#(spoiler alert they both get turned back human by the end of the book. the baby is really mad that he suddenly can't walk)

[mrskayathefrog]

Oh, I think he is very much also begging to be the main character. It's Sophie who puts her foot down.

obsessed with the fact that howl movingcastle, like, is the ideal portal fantasy protagonist. he's a welsh rugby-playing grad student who enters a magical world where he discovers he's a wildly powerful wizard. there's an evil witch out to get him and the king needs his help and there's a curse catching up with him. he has a magical creature sidekick and an orphan apprentice and a mentor who gets killed by the evil witch halfway through and a love interest under a terrible curse. the story is BEGGING for him to be the main character. and he's just like. no <3.

[boopshoops]

For the dating seem thing...Creek. I'M VERY CURIOUS ABOUT IT...

@the-trinket-witch

Hello helloOOO TRINKET AND HARRY :D (i will do jackson soon!!)

I... this isnt a dating sim this is a horror game LMAO /hj

I'd say- similar mechanics as Jocia, gotta up your stats (strictness, persistence, benevolence, mindfulness, tenacity, diligence, and nobility)! For Creek you need some mindfulness and strictness :)

Imagine like- a main game that takes place at NRC, then playful land dlc. Very special circumstances need to happen for creek to appear- (spoilers for playful land ofc) (also creek is a freak so expect some darker themes here lmao)

Catch a glimpse at the number calling Fellow whilst trapped in the cage with the other students. Call it after Fellow drops you back off on Sage Island. I spose in these circumstances theyre a bit of a secret route-

It will offer you work- as it does to everyone who calls. Route branch!

You deny. Good end <3 /hj

You accept. The next few days pass as normal- attending classes and whatnot. As your local isekaied individual, money is always a need. And as an adult in this route, you would be 10x more productive working on whatever you can rather than reattending school- though I'm sure it makes you question your sanity to go work for someone who literally runs a human trafficking ring after LITERALLY BEING KIDNAPPED AND NEARLY TURNED INTO OBJECTS but its too late u want to romance the creature for the logic of dating sims knows no bounds. Safe to say morality has left the building

Speaking of kidnapped-

You went to bed in the dorm like usual, woke up on a fancy, red leather couch in what appeared to be a fancy lounge.

Isola is there with you, unfortunately, by alerting Creek to your location, they are able to acquire her as well. She is quite frankly miserable to be back after a small taste of freedom- and she's out of commission for most of the run. Simply meandering about or confined to a room that already belonged to her, seemingly devoid of any hope to get out. She doesn't trust you at all either anymore, naturally. Talking with her too much will lead to Creeks bad end.

You are both in a seemingly very large estate, with a built in greenhouse- and no known exit. A voice echoes out over a very well hidden speaker system, calling you through two large, ornately decorated doors carved with patterns of flora.

into a surprisingly cozy little nook- with shelves lining the walls containing tanks and tanks of little critters and books, and a large window spanning the entirety of the back of the room to view the open ocean: you're on a boat again. cricket song hums from the glass tanks- so loud it reverberates through the very walls. But it all seems to dull to a quiet hum once it speaks:

"Quite the unpredictable one."

From a neat little tidy corner at the edge of the room, Creek spends a lot of their time at their desk in their office, almost always wearing a crooked grin... the entire route is about keeping up that unpredictability and keeping Creek entertained with new experiences. That is one of the main ways to make them feel- well, anything at all after their many years of life. You are offered a temporary position on the boat as their assistance in order to prove your worth and capabilities- given they were already impressed that you managed to 1) get their contact info at all, 2) sink their damn amusement park, and 3) help them get Isola back.

The job is simple enough- though devoid of any and all morality. You handle whatever small jobs Creek tells you to do: unpacking new shipments of "puppets", aiding them with feeding their many animals and bugs, and helping other workers on the ship.

There is an odd... tenseness in the air. A void of white noise. You can almost always hear the sound of some sort of bug, but rarely people speaking to one another. Like everyone was on the edge of their seat.

In order to get your desired romantic end, you dont mind this at all.

After all- any mention to creek about how "wrong" things felt will simply result in them responding with "but you knew what you'd be getting into, didn't you?" as well as their affection for you quickly tanking.

The more emotions you are able to make Creek feel, the more successful you will be. be it those emotions are good or bad. The more entertained it is, the more it will keep you close.

oddly enough: they offer you a lot of advice. Genuine guidance. Any aid from them feels so tender and careful. like each touch from porcelain and resin hands are meticulously thought through. You learn a lot. and you learn quick. Simply enough, Creek was feared for a good reason. Not only because of it's job and power, but because it knows JUST how to snare you if you cross them. But it also learns from you. It learns that there are endless possibilities for new experiences: from the horrid, to the mundane, to the exciting. They feel like they have purpose again- like they can make an even greater legacy with you than the one they already have.

In that way, they offer you protection... on the better route ofc.

Needless to say, you also very quickly become well acquainted with bugs if you weren't before. Creek's... views of them definitely border on the obsessive in ways you can't understand and are sometimes too uneasy to ask about, but also have an underlying appreciation for nature which comes to be respected.

Route branch! basically in this whole run, you're both very morally questionable, but quickly become codependent. in a toxic way. duh. its creek what did u expect /silly bro is not redeemable- and their mannerisms do not allow for anything even close to a healthy partnership. they will not change for you. its "i can make them worse" time.

Um. i will put what routes are "good" in creeks pov. then like. the actual connotations in parenthesis.

Good ending (bad <3): you match each others freak. 17 injured 9 dead. the bond between you two becomes so strong- but oddly enough its never spoken aloud in any official way. It's all the actions you take for one another. Its how you've made them feel ALIVE again for the first time in decades. Now, they never want to go without the feeling again. You'll stay. and you'll stay oh so close. until they can finally find a way to grab your soul and put it into a body that wont age or decay, just like them. Eternal. (welcome to hell)

Neutral ending (bad <3): They... don't know how to feel about you. sometimes you're fun. sometimes you're boring. you have the potential to do great things with them- so you work together: nothing more, nothing less. Running a human trafficking scheme on a ship out at sea, making bank. (go to jail)

Bad ending (bad <3 and also probably the canon ending if you pick this route lmao): They're bored. Worse than bored- theyre annoyed by you. You and your contrary insistence that everything here is "bAD" despite literally wanting to come here in the first place. Soooo you're fired! yeah :( sorry. Oh, you want to go home then? HAHHAHAHAHA no. you think they're just gonna let you go like that after all the shit you've seen and know about? no. become bug food. (ur dead)

[hannahwatcheshorror]

EVIL DEAD RISE (2023)

This was a lot of fun, it had a lot of what I like in horror, creeps, spooks, scares, but most importantly the film was good. It stayed pretty simple with its story but went hard on its special effects, the wall crawling was out of sight! Seriously, do yourself a favor and check this out, it is a brutal and wonderful flick produced by Bruce Campbell so you know it is authentic too.

⭐⭐⭐⭐.5

Trigger Warning Projectile Vomiting

After a cute little intro where an Evil Dead Rises out of bed to scalp her friend (then she scalps her other friend a little too close to the shoulders) and we get our glorious title, we go back in time one whole day to meet the dysfunctional family we will be spending the majority of the movie with. We have our mother who just dyed her hair a fiery red, two (2) daughters, one (1) son, and an Aunt who just flew into the picture. Mama Ellie sends her kids away so she and Sister Beth can talk about what has been going on while sis has been away but there is an earthquake! While Mama Ellie worries about her kids, Dan, her son is exploring a newly exposed room and taking things from it (like a big scary book, dun dun dun!). I like how in this version he is attracted to the book but opening it was an accident and when the words started playing on the recordings he tried to stop it but The Evil Dead wouldn’t let him! This makes a lot more sense than when the characters would just sit there while evil scary things were being said! 

The creeping evil whooshes along the city streets and into Mama Ellie, causing her great bodily pain but also making her into The Evil Dead Ellie! This scene is like the woodland scenes from The Evil Dead and Evil Dead but it takes place in an elevator with power cords so it is different and fresh feeling. She comes home and tells her family about how she dreams to cut them open and live inside them and they know right away something is very wrong with mom. Both the elevator and the stairs have been destroyed so there is no where they can go but stay in the apartment. Oh, apparently Ellie straight up dies for a little at this point? Okay then. 

Ellie comes back to life because, spoiler alert, The Evil Dead are never really dead, and there is this incredible boiling bathtub scene that leads into a longer fight scene that is so gross and creepy, a must watch. They love the “an Evil Dead eats an eyeball then spits it into a human's mouth” gag, they did that in, what, Evil Dead II (correct me if I’m wrong)? They are able to get Evil Ellie out of the apartment because of her bloodlust and the neighbors but she had already gotten her blood into Bridgette (the older daughter) so she was starting to turn in the kitchen. It doesn’t take long before The Evil Dead takes her over completely and she is fighting Aunt Beth, Dan, and Kassie. It is little Kassie who puts an end to her tirade by stabbing her through the head. Brutal! This only puts her down for a small amount of time though and she is right back up stabbing Dan in no time. Yikes. Poor sucker goes down but what else is deserved of the guy who starts the whole thing?

Evil Ellie tunnels through the ceiling to get back into the apartment so things are especially unsafe in there, what with three (3) dead and two (2) Evil Dead just waltzing around. Beth and Kassie break out into the hallway which is lined with dead people which cannot be a good thing and while they try to break out all The Evil Dead come alive and come for them and tell them they are going to die. “Dead by dawn, dead by dawn!” Suddenly the elevator half works, half fills with so much blood it overloads itself and comes crashing into the basement and while that is happening Evil Ellie, Evil Bridgett, and Evil Dan transform into one big Evil Dead Baddie who is unspeakably ugly and honestly seems to be worse than if the three of them just stayed apart but what do I know. It was very reminiscent of Silent Hill and one of the characters in the game (Asphyxia is the character but much less put together).

Actually this whole progression of more villains, harder villains, and even a changing villain makes this movie feel like a video game and I quite like that, it is a very fun aspect of the film. Some sort of tree cutting company parks its cars in the basement which is good luck for Beth but also for us because we get some classic Evil Dead chainsaw scenes! After a struggle and almost losing Kassie (eep!) Beth has the three headed creature on the ropes and finds an economic way to chop the thing to bits, thus saving the day! Hooray! The creeping evil still hangs around and comes for the next unsuspecting victim which is who we met at the top of the film, but hey, at least little Kassie is safe.

[britesparc]

Weekend Top Ten #676

Top Ten Queer Couples

I don't know if any of you noticed, but it was Valentine’s Day recently. I do try to tie these things in a little bit to what’s going on in the world (without every single week just been ten things that are on fire or top ten apocalypses or whatever). Anyway, I was trying to think of a possible list that was sort-of romance-adjacent, and I’m pretty sure I've talked about couples a couple of times, so I was looking for a different angle. And, inspired by watching a few things recently with really awesome same-sex couples, I thought a more LGBTQ-focused list would be a nice shout.

Whilst I’m obviously not the best person to speak about it, and with the caveat that there’s always much further we still have to go, it’s very good to see how far queer representation has come in popular culture since I was a teenager. I remember the brouhaha when Tom Hanks made Philadelphia; I’ve not seen the film in decades, but I imagine nowadays that its depiction of a gay relationship probably looks incredibly dated and stereotyped. Everyone kicked up a fuss over same-sex kissing in Eastenders; now you’ve got stuff like Grey’s Anatomy, which I think is about as mainstream as US shows can get, and is chock-full of all sorts of queer representation.

So it’s been great to watch and read about all different forms of love (“form” being an operative word here, as you’ll soon see). I know that corporations only really care about something if it’s making them money, but artists still like to tell stories, and that’s resulted in much better representation and some fantastic characters. And that’s what I’m celebrating here; to be honest, the queerness of it isn’t really an issue. These just happen to be ten couples that I absolutely adore, and just happen to be gay.

I’m sure there are some culturally-huge relationships that I’ve missed off here. Willow and Tara, for instance, from Buffy; I might need to turn in my nineties nerd membership card, but I didn’t watch Buffy religiously back when it was on, so they didn’t quite strike as hot for me as they did for lots of my peers (was it one of the first really prominent same-sex relationships on a TV show like that? I dunno. Maybe I should do some research). And no doubt there are some big dramas or earnest films that I’ve never seen – The L-Word, Moonlight, My Beautiful Laundrette – the exclusion of which proves what a first-base charlatan I am. But I like what I like, and these are the characters that speak to me.

Oh, and one final thing. I tend to fall in love with optimistic romances – sadly, a lot of gay stories in the past have come coated in a veneer of tragedy (which to a degree is understandable if you’re telling a story about people who society is trying to rip asunder). But also I think this can add a dose of toxicity to the relationship, such as in Brokeback Mountain, which is excellent and tender and beautiful but also shows a relationship buckling under the weight of self-hate, repression, and tragedy. So that’s why Heath and Jake ain’t on here, if you were wondering. But I think – spoiler alert! – all the couples featured here actually do get together at the end. Woohoo! Happy Valentine’s Day!

Chromedome & Rewind (IDW’s Transformers, 2012-18): ha, you thought I’d be talking about actual human people didn’t you? It was all a trick! I’m just a basic bot and this was all an excuse to discuss Transformers again. It’s a bit of a cheat, because to a certain extent Transformers are genderless; but at the same time, most of them present as one gender most of the time, and the various books written by James Roberts can be described as “sad gay robots in space”. Of all the same-sex couples in the franchise – Cyclonus and Tailgate, Ratchet and Drift, Arcee and Greenlight – Chromedome and Rewind stick out for their enduring love, the complexity of their relationship, and how it overcomes multiple tragedies. Both of them have sins in their past, both of them are damaged, and they both kinda got together on the rebound, but in the end reaffirm their bond and have what can only be the happiest of endings under the circumstances. Plus they’re the focus of one of the most hearbreaking scenes in the whole franchise. I love you.

Harley Quinn & Poison Ivy (DC Comics): how much is a relationship based on what we are actually told, and how much is just fans vibing? Because for years Harley and Ivy were canonically best friends, appearing in each others’ stories, committing crimes together, but not technically romantic. But fans loved them together, and even if Ivy was an eco-terrorist, she was still better for Harley than the Joker. Ultimately the teasing and the hinting culminated in several continuities establishing them as officially a couple – especially the animated Harley Quinn show, which foregrounds their relationship over a season’s arc, and presents them as besotted – but eventually, officially, they became an item in mainstream DC continuity. The cooky criminal, the eco-warrior; they’re great together.

Vi & Caitlyn (Arcane, 2019-24): it might be recency bias pushing these two gals up the list (I only watched Arcane this year) but these two have such a strong bond that’s really elegantly told over the course of the series. Tough-as-nails petty crim/bruiser Vi and upper-crust posho-turned-cop Cait seem like oil and water, but there’s an instant mutual attraction that simmers and hints at itself throughout a season, before they share a kiss and then go off the rails. Their coming back together, and the wholehearted trust they share, is a cornerstone of the last act of the series; they are, indeed, the dirt under each others’ nails.  

Corky & Violet (Bound, 1996): only by a whisker does this couple claim the title of “sauciest sex scene featuring a character called Violet” on this list. But the blending of queer romance and nineties noir is exquisite in this delightful pre-Matrix Wachowskis effort. Gangster’s moll Violet and grungy handywoman Corky have an instant and intense chemistry, and in their attempts to double-cross the mob and escape from Corky’s dangerous beau, we root for them and want them to succeed in a tense game of cat and mouse. It’s also an interesting film to examine in that we now understand how it’s shot with a female gaze, and is something of a landmark in American queer cinema (I feel like I need to stress, you really did not often get gay protagonists in 1996, even in quote-unquote “indie” films).

Captain Holt & Kevin (Brooklyn Nine-Nine, 2013-21): Raymond Holt and Kevin Cozner (up there with “Lorenzo Zoil” in great comic names) are a great example of leaning into and challenging stereotypes. On the one hand, they’re upper-middle-class refined gay men, into fine art and opera; but as a Black man working for the police, and in a position of authority and power on the show, Holt is a figure not commonly seen in TV (and, indeed, allows the show to dig into issues of racial and sexual politics). But it’s them as a couple that I love; Holt is one of the great comic creations, a preternaturally analytic man seemingly, almost Spock-like in his avoidance of contractions or colloquialisms. But their scenes together as a couple show how their similarities and differences complement each other, and the deep, loving bond they share.

David & Patrick (Schitt’s Creek, 2015-20): like Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Schitt’s Creek is one of those comedies where you’re laughing at the absurd characterisation so much you don’t realise how nuanced the acting and writing is, and so when you discover that you’ve fallen head over heels in love with these people it strikes you off guard. David is a rather shrill, self-centred man, seemingly irritated or disgusted with everything he sees in the town; Patrick is down-to-earth and humble, and has never really had a gay relationship before. But they hit it off right away, with tremendous chemistry, and seeing David finally being honest about his needs and feelings, and the truthful way they respond to one another, is delightful. Also I love how the world presented by writer/actor Dan Levy is one in which there’s basically no homophobia, so despite the weirdness of this backwater town, everyone loves David and Patrick just as much as we do.

Red & Blue (This is How You Lose the Time War, 2019): Time War is a really strange book, an almost elegiac, poetic, non-linear tale of two warriors on opposing sides who – despite the phenomenal risks involved – stalk each other before falling in love, leaving gifts and letters to each other than blossom slowly over millennia, knowing the other will discover it, but also needing to hide it from their superiors. The trippy nature of the chronology, and the flowing prose, means you’re never sure of where you are, but as the book goes on, the strength of the love between the two women grows ever stronger. A fascinating, rewarding work, and a deeply affecting love story. Also, how great is that title?

Adora & Catra (She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, 2018-20): a real slow-burner of a love story, and one in which – perhaps a bit unusually – a lot of the emotional heavy lifting is done by the antagonist. Adora is She-Ra, and she leaves the Horde and her lifelong best friend Catra behind to fight for good; Catra feels betrayed, and so their conflict has a deep, personal edge. It becomes increasingly obvious the feelings they have for one another, but Catra’s are skewed by jealousy and pride, whilst Adora’s are smothered by her sense of duty and guilt. But in the end it’s Catra who comes back, Catra who refuses to leave, and ultimately Catra who saves Adora when she needs it most. It’s a subtle, nuanced, emergent love story, but given the subject matter and the target audience, it’s all the more welcome.

Armand & Albert (The Birdcage, 1996): I said how unusual Bound was for foregrounding a gay couple in the mid-nineties, but here’s another one. Here we’re shown a middle-aged couple who’ve raised a son and run a business together, and the only reason they’re particularly exceptional is in contrast to the more “conventional”, WASP-y, Republican family headed by Gene Hackman. The film shows not just their tenderness as parents, but their tenderness together: despite their arguments and drama, they really love and care for one another, in a real lived-in way; a couple who’ve just spent years in each other’s company. And we can see how much more content they are being their honest selves, against the artificial idea of a perfect nuclear family that Hackman strives for. Armand and Anbert: relationship goals. Super funny too. And exceptional facial hair.

Bashir & Garek (Star Trek: Lower Decks, 2024): okay, this one is a massive cheat, but what the hell. I nearly went with the two doctors, Stamets and Culber, from Discovery – not only the first gay couple depicted on Star Trek, but Anthony Rapp’s Stamets is the pretty much the first gay character in the show full-stop. However, I’m being my usual silly self and indulging in a bit of joy. Bashir and Garek had a fantastic relationship throughout Deep Space Nine: Bashir the young, brilliant, rather big-headed doctor, full of belief in the strength of Starfleet; Garek the older, conniving, duplicitous Cardassian spy. The cat-and-mouse game of mistrust and affection that played out over the series spawned a million ships; in fact, the actors themselves pretty much treated it as a romance. Lower Decks introduces us to an alternate universe version of the couple, where they actually are a couple; both medics, both in Starfleet, but still possessing the same adorable characteristics, and – crucially – married and everything. Long time coming, but well worth the wait.

Blimey, quite a few that didn’t quite make the cut, eh? Both Wiccan & Hulkling and Apollo & Midnighter would have made the list but I felt I hadn’t quite read enough comics featuring them. I kind of wanted to include Jamie and Marian, from last year’s Drive-Away Dolls (original title: Drive-Away Dykes, which I think we can all agree is better), but despite finding them such a sweet and adorable pair, I thought maybe that was the recency bias talking. But they can be number eleven. Also, you should watch Drive-Away Dolls, a really underappreciated mini-gem.

Anyway, this was a fun list, and now I’m feeling all soppy and happy and romantic. Maybe I’ll watch Brokeback Mountain to wallow in misery for a bit.

[rhetoricandlogic]

In ‘The Mercy of Gods,’ the Authors of ‘The Expanse’ Get Less Expansive

Like all good science fiction fans, Daniel Abraham enjoyed watching Andor. And Abraham knows what he’s talking about when it comes to high-quality sci-fi storytelling: Under the pseudonym James S.A. Corey, Abraham and Ty Franck cowrote the celebrated book series The Expanse and coproduced the television adaptation, which offered genre fans a captivating blend of space opera and political intrigue.

Nearly three years after The Expanse ended, both on-screen and on the page, the James S.A. Corey duo is out with the start of a new series: The Mercy of Gods, the first novel in a planned trilogy called The Captive’s War. This book, which hit shelves last week, is both a satisfying stand-alone read and an excellent setup for the series to come, even if it forecasts a rather different sort of story from The Expanse.

Asked about a key distinction between the two series, Abraham turns to the gritty Star Wars prequel to a prequel to make a point.

Andor excelled because “it felt authentic,” Abraham says. “It was the first time I can remember since the ’70s when I felt like the Empire was really something oppressive, not just guys in cool, dark suits emoting a lot. It was this sense of the danger of that kind of vast machine.”

There is perhaps no machine more oppressive, more dangerous, and more vast than the Carryx empire in The Mercy of Gods: a race of warlike aliens who are set on conquering the galaxy and can slaughter millions without strain, due to their military might and incomprehensibly advanced technology. Andor is an apt comparison, as this new series details the flickers of a burgeoning rebellion against overwhelming imperial odds. “It’s survivors versus authoritarians,” Franck says. “It is what happens to you when you are conquered by a militaristic authoritarian regime and you have to learn to live inside that regime.”

The Mercy of Gods starts on a human planet—not Earth—thousands of years in the future. Dafyd Alkhor is a research assistant in a biology lab, consumed by the petty desires and complications of any average human life: routine data collection, a workplace rivalry, a secret crush.

Then everything changes when the Carryx attack. They kill some humans and take others (including Dafyd) prisoner, transporting them back to their homeworld for a seemingly simple test: If the surviving humans can make themselves useful, they’ll live; if not, they’ll die, too.

The Captive’s War employs a narrower narrative lens than The Expanse, at least in the first book. Almost all of the focus in Mercy is on Dafyd and his lab partners—each of whom develops as a unique and relatable character, just as James Holden’s crew on the Rocinante flourish as both a collective unit and individual beings. But some of The Expanse’s other highlights, such as planet hopping and intricate politicking, are largely absent from the new novel.

This tightened focus extends to the series’ structure. While The Expanse spanned nine books, The Captive’s War will be three. “It’s not doing the same kind of genre skipping that The Expanse did, because The Expanse did its Western, it did its noir, it did its political thriller,” Abraham says. “The Captive’s War is really, in a way, a more cohesive story than The Expanse had the ability to be.”

(That’s the high-minded way to look at the difference, at least. Franck offers a simpler explanation, with a laugh: “We didn’t want to write nine books again.”)

The new novel suffers from the lack of political maneuvering; there’s no Chrisjen Avasarala or Winston Duarte analogue in Mercy. Its world can sometimes feel too small (though a development at the end of the book suggests an expansion—no pun intended—to come in the sequel).

Yet at other points, Mercy’s world-building makes its universe feel unknowably gigantic. In The Expanse (spoiler alert), the alien threats never actually appear; the authors thought they’d add more menace as looming, Lovecraftian specters. But in Mercy, aliens abound, as the human prisoners interact with and observe creatures of all shapes, sizes, and lifestyles.

Here, the authors utilize the delightful genre trick of implying a much larger world than is actually relevant to the plot. The human captives are housed in a massive pyramid where they encounter those multifarious species, but that’s merely the prison for “the other oxygen breathers,” Franck says. The humans also see other immense pyramids in the distance, which hold yet more aliens who live in sulfuric atmospheres, in water, and so on.

“The idea of this is to give that sense of vast scale,” Abraham says. “The idea is I want this to feel huge. I want this to feel complex.”

As is typical of a Corey novel, Mercy is also punctuated by moments of violence and humiliation and despair. The authors have always been able to turn darkness into page-turning thrills, and Mercy’s bleakest sections approach—if don’t ever quite reach—the worst protomolecule-induced horror that The Expanse ever presented.

But there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. On the book’s very first page, a flash-forward reveals that the Carryx empire falls and that Dafyd is somehow responsible. This choice was made partly for tonal balance, to compensate for all that darkness. “If you didn’t have some ray of hope, this would be a brutal read,” Abraham says.

Even more, it creates a compelling mystery that will carry through the rest of the series. The Carryx empire seems omnipotent and completely unbothered by humanity. It doesn’t murder and enslave humans because of any hatred or rivalry; the humans are simply resources to be exploited. As one of the Carryx analogizes in the book, when a human cuts down a tree branch, “the tree had no power to stop you, and so it became a tool in your hand.”

But somehow, the human tool named Dafyd will take down an empire. What could be an early spoiler is, instead, the engine for the rest of the plot. Franck explains, “When a guy says, ‘Let me tell you about the first time I killed a crocodile,’ and then the scene opens with a guy being dropped naked into the middle of a crocodile pit, the question isn’t, Did he survive and kill a crocodile? The question is, How the fuck did a naked guy in a crocodile pit actually beat one of them?”

That setup is reminiscent, incidentally, of Andor: Everyone watching Cassian, Luthen Rael, and Mon Mothma struggle against the might of the Empire knows that, eventually, the underdog rebels will succeed in creating the sunrise that Luthen knows he’ll never see. But the tension and entertainment value come from learning how they reach that sunrise and how they endure all the dark nights they face along the way. 

The same looks to be true of The Mercy of Gods. With all of its alien surroundings, and without Earth and our familiar solar system as a backdrop, this new series doesn’t appear remotely as adaptable as The Expanse. It would be a surprise if Dafyd defeats the Carryx on television screens anytime soon.

But this story lives just as wonderfully on the page. “The first book is telling you all the reasons why [the Carryx empire] can’t fail: It’s too big, it’s too powerful,” Franck says. “So the tension is: What could this guy possibly have done to bring this about?”

[apocalypticavolition]

Let's (re)Read The Great Hunt! Chapter 9: Leavetakings

Spoiler alert: This post contains spoilers all the way through the whole series. Probably. Sometimes I only go as far as like, book 12? But if you're only on book 2, book 12 is a long ways off. Probably. Sometimes people are very fast readers.

This chapter opens up by completing the Aes Sedai circle: the icon of the Flame of Tar Valon. This is about the goodbye that Siuan officiates and the way she almost takes the arrow meant for Rand.

Some of the Warders glanced at Rand as he walked across the courtyard; a few raised eyebrows when they saw the heron-mark sword, but none spoke.

No one wants to mess with a twenty-year old wearing a sword that says, "I'm good at killing people with swords" because like yeah it's probably stolen valor but also if it's not you're getting the attention of a straight-up psycho.

Ragan waved to him, and Uno nodded, but Masema was not the only one who gave him a cold stare and turned away.

Angry about Rand violating the women's quarters or about Rand and co. being the proximate cause for all the chaos of the last few days?

Rand glanced down at the golden thorns climbing his crimson sleeve and grimaced. Small wonder Mat and Perrin still think I’m putting on airs. On returning to his room he had found everything already packed and sent on. All of the plain coats he had been given were on the packhorses, so the servants said; every coat left in the wardrobe was at least as ornate as the one he wore.

Yeah but fancy coat or no, they're kinda being dicks to Rand here since he's at least trying to apologize. Can't blame them too much though since Moiraine's orders are actively causing Rand to look like a jerk. Thanks Moiraine! Please don't come back into Rand's life until you're willing to be like 33% less manipulative and awful.

“When you can’t win a big victory, sheepherder, learn to settle for the small ones. If you made them think of you as something more than a farm-boy who’ll be easy to handle, then you won a small victory. Now be quiet and listen. I’ve only time for one last lesson, the hardest. Sheathing the Sword.”

Ah, here's Lan as the deliberately toxic mentor, providing advice that... never really pays off! Rand's attempt to an hero in combat doesn't work and he never needs to again before he dies, Lan tries as well but is contractually obligated to be Nynaeve's loving husband for the next few decades, and no one else really obsesses over it. I wonder if Jordan had been able to finish the series if Rand might not have let Moridin sheathe him to finally pay it off as a final contrast between the two: Rand embracing death as a means to ensure life while Moridin pointlessly chases it and never accomplishes anything meaningful as a result.

“But, Mother,” Agelmar was protesting, “you’ve had no time to rest from the journey here. Stay at least a few days more. I promise you a feast tonight such as you could hardly get in Tar Valon.”

I doubt very much that the fortress city at the ass end of nowhere is going to be able to rival Tar Valon's access to feasting. Siuan probably doesn't feast much but if the occasion ever called for it Tar Valon should have spreads for days.

“I heard,” Loial said, “that she was sending someone out today, all the way to Arad Doman. There is word of some sort of trouble on Almoth Plain, and the Amyrlin Seat wants to know exactly what. What I don’t understand is, why now? From what I hear, the rumors of this trouble came from Tar Valon with the Aes Sedai.”

Rand of course freaks out because Fain left the promise that they'd meet again at Toman Head, but since he erased it he doesn't get it either. Both are unaware of the Dark Prophecy which would put a significant amount of fire under Siuan.

“Perhaps so,” Loial mused, “but you humans do so much with your lives. We do nothing but huddle in our stedding. Planting the groves, and even the building, were all done before the Long Exile ended.”

The Exile is pretty recent in Ogier terms, when you think about it. The cultural retreat makes a good deal of sense, especially because every time you might think the Ogiers would have a revolution back to openness, a continent-spanning war broke out. Hopefully they'll come out of their shell once the Last Battle is over and the world is safer, start bringing their own changes to the world.

“Glory to the Builders, Loial Kiseran.”

This is an Old Tongue word meaning "Honorable one" and is very much not a family name because that's not how Ogier naming works (they have patro- and matronymics).

“You ride to find the Horn of Valere,” she said, “and the hope of the world rides with you. The Horn cannot be left in the wrong hands, especially in Darkfriend hands. Those who come to answer its call, will come whoever blows it, and they are bound to the Horn, not to the Light.”

Luckily for humankind, the Horn itself seems bound to the light, hence its inscription that clearly prevents Darkfriends from being able to use it in any useful circumstances.

The watcher was back. The hair stirred on the back of his neck.

Huh, guess it was the Grey Man, let in very early and then failing to do anything for a day and a half for... reasons. Odd choice.

Odder still that it's trying to kill Rand under the circumstances of Ba'alzamon very much not wanting that. Lanfear wouldn't be down with it either. Did a different Forsaken make this call (which ones are even free at this point?), is the Grey Man only trying to injure Rand and just extra shitty at its job, or is it just disobedient?

Last year in the White Tower, with my own guards at every gate and Warders all around me, a man with a knife came within five steps of me. A Whitecloak, no doubt, though I’ve no proof.

NGL this being a Grey Man too wouldn't be very surprising, since it's within the time period Ish was awake and causing trouble and causing any kind of chaos in the White Tower is exactly what he loves to do.

“I wager Illian does not give its Great Hunt of the Horn so rousing a send-off,” she said. “But yours is the true Great Hunt. You are few, so you may travel quickly, yet enough to do what you must. I charge you, Lord Ingtar of House Shinowa, I charge all of you, find the Horn of Valere, and let nothing bar your way.”

Thank goodness Loial is going on this Hunt, so he can write about it all and the gang can eventually get their own part in the gleeman tales. They more than deserve it.

“And Nidao. They had the second watch. They always stayed together, even if they had to trade or do extra duty for it. They were not on guard when it happened, but. . . . They fought at Tarwin’s Gap, a month gone, and saved Lord Agelmar when his horse went down with Trollocs all around him. Now this. Darkfriends.” He drew a deep breath. “Everything is breaking apart.”

Ingtar's beginning to crack under the pressure already. Let's keep an eye on that.

“As you wish, my Lor—ah—Rand. I’m a sniffer, you see. Been one four years this Sunday. I never heard of such a thing before then, but I hear there’s a few others like me. It started slow, catching bad smells where nobody else smelled anything, and it grew. Took a whole year before I realized what it was. I could smell violence, the killing and the hurting. Smell where it happened. Smell the trail of those who did it. Every trail’s different, so there’s no chance of mixing them up. Lord Ingtar heard of it, and took me in his service, to serve the King’s justice.”

Unlike our heroes, who got all their powers when puberty was finishing up, Hurin apparently came into sniffing in comparative old age - he's got "greying hair".

Also note that he's probably named for Tolkien's character, who does not appear in The Lord of the Rings because he's thousands of years dead at that point. Thankfully for our Hurin, his kids are not forced to have an incest baby by Rand's (or anyone else's) magic, nor are there three decades of imprisonment or betrayed cities or anything like that. It's just a cute reference.

There was one in Cairhien once—Brown Ajah, but I swear I thought she was Red before she let me go—she kept me a month trying to find out how I do it. She didn’t like not knowing.

It would be really funny if this had been Verin but I'm pretty sure it's not.

“She was right, then, the Amyrlin Seat,” Ingtar said slowly. “A great and wise woman, who deserves better than me to serve her. Take the trail, Hurin.”

Ingtar's really cracking under the pressure. Half-surprised he doesn't paint "I'M A DARKFRIEND AND I DON'T LIKE IT" on his banner before this is over.

People ran past Bayle Domon in masks and costumes bizarre and fanciful, many showing too much flesh.

Prude! More flesh! More flesh!

Easing the Badger, it was called, though not even Nieda Sidoro, the innkeeper, knew what the name meant; there had always been an inn of the name in Illian.

Is- is it really that hard to figure it out? I feel like Domon's just too prudish to get it and Nieda thinks that if you have to ask you're not old enough.

They were all three nondescript, but there was an air about the speaker that made Domon take him for their leader. They did not appear to be armed; despite their fine clothes, they looked as if they did not need to be. There were hard eyes in those so very ordinary faces.

I always like the bad guys who manage to look like anybody else and yet are still obviously quite dangerous. Fictional worlds need more of them.

“You can coast to Mayene easily enough. Surely, Captain, you would be willing to sail along the shoreline for a thousand gold marks.”

Not even subtle at this point though. I wonder if the various people trying to hire Domon are all independent Darkfriends being directed by Ba'alsy (including the Illianer noblewoman who can't be fully responsible for what we see in this chapter but could be involved) or if they're all different stooges for a singular person.

The First’s city-state was a province of Tear in all but name, and she would no doubt like Illian’s aid. And there were many in Illian who said it was time for another war, that Tear was taking more than a fair share of the trade on the Sea of Storms. A likely net to snare him, if he had not seen three like it in the past month.

Berelain's situation isn't quite as bad as Domon assumes, but yes. It's fun that we're setting up this bit of worldbuilding now when we won't even meet her until the start of book 4.

Like most people who had never been to the Borderlands, Nieda did not believe in Trollocs. He had tried telling her the truth of it; she enjoyed his stories, and thought they were all lies. She did not believe in snow, either.

Illian must have been doing alright in the unnatural winter, then - even if things were colder than usual, they weren't so cold as to make farming impossible. No wonder the Dark One switches tactics next year.

Dangerous coins. One or two might pass, but so many would say to most people exactly what Nieda thought. There were Children of the Light in the city, and although there was no law in Illian against dealing with Aes Sedai, he would never make it to a magistrate if the Whitecloaks heard of this. These men had made sure he would not simply take the gold and stay in Illian.

While I'm sure the Whitecloaks have been doing this off-and-on throughout their whole existence, I get the feeling that Niall's made this a big point for his terrorist cells to get Tar Valon as isolated as it was during Hawkwing's siege. Most people would under normal circumstances take Nieda's approach: Yeah it sucks that it's witch gold, but it's real witch gold and that's better than no gold.

Domon reared to his feet. “Roust the crew, Yarin. Find them and tell them Spray sails as soon as there do be men enough aboard to handle her.” Stuffing the parchment into his coat pocket, he snatched up the bag of gold and pushed his second out the door ahead of him. “Roust them, Yarin, for I’ll leave any man who no makes it, standing on the quay as he is.”

Poor Domon. Bro had no idea what he was getting into buying that seal; much like most Darkfriends assumed their oaths would never trigger in their lifetimes, for most of recent history getting your hands on a seal wouldn't have meant anything at all. But he's been living a constant nightmare since a little before book 1 began and unlike Rand he didn't get a month off.

And of course, things are only gonna go downhill from here.

“Spray do sail now. To sea.” Domon cut off Yarin’s protests about light and tides, and Spray not being built for the open sea.

I expect that while Domon often threatened to leave sailors behind, this is one of the only times he's actually done so.

In thin red wax below the signature were impressed the Rising Sun seal of Cairhien and the Five Stars of House Riatin.

And so even the King of Cairhien is a Darkfriend. Humanity is thoroughly corrupted at this point.

He had heard that Whitebridge had been burned to the ground right after he sailed from there, and there had been rumors of Myrddraal as well as Trollocs. It was that, all of it together, that had first convinced him he was not imagining things, that had had him on guard when that first odd commission was offered, too much money for a simple voyage to Tear, and a thin tale for a reason.

It's great that the thing that convinces Domon that it's all about him was in fact just the thing he was only tangentially connected to. The Wheel is so far ahead of the Darkfriends that it's difficult to see any of them standing a chance no matter how many Turnings pass.

The disk felt hard and smooth in his hand, and not at all valuable except for its age, but he was afraid it was what his pursuers were after. Lightsticks, and ivory carvings, and even bones turned to stone, he had seen other times, other places.

Since the seven Ages don't last anywhere near long enough for fossilization to be a natural process, I wonder what crazy shenanigans go down in age six or seven to make them such a thing going forward.

“The Taraboners and the Domani have always squabbled over Almoth Plain and Toman Head. Even if it has come to blows this time, a careful man can always find trade. West, Yarin.”

Sadly, Domon won't quite be careful enough... It's way more of a war zone than even he expects!

[quibliography]

Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu

Synopsis:  This novel is about the many roles of "Generic Asian Man" and the dream of one day playing "Kung Fu Guy". Willis Wu is an extra even in his own life, from "Disappointing Son" in the SRO to another waiter at the Golden Palace restaurant. But when he starts deviating from the script. When he finally gets a line of dialogue on the constantly running show Black and White. Can he actually leave Chinatown or is this just another part to keep him in character?

My Quibs: It is a bit of a wild read. The beginning takes off at 100mph with a ton of assumptions that come with being a minority and a child of immigrants. And as both, I was able to get in sync with the wavelength he picked quickly enough to not lose patience with the book. It initially seemed like a very meaningful message, but filtered through a very thick lens of jaded angst. My take on it (and I strictly mean the first third-ish of the novel) is that the story is showcasing the real world as Hollywood. Societal rules dictate who gets to speak and how we're portrayed just as definitively as any script. Almost at birth, we've been pre-assigned our role "generic Asian" both on screen and in life. But the message I thought he was trying to convey was what could happen if we tried to play a different role in a world with such a strictly controlled script. The Hulu series kinda splits this concept to show the duality of worlds: public versus private, performance versus real. Willis Wu is a real person trying to enter a new role in the Hollywood version of reality. Lana Lee is a TV character trying to be more dimensional like a real human in the real world. Both of them are on the same journey but from either end of the spectrum. (Again, this is my perspective from the first half of the show.)

Then both book and TV series veer wildly and I very quickly lost the thread of what Yu is trying to say. The book especially takes a hard turn into a really loosely held metaphor about representation and expectations? Like, Willis is now fantasizing at 10x speed a relationship with Lana and we're suddenly in a kids show where he's lamenting about being a bad father?? Where are we? Did something happen to you while you were writing this, Charles? Are you okay? And then we're immediately thrown into a court room scene and Big Brother is suddenly back in the picture. He goes on a tirade for the last x pages about what I though Yu was trying to poeticize earlier. The paintbrush becomes a hammer and no one likes being whacked over the head with anything. He also doesn't have much of a point except that he's really angry. At everyone, including himself.

The TV series takes an equally hard turn in the opposite direction. Suddenly we're being catered to a murder mystery that doesn't make any sense. Big Brother is on the run but maybe also dead but also guilty of a crime but also the crime never happened. And as I mentioned earlier, Willis finally gets a major character role in the show and Lana is now a regular waitstaff at the restaurant. But to what end? You had a second shot to refine your point, Charles, but I still don't get what you're trying to say!

Should you read it? Maybe try the Hulu series first. If you can get through it, maybe you'll find the novel interesting.

Similar reads? Lol. Um. Yeah, I got nothing.

(Spoiler Alert!) This can't be spoiled because that would require me to know how it ended and I'm still lost. I feel like I was stranded mid-story because someone tore out the last several chapters. Possibly even replaced the last half with an entirely different book. Who even are those characters in that last chapter? Are they related to the characters we met in the first chapter?

What did you think of Interior Chinatown?

Couple soapbox nitpicks: For someone who doesn't like objectification for how he looks, there was an extensive scene of him judging someone for being Ethnically Ambiguous Woman Number One. And there was definitely a lot of racial tension between being black and being Asian. For instance, "Turner sees that you're back on script, gets back into character himself." Turner, the deliberately defined black role, which also had a lot of objectification 👀, seems complicit in both keeping Willis in his Asian role and himself in his black role. Yikes. Although I think this was mitigated in the TV series when Turned joins Lana and turns against the script. Even gets an extra layer of self-reflection. Although Green also was given this dimension which ugh, felt like All Lives Matter pandering. What are you trying to SAY?? What is the POINT here??

Oh! And also! Fatty's spicy sauce was such a transparent play on the David Chang and the chili crunch debacle. But like, what's the opposite of a hot take?

[lunaekalenda]

Omg can I request a scenario with Levi in season 4? So you know how he's supposed to keep watch over Zeke in the forest? One of the Yeagerists finds out their location and lies to Levi that his wife is giving birth so Levi rushes back to town and leaves the other soldiers in charge of keeping an eye on Zeke. And by the time Levi meets up with his wife, she's very confused as to why he came in such a rush. I've read the manga so I also want to add onto what happens next but idk if you write manga spoilers so 😭 anywho the explosion doesn't end up happening tho! :D

ofccc!!! i hope you like it!! <3 sorry if i wrote to much fluff it just came :’) i took some manga spoilers so read under your own risk under the spoiler line!!

a/n: i didn't took the canon manga words or events!

❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁

❁ levi x female!reader

❁ some bad talking against zeke :’), pregnancy and death.

❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁

Zeke opened another wine bottle and drank, being cautious with the book he has been reading. Levi looks at him, his face totally unexpressive but his eyes look at Zeke with disgust. They have been days in that place, sleeping in tents, near the Forest of Giant Trees. He’s in charge of Zeke, with some of his closest soldiers, who are now drinking some wine in reward for their hard work, even when Levi told them to have some water instead.

“Come on, Captain. We also want to have fun...”

He couldn’t stop his soldiers, they deserved it. He looks to the campfire in font of him, the flames reflected in his grey eyes. He thought about his family, the one he’s about to have. You’re pregnant with his baby, the baby you two wanted for a long time. Armin told him he estimates less than a week for you to give birth.

And he’s trapped in this forest with a fucking bastard. He looks at Zeke. He seems strangely calm, as he wasn’t being watched by humanity’s most strong soldier ever. The one that cut his arms and legs more than once, and was about to kill him at least another two. But he didn’t learn about it, and keeps trying to get killed.

“Levi, you look too serious. Do you want some wine?”

“Drink it yourself and hopefully you’ll choke to death.”

“That’s not very sweet for a married man, Ackerman.” Levi raises an eyebrow, taking his blade out and cleaning it slowly. Zeke looked at the blade, shimmering in the light. He took his eyes to the book once again. Some fast steps were heard. Levi took out his blades and, with a look to his soldiers, they all stood in their positions. A little girl, with the Corps jacket, searched the Captain with her eyes. He looked at her.

“Captain Ackerman, I have news from the District!”

He looked at his soldiers, one of them behind her, in case she tried to hurt the Captain. Levi’s gaze told them to be alert around her. Zeke looked at the girl from behind his book.

“Talk, then.”

“It’s your wife... She’s having complications with the birth. She’s about to have the child, but the possibilities of them both surviving are minimum.”

Levi’s eyes reflected true terror while he was listening to her. He looked back to the bearded man. He keeps reading, while drinking. He looks then to his loyal subordinate.

“You should go, Captain. We’ll have an eye on this man.”

Levi nods. He looks at the girl closely, analyzing her. He talks before taking his horse.

“Keep one eye in this girl too. She seems like a liar.” Right after that, he rode his horse, going as fast as he could. During all the way, he though how you were. How the baby is. If you two are okay. If he's late to save one of you. 

He obligated himself to fix his attention on the way and keeps going, He arrived to the city at almost night. He searched his home, the one the army gave him after getting married, to avoid the Captain and his wife living with them. He opened the door with his hands shaking, and almost run to the living room. He smelled rice. Then, the sound of a knife. He also took out his blades. You both encountered in the corner of the kitchen, your hand holding tightly the knife and his holding the blades. Both of you looked at each other with surprise, before you let go the knife and run towards him. His hands found your waist.

“Levi...” you whisper. You have missed him a lot all this time. He hugged you, his eyes full of tears. He’s trying to relax his breath, but you notice. “Why did you come so fast? Weren’t you watching Zeke?” 

He nods, his hand caressing quietly your belly. 

“It’s the baby okay?” you nod, confused. “And you?”

“Of course, I’m fine. Why?” he sighs before hugging you again. His head buried on you hair, your belly against his worked abdominal. 

“I thought I was late to save you. I thought I lost you and our baby.”

“No, no. Armin came half an hour ago. He told me I’m really healthy and the baby is in a good position to give birth to. We’re both totally fine, but we were missing you.” You pout. His lips found your neck. 

“I also missed you.” His hands cover your belly, and he receives a little kick. You laugh,

“It has been kicking for a while now. It’s the Ackerman gene.” Levi lets out a little laugh. He also knows he has to go back to the camp, to keep watching over Zeke and interrogate the girl who is she and for who does she work. But his soldiers are there, just a minute more. He gets on his knees, near to your baby bump. His hands keep being warm against your covered skin.

“Daddy missed you a lot this days, hm? But we’ll be all together really fast, baby. Don’t make mommy feel bad, yes?”

“I can’t see you as the strongest and fiercer soldier alive if you talk to my belly like that.” He lets out a little laugh, but his brain made “click”. That girl was a Yeagerist. For sure. This was all a trick to make Levi come here and leave his post.

“You have to leave this house. Fast. And don’t go out for a while. They have an eye on you.”

“Were I’m I supposed to sleep then?” You ask, lost and confused. He takes a couple clothes from your wardrobe and put a brown cape on you, covering your head and your bump. “Should I stay with my parents?” you ask. He shakes his head while he keeps searching things you might need. Also, some baby’s clothes, because he’s sure you’re about to give birth.

“No, that’s too obvious.” Levi’s brain was working faster than ever. You need to be in a comfort place, so sleeping in the barricade it’s out. Then, you should be with someone who knows how to help you giving birth. A place where a pregnant woman won’t be found and hurt.

“Historia.” he whispers. “Can you walk fast?”

“Of course.” he took your hand and guided you. You talked to Historia a couple times. You know she’s also pregnant, and protected by some guards. He guides you fast. When you’re in a campsite house, near the town but kinda hidden, he knocks. 

“Were you talking about Queen Historia?” you ask in a whisper. He nods. A soldier opens, without recognizing Levi. His head totally covered by his cape.

“Sorry, this is restricted area. It’s an orphanage...”

“We know that.” Levi takes his cape out of his head. The soldier stands straight and puts his hand in his heart as a salute. You two do the same.

“Tell Historia she’s my wife. They have been rounding around our house, so I hope the Queen can give a favor back and let my wife sleep here until we’re safe.”

The soldier ran up the stairs, to talk to the Queen. He came back faster.”

“The Queen accepts. She’ll be in the best care and, if she gives birth, she’ll be in the hands of the real matrons. Don’t wprry about her, Captain Levi.” He nods before looking at you again. The soldier lefts to give you privacy.

“Be careful. Talk to them if you feel bad or if you need something. And, please, don’t make efforts. The baby it’s near and...”

“Got it, Levi. Don’t worry. I’ll be fine. You should be careful, I don’t want you to get hurt, or worst...”

“I’ll be okay.” he answers. “Just looking to a barbed man. I’ll be back faster than you think.” He takes you again between his arms. You bury your head on his chest, hugging him stronger. 

“I don’t want you to go.” you say in a whisper. He pats your head before giving you a kiss.

“I’ll be right back.” he says. You enter the orphanage with his little smile promising you you’ll be together soon.

-------------------s p o i l e r s  a h e a d -----------------------

Then, he runs back to the camp. Things seem quiet there. Levi hears his soldier’s voices, followed by a scream.

And then the click of a thunder.

All the soldiers he had there were now titans. From different sizes and type, but they had the face of his comrades. And a blonde-haired bastard was running in front.

“This fucking bastard...”

He was surrounded by his now-titans comrades. He had no exit, just killing them. When will this nightmare end? He saw his friends getting killed, he killed friends. He's tired of this macabre game.

“I’m sorry, guys. I’m so sorry...” he thought, before starting to move his blades against his friends’ necks. He saw his faces, his families, every time their blood got into his uniform.

His teary eyes weren’t an obstacle when he kept fighting. He saw Zeke, in the hands of a titan, covered by other two. He killed the first one silently.

Zeke searched him, founding nothing, looking surprised.

He killed the next one. There was just the one carrying Zeke left

“You thought I was not going to be able to kill my comrades? That’s dirty play.” Zeke looked at the man with fear in his eyes before turning into the beast titan. Levi smirked.

“Pathetic.” Zeke says. Levi's blades are covered in blood. "I'm going to kill you."

Zeke took the head of the titan carrying him. He looked around for Levi. A near movement caught his attention, making him throw a smashed titan head to a branch. Levi cut branches to distract Zeke, right before covering his neck with thunder spears.

"Did you think that converting my subordinates into titans will stop me? that i wouldn't kill them? You don't know how many comrades I killed."

Zeke's neck exploded, making is titan fall. Levi went back to the flor and searched Zeke between all that blood and flesh. He was charred.

"I'm not going to kill you... yet."

Levi took Zeke by the head and dragged him.

"I'm so sick of you, barbed bastard."

[firespirited]

Here’s my review of Border 2018: the short story is available in the book: Let The Old Dreams Die and the movie is available on hulu and disney free and others at $4 - spoilers under the cut.

It’s a lovely story about Tina, a brilliant customs officer who can sense people’s emotions. She discovers that she’s not ugly and broken she’s just different. I recommend the story, it took me just over an hour to read, the movie is stunning too but has a secondary plot that undermines the core message. Tina’s story will resonate and ache with you if you’re deemed different or damaged, don’t fit western gender ideals... basically anyone who’s felt uncomfortable with eugenics talk because hey that could be you and people you love. Both the book and the film have graphic but tender sex scenes between unusual bodies and a bunch of the reviews seem to be more distressed by “uggos getting laid” than some really disturbing history that’s a lot like our own.

Tina is a troll, there are very few left: a genocide program in the 70s saw them placed in institutions or labs where they died, it’s been covered up and followed by cultural genocide as the few remaining trolls have been raised in adoptive or foster families, their tails cut off and told they are humans with a chromosomal disorder. Tina was raised by a father who would be considered loving if he hadn’t kept his daughter’s heritage from her and stood up for her. She would have known to avoid storms (a lightening strike left her badly hurt) and spend more time in nature which is where she’s healthiest and happiest.

She has a naf boyfriend that she keeps around for the company, they don’t have sex because they tried once and it hurt, she accidentally gave him licence to cheat when she secretly hoped he’d say “no: there will only be you”. He’s a bit of a freeloader but it’s not abusive and it gives her a sense of normalcy so she’s ok with this arrangement.

She gradually uncovers her identity and her family history as she meets a male troll called Vore who falls for her, he’s hiding something she can’t figure out and experiences her own new desires and some hidden anatomy. Both the book and the film end with her happy, living the life she wants to live and having something she’s long wanted.

Here’s the thing, Vore, as a male troll makes unfertilized embryos every few months and they die within a few days. These “eggs” can be moulded into looking like exact replicas of any given human baby. Vore who lives constantly on the run as he doesn’t fit in human society makes a living using his eggs to steal babies and sell them. This isn’t great obviously, but in the book there’s no malicious reason: he has no family, no community but it’s something he can do so he does it. At the end of the book, he’s never going to do it again.

So “humans have every reason to hate trolls because they’re baby snatchers” doesn’t work, Vore became a monster because he’s without any guidance or community, he gives it up because Tina shows him that humans aren’t all genocidal trash.

But big spoiler alert and sickening addition, in the movie, there’s child sexual abuse material being smuggled that Tina is investigating due to her work in customs. Vore knowingly sold a baby to a paedophile and stole babies because he’s getting revenge on the humans for his parents’ death and his abuse in care. This not only feeds the myth of the victim turned perpetrator (which is only backed by paedophiles’ dodgy testimony not any actual data btw), it also feeds the “minorities doing a reverse racism” revenge fantasies common among racists especially the benevolent/ignorant types that we have here in europe.

There is a HUGE difference between baby theft because you don’t know better and baby theft because you know how much it’ll hurt. Adding this not just anti-social but actively cruel dimension to Vore takes away from the horror of what was done to the trolls.

“1 minority bad guy doesn’t represent all” applies to real life where there are 100 others who would never, not a fantasy story where Vore is our sole other representative of the troll race, where Tina got a childhood without too much violence and is very kind and Vore's implied to be a product of cruelty. The subtlety given to the rest of the story falls apart for some shock value. It’s absurd. I am so mad: this story is undermined by this stupid addition.

There is a place for stories about how foster care and bigotry messes you up, how generational trauma echoes down the family line even as each generation does their best to do better by their kids. Border 2018 was NOT that place and the book knew how to keep Tina and her racial trauma front and centre.

The film does a very tactful job of showing terrible things: a graveyard with simple unmarked stones as a marker of the disrespect in death and horrible secrecy. The CSAM is people reacting to the light of a small screen and the sound of a baby crying. But it has no grace for Vore to be more than the angry retelling of horrific violence inflicted on his people and his “humans are worse and deserve worse” reasons. Tina is betrayed by her choice of lover in so many ways. This ends up being a trash retelling of an important story and makes Tina look like a chump.

Again, child molestation is not cyclical and it’s not because the perps have trauma. If you’re reading this and were hurt as a kid: the people who may have hurt you in childhood don’t have excuses and you don’t have to live in fear of being a bad adult yourself. Any media that plays into this myth is harmful to survivors and gives stupid ideas to the people around them. Some narratives stick in our culture like serial killers being smart instead of cops being biased and generally terrible at solving crime. You will hear stories about abuse within minority groups like it isn’t in all spheres of society: it’s a lie to make the majority think they’re good and they’re safe.

Full list of trigger warnings if you’d like to watch the movie (it helps to read the story and keep that as “the canon”) and know the extent of it. I’ve tagged a bunch of stuff i personally didn’t find disturbing because we’re all different.

You see, I sat in dread as this film is classified on wikipedia under “films about CSA” and instead got blindsided by the eugenics-genocide done to the trolls who look and sound like people I know and myself when i’m not verbal and unkempt. I kept flashing back to the canadian first nations residential schools, the covid ‘quality of life’ triage orders, the people I love who wouldn’t have been born if genetic testing had been around (my stance is complicated), the indigenous tribes of scandinavia who are more hairy with larger brows or monolids. It’s all very close and all very still sore.

9.20 a man has a SD card removed from his mouth, there’s some spittle and he makes gagging sounds. Dread about what’s on the card begins here.

28.50-30.30: Tina’s boyfriend gets into bed with her, attempts some grabbing, wants to have sex, she’s half asleep and unbothered, she straight up one arm throws him out of bed onto the floor where he whinges. Make sure to tune back in at minute 31 for the disney princess magic.

46.00-46.30: male troll has his version of a period, an embryo birthing, there’s screaming. {I wish I could go out in the woods for my periods and scream it out in 30 seconds}.

49.36-50.30 CSAM investigation, a small camera screen is seen reflected on a man’s face as a baby is heard crying in the video. This happens again in the interrogation room.

57-1.00 make out and consensual sex with unusual bodies and loud growling. they cry during sex and there’s a lot of tongue kissing. She has an ovipositor looking appendage she’s never seen before but they aren’t human so i’m uncomfortable labelling anything. They’re both happy in their gender which is why I’ve used male and female pronouns.

There is happy naked running in the woods and bathing, not going to bother with time stamps for that if you’re offended by non skinny happy bodies that’s a you problem, please never visit the swimming pool or art museums. They also eat insects as part of their diet, this happens several times and it’s not meant to be gross.

1.05.20-1.07 Vore does his “humans should fear us” vengeance and recounts his parents’ and his pain, Tina talks about catching paedophiles who seemed very ordinary people. His childhood pain feels cheapened by this flattening: humans were bad to trolls but just in case that wasn’t upsetting enough, humans suck because they’ll hurt their own human children /s.

1.09-1.10.20 Tina’s dad is playing up his dementia to avoid questions and Tina feels the weight of her grief.

1.17-1.17.35 close up on the squishy unfertilized embryo

1.19.25 man is grabbed out of police car and 3 punched (literally) to death barely off-screen culminating in 1.19.33-39 close up on a dead man’s fresh head wound and 1.19.56 dead body and blood pool seen at a slight distance

1.21 More Vore explaining why humans are pervs

1.22 feeding the not!embryo

1.23-1.24.30 “they took us, I take their children” Tina’s sense of betrayal is agonizing to watch.

1.26.10 the neighbours’ baby is sick and dying, we know it’s not a baby. He didn’t love her enough to stop his crusade.

1.34-36 Tina finds out her true name and her parents’ graveyard, there is joy and grief and power and pain all intermingled. I’m putting this here so you can take a moment to breathe but it would be a disservice to skip it as intense as it may be.

There is a happy ending. Also a 3 wolf hoodie over a silky mint night gown is both terrible and fabulous fashion.

What I take from the film is the euphoria of self discovery and setting boundaries, the beautiful images of nature that’ll stick with me but I choose to believe in the original story.

[thestorycfus]

The Sweetest Apparition - Part 3

Pairing: Peggy Carter x fem!Reader

Summary: Reader is a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and historian who specializes in the life and legacy of Captain Carter. After Nick Fury uses the Tesseract to bring Peggy back, the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. contacts the reader to help her navigate life in the XXI century.

Warnings and notes: Food, mentions of Steggy, mentions of Stucky, very small mentions of war. Other characters are also mentioned. This got way longer than the first two parts, but there’s also way more Peggy here. This series takes place after the last scene of What If… episode one, including spoilers to that episode. Reader uses she/her pronouns.

Word count: 2,304

Series Masterlist

It should be a short walk to your apartment, but you made a small stop each time Captain Carter was curious about something. You also got some take out on the way, making sure to pick at least four different options from separate places and a couple of desserts too, since you didn’t know her taste yet. It was a while before you made it to your street.

During the entire time, your chatting was limited to safe topics - how loud and bright the city was, how many screens there were, the amount of coffee options that existed now. You watched Carter fall in love with her caramel coffee and made a mental note to buy her more sweets.

Soon, the Captain would also need to go shopping. Fury had gotten her the formal white blouse and the black pants she wore now, an outfit much more discreet than the uniform she was wearing when she fell, but that was her entire wardrobe at the moment. That was another mission you should handle, but it could wait until after lunch.

When you finally got home, you placed the food over a kitchen counter and gave Carter a quick tour of the apartment. It wasn’t much, but hopefully it would be enough for both of you until she was more familiar with this century. The tour ended where it started: in your tiny kitchen. You pulled a stool for the Captain and presented her with the options for lunch.

“I suppose you’ve never tried some of those, so I got a few different meals. Burritos, sweet and sour chicken, calzones and Pad Thai. For dessert, there’s lemon tart and triple chocolate cake. I might have gotten a little carried away.”

Peggy took a seat and examined her options. You wondered if that would be, technically her first meal since the 40’s.

“They are all tempting, but I might start with this one.” Her eyes were fixated on a burrito as if it was the Holy Grail. Yeah, that was surely the first time she ate in seventy years. She dove in, so focused on her meal that you didn’t dare to interrupt. Meanwhile, you took the other stool and picked a calzone, eating it while you watched Carter.

You were still trying to wrap your head around the fact that she was really here, and it was surprising that you hadn’t completely freaked out so far, but the prospect of the rest of the day started to worry you. The Captain would certainly have a lot of questions and, if there were inquiries that Fury left for you to answer, they probably pertained more to her personal life than to great historical events.

If the registers about her were right, it wouldn’t be long before the real conversation started. Peggy Carter was too smart to have such a debate in the middle of the street, but she wasn’t known for stalling. As soon as she finished her meal, in the privacy of your (now shared) kitchen, you would have to provide about seven decades of answers.

Before you could try to prepare yourself, she was done with her second burrito. You almost suggested dessert, but the look she gave you left no room for pauses. Carter turned on her stool to face you directly, her posture becoming straighter and her eyes never leaving yours. She was the perfect image of Captain Carter, the hero, the legend who defeated all odds. Still, when she spoke, there was softness in her voice.

“The meal was lovely and so is the apartment. I can’t thank you enough for you kindness, Agent L/N, but I must ask a few things more of you. If you have studied about my life, you must know what happened to Steve Rogers after I was gone.”

You should be ready for that. Of course her first personal concern would be about Rogers. His story with Carter went down in history as a tragic tale of love, bravery and loss. To his last days, Rogers had made it his mission to honor her legacy, but that wasn’t all that he did. How do you tell a person that the love of her life went on to live a decades long, fulfilling relationship with someone else, even though, from her perspective, they were together the day before?

“Please, call me Y/N. And you can ask anything, Captain. I will tell you everything I can.” You took a deep breath, going through the words in your head in search of the best way to let her know. It was best to keep nothing out. Carter deserved that. “Steve Rogers continued to serve as the Hydra Stomper until the war had ended and all known Hydra operations had been eliminated. After that, he stepped out of the suit so that Howard Stark could continue his research with the Tesseract. I believe neither of them ever gave up on bringing you back, but, in many ways, they also moved on to build new lives.”

You made a small pause, in case she wanted to say something, but Carter only gave you a nod, encouraging you to continue. It was impossible to look away from her eyes, or to keep anything hidden when she stared at you with such intensity. Even in silence, sitting still, she emanated a power that kept you talking.

“A few years after the war, Rogers and Stark started an intelligence agency to keep the world safe from threats we could barely understand. They named it S.H.I.E.L.D., because of you. That is the agency I work for, directed by Nick Fury.” There was something poetic in the way that same agency ended up being the reason Peggy Carter was back, but it wasn’t your place to point that out. “Rogers never stopped fighting, even without the suit. He was a legendary agent, working along with James Barnes until they retired. They were also together for the rest of their lives.”

That was the piece of information you feared would break Carter’s heart, but she had a bright smile after hearing that.

“That suits them. All of them.” The joy in her voice sounded so sincere, and you couldn’t help but ask.

“Were you and Rogers… Together? It is said so in the official files, but…” In your studies, you sometimes wondered if their relationship was just a myth, maybe a publicity stunt to humanize the fallen super soldier. It was your job to question the data, but you had never paid that possibility much attention until now.

Instead of being offended by your invasion of her privacy, Carter laughed so lightly and freely that you felt your cheeks getting warm.

“Oh, darling, Steve Rogers had a heart too big to have only one soul mate. He was the love of my life, yes, and I was the love of his, but not the only one. A love so beautiful and dedicated is supposed to be shared. Of course I’m sad I didn’t get to share the rest of his life with him, but I’m relieved to know that he and Bucky had each other. And that’s not to say I’m a being of such virtue that I’m above jealousy. I felt jealous of Steve alright, many times, but I could never be jealous of him with Buck. They fit well together and they were good for each other. They were real, just as Steve and I were. Steve deserved to be loved through a lifetime. I’m grateful that he was.”

Carter’s eyes shined with tears, but she didn’t allow any to fall. Maybe she would let herself grief for the lost possibilities later, but for now she was handling such an emotional journey with more elegance than you thought possible. It didn’t seem to be an act at all. On the contrary, what touched you the most was the honesty in her words. That selflessness of being genuinely happy to hear of how her soul mate lived on without her, in love with someone else, told you more about Peggy Carter than any history book ever had. And that’s how she reacted right after being thrown into the next century, coming directly from a war and landing in a world she didn’t recognize.

“I don’t think history ever made you justice, Captain. The general public thinks of you as a hero, but they’re so far from knowing the person behind the suit... You know, it’s very nice to meet you.” You couldn’t help but sharing a bit of what was on your mind. To that moment, your hero was turning out to be even better than your daydreams, and it was only fair to let her know so.

At that, she gave you a big smile and your heart skipped a beat. You would have a hard time sharing an apartment with this woman.

“You are far too kind to me. To be honest, they never showed much interest on me, suit or not, until I went against official orders and started throwing tanks around and fighting the battles that needed to be fought. I am more concerned about what I am able to achieve, regardless of how they will see me. And there’s no need to call me Captain, Y/N. Heavens, we live and work together now and you’re my guide to modern life. Peggy is fine. And it’s nice to meet you too.” She took the initiative to get a slice of chocolate cake, already making herself at home. You had the feeling that her adaptation to this world wouldn’t be too difficult, all things considered. Peggy Carter would take whatever she was given and make more of it than anyone imagined possible.

“As you wish, Peggy. Speaking of that, there’s a lot I think you’ll like to see about life now. What else are you curious about?” You took your own slice of cake, trying to feel at ease in this conversation. You couldn’t be on high alert whenever Carter was around if she was going to be around all the time, but that was easier said than done. Your responsibilities here were enormous and, to be frank, you were determined to be your best self and impress her, even if just a bit. Maybe telling her about the wonders of nowadays technology would do the trick.

“I am curious about everything. I can’t wait to know all about the development of science, or what I missed in seven decades of sociopolitical turmoil, but there’s one more person I’d love to hear about before we get to that. You mentioned Howard moving on with his life, didn’t you? What exactly was that little menace up to while I was gone?”

Now, that was a rich topic of conversation.

“Well, Stark continued his research with the Tesseract and with many other projects, sometimes along with the US government, and he built a billionaire empire. Weapons, all sorts of technology, wild parties. The man had everything. He has a son, Tony, who inherited the tech, the money and the brains, but with a stronger inclination to heroism. You see, Tony Stark built himself a supersuit, partially inspired by his father’s Hydra Stomper, but with a larger variety of uses. It’s said that Steve Rogers was a sort of mentor to him, but I couldn’t get Stark to talk a lot about it when I interviewed him.”

You couldn’t tell which part made Peggy more excited. She nodded along as you listed Howard Stark’s achievements, as if it was all expected, and her eyes got wider when you told her about his son. When you mentioned Rogers, she almost jumped in her seat. She was already invested, but dropping that name sealed the deal.

“Fury gave me this.” She took two business cards out of her pocket. “It has his telephone number and Barton’s too. Could I use your telephone to call him? I would like to meet this Tony Stark, and I bet Fury would be able to reach him.” 

Giving Director Fury a call from your cellphone felt strange, but how could you deny Peggy that? If the Director gave her the number, he wanted her to be able to reach him, right? 

Instead of dialing yourself, you showed Carter how to use the phone. She looked like a kid on Christmas whenever she was given access to new technology. You would make sure she got a cellphone of her own soon so you could show her everything the device could do. 

She called Fury and you waited as they talked for less than two minutes. Peggy handed you the phone when she was done, with a smile that said she got what she wanted.

“So, what did the Director say?” You asked, anxious to know the outcome of the call.

“We’re meeting Tony Stark tomorrow at 2pm in his tower. Was it him who named it Stark tower or is that Howard’s doing?” She narrowed her eyes a bit, still smiling.

“The tower was built by Tony, so I think we can’t blame Howard for that one.” You joked. “Are you meeting Fury at S.H.I.E.L.D. before you two go to Stark’s?”

“Oh, Fury is not going. He booked the meeting for you and me, if you would like to accompany me.” Peggy sounded hesitant, as if she had just considered that you might not want to join her on that plan. 

"You’re asking me if I wish to be there when Captain Carter meets Tony Stark? Please, if I didn’t get the chance to be a part of that exchange, I would beg you for a detailed retelling as soon as you got home.” 

Your reply made Peggy laugh once more, and you were getting used to that sound very quickly.

[interact-if]

The A/PI Heritage Month interviews are coming to a close soon! For Day 8, we have lovely Aster! :chinhands:

Aster, author of Nevermoore

A/PI Heritage Month Featured Author

They say that curiosity killed the cat, but it won’t be satisfaction that’ll be bringing you back. Again. And again. And again.

The simple act of visiting your parents turns into something much more than what you were expecting when your car suddenly breaks down in the middle of nowhere, and you find yourself right beside a small town that’s engulfed by the trees.

Some of the residents you met right away were welcoming enough, happy to try and lend a helping hand when they can. But their smiles seemed more apologetic than happy, and their eyes looked at you with regret.

You never really did understand why that was…

Until you died.

So now, you are an unwilling participant in an endless cycle of death and resurrection. And the more you learn about the bloodstained history of the town and the past of its people, the more you'll get tangled up in a web of secrets that threatens to keep you there forever.

So welcome, newcomer… to Nevermoore.

(INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT UNDER THE CUT!)

Q1: First of all, introduce us to your project! What is it about?

Nevermoore is planned to be is a supernatural story wrapped in a little horror bow about a cursed town that’s both lost to the trees and lost to the ages. Relatively normal lives can still happen there...well, as normal as it gets when not only is aging put to a pause, but dying isn’t even a permanent thing. And the duration of the stay, as far as the town is concerned, is forever.

And unsurprisingly, these effects of the town are barely half of the secrets and mysteries that it holds...But the question is, does the latest new resident that ‘accidentally’ stumbled across it (spoiler alert that’s you) really wants to know what they are?

...Perhaps some things are just better left forgotten.

Q2: If it’s not too spoilery, what are you most excited about your project?

Oh, there’s so many scenes and reveals I want to get to already that it’s hard to choose! But if I had to be specific, the one I’m most excited in writing out is Sterling’s (an RO) backstory! I don’t mean to play favorites or anything, but I like to think that their backstory as having the most Hollywood movie levels of drama and intrigue.

Sterling was honestly the first character I made for this story, even before the MC, so I can’t help myself in having some fun with this!

Q3: What inspired the current project you’re working on?

Believe it or not, Nevermoore’s first iteration was supposed to be a very specific, very self-indulgent AU fanfic of this piece of media I was into back in like, 2014? The drafts of that had remained in my Google Drive, unchanged and unworked on, that is until about two years ago when I discovered the wide, diverse world of interactive fiction.

Inspired to create a story to share with others, I ended up reviving those old documents. The plot and the characters had to be massively overhauled to make it more my own of course, and some inspiration was also been taken from shows like Stranger Things and Dark for their eerie and secretive small-town aesthetics.

Q4: Do you pull from your own identity for inspiration? How has that been reflected in your work?

...Admittedly, not so much. It was an embarrassingly lack of foresight on my part (as a first generation Filipino-Canadian), because it somehow never occurred to me that I can, in fact, add characters who are like me into my own writing. Well, lesson learned. Good news is that I already have some side characters planned who’ll be Filipinothat will show up later on in Nevermoore’s demo, as well as have a Filipino RO in a future wip. The latter of which I am very excited about!

With that being said, I will share that MCs parents in the story are actually loosely based on my own parents who were Filipino immigrants! I won’t elaborate on what parts, but I’m planning on integrating some more of their personalities in the upcoming patch. I really want dedicate those characters to them, since they’ve already sacrificed so much to bring me and my sibling here in Canada to have a better life! :)

Q5: What’s been your experience so far? With writing, with the if community...

There’s no doubt in my mind that getting involved with the IF community has been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made, despite being incredibly internet shy at first. I’m glad to have meet so many amazing IF writers and readers, and I definitely wouldn’t have gotten as far as I did with my projects if it weren’t for our constant support, help, and hype for each other.

This community has been so wonderful and welcoming, and I can’t wait to see it grow even more!

Q6: Do you have any future projects in the works?

At least three so far, actually! Nothing is fully established yet, just some concepts and vibes. But the genres are high-fantasy, postapocalyptic-ish, and sci-fi.

The first is about a character who’s an aspiring writer (heh) that suddenly finds themselves ‘isekaied’ into the fantasy world of the still-incomplete book they were working on. The second is about an immortal from the dawn of humanity trying to live through the endof humanity ft. zombies(?). And the third is about a volunteer of a cryosleep experiment gone wrong and ends up waking up 1000 years in the future instead. It seems here that my brain won’t let me rest and is telling me to try my hand in as many genres I can haha!

Q7: Finally, what piece of advice would you give to fellow authors?

This is advice that I still have to work on following myself but: Don’t stress too much on your first drafts, it’s called that for a reason! Focus on getting the basic ideas/dialogues/etc down and don’t be afraid to write ‘badly’, since there’s always time for you to polish it into something you’re happy with later on!

Otherwise, you’ll only get into this cycle of editing the same sections over and over, and that can burn you out before you even have the chance to work on the parts you’re actually excited for!

[volturicangetit]

HEADCANON- The Volturi with human mates:

ARO:

He would find you fascinating

Would try to get back into the human lifestyle a bit

Would lay in bed with you while you sleep, cook for you and make sure you get outside every day

This man would make sure that you would be super healthy

Has clue anymore about human stuff

" Why are you drinking clear blood? " " It's water, what the fuck is clear blood? "

Makes sure you take medication if you have to and makes you take vitamins

Don't forget to drink water (: because this man will remind you to do so every five seconds (:

Gets overprotective

Would try to turn you a.s.a.p

He will constantly be scared that he might accidentally hurt you, with the whole vampire strength and all

He'll spoil you so much, every book, piece of clothing or food you might want, he'll get it for you

He'll show you off so much

Everyone who comes into the castle has to see how beautiful you are

MARCUS:

This man is just happy to have a mate again

You make him happy again which he loves

He will want you to try but he won't force you

He's constantly afraid that Aro might take you away as well so he'll probably keep you somewhere far away from him and away from Volterra

He enjoys telling you stories about his human years

Do you like history? this man will tell you all about your favourite era

Do you like music? this man will find you some rare musical instrument from your favourite music genre

Do you like art? this man will show you every painting in the world and tell stories about the painters of them if he knew them

This man will treat you like royalty

He will want to cuddle so much, just to feel the heat to your skin and the beating of your heart

He won't really care that you're human, you're his mate and that's all that matters.

CAIUS:

this can go two ways either: you admire his vampirism

He'll love how much stronger he is than you

He's the one without powers so normally he is seen as weaker than the rest

One day he'll be lifting up his bed because he wants to rearrange his room and you'll walk-in

" Did you just pick up your fucking bed? ". " Yes, and watch your language. " " That's so cool! How did you get so strong? You're amazing. "

He'll just be smiling the whole day like a fool

Always tries to show off around you

Tries to get you outside as much as he can because you always love how he sparkles

" You're skin is so beautiful. It's like you're a star or a diamond! "

All of a sudden, he isn't angry all the time anymore

Gets so protective.

Like...scarily protective

Will try to turn you quickly like Aro

This man is the vampire king, he doesn't really like humans

He'll spoil you rotten, even more than Aro

Goes out of his way to make sure you're always content and comfortable

now if you don't like him being a vampire:

He is NOT happy

Will get so mad at you

This man will just manipulate you into liking him

It's not like you really have a choice

Will try to get you comfortable around you

Gets so hurt if you're scared of him

This man will try everything to get you to like him

He just needs someone to love him

" Why are you so afraid of me! " " Please don't yell. "

Will bring you your favourite food to try and win you over

Buys you a puppy or that shirt you've been wanted to buy for a long time

If everything else fails, this man will just turn you so you'll have to stay with his forever (:

FELIX:

Is so scared that he'll hurt you

So. Scared

If he ever accidentally hurts you, he'll beat himself up about it

Is so kind and gentle with you

Loves how much smaller and weaker you are than him

Because let's be honest, this man will tower over anyone.

Immediately asks you to move in with him at the castle

You and Demitri will become best friends

You and Felix pranking other Volturi members

" Why the fuck is my robe baby pink? " " Run? " Run. "

He'll probably want to keep you human but knowing the kings, he won't be allowed to

The kings let you stay with him because you are another thing the can use to keep Felix with them

He'll take you on so many romantic dates

Stargazing, walking through a rose garden, taking you to your favourite city. You name it, he'll do it for you.

This man will want to cuddle so much

Everyone is always afraid of him so to have someone admire him is new

This man will be lovestruck

This man will learn how to paint so that he can make a painting of you

DEMITRI:

You have no choice but to be with him

If you don't want to and run away, he'll just track you down

He is such a gentleman

He'll spoil you so much it's unbelievable

This man will only treat you with respect and love

Normally he isn't seen as super useful since Alec and Jane are now in the picture but you think that he is the strongest person ever

You try to play hide and seek with him to test his gift

Spoiler alert, you always lose

You and Felix will become best friends

This man will show you off to every member of the guard

Everyone knows you and him are together

Much like Felix, he has no choice but to turn you

He won't have too much of a problem with it unless you don't want to be turned

He'll probably get a little cottage near the castle for you two to live in

This man will admire you

He'll just stare at you for hours on end

You and Demitri are such a dream couple

JANE:

She'll despise you first

You're human which makes your life meaningless to her

Eventually, she'll start to like you though

She won't get to close to you due to her trust issues

But don't get fooled, she'll be super protective

A guard only has to look at you the wrong way and she'll have them screaming on the floor

You'll be the only one along with Alec who she is kind to

Jane could be screaming at someone but the moment you walk into the room she is all of the sudden the kindest and most gentle person alive

You will also be hanging out a lot with Alec

The twins are never apart, they are basically a package deal

Get both or get neither of them

She will want to turn you very quickly

Jane doesn't like humans so no matter if you want it or not, with in the first few months of being her mate you'll get turned

Once you're turned, it's a whole different story

She'll want to cuddle and hang out more with you

ALEC:

He'll be happy with having a mate even if you're human

He'll keep you close to him

Will constantly touch you, either holding you're hand or having his arm wrapped around you. He always needs to know that you're there

Alec loves to lay in bed with you while you sleep

Cuddled up into each other, you're skin warming him up. He'll love it

Will always want to turn you pretty quickly, like his sister

You and Jane better be getting along because you'll be spending a lot of time with her as well

He'll take you on a lot of dates

Constantly brings you little gifts

You'll find a ring laying under your pillow

Or a new outfit hanging in your closet

New books on your bookshelf

A new laptop laying on your desk

I feel like Alec will write you poetry

TWILIGHT TAGLIST

@scuzmunkie​ @thanossexual​ @kpopgirlbtssvt​ @rexburn12

VOLTURI TAGLIST:

@prettyinblack231

[hcneymilkks]

Month

A fake dating au but make it marriage. Two best friends scroll on social media and notice a trend where newlyweds send invites to famous celebrities to see what will happen? An appearance? A gift? Who knows. For the two best friends, as a joke, set up a fake wedding and request the most expensive gifts with the option of money. Sending invites to celebrities ranging from Kim Kardashian to even the Queen, they are surprised and shocked to realize that not only were gifts being delivered nearing the “big day” but a request to be part of the celebration causes the two friends to create a fake marriage in the smallest amount of time they have. 

University AU! Aged-up Haikyuu Characters!

Fashion Designer/Psychologist Oikawa

Humanities Y/N

Rain splattered on the window, causing little droplets here and there to roll down with no hesitation. The quiet hums of lo-fi music made its way around the little bedroom, with vigorous typing accompanying it. 

Backspace.

Enter. 

Click and delete. 

Brain throbbing, a sigh escaping from the lips.

It was no use, the longer the computer was stared at, the more your brain felt like mush.

“Damn him and using me to do his research analysis.”

Speak of the devil.

“Y/n!”

You stood up, turning around and crossing your arms with a glare. There he stood, crossing his arms and leaning against the doorframe with a sly smirk on his face.

Tooru Oikawa.

“How’s the report going? I hope to see it done by tomorrow?”

“Fuck you,” you strided over and pushed his arms, causing him to slightly lose balance. “Just tell me how you managed not getting kicked out yet. I swear you casted a spell on your professors or something. It's like you don’t do anything.”

He feigned hurt. “I do!” He whined. “Just not class related.” He pushed past you and flung yourself onto the bed, burying his face into your freshly washed sheets. “I’m designing a new clothing line inspired by the different volleyball team colours.”

“Is this your way at relieving the pain from not making it to nationals?” you snickered, remembering how pissed off he was after Ushijima told him he should have gone to Shiratorizawa.

“I-you little shit. This is why I never tell you things.”

“Shut up shittykawa you literally are making me do your research proposal. I know nothing about psychology!”

“I’m helping you learn a new subject! It’s time to look into your own brain and see what’s wrong with you!”

…

Three.

Two.

One.

“OIKAWA YOU LITTLE SHIT!” you flung yourself on top of him, garnering an oomph! sound. You smacked his back repeatedly. 

He let it have your way, already coming up with a counterattack. 

With stinging hands and shallow breaths after saying nothing but curses, you stopped and climbed off of him. Immediately, he’s on top of you. Pinning your wrists and getting dangerously closer to your neck. You couldn’t lie, he was attractive, but knowing him and his two-faced personality, you’d rather stay friends. 

But did you really want to?

A part of him knew you wanted him, but was that a risk you were willing to take?

Deep breaths. 

A low chuckle. “You love me y/n. I know you do, and I also know you’d do anything for me.” He smirked and pressed a kiss oh so close to your lips, getting up and dusting off his black shirt.

“I’m leaving! Remember, the paper has to be done by tomorrow!”

The door closed and for a moment you looked at your ceiling.

Eyes wide. 

Taking a pillow, you screamed into it.

“SHITTYKAWA!”

“Here you hoe, now for once in your life do your own work.”

You stomped into one of the many University studios, aiming the folder at Oikawa’s head much to his dismay.

“Thank you love you!”

You glared at him and waved a hand. “You definitely owe me like five bowls of ramen after what you put me through. I can’t believe you made me read so much on children’s brains and development.”

“I mean they said to choose something I liked, so children and volleyball worked together. Plus, if I actually had to conduct the research, my nephew’s volleyball club would have been perfect.” He finally turned around after pinning the teal fabric to the mannequin, striding towards you and ruffling your hair.

You mumbled incoherent curses as Oikawa picked up his sketchbook, writing down a quick note before closing it.

“Let’s go, I’m starving.”

The fragrant air of spices and creamy broth filled the little shop, making you drool. Grateful that Oikawa was rich, you took the opportunity to order almost everything on the menu.

“Y/n isn’t that-” you growled at him and he smirked.

“Feisty, you know I love that.” he winked and you gagged.

While waiting for the food, both of you were scrolling on Instagram. Having most of the same friends, it was no surprise that your timelines almost looked identical. Rolling his eyes, Oikawa saw a group photo of most of the volleyball players Hinata was pictured with, wanting nothing more than to squish the little one. 

But then something caught your eyes. 

You looked up at Oikawa who seemingly had the same expression, eyes wide, yet confused.

The dead groupchat came back to life with a link sent by Matsukawa, something about a bet.

matthewkawa 

Look at this lol

Sent a link

[Youtube storytime: The Time I Invited Drake to My Wedding (Spoiler Alert: He Came!)]

hannamaki

Wait why would someone invite a celebrity? Aren’t they hard to ask?

nishinoyya

Wait that’s cool! Asahi-san can we invite Jason Derulo to our wedding?

acai

Wait...what? What wedding?

y/n

Waittt i’ve seen that video

Apparently as a joke the person sent lots of invites to different celebrities. Most of them gave gifts or money but I guess Drake went

iwachew

LOOL IMAGINE Y/N AND CRAPPYKAWA DOING THAT

yoyoinata

I can see that woah!

milkyama

Psh! Flattykawa and y/n. I can’t see it. y/n deserves better lol

fabkawa

OI TAKE THAT BACK STUPID

y/n

Oi don’t talk back to my child like that shittykawa

fabkawa

Shut up y/n and eat your ramen

You glared at him before saying thank you to the waiter. Both minds now occupied with the creamy ramen and soft boiled egg. 

Flipping a page, you smiled. There it was, the fake couple who both fell for each other, breaking so many rules. But who couldn’t resist?

Oikawa scrolled on the computer, typing and clicking. He swiveled around in his seat and went over to you, peering over your shoulder.

You smacked his arm. “Personal space excuse me!” He put his arm up in defence, smirking.

“Remember the post Matsukawa sent?

“Yeah. So what?”

“I made the wedding on May 14th and invited some celebrities. Who did you want to send an invite to?”

You dropped the book. “Say what?”

Oikawa dragged you from his bed and sat you down on his uncomfy chair. Indeed, the computer screen showed a cheesy website where people rsvp to weddings. Already half of the groupchat accepted and you know this had to be a joke.

“Oikawa are you dumb? Who are you marrying? Wait no, who would want to marry you?” you looked at him and he pouted.

“Iwa-chan said no, Mad Dog scares me, Ushijima is definitely a no, so you’re left.”

“Who said I would do it?”

“I invited Stray Kids.”

Are you kidding me?

“This isn’t real, we’re not gonna really get married right? I mean if we were technically speaking, the wedding is less than a month away and we don’t have money, a reception place or any other sappy wedding shit.” You looked at the list and sure enough, Stray Kids was there.

“No y/n nothing is going to happen trust me. Plus, who doesn’t like free gifts? I tried to ask for expensive gifts and money because someone’s wardrobe and apartment looks ugly as hell.”

“You better not be talking about me bitch. I’m gonna set that sketchbook on fire.”

Oikawa chuckled. “Add some more people on the list, I wanna see how far this can get.”

“I never said I agreed to it,” you mumbled but nonetheless added in a few of your favourite celebrities, including the queen. 

After all, if this worked, free money. What’s the harm in that?”

A lot went wrong after that.

It was three am a week after the planning and your phone wouldn’t stop ringing. Grumbling, you answered the call without looking at the number…..which was a stupid mistake.

“Y/N! HOW DO I CANCEL THE WEDDING?!”

“Relax Papi you said nothing would happen? Free money right?” you yawned not even realizing what you said.

Oikawa sputtered on the other line, shaking his head and ignoring how you called him Papi for some reason. “Yeah but uh...we have a little problem.” 

“Hm…”

“Jason Derulo accepted the invite ...and he can’t wait to see the ceremony.”

From that moment, you were fully awake. “WHAT?!!”

“What do you mean you can’t cancel the wedding?” you rubbed at your temples, losing more brain cells by the minute.

"Okay so apparently my last name is common around celebrities, seeing as my father owns different restaurants. So it’s not a surprise to them that they wouldn’t attend the wedding.’

“Fuck.” you breathed out. How did the both of you not realize this?

“Okay so um..what now?”

Oikawa ruffled his air. “We go through with it.”

"Fuck no.” 

“What why?”

You’re the one who thought of this crazy idea! It’s all your fault!” 

“But you’re the one who put Jason Derulo in there!”’

You smacked your forehead. “It was a joke and for free money! Look what you got us into.”

Yells back and forth, each blaming the other. It was like the night wasn’t going to end soon. Tired from the arguing, you smacked Oikawa’s chest. “Stupid,” you mumbled. “I don’t want to do this!”

Oikawa scratched the back of his neck. “But what if I want to?” You looked up at him confused. “You know, like how Hinata and Tobio fake dated but then became boyfriends.”

“Oikawa, that’s different. That’s dating, this is marriage. It’s adult stuff, I can barely cook!”

“I’ll cook for you.”

You walked away from him, going towards his balcony. The view was beautiful, seeing various stars and the lights shining from Tokyo. “This is too much for me to handle. You're a pain, you know that?”

He wrapped his arms around you and instinctively you snuggled closer to his chest, facing the view so he wouldn’t see your red cheeks.

"Remember when we were children? And we had a whole promise that we would be with each other forever?” you laughed. The classic child marriage pact. It was as if almost all friendships started with that promise. A promise to love and stay with each other no matter what.

“That’s child play.”

He started to rub circles with his thumbs on your arms, you feeling relaxed. “One month. Give me one month after the wedding. We’ll go on a honeymoon to London, I'll teach you how to cook, you can live with me, we can adopt a puppy.” Oikawa gulped and looked at you. “And if you don’t like it, we can pretend none of this happened. In fact i’ll stop bothering you with my assignments and my presence.”

One month. That sounded like a challenge. A challenge that Oikawa was willing to risk everything for. A month to make you fall for him.

“...so we’re splitting the gifts and money equally then, right?”

A/N: I’m back! This has been in my drafts for months. At first it was supposed to be Yuto from Pentagon but after getting into Haikyuu I was like fuck it and changed it to Oikawa. Also because yes LMAO. I hope you all liked it and let me know your comments! Part two will be in the works if people want it, for now its a oneshot aha. 

Much love!

tags: @babyworld , @bakuhoes-dumbass

[jasthelazyelf]

All the Obey me! boys discovering MC has kosmemophobia

Turns out I really have to write overly specific scenarios myself, so here I am. This was my first time writing headcanons, it’s more difficult than it looks like, but I managed! It also turned out way longer than I thought it’d be.

Kosmemophobia: a “fear” of jewelry. People with kosmemophobia will either not wear any jewelry at all, or may be comfortable with wearing non-metallic jewelry. Touching or being touched by jewelry makes these people feel somehow dirty (even though we know majority of jewelry is sanitized), uncomfortable, and will make people want to wash that part of their body it touched. People (dare I say mostly afab) usually notice it early on in their childhood. It is not known what makes people kosmemophobic atm, considering people have it since early childhood.

If you have further questions about it, feel welcome to ask. :)

Total word count: 4800-ish 

Gender of MC is not mentioned

Slight season 2 spoiler alert in Simeon’s part

Warning for verbally abusive parents in Belphie’s part

You have been warned.

Lucifer

He wanted to make the shopping trip enjoyable for the both of you, but especially for you

 He just wanted to take you on a date somewhere where his brothers wouldn’t constantly interfere, even if it was only for a few hours

You two were just window shopping at the mall when Lucifer decided to take you into one of the stores

 It was a store with magical items, from stones to a number of different trinkets, including jewelry

Somehow this was the part he was most interested in in the whole shop

Watching him look over it, especially necklaces made you feel uncomfortable and you had a feeling you knew where this was going

With what little hope you had, you subtly tried to nudge him away, but he wouldn’t budge

He finally took one of the necklaces out of the display and turned towards you

"What do you think? Wouldn’t it suit you?“

en he saw your eyes widen and you taking a step back, a shiver running down your spine, he was taken aback. Did he do something?

"Is something wrong? You don’t like it? It’s fine to just say so.“

 Oh well, you would have to tell him one day, right?

"N-no, that’s not exactly it, it’s just that just the thought of wearing jewelry or even touching it is making me uncomfortable. I know it’s weird, but please don’t make me do this…“

Well this he did not expect at all. He put the necklace back and putting one hand around you, he turned you around and moved to a part of the shop with crystals and rocks of all different colours instead

 "I am so sorry, I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. Let’s look over something else.“

You smiled at him and nodded. You had him curious about this fear of yours, he might have asked later on to give you more details on it.

Whether you are comfortable with sharing information about this with him or not, he respects your fear and does his best not to make you uncomfortable in the future

Mammon

-          Chaotic snuggle boy was all about protecting you and also hugging you, especially when in private where none of his brothers could see

-          It dawned on him pretty quickly that something about you was strange when you sometimes flinched every time he touched your skin

-          It wasn’t every time, and he just couldn’t understand the pattern

-          One day he had had enough, he just couldn’t wrap his head around it, it was driving him absolutely crazy

-          He finally mustered enough courage to ask you

-          "Oi, human, what is it with ya flinchin‘ when I touch ya?“

-          Damn… he noticed after all. You were trying to hide your phobia as much as you could, but you couldn’t help yourself. Well, better come up with the truth now

-          "Hah, w-well it’s not you, I swear. It’s gonna sound weird, but it’s your rings. The feel of them on my skin feels… uncomfortable.“

-          You tried to explain the feeling as best as you could, mostly how touching jewelry just makes you… want to wash your hands and the feeling appears also on other parts on your body

-          First he blinked in surprise, but listened to your explanation

-          Suddenly it all made sense. He only wore his rings on his right hand. You only flinched when he touched your skin with his right hand. How could he not notice this detail sooner?

-          Well, now he knows. He asks you if you’d rather he didn’t wear them near you.

-          If you say you’re going to hopefully get used to it over time, he will keep wearing them, but sometimes takes them off on his own

-          If you state that you’d rather not have to touch them, he will keep in mind to take them off before going for snuggles

-          Doesn’t really think much about it afterwards, he just takes it as a fact

Leviathan

-          Your birthday was getting closer and Leviathan wanted to get you a gift, but didn’t have many ideas

-          So he decided to invite you over to his room to watch some anime and play games, so that he could subtly take the conversation where he wanted and get an idea of what you might be interested in

-          When watching anime, he saw that you really liked the main character

-          Well what a coincidence! He totally imagined you cosplaying the main character and him cosplaying the character’s best friend. Duo cosplays are always the best!

-          "Oh! I once saw a set of their pendants and bracelets as a set on Akuzon! Wouldn’t it be a nice beginning of another cosplay?“

-          Your face completely changed its expression and you tensed when he mentioned it

-          This, of course, didn’t go unnoticed. Was he wrong all along? Did he assume wrongly that you liked the character? Do you actually not like the character at all?

-          Panic intensifies

-          "Oh no, I am sorry, if you don’t like the character, maybe we can cosplay another duo? Forget I said anything about it-“

-          "Levi… calm down, it’s not that I don’t like the character. It’s just the jewelry I am uncomfortable with.“

-          Oh

-          OH

-          Just like- nevermind, even though he probably watched the majority of anime in existence, he couldn’t remember a character who’s trait this would be

-          You tell him it’s okay, it’s a very rare phobia and not even that known

-          May ask a few questions about it and if there is a loophole for it

-          Either way, the idea of getting you jewelry gets thrown out of the window

-          For you birthday, he gets you and him matching hoodies

-          They‘re so soft

Satan

-          That day, Satan invited you on a date to his favourite bookstore

-          You were totally up for it, who knows, maybe you’d find something really interesting

-          Or something that is SO stupid that you just wouldn’t be able to not get it (Yes, I have one such book, I love/hate it so much)

-          He decided to také you to a bookstore you haven’t been to yet. Yay, more adventure! New store layout! So many possibilities!

-          You were browsing through bookshelves, Satan sometimes told about a few books he has in his own room that this bookstore also had

-          Suddenly he spotted someone and got rather excited

-          It turns out it was one of his aquintances and he wanted to introduce them to you. It was an elegant demon, by the looks of it quite rich

-          You were soon told they were one of the best selling authors of the Devildom, with a rather original, but easy to read writing style, which was probably how they got so famous

-          They wanted to shake your hand as a sign of politeness

-          When you saw the massive rings and bracelets on their hand, you gulped and widened your eyes

-          You didn’t want to be impolite, though, so you decided to shake their hand anyway

-          You couldn’t get the feeling of metal out of your hand and you wanted to go to the restroom to wash your hands real quick

-          Satan noticed you were getting tense as you tried to subtly rub your hand with your other hand and ended the conversation smoothly and took you aside

-          "Is there something wrong? Did they hurt you? You can ask for an apology if they did.“

-          You had to smile at this assumption. It warmed your heart to know Satan cared about you

-          "No, it’s just… have you seen all that jewelry? I am not saying they shouldn’t wear it, it’s their choice, but for me that was a living nightmare.“

-          Well he was glad they didn’t hurt you in any way. He was a bit surprised by your explanation and truth be told, he got very curious

-          After you quickly wash your your hands in the nearby restroom, he wants to know more about your phobia.

-          How long do you have it? How much does it affect your life? How did you find the right term? Do you personally know other people with this condition?

-          And so many more. Feel free to tell him there have already been too many questions answered and that you could continue another day in this interview. He’s already thrilled.

Asmodeus

-          You both planned the perfect spa day together

-          After all, who’d know more how to make you completely relaxed, if not Asmo?

-          You end up having lots of fun and you feel SO GOOD and relaxed after you’re all done

-          You hair has never been so very well taken care of, no matter you lenght or type, he probably gives you some useful advice you’ve never heard of yourself, bt it seems to be working, so why not?

-          And your skin is finally properly moisturized

-          All right, what now? Asmo doesn’t want this moment to end yet, he loves hanging out with you and you still had time

-          You end up visiting Majolish and trying on different clothes, even if it’s just for fun. Asmo loves picking out clothes for you and he really does have a good eye for what would suit you

-          You ended up putting on your 20th outfit. Asmo looked at you and thought for a bit. Something was missing.

-          Yes, sure, the outfit was nice and all, but it was missing something… but what?

-          He suddenly got an idea. He ran off for a bit and soon returned with something in his hands

-          When he got cloce to you again, you realized it was a set of small thin elegant bracelet and a metallic necklace to go with it

-          Your blood froze and you started to back away slowly, putting your arms up in defense and shaking your head

-          "What’s wrong? Do you think it’s too much? Maybe even too little?“

-          Before he could run off again for something different that could be to your taste, you quickly stopped him before he could do so

-          "No, wait, the jewelry… is pretty and you’re right it would go well with this outfit. But I am not willing to wear any jewelry. At all. It’s a very rare phobia and I can’t do much with it.“

-          You were surprised this hasn’t come up sooner, but oh well, it happened now

-          Asmo looked a bit disappointed at first, but upon hearing it’s a phobia, his expression softened and he gave you a little smile

-          "O-oh! All right, back this goes, then! The outfit looks good even without it, I just thought it would be a nice touch, that’s all!“

-          You smiled and nodded in acknowledgment

-          He would definitely question you later if it bothered you on others as well and how much. He’ll make a note to himself to wear as little jewelry as possible when spending time with you, depending what you’re comfortable with

Beelzebub

-          You were just meeting everyone in the human world for the first time

-          You were so excited, you had no idea you would ring the bell and Asmo would open the door

-          Everyone started greeting their favourite human like they haven’t seen you in years, when it’s probably been just a few weeks at most

-          These babies

-          Beel wasn’t home at the time, so you decided to surprise him and wanted to make his favourite human world food

-          Luckily, they already had enough ingrediants in the kitchen, so you didn’t have to go shopping as the first thing you’d do

-          Just as you finished, Beel came home. He got very excited to see you again

-          He took off his jacket and- oh no

-          He wanted to hug you, as was his habit even when in the Devildom, but upon seeing that heavy necklace, you had to move up your hands in defence

-          He got confused. Did he sweat too much and stinks now? Did you not like him anymore for whatever reason?

-          The biggest baby made confused puppy eyes, he just wanted to greet you

-          „Ah, I am sorry, could you please take the necklace off? Jewelry and especially jewelry like that makes me uncomfortable when I touch it.“

-          He sighed in relief. You didn’t hate him after all.

-          He quickly ran off, presumably to his room and came back in a minute, now without the chain necklace

-          You smiled happily and opened your arms, an invitation for him to hug and greet you

-          And he sure did!

-          He was just happy he could hug you again without you feeling uneasy about the situation

-          Doesn’t really ask anything else, just in case you’re not okay with talking about it, but he keeps that fact in mind and is now rarely seen with the chain on

Belphegor

-          You were once more taking a nap together. It became a pleasurable habit of yours to join Belphie. After all, you didn’t have to do anything and got some sweet sweet cuddles. What could be better?

-          Well, you finally managed to fall asleep

-          And Belphie got curious about your dreams, so he decided to visit your dream for once.

-          He was really there just to observe, he didn’t want to interfere with anything

-          He wondered what you’d dream about

-          Was it something really sweet? Would you go on an adventure to find the root of youth? Would you be enjoying a swim in a pool? Maybe you’d meet your friends from the human world

-          The posibilities were endless

-          What he didn’t count with, though, was the possibility of you having a nightmare

-          You seemed to be having a fight with two older humans. Maybe they were your parents?

-          You tried to persuade them not to make you wear the massive necklace the woman was holding

-          They had absolutely none of it

-          "Please, just don’t make me wear it. It’s not like it’s mandatory, nothing will really happen if I don’t put it on!“

-          „Nonsense! You need to! We chose this for you before you were even born, how dare you not want to wear it!“

-          "This youth, I swear, what is it that you want?! That it’s not made of silver?! OF GOLD?! Huh? Is that it? Are you really that spoiled?!“

-          "You don’t understand, I wouldn’t wear it even if it was made of the rarest metal ever! Why is it so difficult to understand it!“

-          Belphie was taken aback. He had no idea you were dealing with a struggle like that. When he thought about it, he realized you never wore any jewelry to anything, you always kept it simple with fabric patterns

-          He wondered if this dream was inspired by real life events

-          Why couldn’t some humans understand the boundaries of others was a hard thing for him to grasp

-          He decided to leave the dream and wake up for a bit. He felt you shivering and when he raised his head, he saw a pair of tears running down your cheeks

-          He hugged you tighter and fell asleep again, joining you in your dream

-          You were now alone, angry and upset at your parents

-          He came up to you and started to calm you down. You appreciated it. He couldn’t deny his curiousity and asked about the situation

-          Truns out talking about it helped you calm down more than anything and he spent the rest of the dream with you

Diavolo

-          Diavolo invited you over to hang out

-          He normally doesn’t have much time off, but since he took a liking to you, he managed to persuade Barbatos to give him more free time to be with you

-          Or he just straight up slacks from his work, he doesn’t really care

-          After sitting in the garden for a while and just catching up with each other, you suggested making anouther castle tour

-          Seriously, the castle is huge, you couldn’t fully enjoy it in a day or two, it took a while

-          He hapilly obliged, he knew the whole castle like the back of his hand

-          And there were so many stories connected to different parts of the castle

-          You loved listening to these stories, it was almost like a proffesional castle tour

-          Private, and for free and told by the actual owner

-          By now you at least vaguely remembered some of the more important royals except for Dia, Barbatos and the brothers. Maybe not in detail, but you can at least say you’ve already heard the name before

-          Today he decided to show you the treasury. You were curious what you’d see and if it also held some interesting stories to be told

-          Once the guards let you inside, you found yourself in a huge room with display boxes. Some of them were open

-          Inside the boxes was… jewelry. All different kinds, sizes and colours. You started to look over them

-          You admired the pieces for the fine craftmanship, you really did. Some of them were beautiful and breathtaking

-          Dia saw your awe and wanted you to experience as much as you can

-          "If you want, you can try some of them on, it’s okay.“ He beamed happily

-          You had to laugh a little. You got a bit nervous, but decided to calmly deny his proposition

-          "Don’t get me wrong, there are some beautiful pieces. The composition of some looks really nice! Some look so mild, yet they still say royalty. It’s almost as if it were engraved on them. But I am happy to just admire from aback, wearing jewelry makes my skin crawl. It’s something I’ve been dealing with my whole life.“

-          He nods

-          "That’s perfectly fine, too. I wouldn’t want to make you upset.“

-          He wonders if it is perhaps a common human thing and when you explain it’s extremely rare, he gets excited because he gets to experience something through you that is not common.

-          The rarity of this phobia makes him curious, so he may have some questions, but not as many as Satan

Barbatos

-          OH HE FINALLY GOT A DAY OFF

-          He needed it. He wouldn’t have ever admitted it, but he got slightly clumsier that day, which didn’t go without Diavolo noticing

-          He protested at first, but had to accept his fate anyway, because Diavolo insisted he take the day off

-          You wanted to spend the day in the mall and visit different shops to observe the differences between the Devildom and the Human world

-          You were supposed to write an essay about differences between these two worlds for the Human studies 101 subject

-          Why you had to take THAT class was completely unknown to you, but you attended anyway. I mean come on, those were some easy grades for you, since you were brought up there

-          And so Barbatos joined you on your adventure through the mall

-          Although there were some differences, most of the shops were similar to what you knew

-          Restaurants, cafés, boutiques, wine bars, adult toys stores, book stores, you name it

-          What you didn’t have in the human world was obviously magic tool stores, potion stores and potion igredients stores

-          Barbatos seemed to really enjoy talking about some of the peculiar potions that caught your eye, be it for their vibrant colours or the fact that some seemes to have sparkles in them

-          At last, you managed to come by goldsmith’s. When you saw this shop, you acted like you didn’t and went on your way to a tea house Barbatos suggested visiting after your tour

-          This surprised barbatos, since you spent some time at least writing the name of the shop down to make a note of it, but you weren’t even acknowledging the existence of this one store in particular

-          Once you both got yor tea in the tea house, he couldn’t help but ask why you just did that

-          "Oh, me and jewelry are old enemies. I don’t like wearing or even touching it, I just always want to wash my hands afterwards. I guess it’s sort of like your relationship with rats.“

-          When you mentioned rats, a shiver ran down his spine and immediately understood what you meant. He just took it as a part of you, the person he adored so much and didn’t qestion it any longer

-          He just suggested if you ever needed to vent, he’d be there for you

Solomon

-          You two made plans to bond together in his room in Purgatory Hall after school to let off some steam and vent to each other like human to human

-          This became a semi weekly tradition for you two, you both enjoyed it and you were glad you could relate to another human being

-          You were also staying for dinner that day, luckily for everyone, it was Simeon’s turn to cook

-          Don’t think he didn’t try to swap with him just so he could "impress“ you, though, he totally did

-          You were glad Simeon didn’t budge

-          After eating your meal, you both just flopped onto the couch and just decided to relax a bit

-          In silence

-          He enjoyed these silent moments, the joy of doing nothing together

-          You two soon drifted off to sleep on the couch, so when Simeon was about to tell you it was time to get you back to the House of Lamentation, and found you two asleep next to each other like that, he let Lucifer know you’d be staying the night with them

-          When you woke up and checked your D.D.D. you  almost jumped out of your skin, but then saw the message from Lucifer knowing about your situation through Simeon

-          You decided to scroll through social media, while Solomon was still sleeping

-          He soon woke up when he heard you looking through memes and trying not to laugh. You were failing miserably, though

-          Oh well, what’s done is done, now he is watching you scroll and when you find something funny, you both laugh, but not too loud, to not wake up Luke. It was around 11PM after all

-          Whenever you scrolled past an ad that was advertising jewelry, Solomon noticed you were furrowing your brows every time you found one

-          What’s more, you even hid the ads, hoping you wouldn’t get another one, but they just kept coming

-          You groaned

-          "Do they really bother you that much?“ Solomon asked sleepily

-          "I normally don’t bat an eye when I see an ad, but I do not and have never worn any jewelry, since I have kosmemophobia and touching or wearing it makes me uncomfortable. But even if I keep hiding these, they just keep popping up like they want to change my mind about it. I would much rather have ads for overprized pencil sharpeners.“

-          Well that was something he didn’t know about you. And he couldn’t even say he knew people that had the same problem as you, since he either didn’t notice it or he really just never met anyone like that

-          He asked a few questions about it, since he didn’t know anything about this phobia, and was glad he could learn something new. Even better that it was about you

Simeon

-          You decided to have picnic in a park

-          Not the most private setting but it’d do

-          You were just chatting about your lives, you mostly telling stories from the House of Lamentation, him mostly talking about his ideas for a new story

-          You were his huge inspiration and sometimes he straight up wrote down one of your stories. He assured you he would mention you as a co-author if he ever decided to publish those

-          It was getting rather late, so you packed up, carefully put all the plates and bowls back into the big basket and folded the blanket you’ve been sitting on the whole day

-          When heading back to the Purgatory Hall, he mostly talked about Luke’s different pastries. Just the description made you hyped up and you wondered if he was making something at that moment

-          You know he did. When you got back, your nose was hit with the lovely smell of cinnamon and apples and you couldn’t wait to try whatever he made

-          You had to put the things on their places first, though

-          Simeon asked you to put the basket to its place and you agreed. What you forgot though, was that its place was in a cupboard… too high for you to reach

-          Lucky for you, you knew a few spells and levitation was one of the first ones you purposely learned

-          Once Simeon saw you looking at the cupboard, he wanted to suggest you to take the folding stairs to help you, but you declined

-          "I want to do this alone, I know I can do it.“

-          He smiled and nodded, he knew he couldn’t change your mind

-          First you managed to open the doors and then you carefully levitated the basket to its place. While you were directing it where to go, your mind momentarily lost its concentration at the basket as you stared intensely at the Ring of Light on you hand

-          The name described it perfectly. It was literally a small band made out of pure light hugging one of your fingers. It was othwerwise incorporeal and only visibly showed when you used your magic

-          It took you a second to regain your concentration and you finally put it to its place

-          However, Simeon definitely noticed your momentary loss of composure there

-          "What made your mind wander off so suddenly?“ he asked, genuinly curious

-          "Oh it’s just… I am still not used to seeing the ring on my finger. It’s so weird, it doesn’t feel like anything, it just shines and what’s most surprising, I don’t feel like washing my hands constantly. It’s what would happen with normal jewelry. I am just not used to it, it’ll probably take some time.“

-          Huh! Okay then! He was just glad it wasn’t something you couldn’t handle

-          In all his long life he never met anyone who would openly speak about being disturbed by jewelry, so this was new experience to him

-          Will have questions, but reassures you you don’t have to answer any questions that might make you too uncomfortable

Luke

-          You two were assigned to find some rare herb that was supposed to be growing in the field

-          Fortunately it wasn’t far from Purgatory Hall so even if you somehow got lost, there was a high chance of actually finding your way back

-          While you were at it, you took it as the perfect time to bond with the young angel

-          So while you were searching, you both started weaving flower crowns

-          It was a fun activity and you even got to tell each other stories

-          You were reminiscing about the time you learned how to weave flower crowns and Luke was telling you things about the Celestial Realm and Michael

-          Once you were both finished, you put on each other’s flower crown and continued looking for the herb

-          Somehow it didn’t take too long for the two of you to find it

-          When you were picking it up, you flower crown fell from your head, but you managed to catch it… and not break it

-          Luke almost shrieked, but sighed in relief that nothing happened to it

-          "I have an idea, what if I transform these to not wilt! You know, like real crowns!“

-          With the mention of that, you just had to ask this question

-          "What would they then be out of, though? Metal? Plastic?“

-          He didn’t understand the intention of your question, so he straight up asked what you meant by that question

-          "Ah, excuse me, I’ll explain. I am kosmemophobic and especially metal jewelry makes me uncomfortable. I they were ot of plastic, though, I wouldn’t mind.“

-          Oh, well that explains it. He reassured you they would feel like out of resin, so you didn’t have to worry at all

-          Now you both have matching flower crowns and you can always remember Luke when you look at it

[daughterofluthien]

“decisions were respected” Sorry but didn’t Scott violently throw Isaac against a wall more than once just because Isaac liked his ex girlfriend in canon? That’s the literal opposite of healthy...

Hey, anon!

This is in reference to this post about Scallison for the shipping meme, where I said that one of my favorite things about Scallison is that the show lets them have a healthy breakup, and even date other people while still remaining friends. The scenes you are referring to are a pair of scenes in 3x13 Anchors.

So lets’s take a look.

(under a cut bc it turns out that when you try to be comprehensive, things get v long v quickly 😅)

The Scenes

I’m actually gonna copy/paste the dialogue of both scenes (along with minimal action/inflection notation for context) so that we can really make sure we know what we’re talking about here, so bear with me:

The first of these scenes occurs as Scott and Isaac are getting ready to head to school in the morning. After some initial ‘hey, what’re you doing, are you heading to school’ dialogue—during which both boys seem a bit awkward—we get the following:

ISAAC: [anxiously] Can I ask you a question? SCOTT: Okay... ISAAC: Are you angry with me? SCOTT: No! ISAAC: Are you sure? SCOTT: ...No. ISAAC: [awkwardly] What's that mean? SCOTT: I guess I'm not really sure how I'm feeling... ISAAC: [nodding] Okay. ...Do you hate me? SCOTT: [sighing] No, of course not. ISAAC: Do you want to hit me? SCOTT: [taken aback] No. ISAAC: I think you should hit me. SCOTT: I don't want to hit you. ISAAC: Are you sure? SCOTT: Why would I want to hit you? You didn't do anything, did you? ISAAC: [stammering] No. I mean, um... What do you mean? SCOTT: I mean, like, you didn't kiss her or anything, right? ISAAC: No! Absolutely not. No. SCOTT: ...Did you want to? ISAAC: Oh, yeah. Totally. [scene cuts to hallway outside the room. Isaac flies through the doorway and hits the wall] MELISSA: Hey! You two teenage boys? Don't test my entirely un-supernatural level of patience! ISAAC: ...Feel better?

The scene then ends, and we cut to subsequent scenes of Stiles and then Allison also getting ready for school.

The second scene is much shorter and happens later in the episode, after Isaac saves Lydia from an arrow that Allison fired while hallucinating. He and Scott are in Scott’s room again, and he’s telling him about the incident:

SCOTT: Right at her head? ISAAC: Almost right through it. And she keeps saying the same thing-- that she keeps seeing her aunt. Whatever's happening to you guys is getting worse. If I hadn't been there, then Lydia would be dead. SCOTT: ...What were you doing there? ISAAC: Uh... [scene cuts to hallway outside the room. Isaac flies through the doorway and hits the wall] MELISSA: [groaning] Oh, you guys, come on! This house does not have a supernatural ability to heal! So, stop it!

But of course just the text of the scene isn’t enough to accurately convey everything in even a tiny portion of a larger narrative, because nothing happens in a vacuum. With that in mind, let’s look at...

The Context 

The first of these scenes occurs immediately after the opening credits, and is the first time we see either Scott or Isaac this season. (Assuming you consider 3B a separate season, of course, which is a whole ‘nother can of worms. This tv show we all choose to enjoy sure is Something.)

Often, the opening of a season is used to reintroduce the audience to the main characters—letting us know where their characters arcs are starting, and what they’ll be struggling with this season. Teen Wolf did this previously (and did it well, imo) in 3x01 Tattoo. Act 2 of that episode begins with a series of four scenes showing our main characters getting ready for school in the morning, highlighting where everyone currently is, and setting up where their arcs are going to go.

Scene order taken by itself would seem to indicate that they were trying to do something similar in this episode. It starts off with the hook of Stiles’ extended nightmare sequence. He can’t tell dreams apart from reality anymore, and wakes up screaming. Cut to black, cue opening credit sequence.

Immediately after the first ad break, we get a sequence of three scenes. The first is the longer of the two Scott and Isaac scenes (which, as previously mentioned, occurs as they’re getting ready to head out to school). The second is of Stiles. He’s packing for school, and the audience learns that he’s been struggling to read when he’s awake as well. Finally, we see Allison leaving her and her dad’s apartment. She seems like she’s doing fine, if a little over-focused. But then she gets into the elevator, and has an extended hallucination/flashback of Kate.

We learn soon after this that all three of them (Scott, Stiles, and Allison) are suffering from the aftereffects of their sacrifice in the previous season. According to the explanations we get both from Kira and, later, from Deaton, they’re slipping into bardo, or the space between life and death, and there’s a door open in their minds. 

Okay, problem established.

It stands to reason, then, that all three of those opening scenes are supposed to serve to set up this problem. We’re shown, in three successive scenes, that all three of our sacrificees are, as the kids say, Not Doing So Hot.

(yes I know the kids don’t say that, let me be an increasingly out-of-touch millennial in peace)

This is all well and good, and honestly makes sense! Under this paradigm, the Scott and Isaac scene should be highlighting that Scott is Losing Control. Bardo is affecting him, and it’s causing him to be more aggressive. Giving in to violence in a way that he generally holds himself back from. Heck, the scene even starts with Scott flexing his fingers, and we (and Scott) see the shadow of a clawed hand against the door.

In the context of the narrative, it makes sense.

Except.

eXCEPT—

The Framing

The thing about the medium of television is that, when we’re talking about a scene, we can’t just look at the narrative structure. We also have to look at the scene itself: how it’s shot and directed, how it’s edited, even what music is paired with the scenes.

In the Stiles and Allison sequences, the scenes are very clearly shot for tension and horror. Long lingering shots on the things that Just Aren’t Right. Music that heightens the tension. Stiles gets some nice lil scare chords over the shot of the book that he can’t read, and there’s a very quiet droning in the background of the Allison nightmare sequence that slowly grows into some classic horror soundtrack music.

Okay. So far that tracks with the narrative thesis.

Now let’s take look at the Scott and Isaac scene.

We start out with some of those lingering shots I was talking about, as Scott is halted in his tracks when he notices the shadow of the clawed hand. We see his own hand is human and unshifted. There’s quiet, percussion heavy music over this portion of the scene that increases in tension at this point. Shaken, Scott closes his hand into a fist, and when he opens it, both the shadow and his own hand are smooth and human. The tense music fades out to silence, and he breathes a sigh of relief.

Scott opens the door to reveal Isaac, which startles him. There’s a short musical sting to underline this moment, and then the background music cuts out completely, leaving us (and them) in the awkwardness of this moment. 

And OH BOY. IS IT AWKWARD. 😬

You can kinda see the Awkwardness Inherent in the System in the dialogue that I pasted up at the top—it’s a lot of back-and-forth, short statements, trailing off... And both Posey and Sharman are playing up the awkwardness as well. Neither boy looks like they really want to be there, and that includes Isaac, who initiated this entire conversation.

But here’s the thing.

The thing that really frustrates me about this scene.

It’s not the sort of awkwardness that exists to increase the tension. The sort that builds and builds until it reaches a fever pitch and you know something just has to give. You know, the sort of tension that you would want to build if you were showing how the protagonist of your show is no longer fully in control, and is on a knife’s edge of lashing out at his friend and beta.

Instead, it’s played for comedy.

And once again, a lot of this is down to the music.

Before the dialogue that I quoted at the top even begins, the music starts back up, and this time the tense percussion has been replaced by light, pizzicato strings. (That may not be the exact right term, fyi, I only really know enough about music theory to be dangerous.) But you know, the playful, plucked strings that often accompanies comedic or otherwise not-serious scenes.

Background music tells the viewer how they’re supposed to feel about the events in a particular scene, and the music here is saying that we’re not supposed to find this whole confrontation that dramatic. In fact, we’re supposed to find it funny.

But it’s not just the music that that frames this scene as comedic. It’s also the fact that we don’t actually see Scott shoving Isaac. Instead, the scene cuts to the hallway, and all we see is Isaac flying through the doorway.

Now, obviously I don’t have a direct line to the director and editors’ minds here. But I would bet money that those particular shots were chosen 1). because it’s so much easier to do a wire pull stunt when you don’t have to show what it’s in reaction to, and 2). because it’s kinda difficult to show your main character directly doing a violence and make it funny.

But show someone yeeted into frame, and that’s funny. Right?

(Spoiler alert: not in this context, it isn’t)

Now, I know I’ve been focusing on the first scene a lot—partially because it’s longer and partially because it’s really the only reason that the second scene exists—but I do want to take a look at the second scene really quickly as well. It’s much shorter and generally adopts a more serious tone than the first one, mostly due to fact that we’re smack dab in the middle of the action at this point. The weird visions that the sacrificees have been having all episode have started endangering lives, and they can’t just wait for it to resolve on its own.

But then the focused, intent exposition is broken by Scott’s question of “why were you there.” Then smash cut to a near identical shot of the hallway,and Isaac yeeting into frame.

The thing is, this scene is entirely dependent on the previous one. It only “works”—and I use this term loosely—as a call back to the scene at the beginning of the ep. Heck, both even have the stinger of a frustrated Melissa at the end of both scenes, frustrated at all the boys-will-be-boys roughhousing going on in her house.

Much like the first scene, this one is also set up and framed for Comedy.

Which is um. A Choice. 

But What Does It All Mean

What frustrates me about these scenes, at the end of the day, is that the narrative intention and the directing/editing seem to be fundamentally at odds.

On the one hand, it makes narrative sense to say that the purpose of the scenes is to show that Scott is losing control. That he’s being affected by bardo and the open door in his mind, and it’s putting the people close to him in danger. But then on the other, the way the scenes are actually used are as comic relief. As a way to release tension between very tense, dramatic scenes. 

I don’t think it works, as I don’t personally find it funny at all. But that really does seem to be the intention.

Once again, absolutely wILD choices were made on the part of tptb, and I really wish anyone had thought for two seconds about the implications of all of this, but nO

Ahem.

So now (literally 2K words later I’m so sorry 😅) what does this tell us about the characters? Certainly no one here is arguing that shoving someone is a good or defensible choice, whether it’s due to forces outside the character’s control or not. But even taking the influence of bardo in mind, is it even in character for Scott in the first place?

Because canon can also be written inconsistently/out of character, especially when we’re talking about a long-running show like tw.

One’s an Incident, Two is Coincidence...

Well, we all know the end of that saying.

So let’s end by looking at a few patterns.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this, once again, eXCEEDINGLY long post, this is reference to a post I made about scallison. I said the following in that post:

And I also really like that they [Scott and Allison] didn’t get back together. That they were allowed to be friends. That even though sometimes it hurt to watch someone you love loved love become romantically close to another person, decisions were respected, and no friendships were broken over it.

The first pattern we need to look at, then, is this:

What’s Scott’s pattern of behavior toward Allison and Isaac’s relationship?

And does Scott’s behavior toward Isaac in these two scenes match the pattern, or is it an outlier?

3x11 Alpha Pact: Sacrifice Prep The revelation that Allison and Isaac have grown close enough for him to act as emotional tether for her is very visibly a blow to Scott. He looks like the rug has been pulled out from under him, but he doesn’t look angry or upset, just.... sad. In fact, it looks like he’s swallowing back tears. But he nods towards the two of them and just says, “It’s okay.”

3x12 Lunar Ellipse: “I look for my friends” This is the epilogue of the season. Scott walks into the hallway at all of his friends in turn. Satisfied. Happy. First at Lydia and Aiden, then at Danny and Ethan. Then he turns and watches as Isaac and Allison walk down the stairs, and they’re laughing, and so obviously happy, and Scott’s small smile grows. He isn’t jealous here—he’s happy for them. 

3x14 Illuminated: Mutual Recognition Scott and Allison are both at Danny’s halloween party, but they’re not here together. He sees her from across a crowded room, just like he did at the winter formal, so many months ago. But so much has happened, and they’re different people now. Allison’s with Isaac, and he’s starting to having feelings for Kira, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt, and that he doesn’t miss the relationship he and Allison had. For a moment, his fingers slip away from Kira’s, and he and Allison share a sad smile. 

Believe it or not, these are actually the only other examples I could find of Scott reacting to Isaac and Allison’s relationship. And uniformly across them, he’s sad, yes—after all, he loved her, and that relationship is very definitively over now. But he never seems jealous, and he isn’t angry.

So, if the Scott and Isaac scenes in Anchors don’t fit the pattern of Scott’s behavior towards the new couple, what pattern do they fit?

“Hit me.”

The teen wolf writers have a... really upsetting habit, honestly, of “resolving” interpersonal conflict between two characters by having the “wronged” party hit the other. Afterwards, the tension is almost completely broken between them, as if letting the person act aggressively in a way consensual to both parties has somehow solved the problem.

2x11 Battlefield: Derek and Peter After Peter comes back from the dead, he confronts the now pack-less Derek and offers to help him. Derek, likely remembering that Peter killed Laura and was responsible for most of the events of S1, attacks him instead. After taking a beating, Peter says the following:

PETER: Okay, go ahead! Come on, do it! Hit me. Hit me. I can see that it's cathartic for you! You're letting go of all the anger, self-loathing, and hatred that comes with total and complete failure. I may be the one taking the beating, Derek, but you've already been beaten. So, go ahead. Hit me if that will make you feel better. After all, I did say that I wanted to help.

3x13 Anchors: Scott and Isaac We’ve already discussed this scene in uh. Detail. So I don’t think we need to go into the specifics again. But just a reminder that this dialogue exists:

ISAAC: Do you want to hit me? SCOTT: No. ISAAC: I think you should hit me.

5x15 Amplification: Scott and Liam During the previous supermoon, Liam—swayed by grief, the full moon, and Theo’s manipulations—tried to kill Scott and take his power. They’ve since rediscovered an equilibrium in their relationship, and Liam’s back in Scott’s pack, but they’re both still dealing with the implications of that event. In this episode, they’re attempting to break Lydia out of Eichen, but they’re not as strong as they should be, due to the mountain ash laced through the building, and are having difficulty breaking down a door. Then, the following exchange occurs:

LIAM: Hit me. SCOTT: What? LIAM: Hit me! I'll get angry, then I'll get stronger. STILES: Hit him. Hit him! LIAM: I tried to take your powers. I tried to kill you. Hit me! STILES: He also left you for dead. LIAM: I wanted you dead!

6x16 Triggers: Liam and Theo No one actually directly says “hit me” in  this one, due to the circumstances, but the sentiment’s there. In this sequence, Liam and Theo are trying to convince Gerard and the hunters that the whole pack is hiding out in the zoo, so Theo goads Liam into hitting him, in order to stage a very audible fight.

THEO: Okay... Then they have to believe us.[shouts] Isn't that right? LIAM: [whispers] Why are you yelling? THEO: [shouts] You got a problem? Oh, that's right, you always have a problem! LIAM: [whispers] What the hell are you doing? THEO: [shouts] Shut up! [punches Liam] Yeah, you see that, Scott? Your little Beta can't even take a punch. And what do you think, Malia?

While there’s a variety of primary textual reasons here, all of them deal with personal issues between the pair, and all of them involve some level of catharsis for the person doing the punching. Taken all together, it’s honestly a pretty troubling pattern, especially given the inclusion of an actual canonical abuse victim initiating and receiving the violence.

TL;DR

This is a writer issue, not a character issue. The serious narrative context conflicts with the comedic framing in a way that is honestly baffling to me, and it doesn’t fit the established pattern of Scott’s character and actions. Moreover, it’s an example of the writers’ apparent belief that interpersonal conflict can and should be solved through consensual violence.

The pattern we do see, is that the Scott is saddened by the knowledge that Allison has moved on, but he’s glad that she and Isaac are happy. Similarly, Allison is saddened that Scott is moving on as well, because she does still care for him deeply. Despite their conflicted feelings, neither tries to disrupt the other’s new relationship.

On other shows, that would be a season-long, drama-filled plotline. Here, nothing.

And I legitimately love that so much.

[theunmappedstar]

TS!Sophie Headcanons

Sophie has Tourette syndrome, meaning she makes noises and movements which she can’t control because of a neurological condition in the brain. These repetitive phrases or movements are called “tics”.

She has a variety of tics, both vocal and physical.

One of her vocal tics at a young age was "suldreen" and she could never figure out why she kept repeating it. Her parents found it odd, too, because they’d never uttered “suldreen” around her - she'd just been blabbering it since birth. Her dad calls her “Soybean” because of it (and Sophie despises that nickname).

Sophie has a few tics that are in English, from the time she spent in a human environment. 

For example: Sophie has a tic that's an obscure line from Sherlock because her human mom and dad used to watch the show frequently and they loved it, so it’s emblazoned in her mind. In the first episode, Sherlock tries to convince a police officer that he's in shock because he's got a blanket, so he can't answer questions in an interrogation. So, Sophie ticcing, "I’m in shock! I’ve got a blanket!" over and over again. (She does an impersonation of his british accent and everything).

Sophie with a cursing tic, but it's in English so no one knows what she's saying and by god is she glad.

OR, alternatively, once she manifests as a polyglot, it's a curse in trollish or ogre or a different language and only one of her bodyguards gets it and they're thrown off guard by it.

She's being interrogated by the Council during a Tribunal or something of the sort, and out of nowhere she yells, "FUCK" and immediately turns red with embarrassment, but the Council is just confused as hell and tries to move forward-

Sophie develops a “no reason to worry!” tic. Alden thinks it’s precious and flattering. Sophie finds it anything but. (Especially since her brain makes it a point to impersonate his heavy accent when she does it).

After a long time with Silveny, she developed a tic where she just shouts Keefe's name. Keefe thinks it’s the greatest thing in the world, and makes it a point to respond even if he knows she’s just ticcing.

“Yes, Miss F?”

“Shut up, you know I’m not talking to you.”

Sophie getting a vocal tic of a food.. and it's super random, like, "ripplepuff". And she keeps ticcing and she doesn't know why she even developed that because ripplepuffs aren't that amazing to her - it's not like they're her favourites or anything, but her brain just decided "ooh, new tic!". 

Fitz hears her repeating it and one day brings her a little tin and says he has a surprise.. and when she opens it she starts giggling and her brain takes hold and she tics again and again and they're both smiley and giggly-

She ends up ticcing so much from the excitement that she reacts with physical tics and smashes them in with her hands or chucks them across the room.

Speaking of physical tics: a common physical tic that Sophie has always had is facial grimacing. She scrunches up her entire face and her eyes close tight and her shoulders temporarily lift before she’s released and she returns to relaxed position.

Keefe (lovingly) calls it her Scrunchy Face.

(It was originally “Grumpy Face” but then Keefe realized that might not make her feel too good and he wants her to know he’s not making fun of her for doing something completely normal. He just finds it cute!)

Sophie’s most common response to stress is plucking at her eyelashes. And Sophie is stressed a lot, so she tends to repeat the action. She does it so often that one day her brain is like, "haha!! new tic!!”. Not only that, but it spreads to her eyebrows and soon she’s plucking and prodding and ugh, she’s so frustrated because her eyebrows are uneven. (She has to take elixirs to make the hair grow back faster).

When she starts wearing gloves after manifesting as an Enhancer, it’s a texture she has to get used to, so she develops a tic where she clenches her fists super hard.

That one can really hurt at times because her hand won’t unclench and her nails dig into her palm-

Sophie getting tics when she’s flustered... Yeah, she tics super hard around Keefe and Fitz. She hopes nobody notices.

Sophie has a tic that’s her scrunching up her nose and squeezing her eyes shut and making a tiny sound... honestly sounds a little bit like she’s trying to fake a sneeze. Her shoulders also shrug when she does this.

Sophie ticcing when she meets the alicorn babies for the first time because she’s so happy they’re alive and well. And wow, they’re so pretty and cute. Her tics are all coming out at once though and she’s shrugging and scrunching her face and squeezing her eyes closed and her head jolts to the side every now and then and she’s shivering and she keeps yelling different vocal tics that have nothing to do with the situation.

Sophie getting a tic that’s her making popping sounds with her mouth.

Or blowing raspberries.

Spoiler alert: this one does not come in handy when she’s using a straw. There have been quite a few times where she’s ticced and blown into the straw, so her drink violently bubbles and splashes over. (It’s easier for her to leave her cup on the table and drink through a straw, though, as opposed to picking it up and risking throwing it on the ground).

Sophie getting tics in the middle of conversation and she gets embarrassed because they keep interrupting her, which makes her reach the conclusion a bit slower. (Obviously nobody minds, however).

All this being said, tourettes is not something that’s always light and happy - it’s not constantly a cute, smiley thing where she simply makes funny sounds or funny movements. It affects her life and can make her miserable.

One of her tics is holding her breath. This makes for obvious breathing difficulties. She sucks in her breath and won’t exhale for extended periods of time and she can't do anything to make it stop, which makes her panic-y (and that doesn’t help the situation anymore). She likes someone to be there to work her through it.

Most of the time it’s Grady and Edaline, but if they’re not home and it happens, her bodyguards are always willing to help lay her down on her back and hold her hands as she goes through it. And we all know the rest of her friends are also extremely willing to help!

Just think about Fitz and Keefe on either side of her, holding her hands. Fitz is transmitting to her, assuring her she’s fine and she’ll be through it soon enough... Keefe monitoring her emotional state sending her blue breezes in hopes to help keep her calm...

Sophie getting frustrated because she gets very emotional when the adults or authoritative figures in her life won't listen to her/don't trust her and she tries to speak to them, but they keep brushing her off and she keeps ticcing as she's trying to talk because she's getting so emotional and her tics keep getting more intense and frequent and she's trying her best to keep her cool and keep pushing through and trying not to cry because she doesn't want them to see her like some kid that can't control herself (even though that's stupid because you can't control tics, but she still feels self conscious about the way she's seen).

Sophie trying to bake with her parents and accidentally getting batter everywhere because she couldn't keep from ticcing. She feels really bad because half of it is on the floor for them to clean up and they had to take some utensils out of her reach, but Edaline and Grady don't mind; they're just happy to spend time with her. (Sophie still feels bad).

Sophie getting really nervous before going to sleep because the lights are out and she generally just has a hard time sleeping and feeling safe at night so her anxiety starts to rev up which makes her tics go haywire and she's ticcing so much that it's hard to settle down so she hails Dex or transmits to Fitz-

Sophie also has a tic where she hits herself or the things around her, so she gets a lot of bruises from that. She also destroys a lot of things with it, which makes her sad.

For example: Sophie accidentally ticcing and hitting her friends and she feels so horrible and keeps apologizing because she could just hear the echo of the slap, but they hold onto her hands and promise that it's okay, they know she didn't mean to.

Sophie being told to be quiet and sit still in detention, but she can't and the mentor doesn't know and snaps at her and Keefe stands up for her like, "Dude, she can't stay quiet, let her breathe.”

It would make it so much harder to walk around if her tics got intense because she can’t control them and sometimes the movements are jarring and throw her off-balance. That’s why she’s labeled “clumsy” by most people - and she hates it.

Sophie’s PTSD, Anxiety, and Tourettes generally like to work hand in hand. Say Sophie gets very anxious and emotional at the sight, feel, or thought of fire. Since she's so emotional from the trigger, she’ll tic more, and the high-intensity moment might trigger a tic attack. 

These can last from a range of minutes to hours.

Her tic attacks can not only include intense bursts of ticcing, many times without pause in between, but they can also include muscle tension and changing in breathing. Her joints usually stiffen and burn, and her breathing can either pick up speed or go drop to a slower, concerning rate. It’s a very uncomfortable place for Sophie to be stuck in.

Sophie panicking after a Neverseen encounter and she has a tic attack. 

Elwin just... holds her. He tries to keep her from hitting herself too much or bringing any more bodily harm.

Sophie ticcing while she's abducted and restrained in the first book, but because she's restrained and not able to really move, it makes her joints all achy and stiff and it burns and her interrogators get more and more aggressive in their handling of her because she isn’t answering (she’s ticcing so much that it’s difficult) and she won't sit still-

Sophie trying her hardest when Mr. Forkle picks her and Dex up to not tic and hold on to Dex so that Mr. Forkle doesn't set him down.

Sophie getting a really intense tic attack when she's forced to keep that circlet on her in Everblaze. She can't stop ticcing and it's hurting her head and she's sobbing and begging for a sedative because she doesn't want to be awake.

Sophie having to be lulled into sleep by Silveny throughout most of her recovery in Flashback, because if she tics too much, she sets back all the progress she’s made on healing her arm.

(UNLOCKED SPOILERS) Amidst the struggle, however, there is triumph, too. The first time she doesn't trigger a tic attack at the feeling and sight of fire is during Unlocked when she sets the warehouse on fire. Even though everyone is harsh with her about it afterwards, Sandor makes it a point to mention to the adults that he is very proud of her, in a way, because he didn't even have to carry her out of there like he usually does when she's around fire and is triggered - she walked out of there on her own.