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httpsfelicity · 4 years

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“In a black dress, she’s such an actress” - Harry Styles × Model Reader AU

Summary - Harry meets a model downtown and falls for her quickly, leading the public to think that it’s a pr stunt. Unsure of what to think, the reader plays along, not knowing that Harry is unaware of the rumours.

For @cruizmanadu, @stephaniemalvie!, @kissessfordraco Xx

A/N - Third and final chapter! Wow! Thank you for the support on this. I apologize for it being shorter than the other chapters. Sadly it’s the end of this story, but if you click here you’ll find my master list and you can request things here. Thank you so so much for everything! I hope you enjoy!

Part one HERE

Part two HERE

“Harry.”

"..."

"Harry."

Harry jolted awake from beside you. "Hi, y/n. What's up?"

"You tell me what's up."

"Um... well, I was just asleep. And now, I'm awake. What about you...?"

"Just wondering why I'm here."

Harry sat up and turned on a lamp. "What? Do you want to go home? I can call you a cab. Pass me my phone. You should've just said."

"No, not 'Why I'm here' as in your apartment here, but as in -" You motioned to the two of you quickly "-here, you know?"

"Oh," Harry put his face in his hands. "I must've misinterpreted something along the way. Oh."

"No, just..." You sighed. How were you supposed to explain this? You racked your brain for an answer to this seemingly impossible question. "Am I some sort of publicity stunt? Or beard? Like, a fake girlfriend?"

Harry raised his eyebrows. "What? What makes you think that?"

"Well, I don't know. It just feels that way. It doesn't feel that way with you, per say, but people online and in the news think that I'm just with you for a bit of good TV."

Harry shook his head, his curls falling into his eyes unintentionally. "That's one hundred percent not the reason why you're 'here', y/n. Not at all."

You turned your head to the side, allowing him to continue on.

Harry just shook his head again. "I- I'm sort of out-of-the-loop on this whole situation. I don't use social media much... can you fill me in?"

You nodded. "Well, we met, obviously. That's where it started."

Harry laughed a little, then waited for you to keep on talking.

"And then after - well, during our first date, or first outing, or whatever, people saw us and took photos and posted them. And that's where it all kicked off."

Harry nodded understandingly.

"Then yesterday, people took loads of photos, and the press and the general public must be starting to get impatient or whatever, because they're really mad. They want to know if I'm a PR stunt or not."

"Yes, but you know you're not one, so what's the worry for?"

You looked down and took a deep breath. "Well, we've only been out twice, and both times the paps found us. Both times we were in a really public place, and a fancy one, too."

"But if you were, wouldn't I have told you? And if not me, someone important from management?"

"My management doesn't tell me much. I thought it could be a bit of a possibility."

"Trust me, y/n. I'm here right now because I am genuinely interested in you. Not because some intern told me to be. I would never, ever keep a secret that big from you. Or any secret, actually. None. I'm sorry you feel that way. I wish you would've told me sooner. I could've arranged a different date, er, whatever."

"Yeah, date," you confirmed. Might as well call it that now. "But I just... well, I guess that's all, really," you laughed.

"So... are we gonna keep doing...-" Harry motioned between the two of you like you had done earlier, "-this?"

"Well, I mean, I can't see why not. I still like you. And you..."

"I obviously still like you. Don't be silly!"

"Okay, and you still like me," you blushed. You felt embarrassed because seriously, blushing? are you 14 again?, but at the same time you were over the moon.

"We can definitely make this whole everyone-thinks-we're-fake thing work. We can just go on, um, dates in private. Like, I can probably get a special reservation..."

"No, no, don't go through all that work. I don't really care what anyone else thinks. And if it gets too bad, do you know what we do?"

"What?"

You quickly grabbed his phone and opened up the camera. "Say cheese!"

The both of you smiled obnoxiously as you hit the capture button.

"That's so cute," Harry laughed as he admired it from his camera roll. "Can I post it?"

"I thought you said you didn't use social media?"

"I'll make an exception for you," he said, kissing your shoulder fondly.

You laughed, then rolled over. "Sorry for bringing this up at the ripe ol' time of three AM."

Harry layed down and held you close. "Don't worry about it. I'm glad you said it when you did."

"Cheers to communication."

"We aren't drinking anything, though."

"Cheers."

***

*Photo of you and Harry from that night, in black and white with the caption ':)'. Posted by @HarryStyles*

@harrysenchiladas: OMG IT'S OFFICIAL OMG OMG OMG OMG

@camillesluvbird: omg, i remember when i used to stan harry. so glad to see him dating someone so talented. wishing the best to the two of you cuties x

@purple.y/n.mf : Is this the confirmation we've been waiting for?

@haroldgucci69420ahhh: ugh.

@BTSboyscouts_: I'M IN CLASS RN U MUST BE JOKINGHDBHDH

@Junkookie1 replying to @BTSboyscouts_: Armyyyyyy

@katiesummer: Ew. Nope. Unstanning.

@directiondiana: Wait, it's not officially confirmed yet though. It's just a pic. Idk.

@t0x1ch3nr13: KILL URSELF BB. ;)

@Sarahsmile.s replying to @t0x1ch3nr13: Okay chill out plz

@LiamPayne: Congrats mate! :)

@Laylaz replying to @LiamPayne: omg GET OUTTTTT NO WAY NO WAT NO ADIOISHDIUERH

@Princesspark222 replying to @LiamPayne: HI LEEYUM

@y/ncherrypit replying to @LiamPayne: IT'S CONFIRMED

@HarryStyles replying to @LiamPayne: Thanks mate :)x

@directiondiana replying to @HarryStyles: NO FREAKING WAYYYDUFHSDU

@paynoisthebest replying to @HarryStyles: I'M CRYING RN

@julie25drew replying to @HarryStyles: THIS IS THE BEST POSSIBLE COMEBACK OF ALL TIME I STG

***

You leaned over Harry's shoulder to try and get a better look at his phone screen. It was early morning - around eight, you assumed, and you were looking through instagram comments together. Harry had secretly posted the photo while he was taking a pee break in the middle of the night, and the entire internet was in shambles.

"Show me! I wanna read some."

"I'm reading them all!"

"You're skipping the mean ones on purpose. I know you are."

"No I'm not! I swear!"

"Yeah, sure."

"What about that one about how I should cut my hair? That one was pretty mean," he said as he pouted and ran a hand through his chocolate brown bed head.

"Mean ones about me, Harry. There's barely any for you, but me, on the other hand..."

"Wow, self centered much?"

"Harry."

"Sorry, sorry. You know that I'm not funny by now."

"Read them."

"There's none."

"Give me your phone." You reached over and grabbed it from his hands, noticing the many rings on his fingers. You wondered if he slept with them on or just slipped them on as soon as he woke up. You decided to ask him later.

Harry watched as you scrolled through thousands, if not millions, of comments in awe. You were surprised to see that he was right - there we little to no negative comments compared to last time.

"Believe me now?"

You nodded silently.

"Told ya I would never lie."

You rolled into him lazily and grinned.

"Want me to make breakfast?"

"...Sure."

Harry jumped up, and you followed him to the kitchen. It was only when you sat down at the table when you realized you were wearing Harry's clothes.

"Oh my god," you muttered, inspecting your shirt.

"What?" He asked half-heartedly, rooting through his SmartFridge for some eggs. Of course this man had a SmartFridge.

"Just looking at my pink Gucci shirt that I'm just magically wearing right now. And... are these sweatpants Gucci, too?"

"They're just spare clothes I hadn't opened yet. Don't worry, there's no cooties or anything."

"How do you just have spare Gucci clothes lying around?"

Harry shrugged as he shut the door and walked over to the oven. "You can keep them. They suit you better."

"Oh. Well, thanks."

"No problem!"

"Want any help with breakfast?"

"Nope!"

"I can make toast."

"No, I've got it."

"I want to."

"The bread is in the breadbox."

You walked over, took out a (homemade) loaf, and began to cut it. "When did I put these clothes on?"

"After I drug you home from the restaurant."

"Huh."

"You don't remember, do you?"

"...No. Can't say that I do."

"Oh, wow. I knew you were drunk, but not that drunk."

"I didn't embarrass myself, did I?"

"No, of course not."

"Oh, thank goodness. I would've cried."

"Well, there was that one time..."

"What?!"

"I'm just kidding."

"Never pursue a career in stand-up comedy."

"Wasn't planning on it!"

You popped the bread into the toaster and sighed.

"Are you tired?" Harry asked.

"No, but I do want to run to the washroom."

"Okay, I'll be out here if ya need me."

"Okay."

"..."

"Where... is it?"

"You don't remember?"

"Clearly no."

"Down that hall, third door on the right. It's the one with the toilet in it."

Harry doubled over at his own joke while you suppressed a smile that eventually cracked. You walked down his fancy apartment hall and went into the bathroom, shutting the door behind you.

It wasn't until you saw his makeup wipes when you remembered a tiny bit of last night - he had makeup. He had makeup because he had makeup wipes, which he offered to you. After that you went to the kitchen and drank something, and then you woke up with Disney+ paused asking him why you were there and confronting him. Suddenly, memories of being confused came rushing back to you. You grabbed a towel and shook your head, smiling - you were glad that drama fest was over.

You walked back into the kitchen and saw Harry laying out eggs and toast carefully, then standing back and admiring his own work. You smiled; he hadn't noticed you walk in, and he was being cute. You gave him a quick peck on the cheek, and he jumped a little.

"Didn't see you there."

"Hi."

"Bon appetite."

"Why, thank you!"

"Do you know what I was thinking? O should do your makeup after breakfast."

You smiled.

"Do you remember that?"

"I actually did back in the washroom."

"Awesome!"

You smiled as you watched him dig into his eggs. "You're good at keeping promises."

"Thank you!"

You grinned and took a bite.

You could get used to this.

Get used to him.

103 notes · View notes

astyle-alex · 3 years

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[FANFIC - Destiel & JayTim]

Multiverse Mishap | DCU Bat Family x Supernatural

Fandom: DCU Bat Family x Supernatrual Pairings: Destiel, Jay x Tim Rating: Teen Warnings: Swearing, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, Heavy Angst (with a happy ending), Implied Underage Prostitution Total Word Count: ~156k | SPN vers = 76k / Bat vers = 80k

Summary:

One slip up in the lab has Tim Drake careening into a new world where things are rather dramatically different from the world he’s used to. Fortunately, this is not his first rodeo. He knows how to handle this nonsense, more or less at least. Unfortunately, the people of the world he’s wound up in see things a little differently. And when Dick Grayson and Jason Todd mount an ill-conceived rescue mission, things get complicated very quickly.

When Team Free Will is at their lowest (well, their lowest as of YET, at least) with Castiel missing (and probably human), they get thrown a lifeline. Charlie calls with a lead on a strange young-man who bears a stunning resemblance to their MIA angel. Even with the world on a precipice around them, Sam and Dean won’t leave their angel out to dry—Dean especially has a few missteps he’d like to make up for… If only he could find some way to get through to one hella conked out Angel of the Lord.

This project started as a distraction and got WAY out of hand, but I’m actually really excited about it. I’ll be posting it as two separate stories on Ao3 (one form the Bat Family PoV and one from the SPN family PoV, both of which will be updating HERE...) with new chapters going up weekly, but only one chapter from each version.

As excited as I am about it, my schedule is currently in shambles because I got an opportunity to get the COVID Vaccine and it’s thrown my whole schedule into utter chaos. I’m hopeful that I’ll get back on track soon, but I can’t guarantee when I’ll be able to post here or on Ao3.

Since I can schedule posts on Patreon, that updating schedule will be much more definitively regular. The second chapters of each version are already available to Patrons and should open up to all viewers by Monday!

- Multiverse Mishap | SPN Vers - Chapter 2

- Multiverse Mishap | SPN Vers - Chapter 3

- Multiverse Mishap | Bat Vers - Chapter 2

Read the first chapter of the SPN version below (with Charlie playing a super spy and getting Sam & Dean a lead on a maybe-Castiel / maybe-alien-infiltrator) and I hope you all have a fabulous Easter Weekend (whether or not you celebrate religiously, you gotta admit the season-exclusive candy is pretty dang great!)! ^_~

A bit of fiddling, that’s all it was.

Well, that’s all it was supposed to be.

A device that plays with space-time and the very weave of whatever it was that spanned the gap between dimensions?

How could anyone just let something like that gather dust in an archive?

It functioned how it was meant to, it was only that what it was meant to do was cause harm… If they just tweaked it a bit, just a little, gave it an anchor point and limited the scale of possibilities… If they yanked down the juice that kept it powered to a more moderated level…

It could save lives.

So… fiddling.

Just a bit, here and there and on weekends when there wasn’t anything big going on.

The stupid thing wasn’t even turned on most of the time.

It was inert and dead as fricken paperweight (which honestly is what the fiddler in question had mostly been using it for)…

And then… it wasn’t.

One button, a loose screw, the slip of a paperclip…

A big flash of blinding light.

Silence, like the absolute nothing right before the tidal wave hits.

And in that silence, a tiny, over-caffeinated little voice:

“… Oops…”

_ _ _

Chapter 1 – MIA Angel or Alien Infiltrator?

Charlie Bradbury knows she’s awesome.

But there’s the standard awesome that any Queen of Moondoor is simply by nature of being epic enough to have achieved the throne to start with...

And then there’s the awesome that is having created a automated dark web trawling program to track the world’s Big Weirds (and only the very BIGGEST of the Big Weirds) and having that super secret extra level deep vault program actually work.

Well, of course it worked, but it like worked.

It found an Angel.

Sorta.

It found a something.

And an MIA angel, who was not exactly an angel anymore, but also couldn’t really pass as truly human, and who was still on like every watchlist ever (magical, criminal, meme-spirational, etc), but is somehow still entirely off the fricken radar?

Yeah. BIG Weird.

Said angel-not-angel popping up at a Biggerson’s in Ohio with no shoes, more money than god, an insane caffeine tolerance and absolutely no idea how to function inside a Walmart?

HELLA Big Weird.

So Charlie, being the awesome Queen that she is (and being acutely aware of what false hope here could do to the people in particular question with this) went to check it out herself.

Personally.

And, personally, she can say that this kid is the weirdest thing she’s ever seen, and after having day-tripped out to the literal Land of Oz a few times over… well, that’s sayin’ something.

Charlie’s met Castiel.

Not exactly her type, but she could see how that divine slice of puppy in a trench coat could be seen as something of a serious snack.

Though… If he weren’t an angel, she’d swear he was an alien.

But, like, a cool alien.

Much less spy-trained infiltrator than innocent human-admirer who wants to experience the local flavor on his little vacation out to the Milky Way’s most interesting backwater, Sol-3.

And the kid she finds in Ohio… is not that guy.

Not really.

For starters, she’s not entirely sure he’s old enough to drink alcohol.

And he’s… not looking for Sam and Dean ( which is seriously a BIG red flag for deciding whether this particular angel-not-angel is the right angel-not-angel).

He is looking for something, though.

Something he seems to think is in Kansas, near-ish enough to the Bunker’s coordinates to make her question the ‘not looking for Sam and Dean thing’ (but the absolute dinosaur of a smartphone he’s working on to pull up maps could totally just call the bunker, if he wanted to… or any of the plethora of emergency numbers the Boys have set up…).

Charlie’s looking on from a Very Inconspicuous post in the booth two tables away from the kid in the red hoodie and she can feel his frustration with the device radiating off him like physical Force pulses. Fortunately, proto-Sith this kid is not, and all the tables remain table-y.

She’s watching him fight with the internet to find something and his device’s crappy security means she didn’t even have to work hard to get her own screen to show what’s happening on his. He’s definitely looking at Kansas, at going to Kansas— Lebanon in particular.

Messy black hair, big blue eyes, grumpy face to rival any Netscape feline…

Looking for Lebanon and totally out of sync with humanity…

And… his oversized red hoodie just happens to have the 2-D rendering of a big black pair of wings stitched into its backside— stemming right from where they should on the kid’s shoulder blades if the wings were real.

Charlie’s not really gullible enough to believe in signs from God anymore…

But if she were… well, that would be pretty convincingly Divine Sign-like.

So, she makes the call.

Sam picks up on the third ring.

“So, you know how like the main character always has dramatically weird colored hair and sits in the second to last desk by the window?”

With a heavy sigh filled with enough affection to make Charlie’s insides feel all squiggly and warm, Sam says, “No, Charlie, I have absolutely no idea.”

“Well, they do.”

“Okay. And?”

“They are Narrative Significant, they stick out from the background in like a big way, but not just in like a ‘doing main character things’ kinda way,” Charlie rambles, trying to find her point buried under the spiraling metaphor.

“Charlie, do you know what time it is?”

“Uh, 2, maybe, 3am. I think. But that may have been like three coffees ago,” Charlie prattles off automatically before veering back on track, “Anyway. The point is that I think I found a main character. He’s not the character I thought he should be, though. He doesn’t look right. He’s too young. And no trench coat. But he is hella out of sync… and the blue eyes and black hair and everything else…”

There’s a pause as Sam’s non-caffeinated brain tries to keep up with Charlie’s infodump.

“Trench coat?”

“I think I found him, Sam,” Charlie whispers. “I think I found Castiel. Well, I found someone weird enough to maybe be Castiel, in the Castiel kind of way, and he’s looking for a way to get to Lebanon, so…”

Much more alert, Sam asks, “Where are you?”

“Ohio. Quaint little place called Granville,” Charlie reports. “It’s a pretty straight shot to the Bunker, but it’s like 14 hours on the road and I’m not sure the gods of caffeine consumption will really be cool with me pushing their bounty that hard…”

“Don’t try too hard to get him to go anywhere with you, see if you can just offer to pay for a motel room for the night,” Sam instructs, the sounds of a pack being prepped with one hand clanging about in the background. “We’ll be in Granville before noon.”

“What if he really wants to head out?”

“Take it slow and text us when you get gas, we’ll meet you in Indianapolis.”

He’s using ‘Serious Sam’ voice.

It’s the voice that makes panicking bunny rabbits being chased by wendigos settle down for half a second so Dean can frickin torch those ghost-y cannibal creepers.

Only, in this case, the wendigos aren’t cannibal forest ghosts chomping down on campers. This time, the Big Bad that Dean is unequivocally about to destroy is approximately 909 miles of US Highway 36.

It makes Charlie feel a little bit better about nearly everything that’s wrong.

She hangs up with Sam after promising to keep the updates coming, and looks back at the kid who could be Castiel.

Only to find him looking back.

For a minute, she’s worried that he heard her talking to Sam about him.

But he seems kinda zonked.

And he doesn’t look upset or embarrassed or angry, so…

She is the only other person on this side of the Biggerson’s, (and really she’s the only non-staff member in this Biggerson’s all told besides the kid himself), so it’s really not that strange for her to be the dust mote in motion that’s wound up drawing the kid’s eye.

He’s not really expressing anything.

He’s just looking.

It’s weird.

Whelp, he’s got that creepy unblinking stare down pat, bird-like head-tip and all.

The kind of stare that’s not angry or judgmental but feels more clinical than anything else, like he’s seeing through the bones and skin and sinew to the soul that’s underneath.

Dissecting it and diagnosing it…

It makes her shiver.

But she plasters on a smile and says, “Hey. You wanna refill?”

The kid looks down at his empty coffee cup.

He blinks, real slow like.

Then he nods.

Relief floods Charlie.

Step One, making with the contact with the Target. Check.

In her experience that’s usually been the hardest part of these things.

Not that she really has much experience in ‘these things’…

But still, Score 1 for the Queen, yeah?

She signals to a waitress for two more cups of coffee, shots of espresso boosting both of them. It’s like a weird AU of a sleezy bar beat, a remixed mark meets con-woman kinda thing.

“So, kid, what’s your name?”

“Shouldn’t you tell me yours first?”

Charlie shrugs. “Well, generally yeah, that is the convention. But I like being unconventional, I guess.”

Really, it’s that she hasn’t quite decided what name to give him.

He blinks expectantly, head tipping over again.

Realizing that she’s already giving up ground in this pseudo-battle of wills and whatnot, Charlie sighs heavily and says, “I’m Charlie, Charlie Bradbury. Geek extraordinaire.”

The kid nods, visibly internalizing the information.

Trying really hard not to be perturbed by that, Charlie barrels on to say, “I see that tablet of yours is gone a bit wonky. You looking for something in Kansas? I might be able to fix your tech or find what you’re looking for with mine.”

“My tablet…” With big owl eyes, the kid glances down at the piece of crap barely smart enough to call a screen and gives a plaintive little huff. “It is… insufficient.”

Charlie gives a laugh that only sounds two-thirds forced and says, “Understatement, buddy. You’re grand at it.”

The kid simply frowns.

“So,” she says, drum-rolling her fingers on the plastic tabletop as she leans into the leading questions. “Tell me what’s your name and what you’re looking for in Kansas and we’ll see if I can work my magic, huh?”

The kid’s eyes narrow suspiciously on the word ‘magic’, but he gives no other reaction.

For a solid minute, easy, they just kinda sit there.

And then the kid downs a full cup of espresso-boosted coffee like it’s a bottle of watered down Gatorade and flashes Charlie the stiffest stretch of smile she’s ever seen on any face that still looks mostly-human.

“My name’s Alvin,” he tells her with all the bland panache of a used car salesman. “Alvin Draper. And honestly? I’m looking for a hole in the universe.”

Charlie almost bursts out laughing.

The kid— Alvin— spots the reaction. He glowers, quite impressively, to be honest.

“Well, Alvin, that’s the fakest fake-name I’ve ever heard, but I think I can help with the ‘hole in the universe’ thing,” she tells him.

Alvin’s frowning again, it’s adorable and endearing in ways it really shouldn’t be.

“One problem, though,” she lays out. “You’re gonna have to be a little more specific about which hole in the universe or tear in the fabric of reality your talking about.”

Taken entirely aback, Alvin huffs, “Is it a commonplace occurrence to have your universe ripped open, then?”

“Well, not exactly. It’s more like our universe is the knit-scarf version of a life-raft,” Charlie explains, wheezing a bit as the metaphor sinks perfectly into a crack she didn’t quite realize she still needed to find a way to fill. “Things here aren’t… Well, uh, how many apocalypses have you fended off this week?”

“You’re really just gonna roll with the implicit declaration that I’m from another universe and you’re not going to question my sanity?”

Alvin looks like he’s suddenly questioning her sanity.

For a beat, Charlie feels insulted.

But really, his reaction is the more logical one.

Maybe Charlie should start trying to talk to more normies here soon, she’s totally lost touch with what constitutes a ‘reasonable reaction to weird shit’.

“Whelp, I’m not a Time Lord or anything,” she confesses, “but I’ve had enough contact with the Supernatural to know how to spot someone who’s brushed up against something ugly in the dark and is kinda freaking out about it. You fit the bill, Alvin.”

The kid rolls his eyes.

It could be an angel-learned-it-from-Dean thing, it really could be.

The weight of the sarcasm is just that strong.

“Fine, yes. ‘Alvin’ is not my real name,” he admits.

Then he casts a wicked smile her way that almost makes her rethink the ‘learned it from Dean’ idea, because this is… creepy in an almost Demon kinda way… in an almost Leviathan way. The grin is so unnerving that Charlie almost misses his next words:

“But you know, I’m pretty damn sure that ‘Charlie’ isn’t yours.”

“Yeah? Well, darn. Ya got me,” she breathes, trying to make herself remember that the Leviathan are gone, that she didn’t even see Cas when he was one of them.

In any other circumstance, Charlie would be reaching for the Borax.

But this angel-not-angel (and maybe-but-probably-not-demon-or-leviathan) kid whose name is definitely not Alvin, notices her sudden stiffness.

Immediately, he softens.

“Hey, what happened? You okay?”

Charlie shrugs. “You wouldn’t happen to be allergic to a certain 19th century boron-containing sodium compound, would ya?”

“Sodium borate? Like Borax? Can’t say I am,” the kid assures. “Any particular reason?”

“Uh, the word ‘Leviathan’ mean anything to you? Like specific, human-livestock-eating, double-tongued with lots of teeth lizard-men people-imitators specific? ‘Cause you just really reminded me of one there. And like I had a friend go Darkside… well, a lotta my friends have actually gone Darkside, but there was one and he… he’s missing still and well, bad things happen to my friends when they go missing.”

“Like apocalypses?”

“Yeah, kinda.”

“Really? Literal apocalypses? How exactly literal?”

“Um, pick a holy book at random? We’ve probably hit most of them by now,” Charlie admits, with a discomfited shrug as she vaguely wonders how she ended up on this side of the metaphorical interrogation table. “I think the first one was the Judeo-Christian one, they took things pretty literal. Michael-Lucifer prize fight and all…”

“Okay…” the kid says, finally sounding a little thrown, “but you stopped that one?”

“Yeah,” she tells him.

“So where are you now?”

“Somewhere between God’s little sister throwing a world-ending temper tantrum and you know a Luci-spawn antichrist accidentally poof-ing up new laws of physics?”

“Sounds plausible,” the kid tells her, his tone both entirely accepting of it as the gospel truth and sounding like he thinks she’s totally bonkers.

“No, it really doesn’t,” Charlie sighs. “Doesn’t change the fact it’s true. But enough about me and my world-ending escapades. How about your hole in the universe?”

“That’s the thing… See, I don’t remember.”

“What?”

“I don’t remember how I got here, I just remember that I don’t belong,” the kid confesses, sounding a lot more like he’s being honest than before. “I’m not supposed to be here, but I can’t explain what might be able to bring me back.”

“So, Lebanon, Kansas?”

“Has a safehouse I remember, or I think I do,” he lays out. “And it has a power source I think I need. And…”

“And..?”

Charlie’s hoping for something about the people waiting for him there, something about the ‘profound bond’ doing something to clue him in.

She can’t tell if this is just a spell or something, or if it’s a consequence of having Fallen, regained Angel status, and then seemingly kicked it again in the fastest repeat of the cycle yet.

“I dunno,” he sighs. “I just have to be there.”

Well, it’s not what she was hoping for.

But it’s still closer than she thought she’d get…

So, she’s still not 100% certain this kid is a whammied Castiel.

But she’s definitely like 85% certain, maybe 87%.

And in Winchester World? That there’s some pretty damn good lookin’ odds. So, Charlie will take what she can get and will roll with the rest.

Sam and Dean will be here in a few more hours. All she has to do ‘till then is keep this kid in arm’s reach and keep them both from being buckled up for the looney bin.

Sounds totally doable, right?

In retrospect, Charlie may have to adjust her definition of ‘doable’…

_ _ _

Keep up with everything I’m getting up to HERE!

Have a great week!

#fanfiction #fanfic #batman #batman & robin #BatFam #DCU #dcu fanfic #SPN #spn fanfic #supernatural #destiel #jay x tim #jason todd x tim drake #dean x castiel #multiverse #crossover #charlie bradbury

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skyhopedango · 4 years

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anime I’ve been watching recently

Oh hey, I’m alive. Sorta? Between work being overwhelming and my schedule being kind of out of whack my energy to do anything in my off time, other than staring at the screen, has been at an all-time low... so low I can’t even throw words on the screen to make some posts.

But hey, I’ve still been staring at the screen, and I do have some opinions that I really need to get out of my system. So, this is the stuff I’ve been watching in the past months:

Listeners: No screenshot for this one because I don’t have any lying around anymore, but anyway, yeah, this was fun? Sure, the ending was stupid and didn’t make any sense, but then again, I wasn’t watching this show for the story, or with any expectations of it being “great” or “worthy” or whatever. It was a fun way of turning off my brain for half an hour every week, and I really enjoyed the music references which were much better-informed/researched and executed than in most anime or manga (where they usually just throw the reference in your face and be like “get it? huh? getit??? aren’t we smart?? you should feel smart, too!”). So what if it ended with “Uh, we actually never planned this far, let’s just do every mech anime ending ever”, the journey was worth it.

Nami yo kiitekure: No screenshot for this one either. Nami yo kiitekure was... meh? It started out well, with Minare being a fun and relatable lead, but then it kind of... stalled. And to be honest I got really annoyed with all the shouting. I don’t mind shouty comedy at all (some of my favorite anime comedies are like that) but here the pacing didn’t really work. And I never got the appeal of the live radio segments either (even though I do actually listen to a lot of radio!), perhaps because the seiyuu was just hamming it up instead of delivering a convincing performance, which I kind of expected to be the point. Anyway, I dropped this halfway through. Nothing technically wrong with it, but it’s not my cup of tea.

The Great Pretender: I actually wrote about this previously, and I haven’t seen any new episodes since then. Are they already out? :O What’s going on with this show’s release schedule?

Appare-Ranman: Oh, this is back! And I... don’t really like it as much as I did the first 3 episodes? I dunno, in the recent episodes it kind of lost its swagger and instead settled comfortably into that “Show That Could Have Been On Adult Swim In When American Anime Fans In Their 30s Were Watching That” routine that has been so prevalent in the recent Netflix-backed shows that I seriously believe it’s on purpose, to emulate popular shows in the US and appeal to viewer nostalgia. And this means that to me the show has become kind of... boring, really. Like, again, there’s nothing actually wrong with it, it’s by far the best of PA Works’ attempts at trying new things, and I am still watching it and derive enjoyment from it. But I don’t find it particularly interesting, it’s just going through the motions without adding anything exciting, visually, story-wise or character-wise. Like come on, it’s The Year of Our Lord 2020, do something new or interesting! Like for example...

Deca-Dence: Oh yes. See, when the first episode came out and people were raving and doing the “anime is saved!” thing, I was like “...huh? but this was like every damn fantasy adventure anime ever.” I mean it looked nice, sounded nice, but it was soooo derivative and boring. And then the second episode rolled around and I was like “OK, now you’ve got my attention! :D” and my attention has stayed with the show ever since. See, here’s the difference between this and say, Appare-Ranman: it’s not that Deca-Dence is doing anything revolutionary either, but it’s at least doing something instead of just following a template. Its ambitions don’t stop with having cool visuals and cute character designs.

And another plus for Deca-Dence vs Appare-Ranman: the female characters in Deca-Dence don’t have that stupid PAW “cute anime girl” permablush. God that’s so annoying.

Gibiate: And on topic of shows trying for a retro appeal... yeah. There’s this one. You know those snobbish anime fans who always bemoan the decline of anime, and talk about how back in their time anime as such was better? Yeah, you can tell those people have had a very curated experience of anime “back in the days”, because back in the days, in our case in the ‘80s and early ‘90s, “anime as such” was actually more like this one. Really, Gibiate feels like it’s a zombie of some early ‘90s action show resurrected for some weird experiment, and now it just kind of shambles along aimlessly, not knowing what it’s doing in the present or how it should handle the changes of time. It’s kind of embarrassing, really... well, it was for the three episodes I watched. I dropped it out of secondhand embarrassment, more than anything.

GITS:SAC 2045: Oh yes, there’s this one as well. As I predicted, it was crap. It kind of feels like the creators were contracted to do a new series, but they had no actual ideas for a GITS:SAC sequel, nor any inspiration, and also nothing particular they wanted to say with the new show. Hell, apparently they didn’t rewatch GITS:SAC to refresh their memories of the show they were ostensibly trying to create a sequel for. OK, Imma rant about this a bit (copy-pasting something I wrote elsewhere).

1. The visuals are shit. Look, I'm not biased against CG, a lot of shows I enjoy have CG, a lot of them have bad CG. I tend not to care a lot about animation quality be it amazing or crap, as long as I enjoy the rest of the show. But this show looks like shit. The characters are rubber dolls floating in virtual space, physical character interaction is distracting, and all the action is hilaribad. Character animation is fucked up so often, like, they tried to give the Major a sexy hip sway but the result has her walking like she has a stick shoved up her butt. Hell, often they couldn’t even animate lip flaps properly, which doesn’t make the soulless masks the characters have for faces any more expressive. Also, character design-wise, the Major sticks out like a sore thumb, looking like a Sexy Dollfie among all the semi-realistic character designs. It’s kinda offensive, really. 2. Again, I could have lived with the visuals, if the rest of the show was any good. But it's not. With the exception of that one episode with the bank robbery, that was good and felt like real GITS:SAC, this is like someone's subpar fanfic, which is sad considering the writers behind the show. Characterization is weird and fucked up and doesn’t follow SAC. The worldbuilding went from the rather well thought out backdrop of SAC to a mess of ~edgy~ concepts mixed without any particular depth given to them. "Sustainable war!!! Thinkpol!!! 1984!!!!!" 3. The concept of post-humans is such a huge missed opportunity. Paired with the whole "ThinkPol" thing (as eyeroll-inducing as that is) there was a pretty good chance there to explore the dehumanizing aspect of the internet, and tie it into the "anon vigilante crowds" thing the story seems to be trying to get going. But nope, they just went with the stupidest routes. Also, the whole idea of "post-humans" doesn't flow organically from the worldbuilding of SAC, it just feels like something they came up with because they had to do something new. It also kinda feels like someone watched Darker Than Black one too many times.

So yeah, so, so disappointing. I’ll be watching S2 when it comes along because eh, more GITS, but I’m not gonna pretend this is anything but a subpar attempt to cash in on the franchise.

#appare ranman #deca-dence #listeners #gibiate #gits 2045 #the great pretender #appare-ranman #Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex #nami yo kiitekure

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oreomonsterhunter · 4 years

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ON:E D2

Day 2 continued (even though there isn’t really a part one since TuMBlr DeLETed iT and I do not have the energy to try to recreate my thoughts, plus they wouldn’t be first impressions anymore since I’ve seen it already. Le sigh)

My Time is up first and I’m not prepared. My laptop even decided to quit the hell out of the website I was watching from, I assume in an attempt to protect me from 23 year old menace Jeon Jungkook. But the show must go on...

Ok I love the guitar move, I loved it the last two times and I love it now

No one come for me but his voice sounded a tad bit off when he first came in

I say this with love because my eyes and ears are peeled for injuries and strain and it is 2000007191819% believable that jk went too hard on day 1

But you know he’s right back on top again when the backing vocals come in and it sounds like a recording 😍 that’s my boy

I SEE TIDDIES I REPEAT THERE ARE TIDDIES ON THE SCENE

This choreo is impeccable

And I say that having seen it thrice and had my eyes peeled for the footwork and hand work because jk can Dance with that real good technique

You can almost touch the hours he’s put into this performance

Can you tell I’m avoiding the sexual nature as long as possible because I am

The leather fit was better for the thighs I’m just gonna say it

I like the red (and spoiler: the fact that he and jimin switch colors) but I reeeeeally liked the leather

My gawd those shoulder moves he’s so aggressive with it I’m 😳

The fact that his entire chest is out is absolutely sending me off the deep end, I am losing it, I have lost it

This sure is a...pectacle

Insert Jin windshield wiper laugh here

Jeon jungkook has pretty broad shoulders...and an itty bitty waist...and he’s throwing it in my face I’m like damn

Ok the backup dancers are lovely, and I like the symbolism of jk being followed by shadowy strangers, his every move inspected and copied

Imma say it: I liked day one hair better

I AM GASPING FOR BREATH JEON JUNGKOOK STOP IT RIGHT NOW I SAW ABS AND A WHOLE FRICKIN SHOULDER PUT THAT AWAY YOUNG MAN

I am keeping my eyes on the prize there is more to come I gotta stay cool but his THIGHS ARE A SIREN SONG AND I AM HELPLESS

That vocal run oof 😍😭 and right after that intense dance nonsense

Ok Santa I’ve had enough, all I want for Christmas is to squeeze jk’s thigh. Just one. Just for a moment. That’s all I ask.

I see sweat 👀 I’m not gonna say the thought I’m having I’ll scandalize you

FILTERRR JIMINNNN FUCK ME UPPPPP

Ok so he has his first note and immediately spreads his legs what am I supposed to do here jimin

His shirt is thin and almost missing as many buttons as mr doesn’t-know-what-buttons-are-jungkook so HOW does he do the outfit change later...we’ll find out

THE ROBE yes this is better this is the one heck yeah new fave

Jimin is Carmen right now (if you know you know) this is my ultimate goal

His hair...I said I was obsessed on day one but tousled is 😍 I love silvery jimin

And yes his eyeshadow is perfection absolute chef kiss Gordon Ramsay is on his knees praising this five star look

The lift and the half fall with the backup dancers is even MORE chef kiss ughhhh I’m so glad I’m watching this again to catch the details (and now I can pause lol)

Oop I caught a glimpse of those hand tattoos hello

Yeah jimin said “jk isn’t the only one with a chest”

HOW the outfit change was FOUR SECONDS OR LESS I COUNTED

I am literally yoongi looking at jhope doing hip thrusts right now. Hand over mouth, phone fallen to the floor, my entire life in shambles. Jimin has brought literal tears to my eyes how is he this potent even through a screen

Potent is the word, he is an actual SIREN like what

Jimin get over here I want you

And now I’m soothed with Jin 😌 thank you

THE PINK SHIRT nvm I’m not soothed I am a massive fan girl

His hair is also perfection, the whole vibe is It

Jin’s voice is sweeter than the WWH kisses he blows to the audience all the time 😭 omggg

I really do love that shirt, the sleeves are so fun and pretty and flowy

The little prince theme is killin me ahh

Things I want after this concert (since part 1 was deleted I’ll repeat myself...thanks tumblr I really love that you deleted valuable notes): jimins ripped sparkly pants, jungkook’s thighs, jimin, Jin’s shirt

HOLY HELL THAT HIGH NOTE

Jin are you sure you’re human I see no flaws, pretty suspect if you ask me

What?!? The song is over already? Excuse me?

Probably because I had to keep taking breaks from jk to breathe, and jimin to regain some control of my brain cells

The way tae does lil kid things as an adult

Not just on stage but I was reminded by that lil finger wave, this absolute cutie

The way he holds a mic is 👀 this man really does everything differently and somehow makes anything look damn good

What’s cuter, this kid or taehyung’s smile right before the chorus??? Impossible choice?

NOPE it’s the way tae makes those little faces at him and pats his head and you hear army in the background 🥺😭😭

His high notes at the end? Are they all trying to murder me with these vocals? Vocal line doesn’t REST

EGOOOOOO I think I need hobi in a red car for the rest of my life

How am I supposed to stay calm when you look That Good, hobi?

This choreo is so much fun ahhhhh I wanna dance but I’m definitely not good enough to learn this on the fly

The lil woah

Ripped jeans hobi 😍

Skipping hobi is an absolute joy, a bit of sunshine everyone needs to witness, the cure to what ails you, the light at the end of a long day, I sob

His joy is seeping through the screen he really is sunshine

He can really make any dance look easy, that’s such a skill

I mean these leg moves? I know they’re hard, or at least tricky, and he just? Does them? And makes my brain think they’re easy because he’s just doing them so naturally? What a lie he’s just gifted beyond this dimension. And also practices to perfection so there’s that

Tae is seriously shaking his booty right now lol

I know the boys always make fun of suga’s rap during boy with luv but I really love it

Jin’s so happy 😊 they’re all excited and having so much fun

I’ll never stop screaming over bts harmonies. Jk can actually turn anything into a masterpiece he blends so well with everyone, goosebumps every time I forget about a harmony and get surprised and ughhhh yesss

Jimin doing the ego dance lol this cutie

See I’m not crazy, they really are so happy on stage 😭 they’re all glowing and now they’re gonna talk about it I better not cry I’m too tired for that

Mmmmm Joonie wearing necklaces is 👌

All of their hair looks stellar oof

DNA choreo is one of my faves (who can watch them and say they’re not amazing performers, seriously)

Yasss Jin goooooo

Dance line really knows how to take and grab my attention like...I’m addicted to them

The hobi center part at the end though 🥳

I love the old songs, I’m always smiling when some of them come on idk

It makes me happy that bts still like performing their old stuff, like...we enjoy it but so do they

SUGA ON THE THRONE WHERE HE BELONGS #king of swag

You know it’s an old song when rapper jk reappears, and y’all know how much I love rapper jk *cough* ddaeng *cough*

The baseball is weird not gonna lie

Ooh little groovy jhope

Jimin seriously considered yanking his shirt up, I saw him think about it 😂 but shirt still tucked in

NEVER OVER THIS DANCE BREAK

Ok usually my jaw drops over jhope NOT NAMJOON excuse ME whAT

This should be ILLEGAL SIR, ILLEGAL

Ok yeah jhope has my jaw dropping again how does he move like that

😳😩🥵 red alert, that smirk is worth calling 911 to put out a fire because Hot Damn

I love jimin’s voice ok I love it

The closeups on heavy breathing sweaty bangtan are actual threats against my life

Not sure I have a pulse anymore

Can anyone in bts perform cpr I think I need it

Ok nvm jhope’s intro in spring day is the virtual version, I’m saved

What excuse me park jimin you better be ok go drink some water bb

Jin forehead I see you, worldwide handsome on full display

Gahhhh hobi vocals simultaneously kill me and bring me back to life

Also harmonies with rapline and vocal line (suga and jimin are lovely omg)

IDOLLLLLLLL YASSSSSS QUEEN

jk is totally doing sound effects lmao

I like how tae has the bandana around his bicep again (they totally stalked the internet and found the thirst, it’s the least practical thing, he’s only wearing that for one reason lol

They are the MOST HYPE how do they just keep going my introverted ass is in awe

Jk like move y’all are in my way this is my moment get out of it ahahaha

Wait how did I not notice tae put the bandana on his head

It must be a pain in the butt to clean up all that confetti

Encore song is only for army 🥺 these are the most precious boys i swear

Jimin fixing jhope’s hair...I thought I couldn’t uwu any harder but I can

Apparently I can uwu even harder because jimin saying he’s not gonna cry and smiling so big his eyes turn into smiles too I’m the softest for one man and his name is park jimin

President joon, I’m happy too 😭

#glamazon #seokjin #king of swag #yoongi #my darling sunshine #jhope #president joon #namjoon #mister smooth #master of seduction #chim bean #jimin #tall dark and handsome #taehyung #thottius maximus #jungkook #bts #on:e #on:e concert

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neni-has-ascended · 5 years

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You Can(Not) UnGay Kaworu Nagisa - An Essay

This is a text-version of my video-essay on the recent Netflix/Evangelion translation controversy. To see the video version, please click here!

I make no secret of the fact that the linguistics involved in Anime and Game translation are one of my primary fields of interest as a Japanologist. Compared to translation between Germanic and Romanic Languages, as the west is used to it, translating from Japanese to English is filled with a plethora of pitfalls, the likes of which can be very difficult to imagine unless you’re fluent in both languages.

It’s because of this that my interest in any given AniManga controversy immediately skyrockets as soon as the matter of translation issues is brought up. Which brings us to June 21st’s release of Netflix’ Redub of Studio Gainax’ internationally infamous existential creator meltdown disguised as a Mecha Anime, Neon Genesis Evangelion.

1.) Neon Genesis ADVangelion

For those among you who haven’t yet heard of this inherently controversial work – what rock do you live under and does it still have vacancies? In all seriousness though, enough videos attempting to summarize the plot of NGE exist on the internet to make giving the rundown here an exercise in redundancy. All you need to know is that the protagonist’ name is Shinji and that he’s a mental-wreck with Daddy Issues who pilots a giant cyborg infused with the soul of his dead Mom to fight surrealist alien abominations and gains an increasingly screwed up social life doing so, all while his already fragile psyche gradually declines to world-ending consequences. For far less fatalistic takes on some of these concepts, please see RahXephon and Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. Good? Good. Let’s move on.

The original ADV Films dub of Neon Genesis Evangelion and its sequels and spin-offs is… not really flawless, to say the least, but it did a good job in introducing the series to a western audience while staying entirely true to the themes and intentions of the original version. This is definitely at least partially thanks to the fact that director and auteur of the series, Hideaki Anno, personally oversaw the translation and dubbing process, and while the guy in all honesty doesn’t really know the first thing about voice acting – his performance as Jiro in The Wind Rises is one of the reasons it’s my least favorite Ghibli movie – what he does understand is his own work, and what it should convey to the audience in order to be authentic to his vision. So while I do have my issues with the ADV dub, such as poor audio-quality and hopeless cases of overacting caused by poor voice direction in certain parts, the translated script of the series was as stellar as could be expected from something created with the original author’s input, and to the very end of the original 26 episodes run, one can definitely feel the deep, emotional investment every single member of the English cast had in these characters and their journey. (I mean. Just listen to Spike Spencer’s secret rant in the end of the last episode. The dude clearly cares about what happens to Shinji.) In any case, this is probably one of the most influential, iconic dubs to all of the English-speaking Anime Fandom.

Then Netflix decided to license NGE. Not the ADV Dub. Just the show.

People were not happy.

2.) The Rebuild of Netflixgelion

Please do not mistake what I’m saying for pedantic. The iconic nature of the original ADV dub of NGE cannot be understated, and plays a huge role in the current lack of acceptance for the Redub, even though previous similar redubbing efforts, such as in the case of Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon, where welcomed by the community wholeheartedly. The new dub cast is absolutely stellar, including voice acting veterans such as Carrie Keranen and Erica Lindbeck, and Casey Mongillo’s amazing vocal range goes a long way to replicate and convey the emotional depth of Shinji Ikari in a way previously only seen in Megumi Ogata’s original Japanese performance.However, while the Netflix dub has a wonderful cast and voice direction, what it does not have is the original dub’s Hideaki Anno-approved script.

…Aaaaand, this is where the real troubles start.

To be totally clear, the redub always meant trouble. The original voice cast were reportedly never given a real chance to reprise their roles- despite efforts made by the main trio, Spike Spencer, Amanda Winn Lee and Tifanny Grant to at least be given a chance to audition – which is a surefire recipe for upsetting a lot of fans. However, this is a problem that could have at least been partially smoothed over after allowing the performances of the new cast to shine in their own right. I mean, even if it is incredibly scummy to not even inform the old cast of the auditions for the redub, if the new version proves to contain superior performances and direction in comparison to the, honestly badly-aged ADV dub, then Netflix’s decision to make an entirely new dub is entirely understandable, right?

No such arguments can be applied to the retranslation of the show’s script.

3.) The End of Authorial Intent

I haven’t rewatched the entire show in the new dub, just two key episodes. That said, I wouldn’t dream of calling the new script ‘bad’. It’s, for the most part, natural and faithful to the original Japanese source text in much the same way the ADV dub was, to the point that some stray lines received identical translation in both versions. What gives the new script away as entirely unrelated to that of the ADV dub, however, are some rather… baffling localization choices.

All of those decisions are rooted in the original Japanese script. They’re not incorrect translations. If the Japanese were to be your only point of reference, there would be no reason to complain about these choices.

But we do have a point of reference. The ADV script. Which was overseen and approved by Hideaki Anno. The original director.

In the making of this video, I have since learned that Anno’s animation company, Khara, was most likely involved in the translation of the script for the Redub. However, as I can’t find any evidence that he himself was involved, the point I am about to make still stands:

Back in the 90s, very shortly after the show concluded its original run, Anno personally signed off on every single choice the ADV dub made. The respective pronunciations of Nerv, Seele and Gehirn, calling the EVA pilots by the correct singular “Child”, rather than the awkward Engrish singular “Children” the original Japanese featured, and referring to the enemies consistently as Angels, even in parts where the original Japanese mixed up the terminology for the sake of a pun with Kaworu’s name.

So, all of the ADV localization changes are within the intent of the original author. They are part of how the show is meant to be consumed by a western audience. Not carrying over this terminology, despite it being faithful to the Japanese script, thus ironically makes the Netflix script LESS faithful to Anno’s authorial intent than the ADV dub. But those are only terminology changes, right? They’re not a big deal. They don’t alter the context of the narrative itself.

…

Kaworu Nagisa.

4.) Kaworu Nagisa

Remember how I mentioned that I only really watched two episodes of the Netflix dub all the way through so far? Well, one of those two episodes happens to be one of the series’ most infamous, right after the two-part finale: Episode 24. “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door”, or “The Final Messenger” – Let’s not get hung up on which it is, Evangelion has ALWAYS been weird with titles.

This Episode introduces Kaworu Nagisa, the fifth of the EVA pilots and long-time fangirl-favorite for not-so-subtle reasons. Kaworu appears as Shinji is at his lowest point, our main protagonist’s already pretty much non-existent self-esteem in shambles. The two boys bond immediately over… the fact that Kaworu can sing ‘Ode to Joy’? Yeah, let’s go with that – And the majority of the episode consists of showcasing the growing relationship between Kaworu and Shinji, beginning with simple conversations, but quickly progressing into some more… serious territory.

I won’t sugarcoat things, in terms of narrative structure, the episode is a mess, rushing from scene to scene with reckless abandon, attempting to successfully tell a story in under 25 minutes, that some Disney Movies don’t tell right in 90+ minutes. This is doubtlessly due to the overall mess that NGE’s production process had become at this point in its original run for reasons too complicated to talk about in this video, but let me assure you that there’s pretty solid evidence that Kaworu was definitely originally meant to appear for much more than a single episode. As it stands, however, he dies in the same episode he is introduced, begging Shinji to assist him in his suicide after revealing himself to him as the final Angel. His effect on Shinji, however, is profound and comparable to the effect Nia Teppelin of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann has on that show’s protagonist, Simon Giha. In that way, just as with Nia later, it is plain as day that Kaworu is intended to be one of Shinji’s love interests. And the episode is NOT subtle at all in portraying him as such.

A lot can be said about the exact nature of Kaworu’s affection for Shinji, from Kaworu clearly seeing Shinji as some sort of avatar for humanity as a whole on which he projects his admiration for the species, to Shinji seemingly falling victim to an idealized Oedipus Complex in regards to his perception of Kaworu, the fact remains that their interactions with one another in Episode 24 are in places obviously romantic to even sexual in not only the dialogue, but also the visuals. Even with Hideaki Anno’s profession that Shinji’s romantic feelings for Kaworu aren’t “carnal”, they’re still obviously there. Projected and skewed by their unusual psyches as aspects of it may be, the relationship between them is clearly portrayed in a way that transcends the platonic and becomes intimate more quickly than your seafood friends can start singing ‘kiss the guy’ on a romantic boat ride – It’s not subtext, you guys. Towards Shinji Ikari, Kaworu Nagisa acts and speaks quite openly like one would speak to a lover. And even if Kaworu and his ambiguous humanity are somehow not gay enough for you, well, resident violently blushing and stuttering smitten wreck Shinji Ikari will put your doubts to rest. The visual homosexual (homoromantic?) tension in these scenes is so tangible, you can cut it with a knife. The dialogue, at certain points, doesn’t even really matter. Kaworu could quite literally be reading off the grocery list, and these scenes would STILL be gay.

That doesn’t mean the dialogue is not important, and that one shouldn’t really, really pay attention to what’s on screen when translating.

5.) The Final Angel is in the Detail

The translation of Kaworu’s words to Shinji in the Netflix dub is not wrong. But it ignores the context of the scene, as well as authorial intent. And that’s why I understand why people are angry at it.

The lines in question are these :

(Scene 1)

Kaworu: そう、好意に値することよ。

Shinji: 好意？

Kaworu:「好き」ってこと、さ

(Scene 2)

Shinji: カヲル君が「好きだ」って言ってくれたんだ。僕のこと。初めて…初めて人から「好きだ」って言われたんだ。

In the ADV dub, these lines were translated like this:

(Scene 1)

Kaworu: This is worth earning my empathy.

Shinji: Empathy?

Kaworu: I’m saying “I love you.”

(Scene 2)

Shinji: Kaworu said that he loved me. I’ve never... felt such kindness before.

In the Netflix dub, however, they were translated like this:

(Scene 1)

Kaworu: Yes, you’re worthy of my grace.

Shinji: Your grace?

Kaworu: I’m saying “I like you.”

(Scene 2)

Shinji: Kaworu said I was worthy of his grace. That was the first time... someone told me they liked me.

Which one of these is right? The fact is… both are.

The Japanese term “ 好き ” doesn’t really have a direct equivalent in English. It holds a connotation that is meant to convey very personal, but broadly defined affection. It doesn’t simply mean “to like something”. It means to feel a strong, positive, emotional connection to that person of thing. For that reason, this term can be used to profess affection to your friends, your family, your favorite item… Or as a love-confession.

In Japan, love-confessions using “ 好き ” are a lot, lot more common than the much, much stronger term “愛する”, let alone the implicitly sexual term “恋する”. In most romance Manga, “ 好き ” will be the term of choice the heroine uses to confess her love to her object of affection. And though, via character analysis, a strong argument can be made that when Kaworu uses “ 好き ” to express his affection for Shinji, he means general affection towards Shinji’s humanity more than personal, romantic affection, this is clearly not how Shinji takes Kaworu’s words. To Shinji, what Kaworu said in that moment, definitely sounded like a confession of romantic devotion, which becomes very, very clear when Shinji later tells Misato:

Shinji: 初めて人から「好きだ」って言われたんだ。

With the line being translates as “I like you”, this statement of Shinji sounds like pure delusion, which wouldn’t be out of character for him, of course, but isn’t at all what the episode is trying to get across. Of course people have told Shinji before they ‘like’ something about him! That’s a big part of the reason he started defining himself through his status as pilot of EVA Unit 01; his efforts earned him praise from those around him. He had friends for most of the series, at least implicitly, these people have definitely expressed a ‘liking’ for him. So by translating “好き” as “like” in this context, a whole layer of the statement is lost, and Shinji professing that this was the first time anybody has ever said that they “like” him sounds less like a serious revelation about his character, and more like his typical, delusional whining about how the world hates him.

And I think that’s why Anno signed off on the ADV dub translating the line as “I love you” rather than “I like you”. Because the point of this line is not Shinji thinking that Kaworu is the only person who’s ever tolerated his presence. It’s that Shinji feels like Kaworu was the first person to ever have a genuine, emotional connection to him. Something he’s never allowed himself to have, due to the series’ often cited theme of Hedgehog’s Dilemma.

And, as correct as translating “ 好き ” as “like” is, a whole dimension of Episode 24 of NGE is entirely lost if you choose to translate Kaworu’s lines that way. As much sense as it technically makes.

The Netflix dub of NGE, by all measures known to me, is a very well-acted, well-directed, well-translated version of a classic piece of Animation History. I am not telling anyone that it is in any way bad or even inferior to the original, and I am not telling anyone to avoid it.

All I am saying is, that if you, as a translator, have access to references regarding authorial intent you should probably use them.

#netflix evangelion #neon genesis evangelion #shin seiki evangerion #Kaworu Nagisa #Neni Talks #Neni Theory #Lost in Context

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shelikesthosefunnypeople · 4 years

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Pls explain more abt the ancient history thing b I’m very interested

Hello anon!

I know this was sent in months ago and I should have replied to it then but I’m a master procrastinator and life has been strange (before coronavirus kicked off I was in the middle of preparing for exams). Anyway, I’m happy to answer this.

I made a post in the distant past, basically saying that I think there is a view that history before 1800 is somehow less intellectual and that this is rooted in sexism. That post is here. Allow me to explain and please bare in mind that this is all just my opinion and is based off my experiences.

Apologies for the length.

Firstly, I love history. I’m a complete geek for it. I think it’s important, interesting and with a bit of luck I’ll be studying it at university soon. Therefore, this isn’t a post where I try to claim that actually history before 1800 is superior... because that’s just dumb. History is history and while historians can have personal preferences over which period they find most interesting, that doesn’t make that period “better” than any others. Literally. I mean, everything leading up to the present day didn’t happen in isolated, distinct boxes and all of it is useful to understanding how modern society has developed.

It makes sense that there is a general interest in “modern history”. After all, it is interesting and we have more information about it thanks to technological developments. The 20th century was a time of massive change if you compare 1900 to 2000 - although, I’m sure it’s easy for us to see the difference, seeing as the 20th century wasn’t so long ago in the grand scheme of things and many people who are alive today lived through a part of it. I’m sure people living in the early part of any century probably thought (if they had access to history) that the start and end of the previous century were hugely different. Nevertheless, I agree that the 20th century is quite profound in this respect, at least at the moment. In 100 years, who knows?

The 19th century also offers us a lot more remnants than its predecessors and I think culturally is still viewed as important. Some people have a rose tinted view of the 19th century. In Britain, I’d say it is seen by those of a certain political persuasion (check out Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg) as a time of peak Britishness(TM) and nationalistic pride... although that narrative is simplistic and disregards the suffering of the colonies and indeed the working classes of Britain, who had to prop up all this “greatness”. Anyway, I’m sure if you found a stuffy 19th century bloke, he would tell you how his society’s morality has gone to complete shambles and that he yearns for a bygone era that only really exists in his mind. I guess that’s just what some people always do. Conservatives, eh?

I’ll actually get to the point now.

At my college, there were two history courses available: modern (involving subjects such as the Russian Revolution and Britain from about 1950-2007) and pre-modern (involving subjects such as the crusades and the English Reformation). I took the latter course and was in a class of 18, where there were 13 girls and 5 boys. Generally, the modern history classes were weighted in the opposite way, which simply suggests that at my particular college with my particular year group, boys had a preference for modern history and girls for pre-modern. I would argue that this preference appears to be more widespread in general, but that’s not definite.

The fact that this difference existed is not the problem. The problem is what people perceived this difference to mean.

I was told by a boy (not a nice boy, so not a representation of everyone) who was studying history that the course I was taking was “the gay version”. That, of course, is a puerile insult for 2020 and highlights his maturity level - all history is very, very gay and if you take issue with that then I don’t know what to tell you. Get your head out of your arse, maybe? But anyway... why did he feel superior about studying a different bit of history?

It wasn’t just him. A (male) teacher once told me that the history course I had chosen wasn’t as useful as the other one and that the only use it had was that I could apply transferable essay writing skills to my other subjects. Which was bollocks, might I add. Unsurprisingly, he wasn’t a history teacher.

So, where were these views coming from? Why was the English Reformation - which was basically 16th century Brexit - seen as lesser than the Russian Revolution? The obvious argument one could make is that events that have happened more recently are more important and have more of an impact today. However, without the events of the years before them, would these events have happened either? Does the Church of England not still exist? Do we not have a statue of Richard the Lionheart in Westminster (because we like giving statues to tossers, apparently)?

In my opinion, the answer to this odd hierarchy of time periods lies in gender socialisation and the propensity of people to view history in the same way they view fiction. We know that the traditional male/female gender socialisation patterns are different: boys are socialised to be “tough”, “leaders”, “aggressive” etc. whilst girls are socialised to be “submissive”, “friendly”, “polite” etc. This is hopefully changing now but inbuilt, subconscious biases about the genders and what quantifies masculinity and femininity are still around. There is the stereotype of boys being interested in war due to the toys they were given to play with. Surprise, surprise - warfare in the 20th century alone was vastly different to anything that had come before it and, as I said, due to technology we have more archived about it. I’m not suggesting that only boys are interested in historical war - again, that’s a stereotype. Anyone can be interested in war, 20th century or otherwise. Despite this, I’m not going to pretend there still aren’t those guys who get waaaay into warfare and that their interest and knowledge in history is largely confined to that subject.

And that’s fine! You know, as long as you don’t start worshipping Hitler or anything equally creepy. People aren’t experts on every little bit of history and are allowed to have stereotypical interests.

Yet, that still doesn’t explain completely why “modern history” is viewed as more intellectual, just because maybe it appeals slightly more to men (apart from the obvious that anything men like is viewed as superior in some way).

As historical societies are notably different to our own - especially on the surface - and because there is so much historical fiction that seeks to romanticise it, it is not massively surprising that many people do see history as an extension to fiction. It’s gone, we live in the now, lots of people don’t even believe history matters. The fantasy genre has a habit of adopting historical (often medieval) settings for its tales. It’s an obvious example but Game of Thrones was a retelling of the Wars of the Roses, amongst other things. I think when fantasy is applied to history it makes it seem even less real than it may already and this can lead to it being taken less seriously (though please do watch Horrible Histories or Blackadder and take the piss out of all time periods because humans of every age have been fallible). Of course, it is far easier to romanticise and play around with times that are further from our own because they are further detached and therefore more fantastical. This plays into post-1800 being seen as more “real” and “intellectual”.

Some men who wish to keep women out of the historical circle accuse them of only being interested in history because of “romance” or “fancy dresses” - princesses and knights and fairytales. This is more a low down problem with internet trolls than actual, published historians but the issue still stands. If you view “pre-modern” history through this veil of fiction then it must seem rather childish compared to the stark brutality of the World Wars and the political rise of the New Right in the West. However, conversely, it could also be argued that the nationalism and legend attached to recent warfare makes it equally comparable to a story. Not a happy story but then, Game of Thrones isn’t a happy story either.

I don’t think anyone serious about history actually believes that the romantic, fantastical elements attached to any historical periods are 100% true. Hopefully, most people don’t see them as proof that being interested in a certain period makes you better than someone who is interested in another period. Any period can be romanticised, including the “modern” one - Titanic, anyone? Not to mention the frilly view we have of the Victorians (although that’s not silly because of the Britishness(TM), remember). Actually, using history in fiction and even making fiction about history isn’t even a bad thing and I certainly encourage it. I just think that the truth shouldn’t be conveniently forgotten by those with weird superiority complexes who think that because The Tudors was all about love trysts and fine clothing, the entire period is “girly” and a write off.

What am I saying amongst this rambling mess? The next time you see a girl going through her Ancient Egypt phase, don’t roll your eyes. Not if you wouldn’t do the same when you see a boy with an interest in WW2 tanks. Whichever way people come to their interest in the past is valid (apart from the creepy fascist worshipping I mentioned). A lot of things in our world are gendered when they shouldn’t be; history should be equally open to all and although there is a focus on the past 200 years (just look at the uni modules on offer), that doesn’t mean that if you are interested in the years before, your interest isn’t valid enough.

I hope I’ve managed to explain myself properly and have gotten through how gender plays into this sufficiently. I know this is a very niche thing to have an opinion on and I’d like to stress again that this is just my opinion and you are free to disagree with me. That said, if you send me hate then don’t expect a proper response.

Thanks for the ask!

#history #modern history #sexism #little bit of #homophobia #random ramblings #ask #anon #sorry that got a bit long #watch me badly articulate thoughts

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taeheyhey · 6 years

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Chapter 7 - Blood, Sweat and Beers

Taehyung x Reader - Fluff/Angst/Future Smut - 5.5k words

A/N - Hello again! So, how are we all doing after the comeback?! I, for one, am still a gibbering shambles only able to communicate in fangirl!!! So apologies that I did not post this on Friday as I said I would.

This chapter is probably the most edited from my AO3 version, as I was never really happy with the way the narrative flowed as it split over two chapters. I am still unreasonably proud of the chapter title, maybe even more than the story itself :)

Once again, thank you so much for the likes and follows, do please come and say hi if you like it! I hope you enjoy <3

Chapter One ~ Two ~ Three ~ Four ~ Five ~ Six ~ Seven ~ Eight ~ Nine ~ Ten ~ Eleven ~ Twelve ~ Thirteen ~ Fourteen ~ Fifteen ~ Sixteen ~ Seventeen ~ Eighteen ~ Nineteen ~ Twenty ~ Twenty-One ~ Twenty-Two

In order to escape unhindered, they had each told their assigned managers that they would be spending the evening at the other's hotel. Seong-min had been relieved, at that point he was still awaiting permission to view the CCTV to account for the appearance of the strangely dressed girl from that morning and couldn’t quite be sure of the security of his room yet. Sang-hun had offered no resistance either, it was widely acknowledged among the managers that Jimin was among the most well behaved when staying away from the dorm – with the main culprits being Jungkook and Jin – so despite the earlier alert from Taehyung’s manager, he was comfortable enough with the increased security the hotel had insisted they had put in place that they could keep themselves out of trouble for one night.

Prior to their escape, most of Jimin’s day was – with the exception of the photo shoot of course – spent surveying Taehyung clearly be torn between permitting himself to get ridiculously hyper in anticipation of seeing you again later that night, and trying to talk himself down from the giddy heights of his overactive imagination.

The other members could see the second youngest’s focus was wavering more than usual, and each time Jimin saw his eyes glaze over slightly, or a deep sigh escape him, he felt the need to try and snap him out of it, worried that the photographer or the other boys would lose patience with him. Jimin hated to see Taehyung get scolded and, after the third time he was subjected to an exasperated side-glance from Namjoon, took him to one side and showed him the time on his watch. “Tae, we have just two hours left here, and we can go see her okay?” he appeased quietly, even while wondering exactly what it was that Taehyung was expecting would happen as a result of their excursion.

He gave a sheepish smile in response, and shook his head as if to clear distracting thoughts of you from his mind. “Thank you Jiminie, I know how weird all this is, I’m sorry I didn’t mean to drag you in to all of this.”

Jimin pat him on his behind jovially and smiled widely, his eyes all but disappearing. “Ah, I’m excited to meet her too, this girl who’s making you sillier than normal.” He whispered affectionately to his friend, not wanting the others to overhear.

It wasn’t lip service to appease Taehyung, Jimin was genuinely curious about how you would act together. He knew it couldn’t possibly be anything more than a brief liaison: they were due to return to Korea in less than a week, and even though you apparently did not know who they were, they always ran the risk of being recognised and exposed by the press whenever they interacted with the public, particularly girls. Taehyung had to understand that too, right?

For as sweet a guy as Taehyung was, Jimin had never really witnessed him being infatuated with someone this way. He had seen him flirt – a lot, and with a fair few people – but, based on his friend’s behaviour, and seemingly despite any logic and reason, Jimin had already guessed this went way beyond flirtation. Finally climbing out of the taxi at the address you had given to them, after almost barrelling in to the frighteningly large man on the other side of the bar door, Jimin saw first hand the way you looked at each other when your eyes met, and he knew for sure.

~~~

On their journey to the bar, it felt to Taehyung as if he was in some sort of dream-like state. It had occurred to him the risk he was taking by leaving the implied safety and privacy of the hotel without telling anyone his intended whereabouts. The only person who knew where he was going – not to mention the objectively ridiculous reason why – was Jimin, and he was sitting in the back seat of the taxi with him, allowing his eyes to skim over the unfamiliar landscapes rushing by in the darkness. Taehyung felt guilty again for getting Jimin embroiled in this escapade of his, all too aware that no matter how curious he purported to be, at least half of his presence was down to Jimin’s desire to maintain some semblance of protection over him. Safety in numbers and all that.

As Taehyung stared ahead at nothing in particular, he could sense Jimin’s attention shift to him, the restless up-and-down jiggling of his long legs apparently perceptible even over the motion of the car. As much as the thought of your impending meeting had pulled at his focus during the shoot, he had at least had something else to occupy his thoughts in the presence of the rest of the group and the need to maintain even just the smallest amount of professionalism. Now, the prospect of seeing you again filled his mind entirely, and he started to panic about how he was going to communicate with you. Your contact had been so sudden on the phone earlier that he hadn’t really had any time to consider it, he was simply forced to deal with it at that moment. But now, in the relative silence of the car, he was able to speculate on the numerous ways in which he might make an absolute fool of himself.

He felt a hand press firmly on his thigh. “What are you doing right now? Are you really anticipating seeing her that much?” He smiled warmly at him and squoze around his leg in an attempt to calm him.

“What if I say something stupid to her? What if I accidentally curse at her or something?” He grimaced as he thought about the videos they had seen on the internet of him accidentally swearing in English.

Jimin patted his leg and folded his hands back in to his own lap. “Just don’t tell her to sit down and you should be fine.” When Taehyung didn’t laugh as he usually would, the concern that he felt earlier seeing his friend's apparent inability to function while thinking about you crept over him, and he decided to breach the subject he had thus far been avoiding. “What is the outcome here Tae? Where do you see this going? It’s obvious this girl has made a big impression on you but...” he sighed deeply, choosing his words carefully, knowing how Taehyung occasionally had a tendency to shut down when challenged. “We have to go home soon, how do you think this is going to go, seriously?”

He chewed on his bottom lip and cast his eyes to the side to stare out of the window. Where did he think it was going? Based solely on the miniscule amount of time you had spent together, he was already dreading leaving. This was exacerbated by the fact that he hadn’t been truthful with you. Up until now, his overriding worry seemed to be the fear of regretting doing nothing, so he hadn’t really considered any other drawbacks to taking it any further than it had already gone, although he knew deep down that there were many.

“Do I have to decide right now?” He took Jimin’s eyebrow raise as an affirmative answer. He took a deep breath, the multitude of pros and cons rushing through his mind causing a slight ache to begin behind his eyes. He decided to articulate it the simplest terms he was able. “She just made me feel happy. I just want to keep feeling happy. Even if it’s only till we leave.”

At that, the driver announced their arrival, both Taehyung and Jimin pausing before opening the car doors. It appeared the taxi had brought them to an entirely unpopulated area. There were no other cars parked up on the side of the road, and the majority of the buildings stood in total darkness, illuminated only by the sparsely placed and somewhat dim street lamps. The driver turned in his seat at their lack of movement and announced the fare pointedly.

“Then, how might she feel when you leave? If she feels even a little of what you do, won’t it be hard for her?” Jimin asked before pulling the handle and climbing out from the vehicle, leaving Taehyung to hand over the money owed to the driver.

Even though he knew that his friend was just looking out for him – and, to only a slightly lesser extent, you – the words hurt him. He hadn’t yet considered that his actions had the potential to hurt you, and the possibility of that hit him hard. Taehyung knew that something almost serendipitous had occurred when you had climbed in to the wrong lift, and he knew that you had felt it too. Unsure of what to offer as a response, he joined Jimin on the kerb, and found that he didn’t need to provide one. Instead he followed his older friend’s line of sight to the building in front of them. They took in how the faded turquoise paint peeled from the sign above the door, and saw how more than one of the bulbs illuminating the letters spelling out Ronnie’s fizzled in and out of functionality, with one or two defunct completely. The lights inside however, glowed warm and welcoming through the condensation gathering on the window panes on to the otherwise deserted street on which they stood.

The agreement was unspoken, yet both friends decided that from that point, they would simply see what would happen that night, and any conversations relating to the more serious implications of their presence at the bar could be put to one side for a short time. After all, the potential consequences would undoubtedly change depending on what events may actually transpire in the bar that evening.

“Are you ready, Taehyungie?” He reached up to affectionately ruffle the back of his head, his words of warning cast to one side in order to just be supportive of his friend who appeared to have frozen on the spot. He smiled to himself and nudged Taehyung firmly, tilting his head towards the door, before giving in and pushing the door open himself.

~~~

You had almost managed to convince yourself that he couldn’t possibly be as good-looking as you remembered, but seeing him standing in the door way of the bar, his eyes on you, caused your heart to leap up in to your throat. You could vaguely make out Ronnie in your peripheral vision stood about two feet from the door, alternating his gaze between the two of you, before finally shaking his head and exiting the building. You focused your sight on him entirely – as if you had any choice in the matter – and the edges of your vision wavered slightly as he began to walk ever closer to you, your breathing becoming more shallow and shaky as the distance between you decreased.

“Y/N, a pilsner for the love of god!” Peter’s gruff voice broke through your trance-like state, dragging your attention – along with Taehyung’s and the black-haired boy’s, who you had only just noticed was accompanying him – over to the far end of the bar, where Ronnie had been sitting beside him just a few minutes ago.

You smiled apologetically at the two new arrivals, noting quickly that his shorter friend was certainly not lacking in the looks department either, a laugh threatening to spill from your lips as you were unable to resist the somewhat ridiculous comparison between the two of them and Peter and the other three regulars hunched over their drinks in the bar so far that night.

“Sorry Peter,” you said sincerely, tilting a pint glass beneath the tap and flicking the tab down, watching as they approached one of the high tables close to the bar and arranged themselves on to the stools out of the corner of your eye, with Taehyung opting to sit so you were directly in his line of sight.

After placing the large glass before the bearded man with a contrite smile, you added the drink to Peter’s tab, sliding over a bag of dry roasted peanuts covertly by way of an apology. His small scowl and the grunt he aimed at you in response was assurance enough you were forgiven, and you wiped your hands on the small apron you wore over your jeans and inhaled deeply in preparation to approach the newly-occupied table.

“Hey, thank you for coming all this way.” You usually had no qualms at all when it came to making conversation with people, it was one of the main aspects of your job, but something about the way they regarded you made you incapable of utilising the social skills years of working at the bar had furnished you with. You were all of a sudden unsure what to do with your hands, anything you did felt awkward, unnatural. You smiled a greeting at his friend, noting the way his eyes shifted between you and Taehyung, who was reaching in to his wool coat with a look of intense concentration on his face.

“It’s okay. Here is your phone,” he lifted his hand from his pocket and offered the device to you, staring at it intently before raising his gaze to meet your eyes to startle you with their sheer size again. “I charged it for you,” he informed you so earnestly that it was impossible to stop a large grin from spreading across your face, which he reciprocated the moment he saw the corners of your mouth twitch. You extended your hand to Taehyung to take your phone, your breath catching as the heat from his fingers seared in to yours and lingered there.

“I’m Jimin,” his companion announced loudly, clearly affronted by the fact that Taehyung hadn’t introduced him yet. “Hi, it’s nice to meet you,” he finished, a smile brightening his face, looking pleased with his greeting.

You finally turned to Jimin, unsettled at how easily Taehyung could grip your entire focus. “It’s nice to meet you too. I’m y/n.”

“Yeah, I know,” he said, not unkindly, and flicked his eyes meaningfully towards his friend, who was suddenly very interested in the wood grain on the table surface, running his index finger along the pattern.

“Oh, okay,” not really sure what to say next, you placed your hand lightly on Taehyung’s forearm, feeling the heat from his body and his muscle shift even through the thick material of his coat. “Thank you for getting my phone back to me. I owe you, both of you,” you added when you saw Jimin shift in his stool. “Can I get you a drink?”

Taehyung opted for a coke and Jimin asked for a bottle of beer, his baby face causing you to need to ask for his ID, which he removed from his wallet with a grumble, pulling a snigger from the brunette. He handed it to you, his plump bottom lip stuck out an a clear display of his offence, and sight of it confirmed your assumption from the products in the hotel suite that they hailed from Korea. You wondered faintly how quickly you could learn Korean, and where you might even begin to look, and then chided yourself for slipping in to fantasy land again.

The weather had been warmer than usual for the past few days, sod’s law dictating that you had a great deal more customers piling through the door than you were used to dealing with on your own, all deciding that beer would be the best way to satiate their heat induced thirst. That coupled with the humidity in the air meant that it didn’t take long for you to regret donning the long sleeve floral blouse you’d pulled from the depths of Hannah's wardrobe instead of one of your usual plain t-shirts (dark obviously, to hide the beer stains). After delivering the drinks to your newest guests, you were more or less stuck behind the bar for 45 minutes solid, eventually using the fluted sleeves of your top to wipe the perspiration from your forehead, throwing your previously carefully styled hair in to a haphazard bun on the top of your head.

From time to time you would feel both of them watching you for a moment, before turning to each other presumably to discuss their observations, their heads pushed close together over the loud blanket of incoherent murmuring which tended to settle over the bar when it was busy. There was finally a lull in the flow of people coming to the bar and the fridges had all been re-stocked, so you took the opportunity to offer the two young men another round. They hadn’t yet approached the bar – with the exception of Jimin sweetly offering to help you with the two crates of beer you had carried from the back fridge, stacked one on top of the other, when Taehyung had gone to the bathroom – and their drinks were looking a little on the low side.

As you got closer to their table you could hear Jimin sigh deeply “Guenyeoege malhae,” before tipping back the dregs of his beer. To which Taehyung responded in a tone you hadn’t yet heard him use. Granted you hadn’t really heard him say a great deal, but the word he uttered was drawn out, and it made him sound a little petulant, “Eotteohge?” He checked himself quickly however and straightened his back and smiled widely at you, somehow showing all his teeth at the same time.

“How are you doing? Do you need more drinks?” You tried to ask as casually as you were able, but you could feel your shoulders tensing in embarrassment as you could hear your own voice several times higher pitched than usual, and you considered the possibility of never being able to act normally in his presence. You cleared your throat in the hope the question might be audible to humans as well as dogs, “another drink?”

Jimin nodded his assent began to reach for his wallet, to which you halted him by waving your hands in front of his face in a gesture vaguely reminiscent of jazz-hands, “No, no there’s no need to –” he glanced up at your frantic movement, his hand halfway between the table top and his pocket, his mouth slightly agape as if he had been paused. You pressed a hand to your chest “please let me...to say thank you.”

The exchange – if it could really be called that – between you and Jimin, was observed keenly by Taehyung, who seemed greatly amused by your interaction with his confused friend, the large rectangular smile somehow wider the more flustered you appeared. Finally, it seemed you got your point across – although slightly inarticulately – and you returned behind the bar to get them both another drink. You were glad that they both wanted another, you hadn’t really had the opportunity to speak to Taehyung, or to find out anything more about him other than he didn’t seem to like beer. It seemed a shame after the bizarre and wonderful occurrences of the night before that the story would end by you getting your phone back and everyone just getting on with their lives. Aside from that, you found that everything just felt a little...brighter...just by him being there.

~~~

After his fourth bottle of beer, Jimin excused himself to find the restroom, leaving Taehyung alone with his thoughts. He was conflicted between wanting to have more opportunity to speak to you, and a strong feeling of relief that he wasn’t having to struggle to articulate himself to you. It was better in a way, that he was sat far enough away from the bar so that he couldn’t hear your words, as he knew that if they were audible to him he would be trying to translate them, consciously or otherwise. As it was, he was content to simply watch as you poured drinks and chatted with the customers, your laugh easily identifiable as the only girl in the room.

It was clear to him that the majority of the men in the bar found you as charming as he had swiftly found you to be, even the stern looking one with the beard who was stationed at the only occupied stool pulled up to the bar, all of them taking more time to get their drinks than necessary to be able to talk to you a little longer. Although their desire to speak with you blatantly wasn’t for the same reason as his, he found he was irrationally envious of the ease in which they engaged in conversation with you, how easily they pulled a wry smile from your lips or an eyebrow raised in response to a joke he couldn’t possibly hope to follow.

You hadn’t really had a chance to escape from behind the bar except for the two brief exchanges which seemed to mostly involve you and Jimin confusing each other. He considered again in his friend’s absence the questions posed to him on their journey from the hotel. What would happen when they went home? It wasn’t like he could just tell her the truth, but he wouldn’t be able to brazenly lie. But to just leave without any sort of explanation was too cold. What could he possibly say to you to explain his all-too-brief presence? The entirely temporary nature of your encounter suddenly struck him, as until then he had been far too wrapped up in the fantasy of it all to see it.

In an attempt to gain something permanent, he reached for his phone and opened the camera app, resting the bottom of the device on the top of the table and aiming the lens to where you were stood, turning back from the cash register to hand over some change to a waiting customer. He glanced at you over the top of his phone before lowering his gaze to see you through the lens, tapping the screen to store the image in his phone’s memory, as well as his own, just as a warm and genuine smile began to take over your features. He smiled back at the screen, as if your expression was for his benefit, and sighed as he decided that one photo may not be enough and made to take another shot.

As he looked at you through the screen once more, you raised your hands above your head to push some escaped strands of hair back in to the unkempt mass of hair balanced precariously atop your head, the action dragging the bottom of your blouse from where it was loosely tucked in to your jeans, leaving a stripe of your stomach and the very tops of your hips exposed. His eyes left his phone and snapped upwards, involuntarily drawn to the newly bare flesh. He ran his tongue unconsciously over his lips, as he remembered gripping your body there over your dress, and the glorious moaning sound the action had dragged from your lips. He felt heat rush through him and his heart began to pound furiously as his breathing all but stopped.

After the briefest of moments, he noticed you weren’t moving for the first time since their arrival, and he raised his eyes to find yours staring back at him, your only movement being the heavy rise and fall of your chest as the intensity of his gaze seemed to take your breath away. With a confidence he didn’t know he possessed at that time, he boldly kept his eyes on yours, challenging you to look away, wondering if you were thinking about the same thing he was; if the same images were flashing through your mind simultaneously.

“Taehyung-ssi! What are you doing?” Jimin’s return to the high table snapped both of you from your staring match. His speech was not slurred as such, but it was evident from his carefully formed syllables that the beer had begun to take effect and he blinked slowly as he nodded his head towards where the phone remained upright and pointed at you, and Taehyung abruptly became aware of how ambiguous it must have looked to anyone watching.

He cleared his throat, suddenly embarrassed now that the intense moment between you had passed. Just as he opened his mouth to answer, the door of the bar flew open and banged back against the wall, drawing everyone’s attention instantly to the sound. In stumbled a man who was only recently familiar to Taehyung, and he turned to check your reaction and found you jaw-clenched and shoulders-squared, as if preparing to fight.

“Mark, why are you here?” You wiped your hands on a nearby cloth and moved from behind the bar and towards him, passing their table as you did so, not seeing the confused look Jimin aimed towards Taehyung.

"I’ve some questions myself y/n,” he rocked back and forth slightly, having clearly drank considerably more than four beers. “Why haven’t you answered any of my calls? I still have a right to talk to you...to know where you are.”

He stumbled forwards and towards where you were standing, your arms crossed across your chest, and it was clear to Taehyung you were struggling to suppress the fury that threatened to burst from you. “And why might that be?” You enquired, although your tone indicated you were uninterested in the answer.

“She’s gone, y/n. Back to her boyfriend. Come back home and talk to me.”

He looked much less put together than he had in the hotel restaurant the night before, and Taehyung was alarmed at the unhinged look in his eyes. He began to ready himself to move swiftly should he need to, although he wasn’t quite sure what he intended to do once he had moved, but he figured he’d worry about that if and when it came to it.

You cautiously took a step closer to him, your arm extended outwards in an attempt to calm him. “Mark,” you began quietly but firmly, “you should go. Now. There’s nothing to talk about. Period. Go home.” With that your hand made contact with his shoulder as you tried to begin turning him back towards the door.

“Don’t order me around, what gives you the right - ” He threw his arm back to shake off your hand, which threw you off balance, sending you careening backwards and causing several of the bar's patrons, including Jimin and Taehyung, to rise from their seats, the latter coming to stand by you swiftly to try and steady you.

“You need to go, right now, before you get yourself in trouble.” You warned him calmly even as Taehyung could feel you lean further in to his embrace, and he knew it wasn’t just for the sake of your balance.

Your ex-boyfriend’s attention than shifted to him, recognition clear in his eyes. “You’re that guy from the restaurant last night. Is this who you were with all night y/n? It didn’t take you long did it?” He scoffed and smirked cruelly, flicking his eyes back to you for a moment. “I should have known you’d do something like this. How long have you been seeing this prick for then?” He made to move closer to him, and you were certain that it would have been more threatening if he was able to focus on one thing at a time.

Out of the corner of his eye, Taehyung saw Jimin remove his jacket and begin to make his way over to where the three of you stood, the rest of the people in the bar seemingly on pause. He couldn’t see his friend’s face as he stood between Mark and the two of you, but he had a fairly good idea of the way he would be glaring at the inebriated man right now. The shift in Mark’s expression seemed to confirm Taehyung’s suspicion as he looked momentarily fearful, before the alcohol-fueled bravado won the battle over his face. To Jimin’s credit, he didn’t flinch even a little as he snarled down at him. “And who the fuck are you then?”

“A customer who is fucking welcome in my bar,” The three of you were shocked and confused to see Mark fly backwards as if by magic, until the large man from earlier came in to view. “Which is a lot more than I can say for you. Are you alright y/n?” He looked over at you, still gripping your ex by the bunched up clothes at the scruff of his neck.

“I’m fine, Ronnie, just let him go.” Taehyung was sure he understood the words you spoke, but he began to doubt his comprehension at the feeling of you sagging further in to his arms and the tears which were beginning to form in your eyes belied the flippancy of your statement.

“Peter?” Ronnie sought confirmation of your version of events from the man who apparently never moved from his stool.

“Barged in, threatened two of your customers, and pushed her.” He summarised succinctly, nodding his head to where you were standing, Taehyung’s other arm now stretched around you, his eyes trained solely on the tears threatening to fall on to your cheeks, not seeing Jimin move back to their table where his phone was ringing.

Peter’s summary and your clear distress were verification enough and he immediately released his grasp on Mark and let his fist fly towards his face, knocking him backwards and splitting his lip. “Don’t come here again. And don’t go anywhere near her, do you understand?” He didn’t wait for a response, he simply walked towards you, causing Taehyung to relinquish his hold on you and observe silently as Ronnie placed his large hands either side of your face and used his calloused thumbs to wipe your tears away. “Why are you sticking up for him again, huh?” he asked tenderly before hugging you briskly and releasing you to grab himself a bottle of beer and take up behind the bar to help finish the shift for the night.

You smiled weakly in an apology to Taehyung as you walked past him to join Ronnie behind the bar, and he was devastated to find that you could barely meet his eyes. He tried to think of something to say that might be helpful, but before he had the opportunity Jimin grabbed him arm, worry evident on his face. “Seong-min called. We need to go back to your hotel right away. He doesn’t sound happy.”

Assuming they had been caught for sneaking out, even though the feeling of dread had begun to settle in the pit of his stomach, it didn’t seem to matter as much as him telling you how much it meant that he was here with you. That none of it was your fault and that he was glad he came, no matter what happened. He approached the bar opposite you, leaning over it to grip your hands in his, wrapping his long fingers around your own, stroking his thumbs up and down your skin, causing goose bumps to rise up the length of your arms.

He wanted to be able to explain his overwhelming desire to protect you and make you feel better. To tell you that if it were possible for the two of you to be together, it would never even cross his mind to speak to you the way Mark had, to even look at you that way. How unfair it was that he had you and cast you aside as if you were nothing, when all Taehyung wanted to do at that moment was kiss you until you smiled again. He didn’t know how to say any of those things though, so as he raised one of his hands to lift your chin gently, he said precisely and softly, “You deserve so much more than him.”

~~~

You had stood in a daze long after his friend had pulled Taehyung out of the bar and in to the waiting cab, but you insisted that you finish your own shift, apologising to everyone in the bar for the fuss, each time being chided by Ronnie. “Don’t you apologise for that cretin any more. I’ve had it. So...” he began, his tone suddenly playful “those were the boys who had your phone then?”

He was relieved to see the embarrassment creep up from your neck to your face, a sign that you were starting to calm down from the unfortunate incident with Mark. But what must Taehyung think of you now? As if last night hadn’t been strange enough, and now this? What a mess. There’s no way he would want to see you again after this, what normal man would? He had been so kind to you before he left though, the memory of his large hands surrounding yours and his sweet and obviously carefully chosen words causing the beginnings of a shy grin to go along with your red cheeks. “Hmm,” you finally answered, “Taehyung and Jimin.”

Ronnie nodded emphatically as though they were the kind of names he heard every day. “Right, right. I like the short one better.”

#bts #bts smut #bts v #bts taehyung #taehyung #taehyung smut #taehyung fluff #bts fanfic #bts imagines #bts scenarios #taehyung x reader #v x reader #taehyung imagines #taehyung scenarios #bts fluff #bts angst #taehyung angst

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vagrantblvrd · 6 years

Text

Off the Beaten Path (1/1)

Summary: Michael inherited the old house from the crazy side of his family.

“Harsh.”

He snorts and looks to the side where he can just makes out the hazy outline of a human figure. It wavers, shifting in and out of focus and the spot it occupies looks like someone went into a photo editing program and went to town on the blur filter. Felt like it needed more pizzazz and tossed in some film grain for the hell of it.

“Fuck off,” he says, turning back to the idiot in the backward baseball cap who doesn’t know the half of it.

Notes: I started this before they announced Achievement Haunters, so, you know. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

AO3

Michael inherited the old house from the crazy side of his family.

“Harsh.”

“Fuck off,” he says, turning back to the idiot in the backward baseball cap who doesn’t know the half of it.

It’s a nice house though. Turn of the century two-story building built on several acres of land butting up against a sprawling forest.

Quiet, peaceful, and fucking haunted.

These lonely spirits wandering the mortal plane because they can’t seem to find their way to the next world or some bullshit.

Fucking annoying about it, too.

The younger ones walking the halls at night, making unearthly noises and knocking shit over like a bunch of cats.

The older ones are content to drift along in silence unless there’s something they want.

In that case, Michael can expect a ghostly face peeking through the shower curtains to ask him if he could make them toast because they miss the smell. A freezing presence at the side of his bed at night wondering if it would be too much trouble for him to turn the radio on to a talk show, and on and on.

They’re the harmless kind for the most part. Just lonely and tired of being forgotten, like to have someone acknowledge their existence, and unfortunately for them, that someone happens to be Michael.

They tend to be indistinct blurs at the edge of his vision. Some look like ghostly – fucking ha - versions of normal people.

Most of them prefer to manifest the way they looked in life. Whole and unmarred by the manner of their death, and others just don’t care enough to try. Shamble along with their injuries on display, no doubt as to the method of their death. Something bout the land here that draws them in, offers them peace they can’t find anywhere else until they move on or fade away.

“Well, I mean,” the guy - Ryan? - apparently isn’t going to let this go. “That’s a harsh thing to say, isn’t it?”

The house was converted into a bed and breakfast years ago. This curious thing a few miles out from the nearby town, and it sees a steady flow of guests around the year. Tourists and people passing through who don’t quite know where they’re going as long as it’s as far away from where they started as they can get.

And, of course, fucking ghost hunters like Ryan and his buddies.

Team of idiots with fancy little cameras and gadgets and completely unaware of the ghosts around them.

Babbling nonsense as they check for readings, hold out their devices meant to help them communicate with ghosts by scanning through radio stations or some bullshit.

Michael’s seen it all before, people who think of ghost hunting as a hobby. Something they do when they have vacation time saved up and nowhere else to go. The ones who believe in things like ghosts and the supernatural, want to make a living of of it.

Have themselves a following on the internet because they’ve managed to hit that sweet spot between unnecessarily serious and genuinely entertaining. Present their research and findings in a way that isn’t mildly condescending or mocking, and it’s strangely refreshing.

“Look, buddy,” Michael says, wondering what Ryan would do if he knew little Addison over there is pulling faces at him. “I love my family, okay? But there are some goddamned loonies in the family tree. I’m sure you’ll figure it out for yourself when you look into things because it’s not a secret.”

Several members of his family have been committed in the past. Ones from the side of the family that passed on their ability to see spirits on to Michael. Had him thinking there was something seriously wrong with him for the longest time before his dad sent him to stay with his grandmother for the summer when he was a kid.

It made Michael’s life growing up interesting, to be sure. His grandmother watching him to see if his imaginary friends when he was a kid might be more than that.

Ready to swoop in the moment he showed signs of noticing the creepy cat that phased through walls at her house.

Pale gray tabby with a sweet meow and eyes that glowed even when there wasn’t a light on it. (And if you looked a little closer you could see its skeleton just beneath the pattern of its fur.)

Ryan frowns, taking notes in the notepad he’s carrying. Not a phone or a tablet, but an honest to God notepad.

“It, uh,” he says, sheepish note to his voice when he notices the look Michael’s giving him. “The ghosts mess with the electronics.”

That’s a good point, Michael supposes.

It took some time before he was able to strike a truce with the ghosts that inhabit the house and its grounds. Bargained with them to leave his gaming setup and other electronics alone if he kept them in one room. Gave them the rest of the place to roam to their heart’s content.

There were still incidents here and there, but he wasn’t making the drive out to the nearby town to replace things on a monthly basis anymore. Giving the store employee and helpless shrug like he didn’t know why they all happened to mysteriously break on him the same way each time.

“Alright,” Michael says, and looks over to where one of Ryan’s friends is fussing with a camera.

Ryan clears his throat and scurries away, and Michael has no idea what to make of it, so he gives Addison a look when she eyes the camera thoughtfully.

“Don’t fucking do it,” he warns, taking care to pitch his voice too low to be overheard by the ghost hunters. “They’ll be gone by the end of the week anyway.”

Addison pouts at him. All big pale eyes and downturned mouth and poor little thing, but she’s been haunting this place for decades. A downright terror when ghost hunters show up, running amok with the others who get a kick out of fucking with the poor bastards.

“Seriously,” Michael says, and looks over to where Ryan and his friend are checking the camera over and talking quietly. “Let them have their fun.”

Addison sighs, and when Michael looks back at her, she’s gone.

========

Ryan’s friends are assholes, but thankfully they’re Michael’s kind of assholes.

Idiots who should really know better than to go messing around with things they don’t understand, but what the fuck does Michael know, right?

Gavin and Jeremy tend to stick together when they can. Gavin handling the majority of the camerawork with Jeremy not so subtly flexing his muscles at him as he carts around camera gear and other equipment like a pack mule.

He gets this little smile on his face as Gavin tells Jeremy what he’s doing and why when he sets the cameras up. All intent and this, hanging off his every word.

And Gavin. Idiot keeps darting little looks at Jeremy, and it’s kind of hilarious watching the two of them dance around each other.

Geoff and Jack have set up in a room off the dining room. Turned it into small command center with cables running everywhere as they plan out their week here. Where the ghost hotspots are, establishing shots and other shit Michael doesn’t even bother trying to understand while Ryan troubleshoots everything.

Runs all over the damn place whenever someone hits a snag, or their gear goes on the fritz. He looks a little harried when their paths cross, but the annoyed grumbling doesn’t seem to go anywhere, and the others take it in stride.

Lindsay, though.

Goddamn, Michael doesn’t even know where to start with her.

Terrifying, would be good, because she keeps finding reasons to send Gavin and Jeremy off somewhere together. Off to town for that scenic little drive, just the two of them, or into the woods to film scenes for the dramatizations they do.

This little glint in her eye that has Michael staying the hell away from her because she keeps giving him these thoughtful little looks, and he wants exactly none of that.

Not when he keeps bumping into Ryan, and Michael’s dumb heart does this little flip whenever he laughs at Michael’s shitty jokes.

When he so much as breathes, really, but that could be the history of heart trouble in Michael’s family. (In which case he’d vastly prefer that to facing up to the fact he has a goddamned crush on the asshole.)

His dumb heart aside, he likes them because they keep to the few rules Michael set out for them. The ones meant to keep them safe while they’re out here.

It’s easy to get lost in the woods around here, and he doesn't trust them to be able to find their way back.

The caves at the edge of the forest aren’t safe, so of course local kids get lost in them all the time. Lose their bearings and get turned around, and again, Michael doesn’t trust these idiots out there. Tells them if they want to explore the damn things to head into town and hire a guide

A few rickety bridges over the winding river that cuts through the mountains and weaves through the forest that the county’s promises to get around to fixing one of these days.

It’s surprisingly refreshing not to have to call into town to get a crew out here to rescue them from themselves,

Michael appreciates the fact that he hasn’t needed to call emergency services to rescue them from themselves because the paperwork involved is a goddamned nightmare.

========

Caroline likes to sit on the porch swing in the mornings to watch the sunrise.

She looks like she’s in her twenties, hair twisted into a messy bun and wears a pioneer dress. There’s something sad about her, the way she watches the other ghosts, like she’s looking for someone. Hoping they’ll show up here one day.

Michael joins her sometimes, sits on the other end of the swing and gives it a little push to get it started. When Caroline’s having a good day, she keeps it moving.

Today seems to be one of those days, this slight curve to her mouth when he slides a look at her.

Michael’s got a Red Bull because he didn’t sleep well the night before and it made more sense to his sleep-deprived brain than coffee.

Some kind of brain-addled logic in there, but when the ghosts are excited at the chance to fuck with a new batch of ghost hunters it gets noisy.

Or.

Not noisy, just.

Chaotic?

The careless ones slipping into his dreams. Emotions bleeding over and Michael’s mind unable to filter their thoughts and emotions from his. Everything getting jumbled together until he’d woken up feeling this heartrending despair that no one visited his grave anymore before his brain had kicked back in.

So.

Yeah.

It’ll calm down in a day or two after the ghosts get used to Ryan and his friends being here.

Caroline twists around when the front door opens. Slight frown on her face as she looks at whoever came outside before her form flickers and she disappears.

Shy as fuck, Caroline.

Took over a month before she showed herself to him, and even longer before she told him her name. Showed up in his dreams, pretty, young thing with sandy blonde hair and warm brown eyes and this voice he can’t quite remember no matter how hard he tries

Sweet and shy and sad and she’s one of his favorites.

“Oh,” he hears, and turns to see Ryan hovering behind him, looking surprised to find him out here. “I didn't expect to see anyone up this early.”

The rest of Ryan’s groups is still asleep. They had a long night of it hunting for signs of the ghosts rumored to haunt the place, completely unaware of the curious audience they’d attracted with their ridiculous antics.

Someone has to set the food out for everyone, get the coffee brewing, and since this is Michael’s place? Makes sense it would be him.

Still, Ryan’s a decent guy, and Michael’s not a complete asshole.

“You can join me if you want,” he offers. “I don’t bite.”

Ryan gives him an odd look, and a moment later takes a seat on the swing beside him. Takes in the scenery, colors bleeding into the world as the sun climbs over the mountains.

They sit in companionable silence for a few minutes, lingering tension from Michael’s dreams fading as he revels in what his senses are telling him. Little things that help ground him in the here and now.

Cool breeze brushing his cheek. The slight motion of the swing and it rocks gently, sounds of the others starting to move around inside the house. Ryan’s solid presence beside him and the warmth of his body heat, sound of his breathing.

“So,” Ryan says, wry twist to his lips like he knows he’s not smooth. “How’d you end up out here?”

As far as opening gambits go, Michael’s heard worse.

From what he’s seen, Ryan’s a giant dork. The way his friends treat him – good-natured teasing, and amused little grins at his reactions when they mess with him help confirm that assessment.

That, and he’s just.

Dorky.

This quality Michael can’t put into words, one of those things you just know.

Michael shrugs, clutching his Red Bull like it’s the only thing keeping him sane. (Which is funny, because it tastes like shit, but it’s also infusing him with precious caffeine, so.)

“Hell if I know,” Michael says, and shrugs at the look Ryan gives him. “I was working as an electrician back in Jersey, and then my grandmother left me this place when she died.”

There’s a bit more to the story, things related to his ability to see ghosties and ghoulies and a promise he made when was a kid too dumb to know better. That fucking ghost cat rubbing up against his fingers, and his grandmother shaking her head, fond little smile on her face.

But it’s not like Michael can tell him that, not with his family history and the way he gets weird looks for living out here on his own as it is. (Like there aren’t people through here all the time anyway looking for a place to rest before going on their way.)

“I came out here to settle the paperwork and just never left.”

Ryan slides a look at him like he knows Michael isn’t giving him the full explanation, but thankfully doesn’t press him on it.

“You don’t strike me as a loner,” he says, because the place is pretty isolated.

The closest town is five or so miles to the east, and the nearest city of any size is an easy twenty or so past that.

Lot of forests and mountains and a scattering of rivers and lakes in between that’s a far cry from his life prior to this. (Michael’s first year here was certainly an experience, that’s for damn sure.)

Michael shrugs because he’s not, really.

But there are people through here all the time and the ghosts are always there. Like to poke their heads into his business, and generally make nuisances of themselves.

“Well, I mean,” Michael says, grins at the hint of color on Ryan’s cheeks as he imitates him. “There’s this thing called the internet these days. Lets me stay in contact with my friends and family, and phones are pretty great too. Also, cars and airplanes exist, which is also pretty neat.”

Ryan laughs, rubbing a hand over his face like he’d forgotten Michael isn’t living in some Victorian novel out here. Has high-speed internet and all the shiny things people tend to have in their fancy cities.

“Right, okay,” he mumbles, something endearing about it. “Forget I said anything.”

Michael shrugs and goes back to watching the sunrise and doesn’t think about how nice it is to share it with someone with a heartbeat for once.

========

Michael leaves Ryan and his buddies alone for the most part. Lets them shoot footage in the attic and down in the cellar basement. Points them towards the old hunting shack in the woods a quarter mile away where local legend says jealous suit murdered a young couple after following them there.

Laughs a little at the exited looks it gets him from some of them, the wide-eyed dread from the others.

Ryan shoots him a look, and Michael shrugs because as far as he knows no one’s been murdered out here. Just kids with their campfire stories that spun out of control over time, gained a life of their own.

“Be careful out there,” Michael warns. “Bears and all.”

Gavin squawks at that, hand gripping the sleeve of Jeremy’s jacket.

“Bears?”

Michael’s chuckle might be a little bit mean as he pretends to think about it. He likes these idiots, doesn’t see a reason why he shouldn’t give them a hard time while they’re here.

“Mountain lions, too.”

There have been sightings of both in recent years, but they tend to stick to places up north. Better hunting grounds and the like.

Less people to bother them, too.

Ryan rolls his eyes and goes over to help them pack up their gear for the trek out to the shack.

“You’re terrible,” he says, but there’s amusement in his voice and something like a smile on his face, so Michael doesn’t take it personally.

========

The week goes by fast, Ryan and his friends excited about the little blurs and blobs they catch on camera. The so-called conversations they have using that dumb little gadget.

Cold spots they run into in the attic and down in the cellar because the ghosts like to play games with people like them. Have their fun where they can, and always careful not to go to far with things.

If the ghost hunters are respectful – not necessarily polite because a fair amount of the ghosts around the place are assholes, but respectful – they’ll give them little things like that.

Use up some of their energy to manifest themselves more fully. Knock something over, become visible. Follow along behind them and place a hand on their skin to give them a chill.

All the things ghost hunting shows claim to have seen and experienced and he loves the way they seem so damn delighted with all of it.

“So you guys got what you wanted, huh.”

Ryan nods, sweet little smile on his face as he shows Michael footage they filmed in the second floor bathroom.

Claire’s favorite spot in the house because it has the best acoustics in the place and she was a singer.

“It’s amazing,” he says, pointing out the faint blur that could be anything, but Michael can see the long, flowing hair and sundress Claire prefers. “Clearest footage we’ve ever gotten.”

Michael hums, wondering if the other locations they’ve visited were actually haunted or just wishful thinking on their part.

“How’d you get caught up in all this anyway?” Michael asks.

Ryan doesn’t seem the type to believe in ghosts and the like.

Too pragmatic.

But, he’s here now. Has been gallivanting around the country with them for a while now, and doesn’t show signs of stopping anytime soon.

Ryan shrugs, pulling his hat off to run a hand through his hair before setting it back on his head.

“Hell if I know,” he says, giving Michael a crooked little grin. “I didn’t really believe in it much when I was a kid. My grandmother loved telling us kids ghost stories and it all seemed pretty impossible? But I got an apartment in college in this old building, probably built a hundred years ago or so, and things just...happened. Things I couldn’t find logical explanations for. Enough that I got curious, did some reading.”

There’s more to it than that, Michael can tell, but he lets it slide the way Ryan did with his half-assed explanation before.

“And then you ran into these guys,” Michael says, gesturing to where the others are huddled around the kitchen table going over footage and what they plan to do for their last few days here.

Ryan smiles, soft and stupidly fond of his friends. A motley bunch to be sure, loud and raucous and more than just a bunch of people who happen to work together from the way they act.

“Hey,” Ryan says, fidgeting with the tablet he’s holding, like he’s struggling to say something but can’t fine the words. Ends up settling for an awkward smile instead. “Uh, thanks for letting us film here.”

Michael glances at Ryan, and feels himself smile because it’s not like it was a hardship, really.

Of all the idiots who’ve come here looking to find ghosts, Ryan and the others have been the least annoying by far.

“You’re welcome, I guess,” he says. “I hope your fans like the episode.”

========

Lindsay catches him in the kitchen the morning they’re slated to leave.

This little smile on her face as she pours herself a mug of coffee and watches him.

“You need something?”

Lindsay’s smile widens as she takes a sip of her coffee. Dainty as all hell, and she never breaks eye-contact, which.

Terrifying.

Absolutely terrifying.

“Alright,” Michael says, slowly, as he tries to make it look like he’s not fleeing the room. “Enjoy your coffee.”

He bumps into Ryan in the doorway. Feels hands on his arm, his shoulder, when he stumbles, and a very solid chest pressed against his before they separate. (Hears Lindsay fucking laughing somewhere behind him.

“Oh my God, I’m sorry,” Ryan’s babbling, cheeks flushed s he belatedly lets go of Michael. “I’m like a zombie in the morning.”

“Uh,” Michael says, flailing for a response. “Same.”

Fuck.

Lindsay is full-on cackling now, and Michael is dying of mortification.

Ignores the flickers at the edge of his vision as curious ghosts poke their heads in to see what the ruckus is all about.

“What?” Ryan asks, confused little laugh in there.

Michael shakes his head and holds up his mug of coffee as explanation.

Ryan laughs again, this adorably dorky thing Michael likes way too damn much.

“Yeah,” Michael says, because words are still hard. “I’ve uh. Things to do?”

And then he flees, Lindsay’s demented cackling in his ears, and Ryan’s smile on his mind and stupid, stupid, stupid.

========

“So, uh,” Ryan says, sidling up to Michael. “This is probably kind out of the blue and everything? But.”

Michael looks up from his phone and smiles at the idiot. He looks like nervous as hell, fidgeting with his hat and looking hunted.

It’s been a few hours since they did that little dance in the kitchen, and Ryan and the others are are all packed up. Ready to head to their next destination before going back home to edit everything together for their upcoming season.

He can hear the others yelling to each other to make sure they haven’t left anything behind, last-second checks and general bickering.

“Hey,” Michael says, “everything okay?”

Ryan doesn’t quite wince, his face just does this thing.

Ryan looks around, like he’s checking to make sure they aren’t being watched and looks back at Michael.

“Lindsay,” Ryan says, and bites his lip. “Uh. Lindsay told me to get my shit together, so.”

Michael doesn’t know her that well, but she does seem like the kind of person who’d say something like that.

“Okay?” Michael says, and Ryan’s nervousness must be catching because Michael’s heart is doing all kinds of things in his chest and he feels like more of an idiot than he usually does.

Ryan sighs, and hands Michael a business card.

“Uh...”

A business card.

Not exactly what he was expecting given how nervous Ryan is, but it’s not like he know the guy all that well.

“I figured,” Ryan says, awkward little smile on his face. “It would be a bit presumptuous of me to just come out and ask for your number, so.”

Ryan’s cheeks are this fascinating pink quickly shading to red as Michael stares at him.

“My cell number is on there,” Ryan says, hopeful lilt to his voice at the end, eyebrows going up in the world’s least subtle hint because apparently he didn’t quite succeed at getting his shit in order.

Michael laughs, because the two of them are idiots, aren’t they?

“What a coincidence,” he says, before Ryan can take Michael laughing in his face as a bad sign. He holds up his phone. “I was trying to work up the courage to ask you for yours.”

Wrestling with the notion that they were barely more than strangers at this point. that Ryan wouldn’t be interested in keeping a long distance relationship going for someone he’d just met. Trying to convince him he should try anyway because he like Ryan a whole hell of a lot.

Ryan looks gobsmacked.

“What?”

Michael rolls his eyes and makes a show of entering putting Ryan’s number in his phone, and feeling a little stupidly reckless snaps a picture of him to use as a contact picture.

It’s fucking terrible, Ryan still looking utterly bewildered and confused by this turn of events, and Michael loves it.

“God, that’s awful,” Michael says, and shows Ryan so he can see for himself. “You look like an idiot.”

Ryan shoots Michael a wounded look.

“Hey,” he says, this note to his voice like he can’t believe Michael didn’t shut him down or punch him in the face for hitting on him in the middle of nowhere.

Michael grins at him, and his dumb heart does this little somersault when Ryan smiles back, all soft and shy and sweet and goddamn, they’re so dumb.

“I don’t have a business card to give you,” Michael says, because who the fuck does that? “So I hope this is acceptable.”

Ryan looks confused, but Michael’s already typing on his phone. A moment later Ryan’s phone goes off with a new message notification.

“Nice,” Ryan says, when he checks it, because it’s a happy little smiley face, because Michael likes to stick with the classics and all in these kinds of situations. (Or maybe he didn’t want to start things off by sending Ryan an emoji flipping him the bird. Doesn’t want to send mixed signals.)

Someone starts honking the horn of that van they rented, and Ryan groans because it’s a pattern. Sounds vaguely like a top fifty hit from a few years ago and it’s an amazing display of skill.

“Wow,” Michael says, and very carefully does not laugh at Ryan’s suffering.

“Yeah,” he sighs, reluctant smile pulling at his mouth. “Yeah.”

Rather than stare at each other awkwardly, Michael gets to his feet and walks Ryan to the driveway. Grins at the enthusiastic greeting the two of them get. Ryan’s friends laughing and cheering when they realize he hasn’t been brutally rejected, and the ghosts -

There’s a small crowd of them lined up by the edge of the driveway watching them.

All of them seem amused, this faint sound of laughter the air when they see how close Michael and Ryan are standing.

“Guess this is goodbye,” Ryan says, and like the idiot he is holds his hand out like he expects Michael to shake it.

Michael rolls his eyes and pulls him in for a hug, figures it’s not going to offend Ryan’s delicate sensibilities or give his asshole friends too much ammunition to use against him.

“Call me you fuck,” Michael tells him, and tightens his arms around him when he feels Ryan’s laughter rumbling through his chest.

========

The two of them talk a couple of times a week to start with. After a little troubleshooting on his end Michael gets his webcam sorted out and they add Skyping to their routine.

That turns out to be the worst because there’s a slight time difference, and Ryan usually Skypes him before bed. Looks all soft and sleepy in worn t-shirts, hair a mess and this dopey little smile when he sees Michael.

It’s.

Not a normal relationship they’re working on here, but it’s nice.

Really fucking nice, especially when Ryan texts him random shit if he thinks Michael will appreciate it or calls when he just misses Michael’s voice. (Michael returning the favor there are hundreds of miles between them, and the house gets lonely even with the ghosts and occasional guests for company.)

A few months after Ryan and his buddies came out to film, the episode goes up on YouTube and Michael watches it with Ryan being a nervous Nellie in the Skype window.

Worried Michael's going to offended at something they did, hate him forever or some shit.

But, you know, he doesn’t because it’s fucking good. Their theories about some of the ghosts are completely wrong. Tend towards Hollywood melodrama because that’s what people have come to expect with their ghost stories, murder and intrigue and crimes of passion. Overlook the small tragedies of life, bad luck and unfortunate circumstances and what loneliness can do to someone.

Still, their version of events make for good stories and are sure to get them more views which will be good for them. (It’s not like the ghosts are going to begrudge them that.)

The segments where they interview him about the house’s history paint him in a favorable light. Somehow manage not to make him look like he’s a raging asshole, which has got to be some kind of miracle.

“Did you like it?” Ryan asks, fretting over Michael's reaction.

“Eh,” Michael says, like he’s not going to send links to his family to watch. Isn’t going to set up a viewing for the ghosts, cobble something together they can watch without frying anything because they're definitely going to get a kick out of it. “It’s not terrible.”

Ryan sighs, so very put upon, but there’s a smile playing at the corners of his mouth and his body language is all relief.

“It’s great you idiot,” Michael tells him, and it’s not being biased on his part.

The comments are mostly favorable so far, and sure, there will be the usual assholes, but no one listens to them anyway, so who the fuck cares what they have to say? (That is Michael being biased, but really Fuck off with that shit.)

Ryan clears his throat, this thing he tends to do when he’s about to go all bashful, awkward dork on Michael.

“Uh,” Ryan says, and he’s fussing with his webcam, making these teeny, tiny adjustments like it’s out of focus when it absolutely is not. “So. We’ve got this season wrapped up.”

Michael nods, because Ryan’s been keeping him updated on that in between everything else.

“And,” Ryan continues. “We get a break before we start working on the next season. I just need to see to some shit here and then, you know.”

Michael has a feeling he does know, dumb heart sitting up and taking notice in case it needs to engage in thrilling acrobatics bullshit again.

“Ryan?”

Ryan’s giving him this look, like words are hard and he’s shit at them, but Michael knows fucking well what he’s trying to say here.

“I mean,” Michael says, fighting a smile. “I don’t usually take reservations like this, but I guess I can make an exception just this once.”

Ryan snorts, and Michael's smile breaks free.

“How kind of you,” Ryan says, stupid smile on his face. “I’d appreciate it if you would. I was thinking a week, maybe longer.”

That sounds doable. (Sounds goddamned incredible, honestly.)

“Hey, no problem,” Michael says, just to see the exasperation on Ryan’s face, that little sigh he does when Michael’s giving him shit.

“You’re the worst,” Ryan says, sounding like he means the opposite, which is a mutual thing, really.

Still, Michael can’t let that one go, can he.

“Yeah? Big man telling me that over a Skype call,” Michael says, can’t seem to stop the laughter leaking into his voice. “Too chicken to say it to me in person?”

Ryan opens his mouth for a retort, and blinks when he realizes he can when he gets out here.

“Holy shit,” Ryan says, laughing like an idiot. “I’m going to?”

Least effective threat Michael's ever heard, but this is Ryan he’s talking about, so.

“Yeah,” Michael says, so damn fond of this idiot. “You really are.”

A little bit longer and they’ll get to see each other again in person. No crappy phone reception, no laggy internet connection. Just the two of them and this house with all its ghosts and whatever guests decide they need a vacation right then.

Super romantic and all, and Michael cannot fucking wait.

#myan #ragehappy #ghost hunters #vagrant fic #i've beeen meaning to post this one for a while #just like #eventually i will accomplish ALL the romcom plots ever #and my life will be complete #¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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suicunesrider · 7 years

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Hey everyone, remember that stupid “Is Rey a Mary Sue” debate?

So.... I’ve made it perfectly clear before that it doesn’t matter to me how and why a character HAS their "powers" or "skills" in the first place, or seeing some big “justification” for why they’re so good at something.... because what matters is what they use their powers FOR, and WHY. What their motivations are. How they feel about things. What actually makes an interesting character is motivation. But it can be hard to focus on these motivations when you’ve been peer-pressured into caring more about silly training montages and justification for every bit of skill and ability a character has.

But on the other hand...... I’ve seen some hilariously bad arguments for why Rey from Star Wars is “overpowered” or “figured something out too quickly”, etc etc. And though it may seem hypocritical for me to dwell on them, given my statement that these things don’t actually matter.... they’re such hysterical misinterpretations of what actually happens in these films, that I can’t help but tackle these little “arguments” in a text post, complete with rebuttals and explanations for why they’re bullshit.

So without further adieu, here it is:

THE most hilarious “Rey is a Mary Sue” arguments from around the internet!

Part 1: “Rey’s too good at piloting things and knowing how things work!!!!”

Let’s start with her skills at flying, and related mechanical skills. This one’s particularly obvious. On Jakku, she literally spent all of her downtime flying a flight simulator to the point that it could no longer throw ANYTHING at her she couldn’t handle. Anything. For all kinds of ships. As for scavenging? She didn’t solely root around star destroyers. She spent her entire life scavenging every imaginable wreck on Jakku, and her survival depended on her learning what ships had what parts and what was valuable.

This, while competing with other scavengers, most of them working in teams. Which meant she had to learn how to fight as well, (and figure out how to make a weapon out of almost anything!) or else she wouldn’t have gotten out of childhood. But we’ll elaborate more on that further down.

Now let’s look back on the fact that Rey spends the majority of her life ripping apart abandoned Imperial ships for their most valuable parts in order to eat. Basically: she spends years training herself in the complex mechanics and layouts of the Imperial fleet (whose designs and ships are, obviously, used by the First Order), and therefore, Correllian ship-making (as they’re some of the galaxy’s most prolific ship-builders, Imperial ships were of Correllian design). Her knowing the Millennium Falcon (A correlian design!) and being able to maneuver around the First Order base is not at all surprising: she’s being rooting around similar ships for years.

That’s not even mentioning her dialogue on how the Millennium Falcon got to the junkyards of Jakku and her disagreement with the modifications made onboard–it indicates that 1) she’s been in the ship before, probably more than once 2) she’s more than familiar with its history, to the point that she’s probably been used in official capacities to examine/work on the ship 3) though slightly on the outs with the proprietor/buyer in the junkyards, she was clearly trained by a group of people who stole the Millennium Falcon.

Her technical skills, knowledge of ships, circuits, and all that shit is plausible. She’s spent most of her life training in it.

People complaining that she can fix the Falcon better than Han? Dude, the Falcon was modified by Unkar Plutt after it was stolen and Rey knows how to work around the modifications so the ship works like Han expects it should. Also, Han is hardly an expert. Go watch the Empire Strikes Back before claiming Han can fix his ship. R2-D2 fixes the hyperdrive in that movie, not Han.

Basically, Rey had way more in-canon reasoning to be as good as she was than Luke Skywalker did–who basically went from never flying much out of atmo to piloting an X-wing under combat conditions and rocking it… apparently just because of genetics and the Force. Who then went on, only half-trained, into a fight that even YODA thought he was going to die in, and survived, against a man literally birthed by the Force, trained as both a Jedi AND a Sith, with about 25 years of combat experience under his belt, whereas Luke had had a lightsaber for about 3 years. What a Mary Sue he was, huh?

Rey had more reason to be what she was than Anakin Skywalker, who accidentally wound up in a fighter and accidentally destroyed a droid ship. Anakin who was such a Mary Sue he was LITERALLY A VIRGIN BIRTH. How Mary Sue is THAT?

Anyway, a “”Mary Sue’’ would not have dragged the Falcon through the sand and destroyed the entrance to the junkyard when she tried taking off. Who did that? Oh yeah, Rey.

Part 2. “She can use to force too well!!!!”

With a single exception, all of Rey’s extraordinary feats are stuff we explicitly see folks with no Force training do in the original trilogy.

Pulling a lightsaber to her hand? Luke did it before he ever met Yoda. Granted, Luke had a visibly harder time of it, but as he was concussed and suffering from mild hypothermia at the time, he jolly well should have.

Firing ranged weapons with uncanny accuracy? Luke again, in his famous trench run - and again, he was untrained at the time.

Resisting mental manipulation? Freaking Jabba the Hutt pulled that one off, and not only is he not trained as a Force-user, as far as we know he’s not even Force sensitive.

(Yes, the EU tries to wave that last one away by asserting that all members of Jabba’s species are naturally immune to mind control, but come on - that’s the same EU lore that insists that Rodians are literally a culture of bounty hunters because the single Rodian we see on-screen is a bounty hunter.)

Of course, there is one exception - one feat of Force manipulation that we’ve never seen an untrained wielder pull off before: Jedi mind tricking the First Order storm trooper. You know, a brainwashed child soldier conditioned nearly from birth to display reflexive and unthinking obedience to authority - the writers could scarcely have given her an easier target.

In sum, the stunts Rey pulls off are entirely within the demonstrable capabilities of an untrained Force user. Jeez, guys. It’s like you jokers have never seen the original films!

Part 3: “what about her crazy fighting ability!!! and her fight with Kylo Ren!!!”

Remember her staff? The first time we see Rey, she’s got that staff slung across her back. When Finn arrives at the scavenger’s camp, sees two thugs about to abduct BB-8 and attacking Rey, he rushes to help. Before he can get there, Rey takes out both men with her staff. When they leave Jakku, she takes it with her. When she has a choice, she always brings that staff–even if she has a blaster. It’s an extension of herself, and a strange sort of security blanket. My guess is that she’s had to use it a lot on Jakku, as a girl, alone. But my primary point is this: her decently handling a lightsaber is not quite unexpected. She’s already had her own version of combat training with that staff.

This could even tie in with her duel with Kylo Ren, and how it’s a plausible comparison, given that she’s spent years with that staff as her only weapon, and clearly used it often. While not exactly the same thing as a saber, there are similar principles, similar forms, and plenty of real life experience.

Also combine the last two subjects. Rey has spent years hauling herself up the interiors of crashed ships, ripping out their parts, and lugging them around. The girl’s probably ripped.

But more importantly….

Kylo Ren?

Not a Sith. Not even fully trained. Also: Injured by a bowcaster that we’d seen could take out several stormtroopers at a time. Not only that, but he wasn’t actually trying to kill her. Seriously, did you not think about the fact that he was trying to turn her over to his side? Fighting is one thing when you can aim to kill and get it over with. Defending yourself from your opponent, but holding back just enough, can’t be easy when you’re injured as fuck and trying to think of the right words for your little speech at the same time.

And comparing Rey and Kylo even further:

Jakku. Rey’s spent years there, living alone, with a discipline and work ethic like no nineteen-year-old normally has. There’s been nobody, really, to defend her and care for her. She’s had to do it all on her own, and had to grow up well before she reached adulthood–otherwise she would’ve starved to death.

Compare that with Kylo Ren: a boy who grew up privileged, the son of two generals, and technically royalty. Compare Rey’s attitude, ethic, and level-headedness with Kylo Ren’s temper tantrums, wild mood swings, and inability to follow through. Yes, he’s had some years of official training in the ways of the force, but he’s wildly undisciplined. He can’t focus. He has power, sure, but he’s not so great at controlling it. Think about Vader, Dooku, and Palpatine: they were shitbags, but they were shitbags who could focus and exercise a modicum of control over themselves. Kylo Ren’s greatest fear isn’t far-fetched at all: so far, he’s being a terrible excuse for a “Sith Lord.”

Coming face to face with Rey–disciplined, hard-working, smart, focused, devoted, driven Rey, ready to defend Finn, coming from a background that demanded so much more–only exposes that to even greater degree. His mental state is in shambles, compared to hers.

Rey being able to face off against Kylo Ren is plausible not simply because of her previous actions, but also because the life she’s lived has made her more disciplined and focused.

Part 4 / fuck it, this is all coming together in the end so who cares what part it is:

Now going back to all that force stuff!

Luke’s awakening in the force began with Ben teaching and coaching him, around age 18. The force began calling to Rey much earlier. And no, I’m not talking about her vision in the basement. When Kylo Ren probes Rey’s mind, he says that at night she imagines an ocean, and an island. ALL RIGHT FOLKS, WHERE DID WE FIND LUKE AT THE END? THAT’S RIGHT. AN ISLAND IN THE MIDDLE OF AN OCEAN. Coincidence? I think not.

Some people are also assuming that when Rey says, “I just knew how to do it, somehow,” in reference to certain gut-instinct aerial moves in the Falcon, it was the force sharpening her perceptions and helping her. It makes sense–if the force has been influencing her dreams and imagination for years, it’s probably been waiting for any moment it could bleed through more actively into her life. The force has been waiting for a long time, and it’s no friggin coincidence that Maz Kanata has Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber and that’s where Han Solo takes them.

After the vision in the basement, Maz Kanata is able to give Rey a brief moment of instruction–that Obi-Wan “shit’s about to go down get ready kid” kind of moment. Rey rejects it at first, freaked out, most likely because of y’know, reliving the most painful moment of her life and seeing a field littered with dead bodies as Mr. Scary Mask stands above her, but it’s ultimately what saves her. She’s spent her entire life blocking out the call of the outside world–force included. Letting go of what she was ushers in everything she’s been holding back. Considering that the Jedi Order, in its heyday, used to begin training force-sensitive individuals when they were children, it’s not crazy to assume that this has been building since she was a child, and has been fairly repressed and blocked since being placed on Jakku.

Now, let’s skip on back to Kylo Ren’s interrogation. Luke never had this moment. He never had a Jedi or Sith do an intrusive mind probe. What the hell kind of affect must that have on a force sensitive person, who’s had these abilities, never truly explored them, but reacts on instinct? I feel like it’s the equivalent of taking a can of soda, and shaking it until it explodes.

In the woods, as they duel, Kylo inadvertently reminds her of what wise-as-shit Maz Kanata said: let it in. She intentionally drops the barriers. Not simply to escape. Not as a small thing. Rey focuses on the force as a guide, and not a trick, and HEY HEY SHIT HAPPENS. And the aforementioned “shit” is not just the force, but the force building off of everything she’s ever gone through.

Rey’s force abilities are not just suddenly there; they’re awakened. Forcibly.(Pun!) and HENCE THE TITLE OF THE MOVIE! It’s plausible. Maybe, hey, more plausible than Luke making that one-in-a-million shot? He practiced shooting womp rats in Beggar’s Canyon, and it was the force, added on to that experience, that helped him “destroy” the Death Star in A New Hope.

Rey’s life has been much more difficult than Luke’s thus far. She hasn’t even had the leisure of avoiding a direction confrontation with a dark-side-fuelled bad guy: she was thrust into a force-ridden fight a helluva lot quicker. Who knows what Luke would’ve done in her shoes, had he had to go through the same things she did.

One thing is for certain, though.

The creators, in short, HAD TO GIVE REASONS for every single thing Rey knew how to do, because of the inevitability of people taking any special skill she had as proof that she was a “Mary Sue” just because she was a female character. None of the writers bothered to assign so many justifications for Luke or Anakin’s skills. Because they didn’t have to. They’re the hero. OF COURSE they can do the impossible. But Rey?

Jesus, what a Mary Sue.

This is what I mean when I talk about subconscious biases. Many don’t feel the need to scrutinize Luke’s or Anakin’s success. Or Superman’s. Or Batman’s. But for fictional heroines, they have to jump through loops. EVEN with an extensive background that makes her prowess feasible, she’s deemed not good enough a character because of being “too good.” (Jesus Christ, first Korra from The Legend of Korra isn’t perfect enough and has “too many” flaws, now Rey is “too perfect” and has “not enough” flaws… I’m getting whiplash, people.)

And these harsh standards are rarely applied to males. Are the people who complain about Mary sues openly misogynistic? Do they do this because they want to be sexist? No, probably not. They probably don’t consider themselves sexist. If you asked, they’d deny that they subject women to higher standards than men for half the credit. Yet we still do it! This is what we call a subconscious bias. You don’t need to know it is affecting you for it to affect you. Self-reflection is healthy.

And another conclusion to all this? The phrase “Mary Sue”…. just can’t be taken seriously. Not anymore, at least. It’s hardly EVER used in a way that can be considered valid critique of a piece of writing. It’s gotten so bad, that whenever someone uses it, it becomes much harder for me to believe said person knows how to engage in legitimate critical reading of a piece of writing, let alone achieve a professional or academic viewpoint.

And it will continue to lower the credibility of people who use it, until this stops.

.....So there it is. All of this, and people really think it’d be worth it to spend time on her training in The Last Jedi? I’m actually starting to say “thank god they didn’t”.

The worst case scenario for Star Wars would’ve been if the filmmakers themselves gave into the pressure to justify every insignificant damn thing, and wasted their time with these less important details. Especially when it did nothing to stop angry mobs on the internet from forming “mary sue” accusations in the first film. Luckily, they didn’t.

So in the end, I guess this became more of an “everything Rey did in The Force Awakens was perfectly plausible” essay, because the dumbest accusations against her character happen to be people raging at TFA. (Oh, don’t worry-- there’s stupid accusations against TLJ as well..... but you should honestly just watch this video for that.

#star wars #rey #rey star wars #the last jedi #the force awakens

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mayacook95 · 4 years

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