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#math isn’t real i’m having flashbacks
miinatozakiii · 7 months
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school is KILLING ME
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sokkabaddiebender2021 · 3 months
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ok y’all i finally finished the neflix live action avatar and…….don’t hate me……..but i enjoyed it 😭 my standards for entertainment is honestly on whether or not it entertained me, so honestly i question my standards.
first off, the visuals and score was absolutely amazing. the fight scenes were well choreographed, and the bending, which i was super nervous about, looked actually amazing.
i think we can all agree the writing and dialogue was pretty choppy at times, and the delivery could be better at times. but i also think (most) of the energy of the original characters was captured well. katara honestly got done the dirtiest because why was she so…….not passionate??? i’m hoping later on she gets more so because that’s a key trait of katara. i was very disappointed with that :/
what they did to suki too……..i liked her being a little awkward and such because it makes sense but i felt like too much of her character was dedicated to her having a crush on sokka. like where is her attitude, her ferocity?
i think aang was played very well by gordon cormier, especially considering this is a child actor we are taking about. his line delivery isn’t going to be great and yes he is a real boy so he can’t be as cartoony as some would hope but i think he was absolutely adorable.
surprise surprise, i loved dallas liu as zuko. i think there were some pretty whack line deliveries but he really captured the anger and cringeyness of zuko well. his martial arts were also also incredible, his fight scenes were my favorite to watch. the scene with him crying quietly on the bed when ozai banishing him shattered me, his subtle acting is underrated honestly.
i have my beef with ian ousley as sokka mostly because of the controversy and such, but i can’t lie he did play sokka well. yet again, as for the last characters, some line deliveries were iffy but he was still a very believable sokka.
so for the writing, i have LOTS OF OPINIONS. there were things they cut that definitely upset me, and that was just because of their lowkey questionable pacing. as much as i hate the slimeball, i missed a lot of the interesting parts of zhao’s story that they cut like his agni kai, jeuong jeuong (aang’s fear of fire??), zuko SAVING him. i feel like they had something interesting there with building a fake alliance with him and zuko, and they didn’t build more off it. [edit] that so, the dude who played zhao had me losing my shit. his line delivery was hilarious and i just love that zhao just gives that manager no one likes/that one creepy math teacher in high school vibes (only combination i could think of y’all).
the additions to zuko’s story was something i absolutely loved. i found myself actually getting very emotional with a lot of the flashbacks, and the 41st division being his crew 🥹🥹 but then i find myself being upset that we were shown other flashbacks so early (like the death of katara’s mother??).
i actually hate the hate azula’s actress is getting. she’s playing a 14 year old……like a 14 year old?? she wasn’t even in season 1 in the og so ofc she’s gonna not be the same, i’m hoping this means they’re building up her up to her fierceness in season 2.
one last critique PLEASE GET A WIG BUDGET GOOD LORD THOSE WIGS WERE BAAAAD. and also a lot of their costumes looked fake or like plastic this was actually my least favorite part 😭
overall, not as horrible as people make it out to be, i had a good time but obviously the og will always be the higher quality product. i’m just glad the young actors seemed to really be passionate for the project :)
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in1-nutshell · 3 months
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MORE SG BLACK ARACHNIA BUDDY
I'm stuck on a retelling of the episode where meltdown and black arachnia work together. But it's just meltdown pulling some extremism by essentially kidnappy buddy and saying, "I'm either gonna fix it by turning it full organic or kill it, which ever comes first". And Buddy is desperately on the phone with Optimus like
Op - look, I'm coming, but don't you have Decepticon allies that you can call?!?!
Buddy who knows that if Megatron knew she was in danger, then the island would simply be collateral damage - ...no
HAHAHAHA! I love the little description of the call there!
Here is the unintentional, intentional, after math of the Sentinel and Elita reunion.
Hope you enjoy!
Elita One's Twin sister gets kidnapped by Meltdown
SFW, Platonic, Familial, Hinted romance, kidnapping, slight mention of torture, mention of burns, Cybertronian (techno organic) reader
TFA
How did Buddy end up here?
Strapped to an experimental table, shock collars adoring her neckcables and servos, too many muti-colored patches one her frame while a disgusting Puddle Man taking notes on a weird looking monitor.
Buddy would have to start from last week to be able to tell you that.
Buddy had stayed on Dinobot Island for the night trying to calm down from that night’s events.
The Dinobots were more than happy to have Buddy over though they were worried about what happened the night before.
Buddy is sitting and patting Swoops head as Snarl keeps guard of the cave entrance.
Grimlock is sitting behind her.
“Buddy ready to talk?”--Grimlock
Buddy continuing to pat Swoop.
“No.”--Buddy
“Why?”--Grimlock
“Because I said so.”--Buddy
“You say that not real answer.”--Grimlock
“Well—”--Buddy
“And that way to—erm—avoid question.”--Grimlock
“… When did you get so smart?”--Buddy
Grimlock puffing chassis a bit in pride.
“Grimlock smartest of Dinobot’s!”--Grimlock
“Yes, you are.”-Buddy
“So… Buddy talk, now?”--Grimlock
“No.”--Buddy
Buddy made sure she went back to the base as soon as the next boat had arrived near the island and beelined straight to the base.
To her surprise and slight hurt, no one had noticed she had gone the night before.
Not even Megatron.
Then again, she couldn’t blame him.
The Elite Guard was still on Earth after all, he had more things to worry about.
After a week, Buddy decided to do something she hadn’t done in a while.
Buddy walking towards the exit of the base.
“And where do you think you’re going at this early in the morning?”--Starscream
Starscream leans against the cave wall with his arms crossed.
“I’m taking a walk outside.”--Buddy
“Don’t you have a med bay to re arrange again?”--Starscream
“I’m taking the day off.”--Starscream
Starscream’s wings slightly perk in question.
“You? Taking a day off? Has Megatron finally grabbed his bearings and asked you then?”--Starscream
“Asked me what?”--Buddy
“Ask you to—”--Starscream
Megatron appears behind him scaring the two.
“Go one Starscream what were you going to say?”--Megatron
Starscream chuckles a bit nervously.
“Ah he isn’t doing any harm now Megatron.”--Buddy
“Yet.”--Starscream
“Shh! Anyway’s I was telling him that I was taking the day off today. I sent the message through the link, and I was going out for a walk—”--Buddy
“You are… taking the day off?”--Megatron
“Yes? Why is it so hard for you two to believe that.”--Buddy
“Lugnut wouldn’t believe you.”--Starscream
“Oh that’s a bit of a stretch—”--Buddy
“Hey Lugnut!”--Starscream
Lugnut stops walking with Blitzwing by his side.
“Why is everyone awake? No one is up by this—”--Buddy
“Buddy says she’s taking the day off.”--Starscream
Random starts laughing hysterically while Lugnut looks confused.
“Buddy…taking the day off?”--Lugnut
“OH, COME ON! I am not that bad! I can take a break when I want to.”--Buddy
All the Decepticon’s having flashback’s of dragging Buddy away from her work or to sleep at a decent time, some getting out with injuries.
“…”—All the Decepticon
“…Look I’m going out today for a walk. No one is going to call me unless someone is dying.”--Buddy
Buddy hops off the ledge and swings away from the group who is left astounded.
“…So this is the future you have in mind Megatron?”--Starscream
“Starscream I swear…”--Megatron
While on the walk someone pinged her on her commlink.
Despite what she had just told the entire team an hour earlier, she still took the call.
Blame the anxiety and bad habits.
It was Prime.
“Hello?”--Buddy
“Prowl where—Buddy?”Optimus
“…Hey Prime…”--Buddy
“Wait don’t hang up, please!”--Optimus
Buddy pauses a bit.
“Go on…”--Buddy
“How are you?”--Optimus
Buddy lets out a shaky vent.
“As okay as I can be Prime. I take it you didn’t call me on purpose?”--Buddy
“No—I mean—that came out wrong…”--Optimus
“…Hey Optimus… I never got to tell you how sorry—”--Buddy
“No.”--Optimus
“What?”--Buddy
“You are not going to say sorry. You had good intentions that night. It on them now. If we are going to blame anyone it should be me—”--Optimus
“And I’m going to stop you there too.”--Buddy
“Wait no, I’m still stopping you.”--Optimus
“But now I’m stopping you.”--Buddy
“No, I am.”--Optimus
“No, I am!”--Buddy
“No, I am!”--Optimus
Silence.
Both friends on the line end up laughing.
They both knew it was going to be okay.
At least with them.
Sentinel and Elita were still another story.
“Why did you originally call for anyways Prime? You didn’t want to speak to your friendly neighborhood Spider?”—Buddy
“What I—I mean—”--Optimus
“I’m just messing with you Optimus. Tell away.”--Buddy
“I was trying to get a hold of Prowl. So much has been going down on the base. Mainly everyone has been a bit more… chaotic than usual. I was calling because I have a lens Prowl wanted.”--Optimus
“What kind of lens?”--Buddy
“His nature camera lens on Dinobot Island had gotten cracked last week and he has been… a bit moodier without seeing his birds.”--Optimus
“Well Optimus today’s your lucky day. I have the day off and—”--Buddy
“You have the day off? Really?”--Optimus
“Why is everyone surprised about this? I can take breaks.”--Buddy
Optimus having a flashback to the Academy were Elita, Sentinel and him dragging Buddy out of the study room with dents on them all.
“… Right…”--Optimus
“Anyways I can go to the island and fix it myself.”--Buddy
“I don’t want to interrupt—”--Optimus
“You’re not interrupting anything Prime. Anyways it gives me an excuse to go see the boys.”--Buddy
“Thanks Buddy, you’re a life saver.”--Optimus
“You got it Prime.”--Buddy
Now she was on Dinobot Island.
She managed to find the camera, but its lens wasn’t just broken.
It had some sort of … burns…
Buddy needed to inspect this more. Nothing on the island could have done these types of burns. Nothing organic at least.
She grabbed the camera when she heard some familiar pede steps.
Buddy turns to see the Dinobots coming towards her.
Buddy waves hello.
“Hey, guys!”--Buddy
Dinobots running faster.
“Hey, you slow down now…”--Buddy
Dinobots run even faster.
“WAIT, WAIT, WAIT—”--Buddy
Dinobot’s tackle Buddy to the ground.
“Guys…as much as I love you all… I’m not…as durable…as you…”--Buddy
“Dinobot’s get off Buddy who is just lying in a silhouette crater.
“Ow…”--Buddy
Grimlock picks Buddy up with one servo and dusts her off a bit.
“Thank you—Hold on what is that?”--Buddy
Buddy looks at a familiar looking burn on Grimlock’s thigh.
Grimlock shivers a bit as Buddy’s servo comes near the wound.
Buddy turns to see the others have similar burns.
“What happened?”--Buddy
“Dinobots… umm… Me Grimlock…”--Grimlock
“Is something hurting you?”--Buddy
Grimlock shaking his helm.
“…Is someone hurting you?”--Buddy
A hesitant nod from all three.
Buddy got out her med kit to look at the burns while gently petting them.
Buddy asked what happened to them after caring for each burn the best she could with her supplies.
They told Buddy that some puddle man hurt them.
Buddy’s optics harden.
Someone was hurting her friends.
They were going to pay.
Pay dearly.
Buddy finishing up the last injury.
“By any chance, do you remember the last place the ‘Puddle Man” was?”--Buddy
“Yes, it near gorge.”--Grimlock
Buddy nodding her helm slowly.
Grimlock suddenly looked nervous.
“Buddy not going to go see ‘Puddle Man’, right?”--Grimlock
“I just want a talk to the ‘Puddle Man’.”--Buddy
Buddy begins to move forward, but Grimlock quickly blocks her.
“No! Buddy no go! Puddle Man hurt Buddy!”--Grimlock
Snarl and Swoop nod their helms in agreement.
“I’ll be fin—”--Buddy
“No!”--Grimlock
Buddy shoots a web upwards and swings out of the Dinobot circle.
“Sorry guys! But someone’s going to pay for this!”--Buddy
“Buddy!”--Grimlock
Buddy quickly disappears into the bush.
Grimlock turns to Swoop.
“Get Truck bot.”--Grimlock
Swoop nods hurriedly and flies off.
As Buddy swung towards the gorge, something cut off her webs making her tumble to the ground. She slammed her helm on a sharp rock causing her to black out.
That brings us back to the present.
The Puddle Man had introduced himself as Meltdown.
Some wannabe scientist that got himself into a bit of an accident making him look like this, ‘Puddle Man’.
Buddy had tried to get out of the bonds but after a couple volts of electricity and a couple dozen acid burns to the pedes later Buddy decided that it was going to be better to wait it out for an opportunity to show up.
“Let me get this straight. You want to make me fully organic… so you can figure out how to turn yourself back to human? Am I missing anything?”--Buddy
“That sum everything up, yes.”--Meltdown
“Do you take constructive critic?”--Buddy
“…I’ll allow it.”--Meltdown
“That is the dumbest thing I have heard today.”--Buddy
“WHAT?!”--Meltdown
“You’re trying to turn me, someone who isn’t organic by nature, to become fully organic. We both have different biology and not to mention the methods of—”--Buddy
Meltdown cranks the electricity collars on making Buddy scream.
“I’d watch your tone if I were you. If I don’t find out a way to make you fully organic, you’ll be discard like the rest.”--Meltdown
Buddy giving him the stink eye while side eyeing the mismatched bones and fur in the corner.
“You can’t even dispose of your own garbage Meltdown.”--Buddy
“I’m going to enjoy this.”--Meltdown
“Enjoy whaaAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!”--Buddy
The collar sparks with more voltage than before while Meltdown looked down at her with a sadistic smile.
Buddy didn’t know what was more surprising.
The fact that her original frame and organic frame was still intact from the electricity and burns or the fact that Meltdown had to leave his lab to use the bathroom.
Buddy wasn’t going to push it any further.
She managed to get a hold on the com link that was still in her audial and pressed on it.
“Optimus—”--Buddy
“Buddy where are you!?”--Optimus
Buddy wincing a bit at the volume.
“Shush! Prime, you’re going to get me caught.”--Buddy
“Caught?! Caught by who?”--Optimus
“You familiar with ‘Meltdown’?”--Buddy
Optimus paling on the other end of the line.
“Yes.”--Optimus
“I’m in some lab of his and I can’t exactly get out.”--Buddy
“I’m already on my way.”--Optimus
“That’s—urgh—fast.”--Buddy
“One of the Dinobots came and asked for me. We’re half way to the Island now.”--Optimus
“Oh, thank the Allspark.”--Buddy
“Did he hurt you?”--Optimus
“…Do you really want that answer?”--Buddy
“Buddy…”--Optimus
“I’m just trying not to look at them and get nervous.”--Buddy
“We’re almost to the shore.”--Optimus
“Good.”--Buddy
“Buddy, have you tried contacting your… team?”--Optimus
Buddy already having the vision of the island engulfed in flames.
“…No, I haven’t but there’s a good reason—”--Buddy
Toilet flushes.
“Prime I have to go! Find Me Prime!”--Buddy
Buddy releases her commlink silently tensing when Meltdown comes in.
“Shall we continue?”--Meltdown
Now all she had to do was stall Meltdown until Prime came.
Meltdown came back and began fiddling around with some of Buddy’s buttons near her helm.
To her horror she saw him press the mainlink to the Decepticon base, the one that would radio into the main computer.
While he was prodding around a few drops of acid fell on her.
She screamed as the acid met her chassis.
Buddy heard someone in her audial talking to her, but she couldn’t quite put her digit on it.
Mentally and physically.
Meltdown had somehow managed to figure out the link was something important and decided to play around with it.
He smeared more acid on her chassis.
She wailed in agony.
There was a bunch of noise in her audial now, but it eventually faded away as she blacked out from the pain.
When Buddy woke up again into was slow and painful.
Her optics were hazy and unfocussed, mainly seeing giant blobs.
She tried focusing on her senses first before dealing with everything else.
Buddy’s back was still on the table, but the patches were gone and so were the collar around her neck and servos.
Speaking of servos, something or someone was holding onto one of them with a death grip.
Strange enough, the touch felt familiar, nostalgic even.
Buddy tried focusing her vision on what was holding her servo and nearly had a spark attack right there.
It was Elita.
Okay this was surely a dream or Meltdown had failed to make her completely organic and this was her mind making a scenario to ease her into death.
She finally had enough consciousness to finally look around the room and was now fully convinced she was dreaming.
Next to Elita who was looking sadly at their intertwined servos was Optimus and Sentinel with Ratchet.
The three mechs seemed to also be looking across the room to…
Oh, Primus, why were they doing here?!
And how where the Bots not dead!?
On the other side of the room was Megatron with Blitzwing and Starscream glaring at the other Autobots.
Buddy gave Elita’s servo a squeeze making her snap up to look at Buddy smiling weakly.
Buddy gives Elita’s servo a bit of a squeeze.
Elita’s helm snaps up to see Buddy smiling weakly at her with barely opened optics.
“What’s with the look? Someone died?”--Buddy
Elita practically launches herself onto Buddy, hugging and crying on her neckcables.
Everyone else in the room finally understood that Buddy was awake now and tried to reach for Buddy.
Buddy gives them each a smile before motioning the door.
Motioning for privacy.
Her team was hesitant to leave, but eventually followed the Autobot’s out.
Elita finally released Buddy.
“Buddy, Buddy I’m so sorry—hic—I’m so sorry!”--Elita
“It’s okay Elita—”--Buddy
“No, it’s not! Look what happened to you! You nearly died here and…and--”--Elita
Buddy slowly takes her twins servo in her own.
“Things…things happen Lita…”--Buddy
Buddy pauses waiting to hear Elita tell her not to call her that.
She doesn’t.
“Somethings are out of our control, and we can’t just stick in one place for the rest of our lives. I got turned into a techno organic and made peace with it. This is a part of who I am now, and I accept it. Imagine if I didn’t and was bitter about it? I wouldn’t want to live a life were the only thing I have to look forward is revenge or something.”--Buddy
Elita sniffs a little bit.
“You took my place though. Aren’t you a little bit mad at me? At Optimus? At Sentinel?”--Elita
“I did at first. I wanted to blame everything on you guys and those Spider’s. But you know what Lita? It isn’t any of you guys’ fault. I made my decision back at that cave and I don’t regret it. Not for a nanoclick.”--Buddy
“But—”--Elita
“If I had the option of going back to that moment, I wouldn’t change a thing. I…I love Lita, and nothing’s going to change that.”--Buddy
Elita now fully sobbing on her twin.
Buddy starts bawling too as she hugs her back.
“Hey, I know this is off topic, but what happened to Meltdown?”--Buddy
Elita scowls.
“He got away. But don’t worry, I don’t thinks he’s coming anywhere near you ever again.”--Elita
“If you say so…”--Buddy
Buddy clung to Elita’s side as they both made their way out of the lab.
Buddy found it a bit funny how everyone was outside on their respected sides some silently glaring more than others.
Turns out the Dinobot’s had taken liberties to act as mediators between the two factions if things got out of hand.
Buddy waving at the group.
“Hi!”--Buddy
Dinobot’s waving back happily.
Buddy’s view was suddenly blocked by Megatron’s chassis.
“Are you all, right? Why are you even standing? Did the doctor do a good job? You shouldn’t be standing.”--Megatron
Megatron scoops Buddy up into his arms and walks back to his side.
Optimus looks relieved.
Sentinel too but tries to hide it in front of the Decepticon’s.
Ratchet also visibly relaxes a bit.
Starscream and Blitzwing stand close to Megatron nearly shielding Buddy from the other’s view.
“If there are any further complications—”--Ratchet
“I know where to find you field tech.”--Megatron
Megatron nods at the Autobot’s before taking off with Buddy in his arms with Starscream and Blitzwing following suite.
“Do you think she’ll be all right?”--Sentinel
“Of course she is. Don’t count her out of anything kids.”--Ratchet
Ratchet’s right. We’ll see her again, maybe not soon, but we will eventually.”--Elita
Optimus smiles at his friends.
“Let’s go home.”--Optimus
Meanwhile at the Decepticon base.
Megatron walks straight to Buddy’s room closing the door behind him.
He gently places Buddy down on the berth.
He sits down next to her.
“…Megatron—”--Buddy
“Not now.”--Megatron
He gently grabs her smaller servo in his.
Buddy slightly blushes at the action.
“…We can talk about this later.”--Buddy
“Yes, but now…”--Megatron
His servo lets go of her’s and pulls her into a side hug mindful of the injuries.
Buddy leans into his frame venting softly as exhaustion starts taking a toll.
“Buddy… there is something I need to tell you. I—”--Megatron
Megatron looks down to see Buddy fast asleep.
He chuckles a bit and gently places her on the berth.
His servo lingers on her’s before letting go.
He goes to the door and quietly walks out.
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Redacted Incorrect Quotes Pt. ?
Haha you really thought my lazy ass was gonna work on WIPs? Nah. Have some redacted incorrect quotes based on tweets I saw, either on the app or screenshots of.
No I don’t care if the dashes are uneven.
Redacted Masterlist
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Angel: *Flirting poorly with Davey at the grocery store* Hey so do you eat food often?
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Sweetheart: Curious George is not a monkey because he has no tail. He is an ape. He will grow into a silverback gorilla and kill the man with the yellow hat in a display of dominance.
Milo: I’m literally just trying to read to Aggro.
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Milo: I love when kittens yell, but their heads are too big so they squint.
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Guy: Roommate broke up with boyfriend that cooks for us. Excuse me while I go die.
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Angel: In 1920 we took children out of the coal mine. In 2020 the most popular game on the market is minecraft. 
Baabe: Children yearn for mines.
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*3 AM*
No one:
LITERALLY no one:
Asher, in wolf form: I wonder if I can break the record with how loud I can lick my paw.
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Darlin: If civilization crumbles, I have a little flashlight in a drawer somewhere.
---
Sweetheart: Paul McCartney’s “Wonderful Christmastime” is about friends practicing magic but when someone walks in they have to play it cool.
Milo: No. It isn’t.
Sweetheart: *starts singing* The moon is bright, the spirits up. We’re here tonight, and that’s enough. *whispers* This is the part where someone comes in. *Continues pointedly* Simply having a wonderful christmastime!
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Angel: My husband gives people a thumbs down instead of flicking them off when driving. He reports that a thumbs down makes them a lot more angry.
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Adam: I would be such a good “dead wife”. Like, can you imagine how good I would look in a dead wife flashback sequence? Someone make me their “dead wife.
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David: As a kid I thought Simba was crazy for running away after the death of Mufasa. But now watching it as an adult, I get it. It did look pretty incriminating of him leading Mufasa to that gorge. Witnesses saw him singing “I just can’t wait to be king.” A persecutor could do some real damage with that conviction.
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Honey: I don’t like the saying “don’t speak ill of the dead”. It always struck me as disingenuous. People are multi-layered. Yes, I did light up a room. But I also stole my roommate’s milk to make mac and cheese blackout hammered. Let’s acknowledge both sides.
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David, giving a pep talk to the pack: For anyone feeling down, just remember Velveeta cheese has been on the market since 1918. If trash cheese can succeed, so can you. And for anyone who likes Velveeta cheese, I’m sorry. I’m sorry you like trash cheese.
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Angel: Lying awake thinking about the time I ordered a giant magikarp plush from Japan but then got refunded because the plushie got crushed under a shipping container.
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Asher, and maybe Guy too: I’m here if you need moron support. It’s like moral support but I’m stupid.
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David: If I have to throw a party for my pack, it will be breakfast. Not lunch. Not dinner. It will start at 8:30 am so there is a valid reason for no one to come and I can kick them out before noon because I only promised breakfast, not lunch. The introverts will win even if it kills me.
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Milo and Ollie: My cat has no responsibilities, but all day he walks from around the house, from room to room, with this sense of purpose, as if he has a long to-do list of tasks no one asked for. Just a weird small furry dude going about his little cat errands.
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Freelancer: Aww my microbiome fancies some high quality fermented foods, does it? A little kombucha perhaps? I don’t give a shit. I’m a megabiome, I do what I want. I’m having a fanta lemon. I’ll swallow coins.
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Lovely: I would be an awesome drug dealer. Like, can you imagine? *giggles* We don’t have coke, is pepsi okay?
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Freelancer: Math professors be wildin like “a man tossed a coin, find the probability of him getting a head?” BRO WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU GOT A H-
Huxley: I wanna reply back same to my data analytics professor so badly!!
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David, at the pack solstice parties: I, myself, am understaffed at this time.
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Milo with Marie watching Aggro for him:
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Asher: Fuck your zodiac sign, what button do you press when it says “press any button to start”
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brightnote · 10 months
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Secret Invasion Episode 6
I gotta to tell you. You might be better off not watching this final episode. It’s really really really really bad. Like it is so pathetically bad I straight up started laughing at it. The second it started I just knew that Maria was gone for good with nothing on that. It really is just such an absolute waste and a shame.
There was no surprise twist or reveal, everything you thought was going to happen in the worst way happened. This whole show could have been a five minute summary clip in the start of the Marvels and Maria and Talos could still be alive but no... we have this... 
In a fight that’s so personal, that Fury himself doesn’t even do it (which we all knew was gonna happen and was not even the least bit suspenseful....) G’iah fights Gravik and avenges Talos. It was super skrull vs super skrull and to be honest it was very boring. 
Literally nothing happens with Maria’s death. LITERALLY. I did get hyped in one scene when they pulled that agent away and I thought she was coming back as the agent. Since Cobie was like I had scenes at the same time as Don... yeah girl where the fuck were they, did they get cut? But the second I saw Olivia Coleman and I was like oh no, there isn’t going to be a reveal. And it was the lowest stakes most cliche Marvel Disney Channel type thing you could imagine.
I’m just not even sure why they brought Maria into it at all? Like Talos was already chasing Skrull Ross... Talos already had Fury’s number.... Fury and Maria I guess are out of it hanging out at bars in places they aren’t supposed to be and I guess Fury really was a sad boi who is so out of touch he thinks he, Talos, and Maria could just randomly stop dirty bombs with their bare hands I guess? He never avenged her, there’s a video of him shooting her, is anyone gonna explain that to Momma Hill? She served no purpose in this show and even her death served no purpose so like why was she even in it? 
to be fair, I think this show had a lot of potential to be awesome, and my Maria bias aside it really failed to deliver. Also, not having Maria in it would have saved them 4 million dollars, but go Cobie for getting that Marvel money. If you do the math for screen time ratio to pay she’s the highest paid person on the show!
It does make me sad but I hope there is going to be a Maria Rambeau and Maria HIll scene in The Marvels, I’ll wait until it’s on disney+ though cause I am not giving them a cent for killing Maria for real. I can’t believe they killed her for real and IN THIS TERRIBLE SHOW. She could have at least died in a movie!! 
Also you can’t sell a show as a boots on the ground agents fighting shapeshifters you won’t know who any one is when it’s all about super powers, the big scene is a fight between super skrulls G’iah is now the most powerful being the universe for some reason..... and there was almost no spy or espionage stuff going on. Not a spy thriller ... there was no wrap up ... the show ended just as it started Fury abandoning earth with a whole lot of problems but at least he gets to be with his wife who totally betrayed him but he’s cool with that now I guess!!! 
I am dying that in my 4 theories post the last theory which i said was the most boring and stupid and the most likely to happen, almost happened perfectly:
“Maria is really dead and nothing happens about that or her death being made public and there his no explanation about anything that happened in the first episode and we get absolutely no closure on this.
Fury and Varra make up and kiss cause everything is cool with them now apparently despite Varra’s earlier betrayal but he gets a happy ending cause he’s a man!  And then Fury wipes his hands and goes back up to space. He finally gives Carol Danvers a call and that’s the lead in to the Marvels. Then in the Marvels we get a flashback to Maria and Talos being murdered so all of the audience who isn’t watching this show is like oh what wait they dead? What?! Why are they dead? And not a thing happens with any of that.
This would be the most disappointing outcome but this is my guess cause it’s the most boring and stupid and probably most likely because Marvel is so slay-phobic right now”
SLAY PHOBIC 100% 
I’m not sure why this whole show was made, it could have been condensed down to a three to five minute scene in the marvels. 
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sayak4u · 2 years
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Fantasy films aimed at kids don’t have to have political messages, but when they do, they should either be internally consistent, or work through the contradictions in terms that kids can apply to the real world. “Zootopia,” a fantasy set in a city where predators and prey live together in harmony, is a funny, beautifully designed kids’ film with a message that it restates at every turn. But if you think about that message for longer than five minutes, it doesn’t merely fall apart, it invites a reading that is almost surely contrary to the movie’s seemingly enlightened spirit: discrimination is wrong, but stereotypes are stereotypes for a reason, and it’s not easy for members of a despised class to overcome the reasons why the majority despises them, so you gotta be patient.
But this turns out to be not such a great thing once you get deeper into the movie. Because people are not animals, I dread thinking about the “logical” conclusions to which such conversations will lead. The film isn’t wrong to say that carnivores are biologically inclined to want to eat herbivores, that bunnies reproduce prolifically, the sloths are slow-moving (they work at the DMV here), that you can take the fox out of the forest but you can’t take forest out of the fox, and so on. If you think about all this as an analogy for the world we live in (particularly if we live in a melting-pot big city like Zootopia) and and then ask yourself which racial or ethnic or societal groups (cops, businesspeople, city bureaucrats) are “predators” and which are “prey” (for purposes of metaphor translation), you see the problem. "Zootopia" pretty much rubber-stamps whatever worldview parents want to pass on to their kids, however embracing or malignant that may be. I can imagine an anti-racist and a racist coming out of this film, each thinking it validated their sense of how the world works.
"Zootopia” is constantly asking its characters to look past species stereotypes, and not use species-ist language or repeat hurtful assumptions. “Only a bunny can call another bunny ‘cute,’” Hops warns a colleague It’s filled with moments that are about overcoming or enduring discrimination. “Never let them see that they get to you,” Wilde advises Hops. And there are acknowledgments of the destructive self-hatred that discrimination can cause. Many of the animals make self-deprecating jokes at the expense of stereotypes about their species (such as Hops volunteering to do math for Wilde, telling him, "If there's one thing we bunnies are good at, it's multiplying"), and there's a fairly intense flashback which reveals that Wilde became a hustler because other animals hazed him as a pup while repeating anti-fox stereotypes, and responded by embracing his species' caricature and becoming the foxiest fox anyone had seen. This all seems clever and noble until you realize that all the stereotypes about various animals are to some extent true, in particular the most basic one: carnivores eat herbivores because it's in their nature. (Yes, readers, I know, there are tigers who've been taught to snuggle with lambs, and I've seen the same memes with cats and dogs snuggling that you have; I mean in general.)
It might seem weird that I’m dwelling on this aspect of “Zootopia,” which is directed by Byron Howard & Rich Moore and co-directed by Jared Bush, because the movie is entertaining. The thriller plot, which borrows rather generously from “48 HRS” and every cop drama involving governmental conspiracy, is smartly shaped It’s hard to imagine any child or adult failing to be amused and excited by parts of it. The compositions and lighting are more thoughtful than you tend to get in a 3-D animated film starring big-eyed animals who speak with the voices of celebrities. And there are a few sections that are transportingly lovely, in particular any sequence involving the pop star Gazelle (voiced by Shakira), and Hops' high-speed train ride towards and through Zootopia, which introduces the city's different terrains (including frozen tundra and misty rainforest) while leaving room for subsequent bits of spelunking (a foot chase through rodent town lets Hops know what it feels like to be a giant). Some of the biggest laughs come from obvious gags that you know the writers couldn't resist, such as the bit where Idris' water buffalo captain says they can't start the morning briefing without acknowledging the elephant in the room. If you decide not to think about the metaphor that the film is built around, it's an enjoyable diversion, made with great skill.
Still: is it too much to ask that a film that wears its noble intentions like a jangling neck collar be able to withstand scrutiny? If "Zootopia" were a bit vaguer, or perhaps dumber and less pleased with itself, it might have been a classic, albeit of a very different, less reputable sort. As-is, it's a goodhearted, handsomely executed film that doesn't add up in the way it wants to. - Sayak Biswas (BCA 20-23)
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narutogwriting · 3 years
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Highly Inappropriate
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⋇✦Pairing: L Lawliet x Reader
⋇✦Genre: fic; fluff; slight angst
⋇✦CW: none
⋇✦Synopsis: You recall how you and L got together before his death
⋇✦This is a sequel to my Light Yagami NSFW. This is going to be a small series so expect more! Italics is your flashback
Part 1
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"You know, I feel that I must make it known that I find this whole thing highly inappropriate,” L’s voice breaks through the silence, startling you.
You look up from where you’re sitting in your chair, spinning back and forth absentmindedly as you look over the files in your lap for the millionth time. You cock an eyebrow, eyes settling on L in confusion. Your lips pout instinctively around the sucker in your mouth.
L isn’t looking at you as he makes the declaration, of course. His eyes are settled on the computer screen in front of him as he rewatches security footage you know he has memorized by now while his fingers fiddle with a plate of sugar cubes. He looks as if he hadn’t actually spoken at all, but you know him better than that at this point.
It’d been a couple of months now that you’d been working on the Kira case with the task force. Like Light, you were still in college when asked to join. Actually, you had barely begun college when you’d first met L--who was going by Hideki Ryuga at the time. It was just by chance that you congratulated your longtime classmate, Light, on his speech and were then asked to join him and the other speech giver for coffee.
As all of your majors were criminal justice, it was only natural that the three of you discussed Kira and the morality and legality of it all. Or, you thought it was only natural. You knew now that you had unknowingly stumbled into the midst of Light and L’s first of many standoffs.
Light headed home and Ryuga asked to speak to you longer. You were shocked when he revealed his true identity, complimenting your insight on the case and asking you to join.
You spent a lot of time with L after that. He felt responsible for you. After Ukita’s death, especially, he became almost protective over you. “I never should have brought such a young student into this case. It was reckless and irresponsible,” he’d told you regretfully. It was then you began to spend more time at the taskforce with L after everyone else went home. He wanted to go over everything two, even three times, with you, make sure you were being safe and careful, and assuring himself that you weren’t having a spontaneous heart attack after you walked out the door.
So even though it didn’t look like it by where L’s attention was, you knew that he had spoken because this was how he usually brought up awkward conversations: his focus anywhere but on who he was addressing. It was uncomfortable for him to look you right in the eye while breaching sensitive topics, so he kept his focus on what was in front of him, multitasking instead.
You closed the file in your lap with a sigh, sticking out your foot to stop the spinning chair. Pulling the sucker in your math with a pop, you rested your cheek in your propped up hand and stared at L expectantly. “You find what inappropriate?” You drawled almost impatiently, having absolutely no idea what he was talking about. Neither one of you had even made a sound for the past hour and a half.
L’s eyes were still locked on his screen, and he didn’t say anything for a long time. The silence dragged on, making you anxious. It was worse when his eyes broke from their focus, and he turned to stare back at you. There was a kind of intensity there that made you straighten up; whatever it was, it was very serious to L.
“In all of my career, I felt that bringing a child to such a case was the most irresponsible move I had ever made,” he told you, and you were already protesting predictably.
“I was seventeen, L,” you reminded him. “Eighteen now. I’m not a child” To you, it was a huge difference, but L continued on like he hadn’t even heard you.
“A child with no real experience in criminal justice, I should add…” L shook his head, looking as distraught as you’d ever seen him. “But I was wrong. That was not the most irresponsible move of my career.”
Now he had your full attention. You perked up, wondering what mistake the great L could have made. L’s focus seemed to go back to the sugar cubes on the plate in front of him. He began to stack them meticulously in the shape of a pyramid. You watched him do this for a few minutes, wondering if he’d forgotten the conversation the two of you were in the middle of. This was a side of L you’d never seen before.
He didn’t look necessarily nervous, more just unsure? You’d never seen L second guess himself before, and it was beginning to make you feel on edge. Your leg began to bounce anxiously, sure you were going to explode at any moment if he didn’t say something.
“L--” L brought his hand back before smacking it into the sugar cube pyramid he’d been constructing, sending the small squares clacking across the floor, causing you to jump just slightly.
He turned back to you then, his hands placed on his knees as he leaned forward just slightly.
“It’s completely irresponsible,” L repeated. “And inappropriate. This, hm, for lack of better words, romantic connection between us.”
The words hung in the air between you as you both stared at each other. Your mouth couldn’t help but hang slightly agape in shock. Whatever you thought L was going to say, it wasn’t that. You spluttered helplessly, trying to find something to say… Protest, deny, ask him what the fuck he meant, but he was speaking again before you can conjure up a single weird.
“I am your superior in this case… Not to mention the fact that I’m nearly seven years your senior. You’re a student. Of course, I blame myself, not you, for all of this. Not only am I the position of authority here, but I saw this all coming before you seemed to realize your own feelings. I should have stopped it right off the bat, put some distance between us, called it out, even, but I was hesitant to, and then I put it off, and now we’re here.”
He’s rambling, you realized, startled. L seemed composed enough, but you knew that the words were tumbling out almost quicker than he could think them. You’d never seen L anything but cool and collected.
As his words tinkered off, you stared at him dumbly, trying to find some words to say. “W-what… What do you mean by romantic connection?” It was such a stupid question--you knew what romantic meant--but for L to use it in reference between the two of you had you caught completely off guard.
L tilted his head, almost curiously, as he peered at you. He brought a finger to his lips, his eyes flickering upwards and to the left as he recalled all of the signals he had picked up the past few months from you. “Well, there are a number of clues. For one, your pupils dilate when you look at me, though that could also indicate an intense hatred for me… But there are others as well. Your feet are always pointed to me when we converse. You have nervous habits I haven’t seen in other moments with the rest of the task force. Playing with your hair, fidgeting with your fingers. Your laugh when I say something is approximately 2.3 seconds longer than when others say something you find funny. A tad louder as well. You stay at the task force with me long after the other members have gone home even when I don’t ask you to. You’ve very kindly brought me treats when you come in after your classes. Shall I go on?” His eyes flicked back down to look at you. Your face was a bright red, burning in shyness and humiliation at being called out so directly. “Oh yes, the blood rushing to your cheeks like they are now. Can’t forget that detail.”
You jumped to your feet then, if for no other reason than to get L to stop talking. You actually thought that you had done a fantastic job of hiding your feelings for L. You knew they were inappropriate and that there was just about no chance of L feeling the same way towards you.
You had tried to keep the feelings in check, but you couldn’t stop the way they bloomed. Every late night you spent with L, every inside joke created or small smile exchanged just made them grow stronger and stronger. So you tried to ignore them, pretend they weren’t there and just focus on the case.
Now, that wasn’t an option. L had opened you up, stripped you bare in front of him. He had noticed every single cue that hinted towards your feelings, and now that he had opened that door, there was no closing it.
“I’ll tell you what’s inappropriate!” You snapped, more out of embarrassment than anger. “Calling me out like that! What did you hope to achieve? Are you trying to humiliate me? My feelings are my business! If I’d wanted you to know about them, I would have told you!”
You were shaking, hands balled in a fist at your side. You glared at him, wishing that he would spontaneously combust and end this indignity once and for all.
L of course just stared at you blankly as you finished your outburst. Without him combatting you, the intensity drained from you, and you felt very much like a child who had just finished a tantrum. You were getting ready to just make a run for it to save yourself any further humiliation when L pushed himself to his feet.
He walked towards you slowly and nonchalantly, his hands shoved inside his pockets. Even with his hunch, he stood a foot taller than you. L stopped standing just a few inches from you, probably as close as the two of you had ever gotten.
“I did bring you on this case because of your deduction skills,” L looked down at you. “So tell me. What do you notice when you look into my eyes?” It was hard for you to look directly in them when L was so close to you, especially now that he admitted he knew about your feelings. But you steeled yourself, holding your breath as you looked up at him. It was hard to tell because L had these dark, almost jet black eyes, like a black hole sucking you into them.
You could see just the tiniest hint of a dark brown; his pupils took up the rest of the space. That’s when it clicked for you for the first time, and you gave a tiny gasp.
“Y-your pupils… They’re dilated…” You told him timidly. The smallest smile played on the edge of L’s lips.
“What else?” He urged you, his voice suddenly quieter, intense.
Looking him over, you tried to focus past the violent beating of your heart in your chest and swallowed hard. “Your feet,” you continued. “They’re pointed towards me… And you’re leaning towards me…” You tilted your head slightly and noticed that L did the same. “You’re mimicking my body language…” You murmured, though you were doing the same as your own hands shoved into your pockets.
L’s eyes were fixated on yours, and you had to force yourself to hold his gaze. It was like all the oxygen had left the room, and you couldn’t breathe. You were stuck in place as the room got smaller. All that existed was you and L.
“And what…” L mumbled as his hands pulled from his pockets. “Would you deduce from all of those clues?”
The words were stuck in your throat; you couldn’t dare to say them, wouldn’t dream that they’d be true. You had been so focused on trying to ignore your own feelings… Had you truly overlooked his?
“I… I…”
L took a huge step back from you suddenly, hands going back to his pockets and bare feet taking him back to his chair. “As I said. Highly inappropriate. I felt like I must make that known.”
He sat back down, gathering all the sugar cubes that hadn’t fallen to the floor and beginning to stack them once more. You blinked, completely lost and confused. What had just happened?
All you could do was drop yourself back in your chair, spinning yourself around--away from L--and turning back to your files as you shoved your sucker back in your mouth. ~ The next week, you didn’t stay after the rest of the task force left. You made sure to never be the last one out or be alone with L. The events from that night had left you completely frazzled and confused. You weren’t sure what L’s goal had been by pointing all of that out or indirectly confessing--maybe?--his own feelings for you. You hadn’t talked about it at all, and now every time you were around him, the tension was palpable.
The rest of the task force, of course, had no clue what had happened, didn’t know where the tension was coming from, but they felt it too.
“Let’s call it a night for now,” L told the taskforce with a sigh. No progress had been made that day, and everyone was clearly on edge and uncomfortable. As soon as L adjourned, everyone, including you, was eager to get out and go home.
You gathered your stuff quickly, wanting to be the first one out the door.
Walking by L’s chair, you kept your eyes fixated on the door, not wanting to look at him. As you passed by, his hand reached out, grabbing your arm gently but firmly. “I’d like you to stay for a few minutes, if you have the time.” L told you. “There was something you pointed out earlier I wanted to go over.”
Freezing in your spot, you nodded awkwardly. You let the rest of the task force walk by until there was only you, L, and the chief left in the room. Stalking over to the couch, you plopped yourself down, crossing your legs and arms in an attempt to make yourself as small as possible.
“I’ll be back in a moment,” L assured you, stepping out of the room to have a quick word with the chief.
It was only a minute or two, but it felt like hours. Your eyes were glued to the clock on the wall, watching it tick slowly, oh so slowly. You were getting more and more anxious by the second, rocking yourself back and forth to try and calm yourself.
Finally, when you were sure you were about to burst, L walked back in the room, closing the door softly behind him. He stayed standing there, looking over at you while you tried to look anywhere but at him.
Heaving a sigh, L made his way over to the couch you were sitting on, plopping himself down right besides you. Both of you were silent, neither one willing to be the first to speak. You’d been hoping that you could forget about that night and pretend it never happened, but it looked like that wasn’t going to be allowed.
“I fear I made another miscalculation by pointing out my observations last week…” L murmured, head leaned back against the couch and eyes fixed on the ceiling. “I’d only meant to alleviate some uncomfortableness between us, but it seems I only increased it…” He shrugged, looking almost helpless. It was endearing.
“Believe it or not, I have no expertise in… This area.” His head lopped to the side to look at you. He looked as unsure as you’d ever seen him and there was something so cute about the whole thing it made you want to scream. You offered him a small smile, trying to let him know it was okay.
L carried on. “Despite finding this whole situation improper and unprofessional, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you. Is that normal?”
You couldn’t stop the laugh that escaped you. You hadn’t meant to, but you couldn’t help it. This whole situation was so absurd and bizarre! Clearly, neither of you were sure how to handle it.
“I mean…” There hadn’t been one situation yet since you met L that you needed to take the reins, but you supposed there was a first time for everything. “It is normal when you are attracted to someone… Or have feelings for them…” You offered.
“I see…” L murmured, dragging his thumb over his lip. Then, on a whim, he reached out, softly running that same thumb over your own lips. Your breath hitched, getting caught in your throat as you stared at him. L had never touched you before.
The tension became palpable again, but this time in a different way. Your eyes were locked on each other, neither one wanting to make the first move, but also not wanting to look away.
L sighed, though he didn’t appear nearly as forlorn as he sounded. “Completely inappropriate…” He murmured, more to himself than to you. Even so, he leaned towards you slowly. You’d felt frozen in place, but suddenly were thawing, leaning into L.
There was a split moment where you both stopped again, lips just centimeters apart. L’s gaze flickered from your eyes to your lips then back up again. Then they fluttered closed as he leaned in the rest of the way, his lips brushing gently against yours in an uncertain kiss.
Unsure of when you had even closed your eyes, you opened them when L pulled away, the question clear on his face.
Was this okay?
You leaned in again, pressing your lips together once more, more certain this time. You felt L reach for you. You reached back.
~
The memory fades as Light slams the door of your apartment, startling you. You quickly tuck away the picture of you and L that you had been staring at, but Light was so frazzled, he didn’t seem to notice.
“I-I didn’t know you were coming here tonight,” you told Light, pushing to your feet. In the past four and a half years since L’s death, Light had been splitting his time between you and Misa. Misa was none the wiser, with Light knowing how volatile she could be with her jealousy.
He assured you that you were his true love. He was just using Misa because of her eyes, but it was you who he truly was with. You must be a pathetic sight to the task force who knew about Light’s apparent two-timing. They assumed you were just putting up with it, and considering the situation had nothing to do with how Light led the task force, they didn’t say anything.
You hated it. You hated it all. You wanted nothing more than to destroy Light’s pride, tell him just how little you cared for him. You couldn’t wait for the day to come when you could finally tell him; you were the one playing him. Not the other way around.
“A second L?” Light mumbled frantically to himself, ignoring your comment. “What the hell. How is there a second L? This… This N is only a shadow of who L was! I shouldn’t be worried. I’ll get rid of him as soon as I can. There’s nothing standing between me and the new world order. Nothing!”
Having stayed home sick that day, you had no idea what Light was talking about. He glanced at you when you asked about it, as if seeing you for the first time since he’d appeared.
“Some… Imposter. The leader of some group called the SPK. N. He claims that he knows L is dead, but how is that possible? Is he bluffing? But what would be the purpose…” He plopped himself down on the couch, pulling out his laptop. “You picked the wrong game to play, N…”
With Light properly distracted, you made your way quietly to the bathroom. You closed the door carefully before sliding down to the floor to sit, leaning back against the wall.
Four and a half years. Four and a half years you had bided your time, playing the part of Light’s attentive, obedient girlfriend, his right hand woman at the task force. You’d put up with his manipulation and abuse and let him think he broke you, all the while you were gathering evidence and information, just waiting for the right time to strike.
You weren’t sure who this N was, weren’t sure if you could even trust him.
But there was this feeling inside of you. You couldn’t shake it. The winds had shifted. Something had changed. It felt like the beginning.
“Well then, N…” You whispered to yourself, pulling out your phone. You had access to everything Light did on his own computer. It wasn’t hard for you to find the SPK contact in his files, and you stared at the numbers on your screen. “Let’s see if you need a player two…”
You pressed call, holding the phone up to your ear, holding your breath. It rang only once before you heard a voice on the other end.
“I was hoping you would call.”
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writingcore · 3 years
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love is tragic | Reiner Braun x Reader
summary; the death of the reader. instead of Sasha, it is the reader who takes the hit to save her and only realizing Gabi was the one did it. After math of Reiner finding out. Also small flashbacks. 
disclaimers/warnings; angst. takes place in s4 ep8. Spoilers!! mentions of blood and shot. Reader presents as female.
a/n; I had this idea in my head for the longest time, I wasn't planning on writing this, but here I am.
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 You wouldn't call yourself a “traitor” sometimes you thought, overthink it. You were just like them, the Warriors; yet so different, you were no titan. The only thing that made you a traitor was the beginning days of being in Paradis since the attack. And the day you return to Marley was hell. You never expected something so early to happen. Being protective over Reiner as time, days, and years went by. Just because he was the Armored Titan didn't change the fact, you both were still in love since the traitoring years. But that was gone, no more.
The scouts were the ones to call you a “traitor” when you were taken back to your homeland. They weren't devils; they never were devils. The knowledge that Marley spoke about them were untrue. So when the day came, having to bump into the scouts ... never in mind, you had thought. You had explain yourself, hoping for them to understand and Shockingly they did. Shortly after that day, you had packed up your things and went back to Paradis. You made sure to write a letter for Reiner after he got back from meetings and along with his cousin and the kids that were fond of him. 
Looking at the small home you both shared, you felt like this was the wrong idea but deep down, it wasn't.  
The years took off, The day Marley was officially attack by Eren Jeager. Maybe this was it. There was no time, for your words to get to Reiner, hell, you didn’t know if he was still even alive. The thought of it, hurt you. You shook it off. The noises of gunshots were going left and right. The gear the rest wore, were different. It was a nice change. 
Jean and the others were handling the Cart titan, as it taken down. The group was retreating back to the airship, not knowing that the small Braun managed to get herself inside along with Falco trying to stop her. Sasha was the one who had mention it to the rest of the group. “Hey, quiet!” Jean shouted, as they all did and bang! -- “Sasha!” You had shouted, pushing out her the way. The way your body reacted from something you couldn't control, but you had saved your dearest friend from her death. You had taken a step back and fell with a loud thud.
The shot had hit in a place, you knew that you weren't going to survive this fight. Because your fight was over. “Shit! Hey! Stay with us, stay with me!” Jean shouted to you, but you couldn't. The pain was real, the blood covered your body and it began to rush. It wasn't stopping. The memories was yours truly were coming back ... how you wished you could've stayed with him a little longer.
“I'm going to marry her, one day” Reiner spoke, the way he talked about the small petite blonde girl was something you wished he thought about you and made you feel the admiration but that wasn't you. “who? the girl who’s completely out of your league? and who’s also in love with someone else?”  pointing it out as he snickered. “Yeah, sure” Before he got up and left you. 
another memory came.
The confession was out of the blue, being in Marley, knowing you couldn't be with him. “I'm in love with you!” the shout was loud, he froze, his eyes widen. He wasn’t sure what came over you, was it a joke? you continued. “For the longest time, I never once saw you weak, When we were younger, you inspired me .. but at the end, I was still nothing ... I was always by your side, I noticed more than you think. But Me? Her? I just couldn't say.” Reiner came close to you, cupping your face and went in for a passion kiss. “But not to me” He slightly smile, before grabbing your hand.
But now here you were. Sasha had wrapped the badges around your upper body, but nothing seemed to stop the blood. It just kept going. “It keeps going, it won’t stop!” Sasha voiced cracked, hearing jean cursed under his breath. Your skin was starting to become pale, your eyes becoming dull, your breathing became unsteady and slow. You tried to speak, but nothing came out. “Don't try to speak, I’ll be right back. I have to take care of these kids and make them pay for what they did.” You also knew how everyone was protective over you and each other, before the shot; you had taken a glimpse of the kids. One of them was Gabi. She was the one who shot the sniper trigger.
Never expecting to get shot by the cousin of your beloved. Even Gabi knew who she just had shot, the regret in her eyes shown. She only met you couple of times with Reiner and was already fond of you till the first day of meeting. 
“Reiner! Reiner! Who’s this” the little girl asked, as you stood there next to Reiner. “This is (Y/N) ... someone who I've been together with for quite some time now and please Gabi, get along with her” She nodded her head and began asking questions left and right. Knowing this was going to be a long day. But it wasn't the worse.
Connie and Sasha were hovered over you, watching you mainly. They couldn't see you like this. The fact, they knew about you and Reiner was possibly be something hard for them to speak and tell him. You tried to speak again but the only thing that came out was “Rei...” as your eyes closed, your breathing stopped. Both of you friends had began crying as they shook you to wake up, nothing worked. Connie was the first to rushed over the doors where The Commander Hange, Captain Levi, Zeke, Eren, Mikasa, Armin, Jean and the kids. “(Y/N) is dead.” Mikasa and Armin ran to your lifeless body and shouted and cried for you to come back. But that wasn't going to happen.
Till that day forward, Reiner met up and teamed up with the alliances, the only thing was he couldn't find was you. The rest of them are here. Jean, Mikasa, Armin ... but you? no longer here. “Hey! are you going to tell me where the hell she is!?” Reiner shouted while nobody had seemed to recover from that moment. “I'm sorry, Reiner. She’s no longer here with us. This little girl had gotten into our airship and had targeted Sasha but she pushed her out the way and took the bullet.” Jean explained, the blonde couldn't believe what he was hearing, you? dead? no. Tears began to fill Reiner eyes. “We also believe that little girl was your cousin. Gabi Braun.” That's when he completely was shattered and broke down. Yet, you were in a better place. He never got to kiss you goodbye on the day you left him, he will never be able to sleep knowing you're not there by his side.
⠀ ⠀ ⠀ Dear, Reiner Braun.
⠀ As I’m writing this to you, you’re probably angry. I know ⠀ and I’m sorry that it had to be this way. Just know that the next ⠀ time you see me ... I’ll always be your side, even when it’s all ⠀ ⠀wrong. Once this war is over, I would love to start a family with ⠀ you. You and I both know how much you would love that. And I ⠀ ⠀would love to give you that; when the world is finally at peace. ⠀ ⠀ You and I weren’t perfect but I’ve never felt this way about anyone before I’ve met you. Please live a life you could be proud ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ of, it isn’t over. Till then ... I’ll meet you soon.
⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ Love, (Y/N) (L/N)
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itsclydebitches · 3 years
Text
I am briefly pausing my normal RWBY content to talk about something completely different: Kang Soo-Jin. 
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I binged True Beauty recently. As in, “I haven’t managed to watch anything new in half a year, discovered this drama, and promptly marathoned 14+ hours of content,” so to say I’m enjoying it is an understatement. I might do another post sometime about why I think the show works so well, but for now, like many (drama only) viewers, I’m specifically grappling with Soo-Jin’s descent into antagonist territory. At first I was just as shocked and disappointed as others seem to be, but upon reflection I don’t think this is badly written in the way many fans are claiming. To frame this as, “I can’t believe they would make wonderful Soo-Jin suddenly OOC and bully Ju-Kyung over a guy!” is ignoring core parts of her character. I’m as sick of the girl-hates-girl-over-guy plotline as the next viewer, but in the interest of acknowledging that there are exceptions to every rule, I think this is one of the times where that choice makes perfect sense. 
Soo-Jin has been abused throughout her life and I’m not simply talking about the fact that her father hits her. Though that’s obviously horrific, what I think is more pertinent to this conversation is the intense competitiveness her parents have instilled in her. The physical abuse comes about because Soo-Jin fails (in their eyes) to be the best, which is where Ju-Kyung comes in. The Soo-Jin we knew in earlier episodes wasn’t faking. She isn’t an inherently evil person who was just waiting for the right time to show her true colors. Rather, at the start of the story Ju-Kyung—crucially—was not in competition with Soo-Jin. Or rather, Soo-Jin did not perceive her as competition. She’s after the best grades in the school and Ju-Kyung is notoriously at the bottom of the class. All she has going for her are her (new) looks and her easy-going personality that makes her popular, two things that Soo-Jin isn’t interested in. Even if she were, those things already come naturally to her too. She’s already friends with Soo-A and, as is commented on multiple times, naturally beautiful without any makeup on. Soo-Jin has been taught—literally had it beaten into her—that she must be the best and in the beginning of the show she pretty much is: popular, mature, confident, smart… just not the smartest in her class. Ju-Kyung doesn’t threaten any of that, so friendship initially comes easily for Soo-Jin, the sort of friendship that allows her to chase perverts off busses or hide her friend’s real face. 
This changes once Soo-Jin’s “perfect” mask begins to slip. They’re heading towards college, she’s running out of time, and she still hasn’t managed to take the top spot in the class. Worse, she drops out of the top ten. This exacerbates the abuse to the point where, as we see, she’s constantly in the bathroom trying to cope by washing her hands. Any tiny deviation from that “perfection”  — like, say, leaving your tutoring session when you realize your lifelong friend just got devastating news — results in the sort of yelling/physical abuse she can only escape from via a locked door. While things get worse on her end, they get better on Ju-Jyung’s. Her grades go up some and she becomes even more popular, attracting not only school-wide attention, but the attention of the two hottest guys too, including Soo-Ho. For a while this is still fine from Soo-Jin’s perspective, but things really take a turn when Ju-Kyung changes Soo-Ho. Meaning, she helps him come out of his shell and teaches him how to be a kinder person… which includes being a better friend to Soo-Jin. The Soo-Ho who suddenly lies and announces that they have to go study just to get Soo-Jin away from her father’s insults, all of it stemming from a small tick he paid attention to, or comforting her while she sobs over the abuse… that Soo-Ho didn’t exist at the story’s start. He was too wrapped up in his own grief and has been that way for a long time. They may have known each other since childhood, but Soo-Jin and Soo-Ho don’t appear to be particularly close in the past—all Soo-Ho’s flashbacks are with Seo-Joon and Se-Yeon. But that starts to change once Soo-Ho himself changes. Soo-Jin’s ability to keep it together is unraveling, Soo-Ho is opening up and becoming more emotionally available (something Soo-Jin even comments on), then her whole class starts eagerly talking up how good they would be as a couple… so Soo-Jin sees a lifeline. Soo-Ho will care for her even when no one else will. Of course he will. She’s already seen him be that person multiple times. 
The problem is that Soo-Ho has his own life and his own problems to grapple with. Between grief over See-Yeon, panic over telling Ju-Kyung how he feels, and the initial rush of dating—what couple doesn’t want to spend all their time together at the start?—he doesn’t have much energy for Soo-Jin. Which from his perspective is fine. They don’t normally hang out together outside of study groups, so yeah, he can put off a conversation with her… not realizing that Soo-Jin is now putting all her emotional eggs in his basket. By the time her feelings are coming to light, Soo-Jin is actively sabotaging her own attempts to get attention and compassion from Soo-Jin. By manipulating them—here’s a new scrunchy to remind you that you’re my best friend and you can’t ever betray me, here I am showing up unannounced at your apartment and guilting you into not spending more time with me, etc.—Soo-Jin has put Soo-Ho (rightfully) on his guard. He’s wary of having a private conversation with her about something she won’t name when he knows Ju-Kyung has been a mess over losing her friendship. He has no desire to listen to her confession of love after she’s just tossed Ju-Kyung’s beloved necklace into the fire. In her efforts to ensure that Soo-Ho pays attention to her, she only succeeds in driving him away. 
All of which makes Ju-Kyung the enemy in her eyes. The new competition. To her mind, friendship and love cannot co-exist because Ju-Kyung stands in the way of that love, therefore one has got to go. (In contrast Seo-Joon, coming from a loving family, is in time better able to accept that he can be friends with Soo-Ho even though he likes Ju-Kyung. We can discuss the problems inherent in giving one plot to the girl and the other to the guy, but as they are, these characters have concrete, in-world reasons for their different reactions to what’s essentially the same situation.) And why does love (“love”) win out over friendship? Because Soo-Jin has latched onto Soo-Ho being her boyfriend as the way to finally “win” at life and fix all her problems. It’s fine if she’s not the best provided she’s dating the best, just look at how much Dad fawned over him. Second place academically is suddenly an option provided the top student is on her team, so to speak. The fact that Soo-Ho is also one of the most handsome, a great athlete, super rich, and one of the few people to provide her with feelings of safety certainly doesn’t hurt matters. And the only thing that stands in her way of securing this life-saving “win” is Ju-Kyung. Who is she? No one compared to Soo-Jin. Her grades are terrible. She’s not wealthy. She’s pretty… but oh, only with her makeup on. 
Soo-Jin doesn’t need makeup, so why not win this competition by showing the whole school—showing Soo-Ho—what a fraud Ju-Kyung is? 
From Soo-Jin’s perspective she’s done the math and come out on top. Everything that (supposedly) matters she either has equal to Ju-Kyung, or is superior, therefore it’s obvious that Soo-Ho would choose her in the end. She says at much: If I had confessed first you would have loved me first, so now that I have confessed you’ll break up with her. Hell, even Ju-Kyung believes this. She has the nightmare about Soo-Ho learning that Soo-Jin has feelings for him and immediately, publicly breaking up with her. After all, if he suddenly has both as an option the winner is obvious, right? It’s all about competition, what they’ve been taught to believe is a competition: Ju-Kyung through her bullying and Soo-Jin through her abuse. The difference is that Ju-Kyung has had the whole series with Soo-Ho (and others) helping her slowly unlearn this mentality. Soo-Jin had the rug pulled out from under her in an instant. 
Soo-Ho says no, I wouldn’t have loved you if you had confessed first and I’m not going to date you now. It’s important to realize that this shatters Soo-Jin’s entire world. It’s not about a girl being upset that she can’t get the guy — not even about Soo-Ho as an individual, really —  it’s about an abused girl not knowing how to grapple with the fact that she finally did everything “right” and still couldn’t “win,” coupled with losing the last bit of security she had. Soo-Ho broke the unspoken rules Soo-Jin’s father beat into her and she doesn’t know where to go from there. She literally has no one else to turn to. So she falls back on the only way she does know how to handle a situation like this: by still trying to win. If Soo-Ho won’t admit that she’s better, she’ll force him to realize that by plastering Ju-Kyung’s “ugly” face all over social media. Which, to be clear, isn’t an excuse. This isn’t meant to be a way of absolving Soo-Jin of her absolutely horrific actions, only a means of explaining them. Her descent, while shocking to those of us who loved her initial character, is well written because it’s a nuanced look at what can happen when you abuse a kid her whole life and teach her that competition is everything. Oddly enough, she’ll apply a competitive outlook to everything and deal with her stress in unhealthy ways. Ju-Kyung is a victim of Soo-Jin now, but Soo-Jin is a victim too. Her home life has ensured that she does not know how to accept failure—or what true failure even means—so it was inevitable that when things got bad, she’d  try to fix it in ways that hurt both her and those around her. It’s all she knows how to do. 
So far less “Perfect girl goes ooc and abandons her friend over a boy” and far more “Abused girl falls into a terrible, but predictable cycle that the other stressed high schoolers around her are not equipped to break.” Soo-Jin’s story isn’t bad writing, it’s tragic. Thanks for coming to my three page TED talk ✌️
***
2/4/21 FINALE UPDATE! 
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miraculouscontent · 3 years
Text
Didn’t Need Burrow (August 7th-September 13th)
Anonymous asked:
Didn’t Need Burrow: Ladybug and Chat Noir will be asked to participate in judging a competition that Marinette and Adrien are both a part of. Ladybug will want to vote for herself as Marinette, but Tikki will tell her(once detransformed and while she is snacking) that she can’t because then people will know that Marinette is Ladybug. Chat Noir, meanwhile, will freely vote for Adrien with no repercussions or drawbacks, and Adrien will end up winning the competition. Marinette will admit that she was “so silly” to even think of voting for herself, especially since “Adrien needs the award more so that I do” despite being rich, white, male, and “perfect”(oh, I’m sorry, “purrfect”!), since all of Marinette’s legitimate problems of anxiety, dyspraxia, and the like get thrown out the window because the writers’ perfect sunshine boy incel stand-in has a “saaad home life!”, and Marinette needs to give him pity and put his feelings above his rather than wish for her own success. Cuz Girl Power.
tbh, given the leaks script, I’d reverse that and saying that Adrien voted for LadyNoir as Couple of the Year.
Anonymous asked:
Didn’t Need Burrow: Marinette and Adrien will reveal their identities, and Marinette actually WILL be disappointed that the boy who goofed off in fights and didn’t take no for an answer is none other than her perfect modeling celebrity crush. However, rather than this being a point towards Adrien needing to learn how to improve himself and accept Marinette’s feelings, this scene is used to make HER look bad(because of course it is) and she is blamed for expecting Adrien to be perfect(despite being encouraged and told to see him as such), and told that she should be happy that Chat was hitting on her even when she didn’t like it or it got in the way of battle plans, likely by Alya, because it was her true love under the mask all along. Eventually she “learns her lesson”(ick) and comes to accept Adrichat for who he is, warts and all. Bonus if she has a flashback to when Chat said “if you saw me without my mask you wouldn’t be able to resist me” as she realizes that he was right.
Didn’t Need Burrow? More like “Didn’t Need to Think About This”
i hate it
Anonymous asked:
Don't Need a Burrow: Luka will be Chat Blanc "2.0"
But Luka doesn’t have Chat-level favoritism going so Bunnyx won’t be there to defend him from consequences.
Anonymous asked:
We will have Ladybug!Alya in Marinette's akumatization episode. Obviously everyone would think that she is "better" than "old" Ladybug. (Bonus points if Ladybug!Alya don't "alienate" Chat Noir, mostly by catering to his whims)
Oh, of course! No one will miss the “old” Ladybug.
Anonymous asked:
Don't Need a Burrow: Bob Roth is akumatized into Rip Off, a supervillain with power to copy anything he sees (including powers of heroes)
Okay but that’s genius.
(I know we already had it in “Miraculer” but I like this more.)
Anonymous asked:
DNB: Now that Luka knows their identities, he will push the Love Square in a romantic manner. Stans would be totally fine with this because it doesn't interfere with their endgame :)
Well, obviously!
I’m just waiting for them to basically say that the secret identities don’t matter and, because they like one side, also means they like the other side.
Because forget nuance, am I right?
Anonymous asked:
Don't Need a Burrow: In the end, (after Adrienette gets together) Narrator reveals himself (herself?) as Alya with words "that's how I helped my bestie [Marinette] get a relationship with love of her life [Adrien]" or something similar.
wait, Alya, are you filming a Ladybug biography
why did you include all the humilation
why
That explains her making herself look good though.
Anonymous asked:
Don't Need a Burrow: Luka will finally reveal that he knows Heroes' secret identities... to Alya, who obviously decide to hide from Marinette that Luka knows her identity (Bonus Points if reason provided by Alya why she is doing this is utterly ridiculous)
AAAAAAAAAAAA
I guess Luka would have to realize that Alya knows. Bonus if he tells her Chat’s identity too so love square shipping can commence.
Anonymous asked:
Don't Need a Burrow: "Knitting Fairy" will be name of Marinette's akumatized form.
Can you say “reused design”? I certainly can, we’re used to it.
Anonymous asked:
Didn’t Need Burrow:
Luka keeping his knowledge about the identities (esp. Ladybug’s) will somehow blow up in a way for the writers to paint him in a bad light, probably ending with Marinette not trusting him. (As well as no hint of irony that Adrien did the same thing for completely selfish reasons in Chat Blanc).
MiraculousMX: Platonic soulmates!
us: Source??
Anonymous asked:
DNB: If LS gets reversed, Adrien complains about Marinette having other friends. Not just being friends with Luka or any other guys, but friends PERIOD, showing the same jealousy/desire for his 'love interest' to be isolated as Chat Noir. These MASSIVE RED FLAGS are treated as Just More Innocent Sadrien Things, because he's sOoOoOo Sad and SoOoOoO Lonely~
Oh god, now I had an awful thought that this is where Adrien getting jealous of Luka, and Luka feels bad/”knows what’s best” so he either ditches Marinette/finds an excuse to leave or makes sure that Adrien gets his time with her.
Because it’s the love square so it’s “important” that Marinette spend time with Adrien.
Anonymous asked:
Dnb: assuming the Senti-Adrien theory is true, in the season finale, Viperion joins the fight, stops SM from using the ladybug an cat miraculi by going back in time only to use them by himself, wishing for Adrien to be a real boy (and love Marinette). Of course Luka needs to give something in exchange, worst case scenario, his life.
That got really dark.
Though tbh with how much they push Luka and Marinette around, one of them will probably have to give up something huge for Adrien (they both already sacrificed their relationship, so--).
Anonymous asked:
Don't Need a Burrow: If Chat Noir joins Shadow Moth then he is treated by both Gabriel and Heroes as his greatest asset, even through he is still complete joke that is defeated by rest of Heroes faster than Mr Pigeon in "Timetagger". (Bonus points if Heroes defeat him by "Backhand Offhand", Offscreen or he is defeated by "Friendly Fire" from Akuma of the Week due to his own stupidity)
tbh I could probably do more sad math with “how often Chat Noir/Cataclysm is useless,” bonus if it’s put up against characters/Ladybug stroking his ego.
Anonymous asked:
DNB: Adrien's fears concerning Ladybug are made more explicit through a nightmare/vision (possibly akuma-induced) of Ladybug calling him unreliable/saying she doesn't need him anymore because she has partners she can actually COUNT on. Naturally, this is treated as Pure Sadrien Hours rather than a fair critique. Bonus if he ditches/forces her to beg for his assistance AGAIN to soothe his poor bruised baby ego.
*“Malediktator” flashbacks, but Adrien instead of Chloe*
Anonymous asked:
Didn't Need Burrow: Adrien/Chat Noir skips out on a fight/akuma attack for some spiteful, selfish reason or another. Ladybug handles it without him, either completely through her own skill or with help from Rena/other heroes. Adrien then angsts about 'not being needed', with Marinette's 'Mistake of the Day' being that she didn't cater to his pity party due to being too busy DOING HER DAMNED JOB.
me seeing that one leaked script where they talk about how Chat/Cataclysm would make things easier: *sigh*
Anonymous asked:
Didn't Need Burrow: Plagg will encourage Adrien to act even more selfishly, skipping more battles and being even brattier. This is so his stans can blame Plagg for being 'a bad influence' on their perfect angel, even when it's clear the two of them are on the same wavelength. Oooh, he's twisting his rubber arm; how AWFUL--! Adrien would NEVER do all these Awful Things he's already done if he didn't have Plagg~! What a bad kitty~!
“rubber arm” jdfkgjndfjgfg
tbh Plagg already is super laidback and doesn’t really like transforming/complains about going into battle, so this isn’t much of a stretch.
Anonymous asked:
DNB: "Gabriel Agreste" or other episodes will reveal that Gabriel flew many, if not ALL of the same Red Flags his son displays on a regular basis. The narrative treats this as though this makes Gabriel more 'sweet, sad and sympathetic' rather than illustrating that both of them are dangerously entitled and generally awful.
This sounded really intriguing as a sort of “apple doesn’t fall far from the tree” thing until that last sentence kicked in.
That’s damn accurate to what they’d do too, ugh.
Anonymous asked:
DNB: Plagg is the one that discovers that Gabriel is Hawk/Shadowmoth, but is forcibly sworn to silence by Adrien. Bonus if Adrien somehow gives this command without learning what Plagg is trying to tell him -- i.e. he get irritated and orders Plagg to shut up in a way that bars him from EVER saying what he was attempting to say -- so that Adrien's stans can claim it was all a big misunderstanding and blame Plagg entirely for it. Or Marinette. Somehow.
Oh oh oh!
Alternatively, Adrien silences Plagg without realizing that he has that kind of power (like saying, “you can’t tell anyone!” and we see the magic hit Plagg’s mouth), so the fandom can say, “HE DOESN’T KNOOOW THAT HE DID IT.”
Anonymous asked:
dntb: Luka is gonna be villianised in some way for not telling Marinette he knows the identities of both of them
Meanwhile, Alya, slipping the bouncer her free pass.
Anonymous asked:
Don't Need a Burrow: After one of the kwamis ​​makes one snickering comment too many, Marinette snaps and tells them all to shut up (with obvious outcome). Narrative obviously equals it to scene between Gabriel and Noroo from "Sandboy" (Bonus Points if Narrative deems Marinette worse than Gabriel, because "Gabriel forbid Noroo from talking as joke")
oh my goooooood
Marinette: *snaps because she’s stressed out*
the fandom: SHE SO MEAN!!! ;o;
Anonymous asked:
Don't Need a Burrow: Adrien's reveal as Sentimonster just for additional souce of "sad points" for him
this DNB: i am inevitable
mystic-lionroar asked:
Didn't Need Burrow: The writers' Status-Quo allergy kicks in when someone very pointedly implies Chloe, Lila and/or Gabriel work for Hawk Moth with how many Akumas they tend to cause... only to get reminded point blank that "Hawk Moth is the sole one responsible for this mess, no one else". Cue two episodes later, both the characters and the writers' memories of this scene are erased. What erased it? ╰( ・ ᗜ ・ )╯Why, Marinette can be held responsible for this one, of course! (Me: (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻)
╰(‵□′)╯
OH MY GOOOOD
“Crocoduel” also basically already blamed Marinette for two akumatizations so at this point we’re just waiting.
Anonymous asked:
DNB: To further cement the whole 'destined to be' shlock, after the shock of the eventual reveal wears off, we get a call back to how frequently Chat Noir told Ladybug that they were meant for each other and that she 'was the only one who didn't see it'. Marinette agrees that she was silly and foolish for not recognizing it sooner, parroting Adrien's bullshit in order to further cement the notion that she's HAPPILY accepting her 'fate' to be nothing more than his personal prize.
You can’t see it but I have my head in my hands in grief.
Anonymous asked:
DNB: Adrien's gross sense of entitlement towards Ladybug will become even more explicit, with him angrily ranting about how he DESERVES to 'get the girl'. No matter how awful and nasty he gets, the narrative continues to treat him as though he's 100% right to be pissed off at her for DARING to have agency or thinking she has a say in things. As clearly, the biggest mistake Marinette has ever made is thinking she gets to have Opinions or make her own decisions. G-girl power...?
Marinette needing to be constantly told what’s best for her by other people and it’s okay because she needs to accept+follow all opinions.
end me
Anonymous asked:
DNB: The double standard between Adrien and other characters will be more noticeable. Adrien will still be put on a pedestal.
Because no one will notice Adrien if they didn’t put him on a metaphorical and physical pedastal.
Anonymous asked:
Don't Need a Burrow: Foxy Cat and CaraBug
omg Fox Adrien.is one of the worst hero choices I’ve ever heard fjdgjfjdglfkdg
I could at least see why Marinette thought that Adrien fit the snake since the narrative gushes for him so hard.
Anonymous asked:
Didn’t Need Burrow: As a result of being written by a straight white male writing team, the show starts to use Marinette’s girliness against her. From her love of pink being mocked to the kwamis admitting(in the spirit of another DNB) that they don’t respect Marinette because she’s “too girly”, to her fashion designing being treated as a cutesy but ultimately fickle pastime(in the spirit that all teenage girls’ interests are treated), the show absolutely throws Girl Power out the window in favor of giving Marinette absolute hell for daring to present herself in a traditionally feminine way, treating her femininity as the butt of a joke that no one is laughing at. Bonus points of someone says(or even outright tells her to her face) that she’s “such a girl”, as if that’s supposed to be an insult. Alternatively, this happens to Rose instead of Marinette, as she’s just as girly if not more so than her, or it happens to both of them(regardless of whether or not it’s at the same time).
WOOOOW
I mean, honestly, yeah.
Anonymous asked:
Didn’t Need Burrow: Things other characters did that were bad will be retconned into things that Marinette did instead, or will otherwise be retconned into being her fault, no matter how improbable or contradictory. Meanwhile, bad things characters did to Marinette or good things characters did FOR Marinette will be retconned into nonexistence.
I MEAN THEY BLAMED MARINETTE FOR “SILENCER” SO--
MATTER OF TIME.
Anonymous asked:
Don't Need a Burrow: Simultaneous Akumatization of Manon, Chris, Ella and Etta, obviously when they are babysat by Marinette, because otherwise ML Writers wouldn't be able to paint it as Marinette's fault
oh god
please no
I mean, not even just to blame Marinette for it, but I can’t even stand these kids when they’re on their own, MUCH LESS TOGETHER.
Anonymous asked:
Don't Need a Burrow: If Adrien gets akumatized, then it would be just Chat Blanc with shoulder pads and crown
Is this a reference to my Miracle Queen post?
Because yes.
Anonymous asked:
Didn't need burrow: In Hack-San Chat Noir will pull a Sentibubler and refuse to listen to Alya with the Ladybug Miraculous as he doesn't have a brain unless he can progress the not so progressive four-sided Hellfire, which is actually still the best-case-scenario. I mean he could just not come at all, since he's only there to flirt with and seduce Ladybug with unfunny jokes.
Anonymous asked:
DNB: Adrien causes problems because of Alyabug.
ugggggh
Anonymous asked:
DNB: Alya will immediately have access to things like the creation of charms despite how long it took for Marinette to be able to do that.
Wait--
If she doesn’t, did they literally just give Alya the ladybug miraculous because they knew that Markov wouldn’t have a way of hiding the amulet on him and they didn’t feel like putting it on his model???
Anonymous asked:
Didn’t Need Burrow: Alya’s Ladybug name is “Coccinelle” aka “Ladybug” in French. Or something equally lazy such as The Red Spotted One or the Scarlett Beetle. Even if it sounds cool at first glance, it will ultimately boil down to a plain and obvious name, because apparently EVERY superhero’s name has to so blatantly relate to the animal their Miraculous is based off of. For some reason. Somehow. -_-
fhkgjfdkgdfg okay but “The Red Spotted One” made me laugh.
Anonymous asked:
Hack-San DNB’s:
• Chat Noir will be upset that Ladybug trusted her miraculous to someone else.
• There will be a comment on how Alya was a just as good, if not better Ladybug than Marinette.
• Alya’s performance as LB will be used as another instance to show Marinette made the ‘right choice’ telling her her identity.
• Using the Horse to teleport back instead giving the earrings to Alya will not be mentioned as an option.
• Scene of Adrichat being sad about ‘feeling replaced’.
Especially on that “comment that Alya is just as good, if not better,” one, it probably won’t even be used as a reassurance for Marinette like, “oh, that’s good to know that I’m not the only one who can be Ladybug,” it’ll just be praise for Alya.
Anonymous asked:
Hack-San DNB: Chat Noir gets angry with LB for not telling him she was leaving & she has to apologize for it.
(Despite making sure there was a backup Ladybug to protect Paris, unlike Chat in the NY special who left the city completely unprotected).
Convenient.
Anonymous asked:
Don't Need a Burrow: "Dearest Family" (episode where both of Marinette's parents are akumatized) will be about Marinette learning "true value" of Chat Noir
Either that or incorporating Adrien into the family.
Anonymous asked:
Don't Need a Burrow: Psycomedian will be blatant Joker rip-off
You can just say “all akuma in the season will either be rip-offs of themselves or past akuma,” it’s okay. :P
Anonymous asked:
Another DNB for Hack-San, since we see Jagged Stone in the trailer, so if they show it..:
The “most precious possession” of Jagged’s will be Fang and not, y’know, either of his children.
I missed that trailer.
Honestly there could be some funny moments with the concept, but if Jagged is the only joke made about it then yes, I will be very bitter.
Alternatively, Jagged picks his guitar instead.
Anonymous asked:
DNB: In the Alyabug episode, Alya will either be Practically Perfect In Every Way™, or will royally screw up in a way that will somehow lead to Marinette. Either way, Cat Noir will flirt with the new Ladybug, or pull a Sentibubbler. Or both. There may or may not be a comment about how Alyabug's costume is so much better than Marinette's despite being a fashion designer.
dkfgkjdfgjf I adore how this whole thing is just, “there’s so many ways it could go wrong!”
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melanielocke · 3 years
Text
Lost in the Shadows - Epilogue
AO3
Taglist: @alastaircarstairsdefenselawyer @foxglove-airmid @alastair-esfandiyar-carstairs1 @justanormaldemon @styxdrawings @ipromiseiwillwrite @a-dream-dirty-and-bruised
Previous Chapter: Chapter 35
This is the epilogue and final chapter. While there are some loose ends and I might write a sequel one day, I have currently have no plans for one so it would take some time. As it is I'm working on a Frozen TLH story (chapter 1-3 are currently published), and one post CoI story titled "We bury the sunlight" so look out for those.
Alastair decided to move in with Jem at the end of the summer. He had managed to finish decorating his bedroom just in time for the first week of university, which he was excited about starting. He wasn’t sure why, but he’d expected Jem to be overbearing and constantly worrying about his mental health. He’d always thought that was what a psychiatrist did, he guessed, just like his father had always feared Jem would know about his alcoholism from just looking at him.
He’d learnt that wasn’t the case. Jem was a doctor, he couldn’t read minds, and although he was there for Alastair when he needed him, he was family and not his doctor, which was an important distinction. Jem gave him lots of space, and the ground rules were mainly about keeping everything clean, which was no problem. Jem also preferred it to know if someone he didn’t know was visiting, but that rarely happened since Alastair only had a few friends and the only one who hadn’t known Jem before was Kamala.
It was nice, having so much space to himself. Jem had changed a lot about the house, it didn’t look like an exact copy of the house he’d lived in when he was very young. Cordelia and his mother still lived with Risa, with him gone it fit a bit better, but they were in the process of getting the house back.
He saw Thomas regularly, and they had sleep overs once a week. Alastair had bought a new double bed for his room mainly so they could share the bed. Thomas was currently adapting to student life, but had vowed to Alastair that he would not drink any alcohol. Alastair worried that would severely limit Thomas’ social life, but secretly he was very happy Thomas would do that for him. Lucie had also decided they would all start playing DnD with her, and although Alastair still didn’t understand much of the game, they had fun. Thomas, who had been in Lucie’s previous campaign as well, had helped him with his character. Right now, the group consisted of Lucie as the story teller, or dungeon master as the game called it, and Thomas, Cordelia, Kamala, Eugenia and him as the players. Alastair played a warlock, which he felt suited him. Warlocks also got nightmares they never asked for all the time and were constantly exhausted, not to mention they made deals with otherworldly beings. Perhaps it fit a little too well.
He’d also decided to take lessons in ballroom dancing, with Kamala as his dance partner at the student dance association. He almost had something that resembled a social life, which was both very new and very weird. As it was, they both were quite good at dancing. Kamala had taken two years of dance classes too, although it had been years, and together they could figure out what they remembered and how to do it. Both had been forced by their father at the time and it was much more enjoyable now that they’d chosen to pick it up again, not to mention it was nice having a dance partner he matched well with.
Thomas was still considering starting dancing, but finding a partner who was tall enough for him would be a struggle. Alastair could follow decently and dance with Thomas, although he still noticed the height difference, but with the lack of men in dancing most teachers would rather pair Thomas with the tallest girl available.
He felt like for the first time in years, he was sort of happy? Happier than he used to be at least. He still had nightmares, flashbacks, all that, and didn’t think it was going away anytime soon. If anything, EMDR made it harder, but that was to be expected. He’d known that during EMDR he’d have to talk about everything, and although in time that would make it better, at first it just brought everything to the surface. He’d learnt not to plan anything else on days he had EMDR, except maybe cuddling with Thomas.
Although relationships were still new to him, any relationships really, he was getting more accustomed to having people around who cared about him. Not just Thomas, but Lucie and Cordelia, who had just started their last year of school and came to him for help with their math homework, Kamala and Eugenia, who he’d been spending time with at the dance studio. He often visited the Lightwoods too, and he felt welcome there. Gideon and Sophie had made a habit out of inviting him along with any family outings. He’d never felt so welcome before, it had taken some time to work through that.
‘You’re going to love my gift, I promise.’
Tomorrow was Alastair’s nineteenth birthday, and Thomas was sleeping over the night before.
‘What is it?’ Alastair asked.
‘A surprise.’
‘It was worth a try,’ Alastair said. ‘How was your visit at Matthew today?’
Alastair had spoken to Matthew once. He didn’t think the two of them would ever be good friends, but they could move past school and tolerate each other’s presence. Thomas had spent the day with him today, shopping. Matthew apparently loved clothes even more than Alastair did, and had an unusual and extravagant taste.
‘Awkward,’ Thomas said.
Alastair frowned. ‘Why was it awkward?’
‘Well, he’s the only other man I know who is interested in men and has previous, uh, experience. So I figured I’d ask what to expect and what to do. It was a very uncomfortable conversation.’
Alastair started laughing. ‘You could have just asked me.’
‘I know, but I thought it would be nicer for you if I had some idea of what I’m supposed to be doing,’ Thomas said.
Alastair put his hand in Thomas’ hair. ‘That’s sweet.’
‘From now on I’ll be asking you my questions,’ Thomas said. ‘Of course, the internet has also been helpful.’
‘As long as you know where to get your information,’ Alastair said. ‘Porn isn’t real and not a good source. But I don’t mind if there’s things you don’t know yet, because I know enough.’
They had sex for the first time that night. Alastair felt it was the right time. Of course, having sex the night before his birthday wasn’t new to him. The previous years he’d spend with Charles ever since he’d turned sixteen. It was far better with Thomas. Not because of experience or anything like that, but because Alastair felt comfortable, because he was absolutely sure he wanted it and felt like he could ask Thomas to stop if he wasn’t comfortable anymore. Thomas was a little clumsy, but Alastair didn’t mind. He would get better at it with some practice.
The next morning, they went to the Victoria and Albert museum. It was early on a week day and neither of them had classes today. Thomas had been surprised at first by how empty his schedule was but had ultimately discovered much of his free time was spent on assignments and preparing for lectures and classes. Fortunately, it did mean they could easily plan such trips on times it wouldn’t be crowded. Alastair still didn’t like crowds and didn’t think he ever would. Thomas had grown over his fear of them, but he also preferred the quiet. It was much nicer this way, taking his time to let a piece of art wash over him, undisturbed by other visitors. Thomas made the occasional comment. He’d taken art history in school and could name the different styles and put works in the context of the time period. Alastair didn’t say much in response, just nodded. He felt he didn’t have to.
Thomas had promised him his gift after coming back from the museum, and Alastair was starting to get curious. Thomas had hidden the gift somewhere in Jem’s house, so Alastair wouldn’t even be able to guess from the shape. He hadn’t bothered to look for it, but had been tempted. As much as he liked the small smile on Thomas’ lips as he said ‘not yet, mi Cielo,’ Alastair was not fond of surprises. He liked to know what to expect with a three to five workdays advance notice for anything out of the usual.
‘You’d think no one has ever given you a birthday gift before,’ Thomas said. He paused. ‘Wait, is that it? Did you not usually receive gifts?’
‘No, I did, from my mother and sometimes Cordelia.’
Charles too, Charles had had a habit of giving him expensive gifts. Or gifts he’d found among his mother’s things, he guessed. Alastair had not seen him again now that he was back in London, for which he was grateful. Gideon had spoken with Charles and told him he knew what he’d done and wasn’t welcome at his house anymore. Apparently Charles had been very angry about that, but Gideon had told Alastair he was welcome anytime and it was his responsibility to guarantee his safety. Alastair appreciated that.
‘Have you been asking them about it all this time too?’ Thomas asked.
‘No just you. But you made a big deal out of it by hiding it someplace here,’ Alastair said.
‘Alright, I guess you can open it,’ Thomas said, who left and came back to the living room carrying a very big box.
Alastair carefully opened the wrapping paper, making sure nothing tore. He wasn’t sure why exactly, but he’d always opened gifts this way, as if he intended to reuse the paper, something he’d never done.
‘I thought, with how impatient you were, you’d rip it all apart,’ Thomas said.
‘No,’ Alastair said.
‘You can rip it, it’s no problem,’ Thomas said as Alastair was struggling to get a piece of sticky tape off without damaging anything.
‘No,’ Alastair said, even more determined to get everything off properly.
Once he’d gotten it open and folded away the colorful wrapping paper, Alastair revealed something that resembled a hamster cage, but bigger. There were two floors, the top open and the bottom offering a little more darkness with a little home in there an animal could hide in. There was a wheel, several balls, and a little hedgehog plushie.
‘I know you were planning to get a pet hedgehog, so I researched what it needs. This has most things it needs to live in, you just might need to add a heat lamp because hedgehogs need a warm environment.’
‘I’d been looking into what I’d need too,’ Alastair said. ‘Jem is alright with me getting a hedgehog as long as I make sure to keep Church away from him. That shouldn’t be a problem, as I would put the hedgehog in my bedroom and Church doesn’t go there.’
‘How is Church?’ Thomas asked.
‘Usually, he is wherever I’m not. He doesn’t come into my bedroom. In the living room it can be a bit more of a struggle, as he likes to claim his space, and no matter where I sit, he gets upset because that’s the spot he wanted for himself. The only moment he tolerates me is when I’m accompanying Jem on the piano.’
Alastair had picked up playing music again after years and he tried to practice for half an hour daily. Sometimes with Thomas, singing his songs and playing more modern music. But he also played classical music with Jem, who was exceptional at the violin. Jem could probably have been a concert violinist if he hadn’t chosen to become a doctor instead.
‘Sounds like Church,’ Thomas said. ‘He won’t be a danger to your hedgehog, will he?’
‘I will keep my hedgehog in my bedroom,’ Alastair said. ‘If I make sure to keep the door closed when I’m not there, I think it’s unlikely Church will even go there. Even then there’s a cover for this hedgehog home and a little house for him to hide, and of course a hedgehog can roll into a little ball of quills. I think it’ll be fine. And my therapist thought it might be good for me to get a pet, as long as I am confident I can care for it of course. Now, can you help me think of a name? I’m not great with names.’
‘You and Cordelia have been arguing about baby names for weeks now,’ Thomas pointed out.
‘Yes, the baby should have a beautiful Persian name,’ Alastair said. ‘For pets it’s different.’
‘Or dnd characters,’ Thomas added.
‘So what if my character has my middle name?’
‘No, I like it,’ Thomas said. ‘Esfandiyar. It’s a beautiful name. For a pet I think a shorter name is better. I think your plushie hedgehog is called Mr. Prickly?’
‘I named him when I was a child,’ Alastair said. ‘I’m not naming my pet something stupid.’
‘No little pipsqueak?’ Thomas said with a grin.
Alastair rolled his eyes. ‘Absolutely not.’
***
‘You mean to say you forgot to buy Alastair a gift for his birthday?’ Lucie asked.
‘I didn’t forget,’ Cordelia said. ‘I planned to do it today, after school. How was I supposed to know I was going to get detention?’
They entered the bookstore, certain she could find something Alastair would like here.
‘Sorry I couldn’t get you out,’ Lucie said. ‘Even my dad can’t do that, but he knows it was completely unfair.’
Cordelia shrugged. ‘I finished my homework. But I’m still pissed.’
She knew teachers tended to be harsher on her, Alastair had always had the same problem, and she usually made a point to behave but she also wasn’t going to let people just walk over her girlfriend. So what if she’d gotten into a fight with a bully? He’d started it, but that’s not how the teacher who’d broken them apart saw it.
‘Alastair will understand,’ Cordelia added. ‘He was often sent to detention unfairly too. Now, which of these books do you think he’ll like?’
‘Both seem pretty good,’ Lucie said. ‘What are they about?’
‘This one’s called Malice, and is a Sleeping Beauty retelling focused on Alyce, the dark grace with powers similar to the original evil witch who cursed the princesses, and she might be the villain but she might also fall in love with Aurora. I haven’t read it, but it sounds awesome. The other is Girl, Serpent, Thorn.’
‘Oh, didn’t I lend you that one last year?’
‘Yes,’ Cordelia said. ‘It was awesome and the cover is so beautiful I wanted my own copy. I think Alastair will like it too, the world is inspired by Persian culture and the Shahnameh, which he loves, and the story is very good too.’
Girl, Serpent, Thorn was probably one of her favorite books, and Cordelia ultimately decided to buy it for herself while buying Malice for Alastair. He could always borrow the other book from her, she just wanted to reread it several times and have the gorgeous cover on display.
‘I doubt Alastair minds we’re late,’ Cordelia said. ‘He’s been spending the day with Thomas.’
Cordelia sometimes envied the amount of free time Alastair had compared to her. She hoped it would be the same once she went to university. Of course, Alastair had his memory, he only had to read everything once and he would remember forever. He could save so much time that way.
It still struck her as odd how they didn’t understand Alastair’s memory. Lucie was the way she was because her grandfather was the thief of souls. Same for Tessa, who’d gotten some of her power back after his death. Thomas had the sight because his mother did, and Kamala had healing powers because a fairy had given them to her. But no one knew why Alastair was the way he was. Cordelia knew it still frustrated him, not understanding.
‘I can’t wait until I can go to university,’ Lucie said. ‘I am so done with physics.’
‘Why did you take physics?’ Cordelia asked.
‘No clue,’ Lucie said. ‘I’ll survive another year. Then it’s English literature and creative writing.’
Cordelia wished she knew what she was going to study. Half her biology class was already working on their med school applications, but Cordelia had no clue yet. At least she couldn’t really picture herself as a doctor. Part of her still wanted to be a hero, but what if like Jem she decided to retire early? Being a hero didn’t exactly pay, and it was good to have some education. She just didn’t know what. She knew, of course, it was fine to choose wrong at first. Alastair had realized being a politician wasn’t for him, and was again starting in his first year.
‘At least Alastair promised to help me with my math homework,’ Cordelia said.
Cordelia and Lucie took the metro and arrived at Jem’s house. She’d been here frequently since the summer, and it already felt like Alastair’s house. She’d considered moving in herself too, but felt like she was still too young to move away from her mother and would rather stay for now.
Alastair and Thomas were in the living room, where an animal home was standing on the table next to a bit of neatly folded wrapping paper, not a tear in sight. Alastair had always been a little obsessive in the way he opened gifts. The wrapping paper would be thrown away, yet he always opened it with such a care and he never ripped anything.
‘Happy birthday,’ she said, hugging her brother.
He’d grown more comfortable with physical affection lately, and for Cordelia it felt like it had become easier to reach him. She’d had to get used to not living in the same house as him at first, but Alastair seemed happier here.
‘Thank you,’ Alastair said. ‘I’m officially on the waiting list for a pet hedgehog. It might take some time, but I have some of the supplies I need now. I am open to name suggestions as I have not thought of anything yet.’
‘Pipsqueak!’ Lucie called out.
‘Oddly, you’re not the first person to suggest that,’ Alastair said. ‘No, I am not naming my pet Pipsqueak.’
‘That’s because I already call Alastair that,’ Thomas said.
Alastair rolled his eyes. ‘My hedgehog will have a serious name, not something a toddler would have chosen.’
They didn’t settle on a name yet that evening. Lucie kept suggesting the kind of names Alastair meant to avoid as a joke, and Eugenia did the same when she and Kamala arrived. Kamala had a few good suggestions, and Alastair decided to look into Persian pet names.
Cordelia started feeling like things would be alright again, like things would be normal. Of course, she could never be sure. Tatiana had not turned up again, Gideon had reported her missing and so far the police had no leads. Cordelia didn’t think they’d find her, and she wondered if Tatiana would come back. There was no chance she could bring back her son, not anymore, but Cordelia feared she might want revenge. Right now, she tried not to worry. She would be prepared, yes, but she would also continue to live her life, go to school, worry about things normal girls her age should be worried about. Alastair seemed to be doing a little better as well, although she knew his EMDR days were hard. He was playing music again, and Cordelia loved to listen to him play the piano while she was here.
‘Do you want to play something?’ Cordelia asked at some point, gesturing to the piano.
‘Of course,’ Alastair said. ‘Thomas, I need your help.’
‘I didn’t bring my guitar,’ Thomas said nervously.
‘I don’t need you to play, I need you to turn the page of the sheet music. One of these days I’m going to make a copy and tape this piece together, but it’s 5 pages long.’
Cordelia would always be impressed at how fast Alastair could move his fingers over the keys. He’d tried to teach her when she was younger and she could play some simple melodies with her right hand only, but she’d never gotten the hang of playing with two hands.
‘I recognize this,’ Lucie said when Alastair was finished. ‘I think it’s in Pride and Prejudice. The one with Colin Firth.’
‘That’s possible, it’s well known. The Turkish March by Mozart,’ Alastair said. ‘I’ve been practicing this for the past week.’
‘It’s lovely,’ Cordelia said. ‘I missed hearing you play.’
‘And now you only get to listen when you’re here,’ Alastair said apologetically.
‘I’m here several days a week anyway,’ Cordelia said. ‘I’m glad you’re playing again.’
‘I forgot how much I loved it,’ Alastair said. ‘But I’m happy too. Even Church likes it when I play.’
Cordelia noticed the cat was sitting up from his spot on the couch, listening intently as Alastair started playing something else. Church might hate everyone and everything, but he loved Jem and he loved music.
Thomas continued to do his job as page turner and Cordelia could see the adoration in his eyes as he watched Alastair play. She was glad they’d been able to work it out and were still together, Alastair deserved that.
When Alastair was finished, Lucie decided to present her gift, which was a story she’d written herself in an insanely short time. Cordelia had read it and helped her edit, but the premise was that it was Frozen but with Alastair and Cordelia as the main characters.
‘I’m going to read it as soon as I have the time,’ Alastair promised. ‘This sounds brilliant.’
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eliotquillon · 3 years
Text
HIVE TIMELINE TWO, ELECTRIC BOOGALOO (Updated and reworked for Bloodline; spoilers ahead!)
It's a year since my original HIVE timeline (which you can read here and is obviously pre-Bloodline), and how things have changed. Well...kind of. I was expecting more of my timeline to crumple under the weight of eight years' worth of continuity errors but, unlike most of my pre-Bloodline fic, my 2020 timeline has stayed somewhat intact. However, in light of Nessa's excellent post that used the Bloodline prologue to figure out Raven's birthday with a scary amount of accuracy, I've decided that somewhat intact just isn't enough. Lo and behold...find the C ottomalpense new and improved H.I.V.E. timeline under the cut. This is just my interpretation of the canon timeline; because Walden contradicts himself constantly when it comes to age and continuity, most of these dates are educated guesses and any other interpretations are more than valid. Bloodline spoilers below.
PART ONE: RAVEN
In my original timeline, I used two anchor dates: Otto's 13th birthday being August 29th 1993, and Raven being 16 in the 'fifteen years earlier' Hong Kong flashback, making her 31 in Aftershock/Deadlock. Using the age difference between her and Otto, I counted backwards to give Raven a birth year of 1979. Otto's birthday still holds up, but Bloodline has since made it clear that Raven was 15 in Hong Kong. Therefore, several options presented themselves in order to salvage the rest of the timeline.
Option 1: Raven was indeed born in 1979, and Hong Kong takes place in 1994. This would make her 27 in H.I.V.E., given that she has a September birthday and H.I.V.E. takes place between September-December 2006. However, this means Raven that if Raven is 30 in Aftershock/Deadlock, there are only three years between the first seven books....something that canon vaguely supports given Shelby's "I've waited three years for you two to get together" comment to Laura and Otto in Deadlock, but feels very, very unrealistic given the number of time skips and the sheer volume of things that happen in the first seven books. My original timeline was created to get rid of the stasis in canon and give a better sense of the progression of time between books. Keeping Raven's birth year as 1979 undermines that.
Option 2: Raven was born in 1981, Hong Kong takes place in 1996, and she is 25 in H.I.V.E., meaning that there's exactly five years between H.I.V.E and Aftershock. This supports my earlier placement of Aftershock being the start of fifth year, but 25 feels kind of...young? It also hinges on Raven knowing her exact birth date before she finds out that Nero is her father, which I personally don't think Bloodline supports - Nero didn't know her birthday, and I think if Raven did know, she would've told him pre-Bloodline.
Option 3: Raven was born in 1980, Hong Kong takes place in 1995, and she is 26 in H.I.V.E., but, because she doesn't know her birth date, she celebrates her birthday on New Year's Eve. So while Raven would technically be 31 in Aftershock, she would still consider herself 30 until the end of the year, as would Nero. This gives a little bit more leeway with her age, reduces the number of changes in the overall timeline, and accounts for the overall unreliability of both Raven and Nero's narration in the flashback scenes - given that one of them had been traumatised so thoroughly that she had recurring psychotic episodes just months before that scene, and the other had his memory tampered with to the point where he misremembered the date of worst day of his life.
I personally opted for Option 3, making Raven's new birthday 3rd-6th September 1980. She is 33 in the Bloodline epilogue. Therefore Hong Kong still takes place in 1995.
PART TWO: OTTO
This is just a rehash of my last timeline, but for clarity's sake: Otto being an August 1993 birthday makes him one of the youngest in his year, meaning that everyone else (Lucy, Wing*, Nigel, Franz, Shelby, Laura, and Penny) were all 1992/3 babies. Bloodline takes place right at the end of his final year (meaning I correctly predicted that it would be set in 2012), making him 19. Something I forgot to mention in my original timeline is that Tom is described as being a few years older than Penny in H.I.V.E., but given that Tom isn't really alive for long enough to present me with an issue timeline wise, I'm just going to let that one slide. The Bloodline epilogue thus takes place in 2013.
As always, I am ignoring Rogue's claim that Otto is 13, because it doesn't make sense in any context (if Otto really is 13, it means he magically ages three years in Zero Hour and Aftershock according to Walden's own implication that Otto is 16 by Aftershock...which I'm also ignoring, but whatever). Laura still choosing between universities in September 2013 is weird, because either she is very, very late for the 2013 academic year, or very, very early for the 2014 one, but, again, I am ignoring it. Essentially, nothing meaningful has changed for any of the student ages between this timeline and the 2020 one.
PART THREE - NERO
This is where it gets interesting. This time last year, my Nero section was just speculation. I was, uh, very off, and did not account for how early Nero knocked Elena up. That was on me. My bad!
Nero is in his early 20s when Elena is murdered. If we take the year to be 1980, and early 20s to mean anything between 20-24, we can get an approximate birth year of 1956-1960. I'm going to average that to 22, making Nero's birth year 1958. He's a practically spritely 48 in H.I.V.E, and 55 in the Bloodline epilogue.
(Also, I am treating the 'thirty years' in the 'thirty years ago' flashback to be an estimate. Nero has memory issues and also thirty years has a much better ring to it than thirty-two.)
PART FOUR - DIABOLUS
We can't talk about Nero without mentioning Diabolus because I, for one, have been haunted by the knowledge that Nero taught Diabolus for years. However, assuming Nero immediately joins the H.I.V.E. teaching staff in 1980 following Elena's death, he is 22. If Diabolus is a first year student, we can give him a birth year of 1966/7. That said, I tend to think Diabolus is a little bit older than that, given how close he and Nero are in Hong Kong, so if we age him up to a third year in Nero's first year of teaching, that makes him 15/16 with a birth year of 1964/5. There's only 6/7 years between him and Nero, leaving plenty of time for them to become close friends by Hong Kong, during which Nero is 37 and Diabolus is approaching 30. That means Diabolus had Nigel at 27/28.
PART FIVE - THE OVERLORD INCIDENT AND XIU MEI
The Overlord Incident (henceforth the OI) is the bane of my existence. There's no mention of Raven in the original flashback in the Overlord Protocol, implying that she wasn't around yet, but it's referenced as still being a work in progress in Hong Kong. Again, this is a rehash of my previous timeline, but the Deadlock interpretation doesn't work; regardless of anything else, Wing was definitely born in 1992/3 in order to be in the same year as Otto, and either Wing or Raven would be too young for the OI to occur after Hong Kong (Raven was only 13 in 1993 in this interpretation of events, and this is one that puts her on the older side - there's an argument to be made for her being born in 1983, which would make her 10). Ergo, in this timeline, the OI precedes Hong Kong.
As mentioned, Wing had to have been born in 1993 at the latest, and the evidence suggests that he's most likely one of the older kids in their year, pointing to a 1992 birthday, meaning Xiu Mei got pregnant by January 1992 at the earliest. There must be time allowed for the following to occur between Wing and Otto's births and the OI: survivors of the OI to start going missing, Xiu Mei and Wu Zhang /Cypher to marry and move to Japan in order to escape persecution, and Overlord to get enough soft power over Number One to convince him to start trying to produce a clone of himself to be his successor. At earliest this can be 1991. I, however, think that it's more likely to be January 1990, given Overlord's comments about how much Number One initially resisted having his brain hijacked. This is the same as my previous timeline.
Unlike my previous timeline, however, I'm also going to attempt to estimate the year of Xiu Mei's death. While the Overlord Protocol does not explicitly state this, it can be inferred that Nero receives Xiu Mei's locket and letter after she is murdered by Overlord for investigating the Renaissance project. Nero receives the locket "many years" before Overlord Protocol (which takes place roughly in Spring/Summer of 2007), but Xiu Mei was also presumed "long dead" already when he received it as a result of the OI. This puts 17 years between Xiu Mei's faked death and Nero's reminiscence over the locket and letter in 2007 after the assassination attempt in Vienna. Xiu Mei can't have died before Wing was at least 5 years old, given the strong memories he has of her and the fact that he made a promise to her not to kill anyone, so I'm tentatively putting Xiu Mei's real death at 2001, when Wing would've been 9. This leaves just enough time for Cypher to establish himself as a thorn in Nero's side, and for his relationship with Wing the deteriorate to what we see in the Overlord Protocol.
PART SIX - OTHER
I've been meaning to do the maths on this for a while, but H.I.V.E.mind was officially brought online April 10th, 2006! (He'd been online for four months, three weeks, and two days by September 1st.) Nero really was paranoid after the OI.
Brexit doesn't occur in the H.I.V.E.verse, because Duncan Cavendish (David Cameron) resigns in 2010, AKA way, way, before the rise of UKIP and the 2016 referendum. The Iraq war, however, does - Tony Blair is heavily, heavily implied to be the prime minister in 2006.
Not really timeline related, but the fact that both Otto and Raven are Virgos is enough to make me shudder.
TL;DR - THE (FINAL???) TIMELINE
1950-59: The Furan siblings are born at some point. Two siblings are twins, presumably Elena and Anastasia or Anastasia and Pietor. At some point, they are owed a blood debt by the Sinistres.
1958: Nero is born.
Early 1960s: H.I.V.E. is founded, most likely by Nero's mother.
1964-5: Diabolus Darkdoom is born.
Late 1970s: Elena and Nero start their affair.
1980: Elena is murdered by Pietor. Raven is born. Nero has his memory of Raven's survival forcibly erased by Francesca Sinistre, clearing the blood debt between the Furan and Sinistre families.
1980s: Diabolus Darkdoom and Duncan Cavendish attend and graduate H.I.V.E. Diabolus and Nero become friends.
1989: Raven runs away from her orphanage.
1990: The Overlord Incident takes place, leaving three named survivors: Nero, Xiu Mei, and Wu Zhang. Overlord begins to assert control over Number One.
1991: Raven is found by the Furans and brought to the Glasshouse. Wu Zhang and Xiu Mei marry and immigrate to Japan after survivors of the Overlord Incident start going missing.
1992: Presumably the year Raven claws out Pietor's eye and gets shot in the woods, it is also the point at which Overlord/Number One most likely starts considering cloning himself. In the final quarter of the year, some students - most likely Wing, Shelby, and possibly Laura - are born.
1993: Otto and the rest of the students in his year are born.
1994: Likely the year Dimitri's escape attempt fails, and Raven is forced to murder Tolya. Also presumably when H.I.V.E.'s Icelandic location became dangerously compromised, and Nero starts seriously considering plans to move. At this point his mother is dead.
1995: Nero and Diabolus go to Hong Kong to meet with the Architect, and thwart Raven's assassination attempt. Raven eventually defects to G.L.O.V.E., and the first Glasshouse burns.
1996-2000: Construction on H.I.V.E. 2.0 is completed. Nero starts work on the emergency Zero Hour protocol.
2001: Xiu Mei is murdered by Overlord for asking too many questions about the Renaissance initiative. Wu Zhang becomes Cypher. Nero receives his half of the amulet, and Xiu Mei's letter.
2001-2005: Lucy's parents die of unknown causes. Diabolus Darkdoom falsifies his death to escape execution for getting too close to the Renaissance initiative, possibly after divorcing his wife first. Otto drops out of school and starts scamming local business to repair St Sebastian's. At some point Pike convinces Nero to try AI again. Number One's will is entirely consumed by Overlord.
2006: H.I.V.E.mind goes online. Pike's experiment to give Ms Leon the same reflexes as her cat goes horribly wrong, leaving them both trapped in the wrong body. Shelby becomes the Wraith and makes headlines for stealing millions of dollars' worth of jewellery. Laura is caught hacking the nearby American air base's early nuclear warning system. Otto hypnotises the current prime minister, allowing Duncan Cavendish to come into power. During a failed escape attempt from H.I.V.E., several hundred million pounds' worth of damage is caused to H.I.V.E. by Nigel's experimental crossbreed plant, Violet.
2007: Cypher fakes his death as Mao Fanchu in order to lure Wing to Tokyo, and the Contessa betrays Nero. Nero keeps Cypher alive, unbeknownst to Number One, and starts to have suspicions about Number One/Overlord for the first time. By the end of August, everyone is fourteen, and first year is over.
2008: H.O.P.E. is formed, and Nero is captured in either April or May whilst meeting with Gregori Leonov. Three months later, he is rescued by Otto, Raven, and the gang. The Contessa and Number One/Overlord die. Laura and Otto kiss, but nothing comes of it. Diabolus resurfaces from the dead to be elected head of G.L.O.V.E.'s ruling council. At some point in late August to early September, Otto, Wing, Shelby and Laura first encounter the animus fluid on a train to Paris whilst on a mission to recover a stolen thermoptic camouflage suit. As a result of the Contessa's death, Lucy Dexter is transferred to H.I.V.E. at the start of third year, at which point everyone is fifteen. Following the hijacking of Dreadnought, and an encounter with Pietor Furan, the animus fluid, and the Disciples, Otto is captured by American forces after saving Air Force One and the US president. He is then turned over to H.O.P.E.
2009: Assassinations of key members of G.L.O.V.E.'s ruling council take place at the hands of Otto, now under the influence of animus. Raven is given executive privilege to kill him if necessary. Otto confesses his love to Laura. Following a confrontation in the Amazon jungle, Cypher, Ghost, and Trent all die. H.O.P.E. is destroyed. Otto feigns memory loss of everything that occurred under animus. By the end of the year, everyone is sixteen.
2010: Laura's brother, Douglas, is born. Otto has continual and repeated nightmares and is the subject of rumours. Overlord takes control of the Advanced Weapons' Testing Facility in Colorado. The Zero Hour protocol is activated. Wing and Shelby get together. Chief Lewis and Lucy Dexter die. Pietor Furan is killed by Raven. Nero becomes head of G.L.O.V.E. Duncan Cavendish is forced to resign. The Architect is contacted by Anastasia Furan through a proxy, and construction of the new Glasshouse is completed. Following the appointment of Security Chief Dekker, Laura is blackmailed into betraying the location of the Hunt after Tom and Penny's recruitment to H.I.V.E. Joseph Wright and several former members of the ruling council are offered the help of Disciples'. All of the Alpha stream save Shelby, Otto, Franz, and Wing are taken captive. Otto is expelled, and joined Raven on the hunt for the location of the new Glasshouse. By the end of the year, everyone is seventeen.
2011: Raven and Otto take down several Disciples, most notably visiting Dubai, London, and Paris. In Venice, they are pursued by the CIA after tracking down the Architect with the help of Diabolus Darkdoom. Tom dies. The new Glasshouse is stormed and destroyed, again. Laura is given the choice as to whether she wants to stay at H.I.V.E. or not, and decides to stay. Anastasia Furan is taken hostage in Nero's basement storage facility. The Disciples' countdown for the new batch of hostages starts at 99 days. By the end of the school year, everyone is eighteen.
2012: The majority of Otto and the gang's final year goes smoothly. Franz starts working out and loses weight, becoming conventionally attractive. A few days shy of graduation, the clone known as Anna becomes loose. Otto reconvenes with the CIA and is allowed access to the last remaining batch of the animus fluid. Francesca Sinistre dies. It is revealed to Nero by Anastasia that he is Raven's father. Raven kills Anastasia. Otto stays behind to destroy H.I.V.E. and dies. His consciousness is transferred to a cloning vat by H.I.V.E.mind. Everyone is nineteen.
2013: Construction on the new H.I.V.E. facility is already underway. Raven finds out her birthday. Shelby and Wing set up an orphanage, implied to be in Africa, for war orphans in Otto's honour. Franz is an instructor at the temporary facility. Laura gets in to MIT and Oxford. In early September, Otto shows up on her doorstep.
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dreamersleeps · 3 years
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Hey, have been reading your blog and it is the kind of goldmine I’d brave the dangers of the Klondike for. It is SO GOOD. But I’m also curious on your thoughts on Endeavor playing god, but not understanding the science behind his creations? He seems to think Shouto has an Icyhot Quirk when it’s more likely Shouto is a Chimera. He has two phenotypes, thus one side can only use Icy and the other can only use Fire. Shouto like has TWO Quirks instead of a combination of both. And Enji seems to think Touya inherited Rei’s constitution, yet that might not be the case as according to the Singularity Theory, humans’ Quirks are evolving at a faster pace than the body can keep up with. So Touya might not even HAVE his mother’s constitution but Endeavor just THINKS he does. Also, there is his rivalry with All Might that is completely one-sided. Allmight as All For One which is the Quirk of not a single person but more eight Quirks in one. Endeavor thinks he’s going up against a single man when in reality he’s facing eight men in one.
Hello! First of all I’d like to give a huge apology for how late my response is. Due to the start of the spring semester and some other unexpected life events, this took way longer than expected. 
Thank you so much for your kind comments! 😩💕 It really did put a huge smile on my face and it made my day! It makes me feel very giddy~ When I first started posting on Tumblr, I wasn’t expecting people to actually like or even read the stuff I was writing about or send messages to my inbox since most of my posts kind of make me look like the guy in this meme here: 
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I very much appreciate all the comments and asks I receive in my inbox, so thank you for sending yours in. 
Anyways, I’d like to address this from the beginning but, unfortunately when it comes to quirks and how they work, I’m not too sure if I will be able to answer your questions properly. For example I am aware of the Quirk Singularity Theory but I don’t know if I have a good enough understanding of it to form a response I am confident in.. That being said, I will try to answer your other questions and comments the best I can. 
Endeavor Playing God
So, what are my thoughts on Endeavor playing god, but not understanding the science behind his creations? Back when we had the Touya reveal and we got more information about the Todoroki household from the perspective of Todoroki Enji, there were a lot of differing thoughts and opinions about the flashbacks that were floating around Tumblr. I think if I were to give a simple answer to your question, I’d say it was Endeavor’s youth and stubbornness. Looking back at Chapter 291, we can see that Endeavor looks quite young in the flashbacks with Touya, but I’m going to attempt to do the math. 
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Seeing that we know that Fuyumi is currently 23, and that Dabi is older than her (I suck at guessing ages) and I’m guessing here that he’s going to be four years or older, since quirks normally manifest around four years of age. That being stated the youngest age Dabi may be currently is 27? Maybe 26.
Keep in mind that I may be off with the “math” I’m doing here but let’s guestimate Dabi’s age as being 26 or 27. Endeavor is currently 46 years old so that means he was 19 or 20 years old when he had Touya. For comparison, Natsuo is currently 19 years old as well. 
At that young of an age, he already had his eyes set on wanting to surpass All Might. His hero name, Endeavor, summarizes his career pretty well: an attempt to achieve a goal. 
With the hellflame quirk he has, and the wealth and power that came with his family name, he really was given a position to act as a “god.” For the sake of his ambitions, Touya, Fuyumi, Natsuo and Shouto were born, as his “creations.” 
Touya’s “Weak Constitution” and Shouto’s Quirk 
I’m not going to say that his youth was the main factor for why things happened the way they did because the answer is more complex, but I do think that a combination of his youth and stubbornness fueled Endeavor’s recklessness. He essentially bought his marriage with Rei in order to pass down some sort of combination of the hellflame quirk and Rei’s ice quirk to his children. I think when it comes to the question of whether he understood the science behind what he was doing, I think I can confidently say that he didn’t know in the beginning, or at least it was not something he really looked in to. I think he just saw it as hellflame + ice quirk = child with both quirks as we kind of see in the panel below. 
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As you state, Endeavor does see the combination of the two quirks as one. We can see below that he refers to it as, “the ideal quirk.” 
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I think that it is also important to point out that Endeavor was, I guess you could say, content when Touya was born even though he only had the hellflame quirk. From the first panel, Endeavor states, “the fire power he possessed was greater  than my own.” 
He continues to say, “He didn’t have a way to overcome the inescapable downside of overheating but... I nevertheless sought to raise the boy to be a hero.” 
That was until it was revealed that Touya’s body could not handle the extreme heat which came with the hellflame quirk. This is when Endeavor began to refer to Touya’s “weakness” as inheriting Rei’s weak constitution. 
Now, the Quirk Singularity Theory and just the genetic science behind quirks has always been kind of difficult for me to wrap my mind around so because of that I do not think that I will be able to give an opinion on it that I would be confident in. However, @/redphlox has a post which has some opinions that I agree with that have to do with Endeavor’s belief that Touya had “a weak constitution and Shouto’s quirk. I will link it here. 
As for Shouto’s quirk, unless the actual meaning and its nuances was lost in translation, his quirk is referred to as “Half-Cold Half Hot” in the English official translation which I think further reinforces the idea that it is not really a singular quirk but a combination of two separate quirks. I agree that Shouto is most likely a Chimera. 
According to Britannica, a chimera is: 
In genetics, an organism or tissue that contains at least two different sets of DNA, most often originating from the fusion of a many different zygotes. 
The term is derived from the chimera of Greek mythology: a fire-breathing monster that was part lion, part goat, and part dragon. 
As seen below we can see the white hair, gray eye and ice quirk on his right side (our left) that he inherited from his mother Rei, and then on his left side (our right), the red hair, teal blue eye and hellflame quirk he inherited from his father Enji. He can only use his ice quirk on his right side and his fire quirk on his right side. 
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Shouto’s appearance reminds me of a particular tortoiseshell cat named Venus from a while back. You may have seen her back when photos of her went viral. Tortoiseshell cats are usually chimeras, however Venus was nicknamed the “Chimera Kitten” or “Chimera Cat” even though it is most likely that the chimera mutation isn’t the cause behind her unique (and cute!) appearance. 
Another definition of a chimera is: 
“A chimera... is a composite individual that was made up of cells from at least two different original embryos. If they fuse together early enough, they will become a single organism whose genetic input is from two completely different individuals. In a mosaic, there’s only one individual and it just happens to have different genetic components active in its cells. A chimera would be a much more unusual and unlikely event. - Columbia University Professor of Genetics and Development Virginia Papaioannaou 
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The image above depicts Venus the cat however the original source of the photo is unknown. 
Considering that in real life, a chimera is an individual made up of cells from at least two different embryos I think we could kind of apply that sort of argument to Shouto although this is all speculation. To our knowledge, the other Todoroki children were born with only one of their parents’ quirks while Shouto was born with both. 
On Shouto’s fan wiki page, it states: 
If he overuses one element without utilizing the other, then his own body temperature will suffer; the ice half will cause frostbite and the fire half will cause heatstroke, Until his bodily limit is reached however, neither has any visible effect on his body. Shouto can easily negate his weakness by alternating between ice and fire. 
Endeavor had been training Shouto to use his fireside and I think he mostly saw the ice quirk as something that could be used for temperature regulation however, as you suggest Shouto has two separate quirks, both equally strong in their own right. If he used his ice quirk too much, he may have to rely on the hellflame quirk to regulate his body temperature. Both quirks have very high potential on their own and with the aid of the other. 
Anyways going back to the Chimera stuff, I think that although the movie, Heroes Rising isn’t canon, I do think that the inclusion of the villain, Kon Chojuro going by the name of “Chimera” with the quirk of the same name was interesting. He also fits the second definition of the Greek mythological chimera that we had above. 
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Even more interesting was that it was with the team of Tenya, Kirishima, Asui and Shouto that took Chimera on, with Shouto making the last blow using his ice quirk. He takes his ice quirk to the extreme and we see his body covered in ice (frostbite?) as a result before he passes out. 
All Might and Endeavor’s One-Sided Rivalry 
Whenever I write about this particular character I feel that I must include a little note like this but everything you see above is not an excuse for what Endeavor has done but a little exploration in to the complexity that is Todoroki Enji. I personally think that he is a very interesting character to look in to.
As you mention, the rivalry between Endeavor and All Might was completely one-sided. I think a large part behind it had to do with their differing ideas of what it means to be a hero. It is from All Might where we tended to see the more ideal-focused concepts of a hero. He was the symbol of peace, the light of hope and an inspiration for children and people all across Japan. In simple terms, a hero is someone who saves, kind of like how we saw Midoriya throughout most of the series. 
As for Endeavor, he fits more in the role of the concept of a hero being an occupation. He had a hard time trying to figure out how to portray himself to the public after All Might retires and even asks him for some advice of what it means to be the number one. Endeavor wanted to be the number one because that meant he is the strongest man/person in Japan. He was constantly training and he was so focused on wanting to achieve his goal that if he was not able to then he wanted to make sure that his own blood would surpass All Might. For him, simple terms a hero meant someone who surpasses and wins. This is kind of like how we saw Bakugo throughout most of the series until recently. 
(I’m not going to go too deep in to this as many other blogs have written amazing analysis and meta posts on Tumblr already but the adults they are often compared to Midoriya and Bakugo’s storylines have been slowly changing to incorporate both saving and winning in to what it means to be a hero.) 
With this one-sided rivalry came Endeavor’s recklessness. I do not think that before and early stages after Touya was born that he really considered the science behind his “creation.” However as soon as it was revealed that Touya could easily get harmed by his quirk, Endeavor definitely should have recognized the consequences of his actions. 
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As his hero name suggests, one of his main goals and purposes of being a hero was to accomplish his greatest endeavor, to surpass All Might, which he calls his “eternal goal.” There is an implication here that at the age of 19 Endeavor already believed that there was a good chance that he may not be able to surpass All Might with his own quirk and strength. That is why he sought out a Quirk marriage. 
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“Because Toya had more potential than me... I placed my ambitions on his shoulders.” 
Endeavor has a bias towards his own quirk as he wanted an heir with his quirk and blood to become number one. Fuyumi was born and she had inherited Rei’s ice quirk but unless we get some sort of explanation, I think we can assume that Endeavor did not bother trying to training her. I think the same can be said about Natsuo. 
Then Shouto was born and this changed a lot of things. It seems that there was a highly likely chance that Endeavor either greatly diminished his focus on or halted Touya’s training and turned his attention towards Shouto. After all, he was born with what Endeavor believed to be “the ideal quirk.” He probably saw more potential in Shouto carrying his legacy than he did in Touya to become number one. It is likely that it was during this time that Touya “perished” in the fire. 
Now that Endeavor had lost Touya, he was only left with Shouto. Driven by grief and desperation he put everything he had now onto Shouto. Looking back to Chapter 252, Endeavor tells Natsuo:
“Believe it or not... I was never trying to neglect any of you. But... all I could do was blame others and dodge responsibility.” 
His actions and the past state otherwise however if we take his word, then I kind of visualize a man who was aware of the consequences and hurt caused by his actions and cruelty but had refused to actually acknowledge it: whether it was because he was afraid to confront reality, a mix of his stubbornness and desperation, the desire to become number one surpassing every other desire or a combination of all of this.
I always got a feeling from his character that he was someone who chose to believe that “the end would justify the means” as he “lost more” if that makes sense. “Everything that happened could not be all in vain” (although I’d like to point out that acting in this way is very selfish of him) which is why he continued to keep his eyes on the horizon at his goal instead of towards his family. 
As you state, Endeavor was going up against All Might, the carrier of the One for All quirk, and yes, it is interesting that kind of like All for One, it is the carrier of multiple quirks. One of the main differences between how the two quirks function is that one has the ability to pass on quirks and power while the other is the ability to take other quirks and powers. Unfortunately, unless the secret of AFO and OFA come to be known to the public, Endeavor would have never known what he was truly up against and in a nihilistic view, one can say that everything he was and did ended in vain. 
Although I would argue otherwise as this implies the assumption that the birth and existence of the Todoroki children would then had also been “in vain.” This is not true. This would imply that they would only be an extension of his legacy. We see the struggle to separate ones’ identity from their parent and their “destiny” through the contrasting stories of Shouto and Touya. 
In the end, Endeavor did become the number one hero although it was not in the way he envisioned it to be: it was given to him as he was the next in line as the number two hero due to All Might’s retirement. He didn’t win the position by surpassing All Might hence the embarrassment and anger he may have felt when the news was announced. Now that he is (ehhh maybe was? considering where we are in the manga) the number one hero, it seems like that everything he’s been doing and thinking keeps going back to the thought of “because I am the number one hero.” The position he worked hard for, trained hard for and hurt his family for across the decades of his life, forfeited to him by the previous symbol of peace. 
I always return back to the High End vs Endeavor fight whenever I talk about him but that is because there are great symbolic and narrative points that are made during it. Again, it is what establishes him as the number one hero but this is also where he acknowledges the past (however to what extent is debatable). 
I remember when the episode first came out back in 2020, anime watchers were going crazy. It felt like with some viewers, they focused more on the action than the narrative that was taking place. The reason why Endeavor flies so high and captures the hearts and support of the people of Japan in BNHA and a wide majority of us, the watching audience, is so that we can feel the blow later on when he plummets down. Even when I was watching it, I couldn’t help getting goosebumps while listening to the ost and seeing the way the manga panels were interpreted and animated. 
While I had been reading the chapters which I did first, I did not even really care about what was going on. I just kind of brushed Endeavor off to the side at the time. However when I was watching it I even got a little emotional, although I’d like to blame that on the fact that I had just finished a really difficult semester and watching the episodes felt like a cathartic release of stress (hahaha). It was only afterwards I went back to actually re-read and look at what was going on in the manga.  
I hope that I gave the answers, thoughts and opinions that you were looking for. Again, huge apology for answering your questions and comments really late. Thank you @thewilderstorm for sending your thoughts in, I truly appreciate it and loved responding to them!
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13-reasons-ideas · 3 years
Text
Marry Me - Monty’s Perspective
A/N: Here it is. I’m so sorry this took so long to put out. I was having a really hard time getting into the right headspace to write this. I hope you guys like it! I recommend listening to Thomas Rhett’s Marry Me when you read this. As usual, feedback is appreciated and much love! -Em
Ellie was coming back into town for her engagement party this weekend. I was the first person she called when Evan proposed. She damn near gave me a heart attack when I answered, and she was scream-crying.
Flashback
I was watching the Chargers game when Ellie called. “Hey Elliebear.”
“Heaskedmetomarryhim.” She screeched on the other line. I had no idea what she said. It sounded like she was crying. And that I would be deaf in one ear. I pulled the phone away from my head until she stopped freaking out.
“What was that?”
“Evan proposed.” What?
“Oh?”
“And I said yes. I’m getting married Montgomery.” Oh.
“That’s great Ellie. Congratulations. I’m happy for you.” I cleared my throat, trying to get rid of the pit that was forming.
“Thank you. I wanted you to be the first one to know, so I just wanted to call you quick. I can hear the game in the background, and we have more people to call so I’ll let you go now.”
“Okay, tell Evan I said hi and congratulations.”
“I will. Bye Monty.”
“Bye Ellie.” I hung up and sat back on the couch. She’s getting married.
End flashback
I was on break at work when I got a text from Ellie.
Hey you. I just got into town with Evan for the weekend. Are you free tonight?
I texted her back a few minutes later, yeah I’m free. What’s up?
She replied right away. Drinks or coffee? Just you and me. My parents are going over some details for tomorrow with Evan that they don’t want me around for.
Sure. Meet you at Monet’s at six?
I’ll save you a seat. Usual order?
You know I don’t change things Elliebear.
I stopped at home to change after work into something more comfortable. I grabbed a clean pair of jeans and a random t-shirt before grabbing an old flannel and running out the door, so I wasn’t late.Ellie barely beat me to the café. It wasn’t surprising really, since she was always the early one.
“Hey, what can I get you this evening?” the barista asked her.
“Can I get a-”
“She’ll get a skinny vanilla bean latte with only one pump of vanilla, a dash of cinnamon, and extra foam in a for here cup. I’ll get a regular black coffee. And she’ll also have the chicken and spinach sandwich.” I said behind her. The barista looked at her, unsure if she should ring it in or not. Ellie nodded and turned around to face me. Before I had a chance to say anything, she jumped into my arms for a hug.
“Hey Elliebear.” I grunted.  
“I missed you.”
“I missed you too.”
Our orders were finished quickly as it was surprisingly slow for a Friday night. Luckily, that meant our table was free. We sat down and conversation flowed easily. It was almost like we had never been apart.
“The ring is nice. It suits you. Bigger than I thought you would like but it’s nice.”
“It is nice, yeah. That reminds me, Evan said he’s looking forward to meeting you tomorrow.”
“So am I. See who finally caught your interest.”
“I was interested in other people before Evan.” She told me, scandalously. Sure, you did El. I didn’t let myself think about the possibility of her liking me that way when we were younger.
“Ellie. That guy from drama class doesn’t count. And neither does your chemistry partner.”
“I was not interested in Adam. And Zach was my chemistry partner. I can assure you I was not into him.”
“Please, enlighten me as to these people you were interested in before Evan.”
“There was,” she paused. “Dylan from sophomore English was cute. Ian. Couple other guys in high school. Peter from my first year anthropology class was… very attractive, and smart.”
“One guy aside from Evan? University of Georgia is a big school. There’s no way you only had eyes for two people.”
“I was busy. I practically lived in the library when I wasn’t in class or my dorm. What about you?”
“What about me?”
“Is there a girl I should be hearing about? Or should have heard about?”
“Nah. Nothing important or anything to write home about. I was busy.” I wouldn’t call what I did, dating. The point wasn’t to find someone to bring home. Who I wanted to bring home was over 900 miles away.
“Oh please Monty, you played ball at OSU. You honestly expect me to believe there was no girl in your life?”
“No, no. There were girls. Just nothing really serious.”
“Uh, huh.” She replied, sarcastically. We reached for our cups at the same time and our hands brushed. I was immediately transported back to the day of homecoming in senior year.
Flashback
“Remember students. The homecoming game is tonight at 6:30. You’ll want to be there early as our Liberty Tigers take on the Hildebrandt Mustangs if you want good seats. It’s sure to be a nail biter.” Principal Bolan’s voice boomed from the intercom during the morning announcements.
“Don’t know why he’s hyping it up to be a nail biter.” Scott laughed.
“We are playing Hildebrandt. We could literally not show up and still win.” I joked. “Have any of you seen Ellie? She’s usually here to force me to English by now.”
“Nah man.” Scott replied.
“Need lover girl to make sure you do what you’re supposed to?” Bryce teased.
“Fuck off. It’s not like that with us.” Unfortunately.
“Sure it’s not Monty. I refuse to believe you never hit it.”
“Don’t talk about her like that.” I threatened, lowly. Don’t push it man. Bryce shut up at my tone. “I’m going to go try and find her. I’ll see you guys at lunch.”
She was arranging her books when I found her at her locker. She was trailed by Clay and Alex. I pulled her into my arms and lifted off the ground. “Montgomery, put me down!” she laughed.
“Never.” I laughed, evilly.
“I have to grab my chem book. And go to chemistry.”
“I’ve got it.” Zach said as he grabbed her book, “you carrying her to class today?”
“Nah, I thought about it but since I had to come find her this morning, I figure she can make it there on her own.”
“I was running late. My alarm didn’t go off when it was supposed to.”
“Excuses, excuses.” I replied, putting her down and shaking my head.
“I’ll see you guys later? Zach and I are running late.”
“Sure. Justin said if I don’t go to the game tonight, he’d tell mom and dad about Ani. And I don’t want to deal with that.”
“Someone has to keep Clay company, so I have to go too.” Alex said, pushing clay lightly.
“Great. I’ll see you then. See you at lunch Monty.”
I sat through just about the driest English class of my life, counting the minutes on my watch. Math was no better. We were reviewing for a test that almost the whole
class failed. Somehow that was our fault for not studying enough. I let out a sigh of relief when the lunch bell rang.
The table was already mostly full when Ellie came and sat next to me. “Ellie, think you could pray for us to not lose this game tonight?” Bryce sniggered from the end of the table.
“Hey, quit being a dick.” I stated. Bryce responded by chucking a grape at me. I threw it back at him. I knew how important her faith was to her. Some things just weren’t okay to be joked about or questioned. When it came to Ellie, faith was one of them.
“It’s fine Monty. Not like he hasn’t done it before.” I know he has. I don’t like it. “It’s going to take a lot more than God to help you win if you don’t learn to throw better than that in the next six hours. But sure.” I watched her from the corner of my eye as she smirked to herself before beginning. I’d seen her pray for real before. This wasn’t that. “Lord, please help the guys win tonight. Give them the ability to not trip over themselves when they make plays. And God, please show Bryce how to make the ball go where it’s supposed to and not hit some poor kid in the head again. Maybe, just maybe, then he will get laid tonight and we all know that’s really why he asked me to pray.” She smirked at Bryce. I choked on my juice. She probably isn’t wrong. Was pretty funny when that kid got hit though.
“You need to quit hanging out with Monty, he’s rubbing off on you too much. And I was serious.”
“I know. I’ll do it for real after lunch. You can sit with me if you want.” She was true to her word. I was late for Geography because I was watching her sit in an empty alcove praying. Bryce didn’t sit with her.
The locker room was abuzz with excitement. It was the homecoming game. Not to mention our season opener. If we wanted to start the season off right, we had to win. Sure, we joked around about Hildebrandt being an easy team to beat-they came in second to last in the league last year-but there was still a chance they would pull off a miracle. Especially if Bryce threw like he did at lunch. “Yo Monty, is Ellie coming to Monet’s tonight?”
“She said she would. Not that she’ll give you the time of day.” I waved off Matt’s question. She’s not interested. Trust me. Find someone else to have your eyes on. Several ‘oooo’s were voiced around us.
“How do you know?”
“Just do, man.”
“I could treat her real nice. She’d beg me for more.” Are you fucking kidding me?
“Oh shit.” Someone muttered, seriously. I didn’t really hear who it was. The sound of my blood rushing in my ears was too loud. Coach Kerba wasn’t in the room. He was talking to Banes about plays. No one in here will snitch. Not when it’s about Ellie.
I immediately turned towards him and cornered him against his locker. The rest of the team stood silently, watching us. I got real close to his face so only he would hear me. “You even think about her like that again and I will bury you so deep they’ll need ground penetrating radar to find you. Not that they’d recognize you if anyone found your body. If you so much as brush against her too hard in the halls, I’ll break your jaw. You understand Carraway?”
“Y-yeah. I got you. Never said a word.” He breathed in response. I had scared the living shit out of him. Good. I stepped away from him and after a few beats the incident was forgotten and the mood was light again.
The game wasn’t that exciting. Had it not been homecoming, most people probably wouldn’t have shown up. As expected, it was in our favour most of the first half. Ellie waved at me between plays. She was practically beaming. During the second half Hildebrandt seemed to find their groove and the game was at least interesting to play. It wasn’t the nail biter Principal Bolan had promised this morning. Everyone knew that regardless of how we played, we would end up winning. The game ended and the team and the crowd were excited. Matt and Garrison were so excited by the win, they tripped over their own feet and faceplanted on the sidelines. The excitement died down for a moment until they shot up and went on celebrating.
I waited for Ellie outside the locker room, as per our tradition. “Good game.” She called.
“Of course, it was. I was on the field.” I smirked.
“Modest as ever I see.”
“Do you expect anything else at this point Elliebear?” “Not really. But I can hope, maybe one day.”
“Maybe, but not likely.”
“Oh hey, while I’m thinking about it, Clay asked me to keep an eye on Justin tonight.”
“Is everything okay?” My brow furrowed.
“I think so. Clay said something about him having issues adjusting and stuff. Do you think you can play nice with him for a while?”
“I suppose, since he is your friend, I can try and be nice for a while. But not all night. I want some Ellie time.” Only because it’s you asking.
“And you’ll get your Ellie time. After you make nice with Justin.”
I sighed, making it seem like a hassle just to get a rise out of her. I was about to respond when Bryce called us, “are you two going to stand there and chit chat all night or are we going to celebrate?”
“We’re coming. Give us a minute asshole.” I called back to him. Bryce didn’t respond.
I turned around so I could give her a piggyback out to the car. “Hop on”. Once she felt secure, I walked us out to the parking lot. I pretended to not pay attention when she stole my baseball hat. She couldn’t see the way my smirk turned into a smile when she did.
“That’s my hat El.”
“I know. I happen to like it though, so I’m wearing it.”
“I’m not getting it back tonight, am I?”
“Nope. It is now mine. Might even write my name in it.”
“You do that Ellie. I won’t care when I steal it back who’s name it has in it.” Already has my name in it. Yours would just complete it.
“Fine. Then I’ll readjust it.”
“You wouldn’t dare.”
“Oh, I would.”
I set her down at her car. “No, you wouldn’t.” I called her bluff. You’re too sweet to do it. Or you’d fix it right away if you did. She rolled her eyes at me.
“Whatever. I’ll see you at Monet’s in a few with your precious hat.” I waited until she got in her car and drove off, before starting my own engine and following her.
Ellie beat me to Monet’s as usual. I nodded at and stopped to chat with some of my teammates when I came in. Matt nodded awkwardly at me as I passed. I glared in return. My coffee was set across from her when I got to our table. “I see you told the truth. Can I have it back now?”
“No. I think it looks quite fetching on me, if I do say so myself.”
“Fetching?”
“Yes. Do you disagree?”
“No, I think it looks good on you.” Not that anything would look bad on you. Suits her. She’s wearing my shirt.
“That’s what I thought.”
We chatted quietly before Justin showed up. “Hey guys.” He waved.
“Justin! You made it.” She exclaimed, too excitedly. Making him think you were forced to babysit him by being overly happy isn’t going to help Elliebear. I shot her a tone it down look. Justin smiled uncomfortably as she offered up her seat. “Make room.”
“Can do sweetheart.” I flirted, patting the chair next to me. The smile and blush she tried to mask didn’t go unnoticed.
“Thanks for the coffee Ellie.” Justin said, taking a sip.
“No problem.” The three of us chatted idly for a while. I was on my best behaviour with Justin and even laughed a few times at couple things he said. There was no mention of what he witnessed in the locker room.
My hand found Ellie’s under the table and I grasped it carefully. I had to make it look like I hadn’t done it intentionally. I could see the pink flare of her cheeks and my lip twitched upwards.
“Hey Justin, come over here and look at this.” Charlie called. He was looking at something on Garrisons’ phone. Justin left us to go investigate. I caught the quick glance at our hands, even if Ellie didn’t. Thank you, Foley.
“And then there were two.” I muttered, pulling her from her thoughts.
“Then there were two.” She repeated.
“That shirt looks good on you. It’s pretty familiar too.”
“Oh, yeah. There may be a reason for that.” She seemed nervous.
“Need to go talk to Mike?”
“Not if you don’t have a problem with it. I think he would agree it was simply borrowing, rather than stealing. No need to involve Jesus.”
“I am. So now you’ve got my shirt and my hat. Anything else you intend on taking of mine?” I slowly inched closer to her. We have never gone here. But there’s no way she doesn’t feel this pull.
“Possibly. Depends what else you’re willing to offer.” She said, coyly. My fingers itched to brush the hair from her face. She beat me to it.
“I think there’s a thing or two I could offer you Ellie.” I replied, leaning in a little more. What am I doing? What if she doesn’t feel the same way. Am I about to ruin our friendship? Do I even care? Before I could kiss her, fucking Bryce Walker beckoned from across the room. Son of a bitch. You couldn’t wait two god damn seconds, could you? This better be important.
I stopped just short of kissing her. “What?” I answered, curtly.
“My place, half an hour.” He called back. That is what was so important you had to interrupt this moment? That could have waited. Fucker. I nodded in response and turned back to Ellie, hoping the moment wasn’t gone. I knew it was though. I sighed internally. She was smiling at me, but it didn’t reach her eyes like it normally did. She’s upset. I didn’t know what to say to try and salvage our moment. Instead, I watched her take a sip of her latte and check her watch.
“Shoot. Is that really the time? I have plans with my mom in the morning. I should get going.” I’ll take bullshit for 200, Alex. She never was a good liar.
“Oh, okay. Are we still on for waffles Sunday afternoon?” I tried to hide my disappointment.
“Yeah. Be at my place around one? I need to talk to Pastor Mike about a few things after service.”
“I’ll be there. Text me when you get home.”
“I will.” She hurried out of the café so fast, someone might think there was a fire.
I threw my head back in my chair and ran my hands down my face. Bryce and Matt were watching me when I looked out at the room again. I mimicked Ellie’s actions and took my half empty cup to the counter. “You couldn’t have waited one minute, could you Walker?” I grumbled as I passed him.
“Sorry dude.” He called after me. “My place-.”
“Half an hour. Yeah. I got that.” I shook my head as I left the café.
End flashback
I turned to watch her take a sip of her latte. She still savoured the taste and licked her bottom lip the same way. “What about the blonde girl you told me about briefly?”
Blonde girl… Lip piercing? No. Was a red head. The sorority girl? That was the brunette with the Adderall. Blonde… oh! Chirpy. “Sara?”
“Yeah.”
“She was nice. Very peppy and chipper though.”
“Ah yes. Need to keep up that stoic exterior. Can’t have someone too chipper, lest people think you have a soul or something.” You always thought I did.
“Exactly.” I laughed. He took a long sip from his cooled coffee. “Can you imagine if I brought her home?”
“Well, knowing your mother, I would probably be attending your engagement party tomorrow instead of the other way around.”
“Oh probably.”
“How is your mom doing, by the way?” “She’s doing okay. After dad died, she was pretty out of it for a few months. She’s gotten better with time though. Really started to come into her own and forge her own path.”
“I’m glad to hear it.”
“Not going to ask how I’m doing Ellie?”
“No. I know how you’re doing.”
“Oh really?”
“Montgomery. I am your best friend. Your dad was never a parent. DNA doesn’t make someone your family. You’re doing the same as you did the day you left and vowed to never speak to him again.”
Her easy explanation surprised me. “Sometimes I forget how well you know me.”
“I know. That’s why I have to remind you all the time.”
“Yeah, yeah. How did Evan react to Scott on the way from the airport?”
“I’m not totally sure. I don’t think he realized how things worked at Liberty and exactly what you and I being friends meant. Scott told him about the treehouse.” Oh God.
“Oh no. Ellie. I need to look the guy in the eye tomorrow.”
“I know you do. Don’t worry. He didn’t seem upset or anything. I think he found it amusing actually.”
“Did he tell him anything else?”
“About you?”
“Yeah.”
“No, mentioned how you guys fucked up and didn’t study for midterms and I singlehandedly kept you all on the team. And how Matt and Garrison managed to keep themselves above their feet until after homecoming senior year.”
“Of course, he did.”
“Don’t worry. Evan will like you.”
“How do you know?” Why do I care? Because you love her you dolt.
“Because I like you. And even though you think you are, you really aren’t a bad guy.” We talked for about another hour or so, just catching up, before we decided to call it a night.
“I’ll see you tomorrow?”
“Three o’clock sharp.”
“Good.” She squeezed me tightly. When we pulled apart, I looked down and saw she was wearing my shirt. She kept it all these years.
“Is that my shirt?”
“Yes, it is.”
“I thought I lost that years ago.”
“You never asked for it back. We agreed that I technically borrowed it, remember?”
“Yeah, but I also thought you would have given it back by now.”
“I mean, I can give it back to you tomorrow if you want it.” She offered.
“No, no. You keep it. You seem comfortable in it.” She smiled and hugged me again before leaving.
No matter how much I tried to talk myself into cancelling at the last minute or just not showing up to the party, I couldn’t do it. As much as I wanted to let her finally think that I was an ass, I couldn’t. I couldn’t hurt her like that. So, I manned up and went to Ellie’s engagement party. I showed up right at three, as promised. “Hey you.” She beamed. Her whole face lit up when she saw me.
“Hey Elliebear.” I said as I hugged her. Evan stood to the side, giving us a moment. He looked so uncomfortable with our interaction. Maybe he noticed how much brighter her face got when she saw me. She pulled away first and turned towards her fiancé.
“Evan, this is Monty. Monty, this is Evan.” She motioned between us. I shook his hand awkwardly.
“So, you found the way to Ellie’s heart, huh?”
“Yeah. She is something special. I thank God every day that she decided to give me a chance.”
“Don’t I know it?” I replied, trying to hide the wistfulness and ignore the pang of jealously in my chest.
Jill called her over for something and she pointed Scott out to me. Trying to avoid a pissing match El? “Coming Mom. Scott is over there by the cupcakes. Try to keep him from eating himself to a sugar high?”
I laughed, “can do Ellie. It was nice meeting you Evan. Congratulations.”
“You too Monty. Enjoy the party.” He doesn’t like me.
“Hey Scotty.”
“I didn’t think you’d show up. Justin and I had a bet going. I owe him fifty bucks.”
“Well, you know. It’s Ellie.” I grabbed a cupcake from the stand and took a bite. Not bad. I see why she wants me to monitor Scott.
“That’s why I didn’t think you’d come.”
“You came.” Justin said, patting me on the back in lieu of greeting.
“Yup. Where’s Sasha?”
“Girl talk with Ellie and Jess and some other girls.”
“Riveting. What choice did I have? My options were come, watch her with Evan, and hate every second of it for an hour or two, or, not come and have her hate me for the rest of our lives.”
“I guess. Are you going to go to the wedding?” Justin asked.
“See if Evan lets her invite me first. He doesn’t seem too impressed so far. Thanks for that by the way Scott.”
“I’m sure he’ll warm up to you.”
“If you’re invited? Which you will be, because you’re her best friend.”
“Then what kind of best friend would I be, if I didn’t go to her wedding? I’d just hate myself for a few more hours then. That’s better than a lifetime of her hating me.”
“Fair. Look, if you want to leave, just say the word. We can go back to my place and drink.” Scott offered.
“Thanks. I need to stick it out. It’s Ellie.” The rest of the party was fine. I talked to Jill and Rob for a while. I even talked to Evan for a bit. It was awkward but we didn’t fight each other. If he suspected anything about my feelings for her, he didn’t say anything. I left that evening, wondering if he noticed Ellie looking for me and not him all afternoon and letting my brain go somewhere it hadn’t gone in years. At least, not willingly gone in years.
I held out some sick hope that maybe, just maybe, the engagement wouldn’t last. I knew it was wrong of me, but I couldn’t help it. This was the girl that I had been in love with since the eighth grade. That’s when she stopped being like one of the guys. When she became something more. Even though I knew it wasn’t an attainable thing, even back then, there was always this little spark of hope. She was the reason I didn’t really date in college. She was the reason no girl was worth bringing home to meet my mom. They were all compared to her. They would always be compared to her. I always hoped that she felt the same way about me as I felt about her. That hope vanished when I checked my mail after work that Wednesday. The fancy envelope and familiar script were enough of a giveaway. I didn’t need to open the card to know what it was. The invitation. I sighed as I went in the house and opened the card. I merely skimmed for the important dates and time. I knew in that moment that I had finally lost her. I also knew that I would go anyway as I signed, sealed, and mailed the RSVP that night. I had to go. It’s Ellie.
**
The day had finally arrived. I had been dreading this day for the better part of a year. It was the morning of Ellie’s wedding. I woke up, forced myself to get out of bed, made coffee, and showered. I stared at the black suit hanging on my bedroom door for fifteen minutes. Arguing with myself about if I was really going to do this was getting me nowhere closer to a decision. If I go, I’ll hate myself. If I don’t go, she’ll hate me. If I go, I’m losing her. If I don’t go, I’m losing her. If I go, then I’ll get to see her. If I don’t go, I won’t see her. If I go, I’ll have to hold my feelings in forever. If I don’t go, I’ll have to hold my feelings in forever. Finally, I came to a decision. I wasn’t willing to risk losing her because I couldn’t show up for her. If I wasn’t going to be able to be with her, at least I could still be in her life. Maybe. But I’d cross that bridge when I got to it. I put the suit on and fixed my hair. Then I went to the liquor cabinet and filled a flask with whiskey. I couldn’t drink it in church because if Ellie found out, she would kill me, Ten Commandments be damned.
I arrived at the church forty-five minutes before the ceremony was scheduled to start. I took a sip from the flask in my pocket on the city sidewalk. Spotting Bryce, I walked over to him. “Hey.”
“Hey man, how’s it going?”
“It’s going, you?”
“Same old, same old.” We chatted mindlessly for a few minutes until Justin showed up with Clay and Sasha. I’m shocked we haven’t gotten a happy announcement from them yet. She looks thrilled.
“Justin, Clay. Hey Sasha.” The trio greeted me, and Clay took Sasha inside. He seemed to pick up on the displeasure radiating off of her.
“Holding up okay?” Justin asked.
“Sure.”
“He’s at his best friend’s wedding.”
“I know. Just trying to be nice Bryce.” Zach showed up and broke some of the tension brewing between Bryce and Justin. Never thought I’d be happy to see Zach freaking Dempsey.
“So, I heard from one of the groomsmen that she looks beautiful.”
“Of course, she does. It’s Ellie. And it’s her wedding day.” I said. Scott found us milling in the back of the chapel and came over. He didn’t bother greeting us.
“Have you talked to her?” he asked.
“No. I wanted to give her space. In case I decided not to come.”
“Oh. You could go talk to her now.”
“And say what Scott?”
“Tell her.”
“Tell her what? It’s her wedding.”
“I know that.” I looked around to see if anyone was paying attention to our little group. They weren’t.
“Tell her what exactly Scott? How do you propose I go about telling her that I think she’s making a mistake and that I’ve been in love with her since we were thirteen? I’m not going to do that. Not today. Not ever. I’m not messing this up for her.” I whisper-yelled.
“He has a point Scott.” Zach pointed out.
“If I say something, I’ll lose her forever. So, to avoid losing my best friend, I’m going to sit here, watch her marry the man she loves, and wish her the best. And then I will go home, get very drunk, and sleep the hangover off for the next two days.”
Scott raised his hands in defeat. “Okay. I get your point. I’m not going to push you into doing something you don’t want to do.” Even though I made a good little speech, the closer we got to the ceremony, the more uncomfortable I became. I couldn’t stop the thoughts of wanting to do exactly what Scott suggested. I wanted nothing more than to go find her and tell her how I felt. But then I looked around the room and saw all of these people waiting excitedly to see Ellie and Evan get married and live happily ever after. I wasn’t going to be the reason that didn’t happen. But the closer we got to ceremony time, the closer I also got to losing my resolve to sit here and watch this happen. I couldn’t watch her marry someone else.
“I can’t do this.” I said suddenly.
“What?” Zach asked.
“I can’t watch her marry him. I can’t sit here and watch them get married. I can’t give her up like this.”
“What are you doing Monty?” Scott asked. I stood up from my seat.
“Tell Ellie that I’m sorry.” With nothing more to say, I turned around and walked out of the church. My friends didn’t try to follow me, too stunned to process what was happening. I got in my car and drove. I wasn’t sure where I was driving until I pulled into the lot.
I opened the door to the quaint café and saw that our table was available. Though, I suppose now it was more my table than our table. I lost her today. There was no way I was getting her back after what I did. I slipped my jacket off and hung it over a chair to save the spot, before going to the counter and ordering.
“Can I get a tall bourbon neat. Make it a double.” Monet’s had been licensed a few years ago.
“Sure thing. Rough day?” The barista asked.
“You have no idea.” I shook my head and took the drink she set in front of me. Back at what was now only my table, I pulled out my phone and scrolled though some old photos. A lot of them were of Ellie. She used to like to steal my phone and leave me with some selfies to surprise me when I opened the app. I scrolled through the seemingly endless stream of photos and ordered another bourbon when I finished the first one. My trip down memory lane was interrupted when I got a text from Bryce.
I need you to tell me where you are.
Why?
Because I do. Now tell me where you are.
Why?
Montgomery. You want to tell me where you are.
Fine. If you must know. I’m at Monet’s. Now why do you need to know?
I’m sorry about homecoming night. I hope this can make it up to you at least a little. I stared at the screen in confusion. Shaking my head, I put my phone down and went back to sipping the amber liquor. What the hell is he talking about? Fucking Bryce. I didn’t look up when I heard the bell chime above the door. Nor did I look up when I heard the click of high heels against the wood floors.
“Is this seat taken?” I heard a familiar voice, softly.
I looked up at her then, my eyes widening in surprise. What is she doing here? She is supposed to be getting married to Evan. What does this mean? Why is she here?
“I couldn’t do it if you weren’t there. You’re my best friend Monty.”
I scoffed quietly before replying, “it’s not taken, no. Sit if you want,” and taking another drink from my glass, not looking at her for fear of letting my guard down again, only to be crushed again.
“Hey,” she started, reaching for my hand. I looked at her hand and paused before letting her take it, “I mean it. I couldn’t marry him.”
“Why not?”
She was quiet for a moment. Noticing I had about fingers width of bourbon left in my glass, she grabbed it, downing the rest of it.
“Hey. I was drinking that.” I protested.
“I couldn’t marry Evan because he wasn’t you. And you weren’t there to say anything by the time I walked down the aisle. You were just going to give me away and live the rest of our lives wondering what if.” She told me while she stared into the bottom of the now empty glass.
“You- really?” Wait, how did she know I was there? “How did you know…?”
“Zach told me.” Of course, he did. I sighed internally.
“I know I wasn’t there Ellie. I just. I couldn’t sit there in that church and watch you marry him. And I knew I was and would be too much of a coward to stand up and say something when I saw you standing up there with him. I had to let you be happy.” I told her, trying to make her understand that I couldn’t be the reason she spent her life unhappy.
“Don’t you get it Montgomery? I wouldn’t have been happy. Not really. Or at least not for long. Not with Evan.”
“So why did you agree to marry him?”
“Because I thought it would be easier? My friends liked him, my family liked him, I liked him. I just thought that it would be easier to ignore my feelings. I could marry him, officially move to Atlanta, come home a couple of times a year, have a couple of kids. It all seemed easier than admitting to myself that I was in love with my best friend and if I really, truly wanted to be happy, I would need to be with him instead. And that admitting that would change everything. But I’ve learned over the past year that easy doesn’t always mean happy. And sometimes what we think is easy in the short term, isn’t always easy in the long term.”
Easier. Sure. She finally admitted it. She’s in love with me. I chuckled lowly, “took you long enough.”
She furrowed her brow at me, “what is that supposed to mean? I just confessed my love for you, and that’s all you have to say?”
“Yeah. It took you long enough to come to that conclusion. You were what? Half-way through the ceremony before you put a stop to it?” I asked, unable to keep the bitterness out of my tone.
“Not exactly. I knew a while ago. I spent the whole morning shaking and waiting for you to come and tell me that I was making a mistake. When you didn’t come, I thought… that you either didn’t feel the same way, or that you were going to do the kind thing for once and not say anything, but I thought at least you would be there. When I saw that you weren’t, I knew I couldn’t marry him. Even if it was the easy choice.” When I didn’t say anything she added, “you picked a great time to do the kind thing.”
“Yeah, well. You knew it would happen sometime. You owe me another shot by the way.” I muttered.
“Oh please. There was barely a fingers width in your glass.” she told me, sighing dramatically.
I looked at her through my eyelashes, “they won’t serve you that small an amount.” she rolled her eyes and stood up to go order me another shot. Before I could chicken out again, I surprised her when I grabbed her wrist to stop her, before pulling her down into my lap, she fell rather gracefully given the fit of her dress and kissing her deeply. I pulled away first and turned to look out the window. Our friends had gotten out of the car and were clapping and high fiving each other.
“How about that shot now?” I smirked.
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Ok, ok, ok, ok. I am way too focus on this but I really really wanted to list out every Star Trek ship (from TNG, DS9, and VOY cause those are the ones I have seen most of) I could think of and give my opinion on it. Why? Because I don’t wanna do my math test. Lets go down the spiral of hyperfixation and little impulse control. (FYI, this became a long ass post, so read through if you want or don’t lol)
Let’s start from the beginning. 
The Next Generation: (aka gays that all share one smart brain cell) 
Picard x Crusher: Honestly, I like their chemistry, and if it became canon I would be alright with that. No real strong feelings on this ship.
Picard x Q: The epitome of enemies to lovers slow burn in 300k words. The sexual tension is too much to handle, I absolutely adore these two. They probably fucked once and Picard regrets it immeasurably. 
Picard x Riker: Nah, not for me. But you do you dudes.
Riker x Troi: Again, I quite like these two together. Two Bi Icons getting together, I’m here for it. 
Riker x Worf: Eh, Worf isn’t really a fav of mine so that makes me bias against this ship. It cool tho.
Riker x Crusher: *war flashbacks to when Crusher had sex with a Trill worm that was inside currently inside Riker’s body* Haha, fuck no. 
Troi x Crusher: Two queens getting together and tearing down the patriarchy, I stan.
Troi x Tasha: I tend to block out season one of TNG from my mind, but honestly, I like the vibe.
Data x Geordi: My OTP for this show. It should have happened. Rick Berman is a coward. They are just so sweet and they understand each other like no one else. A few of their scenes in this show made me cry. I ship
Data x Tasha: Nah, I don’t vibe. Would have been better as mlm and wlw solidarity. 
Worf x Troi: They had a few cute scenes together in the later seasons, I don’t hate neither super enjoy.
Deep Space Nine: (aka no straights in space)
Sisko x Kasidy: I liked them better in the early seasons. I think the writers low-key forgot about Kasidy until she was convenient plot device. 
Kira x Odo: I preferred it in the first few seasons where Odo had a little crush on Kira and it was kinda adorable. But after their relationship had become canon in the later seasons I was kinda disappointed.
Kira x Jadzia: I am here for this ship, two powerful women ready to take on the world together but also have their own insecurities that come up as the situation arises. Immaculate, I want it.
Dukat x Kira: Fuck no, they are enemies. Idk why the DS9 writers thought it would be a great idea to pair THESE two together. But thank god for Nana Visitor for being such a queen. 
Odo x Quark: Again, another amazing enemies to lovers ship. I love seeing those two on screen together, their chemistry is just *chef’s kiss*.
Miles x Keiko: Miles is like, the token heterosexual on this show. He loves his wife, his kids, and his job.
Bashir x Garak: Fuck yeah, OTP of this show for me gang. It was so heavily implied and it would have been so cool to see, especially in the 90s. But oh well, at least we got the actors writing and performing fanfiction for us.
Bashir x Jadzia: Yeah no, I wouldn’t ship them romantically. And the writers definetly did not favors to Bashir when they make his crush on her a bit creepy in the early seasons. But would be a BROTP for me.
Bashir x Ezri: Hnng, I don’t like. It just feels like Bashir is trying to date the Jadzia he never had and I don’t like it.
Jadzia x Worf: It’s fine, I guess. I don’t really see the chemistry.
Ezri x Jake: I mean, it’s better than Ezri x Bashir, but like, Dax has known Jake over 3 lifetimes and watched him grow up soooo, nah.
Jake x Ziyal: I am a fan. I think these two would have been really cool together especially since they are both artistic people with Jake’s writing and Ziyal’s painting. They could have done some really cool stuff together. Plus, it would make some interesting family reunion moments between Dukat and Sisko hehe.
Jake x Nog: Again, I am a fan. Tol and smol dynamics are what I am here for.
Garak x Ziyal: No
Voyager: (aka gays lost in space)
Janeway x Chakotay: The of the few straight ships I would die for. I am quite disappointed that nothing ever formed between the two because it would have been really cute and oh my god the tension the writers made between the two. I feel baited for this ship, AND IT’S A STRAIGHT SHIP! I’m sorry I have feelings about this. 
Janeway x Seven: Not a top ship of mine but I definitely see the chemistry here and I support it. 
Janeway x Paris: I only bring this up because in like season 1 or 2 they have axolotl children together because the writers were probably high as a kite when they came up with this idea for an episode. But a hard pass. 
Janeway x Coffee: I’m pretty sure this is already canon and I stan. 
Chakotay x Seven: I haven’t completely finished Voyager yet but I heard that this is the endgame for the two and WTF. I don’t see or understand it and it makes me upset, like really upset.
Chakotay x B’elanna: I’m just glad this wasn’t canon. I more just bring it up because I remembered B’elanna had a crush on Chakotay in the early seasons before Tom. And like, I get it because if Chakotay was my commanding officer I’d probably crush too girl. 
B’elanna x Paris: It’s a canon ship that I honestly kinda like. There are some moments where I’m like “oh no” and other where I’m like “YES”. But overall, I enjoy it. I just feel like there is something missing.
Paris x Kim: Fuck yea, I love these two together. Two bros turned lovers I am fucking here for it my dudes. But again, I feel like there is something else missing here.
B’elanna x Paris x Kim: Oh hell yea, I found what was missing. This is my personal OTP of Voyager. In my head I think Kim and B’elanna are just really close friends who do engineering things together. While Paris is in the corner, loving them both, but also setting the Delta Flyer on fire for the third time this week. I haven’t really looked into the Voyager tag (because spoilers) so idk if this is a popular ship. But I think they all have some really fun chemistry and I enjoy it. 
Paris x Delta Flyer: This just came to my head 20 seconds ago as I wrote the last one but I’m pretty sure this one is already canon. 
Kim x Seven: Nah
Seven x The Doctor: Hmm, do I dislike it as much as I do Seven x Chakotay? No, I do not. But do I like it that much? No, no I do not. I ship them as friends.
Tuvok x Nelix: No, not really. Opposites attract is not really my cup of tea all the time.
Nelix x Kes: Oh damn, I almost forgot about Kes. I know this is canon but where did this come from. The writers NEVER EXPLAIN IT! And then they never explain why the later broke up. I just... I just don’t understand. 
I doubt I have covered every ship, these were just the ones that came to me while writing this. Also, these are just my personal opinions please don’t come for my knees.
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maskedlady · 4 years
Text
things people who haven’t read/studied the homeric poems should know
the iliad isn’t about ten years of war. it’s about fifty-one days from the last year of war. more than nine years have passed since the beginning. neither the recruit of achilles or odysseus nor aulis nor the sacrifice of iphigenia nor the trojan horse and not even achilles’ death feature in it. it actually ends with hector’s burial.
similarly, the odyssey starts during the tenth year of odysseus’ travels, when he leaves the island of the nymph calypso who had kept him there for eight years. while the story of his travels is actually there, it’s a massive flashback that odysseus himself narrates.
odysseus actually only travels circa one year, if you subtract the seven years spent on ogigia, the one year with circe, the various months and bits they camped in other places.
part of the odyssey is actually about odysseus’ son, telemachos, and his quest to find his father. also another part is about odysseus returning to ithaca and killing a bunch of princes who were trying to usurp his throne.
the aeneid is not a homeric poem. it’s styled on the homeric model, but it was written in latin by a roman poet, and the protagonist is technically one of the antagonists from the iliad.
homer never existed.
he isn’t a historical figure, he is a name with a legend attached, to whom these poems are attributed. the poems were written—no, not even written, composed orally by a series of unnamed aoidoi (hm... ministrels?) through the ages.
in fact this is quite obvious when you read the iliad. there are a lot of inconsistencies, like frequent style changes, chapters that have nothing to do with anything else and no influence on the story whatsoever, strange time lapses—at some point it’s midday twice the same day
it is thought that all of these separate fragments were then collected and organized by one person, and this version was then handed down, orally, until the first written edition around 520 b.c.
the mycenean civilization that these poems originate from ended in 1200 b.c. circa
the odyssey was initially part of a whole group of nestoi, aka “return poems”, that were basically the tales of the return of each hero from troy. the odyssey is the only one that remains, though we do know something about the others too from other pieces of greek literature
a warning for the interested. these poems are a pain to read. they are delightful but they are a pain. they were composed orally so they are full of epithets, descriptions, metaphors and similitudes. these acted as fillers to help the aedo of turn reach the length of the verse, make the various characters more recognizable, and also make the poems more comprehensible to the general public, composed mostly of common people who had never actually been in a battle—so battles and duels are often compared to more familiar scenes, like fights between animals.
no i’m not joking
there is one in particular where the screeching army of trojans coming down the hill is compared to cranes migrating over the oceans.
also, the duel between hector and patroclus is one of the “compared to animal fights” scene
when odysseus is about to drown, he talks to his own heart. possibly because it sounds slightly less crazy and more Romantic than just directly talking to oneself.
helen insults paris real often. hector berates him both internally and publicly. in fact everyone insults paris. paris is the local coward and scapegoat. deservedly. i rejoice
everybody loves patroclus. all the kings hate each other but everyone loves him—so much so that they risk their lives over his corpse 
which, mind me, wasn’t something that special in and of itself. it was important to retrieve comrades’ corpses because if the enemy got ahold of your body he’d leave it to rot and be devoured by dogs and crows, which was a huge dishonour (and also possibly barred you from entrance to the afterlife)
so much so that the ancient greek version of “go to hell” is eis korakas, “to the crows” (“may you die, lie unburied, and your body be eaten by crows”)
at some point they hold a truce (possibly several times) so they’ll have the time to collect, burn and bury all the fallen soldiers. 
back to patroclus because i got sidetracked: still. this time it is kind of a big deal because the literal centre of the fighting after patroclus dies is all the major greek heroes playing tug-o-war against hector and his brothers with patroclus’ corpse. the centre of the fighting, people, this is no joke
at some point someone is sent to tell achilles that his lover’s body is in danger so he better get out of your sulk, hurry up and come help the rest of us
achilles going armour-less to the battlefield and screaming for patroclus is enough to send the trojans running.
i am sure that all of you know this but the reason achilles doesn’t have armour is that when hector kills patroclus he takes achilles’ armour, that patroclus was wearing, as spoils of war
so an entire book after that is devoted to hephaestus forging achilles new, better armour so he can actually fight again
look, it is not actually stated that they were lovers, but it’s obvious. in greek culture especially. that was the norm and italian school teachers can get over it and stop omitting it from lessons and school books any time now
odysseus isn’t actually an asshole. sure, a lot of his misadventures were caused by him being too curious and disregarding his comrades’ advice *cough*cyclops*cough* but most of the most destructive events were caused by them disregarding his orders.
“do not kill and eat the sacred cows of apollo! he’d kill us.” guess what they did. guess how it ended 
or when they stopped by eolos’ island. eolos, god of the winds, gave odysseus a flask with all the adverse winds imprisoned inside, leaving free only the one that he needed to take him to ithaca. they got so, so very near, and then odysseus fell asleep and the others opened the thing because they thought there was more treasure inside it, and all the winds came out and blew them halfway across the mediterranean
athena often glamours odysseus to look younger and prettier or older and then again younger. it’s amazing because he always looks either like an old beggar (for camouflage) or like a young and handsome man.
do some maths. at the beginning of the war he must’ve been at least twenty. + ten years of war. + ten years of travel. at the end of the odyssey he is at least forty. by ancient standards that was not young.
odysseus’ whole voyage is basically a pissing contest between poseidon and athena. actually between poseidon and the rest of the gods. poseidon hates him and all the other gods take turns helping him.
odysseus is not an asshole, but the greeks probably considered him a shitty character, because he was clever, shrewd, and the only survivor of his community. the greeks really insisted on the concept of community, the individual doesn’t have worth in and of themself but as a part of society. this is particularly evident when he gets to the cyclops, who are the very antithesis of the greek man, described as uncivilized and living in isolation without assemblies or laws. a lot of emphasis is put on the fact that they live outside of a community.
alternatively, the difference between the iliad and the odyssey (and their respective heroes) signifies the change in greek culture, from the warrior myceneans to commerce and voyage: odysseus represents the victory of intelligence over force, and his qualities are the characteristics, for example, of a merchant
i should perhaps point out that the odyssey was composed much later than the iliad, which is also the reason it has a more complex structure (begins with the gods + telemachos’ quest, we first see odysseus on ogigia, then he recounts his whole voyage in a long flashback triggered by a bard at a feast singing about the trojan war)
oh look i got sidetracked again
back to the trivia!
do not be fooled by madeline miller. patroclus was indeed a warrior, and a very good one at that. and briseis was indeed achilles’ lover, and loved him (that is explicitly stated).
odysseus might have loved penelope but that does not mean he did not sleep around with every woman he met
circe. calypso (by whom he is imprisoned for seven years). and nausicaa princess of the phaeacians falls in love with him. this is engineered by athena 
i don’t think he actually sleeps with her but athena does make him look younger and prettier so she’ll be smitten and welcome him at the palace and give him a bunch of gifts and eventually a ship to take him back to ithaca
in the poem named after him, his own poem, odysseus is always the stranger, the guest, or the beggar.
or all three.
or all three, but it’s a lie and he’s actually at home, the king returned.
despite the iliad being about one and a half months and the odyssey being more than a year + more time taken up by other characters, the iliad is about one and a half times the odyssey.
more to come (maybe)
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