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lakesbian · 1 year

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ok Worm Bigotry Breakdown in more detail for @silverflyingpikachu

tl;dr: author is Cishet White Guy From Canada In 2011. he ostensibly thinks he is progressive. this does not change his proclivity for tossing his Cishet White Guy From Canada Biases into the books and then saying even more bigoted things in defense of those writing decisions on forums. wildbow is just some cunt on the forums with bad opinions on wildbow's writing. the book is 1.7 million words long but i believe in my ability 2 categorize this shit with decent accuracy. everyone who has ever said worm's CWs can't be categorized, including wildbow himself, is a lying ass bitch. this will include some vague spoilers, because i can't really go in-depth without a few examples, but i'll stay away from anything too plot-critical.

racism:

- worm is fundamentally a book abt systems of power and the ways in which they suck. some of the critiques worm issues--e.g, its depiction of how school systems enable bullying, inspired by wildbow's own experiences w/ the school systems as a deaf kid--are viscerally accurate and incredibly compelling. but wildbow fundamentally doesn't understand how certain systems of oppression work--e.g policing--and subsequently, his attempts at depicting them occasionally fall flat onto their face and land in racist territory. this gets particularly nasty when combined w/ the White Guy Author propensity for racist stereotypes--for example, his chosen face of police brutality is a black girl portrayed as predatory & animalistic.

- who is also one of the only black people in the book overall, alongside--for example--an addict portrayed as having less interiority & being less deserving of empathy than A Literal Fucking Nazi. also, the main characters have to team up with the nazis "for the greater good" (defeating the mean asian villains) at one point. it is a mercy to the readers when this part of the story ends. - there are two black characters in the main cast. for the first, wildbow just Straight Up Forgot to include the most compelling aspect of their background + characterization in the text (it was provided via WoG instead, which i provide to all wormreaders like a fuckin' DLC patch when they get to where it's relevant) & entirely forgets they exist towards where the end of their character arc should have been. the second is introduced w/ the most misogynoiristic description on the planet but blessedly has a largely compelling and well-written arc as the book goes on. - depiction of china is just like. fox news level sinophobic "it's all a brainwashed indistinguishable evil cult" shit. not relevant for very long relatively speaking but insufferable to read. asian characters are also like. we got Brutal Yet Honorable Asian Man. we got Fiery Asian Girl With Blue Eyes. it fucking blows it's not good

- oh yeah forgot this one someone mentioned in the tags. #it's an insignificant paragraph and nobody talks about it but the part where it goes #“yeah literally EVERY cape in South America is with a cartel and the heroes are barely distinguishable from the villains” #fuck you #not that the others aren't bad the fatphobia gets really gross but nobody mentions this and that one got me so yeah typical Insufferable Awful Imperial Core Author Understanding Of What Other Countries Are Like - i could make this section one million bulletpoints long but the gist is summarized i think--wildbow's varied racist biases leak fucking everywhere, into character design, into narrative assumptions about who's deserving of interiority/empathy or not, into attempts at Saying Anything About Society, into which characters he prioritizes, into who he offers validity via the narrative, etc etc etc.

homophobia: - theres a girl named amy dallon in it and she is the worst lesbophobic stereotype ever known to man. no other Problematic Lesbian™ you can think of has anything on this girl. the worst part is that she genuinely has a decently compelling character concept and arc, which her being awful is integral to, so you might accidentally find her interesting anyway and then she'll move into your brain - wildbow kept accidentally writing characters that scan as massive dykes and then got really mad about f/f ships for the book being popular in the fandom. he responded by making a deranged forum post involving the phrase "pandering is pandering" insisting everyone (but the bisexual "hedonist") is straight and writing a scene into the book where one of the characters literally turns to the camera and tells the readers "not to get the wrong idea" about her hugging her friend. - over the course of 1.7 million words he finds excuses to loudly inform you that all of the relevant female characters are straight and it's sooo shoehorned in you can always tell when he's doing it - basically worm is like if naruto was about homoerotic teenage girls who do violent terrible things, in terms of levels of unintentional homoeroticism, and the author responds to ppl going "lmao gay" about the unintentional homoeroticism with poorly restrained seething rage

fatphobia: - generic brand of fatphobia you'll see in p much all mainstream media where only side/bg characters are fat and it's obliquely used as a descriptor to indicate that someone has negative personality traits or should be viewed as sort of gross

anti-addict shit: - wildbow generally likes writing about how social circumstances--i.e neglect from society, oppression, failure on behalf of systems--causes crime. he generally likes demonstrating the ways in which the villainous main characters are traumatized teenagers failed by society fumbling to keep existing & holding each other up through The Horrors. unfortunately all of this intelligent writing flies out the nearest window when addicts are involved. there is a gang comprised entirely of addicts, all of whom are portrayed as disgusting, violent, dangerous, and of course often racially stereotyped. it is a mercy to the readers when they're no longer relevant to the story. - on a more subtle level, characters are every so often just like. a little more anti-drug than they would realistically be and you can tell it's wildbow's opinions leaking into their characterization. this is largely what the anti-addict writing is kept to after The Addict Villains leave the story iirc.

if youre wondering wellwhy does anyone read this book then. to that i would say that unfortunately despite it all it'sa fucking excellent book. so we all carry on reading the parts that suck and thinking about how they suck and then reading the parts that fuck and going "ouuugh my god" and rolling down 20 flights of stairs about how hard they fuck.

#sorry if i missed anything this entire post was written while so tired #parahumans #apparenty people lke this one so ill maintag it in case anyone finds it useful its very slapdash though

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lassify · 2 months

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Listen, okay, I may have a 70-page plan for my story with bulletpoints upon bulletpoints of plot points, but I am not... exactly... in control of the story😅 Far from in control, in fact!

It is the last thing I think about at night and my first waking thought in the morning.

It is a monster that lives in my head and feeds on my sanity.

It is a ghost possessing my own body in an elaborate attempt to exorcise itself.

It is an obsession and a primal need wrapped up in layers of motivation: I am grappling with a sentient mass of characters and concepts, and yet my soul will not rest until I deliver the story in its entirety.

#and I wouldnt have it any other way #writing thoughts #totally possessed #dont mind me just going crazy over here #this plot is driving me absolutely insane #up the fucking WALLS #when I am done I will sob with relief and grief

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gaydiation-poisoning · 7 months

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HORRIBLE MESSY IN-NO-PARTICULAR-ORDER AMP BULLETPOINT POST BEFORE SIDE ORDER COMES OUT LETS FUCKING GOOOO

THIS IS AMP ^ (art by @for-a-new-life)

SHE IS MY NEO AGENT 3

Age: 14

Height: 4'8

Full name: Amphitrite Takowasa

°She was born a little less than a year after the events of Splatoon 2 (we have a slightly altered timeline)

°She will BITE you if you call her Amphitrite

°Amp's mother Ashta disappeared when she was about 7 years old, ever since she's been growing up on the streets of Inkopolis alongside her best friend/little brother Sammy.

(pictured here, by @redginaldusrooiakker)

°She does not know her own full name

°She has faint memories of Off The Hook playing on the television when she was little, this inspired her dream of becoming a big time DJ. (cus there's not enough of these Octo DJ bastards running about)

°She made her way to Splatsville at age 13 looking to make it big, although having no money and no home took to crashing on the couch in the Lobby.

°Despite practically living in the Lobby, Amp does not play much Turf War or any other sport. She tends to find them limiting and aggravating, as she's not much of a team player and tends to prefer an aggressive solo charge over working with others. As a result she turns to working at Grizzco for cash.

°She is very reckless on the job, with a tendency to charge in headfirst with a seeming lack of self preservation, most coworkers dislike her for her behavior and think she's a liability. She is, however, effective, and thus Grizz keeps her on and assigns her 'mentors' to keep her focused. (At least until they burn out and she's passed to someone else)

°Mains Octobrush

°After about four months of working for Grizzco, she had a falling out with her favourite mentor and wound up meeting Craig Cuttlefish and joining the Squidbeak Splatoon

°She just wants to feel useful

°Amp has a very casual way of speaking, very rarely using honorifics. Some find this rude, but it's typically a sign that she likes someone a great deal and feels comfortable. She doesn't typically gel well with Authority figures for this reason. (Albeit this is not intentional on her end.)

°She takes to calling Cuttlefish 'Uncle' not long after meeting him.

°Also has very little in the way of a filter with profanity, and tends to cuss a lot when the urge strikes her.

°Very fidgety, tends to chew on wasabi sprouts or tug on her tentacles to keep her mind occupied. Hates sitting still.

°Has very little sense of aim, her method with a splattershot essentially comes down to 'Can't hurt me if you're atomized'

°Almost shoots Octavio after he fell out of the Octobot, Craig had to knock the gun upwards to deflect the shot.

°Prefers baggy clothes

°Will eat anything. Not picky at all.

°Has a love for spicy food, the hotter the better.

°Sometimes eats things with her hands that really should not be eaten with one's hands

°VERY loud for someone her size

°Has no concept of an 'inside voice'

°If you do so much as give her a sandwich she'd probably be willing to die for you.

°Runs very warm

°Very heavy sleeper, can sleep in almost any position.

°The notch in her ear is from a Grizzco Charger by her mentor turned nemesis turned best friend Mono

----

°The scar on her forehead comes from accidentally bashing her forehead against the Octobot's control console during the fight with Grizz

(on that note)

°If you have talked to me about her or simply read her name, you'd probably have figured out that Amp is the granddaughter of DJ Octavio

(This charming fella. Art once again provided by @for-a-new-life)

°Neither of them are aware of this connection until post Splatoon 3's story (although there are a couple AUs where that's not the case)

°Her mother is named Ashta, she is Agent 8 and a Clone of Octavio (if you're wondering why she came out female well the answer is 🏳️‍⚧️)

°Amp's lack of knowledge of or contact with her grandfather comes from her mother's distaste for her father (to put it lightly)

°She looks up to her grandpa a lot, she definitely sees him through rose tinted glasses in her younger years. (Honestly the Takowasa family drama will probably get a reblog dedicated to breaking it down)

°She wouldn't have even been accepted by him if Craig hadn't basically reverse psychology-ed Octavio into actually being a grandpa to her

°Amp is close with Octavio but the relationship is...complicated to say the least

°Despite this she is very determined to upkeep a relationship with him

°When she eventually starts her DJing career, she does so under the stage name of DJ ANG3LFISH, a mix of her title as Agent 3, and of Octavio's occasional nickname for her, Angelfish.

°She keeps up this stage performance until one particularly traumatic performance scares her into silence for a time

°She later comes back onto the music scene in a somewhat fishing themed band called The Reel Deal, with her once again as the DJ, and her friends Mono and now much more grownup Sammy as vocalists.

°Amp would not start singing in their songs until some of their later albums.

°She has a lot of vocal fry which can be very good for their harsher tracks

And finally (for now)

°Amp is a Virgo

(doodle by @redginaldusrooiakker)

(Second part breaking down the Takowasa Family Issues will be out soon!)

EDIT: PART 2 OUT NOW CHECK RBS

#Amp #oc tag #neo agent 3 #craig cuttlefish #octavio takowasa #Amphitrite Takowasa

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iliveforyouilongforyouvesuvia · 4 months

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yippie!!

ok so one day i was hangin out and thinking about how jinx and murie are both my favourite little sad wet guys in my two fave medias of all ever *And* at the same time SO far apart on the spectrum personalitywise

and it took me listening to this to flip the switch on the Autism Blender and want to just fucking mash them together like a coked up toddler making Slime out of fish guts and hayao miyazakis mothers ashes because thats what i do thats my job💅👌so theeeen it comes out pretty reminiscent of my first muriel au that also sprung up from a song i like, just- a bit to the left? like, moving along on the scale from The OG not liking violence and being involved in it whatsoever, to AU 1 where i pictured him going "yeah ok fuck it this is what i do i guess" and revengy motives to his whole thing that i now connected with him more thru the song lmao it just made me realize the vision of like. jinxies "murderingmurderinmurdering 💕fun✨" aspect + his potential desire to still do good things despite being doomed to be a machine made for destruction (ignore the fact of that desire being nonexistent in his canon form because of how he perceives himself as a thing unable to achieve performing any good ever under any circumstance) (but still refusing to actively cause harm as he isolates himself to prevent any situations arising that would lead him to do so) (ignore all that) (were yassifying him a little were allowed its fine ive already lost the plot here anyway were wildin) so a vigilanty type beat and also ~my axe is my buddy🥰 we both cry with the trees😔✊ /me & my axe will bring the devil to his knees (✿◕‿◕ )~ goes hard as phUCK

so then all that led to This new V.3 mutation where hed be actually having fun with it........ so I kinda start turning him over in my brain some more, forgetting about jink by now and at first I go Huh this is kinda. him but lucioey a lil bit. and THEN i go hm. Well this ground is awful soft n ready to dig

so with all that out of the way i can now present!: Brand New Vague Shadow of a Concept of an Idea that ill Never Do Anything with

and I really don’t know how to verbalize this very well at all mmjfdh but like. Ok bulletpoints activate

Muriel:

From a badass warrior tribe

Didn’t get booted out cuz theyre fine this time oopsie no genocide

Hes in there way chillin way awesome way good at fighting everybody loves him

Hes like. Way himboey in this one. SO jock. Smiles a lot <3 <3 <3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3

Like okay if i was actually serious about writing this I think id need a fucking lucio consultant because I really know zilch about that bitch but like okay you know how lucios kinda all scary n cunty and cunning and fancy and seems like hes got shit figured out. Until he *starts talking*? Muriel here is like that but hes just really fucking scary until he starts talking BUT not like normally where hes adorable just has resting bitch face, its just like. that part of him that came thru in the reversed ending at the very end, yknow. but make it less depressing ihjhsrfbjs hes like full letterman jacket highschool bully core total kurt & ram vibe, like ok youd see him on a battlefield ABsolutely WRECKIng some fools into a pulp with his bare bear hands and immediately after that he turns around like WOOOOOOO THAT’S what im TALKIN ABOUT LETS GO GUYS WHO WANTS A BEER *cut to him chugging an entire keg over his head with da boys around losing their minds* like think college frat but they raid villages for fun and profit. Pretty orc coded. Kinda thor coded. Actually exactly thorcoded wow that really is what I was going for. I was wondering why I couldn’t help imagining him with a australian accent, I guess that’s a mystery solved. anyway

Maybe his parents got killed in some other battle im not sure how to weave around that in detail yet BUT- ok so check this I thought ill have to give him some motive to wanna reach the devil somehow for,,.,,… something right. to make him fill an antagonist role So this might be stupid a lil I just thought of this and it needs to cook for sure but what if he just rolled up into vesuvia as the magic capital or something whtver, to figure out how to get to talk to the devil, cuz he just like, really wants his parents back cuz they got valhallad in some glorious combat, and they were cool and he misses them and they could fight some more cool fights together and pillage n chill jhbsfvjgzdc beCAUsE hear me out im rolling with the swap inversions opposites motive here right, so the thing that popped up in my head was- Lucio had the “I wanna kill my parents bcause I hate them and so I can rule and get what I want” thing goin at the start right, like that is basically what started it off he got his dad he didnt get morgha SO what IF I gave murie a “i wanna conquer this place and use it to get my parents back. cuz I missem :(” like fully turned it around idk IDK IT SEEMS MESSY IDK IS IT CUTE IS IT DUMB IT MAKES ME FEEL DUMB BUT IN THAT WAY THAT MIGHT MEAN THAT ITS ACTUALLY WORKING BUT I DONT KNOW *screaming with no air*

But overall yeah hes khal drogo but more noticeably himboey but not in a likeable way cuz were switching them so I cant make him likeable for myself hnjdgfgb leaning into popular dumb jock trope

UnLESSSS i DID combo it with murdermuriel au 1.0 some more and made their tribe like. Not murdery somehow like what would be the opposite of the og scourge roaming around ruining shit. well that was the og kokhuri but now I gotta do some fucking triple axels here to make it make sense so how the fuck do I make this version of kokhuri more warriory in culture than the original but still nice like robinhoody style jhbfsvhjbs this is falling tf apart might need to scrap it bc on lucios end itd be even harder wouldn’t it. Spartan cunts but they don’t kill people that’s a nono lmao

now im thinking some more about the aspect of lucio being, you know. a pretty shitty leader right, and how to incorporate that here, because i have no idea if im following an actual set rule here regarding whats swapped and how even, theres barely a theme im straight up just

but yeah so now i figure it could be murie tryna get his folks back because they were the actual defacto leaders of their tribe, he was just kinda still following along and doin his chores in being the uhh the face, the charisma, the one to kinda like. get the people on board easier with whatever decision they made for them and hyping it up as the best possible choice anyone could ever make and maybe even actually believing it too cuz theyre actually that tightknit and he trusts them with anything aw. is this too onedimensional or can i give my boy some good nice facking family relations at least in an alternate life ghhkjkfdh hes their pride n joy and can do no wrong but yeah the point is he himself hasnt actually made any decisions without them before, isnt very good at actually leading and strategizing and planning and knowing how everything complicated works and he knows it, so he sees his only solution in bringing them back to not let everything fall apart

SEE I BROUGHT IT AROUND I CLEANED UP NICE WITH OG LUCIO SETTING OFF FROM THE POINT OF FEELING LIKE HES THE BEST AT EVERYTHING AND SHOULD B RECOGNIZED AS SUCH AND TRYING TO GET RID OF HIS PARENTS TO GET IT AND MY BOY HERE ENDING UP EXACTLY OPPOSITE. GO SHAWTY GO SHAWTY IM SO SMART am i fucking up lulus backstory i feel like i am cuz im like wait what the fuck did he kill his dad for again. demonheart. deal. thing. whatd he wish. like he wasnt already running for count n shit yet he did want to climb up the ladder in his own tribe right i have no idea yell at me in comments thank you

I also don’t know if the first (last) scourge battle wouldve happened or nah

Lucio/Montag

Oh my fucking god what if I figured out an alternative L moniker for murie so theyd get to switch letters in their namesssssssss like lucio is a made up name he made it up so like UAGHASHG L.,,,...,, Lion ofthe,... south NO he HAS to be bEAR CODED AAFYFFHG BUT LUCIO HAD LEOPARD IMAGERY N SHIT RAAHAHHGH IM FITIN FOR MY LIFE HERE

Anyway he lives in a forest somewhere cuz his tribe threw him out fully voluntarily bc he sucks ass (or at least for their standards cuz I guess he would be way younger than 18 here for this) (Like a spartan type deal ur too weak we don’t want you *drops you off a cliff* *but theres 4 feet of snow under it so he survives* *that’s so fucking goofy hjbsfbj kinda suits him*) so uhhhhhh i don’t know where hed be currently chilling for an mc to meet him ever but yeah hes kinda Floki Vikings™ type of vibe at least visually that’s what came to mind first to picture him lol

look at this little blond rat bastard. adorable. becoming increasingly obsessed. picturing lucio with this exact hairline. moving on

and his thing is hes still insecure as fuck but worse at ignoring it and hiding it and hes a lil nervous bundle of sticks and always talking bc of it, kinda Bruno Madrigalesque type vibe julian but a pitch more pathetic who knew it could be done yknow? opposite of The OG The Mountain The Stone Cold Silent The Muriel The Scourge The Kokhuri The Third and also me when writing and not stopped in time

oh oh what if he was totes in denial that his tribe kicked him out and in his view hes on some super intense convoluted secret mission (lasting from. age 7 to now apparently) and as soon as hes done they’ll totally come back for him kdfsgjffd I thought it could either be his own copium or he took it from some last interaction with someone who took pity on him as a kid and wanted to give him some comfort, or something he misunderstood entirely

hm. They both have canid familiars idk what to do with that. muriel with two wolves tho. thats hot shit righ there if i do say so myself

oh now im toying with the idea of taking away muriels SUPPOSED YET UNCONFIRMED AS MY VERY CONTROLLED ACADEMIC STUDY HAS SHOWN COUGHCOUGHJHBSRGJBHF talking to animals buff, i dont wanna just take it and give it to lucio tho, but like. what the fuck else do i give him. astral projecting to tie into his ghost era? sounds dope actually alright lets do that lmao

ok its 1 30 am i hope this is comprehensible to anybody anywhere im zonking out now khbsfhbfk love u

@tetsuooooooooooo I've missed your essays, this was such a treat to log in to!!!

And WOW, thorcoded Muriel is not something I ever would have thought of on my own but oddly enough I feel like the AU you're coming up with could really work, goodness me. And the way you've inverted Lucio's character too!! I'd love to see how their interaction dynamics invert as well!

Always good to hear from you friend, hope you're doing well!

#ask arcana brainrot #the arcana #the arcana game #lucio morgasson #lucio the arcana #muriel of the kokhuri #muriel the arcana

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takaraphoenix · 8 months

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What do you think about the changes to Luke’s confrontation with Percy ?

Got this ask, got really confused, realized the final episode was out, went to watch it, came back here.

So.

Mh.

As with the majority of the many changes this show made to the books, I have... mixed feelings on it.

Part of me loves this much more than the books - much - more. Because it made so much more sense. Luke, trying to recruit Percy instead of just... flat-out trying to murder him again.

And! That Percy was the one who figured it out, on his own. I love how clever this show makes Percy.

It was a really tense and interesting confrontation.

Now here's the part that made me dislike it. Because it made so much sense.

In the books, Percy not taking Luke's side made complete sense, because Luke just flat-out tries to murder him, for the second time, and he is screaming and throwing so much stuff out in such a frantic way that he does sound like he lost his mind. It's very easy to conclude "My guy, you're being brainwashed by Kronos".

But this Luke? And this Percy?

The Percy who literally spent the entire damn show MAKING Luke's points. The first half of this show, every single conversation between him and Annabeth was basically Percy reciting Luke's bulletpoint list of why the gods suck and demigods shouldn't do their bidding.

And now, what? All of the sudden, just because, what, daddy dearest showed up once and saved Percy's life from Zeus, he is Team Olympus? C'mon. That was weak as fuck.

A very brief summary of a point I've made in the past, I don't want to drag this argument out again but it's important to bring up in this context: PJO is inherently a story about keeping the status quo. It follows the very tried concept of giving the villain (Luke) a very good and valid motivation to rebel against an oppressive force, but undermining the good points he makes by adding something that nobody can argue is bad (Kronos controlling everything in the background), so the hero fights the immediate problem instead of the shared oppressors, instead of just giving the very good and valid motivation to the hero and have them fight for real change.

And in the books, at least there really wasn't much of a reason for Percy to join Luke, and Luke doesn't even really ask for it either.

But this Luke asked. This Luke very coherently expressed himself.

And this Percy has made his exact talking points in the past. And nothing, aside from Poseidon stepping up once in his fucking life, has really changed. If anything, I'd say the bad - Ares, Zeus, ATHENA - really outweigh the good.

Why is Kronos worse than Zeus? Because he ate his children? Zeus did worse things to his own children in mythology, to be quite frank. Show Percy is too clever - too knowledgeable about mythology and the past of their godly family and good at putting one and one together - and too bitter toward the gods to so fully dismiss Luke, in my opinion, especially considering we removed the "I will immediately try to murder you with a killer scorpion" and added Luke explicitly trying to recruit Percy.

And I'm not saying "Percy should have absolutely joined Luke's side", but I am saying that it felt far too much like a 180 on Percy's part to be defending the gods and pretend that Luke isn't making sense. I liked that Chiron called that out in the end, but... Percy's reply was even weaker because there was no foundation for why he would be so stubborn about this.

Even if you don't pull through with it, I think that an angle of doubt, an angle of temptation, should have been played up here.

#Percy Jackson #PJOTV #PJOTV Spoilers #Percy Jackson and the Olympians #Luke Castellan #PJOverse #lords have mercy this awakens my need to do a rewrite AGAIN #where Percy DOES join Luke because LUKE IS FUCKING RIGHT #THIS Luke even MORE SO than the books Luke. I need to lay down #ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS REMOVE KRONOS FROM THE EQUATION #AND YOU WOULD HAVE THE INCREDIBLY VALID REBELLION #OF THE OPPRESSED AND MISTREATED DEMIGODS AGAINST THE GODS #I'll never get over just HOW much more enticing that storyline would be #than 'and so he fought the gods' battles over and over - but he did it for his FRIENDS though!!!#because it truly Does Not Matter. he still fights FOR the gods and for THEIR status quo

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hockeyisforthegays · 1 month

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did you read 264 and 265 chapter's of jjk? if so what are you thoughts? you don't have to answer i'm just curious about what you think because i feel like you have really unique observations

(love you writing, thank you in advance if you end up answering)

oh shit anon let me write you an essay. and by essay i mean a disjointed series of long ass bulletpoints. also im gonna be focusing mostly on 265 because as my friends put it i am "ceo of itadori yuuji" or the proprietor of the "itadori cinematic universe" so you could say. that i am biased

okay. one. as an overall thing. i wish that for pretty much everything . that they would just lean into it more. theres a lot of concepts im into but everything lately seems to be presented without exploration or followup. like im about to analyze this to shit but i feel like im gluing meat to a skeleton. help me out here gege

FOR EXAMPLE yuuji's ultimatum to sukuna. i wish. i wish there was more here. like in theory this is really cool to me. yuuji says You Choose Whether I Eat You Or Kill You. Will You Live With Me? Or Will You Die Alone?

I lay my Body down as a Sacrifice

but more so as a Prison

but most of all as a Mercy

the first to my Friend, the second to my Curse, and the third to the Person i hope is buried deep down inside that evil.

aaaaand then this is kinda undercut by sukuna's reaction to me. not that i need him to go full on mahito quaking rabbit ass on us tbc. but the stubborn non-engagement with the premise just makes me roll my eyes and groan. i wish gege had found a way to let this reveal SOME new or unexplored aspect of sukuna's character? one chink in the armour. one stray thought that we wouldn't expect to hear from him. something. something to latch onto.

this may be unreasonable also given that gege is writing in literally a different language but i hope we find our way somehow to the double meaning of the phrase "flesh and blood" btw. like. sukuna is yuuji's uncle and they shared a body. yuuji is trying to make sukuna come back to that body. theres something there i swear it.

sukuna, come home. we're family. you're my flesh and blood.

(while beating his ass)

like make it scary. god PLEASE put some metamorphosis stank on it. gimme that I Am You flavourrrrr

okay now also. yuuji's domain. i want to talk about yuuji's domain so bad. one thing i noticed was that he doesn't name it. at first i was pretty disappointed because im a weirdo and i love their weird word salad names, i love that e.g. fushiguro and mahito just bust out full poems on i guess instinct when they use their domains for the first time!! so the fact that yuuji didn't get one felt at first like he was being... slighted by the convention almost? but.

this is again a thing i think could have been cool if leaned into, in a few ways. ive just been having these ideas about how yuuji's domain is different from other domains, one of those ways being in its lack of a name.

first of all from a character perspective - yuuji's whole persona in battle is like warpath, tunnel vision, beat your ass shit, so it does kinda make sense that his domain would be just as no muss no fuss just get it the fuck done, in a way. once again. lean into this!!

but also, i started thinking about what we saw with characters like gojo and sukuna, and the idea of jujutsu as the art of elision. when those characters wanted to juice their big moves, they reverted rituals that included vocal incantations. that exact word salad shit. i started thinking - those word salad domain names are like, that, you know? maybe this is explicit and i just missed it somewhere. or i forgor. but perhaps invoking a domain's name makes it more powerful, or easier to establish, or something

(i so much dont want to reread to figure this out. RIP)

if this is the case, yuuji not using a domain name would say a darn something about his power huh???

LEAN INTO THIS. LIKE SUKUNA COMMENT ON IT FOR FUCK SAKE i know you are allergic to acknolwedging your nephew but its for the AUDIENCE'S SAKE NOT YOURS

gege i am fucking inventing lore for you to make it cooler. why wont you. come back here

but anyway. what IS yuuji's domain and what does it do. he learned from kusakabe, so it's at least somewhat akin to a simple domain, but we also know yuuji's body holds the memory of malevolent shrine - does that have any influence on how the domain turned out? it seems pretty... big, for lack of a better way of describing a mental projection. no other simple domain really HAD projections. are there no techniques imbued in it? what about vows, like sukuna with his whatever barrier bullshit? yuuji's forces sukuna back into the yuukuna body. why? how? we've seen how domains can make its targets abide by rules, what rule is this? sukuna also acts nonviolently for as long as yuuji strings him through illusory sendai, and i dont know if this is a choice by sukuna (which idk whether i do or do not understand as a character choice at this point) or if it's enforced by the domain somehow.

(I feel like, these things either need to be More or even Less clear. like i understand just enough to have burning questions. if this were more obtuse and symbolic, i would probably be content to ride the vibes, actually. BUT IM NOT. ANSWER ME GEGE. YOU'VE TOLD ME SO MUCH LORE I DONT CARE ABOUT!!! WHAT OF MY SON!)

anyway closing thoughts wrt 266 you may be able to tell from my Fucking Fanfiction but i have literally been waiting for yuuji's own fingers to become cursed objects for EVER. i was imagining scenarios while watching season 1. im crazy stupid about it. i hope i hope i hope this finger shakes out into something WORTHWHILE. and sorry again this is entirely yuuji centred my only thoughts about the characters who were in 264 is the frustration of the way they got sidelined so carelessly RIP

#jjk manga spoilers #uuuuh someotne tell me if i should put this under a readmore

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jasper-the-menace · 7 months

Note

Hey, since you're interested in scorpion biology, I thought you'd be interested in the idea of... intersex Chima scorpions! Well, sort of.

There's a specific character that's been bugging me a bit. Scutter is kind of the scorpion equivalent of a centaur; he has two torsos, one anthropomorphic, and another of the scorpion body. With scorpion anatomy in mind, it's easy to reach the conclusion that Scutter's reproductive organ would be heavily altered because of his body, making him intersex to a certain extent.

I hope this makes sense. I'm trying to look for possible trans rep in Chima characters (like in this example). What do you think of this idea?

Oh friend, you don't know the essay you just inspired.

You Opened This Can Of Worms, Now Lie In It

Some important bulletpoints before I get going, just to get all of my followers on the same page:

Disclaimer: I am a transgender nonbinary perisex individual. This means I am not intersexed (to my knowledge), I don't identify with the gender I was assigned at birth, and I don't identify as male or female. The closest thing to describing my gender is literally "no".

I am a strong advocate for making as many characters transgender as possible, regardless of "realism". That's why, in my own writing, half of the Scorpions are retroactively transgender (though they don't understand gender on the whole and most of them would probably be nonbinary if someone took fifteen minutes to explain gender, variable social constructs, and the concept of genitalia tying to gender roles) and also Razar is too on account of I said so.

Being intersexed does not inherently mean being transgender. There is a lot of discussion and individual choice between intersexed people about whether or not they're part of the queer community. It's a very individual thing, and I am not part of those discussions on account of not being intersex myself.

When it comes to humans and other beings with a level of sentience and sapience, the term "hermaphrodite" and its derivates are considered slurs. When talking about animals, hermaphrodite and its derivates are scientific terms. So in something like the Legends of Chima series and other humanoid-animal media, the proper term is "intersexed". (I noticed you used the term "intersex" in your ask, and I appreciate it!)

I know too much about scorpion mating and birth.

We're talking way too much about genitalia and gender tonight in regards to fictional characters.

I am genuinely delighted that you decided to drop in here to discuss this, because boy howdy do I have a lot of thoughts about transgender headcanons/representation and scorpions specifically! Scorpions are just. So damn cool.

Note for my fellow arachnophobes: There are no images attached to this post, but it's really easy to find videos of scorpions doing various things on YouTube, which is actually how I've been studying them.

Scorpion Sex, Mating, and Genitalia

Scorpions of both "genders" have genital opercula (singular: genital operculum), and their asses run up into their tails. In order to mate, they don't just do like horses. No no, buddy, they have a really weird, specific method!

In order to start wooing his potential mate, the male scorpion will lock chelae (pincers) with the female scorpion, and they will start to "dance". The male scorpion will drop a sperm packet onto the ground and lead the female scorpion over it. If the female scorpion is down, she'll basically squat and absorb the sperm packet into her body, which is then followed by a "mating plug" to keep it in while it does the fertilization thing.

(It's important to note that the courting process also contains "juddering", aka the male scorpion doing the dance that the stickbug meme did, and may also contain clerchical "kisses". Honestly, pretty romantic for an arachnid. And possibly tail-rubbing and sexual stinging. Scorpions are very kinky!)

(It's also important to note that some species of scorpions have been reported, though not reliably, to reproduce through parthogenesis.)

Post-coitus cannibalism has not been scientifically seen in scorpions, so the male scorpion is generally safe as long as he scadoodles.

Gestation in some scorpion species can last over a year, and different species can have anywhere from 2 to 100 little scorplings - the physical size of the scorpion is not necessarily tied to how many babies they'll have.

Also, scorpions give live birth!

The baby scorpion is essentially folded like a Fedex package and launched out of the womb. It will then unfold and climb on top of the mother to make way for its next sibling. These will hang onto the mother until their first molt, which happens as a group and launches them into the juvenile stage. After this, they will still stay with their mothers until their carapace finishes hardening and gaining color, at which point they hunt prey on their own and will wander off on their own terms.

Hey, Jasper, That's Pretty Fucked Up, But How Does This Tie Into Chima?

I'm getting there, hold your centaur scorpions!

This is where we get into the worldbuilding of the Legends of Chima series, the Character Encyclopedia, and our poor boy Scutter.

See, the Legends of Chima as a series is very much a product of its time. There is some rife ableism and questionable word choices in regards to the Crawlers (and Sir Fangar, but this isn't about him). According to the Character Encyclopedia, Scutter is "less evolved". There's a looong history of racism in using phrases like "evolution" in regards to other humans, so taking that and applying it to an animal world leaves us with some very strange dissonance, because it's used in Chima to mean animals turned into a more humanoid form by the Chi.

Because really, what is the Chi? It's a magical substance that, depending on how you read it, could be the animist spirit of the land (I say, as an animist myself), or it could be drugs. Or it could be any number of other things! I know one person who writes Chi as the blood of dead gods, which is metal as fuck!

Ultimately, it depends on how one is writing the Chi that makes the usage of phrases like "less evolved" more or less questionable than it was intended. We're all dragging around the corpse of a Lego theme across our writing desks anyway. And the way I go about answering the question of "what is Chi" is definitely different from others. (Again, see the dead god blood part.)

The question of whether or not the Scorpion Tribe, namely Scutter, would count as intersexed relies on 1) defining intersexuality in regards to genitalia arrangement (scorpions don't have penises and vaginas by default; and the Wikipedia article on scorpions just uses "genital orfice" or "genital opercula"); 2) determining if the Chi has magically changed how genitalia works for Scorpions (admittedly, I do this because I didn't want to have to use the term "genital opercula" over and over); 3) determining the humanization extent of the Scorpion Tribe as you write them (I lean more towards human than you do, just from what I've seen of your work); and 4) deciding if such terminology even exists in Chima.

But looking at Scutter and going with the assumption that the back end is fully scorpion... No, I wouldn't count him as intersex by default. Intersex implies landing between the two human biological extremes (which, as we all know, is not as cut-and-dry as high school biology taught us), when really he's kind of a secret third thing (a Scorpion who probably doesn't have either a penis or a vagina).

(Of course, there's also what you said, paraphrased to my own wording: the Chi may have just decided to fuck up this poor man's genital situation and do a half-ass job.)

That's not to say he can't be trans. I mean, I made Scorm and about half of the Scorpion Tribe trans already. That's also not to say they're not all trans by default, considering scorpions without the ability to think wouldn't have the concepts of genders anyway.

Okay Jasper, So How Do You Write Him?

So, here's the thing. I'm aromantic-asexual, and I also write smut and, to a lesser extent, romance, which means I think about fictional character genitalia too much. But thinking about Scutter has left me utterly baffled.

On one hand, I usually write the Chi as a magical animist force of the land of Chima on the whole, and part of that is that the Chi tries to get everyone on the same playing field, physically speaking, which is how we get retroactive transgender man Scorm in my Tales of Chima series.

On the other hand, look at him. Look at him. He's a centaur arachnid. I know he can pass the Harkness Test, but I still feel weird thinking about his genitalia. If I go with my theory of the Chi giving everyone penises and vaginas at random, then I don't want to think about how much that would get in the way for the poor boy! On the other hand, his lower body is still mostly scorpion instead of, well, Scorpion, so who's to say he doesn't have a genital operculum?

Too Long, Don't Want Details About Scorpion Sex

Alright, spoilsport. Here's your TLDR:

It genuinely depends on what the Chi does in your version of the story and how bad it fucks up. It depends on how dedicated you are to scientific accuracy. It depends on how much you want to think about scorpion genitals.

And being intersex is not necessarily trans rep, unless it is, unless it isn't. I'm not intersexed, so I'm not going to say what that falls on myself. There is an intersex pride flag that was created by Morgan Carpenter in 2013.

Trans characters can exist outside of being intersexed, you don't have to conflate the two in order to have transgender representation. Just hit the characters with the Transgenderinator 5000 Beam. Fuck realism, this is a series about walking talking animal people. Who's going to stop you? The fun police? Transphobes? Eat them.

Further Reading

Start at Wikipedia and go from there through its sources for anything of particular interest:

Intersex flag (in case you're curious about it and its history, which can also launch you into further reading about humans being intersex)

Scorpion (morphology section)

Scorpion (mating subsection)

Scorpion (birth and development subsection)

So, uh, yeah! Thanks for coming to me with these questions, it's really touching that you value my thoughts this much, and I love talking about my boys and scorpions and the complicated web! I apologize for any errors or too-crass sections, because I wrote most of this in one sitting after playing wayyy too much Skyrim today.

~Jasper

#answered #olivescales3 #legends of chima #lego legends of chima #lego chima #chima #scutter #loc scutter #scorpions #science #biology #queer #trans #transgender #intersex

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hwaightme · 2 years

Text

Your fan, Yeosang (part 1)

(part 2) (your fan ml)

📺 pairing: yeosang x talk show host!reader 📺 genre: romance, fluff, mutual pining, 📺 summary: a bulletpoint-style wordstream of what it would be like if yeosang was stanning you 📺 wordcount: 3.5k 📺 warnings/tags: language, yeosang lowkey writing fanfics, manhandling, wooyoung attacks, roommate gathering, mc yeosang, reader is a late night talk show host, exo and txt appearances, wooyoung has connections everywhere, yeosang always has a plan even when you think he doesn't 📺 taglist: @acciocriativity, @senpai-of-doom, @layzfeelit @jcngh0-hq @ficrecsiguess 📺 a/n: Hello there <3 guess who's next in line to stan? None other than Kang to the Yeo to the Sang!! Hope you enjoy, much love and big hugs, and any asks, reblogs and likes appreciated <3

All the way back, even from the stories of your childhood that your parents would tell you, you always had a thing for asking a lot of questions, without giving up until you got a response.

And you did not stop at "why is the sky blue", oh no, you would go right in and ask whoever you had picked to be your target questions along the lines of "why are good people good at giving love but not receiving it".

It was not because you wanted to annoy anyone, in fact, you never once got mad when someone brushed you off or openly expressed their distaste for what they called "your pointless chatter". Quite the opposite. You enjoyed getting into the nitty gritty of human emotions, really getting a feel for other people's energy.

In return, if you were able to make conversation and really connect with someone, you tried your best to be caring, attentive and selfless. You were the smiley toddler who waved at everyone. You were the kid in school who made sure everyone was included.

Although the more people you spoke to, the more not so positive experiences you got, you were not discouraged from pursuing a career in doing exactly what you loved. Talking, listening and learning all that you could about your interlocutors. You could not imagine your life without other people, and as such, ended up being the person who brought others together, and helped them rise to new heights.

First, it was broadcasting and radio clubs in middle school and high school, as well as earning the reputation of being the go-to host for talent shows. In university you had become the president of the Broadcasting & Journalism society, and had led your alma mater's socials and student-led news show to gaining recognition in national media for their quality, insightfulness, and a fresh, memorable feel.

All throughout your journey, you were driven by people and wanted to learn more about them. So when, while you were hopping between internships, you were scouted by a major media label to become a fulltime journalist and prospectively a show host, it was nothing short of the best thing to happen to you in your life.

Initially, it was a rollercoaster, with you being thrown around from one project to another, working in areas where you had to learn on the go - screenwriting assistant, director's assistant... truth be told you had no idea there could be that many assistants.

What had stuck to you were a couple of variety shows that you had the chance to see behind the scenes, along with a couple more formal interviews. The gears in your head started turning, as you watched the high profile figures, promoting themselves, going through the usual routines, doing aegyo and whatnot.

To you, celebrities were a sort of beautiful enigma, even though it initially seemed that their entire lives were available to the public - how wrong. Behind each persona was someone else entirely, and you adored catching glimpses of said realness.

This was exactly what had motivated you to propose the concept for your late night show "Late Night Dive". Dedicated to deep diving, and really getting to know idols, actors and the like, your show was all about the person. Not excessively curated, just pleasantly minimalist. Raw. Real.

Thanks to your prior experience in being a stand-in announcer for a twenty-four hour news channel (aside from what you had done while in education), you were no stranger to being in front of the camera, and having worked in enough departments to make strong connections, your boss agreed to give you a chance.

And now, here you were, going strong, having become a celebrity that interviewed celebrities.

---

And were watched diligently by others. Others like ATEEZ's Kang Yeosang.

Although he had continuous exposure to performing, speaking singing on stage, and had even become an MC for The Show, he never, not for one second, thought he had the right to rest.

He was always looking for ways to improve and to hone the skills that he considered lacking (even when his fellow members and ATINY would praise him). For Yeosang, there was no such thing as 'stop'.

Aside from upping his game quite literally whilst playing the newly released Aenigmata, and working together with Hongjoong and Mingi to improve his song-writing abilities, he was determined to be the next best MC and spent day after day working on it.

He took monologues and repeated them until he, nor his roommates, could stand it any longer. He went over cue cards to improve his memory and to combat his instinct to hide behind them and read whilst looking down. He listened to shows, paid extra attention to the MCs he worked with and those he interacted with through the group's promotional activities - anything was good in his books.

Yeosang knew how to listen, he felt deeply, he was always there for those closest to him, but he did not want to let his members down when it came to speaking and engaging in fun dialogues live. The desire to find his own style grew stronger, day by day.

It would be foolish to try and be like the others, he had concluded. And the members had told him the same during one late night conversation where Yeosang had brought up his concerns about being a talk show host. So, it was clear:

"I am Yeosang, and I am not like other girls." he had proclaimed, with a dramatic 'hair flip'.

He began to search for inspiration outside of standard variety shows and music award programmes, having grasped their methods well enough to emulate. For some time, Yeosang focused on competitions and survival shows, though it did not exactly bring him comfort, nor confidence. That was when it hit him - late night talk shows. They were entertaining, informative, and had a completely different feel.

And after browsing through popular lists and and making his own (only to cross items off again), pushing through his disappointment when he discovered that far too many of said shows were still obnoxiously loud and better watched at double speed, he had finally discovered one show that was exactly to his tastes: 'Late Night Dive'.

Intentionally toned down studio set, warm lighting that gave off a more 'homely' atmosphere, music used staying within the realms of rhythm and blues or smooth jazz, and you truly being the host. The show and you were a perfect match, so he was not surprised when after a bit of Googling he had found out that the show had been your initiative.

You were welcoming. The episode that had established 'Late Night Dive' as a sought-after promotion for various celebrities, with none other than EXO, had shown your deep understanding of their journey, their challenges, and nothing but utmost respect. You had a unique way of easing guests into the questions, and stepping away as soon as there was even a hint of tension.

It was as though you could see right into their soul, and was gently bringing the best parts to share, whilst encouraging the owner that yes, they were safe, and what they had to share was valid, and beyond beautiful.

Yeosang had no idea how to describe the feeling he got while watching some more episodes of your show. The way you guided the conversation and posed questions in such a manner that meant an individual had options (instead of being cornered into making a fool of themselves, for instance), had left him in utter disbelief.

He was used to surprises - the veering off-script for a gag, or for emphasising an error committed for comedic effect. This was entirely absent. In fact, during a particularly sensitive episode where an actress had divulged some details about her struggles while filming a new drama (information that had never surfaced before), you had explicitly asked for consent to air, and in a borderline therapeutic voice had commended the actress for what she had been doing.

You were a bringer of tranquility. You were there not for a superficial chat and waves goodbye, it seemed that every episode was a glimpse into a tale of life-long friendship. And this stunned Yeosang. You knew exactly what to say, even though he had not spotted any cards, nor any sign of reading from a screen at any point. Your heart was working for you, he was sure of it.

This was the style he wanted to learn.

To keep it on the low, he started his quest by allocating half an hour, every night, to what he called 'LND Time'. This involved him creeping away from the rest of the members, plugging his headphones in, and, notepad and pen in hand, noting down particularly well-phrased questions or statements that you had made.

Yeosang had also begun to enjoy writing down observations for what gestures that you did were effective in emphasising a point, which ones were done for reassurance, which ones were plain cute-

He was writing fan fiction about you wasn't he? While he was in the midst of processing the fact that he had, over the span of a few of weeks, had nearly filled out an entire pocket notepad with just you facts, and needed his brain to reboot, a voice right behind him made all his systems crash.

"What'cha writin'?"

So much for privacy. He thanked the lucky stars that he had the reflexes to slam the book shut and lie down on it before Wooyoung could see anything. Though he knew his friend would not let go of any suspicious behaviour that easily.

Especially not when your show continued playing on his phone, that was lying upright, and of course there had to be a close up of your gorgeous face, then and there for Wooyoung to see.

"OOOOH HOLD ON A SECOND!? Forget THAT question what are you WATCHING? CAN I JOIN?"

"My guy, didn't I tell you and Jongho to leave me alone for half an hour?"

"Now I am more than fascinated by what exactly you do alone in this room for half an hour!? Besides, it's been one and a half hours now, and I kind of live here too~" Wooyoung wiggled his eyebrows as he explained, and while Yeo was busy taking his earphones out and locking his phone for good measure, Wooyoung went in for a full attack.

He tackled Yeosang, and since he managed to use the surprise to his advantage, nearly pushed his friend off the bed with the notebook exposed.

But, in gains we trust.

And so did Yeosang. In a matter of seconds, he had Wooyoung flailing his arms and legs as he had been swung over his shoulder like a toga, and turned to 'kindly' teach his friend a new way of using the door.

The commotion had gained the attention of Jongho, who had been passing the time by belting 90's hit songs at the top of his voice in the living room - much to the delight of those he had been keeping as (hostages) an audience.

Claiming that his roommates had finally decided to hold an idol boxing match and that he had promised to referee, he placed his hands behind his back and ambled towards a now slightly open door, through which he could see Wooyoung pushing against the frame with his dear life.

"You are doing MMA in here wait let me grab the guys-"

"NONONONONO JONGHO SAVE ME!"

"And what will I get out of it?"

"....I'll clean the room?" Wooyoung offered, still suspended in midair, but, having wriggled a little way forward was on the verge of toppling onto the floor.

"Woo you'll do it anyway." Jongho replied, smiling just a tid-bit sadistically and crossing his arms.

He stepped into the room and shut the door with his foot, scrutinising the aftermath of the impromptu match. Nothing was on fire, nor was any furniture broken - so he was still going to have to share with two roommates.

In an act of mercy, Jongho decided that he was too bored to prolong the older member's suffering and motioned to Yeosang for attention.

"Put the guy down. And I don't mean like euthanasia. Even though he barks."

"HEY EXCUSE ME."

"I'll leave that pleasure to myself if you are going to act up."

"Okay brutal but thank you Jongho~" now finally back on his feet, the dazed member was shaking himself off and pressing his hands to his face in a feeble attempt to cool down.

"Now I know the real origin story of your hair. It was Yeo's doing wasn't it?"

"Yeah the blood flow really does something." Wooyoung agree, instinctively running his hands through his locks.

Yeosang had edged away from the two members back to his bed, to take the opportunity to hide the notepad somewhere, anywhere. He only had time to shove it under his pillow, but neither Jongho nor Wooyoung seemed to notice, as the former merely stated:

"Well good, now let's chat, gents."

Did Yeosang want to chat? No.

Did Jongho look done with everyone? Yes.

Did that mean he had to be at least a little bit considerate of his friend? Probably.

But did he want to though? No.

"What is there to chat about though?" he blurted, flopping down on his bed and stretching across its length, resting his head on his palms.

"Uh, well it's the room hogging for me." Jongho retorted, settling right across from him while Wooyoung sat at the foot of Yeo's bed.

"No such thing. I just need space."

"I don't have a problem with that dude, and you know I don't, but if you tell us why, that would be great." the maknae was persistent, and leaned in to click his fingers over Yeo's face a couple of times when he unceremoniously shut them to pretend he was in another galaxy.

"Jongho, he keeps notes." the redhead stage whispered, glancing at Yeosang, who looked like he was ready to exploit Wooyoung's choice of sitting too close to his legs.

"What notes?"

"Ones that he would kill me for."

"Kind of a cheap exchange, but makes sense."

"Boo that's rude-"

"The notes, Yeo? Songwriting?"

"Sure." finally seeing some sort of opportunity to steer clear of explaining himself, he took Jongho's question as a suggestion for a fib to tell.

"Smells like bullshit to me, my boy." but he forgot they knew him a little too well.

"Agreed, plus I saw a certain lady on a screen~"

There was no way of getting around this, but Yeosang was a man who did not give up that easily, so he resisted:

"No, seriously, it was a song! And that, well haha, uhm, a tutorial? Yeah."

"Sing the song then!" Wooyoung implored, patting his friend on his knee in encouragement.

"No melody?"

"What is it about?" Jongho joined back in.

"Uhh............ fried chicken." Yeosang was impressed by his own mastery. Truly, a one of a kind lie. Stellar. Award winning. At least the two looked a lot more accepting of his secretive warfare than before.

So he ended up being strong enough to make Jongho impatient and leave the room. The same could not be said for Wooyoung, who was now attempting to smother him by hugging out his soul.

"YEOSANG DON'T CONCEAL DO FEEL AND DO LET THEM KNOW! Well more specifically let me know because I can see you are super passionate about something and I really want to feel that passion with you because hey this is what brotherly bonding is about and I want to rejoice in the positivity and you have no idea how proud I am of you and so I really wanted to spend some time together just the two of us and really just wanted to say that you have grown so much and did you know that you have absolutely been slaying the episodes for your MCing gig-"

"Wait really?" Yeosang shot up, abruptly cutting off Wooyoung's stream of words.

After Wooyoung reloaded himself for a second, he half asked, half confirmed with an: "uh, yeah?"

"Like how, in what way? What aspects?

"Weren't we talking about-"

"We passed that checkpoint, keep moving. In what way did I improve?"

Wooyoung's total confusion nearly made Yeosang chortle as he slid down to sit by him, but he was too eager to hear what his friend had to say.

"Well... there was this... thing you did. I think it was even off script? But you did it so naturally it was almost like dorm-Yeo rather than 'I am now on stage and I must be strict with myself'-Yeo. You just picked up on something one of the other MC's said and your words just flowed. You just flowed. And even how you were standing was slightly different. Dare I say, you looked a lot more comfortable in front of the camera!"

"Okay I will tell you what I was watching."

"What was so special about that compliment?"

"For the few weeks I've been hogging this room I've been training. And I have found the perfect teacher."

Wooyoung asked him to backtrack and explain in more detail, which he did, step by step. He recounted the search he had gone on, his motivations, and finally, how he had found you. With newfound confidence he took out his phone and showed Wooyoung a couple of his favourite clips, all while running a background commentary of why you might just be the best talk show host and interviewer of all time. If there was ever a moment for Wooyoung to melt, it would be now. Yeosang's enthusiasm and appreciation of your work was not only infectious (and completely well-founded), but also came right from the heart.

It was clearer than a blue sky that you had become Yeosang's hope in the MC world. He had not exposed himself fully, but Wooyoung could guess that his friend probably had done a deep dive on you already, and continued watching your shows exclusively not just because you were 'a good teacher'.

This man, was a fan. Likely a little bit (a lot) more than just that. So what did such an amazing friend like Wooyoung have to do, despite being manhandled barely twenty minutes ago?

Network. Find connections. And bring you two together.

"Yeo, how would it make you feel if you got to meet Y/N? Like, face to face?"

"I would probably forget my own mother tongue, but aside from that - I would just be grateful. I could pass her a note about how much she..."

"Means to you-"

"HELPED me, Woo."

"Yeah, whatever. But now I have a goal!" he rose up, fist raised as if he was about to start a revolution.

"Wait wait wait what are you trying here?"

"TO SET UP YOUR FUTURE, DUH! Now excuse me, I have some phone calls to make.

So, Yeosang's spur of the moment plan had worked seamlessly. He patted himself on the back as he watched an over-excited Wooyoung strut out of his room, already messaging someone and simultaneously calling an already-waiting Jongho over.

It was quite easy to get Wooyoong to be a perfect middle man if one were to act the at the right levels of mysteriousness. Since he knew he had been cornered, Yeosang decided to change strategies and get something out of his fellow members, who would undoubtedly get excited about any mention of him treating someone outside of the group with such care and attention (especially if he did not know them personally).

He played the part of 'I am shy and not revealing my secrets', then transforming that demeanour into 'you are the closest person to me so I am telling the truth and baring my heart to you'. And BAM, he could now hear Wooyoung shushing the other members as he was calling Yeonjun from TXT.

Yeosang was impressed, however, when it took his friend only three days to go through his connections, and through his connections' connections and find the ones that led directly to you. And to a meeting with you, to which you somehow agreed, though under an odd condition.

That someday, you could interview him.

"As MC to MC. As two people with a similar style and passion."

You were one two keep your finger on the pulse of media at all times. And when you heard what you knew to be a quote from an older episode of LND, said in a similar manner to yours, you simply had to speak to the MC who had done it. After all, you had a thing for asking a lot of questions.

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elkian · 25 days

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One thing that seems to be missed in a lot of discussions about Christian Fundamentalism and growing up in a socially Christian setting (my example is a part of the USA known as The Bible Belt) is that is is absolutely insidious. It's pervasive in ways you may *never* consciously notice without outside help.

When someone reaches a point to start questioning the values they grew up with, there's not a handy bulletpoint list of things to unlearn. Some stuff seems pretty obvious, but there's a lot -a *lot*- of underlying structure that still affects how new ideas and concepts and thought processes are formed and integrated.

Thanks to the power of the Internet, I have friends all over the world. Consciously, I know that billions of people have never gotten up early on Sunday to go to church, and many who did no longer do so.

And yet, there is still a kneejerk reaction in my brain when I see people in the group chat talking about doing anything but that particular, religion-specific action on a Sunday morning. My default assumption is that everyone is going to church even though I know full well that is not the shape of reality. This applies to many cases, but this is the most succinct example I have.

I'm not here to lecture, just to say:

People trying to unlearn these things: your subconscious contains more than you may realize, and getting outside help may benefit. You may have to consciously remind yourself of things until you can internalize them.

People who didn't grow up this way: try to be patient with your friends, because even they don't fully understand their current undertaking. And maybe remind them from time to time that not everyone celebrates Christmas or thinks of things as A Sin on first glance.

People who did grow up this way and aren't going anywhere: you do you, but I think it'll enrich your life to take in the perspectives of others.

#Elk text #I am not above turning off reblogs #Sincerely this shit will shape so much of your brain #Recently learned the term intellectualizing and wondering if that applies #Like it will absolutely affect every single thought you have even decades after you think you're out #Get therapy talk to people pay attention to what you say and think etc

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every1studio · 2 years

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“love is fiction; prove me wrong” [harry potter: draco malfoy]

genre: FLUFF + very slight angst

ficstyle: bulletpoints + a kinda long oneshot

prompt: reader is a ravenclaw that thinks that love is only a concept in fiction novels until draco malfoy decides to prove her wrong

note: TW (talks about divorced parents and insecurities)

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and they lived happily ever after

you closed the book as you sat in your favorite spot in the library

where there barely anyone there but you could still hear the voices of the other students

was there really such thing as a happily ever after?

it just seems like it’s highly fantasied yet unrealistic

it’s just your brain releasing a bunch of chemical reactions

you couldn’t understand why people would destroy their lives over it

like your parents; they swore til death they would part and that their life would be a happily ever after

but after a couple years you were born, it was like the illusion of love faded away and their marriage ended in a divorce

they still cared for you but it opened your eyes

love was fiction

you never used that word, even if it’s not about someone

the thought of love scared you

so it’s better to steer away from that word; throw away that whole concept

when you enrolled into hogwarts, it was cool to focus on something else

you had access to a variety of books, could take any class that there was to offer, or even join quidditch (which you joined as a keeper)

you’ve always enjoyed books; especially in the library

not only because when your friends ever tried to talk to you about people that they’re interested in, you could just escape to library

but because it was a good way to get away from loud and obnoxious people like draco malfoy or scheming trouble makers like harry and friends

that was until you heard potter make an bet with malfoy inside the library

“as if you could find someone that could like a rotten ferret like you other than a slytherin!”

“yeah he got loads of girls fawning after him!” weasley added

“and guys!” granger echoed

potter and weasley gave a surprised look over a granger but she just nodded to confirm what she said

“just you wait, potter... I’ll prove you wrong!” malfoy was fuming

this commotion was your cue to leave the library

the group of misfit just watched as you glared at them before leaving the library

harry leaned in real close to draco

“if you can’t get y/l/n to go to on a date with you by this weekend, you owe me 25 galleons..”

“bring it on”

draco didn’t care about the money, he just wanted to win the bet and prove scarhead wrong

but draco was glad that potter chose someone that was a pretty, smart and talented pureblood

even though he didn’t talk to you, he knew who you were and what kind of student you were

he thought that you were a quiet, studious ravenclaw that never had someone pin for them so it would be easy for him to reel you in

you unfortunately had a class with the misfits but usually you sat near the far away from them as possible, even if it wasn’t in the front like you’d like

this time, you were there for class before they were so you were able to get the spot you wanted

the 3rd from the front, on the far right; it was near the front but away from the professor

you were getting your books out when you noticed someone sit next to you

“I’m sure this seat isn’t taken.. is it alright if I sit here?”

you looked over at the platinum blondie and had the urge to move seats

“you’re already sitting there anyways, would it even matter if I said that you couldn’t sit there?”

draco pulled his books closer to him so that he could rest his arms on top the books for a head rest and kept his eye contact with you

“aw you really don’t mean that do you? is it really that awful to sit next to me?”

he tried to tuck your hair behind your ear but you jerked away

you looked away to adjusted your hair yourself, “yes it would”

draco was surprised by your firmness

“why?”

you exhaled and turned to him with slight fake smile, “you’re annoying.. your obsession with harry potter is something the whole room and I could deal without.. and you can be pretentious and act like a spoiled brat.. I don’t being around someone like that..”

you thought you were going to get an earful from him, defending his character after you heard some snickers around you

but he just looked at you with wide-eyes

you just gave him a glimpse into the other side

he never thought of himself like that

hearing all of that from a third person’s point of view made him rethink his whole existence

“what if I wasn’t like that anymore?” he was speaking so quietly, you were sure no one else could hear him

“why would you want to do that?”

draco thought to himself before answering

“because I don’t want you to see me like that anymore..”

you couldn’t wrap your head around his words

“if you have some ulterior motives with me, don’t waste your time.. why do you care what I think of you anyways?” you slightly raised your voice in confusion

he gently led your face towards his by resting your chin onto his index finger and guiding it over

“because I-”

“class! today we will be learning about how to turn a whistle into a watch!” mcgonagall’s voice boomed at the start of class

you turned to focus your attention onto mcgonagall to forget about that weird interaction you had with malfoy

why was he so touchy?

it bothered you that he invaded your personal space

while you were focusing on class, draco was focusing on your question

why did he even care about what you thought of draco anyways?

was it really because of potter’s bet?

or was it because he really did like you?

although, draco never really had a problem with girls in the house of slytherin, girls in the other houses would never go for him

he was mean and classist against anyone who wasn’t a pureblood

even if they were a pureblood, if they weren’t hanging with other purebloods, they were a blood traitor

that was his ideology and everyone knew that

he said it so much that he pushed the thought of even liking anyone outside his ideology

that was until he saw you

it was like it was out of a fairytale

you were just sitting in the library on the windowsill; basking in the sunlight, gently carrying each page over and over again

he could watch you read for hours (and he did once)

it was the first time he felt a sense of tranquility

and it was the first time he felt little butterflies in his stomach

you were everything that he was looking and yet you’d never look at him

so yeah.. he really did like you

by the time he made up his mind, the classroom was empty

and the seat that was occupied by you was empty as well

forget the bet with potter

draco was gonna start pinning for you for himself and not for anyone else

that was when you started to see draco more often in your usual everyday life

you were quietly eating at the ravenclaw table when draco sat across from you

“are you enjoying your meal, love?”

you sighed in annoyance, “why are you bothering me malfoy?”

“I’m not trying to bother you.. I just wanted to talk to you... besides..” draco reaches over to wipe some crumbles from the corner of your mouth before licking the remnants

“you’re cute when you’re eating..”

you just sat there, squinting in confusion at the boy in front of you

“I just lost my appetite...” you got up and just left him there trying to ignore the snickering around him

the constant advances were getting on your nerves

why you?

why was draco tormenting you?

these things probably worked in the books or even other people, but not you

you kept on trying to push him away

but the more you pushed him away, the more he tried

it got to the point where he was walking you to your classes, without asking you of course

draco thought that by continuously being by your side, you’d be able to see that he was changing to be better, changing for you

you didn’t mind his presence, as long as he was quiet

and he surprisingly was

it’s like his temperamental side was only brought out when harry potter or his friends were around

but lately, it’s been pretty subdued

keeping it only to slight body shoves or snobby glares

you had a quidditch game on friday against slytherin

draco used that as a conversation starter every time he talked to you

“hey love, what made you want to be a keeper?”

“my dear, y/n, have you always wanted to play quidditch?”

“what’s cooking, good-looking, how were practices today?”

you grew to tolerate your conversations with draco; even smiling at his jokes but never saying anything to his flirtatious remarks

even though you never said anything about his flirtatious remarks, you were more comfortable with his touches; they felt natural

he even started to hold your things for you

though you never asked him to but he always held a tight grip on your things and he insisted that you take his offer

draco said something about how physics didn’t apply to quidditch that made you laugh

that was the first genuine laugh anyone’s ever heard from you

harry and his friends happen to be in the area

harry didn’t want draco to win the bet

so he decided to take matters into his own hands

ravenclaws and gryffindors had herbology together on thursday

the spectacled boy stood next to you while madam sprout was lecturing about some new species of carnivorous plant

“did you know that draco malfoy and I have a bet?”

you didn’t think that he was talking to you at first until you noticed that he was staring at you intensely with his brightly colored eyes, waiting for you to answer him

“and I care why?”

“it involves you.. I told him that if he couldn’t get you to go on a date with him this weekend, he owes me 25 galleons..” potter smirked

ah.. that was probably why draco started talking to you

you just wanted a regular smegular school life without gossip and drama

you suspected that there was a reason for draco going out of his way talking to a ravenclaw like you and your suspicions were correct

“you feel proud about that potter? getting me involved with something I wanted no part in? what a guy you are..”

you moved away from him, ignoring his excuses

why did that information make you feel so upset?

it was only recently that draco entered your life but it was a nice feeling

having someone in your life who constantly asks how your day is going

someone who is always waiting to walk you to your classes

someone who just sits next to you and lets you read in silence

someone who just cares about you

but did he?

did draco malfoy care for you?

are these unwavering feelings of love you were having?

what’s the difference between caring for someone and loving them?

you exited the class and you almost walked pass draco

he reached out to grab your arm

“whoa there, love.. trying to run away-”

you jerked your arm away from him; which startled him

“did you place a bet with potter? about trying to get me to go on a date with you?” your brows were furrowed at him

draco’s gaze on you softened, “I did..”

“cool. so this WHOLE time, I just was a bet to be placed. no biggie!” you sarcastically threw your hands about

at that time, harry and his friends walked out of the class

“and you, POTTER.. you find joy in toying with people’s feelings? and aren’t you two his friends? you’re just letting him be a sadist?!”

the three were about to defend themselves but you didn’t let them

“all of you should be ashamed of yourself..”

you didn’t realized that tears were welling up until your vision became blurry

before anyone could do or say anything, you ran off

you weren’t suppose to catch feelings

love wasn’t suppose to be in your vocabulary

it was all suppose to be a chemical reaction released by the brain

so why did your chest hurt?

why were you crying?

why were you thinking about what could’ve been?

draco took off as soon as you did

he didn’t even give the trio a deathly glare

he didn’t care about anyone else but you

he felt like it was his fault this all happened

he felt like if only he was confident enough to pin for you without anyone telling him what to you, you wouldn’t be crying because of him

you hid away in your room; where no one could bother you, where no one could look for you

draco asked every single ravenclaw that he came across if he could enter their common rooms to look for you

but he didn’t find any success

so he thought it would be better to leave you alone for now, you went through enough today

he hopes that he has a chance to talk to you before the quidditch match tomorrow

you cried into your satin pillow so hard that you felt like you could drown in your tears; so hard that you fell asleep with tears still staining your face

the next day; you wanted to forget about what happened yesterday with the quidditch match

that was until you remembered who you were playing against

you dreaded it when you were putting on your quidditch uniform

you dreaded it when you tried to eat a granola bar before the match

you dreaded it during team stretches and warmups

you dreaded it until your teams walked passed each other

that was when you felt a gentle grip on your wrist

“are you alright?”

you couldn’t look up to look at him; you couldn’t look up at the boy who broke your heart you didn’t know you had

captain roger davies pulled you away from draco, cho chang shielded you away from draco

“she’ll be better when we beat you..” the captain muttered and led the team away

everyone heard about what happen and all of your housemates couldn’t do anything when they heard you cry in you room; they felt bad for you

you thought that since the field was so big, you didn’t have to worry about looking at draco malfoy

but his blonde hair didn’t help, your eyes always followed the platinum headed boy

and yet you kept your head in the game, you didn’t let anything get pass you

that was until you saw draco and cho fly towards you at an extremely fast pace

you stood in your position, not budging an inch

cho realized that she was going to crash into you or the goal so she tried to go around to try to catch the snitch

but draco kept on flying head on

he was only a couple of feet in front of you

it seemed like he was reaching for you but a flash of gold zoomed by your face

draco’s broom knocked into yours and he fell forward

you reached out an arm to catch him

and you did

your lips also caught his lips

somehow the angles at which the brooms hit each other and the way he fell forward, made it so that draco fell onto you

accidentally kissing you

draco immediately leaned back into his broom with the golden snitch in his hand

“draco malfoy caught the snitch! slytherin wins!”

the slytherins cheered as the ravenclaws were upset

you and draco held eye contact in shock

you were the first to landed on the ground

“I’m sorry.. I didn’t mean for that to happen-” the boy was rambling after you

“it was an accident.. how were you suppose to know that was suppose to happen..” you mumbled, still not being about look at him when he’s in front of you

“it’s not like I calculated the physics in order for that to happen, you know..”

you chuckled at his joke; he remembered the joke he made before about physics and quidditch

“can I talk to you? privately?” draco asked

you could tell his voice was different; it was gentle, like a falling feather

it made your chest feel fluttery

you just nodded

“I’ll meet you at your favorite spot?”

“do you even know where that is?” you curiously asked

he’s always followed you around and you had a couple of spots you liked at hogwarts, you wondered if he even knew you had a favorite spot

“let’s just meet there and we’ll see..” draco gave you a soft smile before running off to meet up with his team

you saw cho running towards you

“did he do anything else to you? did he say something mean to you?” she asked, worried about your emotional state

“I’m fine.. really. thanks for checking up on me, cho..” you sent her a smile as you both headed back to get out of your uniform

you made your way to your go-to spot; the windowsill at the corner of the library

you’ve only shown draco this spot twice

part of you wished that he would find the spot

but a part of you wonders if he even knew where it was

you found that draco was already there waiting for you

he was holding a neatly wrapped bouquet of lily-of-the-valley, white orchids and blue hyacinths

“how’d you know this was my favorite spot?” you nervously started to pick at your nails, not knowing what else to do in this situation

“I first noticed you in this area when I wanted to escape from the overwhelming feelings of expectations.. you know.. family stuff.. and you were just sitting here.. reading.. like you were in your own little world as if nothing else mattered in the world but you and your book..”

you just stood there and let him speak his mind

“you were reading a book about flowers, what kind of flowers there are in the world and what they mean.. but they weren’t about magical flowers but muggle flowers..”

draco looked up at you; the light was shining behind him, making him look almost ethereal

“I found the book and read it..”

you were surprised, you remembered reading that book months ago and he just happens to remembered the book you were reading

AND he read it even though it had to do with the muggleworld?

“I hope you know what I’m trying to say with this bouquet..” draco walked towards you to hand you the bundle of flowers

all of these flowers symbolizes an apology, forgiveness

“so, draco...what are you sorry for? why do you want my forgiveness?” your fingers grazed over the flowers, being as gentle as possible

draco cupped your face so that you couldn really focus and listen to every word he’s about to say

“I’m sorry for being a coward.. I should’ve told you that I wanted to go on a date with you before the bet.. I let my pride get in front of your feelings.. I’ve always admired you.. but always from afar. I can’t change who I was.. but I can change who I am.. and I want to be someone that you can trust.. and maybe even like me back..”

his hands slowly fell from your face

“but I understand if you won’t...”

you used one hand to keep his hand on your face

“I want to.. but I’m scared..” your voice started to get shaky, you wanted someone that could stand by you and support you

you wanted what your parents had before you

you wanted what you read in the romance novels

“what does liking someone lead to? it leads to love and I don’t know what love is like.. I only know what love is from the fairytales I’ve read.. love never seemed real..”

“love is real.. the only thing is love is hard.. we have to put in the work for it.. we don’t have to jump into love.. we can take baby steps.. so let’s have our own fairytale..” draco muttered before you both chuckled about how cheesy that sounded

“I’m not joking though, y/n.. I don’t care about the bet or my pride.. I just care about you.. and even if it’s not this weekend, I hope that I can take you on a take when you’re ready..”

you smiled as you let him tuck a strand of hair behind your ear

“I’ll be ready this weekend..”

“really?” he smiled

“really..” you smiled back

harry potter and his friend’s jaws dropped when they saw you and draco in hogsmeade together; smiling and linking arms with one another

potter felt bad about the bet so he made his way over to give draco 25 galleons

“keep the change, potter,” draco smirked at him before leaving the trio shook to their cores

boy did it feel good to spite his enemies and have the girl he’s always admired, like him back

The end.

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[ masterlist + guidelines ]

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