#or cast him as the annoying fucking narrator

[ode2rin]

all my flaws

pairing. itoshi rin x gn!reader

genre. post-argument fluff | suggestive themes | established relationship | new boyfriend!rin 

content/warnings. 2k+ wc | characters are in their 20s ! | pro-athlete!rin | making out | narration heavy! | profanity | minimal proofread (me and my word vomit) | it’s like a new installment of this rin

in which: people say new relationships supposedly need a breakthrough fight to level up, but rin swears he would rather go through hell than do this again.

Your first fight as a couple freaked Rin out, even though he appeared stoic during the argument.

In the heat of the moment, Rin abruptly left your apartment, not uttering a word. Instead, he left you with a lingering glance filled with apathy—a look he'd never cast upon you before. His eyes turned void once again, when you were just getting used to it being bright and free.

What began as a simple disagreement, like any other couple's quarrel, escalated into rhetorical questions, accusing tones, and suddenly, it was him against you.

Silently, he rose from his seat, walked to the door, and vanished like a shadow that had never existed. To Rin, it felt like the right thing to do. You can't leave him if he does it first, he convinced himself. A twisted logic, fueled by emotions creeping from his past.

Yet apparently, his logic seems to be in total shambles when mixed and driven by emotions concerning you, because ten minutes later down the road, he wanted nothing more but to turn the car around.

Even so, in Rin’s true self-sabotaging fashion, he refrained. Because he’s awful, selfish, and couldn’t even fix insignificant arguments like a normal person would. Convinced of his own flaws, he believed you shouldn’t be with him— shouldn’t give him that chance after all.

The next thing he knew, the ten minutes he could’ve made to retreat back and apologize turned into 27 hours and 48 minutes of misery, spent in non-speaking terms with you.

It sucks. Everything sucks.

That night, he slept in his own bed. The next day, the in denial and emotionally constipated side of him made himself believe that the expensive yet seemingly useless mattress felt responsible for the raging tension in his shoulders and back. Of course it wasn't because of the absence of your messages or the unfamiliarity of his own bed. Of course, it’s the bed’s fault.

Life isn’t what it used to be. The sun didn't shine properly if it didn't come through the window of your room he spent the night in, his usual protein drink tasted like absolute shit because you didn’t make it for him, and not to mention the lack of cuddles before he gets up in the morning— it was bound to be the worst day of his life ever since you happened.

To make things even worse, he’s disassociating in practice, even missing a goal making everyone stop in their tracks. It was an unusual sight, Itoshi Rin doesn’t miss, after all. 

He was acting so gloomy that Bachira even pointed out how there’s a storm cloud looming over his head. A statement that earned a curt ‘fuck off, bobcut’ from the striker.

Meanwhile, Isagi took a more rational approach of expressing his concern toward his friend’s atypical behavior by taking out his phone and sending you a message.

Isagi: Did something happen between you and Rin? He's being tenfold more insufferable. [1:13 pm] Isagi: Please do something about this. - Chigiri [1:15 pm]

On the receiving end of these messages, you couldn't help but admit to yourself that you felt a peculiar sense of relief, knowing Rin was grappling with the same turmoil after he left.

You'd had your share of arguments before—petty disagreements that were easier to fix due to forced proximity. It was simpler when you were obligated to walk together on the way home from school; otherwise, he would stand in the same spot outside your classroom if you decided to be petty and ignore him. Annoyed but still caring, he insisted on confirming you got home safely, reasoning that your houses were next to each other.

Rin was still hard-headed, much like all these years. A testament to this was his silence over the past 24 hours.

Reading Isagi’s text messages once more, you let out a sigh and made up your mind – you will force him to fix things with you. You will express your displeasure at his abrupt departure, insist he not repeat it if he wants to do this right with you, and convey that it should always be the two of you against any problem.

It might be a blow to your pride to give in first, but it is what the two of you needed. It is what he needed. 

It just happened that you loved that man enough to provide what he needed, despite all flaws.

A day of missing you must have driven him to hallucinate, Rin concludes. You, perched on his couch, delicately peeling oranges and chuckling at a whimsical show on the screen, are just a hallucination.

“You’re home.”

And would you look at that, hallucinations even speak.

From your vantage point, Rin looks like he's seen a ghost greeting him with his unblinking teal orbs and brows slightly arching upwards. You notice the subtle tightening of his grip on the strap of his gym bag as he takes measured steps towards you, as though cautiously approaching a dream he fears might dissipate.

“Rin?” you whisper in confusion. It was meek, barely a whisper of his name, yet it was all that he needed to close the gap between you in mere seconds.

You gape at him from how determined his strides were. Surprise is instantly replaced by warmth as your lover basically throws himself over you for a well-sought embrace the moment you're within his arms’ reach.

You’re real, and you’re here.

And he can’t even begin to tell you how much tension finally left his body with that realization.

“I thought…” he trails off, burying his face in the crook of your neck. 

As shallow as one might say, each passing hour of being away from you has fully convinced Rin that it might have been the end to what the two of you had.

“I’m sorry.”

“Me too,” you whisper softly in his ear, your fingers finding solace in the familiar texture of Rin’s hair, tenderly tracing paths down to his nape. Rin responds with a gentle kiss along the side of your neck, a silent affirmation of his gratitude for the comforting gesture.

Unspoken sentiments hang in the air, but neither of you feels the need to verbalize them just yet. The minutes stretch, and you both savor each other’s warmth that has been sorely missed.

As minutes gracefully slipped away, you initiated the release from his embrace, much to his chagrin. Rin openly displayed his disapproval by gently yet firmly wrapping his arms around you. But you were resolute in your purpose and slightly pushed him back.

“Have you eaten?” you ask, holding his face to look at you.

“No.”

“I’ll make you some food, then. Stay here.”

Before your intentions could take you to the kitchen, Rin pulled you back making you fall back to his lap. “don’t want you to go,” he confessed.

“But dinner–”

“No.”

“No? You don’t want to eat?”

“No,” he firmly replied, “Later. I want to hold you first.”

You didn’t respond to Rin, and just took it upon yourself to make yourself more accessible for him to hold by facing him while still seated in his lap. The shift in position sent a shiver of anticipation through both of you, and Rin, consumed by the moment, reveled in the exquisite sensation of your body pressed closely against his.

Slowly, his fingers reached the side of your jaw, tracing and guiding you closer to meet him halfway. With closed eyes, you felt his lips approaching, delicately and purposefully, until his lips were a breath away from yours. The distance between your lips diminished as Rin closed in, capturing your mouth in a sweet, lingering surrender. 

Rin’s strong hands explored every inch of you it could reach. You felt his touch on your neck, shoulders, down to your thighs. The teasing fingers paid extra attention to your waist, their grip subtly teasing the hem of your shirt. You melt into him more when you feel said teasing hands slide inside.

He was everywhere— your mind, your body, your very soul. Rin had them well occupied with all of him.

A soft gasp escapes you when he nips the familiar spot on your neck just below your ear, each kiss that follows tracing a path to your collarbones. Another gasp, louder this time, as Rin gently sucked the skin beneath your collarbones, mending the sweet sting with his feather-light kisses.

It was getting harder to think when a feeling of desire ran from your chest down toward your inner thigh from how impossibly hot Rin’s lips were consuming you.

And just when you thought he had had enough of you, Rin’s hand once again cradled your jaw, guiding your gaze to meet his. Shivers danced down your spine as you absorbed the sight of his half-lidded, glossy teal eyes.

“I need you, baby,” he breathed, “please.”

It seemed as though there was a lot to make up for in the past twenty-four hours that he couldn't hold you.

You stirred from your sleep to the sensation of lingering kisses scattered from your forehead down to your jaw.

Blinking away the remnants of sleep, you found your lover gazing at you with those bright and free teal eyes, and you swore you never had a better way to start the day than this.

A smile graced your lips as you prepared to reciprocate the affection, intending to reach for him and plant a kiss on his jaw. However, your gesture was momentarily halted by his unexpected outburst.

“I love you.”

Professing to you used to terrify Rin – it used to knock all the air from his lungs and make the room seem so small. Now, with a few years ahead to gather enough backbone to escape the misery of pining, professing to you— loving you, felt as easy and natural as breathing.

And he hoped, with every beat of his heart against yours, that he would be breathing just fine in the many years to come.

“I love you,” he tells you again. Just for good measure, to ensure you heard him right, and just to make sure you know he does love you.

You heard him well. His words were clear enough, and the rapid beating of his heart against yours was loud enough to attest.

“Say it back, please,” he pleaded against the soft skin of your neck.

“I love you, Rin.”

“Still?”

“Still.”

He offered no verbal response, but a palpable sigh of relief emanated from him. For a man of few words, he sure does need a lot to feel better.

His warm breath lingered on your skin as a brief silence enveloped you both. Then, with a deliberate yet gentle gesture, he gathered both your arms, placing them above his shoulders, and pulled you closer by your thigh, guiding it above his own.

He loved holding you this way. He wasn’t a big believer, but he wondered if this, right here, was the closest he would ever come to heaven.

“But we have to unlearn those bad habits, Rin,” you asserted, your voice carrying a firm resolve, “No more leaving. We will sit through it, and we will talk, baby.”

Rin’s arms around your waist tightened, as if silently acknowledging your words. You knew he was listening— Rin could be hard headed and all, but he always listened. To you, and only you, that is. 

Minutes passed in silent communion, the world outside fading away as you and Rin held each other. Eventually, drowsiness began to cast its gentle veil over your senses. You couldn't tell if Rin had fallen asleep because his face was buried in the curve of your neck, hiding away in your scent. Yet, the soft and steady rhythm of his breath made you think so.

As you closed your eyes, allowing the realm of dreams to envelop you, Rin’s voice, muffled and quiet, broke the silence.

“Are we going to be fine?”

Barely audible, his question carried a hint of hesitation. And perhaps, if you listen a little closer, you could almost hear the 11-year-old Rin behind his lucid words.

Lucky for him, you had known that little boy throughout your life, enough to love him just as he needed, despite all flaws.

“We will be.”

note. hi, my life ain't life-ing lately soooo here !! i hope all of you are fine and having a blast. but if you aren’t, i’m sending you all of my love. we’ll have better days ahead, trust 🤞🏻

[iamthecomet]

if christians celebrate christmas… does the ministry celebrate idk… lucifersmas? satansmas? if yes, what date would it be?

and like if at christmas they have retellings of the birth of christ, then at lucifersmas the ghouls would recreate lucifers fall? who would play lucifer, god, the angels, etc?

Oh, man I really love this!? So like, I feel like they definitely celebrate a winter holiday. Maybe just for the fuck of it. Sol Invictus (the Satanic Temple's Christmastime holiday) is an option, or of course, Yule. Or maybe just the solstice. Whatever it is they need an excuse to drink mulled wine, and egg nog, and eat too much food and cuddle up in front of a fire. And of course, give gifts. But besides that they have to celebrate the fall of lucifer. It has to be their biggest holiday. I feel like it must also take place around a solstice, all big holidays do. Maybe the summer solstice, the return of heat. Regardless, it's a big deal. Midnight mass. Huge feasts. Presents. And yeah, of course, plays. I think Dew always wants to be lucifer, but isn't ever allowed, he either takes it far too seriously, or not seriously enough depending on how pious he's feeling at the moment. Rain usually gets that role. Pretty, with an ego, he suits the character well. Cumulus and Swiss trade off as the narrator. Cirrus, Mountain, and Dew are Michael, Raphael, and Gabriel, respectively. No one wants to play God, so Aether usually takes one for the team and does it--albeit reluctantly. They honestly all hate the guy and wish he didn't have to be part of the play at all. Sort of like how Christian's have an intense aversion to Satan--the ghouls feel much the same way about God. Sunshine, Aeon, and Aurora play Lucifer's most loyal friends who fall with him. They refuse to allow any other cast members so there's a lot of turn over once God and the angels are out of the way. There's a lot of gauzy white fabric flying as the arch angels try to rapidly change into demons, or humans enlightened by satan. And even though all of these ghouls are more than capable of putting on a good show, and they do exactly the same thing every year, this play always feels a little like watching an elementary school production. It's forced, choppy, someone is always missing a cue or skipping a line. They do not take it nearly as seriously as maybe they should. And for some unknown reason the production budget on it is huge. But at least everyone is having fun. Sister imperator is very annoyed by the whole thing, but Copia really enjoys it, so she green-lights it every year.

[monstersinthecosmos]

Hi Kacy! Question: do you like Lestat? Like, what is your opinion on him? Also I was wondering.. what is your least favorite VC character, and why?

fhjskdglsd lmao he is my least favorite VC character  🥸

But!!!!!!!! There’s some nuance here for me. 

Like, he’s the main narrator so if I TRULY couldn’t stand him I don’t think I’d like the books. I don’t hate Lestat. I also could group the many many many extraneous characters in the back half of the series as my least favorite, too, but it’s fair to say that I don’t care about them. I would’ve enjoyed more content about the characters we already knew and liked instead of having to spend so much time with like all the PL trilogy randos. So, of the main cast, my least favorite is Lestat.

A lot of this is like, subjective and personal and about preference, because we see the double standards in fandom constantly, like why do we give Lestat a pass while we demonize Marius for the same shit, etc. And for me as a Marius Girlie (GN), WHY DO I GIVE MARIUS A PASS ON STUFF LESTAT ALSO DOES? I can’t really explain it, I just don’t like him. LOL.

But what I find really fascinating is that Marius and Lestat are like, the father & son version of the same character. They have SO much in common, and it’s really engaging for me to use Lestat to extrapolate ideas about Marius. I think a lot about how they’re sort of pessimist/optimist versions of each other, too, and how perhaps Lestat’s “nauseating buoyancy” is what allows him to make such terrible, public decisions, vs Marius who has similar bouts of creative frenzy, similar self-loathing cycles, similar uses of ego, but who often crumbles and withdraws into himself without making Lestat-Sized messes. 

And like, how much of this speaks to their inherent personalities vs the lore about your age and temperament? Would Marius have been like this if he’d been turned at 20 when he was still full of verve? If Lestat had made it to 40 would he have calmed down? Was Marius this much of a mess in his first couple centuries, and will Lestat be like this if he makes it to 2000?

As a VC fan in general, I think whenever I’m reading one of Lestat’s books I’m usually really plugged in and enjoying him in the moment, but like, I am so much more invested in the de Romanus bloodline, like, in TVL I am so engaged with Lestat until Armand shows up, and then I’m like NO LET’S SPEND MORE TIME WITH THIS GUY. Same with the Marius chapter, it’s my favorite! And TVA/B&G/Pandora are my favorite. I mostly enjoy the other books, but whenever I do a reread it’s always a relief to make it to de Romanus books. THE DARK TRIAD, if you will.

I get him, too. Like, I get it lol. I get it. But I think by the back half of the series I just get super sick of him, and a lot of it has to do with the way the writing devolves. TVL Lestat is a very different person than Post-MTD Lestat, even PL Lestat, and I think when we start dissecting Anne Rice’s use of him as a Mary Sue it gets really annoying. There’s also like, the huge list of -isms in VC that we’ve discussed to death, and things Anne Rice handled better or worse, and even Post-QOTD Lestat really bugs the fuck out of me with how he treats Louis, and the way he is so plainly abusive to his lovers.

Like, I’m here all day defending Marius/TVA LOL and discussing diegetic kink and brand contamination and telling everyone it’s not that deep, and so this is my flaw as well that I give Marius a pass on stuff that I blame on the writing, vs how I have a hard time giving Lestat the same grace. It’s subjective, in a way, too, because the specific ways Lestat treats Louis are really triggering to me personally, and I have a hard time seeing past it, the way some people have a hard time seeing past Marius, or even a hard time seeing past the way Armand abuses Daniel. We all have little things like that, so I’m not judging anyone who enjoys it, it’s just not for me. I find it easy to understand the diegetic BDSM in TVA but less easy to watch the way Lestat treats Louis and David long term, the way his shitty behavior doesn’t get called out, the way Louis never gets to stick up for himself, the way David is so broken and traumatized and terrified of him but we never talk about it again except when Lestat makes a rape joke about it. Etc!!!

He’s just such a terror to everyone in his life, like! I feel sorry for everyone who gets involved with him! He’s traumatic to be around! AND LIKE, THE THEME OF VC IS THAT MESSES & BAD PEOPLE ALSO DESERVE LOVE, but like. Christ lol. He can meet us halfway and work on himself too lol. 

And it's interesting to ask like, when we talk about how Lestat gets a pass in the universe and no one holds him accountable, I think it's fair to analyze points of view and ask if it's simply Lestat withholding any criticism, but like ! idk! He turned a child lol. That happened! Other people met her! TOBT is about how he realizes he's a monster and accepts it, and decides he'd do it again! I love TOBT so much for being such a cool portrait of his evil, really! And it's part of his charm, too, like we like him as a character because he's charming and perhaps people in the universe also always forgive him because he's charming! He's just too irresistible LOL. But there's a turning point where it just starts feeling flat, the charm feels unironic, it doesn't feel like we're seeing him as a charming monster anymore. (This is just me but maybe it's because I get bored and don't analyze the later Lestat books enough.)

By the end it felt like Anne Rice writing silly lil stories about her lil guy, I get it. But I don’t really enjoy that in the writing and so like, I can’t say that I enjoy the Lestat stories too much, and whether it’s diegetic or not, he bugs the fuck out of me LOL.

On a fandom level, too, like, he’s the main character and Loustat is the juggernaut ship. He’s not neglected, there’s plenty of fan content about him. I don’t feel particularly obligated to create works for him or give him more attention, he’s doing fine lol. I don’t think I have anything to say about him that hasn’t been said, and I’m not interested in taking up space in fandom as a salty Lestat hater, so I just leave a polite distance. 

I do like him when I’m in the moment reading his books, I really value him as the main narrator, there are scenes of his that break my heart, Lestat/Nicki is one of my top ships of all time, I love him as a scared boy trying so hard to be good, I love him as a tortured creative person who needs so deeply to be heard, I love him as a baby fledgling who doesn’t know what to do and is so so so scared of losing people, but I also get sick of him and think that, as the main narrator, he shoulders the brunt of the weird writing decisions in the second half, and I’m just over it! Idk! 

[birdybirdnerd]

Midnight for spence, secret for Nance, wound for raph-nce (I had to keep the bit going)

ALRIGHT sorry i had to wait till i could be somewhere with wifi to do this

oc asks: not so nice edition!

Midnight: What keeps your OC up at night? Do they have nightmares? Fears? Anxieties? What do they do in the small hours of the morning when they should be sleeping?

changes over the course of parable actors. before meeting up with the brigade, spencer has a lot of anxieties about his parable, nightmares about endless looping hallways and being alone and not mattering to anyone. nightmares about waking back up there specifically, all the hard work hes put into becoming his own person erased like it never happened. he uh, did a lot of late night wandering whenever it kept him up, or drank himself unconscious. not good!

after basically adopting gidget, his anxieties turned towards 'oh god oh fuck this person needs someone put together to help them and im a mess, this is a mistake, im gonna fuck them up irreversibly and just continue to traumatize this poor traumatized kid and that is the LAST thing i want'

things get a lot better for awhile there, until, of course, the end of reset the actors, when his fucking narrator returns and now spencer needs to handle this and deal with this and figure things out and he cant impose this bastard on other people, he can take care of it himself, and god hes so annoying and awful but hes too pathetic to just drop off on the street and wipe my hands of the whole thing, and id feel like a fucking fraud if i didnt give him a second chance but now the nightmares from when i first left the parable are back and theyre mixing with new ones where nansen somehow figures out how to go back and drags me back and it was all for nothing, ill never see the others again, oh god-

so uh. yeah. he quit drinking for awhile there for gidget, but nancys return marks a return of his alcoholism (for a bit. they all get their shit together again thank god and spencer never, ever again touches the stuff except for a Single glass of champagne/wine at a particularly fancy dinner or party, maybe once a year at most)

Secret: What's one secret your OC never wants anyone to know about them?

nancy admits this to dr joy one session, and no one else.

when he first saw spencer in the falling-apart parable the coalition had made their base, when the rescue attempt for the narrator was in full swing, when hed spent years with a slowly dawning horror at what the other versions of him had done, and what that corrupted parable leading the charge was doing,

he was so, so close. seconds away, even. from grabbing spencer and running and not stopping until they were back, safe, in their own parable

he would have done it, if spencer hadnt interrupted him to demand his help in finding gidget

Wound: How does your OC handle being wounded? Are their wounds mostly physical? Mental? Emotional? What's the worst wound your OC has ever experienced?

raph is a HUUUUGE drama queen and makes a mountain out of a molehill to cope. the more dramatic she is about something though, the less serious it actually is

but when shes really, actually hurt, she tends to retreat. hide it. put on a smile and act like nothings wrong, what are you talking about? this goes for both physical and emotional hurts, too; shell work on a twisted ankle or a pulled muscle until the pain is literally too much for her to even move, and keep forging onwards when her head is a disaster zone until the depression is so thick and murky she cant see a way out of bed in the morning

dont think shes had any suuuper serious physical injuries, maybe needed stitches from falls on set or casts for fractured bones. shes pretty hardy, even if she can be kind of a clutz

emotionally, the worst shes been would have to be... hm. sometime maybe a few months before the brigade formed, i can see her having started her transition months prior. shes been part of this theater/drag group for almost a year now, surrounded by people so, so much like her that love her so much. helping her figure her way out in the world, and in herself. odette dotes on her, is supportive, helps her get on hormones and become more comfortable with herself.

estrogen therapy comes with increased mood swings, heightened emotions, and raph already has bipolar disorder. she feels so much all the time, and the hormones make that stronger, and one day she realizes all the good she has and how different everything is and shes faced in the mirror with the face of someone she can actually love-

and she suddenly feels like a fraud. shes a fake. shes not human, shes not one of these girls. she was made to press buttons, was made as a vessel for the players enjoyment of a game that wasnt even fun anymore, none of them had to go through what she did and she cant even tell them, shes crazy, shes nothing, her narrator was right-

big bad mood swing. bed bound for weeks. raph loses a lot of weight, burns some bridges when the only energy spikes she gets are to yell at the people she loves with all her heart (those bridges reform, i promise, amends are made and therapy helps all). its bad, and the only reason she didnt fully waste away was that odette never once gave up on her, despite rows and no responses.

raph still feels so terribly guilty about this, but has worked to be at peace with herself over it since then

[monsterhighalumni]

fuck it, night at the museum in disney world — here are the charas favorite attractions. don't ask me how everyone and the tablet got to orlando

larry — carousel of progress. vaguely, vaguely remembers going on the original as a kid at the 1965 world's fair and nicky calls him an Old

nicky — rock 'n' roller coaster or cosmic rewind. but he's one of those guests that gets annoyed if the ride song is "everybody wants to rule the world”

teddy — hall of presidents, OBVIOUSLY. does the spider-man pointing at the other theodore roosevelt animatronic

sacajawea — jungle cruise. gets REALLY into the S.E.A. lore, but besides that, she and teddy are always the ones laughing the loudest at the skipper's puns. you also best believe she's making everyone go on living with the land, too

ahkmenrah — loves haunted mansion for the macabre. murderous, power-hungry constance hatchaway cuts a little too close to home tho, so he prob prefers to ride tower of terror. also a cosmic rewind enjoyer, but if they get any ride song EXCEPT "september", grumbles about how they wasted a virtual queue reservation for the rest of the night

jedediah — big thunder mountain railroad. gets whiplash from staring at the goat during that one turn. goes tf off if anyone suggests him or octavius go on it's a small world

octavius — spaceship earth for the Roman Representation:tm:. appreciates the distinguished, old-school "edutainment" vibes (and the soothing voice of narrator dame Judi Dench)

attila — can't sit still on traditional omnimover rides, so he's really into fantasmic and the fireworks (absolutely loses it at the part with sorcerer mickey and the maleficent dragon). basically any show with flashy "magic" effects

joan of arc — rise of the resistance. 100% has no idea what the fuck is going on for most of the ride, but once she catches the general rebellion concept, she's ALL IN. prob tries to climb out of the ride vehicle to take a swipe at kylo ren

amelia — soarin', for the flight simulation vibes. tries to get the pilot role on smugglers run every time too, and takes it waaaaay too seriously, no matter how bad the team is. also forces everyone to wait in line for four hours for flight of passage

custer — splash mountain or country bear jamboree. loves all that old-timey, yeehaw shit. you Know why

kahmunrah — the great movie ride (cause i'm ignoring the existence of runaway railway lol). absolutely tries to take over the ride with ivan, napoleon, and al, plus recruiting the misc gangsters and western bandits/bank robbers. absolutely get their asses beat by the cast members

tilly — not a big fan of rides in general, but loves the beauty and the beast live show and goes to every princess meet and greet : )

lancelot — seven dwarves mine train, because they remind him of his jester and he likes to laugh at them (it also makes him feel like he's saving snow white at the end). if they go on pirates, he also tries to white knight for red and the ladies at the auction without realizing the scene has totally changed

laa — they stick him on the peoplemover and leave him there until the night is over lmao

[pippuns]

Youve made me curious, what's Tai Sui about? What's the appeal 👀👀

LET ME TELL YOU ALL ABOUT THE APPEAL ANON!!

tai sui is an absolutely fantastically written steampunk xianxia novel that acts as a deconstruction of the xianxia genre!! if you like detailed world building, questions about the cost of immortality, what makes a god, and identity, themes about environmentalism, class, autonomy, the power of names, and just incredible levels of emotional damage (broken up by the funniest and most annoying (/affectionate) protagonist around), tai sui is for you!!

which is to say. this novel was engineered to make me specifically absolutely lose it LOL

i kept on trying to make this post both coherent and not long and i have given up. here is a bunch of words of me yelling about how much i love tai sui below the page break.

TAI SUI IS SO!!! MY BRAIN!!! ITS BEING REWRITTEN!!!

there is literally no one in the main cast i dont like. they're all so funny in their own ways and so likeable!! I genuinely have such a difficult time picking my favorite character in tai sui because they're all so interesting and well-written, and i love seeing them interact with each other

part of this absolutely has to do the protagonist, xi ping, who is just the funniest man around. he's also the most annoying and i want to see him crushed like a bug (/affectionate). he's really good at bouncing off of other characters, and i love seeing him drag other folks into Problems and Situations and just being a general force of chaos and mayhem in the world

it's also really good that he's so funny and lighthearted because tai sui has some really tragic moments!! it gets fucking sad!! i've cried multiple times and i don't usually cry at media!! i only just finished book three!!

tai sui is also really good at writing women!! i love tai sui women so much. i don't really have much more to say about this but like. gender and wlw win <3

another thing tai sui does that i like a lot is zoom out to focus on the ways the events of the novel are affecting ur average day folks. when i say ''tai sui is about class and environmental issues'' i mean they don't just like, say it in the narration and then not elaborate on it. we explicitly see how people are being affected by the way the world is governed and the hardships they are forced to live through. it's not really left to your imagination.

but something i also really really like is that while priest does show the hardship that characterizes the lives of the people, they also show the ways in which people struggle to live on regardless.

tai sui is about tragedy in a lot of ways, but it's not a tragedy they take lying down, and it's not like people don't find their own moments of happiness in spite of the hard lives they live. which is really important to me!! its something i genuinely appreciate from the narration so much!! yes, life is hard. yes, things are difficult. and yes, people find a way to continue on regardless!!!!

PUNCHES A WALL. IM SO EMOTIONAL ABOUT TAI SUI.

ALSO THE NARRATION IS SO GORGEOUS??? LIKE HELLO??? IM LITERALLY OBSESSED WITH THE PROSE. EATS IT WHOLE LIKE IM A BURMESE PYTHON. or uh. like im going out to a gyro place with my friends and i get so focused on eating the food that i don't notice that i'm eating the sandwich paper wrap until a fair amount of it is chowed down haha :')

i also mentioned this a little on my side twitter but the way tai sui is formatted is also really fun to me. like. it feels like a tv show with the way the scenes change and the cliff hangers the chapters end on sometimes. which is why it really doesn't feel like its 900k words. you just keep going and then BOOM ur done with a book. the real reason im doodling my way through this novel is to force myself to go slow. bc otherwise i would have finished it in a week (there is something wrong with me).

anyways please read tai sui

[magical-girl-coral]

🔥

While Bleach does have plot holes and unexplained lore, the way the fandom handles information that isn't handed to them on a silver platter drives me off the fucking wall.

"Why did Orihime heal [blank]" Orihime doesn't heal the same way the others healers in the manga are. She reverses time so the injuries technically never happened and she can only do that if she knows how the injuries happened. Also Yamamoto was too prideful to ask for her help so chances are there are other characters like that.

"Why did Gin die from a simple stab wound" because he lost the will to live which is basically a second health bar in the bleach world. Yamamoto was still able to grab onto YHWACH despite being cut in half because he was that determined to protect. Kaname had his body exploded into bits so he won't come back since he was that wilful to bring change into the world. Ichigo lost his powers and got depression right one after the other. This isn't a heavy handed metaphor, this is straight up lore.

"Isn't it a plothole that Aizen's stories get retconned later one?" NO, YOU DUMB BITCH, HE IS AN UNRELIABLE NARRATOR. OF COURSE HIS STORIES DON'T MATCH UP, HIS POWERS ARE JUST HIM BEING A LYING LITTLE BITCH. CONGRATS ON FALLING FOR HIS MASK, YOU FUCKING MORON.

The reaction to Riruka's age reveal was what annoyed me the most. No, Kubo didn't trick you into thinking she was older than the cast. She was childish, rude, and hotheaded and very obviously youthful. Just because you hate the fact that you can't sexualize her anymore without looking like a weirdo doesn't mean Kubo wronged you.

Send me a “ 🔥 “ for an unpopular opinion.

[clonerightsagenda]

Ok let's put this to bed. Or more appropriately in the grave. Nice stuff first:

The show was well paced and didn't drag! After my increasing frustration with the second half of HDM, I appreciate that. While it veered further away from the books in the second half which annoyed me on principle, I don't think there was anything wrong with the changes from a structural or storytelling perspective. Adding hints toward later plot twists helped provide an overarching plot to propel the season since they squashed two books with separate story arcs together.

One of my favorite things about the books is the thought put into little details of how society would respond to this situation, and the show added some new ones - the salt sprinklers, places of business having countdown clocks to sunset, those all made sense and were great touches. The ghost lamps also looked super cool.

All the kids in this situation are victims, but Lucy doesn't see herself that way and is comparatively privileged as an unsupervised agent/not night watch, so her narration skates over a lot of the horror lurking in the background. The show gets outside her head and into the darkness a bit more, which I don't object to on principle, though I do think they weakened themselves by having almost all the agents be older. At least have some younger extras besides the canaries at the auction. DEPRAC being more active worked well both from a logical standpoint and as an additional source of tension. The biggest issue here is that the books are also really funny - a major hallmark of Stroud's work is dealing with heavy shit while being hilarious - and while the show got darker it did not have much of a sense of humor.

As I said, George came off the best of the trio, and Flo also benefited from being given additional depth and not getting subjected to Lucy's uncharitable narration. The others though... I appreciated they did not cast someone stick thin as Lucy, and I liked her relationship with Norrie (helps beat the internalized misogyny allegations, helps confirm the bisexuality allegations, if they'd had any sense in future seasons the Belle Dame would've looked like her) but as I complained about at length I feel like they saw 'female character with empathy powers' and slammed the 'hysterical woman' button too hard. Lockwood... also as I said you can tell non-Lucy observers think he's obnoxious in the books but he's endearingly childish enough that you forgive him, whereas his show version was just annoying and it felt like we kept rehashing the same beats. Finally the skull's character does shift noticeably between book 2/3-5 but they cut his backstory and most of his lines, so IDK where they were going to take him for the rest of the series. Sorry if you don't find Lucy's toxic codependent frenemy hostage situation compelling, showrunners, but it was a highlight for me. He was another casualty of the show not having a sense of humor imo. Without the first person pov that's where most of the jokes come from.

Overall, while it would have been neat to see if they did anything visually interesting with the Other Side sequences, I am not bummed that this got cancelled. I would've still watched it but I would've made an 'annoying adaptation choices' bingo card and filled it out while eating M&Ms. I'd bet $10 they would've murdered Kipps for the fucking love triangle.

[hislittleraincloud]

Don't Mind Me, I'm Just Whoremoanal / Intro to Wenovan for the New Dolls

Ach. I just got word that the addict neighbor "isn't coming home" tomorrow. Her messages are terribly short, lacking in information, and few/far between. I mean my gods, is Afterburn 8 going to have to wait until fucking May/its year anniversary? What the fuck? I might have to force myself to try and write it, but that's the Cigarette at the Bus Stop for me. I fire up my writer's flame and take a puff and then that fucking hot mess of a bus lady tells me "I'm coming home" and then doesn't.

I'm working quite hard on the Miller's Girl fic because again, it doesn't require much thought for me. I know I have new followers thanks to that little fandom...and the teacher crush wing that flew at me and my fyp (I suppose that was to be expected once more Jenna stans saw MG). 🤦🏽‍♂️ My closest fanwives have access to its Live file and one already wants to divorce me for the soul-shattering Epilogue, so I might have to rethink including that...

Anyway. This, I suppose, is a short intro to #Wenovan (a.k.a. Black Bubblegum) ship, which was the untouched ship that pairs Wednesday Addams and Sheriff Donovan Galpin. Untouched until my pervy agegap loving ass came along with my observations of canon Wednesday and Sheriff Galpin's interactions from episode to episode. Of course, in 2023, I'm on the Dark Side of this fandom, but that's fine, since I live in a cave and am used to it. I write a lot from Wednesday's POV. The other agegap ship I write about is Gatesmonster (Laurel/Tyler 💀), but their relationship is the opposite of Wednesday's and the Sheriff's.

So I know y'all got that teacher crush thing going, and teacher crush is authority crush. Cop crush falls under that; it's a sibling to teacher crush.

Afterburn Wednesday (ABW) does have a little bit of a thing for authority, for older male authority figures. But she's also l essentially everything Cairo Sweet from MG wishes she were. She took charge of the intrigue she felt at first glance (canon Wednesday actually looks at the sheriff's body as he comes into the Weathervane, then there was the little grin she flashed him (!!!), followed by her ruminating on his words to her, etc. etc. I can make a good case for their canon) and isn't completely stupid about it. I tried to make ABW otherwise as close to canon as possible, since the story is meant to slip seamlessly into the show's very weird timeline. Still working on MG fic, but 8 is on my mind in a terrible way, especially after I listened to the following again. (As well as knowing what else I've been writing about them that's for the sequel and deleted scenes.)

I really like programming scenes from my story into audio shorts, since I have the cast members that I need for them (@brenli I haven't forgotten about the Wednesday & Bianca Mortal Kombat scene! I'm just really busy. I have all of the dialogue for it recorded though. Just needs to be put together).

I've shared it before, but sharing it again for those who are new, might be bored out of their skulls, and are waiting for MG. It is Wednesday cornering the Sheriff in his office on Outreach Day (which was a couple of days after she had a sexy vision of them). And her first kiss. 💕🎀🌸🎀✨

It's best listened to on headphones since I'm an idiot and was new to programming these, so the balance of the narrator's voice is way off. 💀 And that stupid phone ringing is annoying af LOL

I miss them so much. ❤️‍🩹✨🫴🏼🚔🕸️💕✨

[where-is-vivian]

FIC LIST! (open if you're curious I guess)

commissions for marauders fanart are open!

ON GOING WORKS:

CURSE BREAKER (OR HOW TO FIND ANSWERS) : 6th year Regulus Black is trying to break a curse casted one millennium ago by a welsh wizard, and James just happens to know a bit of Welsh thanks to Remus. Hogwarts, No Voldemort, Forced Proximity, Jegulus, Oblivious Idiots, Fluff, Tiny bit of Angst, Happy Ending, Background Wolfstar, Marylily, Dorlene, Rosekiller. >270K words

IF YOU BE THE MATCH, I WILL BE A FUSE (BOOM) : Regulus' friend from his photography class needs help to complete a portfolio, because his model cancelled last minute. His brother, Sirius, happens to model here and there. Wolfstar, Model AU, Remus as a Photographer, Sirius as a Model, Nude Modelling, Modern AU, Background Jegulus, Marylily, Dorlene, The Black Brothers have a good relationship. >20K words

FINISHED WORKS:

SHALL I COMPARE THEE TO A SUMMER'S DAY? : There's this school festival organized on campus, and all the cinema students present a project. At the end of the semester, everyone on campus is invited to come and watch them. The next one starts; it's starring James Potter and Regulus Black. One shot, Jegulus, Modern AU, Experimental writing, Cinema students, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Romantic AF. 13K words

LET THE FEAR YOU HAVE FALL AWAY : Regulus is supposed to have this arranged marriage with a girl his family chose for him, from the same rank as him, and he's supposed to ask her during the wonderful ride of the Pole Express, that ends up under the Northern Lights. Until a charming waiter catches his eye. Titanic-like fic, Major Character Death, Angst, James Potter has an insane amount of rizz, Victorian Era. 15K words

IF I WANTED RAIN, I WOULD HAVE ASKED : Regulus is working for Cloudpunk, a semi-legal corporation specialized in deliveries, located in Nivalis. He's doing his job, until he has to pick up James. A rather annoying passenger. And he doesn't usually take people with him. Until he realises why he had to pick James in the first place. Ensues a real hide and seek, because if there's something Regulus will never do, it's to surrender to anyone. Cyberpunk AU, Jegulus, James is on the run, Regulus is badass af, Dystopia, Angst, Fucked-up society, based on the video game CloudPunk. 35K words

A MAN ON THE HORIZON : Regulus ran away from his family with his horse. One problem. It's the middle of winter, there's a snow storm, and he has to cross the mountains. James is alone in his ranch when he rescues a stranger from a snow storm in the middle of the night. A story on how to find each other in the middle of nowhere. Cowboy AU, Fluff, Jegulus, Background Wolfstar, Happy Ending, Cowboys and Stetsons (that's the plot), Cute cows, James is Head Over Heels, Regulus is figuring out stuff. 13K words

THE BEST OF YOU, HONEY, BELONGS TO ME : Evan and Barty burying a body together. In 1884. It's definitely not the first time they're doing this. That's it, that's the plot. Rosekiller, Insane Boyfriends, Murder Husbands, Burying a Body Together (As a Form of Love), 1880s, Psychopaths, Unreliable Narrator, Religious Symbolism (slightly), At Night, Insane Barty Crouch Jr., Morally Grey Evan Rosier. 7,5K words

ATTEMPTS HAPPEN AT MIDNIGHT : Sirius and James are having their weekly movie night together and one of their thighs is touching the others and minds are wandering...then hands are wandering... Prongsfoot, NSFW, Friends to Lovers, Modern AU, Summer Love, First Time Blow Jobs. 7K words

THE PRONGSFOOT AU SERIES: TIMELINE

KISSES THAT HURT : Sirius is dating Remus. But Sirius always kisses his best friend James goodnight. Remus doesn't like to share. Hogwarts AU, Prongsfoot, Wolfstar, Unrequited Love, Goodnight Kisses, Angst, One Shot. 2K words

KISS ME IN THE DARK : One night, during a prank, Sirius and James hide together in an alcove of the library. But in the dark, things can happen easier... Hogwarts AU, Prongsfoot, Boys kissing, Friends to Lovers, Pranks, One shot. 1,1K words

THE SPY AU SERIES: WE DON'T PRAY FOR US, WE JUST PRAY FOR DEATH:

JANUARY'S WHITE NIGHTS : Lily Evans has to retrieve a folder to expose a corrupted politician during a mission, and she meets Ghost, a strange person who just happen to be there too, at the same moment, in the same place, for obscure reasons. Pandalily, Spy AU, Modern AU, Badass Characters, Coffee Shop (somehow), First Meeting. 10K words

YOU WILL REGRET : When they go on an impossible mission, James get caught, and Regulus and Sirius are ready to overthrow the whole world to find him. Jegulus, Spy AU, Modern AU, Lots of Blood, Badass Characters, Black Brothers team up together, Mature Rating. 17K words

YOU, TELL ME : The first mission Remus Lupin and Sirius Black have to do together. Sirius underestimates the new recruit, and he ends up proved wrong. Wolfstar, Spy AU, Modern AU, Lots of Blood, Mastermind Remus Lupin, Blood, GUNS, Badass Characters, First Meeting. 11K words

WHY NOT YOU : Peter feels awfully bored these days. He works for The Order, an organisation that sends its spies all over the world, but he... is just a prop maker. He doesn't do all that exciting stuff. Good thing he's suddenly assignated to making sure Xenophilius, who came back from a mission half-dead, is getting better. Silvertail, Spy AU, Fluff, Kinda crack, Stuck in a lift, Forced Proximity, Aromantic & autistic Peter. 13K words

[stuckasmain]

Rewatch notes Act 1-

I like to do this whenever I rewatch something I seriously enjoy, I take notes of all the little things. I couldn’t when I saw the tour but can now.

Anyways, I’ve been given a vid of Conor Ryan’s Christian and most of the old/og(?) tour cast. A few members have changed when I went to see but I believe satine and Santiago are the same. Connor has got to be one of my favorites now. It’s a serious tie between him and John.

Christian is a absolute delight. He looks like a child in a candy store. Wide eyed, mystified, he’s in a place he’s only dreamed of until now and he can’t stop smiling . Toulouse has to drag him around like a toddler

Satine is introduced and he mouths/says her name alongside Zidler I AM UNWELL. This transition to his narration every time is seamless, it’s someone telling a personal story and getting caught up with the emotions they had felt and it’s my heart—

Christian instantly takes to bohemian life and even slips his coat off his shoulder (Santiago looses his mind at this) I love how hard he tries to blend in while also effortlessly impressing everyone he comes across

WHY DOES NO ONE TALK ABOUT THEIR HANDSHAKE? Christian, Toulouse and Santiago have a secret little handshake and they do it all the time

Santiago swipes a bottle off a random table and gives it to Christian to calm him down, he chugs and makes a face. Santi takes it back and chugs - only to finally read the label. He hides it in his vest whenever a server walks past. This moment is a small thing in the background but it’s so good.

“She’s a little out of my league, pal!”

“Your genius has no league! Now go fourth and triumph!”

Satine mocks Christian’s American accent “LiMa oHiO”

Christian holds the bottle while Santiago makes his shot at Nini. It does not go well. There’s implications they’re all drinking from it just Santi the most

I love Zidler and Satines dynamic. They knew each other for a long time and it’s nearly paternal - except the Zidler here gets a bit more worked up then others I’ve seen.

Courtney’s facial expressions are top tier the entire show but particularly during the mixup in the elephant.

“My entire future may depend on it”

“…Oh, I hope not!”

You can see the gears in her head turn. She goes to her table completely distraught because- oh no this dork is everything. She fell just as hard for him and I like how it’s especially visible here.

SHE GRABS A FIST FULL OF HIS HAIR WHEN THEY MAKE OUT. MA’AM?!

Santiago might have a thing for the duke. He holds his thigh, leans into his shoulder and makes some glances during the pitch. He also plays with one of satines stuffed tours

“And death!” Santiago pretends to hang and sticks out his tounge moving from side to side. The duke just stares at him for a solid minute. (I hope he knows how fucking funny he is)

Toulouse insists on the lover being a vantrilocist and during a brief portion he and Christian pose as such

Toulouse said “Pocket glitter!!” And he’s so valid

Satine being tired/annoyed in her “come in” she even huffs. Girls not even trying to hide it

Satines Sleepwear/nightwear going from black and rinestones to soft pinks/reds when she meets with the Duke v with Christian.

“I want every moment I can have with you, stolen or not!” Ahghhhhhhhhh!

[queenbananya]

Do you mind if I ask your top 10 favorite characters (can be male or female) from all of the media that you loved (can be anime/manga, books, movies or tv series)? And why do you love them? Sorry if you've answered this question before.....Thanks....

Hi! Thanks for the ask!

I always find these types of questions difficult to answer because I don't have a set list of characters ranked somewhere, especially if we're talking about all types of media, but I'm going to cheat a bit and look at my favorites from Mal. So, this will focus mostly on anime characters as that is the type of media I consume the most, with some others thrown in there as I remember. Not particularly in order:

1. ZURA. from Gintama

He's also the one from my profile icon. I love this guy. He's a fucking idiot. And he is absolutely hilarious he never fails to crack me up no matter what mood I'm in. I have a lot of characters from Gintama I love, but I tried to stick to just one from the entire series or they would take up all ten spots here, and from the entire cast, I have to give it to Zura. He's a terrorist, and comes up with the stupidest of plans, like flipping the toilet paper of his sworn enemy, LOL. He can go on and on about a story while he's driving a car and doesn't realize he is crashing in the meantime. And hence why he can't get a license (and the only reason he needs a license in the first place is so that he can get an ID to be able to rent DVDs of outdated dramas he thinks are trending [they're not]). I have to give praise to Sorachi, the mangaka. He must have been on crack while writing Zura scenes xD

2. Griffith from Berserk

Griffith. Beautiful Griffith.

Griffith gets a lot of hate and deservedly so, and there's a lot of Griffith apologists out there, but I love him. I fucking love him. He's such a well-written character. The best unreliable of narrators, though for most of the story we don't actually get into his head and only that of his archnemesis, his friend, the object of his dreams and desires, his ultimate source of failure, and success, later, I guess - Guts. So we only see how Guts sees him, and it's such a tragic story because the assumptions that Guts makes about him, the way he adores him and grows to hate him, they make sense, but to us as the viewers who know these two just loved each other so much to the point they threw away what they cared about the most - it's such a good story. I mourn for Miura and the story he never finished telling.

3. Joe from Ashita no Joe and Megalo box

Yabuki Joe.

This poor boy. I mention both Ashita no Joe and Megalo box because Megalo box was an anniversary special project based off of Ashita no Joe. Not another adaptation precisely, but more of a modern cyberpunk approach to the classic with more mature themes. I love both versions of Joe. In the older classic, you have this orphan boy that is happy roaming around doing nothing with his life, until he meets this drunk man that shoves boxing down his throat. It's your typical sports plot of stacking up win after win, until it isn't. The difference is in the characters, and their suffering, their growth. You learn to love Joe. He's an annoying little brat that wins your heart gradually, and towards the end, when it's over, you feel as though you've lost a friend.

In Megalo box, Joe is a bit older, and is dealing with things that are very real and that the og Joe would have also had to deal with, had things turned out differently. It's a great complement to the original. An AU of sorts.

4. The Fool from the Elderling series by Robin Hobb

The Fool. Beloved. Amber. They have many names and aliases, from Robin Hobbs' fantasy series The Elderlings.

Beloved is such an interesting character, not defined by any societal expectations and always confusing everyone with their words. We watch them grow throughout the series, from the king's creepy little jester that unsettles others, to an adult that is admittedly treated very harshly by the author (the story) but I still love to death. Here are some of my favorite quotes by the Fool:

"You are confusing plumbing and love again."

“As for what it means, how should I know? I’m a fool, not an interpreter of dreams. Good day.”

"Tomorrow owes you the sum of your yesterdays. No more than that. And no less."

“I have never been wise”

“Don’t do what you can’t undo, until you’ve considered what you can’t do once you’ve done it.”

5. Yang Wenli from LOTGH

Yang Wenli from the Legend of the galactic heros. A classic anime series and one of my favorites. Again, I struggled to only choose one character from the series, because I really love Reinhard as well- the other main character, but from the two I had to to with Yang Wenli.

LOTGH is a space war epic between two different states, the old galactic empire, and the newer, democratic planets alliance that broke free. Yang Wenli belongs to the latter. And while it may sound like the better choice-and he thinks so, as well-it's only the better choice from a theoretical standpoint. Because the one he's up against from the empire, Reinhard, is a wonderful leader. The kind that comes around only once in a century. Meanwhile the so called democracy is corrupt and ugly. Heading downhill while the empire is only getting better. And that's where the two collide. I love Yang Wenli for his idealism, his self awareness of his flaws, and those of others. He once says, 'if I was born in the empire I'd be flocking to join Reinhard's ranks'.

He's a realist, and a damn genius. And that's where the tragedy and irony strikes- because of the badly led and structured democracy he's in, he doesn't have full command of the army. He doesn't have any real power. All the corruption and red tape don't allow him to do much, to use his full potential, so he's always a step behind.

And yet. All he wants in life is to retire peacefully. He didn't even want to be a soldier, but he's dragged there by others, a bit of a pushover that he is. He's a tragic character really. Full of contradictions that he himself is aware of, and you can't help but love him for it.

6. Zhou Zishu from tian ya ke/word of honor

Zhou Zishu.

He is just. So. Relatable.

A burnt out man in his early 30s/late 20s who only wanted to live his last few years in peace. Essentially committed slow suicide to get the fuck out of his job because he couldn't take it anymore. We've all been there. Not that I'd take such drastic measures but. Who hasn't fantasized getting into an accident on their way to work to, you know, not go to work? Just me? OK. Moving on lol (according to reddit it's actually quite common. Sad that we live like this. Kudos to zishu for doing something about it).

The novel (tian ya ke) is quite different from the drama (word of honor), where the gif is from. The characterization is also a bit different, and I have to say I prefer novel! Zishu over drama! Zishu. He's more free, more shameless, learns to live without shackles and is not your typical protagonist. In fact, he's no protagonist at all. He's really just a side character, despite being the narrator of the story. Like many of us. But the man learns to be happy. Learns to fly free.

7. Wen Kexing from tian ya ke/word of honor

I broke my own rule about one character per series because there is no way I can have A'Xu (Zhou Zishu from above) listed anywhere without his Lao Wen. They come as a package anywhere they go. Anywhere. So here is my favorite malewife Wen Kexing. A beautiful, eerie man that looks more like a ghost. Knows how to cook. Knows how to clean. Knows how to split your throat in half with his bare fingertips.

He's terrifying. The king of all "ghosts"- the most brutal criminals. He's also someone that learns how to lower his defenses for the first time in his life. How to be a little bit selfless for once. To care for another. He's the one that teaches Zishu how to he shameless. He's fucking hilarious, a flirt, an unashamedly gay man that takes pride in all the men he's fucked and yet will cry crocodile tears to Zishu to let him get it on, and then he'll thank his dead sister for it later. I love these idiots. They're perfect for each other.

Also prefer the novel version of Wen Kexing, but the drama has a perfect cast and beautiful robes. I've got two replicas of them!

8. Nodame from Nodame Cantabile

Idiotic Nodame. Love this girl. She's hilarious and silly and isn't embarrassed to go after what she wants, even if she makes a fool of herself.

She's an aspiring pianist. A piano student to be precise, on the older side compared to her peers. But she's really great at it. Not in the traditional way, because she does things in her own way-- she's with the teacher designated for the worst students and spends an entire semester (or years? It's been a bit, I don't remember) composing a song about farts LOL.

She's a really likeable character, and what I really love about her is her stubbornness and grit to stick to what she wants. It's not something easy to do, and oftentimes we have to make decisions against our own wishes, especially when it comes to our careers. Nodame tries, but all she wants is to be a kindergarten piano teacher, but everyone tells her she shouldn't do that. In the end, her choices are hers and hers only.

9. Balsa from Moribito

I recently finished this anime and fell in love with the MC, Balsa.

It's not often we see strong female leads in anime, that are not only well written but stand on their own without relying on romance or other characters. She's an incredibly strong woman, both physically and emotionally. The series focuses on her growth and her bond with the little burden she's tasked to care for.

She is a little selfish, perhaps a bit too cold. Plain looking, and very much an adult at 30. And she looks like it! Not something you see often in anime. She's a great fighter, and through her journey with this child that she has to care for, she learns of a different kind of strength. And yet, towards the end, she's still the same lone woman we meet at the beginning. Someone simply just... living.

10. Renge from Non Non Biyorin

Little Renge. I adore her. She's adorable and so, so funny.

From Non Non Biyorin, which I also love to bits because I grew up in the country and the country life humor just sends me.

She's a 6 yo child that is smarter than the 8th graders, and always so serious about everything she does, even the cold corner store owner has a soft spot for her. She's like a cat. Really cute, really funny, and really mean, even unintentionally.

Ugh. I miss this show. I wish we had more seasons!

[theonlycorrectcropinions]

Scanlan in tlovm gets such bitch eating crackers energy from me. The show character is pretty great, by all rights I should be a big fan. But man, I just hate stream scanlan lmao. I hate the weird veneration he gets from the grossest bro-est parts of the fandom (this is very clearly not saying that if you like scanlan you’re a gross bro, shut the fuck up), as detailed before I hate the whole bard’s lament sitch, I hate the genesis of Sam’s “everything is a joke, except when it’s not” shtick where everything is schrodinger’s emotional moment that’s haha until it’s serious business because it feels so dishonest… and the worst part is that I lied, and I don’t actually particularly hate stream scanlan, I just hate thinking about him in any sort of analytical sense because he’s so fucking annoying.

Like, sure, I get it, what if the gag character who’d shown the depth of a kiddie pool gets serious, sure, seen it before. But if we’re supposed to take scanlan seriously then he’s a serial sexual harasser, murderer, manipulator, terrible friend, yadda yadda, shit that’s fine if he’s the comic relief guy, but not the kind of stuff that inspires any sympathy why Sam starts trying to lay in the pathos. It feels ingenuine to just flip a switch between shit the audience (just me actually, I don’t care what you do to the rest of the audience) is supposed to take seriously and what they’re (me again) supposed to laugh off. I’m not talking like ooc conversations and running jokes, but like actual stuff the characters do.

Like, Nott is a Halfling woman who gets turned into a goblin. Sam decided that since goblins have shorter lifespans they would feel emotions more strongly, so she acts a bit wild. Despite introducing her as a “little goblin girl,” (something stans like to forget when they whine about early game Nott being infantalized… she’s introduced as a little girl lmao) she’s supposed to be an adult, sure thing, got it. Why’s she eating shit? Literally eating shit in a sewer? How does that make any sense as an actual thing he actually narrated for his character to do? It doesn’t, it’s a joke, but it does make it harder to take Nott at her word later when she snaps at fjord for treating her like a child/idiot. You were just eating shit in a sewer lady, you don’t really get to be high about people questioning your decision making skills.

It’s over and over again with this stuff. It’s a joke that scanlan’s drug seeking, notts a mean drunk, fcg is a shitty therapist, until no it’s a serious part of their character actually, forget about all the times it was a joke and engage with it earnestly. No? You haven’t earned that and everything up to this point has actively undermined that kind of engagement.

Still fun characters for the most part. Sam ranks about in the middle of cast for me (the only correct opinion haver).

[accessibleaesthetics]

[Video Description: Hazbin Hotel fan animation with the watermark @diablokuku in the upper left corner. The music is taken from Tom Cardy's song "Perception Check," with lyrics displaying on the screen throughout, with the exception of one inaccurate caption that will be described below. The following description will be broken down by each block of lyrics with the accompanying visuals described below them.

So you notice that one of the hooded figures is a little shorter

Lucifer Morningstar looks up at Alastor with a frown as the camera zooms in. The lyrics are written in gray letters, indicating the narrator is speaking. The narrator is then cut off by another, different voice, whose lines are written in red letters from this point on in the video.

I cast vicious mockery, Nat 20 let's go!

Alastor looks down with a slightly bloody smile, holding his staff in one hand and a levitating glowing green die in the other. He rolls a 20, with a little icon of Lucifer showing up beside the die looking unhappy. Alastor's eyes change to glowing red radio dials for a moment as he stares at the result of the roll. He then brings the die back towards him, his eyes going back to normal. The words "vicious mockery" and "Nat 20" are slightly darker red than the other letters, and are in a stylized font reminiscent of flames.

You're a short muthafucka and nobody likes you

Alastor, now in neon colors, gestures toward Lucifer, who looks very unhappy. Lucifer opens his mouth to argue against these words, but Alastor extends a hand toward him, holding up a pointer finger and wagging it at him, causing Lucifer to look even more unhappy. Immediately following this line, it shows Alastor playing his staff like a flute as a brief instrumental plays, indicated by music notes in the captions.

Short!

Alastor points to a very small Lucifer with his staff, the word "short" in big red letters behind the former.

Everybody says look how fucking short that guy is

Alastor gestures with his staff, pointing Lucifer toward a group of other characters from the show gossiping about him. The group includes Vaggie, Husker, Sir Pentious, Nifty, and Angeldust. The camera then zooms in on a very angry Lucifer.

And that stops you from forming meaningful relationships

Alastor comes up to Lucifer with a rolled up scroll. He gestures to Charlie, who his now beside Lucifer, looking off to the side with a frown. When Lucifer looks at Charlie, his anger changes to sadness, at least until Alastor calls his attention back to the now unfurled scroll. The scroll is titled "Divorce," and has largely unreadable text except for "Reason: too short" and Lilith's name at the bottom. Lucifer looks annoyed and unimpressed.

When you were born, everybody thought that you were just a head

Alastor gestures gleefully upward toward the sky with his staff. The camera moves up to Heaven, where Lucifer's head is happily hovering with his six angel wings and a halo above his head.

But then the doctors said

Angels approach the hovering Lucifer head. The word "doctors" is transcribed as "angels" instead for these captions. The word "angels" is larger than the other words.

Wait!

The angels around Lucifer's hovering head all peer at him, and one holds up a finger. Lucifer's head is still smiling, but looks very nervous, with sweat drops on his forehead.

This stupid mutherfuckin tiny short ass baby got a tiny little itty bitty body and I hate it!

The camera zooms in to an increasingly distressed Lucifer's head, until he is crying and it is close enough to reveal he has a tiny angel body. The other larger angels point at him , then look on with disgust until one literally kicks tiny angel Lucifer out of heaven, giving him the middle finger as he falls out the gate and down through the clouds. His halo falls off in the process as well. The last three seconds are silent with a black screen.

End Video Description.]

Lucifer: *enters the hotel*

Alastor: I cast vicious mockery 😈

An animation my sis and I made for fun

Music is Perception Check by Tom Cardy.

[starw1sh]

finished if we were v*llains and damn it, I really enjoyed the last 30 pages. Which is so unfortunate, because I hate read most of that book and only finished it because I bought a physical copy and there's no way I'm wasting money like that. More thoughts (with major spoilers) under the cut because jesus christ

Oh man, I am not immune to whatever the FUCK was happening between Oliver and James. There's a comparison to be made with their dynamic and Hannibal and Will in NBC's Hannibal that I can't quite put words to it yet. Like they made each other so much worse but would do anything for each other. Oliver finding out James literally MURDERED Richard and then deciding he would take the fall for the crime like 2 hours later was crazy. AND THEIR ONLY KISS BEING ON STAGE???? PERFORMING THE SAME SCENE WHERE IN REHEARSAL JAMES BROKE OLIVER'S NOSE???? Insane. Insane. How am I supposed to be normal about this. Yes he loved him. But the truth was, he still did. I need to run laps over this.

And God I LOVE an ambiguous ending. Like I do think James is dead at the end, but that one quote from earlier in the novel (and I'm paraphrasing) where it was like 'a tragedy always has you hoping everything will work out until the very end'. Like I do think ultimately Oliver's life IS a tragedy and it's that hope that will keep him going even if it's doomed. That’s why we don't get any confirmation that James is 100% dead or if he's 100% alive. There has to be hope. It's kind of like Richard not dying immediately in the water but being left to die, like he COULD have survived but he didn't. James COULD have survived but I don't think he did. That being said, Richard could have survived if he has been helped and Alexander ended up surviving his OD because he was helped. So maybe since it's implied that Oliver is going to go searching for James (and since he's already helped him by taking the fall for the crime), he will be able to "save" James and find him alive.

But what then? James is still overcome with guilt about Richard's death and Oliver is still Oliver. How do they move on from that?

Other than the ending, this book pissed me off. The way characters found out information felt contrived (ESPECIALLY Oliver having to do "work study" by cleaning his own house?? Which leads to him overhearing a bunch and finding a bunch of spooky clues. That was so stupid), the pacing felt unintentionally slow, and I think the whole book was bloated with characters that didn't really matter. Like I enjoyed Alexander and Wren, but besides occasionally pushing the plot along they didn't really do much. They just weren't fleshed out besides "queer guy who does a lot of drugs" and "weirdo rich blond girl who I imagine walks around with the scariest blue eye stare". And don't even get me started on the handful of side characters who get even less attention.

Also I UNDERSTAND the author has a masters in Shakespearen literature but god damn did a lot of that fly over my head. Honestly I didn't dislike the book more or less because of it but it was a little frustrating. The characters kept getting casting lists and I was like "wow :) idk what that means but congratulations or I'm so sorry"

Ughhhh I also feel like because of how HEAVILY this text relies on theatre and Shakespeare, it would be better in a different medium - like theatre or tv. I have not read a book in a while that I think could benefit so obviously from a good adaptation. Especially since Oliver is so oblivious, his internal narration could translate to just staring at people intensively without loosing much narrative weight.

Final rating is probably 2 and half stars out of 5. The ending did save it for me and there were some really compelling scenes but most of the time it was just. Annoying.

[winderlylandchime]

1/3 And here we are folks. The finale. I apologize for how long this could be because it was A LOT: ‘Im not ready for this to end. I don’t think you understand just how scared and not ready i am’ He is a mess btw, his hair is sticking in all directions, he spilled his drink bc he knocked it over with his cast and he is probably 5 seconds away from crying so i already know this is gonna be a rollercoaster. And because he couldn’t sit still he even brought out his stress ball that he bought like a month ago. Anyway, one last episode update: the episode starts with Mikey narrating ‘ew, i forgot about that. Make it stop’ ‘AHHH BRIAN LOOKS SO FUCKING GOOD! DAMN JUSTIN LOOKS GOOD TOO! BEAUTIFUL! LOOK AT THEM!..can Michael shut up now?’ ‘Fuck you, these ads are hilarious. Does she know who the fuck she came to for hel- SEX ALWAYS SELLS!’ And we are at the stag party! ‘Thank god thats done. I didnt wanna be rude but holy fuck Tad was annoying. Ted you can do better. Okay but Brian isn’t gone, he’s just getting married? Theyre acting like he died *looks at me confused* whats going on? Why dont they just fuck the stripper together? Why is blondie looking at him like that? *snaps his fingers* ah! He wanted to fuck him together.’ And we are at Brian/Gus scene ‘this is so fucking cute! And they act like he didnt care about the kid! Oh fuck you mel’ and Mel and Brian are now alone ‘they would have all the happiness in the world if ONLY their fucking friends learned to mind their business. Aww look at Brian admiring his work’ Mel says that considering what he’s sacrificing line ‘Nah fuck this and fuck her, everyone literally makes and made it their business to make it their number 1 priority to always interfere with Brian’s life. And it is NEVER to make it better. But they NEVER say no to his money. *throws the ball at mel on tv* what? She stressed me out, its a stress ball!’ ‘That smile was the smile of a man who is so used of people hitting him below the belt. I fucking hate it here. And i fucking hate all of Brian’s friends, i will never forgive them for how they treat him’ we are at that mikey/brian scene with the flashback ‘what the fuck is this? (Mikey says he jerked off to brian) Now why the fuck would he say that to him? This whole scene felt out of place and weird’ And we are at the scene with Britin where they decide to call off the wedding ‘thats adorable. Aww he wants to cuddle. Blondie, he cuddled you after you cheated, what are you talking about? (Justin has his brian kinney speech) what..bro, what is happening? so hes mad he’s not fucking guys? See, i told you he wanted a threesome. WAIT PAUSE THE FUCKING EPISODE NOW *i pause it* HAS HE BEEN MONOGAMOUS SINCE THE PROPOSAL? I thought they were still fucking around? But also blondie wanted monogamy, what? Im confused, theyre confused, we’re all confused’ Brian asks about New York ‘hold the fuck up, why is new york being mentioned? Why would he go there over one fucking review? Brian knows he’s sacrificing his career…oh no. IM CONFUSED, can he only paint in new york? Do they not have paint brushes in Pittsburgh?’ And the sacrificing part is up ‘he did the same shit with LA. But that was different!! He had a job offer from a director! Damn it you too blondie? WHAT IS HAPPENING? What the fuck just happened? What did i just watch?’ And we are at the scene where Britin announces theyre not getting married ‘ooohhh fancy! THATS RIGHT DAPHNE! JUSTIN HAS EVERYTHING! Ahhhh look at them! THEY LOOK FINE AS FUCK! Brian has been wearing the fuck out of that stripped suit tho. (They announce it) *he’s dead silent and his arm with the cast is covering his mouth* oh thank fucking god *he sits back and lets out a deep breath while his arm is in his hair* i didnt wanna judge but that was one of thee worst ideas they’ve had. We are once again on the same page boys! Party, fuck and just enjoy life.’ And now we are at Brian’s meeting ‘that ad is the second worst idea he’s had. TELL HER BRIAN! HA! THATS RIGHT! THATS MY BABY! IM SO PROUD OF HIM!’

OH FUCK WE’RE REALLY IN IT NOW FRIENDS. HERE WE ARE.

The stag party is a cute moment but right? Why didn’t they fuck that guy together? They can be married and nonmonogamous.

They sure as fuck do love to fuck around in his life and not to make it better but are always happy to take a handout.

WHY WOULD HE GO THERE OVER ONE FUCKING REVIEW? fucking this a million times. it makes no fucking sense. Am I addressing that in my fic? I’m sure as shit trying to.

A job offer from the film director DID make LA different. Do they not have paint brushes in Pittsburgh? That’s a fucking great question Brother!

It was one of the worst ideas they have ever had but they didn’t need to send Justin to NYC to undo it (and then the final scene).