#they always make characters stupid in tv shows to make things more dramatic

[lurafita]

Magnus discovers Jace's heritage

In today's episode of 'imaginary scenes that never canonically happened but still live in my head rent free':

Magnus: "So my dear shadowhunters, what's new? Catch me up."

Clary: "Valentine is Jace's father. We are siblings."

Jace: "And he injected me with demon blood while I was still in my mother’s womb."

Alec: "He disguised himself as Wayland for all those years he raised Jace in Exile."

Magnus, sighing: "... Where do I even begin... Okay. You two are aware that you look nothing alike, right?"

Clary: "Recessive genes can do that."

Magnus, sighing louder: "...Alright, Blondie. Strip."

Jace: "What, why?!"

Alec: "Uhm, yeah, what he said." (not that he is jealous that Magnus wants to see another man naked. No sir. He is very decidedly not jealous. ... he will find a reason to shuck his shirt in front of Magnus later.)

Magnus: "This institute is protected by my wards. As is Pandemonium, as well as my apartment, which is warded even heavier. All of which you have been present in. You have been to the Silent City and were in the presence of the silent brothers. There are exactly two ways to keep demonic blood from being discovered by either angelic runes like they are at the silent city, the silent brothers themselves, or my wards. One is regular contact with a very powerful warlock to cast a very complicated spell on you. As I doubt you have been seeing one for every month of your life, that leaves number 2. Which is a demonic mark, which can only be given by a greater demon, and can only be seen by those who know it and are actively looking for it. So, off with those drab clothes so I can take a look."

Jace: strips

Magnus: sees the Herondale birthmark, sighs and starts to write a fire message

Alec: "What are you doing?"

Magnus: "Informing the Inquisitor that she has a grandson. 'Congratulations, it's a boy!'"

[thehmn]

I wanted to make this post because we don’t see a lot of asexual characters in western media and despite him being from a hugely popular show (Seaside Hotel) you’re unlikely to know of his existence if you’re not from Denmark.

His name is Hjalmar Aurland and he’s one of the more sympathetic and realistic asexual characters I’ve seen. He lives in a time and place where asexuality as a concept doesn’t exist yet so he’s never labeled as such but rewatching the show made me realize that he acts exactly like the asexual people I personally know. Asexuality can mean a lot of things but his specific brand isn’t naive to sex nor is he repulsed by sex, sexual desire or thoughts simply doesn’t come naturally to him.

He can be convinced to have sex with his wife Helene but only if she appeals to their emotional bond. Just so you don’t get the wrong idea, he’s not being forced or emotionally blackmailed to sleep with her. It’s simply that he understands sex is a way to show emotional love too and he wants to express that love for Helene when it’s important to her, and seeing as sex isn’t unpleasant to him, just kinda boring, he’s willing to do that for her.

Unfortunately that isn’t enough for Helene and despite her love for Hjalmar she starts an affair with the dramatic and emotional actor Edward Weyse. He has a string of relationships, marriages and divorces behind him because despite what it may look like from the outside Edward doesn’t really want shallow sexual relationships. He just can’t help himself and keep falling in love with women left and right, fully and wholeheartedly, only to be dumped or dump them once the initial excitement has passed.

So Helene and Edward’s affair that was only meant to satisfy their carnal desires quickly becomes romantic. Helene feels torn between him and Hjalmar who she still loves and Edward understands the difficult situation they’re both in while also feeling jealous of Hjalmar. And Hjalmar? He doesn’t catch on for years. He’s not stupid but his brain just doesn’t jump to sex. He just assumes they’re good friends and why shouldn’t his wife be allowed to have friends, even male ones? Things get really complicated when Helene gets pregnant and she has to have sex with Hjalmar so he won’t wonder how it happened. Edward even has to join in on the seduction, reminding Hjalmar how much Helene loves him, even though it breaks Edward’s heart to do so.

But like I’ve said Hjalmar isn’t stupid. He saw the signs but chose to ignore them until one night when Helene accidentally says Edward’s name. It breaks the dam in Hjalmar’s denial and he has to face that deep down he always knew. Overcome by sadness and betrayal he wanders off into the night in nothing but his nightgown and gets a room at a different hotel where he can think in peace. Eventually he agrees to return to the first hotel with Helene and Edward and decides to take control of the situation.

He sits them both down and tells them that he understands that the three of them share a bond and that there are things he can’t really do for Helene so from now on he wants their relationship to be open and honest. He wants Helene and Edward to keep seeing each other and Edward is welcome in their house, but Hjalmar wants to be allowed to call Edward by his first name and makes it very clear that Helene and Edward’s children “belong to him” because he still thinks of himself as their dad and loves them as his own children. Both Helene and Edward agrees to it, though the emotional Edward is very flustered and confused by the acceptance and love he’s being shown by Hjalmar.

This is obviously a very tv drama situation but I was so stuck by how much Hjalmar acts like my asexual friends. Having a lover for your partner isn’t the most common solution but it’s an idea I’ve heard a lot of asexual people be open to under the right circumstances and of course that’s the most dramatic solution for a romantic tv drama.

Hjalmar is defined by so much more than his sexuality though. His main characteristic is his passion for social justice and equality, and other than some early show weirdness before they really cemented the characters, Hjamler is the only character who floats freely between the men and women. He’s just as likely to sit with the men as he is the women, often appearing in otherwise entirely female spaces. It’s never questioned or even brought up, not because he’s a “safe asexual” but because he cares and think their worries are as important as the men’s. He’s often called a pessimist by the other men when in reality he is determined to be hopeful and compassionate and spread the love he feels the world is lacking as WWII draws closer.

So yeah, I just wanted to share this sweet ace guy with you because you probably wouldn’t have known about him otherwise.

[gnomeniche]

i'm thinking so hard about the dhmis trio's characterizations and how interesting i find all of them. let's start by framing this discussion with a quote from this interview

i want to talk about them in terms of their surface levels and their hidden depths. you can see the roles that they're supposed to play on the in-universe "show world", but then you dig deeper and you find something more real.

...

yellow? plays the role of the innocently stupid one who's always the butt of the joke and can't see that his friends are jerks.

but we find out that he's the one with the most awareness of their situation and that his knowledge was literally taken from him. and he knows full well that his friends are jerks! throughout the show that is made clear. and even after he's functioning at full power and he admits that he thinks his friends are trying to control him, he still loves them enough to bring the book back to them so that they can all escape. he's shown to be genuinely kind, not just unwittingly innocent. and even when he's at low power he displays some memory of their situation, but he just can't express it.

red? plays the role of the chill and laid-back one who's always handy with a sarcastic comment and doesn't care very much.

but we find that he cares quite a bit about many things. he seems to have a rather sensitive heart, is prone to existential dread, and is distressed by the nonsense of their world. he wants so strongly; he wants something better, something more gentle and more sincere and more real than all this. he wants to feel comfortable somewhere but can't quite find that in either this life or any other. he's curious and imaginative but repressing it due to arbitrary standards, whether it's by the show world's rules or social rules (original 6's "real world" and new 3's illusion of a family).

duck? plays the role of the the high-strung, fussy one with an overinflated ego, dramatic emotions, and a sharp tongue.

but we see that, even if he can be cruel, he finds comfort in being with his friends and loves their daily life together. he sees them as a family! he can't just be by himself, and he genuinely doesn't want them to be separated. and pedantic as he is, he seems blind to the inconsistent nature of their reality. it's only when the status quo of their daily life is disrupted that he really freaks out, like when yellow goes off-script in 6 or when red disappears in the original series' 5. but this also makes him grounded in who he is; he just does not assimilate into new roles as well as the other two, and as dramatic as he is, he's often the most stable.

...

and it's their inner traits that lead to their downfalls, when they do occur. yellow's love leads him to go back downstairs and lose his memory over and over and over again. red's curiosity for more strands him outside of his world with no way back in besides intervention from a higher level, in both the original and new series. duck's stability makes him unable to deal with some lessons and thus liable to be violently removed or changed (perhaps this is why he seems to be so often replaced?), in both the original and new series.

and they all have their deeper personalities masked by the roles they must play in this tv-show-world. yellow's is most easy to see, because he is literally forced to lose all memory and return to his role as lovable idiot, but the abrupt shift in demeanor that red and duck experienced in 6 when a ray of stage light came back into the dark is also notable, as was red's sudden reset from desperate in 5 to apathetic in 6, right after the group came too close to knowing what was going on.

and on a level wider than the individual characters... you can see it with the undercutting of any almost-sincere moments by gags. you can see it in how full of holes their memories are. there are moments where their selves beneath the roles shine through anyway, but the status quo is always god. nobody can grow or change or be anything other than what they are supposed to be. and that's the tragedy of it

[mauesartetc]

Thoughts on Helluva Boss Episode 204 ("Western Energy")

Well that was a whole lotta nothin', wasn't it.

Let's discuss.

Pros:

-Edward Bosco does a fine job with Striker's voice, and Bryce Pinkham has a couple surprisingly powerful line deliveries when Stolas has reached his lowest point. It's nice when the story gives this character some emotional range outside of horny and mopey.

-This character design is way too cool for this show, like damn.

-Striker's living space was unique and interesting, and the magma in the environment matched his horse well.

-The fight scene with Moxxie and Millie vs Striker was well-choreographed and the camera didn't move around too much. Looks like the animators learned their lesson from last time.

-I liked how Moxxie took a chance and used Striker's homophobia (or perhaps disgust toward "lesser" imps?) against him to escape his grip.

-The devil horns on the EKG screen were kinda cute.

Cons:

-What the hell's up with this title. "Western Energy"? Is that a reference to something? Is it a pun? I get the "western" part, but "energy"? It puts me in mind of some obscure Zen concept rather than this episode. Just vague, confusing and not clever. Hell, "Take The Shot" was right there! I know there's not much shooting in Striker's plotline (we'll get to that bit of stupid momentarily), but this references both the A- and B-plot! C'mon, writers. At least act like you care.

-Again with the arbitrary censorship... I think multiple characters utter the word "cunt" in this episode, but it's bleeped each time. Guys... This is an internet show. This isn't network TV. If you're worried about getting demonetized on Youtube, don't use that word in the script to begin with. Easy.

-Not many laughs in this one, huh. In the last couple episodes I've found at least one thing to chuckle about or say, "Hm, that's kinda clever, I guess", but man, I was stone-faced for the duration here.

-Is that really how you pronounce "Andrealphus"? I've been saying it "An-dray-AL-phus", but Stolas says "An-DREE-ul-phus". People who are more familiar with demonology than I am, feel free to weigh in.

-Speaking of which, it's quite an accomplishment to make Andrealphus look even worse than he did in his illustration. Something about how tiny his head is in proportion to his body throws me, and of course it doesn't help that his face was always pinched in a teardrop shape with a tiny beak (which looks nothing like a peacock, because fuck accuracy). And if anyone's wondering if he uses any ice powers this episode... He doesn't. He uses telekinesis to drop a couple lumps of sugar into his tea, but that's it. You rip off Elsa and set the guy up in an ice castle but couldn't even give him ice powers? What a load.

-Kinda floored at this line from Stolas: "Cheating implies a betrayal. This woman never gave two shits about me, or our very much arranged marriage."

For fuck's sake, writers.

"You guuuuyyyys, it technically wasn't even cheating, see? Stolas is totally innocent and pure and you should like him!!!" The camera even trucks out dramatically as if he's saying something heroic. Christ...

Even in an utterly loveless marriage, there's still the expectation that each party will be faithful to the other, and having sex with someone else is a betrayal unless both of them previously agreed to open up their relationship. No indication that ever happened here, so...

All this scene demonstrates is that Stolas hasn't learned a thing about being a fucking adult and owning up to his mistakes. This just doubles down on the whole "I'd feel bad if I hurt you" thing (when you obviously did hurt her, you twit). Does Viv Medrano seriously believe admitting fault and apologizing makes a person weak or unlikable? Because I have news for ya: It's very much the opposite.

-Also, Stolas ends that mini-speech with, "As far as I'm concerned, this divorce is far overdue." But... Stella and Andrealphus have already agreed to that. That wasn't even a question. They're just trying to settle what Stella will get in the divorce. Do these people even read their scripts out loud?

-Striker's return comes way too late in the series. There are too many episodes forming a cushion between his introduction and Western Energy for him to feel intimidating. It's possible IMP could've discussed a plan of action regarding Striker, but no one mentions him once. If the characters don't see him as a threat, why should the audience?

The tension would have remained high if, immediately after the harvest moon episode, IMP moved Stolas and his family to a safe house while Striker was still on the loose. Little does Stolas know, however, he's a sitting duck, since Stella has called Striker and informed him of their location. Feels like that'd be much more exciting than just ignoring his existence for five episodes.

-When Stolas calls Blitzo, he refers to Striker as "that little cowboy friend of yours", implying he remembers him from the Harvest Moon Games. But, um... Question. Did Blitzo ever tell Stolas Striker almost killed him?! We have no idea! It's never confirmed!

At the end of the harvest moon episode, I seriously thought the team just forgot to write Blitzo warning Stolas about his would-be assassin. I know the story's trying to get across how little Blitzo actually cares about him, but this is a pretty huge conversation to overlook. Like damn, just how thoughtless can one person be. Our hero, ladies and gentlemen!

-(Also, who the hell says they were "stolen", Stolas. You're not an object; you're a person. You were kidnapped. I know this is bordering on grammar pedantry but it's distracting how much this weird phrasing sticks out.)

-Once again, the symbolic sin colors are inconsistent. I mentioned in the last review that the Greed ring in Helluva Boss is green despite the fact that the traditional color for greed as a sin is yellow. In this episode, we glimpse the Sloth ring, as this official tweet informs us:

One problem: Sloth is pink instead of the traditional light blue.

I wouldn't mind this if the ring colors broke from tradition across the board, but they don't. The Wrath ring is red and Lust is deep blue, as is customary. So it seems the art direction is throwing darts at a board to see which rings get the "lol, random" color treatment and which ones don't. These odd choices would be much more understandable if there were a story reason for certain rings looking the way they do, but at this point, I think we know better than to hope for that.

-In both this episode and The Harvest Moon Festival, Striker is characterized as self-aggrandizing. His previous appearance saw him declare himself superior to other imps, while this one shows off his giant statue with an enormous boner. Why, then, is he annoyed at the little imps singing his theme song? Wouldn't that be an ego boost? It would've made more sense for him to play along with it, or even better:

STOLAS: How does one get their own theme song?

STRIKER: (smiles, rubs his thumb and fingertips together) You pay for it.

-All the scenes with Blitzo and Loona in the doctor's office could've been cut and the story wouldn't have lost a thing. You can show them arriving and show them leaving with Loona wearing the cone, but everything else in the B-plot is filler. These episodes aren't beholden to a TV schedule that demands the duration falls within a certain range. There's no reason this episode needed to be nineteen minutes long.

-Getting pissy at some rando wearing the same hat as you is just about the dumbest reason to start a fight I've ever heard. Let's change around the dialogue a bit:

BIKER: Lookee here, fellas! The city slicker got himself a cowboy hat! That is sooo cute. Well, if you wanna dress the part... (cracks knuckles) might as well play it. It's not perfect but holy shit, I came up with that in two minutes. What the fuck, Viv. This is why you have co-writers. They aren't there to kiss your ass and mindlessly accept everything you do; they're there to catch little things like this and make them better.

-There's no "thump" when the top of the exploded gas station hits the ground, and judging by its size and implied weight, there should definitely be a sonorous thump.

-Striker mentions that Stella paid him to give Stolas "the royal treatment" (aka a slow death), but if that's the case, why did he try to shoot him at the Harvest Moon festival? Why did he shoot at him in the cafe?? If one of those bullets hit, wouldn't that affect his payday? Also, can't help but notice how terribly convenient this is. We wouldn't want our expert assassin to be too efficient, or precious Stolas would be dead. God damn this is contrived.

-Here's a line with a ton of story potential that goes unexplored (and will probably remain as such for the rest of the season, let's be honest): Stolas points out that Striker "is working for a royal right now", exposing some hypocrisy in his hatred for them. This brings up an interesting question: Why is he in cahoots with this one specific royal despite detesting all others? Why is she the exception? Could it be his loyalty to her transcends a simple business relationship? If he has angelic weapons and wanted to kill just any royal, he could have done it. But maybe this is more personal. Maybe Stolas needs to die because he hurt Stella.

Perhaps on the other side, Stella shares Striker's belief that he's superior to ordinary imps- another exception. Giving any other imp the time of day would disgust her, but Striker's just different somehow. And being as athletic and rugged as he is, he's a far cry from Stolas, who she's never found attractive.

I know it's a pipe dream for this series to develop any romantic pairing besides Stolitz, but how interesting would it be if Striker and Stella were having an affair of their own, and genuinely loved each other? How would they reconcile their personal feelings with long-held prejudices? What kinds of effects would hiding this shameful secret have on them? Would they make strides to be more open-minded? Would they see how their relationship mirrors Stolas and Blitzo's and reach an understanding with them? Will Striker's anti-royal principles override his love for Stella? Will he, in possession of angelic weapons, fulfill his quest to kill all royals, including her? There are so many possibilities here.

But of course, wringing any kind of compelling narrative out of this show's villains would require the writers to treat them as complex people rather than caricatures, so... yeah.

-If Stolas' legs are untied, what the fuck is stopping him from getting up and sneaking out of the cave after Striker leaves him unattended? He even has enough range of motion to kick him in the face. Obviously his leg wound would cause mobility issues and he'd have to stop the bleeding so Striker wouldn't track him easily (perhaps rolling into a magma stream to cauterize the wound? If demons are immune to fire, as Episode 1 established, I don't think magma would hurt much), but goddamn, try something. If you're going to die either way, you don't have much to lose, do you?

OR, why doesn't he just roll off the back of the horse when they're still in the city? Just check behind you to make sure no cars are coming and bail, dude. Striker might not even realize you're gone until he's entered the desert.

This is the exact same problem Stolas had in Seeing Stars, where he was so helpless against the plot's demands he couldn't even climb out of a van window, or morph into his full demon form like he did in Truth Seekers, or just leave the studio to find his fucking daughter. Y'know how I keep saying these characters have no agency? These characters have no damn agency.

-Kinda weirded out by how flirty Andrealphus is with his sister. "You're so lucky you're attractive"? "My fiery vixen"? Just... why. I get that incest used to be a thing in real-life monarchies, but assuming Andrealphus has other romantic options readily available to him (see also: ambiguous bird class), this fixation on Stella doesn't make much sense. If Viv wanted to make him subtly creepy, well... there are other ways to do that.

And let's be real, we can safely surmise Viv hates research with a passion, so I'm betting she didn't get this idea from history, but from Game of Thrones. I get a strong feeling she sees real-world facts as boring homework and the fictional world as exciting and full of wonder. If a person just cherry-picks different elements from fictional media they like and stitches them together like Dr. Frankenstein grafts body parts, that'll result in something great too, right? ...No.

-You're seriously telling me Stella didn't know how royal lineages work after being betrothed to a prince since childhood?

I mean wow, the show has portrayed Stella as inconsiderate and comically sadistic, and now she's stupid as well? These writers are hell-bent on giving her zero positive traits, aren't they.

-"A Goetia's never behaved like this before." Are you shitting me, Andrealphus? Hell's existed for (presumably) thousands of years and not a single noble has fucked an imp before? I could maybe buy that none of them have been as stupidly blatant as Stolas has, so perhaps these affairs have gone unseen and unremembered. But assuming they never happened? Come on now.

-Where'd Striker's horse go?? Feels like he could've been helpful in the fight against Moxxie and Millie, but after the theme song, he's completely missing. We don't even see him in a stable or anything. I know he's animation-intensive but y'all could at least give us a narrative reason he's not on screen.

An easy fix to this would be to show Bombproof (yes, that's his name, and it's awesome, and I hate that the characters never say it) out of breath at the end of the long journey, and Striker telling him he's earned a good rest. He could then hop into a magma pool and disappear under the waves for the remainder of the episode. There ya go. Simple.

-If Millie's ordinary axe can chop Striker's angelic pistols in half, why are angelic weapons such a threat to demons? During the yearly extermination in this universe, what's stopping them from forming an army and shooting the angels' weapons full of holes? Crazy how a single scene can unravel Hazbin Hotel's entire conflict.

-Did y'all want any kind of satisfying closure between Blitzo and Stolas regarding what went down in the Ozzie's episode? Well keep dreamin', because we've got this horrendously half-assed, tacked-on bullshit that you'll easily miss if you blink.

Fuck you, show.

And in another text following this, here's what Stolas says:

"If you don't feel like coming, that's OK! I'm sure I can do without [the grimoire] for one month."

Why do you need the fucking book at all, Stolas.

He's used it to make the harvest moon visible at the festival, but it's never clear what purpose that serves. We've never seen him use it for anything in his daily life; just that thing that happens once a year. Come to think of it, we've never seen Stolas in his day-to-day job. As a Goetia demon, he has legions to command (Andrealphus even mentions them), but the story never shows us the political, leadership-driven side of his life. He just sits around doing sweet fuck-all. Striker's argument against monarchs is that they "talk over [the lower classes]", but there's a strong case to be made for them simply contributing nothing of substance to society.

All in all, this episode made me feel nothing. There was no meaningful progression in the story. Sure, Stolas is injured, but he has the exact same problems of being married to someone he wants to divorce and Blitzo being emotionally distant. Stella has the same problem of Stolas being alive, even though she herself called off his execution. Striker's still at large. Moxxie and Millie still have a squeaky-clean relationship, Blitzo's still an ass, and Loona will likely return to her regular self in the next episode. Functionally speaking, everyone ends the episode in the same place they began, making me wonder what the point of it is in the larger narrative. Getting a hunch that Viv just needed an excuse to hospitalize Stolas so the audience would pity him.

I'm calling it now: Stolas is out of the hospital in the next one. He might still have some bandages and whatnot, but his injuries won't present any real obstacles to him until they're convenient to the plot. I'm betting there won't even be scars where Striker stabbed him, because at this point, continuity is WAY too much to ask of this show.

If this were a better-written series, Stolas would actually use his damn wealth and political power to put a bounty on Striker's head that'd have everyone in Hell gunning for him. Or why not use those legions he has at his disposal? Furthermore, now that he knows Stella hired Striker, what's stopping him from having her executed, or banished, or imprisoned, or something? But then if the characters used their brains, Viv wouldn't get the plot she wants, and we can't have that.

The previous episode had me curious to find out what would happen next. This one just added nothing to my life. I don't know how much longer I can keep watching this show. I'm not a fan of hate-watching media as life is short and there are numerous shows and films out there that'll make much more enjoyable use of my time. "If it sucks, hit da bricks" and all that. Yet Helluva Boss still has a pull in being an incredible teaching tool for how NOT to write a series. Writing these reviews has been thoroughly educational for me, and it seems they've helped others as well. But fuck, man. At what cost. When will I finally throw up my hands and say "Enough"?

If I hear the next one's not terrible, I might give it a watch. But that's a pretty big if. I'm very tired.

[theaistired]

WIP Intro - Little Remains

Key Words

Crime | Thriller | Trauma

About the WIP

Another entry into my brainchildren that come from watching video essays about stuff I’ve never watched myself and going “wonder how I would do that”. In this case: teen mystery TV shows. That coupled with just “normal” crime shows (I started watching this stuff at probably a way too young age. Oh well, now you get to deal with the consequences).

Trigger Warnings

Since this WIP deals with crimes, please pay attention to the trigger warnings

Violence (physical and sexual) | Murder | Assault | Organized crime

Summary

Detective Morgan has worked on many gruesome cases in the past, most of which took place in bigger cities with an anonymous population. So, when a teenage girl is found dead in the fields of a small town nearby, Morgan first assumes an outsider to be the murderer of the unidentified victim.

However, with the murder of a local student a few days later, even the tight-knit community quickly realises that one of their own is far more familiar with the case than the rest of them. Unwilling to sit back, the student’s friends start their own investigation, while Morgan begins to struggle with old ghosts.

Characters

Alroy Morgan: Detective, originally from Scotland. A dedicated, but tired mind, he has a great capacity for empathy. Originally planned on becoming a therapist. 34 y.o. | he/him

Autumn Corbyn: Loner student in foster care. An outsider, mostly by choice, either too shy or too aggressive to make meaningful connections with other students. Doesn’t know where she’s supposed to go in her future. 15 y.o. | she/her

Corsen Green: The local queen of clumsy. Her father is a teacher at the school, the entire family has lived for generations in Holcester. Calm and collected, generally well-meaning despite her fondness of sarcasm. 15 y.o. | she/her

Nalin Gaur: Boy of Indian decent. Family only recently moved to Holcester for the benefit of Nalin’s younger brother. A very sweet person who sometimes takes things too literally. 15 y.o. | he/him

Robin Hughes: Overly curious journalist to be. Lives with her aunt, who while not understanding Robin’s love of the criminal and dramatic, indulges her nonetheless. Notetaker beyond mortal comprehension, prone to tunnel vision. 15 y.o. | she/her

Snippet: Little Remains | Prologue: Arabella Hughes’ painted lilies

Arabella Hughes had taken her Haflinger Chips on a longer ride while Robin had been at school. She had actually passed by the school on her way to the forest and had a pleasant little chat with Mr Green, Robin’s history teacher. They talked about how well Robin was doing, the plans she had for later in life, what the two of them were up to that day. Arabella Hughes would continue her way into the forest, a long nice break, a moment to herself. Mr Green would be stuck in school, teaching students, and later be stuck in his office, grading students. Arabella felt bad for him. Her day would surely be more lovely than his.

Truly, it seemed that Arabella Hughes never learned. She later wondered, if the bullies in school had been right, if perhaps she was stupid. A lovely day, her sweet niece lounging on the couch reading. Arabella Hughes should have known.

(Continued under the cut)

But stupid Arabella Hughes just put on her Wellies after her ride and went out into the flower fields to look after her white lilies that were in full bloom. One of the barn cats, Tugger, was following her, loudly complaining. Although it was strange for the big and furry tabby to strut around in the early summer heat, Arabella Hughes thought nothing of it.

Tugger was loud and dramatic, more than any other cat, but maybe he followed and complained to warn her, maybe he knew what would happen in the next minutes, the coming weeks.

To Arabella Hughes, all was still normal. When she had come back with Chips, she saw foot prints in the soil of her flower field. Nothing unusual, some teenagers would always cross to the fields to get to the abandoned farms further down the brook, to hang out, smoke, drink, and do… other activities, that Arabella Hughes had never participated in. But just to make sure, she would check the fields for any major disturbances.

And – this was unusual – she found something. The white lilies were spotted red around a white something. At first she thought it a picnic blanket, then a duffel bag, then a wild animal that had died in her field.

Her third guess was right in one thing: Death was in Arabella Hughes’ field. But it wasn’t a wild animal, nor a tamed pet. It was the naked body of a dead teenage girl.

Tagging

@colombette (Thank you for your feedback on the intro!)

[seavoice]

okay i’ve been ruminating over why succession was so gripping and thrilling to me even if i hundred per cent am rooting for each and every person to fail explosively in the show, every time all the time. i hate cringe comedy usually but the cringe really is comedying this time i gotta say. and i think i finally got what’s most appealing to me about the characterization and story work, which is that...it’s really uninterested in rescuing these losers further than strictly necessitated by like. general humanity. 

the show i was watching before succession was this is us, which is of course very different sauce (even leaving aside the whole thing of the pearsons being about complicated but so clearly loving and painfully kind, non-billionaire people and the roys being. well. not that obviously). this is us is kind of known for its massive scope; the way it shows how lives stretch out and ripple in all ways and into all years, how you may know a person for an hour and still irrevocably change them, how a stranger carves your destiny, how every moment is hard-fought proof that you exist and have moved the lives of the people you love and all that good dramatic stuff that’s going to make you bawl your eyes out for an hour straight. so coming off that, one of the things i thought succession might do (early on, before i realized what they were doing) was sort of. pull the camera away for an episode (or even just a cold open), and show it from the perspective of the waystar employees or just normal people going about nyc, a quick sort of perspective correcting shift and back, just to drive home the utter ridiculousness of the roys. and even if not that specific this is us-inspired scenario, just a general store-bought Awfulness Mitigation ToolTM. heart of golder billionaire son. a beloved nanny. a single play in which greed loses out. anything that would re-contextualize the ridiculousness of the roys.

because over all it IS ridiculous right! it’s a power play. it’s a gambling addiction. it’s futile and stupid and greedy and inescapable in the way it’s this abusive family, but also in the way that. it’s an obscene amount of money! it’s status and birthright and entitlement and self-importance and it only ever ever can be taken even half-seriously by the people wholly entrenched in it. you pull back even a little from this cesspool of power hungry billionaires and are left with motives that are unreasonable and unrelatable for real people. but it strikes INCREDIBLY TRUE for these characters nonetheless, because they are not real people. and you see that, you see the disconnect in real time. you see why they would not make any other choice. why they are incapable of making another choice. they are not real people!  logan thinks his children don’t get it, don’t really understand the stakes, always seeing it for too big or too small, that they never have, but he is just as ridiculous as them now, even more so. he is as not-real a person as them.

and i say real people specifically because it’s such a big theme in the show, the nrpi and how “you’re not a real person” is levied as an insult over and over again, and just the out-of-touch meanness and smallness of their big grand lives. they are not real people! they use it as an insult, a negative marker, but they are never truly bothered by that disconnect in a way you’d expect from (let’s say) a lesser tv show about bad billionaires. 

they never really aim for even a parody of that ideal. like, you could make a case for kendall in his anti-dad era maybe, maybe shiv wrt personal politics, but in a more real sense...not really even then, let’s be honest. you see it in every interaction they have with people who are not the roys or the rich fucked up folks that play the roys’ games. just the tightness of this noose. it’s about the inescapability of a family, and thus it’s so rooted in the now and here. we never indulge in flashbacks. we never get a deeper look into the past than a quick glance over your shoulder, just as relevant as it has to be to get from point a to b.

logan says the past is fake and that’s true to how the show is envisioned. it’s never preoccupied in making you sympathize with the characters beyond what you’d sympathize with as a human seeing another go through a bad time. it doesn’t show you some hidden humane-ness or overemphasis  past tragedies or dig for saving graces. because it might be relevant to the family drama, but it isn’t as relevant to their company. and above all nothing is as relevant to the family as the company. the roys and their dirty empire probably irrevocably touch more lives than any other show dealing in multi episode epics about the kind stranger who brought you from the firestation, but it is never going to matter to them. they are not real people. it’s a show that tells you, okay, so we aren’t going to give you any tools to sympathize with these bad people other than a glimpse at their lives from their perspective, whole and sole. a mile in their shoes. do you relate to them now? that’s what usually works. and beyond all storytelling odds, it’s kind of...a no! and that’s a massive win for succession’s writing imo.

you don’t necessarily get to see them as sympathetic characters from their perspective, but you do get to see them briefly, as real people. but unlike other shows, them being real people doesn’t mean real people like your neighbour or your sister or the cd guy. they are as real as the actual failsons and faildaughters of greedy stupid billionaires and you are faced with the feeling of. wow they are just as ridiculous and stupid and hateful as they would be if they existed in real life. that’s the only time they are real people. writing!

[sandutita]

sandu • 20yrs • they/them • finnish • digital artist

hi there! i'm SanduTiTa or Sandu for short. i make digital art and post it on my art blog @sandu7174 :)

on this blog i mostly just reblog whatever appears on my dash from funny and stupid memes to serious political stuff. i hardly ever tag with content warnings when i reblog on this blog, but with original posts (#my post) and on my art blog, i always do (at least i try to).

more info under the cut:

so what type of person am i? well, art is a big part of my life. i mostly make digital art but i do have a musical side to me as well, it's just not blossoming as well as my visually artistic side is. i'm also an aspiring writer. i wish to make a dramatic comic book someday.

when it comes to social interactions, i am quite shy but i've been trying to work on my social anxiety (and i've been making progress lately). i've always struggled with loneliness but since last year i've been managing to fight that off a little as well. being autistic interacting with people has always been problematic for me, since i tend to overthink things and get things wrong.

i also tend to ask a lot of questions, which annoys some people. being an overthinker and a question-asker and trying to find the middle ground between asking too many questions and not knowing enough, it's... distressing :,D. like i don't wanna be annoying, but i also want to know if i'm being annoying, y'know? but recently i've been asking fewer questions since i've slowly been learning that the voice inside my head which tells me i'm being annoying is lying to me most of the time. but i'm also asking more questions since i'm not as worried about people thinking i'm annoying as before. that's confusing...

i'm transmasculine and nonbinary and i wish to go on HRT someday. since summer 2023 i've known it's something i want to do at some point. unfortunately, i have to get my life together first before i can actually pursue this opportunity, which has turned out to be challenging... (yes, i have depression, how did you know?)

i'm also asexual, greyaromantic, panromantic, and agender.

i'm a very enthusiastic supporter of topfreedom and the Free the Nipple -campaign, and it shows in the posts and the art i make. we as a society need to work towards eliminating this misogynistic double standard that sexualises female-presenting nipples if we value gender equality and wish to move towards a fairer world. anything men can do topless (i.e. go to the beach or a public swimming pool, appear on tv and social media etc.), women should be allowed to do as well. there is no gender equality without nipple equality. if you claim to be a feminist but don't support topfreedom, you're a hypocrite.

tags i use the most: #finnish #swedish #my post #my art #important #topfreedom #abso fucking lutely (i use this tag on posts with hot takes) #character inspiration (i use this tag on posts that give me ideas for the stories i'm working on, so if you see me reblogging your post and using this tag, that means i might implement whatever was in your post into my own characters and stories) #a magical place (i use this tag on posts that include imagery of environments that have magical vibes. it's inspiration for my story involving magic.) #incredible future (i use this tag on posts that have futuristic vibes. it's inspiration for my story involving a futuristic setting.)

if you wanna talk to me about something, don't be afraid to send a message! i'm always up for making new friends :)

more info can be found on my carrd: sandutita.carrd.co (seriously, check out my carrd, there's a lot of info there)

last updated: 27.1.2024

[luveline]

𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐣𝐚𝐝𝐞 —this one might be silly but I'm always asking you guys for advice so I thought it might be fun to offer the same, ask me a question about love or life or something much less dramatic and I'll tell you what I think

hey baby i need some advice however i am in fear of sounding silly. okay so i get into these obsessions, right? whether it's a tv show, music or an artist, a movie, book, or character, i am constantly raving about it. at first it was just fun and normal but now it's evolved into something else and it becomes pretty toxic. like, for example right now (and yes i am aware of how stupid i sound) it's spencer reid. and i kid you not i have screamed into my pillow and sobbed to my mother about how much i love him. he's FAKE. HES NOT REAL. so how do i get these huge feelings over people who don't even exist?? it's hard to put into words because it feels bigger than i can say, but it's becoming a problem. i have friends who are so outgoing and carefree, and they could just walk up to somebody and tell them they are interested in them. but the thought of that makes me want to bawl. and it's not even like i would have people to like anyway! i would never in a million years be interested in anybody remotely close to me. and why does it have to be me that reaches out? i want this SO bad but i think i'm just too insecure that there is no one out there that would treat me the way i want to be treated. i don't think i'm ugly, but i also don't think i'm gorgeous either. i have my moments of feeling really confident but those are brief and only ever when i'm wearing makeup. i'm just feeling like one colossal mess and i don't know how to fix it. is this normal? cause it doesn't feel normal. im a teenager but it feels like this will last forever. that was a lot im sorry, you don't have to respond i just really needed to vent 😭 however if you do read this i will take whatever you give me. i have lots of respect for you and i'll love whatever you have to say. xo 🩷

I don't relate so heavily to your interests becoming toxic to you, I don't mean to insist or assume medical diagnoses on you, so if I'm out of bounds I apologise deeply, but there's something called 'hyperfixating' that could give you some comfort or some insight into why you may be feeling this way if you wanted to have a look!

As for the rest I totally know how you feel, I think many young women can relate to feeling extremely insecure — I think it is very common (but that's not to say fair) to feel as you're feeling, like a big mess! I understand that it doesn't feel normal because it is your life and every feeling becomes all encompassing, the mess feels out of control, and you feel maybe a little alien in society and even your own body, but if you're worried that this isn't something other people are feeling I can confidently tell you that lots of people feel this way. but I'm so sorry because that's not going to make any of it better. I'm only two years (nearly three) older than you and I can tell you that this feeling has gotten better and less rampant for me as I've gotten older, I wouldn't say I was more confident but just having more control, more autonomy, and more perspective has helped me feel less like I'm going to explode into nothing constantly. Plus, there are resources to be used if you can manage it that can help you feel better, because while it is common for you to feel as you do it isn't normal per say, like. I feel like most people I know can tell you they've felt that way, but there's a huge majority of people who don't. If you're feeling like you have low self esteem, like you're never going to be loved, this isn't a totally hopeless thing in my opinion, and there are things you can do and help you can seek to help you cope with these feelings before they metastasize. You're perfectly loveable as you are, but it's okay to worry about the future so long as you dodon't start thinking it's hopeless —starkly, if you start to worry or feel that way, it could be that you're becoming depressed, which is again normal but not something you need to do alone.

I'm sorry if I sound like a freak but i wanted to give you advice that was both personal and helpful. My biggest point is that you're not alone in feeling how you feel and that you don't deserve to feel that way, because you're someone who deserves to feel confident and loved and to have a healthy relationship with love, and so that's why I'd encourage you to seek some help or just some comfort if you need it. I really hope you feel okay and you feel better soon!

[destinylordoffreaks]

OK, so I kinda outed myself as a Ninja Turtles fan so I wanted to take a minute to talk about the new ninja turtles movie mutant mayhem I’m a huge ninja Turtles fan but truth be told and I have to admit I’m not super excited about this and it’s not because of anything in the trailers it’s not like that nothing about it looks objectionable, but the style they chose, for the animation is weirdly reminiscent in my brain at least at least of claymation

I’m not really sure why it’s not like I’m afraid of it or anything. It just makes me uneasy. Personally, I blame it on a movie called Jack the giant killer that I watched as a kid

and the California raisins which my brother loved. I hated them with a burning passion, and still do.

Now to be fair this isn’t the first time the ninja turtles have had a claymation look. They actually had a commercial  back in the 80s or 90s that was done in claymation I think by the same people who did the California raisins. For a snack called Pizza crunchbungas I only know this because of my  brother they don’t have a GIF example of the commercial here but if you just Google the name on YouTube, you’ll find it

with that being said I’ve been hearing a lot of murmurs that rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles might come back,

and that I am absolutely excited for just thrilled to hear that there’s a possibility that it might come back I was really enjoying it and I didn’t think I was going to at first because they changed so much but I actually really enjoy it. If you can get past how different it is from the typical ninja turtles architect and look at the heart of the show it actually carries a lot of the spirit of the original 80s cartoon which I grew up watching with my dad and my brother, so I actually really enjoy it

Personally, Rafael has always been my favorite ninja turtle. Each incarnation has been slightly different, but I’ve always found that I resonated with him more than I did the other turtles I don’t get me wrong I love the other characters are each entertaining in their own right although we did go through a bit of a period in the 2000s where Leo’s character was a lot harder to like, because they were being just over dramatically edgy with his whole duty-bound. I have to carry the way the world on my shoulders thing, and for some reason we started pushing for Leo to be the main character, even though ninja Turtles was never meant to have a single main character. It’s supposed to have a group it follows a group, so pushing one turtle to the front is always just seem pretty stupid to me like you’re missing the point and I think we have a tendency to do that a lot and TV shows that follow groups is we start to single out one character is being like the leader of the pack but it’s not really how it supposed to work in a group show you know so it really excited to see rottmnt really treating treating it the way the 80s showed it 

So the close out I’m trying to keep myself as open to watching mutant mayhem as much has I can but I am way more excited for the possibility that rottmnt might return

. Also why they do that to Mikey he looks like someone squish his head like he looks like he got dropped on his head has a baby turtle.

[stealingbones]

can i just,, rant about south park? (spoiler warning obv)

I never thought id be into basic american adult tv buthere we are- I recently got into it, feb 19th i started watching and finished the whole 26 seasons and two games (sot and tfbw) in a month. Just finished tfbw game earlier today and almost lost my mind fr bc wth man.... anyway, theres your background for how mentally ill i am, now-

South park characters have so much detail in their characters, right down to the little things, like cartman having to finish singing sail away or kenny liking oragami, like??? i love the little character details that nobody thinks about hello??

Its so hard to take them seriously with that stupid artstyle (the artstyle has grown on me and i love it sm but still, theyre hella goofy) but seriously some parts cut deep- especially the whole fucking covid thing, never in my life did i think id cry at fUCKING SOUTH PARK ARE YOU KIDDING ME?? I see a lot of angst and it actually makes sense??? And just,, a lot of stan's stuff is really depressing, i hate the episode(s) 'youre getting older' holy fuck. The fact that stan knows how to drive at 8 years old most likely because his dad is an alcoholic who drives drunk too is graaAAA,, I feel so bad for butters too, the innocent child who gets all the trauma dumped on him 💀 none of the kids in south park are safe from trauma, not even 'new kid' (they fr made you choose a parent, dude.....) one of my favorite serious moments though actually is when kenny tries to get them to remember his deaths, the like "TRY AND FUCKING REMEMBER." is so dramatic and im fbedhunfinjecnijef

also cartman being the only one to remember kenny's deaths waa,, Cartmanland he says 'what kenny? he dies all the time' and when kenny tries to make the others remember,, cartman isnt there so á, then cartman isnt shocked when kenny escapes wherever tf cthuhlu sent everyone. cartman did drink kenny's ashes so that could be the reason he remembers epic

also also, i didnt even think about it before until i seen just kenny and kyle at the bus stop, but stan and cartman moving away and just having two of the main four left at the iconic bus stop scene is so upsetting,, I enjoy the older seasons best 💔 Like season 10 and earlier man,, their early seson voices too omg <3 When they started doing season long stories was kind of annoying (edit bc new episode dropped, they put cartman back lmao,, still missing stan though man...)

Switching topics- No wonder style is more popular than stendy, it has more content than stendy even though theyre cannon dating 💀i think cartman and wendy interaction more actually. Wendy's kind of cool and i wish theyd make an effort to show her and stan together more often (even small things like they do with creek) and a few times its even shown how little stan cares, like with the texting thing or the time they broke up for a bit stan had said he hadnt talked to her for weeks... Stan doesnt deserve wendy tbh, i also always forget she killed someone for stan lol, they really dialed her crazy back,,

I probably have more random thoughts but these are the main ones,, the little guys have been doing laps around my brain for a month straight and i feel like im going to explode

[cannoli-reader]

My notes watching Wheel of Time Season 1, episode 2

Posted on readandfindout.com on 11/19/2021

1:48 – Just for the record, on this so-woke show, the two blackest actors are playing Padan Fain and Eamon Valda. Not even cool bad guys, but scummy, marginally competent, bad guys. And rapists.

2:46 – More stupid world-building and “characterization”. I hate hate hate hate hate these lazy monologues about something pointless that is supposed to be profound and allegorical, or some experience or anecdote from a character’s distant past that is incredibly on-point and relevant to the current situation. Seriously. Back during their strike that messed up broadcast schedules about 10+ years ago, I opined that they didn’t deserve anything because TV writers are the absolute lowest form of fiction writers. Nothing in the production of the five major fantasy series I’ve seen adapted for the screen since then has changed my mind in the slightest.

By the way, there had better be something other than “cutting off an Aes Sedai’s hands prevents her from channeling” to explain how the Children of the Light got around “live witches being somewhat hard to (execute)."

5:00 – As abstractly symbolic intros go, this is not the worst. I’m still going to start using the Skip Intro button unless I see it’s somehow relevant to the coming episode.

6:20 – One thing that has never occurred to me, regardless of medium… if they were going to prevent the Trollocs from crossing the Taren after them, they would be effectively stranding them in the Two Rivers. With all the people the boys left home to protect.

8:36 – In the Borderlands they have a saying, ‘The look of the Eyeless, and the Noseless and the Lipless is fear.’

9:30 – I like this version of how Moiraine screws over Hightower. The book version seems not have landed with people as much, and the fandom doesn’t have much sympathy the boys being disturbed by it, which feeds into the myth that Moiraine is always right and smart and everyone should never doubt her because she’s the bestest.

11:27 – “I know, instead of showing character interactions on screen, why not just yeet one of them out of there and then have Mat tell the audience what it would have been like!” “Brilliant Rafe! Book authors are just morons, aren’t they!”

11:52 – Yes, this! Rand’s articulated thought is an actual thing. Like, Moiraine has good reasons for doing what she does, but she also badly handles the Two Rivers boys, so their reasons for being wary of her are also good.

11:55 – Also making it possible for any of them to be the Dragon kind of undercuts that this is something Rand struggles with when he is finally told what specifically the Shadow is after him for, but if done right, it gives opportunities to explore the conflict in dialogue, rather than internally as ITB. Not super confident it’s going to be done right.

13:55 – “Words are important and how we use them is important.” Spoken on a TV show that’s going to mess up all sorts of words, and misuse them dramatically. Edit from the Future: Oh, you sweet summer child.

14:50 – "The Power inside you is the smallest part of your strength. It’s your mind and how you use it that will mean much more in the battles to come.” Explains so much about Egwene, really.

15:35 – That Moiraine has already sensed Egwene’s channeling ability should rule her out as “the most powerful channeler who ever lived.” Meanwhile, ITB, normal people don't care who is a more powerful channeler than whom. To normal people, they are all just channelers, and normal people more likely to call them Aes Sedai than channelers anyway.

17:01 – “It’s the wind that listens to you” is neat wording, harkening to “touch the wind that moves the sun”.

21:07 – I suppose getting the dream stuff out in the open right away works, to stop the fans whining about them not trusting Moiraine and saving time.

22:35 – I like this conflict. It informs the rest of their relationship. Even if to the uninitiated, Rand comes off as petulant, based on the ITB world-building, he’s got legitimate questions.

23:34 – The word “bastard” is never used, once, in the whole Wheel of Time series. In a series where the main character discovers that he was born out of wedlock, with the circumstances of his birth and parentage being a significant and traumatic issue for him, and where a major character conceives a royal heir outside of marriage as well, with her pregnancy being an issue with her character over three books by the original author. Take all your woke bullshit and gender studies nonsense and shove it where the Dark One will be confused, because that’s way more important! That people in WoT don’t even have the concept of legitimacy says way more about gender relations and women’s agency than all the substituting of the word ”person” for “man” or “woman” in the world, or finding ways to cram LGBTQ issues into a series that is already overstuffed with material that it doesn’t have time or room to adapt to the screen.

Even Brandon Sanderson, with all his other blunders, abuse of anachronistic language and misconceptions about the themes and setting, did not make this mistake. He used “interrogate” more times in one paragraph than Jordan did in 11 books, but he was not stupid enough to use “bastard” in the mouth of a character in a world where female social dominance is unquestioned and even mass murderers and Darkfriends are appalled at rape.

More relevant to the plot, Rand’s prior understanding of Egwene taking the Wisdom job and cutting off his nookie nicely establishes that his anger at Egwene’s choice to follow Moiraine is not petty relationship crap, but genuine betrayal that she’s siding with outsiders.

23:47 – Mat is trying to talk Rand into being more reasonable in his hostility toward Moiraine. Because if you’re going to swing and miss that hard for the setting, why not the characters, too? That is a kind of Mat-like rationalization, but it’s the sort of thing Mat says, rather than does. He talks about being practical and self-preserving, but then he acts according to principle.

25:43 – I don’t think Moiraine actually hopes her “sister” in Whitebridge will let them stay. And “wars and witches” kind of do concern them. The effective portrayal of the Three Oaths requires writers who are on the ball, and reasonably clever. But shows keep hiring TV writers instead.

25:45 – Waiting for the zinger question, and it better not come from Valda.

26:00 – There is no worse Child of the Light to alter into an Inquisitor of the Hand of the Light than the egregiously unsubtle and incurious Eamon Valda, whose only tactic is “the charge”.

26:43 – I could be wrong, but I also don’t think the Children ever refer to Aes Sedai as sisters. Even when Niall and Balwer are plotting their PR campaign about the Tower split.

27:27 – “Madam” so they have French in this world?

27:58 – NOOOOO! They would never recommend someone seek out a sister for Healing! What is this?

28:09 – The idea of Moiraine grinning sycophantically like that in the books is highly amusing to me. It kind of looks like Lan is thinking “seriously Moiraine?”

You would think the Children would be questioning how Moraine and company managed to escape Trollocs when they managed to inflict that wound and meanwhile, no one else shows any sign of injury.

29:20 – There’s just something wrong about Moiraine being the one to tell the kids “it may not be the truth you think you hear.”

29:49 – I like the ruins. It’s the kind of thing that WoT should have. They’ve been through the equivalent of two falls of the Roman Empire, after an apocalyptic cataclysm.

30:05 – Nosewart.

30:17 – I’m thinking Nynaeve’s moment of revelation is going to be her saving Moiraine’s life when she turns up again by Healing her.

30:21 – We need singing even less than the books needed dress descriptions. Which were actually important. Unlike the singing.

31:08 – Moiraine only tells people things when she needs a reaction. She told the story of Manetheren to sway the ire of the villagers. She would not whip it out when the kids are already in a good mood and especially not when the last on-screen words with Rand were a fight. Don’t want him getting too full of himself.

31:48 – Nosewart

32:21 – “They knew no help was coming.” Yes, who betrayed them again, Moiraine? See this is why, regarding Rand being suspicious, this is a bad time to bring that up.

34:30 – Sweeping vistas and scenery shots. The TV equivalent of dress descriptions.

36:33 – Don't sniff on camera! First off all, sniffing has a particular meaning in this fandom and second of all, you have a certain osenay artway issue to which it calls attention.

36:50 – You’d barely know Perrin was a widower, if Egwene hadn’t mentioned Laila twice on the journey now.

37:50 – I guess this is their adaptation of how Perrin becomes a Coyotebrother. Because that looks too small for a wolf.

41:05 – Okay, at least with Moiraine being unconscious, there is some excuse for her not telling the boys what Shadar Logoth is. However, Lan on his own would absolutely tell them. Moiraine acts like they have no agency and will behave as she expects. Lan acts like they’re idiots. The former would just sit where they were left and not move without permission, and the latter would not trust them to behave.

43:00 – Which he does.

43:30 – Now they might think this version of the Shadar Logoth story is more economical, but it utterly destroys the lesson of Aridhol, which is that doing things for the wrong reason, and fighting the Shadow with the wrong attitude, is just as bad as being on the wrong side! This is incredibly important, because it informs the stakes of Rand’s internal conflict for most of the story!

And let’s not even get into the potential motivation such as the fact that it conveniently fits with a specific political narrative, leaning into “Walls are bad” and steering away from any implications for extremist methods and their narrative, where what side you are on is all that is important and any tactics are justifiable if your heart is in the right place. In WoT, motivations matter. Using evil methods to a achieve a good end is self-defeating, and the penultimate major lesson for Rand to learn. In later books, we believe a mentor figure who declares that unless Rand pulls his head out of his ass, his victory over the Dark One will be as bad for the world as his defeat, because Shadar Logoth is an example of how that can be.

44:59 – Be neat if this is the same spot where Rand sees Sammael get Mashadared.

45:27 – Good, right profile. Keep showing that right profile, Egwene! No, stop, don’t turn. No, no. Not the left side… And cut to wide angle. Phew.

45:51 – Lan, you have now let all four Emond’s Fielders out of your sight. Are you really doing any good poking at Moiraine’s shoulder?

47:30 – Mat-Perrin interactions are weird. Mostly because they barely exist ITB.

Also, I’m thinking somehow Mordeth is going to infect the dagger from Laila. Or Mat will take up an already infected dagger, because he gave his own away, which is no less dumb.

50:00 – This is all very stupid, because they were specifically warned against touching anything. Whereas they were not in the books, and the dagger was just something Mat picked up at random, instead of specifically messing with stuff he knew he should not, against instructions.

51:18 – One problem with CGI creeping evils is that it’s hard to get horses to react to it. Aldeib’s just standing there in the background, chillin’, because Moiraine can’t run so they can’t have her horse run off, but it looks very incongruous.

I do like this version of Mashadar. For my money they will never top the depiction and atmosphere of Shadar Logoth from the WoT PC game, but this is an interesting way to do it, especially when you remember how much Moiraine’s weaves in the prior episode looked like the book description of Mashadar.

52:08 - “Why don’t you hoist me up?” is a very good question when directed at someone canonically eight inches taller than you.

52:43 - Good use of the power-wrought sword’s properties.

53:19 - The person who says “I’ll find you” when forced to part from their love interest always must shortly after jump from a great height.

54:20 – Forget Rand and Mat, you guys left Bela!! Narg’s lines are cut, and Bela doesn’t carry Egwene out of Shadar Logoth. This show is bullshit.

55:07 – Nynaeve FTW!

[winchesterszvonecek]

hiii, i saw your post about watching your comfort episodes of chicago fire and i was curious… what are your comfort episodes?

ooo thank you for the ask, i always love getting to talk about my favourite episodes!! for me the term comfort episode doesn’t mean an episode that actually brings me comfort as most of these wouldn’t exactly fall under that category but these are simply the ones i enjoy the most on my rewatches, whether it be for the action, the excitement or whatnot…

(and yes most of these are going to have reasonings behind them that involve otis… i know, shocking)

starting with season one:

‘Two Families’ - otis’s podcast! that’s it, that’s the reason, getting to hear his little monologue at the end is everything to me and i wish his podcast was a real thing

‘A Coffin That Small’ - i know this isn’t exactly a “comforting” episode but it’s such a good one, between herrmann, mouch and boden being a comedy trio, to the tearjerker that is the end, i just love it

‘A Hell of a Ride’ - prison riot. that’s it. that’s all

when it comes to season two… literally the entire season is like a comfort to me… we’ve got great otis content not to mention mr jeff clarke… but if i had to pick some episodes i’d have to choose:

‘Tonight’s the Night’ - do i need to explain it? it’s literally full of so much excitement

‘A Dark Day’ - what can i say? I love a good incident like this is tv shows

season three:

‘Just Drive the Truck’ - two words… otis’s smile - that it… the smile he has when he gets to drive the truck makes me 🥰🥰 but also it’s just a really great episode too

‘Chopper’ - again, i love shit like this in shows!!! just feed it directly into my veins but also… arms!

‘Santa Bites’ - i know this must seem like a strange one but i just really enjoy it… that scene with boden going on about little terrance’s name to otis is so funny and idk i just really like this one

‘I Am Apocalypse’ - again, i love for the drama and just shit like this in general so it’s a fave

I can’t remember exactly what episode it is when otis gets his time to shine at the elevator scene, but yeah… that one

when it comes to season 4 i have some… grievances i guess, mainly because they decided to make otis have a crush on sylvie?? idk to me that’s so weird and out of character for him when she’s literally his best friends ex, but whatever, i just choose to ignore it when i watch it… but anyway, regarding episodes:

‘When Tortoises Fly’ - need i say more??

‘The Sky is Falling’ - i don’t know if it’s intensive to say i enjoy this episode but i think it was really great and handled super well and idk, again, i really enjoy dramatic and scary, i guess, episodes

‘The Last One for Mom’ - god this episode breaks my heart every time but it’s just so good

season 5:

‘Nobody Else is Dying Today’ - great casey episode not to mention the little side plot with otis and his ‘mission to mars’ or whatever, also i loved the whole part with sylvie and mouch writing their book, such an underrated duo in my opinion

‘Purgatory’ - otis at the hotel fire… that’s all

‘Deathtrap’ - again, i love big fires etc that take up most of the episode and this happens to be one of them (don’t like the crossovers though as the whole premise of why the fire happened was so stupid to me)

season six isn’t my favourite, mainly because of the shit otis had to go through, i mean… why have him go through the trauma of being shot only to kill him off a season later? literally makes no sense, so yeah, i have no favourites in s6 but there are some fun moments throughout that i enjoy, i just can’t remember them right now lmao

moving on to season 7:

‘Going to War’ - my all time favourite episode / crossover (not pd tho as idk, i’m just not a fan of chicago pd) but yeah, such a good episode and a great amount of otis (even if he is being traumatised, my poor baby)

‘This isn’t Charity’ - grenades! freaking grenades, that’s so cool

‘It Wasn’t About Hockey’ - what’s not to love? the girls being badasses, the guys and their chili cook off? top tier episode

‘Until the Weather Breaks’ - i love when there’s bad weather/storms in shows so this episode had me in my element!! not to mention detective otis sussing out the guy with the gun… that’s my baby!!🥰

and then it’s so funny how the show just ends at season 7 and everyone lives happily ever after?? like how strange was that??

anyway sorry for such a long post but i never have anyone irl to talk to about this show so forgive me for wanting to express my opinions where i know they’ll be enjoyed(?) is that right word? idk appreciated maybe but whatever, i’ll stop talking now

(ask me more stuff!!)

[jack-of-all-trades-21]

Additional protagonist starterpack

The only thing that I will forcibly cram into my busy school life is writing for AIB so that is this. I came up with two short stories that both have in common that they basically give potential for extra characters to live in the same universe, both failing a bit in their heroic ways. I will link the second one here as well.

i. "Zookeeper'' ii. Sniper on the rooftop

I'm still walking with this limp from the last game. What happened there is not something I processed yet, not sure I will. The dragging noise along this gravel is starting to make me nervous. Am I drawing attention to myself? Would that even matter?

In the hopes of reducing all crunching sound I try to lift my leg up higher from the ground, more higher than I would like, each time I do pain shoots up all the way to my hip. It's as I can feel my nerves as small strings that are not laying in the right spot on their bones.

It will go away in a couple days I'm sure.

Some strings just have to click back in their place. As long as I keep moving everything it should be ok.

It's also my fault. If I hadn't tripped I would still be completely vital. Though I should be lucky to even be alive. It doesn't happen often that someone survives a game after making a mistake, or a literal slip-up in this case.

I've seen it before. This place emitted a lot of light in ways that it would almost passes as a game arena. I can recall that one time that I was frantically searching in this stupid place for a new arena because I had been stupid enough to let all my visa run out. That and also just staying in a shit shelter location.

I've learned a lot since then. More understanding of the game types, I've started to understand what kind of people have certain intentions within each game. But because of that there's also this thing spooking through my mind that I didn't slip at all and that another player might have done something to throw me off.

I guess it's somewhat ironic that I've returned here. Not that it is even on purpose, but.. ah, I really don't know where I'm going with this. It doesn't matter anyways. Now that I am here for the second time I've got some different ideas.

I'm frantic. I'm just frantic and stupid and I should just find a place to sleep. But I like to self-sabotage my own ways. Instead of doing something that could actually support my survival, I'm prancing around the edges of this zoo I've never been to my entire life.

My stupid urges are what's going to get me killed, and it's not even in a game. No fair environment with set rules, but from the shit world around it.

Would that be entertaining to watch? If anyone is watching, would they find it amusing that for once, the incredibly basic player that always 'plays it safe' that they had to follow around, is finally doing something which is going to give them a raise? Will they make their boss proud? Will I be on TV as the most useless player in this entire show?

I genuinely don't even know where I would start. Sure, finding the entrance is something I can do. But now I've set foot in this park and I feel like I have no plan to begin with. Being honest to myself though, you have been like that this the entire time, maybe even before being send here. Oh silly me.

Just think for one moment. Enclosures are most likely powered by electricity, which is very much non-available. So with cage doors and other things that make up the enclosures not working, what would make me think that the animals residing in them would stay? Not only that, where they even here at the very start of the so called creation of this world? There's no animals in this zoo. And I can't play the beautiful savior that dramatically unleashes them from their cages.

At least I didn't foolishly killed myself in the process. Can you even imagine? I open the cage of one of the felines, and they start chasing me as a 'thank you'.

I guess I'll walk back to my old hiding spot. It couldn't hurt staying there for one more night. I at least got to enjoy the pretty lights here, that's fun I guess.

[lamestteenagegirlever]

some stranger things headcanons(mostly ending up being ramblings bc im autistic)! feel sososo free to share yours with me or ask if i have any for a specific character! and shoutout to my bestie griffin for helping me come up with some of these

•max leaves like the most random shit in mikes locker. like he’ll open it and find like an origami armadillo or a piece of macaroni covered in glitter or like a singular fuzzy christmas sock. he has no idea its her(everyone else knows). he shows up to lunch every day with the item and gets more and more terrified every day.

•eddie has nicknames for all of the kids bc he loves them and hes alive and happy. he calls max ginger snap or little orphan annie or something along those lines and she acts pissed off but she loves it. he calls lucas number 8 bc even if he doesnt like basketball, he supports his kids in anything they do. dustin is just henderson ofc or the occasional like curly sue or smthn of that nature. he obvi calls erica lady applejack or miss america. he calls mike training wheel(nancy is steering wheel and holly is tricycle) or michael in the most ominous way possible. he calls will lil buddy or “sir william the wise, my lord” while doing the most dramatic curtsy ever, no in between. he calls el stupid shit like elton john or eleanor roosevelt and if hes greeting her he just asks her what number hes thinking of. i just love him and want him to be happy.

•el and mike are lesbian and gay solidarity argue with the wall. they were the first to find out about the other’s crush on max/will and they both encourage each other to go for it. el especially bc she hears how much will talks about mike. mike tries to get info from max but shes just like oh my god leave me alone(lovingly, ofc) with the reddest face ever and mike is like 🤔.

•max sees erica like a little sister and vice versa.

•will, robin, max, and eddie tell eachother all about their relationships/crushes and it ends in a nightmare every time. will told them about something really stupid mike said and eddie brought it up, laughing, at hellfire and mike was like “oh my god i fucked up so badly that will told eddie” and eddie tries to come up with another explanation like will wasnt the only other person there. “nonono, it wasnt will that told me! it was… nancy! she was… in the… bushes! for uhm……. newspaper stories???” and mike just thinks about it for the rest of the day

•idc abt canon they all go to lucas’s games and theyre huge dorks about it. they make signs and everything and then have a party at steves house regardless of whether they won or he even got to play. steve also helps lucas practice sometimes and is always like “go easy on me im old.”

•steve and robin worked a good few jobs in the months between the mall getting destroyed and the family video. they were there for maybe a week before one of them got fired(steve) and the other quit in protest bc theyre besties and share one braincell.

•lucas is a history kid, dustin and el are math kids, mike and max are english kids, and will is a science and art kid.

•steve hates his house because its always so lonely and he tells robin this like once in passing and she just shows up randomly with a duffel bag with her pjs and stuff. she probably has a key at this point so like he’ll get back from the shower or smthn and she’ll just be sitting on his bed watching tv like she lives there(she pretty much does), not that he minds obvi. he loves hanging out with her

•will and el are practically inseparable. they tell each other absolutely everything and have “sleepovers” once a week. when will realized that el doesnt know her birthday, he decided that they were gonna share his because everyone already jokingly calls them the wonder twins anyway. i literally just adore them and want more content with them.

•dustin and max will argue over the absolute dumbest stuff EVER. absolutely anything and everything. like max threatened to kill him over whether els shoes were mustard yellow or yellow-orange.

•mike acts like he hates steves guts when he finds out he likes eddie. like he’ll regularly be like “wow, you date my sister and now you’re going after my mentor.” and steve is just like “yeah, and ill go after your mom next. pipe down.”

•nancy and argyle vibe like no other and not a single person understands how. jonathan jokes that he cant believe his best friend would leave him for his ex and they all think its really funny.

•robin and steve cant spell restaurant or communicate or fairly simple words like that. they pass a singular braincell back and forth wand it probably belongs to nancy.

•steve taught all of the kids other than max how to drive. eddie taught max while steve had to like hold robins hand because of how nervous he was.

•dustin has zero rhythm(affectionate).

•el sat hopper down and asked him about his intentions with joyce like an overprotective dad when they got back from russia and always messes with him about the three inches rule.

•will gets along really well with nancy and holly. sometimes he’ll show up at the wheeler house and mikes pleasantly surprised to see him, thinking will there to see his bf but hes actually there for a tea party that holly invited him to or for his scheduled gossip session with nancy and probably steve, max, and el.

•el is an avid abba stan. she and will regularly end up having dance parties in her room when she plays it. argyle always joins in if hes over and jonathan does too, but not before he gets a couple of pictures bc he loves them a lot.

•eddie and robin smoke together on the occasion(they cried one time bc robin turned off the lights on accident and they were convinced they both went blind).

if you read this far i literally love you oh my god

[rek1s-headband]

hi could i request something? basically just HCS about langa and reki when you guy get into a fight or sum idk LMFAOO, you dont have to do this if you dont want to tho <3

➯ A/N: Thank you for the request! I hope you enjoy. I added a few characters, hope you don’t mind:)

➯ When you guys get into a fight

➯ Characters: Langa Hasegawa, Reki Kyan, Kaoru Sakurashiki, Kojiro Nanjou, Hiromi Higa and Miya Chinen x gn reader

➯ Warnings: angst if you squint, fluff

Langa:

Ok the majority of your fights are generally because of a miscommunication. If things aren’t spelled out for the poor boy, he’ll be completely oblivious to what’s bothering you

When you finally snap, he always seems shocked, asking why you hadn’t said anything sooner, even if you’d been trying to hint at it all week

Not really one to shout, but if things get heated enough he might snap. He always feels awful afterwards though. No matter what, he really believes no one should be screamed at because of something as silly as a disagreement

Rarely storms out, he’s always going to try and stay until the end to try and get something, anything out of you that he can use to try and understand your point of view

Understands space. He knows when you dont feel like talking to him, and he will give you that time to collect your thoughts. When you’re ready to speak again, he’s all ears

Gets overwhelmed really easy. It doesnt really show in what he says, but when you raise your voice his brain goes to putty and he can feel his breath get narrow. He’s not scared, he just doesn’t want to be the reason you’re feeling like this.

Never lets you go to bed angry. He’ll give you your space, but if you’re still quiet by bedtime he’s making sure you’ve eaten and you’re not still really upset by whatever played out that day

Overthinks a lot. How long did he not realise you were upset? What if its actually a much bigger deal than you’re letting on? What if you leave? Of course, he knows a lot of it is completely irrational, but it still lingers in the back of his mind, so you can imagine how relieved he is when the fight is over and you’re back in his arms

Asks people for advice a lot. Reki and Cherry are usual helpers, giving Langa their opinions on the matter without going into too much detail. The rest is up to him.

Gives the best hugs and comfort after a fight. He understands couples can fight, and never really takes the aggression let out by the pair of you too seriously. Rubbing the back of your head and holding you close to his chest, he’ll reassure you that he’s not going anywhere, that he’s not going to leave “just because of a silly fight” while you fight back tears on his shoulder.

Reki

Unlike Langa, Reki is a very open person in terms of his feelings, so your fights are rarely because of closed away emotions. However, many are caused by you feeling he is spending too much time in his workshop, overworking himself and not spending as much time with you as he should.

As for Reki, he gets mad when he feels you’re being closed off from him, not telling him things and hiding your true emotions. It’s not that he doesnt trust you, he just doesnt want you shouldering anything by yourself, and tries to make things easier for you by halving the problem.

A very emotional person, and this really shows when the two of you argue. There’s a lot of tears, a lot of raised voices, yknow those exhausted laughs when you’re tired of arguing with someone? Those. He pulls at his hair a lot in frustration too

Both of you need to walk away from each other a lot during arguments. You’re both driven by your emotions, so its hard to think logically once you’ve both gotten really upset.

The type to sit outside a door after an argument if you’ve locked yourself in a room, pressing against it and quietly talking to you, regardless of whether or not he gets a response

Understands space, to a certain extent. He’ll try and talk to you after an argument, try anything to get you to just answer him, to come out from your room, to stop ignoring him. He knows when you really don’t want to face him though, which is when he’ll go out for a while, either to Langa’s for advice, or just for a quiet skate.

Despite how upset he gets in the moment, he gets over it quickly. Once he’s out of his head and seeing properly, he’ll take some time to think it over and see things from your point of view. He’ll come back to you with an apology, and when you’re ready to talk, he’ll discuss things with you this time around instead of fighting

If the fight lasts overnight, he refuses to let you take the couch. If he feels a fight will last, he’ll glue himself to the couch, making it impossible for you to sleep anywhere other than your bed. No matter what the fight was about, he refuses to have you sleep uncomfortably.

Tends to cry after making up. It’s rarely out of sadness, of course, more relief than anything. He’s just happy to have you back in his arms, no longer ignoring him.

Cherry

A very rational person, fights are very rare between the pair of you. When you do fight, it tends to be because you feel he’s being closed off from you, not being as open and emotional with you. As for him, he doesnt like when you act too aloof about things that are actually serious to him

Fights start out quiet, talking in normal tones and using your heads. However, as the fight goes on, your voices gradually get higher and louder, arms thrown in the air as you get in each other’s faces.

He snaps quite a bit. Petty remarks, snappy replies and other unnecessary comments are thrown out without much thought as he gets more pissed off. Not necessarily because he doesn’t have anything to defend himself, but because once he’s started, he’ll do just about anything to piss you off

Depending on the fight, it could last an hour or a week. Both of you are so petty that you’ll refuse to apologise to the other, forgetting who was even in the wrong in the first place

Honestly, whoever goes to sleep first gets the bed, he’s not as considerate as Reki. However, as the fight goes on, the pair of you will stay up for ungodly hours into the night, trying to outlast the other because they dont want them sleeping on the couch. You’ll never admit that though, which is why you wont just fall asleep on the couch first. Besides, if you happen to fall asleep on the couch before Kaoru goes to bed, he’ll carry you upstairs and sleep on the couch himself. He’ll never admit that though, he’ll simply say you woke up and went upstairs in a hazy half-sleep, which is why you dont remember.

He’s definitely programmed Carla to apologise to you for him at least once, rolling her into the room you’re in before quickly walking out to the sound of “Y/N, I-am-very-sorry-and-I-was-wrong-please-forgive-me” in Carlas robotic voice

If you ever go to Joe’s restaurant to cool down, he’ll make a big fuss, swaying and sighing, dramatically shouting about “however will these lovers reconcile!?” Once his act is over though, he’ll comfort you and give you your favourite meal, tutting over the pair of you and thinking of ways to help you make up

Literally won’t let you go of you for at least a week after you fight. This mf is hanging off you, constant forehead kisses, the whole deal. He’s gone without your affection for a long time while you fought, he’s simply making up for lost time

Joe

You get really pissed at him when he flirts with other girls. He doesn’t mean to, he’s just a bit of a girl magnet and it’s his nature to entertain them. Of course, he all yours, but he forgets sometimes that jealousy is actually a thing

Doesnt take arguments as seriously as he probably should. He’s the type to tell you to “calm down” in the worst possible moment, its usually what makes you explode, actually.

Absolutely dense. The type to listen to you shout for five minutes, and only then have the audacity to ask you just what your problem was

It’s not his fault, bless him. He’s just a little unobservant when it comes to your emotions. When he realises you’re actually upset though, he’s apologising profusely and promising to never do it again

His apologies are always so genuine, you generally forgive him. However, if he does something that really pisses you off and you dont forgive him, he’ll give you space to think

Fights are usually resolved within a day. Like Langa, he refuses to let you go to bed angry

Cooks for you every meal regardless of whether or not you eat it. He’ll leave meals outside your door as a sort of truce, quietly pressing against the door and asking you to please come eat with him, that he hates the idea of you holed up in there all alone

Like Kaoru, he tends to reply with snarky remarks that have little to do with the argument, but they have a little less bite to them. More petty, if anything

Another big reason for why fights never last long is because this man literally. Will. Not. Survive. Without. You. You’ll be trying to ignore him while he comes in every five minutes, asking you how to get a certain channel on the TV, or stupid things you know he’s only asking because he misses talking to you

After you make up, he literally wont even look at another girl for at least a week. Mf will literally turn his head the other way if a girl comes near him, shouting about how he’s spoken for

Shadow

The biggest hothead. He says a lot of things he doesn’t mean in the moment, which will cause you to storm out and he’ll immediately regret it

The fight almost immediately escalates past hushed voices, swear words thrown around as you get in each other’s faces

He’ll get really upset, but he’ll mask it with being pissed off and angry, clashing pots around and acting like a literal baby. He doesnt want to admit it, but he always feels awful right after a fight. He knows youll need a bit of space after the intense shouting, so he’ll give you that space before even attempting an apology

Aggressively cares for you. Like he’ll say things like “I made food, it’ll taste like shit if you leave it, so I suggest you have it now” or “nope, I want the couch, I’m gonna watch something” he’ll never admit it, he just wants to make sure you’re alright even while fighting

If the two of you go to S while fighting, it’ll be very obvious. Usually you’re attached at the hip, but now you couldn’t be further apart. However, he’s still looking out for you, keeping an eye on you to make sure you’re alright. If you’re ever getting hit on by some creep, the fight is forgotten and he’s back at your side, daring the stranger to come any closer to you.

Reki is always the first to notice, poking him and pushing you over to him, trying to get the two of you to make up. Surprisingly, it actually does help clear the air

He can never stay mad at you for long though, he’s completely soft for you

Makes you bouquets to try and apologise. He’s taught you a lot about the meanings of flowers, so he’ll specifically pick ones with hidden meanings like “I’m sorry” or “I love you”

Not very good with verbal apologies. He knows when they’re needed though, and they are usually delivered through a series of grumbles and sad expressions. The thought is there though

Gives very gentle, long hugs after you make up. He’ll hold you close, suggesting a date or a movie to help the two of you relax

Miya

Literally the biggest bitch out of the six to fight with. He’s so petty, he will refuse to admit he’s wrong for the longest time. Once he’s in, there’s no accepting he’s not right

At least for a while anyway. He’ll start to feel bad once he sees just how upset you’re getting, frustrated with his inability to see anyone’s point of view but his own

King of the silent treatment. He’ll hide away behind his switch, drowning out his guilty thoughts with the white noise of animal crossing

He’ll skate to take his mind off things, practicing new tricks until he’s exhausted

Makes really snide remarks that have absolutely nothing to do with the argument. The type to bring up shit that happened 4 months ago just to help his case

Reki is usually the one to make him see sense, telling him just how petty he’s being, and that he cant get so defensive when he’s in the wrong. He knows this, obviously, he just can’t help it sometimes.

Although he’s not one for real apologies, he’ll slowly begin to stop ignoring you, bringing you small snacks or sending you funny things he saw on his phone. He’ll sit beside you, acting as if it was completely unintentional, but will slowly inch closer and closer until he’s curled up at your side, mumbling about how he wasn’t completely right after all

Will literally hit anyone who tries to comment on how the pair of you have made up, talking about how “its not even that big of a deal, just shut up”

Ad*m

Yall fought cause y’know. He’s ad*m

Sat outside your house with a speaker and an ugly ass sign. It started raining and his sign got ruined and his makeup ran

You broke up with him and he cried

Slipped in the rain while leaving <3

[shorkbrian]

Creep

Prelude - bitch hold on what about mean brother Shigs being an absolute creep? Inspired by me playing a boss in AC Odyssey and my controller vibrated so hard I almost dropped it, and I couldn’t beat this dude and it was so freaking frustrating!!!!!! 

Pairing - Shigaraki X Reader

Warnings - - INCEST, NSFW, innocence kink, do not read if those squick you out bro!!! Seriously! abuse of trust, dubcon, noncon, literally nothing about this situation is good, or healthy, or nice. Disgusting behavior is exhibited by Shigs.

Music - (does anyone actually like when I provide music? I like getting music vibes while I read through fics but ik that my music taste is a bit wacky lol anyways). https://open.spotify.com/track/0ODyahnUlK9G5bT4dA5NCI?si=10R9ggoJS1inYidrMeWrHA

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He offers to let you play his Xbox game, you keep annoying him by pouting for his attention and he gives up with trying to ignore you.

Stipulation - you gotta sit on his lap while you play, you’re such a stupid little girl that he forces his hands over yours, showing you how to use the Xbox controller while sneering at how dumb you are.

You’re too focused on the game to pay attention to how one of his hands has dropped from the controller, is creeping up your thigh, thumbing at the hem of your shorts. You don't realize that he’s plastered against your back, breath picking up in your ear as he hunches over your shoulder, thinking of all the dirty things he wants to do to you, how you’re too absent-minded to realize how much of a perverted creep he is. 

“Shit!” You curse, breaking Shigaraki out of his thoughts as you bounce your leg in frustration. He feels the slight vibration of the controller - you’re getting attacked in the game, enemies surrounding you and hacking at your player. Shigaraki is too entranced by how he can watch your jiggling breasts over your shoulder, jostling around as you jerk your arms, trying to not die in the game.

“Nii-san help me, ‘m gonna die!” You shriek, whole body getting into the gaming experience, jerking around in his lap as you struggle to press the right buttons. Shigaraki tries not to groan - he can feel the space between your thighs as you move around, hot and doughy and he wants to touch so bad.

Yeah, he’s always been a bit of a creep, but he’s never actually done anything to you.

The most he does is fantasize, thinking about how you’d feel clamping down on him, how’d you’d taste if he made you ride his face. What you’d look like if he forced his cock into you with barely any prep - you’d squeeze your eyes shut so tight, let out little whimpers and clench your fists because “Hurts, hurts! Go slow Nii-san, don’t want this!”

But he wouldn’t have to listen, you’re just a naive little girl who doesn’t know that Shigaraki would be trying to make you feel good too, that it would feel good soon.

“Stop wiggling, you’re gonna fall off.” He rasps back at you, taking his other hand off the controller to grab your waist, barely saving you from keeling over and onto the floor. You’re left to fend for yourself now, button-mashing, groaning when you finally succumb to your enemies and die a violent, gory death.

“I died! Why didn’t you help, you’re right here?!” the accusatory tone of your voice is ignored as you revert to the last save, huffing in frustration as you’re forced to start over.

“You’re never gonna learn if I’m holding your hands like that.”

Shigaraki’s glad you’ve stilled again - if you’d kept up your wiggling, he’d have to figure out a way to explain what the hard thing poking into the side of your plush little rear.

God, you had the most perfect ass.

Maybe he’s a freak, a disgusting man with fucked up morals, but Shigaraki’s always been a social outcast, seen as weird and wrong and criticized for every little thing he did.

What’s wrong with settling into the role other people were so quick to offer him?

Surely you’ve noticed his odd behavior by now, the behavior that’s picked up in the last few years. How he stares at you a little more than he should, how sometimes he slips into bed with you, murmuring some lame excuse about not being able to sleep.

The way he freezes when you give him an affectionate hug, clenching his fists by his side as your breasts are squished up against his body.

You had to have caught on to his uncharacteristic softness with you. He’s still mean and coarse and rude, but there's an underlying affection underneath the way he mocks your outfits, when he says you look like the gross character out of a manga he’s reading, how he tugs on your hair sometimes when he passes by you, wheezing out a laugh if you turn around and try to slap at him in irritation.

If you didn’t want him to be weird, you could’ve said something by now. You should’ve said something by now.

So really, it’s your own fault that he feels so comfortable being a sicko.

“Don’t tickle, I gotta focus.” You tell him, squirming away when he runs a hand experimentally over your stomach. You’re so cute, and dumb, he wants to bully you until you’re crying, say mean things and hurt your feelings only so he can kiss it better. 

But he doesn’t, because he’s a good brother.

His hand travels further up, rests right underneath your breast, almost cupping it. Still, you don’t say anything, attention on the game.

Do you want this? Are you just stupid? His affection is so obviously not normal for siblings, and yet you act like it’s fine. Maybe you’re a virgin, untainted with the knowledge of how sexual touches feel like.

The hand on your waist begins to slip under your shorts, his cold fingers quickly warmed by your skin. “Nii-san, stop that, it’s weird.”

Ah, there’s the common sense.

“I though you wanted to play the game? Don’t be a bitch.” He doesn’t really care whether you want him willingly now or not, he’s getting excited by the heat of your body, your weight on his lap.

You pause the game when his hand creeps lower into your shorts, when his fingers skim low over your tummy, too close to a private place that brothers shouldn't touch.

“Stop touching me, I don’t like that.”

“It’s not like you wouldn’t enjoy it.” He mumbles, and you stiffen in his lap, but he quickly takes his hand out of your shorts, stops cupping your soft breast.

The game gets unpaused, and you resume playing, although your attention is divided now, nervous about sitting in your brother’s lap.

Has it finally clicked? Are you thinking about what he could do to you, how he could make you feel?

“You suck at this.” Shigaraki observes, the controller shaking almost violently as you’re attacked again, overwhelmed by enemies.

“Well, maybe if you taught me how to play instead of being weird, I wouldn’t be.” You snarked, frustrated with the game, uneasy with your brother holding your hips like that.

Shigaraki rolls his eyes. You’re so dramatic, and although you have a valid point, he’s always been weird. This is nothing new, you’ve just been too thick-skulled to realize it before, which isn’t his fault.

A few more tries, and you still can’t get past the one group of enemies, dying after a few minutes every single time. You’re going to waste the batteries like that, controller jumping in your hands. 

“I can’t-” You whine, coming across the enemies after your latest death, already knowing what’s going to happen.

Shigaraki stays silent, red eyes finally flickering away from your body and up to the screen of the TV. 

You’re at one of the hardest parts of the game, facing a section that took Shigaraki two days to beat (not that he’ll tell you that). He grins as you throw yourself into the fight, immediately getting decked.

The noises you’re letting out are cute, frustrated groans on each hit landed on your player, muttered curses and triumphant scoffs whenever you manage to strike an enemy, which isn’t often.

The controller’s still shaking like crazy, and you’re moving around in his lap again, and Shigaraki is done. He can’t take this anymore, you’re being a tease.

He snatches the Xbox controller out of your hands, ignoring your little “Hey! What’re you doing, I was playing!”

“You call this playing?” The shuddering of the controller surprises him, gives him an idea.

There hadn’t been a plan, he had just been acting on instinct, hands itching to push you off his lap and to the floor, just to see the way you’d look up at him after. 

Like that, you’d be in the perfect position to suck his cock.

But he wants to go in a different direction now.

“Stay still, you’re so annoying.” He’s spreading his legs out, sinking back further in his chair to get a better angle, your legs hooked over his.

There’s no time for you to protest. Like this, you’re spread out nicely, exposed, even though your shorts cover your intimate place.

Without any further preamble, Shigaraki shoves the vibrating controller up against your clothed cunt.

“NIi-san!” You shriek, immediately writhing in his hold. But Shigaraki has an arm locked around your chest, keeping you pinned to his chest. “Don’t, think sins’t-this isn't-! Stop this, stop! Don’t touch me!”

He can bet it feels good, that you’re struggling to tell him to stop. He begins rubbing the controller against you, snickering at the way you jolt and writher on each pass of the hard, curved plastic against your protected clit. He can’t even imagine how good it would feel if your stupid shorts weren’t in the way.

“Stop, stop! Stop it! Stop!” You sound like a broken record.

“Shut up, you can’t even play the game right. Feel that?” the controller gets rubbed harder against you, and you writhe. “That’s how bad you are. So pathetic, can’t even fend off a couple of bad guys.”

Can’t even fend off one, Shigaraki thinks to himself. You could be trying harder to get out of his hold, could be screaming and yelling and scratching and kicking.

Well, you are scratching and kicking, moving around so much that he’s having a hard time keeping you still. And you making a lot of noise, but there’s no one else home.

He’s fully hard, and every movement you make struggling rubs him right up against the meat of your ass, and he sucks in a stuttered breath, biting his lip.

“No, no, no, no, don’t want this Nii-san, stop it-” Your panicked pleas are ignored, Shigaraki shoving your hands away as you try to pull the controller off of your cunt, get the vibrations to stop.

On screen, the player is still getting attacked, each new hit making the controller vibrate even harder.

“Ow, ow! It hurts, make it stop! Nii-san-”

“I’ll gag you if you don’t stop complaining.” Shigaraki seethes, feeling irritation creep up. “It hurts because you’ve never felt this good before, idiot.”

He remembers the first time he’d used something on his dick. It was your toothbrush, unsurprisingly, the one that vibrated with three different speeds and made you so proud of your pearly whites.

It had been so overwhelming, he couldn’t even touch the back of the head to his cock. At times, it felt so good it had hurt, had completely blinded his senses and leave him in a puddle of his own cum and sweat, panting.

So Shigaraki understood what you were trying to say - your inexperienced body needed him to slow down, ease up a little. But your gross, nasty brother wanted to ruin you.

Your character on screen died, resulting in one last heavy vibration that made you sob, thighs struggling to snap shut, hands desperately pushing at Shigaraki.

He felt you convulse in his grip, could practically feel the way your little hole was clenching as you gushed all over yourself, whining and moaning at the pleasure.

Your character was sent back to the last save, the game on a loading screen.

But Shigaraki wasn’t done.

He was still hard against your back, rubbing himself off as best he could, but he was finding his own pleasure in watching you writhe on his lap.

The controller was tossed to the side, nimble fingers sliding over your shorts, Shigaraki laughing at what he found.

“You’re so wet, holy fuck. That’s disgusting, wow.” You were drenched, the fabric of your shorts completely soaked with your juices. You only sobbed out a pitiful noise, maybe trying to deny it, but Shigaraki wasn’t listening. He was too busy rubbing over the wet spot, gleefully feeling you up. It was easy for his fingers to find a comfortable, mind-numbing rhythm, so used to playing games and deftly pushing buttons, using sticks and joysticks, directional pads and the like.

You were rocking against his hand unconcsiously, body unable and unwilling to decided whether to pull away or push closer - you had just cum, but that didn’t negate the vicious, heady sensation that his fingers brought.

Shigaraki quickly grew bored of this though, unable to ignore his dripping erection. He had never been a patient man, quickly removing the hand stimulating your swollen pussy so he could pull his cock out of his sweatpants.

With a quick movement, your shorts were tugged down, your brother completely pushing past your refusal to lift your hips, burning your skin with how forcefully the fabric was ripped down.

“Nii-san, what are you doing-you can’t, you can’t!” You cried, renewing your struggle when you felt skin against skin, his cock hot and velvety as it rested against your cheeks. “I don’t wanna do this, don’t make me do this-”

“I don’t care. I’ve tried to be good, and it’s like you don’t even care.” The man ground out, beginning to rut his hips against your ass. It was dry, and it didn’t feel great, but it was more than enough to satisfy Shigaraki. “I barely touch you, I keep my hands to myself-”

Which was a lie. Late at night, when he was sure you were fast asleep, he’d touch, just a little. Rubbing your nipples, feeling them peak under his touch. Feeling the curve of your waist, skin soft against his dry palms.

“-I wouldn’t stare either, but you wear those stupid shirts-” The deep cut ones, the ones that showed off your cleavage and allowed him weeks of jerk-off material.

“So annoying, just a stupid little imoto that follows me around, you just want attention.”

He knows you don’t do it on purpose. You aren’t trying to make him see you in a sexual light. But maybe that’s what makes it all the more appealing, how naive and innocent you are.

Fuck, he’s getting close just thinking about your purity, how much you don’t know, how much he could teach you.

He doesn’t know a ton, but Shigaraki knows enough about what feels good for him, and you probably wouldn’t want to learn, but he deserved something nice every once in a while, didn’t he?

The drag of his cock between your ass cheeks was making him loose his mind, the slide too rough, but it felt delicious and stimulated him just right, pulling at his foreskin and spreading his precum into a sticky mess on your skin.

“Fuck, stay still, lemme feel good-” His voice was choked up, still holding it’s usual nasal resonance. 

You sobbed in his hold, his fingers still playing over your shorts, exploring, keeping you occupied and frozen with sensation while he got himself off with your body.

And then he was breaking, splurting his seed all over your lower back, watching it come out of his cock in shaky squirts, painting your skin a cloudy white.

Shigaraki groaned, eyes transfixed to the sight before him. It was hard to keep them open, body shaking with little snaps of pleasure in his veins, in his stomach.

On the bed next to his thigh, the controller started shaking again. Panting, Shigaraki raised his eyes to the TV screen as you slumped against him, softly crying.

Your character was getting attacked again.

“Let’s keep playing.”

And the vibrating controller was pressed to your bare cunt, making you scream.

He’d have to wash it after this, but he figured it was worth it in the grand scheme of things