#you guys DO NOT wanna know how many sus images there are of these two already | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

delicrieux · 3 years

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—MAKE YOU SAY “OH” EXTRAS: TINDER

extra meaning non-canonical occurrence; can be placed anywhere in the “make you say oh” timeline after couple (cha. 14) and before the final “oh”.

pairing—corpse husband x f!reader warnings—tinder profiles, tw: men, swearing. word count—2.6k. format— written. ─── ❥ req by nonnie: y/n makes a youtube vid/live stream where she's just swiping through her tinder acc and corpse literally blocks her lmao

author’s note—akldsljfs this was such a funny idea i could not not write it lmao

ultimate masterlist. myso masterlist

You have pulled the biggest brain move by setting up both a facecam and a screen recorder on your phone. All is beautifully displayed and visible during the stream. Your fanbase is particularly intrigued on what exactly are you planning on doing today, seeing as your tweet of “strea” had been a bit vague, if not downright ominous. No emojis. No elaboration. You couldn’t even be bothered to finish the word. Truly, a mystery. Everyone tuned in and are currently waiting with bated breath.

A few of your fans must sense upcoming doom because the overall mood in the chat turns from optimistically intrigued to...evil. It’s an entity all on it’s own now, clawing at you through the screen with various renditions of laughter and devil emojis. A few eggplants thrown in there for good measure, accompanied, naturally, by the scandalous water drops. At first the common consensus is that you’re biting the bullet and going through your camera roll on stream. Definitely an idea worth considering, though you frankly don’t know what lies at the start of the 11k photograph journey, and you are afraid to check in public. Could be a harmless meme, could be a salacious pic you had saved of an OF star. It’s really a gamble. Either way, you would definitely get banned. You might still get banned. Why do you insist on doing shit like this?

Because it’s funny. Because you’re kinda stupid. Because it’s just so absolutely laughably easy to do.

A smile quirks your lips, and while it is not explicitly smug, the look in your eyes sure is, “Greetings,” You utter lowly, dimming the lights--the budget for this stream! Ugh, you went all out, “my children.”

mother i crave violence

sensing evil energy rn!!

i do not claim the energy in this video for myself or anyone else watching this 💖💖

^with peace and love shut the fuck up

“I know y’all lowkey hoes-” Upon your words the chat splits into two: one side eagerly agrees (even shares a few OF accounts! How helpful, supporting small businesses!), whilst the other feverishly insists on innocence. You make a face stuck somewhere between offended and bewildered, “Now c'mon now-I know you. I know you all. We’re the same, don’t-what was that?”

You try to scroll back to the comment but it’s loss in the sea of incoming messages, “I swear to God I just saw-”

Corpse_Husband: i love late night streams it’s not like i have anything better to do.

“COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORPSE!!!!”

rip headphone users

i cant feel my face when im with you by the weeknd but instead of face its my fucking ears

yall think full vol on pc is better?my parents woke up 😭😭😭😭

To think he’s spending his last waking moments for today with watching you (he probably still would have anyway, because you do not posses an ounce of shame or self-control and pester him relentlessly)! It makes your heart sing, and suddenly, a traitorous, fun hating idea barges it’s way through the crowd of incoherent buzzing and states: don’t do this. For some reason it also has the voice of Rae. As if that would work in guilt-tripping you- Rae never succeed, and her fictitious rendition in mind won’t fare much better either.

Still, you thought about it. That must count for something. Corpse will understand, won’t he? Why don’t you want to upset it in the first place? Men look so funny when they lose their shit, like hello, don’t you have anything better to do? But the image of Corpse just sitting there, hurt, distraught, leaving you on seen because he’s in his sad boy hours leaves a sour taste in your mouth.

queen rly went from 🥺😊 to 😕 u ok bbgirl?

Corpse_Husband: no pouts cutie

akjdjoeijdfse cUTIE??? deadass boutta r.i.p.

Well that succeeded in eliminating everything from mind, doubts included. If this was an anime, the scenery would shift into something roseate, with flowers and bubbles and sparkles all around you along with a halo or two. Alas, not an anime, rather reality. The led-lights, however, seemingly possessing a will of their own, slowly turn from deep violet to pink. You smile brightly, like the absolute dumbass you are, and you are met with a ray of heart and blushing emojis. You are just so cute, a real cutie! Still in your disguise adorable state, you swipe your finger on your phone screen, the grin never leaving your lips.

There, among the plethora of apps, nestled sits a red square with a white fire plastered on it. The delicate calligraphy on the bottom reads: TINDER.

The mood changes once again- you’re giving the roaches emotional instability by how quickly everything flips over- and the chat spams eggplants vigorously; some, of course, bravely fight against the thirst.

nooooooo i thought y/n is gonna stream in a god honoring way!!!

^pack it up girl defined

“So, Charlie and I-” You note a few awfully curious comments and squint, “-yes, we talk a lot. Charlie is a really good friend of mine. We’re best friends. Brothers. Sisters. Cousins. The whole fucking family tree-no, that sounds weird. Delete. Anyway, Charlie, being the absolute fucker he is, said, hey, you know what would be funny? And I was like, nooo, what would be funny, Charlie? And he says to me, he says, says, making fun of men on Tinder. And if y’all need any more proof that Charlie and I are platonic soulmates, then dunno, my children, my roaches, I dunno-I dunno what more to give you.”

You can’t be bothered reading the comments, there’s too damn many. You also need to save your reading comprehension for the actual bios. It has a time limit, that darn thing.

“Okay, so I made a profile earlier, but I hadn’t swiped on anyone yet-” Despite the fact, Tinder helpfully informs you that already 99+ people have swiped right on you, “So, this is me,” You show the pictures you have of yourself, and damn, not to be a conceited narcissist, but you look really good. Like if you saw yourself on Tinder, you’d super like instantly. “Uhm, so, my bio-my bio says: let’s sauce in the tub together, ya dig? splishy splashy, giggle giggle.”

i cant believe we are witnessing y/n trying to form a coherent sentence live

shes trying give her time

ya dig??? y not capeesh

what scene from the godfather is this lol?

“My anthem, is,” You laugh, covering your lips with your hand, “Corpsie, this is form you-” Proudly, you show that indeed, Corpse’s E-GIRLS ARE RUINING MY FUCKING LIFE is listed as your anthem on Spotify, “Hehe.” Yes, you say that aloud.

Corpse_Husband: you’re killing me Corpse_Husband: thanks baby Corpse_Husband: now delete tinder ❤︎

You ignore his last quip, deciding it’s finally time to get this show on the road, “Right, let’s do this shit. I’m not actually going to swipe on any guys that look, uh, decent? Yuck, can’t believe I just said that, uhm, because I-because I feel like some actually deserve a chance with someone? I don’t wanna get anyone’s hopes up, as I am currently in a long distance relationship with Chrollo. So I’m just gonna swipe on, like, frat boy assholes. Because I don’t care if I hurt their feelings. Quite frankly I don’t think they possess them in the first place.”

The chat voices their agreements. With the ground rules set, you, giddy, click on the first profile.

Does Tinder know what you’re doing, your plan? The FBI agent watching you through your phone must be working overtime, bless his heart. They must, because the the first guy to meet you is named Jason, and there he is, blond hair and blue eyes, holding up a fish the size of his torso. Marginally adequate in looks, pretty good muscles. A solid 7 bordering on 8. He’s the same age as you, 15 miles away, and he studies at some college you don’t care enough to look up. Bio reads:

I like to drive fast. Fishing is my passion, but if you can’t catch me by the ocean, you’ll catch me catching waves, bro! Love a good gym date. You do squats, and I’ll keep a close eye to make sure you’re doing it correctly ;) You probably saw me at a party. Leader of the The Phi Kappa Psi. I’m a Gemini, if that matters lol.

You, of course, read it aloud, dramatically; provide some constructive criticism-he seems nice, but he’s a Gemini, so naturally, you can’t trust him at all! Also, that gym date session leaves little to be desired. With your rant done, you swipe right, and shocker! (not), it’s an instant match.

“Okie, I still wanna swipe of some profiles, so I’ll see what he’ll text later-” For a second you wonder the legalities of this stream, but you’re having too much fun to think of it further, “guys, I won't get sued, right?”

NOW she considers it

well....

if you do, we’ll kickstart your lawyer dw <3

Onto the next profile. Kevin, 25, is seen fixing his car- or, you assume he’s mid-fixing it, you don’t really know why else he’d hold a wrench and be covered in oil. He’s shirtless, and the caveman part of your brain echoes something closely resembling AWOOOGA!, but...but!...blonde hair, blue eyes. You pout again, “I don’t...I don’t really like blond boys, ya know? With the blue eyes and all, it’s just not my thing, uhm, unless it’s like-like...Armin from Attack on Titan. Else I don’t care.”

Onto the bio:

You have to treat a car like you treat a woman: go on long rides, take the lead, but most importantly, keep her oiled up 😜

“What the fuck did I just read?”

The chat is equally confused. You swipe right anyway- another match. Too easy.

The stream continues without incident for a solid thirty minutes- all of your matches, expect a few that genuinely looked like normal dudes that really couldn’t write a decent bio to save their lives, had been blond hair blue eyed gym rats with ranging forms of misogyny. Some opened with asking for nudes out right, some asked about your day first before asking for nudes. You prefer the former. Straight to the point! You admire the gall.

But then, down the forty-five minute mark a profile popped up that made you still by your phone, your smile dying as your eyes bulged. Dear God. Lord in heaven. Who is this demonspiit lookalike and why is he so fucking hot? The neck tats, the skateboard, the clothes- holy shit, you gotta close your mouth before some drool dribbles out.

No bio, just his name, Tyler, and that he’s 23.

“He boutta be 23 in me.” You mutter, swiping right with lightning speed.

WHAT DID SHE SAYYYYY?????????

tyler is y/ns karma for relentlessly mocking that one guy that had a whole ass list on what his “female” partner should be

^he deserved it and also tyler seems like a typical fuckboi y/n grow a braincell

look at mom 🥺 her eyes are sparkling

It wasn’t a match right away. You somehow expected as much, but it still upset you. Simp behavior, pathetic. The stream continued bravely, and when Tyler messaged you a simple “yo” you totally didn’t sequel. You didn’t manage to text him back on stream: texting all those guys that you didn’t really find all that attractive was easy, but this...You’re a sucker for a man who radiates red flag energy. His whole profile is a red flag. He might just be a red flag himself.

What can you do? Suddenly becoming color blind is not easy. Once the stream ends, you unmatch with everyone expect Tyler. He you chat with for a bit, but a sudden craving for different company makes you abandon him, too. You don’t feel too heartbroken for him- you’re certain there’s already too many girls in his dms. You wish them luck.

Happily, you delete Tinder. You go to Twitter, notice you’re trending again- look at you go! Queen shit- and as you compose a thank you tweet, something strange happens. You go to text Corpse, but when you click on his profile you grow cold.

YOU’RE BLOCKED. You can’t follow or see @/Corpse_Husband ‘s Tweets.

...Pardon? You hop onto Instragram and-also blocked. Seriously? And you thought you’re one petty bitch. Corpse is seriously prissy about everything. Damn, if he didn’t like your stream, he could’ve just said so. Didn’t need to, like, block you from his internet existence. So not cool.

You try texting him but no text go through. Well how will you let him know you deleted Tinder just like he asked? You relieve your frustrations by punching your pillow a few times. Later, you apologize to her, you didn’t mean to hurt her, it’s not her, it’s you. Fuck, 5 minutes of exile and you’re already loosing your mind.

“Raeeeeeeeeeeee!” You whine loudly. It’s roughly 2am now, but you don’t care. You’re too heartbroken to care. There’s a thump from her room, but nothing else, “Raeeeeeeeee!!!” You wail, wallowing in self-pity on your bed. You hear a very loud, very annoyed sigh from her room, followed by angry marching. Your door is abruptly thrown open, and in the dim, colorful light you see her scowl.

“What?” She grits.

“Can you please tell Corpse to unblock me from everything?”

“What did you do now?”

“I made fun of men on Tinder.”

She pauses, “...That doesn’t sound so bad.” She surmises, voice laced with suspicion, “What else?”

“...There was one really hot guy that I kinda sorta talked to after--”

“Y/n.”

“-But I totally deleted Tinder and honestly he was pretty boring, so, like, uhm, please?”

She sighs, the servery of which implies she is holding the weight of the world on her shoulders, and instantly you know that you won. She taps away at her phone, “You owe me one.” She states, and before you can reply, she exits your room and slams the door behind her.

Grinning, you text his phone again. The message goes through, oh gosh, you’re so relieved you feel like crying. This has been, officially, the worst five minutes of your life.

You Y DID U BLOCK ME LOSER!!! MAJOR LOSER ALERT!! I DELETED EVERYTHING IT WAS A JOKE r u still mad at me? y u always mad at me i never do anything:(

my husband You’re my baby, how do you think I’ll react when I see you publicly simping for some asshole on Tinder?

Oh no, he used the words, he delivered the killing blow. You’re finished. Your heart can’t take such a workout.

Not that you would ever admit it to him, though!

You hehe ur jellyyyy u always dis jealous hehe?

my husband Not jealous.

Yeah, you might not be the brightest tool in the shed, but even you know that’s a lie. You send him an array of kissy emojis that he doesn’t have the decency to reply to. Then, completely unprompted and dead serious, you send him a simple voice memo, saying: “You really have nothing to worry about, you know? You’re my favorite, Corpsie.”

He responds via text, reiterating that he’s not fucking jealous and that he just doesn’t like when you show such outward interest in anyone but it’s not like he cares or anything. It’s just really, like, weeeeird to see his baby simping for another man like that totally ruins the whole dynamic!!! It was only natural that he should block you on every social media platform, including his personal number (which, like, was completely necessary! Doesn’t matter that his viewers can’t see it, it’s gotta be super believable!), and inform his followers of that, because it’s all a joke, like, for the dynamic, that Youtube grind, you know? Ya dig? No personal feelings were involved at all. He totally wasn’t upset that you found someone else cute, no way!

my husband I’m not jealous. Lol.

You ik u repeated tht like 50 times u trynna convince me or??? lmao

my husband No comment. ...You don’t actually talk to anyone else like we’re talking, right?

You no one else calls me their baby if thts wat ur wondering at least not to my knowledge lol im all urs

my husband That makes me very happy to hear:)

Yeah, it makes you very happy, too.

hope you liked it!! xx

#corpse husband #corpse husband x reader #corpse #corpse x reader #corpse husband x y/n #corpse x y/n #myso #make you say oh #imagine #imagines

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vintagedolan · 4 years

Note

Can you do a blurb of jealous gray hanging out with you and your college best male friend? Like y’all have gotten drunk together and have inside jokes and Gray gets a bit jealous but you reassure him that you and your friend are just friends and not anything else? I hope that makes sense

Although he’d been offered the opportunity not to be countless times, and had been called a liar for saying that he was, Grayson Dolan actually had been sober his entire life. He would joke and say that the shit he and Ethan did when they were younger was wild enough without a compromised mind, that he didn’t need any help to have fun.

Which meant, at the end of the day, he had no idea how actions changed after three shots of tequila. And it seemed like everyone else at the party was in on the joke.

“Drink some of this please.” He held out a water bottle for you, his other hand holding your solo cup with his palm over the opening. You got distracted by the way his veins popped out in his hands.

“Why?”

“So I don’t have to carry you out of here in a few hours when the liquor takes over.”

You stuck out your tongue at him but took the bottle anyways, swigging down a few gulps that your organs were thankful for.

“Y/N?”

You spun around at the sound of the voice, unsure if you were imagining it. You didn’t even realize that you’d stumbled a bit at your movements, considering Grayson had steadied you with a hand on your waist.

“Jacob? Oh my god! Jake! I thought you weren’t coming!”

It was instinct to run over to him, accept the hug that he gave you, so strong that your feet lifted up off the ground. He didn’t even look up to see Grayson’s hand still in the air where your hip had been a moment ago.

“I heard you were gonna be here and I had to come. Finally took a break from studying?”

“Just for tonight. Had to get the college experience, yah know?”

“Oh, throwing up in a bar bathroom at Two Keys freshman year wasn’t enough of an experience for you? I held your fuckin hair and almost got kicked out cause they thought we were fuckin around in there, remember?”

“Holy shit, yeah, that bouncer was intense as fuck,” you laughed at the blurry memory. You’d been single then, and the rumors went on for weeks that you and Jacob were a thing. Realistically, you’d hadn’t had your eyes on anyone at the time - you didn’t find anyone until junior year. And you searched for him again, eyes lighting up when you found him in the kitchen where you’d left him.

In any other situation, Grayson would have gone soft when you looked at him like that. But he couldn’t quite get the image of someone else holding your hair back at some random bar before he even knew you. As gross as it was, he would have much rather it been him than Jacob.

“Sup Dolan,” Jacob offered him a hand, an invitation for a bro hug. Grayson took it to be nice, smacking him on the back a little harder than necessary. When they released his hand automatically went to you, slotting you against him with your ass back against one of his thighs.

“Baby do you remember that bouncer at Two Keys? The big guy with that snake neck tattoo?”

“No, not really.”

“Oh. Well he definitely knew that my fake was sus, and Jacob had to convince him to let me in. Remember what you said Jake?”

“C’mon, girls just wanna have fun!” You both said it at the same time and then busted out laughing, leaning over so far that Grayson held your waist to make sure you didn’t fall over. Jacob reached out on instinct too, a hand going to your shoulder that Grayson wanted to swat away.

“Why was it always Two Keys? Something always went wrong at Two Keys bro,” you laughed, racking your brain for more memories and jokes that the two of you had shared in your early college days.

Jacob remembered one first, a night where the DD had taken the two of you to taco bell and a mild sauce had exploded all over the both of you in the backseat. Or the time he’d forgotten he had a chemistry exam in the morning and you’d tried to sober him up as quickly as you could with a baguette and too much water.

In any other setting, Grayson would have walked away and cooled down. But there were too many guys he didn’t know, and you were too drunk to keep up with your drink on your own, so he sat there and seethed as he listened to all the stories that came before him.

You weren’t sure how long you talked with Jacob - it was rare that you got to see each other at the same party anymore, and you soaked up every minute of it until the alcohol in your system started to take over, making you yawn.

“Ah, the yawn. Yeah man, she’s probably out for the count,” Jacob sighed.

“Thanks. I’m aware.” He knew your signs, and it pissed him off that Jake did too.

You gave Jacob a final goodbye hug, one that was a bit too tight for Grayson’s liking - he kept his hand on your lower back the whole time, reaching with the other to put your cup in the sink.

Five minutes down the road and you were asleep in the passenger seat. Usually, he’d lace his fingers through yours, but he left your hand empty on the middle console for half the drive, a little vindication to himself. But he still held you up on the groggy walk into the house, still helped you take your makeup off, helped you change into one of his shirts.

You were still his girl, even if the night hadn’t gone the way he’d wanted it to.

He’d calmed down a bit, been able to remind himself that you were home with him, getting into his bed and curling up to his chest and not Jacob’s, but his mind was still spinning, only screeching to a halt when you got a text message.

Of fucking course.

You opened it, squinting at your screen. Your phone was right in front of his face, and he couldn’t help but read it along with you.

So good to see you tonight, I missed you! You were right about Grayson, he seems like a good guy. And he’s jacked so I know he can take care of you no matter what trouble you get into lol. I’m glad you’ve got him, need someone to take care of my bestie when I’m not around. Good luck with your hangover, ask him if he’ll send me his back workout tomorrow haha

Grayson deflated with every word he read. You talked about him when he wasn’t around, you talked about him with Jacob, you said nice things. And there he was, acting like a dick all night when you were just excited to see your friend. The guilt started to rise, and he fought it off by nuzzling his face in your hair.

“M’sorry,” he mumbled.

“For what?”

“For being a dick.”

You didn’t have the energy to reprimand him - in all honesty, you hadn’t really noticed.

“I guess I should be thankful for him actually,” he said, making you lean back so you could see his face.

“He kept you safe before I was around to do it. I hate thinking about you at a bar by yourself, so I’m glad he was there to look out for you.”

“And he’s just a friend. Always has been,” you reminded him. “And I’m in bed with you, and I’ve never been in a bed with Jacob. Well, one time we had to sleep on an air mattress but I pushed him off in the middle of the night on accident and he slept on the floor cause he thought I was mad. I wonder if he remembers that,” you mumbled, smiling at the laugh it got out of Grayson.

“I’m sure he does.”

“This is a lot more comfier than an air mattress. And I won’t kick you off, I promise,” you said, words starting to run together as your fatigue started to catch up again.

“Yeah, uh, please don’t,” he chuckled, tightening his arm around your shoulder. “Get some sleep, I love you.”

“Love you too. Only you.”

#and now imma go get a latte and a bagel before class hehe #blurb #g:blurb #hehehe #anon #ask #LMAO I HAD THE WRONG NAME A THE BEGINNING WHY DIDN'T YALL SAY SOMETHIN HAHA #jealous!grayson

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jamestrmtx · 3 years

Text

Fairytale Complex - [Undertale | Sans x Reader]

[Gender Neutral, Frisk's Parent Reader | Slow Burn]

Chapter Three | sans. (Part 1 of 3)

[First] | [Previous] | [Next]

meet me by the train station.

the place's bustlin' and tori's here with me, just in case you're worried 'bout meeting a stranger all alone.

That's surprisingly thoughtful.

And I'm guessing Tori means Toriel?

The goat lady who looked after Frisk?

yup.

she's gotta go deal with some legal stuff 'bout us living on the surface, so she can't stay for long.

but she'll still be here by the time you get there.

Hmm…

Now that just makes me more suspicious of you.

Tell me why it's important that only you specifically want to talk to me about this?

Doesn't Toriel know about what happened down there, too?

yeah, but…

i need to talk to you about somethin' else.

stuff that'll probably be a lil' difficult for me to explain, but that you should still know, being frisk's parent and all.

Now I'm curious.

I'm stuck in some traffic, but I should be there soon.

Would it still be okay with Toriel if I get there in the next ten to fifteen minutes?

textin' while drivin'?

My aunt chose to drive me here.

'Cuz she also said she doesn't trust the whole situation much.

heh.

alright.

tori says it's fine. she doesn't need to leave in the next hour so…

see ya soon, (l/n).

See you soon, mister Serif.

"How's he gonna know who you are if only you have a picture of him?" you aunt asks, eyes locked on the road. Her bright red nails, just as flashy as the rest of her outfit, glisten under the sun, fantasy jewellery and wrist watch doing the same. Her tanned skin almost glows with health in comparison to yours, yet to be healed from the past two months of tension and wait. There's also her signature and almost hair salon professional level of cleanliness when it came to grooming her hair, making her overall, outer appearance far more different and striking when compared to you.

"(Mom/Dad)'s all over the news now!" Frisk says, answering her question before you can even word your thoughts out in mind, too busy noticing how much you've let yourself go in so short of a time.

You plug your phone to the car charger and meet with the side view of your aunt's face. "Like Frisk said. The guy I'm meeting says my face's been thrown out on the news a lot lately, so he already knows what I look like." You pull down the mirror and take a quick look at yourself, eye bags and stress acne now partially covered with a cheap, (s/t) foundation and expression made to look less tired thanks to a full eight hours of sleep. Still, you're far from looking anywhere near to the days before Frisk's disappearance or all the pictures displayed on the news, these from a similar time. All the stress and constant sorrow was still present on most of your features, from something as subtle as the loss of brightness in your eyes to something as noticeable as the drag in your walk and the small slump in your posture.

"Do I look okay, auntie?" you ask, taking advantage of a stop sign.

Brenda spares a quick but meaningful glance at you and a small smile manages to show on her face. She stays quiet even as her eyes go back to facing the road. At a second stop, this one caused by a red light, she looks at you again, saying, "Why are you so concerned about that, dear? I get wanting to look well and dignified for meeting new people, but this is the third time you've asked me today." She giggles when Frisk does, both apparently sharing the same thought. "You look fine, by the way. Though a bit of rest could do you good." The light changes and she carries on driving, slowing down and turning on the signal when she sees the train station to her left. "How many hours do you work, by the way? If you're still working overtime, you should stop that now. Not only for my dear grandchild's sake, but for you to get your long overdue beauty sleep."

"...Sixty hours a week?" you mutter, already anticipating a dramatic reaction from her. Even Frisk seems to notice your answer's not favourable enough to her, so they brace themselves by grabbing on to their seatbelt and pretending they're not paying attention to the conversation anymore.

Staying true to herself, Brenda almost slams the brakes just as she's halfway into parallel parking and snaps her gaze over to you, eyes wide and mouth agape. "What?!"

"Sixty a week," you repeat, louder now. "I had to get my mind off Frisk going missing somehow, so I... took that chance to save up some more by working overtime."

"That's fifteen hours too much, dear." She frowns. "That's either twelve hours a day for five days a week, or working non-stop every day for at least eight to nine hours! No wonder you look so stressed. What about your friends? Your family? Your coworkers?" She seems to notice why you've lowered your voice and does that herself, reminded over Frisk's presence at the back seats. "Oh, honey…" She sighs. "Did you really just work, eat, and sleep those two months they were gone?"

"...Maybe," you reply, looking away from her. "I just didn't know what else to do, and having free time for myself made me feel more guilty about it. The only time I sat down was to watch some TV for when I couldn't sleep at night."

Your aunt finishes parking and lets out another sigh. A gentler look crosses her eyes and she gives in, letting her body relax. "Do you have enough to get by? Please, be honest with me so I can help you out. Alright?"

You smile back at her and nod. "I have enough now. I'm pretty sure I can get by with a regular schedule again."

"With weekends off?"

"With weekends off."

Her smile grows and she unlocks the car, allowing you to step out. "Be careful out there, alright? Just make sure to call me and I'll head back here straight away if anything strange comes up."

"Thank you, auntie. So I'll pick up Frisk at five?"

"Oh, there's no rush. You can always stay the night, anyway!"

After a nod, you get down from the car, open the back door, and climb onto the empty seat left next to Frisk.

"See you later, dear."

You kiss their cheek and look at the phone resting in their hands. There were plenty of questions you wanted to ask them, such as who was Alphys and how she'd gained enough knowledge to develop something with that level of technology, and why it still worked up here despite being programmed to function at the Underground. You remind yourself of the people waiting for you at the train station and wrestle those curiosities down, setting all questions aside for later. "Be good, okay?"

They nod, sign a "Love you!" with their hand, and hold you back to give you a yellow sticky note, folded in two. "Give this to him. And don't forget he can be unexpected sometimes!"

You sign an "I love you, too" back to them, take the note, and step out of the car, waving at them and your aunt before closing the door and pocketing the note away. It stays unread, and while you'd like to know what's written on it as well as the reasons for Frisk warning you about meeting with that monster in particular, they'd specified it was for more sillier reasons, like that of meeting up with a stand up comedian, or more frankly put: a clown or a court jester.

Now alone, you take out your phone and check the messages, a new one from 'Mister Serif' showing up.

hey, uh…

tori hadda go.

an emergency happened, so now she's gotta rush off to the department to see what's up with some documents she turned in.

i know this seems sus as hell, so just wait for me at a more open area, alright?

stick to anybody you're comfortable with and we'll meet there.

I'm honestly touched at how much you're worried about this.

Though all that just makes me think I'm being catfished even more now.

Are you for real, mister Serif?

Can someone be as observant and thoughtful as you appear to be?

see for yourself.

>> Attachment - 1 image

You can't avoid being taken aback when the monster sends you a picture of himself. It's a definite recent one, given he's sitting by a bench close to the train tracks. He holds up a shaka sign with one hand and a coffee cup on the other. A grin decorates his face and the bright lighting shows the picture was taken just now, sun rays piercing through the windows.

I'm somewhat convinced.

need more proof?

Who are you, my Cinder match?

if u wanna.

Oh God.

You're killing me.

inna good way?

Perhaps.

You stop yourself when you realize you're on the verge of flirting with someone you haven't even met in person yet, let alone introduce yourself properly to. The picture he'd sent doesn't help either, as you can only begin to question yourself and your morals over having found him attractive for a split second. While it could have just as easily been the surprise of him sending a picture out of nowhere, it could've also been how laid-back he seemed in that picture, striking a shaka sign that made him look just like a surfer dude and a coffee cup to contrast with that vibe, adding a spark of the typical college student you saw at campus, his hoodie and sneakers only adding to that feeling.

It's then that you realize something's off.

If he was holding a cup with one hand and a sign in the other…

Then who took the picture?

Though you're pretty sure you're overthinking the situation now, you're still better safe than sorry and take advantage of your recent fooling around with him to pass that worry off as a joke.

Wait a minute, mister Serif.

yeah?

If you're holding a cup with one hand and striking a pose with the other, then who took the picture?

Or did you use your magic for that?

a random dude who looked trustworthy enough took it for me.

he's one of those guys who're totally ok with us living here at the surface, so he just snapped the picture for me and even asked if it was for a date i was gonna meet and all.

no magic needed.

And I'm the President of the United States.

But, seriously now…

Are you for real?

yeah.

>> Attachment - 1 image

The picture displays him with a bearded, brown skinned man clad in a suit and holding a suitcase, looking ready for work. Still, his smile shows little to no seriousness and instead displays youth and content over having his picture taken with a potential friend. His height surpasses the monster's by half a foot, though when you compare it to the rest of the people in the background, it's clear Serif is simply shorter compared to the average human. You try not to let your eyes linger too much on the monster when you're done looking at the man, not wanting to fall into the trap of your mind having found him attractive earlier ago. Still, you can't help yourself and take a more thorough look at him again, seeing him now with his eye sockets closed, almost mimicking a pair of eyelids squinting in joy. His arm's hung over the man's shoulders, and vice-versa.

i made a new pal.

"meet up already!" - his words, not mine.

Trying to be smooth, huh?

maybe.

is it working?

Somewhat.

But...

Strange Cinder date vibes aside,

I'm almost there.

aight.

can't wait to meet ya, bud.

You slip the phone back in your pocket and go up the stairs of the train station, stopping when you make it to the line of benches close to the tracks. True to his word, the skeleton sits on one of them and the man who'd taken a picture with him is now waving at him, seemingly saying his goodbyes and headed off to work. You approach the station one careful step after the other, pace slowing down more and more as you feel a sudden awkwardness slip on your shoulders.

Your texts sent off vibes you didn't want present now that you were about to meet him in person. You were still worried about what happened with Frisk a few days ago, and how their happiness pretty much froze when being asked if the monsters had treated them well during their time at the Underground. The one you were about to meet could very well be one of those who'd hurt them, so you brace yourself and try not to be swayed by the softer atmosphere present during your texting with him. You acknowledge the man who'd taken his picture with a wave and a smile back at him. Then, you continue walking and finally approach the bench.

"It's nice to meet you, mister Serif." You acknowledge him with a wave, unsure of how friendly you can be with him.

"Likewise, pal." He holds a hand out to you, bringing forth the warning Frisk had given to you about him.

Out of all the things Frisk had warned you about, it was to be careful around the skeleton, but primarily due to how he seemed to be the type to joke around and prank people often. One thing in particular you were warned about was in shaking hands with him, so right as he offers his hand out to you and just as you're about to reach out, you miss his hand, take a step closer, and pull him along for a hug instead. You then unfold the sticky note and press it against his back with enough pressure for him to feel it and let go when you're done.

"Frisk warned me about you, and even though they haven't told me anything I should be worrying about yet, I do know I should be careful for other reasons. And they told me to give that note to you, by the way."

You sit down and watch as the monster attempts to get the sticky note unstuck, his short height proving to be a disadvantage, as it also comes with shorter arms. He goes as far as to use his magic to get it out, leaving you to bite back a smile and wonder if you've been too rude with him just now. Still, you wait and keep your eyes on the train tracks while he reads the note you've left for him.

"Not gonna say anything about it?" you ask, surprised to hear nothing from him even as he slips the note in his pocket.

"Patience, pal," he replies, words followed with a chuckle and continued with a wink. "Just take it as some friendly payback on my part -- Now we're even." He sits back down and meets with your eyes, his expression changing from humoured to stern at the drop of a hat. "So, what you're sayin' here is the kid hasn't said much about me yet?"

"No," you reply, hesitating. You fight between keeping a smile and a frown. "They've been awfully quiet after I asked them if there were any people down there who treated them badly." You catch yourself becoming emotional, so you breathe and blink a few times to fight that back. "It... It feels like they shut themselves away from me, and now I'm not too sure about how to approach the situation anymore." You stop to catch your breath again, feeling yourself grow anxious already. "They can talk non-stop when it's about all the good things Toriel, Alphys, Papyrus, and… And even what you did for them, but whenever I ask if there was anything that made them feel unsafe, they… They bottle up and run off to do whatever chore there's left to do around the house."

A gust of wind helps freshen up your burning face, product of a train stopping nearby. You wait for him to speak up, body tensed all the while.

"Y'know, I…" The monster sighs, faces down, and rubs the back of his neck, looking lost in thought. "I think I can answer that for ya, but it's gonna be a bit of a long story." He glances at his phone for a moment, seemingly to check the time, and later adds, "Wanna head out somewhere to eat? We can talk about it there over food and drinks. Better than talkin' on an empty stomach, don't you think?"

Despite how somber the mood's become, that trademark grin of his you've already grown used to seems to stand out a lot more now, bringing forth a genuine, welcoming expression in addition to the offer he'd made to you. "Sure," you reply, smile returning. "And... Sorry for dumping all that on you all of a sudden."

You both stand up and make your way out of the station, walking side by side as you continue with the conversation.

"It's cool, pal," he says. "I'd be a lot more worried if you didn't worry about it."

[First] | [Previous] | [Next]

-------------------------

This turned out to be a whopping 7k+ word long chapter, so it's been divide into 3 parts (between 2k to 3k words each, which is the usual length of each update).

So... Long story short: there'll be a double update next week in order to post Parts 2 and 3!

Expect the same thing for whenever a chapter exceeds that limit. :-)

#sans x reader #undertale x reader #lgbt #lgbt themes #gender neutral reader #male reader #female reader #mother reader #father reader #parent reader #chubby reader #long fic #romcom #adventure #mystery #platonic relationships #slow burn

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trashbinbackyard · 3 years

Note

jack/mirad & kai/helvi

I woke up at 8 and went like eeeh i can sleep another half an hour and them boom, 1pm

1. Who's the one who's reckless and always getting into trouble while the other gotta pull em out

Mirad has grown past his most reckless tendencies, Jack however hasn't, but he's more at danger to himself than to others

Kai is very careful when he's out hunting and he's never alone. Helvi however has a habit of going into the woods alone

2. Who's the one to send the other "I love my gf/bf" memes

I don't feel like either?

If they had phones it'd be Helvi

4. Which one spoils the other more and do they ever get competitive to show the other more love

Mirad spoils Jack, lets be real, it doesn't turn into a competition bc it's in moderation, and mostly Mirad treating Jack to some of his skincare products

Kai miiiiight spoil Helvi juuuuust a bit, he doesn't mind getting up way earlier to fix her breakfast and help her tie her hair and acquiring many fur blankets

5. How many years did it take to get married or was it just not for them

A few years for sure, when they both were sure about it. Probably talked about it too before Mirad proposed

Few years, if wasn't for Kai's role in the village they would've gotten married later, as neither really saw marriage as That important and just something they one day would like to do.

6. What was their wedding like

Small, just closest family and couple friends, nothing extravagant for the middle aged men

Whole day event basically with everyone from the village and surrounding area invited (against Kai's best wishes), Weddings, and especially high profile weddings like that are few and far between and they're quite the event. Small ceremony but then a huge feast with dancing singing and general revelry

7. Is their friends/family supportive

Ellen is very happy for them both, Mirad's parents were wary but approve later on, Marda is still sus about Jack

Very much so, Kory pretty much pushed them to get married already, Kat when she finds out is very happy for them both. Helvi's parents are so proud and treat Kai like close family

8. How does one comfort the other when the other is in distress/having a panic attack/crying

Mirad talks to Jack gently, checks if he hasn't hurt himself, bring him a snack and drink. When Mirad's distressed Jack will ask if he can do anything and keep him company if he lets him

If Kai's in distress he tends to shut down and all Helvi can really do is keep him company and hold him. If Helvi's upset Kai will call a timeout and just go somewhere with her where she can calm down and talk things through

9. Which one dissociates

Jack mostly

10. Which one stares at the other's booty like "damn" and how does the other react when catching them

Both. Mirad would be more cheeky (hehe) in his reaction while Jack is like "my booty?? :0"

Helvi. Kai blushes

11. When they live together what kinda place do they live in? What does their home look like?

Both had their separate places, where Mirad's was very neat and organized and Jack's was a whole mess. Jack would still keep his place as a workshop while he pretty much now lives with Mirad, where he learns to respect the house rules

They share a two-story chief's house with Kory and a garm, they have the whole lower level to themselves pretty much, and it's quite big, it's very cozy and bit cabin'y even if it's larger

13. How does each act when getting drunk

Jack's a sad drunk, first thing Mirad knew about him tbh. Mirad doesn't drink if I remember correct

Neither of them want to get Drunk drunk, just tipsy. Kai loosens up and gets chattier. Helvi gets giggly and cuddly

14. Which one rolls over in the morning to wake up the other one just to give kiss them

Beware the morning breath. Mirad wakes up before Jack

Kai doesn't wake Helvi up when he leaves the bed to go prepare breakfast, but when that's done he will kiss her goodmorning

16. Does one have an interest the other think is weird but wants to listen to it regardless

Jack likes welding for fun too, he's made some little "art" pieces for Mirad with textures he knows he likes, and Mirad appreciates it. Mirad's big into working out and Jack will be out of breath in two minutes if he joins but it's a pleasant experience

Helvi loves making potions and instruments and while Kai knows little about either he's up for helping her if she asks, she also sings. I know this seems kinda random bc I just know thought of it, but Kai's into drawing with charcoals, it would be fitting for his "quiet kid with not many friends" character (it hits a little too close home lmao)

17. Which one uses cropped hentai as reaction images

That's very much up Jack's alley

If they had phones, Helvi

18. Does one of them kinkshame the other

Not kinkshame, more like kink-concern on Mirad's part like "Jack, honey, WHY do you wanna be choked that hard"

Neither of them have really out there kinks, though Helvi would be up to do it in the woods. Just have to be extra careful they're far enough from any civilization

19. Is one of them self conscious about their body? If so how does the other comfort them

Jack, he's pudgy and wrinkly. Mirad doesn't mind it one bit and calling Jack a sexy beast on the regular makes Jack happy and less ashamed of his body

Helvi used to, before trans-your-gender spell hit, (and bc she basically got to decide what her body would look like of course she has no regrets) Kai is very body-neutral about himself, yeah that's a body, nothing special but ain't nothing wrong with it either

21. What is their song? Like the song that gives them overwhelming feelings?

Well I have listed Silent storm for them once and you know what, I stand by it

From Heilung Traust and Krigsgaldr (first half of it anyway), both were big inspirations for Helvi's character in general and Maria Franz is her voiceclaim too lol (also the guy on krigsgaldr second verse for Kai's voiceclaim (before 4.40 mark))

28. Are either of them mentally ill, if so how do they help one another cope

Jack is a recovering addict, also depressed, and alcoholic (recovering when they get together). Mirad is also an ex-addict and while he's much further into his recovery he's not immune to the shitty stuff that still might happen, they're each other's peer support

Helvi used to have bad dysphoria

29. Does one have a spot on them where they would melt when the other kisses them there

Head, forehead for Jack (and lips of course) he's not that big into getting kisses on his body. Mirad is sensitive everwhere but IIRC neck and sides are big

Helvi's wrists and neck just below her ears. Kai's throat and forehead

30. Do they dance together

Mirad poledances, Jack enjoys the view

At their wedding sure, both lil tipsy and letting loose, both lost their flower crowns that evening

31. Do they sing together

More like hum if they feel like it

Helvi's the one signing, Kai might join in on a verse or two

34. Are they a reckless couple or safe

Pretty safe with the occasional reckless on Jack's part

Safe

35. What be their kinks and do they try each other's kinks

Love and Care, and choking

They're pretty vanilla

37. Do they get into fights often? If so what do they fight over and how do they make up?

Arguments sure about Jack's self-destructive behaviors sometimes but the rule is never go to sleep angry so they both reflect on it with compassion

Not really, at least before The Incident, apologize and kiss and make up

38. Which one's top, bottom, verse

Mirad's a top, Jack is a pillow princess vers

Kai's top, Helvi's bottom

39. What kinda sex they be having (gentle rough whatever)

Whatever they're in the mood for, some tender lovin'? Sure! Get hot and heavy? With moderation. Break into laughter in the middle of it? Silly is also a mood!

It starts off as hot and heavy but calms down to more gentle

40. Who would fight in honor for the other if someone would insult them

Jack would just hit them with the "don't be meeeaaan 🥺🥺" Mirad I feel like would go the verbal route as well but more stern

It's common knowledge to Not insult the village shaman (the one who has illness remedies and the one who blesses you before you travel), and you DONT insult the the chief's kid/chief. They're both capable of defending themselves but Kai will step in if he happens to hear

44. Do they want kids

Nah, who needs kids when you got nieces

Yeah, and I've finally made up my mind, they're gonna adopt a bunch (and bc you dropped out of the campaign I can tell you how: a village not that near but not that far gets attacked by a power hungry druid and leaves bunch of kids without parents and the party will escort them back to Kai's village, before they go after the druid)

#whoowhee there was a LOT #the power hungry druid is part of visenya's backstory and I was planning on the party taking a route that crosses Ziva's fam's village and #they see it in ruins (also bc of the power hungry druid)#idk how it's gonna play out yet but thats the plan #armed asshats #space shitstorm #im sure you have made a post with songs for mirad and jack and only one I remember is moves like jagger #jack is pretty dysfunctional at the beginning but with love and support from mirad and ellen and therapy he will get better

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bokunoheroanalysisforthefuture · 3 years

Text

Hello hello to all the new followers! However you came across this blog, thanks for being willing to put this on your dashboards. I still have half of this chapter left to go, but hopefully I’ll be able to knock out a larger chunk of it since it’s gonna flow better… at the least, I’ll try to get to where Episode 1 of the anime cuts off.

...huh, damn, now I’m curious about exploring differences between anime and manga… I don’t have time for that, this manga thing is already more of a time-eater than expected… plus considering how many chapters I need to get through… yeah no, I will leave anime-manga comparison to others.

Anyways, into today’s pages! I wanna get this chapter done this week!

[No. 1 - Midoriya Izuku: Origin]

...you, I’m gonna translate you.

[transliteration of sign: 頭上 (zujou) [overhead] 注意 (chuui) [caution, being careful, attention (heed), warning, advice]

[Translation: caution, overhang 2m]

I mean, it’s obvious because of the context, but now I know how to pronounce it! And I guess you guys can as well. No, I will not be ashamed of spending fifteen minutes on this. I’m probably gonna stay in the habit of translating stuff as I come across it.

Anyways, to the chapter itself. Izuku doesn’t do that ‘All Might impression’ thing here like he does in the anime, just basically hypes himself up with grit teeth and determination. Which is a shame, but it makes sense since that sort of thing would look/turn out better in animation anyways. Still a little weird he had a flashback there, but like whatever, it’s supposed to give readers context into the setting and character, this whole opening chapter’s gonna be a bit weird like that.

The villain comes up out from the holes in the sewer grate, and holy fuck does this come off as just a bit of a horror manga, if I saw that I’d be terrified.

You know, out of context this is REALLY disturbing… no wait, in context this is disturbing too, nevermind. But yeah, look at that terrified kid, that is not the face he was wearing earlier against Katsuki, making it even more obvious that he wasn’t scared at that point.

The villain pounces on and envelops Izuku, covering his nose and mouth and making Izuku realize he’s been attacked by, you know, a villain. Which I would share the image of, but honestly it’s graphic as hell, if you wanna see it go look at the manga yourselves.

Yeah, it’s a wonder Izuku didn’t have nightmares for months after this, or have issues with water or potentially drowning/suffocating. Also, honestly, with this hijacking the body thing, I’m looking at the amount of mass of the sludge and the size of Izuku, and I have to remind myself again that this is a shounen manga with urban fantasy magic, logic isn’t a concern here.

But yeah, the villain is super vague about who the ‘he’ he’s avoiding is, while Izuku is frantically trying to scrape at the sludge to no effect. Also, after being in the sewers, that HAS to be some nasty gunk, yikes, how did Izuku not come down with something?

Izuku’s struggles makes him drop his charred notebook while panicking about his death and begging someone to come save him. The book flips open to his conceptual hero costume, which we know is going to end up the ‘first’ version of his costume, though obviously it’s going to undergo some revisions as the series progresses (which is a small thing I like about the series a lot). If I recall right, this is also what prototype!Izuku’s costume was going to look like!

Fortunately for Izuku, in the next page All Might punches his way up out of the sewers, letting both the villain and Izuku know he’s there, and- god, I wouldn’t trust those groceries for any sort of safe consumption, even if they are… two bottles?? That’s it?? What-

Sure, whatever, two bottles of soda, I guess, isn’t that not good for people who have had their stomach removed because of too much sugar or something? Is him being down a stomach even actually canon or just popular fanon? I suppose we’ll find out soon enough.

Anyways, All Might showed up and punched the villain away from Izuku, basically only hitting with the shockwave to avoid hurting the kid too much. Also, we get this gem of a face:

Incredible.

Izuku passes out, and wakes up a bit later to All Might slapping his face, which like, sir, sir, that’s not how you take care of a victim of a villain attack that definitely isn’t an allegory for another kind of assault. But yeah, All Might is sort of out of ‘character’ while waiting for Izuku to get up, and then shoves himself back into it once Izuku’s awake, which is… interesting, and makes sense.

Izuku naturally freaks out, and All Might does a pose while apologizing for his mistakes and explaining his sloppiness with the villain - he’s new to the area, and besides that, he’s ‘off camera’. Which, yeah, you really get the sense this is his TV persona pushed forward. He also thanks Izuku for success in finally containing the villain, and Izuku gives us this hilarious gem:

Ah, meta jokes. Izuku looks around for his notebook for an autograph, only to see it’s already been signed. He bows enthusiastically and says he’ll keep it as a family heirloom, and All Might heads off to take the villain in and to ‘catch him again on tv’.

Izuku wants him to wait, because he still has something to ask, but All Might says he’s got no time, and crouches to jump away, with just a shot of Izuku’s desperate face before All Might takes off, the ‘thanks for your support’ dragging after him like the words themselves couldn’t keep up, and again that is just a cool fucking effect and use of shape and warping to give effects otherwise not possible in text and just- gah, I love comic/manga art for these reasons, so freaking cool!

You’re an all star.

Sorry not sorry. But yeah, the bottles are still there in his pockets - his definitely totally secure open pockets. Honestly, with or without Izuku, he might have dropped those bottles because what the fuck All Might.

All Might tries to shove Izuku off until Izuku reminds him that he will die if he falls, which gets him to pause and go ‘true enough!’ Izuku says he’s got a lot of things to ask, and All Might asks him to close his eyes and mouth to avoid the wind drag. All Might coughs and grunts, with a drop of blood escaping from between his teeth, and him swearing about it.

Onto the next page, and we have some background kanji that I am definitely going to waste time translating, because that’s just who I am.

Top windows/hanging sign: 卜 (uranai) [divination, fortune telling] 黄葉 (kouyou/momiji) [autumn/fall colors, leaves changing color, layered colors in garments (resembling autumn colors)]

[rough translation: fortunate garments / lucky coloring.]

I’m gonna assume this is something to go with Japanese culture and their beliefs around what certain colors mean.

Middle banner/hanging sign: Su/Ta/De [study]

Not confident at this one but I cannot grok how messy those katakana are and so I just have given up on that for now. If someone can confirm, that’d be sweet of you.

Lower windows/hanging sign: [事]務所 (jimusho) [office]

Lower banner: Ma/a/ke/t/to [Market]

Shop overhang: Fu/ra/shi/[mu?] [Flashy] 喫茶 (kissa) [teahouse/coffee shop/cafe]

Flashy Cafe makes sense, but I’m not confident in the katakana when we can only see three of them and no way to know about modifiers,,,

Victory.

Alright, now that I’m done crying over that, onto actual chapter analysis. We get the ‘whoosh’ of something falling, before seeing the POV of the sludge guy coming back to consciousness, frustrated with All Might, and we also get a peek at some kids approaching… aka Katsuki and his minions.

First off, the branding on the can is hilarious and weirdly suited to the situation. Secondly, you can just see Katsuki kicking the bottle in the bottom left corner there, which probably knocks it open for, you know, the upcoming events. And huh, both of the minions smoke, which Katsuki chastises with displeasure in the panel after next.

So Katsuki blames Izuku for ‘messing with him’ and that Izuku being ‘full of stupid dreams like when they were kids’ pisses him off. Which he emphasises by blowing up the can in his hand. I wonder if that’s meant to be a reference to him thinking Izuku’s just paying lip service to being a hero just to annoy Katsuki, at least in his POV?

But yeah, Katsuki shakes his hand after that - which meant he DID feel some backlash for blowing up a can in his hand, or perhaps the superheating of the metal before it went? Either way, backlash! He turns back to yell at the two about their smoking and how it’d go on his record, and the two freak out and point behind Katsuki, before we go to their POV:

But yeah, another decent stopping point here. There should only be two posts after this for chapter 1, based on my skimming of the rest of the pages. I really want to have the All Might convo separate, and then the whole sludge fight and aftermath… but we’re getting there! :D

#chapter 1 #readthrough #opening arcs #boku no hero academia #my hero academia #midoriya izuku #yagi toshinori #bakugou katsuki #not the best post but it has some cute moments #the last two posts though are gonna be whammies #yeah I do waste time translating stuff that doesn't need translation #no i will not take constructive criticism about it #anyways hope y'all are having a good day #:D

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letterboxd · 4 years

Photo

Ten Things We Learned at the Rise of Skywalker Press Conference.

Director J.J. Abrams and the key cast spill some beans about Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

Although we’re gifted more Star Wars content than ever these days—all hail baby Yoda—a new Star Wars film still means something. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker “is wrapping not one film, not three films, but nine,” says director J.J. Abrams, “so the responsibility was significant.”

Abrams is only the second two-time Star Wars director after George Lucas, lured back because “we live in a crazy time, and Star Wars to me was about hope. It was about community, it was about the underdog… Seeing all oddballs represented and the most unlikely friends. It really is about hope, and it’s about coming back to a sense of possibility.”

As the culmination of the nine-film Skywalker saga, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker has the dual burden of wrapping up one of—if not—the most beloved cinematic stories ever told, and helping the franchise move on from the often toxic divisiveness associated with the previous film, Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi. Which was amazing, by the way.

Daisy Ridley (Rey) and Adam Driver (Kylo Ren) in ‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’.

Letterboxd’s West Coast reporter Dominic Corry reports his learnings from a press event with the key cast, plus Abrams, Lucasfilm head Kathleen Kennedy, and co-writer Chris Terrio (an Oscar winner for Argo).

1. Sure, the fans are everything, but you can’t think about them. “My job as director was to make sure that all the pressures of all the obvious things—fan expectations and studio—weren’t on the set, so that on the set we could have a buoyancy, a sense of being spry,” says J.J. Abrams. “While it was never quite an ‘indie’ on the set of this movie, we needed to keep the thing feeling as human as possible, and not like a massive machine.” Oscar Isaac (Poe Dameron) agrees: “The way we approached shooting a lot of these scenes, there was a looseness to it. There were things shot in big, beautiful, choreographed takes that are just astounding to watch.”

2. It’s all good when you have the right people. “We didn't know at the beginning of The Force Awakens exactly what it would look like with Daisy Ridley and Adam Driver and Oscar Isaac and John Boyega,” says Abrams. “What would that cast be like? On the first day of Rise of Skywalker, we knew those things were working. What we didn’t know was everything else. The scale of the movie is pretty enormous, [but] none of that would matter if you didn’t care deeply and track with the people. So the most important thing—people—we were good with. We knew we had this incredible cast, who I think have gone beyond people’s expectations and are extremely spectacular in the film.”

Anthony Daniels (C-3PO) and Oscar Isaac (Poe Dameron).

3. Isaac and Boyega fail, again, to quell the Poe and Finn-shipping frenzy. “When Oscar first came in, the chemistry was blatant,” John Boyega (Finn) reminisces. “There was a natural vibe between me and Oscar. I don’t know why. I just liked the guy.” Oscar Isaac elaborates in, er, more detail. “He came into my dressing room, he was so sweet. He was like, ‘You wanna run the scene before?’ and I’m like ‘Yeah!’ In the dressing room we were like butt-to-butt and ran the scene together and from then on we’ve been in that position.”

4. Rian Johnson’s Last Jedi set things up nicely for Skywalker. “Larry Kasdan and I, and Michelle Rejwan and Kathy [Kennedy], the producers, we had talked about quite a few things back [on The Force Awakens], so it was a bit of picking up where we had left off,” Abrams explains of Rise of Skywalker’s storyline. “What Rian Johnson had done in The Last Jedi had set up some things that were wonderful for the story. One of the things being that the cast was separated. The characters weren’t together for the entire movie, essentially, so this was the first time this group got to be together.”

Getting together with co-writer Chris Terrio to pick up the threads, Abrams says, “we immediately wanted to tell a story of an adventure, there were some very specific things that we were both drawn to immediately. We just started doing that thing that you do, which is you say: ‘what do you desperately want to see? What feels right?’”

5. Keri Russell freaked J.J. Abrams out. New cast member Keri Russell, who plays the mysterious bad-ass Zorii Bliss, kept her mask on between takes. “J.J. emailed me and said: ‘Do you wanna be in Star Wars?’, and I was like, ‘Yeah!’ Then he told me the idea about the mask. Personally I loved the mask. That’s my fantasy: that I can see everyone, in a super-tough version of myself in costume, and nobody can see me. That’s my dream. It’s a real power play. Because no one can really see what you’re thinking, and you can see everyone else.”

Keri Russell as Zorii Bliss.

The problem was, says Abrams, “Keri loved the mask so much that the first two days she worked as Zorii, the entire two days, I never saw her face. She could have, like most people, taken the mask off between takes. Or after a couple of hours. Or after two whole days! I got to work with Keri for a couple of days and never saw her. It was weird.”

6. There are horses in space. Space horses. Fellow new addition Naomi Ackie, who plays mysterious freedom fighter Jannah, found her character through Jannah’s physicality. “I felt like Jannah’s strength was in her body, so when I got to training, that’s when I was like, ‘I’ve got this’, being able to do pull-ups and horse riding, and with that came the confidence that I hadn’t previously experienced.” (Those space horses have a name: orbaks.)

Naomi Ackie as freedom fighter Jannah.

7. Richard E. Grant broke the review embargo and was not sued (yet). Third major new cast addition Richard E. Grant, who plays Allegiant General Pryde, feared he was in deep trouble for tweeting his reaction to the movie after a cast screening the night before this press event. “I thought that Disney would sue me, because I think you’re not supposed to say anything about it. But I didn’t tweet any spoilers,” he promised, before going on to review the film some more.

Just seen the 1st cast screening of @starwars #THE RISE OF SKYWALKER. What it achieves, weaves & resolves, is a total emotional meltdown & resurrection of the Spirit. Bravo to @jjabrams & his astonishing cast & creative crew 💥🚀💥🚀💥🚀💥🚀💥🚀💥🚀 pic.twitter.com/EwtYghYTXK

— Richard E. Grant (@RichardEGrant)

December 4, 2019

“Having seen the first one when I was a theater student when I was twenty years old, before many of this cast were even born, it’s an extraordinarily emotional thing to see just the passing of time that goes through all of these movies. It felt really like a combination of everything I’d read in the Bible, Greek mythology, The Wizard of Oz all rolled into one. It delivers an emotional wallop at the end that I was totally unprepared for. I was wiped out and I barely slept. So thank you very much for having me.”

8. Carrie Fisher is everywhere. “I, like everyone who knew her, loved Carrie,” says Abrams. “The idea of continuing the story without Leia wasn’t a possibility, and there was no way we were gonna do a digital Leia. There was no way we would ever re-cast it. But we couldn’t do it without her. And when we went back to look at the scenes that we hadn’t used in The Force Awakens, what we realized is we had an opportunity and we could use that footage, use the lines that she was saying, use literally the lighting, the… [at this moment a stage light suddenly and unexpectedly turns off] …that was amazing. That was creepy. Hi Carrie. That’s so Carrie, by the way, to do that. Weird.

The late Carrie Fisher (Leia) hugs Daisy Ridley (Rey).

“In any event,” Abrams continues, “we knew we had an opportunity to use the footage to create scenes that Leia could be in. And of course, had Carrie been around—and it’s still impossible for me to believe she isn’t, because we’ve been editing with her for about a year, and she’s been very much alive with us in every scene—if we’d had Carrie around, would we have done some different things here and there? Of course we would have. But we had an opportunity to have Carrie in the movie, and working with all the actors, including Billie Lourd, her daughter, who’s in scenes with her, we were able to do something that Carrie herself, I’d like to think, would be happy with. She’s great in the movie, of course. And it’s still emotional and moving to think of her and how sad we all are that she’s not sitting here with us.”

9. Everyone is emotional. Daisy Ridley found the emotional demands of playing Rey more trying than the physical burden. “With the physical stuff, you train and train and train… obviously the stamina needs to be there for you to continue to do the thing. But I would say it was more demanding emotionally, because there really wasn’t a day where I was like, ‘Oh, it’s just a quick scene’. Coming from the last one, which was quite heavy, even the joyous scenes I found very strange to do. That was probably the most tricky thing, to sustain that emotion. There’s a singular intention that was tiring.”

Likewise, Oscar Isaac found his character’s optimism tested. “He’s always had a bit of wild-card energy in figuring out where he fits in the story, and I remember J.J. getting excited about dirtying up the squeaky flyboy image that he’s had for a bit and just revealing a bit more of his personality. [We see] the hope that I think he in particular brings, a kind of relentless, almost aggressive optimism that he has. And how that is tested. And how he tries to push them all even when it seems quite hopeless.”

10. John Boyega has no time for shit-talking. “I really do genuinely respect J.J. because he’s not into bullshit,” Boyega says. “When you come into this industry the way I did, you get a whole bunch of promises. A whole bunch of people telling you, ‘this is gonna happen and that’s gonna happen’. J.J. was like: ‘I really liked you in Attack the Block and we’re gonna get you in something’, and in my head I was like, ‘I’ll see you in twenty years mate, champion’. But I auditioned at [Abrams’ production company] Bad Robot several times before Star Wars. For TV shows and other stuff. And it just so happens that Star Wars was what I was right for. I appreciate him not being like the rest of this industry, talking shit half the time.”

‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’ is in theaters from December 20. Related: read our recent interview with Rian Johnson about his new whodunit, ‘Knives Out’. The Star Wars films, ranked by weighted average rating (‘The Empire Strikes Back’ takes the top spot), and by overall popularity (‘The Force Awakens’ rules). Naomi Ackie appeared in ‘Lady Macbeth’ with Florence Pugh. See the rest of her film history here.

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daryls-dixon-antoni · 4 years

Text

Chapter 33.) Service

"Mom, Hope's crying. I think she's hungry."

"Okay," I respond, softly.

"Mom, she needs you, I need you."

I look over at my son, ready to snap at him, when I hear Rick's voice call, "Anne, he's here, we need you."

My feet move before my brain processes why. I follow Rick to the gate seeing Negan talking with Spencer in front of Eugene and Rosita.

"I know I had to make a pretty strong first impression," I hear Negan say to Spencer as we get there. "Well, hello, there." He greets Rick once he see's him.

Rick doesn't respond and Negan glares, "Do not make me have to ask."

"You said a week," Rick says, opening the gate. "You're early."

Negan grins, "I missed you."

I see the dead approaching from behind Negan and hope he bites him.

Negan grins even wider and says, "Oh, Rick, come on out here." He starts backing up towards the dead. "Watch this. Calling it!"

He hits the dead with his bat and when I blink an image of Glenn's headless body, and Abraham's crushed in skull swims behind my eyelids. "Ha ha ha! Easy peasy lemon squeezy! All right, everybody. Let's get started." When I look to see the men he brought my heart drops seeing Daryl, beaten up and in loose fitting sweat clothes with a spray painted A on them. My head starts swimming, especially when I look towards the movement out of the corner of my eye to notice Mason carrying Hope towards us.

Towards Negan.

"Big day. Hey, Rick, you see that, what I just did? That is some service! I mean, we almost get turned away at the gate. 'Who is that guy, anyway?' Do I get mad? Do I throw a fit? Do I bash some ginger's dome in? Nope. I just take care of one of these dead pricks that could've killed one of y'all. Service." He walks forward and thrusts his bat into Rick's hand as he walks by saying, "Hold this."

"Hot diggity dog! This place is magnificent! An embarrassment of riches, as they say. Yes, sir, I do believe you are gonna have plenty to offer up." As Negan's chuckling, I'm stood next to Rick, with Mason behind me and Hope in my arms.

Rick walks towards Daryl saying, "Daryl, hey-"

Negan steps forward and sternly cuts him off, "No. Nope. He's the help."

I step forward timidly, "Can I at least introduce him to his daughter?" I can hear my blood flowing through my ears as I ask. Hoping beyond hope that he wouldn't hurt a newborn. I mostly said it to let Daryl know the baby is okay. That she made it.

"No. You don't look at him, you don't talk to him, and I don't make you chop anything off of him. Same goes for everyone," he practically sings as he aproaches Rosita, “Right?”

He then approaches Rick again and says, "A lot of suspense there. I don't think she even knew how much. All right, let's get this show on the road. See what kind of goodies you got in the cupboard."

"We put aside half the supplies," Rick says.

"No, Rick. No. You don't decide what we take. I do." He turns to his people, "Arat."

A woman with blond hair that hasn't been died in ages yells, "You heard the man. Move out!" His people start walking forward and Negan turns back to Rick.

"They're just gonna search the houses a bit, keep the process movin'." He sighs, "All right. You gonna show me around or not?" When Rick doesn't respond he says, "Well?"

Rick starts moving, and I hand Hope to Mason and whisper, "Try to stay as far away from anyone that isn't ours, keep her safe."

He nods quickly before asking, "Does Daryl count as the people I have to avoid?"

I nod, "For now, yes. Now go."

I quickly follow behind Rick and Negan, knowing that was Rick's request earlier.

As we walk we see some men carrying an arm chair out of one of the homes as Negan says, cheerily, "You see this? This is the kind of thing that just tickles my balls. A little cooperation and everything is pleasant as punch. You see, we really are reasonable people once you get to know us. Honest." He opens a cooler and grabs a can of something, opens it, drinks it then crushes it. "Ohh, Man. Damn, I love this place!"

A man calls his name and approaches with Deanna's camera. "Somethin' you might wanna see."

"Well, well, well." Negan cheers, "What do we have here? I got my fingers crossed for a little freaky-deaky."

He starts playing Rick's tape from the interviews with Deanna. The ones from when we first arrived here, "know me. I've killed people. I don't even know how many by now."

"Jee-hee-sus!" Negan says, looking at the camera.

"But I know why they're all dead." Rick’s voice continues.

"Is that you, Rick, underneath all that man-bush?"

The tape keeps playing, "They're dead so my family, all those people out there, can be alive."

"Shee-ot. I would not have messed with that guy." He clicks the camera and starts recording, "But that's not you anymore is it?" He turns the camera to himself, "Nope." He turns the camera off. "I really gotta shave this shit.” He says, about his facial hair. “Whatever happened to that sick girl? That seemed like a hell of a stressful night for her. The way she was carrying on; she was married to number two, right?" He continues, "Careful. Careful how you're lookin' at me, Rick. Widows, especially ones that look like that," he breathes out and I start shaking slightly. "They are special. I love 'em. Right after their husbands go, they are just... empty inside. But usually not for long." He chuckles, "Ahh. Where is she? I would love to see her."

"Do you care to pay your respects?" I turn to see Father Gabriel has approached us.

"Ho-ly crap! You are creepy as shit, sneaking up on me, wearin' that collar with that freaky-ass smile."

"My apologies. I'm Father Gabriel."

Negan pauses, looking taken aback, "She didn't make it?" None of us respond, not giving him the satisfaction.

We end up in the cemetary and I have to try my hardest not to let Daryl know that Maggie's fine.

"Damn tragedy. That's what this is." Negan breathes deeply. "Well, this must really suck for you guys. Number one? That was on me. No choice there. Lessons had to be learned. But number two? That didn't need to happen. Daryl, there, he forced my hand." I bite my lip so I don't correct him. Don't get anyone killed. "Probably put her right on her back, huh? Damn. I was gonna ask her to come back with me. Oh, I know what you're thinkin'. How could I have a shot, guy that just bashed her husband's head in?" He chuckles, "You'd be surprised. Boy, people, they-" he's cut off by the distant sound of a gunshot. Negan starts walking away and as we get to the house where the sound came from, I see it's ours.

Once we make it in the room we hear one of Negan's men say, "Kid what do you think happens next?"

"You die," Carl responds, aiming a gun at the man.

"Carl. Carl, put it down." Rick begs.

"No. He's taking all of our medicine. They said only half our stuff."

Negan chuckles, "Of course. Oh-ho. Really, kid?"

Carl turns to Negan, "And you should go. Before you find out how dangerous we all are."

"Well, pardon me, young man.

Excuse the shit out of my goddamn french, but did you just threaten me? Look, I get threatening Davey here, but I can't have it. Not him, not me."

"Carl, just put it down." Rick begs, again.

"Don't be rude, Rick. We are having a conversation here. Now, boy, where were we? Oh, yeah. Your giant, man-sized balls. No threatening us. Listen, I like you, so I don't want to go hard proving a point here. You don't want that. I said half your shit, and half is what I say it is. I'm serious. Do you want me to prove how serious? Again?"

"Carl, Hunny. Put the gun down." I whisper, gently.

Carl turns back to me briefly, before sighing and giving Rick the gun.

Negan takes it from Rick, "You know, Rick. This whole thing reminds me that you have a lot of guns. There's all the guns you took from my outpost when you wasted all my people with a shit-ton of your own guns. And I'm bettin' there's even more. Which adds up to an absolute ass-load of guns, and as this little emotional outburst just made crystal clear; I can't allow that. They're all mine now. So tell me, Rick. Where are my guns?"

We get to the armory, and Olivia stays calm, "I... figured you were coming.”

"Show him where the guns are, Olivia." Rick says.

"The armory's inside," she turns around and makes her way to the door leading into the actual armory.

"You run the show in here?" Negan asks.

She stops, turns half around, "I-I just keep track of it all, the rations, the guns."

"Good. Smart. Don't let me stop you. Take her out, boys. Show 'em the goods." She leads his men in and I go to follow but hesitate when I hear Negan say, "Wait, wait, wait. While they're at it, I just want to point out to you that I'm not taking a scrap of your food. Slim pickin's in here." I turn around. “And I can't be the only one to notice that you got a fat lady in charge of keeping track of rations, can I? Either way, you starve to death; I don't get shit. So, for now; you get to keep all the food. How 'bout that?"

"What do you want me to say?" Rick asks, hoarsely.

"I don't know, Rick. How about a thank you. You think that might be in order? Or is that too much to ask?!"

When Rick doesn't say anything I speak up, "It's hard ... for him, y'know... he was close to Glenn... even closer to D" I take a deep breath, "Daryl. You can understand?"

Negan laughs, "Ohh. I know we started off on the wrong foot, but what can I say?" He turns to look Rick in the eye, "You forced my hand, Rick. But it's like I've been tryin' to tell you; I'm a very reasonable man as long as you cooperate. So let me ask you a question, Rick. Are you cooperating?"

"What's it look like?" Rick asks.

"Oh-ho-ho. I know what it looks like. But what I really want to know is if we're gonna find all the guns back there or if maybe; you got a few just waitin' for their moment? Just like my Lucille."

"They're all in there, to the best of my knowledge."

"Mm. I am countin' on that, Rick." Negan brushes past me and into the Armory and Rick and I exchange looks.

"I had it handled," Rick whispers, angrily.

"No, you didn't. So I helped, that's why I'm here, right? I'm your temporary replacement for Daryl, right? Because you don't have it handled."

He gives me an almost shocked expression for my sharp tone. Yet, somehow I can’t find it in myself to care. He’s letting this man run our lives after he murdered our own, man napped Daryl, and now he just gets to walk around our home talking in his annoying ass sing-songy voice and lean around exaggeratedly without a care in the world.

"You know what today is, Rick? Today is a banner day. Yes, it is. I think this little arrangement we have is gonna work out just fine." I keep my breath held as Daryl comes out of the armory, helping Negan's men load up his vehicles.

"Hold up." I freeze completely, worried my glance in Daryl's direction was going to get him killed. Instead, Negan takes a grun from Daryl's pile and says, "Let's see if you've been taking care of my guns." He cocks the gun, aims it at Daryl and I feel the tears coming to my eyes as I watch as if in slow motion Daryl just continue working, as if he didn't have a gun on him.

When he shoots, he hits a window and not Daryl and I let out a choked breath.

"Feels good. Sounds good! Oh, I do believe Lucille's gettin' a little jealous. Well, ho-ly smokes!" He takes the rocket launcher that one of his men just retrieved. "Look at this! It was you guys that took out Little Timmy and the Dick Brigade? Wow, Rick. Gettin' in your last licks. Ooh, man, I'm gonna have some fun with this."

"Please, I-I don't know for-" when I look over to Olivia's distressed voice, I see the woman Negan had addressed earlier dragging Olivia up the stairs to the outside.

Negan looks at his woman and chastizes, "Arat, we don't do that unless they do somethin' to deserve it."

"Yeah, we went through the inventory. Guns in the armory, guns they had around the walls, they're short." She pulls Olivia's notebook out from underneeth her arm and hands it to Negan, "Glock 9 and a .22 Bobcat."

Negan turns to Olivia, "Is that true?" Olivia nods and Rick speaks up.

"We had some people leave town. Those guns probably went with them."

"So Olivia sucks at her job. Is that what you're sayin'?"

"No. No, I'm not sayin' that."

"There should be a full accounting here, right? Top to bottom. Am I right?"

"No," Olivia responds, surprising me. "I mean, yes. The inventory is correct."

"Good," Negan says, then steps closer to Olivia, "But not so good, too. You see, what's in here," he holds up her notebook, "isn't in there. You're two handguns short. Do you know where they are?"

"No... I..." she trails off.

Negan sighs, turning back to Rick, "That's disappointing, Rick. I thought that we had an understanding. But this, well, this shows that someone's not on board, and I can't have that." He gets even closer to Olivia and says, "I don't enjoy killing women. Men; I can waste them all the live long. But at the end of the day, Olivia, my dear, this was your responsibility."

"Look," Rick interrupts, "we can work this out."

"Oh, yes, we can. And I'm going to; right now." Olivia whimpers, "This was your job, and you screwed up. Keeping track of guns? That shit is life and death."

We are in the church with the town of Alexandria. Rick's at the front speaking, "I thought about hiding some of the guns. I did it before. I figured I could bury some out there," he points outside of the church. "Maybe we don't touch them for years."

"Years?" Tobin asks.

"Yeah. That's right. But what if the Saviors find those guns? What if we run into them when we have those guns on us? One of us dies. Maybe more than that. Maybe a lot more. Doesn't matter how many bullets we have. It isn't enough. They win. It's that black-and-white. Hiding a couple of guns isn't the answer, not anymore. We don't have to like it, but we need to give them over. A Glock 9 and a .22. That's what they're looking for. Who has it? Someone knows where they are or they know who does. If we don't find them, they're gonna kill Olivia. They'll do it."

One of the townspeople stands up and asks, "Why do they care? Two guns aren't a threat to them. But those guns could help protect us from whatever else is out there."

"Do you have 'em?" Rick asks.

"Wish I did," the man responds, sitting back down.

"Most of you weren't there. You didn't have to watch."

I stand up, "They killed Abraham to get a point across. They killed Glenn because Daryl stood up to them. They bashed Glenn's head in. To the point he didn't even have one.”

Rick puts a hand up, "That's enough Anne." When I sit back down next to Mason, Rick continues, "Listen, you can look away now; when someone else dies. Or you can help solve this. We give them what they want, and we live in peace."

Eric stands up, "Say we find the guns. How are we gonna get out of this, Rick?"

"There is no way out of this," Rick responds. "Let me put this to all of you as clearly as I can. I'm not in charge anymore. Negan is. Now, who has the guns?"

It's silent for a long time before Eugene speaks up, "Not everyone's here."

I'm in Spencer’s house with Rick, he's looking everywhere for the guns while I watch.

Gabriel comes in and says, "Nothing. Still. I just, I feel like I know this is going to work out."

"How?" Rick asks, still searching.

"We'll find the guns. We'll get through today. Then we'll find a way to go forward, how to beat this."

"There is no beating this."

"Yes, there is, somehow. I have faith in us. I have faith in you. Things change. You're my friend. It wasn't always that way. Where's Michonne? Could she possibly have-"

"She doesn't have anything they're lookin' for." Rick states, standing up. "What you did with the graves, it was quick thinkin'. Thank you."

"It was nice digging a grave I knew would stay empty." Gabe says as Aaron comes in.

"No luck?" Aaron asks.

"Nope," I respond.

"We searched the house, Rosita's. There's nothing. So what do we do now?"

"If they were anywhere, they'd be here." Rick says. "Spencer's done this kind of thing before. We keep looking. Maybe today works out."

"I'll check the garage," Aaron says, walking away.

"I'll look in Deanna's office again." Gabe agrees.

"I guess I'm rechecking upstairs." I say, heading up the stairs.

Once Rick found the guns, we head outside to see one of Negan's men pesturing Enid.

"Balloons? You going to a party, little girl?"

"Can I keep them, please?" Enid asks, "It's just... Let me keep them."

"Say please again, little girl."

"Please."

"Yeah," he puts a finger on her cheek and I have to look away as I hear him say, "One more time."

"Please," Enid responds, sharply.

"Be careful, little girl."

"They'll be gone soon," Rick whispers, and when I turn I see the judgement in Carl's eyes.

"Come on, Rick. Let's go give the guns to Negan." I say.

He nods and we approach Negan who says, "What you got for me, Rick?" Rick hands him the guns. "Well, would you look at that? They were here after all. Funny how a little 'Holy shit! Somebody's gonna die!' lights a fire under everybody's ass!"

Olivia starts crying, so instinctively I walk over and put an arm comfortably around her as Negan continues.

"So, tell me, Rick. Which one of your fine folks almost cost Olivia the rest of her days?"

"It doesn't matter anymore," Rick says.

"No, it matters. See, you need to get everybody on board. Everybody. Or we just go right back to square one."

They finally start leaving, and there is nothing I want more than to get to walk over to Daryl and hug him, have him pull me in and tell me everything is going to be okay.

"Hell of a place you got here, Rick." Negan says.

"Give me a second," I hear Rick ask.

"No," is Negan's response. I have yet to take my eyes off of Daryl.

"Please, can you just... give me a second?"

Negan starts humming and when Rick comes back, Michonne is with him, a dead deer around her shoulders.

"Look at this!" Negan cheers.

"I thought she was scavenging." Rick says, "She was hunting." I watch in horror as Rick gives Negan a rifle, "This one never came inside. We kept it near the line."

"Look at this. This is something to build a relationship on. Good for you, Rick. This is readin' the room and gettin' the message. I've said it before, I'm gonna say it again. You, sir are special."

"Now that you know we can follow your rules..."

"Yes?" Negan asks, almost singing.

"I'd like to ask you if Daryl can stay." I look gratefully at Rick.

"Not happenin'."

"Please, he has a newborn."

"You know what? I don't know. Maybe Daryl can plead his case. Maybe Daryl can sway me." Daryl keeps his eyes down. "Daryl?" When Daryl still keeps his eyes on the ground I step forward.

"Daryl, come on!" I beg.

Negan chuckles, "Well, you tried. Now what you got to do is get over that tall wall of yours and try harder out there. Earn for me. Because we're coming back soon, and when we do, you better have something interesting for us. Or Lucille... she's gonna have her way. I want you to hear that again. If you don't have something interesting for us. Somebody's gonna die. And no more magic guns. Arat, grab that deer. It's getting late. Let's go home." Michonne throws the deer down.

"Man, I love a gal that buys me dinner and doesn't expect me to put out." I hear Negan chuckle.

We watch Spencer bring Dwight Daryl's bike.

"I'll take that," Dwight says. "Rosita! Got a little thank-you. That's all you're getting back. Took all your guns, most of your beds. I hope you find a place to lay your pretty little head." He gets on Daryl's bike and says, "Did you find anything else out there?"

"Just your dead friends," Rosita shoots back, and walks away.

Dwight revs up Daryl's bike and for a moment I'm brought back to the memory of me riding with Daryl to lead the dead away from Alexandria. How it felt to be so close to his body as we helped our community.

I watch in disgust as he rides over to Daryl and says, "You can have it back. Just say the word." When Daryl doesn't respond, Dwight rides off.

"So, nobody died." Negan says to Rick. "And you know what I think? I think you and I, we've refined our understanding. Let me ask you something, Rick. Do you want me to go?"

"I think that'd be good." Rick says.

"Then just say those two magical words."

"Thank you," Rick says.

Negan laughs, "Don't be ridiculous. Thank you."

As another of the dead makes his way towards our community, Negan says, "Another one. You need our help. Davey, hand me that candlestick over there." The man called Davey hands it over. "You know what I think, Rick? I think we're both gonna come out of this winners. Watch my form!" He cleans out the walker in one swing.

"Ahh. Yep," he turns back to us. "Win-win." He drops the candlestick. "You should clean that up for me for next time. Let's move out!" His men start moving. "Oh, wait." Negan chuckles, turning back around, "How careless of me. You didn't think I was gonna leave Lucille, did ya? I mean, after what she did, why would you want 'er?" He takes the bat back, "Thank you for being so accommodating, friend." I watch as Negan whispers something in Rick's ear.

Then they leave, vehicle after vehicle, the last one taking Daryl away with it.

I stare as Rick closes the gates behind them, and then he approaches Spencer, "Spencer. We took the guns you had in your house. The Saviors wanted ours, all of them. There were two missing from the inventory. They were gonna kill Olivia." Spencer doesn't respond so Rick says his name.

"You went into my house?" Spencer asks.

"They were gonna kill Olivia. Look, I'm not faulting you for having the guns. I did it myself. But the food and liquor?" Rick sighs, "That's 'cause you're small, Spencer. You're weak. You got lucky with the walls. You got lucky with us." Rick starts walking away.

"We should've made a deal with them when we could've." Spencer shouts after Rick. "Oh, yeah, we're so lucky. You've led us all to the Promised Land! Isn't that right, Rick?! Here we are! I guess Glenn and Abraham were lucky, too?"

Rick stops, doesn't turn around and threatens, "You say anything like that again to me, I'll break your jaw, knock your teeth out. You understand? Say yes."

"Yes." Spencer starts walking back.

I follow after Rick to go back to my room.

There's no bed in there anymore, but they left the playpen for Hope.

When Mason walks in holding her, he sits on the floor next to me, "You know why I wanted you to name her Hope?"

I nod, "Because we need hope?"

He shakes his head, "Because you need a reminder to have hope. Ever since this started, when we lost Tonia; you started going on runs alone. When the prison fell and we were reunited, you wouldn't even let me out of this house. You are always so scared of the next bad thing, Mom. Well, this is the worst bad thing that's happened and you don't have any hope. But Hope and I need you to have hope. We need you to be here, to keep us safe."

I nod, "Okay."

#dary dixon #daryl dixon fanfiction #the walking dead fanfiction #the walking dead #season 7 #chapter 33

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inbarfink · 5 years

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I think that sometimes I don't properly appreciate that this current (or just-about-to-be-over) era of cartoons had *two* pink, morally-ambigious-yet-sympathetic hyper-feminine type of female characters. Princess Bubblegum and Rose Quartz.

Generally, characters who look like That are either just straightforwardly sweet and kind and good - or if you wanna be Edgy and Subverty, then those kind of characters can also be PURE EVIL MUHAHAHHA. The most obvious example is Ace Attorney's Dahlia Hawthorne.

It’s not like characters who can be BOTH imperfect and morally ambigious AND super-girly AND still be considered ‘one of the good guys’ was a concept invented by Ward or Sugar - but it is still kind of a rare thing.

Both "Adventure Time" AND "Steven Universe" flirted with that dichotomy in different ways. Princess Bubblegum was presented at first as a parody of the Good end of the spectrum. She's such a sweet pretty pink princess that she's made outta bubblegum! She rules over a Kingdom of Candy!

But with AT's wacky sense of humor and love of subverting expectations, the show quickly started leaning into jokingly presenting Peebles as maaaaybe on the Bad end of the spectrum. There’s a skull in the castle dungeon, she giggles creepily as she explains a paralyzing potion... That there's something darker larking benath the pink and the sugar...

As the show became more and more committed to Actual Continuity, the jokes hinting at her darker nature in addition to her mostly-protagonist roles started forming into... an actual thing. It became part of Peebles' defining ethos. She’s kind of a morally-ambigious ruler-lady, who sometimes values security and order and saftey over morals and truth and freedom. All she wants is the best for her subjects, but her methods for it can be... questionable.

With Rose Quartz, this shift was obviously more planned. SU is in general the Show with the Plan while AT always seems to be writing arcs by the seat of their pants. The image of Rose that we were sold in the beginning, very much leaned on our expectations from such a feminine character. She’s just so perfect and beautiful and pink!

And when hints of her moral ambiguity started popping up, it was easy to fall into the idea that she might've been just Evil All Along. Steven himself was afraid of that in 'Storm in the Room'. Sapphire was afraid of that in "Now We're Only Falling Apart"

And at the end of the day... Just like Steven, we can't ever really know her. I think the show leaves with a question mark on how many of her actions were justifiable or not, with a reminder a lot of that was a reaction to growin up (as much as a Gem can be said to grow up) in a very unhealthy household.

Princess Bubblegum is a Damsel-in-Distress Parody -> haha she might be evil lol -> she's a responsible ruler with a cold, pragmatic strike and a bad habit of denying people their privacy.

Rose Quartz was perfect kind and amazing -> Actually she did some bad shit and lied a lot, like all the time -> Rose Quartz was a very immature Gem who grew up in a fucked up family and worked very hard to unlearn that but still hurt people on the way, was it worth it?

Of course, since Sugar started out in AT - it's highly possible Peebles was her inspiration to make a Morally Ambigious Pink Lady Leader. Although she tended to play PB's nicer sides in the episodes she boarded, generally speaking. (the most notable outlier is ‘Burning Low’, where Princess Bubblegum was established as being the one who had Flame Princess locked up for life and was ready to let her and Finn DIE for the sake of protecting the world from Flame Princess’ power.)

The big contrast between them is what is the source of that Moral Ambiguity. Rose Quartz was presented at first as a very... mature Gem. ‘Motherly’ was the defining key-word in her design and inital presentation. But by the end of the show, it became clear that a lot of her worse actions are a result of... well... as Pink Diamond, she’s a Gem DESIGNED to be kinda immature, and while she did try and grow out of it, it’s tough for her and a lot of her actions are a result of that.

Meanwhile, while Bubblegum was always older than Finn, we at first thought she was just 18! And her Thing is that she’s just very Cold and Pragmatic, valuing safety and status-que versus dangerous freedom and protective of people ... basically all stuff we associate with ‘maturity’, rather than childishness.

(Of course, that could have as much to do with the shows’ viewpoints on childishness and maturity as much as it does with the characters.)

#steven universe #Adventure Time #rose quartz #Princess bubblegum #originally posted on twitter

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dedanceochiethbwana-blog · 5 years

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Adier bwna

https://www.tumblr.com/dashboard/blog/upholsterynelson

Mbona iba kwa nyumba na biz za watu kwa kutengeneza key kama kenya imemeshinda wichita, KS. Mbona wasee, eehh, eehh!! Mbona tena enda kericho, nandi magizana na kuchuna chai illegally hata kahawa na miwa vile vile na process them in mini-factory kwa estate. Mbona tengeneza kifungu na kufungua duka za watu na kuchuwa kama chakula na pombe muna-replace na bandia liasing with kwal am keroche. De trut is kenya is poor and you need to accept bro. Samaki ya lake victoria pia munafish indiscriminately na illegally na ukiweka koin kwa palm of your hand unaona nanci and lilian modi wanadeepfry smaki hayo alongside police wtch waki simama. Komeni wajameni.

The rotating Factory ventilator images tied on the car alternator the to an inverter to keep the current that goes to the wet cell at 12 or 24 volts. You can use two inverter which interchange after some minutes, with along wires at the end to power your business premise or house dude, its called the whirlybird. Click the link below fellows

https://www.google.com/search?sxsrf=ACYBGNTLFbDcR430PrmiKnvBgPe2a6XuBg:1570773645013&q=the+company+ventilation+on+the+roof+top+images&tbm=isch&source=univ&client=firefox-b-d&sxsrf=ACYBGNTLFbDcR430PrmiKnvBgPe2a6XuBg:1570773645013&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjJrYjpw5PlAhUVoVwKHcAtDtQQsAR6BAgJEAE&biw=1280&bih=922

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZDL1NXIXBk

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=the+company+ventilation+on+the+roof+top+images

https://www.tumblr.com/blog/mondeafterwords

Key can be controlled from the phone like the usb speakers, not opened via a key but via your phone, that key can resemble the digital crane measuring scale. Click the link below 4 more bro https://www.google.com/search?sxsrf=ACYBGNTAM-9LjRpPctYUmp_2qVmtv427cg:1570541445137&q=digital+crane+weighing+and+measuring+scale+photos&tbm=isch&source=univ&client=firefox-b-d&sxsrf=ACYBGNTAM-9LjRpPctYUmp_2qVmtv427cg:1570541445137&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiA1cTn4ozlAhV5A2MBHV8IB4QQsAR6BAgJEAE&biw=1280&bih=910 White men as hindu or arabs not to mention dignitary affiliated men are meeting the people who pick scrap metal in small towns like kisumu, malindi, eldoret and so no and paying them 20% off their picked metal more than they sell to the local vendor and at night transport them via the country buses or small cars that head to Nairobi or even the lorry/trella men to gain 80% in profit as hinterlands prices are half Nairobi even from congo, ug, tz and cameroon. Unscrupulous business men whom women are following. Dont be fooled women as get this, copper wire price in kisumu is khs 300 per killo in Nairobi 4 example is khs 500, Alluminium in ksm is khs 80 per kilo but in Nairobi is khs 150 per kilo, Brass in ksm is khs 200 per kg but in Nairobi is khs 300 per kilo and Plastic container is khs 15 in ksm but in Nairobi is khs 30 while Normal chuma like iron or zinc is khs 20-25 in ksm while in Nairobi is about khs 40-50 depending with the vendor location. See how dignitaries and hooligans getting money or funding their empire and they channel this cash into matatu business or put it in onlinecash like bulishtrade and you know Nairobi with exhoubitant fares bro and even bros have been alerted of this and are busy capitalizing on this are. The metal prices should be uniform, we dont give a damn like bread price different dude not to oppress others while you, you gain as twice bro.

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open ya tumblr then click this link to open in a new tab bro

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Russia controls the world, they can dig many holes from below to deplete all the oil from the oil fields of the world. Mfalme wa yahoodi to cement the truth into the outter space. This can be done when other feasible ways to power gadgets have been achieved like solar cars in Holland and you can google or charged electric cars in Germany or AE technology found at mrmonde tumblr a/c or kevinelsonmondy Facebook pictures. And guys you can check that bro!! They as well can loop 4 another nation oil from another nation from below dude to fund their pursuits. Buy a world receiver radio and listen to radio station for state like Kansas, Guys, wow!! Gives you respect but riddim and twitter if you use brings you disrespect bro. Loop oil 4 Egypt and Tunisia from Libya as well as Spain & Itally does that to sell to Eu. S.A loops from Angloa, botswana from mozambique no-mattter those nations are lazy but rich as the jew will rise kenya loops from abieyi in S.sudan as well as Uganda, so they could have said that of Zimbabwe but Mugabe had seen that and created a beef with the whites likewise the whites of S.A should be dealt with as they are rich of the same. Brazil, Chile, Argentina loops from Venezuela. They look 4 more flight destinations across the world and in that plane that lands every-time in that country carry oil in Jericans and put them in plastic suit case then buy a petrol station and employ someone native to disguise himself as the owner/beneficiary, then load the oil into that gas station to maximize profits as oil is priced on the radious from where its mined or nations that mines it charge it cheaper like in kenya its $ 1 per litre but in Libya its 1 dime. So see how they get super-normal profits and Norway and Denmark is rich out of this bro. Click this link below and find how Mr kebi is happy after taking shower in the plastic showers as chawer/bedbug and b4 that took a shit in its iron sheet counter part ya mabati. Worker and vineyard parable to cement the truth- dont i have the right to do what i want with my own life bro!!! Long time it was this link below https://www.google.com/search?sxsrf=ACYBGNQ_Zg09ZsN-YyG-YDNBnILJocir2A:1570427046634&q=mabati+toilets&tbm=isch&source=univ&client=firefox-b-d&sxsrf=ACYBGNQ_Zg09ZsN-YyG-YDNBnILJocir2A:1570427046634&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjvoorSuInlAhUMWxoKHUQqAesQsAR6BAgJEAE&biw=1280&bih=922 Now its this link below https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&biw=1280&bih=922&tbm=isch&sxsrf=ACYBGNTBDDvqFspYO33ncImUVIq7aY9YJw%3A1570427072563&sa=1&ei=wNCaXZeAIrXD8gLOjoiYBw&q=plastic+toilets&oq=plastic+toilets&gs_l=img.3..0i67l2j0i24l3.60085.65290..66109...0.0..0.465.5271.3-13j2......0....1..gws-wiz-img.......35i39j0.3nnEMd2zKgg&ved=0ahUKEwiX4LjeuInlAhW1oVwKHU4HAnMQ4dUDCAY&uact=5 https://www.google.com/search?q=iron+sheet++toilets+from+the+company&client=firefox-b-d&tbm=isch&tbs=rimg:CbsEwYyDk5XiImB8EtcHVXHnfle7vPJ71v2Fj7Q1clb03_1hQJ58dUtz2J4gv8IiZcFsBR7EFCm_1gKOhzaoSu3mU049G1N57-TYX_1Zq9DucobWGYoos-r5jPGCX0uU_1pe-80bgGSEaRBA0HUqEgl8EtcHVXHnfhFFgshYTlywsCoSCVe7vPJ71v2FEYVa-sDtQI4gKhIJj7Q1clb03_1gRgdwt3PvGkZsqEglQJ58dUtz2JxEa9YHZh8ow-yoSCYgv8IiZcFsBEVd0VKa0i2mAKhIJR7EFCm_1gKOgR29FPVbyLifwqEglzaoSu3mU04xE57cWW7gQvByoSCdG1N57-TYX_1EebPPVIthvMbKhIJZq9DucobWGYR_1jIjSzAinEUqEgkoos-r5jPGCRGEX6c5PrbmmCoSCX0uU_1pe-80bEf4yI0swIpxFKhIJgGSEaRBA0HUReT0pKybplfw&tbo=u&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjcvZC7uYnlAhVPOBoKHas_CTQQuIIBegQIARAz&biw=1280&bih=922&dpr=1 After taking shower link bro, it was omitted the advert between a mum and a son, who smiles to the mother https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=2005+geisha+soap+adverts+in+kenya+involving+a+mum+and+a+son get my post on this link https://www.spreely.com/members/settings/privacy called spreely and the name used is monde nelsonodenyi as the search name and profile name is mrvokeoutcust. this the link to find me below https://www.spreely.com/mrvokeoutcust open one and click the link to open in another new tab to see bro Get out every url or link with the very very url i have provide that ends with a name i have opened the very very tumblr account with then click the link after you have open your own tumblr account to open in a new tab. https://www.tumblr.com/blog/chalmerslynnmonde my tumblr name is mrmonde, upholsterynelson, nelsonunderwood, my twitter is outcustnelson, kevinelsonmonde or outcustmonde. Market ya post on fb or tumblr to different groups from different nations you have chosen dude to reach many. The way to go is poligamy 4 the rich to divide the wealth not kept within one person. They get money via petty theft and give a folk like ruto to build an hotel as his to attract women yet he is just paid out of it, so upon his death to delude the whole story they say he had many wives in that that wealth will be subdivided to meaningless public attraction to defuse bro. Take heed wome dont be fooled.They bring you kids if you got some money yet if you warmn these women of these men they wanna even cut ya with a panga yet their ways have been subdued. Street urchins su, sumu/poison, yesus like the luo or kikuyou character must be sub dued, christ was caned out of this and killed as these people became radical if their wired unknown ways have been blocked and lure people with not actions but mere talks, want to sit around and iddle even wanting people food without sense and moreover are thieves like petty theft. Must be eliminated or reshuffled to alonely island of the sea to live alone or can tantamount to power and slow everything in the economy. Britons, thais got this blood as well. They were ninja in satan who purported they were good people whom rights were denied so were brought here. Christ with little kids/children and lost coin parable to cement the truth bro.Malachi 4- who to the people who long to sea the day of the lord. Western SEA, south East Asia dude. Take heed fellows!!!! click this link bro below https://www.tumblr.com/blog/nelsonbotomsiepa

get my post on this link https://www.spreely.com/members/settings/privacy called spreely and the name used is monde nelsonodenyi as the search name and profile name is mrvokeoutcust. this the link to find me below https://www.spreely.com/mrvokeoutcust open one and click the link to open in another new tab to see bro Get out every url or link with the very very url i have provide that ends with a name i have opened the very very tumblr account with then click the link after you have open your own tumblr account to open in a new tab. https://www.tumblr.com/blog/chalmerslynnmonde my tumblr name is mrmonde, upholsterynelson, nelsonunderwood, my twitter is outcustnelson, kevinelsonmonde or outcustmonde. Market ya post on fb or tumblr to different groups from different nations you have chosen dude to reach many. The way to go is poligamy 4 the rich to divide the wealth not kept within one person. They get money via petty theft and give a folk like ruto to build an hotel as his to attract women yet he is just paid out of it, so upon his death to delude the whole story they say he had many wives in that that wealth will be subdivided to meaningless public attraction to defuse bro. Take heed wome dont be fooled.They bring you kids if you got some money yet if you warmn these women of these men they wanna even cut ya with a panga yet their ways have been subdued. Street urchins su, sumu/poison, yesus like the luo or kikuyou character must be sub dued, christ was caned out of this and killed as these people became radical if their wired unknown ways have been blocked and lure people with not actions but mere talks, want to sit around and iddle even wanting people food without sense and moreover are thieves like petty theft. Must be eliminated or reshuffled to alonely island of the sea to live alone or can tantamount to power and slow everything in the economy. Britons, thais got this blood as well. They were ninja in satan who purported they were good people whom rights were denied so were brought here. Christ with little kids/children and lost coin parable to cement the truth bro.Malachi 4- who to the people who long to sea the day of the lord. Western SEA, south East Asia dude. Take heed fellows!!!! click this link bro below https://www.tumblr.com/blog/nelsonbotomsiepa

https://www.tumblr.com/dashboard/blog/daddies-dreamgirlsll Go to montana or kansas with few blacks dude if you wanna be therehttp://worldpopulationreview.com/states/black-population-by-state/

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aimmyarrowshigh · 5 years

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You do know that warsaw ghetto was ruled by German nazis and Jewish police? And not poles/poland? And that warsaw was occupied by nazi germany so poles had literally nothing to say during that time? You do know that polish government asked for help numerous times (France, great Britain and others) yet nobody helped (even though they had promised to do so)? And that polish people actually tried to save people from ghetto during warsaw uprising?

If as many Poles actually tried to help the Jews as you’re pretending, why did 90% of Polish Jews die during the Holocaust and the years AFTERWARDS, when they tried to GO HOME?

Why is the Polish government literally STILL trying to pretend like they were the real victims when they were, and actively still are, 100% complicit in the genocidal war crimes committed on their soil, even though yes, technically the German soldiers were of course the men at the top?

(Also, do… you think that there’s a misunderstanding about how war works or something? Like… do you think that war in real life is like Endgame and Hitler was the Big Bad like Thanos and he was literally one dude who snapped his fingers and Holocaust’d all by himself and everyone else was a hapless, guileless, good-guy victim and/or a brainless pawn who had no role other than to get clobbered by the Hulk and had no actual stakes of their own? Because that’s… not… how war works, my guy. The Nazis were the bad guys. And also the Poles were bad guys, when it comes to how they treated, and treat, Jews, despite being victimized by the Nazis on their own level. And also the Italians were bad guys. And the Japanese, especially to South Koreans. And the United States were bad guys to Japanese-Americans and also to European Jews, even though they were good guys to European goyim, except the Germans, to whom the US were bad guys. I know that every single piece of media that comes out anymore is the Monomyth, but like… Hitler wasn’t Palpatine, single-handedly responsible for All Evil. There was no One Ring that ole Adolph found while making a shitty painting that suddenly made him decide that It Was The Jews’ Fault That Art School Didn’t Work Out.

And… like I know it’s a hard concept that you can be victimized by war while also being seen by other victimized peoples as a full-on 100% villain on par with YOUR villain but like… Polish goyim were full-ass reveling in committing a genocide that you’d been hard at work on for literal centuries all on your own and now had additional tools and funding for because of your vanquishers and like you didn’t WANNA thank your conquerors for anything but ALSO now you could burn 90 bodies at a time and that was super useful for getting property that you’d wanted for a long time and had to let gross YIDDEN have, sooooooo… I’m just saying, y’all did not exactly have a great track record with pogroms before 1938, either. Killing off all of Warsaw’s Jewish population was not something that you guys were exactly SAD at the Nazis about, and that makes you pretty fucking shitty. And villainous. Putz.)

Why pass fucking laws in the year fucking 2018 to cover your shitty ass from the truth coming out coincidentally with the discovery of the second volume of the Ghetto archives, and even if it HADN’T been found – because the third probably never will, since it’s under the Chinese Embassy and that’s a whole international incident waiting to happen – why do goyim need SO BADLY to control the narrative and pretend like you weren’t watching a genocide happen in your backyard and, at best, just… letting it? And, at MORE FUCKING LIKELY, turning in your neighbors and classmates and friends to get better treatment FROM THE NAZIS YOU FREELY ADMIT WERE OPPRESSING YOU? YOU THINK I DON’T KNOW THAT THE NAZIS TREATED POLES LIKE SHIT? OF COURSE THEY DID, FUCKING DUMBASS. THAT’S ONE OF THE BEST WAYS TO GET YOUSTUPID ONE-BRAIN-CELLED CONSPIRACY-THEORY-LOVING WHITE MOTHERFUCKERS TO COLLABORATE FASTER AND WITH MORE COMPLIANCE. The worse the Nazis treated the goyim in the countries they had military victories over, the more antisemitic those countries STILL. FUCKING. ARE. Look at y’all. Look at France. Look at England. You STILL seem to think that if you eat the asses of the goose-stepping hordes, they’ll give you a couple more ration stamps, and when it doesn’t work, you can still safely pretend like it was all their fault that you had to take ration stamps in the first place and that you were the one REALLY suffering because you had to stick your tongue up a Nazi’s asshole. :( Poor. Fucking. You.

You know what the Jewish police were doing in the Warsaw Ghetto most of the time? In real life, I mean, not in your Alex Jones frothy-mouth tinfoil-hat “I had psychosis about pizza-fucked dead children and that’s why I’m being sued by GeOrGe SoRoS!” world? Moving the bodies of people who starved to death on the fucking sidewalk out of the way so people could walk. And keeping out goyishe Polish sightseers who saw the Ghetto as a freakshow, like a zoo, to go watch the entertainment of exotic Jews dying. Another fun thing that Polish goyim liked to do in the Ghetto was to raise prices on water and flour to the equivalent of hundreds of today’s dollars, or wait to sell until it was rotten and then take that as proof of antisemitic canards about Jews eating garbage. But I’m sure that it was heartbreaking for the vendors with casks and casks of clean drinking water to watch children die on the sidewalk and still refuse to let them drink. Christian principles, or whatever.

Were there some individual shitty Jews in the Ghetto? Probably. But that doesn’t excuse, like, 30,000,000 shitty Polish goyim. Fuck you.

You know the images that you fucknuts idiots like to point to and say, “Ugh, SEE, those Ghetto Jews, they had no dignity, it was WE REAL POLES who were suffering, those FILTHY JEWS DESERVED IT,” like the wartime postcards made by the Polish government and, oh, idk, the Nazi fucking Party that showed things like Rabbis having their beards combed and shaven as though for lice or shrunken-in, starving Jewish women fighting each other over scraps of bread? THEY’RE FUCKING NAZI AND POLISH PROPAGANDA, YOU FAKAKTA SCHMEKELE MORON. WE WERE NEVER THAT. YOU STAGED US TO BE THAT WAY BECAUSE TO YOU, OUR SUFFERING WAS FUNNY AND YOU KNEW THAT WHEN WE LIVED, IN 50, 75, 100 YEARS, YOU WOULD NEED TO HAVE YOUR VERSION OF THE STORY IN PICTURES TO TRY TO PROVE IT WAS THAT WAY. But it wasn’t. That would be like looking at Trump’s twitter in 70 years and believing that he really was a stable genius. (Of course, you probably think he IS a stable genius, because you’re a very fine person.)

Unfortunately for you, and for all of fucking WWII-era Poland, and fucking now-era Poland, you forgot that Jews remember their history. We’ve been through it before and we kept a history of our own. And two of the three Archives have been unearthed and they are public and they have been translated and your antisemitic, disgusting government (and, like, also the American disgusting government, I’m not pretending like the US government isn’t ALSO disgusting, this just isn’t about that at the moment)

Get fucked on your swastika dildo somewhere else. I know more about life in the Warsaw Ghetto than you ever will, because your government is literally lying to you because of national pride and antisemitism and you’re lapping it up like good white-dick cum. Get. Fucked.

The Polish goyim who STILL refuse to return property they couldn’t wait to steal from their neighbors were far from helpless do-gooders.

If the choice is “collaborate with the Nazis or die,” you choose to die. You always have a choice. That is the moral choice. You choose. To die. Rather than collaborate. Period.

FUCK.

#**#asks

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joeycupcakerichter · 6 years

Text

Zach Dempsey - Cheat p2

A/N: So I got a request to continue Cheat and I knew pretty much how I wanted to continue so now I present to you~~~! The longest thing I’ve written so far! 😂

Request: Yes, by anon.

Pairing: Zach x Reader

Warnings: BRYCE IS IN THIS DOING GROSS BRYCE THINGS. It doesn’t get far for Zachary reasons but it happens, and I don’t let it just go away because Zach saved the day, ya dig?

Prompt: None, other than asking for a continue

Word Count: 3092

Masterlist

Cheat, p1 Cheat p3

Walking into school the day after Zach went up on the stand was worse than you could’ve imagined. You knew the whole school had been keeping up so you knew people would know but you didn’t anticipate all their eyes being on you, trying to see how you were taking it. You were getting annoyed because you’d rather they just ask rather than just keep their eyes on you. You were at your locker when you heard shouting down the hall.

“What the fuck Dempsey?!” You heard someone yelling. Peeking around the door to your locker, you see Bryce Walker yelling at your ex-boyfriend. “You had two fine pieces of ass on your elbow and you couldn’t tell your own brother. Can’t blame you though, (Y/N) is probably the hotter piece of ass between the two.” Zach shoved the jock, his eyes finding yours. “What, it’s not my fault you didn’t compare them in a two on one session.” You feel your skin crawl and you slam your locker shut. “Oh hey (Y/N)!” Bryce called after you. “You wising up and dumping Dempsey doesn’t mean you can’t come to my parties. I got one tonight if you wanna drink away your sorrows.” You turn to glare at him, but you see Zach trying to catch up to you. You slip into your classroom right as the bell rings, leaving an annoyed Zach in the hall. He gives you a mournfully apologetic look before dashing off to his own class.

You expected to see him in the hall after the bell rang but you were privately pleased to not find him there. You weren’t ready to talk to him, hell you didn’t even want to look at him. Still, he cornered you at lunch where the two of you just sat across from each other in silence, not knowing what to say in the slightest. You wanted to scream at him. You wanted to call him worse than dogshit but when you looked at the broken man sitting across from you, you couldn’t find the words. Your instincts were telling you to pull him into your arms and console him like you had down so many times before. Images of Hannah holding him tight while you slept alone steeled your resolve and the lunch went by with no words being uttered between you. When the bell rang, you stood up and walked away, trying so hard to resist a glance over your shoulder. When your heart won out, you saw Zach with his hands in his hands, body heaving. He was crying. You wanted to rush to his side like you had down the day previous but you couldn’t. You had to let him go.

After school let out, you saw your friend Jessica waiting by your car. You sighed inwardly, knowing why she was here. She wanted to talk about Zach. Fuck. You slowly approach your car, and when she spots you, she breaks into a sympathetic smile, pulling you into a tight hug. “Hey (Y/N). How are you?” She asks when the two of you finally break apart.

“Completely and utterly destroyed.” You mumble under your breath. She doesn't seem to hear you, giving you a confused look. “I’m fine.” You insist, unlocking your door and climbing in. She raises her eyebrow, gesturing at the passenger door. Begrudgingly, you reach over and pop the lock allowing her to get it in.

“I’m not just going to be leaving you alone after the day I know you’ve had.” She says matter-of-factly. “Now, drive us to Monet’s where we will be meeting Alex and discussing how fucking terrible everything is.” You sigh, but a small smile tickles your cheeks.

When you arrive at Monet’s, you find Alex sitting at a small table with three hot beverages in front of him. He waves shortly at you as you sit down. “I wasn’t exactly sure what to get you,” he tells you, “but Jessica insisted something hot to bridle your rage and something sweet to match your personality.” You can’t help but giggle at Jessica as she shrugs her shoulders at you. “I hope you like this caramel concoction that Skye made.” You take a sip, letting the warm liquid warm your heart.

“Thanks guys.” You mumble under your breath. You feel your voice hitch as the two start bantering back and forth and you find yourself missing Zach. You were used to hanging out with Jess and Alex alone, but on the rare occasions Zach could get away from his sports, he’d come too. It felt like a glaring hole as you looked at the empty chair.

“Hey, so (Y/N) how are you?” Jessica says, ripping your attention away from the empty chair. You shrug at her, nothing really able to articulate anything useful.

“You didn’t know at all did you?” Alex asks before Jessica slaps at him. You shake your head slowly, a tear sliding down your nose before dripping off the end of your nose.

“I need to get home.” You mumble, grabbing your things and heading for the door. Jessica grabs your arm as you grab the door handle.

“Please don’t go. We’re worried about you.” Jessica insists. “Plus you have all this coffee left to drink.”

“I just don’t want to talk about him Jess.” You whisper, your voice raw. “Everything hurts. I want to see him and talk to him, but every time I look at him, I just see Hannah there, loving him when I couldn’t.” You wipe away the tears that have started flowing freely down your cheeks. “And I’m happy someone was there for him when I couldn’t be, I just can’t believe he’d lie to me for that long.” Your honesty burns your throat and you return to the table to take a sip of your coffee. Remember that it was hot at the last second, you swallow the lava quickly before grabbing a bottle of water from Skye.

“(Y/N), why don’t you just talk to him?” Jessica asks softly.

“I would but I don’t know what to say anymore Jess.” You slump down into your chair, head in your hands. “I loved him Jessica and he betrayed me. How am I supposed to just ‘get over’ it?” Your voice is a low whisper now, heartache echoing in every syllable. “How am I supposed to let him go?” You say, looking up at her. Jessica’s eyes are red now and she sits down next to you, resting her head against yours.

“(Y/N), you don’t have to let him go. You can talk this out, work through it. Both of you are completely devastated at the loss of each other.” You sniffle, moving away from her to wipe your eyes. She looks at you, deep empathy in her eyes.

“Zach.” Alex blurts out, stunned. Your eyes move up to look at the boy who stole your heart, his eyes red and his fists bloody. You instinctually grab a bottle of water and a napkin, moving to clean his hands. He doesn’t resist as you gingerly dab around the area.

“What happened?” You murmur emotionlessly.

“Nothing. Just Bryce wouldn’t stop running his mouth. So, I shut him up.” He said simply.

“What was he saying?” Alex asks, resulting in another slap from Jessica. “Girl, if you do not stop hitting me.” He whispers harshly.

“It was nothing, just was pissing me off.” Zach brushed off.

“What’d he say?” You ask evenly. Skye brought you over some gauze from a first aid kit to wrap his hands. He’s quiet, refusing to answer you. Once you were finished, you pushed his hands away. “What’d he say Zach?” You ask again, anger seeping into your tone.

“What you heard.” He finally conceded. “Except worse.” You think back to the conversation you’d overheard this morning and you felt sick to your stomach. “He seems to think rather highly of me now.” He tells you, disgusted at his own words.

“Well, you can ride that high for as long as you need to.” You spit back at him. You gather your things for a second time.

“Wait, (Y/N). Please.” Zach asks wearily. “Please, just talk to me.”

“There’s nothing to talk about.” You snap. You walk out of the cafe but the footsteps behind you tell you weren’t alone.

“(Y/N). I’m sorry. I’m so incredibly sorry.” Zach cries out behind you. An SUV pulls up beside you. Bryce Walker, looking a little worse for wear, eyes you salaciously from the driver’s seat.

“What’s up (Y/N)? Is this asshole bothering you?” He asks you slyly, glancing back at Zach. Zach seems to be frozen to the spot now, watching you intently. “You wanna come to a party?” He asks you, slime oozing in every word.

“Sure, why not?” You respond, glaring at Zach. Bryce urges you to hop in, which to Zach’s horror, you do. Bryce speeds off, leaving Zach behind, distraught.

You’d been to Bryce’s house before, usually under tight watch by Zach and usually at night. It seemed almost bizarre to see the mini mansion in the daytime. “You want something to drink?” Bryce asks you as you, Scott and Monty enter the smaller summer house.

“Why the fuck not?” You shrug tossing your backpack down next to the couch and following Bryce out to the small refrigerator. He tosses you a beer and grabs a couple for the guys. You sit down on the small couch, opposed to the one Monty and Scott were on. Your hand runs over the fabric slowly. This couch had been host to many kisses between you and Zach and more importantly, the first kiss you’d ever shared. Bryce sat down next to you, turning on the tv and breaking you away from your memories.

“So, (Y/N), how’re you holding up?” He asks brashly. You open your beer, taking a long drink before shrugging.

“I’m fine.” You hear yourself repeating. All day, that’s all you’ve told people. “I miss him.” You confess.

“Zach’s a good guy, he’s just an idiot. Why would he waste time with a trainwreck like Hannah Baker when he had a girl like you waiting for him.” Bryce said incredulously. You roll your shoulders, trying to displace the awkwardness you were feeling.

“I don’t know, maybe ask him that.” You shrug again.

“See I tried that.” Bryce said darkly. “He beat the shit out of me. Or well, tried to anyway. Some of my guys still know loyalty.” His eyes glance up to Scott and Monty. You were surprised to see Scott looking ashamed next to Monty’s prideful face.

“I guess he’s just a little sensitive about it.” You tell him, looking to Scott for some kind of out.

“I guess it was just a case of ‘too soon’ then.” Bryce shrugged pulling you under his arm. “Its okay, you can finally have real fun with us now that he’s out of the picture.” Your eyes go wide as you try to pull away but his arm won’t let you go.

“Hey Bryce, leave her alone.” Scott says, annoyed.

“Hey Scott, shut the fuck up.” Bryce retorts mockingly. Scott stalks back into the kitchen, leaving you alone with Money and Bryce. “Besides, you want to be here, don’t you sweetie? That’s why you came. You wanna get back at him.” Bryce says sickenly. You shake your head rapidly as he adjusts to push his body up against yours. He presses his lips to your, as you try to push him away from you. Scott returns, sliding his phone back in his pocket, to push Bryce off of you. “Get the fuck off me Reed.” He says pressing his palm to Scott’s chest and pushing him back. His eyes flick to Monty and he nods his head toward Scott. Monty grabs the kid, dragging him outside leaving you completely alone with Bryce.

“Please, no.” You mumble at him. You were cursing yourself for being so stupid to get in Bryce’s car. You knew what he did, you just wanted to piss off Zach. If you were honest, you thought Bryce would respect his girlfriend more than this.

“Come on (Y/N). Let’s really show Zach how much he’s hurt you.” He murmurs in your ear, sending chills down your spine. He pushes his mouth back on yours and while you struggle against him, you definitely can’t fight back. Tears stream down your face as his hands make their way under your shirt. You hear low shouting outside, before the summerhouse door slams open.

“What the fuck Walker?” Zach roars, lunging at him and ripping him off of you.

“She wanted it.” He smirks. “Why else would she be here?” Zach’s eyes finally find yours and you well and truly start to cry as you shake your head fervently. “Oh whatever you stupid slut.” Bryce shrugs.

Zach rears back and punches Bryce. Roaring again he climbs on top of Bryce, delivering fist after fist. You get up, trying to pull him off of Bryce, but he just throws you back. “You were supposed to be my friend you stupid piece of shit.” He cries between each blow. You try again to pull him off of Bryce and you’re successful this time. His eyes look you up and down, concern filling his gaze. You curl into his lap on the floor, crying into his neck. He clings to you desperately, not wanting to let you go ever again.

“I’m sorry.” You mumble, your voice muffled into his neck.

“It’s my fault. I hurt you. You never would never would’ve felt the need to come here if I was just honest with you.” He laments, shaking his head sadly.

“It was still incredibly stupid. I just wanted to see the look on your face when I climbed in the car. I just wanted you to feel an iota of what I was feeling.”

“You don’t think I’m hurting (Y/N)?” He asks, exasperated. “Every moment feels like I’m fucking dying and when I actually see you and I see what I’ve done to you? It drives the spear even further through me.” He tells you, his voice cracking. “I don’t deserve you. I never deserved you.” He puts his head back, trying not to look at you. “But I can’t live without you. One day has been hell. I can’t go the rest of my life.”

You’re silent as you help him up. You kick Bryce on the floor to assure he was still alive and Zach wouldn’t be charged with murder. You lead him outside, surprised to see Monty passed out with Scott leaning over him checking his vitals. He and Zach share a look, telling you Zach knew to come because of Scott.

“I wasn’t going to just leave you here.” He mumbles. “I just thought you were going to cool off and then go home. I really didn’t think that Bryce would be so direct. Only reason I didn’t rip you out of that car was because Scott was there.” You fish his keys out of his pocket, all but forcing him into the passenger side. If you were honest, you were thrilled as you slid behind that steering wheel and turned the engine over. You couldn’t help but steal a glance over at Zach as you lowered the top down. He watched you momentarily before tearing his gaze away to watch the road. You take it easy, even though your foot is begging you to floor it. You think of your car still parked outside of Monet’s and you stop back by, thrilled to see Jessica and Alex still there. You give Jess your keys, promising to explain later if she’d take your car home. You hop back in beside Zach and drive him back to his house. His mother’s car is parked outside, causing him to groan.

“Zachary Shan-Yung Dempsey,” his mother yells as she barrels out of the house, “how are things with (Y/N)? Have you tried groveling? That girl was the best thing-” She stops short as he climbs out of the passenger side and you, the driver’s. “Oh, I see. Dinner will be at seven you two.” She says evenly, though a small smile tickled her cheeks and she headed back inside.

Zach lets out a small laugh as he watches his mother head back inside. “She hasn’t let me hear the end of it.” He tells you. “To say she was pissed…” He trails off.

You slide back into the driver’s seat, him following your lead, both unsure of what to say. You want to tell him you love him, that you forgive you but your brain won’t let you. “I want to forgive you Zach.” You speak up finally. “I just… you lied to me. How can I trust you again?” You rest your arms on the steering wheel cradling your head against it.

“It would never happen again.” He says quietly. “Not that it makes it much better, but we hadn’t been together long when it happened. I just… baby I was out of my mind at the time.” He pleaded with you to understand.

“If this is going to work, I’m going to need you to promise to be completely honest with me from now on. No matter what.” You tell him seriously. “No more secrets. I know you were hurting. I just wish you could’ve told me. That’s what hurts the most.”

“No more secrets.” He agrees, taking your hand and kissing it gently.

“I missed you so much Zachy. It’s only been a day and it felt like I was missing a part of myself completely.” You tell him hollowly. He holds your hand in his, peppering kisses all over it. You both climb out of the car, where you begrudgingly return his keys to him. You slip up to his room, bed still unmade from when you slept it in last. Your eyes travel from the bed to his eyes and you press your lips to his, struggling to force the image of Bryce out of your head. He grabs your ass and lifts you up as you wrap your legs around him. Pressing you against the wall, he kisses you deeply, love and devotion coming through in every kiss.

“Zach,” you say, when you break apart to catch your breath, “I love you so much.” He eyes you hungrily as he nods.

“You are my world (Y/N).”

~Taglist~ @last-breath-199, @mysticsthinking, @vixenxvibes, @miapollard-x, @beansparker, @makaykay001, @bombshelljones

#Zach Dempsey #zach dempsey imagine #Zach x Reader #Zach x you #13 Reasons Why #13 Reasons Why Imagine #scott reed #bryce walker #jessica davis #alex standall

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estrxlar · 3 years

Text

The Ghost Of You

06 - Too Little Too Late

Chapters songs:

Yam Yam: No Vacation

Numb: Men I Trust

4EVER: Clairo

—

Sugawara

Hey, I won't be riding the bus this morning. My father is visiting and I have to spend the morning with him I'm guessing. I might be available after school, though. So if you wanna walk

Yeah, I'll let you know. I hope everything with your dad goes okay.

Okay. See you later then.

Yeah, you too.

—

One last message from Sugawara is received, before I close the messaging app, and turn off my phone. I wasn't quite ready for what was to occur this morning: seeing my dad. You would think I would be happy about it, or at least be a little excited. But really, I couldn't be more stressed. All my father has ever done is criticize my talents, my behavior, and almost everything that has to do with me being me. Every time he comes to Japan, which isn't a lot, it's the same lecture all over again about what I'm doing with my life, and where I'll be when I'm older.

But at least two or three more hours of sleep. Might as well take advantage of missing a day, right?

—

As I stretch out my arms under my sheets, a knock on my door is heard, followed by my mom's soft voice. "Y/n, your father is getting you today. I'm off to work, okay? Make sure to feed Astra." Her tone is low and worry full, but I wouldn't blame her. Surely your ex-husband coming back shouldn't be so easy.

"I know, mom. Thanks. You have a good day," I say back to her, hearing her footsteps slowly disappear. That's my queue to begin getting ready. What I wear consists of something simple: a thin white shirt, a sage green sweatshirt on top, and jeans with white sneakers, which is something safe. I wouldn't want him to begin criticizing me by starting with my outfit. And as for my hair, I wore it the way I always did.

After a few moments of getting ready, I stand up in the mirror, making sure my personality wasn't showing on the outside. I hated that this is how I had to think of myself when around my parents, but there wasn't anything I could do about it. As suspected, a few minutes later, a message from him appears informing me he had gotten here.

—

Dad

Hey! I'm outside, come quickly so we can grab something at that small cafe you love.

Okay, I'll be out there in a second.

—

Nothing baffled me as much as him being so normal about this situation did, but there wasn't much I could say to him. I could only imagine how many questions he would ask me, or if he would even care about the important things, like if I was going through anything.

Reaching for a basic shoulder bag, I say my farewell to the cat, and make my way downstairs. Once I reach the front door, I take a deep breath and open it to reveal the usual view, except an expensive car stood in the driveway, with a smiling man inside of it. I smile back, easing that he didn't look pissed as fuck. After that, I locked the front door and walked towards his car.

Hesitantly, I pull the handle and step into the front passenger seat. "Hey, Dad." I greet him, meanwhile closing the door. "How've you been?"

"Hm, I've been just fine. What about you?" He begins to pull out of the driveway, and soon enough, we're on the road. "There's much to talk about."

I nod, as he states the obvious. "Yeah, of course."

This is awkward.

My hands begin to fidget, popping and stretching my fingers while he drove on the road, saying absolutely nothing. That was until I asked something to fill the empty space between us. "How's work been? I heard you got a bunch of promotions."

"It's been like always; normal. But yes, I have gotten promotions. I guess I've exceeded the limit, though. So.. what about you? You're still on your whole band-thingy?" He clears his throat, turning into another street: the same Suga and I would walk. "Your aunt says she's excited to work with you."

My aunt, AU/N, was my blueprint. She was my father's little sister, and she had a hell of a lot of money. One time when she was younger she slipped in dog pee at Walmart and sued them 50,000$. Since she was a musician, and far more successful than my band, she decided to start her label, signing many small bands like mine. And so, since I had a connection, my friends and I decided to sign with her during the summer after we graduate. We'd have to move to New York in America, but that was just fine. Because moving meant we could establish a good career and attend college as well.

"I'm excited too. You know, to move and all." My eyes take mental images of the portrait outside today. Trees were finally growing leaves again, and grass as well; spring was around the corner. "Why the sudden visit? Is there a conference being held in Miyagi?"

My question seems like have made him uneasy, for his fingers began making small beats on the steering wheel. In no way did I mean to be so sudden, but an answer to my asking was necessary.

Thankfully, his response isn't a shout and rude remark, but a simple explanation that frankly made me feel better about his stay. "I'm most likely not gonna be able to see you before you graduate, so I wanted to spend a day with you. I know I said I'd drop you off at school after breakfast, but I thought we could hang out longer.

Is that okay?"

"Yeah, it's fine."

—

To my surprise, the drive wasn't as short as I thought. A total of thirty silent minutes felt as if it was an entire hour. Once we arrived at the small cafe in the plaza, the both of us got off the car and glanced at each other, beginning our way towards it.

I had a certain idea of why he'd picked this spot for us to eat at. When I was younger, I'd spent lots of time here doing whatever I was up to, and usually with one of my close friends, (not that we're close anymore.) To be completely frank, it came to me as a shock my father even paid attention to how much I adored this place. The light lavender concrete walls and cutesy pots with succulents and house plants. Not to mention its colorful m decorations, far more improved than when I was a little kid. Still, it drew Moku, Oikawa, Iwaizumi, and Toruku to make it our number one hang-out spot from the ages of 8-14, even if it wasn't as attracting as it is now.

As we enter, the small bell at the top of the door rings, and we're greeted by a young girl at the counter that surrounded many baked goods. "Welcome!" She says, meanwhile packing up an online order. "Is there anything I could help you guys with?"

"Two coffees, please." My father replied, holding up two of his long, worn-out fingers. 'Coffee? I mean, I guess. Not that I cared or anything. I honestly preferred the tea with the little peaches in it— what was it called?' My father's voice cuts off my thoughts. "And a fruit lemonade for her. The coffees are for me; long hours!"

'That's it!' I said to myself internally, briefly smiling at the worker while she wrote a few words down. And soon enough, we're told it'll take only a few minutes. Still, it baffled me my father even remembered such a little thing I loved when I was a child.

What a try-hard.

The two of us find a corner table for two, and he pulls out a chair for me to place myself. I do so, as my father does the same. Then, a long-awaited conversation begins. "How did you know I liked this place?"

He straightens his collar, saying, "You never stopped talking about it when you were little."

"And the drink?"

"I just remember how many times it appeared on my taxes from this place, that's all." He chuckles, leaning onto his arm along with stroking his sharp beard. "Why do you ask?"

Without thinking, I answer sharply, looking down at the wooden patterns on the table. "Why do you think? I didn't think you'd paid attention," I say to him, quickly looking up for a rude remark.

He effortlessly sighs and keeps the situation unproblematic. Although, I wouldn't have minded diving deeper into the reasoning of his absence. "I did sometimes. Sorry."

I tell myself to leave it at that, to leave it at 'sorry', but I can't. I can't not say something. "Can I ask you something? And I want a valid answer, not excuses. I know you wanted to have a nice time but this is the most I've talked to you in the past year so I'd rather get straight to it than poke around the elephant in the room."

In the corner of my eye, I see him nod, giving me an okay that I could rant. Well, more like calmly let out my feelings. "I just— I don't understand what happened. After you and mom got busy, it was a total blur. I'm not asking for you two to get together again, and I never questioned why you split up either. I'm simply asking why you guys forgot you had a daughter, that's all."

Not more than a split second later do I realize how rude that sounded. But too bad, I wanted to know. A few silent seconds slide by while he seems to be thinking of an answer, and explanation. Then, the sound of footsteps coming towards us, signaling our beverages had arrived.

"Two coffees," the young lady mumbles, setting them in front of my father as he smiles. "And a fruit lemonade!" She exclaims. The pink-tinted drink makes waves in cold glass in her hand once it's set down. "All set. Is there anything else I can get for you two?"

We shake our heads lightly.

"Alright then! Enjoy!" She beams, then happily walks away. Ever since I was younger, I never understood why the store wonder daughter was so nice. But I'm guessing it lasted throughout the years, or else she wouldn't treat customers so gently.

Father slowly lifts the drink to his lips, and enjoys his cinnamon roast, while I feel my back aching from the perfect posture I perform around him. "Ah, carry on, Y/n. What is it that makes you so upset? The idea your mother and I did all we could to give you a better life, or is it that we picked ourselves up and became better people?" His manipulative tone comes in, sending mixed signals. But I could see where he was coming from completely.

"I just wish you two had taught me what it's like to be a proper parent. Instead, every time I would try getting your attention, you would always look away, and send me off to do something else." I feel my hands squeeze my thighs under the table, as I look up and down at my father with a silent yet harsh tone, "all I wanted was to admire you and learn what was so interesting about sitting in an office working for another person. But that's changed now, right? Because you've maxed out the level of superiority now that you've not done a single other thing."

"Y/n—"

"The fact you worked endlessly doesn't bother me as much as you criticizing me does. It truly hurts me that you attempt to steer me into another direction every time you visit when you haven't even been to at least seven of my birthdays. I wouldn't be surprised if you forgot it, either. You would judge who I hung out with, what I liked to do, everything. You even judged the way I handled my best friend dying, yet didn't think to send me to therapy. Toruku's mom is the one who took us to get help, not you. Why do you do it? Why do you think it's a good idea to bring me down? You've never been there for me, so you don't know me. You never will, father. You'll never know who I am."

A trembling hand reaches for my drink quickly, as I sip from the thin black straw in silence, taking in as much as I can. And all he can do is sit quiet, still processing my explanation.

That is until he speaks, finally. "I'm— I'm sorry."

"It's too late for that."

He nods.

The straw twirls between my fingers during the spinning memories of spending more time with my friends than my parents that ran through my mind. But it's whatever, right? I did just fine raising myself. At least that's what I told myself. Truth is, I needed people. I needed to grow with others on my side. It wasn't any wonder that I felt so lonely when I was younger. I'm dependent, yet independent.

Before getting up from my seat, I make sure to down the rest of the cold lemonade I had in my hand and grabbed both my hood and small bag. "Can we go now? Please."

"Sure. We can leave."

—

After getting home, I can't help but immediately let a few tears escape my eyes. The fact two words were all my father could say made my blood boil and my bones stiffen, especially since it was the last time I would talk with him in person before I graduate. Maybe I could meet him before he goes back to Korea, but I'd rather not. Not after leaving it at that.

The doors slam still echoed through the house, while I sat against the front door, crying in my lonely arms. No car to leave, and no one to hear me except a sleepy cat. While I do so, every thought of ever healing the hole between our relationship entered my thoughts, and the never-ending process of realizing I can't fix it hurts just as much as the pain in my chest.

Throughout the blur of water in my eyes, I make out the image of a white figure lying across my feet. I look up briefly, wipe my eyes, and stroke Astras back. Her soft, thin hair glides between my fingers, giving me a realization that I wasn't completely alone. No, I wasn't. I still had old friends and family that supported me, other than my father.

Right now, I had to think about the things that were important to me. The things that would help me grow, not look back at my regrets. Maybe the purpose of his visit was a sign from the universe, telling me to get over my past because my goals are too close for me to hesitate.

I needed a break from today. A nap, possibly. I don't think I'd be going back to school anytime soon, so I might as well rest a bit. That's exactly what I need, rest after a long week. After all, the weekend was just around the corner.

I slouch up the stairs with the chunky cat in my hand. By the time I reach my room, both my pants and shoes are in the other, and I'm ready to knock out between messy blankets.

—

'Ring!' My phone makes alarms under me, sending vibrations through the pillow my head rested on, making my eyelids quickly open. A hand snaked for the device, bringing the bright screen up to my face. It was no other than the band group chat.

Xanax sluts

Giki

Guess who just got invited to a party

Toruku

Giki

No me but I asked if you guys could go and they said we can bring whoever

Toruku

Bruh

Who is hosting it

Giki

Some chick names Miya I know. She's a third-year and seems like a stuck-up little bitch but she's actually pretty cool.

Hikishi

Omg I love her she's so sweet

Oh I know who you guys are talking about she's the girls' volleyball team captain

Giki

Yeah

Anyways she said you guys could go

Hikishi

When

Giki

Uhh

In like

An hour?

HUH

GIRL IM NOT READY FOR A PARTY TN I JUST GOT IN THIS ARGUMENT WITH MY DAD 😟

Giki

Oh come onnn just slap on a dress or something and we can go

Hikishi

WAIT YES IM SO BORED

Toruku

Will, there be alcohol

Giki

Toruku

Will there be drugs

Giki

Toruku

Then this isn't a party-

Giki

Come on she's my friends and I promised you guys would go plus she's super popular so everyone's gonna be there AND she's rich

Toruku

And who's driving us

Hikishi

You mf who else

Fine I'll go but you guys better not do anything to cause attention, if there's gonna be snobby people then we're most likely to be looked down on

Hikishi

I'm so excited yayy

Toruku

What are you excited about there's no drugs or alcohol

Hikishi

Cause this is the first party we're going to ever since last month

Toruku

Oh yeah

Giki

Mhm it's like this back to school party

Toruku

Giki if this is a kids party I'm gonna slap the lesbian out of you

Giki

ITS NOT YOU TOUCH-DEPRIVED TWINK

See you guys in an hour ig

Hikishi

Oh-

—

Mom

Going out tn

Ok. Are you staying at anyone's house?

Maybe. Idk yet

How did it go with your dad

It went fine

Good baby I'm glad

Tell me when or if you get to someone's house

Ok I will love you

—

Happy that my mother didn't make an argument, I sigh, checking the time. It seemed pretty dark outside, so it had to be around eight or nine. And quickly after, I decide it's best to begin getting ready, again.

—

Please note chapters, it means a lot. I work endlessly on these making sure they're perfect for you guys. Have a good rest of your day, and I hope you take care of yourself. Love you lots!!

- estrxlar

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ts-akhmim · 4 years

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Episode 12 | “Beauty got problems and Brawn got problems”- Autumn

wow. just wow. i sure did just do that and im so proud. i proved to myself im a deserving winner tonight. i will fight to the death to get my allies to the end because lets be real i sure am not making it KJSDFLASFLA.

i was going to start this confessional out in a celebratory tone but YOU KNOW WHAT I STILL AM BECAUSE WE JUST DID THAT. I typically like to be my own biggest hater and drag myself in my confessionals a lot just as a way to clock myself and try to see the other perspective, but BITCH I KNOW I SNAPPED THIS ROUND AND IF YOU DONT THINK I DID LEMME HIT YOU WITH SOME FACTS; FACT: I CORRECTLY USED MY ADVANTAGE AND WON IMMUNITY DURING WHAT WAS A PERTINENT ROUND https://media.tenor.com/images/6c2f88af1bd5a24853849df11a566947/tenor.gif FACT: UPON FINDING OUT I HAD IMMUNITY I KNOW DEVON WAS COMING TO ME TRYING TO KEEP ME UNDER HIS WING, OH YEAH ADAM, JUST VOTE IN THE MINORITY, AND GO ALONG WITH BEING AT THE BOTTOM, AND IT WAS M E DECIDING I DIDNT WANT TO DO THAT AND SPILLING THE TEA THAT LED TO GETTING AN OUTCOME I WANTED https://media.tenor.com/images/6c2f88af1bd5a24853849df11a566947/tenor.gif FACT: it was ME who also went to autumn/ali and started planting seeds of doubt in their minds about jake and it's turning out it's helped me solidify my position with them better https://media.tenor.com/images/6c2f88af1bd5a24853849df11a566947/tenor.gif FACT: It's also still me who's aligned with 2 or 3, if you include jake, of the biggest targets left in the game and i already have augusto and amir sliding in my pms trying to play pity me boo hoo hoo like gorl plea im not buying it but yall wanna keep singing kumbaya? well ill sing the encore and be twice as fake as yall (i DO love them both as people just as a disclaimer but from a game perspective? they're beasts!) https://media.tenor.com/images/6c2f88af1bd5a24853849df11a566947/tenor.gif ok, boasting over, time to hop off cloud nine and get back to reality because FACT: we all just made a big move, so the target on all of us, including myself, just went up, FACT: i could easily be delusional and maybe i had NOTHING to do with this blindside SJDFA but lemme bask in my fake glory anyway itll be funny to read after at least... FACT: The war has truly only just begun, that was a great victory but if me/ali/autumn are really in it like we're saying, we may still have another idol on our side, but we're gonna need more than that, it's kinda funny we're one brain, one brawn, one beauty and i think that speaks volumes i truly love these gals and think this is a good game route for me. some people might think it's foolish of me to align with the big threats and go deep with them, but who's to say im not worthy of being in their company? if it wasnt for my social connection with devon he wouldve never told me the plan, and then autumn is the smart one so she kept us composed and together, and then ali was the brawn he had the idol and got the job done. So im gonna just try and stick with this for now, hopefully they feel the same and dont try to oust me right away because then ill look like a whole fool and a half OOP, and ill plaster my fake smiles on for everyone else and kiki it up we can haha hehe all day long but i wont hesitate to vote them out because trust and believe.

Last Day 30 was my last day playing TS: Guyana, so this is a nice feeling to still be here. But now the fun kicks in. Jakey helped orchestrate the Devon blindside with the Ali idol, so I guess we're even. And now, assuming Jakey is still actually with me, which I think he is, I think we can run this game for the longrun. He has access to Ali, Autumn, and Adam and I have access to the three Beauties. I truly see this being beneficial for the both of us in terms of keeping one another safe and allowing us to get to the final six unharmed. Final six is important for me. I'm not sure if I've admitted this in an earlier confessional or not, but I have the Legacy Advantage (thank you Jordan Pines!) that I can use at six. So I just need to survive two more tribals. If I can do that, I have a seat in the final five, probably two more rounds to survive before getting to FTC, and then I have a shot. I really need to start building a resume if I want to win this game, but I think I have a chance. I really need to get Ali and Autumn out in these next three rounds. If I can do that, I see myself being able to make the end with the likes of Jakey, Kendall, Augusto, and maybe Adam (Amir will become a threat at five or six I think) and then I have at least a shot at the win, but I really need to keep my head down, keep the social game going, and make a move or two here.

so. i think i have some explaining to do JKLASDFA huh? i was on calls for the like three hours before tribal so i didn't really confess at all.. in fact i think in my last confessional i said that we were voting 4-3-3 which did not happen at all so i think i need to fill in some gaps huh? so... i have known since like 11pm EST yesterday that i was getting votes tonight. devon told, adam told me and then told autumn, but then autumn didn't want to tell me until later in the day which i honestly do think was fair so we weren't spiralling for hours. we were all sus of jake all day (and lowkey i still am?)... like i dont know when his energy because so shady, plus devon may have told adam that jake was in on the plan? plus he kept saying stuff like the vote has gone "back to kendall" and kept pushing me not to play the idol... something does not add up right with that. anyway so that demonic group of five voted for me, and lied SO much to make me leave with my idol? like why not just make me paranoid, leak the vote to adam or jake then vote autumn get me to waste an idol and then autumn leaves? now that would've been a good move hello?! but that group does not know how to blindside, idols have sabotaged their plans twice and amir/augusto should consider themselves lucky that they are still in the game. also kendall fought me at tribal because i was being cocky... but she literally tried to blindside me into leaving with an idol hello?! i appreciate that she thought she was going, but she is zero to too much way too quick. augusto can literally suck my ass our call was him and his bad excuse for jury management, like can he at least be like amir and pretend to want to work with me? anyway so moving forwards, i wanna vote out kendall or augusto this round. amir can stick around because he at least pretends to wanna work with me plus he is a threat too. idek i just want all the fake people in this tribe gone. i will not vote for adam, autumn or jake. i will vote for any of the others, im not fussed about the order in which i do so. im living on borrowed time in this game and im going to make it count

Sorry this is two parts I thought my friend was gonna die lol but she's fine. Remember kids, there's no dick worth dying over and a straight guy rejecting you is a blessing in disguise these days (considering the alternatives).

Now on with the show hahaha

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1-AkqQGDYzlccP1VFwpPNo-aCQPFmoj9Z https://drive.google.com/open?id=1bVcBqq0JL2-ybgTiS2vOrYURbCG0kIxh

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thots on final 8: augusto: would cut me to win, literal love of my life, super kind and empathetic and genuinely good person, i think his social game is fire and i think he has a way with people, and downplays how smart and cutthroat he really is constantly, but i love the kid so much ali: the brit has to die ali again: okay im kidding i like him a lot but tbh hes a smart fucking guy, i think hes super cool and and also a badass with that idol play, hes a force but he has to go soon autumn: lana stan, coolest girl around, queen of the social game, queen of likability, queen of controlling rounds and letting others take the hit, a damn threat, she could win this game tj: sweetheart, we need each other in the game rn, i need need need to secure his loyalty adam: hes kinda crazy but he has a good heart, kinda just following ali and autumn rn, not gonna win in the end kendall: i have a soft spot for this crackhead, she deserves the world, probably cant win at the end but im happy i met her, shes on my side and a vote i can use moving forward jakey: love him to death would die 4 him, would beat me in the end and at immunities also the fact that kendall augusto and i are all still here is so fucking funny, like bitch how kejwnfkewjnfkejnwfkjnewkfnewk cockroaches

So numbers on surface Jakey - adam - autumn - Ali Kendall - Amir - Augusto - tj Round 5: Adam - Ali - autumn Amir - kendall - Augusto In the middle: jakey - tj So I just have to work on them

when i tell you ive been hooting and hollering what the fuck is going on in the survivor on this day, who the hell would've thought id win my third individual immunity in one season, gorl that is probably the most 2020 thing to happen in this game. although two of them pretty much were dumb luck afdjks either that or maybe im doing a little better than i think i truly dont know, and the touchy subjects clocked me on THAT as; what was it they said, 'the person they forget is in the game' and also 'least aware of their place' okay well yes im AWARE ive BEEN lost and asking for help this whole game gorl! But that's great, that's how i want people to view me, because uh... i just won 3 of these things now and that alone is reason to target me, granted im doing my best to play it up like dont worry! im just a dumb dumb! and clearly theyre eating that up like crazy, because it's both just the truth but also strategy if i keep playing it up, so watch out meryl, adam's in town! also LOVE that i knew i was gonna get most likely to have the idol i dont know how many times i have to say it IM INNOCENT AND BEING FRAMED FOR A FOOL and ooh dont even get me started on all the other tea it spilled, i actually got the LEAST of the bad things, i guess i kinda exposed myself because i made most of my chops at amir, augusto, and tj oop, so they probably didnt like that but they really left me no choice strategically, screw with me, i screw back, simple as that. As far as the vote too ummm.....it's been quiet tonight on my end so hope that doesnt make me a fool because this time last vote was a disaster, at this point im still thinking i need to stick with ali and autumn because this vote is so pertinent, after this a solid 4 can take it, or get as far as we can because im always keeping my options open OOP, but for the most part i do want to stay true to my good judys for now, but i know someone between amir/augusto/kendall has an idol and if they were smart theyd use it this round, so i need to convince the others of this because im sure its gonna happen since they dont think ali has one anymore hopefully but who knows, if it were up to me we'd vote augusto or tj this vote. I think amir has the idol and i think he's going to play it for himself this round or i could see augusto playing it for him, so if i can make anyone belive that very realistic scenario, we can get one of the ones theyd least expect just to ensure us the numbers for next round, but what do i know, they just forget im in the game anyway! so hopefully tomorrow someone tries to give me the tea and we get a plan together or else i spilled all the tea last round for nothing which is worst case scenerio

yesterday was a lot. I went an apology tour to everyone involved in my blindside and honestly it was annoying. the fact that augusto basically got me to apologise to him on our call when he blindsided me was irritating, like he just let me sit there and take fault when the point of the call was for him to take accountability. talking to him is like talking to 2018 me, he has such social ability, but he just takes zero accountability and is just so infuriatingly wishy-washy. he is all of my worst attributes as a player rolled into one. i also... almost won immunity? which is crazy, but I just found yesterday and the way immunity played out so frustrating, but I've spoken about it enough in my host chat enough. just know i feel robbed, slighted and if I get rocked out this round when i should have immunity. i will throw a fuss again SAJDKFLAS. anyway so this vote is gonna be a mess. tj and autumn now have a blood feud, Kendall and jake came to a head this round. so that's four people whose name i hopefully am not their number #1 target, plus i don't think adam is targetting me? but this vote is going to be a mess, because it very very easily could be 4-4, where there is an idol on both sides of the trench. i have a gut feeling amir and his sock puppets are going to vote autumn. it makes sense, tj wants her gone and the beauties need him reeled in. so i think im going to have to idol autumn, but that is risky because if the 4 vote jake... im going to rocks, and if they vote me, im reliant on jake going to rocks. but i just wanna send all these people backing, especially augusto. amir i'm trying to shake him that me and him have to stick together, but i also could vote for him. i literally just want to make F7 and to vote someone who just voted me out. that is literally all i want. if i go home i will be literally devastated

So like… there’s the dream and there’s the harsh reality which is something this round really talk me. The dream is obviously me winning, making all these big moves, and doing THAT. However, my reality? Could very well be that people don’t see me as a winner at all and it makes me a little disappointed but I gotta prove them all wrong. The vote last round being Ali was honestly mostly my doing and I’m proud of that. My ideal boot order is Autumn/Ali then Jakey then Autumn/Ali and that is GOING to happen because I’m putting that into the universe. When it comes to Autumn and Ali, I would rather Ali go but I think the safest bet while still having a target leave would be Autumn. In a way too, I do know Amir wants Ali out moreso alongside Jakey but I wanna separate my game from Amir so yeah. Also Adam calling me a fake ass bitch even tho my drunk ass was telling him I liked him was a gag… but oh well.. Nothing grinds my gears more than people thinking I’m not being genuine with how I feel towards them but if that’s what he thinks, maybe that’s what he’ll get idk… i feel petty and mad for some reason over it… BUT ANYWAY, I just want to survive this vote. I hope Kendall doesn’t go but she also said she wants me to win over Amir so yay?

If I die, I just wanna say I regret nothing and I have full confidence that the right person will win this season. So not TJ, Augusto, or Amir lmaaaaooo. Amir entering the two time winner chat??? Over my dead fucking body. If there's one thing Imma do it's poison a jury

Ali or Autumn... who shall we vote? Stay tuned!

Is Jess really Canadian... stay tuned!

god. today is gonna be another nailbiter and i want to confess first. so the plan is to idol autumn and vote out kendall, which sucks because i do now like kendall. i just think its the safest way of avoiding them playing an idol i guess, i don't even know. i just am sick of fighting in this game every single round me and autumn have had to fight to make it past. the fact jake is throwing a fit in my pms becuase im not idoling him is infuriating because... i'd love to idol myself? like? anyway im over it. if i go home, i hope tj can finally stop his blind fixation on autumn and i, that augusto can actually be accountable for one entire thing, amir can stop his pity party and show awareness for his threat level and that kendall... well actually kendall is fine. i just feel like im a mum trying to get all my kids to fit in a minivan and to put their seatbelts on, like can they get it together.

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I don’t think anyone is ready for this round or at least what’ll come of it... I’m expecting an explosion or a mess given Jakey thinks he’s staying, TJ has been lied to, and hopefully Autumn or Adam leave next... its all a mess. If Jakey goes, I’m planning a 2-2-2 split between Autumn and Adam where we maybe get Autumn out but Adam leaving doesn’t hurt either.

me with biggest villian, biggest backstabber, thinks they are running the game, is running the game, and is gonna win at the end http://prntscr.com/ss4h5q

literally god demolished and brutalized worse than anyone in this game tonight in that touchy subjects yet I’m also the one comforting like half the tribe over their answers even tho I ADKWNWQJN WAS ATTACKT LIKE this cast literally thinks im a psychopath fjebwfjenkn but im not gonna play victim over my superlatives i just have to use this target on my back strategically

I want destruction AHHHHHHHHHHhhHhHhHhHhHhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Okay so, they think me or Augusto have the idol, so they can vote kendall, to ensure our idol isn’t played and that me and Augusto and tj are forced into rocks, and im just like trying to get everyone to stop replying to ali cuz hes smart and he will psychoanalyze and figure out who to play the idol on and like he has to play it on autumn and not himself so pls pls pls kkjnkjenfs let this work

#BackWithVengeance

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monkey-network · 7 years

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Good Stuff - THE (FULL) TROOF ABOUT STEVEN UNIVERSE

WARNING: What you’ll see under the cut is possibly one of the grandest things I will ever do and generally one of the biggest SU Crit posts of all time. Be advised that explicit language is present and we ask that readers are open-minded and reasonable with any given retort. Note that this has been edited due to Tumblr’s limitations of presentable media so click here for the Director’s Cut.

Do like & share if you enjoyed it or if I fought your boredom. Thank you and take care out there.

Steven Universe is a charming, popular show with a quad-polar fandom, and I’m only here to point out what I say is legitimately wrong with this cartoon. Simple enough? Fair enough.

POINT #1 - THE ACTION:

Okay, my first point really doesn’t just apply with cartoons, but fights in general. Question: what’s the one thing that people get the most out of seeing a fight? The impacts. Those moments where the opponent is given such a crushing ass blow, that you can feel the effort that went into that attack. Yeah, Steven Universe lacks this. I mean, it can look like the characters are putting effort into fighting their opponents and it can look like they’re getting hurt pretty bad (thanks to applied visuals and sound effects), but it never feels like the characters are actually hitting each other. There are instances of impact, but they’re menial and they’re scattered between the duelists smacking each other like helium filled action figures; feeling as tender as any other motion the characters do throughout. Now if you’re wondering what I mean by impacts, note these prime examples; because animes know their action.

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure

Hajime no Ippo

Summer Wars

My Hero Academia

If present, violence can/should provide a stark raving contrast to the supposedly grounded world in any series, and the impacts of violence should be escalating with every punch or kick. Attacks should fly with fierce swiftness, the weight/force of any blow can be seen; raw power, speed, and stamina should be pushed to limits unknown. Now, I’m not saying Steven U has to imitate any incredible, well animated fight scene that anime has flawlessly provided by now, but more effort should have been made to escalate the impact of their fights, not keep it steady tuned with

*Smear work to make the boring motions look fast paced

*Spiky white marks to show a clash

*quick visual instances of impact that lets you know a character is getting hurt

*and tons of smoke to cover the possibly graphic imagery

Steven Universe has the fundamentals of action down, but they don’t go beyond that (plus ultra). Their fights can look technically similar with the characters being the only real source of variation, especially when you can figure out their attacks ahead of time. So I hate to say this, but if you’ve seen one fight, you’ve seen ‘em all.

Another reason I presented Steven U’s lacking action is because tts not just about fists flying or weapons clashing, but the balance of emotion that goes with the foes putting their heart and soul into taking each other down. But, for most of the time, I don’t see SU’s fights present any real hook of seriousness, even if it wants me to, and most of them feel present for (basic) comedy. I feel less invested in who’s fighting, or why, than I am at how they’re getting beat up. Ironic, being a show that’s all about being open with its “serious” emotions. Combined with its lackluster animation, and they don’t add much contrast towards an otherwise easy going series

This here is honestly the most funniest a fight scene of theirs can get (mostly ‘cuz Peri deserved that), but after seeing the pretty slow animation, it can lose its luster no matter how deserving it may seem. Now notice this whopping scene, from the anime One Punch Man, below.

You can know nothing about One Punch Man, who these characters really are, but you can tell from these 5 seconds alone that when a fight happens, there’s a fast, over the top sense of comedy that comes with the brutal nature of a man that can apparently KO anybody in one swing, ironic and even more comedic with said one hit wonder being the most emotionless looking character on the show.

Seriously, that’s his face for almost the whole series

Now I know what you’re thinking, “But Monkey Network, it’s mostly a slice of life cartoon. The action scenes aren’t that prominent in the series as you might think and hope. It’s not supposed to be a violent show.” And I’d say fair point except for the fact that Friendship is Magic is also a slice of life cartoon that only has a few real action scenes under its belt, and this particular one is the best fucking thing I’ll ever see.

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AGAIN, you can know nothing about the series as a whole, or this episode in general, but this fight alone perfectly captures the game Steven Universe has never really utilized since its early days. It has some seriousness with its escalating over the top attacks, the pace never feels constant, and even though they’re evenly matched, the things they do look fucking cool. The only downside is that since the show has puppet flash animation, it does looks limited, but even then they made the most of it. Steven Universe is hand drawn, so with all due respect, they have no fucking excuse. Their fight scenes amount to stay the course animation with glimpses of impact and a flashy style to avoid it from being pod racing levels of BORING. I’ve seen fan animations that would give this show a run for its money.

The Fandom provides more than the actual show

Even before Garnet’s fight with Jasper, Steven Universe’s action sequences was a sweet chunk of what made the show investing to watch, and looking at back at it, I was a bit too invested in something that wasn’t that invested in itself. Again, I know it can’t stack up to the God tier works that the anime world’s made for itself, but compared to other action present cartoons (Voltron, Star vs. the Forces of Evil, Avatar, The Powerpuff Girls, MLP, OK KO, any shonen anime), I think maybe they could/should git a little gooder in providing actual fights, not sparring matches. That, and if Sugar Honey Ice Tea and her crewniverse can put such effort into the facial expressions, they can make the fights more expressive too.

POINT #2 - THE “VILLAINS”:

Now, I fucking love villains. Not just for the who, but why and how they do it. When bad guys like the Joker, Lord Dominator, DIO, or Him do their thing onscreen, I enjoy every moment of their threatening essence (except Jared Leto’s Joker, he sucked). Villains remorselessly do unethical, downright vicious, things to fulfill their goals while initiating setting up the heroes to correct these effects with their efforts and abilities. Steven Universe has villains, sure. Yet, after having so many chances, Rebecca Sugardaddy has failed to make them REAL villains, specifically the Great Diamond Authority.

Now originally, I was gonna compare the Diamonds to the likes of Fire Lord Ozai(Avatar: The Last Airbender) or DIO (JJBA); villains that work in the shadows and when they’re eventually revealed, they’re already a force to be reckoned with. But looking into how they and Homeworld is set up, there was no other villainous ensemble that could stack up with the Diamonds perfectly like the Gorosei from the anime One Piece.

Looking more badass than the US Government

Now these five gentlemen aren’t necessarily what make up the end all be all for the series, but above all, the Gorosei are the ruling leaders of the organization that controls the entire world of One Piece. They command the military, the police, and other agencies, like their investigative and espionage departments, and the only people that out rule these gentlemen are the descendants of those who created it several centuries ago. Like the Diamonds, they seek to maintain order and justice for the people of their world and doing so means taking on any sign of revolution (namely Pirates) that could damage not only their image, but their purpose. Both Authorities possess absolute rule over the many classes that are under them and their stance of power can be present with the many actions that effect the characters we focus on currently. The difference between the two ruling classes is nuance, aka a grey sense of morality, aka an actual sense of relatability. So when I see a series having an overall narrative villain, Steven Universe has shown me that sympathy should NOT be a factor in storytelling.

Now when I say this, I don’t mean you can’t sympathize with any villain you see. Most of the time, you can feel for the antagonist when their lives never were good to begin with, that’s namely how villainy starts out, therefore making their actions not so much justified, but understandable. Take the rogues gallery that are the enemies of Batman.

Every one of them has a story to tell and a method to their madness. Their histories weren’t as nice or as hopeful as they may have hoped, and you can feel their pain as their efforts to be successful at something grand falls apart due to the Dark Knight or life’s unforgiving nature. However, the sympathy stops there because none of these masterminds, with the Joker being an exception, serve as a main villain to Batman’s crusade for justice, they’re continuous rivals and one off stories that expand the DC Universe. No evil in Gotham is powerful enough because Batman’s story has no real endgame. Steven Universe and One Piece will eventually have an endgame. And while the Gorosei represent an Oligarchical commodity that separates its order seeking rule from their affiliating countries, The Diamonds have amounted to being under one system alone:

Or generally cruel Collectivism if you wanna sound smart

And it’s weird I bring this up. For I would’ve thought to have called Homeworld an authoritative caste system where the gem you’re born with defines your class and status, coinciding with the gems’ natural abilities. The specific gems are given a role and everyone plays a part to maintain societal order, like what India has, with the Diamonds being the biggest and strongest gems and therefore are the de facto Matriarch of the gem society, you feel me? That would’ve earned a little sympathy from me, because the Diamonds losing Pink would’ve meant the massive changes to accommodate their order and resources might not have worked out so well and their image as leaders are slowly diminishing and that can explain the huge resentment for Earth and Rose’s Rebellion.

But no. Instead the Diamonds are a repressive totalitarian government that basically control everyone and everything, all the gems below to strictly follow and almost never question their line of reasoning, and they’re reasons for destroying the Earth has been summarized down to the emotional baggage and grudge that came with their failure long ago.

CAN YOU NOT FEEL THEIR STRUGGLE?!

Wanna know why I didn’t compare the Diamonds to Avatar’s Fire Nation when talking about humanizing the enemy and the connection couldn’t be more obvious? Because before Ozai is ever mentioned, The Last Airbender states very clearly that the Fire Nation is the region Aang and his friends need to infiltrate to stop their manifest destiny. And when we’re early hinted that Zuko’s not full on evil, it lets the audience know that not everyone is on board with those in charge of the Fire Nation invasion, leading up to Ozai’s big debut where we see that as the endgame villain, he’s irredeemable and has such a lust for power, that he’s recognizably the main drive everyone has to stop. Avatar did this right because little by little, the main enemy was narrowed down to a single force that hasn’t made itself known until near the end when his presence bear more importance. The same can’t be said for Steven Universe because Rebecca Sugar Rush presented yet another faint mistake.

The Diamond’s personalities are given to us before they’ve shown us who they are and what they’re capable of…

So we see Yellow Diamond as a vindictive, no nonsense leader that wants shit to get done and Blue Diamond as a more tender looking, yet no nonsense leader that’s grieving over Pink Diamond’s death and does whatever she can to move on and remember the fallen fondly. So, have they done anything before we’ve met them personally? Sure.

*They corrupted thousands of their own kind (because of the rebellion)

*Allowed experimentation towards shattered gems to make artificial fusion or disembodied amalgamates (because of the rebellion)

*And let’s not forget the Cluster (because of the rebellion)

So yeah, quite a lot actually. Now you might be thinking, “But Monkey Network, what does those five old men have to do with what the Diamonds did?” Well, when you see the villainous shit the Gorosei have commanded, their actions are actually more relatable than one would expect.

*Ordering the destruction of an island of archaeologists because they were secretly researching forbidden history

*Ordered death to any pregnant woman in sight fearing that one could be pregnant with Gol D. Roger, the OG Pirate King’s, child. Said slaughter lasted for around two years (Special thanks to @des-the-girl for this info)

*Directing the Marines, or the front line enemies of our Pirate heroes

*And contemplating their system’s next move when updates arrive

Now I don’t know about you, but these gentlemen make up quite an authoritative class with understandable motives and relatable notions on running the world without necessarily being on the front lines. Kinda like the US over the years? Even when their level of corruption can be on par and we still know little of their true power and who they really are, they’re instantly better than the Diamond Authority because we can see why they’re in command, their thoughts and actions towards our heroes shows no sign of being sympathetic, and yet we see where their motives lie. I mean, their Government’s enemies are pirates. You know, Pirates? People who’ve robbed and killed and are the opposite of order? See where I’m going here? They namely go after our heroes who are seen to be the enemy even when the Pirates and plenty others consider them the enemy. It’s almost as if there’s a grey choice for the audience to wonder whom the real bad guys are. OooooOOh. Also, quick side note. The Gorosei look fucking cool. Like their designs aren’t exactly human, credit towards Eiichiro Oda and his expressive designs, but they’re drawn with such a level of seriousness and stature that it presents their elder wisdom and grave subtlety towards a subject in a contrasting light to the pirates bombastic, emotional appeal.

So, what’s the tl;dr aspect of this since you probably won’t take this seriously? Well, call this a domino effect. Basically, Rebecca Sugardop has given us nonthreatening villains that showed no sign of any redeemable qualities beyond their ability to mesmerize us with their acting, and the audience should have a bit of sympathy for their side (see ”Bismuth”). In doing so, she failed to make them real villains. In doing that, there really are no real villains in the show. And when there are no villains, the conflict feels dry and absent. And without conflict, she failed at putting together HALF an overall story. And when you’re a coming of age story where it has to end on some note with maturity and change, after almost five years in the making, you just FUCKED yourself over when you didn’t even invest time in HALF of what makes an overall story of good and evil investing and engaging. Oh I’m sorry, what makes an overall story of a blurred line between good and evil. Investing and engaging.

Ugh, I can’t care anymore. If they get redeemed, sure. If they end up dying like a tragedy, fine. They feel less like villains to overcome and more like stairs Steven has to step on to become a better person. Just let White Diamond be as grandiose and badass as Tumblr’s AUs of her, because again…

The fandom is doing the show a bit of justice

POINT #3 - BEACH CITY:

Okay, before I provide attention to our main gem heroes, I thought I’d give their home of Beach City a vocal point to express the diversity they offer and what makes them an essential drive for Steven and the Crystal Gems to protect the Earth by any means. I mean, they offer such valid representation for the show’s world building and can offer plenty of stories to tell to give us that slice of lifevibe the show really needed. But I believe, after seeing Beach City time and time again over the course of 4 years, that I can summate its presence in the show with a single- Nay. With two simple yet comprehensible words.

Who cares?

Whooo CARES?

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Thank you, respectable actor Elaine Stritch. Rest in Peace

To continue, don’t get me wrong. Worldbuilding is more than essential for a story like Steven Universe, Berserk, Friendship is Magic, Legend of Zelda, and so on. Whether big or small, expanding a setting is important to giving characters a versatile way to look at their world in a differing light than before. But suffice to say, what world has Steven Universe built for itself?

*A populated province in the East Coast?

*A barn?

*Ancient ruins? Among other distant gem territory?

Aye, this troof is gonna be hard to explain. We just have locations, people. That’s it. They’re no special than the mini Galaxies from Super Mario Galaxy 2, only on Wii, Rated E for Everyone. A place can look cool and a population there can bring life to it, but they should have something for the characters to interact with and visibly wonder about what they might get into as they adapt and progress in some way. And by some way, I don’t mean insert plot devices that help make the characters do significant looking things, and I’ll get to that a bit later. But to sum it up, Steven Universe present locations, but those locations lack identity and coordination.

Stick around, Link, I might need your example

I got a short story to tell. True story. And this story provides my reason, above all else, for why Beach City doesn’t hold much water anymore when talking about world building, specifically after the show’s first season (or Full Disclosure).

There’s a comic book TV show called Preacher, premieres Mondays @ 9, only on AMC. Essentially it’s about a criminal turned Priest, possessed with a supernatural power, going on a cross country road trip to find the physical form of God with his his mate who’s also a vampire and his ex-girlfriend. Pretty vivid premise, but see for yourself. The first season however sets up the road trip where the priest, his ex, and vampire friend stay in a small town in Texas to not only introduce them, the power that the priest gets, and the type of humor throughout, but flesh out a few citizens they encounter pretty well in a thematically connected turnabout for ten episodes straight. All seems good.

Up until the entire town loses their minds, after losing all faith in belief, which eventually leads to a methane nuclear sized explosion that wipes out everybody except the three main characters who exited a few scenes before.

The End.

Now, let’s talk relevance. If I ran Steven Universe, and I don’t think I can, and I pulled 👆👆 that on Beach City at season 1′s end. Erase everything you’ve seen, every citizen will be forced to disappear except the major plot oriented characters, basically resetting the structure. If I did that, how much would it change? What would we really lose? The diverse Beach citizens that don’t and can’t do shit against the enemies we’ve see unless they’re forced to get involved in some way which rarely happens?

You can put as many people of color and as many personalities in your world all you want, but effort should also be put into not just making them NPC levels of value to the point where a reset button wouldn’t put much a dent to the “world building”. The worst part is that it’s not like Batman’s Gotham City or Spider-Man’s New York; places where the villains are plotting while they’re within city walls. Steven Universe’s enemies have to either be brought out somewhere (gem monsters, Lapis) or brought to (Jasper, that red Eye, Aqua and Topaz) Beach City for the place to provide any significant or value. So…

Just saying.

Now if the whole series was like season one with the non “To Be Continued”slice of life episodes, then it would’ve work. Phineas and Ferb, Foster’s Home, and Friendship is Magic has done this well with keeping their main location (The Foster House, Danville, Ponyville, etc.) as their central hubworld for casual stories with a venture outside of them from time to time. I would’ve been okay with Beach City being the spot for Steven and his limitless squad to grow together like Rebecca intended at first. Then I’m reminded that there’s an world expanding story in this, with bigger consequences and threaded arcs, and I’m stuck between investing in the many things they give me, complaining towards full episodes that add up to nothing and went nowhere special, and whining about the lack of reruns it gets on TV compared to Teen Titans GO.

Bottom line, you had/have your comic series to commit to your slice of life genre instead of trying to keep it in the show.

Now, I’m at a disadvantage here. If I want to talk about the actual “SCIENCE FANTASY WORLD BUILDING”, then I’ll have to talk about the Crystal Gems’ involvement in them and I can’t really do that. Luckily, I don’t have to, for SU has unintentionally played itself: when it comes to the Gem oriented locations outside Beach City, they tell but never really show. And turns out I don’t need Link’s example, but Samus Aran’s. Namely, her universe in the Metroid Prime series.

A key element to world building is the control and fun in exploration where you find and somewhat interact with aspects of an environment’s purpose and history while you’re on the go, giving the place more of an identity. Metroid Prime does this well where you journey through different parts of the Galaxy and with your scan visor, you can catalog and figure out the intricacies of the settings, the enemies within them, and info that seem trivial at first, but can offer much in progressing ahead in the game. Note the example before you…

And don’t stare deep into Samus’s blue eyes

Sure it’s an optional part of the game, and you can still trek on with or without having to continuously research the world’s lore, but it offers that versatility where you’re well in control in how to experience the game. Then again, this is a video game, where your skill in figuring things out is the only way to progress anything. What cartoon has this similar level of versatility? I mean, what else?

What else?

Gravity Falls may have stayed in one place, but it gives the characters and audience so much to explore and theorize on. They don’t tackle “everything” the world might have offered (bigfoot), but still give you so much to look out for without ever holding your hand or giving a cliffnotes version on a mystery of theirs. Hell, the fandom was hollering on Tumblr over predicting one of the show’s biggest mysteries being confirmed long before it aired. Hirsh didn’t just give those theory nuts what they wanted, his crew eased us in on how the narrative is taking a turn to someplace different and new without really forcing it on everybody. There was still that enjoyable sense of control that resonated in both the show’s direction and the audience’s experience.

I mean come on, this just oozes the moment of truth

Don’t get me wrong. The crewniverse offer very interesting locations and things that resonate with Gem stuff. My final problem with this is that when I think they might utilize these different places and things, they hold back to sharing but a glimpse of anything the show has plenty of utilizing potential for. Like…

Could this control room present more information about Homeworld’s plans for the gems than just the Cluster? “Probably not, it fulfilled its purpose. Let’s move on.”

What about these drills? Could we personally see how one works, like accidentally reactivate it to see how it functions? “Nah, they’re all dead. Let’s move on.”

Or what about the holes? Could we have some kind of flashback depicting how a gem leaps out the ground? “Nope.” Not even the off col- “NOPE.”

What’s that supposed to be? Is it something important to Homeworld? “We’ll get to that later. Let’s move on.”

Man, this place looks cool. Connie might consider this since she handles weapons and might want something new, like armor or throwing weapons. “Look man, this tour is scheduled. You’ve seen it, we’ll get back to it later. Moving right along.” This tour sucks. “You paid for it, my friend.”

Egoraptor said it best: I’m not witnessing an adventure, I’m a guest at their theme park. This is Kingdom Hearts levels of dragging it along, and I know… “But Monkey Network, they might come back to all that stuff soon. It’s called foreshadowing, you whiner.” To that, I say HA! There’s a huge difference between foreshadowing and giving us cameos. And that is in...

PRESENTATION!

Long story short, if it’s subtle and holds a threatening or vague presence, THAT’s foreshadowing. If it’s already out in the open and is not given a lot of screentime or detail, that’s cameo-ing and waiting for more. The last thing a show should do is hold back and have its audience wait like shoving a secret box in our face, and that’s all Steven Universe has been doing. That’s why so many rant about what’s filler or not. That’s why so many theorize on the most reaching of details. That’s why people proudly growl at what could be the crew’s simple decisions. Because when everything must come back to Beach City, post “Full Disclosure”, exploration can be limited, detail can be limited, and it’ll be up to the audience to speculate/construct the world-building for themselves, making the control and experience for the show feel one sided, therefore UNFAIR.

Like I said, the things I’ve seen offer so much to think about, but Rebecca Sugar sack could’ve done better with presenting them in a better light than a dim mode. The fate of Steven Universe’s future is a mystery to me, and I don’t know what they’re gonna cram in season 5 this fall. All I know is MJ (or Mystery Girl) is fine as fuck and we’re all gonna get something good eventually. My man Ian Jones-Quartey said good world building takes time, and they sure are taking their time.

POINT #4 - THE REPRESENTATION:

Representation in media can be easy when the right writers are at the helm to present (not push) a message of acceptance and acknowledgement towards an audience that may or may not feel the same way. It takes different strokes to rule the world, after all. However, when it comes to character in general, there are two factors in characterization that when used correctly can appeal their message of acceptance for their audience. One, visual acknowledgement of the representing characters (POC, LGBT, belief, etc.) in question and two, giving the subjects good quality participation to show that they are just as adept to the world as any other without phoning in the fact that they are this or that. Long story short, make ‘em good characters and the representation can earn the audience’s respect for itself. Steven U lacks this too, and this comes from them often showing us stuff and expecting us to just go with it, with themes that are enough just to get by fans. Hell, they show us as much as a drive by…

Not even a cool one at that, fresh

I’ll say this to start off: Lars Barriga (my neega) was a stagnant and frustrating character to deal with; nobody in Beach City moved him in any way (not even his own supporting parents), and the writers just shotgunned him growth (more than once) after he basically had to cheat death (more than once) to gain a better conscience. It’s like they wanted to call him a lost cause but had to hook him back in some way for the audience to not deem him a lost cause. So with all due respect, does it matter that he’s Filipino or a trans boy when nothing valuable or thoughtful has come from him especially? Those trivial tidbits can mostly come off as add ons or secondary nods, when they should’ve been welcomed knowledge about his character. Want an good example? Look to the comic series Lumberjanes, especially issues 14-17 and 28. SPOILERS, though…

They did this right for characters Jo and Barney (Jo’s the one in the 2nd panel, Barney’s in the first). They already established these two as well defined characters that make mistakes but are willing to get shit done for their friends by any means. The dialogue above is when Barney is thinking about joining the girl oriented scouts even when he’s considered a boy scout, wondering where does he want to belong. Jo gives him reassurance that she herself felt the same and just wants Barney to assert himself with what he wants to be like she did. And when he does later on, he’s accepted without any forced gratification and the writers gracefully accommodate this to not only make him (now “them”) a good addition to the story’s world, but a welcoming new perspective.

The representation is therefore earned, not just shown off

Now I’d talk further on other characters like Lars, but that would be singing the same beats as my previous piece on world building and would spoil notes on the final 2 parts I’m working on now. Instead, the gems are another reason why the rep-pres-sen-tation in SU is nothing but small fractured penny in the gold mine that is anything else going on, with fusion diminishing the relationship representation of Steven U; however you may see it. Now excuse me… this is the hardest part of my job.

Criticizing love

Garnet is not a good embodiment of Ruby and Sapphire’s love; Ruby and Sapphire is. I would love to see Ruby and Sapphire being together and showing me why they decided to elope, but I can’t because Garnet is a curtain that metaphorically and literally covers said love from having anything more to say than “HELL YEAH WE LOVE EACH OTHER!”. You could say ‘Keystone Motel’offered some adversity for the two, but knowing Steven U, it didn’t feel like much beyond me knowing they’re getting back together in the end because they love each other and they just go back to being Garnet because she’s the personification of their love and such.

Fusion is something I have a disdain for now because they’re exchanging two characters’ development of united growth for basically an entirely new/different character, that don’t have much screen time or development anyways (vice versa in Flourite’s case). You could say ‘Know your Fusion’ presented an evolution for Smokey Quartz, among the other known fusions, to being more than a versatile fighter, but not really no. We were already aware that Steven and Amethyst were acknowledged sad sacks before they fused, so what else does this fusion offer differently than in their ability? As for Sardonyx, she hasn’t changed from her first cameo awhile back and her vanity was the only thing that made her stand out in said episode. All in all, fusion doesn’t reflect a relationship, no matter how hard Rebecca Suge Knight is saying otherwise, it reflects an aftermath; one that’s in and out as a firework. This and up ‘til now, the real couples we see are pretty general or under the rug. To show how the most mentioned and presented couple in the series, RubyXSapphire, has continuously got the shaft, I present the one dynamic you’d least expect: A boy and his stuffed toy.

My personally favorite example so far.

Calvin and Hobbes is a series about boy Calvin and his stuffed tiger Hobbes that comes to life through Calvin’s imagination. Reality is like Garnet in this case, where it’s just Calvin having his stuffed animal around to get into zany hijinks like any other kid his age. Then again, the imagination or the living Hobbes is whom is given more of a focus, allowing their dynamic to bloom in a way that wouldn’t be understood if we just saw Calvin just talking to his toy the whole time. It makes their bond feel real and that’s what RubyxSapphire should be, giving them the floor in a way that adds up to Garnet’s eventual debut. “But Monkey Network, what about ‘The Answer’?” The Answer is an episode that, while sweet and good looking, literally danced over much necessary development in favor of only showing us how they eventually stuck to being Garnet forever. Not saying Garnet doesn’t have any character herself, but her integral backstory was/is one of the most beloved and talked about in terms of relationships, yet little has actually been given to us beyond face value and basic understanding and the writers have generally avoid pressing this any further. In a way, that episode diminishes the representation of real queer relationships, bogging it down to early Disney romances like Snow White’s, and practically blindfolds us about what we want to see vs what we should be seeing.

And I already got cute girls not kissing last year. It’s the current fucking year

I would talk about all the other canonning “ships” but nothing comes to mind other than the gems are getting along better than before, Mystery Girl is still fine as fuck, Steven and Connie are bound to elope since it’s been presented since the beginning, Lapis and Peridot get along as college roommates, Lapis might still have issues after Malachite happened, Jasper regrets nothing, Topaz sounds cool from the little we got of them, and everything has amounts to having a sob story and/or a recollection of thoughts just to say “Hey, we’re good together”. They implicitly share infatuation and good vibes to each other, but nothing to say their themes of LGBT, relationships, and characterization are groundbreaking. The latter I’ll get to next time. I mean anybody can put effort into writing a genuine romance novel, though it takes more effort to push the romance to challenging means without leaving skeptics at the door, something Sugar has been very casual about and is starting to openly show in the show. That and tears. Because you know what they say, open emotions are better than emotional maturity. Isn’t that right, TV?

Don’t get me wrong. Rebecca Sugarbark is out here doing her darndest as…

CARTOON. NETWORK’S. FIRST. FEMALE. ANIMATED. SERIES. CREATOR!

and when she does themes right, the show provides some good things to think about. But when she muddles them up or casually throws them in, especially when these themes come from the different aspects of what makes a person different yet real, it is unforgivable. And when people of all ages are watching this, thinking with their living ideologies about what could be used to think differently? This makes for a very risky tightrope that can lead to either people taking it appropriately or blindly, good and bad alike. I can only hope that as the show goes on, there are less assumptions and implications from both the show and the audience alike and more assertions and certainty that elements like representation of any kind are brought to a more applied approach than a glanced approach.

AND STEVEN - POINT #5:

What makes a great character? Charm? Growth? Badassery? Nah, it’s the struggle son. To cheaply quote Pixar: “You admire a character more for trying more than for their successes.” And while Steven does try, does he really fail? Let’s look back. He has three skillful and powerful guardians that care for him. He has a father who is filthy rich (’member that). He has a sweet ass pad. Everyone that knows him likes/respects him. He has powers retained from his mother. He has a lion for a pet. He redeemed/helped three of what were once his enemies. He has a best friend that joins in the action with a sword. He clearly has the capable knowledge of reaching out to anyone. He’s outdone death more than once. He’s practically invulnerable (see “Steven vs. Amethyst”). Everyone that doesn’t like him could eventually see his way with good convincing and a middle road to come to (except Kevin). While there are things he needs to do and characters that’ll he have to confront sooner or later, I’ve started to think less of how he’ll succeed and more of when he’ll succeed. I’m thinking less of who he is and more of what he is. Here’s what I mean…

I don’t see Star Butterfly as an upbeat, independent, cocky, and enduring magical princess who loves rainbows and puppies and struggles to balance fun, romance, and responsibility in one go. I see an up and coming teenage princess that’ll defeat all the evil, hook up with her friend Marco, and claim the title of Mewni’s Queen while doing it all her way.

And I don’t see the JoJo bloodline as a group of distinct protagonists that have their own goals and passions all the while seeking justice against the evil that surrounds them. I see the main characters of 8 different parts that have the ability to defeat the final enemy at the end.

It’s the “Man of Steel” effect; when you do nothing but show how Steven is becoming like or better than Rose, it takes away from letting Steven see who he really is and wants to be. Season one did Steven good (begrudging to say, I know) where he was devious, self-centered, and oblivious but basically was a goofball kid with a good heart; like Ash Williams from Evil Dead. Halfway in and they basically took that away in favor of him just being the pacifistic hippie boy scout that doesn’t want to do wrong or hurt anybody and wants to be a better version of his mama and… and…zzzzzzz. Yeah, I don’t know how to put this, but Steven is now as good of a main character as a sheet of paper. Like, on paper he had potential, but as paper he’s pretty ineffective.

Hell, even paper can show you wonders

“But Monkey Network, he’s a character that goes through many hardships and has a lot on his mind and is going through plenty like most people.” Yes he is, but he’s really done nothing to better himself. “Mindful Education” brings this up, but immediately sweeps it clean in favor of a song about trauma (ironic) and giving Connie more of the floor. And “Storm in the Room” perfectly captures how flat his guilt complex really is…

This episode could’ve given Steven a better perspective on what he wants to be, how he should see Rose, and how things in his life will change from that point on. No, it amounted to saying Rose wasn’t in the wrong for anything (clearly a lie) and Steven being basically gaslighted to believe that he’ll be around to fix what she didn’t do herself, never stating how he should go about doing so. He has guilt and unsure regrets, and yet now nothing feels like things for him are getting any better through his efforts. Knowing that he’s basically Jesus, I am stunned I don’t see him curing every ill-ridden human on the planet and is instead trying to make peace with everything that wants him dead. Also, if I wanted a show that mirrors the possible regret and turmoil I force myself to suffer with everyday, weed and a literal mirror would create a similar effect. And all this leads to–

“But Monkey Network, he’s at least a pacifist who tries. He only wants to share peace and enlightenment to everyone he meets and that includes those who are trying to defeat them.” True, but there is something called “being pushed to a limit”. Yeah I see Steven stand up for himself while choosing not to hit anybody, but there are some people that don’t deserve anything but a good blow to the face. We see Steven get angry and mean, but has he really been pushed to a limit?

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Mob Psycho 100 (Ep. 3) A limit that, while possessing regretting, let’s one know they can be a force to be reckoned with?

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Trigun: Badlands Rumble A limit that forces them to take immense action without breaking their code of pacifistic honor?

I mean there’s being a pacifist, and there’s being an peaceful spouting wimp I can whup easily before somebody beats me up to stop it. The point of having pacifism in a show is the counterpoint where that ideology’s being tested and momentous reactions result from it. Yeah, he showed sheer ire towards Kevin in that one episode but that was it, and that was a one off excursion with the only irredeemable character in the series. Now I know violence is not always the answer and this isn’t suppose to be a violent show, whatever, but violence is present more than enough times in this show. So I must topically ask, what was stopping Steven from five knuckle shuffling Aquamarine when he clearly had the chance to, freeing his friends and getting the chance to escape their clutches? There’s the peaceful route, and there’s showing us nothing.

Boy must have a weak ass jab

“But Monkey Network, he has development and growth with this being a coming-of-age story.” True dat, but to an extent. I’ve noticed that when it comes to Steven Universe’s development, everyone is given development with Steven tagging behind. Connie, Amethyst, Pearl, Peridot, Lapis, Lars, you see them learning and growing on the front lines, but Steven’s been kinda consistent wouldn’t you say? I mean, he does grow in seeing many different perspectives, but does he really grow with the said varied perspectives or does he just acknowledge them while doing his usual helping routine to try making things better? You know who is a better main character than Steven? Well….

You could get with this^Or you could get with thatv

Wouldn’t you agree? They’re forced to look out of their comfort zone, they make mistakes but see to getting back up, they grow to understand how this new world works and take it to heart, they’re not mopey little shits and constantly take initiative, still having a lot to learn, and I find their voices less annoying than Steven’s. Okay, that last part is a preference but still.

I’ll say Steven’s a fine protagonist, but he’s a boring protagonist to sum it up. Nothing about him makes me want to care anymore and while I look towards new episodes, all I can do now is tolerate him. They could do better with season 5 upping the ante, but at this point I’m more invested in the world of Steven Universe than Steven himself, and that is sad. You know your cartoon is crumbling where your world generally revolves around the main character and said MAIN CHARACTER is whack! Rebecca Sugar Schnapps and her crew just better git good this season; because it can look good and sound good as long as it wants, but it needs to feel good to be a real show, you feel me?

And that’s my Troof. The whole and nothing but. Thank you <3 Roy M.

#steven universe #su #su critical #su criticism #su critique #SU Crit #anime #cartoons #analysis #reviews #long post #the full shebang #Roy Macintosh #Good Stuff #ye #awesome

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