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polysyndetonaddictsupportgroup · 2 years

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From the thingy you reblogged:

Therianthropy (and other goddamn lies)

3: What’s your favorite line of narration?

4: What’s your favorite line of dialogue?

5: What part was hardest to write?

7: Where did the title come from?

10: Why did you choose this pairing for this particular story?

Hey guys trigger warning, this fic involves child abuse and suicidal thoughts and actions, and so do my replies.

3: What’s your favorite line of narration?

I think it's actually probably this one:

It’s that scene, right? In the Christmas Carol. Tiny Tim, God-Bless-Us-Everyone Tim, he says, I don’t mind when people stare at me because I am a cripple, because it might remind them of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who made lame men walk and blind men see, and that might be pleasant for them, God Bless Us Everyone, A-Fucking-Men.

It's such an ugly line, is the thing, which is one of the reasons why I love it so much. It's crude. You've got this famous disabled character known for being this shining beacon of goodness and hope and Christmas time, and he's discussed in a very callous manner.

Except, fundamentally, Tiny Tim was always something more to be missed than an actual character. He was a symbol of goodness and charity and tragic loss and has no real personality of his own past how fucking good and gracious he is--which like, to be clear, I'm not shitting on Charles Dickens, he's fucking Charles Dickens and you can pick absolutely any character from any book written pre-1920s and it's a solid bet they're meant to be a symbol rather than an actual character. That's just how the literary field as a whole worked for a while. I'm commenting more on how Tiny Tim most exemplifies the trend of the tokenization of disabled characters.

Like, disabled characters are always given the treatment of being this eternal symbol of suffering being so brave making it through life. Matt Murdock as a concept is fucking revolutionary in the sense that he's an actual three-dimensional disabled character. He's extremely complex and is so much more than his disability. His disability isn't ignored or """"""""overcome"""""""", it's just a part of him. The bigger problem is, people tokenize actual disabled people too, not just fictional characters.

**As a warning, in the next paragraph, I'm going to discuss Catholicism specifically for a bit. I speak entirely to my own experiences with it and I'm not looking to insult or cast judgment on anyone within the religion. Religious experiences are different for everyone and my impression based off of what I experienced is not meant as a commentary on any universality. That being said, religious experiences are different for anyone and a lot of people have trauma. Skip the next two paragraphs if you don't want to hear any commentary on catholicism at all.**

I was raised catholic, and I'd put solid money on the fact that Matt Murdock couldn't step in a church without at least two strangers coming up to him and telling him that God gave him this suffering for the spiritual good of them all. Like, some of the Catholics i knew were fucking weird about making suffering collective (not speaking on all Catholics, just my personal experiences). There are multiple saints who go through disabilities and illness "to offer up the suffering for the good of other's souls." There's a girl who died in an exorcism and people claim she was a holy soul willingly possessed by multiple demons so she could offer her suffering up for others. And many catholics that I knew would be so fucking ready to walk up to you with zero prompting and tell you that God is making you suffer for the good of all others, especially if you're visibly disabled.

Like, fucking imagine that. Imagine walking up to a stranger with a broken arm and being like "the pain you feel is so that others may not have to suffer the holy fire of purgatory" like babe that is not at all a thing you should ever say to someone.

I think there's this huge pressure to be the "perfect" disabled person. The Tiny Tim, who's extremely gracious about all the people being objectively rude to him, because it reminds them of the good Lord Jesus Christ, Amen God Bless. He would have been entitled to his anger. He would have been well within his rights to find them horrifically rude. And I'm not saying you have to respond a certain way about people being rude about your disability, but I'm saying that there's this unreasonable expectation around the disabled community to be these shining little beacons of gracious suffering instead of like. actual fucking people getting about their day. So I love this line because it's Matt taking this standard and not being the perfect gracious blind boy. He's bitter and crude and that's o-fucking-kay.

4: What’s your favorite line of dialogue?

I'd say it has to be this:

“I can be something other than this,” Matt tells them. “But I don’t think I want to be.”

I think it's important that Daredevil is a choice that Matt consciously made. It wasn't just gravity, inevitable, it was something he picked.

He could have picked just being Matt Murdock. Be the best goddamn attorney around, but that would mean ignoring all he heard. It'd be an implicit denial of a huge part of himself. He could have been the greatest soldier in the Hand, but that would mean ignoring all he could be as Matt Murdock. Daredevil's a specific choice, and I think it's the only one that lets both halves live together. I also think that it's only one that makes sense if it isn't the only thing he could have been.

One of the biggest things about this Matt is the fact that he's forced to permit his own helplessness. I'm going to talk about this more in #5, but talking about his abuse was difficult, because the fact that Matt Murdock is an abuse survivor is hugely important to who he is, but I didn't want it to be like, trauma porn. Anything I added, it had to be something that directly influenced who he became.

The thing about this Matt is that he's bone-achingly angry at every single person who decides to hurt someone helpless, and he's fucking humiliated because he was that helpless person at the same time. He could have stopped every single person who hurt him. he had to allow them the power to hurt the poor, defenseless blind kid. So it makes him an active participant in his own abuse--not in the sense that he was at fault, he fucking wasn't, but in the sense that he has the added suffering of having to choose to let people hurt him when he could stop them. That being said, all of the abuse that I explicitly outlined all was something that furthered that specific pain.

He could have stopped anyone who hit him, but he had to let them do it. He had to pretend to not know that people were watching him change, because he was blind, and he had no way of stopping them without revealing his super senses. Several of the injustices he suffered were centered on super senses--the abusive parents that slipped him benadryl, the ones that discussed him in terrible ways--that he had absolutely no way of addressing without revealing his true strengths. He's checked in the sense that he can stop them, but only at a cost that he's not willing to pay. It'd be a huge risk, anyone finding out about his senses. So he decides to not risk it. It's an infuriating, humiliating, traumatizing childhood, and that sense of being helpless and someone using that to take advantage is probably the biggest impact on who Matt became.

I say all of this because it's important to his choice to become Daredevil.

He could have been successful Matt Murdock, but he would have to constantly push down that righteousness that makes him him, and ignore the part of him who knew, viscerally, what it meant to be the helpless person. At the same time, he could have gone on a total power trip. There's a version of Matt Murdock in the comic books who became Kingpin. He has a lot of violent tendencies. He struggles with control and power trips. He could have just started hurting people without the part where he helped. It is so fundamental to the Daredevil decision that he could have been something else, but this is what he picked.

Because it's an actionable reversal of that forced helplessness all those years. He's changing the decision that caused him that much pain for that long, and he's doing it so he can be the person he never had--someone who steps in, and stops the bad thing. And a lot of that is his unhealthy tendencies too. The violence, the anger, the powertrips, the toxic tendencies--that's still there. It's not a one hundred percent altruistic or good decision. but it could have not been an altruistic decision at all, and that's important.

5: What part was hardest to write?

The abuse.

Fundamentally, Matt Murdock is a victim of systematic abuse. The things that happened to him when he was a child is vital to his actual character. That being said, I'm not a fan of adding in a bunch of explicit terrible events happening to a child just for the angst. As I said above, I had to walk a line and evaluate what I was putting in to see if it directly related to and explained the decisions Matt was making in the present day. He had to have visceral, bone-deep knowledge of what it meant to be helpless for Daredevil to function as a piece of his arc, and the best way to make the reader understand that is to make them feel the helplessness. That being said, I really didn't want it to end up as trauma porn, so I had to be careful and really evaluate what I put down.

7: Where did the title come from?

So "therianthrophy" is the name for the magical transformation that happens in folklore. Man to werewolf. Woman to mermaid. It's the actual act of change from one thing to another. And I named it that because that's effectively, what stick promised Matt and Lisa, and it was a lie.

Stick found kids who were so traumatized that they'd do anything to change from the person that got hurt into someone that couldn't be hurt anymore. So he hurt them even worse, and promised them it would turn them into something better and stronger, when really all they ended up was the same person with worse pain.

One of the core themes underlying Matt and Lisa's story is that there is no becoming someone else. You are who you are right now, and you will always be that person, and there is nothing that will ever change that. You will always be the person that got hurt. And there's a potential addendum to that, the fact that you can be the person who got better.

Lisa hasn't come to terms with the truth yet. Matt realized that right before his first suicide attempt, and it sounded so terrible to him at the time that he attempted. Over the years, though, he's gotten Foggy and Karen. He's starting to realize that being who he isn't doesn't have to be a terrible thing. One of his biggest hopes is that he can help Lisa to the same with a lot less pain.

10: Why did you choose this pairing for this particular story?

I have a minor hobby that's defridging the Punisher's family. I've got like, four or five fics that i'd love to write around the castle family? I dunno if I ever will get around to them, but I love them. They're the ultimate fridged characters. Their only purpose is to die and be missed. I love making them real people.

Lisa Castle is, arguably, the most fridged of them all. Like, Maria is the classic fridged wife, but she's at least given the treatment of it being clear that her relationship with Frank had ups and downs, so she's not like some perfect, unstained beacon.

Frank Jr. actually gets shelved and ignored more than the rest of the family, especially in fandom, which I touch on more in the first step of kintsugi than I do in this one. But I find it interesting, because Frank Jr's the most explicitly not perfect one in the family. We hear Frank and Maria fought, but it's never shown. A negative word is never said for Lisa. But Frank Jr. painted marines on his mom's wall and parroted some stupid fucking shit he probably heard at school. His loss almost never gets the same prioritization as Lisa's and Maria's.

Lisa, meanwhile, is Frank's baby girl. She was strong and funny and his beloved daughter, and the most important thing about her character is that she was lost. He never read her a bedtime story on her last night alive. He held her when she died. She was Frank's baby girl and he misses her every day.

And, like. The penny and dime scene was fucking phenomenal. It was one of the best television scenes of all time. Jon Bernthal's acting was fantastic. It was heartfelt and tragic.

And one of the reasons why Lisa's loss, and the entire family's loss, is so tragic is that they don't get to be more than their loss, because they're dead. It's lost potential, lost energy, lost space, whatever you want to call it. It's a huge gaping loss, and that's why the punisher has such a painful and visceral storyline.

But that means that it implicitly has to make his family just... things to be missed rather than actionable characters in their own storyline. They're a backstory. They don't get to be more.

So I wanted to take Lisa, who was the "purest" of them all. Didn't have any of the fights Frank Jr had with his dad. Didn't have any of the (extremely normal) rocky aspects of their relationship Maria had with Frank. she's the dead daughter and she is doe eyed and sincere and wanted her daddy to read her a bedtime story. I wanted to take her and make her into a character that could really embody all the messy pain of life and recovery.

Because this Lisa did survive, and she has to grapple with the PTSD. She has to grapple with the loss of her family. She self-destructs and hurts others and hurts herself, and she's not that perfect, platonic ideal of a daughter to be missed. She's messy and complicated and hurting, and she's still worth every bit of love that the perfect version of her got. I'm not going to say what's coming, but Lisa's far from in a good place just because she's finally with Matt. She's going to act out and do some pretty terrible things. But that's completely understandable given where she is in the recovery process, and it's important to sever the conception of this "perfect" person with the one to be missed. Frank misses Frank Jr. just as much as he misses Lisa, but it's rarely shown that way, and I think it's a bit in part because his relationship wasn't shown to be as idealized as his relationship with Lisa.

So that's why it was vital that Lisa was the member of the Castle family that made it out. The reason why she needed to have Matt be the one to make a family with her was three fold.

it'd be so fucking funny.

can you imagine. your daughter dies tragically and you find out months later she's alive and has been adopted by the worst man alive. i fucking refuse to believe there is any version of frank castle that does not find the very concept of matt murdock insulting. he has never been more exasperated in his entire life. this man is so stupid. why is he in fucking devil horns. why does he have my daughter. god i want to fucking make them coparent.

2. it made the most narrative sense.

I needed a way to get Lisa out alive and in a way that easily introduced her back to the action. If frank survived the shootout, hypothetically speaking, anyone could, but they needed a way to be alive and off the radar. Stick is perfect. He's always looking for vulnerable orphans, and he directly feeds into the overarching conflict. Logistically, it made sense to bring her in through stick and then have that streamline straight into Matt.

3. It fulfills some of the biggest themes in this.

the first is saving each other instead of being the savior. family in this is about saving each other. it's not about one single person being the savior. foggy doesn't "fix" matt. Foggy can be a fucking mess on his own too, thank you very much. Foggy and Matt is a story about saving each other. They curb the worst in each other. Foggy is the one keeping Matt grounded, and Matt is the one keeping Foggy grounded. Foggy reminds Matt that the system can still work, but Matt in terms keeps Foggy from hiding behind the system. Like, I could write an entire essay about how foggy's moral approach is the platonic ideal of the Lawyer's Professional Rules of Ethics. Foggy believes in the system, but when the system doesn't work, he needs a push to leave it. And the fact of the fucking matter is, Matt's right. The system isn't working. Sometimes you need a dickhead in fucking leather fetish gear and horns to beat the shit out of a billionaire on live tv before people pay attention to the corrupt cops. There isn't any one "savior" in the family that sprouted up between Foggy, Matt, and Karen--each one of them is needed to make it work.

That being said, if Lisa was directly picked up by Frank, he would be saving her, and it wouldn't be mutual.

You could talk about how oh, lisa gives him a reason to live, lisa is his guiding light, lisa curbs his most violent tendencies, but that drifts uncomfortably into that territory of some random girl being the entire moral grounds of a violent man, and it would not be fucking fair to put on this lisa. This lisa is a mess of her own. She needs the space to heal without carrying the narrative weight of leading her father back from the brink.

The dynamic is completely different with Matt and Lisa. it isn't "Father saves his daughter," it's "two victims of the same abuser rebuild together."

Matt started in this as some kind of lighthouse to lisa, that was leading her to smash right up against the fucking rocks. She had an image of him on a pedestal, and it's one that can only lead her to self-destruction. In reality, Matt's someone who has lived experience deeply similar to her own. He's someone who understands what she feels in a way that no one else can, and that means he's able to help her heal in a way that no one else can.

Lisa, meanwhile, is a catalyst for change that Matt has never gotten in canon.

Canon matt is not fucking father material. This matt is not fucking father material. At best, he's the spencer to Lisa's Carly. But he's had to make conscious decisions to be better, to be the person he never had. It's a act of purposeful reconstruction that Matt has to either undertake or abandon entirely. Having someone so close that's a mirror of what happened to him is forcing him to heal from it in ways he never had to before.

I can't go too much into all the ways that Lisa's going to save Matt, mostly because we haven't seen them yet. She spent most of the last fic in foster care, so she hasn't been physically present to start driving the narrative by her own actions. Now that they're together, she can start affecting things, but I haven't written that yet. So, spoilers.

But I'd like to be clear, Lisa isn't some mini Matt from the past he now gets to save. Matt says as much, explicitly, because that's what most people assume. Matt really, truly, has begun to love her in the span of their relationship, and that means he's led to make the decision no one made for him--which was to take the effort. To step up, and to be the person they need. everyone else just looked at his mess and abandoned him. He's making the conscious decision to do the opposite, but he's not doing that because she's some totem of him that he can now save. It's an act of love, and that's revolutionary, because love is something neither of them were permitted. The Lisa and Matt dynamic started slightly from logistics but i kept it and made it into a story because it becomes a story about how picking love can be an act of rebellion and an act of healing all at once.

#therianthropy (and other goddamn lies)#matt murdock #lisa castle #fanfiction #ask games #this got long i'm very wordy folks sorry

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who-is-page · 3 years

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Some scattered thoughts on Wolf (2021)

So some pals and I did a watch party of the legendary (affectionately derogatory) movie, Wolf. Here are some of my thoughts on it, and on things I've heard about it/said myself in the past.

To start things off, I went into Wolf expecting it to be how I saw most people in the WolfGetsReal Alt+H campaign described it as-- a movie that explicitly supported the psychopathologizing of nonhuman identities and species dysphoria, and which portrayed nonhumanity and adjacent experiences as something to be "cured." Something that got species dysphoria so wrong as to be downright offensive, and which insulted people who experience it every step of the way.

What I got was...not that. What I got was actually, in some ways, the opposite of that.

Wolf (2021) has a main character who sees himself as a wolf, but a cast of other nonhuman characters too-- a panda, a jumping spider, a German shepherd, a grizzly bear, a duck, and a squirrel, among others. These characters are all hospitalized in what's clearly meant to be an inpatient treatment facility, where none of them are allowed to leave (and supposedly the last guy who did escape DIED oooo, much spooky, very believable).

The "treatments" we see these characters go through at the hands of the two staff members working at the facility are downright inhumane and almost identical to a lot of the anti-otherkin rhetoric we saw in the mid-2010's, especially the ones that got into the territory of anti-kin theoretically abusing their own children were they ever to identify as otherkin. But these "treatments" are never glorified or portrayed as anything other than horrific and deeply unethical. The staff of the facility are clear-cut villains, no questions about it. There's absolutely zero sympathetic emphasis on them. (Even the mother-daughter relationship the female psychologist has with one of the patients is pretty blatantly abusive, if you ask me.)

And the portrayal of species dysphoria by the actors was, when not cringy from the director clearly over-exaggerating certain things (like the duck kid constantly quacking), genuinely relatable and heartfelt. Hearing the main character talk about how his body felt wrong was like looking in a mirror. He was easily echoing not only things I've verbatim heard others say about their mind-body mismatch, but that I myself have thought. Watching characters slink around on all fours, indulge in wearing gear, and engage in even stereotypical behaviors of their animals--such as the over-excitable dog character asking for headpats and immediately running up to the wolf MC with "we're family! Let's be friends!" type conversation upon their first informal meeting--was relatable and even sometimes familiar in a surprising amount of scenes they occurred in. Honestly, it was kind of nice to see those experiences showcased at all.

(Spoiler alert ahead in this paragraph, but also, getting to watch the main character escape from that place successfully with a finishing line to his wildcat pseudo-girlfriend, who was begging him to stay and asking how would he survive out there in the Real Wild World and etc, with "it's not about surviving, it's about surviving as me," also absolutely struck a chord in me, as both a nonhuman and a survivor of abuse myself--and I think that really showcased how, at least for the main character, his nonhumanity was never something to be "cured" but was just an undeniable part of who he was all along.)

The movie was definitely only 2.5 out of 5 star material, don't get me wrong. The pacing was janky, it's filled with plotholes that require a suspension of disbelief long enough to cross the Atlantic with, several of my friends pointed out that it's rife with ableist undertones (including the idea that animality is connected to trauma), and both the villain's one-dimensional-ness and the open ending were things that I know eyebrows have been raised over. And these are only the problems I caught with it on a half-drunken first-watch while shouting at the screen with friends, mind you.

It's not a great movie-- hell, I don't even think most people would call it a good movie. But it's not the earth-shatteringly awful film I originally assumed from online backlash, either. The idea that any of us thought this was going to have a larger effect on therian and otherkin communities is, honestly, laughable. It's a nobody of a movie and I can't help but groan at myself for ever thinking it was possibly anything more than that. I regret taking people's assertions about this film at face value without watching it myself first, in all honesty. There's no way this film could find any sort of even theoretical cult following outside of niche movie buff alterhuman circles, and even then. The movie takes itself decently seriously but anyone who watches it probably won't.

So take this ramble as you will, but that's pretty solidly my perspective on Wolf (2021): overall a "meh" film with plenty to criticize, but I enjoyed watching it and it did have its moments. I think a lot of the claims made about it were over-exaggerated, but I also recognize that people are allowed to have their opinions. I'd honestly say check it out and judge it for yourselves.

One last thing: If you're easily disturbed by what's clearly psychological and physical abuse and conversion therapy, then absolutely don't watch this movie. But if that doesn't squick you out too much, I'd highly recommend watching it with a bunch of other nonhumans and alterhumans; get a bit of a virtual Howl going on and throw some popcorn at it while laughing with friends.

#Wolf 2021 #long post #not gonna bother putting this in the tags tbh #I'm Not Dealing With People Tonight

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solarishashernoseinabook · 2 years

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Solaris reviews The Great Zoo of China, by Matthew Reilly (2015)

Ugh.

Content: Oh my gods was this book a trainwreck. Shoddy science, bland characterisation, poor writing - this book's got it all, folks.

Who I think would like it: I guess if you don't care about the science (or don't know it - no judgment there), and if you enjoy the author's writing style - many people apparently do, as he's an international best-seller - then go for it. You could also potentially get a bit of a laugh out of it.

Things it does well: The action was easy to follow, and I will say this: the book was memorable. I remembered actions and events pretty well. I also found I got through it surprisingly quickly (when I dedicated time to read it) - I'd go back to refer to an earlier bit I'd read and found I'd gotten through several pages at a time. Not gonna lie folks I had to think hard to come up with something for this section

Things that could be improved: I mean... -gestures vaguely at four posts worth of excerpts I shared- This book thinks italicised text and exclamation points are substitutes for good writing and as a result, every action scene - which make up a good 70% of the book - fell flat for me. I forgot who everyone was, except for CJ and her brother Hamish, the moment they were introduced. The writing is weak, shoddy, borderline insulting in places (seriously, if you're going to define something as forty feet deep, you do not also need to tell us it is four storeys deep, or vice versa). The science is a mess. Even if you're not educated in palaeontology or evolution, the notion that eggs could survive 65 million years is a slap in the face to clever writing and audience intelligence. Furthermore, the notion that dragons the world over just so happen to look similar to how Tolkein envisioned them is so patently false that it's utterly ridiculous. Everything, from the science to basic facts about the various dialects of Chinese to various dragon myths around the world, is so wrong, so off-base, that I wonder how terribly sheltered Reilly must be to have zero exposure to anything outside his little sphere.

My review: What can I say about this book that I haven't already? If you want a well-researched, action-packed story that also serves as a meditative treatise on the wisdom of resurrecting prehistoric creatures and then containing them in a zoo, this book is not for you. However, if you want a light read where you can turn your brain off and read about some action and death at the hands of impressive giant monsters...this is also not the book for you. I've referenced Jurassic Park quite a bit when talking about this book, but Ian Malcolm summed up my thoughts on it best:

[GIF ID: Ian Malcolm from Jurassic Park standing next to a huge dung pile, saying "That is one big pile of shit." /end]

Does this book have…: ✅= yes ❓= not sure ⭕= possibly/mixed ❌= no Romance? ❌ At the very end, one character kisses CJ's cheek and asks if they can go to coffee. A paragraph on the final page mentions that they visit occasionally. You could easily miss it entirely. Sex? ❌ No on-screen sex or masturbation or implied off-screen sex or masturbation. There's maybe one or two references to clubs where stripping or sexy dancing might happen, but it's confined to a line or so. Racism? ✅ It's more startlingly ignorant than actively malicious (at least for the most part), but there's a lot of sinophobia in this book. While there are many valid criticisms to be made of the Chinese government, Reilly goes far beyond any of them. One of my friends pointed out that the way Lucky the dragon speaks is uncomfortably close to racist stereotypes of East Asian people speaking English, and when the book isn't being outright contemptuous or ignorant of China and its people, it's heavily exoticising it in a way that's odd and almost uncomfortable to read (think of that passage about how amazing it was that Chinese people built a city, no really, it's absolutely stunning that they put together a collection of buildings when it was needed folks). It also drops the term "Chinaman" at one point, which I'm leery of given how the author treats Chinese characters in the rest of the book. Sexism? ✅ CJ is Not Like The Other Girls, folks. The best I can say is that no character, including CJ, is well-defined enough to fall into many of the typical #MenWritingWomen problems, but it's still not good. LGBTQIA-phobia? ❌ Ableism? ✅ ⭕ A character gets called a "sociopath" (or maybe psychopath, tbh I don't fully remember as most people use the terms as interchangable insults) early on. The descriptions of CJ's scars, and the negative attention laid on them, can be read as ableist in places. Swearing? ✅ Constantly. Even when my brother was an edgy teenager he didn't swear as much as this book did. Drug/Alcohol references? ❓ I think there's some references to alcohol sprinkled throughout, but it's more references to bars and bartenders. I don't recall any characters actually drinking in the book. References to or actual violence or suicide? ✅ Lotsa violence, lotsa gore. You'll read gross descriptions of organs outside the body and people dying in brutal ways. References to or actual animal death or cruelty? ✅ Oh yes. So much animal abuse happens in this book. Plus it ends with almost all the dragons dying.

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popculturebuffet · 3 years

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Uncle Scrooge by Don Rosa: The Isle at the Edge of Time (Thank You Comission For Rosie Isla)

Hello all you happy people! Today’s review is a bit special as it’s the result of another review. See I had trouble finding a translation of the subject of last weeks’ mother’s day special, Family Ties.

No not that one. I have Paramount+. I can watch all the Family Ties I want and that’s a fact that i’m pleased as punch about.

No it was the story 80 is Prachtig, called Family Ties in the copy used, Della’s first major comics appearance and one that explains what happened to her in the classic continuity, one that clearly served as the foundation for her far more fleshed out 2017 versions personality and backstory. It also had Pinocchio in it for some reason, and spent most of it’s large run time on a meta comedy plot that had nothing to do with the reason anyone wanted to read this story in the first place.

But despite being a vitally important story, it never got an english translation, something that baffled me till I read the story and found cameos of the racist indigenous stereotypes from Peter Pan. In 2014. You may commence booing. Even with how weird the story was I simply couldn’t find the story googling it and the Della tag is too vast and deep to go spelunking in.

So what’s all this have to do? Simple I put out a post last month when neither I nor Kev, who wanted to comission it as part of Moons, Millionares and Mothers, my coverage of all three season 2 Ducktales story arcs, could find a copy and offered a review to whoever found it. Weeks passed I got nothing.. then in the 11th hour I got a break as the lovely @rosieisla found a translation that was on this very site, one she seemed to have helped with. As a result I could do the review and as a man of my word, offered it up despite her clearly having not seen that part of the post and simply having done this to be nice. Still she gladly took up the offer and offered me my pick of two stories: The Carl Barks Story Back to Long Ago or this one.

As for WHY I picked this one Back To Long Ago didn’t seem bad, i’m just not a fan of “The Cast is put in the past as their own ancestors” type deals. Or in some cases put the cast as people from that time period. It’s just not for me and is most often done in TV where it can get really goofy, Beverly Hills 90210 being a prime example of this, though Girl Meets World was no slouch in being embarassing... that being said I really need to finish that show and miss it.

So yeah when put up against a story with two intresting hooks and FLINTHEART GLOMGOLD, even if i’ts not the version that’s my boy, it was no contest. So what are these hooks you ask? Well join me under the cut and find out.

We open with a weird stylistic choice: This story has a narrator complete with caption boxes. Now for those of you familiar with comics or pastiches of comics in tv and film, this probably dosen’t seem like a big deal. It was a common thing in comics from their inception to 90′s to have caption boxes, big boxes of text narrating the action to help move things along faster. It did start to fade out by the 80′s and was gone by the end of the 90′s for the most part, replaced instead with first person narration. It’s the kind of thing you’d see most often in the Golden and Silver Ages, with stuff like tihs

It’s not a BAD device, it’s good old cheesy and bombastic fun and some writers did get clever with it.. like that time Chris Claremont used the narration to yell at a greiving cyclops after he lost a teammate early in his long and storied run on the uncanny x-men.

This is a objectively weird scene that’s still somehow effective by the by. On the one hand it does come off as Chris Claremont essentally bullying Cyclops who already feels guilty for a death that was not in fact his fault as Thunderbird was told the plane he was attacking with fleeing villian Count Nefaria was about to explode and refused to listen.. and that they needed to get rid of either him or Wolverine as both served the same purpose and chose the non-white guy.

On the other htough it comes off just as much as Scott beating himself up in his grief and anger over the event and his perceived failings as a leader. It’s good stuff and shows why this run caught on as this was only three issues in. Also the rest of the issue features the X-Men fighting a giant cyclopian demon that Cyclops accidently freed in his rage by destroying the stone thing keeping him imprisoned. No really here’s the cover

Huh so tha’ts what Nifty’s dad looks like. Neat. Also I REALLY hope we get the X-Men fighting aliens or demons in the MCU. Unlike the XCU the MCU isn’t alergic to getting batshit.. and for the record Deadpool and New Mutants are the exception, not the rule.

My point that I swear I do have is that this was common practice for most comics.. but never really for Disney Duck comics. It popped up ocasionally, like with Scrooge’s introduction, but Barks and those after him never really used them that much. Sure they’d have caption boxes for flasbacks and what not but Barks and Co geninely only used this sort of thing to set up a story. The most i’ve seen it in a duck comic is life and times and even then i’ts usually only used for gags or to set up the passage of time, as the story IS covering decades and thus often needed to have montages to show time passing, and in the case of chapter 11, had to cover decades in the span of a single chapter, so it’s not like they had many other options. So even Rosa as a personal quirk didn’t really use these often.

Rosa used this specifically because he felt the plot was complicated by the use of the international date line. As for what it is, it’s essentially a line marking calender dates from one side of the hemisphere to the others. To use the offical defentition from the National Ocean Service I found via a quick google:

“The International Date Line, established in 1884, passes through the mid-Pacific Ocean and roughly follows a 180 degrees longitude north-south line on the Earth. It is located halfway round the world from the prime meridian—the zero degrees longitude established in Greenwich, England, in 1852.

The International Date Line functions as a “line of demarcation” separating two consecutive calendar dates. When you cross the date line, you become a time traveler of sorts! Cross to the west and it’s one day later; cross back and you’ve “gone back in time."

Despite its name, the International Date Line has no legal international status and countries are free to choose the dates that they observe. While the date line generally runs north to south from pole to pole, it zigzags around political borders such as eastern Russia and Alaska’s Aleutian Islands.”

Rosa felt this made the story complicated.... and that... really isn’t remotely true. The narration is mostly used for gagas and really dosen’t clarify anything. it’s mostly used well in the opening.. but the actual explinations for the date line are clear enough in the story that even if I hadn’t looked the thing up, I still would’ve got it and i’m sure a kid would’ve too. It just feels like a weird thing to ruminate on, especially because he’s got actual things to make up for: while to his credit the native american characters he cribbed from carl barks are sympathetic, their culture respected and treated decently and used for a green aseop, their dialouge is stitled and sterotypical something he dosen’t even comment on (And these trades ewren’t THAT long ago)

And of course it dosen’t help that he dosen’t even comment on using a common device in american superhero boooks.. in the same volume where he ONCE again makes an unwanted and outdated diatribe about superhero comics. I’ll probably cover the Super Snooper Strikes again so I can throughly tear this apart but higlights include: Calling superhero comics “Unwanted” just because he dosen’t like them personally, when people like me would disagree and they’ve lasted through a LOT of highs and lows, outdately saying they took over the American market as the only suitable comics which while true for a TIME,but by 2015 when this book was printed is laughably out of date, as non superhero works like The Walking Dead, Saga, and Scott Pilgrim were massively popular, one of my faviorite comics that is entirely slice of life and would go on to bea huge hit, Giant Days, re-debuted that very year. He also has the fucking gal to insult The Uncanny X-Men by name and I swear to god I did not know this when I made those references earlier, but as you probably guessed REALLY god me livid.

And this is just on his COMMENTS on the story I can’t imagine just how bad the content itself is and having read the first few pages which come off as Rosa using Donald to essentially do an “old man yells at cloud rant” about superhero comics, I really don’t want to. Might make htis a patreon exclusive or again would do it on comissoin. You all make the call.... the point is I don’t likes his elitist bullshit about superhero comics, and this is clearly something that gets my hackles up as I just spent a good two paragraphs of an entirely unrealted review yelling at the guy for it. I don’t like when he does this and this authors notes entirley felt like an excuse. I GET the dark age of comics were bad, they REALLY were that bad, but I will NEVER accept painting an enitre genre as bad just because one work in it is bad. And I wont accept it from someone who himself writes about an often throughly unlikeable anti-hero for a living. Scrooge may not have a gun on his gun on his gun or get to stabbing or have pouches, but he DOES finacially abuse his nephew, scoff at people’s personal troubles, and often refuse to use his wealth to help others in general. So yeah in conclusion Rosa really needs to say less about this subject.

Okay so where were we.. right the story hadn’t even started yet. Jesus.

Okay so our story begins with the narrator. Whose going on about time and what not. The main point of this speech about time is that it’s night in Duckburg and Scrooge is going to bed as, even being the workhorse that he is, he can’t keep going 24 hours. While he’s snoozing though something major happens and it’s the hook that made me pick this story along with the international dateline one.. an island rises thanks to volcanic erruption.. and the lava is GOLD. That’s just pure unabashed classic Duck Stuff: a mysterious treasure or phenominon of gold bound to bring scrooge in.

But Scrooge isn’t stupid: the sun comes up and the world still spins while he sleeps, so he set up a satalite to monitor for this sort of thing. The thing naturally goes nuts.. and even more naturally breaks down becasue Scrooge bought cheap parts. A nice gag and a fully in character way to bring our antagonist into the picture, as the Satellite of Loaded falls in the middle of South Africa... right on the property of my boy Flintheart Glomgold.

This is something Rosa brought up in his commentary for the story i’d never thought about. It turns out Glomgold being a citzen of Duckburg WASN’T an invention of the original Ducktales but the comics: some overseas had understandably moved him from his home country of South Africa. Him bieing in the same town as Scrooge instead of half a world away allows for easier setups and more intresting ones.

Rosa however being obdient to Barks Version of things, ketp Glomgold in South Africa like barks did, which was an .. ifffy decision given Apartheid had JUST ended at the time of this story. Not so much in the reboot as not only had apartheid been long gone by the time of the reboot, but that’s more fair. Still we do get some gorgeous vistas as a result as Glomgold’s minon goes to look at it and finds it’s from McDuck Mining company... Glomgold’s reaction is obvious.

So on that note we cut to Scrooge rushing to Donalds house and forcing him awake and not telling him anything at first. Look his Ducktales Counterpart straight up kidnapped his donald in my last review, I’d call this a win. He also tries to dress Donald while explaning both his panic to find the crashed satlitle and what it found: the golden island. The end result of him dressing donald is worth a chuckle

So after Donald puts his shirt and little hat on our heroes get rollin rollin rollin what keep rollin rollin rollin who to Manilla. On the plane we get the scene I mentioned: The boys make a quip about Scrooge having lost a day and the group go over the international date line. It’s a fun little scene especially Donald trying to get paid early at the end. Classic scrooge and donald stuff without the abusive undertones some of their classic stuff has.

Meanwhile Glomgold works out the data and finds out about the gold island, and his excitement accidently wakes a giraffe outside.. welll it was nice knowing him, Giraffes are the deadliest species known to man.. here’s an educational video t back that up....

youtube

So at Manilla Airport, Scrooge finds out abotu the south african crash, figuring he’ll get a laugh out of glomgold being there ... only for Donald to spot the Jet. Scrooge figures this can’t be anything good... now come on man maybe he’s just promoting his energy drink.

As super sayin god super sayian as my witness, I will never get tired of Ultra Instinct Glomgold here.

Scrooge isn’t so nice about that though and figures he better find out if Glomgold knows about the island and bribes one of the fueling crew for his uniform. He sucesssfully eavesdrops on Glomgold talking to his pilot, finding out from him exactly WHERE the island is. He ends up hilariously botching the mission though: when getting ready to leave Glomgold complains abotu the price of gas and that naturally causes Scrooge, just as cheap, to join in... and Glomgold to find out it’s Scrooge. The two wrestle outside the plane but before this can progress to a game of Naked Robber an airport security guy comes up and Scrooge cleverly claims that Glomgold’s plane has an infestiation, requring it to be quanrantined and allowing Scrooge to jet on.. thoguh not with an actual jet. With Glomgold seemingly dispatched, he can afford to save some money and take his time with a seaplane and I know just the man for the job.

Oh nope looks like he’s busy. So one time related rambles later we meet Keoki, their asian pilot from the tiny island of Wookawooka.. and no that’s not a real place i checked... and no Fozzy dosen’t own it his check bounced. That being said it is a very well done represntation of someone from a smaller country: he’s doing this job to try and bring money back home, but being a seaplane captain just isn’t enough and his island is dying. Scrooge naturally is about as sympathetic as you’d expect, having apparently never even heard of the idea of a bonus when Huey, Dewey or Louie suggests it.

Even less suprising is that Glomgold streaks by in his Jet:turns out Manilla was already overun with the bugs Scrooge claimed and Donald rubs it in that had Scrooge got a JET this wouldn’t of been an issue.

So Glomgold easily beats them there, and to add insult and actualy injury to a cash based one, our heroes get blasted by golden lava on the way in and crash. Should’ve gotten launchpad... got the crashing professional. Keoki is dispondent as this means his people are doomed. He also dosen’t know waht staking a claim is when Scrooge mentions it and the boys bring him up to speed with the poor guy saying he wish he could for WookaWooka. Donald also makes a valid point about how greedy and heartlress scrooge can be.. and really billiionares in general.

No no YOUR the Grouch who refuses to have one drop of emapthy. Donald’s just pissed at your general selfish and terrible behavior.

Glomgold glomgloats and has seemingly won... but naturally that rant that seemed extranious at the time about the date line comes into play: turns out the Island is on it, and since glomgold put his marker int he west, Scrooge simply puts his in the east which is a whole day before. Now GRANTED there’s nor eal legal prescendice for the intetaoinal date line itself , as noted above... but there’s enough witnesses in Scrooge’s favor that it simply does not matter anyway. Scrooge SEEMINGLY wins.

But Huey, Dewey Or Louie instead backs another claim: Keoki’s from earlier. While it was made in gest, he and the others along with Donald back it as witnsses instad. WookaWooka is saved and SCrogoe ends the story yelling at the narrator.

Final Thoughts: Don Rosa.. did not like this story, feeling it wasn’t one of his best and apologizing for it. I however.. really loved it. It’s not PERFECT: the narration feels not entirely necessary and the gag isn’t as funny as he thinks, though the payoff of scrooge saying “it’s time for this story to end” is fucking hilarous. I also feel it’s a bit too compressed: the story is only 16 pages and was only THAT long because Rosa added a few for exposition, a worthy addition. This feels like one of his 30 page adventure stories but slightly crammed into half the length. I also feel the golden island bit was BADLY underused as it’s such a cool setting but barely shows up in the story.

But despite that.. it’s still a fun story: as is standard for Rosa the art is gorgeous and the humor is great. And unlike some stories where Rosa casually ignores how terrible scrooge is, here it’s his own greed and hubris that do him in: had he actually agreed to help Keoki, the boys likey would’ve let him keep the island but his own cold refusual to be a human being does him in, just as his cheapness nearly did. Flintheart is also decent here.. not the deepest foe but frankly most classical duck antagonists really aren’t all that fleshed out, and we still get some good bits with him. The dateline bit, while telegraphing that it will be important, as I said REALLY isn’t that hard to understand. All in all while i’ll agree with Rosa this isn’t his BEST, it’s still a really damn good story and one he shoudln’t be ashamed of.

Tommorow: Green Eggs and ham is back for some train shenanigans! Kay.

Saturday: The Tom Retrospective returns for it’s last detour! Eclipsa and Moon team up to stop meteora but grapple with diffrent wants: One to save her daughter.. the other to stop waht she clearly sees as an out of control monster. The result.. will only lead to tragedy and a hell of a two parter.

If you liked this review consider joining my patreon, patroen.com/popculturebuffet. At as low as 2 bucks a month you get accesss to my patreon discord, exclusive reviews, and to pick a short when I do one of my shortstragavanzas, a marthon of theatrical shorts honoring a characters birthday. And given Donald’s is next month, now’s the time to get on board.

But if you go up to 5 you get a guaranteed review of whatever you want every month, and will get me to my next milestone, which will give everyone including yourself a monthly public darkwing duck review, reviews of the two Ducktales minis’ I haven’t covered (Time is Money and SuperDuckTales) and a reivew of the Danny Phantom film the Ultimate Enemy. So please join today and if you cannot, like this review, subscribe and give me your opinions on it bellow. Or even if you can feedback is always appricated and I will see you at the next rainbow.

#donald duck #scrooge mcduck #don rosa #ducktales #huey duck #louie duck #dewey duck #flintheart glomgold #gold #island #volcaones

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starrysupercell · 3 years

Text

Second paternal-centric piece, centered on the highly dramatic Graveyard Fam! The patchwork family <3

Do I put way too many serious thoughts in things? Maybe. But I am a storyteller.

Heavily headcanon based that I've mentioned before.

Warnings: mentions of formerly living in a toxic and neglectful environment, and a current abrasive and struggling relationship between Mortis and Frank.

Ask to tag.

🧟‍♀️📱 Picture Perfect 🦇🎧

Emz awoke naturally, opening her eyes, and blinking away the sleep. She stared up at her ceiling blankly. What a good day's sleep!

She pulled her arm from the tightly wrapped blanket around her and slipped it under her pillow to grab her phone.

She held it above her face to replace the ceiling as the point of interest in her line of sight. It was around 1:30 pm. What have people talked about ever since she went to sleep earlier that morning?

She began to scroll through posts, ready to begin her morning regime of giving only a few hearts to a handful of posts, and maybe even one or two coveted comments from her. (It was best to leave them wanting more!)

However, she froze in her browsing when she quickly noticed a trend in today's posts. A long winded paragraph by some random of how lucky they were, a meme about single mothers, grilling pictures.

Oh, today was no day to lay in bed for half an hour before beginning her day! It was Father's Day. Emz twisted around, trying to roll out of her bedsheets.

"Ogh, stupid covers--!" She grumbled despite the fact that she loved twisting herself up in them. It helped her sleep at night.

The zombie rolled too far one way and gave a cut off yelp as she fell clean off the bed and landed on the ground painfully on her stomach. How embarrassing, she huffed, peeved. She slapped the ground in frustration and pushed herself up with the same palm. She sat on her knees and leaned on her bed, fixing her hair with her other hand. Okay, fail, but at least nobody saw that.

Absent-mindedly, the teen brought her phone up again and unlocked it fluidly. She scrolled through a few posts and ended up giving the first like of the day.

"Wait, no," She said, looking up. She had a plan for today and everything! Emz stood up and slipped her phone into her back pocket. First up, the gifts!

She bounded over to her closet and opened it. There they were. Two gift baskets for today. One for her Uncle, and one for Frank. Emz smiled. They were handmade of course, because premade goodie bags were absolutely lame!

As if she would settle for giving anything less than perfection. No, she hand picked what would go into each basket, decorated and placed it to be aesthetically pleasing, and wrapped it up with a gorgeous ribbon. She's even refrained about bragging about any of this online, to keep it absolutely secret. Man, was she just amazing or what? That was rhetorical, of course. She knew she was flawless already.

Like an instinct to survive, Emz had her phone out of her pocket and in front of her once more, camera open. She winked and stuck her tongue out with a smile, and took a picture. She grimaced.

Ugh, she had to go through her morning routine first and then take another picture afterwards. This was a terrible excuse for a selfie. With that thought in mind, Emz stretched properly, and strolled to her bathroom.

"Talk to me, Franklin. You know it's a mutual effort." Mortis said, poking Frank's cheek. He was leaning over the back of the couch where Frank was sitting at. The big guy tilted his head away with a grunt. His eyes were trained on the television as he tried his best to tune out the vampires.

"...Is this still about the dishes?" Mortis decided to guess since he refused to answer. "I'll have you know that I got started on them the other day. But then I got a call that simply couldn't go unanswered." Mortis paused and studied the lack of change in grump level in Frank. Okay. Maybe not that. "...If this is about my bats, I am not making them sleep outside. They like it in here. Only Robata likes it outside." Still no answer. Mortis tapped on his chin. What else could possibly be on his spouse's mind? It was already hard to believe that Franklin was mad at him, but he was just not budging in giving any hints. (Yet again!)

"Ugh," Frank grunted. "It's not just about the dishes or the bats." He started to explain quietly. Mortis leaned in attentively with a small smile on his face. Oh, it was such a rare treat now when Franklin opened up to him. Even if this was about an argument, Mortis adored the fact.

"It's about the fact that you still make excuses for your laziness." He finished.

Mortis frowned. Except for when he spouted spiteful lies and insults! "They aren't excuses! I'm telling you what happened. You know, you're not the only who lives here, Franklin. There's a thing called--"

"Good afternoon~!" Emz called out, stepping down the staircase with flourish.

Mortis ruffled Frank's hair and lowered his voice. "Hold that thought." With a pirouette, he shot a cheerful grin at Emz. "Poisoned Apple! Good afternoon!" The gravedigger greeted. Frank was annoyed, but he held up a hand to wave at Emz pleasantly. With his other hand, he turned the volume down on the show he was watching.

"Hi!" Emz said, stopping right before she reached the bottom. She was using the railing to hide the baskets. "You guys know what today is, right?"

"....Sunday?" Mortis questioned happily.

"I guess so, yeah," Emz said, "But beyond that."

Frank blinked and shook his head lightly.

"It's..." Emz paused for dramatic effect, and then lifted the baskets into view. "Father's Day! Look what I made!"

"Ooh," Mortis smiled, fangs glinting. He held his arms out as Emz walked forward to hand him his basket.

"This is for you and--" she moved on to Frank. "--this is for you!"

Mortis marveled at the items he could see, and turned it to see it from a different angle. The plastic wrap crinkled as he did this.

Frank smiled at her as she passed it over to him. With just a glance, he could already see some of his favorite things in there, he placed it aside and stood, prompting her for a hug as he walked around the sofa.

Emz was wrapped and lifted up in his large stature, pleasantly smiling. "I'm glad you both liked it." She laughed, muffled.

"Naturally," Mortis remarked, "Your craftsmanship is to die for!"

Emz was finally let go by Frank, landing on the floor. "Oh, tell me about it," she smirked. "I stayed up a couple of days ago finishing those up and they turned out perfectly!" She flipped her hair with an obvious flourish. "You can go on gushing," she said, only half jokingly as she brought out her phone to idly glance through any messages.

Mortis laughed in amusement. Frank smiled patiently. Emz was sharp around the edges, but she was endearingly so. As long as she didn't go too far...

"Oh, yeah!" She put her phone away. "You should both, like get dressed up. There's an event on the beach later on tonight, and I was thinking we could go out today. Like... my treat."

"You?" Mortis voiced for both he and Frank. "You have money?"

"Yeah? I save up. Don't you?" She asked haughtily. "Or do you just not want to go?"

Frank gave short laugh, and patted his stomach in jest. Mortis shrugged in amusement, catching on to Frank's joke. "Well, if you think you have enough for Frank, we'll be your guests, sweetheart."

"Oooh, futuristic," Mortis marveled, taking off the wide-brimmed hat he wore as the Trio walked inside. They were at the Zero-Gravity diner. It was a part of Starr Force's attractions.

A bored-looking feline straightened up in attention as the doors slid open. "Welcome, Civilians!" She greeted from her silvery podium. "Feeling low on energy? If you want to help out Colonel Ruffs in his quest against the Dark Lord, you should fill up while you've got the chance." She recited in character, "Luckily, you're safe here, and we've got plenty of foodstuffs that'll fill you up! So, how can I help you today?"

Emz scoffed. Did Kit not recognize them or something? "You could have skipped the spiel. Like, you know that we're Brawlers, right?"

The cat blinked slowly, resisting the urge to roll her eyes. "Okay. What do you want then?"

"I've got a reservation for three, under Emz."

Kit shifted her focus to the high-tech screen right beside her. It was see through. From the perspective of the Graveyard Trio, the images, texts and buttons were flipped.

Kit pressed through a few buttons, navigating through menus, and then confirmed Emz's arrival. "Alright. If you'll follow me." She picked up three devices from her podium, and began to lead the way through the restaurant. Her tail swished as she walked along.

When they got to the table, Kit waited until they were seated and placed the devices in front of the three. "Press the blue button to activate your menus." She said.

Mortis pressed it, and a holographic screen flashed into view, akin to Kit's own screen at her podium. He laughed. "This is spectacular! We should add a horror-themed restaurant to our section. It would be a hit!" Mortis exclaimed. "What say you two?"

"Ooh, that'd be sooo cute! I can run it." Emz said.

Frank grunted, and pressed the menu button. It didn't spring to life like Mortis' did, so he pressed it again, and then once more even rougher. It broke under his strength.

"Oh," Kit reached over. "Sorry about that. You can hand me the pieces, and I'll get you a replacement menu. I'll be right back." Frank did so, a bit embarrassed.

As soon as Kit was out of earshot, Emz laughed. "Our place won't have cheap stuff like here though."

Mortis grinned. Frank was less than amused and gave a shrug. It was simply an accident, and they shouldn't be rude about it.

Kit returned and activated the device before handing it to Frank. "Here you go. While you look through that, what can I get for you to drink?" She asked, readying a tablet.

"I'll have a peach iced tea." Emz told Kit.

"I'll have a glass of Merlot." The mortician decided.

Great. Now he'd have to drive. Frank rolled his eyes, and looked through the sodas.

Mortis looked over at him. "What would you like, Franklin?"

After eyeing the selections, he pointed out his choice. Mortis made a face and looked at Kit. "He'll just have a Coke."

"Okay. I'll get that to you. A waiter will be right out to get the rest of your order." Kit said. She departed from the table.

Emz hummed and stood up. "I'll be right back. Remember- order whatever you want! I'm paying." She reminded, smoothing out the cute dress she wore and then walking off towards the restroom.

Mortis watched her go, and then moved aside the menu device.

"Okay, Franklin. Let's talk." he interlocked his fingers like this was a business deal.

Frank ignored him, swiping through the menu.

"This is a fancier restaraunt. Emz is treating us, and you can tell how important this is to her, can't you? I hope you do."

Mortis paused for any telling gesture or expression, but Franklin remained quiet. The mortician continued. "Well, it'd be great if you'd drop the pettiness, if only for tonight. This is between us, not Emz."

Frank glowered at Mortis. Pettiness? Him? The big guy shoved aside the device now. He was tired of Mortis' tone and habits and everything.

"Don't even think of causing a scene here, Franklin," Mortis tensed up. "Think about Emz!" Frank frowned.

"Here are your drinks, Sirs." the black cat returned. She either didn't notice or chose to ignore the quiet tension at the table as she put the drinks down and then left.

Frank grumpily put his face in his hand. "Fine. But you're being a dick." Frank said.

Mortis was offended. "How!?" He asked indignantly.

"Drinking without even asking me, nitpicking what I want, and those are on top of the bats and dishes. And I bet you're ready with some excuse now too." Frank listed.

Mortis clamped his mouth shut. He was going to point out that it was only one, and that plain old coke at a more fancy place, really? But, that would just prove Franklin right. "Well," he struggled on what to say for only a second before finding a string. "You always keep things to yourself! How am I supposed to guess what you're thinking? You wait and get mad and then out of the blue, you just attack me!"

Frank furrowed his brows and looked aside, feeling a bit guilty.

"Hey!" Emz arrived and sat down, and scooched up in her chair. "You guys are being an itty bitty loud, you know? I'm sure you don't want people staring."

"Uhh..." Mortis said. "I suppose not. So... Franklin." He said awkwardly, trying to think of some different topic. "I think... our Brawl Ball strategy should change." He sighed, disappointed in himself. How weak of a subject.

Emz was puzzled and looked like she wanted to say something. So, of course, she did voice her thoughts. "Weren't you guys talking about, like being mad or whatever?"

"No....?" Mortis said. "Nobody's mad here. Am I right, Franklin?"

"Uh. Yeah." The big guy shrugged.

Emz pursed her lips. "Right... So this afternoon too?"

Mortis gave a tight smile. "This afternoon?" He pretended.

Emz was merciless in completely demolishing this lie. "This morning, when I walked downstairs, Frank was on the couch with the T.V. on. It wasn't muted, even though you were beside him presumably chatting. That's some weirdo way to talk if you weren't mad at someone." She said, matter-of-factly. "You think I don't know body language?"

"...." Mortis was stunned. Frank laughed at the absurdity. She had guessed it perfectly!

Emz crossed her arms though. She waited for Frank's chuckle to die down. "So, what gives? You two are going to start lying to me all of a sudden?" She looked between the two, waiting impatiently for an answer.

".....No." Mortis said finally.

"Then?"

The vampire faltered. "It's just that... well, you know. The discussions Frank and I gave, ah, doesn't have to do with you? So... why involve you?" Mortis managed.

"Okay? But, like, why lie about it." She repeated. She had an inkling about it now, given both of their awkward glances and fidgets. Her sharp tone softened, and she sighed inaudibly. Guess it was sappy truth time.

She looked down at the table, focused on the closed menu device. "I know you two argue. Like. Duh. That's normal. And, I'm guessing that you want to pretend like everything's peachy because you don't want to remind me of... well, you know who already!" She shook her head. "But I'm okay, really. I actually wake up on my own and not from endless yelling, and I'm not picked up hours late from wherever because you never agreed on whose turn it is to pick me up.." Emz paused, feeling quite at unease from sharing this, but pushed through. This was just another step at breaking her own tough shell. "What I'm trying to say is, simply arguing isn't going to remind me of my 'parents.' You two are leagues better, okay? I know you actually care about me. So you dont have to lie to me. Bicker and argue all day until your jaws fall off. You wouldn't be my Uncle Mortis and Frank without it." She smiled up at them.

Mortis had his upper face covered, just about already to cry. "Emz... I don't know what to even say..."

Frank leaned to her and gave her a kiss on her head. "It means a lot, sweetheart..." he said genuinely. Maybe he still had things to learn... He glanced over at Mortis who happened to look up then from his heartfelt pause. "I think I speak for the both of us."

They exchanged a soft smile.

"How about a picture?" Emz asked as she held her phone up.

"That sounds grand," Mortis sighed contentedly. Frank nodded with a smile.

The graveyard family bunched in together to fit into Emz's screen that she held up for all of them. On their way to posing for the perfect picture, their glasses were knocked down. The mixture of the three drinks short-circuited the menus, stained the white tablecloth and started to drip on the floor. Kit was walking by at that moment to check on another table when she saw the damage. That troublemaking team. Her tail swished around dangerously. She pulled a communicator out of her pocket and held it up to talk into it. She never took her eyes off of the Graveyard Trio. "Colonel Ruffs. This is MerXanary Special Agent Kit. Over."

"Roger!" He answered. There were squeaks in the background. No doubt the new Private was fooling around.

"There's Brawlers here giving me trouble. I'm requesting backup at the Zero-Gravity Diner. I'm going in now. Over."

"Willco." Colonel Ruffs confirmed. Kit pocketed her radio transmitter, and readied to Brawl.

Emz's camera flashed, capturing the moment.

#Brawl Stars #Mortis #Frank #Emz #Graveyard Fam #Mortis/Frank #Fortress #Neglect #Toxicity #struggling relationship #ask to tag

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tundrainafrica · 4 years

Text

Title: En Prise (Chapter 1)

Summary:

Hange already had the innate analysis skills and the quick wittedness to excel in the classroom. Chess should have come easy for her. As she processed her fifth loss to the man in front of her, she started to understand that there was more to the game than meets the eye.

College AU! Levi is a little too good at chess and Hange gets roped into studying the game further.

Link to cross-postings: AO3

Links to other chapters: 2

Notes: Netflix has this new show out called "Queen's Gambit" which makes chess look like I pretty good driver for a story. Attack on Titan has its fair amount of chess motifs as well and that's when I knew a Chess AU has to exist somewhere in the fandom. With that, Levihan AU came into existence.

Chapter 1

His earliest memories comprised only three sensations --- gnawing hunger, paralyzing despondency and the reprieve of the cold hard pieces at his fingertips as he maneuvered them through the board.

Over the years, his body had tuned out everything else, justifying it to his being too young to have processed it anyway.

If anyone had asked him though about the first games he had ever played with his mother, he would have been able to replay them from opening the game with a queen's pawn to the sight of his mother's hand laying the king on the ground in defeat.

It had been ten years since his mother's death, three years since his uncle's disappearance and Levi was alone. It was just him and the last memories of his uncle and his mother immortalized in a game of strategy.

Somehow, that was what made tournaments so calming to the young adult Levi.

It was his sixth game of the tournament and Levi had ended up playing on one of the boards on the corners of the large dining hall turned tournament venue. He snuck a glance at the top boards at the stage towards the center of the room before making his first move.

"The London System. Too scared of tactics eh? Typical of beginners."

Calming yet oddly stressful. Calming yet oddly depressing. Levi thought to himself as he watched the familiar play of the London System transition into an unfamiliar position.

Of course, there are billions of possibilities. There are bound to be some I've never seen in my life.

"Hey kid, your position is just weakness after weakness. Those doubled pawns on your f file, your h3 pawn. This is just a mate waiting to happen."

Within a few moves, Levi's opponent tore through his castled king with a bishop sacrifice. Seeing that the mate was inevitable, Levi put his hand out from under him in surrender.

"This was way too easy, kid. You probably could have given me a harder time if you just didn't show up at all. Do yourself a favor and find yourself some other hobby."

There were assholes in the chess community and Levi had heard that same insult towards him countless times. He grabbed his hoodie, put it back on and made his way out of the tournament hall. On the way out, he stopped in front of the list of their latest scores.

Scores as of Round 5

He scrolled towards the bottom of the sheet, knowing his name would be there.

Levi : 0

Levi was surprised to feel a knot at the pit of his stomach as he stared at the score for a few more seconds.

Losing would hurt for anyone. He thought to himself, making sense of that odd bout of emotion.

He walked away from the tournament hall and disappeared into the crowds of the subway beneath it.

En Prise

Mens Sana in Corpore Sano.

A Sound Mind in Sound Body.

Every student was required to take eight units of physical education, spread out among the first two years of college

If Hange had read the flyer before she applied to the prestigious Eldia university, she probably would have figured it out by the fine print right under the name of the university. If she had at least opened her study plan since she got it three months ago, she probably would have seen it written in clear fine print below “General Chemistry” and “Precalculus”

She had picked her university for the Chemistry degree, the prestige and nothing else. All she had to know was that it was one of the highest ranking universities in the country and they had complete facilities for biochemistry research.

She was quick to take the test, fill out the paperwork and submit it along with her essay.

Five months after she found the results, a week before the start of classes, came enlistment. As Hange stared at her study plan during her online enlistment proper, she felt completely and utterly trapped.

Her majors were no problem since they were all pre-enlisted. Her predicament came in the form of her physical education units.

Four semesters of PE. Hange grimaced. And it's gonna be counted towards my GPA? She was not athletic at all and had hoped to avoid anything physical so she could dedicate herself to her studies.

How long will I have to do this? Hange thought to herself as she scrolled through her four year study plan that opened up in the website in front of her.

Physical Education [for enlistment]

She clicked on it and watched as the choices opened up in front of her. Around the country, hundreds of other students were enlisting and she watched as the numbers of open slots fell to zero in some classes.

It's not like I wanted to take basketball or volleyball anyway. Hange thought as she sorted it by slot. Surprisingly, the ones which were running out of slots faster were the more physical ones. She had already planned to try for anything with the least exercise.

Table tennis. Fencing. Tai Chi. Yoga.

She stared at those four for a moment as she considered those alternatives if she could not find anything less strenuous. She continued to scroll down.

Street dance. Folk dance. Chess.

Her eyes fell on the last one with twenty full slots. She had played the game many times before, having been taught by her own parents growing up. She had beaten a lot of her peers as well since she had the innate analysis skills and the quick wittedness, most people her age did not have growing up. She was confident she would have it easier in that class.

For a moment, she had considered pushing it back towards a later semester. As the numbers started to fall though on all the classes, Hange knew she had to make a decision soon.

She clicked "Chess" and a few pages later, "Confirm Enlistment."

It's gonna be my first year. The important thing is I get through it.

En Prise

A few days after enlistment, Hange moved into her dormitory room with her roommate, Rico Brzenska, a petite girl with short blond hair and glasses who looked too busy to even acknowledge the new presence in the room. She looked like she was studying the first few pages of their precalculus textbook, only offering her name in response to Hange loudly and messily emptying the contents of her suitcase on the floor next to her bed.

Hange had similar plans of reading in advance. The first day of classes was three days away though and she had wanted to see the campus at least before burying herself in study material

She looked out the window to see that the sun was starting to turn a mild orange. She had arrived in her room by 4pm. It was early autumn though and Hange guessed that it might get dark sooner than she expected.

Unpacking could wait. She wanted to see the city. Hange threw aside her suitcase, pocketed her wallet and phone, and made her way outside of the dorm.

She stepped out into the green landscape just outside the entrance to the women's dormitory. The air was starting to get cold and she almost regretted not bringing a jacket. Not wanting to waste any time though, she trudged on, making her way out of campus.

A lot of new students must have moved into the dormitories already. There were many people her age already walking the streets of the university town. Hange could see some students already inside the bars that lined the busier streets.

Even since high school though, she had never seen the appeal of bars and parties. She chose to walk on without giving them a second glance.

Hange was about to circle back into campus when along the more quiet streets, she came across a small book shop.

I walked this far already, might as well check out stuff.

The familiar musty smell of books welcomed her as she opened the store shop. She had spent years cooped up in library after library, and had developed an affinity for that scent in particular.

She had bought most of her textbooks in advance. In fact, the only subject she had not prepared for at all was her Physical Education classes. She had chosen that university for their chemistry curriculum and the fact that she had to take physical education units, left her bitter and indignant about giving it the same preparation she would have naturally given it if it were any other subject.

With time though, Hange did get curious. A day before she left for college she started playing a few games of speed chess anonymously online, winning most of them. It was an easy and straightforward game. All she had to do was make sure her pieces didn't get eaten and make sure she takes the free pieces. When she accumulated enough of an advantage, she went for a mate. All the games had been like that.

As she walked through the bookstore, she crossed a games section. The books in the store piled up all the way up to the ceilings. Hange surveyed the stack of books in the game section, only to realize that at least half of them were about chess.

Was chess this complicated of a game? Hange opened one of the books only to find paragraphs worth of explanation for one board position. She pulled books out of the shelves one by one, scanning the first few pages of each book that had caught her interest.

The Sicilian Dragon

The London System

Attack with Black

Chess Puzzles

Common Chess Mistakes

Maybe it was worth studying. Hange settled for what looked to be the most similar to a text book. It was thicker than a lot of other books but was worth as much as the others which only convinced her more that it was the best bargain.

Modern Chess Openings.

Hange was sure if she just followed the path she had taken an hour ago to the bookstore, she would have ended up safe home.

If I follow the same general direction, I'd also get home anyway. With that in mind, Hange stepped out of the main street and into one of the narrower and darker alleys, her new book safe in a paper bag by her side.

Although the streets were starting to get dark as the sun started to set below the horizon her curiosity and sense of adventure remained unwavered. It was a reckless habit and Hange's parents had told her before that it could get her killed one day.

The streets she found herself in had their fair share of bars and eateries, although not as posh as those in the main street. Her own experiences had dictated to her multiple times though that the smaller ones probably even served better food than those in the main street.

She slowed her stride, gathering in the rustic view of the alleys, the souvenir kiosks and the shabbier bars.

"That shortie is fucking hustling me! He left his knight en prise on purpose. I'm not leaving until he gives me back my money!" A middle aged man burst out of one of the bars, his face pink with what could have been anger or alcohol.

He left his knight en prise… A free piece. Having spent a good hour in the bookstore going through chess books, the lingo was still fresh in her mind.

Two men were holding him from behind, looking the same shade of pink and Hange deduced then that he was probably drunk.

"We're really sorry for the trouble we're causing you here. We left the payment on our table." Another voice said from the doorway of the bar.

As Hange approached the bar, she saw another man bowing his head in apology to what looked to be the owner by the door. The two men made space for Hange to enter as they continued to discuss the logistics of what just happened. Hange knew she would get more context on that scene if she checked it out herself.

She did not need to think much to see the cause of the ruckus. Most of the bar goers were still staring in shock at one of the tables in the corner.

On the table sat a young man who looked to be her age, counting a wad of fresh bills on his hand. In front of him was a chess board, the pieces lined up so neatly, it was unbelievable to think it had anything to do with the drunk angry man who had burst out of the bar just a minute ago.

"What's that?" Hange asked no one in particular as she approached the table. The complexity of the game had caught her eye already back in the bookshop. Getting to see it in practice so soon after that got Hange red with excitement.

"Chess," the man at the table said as if the answer wasn't so blatantly obvious. "You play?"

It was an easy and straightforward game. All she had to do was make sure her pieces don't get eaten and make sure she takes the free pieces.

All she had to do was accumulate enough of an advantage to go for a mate.

He put two of his closed fists in front of her, a pawn in each of them. She picked the one on her right which opened to a white pawn. She was slated to start first.

She opened up with her king's pawn, knowing from experience that it opened up the most pieces. He mirrored her first move, pushing his king's pawn so it was right in front of hers.

She brought out her knight, then her bishop, preparing to castle kingside.

By the start of the middle game, Hange was starting to realize that the man in front of her had completely mirrored her position. A few moves in, he left a piece en prise.

Wins were usually straightforward for those with a material disadvantage. Before taking the piece, Hange looked at the man in front of her, only to see he looked completely unbothered by the free piece.

Am I missing something? It's too early in the game. There's no attack.

Oddly enough, fifteen moves later, Hänge found herself resigning having trapped her queen in the corner of the board.

She was a knight up. She should have been able to win.

"Again."

En Prise

Five games in and Hange was out of money.

"Wait. Let's play one more."

"It's late." The man stood up and counted the cash which used to be Hange's. "Besides, I'm assuming this is all you have on hand?"

Hange stood up to look at the clock behind her and it was only then did she realize she stood a good few inches taller than him. His domineering presence on the board had somehow made him look much taller to her.

She looked to the clock behind her.

9:30

Shit. Hange had lost track of time. Her dormitory had a 10pm curfew on weekdays. She grabbed her paper bag, pocketed her empty wallet and hurried out of the bar.

Hange made her way through the narrow alleys towards the general direction of the university. Those streets were much more peaceful than their wider counterparts and that gave Hange the perfect environment to reflect on how the man had played.

She taught back to the first game. He had left his night en prise at the start of the middle game, his face completely unbothered even as Hange took it. Either way, he was a material down and she knew enough of the basics to know that the win should have been straightforward from there.

Hange could not pinpoint exactly which move proved fatal on her end. The man had slowly taken over her position, advancing his territory slowly but deftly until suddenly her queen was trapped.

At first, she thought that she had been careless but as she looked back to the five games in a row. They all started with her opponent giving a notable advantage to her, whether it be a three pawns, a free knight or a rook for a knight.

Every game, she had thought she was winning. His blunders at the opening, would have made anyone think that he was a little careless or a little too overconfident. His wins came out looking like lucky breaks. Those lucky breaks though were the reason he managed to earn from the games in the first place.

In between games, if Hange had given herself time to breathe and consider the situation, she probably would have noticed the pattern. Her frustration at her own carelessness had taken over every single time.

That man was no scatterbrain. He planned everything

She thought back to the drunk man who was dragged out of the bar.

That shortie fucking hustled me! He left his knight en prise on purpose. I'm not leaving until he gives me back my money!

That same shorty just walked away with almost half of her allowance that month.

As the realization dawned on her of what just happened, Hange found it difficult to contain her anger. "That fucking asshole!" Hange screamed as she kicked the sign that welcomed her back to university grounds.The pain that quickly spidered up her foot and the ice cold wind that brushed past her only added injury to the insult of having been duped too easily.

As Hange limped back into campus, her thoughts flew back to her opponent a while ago. He had counted the money multiple times as he waited for her to move. He kept his face expressionless with every move she had played. Those images only served to further infuriate her and Hange started to scramble for an action plan.

She had to get back at him somehow.

#levihan #levihan fanfiction #levi ackerman #hange zoe #levi x hange #levi x hanji #attack on titan fic #fanfic

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ruinins · 4 years

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— ϟ › ( bae suzy, cis woman, she/her ) ⋆ you know , the gossip in london is insidious , and gossip about a HALFBLOOD ( SEER ) like SYBILL TRELAWNEY seems to constantly be afloat. what i know for a fact , though , is that they’re a TWENTY THREE year old DRAGONOLOGIST who graduated as a RAVENCLAW from HOGWARTS. someone they went to school with told me that roaring flames just tenderly brushing your cheek, the subtle wrongness of a reflection in the mirror, crackling records playing on a phonograph, the gentle flickering light of a firefly, and a million glittering pieces of a broken crystal ball & THE LOVERS always reminded them of HER. maybe that’s why the WITCH has publicly declared their allegiance to NO ONE ?

NAME : sybill trelawney ( no middle name ). NICKNAMES : none, technically, but she does have a korean name she uses at work—sihyeon—which her mother gave her. DATE OF BIRTH : march 9th, 1958. HOGWARTS HOUSE : ravenclaw. ZODIAC SIGN : pisces sun, scorpio moon, sagittarius rising / year of the dog. AGE : twenty - three. GENDER / PRONOUNS : cis woman & she/her. SEXUAL ORIENTATION : bisexual, biromantic. PLACE OF BIRTH : belfast, ireland. EYE COLOR : dark brown. HAIR COLOR : black. HEIGHT : 5’4. SCARS : scar on her lower back ; burn scars littering her arms. ETHNICITY : korean. PARENTS : trelawney, silvius ( father ); trelawney, victoria née kang ( mother, muggle, † ). SIBLINGS : only child. MARITAL STATUS : single. OCCUPATION : dragonologist. LANGUAGES : english, korean, some mandarin chinese.

CARD CORRESPONDENCE: sybill’s card is the lovers, reversed, representing her doubts in herself, her career, the people who surround her, and how cynical she’s become.sybill has always been littered with self-doubt. for herself, for the lineage she’s been born into, for her dubious gift that everyone insists isn’t really there. having no one believe in you takes a toll on a witch. she’s haunted by a need that never leaves her, a need to prove herself and her sight, a need that has only worsened with time ( no one knows how nauseating it feels, to face a portrait of the great cassandra trelawney after receiving a dreadful in divination ). there’s something to be said about fake it until you make it, but sybill never quite manages to make it. slowly, the doubt has been sinking its claws into her, and she’s been shrinking away from her wants and focusing more on other things, practical things––her aimless job, her aimless life.

until recently, sybill wandered through life with a certain naivete. it’s served her well, like most things in life that aren’t the second sight. but then, she let someone close, let herself believe they cared about her, let herself open up only to be stabbed in the back. figuratively and literally, by the scar that still stings whenever she reaches behind to brush her hands over it. she’s changed, become aware of the snakes in the grass––become aware that they don’t always look like snakes. this mistrust in others is slowly bordering on paranoia, but she can’t seem to make it stop. people call her a falsifier, a manipulator, a fool; why shouldn’t she meet energy with energy, insult with insult, distaste with distaste ?

ministry file / pinterest board ( EYES TW for the board ) / playlist

tw: murder ( mentioned, also attempted murder ), neglect ( ? ), parental death ( skip paragraph beginning with ‘sixteen’ ! )

zero.

you don’t know this, you’ll never know this, but it was your father who named you. hunched over your laughing mother and clutching your tiny fist between his fingers, tears streaming down his face, he pleaded sybill, call her sybill. an oracle of delphi born anew. in a few weeks, you will both be the subject of controversy: the girl who’s birth ended the pureblood trelawney line, and the pureblood who fell for a muggle. but for now, you are loved.

eight.

you live in a cottage, small and hidden, tucked into a nook of ireland where there are more animals than people. this is purposeful. your father has a manor in london, a hanok in korea, but it is this cottage where the three of you can live at peace. your father is gone most days; you have no idea what he does. instead, your mother teaches you things, practical things. “what if you lose your magic; how will you cook then ?” you think her reasoning is silly, but you play along - even if your father comes home to a look of distaste when he sees you manually scrubbing dishes.

something happens to you. you’re outside, playing, when you reach out to pet a cat that’s just appeared - and a haze settles in. fog clouds your mind, your sight; there’s nothing. no darkness, no void: there is just nothing. and then there is your mother, frantic, choking on tears as she shakes you. later, your father will grin. “has my little sybill inherited cassandra’s gift ?” he’s joking, of course. no one in the family has had cassandra trelawney’s inner eye in generations.

but when you’re taken to a healer, nothing is wrong. nothing they can find, anyway. and a spark lights in you.

sixteen.

your mother is dead. your mother is dead. taken from you while you couldn’t protect her, while you were in school; your father insists he took his eyes off of her for just a second, but you don’t believe him at all. he’s always wanted you to be more witch than muggle. he’s never understood that she’s both, in a way, and that that’s okay. you wonder if he killed her or if he sent someone to do it, instead. either way, he is a coward and a fool and you hate him; this, you tell him.

the next christmas break, you don’t visit home.

eighteen.

you don’t come home for summer break, either. you don’t come back at all until after graduation, to face cassandra trelawney’s portrait and beg for guidance. for help with your gift. the gift that has abandoned you, it seems, along with your mother.

you apply, young and naïve, for the position of divination professor at hogwarts. as if anyone would hire you. the rejection stings, but what hurts more is having to face your father. he seems to have planned this outcome all along, and when he offers to help you find a realistic job using his connections, you want to do the filthy muggle thing and punch him.

you take his offer, however, when he reveals it’s in korea. away. that is what you need. away from him, away from london, away from that damned portrait. a week later, you’re in seoul. a week after that, you’re a dragonologist-in-training.

twenty two.

you travel, often. your specialty is hatchlings, and the reserve has begun to branch out, so they send you on missions to other reserves - get an egg, bring it back. in one of your travels, something happens, something unexpected: you meet someone. they’re charming, kind. when you tell them about your gift, their eyes light up. they believe you. you trust them fast.

you don’t see them often, but when you do, it’s incredible. you think they might be something special. you want them to be something special.

then, that night. you’re not sure what happened. everything is a haze; you’d been feeling like that for hours, feeling wrong. they were aggressive. they wanted something. and that fog, the one that had only flickered to life once every few years, was returning. for a moment, you knew nothing. and then you knew blood. the taste of iron, the way it stuck to your fingers. they’d stabbed you. surely, they had; there was no one else in your home, no blood but yours staining your floors.

your father is the one that finds you by a stroke of fate. takes you to a healer. you live, but something in you dies.

if you ever see them again, they will wish they’d finished you off with the killing curse instead.

twenty three.

you’re back in wizarding london. it’s been years. technically, you’re here for work - “the macfusty’s have to have a hebridean black egg, sihyeon; do well and find us one.” - but you seem to have fallen right into a budding war. you don’t want anything to do with it. you will go in, get an egg, and get out before anything terrible happens.

WANTED CONNECTIONS

hogwarts friends / enemies / bullies –– for, um, obvious reasons, sybill wasn’t terribly popular at school. i’m literally down for anything from hogwarts, from close friends who drifted after her mother died to people who terrorized her for making prophecies and being a “false seer”, to those she finessed with her you’re going to die in a week-type proclamations.

THE STABBY STAB –– so when i was coming up with this i very much wanted sybill to be stabbed instead of cursed bc a) stabbing is something that can be So Personal and b) it’s more of a muggle thing, and it’s fitting for someone who does often to things the “odd”/muggle way to find her ( almost ) end in the same way. i really..... don’t have much else for this connection; the way i visualized it, this person was probably looking for a seer for Some Reason, and whatever sybill told them during her vision - bc she did have a Real Prophecy that night - it wasn’t something they wanted to hear. or something they wanted to get out. sybill definitely had romantic feelings for them, but this obviously didn’t need to be reciprocated - the relationship could’ve been 100% platonic. does this character regret The Stab ? did they kind of want her to live ? are they prepared for the suplex she’ll give them On Sight ?

ruin me, ruin us, and i’ll let you –– this is, incredibly enough, not a romantic connection. i mentioned in my now-deleted gonetalk post that i love platonic soulmates; this is that. whether they connected instantly or they had to slowly get accommodated to each other, i want someone to have an Unbreakable Bond with sybill. they don’t have to already be friends, maybe it slowly happens, but eventually they’d both do anything for each other. if u have read the poppy war series, yes this is very much a wc based off of rin and kitay, those are the Vibes i’m going for.

this town’s only big enough for one cowboy –– I DON’T THINK THERE’S ONE YET BUT IF U ARE PLANNING A SECOND CHARACTER..... . .. picture this: someone who’s a seer who is actually competent, and can actually prophesize well instead of Whenever The Inner Eye Wants To. the jealousy ! the rivalry ! the mocking ! the shame ! GIVE IT TO ME NOW....

family friends ? family ? cousins ? –– i have sybill’s family being purebloods up to her, so i’d imagine she has a few distant family members or family friends running around ? i imagine her father runs in pro-death eater circles but isn’t one so !

#* intro.#me: i wont do a graphic #me 2 seconds later opening photopea:#uhh warning before u open this it's... Long #eye tw #j-just in case bc one of the little dots is a weird eye #ALSO WCS AT THE END !

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bellemorte180 · 4 years

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Addressing some negative comments I received on Wanderlust

So, the overall comments I have received on Wanderlust have been positive and amazing. The support this story has gotten is overwhelming and has taken me by surprise. I want to thank everyone who has stuck by me, read my story and loved it as much as I have.

With that being said, obviously the story is not going to be for everyone; and that’s okay. Not everyone is going to want to read a murder mystery about a serial killer and the romance that blossoms between a federal agent and a witness.

That’s not everyone’s cut of tea and that’s okay.

I’m saying this because I got two comments on the story today that are kind of negative. While I’m not expecting everyone to love and rave about my story, I want to address those two comments. The first one I can kind of see where you’re coming from while the second I 100% disagree with. (I’ll leave the comments up on A03-chapter nine). While they are not the first negative comments I’ve gotten, they are two that are kind of bothersom.

The first one starts by quoting a paragraph that in chapter ten about Marcel and Rebekah’s relationship- more so their breakup. The rest of the comment goes as followed.

When Marcel asks Rebekah to move, it makes sense. When Rebekah asks Marcel to move she is expecting everyone to drop everything for her. When Marcel refuses to move, he is just being a devoted agent. When Rebekah refuses to move, she probably doesn't have any reason, she is just being difficult. Really, Klaus? Her reasons are not serious and valid, you will just assume they must be irrelevant? While Marcel's choices are just and reasonable? Wow.

Btw, Klaus himself says Rebekah was refused, so she seemingly asked about possibly getting a job in D.C.

Klaus really needs to stop being so dismissive and glaringly patronizing towards his sister. It's pretty obvious and disgusting of him.

Like I said, I can see where you’re coming from. Yes, Klaus kind of is rude to his sister in regard to his breakup with Marcel. The whole argument that Klaus is patronizing to his sister….well, yeah. He is. It’s part of his character, not the best part I’ll admit, but that is kind of one of his negative traits. That is how he is in the show too, so it is not something that comes out of no where.

Also, he isn’t patronizing towards his sister because she is female (which is what I’m assuming is meant from the comment) but because she is his sister. Siblings do this. I have three siblings and trust me when I tell you, we say the rudest and meanest things to one another all the time, but if someone else tried to talk crap on one of my siblings…no I’m coming for you.

Rebekah is spoiled and bratty. It is part of her character in the TVD and TO! And I imagined that the Rebekah in this story would be very much the same way. Klaus really only heard Marcel’s side of the breakup, and knowing how Rebekah is, he probably just assumed that Rebekah was being stubborn and not willing to compromise without really talking to her about it.

Was it a shitty thing of him to make such an assumption? Yeah, it was; but it stems from years of knowing his sister and how she is as a person. I think it’s a very in character thing for Klaus to do, both underestimating Rebekah and jumping to conclusions without listening to the other side first; especially when it comes to his siblings. I’m not going to remove Klaus’s flaws in this story and make him out to be the most ideal version of himself.

So yes, Klaus is patronizing towards ALL of his siblings….because honestly, that’s what siblings do. The part about it being disgusting makes me wonder if A) you’re an only child-(nothing wrong with that), but it tells me you don’t understand the dynamics of siblings and B) you don’t have an understanding of Klaus as a character.

Now the next comment….boy this one kind of has me very annoyed; not because it’s a negative comment but what is being insinuated or how I am taking it just kind of feels like a really hard slap in the face.

First things first, I 100% believe that police brutality and corruption is a MASSIVE problem that needs to be sorted out. I think that the use of brutal force by a police officer that results in injury or death of another person is disgusting.

I support the BLM and have zero patients with anyone who believes that police officers have the right to harm anyone in such a manner.

Now: onto the comment.

Klaus should have been taken off the case a few chapters ago. Vincent keeping him on makes no sense and there is no justification for it. There is a reason you don’t get involved with a witness on an ongoing case and Klaus did get involved. He should be absolutely off the case, there is no place for the police or FBI to abuse their power.

Okay, before we get to that last line…I’ll address the first half of the comment.

Yes. Klaus got involved with Caroline. It’s a Klaroline Fanfiction and that’s the point. As far as him being removed….yes. He should have. Vincent talks about that but decides against it because he is weighing Klaus fucking up against the potential for more loss of life.

Does he take Klaus off the case, when he knows the most about it, and re-interview all witness, try and learn the case from the inside out all the while there is a serial killer out there who might kill more people? Or, does he keep Klaus on the case in order to use not only the relationships he has built but the knowledge and understanding of the case in order to save time and potentially save lives?

Vincent went with option B. Was it the right choice? Probably not. It will be a bureaucratic nightmare; which Vincent already knows and understands; but if that means saving someone’s life in the long run…oh well.

Yes. Klaus getting involved with Caroline is a BAD move. It is something that I’ve mentioned time and time again in this story, Klaus should not get involved with Caroline because of her involvement in this case…..but he does anyway; because he is a human and sometimes people make bad decisions.

Now, onto the part that really bothers me.

there is no place for the police or FBI to abuse their power.

I do not understand how two consenting adults having sex is an abuse of power? Klaus is not forcing her to do anything Caroline does not want. He is not using his position of authority to convince her to sleep with him. Klaus is not taking advantage of Caroline in order to gain something or demanding sex in return for something Caroline needs.

Klaus sleeps with Caroline because he is falling in love with her.

When they have sex, it is not because Klaus is an FBI agent and Caroline is a witness; they had sex because they have feelings for one another. They care for one another and needed comfort; which they found in each other’s arms.

Was it a stupid thing to do? Absolutely; but again, Klaus and Caroline are human and sometimes humans make bad decisions…and without giving spoilers, there are unforeseen consequences that occur in the story that are a result of Klaus and Caroline having sex.

What bothers me is in the comment, or at least how I am taking it, is the comparison to two adults having consensual sex to police brutality and abuse of power. In today’s political climate, that is not something I am going to take lightly with my writing.

I do not condone, or support police brutality and I would not write something that would justify such abuse.

At all.

To sum it up, Klaus is a flawed character with negative traits. I’m not going to write a rose-colored glasses version of him. I do not like Mary-Sue or knight in shining armor type characters, and removing the patronizing and bad decision making part of Klaus would pretty much being doing so. My characters will have flaws and make bad decisions.

Wanderlust is a fanfiction. Maybe it is not everyone’s choice of enjoyment and that is fine. I’ve seen lately, and not just on my fic, but people leaving comments that are either rude or meant to be “constructive criticism”. Fanfiction is a hobby that is meant to be enjoyed and distract people from their own lives for a short while. Don’t try and tear it down and twist it to be something it is not. If you don’t like Wanderlust or Klaroline or anything else, that’s fine…but don’t try and insult those who do.

#klaroline #wanderlust

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consequencesofargentdawn · 5 years

Text

My experience as a Grim Gest member from 2017-2018

I don't necessarily want you to post this as the screenshots I have would not only eliminate my anonymity but also don't carry enough weight on their own to be really effective in showing their deplorability. However, I'm fine with you guys posting the one screenshot I linked if you want because it showcases the ridiculing of a previous member. That being said the image is from November 2017 so I don't know if you do. I moreso want to share my experience being in the Grim Gest from roughly November 2017- March 2018.

I joined their ranks because I'm incredibly fond of the undead in WoW, and for the most part had a lot of fun roleplaying with them. For all their OOC faults I do truly think that they're decent roleplayers IC. The first few months were fine. I got to know the active members and had a lot of fun, but after a while of being in the guild we got a new member who was rping a dark ranger. A lot of us really disliked him as he constantly used the "I'm a dark ranger" card to silence other guilds and members, acting like his character was more important. He constantly used anti-living godmotes in his rp, famously doing a Sylvanas banshee scream in a campaign that he said would "deafen any living who could hear it" and as a result pissed off a lot of other horde members ic and ooc. A lot of us wanted him to tone it down, but Morsteth repeatedly defended the rp saying it was good and that he really liked the character. One day however (I forget what he did) the guy was removed from the guild as the officers persuaded Morsteth to kick him. Morsteth then decided to do a complete 180 on his opinions of him, and kept saying "I don't know what I was thinking that guy was awful" going as far as to eventually compile every cringey thing the guy had said ooc (shown below):

and posting it presumably in the vile PCU discord. I thought it was funny at the time but ultimately it was pretty much a character assassination of this guy.

Later on I noticed in their discord a lot of onesided political discussions taking place, one of which was on the topic of white privilege and black lives matter. I argued with Morsteth and co. about it for about a day and was essentially ganked over my opinion. Morsteth became pretty upset with the argument and stripped me of my roles, restricting me to typing in a "Toxic Lair" channel, telling me that he would talk to other officers and decide my fate once he was home despite having heard the "ooc is ooc and ic is ic" meme. That night I received an apology from Morsteth telling me "Alright, basically it comes down to our personal argument and I think we both should have left it earlier, so it's not a one-sided thing so I don't really have a reason to "hate" you or ban you from the guild as you didn't do anything wrong. Just typed some mong stuff in my personal opinion." he even admitted to "blowing [the argument] out of proportions" and apologised for putting me into the lair channel. I was a bit sceptical of this and had been having a hard time irl, but eventually I said I would stick with the guild instead of leaving.

Afterwards a lot of the members were a bit quieter with me, I was ignored frequently and was feeling strange about the whole thing. During this period I became pretty depressed and started to talk to one of the high ranking but not officer members who had been in the guild for ages. He was pretty chill and offered me a lot of advice in dealing with things, and I refrained from talking about my sadness in guild chat, only speaking to this one guy on days I felt awful. Time passed as normal in the guild, but as it did I got a little more bored with WoW. Content had slowed down and my schoolwork was catching up with me so I had informed the guild that I would be more inactive as I had school stuff to deal with. I had also made the apparent mistake to gush about my excitement at the introduction of dark iron dwarves and void elves to the alliance, saying that I was going to make one. Over the next three months my sub died, and to fill gaps of boredom I played other games that I happened to own instead of wasting money on a sub I wouldn't fully use. After 3 months inactivity I was kicked which honestly is fair enough. I asked why I was removed and I was told that it was the inactivity and also because I was apparently becoming alliance in bfa despite never explicitly deciding to do that or saying I would. I explained that I wasn't intending to play alliance and that I had been busy as my exams were coming up, but Morsteth told me that I had been playing games that weren't WoW in my freetime, but in reality I'm prone to leaving the launchers open for games sometimes. I convinced him that I'd sub back in a week once my exams finished and I attended a few rp events and spoke in discord frequently.

Exactly a week after I was invited back I saw that Morsteth was insulting some guy by calling him a soyboy. I asked why he used that insult when there was little evidence linking soy with femininity or emasculation, cited a few credible sources and was met with "my brother works in chemistry and he says its uncertain if it does impact men or not". I naturally thought this defence was ridiculous and argued with him that he didn't have any credible sources, resulting in his enragement at the fact that I believed his brother wasn't knowledgeable about the chemistry of soy. I saw how the argument was going to go and decided to halt it, apologising for arguing with him and stopping the conversation, he hesitantly agreed and saw that we didn't need to argue about it. A few minutes later I spied a Morsteth is typing in the chat, and quickly typed something along the lines of "dude if this is a 3 page rebuttal to the argument that we stopped telling me about how I'm wrong I swear to god dude" and seconds after sending this he posted two paragraphs of soy information trying to disprove me. Likely consumed by rage at this point he quickly typed "ok that's it" and booted me from the guild. I pmed him saying "are you this pissed over a fucking argument? You wanted me gone a while ago, come on be honest dude" to which he replied "you dont see it yourself but ur basically an edgy teenage jerk that rly annoys people to no end while contributing nothing to the guild, so just please stay with elder scrolls online" followed up with "you are annoying dude not just to me". Then he blocked me, and I was incredibly upset. I was so annoyed that I had spent a year in this guild for it to be over because he couldn't man up and shake hands over a soy argument. In my anger, I made a video of the image with Why can't we be friends playing in the background and uploaded it to my channel, titling the video "The Grim Gest in a Nutshell".

I was pmed later on by his lackey Seth (who I've seen on here being victimised by the guild, how ironic) who told me multiple times that I was the one in the wrong, that I was an idiot, that I was actively making the guild worse being in it and that I would never find a good guild again as I had messed up with the GG. This did nothing but piss me off further but I got over it after a long time. I left the horde as a whole and faction changed my undead to alliance, no longer wanting to play on a side populated by arguably deplorable people. I stayed in contact with one of their Officers who thought it was extreme for me to be kicked over the argument, he tried to convince Morsteth that it was a rash decision but told me that I'd probably never be invited back which I was fine with. I began rping on the alliance and managed to avoid a lot of drama in the next month before seth messaged me again.

I got a message telling me that I needed to take down my video immediately. Apparently when Morsteth tried to show another guild footage from a past pvp event he told them to search up the Grim Gest on youtube, and my video was the first to appear. I was told by Seth that if I didn't remove the video the Grim Gest alongside the other PCU guilds would mass flag every video on my channel (which I don't really care about). I told Seth that I didn't care at all, and if he wanted to flag me then he could go ahead. I messaged my officer friend who told me that Paingriever and Morsteth were attempting to compile all the dirt they had on me and make an equally defaming video despite me only posting a selfie into the discord and perhaps once or twice saying that I was depressed in discord, there was really zero dirt to find on me. I told Seth that if Morsteth wanted to talk to me he should do it himself, and got no response and remained blocked on discord by the baron. Eventually I was convinced by my officer friend that it was probably the right thing to do to move on and delete the video, but with all the utter bullshit I've seen on forums from Morsteth, alongside the COAD posts that showcase his idiotic shenanigans I felt like I had to get this off my chest.

A final meme comes from a campaign I took part in, where some dwarves were swearing excessively IC. I almost fell off my chair when I saw several Grim Gest members saying that it was making them feel uncomfortable despite a long running meme in their discord being an emote that read "unsafe" being posted whenever someone swore, it was explained to me that they had a member who always complained that swearing made her feel unsafe, and after she left they used it sarcastically at any complaints made about swearing.

In short; I utterly detest Morsteth and the rest of the PCU, these guilds are the reason that I don't rp undead anymore, which greatly upsets me as they remain my favorite race in the Horde. Perhaps once they mess up hard enough and are punished I might finally be able to play the race that I love, but that seems like an impossible future.

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izzythehutt · 6 years

Note

2-6 for The Black Sheep Dog series ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) (shhh yes I'm cheating but I'm greedy I want to know~)

2.) The first scene in the story you wrote:

The first one in the story, so–Regulus and Lily alone on the couch. Because at that point I was just writing it in pieces for the amusement of @iamfitzwilliamdarcy in the style of an RP, I wanted there to be minimal set-up and just jump straight into the action. If I had known it would become this novel-length fanfiction swan song, I probably would have started with a way more pretentious and flowery beginning. Though honestly, starting each chapter with a quote is a little pretentious, lol.

3.) What’s your favorite line of narration?

Uh, it’s kind of hard, but I’m fond of Sirius’s revelation about his brother in the final chapter of In the Black, since Reg is the ‘heart’ of the series:

Ten years later, those eyes—Gran’s eyes, so much warmer than his or their parents—looked exactly the same to his brother. And in that moment, like the clear ringing of a bell—the answer to the question his mind could not stop circling back around to.

Regulus.

Regulus had gotten him into this. He was the reason for all of it—the simple act of his brother coming to Sirius for help—reaching out desperately across the great divide—had been the door through which their parents had reentered his life and, in their characteristic brisk, oppressive style, upended everything in the space of half a day.

Regulus—the second-born son. The spare.

4.) What’s your favorite line of dialogue?

Something Orion said, probably. He’s my favorite character to write because he literally just talks like a character out of a Victorian novel. This passage is a particular fav:

“‘Not at liberty to say’?” Orion repeated, silkily, and he leaned his face closer to his son’s. “You know what I think? I think that I’m your father, and you’re at ‘liberty to say’ whatever I damn well please.” Sirius winced and gripped the edges of the chair. “And right now what damn well pleases me is to learn how it is that I find my son sneaking about at his own grandfather’s birthday party masquerading as some damned Norwegian!”

Getting to unironically use the word “whelp” as an insult is a joy.

5.) What part was hardest to write?

Honestly? As of now, the Lucius and Rodolphus scene in chapter 4 of Black Mask. I wrote a completely different version of that scene that was all basically Death Eater exposition, and I hated it. The problem was that I had no interest or idea of who Rodolphus was as a character, and so it was just–uninteresting to write, and therefore read. I had to go back to square one and come up with a compelling character hook–and when I hit on the key to the scene (that Lucius’s marriage is happy and Rod’s isn’t, I think it came together well.)

The next chapter was also hard, but mostly because it’s a gigantic Sirius and Orion fight and it was emotionally exhausting to write.

6.) What makes this fic special or different from all your other fics?

It’s completely different from anything I’ve ever written, either original or fanfiction. It’s WAY LONGER AND WAY MORE AMBITIOUS in scope and has everything I normally don’t like in long form fiction, to be honest (way too many characters! And subplots! And long paragraphs of descriptions of social convention! Zero summarized conversations!)

I’m kind of writing it like a TV mini-series, honestly.

#sirius black #the black sheep dog #izzy's adventures in writing

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quasithinking · 4 years

Text

Gravity’s Rainbow: Part XIV

This section begins with some insults for "Awful Offspring" from Ned Nosepicker's Book of 50,000 Insults. Judging by the quality of the three insults excerpted, I'm glad this isn't a real book that exists. Because the insults aren't that great unless you've already read Gravity's Rainbow and, even then, they're terrible. They rely on the person recognizing the name and career of Dr. Laszlo Jamf. So even if the book were real and Dr. Laszlo Jamf were real, the person who's kid you were trying to insult when you tried out the line, "When Jamf conditioned him, he threw away the stimulus," would probably stare incomprehensively at you while trying to decide if whatever the fuck you were saying was worth an assault charge. For first time readers wondering what the fuck that Dr. Jamf insult shit was, they won't have long to wait. Unless they gave up on the book right after reading that introduction and then I guess they have to wait as long as it takes for them to try finishing Gravity's Rainbow yet again. I suppose for most people who aren't stubbornly intelligent people like me, that amount of time is determined by some sort of calculation of an infinite set approaching zero. Look, I'm not Pynchon! I don't understand higher maths and Pavlovian theory and history! I'm just a vulgar jerk on the Internet "pretending" to be stupid so that people think I'm smart! Pointsman approaches Pudding with his plan to experiment on Tyrone Slothrop. Pudding is resistant to the plan. But that's before Pointsman says, "I know a woman who is willing to piss and shit in your mouth. Now will you fund it?" And Pudding is all, "Take my money!" Pointsman alludes to Tyrone Slothrop's earliest years as an infant and how he was experimented on by Lazslo Jamf. Apparently it's common knowledge evidenced by how Ned Nosepicker used it in his insults in a book that, I'm assuming since there are 50,000 insults, wasn't meant for a niche market. Lazslo experiment was thus: "Unconditioned stimulus = stroking penis with antiseptic cotton swab. Unconditioned response = hardon. Conditioned stimulus = x. Conditioned response = hardon whenever x is present, stroking is no longer necessary, all you need is x." While the experiment was widely circulated, the knowledge of stimulus x was never revealed. I've read Gravity's Rainbow but that doesn't mean I'm positive that it's ever truly revealed. Although it's almost certainly the smell of Jamf's experimental plastic Imipolex G. It's in this section where the reader discovers the reason for calling Chapter One "Beyond the Zero." It's about deconditioning subjects when the doctors are through with the experiment. If x causes Baby Slothrop to get a hardon, one must decondition Baby Slothrop to not get a hardon from x before ending the experiment and releasing him back into non-experimental civilian life. But the deconditioning does not end as soon as Baby Slothrop does not get a hardon at the presence of x. That's the zero point: no evidenced physical response to the stimulus. But Baby Slothrop is still reacting to the stimulus, just up to but not quite reaching the point where he gets a hardon. The deconditioning must take into account all of the conditioning prior to the evidenced hardon. This is going beyond the zero. Now how does the concept of beyond the zero work thematically with Gravity's Rainbow? Let me pause to think about it. Perhaps—now give me room to speculate here—the conditioning is living in a war under the threat of rocket attacks and everything else that goes with it. That would make the zero the end of the war. Which would presuppose that just because the war ended and the rockets stopped falling, people have not been deconditioned past the zero. They've simply lost the stimulus to which they had been responding. More than that, what if we're supposing the main metaphor of the stimulus is the rocket itself to which nobody could react anyway because it strikes before a person knew it was coming? So the stimulus is simply constant fear and paranoia of death. When the war ends, the fear and paranoia do not simply go away because there is no method to go beyond the zero to remove the conditional response. Saying the war is over and everybody is now safe and the world will return to normal is taking the patient to the zero. But not beyond. A generation must now grow up full of fear and paranoia with no idea why because there's no actual stimulus. They've just been saddled with the conditioned response that was never taken beyond the zero because there was no cathartic expression for the end of the war. One day, it was just over. Now imagine the next generation growing up under the guidance of all of these people who have not been taken beyond the zero of their conditioned response of fear and paranoia. Perhaps the postmodern experience of the world through the eyes of this and their subsequent generations is the abreaction, the release and expression of all of this fear and paranoia. It then makes sense why the atomic bomb is one of the most blatant symbols of the postmodern era. Pointsman wants to experiment on Tyrone while everybody else at The White Visitation simply espouses theories on his ability to protect where a rocket will hit by fucking somebody in the spot a few days before the rocket lands. Most of the theories, of course, rely on their fields of expertise as explanation. Pointsman is the most boggled because the hardon/rocket relationship shows all the signs of a Pavlovian stimulus/response but in reverse. The reaction takes place days before the stimulus. But the two cannot be denied because Slothrop's map of sexual conquests matches up exactly with Roger Mexico's Poisson distribution map of rocket strikes. The two are somehow linked. The problem is discovering how. Oh, Pointsman is also frustrated by the idea that women are allowing Slothrop to have sex with him. Why him?! That must be part of it, right?! Or else—Mexico's statistics and Poisson distribution being in effect everywhere—wouldn't Pointsman be getting laid at least occasionally as well?! Oh, I should put a quote I like in here now. Something to do with Poisson distribution, probably. "But if it's in the air, right here, right now, then the rockets follow from it, 100% of the time. No exceptions. When we find it, we'll have shown again the stone determinacy of everything, of every soul. There will be precious little room for any hope at all. You can see how important a discovery like that would be." I mean, is Pointsman fucking depressing or what?! "Hey guys! Wanna see my Nobel Prize for eradicating the concept of free will?! It's right over here in my study which you're fated to walk into now!" The section ends with Pointsman and Mexico having a conversation on the coast (I mean, mostly ends. It actually ends on four more descriptive paragraphs but this is the main part). On my first read (I mean second read (possibly third read)), I got the general gist of it: Pointsman, for some reason, wants Mexico's approval and support for the coming Tyrone Slothrop experiment. But there's more to it and that's what I've got to chew over on yet another read through right now. Jessica has put in Mexico's mind the half of the sexual encounter that isn't Slothrop: the women. What about the women? The rockets are raining down where Slothrop has his sexual encounter which probably means on the women's apartments or homes. Could there be an aspect of misogyny here? Consciously, unconsciously, or completely at random, these women are being hurt. And all the men interested in Slothrop's hardons haven't given them a second thought. Pointsman seeks a purely mechanical and physiological explanation for Slothrop's rocket hardons predictions. How can there not be cause and effect when the pattern is obvious: hardon then rocket. Every time. But Mexico is open to other possibilities. Perhaps cause and effect, perhaps the linear way of looking at things, of reading experiments and explaining history . . . perhaps that's obsolete. Maybe there's a new way of looking at things, he suggests. Pointsman doesn't buy it but he is open to some new insight. But only based on the evidence. And so, a new experiment using what they have: ". . . reversal of rocket sounds to go on . . . clinical history of sexual conditioning, perhaps to auditory stimuli, and what appears to be a reversal of cause-and-effect." The hardest part of the section will probably turn out to be the most important. But it's a section I can't fully get a grasp on because it discusses more Pavlovian theory. It's about Pavlov's beliefs on obsession and paranoid delusion, exactly the things Slothrop deals with in Chapter Two. Pointsman's plan is to manipulate Slothrop through the various stages of paranoia and obsession so they can determine, without his bias and through only secret observation, why he does the things he does. And maybe that can answer why the rockets fall where they do (although Pointsman admits that he's not really interested in the rocket problem and only brings it up in the hopes of getting Roger's support). I should probably figure out this ultraparadoxical stuff before moving on but it hurts my brain. I'm just going to stick it in my brain surrounded by an inhibited area of my brain and let it percolate until I'm so obsessed with it that I'll definitely understand it but also I'll probably realize the ultraparadoxical phase is just a big conspiracy to get me to forget to eat and sleep properly.

#Gravity's Rainbow #Thomas Pynchon

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hiatusfluff-blog · 7 years

Text

third and final compilation of shimayu moments from the novel

part 1 part 2

Here’s the shimayu interactions in chronological order so that you can get a feel of the progression (details mentioned in the first post are largely omitted, though there are also parts with overlaps). It was a long and arduous process and admittedly, I had zero motivation to translate anything, but then I decided to grit my teeth and glue myself to my chair. And lo behold! :D Pardon the grammatical errors, jarring jumps between certain paragraphs and the changes in pronouns. Usually, when I switch to ‘Mayura’ after using ‘I’, I’m summarising rather than translating. Other times, it’s just... a grammatical inconsistency. Sorry ‘bout that. ≡(*′▽`)っ

Mayura asks Shimon to guide her in becoming stronger because she cannot think of any other person to depend on. Shimon responds by telling her that her request is unreasonable (and Mayura sighs in dejection), but he agrees to help her nevertheless, citing that it’s not in his character to be afraid of hassle.

Shimon’s popular with girls at school. Mayura acknowledges that it’s only natural since he’s not only good-looking but also strong. -bumping scene from post 2- Shimon points out that Mayura has always been looking at Roku since before. Mayura denies his claim but Shimon tells her that he has noticed that her eyes were always following him. Mayura frantically continues to deny his assertion and says that “Roku already has Benio” and “it’s not like that”. Shimon’s cluelessness manifests in his conclusion that Roku is someone Mayura respects greatly and she looks at him to observe and learn from him. Mayura forcefully changes the topic and asks why Shimon is eating in such a place. -bread scene from post 2-

Jinya insults Mayura very harshly and tells her to give up on her futile effort, saying that he sensed absolutely no potential in her. He tells her that to the Amakawa family, she was but a burden who will drag the family down and she has no value as a family head. He tells her to get lost and return to her comfortable home. (Note: this guy also defeats Mayura in chapter one and if I remember correctly, he punched her in the guts during the process. I was raging at him until I found out that he was deliberately behaving in such an obnoxious fashion so that Mayura will give up on being the family head and live happily as a normal girl. After the battle in the last chapter, he acknowledges Mayura’s strength and role as family head, bows his head and seeks forgiveness for his rudeness). Unconsciously, Mayura has kneeled and budding tears blurred her vision. Her throat burnt and she could not help but to sob. Right at this moment, Shimon’s voice rang through the room.

“You guys are the worst.”

Jinya tells Shimon to stay out of it since he’s an outsider but he replies by saying that he’s not an outsider because he’s the one training with Mayura every day. Shimon declares, “I don’t care what you guys think, but Otomi will definitely become stronger. One month later, I guarantee that you will not dare to talk to her in such a rude fashion.”

After Jinya exits, Mayura thanks Shimon for coming forward to help her. Internally, she admits that even though it really feels horrible to be told such harsh words, Shimon coming to her help really made her happy, and her declaration that “Otomi will definitely become stronger” gave her much courage. In her heart, she thinks that no matter what happens, she will definitely respond to Shimon’s expectations. For Shimon who is giving her his utmost support, she will certainly surpass Jinya in a month!

Mayura asks if she could accompany Shimon on a mission to gain more experience and so they go off together. Shimon defeat the impurities. As he turns to walk to his comrades, Mayura notices a shadow behind him and she calls out to Shimon.

“Shimon, behind you!”

The impurity was three metres tall and it was going to bite off Shimon’s head. Even for Shimon, such a sudden attack was hard to deal with.

“I have to protect him!” Mayura thought.

Despite the seals on her body (she’s wearing some sort of limiter seals for training purposes, I believe. That’s what made her body so heavy in the bumping scene) she does some kickass magical exorcist stuff and charge towards the impurity, shouting, “Get away from Shimon!” She defeats the impurity like a boss, stunning Shimon, because the seals should have limited her power.

There’s more exorcist explanation. The gist is that Shimon tells Mayura that her seal power and her seal control (at least I think he’s talking about something related to seal; take my exorcist summary with a pinch of salt) are superior to Roku.

“Anyhow, you need to be more confident. Your aptitude for exorcism is without a doubt on par with Master Seigen.”

They arrive at the island for training. After training, Mayura asks if there’s a place to shower and Shimon gives her the directions.

“That place should also have clothes for you to change into; feel free to use them as you please.”

After thirty minutes, Shimon greets Mayura with a stunned face. Here’s yet another adorably awkward conversation (first person from Mayura’s POV):

“O-otomi… what’s with your appearance…?”

Shimon stared at me with wide eyes. Such a shocked expression makes me a little embarrassed.

“U-um, is this very weird…?”

“Damn… there are people who come to this island for vacation huh. Just what sort of place do they think this island is?” (i.e. the bikini is probably prepared for or by those on vacation)

Shimon’s gaze erratically moves away and back to me again (and then he looks away and looks back again). How do I say it… Shimon’s indeed a boy. I wavered a little and felt really shy.

“But you see, won’t I sweat a lot from the training? In this outfit, I don’t have to worry about getting dirty.”

“Even though that’s true, how do I put it, this is poison to the eyes…”

As he desperately tries to shift his gaze away from my body, I was thinking that Shimon is really a serious person. Afterwards, they talk and Mayura asks him if he has any hobby. Shimon nods and talks about what he does outside of training (he plants, waters, trims and finds fertiliser for his plants and Mayura is like, “They’re all related to plants. O_o”). Mayura then asks if he has never played with friends. Shimon replies that there’s no exorcist of his age so he has only played with his sister. Mayura asks if he has played with any girl other than his sister.

“Other girls?”

“You see, aren’t you popular with girls at school? It wouldn’t be strange if you had a girlfriend.”

“What are you saying? I probably wouldn’t have one. Missions and jobs make me busy enough. How will I have the time to play with girls?”

“I see… Well, let’s not talk about girlfriends. You should at least have a girl you’re interested in, right?”

“A girl I’m interested in…?”

Shimon thought about it for a while and his reply was clear. “No.” During a training, Mayura exhausts her energy and Shimon catches her body as she almost falls.

The boat they came by was washed away by the waves so they’re now effectively shipwrecked.

Shimon berates himself for causing the situation due to his negligence.Then comes this line from Mayura’s internal monologue, “In these days with this serious, perfect exorcist genius, I saw his various sides. Honestly, I sometimes think that he’s very cute. But of course, I won’t be able to say something like this.”

Here’s the conversation from the bed scene mentioned in the first post:

“Well then, I’ll be sleeping here.”

“Eh, why?”

“The cabin is small. It’s hard for two to sleep inside.”

“Ah.” The space, while limited, should suffice for two. But then, a young man and a young woman living under the same roof… noticing this point is still embarrassing.

“[some (Chinese?) proverb about girls and guys older than seven needing to stay in different places]. There’s such a saying right? Therefore, I will sleep outside.”

“Ehhh? Outside… outside’s very cold though? Hey… it’s better to stay inside. I’ll… try my best not to be bothered.”

Even though there’s nothing more embarrassing than this, I’d feel very sorry for Shimon if he hurts his body here.

“B-but…” Shimon’s face was bright red. “If this thing is discovered by others, such as Roku, you’d be troubled too right?”

“Well, that’s the case but… but as I’ve said, it isn’t as though I want to do anything weird… Eh!? Could it be that Shimon wants to do something weird….?”

“Huh!? I definitely won’t do something like that! Definitely not!”

“Well then, sleeping in the same room shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Urgh. Fine.”

Don’t even talk about weird things, after he crawled into his blanket, he turned to the other side and was completely silent. I have no idea if he should be called a gentleman or what…Speaking of it, from the start, I’ve never thought that he would do anything rude to me.

They talk more the next few days (sorry I’m not translating every conversation ^^’). Basically, because they open their hearts to each other during their conversations, Mayura feels that their distance is now closer. “Because he has been supporting me, I feel that I should work harder!”

One night, Mayura asks what will happen if they’re trapped forever on the island.

“That’s impossible. Hmm. I can’t imagine being on this island forever. That’s not a good thing.”

“Ahaha. As I thought. It’s boring if you keep training with me, isn’t it?”

“No, I don’t dislike accompanying you for training. It’s just that I have something that I want to do regardless of what happenes, and that is, to use my hands to save my sister’s future. If I can’t do that, I’d be pained.”

He talks more about Tenma and Roku (both of whom he admits he does not get along with; with Tenma, it’s because he lost to him and he wants to beat him and make him remember his name).

And Mayura thought, “The usually calm Shimon harbours such fervent feelings towards his peers. This side of Shimon really fits my impression of guys that age. It’s a bit cute…”

“That’s why I cannot stay on this island forever.”

“That’s true.”

“Of course, the reason I cannot return is not just that.” Shimon gazed at my eyes. “Otomi has not yet received acknowledgment as the family head, and it is for this reason that I’m helping you to train. If we cannot return, I cannot fulfill our agreement.”

“…Yes. You’re right.”

Anyway, Shimon’s concerned about me too. To say something like that makes me really happy.

“Shimon is such a good man!”

Shimon shakes his head.

“From discussing various things with me to accompanying me for training. I can’t thank you enough.”

“Don’t mind it. Besides, I’m not helping you for your thanks.”

“Hey, Shimon, why are you helping me to such an extent?”

“Why… something like that… indeed. To be honest, I’m not sure.”

“You yourself don’t understand it”

“At the start, I want to repay Master Seigen. But now, it’s different. How do I put it… I feel as though I can’t leave you alone.”

“Can’t leave me alone? Why?”

“Hmm… I can’t express it well with words. It’s just that when I see Otomi, I feel as though I’m seeing my younger self.”

“Even though you’re very weak, you seek to become stronger and never give up. These parts are very similar to me. Also, your gaze is always seeking someone. This part is similar too.”

They talk more about Shimon’s admiration of Seigen.

“One day, I’ll definitely catch up to Master Seigen and surprass him!”

“Shimon’s really amazing. You’re an exorcist and you have no fears or doubts. I really respect you!”

“Is that so?” Out of shyness, Shimon scratched his cheek.

“If that’s the case, Otomi’s the same. You’re working hard daily.”

“… But I… I still feel fear from some corners of my heart.”

Mayura confides in Shimon her fears and Shimon reassures her that he’s the same.

“For my sister, I definitely cannot die, and don’t want to die. I’ve always been facing battles with such a feeling. This is not an embarrassing thing.”

I suddenly feel as though my doubts are dissipating.

“That’s why, Otomi, you’re not wrong.”

Hearing Shimon’s strong declaration, I feel warmth from the depth of my heart. To be acknowledged by someone I respect is really such a happy thing.

Shimon further reassures Mayura.

“You have to know, that you are not alone.”

As he speaks, he places his hand over my right hand. Our hands overlapped.

Shimon explains that his sister will do the same for him when anything happens. He hopes that Mayura will receive the similar courage and assurance that she’s not alone.

“That’s why, I hope that you can have courage. At the very least, I hope that you know that there’s a person here who is your comrade.”

Mayura thanks Shimon for dispelling her doubts and proclaims that she will become stronger for everyone. She wants to become an exorcist who can protect her loved ones.

“Ahh… If it’s Otomi, you can definitely do it.”

“Ehehehe, thank you. Ah that’s right. I’ve been thinking this since some time ago. It’s very stiff to call me by my first name; ‘Mayura is fine!”

“Hm? Is that so…?”

“Yup! I’ve been calling you Shimon from the start.”

“Ahh, I know. If that’s better then I’ll do that.”

Our hands were tightly linked and we nodded at each other.

Some time later, they’re rescued. Trouble has cropped up for Jinya and Mayura insists on going to help but is turned down because it’s too risky for her to go alone.

“I know it’s dangerous, and it goes against the rule, but it’s precisely because it’s dangerous that I cannot give up on helping Jinya and the others!”

“No one talked about giving up.”

“Eh?”

“If you cannot apply for a rescue mission, I’ll be the one to do it.”

“Shimon!”

“To help you gain acknowledgement as the family head, I’ll help you. That’s our agreement, isn’t it? If Jinya dies and you win by default, you’d not be able to gain anyone’s approval. Besides, I don’t dislike that determination to save someone even at the expense of breaking rules. Master Seigen also had such moments. You’re indeed his daughter. You can definitely become an amazing exorcist like Master Seigen. To fight together with such an exorcist is a thing to be proud of. That’s why, I ask of you, do fight with me, Mayura.”

“Shimon…!” My heart overflows with gratitude. This boy known as Shimon, just how much help has he given me. If I think carefully, it’s great to have him here. So long as I have Shimon’s help, I feel as though I can overcome any obstacle.

Yuzuru’s face was that of relief. She bowed her head low to Shimon and said, “If I can receive the Ikaruga family’s aid, nothing can be more assuring. Take care of Miss Mayura!”

Shimon nodded and replied, “Okay.” His face looked really reliable.

Yuzuru turned to me and said, “Miss Mayura, you have a really great friend.”

Just as she said, Shimon is already to me, an irreplaceable friend.

And then they head off to battle and there’s Mayura’s narration:

I suppose this is also the result of our long training on the island. Whatever attack Shimon wants to make, I am unintentionally able to understand the rhythm of his movement. For him, this is probably also the same. The earth and the sky, even though the distance is great, our heart and body have completely merged as one.

“Next is [insert direction and distance]!”

“Understood…!” As Shimon controls his blades, a bitter smile surfaced. “Speaking of which, Mayura, isn’t it a bit too much to order me around like this?”

“This is payback for putting me through the brutal Spartan training!”

“Good grief.” He shrugged his shoulders.

“Really, you don’t have to be so polite!”

As Shimon and I bickered like a married couple ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°), we dealt a critical blow with our full strength and the miasma (the black fog. I can’t remember the term for it) in front dispersed.

Even though this is a battle with lives at stake, I felt very happy for some reason. This feeling is really amazing. It is not as though I’m not afraid of battles and injuries, but if it’s with Shimon, it doesn’t feel as scary. This must be because he gave courage to me!

“Somehow, my body feels very light…!”

It must be the result of the training. But the reason is not this alone; it’s also because I have dependable comrades to lend their strength to me, and I have people to protect at my back. Because of these, I can continue to fight with my hands.

After hearing Jinya’s words, I wonder if I can become the head the family is proud of. That is probably something to work towards my whole life. Regardless, I will surely be fine. The me now has the courage to press on. Even when in doubt, there is nothing to stop my steps… the important friend who taught me all these now places his hand on my shoulder.

“That’s great. You’ve now accomplished your goal.”

I smiled and held his hand in response.

That’s right. I’m not alone. From now on, I’ll continue to work hard.

A week later, Mayura sees Shimon in school. He tells her that the heavenly commanders are very busy and have special permission to skip lessons. It’s the first time Mayura heard of such a thing and she suddenly realises that Shimon has been coming to help her even though he’s busy, and not once has he brought this up. Mayura could not help but think that this part of Shimon’s really gentle.

Mayura heaves a sigh of relief upon seeing that Shimon’s sight has completely recovered.

“Ahh. There’s no problem at all now. I came today to borrow some books on plants from the library.”

“Is that so?”

“Also, I’m a bit concerned about your situation.”

“Mine?”

“Amakawa family’s situation. After that, did you settle everything properly?”

So he was worried about me. I explained everything to him and he went along with me like a family member as I spoke (basically he nodded and responded with phrases like “is that so?” and “that’s really great”).

“My goal was to help you earn respect as a family head, but I didn’t think that you would master the [control over the white tiger seal, I think] in the process.”

“Me too. Really, it’s all thanks to Shimon. Truly, I thank you. I can never repay your kindness in my whole life.”

“How many times do you want me to say it? You don’t have to be so concerned. I did this willingly.”

“Hey, Shimon. If I can do it, you can talk to me about anything. As repayment, I’d help you no matter what it is.”

“Ahh, I’m grateful for that.”

“Yup. You can talk to me without reservation about anything. Even though I can’t win you when it comes to anything related to exorcism, I can help you with things other than that, such as cooking, desserts, fashion, and whatnot. Even topics related to love would be fine!”

“Love discussion…?” Shimon frowned.

“You see, didn’t you say that you don’t have girlfriend a while back? But what if you have such a person some time later? Even if it’s not to the degree of ‘like’, you can talk to me when you have someone you’re ‘interested in’.”

With a perplexed expression, Shimon replied in a low voice, “I see… if it’s a person of the opposite gender that I’m interested in… there is someone.”

“What!? Is that so?”

“I became… interested recently… I wonder.”

“When exactly did that happen?!”

“Well, whatever discussion it is, you don’t have to mind.”

“Ehh, since you’ve said something like that, I’ll be more concerned…”

That day, regardless of how I probed, Shimon stubbornly refused to disclose the meaning of what he just said. Feeling that Shimon’s attitude was a bit weird, I was in a state of confusion the whole day.

After a very long time, when I discover what Shimon really meant… that is yet another story.

#shimayu #shimayu novel #shimon ikaruga #ikaruga shimon #shimon x mayura #mayura otomi #otomi mayura #otp #novel translations #i'm ded #no energy remains for me to check for grammatical errors #but they're so cute aren't they?#hohohoho #sousei no onmyouji #sousei novel

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lovedreaming · 8 years

Text

analysis: how lisztloid is actually a MASSIVE FUCKING WOMAN CHILD bc i need to flesh this out.

like i’ve said 2+ times before: all the classicaloids living at otowakan are children in adult bodies. i don’t think this even needs to be explained given all the stupid shit they do in the anime. they have emotionally exaggerated versions of their past life personalities--children have less control over their emotions. they don’t do chores, they don’t pay rent, they don’t even have jobs and yet they have absolutely no shame in taking up space there--kanae herself says that they just do whatever they want all day--zero sense of adult responsibility. and i don’t mean like a college student going “wehhhhh how do i adult”--it’s literally zero sense of adult responsibility. now this is a fluffy kid’s show and some degree of immaturity should be expected, but the composers’ immaturity makes sense on a logical level because how friggin long ago do you think they came out of those giant test tubes. their bodies can’t be more than 5 years old and it’s tbh a miracle of the musical dimension + past life connections that they don’t act like it too.

(side note: bach, tchaiko and bada are considerably more grown up, with bach being the only real adult among the eight, but that’s because they have actual jobs--and that’s also because, as i theorized, bach has already transcended to full godhood which could have made him wise beyond his biological age.)

i could do analyses of childish behaviors for all of the classicaloids if i wanted to, but i’m going to focus on liszt for now (esp. regarding her views on love) since she’s the one i’m roleplaying.

she doesn’t often discuss love in terms of sex--mostly as an abstract concept. you hear “love, love, love” from her a lot and see her swooning over it, but you rarely hear her feeling anything remotely resembling lust. sure, she likes to show off in a sexy way which i will cover in the next bullet point, but when it comes down to actually showing love to someone, she doesn’t talk about seducing or sleeping together or the morning after. she just talks about “love.” hell, even her liebestraum no. 3′s influence reflects this. it makes people swoon over each other in a sexless way that a child might envision, with none of the touching and tongue-kissing that a more adult scenario would include, AND the arrow-shooting cupids allow her to ship whomever she wants so she can throw people together like dolls. (although i took some artistic license with this musik trait of hers--in this thread, la campanella makes people rip off their clothes for her.) yeah she understands what it means to be sexy. she just doesn’t quite get what comes after strutting your stuff. which leads us to…

when she does think of sex or being sexy, she is not shown to handle it maturely in any capacity. she insists on being otowakan’s “symbol” of feminine beauty just so she can get out of doing the chores. when kanae is about to make her idol debut, franzi sends her a text saying “MAKE IT RACY! SHOW OFF YOUR ASS!” with a bikini pic of herself as a reference point. also? the penis. she makes a giant marble penis and wanted it in the bathroom because she thinks it’s an expression of “love.” this is something a young person would think of after they first get told about sex. like seriously. she sculpts a penis and puts it in the mansion bathroom as a monument to love. it doesn’t take a child psychologist to know that this shit is really immature.

she heard about the abusive situation chopin was in with jolly and her first instinct was to urge him into the computer because “IT’S LOOOOOVE.” now this isn’t necessarily a childish behavior because many young adults might also not understand jolly’s blackmailing and exploitative behavior as abusive. but given her general air of naïveté as discussed above, she was probably also totally naïve with regards to what jolly was doing, fixating on her ideals in a childish way: as long as he loves her, he ought to pursue the ‘true love’ he has with her.

she shows a high degree of selfishness toward others, even though she cares for them as friends, and holy hot damn i can do an entire paragraph of this bullet point about her best friend, chopin. in episode 3 she says she had “no idea” that chopin hated performing. but given chopin’s EXTREME asocial behavior, it would take someone completely insensitive to his needs to have “no idea”; considering how stuck-up franz liszt was historically, she was probably so consumed by her own ego that she didn’t pay attention to chopin’s emotional needs. she also treats chopin like a literal pet, someone/thing that she can amuse herself with--she literally has him registered as a pet when she moves into otowakan (which goes back to the “zero sense of adult responsibility” thing--no landlord would allow her to have a human as a pet, but she gives actually zero shits). and who can forget how she duped him in episode 11 in the rock paper scissors game, then laughed at him saying “welcome to the real world”…this needs no explanation. her selfishness also shows up when she spends bach’s money so recklessly, forcing him to constantly generate more--liszt is literally what would happen if you gave a child infinite money. also when kanae lines up all the classicaloids to make them do chores, she is the first to object and acts as though she deserves not to work alongside everyone else. lastly, she calls sosuke “tool” and when he FUCKING GETS REPLACED BY A ROBOT IN EPISODE 18 she doesn’t even NOTICE, she angrily asks why he came home “empty-handed” and yells “I told you to buy me some Calorie Off soda.” sure, none of the classicaloids noticed that sosuke was now a robot, but franzi was once again the first among them to show her selfishness.

she has no filter. she tells kanae not to scare chopin when trying to coax him to become an official tenant at otowakan, but then starts screaming at him and trying to break open his hiding place as soon as she doesn’t get her way. she freaking walks through a clothing store in a bikini because she wants to show off. her hungarian rhapsody no. 2′s musik is all about making people yell out their grievances without any sort of tact or reserve (which the unfortunate victims REGRET afterward) and she sees that as an ideal in relationships. she says “love yourself and love someone else, that’s why we tell the truth” even though some of the truths the people said while under the spell were p. much insults. guess who else has absolutely no filter and will yell anything that comes to mind? children. the only way in which this is possibly not childish is because she believes in doing that out of love for someone else, instead of simply yelling because she needs to indulge her emotions.

#classicaloid #[ headcanon ]

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