De Aged Fic Part 9

hi!! do you have any ideas about Dazai’s need for control? could be answered possibly in a sexual type way too if you want. when I read stormbringer he phased me as the type to rarely allow things out of his own jurisdiction and chuuyas rivalry to that control, even though he usually falls under it, excites him.

Ahh I do have some thoughts sexual or otherwise.

I think that as a child Dazai always noticed more about the people and the world around him than anyone expected him too, and as a result he came to see people in general as predictable and boring. Add to that how unnerved the adults around him would be, that this child points out things a "normal" child would never be able to grasp (sort of like how Mori saw Dazai between him gaining power and Fifteen), and you have a kid who hasn't been shown much sympathy because he is too intelligent and doesn't know when or how to hide it well.

I think he relied on his intelligence and ability to manipulate people a lot when he was younger, mostly for survival. I think control gives him a source of confort as well as endless frustration cause nothing can scare him, but nothing can exceed his expectations, either.

So when that control is taken away from him, it both excites him and frightens him. Which is part of why he hates Chuuya so much!

The first time Dazai met Chuuya, he had a specific impression he stuck to that we the audience know is false, but Dazai had been confident in up until Chuuya said "I am Arahabaki."

This is one of the few times we see Dazai genuinely caught off guard. It's a shock reflected both in his words on the page and in the illustration. Because Dazai was so sure he got the gist of what Chuuya was about.

What was the gist, you ask? Well.

The first time Dazai meets Chuuya, he calls him an "arrogant brat". He claims that Chuuya relies on his power so much that he fails to be good at anything without it. He sees the way Chuuya interacts with the Sheep, how this powerful, arrogant person acts subservient to them, how much he hates his own position as "King of the Sheep". There's also this bit:

Then, during his talk with Randou, Dazai reveals Mori's theory of "undercooked meat":

And I thought huh, that's weird, if I'd put Chuuya anywhere, it would be the meat everyone's trying to haggle over, not one of the people who steals the meat from others. Cause I, the audience, knew who Chuuya was already. But Dazai didn't. In Dazai's eyes, Chuuya's goals are inherently set apart from the Sheep's. Which isn't true, on a basic level. Chuuya looking jnto the rumors inherently benefits the group, because it affects Chuuya. If someone is looking into Arahabaki, it threatens Chuuya and as a result, threatens the safety of the rest of the Sheep. His goal also isn't a goal which warrants this comment:

What I think Dazai assumed: Chuuya is a powerful ability user that has to put up with the Sheep and their demands despite having goals of his own. He's arrogant, to the point where he keeps his hands in his pockets in the hopes of meeting a true challenge, despite the disadvantage. This is why he wants to find Arahabaki: a powerful destructive diety that is capable of leveling an island, so he can find a true challenge and conquer it.

This is why he thought of Chuuya as one of the people stealing the meat. Because the goal above is arrogant and selfish. But, that's not at all what Chuuya wanted. And when Dazai learned he underestimated not only Chuuya's strength, but his character?

Chuuya going against Dazai's predictions both frightened him, angered him, and excited him, to the point where Dazai found that willingness to live again. I think a lot of his facination with Chuuya stems from that. We see Chuuya getting underestimated twice again by Dazai in Stormbringer. First time when Dazai thinks Verlaine can convince Chuuya to kill N, and the second time, when Dazai assumes Chuuya is dead, but he survives anyway, and doesn't even need Dazai's help lmao (which, y'know, we have Adam to thank for, but still).

Corruption facinates Dazai the same way. It's a force of nature and destruction, unable to be controlled, except Dazai can still nullify it. But what's weird is that every time he does, Dazai is strangely humbled by it? He doesn't really think of it as him "controlling" Chuuya's ability as much as "wow I can't believe I can touch this god-like creature and be able to do this wow".

Insteresting to note how Dazai can't control is own ability. At all. It just happens.

So yeah, I think contolling the situation is a comfort to Dazai, it's a constant in his life. Chuuya both unnerves him and intrigues him cause he keeps pushing against Dazai's control and his expectations.

Idk what you want me to say on the sexy aspect of it I think Dazai wouldn't give up being a dom unless you dragged him away kicking and screaming

In the past I've shared other people's musings about the different interpretations of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Namely, why Orpheus looks back at Eurydice, even though he knows it means he'll lose her forever. So many people seem to think they've found the one true explanation of the myth. But to me, the beauty of myths is that they have many possible meanings.

So I thought I would share a list of every interpretation I know, from every serious adaptation of the story and every analysis I've ever heard or read, of why Orpheus looks back.

One interpretation – advocated by Monteverdi's opera, for example – is that the backward glance represents excessive passion and a fatal lack of self-control. Orpheus loves Eurydice to such excess that he tries to defy the laws of nature by bringing her back from the dead, yet that very same passion dooms his quest fo fail, because he can't resist the temptation to look back at her.

He can also be seen as succumbing to that classic "tragic flaw" of hubris, excessive pride. Because his music and his love conquer the Underworld, it might be that he makes the mistake of thinking he's entirely above divine law, and fatally allows himself to break the one rule that Hades and Persephone set for him.

Then there are the versions where his flaw is his lack of faith, because he looks back out of doubt that Eurydice is really there. I think there are three possible interpretations of this scenario, which can each work alone or else co-exist with each other. From what I've read about Hadestown, it sounds as if it combines all three.

In one interpretation, he doubts Hades and Persephone's promise. Will they really give Eurydice back to him, or is it all a cruel trick? In this case, the message seems to be a warning to trust in the gods; if you doubt their blessings, you might lose them.

Another perspective is that he doubts Eurydice. Does she love him enough to follow him? In this case, the warning is that romantic love can't survive unless the lovers trust each other. I'm thinking of Moulin Rouge!, which is ostensibly based on the Orpheus myth, and which uses Christian's jealousy as its equivalent of Orpheus's fatal doubt and explicitly states "Where there is no trust, there is no love."

The third variation is that he doubts himself. Could his music really have the power to sway the Underworld? The message in this version would be that self-doubt can sabotage all our best efforts.

But all of the above interpretations revolve around the concept that Orpheus looks back because of a tragic flaw, which wasn't necessarily the view of Virgil, the earliest known recorder of the myth. Virgil wrote that Orpheus's backward glance was "A pardonable offense, if the spirits knew how to pardon."

In some versions, when the upper world comes into Orpheus's view, he thinks his journey is over. In this moment, he's so ecstatic and so eager to finally see Eurydice that he unthinkingly turns around an instant too soon, either just before he reaches the threshold or when he's already crossed it but Eurydice is still a few steps behind him. In this scenario, it isn't a personal flaw that makes him look back, but just a moment of passion-fueled carelessness, and the fact that it costs him Eurydice shows the pitilessness of the Underworld.

In other versions, concern for Eurydice makes him look back. Sometimes he looks back because the upward path is steep and rocky, and Eurydice is still limping from her snakebite, so he knows she must be struggling, in some versions he even hears her stumble, and he finally can't resist turning around to help her. Or more cruelly, in other versions – for example, in Gluck's opera – Eurydice doesn't know that Orpheus is forbidden to look back at her, and Orpheus is also forbidden to tell her. So she's distraught that her husband seems to be coldly ignoring her and begs him to look at her until he can't bear her anguish anymore.

These versions highlight the harshness of the Underworld's law, and Orpheus's failure to comply with it seems natural and even inevitable. The message here seems to be that death is pitiless and irreversible: a demigod hero might come close to conquering it, but through little or no fault of his own, he's bound to fail in the end.

Another interpretation I've read is that Orpheus's backward glance represents the nature of grief. We can't help but look back on our memories of our dead loved ones, even though it means feeling the pain of loss all over again.

Then there's the interpretation that Orpheus chooses his memory of Eurydice, represented by the backward glance, rather than a future with a living Eurydice. "The poet's choice," as Portrait of a Lady on Fire puts it. In this reading, Orpheus looks back because he realizes he would rather preserve his memory of their youthful, blissful love, just as it was when she died, than face a future of growing older, the difficulties of married life, and the possibility that their love will fade. That's the slightly more sympathetic version. In the version that makes Orpheus more egotistical, he prefers the idealized memory to the real woman because the memory is entirely his possession, in a way that a living wife with her own will could never be, and will never distract him from his music, but can only inspire it.

Then there are the modern feminist interpretations, also alluded to in Portrait of a Lady on Fire but seen in several female-authored adaptations of the myth too, where Eurydice provokes Orpheus into looking back because she wants to stay in the Underworld. The viewpoint kinder to Orpheus is that Eurydice also wants to preserve their love just as it was, youthful, passionate, and blissful, rather than subject it to the ravages of time and the hardships of life. The variation less sympathetic to Orpheus is that Euyridice was at peace in death, in some versions she drank from the river Lethe and doesn't even remember Orpheus, his attempt to take her back is selfish, and she prefers to be her own free woman than be bound to him forever and literally only live for his sake.

With that interpretation in mind, I'm surprised I've never read yet another variation. I can imagine a version where, as Orpheus walks up the path toward the living world, he realizes he's being selfish: Eurydice was happy and at peace in the Elysian Fields, she doesn't even remember him because she drank from Lethe, and she's only following him now because Hades and Persephone have forced her to do so. So he finally looks back out of selfless love, to let her go. Maybe I should write this retelling myself.

Are any of these interpretations – or any others – the "true" or "definitive" reason why Orpheus looks back? I don't think so at all. The fact that they all exist and can all ring true says something valuable about the nature of mythology.

The spy chasing me throws a tracking device at my car. The throw is perfectly timed and the small, round device hits the bumper perfectly flush. However, since the tracker is magnetic and my shitty car is plastic, it bounces off

One last prompt! How about Dad Shaw being the narcissistic, manipulative, abusive bastard he is, trying to pit the siblings against each other? But unbeknownst to him, he actually brings them closer together. Thanks Omni! You’re amazing! 😘

Aww! Thank you friend! And omg! You just have to give me some angst don't you 😭 Dad Shaw is always the perfect villain to the Sibs

Warning: depiction of child abuse, slapping, bruising, small amounts of blood, forcing children to fight each other

~~~

"Again!"

Deckard tried to hide his flinch as their father's voice echoed harshly off the stone walls. He was forced to sit in his knees while he watched his siblings spar in front of him

The basement of their home was freezing, the few bare light bulbs barely lighting the space up. Instead, they casted horrible shadows on his younger siblings and showed off just how exhausted they were

There were no clocks or windows down there, so Deckard had no idea how long they had been going at it. Their father had barked at all of them to head downstairs for training after breakfast. They hadn't taken a break since

Deckard tried to ask, and then begged, their father to allow him to go fetch some water for his siblings, but received a stinging slap instead.

Now, he was forced to sit on the cold floor and watch as his siblings fought one another

They were covered in bruises and a few cuts from where they had landed on the stone floor. There was no padding on the floor to soften their falls and Deckard's heart clenched each time he saw them fall

One of Owen's eyes was swollen from Hattie had kicked him, but it didn't stop him from fighting. Especially not when Hattie had tried to comfort him when she had kicked him. Their father had instead screamed at her and dragged her back by her hair

Owen hadn't hesitated to stand up and tell him to let her go so they could continue sparring

But now, they were both panting and Deckard could tell Hattie was favoring her left side. He suspected that she had twisted her ankle after a particularly bad fall

But, the only thing Deckard could do was sit there, his fingers digging into his thighs and leaving creasant marks in his skin. He wanted so badly to stop this training and let his siblings rest

Never again did he want to see them beating each other until exhaustion

He watched as this next fight continued and Owen was able to sweep a leg out from Hattie, no doubt using her injury to his advantage

Their father always knew when one of them was going easy on the others. It often resulted in their father bringing out his belt

Hattie landed with a cut off sob, tears running down her cheeks as she looks over her hands. Deckard can see that their skinned and blood coats her palms. He has to stiffle the urge to rush her upstairs and clean out the wounds

"Pathetic!" Their father snaps. "How are you supposed to be my child? Can't even defend yourself!"

"Father, I-" She desperately pleads

"No! I knew the second you were brought home you weren't my child! Your mother is a lying whore! No child of mine would be this weak."

Deckard bites down on a growl. Hattie is his sister and their father's daughter. Their father had gotten several blood tests done showing it, but he never accepted the truth

Several more tears trail down Hattie's face as she sobs harder. Her breath is coming too fast and she looks over at Deckard for help

"Father, if she rests, she'll be in better condition tomorrow to train." Deckard says, but keeps his head bowed so not to meet the man's eyes

"If she's no good today, she won't be any better tomorrow!" His snaps

"She was good when we started." Owen hissed and clenched his fists tightly. His own knuckles were bruised horribly

"Did I ask you, boy?!"

Deckard nearly leapt to his feet as their father advanced on Owen and slapped him, causing him to sprawl on the floor

"All three of you are pathetic!" He spat. "Never obey any order I give you! For that, you can all rot down here!"

Not daring to move a muscle, Deckard watches as their father storms out of the basement and up the stairs. He can hear the door slam and lock behind him

In a blink of an eye, Deckard's by Owen's side and inspecting the damage done to his face. He can see Owen's refusing to let out any sort of noise of pain, biting his lip harshly. Next to them, Hattie is still sobbing as she crawls over to them

Without even thinking, Deckard is pulling Hattie into his lap and Owen into his side. They both clutch at him, Hattie whimpering and Owen soaking his shoulder

Deckard wants to reassure them and give them words of comfort, but he knows there's nothing to say

Their father will never love them again, and will continue to treat them this way. And Deckard knows that there's no way to stop him. All he can do is hold his siblings tighter against him

~~~

I hope you enjoyed friend!

Hobbs and Shaw: The Tigress

This was a request by @ihavesthings

Summary: When Sam wakes up in an unknown place, surrounded by unknown people, she expects either her Dad or Deckard to rescue her. But it’s someone else who comes to her rescue.

Warnings: kidnapping of a child, child in danger

Keep reading

Calling all Shobbs Writers!

Hey! Do you want to write and receive a Shobbs based fanfic? Feel free to join the Shobbs Summer Fic Exchange! 

–Rules: All fanfics must have the main pairing of Luke Hobbs/Deckard Shaw from the fandom Hobbs and Shaw/Fast and Furious. Any other side pairings are welcome

–How it works: Please put in the comments or message Omnivorousshipper that you wish to join the exchange.

–Once the deadline to join the exchange is closed, everyone will be matched up into pairs. Once you know who your partner is, please get in contact with them and give each other three possible prompts you can pull from to write one fic. Please no more than three prompts

–If you are not sure if something in your fic will trigger the recipient, please ask them. You do not have to reveal the plot of your fic, as this is a gift that should be enjoyable for the recipient

–Every fic should be a minimum of 1500 words

–There will be reminders of the deadline when there is only half of the time left, as well as the last week and day

–There will be an exact date and time for when you should release your fic. If you cannot meet the deadline, please talk to your partner and the host, Omnivorousshipper

–If you wish to have your story beta’d, feel free to contact your own beta, ask another Shobbs writer who agrees to do so, or the host, Omnivorousshipper, will willingly do so as well

–Deadline to join the Fic Exchange is May 16, 2020. You will be contacted on the 17th about who your partner will be. Another post will be made with the dates the fics will be given to each other 

I look forward from hearing from you! If you see this post after the 16th and still want to join, please contact Omnivorousshipper

Pepper: weren’t you kids playing monopoly with Tony?

Harley: [chewing a cookie] we were, Tony won.

Pepper: well that was fast how did he do that?

Peter: [also chewing a cookie] well he was losing badly, but he bribed us with cookies.

Pepper: that’s unfair! That’s not how your suppose to win!

Harley: [munching on cookies] You think he’s the winner? Please, Peter and I just used fake money to buy 200 real cookies.

Peter: [munching on cookies] we’re the real winners here.

What I need in my life right now

A photo shoot of Jason Statham, Luke Evans, and Vanessa Kirby acting like the Shaw Siblings

Just image all of them with semi matching outfits, all doing badass poses, all interacting with each other in some way

And the second half of it is just all of them acting like annoying siblings. Luke and Vanessa are screaming in each other face. The next photo Jason is pushing them apart. A third photo of him grabbing both of them by the ear

You have all of them sitting, both Vanessa and Luke on either side of Jason, resting their heads on his shoulders, looking up at him adoringly.

And finally, you have The Rock there, getting threatened by all three. Luke has a gun, Vanessa a knife, and whatever they could find on set for Jason to use as a weapon

Please someone. Anyone. Please make this happen

alternatives to "ladies and gentlemen"

cads and wastrels

fellow scoundrels

ladies, gentlemen, and interesting miscellanea

beloved friends & tolerated acquaintances

entities of interest

paying audience members & assorted freeloaders

the fbi's most and least wanted

discerning guests & those of you with fuck all else to do on a tuesday evening

esteemed gutter filth

Okay maybe I'm grasping at nothing, but hear me out:

We all know Peter has spidey senses. He used them to defeat Mysterio in Far From Home.

But we see Peter struggling with them all throughout the movie:

(Peter not sensing the banana)

(Peter not sensing Nick Fury in the room)

(Peter not sensing everything around him in the pub was an illusion)

(Finally, Peter not being able to decide whether Happy is real or fake)

Now here we wonder, why is that happening?

Take into account the events of Infinity War. When Thanos snapped his fingers, unlike others, Peter could sense his death coming, that's why he fell into Tony's arms saying, “Mr Stark I don't feel so good”. Imagine such a terrible thing happening to you, feeling the pain everywhere yet not being able to fix it. This could and HAS led to post traumatic stress in Peter. PTSD leads to changes in the body and impotence is one of them. Also the added trauma of his mentor dying? Anyone's mind could've become fucked up after that.

“Okay, so where are you going with this?” you must be thinking.

Well, what if Peter sensed something was unnatural about the water monster (other than the fact it was a monster made up of water, of course) so he shot something at it, just because? But he turned out to be “wrong” because it went right through the drones. He was right about it, but he didn't know then.

Wrongly sensing something so big like that would have created some serious self doubt in Peter.

That's why he must have discarded every tingle in his skin that sensed the illusions around Mysterio in the pub. That's why he must have ignored the possibility of someone being in his and Ned's room. That's why he asked Happy if he was real when he got off the plane.

It's because he was doubting himself and the very abilities that made him Spiderman.

Peter wasn't dumb. He was right about shooting a web at the water monster.