#then its considered a lie by omission but like

[wwwyzzerdd420]

"Everybody lies, all the time, about everything!" Sounds like you're projecting, you filthy little liar

[meistoshi]

listen he's not a fan of interviews!!! he does pokemon logic!!!!! if you wanna understand him just battle him!!!!!! everything'll make sense then. someone will be like: elaborate on that, & satoshi will look them in the eye & go ''no. i dont think i will :)''

[ofbreathandflame-archive]

Mor is “Lying by Omission” and not Nesta when she lies to those men she was sleeping around with about her virginity? Nesta stans and y’all constant contradictions and stupid talking points

alright — you only come up with a response like this if you’ve fundamentally misunderstood what the problem is here.

(1) i think its an argument that can absolutely be made -- and considering sjm's writing history, i think we can at least draw parallels. i don't know you sent this as a gotcha -- the whole point im making is that writing that does into these characters is a consequence of sjm not writing them with care. that means that all of the characters fall consequence to the shitty writing. if you believe so -- then sure, make the argument. the problem is that the issues outside of the characters are being exploited. i really do dislike the the theme in her stories of people withholding pivitol pieces of information from people under the guise of love.

(2) the situation you're referencing isn't quite the same thing. not for the argument i was making, at least. first cassian immediately stops having sex with mor when he realizes what happened -- that in itself displays the difference between these two situation.

nesta doesn’t owe her sexual partners a summary of her sexual history. she’s just having a one night stand. second, the circumstances around nesta having sex aren’t being altered. the fear is centered around cassian finding out -- which means nothing because as of that point in the story, nesta has vehemently expressed no interest in cassian. nesta isn’t lying about being engaged to cassian, she isn’t specifically having sex with someone with the intent to accomplish something else. but in theory, if you wanted to make the argument, there’s definitely room to make it. morrigan specifically chooses cassian bc she wanted to lie down with "the greatest" which definitely a conversation for another day. she does choose him though -- to make a point to her family. which IS complex and NOT bad writing inherently. does mor owe cass a summary about her sexual history? - no. the problem isn't the virginity, its the lying. inherently the virginity thing isn't bad; but the story goes to great lengths to reiterate that this situation specifically enormous. AGAIN cassian IMMEDIATELY stops having sex with mor once he realizes she lied. he immediately recognizes the problem. he would not have even had sex with had he known the reality of the situation:

he’d done it, and regretted it at that very first thrust, when he’d felt her maidenhead yield to him, and realized the enormity of what she’d done

(3) the point isn’t that mor isn’t a victim, or that her situation isn’t worthy of empathy. the problem at hand a purely a writing problem. that’s really the point. the situation is (at the very least) complex. morrigan situation is complex and of intrigue. the problem is that the writing doesn't hold these issues to be dear enough to write with care.

(4) morrigan is badly written because she is constantly thrown away and minimized by the writing. huge swathes of people literally left the fandom because of how badly conceptualized more became after acomaf (subjective ofc - but this has been an issue in the fandom since the release of acowar).

(5) i just want the issues to properly acknowledged, i don't quite care about the feelings for the characters, i just think that sometimes people should take a step back and understand the concepts behind the characters. esp bc earlier in that thread people were literally justifying tamlin's abuse of lucien bc they argued that his actions during his abuse negated any ideas of victimhood, and that feyre is allowed to get her 'deserts' by having tamlin beat the hell out of lucien. like the argument being presented wasn't consistent and it just fell into abuse apologism. which is...definitely not conscious, thoughtful scholarship.

[woodchipp]

It's interesting that Crossroads and Backstage - or, more specifically, the fact they're present in the story at all - imply Sunny really doesn't undergo any substantial development as a character.

The whole point of the game is that Sunny must face reality, as harsh and complicated it is. The Sunny route is meant to be Sunny working on his issues. But before he confronts the final issue - his depression - he dreams about his friends (and whatever that apparition of Mari is meant to be lmao) giving him three pep-talks even though the game spent much of its story hammering in the point that Sunny shouldn't be indulging in escapism like that.

The contents of said pep-talks and their main takeaways are no less... interesting.

Since all the dialogue in Crossroads and Backstage is basically Sunny talking with himself, Basil's line here implies Sunny wouldn't consider his friends "good" if they (understandably) choose not to forgive him. It also implies that he doesn't give much of a shit about their feelings as long as they leave the possibility of forgiving him on the table.

Here, the game tries to pretend shoving Mari down the stairs was the only bad thing Sunny did, conveniently ignoring the choices he made after the accident and over the course of the story.

Again, It's quite telling that Mari urges him to forgive himself. There's no indication that he wants to tell the truth to do right by his friends - it's for his peace of mind.

"You've worked really hard to get to this point..."

Because him loitering around the town for three days without doing anything of note (without player input or not at the request of some other character) is considered "hard work" by this game, apparently.

Oh, and we haven't even gotten to Backstage yet!

"Something bad", huh?

Well, let's go over all of the shitty things Sunny's done, shall we?

(Apparently) was aware of Aubrey's troubled situation at home, wasn't shown doing anything of note to help and/or support her

Threw a tantrum that resulted in the death of his sister because he couldn't watch TV shows with his friends for as long as he'd like

Was relieved that he got away with accidentally killing his sister

Chose to lie to his friends by omission, letting them believe they had somehow failed Mari due of the assumed nature of her death as a suicide and irreversibly traumatizing them

Chose to let Basil take the fall for blacking out Mari's photos in the photo album, which entailed Basil becoming the target of Aubrey's bullying and wore Basil's mental health down to near-psychosis by the time of the game's events

Walked out on Basil - his best friend - when the latter had a mental breakdown despite Basil begging him to stay

Considered leaving Basil to his death as a legitimate option, twice

Wasn't shown to feel any guilt or shame from having a picnic with the people he lied to near his dead sister's grave

Twisted the supportive words of the people he lied to to alleviate his own self-loathing over committing manslaughter

Dropped the bombshell shortly before having to move town, thus avoiding the direct consequences of his confession

I'm not exaggerating any of this. I don't need to. Quite the impressive list for a sixteen-year-old, isn't it?

Sunny doesn't get to "something bad" his way out of this one.

...how do you think Basil felt, Sunny, you fucking asshole?

This is where I have to reiterate my point - despite the game focusing on Sunny having to let go of his escapist fantasies and face reality, he only confronts his depression after... indulging in said fantasies again, imagining his friends saying what he wants them to say. We're meant to feel good about it this time because, uh... The imaginary facsimiles of his friends have different sprites now! Yay!!

I'm not saying this 16 yo who had his eye stabbed a few minutes prior to this should just get over it, obviously, because that'd be absurd lol. However, I do think Crossroads and Backstage should have been cut from the game to indicate that Sunny doesn't need such fantasies to comfort himself anymore because the work he did on his issues over the course of the game did pay off after all.

What's the point of having your character trying to kick an addiction and framing said addiction as a bad thing only to have the character indulge in that addiction once again and frame it as a good thing at the end?

I think it's very telling that the last major appearance Sunny's friends make in the story is being literal props to make him feel better about himself. They're there because he wants them to be there, and what he wants is all that matters to this game. And the game even proves that via what Hero has to say if you choose to interact with him one more time

"We will always want what's best for you. Because what we want and what we feel doesn't really matter. <3"

"And what you do with those feelings... that will be your truth."

What an amazing message to send.

It always comes down to how things make you feel personally rather than doing what's right by other people even if it hurts your feelings. Because your feelings matter more than the feelings of other people or the objective reality of your situation.

Feels before reals.

[neon-kazoo]

A Gambit

[CW: threats, blood, knife violence, captivity]

(Hero POV)

There was a knife at my throat, which was pretty expected honestly.

I mean, I didn’t exactly expect to sneak into public enemy number one’s private base and be greeted with warm milk and cookies. Sure, being held at knifepoint wasn’t ideal, but stakes were high enough that I was running out of options.

This was a risk I was willing to take.

I slowly raised my open hands. Surrender: the logical course of action when one is caught effectively off guard deep in unfamiliar territory.

“Don’t move and I might consider letting you live another second,” was whispered harshly in my ear, and I heeded the command disguised as a suggestion. The slow and controlled rise and fall of my chest was the only movement I allowed my body to make as my captor grabbed a hold of one lifted hand and pulled it behind my back, my arm folding painfully to provide the physical leverage the knife against my neck could not. Undoubtedly uncomfortable, but I tried not to worry about anything more than my main objective: staying alive.

“Grab your weapon slowly. Drop it. Kick it out of reach,” he ordered concisely.

I obediently unclipped the large knife sheathed on my belt, then dropped it to the floor and kicked it away.

Apparently, the distance the knife skittered was not satisfactory because I was subsequently yanked backwards a few more feet until we stopped and my shoulders were once again flush with the collarbones of the chest behind me.

“Give me one reason I shouldn’t slit your throat right now. Tell me what you’re doing here,” I was questioned, and thus the careful game begun.

It was much too early to show all my cards, but I had to say something. While it was a decently good sign that I wasn’t killed the second I was discovered, I certainly wasn’t going to push my luck by not providing an answer.

“I need something. You have it,” I answered simply, forcing the words out as strongly as I could and hoping to buy myself a ticket to a second location with a less immediate threat of death.

The hallway in which we currently stood seemed to be closing in on its self, the shadows threatening to swallow me the second the knife would pierce my skin and end my life. I needed to get out of here.

I needed to survive.

I didn’t lie per se, but I was certainly aiming for a misleading omission with my statements. I felt like a shady salesman pitching a hook, except this salesman’s life depending on this customer’s purchase.

“Yeah? And what might that be?” The voice sounded deceptively interested, but it came from dangerously close to my ear.

And that was my cue to shut up.

“Ok. We can do it this way.”

My knees were kicked out from behind, and I went slamming into the floor. My tongue caught between my teeth on the way down, and metallic blood soon found its way across my taste buds. Hands ran across my clothes and into my pockets, methodically stripping me of my tools and supplies. My boots were removed and their knives tossed across the room. Pressure on my shoulder kept me down, but on a positive note, there was no longer a blade biting against my skin.

I focused on the iron taste and taking steady and clear breaths as the man above me worked. A renewed grip locked both arms behind my back and I was hauled onto my feet again. An aggressive push had me starting to walk, my sock-clad feet padding against and periodically tripping on the concrete toward a door settled into the far wall.

I was harshly marched down two more halls and through a smaller room, becoming more and more disconcerted that my captor wasn’t bothering to hide the layout of the base as we walked.

We eventually reached a room that was clearly equipped to handle prisoners. It was stocked with tools and restraints, which my captor made quick work of using to secure me. The room accomplished the intimidating vibe of a concrete box with bright-in-one-spot-but-dark-in-all-others fluorescent lighting, complete with chains along the wall and a metal chair bolted to the floor in the center.

Once I was settled into the aforementioned chair, I realized it faced away from the only door in the room, leaving a view of only a blood spattered wall.

This was certainly a second location. Mission accomplished, sort of.

I still did not speak, what was there to say, really? Begging for my freedom would be pointless, and I refused to show unnecessary weakness of any kind. I was here for a reason after all, I could only hope prayer and patience would be enough to get me through this ordeal.

My captor paced at my back, his footfalls loud as he allowed his shoes to scuff roughly on the concrete floor. They came to a stop.

“Let’s get to know each other, shall we?” He stepped in front of me and smiled wide, and suddenly I was considering the merits of spontaneously dropping dead right there in that chair.

“You see, I don’t take this kind of thing lightly,” he started, “How did you know to come here? Were you planning to steal what you needed, or is this some kind of delusional attempt at a business deal?” He continued, but my lips remained sealed, not that he could tell.

He seemed to realize this too, because he quickly ripped off every piece of clothing that covered my face, leaving it bare to be read and identified.

“Hero, how cute.”

Now he was interested.

His eyes traced the scar that ran from the corner of my nose up to my cheekbone. That’s what gave me away, he would know, because he’s the one who gave it to me. Not to suggest that us crossing paths was a regular occurrence, quite the opposite in fact. I had pledged to avoid the man after our unfortunate encounter, and it helped that I wasn’t much of a front-line fighter to begin with. I preferred sidelines and shadows, subtle work. And I rarely interfered in the big leagues. I was content to not make any powerful enemies, but unfortunately, circumstances change.

“You’re not getting what you came for,” Maybe I am, “so what’s the harm in giving it up?” He asked sweetly, nothing but innocence in his eyes as he stepped closer.

“Don’t think I’ll be asking nicely again,”he followed, and that- that possessive twinkle in his eyes. That was what I was banking on. This was going to work.

He circled me like a shark, slow and deliberate, but never reaching to fill his hands with a tool or a weapon. His relaxed demeanor put me on edge nonetheless. He had nothing to worry about. Capturing me was all business, now this was all play.

Silence continued to be my preferred strategy.

“Still quiet huh? Don’t worry, I’m really good at the quiet game,” he whispered the last part from behind me eerily, before walking away and shutting the door with a loud metal slam and leaving me alone. Maybe this wasn’t my best idea, but it was a little late for second thoughts.

By the time he returned, I had already begun to preemptively associate the sound of the door and heavy footsteps with the sound of my doom. He appeared in front of me much too soon, empty handed with a justifiable air of confidence.

My heart started to race when Villain strutted over to a roll of plastic propped against the wall to my left. Slowly, he kicked it over to the center of the room where I sat in the chair, and then knelt to the ground to roll it out around me. He produced a knife I didn’t know he had been carrying, different from the one that had been held at my throat, previously concealed somewhere in the black cargo pants that covered over the ankle of his black combat boots. He sliced the plastic laid around me into a square perimeter about six feet on each side.

My mind screamed that I needed to change tactics, admit something or be admitted to an early grave. But revealing that I intended to use the most powerful man in the game was not going to work in my favor. What choice did I really have though, be a toy or admit to toying?

Villain stood now. He gave me little more than a glance before starting to walk past me on my left side, presumably towards the door again or maybe other equipment. Unfortunately that guess did not take into account his lighting-like speed.

He turned, and before I knew it a knife was stabbed straight through my hand. I blinked in disbelief at the metal jutting an inch and a half out the palm of my hand, blood starting to well up around it and drip down to the tip of the blade before falling to hit the plastic.

Maybe I was wrong. Maybe this wasn’t better. Maybe this was as certain a death as I was already guaranteed.

Too late to turn back now.

The pain took about a full three seconds to register. I was unprepared for the strike, quick as a viper sinking its teeth into its prey. I choked on my shock, mouth opening but no sound coming out.

Millan seized the opportunity, shoving a ball of fabric into my gaping mouth with forceful fingers.

“You don’t wanna talk? Don’t talk. I prefer it this way anyway,” he spoke, and my mistake became crystal clear.

Salvage. Games. He wants to play games.

His hand returned to the knife he had left skewered through my hand. His fingers wrapped around the hilt and my thoughts ran a thousand miles per minute, searching for something, anything, I could use as an opening move.

I was invited to the table, now I just had to figure out how to play.

The blade slipped easily back out of my flesh. It had missed bone, angled perfectly in the direction of my fingers.

I had to act now, before that blade found a new home in which to bury itself, presumably in a much more damaging location.

I coughed and spit to try and loosen the scrap in my mouth as I attempted to push it out with my tongue. I was making progress, but a hand was heading for my face again to try and re-secure the gag. Running out of time, I forced precious few syllables past the fabric that crudely hindered my speech.

“Ah-so-shee-a-shun.”

The hand reached its destination, but surprisingly opted to remove the obstacle from my mouth and toss it in a soggy heap to the floor.

“What was that?”

“The Association. I know something.”

I made a sour face in an attempt to resalivate my mouth and rid it of the awful cottony feel and taste.

“I have something on The Hero Association.”

“Hero, you do not waste a breath. I knew there was something I liked about you.” That creepy smiled returned, coupled with the glint in the eyes as the knife was wiped off on the knee of his pants. He crouched to a squat in front of me.

“I don’t suppose you’re in a particularly generous and sharing mood?” He cocked his head, studying my face as if seeing it for the first time.

“In your dreams. Sharing is caring, and I could not give less of a fuck about you.” I watched his face as he reacted to my words and knew by the way he lit up that I had picked the right path.

Never doubted it for a second.

“So why bring it up?”

“Figured it might save me a stab wound or two.”

“Or three or four,” he conceded, and I allowed a small smile to stretch my lips.

“Probably five.” He smiled back. “At least.”

The air in the room was lighter, and this exchange was seeming more and more like a tentative opportunity and less and less like certain doom. Blood still dripped from my hand, but I didn’t spare it another glance. I relaxed in my binds, and prepared for my next move.

[diaryofellen]

the black cat is the villain? could you please elaborate? I'm asking out of genuine curiosity, I haven't heard this before.

autism card: activated

okso. i mean all of this is layed out very clear in the novel/manga, but if youre less familiar with it then i get why it might sound a little odd. key things to remember though is that the black cat made a deal with ellen when she was only seven years old. not only that, ellen was literally on the verge of death at that point and was not told anything about becoming a witch or such at the point when she made the deal - literally all she was told was that she would be given like, shelter. to not die. 'magic' is mentioned offhandedly to just say "uhhhhhhhhhhh magic magic gives you House" without explaining anything about it

mind you, this does happen after ellen kills her parents - but, i mean, not to excuse killing your parents (dont do that), but ellen is a very traumatized and neglected child and she does express genuine remorse and guilt after killing them. and maybe im just an ellen apologist but i find it really hard to think that makes her flatout evil/irredeemable at this point.

the "XXXX" thing in the game/manga where the word 'kill' is blacked out with X's might obviously just be a stylistic thing. but based on the first way its used in the manga, i choose to interpret it as a sign of ellens own denial. shes a guilty child who doesnt really want to accept guilt. she becomes much more comfortable using the word 'kill' later and accepting the grim reality of what she does, but at the start, ellen doesnt want to consider herself a killer.

anyway. back to the black cat. the whole first part of the manga/novel shows ellens genuine childlike innocence and wonder. within the first chapters shes really just a sweet girl excited to learn things and play.

and a major thing that makes the black cat an ASSHOLE is that he purposefully leaves out many details of the situation until ellen is in a position of desparation and despair. the black cat doesnt directly break ellens spirit at any point himself, but he sure as hell leads her to despair and then manipulates and emotionally abuses her. and his manipulation works. if the black cat said to ellen "hey kill ur friend for the house to eat cuz youre unlovable scum" when ellen was having fun with her new friend, ellen would probably be alot more reluctant. her new friend loves her, after all. its the love shes been seeking.

at no point does ellen say this friendship is the love shes been seeking, but...its quite obvious, isnt it? the genuine friendship she had with this little boy wasnt an act or anything. ellen genuinely felt loved and her friendship with this boy alleviated her loneliness.

but the black cat didnt explain to ellen, a SEVEN YEAR OLD CHILD who only JUST LEARNED HOW TO READ, the reason why she cant leave the house. and he didnt explain this to her because he wanted to set her up to fall into the trap where she would confront despair and be much more willing to kill out of desparation. you can say "oh ellen was told she cant leave the house, she did it of her own choice so even if she didnt know what would happen its her fault" but shes a dumb kid who made a mistake. a mistake that she was set up to make, reopened her emotional wounds and was used to manipulate her

the black cat doesnt ever like, literally lie to her. but its deception and lies by omission and it is very, very intentional. its with the goal of breaking this damaged child down more and more to push her to the brink again by intentionally triggering her insecurities and fears and exploiting the fact she killed once before as a way to desensitize her to it

its only after all this "evil cat emotionally torments a child and tells her shes unlovable scum who nobody will ever care about because her body makes her worthless and subhuman" thing, that the black cat actually offers her this:

note that its phrased as a cure and not 'a body switching spell'. she doesnt actually learn that its a body switching spell until just before meeting viola. the first person ellen kills for the house is the little boy she befriended. the manga doesnt do a good job at conveying ellens feelings here so these are is excerpts from the novel. it genuinely hurts her. it hurts her to kill her first friend. but the fear of never being loved, living forever in a body doomed to rot away without any care or compassion, hurts her more. and at this point, after everything shes gone through and the emotional manipulation of the black cat, shes convinced that she is just fundamentally unlovable and this will never, ever change. she even percieves the boys apology at first as being 'fake'- that is, she knows he would feel no sympathy or friendship for her knowing how sick she really is.

..all this is to say. while ellen and viola were born in different eras, as ellen lived for hundreds of years as a witch, i genuinely think that if somehow they could have met earlier, ellen would have been able to see that violas friendship was the love she was after. that viola wasnt trying to decieve or use her, and that she didnt need to hurt viola to be loved. if they had somehow met before all this, ellen wouldve accepted viola as like her big sister. someone who didnt run from her and accepted her despite her illness. but after all the emotional manipulation and abuse shes put through by the black cat for his own goals, ellen sees pretty much nobody as being on her side and she becomes devoted only to the goal of having a healthy body. she cannot concieve of violas love for her being real, because she believes it is simply impossible for anyone to love her as she is.

and the black cats monologue at the end of the kindle edition also shows the black cats bizzare behaviour towards ellen and how he knew he was manipulating her and making her dependent on him. (side note, WHY is the black cat also supposedly a young boy???? where the hell are the adults in this setting??????)

id say that the witchs house is fundamentally a story about the cycles of abuse. ellen certainly isnt a good person, but the character who causes most of the events and tragedies to occurr is really the black cat, with ellen moreso acting as a sort of puppet. ellen best girl ellen best witch ellen did nothing wrong (<- THATS A LIE)

[franceblr]

super halfbaked sasodei hc, modern edition

despite their frequent arguments and bickering, sasori and deidara are an extremely stable couple. like, ride or die type of committed; they’re thoroughly enamoured and obsessive and totally dependant on each other and not the best communicators but even with their many differences, they understand each other on a molecular level and couldn’t imagine dating anyone else. it’s them or nothing. they may be toxic and neither knows what they’re doing, but they’re dead set on making things work and learn along the way through trial and error. deidara is entirely devoted to sasori, body and soul; to sasori, deidara is everything he saw in others and wanted for himself, but never dared to even dream of.

though both sasori and deidara are resolved on staying together no matter what, they did discuss hard limits in their relationship; boundaries that if crossed, they’d never be able to recover from. one both of them agreed on is cheating. with their pasts and the way they are, neither of them would be able to cope with the other cheating, and would take it really really badly. another hard limit for deidara is substance addiction; he’s familiar with its effects, and he’s absolutely positive he cannot have that in his life, ever again (though this is more like a fair warning prompted by his personal trauma, than something sasori is likely to fall into). for sasori, dishonesty is an immediate deal breaker. under no circumstances is deidara allowed to lie to him, ever: no white lies, no omission of information: sasori asks, and deidara has to answer.

entire honesty on deidara’s behalf came with a lot of work: he’s by nature evasive and not one to trust easily, so in the earlier days of their relationship, it was a lot of deidara tiptoeing around answers and sasori seeing right through his bullshit. eventually, deidara learnt that he owes sasori the truth under all circumstances, even if he has to force it out through tears. it’s non negotiable.

quite the feat considering deidara is a compulsive liar. or a rehabilitated one at least. lying is what gets him the most attention, doesn’t matter if it’s positive or negative. deidara HAS to be seen and heard. it’s not that he enjoys deceiving others either, it’s more a thing he learnt to pick up quick as a child, in order to survive in an unstable environment created by abuse, addiction, neglect and fostercare. deidara has perfectly mastered the art of keeping a chill and laid back façade, of always being friendly and upbeat and yet never letting anyone in too close to see if there’s anything deeper than that. not that sasori ever fell for it: there’s something so twisted and damaged and somber and guarded about deidara, that sasori can see it bleed through even when he’s all sunny smiles and quick jokes. even when he thinks nobody is looking. once the layers were peeled back, for sasori it was like looking in a mirror: sasori sees the darkness, the hurt, the resilience, the maturity that comes too soon, the shame, the anger, the compulsive and the desperate, and instead of being turned off by it, he wants to observe and touch and devour deidara whole with all of his fucked up quirks and habits. feels the animalistic urge to put deidara on a table and vivisect him and analyze every fiber of his being, learn and consume all there is to deidara so intimately, it hurts and makes him want to hurt. he wants to squeeze out the life out of deidara, brutalize him and put him back together. wants to know and own him inside and out.

one thing they both had to learn and get accustomed to was trusting the other, and giving up control. both sasori and deidara are by default weary, hyper independent, and over all not well versed in emotional vulnerability. it took a lot of experimenting, frequent check ins, and reassurance to make things work. sasori is paranoid to the point of the pathological, and deidara would rather eat a shoe than show a single weakness. slowly, the Talks became less dreadful, they started picking up on each other’s patterns, thought processes and non verbal signals, and communication got much easier. the hurt lessened, the ever crushing weight of loneliness lessened, the guard came down and sasori and deidara went head first from hyper independent to codependent. deidara makes always sure to keep all of his promises to sasori, never betraying his trust or casting doubt over his love and devotion for him.

they’re both in it for the long run. and still, despite them both being ready to take it to the next step, it took months of persuasion and time to get deidara to move in with sasori; sasori still pretends he’s not aware deidara keeps an escape bag packed with clothes that still got the tags on, passport, cash and his most important documents stowed away and ready, in case he ever has to get out and fast. deidara keeps it underneath the driver seat of his car, and sasori found it accidentally while fixing an issue with deidara’s car on his request. at first sasori was terribly hurt and betrayed. but he eventually understood that his partner’s reluctance to move in with him and fear that he’ll be thrown out every moment now, has to do more with deidara’s continuous home insecurity throughout his childhood and teenage years, than with any sort of plan of leaving sasori.

they both need SO much reassurance. jesus. deidara has the insufferable tendency to treat sasori like he’s made of glass: he makes sure to caress him and repeat disgustingly sweet, gentle, comforting words to him until they’re engraved in his frontal lobe, like he’s stupid, or a baby. sasori hates that it works. sasori hates how he feels the tension melt right off of his shoulders and jaw, how he feels his brows unfurrow and his traitorous body always nestles deeper against deidara. how he feels the ache, the doubt and the worry slowly uncoil from the deadly grasp they have on his throat, his ribcage, his stomach. can barely stand the way his heart breaks in two whenever deidara’s upset. hates hates hates the way he seems to always know what to say and where to touch him, to placate deidara’s inner turmoil and restless mind.

[tesee]

An archfae’s guide to fey, and fey interaction

Fey are beings closely tied to magic and the forces of nature. Generally playful, curious and chaotic, they dance on the thin line between good and evil, with only a vague understanding of either.

The thing about fey is that they’re... strange, almost alien. Nothing they do is motivated by a need. Often, the only reason they do anything is for their own entertainment and amusement, or out of curiosity. (Though tormenting mortals is a pretty frequent reason, too. They really like doing that).

Their home, the Feywild, is a realm that reflects their bizarre nature. It reflects the beauty and danger of the natural world, but to the absolute extreme. Beautiful and volatile, breathtaking and deadly. Navigating the feywild is like navigating a conversation with a fae. You have to be very careful of getting lost or misunderstanding the correct path. If you dont know exactly where you're going and how to get there ahead of time, you'll be lost forever. Pray to Tiandra that your death will be swift and painless (it rarely will).

Fey gift giving:

Fey love giving gifts and receiving gifts in return. Most of their interactions with mortals involve some exchange of gifts, regardless of whether the mortal realizes it or not.

99% of the time, fey creatures will want something in return if they give you a gift. Be it your name, memories you are fond of, or that neat pouch you have. It could be anything

They are capricious by nature and driven by their current mood. So you never really know what they might want in return.

Generally, the important thing is that whatever you give back has to be of equal or greater value than what was given to you.

Now, here it gets tricky. Knowing how important something is to a fae is difficult to dechiper. A good rule of thumb is that the value of something depends on how much the fae thinks it is worth to you.

Mow, keep in mind that they do put more value in things that interest them, too.

If you cant manage to meet the value of whatever gift the fae gave you, you owe them a favor. Which, trust me, you dont want to owe a fae a favor.

Another note on the topic of gifts: never accept food or drink from a fae.

About fey food and drink:

So, why cant you accept food or drink from a fae? One common way that fey enchant mortals is by offering food and drink.

The enchantments fey may use can vary. From harmless sleepy time enchantments to ones that enslave the poor mortal who accepted their food, to ye good ol’ death.

Honeslty, really depends on the fae.

The key here is to politely refuse without thanking them, which i'll explain in a minute.

Oh, and in addition to the food being post probably enchanted, food is great gift to give someone. And we all know how that ends.

Thanking the fey:

You should never thank a fae for anything. In doing so, you're implying you’re in their debt.

Even a simple "thank you for your time" will have you indebted to the fae.

Even worse, phrases that dont explicitly exclude the word ‘thank’ might still count. For example "i appreciate your time" could also be considered a form of thanks.

Fey never lie:

…well, sort of.

See, because of their inability to lie, most fey have mastered the art of twisting words, half truths and lying trough omission. All of which are technically not lying

For example, i could tell you that you have my word and that no harm shall come to your friend, before turning around and turning said friend into an indestructible statue. I didnt lie, did i?

Technically, the fey cant lie.

In practice, its a little different.

True names:

If a fae learns your true name, they gain power over you. From single word commands to full control, it depends on how strong or weak the fae is.

Now, what is a true name?

Im afraid that is pretty difficult to pin down. It might be your full birth name. It might be the name you choose for yourself that fits you better as a person. Or it might be a mystical name tied to the cosmos that no one knows (unless they somehow attain that knowdelge).

The only things that can break this bond is very stong magic, or, more commonly and with much less hassle, the death of both parties involved.

Now, the fey are fair in their rules. What applies to them, applies to mortals too. If a human was to learn a fae’s true name, they could command it just the same.

Disguises:

This one is pretty straightforward. Fey can disguise as just about anything they want, trough the use of glamours and shapeshifting.

But remember, fey cant lie.

If they’re pressed about where they're from or what busniess they have, they have to be careful in their wording as to not give themselves away, since they cannot lie.

Weaknesess:

Iron:

Iron is similar to a severe allergy. It hurts, and it is the most effective way to fight, ward away or even kill fey.

Salt:

Salt isnt a direct weakness. It wont hurt. however, a solid, closed salt of line will stop fey from crossing to the other side. They can go around it, yes, but they cant cross it.

Adder stones:

Not a direct weakness either, these are naturally ocurring rocks with a tiny hole in the middle. Looking trough the hole in the middle of the rock allows mortals to see trough fey glamour.

[timidloner]

OMG… rambling here or ram as you said (which is so cute btw? living for it <33) just to say i consider you a friend too!! (with all the similar interests and thoughts we have itd be a crime not too) its not weird at all no worries, honestly really glad you think its the case because with the amounts of asks i sent i was worried that id be giving you inspiration for joren’s behavior jajaja

on another note, the many scenarios other people spoke about gave me a brain rot woah… for example, the cornering hed to the mc, what if the mc put his hand in front of him as to calm him down but instead he grabs their hand and kiss it while pleading for their help because he needs the mc………. (WITH A MC THAT IS COMPLETELY NEW TO SEXUAL STUFF TOO WITH THE GUILT AND ALL PHEW) or even the thought of mc dying made me wonder, since you talked about violent mc in the past, what about if a mc tried to kill him (stabby stabby im thinking) in a moment of panic if theyre scared of his advances and remembered the trauma of being forcefully taken away already once? then what would happen? and what would happen if joren accidentally killed the mc??? cause thats a delicious plot line to think of: so used to violence you murder accidentally a loved one, frankenstein monster style AAAA (if you ever make a gc for this story like some authors do… itll be wild from the amount of theories)

AHHH, you have no idea how nervous I was while writing that. I was afraid that I'd be crossing some boundaries, PHEW! And don't worry, I've met intense people before, and all you've ever come across is friendly!

And yeah, we really share some brain cells!! Maybe the real yanderes were the friendships we made along the way! Jajaja!!

But going back to our babygirl!

"[...] he grabs their hand and kiss it while pleading for their help because he needs the mc". That's soo good?? I'm swooning.

But I'm taking it even further! He's fine with the dirty thoughts lol, and he already knows that MC wants him, so this feels like a (kinky) play. Joren is taking a role and giving MC a scenario to indulge themselves.

And that man is nothing but committed! So after he confesses that the someone he can't have is MC, he would ask for a kiss. So he can know what it feels like, they won't even be sinning since a simple kiss doesn't break any rules (technically), and they'd even be helping a sinner in need.

But when MC kisses him, he would take advantage of their naivety about sex. It's not a sin to roam their body with his hands. It's not a sin to bite and use tongue. It's not a sin to press them close to him and put his thing between their legs.

And they're allowed to masturbate, so rutting against each other is fine. They can use his body (hands, things, tongue) to get off, it's not sex, right?

omg.... I know I said he can't lie, but I haven't realized the power this holds. From now on, he can lie with technicalities, half-truths, and by omission.

---

And making a sudden change of topic! MC trying to kill him in a spur of panic would be better received that a MC who tried to do it with a plan in mind.

If he knows it was because they panicked, he'd try to calm them down, which could backfire and make MC even more hostile. And here's where the tragedy (potentially) comes in.

Joren reminds MC of their trauma, and MC reminds him of his. Both lash out in response, making everything worse, until Joren gets blinded by his feelings, uses a little too much force, and kills them by accident.

It'd go the same way as I described it before, but Moon's reaction would be different.

If Joren kills MC before they make a decision by accident, then Moon would give them a miracle. Not in this life, though, in this one Joren goes crazy and stays with MC's corpse for the rest of his days.

And authors make GROUP CHATS?? What. I actually had no idea! Like in discord??

[andthroughthewire]

Can we talk about the insanity of Kim thinking if she knew everything, with the fucking cartel involved, she could control everything? People don’t talk about that side of her enough (and feeling mean but there’s way too many mcwexler fics where it’s just not a factor), that everything has to be planned out and meticulous and even an elaborate scam has post it notes.

Quite a few characters on this show have issues that can be traced back to control or are control-adjacent (Chuck first of all, Gus, if scamming is a form of addiction that definitely comes into play as well) and like you said, with Kim it 'physically manifests' with all the post-it notes she keeps (I recently hit 301 on my rewatch and in the scene where she wants to distract Jimmy when he says 'Chuck didn't hate me for 10 minutes today' or something like that, you can see post-its all over the cabinets behind her).

This comes into play in Jimmy and Kim's relationship, too. The show never explains what exactly went on in the ten years between his arrival in the mailroom and the start of the story, but from what we're shown we can assume they were on and off and she called the shots every single time (I don't mean it as a positive or a negative, that's just the way it is). Jimmy is the kind of guy to jump into things (he's twice divorced at 32, that has to count for something) and was probably head over heels from day one ('gal, singular'), while with Kim we see the drive and focus she has in her career and how she wants to make something of herself, a serious relationship wasn't something she probably even considered before Jimmy came along.

So anyway, from 'you don't save me, I save me' to 'it happens today', there's a lot of internal struggle within herself to keep things the way she wants them how she wants them. Her professional mid-life crisis as a result of the car crash is part of it, too, as she realizes she had been working herself to death for a bank and her moral compass doesn't know what to do with it. Or, later, what happens with Acker. I have to include Howard, too— while the scam itself was born out of desperation to not have Jimmy break up with her in that hotel room, there's no love lost between Howard and Kim, as she associates him with Kevin and all the 'first bank account at 7 years old' types and feeds into the 'us vs them' thing she has with Jimmy and why she almost breaks up with him before she proposes. They're outsiders in a world of insiders. There's an issue of class, too.

Needless to say it all blows back in her face spectacularly as the Howard scam is technically successful but her lie by omission to keep the scam and the relationship going (this is probably a good moment to mention I don't agree with Kim here, but that month and a half between their marriage and Howard's death was a lot to deal with for both of them) indirectly results in his death and it's not like Jimmy and Kim weren't this close to dying that night, either.

Speaking of her need to keep the scam going at all costs, Kim's apartment during S6a tells everything we need to know, as it's shown in varying degrees of darkness and in a growing state of disarray as the episodes go on. Kim's hair, also. They're on a bender. Their days of wine and roses, if you will.

I wonder how things would've gone differently if she had been able to confess everything right away. What ends up happening, instead, is Kim leaving her whole life behind as punishment and becoming this shell of a person that has banished all choices from her life and can't even pick between Miracle Whip and mayonnaise. Considering what I said earlier, her relationship (if we wanna call it that) with Glenn has to be the result of one of her colleagues setting her up and Kim just going along with it because that's the way her life is now.

Her confession isn't an absolution, but it's a way forward. She's able to make choices again and she can trust herself again to help others as she volunteers at the legal aid. Kim visiting Jimmy at the end is a very conscious decision, too. Florida Kim would've never done that.

[incarnateirony]

Ah, good morning world. So now that fandom has had a bit of a wake-up about 2p0 and his violent sources and their real motivations,

While I say everything on his blog is as dumb and wrong as it gets, finally in all of this, he said one true thing people should listen to: People can lie about M&Gs. Easily. Especially people with biases, such as the regulars he uses for sources. All the time.

All Pat ever HAS is M&Gs. It's his whole schtick. Him unironically admitting they can be lied about and manipulated is the only true thing he has ever said, because it's all he and they do.

A huge section of Profound Bond fell for this child fucker's nonsense. They've let him rot dialogue, try to control people using their basic eyeballs on The Winchesters, stomped down people observing what the show is doing to try to save his throne, and it's not gonna work.

I can tell you right now. I didn't lie about the M&G and on site, 2p0's sources didn't either, because they were raging about it. They snarked sarcastically back about questions. They asked to try to identify who the girl was that knew the song, or asked the question, and then the threats started, then they're going "how do people know what was said?" because your drunk asses (already a CE violation) were ranting in the lobby about cutting people.

It's time to pay real, real close attention to 2p0. His actual patterns. His actual agendas. Not just what he says or claims, but what he does and who he engages with for what purpose.

That nonnie "well he can be out there but I prefer your (pat) level-headed-" fuck your comfortable civility culture. The truth is the truth, what about that are you jackasses not getting? No rebel ever accomplished anything by making sure to keep their voice down and saying yes maam yes sir, I'll eat and consider your bullshit.

It's bullshit. You guys know it's bullshit. It was convenient to attach to, to continue to nurse rather than address your own trauma like this show is designed to even walk you through. And people latched on. And now you're realizing it's bullshit and going WELL HE'S MEAN.

No, I'm fuckin mad. Because this fandom is liable for dragging queer creatives, representation movements and more all in its own petty personal wants, and they don't fucking like hearing that. But we're in new Orleans. Get your shit together and learn how we do, here.

half the sunday crowd is a hair's breadth from getting blackballed as a start. I take after my big bro, alright. the one you deny exists, because you think reality can work like that.

2p0 has been lying and controlling PB's narrative for years manipulating M&Gs, occasionally scrambling to look like he has actual sources by pulling ancient scripts. He denied the market testing, berens intent, the confession, the roadhouse, the omissions, and the winchesters pilot script itself along with the direction the show itself is shaped into. He denied it all. bc of his super itk M&Gs he reads badly.

Look past finding crumbs of old scripts he buys. Look how his sources failed him repeatedly on The Winchesters, even on payroll, even if he waves her around a LOT. Remember my warnings about low grade coffee runners not knowing their place like Manchin and the market testing. See the entire little clout game they're playing.

It's a bubble for wincels and bronlies and multishippers to try to pretend this is gonna be another decade they can pretend shit is relative in rather than like, a season. It's talking and being loud and turning you against your content and faves. That's why it's this cobbling of wincels and samstielers and salty megstielers all sticking on an I Ship Destiel pin to fuck around in PB. Like, Quickreaver? Are you guys fucking insane?

You wanna know why servers like mine exist to house PB refugees? It's this insufferable rot. Hundreds of people just wanting the fuck away from the fake noise and hysteria these people intentionally inspire that clutters up and makes your server just outright unenjoyable. The amount of people that outright blame 2p0 for chasing them out because he won't let them have eyes and watch the show is astounding.

Pay. Attention. All he's ever had is M&Gs. Stop trusting this incestuous son of a bitch with whispers from a god awful, physical harm threatening, j2 tinhatted friend ring and y'all been letting him and these people yank your chain for years because they're salty it isn't their ship, literally. Look at 2p0's post that like. Fic Must Be Appropriately Only Subtextual, As I Enjoy Platonic Friendships, But I Ship Destiel. Let Me Dogwhistle By Manipulating Queerplat Terms.

All that asshole ever does. Pay. attention. The one time he has ever told the truth is that people can lie during M&Gs, and that's his entire grifting fandom career.

His pet spnscripthunt project others sold out to work him with has one script left, so fire away, fire away dude. From here anyone is as fair game as the next there too, and well, your wiki script source seems to have an 8 month concept delay and frankly, the fandom isn't gonna need the scripts for the near future so whatever dude.

Fandom's realizing your M&Gs are years of nonsense, your script queue old is empty and new is just you playing games with shit they coulda enjoyed back in February, lmfao fuck off. Anyway people can enjoy my film hunt tags framing out the episodes or flights in for the guys if they want.

[ff-12]

Ask game? Ask game asks for soup?? Ok!

💝 🎭 🖕 For Rick AND Summer :)

ASKS AT WORK ARE THE BEST ASKS SHHHH im the boss im allowed

💝- a headcanon about their love language

summer is SUCH a quality time kinda gal! interdimensional cable, intergalactic fieldtrips, tag or hide n seek as a youngster.... if she has to verbalize her feelings youre not paying attention!!

rick THINKS hes a verbal affection sort of guy... buuut not really! hes all about ACTIONS. i mean *waves at the entire show* need i say more?? light his cig, break out the glasses, blindfold him..... getting ahead of myself tho.

🎭- a headcanon for what they lie about

HUH interesting!! to preface this, neither of them necessarily Lie, its more like, lies by omission so!

summer doesnt like for people to nose in her business, if its not on her timeline theres nothin to know! so what if she was out till 11pm it wasnt a party or anyfin, she was just hangin out. no dont go lookin at her socials! its not important

rick...rick is the omissions expert...what did he do last night? terrible question, even he doesnt remember. best to ask what DIDNT happen before he wanders off again

🖕- a headcanon about their anger

ive been sitting and chewing on this for the better of a few hours now....ive lost the original anger headcanon prompt BUT no turning back!

consider this a 2 for 1 event! because.....

horticulture! weve all seen the fanart of prime and rick with the greenhouse plants, yea? and this way, instead of having to say anything, they both have their own area in the greenhouse...time to themselves to let the emotions dissipate...

for rick its a remnant from a bygone era

for summer its a chance to be in her own little bubble, without prying eyes or too many questions.... somefin rick can understand

[auspex]

1.) 2.) 21.) and 47.) for Dr Vela!

SORRY FOR THE DELAY I STRUGGLED W THESE QUESTIONS...

THEY R GOOD QUESTIONS BUT DAMN. Ty sooo much

1. What’s the lie your character says most often?

This is a good question. Mark is a big liar by omission mostly… he mostly just tries to avoid topics that he would have to lie about. I guess the biggest lie is, when asked how he’s doing, is saying he’s busy and/or stressed managing his territory. That’s a damn lie. He’s busy and stressed but that isn’t why - its doing stuff for Julius, or fixing some issue that came up with Sampson, or meeting with probable-anarchs because he got himself stuck in that mess… oof.

2. How loosely or strictly do they use the word ‘friend’?

He doesn't mind using it loosely. But he is pretty selective on who he actually considers friends. For example, a probable anarch he is working with says they are friends, and Mark isn’t about to correct him. But obviously he does not consider him a friend. Right now Mark would only confidently describe 2 of his touchstones (Dr. Armatto and Kenny), and his coterie member Rose, as friends. He’s not sure what the fuck to describe him and Sampson’s relationship as, though he does want them to be friends. Mark needs more friends :(  

21. What common etiquette do they disagree with? Do they still follow it? He doesn’t really understand why kindred are so cagey about how old they are - but he’s learned that they are, so does not ask to avoid ruffling feathers. He’s also learned to avoid saying his own age because he’s just so incredibly young for his station that it marks him as odd. Someone who hasn’t even been dead a year yet doesn’t usually have this much political pull, after all.

47. Who have they forgotten about that remembers them very well?

LOL as if my ST would let me know if I forgot someone important... I’m sure there’s some student of his that he didn’t realize he impacted as much as he did. 

But seriously Mark has a lot of memories that haunt him - he tries not think about some things, such as the ghoul he saw who escaped the sabbat - but its not like he forgot them… 

[gamebunny-advance]

Thinking... (Scrapped)

As much as I like to ship them as bitter exes, I’ve always taken note of how NSR seems to deliberately go out of its way to deny that Kliff’s feelings for Tatiana are romantic in nature. Romantic language is never used between the two and even when Kliff gushes about her, it’s all about her aesthetics: her clothes, her attitude, her music. So with that in mind, what exactly was Kul Fyra to Kliff? What does she represent to him that would drive him to be so crushed and vindictive after they split?

The easy answer is that “he’s just like that”, but I refuse to believe that in a story where even the most shallow of NPCs has some depth to them, that Kliff, the primary antagonist of the story, is the only one that’s so one dimensional. The narrative has already ruled out romance as a motivation, and it’s dubious that they were even friends at any point. It could be that he always saw her as a symbol for his ideals, but he does seem to take it personally that she “went EDM,” and he ultimately says that what matters to him wasn’t the music itself, but Kul Fyra the person. It could be that he’s just trying to get sympathy points by exaggerating, but I think that reading would be inconsistent with how Kliff had been portrayed so far. Kliff lies by omission, not by distortion. The instances where Kliff is untrustworthy is by him not giving all the details:

He doesn’t tell B2J that he knows that Tatiana was Kul Fyra.

He doesn’t hide that he wants B2J to takeover Vinyl City, but he never mentions/considers the negative consequences of them doing so.

There are only 2 instances in which he lies by distortion, and both of them might not even count.

Mayday mentions that his photo doesn’t seem to match with who they meet, but since we never saw this photo, we don’t know in what ways it was different. It doesn’t make sense for it to have been a “catfish” since they met in person almost immediately afterwards, so it’s more likely that the photo refers to a profile picture, and the picture just didn’t reflect what kind of person Kliff was IRL, like a cute animal pic or something.

When B2J are trying to free the districts, he does lie about the bots being not dangerous and encourages them to get closer to their attacks by saying that they’re helpful, but this is in a high-stress situation after all his good will between them was destroyed, so this is arguably out of character.

Even if you want to discredit that Kliff is being sincere in his confrontation with Tatiana, Tatiana does not call him out for lying, so it can be implied then that what he says is true. To counter, it’s possible that she’s just not interested in deconstructing his claims and just cuts straight to the heart of the problem, but she does give that time to Mayday. With that in mind, I feel like it would be reasonable to assume that if there was something to deconstruct, she would have done so in this instance too. Therefore, I think it’s safe to assume that Kliff’s claims can be taken at face value.

I feel like Kliff and Tatiana’s conflict is somewhat supposed to mirror Mayday and Zuke’s conflict, or rather how they resolve it. If you do the Pirate Radio interviews, they reveal that regardless of your personal choices, Mayday will wind up breaking Zuke’s NSR branded drumsticks in protest. Mayday will always feel somewhat guilty about this after the fact and Zuke will forgive her, and they work out their differences on the subject, ultimately proving that despite conflicts, they’re best friends

It partially feeds into my theory that NSR is about different kinds of love, and that Kliff, Tatiana, and Mayday’s love conflict is based around fandom.

[xianyao-villainousquartet]

She (涉)/She (蛇)

So someone on twitter years ago tried to make a dig at Su She for have the given name She (涉 -  wade) as being similar to She (蛇 - snake) because the Twins of Jade were considered to be dragons and snakes were considered to be their inferior counterpart. Even though both characters have different sounds and characters, so they’re nothing alike except for how its spelled in English and that’s even a stretch.

But then now it’s making me go down a rabbit hole because you can pack so much symbolism into Su She that it isn’t even funny. I’m trying to give this man a backstory, and just his name alone is making me go from having him be a basic son of a noble to him becoming a complete foreigner from a completely different country in the Far East of Russia.

Like you have to understand that yes She can mean snake which is inferior to dragons, but dragons are actually made of nine parts from nine different animals. “Dragons were described visually as a composite of parts from nine animals: the horns of a deer, head of a camel, eyes of the devil, neck of a snake, abdomen of a large cockle, scales of a carp, claws of an eagle, paws of a tiger and ears of an ox.”

And you know what the NECK IS IN CHAKRA LANGUAGE. The neck is basically a throat and a nape, and the throat is the blue sound chakra. Blue and sound basically relates to the Lan sect, and as Avatar has taught us, it deals with truth and is blocked by lies. 

And I’m like, what does Su She have to lie about. I mean there was the whole Hundred Hole situation which is a lie of omission technically, but then again, we don’t actually know what happened in the background, and it wasn’t like the Jins were advertising it to look for the one responsible (Also totally think that Jin Zixun was the one who tried to curse Su She but it backfired on him, and he blamed the Yiling Patriarch out of denial. It just didn’t make sense for a new founding Sect leader to literally risk his life over being bullied when he had real responsibilities and not out of nowhere. This is literally after a war, so Su She had to be too busy trying to build a sect. Compared to Zixun who had no responsibilities and an actual superiority/inferiority complex.)

And that’s how Far East Russia got into the conversation because I joked about him having the worst backstory, but now I’m like what if the entirety of Su She was a lie. He’s not a Lan disciple or even a native in the Jianghu. He’s a straight up foreigner from a mystical land of snow who survived a genocide, a war, and its aftermath before being fostered into the Lan sect as a secret refugee since he’s still being hunted down for genocide.

And because he’s a target, so much of who he actually is down to an ethnic biological level has to be hidden away. He literally can’t afford to be unique or to stand out, so he becomes invisible in a whole different world. 

But yeah, that’s the gist of how I’m trying to shape Su She. 

I mean for everyone else, their backgrounds are:

Meng Yao - Born of a brothel worker and Jin Guangshan. His mother was formerly a daughter of a scholar in the North Western countries, but after an uprising, she was human trafficked and sold at Yunping. Hence why she knew how to act like a noble lady with ease, and why Meng Yao has “distinct pupils” and other light features (not from his father, dammit donghua). His mother was tricked by Jin Guangshan into thinking he would buy her freedom because she was wistful for the life she had before. Yet came to accept her fate after she no longer sees him for two years. Falls in love with Sisi who raises Meng Yao with her. Meng Yao helps around the brothel and does odd jobs throughout Yunping to raise money, learn new skills, or earn materials. Accidentally helps a member of the underworld who promises to buy his mothers’ freedom after they achieve their ambitions. However, the stairs incident happens, Sisi is murdered by a jealous wife, Meng Shi has a stroke from the news and becomes a vegetable before they can fulfill their promise. So instead the underworld member provides Meng Yao with other needs which give Meng Yao the experience and intellect to become the formidable natural strategist he’s come to be known for during the war. Finds Xue Yang around the time, and Meng Shi dies a few years later, Meng Yao goes to Koi Tower out of guilt and grief, and then spends the rest of the years living in another city in Lanling with Xue Yang. Meets Jin Zixuan and his dog and become close brothers secretly.  

(My main idea with Meng Yao is that despite his background, he actually had a lot of opportunities and access to greater things because of his high emotional intelligence and visionary ideas. However, bound by familial love to his mothers, Zixuan and his other brothers, he takes on the responsibility of taking on riskier positions for the sake of their survival. Achieving the impossible everyday despite the obstacles yet burdened with the immense consequences of his loved ones’ choices and actions.)

Xue Yang - Is actually from the Wen royal family from his mother’s side, but because of a dispute/misunderstanding between Wen Ruohan and his father, his whole family and his father’s clan was killed off. Xue Yang was able to survive because his mother had him hidden in the kitchen oven, and was left wandering southward as an orphan. Tragic losing pinky story happens, and he further travels East until he meets Meng Yao who takes care of him until the war happens. Ends up joining the underworld through Meng Yao’s contacts where he’s trained to be specializing in cruel and unusual interrogation and assassination, but is played off as simply a delinquent on the surface.

(With Xue Yang, the main word is “simple”, hence why he has the shortest background summary. Out of everyone in the Villainous Quartet, Xue Yang is the one to not overthink things, sees things just as they clearly are, and is able to differentiate the lies from the truth. He’s the one Jin Guangyao trusts the most to pick who he should befriend because despite his social etiquette and high emotional intelligence, Meng Yao is actually highly untrustworthy of others for that reason. Xue Yang and Su Minshan being the only exceptions. Mo Xuanyu met Xue Yang first so he’s a special case. Furthermore, I made Xue Yang a Wen because it just seems right.)

Mo Xuanyu - Born from a concubine’s teenage daughter and Jin Guangshan. Had a relatively good life for the first four years of his childhood when Jin Guangshan would visit his mother, but after Meng Yao’s stairs incident, Jin Guangshan abandoned them. Xuanyu’s mother and him were then abused by their relatives, which drove his mother to develop a mental illness where she ends up abusing Xuanyu, too. His social growth is stunted, but he remains intelligent and creative by spending all his time buried in books. Most of them about horror and taboos, so he doesn’t feel alone in his situation. Almost ten years later, he’s found by Xue Yang (the reason varies depending on the story, but main storyline is to find a Jin heir after Jin Zixuan’s death and turn them into an ally), and this leads to meeting Meng Yao/Jin Guangyao, and being designated for an important role. Xuanyu holds no resentment for Meng Yao’s indirect cause of his abuse, and instead finds solace in his brother’s kindness. No incestuous feelings sprouted, but Xuanyu’s odd intimate behavior is due to the lack of love from home (e.g. kissing Jin Guangyao square on the lips because he was told that it was something you do with someone you love, not realizing the person meant love “romantically” and not “platonically”). Jin Guangyao would’ve made sure Xuanyu wouldn’t display it in public for the sake of their reputations, especially considering his marriage, but there may have been a situation where a misunderstanding had led to an incestuous accusation, and Xuanyu played the (disturbingly convincing) insane person to protect Jin Guangyao’s reputation. Also, he doesn’t spend all his time in the shed. He has puppets that he keeps in a hidden storage to take his place, and created the mask to hide the imperfections.

(Now for Mo Xuanyu, he’s definitely the baby of the group, being 10 whole years younger than Meng Yao. My constant idea for him is that he’s the oddest and darkest among the four (the Goth basically) where he surpasses Wei Wuxian in demonic cultivation with ease because he truly embraces the romanticism of death and darkness. When she’s more socially adjusted, she realizes she’s transgendered, and after accepting and transitioning, she becomes more vibrant and feminine (Perky Goth), and her and Xue Yang are more in sync like twins when she is. In the main storyline sadly, Xuanyu doesn’t come to this realization because he has to be the Xuanyu that society is familiar with for Jin Guangyao’s sake so he never digs deeper into what will make him feel identified.)

For Su Minshan, I want him to be the most unordinary person because he seems like such an ordinary person. With the other three Villainous members, they are misunderstood by their intentions, but people are not completely off the mark. But with Su Minshan, he’s misunderstood ENTIRELY, which is why I’m in a rabbit hole. 🐇🕳🐍🐉

[tonysamia]

Embracing Failure on LinkedIn: The Real Lessons Lie Beyond Success

In the realm of professional networking and personal branding, LinkedIn stands as a beacon of success stories, career achievements, and accolades. Scrolling through its news feed often feels like navigating a highlight reel of triumphs, promotions, and milestones. It's a platform where individuals showcase their victories, aiming to craft an image of unyielding success and competence.

Yet, amidst the sea of triumphs, there exists a glaring omission—the acknowledgment of failure. The reluctance to share setbacks and defeats on LinkedIn perpetuates an unrealistic narrative of effortless success, obscuring the valuable lessons and growth opportunities that failures offer. As paradoxical as it may seem, it's in our failures that we find the most profound insights and transformative experiences.

While success is undoubtedly gratifying and deserving of celebration, it's often our failures that shape us into better professionals and individuals. Failure teaches resilience, fosters humility, and cultivates a growth mindset essential for navigating the complex landscape of career and personal development. However, the reluctance to share these experiences creates a culture that stigmatizes failure, perpetuating unrealistic standards and inhibiting authentic professional growth.

Moreover, sharing failures on LinkedIn cultivates a culture of transparency and authenticity, fostering genuine connections and empathy among professionals. It humanizes success, offering a more holistic perspective on the journey toward achieving one's goals. By sharing our failures, we not only demonstrate vulnerability but also provide invaluable insights and guidance to others navigating similar challenges.

Embracing failure on LinkedIn requires a shift in mindset—a willingness to defy conventional norms and embrace vulnerability. It involves reframing failure not as a source of shame or inadequacy but as a stepping stone toward growth and self-discovery. By normalizing discussions around failure, we create an environment conducive to learning and innovation, where setbacks are viewed not as obstacles but as opportunities for improvement.

Moreover, sharing failures fosters a culture of accountability, encouraging individuals to take ownership of their mistakes and learn from them. It's through acknowledging and dissecting our failures that we gain clarity and insight, paving the way for future success. As renowned entrepreneur and author Seth Godin aptly puts it, "Failure is not the opposite of success; it's part of success."

In conclusion, while LinkedIn serves as a platform for celebrating success, its true value lies in embracing and sharing our failures. By normalizing discussions around failure, we dismantle the myth of effortless success and cultivate a culture of authenticity, growth, and resilience. So, the next time you craft a post on LinkedIn, consider sharing not only your triumphs but also your failures—because therein lies the real essence of success.