#you know the trope of characters mentioning a guy and the scene cuts to him sneezing from being brought up but unaware of it

[mihai-florescu]

As much as I appreciate that the rooftop scene was a deeply intimate moment, I would love for Keito to have witnessed it...

[copingwithobsessions]

Billy is autistic ♾

Just me rambling about an headcanon I take wayyyy too seriously :)

Hyperfixation : horror movies (obviously)

He just keeps talking about it. All the time.

Like

Also him using his hands while talking in this scene

(There's also something to be said about him mentioning the queer actors and not the 'straight' characters but that will be for another post-)

Also in the phone call where we're sure it's him :

(If he was the one calling Casey then there's even more-)

Also him just constantly talking with movie-related things : "It was edited for TV- all the good stuff was cut out", "nice solid R rating, on our way to a NC-17", "lately we're just sort of edited for television", "Maybe your movie-freaked mind lost it's reality button","It's all a movie, it's all...one great big movie.Only you can't pick your genre","I think she wants a motive","I don't really believe in motive, Sid.", "See it's a lot scarier when there's no motive Sid", "Is that motive enough for you ?", "How's that for a motive ?", "Just pretend it's all a scary movie Sid...How do you think it's gonna end ?", "Perfect ending.", "Now Sid, don't you blame the movies. Movies don't create psychos, movies make psychos more creative !" and basing his killing spree on horror movie tropes : phone calls, masked killer, virgins being the final girls (literally having sex with Sidney to fulfill the trope), 'no motive' etc...

2. Abnormal posture

3. Staring (last 2 photos, both scenes in Sidney's room, police station scene...basically when there's Sid) or excessive blinking (doorway scene, kitchen scene...(basically when there's Stu)

4. Plans and changements

Billy (and Stu) planned their entire killing spree (from the dates it would be on : surrounding the one year anniversary of Maureen's death, to the person they would frame and his supposed motive as well as Casey and Steve's murders with the phone call, the attack at Sidney's house, Billy's incarceration, Stu's phone call following it, Billy's fake death, kidnapping Neil before his flight and using his phone, hiding his car, using a voice changer, stabbing each other to seem like victims, the party etc...)

When Billy's (and Stu's) plans get changed (Dewey, Gale and Kenny being present, Sid escaping the kitchen with her dad and Stu losing too much blood), Billy panics and goes into what could be defined as a meldown : throwing out insults, walking in circles, never going to check on the first floor, destroying Stu's living room and just panicking all around-

(When he fails getting Sidney to trust him and makes her escape to the toilets, he punches himself in frustation)

5. Insociability

Basically doesn't talk in the fountain scene

Awkward and Unsettling while talking, even to his friends

Doesn't pay attention to girls being interested in him

Doesn't seem at ease with the number of people leaving the party

(Even fidgeting though that may be just be him checking that the people are leaving for real)

6. Overdramatic

7. Favorite person/people

Okay this one's not that common in autistics but for Billy, he definitely has a special person, two in fact :

He literally started killing because his mom "moved out and abandoned" him.

For Stu, I will be vague cause I'll talk about it in detail in the other post 👀but basically he's not really himself unless Stu's there and planned a killing spree where only they would survive (+ trusted him to stab him).

Bonus : If Billy is the one who called Casey

"I only eat popcorn at the movies" Well I'm getting ready to watch a video "Really what ?" Oh, just some scary movie "You like scary movies ?" Huhuh "What's your favorite scary movie ?" Hum- I don't know... "You have to have a favorite, what comes to mind ?" Hum...Halloween ! You know the one with the guy in the white mask who walks around and stalks babysitters. "Yeah." What's yours ? "Guess." Hum- Nightmare on Elm Street ! "Isn't that the one where the guy had knives for fingers ?" Yeah, Freddy Krueger. "Freddy, that's right. I liked that movie.It was scary." Well the first one was but the rest sucked."

"It's an easy category : movie trivia"

"Come on, it's your favorite scary movie, remember ? He had a white mask, he stalked the babysitters"

"Then you should know Jason's mother, Mrs Vorhees, was the original killer ! Jason didn't show up until the sequel."

And that's it ! A complete analysis of what could be considered autistic traits from Billy that got way too long-

[zhongrin]

bad influence

◇ characters ◇ zhongli, xiao, al haitham, ayato

◇ tags ◇ mafia!au, light gore, mention of blood, stalking (al haitham), cliche trope, vague concept, unfinished & not fully built plot

◇ a/n ◇ ayato’s is rather short bc i hadn’t planned to write for him but the brainrot gods decided to grace me with a crumb of inspiration for him

𝑚𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑙𝑖𝑠𝑡 ⬙ 𝑡𝑎𝑔𝑙𝑖𝑠𝑡

you, a clueless bystander who was just living your normal citizen life, until one day, some strangers dressed in immaculately pressed suits who are clearly hostile attacked you with a clear intent to kill, as you're off on your late-night grocery run.

you, who watched in horror as a pretty-looking man suddenly appears out of nowhere, making quick work of the 'bad guys' with precise cuts to their throats, the jades embedded in his knives and his studded earrings glinting menacingly under the moonlit night sky.

you, who were then forcefully brought to a grand-looking manor, passing a well-tended garden that seems to span for hectares and a magnificent set of golden doors leading to an office that's almost as big as the entirety of your humble little house.

you, who almost faint upon seeing the most handsome man you’ve ever seen in your life, with his gold-amber eyes that twinkle under the massive chandelier and a smile that's both comforting but also dubious, his gloved fingers setting the crystal clear glass of wine onto a desk that seems far too big for one person to use as soon as you came in.

you, who ask in a timid but polite voice, about your whereabouts and the reason why were you brought here, not wanting to anger the important-looking man.

you, who gulp in both fear and excitement and confusion as the man gives you a fleeting, nostalgic look, as if he’s seeing something you can’t see as he drinks your visage.

"well, i can't exactly let the granddaughter of a good friend of mine be killed in such a gruesome manner, now can i?"

OR alternatively,

you and “alatus”, being the left and right hand man of the fearsome “rex lapis”, respectively, your infamous codenames striking fear into your targets.

if “alatus” is known for his clean kills and the way he just ‘disappears’ from the crime scene, you’re very much the opposite. you love the attention, the screams, the chase and the finishing kill, the way skulls crack and blood trickles down your gloves. it gets you in so much trouble and your lover berates you for it repeatedly, but you can’t help it; it’s so much fun toying with your food before stabbing it to death, and you live for the thrill, for the adrenaline rushing inside your veins.

oh yes, your lover, codename “rex lapis” or “morax” - whom people in his inner circle call “zhongli” - who is also your boss, isn’t too fond of how you do things… he understands your point of view, being rather of similar temperament in his younger days, but mainly he just dislikes the notion of you being in danger. yet, he knows you’d rather kill yourself than be his demure, timid wife. plus, he can’t exactly lie…

you’re kind of hot when you’re unhinged.

so what does he do? he faithfully makes sure to tie loose ends, do the necessary cleanups so you can continue doing what you do, and gently washes your bloodied hair as he listens patiently to your excited ramblings about your recent ‘assassination’.

you two certainly make a great team.

your savior who made the best and yet also the worst first impression - though he did technically save you, he did murder all of those people in cold blood. and seeing how fluid, how precise his movements were, it could only mean that he’s used to the act of killing itself.

he’s so cold too, with his catlike golden eyes that you swear were glowing in the darkness, the eternally downturned corners of his lips, and his short, clipped replies.

still, he saved you and tended to the slight cut you got from the group that tried to off you, so the moment zhongli asks if you have a preference for a bodyguard, your automatic response is to say xiao’s name. zhongli was talking about personality traits but he decides to step back and watch the circus unfolds.

naturally, xiao refuses, throws a few mean words, and you certainly weren't going to just stand there and take his insults, so you shoot back with a few - and one of them seems to hit harder than you’d expect.

‘yeah you know what nevermind, i don’t want to be guarded by a murder weapon!’

xiao freezes, eyes wide, fists clenching on his sides, gloved fingers digging to his palm, before he suddenly turns abruptly to exit the office.

it’s zhongli who gives you a patient look as guilt starts to settle inside your chest, knowing that you’ve accidentally hurt the one who saved your life that night, and deeply at that. he sits you down and brews you tea as he tells you a story of a past besmirched in blood, neglect, and betrayal.

xiao shows up the next day nonetheless, ever so stoic and icily informing you that it was merely his duty as your supposed ‘bodyguard’ for the time being, since you’ve so kindly appointed him yourself. you bite down the insults and asks for his forgiveness instead, to which he scoffs and look away.

and like all cliche stories, somewhere along the path of seeking his forgiveness and navigating your new life, you fall in love.

the best part? he falls harder.

oh, this bastard. he’s one of the higher-ups of the family who wanted you dead.

the thing is, he’s not there for money, or fame, or anything like that. what al haitham wants from joining such an organization was because this particular one has an abundance of networks, which means: information. knowledge. secrets.

and your grandfather, he held the key to a rather interesting secret that very few seem to be privy to. that’s why they’re hunting you down; a necessary precaution to silence a potential threat. it matters little whether you know about what it was about or how much you know. the fact stands that your grandfather had somehow managed to keep your existence hidden until now, so that must mean something, at least.

and al haitham is intrigued.

he’s cautious and smart, certainly not a mindless brute like his colleagues. he chooses to watch you from afar, devises strategies and takes a copious amount of notes, analyzes your mannerisms and taps your conversations, like you’re some fascinating subject of study in a research thesis. he’s an observer, not a scientist; he doesn't participate in experiments, doesn't touch you directly, but he knows the insides of your head better than you….

…. until one day, he flunked and accidentally bumps into you.

you’re so distraught, trying to wipe the coffee stains on his white-colored collared shirt that’s now sporting a big brown stain. he tries to act like a normal citizen so he wouldn’t alarm that bodyguard of yours, who’s already scrutinizing him with the eyes of a trained killer. he tries to act that your touch isn’t sending shivers down his spine, that his face is slightly flushed from the hot coffee and not a close-up view of your worried face, that his heart isn’t beating because you’re actually talking to him.

he knows he shouldn’t, and he knows it’s stupid, but when you ask for his phone number so you can ‘make it up to him’ sometime, he gives you his personal number instead of all the burner phone numbers he has memorized in his head.

he asks himself when did he fall for you that night.

for the first time in his life, he couldn't find an answer.

if zhongli is one of the most feared bosses up there, ayato’s name is surely on the same list.

known publicly as the son of the minister of cultural affairs at first, he has since reclaimed the title of his father after an unfortunate accident and a short, temporary vacuum of the position. but what most people don't know is that the world of politics is ruthless these days. quite literally.

your existence was just a speck of dirt in his eyes. he could care less about whatever your grandfather did or knew. he’s seen countless of people fall and rise and run and fall to the depths of hell, what does it matter to him if you do?

- except, you seem to have unknowingly befriended his little sister, and one of his best agents seems to be hopelessly smitten with you?

hm. interesting.

© zhongrin | 2022 ◆ no repost. reblogs much appreciated. feel free to reach out to submit suggestions, feedback, comments, or if you just want to talk!

◇ taglist ◇ @paintingsofdragonspine | @genshinparty | @abyssmal-skies | @hamdehlesmis | @depressivecomforts | @sophiethewitch1 | @why-am-i-here-someone-save-me | @sunnshineflxwer | @heartonthemoon | @yuutasbabe | @percyval-archives | @carbs-need-more-love | @rebeccka | @queen-belial | @stygianoir | @niverine | @silentmoths | @niktwazny303 | @dustofthedailylife

ps. if you want to be removed/added from the taglist, just send an ask!

[andiftheycare]

hello, what made you to like and ship satosugu? I love satosugu so much

I see you. I love them so much and they’re giving me so much joy.

So. There were a couple of things that made me go “oh,”

And I think these are just… very basic? I’m so sorry I’m going to be boring 🥹

- Hidden Inventory, the KFC break up. Iconic, incredible, heartbreaking. Up until that moment I was jokingly shipping them. Then I watched the KFC break up, and thought that Gojo wasn’t the most emotional character. Or rather: they show him happy and joking around and angry, but they never show him losing his composure until that moment. And with losing his composure I mean something different than, e.g. when he goes feral in Shibuya. It’s one of the few moments where he’s incredibly emotionally vulnerable and it shows. And this was the first moment when I went “okay, so this guy was down badly”

- Shibuya, “My six eyes tell me you’re Geto Suguru but my soul knows otherwise.” This is one of my favourite tropes and again, what can you say, what can you do, if barely hearing your long lost dead lover’s voice makes you stop for long enough to be trapped in the prison realm. What can you do when his voice alone floods you with memories of your youth. What can you do, if you can recognise him by the way he says your name? Nothing. Hence, here it’s when I gave up and opened ao3.

- The JJK official fanbook. There’s a line in there about Geto’s body reacting to Gojo’s words in Shibuya, when he tried to strangle Kenjaku. I don’t have this in English, but in my version it says that the reaction it’s “like a dragonfly that keeps moving after you cut off his head.” And, in my head, there are two layers to this. The first is that Gojo provokes this reaction — “Suguru, are you really letting this thing use your body like that?” - and even if you don’t read it romantically, it says a lot that this ignites the body’s muscle memory, and speaks about the type of character Geto Suguru is. The second, is that, well, protecting your friend is an instinct that stays in your body (not even your soul, geez) after you died and I cannot. I cannot.

There’s more and I can keep going, but these are the key moments that made me ship them. I’m not commenting on the bike scene in the opening because that’s straight out of a BL. Or the fact that the first time I read a stsg fanfic I thought that most of the things mentioned in the fic as canon events were fanon and made for the sake of shipping — when, in fact, where not.

And anon, hope it’s ok - I’m interpreting this question as “things in the show/manga” that made me ship them, rather than adding too much on narrative/themes! Thanks so much for leaving this question in my inbox, I always love to yap about those two 🥹

[caspers-delusions]

Psych Whump Masterlist

💉💉💉

This is going to be my go-to list every time I find something with medical or psych whump in it that I want to remember. I'll reblog it frequently and try to keep it updated but it's going to start small because good psych whump is so hard to find. (This in no way endorses medical abuse, I'm a mentally ill individual but I love consuming psych whump in media. Just about everything in these movies, books, etc are at the very least morally gray so consume at your own risk. Also, I only enjoy these things in fiction. Irl it makes me sick to my stomach, I know bc I've experienced some of this.) I'll try to add trigger warnings for each one but I might miss some so I apologize in advance. If you have any recommendations please message me! I'm scouring the internet for good psych whump but medical/sickfic whump is also wanted.

Movies:

A Cure For Wellness: Guy gets tricked into becoming a patient at a "resort" that's really a mental hospital in disguise that uses its patients for nefarious means. CW: incest, medical abuse, teeth falling out, sexual assault, some weird eel shit ^^There's probably more but I haven't watched the film in a while.

TV Shows:

Moon Knight: Whole season of psych whump, the main character has DID and loads of past trauma. Has a huge ancient Egypt theme and the MC gets (kind of) forced to accept psychiatric care. CW: lots of ableism, mental break, psychotic episodes, forced institutionalisation, child abuse, restraints

Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten: German soap that's been running since 1992. The specific episodes that have good psych whump are from 26.5.2017 to 01.06.2017. Extremely hard to find online, only some clips/gifs exist as of now that are easily viewable.

Perception: Schizophrenic professor who teaches at a university spirals and gets put in a mental hospital. He has a caretaker friend who helps him and the professor also sees hallucinations of an ex-girlfriend who helps him solves mysteries. CW: extremely inaccurate portrayal of schizophrenia, delusions, paranoia, and really any mental illness for that matter; lots of ableism, I think I remember one character calling the professor a freak, people treat him really badly

Books:

House of Leaves: This book is a fever trip but the MC (kind of?? The book has multiple authors, it's honestly very confusing but it's great) suffers from declining mental health and spirals hard. CW: child abuse, lots of sexual content, mentions of a caretaker beating a child, mentions/delusions of sexual assault, death of a dog (it was brutal, huge warning), mentions/descriptions of suicide and attempted murder

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: This is chock-full of psych and medical whump, it all takes place in a psychiatric hospital (I've actually been to the one in the film! -Not as a patient) CW: huge amounts of abuse from staff, doctors, nurses, there's also a scene where SA is implied on a patient, the MC is there after being convicted of SA'ing a minor and he's pretty unremorseful (the MC is a dick though anyways), racism, ableism

OG Works (not mine):

Redwood Psychiatric Insitute: Forced institutionalization, great read and it has just about every trope I look for in fics all packed into one series. Please give it a read, it's fantastic. Source - https://www.tumblr.com/only-shadows-dwell-where-we-are/706656298337435648/redwood-psychiatric-institute-masterlist?source=share by @only-shadows-dwell-where-we-are

Fanfiction:

Into Your Arms: This is a Star Trek fanfic that follows a girl who has a severe eating disorder and mental illness. It's not the normal kind of sickfic or psych whump I go for but the aftercare in this is topnotch. Source - https://archiveofourown.org/works/15185897 by moose-misses-sweets on ao3 CW: suicide attempt, severe eating disorder, abusive partner, cutting/self harm

Summarized List

Movies: 1. A Cure For Wellness TV Shows: 1. Moon Knight 2. Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten 3. Perception Books: 1. House of Leaves 2. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest OG Works (not mine): 1. Redwood Psychiatric Institute Fanfics: 1. Into Your Arms

Note: If something you made is on this list and you want me to remove it, please message me and I will. I don't check messages very often but it doesn't mean I'm ignoring you, I just forget I have a tumblr sometimes.) *Extra note: this was originally posted on my side blog @ennead-of-whump but I'm slowly integrating that blog into this one. I'm now only going to be using my main blog @caspers-delusions which means I'm only going to update this masterlist post from now on.

[ghostflowerhotpotch]

Clinging too much to the Mask

Or Miles' is neglecting his civilian life for his hero one.

Something I love about Across the Spider-verse, is that no one is truly evil, but that doesn't justify their actions. Likewise, the heroes aren't perfect, in some cases they actively need to work to own their mistakes, and in others, they need to learn a more simple lesson.

I think this last one can apply to Miles. Because while he is doing his best, I feel the story tries to point out that despite "balancing" his double life, he may be prioritizing one over the other.

We get to see this before we properly get to see Miles, who instead of being in this meeting-

He is going around the city.

Not gonna lie, in my first viewing, I felt Rio and Jeff needed to cut Miles some slack; like sure they were being kind of harsh because they didn't know what was going on, but Miles was truly trying hard!

However, the more I rewatched the movie, and the more I keep looking at certain things, the more I realized that Miles' parents are being WAY nicer about all of this than other parents I had seen, and also, that even if you have the context he is not handling this very well.

Let's start with this scene, shall we?

So, Rio and Jeff want to talk about university opportunities and scholarships, which I feel is a bit early for a fifteen-year-old, but if he wants to get into the best Physics program in the nation, I guess it makes sense needing to start early. I am assuming Miles had at least mention wanting to do big things; which is of course what his parents want because they know what he is capable of; so I wouldn't be surprised if they arranged this meeting SPECIFICALLY because Miles set his future on this.

But regardless if it was Miles's idea or his parents, the fact on the matter is this: he should be here.

Because let's remember, he isn't skipping this meeting because the Spot or a villain with a bigger profile was causing a ruckus, we saw him slinging around the city as if he was strolling, and when he goes to get the Spot, he first does this:

I know Spider-man is known for witty remarks and Miles is definitely not an anomaly on that front, but you cannot tell me he didn't explicitly want a patty and it just so happens to have a bad guy in the place; he may have not grabbed himself hasn't the Spot not being there but I bet he would have gone to this shop ruckus or not.

Even if that wasn't the case, he is already late for the meeting; but he still took his time to patrol the city for, as far as we can tell, no real reason besides just checking around.

I get that he is Spider-man and has responsibilities with the city, but when Miles has an important meeting to be in, and he decides just swinging across the city is more important than being there; we have to admit that this is a problem.

And the longer we spend in 1610 the more that shows.

This monologue feels like it can be unrelated, at first.

Miles doing the Spider-man presentation makes sense; it has been established in this franchise as a device to present the characters, so having him update on his spidey-situation while following the trope presentation they had done before it's perfect to match the tone of the first movie.

But I am also a firm defender of "weaponize tropes to press further the message of the story" and I think having Miles do this presentation can support how much emphasis he puts on his hero life.

Last time during the first movie, he did his own spidey-presentation at the end, but he also talked about finishing his essay, and doing art with his dad. In this one, we only get mentions of things related to being Spider-man, you can argue that including his uncle on the recap may also be involved because he died just in the time he was becoming Spider-man.

(This is also to remind the audience of this plot point for the ending but shhh we are focussing on other things here.)

This is nothing new for Spidey-people, Gwen the more repressed she is the more she clings to her duty, which only makes her repress more and makes the cycle continue. Peter B was okay with the idea of staying behind even if it meant dying, and let's be real here, part of the reason he was okay with it was that dying as a spider-man is an idea he made peace with years ago, but confronting MJ about what happened was scarier.

This also happened in the first movie.

This is before they know they may die if they stay, however, you have to admit is a tad unsettling that after being told "You will need to destroy your only way to get home," everyone IMMEDIATELY says they will do it.

Forget being superheroes, no one has any doubts? Any fears of how long it would take to go back home, if at all?

Peni and Gwen worry me especially because I know why those two may just prefer to ditch their home dimensions for a good while (Gwen because she already lost her Peter, was in a flaky relationship with her dad, and probably was neglecting other people too. Peni if you had read some of her comics is not that surprising, heck I want to get her out of that dimension myself.)

I could go on, because I don't think we had seen a Spidey person in this franchise who isn't putting way too much emphasis on their hero identity; but you get the idea. This is a common problem.

And Miles is no different.

When we go to the Party for his dad (something his mom reminded him of before he bolted out to capture the Spot,) we see that the Party is in full swing. Music is in, people had already started digging in the food, and kids are playing.

Look, growing up my family had parties like this, fairly often growing up. This one is to celebrate Captain Morales obviously, but I had been at family reunions that are easily this size.

Considering the size and for who is the Party, I am surprised they didn't call him non-stop when he didn't show up to help put everything up (because I am having a hard time believing he wouldn't be expected to help to put everything,) it was already late when the first person showed up, so by this point, this is beyond lateness.

And where he is at?

JUST NOW he is picking up the cake, AS SPIDERMAN.

Miles, mijo ¿Qué estás haciendo? Para este punto de la partida yo ya estaría haciendo mi testamento.

(Trans: Miles, son, what are you doing? By this point I would be doing my will.)

Ok jokes aside, I don't know what's more unbelievable, that he is just now getting the cake, or that he is doing it in the Spidey costume.

This tells us EXACTLY what he was doing before coming up to pick this cake.

Last time we see him, he told his dad he didn't believe The Spot would come back, which means he didn't exactly think there was any danger. Nothing in the movie shows or tells us there was another big emergency he didn't need to attend to, either; and it has CLEARLY been a few hours since that moment since the lightning has changed.

Don't tell me he came in with his Spidey suit to get a better deal or something, the woman clearly doesn't care about it; and even then, at any moment he seems to find a way to change just so he can move around the city more easily.

Not to mention that while he was trying to come to the Party, this happened.

In case you need to make sure what's happening, since this moment happens in a few seconds during Jeff speech; because someone was stealing shoes (with a guard who is clearly not giving a shit,) he sent a web to stop him.

And rather than just, going on with his day, he stops to sign some autographs and pics, to the point someone else thinks the taxi is waiting for a new client, which the guy obviously accepts.

Honestly, once this moment clicked for me I feel a little dumb to not realize that this is actually a thing Miles needs to confront about himself and not just the natural back and forth that is expected with this life.

And you can see it in other things too.

Miles isn't a loner, or at least he wasn't one in Into the Spider-verse.

I remember that when I saw the movie the contrast surprised me, like many other people, I had grown up with plenty Peter Parker adaptations, where he is most of the time, a nerd that deals with bullying to some degree. Even with Miles being his own character, I was surprised that at least in his old school and neighborhood, he not only has friends, he is basically a popular kid.

Now in ATSV? That seems to have gone away.

Is such a small detail in both movies, but it still shocks me every time I think about it hard enough.

Miles had tons of friends, or at least people he definitely got along with; people who said that miss him and such. Even if we never hear a name from him; look at the people greeting him at the beginning at ITSV, go to see the movie and see how much Miles scrolls on his contact list; there is no way in hell he wasn't close to some of these people.

But all of them seem to have gone away by this movie, not only did neither of his parents think of asking about anyone in the neighborhood, Miles himself only scratches the names of his spidey-friends. This either means Rio and Jeff know enough of the people in the neighborhood to be aware Miles is not going out with any of them; or the relationships had deteriorated enough that neither party even thinks of the possibility of being with any of them.

That's...that's a lot.

Look, I am not going to say Miles changing school wouldn't affect his previous friendships, I know exactly how that works.

But in ITSV, Miles said it himself, he still lives here, none of them look like they live too far to be impossible to hang out with; and despite that, the only friend he seems to have is Genki; who aside from being his rommie, is the only person he has that knows his secret.

Which is probably, the only reason they are close enough for Miles's parents to know about him.

To top it all off, this shows that Miles isn't exactly shy, he may have not been fitting too well with his classmates at first but it has been over a year, and he should have been able to make more friends. If he wanted to.

And is not the only thing suffering.

I am not sure if the joke is that Miles is trying to soften the blow and the teacher is telling on him, or, that he legit forgot the number of classes. Considering it was obvious the woman was going to know and had no incentive in hiding this from his parents; I am inclined to believe Miles actually forgot how many classes he lost.

Considering how spidey emergencies work, 6 classes isn't that big of a thing, assuming this is the only class he has lost classes on. Knowing how the hero gig works you could expect more, but for my own sanity I will pretend it has been only these.

There is a big chance he missed those classes for really, bad situations where he needed to be there. However, we aren't actually sure; and considering the direction this movie is going, it is very feasible he may be messing around a few times.

And look, Miles grades are freaking amazing; seriously I was doing a lot worse in school without any hero business involved. But even if he obviously puts some level of priority in his studies, you can see that this is a struggling battle.

Not to mention the elephant in the room, that is the fact that the reason we know he is working so hard to have good grades, is because he wants to go to Princeton University.

Miles can't give the exact reason as to why in this scene, but this is really all we need to hear:

I really don't need to explain myself further, but because I already had the image at hand from something else, here it is.

The only not related to Spider-man is that he is somewhat prioritizing, and has to do more to see the other Spiders than his actual future.

I think this becomes more obvious when you remember that as smart as he is with Physics, in the first movie he wasn't really interested; despite what he knew he was trying to fumble that class like the rest of them, trying to quit. The only thing he seemed passionate about was his art, which is the other class that he is doing amazingly.

I had seen people argue Miles' dream will probably be related to art, if it wasn't because seeing the other spiders has become even more important than that, deciding to try to get into the best Physics Program in the country just to see if he has a chance to meet them again. That's a lot of time, effort, and work; and is not even about him or what he wants to do for the rest of his life.

In a way, this movie comes to a conclusion about it, but I think I want to talk more about that when we focus on Miles' parents.

Thank you for reading, hope this gives you guys some perspective about Miles; I feel I don't see a lot of people picking up on this, which is a shame since I feel the story with his family gains a deeper layer by having both parties struggling in their own areas.

[boreal-sea]

If I were going to rewrite Midsommar...

I would want the audience to be horrified that this cult intentionally invited in a bunch of outsiders to murder them, and that they specifically manipulated and involved Dani in the murder of her friends.

Basically I would want everyone watching the movie to have a very bad time and not walk away thinking it was about #girlpower.

I would have Dani's family member (whoever, doesn't matter) commit suicide by falling off a bridge or something.

Christian wouldn't be thinking about breaking up with her; she might still be thinking he wants to, but it would entirely be trauma on her part.

Christian's friends shouldn't hate Dani either. We need to like these people.

Pelle should directly invite Dani on the trip, making her presence there intentional.

It should be more obvious this is a rare version of the festival that only happens every 90 years, I only know because I read the wiki afterwards.

Mark is pointless and simply shouldn't exist. We don't need the asshole friend trope, it's boring and annoying.

The fact that Christian is struggling with his thesis should be established more strongly than just a single throwaway line. He should mention it to Dani.

Christian and Josh should be, above all else, likeable.

The movie shouldn't overuse generic creepy music. It also shouldn't overuse dialogue. Let the scenes breathe. Silence is ok.

We need to get to know Simon and Connie better (the two guests brought by Ingemar).

Using the midnight sun as a way to immerse the characters in a "disordered world" is great, but the movie should really lean into the ways light changes throughout the day, even during the solstice; strong yellows and deep blues, a lot could be done.

On that note, make the movie weirder.

Cut the use of a disabled person as body horror. I don't know what you replace their seer with, but not a physically disabled person being put on screen just for shock value.

Because Dani's relative died by falling off a bridge or building, the attestupa is now much more traumatizing. Maybe Josh even tries to convince her not to go ahead of time because he knows someone will die.

The movie is already man vs man with the guests vs the cult, we do not need the guests to also be fighting each other over a thesis. Drop that plot line, or change it so that Christian deciding to study the Hårga doesn't compete with Josh's plan. This gives Christian an excuse to stay even though he just saw two people die. Again, this plays into keeping these guys likeable.

The disappearance of Simon was good; Connie being left alone could be extremely scary, if it's given time to develop and we get to see her fear grow before she also disappears.

On that note, Josh should not try to secretly photograph the book. He still totally dies, it's just in secret. The cult was already gonna kill him. They don't need a secondary reason to do it.

And on that note: the fact that the guests are disappearing should be the creepy part. First Simon - the villagers say he was driven back, but Connie swears he wouldn't have left her alone. Then Connie also disappears. Then Josh. I think we need more hints around the village that these people are still around, and haven't actually left. Subtle hints.

The wedge driven between Dani and Christian should be entirely caused by manipulation, not because the script suddenly turns Christian into a jerk.

Christian should in fact see that Pelle and cult are doing weird shit to Dani and try to convince her they're manipulating her, but fails. THAT can be the wedge, as the cultists comfort her. In fact, I'd like to see the cult do more to win Dani over. Maybe even more of Pelle talking about how Dani's relative killed themself, trying to link it back to the cult's traditions. Just trying to win her over even more than they did in the original film, and to turn her away from Christian. Maja wanting to sleep with Christian is also another way the movie could drive that wedge, even while making sure Christian is completely against it the whole time. Dani wouldn't see it that way because the cult won't let her.

The rest of the movie plays out roughly the same, we just care more about these people and it is now suspenseful to see them disappearing one by one.

Christian is still drugged and raped, just make it way more obvious he's really not doing it of his own free will. Put him on the bottom, or have them tie him up or something.

Dani still spies and thinks Christian is cheating on her.

Christian escapes from the women as usual, but in his fear he does not wander into a hen house with random, unexplained gore. Just cut that scene.

Dani is still the May Queen, and she still makes the same choice at the end of the film. Everything else can happen just the same.

We are now horrified that this cult intentionally invited in a bunch of outsiders to murder them, and that they specifically involved Dani in the murder of her friends.

[maspers]

Okay so I have an idea for a Halloween movie

Not a horror movie. A Halloween movie. Spooky tropes up the wazoo. Action-packed comedy, with a taste of camp. Banger soundtrack. I don't have all the details down, but the basic gist is a pair of monster hunters ala Supernatural engage in shenanigans. Other deets include:

-The Monster Hunters duo is a blonde woman named Jack and a guy of ambiguous race (Asian-Hispanic mix?) named Cygnus, both in their mid to late twenties. They speak with British accents, but are repeatedly identified as Americans. They take turns wearing the same pair of glasses. If the audience looks closely in a couple shots they will realize Jack and Cygnus are wearing matching wedding rings, but this is the only indication whatsoever that they are married, and the fact that both of them rampantly flirt with everyone else doesn't clarify anything. 

-Jack's name is not a nickname, and is established as being her actual name. Cygnus's name is actually short for something, but we never find out what. 

-Jack speaks directly to the fourth wall often, Ferris Bueller style. Often to supply witty commentary and exposition. Nobody else does this. Cygnus is the only other character to acknowledge the fourth wall's existence, but he never addresses it directly. Once or twice when Jack is explaining things Cygnus will say something like "don't forget to tell them X" or "you forgot x" implying addressing the fourth wall is exclusively Jack's thing. 

-Enough lampshading to make CinemaSins swoon. 

-The film starts with a very stereotypical castle owned by a (male) mad scientist. Cygnus is being held captive. He jokingly flirts with the scientist. But also very quickly mentions Jack, thus ensuring that the movie fails to pass the Reverse Bechdel Test. 

-Jack, meanwhile, is providing exposition to the audience and skillfully breaking into the place, beating up bad guys and loading an Igor ripoff into a catapult. "Skullcrusher Mountain" by Jonathan Coulton plays as the opening credits appear while Jack sneaks further into the building. 

-After Cygnus is rescued, both our heroes escape in a convertible. The castle is on fire. Jack assures the audience not to worry, as no American castles are real castles anyway. 

-The Villain is a very impressive politician, ideally played by Blake Lively. Her goal is to convince the monster populace to support her and help her win the upcoming election, supposedly so that she can make things easier for monsterkind. In reality she plans to tear apart the masquerade and expose monsters and trick the regular humans into destroying them. Rude. Jack and Cygnus aren't really aware of this plan at first but they do know someone is planning something with the less reputable parts of the supernatural world and so they want to put a stop to it. 

-Jack and Cygnus need to infiltrate a fancy party. The goal is to seduce a vampire hostess and steal something she is carrying on her person. Cygnus volunteers but Jack shuts him down because the last time he tried to seduce something (a succubus) he panicked and stabbed himself with a fork (flashback scene included, apparently happened in Topeka). So Jack goes to the party instead. 

-Band at party is playing an epic waltz version of the Monster Mash. Cue highly attractive dance between Jack and the Sexy Vampire Hostess. 

-Meanwhile Cygnus goes disguised as a member of the kitchen staff. Unfortunately all the Kitchen staff are secretly robots. They attack. Cue epic fight scene with comedic/awesome usage of kitchenware. "Coconut Mall" from Mario Kart is playing. 

-Cut back to Jack. She and the Sexy Vampire Hostess have moved to a side room. 

*Jack and vamp kiss*

"Oh my… Garlic-dusted lip gloss? Spicy. I like it."

"Oh, if you like that, then I have something even spicier."

"Do tell" 

*Jack stakes Vampire through heart*"SIKE" 

-Jack escapes down fire escape. Opens window to kitchen. Last lap version of Coconut Mall can be heard as Cygnus jumps out, his hair covered in Cheese. 

-I'm still shaky on the plot but they decide to go to Denny's to unwind and figure out where to go next. The postmodern jukebox version of Stacy's Mom plays as they pull up. 

-Meanwhile the villainess is scheming and is like "frick the monster hunters killed my vampire I need to bring in the big guns" 

-Also there's a police officer played by either Levar Burton or Samuel L. Jackson, who shows up right after Jack and Cygnus leave a place. Smooth jazz plays, and the lighting darkens. He seems to be familiar with our heroes, but whether he wants to help them or arrest them is unclear. Other cops are present, but are CGId to look like identical clones of ambiguous race and gender. The detective never talks to them directly, because that would require giving them personalities and we've got too many characters already. 

-So Jack and Cygnus arrive at Denny's, get in a brief debate about drinks (they order a lot of different kinds) when a motorcyclist dude shows up. Motorcyclist dude is a werewolf in the villainess's employ. He warns them to either stop hunting their lead or die. Jack and Cygnus are very sad about this, because the werewolf is not wearing a shirt under his jacket and has very attractive abs that they do not want to kill. They decide to fight anyway. Immediately everyone else in the Denny's turns around to reveal they are actually rodeo clowns. Classic wild west shootout ensues. Jukebox in the corner goes off and plays "Saturday Night". 

-Our heroes successfully take down most of the rodeo clowns but then the werewolf proceeds to wolf out (much to the joy of our heroes, as he reveals more muscles. Jack is visibly shown getting a nosebleed, and Cygnus swoons) and chase them out of the Denny's. Inexplicably, the Denny's looks different than it did when they first drove up. This is never commented on. 

-Car chase starring Cygnus and Jack in their convertible and werewolf on Motorcycle Ensues. They are forced to trick him into swerving off a cliff. Danny Boy plays dramatically as he falls. Our heroes Mourn the death of the abs. 

-Villainess has either a kindly father who looks like a college professor or an innocent husband who dresses like Makoto Naegi (if the latter, is played by Ryan Reynolds of course). They ask if villainess is going too far. Villainess responds by singing "Girls just want to have lunch" and ominously approaching father/husband. Screen blacks out before sounds of eating are heard. They are later seen with a large head bandage and muttering the chorus to the aforementioned song. 

-Detective enters and investigates the Denny's (which again looks different) and dispatches the remaining rodeo clown with a taser. 

-Heroes pull up to Villainess's fancy mansion. Various attempts at entering are foiled. Jack points out they need to enter in order to progress the plot, so they take the car and crash it directly into the front door. They then make their way through the rooms, casually dealing with a variety of supernatural threats. Reptiles and Samurai by oingo boingo plays. 

-Villainess is getting really mad that she hasn't even really been able to enact her plan yet at ALL (elections are still like a month away) and she wants the heroes gone. None of her traps have worked (even the pit trap, which Jack and Cygnus swung over Indiana Jones style, complete with the iconic music) so she goes to meet them herself in the main hall. 

-Jack and Cygnus enter main hall, with Jack playing Yankee Doodle on a piccolo and Cygnus accompanying on the drum. Villainess rebukes them for not taking her seriously. Jack tells her to put her money where her mouth is and challenges Villainess to a sword Duel. They proceed to have an epic, fully choreographed Princess-Bride-level swordfight (which just as much homoerotic tension) while an original Halloween song plays. The song heavily features an organ and electric guitar, which are being played in universe by the Villainess's father/husband and Cygnus respectively. 

- "Are neither of you going to take this seriously?"

"Of course not, have you even been paying attention to the film? This ain't Supernatural."

"Though to be fair, people like Supernatural." 

-Abruptly Villainess (just as she's disarmed) is like "enough I can't take it anymore" pulls out a gun and shoots at Cygnus, grazing him in the arm. Record scratch. Dead silence. Villainess rants about how Jack and Cygnus are being completely nonsensical and complains about a whole bunch of other inconsistencies in the story. Jack and Cygnus respond by poking holes in her own apparent evil scheme, Villainess loudly proclaims it would have actually worked. Jack and Cygnus open doors to reveal the Detective, who strides in to arrest Villainess. 

-Detective does have a legitimate warrant and I want there to be some kind of joke that it was easy for him to get one because of some other crazy sus things the Villainess was doing but I need to do more research on how Warrants work. He asks if our heroes would like to provide any commentary, but they both shout "we plead the fifth" and jump out a window. Detective chuckles and comments "Just like in Topeka".

-Jack and Cygnus ride a zip line down a hill to a nearby graveyard. They sit on a fence together, make a couple of bad puns, and Cygnus tries to soliloquize about the apparent lack of Skeletons in the entire film but is quickly cut off by Jack thanking the audience for watching. Credits roll as "Bittersweet" by Panic! At the Disco plays. 

Think it would be called "Pumpernickel" 

[gdawg-183]

Hii Can i request an Eddie Munson x male reader oneshot where the reader and Eddie are childhood best friends but the readers sort of been ignoring Eddie after realizing that they like him because they don’t think Eddie will reciprocate those feelings. Someone throws a party and both the reader and Eddie get locked in a closet or something and so the reader has to come to terms with their feelings and it ends in fluff and Eddie reassuring the reader. Using both the childhood friends to lover and stuck together tropes please thank youuu!!! <333

Love?

Pairing: Eddie Munson x Male Reader

words: 1477 warnings: fluff, implied male reader, confession, mention of joint a/n: sorry if this is long, got bored and just wrote tbh. i love eddie so

You and Eddie Munson had always been best friends for as long as you could remember. You could hardly forget the scrawny little boy with a buzz cut you'd met when you moved into the trailer park as a young kid. He invited you over one day for dinner because his uncle wanted him to make friends and you two never looked back.

You two never strayed too far from one another. You'd play together, eat together, do everything together. You were the first person Eddie had told about his dream of playing music. He introduced you to the music his uncle listens to, what he learned was not only Metal but his new favorite thing in the world. You watched as he gushed over the different bands, how amazing he thought they were, and how hard he tried to become like one of them. It wasn't until the middle school talent contest that you saw him in his most natural form, playing with the small rushed together band and playing like he was born to play the guitar. From then on, you knew Eddie Munson was special.

You'd always felt different around Eddie. Whenever you guys would listen to music together and he'd lay a bit too close to you. Whenever you guys would eat together with his uncle and he'd kick your ankle whenever he laughed. When he would attempt to teach you how to play his guitar and his fingers would graze over yours. When he'd force you to join his dnd campaigns and walk you through how to design your own character. When he'd pass you a joint he just hit and all you could think about was how he'd just put his own lips around it.

Yeah, you felt different. But then you had no idea how to handle just how different you felt. So you did the thing you thought was best, you ran from those feelings. You ran so far that you could feel your friendship with Eddie, all those years together, was on a thread. Though, you figured it was for the best, running away from the only person who's ever made you feel this way, the one person you've called your best friend all your life. In a small town like this, it's best to assume that any feelings like the ones you have, will never be accepted, let alone mutual.

That's how you find yourself at a random party on the rich side of town. The party scene had never been in your favor, a freak of Hawkins High, but you tried to find more and more ways to distract yourself from a certain curly-haired metalhead who showed up every turn you took. Most of the night was spent with some friends you've made in passing, a few subconscious conversations spoken, and a lot of cups of some kind of liquor downed. Not enough to call yourself wasted but enough that the party lights are starting to make you feel dizzy and your legs are growing tired. You don't know where any of those friends you had a few hours ago have gone and you don't really feel the need to care. You push through the crowd of people, making sure to be extra aggressive when you pass some asshole from school. You try to think of whose house this even is as you make your journey. Davidson? Edwards? Campbell? You really had no idea.

You finally made it through the large amount of sweaty teenagers, finding yourself in a hallway. It seemed you weren't the only one growing tired of the lights and noise as you passed multiple people sitting against the walls with a cup in hand. You ventured down the filled hallway, checking each door until you found one that was unlocked. With your luck, it was an empty and semi-clean bathroom. You locked the door and stepped in front of the mirror, turning the faucet on to splash some water in your face. You could feel yourself sobering up and the fuzziness from your head evaporating. You thought a ray of sunlight was shining down on you until a voice you knew all-too-well was turning it into a rain cloud.

"Fancy meeting you here."

You could feel yourself turning in slow motion, like a poorly budgeted movie. You had to crane your neck down so you were staring into the bathtub and, sure enough, the certain curly-haired metalhead was staring back up at you.

"Munson! Taking a nice bath?" You tried to laugh but it only came out in a shaky huff of air. A lump was forming in your throat. "Well, I'll leave you to it."

"Woah, wait up." You hadn't moved from your spot yet but you knew he could tell you wanted to run away from this very moment. He always had that way of knowing and it scared you more than it relieved you. You watched as he awkwardly stood from the tub, almost causing you to laugh when he slipped a bit, and stepped out so he was standing directly in front of you. You two were the same height but you still always felt small in his presence, like in any moment he could find out the truth. "We haven't talked in a while."

"Oh." You could tell he knew better than he was letting on. You could see it in his slight frown and nervous stance that he knew you were avoiding him. A twinge of guilt hit you in the face at the very sight. "Yeah, right. Sorry about that."

"You gonna tell me what's up?"

"You really don't wanna know, Ed." You averted your gaze from his face, looking anywhere but him. You tried to take a step back but your back was met with the door. You had only just noticed how small this bathroom really was, not giving any good amount of space between you and Eddie. If he took just one step then you two would be inches apart, and a small part of you hoped he would take that step.

"Look, if I did anything-"

"You didn't!"

"Then tell me why you're avoiding me." And he did. He took that step. It was equally the most electrifying and most terrifying thing that has ever happened to you. You took a sharp inhale of breath, wondering if the entire party could hear your pounding heart from this very spot. You could no longer avoid his gaze as he was closer, your eyes locking with his. He wasn't angry or upset, he was hurt and that hurt you. You wanted to bite your tongue, to say that it's nothing, to promise you two could just leave and get a beer together. The latter didn't seem like the worst idea but you knew you couldn't keep this up forever.

"Eddie, you're my best friend. You're an asshole sometimes and are so not funny when you make fun of my music taste. You're great. So great that it's a problem. A problem because-" You swallowed the little remaining salvia in your dry mouth, trying to get rid of the lump still in your throat. You took a deep breath before continuing, trying not to cower under the watchful eye of the boy in front of you. "Because it all made me love you. And that's a fucking scary thing, Munson."

"Love?"

"Yes, Eddie! Love! I'm a boy who loves the town freak! Jesus Christ, kill me now." You threw your hands up in frustration. Frustration with yourself, with your feelings, with the universe, with everything. You wanted to groan and scream, to let it all out. But instead you waited, waited for your best friend to say something to your confession, to reject you and tell you to never speak to him again, to leave you wishing you never said anything.

"Guess it's a good thing this town freak loves that boy back, huh?"

"What?" You stared at Eddie incredulously, thinking you misheard what he said. He simply smiled at you, all traces of a frown long forgotten from his features. You wanted to slap and shake some sense into him because there's no way this lovable idiot is understanding what you meant. "Did you hear what I said? I meant love as in not a total best friend kind of way?"

"Thank you for clarifying. You could just say you like dick or something next time, seriously." You could feel the corners of your lips twitching up as you lightly pushed Eddie's shoulder, feeling a true laugh finally escape your lips. A ray of sunlight was finally shining on you; in the form of a curly-haired metalhead that you love.

"Shut up. I'm trying to say that I love you, Munson."

"Yeah and I'm trying to say that, yes, I love you too."

[amarriageoftrueminds]

https://youtu.be/ajNwoS3Nsas?si=w-9hwcbT3Fb6WW5f

^^^ Phillips telling the damn truth and Peggy being like,"I did what was right" and "I don't have a crush on Cap'n America". And then, when Phillips noticed the other soldiers being distracted by something (Cap and the others returning), he leaves her standing there alone in the tent. She just continues to stand in the tent for a few more seconds, and her facial expression basically screams, "Why is the attention being taken away from me!?" Nice try, Madame Hydra, we all see through your lies.

She's so deluded about herself.

1) Doesn't have a crush?? She's been following Steve around panting like a b in heat ever since he stepped out of that vitaray tube!

2) She DIDN'T have faith in Steve.

She tried to nag Steve not to do the right thing after sneering at the very idea of it "what do you plan to do, walk to Austria?" because "your friend (didn't even know Bucky's name) is most likely dead??"

(True to form, she dgaf about the little guys. Unlike Steve, who mentioned not wanting to work in a factory; he knows how dire the situation is.)

Then she had to have her words thrown back in her face by Steve before she'd deign to help him (not that he needed it). And even then she transparently only 'helped' because she doesn't like being completely irrelevant to Steve's plans.

(He essentially tells her to stfu and get out of the way.)

Also, Classic trope in a Domestic Violence thriller is the scene where the male creep turns up at the female heroine's workplace, uninvited, and tries to persuade her to quit her job so he can have more control over her life. (But then shits the bed when she starts acting independently of him?)

That's Peggy.

Her shifting blame sideways to leech off a powerful man, claiming to be his mouthpiece when he is conveniently absent/dead and cannot speak for himself to contradict her.

( How the fuck would you know what Steve would think, you've only spoken to him like 3 times, total, months apart, and most of that time you were disagreeing with him?? )

This really is her signature move: 5 times in this movie alone she rips off or puts words in powerful dead men's mouths, usually to suggest a closer connection with them than she actually had (and by extension a greater importance of herself, by proxy).

(Also a classic Stark move, to rip off other peoples' work. Like AI rips off art. You can see why Peggy is paired off with Stark so often; they really have a lot in common. And that's before you get into What If...?)

And whereas honest Steve marches straight up to Phillips, openly and with integrity, and immediately surrenders himself for disciplinary action (and only escapes it because he's proven himself competent, and has like 500+ guys around him who'd probably mutiny if he was punished), she's trying to argue she shouldn't be punished.

Textbook nepobaby.

(As Phillips makes clear. She's not important or necessary, like Stark. She's only there because he "took a chance" on her. So... not there on merit.)

It's wild that after all the shit she does in that movie this is the closest she ever comes to experiencing an Actual Consequence, until Wanda cut her in half. 🥳

(If only Steve had come back ten minutes later! She might've already been fired by then! Alas.)

And you can see on her face that being told off is a really unsettling experience she's just not used to. You can see the barely-controlled rage/attitude of 'how dare this superior officer tell ME off??' when Phillip's back is turned.

It's like... a spoiled little princess Junior Karen being told off by a school teacher.

And the only character with the clout to deliver that dressing down has to be played by friggin Tommy Lee Jones!

Other things to notice:

A) CEvans playing Steve seeing she's there behind Phillips and doing a Live Slug Reaction, about as much expression on his face as if she was a piece of furniture. 🤣 (Contrast: him seeing Bucky, or even him seeing Sam, when they've been apart a while.) His interaction with Phillips has more genuine warmth. 🤷‍♀️

B) How mysteriously un-jubilant Peggy is that all those soldiers are safe. Y'know, the ones she didn't think Steve should bother saving? 👀💅

C) The fact that this so-called 'spy's reconnaissance sources apparently can't spot 500+ men marching back to camp in broad daylight literally seconds away from where she's standing. 🤦‍♀️ How is she still employed?

[sunny6677]

Romantic Tropes With The Eddsworld Boys! Part 1.

Mutual Pining.

TW: Slight profanity, h3nt@1 mentions.

Edd:

- Edd had found himself growing an adoration for you over the past few months. He didn't know why, but ever since you came along, he had been smiling a lot more. Something about you just brought him so much joy.. to the point where he found himself sketching you in his sketchbook a lot more than he should.

- Your eyes, your smile, your laughter. All the little details about you that no one, not even you had noticed except for him. Anytime he thought about you, his cheeks felt warm. Anytime he had seen you, they felt warm. You just.. made him feel so good, but he couldn't understand why.

- And then, like a wrecking ball, it had hit him when he was ranting to Tom about his confusion over why he felt the way he did about you.

- "You can't be that stupid." The no eyed man's face seemed disappointed as he stared. "No, you can't be that stupi- wait, what do you mean by that?" He cut off his immediate defense in curiosity. "Your in love, you idiot." Tom said, drinking his drink afterwards.

- ...

- "Oh."

- Yeah, let's just say he had a lot of thinking to do that night.

- Ever since then, he had felt a little more.. awkward around you. Constant scratching of the hair, fidgeting with his hands, his face flushed anytime he would talk to you. Yeah, it was Hella obvious to everyone except you.

- He would get nervous anytime you had asked to see his sketchbook, afraid of the little doodles he would always do of you being seen by your eyes.

- Oddly enough, you had been asking to hang with him a lot more.. it made him a bit nervous, but it made him happy too, so he had always said yes to your invites.

- You, on the other hand, were nervous as shit too. How you had managed to hide it so well? No fucking idea.

- You loved everything about him just as much as he loved everything about you. The little smile he did anytime he saw Cola, his big grin anytime he saw Cola, his gaze anytime he was focused on drawing something..

- Both of you were absolutely smitten for eachother, and the others knew it all too well. For some reason, the both of you seemed to always excuse the others obvious behavior around eachother as literally anything else except being into eachother. And boy oh boy, that made them very annoyed.

- You had excused a literal drawing of you Edd had given as a gift with little hearts surrounding you as him just being nice. He had also excused you being oddly touchy around him as you just being nice. The others were literally tempted to tell you guys, just so the two of you would date already.

- But it would appear one night their prayers were finally answered.

- It had been a night where the two of you had been hanging out again. The lights were off in the living room, the TV was on, and the others were passed out in different areas. Tom, on the chair. While Tord was laying his head on Matt's shoulder. The two of you were still awake as the movie you had all been watching still played.

- A rather stupid line had came up during one of the scenes, and you quietly cracked a joke about it while giggling as softly as you could as not to disturb the others. As you looked to Edds face, something about the way his face looked then had made you burn up..

- The half lidded stare he gave you, the relaxed smile and adoring eyes. That blush dusted across his face... you didn't know why he was blushing, but it made you a bit.. flustered on the inside.

- Looking away, red-faced, you began to try and move foward with watching the movie. He awkwardly agreed, and it left you two in silence for a while. Love. The word was so simple, yet the feeling was so powerful. The repeated image of his expression kept going in your head, making you have to refrain yourself from making any squealing noises.

- After a few silent minutes into the movie, a confession scene between the two characters had come up. After a full hour of them pining for eachother, they had finally confessed to one another. While Edd was smiling in the spot he sat in, you had fidgeted with your hands.

- Something told you to.. go for it in that moment. As cheesy as it was, somehow that scene had given you motivation. Before you could think any further, you then spoke; "Edd." The brown haired male turned to you, "Yes?" There was no going back now.

- You inhaled, and began to speak; "Uhh.. i- I don't know how your going to react to this. You.. probably don't even feel the same way, but I wanted to get it off my chest. The tru- the truth is.. i.. I'm in love with you. A lot.. you.. you have the right to say no if you want, but.."

- A gentle touch on your shoulder had interrupted what you were about to say, a touch so soft it made you tense up almost. "Hey, n-no worries.. i.." His soft English voice had said, "I like you too."

- In that moment, it felt as if the entire world faded away from the two of you. "You.. you do? I mean- i- o-of course you do! N-Not that is thought you were going to anyway, I just.. argh, sorry, I sound so stupid right now.." You stuttered, looking down at your hands.

- He laughed softly, "N-No, no you dont.. i.. I think you sound adorable." He smiled, immediately feeling the embarrassment wash over him afterwards. The two of you were now facing eachother, falling silent every few seconds.

- Edd then placed his hand on yours, your hand tensed, but awkwardly you held his as well. His thumb had rubbed the top of your hand, as the two of you exchanged awkward glances. Sure, this was a bit weird.. but.. it felt a little relieving. The two of you now had it off your chest, and now you knew that for sure, the feeling was mutual.

Matt:

- I don't think a mutual pining trope would be possible with him, considering he comes off as a very confident guy. I don't think he'd even consider that they may not like him back, and just go in blindly confident that they'll like him. So yeah, he won't be getting one unfortunately.

Tord:

- The two of you became the closest of friends after meeting in a comic store, he had made a comment about hentai and you had replied to it not expecting to receive a reply. But that had sparked a conversation, and a few minutes later, the two of you were conversing like there was no tomorrow. Exchanging numbers, Tord went home with the satisfaction of making a new friend.

- It had gotten to the point where the two of you texted ad called almost everyday. Calling almost every night, texting every hour. It was like the two of you never ran out of things to say to eachother.

- Tom had teased Tord about it, and of course Tord had gotten defensive over it. But he didn't really seem to care either way, as he just kept texting you with an eager smile on his face. You two had cracked so much jokes, to the point where he couldn't really keep himself from laughing. He had laughed so much at a joke you made on time that he nearly dropped his phone.

- One night, the two of you had been on call again. It was 3 in the damn morning, and you couldn't go to bed cuz you just.. for some reason neither of you wanted to. It was kinda like you two were stuck together. He had been joking around and one point, and you just listened with sparkles in your eyes.

- You loved hearing him talk. His sleepy, raspy voice with a norweigan accent had made you feel so.. safe. His chaotic, yet funny personality had made you smile a lot more than you should have. His appearance was so.. appealing to you.

- Wait.. surely you couldn't be-

- "Y/N? Y/N~?" His norweigan voice had called out your name, making you snap out of your thoughts. "Ah, sorry dude- i- I kinda lost myself in my own thoughts for a few seconds." You immediately responded, as your eyes widened with your newfound discovery.

- You were crushing on some hentai addicted guy, who you had only known for about like 2 months. Oh boy..

- Ever since then, you had found yourself a little more awkward and emotionally responsive anytime you received a text or call from him. It had also reached far enough in your friendship that the two of you could visit eachothers house now. So occasionally he would invite you to his house to hang out, or he'd ask to come to yours.

- One night, while he had decided to stay over at your house for a few days or so, you had been talking and he had been listening intently. You started giggling while the two of you had been joking around again, and he grinned; "Why the hell do you laugh like that?" He had said in a rather endearing tone.

- "Pfff- what- what do you mean?" You asked, curious as to what he meant by that. "Your laugh sounds like a bird-" He chuckled while saying that. You wheezed, "What the fuck is that supposed to mean? Am i Twitter now?" Quickly, you then proceeded to laugh more.

- Joking about you secretly being Twitter, you leaned towards him as you chuckled. Wrapping an arm around him, unable to control yourself with your laughter, you wiped an amused tear away from your eye.

- It was in that moment he had realized, the soft smile on his face had faded into a flustered expression. He had realized something.

- Did he.. like you?

- Nervously laughing as you kept talking, trying to seem as if he was listening, the memories of both you and him had played inside his head. It all made sense now. But.. what did this mean for your friendship now? You didn't seem like you liked him, yet he couldn't be so sure.

- As you slept in a seperate bed that night, and he played Minecraft trying to keep himself awake so he could think more, he thought about it. What should he do now that he knew that he liked you? By the time you woke up, he still hadn't figured it out. Well.. because he kinda passed out next to your bed with Minecraft still on, but whatever.

- He decided to look up what to do. Trying to flirt usually just made you think it was in a joking sense, seemingly considering you just flirted back with an amused smile. Sending subtle hints went over your head. Him holding your hand well.. didnt really do much to you seemingly, but it did do a lot to him.

- The red hoodied man knew he was hopelessly in love, but he just didn't know what to do about it to make you actually get the hint or make you like him. Meanwhile, you did like him back, but any hint or flirt that went your way made you just think he was joking around. And hurt you even more.

- Edd tried giving the guy advice, Matt too, while Tom just watched with an entertained smile. He never thought his rival would be in love, and he didn't know why he enjoyed watching his despair about you possibly not liking him so much.

- On a night in December, you hadn't been having a particularly great day. Tord had been flirting a lot more than usual which just made you feel hurt, you had heard him denying any possibility that he might have liked you to a complete stranger who had mistaken the two of you as a couple, you had been treated rudely by many people today, etc.

- Tord tried to comfort you, even if he didn't know why you were even upset. But then, as if a total ton of your heart had spilled out, you had blurted; "I don't know, I don't know man! Maybe if you actually realized I liked you, it would make me a feel a teensy bit better!"

- A few seconds passed by as you breathed heavily, you realized what you had said. Warmth had flooded your face, but more tears had flooded your eyes than the blood rushing to your face. "Wha- what? You.. you like me?" He muttered.

- "I- I'm sorry, I shouldn't have made you spend the night with me today.. I should just go-" A force on your hand had stopped you from turning and running off, making you turn back in surprise. "W-Wait! Don't go! I.." He trailed off, and gently pulled himself closer.

- "I like you too.." He averted his gaze, whilst blushing in the midst of your eyes on him. You widened your eyes, "Wha.. you don't have to try and make me feel better, dude.. you denied it earlier this-" His voice cut you off again, "I know I did.. I didn't want to admit it to a total stranger. I didn't think you actually liked me back.."

- "You.. didn't think I liked you back?" Awkwardly, you smiled and nervously laughed. "Dude, what do you think I was so affectionate for?" He began to laugh a bit too, but the awkwardness stayed stiff in the air. "I- I don't know, I just assumed you were being you.." He smiled softly, looking away still.

- "Heh..eheh.. are you.. are you sure you like me back? You can tell me if you don't, I promise-" "Y/N, baby.. look, I like you, alright? I know that somehow you didn't think I liked you back, but i can tell you that I really do love you." He cut of you off, eyes full of genuineness. "And I mean that. We could even start a relationship.. if you want." He stumbled on his words, seeming unsure whether you wanted that or not.

- You nodded, and chuckled with a smile; "Y-Yeah.. of course! I'd love to be your girlfriend/boyfriend/partner, Tord!" He smiled again, the two you of you kept exchanging awkward conversation. But.. it felt as if the tension had been lifted off your shoulders. You liked eachother.. a lot. And you could tell this was the beginning of.. well, maybe not something beautiful when others looked at it. But it was the beginning of something beautiful to you both.

Tom:

- It was December when the both of you had met, Tom felt himself suffer as he watched all the Christmas decorations being put up. He looked up blankly as Edd put up the decorations. He felt like destroying it all with his harpoon gun, but he still somewhat cared about how they felt, so he didn't say much.

- You had been a stranger walking back to your not so far away house, and you stopped to look at the decorations. They were beautiful, so you decided to admire them. Tom noticed you immediately as he drank the hot coco that was alcohol, but Edd replaced it with hot coco because he didn't exactly like when he was drunk. He also didn't want him to almost destroy an entire town again so..

- You noticed him looking back, and gave him a thumbs up with a smile. He wasn't sure of how to respond, this hadn't ever happened before. So he awkwardly smiled back.

- The first time you two actually began to talk was the next month when you had seen eachother in a guitar shop. He was there because for some reason Matt needed a guitar for most likely one of his stupid antics again, and you were there because you wanted to practice guitar but didn't have one.

- When he had said "Lame." like always, you responded with "Cool." This was due to the fact that somehow Matt has already learnt a song on guitar. How? Do.. don't question it.

- The two of you somehow began talking from there, and surprisingly, he found himself kind of enjoying your company. You too didn't really have much of a fondness for Christmas, but not like a hatred or anything, you just didn't like it. You named your Guitar immediately upon buying it. And you also were a person who got drunk often. The only thing not alike in you two was your personalities.

- You exchanged numbers, and talked pretty often. But it was more of you just going over to his house or him going over to your house than the two of you talking to eachother on the phone.

- Tord immediately took notice of this, and began to tease him as much as he could, which would often earn him a punch or two. Edd did in fact point out how much he was going over to your house a lot though, and you were coming to their house a lot as well. Edd seemed happy that Tom had actually found someone he enjoyed the company of though.

- But unlike the others who took a bit of time to realize how they felt, it immediately clicked to him after a few weeks of knowing you. There was only reason someone could make him that happy.. and that was the rare occasion of him being in love.

- Nothing really changed about his behavior towards you unsurprisingly, only being a bit more closed off to you. In secret, he kind of planned to make you a song, but quickly crossed off the idea because he thought it sounded dumb. He figured that you probably didn't like him back anyway.

- As for you, it clicked one day when you had come over to his house again. Edd and Matt had surprisingly got into an argument over something, and Tord joined in solely for the sake of causing more trouble. The two of you watched from the sidelines, with a slightly entertained look on your face and a blank look on his. In that moment, you had asked if he wanted to just go to his room and hang out there.

- He agreed, just because he didn't really wanna get involved in the fight on accident anyway. So the two of you left off to his room, and began to just converse there. You pointed out his guitar, and asked if he could play a little something for you. He declined at first, but agreed to after some pleading.

- His voice was oddly calm and soothing, but it could get rough and loud when it needed to. He sang the lyrics, and you watched in awe as his fingers strummed along the guitar strings. As a sense of joy overflowed you, you had realized something.. oh shit, you were in love. With an emo British boy.

- Unlike the others, your mutual pining was actually pretty chill? Yeah, you didn't think he liked you back considering he just didn't seem like that type of person, but ya didn't freak out just in his presence or anything. And nor did he.

- I mean yeah, you did kinda tense up or blush a little if he slightly touched you considering he didn't exactly do that often, but you were fine. You on the other hand did touch people often(or at least more than he did if you aren't a very affectionate person), so there would only be a slight blush when you did that to Tom.

- The confession had only happened upon you having a casual conversation with the man. Calm as ever, you smoothly went; "Oh yeah, by the way I love you man." With a chuckle. He responded, "Yeah, I know. You tell me that all the time." But then you went, "Well yeah, but I mean it in a lovey-dovey type of way this time man."

- That was enough to make him spit out his drink, and make you burst into laughter. "Hahaha! Oh, oh.. sorry. Had to bring it up at some point." You wheezed as his now white eyes looked at you in shock. "Dont worry, don't worry, it's fine if ya don't like me back. I'd understand if you'd rather be with Susan." You joked, well- you yourself really didn't care if he liked you or not, but was figuring he probably didn't.

- To your surprise, he said: "Well, you'll be relieved to know I like you too.. I guess." He looked away, red dusted on his cheeks. Now that wasn't a response you were expecting, but you smiled lightly and blushed softly. "Oh.. well, guess I get a boyfriend after all." You commented with a laugh.

- Overall, you two are probably the chillest couple ever.

[mediocre-shark-tales]

Qsmp x Streamer reader (4)

Summary - it's the first day you get to spend in the qsmp 'highly secured islander vacation' truthfully it's just a glorified prison system. The funny thing is you are being treated differently among the inmates. No one knows why as you keep something to yourself because of your lore.

Warnings - Mentions of Beating/torture for information. Angst

There is a chance for this to turn into a love trope of some kind but for now there is focus on fluffy platonic-ness

This series will not be 100% lore accurate, but it will be pretty close to it. If certain people don't log on soon, I may change things around until they do actually log on.

Masterlist

Everyone was online, I was currently stood near philza and Etoiles. They were yelling at each other, the only words being "My bro!" I laughed as Phil moved his mic around his face while yelling to add more pizazz to their silly encounter. Suddenly we were forced to watch another cutscene as the eye man popped up on screen. He began to warn us of the incoming doom as we had one of his people kept away on our island. But right at the end he made one comment about me in particular. "You also have gained a new islander, its unfortunate that they are now stuck with the likes of you sinners" Then the video cut as I heard everyone screaming again.

"What does that mean? Does this eye guy not think y/n is a sinner? I'm so confused!" Foolish screamed. Next we were all teleported to the qsmp hub where the whole island began. While we all waited for the next part of the event to begin, we kind of just ran around the hub chatting. I saw Leo and peptic start beating up foolish, Phil and his eggs just chatted in a corner. However this was also short lived as another cut scene started and everyone was muted. This time the cut scene was Cucurucho as he explained how the islander were now forced to stay at a heavily guarded island vacation. But really it was just a giant prison owned by the federation.

Then we got teleported into a prison before another cutscene began, this time everything about the prison and what we were expected to do was explained.

Finally we were free from all the teleporting and cutscenes as they tried to lead us into the prison. They all showed us our rooms and who our roommates were. I was given a room by myself, this was mainly because I was also given a walk in tank to stretch my tail every now and then. I was on a top floor right above Will and Missa. I checked my character out to see how I looked since they changed my characters outfit to orange, so I looked the same but my outfit was orange like a prison uniform. I could hear the voices of others as they reached out all around me.

I payed extra attention to the others and stayed quiet, taking in everything that was going on. I watched as a guard took foolish from his cell to another room to talk privately. Easily I could tell his job for the federation was giving him special privileges, especially when he came back giggling quietly.

I decided to waste some time by organizing my two little cupboards. In the cupboards I found mainly webs, skulls, and dead bushes. However in the other cupboard I found a little book, next to it was backpack. Opening the book I read the words to myself, clicking the translator for my Spanish viewers. I made sure to give extra time for others to read. I even put some words on screen saying I was not allowed to read it aloud.

It read

Hello again little shark,

I see you were able to escape my grasp yet again, don't you remember the lessons I taught you? You sit amongst the sinners now. Aren't you disgusted by their actions? Well I hope you have fun, I'll allow you this experience cause I know you will come running right back to me. This time you will come with some... much needed information.

For now I will leave you with some well deserved supplies. I wouldn't want my favorite little shark getting hurt by some repulsive sinners.

Can't wait to hear from you

Sincerely Zpvs Tbwjps,

The name had been tampered with as now it was some sort of random code or maybe just random letters that had no meaning. Fr now you would just continue with your day.

I picked up the backpack and hid it in my inventory, they had disabled the domestic mod that hid your armor and backpack from others. Inside the backpack was a bunch of extra food, a couple turtle helmets with respiration on them, and finally a few weapons. "Remember chat, this event will be dropping some lore for me. I ask that you keep anything to do with me from the other chats. Along with not telling me about the others. Basically don't ruin the fun or story for others."

My chat agreed with me and promised their cooperation. With everyone in agreement we were finally allowed to leave the cells. Walking around I stuck with Quackity for a bit as we talked to each other in Spanish.

" ¿Para qué estás aquí pendejo?" I asked walking up to him

What are you here for, asshole?

"¡Ey! ¿Muy grosero?" He yelled back at me

Hey! Rude much?

"sólo responde la pregunta pato chico" I told him faking annoyance

just answer the question duck boy

He told me the charges they had put on the wanted poster on twitter as we walked to where ever they were leading us. Quackity and I continued our chat in Spanish until we made it to what I assume was the cafeteria. Once we got there the guards told us to take a seat first. So I simply walked over to a table and sat down. Niki and Bagi joining me, we called our table "Mom's and Y/n" just for shits and giggles. With our announced table name, Mouse was quick to join as she wanted to be with her co-parents.

We held a light conversation before they finally told everyone to line up for their meal. But when it was my turn, the guards paused and one came up asking me to follow them. Everyone around me had noticed this and Phil was there first to say something. "Where are you taking y/n?" The guard looked at him and only said. "Sit down and eat"

I followed the guard as we walked for what seemed like ages. Winding in and out of doors and hallways. Once we got to where they wanted to take me. That when I learned why we had to be as far away as possible. As the guard handed me a book and I read it aloud.

We know where you really came from...

You have connections to the small creature...

Until you give up the information we want you will experience only hardships and beatings for your crimes...

The crime of hiding away the information we want and ask for..

You have 10 seconds after reading this to tell me otherwise you will be beaten...

I threw the book back at him. "I have no information, I know nothing, I have no idea what you are even talking about. If this is how it must be then I will take it with pride. With my bloodshed Poseidon will write your fate. So take your risk if you dare." Without a second thought or word the guard began to shoot me over and over again. Seeing as we were in a closed room, and this guard was the only one with a key to the door, I just took it. Around somewhere an admin began to play specific audios, like it was a voice talking to me from my conscious so that my viewers could hear it too.

"You will understand me one day little shark

"You will come to see them the way I do"

"They are all sinners"

"Weaklings fighting for survival in a world they will never understand."

"You are different than them, You live without sin"

"I will protect you from sin just stay with me little shark."

In chat you could see my name saying I was taken down by 1 and then that I had been finished off by the same guard. This showed up 10 more times as the guard had placed me in the same cell where I would respawn automatically. Throughout these few minutes, I saw all of my friends yelling through chat wondering what was going on and why I was getting killed repeatedly in such quick succession. Everyone was getting more and more upset but the funniest one to read was Etoiles.

He was instantly asking where I was so he could save me from the guard who had lost his mind. Then he started calling out the guard for being a coward by attacking a shark out of water.

Once my 'beating' was over they let me go. My Minecraft skin was changed to reflect my beating, I now had a few marks to represent cuts and bruises. I was teleported back to the cafeteria with the rest of the qsmp members. Phil was the first to notice me. "What the hell happened back there y/n?!" I shook my head. This was part of my lore, I wasn't allowed to explain why I was getting killed over and over again. "Ju- Just don't worry about it Phil. Let's eat" Phil tried to get me to talk as I sat down and began eating. Others rushed over to me as well trying to understand why I had been taken away in secrecy and spawn killed.

But once they realized that I wouldn't tell them (more like I couldn't). That's when they finally gave up. However I did notice someone always staying near me from that point on.

After a while they had decided to take us to a new cell block. Here we found is where they keep all the egg babies. I found Sunny first with Phil, "come on sunny let's find Lulu!" Sunny nodded and ran around with me as we were on a mission. She wasn't on the first floor so we ran upstairs where we found Foolish had just found Tallulah.

"Oh my gosh! Lulu! are you okay sweetness! You too sunny are you alright?" We had moved to a more open area as they both placed signs. Tallulah said she was okay and so was sunny, however they both asked if I was okay as they had also seen the chat when I went through my multiple deaths. I just told them that everything was okay and there was nothing to worry about.

"Sunny, I know your dad is not here right now because he unfortunately got caught up in some things outside of this world. So I will take care of you today alright?" She nodded and then I turned my attention to Tallulah. "Now Tallulah I hope you are okay with this and can understand. You still have Phil and Cheyenne to help you but sunny needs someone to pay more attention to her right now. To make sure she doesn't get hurt." Tallulah placed down a sign and told me. 'Don't worry y/n! I understand, I'm glad sunny has you today until her pa comes back!' I smiled and the three of us returned back to the main group.

To be continued...

[stillness138]

can i ask for two characters: gezras of leyda and thaler? if not you can choose one of them xD

oooh nice, thanks! gonna do both

and cut it because it's gonna get long :D

Thaler

first impression:

i think i first saw him in gwent actually, and that was when 'silver spies' were still a thing. he was a pretty good card back then. only learned about his character once i watched a witcher 3 playthrough on youtube though. i don't recall it that well, but if i thought anything particular, it was probably "i hope he'll wash his hands at some point soon" because he's literally peeing at the start of the cutscene.

impression now:

he's cool! questionable hygiene aside, i love characters that have like, a thing? as in, a simple but fun premise or at least a surface reading. he's a spy, but very dedicated to the shoemaker cover, and that's how he manages to get by in an occupied land. i like that there's a little throughline with him about appearances often being deceiving. the shoes are one thing, but even further, he seems like a crude, self-serving bum, yet his loyality to Temeria is something so integral it's not even a question. This country really lucked out on devoted spies. Foltest was just that charismatic.

favorite thing about him:

willingness to do anything, no matter how uncomfortable, for the country. i think i like it because it's different from Roche's brand of servitude. again, cdpr is pretty good at writing ocs.

thinking about it now, he reminds me of a few guys i know. rural Temeria is, from an outside view, a cold, wet, kinda bleak bumfuck middle of nowhere, yet Thaler has this air of loving the physical country for what it is - he even mentions that he prefers the travelling more than a different cover like being an innkeep. like it doesn't bother him that it's cold, it seems he finds comfort in it in his own way. i find that kinda sweet.

least favorite thing:

seriously mate wash your hands 😭

i'd also rather cdpr didn't make him a vessel for racist jokes in the first game. (i swear i was looking for the exact clip where he talks about Azar and couldn't find it, i need to play the first game properly...)

favorite line/scene:

[how are you doing?] "A bit like a potato beetle. I keep quiet, stay outta trouble, and live on fucking potatoes."

i saw only a few scenes from witcher 1 and they were dubbed in czech, which adds to the hilarity of it to me, but his voice actor probably had a field day with it. "Nedělej si ze mě kurva srandu, seš zasranej amatér." [Geralt: will you play poker with me? Thaler: Don't fucking bullshit me, you're a goddamn amateur.]

favorite interaction he has with another character:

befriending and handling the three trolls. game Lambert has something to learn from him in that regard.

a character that I wish he would interact with more (or at all):

imagine if he appeared in the second game in any capacity, that would've been fun. in wild hunt, it's the same as with Roche: i wish the entire politics plotline was better. if i had to pick one character, it'd be Letho. there would be a lot of profanities but i actually believe Thaler would have more to say than even Roche at Kaer Morhen.

another character from another fandom that reminds me of him:

again i only know 5 things, and the only method acting spy in elder scrolls is Caius Cosades from Morrowind, whose similarities to Thaler pretty much end at taking a cover story too seriously.

as a side note though, i went to tv tropes to look at character lists in case i forgot about someone i actually do know, and in "sir swears-a-lot" subpage for videogame characters i found Thaler twice; gwent has its own separate mention. legends only.

a headcanon about him:

if Roche likes architecture, i think Thaler really enjoys music. maybe he even plays the lute. i'm also really curious about his youth and how he ended up a spy, but i do think it's quite different than Roche's background. i imagine he had a lot of friends as a kid and a comparably normal home life, but always showed talent for remembering what people say and for getting them to say even more.

a song that reminds me of him:

it's more vibes based than anything, but this czech song, most known from a movie. zmrzlinář means ice cream seller. it's all kinda... reminiscing, nostalgia and trying to find something nice or poetic in ordinary things (and in the case of the movie, in a shitty political regime). short movie version isn't on youtube, so i gotta upload it here.

an unpopular opinion about him:

this is less about the text and more meta, but i genuinely think he has a load of potential for exploring loyality, northern politics, motivation, and tropes or trope subversion (like the appearance thing i mentioned), but people sleep on him because Roche is right there. that's not to say dissecting Roche doesn't have merit - like i said, they're similar, but each has a different approach to what they do and what they believe.

favorite picture:

probably the gwent card. it says what it needs to and is surprisingly fun or even whimsical for a character most known for swearing on every third word. i think that's a neat choice though.

Gezras

first impression:

the cat school is, beside manticore, my favourite, so when the witcher expansion dropped i was curious who the leader will be next to Erland or Ivar. i wasn't disappointed. pretty sure i thought he's cute.

impression now:

*gently holds*

where Erland continued performing the trials to create a knightly order, Gezras and the growing cat school did it to protect themselves. it's the witcher dissected towards its core; a cycle of abuse maintained as something deemed necessary despite its harmfulness, out of desperation, out of a sense of belonging, out of losing touch with what's enough and what's too much.

and all that in pursuit of autonomy. Gezras; sold, experimented on, discarded, hunted. the fact the formula used on him was meant to suppress emotion yet ended up doing the opposite is a testament to that - this is about being treated as human. the trials are literally reclaimed, to strengthen other abandoned and thrown-out stray kids. to enact revenge. it's no wonder then that they'd seek refuge with the elves. the cat school was the one that took systemic oppression the most personally.

favorite thing about him:

that he's a unique exploration of the things i just mentioned. i find this very compelling and him relatable on that level, as an abuse survivor myself.

also his gwent card art and the bags under his eyes. that's relatable too.

least favorite thing:

it's meta again because i'm near incapable of judging the character without judging the writer: the little bit there is in gwent leans too much towards the edgy. he does have one voiceline about elven sages which i find especially interesting, but given that his trial ended up enhancing all emotions, if you want to show that somehow, give me rapid mood swings or something like that. gimme nuance!

this is me wanting every minor character to have dimensions.

favorite line/scene:

his flavor text; "Take a contract from Aen Seidhe over a dh'oine any day, as you’re far less likely to receive a knife between the ribs in place of coin."

favorite interaction he has with another character:

i think he actually has no lines or scenes with any named characters apart from the expansion key art where all the founders are together, because unlike the other three, he wasn't in the tabletop rpg books. i do however like his card's interaction with the bronze that happens to have my most favourite card art. there's awesome fanart about it too!

a character that I wish he would interact with more (or at all):

any named elf of his era, naturally, and especially the sages, but i am actually curious how he'd react to all of the other founders. Erland, i think i can imagine, but given both Arnaghad and Ivar ended up opposing Erland, that'd be more interesting. and even Iwan, the founder of manticore school as per the trpg, maybe he'd be the one Gezras would find most common ground with actually. If only for leaving the other three to their squabbles and seeking work and protection in a more equal society.

another character from another fandom that reminds me of him:

this is weird and i'm going to bring it up again, but Gezras reminds me of Allinall's work. weird because these are takes or adaptations of other media - particularly elder scrolls and berserk - but he specifically brings forth similar themes; conflicts of humans and elves, othering and otherness, cyclical abuse, coping mechanisms. the concrete characters i'm thinking of are Allinall's oc from the elder scrolls project and Rosine (and by extension the in-world fairytale character Peekaf) from the berserk project.

the nameless oc, mostly referred to as "One-Ear", had mixed parents, their human father cut their ear off in an attempt to hide their identity, even though their yellow sclera is undeniably elven. they join (or rather, their vulnerable state of trauma is exploited and they're indoctrinated by) a regime that aims to end material existence. Rosine is also a domestic abuse survivor, a village girl who comes across a promise of power in the form of an evil artifact that turns her into a moth-like elf monster. she starts devolving into bloodthirst and allows for horrible stuff to happen in order to maintain a fantasy of comfort and freedom.

a headcanon about him:

i didn't come up with it, but i love the idea that him and the saber-tooth tiger were buddies.

i think it's safe to assume that he's not actually from Leyda. if he was mutated at Stygga, he more likely was a local kid from Ebbing. I do also think he stayed in Dol Blathanna at some point when the school was wandering around, though.

and maybe that's too shallow, but i like to imagine he did genuinely enjoy being in nature. and if he ever conducted any trials by his own, he might've been notably good at herbology.

a song that reminds me of him:

'To Die' by Allinall (relating to One-Ear), and Peekaf Song (to Rosine).

as for more personal picks, my forever favourite, Nihilist Blues by Bring Me The Horizon (and Grimes); "do you mind if i'm exhumed?"

and Unraveled by Lorn, which is kinda ambient, but i like the harsher noises and associate it with my own search-for-identity oc.

an unpopular opinion about him:

Gezras is more interesting to me personally because of that focus on abuse, autonomy and revenge, and he's already a bit on the side because Erland and Arnaghad's conflict is at the forefront when this era of witchers comes up, but i think Ivar Evil-Eye needs even more love. despite being in the trpg, no one talks about him (he has that in common with Thaler i guess) and that's a disservice to the viper school as a whole, i think it's just as fascinating and has just as much unique and profound stuff to say as the cat school's story.

favorite picture:

his gwent card is in my top 20, but i especially like his reward tree portrait; it's the most detailed likeness we have. the mega tired eyes just draw me in.

[thxtmarvelchick]

✨BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS ORGANIZED BY GENRE (and tropes listed)✨

i will do the cut thing because this is going to be long…

THIS WILL BE CONTINUOUSLY ADDED ONTO AS I READ MORE BOOKS THAT FIND THEMSELVES IN MY FAVOURITES

Fantasy/Sci-fi (because I feel like they go hand in hand)

•A Court Of Thorns And Roses (the entire series) by Sarah J Mass

I can genuinely say that this series had such a massive impact on my life and it will always be in my top recs. The writing is SO beautiful and the world- building is IMPECCABLE you can vividly picture everything and it just completely transports you to this magical world.

Tropes: fae (ik this isn’t a trope i just had to say it), a little enemies to lovers, a little friends to lovers, royalty, FATED MATES (my personal favourite), forced proximity, they dream of each other, she owes him a debt, slow burn, found family

spice is included✨ and honestly pretty fricking spicy (spiciest on this list probably)

•Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

Another book that like altered my brain chemistry because it was so good. The main character has a chronic illness (that is the same chronic illness the author has). It’s such a comfort book to me and i really wish i could read it for the first time again because there’s twists and the ending had me SHELLSHOCKED and i do not get shocked easily because most of the time i can tell it’s coming but i genuinely had NO IDEA that is how good Rebecca Yarros’ writing is.

Tropes: enemies to lovers (but they’re attracted to each other from the very start), kind of forbidden love (parents were enemies), they’re bonded to each other so kind of fated mates?, THEY’RE AT A COLLEGE TO BECOME DRAGON RIDERS THAT’S LITERALLY SO COOL, oh did i mention DRAGONS THAT TALK AND ARE SASSY LITTLE SHITS, also kind of found family bc the MC’s is dysfunctional as hell

also spice is included✨ i’d rate it maybe a 3/5?, it’s not SUPER detailed and there’s not a lot but there’s one scene where my jaw was dropped the entire time

•One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston

This is a comfort read FOR SURE. I felt so seen because the MC is just like me (socially awkward, book lover, nerd) and she has a huge crush on this other girl ( YES IT’S LGBTQ!!) who is totally like 70s rockstar vibes (she’s literally so cool i cannot). It’s a book that’ll have you squealing and kicking your feet. Oh did i mention the love interest is ACTUALLY a 70s pink chick who’s accidentally time travelled forward after an accident she had on the subway?

tropes: this is pure fluff guys like seriously you can’t not love it, kind of coming of age (she’s 23 and finding her confidence and place in the world) , the love interest doesn’t remember how she got there (so amnesia), found family (just now noticing a theme with all my recs so far..)

there’s spice mentioned but not actual spicy scenes!

Romance

•Bridgerton series

This series is a staple however due to you not having to read all the books/ the books in order there are a few that i don’t think i’ll reread (i haven’t even read Francesca’s yet) like for instance i didn’t like Benedict’s book because of the Cinderella retelling aspect and I ended up dnfing

BUT the rest are REALLY good, my favourites being Colin/Penelope’s (Romancing Mister Bridgerton) and Hyacinth’s (It’s In His Kiss)

Tropes: (just doing the main one for each book)

Book #1 (Daphne)- fake relationship

Book #2 (Anthony)- enemies to lovers

Book #3 (Benedict)- fairytale retelling (cinderella), she was a lady’s maid for one of his sisters (i think… it’s been awhile)

Book #4 (Colin/Penelope)- friends to lovers, she’s a socially awkward wallflower and i relate immensely (there’s twists and overall is just a beautiful love story)

Book #5 (Eloise)- they’re pen pals and she runs away to his home (he has children that are an absolute MENACE to her it’s hilarious)

Book #6 (Francesca)- haven’t read yet but i know that the main premise is her late husband (who died not long after she married him) ‘s cousin has always loved her since he met her

Book #7 (Hyacinth)- mystery, they’re trying to find his family’s hidden jewels (their dynamic is amazing and hyacinth is my favourite bridgerton she’s so funny to me)

Book #8 (Gregory)- they’re friends and they realize they’re in love with each other as they’re about to marry other people (he crashes her wedding it’s fantastic)

[thedevilsrain]

Loving your blog on eroica, your art is beautiful btw.

It's nice to see you talking abt the problematic political stuff the manga deals with, i read for the drama and gay ness and how the tropes are well executed. May i know your most fav and least fav arc and why??

thanks so much i'm so glad! i actually started reading it for the gay stuff as well but it awakened my seven year hyperfixation on the cold war

i've actually answered this before but now i've read these chapters more + i have a new Least Favorite Arc. so lets go

so, i don't know how much of a consensus this is, but my favorite arc is definitely the alaskan front, full stop. i also love eau de cologne and the free shooter/der freischultz

but i think that alaskan front captures FEWL's essence perfectly - the comedy is great, the characterization is at its' best, the art is gorgeous - the perfect balance between aoike's shojo artstyle and all the gun and machinery - and every character has a chance to shine, from agent Z, to the forgotten mr. jones, to mischa and to, of course, dorian and klaus.

plenty of my favorite panels and scenes come from this arc alone. one of my favorite scenes in the manga is one where eroica and his team manage to outsmart the KGB and even NATO, to the point that when dorian tells eberbach he had the KGB hospitalized (through giving them laxatives), he doesn't believe him

there's also some classic moments, like klaus saying his love of nescafe (just 'instant' here lol) for the first time, mr. bonham calling eberbach nato old man (or nato geezer lol), and whatever the hell this third picture is

i just find it great, all around. it struggles with pacing, as most of these longer eroica chapters do lol, but it still manages to be entertaining as you're building the web of spies in your head, and watching the funny interactions throught. this too is one of my favorite scenes ever. absolute great ride 🌹❤️🐗

now! my least favorite. this i won't expect to be a consensus, but it's seven days in september. readmore cos it turned out too long. here's some dorians from the alaskan front as a mental preparation

so right from the start, seven days follows midnight collector, the story about dorian's past interluded with im trying to steal the man in purple and another painting (i should mention that while the story about klaus' backstory doesn't have dorian, the major has a whole subplot in dorian's chapter), and as the arc proceeds, it starts a recurring theme of eroica's story being cut short/overshadowed by whatever's going on with the major.

i would only find this mildly annoying, if it weren't for the fact that the stories can become slow at best and boring at worst without dorian's more campy and, let me just say it, gay energy

this arc also starts another recurring thing for FEWL: very long and convoluted arcs. by the second half of seven days, we have: major and eroica crashing a plane in a convent, mischa and his KGB guys and salim and his misogyny and a brief appearance by lawrence and the SIS. they've already traveled three countries, and honestly by here i was already lost. it just gets to a point of too much information where the only thing keeping you going is the gags

(we can get into salim another day lol)

another thing that begins to suffer in this arc is the characterization. it's prolly somewhere around this arc that you might start to think 'wow, it's been a long time since eroica and the major have had a soft moment', and it's all downhill from here. there is such a focus on keeping eberbach as an asshole with zero development that their characterization actually begins to sufer -- klaus is more and more unbearable, and dorian is more and more stupid.

in this arc, there's a scene where, after dorian fails to get klaus drunk (story for another day) and klaus is the one that gets him drunk instead, he does a striptease, before klaus takes him to a bathroom. klaus tells him he hates him and threatens to beat him when he's asleep, but when dorian actually blacks out, klaus buttons up his jacket around him so that he isn't half-naked in a bathroom.

but! the scene is then completely ruined because shortly afterwards klaus and mischa (the bear cub) literally WATERBOARD dorian when he's still blackout drunk, in a scene that's actually hard for me to read

and again, it's really all downhill from here. seventh seal is another arc i really dislike, bc it follows this trend of eberbach manipulating and tricking dorian, and dorian's affection towards him stops being this funny if unlikely thing, and starts being more... sad lol

i had to get that one out of my system BUT. this is Not The Worst Yet! this arc features the single WORST scene in the ENTIRE manga and i will not be taking criticism about this

mischa, knowing the major's dad was a... tank commander... in the german army. in ww2, brings klaus to the el alamein desert, where a nazi generla or whatever lost a battle to the allies, with the intent of humiliating him. and it actually WORKS -- and once mischa obviously loses to eberbach in the end, it's supposed to be this moment of... reinvidication, almost? klaus says he doesn't care, but mentions how it hurt his pride, you know?

i find this one actually gross to read JFGJLKJGLGF its so incredibly bad either way you read it -- the major is offended mischa would remind him the germans lost the war, or mischa, a mischa, clinging to the past when the russians won the battle, but now in the current day the germans are better.

by this point you'd think we'd be over the 'major's dad was a soldier in ww2' thing or at least consider it an obvious Bad Thing -- but here's aoike, in 1982, still coyly playing up how germans are good and noble and all that

there's plenty other pretty bad eroica chapters -- insha'allah with its' messy orientalism and.. child brothel, midnight collector's messy handling of dorian's trauma, the seventh seal having dorian 'trick' a man in drag, the panda's maze everything etc. but seven days in september still remains at the top of me for having a moment where eroica actually stopped being fun, a moment where i actually had to stop to think about the author's politics and how they end up being cast over the story.

anyway read the alaskan front lol

[jamisonwritestf2trash]

[Jerma's voice] Would Medic watch Gyo: Tokyo Fish Attack? Serious answers only! Just kidding, let's be silly about it.

If you don't know what I'm talking about. Don't ask how I do huehuehue ( ◡_◡ )

Medic And Junji Ito's Gyo: Tokyo Fish Attack

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JERMA MENTION??? Lol, I've seen the anime adaptation of Gyo, and ough, I'm torn. On one hand, it's super cool to see the work animated, but also it's not as fucked up as the manga. But it's just fine to write about!

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ALSO mutual appreciation comment! Love you for all the asks and ideas, also love you for giving me a chance to talk about Medic (he's so silly I love talking about him, but you've probably figured that out by now :p)

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TW: GROSS AND DISGUSTING THEMES, SPOILERS FOR JUNJI ITO'S GYO: TOKYO FISH ATTACK.

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Okay to start, he definitely would watch it. I think this man has always been a hard-core Junji Ito fan. He loves how disgusting (Listen I love Junji Ito so much, but good god is Gyo gross 😭) Ito's works are. For the sake of being able to give you his take on the episode, we'll pretend he hasn't seen or read Gyo already.

We're maybe twenty seconds in and he's already a little disappointed, this isn't nearly as good as the mangas he's read, but he continues to give it a chance. The second Kayori crushed the first fish walker and he saw the blood spurt, he was very much enjoying his choice to stick around. Is also thrilled at the fish walker itself, what a disgusting little thing! He pauses the show to just, look at every detail of the fish walker, maybe even has a sketchbook that he grabs to just get a quick idea of the anatomy it would have. LET ME TELL YOU WHEN THIS MAN SEES THE SHARK FISH WALKER. Giggling, screaming, obsessed. He thinks it's so cool. When it dies he's very upset. Genuinely wishes they were real so he could study it. Also takes sketches, pausing to get different angles. Thinks Kayori is insane for getting on a plane and going to Tokyo, like, mouth agape at the stupidity. But then again, he'd go to the heart of all this madness to get some research done, so he let it slide. Gets so upset at the scene where Kayori and her cameraman friend are running away from the shark, he hates how it looks. (No hate to the animators they had a big ask but it's so bad guys 😭) Remember the reaction to the shark? Yeah, multiply it by ten for the octopus. Is just floored by how cool of a concept it is. Like he'll be up for hours imagining all different types of animals and sea life as fish walkers and how that would work.

The minute the infection aspect comes into play he's also so hyped. Body horror is his favorite type of horror after all. Picks up on Kayori's cut before the anime even really expresses it as an issue (him being a doctor and all) and is weirdly excited to see our main character turn at some point. Is slightly disappointed to learn that the fish walkers are a mix of machinery and viruses, (he'd rather these things just be full-on viruses) but hey maybe Engie would be down to talk about how the process of engineering of these freaks would go with Medic sometime, who knows? Human fish walkers are a whole other fascination for him. Immediately starts trying to work out in his mind how a real one would work and operate, has a couple of sketches going, and wants to teleport himself in to study and prove it. He loves it. The mega fish walker is yet another "I have those visceral need to study this." Like I don't think I can put into words how rabid this man goes over all the opportunities he would have if he was just dropped into this world for one day. Is mildly upset at the fact that Kayori is immune to the disease as he loves the trope of a main character turning into a monster.

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So after all that, I feel like there's one burning question.

"Would he make fish walkers happen?"

And in my opinion? No, he wouldn't. Sure he's insane, and maybe a little sadistic, but I don't think this man would make such a risky decision to make a virus, and a virus that causes incredible pain and graphic body horror at that. He might be a silly guy, but he's not silly enough to cause actual damage to those he cares about.

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Well! I had to rewatch Gyo at least twice to write this. I'm sorry it's not super long, or particularly good, I had to pause multiple times 😭 I hope you like this though 🫶🏻