nvm this is still on my brain. kim does not like to watch harry suffer… to say that kim takes satisfaction in harry’s pain is a huge misconstruing of his character.
the “getting thrashed like a schoolboy” line comes from a board game, lol. it’s a tease, not a cruelty. there’s never any line that implies that Kim enjoys seeing Harry taking actual morale damage.
he can be amused if you fail a check, but the check is always relatively inconsequential, and again, Harry isn’t taking damage in these.
Failing to pry the trash bin open:
Failing to shatter Ruby’s lorry window:
(also in both of these examples he only responds smugly if you choose for Harry to stubbornly dig in his heels. if Harry gets huffy, Kim teases. If Harry backs down right away Kim won’t rub it in, which feels significant to me! it reminds me of that recent post goin around about Kim meeting your energy!)
and here’s some reactions to failed checks where he does take damage.
Failing the jump to get your cloak:
Failing to break down Plaisance’s door:
he’s not laughing if Harry’s taking damage because he’s not a dick lol.
aaaaand here’s some other instances of morale/health damage and kim’s reactions.
alternate dialogue for failing the harbor jump:
after the call with precinct 41:
seeing bullet holes in the wall:
most significant examples to argue this point for me come when harry has done something to jeopardize the RCM’s image. which kim goes on and on about the importance of maintaining— and yet even here, he still extends worry and assurance.
telling Billie about her husband and handling it badly:
hardie authority check failure cock carousel:
aaaaand the car. this line is one of the most mask-off kim moments we get in the game in my opinion, honestly.
tying this back to the schoolboy line— that line doesn’t show up if you have a negative reputation with Kim. if you have <1 rep, it gets replaced with him calling it “about four hours of our lives that we'll never get back,” lol.
it’s affectionate ribbing!! twisting it into anything else is bizarre 2 me lmao!
anyways. kim is a foil to every other cop we meet in the game specifically because he doesn’t view harry as a punching bag or a lost cause. gottlieb does nothing but sling jabs and glib jokes about harry’s health. torson+mclaine and the others laugh at harry’s panic attack over the radio. in response to harry’s suicide-by-car attempt(!!!!) jean yells about RCM budget. all kim’s lines in response to harry’s check failures and health-damage are consistent, explicit textual contrast against the callousness of the rest of the RCM. twisting kim’s character here requires a bad faith interpretation of the whole game.
846 notes
·
View notes
So, like out of curiosity, what are the cultural differences of child-rearing in English speaking countries vs. in Japanese society? You mentioned that in your Mrs. Rosehearts post, and now i'm curious.
I can't speak to much on it to be honest, as I only have my experience and the experiences that my friends have told me to compare. I also don't want to make huge assumptions, and since I can only compare between American and Latino child-rearing, I don't think I'm the best to ask 😓
My only opinion on Mrs. Rosehearts is that I think the TWST fandom, particularly the ones from the EN server, overly villainize her, rather than see her as a complicated character. I think that as a parent, she wants Riddle's best interests in mind but is so concerned about something ruining her son, even things out of her control, that she finds it easier to just keep him near and control everything to keep him safe and on the path that she believes will bring him the most success. She's not a good person, as she has absolutely done irreversible damage to Riddle and his social skills, but I think if you aren't raised in a similar situation as Riddle, or come from a culture where her type of child-rearing isn't normal, it's easy to just write her off as a bad parent and person. I'm of the opinion that it's a lot more complicated than that, which is why I'm more neutral about her and when I write her.
81 notes
·
View notes
Okay, people. I need to soapbox for a hot minute.
My favorite fandom worlds are imploding on their own people, and it’s fucking ridiculous.
1) Lockwood and Co.
I hate to point this out, but I’m gonna anyway. There is no Locklyle WRITTEN ship in the books. There is an implied ship. The author confirmed that it was intentionally implied. But it wasn’t written. So you know what? There is NO canon ship.
You know what that means? People can ship whomever the fuck they want without “breaking canon”. If you write Locklyle, fine. But that makes you no better than people who are enjoying other ships. And even then, it’s a fandom. It’s imaginary shit. The way to keep the fandom alive and thrive is to NOT PUBLICALLY CASTIGATE AND PUT DOWN other shippers and their ideas, works, or conversations. If you do that, it’s YOU who is poisoning the fandom.
2) Stray Kids
Holy fuck, people! Can’t we all just be adults?
a) Do not attack people who interact with our boys in a professional capacity. It’s not helpful to the group to give them a reputation for having an out of control fanbase. It could cause their opportunities become limited just because others are scared that Stay may get offended by something.
b) If you don’t want to support the new song, don’t. Don’t buy it. Don’t stream it. Don’t get it off of a secondary site just because you can listen without supporting the collaboration.
DO keep your choices to yourself. Your choices are not supposed to apply to other Stay. We can make our own decisions. Other Stay are not lesser, wrong, unethical, Zionists, pro-genecide or any other thing you want to call them. They are simply supporting SKZ their own chosen way.
In closing, this is simple. Do what you want for yourself. Stop thinking your decision has any bearing on other people. Your ego is showing. You aren’t that fucking special. Check yourself.
Thank you.
*steps down*
64 notes
·
View notes
Small Noises
The air was warm, the breeze smelled of spicy alien flowers, the sun was a comforting Earthlike brightness, and something kept making a popping noise that was slowly driving me mad.
I tried to figure it out. The hoversled that Mur and I sat waiting on was inert and parked. There was no cargo on it because the client was late (thus the waiting). Our ship lay behind us on a relatively quiet landing pad, with crewmates bustling around inside and a variety of locals going about their own business at some distance.
The door to our ship was closed. Maybe it was something from another ship? I turned my head back and forth, trying to pinpoint the direction.
Mur noticed, glancing up from where he was idly braiding his tentacles like a particularly arts-and-crafts-inclined dark blue squid. “Something wrong?” He sounded like he was hoping I’d say yes, because it would mean something to do.
“I’m trying to tell where that sound is coming from,” I told him, cupping a hand to one ear. Of course it stopped when I was actively trying to find it.
“What sound?” Mur asked.
“The little popping noise,” I said. “It happens every few seconds. I thought maybe it’s that ship over there, but I don’t know.”
“This noise?” Mur separated his tentacles and lay one against the deck of the hoversled, popping it upward with a suction-cup smack.
“It was you??” I spread my hands in exasperation. “I was trying to see which ship engine was making the weird cooldown noises, or maybe somebody on this spaceport chews bubblegum!”
“Nope,” he said cheerfully, popping a different tentacle even louder this time.
Shaking my head, I pulled my lips in and made a popping sound with my mouth. I’d meant it to be a frivolous imitation, but Mur gave me a sharp look.
“You do know that’s a swear word, right?”
“Ha! No, I didn’t.” I grinned. “Good to know.”
Still visibly bored, Mur lined up two tentacles against each other and separated them in a cascade of sound like undersea popcorn. “Bet you can’t do that.”
“You’re right,” I said. “But I can do this.” I breathed on my palms and squished them together in a respectable imitation of squeaky flatulence. Third-grade me would have been proud.
“That’s not a swear,” Mur said.
“Probably for the best,” I told him. “Humans have been known to make that sound accidentally, and I can just imagine the diplomatic kerfuffles that it could lead to.”
Mur twirled a tentacle in assent. “Like we need more of those.”
I thought of another one. “Hey, I know you can’t do this.” I pressed one long fingernail against another, letting it snap back with a tiny click. “This only works when I need to trim my nails.” I snapped away in a flurry of clicks.
“Well, yeah,” Mur said. “You’ve got more hard parts to hit against each other than I do.”
“True.”
“Good thing there are no Mesmers here to put us to shame,” he said. “With all their clicky bits.”
I nodded, picturing the mantislike species that came in wild colors with egos to match. “Yeah, they’d definitely win the clicky-tappy competition. You know, I bet they’d make amazing tapdancers. I should ask Zhee if that’s already a thing.”
“Or you could ask these guys,” Mur said, standing abruptly.
I looked up to see an irritated-looking procession of Mesmers towing their own hoversled in our directions, loaded with shipping crates. There were many taps, clicks, and hissing grumbles.
I did not ask the late clients about tapdancing. Mur and I simply accepted the delivery with patience and grace, making sure everything was accounted for and all payments were squared away, promising that we would do everything in our power to get the crates to their destination in the agreed-upon time frame or better.
The clients agreed in a huff, leaving with a flair of red and bronze limbs, still muttering. Some of it was barely-veiled insults that they clearly didn’t care if we overheard.
I didn’t say anything as they clicked away. Neither did Mur.
But I did swear in his language once they were out of earshot.
~~~
The ongoing backstory adventures of the main character from this book. More to come!
156 notes
·
View notes