#(unfortunately i suspect it does and we're all fucked)

[so-i-grudgingly-joined-this-site]

Once again I wish I could find the "beware of fandom becoming cult-like or rebranded conservative religion" post because I would add onto it "beware of fascist ideology hidden in #progressive phrasing". Like, I've seen concerning things like blood and soil (Nazi ideology about ethnic purity and an idealized rural lifestyle) hidden in a very thin veneer of queer cottagecore or similar, and tumblr just lapping it up. Likewise, concern over cultural appropriation leading to suggestions of de facto segregation. Like, think beyond the phrasing, PLEASE. "You are not immune to propaganda" is more than just a meme!

[mattybsturns]

𝓬𝓪𝓾𝓰𝓱𝓽 ❥ 𝓝𝓪𝓽𝓮 𝓓.

pairing ➝ nate doe x sls!reader

✎ authors note ➝ here you go anon! hope you likey🤗

summary ➝ your older brothers who had been in LA for the past few weeks come visting boston to surprise you but unfortunately for them, they get surprised instead.

× warnings ➝ just making out tbh, fluff???, chris being a dick friend and brother!!(kinda)

based of this request!

You were in your room lying down on your bed scrolling through tiktok. Your brothers Nick, Chris, and Matt had been gone for atleast three weeks.

This wasn’t new to you at all. They were always at their house in LA, being the youtubers they were. You honestly didn’t mind it.

It gave you less of a hard time sneaking your boyfriend Nate in while they were there. Nate was also their bestfriend. Your mom already knew about you and Nate and helps keep you guys a secret from the boys.

She and you both know what would happen if the boys found out.

“Sorry I took so long,” Nate said as he entered the room. “You didn’t,” you smiled. Nate leaned into the bed, giving you a kiss on the forehead.

You turned your body towards him before giving him a kiss. “What was that for?” He chuckled, you gave a look before connecting your lips back together.

He took the hint and laid his hand on your waist, pulling you closer to him. Your tongues swirling around each other.

The kiss was gentle but passionate. You straddled yourself onto Nate, leaving yourself on top of him. You both still exploring every inch of each other's mouth.

You both pause for a second when you hear a car pull up into the driveway. “Marylou?” Nate suspected, and you nodded in response.

You both went back to what you were doing before you interrupted. Marylou was fine with Nate being over it she wasn't home, she trusted him.

“Surprise!!” Your brothers said as they barged into your room, you and Nate swung your heads towards the door in a flash. Your three brothers standing there in complete shock before closing the door. Both you and Nate quickly got away from each other.

You run after your brothers, “Wait!” You yelled as you ran as quickly as you could down the stairs, Nate following behind you.

“It’s not you think-” you started, Chris turning his body. His face with rage written all over it. “Nate!? Seriously, out of all people?!” Chris yelled, Matt and Nick right behind him. Them both looking at Chris with a startled look.

They didn’t expect him to yell like that, Chris was still yelling. Some of his saliva hits your face, and you are almost tearing up. “This is exactly why I never told you!” You said, finally finding the courage to.

“Of course, I'm reacting this way!” He said, “I just found you and my best friend making out!” He said, emphasizing the word “best friend.”

“And you weren't supposed to see that, I’m sorry.” You replied, and Nate came closer to you and Chris. “Chris, we’re sorry we kept it from you but we can you blame us?” Nate said, Chris just looked at the two of you.

Chris sighs, “do you love each other?” He asked, you and Nate exchanged looks before nodding yes. “Okay then.” He says, “you're okay with it?” Nate asks, “No, but if you make her happy then there is nothing I can do about it.” Chris answered.

A smile grows on your lips catching Chris’s attention. “What?” Chris says, you give your brother a long hug, Nick and Matt joining in as well.

“Okay now that's settled, we're gonna go eat if you guys wanna come.” Nick suggests, “I think we’re just gonna go hang in my room.” You say, “Okay, bye then.” they all say before heading to the door.

You and Nate make your way upstairs, you ahead of him. “Nate?” Chris says before leaving, “yeah dude?” Nate replies, “hurt her and I’ll fucking kill you.” Chris says, “bye!” he smiles,”b-bye..” Nate waves as Chris closes the door.

•˖* riley speaks! ➝ heyy i hope you enjoyed thiss i didnt really know what to do near the end so sorry but i finished this alot quicker than most of my fics😭🙏🏻

[fictionalcharactersaremypassion]

That Time Franny's Uncles Made Her Birthday Better

This does contain Debbie bashing. Anyway, carry on!

---

Lately, Ian was trying out new recipes he'd found online, most of which his husband grumbled about. Mickey had simple taste, none of which wanted anything to do with the healthier dishes Ian was wanting to incorporate into their diet. 

Unfortunately, time might have gotten away from him while trying out this one. He stared down at the pan full of charred chicken and vegetables in dismay. 

“Guess we're ordering pizza, Chef Boyardee?” Mickey drawled. 

Ian scowled, shoving the pan into the sink and turning on the cold water. 

“This wouldn't have happened if you didn't distract me.” 

As expected, Mickey wasn't remorseful at all. If anything, he seemed proud, smirking as he came around the countertop to stand in front of Ian. 

“Didn't see you trying to stop me,” Mickey hooked his thumbs in between Ian's jeans. 

Already sensing where this was going, Ian placed his hands over his husband's. “We can’t,” he mumbled, eyes closing automatically when his lips were captured in a soft kiss. They shouldn’t, not when they’ll be heading to Debbie’s apartment for Franny’s twelfth birthday party. But he could feel his resistance crumbling with the way his husband’s hands traveled up his back, the kiss deepening until he wasn’t sure which one of them had moaned out loud. 

“Tell me to stop, Red,” Mickey said, a wicked undertone that was too damn sexy for his own good. 

All of Ian’s common sense, pointing out that they were short on time, flew out the window. He shoved Mickey against the counter, the kiss rougher than before. His husband was steadily unzipping his jeans, and started to pull them down when the doorbell echoed, effectively interrupting the moment. 

“Fucking hell,” Mickey hissed. Ian reluctantly pulled away, making himself look presentable again. “If it’s that on site manager bitch again, I’m gonna fucking explode.” 

He threw open the door, and from Ian could see, all his anger evaporated right away the second he realized who was there. 

“Franny?” Ian said in surprise, coming around to stand with Mickey. 

Their niece smiled weakly at them, using the end of one of her sleeves on her oversized hoodie to wipe away her tears. “Is it okay if I crash with you guys for a bit?” 

They don’t hesitate to let her in. 

“What’s up, Kid?” Mickey asked after he shut the door. He wasn’t showing it, but Ian could see for himself how concerned he was. “Thought you’d be at home.” 

“I was,” Franny shrugged, taking in a shaky deep breath. 

The two men glanced at each other, wondering what could have possibly sent her over here at this time of day. The sun had already started to set and Debs’ apartment was a little further out than they’d want her to be walking to get over here. Just wasn’t as safe as it used to be for them-if it’d ever really been that way. 

“Why don’t you go wash your face?” Ian suggested. Her eyes were swollen, bright red, standing out against her normally pale skin. 

She nodded without a word, closing the door to the bathroom behind her. 

“The fuck is wrong with her?” Mickey had lowered his voice so Franny wouldn’t hear. 

“I don’t know. I just hope it’s not what I think it is,” Ian said, causing Mickey’s eyebrows to furrow in confusion. 

His sister and Franny were getting more argumentative lately. Some of it, he suspected, was normal mother-daughter spats. Franny was on the cusp of becoming a teenager, seeking out independence and being her own person. 

Not that it could all be blamed on that. Debbie was his sister and as much as he loved her, Ian knew very well that she wasn’t always the greatest mother. Not with her tendency to force her own interests on her daughter, completely disregarding what Franny wanted, or putting her happiness before that of her daughter. 

Ian put on a small smile when Franny came back out, quiet and avoiding meeting their eyes. 

“I didn’t know you guys were about to have dinner,” she was referencing the oven which was still counting down. Ian had forgotten to turn it off after taking out the ruined meal. 

“We’re not,” Ian shook his head. 

“Your least favorite uncle burnt the fuck out of it,” Mickey said, trying to lighten the mood. Franny didn’t react to it like he’d hoped. “Come on, little Red, what’s up with you?” 

It seemed like a switch had been flipped; Franny was hesitant, chewing on her lip. “It’s not a big deal.” 

“It’s big enough that you came here,” Ian pointed out. When Franny’s lip trembled, her eyes going glossy again, he guided her to the couch so she could sit down. He was next to her with Mickey plopped down on the arm. “You can tell us anything, Franny. You know that.” 

Their little niece buried her face in her hoodie sleeves that covered her hands, shoulders shaking when she let out a quiet sob. “Mom forgot my birthday.” 

A surge of anger shot through Ian, but he kept himself under control. He knew Mickey was just as furious, and placed a hand on his thigh to remind him not to explode right now. “She did?” 

Franny nodded, sniffling. 

“Who’s she fucking now?” Mickey demanded. 

Ian pursed his lips. That was another one of Debs’ problems. She went from woman to woman in search of a lifelong partner. Unfortunately, she had a habit of choosing the wrong kind of woman; the irresponsible kind who yearned for fun and recklessness and wanted no part in being part of Debbie’s life for more than a couple months. Or, she drove them away like she had with Sandy. 

She laughed humorlessly. “You’d think that was the problem, right? No, she’s just working a lot. Had some client she was meeting almost an hour away. She said there’s hot pockets in the freezer for me to eat if I got hungry.” 

Mickey was openly scowling by now.

“Does she know she forgot?” Ian asked. “I thought you were having a party later?” 

“I thought so too,” Franny muttered. “Guess not. I said something and then she remembered but she was already on her way out so...” 

“So you came here,” Ian finished. 

“After we...got into it,” Franny ducked her head like she expected them to scold her for it. 

“Eh, she deserved it,” Mickey shrugged. 

“Mickey,” Ian muttered, although he didn’t really disagree. 

“Don’t Mickey me, Gallagher. You know it’s true.” 

Franny laughed wetly. It was soft, brief but it was a good sign nonetheless. 

“You know what the worst part is? I kind of expected it. She’s been constantly working. I barely even see her anymore, not that it’s such a bad thing...” 

Her voice drifted off towards the end, sounding unusually bitter. 

“What does that mean?” Ian asked softly. 

“Nothing,” Franny clammed up, shaking her head. 

Mickey wordlessly got off the arm of the couch to sit next to her, his arm wrapping around her shoulders, and she instinctively leaned into his side. Ian’s heart warmed to see this. He loved the close relationship those two had ever since Franny was really young. 

“Not gonna work, kid,” Mickey told her. “You’re gonna have to spill eventually.” 

Franny wiped away the remaining tears on her face, she’d been calmer these past few minutes. She glanced up at him, suddenly looking much younger than she was. “It’s just...” She struggled to get the words out, “Mom doesn’t like my style.” 

Franny was a tomboy through and through. Ian had thought after the princess party went wrong, Debbie would have backed off. Sandy even mentioned sometime after that she’d admitted the whole thing had been for herself anyway. 

That was just the tip of the iceberg, he’d soon learned. 

Debbie continued to pick out clothes her daughter despised, clothes she would have worn at her age. She was desperately hoping Franny might change her mind and join in on the girly activities she tried to introduce to her. Ian didn’t think that was going to happen anytime soon. 

Franny much preferred her oversized t-shirts and ripped jeans. 

“She was nagging me about that pink sweater she bought me two weeks ago. She knows I don’t wear pink or sweaters!” Franny said, frustrated. 

With the arm that had been around her, Mickey ruffled her hair. “Give it to us, Little Red, We’ll take care of it.” 

“Really?” Franny looked up at him with hope. 

Ian was giving him a look as well. Really? 

“Really,” Mickey confirmed. “It’ll give us something to give to the brat two doors down.” 

Ian rolled his eyes. He’d agreed on their behalf to attend the woman’s daughter’s birthday party. “We need to start being sociable, Mickey.” 

“Fuck that.” 

Franny scooted closer to Mickey, seeking more comfort. “I just don’t get why Mom hates what I wear.” 

“Peppermint Patty has issues,” Mickey said with a shrug. “Don’t let it get you down, Franny.” 

“Kinda hard not to when she’s telling me how much prettier I could be if I tried.” And fuck, Franny looked defeated, like her mother's words were really sinking in. 

“There’s nothing wrong with how you look,” Ian told her firmly.  “And there’s nothing wrong with your clothes either.” 

“Yeah,” Mickey nudged her, nodding at her Black Sabbath hoodie. “You got some good taste. Surprisingly.” 

Franny rolled her eyes, a smile peeking out. “Uncle Mickey, have you ever even listened to them?” 

“Kid, I was listening to metal before you were born,” Mickey smirked. 

Ian observed them for a moment or two. He didn’t want to have to send her back to the apartment, knowing she would be there all alone and on her birthday no less. “Franny,” he addressed her, “why don't we have a party for you now? Just the three of us.” 

He looked past her, right at Mickey. His husband was on board immediately. 

“Really?” 

“Yeah,” Ian nodded. “You pick what you want for dinner and Uncle Mickey can go get you a cake. We already have your gifts. No reason why we can’t do this tonight.” 

The bright smile he got from Franny made him smile too. 

“Okay,” she said happily. “Cool. Uh...can we have pizza?” 

“You got it,” Ian said with a grin. “Chocolate cake okay with you?” 

Franny agreed. That was her ultimate favorite. 

“You guys are the best,” she said when Mickey grabbed his keys, preparing to leave. 

Twenty minutes later, their stomachs were full. Mickey, being the softie he was, had also grabbed two kinds of ice cream for her. God, he loved that man. 

Franny was beaming the whole time, dunking her pizza into the ranch, listening intently to one of Mickey’s less traumatic childhood stories. She thought I spy, you shoot was hilarious, and he’d looked back at Ian with visible smugness. 

Finally, it was time for her to open her gifts. 

It wasn’t hard to tell who had given her what- Ian’s wrapping was much neater than Mickey’s. 

Franny was ecstatic to find four books from that horror series she liked to read. Her excitement continued when she opened Mickey’s- a new black hoodie. 

“This one’s from both of us,” Ian pointed at the last one, a semi long box. 

“Oh my God!” 

Franny pulled out a skateboard. She’d been wanting one for a while now, eager to learn how to ride it. 

“Thank you! Thank you!” She shrieked, lunging at them, hugging them both tightly. “This is the best gift ever! I love you guys so much!” 

Ian laughed, kissing her on the head. “We love you too, Franny.” 

“Just remember this was your favorite uncle’s idea,” Mickey interjected, holding her for a few seconds longer. 

“It was our idea,” Ian snorted. 

Franny couldn’t stop smiling. It was stretched across her face. “Can I go ride it now?” 

“Sure,” Mickey agreed, already slipping on his jacket again. 

“Can you get a picture of me doing it, Uncle Ian?” Franny asked on their way out the door. “I wanna show my friends.” 

He’d deal with the fallout and Debbie tomorrow. He knew she’d probably bitch about Franny being but Ian couldn’t care less about that right now. 

“Sure, thing, Franny.”  ---

Might make one more chapter where Ian and Mickey deal with Debbie's wrath (and they lay into her for how she's treating her daughter)

[welcometothejianghu]

Welcome to another round of W2 Tells You What You Should See, where W2 (me) tries to sell you (you) on something you should be watching. Today's choice: 天国と地獄 ~サイコな2人～/ Tengoku to Jigoku: Psychona Futari / Heaven and Hell: Soul Exchange.

Heaven and Hell: Soul Exchange is a 2021 Japanese drama about a headstrong cop, the shady CEO she suspects of being a serial killer, and what happens when they magically switch bodies.

With a premise like that, there are basically two tonal choices: You can make it a wacky comedy, or you can get real fucked-up and dark about it. This 10-episode series somehow manages the secret third thing of splitting the difference, so it's got a lot of deliciously fucked-up stuff in the setup, but it never quite has the courage of its convictions to go all the way. What that gets you is the kind of frustrating that you can't stop thinking about afterward, both for what it did and what it didn't have the guts to do.

So! If you're interested in a story that's compelling and occasionally very funny, with just enough unrealized potential that your brain keeps batting it around like a kitten with a squeaky toy at 4AM, I have five reasons that you might want to give this one a shot.

1. Half-Trans: Full Trans Consequences

We're gonna hit this one right off the bat: This is a story where a girl and boy trade bodies, so you know it's got the genders.

Mochizuki Ayako is the only female cop in her department. She's headstrong, kind of obnoxious, a slob, and not particularly feminine -- so of course the dude cops hate her. In the process of investigating a serial murder, she comes across Hidaka Haruto, who's got that kind of smug sinister aura of a smart man who's clearly hiding some shit, though all his underlings love him. When they unexpectedly bodyswap with no idea how to switch back, they're forced to keep one another's lies going so they don't both wind up in jail, except she's still trying to catch him and he's still trying to get away with it.

They work a very good contrast with the difference in their respective attachments to their genders. Despite her hardass demeanor and her lack of super-femme presentation, Mochizuki is without question a woman. She's deeply uncomfortable in a male body, and when someone calls her a man, her instinct is to deny it. Having to deal with a borrowed penis nearly gives her a meltdown.

Hidaka, on the other hand, is a fruity little guy whose first response to finding himself inside a woman's body is to get all girly and take it for a test drive. It's less that he's transfeminine and more that he just really doesn't seem all that attached to any gender. He's got boobs now, and boobs are what he's going to make work for him. Regardless of his sexuality -- and the show does leave that one a big row of question marks -- his gender is gay.

There's also some fairly solid bodyswap acting! ...kinda. Both actors have unfortunately different interpretations of Mochizuki's character. If you're being charitable, it's true she's freaking out and having some kind of gender dysphoria the entire time she's in boy mode, which could explain why she's much softer and girlier when she's being played by the male actor, Takahashi Issei. If you're more inclined to nitpick, well, you're not wrong that the performances don't line up. That said, the actors both do a great job of switching characters, so it's pretty clear when they're being different people (even if it's not necessarily the same different person).

Now, you should by no means assume this show is some conscious exploration of genderqueer existence in contemporary Japan. It is, however, way more thoughtful than I expected it to be. It leaves some very interesting silences, especially around what exactly Hidaka's taste in partners is and why Mochizuki's own body kinda gives her a lesbian awakening when someone else is in there. If you're the type who likes a trans-flavored imagination adventure, this is a spectacular starting point. You're going to have a blast.

2. The Mochizuki Support Squad

Nobody from Hidaka's side realizes what's going on with the swap; sure, the boss is acting weird, but they buy his explanations for it. Mochizuki, however, has exactly two people in the world who care so much about her that they figure out what's happened: her junior cop partner, Yamaki Hideo, and her roommate, Watanabe Riku.

You have to love a character where their closest friends are like, either you've started suddenly acting polite and nice, or you've mystically swapped bodies with another person, and honestly, the bodyswap is the more likely explanation.

This is one of those places where the show takes the goofier and more lighthearted tack. Leaving it so the only people who knew about the swap were Mochizuki and Hidaka themselves would be incredibly isolating and paranoia-inducing, especially for Mochizuki. Giving her (eventually) two buddies who know what's going on both gives her a cushion of support for her ordeal and creates a number of comic moments where these guys are looking at a stranger and seeing their friend -- and vice versa.

They're both kind of daffy sweethearts, too, which adds even more comic relief to the show. Yamaki is an easily flustered, mildly hysterical nerd who just wants his mean bestie back so she can go back to telling him what to do. Riku is a blue-collar himbo who would technically be a hobosexual except for how he both really does pull his weight around the house and (probably) isn't getting laid. They're willing to put themselves on the line and do what they can to make sure their friend is okay, no matter what body she's in.

I actually like how the show has more than couple male-female dynamics where the people involved are just friends -- or, if things change so they're not, it's strongly implied that they could have gone on being just friends and that would have been fine or even better for both parties involved. Romance is not the endgame of every mixed-genital relationship! Sometimes people who love one another dearly are friends without further obligation! You can care for people a lot without wanting to fuck them! And that's great.

Besides, I know it won't shock you to learn that the real horny part of the show plays out as...

3. An interesting game of cat and mouse

Mochizuki's got an interesting problem: She's a cop inside the body of a murderer, and as long as she's stuck here, there's a murderer inside the body of a cop out on the loose. She could, as Hidaka, confess to the murders and in a way that puts him physically in jail, but she doesn't know how to swap their bodies back. She's got to keep Hidaka appeased, or he, in her official capacity, might arrest her and just keep her body forever while she goes down for the crime. She could find a way to take them both down, but that would ruin her life too and is an absolute last resort. She could just let him go and cover up the crimes, but her sense of justice won't allow it.

While Hidaka ... well, Hidaka's got a lot going on. I'm not even going to get into Hidaka's whole deal, because it's related to some late-series spoilers. The simple version is that he's got to be pretending to catch himself while actually trying to destroy evidence about the murders, all while having to dig into gendered expectations to play a version of Mochizuki capable of ingratiating herself with her asshole coworkers instead of alienating them.

And yeah, it's pretty darn horny.

It's one of those delicious enemies-to-allies-to-grudging-friends setups where you've got two people at cross purposes who have to play nice with one another (while still being very mean to one another), and in that process they find things about the other person that are actually worth liking. Because this is a literal life-and-death situation, emotions are running high! Wanting to kill someone and wanting to save them are not mutually exclusive states.

The show makes a great decision not to have Mochizuki and Hidaka hook up, or even to acknowledge that their bond has any erotic component beyond whatever's inherent in borrowing someone else's genitals. This means that their dynamic is very intimate and physical without being textually sexual, which actually winds up making it way more sexual than it would have been otherwise. It's like horror, where what you don't see is almost always scarier than what you do -- with sexual tension, especially across ostensibly heterosexual pairs, subversion and longing are almost always much sexier than having things brought to completion onscreen. I mean, seriously, think of the number of things you've seen where there's pining, and pining, and more pining, and you ship it hard, and then they finally get together and it's a giant disappointment. Better to be left hungry for more of this almost-t4t goodness.

There's also an incredible amount of lapel-grabbing and kabedon-delivering here, so if you're in to that, itadakimasu!

4. A Cop Are Bastard

There are a number of antagonists in this story -- I mean, not shocking, considering both the premise and the way the serial murder case at the heart of the story gets weirdly complicated. The most prominent and persistent of those antagonists, though, is not a serial murderer, but one of the cops.

The character's name is Kawahara Mitsuo, but Mochizuki and Yamaki call him "Seku-Hara," as those are the first two syllables of each word in "sexual harassment." It's fitting. He's sleazy, arrogant, and an entire bag of dicks who talks like a gangster and is willing to do a lot of backhanded dirty-cop shit to get his way.

All this lands him firmly in the Love To Hate category. If you enjoy throwing popcorn at onscreen villains, pop some extra for Kawahara, because that fucker deserves it.

Maybe the most interesting thing about him is how often he's actually right. When he's not being an asshole who's doing bad cop work, he actually does good cop work, and he comes to some pretty astute conclusions about what exactly is going on with the case. Despite Mochizuki and Hidaka's joint interference, he figures out a lot of what's the two of them are up to, even without ever picking up on the bodyswap angle. So he's not just a slimy buffoon -- he's actually a formidable opponent.

Also, did I mention he's hot in a gross way? I dunno, maybe it helps that I've seen Kitamura Kazuki be hot in a not-gross way in other things, like Nekozamurai, where he plays a handsome and noble samurai sworn to protect a very cute kitty. Here, though, he's not noble at all -- he's a thug of a cop with a cocky swagger and a deep voice, and I am not above admitting that I see the appeal.

Like, fuck, I'm not usually into eyebrows, and I'm into his eyebrows. Those are some good eyebrows.

5. argh it's almost so good (but still pretty good!)

I'm about to be slightly spoilery from this point forward, not about specific plot points, but about general narrative moves. If you'd prefer to remain unspoiled for such things, stop reading right now and go to either Viki or Netflix to watch the whole show. You're welcome.

Still here? Great. See, where this show really lacks the courage of its convictions is with Hidaka's character. He starts off the series really evil! He does some very bad things! He's clearly quite sinister. Then about halfway through, the show starts to backpedal real hard and introduces another factor into the murder cases that makes him a much less outright bad guy than he seems at first blush.

...And that sucks! Because as the show first portrays him, he's deliciously kind of a fucker. He's not only confident and threatening, he's happy to take Mochizuki's body and do whatever he wants with it, regardless of her feelings. He reads as a straight-up two-faced psychopath who just wants to keep on ridding the world of bad people by straight-up grotesquely murdering them. But the show doesn't have the guts to either take him down in a blaze of glory or create a redemption arc for a guy who's got a taste for some pretty gnarly body horror, so it's got to find a way to convince you not to believe your lying eyes.

However! I do not consider this a dealbreaker, because I find what the show does wind up doing actually pretty interesting. Just because it's not the ending to the story I, personally, would have told doesn't mean it's not a story worth telling. It's maybe a little artificially convoluted, but you've already suspended your disbelief for the bodyswap thing, right? So just roll with the rest of it.

At the risk of belaboring the duality metaphor, I really do feel like this is a show constantly being pulled in two different directions at once. It seems like half the show loves to roll around in the blood and perversion of vigilante serial murder, while the other half wishes it'd picked a more innocuous crime, like art theft or securities fraud. Half of it wants Hidaka to be a right cold bastard who deals Mochizuki a lot of serious damage, and the other half wants to keep him always on the side of the line where he never does anything unredeemable. Half of it wants this to be a sexy queer exploration of gendered expectations through suddenly different bodies, and the other half wants to play a straight PG-13 bodyswap comedy. Half of it wants to be Hannibal, and the other half wants to be Freaky Friday.

And where it all lands is ... well, in the middle.

Obviously my general disappointment with the show's eventual final form has not left me heartbroken. To the contrary, I've had a lot of fun thinking about it afterward, both pondering what was actually on the screen and having imagination adventures about how I would have done it differently. That, to me, is fun. I enjoy this. Like the Maxx said, the shows in my mind are almost always better.

I might have been a little more put off by the lack of my ideal resolution if the show had required more of a commitment from me, but no, it gets things done in ten one-hour episodes, which makes it a great small-medium bite. You can knock this one out pretty quickly, and then have all the time in the world left for thinking about how things could have been different if the show had not taken the Goldilocks approach to its queer serial murder bodyswap setup. The Hump of Compelling Mediocrity strikes again!

Up for a watch?

As I mentioned earlier, both Viki and Netflix have this one!

No joke, I hope people read this, get enticed by the horny potential of it, watch the show, go a little feral for what fits into those silences I mentioned, and write some dang sexy fanfic for me to enjoy. There's only one piece of anything on AO3 about it! One! One is not a sufficient number of things! Especially not with this promising of a setup. Come on, fellow perverts. We can do better.

Aw, look, they're so cute when they get to be themselves.

[electronickingdomfox]

"Bloodthirst" review

It's Resident Evil, but the zombies are vampires!!

Novel from 1987, by J. M. Dillard. Kind of a retread of her previous novel ("Demons"), but substituting demonic possesion with vampires. Of course, there's nothing supernatural going on, but a scientific explanation behind everything. I found it less scary than the previous entry, though it's in the same spirit of horror story, this time with a political background as well.

The initial setting is intriguing, even though it's fairly obvious what's going on and who are the villains, from the earliest chapters. The ending is also exciting, and reminded me of an actual TOS episode. The problem is the rest of the novel, and by that I mean like 90%. I had the impression of reading chapter after chapter of barely anything but filler. Kirk does little more than talking through the terminal with this or that. McCoy does little more than telling Kirk "they're close to find a vaccine" and fretting over Chapel's sickness. Spock does... nothing, really. The fact that the story was extended artificially to a breaking point is obvious by the fact it takes the crew SEVERAL DAYS to find an intruder in the ship (an intruder who wears a red cape, is sick and insane, and screams in pain every time light touches him). This with a crew of more than 400 persons, and with the full security team activated at all times (what the hell!?).

To add more padding to it, there are lengthy scenes focused on a group of redshirts. Now I don't have a problem with original characters having their spotlight if they're interesting and play some role. But these guys just reflect about their High School dramas, and they don't have a distinct role compared to any other redshirt: that is, being attacked and suffer a lot. The other characters are a mixed bag. The most interesting is probably Adams, the "vampire", and the passages that follow his sinister deeds are the only ones that keep the plot moving, in that stale middle section. Kirk is serviceable. In particular his friendship with Admiral Quince felt like the real thing. And he gets to do some of his cunning negotiations at the end. McCoy on the other hand... Look, this author makes him funny on occassion, but in my opinion, she has a REALLY odd idea of the character. From the "dirty old man" trait, to his clumsiness and cowardice. The guy who would offer himself for torture in "The Empath" is here scared shitless at the prospect of it (well, he's scared of dark corridors too, so...). Fortunately, there's no Mary Sue on sight this time. Unfortunately, there's still the obligatory romance "out-of-left-field" for McCoy, that this author seems so fond of. This time in the shape of... Christine Chapel??? We're suppossed to believe that she's not just the closest person to McCoy (closer even than Kirk!), but that all this time, they've been repressing romantic feelings for each other. And that Chapel isn't really attracted to Spock, but only chose him because he'd never return her feelings... Yeah, weeell, how about... NO.

Other random weird bits: Nobody knows what a vampire is in the 23rd century (only Chekov has heard about this legend, that had survived for hundreds of years so far). And a crippled Enterprise can only manage to go at warp 9! (c'mon Scotty, I'm sure you can do better than this shitty, fast-as-fuck warp 9 speed...). Spoilers under the cut:

The Enterprise receives a distress signal from a scientific station at planet Tanis, but upon beaming down, they just find a deserted lab, two dead scientists missing most of their blood, and a single survivor: Dr. Jeffrey Adams. Adams looks gaunt and is obviously suffering some kind of disease that makes light painful for him. He's brought to sickbay, and needs continous blood transfusions to survive. But when Kirk interrogates him, suspecting the scientists were doing illegal research on biowarfare, Adams says they were just working on agricultural projects and that the other two commited suicide. Nonetheless, the evidence at the station points to Adams as the murderer, and it seems he had drunk the blood of the victims too. The fact that Admiral Rodrigo Mendez, head of weapons research, is awfully interested in destroying any trace of the virus, and quickly bringing Adams to trial, makes it all the more suspicious. However, the landing party is unable to recover any sample of a virus at the station, and records had been destroyed, so the Enterprise starts travelling to the nearest starbase.

After being informed of this, Adams accuses Mendez of being the mastermind behind the virus development, and begs Kirk to not surrender him to Mendez, since the admiral wants to kill him. Kirk is unwilling to believe at first that Mendez, or any other top brass at Starfleet, would be involved in such deadly project. Besides, upon learning that one of the dead researchers was Mendez's son, he dismisses the admiral's behavior as natural resentment. Nonetheless, Kirk contacts his friend, Admiral Quince Waverleigh, at Starfleet HQ, to see if he can unearth some dirty laundry among the top brass.

Meanwhile, Adams attempts an escape from his isolation chamber at sickbay, and injures Chapel, drinking some blood from her head wound. Adams doesn't go far under the light. But Chapel has contracted the disease, which is contagious upon contact, and slowly slips into a coma. In the end, McCoy realizes that Chapel has died, and disconnects life support. And there's a lot of drama about this, but since the reader can probably guess where this is leading to, and what the solution will be, the scene doesn't have all that much impact. Apart from this, Spock has recovered some info from the fragmentary records at the station, that tell about a Vulcan researcher who had also died at an earlier point. This suggests that there was, in fact, two versions of the virus: a first one that was deadly to Vulcans (and thus, Romulans too), and the current mutation (probably accidental) which is deadly to humans. This deepens Spock's suspicions about Mendez, since he had lost his wife in a Romulan attack.

Once in the starbase, Adams is brought to a detention cell, which he promptly escapes again, this time more successfully. First, he attacks a guard and steals her red cape, to better protect himself from the light, as well as a device that blocks tricorder readings. After this, Adams kidnaps Lisa (a redshirt on shore leave), and forces her to ask for a beam up directly to her quarters in the Enterprise, where he also attacks her and drinks her blood. And then comes a loooong period where everyone is searching frantically for Adams throughout the ship. And yeah, he can block tricorders, but it's not like he's invisible or anything... He goes as far as entering sickbay and stealing transfusion equipment to draw more blood! (his next victim being Stanger, another redshirt).

For his part, Admiral Quince starts noticing strange things going around him, ever since he started investigating: sudden personnel transfers, tampering with his terminal, etc. He sends Kirk a quick anonymous message, to warn him that things are looking ugly. Yet Kirk is unable to reach him afterwards, and later is notified of Quince's sudden death in an "accident". This is the last straw that convinces Kirk of Mendez's guilt, alongside a small clique of corrupt admirals. So he decides to lure him to Tanis and catch him red-handed there, with a bluff: he tells him that Adams has been captured and has spilled the beans about the R-virus (the incriminating Romulan strain), and that they have found the evidence at Tanis.

At sickbay, Ensign Stanger wakes up from the dead after having been infected. And even though he shows some early signs of "vampirism", his good side wins in the end, and he's able to protect his friend Lisa and capture Adams (at long last!). McCoy has also developed an effective vaccine, that he administers to the whole crew and Chapel, who's also waking up from the dead (but strangely enough, much slower than Stanger?). The modus operandi of the virus is thus revealed: at first, it sends the host into apparent death (actually, hybernation) while it consumes the bloodstream's heme; once the host is depleted of heme, he wakes up and starts craving blood and infecting others. (But I don't know, as a bioweapon, it doesn't seem so effective to me...).

In the final chapters, Spock and McCoy beam down to Tanis and confront Mendez, who demands the samples of the R-virus (which they actually don't have). But just then, a transporter beam captures them and they appear in a Romulan ship. As it turns out, Adams had contacted the Romulans, promising them the samples of both virus in exchange for his freedom. Kirk forces Adams to cooperate by refusing to give him the cure, until he tells them where's the R-virus, so Adams confesses: the original R-virus had been hidden all this time inside a locket that he wore around his neck. The Romulan commander threatens Kirk, saying that he'll kill Spock and McCoy if he doesn't surrender Adams. Yet Kirk tries to negotiate with him and buy time, now that he has the only sample in his hands, though the Romulan doesn't agree to destroy the sample. However, Spock, McCoy and Mendez had managed to escape from their cells in the meantime. And after a run through the enemy ship stunning Romulans (with McCoy closing his eyes every time he has to shoot, the poor devil), they manage to lower the shields and beam themselves to the Enterprise, which promptly warps away. In the transporter room, Mendez makes a last, desperate attempt to escape with Adams and the sample. But Spock tricks him into confessing everything, and then Kirk informs him that he's been monitored, and now Starfleet knows everything about his involvement in the illegal research. In the epilogue, Kirk reflects about his lost friend Quince. And there's a moving scene where he receives a posthumous gift, with a last message from his friend, telling him to not feel guilt about his death.

Spirk Meter: 0/10*. Kirk and Spock barely exchange a couple of lines throughout the novel.

There isn't a lot either in other departments. Spock and McCoy don't seem to like each other much, though McCoy asks Spock for company while disconnecting Chapel from life support. Though it's hard to read that as Spock/McCoy, when it's evident that McCoy's full concern is for Chapel in this book. Maybe, maaaaybe, one could read some McKirk in the final scene, when McCoy drinks with Kirk in his quarters and comforts him about Quince's death. But at this point, that's like begging for crumbs.

*A 10 in this scale is the most obvious spirk moments in TOS. Think of the back massage, "You make me believe in miracles", or "Amok Time" for example.

tagged: @bonez-artistry

[geddy-leesbian]

@serennedyweek2024 DAY 6: CHAINED TOGETHER

drabble unearthed from the depths of my drafts based on a scene from The Mighty Boosh (and some dialogue lifted right from the scene oops)

Leon wakes up, chained again.

“Oye!” Chained to Luis. Again? The annoyance on Luis's face melts away, replaced with concern. “Leon, you look... Out of it. Are you okay?”

“You know my name.”

“Yes? Agent Leon Kennedy? Did they hit your head harder than I thought?”

“No, no. I'm okay. That deja vu just really confused me. Was afraid that this was the first time we got chained up together, and everything I thought happened after was just a dream.”

“Unfortunately, no. We got captured and chained up a second time. You got the mercy of being knocked out. Me, I'm less dangerous, so they just roughed me up again and I got to be conscious for every excruciating second of being dragged down here.”

“Why are we alive?”

“Getting existential on me, eh, Sancho?”

“No, I mean why did they keep us alive? They could have just killed us.”

“Wait, you haven't figured it out?”

“Figured what out? Be straight with me, this all feels weird.”

“They, as in Los Illuminados, never wanted to kill you. The ganados tried at first, because they were locked into attacking anyone they didn't recognize, but after Mendez found you, your life wasn't in any danger. Your mind was, of course, but not your life itself.”

“That doesn't make any sense. Everything I had to fight, that tried to kill me?”

“Distractions. They wanted you to kill a few things, report to your people that the situation was worse than expected, but that you believed you could still get Ashley out by yourself. And you would be clueless to what was happening inside you. You would succumb to your plaga before actually saving Ashley. Then, 'you' under Saddler's control would contact whoever to say that you had Ashley and were ready to be extracted. Just like that, Saddler has his foot in the door of a global superpower. Or that was what was supposed to happen, at least. Saddler knew I wasn't entirely loyal, but he still wasn't expecting me to actively help you. But it doesn't matter, because all I did was delay the inevitable. It took longer than expected, but ultimately you'll lose yourself to your plaga down here.”

“How do you know all of this? And why aren't you dead? If all of that is true, they didn't have any reason to keep you alive.”

“Look, that's a mystery to me too. The plan for you was just basic logic, if you keep in mind why Saddler had Ashley kidnapped. Me? I don't know! All I have is a guess.”

“And what might that be?”

“Why does it matter?”

“Because I still think this is weird, and I'm beginning to suspect you're still working for them.”

“I'm working for them, and yet they beat the hell out of me and threw me into this dungeon?”

“You're just convincing me everything is hopeless so I won't even try to escape, just sit here twiddling my thumbs until my mind is gone,” Silence. “Luis, are you crying?”

“Why do you care? You think I’m just down here to distract you. Maybe distracting you is why I'm crying.”

“Sorry.”

“Okay. I did lie to you. I know exactly why I'm alive and down here. This is my punishment. I didn't just resist my plaga gift, I removed it. Killed it. Just killing me wouldn't be a harsh enough punishment. Instead I get to watch you slowly succumb to a cruel fate I was directly involved in. Once you and Ashley are on your way to start destroying the whole world with my creation, Saddler will finally kill me.”

“Maybe we're fucked, but the world isn't. Whoever picks us up will notice something is wrong.”

“I admire the optimism… ”

Silence. Again. Which is strange. Usually the problem is that Luis seems physically incapable of just shutting the fuck up. And now that he actually has, Leon misses his voice.

“Luis, I love you,” Luis is making some sort of noise, but tries to muffle it. “Are you laughing?”

“No.”

“You better not be. I'm telling you I love you, don't laugh at me!”

“But you make me laugh.”

“Failing my mission and fucking up the world as we know it is humiliating enough. You don't need to laugh at me.”

“You just caught me off guard, don't take it so personally.”

“Really?”

“Yes, it was out of the blue. One minute you think I'm still working for Los Illuminados, the next you're telling me you love me!”

“But still. I'm telling you I love you and you're laughing!”

“I love you too, Leon.”

“No, you don't.”

“I do!”

“You're just saying that because I said it and you feel bad. It doesn't work.”

“No. I really do love you.”

[raccoonfallsharder]

The Very Boring Adventures of

Space Pilot & Sweatshirt Girl ✩°｡⋆

Domestic Scenes in Space Travel ✩ Installment One (excerpt & rating key behind the cut)

18+ only MDNI | no use of y/n | f!reader | 5/5 visits | complete | word count: 37,783.

In Rocket Raccoon: Grounded (2016) / Issue #3, Rocket asks a stranger on the ferry to "make sure nobody does anything weird" to him while he naps, and the stranger just, like, abandons him while he's sleeping?? who does that? when a stranger asks you to watch their stuff in a coffee shop, it's a holy obligation. x100 if it's a hot local space pilot trying to catch some Zs on the ferry. get in loser we're gonna fix it

reader x rocket domestic fluff & smut with feelings. comics-based but you don't need any comics background knowledge to ride this ride. excerpt below the cut.

Chapter One (The First Visit). rocket evades SHIELD by hiding in your purse. ✩ Chapter Two (The Second Visit). you and rocket eat omelettes in your underwear. ✩ Chapter Three (The Third Visit). rocket finds you naked & takes care of your cat. ✩ Chapter Four (The Fourth Visit). rocket teaches you about his tail. ❤︎‬❤︎ Chapter Five (The Fifth Visit). rocket stops by for a visit. ❤︎‬❤︎

WARNINGS: feelings & domestica. smut commences in the fourth visit. dirty talk, praise, use of "slut"/"whore" (affectionate), a little bit of oral.

✩ Domestic Scenes in Space Travel Masterlist ✩ Fuckin adorable sweatshirt girl art by @blueberrysquire ✩ forward one installment | return to main masterlist

That’s when you hear the screech from the hallway.

“Oh! Call Animal Control! Oh! It has rabies!”

“It is even still alive?”

“I heard it growl!”

Later, you won’t be able to say how you know.  There have been countless chaotic squirrels in the building before, and the occasional massive rat off the streets, though you suspect they all have much better reasons to be afraid of humans than vice versa. 

But you do know. Maybe it’s Mr Hobbes’ weird behavior or maybe it’s something more cosmic than that, but you know, and you grab your key off the hook and step into the corridor, still in just your bikini-briefs and a sweatshirt that almost goes to your knees.

Your gaze finds him unerringly: passed out, possibly injured, wedged in the doorway at the top of the stairwell with the heavy fire-door propped open on his ribs. 

“Uhhh,” you interrupt, pushing past your neighbors. “Sorry. Sorry. He’s my - “ you pause, thoughts colliding with each other “ - my friend.”

“Your friend?” says Josh From Down the Hall. He’s been bugging you to go out to dinner and drinks for months. “What is he, some kind of miniature furry?”

You roll your eyes and pull open the door, propping it with a hip while you try to hoist Rocket into your arms. Unfortunately, he weighs even more now - probably due to the heavy artillery on his back and at his hips, all of which makes him very awkward to carry. Geezus, one of these guns alone has to be at least as much as his body weight.  “He’s not a - “

“He must be your new cat,” says Brenda From Next Door, her voice a little doubtful. Brenda is harmless enough, though she can be annoying. “I hear millennials like to talk about their pets like they’re actual people.”

There’s way too much to unpack there and fuck. He weighs a ton. Your arms are shaking as you stagger past them. “He’s not - “

“He’s not a cat, Brenda,” Josh says rudely. “Didn’t you hear her? He’s her shrimpy, perverted boyfriend. Wasted in the friggin’ stairwell.”

You sigh. “Josh, this is why no-one wants to date you.” 

“You fuckin’ bitch - “

“Brenda, can you help me with the door?”

The older woman rushes to turn your doorknob and pushes it open for you, while also trying to stay as far away as she can from the Space Pilot in your arms. 

“Did something happen to Mr Hobbes then, dear? Is that why you got a new cat?”

Geezus. No wonder Rocket had been so exhausted of hearing people’s bullshit last time. It’s been five minutes and you’d cheerfully throttle both your neighbors. And you like to think you like people.

“Nope. He’s still alive and kickin’. Thanks, Brenda.”

You lean against the door when it closes behind you, shuffling the weight in your arms so you can slide the deadbolt and chain lock. By the time you get Rocket to the bedroom, you’re panting. Maybe the loveseat would have been the closer, better option, but you’re pretty scared you’re going to need to be able to access him from all sides. 

You rest him on the bed. Mr Hobbes is pacing in the doorway while you wipe the sweat from your brow and then tie up your hair with the elastic around your wrist. The cat meows pitifully.

“He’s gonna be okay, Hobbsie,” you mumble, looking down at your prodigal houseguest. He’s wearing some sort of jumpsuit with blood splashing up one side, but it’s hard to discern much thanks to the plethora of firearms he’s sporting. Carefully, you pick over the range of buckles and snaps and magnets holding his holsters in place. Some just look like grips, but have the weight of something much larger. You don’t know the first thing about guns, really, but you have a feeling that most of Rocket's don’t exactly have a safety.

Cautiously, you undo what you can, lifting each weapon with slow deliberation, keeping every barrel pointed away from you, from your wounded guest, and from Mr Hobbes. Probably these things can blow through sheetrock even better than regular bullets, so you lay them on the floor by the exterior wall, lined up neatly with the barrels pointed toward the brick.  

Then you’re unstrapping the harnesses, holsters, and straps of his jumpsuit. It’s been burnt in some places, torn and bloodied.

“Sorry, Space Pilot,” you say under your breath. “When you wake up, just remember that it’s not the first time I’ve seen you in your underwear.” 

read more on ao3 ✩°｡⋆

some explicit statements or references ✩ explicit scenes or fantasy sequences ❤︎‬ long, detailed, and graphic explicit content ❤︎‬❤︎‬ deliberately smut-free, mostly or entirely platonic ✮

[theonlyblackcanary]

We're Some Kind of Suicide Squad: Chapter One: Unfortunate Sin

Summary:

She shoots people

He's a lizard and he eats people

He burns people

He's possessed by a witch

He's the "Alpha"

And he's fucking crazy.

And yet they were chosen to be a pack to protect Beacon Hills....

@axelwolf8109 @greek-freak101 @sterekmpreg @epickiya722 @katries

"You want me to release six of the most dangerous people I have locked up for a reason, to protect the town most of them nearly destroyed?"

"Yes" Lydia Martin said rather matter of fact. Chris Argent groaned and pulled out the files Lydia had requested.

"Allison Argent, my daughter, she was arrested after trying to kill a innocent man in suspect of him being a werewolf, I personally requested a lighter sentence, she never misses a target"

"Jackson Whittemore, also known as the Kanima, he was bitten by a werewolf and instead of becoming a wolf, he turned into a lizard. He ate homeless people to sustain his blood lust, he needs a master to tell him what to do"

"Jordan Parrish, former police officer, he has hellhound powers, he accidentally killed his family, turned himself in, only request was that he be in solitary confinement to protect others from himself"

"Stiles Stilinski, possessed by a fox spirit known as the nogitsune, he can suppress it but it does come out once in a while to taunt the guards, we had to put a shock collar on the kid for his own safely"

"Scott McCall, also known as the Alpha, he's an actual bitten werewolf, he turned himself in after almost attacking his mother"

"And finally Derek Hale, he's completely fucking insane. My sister burned down his entire family except for him, his sisters and his uncle. The uncle killed his older sister, Derek killed him and my sister, he ripped their throats out with his teeth. He went insane after that. We have to keep him within a cage in a cage in a cellblock all to himself and armed guards at every corner, even that doesn't scare him one bit"

"I want to meet them" Lydia said firmly

----

Derek Hale sat cross legged, giggling to himself. He spotted Lydia and Chris and jumped up. "Are you the devil?" He said with such a expression it was clear he really thought that.

"Maybe" Lydia said.

Allison hugged her father, Lydia seeing nothing from pain in her eyes.

Stiles looked like he hadn't slept in years, black shadows around his eyes and he was so pale. "He doesn't let me sleep" He muttered to Chris. "Nogitsune, you're just making yourself weaker" Lydia said.

Scott was in a straitjacket. "He was hurting himself" Chris said.

Lydia loosened the straps a bit so he could move a little more.

Jackson Whittemore was in a lower level cell that was so cold, Lydia wished she had brought a jacket. Jackson growled at her warningly. "You poor thing, I can help you" Jackson tilted his head, reminding Lydia of an animal.

Jordan Parrish lived in a small cell that had no windows and a tiny door. He stared suspiciously at Lydia and Chris and turned himself around.

"My decision's final, they'll be the perfect pack" Lydia said firmly.

[ac-liveblogs]

Penacony 2.1

Penacony is endlessly frustrating. The main takeaway I have is that parts of Penacony's world-building and character design are exceptionally well thought-out, but the main quest utterly fails to make use of any of it in an interesting or engaging way.

I'm reminded of Fontaine in that, like with the 'Ace Attorney' style trials, HYV is once again trying to ape a narrative style that they don't know how to write. In this case, it's... a lot of things.

Penacony makes a lot of allusions through its chapter titles, especially in 2.1. 2.0's final chapter is called "Whodunit" and ends with two impossible murders and at least 3 suspects. 2.1's chapter titles are a grab bag - there's detective novels, movies, music, a psychological gothic horror, a psychological thriller, philosophy, film noir, a children's book and references to depression-era America and the disillusionment experienced by the masses following WW1 (the Lost Generation), with a few other literary shoutouts scattered throughout the mission.

While I think these concepts were woven together rather effectively in concept and Penacony sounds like a really fun and fascinating place that I'd like to explore in a game made by someone else, I also think that the main quest we did get utterly fails to make use of them in any compelling or competent way either due to technical limitations or an unfamiliarity with what they're referencing.

There are no hard rules for writing any kind of story, but there are genre conventions for a reason - as a detective story, be it as a Whodunit (which this isn't) or a Howdunit (that's closer to the truth), I think Penacony failed to make the mystery here engaging in the slightest.

The Whodunit disintegrates when all three of your suspects say they ain't dunit and the player doesn't investigate any of them in any capacity whatsoever, and the Howdunit doesn't work when the player doesn't get to go to the scenes of any crime to try and find clues. The main way the mysteries are progressed is by rotating through one of four POVs and going to find the right person to talk to, who will then dump a bunch of exposition on you - rinse/repeat.

This information is sometimes repeated over routes, too, which feels especially tedious - the amount of time you spend in conversations feels pretty disproportionate to how much you learn and or see of the world. It's also really not helped by how verbose and repetitive HYVs dialogue style is.

Unlike the previous patch there's no real attempt at horror (unless you count the documents Acheron finds or Aventurine's backstory, which I don't), and I don't really consider Aventurine's long-winded gem gambit particularly interesting or compelling given how poorly defined the Cornerstones even are in both ability and significance.

(HSR unfortunately didn't really make good use of Topaz to establish that back in Belobog.)

Despite this entire story supposedly being a thrilling web of people with different motivations, it doesn't really play out that way either. Aventurine is supposed to be manipulating you, but you barely engage with him and you always broadly know what his plans are (especially if you're familiar with his motifs), and no-one else really... does much. There's theoretically off-screen politics with The Family, but Sunday and Gallagher are the only real reps there - the other three branches may as well not exist, and Sam just fucks right off. It feels like the complexity is being saved for later or there's just a lot less going on here than the game wants you to think there is.

A lot of Penacony's remaining world-building - mostly things that tie into the allusions to the Lost Generation, the disillusionment and abuse of Penacony's underclass etc. is mostly conveyed to you by either Acheron or Gallagher - you don't get to see it and it doesn't factor into the mystery outside of (probably) Gallagher's exposition. It will probably factor in next patch in some capacity but... come on. We're 2/3 done.

What the allusions in Penacony do accomplish are either loosely tying to the contents of a chapter or near explicitly outlining what's going to happen; A Cat Amongst the Pigeons, Double Indemnity or When the Sacred Ginmill Closes being the former, The Tell-Tale Heart and The Statue of the Happy Prince being the latter.

I would find this a lot cuter if the mystery hadn't already been spoonfed to me, figured out the murderer and Aventurine's exact trajectory by the time I got to play as Acheron. As it is...

To clarify, I really don't consider 90% of the clues being info-dumped to you 'engaging with a mystery' in a videogame. I'd like to walk around and investigate myself - even in books, detectives tend to visit the scene of the crime and I don't see why I should have to take someone else's word on what a place is like or how sad the people there are in an interactive medium where I should be able to go to those places and talk to those people myself.

Especially not in a trippy dreamworld where you can enter people's thoughts, mess with their emotions, see into their dreams, interact with invisible cartoon characters and have a weird cult that's sort of vaguely able to make you part of... a collective consciousness? I think? In a vague and nebulous way?

The dungeons were just the road to get to a location! What is this! I don't think I've ever played a mystery game so unwilling to let you solve a damn mystery!

I hated sitting around and listening to the characters tell me things I'd rather go find myself - I can take some of that, but not all of that, eapecially when barely anything else is happening in the meantime. It's a shame, too - the deaths outlined in the documents Acheron found sound like fun horror elements I'd like to see.

But thats just it. I'd rather have gone to try and find the traitor than have him reveal himself in the last minute. I'd rather confront Aventurine in some freaky Emoscape or nightmare caused by the Harmony rather than just get flashbacked everything really, really slowly. I'd have rathered done a lot of other things this game could've chosen to do, but didn't despite the possibility being very real.

Unfortunately, as usual, I get the sense that HYV took the easy way out again and that the story and gameplay weren't really made with each other in mind - and as such, I don't think this patch did very well with either.

Anyway, the secret main character. Aventurine. In concept he's really good and I think his motifs and literary allusions chain together really cohesively, but he was let down by the main quest again. I didn't find him very compelling. He didn't do much given how much screentime he had and way too much was revealed about him without me ever feeling like that time was spent productively.

I would've happily cut some of his segments to keep some mystery about him and had more Express exploration - I don't think he or Acheron needed to be playable, honestly. That time would've been better spent having them interact with the protagonist.

I feel if I'd been better able to connect to Aventurine as a character and was wondering what on earth he was planning then identifying his tragic motifs might have resonated with me more. Unfortunately despite the patch really wanting me to buy Aventurine as a sad, tragic meow meow who is secretly a paranoid nervous wreck, scared at all times and relying on his own luck, the way it chose to convey those personality traits to me was by having a dream-version of Aventurine show up and explain that to me.

Instead of like. Actually showing any of those traits at all. In a strssful situation. Like the one he was in. How'd we spend so much time with him and not get any of that? Seriously???

You can't put a character in front of me and say 'look he's sad. be sad for him.' You have to make me like him first. And I ended 2.0 on "oh, maybe I could like him. If they do more of this with him next patch".

I swear it's not that hard to make me like a character! You just have to do something interesting with them!! I'm not that bad!! I'm not really a heartless shrew! I can feel emotion, I swear, HYV is just really bad at pulling it out of me because they are terrible at writing characters feeling genuine and compelling, I feel like that's not too much to ask!

Can you show and not tell like, one thing? Is it that hard?! You couldn't even avoid having Sunday and Ratio explain Aventurine's really simple gem gambit to death!

I could've liked him. I really could've. And don't even get me started on Acheron and Black Swans stupid trailers.

So, yeah, I guess my final takeaway is that Penacony could've been really really fun and good and cool and I love the concepts here. I just wish literally any other company had written it.

Do you think next time they have Nasu over to visit, they can get him to punch up their scripts?

Other Notes

I was very disappointed that the game focused more on Aventurine's time on his homeworld than his relationship with the IPC, given what a major factor the IPC is going to be next patch and... that he just died for them.

It also kind of sucked that Acheron didn't have much to do beyond her cool showing at the end, and the Trailblazer's grand contribution was chatting to a DILF at a bar then doing a truly obnoxious boss fight.

Aventurine's sad tragic backstory also reminded me a lot of Scaramouche's quest in Genshin, which I hated. Guy calmly reacts to his horrific backstory, which is being shown to him, and doesn't actually concretely affect him, the characters around him or the story in any way is not fun, and it feels like a really cheap attempt to make the audience feel sad. This isn't to say that Aventurine's backstory didnt affect him; its that it coming back up in the final dungeon to haunt him didn't.

Aventurine's motifs are really cool and flow into each other nicely in concept but it really does suck that the danse macabre connection with the Trailblazer seriously fizzled out the way it did.

Sam fucking off and coming back to reveal his true identity the way he did was lazy and sucked. Have him run around being mysterious more, jeez.

The Bloodhound statues around the place were a cool touch and I liked them.

Black Swan's segments all sucked and were tedious. Should've cut 'em and let us investigate Acheron given, you know, she's a confirmed murderer and we really dismissed her as a threat super easily given that fact! What the hell was that! Why did we just take everyone's word on them not being the killer, what kind of murder mystery is this! If you didnt want to deal with any of that why even pretend this was a Whodunit!

How do you copy a genre designed to let you investigate characters to learn what their deal is. And just. Not do that. Hello? Hello???

I'd like to go to Clockie's Dreamville. That sounds fun. I want to go.

Can I have Penacony, actually? I'd have a lot of fun writing this place. It's so cool. It is my exact jam. Holy shit someone at HYV went hard coming up with the concept for this place, it's so good. Some of the side quests here are super cool too. God damn the main quest sucks though.

Aventurine is fun to play with. His boss battle fuckin sucked though.

i miss dan heng :(

[kaminocasey]

Bonsoir Chapter 8: Cry

Summary: Gregor tries to get back to Cassia. Cassia tries to get Aunt Joc's body back.

Pairing: Tbb Gregor x OC!Cassia Nu

Warnings: 18+ Grief, Emotional Scenes, Danger

WC: 3.7K

A/N: I promise you we're FINALLY getting somewhere here. Thank you bearing with me through all the angst and tears.

Bonsoir Masterlist

Daro

Gregor had finally found a way out. He wasn’t sure if it was going to work or not. But he needed to find out. For Cassia. He knows she probably thinks he’s dead… but now that he remembers her, all he does is miss her. Fuck this new “Empire”. Fuck these new “TK Troopers”. He needed to get the hell off this planet and back to Coruscant. Even if it was the last thing he did.

Gregor can hear the massiffs howling as they sniff him out, running after him as he tries to navigate and keep from falling in the thick of the plant life and trees. He’d gone over the map several times, finding a cave that he could hide out in until help from a former trooper he used to know would arrive. This was his desperate chance. He had to succeed. 

If he didn’t… he was dead. 

“THIS WAY!” He hears behind him, a little too close for comfort. 

He keeps running until he’s forced to stop by a ledge, almost nearly going over from adrenaline pumping through his veins. 

Kriff. He looks down and lets out a breath, just trying to catch it. He wasn’t sure how long he’d been running. Hearing the growls of the massiffs starts him going again. 

Unfortunately, it doesn’t take long to realize he’s going to get caught once he sees the lights of the troopers trying to hunt him down. 

He pauses for only a second, catching his breath again as he looks to see which way is going to be the best way to go. 

The massiffs up on top of a rock start growling as they spot him down below about ten feet. He starts running again, pulling out the location device and sticking it underneath a rock that Captain Rex hopefully finds. 

The massiffs take that time to hone in on him, getting closer until Gregor decides he needs to keep going. Jumping over a fallen tree, he starts sprinting even though he’s beyond exhausted. 

Hearing the snarling and snapping of the massiffs, he keeps trying to get further away. Except all of a sudden, he hears a blaster go off and he realizes that he’s been stunned. His legs start to fail him as he begins to limp away, trying and trying to get further away from the killer massiffs. 

His mind goes to Cassia again. Her soft red hair and kind brown eyes. Her perfect smile. How soft her skin is… He misses her so much it hurts. 

Gregor is forced to stop by a trooper in front of him that seemingly comes out of nowhere, immediately getting stunned and dropping to the ground.

Everything goes dark again.

Coruscant, A couple days later…

“So, tell me the plan again so I know there will be no mistakes.” Dyer tells Cassia and Mara.

Mara hadn’t been happy about it, but she wasn’t about to let her best friend go traipsing into the Jedi temple alone. Not that she was actually alone, Dyer fully had Cassia’s back. 

Half of the plan was Cassia's. She was surprisingly good at this stuff, ready to risk her life to save the body of her Aunt. All for a funeral that Joc deserved. 

“Tomorrow night, there will be two Corries here at the gate. We’re going to pose as holovision technicians.” Cassia points to the entry gate to the temple. “Then, your Corrie Guard friend will pose as some guy from logistics to confirm that he’s the one who ordered our fake services. We drive in, park over here. We’ll sneak along this wall, making sure to get into this entrance to the temple where they’re holding all the… bodies of the Jedi. Then, your Corrie friend is going to help us get Joc’s body and bring her out back to the van. “Good.” Dyer smiles, squeezing Cassia’s shoulder, noticing how she paused. “And I’ll be right there if I suspect anything goes wrong.”

“We both will.” Mara nods, squeezing her hand. 

Dyer looks at Mara and smiles softly. She returns the smile. Cassia smiles at the both of them, just glad that they seem to be working things out. It was completely obvious that Dyer was in love with Mara, and vice versa. They just didn’t like to show it in front of Cassia, trying to be conscientious of her feelings. She just wanted them to be happy.

“I’m going to try to go to bed. I’ll see you guys in the morning.” Cassia yawns and walks back to her room, closing her door so she could attempt to give them some privacy.

Wedge lifts his head to acknowledge Cassia.

“They’re totally going to kiss right now.” Cassia whispers at Wedge as she changes into her pajamas and climbs into bed. 

Lo and behold, Cassia was correct. The moment that her door closed, Mara practically jumped into Dyer’s arms, kissing him passionately. He smiles into the kiss, pulling her as much against him as he can, never wanting to let her go. He knows he’ll never let her go again.

The next morning, after finding Mara and Dyer asleep on the couch in each other’s arms, Cassia feeds Wedge his breakfast as quietly as possible before sneaking off to the fresher and getting ready for the day. She puts on a pair of pants and a dark sweater and then sneaks past a still sleeping Mara and Dyer to go down to the shop to read for a bit, letting Wedge come with her. 

Sitting in the window seat, watching the rain, she can’t help but think of Gregor. She knows she needs to get past him. It’s been too long. They weren’t even together that long… but she’d never been in love before. Falling in love had hit her like a train. Out of nowhere and at full force. 

Gregor was Cassia’s first love and lost him in a traumatic way. There’s probably no coming back from that.

“Do you want some company?” Dyer asks in the doorway to the stairs up to the apartment. “Mara is up in the shower.”

“Sure.” Cassia smiles, moving her feet so he can sit in front of her in the window seat. 

“Would you like to hear a story about him?” Dyer asks, softly. “If not, it’s okay. Mara tells me not to bring him up to you…”

She knows Dyer means Gregor. Sometimes, it’s easy to forget that not only did she lose a love, he lost a brother. One he was closer than close with. He needed to talk about him.

“I’d love to hear all of your stories about him.” She admits, putting her book down and pulling her sleeves over her hands.

“I know how much he meant to you, Cash… He loved you so much. Right from the first night.” Dyer murmurs, looking out the window as he puts his hair up in a bun. “He didn’t give too many details but we could kinda guess what had happened. He came back, grinning like a fool with this little bracelet of weeds around his wrist. Never took the damn thing off.”

“They were flowers.” Cassia tells him, chuckling, already tearing up. 

“Sure they were.” Dyer teases. “Anyway, that book you gave him and that bracelet were with him until the very end.”

Cassia hadn’t heard this before, she’d been putting off hearing about him. But now, while tears were starting to fall, and yes it still hurt, she wanted to hear all about him. She was finally ready.

“Really?” She asks, sniffling into her sleeve, knowing she’s gonna have to change her sweater in a bit.

“Yeah. He was always opening the book and looking at your name on the inside.” He smiles.

She remembers writing her name and a heart in the book for him, being a little self conscious that he’d think it was dumb, while he was asleep. Later that day, he’d found it and kissed her breathless.

“Lore made the mistake of taking the book to be nosy and teasing Gregor. So, Gregor wrestled him to the ground, making Lore swear to never touch his stuff again.” Dyer chuckles.

Not only did Dyer lose Gregor… He lost all of his brothers.

“I didn’t know that side of Gregor.” Cassia murmurs, having a hard time picturing Gregor being aggressive.

“Oh yeah, he was a badass. That’s why he was our captain. He was fearless, strong, and courageous.” Dyer tells her, his own eyes glistening. “And he was my best friend.”

“Dyer, I’m so sorry…” Cassia tells him, wiping her nose with her sleeve again.

“Don’t be.” He shrugs. “We were lucky to know him.”

They really were. Cassia has known that since the moment she met Gregor. 

“Anytime you want to tell me about any of your brothers, I’m always here to listen.” She promises him, reaching out and squeezing his hand. 

“I appreciate that.” He nods. “Anytime you want to talk about your family, you can.”

“Thank you, Dyer.” She nods back. 

Cassia pulls her hands back into her sweater and leans against the cool window, thinking of Gregor, having a newfound, yet hopeless, love for the man. 

“Do you guys want to go get something to eat?” Mara comes down, smiles at them, then sees them both crying. “What the hell happened?” 

“We were talking about Gregor.” Cassia smiles through her tears. 

Mara glares at Dyer. 

“I wanted him to talk about him, Mar. It’s okay. I needed to hear about him.” Cassia nods at Dyer and he nods back. “He needed to talk about him.”

Mara lets out a sigh. “Alright… So, food?” 

Cassia and Dyer both let out a laugh and agree that they need food. 

Ord Mantell, same day. 

“Look, I appreciate what you’ve done for me, and I’m genuinely sorry about Hunter, but I’ve got to get back to Coruscant. There’s someone there who needs me.” Gregor tells Wrecker. “I’m sorry I can’t be of much help this time.”

After all that Gregor had gone through, and finally had escaped thanks to this Clone Force 99, he’s so much closer to Cassia. 

“Ah, don’t worry about us, we always figure it out.” Wrecker shakes Gregor’s hand, maybe a little too enthusiastically. Gregor is pretty sure he heard his wrist pop. But the guy is nice and that’s all that matters. He’s still pretty sore in the chest from the two blaster shots but thankfully, Echo patched him up on the way here.

“I told you this wasn’t a clone club house!” The short, loud, Trandoshan woman, Cid, tells Wrecker. 

“Don’t mind her. She’s just grumpy that we couldn’t finish her job.” Wrecker shoots Cid a look. “You were able to get ahold of Rex?” 

Gregor nods. “He should be here soon.” 

“Good. If ya need anything, you know how to get a hold of us.” Wrecker tells Gregor.

“Appreciate it.” Gregor nods one last time before sitting at the bar as Wrecker heads out. 

Gregor sits for a long while, thinking about what he’s going to say to Cassia when he sees her for the first time again. Will she be angry with him? Will she remember him? Will she still love him? What if she’s already with someone else? What if she knows about Order 66 and is disgusted with him? He knows that she’s probably going through something awful since her aunt was a Jedi… maybe her aunt got out safely. Would Cassia ever be able to see past the Order? All he knows is, he can’t turn off his brain and he wants nothing more than to see her. 

“On the house.” The bartender sits the drink down in front of Gregor.

“Thanks. I really need it.” Gregor chuckles, downing the drink and then moving over to the booth to pull out the book with the bracelet and Cassia’s name in it, running his fingers over it like he’s done a thousand times before. “I’m on my way, Cash.”

Coruscant, that night…

“Do you think we can really do this?” Cassia asks as they near the Jedi temple. 

“I promise you we can.” Dyer tells her, hiding in the back.

“We’ve got this.” Mara reassures her. 

This was the most dangerous thing that Cassia has ever done, besides sneaking into the temple the first time. She’s still not hardly slept since finding Aunt Joc like that in the temple library. 

“We’ve got this…” Cassia repeats. “Yeah, we got this.”

She believes it. She’s determined. She’s going to get her aunt back. 

Mara pulls up to the temple gate, and starts talking to the Corrie at the gate. 

“What do you want?” The Corrie asks her, checking his holopad then looking over at Cassia. “We don’t have any deliveries scheduled for tonight.” 

“Well, tell that guy down in logistics. He’s the one who ordered all these parts for their holovisions.” Mara starts arguing with the guard.

“One minute…” The guard sighs, clearly already over the night, walking away to his post to comm down to the logistics department. 

When the guard buzzes the gate open, Mara nods to him, driving through, along the building to where the Corrie told them to meet him. He’s out there waiting for them, holding his helmet. 

Dyer hops out of the back, greeting his friend. “Commander Stone.” 

“Sargeant Dyer, my man. Glad to see you alive.” Stone hugs him. 

“Why didn’t your chip work?” Mara asks him, point blank. 

“Your guess is as good as mine, ma’am.” Stone shrugs.

Cassia looks at Mara who’s staring at Stone with a level of cautiousness she’s never seen before. These were dangerous times they’re in, she realizes. She thinks Mara realizes it, too.

“Sorry about my riduur. She’s just nervous.” Dyer tells him.

Both Cassia and Mara look up at him. Cassia hadn’t heard that word in so long… Mara was clearly not expecting that word either.  

“What?” Dyer notices them staring.

“Conversation for later. We have more pressing matters than you calling me your partner for the first time.” Mara moves past Stone into the building. 

“I like her.” Stone chuckles. 

Cassia smiles softly as Dyer watches Mara with complete adoration. Looking at Stone is a little harder than looking at Dyer. He looks so much like Gregor that now that’s all that Cassia can think of even though she’s clearly on an important mission. 

They walk down the hallway until they get to a room when Stone looks both ways before typing in a code into the keypad, making the door slide open. 

“We have to be quick.” Stone grabs a hoverbed and walks over to the cooler box where the bodies are being held, then looks at Cassia. “You may wanna turn around.”

Mara turns Cassia around as Gregor and Stone pull Joc’s body out of the box and transfer her to the hoverbed, wrapping her body so that no one can peek inside.

“Alright. Let’s go.” Dyer tells Cassia and Mara. 

Mara and Cassia head out first with Stone and Dyer behind. 

“Stone?” They hear a voice behind them.

Immediately, Cassia, Mara, and Dyer form a wall in front of Joc’s body so she won’t be seen.

“Kriff…” Stone whispers before turning around. “Fox, hey.”

Of course something would go wrong. Why wouldn’t it? They were so close to being in the clear.

“Who are they?” Fox looks around at the people that are clearly not supposed to be here. 

“My friends. They wanted to check out the lower levels of the temple.” Stone lies. 

“And you?” Fox looks at Dyer. 

“Captain Nolcox. 104th, sir.” Dyer reaches his hand out for Fox to shake it. 

“Right. Good to meet you. Stone, I’d suggest you stop being a tour guide and go continue your patrol.” Fox sighs, turning around to leave.

Dyer, Mara, and Cassia let out a quiet sigh of relief, waiting until Fox is gone around the corner before turning around and booking it back to the van. When they finally reach it, Dyer and Stone load Joc’s body in the back and Dyer thanks Stone before climbing in the back as well, shutting the door. 

Stone walks Cassia over to the passenger side. “If you ever need anything, Dyer’s got my comm channel.” 

“Thank you, Stone.” Cassia smiles. “Truly… I don’t think I could ever thank you enough.”

Stone nods and closes the door for her. Mara takes off carefully back toward the gate, driving through until they get to the crematorium that Mara’s trustworthy friend, Luce works at, where they quietly unload Joc, taking her in through the back doors. 

“I’ll be back.” Mara squeezes Cassia’s hand and walks through the door, following Luce.

“We did it.” Dyer bumps Cassia’s shoulder with his. 

Dyer’s right. They did it. They actually pulled it off. They got Joc back. But they would never get Gregor back… they’d never be able to do this for him. That realization hurts more than she thought it would.

Cassia doesn’t realize that her breathing has grown ragged, her body shaking. She immediately starts sobbing. She’s lost everyone but Mara and Dyer. 

Dyer puts an arm around her, trying to keep her upright. Cassia’s sobs become guttural and they instantly break Dyer’s heart. All he can do is cry with her, understanding.

It takes a long time for Cassia to stop crying and when she does, she passes out. 

When she wakes back up, she has no idea how she ended up on her couch, laying on her side, but her eyes, throat, and head hurt so bad. She slowly realizes her head is in Mara’s lap and her eyes are really puffy.

“Mara…?” Cassia croaks, weakly.

“Shh… I’m here. It’s okay.” Mara murmurs, running her fingers through Cassia’s hair in a soothing manner. 

“Tell Dyer… I’m sorry… for breaking down.” Cassia tries to apologize, barely able to open her eyes.

Mara sits her up enough to make her drink a bit of water before helping her back down. 

“You have no reason to be sorry.” Dyer says from the floor. 

“Go back to sleep.” Mara whispers, putting a warm compress over her eyes. Cassia nods and goes back to sleep, her body still fully exhausted. Grief is a funny thing. 

When Cassia wakes up again, her head is still pounding and her eyes still feel like they’re popping out of her head. Remembering Gregor, getting Joc back… it all came crashing down over her. It was all too much at once. 

Cassia looks at the caf table and finds a note.

Cash, there’s pain meds next to this note. Drink the glass of water and then another one. We are down in the shop. Take a hot shower and then come down only if you want. -Mara

She doesn’t think she’ll get over how lucky she truly is to have Mara in her life. Carefully and slowly, Cassia sits up to take the pain meds and drink the glass of water. She gets up to go to the kitchen, finding Wedge eating his lunch and turns on the sink to get another drink of water. She already feels a bit better, but goes to grab a shower. The hot water feels incredible on her stiff muscles from when she had tensed up while sobbing. Unfortunately, the hot water can’t fully distract her from what they did last night. 

Would anyone notice Joc missing and come looking for them? Were they in danger? She knows these are questions to worry about later, after she gets some food in her. This has been a really stressful time so it’s important that she takes some time to just stop thinking about everything so much. 

After her shower, she puts on a sweatshirt and pants and then dries her hair, putting it up into a messy bun. She automatically feels a lot better. Especially since the pain meds kicked in.

She looks in the mirror and sees that her eyes are still a bit puffy, but puts on some concealer in case any customers come in, she doesn’t scare them off. 

After she feels ready enough, she walks down to the shop, finding Mara and Dyer huddled over the holopad, laughing at something.

“Hey.” Cassia’s throat is still a bit hoarse. 

They turn around, looking at her, immediately smiling in a sympathetic way.

“How are you feeling, babe?” Mara asks, coming over to her and taking her hands.

“Better.” Cassia nods.

“I put Joc’s ashes on your dining room table. They’re in a really beautiful opal urn that Luce gave us for free. We’ll have to write them a thank you note.” Mara tells her, softly.

Cassia nods again. “I’m so grateful to you both… I don’t know how I got so lucky to have you in my life.” 

Mara wraps her arms around Cassia, hugging her tightly before Cassia sighs and pulls away, looking at Dyer. 

“I owe you so much.” She smiles.

“I wanted to tell you the other day but it didn’t seem ideal while we were both already crying…” Dyer looks from Cassia to Mara, looking for approval for something.

Mara nods.

“When Gregor and I were on Sarrish… before the battle… he made me, well actually all of us,  promise if anything were to happen to him, that we’d take care of you two… you and Mara.” Dyer tells her. “I plan on keeping that promise. Not because I have to, but because I want to. I care about you both.” 

Cassia clutches her chest when hearing Gregor’s name said out loud. Of course Gregor would make his brother take care of you. You should’ve known.

“So, you don’t owe me anything. Not a single thing. As long as you’ll both have me, because I know you’re a packaged deal, I’ll be around.” Dyer says. 

With tears in her eyes, Cassia looks at Mara and she smiles and nods. Cassia crosses over to Dyer and hugs him. 

“Thank you.” She whispers. 

Dyer nods against her shoulder and lets her pull away first. When she walks over to the storeroom, she grabs a box of books to stock the shelves with, excited to finally get back into the swing of things.

The moment she walks out of the storeroom, they hear the front door bells jingle. 

“Hi, welcome to The Sp-” Cassia’s breath leaves her body when she sees who walks in.

“Hi, Cash…” Gregor murmurs, holding flowers in his hand.

With a gasp, Cassia drops the box of books.

TAGS: @grievouus @brynhildrmimi @madameminor @dumfanting @rain-on-kamino @misogirl828 @rexandechosandwich @corona-one @tecker @ladykatakuri @the-sith-in-the-sky-with-diamond @twistedstitcher27 @zoeykallus @maulslittlemeowmeow @littlemousedroid @arctrooper69 @rexxdjarin @agenteliix @padawancat97 @hated-by-me @sleepingsun501 @crosshairmylove587 @idlenesses @loverofclones @captain-splock-you

[bourbon-ontherocks]

unfortunately all of [gros canard]’s scenes (in this ep at least) are tainted by his turning violent during that one interrogation. it’s like they flipped a switch without a warning. et on tombe dans la caricature, comme tu disais… I knew they didn’t make david’s character sharper than your average suspect for nothing, and I figured it was for the dinner party, but turns out they were just setting him up to be the perfect outlet for anger and jealousy--il fallait un mec à l’air coupable et capable de balader la police. which makes it really hard to pretend that scene was simply some bad, ooc writing. (could’ve been different if there had been amends of some sort afterwards, when the guy is released… and tbh céline should’ve suspended him for real) bref roxane called it, [gros canard] est un flic border 🤷

now everything he does or says, I’m just like… yeah. wouldn’t expect any less from a grade A scumbag. and the GALL to stare at morgane and the end and leave without a word, as if to say ~you’re dangerous and I’m removing myself from the situation? that’s ice cold. and buddy, you’re the dangerous one here, if you can’t be normal around your crush or your antagonist of the day then take a fucking hike. 😡 pardon mais ça me débecte tellement cette fin ! I feel bitter. anyway. rant over.

(je note au passage que c’est la 2e fois que morgane se fait ~quitter dans cet épi 🥲)

Okay. So now we're getting to the unfunny part, and while I definitely didn't like this scene either, it might be for different reasons, or at least for me it didn't paint the rest of the episode as bleak as it did for you 😨

So. Adam's outburst of violence this ep felt clearly ooc, I agree, and especially considering what we've been given so far re his behaviour at work and in general. However, I gave it a lot of thought, and while it definitely does not add up with the image we have of him, it might not be *so* OOC from the show's point of view. After all, we've already seen Adam doing ooc stuff out of the blue, starting with kissing Morgane at the end of 208, and perhaps he's one of these people who bottle up their feelings and are in control 99% of the time but just happen to ~snap once in a while.

In that regard, his snapping after days of anger and jealousy (that he's unaware of) slowly building up makes sense, although not necessarily in the way they set it up, and not to such a dramatic extent. I'm not excusing him for what he did, just saying that from a characterization point of view, it *can* tie up not so terribly.

Now my problem with that scene has more to do with its setup than whether or not it makes Adam less likable. This was a textbook example of police brutality over an innocent Black suspect, guided by personal motives, but was never addressed as such. If the show was actually trying to make an extremely disturbing statement, they wouldn't have done better. I mean, Adam could have fought David during the dinner party for instance, it wouldn't have changed his own jealousy arc, but that would have made things much more palatable imo than him attacking his antagonist while on duty and during an interrogation.

In a more general way, I feel like the show has flipped a switch regarding violence and action this season that wasn't really called for. We went from des enquêtes pépouzes in early seasons to hostage situations where guns fire (depuis quand c'est la PJ qui gère ça d'ailleurs ? Il y a pas des équipes spécialisées ?), and I've never seen Adam's weapon more than during this season, so I guess this is all part of a more global agenda of darkening the show and the characters (I bet Audrey is missing her Engrenages era... But at least they had the decency to film police brutality in a smarter way back then 🥲)

Ngl, it makes me sad that you're now calling Adam a grade A scumbag 😭 I'm not gonna say he's got excuses for acting like he did, and like I said before his characterization this season is terribly written, but also I get where he comes from even though he's clearly hit rock bottom this episode... I mean, had he been a tad more self-aware these past 4 eps, we wouldn't have had to endure his surprised Pikachu beardless face upon discovering that Morgane dating someone else actually hurts him, nor would he have acted like a complete asshole. Sigh. What I'm trying to say is that for me this was more of a one-time fall, no matter how despicable he got, rather than a complete redefinition of who he is. At least I want to believe in that 🥲 (and send him to an anger management support group asap 😅) even though violence, possessiveness and jealousy are massive red flags imo 💔😰

I'm going to assume that his entire personality and set of, you know, human skills, was actually stored in the beard, because now that I'm thinking about it, it's mostly in the beardless episodes that he's acting nonsensically... Please Beardie come back! 🥹 Oh and I agree with you that Céline should have gotten him suspended! 100%! That's time-out for grownups and it would definitely have done him some good lol!

Now for this final scene of silent treatment with Morgane, I have a slightly different interpretation? At this point in the ep, Adam has gotten uncontrollable, violent, angry, and Céline rightfully reminded him that this is not the kind of behavior she wants to see in the team. I think it's the turning point when he finally connects the dots and realizes where all this rage comes from. He's finally admitting that he has feelings for Morgane (hence the 'we need to talk' to Roxane -> just saying, but if he dumps her next Thursday he'll definitely be the biggest asshole in the history of assholiness btw), but since he's still down that jerkland rock bottom, he puts it on her. He's sort of mad at her that she made him catch feelings that are clearly ruining his perfectly rounded little life, and that's, imo, the reason for his silence and closed face, and while that's still not cool, it's not exactly the same as the way you interpreted it.

Now, this will be a hit or miss, but there's a fic out there that actually explores Adam's violence during this ep by making it worse, and while it is based on this ooc premise of a scene, the execution actually makes a lot of sense and brings an interesting light to his characterization (also it is resolved in an extremely satisfying way lol), so perhaps it will be a cathartic read for you, idk! Anyway if you're interested, it's Rouge by PlumeDeChien

This post got super long so I'll spill over the next one to talk about Morgane's break up, okay bye!

[phaeton-flier]

p(doom)?

(For those not in the know "p(doom)" or probability of Doom, is the estimate of how likely the world is to end, usually used to refer to an extinction from an artificial Superintelligence. this often comes with time scales, e.g. probability the world ends in 20 years or 50 years or 5 years, etc. The question is more common in Rationalist and Rat-Adj corners of the internet. If you're not read into the argument I'm unfortunately not interested in rehashing it here.)

Low enough not to actively track or plan on over the next 50 years, such that I don't feel comfortable giving a number; higher than people who just dismiss the possibility outright, in that following the general logic it seems neither impossible under (Like "The Sun starts reversing Entropy" nor extremely unlikely or counterintuitve (Like "Every country on Earth becomes a liquid democracy") That's still not likely enough that I keep track these days.

Short answer to as to why is that I don't think the path to the sort of capabilities that could hard takeoff to a super-intelligence (general AI that can easily self-improve endlessly, or something else that does similar) is likely in the medium term, and I don't think the path from human-scale to super-intelligence is that likely to be quick, enough to override the caution argument of "If it does turn out to be quick we're fucked"; I do think it's probably wise to have more international oversight on projects, just out of caution, but we should also have international oversight on biohazard research, nuclear material, etc. because the arguments for why such a thing, if it existed, would be dangerous do seem convincing for me.

If you mean in general, I dunno, most of my weight there is on nuclear war and it sure seems to me like a majority of Earths branching from ours in 1945 had nuclear wars, given the number of times we nearly sent the bombs flying but for one guy (Arkipov, Petrov, Kissenger in what might have been his most pivotal action of his mostly disgusting life) and a lot of other close calls. I sometimes suspect we're only here because anthropic effect, like we only see a bunch of close calls because most of the time a Earth with multiple major powers with nukes dies off unless a bunch of lucky coincidences occur.

Or maybe we're just a weird universe and most of them have close calls at all and we're just the cosmic equivalent of that guy who survived getting struck by lightning 7 different times: just the bleeding edge between the small number of universes that did die and the large fraction that didn't. Certainly there are plenty of stories of top brass on both sides being a lot more frightened about pressing the button than anyone collectively realized. Maybe if Petrov had been sick his superiors would've followed the same logic he did, or just hoped for the best and got proven right. I can only hope myself.

[svnnyd4ys]

Clare Siobhan's strangerville trio as incorrect quotes

Seb: We can’t tell you because you’re not a member of the club. Cody: What club? Sammy B: The hating Cody club. Cody: …The fuck? I should be the leader of that club!

!!!

Sammy B: I think we should have glow stick juice injected in our bones when we're born, so if we break our bones, we get a fun little surprise. Seb: What's the surprise? Cody: Blood poisoning.

!!!

Cody: I lost Sammy. Seb: How did you LOSE Sammy?! Cody: To be fair, they are very small.

!!!

*Seb is considering cancelling plans, and Sammy and Cody are advising them on what to do* Sammy B: Just don't go. Cody: Say you’re ill! Sammy B: Pretend to break your leg. Cody: Really break your leg!

!!!

Sammy B: I think Cody is in trouble. Seb: Alright. Struggling to give a fuck, if I’m honest.

!!!

Cop: You ran a red light. Sammy B: So did you, hypocrite. Cop: I was following you. Sammy B: That was dumb, I'm a terrible driver. Cop: Get out.

!!!

Seb: I don’t think the therapist is supposed to say ‘wow’ that many times during their first session with a client, but here we are.

!!!

Cody: Unfortunately, due to several experiences in my youth, I cannot just 'walk up and join a circle of people talking', but it does sound lovely, thank you.

!!!

Sammy B: Yeah I'm LGBT. Sammy B: cuLt leader. Sammy B: God hates me personally. Sammy B: cowBoy hat. Sammy B: *sniffles* Trying my best.

!!!

Seb: I’d like to live through a week that’s not a whole new verse of “We Didn’t Start the Fire.”

!!!

Seb, to Sammy B: You know, Cody can be really aggressive, so it's important to take all the necessary precautions when approaching. Seb: *blows airhorn at Cody* GET FUCKED!

!!!

Sammy B: My aesthetic is "would be suspected of witchcraft by small town citizens."

!!!

Seb: Sammy, remember when you said you weren’t going to interfere with my love life? Sammy B: No, that doesn’t sound like me at all.

!!!

Sammy B: *is throwing stones at Seb's window* Seb: You have a phone for a reason, Sammy! *THUD* Seb: DID YOU JUST THROW YOUR PHONE AT MY WINDOW?!

!!!

Seb: That’s the key slice of truth we need to complete the entire truth pie. Sammy B: Ooh, can we get some actual pie? Seb: I like the way you think.

!!!

Sammy B: How high are you? Cody: Mm, I don’t know how to say it in feet. Seb: No, they’re asking what drugs are you on. Cody: Oh, antidepressants, why?

!!!

Cody: Is Seb always like this when they lose? Sammy B: Oh, yes. You should've been there for the Great Jenga Tantrum of 2015. Seb: You bumped that table and you know it!

!!!

[lurkingteapot]

Step by Step ค่อย ๆ รัก Ep 4

we know the drill …

- team building activities? say it ain't so

- RICH PEOPLE I swear to dogs

- OH this is how I know Ying's actress, she's Annie's mother in Mama Gogo!! the sporty outfit did it

- OH and is this Bruce??? Aoey from Lovely Writer??

- man, the gossip in this office. maybe I'm too neurodivergently inattentive to social stuff to get pulled into that sort of stuff normally but like. the most we got at the office was like "I hear the new transfer yells at clients" or "coworker X is getting married, please sign this card and if you like, we're collecting money for a gift." how do these people get ANY work done.

- oh this is NOT going well, yike

- NAN'S FACE JUST NOW she know's what's up (or suspects)

- oh wow Jeng's stare just now, I would've WITHERED if I were that kid

- okay, so he DOES have a condo as well as the house, okay. confusion from last ep somewhat lifted. rich people.

- Pat, when he said "make yourself at home" I'm pretty sure he meant "don't worry about using too much hot water," NOT "snoop around all the cabinets when you're meant to be getting cleaned up so you can go to your work thing"

- OH WOW wow he's cleaned up nicely. and WHAT A GROOM SEEING THE GROOM SHOT THAT JUST WAS, complete with the stairs, I am LOSING it.

- AND THEY MATCH oh my god I'm grinning so wide, incredible. I was not expecting this show to be cute? but it is SO CUTE.

- IT IS BRUCE I love him. Please let his character in this be well-rounded.

- uuurgh executive meddling, HATE IT. and also all of this is so tense. I'm on leave, I shouldn't be getting stressed about OTHER PEOPLE'S FICTIONAL WORK ISSUES

- first oishi and now tao kae noi, I'm getting homesick for BBS here

- how brainwashed by capitalism have I been to be like "9 to 5 doesn't seem that bad" -- WHAT THE FUCK, JENG.

- oh, okay, that's how he meant it. yeah, Pat needs to learn to stand up to P'Ying and P'Prem, but … ????

- unfortunately that's not what Pat heard, huh

- WHY ARE YOU INKING WITH A BRUSH, and one that thick at that??? I mean not to judge but-- okay no, I'm judging

- uh-oh

- Bad Buddy conditioned me to expect a Nivea Micellar Acne Free Cleanser ad here, gj on defying expectations, show

- so Put IS the ex. ok ok ok.

- oh wow oh wow oh yikes

- youtube subtitles created using mtl? urgh. mtl that was not sufficiently cleaned up?? BURN IT.

- URGH why is Ying there

- oh NO another misunderstanding (and WHY did he right to suspecting this was Pat tho)

- once again everything would be so much easier if these folks just talked to one another, but I guess the power dynamics at play here do give a real reason NOT to be frank, huh

- A CHILD. Of course it's a child.

- subtitle game deteriorating steadily, that was "DO call him 'brother' (as opposed to 'uncle')"

- oh no, poor Pat, being subjected to a double set of puppy dog eyes

- appreciation board! translation notes for stuff not in the subs over here

- YES Chot has a bf and they're cute together, THANK.

- I'm DYING oh fuck this is why personal and work phones need to separate devices

- Jeng is WAY more patient with Pat than I would've been with ANYONE in this situation. Man's got it bad.

- THAT BGM WAS IN BBS AS WELL

- oh, Ms Nadia is intrigued

- the enemy really IS seniority, yikes

- he's bad at karaoke and picks old-fashioned songs!!! I love that

- because he's WHIPPED is why (okay and also he thinks Pat genuinely has potential)

- oh RIGHT we still have the potential pregnancy plot here. right.

- oh my GOD we're talking about this now???????

- Pat, you say these things and don't think about what they sound about at all, huh

- all ominous but I bet it's just, like … Put

- annnnnnd here we are. Godddd Up looks so !!!!!!!! here

---

Okay but I feel ROBBED that we didn't get to see more of Pat and Jeng at the auction. Those suits!

[crimmson]

bro WHY is there a 50/50 chance that melatonin is gonna give me the most visceral gut-wrenching heartbreaking dreams

it started off with like... being an astronaut or something similar but it was me a two dudes who were just supposed to be doing baby's first little scouting mission that was like, go to this one little rock and back

but there was this weird cloud that was like a cross between static and a bunch of gnats in space

next thing I knew, I was in some warped version of Times Square where there was an odd mix of people, food, items, and fashion from a huge range of time periods and places. and I was looking at one of the screens showing a garbled news report where it was pretty clear that everyone thought I was dead while my two astronaut fellows were getting some medal.

somehow some woman dressed like a newsie is leading me around and explaining shit, and this place is some kind of weird limbo where lost shit winds up. Not everything or everyone, but a fraction of it. and now they have a whole-ass society. unfortunately that society still appears to have a class system and rely on a crude recreation of capitalism. the streets were lined with tents and stalls selling all kinds of things. some of these shops were obviously nicer than others. and at the top was a dude whose name I have immediately forgotten but he was dressed like a cross between a leprechaun and Santa Claus.

at some point after watching a woman argue with the produce stand lady (which, as it was explained to me, apparently sometimes during the Mystery Teleport To Limbo, food does weird shit; there were some blue strawberries and a frankenlemon) I made an offhand comment about why you would do this. everyone here is just suddenly thrust into this situation, and you're all trying to survive. and you seem to get enough food and supplies for everyone. so why hamstring each other? why not just... dole it out?

this apparently sealed my fate for the rest of the dream, which I would not find out until my gruesome end.

first, at some point, newsie lady pulled me to the side and let me in on a "secret." there were people who had the same thought I did, and they were planning something. then she pulled her shirt to the side and showed something stuck to her skin. it looked like a few poker chips with some wires running between them. but she told me she was there to blow herself up and make a point. and that originally she was just going to do it, but now she wanted to give me the chance to leave the area.

instead I sat down on a little wall and kicked my feet like a child and mumbled that I didn't want her to go.

and then she was like "oh. I didn't know that." and she just. didn't do it. (also I am now beginning to suspect that it was never a bomb and it was just a test)

there was either a little time skip or I just don't remember what happened for a bit. I think it was just me learning to live here for a bit? but the society thing was still bothering me.

AND IT'S ALL DOWNHILL FROM HERE.

I was walking with the newsie lady again, and we were getting into the "nicer" section of streets and stalls. and then there was this very long stretch of tables, draped in honest to God velvet, with display cases of pristine watches and jewelry and gemstones. and I looked up at the dude running it, and it was Green Santa. and I just started climbing over the tables until I got to him, and sat down on the table in front of him, and was just like... "why."

I gave some long rousing speech, and everyone seemed uncomfortable, and Green Santa started to look a little weepy.

then there were thumps coming from "upstairs." logistically this makes no fucking sense. upstairs is just sky from out there on the street. but when I asked wtf that was, and he was like, that is a problem, and we're going to need everyone. quickly, go upstairs and hold the door.

so I ran up the rickety stairs behind him, which had a little wooden landing, and then 180 degrees was another set of stairs. even more rickety. I felt like I was on the inside of a rotted wooden barn. there were huge gaps in the slats, nothing looked secure. but despite the huge gaps, it was impossible to see anything other than fuzzy shadows on the other side of the walls and doors. and it looked for all the world like a bunch of skeletal wolves with antlers were THROWING themselves against the double doors.

so I stretched myself out as much as I could and dug my heels into the shitty crumbling floor and LEANED as hard as I could against the door to hold it shut. because everyone was going to be coming up those stairs to help me.

right?

lol. lmao even.

no. everyone was in on it. everyone was a part of it. I absolutely could not hold those doors. apparently I was a sacrifice. they busted through and I had to watch from my first person POV as I got mauled. at one point I managed to hold up my hand and it was SHREDDED. I could see muscle and bone. thankfully I did not have to feel much. usually I feel shit in my dreams but I guess this time even my brain was like "that's a bit much isn't it?"

BUT THAT IS NOT THE PART THAT HURT

at some point while these things are using my larynx as a chew toy, newsie lady walks in with a hunting rifle. at this point I already have put everything together. with no real warmth, she asks, hypothetically, if I would prefer a bullet in the head at this point. I am choking on sobs and my own blood. and in the saddest gurgle I can manage, I say that I thought she liked me.

"I do. That's why I'm offering."

AND THEN I WOKE UP AND STARED AT THE CEILING FOR 20 MINUTES

HELLO????????

[late-to-the-fandom]

Happy Blorbsday, here's everything!

👻 - Does your character believe in ghosts? (Or, for a world where ghosts are definitely real, does your character believe in anything supernatural that *isn't* easily provable?)

💀- Is your character afraid of death? What's the closest they've come to dying?

⚰- What sort of funerary rites does your character's culture have? Has your character been to any funerals before?

I feel like my relationship with Denathrius is now intimate enough I can answer these questions for him 😋

Denathrius does not believe in anything he has not seen or had personal experience with. Even things just reported by reputable sources, he's inclined to consider suspect of at least elaboration until he has confirmed it himself. He considers his own experience the "be and end all" of reality. Which, as an eternal being, means he believes in plenty of supernatural things but is suspicious of a great many purported "facts" about mortals and mortal realms. Although, interestingly enough, he's not very "in one's face" about this. He's happy to let someone ramble on about beliefs he personally considers erroneous without feeling compelled to correct them. It reinforces his belief that basically everything else in existence is less intelligent than him.

2. Denathrius is afraid of fuck all, at this point. Any fear of ultimate destruction he might ever have had is gone. He doesn't really believe himself capable of it.

3. Once upon a time, Revendreth had a solemn and mandatory ceremony each time a soul was sentenced to the Maw. It was meant to be both a grieving of the Venthyr that they had failed and an ominous warning to other souls still working at atonement. But that was a long, long time ago. Denathrius no longer cares about such things, and the destruction of souls is unfortunately more commonplace now.

Thank you for the asks! Happy Blorbo Blurbsday or however we're spelling this.