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poptivist · 9 months

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metaphorical deaths across trench

the day trench was released, kerrang published an article which contained the following quote: “neon gravestones, tyler explains, is the heart of trench.”

and i just didn’t get it. we’d had jumpsuit, natn, levitate and my blood for months; all in-world, all not having very much detail about death other than showing the literal gravestones lit with neon.

in early 2019 i ran a small poll on twitter asking “do you think this is related to the narrative” for each song on trench, and of 132 voters, only 67% said yes, neon gravestones seemed related. i didn’t then – and still don’t now – know what exactly neon gravestones as a song has to do with every other part of trench the album.

here are some things we do know: ending your life is the goal of vialism. in the third verse of neon gravestones tyler lists reasons that someone might end their life (as a form of legacy, as a form of lashing out) and says as a counterpoint that our culture should glorify old age instead of an early death. in leave the city, the record’s last song, tyler says “in time i will leave the city; for now i will stay alive.” and we know it’s the goal of the vulture/bandito to turn death into life (be a vulture who feeds on pain).

with the “heart of trench” thing in mind, i’m looking for ways that neon gravestones relates to each other song on the album – because before there were articles, interviews, or music videos, these songs existed first on their own, together. i’m starting from here:

the first verse of neon gravestones gives us this:

what's my problem?

what’s his problem? he’s about to explain. excellent.

well, i want you to follow me down to the bottom underneath the insane asylum keep your wits about you while you got 'em 'cause your wits are first to go while you're problem-solving and my problem? we glorify those, even more, when they

(“lost ‘em,” presumably.)

so based on tyler’s description of song structure i’m looking for problem-solving as a point of conflict (specifically, losing wits) and death as a topic.

this is what i’ve scraped together -- i've categorized each song as wits kept, wits lost, and incorporating death into living.

jumpsuit. jumpsuit ends with tyler in a pose that definitely screams dead.

though “attempted escape should be honored,” considering tyler tried (with zero endgame) to run on foot from a bishop on horseback, i would place this firmly in the category of wits lost.

02. levitate “i am a vulture who feeds on pain”. vultures feed on carrion, so there’s some relationship between pain & death. in a sense he’s incorporating death into living.

03. morph. tyler can’t stop thinking about life after death, even though nico is always trying to stop him.

he takes this song to methodically reason out his thoughts about death. for that reason, i would categorize this as wits kept.

04. my blood says “if you find yourself in the lion’s den, i’ll jump right in and pull my pin.” taking the grenade with you is a one-way trip 💀 so i would categorize this as wits lost.

i noticed a bunch of these songs have high emotion in them, like for example jumpsuit's “i can’t believe how much i hate…” if there’s high emotion in this one, i would call it loyalty (but past the point of self-preservation).

05. chlorine. chlorine says "rebel red carnation grows while i decay." decay suggests a death occurring. “i’ll be back when it’s all complete” and “the moment is medical” says this leaving-of-the-city is temporary and necessary; it’s incorporating a death into living.

06. smithereens. “for you i would get beat to smithereens”. smithereens literally means small pieces, which is generally considered pretty dead. if there's high emotion here i would call it most likely rage. you could maybe say what he wants to save he'll kill: in jumpsuit, himself, in my blood, his brother, in smithereens, his relationship. i would call this one wits lost.

07. neon gravestones: is the song we’re talking about.

08. the hype. the hype music video shows tyler and josh getting shot up by invisible bullets, which according to the director symbolized the metaphorical death that took place before the band redefined themselves for trench. this is incorporating a death into living.

09. nico and the niners. this one does say we will win but not everyone will get out. that doesn’t necessarily mean death, but the whole rap verse is a half-assed plan at best. (still better than jumpsuit, which was a zero-assed plan)

10. cut my lip. the cut my lip visuals show the arms of the statues pictured in natn sticking up out of the ground as though drowning. so maybe wits lost? being buried in the ground/drowning is dying, and in the song he says explicitly this isn't what he wants.

(the cement people periodically turn yellow like the vulture)

11. bandito. in jumpsuit tyler’s death is preceded by a fall; in bandito the lyrics say “we know you don’t know to fall”. they also say “i created this world to feel some control; destroy it if i want”. wholesale destruction does seem death-adjacent. i would call both of these things incorporating death into living.

12. pet cheetah. no deaths here. tyler says “no, i move slow, i’ll sit here til i find the problem.” the squealing tires tell us there is an urge to move hastily, but tyler makes a decision to be patient with his problem. i would call this wits kept.

13. legend. during the live show tyler would say during legend “if i my grandfather taught me one thing it’s that it’s worth it to keep on fighting all the way to the bitter end.” he also says “you’re a legend in my own mind” and notably, dema maps have a compass rose, but no legend, so maybe his grandfather is an example for him? either way, “keep fighting to the bitter end” is a clear plan, so i would call this wits kept.

14. leave the city. “it’s only time before they show me why no one ever comes back with details from beyond.” this suggests he’s talking about a final death, a final leaving-of-the-city, the point of no return (assuming people aren’t coming back with anything else either, like cashews or scratch tickets or whatever). this isn’t incorporating death into living then, but it’s a plan to live. i would call this wits kept.

so that's my attempt to see neon gravestones as central to trench beyond what is explicitly said in the third verse. i'm basically full of question marks and this is the best i could come up with. any ideas? what am i missing?

#twenty one pilots #twentyonepilots #tyler joseph #fan theory #lua archives #lore #dema #trench

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neonscandal · 9 months

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As a fan of both bnha & jjk, can I ask you somethings?

-which majority of characters will survive if their universe is swithed (jjk charas in bnha verse or bnha charas in jjk verse)

-people in jjk verse have stronger mental state than in bnha verse because the death rate is higher in jjk than bnha (do you agree?)

- from plot and art, which do you think is better (jjk or bnha)?

-dynamics between bakudeku or satosugu, which is written better as a duo? why?

I asked this because in twitter I found a jjk fan and bnha fan have a heated discussion to prove which is better, and that's why I want to know your opinion, thanks.....

I feel like I'm getting tagged in. Excuse me while I stretch before I jump into this. As always, thank you for the ask! ❤️

Put me in the game, coach!

DEADPOOL

Please. If JJK characters' cursed techniques were quirks, they'd all be alive and going to amusement parks and eating crepes.

In the reverse, Midoriya would be a Yuta like drop in considering all of his techniques, maybe, and most of Class 1A would be wiped. Hell, I think we can all agree there are students in Class 1A that shouldn't even be in Class 1A (this is a Minoru Mineta call out, at the very least). But that's also why Jujutsu Tech has a class size that hasn't exceeded 4 students that we've seen. I could see Midoriya, Shinso (cursed speech user), and Tokoyami (shikigami user) in a class. With Todoroki (legacy family + technique) and Bakugo (Todo-esque brute force regardless of technique) over at Kyoto. I'm not saying they'd all survive but I could see it.

MENTAL ACUITY

I think trauma, or one's ability to handle a breadth of it, isn't based on the trauma itself. Even if Midoriya had never experienced loss, he'd repeatedly experienced the inequities of systemic and social oppression from being quirkless compounded by a dad that seemingly peaced out. Kid took hit after hit before being able to have a shot at his dream which he then slowly realized wasn't as cut and dry as it seemed. He keeps on trucking though.

If anything, I think that most characters in JJK are a belt loop getting caught on a door handle away from losing their shit and becoming curse users because of the higher death toll. The students of class 1A might be slowly losing hope but Yuji is constantly swimming in sea of despair, survivor's guilt, and has a 1000 year old curse whispering obscenities to him. For all intents and purposes, kid should be on a watchlist. And you mean to tell me that Megumi "Watch What These Hands Do" Fushiguro is the picture of mental health??? Nah. Buddy has been looking for any opportunity to take a curtain bow with Mahoraga since day 1. Gojo meant what he said when he had to make sure Nobara was crazy in Season 1 because that's what it takes to be a sorcerer if you want to live. You have to be a little deranged so the losses don't take you down the same path as Geto or breed an even bigger problem by generating a curse. The only easy, breezy, beautiful cover girls in JJK are the villains as they are regularly shown to be leisurely enjoying the beach, soccer, mahjong... all while 16 year olds are fighting for their lives and losing.

WINNER TAKE ALL

Plot

Taking into consideration the fact that we're in late stage My Hero Academia and, at best, half way through Jujutsu Kaisen, I think MHA has it on plot. This take is based on being able to now, with most of the story having taken place, see how everything comes together, though. Bear in mind, even at the end of the story, we still don't know how things are going to play out. I've made a lot of wild accusations though (here, here, here, here, here and, inevitably, more are bouncing around my head). What's funny about this is the fact that, there's not really a question of how it's going to end in the grand scheme. We know that Deku will be triumphant in defeating or liberating Shigaraki. I think, through all his subversion, Horikoshi will still write a story where the good guys win. But the subtler details of how the story will end are what everyone's getting fired up about regarding BakuDeku and if anyone will die.

Regarding Jujutsu Kaisen's plot, as readers, we're still too lost in the forest of the culling games to understand the overarching reason. It's still a 5/5 in my book until proven otherwise but, from what we've seen, Gege Akutami buries details that are pertinent later. His exposition style is uniquely different from Horikoshi's (and Iseyama's for that matter). Moreover, Akutami knows how to illicit rage, angst, tears even in the midst of a multi page description of one man's cursed technique (yea, I'm talking about Hikari). They are a troll with a pen and I cannot take that away from them. So, I'm trusting in the process while also acknowledging that this story is not going to echo that of shonen series' before it. Gege Akutami could very well write the end of the human world as we know it, the entirety of the main cast dead, and I wouldn't even be surprised and I would read every. single. panel. Happily.

Art

Again, it's kind of unfair to compare the refined art of a series with 39 volumes versus 24 volumes especially when they stylistically differ so much. So, instead, I'll say what I appreciate for both.

Horikoshi's unique character design, even going so far as to use different illustration styles where appropriate circumvents the issue of Same Face Syndrome while also adding a lot of dynamic visual texture to the cast. Also, hands are like a big part of the story? Which he's managed to make a focal point where it matters. I will also say that he has, in recent chapters, delved into the horror aesthetic beautifully.

Gege Akutami is just a silly little guy. By that, I mean, there will be these AMAZING spreads or panels. Then, on the very next panel or page, there will be a silly lil doodle and it doesn't even feel out of place. In fact, it's very on par with Yuji as a character. I don't think this story is told from Yuji's limited perspective where MHA is largely from Deku's POV, but, when Gege breaks down the behind the scenes, it's broken down as if it's for someone as simple as Yuji. Stylistically gory but also humorous, there are definitely some chapters that are perhaps churned out faster than others, but the art still speaks for itself.

BATTLE OF THE SHIPS

This is a hard one in the sense that BakuDeku is being explored in real time, at length whereas SatoSugu we've only gotten wisps of even though they are, foundationally, what sets off the entire chain of events that sets the story for JJK. There's something to be said for wanting and I think what makes SatoSugu so compelling is truly the tragedy of it. Gojo lost his only equal, his everything (which Geto never thought himself to be) and Geto lost his everloving mind. MHA's whole story is hinged on BakuDeku but the brainrot for SatoSugu decays so poignantly because, while both series are effectively about child soldiers trying to stay alive, SatoSugu is the after. What happens when youth aren't protected, what do they lose?

FINAL VERDICT

Just because you can read them both in Shonen Jump does not mean they're a monolith.

Considering they aren't actually in the same genre, it makes no sense to compare the two. They may have some similarities. But that's like saying a horse is similar to a cow because they are animals with four legs and tails.

It makes more sense to compare JJK to the other two unhinged stories that make up the dark trio, "Chainsaw Man" or "Hell's Paradise: Jigokuraku" because the stakes are the same. Anyone can die. For the most part, there aren't miraculous revivals (like Best Jeanist and whoever else 👀).

A/N: I don't care, I know Nobara's coming back if only for Gege to kill her again.

#neon asks #anon asks #jjk #jujutsu kaisen #bnha #mha #my hero academia #boku no hero academia #anime #manga #class 1a #manga with me mha #manga with me jjk #manga with me

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dragonmuse · 2 years

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I am so in love with the Leda House verse and when i tell you, the last fic rocked my world. I would absolutely adore something more about nicknames and izzy and lucius the parts in your last fic about them really got me!!

(Thank you so very much! oh these boys! Hope this fits what you were looking for!)

“Did you have nicknames as a kid?” Lucius was laying on his stomach, legs kicked in the air, adding detail to a commission. He was mostly happy with it, except for the mole. It was splodgy and not in a fun way.

“Mm?” Izzy was sitting on the floor next to the bed. He had his laptop out, fingers skittering over the keys every few minutes. He seemed to prefer being on the floor a lot of the time. Just within reaching distance.

“Nicknames. I guess Izzy already sort of is one. My mother called me her little bird because I was always twittering about something.”

“And she still doesn’t know your gay?” Izzy snorted.

“She sees what she wants to see. Which is virtually nothing of me these days, let me tell you.” Which led to the thought, “What about your parents? Are they still alive?”

“No idea,” Izzy went back to typing. “My older brother died eight years back and he was the only one of the bunch I still talked to.”

“...how many siblings do you have?”

“Had three. Two brothers and a sister. And before you get into your head that I need some magical reconciliation, the last time we were all in the same room together, someone called the police on us.”

“Yikes. Another time being an only child pays off.”

They both worked for another few minutes before Izzy shut his laptop, “My brother used to call me Chomper.”

“Because you bit him?” Lucius guessed.

“Lost my two front teeth early when I got hit in the face with a baseball. Took a year for them to grow in. Just had incisors.” He huffed a laugh. A good memory then. “He made me bite things to make it look like a vampire got them and tried to convince his friends that he knew Dracula.”

“Kind of wish I could’ve met him now.”

“He would’ve hated you. Don’t take it personally. He hated everyone. It’s genetic.”

“Still. Little piece of young Izzy history would’ve been interesting.” Lucius leaned down to tug a little at his hair. “Come here.”

Izzy crawled back up onto the bed. He had an impressive bruise rising on his chest and Lucius slotted his hand over it.

“Got a picture of these Chomper days?”

“Not on your life,” Izzy snorted.

“Too bad,” he put his tablet down, rolling onto his side to face him.

“What about you? Any tiny Lucius pictures?”

“No,” he lied. “Burned in a fire. Very tragic, don’t like to talk about it.”

“How bad are they?”

“You’d never respect me again,” Lucius rolled his eyes. “Tragic stuff. Do you really not mind that I call you a goblin all the time?”

“Nah,” Izzy stretched his arms above his head, arched his back until something clicked, then relaxed again. “I know what you mean when you say it. Been called nicer things in a worse way.”

“Yeah, me too. Pup is good. Confusing, but good.”

“What’s confusing about it?” Izzy raised his eyebrows. “You snarl, gnaw on me all the time and you’d probably piss in my shoes if I got you mad enough.”

“Ha ha, please remind me to go back in time and slap myself for wishing your sense of humor would emerge.” He started idly petting Izzy’s chest. “I dunno. Pup is usually a sub thing. Or a puppy play thing, which, you know, good for them, hard pass for me.”

“Huh, didn’t think about it that way.”

“What way were you thinking? Zingers about my coordination can be tabled, please and thank you.”

“Fuck no,” Izzy closed his eyes.

“Oh, it’s good then,” Lucius grinned. “Come on, tell me.”

“....you’re cute. And I listen when you bark. So.”

“Aw, Iz,” Lucius beamed and kissed him. “That’s way nicer than mine.”

“Who cares about nice?” Izzy huffed.

“Good question,” Lucius kissed him again because he could. Because Izzy was pliant and open, eyelids were already at half-mast which passed for flirtation with him. Because he was Lucius’ goblin and that wasn’t nice, but it was very very good.

#leda house and the kraken verse #Lucius Black #Izzy Hands #goblin king and the pup #ficlet

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scandalsavagefanfic · 3 years

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Hello! I am a huge fan of ur writing. I've loved everything I've read of yours. I've read alot of what you've posted, except for a couple of the tags that are squicky for me (so I'm very thankful you tag very thoroughly). No judgement for the squick, it's just not for me. & when I'm having a bad day, I usually just go thru ur ao3 and find something to reread. I think about Therapy's Bruce & Jason every damn day. While I obvs appreciate ur darker more "problematic" content (I really vibe with some of the themes you write about bc of my own trauma, & so it's very cathartic to read about in a fictional setting), I am truly a sucker for ur more happy content. The Happily Ever After verse also lives in my head rent free. Idk more wholesome stuff just seems more special when you write it. Anyways. I would die for you. But the point of this ask is cause I'm curious as to why you don't like Urban Legends? I'm sorry if you already talked about it here or on twitter and I missed it. I was just wondering because I really enjoy your take on things and would love to hear why you dislike it. I've been enjoying it so far personally, but I am always open to DC comics criticism.

Aw thank you so much! I'm so flattered by everything you just said. You're so sweet ❤❤❤❤❤

I haven't talked about Urban Legends here or twitter (I haven't been very active in either place lately. Just a lot going on and no energy 😔) but I'm happy to do it here.

Before I start though, I just want to add a standard disclaimer and make it clear that if you like it, there's nothing wrong with that and you don't have to let me ruin it for you lol. Like what you like.

That said, since you asked...

I said this when I was talking about it on discord, that there is a difference between hope and expectation. I always hope that a new story centered on Jason (or anyone really, but things have been especially egregious for Jay for 15 years) will be good or at least treat the character with a minimal level of respect (to be honest, the bar is super fucking low). But my expectations always temper my hope, to keep it from getting unrealistic. Because my expectations are based on experience.

The long history of Jason Todd, since even before his resurrection, has been one of retroactively trying to make him "a bad seed" in order to absolve Bruce of any responsibility in his death.

I don't even expect DC or their writers to start honoring the fact that Jason was not an angry, reckless Robin (and less of the later than Dick or Tim and definitely Damian). There plenty of ways that retcon can be folded into his history and be compelling and sympathetic. And if they're going to stick with that retcon, I'm only asking that they do it in one of those compelling and sympathetic ways because Jason was 15 when he died, heroically, in one of the most selfless acts in comics, to save a woman who literally handed him over to be brutally murdered. He was 12 when Bruce plucked him off the streets, he'd been homeless and fending for himself for at least two years. I personally think that Jason's story hits harder for him and Bruce if their original, canon relationship, of Jason as starry-eyed and eager to learn and absolutely devoted to Bruce and Bruce to Jason, is preserved. But Jason's origins does leave room for a meaningful interpretation of him as angry and frustrated at the lack of meaningful results of Bruce's methods.

And that's really where my irritation at stories like Batman: Urban Legends, Cheer and Batman The Adventure Continues has it's roots.

Every time one of these stories comes out, I think (or hope, rather) that this will be the one that remembers and respects the origins of the Jason and the Red Hood, that takes into account the changed sensibilities of comics readers in the 30 years since Jason's death and the subtle, 20 year, retroactive campaign to make him the "bad Robin". The "born bad" trope is played out and literally no one likes the message it implies. That some kids are just bad eggs and there's nothing parents or the adults around them can do. Especially when it's played as the kid's fault. If Jason's time as Robin is going to be characterized by anger, then it should be rooted in anger at the social injustices he witnessed as he grew up in an impoverished, crime-ridden, area and the horrors he faced raising himself when every day was a battle for survival. There are topical, meaningful, stories to tell with that backdrop.

But those are never the stories we get.

⚠⚠ Spoilers for Batman: Urban Legends, Cheer ⚠⚠

I'm particularly disappointed in Urban Legends because for the first issue, it looked like that was the kind of story we were going to get. I was put off by the first flashback of Jason being mesmerized by Bruce's guns, and I got that feeling in my gut that it was a bad sign. Jason depicted as impatient and overconfident and the scene with the guns is heavy-handed foreshadowing that got my spidey-sense tingling. I had a inkling then (in the first three pages) of how this story was going to play out, but it was early and I could still see many narrative paths that could lead to a satisfying story. My concerns were soothed somewhat and the little flame of my hope fanned, with the flashback of Alfred scolding Bruce, with Barbara's concern for Jason. A bit of worry returned with the way Jason ruthlessly pursued an addict who didn't appear to be a dealer and with the ending of the issue. The stuff with the addict sat wrong with me but the ending was tempered some by how despicable Tyler's dad was written. The scene was clearly set so that the reader could sympathize with Jason's decision and the scene with the addict could be brushed aside as a side-effect of comics over-the-top need for constant action, so I still held hope.

Issue 2 made me uncomfortable and it's where my hope starts to take a backseat to my expectations. I can dismiss Jason's self-deprecating internal monologue as unreliable narration, except that the flashback reinforces his thought process to explicitly show that it's not unreliable narration, and should be taken at face value. Jason faces physical abuse at the hands of his mother's drug dealer and when the flashback continues later, Jason kills the drug dealer. To be clear, this is a pre-Bruce Jason. His mom is still alive. He's like... 10. He kills this guy for shoving his head into a wall and implying Jason's mother paid for her drugs with sex. This is a scene that serves a single purpose. To show that Jason has always been prone to violence.

In the spirit of full disclosure, there is the small chance the drug dealer might not be dead. But the story obviously wants the reader to think he is, and it hasn't done anything to change that yet.

Starlin already did this story with The Diplomat’s Son in 1988 and he did it infinitely better. AND that’s still technically canon. So now I’m supposed to believe that Jason lost his cool bad enough to kill two douche bags before his sweet 16? Like it’s totally normal for abused kids raised in poverty, who’ve led hard and heartbreaking lives to just... haul off and kill people? That’s bullshit, and when taken with the Jason in the third issue, who is little more than an idiot thug, this story is really doubling down on some fucked up stereotypes.

Which brings us to the most recent issue. I went into this installment with very low expectations. I thought this story was going to be about Jason, through this experience with Tyler, a young boy with a similar background to Jason's, coming to the realization that Bruce's way is the best way and that Bruce did his best by Jason.

That would be annoying (in no small part because it takes increasingly absurd levels of plot armor to keep Bruce's no kill rule relevant, let alone irrefutably right). But I can probably live with that, if only because maybe if Jason officially falls back into line with the Bats crusade, maybe I'll get stories that treat him with respect, stories that don't relegate him to comic relief, dumb brute, or a background body with no lines in a story about the Joker burning Gotham (like Jason would just fucking stand there quietly for that).

And that may still be where the story is going, Jason realizing Bruce is right.

But holy shit do I not have the right words to describe how fucking insulting and gross issue three is.

From start to finish--including the flashback--Jason is written as cruel and fucking stupid. Like straight up dumb.

The entire issue is Bruce explaining the fucking basics to Jason like it's his first day. And Jason flies off the fucking handle and terrorizes a doctor he knows isn't a part of making the Cheerdrops, beats the shit out of some random addicts, and finally, when he can't accomplish anything on his own because he's a dumb brute he calls Barbara for help and rushes in with no information where he's promptly incapacitated and must now wait to be rescued by Batman.

This panel is the least of the issues sins but I can’t screenshot the entire story but it’s representative of the tone for the whole issue (and retroactively tainted the prior two issues).

This is beyond insulting. The only conclusions Jason comes to in this issue are the ones Bruce leads him to by talking to him like he can’t make the simplest connections. And like... in this story Jason can’t make the simplest connections.

This (and the Jason throughout the entirety of this issue) is a far cry from the Jason we fell in love with in Under the Red Hood, who was competent and strategic and intelligent enough to seize control of Gotham’s underworld from Black Mask (who’s no fucking slouch, he’s the first and only person to unify organized crime in Gotham) AND elude and manipulate Bruce until the time and place of his choosing.

This is a far cry from even the Red Hood and the Outlaws Jason who is competent enough to fight the League of Shadows and Ra’s al Ghul (among very dangerous and skilled others) and smart enough to create antidotes for mind control nanotech viruses.

As he should be, by the way. Jason Todd is one of the best, most comprehensively trained fighters in DC’s stable of non powered vigilantes. He’s not irrational or hot headed. He’s pragmatic, tactically minded, and patient. He’s a detective. Right now. Has been since he was 12. Bruce doesn’t have to make him one because he already is.

Jason is not a stupid thug who uses his fists because his brain doesn’t work. And I can’t tell you how so very exhausted I am by this narrative.

This is actually the most egregious example of Jason’s skills and intelligence being not just undermined but dismissed entirely. Even Morrison’s Jason had some degree of competency.

The one, single redeeming factor of this story is the art. It’s beautiful. And Marcus To is a godsend he seems to be one of only a couple of artists who remember that Jason was a child when he was Robin and I’m literally only buying this book because of him.

Anyway, I’m sorry. I didn’t want that to come out so... um... passionately lol. I’m just very very tired. My intention with this isn’t to ruin it for you, if you like it, that’s fine.

But this issue shot this story to the top of my "Vehemently Despise” list. 1) Batman: Urban Legends (Cheer), 2) Battle for the Cowl/Morrison’s Batman and Robin, 3) Batman The Adventure Continues.

I hope the next issues somehow salvage this dumpster fire. But I’m not expecting it.

(Damnit. That sounded harsh again. To reiterate, I’m not trying to judge anyone who enjoys it, I just personally hate it and you asked me why lol 😅)

#Batman #red hood #batman: urban legends #nice art #shit story #or at least shit characterization #jason todd deserves better #this response got long and I didn't edit it #please forgive any errors #and/or unclear spots #spoilers

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thoughts-on-bangtan · 4 years

Text

MTV Unplugged presents: BTS

by Admin 1

What a time to not only be alive, but also be ARMY with BTS taking the MTV Unplugged stage on February 23rd 2021 as the first Korean artists in history to do so. It’s another marvelous achievement on the already highly impressive list BTS have to their name, another mark they’re leaving on history and another piece solidifying their place among musics greatest, at least if you ask me and everyone else who tuned in and was left extremely impressed and emotional, a mix of euphoria, emotional rawness, but also a sense of warm, soft, and gentle comfort and hope.

With this gorgeously put together setlist they’ve also proven, once more, that even when you take away all the high budget stadium stages, the dynamic and explosive choreographies and the fancy music video editing, and just focus on their craft as musicians and their most valuable instruments--their voices--BTS can stand their ground easily. Their talent and passion is unmistakable and shines brightly in all these songs, four of their own and one cover.

The performance was shown simultaneously on dozens of MTV stations across the globe, some watching on TV and others via official live streams, and yet others catching up with what they missed hours later. All the promo, hype and attention paid off and they showed that it was all worth it, that they are more than worth it, and that we as ARMY have every right to be proud of them and be proud of being ARMY.

So, let’s do what I love doing most and talk about each performance, shall we?

youtube

What an absolutely delightful, happy and funky way to open the show and introduce new listeners to just how fun BTS can be. The stage was one giant room filled with lost of little details, including a motorbike with a second passenger extension, arcade games, a football game, and a sofa. Right from the get go there’s this joyful aura around the members, smiles on their faces, little dance moves making their steps light and fun--they were having fun and subsequently we were, too.

How wonderful is it to also finally see Yoongi with them as well, even if it’s very noticeable (and understandable) that he’s keeping his shoulder steady and arm moving as little as possible? After all Telepathy was “his” song for BE and contains lots of little Yoongi signature features, most obviously his knack for playing with autotune in a way that is very audible yet never quite too much, just walking along the line in an interesting way. There’s a genius note change from Hobi in the second half of the song that’s one of the absolute highlights, just like Namjoon and Seokjin doing their little minimal movement dances in the back while grooving along to the music.

As Vminnies we get our own little treat with Jimin and Tae coming together to sing alongside each other and do their little dance as well which we’ve previously seen during the Dear Class of 2020 performance of Mikrocosmos. Then to finish off their little segment, they also do this funny little thing of pointing at each other with Tae as though acting like he (perhaps) wants to boop Jimin’s face/nose from afar. Absolutely adorable.

Speaking of which, can we talk about their cute Donald and Daisy Duck accents on their clothes and accessories which add this little sense of retro? As well as the fact that Tae is wearing the cardigan equivalent to Jimin’s Gucci sweater from his NOTES on Dis-ease video? I do very much enjoy these little details from the stylists. Also, has anyone else noticed that Tae has different in-ears? His usual ones were green yet here they’re translucent.

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The way I gasped when the members turned to Tae and asked him to introduce the next song and he said it’s one that is very meaningful to him, honestly, I can’t even describe it. I was so, so happy but also getting ready to be swallowed by all the feels. I know ARMY sns had theories that we’d get Blue & Grey based on the visuals of that stage which we got in the teasers, and yet somehow I still wasn’t quite ready when the song began and we were graced with absolutely breathtaking vocals that went straight for the heart.

The visuals for this performance were perfect for the song while being interesting yet not too much that it would pull your attention away from the song itself. One by one the members sang their parts and found their places along the two main walls, the lighting cold yet on the white/grey side, none of them really interacting or looking at each other which was fitting with the atmosphere of that blue and grey feeling. Then, for the second half, the ‘stage’ switched to more of a blue lighting and we had moments where first Seokjin and JK sang together and then Jimin and Tae, their voices harmonizing so heavenly with each other yet still none of the members really looked at each other, at most looking into the camera.

I love how this performance put the focus on each member on their own but also in moments on the entire group, that feeling of being alone but never quite alone, that they have each other, and that we have them. Tae also really seemed to be highlighted during this performance, which makes sense when given the history of how the song came to be. But, really, each of them was just as visible and equally beautiful in this.

Speaking of beautiful, my jaw dropped when we got to see (and hear) Namjoon during his verse. Honestly, that mans beauty and handsomeness--it somehow keeps on increasing with each time we see him.

From anon: Omg vmin in blue and grey 😭😭😭. They coudnt even look to each other while singing “Don't say you're fine' Cause you're not Please don't leave me alone, it hurts too much” it’s my fav part by the way and their harmonization it’s heaven. I loved they choose this song to the mtv performance!

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As much as this was supposed to be a surprise, MTV accidentally spoiled it hours before their performance was aired, and yet, despite knowing it was coming, I don’t think any of us were quite prepared for it right after Blue & Grey.

Fix You is a gorgeous song in its original version with a sad backstory, and it’s one of those Coldplay songs that they are extremely selective over when it comes to requests for official covers or use for commercials or movies/shows. They are about their entire discography, but I think it especially goes for this song, and yet they gave BTS the permission to do this official unplugged cover.

We also know the song means something more to the members, seeing as Jimin posted a video on their 6h anniversary showing the members during a trip they’d gone on together while the song is playing in the background. They also spoke about Coldplay during the press conference before their Wembley concerts, and Namjoon and Hobi had gone to one of their concerts a few years ago, as well as Tae on a different occasion. There certainly is a level of admiration and respect involved, a deeper connection to what they were singing, which was very clear and tangible during their performance as well.

Vocal line were truly outstanding in this, especially Seokjin (who took sns by storm as the “pink mic guy” with floods of praise and people wondering who he is, what his name is, because they’d all fallen in love with him--very relatable because same). Rap line switched between harmonizing with the vocalists in their low register and did a beautiful job of it. Namjoon harmonizing with Seokjin truly gave me goosebumps (and made my little namjin heart very happy). We also had Tae and Hobi harmonizing and sharing a brief smile with each other, as well as Namjoon harmonizing with Jungkook and Jimin, and Yoongi harmonizing with Tae and Jungkook.

The stage was also beautifully thought out, minimal yet captivating at once, all the members sitting on barstools in a line with the blinds drawn on the windows behind them, spotlights shining on them from above and others dancing behind them giving them a beautiful glow and turning something simple into something extraordinary and gorgeous. They truly didn’t need any more than that.

And like their performance wasn’t outstanding enough, we also saw Coldplay themselves not only tweet about it while calling the cover beautiful in Korean (and tagging the member’s twitter account instead of the _bighit one), but also post the same comment below the video on YouTube and share links to it on their facebook and IG stories, as well as sharing the video in their community tab on their YouTube channel.

So, not only did BTS garner big approval from Coldplay fans and ARMY alike, but also from the original artist. A wonderful moment in music and between two legendary artists in their own right.

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This acoustic version of Life Goes On is truly a masterpiece, so calm, soothing and offering that sense of comfort, togetherness, and this reassurance that life will go on, that we’re together in this, that we’ve made it through the blue & grey, that we’ve helped each other to “fix” ourselves, and that we can now slowly heal and grow from the things we’ve gone through. The electric guitar, the slow and quiet drums and on top of that the members voices, all of it coming together truly beautifully.

Their outfits kind of gave me UK private school or University secret society vibes, or as Admin 2 called it “ready to go hunting, we’re just missing our Beagles or Basset Hounds” which isn’t necessarily wrong. And yet the warm shades of brown fit the atmosphere of the song really well, complement it even.

While we’re “used” to vmin having their little moment, we only really saw Tae smiling towards Jimin, though the camera unfortunately didn’t give us a wide shot to see if Jimin returned his smile, though I’ll go ahead and say he likely did if he noticed Tae’s. Though honestly, Tae’s wide happy smile was enough to melt my heart on its own.

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And then, to close out the night, we got a very funky and fun yet calm version of Dynamite during which, surprisingly enough, the members actually stay in their seats against all ARMY theories and bets (well, okay, Namjoon stood up for a moment, but sat down really quickly again and no one actually got out of their seats to dance). Who would’ve thought a day like this would come, especially looking at how they got up in previous seated performances of Dynamite.

I love the not so subtle flex of all their gold, silver and platinum records across the wall behind them, as well as their MTV moon men. With how humble they are about their awards and achievements, this felt like a good moment to highlight just how hard they’ve worked, how much they’ve achieved, before they got the chance to be on MTV Unplugged and that truly, if someone deserves to be there and showcase their talents, its them.

Looking at how many times we’ve seen and heard Dynamite, it’s fascinating how they still managed to create a version that was different from all the previous ones and felt fresh and new. Their outfits were simple and all white and thus didn’t pull too much attention onto them leaving the focus on the music and vocals. Tae’s adlibs were absolutely fantastic and they all just seemed to have so much fun with this performance, smiling and dancing in their seats, obviously having a great time. We even got Jimin smiling and scrunching up his nose happily at Tae while he sang!

Overall this MTV Unplugged performance was a wonderful display of their talents and music merits, their vocals and rap, and just how outstanding they are as a group on this vast world stage. The setlist was perfect, though perhaps a little short. Honestly, if you ask me, they could’ve performed five or ten more songs and I would’ve remained glued to the screen through it all. And yet, still, I couldn’t have asked for more. I was left brown away and so extremely impressed despite being ARMY and knowing how good BTS are. They truly manage to find new ways to grow, evolve, and showcase their musicality with each performance. I also love how they don’t shy away from trying new things and challenges, like rap line singing and harmonizing with the vocals.

I’ll definitely come back to watching these stages many times in the future and they’re easily up there in my top ten of favorite performances of all time. Thank you, BTS, and thank you MTV Unplugged.

#BTS #BTS MTV Unplugged #bangtan sonyeondan #Namjoon #Seokjin #Yoongi #Hoseok #Jimin #Taehyung #Jungkook #music commentary #performance commentary #MTV Unplugged #vmin #namjin #Coldplay

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astralaffairs · 4 years

Text

on fear under stark, dying lighting || thomas jefferson, fotp-verse

title: on fear under stark, dying lighting

pairing: thomas jefferson x reader, an fotp-verse oneshot

words: 5k

request: how would thom react if lets say maybe his neo-nazi supporters get too passionate abt their anger towards mc’s articles and um try to shoot/mug/harm her to stop her from writing anything else against thom?

notes: ok so first off lemme preface this w the fact that thom is a self respecting black man who has another self respecting black man as his running mate so tbr the neo-nazi white supremacists r not exactly his demographic of supporters. that said i fucking loved this prompt; set in the universe of freedom of the press, but not canon w/ the storyline

tags: @stargazelaurens @ivory-haired-queens @exoticxchicken8@assbuttstyles777 @distinguishedpotsticker @fukaaaaaaaa@hereforthepsyche-assessment @ivetoldamillionlies@fangirl570 @thealaddinkid @lasciviouspeach@snazzydoesthings @shy-and-awkward-daveed@rachelhermionerose @soft-weeb-s @gryffinclxw @anamrnk@daveeddiggsit @ayayayayana @marinovakovich@cryinghazelnutt @thefandomgirl03 @a-hopeless-fan @cloudynblw @tinywhim @lolidunnoaboutnow @siriusorionblackiii @fanfic-addict-98 @checkurwindow @nyxie75 @i-know-i-can @yxseminx @yavin4andor @sugacita @sstrawberry-fanta @youtxbemusic @queenwilty — hope i didnt miss anyone; lmk if you want to be added!!

Beep.

Y/N scrunched up her nose as her eyes fluttered open, the gritty, incessant sound of the machine grating on her nerves — while she was no stranger to the sound of her own heartbeat, she'd never heard it like that. When she finally tried to look around the room, she winced. The sterile-white LED lights lining the ceiling made her eyes burn; as she adjusted to it, slowly waking up, she began to notice the steady click of an IV drip not far from where her head rested.

She didn't move at first, blinking hard as the ceiling was her entire range of vision, but when she tried to sit up, a sharp pain shot through her shoulder, and she cried out, her hand flying up to the spot.

"Hey, hey, hey, sweetheart, lay down, okay? Relax, please. You're gonna hurt yourself."

The beep of the heart rate monitor accelerated in a fleeting moment, and steady, familiar hands came to rest gently on her good shoulder and her upper back, easing her into the crinkly mattress beneath her. She turned with wide eyes to find the last person she expected at her bedside as he propped her head up onto a pillow.

"Thomas?" she asked breathlessly. "Shit, I... What are you doing here? Did you bring me here? I don't..." Her brow furrowed as she eyed his worried expression, the small, scared frown he wore. As she tried to shift in her bed, turn to look at him, she gasped at the throbbing in her upper arm — with that, it didn't take long for her to recall exactly what she was doing there, though the details were hazy. She didn't know what to make of her current circumstance, though.

"Here, d'you want me to raise the back of the bed so you don't needa hold yourself up?" Though she'd screwed her eyes shut, her jaw clenched as she tried to bear the pain, as his hand ghosted down to her forearm, as he brushed his thumb across her skin, he could hear her pulse beginning to settle. She nodded, laying onto her back with a grimace.

A moment passed in silence while she tried to collect her thoughts. She let out a soft hum when the reclined top of the bed began to fold upward, letting her shift into a sitting position, she withdrew her right arm from Thomas's grasp, pulling it back to instead lace her fingers into his. "Better?"

"Mhm." When she again opened her eyes, he'd pulled his chair closer. She frowned. "How are you here? You... We're in public, Thomas; you can't..." She trailed off, but when the concern in his gaze didn't subside in the least, she said, "Did I die? Am I... Is this even real? I don't understand."

Despite everything, at her words, a teasing grin split his grim expression, and he squeezed her hand lightly. "Well, first of all, 'm flattered that you think wakin' up here next to me might actually be heaven—" She rolled her eyes, but she couldn't help her soft, endeared smile. "—but no, you're alright, just in the hospital. You're gonna be fine."

"I guess that's a relief," she sighed, pursing her lips. She eyed him with concerned hesitance. "But what are you doing here?"

"What d'you mean, 'what am I doing here?'" he asked incredulously, his voice soft. "Three of my supporters just tried to fucking kill you 'cause they were tryin' to defend my image. Did you think I wasn't gonna come see you? Make sure you're okay? I've been worried sick, Y/N."

"I..." She swallowed the lump building in her throat as she remembered everything that happened, how quickly it'd all gone down. With the way they'd cornered her, she was lucky to have escaped with a bullet in her shoulder. She was lucky to have even made it out alive. "I'm really, really glad you're here," she said with a weak smile, "but we aren't exactly holed up in your penthouse, right now. How do you plan to explain that you came to visit me in the hospital?"

"Well, officially, 'm here to offer my deepest apologies on behalf of myself 'n my campaign and to let you know that I entirely denounce what happened," he said, and as his gaze fell, as he couldn't bear to meet her eyes, she could see the remorse in her demeanor. "Everyone's just gonna think it's damage control, and I get why. Some of that was just an excuse for me comin' to see you. But really... I can't tell you how sorry I am that this happened. 'M so, so sorry that people came out 'n tracked you down, tried to murder you in my name. You can't... I can't begin to tell you how much I wish I could go back and do somethin' different to stop this from happenin'. That I didn't spend so much time messin' with you on Twitter. That I woulda—"

"Stop it," Y/N said, her voice hardly more than a whisper. She could see Thomas's eyes welling up, his stare glassy; she could hear his voice beginning to waver. "Stop. You know this wasn't your fault. There was nothing you could've done to prevent it. You're a good person, okay? I know you. Please, please don't blame yourself."

She squeezed his hand, and he shut his eyes tightly. "Fuck, I don't—" He sniffled loudly, reaching up to wipe the tears from his cheeks. "Don't know why you're comforting me right now. 'M not supposed to be the one who needs it; I don't wanna make this about me. 'M sorry."

"You have nothing to be sorry for. You aren't responsible for this, and I don't blame you for it in the least." At her gentle tone, he let out a ragged huff, still not meeting her eyes. She frowned. "Hey, look at me. You didn't do anything to incite this."

"You're too forgivin'," he finally said, lifting his head to meet her gaze. "I don't deserve it."

She scoffed at the words, breaking his gaze to shake her head in exasperation. "Thomas, if you don't deserve to be forgiven, that's because there's nothing to forgive. Please, this isn't your burden."

There was a skip, silence aside from the IV drip and the staticky beep of the heart rate monitor. "That's enough talkin' about me," he finally said. Y/N sighed. His deflecting was overt, but he didn't seem to care. "How are you? I don't just mean your shoulder, either. No one would judge you for bein' rattled after everything that happened."

She shrugged, and he could see the pain in her eyes. "I'm not great, if I'm honest. I was just so scared." She drew in a shaky breath. He took her hand in both of his, pulling his chair closer to her side. "How'd you even find out about this, anyway? Lafayette?"

"Now, why d'you think Lafayette woulda heard about you bein' in the hospital before I did?" He could only feign offense, but the eyebrow he raised was playful. She couldn't stifle her amused smile. "That hurts, sweetheart, really. He matters that much more to you than I do?"

"Shut up; you know that none of my other friends would tell you about this," she groaned, but any exhaustion in her voice was contrived. "Alex and his sister-in-law are my emergency contacts. Which one of them would've ever called you?"

"Alright, alright." Thomas huffed, trying to purse his lips to hide his grin. "James called me. Dolley saw it on the news."

"Oh my god, it's on the news?" Her eyes widened, and Thomas was struck with a pang of guilt as he heard her pulse begin to spike — there wasn't much she could hide when hooked up to a heart rate monitor. "Shit, I– I need to call Mira and Orlando; they've gotta be terrified. And Angelica, holy shit, I'm sure she's heard. What time is it? How long has it been since the story broke?"

"Hey, calm down, okay? They're outside. They know you're gonna be alright," he murmured, rubbing the back of her hand comfortingly, and he sighed as he heard her heartbeat slow. "Everyone's out there. James 'n Dolley came, Lafayette came... Hamilton brought his whole family. I met Angelica, just now."

Her eyebrows shot up, but a laugh was etched into her surprised smile. "Oh, no, tell me you're lying. I can't imagine that went well."

He hummed in agreement, his eyes crinkling at the corners as he watched her enthusiasm begin to grow. "Nah, not so much. Think she woulda throttled me out in the lobby if Mira hadn't stopped her."

Y/N groaned. "Of course Mira's out there defending you. Some priorities."

"Oh, would you rather your friends killed me with their bare hands?" He raised an expectant eyebrow, and when Y/N only shrugged, he scowled.

"Listen, all I'm saying is that if someone shot you in my name and James tried to throttle me for it, I'd understand."

Thomas gave a reluctant hum. "Forgot how much you liked havin' people's hands around your throat. Guess you'd probably enjoy it, huh?"

Her eyes widened as her breath caught, blood rushing to her cheeks. She could feel her skin burning, and somewhere in the background, she was vaguely aware of the rush of her heart rate monitor. "Thomas. Shut up, I swear to god."

He laughed when she tried to shove his hands away, yank her right arm out of his grasp, but when he just squeezed her forearm teasingly, she turned her head. She couldn't meet his gaze with the scowl she wore. "Aw, what's the problem? You only into that when I'm the one doin' it?"

"Thomas." She whipped her head back around to him with a wearing look, appearingly taken aback, but her teeth were sinking hard into her bottom lip. When she saw the mocking pout he wore, a chill ran down her back; her stomach turned.

"Y'know, I'm kinda havin' fun with bein' able to hear your heart rate." When he winked, the corners of his lips turning up into a knowing smile, the heat in the back of her neck flared.

"You're exhausting," she grumbled. He shrugged.

"Mmh, I can see that." When she turned to him with an eyebrow raised, he grinned. "Nothin' to be ashamed of, sweetheart. I know I—"

He was cut off by the click of the door being thrown open, and a nurse rushed into the room, closely followed by the small army of people there to see Y/N. They both pulled abruptly back from one another. Y/N's heart was pounding.

"Y/N! Are you okay? Did something happen?" Eliza asked pushing through to see you with wide, worried eyes. Y/N opened her mouth to respond, but when she just gaped at everyone for a moment, Alex immediately cut in.

"Jefferson, I swear to god, if you laid a finger on her, I'll end you. I knew it was a bad idea to let him in here," Alex scowled, glaring at Thomas as he strode toward them, but Y/N's brows shot up.

"Hey, woah, stop it," she said holding up her right hand, a silent request for him to come to a halt. Reluctantly, he did, still eyeing Thomas skeptically. "Nothing happened. I'm okay. Why'd you all come in here like this?"

"Your heart rate was rising, dear. We thought you could've been having a seizure, or a heart attack, or... or something," Dolley said, and Alex glared when she pushed her way in front of him. "How are you? I saw the video online, and oh, Y/N, it was awful. I couldn't bear to see such a thing happening to you."

"Dolley, hey." Y/N wore a soft smile as Dolley came to her bedside, resting a hand on her calf. "I'm okay. Not the best I've ever felt, but it isn't anything I won't be able to sleep off. That, and some painkillers, of course."

Dolley gave her a wry smile. "Let me know if there's anything I can do. I have a neglected bottle of rosé sitting in our pantry and two pints of ice cream in the freezer, so go ahead and pick your poison."

Y/N laughed. "I'll have to see what flavors of ice cream you've got stashed away, but either option is dangerously tempting."

Dolley was about to reply, but when Angelica emerged to her left, she jumped back, startled. "Anyway, why was your heart rate so high? You don't look like you're going into a coma, so what'd he do?" Angelica nodded toward Thomas, the look in her eyes all business and her brow furrowed. Thomas raised an affronted brow.

"Oh, please, Thomas wouldn't hurt a fly." As everyone began to disperse themselves around her bedside, the group who'd come to see her made Y/N's heart warm. She resisted rolling her eyes at the doting smile Mira gave Thomas alongside her words, which he returned gratefully. (Suck up.) However, Mira also turned to Y/N with a hesitant look. "Right, mija?"

Y/N pursed her lips, glancing between Mira and Thomas dubiously, but Thomas looked smug. "Yeah, yeah, he's in the clear," she agreed reluctantly. "My heart rate spiked because I stupidly tried to use both my arms to shift where I was sitting. It didn't feel so great for, y'know, my bullet wound." When she gave a weak smile, there were sighs of relief scattered throughout the group (Thomas's was the most adamant; he hadn't expected her to bail him out quite that easily).

"Well, we are glad to see zat you are alright." Lafayette offered her a soft smile, and when she found him standing directly beside Thomas, she reached out to squeeze the hand he had resting on the rail of her bed. A flicker of dejection passed through Thomas's expression, gone almost the moment it came.

"I'm glad to see all of you here. It was really sweet of you to come," Y/N said, looking around the group. Her eyes lit up when she caught sight of James standing just behind Dolley, a small smile resting on his lips. "Aw, James, even you showed up?"

"Of course, Y/N. We on Thomas's campaign have been incredibly concerned."

She rolled her eyes at his formal tone. "Yeah, yeah, talk all you want about your political agenda, but we both know Dolley dragged you along to visit."

"I truly can't help but take offense at that," James said, his brow furrowed, and he shook his head. Regardless, he wore an amused smile. "As though I'm unable to cross partisan lines for an injured acquaintance?"

"Aw, aren't we friends by now?" Y/N asked, plastering on a pout, and James laughed.

"I suppose so." He squeezed Dolley's shoulder, an eyebrow raised, and she shuffled aside, inadvertently crowding into Angelica's space. When James took a step forward, Y/N's eyebrows shot up at the bouquet of flowers he held, the envelope attached to them. "These are for you, on behalf of our entire campaign."

She had to shift in her seat to turn and take them from him in her right hand, but as she did so, she grimaced at the dull pain in her shoulder when she moved it. Thomas's hand shot out to support her before he realized where he was, and he stopped himself short, pulling his hands back into his lap with a wince.

"Thanks so much, James, these are beautiful," Y/N said, inhaling deeply as she held the flowers up to her nose. "Who picked them out?"

"I did." The sound of Thomas's voice among the group surprised her. Her eyebrows were raised when she turned to him, and she struggled to stop her small smile from widening at his words.

"Well then, thank you, Secretary Jefferson. I appreciate the gesture."

"It's the least I could do, Ms. L/N." She pressed her lips together; it was all she could do not to laugh at the formality in his tone. He gave her a sympathetic smile, but as she met his gaze, it was doting. "I'm terribly sorry that this happened. Please, don't hesitate to reach out if there's anything further we can do to support you."

She cocked a brow. "Care to pay my medical bills?"

"Gladly."

"Wait, seriously?" Her eyes widened. "I was joking, but I'm holding you to that."

"As you should," Thomas said reasonably, giving a shrug. "I understand how difficult this has gotta be for you, and for your family, too. We'd like to support you in any way we can."

While his gentle tone made her smile, holding his stare, but Alex scoffed loudly.

"Oh my god, don't fall for that, Y/N," he interjected. Y/N raised a brow. "He's just trying to avoid a lawsuit. Or convince you not to start bitching online about how he almost killed you."

"He didn't almost kill me," she huffed. She glanced back hesitantly at Thomas, and he was watching her with guilt heavy in his expression. "One of his supporters did. It's not the same thing."

"Yeah, they tried to kill you in his name. Why are you giving him a pass?"

"If you shot him in my name, would it be my fault?" She pinned Alex with an expectant stare, and he huffed. "You know it wouldn't, and this is no different. If you're gonna spend the next few minutes attacking him, go wait in the hall until he and James leave. My head already hurts, so I refuse to listen to you picking a fight."

Alex folded his arms. "Why aren't you kicking him out?"

"Because you're the one getting worked up, right now," Y/N said matter-of-factly, but Thomas sighed.

"I understand that you all want me gone. I won't impose," he said, and when he began to push his chair out, Y/N and Mira wore identical, dismayed expressions.

"No, no, you aren't imposing!" Mira insisted. "Please, stay."

"'S alright, Mira. I know when I'm not wanted. I should be goin'," he said, giving her a reassuring smile, but his nervous gaze flickered back to Y/N. "Unless, of course, you've got any more grievances you wanna air? I'd be happy to listen, but I don't wanna overstay my welcome."

"Actually," Y/N started, pursing her lips. Thomas's tense demeanor softened as she went on, "I have a few more things I'd like to say before you go. You aren't off the hook just yet." Though her expression was hard, Thomas was struggling not to grin at her not sending him away. Y/N looked back around to her friends and family. "If you'd all give me another minute? I need to get some things off my chest."

While everyone obliged her easily, turning to give her space as they started toward the exit, Dolley and Lafayette shared a knowing look. Y/N's nurse smiled. "I'm glad to see you awake and feeling better. I'll be on call if you need me."

"Thanks so much," Y/N said quietly, and Lafayette caught her eye with a grin.

"We will be back in a few minutes, chérie. Do not do anything rash."

Y/N's eyebrows shot up when he shot Thomas a wink before following everyone else out, and they sat another moment in silence until the door finally fell shut. Thomas breathed a sigh of relief.

"So, now that everyone's outta here, you gonna rip me a new one?" he asked playfully, and Y/N rolled her eyes, finally letting herself grin as she turned to him, leaning fully back against her bed.

"Don't tempt me," she warned, and he laughed lightly. "But I just wanted another minute with you. If you want to go or have somewhere to be, I'll understand."

"I'm gonna stay as long as you're lookin' to let me," he replied, and when he rested his hand on the bed's rail, she took it in hers.

"I don't know how long I can believably pretend to be yelling at you, but I don't want you to leave just yet. I'm really glad you're here." She swallowed hard, glancing down at where their hands were linked. "I've just... been so distant recently. Is it silly to say I was afraid I was going to die without seeing you first?"

He let out a light, breathy laugh; the look in his eyes was akin to relief. "Jesus, I hope not, 'cause I've been up all night worryin' about the same thing."

Her eyebrows shot up, and he gave her a sheepish smile. "You've been up all night?"

"How was I supposed to sleep?" he asked, his eyebrows raised. He shook his head in disbelief. "You have no idea how scared I was, sweetheart."

"I can imagine," she said with a sigh. "Thank you for coming. I'm sure it wasn't easy to get in here with my friends all ready to bite your head off."

"Mmh, not exactly," he agreed, tone dry, and when she caught sight of his irked expression, she raised an eyebrow. "I didn't get too warm of a welcome."

"How'd you convince them to let you stay here until I woke up, anyway?" she asked, and a lopsided grin split his expression. He shrugged. "Don't tell me you just waltzed in here, and they let you into my room. I know them better than that."

"Lafayette vouched for me."

"Seriously?" Y/N furrowed her brow. "And said what?"

"That it'd be best for you to be able to get everything off your chest before everyone came in to see you." He shrugged, and though Y/N rolled her eyes, his smile was smug. "Guess I'm lucky you're takin' pity on me, huh?"

"Really, Jefferson. I should consider being a little harsher next time. Really making you pay for being thoughtful enough to show up here and comfort me when I'm terribly injured." She bit her lip, eyeing him tentatively. "Hey, can anybody see us right now? Are there any windows or security cameras I'm missing?"

He shook his head, brow furrowed. "Uh-uh. Relax. It's just you and me, alright?"

"Then will you come sit with me?"

His eyebrows shot up when she looked at him hopefully, shifting over on her bed, but it wasn't until a moment later that he answered, his words hesitant. "I dunno, sweetheart. I know you're in a lotta pain, and I don't wanna accidentally hurt you. You should just rest."

"Please?" The look in her eyes was hopeful, and she ran her thumb across his knuckles. "I just... wanna be held. I know you've gotta go soon, but..."

She couldn't finish her sentence, instead just trailing off, watching him with pleading eyes, and he sighed. "God, I hate not bein' able to say no to you. Move over."

Y/N grinned when he stood, delicately propping himself up onto the edge of her bed and swinging his legs up beside hers. His left arm brushed against her right shoulder, and she winced, trying to prop herself up onto the side of his torso. His hands found her waist. "This okay?" he asked softly, shifting her to lay against his chest, and her smile went soft.

"Yeah. This is good." She hummed contentedly when he absentmindedly began tracing patterns into her hip through her hospital gown. "Thanks for being here. Not many people would be willing to fight through my friends just to see me for a few minutes."

"Well, I did have some help," he murmured, his lips just above her ear. "I mean, since you gave Mira the power of attorney and all, she got the final say on who was allowed to come in and see you. You know she's got a soft spot for me."

Y/N giggled. "I guess your whole 'golden boy' act does come in handy once in a while."

When Thomas huffed, she could feel his warm breath tickle the side of her neck. She shivered. "Y'know what, I'm gonna let that one go, but only 'cause you're injured."

"Or because you know I'm right," she teased, craning her neck back to look at him with a wide smile, and he raised an amused eyebrow.

"Mhm, 'cause I'm secretly a terrible person, huh?"

"Good thing we agree." She pushed herself up to lightly kiss the underside of his jaw. "I just wish you could stay longer. I know you probably have a million things to get done, but I hate that you have to use some bullshit excuse just to come see me."

"So do I," he sighed.

"I just wish we could do... whatever this is in the light of day."

"What if we could?"

"Thomas," Y/N groaned lightly. "It's a nice thought, but you know it isn't possible. You aren't going to drop out of the race for president, and I'm not going to stop covering the campaign. I like my job too much. I don't want to give that up."

"And I'd never ask you to," he assured her, "'S just a nice thought."

"Yeah," she agreed reluctantly, her gaze downcast. A beat passed in silence; they were both too caught up in their own heads to pay attention to the steady click of the IV drip within a foot of them, the buzz of the dying LED lights overhead. Finally, Y/N said, "Is there any chance you can come up with some excuse to come back and visit me tomorrow? I'll have my phone on me, so I can text you when the coast is clear."

"I'd love that," he whispered, pressing a kiss to the side of her head. He hadn't realized it, but she'd begun to doze off, her eyes fluttering shut as she laid her head against the warmth of his body, the steady feeling of his heartbeat in his chest lulling her to sleep.

"Thank you," she murmured, covering his hand with hers. "I love..." She trailed off when she could feel him inhale sharply, his chest rising against her back, and despite her fatigue, she knew enough to hold her tongue. "Love that you could make it here. Thanks again."

"'S been my pleasure."

She didn't respond, content to just rest in his arms, and his smile was soft as he looked down at her. Several minutes ticked by, and the pair was at peace in the sterile environment, relaxed despite the bullet wound in her shoulder, the danger she'd been in hours before, despite the tension that always hung heavy in their dynamic, unavoidable with the risk they were taking being together.

"Thanks for keeping me around, sweetheart," he whispered, and his words were met only with the heavy sound of her breathing, leveling out as she drifted further and further from consciousness. He swallowed hard. "I love you."

She was too far gone to hear him.

A few more minutes later, the room's door clicked open, and Thomas's eyes widened, realizing the position he was about to be found in. His eyes widened.

"Y/N, is it alright if everyone else—?" Lafayette emerged from the doorway alone, cutting himself with a soft smile when he caught sight of Y/N laid against Thomas's body, perfectly at peace in his embrace. "Ah, Thomas. I am glad to see zat she is being well taken care of," he said softly, a teasing lilt to his voice. Thomas couldn't take it too personally. "Is she... asleep?"

He nodded. "Has been for a few minutes. Think she's been needin' some real rest," he replied, warm gaze drifting down to Y/N's calm, absent face. "Y'know, the kind that doesn't come from faintin' in pain and some anesthetics."

Lafayette chuckled lightly, folding his arms. "I think zat it is for ze best," he said. "But I was sent in 'ere to see whether or not Y/N was done, ah... lecturing you for ze 'arms done. I am not sure I 'ave any way to tell everyone zat she is still busy in 'ere."

"Sounds like it's time for me to head out, then, huh?" Lafayette nodded, and Thomas looked down with a reluctant smile. "Alright, gimme a minute. Send everyone in when I get out of here, yeah?"

"Of course." Lafayette departed without another word, appearing to be rather pleased with the scene before him. Thomas sighed, trying to shift Y/N off of himself without rattling her, and when he gently laid her shoulders back down onto the mattress, her head resting to one side on the pillow, he leaned down to kiss her forehead softly.

"I'll be back for you tomorrow, okay?" he whispered, disregarding entirely the fact that she didn't hear a word of it. He finally lifted himself off of the side of the bed. "Goodnight, Y/N."

His footsteps stalled another moment as he stood beside her; his tender gaze swept down the entirety of her stature, but it was clouded with remorse when he once again glanced to the bloodied bandage wrapped around her shoulder. He swallowed the lump of guilt in his throat.

He turned off the lights on his way out.

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ad1thi · 4 years

Text

@starklysteve me?? spamming you w recs because i love talking about my ships?? more likely than you think :)) (here’s some rhodeytony to get you started on what is objectively the best tony ship)

i place your hands around my neck: @fanfictiongreenirises

"Rhodey could practically feel his lungs getting heavier again, weighed down by roots of plants that he’d thought would never take hold in him again."

Or: the one where Rhodey's been pining over Tony for much longer than either of them realised and develops the Hanahaki disease

Pretend We’re In Love (The Heartache Still Hurts): @marvelingjules

Rhodey's dad is dying, and what he's always wanted is for Rhodey to be happily married. Tony and Rhodey were best friends, and haven't spoken in years. But after a chance meeting at the airport, and a desperate, insane idea on Rhodey's part, they end up pretending to be engaged.

But how much of it is really pretend?

i can’t seem to get a grip, no matter how i live with it: @psikeval

Tony knows he's got no business being a father.

A Million Shades of Blue: @notfknapplicable

“I just know that if I could get to wherever he is, I could find him. Dead or alive, I'd bring him back to us.”

James Rhodes will never stop searching for Tony Stark.

Twenty Five Years: @notfknapplicable (part of a series)

Nobody knows how long this has actually been going on. (Tony Stark has pretty much been in a monogamous relationship since he was 18 years old.)

Leave The Light On: @notfknapplicable (part of a series)

He was never doing this for fun. He'd just wanted to stay awake. And whatever you do, please don't tell that guy he's been fucking. He kinda likes him.

coloured in sun: @heleus

The one in which Anthony Edward Stark, having just reached the warm age of seventeen, realizes that he's in love with his best friend.

(The idea is terrifying.)

the planets that bend us: @deathsweetqueen

When Antonia Margaret Stark wakes up on her sixth birthday, it’s to the words: I didn’t get any sleep last night after that fucking lawn mower decided that 7 in the morning would be a perfect time for him to start his day, right outside my room.

She runs a thumb over the long string of words, wrapping around her wrist like a thick leather band.

She smiles.

She’s fourteen when she meets James Rupert Rhodes for the first time.

Written for the "more than a partner" square (S3) for the Tony Stark Bingo 2019 and the "soulmate" square for the Iron Husbands Bingo 2019

we rattle together in a bed of honey: @deathsweetqueen

Toni first met James Rhodes in Cellular Neurophysiology and Computing, when she was fourteen and trying very hard to stay in the shadows. She stumbles into the classroom, clutching her books and binders and pencil case close to her chest, as she stares at everything, wide-eyed and hungry and terrified. She seizes on the contempt, the confusion, the incredulity of the other freshman who look at her like she’s an incongruity – she’s used to that look, all that hate and derision.

She eats it up like chocolate cake.

Much to her luck, all the seats are filled, all except for one towards the middle of the row, a table shared only by a tall, handsome black boy, sleeping on top of the counter.

a winding road that stretches to the truth: @/coulddaughter (this author ostensibly has a tumblr but im unable to locate it -- so if anyone knows what their tumblr is please let me know so i can tag them!)

“Why do you need a date? Also, no offence, but why did you come to me? I stole, like, four of your girlfriends and at least two boyfriends, remember.”

“I do remember that, Tony,” said Jim, pinching the bridge of his nose. “No, I need you to come on a date with me.”

Love in the Eyes: @child-of-sunshine

The moment each of the Avengers realized Tony and Rhodey were in love.

The Curious Case Of The Discarded Condom: @/AssvengersArsemble

Natasha, Clint and Steve get just a little nosy about Tony's love life. Tony finds it extremely amusing they can't see what's right under their noses.

takes a lot of love and compliance: @gyzym

She's born breech, feet kicking out before the rest of her screams free; she's born breech, and never stops running. (Rule 63!Tony)

Targeted Persuasion: @galwednesday

Jim opened Tony's most formal closet and started pulling out tuxedos. "Put one of these on.”

"Why?"

"We're getting married."

Tony froze. "No, we're not."

"Oh yes we are." Jim tossed three tuxedos onto the bed. Three was a good number of options, enough for Tony to make a choice, but not so many that he'd get lost analyzing the ramifications of navy pinstripes vs. charcoal paisley. Tony did best with clear, specific expectations rather than an unlimited universe of possibilities that he would inevitably filter through his neuroses and obsess over, and Jim was really kicking himself for not considering that, oh, ten years ago when they’d first started this, but there was no point in beating himself up about it now when he could put that energy towards solving the problem instead. "You brought this on yourself, Tones. Pick a damn tux."

Five thousand roses: @/forestgreen

She is broken and all the more dangerous for it. The world should tread carefully around the shards of her former self lest they cut themselves on Antonia Stark's sharp edges.

A Guide to Handling the Unhandleable Tony Stark: @/nightrider101 (this is ab a/b/o verse)

Written for the following prompt on the Avengers Kink meme: The rest of the Avengers assume Tony is an unbound Omega by the way he acts. He's reckless and carefree and does what he wants. Imagine their surprise when they find out that Rhodey is Tony's Alpha. They're all confused at the way Rhodey lets Tony act and how they can be away from each other for long periods of time and Rhodey's just like 'He didn't want to give up his career and I didn't want to give up mine. And I gave up trying to tell Tony what to do years ago.'

It’s Not Bacon Until It Ceases To Be Bacon: @sobebold

Tony has lived with his best friend Rhodey for fifteen years, and everything is perfect.

Until Rhodey finally gets a boyfriend, and Tony's world gets turned upside down.

by any name: @machi-kun

Tony calls him ‘mine’, sometimes.

And he also calls him platypus, honeybear, sugarplum, all those stupid nicknames; but James’ favorite will always be ‘mine’.

Tutor Me: @wisiaden

Tony really wants James Rhodes to be his math tutor. The guy was hot, and if he had to play dumb, well, he can say he hates math.

run and hide: @/starksrhodey

Tony may or may not have a crush on football captain James Rhodes.

Or, Tony is extremely insecure, Pepper knows best, Steve likes to bake, Bucky loves red heads, and Rhodey keeps trying to talk to Tony.

This Is The Real Life: @blancheludis

It takes doing the laundry for Tony to realize he is completely, irrevocably in love with Rhodey. Who knew that the way to Tony Stark's heart is to teach him how to wash his clothes.

Anything For You Darling: @areiton

Tony is sitting on the balcony of his palace in Malibu, and Rhodey hates it, more than he's ever hated anything, watching his best friend stare at the water, limmed by the sun and utterly alone.

"She's dead," Tony says, before Rhodey can ask and he feels his breath catch, his heart stumble.

There's--

Grief. For pretty, troubled Maya with her big eyes.

Heartbreak. For a sweet infant who will never know the mother who gave him up, whose life will never be exposed, now.

Relief. Because Harley is safe. Safe. Gods, he's safe.

Rhodey helps Tony raise his son.

it goes like this (just like heroin): @quandongcrumble

He’s twenty-six and you’re twenty-eight and you get a midnight phone call from Obadiah and between the two of you, you manage to beg and bully until you can fly back to the States and sit beside the white hospital bed while they say words like heroin and accidental overdose and that Tony should pull through but Tiberius might not wake up.

It goes like this—for almost sixteen years Tony’s addiction problems are a blight on Rhodey’s relationship with him. Friendships crack and trust is shattered, over and over again.

motor oil and coconut oil: @/halfasgoodasanything

James loves his best friend. He's entirely supportive of his friendship and his almost relationship with Steve Rogers. He is! He is. Carol and Pepper seem to think otherwise, but he's cool. Loving Tony doesn't mean no one else can. Even if he wanted to.

lost and found: @starkslovemail

“Are you lost?”

Tony jumped at the voice cutting into his thoughts. Turning around, he saw another teen, maybe a year or two older than him, decked out in Team USA gear. He shook his head, flashing what he hoped was a disarming smile, “Nope.”

“Are you sure about that?” The athlete raised a disbelieving brow as he stared down at Tony. “You’ve been walking up and down this hallway for the past ten minutes, and the least embarrassing reason why is being lost.”

The blunt honesty startled a laugh out of Tony. He grinned cheekily, rocking back on his heels, “Guess I’m lost then.”

Written for the RhodeyTony Mini-Bang! Art can be seen on twitter here!

two boy geniuses walk into one frat house: @starkslovemail (part of a series)

There were too many white people at this damn party.

The Other 'Mr Stark': Iron Man’s Mysterious Paramour: @presidentrhodes

Clint leans over to Tony and whispers. “For the record, I know you’re lying. You’re describing the perfect man and he doesn’t exist. You might as well say you’re dating Superman because at least Christopher Reeve was a looker.“(Based on this prompt: Tony keeps telling the avengers how awesome his husband is but they don't believe he exists because it has been months and they still haven't met him yet and then finally, Rhodey comes home.)

#adi's rec list #rhodeytony #ironhusbands #james rhodes/tony stark #james rhodes x tony stark #this got long 😳#but all of these fics are so worth it #twenty seven recs #I HOPE YOU ENJOY THEM RHAE

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musicmyloves15 · 4 years

Text

Why I believe that Harry was the fish...

So Harry Lambert engaged in this convo on twitter about the Grammy nomination for the Adore You video and it reminded me of my theory on the fish.

I feel like this feeds right into my theory that Harry was the fish, and Louis was the boy. From the first time I saw the music video i thought that Louis seemed to be the boy and Harry was the fish. Here is my thoughts on the video... (my thoughts will be in italics)

The boy was peculiar from the moment he entered the world.

Louis didn't ever seem to question himself before he was forced to with media training; he referred to himself as flamboyant, he was self confident in his fashion choices and words before they started to change him.

The town was used to the way things were and weren’t used to someone being different

He said his teachers never really knew what to do with him. In a working class town being a gay kid wouldn’t have been easy or the norm.

He had lost his smile and without it the world grew darker.

Everyone was telling him there was something wrong with him because of his sexuality. His teachers, maybe people from Doncaster, the x factor people, Simon and modest, the record label, etc…

The boy tried to ignore the fish but he was not alone in his melancholy

Louis tried to fight things on his own but harry understood what he was feeling. He might have had people that didn't understand him as well.

Loneliness is an ocean full of travelers trying to find their place in this world.

They just wanted to make it and everyone (Simon and his gang) were telling the boys they couldn't be themselves. They couldn't be open and they had to hide who they were.

But without friendship we are all lost and left with no hope.

Together they were able to survive. Because they had each other they could get through the pain of being told they couldn't be who they were.

No home no harbor.

I feel like this is talking about being on the move constantly and being worked to the bone.

He wondered what cruel twist of fate brought them together and if fate was involved what did she have in store.

This screams to me that they were shaking their fist at fate in those early years and screaming I finally found my best friend and soulmate and we can't even fully be together. We can but we are still being pulled apart. We can love but only behind closed doors. We can hold each others words and secrets but only if our voices are silenced.

The first verse of the song we see the boy trying to protect the fish.

Louis tried to protect harry so much especially at the beginning. You can see him being the one harry looked to on stage and in interviews especially at the beginning. The boy flashes his bright smile at the women when he puts the fish in the coffee pot to keep him alive. I feel like this is symbolic of Louis being so loud and silly to have everyone’s attention on him in the beginning so harry could find his feet.

When the fish outgrows the coffee pot, the boy moves him to a bigger space.

I feel like this is Louis stepping back a bit when harry got more confident and comfortable. He still was right there by Harrys side but he didn't try to steal the show as much as he had at the beginning of 1D. Everything Louis did was to support harry. There are so many receipts of Louis staying off to the side while harry is working if they were shooting something or recording something. He could have gone off and done his own thing like Liam, Niall, and Zayn, but he didn’t. He was always right there for harry if he needed him.

Then comes the part when they’re up on the hill together and they look through the binoculars and see someone with the metal detector

I feel like this is symbolic of where they start to plan their future together. They share the exciting thought of getting their treasure someday and being happy. (The dancing and the fish matching the boys spinning dance moves)

Then the boy makes the fish an outfit. (He’s sitting at the desk)

I feel like this is Louis encouraging harry to dress the way he wants to and to feel comfortable in his own skin.

Then the news alert and the fish tries to escape from the bag on the dresser.

I feel like this symbolic of harry realizing that he can't be himself while still trapped in the bubble of 1D. He needs more space and more freedom.

The boy moves him to an even bigger space in the tank on the bike.

This feels like the end of 1d where long hair harry was more free and open. Especially the interviews and his gender neutral answers and his clothing choices. This screams 2015 harry to me.

People in the town start noticing the fish.

This is showing how even though Louis was still by his side, people began to see harry for who he might want to be instead of how he’d been. People at this point were noticing Harrys new bold wardrobe choices (the first pattered suit?) and vocabulary. (Not that important?)

The boy standing inside watching the news with the fish and he studies the fish. Seeing the look the fish gives him and he is thinking hard.

I feel like this is when Louis realized he was going to have to let Harry go his own way at some point in the future. (I mean musically not their personal relationship) He knows that harry needed more than what he could get from the band. He might not have been ready for 1d to take a break but I think Louis did know that harry could be bigger than he was in 1d.

The fish is almost too big for the tank as the boy starts leading him to the water.

Louis knew that the time was getting closer to harry trying some solo work. He was still there trying to protect him but he had accepted at this point it was going to happen.

The fish freaks out when he sees the man chop off a different fish’s head.

I feel like going solo was terrifying for harry. I feel like there would have been moments where he panicked and needed Louis to remind him that he could do this. Louis has always been harry’s biggest fan. And Louis would have been right there calming him down and telling him how amazing he is and he could do this.

The fish breaks the tank.

This seems like the moment when shit hit the fan and they knew it was time to call the hiatus.

The boy tries and fails to move the fish on his own but then the townspeople step in to help get the fish to water.

I feel like this is when Louis and harry started to surround themselves with people in the industry who would help harry be the harry he wanted to become. Working with harry Lambert and Harris reed, and others who started to help him stand up and show the person he was and not who he had been.

Then the boy pushes the fish into the water.

Louis knew that harry needed to have a chance to be harry and not harry from one direction to accomplish his dreams. I feel like this moment in the video is Louis coming to terms with the hiatus and knowing it was what was best for harry.

The boy standing on the cliff watching the fish swim away.

Louis wasn’t going to get the same opportunities as harry. He knew that. Simon screwed him over and he accepted that by taking the brunt of it he had protected harry as best he could. He watched harry soar as a solo artist but he had to do so from the sidelines.

The entire town helped put the fish back in the ocean, the sun broke and the sun shined down on eroda melting every frown.

I feel like this shows how much a weight was lifted off of their shoulders when they were finished with the stress they’d faced over the years of 1d. Everyone in their family and their circle of close friends had to have been relieved that the boys were going to get a reprieve form the machine that had almost broken them.

Then we see the boy smile.

Louis had to have been so proud of harry. Watching him flourish and thrive as a solo artist had to have melted his heart and made him burst with pride for harry.

The boy sails away at the end using the screams he had stored in jars.

This seems symbolic of Louis leaving syco and using the pain that they’ve gone through over the years to learn and grow from for the future.

#Adore You Music Video #My thoughts #Larry #Larry Stylinson #the fish #Just a theory

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comradelouis · 4 years

Note

Loved your interpretation of flight of the stars, can you please do the one with good years? Or link to me the post if you already did one? To me good years is such an obvious zouis song and the way Louis reacted to this song confirmed it to me

Aww thank you, I enjoyed writing it! I also appreciate you asking for this because it gives me an excuse to rant about Zouis.

Okay so, obviously Good Years is about Zayn’s time in One Direction. The choruses are a lot more broad, saying:

I'd rather be anywhere Anywhere but here I close my eyes and see a crowd of a thousand tears I pray to God I didn't waste all my good years

These lyrics pretty clearly reflect Zayn’s inner struggle at the end of his time in 1D. “Here” likely being on tour with 1D, “a crowd of a thousand tears” likely being Zayn’s experience of the crowd at the shows. He also expresses mourning his youth (”good years”) and maybe regret about how much time he has “wasted”.

However, the verses are much more specific and seem to refer to Zayn’s relationship with one other person. The first verse:

The voices screaming loud as hell We don't care 'bout no one else Nothing in the world could bring us down Now we're so high among the stars without a worry And neither one, one of us wants to say we're sorry

...is still quite broad and seems to discuss experiences at concerts, experiences within the band, and feeling on top of the world. However, the use of “neither one” implies that he is addressing one other person, not a group of people. He seems to be talking to someone he has felt “high among the stars” with. I believe this lyric is the most sentimental of the whole song, showing what his relationship with Louis felt like, feeling on top of the world without a worry, and then contrasting that with the apology still lingering between them.

The second verse gets even more specific:

Too much drugs and alcohol What the hell were we fighting for? 'Cause now the whole damn world will know That we're too numb and just too dumb to change the story Neither one, one of us wants to say we're sorry

I believe that “too much drugs and alcohol” is specific to Zouis, particularly as they were going out parting together significantly more than we’d seen before, even days before Zayn’s departure. Clearly there was quite a bit of alcohol involved, likely at least some marijuana as well.

This chorus continues to clearly be about Louis, as the only public fight within 1D was the very public twitter feud between Zayn and Louis shortly after Zayn left the band. Further, I think likely the “we’re too numb and just too dumb” is an intentional oversimplification of why Louis and Zayn haven’t apologized to each other or tried to change the public narrative about their relationship. Certainly if Zayn is still thinking about this years later, his relationship with Louis was much more important than this sentiment makes it out to be. The repeated line about neither wanting to apologize draws the parallels between the two verses, indicating that we’re talking about the same person here.

Overall, this song is one of the sadder, less hopeful songs on Icarus Falls. Even the bridge...

Need a chance just to breathe, feel alive And when the day meets the night, show me the light Feel the wind and the fire hold the pain deep inside It's in my eyes In my eyes

...doesn’t allow for much resolution, just Zayn needing space and needing something to break, just burying the pain for now.

I think Good Years was Zayn’s chance to look back at what happened in those final months and come to terms with some of the emotions that maybe still linger. He’s reflecting on a relationship that was important to him, thinking about how it ended, and, as I interpret the tone, to be rather resigned to the fact that there is no mutual apology in sight, that there is no forthcoming resolution.

As for the alleged reaction to the song from Louis, I am not convinced that he was referring to Zayn or the song (if anyone can find what some folks were speculating the tweet was about, please send it my way), though with how much press it got, it’s hard not to make that connection. If, indeed, Louis meant that Zayn was a hypocrite, it’s unclear to which sentiment he’s referring and, really, it just seems to underline Zayn’s point that this is still unresolved.

#Anonymous #good years #zouis #ask

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elizacornwall · 4 years

Text

Vengeance is an Idiot’s Game - Chapter 2 - Iron Bars

The ground beneath the furs she laid on was hard and cold. Not that it mattered of course, her racing mind wouldn't have let her fall asleep anyway. The solid iron bars surrounding her didn't do much to comfort Eliza either. Her fearful tremors had subsided, but a deeper sense of looming dread slowly expanded, filling the space in her chest where the blind panic had been. These men were able to steal her away from the most protected house in the state, hell, in all America, without anyone noticing. Who were they?

They weren't any actual business partners of her father, that much was certain. No one in their right mind would attempt to intimidate him by stealing something of his, and hope to retain a favourable relationship with him after that. Yet, what business could they have with him? She dreaded the response. Money, most likely. The thought of them trying to blackmail Leviticus Cornwall with his own daughters life almost made her laugh. He never wanted a daughter in the first place, and she certainly didn't care much for him. After her mother died he took her in, begrudgingly, and had tried to marry her off ever since. She wasn't quite decided yet if he just tried to be rid of her, or if he saw her as some sort of deal sweetener to the big pockets of this country.

In either case, Eliza was always more expense than what she got him in return, so he wouldn't care too much about her being in the hands of a group of criminals. After all, he never much cared about the men trying to assault her in his own house, he blamed her for 'leading them on' and not taking up their offers. She was a liability to his plentiful endeavours, and he surely would be glad to be free of this burden. Eliza tossed and turned, her thoughts returning again and again to what those men would do to her if they found out she'd be of no value to them – they had her caged and tied up, and she was completely at their mercy. In her experience, men were savage creatures who put their desires before everything else, and she was in a camp with at least five of those dangerous beasts.

Sure enough, they didn't do anything indecent to her yet – apart from the kidnapping she supposed – but she didn't believe that would last long.

The heavy canvas over the iron bars let through some light now, daybreak wouldn’t be too far away. The dark, straight lines of unyielding iron around her seemed to close in on her and her breath quickened. Eliza sat up and wrapped her arms around her knees, praying to a Lord she never truly believed in, that somehow, she'd make it out of this mess alive.

___

The girl didn't know how long she was sat there for, curled up and trying not to let the fear take every coherent thought out of her mind again. She tried to focus on her immediate surroundings to stay calm. The inside of her 'accommodation', as the boss man had called it, was illuminated enough now for her to realise it must be some sort of prison wagon, stolen of course. Outside, birds were singing and twittering away happily, as if she didn't have the worst night of her life. She heard the drawn out bugle of an Elk, somewhere far away, and a horses soft whinny in response. Wind brushed through the trees, it sounded like she was in the midst of a forest. It would have been calm and soothing, if not for her terrifying situation. The call of a rooster made her jump. Why a bunch of common criminals would keep something as domestic as a rooster eluded her, but she was soon surprised by the stirring of what seemed to be more people than just the five that brought her here, and she thought she heard the voice of a woman too. Eliza squeezed her knees tighter, but it didn't avert the shaking that had started anew. Who on earth were these people? The confusion fanned her fear, and the more rustling and bustling she heard, the less she could string her thoughts together. Through the waves of trembling horror and short moments of clearness in her mind, she heard the muffled chatter of voices, male and female, and they seemed so... Normal. Like they didn't have a kidnapped girl in their midst, like no one even knew she was there, trapped in her mind, completely and utterly helpless. Just as she feverishly thought (or hoped?) they might have forgotten about her, heavy footsteps, accented with the clink of spurs came closer to her prison. She didn't think she could tense up any more than what she already was, but learned soon she was wrong on that. The clear shadow of a man’s body was cast onto the canvas opposite to her. “Are you awake Miss Cornwall?” There was a knock on the wooden wagon floor. His booming voice was filled with a warm tone that was surely intended to soothe her, but had the opposite effect and her steady shakes turned violent again. Eliza wanted to answer, but her throat failed her. He knocked again. “I'm gonna lift the canvas now, I've got some food here for you Miss.” The shadow moved and the heavy fabric started to part in front of her. She wanted to shut her eyes and disappear, but neither of these things were possible, so she stared helplessly at the hand, the arm and then the upper body that came into view. With the sun rising behind him, it was hard to see anything more than a silhouette, but she was sure it was yesterday's leader, she wouldn't forget his voice that easily. “Oh dear Lord, you look absolutely terrified Miss Cornwall. My sincerest apologies, we have no intent of harming you. My name is Dutch van der Linde, I am the leader of our little camp. May I come in please?” Van der Linde. Something about that name rang familiar in her mind, but she couldn’t place it. He sounded concerned and truly sorry, but she didn't believe it was honest. His words were too smooth, too perfect to be true. She didn't know how to answer his question, so she just pushed herself back a bit more. He took this as approval and produced an iron key. “Our cook Mr. Pearson may not be as versed as the head chef and your kitchen staff, but his porridge tastes good enough, especially with a spoon of honey stirred in.” The door opened and he hoisted himself up into the wagon, his shoulders bent over to be able to fit in. Eliza shuffled back even more and felt her spine push against a cold iron bar. She was trapped, the only route of escape leading past him. The man approached slowly, and now that the tent flap had fallen down again, she could make out his features. His combed hair was almost black, grown down to his shoulders, his nose and cheekbones prominent in his face and his dark eyes beneath the stern brow had a knowing, intimidating glint. He looked as if he was a well groomed man, his beard was neatly kept and his clothing was immaculate, the white of his shirt so perfect as if freshly washed, the waistcoat fitting like it was tailored onto his body and at the end of his black, spotless trousers were polished shoes. He didn't look like a low life criminal, but that didn't soothe her fears one bit. He put the steaming bowl down at his side. “I'll remove your ties now Miss Cornwall, but please don't be rash and try to run. I guarantee your safety as long as you follow my orders, do you understand?" While he spoke, he lifted one hand into the air in an appeasing gesture, pulling a knife from behind his back with the other. She gave a quick, curt nod. Her voice hadn't found its way back to her yet. He was looming over her now and lowered himself onto one knee, looking expectantly at her arms that were squeezed tightly around her knees. With great effort, she forced her cramped muscles to relax and lifted her wrists towards him. He took her hands into his left, and with his right swiftly cut through the rope tying them together, then he did the same with the ties around her ankles. As soon as he was done, he retreated a few steps before squatting down again, giving her some personal space and Eliza realised she had held her breath the whole time. “I realise how frightening this must be for you Miss, but please rest reassured that I won't allow any harm to come to you. You are merely a way for us to... prove to your father that doing business with us would be in his best interest, and for that we need you to be alive and well.” She took a deep, testing breath, it was as if she'd forgotten how to speak. “I- I'm not sure that's gonna work.” Her voice was shaky and she hated herself for it. The desperate plea to let her go sat on the tip of her tongue, but she swallowed it. Her gut told her this man was not one to fall victim to such things. “And why would you think that Miss Cornwall?” he asked, his eyes holding her firmly with a curious look. “My father doesn't give in to blackmail, and I'm certainly not something he would mind losing. You have no leverage with me I'm afraid.” His brows furrowed at this, but his eyes were still resting on her, calm and calculating. Then he raised himself up as much as the bars above him would allow and smiled. “We will see about that, Miss. He may be a tough business man, but you are still his daughter.” He retreated and hopped off the wagon, locking the door behind him. “Please try the porridge, I promise you it's quite pleasant!” He opened the canvas flap and stepped outside. Eliza sat pressed against the bars a moment longer, then carefully got on her knees, reaching for the bowl with a shaky hand. She wasn't sure she would keep it down if she ate any food, but he was right. If this plan would have any chance of succeeding, they needed her alive and well, and she hadn't had any dinner the night before.

Her thoughts swirled around his strangely familiar name and the conversation she just had, the leathery scent of his aftershave still lingering in the air. read all the so far published chapters here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26033464/chapters/63306448

#mywriting #rdr2 #rdr2 fanfic #red dead redemption 2 #red dead redemption 2 fanfic #vengeance is an idiot's game #eliza cornwall #arthur morgan #arthur morgan x original female character

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krreader · 5 years

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Monsta X scenario → soulmate!au.

pairing: monsta x x reader fandom: monsta x warnings: soulmate!au ; language genre: angst ;fluff ; crack

a/n: so, this is the person that I’m currently in seoul with, her name is nathalie and you all know her by me mentioning her name so many fucking times, SO HEY BABE I HOPE YOU LIKE IT even tho you probably won’t see this until we’re back, so SURPRISE BITCH ♥

son hyunwoo

You were just enjoying this beautiful, sunny day, eating ice cream and not giving a damn about anything, when suddenly something yanked you back and your ice cream fell from the cone to the ground.

“Nooooooo,” you whined, more focused on the ice cream on the ground than the fact that something had formed on your pinky and kept pulling you back.

You were yanked back, couldn't do anything about it but let fate play out.

Until you were suddenly bumping into a.. very firm chest.

You looked into the eyes of a man who seemed to be as shocked as you were.

“Well.. hi there,” he grinned, “I'm.. Hyunwoo.. your soulmate, I guess.”

You cleared your voice, taking a step back as you watched the red string disappear from your pinkies that appeared once you and your soulmate were close to each other, “Well, Hyunwoo. I'm.. (Y/N) and you owe me ice cream.”

“Is this.. our first date then? As soulmates?”

“Mh, maybe.. depending on what kind of ice cream that you like. You can tell a lot about a person by what sort of ice cream they like, you know?”

Hyunwoo chuckled, “Alright then. Let's get some ice cream.”

shin hoseok

Everyone did this when they were young. When they were around nine or ten, they would gather in a circle, all of them having a random flower in their hand and play the good old soulmate game.

You rip out petal after petal, you start by saying: “Meet me, meet me not,” and if you're lucky enough to ever meet your soulmate in your life, you will know after this game, because it was always, absolutely always right.

However, you had never played this game, because you had seen the effect it had on people when they didn't get the result they wanted.

Most of your friends that were left with 'meet me not' were now unhappily married, single parents, drunks or hating their life, simply because they knew they would never meet their designated other.

However you were becoming older and you still hadn't met anyone close to someone you might call your soulmate and you were beginning to think that you never would.

And the only way to be sure about it was to play that godforsaken game.

“Here we go, then,” you sighed heavily, sitting on the rooftop of the building you were working in, ripping out one petal after the other, starting with meet me, like you were supposed to.

You were slow, with each fallen petal your heart began to speed up and the more petals piled on the floor, the more your hand began to tremble until there were only a handful left on the flower.

“Meet me.. meet me not.. meet me.. meet me not.. meet me..-” you started at the last petal, your heart sinking in your chest and your shoulders dropping as you sadly sad, “Meet me not.”

And as you were too busy staring at the last petal, Shin Hoseok followed a friend of his across the rooftop area with a small smile, “Thank you for having me today. It was a great meeting.”

“Are you sure you don't want to stay a little longer? This area is great..”

“Uhm.. no. I need to fly back home tomorrow morning, so I'd better get a good night's rest. But thank you for the offer.”

He would have said yes if picking the petals had ended with meet me.. he would have fallen in love tonight.. you would have.

But you two were robbed.

Robbed by fucking destiny.

lee minhyuk

Sometimes you hated the voice in your head.

Mostly when it, or you, decided to laugh.

Well, just sometimes, though. Because it sounded so.. horrible.

Like a dolphin.. but dying?

“Hey, are you okay?” your friend asked with worry on his face when you rubbed your temples.

“Yeah, sorry.. it's just.. the voice.. my soulmate.. his laugh can be very annoying..”

“What does it sound like?”

“It's like a dying dolphin? But.. he's kind of laughing.”

“Sounds like you, hyung,” Jooheon laughed, nudging Minhyuk's side when they had overheard your conversation with your friend at the coffee shop.

Jooheon went up ahead to order, but Minhyuk kept staring at you.

“Can you say fuck for me?”

“What?” you furrowed your eyebrows. Deeply. Was this man okay? Mentally?

“Please.. I know it sounds weird, but.. can you please do it?”

Your friend just shrugged, you were confused as hell, but you said: “Fuck?”

“Oh my god, it's you!”

Should you be worried that he realized you were his soulmate because you said a swear word? Probably.

“You're the guy with the dying dolphin laugh?”

“I don't laugh like that. Well.. only sometimes.”

“Yeah,” you laughed a little, a bit overwhelmed right now, “Only sometimes.”

yoo kihyun

You were both too busy being on your phones to notice that you were about to walk into each other.

You were texting a friend of yours, asking her for directions to the restaurant you wanted to meet at because you were a little lost, he was texting his members, asking them if anyone wanted anything from the grocery store he was walking towards.

And then BOOM.

“Fuck,” he said.

“Shit, I'm..-” but just as you wanted to finish your sentence, both of you started to feel pain in your shoulders.

You in your left one, him in his right shoulder.

He tried to tell himself it was because of practice, but then you pulled down your blouse a little and you saw..

“Kihyun? Is.. is that you?”

And he immediately pulled down his own shirt, only to find: “(Y/N).. is that yours?”

Both of you stared at each other for a good amount of time before you both let out a laugh.

“Well, fuck.. wouldn't have thought to run into my soulmate today. Literally.”

Kihyun chuckled now and nodded, “If I had known I would have dressed up and not worn Adidas sweatpants and a shirt with a stain.”

“It has its charm,” you grinned.

chae hyungwon

Hyungwon had always worn your name on his wrist proudly.

Other idols were trying to cover it up, but he didn't give a shit. He was one of the few who was trying to find you, no matter who you were.

And thankfully so.

Because that's how you found him.

“How do you know it's him? I'm sure there's a lot of Hyungwon's out there with your name on their wrists, doesn't mean it's you,” your mother tried to reason when you walked out of the house with a suitcase.

“I won't know until I try, mom.”

And you were willing to try.

So you booked the first flight to Seoul that was available, looked up the address for their company and then you walked inside, smiling at the girl at the reception and showing her your wrist.

“I'm here for Hyungwon? Chae Hyungwon?”

You thought she'd be happy. Or at least smile. But she looked unimpressed.

“You and the last five girls that came here with that tattoo.”

“There.. were others?”

“Yes. And they all turned out to be the wrong girl, so don't get your hopes up.”

But she brought you to a meeting room anyways.

And then you waited, anxiously, your mother's words echoing in your ears now that you knew there were others before you.

But when Hyungwon finally entered the room, you both knew that this was it.

He knew that you were the real (Y/N). He could feel it. You could feel it.

“Want me to get rid of her?” his manager whispered in his ear.

“No,” Hyungwon smiled, “I found her.”

lee jooheon

Some people would say that you were the luckiest girl alive, but you didn't see it that way.

You were fortunate enough to have Lee Jooheon as your soulmate.

Yes, Monsta X’s rapper Lee Jooheon.

And because everything that your soulmate ever recorded, be it voice messages, videos, audio in general.. it would all get sent to you.

So, as a Monsta X fan, you were lucky, because you got to hear what he was working on all the time. But as a soulmate, you weren't so lucky.

Because you knew that you couldn't reach him.

Well, sure, you could send voice messages and videos and he'd see it, but you and him both knew that this wouldn't work out because of who he was and who you were.

Your life's weren't compatible, even if you being soulmates said otherwise.

So each time your phone buzzed with another notification of him having recorded something new, you opened it with a sad smile, listening to the newest amazing thing that he had come up with.

And as Jooheon was writing his verses, he received a voice message that you must have sent to a friend.

“I wish we were different, you know? I just wish he'd be normal like me or I was talented like him so that I could be with him.. but it will never work out. And I'm just.. so proud of him.. of who he is and who he will become.. but at the same time I'd just wish he wasn't like this..”

Yeah.. so did he.

im changkyun

You had seen countless of movies where this shit happens.

Where the same day repeats over and over again. One time it was a horror movie and the guy kept reliving the day that he died, but kept dying differently. That one was bad.

But this was different, because this was what everyone went through once they were close to their soulmate.

Usually people were excited, really.

But you were fucking tired of it, because of all the places that you had to find your soulmate, it was the fucking airport.

“Listen to me,” you started, staring at the security guard angrily, “I've been trying to find my stupid soulmate for at least four weeks now, I know you don't remember me, but I remember you, George. I fucking remember you. So let me through, because this is the only part that I haven't looked for him and he has to be in there.”

“I'm sorry, Miss, but I can't let you through unless you have a boarding pass.”

“Fine.. you know what? I'll buy one. I'll buy one right now.”

You were tired of this bullshit, you just wanted to return to your normal life and not see these asshole airport people that were rude and hated their jobs.

So you bought the cheapest flight ticket they had to offer and then checked in, forcing yourself not to flip George off.

And as you were already through, you could see someone walk out of the Terminal out of the corner of your eye that was clearly in a hurry.

He saw you, then you saw him and you both immediately knew it.

“Ah fucking hell, where have you been, I was..-” but just as you wanted to turn back around, George shook his head.

“You can't go out this way.”

“George.. I am about to get really, really, really angry.”

“You need to go all the way around to get back out.”

Your soulmate better be worth all the trouble.

But when you looked back at him, Changkyun grinned at you sweetly and.. well.. he might be.

#monsta x reaction #monsta x imagine #monsta x #kpop reaction #kpop imagine #reader #requests

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lucky-dreamfisher · 6 years

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This Week’s Asks #1

My blog has been overwhelmed with asks lately, and not all of them require a long reply, so to make it easier for you folks to find your asks, I decided to gather the shorter replies within one weekly post! If you don’t find your ask in one of these weekly posts, it means that I’m working on a longer theory post on this topic.

anonymous asked:

Here's a minor detail I notice: Nearly everyone don't refer the Ink Demon as Bendy in the game except for Sammy and considering with the recent news, it seems rather interesting

I also noticed that. But it’s a detail so strange, I cannot quite fit it in with any concrete theory. Another strange detail is Sammy repeatedly confusing Joey with Bendy/The Ink Demon.

So, Bendy is a real, but he is also Joey. Bendy is a demon, but the Ink Demon isn’t Bendy, and also the demon is benevolent. Which demon, exactly? This is getting more and more confusing.

anonymous asked:

I think the two studios functions similarly to Silent Hill in that there is two versions: one that's real and one that's not real like there is an actual studio that's old and abandoned in the real world but is normal and fake one based on the real studio filled with horrors much like how in Silent Hill, there is a real old, abandoned town and a otherworldly version of the town filled with horrors

Makes perfect sense.

anonymous asked:

It seems the cassette tapes are specifically made for the fake studio to detail past events and life of the real studio before it shut down like they seem to hold memories of those that once worked there since cassettes were released in 1962 so how did the studio acquired the tapes for the workers to use if they haven’t been invented yet? It also explains the inconsistencies with the tapes and how they are found in rather convenient places

That’s an interesting observation!

Though the Meatly said before on his twitter that BATIM has some alternate history stuff going on. The logs on the official JDS youtube channel have dates attached to them. They could be fake logs with fake dates, but I wouldn’t dismiss them all right away, until we get concrete proof that at least some of them are fake. Still, it’s something worth keeping in mind for sure.

anonymous asked:

Maybe the Ink Demon imprinted on Joey and he has a link with him since he's his still creator like Joey owns the Bendy design after Henry created Bendy, there's a saying that people do write a bit of themselves into their characters since "write who you know" right? The Ink Demon do takes on many traits from Joey and he's almost like an avatar to Joey with him as an actual demon

That might be the case, yes. But then it’s a little bit strange that the Ink Demon would resemble Joey more than he would Henry. Joey didn’t even personally participate in his creation, considering he found out about him by accident. All this resemblance only because of the smile? Strange, though not impossible.

anonymous asked:

If it is true that possible future Bendy games will focus on other cartoons based on the different animation eras, I do want to see what kind of cartoons exist in the Bendy verse like is there a toon that is the equivalent to Mickey Mouse and company counterpart to Disney?

I think JDS is primarily supposed to be the counterpart to Disney (with some details from the other animation studios sprinkled in). It would certainly be interesting to see what the rival animations looked like. Joey made a mention of Bendy fans moving onto some “new shiny thing”, so they must’ve been good.

Allison is working for the Archgate Films at the end of BATIM, so they may have been the main competitor. I hope we get to hear more about them in the next game.

Sammy

anonymous asked:

From your recent post about Sammy and true Bendy, does that mean “Benevolent Demon” may refers to the true Bendy?

It could be either the True Bendy, or the Ink Demon, or even cartoon Bendy. There could also be another demon inside the studio, though that’s unlikely.

I’m keeping my mind open to every possibility at this point.

anonymous asked:

Could the Bendy that Sammy saw in his dreams and is watching him also the one moving around the cutouts? Like the cutouts do seem to be always watching with their eerie smile no matter what,

That’s unlikely. The cutouts never move when there’s no one around, and we’ve seen Sammy personally transporting them. It’s more likely that they are being moved by the ink creatures.

anonymous asked:

There’s something definitely wrong at the studio prior to the studio even going downhill and things gets worse leading to the canon game, Sammy was the one that may have noticed it before the others considering he has dreams of Bendy and that he wrote note to Joey that the cutouts were acting weird like moving on their own

Agreed.

BATIM Novel

anonymous asked:

It is possible that Buddy could be one of the people that Joey hired to replace Henry after he left? It does look like he is taken under Joey’s wing for the potential he has as an artist with his dream to be one and all that

If the ink creatures are roaming around the studio, then the year has to be 1943, 13 years after Henry left. Buddy is just 17, he would’ve been 4 when Joey was hiring people to replace Henry.

anonymous asked:

I don’t think it’s going to end well for Buddy and Dot since quite frankly, it’s very likely they’re doomed to not make it out alive and escape from the studio especially how they’re snooping around the stuff behind closed doors like finding the ink creatures at the studio

I will be very surprised if there’s a happy ending for either of them.

anonymous asked:

From the description alone, it does seem the novel will be set at the middle of Bendy timeline as an interquel side story like possibly during when the ink creatures are being made and before the studio truly went downhill

Hopefully it will give us some insight into the ritual and who the items belonged to.

anonymous asked:

I do believe the Bendy book will hopefully gives insight of how things are done at the studio like what are the roles of the various workers, how much work is made on the cartoons and such in general the everyday work time at Joey Drew Studios before things got worse leading to the canon game events

I think that part will be covered by the Employee Handbook. No need to release two books about the same topic just two months apart from one another.

anonymous asked:

I really hope the Bendy book do fleshed out the previous characters enough since we only have the game's tapes and other stuff of what were certain characters are like before they died or turned into monsters by the time of the canon game events

The description makes it sound like Sammy is going to play a large role in the story, so we should be able to get to know him better.

Animaniacs

anonymous asked:

So in a sense Bendy is basically if the backstory for Animaniacs is more horrific and satanic with everything going horribly wrong thus meaning Animaniacs is Bendy before it was cool and dark

It’s funny how much this works, when you think about it this way. If Animaniacs came out of their prison yearning for vengeance, that’s probably what it would look like.

anonymous asked:

When you think about it, Animaniacs is pretty much the good end result to Bendy if everything turning out right with no satanic stuff and the toons were harmless pranksters instead of monsters plus nobody died whatsoever

Yup!

anonymous asked:

If the Animaniacs were to suddenly appear in the Bendy game in their usual chaotic toon selves from the show, they will definitely causes so much chaos and confusion with making things go off the rails to "lighten" up the atmosphere since everything is so dark and serious with more classic toon comedy and their regular antics

A lot of the antics of the Animaniacs could actually be deadly in real life. Dropping an anvil on someone might be funny in a cartoon, but in real life, it would’ve been a horrifying act of violence. Good idea for a horror game!

#bendy and the ink machine #joey drew #sammy lawrence #henry stein #ink demon #dot #allison connor #batim #ask #joey drew studios #dreamfisher certified

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worryinglyinnocent · 5 years

Text

The Real Housewives of Storybrooke

A ficlet series based on this premise here, following the lives of Storybrooke’s elite wives, with all the scandal, bitching and backstabbing that goes on behind the scenes of high society…

This verse is open for prompts!

====

Previously on the Real Housewives of Storybrooke: Zelena gatecrashed Ariel’s birthday party, and Ariel decided to nope on out of Storybrooke with Eric.

[Part One][Part Two] [Part Three] [Part Four] [Part Five] [Part Six] [Part Seven] [AO3]

====

REGINA

Naturally, Storybrooke being what it was, all exciting news, gossip and potential scandal travelled fast, and Zelena’s unwanted appearance at Ariel’s party was all anyone in the Storybrooke social media sphere could talk about.

Regina put her phone down with a sigh, deciding that a break from Twitter and Facebook was probably a good idea for a while. Ariel and Eric had had the right idea with opting out altogether and taking the boat south for a while. Too much drama made life hell, although Regina enjoyed her share of it in small doses.

Right now, she had to focus her energy on Victoria Belfrey, who seemed determined to remodel the entirety of Storybrooke on a large scale and turn it into some kind of Stepfordian Belfreyville. Regina had gone through pretty much every inch of the town charter and all the local by-laws, but it seemed that Victoria and Fiona were always one step ahead of her, and she was now at the stage of hoping for a miracle to prevent this new development from going ahead.

There was a knock at the front door and Regina peered out of her study window to check for green sports cars in the drive. She had not spoken to Zelena since Ariel’s party; she’d ignored her calls and was refusing to respond to her texts. Considering how much her sister had embarrassed her that evening, she’d thought that Zelena would have taken the hint, but no.

The drive was empty, and since Zelena never walked anywhere if she could take the opportunity to flaunt her latest vehicular acquisition, Regina thought that she was safe to open the door. It seemed ridiculous, hiding from her sister like this, but Regina simply didn’t have the energy for a confrontation on top of everything that was happening at work.

Robyn was standing on the doorstep, her huge hiking backpack slung over her shoulders and her cheeks red and stained with recent tears.

“Can I stay with you and Dad for a while, Aunt Gina? Please?”

“Of course, honey. Whatever’s the matter?”

Robyn dropped her backpack in the hall and accepted Regina’s hug.

“Mom,” she grumbled. “We had another fight. God, she’s so embarrassing.”

“You’re telling me. Come on, I’ll make you some cocoa.”

“It’s the middle of summer, Aunt Gina.”

“That doesn’t mean you can’t need cocoa to make everything better. Besides, it’s overcast today.”

Robyn gave a weak laugh and followed Regina through to the kitchen, where all the paperwork for the Belfrey development was spread out on the table. Robyn looked at it with interest.

“That’s not even the half of it,” Regina said. “Most of it is out in my office but I ran out of room and I had to overspill.”

“This is terrible. They can’t build on the old playground site. I know it’s not safe as a play area anymore, but it’s so overgrown with wildflowers and plants; it’s gone back to nature. I’ve seen baby deer there, and rabbits by the dozen.”

“I know. I’m doing my best to block it but I’m running out of options.”

“Tilly and I could help when she comes up next week,” Robyn said. “We’re not doing much else this summer. Apart from college applications,” she added hastily on seeing Regina’s pointed look. “And if you think about it, this would look really good on my application. Organising a petition and protests against a new development, trying to protect a site of natural beauty.”

“All right, I’ll give you that.” Regina cleared the papers to one end of the table and brought the cocoa over. “So, what’s my sister done now?”

“Ugh, all this business with Ariel’s party.” Robyn sighed. “It’s all she’s been able to talk about for the last two days and I just got so sick of it, so I said that maybe if she was nicer to Ariel and her friends in the first place, then she’d actually get invited to these things of her own accord. I mean, no-one’s going to invite you to a party when you spend half your time insulting the other guests. I know how close Ariel and Belle are, and Mom’s never been kind to Belle. Anyway, I said that no-one owes her respect and invitations, and everything just escalated from there until I couldn’t stand to be in the same house as her.” She took a huge gulp of cocoa and nearly choked on it. “Has she always been like this?”

Regina nodded. “I think it comes in part from our childhood. She’d always been an only child until she got a younger stepsister in the form of yours truly. Neither of us were great at sharing. Coming to think of it, we were both pretty bratty whilst her father was still alive and married to my mother. But anyway, she was obsessed with fairness and making sure that she and I were treated exactly the same. I think maybe that’s carried over into adulthood. She just wants whatever I have, for the simple reason that I have it and she doesn’t.”

“Must have made life difficult when you and Dad got together.”

“Yeah.” Regina had never intended to end up marrying the man that her stepsister had previously had a daughter with, but life was strange and apparently her family was even stranger.

Robyn returned her attention to the Belfrey plans with renewed interest. Regina had to admit that she did have a point; maybe it was time to start looking to the local community for help in this affair. Hopefully Belle would be able to help on that score.

MARY MARGARET

“It’s been nearly a week. Can’t people find anything else to talk about?”

Mary Margaret sighed as she wheeled Neal’s stroller into the Mother and Baby group. It was always the place to come for gossip among the Storybrooke elite, but today the only gossip was Ariel’s party. Ashley Herman was at the centre of it all, which was to be expected. Ashley knew so much about everyone else’s lives that Mary Margaret wondered if she’d installed spy cameras in her neighbours’ houses. It was a shame that she’d become so catty of recent years; hers was a true Cinderella story and it would have been very romantic had Ashley not decided that she needed to retain her place in society by throwing as many of the fellow women under the bus as possible.

Mary Margaret unstrapped Neal from the stroller and carried him over to the gaggle of wives to accept a much-needed cup of tea, and she tried to change the subject to the Belfrey development.

Ashley sniffed emphatically. “I heard that Cameron Gold is trying to stop it because he buried his first wife under the play area and he’s afraid that she’ll be discovered if it’s dug up for new building.”

Mary Margaret immediately regretted changing the subject.

“The first Mrs Gold lives in Los Angeles with her new partner,” she said, as patiently as she could possibly muster. “Bae spends Thanksgiving and spring break with her. She is not buried anywhere.”

Ashley looked rather put out by this correction and steered conversation back to Ariel. Mary Margaret took a sip of tea to fortify herself and looked around the room. There were a couple of new faces since the last time she’d come to the group, two ladies with a chubby little one in a stroller, standing to one side in a corner of the room looking rather lost. No-one was making any effort to include them in the conversation groups going on, and Mary Margaret knew exactly why. A little smile crept over her face. Time to give everyone something else to talk about.

“Who are the new arrivals?” she asked, cutting Ashley off mid-flow.

“Aurora and Mulan Briar, and I believe that the child is called Philip. They were here last week, too.”

“And we’re not talking to them because…”

“I would have thought that was obvious.” Ashley sniffed again, and Mary Margaret almost asked her if she was coming down with a cold.

“Oh, so you’re not talking to them because they’re lesbians? Good to know.” Mary Margaret grinned. “Do excuse me, ladies.”

If there was one thing that Mary Margaret had to her advantage among all the Storybrooke housewives at the Mother and Baby group, one privilege that she could definitely use to the benefit of those deemed to be outsiders, it was money. She was easily worth more than anyone else in the room, and her wealth garnered more respect because it was hers alone and not gained through her husband. In this place, money talked. Ashley might be the head of the group and the gossip Queen Bee, but it was Mary Margaret who set the tone. No-one wanted to lose association with that kind of money.

She went over to Aurora and Mulan.

“Hello, ladies. I don’t think we’ve met before. Mary Margaret Nolan, and this is Neal. Who’s this gorgeous little one?”

The transformation on Aurora’s face was immediate and wonderful, breaking out into a genuine smile as she unstrapped her baby from the stroller and brought him over to meet Mary Margaret.

“This is Philip. I’m Rory, by the way, and this is my wife Mulan.”

“Pleased to meet you both. Have you been in Storybrooke long?”

“No, just a few months. We moved just before Philip was born; we were in Boston before. We didn’t want him to grow up in a big city, you know.”

“Not that Storybrooke seems too different in terms of social niceties,” Mulan muttered. She was holding Rory’s hand tightly, almost defiantly.

“There are bitches wherever you go,” Mary Margaret agreed. Maybe before she’d become a mother and she’d still been young and idealistic about the world, she would never have dreamed of maligning her fellow women in such a way, but the more she saw of the society she inhabited, the more she began to despair.

The next half an hour was taken up with discussing the babies and culminated with Mary Margaret inviting the two new mothers over to her place for coffee later in the week. She gave the gobsmacked Ashley a cheery wave across the room. She was not normally a spiteful person and she did try to see the good in everyone, but there was a limit even to her pleasantries, and Ashley’s expression would remain with her and cause a smile for a long time to come.

“Thanks for rescuing us in there,” Mulan said as they left the group and began to make their way towards their respective homes. “I was beginning to regret going. I mean, it would have been ok if Rory had gone on her own. No-one would have cared then.”

“I wanted you to be there,” Rory said firmly. “I’m not going to pretend that I’m not married to a woman just to be accepted into society. And you’re every inch as much Philip’s mother as I am. I just happened to be the one who gave birth to him.”

Mary Margaret was certain that she was going to end up very good friends with Mulan and Aurora Briar.

#OUAT Fanfiction #Regina Mills #Robyn Mills #Mary Margaret Blanchard #Sleeping Warrior #Series: The Real Housewives of Storybrooke

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thesinglesjukebox · 5 years

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BILLIE EILISH - BAD GUY

[6.93]

The Jukebox has thoughts on Billie Eilish? Well, duh.

Andy Hutchins: Nothing clicked for me with Billie Eilish until "Bad Guy." I understood the appeal intellectually, because it has sometimes been my wheelhouse: "Prodigy-cast makes off-kilter pop music from a perspective with more than a little precociousness and possibly a feminine spin that serves to disrupt rather than reify" is my jam for months at a time, sometimes. But some combination of prodigy and precociousness sometimes striking me as preciousness -- something that I've occasionally found issue with in the work of Sky Ferreira and Solange and Lorde and Cher Lloyd and fka twigs and Haim and Kacey Musgraves and Lana Del Rey and so many women who have occupied this same treacherous lane where deviating from delivering what is expected from a young woman making pop music can offend the sensibilities (or engage the biases) of even someone who has strained to stave off the stupidity of dismissing music made by young women and largely intended for young women -- and what I read as a deliberately dark and standoffish aesthetic put me off of Eilish, whose stuff just didn't compel me. Everything clicks for me with Billie Eilish now that I've heard "Bad Guy," which I reckon is pathetic on my part, because so much of the DNA of "Bad Guy" is in other work she's done that the things that differentiate it as The Hit and The Breakthrough come down to tempo and a kooky synth run in the hook that every third YouTube commenter thinks is stolen from Plants vs. Zombies. But "Bad Guy" is also an unassailable pop song and has come along at a time when bulletproof ones are not occupying the charts -- the closest competition in the current top 40 by my sight is, like, a Katy Perry song whose verses let down its magnificent hook, a bunch of drowsy-to-dire Khalid and Halsey tunes, a C- effort from Taylor Swift, and a microwaved Lizzo track that I've known of for a while and don't consider her best stuff -- and so it stands out even more from the pop metagame than the larger Eilish oeuvre does from a host of less realized tunes. And I'm a sucker for an unassailable pop song, especially one with a vocal initially delivered so low that it demands attention to the dial in the car but that is by turns brightly funny ("...duh!") and world-weary and campy to the hilt (the titular phrase being stretched to a titanium crocodile's rasp), a relentless bass line that sounds like a monster's heartbeat echoing in a cave, and lyrics that constitute a semi-sincere embrace of some Lolita tropes and a more powerful sarcastic destruction of them while somehow also being fully ready for Instagram captions and Twitter display names and ... well, no one's on Tumblr anymore. But that's hardly Billie's fault, and I'm not docking points for only barely failing to raise the dead with a virtuosic song that makes me this glad to be alive. [10]

Alfred Soto: There's a reason this song has become the breakout hit besides its insidious keyboard hook: Billie Eilish sings not mumbles the gender bending hook. Otherwise a ditty that the top 40 could use more of; its quietness is a tonic. [8]

Joshua Copperman: Sounds great, looks great (if possibly plagarized), memes great. The deadpan anti-sexuality of "might-seduce-your-dad type" is "Guys My Age" done right. The delivery of "my soul, so cynical" like even that is too earnest of a statement. The only weak part is the ending switch-up. But you knew all that already. Duh. Besides the cries of "industry plant!" there's also the ongoing sense that Eilish is a music writers' idea of what a 17-year-old Tumblr-born pop star would sound like. And sure, she's a young music writers' dream; I have a byline at Billboard because of her. But also, it's genuinely smart music that is mostly set to age well, even if it's hard to tell if it m a t t e r s. Who knows what 17-year-olds of any predilection towards seducing dads are actually listening to; I'm 21 and finding that out is only getting more difficult, if maybe not more necessary. If teens still control popular culture, if anyone does, who knows if this really does reflect them, or if its bottomless angst is mocked like Limp Bizkit? Is "Bad Guy" just "Heathens" for the late-2010s? Does this really represent the next generation? And which next generation; the shit-talking saviors, or the ones just like their parents and the radicalized alt-right kids? There's no easy answer to any of these, no "duh" to shrug them off. But there is Eilish and co. applying the daily grind of apocalyptic dread to smaller-scale topics. Processing death on "Bury a Friend," processing one's own body image on "idontwannabeyouanymore," processing changing gender roles here. Finding your place in 2019 is a lot for anyone. No one is getting it right. What Eilish does instead is turn that uncertainty to playfulness, confidently existing within the mess instead of trying to find her spot. [8]

Leah Isobel: I was on Tumblr in 2011, so "might seduce your dad type" doesn't feel as provocative as she might intend. (Also, Halsey did the exact same thing.) Besides, pop is a space for fantasy and role-playing, and she's not the first 16-year old bad girl to make adults freak out a little. What gets me is that the song itself is a brilliant production piece in search of an equally compelling melody; the biggest hooks here are an audible eye-roll and a Tim Burton rip. I love the idea of Billie as a goth-teen-pop star, and the choice to swerve into a spooky outro instead of a more traditional structure is genuinely a lot of fun, but this all feels like so much posturing -- normal for a teenager, but not that compelling to listen to on its own. [6]

Katherine St Asaph: If Billie Eilish is the Gen Z Fiona Apple, which I've heard from about three separate people even before the Discourse started, then "Bad Guy" is her "Criminal," down to it being creep flypaper. Everyone quotes that one dad line a bit too eagerly, like they're subconsciously thinking that if they have the pithiest take they just might get to be the dad. (It isn't even the most suggestive line.) There's a strong case for the dad being the bad guy, if only because he's, well, the guy. But "Bad Guy" lives in the world of teenage politics, where the guys just are and the girls get their badness thrust upon them, and their choices are to shrink away or play along. Duh. ("Bad Guy" : "duh" :: "Your Love Is My Drug" : "I like your beard.") But all this is pretty serious analysis for a fundamentally trolly song: half-mumbling the melody to a beat I'm pretty sure I made in a high school to go with a video project; rhyming bad/mad/sad/dad like a Mavis Beacon keyboarding tutorial (or whatever the kids have now; maybe they're just born typing); crooning an exceedingly Lana Del Rey-ish "I'm only good at being bad" then immediately cutting that crap for a bassy, fuck-off breakdown; filling only about 60% of the song with, like, song. [6]

Joshua Minsoo Kim: Not the most impressive or cohesive Billie Eilish song, but it is the one most likely to remind you of how fun her music can be (that she included the Invisalign skit in the video helps). The coda is fine, but the best reversal is found elsewhere: the nonchalant cries of duh followed by a cartoonish synth melody, underlining just how playful the song's darker elements are. [6]

Josh Langhoff: Eilish sometimes sounds like the Cardigans if they only did Black Sabbath covers, "evil" squeezed between an extra set of scare quotes, and sometimes she's Nellie McKay on downers, ennui shaped like wit but without the laughs. Sometimes she's good and sometimes she sings ballads. And somehow that combination produced "Bad Guy," the elusive Somehow Perfect Pop Song That Sounds Like Nothing Else On The Radio. I can't say I love it, but all her murmuring and posturing makes Top 40 radio seem, after too many years, like a playground of endless possibility. What'd we do to deserve this and "Old Town Road"? [8]

Jessica Doyle: Yes. Some are red, and some are blue. Some are old, and some are new. Some are sad, and some are glad, and some are very, very bad. Why are they sad and glad and bad? I do not know. Go ask why that menacing bass and Eilish's whisper didn't deserve better lyrics. [4]

Tobi Tella: Billie Eilish's artistic direction and style of music makes it seem almost impossible for her to make a legitimate banger, but this fits in perfectly with the rest of her album tone-wise and also completely slaps. The simplicity of the production, literally created in a bedroom just adds to the perfect low-key vibe. The lyrics do make Billie sound a little like a teenager who will cringe reading them in 10 years, but as an 18 year old, sometimes doing stupid stuff you know is destructive and immature is FUN, and this completely captures that feeling. [8]

Will Adams: I love love love the idea of this shifty, close mic'd oddball dancepop song being as big of a mainstream hit as it is, even if it's one of the more slight offerings from the album. Extra point for the coda, where Billie drops the coy and reminds you how quick she is to put her foot on your neck. [7]

Pedro João Santos: The coda lamentably inverts the light heart of "Bad Guy": the colourful, whispered titillation conjugated with what's left unsaid, a sort of puerile pleasure dutifully translated by the Theremin-esque synths; not the heady, overlong consummation that it unfolds onto by the end. I must say I'm exhilarated that someone knew how to ape "Las de La Intuición" nearly 15 years on, although startled by the fact that it was Billie Eilish the one to do it. [7]

Scott Mildenhall: Done well, it's enjoyable to hear a musician having such fun, but especially so when one unexpected element of a song comes in to underline just how much fun they're having. In this case, it's the gloopy searchlight noise, playing out like the theme tune to a 1970s cop show set in space, in a way that cannot be anything but gleefully goofy. Such bold and playful invention is something pop music would suffer without. Extra points for the consideration to leave a gap before the outro so that radio stations can cut it out. [8]

Iris Xie: I still think this song should've been cut off at the 2:14 mark, because it said everything it needed to say. [5]

Katie Gill: That purposefully obnoxious "duh" sums up what Eilish wants to say more than the rest of the song combined (and is currently in the running for my favorite 2 seconds of 2019 pop music). This image of her as the bad guy isn't serious. It's bratty and playful, more her creating something she can have fun with instead of taking herself seriously. Unfortunately, that something interesting here is buried in a three minute piece that somehow manages to be three completely different songs which never actually coheres to a single whole. [6]

[Read, comment and vote on The Singles Jukebox]

#Billie Eilish #pop #music #music review #writing

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