#i’m okay! but yeah basically there was a series of unfortunate events | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

badbatchsprincess · 5 months

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Heated ~ pt.9

Pt.1 ~ Pt.2 ~ Pt.3 ~ Pt.4 ~ Pt.5 ~ Pt.6 ~ Pt.7 ~ Pt.8 ~ Pt.9

Masterlist

Summary: This is an ABO Bad batch!Poly x Omega Reader smut with a plot. This takes place as an AU before order 66. Y/N previously served under the 501st before being transferred to Special Forces 99. This is her adventure with these rowdy Alphas in a quickly changing universe.

THIS IS AN ABO AU ABOUT THE BAD BATCH (NO CANON OMEGA!) Due to the unfortunate situation of her name being Omega… Omega the child from the canon series is not going to be apart of this fanfic/porn with a plot. I feel obligated to put this warning in because it makes my skin crawl thinking anyone could make that mistake.

Warnings: Awkwardness, cringe, general Echo mischief, smut!!!, crosshair actually has feelings.

Echo 🤝 the Suriel

Mama Echo lives for spilling the tea.... enjoy babessss

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“So…” You clapped your hands together standing awkwardly in the galley walkway, “What did you want to talk about?” You felt your insides tinge with awkwardness.

“You shouldn’t be standing.” Tech pointed at your bandaged feet.

Duh. “I know that…” You scoffed and shuffled over to the dining table to sit on the bench next to Crosshair. Instead, his arm shot out grabbing you, bringing you down into his lap with a squeak.

“Vod.” Hunter chastised. Crosshair settled you comfortably.

“What?” He bent down running his nose over the shell of your ear, “The lady needed a seat.”

“We’re supposed to be talking about this.” Hunter sighed rubbing his temple.

Crosshair was thoroughly enjoying this dress you had. If he was king of the universe he’d write it into law to keep you in outfits like this all the time.

You had tried your best to tie it back like Taryn had once you got out of the shower hoping you wouldn’t accidentally flash anyone. Not that Crosshair would mind apparently.

“Then talk vod.” Crosshair sassed keeping a possessive hand on your bare thigh.

Hunter shifted uncomfortably suddenly feeling awkward, “Okay… So… Uhm…”

You raised a brow feeling the cringe vibrate in your body. Crosshair sensed you tensing up and started rubbing little circles into your thigh to comfort you.

“Sarge?” Wrecker raised a brow at Hunter’s warming cheeks as the eldest of them shuddered back and forth trying to find the right words.

“Yeah. Yeah. I know.” Hunter groused, “Obviously things like this aren’t supposed to happen… and we um… probably should clear the air to know how everyone is feeling…” He was trying to sound as clinical as possible.

“Good job bud.” Echo gave Hunter a thumbs up from the copilot seat.

“Y/N how about you start.” Hunter coughed and crossed his arms. Clearly you weren’t the only one feeling the cringe.

“Start with that? Can Tech go first?” You looked at him then the others.

“Fine.” Hunter looked to his goggled brother, “Tech starts.”

The Pilot pushed up his goggles, “I guess I’m just trying to decipher if this was a series of unfortunate events or something that was bound to happen eventually. As we have not ever had a female, or an omega with us before I have no data to compare it to. But if I were making a hypothetical observation based on my own observations, the way Y/N’s eyes are currently dilated and her skin flushing, she’s interested in relations with Crosshair… at least from what I can tell.”

You visibly tensed and Crosshair wrapped his arm around your chest how hauling you into his front. Damn Tech for airing out your business like that.

“Is that correct?” Hunter asked with a glint of hope in his eyes.

“I-I uhh.” You shot Tech a look before shaking your head, “I don’t know. I know this is like, soooo against basically every rule the GAR has, but I would be lying if I said I wasn’t interested…clearly.”

“Interested in all of us?” Wrecker asked with longing eyes.

“It would appear so…” You couldn’t deny what your hindbrain wanted in the throws of heat, but it didn’t make the embarrassment any softer.

“Do you feel like this was something you wanted to happen?” Hunter asked dying to know the answer. He’d be lying if he didn’t feel like shit the second he was coming out of the rut. Like they had taken advantage of you, “or were you just reacting to the heat…”

You chewed your lip suddenly feeling ultra vulnerable, Crosshair gave you an encouraging squeeze, “Truthfully, I think it was both.” You were heating up now, “I mean, I think the heat took over and made the decision for me, but I guess I’ve always had those thoughts.” You whispered the last part wishing this whole awkward conversation would be over.

Echo must have taken pity on you, or felt the undeniable urge to stir the pot because he cleared this throat and spoke up, “Well, as fabulously as Hunter is handling this. I have to let Tiny know that I know for a fact these four idiots have been pining for you since you joined the unit.”

You quirked your head. What?…no.

“If Hunter hadn’t laid down the “no touch” law in the start, these nerf herders would have been at each other’s throats nine months ago.” Echo raised a brow and pointed an accusatory finger at Hunter, “Sarge over here can’t help but sniff you every time you walk by. Like a fucking blood hound and panics like a mother hen every time you're out of sight. He also looses his damn mind every time another male is mentioned in regard to you. That one…”

He pointed to Tech, “I’ve caught him reviewing cam footage of you two talking before just so he can look at your face. He also keeps a pin up of a look alike he stole from 501st under his mattress.”

Then he looks at Wrecker, “I’ve had to listen to Wrecker moaning your name while rubbing one out when he thinks I’m asleep.” The giant gasped turning beet red, “And him… he’s a certified panty snatcher!” He narrowed in on Crosshair who had the audacity to look smug, “and on quarterlies I know he only picks omegas that hold an uncanny resemblance to little miss Pip over here.”

Suddenly you didn’t feel half as mortified as you did before, now that everyone got aired out.

“You’re the reason why I can’t find any fucking panties?!” You screeched turning sideways to yell at Crosshair, “I thought the laundry machine was swallowing them up! I made Tech take the damn thing apart!”

Then there was yelling…

“Echo what the fuck!” “Why didn’t you say anything!” “Oh my god all this damn time?” “What did I say about the fucking panties?” “Wrecker took a pair too!” “Did not!” “I can’t believe this.” “You literally said not to do anything!” “I cannot fathom how I’m the only one who didn’t know about the panties.” “Euegh! I cannot believe this.” “Well I liked her first!” “No, Wrecker you didn’t!” “How the hell could you have known that?” “You said you liked her from just seeing her photo.” “It was a good photo!”

You just stared at Echo with a flummoxed expression while he smirked as the chaos unfolded before him. The younger brothers yelled as Hunter melted into the durasteel wall rubbing his temples with stress. Clearly this wasn’t going how sergeant thought it would.

You sat there in total shock. Sure, you’d had fleeting thoughts about the boys. Who wouldn’t. You’re a young beautiful omega in your prime surrounded by some of the most gorgeous fit alphas in the entire known universe, those kind of thoughts were bound to happen. But you were also a professional, and tried to keep those feelings to yourself.

But you wouldn’t lie and say it wasn’t beyond flattering to know they each had fantasized about you as well…

“Okay, hold up!” You raised a hand silencing the arguing clones standing up from Crosshair’s lap and standing in the center of the room, “How long has this been going on?” You had to adjust the red fabric to keep your legs semi covered.

They just blinked at you then at each other. You put your hands on your hips waiting for someone to answer.

“Since I saw your picture.” Wrecker said sheepishly, “And then when you first treated that stab wound on Corellia.”

That was your first mission with them…

“Christophsis.” Tech states.

“Christophsis?” You were trying to recall that assignment.

Tech gave you a tiny smile and his neck reddened, “You had to emergency fly the marauder and pick us up from that base.”

“You liked that?” You smirked.

He nodded, “I didn’t know you knew how to fly.”

“Hmm.” You crossed your arms and pointed to Crosshair, “Spill.”

He gruffed. Feelings aren’t his forte.

“I don’t know Ad’ika it just happened.” He said defensively.

“Thats not what I remember.” Wrecker poked at him, “You said you wanted her after you walked in on her in the fresher that one time.”

You gawked. You remembered that day it still haunted you.

You were mortified, you had just finished up your shower and turned off the water when Crosshair barged into the room not realizing you were in there. He got quite the eye full. You just squeaked and grabbed your towel, covering yourself. He had silently turned on his heel and left, leaving you to die from embarrassment in pained silence.

Luckily he never spoke about it ever again and you were thankfully able to move past it. Yo didn’t think he had cared one bit.

You then turned to Hunter, “And you, Sarge?”

He stood up from the wall and crossed his arms looking down at his boots, “It was before we officially met actually.”

You furrowed your brows.

“We were there when you treated Echo after Sako Minor. You were still with the 501st and we had decided to help in the mission to retrieve him. You were too busy working but I remember seeing you and scenting you before you disappeared into the triage. I’ve never smelled an omega like you before. It stuck with me. When your file came to us I knew I had to approve it.” He sounded a little embarrassed, you were sure because he thought it was a bit selfish.

You smiled, “You remembered me?”

He nodded, “Couldn’t ever forget a woman like you Cyra’ika. Wanted to paint you on the side of the ship.”

“Still can.” Wrecker chuckled.

“Okay then explain Kashyyyk.” You pointed at Crosshair, “And I still want an apology. That was fucked up.”

“They were so jealous Adi’ka.” Echo laughed in earnest now crossing his arms and letting the chuckles spill, “Thought you were fucking Wolfee!”

“I wasn’t!” You screamed. How many times were you going to have to say that!

“Sure seemed like it.” Crosshair accused.

“Nuh uh. Apologize.” You crossed your arms over your chest accidentally pushing up your breasts. Crosshair zeroed in on your cleavage and swallowed thickly.

“Crosshair never apologizes.” Tech sighed.

“Well, he’s gonna start now.” You pointed a finger into the ground.

The sniper narrowed his eyes challengingly which you just matched his scowl, “Hunter apologized.” You said walking over to Hunter and leaning into him. The sergeant looped an arm around your middle rubbing your bare ribcage.

“Wrecker gave me his rations, and Tech fixed my data pad.” You tapped your fingers against your arms.

Crosshair took a deep breath trying to still himself. He wasn’t going to crack so easily, but you knew there was one way you could get through to the alpha.

“Fine. Don’t wanna talk?” You drawled spinning around facing Hunter, “Then you only get to watch from here on out…until you apologize.” You brought your hand up to Hunter’s cheek and guided his mouth down to yours for a deep wanton kiss. You whimpered bending your leg into him showing off how high the slits went to the rest of the room.

You heard Echo let out a low whistle.

Hunter ran his hands up your sides making a show of it, knowing it was driving Crosshair insane. He knew how badly Crosshair wanted you. Hunter’s hands slid south cupping your ass giving it a good squeeze.

When Hunter had found Crosshair’s panty stash and he knew his little brother was down bad.

You moaned into sarge’s mouth and carded your hands through his luscious hair. You gave the strands at the base of his neck a tug and he growled bending down to pick up your thighs and wrap them around his waist.

“Aren’t we supposed to be talking?” Echo asked amused.

“Later.” You said breaking away from Hunter’s eager lips.

“We got time.” He smiled before diving back in to capture your mouth and start to walk the two of you into the bunks.

You giggled as Hunter threw you down onto the plush cot with a bounce before climbing on top of you. You happily wriggled under him seeking out his soft lips again.

“You’re evil.” Hunter whispered into your ear.

“You have no idea.” You whispered back grabbing at his blacks.

“Is this actually happening?” Wrecker asked following the two of you in.

“She did express her interest, Wrecker.” Tech said standing in the doorway, “But this seems to be more about torturing Crosshair than anything else.”

“You okay with this Mesh’la?” Hunter asked looking down at you.

“Yes sir.” You watched his iris’ dilate at the use of title.

The he was on you like a feral nexu. His teeth instantly went to your neck barely missing your gland making you scream. You heard the others shedding their armor as Hunter brought his nimble hands to your core and rubbing sensually through your dampening folds. You weren’t nearly as wet as you were during the heat, but Hunter was satisfied when he pushed a finger in stretching your still slightly sore cunt finding you dripping wet.

You moaned pathetically rocking your hips down wanting more. He added another finger making you squirm.

“You ready Adi’ka? He rubbed your clit making you whine. You nodded desperate to be filled. He kissed you once more time before grabbing your hips and lifting you so your dripping core was perfectly angled at Tech.

“Take him like a good little omega.” Hunter stood up from the cot to start slowly taking off his armor watching you spread your legs even further for Tech. The pilot knelt down on the cot in between your legs leaning over to give you a kiss. He seemed a little stiff at first but when you started grinding down on his codpiece with your soaked cunt, you felt him start to get a little more explorative with his tongue as he deepened the kiss.

~~~

Echo smirked, “You should probably bite the bullet and apologize.”

He was loving watching Crosshair be miserable hearing your fucked out cries as his brothers pleasured you.

He just grunted willing his jealousy down.

“She’s as stubborn as a bantha. She can hold out forever. One time fives thought it would be funny to dump ice water on her during her shower, she didn’t talk to him for three weeks and made sure his sutures were extra painful when he came into her office.”

He was in shock, he raised brow suddenly realizing that that time of Kashyyyk could have been more much worse if it wasn’t for the dire circumstances.

“Oh yeah.” Echo laughed at the memory, “Made him scrub her quarters for a week as an apology. Little thing has a hidden talent for torture.”

You let out a particularly pornographic moan that made Crosshair hard and cranky.

Crosshair grunted and stood up deciding he would rather just swallow his pride then to watch his brothers have you over and over again for however long you decided to duel out his punishment.

“I literally save her ass and this is what she wants from me…” Crosshair shook his head heading to the back of the ship, “omegas…”

~~~

He turned the corner to stand in the door way arms crossed. He chewed on his toothpick a little too hard once seeing the glorious site in front of him. You were spread out on your back still in that sinful scrap of fabric dress taking Tech in your soaked cunt while you sucked Wrecker into your throat. Hunter leaned against the wall watching his younger vod fuck you dumb.

“Can’t take the heat?” Hunter eyed Crosshair.

Tech rubbed at your clit making you arch into the cot while he pounded you. You came with a scream forcing Tech into cumming from how hard you tightened around him. He groaned pumping white ropes into your throbbing cunt gripping your hips with his strong hands.

He pulled out with a squelch letting you roll onto your hands and knees keeping Wrecker in your mouth skillfully.

From Hunter and Crosshair’s view they could see your glistening thighs and milky cunt leaking with Tech’s spend. You briefly took your mouth off Wrecker stroking him with your hand while you looked back over your shoulder to see their lusty gazes. You arched prettily showing off while returning back to give Wrecker your full attention.

“Kriff.” Crosshair cursed. You knew exactly what you were doing. Echo was right, you weren’t shy in the slightest nor afraid to torture a man.

Crosshair looked psychically pained that he couldn’t touch you, while Hunter didn’t hesitate to slot in behind you, filling you with his hard cock. You moaned taking your sergeant while still stroking Wrecker. You leaned down to suck one of his balls into your mouth making him whine and fist your hair.

“Such a good girl Mesh’la.” Hunter praised bringing his hand down across your ass cheek with a sharp snap. You yelped then moaned at the burning sensation. You knew you’d have Hunter’s hand print on your ass for a few hours and that made you giddy. He grabbed onto your hips and rocked into you with intention, fisting the red fabric for leverage he shoved you further onto Wrecker.

Feeling your second orgasm simmering, you reached down to circle your nerves making you twitch and quiver around Hunter.

“Gonna cum Mesh’la.” Wrecker bit out thrusting slightly into your waiting mouth. You sucked his tip extra hard while he poured his seed down your throat. You swallowed diligently and licked him up before letting him go. He slumped back against the wall and you collapsed onto your chest presenting your ass so perfectly for Hunter.

Sarge leaned forwards grabbing the back of your neck pinning you to the cot.

When you turned your head to look at Crosshair, you could tell he was standing uncomfortably with his codpiece restricting him. The look was subtle, but you could see the yearning in his eyes.

It was the same desire he had when you had shot that pirate with firepuncher. It was a hot and heady look. You knew you were close to cracking him so you decided to turn it up a notch.

You reached behind you to grab at Hunter’s wrists but he just manhandled them behind you securing them to your lower back, “take it omega!” he growled, pounding into you mercilessly.

You mewled and widened your knees giving your back more of an arch so he could hit even deeper. You both cried out at the change of position.

“Good girl.”

The you made fierce eye contact with Crosshair and ave him a mischievous wink, “Alpha… please!”

They were suddenly filled with the deep primal urge to please you. You haven’t used your omega voice since Howzer, and even it made you shiver, just like the boys around you.

They were on you like flies.

Tech and Wrecker shoving each other around trying to get to you. Competing for who would make you cum first.

You watched Crosshair approach but manage to somehow stop himself just a few feet away remembering your punishment could be so much worse if he were to disobey your wishes.

You knew it was paining him not to answer your cry… It was payback. You smiled wolfishly as Hunter took you to pound town to finish the job.

Wrecker used his strength to shove Tech away to slide under your spread thighs to lick at your clit a suckle gently coaxing you to your end.

You screamed baring down on Wrecker’s face as your pleasure washed over you like a tidal wave with such ferocity.

You shivered and convulsed as Hunter gave you his last few pumps before filling you with his cum. He leaned forwards biting into your shoulder again careful not to hit the gland as he came down from his high. Clearly your enchanting command had turned on his hindbrain too Hunter was actively fighting off the urges to mate. He must be extra sensitive due to his special abilities.

You quivered around his softening cock feeling the afterglow tingles from the mock bite dissipate from the junction of your neck.

You almost collapsed onto Wrecker but Hunter was holding on tight trying to quell his desire to actually bite you. Fucking without the implants was proving to be dangerous he realized. He nuzzled the back of your neck trying to keep his incisors in check but not ready to let you go quite yet.

“You want help with that Cross?” You looked down at his crotch. He swallowed thickly. “You know what you need to do…” You smirked sitting up letting Hunter slide out of you.

He sighed, “Fine, but not in front of them.” He grumbled making you smile.

“You heard him.” You said readjusting your dress to cover yourself again. The others just left with a grin slapping Crosshair on the shoulder as they stumbled out, feeling the blood rush back to their heads.

“Go on.” You crossed your arms calming your heart.

“You’re neglecting your real talents.” He sighed leaning against the wall, “Should be working for the Guard in interrogation and torture tactics.”

You raised a brow.

“Ugh.” He looked up at the ceiling before turning his attention to you, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have used my voice to command you like that, and I’m sorry.” It wasn’t the best apology, but you knew that was probably more than anything anyone has ever probably received from the prickly sniper.

“Apology accepted.” You smiled, “On one condition… You give me back my panties.”

He laughed, “Fine. But you’ll have to raid Wrecker’s drawer too.”

“Come here.” You ordered.

He walked over to you as you stood up still being dwarfed by the tall soldier, “Promise you’ll never do that to me ever again. You cannot take my freewill from me.”

He sighed feeling the guilt in his chest, “I promise ad’ika.”

You nodded and brought your hands up to his cheeks forcing him to look at you before you leaned up onto your tip toes to press your lips to his. He deepened the kiss lowering his head to your height.

“I want you Crosshair.” You whispered breaking the kiss, “I wanted you the second I saw you in that temple.”

He growled backing you up into the cot, “You looked so good holding firepuncher. Looked even better killing that man.”

You hummed, “You liked that huh?”

He nodded, “Oh yes, ad’ika.” He snaked his arm around your neck to fist your hair and expose your neck to him, “My omega is fierce.” He ran his incisors over your pulse point where his brother had left his mark making you shiver.

“Your omega?” You were breathless.

He hummed approvingly, “Mine.” He snarled launching you down to the cot. You landed with a yelp as he crowded you into the jumbled mattress.

“This damn dress.” He shook his head taking it all in before yanking down your top to reveal your breasts and hardened nippled. He leaned forwards latching onto one and massaging the other as he nudged your legs apart, “Was gonna take you on that temple floor. M’didn’t wanna wait.” He switched sides giving equal attention to the other breast.

You whined thinking about that heated look he gave you when the pirate had dropped cold. You knew if the city wasn’t under siege he would have made good on his word and that sent a powerful thrill through your entire being. You carded your fingers through his silver hair massaging his nape making him moan.

“So perfect ad’ika.” He praised pushing the dress slit to the side to reveal your ruined thighs. He smirked seeing the mess his brother had made of you.

You chewed your lip as he shoved his blacks down revealing his massive cock. It was definitely longer than the others and veiny like Wreckers. You spread your legs letting him see the cum leaking out of you. It made his cock twitch and drip with precum.

The past 48 hours without you had nearly driven him nearly to insanity, but looking down at you now, he finally felt like he could relax and enjoy you how he wanted.

Knowing you had already been warmed up, he gripped your thighs placing your ankles on either side of his head and pushed forwards sliding into you with ease. You cried out being stretched again as Cross filled you to the brim. He brushed up against your cervix making you squirm and mewl.

“Such a good girl.” He smiled flashing his incisors, “Taking all of your alphas so well…like you were made for us.” He thrust hard watching you bounce up and down on his cock. He reached forwards grabbing your tits and massaging them as he continued his precision thrusts.

“Ah-Crosshair!” You whined grappling for purchase and gripping onto his thighs.

He rocked the two of you steadily, “Wanted to kill all those fucking people for taking you from us.” He was getting more aggressive in his movements, “Never letting you go ever again ad’ika.” He reached down parting your thighs to rub circles on your clit. He felt you begin to flutter around him, “Gonna kill anyone who tries.”

“Promise?” You looked up at him with a wicked grin.

He mimicked your exact expression feeling a bolt of energy run through him, “Promise, sweetheart.” You were going to be the death of him.

He felt you tense up and knew you were about to cum. He kept going until you were arching off the bed moaning like you were in heat again.

He leaned down to press desperate kisses to your plush lips as he too reached his high adding his seed to the mess between your thighs.

Once he stilled, he remained there inside you, pressing open mouth kisses all over your face and neck. You squeezed around him as you preened from his attentions.

“Have you made up now?” Tech asked turning into the doorway. Crosshair let out an exacerbated sigh rolling over, brining you with him as he pulled the sheet up over the two of you.

“Yes Tech.” You smiled laying your head down onto Crosshair’s thumping chest.

“Good.” Tech held up his data pad, “We have twelve more hours until we touch down on Coruscant. I think the others want to talk about the logistics of this rather unorthodox relationship.”

“Then tell them to come in here.” Crosshair petted the stray hairs on your head down and tucked loose strands behind your ear.

Tech left and returned with the others including Echo who seemed all too pleased with himself. What a little mischief maker.

“Alright.” Hunter seemed a lot less awkward now having a better idea of how you feel about this whole arrangement, “Obviously this is not allowed under GAR regulations.”

“When have we ever obeys orders?” Tech said.

“Never.” Hunter shook his head, “So, obviously this doesn’t leave here.” He gestured to the group, “When we return we’ll have to get fresh implants but when they ask what happened we tell them we crash landed. Pip went through an entire cycle locked in this room and the rest of us had to go trade with locals to get replacement parts.”

“They’ll smell the mixed scents in here.” Crosshair hugged you to his chest like a little doll.

“We’ll clean the entire ship before we touch down.” Tech answered.

“Freaking finally.” You said in relief knowing you’d have help this time.

“What about her?” Echo pointed to you, “She’s covered in bruises.”

“Pip encountered hostiles and fought them off, as for the bites we’ll use bacta and hope for the best.”

“You realize you won’t be able to act any different when we're not alone.” Echo reminded, “You can’t be territorial in any sense. If they even begin to pick up on that, you’ll be decommissioned or she’ll be transferred.”

They visibly tensed.

“I don’t think the GAR will think anything strange of us.” Tech reasoned, “We’ve always been unorthodox.”

“That does play to your advantage.” Echo nodded.

“Are you okay with this Echo?” You asked hoping your longest friend is emotionally alright with this whole thing.

“Oh yeah pip.” He smiled, “Just glad you idiots finally did something about this. The tension was palpable.”

“You’re a meddler you know that?” You laughed.

“Obviously.” He snarked, “How else am I supposed to entertain myself?”

“Okay everyone needs to get cleaned up and then we need to start scrubbing this entire vessel down ceiling to floor.” Hunter gave the orders, “Then we need to go back to being one big happy platonic family.”

You giggled.

“I think we can manage.” Tech slinked out of the room to hunt down the cleaning supplies.

“Can you carry me to the fresher?” You asked Crosshair who nodded and helped gather you up in his arms. The two of you walked to the fresher where he helped you out of the dress and into the stall where he turned the water to warm. You stood on wobbly legs letting the water wash away evidence of the boys. You started scrubbing yourself down when Crosshair joined you. It was bit of a squish but you two managed.

You grabbed the soap again and began washing Crosshair. He gave you an unsure look that made you realize he’s probably never had anyone take care of him like this before. Your heart shattered a bit as you made sure to get his hair all the way down his legs. You always had such sympathy for the clone soldiers. They were barely seen as human from the rest of the galaxy…but not to you. To you they were so much more.

When you were both clean, you stepped out wrapping a towel around yourself securing it before walking back into your old bunk. You had found an old uncomfortable binder you didn’t love and pulled that on, securing it to your breasts, then slid on a pair of panties that the pirates hadn’t raided, but that was it.

You made sure to throw the red dress into the washer along with all of the boys clothes leaving the entire ship in just their boxers and socks.

Everything else went into the wash including all the bunk sheets and what remained of your ransacked nest. You had whimpered seeing the state of it. All your hard work and comfort, destroyed. The boys made sure to take care of that mess so you didn’t have to dwell on it for too long.

Walking out into the main cabin you grabbed the cleaning supplies from Tech and started getting to work helping.

“Here, mesh’la.” Hunter knelt down to you popping a bacta pill into your mouth for the bruising along with the gel on your skin hoping that the few hours left on board the marauder they’d heal up a bit. You swallowed the pill and let Hunter smear the gel around your neck and ribs. He made sure to change your foot bandages and apply more bacta. Those cuts seem to be healing up nicely to both of your satisfaction.

“Damn girl.” Echo let out a low whistle, “Those uniforms are a crime for hiding all that.” He laughed making you scoff.

“Prefer the red dress trooper?” You play flirted back.

“If only I wasn’t 80% cyborg.” He winked at you.

You giggled going back to your cleaning helping Tech get the crevices you couldn’t reach.

~~~

You blew a piece of hair out of your face, “Alright Hunter how does it smell?”

He sniffed the air, “Sterile.” He cringed.

“Perfect.” Tech gave an approving nod.

“This ship has never been this clean.” Crosshair looked around at the shiny durasteel. They had cleaned every inch of this space craft, put all the bunks back together to regulation, and scrubbed the Mimban mud from their boots. The damn ship looked fresh off the line.

They had slipped their blacks and armor back on making sure those had been cleaned too. You slinked back into the red dress making sure to secure it to your chest binder hiding your nips better. You also kept the panties on, feeling slightly less vulnerable this time. Not having shoes was still drag. Hopefully you’d be able to get a new pair immediately.

You were trying to figure out how you were going to exit the hatch without turning heads. You realized that would probably be impossible given the circumstances.

“They’re going to ask questions.” You sighed taking a bite of Echo’s ration bar as you leaned against his console.

“Well, you definitely catch attention.” He laughed thumbing the fabric.

“I just want my shoes back.” You groaned, “Do you know how long it took me to break those in?”

“We’ll all have to get new civvies and blacks.” He reminded, “Do you still have that stash at your place?”

“I think so. I don’t have any of Crosshairs though.” You gave the sniper an apologetic shrug. He just nodded and went back to cleaning firepuncher.

“My favorite band t-shirts are gone.” Wrecker whined. You knew show special all their things were to them. And you knew it was hard for them to come by certain items. They didn’t get paid for their service to the republic so clones rarely had personal belongings. A fact that also made your blood boil.

“I’ll get you a replacement one, honey.” You smiled. It made Wrecker light up.

“Think you can finesse those good meals from the medic center?” Echo begged, “I’m craving tip-yip.”

“Yeah, I’ll get Layla to drop some off when we touch down.”

“Now thats a fox.” Echo smirked taking another bite of the bland bar.

“I’ll tell her you said so.”

He leaned back in his chair, “She into cyborgs?”

“I think Layla’s into everyone.” You played.

“She had Rex’s boys down bad.” Echo laughed recalling the way they couldn’t shut up about the pretty omega nurse on board Skywalker’s Venator.

“Oh yeah. She had Kix on his knees.” You giggles remembering the way she had him blushing like a virgin in the exam room. Echo laughed.

“We should get her to do a pin up for the boys!” You suggested.

“Now thats a plan!” Echo bit his lip.

“When are we getting a pin up of you sweetheart?” Crosshair interjected.

“Yeah I want one of those!” Wrecker pounded the table sending Crosshair’s stuff flying.

“In your dreams boys!” You shook your head.

They groaned in protest.

“I still think we should paint you on the hull.” Wrecker pouted.

“I second that.” Tech voted.

“We’re leaving hyperspace, strap in.” Echo tapped your knee making you stand up from the console, you walked over to your jump seat settling in.

The others prepared for the sudden stop.

“On approach.” Tech masterfully steered the ship down towards Coruscant’s surface approaching the GAR docking bay.

Once cleared, the Marauder was set down gently in an open maintenance stall.

“Havoc Marauder to service bay, requesting immediate repair.” Tech radioed in.

“Havoc Marauder are you alright?” The service bay clone asked.

“Our ship crashed on return to Coruscant, we obtained replacement parts but we need a full service to ensure optimal performance.” Tech informed.

“Noted. We’ll be sending down mechanics and replacement parts shortly please stand by.”

“Where’s my med kit?” You suddenly asked looking around at the near empty ship.

“Stolen.” Hunter shrugged.

“Dammit.” You sighed, “Chief’s gonna rip me a new one.”

“That might be the least of our problems.” Tech pointed out the view port.

As the service team arrived with new engine parts and mechanic droids, General Kenobi and General Skywalker approached with the Coruscant guard in tow.

“Kark.” You sighed. You all were cooked.

“You wanna go talk to your old General?” Echo nudged you.

“He was your general too!” You shoved him back.

“Yeah but you’re prettier!” Echo shoved you to the hatch hitting the disengage, “He’ll be easier on you.”

You were about to protest when Hunter took the lead stepping down the hatch deciding to just get this conversation out of the way.

“Generals.” He greeted. The other 99’s marched down the stairs leaving you and Echo to watch from the ship’s view port.

“Sergeant Hunter.” They greeted.

“Can I help you sir?” You looked to the Coruscant Guard. Their crimson uniforms stood out against the starkness of the hangar bay, “My men have had been through an exhausting ordeal and we’d like to get everything in order before returning to the barracks for some much needed rest.”

“We were sent by the chancellor to escort you.” General Kenobi said, “He has heard about Kashyyyk and has been eagerly awaiting your return. We haven’t heard from you in two standard weeks.”

“We were shot down and crashed on Mimban sir.” Hunter sighed, “It took longer than expected to find repair parts.”

“Where is Tiny?” Skywalker asked, “I can sense her anxiety.”

“Uhh yeah.” Hunter looked back to the ship, “She’s in there. There was an incident sir.”

“An incident?” Skywalker’s brows furrowed.

“She’s alright. A little shook up. But we encountered hostiles who kidnapped her and took her back to their home city. We were able to retrieve her, but then pirates raided our ship and took all of our belongings.” He cleared his throat unsure how to explain the rest… “Pip?” He called. He could hear you sigh before he heard Echo shuffle behind you shoving you out of the hatch with a squeak.

You stumbled down the stairs trying your hardest to keep your modesty by holding the front and back panels of the dress together pathetically trying not to flash the men. You watched everyone shift uncomfortably seeing you. The head guard respectfully lowered his gaze while Skywalker gawked at you.

It didn’t help that the wind was trying to expose you like a cruel joke.

“What the fuck is that!” He was being protective again. You two had essentially grown up together. Anakin felt like an older brother to you and you knew he’d be upset.

“Language Anakin.” Kenobi sighed also keeping his gaze away and respectful.

“Hi, Generals.” You squeaked out feeling incredibly exposed.

“Do I want to know?” Anakin crossed his arms raising a brow.

You shook your head looking down at the ground wanting to die on the spot.

“Here little one.” Kenobi shed his outer robe handing it to you so you could cover up.

You gratefully took the brown fabric and bundled yourself up. The fabric pooled at your feet.

“Where are your shoes!” Anakin stared at your bandaged feet. His tone remarkably similar to when he’d reprimand Ashoka for something reckless.

“An old lady took them.” You responded softly. You heard Echo choke back a laugh in the background.

“An old-” He shook his head, “Every time I see you Tiny, it’s something new.”

You sighed knowing he was right.

“Sorry Anakin.” You snuggled into Kenobi’s robes a little tighter.

“It’s not your fault Y/N.” Obi wan gave Anakin with a stern look, “We’re glad you’re okay.”

“Thank you General.” You always liked the older man, he had such wisdom about him.

“We should get to the Chancellors office promptly, he’s eager to learn more about the chemical attack.” Kenobi nodded.

Hunter gestured for you to follow the Generals while the others followed in suit preparing to give their report. You just trotted behind Anakin trying to keep up with his long strides incredibly thankful for Obi wan’s robes.

“Told you he’d take it better from you.” Echo whispered in your ear.

“What about that seemed better to you?!” You whispered back.

“His shock at seeing you distracted him from asking about our short comings.” He smiled evil.

“Kark hole.” You growled lowly.

“Shut up, you love me.” He shoved you playfully.

You just scowled at him as your party arrived at the transport. Hunter held out a hand to help you climb into the ship and the guard guided you to a jump seat on the side while the men filed in holding onto the handle bars above.

You caught Skywalker eyeing you and you smiled sheepishly. The guard reached down to buckle you in but you stopped him, “I got it trooper.”

“Apologies ma’am.” He quickly stood up seemingly coming to his senses.

“No problem.” You have him a smile buckling in yourself.

Ugh you really need to get your implants in stat. That’s probably why Skywalker is giving you an incredulous look. You realized you probably reek of omega and it’s messing with everyone, probably himself too.

The transport lifted off and made a beeline for the Senate building. You shivered feeling the cold air rush past you. You had never been so grateful for an article of clothing in your entire life. Obi Wan’s robe was so soft and cozy.

You caught Tech checking in on you with a casual glance. You gave him a tiny nod as he went back to looking out the side of the ship at the city below.

“Prepare for docking.” The guard barked out over the engines.

The ship was quick to dock and you unbuckled, following everyone towards the building. This time, the head guard grabbed you by the waist and lifted you down from the ship setting you down on the concrete.

Your surprised squeak made your squad whip around to stare. Even the guard seemed shocked at his own actions.

You just patted his chest plate and continued on trying to prevent a scene. This better go quick or you were going to have a line of alphas trailing after you. You could feel your squad’s eyes burning holes into your back.

“Anything I should know about?” Skywalker bit out quietly into your ear.

“Nothing you want to know.” You replied, “Trust me.”

He growled urging you forward keeping a distance between you and the soldiers.

You could feel everyone’s eyes on you. You wished the Generals had at least given you time to get a new uniform from the stock pile or something. Wearing Jedi robes over a crimson red dress was definitely something that caught looks.

Essentially every senator and Coruscant guard in passing turned to look and sniff. You just sighed wishing for this to be over and to crawl into your bed back home.

You wanted to tuck yourself into Hunter’s side for comfort, but you knew that wasn’t going to be an option. Instead you stuck it through, all the way to the Chancellors office despite the incredibly awkward lift ride cramped inside with so many alphas.

“I think it’s probably better if you wait here Y/N.” Kenobi instructed you to sit on the bench outside the Chancellors office. Knowing he was right, given your inappropriate attire, seeing the Chancellor would be improper.

You were also thankful to not have to stand there and listen to the recount of the last three months you had just experienced.

The guard stood watch outside the chambers stoic as statues as they flanked the doors. However, the same soldier that had tried to buckle you in walked over to you with a confident stride.

“You were on Kashyyyk?” He asked.

You nodded.

“We heard about it through some of the radio chatter, what happened to those men?” He slid off his helmet, “I’m Thorne.” He held out his hand for you to shake. He was handsome. Clean cut to regulation, but you noticed his hair was a little curly on top. Must be a slight defect just like Rex you wondered.

You took his hand, “I’m Y/N, and yeah we were there. We were posted for three months on the front lines. The separatists dropped a chemical bomb that turned the entire camp feral. My squad was just out of range and we were able to get away. Tried to relay the message to the General on site, but we were shot down and ended up falling out of hyperspace onto Mimban.”

He looked shocked, “Mimban?”

You nodded, “Been a hell of a tour.”

“I bet.” He agreed.

“Have you heard what happened?” You wondered thinking about Wolffe and the others, “We were stranded for so long we haven’t been able to hear anything.”

“Let me ask the commander.” He spun around to wave over his head officer.

That was the clone that lifted you out of the transport.

“This is Fox.” Thorne introduced him, “Fox, this is Y/N.”

“Hi.” You gave him a polite smile.

“She was on Kashyyyk, she’s asking about the 104th.” Thorn filled him in.

“Last I heard they were okay. I guess your message got out and they were able to send in reinforcements.” Fox told you.

You let out a relived sigh, “Thank the maker.”

“They crash landed on Mimban.” Thorne added, “Sounds awful.”

“It was.”

“What’s with the get up?” Fox pointed to the red.

“An old lady took my clothes.” You kicked your bandaged feet out showing him the damage, “Pirates took the rest. Got kidnapped by a local war party and was held prisoner in an all women’s encampment. Apparently red is their favorite color.”

He let out a low whistle, “Can’t say I’d trade places with you.”

You huffed with a smile.

“You’re with the 99’s?” Thorn asked.

“Yeah.” You looked to the closed door wondering how it was going in there.

“You like them?” Fox asked.

Your eyes widened, “Oh uh, yeah. Took some warming up to, they’re not used to having outsiders.” Your heart pounded.

“Noticed you were close with General Skywalker.” Fox stated. What is this, twenty questions? You felt like you were in one of their interrogation chambers.

“I was his medic for majority of the war. Transferred after General Tano left the order.” You felt a pang of sadness hit your chest.

Fox just nodded. You knew about his involvement in the whole drama. You couldn’t blame him, he was just doing his job. However, Anakin didn’t see it that way. Poor alpha just wanted his padawan back. She was almost like a pup to him. It broke his heart.

“You ever leave here?” You asked looking around at this drab building.

“Hardly.” Thorn laughed clapping his commander on the back.

“Do you know when they’ll be done?” You asked, “I’d really like to get some real clothes and a hot meal.”

“Should be soon. I can have a droid bring up some basics for you.” Fox offered.

You thanked him and let him put the order in, thrilled to get out of this awful outfit. It wasn’t long before a service droid reappeared with women’s black basics and a pair of fresh off the line combat boots.

“Thank you!” You eagerly took the clothes and disappeared into the women’s facilities. When an ecstatic smile you locked yourself into a stall removing Kenobi’s robe and throwing it over the door along with the strip of red fabric. You slid on the loose pants, fastening them to your waist, along with the black form fitting top. You tucked in the shirt and slid the regulation belt through the loops. Last came the socks and the boots which you could have cried with joy finally having something on your feet again.

When you were done, you chucked the red fabric into the trash receptacle and neatly folded the Jedi robe. The shoes were stiff but you knew you’d have to break them in regardless. Stepping out of the facilities, the guards turned to watch you re-approach.

“Better?” Thorn gave you a charming smile.

“I feel human again. Thank you.” You smiled sitting down again and placing the robe in your lap, “My old commander had a defect, his hair was blonde.” You pointed to his head, “Yours as well?”

“All my batch mates have it.” Thorn nudged Fox, “Even Mr. Grumps over here.”

Fox grumbled. Grumpy he was…Probably came with the job.

“Show the pretty lady that handsome mug.” Thorne teased.

Fox took off his helmet resting it on his hip. He was handsome just like his batch mate except his hair wasn’t as curly at Thorne’s, it was more of a loose wave. He kept the sides cropped neatly but there was something so intriguing about this clone, and familiar…

You narrowed your eyes inspecting his face. He had a small red tattoo peeking out of his collar which you clocked immediately.

“I’ve treated you.” You stated gettin this full attention. You pointed to his tattoo.

“When?” He asked curiously. He clearly was riffling through all of this memories trying to place you.

“Start of the war.” You remembered, “GAR main medical campus. You came in after an injury on the job, a stab wound here.” You poked his upper thigh, “Run in with a bounty hunter and his knife.”

He looked down at you suddenly remembering you, “You were my nurse.”

You smiled, “Yeah, you’re an awful patient.” You and Thorne laughed. Fox scowled. You remembered him fighting you at every point in his recovery. It took the patience of a Jedi master to keep yourself collected. You were still new to the GAR and Fox had been one of your first solo patients.

You smirked remembering something else, “Then you railed my friend in the supply closet.”

Thorne clapped him on the back, “Atta boy.”

“She still talks about you.” You teased.

“Layla, was it?” He was getting more confident. You were starting to see the cockiness Layla had yapped about for weeks come forward. Said he was the best ride she ever had. Fox, apparently, was an extremely dominant alpha. Made Layla knot crazy for what felt like forever.

You hummed leaning back against the wall.

Just then the door opened and your squad came out, lead by the Jedi Generals. Fox and Thorne scrambled to put their helmets back on realizing they had gone against regulation… in the senate, while talking to you.

You stood up thanking Obi wan and placing his folded robe back into his hands.

“I’m glad they were able to retrieve some more comfortable clothing for you.” Kenobi said opening up his robes and sliding them back onto his shoulder.

“Me too General.” You replied. Turning to look at your squad, you picked out Hunter, “Sarge?”

“Yeah Y/N?”

“Are we clear to go home?” You were feeling weary desperately wanting sleep.

“Yeah pip, we are.”

You nodded suddenly feeling excited to curl up in your bed and stuff yourself with real food.

“Nuh uh.” Skywalker cut in urging the group to get moving, “We’re getting you to the medics first. You can veg out later.” He must have read your thoughts. That still freaked you out even after serving under him for years.

You sighed knowing there wasn’t any other choice once Anakin made up his mind. His brotherliness was stubborn.

~~~

The ride to the ship hangar wasn’t long. You tried separating from the group to go have your exams taken care of but they all insisted on coming along. This included your squad, Anakin, and the guard.

“General I don’t think you’re allowed to steal the guard from the senate.” You growled feeling like you were being suffocated, “This is not necessary.” You waved a hand at the overly protective men.

“Actually Tiny I’ve decided it is.” Anakin crossed his arms, “You’re a ticking time bomb.”

You felt the anger rising in your chest, “Am not! This isn’t the first time I’ve dealt with an expired implant. I’m fine!”

“Then us coming along shouldn’t be a problem.” He argued.

“Ugh!” You stormed off towards the medical personnel building, “You’re not even authorized to be in here!”

“It’s Jedi business!” He strode past you arrogantly.

“What?! You wanna be in there when they’re poking and prodding me too?” You chased after him, “What is it with you freaking alphas!”

“I’m just watching out for you.” Anakin sassed using that same old excuse for the millionth time.

“I don’t need you too!” You stopped and then swerved around to look at your unit who was trailing behind you like a death squad, “I know for a fact you all also need new implants too, and that is over there.” You pointed to the clone treatment center to the right of the medic’s clinic.

“You heard Skywalker, General’s orders.” Crosshair leered.

You wanted to scream. Why the hell are they acting like this? Anakin opened the blast door holding it so you could walk through.

“Y/N?”

Layla’s voice sounded a little worried as she peeked up from behind the desk.

“Hi Layla.” You groused.

“What’s wrong?” She stood up taking in unnecessary amount of alphas crowding into the space, “Are you okay?” Layla was getting suspicious.

“Yeah I’m fine.” You snarled, “These karking idiots wont leave me alone.”

“You’re overdue for your implant, want to go somewhere a little more private?” She eyed the men.

You nodded and took off down the hall to the exam table on the left.

Layla followed you in clutching her data pad, “What’s that all about? And why is Fox here?” He raised her brows. You noticed the excitement in Layla’s eyes at the thought of her old fling waiting just on the other side of the divider.

You began stripping from your blacks to put on a sterile gown.

“I don’t know.” You whispered, “But keep your voice down the sergeant can hear us.”

She just nodded.

“Do you need a full exam?” She asked looking at your neck.

“Yeah.” You replied, “I had a heat while stranded on Mimban.”

“You were on Mimbam?” She was confused.

You gave her a loose rendition of the story to fill her in. She just nodded picking up the pregnancy test holding it up for you like a question. You gave her a nod not wanting Hunter to hear a thing.

She put your legs up in the stirrups and began the exam testing for all kinds of things and injury. You just stared up at the ceiling as she did her job expertly without hurting you too much.

“I think thats why the General is concerned.” Layla whispered, “He probably knows what happened.”

“What worries me is he can read minds.” You whispered back letting Layla draw a bead of blood for the pregnancy test, “He started acting weird after the debrief.”

“But was it good?” She asked biting her lip with a mischievous smile.

You nodded, “It was insane.” You thought back to the last week feeling a jolt of arousal rush to your core thinking about the way the men had pleasured you.

“What is taking so long?” Anakin’s booming voice sounded from the other side of the curtain.

“Karking maker Anakin!” You screamed, “She’s literally digging around inside me, leave me alone!”

You heard a shuffling letting you know Anakin was leaving you two again.

Layla placed the various tests into the correct machines before grabbing her implant injector. Just like she had the last time, she plunged the tool into your shoulder injecting you with the pill.

“Should take a few hours to kick in.” She reminded, “As for everything else you’re clear. Healthy as a can be.” She silently held up the negative pregnancy test results. Thank the maker.

She uploaded the data to your profile before helping you down the table. You redressed and gathered yourself before stepping out into the hall. Layla pushed the curtain all the way back following behind you, “Make sure to eat something. You’re skinnier than last time I saw you.” She handed you a copy of the report.

“How much skinnier?” Anakin interrogated.

You grabbed the data pad and shoved it into his chest, “How about you just read it yourself since you’re so invested.”

He took the tablet from you and to his credit he did actually read it. You watched him scan for the answer he was so desperately looking for and when he saw the big fat NEGATIVE next to pregnancy test he let out a relived sigh.

Now you knew he knew, and this proved it. But you know Anakin, luckily he’d never tell a soul. Protective as he may be, he also knew not everything needs to be reported to the higher ups.

“Satisfied?” You snatched back the tablet handing it to Layla, “Can I be dismissed now, General?”

He just nodded, “You’re dismissed.”

Without another word you left the clinic leaving everyone behind.

─ ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ ──── ♡ ─── ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ ──

Bahaha Echo finally spilled that hot tea. Mama Echo lives for the chaos.

Taglist: @substantial-exposure

@rains-on-kamino

@minimissmoo

@z-and-the-batboys

@aynavaano

@9902sgirl

@sideofhorny

#the bad batch #tbb #bad batch #hunter #crosshair #wrecker #tech #echo #abo #alpha #omega #star wars #au #clone wars #howzer #rex #tbbhunter #tbbcrosshair #tbbwrecker #tbbtech #tbbecho

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sanjisluvbot · 2 years

Text

Isekai Yandere strawhats x reader PT 5

Masterlist

1 2 3 4 5 6

That night you dreamt of your family. All the memories you made in your world with them made you long for them even more. They had absolutely no idea that you were basically trapped in this world, from what they seen you were still the same person. That comforted you slightly knowing that they still had you and that you technically never even left, but right now you’re half a person.

When you woke up Robin was gone but Nami was comfortably sleeping on your chest. You didn’t really want to move but you had to use the bathroom so carefully you placed her on the pillow and walked to the door.

“ She’s calmed down since that night, and we’re going to reach the island in a few minutes should we wake them?” Robin spoke from outside.

You quickly tiptoed back to the bed and laid just as the door was opened, it was time to deceive.

“ Nami, Y/N wake up the island is close”

You rose from the bed and all but ran to the bathroom before you pissed yourself. You couldn’t help but stare at this new version of yourself in the mirror. Your curls were so hydrated and radiant just like your skin, you looked like you were a gift from god.

No wonder they were obsessed with you.

As nice and wonderful this world is you knew that unless you played into their hands, they would show you exactly how dark it could get. So while brushing your teeth you created a plan that would ensure you were able to escape without an issue.

I’ll pretend as though I’m going to stay here forever, they need to 100% think that I don’t want to leave. Unfortunately I can no longer speak about my home and write about how to travel. I also need to get that paper back from Robin but patience is a virtue and this will take time.

That morning Sanji fed you and the girls heart shaped pancakes, you were still next to Luffy but he didn’t dare speak to your or turn your way so you laid your head on his arm.

“ Luffy can we talk later?”

“Mhm”

Your heart pounded in your chest but you knew this was the only way and you were ready to put your pride aside and apologize, especially for talking about his brother.

The island was now in front of you and you were patiently waiting for the greeting you were going to get from the bottom dwellers. Fish man island was really a sight, nothing like this existed in your world ( far as you or anyone else knows ). Leaning on the railing while the sun from above warmed you up foot steps were nearing you. “ You wanted to talk..”

You couldn’t look at him, not yet, after yesterdays events you were still shaken with fear of the captain and vice captain. “ I wanted to apologize for yesterday. I was really out of line, especially with Ace and-”

“ I’m not upset anymore y/n, we were both wrong let’s move past it”

You looked at him with glossy eyes, my favorite boy how can I not forgive you when you’re so sweet.

“ Yeah, as long as it’s okay with you”

He gave you a blinding smile and wrapped his arms around you five times. You can adjust and get used to this, just give them what they want and before you know you’re home free. Soon everything played out just as the series, you were underwater about to drown trying to grasp someone’s hand.

You woke up to Sanji raving and crying about mermaids, you were in Camie’s bed completely dried off with Luffy sitting next to you. Value brought you all the the surface and you couldn’t believe your eyes. How could a place like this exist? That question began to roam your thoughts again.

Would it really be so bad to stay here? Live in this world and completely experience it with the soon to be King Of Pirates…

You got to explore the fashion, the food, and the mermaid kingdom. The girls dressed you up in many outfits and you felt like a princess.

“ Y/N Chan you’re as beautiful as the finest Perl”

Fish man island was a treat to you after all you’ve been through, so you’re going to treat it as such until you have to enter your first battle. You wanted to tell one of them what was coming but why ruin the story when you know it will play out fine.

When you were in the castle you found the library while Luffy was off on his food escapade. There had to be over ten thousand books here and you didn’t know where to start. You spent hours researching and making mental notes of everything knowing you weren’t safe or trusted to write in a note book yet.

Understanding your situation to the fullest was at the top of your list. You realized the situation you were in was way more dire than you originally believed, you were in danger of Stockholm and with how powerful they were more dangerous than sea monsters. Their obsession was classified as Yandere and the crew fell into all four categories.

Manipulative

Isolating

Submissive

Eliminating

Gaining their trust was an absolute need for you to survive this without being broken however, the more you pretend to love it here the more your likely to fall into Stockholm. You had a choice to make before you left this library.

“ yeah something like that”

The coating was done, and it was time for the battle to soon begin. You had no powers and you had never been in a fight before. Not that it would help you, these people fight completely different to your regular humans even though they can get gruesome. The nerves were eating you away and Luffy was quick to notice.

He placed his hat on your head and you couldn’t help but blush yet again. He couldn’t see the color that consumed you but Luffy was an emotional genius. “ Are you nervous about fighting?” He questioned.

“ No”

“ you’re a bad lair y/n..”

“ No I’m not !”

“ You are”

“ Whatever Luffy”

“ Don’t get so mad”

“ I’m not”

“ Liar”

“ Idiot”

Your heart was racing. Luffy was flirting… with you? You felt the eyes of other burning into your scalp and you wanted to melt into a puddle to shy away. With a huff you turned your attention to Sanji. He whirled his way to you and swayed you with compliments and heart shaped eyes.

You were giggling at the silly flirt while a hand made itself comfortable on your waist.

A/N: Short but sweet?!

Tags: @bambam1sa

If you’d like to be on tag list lmk <3

Also second chapter is coming that shit just deleted three times today I’m so PISSED WTF like I saved it and everything idk if it’s me or the app 😭

#x black fem reader #one piece #one piece x black!reader #one piece x reader #yandere strawhats #x black reader #one piece imagine #luffy x black reader #one piece headcanons #nico robin #one piece sanji #nami swan #zoro roronoa x reader #ussop x reader

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curdled-blood · 9 months

Note

I would like to know your headcanons for Splendor and Fen 👀 Basic stuff like personality and hobbies. I have my own versions of them that I’m in love with, but I love seeing other people’s stuff too. -🎀

OMG I HAVE MY OWN VERSIONS TOO!!! I'm so happy you asked because Fen is one of my favs ever !!!

To start things off it is my version of them used to be humans that died and came back, same with the rest of their family!! I'm not quiet exactly sure how Splendor but I know that Fen's death was a murder that happened due to a series of unfortunate events that happened in his life.. Don't make deals with a man claiming to be the devil, kids.

Personality:

Splendor - to be honest his personality is about what you'd expect. Very much up beat and happy go lucky optimist type deal that has definitely been influenced by past traumas in his life 😃 He's especially peppy around kids and REFUSES to swear cuz yk... but around other adults he kindaaa loosens up a bit but he can still be a bit uptight. Even then, he still has a chaotic side that RARLEY peeks out. Sometimes he gets so wound up that he just eventually breaks down and starts freaking out but he usually finds a way to survive 👍🏻 fighting the urge to call him a prude cuz thats mean but its so truuuuuuuuuue

Offender - Okay so like imagine if Deadpool was more cut off and distant. Flirty, witty, kind of a prick but secretly has a heart of...silver. If you wanna get to know him, and I mean REALLY get to know him, it's pretty much impossible unless you were quite literally hand picked and/or forced upon him (i.e. his proxies *wearing a t-shirt that says ask about my fen proxy ocs*) Bro doesn't even trust his own fucking family, so he tends to be stand-off-ish if that makes sense 😭

I should see what personality types they have 🤔

Hobbies:

Splendor -

Cooking - OKAY BUT YOU CANNOT TELL ME THIS MAN WOULD NOT MAKE THEEEE BEST COMFORT FOOD YOU'VE EVER FUCKING TASTED. You eat one of his dishes and suddenly you have fat puppy syndrome. Fat, full, and tired. I like to think him and his family was from Germany and that he specializes in German dishes :D

Baking - Same with cooking, you CANNOT disagree that he'd make the most delicious goodies. He also definitely makes weed brownies, though he may deny it.

Music - Splendorman may not play an instrument like some of his other family members, but boy does he love listening to music. Him and Trenderman both LOOOVE to collect vinyls together <3. Splendor definitely has a record player that he uses RELIGIOUSLY and a phonograph somewhere around his big ass cottage teehee

Tea - OH yeah, ya boys a tea conisour. He has like every tea you can think of AND THEN SOME. he probably has an entire room just for storing all that damn tea.

Offender -

Gardening - Since Fen was a kid he's been absolutely in love with nature, especially flowers specifically. Sometimes he'll spend hours, even entire days, messing around out front of his broken down mansion and about his forest, tending to the flowers and other floura.

Violin - Another hobby Offender has had since he was a small lad!! Over the many years of his existence he has had plenty of time to master the craft of violin playing. Though since his death he stopped playing as often as he used to but he still does every now and then!!

Singing - Fen may not sing often but when he does, he has the voice of an arch fucking angel. He likes singing just fine but if he's being completely honest with himself, he enjoys playing the violin more. Though he does occasionally use his hypnotic voice to lure people in so he can steal their souls but that's business, not a hobby.

Painting - Yet another activity Fen is incredibly skilled in, but does not often indulge in. But since Fen has access to so many different flowers with many varying colors, sometimes he'll make paint to make something insanely beautiful.

Random Fun Fen Fact: After his death, Fen has this snake tattoo implanted on him by the devil that is slowly moving and slithering around his body!!

#curdled headcanons #OMG FIRST ANON???/j?#🎀#I'm so happy you asked me about my vers of Fen I almost puked./hj #offenderman #splendorman #creepypasta #creepypasta headcanon #slender family headcanons #slender family #Did I talk to much????

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therealbeachfox · 3 months

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Myths of Gotham: Batman & The Two Cities

Ever wondered what the DCU looks like for all those people who aren't privy to the what's and why's of the multiverse shattering events they live through? I sure do. That's melded with my "The Completely Normal Adventures of a Crime Alley Kid" series into this: An exploration of the stories the kids of Gotham would create to explain the world around them. Featuring a foul-mouthed homeless Crime Alley kid vending an education to the younger set, and one Bernard Dowd adding his historical and cultural commentary on the side.

Also available on Ao3, but I'm posting it here because I think it works just fine as a standalone without the 160k+ words of Henchman-In-Denial shenanigans on the side.

Or ignore that link and read it below the cut!

Myths of Gotham

Supplemental Document 3

Harris (Age-12, Male, Irish/African) [[1]]. “The Origin of Batman and the Robins” Interview by Bernard Dowd. 14th August 202X. BDOH #009, Myths of Gotham Project, https://BerDProductions.net/MythsofGothamProject/bdoh-009.html. Accessed 21st November 202(X+2)

[[1. No further information given, even after being told it’d be for proper attribution. "Harris" is also most likely to be pseudonym. Sorry, researchers of the future.]]

Transcript has been mildly edited for clarity and to remove vocal disfluencies. It is otherwise presented in its entirety without any attempts to correct grammar and other verbal slips. Additional notes by the transcriber may be found in the footnotes.

========

Alright, everybody needs to settle their shit down, it’s education time. If you don’t wanna sit here and listen to me explain shit, this place has got like twenty other rooms you can go hang out in, k? This aint school, no one’s keeping you here. ‘Xcept you, Carlos. Yeah, well you tried to go chasing after one of the Exquisite Birds the other day, so you obviously need to learn why you shouldn’t be doing that shit.

Okay, so. We’ll be talking about the Bat Man, but there’s a lotta other stuff we gotta talk about too, first. He didn’t just show up outta fucking nowhere, you know. Now settle down, thank our slumming Posh Boy over there for tonight’s food, and watch what your tongues wag cuz he’s recording all this shit.

Alright. The Bat Man. Where the fuck did he come from? Why the hell is he here? Why do other cities get flying muscle-men in bright colors and we got a living shadow that breaks bones? Why the hell is our shithole of a city like this? Well sit back and listen a learning, cuz unfortunately it all ties together.

Alright, so. The first thing we gotta make clear is that we don’t live in the first Gotham. We’re the second Gotham, the johnny-come-lately Gotham, the weird mirror shadow of the first Gotham. Not saying the other Gotham’s the “real” one and we’re some sort of fake, just that there are two Gotham’s and the one we live in aint the original.

And an important side-note cuz I can see some of you squirming to ask and someone always asks here, I’m not talking about the False Gothams you sometimes see from between buildings or in the reflections of broken windows or stuff. [[2]] Those things aren’t real; they’re just illusions and traps, spun up by something that wants to lure you in with the promise of there being a version of the world where everything didn’t go to shit. It’s all lies. Most kids who go hunting after False Gothams never come back, but there’ve been a few who have, and they’ve got wild as shit stories to tell. But we’re not getting into all that tonight. Basic point is, you don’t get to The Other Gotham by going down weird alleyways. Nah, you just gotta go down.

[[2. Harris appears to be referring to Gotham’s ‘Mirage City’ phenomenon where heated air trapped in narrow gaps between skyscrapers can sometimes warp the light enough to appear to show an altered city skyline between them. The implications of the fact that this phenomenon is most often reported near sites of Justice League confirmed inter-dimensional fracture points is beyond the scope of this project and will just be noted as a point of further study for the reader.]]

So the way it was told to me by the kids who knew shit back when I was among you all listening was like this: Gotham, that is to say, our Gotham, is The Black City, The Gotham Above. The Other Gotham, the original Gotham, is The White City, the Gotham Below, and it was here first. [[3]] The way it’s told, it’s not just the first Gotham, it’s the first city ever, built (or carved) out of the rock way back before people had figured out things like writing shit down instead of remembering it all, math, or how to build something more than two stories high.

[[3. There have been urban legends of an underground city that exists as a mirror of Gotham since the late 1600s, barely a decade or two after the city’s founding. The two main versions either say that it was some ancient city that sank beneath the swamp and bogs before the arrival of the Europeans, or that it’s an inverse mirror of Gotham that’s formed from all our wickedness and corruption. No evidence of either version of such a city has ever been officially recorded. It’s usually assumed that people who wrote of such things, especially in the earlier centuries, had stumbled upon some of the vast cave networks that extend beneath the breadth of greater Gotham and their stories of giant chambers with rock formations that rivaled the tallest buildings in size were misinterpreted.]]

So you know those whacked out monsters and aliens and weird-dicked demon things you have the Justice League out there beating the ass of every other week? They had all that shit way back in pre-history times too, but they didn’t have any cavemen in capes and spandex to punch them in the face. And they were everywhere. Big creepy monsters, fucked up demons that crawled out of the earth or shadows or fires and might not actually be from Hell, but acted like such murderous shits you could see how humanity got the idea of Hell in the first place. You had twisting shadows that would infect people’s own shadows and turn them into evil twisted things like them. You had monsters that only existed as silent whispers that’d get in a guy’s brain and tell them all sorts of shit till they honestly believed that wearing other people’s skin and dancing under the moon was a totally normal and not at all fucked up thing to do. You look back at the earliest stories humans ever wrote down and you can see they were remembering all sorts of fucked up shit we don’t got around anymore. Or at least, didn’t have around anymore until recently. [[4]] And it’s because of The Other Gotham.

[[4. Like with many aspects of Gotham’s unhoused youth culture’s mythic cycle, the timeline of this all doesn’t line up with actual history except in the vaguest of sense. It is interesting to note however that Princess Diana of Themyscira’s speech about ‘The Return of the Mythic’ (end note (i)) has somehow gotten incorporated here, and in a way that almost perfectly aligns with with current historical consensus.]]

So, the way we figure it must’ve happened was like this: Just because they didn’t have superheroes back then, it doesn’t mean they didn’t have magic. Like, we don’t got a lot of it now, but you can’t argue it doesn’t exist, and pretty much everyone agrees that there used to be a lot more of it way back when, whenever that when was. And that when was here. This is the Way Back When. So a bunch of the smartest most powerful magicals [[sic]] got together to try and figure out a way to get humanity on more of an even standing against all these fucking monsters and evil spirit shits everywhere, and what they came up with was the idea for a great big fuck-off prison for the lot of them.

So they went and found the one place on the planet that had the most Fucked Up energy possible - guess where - and set to work carving it out deep underground. At the bottom of the biggest cavern there was under the three islands and surrounding swamps, they dug out a pit. Not a giant wide pit, but a long deep one. As deep down as they could dig with whatever magic and tools they had back then. And down there at the bottom, they carved out a great chamber in the rock and covered it with all the runes and magic writing and iron and silver and whatever the fuck else you need to keep giant millipedes that eat souls in check. Then, somehow - and if anyone knows how, it sure as shit aint gonna be us - they managed to lure or suck in or capture just about every evil nasty messed up thing on the planet and locked them down in it.

You can tell when this happened if you know enough history cuz it would’ve taken place right before humanity got its collective shit together and started doing things like building cities and writing stuff down and everything else that they count as ‘civilization’ these days. [[5]] But like I said, none of the cities everyone topside were building was the first. The first city was built right here, under our feet. They started out by carving out the insides of the biggest stalag-whatevers hanging down from the cavern roofs to live in while they did the original work. Then, once they figured out how that sort of thing worked, they started building their own towers, hanging down from above where they could keep an eye on their monster prison. All spires and guardian statues and skyways and at the center of it all, a giant hole drilled straight to the middle of the whole fucking planet.

[[5. ‘The Great Binding’ and it’s coinciding with the beginnings of known civilization (end note (ii)) is one of the newest theories out of the field of metahistory. Notably, UC Berkley’s article on the subject referenced in the end notes came out seven weeks after this interview took place. And as a side note to the footnote, even proponents of The Great Binding have no concrete theory on where such a prison might’ve been placed. A giant pit right on the Eastern Seaboard seems incredibly unlikely, however.]]

So yeah, the Gotham Below. Sure, it wasn’t being called Gotham way back then. Not sure they even would’ve given the place a name to begin with. If you’ve never had a city before, would you even think it was something that needed a name? Anyways, Gotham Below. And they didn’t have shit to burn down there, but they did have magic. So, as the story goes, they kept the place lit with magic instead of fire. And all that rock remained as white and untouched by soot and ash as they day it’d gotten carved out. So Gotham Below, the White City. And even with all their magic, those people still eventually got old and died, so it was their kids left watching over the great pit prison. Then they grew old and died, and it was their grandkids left watching. And so it went for centuries and centuries and centuries, for however long it took for humanity to start building cities, then for Europeans to develop to the point where the felt like being assholes, and then for them to decide to go fuck up the rest of the world, and then landing on these same islands and decide that this abandoned remote hellhole was the perfect place to build a brand new city cuz there weren’t enough of those yet or whatever.

Now, this should be obvious, but you can’t keep a thousand million monsters and demons and evil alien ghosts all trapped in one spot and not have shit kinda bleed out over time. When those pilgrims showed up to start building shit here, shit got weird. Now, I haven’t read any of this myself, but the kid who told me all this did, and according to him, if you go back and read through the journals and writings of those guys responsible for building up Gotham originally, you can see that they were fucked in the head. They kept writing about dreams they’d be having, silent streets of gleaming white they’d walk through while they slept and how the visions of great towering spires and skyways and a billion fucking gargoyles filled their pages whenever they tried to draw up designs. [[6]] So that’s what they all wound up making, one bridge and building and road at a time. A perfect mirror of the City Below, but reaching up in the sky instead of down into the earth. Each stalagamitite tower hanging down in one had a tower reaching up in the other. And smack in the middle of original Old Gotham stood the tallest building of all, right over where the pit was drilled far far below. [[7]] The Clocktower aint the tallest building in Gotham anymore, but it used to be. And while the Gotham Below remained pure and gleaming white, up here they hadn’t even finished putting up the first medieval porta-potties before shit was stained with soot and ash and coal smoke and whale oil residue.

[[6. Harris overstates things, but the base assertion is correct here. The writings of Cyrus Pinkney are infamous for their frequent reference to ‘dark and shadowy dreams’ (end note (iii)) and his open acknowledgment of how much those dreams influenced his designs. Not to the extent described here, though.]]

[[7. The Great Gotham Tower. Known better these days as The Gotham Clocktower or just The Clocktower. It was placed at the center of Gotham as it existed in it’s original state, with the rest of Old Gotham laid out around it in expanding circles connected by thoroughfares at each of the eight cardinal directions.]]

And that’s how we got to where we are: With the White City, Gotham Below, and the Black City, Gotham Above.

Now, you can’t go building an entire fucking city without the downstairs neighbors hearing the noise and poking their heads out to see what it’s all about. This is another case where you can find references across all that early writing stuff they keep in the libraries. People started seeing ghosts. I mean, they were calling them ghosts, but they really obvious weren’t. People up high, watching people below. They’d wear big white robes that looked like wings when they moved. They wore strange masks with big smoke-glass eyes. They moved through shadows like they were part of them, they could climb a building as easy as walking, and anyone who tried to climb up to one would either find them gone, or would next be seen falling off the tallest building in the neighborhood.

As the history goes, the masks they wore looked vaguely birdlike. A specific type of bird. But it quickly became obvious that whoever these people were, they really didn’t like it when people called them… that specific bird species. So we don’t. Adults still do sometimes, but that’s because they’re fucking idiots. [[8]] If you need to talk about them, call them the White Birds. Or, even better- They’re vain, these White Birds. If you flatter them, they’re less likely to decide to kill you for talking about them at all. The term that tends to get used a lot these days is Exquisite. [[9]] Not sure who came up with it, but we’ve barely had any kids go missing since we started. Still, it’s best to wait until the middle of the day, and talk about them someplace out in the open where you can be sure no one’s lurking in any shadows.

[[8. Beware the eyes of owls

Who watch us all the time

From lofty perches up on high

To the deepest pits of grime.

They watch us as we work and play

They watch us in our bed

Speak not a whispered word of them

Least talons strike you dead.]]

[[9. “Exquisite” is recorded as being Gotham street-kid slang for ‘untrustworthy john/rich person/official’ in the early 1980s (end note (iv)). An article in The Gotham Gazette from 1954 quotes a homeless kid as saying “We all always knew you couldn’t trust him. He was a full Exquisite Bird type through’n’through. None of us is surprised they found all those bodies up’n’in his place.” (end note (v)), and a stylized EXQU was used as hobo code for a place that seemed nice but must be avoided at all costs along the mid-Atlantic coast during the 1930s. (end note (vi)).]]

So throughout all of Gotham’s history, they’re just… there. Watching from up high in the shadows, the Exquisite Birds. If you see one, no you didn’t. If someone asks you about them, you don’t know what they’re talking about. They don’t like it when people admit they see them, and they’re as quick to slice open witnesses as any other two-bit gang.

So that’s where shit stood for a few centuries. Then something happened. We really don’t know what, and no one who would is the sort who’d tell us, either. We just know what resulted. Grownups call it the Cataclysm, or the Big One. [[10]] One day, the earth just turned over in a giant earthquake, split open, and half of Gotham fell down. Then, suddenly, there were monsters. Monsters everywhere. Gotham had always been shit, but now you had people dressing up like insects and murdering people with giant roach traps, or gangsters turning from murdering assholes to mass-murdering assholes who’d torture you for five hours then pull out your eyeballs for their collection, or giant piles of toxic mud coming to life and eating people.

[[10. It goes without saying, but at this point, Harris’ version of events deviates radically from the known timeline. The first recorded footage of Batman was taken eight years before the Great Gotham Quake, with the first rumors of his existence being almost twelve years earlier. This condensing down of timelines and assuming all events from more than five years ago took place at around the same time is a known phenomenon with children-created mythic cycles. (end note (vii))]]

It was chaos. Everything broke down, no one knew what was going on. The rest of the country looked at what was happening in Gotham and flipped out and shut it all down. They blew up the bridges, put mines in the rivers and blockaded the entire city to try and contain whatever the hell this all was. [[11]]

[[11. No Man’s Land did take place, but if it was because elements of the US government were concerned about an outbreak of mythical monsters in the city, that fact remains undocumented.]]

Now, like I said, we don’t know how everything kicked off, but we know how it ended. Somehow, whether on accident or on purpose, someone broke open the prison buried deep under out feet. Not all the way; none of the truly giant world-ending shit has gotten out. But all those twisted shadows and invisible whispers and nasty spirt ghost fuckers? They slid out just fine. We don’t know if the earthquake cracked it, or if the cracking of it caused the earthquake. We don’t know if the Exquisite Birds did it on purpose, or why if they did. We don’t know if they didn’t stop it because they didn’t care, or they just couldn’t.

End result, though? Chaos in Gotham and monsters killing and corrupting and twisting everyone they could get their semi-visible claws into. And the Exquisite Birds just sitting there up high, watching and doing jack shit about it.

These days, we know what to do when shit like that goes down. We know how to feed wishes to the gargoyles and how to call out for the Bats and the Robins, but people back then, they didn’t know any of that. Hell, there wasn’t anything to pray to or to collect those wishes yet. So you had a whole city of people hoping and praying for something to come save them, and nothing for all that power and energy to ground itself in. And there was a whole lotta power in the air. That ancient magic prison had just busted open after all, so along with all the evil smoke demons and monsters and shit, you also had all that raw protective magic leaking out at the same time. And it got mixed up with all those unanswered wishes and pleads as it coiled up through the spires of a city that was the mirror of its own. And there, at the top of everything, it all found it’s lightning rod and grounded itself and WHAM! Just like that, everything changed.

Now, I’ve seen the old photographs, from back when you got pictures of city skylines from giant blimps and stuff. And the resolution on them is never great, but you can see it all the same. Back when The Clocktower was the tallest building in the city, it had a big fuck-off gargoyle on top of it. Big swept back wings and these curved back horns, and hunched all over looking out towards the ocean for anything that might be sailing in to do harm.

It’s not there anymore. Supposedly, it fell off during the Cataclysm, but I’ve never heard of no reports of it getting dug outta the rubble. [[12]] We know what really happened to it, though. All those wards on the monster prison had failed, all the watching guardians of Gotham Below had failed, and Gotham Above was filled with unanswered prayers. It all came together at the highest point of Old Gotham, and the Bat Man statue sitting there was imbued with both the power and the motive to protect us. All of us. Bam! Batman!

[[12. The Sentinel of Gotham was an actual statue that stood on top of Gotham Tower for over 150 years. It was an angel-winged figure standing ten feet tall with a sword at its side and a shield held facing out to the bay. It fell off the top of the Clocktower in 1967 along with a significant portion of the north-western corner. The damage would remain until the revitalization of Gotham at the end of No Man’s Land. What happened to the statue is unknown. It was recovered for restoration and assumed display in one of Gotham’s museums, but I can find no further word about it after 1968.]]

I mean, we all know about the next parts, yeah? Lots of punching, lots of asskicking. Big giant monster with glowing eyes descending from above to kick the teeth in of anyone who’d given in to the whispering shadows, to the monsters wearing human skin, to the demons and their shadows and all the rest. And it was awesome.

But the kids at the time, the kids like us, they had it rougher. I mean, the way it’s like today isn’t like it was back then. Batman’s been alive for a lot longer now; he’s had time to learn how to be a person and not just some sort of monster-fighting gargoyle. But you can still see it. He talks like most of his throat’s still rock, and he moves like it too. He’s got a punch that sends people through walls, and bullets only make him bleed when he remembers they should and they never keep him down for long. And he still doesn’t really get what it means to be a person, or how to deal with humans. Like, you can tell he tries, but he’s an ancient protective guardian powered by even more ancient vengeance magic and there’s only so much that can do. To the kids of those early days, he was even worse. He didn’t understand that they’d be hungry or lost or alone. He didn’t understand why something like him would be terrifying, and he didn’t get why sometimes you had to steal to eat and survive.

So some of the smart kids of back then got together and worked out a plan. There was still a lot of that protection magic in the air from the prison getting busted wide open and they got the idea to try and channel it all, but on purpose this time.

((The wishes!!))

Right, the wishes. This is when that started. They spread the word. When you needed something, when you’d lost something, when you needed someone to help, you would write down your wish and what and who you needed to fix it, and you’d feed it to a gargoyle. Wish by wish, paper scrap by paper scrap, we taught the gargoyles what sort of protector the city’s children needed. There were attempts to get kids to feed them all to one specific gargoyle or another, but it didn’t really work out, everyone just wound up stuffing them into whatever gargoyle they liked best, or was easiest to reach, or was safe to get to. Turns out, you don’t need to feed the wishes to any specific gargoyle, they all talk to each other. What you wish to one gets picked up by all the others. [[13]]

[[13. This tradition appears to have started a year or two after Robin first premiered. It’s unclear exactly how it originated, but it’s now city-wide knowledge, especially among the kids, that you can feed wishes to gargoyles if you want them to come true. Previous writers have compared this to wishing on a star and have suggested that it’s how Gotham’s youth have adjusted for the fact you can rarely see any stars to wish upon in the city. (end note (viii, ix)). ‘Wishes for Gargoyles’/’Wishing on a Gargoyle/Gargoyle Wishes’ is often used by older Gothamites – particularly parents, teachers, and other caregivers – to refer to young foolish wishes, but with a positive connotation (similar to the phrase ‘puppy love’ meaning young foolish love, but with a positive connotation). (end note (x)). And despite what some city officials have worried, there’s never been a need to invest in going around and clearing years of paper pulp out of gargoyles across the city. What exactly is happening to the wishes instead is unknown.]]

And it worked, is the thing! It barely took a year before there was a second shape following behind the Bat at night. And it wasn’t like the Bat at all. It wasn’t a soot and ash-stained version of the Exquisite Birds, carved out of stone and one with the shadows. It was small, and bright, with the colors of Christmas, Halloween, and the circus all in one. He laughed and told jokes and understood the difference between kids who were crying because they were scared, or tired, or lost, or had just too much happen to them too soon. He knew how to talk to kids and how to help us. He stood between kids who just needed money to eat and the Bat Man’s strict ethics. We’d done it, we’d made a protector of our own. Warmer, more real, more human.

Kind a little too human, it turns out. Robins aren’t eternal like the Bat is. Robins grow up and grow old. Robins can die. Turns out, Robins aren’t made by a gargoyle coming to life like the Bat Man did. It’s more like, the gargoyles sort of push out the essence of all those stored wishes into a form that’s shaped after themselves, but made of our wishes and hopes and needs instead of just stone and rock. We don’t even know exactly which statues most of them came from.

We know the Second Robin’s gargoyle. But we’re Crime Alley kids, so of course we know. He went back to it whenever he needed to rest and heal. There are kids who still climb up there to tend to it and feed it offerings. We’re never gonna get Our Robin back, but it doesn’t feel right to let his gargoyle sit abandoned. And there are some kids who think, or hope, that if we can feed it enough wishes and offerings and positive vibes, maybe someday Crime Alley’s Robin will be able to reform to protect us again.

Until that happens, though, we keep feeding wishes to all the others. The first Robin evolved into Nightwing and became the protector guardian of Bludhaven. Kids who were smarter than me figure it’s because that protective magic is still leaking out of the broken prison and spreading out like a fog. It’s spread far enough out that it can feed them the next city over. Which means they also have those invisible whispers and corruptive shadows and all the rest, which, if you’ve ever talked to a kid from there, you know they absolutely do.

The Uptown Robin dyed himself Red and moved in closer to us here in the Alley. Personally, I figure it’s because he’s been getting all those wishes and offerings we’ve been giving to Second Robin’s gargoyle. It’s sort of merging the two of them a little. Hell, if it wasn’t for that Red Hood guy showing up, he probably would’ve become the Crime Alley guardian fully by now. I always kinda wondered if the Uptown kids have a gargoyle they keep up like we do ours, they just don’t tell anyone about it. I mean, we scarcely do. We sure as hell don’t tell anyone who doesn’t need to know where it is, that’s for damn sure. [[14]]

[[14. I only asked after the second Robin’s gargoyle’s location once. When I told that information wasn’t shared, I didn’t peruse it any further. All the extra glaring here was just really unnecessary.]]

Oh shit, good question, yeah, no, the Bat Girls totally come from the same place. Why some go by one and others go by the other is beyond me. There’ve been girl Robins, and it wouldn’t surprise me if there’ve been guy Batgirls. I think it’s because Gotham’s kids feed so many wishes into the system? There’s a lot of need out here, and so Gotham keeps birthing out new protectors for us. For awhile, I thought it was just a case of there were usually two ‘new’ ones at any given time, so one would get called Robin and the other would get called Bat Girl, but then we had two Bat Girls for awhile, and then Red Robin went back to being Robin while the other Robin was also Robin, but then they kept changing names, and…

Look, I’m sure there are kids out there who have a better grasp on this stuff than I do. I just know where they come from, not what sort of weird rooftop pack/hive dynamics they got going on these days, you know?

So, couple of other points before we close this all up. First, on the nature of wishes. I know it’s real cathar- ceth-. Fuck. Real good feeling to wish death by a thousand cuts on those fuckers who beat you up and stole all your food, or wish that the dad who beat you has his arms chopped off and whatever, but we’re all, all of us kids, city-wide, we’re really pushing that everyone cut down on the violence level of the wishes. The latest Robin we got came out with a sword. He’s straight up merc’ed a few guys too, and it didn’t work out as well as it feels like it should. We don’t want the next one to be even worse. Robin is supposed to be our protector, not our vengeance.

If you want someone to wind up stabbed, you learn how to use a knife and take care of that shit yourself.

We’re pretty sure the one extra invisible Bat Girl was formed out of the Bat’s shadow. She doesn’t talk much because they have to share the same voice, and she’s usually happy to let him use it, but this way the Bat’s able to properly Bat at two different places in the city at once. So she’s like the born wish of a born wish. It’s no wonder she’s so slippery and invisible half the time. Unless she’s actively punching something, she barely physically exists at all.

And no, no one’s exactly sure what’s up with Signal. I mean, yeah, obviously he was formed out of the Bat Signal. Skin’s the same color as the metal, outfit’s the same color as the light, and he actually shines and glows and all the rest. And he says he’s The Signal. This is like obvious base level shit.

We just don’t know who’s wishes he was born from. I mean, it’s possible that somehow the Bat Signal’s gotten tied into the gargoyle network, but that seems kinda implausible to me. Some have said maybe he was born out of the wishes of the police for Batman to show up and help out during the day for fucking once, but he’s way less violent and murdery than you’d expect from something born out of cop wishes.

Buddy of mine who’s pretty damn smart and is usually better at these things than me thinks Signal might’ve been born from the police commissioner’s wishes specifically. Which kinda makes sense. He’s like the one cop who actually gets upset when someone gets shot twenty times in the back for no reason, and he’s always the one turning on the Bat-Signal and talking to the Bat under it for years and years and years.

Kid I knew a year back actually managed to ask Signal who’s wishes he was born out of, but Signal just laughed and said something along the lines of “Doesn’t really matter who wished for me. What matters is they wished for everyone to be safe, so that’s what we’re here to do.” Then he blasted apart these giant shadow-bat things with bat-light beams and it was awesome.

So yeah. That’s where Batman and the Robins and the Bat Girls and all the rest came from, and why they do what they do. Give thanks to Poshkid for the food, remember to put out your fires before you sleep, and if anyone wants to talk about the EBs, track me down tomorrow and we’ll go hang out in Leeds’ Park around noon so we can be sure nothing’s listening in.

#DCU #Gotham #Batman #The Myths Children Tell Each Other #Civilian's view of the DCU #Fiction #Writing #The Crime Alley Kid

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kapanbenernya · 2 years

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God of War -- BOY

Well here it is lads, another one of those elusive PS4 exclusives. This one however, is one I've been kinda looking forward to, unlike HZD. It's because I used to own a PS2, and I also owned God of War 1 and 2, and holy balls if they weren't some good games. I happened to miss God of War 3 because I didn't get to play it in the short moment that I owned a PS3, but I've seen all the important bits on the net, so I think I'm ready for GoW 4. But it seems that I needn't have done that because GoW 4 is not THAT connected to the past events of the series, and all the important tidbits are explained in-game.

Now let me warn you from the start that I'm afraid God of War isn't going to get a fair assessment from me because I happen to be playing it together with Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. And for the time being, Sekiro has got the advantage because I'm a sucker for FromSoftware Games and I can play it on my PC without having to turn on my PS4 which is hooked to my brother's monitor because my monitor doesn't support HDMI (yeah, it's rather old). So let's see if Kratos can duke it out with one hand tied to his loincloth

First, let me tell you bout the story

The story follows Kratos, currently living a peaceful and secluded life in the woods of some Nordic woods after he's ran out of gods to kill in Greece. We soon learned that he has now retired from the all the God killing business and has settled down with his family. But since happy happy family timey doesn't make a God of War game, of course shit's gonna get fucky real quick. I mean the game opens with Kratos getting interrupted by a drunkard after doing a funeral for his wife. If that doesn't spell out an incoming rage-induced adventure right out the front door, I don't know what will. So since Kratos' wife had a last will which is to scatter her ashes somewhere that entails hiking a mountain, you can kinda guess where the direction of the game goes: it's bring your son to an impromptu deicide session! This time, the norse pantheon of Gods!

Okay, now that the story's out of the way, I guess I have to talk about the gameplay

This is it, isn't it? The part where basically everyone on the internet angrily slammed their keyboard like it owes them money. Usually their point goes like "Where is the OLD combat? Why is the camera so close? OOH look at those red arrows on the back! The old Kratos doesn't need those!". And well, I agree to some part. I mean the old GoW games did put a lot of emphasis to the fast and brutal combat where kratos can swing, slam, and rip his enemies while flipping around the battlefield in search for unfortunate enemies to turn them into red orbs. So you can see why switching to a 3rd person camera juuuust behind Kratos can be a bit jarring. The wide angle of the old GoW means you are aware of all enemies on the screen and what they are doing, and that you are basically free to buzz about where you want. Being on 3rd person cam means that you can only see a portion of them and that your movement is a bit more limited. This makes the combat feels a lot more restricted compared to the old free flow combat, and basically what made people go "this is NOT God of War".

But let's try to distance ourselves from the old god of war and give GOW4 a leg to stand on its own. Is the combat still good? Yes, but it does takes some getting used to. I have to admit: even after playing it from start to finish I still haven't fully grasped the combat. I still couldn't beat some of the Valkyries even on normal difficulty, where previously I could beat normal bosses just fine in the old GoW combat. Is this a sign that the combat isn’t as good? Of course not, this just means that I’m a scrub and have no business playing a video game.

So if the combat is not as good, why do we keep up with it?

Well turns out GoW does have a secret weapon: a dynamic story. You can feel progress and see things change, unlike Sekiro, in which the only thing that changes is my frustration and willpower to play the game. You see how Kratos treats Atreus differently at at the start of the game where he's basically one quip away from strangling the little fuck himself compared to the later portion of the game where he more or less sees him as an actual companion instead of a talking overgrown sperm. This isn't something that you get in a lot of games, especially not the old God of War games. If Kratos had a child in the old God of War (one that isn't already dead, mind you) the only interaction we will get it a QTE where you just yeet that bitch gone and fuck another round of prostitutes.

Now that the technical shit's out of the way, I'm going to put some REAL personal gripes

God of War, you've changed. This time it's not about the gameplay or the story, it's the whole theming and tone of the game. Gone is the brutal Kratos that solves every problem by turning it into a bloody mess. For example, Remember how in the Alfheim level where we gotta solve some riddle to advance the setpiece? Well in God of War 2 the riddle was bash man's head into pillar and let the blood flow. So what the fuck happened? God of War has always been about the fantasy Greek architectures, the mythical beasts and the Greek gods, and how you're gonna kill those mythical creatures in those majestic places. It's about Kratos angrily going on about his revenge to the whole pantheon of gods and everyone who happens to breathe around him. So tell me, how did THAT turned into bring-your-son-to-work day? How did it turn into a Naughty Dog game where your character fumbles through sights of nature while the plot just meanders around to breed more sub-plots? I mean imagine if they made a new Devil May Cry where Dante's grown old.

Oh wait...

Okay how about… Imagine if Dante's now stuck to a wheelchair running a retirement home named "Devil May Shit in Pants" telling people about devil triggers and the pulling thereof?

Well okay, maybe you say "God of War has changed, deal with it", and maybe you're right. Maybe the change in story and theme is to reflect the state of who Kratos is now. No longer is he the angry god killer that reacts to everything with unbridled rage. He's now a family man, a grieving widower, and a not-so exemplary father figure. He's old and more vulnerable, and it shows when he fights: he's visibly exhausted and panting after certain fights, he no longer pulls off the crazy rip and tear motions, and he now submits to dodge rolling away like every other pleb. Or maybe it's because games with violence, gore, and gratuitous moneyshot kill-cam has lost it's value and simply became the norm. Just another thing mass media plops out day in day out. And so, the dev chooses to explore the other side of being mature that's never before expressed in video games. About responsibility and what it means to be a dad on a field trip with your child to kill every motherfucker on the planet.

Wait, isn't that basically The Last of Us? Well never mind, then!

In Brief

For you old fans of the GoW series, chances are you wanna know if GoW 4 carries the heritage of the old series or--like Kratos himself-- buried it in shame and never speak of it again. Well, we've already established that the combat isn't the same as the old one, so the only leg it's got is the story section. Whether or not you enjoy GoW 4 will depend on how invested you are in the father and son story it tells. I personally disliked it at first but gently warmed up to it and ended up more excited to finish GoW than Sekiro. Although to be fair, it's only because finishing GoW does not feel like I'm breaking a wall with only my limp dick.

27/12/2022

Trivia: This review was started all the way back in 2018. And for comparison, the sequel to GoW4 (GoW Ragnarok) has already been released months prior to this review. I am a failure and I will one day stand in front of God and be responsible for all of His time I have wasted

#pc games #steam #ps4 #god of war

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humanwheatleyslefttoenail · 4 years

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why do you ship chell and glados if glados is basically her mom

Okay this is actually a pretty common misconception in the fandom that unfortunately a lot of people have taken as canon, but I’m feeling nice so I’ll answer your question.

Basically, anon is referencing a theory from around 2012 that Caroline is Chell’s mom. The evidence for the theory is as follows:

- The turret opera calls Chell “bambina”, which means “little girl” in Italian

- Chell’s name can be found on a Bring Your Daughter To Work Day science project

- GLaDOS references the possibility of Chell being adopted multiple times

- GLaDOS is significantly nicer to Chell after discovering she’s Caroline

And, anon, you’re right, it does sound like a pretty good argument at first glance. The problem is that a lot of these points don’t actually hold up to scrutiny.

For example, although “bambina” literally translates to “little girl,” it’s often used in the same way “baby girl” is used in English - it can mean child, but contextually it’s usually a flirtatious term. (Source: Cambridge Dictionary)

For Chell’s science project, it doesn’t work as evidence for the theory because GLaDOS killed the scientists around 1998-ish, when Caroline had presumably been uploaded several years earlier and Cave was already dead. Also, Chell’s in her 20′s, and since we know from Lab Rat/Portal 2 that people don’t age in stasis, and that Doug put Chell at the top of the test subject list only weeks after the takeover, Chell was 28 at the time of the takeover. The science project is really only an Easter egg and doesn’t actually fit into the canon timeline let alone prove anything about Caroline and Cave.

GLaDOS talking about Chell being adopted is a pretty strong point, I’ll admit, but also it’s important to remember that maybe half of what GLaDOS says is true. And even if we take what she says at face value, she also says there’s a man and a woman in stasis with Chell’s last name, which could not have been Cave and Caroline because they were already dead at that point. And the official book Final Hours Of Portal 2 confirms Cave and Caroline were not married and could not have shared the same name anyway. It was also the 50′s, an an unmarried couple of two likely famous people having a child would’ve been scandalous, and yet we see no hint of something like this affecting their company.

Also, although GLaDOS is nicer to Chell after the Caroline reveal, that’s not necessarily indicative of a mother-daughter relationship, and neither is any of their interactions. It’s just. GLaDOS being friendlier.

Finally, when this theory was made (and let’s be honest - it still is happening) Chell was constantly whitewashed to hell and back.

Chell is Japanese-Brazilian, and Cave and Caroline are white, so it would be a near impossibility for her to be their biological child (and insisting otherwise is kinda. just. whitewashing). And although people will cry “adoption!”, based on what I’ve previously proven, that’s pretty much impossible. This theory that somehow she’s Cave and Caroline’s daughter erases an important part of her identity. [Disclaimer, I am white, but this is what I’ve heard from around the fandom]

With all that said, the idea that she’s the daughter of Cave and Caroline really doesn’t hold weight when you really analyze the canon. It’s surface level analysis that doesn’t hold up. And honestly? The idea kinda cheapens the story. It’s much more powerful that GLaDOS learns to care about Chell and becomes kinder than just. Oh, she remembered she’s related to Chell.

But to actually answer your ask.

Why do I ship them?

Well, they aren’t mother and daughter, I think that’s pretty obvious now. But if you actually look at a lot of subtext in Portal 2, without the lens of the mother theory, it’s actually pretty romantic!

I know that sounds ridiculous, but bear with me!

Now - it’s totally okay if you don’t ship them. I get it. Their interactions in Portal 1 and the first half of Portal 2 are toxic if not outright well. Y’know. Murderous. I completely understand why that turns people off from shipping them, and ultimately, shipping is a personal thing. To each his own.

But before you judge me, let me present my case.

Exhibit A: Portal

Portal is kinda gay. No, really. Chell and GLaDOS are enemies in this game, but the entire focus is on their relationship (good or not) and the power struggle between them. They are opposites, two sides of the same coin, different representations of opposite ideologies. People have analyzed Portal as a relationship metaphor, or as a metaphor about women’s role in society - either way, the heart of Portal is the complicated dynamic between Chell and GLaDOS.

That’s not necessarily enough to code a romance, but a lot of popular (and especially popular queer ones) ships begin with opposite ideologies, symbolic powers colliding. Portal cements their relationship as a toxic one, something on the verge of falling apart and hurting both parties in the end. The ending image, of Chell and GLaDOS side by side after the battle, reinforces the symbolic parallels between the two.

The companion cube is also pretty symbolically important to this interpretation. It’s literally a representation of someone’s heart, and you are told to protect it and preserve it under GLaDOS’ orders, and then you have to destroy it regardless of how you actually feel about doing that. You are destroying GLaDOS’ heart, so to speak.

There’s also the ending song, Still Alive. The lyrics speak for themselves.

They hint that GLaDOS’ feelings about Chell are more complicated than they may appear (if she’s not being sarcastic...) and she literally talks about Chell breaking her heart (also, think back to the companion cube. Yeah.). The entire song is structurally similar to many a breakup number, with the laments of “I’m glad it happened, but also leave.”

At the end, we also see that the long promised cake GLaDOS was supposedly lying about was real the whole time. Before Portal 2 came out, it was mostly interpreted as a stinger ending (along with the nicer lyrics of Still Alive) to make you question GLaDOS’ true motives and intentions.

She actually did have a real cake waiting for you. (Side note - not really evidence, but in Argentina, “torta” means cake in Spanish. It’s also a slang term for lesbians. So. Do with that what you will). The cake is what GLaDOS offers you to lull you into the sense that she cares about you, so discovering that “the cake is a lie” wakes you up to the realization that she doesn’t. Except then the idea is subverted one last time, at the very end, showing that the cake is real and at least some of what she said she meant.

You also see the companion cube. You know, GLaDOS’ symbolic heart?

Now, okay, you might be thinking I’m extrapolating a bit too much. And you might be right. But Portal is not the only game in the series, and if you’re asking me about Cave and Caroline you obviously know about Portal 2.

Exhibit B: Portal 2

If you thought Portal was gay, Portal 2 turns that up to 11.

Even before GLaDOS wakes up, you’re treated to some visual subtext. A few of Rattmann’s drawings representing the events of Portal 2 focus a lot on the relationship between GLaDOS and Chell, with more of the cake symbolism.

In this, you can see a face layered on top of GLaDOS. This could be foreshadowing about Caroline, and likely is, but also resembles his other drawing of Chell. It insists that Chell is a part of GLaDOS, or reinforces parallels between Chell and Caroline, hinting at something either way.

In this picture, we also see Chell standing on top of GLaDOS, in the same position where the overlay of the feminine face was, again referencing the parallel. It also presents them as opposites, fundamental parts of the same thing and both connected to the same basis, but on opposing sides.

When GLaDOS wakes up, she returns to her antagonistic role, but there are more hints to something deeper just like in Portal.

Here, in her awakening lines, she references Chell not unlike an estranged ex. Also worth noting that GLaDOS is pretty much the personification of testing (in a sense, she is testing since she can control all of Aperture like an extension of her body), and insinuates that Chell loves to test. And that she reciprocates that feeling.

In test chamber 10, she says this:

It’s supposed to be threatening, but it does read as almost... sentimental.

There’s also another chamber with companion cubes in Portal 2. I already talked about their symbolism in Portal, and the same pretty much applies to them here. However, GLaDOS says something interesting about them during this level:

Once again, meant to be intimidating, ends up coming off as “well, GLaDOS, why were you going to give Chell a heart shaped representation of yourself that says ‘I love you?’” And you might think I’m stretching the GLaDOS’ heart metaphor thing a little far here, and I might agree, if the companion cubes didn’t literally sing Cara Mia for you.

Cara Mia is the turret opera from the end of the game, which is all about how much GLaDOS cares about Chell. More on that later. But the companion cubes play a song called Love as A Construct, and when you get close to them, they sing a specific part of the song that has the tune of Cara Mia. These things literally exist to sing about GLaDOS’ feelings.

Which makes this line a lot more. For lack of a better term. Tsundere-ish.

Then, right before the escape, she starts talking about the confetti from her fake surprise.

I really don’t have to explain this one. What else does GLaDOS consider an inconvenience but might miss anyway? Or, more aptly, who else?

Then, during the escape, she teases a (fake) final test chamber in front of you, and forms the panels in the shape of a heart. No, really.

Up to this point, a lot of the points I’ve presented are interspersed with a fair amount of antagonization on GLaDOS’ behalf, more Foe Yay than anything actually hinting at something deeper than GLaDOS being conflicted about whether she loves or hates Chell. But things really ramp up after Wheatley’s betrayal, when the two of them are forced to team up. (I should also note here that “enemies to lovers” is a pretty classic queer romance trope.)

Here, GLaDOS is put on an equal level with Chell and they have to rely on each other if they want to survive. For the rest of the singleplayer campaign, GLaDOS becomes a lot nicer and even friendly to Chell. There comes a point where she starts referring to Chell as a teammate, calling them “we.” She begins to consider them one unit, two opposites unified. Here’s what she says after the lemon rant:

You can not only see her using we, but actively talking about how her and Chell are going to fight Wheatley together. There’s also that last line - “let’s explode with some dignity.” GLaDOS has fully accepted the very likely possibility that she and Chell might die together. That she might die on the same level, and the same team as Chell. And she seems... surprisingly okay with that, as long as she and Chell go together.

It’s during the Old Aperture levels that Chell and GLaDOS also discover that they have a lot in common. This is the part of the game where GLaDOS figures out she’s Caroline, that she’s human. Or, that she’s like Chell. And Chell discovers (from what we can tell anyway) that Caroline is kind, that she’s funny and smart and so many of these things she never noticed about GLaDOS before. Now also with the knowledge she is fighting alongside another human being.

You can also draw parallels between Chell and Caroline, both intelligent women ultimately betrayed by their seemingly innocuous male friends before being trapped in Aperture and forced to team up with one another in a way that will free both of them. We see that really, GLaDOS isn’t that different from Chell - she too has been imprisoned in this place against her will, but in a completely different way. Once again, the idea of two sides of the same coin applies here.

I’ve written another meta about this before, but I also think the whole idea of repressing a part of your identity and hating it, before bonding with another woman and then realizing that it’s okay to be like her and to be on her side. It’s okay to be yourself and meeting her is what helps you discover this new part of yourself. Is kinda inherently gay. GLaDOS’ discovery of her own humanity just fits so well into a queer realization narrative, to me at least.

Then, Chell and GLaDOS escape Old Aperture and have to get through Wheatley’s tests.

Here, GLaDOS isn’t just begrudgingly on Chell’s team. She’s actively helpful. She wants to help Chell solve tests, defends her from Wheatley’s insults, and makes jokes to lighten the mood. Things that can really only be explained by her caring about Chell, especially the part about the insults. See below.

After the two escape Wheatley’s testing track, right before the boss fight GLaDOS has a few other things to say.

GLaDOS is not going to betray Chell, because of some kind of conscience. But she could easily ignore that back in her body, and yet? Here she’s deciding not to, and for no good reason. She didn’t have to say that to Chell, but she did, because she cares and she wants Chell to live.

And then, moments before the fight:

The final lines imply that GLaDOS does not think of Chell as an enemy anymore, and that it doesn’t matter what Chell thinks because they are in this together and they are getting revenge together. It’s pretty heartwarming to be honest, to know that even in a fight that will almost certainly kill you, she is there rooting for you and caring about you, even if you don’t feel the same way about her. It no longer matters to GLaDOS whether you even reciprocate - you staying alive, you making it through is enough for her.

So Chell fights Wheatley and sends him into space, all well and good, and at this point, GLaDOS has the option to kill Chell. But not only does she not, she actively saves Chell, and holds her hand in the process. If you don’t believe me:

And not only that, but when Chell goes unconscious from her injuries, GLaDOS sits and waits for her to wake up. It’s also implied that GLaDOS carries her to the elevator, since it’s where she wakes up but not where she passed out. In the scene where Chell blacks out, you can also hear the part of Love As A Construct that sounds like Cara Mia. Yeah. Yeah.

If you think that this cannot possibly get any gayer, you are wrong again, because then GLaDOS makes her final speech. Which is really just a love confession, let’s be honest.

The “surge of emotion?” Do you mean love, GLaDOS? And the idea of GLaDOS considering Chell her best friend, despite everything these two have done to each other? The idea that GLaDOS, out of all people, forgives someone?

Except this isn’t even Chell’s final send-off. GLaDOS writes her an entire opera of turrets, that sing a literal love song. (Note what I said earlier about the use of the word “bambina”).

It really can’t get any more obvious than that. “My (affectionate romantic term here), my dear, I adore you.” How. Is. That. Heterosexual. In. Any. Way.

So Chell goes to the surface, set free by GLaDOS (think of the saying “if you love something, set it free), and you think that’s the end. Until GLaDOS gives you a companion cube so you aren’t alone on the journey, and from the burn marks, you know it’s your first companion cube. Her original heart, her first gift to you, a piece of her that she wants you to carry with you to remind you that she does care about you after everything. It also gives the lyrics to Still Alive a much more genuine meaning.

Portal 2 ends, and then the ending song, another GLaDOS number plays. Just like Still Alive, Want You Gone is structurally a break up song and very obviously about GLaDOS missing Chell and “counting on” (read: caring about/loving) Chell’s tendencies and quirks.

She’s accepted Chell completely, and yet also given Chell the one thing she wants most. Only wanting Chell gone can mean GLaDOS not wanting Chell in her life anymore, but can also mean she wants to give Chell the freedom she’s wanted for so, so long. It’s the best thing she can give.

In the co-op campaign, GLaDOS also references still caring about Chell.

And that’s the end of the Portal series. Except. Brace yourself. Despite the games being over, there is STILL more subtext somehow. It gets. Even gayer.

Exhibit C: Supplemental Evidence

Valve has made a lot of extra/cut content for the Portal series, and I’ll be looking at some of it below.

This official valentine from Valve shows GLaDOS offering a romantic partner cake, which as we’ve established before, is very symbolic of GLaDOS’ feelings about and/or relationship with Chell.

There’s a lot of other concept art and official art that emphasizes their relationship too. See below.

There’s also some cut GLaDOS lines that are even gayer than the source material and again, sound like confessions or references to a breakup:

The idea of “discovering things about someone”... how much more obvious can it get?

The developers have even confirmed a lot of my commentary on Chell and GLaDOS’ relationship in The Final Hours Of Portal 2. See these quotes from the book/this post:

The devs literally describe it as a romance. They use terms like “cheating,” they wanted to write a romantic duet, JoCo purposefully wrote the endings like love songs. It is literally, blatantly said by the creators of the game that their relationship is interpreted romantically. By the creators of the game.

And if Word of God confirmation isn’t enough for you, have a song written for a cut alternate ending by GLaDOS’ voice actress, Ellen McClain. The song is literally nothing but GLaDOS talking about caring about Chell, about not wanting her to die/leave GLaDOS alone, about wanting to bake a cake with Chell, about waiting for Chell to wake her up. It’s so genuinely sweet and sad, and really, really romantic in the most heartwrenching way possible.

JoCo also came back for the Portal levels in Lego Dimensions, writing one final breakup song for GLaDOS to sing about Chell. It comes off as GLaDOS not wanting to admit she misses Chell even though she obviously does, trying to replace their relationship but failing, and even explicitly forgiving Chell/wanting her to come back.

Also, the “finally I understand,” as if only now GLaDOS understands just how deep her feelings for Chell are... What else can I say?

In Lego Dimensions, GLaDOS also outright rejects anyone who isn’t Chell.

In Conclusion:

Why do I ship Chell and GLaDOS?

Well, ultimately, it doesn’t matter whether I ship them.

Because I think it’s glaringly obvious Portal does.

#chelldos #chell #glados #portal #portal 2 #tw fatphobia #whitewashing #fandom racism #long post

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crimeronan · 4 years

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Ok so I’m into the dreamer trilogy and haven’t read the Raven cycle...what is Declan’s characterisation/journey there?

THIS MIGHT BE THE BEST ASK I’VE EVER RECEIVED. IMAGINE I’M STANDING WITH MY ARMS SPREAD USING DIFFERENT VOICES AND HAND GESTURES TO REENACT THIS STORY FOR A RESENTFUL CAPTIVE AUDIENCE

also declan’s TRC storyline is like. equal parts horribly fucking sad and unbelievably fucking hilarious so. i will try to strike a Balance

FIRST OFF. there is exactly one (1) declan POV chapter in the entire series. it happens toward the end of the last book. up until then, everything we know about him comes from the observations and narration of others.

he is also a very minor character. his importance grows throughout the series, but almost all of his actions happen offscreen. it’s not until the last book that we know exactly how much he’s been dealing with the whole time.

when he’s introduced in the first book, he appears as a plot device. here is a two-dimensional horrible controlling hardass who doesn’t give a shit about anything but his future political career. look at his fake, smug fucking grin. how did someone like ronan end up with a brother like him?? doesn’t matter. it’s a convenient excuse for ronan to live with his best friend in a drafty warehouse, which means more room for YA hijinks!

declan’s introduction scene is Embroiled in Capital-D Douchebaggery. according to the narration (from gansey and adam), he loves to fuck women and then never call them back, cozy up to powerful people, and bitch about how ronan’s ruining his life by being sad about their dead parents. SOME people can just get over their dead parents, ronan!

this intro scene is also Extremely Funny i 100% recommend reading it even if u don’t read the actual series. ronan makes a nasty comment, declan goes “why are you the way that you are” and tries to salvage his date, gansey utters the phrase “man whore”

then later that night things go like. actually bad.

declan shows up at the same pizza place where ronan is with his friends. this scene is gansey pov. gansey runs out to the parking lot to find the two of them Very Literally Trying To Kill Each Other. you don’t see that violence in cdth - there’s only the TINIEST shadow of it when declan confronts ronan over matthew - so i Cannot Express Enough that someone is going to end up hospitalized at BEST. ronan’s already slammed declan’s head on the car, declan’s already grabbed ronan and beaten the shit out of his face, like.

you do not get good old-fashioned Declan Lynch At His Actual Worst in cdth. u might be thinking, THAT guy???? doing THIS????

oh yeah. things are real bad between declan and ronan.

after gansey breaks up the fight (and gets punched in the face for his trouble, albeit accidentally), declan tells ronan that their dad would be fucking ashamed to see him now & that he’s washing his hands of it & basically if ronan wants to go off and fucking die, he can.

this is like. just a couple months after the magical suicide attempt referenced in cdth

in the aftermath of that scene it becomes clear that ronan absolutely unequivocally 100% will kill himself if he has to live with declan. hence. why he’s living with gansey instead. gansey spends that whole night petrified that the declan altercation will lead to another attempt, and for Good Reason

so like, that’s how we first meet declan. he’s an uncaring wannabe corporate asshole who does not give a fuck and who only exists to exacerbate ronan’s mental health issues.

but then the opening of book 2 gets real interesting.

book 2 is where we start learning more about the lynch family. we learn that ronan’s father was a dreamer who sold his creations on the black market, we learn that that’s why he was murdered. we learn that ronan’s a dreamer too. we learn that there are very powerful people looking for the greywaren, an artifact that takes objects from dreams. those powerful people just don’t realize it’s a person, yet.

so here’s the assassin who killed niall lynch.

he goes to declan’s dorm.

with everything we know about declan, the kid should be completely unprepared. he can box, but the assassin knows that, so there’s no real advantage. he’s alone, and he doesn’t have an escape route.

declan pulls out a gun.

this is an unexpected turn of events.

unfortunately he ends up getting beaten half to death with the butt of said gun, because he loses the ensuing physical struggle for the weapon. the assassin is like, i need the greywaren. declan is like, i know it exists but i don’t know what it is. i’ll find it for you. i’ll get it to you. then you’ll leave me the fuck alone

now with everything we know of declan at this point - his attitude toward ronan, his general demeanor, and this new knowledge that he knew about the black market - there’s one obvious question.

will declan sell ronan out if he finds out about the dreaming.

and like, okay. their relationship is antagonistic in cdth but it is NOT what it is in trc. believe me when i tell you that at that point, when you’re reading, you can pretty reasonably go, “oh, god. oh god. oh god please no one ever tell declan what the greywaren is. oh god.”

declan has some other interactions with ronan and the gang throughout the book, mostly where he’s just a hardass who tells ronan to stop causing trouble. adam’s the only one who notices that declan is scared. like bone-deep shaking to the core petrified. about Something.

probably getting beaten to within an inch of his life by the man who murdered his father. that’s the reasonable reader conclusion.

so imagine how everything changes when you find out that declan already knows. that declan’s known about ronan’s dreaming for longer than ronan has. that declan knew exactly what and who the greywaren was, and he lied to a man who was ready to torture him for information, and he got away with it.

suddenly a lot of things recontextualize.

“keep your head down and stop making trouble”? people are gonna NOTICE your magic bullshit, ronan, we do not have time for this!

“stop hanging with that loser druggie friend of yours”? you mean the loser druggie friend who sells on the magic black market and doesn’t care about protecting himself or anyone else?

“i got super weird for no reason about ronan sleeping close to adam”? i don’t have fucking TIME to be homophobic i’m busy with your POTENTIAL TO MANIFEST NIGHT TERRORS IN FRONT OF WITNESSES IN BROAD DAYLIGHT

“i’ll find out what the greywaren is and bring it to you”? i’ll die. i’m making a bargain to die. i’m never giving you the greywaren and i know you’re going to kill me about it and that’s fine as long as my brothers are safe

ronan doesn’t know that he dreamed matthew. declan knows. he’s known the whole time. declan tells ronan in book 3. and then things recontextualize even further, because ronan’s death is also matthew’s, and matthew IS close to declan in trc.

but declan never tells the goddamn truth unless it’s his last option. he doesn’t tell ronan that he knows about the dreaming and he doesn’t tell ronan what specifically wants to hurt him and the lack of communication fucking destroys both of them.

in the last book, ronan realizes declan loves him.

more than that, he realizes declan’s loved him the whole time.

this is when declan finally tells the truth. things are getting bad, plot-wise, and declan is scared, so he comes clean. he tells ronan that niall specifically tasked declan with protecting ronan from the market. he begs ronan to run from the danger. “let’s pour gasoline on everything dad left and start over.”

this is also when ronan realizes that declan’s childhood was very different from ronan’s own. and that niall and aurora lynch were not the same people to declan that they were to ronan. and that their father’s decisions are what’s driven the wedge between him and declan all this time

(he’s still struggling with the cognitive dissonance of this in cdth. i don’t think he knows how to adjust his perception of declan to fit this new information.)

aaaaand the final scene with declan makes me cry every time i read it so instead of summarizing, here’s the important part:

Ronan delivered a sharp tap to the object, and a small cloud of fiery orbs sprayed up with a sparkling hiss.

“Jesus, Ronan!” Declan jerked his chin away.

“Please. Did you think I’d blow your face off?”

He demonstrated it again, that quick tap, that burst of brilliant orbs. He tipped it into Declan’s hand, and before Declan could say anything, jabbed it to activate it once more.

Orbs gasped up into the air. For a moment, he saw how his brother was caught inside them, watching them soar furiously around his face, each gold sun firing gold and white, and when he saw the spacious longing in Declan’s face, he realized how much Declan had missed by growing up neither dreamer nor dreamt. This had never been his home. The Lynches had never tried to make it Declan’s home.

“Declan?” Ronan asked.

Declan’s face cleared. “This is the most useful thing you’ve ever dreamt. You should name it.”

“I have. ORBMASTER. All caps.”

“Technically you’re the orbmaster though, right? And that’s just an orb.”

“Anyone who holds it becomes an ORBMASTER. You’re an ORBMASTER right now. There, keep it, put it in your pocket. D.C. ORBMASTER.”

Declan reached out and scuffed Ronan’s shaved head. “You’re such a little asshole.”

The last time they’d stood on this roof together, their parents had both been alive, and the cattle in these fields had been slowly grazing, and the world had been a smaller place. That time was gone, but for once, it was all right.

The brothers both looked back over the place that had made them, and then they climbed down from the roof together.

#long post #REALLY long post #i haven't reread this so excuse any incoherence #trc #trc meta #not really but??#suicide /#declan lynch #i love my idiot son #replies #Anonymous

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pain-in-the-butler · 3 years

Text

The time has come once again

The Bloodbath

“I’m simply one hell of a butler” says Sebastian as he starts cleaning as usual

Okay so Agni’s taking no prisoners

Work Nerd, Science Nerd, and Jock Nerd team up to form the Nerd Trifecta

Team One Brain Cell joins up with Phipps, who is quite possibly their only chance for survival

Ran-Mao remembers how Harcourt beat everyone in the unfortunately deleted round and said “Not in my backyard”

So far, everyone else has simply run away unscathed or grabbed a weapon they won’t use because the game doesn’t record weapons. Rip Tanaka

Day 1

Ran-Mao bringing the canon energy by adding a second weapon to her arsenal

Phipps somehow always turns into Team Dad during these, so I’m glad to see he’s finding time for his favorite hobbies

Undertaker up to his usual Sneaky Antics

It hasn’t even been twelve hours yet. Kind of impressive honestly

Considering Harcourt lost his mace, I’ll just assume the attack Grell “escaped” from was the vicious stabbing of his trim little schoolboy fingernails

Bad vibes

It appears that Lau also brought his canon game

Sebastian in the most recent chapters be like

I’ve actually never had this event come up before and it has to happen between two of the more innocent characters in the series;;;; god Lizzie you deserve better even in the Hunger Games Simulator

Where’s a Safety Nerd when you need one

What’s better than this? Guys bein dudes

This is probably what happened after Ciel left Weston

Sebastian will take care of this for ya, huh bud

Other events:

Agni practices his archery

Wolfram goes fishing

Othello finds a cave

Soma goes ‘splorin

Edward goes huntin

Day 1′s Deaths: Tanaka, Sieglinde, Lizzie, and Macmillan. Someday one of the ladies will win

Night 1

Butler slumber party in the woods, BYOYM (bring your own young master)

It takes a lot of energy to be this blond

I’m happy for her :)

Yeah I’ll bet you probably do Lau

A tonal shift so abrupt I got mental whiplash

Can we go back to when Grell was looking at the sky pls

Thought about science too hard. Got a concussion

Thought about Ciel dying too hard. Got an infection

Aww dad :( Hope you caught some fish tho

Looks like Harcourt won’t be winning this one, gang

I stg the hunger games simulator is misogynist because the ladies always DIE /j

Ran-Mao is hopefully here to prove the previous statement wrong

Other events:

Bard gets a hatchet

Undertaker also passes out from exhaustion

R!Ciel goes to sleep in a tree

Day 2

Oh you five are SO going in my burn book for this. It’s what Grell would’ve wanted

Ahaha just like in the real manga... right guys (;

Idk about you but I’m rooting for her

I don’t think the simulator could’ve picked four people who were less likely to team up than this

I would too if I saw my best friend was palling around with an opium dealer, a grim reaper with a lawn mower, and another grim reaper that the first grim reaper doesn’t like

Other events:

Othello chases Wolfram

That’s the only other event actually

That means today we lost O!Ciel, Mey-Rin, Harcourt, and Grell. ffs, I hope Ran-Mao kills all of you

Night 2

I’ve missed you, rare pair simulator

The “unknown sponsor” was Undertaker and the “fresh food” was O!Ciel

Confirmed: Lau doesn’t get high off his own supply

Once again a ceasefire between the strong hungry boys is formed

Girl, you don’t have to do that

“Did you kill Ciel?” Sebastian asks

“No that was William,” Othello says

Sebastian punches a tree so hard that it combusts. “God damn. Fuck” Sebastian says

Wolfram just realized I put him in the Hunger Games simulator

Other events:

Phipps thinks about “Are you winning son”

Undertaker gazes at space

Ronald becomes Lost Ronald

Soma passes out

Bard gets some water

Day 3

Damn Agni who haven’t you flirted with

Finny sees that Bard has water and thinks Bard cooked it himself, so he wants no part of that (might be burnt)

What did he even have that was worth stealing? A fish?

Well I can tell you who isn’t creating that smoke: Lau

“What’s worse than two young masters? No young masters. Now get over here and make a contract”

Everything about this sentence is a fever dream

Other events:

Undertaker decides he wants a slingy shot too

Edward chases Dad I mean Phipps

Othello gets some ouchies from picking berries

Night 3

When your young master dies, you just get an infection apparently

damn Finny’s playing hardball

I don’t think anything bad has actually happened to Bard yet. It’s just been a grand frolic the whole time

I barely remember reading the first Hunger Games but Ran-Mao’s the Foxface of this journey: she deserves to win and I just know she’ll die in the stupidest way possible

Sebastian’s like a cat that can’t reach the bird it wants to attack, so it attacks the nearest other thing instead. Poor Dad

Two white-haired anime boys and a not-white-haired anime boy talk about who will die tomorrow. Anime doesn’t exist yet so the white-haired anime boys don’t know their hair color automatically spells their doom

Other events:

Edward starts a fire, which means he’s capable of smoking opium

Ronald gets some medical supplies

Othello gets a hatchet

R!Ciel thinks about winning

Lau gets an entire explosive, but he won’t be able to light it, so no it’s no big deal

Day 4

In Soviet Hunger Games, white-haired anime boy kills you

But why murder someone when you could just mess with them

Other events:

Grey scares Bard

Finny goes hunting

Night 4

Have you four even killed anyone yet

The list of “people who didn’t start the manor fire and also don’t smoke opium” now consists of Lau and R!Ciel

The mood is too light now. Someone needs to die and it better not be Ran-Mao

At last, Father Phipps has chosen his son for this round

Agni gushes about all the hot guys he’s simultaneously in love with, giving Ran-Mao a clearer idea of who’s still alive

Day 5

Girl, it’s about time, go claim some trophies

Finny’s easily got the longest kill streak and it’s a little unnerving

Father Phipps finds a new secret fishing hole

Othello doesn’t

Lau continues to put in all the efforts of a kindergarten bully

Oh no. He’s a yandere

Other events:

Sebastian fucks around and explores the arena

Bard fucks around and hunts for tributes

Undertaker fucks around and sleeps

R!Ciel fucks around and picks flowers

Night 5

I’ve never met anyone who ships Sebastian/Undertaker but I know you’re out there

Okay, maybe these four are even less likely to team up than Phipps, Ronald, Undertaker, and Lau

Edward sees I’m making jokes about people who build fires and stays hidden

Day 6

Canonically, that is the only way R!Ciel would win a fight, so

I probably could have predicted this

I hope these are the faces they made when it happened

The “unknown sponsor” is R!Ciel and the “fresh food” is an ear that fell off his own head

I’m not sure if I should be concerned or unsurprised that Bard’s Hunger Games life is more chill than his canon life

the “unknown sponsor” was the fish and the “clean water” was “fish water”

Other events:

Ran-Mao gets her third weapon that she doesn’t want to use, which is a hatchet

Finny finds a river

Agni practices archery again, but he doesn’t kill anyone because he wants this to go on forever

Night 6

Ran-Mao I beg you please. Release us from this purgatory of mediocrity

And suddenly we’re back to canon Bard

I guess not everything can be canon

Other events:

Both Agni and Phipps pass out from exhaustion. It’s 2:50 a.m. so I should really be taking a page from their book, but unfortunately everyone refuses to die

The Feast

Finny has been a stone cold killer this entire match, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that the girl I wanted to win would get eliminated by him, but it still hurts ✌️😔

If you cheat on Othello, he will overpower you, killing you

Everyone else decided not to go to the Feast. Honestly, I don’t remember what the Feast is, but everyone who did go either murdered someone or got murdered, so I guess that was probably a good call

Day 7

I’ve had enough of this dude

Jesus Finny I can’t wait to see how many kills you got, I feel like you and Agni were the only two who took anyone down

Bard, Undertaker, Sebastian, and Phipps all hunt for other tributes but they’re useless and don’t kill anyone

Arena Event: Volcano Eruption

In one fell swoop, we lose Sebastian, Undertaker, R!Ciel, and Finny, jeez. But... that means it comes down to.............

FATHER PHIPPS VS. BARD

FATHER PHIPPS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow... Unlike his manga counterpart, this boy coasted the whole time and won... He basically went on vacation and he actually won... But then again, it’s Hunger Games Simulator and nothing is sacred

Well I hope you learned a valuable lesson today. I hope you did at some point before you read my post, because you sure as hell learned nothing from this. Thank you for wasting precious minutes of your life with me 😏

#black butler #kuroshitsuji #kuroshitsuji hunger games simulator

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peachyteez · 3 years

Text

little wanderer ≫ DAY FOUR, BABY STEPS.

this fellow stray cat hybrid has been hanging around jiyu’s condo for as long as he could remember, although jiyu may not have noticed him. the cold winter breeze and jiyu’s open bedroom window prompts him to sneak into her bedroom one night. it was just suppose to be one night, but the gods must’ve been smiling upon him.

PART OF THE HEAVEN SERIES.

✧ taglist: @defsoul15, @jaeminpeachy, @joongiebug, @sunsethw4, @t-tbinnie, @chanyeolol, @danibookmarks, @hello-its-ya-boi, @murralyn, @alienmashup, @panini, @moon8894, @koasworld, @taetae123094, @luv3rxcha, @treasure-hwa, @etherealbyeol, @hwaseongzzz, @lovely-sanie, @orbitiiny, @pirate-of-the-dark-seas, @babydolljo, @ms-starlight, @everrrlasting, @bls-luv-me, @atzgiggle, @arohabyeol, @rainbowmagicpixecorn, @soverystupid, @ayetothezee, @kingalls00, @sanstreasure0305, @sparklingmallow, @kpopnightingale, @rosesarethebest, @stillcantfindaproperusername, @bonbonhwa, @its-sarah-stark, @sanismybb, @frankenstein852, @peachseok, @woopetals, @exhofayemars, @pvrkacciosan

✧ notes: y’all, i’m so sorry san’s chapters took basically two months—

✧ WARNING: brief mention of death

back。| next。

waking up in one of the guest bedrooms, jiyu wearily blinked a couple times before remembering the events from the night before. letting out a small sigh, she sat up and stretched her arms above her head. i hope i didn’t scare him away for good this time.

the various voices and clanks of pans she could hear downstairs made her curious. she glanced at the clock above the bedroom door. 7:34 AM. she tilted her head in confusion. the five boys usually lugged themselves out of bed by 8 earliest, so what’s got them up and running so early?

slipping out of bed and leaving the room, she peered over the railing to see the five boys trying to cook what she assumed was breakfast. she saw some of them (mingi and yunho) struggling with trying to work the induction stove, while some of them (yeosang and hongjoong) were somewhat messily cracking eggs and whisking them. she swore seonghwa had slumped a little just watching them.

but what surprised her the most was the cat hybrid that had slid over to help yeosang and hongjoong.

“oh, good morning!” yunho happily greeted her with a wave. at his call, they all followed the puppy’s gaze to see jiyu staring at them from the second floor. “did you sleep well?”

jiyu nodded, not knowing what to process first—the fact that the kitchen might have a chance of burning down, or the fact that san was still there. she slowly descended down the stairs.

sensing jiyu’s confusion, seonghwa sheepishly scratched the back of his neck. “we all felt bad after your little...talk yesterday,” he admitted, the others nodding along with him. like hongjoong had said the previous night, they all shared blame for her outburst since they all once shared similar thoughts with san. “and it was actually san’s idea to make breakfast...”

jiyu’s eyes widened even more before she moved her gaze from seonghwa to san, who had awkwardly hid behind yeosang. after jiyu left the room, san felt pretty guilty, which was a first for him when it came to humans. it wasn’t until the others had briefed him on their own stories with her did he start to realize that she had been telling the truth. she was right; if she had only taken care of them out of obligation for her career, she would’ve sent them to shelters after they had recovered. but no, she took them under her wing and cared for them as if they were her own children and friends.

“...so considering how you’re doing all this,” she gestured to the eggs, and other various breakfast ingredients lying around the counter, “is this your way of accepting my offer of staying?” she turned to san, or rather yeosang.

san shyly side-stepped away from yeosang. he couldn’t meet her eyes as he fiddled with his fingers. after a moment of silence, he nodded. “...if that offer still stands. i know i haven’t been the nicest, but after last night, i don’t think you’re such a bad person—”

“so you thought i was a bad person all throughout the time we’ve known each other?” jiyu teasingly pressed, keeping up an offended facade.

san’s head instantly snapped up at the realization of his words. flustered, he waved his hands in front of him defensively. “wait—no, that’s not what i meant—”

jiyu burst out into laughter and leaned onto the counter. she never would’ve thought that san would have a change of heart with the way she acted last night, yet the universe is always full of surprises for her. “don’t worry, i was just messing with you,” she explained through her laughs before calming down. “and i’m sorry if i crossed a line last night. it’s just...i’ve had a lot on my mind recently and my emotions seemed to have spilled over. i know that sounds like an excuse but for me, it’s the truth.”

although some of the hybrids in the room had no idea what was bothering her so much, they had to agree with her. ever since she went out with sunwoo the day before, she seemed lost in her thoughts more often or just zoning out.

“it’s alright, really,” san reassured. “i was accusing you of ulterior motives, too so...i think you had a right to at least be angry.”

walking up to the cat hybrid, she softly smiled and held her hand out to him. “so are we good now?”

san slowly clutched her tiny hands in his and gave it a small, yet firm shake. like proud parents, seonghwa and hongjoong looked at the interaction with proud smiles on their faces. as a matter of fact, they all did. they didn’t realize their small talk from last night would actually help san.

taking a good look at the state of the kitchen, jiyu found it amusing how they were all trying to avoid her look, knowing they were guilty of the mess. “now then...do you all need some help?” she asked, stifling her chuckles at how they eagerly nodded at her offer.

breakfast was more lively than it had been the last few days. rather than hiding in his own corner, she could see san communicating with the everyone else, herself included. the others were asking questions and just trying to nudge san to feel more relaxed around them. jiyu didn’t understand how he had a change of heart just over one night, but she was glad to see him progress.

but a question nagged at her from the back of her mind. just who was after san that they beat him to a pulp so badly? who was san and where was he from before becoming a stray? jiyu wanted to ask him so bad to see if she could offer him anymore help, but would it come off as being nosy? would san just retreat back into his little shell?

at that moment, it was like san read her mind. “i think...you all deserve an explanation...considering how i put you all at risk last night,” she nervously said, fiddling with his tail.

“only if you’re okay with it,” seonghwa reassured from next to him.

san took a moment to gather his thoughts and words. “i actually came from owners that were...well-off, you could put it. if i remember correctly, they adopted my parents first, then i was born a few years after. unfortunately, they died when i was seven due to what they told me was an accident.”

jiyu felt her heart break for san. he looked so somber at the mention of his parents that she almost told him he didn’t have to force himself. but san continued to talk.

“after my parents died, the family was so nice to me. they basically treated me like i was their own son. they had a daughter around my age, too...so i even had a friend. i thought i had everything, i thought life was great...” he paused again, pursing his lips as he reminisced his past. “but then one wrong move made me a monster in their eyes.” his ears slumped on his head as his whole figure seemed to shrink. his head was bent down, unable to make eye contact with anyone out of fear that they would reject him like his old family did.

“you don’t have to tell us what you did if it makes you uncomfortable, san,” hongjoong noted the cat’s tensed state, almost as if he was forcing himself to say what he had to say.

san nodded, an action so small and light that you could’ve missed if you weren’t paying attention. jiyu switched to the seat next to him and gently pat his back in a comforting motion. “hey, it’s okay, san. let me tell you, if you’re ever comfortable enough to tell us what you did, i swear on my life that our views about you would never change. all of us here...i’m pretty sure i can speak for all of us when i say we’ve made some horrible mistakes in the past, too.”

san lifted his head up in the slightest and saw them all nod at jiyu’s words. looking over to jiyu, he found her softly smiling at him. “i’m not exactly sure what convinced you to stay with us, but i’ll be sure to help you out in any way i can. and you can take your time with us. take baby steps into trusting us, just remember that we’re here every step of the way. and if and when the time comes that you can tell is what happened, we’ll listen with open ears and hearts. okay?”

san took her words to heart. he felt the warmth of her words, and how she genuinely meant what she said. seeing the others’ reassuring faces made things a lot better, too.

“they told me their story,” san quietly mumbled. jiyu tilted her head in confusion. “how you helped them. i guess that’s what kind of made me take the leap, too.” he confessed.

jiyu stared at the others with wide eyes. she was surprised they even vouched for her. hongjoong playfully snorted before ruffling her hair. “why are you looking at us like that? all we told him was the truth.”

yunho enthusiastically nodded. “yeah! you saved mingi and i from our old owners and the cold.” mingi nodded with a grin, his bunny ears perking up and bouncing along with his nods.

“and you saved me from getting put down,” seonghwa chimed in.

“and you helped me open up and trust again,” yeosang languidly added. it was rare for jiyu to hear yeosang say something as sappy as that since their dynamics was usually a lot of teasing (from yeosang), but whenever he did say something warm, it held all the more weight and impact.

jiyu’s bottom lip started to slightly quiver as she felt herself become overwhelmed with emotions—good ones this time. “you guys are gonna make me cry and it’s only 8 in the morning!”

san snickered. “they weren’t kidding when they said you get emotional a lot, too.”

“they what—!”

“we’re sorry, we didn’t mean it!” mingi apologized while laughing before running away to the living room couch.

“san, that was supposed to be a secret!” yunho playfully whispered before getting a light flick on the forehead by jiyu.

“alright, you all get one flick each, come here!” she mischievously smiled before going after each and every one of them. san just watched with amusement at the scene. ‘she really is like a kid on the inside.’ he mused to himself while mingi’s screams echoed around.

#9th member of ateez #ateez imagines #ateez scenarios #ateez fluff #ateez angst #choi san #choi san imagines #san imagines #ateez san #hybrid au #kpop hybrid au #ateez hybrid #hybrid!ateez #ateez au

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lucemferto · 4 years

Text

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT PH1LZA (or Why Philza is a Victim of Narrative Circumstance)

Heyo! Per request I am posting the script to my video of the same name here on tumblr. I must warn you that just reading the script will probably not give you the full experience, so I would encourage you to watch the video (linked above).

There might also still be a lot of grammatical errors in the text, because I don’t proofread.

Intro

LAST TIME ON LUCEM FERTO

Okay, so! I don’t want this to turn into a reaction channel OR a Dream SMP channel for that matter! [echo]

Well, I lied.

[Intro to “Luc is pretentious about the funny blockmen. Episode 2”]

I swear, I’m working on other stuff. It’s just that my dumb lizard brain has only capacity for one interest at a time!

So, something you might not know about me, is that I am on tumblr – who am I kidding, most of you will know me from tumblr. Before starting this whole YouTube thing, I thought that website died years ago – but as per usual reality proves me wrong. I’m also on Twitter and Reddit, but I get the most engagement on tumblr – by far! – and I need those sweet, sweet numbers for the serotonin!

Anyways, one of my favourite past-times on tumblr is to razz Philza Hardcore Minecraft – that’s his full name – for being a frankly awful father [clicking away] – wait, wait, no! Philza fans, this isn’t a hit piece on him, I promise! Please come back!

This is video is meant to be a companion piece to my previous video about Technoblade and the Doomsday event – you can tell by the shared nomenclature – so you should probably watch that one before you proceed. Unless you don’t want to, which is also perfectly understandable.

DISCLAIMER: This video is mostly about the character Philza plays on the Dream SMP. Whenever I talk about the content creator Philza, I will say so properly. Also, Spoiler Warning for Dream SMP Season 2.

… What is that? You’re wondering what the Dream SMP is? Well, if you had just watched the other video like I told you to do, you would know, because I explained it pretty well there. But in case you don’t know, here’s the cliff notes.

Dream SMP is the hottest New Media Series on Twitch right now! It has it all: gaslighting, child soldiers, Machiavellian political intrigue, Hamilton roleplay, desecration of the dead, shounen protagonists, SO! MUCH! AMNESIA! Filicide, furries, a red egg that’s definitely homophobic and teenagers inventing nuclear warfare. And it’s all done in Minecraft – yes, the funny block game where the only way to emote is to crouch.

And you say the perfect brief doesn’t exist!

Now, you might be wondering, why do I want to talk about this? Well, it’s because Content Creator Philza is one of least controversial internet personalities that I can think of. That man exudes pure comfort. So, it’s just very, very amusing to me that his character became one of the most controversial figures on the SMP, only outshone by Tommy and Technoblade.

And it’s not just amusing, it’s also extremely interesting! I want to dig deep to uncover and discuss the dynamics behind why that is. How did it come to this point? How did a man who appears genuinely so pleasant create a character that inspires so much discourse!

Now, if you watched that Technoblade video – like I told you to twice now! – you might know, that I am the resident character analyses hater of fandom! And that impression is false and slanderous! Don’t tell other people that I hate character analyses! I love them!

It’s just that, in the Dream SMP in particular, there is an abundance of character analyses! Every streamer has at least two very good essays written about them, exploring every possible angle to view their characters and backgrounds and everything. All I’m saying is: I don’t have anything to add on that front.

So, instead I want to pursue a different approach – something, that I feel is a bit underrepresented in the fandom! And I’m not just talking narrative analysis – that’s right, this episode we’re going even more pretentious! – I’m talking Transtextual Analysis!

Now, what is Transtextuality? Well, unfortunately it has very little to do with actual Trans people – #transrights, just in case that wasn’t obvious – but instead describes a mode of analysis with which to put – to quote French literary theorist Gérard Genette – “the text in a relationship, whether obvious or concealed, with other texts”.

Basically, you know how the L’Manburg War of Independence heavily quotes and borrows from the hit musical Hamilton? That’s transtextuality! A lot of the analyses surrounding how Tommy mirrors the Greek hero Theseus, who was invoked by Technoblade multiple times in the series, are already doing transtextual analysis! So, it’s really not something that’s new to the Dream SMP fandom.

But how does this apply to Philza and how he is looked at and judged by his parental skills? Well, there are multiple forms of transtextuality, two of which we will discuss today.

But before we continue, I gotta do that annoying YouTuber thing. I know these videos don’t look like much, but I spend a really long time making them. I work fulltime and I try my best to keep up, but sometimes I can’t. So please, like, subscribe, comment to give me some algorithm juice – I really need it – and most importantly share it! Share it with your friends, share it with your family – I’m sure Grandma is very interested in what I have to say about Philza Minecraft.

And I’m trying to be better! If I sound at all different for this video, it’s because I finally bought a new pop filter, so I can hit my plosives without it sounding like there’s a thunderstorm in my room. I hope it makes a difference; it was a very cheap pop filter, so maybe it doesn’t. Maybe it sounds worse – that would be bad!

What was I talking about? Oh yeah, CHILD NEGLEGT!

Intertextuality: Why is Dadza?

You know what’s really interesting about the Dream SMP – aside from, you know, most things about it? Very few of the characters have concrete, fleshed-out backstories – and that’s pretty weird! In no other medium or genre could you get away with something like that – at least for long-form storytelling!

So, how does Dream SMP get away with this? Well, it’s because every character on the Dream SMP is basically a self-insert – and I don’t mean that in the “This character is based on me”-kinda way, but in the ��This character, for all intents and purposes, is me!”-way. This, like many things that are fascinating about the Dream SMP, is owed to the fact that this series didn’t start off as a continuous drama – it started off as a Let’s Play.

And while we can talk about how someone’s on-camera/on-mic persona is in some ways a character, it’s still miles off of being an actual, fully-realized, separate character in a storyline.

This is where Intertextuality comes in.

Intertextuality is a subset of Transtextuality. It describes how the hypertext, which is the text, you’re currently engaged with, uses another text, the hypotext, to supplement itself. The interconnection the hypertext establishes with the hypotext, through stuff like allusion for example, uh-hum [Hamilton], can colour how an audience interprets the hypertext. Basically, Hamilton and Theseus are the hypotexts; the Dream SMP is the hypertext.

So, what does this have to do with backstory? Simple: The backstories of the characters in the Dream SMP consist basically of nothing but intertextual references. Through intertextuality their content effectively substitutes their character’s backstory.

You can see it everywhere. Wilbur’s and Schlatt’s relationship and rivalry is hugely enriched, if you are aware of their shared history like SMPLive, for example – I think anyway. I haven’t watched SMPLive, because … there’s only so many hours in the day and I cannot keep up with the Dream SMP and catch up on SMPLive and live a healthy life – which I already don’t do, so…

BadBoyHalo’s and Skeppy’s relationship, which has become the crux of the Crimson-Storyline of Seasons 2 and 3, is hugely supplemented if you know that they’re also very close as streamers and in real life.

Another great example of intertextuality is basically Technoblade’s entire deal. If you just look at him completely within the text of the Dream SMP and try to transplant his entrance to any other medium: It would be extremely weird! Like, he’s just this guy that comes in in the middle of a very climatic arc, no build-up, no explanation what his deal is, and he’s treated like he has always been there. In any other medium that just wouldn’t work – at least not without a flashback or some sort of exposition!

But because of stuff like Minecraft Mondays, the Potato Wars, his Duel against Dream and SMPEarth, we understand that he is a Big Deal!

Anyways, to bring all of this back to Philza Minecraft: What kind of hypotext informs how the audience sees his character? Well, this is where I will have to talk about SBI.

SBI is an acronym that stand for State Bank of India, the 43rd largest bank in the world and…

It also stands for Sleepy Bois Incorporated. Sleepy Bois Incorporated is a loose assembly of content creators, consisting of Philza, Wilbur Soot, TommyInnit and Technoblade. It is most well-known for its very endearing family dynamic – a dynamic that is frequently acknowledged and played up by the creators involved. Tommy is the youngest brother, Wilbur and Techno are the two older brothers and Philza is of course the dad. And when I say, it’s played up, I really mean it! Wilbur seems to be especially enamoured with the idea and leaves no opportunity untaken to bring it up – which we will come back to.

And I’m not saying that they’re faking this and this is somehow an act. While I know none of these people personally, it appears to me, that this is genuinely how they interact – if a little exaggerated for the streaming experience. Even when they’re not consciously playing into the family dynamic, their interactions still very much lend themselves to that interpretation by the viewers.

Philza especially just radiates Dad-Friend energy – so much so that it has become a huge part of his brand identity – yay, I can bring that back (check out my Christmas video if you want to hear me ramble about that). The nickname Dadza stuck even before SBI was a thing.

So, even if we completely disregard SBI – which we shouldn’t for reasons I’ll get back to – Philza has cultivated an image of strong paternal guidance. He is, in my opinion completely deservedly, regarded very positively. He is highly respected and in turn seen as a voice of reason.

All of this would eventually inform the hypotext of the character Philza within Dream SMP.

Interlude: Before Dadza & November 16th

Okay, so now we have established that a) Dream SMP heavily hinges on intertextual readings by the audience to supplement character backstory and b) that Philza’s entire deal is that he’s the dad-friend – more specifically that he’s the dad of SBI (not the bank). I think you know where this is going.

So, yeah, ever since it was on the table that Philza could join the Dream SMP, it was immediately assumed that he would take on the paternal guardian role all these traumatized people on that server so desperately needed – and with good reason! Like I said before, the audience at this point was trained to take intertextual interpretations as basically canon or at the very least canon-adjacent.

I want to emphasize that this is most likely not done deliberately. I’m sure content creators Wilbur and Philza didn’t sit there and said: “Yes! We will rely entirely on the audience’s inclination to interpret our characters intertextually to define character Philza!”. Like, obviously that did not happen.

But it’s also important to remember that unlike with traditional media and the fanbases cultivated there, the separation between the Dream SMP and its audience is almost non-existent – and purposely so. The story events are streamed live, Chats are acknowledged in canon and even outside of livestreams creators are extremely involved with the fandom. So, the weight of fan-expectations is equally amplified and will more likely be incorporated into the writing process. Case in point:

[Wilbur “I miss Philza”/Philza about Wilbur]

During Wilbur’s villain arc, even before his official involvement, Philza became a prevalent point of discussion. The hope that he would be the one to snap Wilbur out of his downward spiral was not only wish-fulfilment on behalf of the fans; it also very much played off of the intertextual reading of the SBI-dynamic in relation to the Dream SMP.

Of course, this still doesn’t make Philza and Wilbur canonically blood-related – but it definitely used the “paternal”-dynamic of SBI to build-up tension and drama.

And that ultimately brings us to November 16th. The Grand Finale of Season 1 and Philza’s first canonical appearance on the SMP.

Now, for this I want to pull back from the transtextual analysis and talk about simply narrative analysis: What is Philza’s narrative purpose on November 16th?

Philza serves as the last threshold on Wilbur’s Villain’s Journey – to appropriate Vogler’s version of the monomyth for a minute here – he is what Vogler calls the “Threshold Guardian”. He is the last enemy the Hero faces before completing his quest – in this particular case Wilbur’s quest is to blow up L’Manberg. Multiple people have at this point tried to dissuade him from this course of action: Tommy, Quackity, Niki and others. So how come this Philza moment is not redundant in terms of dynamics compared to these prior scenes?

Well, it’s through our intertextual understanding of Wilbur’s and Phil’s relationship. Because Philza does not just occupy the role of the Threshold Guardian – he is also implicitly the Mentor. Before Phil there was no character in the storyline that held a higher position of moral authority than Wilbur – Dream and Schlatt, while at points more powerful in terms of actual authority, were never positioned by the narrative as Wilbur’s superiors in the same way as Wilbur was to Tommy, Tubbo or even Niki.

Before November 16th all challenges Wilbur faced were from people narratively subordinated to him. But that trend is broken with Phil. That is why he is the Threshold Guardian, why this confrontation is at the climax of Wilbur’s arc. Because Phil is the last thing tethering Wilbur to whatever morality he held before his villain arc; Phil is the last, moral obstacle Wilbur has to discard before gaining his reward.

And, just a quick sidenote, because I’ve seen it around the fandom a bunch: When I’m referring to Wilbur denouncing his morality, I’m using that in terms of narrative analysis. I’m mentioning it, because Wilbur’s character can very easily be read as mentally ill or neurodivergent and some people have – rightly! – pointed out that the excessive vilifying when talking about his character is … problematic, to say the least.

So, I just want to make clear, this isn’t a character analysis, I’m being purposely broad when talking about Wilbur and Phil.

In the end, Wilbur takes that final step and gets his “reward”: As his final request his mentor takes his life and vanquishes the evil – the dragon of Wilbur’s story slays the dragon of L’Manburg. It’s very Shakespearean in its tragedy – but beyond the larger theatrics it’s not really used to further characterize Phil – at least in the context of Season 1. There’s not a lot of focus on his characters internal conflict during November 16th.

Phil, like Techno, is very utilitarian in how content creator Wilbur writes him: He serves as a moment of hype; an obstacle Wilbur has to face; a participant in the tragic climax of Wilbur’s character and ultimately takes on his implicit and expected role of mentor and guiding figure to the rest of L’Manburg.

I think not a lot of people talk about how Philza does not join Technoblade during November 16th. He takes the side of L’Manburg – he fights against the withers and he joins Tommy, Tubbo and the others at the L’Mantree, thus framing him as loyal to the L’Manburg administration – even though Season 2 would make his loyalty to Techno central to his character. But more on that later.

What’s also important about November 16th is that this is the day when the general intertextual interpretation became canonized text.

[You’re my son!]

Wilbur is made Phil’s canonical, biological son. The intertextual interpretation of SBI as it pertains to these two characters on the SMP was completely reinforced by the narrative. Or to put it in Fandom terms: The headcanon became actual canon. At least when it came to Wilbur … but what about Philza’s “other” children?

Well, that leads to our second form of transtextual analysis:

Paratextuality: Is Dadza?

These titles are just getting better and better.

The Paratext is defined as all those things in a published work that accompany the text. It comes in two forms: One of them is the Peritext, which are non-diegetic elements directly surrounding the text – like chapter titles, author’s notes, and stuff like that. Translated to the medium of the Dream SMP, it would be stuff like this:

[Examples]

And, trust me, I could make a whole separate video about how people on the SMP use their peritext as a tool for storytelling – I’m looking at you, Ranboo – but that’s not what we will talk about in the context of Dadza.

Instead, we will focus on the second form of Paratext, the Epitext, which consists of all authorial and editorial discussions taking place outside of the text. That’s stuff like interviews, private letters or J. K. Rowling’s Twitter Account – you know, before she decided to become a full-time asshole.

[Wilbur: Transrights]

After Season 1 ended, Wilbur indulged pretty heavily in providing epitext for the Dream SMP, something he had not done prior to November 16th. His paratextual additions ranged from the playful, like assigning DnD alignments to various SMP members, to the extremely impactful, like the whole three lives system!

You probably think, you know where this is going. Wilbur provided some epitext about how Tommy and Techno either are or are not biologically related to him … and I have to be honest I thought that too. But then I began looking into the impenetrable web that is the SBI-canon on the Dream SMP and found this!

[Ghostbur explains family]

So, it wasn’t paratext, it was just straight text. Said in character, in canon, without any implication that we the viewers should question this. The text of the SBI family dynamic was explicitly linked to Dream SMP-exclusive lore, namely Fundy being Wilbur’s and Sally the Salmon’s son. This is as clear as Philza’s anguished declaration on November 16th in establishing the intertext as text. And because Wilbur also had a very heavy hand in the discussion of paratext around that time, it gave his character’s words even more “canonical” weight. Metatextually speaking, this very much read like the author giving exposition through his character – exposition that we should understand as reliable.

And, by the way, before I continue, I need to give a huge, huge shoutout to kateis-cakeis on tumblr, I hope I pronounced that right, who was just so quick in providing me with these crucial clips. Without him I would have looked for days because these people don’t archive their shit! And the Dream SMP Wiki was NO help, by the way! I love what you guys do, but stuff like this belongs in the Trivia section on characters’ pages!

Anyways, basically during the entirety of early Season 2 the SBI family dynamic was basically canon to the SMP. Sometimes it was only alluded implicitly, again letting the intertext fill out the rest.

[Philza clips]

But just as often it was just explicitly talked about – both in the text and in the paratext.

[Fundy clip/Wilbur “Twins” clip/Tommy clip]

So, I know what you’re thinking: “Why is this part called paratext, if the entire family tree is just textual”. Well, that last clip might give you a hint, as to what I will talk about. Notice how Tommy, one of the people most directly impacted by the canonization of SBI lore, is both unaware of and seems generally unenthused about it, to put it nicely? Well, that would soon turn out to be a much bigger deal than anyone could have imagined as he wasn’t the only one.

[Technoblade decanonizes SBI]

Yeah …

This happened on 20th of December. Regular viewers of this channel will remember that I put out a 90-second joke video, where I complain about this very development. And while I was mostly kidding around, the core idea is still true. The paratext provided by Technoblade and established text were in direct contradiction with one another – and that brought a lot of confusion into the fandom. Confusion, that would soon be followed by frustration.

Because Techno only decanonized himself as part of the SBI family dynamic – but what about Tommy and Tubbo, the latter of which was incorporated into the dynamic exclusively within the lore of the Dream SMP. Was this still canon or wasn’t it?

What followed was a muddled mess of contradictions, intertextual implications, text and paratext in conflict with each another. It was for the most part inscrutable to figure out how Tommy and Philza related to one another. I’ll spare you every comment made about this – mostly because I want to spare myself from looking for all of them.

In the end, the current status is that their familial relationship is … unclear. Philza said, again in paratext, that it’s ultimately up to the writers to decide, whether or not Tommy is his son … which, I personally think he and Tommy should be the ones to establish that, but I’ll come back to that later.

But why is all of this important anyway? Why would this ambiguity create such an uproar, such controversy – especially when it comes to Tommy’s character? What makes Tommy’s and Philza’s relationship such a target for discussion in the fandom?

Well … this is where we will have to talk about the storyline of Season 2.

Interlude II: Tommy’s Exile and Dadza in Season 2

Okay, Season 2. This is where the spoilers are, so I will just sneakily drop this again. It took me five seconds to google this gif and I will milk it for every penny it’s worth!

At the beginning of Season 2, Philza’s narrative role has not changed much from where Season 1 ended. He is in L’Manburg dispensing earthly wisdom, being a paternal figure to Fundy, Ghostbur and Tubbo, helping with the nation’s rebuilding efforts; just generally occupying the role of the mentor.

[clips]

And then came … the Exile. The Exile Arc took place between December 3rd and December 15th during Season 2 of the Dream SMP. It revolves around TommyInnit getting exiled from L’Manburg and slowly getting psychologically tortured and broken down by Dream. It’s a really great arc, at least in my opinion, that explores and deepens a lot of Tommy’s character relationships, whether that be Tommy and Dream, Tommy and Tubbo or Tommy and Ranboo. One relationship, however, is noticeably missing.

So, yeah, Philza spends basically the entirety of the exile doing pretty much nothing of consequence. And that’s not a problem specific to him – One big criticism I would levy against the Exile Arc is that a lot of characters are left spinning their wheels. Which is why we get zany stuff like El Rapids, Drywaters, Eret’s Knights of the Roundtable, Boomerville – anyone remember Boomerville, that was a thing for 5 seconds, wasn’t it? – basically a lot of storylines are started and then unceremoniously dropped. Now, I will talk more about this, when I make a video about Season 2 of the Dream SMP … in ten years, look forward to it.

In the case of Philza, this inaction was especially damning, because at this point it was still a considered canon that he was Tommy’s dad. So, the fans were left with a situation, where just a few weeks prior Philza was occupying a paternal role for Fundy and Ghostbur … but now, that his youngest son was in a very concerning predicament – to put it lightly – he was nowhere to be found.

So why is that?

Well, the most obvious answer is that Dream and Tommy didn’t write him into the storyline. We’ve seen that Tommy wasn’t particularly interested in exploring a familial relationship to Philza, at least at the time. And it would just not fit in with what Dream and Tommy tried to do with the Exile Arc: they wanted to tell the story of Tommy being isolated, completely under Dream’s mercy, slowly worn down and manipulated. If Philza had been constant presence for Tommy during that time, it would have definitely shifted the narrative focus. That doesn’t mean that they couldn’t have done that, it’s just a matter of fact that they didn’t.

This also reveals another truth about content creator Philza’s character work, that I think is extremely crucial: He takes what the writers give him. Outside of a few choice moments, he doesn’t seem particularly interested in expanding or even solidifying his character on the SMP.

What I’m saying is that he is very go-with-the-flow: Wilbur wants to enact a Shakespearean tragedy? Philza’s up for it. Fundy wants him as a parental figure and mentor? Philza’s here for him. Tommy, conversely, doesn’t want him as a paternal presence, even though it would make sense for Philza’s character, as it was established so far, to be there? Philza will oblige.

The reason I’m mentioning this is because, while Tommy and Dream were unwilling to utilise Philza in their storyline, someone else was more than happy to. Which leads us back, like it always does, to everyone’s favourite Porky Pig-kinnie in a crown: Technoblade.

Technoblade and Philza, from everything I’ve seen of them, seem to be very good friends – and they share a lot of history even outside SBI. So, it’s commendable that they would collaborate on a storyline together.

A consequence of that, however, is that Philza’s narrative purpose shifts completely with very little transition. His entire character changes from being the Mentor-figure of L’Manberg to being pretty much exclusively defined as Technoblade’s ally; his man on the inside. It is a very sharp turn from the end of Season 1. Their relationship is once again informed via intertext – this time the Antarctic Empire on SMPEarth serves as the hypotext – but there isn’t a huge effort made to smoothly integrate that aspect of Philza’s character into the larger narrative framing around him.

How much the narrative utilisation of Philza has shifted can be very easily observed through the Butcher Army event on December 16th, a story event that I like less and less the more I think about. Here Philza is used to show just how corrupt and violent Tubbo’s administration has becomes. He is no longer the respected mentor, he is now the stand-in for the oppressed populace, similar to Niki’s role in Season 1. On a narrative level, he is here to prove a point.

If you’ve seen my Technoblade video, you know how I feel about … just that entire storyline, so I will not reiterate too much on it. I just want to make clear that I’m not principally against this development – if they wanted to truly explore Tubbo going down a dark path and getting corrupted by power, so much so that he would even treat the person who effectively raised him like a prisoner, I would be extremely here for it, I cannot stress that enough.

The problem I have is that it’s just so sloppily done. It is not coherent with how these characters behaved and, more importantly, how they were narratively framed prior to the Butcher Army event. Fundy gets one token line about Phil being his Grandfather – a far cry from the very emotionally complex relationship they had established at the beginning of Season 2 – and Phil then callously disowns him.

The major problem simply is that we don’t see how Philza changes from Mentor-figure to embittered, oppressed citizen. And there was enough time to build to that. During the entirety of Tommy’s exile Tubbo was pretty much spinning his wheels and Quackity and Fundy were opening up plot cul-de-sacs that didn’t end up going anywhere. This is time they could have spent on developing their relationship to Philza and the dark path they were going down – but again, Season 2 video.

There is not much to say on Philza’s narrative purpose and framing beyond the Butcher Army event. He remains pretty much exclusively Techno’s consigliere with his role as Mentor to L’Manburg a distant memory. He has some cute character moments with Ranboo, because content creator Philza is just big dad-energy whether he wants to or not, and whenever he and Ghostbur share a scene suddenly the narrative remembers that there are people other than Technoblade that should exist in Philza’s inner world. But aside from that, Philza’s storyline in Season 2 remains … pretty definitive is the nicest way I can put it.

Most importantly his relationship with Tommy continues to be completely unexplored – whether by chance or choice – and that combined with ever vaguer paratext leaves “Dadza” in a very peculiar situation.

Conclusion: Is Dadza a Good Dadza?

So, the question to end all questions. The big, obnoxious text, that I will probably have put in the thumbnail – I haven’t made it yet, but I know myself. The honest answer is: I couldn’t tell you.

I have, in the past, been expounding the virtues of narrative analysis. That is because I feel that Narrative Analysis and Textual Analysis, like in this video, can provide certain tools that Character Analysis lacks. Often times I see people trying to get at a writing problem or query and getting frustrated because they’re not using the toolset, they need to figure out what they want to figure out.

But I’d be a hypocrite if I pretended like everything could be solved through the modes of analysis I prefer. And I think the Dadza-issue is exactly such a case.

I set out to explore why the Philza-Tommy-“Dadza”-relationship has become so controversial. It’s a combination of expectations build up through intertextual readings, that were partly canonized – something that is very common for the Dream SMP – conflicting pieces of paratext, which only serve to muddle the issue further and a text that is not only completely uninterested in actually exploring Tommy’s and Philza’s relationship – as it stands right now they might as well be strangers, narratively speaking – but also completely changes Philza’s narrative purpose as it relates to characters like Fundy or Tubbo about half-way through with little to no transition.

That is why I say, that Philza’s character is a victim of narrative circumstance. Because unwittingly, through all of these factors and decisions, there is not coherent reading of Philza that frames his parental skills in a particularly kind light.

The question of how we can judge Phil as a paternal figure ultimately falls within the purview of the character analysis – and that’s a very multifaceted issue, highly dependent on which POV you focus on and how you interpret the other characters in that POV’s periphery.

To put my cards on the table, I think that Philza is a very flawed father/father-figure – and I find that absolutely okay. Flaws are the spice of character building. He is not Cinderella’s Evil Stepmother – but he’s also definitely not Mufasa. If we were to read Philza as a paternal figure, then he would have made a lot of mistakes and decisions to the detriment of his “children” – least of all everything that happened on Doomsday.

But I also have sympathies for Philza fans who are tired of the Dad-Debate and would like to have his character judged independent from his relationship to Ghostbur, Fundy, Tubbo and Tommy.

Ultimately, to bring it all to a point, I’d like to end with saying, that I think that Philza, out of all the characters on the SMP, has the potential to be on of the most intriguing, multifaceted ones. There are all of these different patches of story, character moments and narrative and transtextual implications, that, if brought together, could create a beautiful tapestry of the character Philza.

You have his relationship with Techno, which holds the potential for so much emotional conflict and vulnerabilities, you have his time as mentor of L’Manburg, which is just criminally underused; the complex relationship between him and Ghostbur/Wilbur; and – for me, personally – most intriguingly this weird, almost uncomfortably distant non-relationship with Tommy. That last one is intriguing to me, because it contrasts just so much with our intertextual understanding of the characters and streaming personas – and it just holds the potential for so much conflict, so much drama, so much angst. Which I live for!

And, yes, I do believe that most of this is narrative happenstance, that this was largely not intended by Philza or really any of the writers. It’s just what happens when hybrid-roleplay-improv a long-running, livestreamed storyline in Minecraft.

But I want them to realize the potential they have on their hands, because it could – with barely any adjustments – turn Philza from a victim of narrative circumstance to a champion of it!

Outro

Thank you so much for watching this video. Usually, I don’t record outros this standard, but after this beast of a video I felt it necessary. I hope that whether you’re a Philza fan or a Philza critical or just completely uninvolved in the whole thing, there is at least a little entertainment you could get from this.

I want to take this opportunity to say that my next few videos will probably not be Dream SMP related – a sentence which undoubtedly lost me a bunch of subs – simply because I don’t want to burn out on it. I genuinely enjoy watching the SMP and being exhausted by it would be something I wouldn’t want to force on myself.

But who knows what will happen? The Karl Jacobs video was something I did spur of the moment because the idea just came to me – so I can’t guarantee that the next video won’t be a three-minute joke about Purpled or whatever.

Anyway, my concrete plans for future Dream SMP videos are essays on Season 1 and Season 2 as well as one for Tales from the SMP.

Before that I have a longer video in the works, which I’ve already teased a bunch, so I hope it will finally be finished sometime. And I also may be working on something … eboys-related? Maybe. I’m not making any promises!

118 notes · View notes

liliesoftherain · 4 years

Text

My Hero Academia Main 3 Boys x Reader

Ch. 19 Endeavors Agency

A/N: Sorry for the long wait, but here's the next part of the series! I just realized I hit over 2000 followers, and I honestly don't deserve it at all. Thank you guys for your compassion and understanding, and I hope to generate more content you like. I might be willing to do an event, and turn my requests back for a short amount of time, but we'll see.

Masterlist

“Are you all ready for tomorrow? I still don’t know how I feel about you staying at Endeavor’s agency for the week.”

You hold in a sigh, choosing to smile instead--even if he couldn’t see you.

“Yeah dad, I’m all ready to go,” you knew of your dad’s--distaste--for the number two, even if he wouldn’t say it, “and I hope I’ll be able to learn a lot from this--although I know you’re probably the better teacher.”

He hums at your praise, you can hear his amusement over the phone.

“I’ll always have room for you at the office, just say the word.”

“I’m sure you’ll have your hands full with Bakugou, dad.”

“I hope to reform that boy, by the looks of him, he has pride sewn into the very fiber of his being.”

“Sounds about right-”

“Plus, he was getting a bit too cozy with my daughter, I have half the mind to question him about it.”

“Dad!” You elongate the word, turning it into a groan at the end as he just chuckles at your misery.

Moving on from the topic, you change the conversation to something lighter--mundane things about school and work before having to hang up the phone. He was unable to come home tonight, meaning you wouldn’t be seeing him until you got back. Unfortunately, you were used to calls instead of in-person goodnights--even if it was a bit lonely sometimes, you pushed on.

After ending the call, you get ready for bed--thoughts of the week ahead making it difficult to fall asleep.

-----

“Everyone has their costumes, right? You can’t wear them out in public unless you’re given permission--and don’t lose them either, understood?”

“Yep, loud and clear!”

“Speak properly Ashido, it’s yes sir. You all need to mind your manners.”

“Yes sir..”

You grin at Mina’s dejected face, only patting her back in comfort once you were dismissed. You wave goodbye to her as she heads to her station, looking back in search of your internship buddy.

After spotting him, you make your way over to his side to see his attention on Iida as he marches off.

“Todoroki?”

He turned to look at you, blinking owlishly as he snapped out of whatever thoughts he had been consumed by.

“Hakamata, hello.”

In some ways, you were looking forward to the internship. Ever since the sports festival, you’ve been able to regard Todoroki in a brand new light. He wasn’t as stuck up as you first took him for, if anything his reactions only made it seem that way.

The boy was just--awkward.

“Shall we get going then?”

He nodded in agreement, and you both leisurely walked towards your train. Sitting side-by-side after baording, suitcases in your laps respectively. The trip there was pretty quiet, and you were glad to say it wasn’t an awkward one. It was different, being so used to rambles from people like Mina and Izuku, or even loud and rowdy conversations with Eijiro or Bakugou. Yet with Todoroki, words weren’t needed to fill the air, it was comforting all on its own.

It didn’t take long to reach Tokyo, arriving at the station quicker than you thought. You both get off, having to walk the rest of the way to the large building. It was bigger than your father’s, and you felt slightly intimidated. Todoroki looked over as your steps faulted, tilting his head in silent communication. You give a tight smile, ushering your nerves down as you make your way inside.

“Hello!” The woman at the front desk beamed, “Endeavor has been waiting for you two, why don’t you go and head up to his office!”

She gave you the quick directions, waving you off as you stepped into the elevator. Todoroki had seemed tense now that he was actually about to see his dad, and you couldn’t blame him. Your last interaction with the man wasn’t the best, if anything you were downright rude.

All within reason, of course.

You arrive on the floor that his office was located on, stepping out of the elevator and having to walk through a room filled to the brim with sidekicks to get to the room. After receiving the okay to enter, you step inside to realize the entire part of the building was his office. The room was huge; marble walls with high ceilings, a crystal chandelier hung above a seating area and all the way towards the far wall, at a large oak desk, was the man who you’d have to put up with for the next week.

You heard a bitter sigh come from your companion, and you give a quick glance of reassurance in his direction. He does the same before you two make your way into the room. If you thought it was intimidating before, the scarce lighting made it even more so--the room relatively dim, save for the rays of the setting sun peeking in through the wall of windows on the right hand side.

“Shoto, I’ve been waiting for you.” A deep voice speaks up as you both stop to stand in front of his desk.

Endeavor is standing as well, smirking down at the both of you before focusing his attention on his son.

“I’m glad you made this decision. You’re finally ready to walk down the path of the mighty.”

“I have no intention of following any path you’ve created. Only I can decide my future.”

The surge of pride you feel as Todoroki stands up for himself falters as a chuckle falls from Endeavor.

“Is that so?” He glances between the both of you, “you both should go get ready then, we’re going out.”

“Where to?” Todoroki answers, looking surprised.

“I’m going to show you both what it means to be a hero.”

-----

The sun has long been set as the three of you patrol the streets of Tokyo, whispers following as you did. It was very different, the energy a complete contrast from what you’ve seen with your dad and his patrols. People called out to him all the time, big grins on their faces’ as they waved enthusiastically. However, the people around here looked intimidated by the large pro hero. In awe yes, but nervous to approach him at the same time. You couldn’t blame them, Endeavors aura was very nerve-wracking.

However, despite the feeling he gave off, things were calm. The peace surrounded everyone and everything around--laughter and smiles was seen all around. It was great; this is how life should be, no one should be fearful.

“Rescue, evacuation, and suppression. There are the three fundamentals required of all heroes. Most agencies are established on a foundation of either “rescue” or “suppression”. However, my agency does not. Remember that. We are grounded in all three of these fundamentals, combined.”

You and Todoroki nod, listening to Endeavor’s speech as he stomps on.

“You have to remain focused--memorize every single detail of your jurisdiction. Don’t let a single irregularity slip by. Be on-site faster than anyone else. Minimize all casualties by keeping all citizens far away as possible.”

He didn’t look back once--his focus never wavering, remaining on the crowds around him.

“These are the basics of the basics, do you understand?”

“Yes sir.” You answer.

“Yeah.” Todoroki spoke, as enthusiastic as ever.

“Then keep up.”

In the blink of an eye, Endeavor was gone. You blinked owlishly, sharing a look with Todoroki before you both rushed off after the number two. It was hard to keep up, the hero using his flames to accelerate his speed.

Todoroki was using his ice to help him, almost in the same way, while you used the move you picked up in the sports festival--allowing your light to harden under your feet, to extend and give you a boost. While you would be faster if you allowed your body to transform into light particles, you weren’t very efficient with it, you’d need some more training before you could try to use it in your day-to-day activities.

You finally heard the wailing of police sirens and the screeching of tires.

You were shocked Endeavor had noticed so far away, but you suppose that’s what it means to be the number two hero.

In a less populated area, down a mostly deserted road, there was a large truck being tailed by three different police vehicles, with no sign of stopping. The getaway truck was being reckless, swerving all over without a care of what--or who--it ran over.

Trying to boost your speed to get there quicker, you were left to stop short as the truck suddenly came to a screeching stop. Endeavor had stopped the truck with his own body, acting as an obstacle halting it from moving any further. You watched in awe as the criminals inside were apprehended accordingly, Endeavor having full control of the situation. While you weren’t able to do anything but watch--since you were only interns and didn’t have hero licenses to be able to use your quirks like that in public--you still took in every detail you could, exactly like Endeavor had told you to.

The way there were no casualties, or any injuries of the citizens for that matter, and even though there was damage to the area around him, it was insignificant to what could have been if they continued on for even just another few minutes. In the short amount of time it took for Endeavor to race over and stop the villains, so much had already been done.

‘A real pros power…’

“Let’s go. We aren’t done.”

-----

You awake bright and early the next day, feeling exhausted from how long you stayed out last night. The three of you ended patrolling for the next few hours without any other exciting things to happen. Endeavor tended to mainly ignore you, but he did ask about what your goal was overall--if anything you were shocked that he was speaking to you civilly.

You explained how you wanted to get the experience you needed to be a great hero, and do it on your own accord. How you wanted to use your quirk to the best of your ability and save lives. You weren’t here to play around, you wanted to do something good--you wanted to be useful. He gave you a simple speech of encouragement--if you could call it that--before dropping the subject as he ranted to Todoroki about all the great things he could learn from him.

It was a night to remember, and you did learn something pretty valuable, so you’d have to give him that.

You walk out into the main area--the one you had to walk through yesterday to get to Endeavor’s office--with your hero uniform already on, ready to see what was on the agenda for the day. The room was large, holding plenty of office desks and important equipment, as if Endeavor had his own intelligence force right in the middle of his agency. Seeing as how many cases the number two hero took on--as well as how many cases his plentiful amount of sidekicks took on--it wasn’t a surprise.

Glancing around, you couldn’t find Todoroki, instead coming face-to-face with one of the many sidekicks held in the agency.

“Hey there kiddo, welcome to the Endeavor Hero Agency!” The woman laughs boisterously.

Her copper-green hair flickered around her head, a cocky smirk on her lips, and a wicked gleam in her amber eyes all made you alert. She wasn’t a threat, but her attitude was the exact opposite of Endeavor’s.

Just a bit weird.

“Ah, yes, thank you.” You bow, only to be thrown off guard as she pats--more like slaps--your back repeatedly.

“Oh come on, don’t be so formal! I’m going to end up putting you to work right away, even if you’re going to have to fight for the right to work alongside us!” She cackles loudly, and you sweat drop as she reminds you of a certain pinkett back at school.

“Luminary.”

You push off Burnin and look towards Todoroki as he walks up beside you, also just as ready as you were to start the day.

“Shoto, good morning.”

It felt a little embarrassing at first, to be calling Todoroki by his first name, but you remembered it’s what he had chosen as his hero name. The entirety of the night before, only code names were used, so now it was second nature.

“Shoto-kun! I’d say the same for you, but you’ll probably be stuck with Endevor while miss Luminary here will have to kick it with us,” Burnin tries to slap you on the back again but you quickly dodge, causing her to grin to widen, “since, yanno, Endeavor really only cares about you!”

Todorki scoffs at the notion, even if it was true. He was eyeing Burnin as she continued to try and pester you. It’s odd, seeing you in a different setting outside of school. He noticed how quiet you’ve been, and while that wasn’t a bad thing, you were always pretty upbeat and talkative in school.

You kept up with Bakugou’s rambunctious actions, Midroiya’s rambles, Ashido’s exuberant personality, and even Kirishima’s upbeat attitude. However, ever since you both stepped onto the train to come to the agency, you’ve kept to yourself for the most part. You soaked up all the information you could, even if you were being a little wary of Endeavor.

Todoroki had indeed noticed, and he would be too in your position, shoot, he already was wary of his old man and all the ideas he had running around in his head. However, right now in this moment Todoroki saw the flicker of fire sparking again as you tried to keep the older sidekick from putting you into a headlock. It was good to see you as yourself, you always did know how to light up a room.

“Shoto.” The smile playing on the boy's lips fell as he heard his father.

You quickly detach yourself from Burnin’s hold, straightening up as Endevors approached. His hard gaze barely looked in your direction, focused on his son as always.

“Shoto,” he repeats, “We’ll be having an important mission today.”

Endoavor finally looks at you, the frown on his face stays in place--but it doesn’t get any deeper either.

“As for you Luminary, you shall be shadowing Burnin for the time being.”

“Yes sir!” Burning salutes the pro before shrugging an arm around your shoulder.

Todoroki glances at you from the corner of his eyes, and he sees how your shoulders fall ever-so-slightly. It was practically unnoticable, but he saw it. You were disappointed, the only reason Todoroki convinced you to come was because he knew that working with the man who had the speed and instincts of a number two pro hero was a great opportunity--even if his old man was a scumbag. He had to acknowledge his talents.

“I want Hakamata to come.”

The silence between the two was stifling, the heated glares acting as a silent conversation. You eyed Todoroki bewildered, confused as to why he was questioning Endeavor's decision. Sure, you were annoyed and somewhat disappointed, but you expected this. You were prepared to be treated as second best.

After all, people like them were always good at making people like you feel inferior.

“What?”

“I want Hakamata to be able to attend this mission with us.”

Endeavors eyes shut briefly, before doing the unexpected.

“If that’s what you want. Be ready, the both of you, we’re leaving soon,” he turns to the rest of the members in the room, “We’re taking a work trip to Hosu.”

“Yes sir!”

As Endeavor turns to leave, you smile brightly at Todoroki.

“Thanks Shoto.”

“Uh, yeah, sure.” His head faces the floor, he couldn’t bring himself to look you in the eyes.

“Let’s hurry then, we have a city to get to!”

“Right.”

-----

If anyone wants to be added to the taglist, or if I missed you, please send an ask and I’ll add you!!

TAGLIST(ANY BOLD-I CANNOT TAG YOU FRO WHATEVER REASON): @rizamendoza808 !(: @iris-suoh !(: @quicksilverfangirl !(: @shortperson202 !(: @noodlenerd101 !(: @matchamidoriya !(: @thorsbtch-captainnoobmaster69me !(: @pastel-prynce !(: @sunkissedneptune @monetfatalia !(: @legit-fandom-trash !(: @lovethewitchofendor !(: @dekuxlink !(: @water-melone98 !(: @helena-way07 !(: @nothing17-7 !(: @hopelessdisasterr !(: @karmaboundlife !(: @lunamoonmint !(: @ihatemyselftoinfinityandbeyond !(: @beew !(: @kaylees1414 !(: @axerrri !(: @icythotsenpai !(: @iwantapoptartqwq !(: @acehyacinth !(: @sspidermanss !(: @httpswwwtbhkcom !(: @omgthatonenerd06 !(: @mochicheeks-world !(: @gvthic-gvrl !(: @jinxed-egg !(: @themagical1sa !(: @cherriomilkmangos !(: @1-800-schmacked !(: @human-watching-ads-from-devildom !(: @sammyluvzz !(: @susceptible-but-siriusexual !(:

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docholligay · 4 years

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Please rant/rave (well, we already know which one it will be here) about Harry Potter!

GEE I HOPE THIS WAS WORTH WAITING FOR

OH MY GOD. The level of hatred I have for Harry Fucking Goddamn Potter, the culture around Harry Fucking Potter, extending its poisonous tentacles even to the concept of young adult fiction, fantasy, and the United Kingdom as a country and people.

When you being on this, you may think, “Oh, Doc will explain that Harry Potter sucks because JKR hates trans women” and I will say, oh no, dear reader, that is a fantastic reason to hate the author, and I really suggest we all continue to hate her, and perhaps not purchase the QUEEN’S TONNES of officially licensed merchandise and movies and theme parks that give her stupid little fucking hands all that cash, but no, that is not why I hate the work. There are a number of great works done by terrible people, and the further out the lens of history gets the truer this is.

I hate Harry Potter because it fucking sucks, and mentally stifled an entire fucking generation.

“Well, Doc, Harry Potter was really there for me when--” Oh my god I could not fucking care LESS about your personal emotion connection to “orphan wizard boy turns out to be a rich aristocrat yet somehow less woke than Cinderella though” I have personally emotional connections to hot fucking garbage pails of media properties, and if someone came barreling through talking about the myriad ways in which they were horrible, I would be like, “Oh, you aren’t fucking wrong, pal”

Harry Potter gained wild ass popularity in part due to its magnificent sorting system of Smart, Brave, Evil, and Other, because there’s nothing liberals like more than being able to put everyone’s personality into an easily labeled box, which is why astrology is so popular, or for the intellectuals, Myers-Briggs, which is just as fake but with the veneer of science. This allowed people to give into the tribalism they so desperately liked to pretend they did not possess, and also allow them to write thinkpieces about “The misunderstood Hufflepuff” or “Slytherins aren’t all bad!” or really anything that allows them to write a very real piece about their very imagined oppression for being a part of a totally fake house in a children’s book. Excellent use of your sociology degree, Kai, I thought the addition of phrases like, ‘Content of socialization” and “axes of oppression” really spoke to the struggles you face when wearing a green and silver scarf.

The other reason it became popular is that it’s essentially wallpaper paste formed into characters. I have read all of the books, and I could not tell you even remotely what Harry’s defining personality traits are other than “protagonist”. In American, at least, a large part of it was the fascination with all things British, with the idea of boarding school and prefects and uniforms that aren’t inexplicably chinos and polo shirts for nine year olds. It allowed children to project onto something so bland that it could be anything. And for children, THAT’S FINE. There is a great deal of bland media made for children, but what I’m speaking to is the fandom, which is largely well over the age of 18.

Because if we look at the books, are they...actually good? Was it good, or did I experience it as a child? I mean, honestly, on a literary level, are they, or was it just like we all watched Friends, we did it because everyone else was doing it, because I have a distinct memory of a series that involves such greats as “magical geegaws with poorly defined rules that are quickly forgotten despite being able to solve later problems quickly” or “Everyone loves Harry or is a bad guy, or secretly loved Harry all along”

Oh, speaking of, man, if this was an actual well-written book, wouldn’t it have been wild to have Snape’s whole thing be to teach us that sometimes people do good things for the wrong reasons? Instead of naming your fucking child after the guy who ‘protected you’ because he still wanted to bone your mom? “After all this time” “Always.”

While all this could have been explained, we have Quidditch added into the mix instead because 20 pages of the goddamn Puppy Bowl is exactly what I was looking for while I was waiting for JK to move the goddamn ball on literally any of these actual magical concepts.

Harry Potter is a fucking trust fund baby, star quarterback, who grows up to be a cop and marries his high school sweetheart. (Speaking of, why were we shocked that JKR turned out to be a piece of shit when this was and always has been the conclusion of Harry Potter? Why are liberals so fucking into this series that upholds structures like it ain’t no one’s business? It’s a series that opines that those beneath us “Muggles” should be kept in the dark from us) Literally, he finds out he is a wizard and has a dragon-guarded fucking VAULT OF CASH. At 11. It’s such a series for little tyrants, you are special from birth and need do nothing to prove it, here is a letter certifying as such. Oh, not only are you rich and the greatest seeker and have excellent quips, but also your parents were not only rebels, but the best of rebels, and so deeply involved that your parents were killed by the big bad personally, again, because you are so special. His mother’s love literally saves his ass over and over again, because he was SO SPECIAL. He fought Voldemort FROM THE BEGINNING, and WON. It’s literally the most privilege baby fantasy in the world.

“But Doooooooooooc, it’s for chiiiiiiiiiiiiiiildren”

A) Yeah, and you’re 32, you’re making my fucking point about Harry Potter setting an entire generation up for intellectual failure to launch.

B) Okay, and? I can think of a bunch of kids’ books off the top of my head that in no way require specialness to be given by birth so as to roll out the red carpet for master protagonist. The Hunger Games. Watership Down. A Series of Unfortunate Events. The Chronicles of FUCKING NARNIA, about which I have only a small handful of particularly kind things to say. I’ve never read Percy Jackson, but it’s my understanding that despite his being a literal demigod, the attitudes of the supporting cast are allowed to fall between the extremes of “Appreciates Percy” and “naughty or will learn” Harry does nothing to improve himself even after knowing that he is HUNTED BY THE BIG BAD! “I won’t do this because I don’t like Snape”. So There” which, again, if this series were written with the slightest bit of care or know-how, could be a humbling fucking plot point! BUT NO THAT WOULD BE NAUGHTY.

But the real reason I hate Harry Potter so much has everything to do with the fandom surrounding it, and how it intellectually stunted a generation of adults. The promise of Harry Potter was that it was supposed to make a new generation of readers, and so the popularity of them was pushed, and so there was discussion of teaching them in schools, but I tell you fucking what, I know a whole lot more folks who grew up reading Harry Potter that never advanced beyond reading YA, or even just rereading the entire series every year and that’s pretty much them done and dusted.

In the attempt to recapture whatever it was about Harry Potter that attracted children (A lot of it was your peers doing it. I read them all as they came out, and it was literally the equivalent of watching the game so you could talk at the water cooler. That was never going to be recaptured) people, who by this time were likely in their teens, kept getting recommended stuff at the same and same level. No one ever felt pushed to read things that are challenging, to read things that have some of the concepts or themes of Harry Potter but maybe complicate. I know FAR more adults who read adult books that aren’t into Harry Potter, even if they were as children, than the reverse.

But Doc, why is reading only books meant for 14 year olds a problem??? I mean I suppose I can’t convince you that comfort is not the job of literature or of life, it is the job of an easy chair, because Americans especially are decadent as fuck about being comfy cozy all the time and if anything causes them distress or pain it should be immediately avoided. But Maybe I can convince you that you’re fucking up these books for actual ass children who deserve to have their own writing section without adults bringing their fucking asses into it. They deserve their own spaces. There’s a number of YA editors who have talked about the difficult space YA now occupies because since Potter’s blowup, it’s no longer a niche category, but basically “adult easy reads” and so they have been buying books that are more about the tastes of adult buyers than of literal 14 year olds.

Is that not...sad? To anyone else? Honestly, and this is not part of the essay because it’s a broader reaching problem, but CHILDREN’S MEDIA IS NOT FOR US. CHILDREN’S MEDIA IS NOT FOR US. CHILDREN’S MEDIA IS FOR FUCKING CHILDREN. The fucking 40-23 set really needs to get their shit together and grow up a little bit and engage in some fucking adult media, and maybe, if we support what we’re actually looking for FOR ADULTS, it will come to us. No one is saying you can’t read Harry Potter or watch some Cartoon Network show, but like, search your heart and come the fuck on. Engage in something more complex. If not for yourselves, for the kids getting shoved into simplified adult stories. It should not be about us.

ANYWAY, my larger point is that it was Harry Potter, a badly written series about a magical boy who was chosen and magic and also rich and also a favorite of the headmaster and also more clever than most adults and also spoke the same magical snake language as the big bad and was also star quarterback, but at least there was a system in which you could buy a scarf in block colors and feel like you belonged to a team.

(But not a sports team! lol handegg! I’m cool I don’t get into sports! Except Quidditch.)

#TO say nothing of the fact that I haven't been able to wear gold and burgundy together without some dumbass comment for years #despite being a favored color combination #Anonymous #Eight Days 2020 #Holligay Rants and Raves #I didn't even GET to every point I had but it's been over an hour #GOD I HATE THIS FUCKING SERIES SO MUCH #Doc do you hate me for liking it?#oh sweet thing allow me to reassure you: Yes. Absolutely.#also the prose is god-awful #I've taught teenagers with better rpose

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mikaze-discord · 3 years

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Love letter project ♡

Sooo to celebrate the 4th anniversary of Shining live, I put together a project! I basically got a bunch of people to write a love letter for their favourite boy. Things like, why they like them, how they got to like them and what they like about them were all accepted!

The event was supposed to have 2 fans for each boy but unfortunately I was unable to get two for some of the boys.

Under the cut will be the love letters for all of Class A!!! Please enjoy~ And thank you for all the people who participated in the event and taking the time to write the love letters out.

CLASS A

OTOYA ITTOKI

From @ponzu-penzui:

Hello world! My nickname is Yuki, and I’m here to tell you about the sunshine boy that is Otoya Ittoki. The redhead of the series, Otoya is your seemingly a-typical sunshine in a mascot boy character. But, as we all know with these types, the sunshine isn’t as, well, sunshine as they seem. Or, if you didn’t know, well… spoiler alert I guess. Go watch the anime, or play the otome games, then come back here. Anyways, let’s get started on our journey, shall we? Through the rabbithole that got me here in the first place!

Otoya immediately became my best boy the second I saw him. I’m not quite sure what immediately got me at first, whether it be his red hair and eyes, his voice, or his immediate friendliness, but here we are. I should also mention that UtaPri was my first idol anime, so I was completely unaware what was going to hit me later. And, if you’ve watched the entire anime, you know where I’m going.

Season 4 was an emotional wreck. I cried at least twice. Did I have a newfound appreciation for Otoya after all that heartache? Definitely. Without spoilers, it was incredibly painful for me to watch, but I don’t regret it.

After watching the anime, I soon found out about the existence of Shining Live. So, with no other UtaPri content to binge, I started to play SL in late 2018. After playing for a little more than a year, I tiered in my first Otoya event (Heartwarming Snow Festival), and achieved my first top 200. Ever since then, I’ve tiered in every Otoya event, getting top 200, then top 100.

But, why do I like Otoya Ittoki even to this day? Well, I guess this is the time where I say that, after a certain point, I started to see bits of myself in Otoya. This led me to start to RP him, and, as you probably know if you’ve ever roleplayed a character before, I started to look at the miniscule amount of translated game content (many thanks to the Ohayaho Translation Team) for, well, more content. And content I did receive. Long story short, this only served to solidify Otoya as my favorite boy of not only UtaPri, but from all anime/manga/game content I’ve ever seen/watched. His cheerfulness may have been the first thing that got me in this rabbithole, but his backstory and how he managed to grow up pulled me in even further. And, I don’t think I will or want to get out anytime soon.

Next one from; Anon

As much as we all know our Otoya for how sweet and kind he is, there is so much more to him than just a precious smile. He is uplifting, cheerful towards everyone he meets. He has empathy and goes out of his way to make sure his friends are happy. Even so, Otoya has feelings that aren’t always happiness and smiles. He can feel sad and angry just like anyone else.

The reason I care and love Otoya so much is because he has shown me that I don’t have to always put on a smile. It’s nice to show off your pearly whites, but sometimes, it’s okay to be sad too. There are times in everyone’s life when they feel out of place and that they don’t belong. Otoya also felt this way and that’s perfectly okay. He’s still being the best idol he can be: The idol that Otoya loves the most.

MASATO HIJIRIKAWA

From Anon:

Masato Hijirikawa. Why do I like Masato Hijirikawa? I like him to the point that it feels weird for me to even question why I do. He's just- a good boy. A great boy. I love him. As a joke, I'd usually say that it was his weirdly pretty, bowl-cut hairstyle that drew me to him, or I'd say that he caught my interest when I read that he was "very good with his hands" (wink wonk) in his Shining Live description, and while both of these reasons are still true, it wasn't until I started role playing him in an old server that I really started to appreciate his character more.

Masato, despite his aloof and almost "perfect" initial image, is a very relatable character. When he first arrived at Saotome (in-game) he wasn't necessarily seen as someone with a lot of talent to become an idol, which he acknowledged with grace and worked hard to make up for. He's humble despite his privileged upbringing and is incredibly self-aware of his flaws, which are sources of insecurity for him sometimes (a lot of times). Though it should be said that most of this insecurity stems from not having a lot of control over his early life, which is why it felt so gratifying to see him break free of his metaphorical chains to pursue his happiness without any doubts. He's a hard worker and is willing to accept criticism with open arms, not only for himself but for the people around him. Despite his traditional upbringing and nature, he's very receptive to change as long as it benefits both him and STARISH. He values the people he cares about more than anything, which is why he constantly strives to be a better version of himself every day, not only for himself but for the people around him.

Though his stoicism sometimes makes him seem plain or even "boring" to some people, he hides a warm, hidden passion within that's just as bright as everyone else's. Like the springtime bloom of cherry blossoms after winter, Masato shows his passion and love with no restraint to anyone who takes the time to understand him, and I can very much attest to this. I love him a lot and I hope to see more content of him, STARISH, and the others for more years to come.

NATSUKI SHINOMIYA

From uh....me:

HELLO I’m Z~ also known as the mod of the mikaze-discord/utapri-hcs tumblrs, as well as the organiser for the event! But enough about myself, let's talk about Natsuki Shinomiya.

When I first watched the anime as a youngin, I had already known about the games and their plots but had decided to try out the anime as well since I had nothing better to do.

Natsuki was actually one of my least favourite characters in the anime just because of how they presented him. I just...didn't care for him at all. He was just some random tall guy who loved hugs and almost murder…. Yeah.

I’m sure like most, I had a changing point. Originally, I was a Tokiya rper but...I was just unhappy with how my Tokiya was, I wasn't as experienced in rping with that server being my first rp server i was ever in. I didn't feel like I matched up with the others. I felt my Tokiya was just lacking something, substance maybe. Another person actually had a similar feeling and had changed their character from Camus to Syo and since we already had an Ai, I had just decided to go with the flow and complete the rest of the cute team. Best decision of my life. I’m so grateful for Natsuki and everything I associate him with. Without him, I probably wouldn't have made my tumblrs, I wouldn't have stayed in that server, I wouldn't have gone looking for other servers to rp in. I don't think I would be the same without Natsuki. I just find him so endearing now, he is just a lovable giant who happens to be able to be a disney princess. He is just so darn cute damn it. , just look at his Christmas card, his King card, quite literally just half his Shining live URs. Also, just like his songs just slap. Natsuki to me, is just serotonin. He gave me so many opportunities that I could have missed. I don't even think I would have started this love letter project without him if I’m being completely honest. I genuinely enjoyed all the memories I made as Natsuki. Thank you to Natsuki and to the Mikaze-discord for basically starting me off.

From Luke:

Natsuki was actually the very first character I encountered before I got into utapri. A friend showed a photo of him and told me that I'd probably be into this guy. She sure was right! After installing shining live for the first time and having a familiar face on the screen, I grew curious of him each day and just had to find out why was so attracted to him. The fact that I've seen him so many times in the past was haunting me, telling me that this man actually watched me grow up from a distance without even knowing his name. It sounds weird but I find it rather comforting for someone who doesn't want to be protected but isn't strong enough to defend myself alone.

The thought of having him there was enough to get me through the day and gave me enough reason to wake up to the next. I admit I may have adapted some of his habits after looking after his account for a year but that isn't a bad thing if it means that it would turn me into a much better person than I am now. I guess you could say we've grown together now in a sense, preserving the feelings and just living through the moment no matter how happy or sad it is. What's important is that we're not alone in all things we do and in everything we feel, there will always be someone there to keep us moving when we feel like giving up.

#utapri #utanoprincesama #uta no prince sama #Natsuki Shinomiya #Shinomiya Natsuki #Masato Hijirikawa #hijirikawa masato #otoya ittoki #ittoki otoya

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iceeckos12 · 4 years

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tma fic recs

I’ve seen a couple of fic rec posts floating around. since ive been reading so many excellent fic recently, i thought that id make one as well! please note this list is going to be 99% jonmartin. also buckle up, because this is going to get long.

Completed

the umbrella by Wildehack (tyleet)

"And to think—all of Jonah Magnus’ carefully laid plans, the centuries of scheming, the murders, the sacrifices, all of that work could have been completely undone if Martin Blackwood had gone back for an umbrella" - holdthosebees

Notes: This is probably my go-to fic if i want an apocalypse never happened scenario. The jonmartin is wonderful, as is the h/c.

Diary and Prenon-nous la main by luftballoons99

Diary summary:

Not for the first time since they ran away together, a camera reel of all the things they don't know about one another whirs behind Martin's eyes, and he can't help but look at all the sprawling magnetic tape and wonder if they’re going to wind up a romance or a tragedy.

or: Office parties, garage bands, and the joy of being known.

Prenon-nous la main summary:

They still haven't talked about it, any of it, not even to pass the time on the long train ride to Scotland. Instead, Martin fell asleep in the seat next to him, pressed into his side from shoulder to knee, and Jon thought about love confessions and verb tense and how the two fit together when you think you're dying.

or: Good cows, mediocre poetry, and other crucial topics of discussion.

Notes: Do you love impeccable safehouse jonmartin characterization? do you love characters grappling with the mortifying ordeal of being known? do you love softness so tender that it makes you want to weep? please read these fic. im begging you.

i’ll tell you about all the times i’ve smiled because of you by cryptidkidprem

Summary:

Martin thinks about their shoes, sitting beside each other on the floor by the bed. Thinks of the way Jon wears Martin’s cardigans more often than he wears his own, the way Martin’s started keeping elastics around his wrist because Jon always forgets his own when they go out.

He thinks about all the gentle touches and fussing over each other they’ve done, and how much is still to come over the next… however long Jon will have him.

They have a long way to go, an entire life to build out of the wreckage Jonah Magnus and Peter Lukas left them, but laying together in a comfortable, sleepy quiet, Martin thinks they’ve got a good start going.

Or, Jon quits the Institute, saves the world, and it turns out to be exactly what he needs in order to heal and start moving forward towards building a life with Martin.

Notes: how many times have i reread this fic? more than i can count. jon quits the institute and it’s just full of soft jonmartins. they get married! god i love them.

go softly by doomcountry

Summary:

And there is nothing else besides this.

Notes: every time i remember this fic i reread it. please heed the tags because martin is blinding jon, but he’s like. blinding jon in the most heartbreaking way possible. idk how the author made this so tender but i know i was certainly crying so!

The Reverb in These Holy Halls by Wolftraps (AlwaysBoth)

Summary:

Undoing the apocalypse would have been enough for Jon, if all his people survived. Without them, Jon's only recourse is making it so it never happened in the first place. He's going to do better this time.

Notes: Do you like time travel fixits? i sure like time travel fixits. reverb is an excellent one. heavy on the h/c, I wanted to hug jon so so badly.

Yesterday is Here by CirrusGrey

Summary:

"Who the hell are you?" Jon could feel his hands shaking. The man laughed, taking a step forward and raising a hand to point at him. "I'm you, from the future!" he said, then swayed, eyes going unfocused, and collapsed to the floor in a dead faint. -------- Post-season-four Jon and Martin time travel back to the season one Archives.

Notes: Yet another time travel fixit! also excellent. the teasing was HYSTERICAL. also Im just going to say this now - CirrusGrey in general writes incredible tma fic. You can’t really go wrong.

unassigned supplementals by bibliocratic

Notes: I won’t put in a summary just because it’s a long series of oneshots, but bibliocratic’s writing is amazing. Again, you can’t really go wrong with one of their fic!

let the soft animal of your body by autoclaves

Summary:

Standing in the warm kitchen, slats of sepia light filtering through onto the counter in front of him, Martin doesn’t know what to do with his hands. He half expects them to go through the countertop entirely, glossy and solid as it is. He isn’t used to any of it, yet. The safehouse. Jon. Beams of sun pouring into his hands. After being deprived of everything of significance for so long, the longing that crashes over him is almost painful in its tangibility. He wants to laugh, to sob, to scream and hear it echoed back against the neat, square walls of the safehouse.

In the end, he doesn’t do any of these things. He makes eggs instead. He can do that, can’t he? Use his hands for something simple and plain and good.

(Or: In the safehouse after it all, Martin starts cooking.)

Notes: this fic really speaks to me a) because i project on martin like crazy and b) because food is also my love language. this fic is incredibly soft and it’s all about cooking!

“Have you tried turning it on and off again?” by shinyopals

Summary:

I hope you find your new role as Head of the Institute as rewarding as captaining the Tundra, wrote Elias Bouchard, to Peter Lukas. There are so many people working there: all with their own interesting lives, and all desiring your attention and support. I'm sure you will relish the challenge it will bring and enjoy every moment spent with the fine men and women of the Institute. In time I'm confident they'll become like a family to you.

The Magnus Institute has a new boss. The Magnus Institute also has a new tech support technician. These two facts are unrelated, except they both happen at the same time.

Meanwhile Jon's woken up from being dead for six months and for once he's trying his best. He just wishes Martin would stop avoiding him and answer his messages...

Notes: if you’re looking for a good laugh, this fic is SO SO SO FUNNY. i was dying. basically the magnus institute being an absolute bureaucratic nightmare.

hello my old heart by firebirdsuite

Summary:

Peter’s wrong, of course. When it’s all over, Martin does still want to tell Jon everything. It’s just—well, there’s a few things they need to work through first before they can get there.

Martin and Jon find each other again in Scotland.

Notes: it’s all about the yearning. and trust me, the yearning in this fic? im just. i sure do love jonmartin, and this is such soft, loving jonmartin it just makes you want to cry

two ships passing by pyrites

Summary:

Gerard Keay is 10 years old the very first time he tries to run away from home, right around the time that Jonathan Sims has just come into possession of his first Leitner.

Or: One dropped stone can change the way the whole ocean moves.

Notes: again, JONGERRY. MY GOODNESS. this fic is beautiful, the writing is absolutely breathtaking and it owns my heart. im so in love with it. the author said you’re going to have emotions about jon and gerry and jongerry and i said OKAY

Terminal Sight by viv_is_spooky

Summary:

Spider silk weaves through the visions of two Seers. Monstrosity is dawning on them both.

Notes: I’d never read a gerryoliver fic before this, but the execution is EXCELLENT and now im sold on the ship forever. This fic has wonderful prose and great characterization and i love it a whole lot.

Incomplete

assistant archivist au by PitViperOfDoom

Notes: I won’t put a summary since I’m reccing an entire series, but. it is absolutely no secret that i adore jongerry. pit’s assistant archivist au slapped me over the head with some gorgeous jongerry oneshots and then gave me the gift of the main fic (which is still in progress) about head archivist martin. i love this au so so much

dustsceawung by callmearcturus

Summary:

Martin had always been favored by the summer courts, and moving up north to the little village of Lacuna is a difficult adjustment. It's rainy and lonely and everyone seems to have a strange, distant relationship with the local faerie court.

However: there is a strange man in a cloak who walks past Martin's remote little cottage every few days.

However: there is a moth that keeps getting stuck in Martin's house during the rain.

These events are not as disconnected as they first appear.

Notes: you ever just read a fic that you didn’t know that you needed until after you read it? yeah. featuring the fae and moth jon and excellent characterization.

Illicio by ThatOneGirlBehindYou

As the new Archivist debates between life and death, the Eye ponders on what to offer him in order to avoid an encore of the unfortunate situation with his predecessor.

-----

Gerard Keay opens his eyes at what feels like fuck-ass in the morning, inside a room with far too little space and far too much dust.

Notes: This is also the moment where I reveal that im a sucker for jongerrymartin. please read this fic. gerry is brought back from the dead in s4 and everyone is far better off for it.

where there’s a will, we make a way by bubonickitten

Summary:

"So, what does happen if an Eye learns to See within itself?

What happens is this: the Archive Beholds the Watcher – and the Watcher blinks first."

________________________

Jon goes back to before the world ended and tries to forge a different path.

Notes: this time travel fixit is shaping up to be an absolutely incredible read. i love the way this author writes jon so so much, and the characterization is spot on. this whole fic just satisfies some little part of me. god. also!! bubonickitten’s writing in general? beautiful. please check out their other works.

The Timeline of Theseus by Applea

Jon tries to force the Spiral to send him back, but the Sprial's corridors never twist things quite the way you want them to. Back in 1996, Elias has no idea why or how the Eye made such a powerful Avatar out of an 8 year old, especially when said 8 year old doesn't actually know he has any powers at all. Clearly such a child cannot be left outside the Institute's care.

Notes: This fic is legitimately brilliant. The author manages to capture the big ADHD mood and the precociousness of baby Jon while managing to write a wonderful storyline. Time travel! Elderly lesbians! A Jonah who is wildly in over his head but was walloped over the head with paternal instinct! Baby Gerry! What more could you possibly ask for?

rooms full of people who do not love each other yet by seaer

Summary:

“Wanted to ask about a book.” The boy has his hand on the counter, and he leans into it, nonchalant. The library is air-conditioned, but by no means frigid, and Jon can’t help but feel sweaty just looking at the layers he’s wearing; what looks like old leather over an olive-green Magnus pullover over his school shirt. “Do you have A Journal of the Plague Year?”

Jon says, tetchily, “We’re about to close.”

“I know. Do you have A Journal of the Plague Year?”

Notes: I am so in love with this author’s writing style and the way they write the characters!! The jon and gerry friendship is PERFECT and the character interactions are all darling.

if you read these fics please send the authors some love, they definitely deserve it!!

#tma #fic recs #ill update this as i read #seriously some very very good stuff on here #long post

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