a bit for the future and you’re kinda right it’s a bit like a web or different tunnels of energies connected to

( part 3 )connected to each other and the more you focus on one thing instead of another I can kinda feel the consciousness and possibilities line up to a different path. I think that must have to do kinda with me being led by spirit or my intuition just because I have so many choices to make rn since I just graduated. Sorry for the long asks and thank you for the work you do on this blog, it’s very helpful and I need to get a reading from you as soon as a get a job haha won’t be long I hope😊🙃

Hi, Hi, Hi!

You are so very welcome for my last answer re: Free Will. It’s why I’m here and do this. What I don’t know from personal experience, I ask Spirit about. And sometimes not even my own Spirit Guides - but any Spiritual Allies floating about that are willing to engage in real, honest, thought-provoking conversation.

You ask some really compelling Spiritual things.

And a long Ask = an even longer Answer ;)

So I’ve answered your questions in 3 sections below:

Astrology & Free Will

Vedic Astrology… Say What?

Psychic Awareness While Living: Healthy or Not?

Note (for those following along at home): I do reference some concepts previously discussed in [ My Post / Answer about Whether I Believe in Free Will, and Why / Why Not ] …. If you are arriving late to the party (and happen to find this interesting), I suggest you read through that first.

* Keep Reading to learn more about the relationship between Astrology & Free Will, my channelled thoughts on Vedic Astrology, as well as how Psychic Awareness & Abilities can Influence How we Choose to Live / Behave *

Astrology & Free Will

I can read Astrology. I know a fair amount about it. It’s more of a hobby / personal interest of mine. I also offer reads on my website on the basis of different planetary and zodiac energies, but I am so very NOT a self-proclaimed “Expert” in that field. So my answer is based on personal opinion, experiences with Spirit, and channelling happening right now as I invite Spirit in to discuss this.

I see Astrology (as a method of reading, learning more about people & situations) like a similar Spiritual Study & (ultimately) Spiritual Tool - used to seek / flush out information about the self. This to me is really similar to how I also see other Spiritual Studies / Tools - like: Numerology & Palmistry.

There is a reason why practicing Astrology is called, “Charting”. I see it exactly as that. A chart of the position of planets at the time of your birth, determining which Houses & Zodiac Signs influence (energetically) the planets’ relative positions in your Chart (upon birth). And therefore, likely characteristics, personality traits, motivating factors, and emotional responses you may (or - to be fair - may not) possess in your life.

So (in my opinion) a Natal Birth Chart is like an energetic Road Map of YOU, based on the measurement of the relative position of the Planets & Zodiac signs.

Just like how - the sum total of the numbers associated with your Name or Birthdate (Numerology), is like an energetic Road Map of YOU, based on the energetic / symbolic significance of each Number in relation to your “Life Path” Number, “Soul” Number, “Destiny” Number, “Personality” Number, and other significant numbers in your life.

Just like how - the markings on your Palm (Palmistry), are like an energetic Road Map of YOU, based on the measurement of your “Life Line”, “Head Line”, “Heart Line”, “Planetary Mounds”, and other such markings.

Although each of these methods, in turn, are super cool, interesting, unique, and compelling… They are as I said: Road Maps.

Much like how we Map our planet, we see Maps everyday, we use Google Maps (GPS), just because we are aware of the information of where we could possibly go / travel to in life DOES NOT MEAN we will see & visit everywhere we have seen on a map or even heard of.

There are things in our Natal Charts - connected to Astrology - that will resonate and make sense / help you to identify & define yourself, your motives, your actions, your emotions, your behaviours… But just because you have that Natal Chart DOES NOT MEAN you will experience and behave *exactly* like everything that has been charted out for you.

That’s where, in my opinion, these schools of thought are tools for us to better know ourselves. But at the end of the day we still have Free Will and possess the ability to choose / decide all aspects of ourselves and our lives - WITH or WITHOUT the added information of our Astrology / Natal Chart, Numerology, or Palmistry.

They may serve to fill in some blanks for us, but they do not pre-determine how we will think, act, feel, behave, or CHOOSE in our life.

Side Note:

I have a client that is a Professional Astrologer. And when reading with them they fully admit to me “Yes, what you say from Spirit is true based on what I’ve already Charted for myself… But I wish to act *outside* of what I’ve Charted. So what does Spirit have to say about that?” ***

*** This is me paraphrasing / glossing over what has been said, as my sessions with clients are confidential.

Vedic Astrology… Say What?

Okay so Full Disclosure (because I’m super honest and don’t know how to be anything other than that):

I have no idea what Vedic Astrology is. I am curious though.

So I’m going to do a quick Google for the definition of that and see what Spirit has to say…

* 3 Minutes Pass *

OHHHHHH.

So Vedic Astrology is… Astrology. But traditional Hindu / Indian Astrology. And it seems to be most focused on Charting / Mapping for the purpose of determining one’s “Destiny”.

Gotcha.

Note: If I’ve butchered that quick-3-minute-Google-dive explanation, I do so thoroughly apologize AND encourage you to write in to *lovingly* provide further information not only for myself, but those that read my blog.

Spirit is showing me that Charting one’s “Destiny” via a Vedic Astrology Reading is no different than what I do as a Psychic Medium when I tell my clients what I see for them in the future (via my Clairvoyant & Clairaudient abilities - visions & spoken word from Spirit).

And Spirit goes further to say (as soon as I’ve typed that up) - “Yea, that’s pretty close Allison”.

So rather than speaking about Vedic Astrology at this point (something I don’t know / practice) - I’m going to switch over to speak about reading the future as a Psychic Medium (something I do know / practice)… Because Spirit has given me the “Green Light” to say that the two are comparable, in terms of the end goal / achievement (pre-determining one’s future). The means though (technique) could not be ANYMORE different ;)

So as a Psychic Medium when I read the future I am reading the highest possible likelihoods / probable events (think Statistical Maths for a second here), based on who you are, how you behave, and the decisions (Free Will) you are enacting in your life right now (so in maths - the “known variables”).

I imagine in Vedic Astrology, the Astrologer is Charting your highest possible / probable “Destiny”, based on your Natal Birth Chart AND the predicted trajectory of the Planets through each of the Astrological Houses & associated Zodiac signs - something that is mathematically pre-determined.

I feel like I’m speaking a lot of jargon here.

BASICALLY. The words that are most important that I just typed are: HIGHEST POSSIBLE LIKELIHOODS, HIGHEST PROBABLE EVENTS, HIGHEST POSSIBLE “DESTINY”.

As with Statistical Maths, there are outliers. Or rather, DATA THAT CANNOT BE ACCOUNTED FOR OR CHARTED.

In Psychology you would maybe say that: “Past Behaviour predicts Future Behaviour”.

Key Words: Predicts! Does not guarantee.

So the way I see it [ WITH HEAPING AMOUNTS OF HELP FROM SPIRIT ] is that Vedic Astrology, or even what I do as a Psychic Medium (when consulting Spirit about a client’s future), is really our “best educated guess” about your future or “destiny” based on your past (or in Vedic Astrology - your Natal Birth Chart & the predicated future position of the planets relative to the Astrological Houses & associated Zodiac signs).

The past - by the way - is something that is Linear. It’s happened. Everything is known to you (and Spirit). The only unknowns are thoughts, decisions, motivators, behaviours, emotions, etc. of those around you that may have at one point or another, influenced your life.

The future - as I said in my post about “Free Will” - is a web of potential.

So can Vedic Astrology influence / supersede Free Will?

In my opinion… No.

Just because something is charted / calculated / psychically determined, doesn’t mean it will *actually* happen in that exact way.

YOU are the “unknown” variable in that equation. Or rather, your Free Will.

You can choose at any time to turn Left instead of Right.

Even if your map, your GPS, your significant other, your family, or every other variable in your life point towards turning Right. You still have the ability to *randomly* turn Left.

Psychic Awareness While Living: Healthy or Not?

Ever heard of the phrase: “Too much of a good thing”?

That’s how I see this Spiritual / Psychic stuff.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s so-so-so amazing. I love my gifts. I love being able to know things / see things / hear things. I love getting “insider” information about my life, my loved ones’ lives, and the world.

BUT.

But, but, but…

Knowing more, feeling more, sensing more… Well that’s not always the *best* thing.

It also reminds me of that phrase: “Ignorance is bliss”

Sometimes knowing less can be best.

When you are (what we now call in the New Age community) “Awake” to the world around you. Spiritually Aware that your are 100% a Spiritual Being / Entity having a Human Experience…

When you are in tune with your Psychic / Intuitive abilities, you work with them, your use them (or… they use you)…

Well when those things happen… Very quickly you may start feeling *extremely* small, in this world, this universe, all universes. And you realize the space around you IS SO FREAKING, BEYOND, BIG. LIKE, BIGGER THAN EVEN THIS. LIKE, BIGGER THAN EVEN ALL OF THE CAP LOCKS IN THE WORLD.

And when that happens. You. Start. Questioning. EVERYTHING.

Not just one thing. Not just teeny weeny things. But.. EVERY. POSSIBLE. THING.

When you possess these gifts and know how to use them?

Well then you: obsess about the past

“what could have been different”

“where would you be now if you have chosen this instead of that?”

“who would you be if he / she / they had treated you differently?”

“who would you be if he / she / they had RAISED you differently?”

“where would you be know if you knew then what you know now”

Etc…

And you also: obsess about the future

“I want *this thing* but what is the best way for me to achieve *that thing*?”

“How will I know when I need to go for *that thing*?”

“Is *perfect timing* even a thing? How will I know?”

“Could there be something I’m doing now that’s actually holding me back?”

“What if I’m working so hard to *do this thing* right now, when it actually won’t even *give me that thing*?”

Etc…

Then the unfortunate outcome of all of that obsession about the Past & Future results in:

Being so, ridiculously, terrifyingly, hopelessly STUCK in the Present.

SO THE SECRET IS:

Please, please, please let me tell you the secret to this…

What I learned a very long time ago is this:

Listen. Receive. Feel. Sense. Gather & Know more information than everyone else that is still “Asleep”.

Do that. Actively engage in your Sixth Senses. Connect to your Spiritual Allies. Embrace the incredible, amazing, awesomeness that is you & your potential.

Do that. Be that. But then take all of that extra information and THROW ALL OF IT OUT OF THE WINDOW.

IGNORE IT.

Let it come into your awareness, and right back out again.

Because although there is this super-awesome, Psychically-aware, spiritually-savvy, version of yourself. That Spiritual Being / Entity I mentioned earlier.

Although there is her / him / them.

There is also You. The Human Being version of You that is actively living (right. the. frick. now.) this *sometimes heart-rending & emotionally turbulent* Human Experience.

So… Psychic Awareness While Living: Healthy or Not?

Not so much.

But you can change that with that Free Will of yours… By choosing which messages from Spirit you allow to influence your day-to-day thoughts, behaviour, emotions & actions.

Believe me when I say that this takes practice. It’s easier for some than others. But when you get the hang of it, all of the over-obsessing will be like flies buzzing around your head. Psychic / Intuitive insights that you are aware of but see as things OUTSIDE OF YOURSELF. Energies *you can choose* to feed into, or… (and this is WAY more healthy)… IGNORE.

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