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#probably the first character I can ever say that I actually kin instead of just like
destinylordoffreaks · 5 months
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So I posted some pictures a while, back of my holiday ariel dolls, which are a small part of my doll collection but I also kind of wanted to share some of the other dolls from my collection that I really love so I thought I’d start with the other dolls currently displayed on shelf 
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this is my Luisa Madrigal doll i pretty much fell in love with Luisa from the first time I saw her on screen. My sister had taken me to see it for my birthday and for the first time in my life, I saw a character on the screen and thought that me. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing, but I really resonate with her much like Luisa. I am a middle child who ended up with a lot of responsibilities and sometimes the weight of that just felt so heavy and on top of that I had a high pain tolerance and a tendency to be very rough and tumble as a kid so I got myself a bit of a reputation for being the tough one but being able to see somebody like Luisa meant a lot to me because usually these are the kind of roles that we give to oldest sisters and has somebody who isn’t the oldest but 100% understand this feeling it felt nice to see it represented
However, I do have to admit this is not Disney’s best work has anybody out there who owns this Luisa doll knows posing her is a pain 😩especially when it comes to the hip joints, which feel really hecking flimsy like I’m terrified that one of these days I’m gonna move her leg and it’s just gonna snap off and as you can probably tell her outfit is one dress rather than a top and skirt personally I find that a little frustrating considering this is supposed to be the deluxe set from the Disney store 
But regardless I really love her 🥰 and she is one of my favorites, which is why she’s on display
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Bonus GIF of Luisa just because
also the flower in her hair came from a deluxe little mermaid set and I did my best to try and curl the little flyaways in the front of her hair 
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bellaxgiornata · 5 months
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Honestly I cannot believe that I've been on tumblr for just over a year now and somehow there's already so many of you wonderful people here that are reading, enjoying, and supporting my silly little fics. When I jumped over here from AO3, I had not anticipated how much fun I was going to have getting to chat with all of y'all while also sharing my stories with those of you who aren't on AO3. I've definitely made some wonderful friends this past year because of tumblr and I just want to say thank you to everyone for the support. I always mean it when I say y'all are the reason I keep writing these stories 💖
I could certainly get sappier but instead I'll just invite y'all to join me for my first ever celebration! There's a few fun things below the cut that y'all can pop up with in my ask box starting today May 3 through Wednesday May 8! I tried to think of some interesting things that I could realistically make time to do with everything currently going on in my life, especially because I'm also still trying to stockpile rough drafts for many of my stories so that I can still have updates during my upcoming "writing hiatus" (that I'll explain more about later). My plan is to answer things as they come in and hopefully have them all finished shortly after the celebration ends. And once the celebration finally ends, I'm hoping to give y'all an update to a story or a one shot!
Hopefully this will be fun for everyone!
Let's Chat! - Feel free to send me an ask about anything at all! No, seriously. You want to tell me about your day? An upcoming vacation or exciting accomplishment of yours? Do it! Or maybe you want to ask me questions about one of my stories or my writing process? Hell, feel free to ask me about myself, chat about coffee, music, books, pets, whatever!
Discuss Headcanons with Me! - Have any headcanons about Matt Murdock, Frank Castle, or Michael Kinsella that you want to chat about or share with me? Send them in! Or are you interested in a headcanon I might have about one of them in a certain situation? Feel free to ask! We can chat about the boys!
Send Me Fake FFTD Installment Titles! - Create a title name for an installment for my Falling for the Devil series (ex. "The [insert title]") and I'll write a couple of sentences about what I could picture that installment being about! You win bonus points if you can actually stump me on coming up with a plot for your title. But also who knows, maybe some title suggestions could spark an idea for future updates...
Let's Play a Game! - We can play would you rather, have you ever, or fuck/marry/kiss (or kill). For the record, f/m/k can be with anyone from Daredevil, Punisher, Defenders, Kin, or even any of Charlie's characters that I'm familiar with (Matt, Michael, Owen, Henry, Tristan, or Adam) or those of Jon's that I'm familiar with (mainly Frank, Shane, or Julian). If you can think of another game feel free to play it with me!
Ask the Boys! - Do you enjoy my weird internal dialogues with fictional characters that probably make me sound crazy? Great! Feel free to send me an ask to either one or all of the fictional men that live in my head (Matt, Frank, and/or Mikey) and I'll relay whatever they respond with in something of a short internal dialogue!
Request a Sneak Peak! - Since I have been stockpiling quite a few WIPs and rough drafts for a couple of months now, I am open to y'all just requesting a sneak peak. If you do, I will share a snippet from a fic I choose at random from something that's either a fully finished rough draft or still a work in progress!
**You're more than welcome to participate multiple times, but all I ask is that you (1) send things in separate asks, (2) are not rude to me or anyone else, and (3) are 18+ to discuss anything spicy (this is an 18+ blog anyway so I'd hope everyone here already is).**
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the--artist · 2 months
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I’ve decided to just start a series where I rant about my favorite characters and why I like them (emphasis on “I” as this is just my opinion) and why I like them.
Sooo, I thought I’d start with my favorite character - Donna Beneviento from RE8.
I want to preface this saying that Donna is maybe the only character I can actually relate with personality-wise. No, I don’t kin her(high school me probably did 😓), but she’s one of the only characters who i actually feel like I understand her at a deeper level. Donna is elegant, respectful, and quiet on the outside, but timid and scared on the inside. She’s always been afraid. Either being afraid of kids seeing her scar, to people seeing her through Angie. When faced with adversity, Donna turns to herself inward: for example, turning towards playing with dolls instead of friends. On a general level, I resonate with this a lot and I’m so happy to have seen a character like this.
On another note, I really love her quiet, but intentional presence in the back when we meet the four lords. Angie, Angie, ANGIE is always in your face - arguably the first lord we meet in that scene (excluding Karl Heisenberg before). Angie is definitely loud - and with her scary white color palette - sticks out. Donna is pretty much in the back all by herself and some people haven’t even caught onto her presence at that point. After racketing Ethan, Angie heads back to Donna and that’s when we finally notice her. The cloaked, hidden Victorian goddess, Donna Beneviento is sitting in the back.
Speaking on her design, I LOVE her design. I’m a sucker for pale skin + dark outfit/dark skin + light outfit combo. This light/dark motif in character design really highlight the character’s haunting, but mysterious look. This design choice is a really good idea for her and adds a “haunting, tragic” feel. The pale skin contrasting to her dark hair and outfit makes her feel like a ghost! This is evident more in Donna’s portrait. I LOVE masks or face coverings, and with Donna her veil gives her such a mysterious look. Why is she hiding her face? When we bump into her portrait we see such a beautiful lady, so why is she hiding her face?? Only when we finally see her face when Ethan kills her can we see her scars. A once beautiful and normal women is now scared and hurt - what a tragedy - which cause her to hide her face. Once we lean about Miranda’s experiments, we feel even more bad for her as she was mentally underdeveloped. In some ways, implanting the Cadou gave her cool hallucination powers, but absolutely destroyed the timid, traumatize Donna. A once sweet girl has now been turned evil.
Basically, I’m a sucker for a conservatively dressed/modest goth who covers their face.
On to Donna’s doll motifs. As a doll collector and horror enthusiast, her being a doll maker really spoke to me. Seeing her display dolls everywhere around her home make me feel like at home. I genuinely enjoy seeing the dolls make her so happy!
I won’t go on about my theories and understanding of her backstory, but she’s genuinely one of the most interesting and intriguing characters I’ve ever seen. She’s shrouded in so much mystery and so much is left to the player to theorize about. The notes we find around the game as well as her actions are incredibly vague but purposeful. I have spent hours thinking about it and how this connects to her. There is sooo much duality in her. From her crest, to her outfit, split personality (idk much about this), colors, actions, and behavior. There is so much to unpack to understand how Benvienoto’s mind works.
Anyways, I’m leaning towards writing an analysis on Donna. Tell me if you’d be interested..
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chewycrunchytgirl · 4 months
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hello tumblr user crunchytgirl, quick question: what's your favourite namari hime song(s)??
Hello leek, thank you for asking, it’s a complicated question to answer because there are so many good ones, but I can sort by which ones I like the most for different reasons
The song that first got me into nyanyannya as an artist outside of just pjsekai was Club=Majesty, and that’s one of my favorites in part because out of any song ever produced, that one had the biggest mental impact on me in interpreting its message. It hit even harder in a humorous way because of the fact that I was actually in a hotel room on the Las Vegas strip when I listened to it, already in the belly of the beast, so to speak, and the ideal of opulence at the cost of others sang about in Club=Majesty was surrounding me, and that I think me beginning to feel disillusioned, or even disgusted with the luxury I was currently experiencing (I was on vacation) was the first real rift in thinking to form between myself and my father, and led in part to my mental independence.
Sister=Sect Rouge was also pretty influential, and holds a special place for me, in the fact that that is actually the song that convinced me to come out to my best friend about wanting to transition and become a woman. I had long realized that things didn’t feel right as I currently was, but I had been of the mind that doing so would make me a flawed, defective woman unless I worked really really hard, and I had no use trying to justify (Justin⟹Jive⟹Justify reference!?) any extra work for myself, instead opting to feel the pain I know rather than the one I don’t. That all changed one fateful night when I had a dream and met one single, incredible character. Transmasc Sister=Sect Rouge. In he walked with such incredible confidence my girlfriend in the dream immediately broke up with me to go with him. He walked and spoke with an otherworldly swagger and influence. But the most important part? There was almost nothing different. He wore the same outfit, if a bit more minimalist, had the same voice, did the same things, overall the same except for a clear masculine presence that only existed in the realm of thought. And that made me realize that I think it didn’t really matter if I passed, or if I had a feminine voice, or if I dressed femininely, it only mattered that I had the confidence to simply be a woman. That was the catalyst that led to me coming out and starting my journey, and I have had so much joy since. Also the song is a banger and speaks to my previous experiences and critiques with religion when I was a kid.
I also have kind of a sleeper pick, in that I’m a big fan of Noel de Figaro. In the music you can hear how it resembles Noel’s part in El Tango Egoista and in that latter song hear his part break over time and melt into Sister=Sect Rouge’s part, and I think that’s neat. But more than that, Noel is one of only two characters in my life that I have ever truly kinned, and this song is the primary reason why. The whole song is about how truth and sincerity are the only things that matter, told through a somewhat condescending tone, perhaps, and if that were all it would make it one of the weaker songs on nyanyannya’s list, if not for the implications caused by what else we know about his character. Noel de Figaro is an alias. This man is lying as he preaches truth. He is failing as he preaches resilience. He is shrinking away as he preaches confidence. He is the contradictory spirit that posesses my own words and actions, and I think of him every time I think about how “the only true talent is endurance and willingness to practice” and then not practice at that thing, or when I say “austerity breeds power” and then I seriously overcomplicate whatever the thing is. I try my best every day to overcome these flaws, and I know he probably is too. Noel Beutel is my favorite Namari Hime character by far, and I feel conflicted after I realize that he’s probably one of the few who is dead. I think about his journey daily and I am spurred to keep living my life by the fact that I would want him to.
I’m also a big fan of Asu wa Subarashi, an old nyanyannya title featuring Kagamine Len before the Namari Hime series really took shape, and for the problems that song may have it makes me cry without fail every time I even think about it for too long.
Also for reference’s sake I have not read the nyanyannya light novels, and I joined the fandom around the time Kirapipi Kirapika released, so about 8 months ago.
I’ve also been trying to find the Kadoh-anna-ruk-ah Cyanotype album in disc form for a really really long time so if anyone has any leads on that please DM me
I’ve also been listening to Peacemaker on repeat lately
Sorry for the long response, I haven’t had anyone to talk to about this in a while
Oh also EDIT: fun fact I actually saw the Cyanotype album in a dream several months before I found out it exists! I had to prevent myself from spending all of my money on it, just like in real life :3
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vulpesvulpeskin · 10 months
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KINTYPES PAGE
MAIN KINTYPES definition; these are me, and in my everyday life being these kins affects how i interact with my world around me
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art by me fox therian/foxkin!! i fully 100% believe i was a fox in a past life, and that i should have been one still, that my soul is of a foxes. i've also had dreams of my past life, or even lives, as well!
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art by cherivinca shiny umbreon kin!! when it comes to my fictional kins, they're a bit more.. abstract. my therian self is 100%, and kin is just as close as well, but probably not a past life? overall, shiny umbreon to me is more fox than anything, and with a fox with a strong affinity for the night and space, it just makes sense! not to mention the yearning i get with art & the phantom feelings, of course x3 similar, because i'm a shiny umbreon, i'm just as much a shiny eevee
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art by me dragonkin!! ever since i found myself as a fox therian, i've had phantom shifts with wings & horns & big ole tails. for awwhilllee i thought i was spyro kin but it didnt "fit" right till way later when i revisited my kin side and came to terms with my dragon side!! still trying to get more in touch with it as well :3
SECONDARY KINTYPES definition; these kins are me, but are not constantly at the for front of my mind. this is also where more of my fictionkin will come in
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art by pkmn card artist sui shiny luxio line kin!! this just... makes sense! if you know me, you get why, but my main pokesona is a shiny luxio. it'd be weird if they weren't a kin type feeling for me
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art from a whisker away movie house catkin!! meow :3
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art from homestuck nepeta leijon kin!! :33< meow :33
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art from homestuck dave strider kin!! why do you think my name is dave? but like actually this guy is bordering on main kintype, with nepeta too, buuuuutttt... the other 3 are just more constant, especially because i'm not very actively consuming any homestuck media anymore LMAO. but my humor, typing style, and mannerism, all stem from this fucking guy, so! he's pretty important!!
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art from bnha manga deku kin sorry! sorry. im cringe! technically this kin came to me when i was like ew kin is cringe im not otherkin i would never be. but now weve gone full circle. i am otherkin, but it feels cringe to be kin with him because he is bnha. how unfortunate
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art from haikyuu manga kuroo kin hes ME. hes ME!!!!!!!! for awhile, the LONGEST TIME, i thought i was kenma, but i thought about it, really thought about it, and im kuroo. my boyfriend is kenma. we are kenkuro for reals (he isnt otherkin)
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art from the naruto manga sai kin watching naruto during the very formative years of my life and not understand why i related so much to the guy who had to read a book to learn how to make friends (we are both autistic)
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art from gravity falls show dipper pines kin yeah. Yeah. i dont have much to say just. yeah.
WIP theres way more i just.. dont remember right now. first time im writing this stuff down <:3
COMFORT/OTHERHEARTED CHARACTERS/CREATURES definition; characters/creatures/animals i feel very very attached to, and seeing works/art/pictures of them brings me a great source of comfort
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picture from hubble space telescope space for a very long while, i thought i was spacekin, and i've learned now it comes instead from the comfort a night sky can bring a fox/umbreon/dragon, and not because i was part of space. or well. i do yearn for home when i look at the night sky, so i still might have more to learn here
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art from the bnha manga katsuki bakugou (kacchan) you will never. NEVER GUESS. what my main bnha ship is.
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art from the haikyuu manga kenma kenma is just like my boyfriend and i am kuroo this is just. facts. i love kenma sm. so much comfort.
WIP
QUESTIONING KINS definition; what it says on the tin, things i am questioning if i'm kin with
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art from the first pkmn movie shiny mew kin? if im this one then damn it makes a lot of phantom shift feelings make sense
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art from pkmn card artist tika matsuno espeon kin? headgem phantom limb too strong sometimes. plus the funny feelings i get when i have espeon pfps
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art from loz series, icon made by sensoryeen link kin? from what series? who knows! but he's 100% trans. this.. just makes sense. whoops! we'll see
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art from the naruto manga kakashi kin? big maybe on this. would need to revisit the source material. alternatively: obito instead. dont know yet. leaning towards kakashi
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art from httyd movies toothless kin? it is either this or hiccup kin. i would say if i was toothless i would have more of these phantom feelings? either way. very very very deep connection to httyd as a series & universe. one month i watched the 1st and 2nd movie like 5 times over because it was the only way to feel comfort
THIS PAGE WILL BE UPDATED AS I LEARN MORE ABOUT MYSELF & MY JOURNEY WITH BEING OTHERKIN!
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go-learn-esperanto · 1 year
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Hi, Violet!
I have this book (series) I've been writing for... years, and one of the first main characters comes from the planet with one big continent, Pangea-like. It wasn't humanity's first home so they called the planet the same way as the continent; at the moment it's name is Terra Summa, but it's a placeholder. For the reasons, Esperanto is one of the planet's official languages so it would make sense to name the planet using it, AND that's where I want to ask for your help x)
Is there a way to say "one/united land" in Esperanto in a way for it to sound like a name? It isn't a big plot point, and planet will die out, and I'm not sure the book will ever see the light of the day, but I decided to ask you anyway. Ahana Jaya is one of the main characters, she deserves a solid backstory and Esperanto speakers deserve not to have me butchering your language x)
Thank you, and I hope you having a good day :D
That sounds lovely! And it seems such a nice story! I'm touched you decided to come here to ask for help.
in relation to the name you want the name to be something the kin of "United Land" so that would probably be, in two words, unuiĝinta lando. This lando in the end works like the English land in England or Switzerland so this term is a associated with countries. I'm saying this because I'm not sure if this United Land is a country or a planet so just be aware.
There are other fun options though!
So, Esperanto speakers don't have a specific country so there's a joke that we live in Esperantujo. This is directly translated as the nation of Esperanto. In Esperanto you have a word for nation "nacio" used for example in United Nations (Unuiĝintaj Nacioj) but there's also the suffix -ujo so that could be something to play with. I think you could construct the word unuiĝintujo, which is a word that technically does not exist but esperantists will associate the "unuiĝint" root to the idea of being unifying something and "-ujo" to the idea of a nation. So we're making up a name with actual esperanto terms!
Option number three and four will be Unulando and Unujo. It's a bit of the same as the last ones except instead of being the word United it's the word One. And you can put the Lando word together with Unu as just one word because it sounds alright that way (while in the first option the adjective unuĝinta and the name lando cannot fit together as just one word and should be written as two words instead). Also not technically a "real" word but I'd say it sounds nice and esperantists will get it.
Unujo is one nation. Google translate will translate it as Unit but don't trust it. It translates Esperantujo as just "Esperanto" so it's not really made for constructed words haha! ^^
Of you're curious planet in Esperanto is planedo. (And a dwarf planet is called a nanplanedo 😊)
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Why Do We Know Sauron's Original Name in Quenya if Sauron Was Never In Valinor: Speculations on my Favorite Baddie, Part 3
Finishing up that meta I've been working on for, like, 7 years (RIP me) about Sauron and his original name and the mindf#@& that gave me. Planning to post that on Sun [now posted and can be found here]. But this bit is just too long to fit in it.
In Helge Fauskanger's "A Name for the Dark Lord" (where I first read about "Mairon" in 2015) he points out that Sauron's original name existing in Quenya is pretty odd. The version of Sauron Tolkien was writing about at that time had defected to Melkor's service before the language "Quenya" even existed, so why would his original name be recorded in it?
Now, there's the (I think, likely) Primary World reason for that: Tolkien is writing this down as a part of his work on the "words and phrases" lists he began compiling after the publication of The Lord of the Rings. These words and phrases are primarily about ironing out the linguistic features of words and names that appear in that story. Valarin—the language Sauron's original name was most likely only ever known in while he was still associated with it by anyone but himself—is a language Tolkien did relatively little work on, and it does not appear in The Lord of the Rings. "Sauron," however, does (well… I'll talk about that more in the main post), and the name "Sauron" is Quenya. Considering the kind of character work that flowed naturally from names in Tolkien's work on the Legendarium, it makes sense that it would be important to Tolkien to have an understanding of what this character's original name was, even when translated into another language it might never have been translated into within the confines of the Secondary World.
But Tolkien—through his devilish little framing device in which all this information is, in fact, information not flowing directly from his imagination but is, instead, merely being reported by him, the translator of some ancient documents—has given us a kind of carte blanche to challenge his "translation," amend and append to it, no matter what The Estate might think of that. Maybe I have access to those ancient documents, too ;-).
So in the interest of promoting the "Infinite Variety of Being" that I think Ea's metaphysics desires (if not requires), I'm going to throw a headcanon out there.
There's a related puzzle regarding the name "Mairon," and that's where I'll start: the name "Mairon" and the word "Maiar" are very similar. I'm going to go into more detail on that in the full post but for now just consider this: just prior to Tolkien coining the word "maiar" and the name "Mairon" the "lesser kin of the Valar" are called the "Vanimor" and the "Valariindi." The Valarindi are understood to be the actual children of the Valar (Eonwe and Ilmare were two of these) and the Vanimor are what we would come to know as the Maiar: lesser Ainur who (mostly) attached themselves to greater Ainur once they enter Ea and start their demiurgic work. Sometime in the late 1950’s (at the same time Tolkien is writing down the name "Mairon"), he decides that 1. the Valar do not have children, meaning that all Valarindi are now Vanimor and 2. the name for the Vanimor is now "Maiar." Christopher explains this change in Morgoth's Ring:
“AV 2 had here (V.110) 'these are the Vanimor, the Beautiful', changed in the later rewriting (see note 3) to 'these are the Mairi…', and then to 'these are the Maiar…' This was probably where the word Maiar first arose.” --HoMe X: Morgoth’s Ring, Part Two: “The Annals of Aman.”
So, around the time Tolkien decides Sauron's original name was "Mairon" he also decides to rename the lesser kin of the Valar to… basically the same thing as Sauron's original name. And that's… interesting. And it got me thinking about both of these puzzle pieces and how they might fit together.
In his essay Fuskanger speculates that Sauron's original name in Valarin was translated into Quenya after the Elves arrived there.
"According to Tolkien’s late ideas, as reflected in the essay Quendi and Eldar [...] [i]t is said that the Valar encouraged the Elves, not to borrow words from Valarin, but rather to “translate the meanings of names into fair Eldarin [= Elvish] forms” (WJ:405). So when Mairon is said to be Sauron’s “original” name, maybe we must take this to mean that he had some unstated Valarin name that meant The Admirable, and that this was later translated into Quenya as Mairon when the Elves learnt about this person from the Valar (at which time he was not so admirable anymore)." --"A Name for the Dark Lord"
Here's my headcanon addition.
The being who was called the Valarin equivalent of The Admirable was excellent at what he did. Top of his class material. Admired (and sometimes envied) by all the other lesser spirits who were to serve The Powers in their demiurgic activities. Unlike those Valaraukar that would come to be known as Balrogs, the being who would come to be known as Sauron had repudiated Melkor in the Timeless Halls, winning him even more admiration from among The Powers, those who would be the great movers and shakers in Ea.
In Ea his work was perfect… or as close to perfect as you can get in Arda Marred—which was not nearly close enough, at least for him. And that was the crack that Melkor exploited.
Not because Melkor knew he needed the kind of devotion and help that came from having The Admirable in his service. No, he was too arrogant for that. But because what a prize it would be for Melkor to turn not just any of these lesser Ainur to his service, to make them serve and worship him, but to turn the best and the brightest. What an insult that would be to Aule, who he especially hated. What a valuable asset it would be to gain one of the chief architects of the Two Lamps who worked immediately under Aule during their construction. Who would know better how to topple them? Who would make a better spy?
Melkor was cunning. And still at this time patient. And he was observant, far more observant than most when it came to spotting the seeds of dissatisfaction with The World that were sown in other creatures as time passed. He would teach The Admirable one day—when The Admirable was far less admirable—how to spot them, too. But for now he watched and learned what he could to use in his mission to corrupt the best servant his enemies had.
And what did he see? He saw that there was always this friction, this entropy, this failure, and he saw that it didn't occur to The Admirable yet that some of that was not because Arda was Marred, but because Arda was populated with other beings who had different ideas about what perfection meant.
He saw the realization of the crush of time creeping into The Admirable’s eyes, gold like the metal from stars that he sowed in the veins of the rocks to stitch them back together. Time: the thing that none of them knew, not really, before they made the irrevocable choice to enter into that Story they had given shape to. He saw the crushing weight of the length of prehistory do its work.
He saw the mounting frustration with the broken bits of the world they couldn’t save from Melkor or his retinue. He saw the sense of powerlessness—after all, even Aule and Varda and Manwe couldn’t undo the damage Melkor had done. The pottery was broken. You can Kintsugi it back together, but it’s never the same. You have to learn to love the gold as a part of the work even more than you loved the work before.
And so Melkor made his move. If The World, itself, bends to his will, bends to the flaw in its design that Melkor had introduced into it, then any attempts to guide The World without his blessing was folly. The only way forward, he tells The Admirable—was to give in and accept it.
But The Admirable was hard to sway. He was proud and stubborn. And Melkor knew this, too. So he watched especially hard as he “abandoned” his quest to sway The Admirable, and went after Osse instead. He watched especially hard when Ulmo asked Aule for help coaxing Osse back. He watched as The Admirable’s questions to Aule, about the good and the bad and the marred and the healed, never earned the same attention. He watched as the doubt grew and he watched as The Admirable ran from it.
He watched as it became Despair.
And that’s when he got what he wanted. And that’s why, eons of time later, The No-Longer-Admirable will know how to bring Denethor down.
When The Lamps and The Admirable are gone and The World lays in ruin once again, the Powers (like angles in the Last Days piecing together the bodies of the faithful) gather the molecules of the land that do not contain the corruption of Melkor—so much stronger than they believed—and use them to build a new home, The Undying Lands, where even entropy can not enter. They assess what they have lost and what it means. And when they go to find the awakened Elves and learn their frightened tales of the Entity that comes to torment them and steal their kind away, and the other Entity, the one that helps him do it, the one who devises their torment, they realize what The Admirable has become.
They strike his name from the rolls. He is Admirable no longer. But that name, the name for the person he was, they give it away again, they give it to all the spirits of his order, to those faithful spirits who served them well. When it is that The No-Longer-Admirable finds this out, I can’t say, but I sometimes imagine that revelation comes much later, when he presents himself to Eonwe, who finds some small delight in telling him the name he has continued to call himself for all these ages is no longer his, that it now belongs to all of them who continue to do what he would not.
Long before this, when the Eldar arrive in Valinor they learn the name for these lesser spirits, so much closer in stature and knowledge to themselves than the Powers are. And when they ask where it came from there is a hush and then a very sad story, a precautionary tale, shared among these spirits and the Powers they serve. “Maiar” is how they translate the name for these spirits for they are Admirable, Excellent, Precious, Sublime. And “Mairon” is how they translate the name of the one who is now nameless, the name he had before he lost his right to it.
Later, when Melkor swans his way through Valinor in the Years of the Trees, a “humble penitent” newly released from his ages of captivity, whispering his little lies in the Noldor’s ears, the rest of the Eldar turn to each other in warning: “Heed him not. Remember what happened to Mairon.”
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archived-kin · 4 years
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solomon deserves a husband so i'm giving him one (it's you)
note from kin: i don’t know HOW i’ve managed to get this out so soon after my last piece but i do know that it is a miracle (now watch me disappear for like a month lmao)
anyway there’s a severe lack of content for the boys in this fandom and therefore i am here to try to mitigate that!!
(as a heads up, this is sort of an au version of obey me’s story?? there’s no exchange program, and the general human world doesn’t know about the devildom or celestial realm, apart from sorcerers and similar special cases. solomon and simeon both still visit the devildom, though - solomon because he has a sort of job at the r.a.d., and simeon as an ambassador sort of thing for the celestial realm. the r.a.d.’s also less of a school and more of an organisation?? i haven’t really fleshed it out haha)
fandom: obey me!
character(s): male! reader, solomon, mammon (briefly), simeon (briefly)
pairing(s): solomon/reader
warning(s): blasphemy??? solomon disses god really briefly and that’s about it
genre: fluff!!!!!!!!!
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As a general rule of thumb, Solomon doesn’t believe in destiny.
He’s lived long enough to know that, no matter what he does, the universe does not care about him, much less have some sort of plan for his future. The course that the world takes isn’t affected by some grand puppet master pulling the strings; one has to force the so-called path of fate in the direction they want it to take if they want something. Solomon knows this better than anyone.
It’s as much a downfall as it is a strength - as much as power as he’s amassed over the countless years, his constant need to challenge the universe’s power has lead him down a path far from humanity. There had been a time when he was like every other human on the Earth, when he was still young, full of hope and determination and promise, believing earnestly in some God high in the sky who would guide him through his life.
He shudders to think what sort of insufferable fool he’d been back then. An almighty God? Don’t make him laugh. The ruler of the Celestial Realm is incompetent at best, and a downright childish brat at worst. He doesn’t know how the angels put up with him - though he supposes his realm-smiting power is part of it. Why the universe chose to place such power on such a being’s shoulders will always be beyond him.
Long as it has been since he had been so naive, Solomon has learnt his lesson, to say the least. He’s seen people come and go, witnessed kings and queens reign and fall, watched on as friends and family live and die. It’s a truth that he’s been forced to learn across the years of his long, long life, a curse that he brought upon himself the moment he gave up the purity of his soul in pursuit of magical arts. 
He supposes he’s always had an insatiable thirst for the unknown - to play all his cards out front, to tempt fate’s hand, to jump into the void and hope to find ground beneath his feet when he lands. It’s that sort of reckless abandon and hunt for knowledge that has led him so far down this path, through so many years, across so many sleepless nights. The world continues to swirl around him, always changing, but Solomon refuses to be swept away. Because, even in the tumultuous movement of the universe, there has always been one constant that keeps him anchored - you.
The night he'd first met you isn’t as clear in his mind as he would have liked. He wants to be able to remember everything - the way the soft blue light of the will-o’-whisps had lit up your eyes in the dark of the night, the way that your hand had felt in his as you greeted him with a handshake, the way that you had said his name for the first time - in sharp detail, but Solomon knows better than to hope to recall something so long ago so perfectly.
He’d still been relatively new to a sorcerer’s life at the time - excited and determined and a little too full of himself. You… well, he doesn’t remember exactly, but he does remember thinking that you must be the most handsome being to exist. The you of today would probably shake your head and dismiss the past you as an obnoxious high hoper, but Solomon has loved you for so many years that he’s never been able to think of you as anything less than perfect.
There are times when he wondered how he managed to stumble upon such luck. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that Solomon has has had truly insufferable periods over the years he’s known you, and he’s always considered it a miracle that you still chose to stay. Even through all the restless nights and the exhausting trips, even after all of the clashes and vexation, you have refused to give up on him.
He had asked you once, in the aftermath of an argument spurred by his inability to confide in you and your own frustration with his refusal to communicate. He remembers that night so vividly that it might well have happened just yesterday - the frustrated shouts, the shattering of glass, the warmth of your arms around his shoulders as he finally collapsed on himself. He doesn’t know what your face had looked like as he stuttered the question out in stuttering breaths, head buried in your shoulder in an effort to conceal his tears, but he imagines that it had been soft.
“I’m not going to leave you to yourself,” You had told him matter-of-factly, stroking his hair with such fondness  that it still sometimes brings a tear to his eye when he remembers it on particularly long nights. “And I’m not giving up on you, either - not now, not ever.”
Solomon had been unable to speak, too choked up by his feelings and the sudden, overwhelming love spreading through his entire body to reply. He’d only sunk deeper into your embrace, wishing that the moment could last forever.
I wonder if he still remembers that…?
“...lomon! Anyone home?!”
He jolts up from the table he’s sitting at so abruptly that he nearly knocks his head right into Mammon’s chin. The Avater of Greed, however, reacts quickly, and hops back before Solomon can break his jawbone.
“Jeez, you’re off on a different planet today,” He comments, setting his hands on his hips as Solomon shoots him the sort of look that tells him that he’s not particularly enthused about his presence at the moment. “What’s up with ya?”
Solomon isn’t quite sure how to answer. Sorry, I got distracted thinking about how perfect and lovely my husband is and how I’m the luckiest man in the entire world - nay, the universe - to have him. He nearly physically shudders at the thought of how much teasing he’d receive if he answered like that.
Instead, he chooses a much safer and still technically true option. “Just thinking about going home today.”
Mammon nods in understanding, pulling up a seat next to him and throwing himself down into it without much grace. “I feel ya. S’ been a long day.”
“You’ve barely done anything today,” Solomon quips flatly, not particularly impressed by the demon’s attempt at… empathy? Relatability? Either way, it isn’t working. “I doubt it’s been that hard.”
“Now, now, Solomon, let’s not be rude,” interjects a soft voice from behind them. Simeon is still dressed in his fancy envoy cloak - the one so long and heavy that it trails along behind him like a bridal train, decorated with a number of elaborate golden charms that jingle as he moves.
Solomon attempts to shoot him a slightly annoyed look, but it’s kind of hard to stay irritated by one of the literal embodiments of holiness and light, even if he wakes you up at very unholy hours of the morning to help him figure out how to answer an email. Solomon isn’t ungrateful for the new age of technology descending on humanity, but he’d like it a lot better if it hadn’t somehow reached the angels as well. The amount of times he’s had to tell Simeon that he needs to actually turn his D.D.D. on before he starts calling someone is… embarrassing, to say the least.
“You’re back in the Devildom, I see,” He observes as the angel pulls up a seat and sits beside him. “Did Michael send you down again?”
Simeon nods with a smile. “There were some arrangements that needed to be made with Lord Diavolo. Naturally, I volunteered.”
“Naturally,” Solomon echoes, raising a brow at his friend. “I don’t suppose your biases had anything to do with your decision?”
“Well, they may have had some effect,” Simeon answers with a shameless smile and shrug, beginning to undo the tassels of his heavy cloak and draping it on the back of chair he’s sitting on. He’s still wearing all of his regular clothes underneath it - including the other, much smaller cloak. Solomon wonders how he hasn’t somehow melted in the heat.
“When’re you gonna start heading home, anyway?” Mammon asks, beginning to pick at a loose thread on his jacket sleeve. “It’s gettin’ late.”
Solomon blinks and looks up at the clock. “...ah, you’re right. In that case, I'll get going now.”
Mammon shoots him an odd look as he pushes himself up from the table and reaches for his bag, managing to hoist it onto his shoulder with some effort. He’s never been particularly good at heavy lifting - you’re usually the one helping him carry everything around the house.
“Oi, oi, what’s the rush?” the demon asks as Solomon adjusts the weight of his bag and starts heading for the door. “You on a timer or something?”
“I promised [Name] I’d be home earlier tonight,” is Solomon’s slightly absent-minded reply as he fiddles about in his pocket to find his transportation charm, nearly losing his balance and dropping his bag in the process. “I’ll see you both tomorrow.”
Mammon watches him in clear confusion for a moment as he pats down his pockets, mumbling a quiet curse under his breath as he realises that he’s left his charm at home again. How many times this month does that make it now...? He supposes that he could always perform a teleportation spell, but knowing his luck with those, he’ll probably end up somewhere in Morocco again.
“Oi, Simeon,” Mammon hisses to the angel, who cocks his head slightly to the side and leans over so as to hear him more clearly. “Who’s this ‘[Name]’ Solomon’s talkin’ about?”
“You don’t know?” Simeon blinks at him in blatant perplexion - as if he can’t even fathom the idea that Mammon might not know who Solomon’s talking about. “He’s talking about his husband.”
There’s a long moment of silence. Then—
“Solomon has a HUSBAND!?” Mammon practically shrieks, completely flabbergasted. “I thought he was totally, like, the forever alone type!”
“Don’t tell me you’ve never noticed?” is Simeon’s bewildered response. “Who do you think Solomon is always talking about buying groceries for?”
“I thought he was just buyin’ them for himself!” Mammon fires back, looking far more ruffled and shocked than he probably should be. He whips around to look at Solomon, who’s flicking through the little packet of blank charms he keeps on him at all times in an effort to find the right one to create a temporary transportation charm. He’s had to do it so many times this month that he’s already beginning to run out. “You’re married?!”
“Of course,” Solomon answers vaguely, briefly raising his left hand, allowing Mammon to spot the soft glint of a ring around his fourth finger. “You’re not?”
“Wh— ‘course I’m not!” Mammon exclaims, positively scandalised by the very concept. “Why would I get married, huh?! It’s a waste of time and a waste of money!”
“Think whatever you like,” Solomon dismisses him easily, which only seems to irritate Mammon further.
Finally having found the right blank charm, he plucks it out and begins carefully tracing patterns onto it with a single glowing finger. He’s dimly aware of Mammon furiously whispering to Simeon in the background, with the angel responding in kind, most likely sharing some exaggerated story from back when the three of you had worked together - when Solomon had accepted a job from the Celestial Realm. The details of the whole thing are a little fuzzy to him now, long as it has been, but he’s almost completely sure that Simeon somehow still remembers the whole thing flawlessly.
“How old even is he?!” He hears Mammon hiss.
“I’m not so sure myself,” Simeon replies, placing his chin in a thoughtful hand. “Let’s see… their two millennial anniversary’s coming up in about two years, and I remember Solomon saying that they got married when he was around two hundred or so… which means he’s about twenty-one hundred years old.”
“Holy shit,” Mammon mutters in disbelief, turning glance at the sorcerer as he starts folding down the corners of his charm into the right shape. “Humans aren’t supposed to live that long. How’s his husband still alive, then?”
“That isn’t really a question for me to answer,” Simeon shakes his head slightly. “I suppose you can always ask him yourself if Solomon ever brings him to work with him.”
“I doubt it,” Solomon speaks up for the first time since announcing his departure. “He’s usually busy during the day. Besides, transportation charms make him queasy, and I’m not making him walk all the way down here.”
“Aren’t you a wizard?” Mammon asks, scratching his head. “Just do one of ya fancy teleportation spells. Why d’you need a charm?”
Solomon sighs. He hates to admit it, but he can’t be bothered to make up some other reason to cover up for himself. “I’m afraid that teleportation spells aren’t actually particularly accurate. We could end up somewhere in the Pacific if I’m not careful.”
Mammon looks thunderstruck. “Then what about all those times you’ve teleported us?! Don’t tell me we coulda ended up in, like, the Archaic Pit or something?!”
“Well, it was always a possibility,” Solomon shrugs in reply, finishing the charm with a deft flick of his hand. “You’re a demon, I sure you could have handled yourself.”
“But…!” Mammon crosses his arms and turns away like a grumpy child. “Hmph…”
“Do say hello to [Name] for me, will you?” Simeon requests as Solomon turns to open the door, ignoring the sulking demon sitting beside him. “We haven’t been able to talk for a while.”
“You text him every day, don’t you?” Solomon asks, shooting him an unimpressed look. “I’d say that’s conversation enough.”
“Now, now, there’s no need to be stingy,” Simeon countered with a smile, tilting his head slightly to the side and leaning forward. “Besides, one misses the presence of an actual person after a while of nothing but electronic communication... especially texting is so difficult. Tell him he’s always welcome to come around for some tea - Luke would be happy to see him.”
Solomon shakes his head, but makes a sound of affirmation nevertheless. You had mentioned that you’ve missed seeing Simeon since he’d started the whole negotiator businesss, and he isn’t the sort of person to deny you the company of a friend. “I’ll let him know. Anyway, I should really be going now…”
“Have a safe journey!” Simeon calls after him as he swings the door open and sweeps out. Solomon waves a hand over his shoulder in response, then disappears down the corridor, most likely to a quiet spot in the courtyard to use his charm. He’s been banned from using them indoors ever since he accidentally shattered one of the fancy artifacts in the assembly hall and sent hundreds of shards flying everywhere. Apparently Barbatos is still finding tiny pieces of glass in the crevices of the floor.
“Why didn’t Solomon ever say anythin’?” Mammon asks Simeon after a moment of quietude. “Seems like the sorta thing you’d mention.”
“Solomon’s a private man,” Simeon says with a shrug. “Besides, he and [Name] have made plenty of enemies over the years, and you’d be shocked by how quickly names and locations can spread…”
“Does he mind us knowin’ about it, then?”
“Well, personally, I’ve known for a while,” Simeon answers, “And I’m sure the others will have worked it out by now - Solomon’s always finding ways to mention [Name] in passing. But no, I’m sure he doesn’t mind. He’d say something if he did.”
Mammon nods and goes silent for a little while. Then he asks, “What’s this [Name] like, then? Must be some guy if Solomon liked him enough to put a ring on him and keep him for that long.”
“Well, let’s see…” Simeon drums his fingers thoughtfully against the tabletop. “He has quite the penchant for raising deadly plants, he hasn’t gone more than a full month without exploding something or another for about five centuries, he takes clocks apart in his spare time, he likes his coffee with a touch of vanilla, he collects cursed books, he makes a lovely butterscotch-cinnamon pie, and he works as a curse breaker for hire.”
It takes a moment for Mammon to process all of the information that’s just been dumped on him. “...sounds like the kinda guy Satan would get along with.”
“I thought so as well,” Simeon agrees. “Their house even reminds me of Satan’s room, in a way… [Name] is quite the avid reader.”
“What, you’ve been?”
“Only once,” Simeon’s eyes flutter closed for a moment as he reminisces. “Quite a long time ago now. I wouldn’t know where to find it even if I wanted to go again, though - it’s always moving.”
“Do they move house a lot, then?”
Simeon shakes his head. “Oh, no, no. They’ve lived in the same house for centuries - it’s the house that moves itself.”
Mammon pauses. “...what?”
“The building,” Simeon clarifies. “They’ve got an enchantment on the whole thing that makes it change locations every couple of weeks or so.”
“But… why?”
Simeon shrugs. “[Name] doesn’t like staying in one place for too long.”
“Still, isn’t that a bit much…?” Mammon pulls a face. “They could always just travel, ya know…”
“As Solomon said, transportation talismans make [Name] feel queasy,” Simeon explains. “And he prefers not to use teleportation spells when it comes to him, just in case they end up somewhere dangerous.”
“And he doesn’t care about the rest of us ending up somewhere dangerous?” Mammon huffs and collapses forwards onto the table.
“Well, you can’t really compare the two,” Simeon says patiently as the demon continues to mutter indignantly under his breath. “He’s his husband, and we’re essentially just his friends from work.”
Mammon opens his mouth to make a rebuttal, then thinks about it for a moment and changes his mind. After a moment, he comments, a little less resentfully, “Well, you’d think he’d at least introduce us.”
“He’s been planning to for a while, actually,” Simeon tells him. “Give him some time and he’ll probably bring it up on his own.”
Mammon nods. “He’d better!”
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“I’m home.”
You look up from the book you’re reading and hop down from your seat on the roof just in time to see Solomon emerge from the back garden, looking noticeably dishevelled, with leaves decorating his head like some sort of fancy accessory.
“Welcome back!” You greet him happily, setting the book aside and moving forward to start picking the leaves from his hair. Solomon smiles softly at you as you take his bag in one hand and start pulling him to the front door with the other. “You forgot your talisman again, by the way.”
“I noticed,” He laughs, gently removing your hand from his upper arm and wrapping his fingers around it instead. “Why else do you think I ended up in the hedges again?”
“It’s a wonder that you’ve had to make these temporary talismans so many times and you still haven’t gotten one right yet,” You tease in reply, nudging him in the shoulder. “How many points is that on the tally now, then?”
“Ten for the basement, seven for the roof, and eleven for the hedges now,” He answers with a small pout as you laugh. “Honestly, you’d think I would have learnt my lesson...”
“You never do, love.” 
The door creaks as you and your husband enter the house, only to immediately be greeted by a bundle of scales hitting you head-on. You manage to keep your footing and steady yourself on the doorway; Solomon isn’t so lucky, and ends up laying spread-eagled on the floor with about two hundred kilograms of excited adolescent dragon purring on his chest.
“Looks like Triton missed you,” You comment with a bright smile, setting Solomon’s bag down beside the umbrella rack and leaning over to give the dragon a scratch behind his left horn, just the way he likes it. He rumbles happily and jingles the little bell around his neck at you. “Isn’t he getting big?”
“I saw him this morning, [Name],” Solomon wheezes from his position on the floor, somehow managing to reach up and tickle Triton’s chin with one hand despite the dragon’s weight. “He can’t have grown that much in ten hours.”
“You never know!” You tell him, reaching up and wrapping your arms around Triton’s neck. He coos in a delighted fashion and raises his head, setting it heavily on your shoulder. Solomon uses the brief lightening of the weight on him to take in a deep breath as you allow your dragon to nuzzle furiously into your neck. “Dragons are unpredictable, you know.”
“Believe me, I do,” He sighs tiredly as Triton blows out a pleased puff of hot air and knocks the clock off the wall again. “Now, if you wouldn’t mind, Triton, I’d quite like to get back up again.”
The dragon blinks and raises his head from your shoulder, glancing down at the sorcerer that he’s crushing under his weight. Then he huffs and turns away again.
“Oh, you—!” Solomon curses as the dragon seems to press even harder into him. Your laughter rings out across the hall, and while he’d normally take a moment to admire the sound, he’s a little preoccupied. “[Name], stop laughing and help me!”
“He’s like a rebellious teenager!” You splutter helplessly in reply, voice still trembling slightly out of mirth. Triton makes a happy noise as you reach up and rub his scaly cheeks, his ears fluttering slightly. “Awww, you’re really growing up, aren’t you, baby? Your poor dads are really going to have their work cut out for them, huh?”
“Hey,” Solomon calls reproachfully from beneath Triton’s enormous chest. “Your husband’s still being crushed down here.”
“Oh, right!” You click your tongue and give Triton a meaningful look. He grumbles but obeys nevertheless, hopping off of Solomon (though not without knocking all the air out of him by using his chest as a launchpad) and scampering off, most likely to go play with the salamanders that have set up shop in the storage room again.
“I’ll never understand how you manage him so well,” Solomon sighs as you bend down to pull him to his feet, rubbing at the sore spot on his chest. “He never listens to me.”
“Aw, he loves you, really,” You reassure him, taking his hand and pressing a comforting kiss to his knuckles. “He just likes roughhousing with you.”
Solomon shakes his head, wanting to complain further about the big lizard that the two of you had adopted six months ago after the last one grew up and flew the nest, but then he sees the smile on your face, and he feels the flicker of irritation in his chest die down almost immediately. It’s at times like this that he’s really reminded of how absolutely worth it all of the nonsense he has to put up with at work is - because, at the end of the day, you are here, with your warm eyes and your lovely smile, with your comforting hands and your warm embrace, and there is no road too long to walk if you are waiting for him at the end of it.
“I know,” He sighs, tugging off his shoes and stepping into his favourite pair of slippers - the ones with the little cat faces printed on them that you’ve charmed to always maintain a perfect temperature for his feet. He glances at your own feet and notes that you’re wearing your matching pair as well.
The two of you have long since set up a routine for this sort of occasion, and you both fall into it with unconscious ease. Solomon changes into something more comfortable while you put the kettle on in the kitchen, and the two of you inevitably spend so long snuggled up together on the largest armchair in the living room, unwilling to leave the warmth of each other’s presence, that the water cools down, and you end up having to put it back on again. Then you sit together at the table, you with a coffee with a dash of vanilla and him with his favourite chrysanthemum tea that you always brew just the way he likes it. Sometimes you’ll sit side by side, shoulders pressed up against each other as you show him the specifics of your latest curse-breaking commission, and sometimes you’ll sit across from each other, holding hands across the tabletop as he tells you about his day.
Today it is the former, but Solomon can’t help but zone a little out of the detailed deep-dive you’re giving him about the intricacies of the spell that’s cursed this teapot to shoot its contents at anyone who attempts to fill it. It isn’t that your explanation is boring - quite the contrary, in fact; Solomon could probably listen to you describing the most mundane or trivial of things on loop for the rest of his life and be perfectly content with it. No, it’s more to do with the fact that this is the first time he’s been home before dark in a long while, and he can’t help but revel in the fact that he can spend time with you like this again. Of course, there’s something wonderful in coming home to be able to collapse into bed beside you and bury his face in the crook of your neck, drifting to sleep as you burrow closer to him even in your sleep, but Solomon can’t run off of that forever - he needs to see you with your eyes open as well, after all. 
“You’re not listening to a word I say, are you?” You ask as you note the far-off look on your husband’s face. You’re not offended in the slightest by the way he starts at the directed question, evidently guilty, but you are a little puzzled. “Is there something wrong?”
Solomon’s mouth falls open slightly, then shuts again. There’s something about the way you’re looking at him so earnestly that makes his heart stutter like nothing else. Honestly, you’d think he’d be used to this after nearly two thousand years, but it seems that he’s still as weak for you as he was on the very first day of your marriage. “...I suppose I’ve just got a lot on my mind.”
“You always have a lot on your mind,” You counter softly, giving his hand a brief squeeze. “Come on, you can tell me.”
He laughs quietly, bringing your linked hands up to his face and gently holding yours to the side of his face; you, in turn, unfurl your fingers from around his and rub his cheek affectionately. After a moment, a fond smile pulling at his lips, Solomon replies, “I’ve… missed you a lot this week.”
You pause in mild surprise, but it quickly turns to endearment as Solomon presses his body even closer to yours. The hand that you’re using to hold your mug of coffee moves to settle on his shoulder as you pull him closer. “Really now? What a coincidence. I’ve missed you lots as well, love.”
He chuckles a little bashfully, his cheeks flushing. It seems that your ability to fluster him hasn’t declined even a bit over the years. He’s still well and truly besotted.
You can’t help but find it rather amusing that, despite already having spent a good hour and a half or so in the living room, bundled so close together in the blankets that you could feel his breath on your skin, the two of you are still nestling so close together now. You suppose it’s the effects of a week with much less contact than usual.
You lean forward and press a kiss to his jaw before pulling back again, reaching for your coffee and taking a sip. Solomon exhales softly, pulling his own drink towards him and draining the last of the tea in a single mouthful.
“You know,” He says, setting his empty cup down on the table. “One of my coworkers was asking about you earlier.”
“‘Coworkers’,” You snort at his choice of language, earning a reproachful poke in the side as punishment. “Come on, just admit that they’re your friends.”
“Fine,” He sighs. “One of my friends, then - Mammon, the one that Lucifer’s stringing up all the time.”
“The one with white hair?” You recall, thinking back to the group photo that Simeon had sent you a while back. “He’s the Avatar of Greed, right?”
“That’s the one,” Solomon nods. “Apparently he never noticed that I was married.”
“Well, you can’t really blame him,” You say, giving him a playful nudge. “Honestly, the way you keep your mouth shut, you’d think I was some shameful secret or something.”
Solomon looks scandalised by the very idea - it had only been a little joke, but his eyes flash with such affront that it’s almost as if someone has genuinely called you such a thing. “Of course not! I’d never—”
“Hey, hey, it’s okay, I was joking,” You cut him off before he can get more riled up. Solomon calms down quickly once you set a comforting hand on his knee, though he still looks a little indignant. “I know why you don’t like talking about us much, but really, it’s okay. They’re your friends, aren't they?”
He hesitates, then nods, releasing another deep sigh soon afterwards. “I suppose. There isn’t much I can really do about it at this point anyway… according to Simeon, most of them have somehow figured it out already.”
“They’re probably a lot smarter than you give them credit for, Sol,” You hum, reaching up and brushing a stray lock of hair out of his eyes for him. “They’re demons, after all. They’ve lived even longer than us.”
“Believe me, they really aren’t.” Solomon shakes his head, a frown pinching at his brow at the very memory of the amount of things that his coworkers have done recently - some of the most notable being Diavolo setting an entire flock of geese free in the courtyard for an ‘experiment’, Levi quite literally throwing himself out of a window just to win a bet against Mammon about who could get down the stairs faster, Asmo causing a stampede in the main hall by dropping and shattering a bottle full of a powerful aphrodisiac potion that became even more powerful once released into the air, and Lucifer accidentally breaking one of Solomon’s favourite cauldrons when he’d transformed into his demon form and inadvertently smacked halfway across the room it with one of his upper wings.
“I’d really love to meet them some day,” You sigh, swirling the contents of your mug around. “They sound like fun.”
“Trust me, the trouble isn’t worth it—” Solomon attempts to reason with you, but he gives up laughably quickly as you pout at him in protest. “Oh, fine. But don’t blame me if you get sick because of the charm again.”
“We don’t have to use the charm,” You shake your head. “Just do a teleportation spell!”
“You know that that’s risky,” Solomon sighs, chucking you under the chin and leaning forward to kiss the tip of your nose. You laugh as he draws back again, a pleased smile rising on his face at your reaction. “We could end up anywhere.”
“You’ve teleported them a bunch of times, though, haven’t you? And you haven’t ended up in Texas or the Sahara Desert any of those times!”
The resemblance to his earlier conversation with Mammon and Simeon is almost uncanny. “That’s different. I was still teleporting them within the Devildom, not across an entire realm barrier… and besides, I can afford the risk with them. You’re a different story.”
You pout again, shoulders dropping in defeat, though it doesn’t escape Solomon’s notice that his sentiment seems to have appeased you at least a little. “...guess we’ll just have to use a transportation talisman, huh…?”
“That’s your only option if you really want to visit, yes.”
You go quiet for a moment or two, nose wrinkling and face scrunching as you think it over. Solomon doesn’t mind the lack of conversation - he entertains himself by studying your features, wondering for perhaps the millionth time how he managed to find someone like you.
Finally, a determined look rising on your face, you nod and proclaim, “Then I’ll do it!”
Solomon cocks his head slightly to the side. He can’t say he’s surprised by your eagerness, but he had expected it to take you longer to make up your mind. He opens his mouth to say something, but tou answer his question before he’s even asked it, a skill that you’d managed to pick up within the first year or so of knowing him.
“I really wanna see what you actually get up to when you work,” You explain, looking a little sheepish. “You’ve had a job there for nearly two years and I’ve never even said a word to the people you work with.”
Solomon laughs. “It isn’t usually a requirement in the workplace. Wear appropriate uniform, bring any equipment you need, introduce your husband to your coworkers within the decade…”
“Still, I’d feel bad if I didn’t at least meet them,” You say. “Besides, I want to see Simeon as well. You said he’s working down in the Devildom for a bit as well, didn’t you?”
“Why are you so eager to see him, huh?” Solomon’s tone is light and teasing, so you know not to take him seriously as he puts on an hurt expression. “I’m offended. Your dear husband’s right here and you’re thinking about some angel.”
“Oh, stop it, you,” You shake your head in slightly exasperated amusement as he runs a finger down his cheek in lieu of a tear. “You know it’s not like that.”
“Isn’t it?” He pulls an exaggeratedly petulant face and pretends to turn away like an upset child. “Sometimes I feel like you love him more than me.”
“Simeon’s a lovely guy, but you’re still the only guy for me, you doof,” You tell him, tapping fondly at the cheek he’s turned to you with your free hand. Solomon obligingly turns back around to look at you, a grin pulling at his mouth. “Why would I marry you and then stay here for two thousand years if you weren't?”
“I guess I always assumed it was out of pity or something,” He jokes in response, leaning forward and briefly brushing his nose against yours. “And, just so you know, you’re the only guy for me as well.”
“I’d better be,” is your lighthearted reply as he pulls away. After a moment, looking at him expectantly, you begin tentatively, “So…?”
He sighs, but gives you a smile nevertheless. “I’ll ask Diavolo. He probably wouldn’t mind if I brought you without asking first, but Lucifer definitely would.”
“What’ll we do if they hate me?” You ask. “Do demons actually eat humans?”
“They wouldn’t dare,” He replies firmly. “Not if I have anything to say about it. Besides, they won’t hate you. I doubt anyone could.”
You laugh and drop your head to rest on his chest. “You’re too nice to me, love.”
Solomon turns to wrap both his arms around your shoulders, setting his chin on the crown of your head. You smile into his jumper, looping your own arms around his waist and pushing yourself closer to him.
“I’m not just being nice. Honestly, [Name], you’re kind of the most perfect man in the universe.”
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a-dragons-journal · 3 years
Note
i dont "kin for fun" but through tiktok i found out about the whole kin for fun vs actual otherkin... situation ig? im having a really hard time taking it seriously... maybe im just burnt out and bitter from dealing with the worlds current events, and maybe its because on tiktok the only people i saw mad about it were white people, but you're the most reasonable person ive seen talking about it (a lot of other posts have this odd tone that 12 year olds on tiktok saying kin is the worlds greatest opression and it weirds me out) so ig my question is just... why exactly does this matter? why does it matter enough to post about and care about and not just ignore? /gen
Hey! I don’t blame you for being a bit weirded out by it, we’re a weird subculture and we’re well aware of it! xD I appreciate you taking the time to actually look into it past your first knee-jerk reaction, especially considering burnout and the state of things.
I’m not totally sure if you’re asking why otherkinity matters or why the “kin for fun” being wrong matters, so I’ll answer both - they’re pretty well tied together anyway.
The short version:
Otherkinity is an identity. It’s who we are, we can’t choose to pick it up or put it down, and it comes with struggles - though no, ‘kin are not systematically oppressed (though we are pretty badly bullied and, at this point, pushed out of our own words and spaces).
What people calling roleplay/relating to/projecting onto characters “kinning for fun” does is steal our words, make them meaningless, and in doing so, make it difficult or impossible for us to find each other. If someone says “I kin [x],” I no longer know whether they mean “I am [x] on an intrinsic level” or “haha I relate to this character a lot”. I no longer know whether they actually share my experiences or if they’re going to turn on me and call me “crazy” as soon as they realize I’m not exaggerating or joking or roleplaying. It’s done massive harm to the community as a whole because it’s become difficult to tell whether someone is actually ‘kin or if they’ve misunderstood the whole thing - and because antikin rhetoric, which I’m seeing more and more in KFF spaces, hurts far more when it’s coming from inside what you thought was a community space than when it’s coming from self-labeled “antikin.”
There are other words for roleplaying and relating to and projecting onto characters. Hell, there are words for strongly identifying with-but-not-as characters/things, though usually KFF people don’t even seem serious enough for those to fit in my experience. I’m really not sure why these people are so determined to steal and misuse our words, words that were specifically created to mean something else, when they already have their own and are just refusing to use them. (Or, hell, if you don’t feel like those fit, make your own. We did. It’s your turn to put in the work. (General you, not you-the-anon, of course.))
An analogy, if that still doesn’t quite land for you:
Consider, for a moment, the transgender community. I am aware this is a dangerous thing to say, but bear with me. Obvious CW for hypothetical transphobia up ahead is obvious.
Consider if you were part of the trans community (I don’t know if you are or not), having finally found a word to explain why you feel the way you do about yourself, why your experiences don’t seem to match up with those of everyone else around you. Having found a community, a home, full of other people like you, people you never would have met if not for words like “transgender” and “gender dysphoria/euphoria” that were created specifically to describe your experiences.
Now consider if people suddenly stumbled across your community for the first time who were not trans themselves. They see community jokes and lighthearted posts out of context, because Tumblr and Twitter aren’t exactly conducive to making sure people find the Transgender 101 information posts first. They don’t bother to do further research, assuming they understand: ah, these people like to crossdress! They like to pretend they’re a different gender! This seems like a fun hobby, I want in!
They begin to post things like this. They post photos of them crossdressing and caption them “hi, I’m [name], and I trans men!” and things of the like. Suddenly the concept of “transing for fun” seems to be everywhere - and it’s not at all what being trans actually is, but these people either don’t know or don’t care. When actual trans people try to politely correct them, they’re accused of “gatekeeping” - and to be clear, this is not “nonbinary people aren’t real,” it’s “transgender means you identify as a gender other than the one you were assigned at birth, and you’re self-identifying as the gender you were assigned at birth 100% and telling us this is just a fun hobby for you, therefore you’re not trans, you’re crossdressing or doing drag or being GNC. That’s fine, but it’s not being trans - you have other words to describe that, use those.”
(Yes, I am aware these things have a history with the trans community - please just ignore that for the sake of the analogy and bear with me on the slightly simplified version of this. “Kinning for fun” does not have that same history with the otherkin community.)
...And then the response to those attempted corrections, in some corners, turns into “wait, you ACTUALLY think you’re another gender? idk that sounds pretty unhealthy, maybe you should see a psychologist or something :\” and “you’re taking this too seriously.”
I imagine, in this hypothetical scenario, you’d also be pretty fuckin peeved.
(Obviously, in this hypothetical scenario, systematic transphobia would be an issue as well, which isn’t the case for otherkin - again, you’re gonna have to bear with me on the simplification for sake of analogy there.)
(EDIT: this is not an anti-MOGAI/exclusionist argument, this is “you’re literally telling me you don’t fit the definition,” explanation on that here)
The long version, which is probably still worth reading if you have the time and energy:
Otherkinity is... pretty core to who I am, who we as a group of individuals are. We live with being otherkin on a daily basis. Many of us spent a long time feeling different and disconnected and not understanding why until we found the otherkin community. Even people like me, who don’t share that experience and still had social connection - I’ve still had to live with weird differences that I had to learn to mask when necessary; instincts that don’t line up with human society well, feeling body parts that weren’t there and that no one else ever seemed to have, things that other kids grew out of because it was just make-believe for them and I... didn’t, because it was never make-believe for me to begin with. Oh, sure, I played make-believe too - I played warrior cats and house and all those things with the other kids, but there were things that weren’t play-pretend for me too. I didn’t have an explanation for it for a long time - it was just how I was, I was weird, and fortunately for me personally I was okay with that (many of those with species dysphoria or more trouble connecting with humans have more problems from that than I did).
And then I found the word “otherkin.” And suddenly everything fell into place, and I had an explanation for the things I’d been experiencing, and there were other people like me. Something I’d assumed didn’t exist. I found others who shared my unique experiences, who were talking about how to cope with the instinct to growl or snap jaws at people instead of expressing annoyance in a human way instead of just saying “that’s weird, don’t do that”, who were talking about dealing with phantom wings and tails, who understood me. I wasn’t weird, I wasn’t broken, I was exactly what one would expect from a dragon living in human skin. I found an explanation for myself. I found a home.
That is why otherkinity matters - it is who we are, it’s not something we can walk away from (certainly not most of us, anyway), and it’s something many of us need the support of the community to help deal with on a daily basis. Being a nonhuman in human society isn’t always easy, but it’s not something we can just magically stop being - it’s core to who we are, we (generally) didn’t choose to be this way, and we (generally) can’t choose to stop. Which is fine - the vast majority of us can cope with it just fine, with a little advice and help and space to be our authentic selves in. We found each other, we built this community from the ground up to make a space and words to make finding each other easier - or possible at all.
Thus we come to the second half of our story.
It was only a couple of years ago that the “kin for fun” trend started getting big. It had existed before that, of course, but it only started going mainstream two, maybe three years ago, from what I can tell. Suddenly people were treating “kin” like it meant relating to, projecting onto, roleplaying as, or just really really liking a character or thing - not being that thing, which is what it actually means. Not long after that, it became hard to tell whether someone saying “I kin this” meant they were that thing, that they were actually part of our community - or that they really really liked that thing and either didn’t know or couldn’t be bothered to learn that that wasn’t the case for us.
Not long after that, it became relatively commonplace to hear phrases like “otherkin are ruining kinning!!” and “you’re taking this too seriously” and “idk, if it’s that serious for you that sounds unhealthy. maybe you should get some help :\” (all directly quoted, or as exactly quoted as I can remember, from things KFF people have said to me or people I know).
It is a special kind of hell, I think, to be told “you’re taking this too seriously, that’s unhealthy” by people who are taking words created to describe your experiences, not theirs, and misusing them to mean something that you do for fun on a weekend instead of something that’s intrinsic to your being.
Perhaps more importantly, like I’ve said, it’s making it almost impossible to know whether someone who says “I kin [x]” is actually ‘kin or if they’re misusing our words to mean something else entirely. The entire point of words is to communicate ideas, and once you start misusing words to mean something totally different than what they actually mean, that communication falls apart and suddenly we might as well not have those words at all. Especially when the community is small enough and obscure enough that we’re starting to be outnumbered by the misinformation. We’re being run out of our own words, words we created to describe our experiences specifically - because we’re a small community that the wider internet can easily drown out by sheer numbers of people who either don’t know any better or don’t care to learn.
That’s the harm it does - the harm it is doing, right now. That’s why it’s important enough to post about. That’s why it matters - because we’re fighting desperately to hang onto our own words so that others like us can actually find us. Because we’re seeing young nonhumans go “this isn’t a kin, I actually am this” and screaming “No, I’m so sorry that this is what the misinformation has done to you, that’s exactly what otherkin means, you have a place here, please don’t let these non-’kin misusing our words drive you away from the very community you’re looking for and that you belong in.” Because we can’t even communicate effectively about our own experiences anymore except in semi-closed spaces like Discord servers and forums (and the number of Discord servers overrun with KFF people is absurd).
......This got very long. Hopefully it at least explained why it matters so much to me and others a bit better ^^; Thanks for hearing me out, and thank you again for looking into this beyond your initial knee-jerk reaction - I really do appreciate it.
(For further reading, if that text wall didn’t blow you out of the water completely, I recommend my “kin for fun” tag, which has more posts like this in both short and long form.)
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pastelslytherin · 3 years
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Hi, Pastel! How are you, baby?
I was wondering if I could have a match up for jjk. But if you have too many or are sick and tired of writing them TOTALLY IGNORE THIS!!! Matchups can really be exhausting so remember to make time for yourself, ok?
Ok!
OK my name is ally. I have she/her pronouns with a male preference please!
Fandom: jjk
Appearance: I am tall (about 5"11 but i swear i am shrinking) I am pretty lean and muscular. I am an athlete and lift competitively so I have defined muscles and low body fat (which is a nice way for me to say I am shaped like a literal door lol) I am a ginger with short curly red hair and I have quite a few freckles but they are hardly there rn because it's winter
Personality: I am an ENFP 7w6 and I would say I identify with it. My biggest kin of all times is Itadori Yuuji! Honestly I don't think I have ever related to a character more (to the point i was once harassed to join the track team lol). But I also kin bokuto, reki, and tanjiro.
I am a loud person. I have a loud voice and a loud energy. I am a very happy person who loves life. I quite literally cannot keep a straight face. I dance constantly. But not very well. I took formal dance lessons for like 10 years but i prefer to throw it all out and do the running man or the sprinkler. Pretty much dad dance moves.
I love annoying people so much. Teasing, wrestling, singing way too loud. I embarrass my sisters as much as i can in public. Pretty much, my whole personality can be described in having fun. I love having fun and won't do anything that doesn't entertain me.
I am a really laid back person. I don't like planning or anything. I like living in the moment and making things up as I go.
I am a very loyal person. I would do anything for the people who are close to me.
I have always been really popular and have a ton of friends, but there are probably only one or two people in my life who I consider close friends. I hate showing my negative emotions, so I often don't let myself get close to too many people. It's my own fault, but I can get super lonely and sad randomly because I am alone. But i don't want anyone to know i am sad so i don't meet up with people. So it's just a mess.
I can be shy for like 2 seconds when i first meet someone, but i warm up pretty fast. But i can get really shy around my crush, and I will probably blurt something awkward and blush like crazy.
Also I can be overcritical and hard on myself. I think this comes from my lifting. I never feel like I am strong enough and have high standards for my performance.
Likes:
-lifting weights. Honestly, the gym consumes my life and brings be joy more than anything else in the world
-watching sports. I used to play basketball and volleyball. I don't anymore but I love watching. So I will go to the games at my school and cheer. You bet I'm the one with face paint screaming and leading the student cheer section.
-listening to music. I am a huge music nerd who makes way too many playlists.
-learning languages
-my mind honestly just went blank. I forgot every thing I have ever liked
Dislikes:
-hmmm i don't like nutella
-or the sound of people filing nails
Love Language:
-hmm for giving I would say acts of service. I love helping people. I'm not very good with my words. I have no problem telling my friends that i love them or even strangers HOWEVER (and this is genuinely like the only thing I hate about myself) if it is someone who really really means a lot to me, i suddenly can't do it. It's like I just have so much love and gratitude for them that I can't say it in words. I will choke up and blush like crazy. And it drives me insane, because I want to tell them how important they are to me, but i can't. So instead I just devote my literal life to them by helping them in any way i can.
-for receiving, probably quality time or words of affirmation. I get really nervous and self conscious sometimes that people don't actually like me or want me around. So when someone goes out of their way to spend time with me, it makes me melt. Words of affirmation are just a bonus. It doesn't need to be often, but I like to hear it ya know?
overall, im not too picky. The guy doesn't need to be perfect, I just want someone who is loyal and will always have my back. And put up with me and my antics lol
Ok babe! Sorry this got long! Please take care of yourself and drink water and take breaks and all that ok? <3<3
Hello, Ally! I’m sorry this took forever! I am doing well, thank you for asking and thank you so much for your kind words! I very much appreciate your patience and your lovely request! I hope you’re taking care of yourself and that you’re having a wonderful day :)
Also, this match includes a character from the manga, in case anyone out there hasn’t read it.
I match you with..
AOI TODO
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Todo loves your personality, your muscles, the way you live in the moment, and the way you can steal the spotlight in any room. And most importantly, he never feels bored with you! He has stars in his eyes when you’re around, and you can match his high energy perfectly. It’s rare that Todo finds someone fun and interesting so you are a very important person to him. When you get past his strange behaviors, he’s a very loyal, supportive, and passionate partner. 
You can get along with almost everyone because of your attractive personality, which is just about the opposite of Todo. On a social level, you could probably balance out Todo’s eccentric attitude with your friendliness. You can bring out the best in him, and he can bring out the best in you. He’s smarter and more logical than he looks so he knows exactly how to motivate you and inspire you on a very real level. Overall, your relationship is very energetic, collaborative, and fun. 
Headcanons:
When you first meet Todo, he could probably intimidate you at first from his forward and crude attitude when meeting someone for the first time. Being Todo, he’s immediately drawn to your height and muscles, quickly asking you what your type is. For you, he could be easy to warm up to since both of you can share a braincell. 
Todo is almost like a puppy when it comes to you so it’ll be hard to find yourself alone. He’ll stick by your side as often as he can and is thirsty for attention. In turn, he loves giving you attention and is very observant and attentive toward you. He says things as he sees them like, “Are your muscles getting bigger?” and then guesses the pounds/kilograms you can lift. On a side note, he’s a pretty accurate guesser. 
Gym dates with you and Todo are almost a given. Whenever he’s spotting you, he’s very encouraging and motivating, but he also keeps on eye out for when you push yourself too hard. 
He’s definitely the type of boyfriend to call you ‘dude’ or ‘bro’ unironically. Then again, this is likely because not only does he feel close to you on a romantic level, he also feels close to you as a friend. It’s that kind of intimacy that makes your relationship feel secure and stable despite all the wild things you two like to do together. You two could dance wildly at a party as if you’re the only two people in the room, and he absolutely loves it. 
Whenever you’re watching basketball or volleyball together, it would quickly turn into a cheering match where you two are trying to scream louder than each other. It’s the same way when Todo brings you to a Takada concert, and he would be so joyful that you’re cheering for his favorite idol. And of course, he’d be there for all of your lifting competitions, screaming all sorts of praises and commentary. If you don’t hear him cheering you on in the background, that’s probably because he was pulled outside for being too loud. 
Todo wouldn’t mind if you have trouble choosing the right words since he’s more of a ‘showing through action’ guy than a ‘showing through words’ guy. He’s very loud in his romantic gestures in which he would bring you obnoxiously hug gifts and yell at the top of his lungs how much he loves you. But, if he sees you’re feeling down, he’d use his words to see what the problem is and reassure that you are, in fact, enough and that you’re valuable. 
Other potential matches:
Kinji Hakari
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Hakari would love your passion so you would interest him to no end. That’s a trait that is extremely important to him since he enjoys seeing people drown in their passions. He would admire you because of how much you stand out, since he hates traditions and a lack of passion. In other words, he absolutely loves your crazy antics. Some of his favorite things are watching you dance and lift weights. He thinks you look the most beautiful when you do the things you love. He’s a big fan of watching sports too, and he would invite you to join him in watching his fight club. He also makes a point of saving your playlists so he can listen to them while he’s watching his security cams. Hakari could honestly a very close second as a match if you prefer someone who’s just a bit more chill and quieter. 
Takuma Ino
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Ino thinks you’re really fun! He’s a very positive and open person, and he’s big on loyalty and honesty so it’s extremely easy to warm up to him. He would be very encouraging and supportive of your life as an athlete, and he’d definitely be someone who would prepare water bottles and meals for you. He also does his research on how best to support your weightlifting career since he believes in supporting you in the right way. He really loves being with you and telling you how amazing you are, and he could relate to having high standards to reach so he makes sure to tell you that you’re perfect the way you are. He also gets flustered when you do things for him, even though a lot of people tend to help him with things. 
———
I hope this was alright!
Please look over this post before submitting a matchup request :) Thanks!
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pigeonsatdawn · 3 years
Text
law school ep 15 (and solhwi overall)
gonna put in my two cents for the line that singlehandedly caused the solhwi nation to implode.
(apologies in advanced because my thoughts are too messy for me to neatly put it in a post but i want to say it anyway—also this is just the way i view solhwi so please don't come screaming at me if you disagree!)
i'm a diehard solhwi shipper and i love their relationship, and think they have one of the best relationships out there in the fictional world, and also definitely one of the healthiest. but to me, their relationship extends far beyond the romantic relationships we so often see portrayed in media.
kim beom said in one interview that this relationship between HJH and KS is kin to that of a soulmate relationship that's not necessarily romance, and i find myself agreeing with that notion. while soulmates are typically used to describe romantic partnerships, it doesn't necessarily have to start with romance. (many people have pointed this out in other posts so i won't go further down the fact that HJH x KS's relationship is a friends-to-lovers slow burn but you get me.)
but in fact, this bond between soulmates (or at least how i define it), in my opinion, is far beyond what we usually see in romance. as in, it's not just someone you like, but it's someone whose changed your life in a certain way. i know some may be averse to the idea of having to change for the one you love because loving is the notion of accepting someone in spite of the person's flaws, but what i mean is that when you love someone in this way, you want to change because of them. you see them, and they inspire you, and you grow in your own way. once again—growth is a very subjective idea, and even for HJH and KS we can see them grow in different directions—but we can clearly see how they have impacted each others' lives.
it's quite obvious, imo, how KS's life has been impacted by HJH's. she's,, not the "smartest" out there, and we can't deny that. we know she probably won't make it through law school if not for HJH's help. HJH is always there, a step ahead of KS, but he's not just being proud about it, instead opting to help her understand what the laws are and why they are the way they are, which KS especially needs, being a particularly empathic person. but we've also seen that HJH has helped KS beyond simply academics. he's always been there to protect her—almost all their interactions have proven that (the camera outside her house, the hungover soup, the switching seats—i think literally everything?..?..?.??). maybe she doesn't necessarily need protection, but surely thanks to his protection she's much better than she might've been without, especially knowing her terribly miserable life.
but i often wonder why HJH is so heart-eyes of KS of all people. i mean, i know love is love and sometimes you just catch feelings, but i believe there's more meaning behind their relationship than meets the eye. like you don't just look at someone so lovingly for it to be just a crush, y'know? the first reason that comes to mind is clearly simply KS's amicable personality. she definitely stands out: she's not that intelligent, struggling and barely surviving, but she has insane passion to pull through even despite truth attacks (like SJH saying she should reconsider her life decisions, saying that a chance of passing isn't something to be proud of, etc). she treats everything with such a positive outlook, and, well, KS is just an adorable human, so it's hard not to have a little crush her.
what makes KS stand out most, the core of her personality, is that she has hope, despite everything. she's been through shit because of her circumstances—left by her twin sister without a word, been in juvie, has no money to deal with it—you know, entire backstory. but instead she fights her weakness, even though she feel like it should've been her sister, even though she's not smart enough, because she has to do this. she keeps going, even though things keep turning out for the worse for her, holding hope when circumstances are most dire. but why? because she strives for justice. she doesn't want to be wronged. she wants the law to own up its mistakes, wants to make sure the law gets its own revenge. that's why she wants to work in law, yeah? and so she keeps fighting, even when hope seems lost.
okay but why did i mention this? because i think this is what HJH sees in KS. why? because this is what he needs.
HJH had lost hope. in an episode (i don't remember which), he mentioned he doesn't trust anyone, and it's obvious why: his uncle. it's the worst kind of betrayal that causes your ideals being burned down. he realized that even people who work in law can be corrupt, people who he thought he could trust above all others, people who seemed utterly good. and then he just begins to regard everyone with baseline amity, and no further. many have pointed out he doesn't have real friends (other than KS), even though he looks outgoing and friendly. it's not quite shown, but it must've been lonely. and a lonely fight, trying to prove that he will be a better prosecutor than his uncle was. and we know that HJH's nature as a person is to be calculating, objective, seeing things through facts and statistics; it's what makes him so intelligent. what that also makes him is realistic, and more often than not, that is almost equal to pessimistic—because reality just... sucks, as has been proven by the betrayal of his uncle. and further into the drama we see only more corrupt people in the business, so we certainly don't get out hopes fueled.
there's scarcely anyone in what we see who's actually pursuing law because they're passionate about the law, or if they are, they're not often very... human in doing it. examples: YJH, SJH, KSB are all very cold and indifferent types, people who really just come and do what they do, focus on studies (in the case of YJH, his teaching), and interactions with others are treated as "lesser". SJH and KSB in particular—they're good at the law, sure, but they seem to prioritize their position in law first and foremost. SJH and KSB don't hesitate to call out their losses, and even would rather not intervene for justice if it meant their position would be compromised. not that they're bad characters, not at all; i mentioned them simply to compare them to KS, who, despite not having the brains to do half the things she's supposed to do and earning herself nosebleeds everytime she tries, still does what she does for justice, passionately, hopefully, all for righteousness.
okay this was longer than i intended WHEW so i'll cut to the chase: long story short, HJH needs KS because KS gives him hope. hope of a humanity where people actually work in law and choose to fight for justice against all odds, even if the system itself is infiltrated by filth and corruption. KS is someone who, in her first lecture, was grilled the fuck out by Yangcrates, yet the first thing she does after she nearly throws her guts out is ask HJH whether he can tutor her. she does not ever lose hope, and that, truly, is what stands out to HJH, what he needs.
and KS needs HJH because he is her hope as well! hope by itself does no good if you can't actually do something about it, and KS knows this. HJH, despite seemingly just being someone to help her in her studies, is someone she needs if she wants to achieve her goals, if she wants to get back on the law the right way. which is why, in the end, KS and HJH are, while independent in their own way, dependent on each other in terms of their growth—KS gives HJH hope in humanity, HJH helps KS realize (make real) her hopes that would have been dreams if not for her.
oh my god i've rambled on this long without stating my point: THE DAMN LINE.
HJH saying he owes her makes sense in this light because, indeed, KS's positive outlook in everything keeps him going. it gives him a reason to keep wanting to work in law, because she is a reason to believe in goodness and justice, that there will be people who keep fighting for justice against all odds. he owes this to her—and perhaps that is why he goes all out to help her achieve that hope, perhaps that's why he goes out of his way to care for her. because they are each other's missing puzzle piece, the other half. soulmates.
sigh ok this was long ONE FINAL POINT. everyone has their own opinion on a solwhi ending, so i might as well chip in mine.
certainly, as a solhwi shipper, i want them to end up together. i believe they're really the best of soulmates, two people who just complement each other so well. but in the current timeline, them having a romantic relationship out of the blue would be,,, simply unnecessary, imo. they're still very much in the stage of friendship, and are both dealing with their own personal baggage, that shoving a romance would just take away the focus from their growth. i personally think even this platonic relationship is already a beautiful one, one that outshines many of the romances i've watched, even without having to flood everything under the romance light—which i think many can agree with me, seeing as how solhwi is shipped so much. i still want to see them end up together, though, so SEASON TWO LAW SCHOOL MANIFESTATION. please please please directors writers make it happen i am begging you. thank you.
sorry for this long ass post, thank you if you do read it and leave any thoughts! again this is just my opinion, you're free to let me know if you think differently or anything, or shoot me a message if you want to scream about solhwi or whatever i'm just solhwi brainrot 24/7 🤸🏻‍♀��
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magnhild · 3 years
Text
the misconceptions and mis-framing of penny’s death
i hesitated to make this post here for a good while; partially because i didn’t want to right when people’s emotions were heightened from the finale, partially because i’m sure some people are going to argue with me here and i’m not looking for a debate- if you don’t agree, please just scroll past.
i’ve made a large number of posts of penny’s death on twitter before, but some were based on my own heightened emotions, and they were all scattered over the course of a couple of weeks, so i’m making this psot to kind of gather all of those thoughts together, the most important ones, at least.
a quick disclaimer before we start- don’t mistake this as all being ‘oh you must just not really care that much about penny’. it couldn’t be more untrue. penny is a comfort character of mine, and a kin to boot. her second death was also the only in the show to really impact me, seeing as i watched v1-3 within a couple of days and didn’t give myself enough time to get attatched to any characters (and i just didn’t personally care for clover all that much). so, please don’t assuming this is coming from a place of not caring- it’s coming from the opposite.
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i’ve tried my very hardest to look at what people are saying when they call her death inherintly bad writing, and honestly, i can easily see the validity to some of their points. there were a lot of flaws in the scene. 
it felt very rushed and blown-over, but then again, the entire episode did, and i have to wonder if it was done on purpose to emulate the chaos of war- you usually don’t get time to process anything. i mean, in rwby’s case, cinder was winning a fight, half of the characters that would’ve moured her were in the void, and the other half was in another kingdom. that left jaune, who had to focus on fighting cinder. it’s the same as when ruby wasn’t given time to mourn yang.
it also was weird to kill her off two episodes and probably only, like, 10-15 in-show minutes, after she’d been saved from death by gaining a human body. i think it would’ve happened anyway, given the many death flags she had, but i’d have expected- and liked- for them to wait a little longer. it would’ve been nice to see her adjust to having a human body, that’s for sure.
and i can fully agree that framing suicide as a good thing is not...a good thing. but, that brings me to the first point when i say ‘misconception’. because, penny’s dead wasn’t suicide at all. and i have no idea why people would frame it that way it the first place.
first of all, if we’re going to start labelling sacrifices as suicides, we’re going to have to say the same about pyrrha, vernal, and probably yang even though she didn’t actually die (but she thought she would). but being killed in a battle while protecting people...is sacrifice. penny asking jaune to kill her quicker, so that she could make sure the powers went to winter, was sacrifice. it also meant that she didn’t have to die slowly and painfully instead. penny was not suicidal. she has never been suicidal. to be suicidal is to want to die. penny never wanted to die- she only ever believed that it was her only choice to save the people she cared about and the city she was assigned to protect. in penny’s situation, i imagine you’d have a hard time finding another way out of all the siuations she’s been in too. it honestly feels like people are only calling it suicide instead of sacrifice to frame the scene as worse than it was, and that rubs me the wrong way.
and now you’re probably wondering, ‘but blaire, if she’d let jaune save her, she wouldn’t have died’. except that everyone who thinks that is missing one critical factor- she would have died anyway.
cinder’s blow was a killing one. from the moment she struck, she was already starting to steal the maiden’s power. a little longer, and she probably would have. but the one thing a lot of people seem to miss is that, even though jaune was there, he would not have been able to save her. firstly, his aura would have been extremely low at that point, considering we see it shatter in this episode; he probably would not have had enough to fill another person. he maybe could’ve sealed the wound a little before his aura would have broken, and then cinder would’ve just kept going with no problem.
but, even if he somehow had been able to- his aura recharges pretty quickly, after all- another critical factor is that there literally wasn’t time. penny said so herself. as i mentioned earlier, cinder was winning the fight agaisnt weiss. and we’ve seen how long it takes for jaune to heal someone. with weiss, he was lucky; there were several other people there to protect him and weiss while he did his work. with penny, there was only weiss. the moment cinder saw jaune healing her, that would’ve been it. with both of them defenselss, she probably would have killed jaune on the spot, given that weiss never would have been able to stop her on her own, and continued to take penny’s power. jaune or not, penny would have died. because penny didn’t kill herself, jaune didn’t kill her, cinder killed her. this was a murder.
bu then, what was all that about penny finally making her own choice? was it not to die?
no. of course it wasn’t. how i ever believed that myself at one point baffles me, because the more i look back, the more it’s very obvious that it wasn’t the case. it’s almost funny, actually, because my current self would’ve called myself from two weeks ago stupid for believeing such a thing. 
as i mentioned, penny has never wanted to die. and, in this case, it wasn’t even that she felt she had to for the greator good; she was dying anyway. her choice had nothing to do with death. her choice was who to pass the winter maiden’s power onto. because, if jaune hadn’t used his sword and severe’d cinder’s connection, the power very likely would have gone to cinder instead. she’d have the relics and both the fall and winter powers, and she’d have been near-unstoppable otherwise. 
even the wiki editors somehow saw this more clearly than i did, but like i said, it’s actually pretty obvious. once you get the weird idea that penny was suicidal out of your head, it’s clear to see that the choice she was talking about was to choose winter. and it’s a damn good thing she did, because winter probably would have died otherwise, and the evacuees would’ve been left defensless agaisnt the grimm- penny wouldn’t have been able to save them, as we’ve established.
the last thing that everyone should consider is that we literally have no idea what could happen next. it’s hard to write this off as anything when we don’t know what effect it will have on the story and characters, or- though it’s a stretch- if penny will even stay dead. she is, after all, based off a character who dies and is ressurected on a frequent basis. it was the same case with pyrrha and clover’s deaths; both were dismissed as bad writing based purely on assumptions, only for the auidence to find out later that both deaths actually served pretty reasonable purposes; pyrrhas’s to set the stakes and give all of the character’s a reason to keep fighting, and clover’s to demonstrate how loyal-to-a-fault the aceops were, and that ironwood had no problem sacrificing his own men.
in the end, to call this a good writing choice is probably a stretch. but, it wasn’t a bad one either. there were just too many factors that weren’t considered, or were misunderstood, and the aformentioned rushed feeling of the episode probably did not help with picking all this out. these are realizations it took me days and even weeks to come to. what’s instead important is to look at the situation from as many different angles as possible, and to keep in mind that we can’t really say anything for certain about the consequences of the event. nuance is important! espeiclaly in media critisism!
i genuinely hoped this has opened people’s eyes, even if they already didn’t consider it bad writing. seeing crwby, and this show, undermined so drastically, has been pretty hard for me to see, especially when some people are using it to call crwby morally wrong. i’ve even seen people say it was transphobic, because penny was trans-coded, while totally dismissing may, a canonically trans character. and i know that crwby are getting death threats again, which is bitterly disappointing and enraging. stop. and stop enabling this behaviour. 
also, if you’ve read over all of this and still don’t personally like the decision, that’s fine and understandable. i can easily see why people still wouldn’t. but i think it’s important to remember that not liking a writing deicsion doesn’t necceserily make it a bad one. kind of like how me not liking any of star wars doesn���t make it a bad franchise.
thanks for reading, and please remember to just...be nice. and if you’re still mourning penny’s death, which is understandable, remember to look after your mental health! she would want you to!
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imakemywings · 3 years
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I'll go ahead and ask Maglor and Maedhros for the character asks :D
Character ask meme
Everyone's favorite problematic Elves 👌
Maedhros
First impression
Haven't I heard this dude's name around the fandom before?
Impression now
Oh boy. Oh boy. Maedhros is possibly problematic Elf #1 because he just takes Feanor's ball and runs with it. And yet...you can still sort of sympathize with him? He does his best against Morgoth and he tries to keep the rest of the Feanorians in line and he survives 30 years of captivity by Morgoth but...buddy...yeah you didn't order the killing of Elured and Elurin but that doesn't make either of the later kinslayings a cool move...
Maedhros is just such a complex character and I love that, and while you can easily say he becomes a villain, I don't think you can ever cut it as clean as "Maedhros is good" or "Maedhros is bad."
Favorite moment
I would love to know more about his "deeds of surpassing valor" in Middle-earth but in absence of that, the moment when he surrenders the kingship to Fingolfin is wild. I have a meta on that that I need to finish because it was such a stroke of diplomatic brilliance I'm still not over it.
Idea for a story
There are so many good places to insert "missing scenes" or filling in some of Tolkien's brief descriptions. I'm fascinated also with his departure from Elrond and Elros, and like...what the hell did he and Maglor do between then and stealing the Silmarils? What did they talk about? And of course I love any story that dives into Maedhros feeling the pressure to take up Feanor's mantle and live up to his father's legend/expectations.
Unpopular opinion
Taking in Elrond and Elros was not a good guy move. It was a "we killed all their family and kin and now we feel incredibly guilty" move. I'm not sure how unpopular this is, but since the Feanorians are, essentially, the protagonists of The Silmarillion, their behavior gets a lot of excuse from fans.
Also, and this is only secondarily related to Maedhros, but Maedhros and Maglor were responsible for Elwing's suicide. Elwing did not "abandon" her children. She was driven to her death by the Feanorians.
EDIT: Oh I did think of an actually unpopular one: I don’t ship him with Fingon.
Favorite relationship
Oh this is hard! I've written a couple stories about Maedhros' relationship with Finrod, but I think his relationship with his brothers is probably most compelling for the sheer amount of influence he exerts over them. He keeps them in hand to the very end, which says something about how forceful of a personality he has, because the other children of Feanor aren't exactly push-overs.
Favorite headcanon
You know, sometimes it's really hard in this fandom to remember what's fanon and what's canon, and what's fanon heavily informed by canon.
This is another thing I talk about in the "giving up the kingship" meta, but I think that after the Battle of Unnumbered Tears, Maedhros despaired of ever defeating Morgoth and/or retrieving the Silmarils, and that led directly to his later actions.
Maglor
First impression
Music
Impression now
Maglor you're a delight but boy you really need a backbone. Tolkien drops all these one-liners that I would love a deeper explanation of. The fandom generally portrays Maglor as a lot mellower than Maedhros which I get, but he also follows Maedhros into so much shit.
Favorite moment
Arguing with Maedhros not to steal the Silmarils. There's not a lot of dialogue in The Silmarillion, but Tolkien expends some of it on this conversation, and it's the first time we ever see Maglor openly dissent with Maedhros, and try to push Maedhros to take things his way. And Maglor is right. For the first time, we see one of the Feanorians openly assert that they should give up on the Silmarils and beg the forgiveness of the Valar and try to go home instead of tying the rest of their lives to this hopeless and bloody quest. He gets beaten down in the end, and goes along with Maedhros, but this stood out to me a lot.
Idea for a story
I liked your concept about Maglor turning against Maedhros during the Third Kinslaying, possibly after the deaths of Amrod and Amras, and what impact that would have had on the rest of the story.
I'd also be curious with something that explores his time ruling over Maglor's Gap, and how he ran things and what his court was like.
Unpopular opinion
Again not sure this is unpopular, but Maglor is just as much to blame for what happened later as Maedhros. Even though he disagreed with stealing the Silmarils, and may have disagreed with the kinslayings, he still did them. He can't pull the "well Maedhros was in charge, I just did what he said!" card. He could have chosen to stop following Maedhros, but he didn't.
Favorite relationship
With Maedhros. I know I was just pretty critical of their relationship, but it is so fascinating. There's definitely room to feel they were particularly close among Feanor's children, and I buy into the idea that Maglor had a bit of big brother hero-worship for Maedhros that never really went away, and it's just interesting to see how Maglor convinces himself to keep following Maedhros even when he disagrees with what Maedhros is doing.
Favorite headcanon
He took the greater role in parenting Elrond and Elros, and wanted to be close to them, and possibly saw raising them as a redemptive act, whereas Maedhros never wanted Elrond and Elros to forget who they were and what they did, and it led to a lot of conflict between them in how to handle the twins.
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sevendeadlymorons · 3 years
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Hey I’m that one anon from a while back that sent those long ass paragraphs about Lilith and Simeon, remember me? Anyway I know I’m very late to the party, but some of the boys are either getting to much hate or too much love over here (in my opinion) so I made a pros and cons list for all of them, I’m sorry- (I’m warning you now this will be long but I’ll put it in bullet points so it’s a bit easier to read, just read it whenever your mentally ready lol)
Lucifer (I hate this man.)
Pros
He’d help a lot with getting your life together wether that be finding a job, choosing the right college or other shit like that
He’d make sure your working hard and getting everything done, which is both a blessing and a curse tbh
He would be the one to take the most care of you whenever your ill psychically
Cons
He would probably overwork you
Doesnt have much time to spend on you and doesn’t make a effort to find more time unless your getting really sad about it
Probably wouldn’t be the best of help through issues with mental illness (he just doesn’t strike me as that type, feel free to disagree)
His pride would cause some serious problems in relationships :/
Mammon (I love this man.)
Pros
He’s the “if your sad, I’m sad” kind of guy so he does whatever he can to put a smile on your face
Makes his affection towards you known once he’s comfortable enough, mostly through things like hugs and head pats tho
He shows off anything you make, and I mean anything (you gave him a drawing? After showing it to everyone he puts it on the fridge. You wrote something? He reads it to everyone then puts it in his notebook to reread later, I think you get where I’m going with this)
Cons
There would probably be some communication issues due to his tsundere nature and habit of ignoring you when he’s mad
He’d get super mad at you when your trying to help him financially, maybe it’s a ego thing or maybe he’s just tired of hearing it
While his possessiveness is cute at times he’d definitely get way to overbearing if you don’t force him to cool it
Levi (I kin this man.)
Pros
He’d try to set up designated hangout times (like Friday is movie night, Tuesday is for RPGs etc)
Wanna spend time with him but aren’t very into what he’s into? While it will be harder to bond with him because of this I think if you REALLY wanted to hang with him he’d at least try to meet you in the middle (like if you like sports he’ll offer to play wii sports lol)
Insecurities getting you down again? Well never fear, levi is here! He’d find characters with flaws similar to those you see in yourself to prove that they don’t really matter (and since he struggles with insecurity himself he’d know how you feel and be one of the best at helping you through them)
Cons
Even if he makes an effort to meet you in the middle if you have different interests he’d refuse to get into “normie” stuff
He’ll guilt trip you constantly, even if it’s not on purpose (“Oh your hanging out with Asmo today? I get it, of course you’d wanna hang out with somebody cool and perfect like Asmo and not a gross yucky otaku like me”)
You have to initiate almost everything Hugs? You hug first. Handholding? You reach out to him. Confessions? You seriously thought he’d be the one to confess first??
Satan
Pros
Similar to Lucifer he’d be good at helping you get your life together and putting you on the right track
Unlike Lucifer, he’d actively make time for date nights and/or hangouts multiple times a week wether your going out for dinner or reading in front of the fireplace
While he himself might not be best at helping with comfort in the moment, he’d be great to turn to if you needed a long time treatment (you need a therapist? He’s got the best three in your area that you can afford and he found some helpful things you can do in this book)
Cons
As stated previously, he’s not the best with comfort, which can be an issue if you need a friend/partner who can be your biggest source of comfort (I’m not saying he’ll do nothing, it’ll just be kinda awkward ig)
If you vent to him about something he’ll always offer advice and while that can be good, sometimes all you want is someone to listen to you and getting advice can be annoying in the moment
I feel like hanging out with him you’d rarely ever get to talk about pointless things, everything would be serious you know? And while serious and deep conversations are good for bonding, some people (myself included) need to be able to talk about dumb things without having it turn philosophical
Asmo
Pros
He’s the best at boosting your confidence, there’s no competition
He’s more into spontaneous outings (he suddenly got the urge to go shopping, your coming with right?)
You can talk about just about anything with him, no judgment and he’ll never speak a word of it to anyone else if you don’t want him to (although he may brag to his brothers that you told him your secrets)
High emotional IQ
Cons
He has set things of things he’s interested in and his idea of trying the things your into is doing whatever it is for about 5 seconds then deciding it’s not for him
He cares a lot about looks, I don’t mean he’ll hate you or insult you cause he thinks your ugly, I mean he’ll constantly try to do your makeup, hair, and nails and he’ll always say things like “Your hair is a bit messy today, did you brush it? Yes? Well not good enough, let me do it” and “your wearing that out? There’s nothing wrong with it, I just think you’d look a lot cuter in this” and if your anything like me, that’ll get on your nerves a lot
While he’s great with emotional issues, if it’s a problem with anything like school or your job he’ll have no solution to offer, all you’ll get is a “You can do it!” and a good luck kiss
Narcissistic, need I say more?
Beel
Pros
He’s the best person to vent to, no judgment and tons of hugs and comfort food
He’s a mom friend, no explanation needed
Very supportive and always concerned for your health
Your in trouble? Call beel, he’ll help you and make sure your home safe before questioning you and will only lecture you out of love (unlike a certain older brother that will lecture you because “Your tarnishing Diavlo’s reputation by acting out like this. Your an exchange student, you must abide by the rules and behave yourself.”)
Cons
Food is his answer to everything (Sad?Food. Injured? Food. School’s stressful? Food plus a little help studying) and while food can be good for comfort, sometimes you need him to provide more than a snack
He’s the opposite of Satan in the sense that he’ll almost never offer advice when you rant to him, he just assumes getting it all out is help enough and won’t offer much more then a hug and food
Not getting along with one of his brothers? “They can be a handful, but they’re great people once you learn to handle the chaos” yeah he rarely thinks what his brothers did is a big deal so he gives you advice on how to apologize and get past it and he’ll give you food
Belphie (he really does attract the mentally ill people huh-)
Cons
I feel like he’d be good for certain people with social anxiety and people who have issues with always being scared about being a bad person (“you think your a bad person and are becoming more and more toxic by the day? Well your a better person than Lucifer that’s for sure, wether or not your toxic were going to cuddle now get in bed” or “your worried everyone is constantly staring and judging you for everything you do? Well I don’t really care about what your wearing or the way you walk so I doubt they do either, can we go home now?” ((Side note, I experience both of these issues and his uncaring personality would calm me, which is why I think this one of his pros))
He just wouldn’t care about whatever type of life style you lead and as someone who’s constantly scared of being judged for their lifestyle this would be amazing (“you sleep all the time? Same let’s nap together” “You don’t eat very healthy? Whatever, it’s fine, can we sleep now?” ((although it is a double edged sword))
He gets a burst of energy and just does the most random things (you see that tree? He’s already climbed half way up it. That petting zoo? He’s already feeding the lambs. That store? He’s already spent 30 grim)
Cons
Just like his twin he thinks every problem has one solution, but instead of food he thinks the solution is sleep (your sick? Sleep is the best medicine. A lot of homework? If you sleep you don’t have to think about it.)
At some point he just doesn’t care enough, if you come to him with a serious issue he’ll half listen to you rant then pull you down to sleep
He teases you a lot, which is fine teasing is fun, but he takes it too far. Maybe he touched on something your insecure about or he was too merciless, whatever it was, he won’t apologize for it, he just thinks your being sensitive. If he brought up some bad memories he’ll consider it, but his way of apologizing is cuddling
He doesn’t wanna do something? You guys aren’t gonna do it. You don’t wanna do something? Too bad, he wants to so your gonna.
I’m sorry this is so long- I tried to shorten it I swear- but anyway if you disagree I’m with anything, I wanna hear what you think
And even tho Beel doesn’t get much screen time and more serious moments, I think his character is way more then hunger
Random but I wanna add that other then Levi I kin Tamaki from mha and Ranpo from bsd
Dude do you just like torturing poor college students? This is so much to read, I’m about to cry 😭
I agree with the Lucifer part actually! Tho I do kinda thing he’s be good emotion support in some ways, for me, anyway. I feel like he may lack empathy that is needed in a stable relationship. Yes, he may be able to tell you with shit and honestly, he’d book my doctors appointments when I’m too anxious too so yknow. But yeah
Also agree with mammon. He’s a jackass when he wants to be, and I know he may not mean it, but his words are still hurtful in a lot of ways and he just can’t convey those emotions that’re needed in a loving relationship. But he’s so sweet and will show you off so it’s all good~
As much as I love Levi, I agree. He manipulates and guilt trips you throughout the entire game. It can’t be healthy in relationships but that don’t stop me from loving that sweet otaku boy 😔🖤
I agree with Satan too. I don’t have much to say but he’s avatar of wrath for a reason, for a start, and he honestly looks like he’d prefer talking about books than that funny thing that happened in class that made you laugh earlier
Agreed with Asmo too. Sometimes he may just get overbearing and the narcissism and the constant need to make you look better and improve you may get irritating
I agree with Beel. I don’t think he can comprehend that food isn’t an answer to everything and as a person who doesn’t cope with food and relatively hates it, he won’t be any help to me emotionally. He’s so sweet but he just won’t give you that proper support
I love Belphie so so much but I absolutely agree. He’s one of the most unbothered brothers who won’t care what you look like, yes, but that also means compliments may come rarely and like his twin, “sleep is the answer to everything” I can admit I like to sleep but I have a manic side that comes with insomnia and if he’s dragging me down and not letting me move and I just cannot sleep, I’m gonna get irritated and pissed off.
This got a bit long on my end too. I just really liked how you worded this and it was fun to see pros and cons of the ‘perfect’ brothers
I think Beel is more than food too, but I just don’t particularly like him either way cuz I’m not really a foodie so I can’t relate with him lmao
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paenling · 4 years
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no ones saying you cant enjoy daniil? people like him as a character but mostly Because he’s an asshole and he’s interesting. the racism and themes of colonization in patho are so blatant
nobody said “by order of Law you are forbidden from enjoying daniil dankovsky in any capacity”, but they did say “if you like daniil dankovsky you are abnormal, problematic, and you should be ashamed of yourself”, so i’d call that an implicit discouragement at the least. not very kind.
regardless, he is a very interesting asshole and we love to make fun of him! but i do not plan to stop seeing his character in an empathetic light when appropriate to do so. we’re all terribly human.
regarding “the racism and themes of colonization in patho”, we’ve gotta have a sit-down for this one because it’s long and difficult. tl;dr here.
i’ve written myself all back and forth and in every direction trying to properly pin down the way i feel about this in a way that is both logically coherent and emotionally honest, but it’s not really working. i debated even responding at all, but i do feel like there are some things worth saying so i’m just going to write a bunch of words, pick a god, and pray it makes some modicum of sense.
the short version: pathologic 2 is a flawed masterwork which i love deeply, but its attempts to be esoteric and challenging have in some ways backfired when it comes to topical discussions such as those surrounding race, which the first game didn’t give its due diligence, and the second game attempted with incomplete success despite its best efforts.
the issue is that when you have a game that is so niche and has these “elevated themes” and draws from all this kind of academic highbrow source material -- the fandom is small, but the fandom consists of people who want to analyze, pathologize, and dissect things as much as possible. so let’s do that.
first: what exactly is racist or colonialist in pathologic? i’m legitimately asking. people at home: by what mechanism does pathologic-the-game inflict racist harm on real people? the fact that the Kin are aesthetically and linguistically inspired by the real-world Buryat people (& adjacent groups) is a potential red flag, but as far as i can tell there’s never any value judgement made about either the fictionalized Kin or the real-world Buryat. the fictional culture is esoteric to the player -- intended to be that way, in fact -- but that’s not an inherently bad thing. it’s a closed practice and they’re minding their business.
does it run the risk of being insensitive with sufficiently aggressive readings? absolutely, but i don’t think that’s racist by itself. they’re just portrayed as a society of human beings (and some magical ones, if you like) that has flaws and incongruences just as the Town does. it’s not idealizing or infantilizing these people, but by no means does it go out of its way to villainize them either. there is no malice in this depiction of the Kin. 
is it the fact that characters within both pathologic 1 & 2 are racist? that the player can choose to say racist things when inhabiting those characters? no, because pathologic-the-game doesn’t endorse those things. they’re throwaway characterization lines for assholes. acknowledging that racism exists does not make a media racist. see more here.
however, i find it’s very important to take a moment and divorce the racial discussions in a game like pathologic 2 from the very specific experiences of irl western (particularly american) racism. it’s understandable for such a large chunk of the english-speaking audience to read it that way; it makes sense, but that doesn’t mean it’s correct. although it acknowledges the relevant history to some extent, on account of being set in 1915, pathologic 2 is not intended to be a commentary about race, and especially not current events, and especially especially not current events in america. it’s therefore unfair, in my opinion, to attempt to diagnose it with any concrete ideology or apply its messages to an american racial paradigm.
it definitely still deals with race, but it always, to me, seemed to come back around the exploitation of race as an ultimately arbitrary division of human beings, and the story always strove to be about human beings far more than it was ever about race. does it approach this topic perfectly? no, but it’s clearly making an effort. should we be aware of where it fails to do right by the topic? yes, definitely, but we should also be charitable in our interpretations of what the writers were actually aiming for, rather than reactionarily deeming them unacceptable and leaving it at that. do we really think the writers for pathologic 2 sat down and said “we’re going to go out of our way to be horrible racists today”? i don’t.
IPL’s writing team is a talented lot, and dybowski as lead writer has the kinds of big ideas that elevate a game to a work of art, particularly because he’s not afraid to get personal. on that front, some discussion is inescapable as pathologic 2 deals in a lot of racial and cultural strife, because it’s clearly something near to the his heart, but as i understand it was never really meant to be a narrative “about” race, at least not exclusively so, and especially not in the same sense as the issue is understood by the average American gamer. society isn't a monolith and the contexts are gonna change massively between different cultures who have had, historically, much different relationships with these concepts.
these themes are “so blatant” in pathologic 2 because clearly, on some level, IPL wanted to start a discussion. I think it’s obvious that they wanted to make the audience uncomfortable with the choices they were faced with and the characters they had to inhabit -- invoke a little ostranenie, as it were, and force an emotional breaking point. in the end the game started a conversation and i think that’s something that was done in earnest, despite its moments of obvious clumsiness. 
regarding colonialism, this is another thing that the game is just Not About. we see the effects and consequences of colonialism demonstrated in the world of pathologic, and it’s something we’re certainly asked to think about from time to time, but the actual plot/narrative of the game is not about overcoming or confronting explicitly colonialist constructs, etc. i personally regard this as a bit of a missed opportunity, but it’s just not what IPL was going for.
instead they have a huge focus, as discussed somewhat in response to this ask, on the broader idea of powerful people trying to create a “utopia” at the mortal cost of those they disempower, which is almost always topical as far as i’m concerned, and also very Russian.
i think there was some interview where it was said that the second game was much more about “a mechanism that transforms human nature” than the costs of utopia, but it’s still a persistent enough theme to be worth talking about both as an abstraction of colonialism as well as in its more-likely intended context through the lens of wealth inequality, environmental destruction & government corruption as universal human issues faced by the marginalized classes. i think both are important and intelligent readings of the text, and both are worth discussion.
both endings of pathologic 2 involve sacrifice in the name of an “ideal world” where it’s impossible to ever be fully satisfied. in the Diurnal Ending, Artemy is tormented over the fate of the Kin and the euthanasia of his dying god and all her miracles, but he needs to have faith that the children he’s protected will grow up better than their parents and create a world where he and his culture will be immortalized in love. in the Nocturnal Ending, he’s horrified because in preserving the miracle-bound legacy of his people as a collective, he’s un-personed himself to the individuals he loves, but he needs to have faith that the uniqueness and magic of the resurrected Earth was precious enough to be worth that sacrifice. neither ending is fair. it’s not fair that he can’t have both, but that’s the idea. because that “utopia” everyone’s been chasing is an idol that distracts from the important work of being a human being and doing your best in a flawed world. 
because pathologic’s themes as a series are so very “Russian turn-of-the-century” and draw a ton of stylistic and topical inspiration from the theatre and literature of that era, i don’t doubt that it’s also inherited some of its inspirational literature’s missteps. however, because the game’s intertextuality is so incredibly dense it’s difficult to construct a super cohesive picture of its actual messaging. a lot of its references and themes will absolutely go over your head if you enter unprepared -- this was true for me, and it ended up taking several passes and a bunch of research to even begin appreciating the breadth of its influences.
(i’d argue this is ultimately a good thing; i would never have gone and picked up Camus or Strugatsky, or even known who Antonin Artaud was at all if i hadn’t gone in with pathologic! my understanding is still woefully incomplete and it’s probably going to take me a lot more effort to get properly fluent in the ideology of the story, but that’s the joy of it, i think. :) i’m very lucky to be able to pursue it in this way.)
anyway yes, pathologic 2 is definitely very flawed in a lot of places, particularly when it tries to tackle race, but i’m happy to see it for better and for worse. the game attempts to discuss several adjacent issues and stumbles as it does so, but insinuating it to be in some way “pro-racist” or “pro-colonialist” or whatever else feels kind of disingenuous to me. they’re clearly trying, however imperfectly, to do something intriguing and meaningful and empathetic with their story.
even all this will probably amount to a very disjointed and incomplete explanation of how pathologic & its messaging makes me feel, but what i want -- as a broader approach, not just for pathologic -- is for people to be willing to interpret things charitably. 
sometimes things are made just to be cruel, and those things should be condemned, but not everything is like that. it���s not only possible but necessary to be able to acknowledge flaws or mistakes and still be kind. persecuting something straight away removes any opportunity to examine it and learn from it, and pathologic happens to be ripe with learning experiences. 
it’s all about being okay with ugliness, working through difficult nuances with grace, and the strength of the human spirit, and it’s a story about love first and foremost, and i guess we sort of need that right now. it gave me some of its love, so i’m giving it some of my patience.
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Okay so continued from this ask about Kyoko
Anyways, as introduced in THH, Kyoko is an extremely distant person with an iron mask, which intimidates everyone around her.
Everytime she happens to be described, she is described as something akin to a ghost aka not someone belonging to this world because of how ethereal her presence is.
She was moulded (read: traumatized) by her grandpa to become a detective to the extent that she was desperate to prove herself to him to not get kicked out like her father (she was also manipulated into believing that her father left because he didn't care about her by said grandpa) since her grandpa was...well the only one who had showed her a proper modicum of love at that point.
Her family took being a detective as something involving an extreme amount of honour which resulted in her trauma.
She also... didn't know what she was apart from a "perfect Detective" and was terrified of that internally (she has a LOT of parallels with Nagito which is why I REALLY want them to team up atleast ONCE likedanganronpaIambeggingyou), since she felt like an empty husk due to repressing her emotions since forever.
Because that's how a true detective should be (...it's really scary how MUCH she fits my own ideal of a detective), operating by cold hard logic to uncover the truth from the messy web of lies and make it known. A detective was to not take sides, nor aspire for fame (coughSherlockHolmescough), they must always remain neutral and not let personal feelings or prejudices come into the way, and she followed that.
Now, in the first game (I assume it was the worst for her since all she knew about herself was simply that she's a detective), everyone loses their memories of their school life with each other, leading them to believe that they had just met. They all remember their Ultimate Talents (heads up: An Ultimate Talent is something that you must be the very best at in your particular field in your age group. If you are like that, then Hope's Peak Academy personally scouts you and you are invited to attend the school as an "Ultimate"), apart from Kyoko.
Yeah, she quite possibly forgot that she was a detective, or atleast she forgot that she was the Ultimate of it, nevertheless, the main source of her self confidence and rigidity was lost to vague memory, which I believe caused her closed off ness to be more exaggerated, since I believe she was TERRIFIED. Imagine the one thing you stake your identity on....which you end up forgetting.
Throughout the game, she basically carries the class trials by herself and is virtually the only reason the six survivors are actually survivors.
However due to her upbringing, she has another issue which happens to be...
....severe trust issues. She has been told not to trust anyone and considering that they are in a literal KILLING GAME, you really can't blame her.
However, this leads to her downfall.
In Chapter 3, she disappears since she has presumably found a secret passage in the bathroom which she was investigating along with the school to find the secret of the Killing Game and the mastermind. She refuses to trust her classmates and shoulders the entire responsibility onto herself, since she desperately wants to uncover the truth....
.....her motto which she has been clinging onto for dear life, underneath all the turmoil.
Makoto (our sweet sweet protagonist, the nicest person ever in Danganronpa) notices this and gently tells her that she can rely on him....that she doesn't have to shoulder everything by herself. He doesn't act pushy, he just tells her that it's okay for her to trust people since she literally looked dazed when she came back in Chapter 3, and she goes,
"Okay, I will give this trusting people thing a try."
She then trusts him with the secret of the bathroom hidden passage but he ends up getting attacked and in bed. F.
Anyways, that causes him to become the target of the mastermind.
Now Kyoko, apparently due to her training is capable of hearing "Reaper's footsteps" aka she can "hear" when her or someone she really loves's death is close.
Now, when Makoto nearly gets killed by the mastermind, Kyoko hears it and fights them off. The mastermind had been planning to kill Makoto and frame her as his killer which she realised so she stays at his room until she's sure the danger has passed.
Anyways, she obviously leaves and then the rest of the classmates discover a dead body whose mask they try to take off but it explodes and Makoto notices that they are dressed the same way as his attacker was. Kyoko arrives way late which makes him wonder whether she had killed that person or not.
Fast forward to the trial where she says that it's now or never for her.
Anyways.
What we have to remember about Kyoko is her MAIN motivation aka solving the mystery. She wouldn't hesitate to make sacrifices to get to it. She is dedicated to her job.
[We also have to remember that she spent her life travelling from place to place, always shifting schools, causing a lack of proper attachments. The only attachment she had was her grandpa until she met Yui Samidare who dies pretty soon during a case via self sacrifice for Kyoko in a way. During all this, her motto and her dedication to it were the only constants].
Anyways.
The mastermind attempted to frame Kyoko for that particular dead body, but Kyoko manipulated the whole trial and framed Makoto as the culprit instead to save her own life.
Makoto gets sent to the execution but doesn't die since his Ultimate Luck talent saves him and he gets thrown into a trash dumpster.
Kyoko comes to save him and apologises. A small sign of trust since she literally never does that. Makoto was virtually the only one she trusted since despite her frosty exterior, he tried to get to know her, but didn't push and just gave her space......and said trust in her backfired and caused him to nearly die but anyways—.
At that point, Kyoko has remembered her Ultimate Talent (Ultimate Detective) and she trusts Makoto with that. She further trusts Makoto with telling him about her frustrations against her father. She didn't even admit them to herself until much much later.....and she trusts him enough to say that.....
....maybe because of how easily he forgave her but eh—
Anyways, she finds her father's skeleton in a nice little box, gift wrapped and everything which causes her to lose her composure ever so slightly and Makoto leaves to give her space to collect herself.
~~~~~
Even though the first game was essentially Hope VS Despair, it was also about Trust.
Since if you do not trust in the feeling of Hope, you will fall into despair.
Something we can see with Kirigiri in a way.
Kyoko being a detective is possibly the best way to broach the topic of trust, since lies and truth are directly connected to it.
If you are truthful with someone, then that usually means that you trust them.
Kyoko's motto was to remain neutral and without biases which caused her to actually develop a bias, nearly getting her best friend killed.
She wanted to solve the mystery and uncover the truth, however she also realised that without trusting others with some modicum of the truth, she wouldn't be able to do so.
When she arrives at the very end of Goodbye Despair in the 6th trial, it's nice to see her relationship with trust having grown enough to give the Remnants a second chance by trusting that they would be able to find the core truth inside themselves to break free from the lies crafted by the mastermind's brainwashing.
Hajime finds his own truth and decides to go "fuck this, I will make my OWN future" due to this.
[She ALSO finds out that her father was involved in Hajime's inhumane brainwashing which probably just destroyed her last bit of trust towards Hope's Peak Academy but eh].
In DR3, when she holds Naegi's hand with her ungloved burnt hands, it's a symbol of HOW much her trust has grown in order for her to bare her wounds like this to reach to him and pull him out of his own despair.
In conclusion: She's the best person ever and deserves the world
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JESUS FUCKING CHRIST SHE SAW A WRAPPED GIFT OF HER FATHER'S SKELETON AND 'LOST HER COMPOSURE SLIGHTLY'???!!!! WHAT THE FUCK.
also she sounds creepily like you and kinda like me too this is so weird also she had daddy issues vibes I KNEW IT
Also i was so irrationally excited at the prospect of a nagito and kyoko pairing like its not like id be able to read it anyways but then i realised. it would be VERY similar to the sheep scene in loki. the sheer xNTx vibes my GOD.
also this is pretty much what happened to nico too and im scared of how we kin such similar characters im terrified
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