#EVERY EPISODE IS PAIN AND I LIVE IN FEAR FOR EPISODE 23 | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

savagewildnerness · 5 months ago

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E12: Don’t be afraid, just start the tape:

So, first of all - what magnificent acting from everyone in this episode. Oh my! They’re all utterly wonderful! I’m going to point it out at certain points as I go, but oh my - they are all wondrous! And the language - every line of this episode mattered!

I found it interesting to reflect on vampire versus human perspective on both life and immortality in this episode - Daniel perceives immortality as an opportunity to seize existence eternally and truly LIVE life, while the vampires themselves dwell in existential malaise…. And is THIS that makes Daniel fascinating..?

Daniel ‘grabbing’ syntax - the bit where Louis refers to himself in the third person… now we have to rewatch the entire show with this in mind, to see when else Louis or Armand referred to themselves this way…?!

“Someone half in love with an easeful death” - How Louis refers to Armand’s victims when he can’t find an evildoer are the exact words Armand later says to Daniel

Louis has more of an ease with himself in San Francisco, while at the same time being the most lost we have ever seen him. He’s more at ease with his nature - in his posture; in killing… but not in all ways - clearly!

“Cocaine’s a fun boy’s drug. I’m not fun.” LOL @ Louis, the truther!

Louis: “Do you want to now?” To Dubai-Daniel. Audience: YES PLEASE! Off you GO!

Louis’ sheer check shirt is TOO GOOD. I love it. I want it.

IS one of them the Zodiac killer though? We need to look at that victim list from earlier than 1973…

“You were lonely, Louis, you were floundering…”

Jacob’s acting - he’s so great in this episode, but I especially adored the way he eviscerates Lestat! Jacob is hilarious! And it’s funny, like it is in the books! So over the top… Louis leaning in to the tape like his words are weapons to lure Lestat towards him. It’s so redolent to what Lestat did in creating his Come to Me recording with Antoinette’s voice… except the opposite - Lestat created a loving thing, but used his lovers voice on the loving thing to anger Louis… Louis twists Lestat into the most spiteful thing and I absolutely love that they included the concept in the books that would hurt Lestat the most of all - when Louis says that his piano playing is emotionless. “He played without an iota of feeling.. with all the emotional acuity of a MONSTER!” Yeah Louis, THAT will draw Lestat out…

And while I’m on the note of music - how interesting the music in this episode… that single-note hypnotic piano pedal that keeps coming back over and over again - anticipatory…. The meagre, fractured strings… utterly unlike the music in this series outside this episode

And Louis, just wanting Daniel to agree… getting him high ought to make him more acquiescent… and yet, he gets more than he bargained for… Daniel still notices subtext in what Louis is saying and doing, and it intrigues Louis… for what do these eternal beings truly want, but to be entirely understood…?

Daniel pointing out Lestat was Louis’ first love, even amid Louis’ trash talk

Daniel “I’m with her…. Get off that bench, brother.”

Daniel’s confidence in his SELF when asking for the dark gift - the confidence of a truly young man. And How great is Luke - let’s say it now. He is SO Eric. His fear, his bravado, how scared for him you feel

The way Dubai-Daniel trusts Louis here, showing him the laptop

Armand: What if it was published? You don’t have enough to fear from Paris?

“You are so BORING. Colourless. Flavourless. Dull. Dull. Dull nights, dull weeks, dull months, dull as f… Suffocation by the world’s softest, beigest pillow… the ten hours I spent with that boy were more exciting than decades with you.” OK but tell us what you REALLY feel, Louis, LOLOLOLOLOL

Armand’s mocking impression of Louis “Oh, it’s so hard to be me!!!” And Louis retaliating. God, I LOVE their argument! A perfect mix of awful, painful… and hilarious!!! (Imagine Lestat laughing…)

The name unuttered in our home for 23 years

“She didn’t love you. Not like he did. Not like I have.” They’re going there with Claudia!

“Can you hear her? She’s calling me…”. Claudia’s ghost is clearly what calls Louis to going into the sun and I wonder if this is foreshadowing and if that image of Claudia in the sunlight could be Claudia’s ghost at the end of the series, but this time we can see her… again calling Louis…?

“The floor slants slightly North. The blood flowed that way.” This line is repeated a few times by Armand… and I didn’t understand why, but it felt important. Did anyone understand why.

Gosh the language in this episode is beautiful - poetic, play-like, and so much of Anne’s words.

“He’s fine. He’s just one.” Echoes of Armand telling Lestat how unharmed Nicki was….

“He confessed his innermost secrets to you” - the betrayal of emotional intimacy

“You’re going to teach me how to be fascinating.” OK… now is the moment. Love letter to Assad Zaman and to Armand. It is just heartbreaking the way he needs something from Daniel here. In this episode, Armand saves Louis’ life. He is a conduit for Louis’ true love’s voice. In fact, he does so much in love for Louis… And yet he is told he is boring.

The irony is that Armand IS special!!! He is absolutely the most complex vampire… he just doesn’t understand how to love or be loved… and Louis is NOT his "one"! But he is SO fascinating! And special. All of the edits to Radiohead's Creep PLEASE!!!!

I also find it WONDROUS in a show about vampires - where vampires are always a metaphor to The Outsider... yet... in art, The Outsider is often portrayed in in my opinion - an unrealistic way, as in "actually the outsider is infinitely special, really!", BUT IN ARMAND, the writers have given us a truly actually special character who truly feels like many outsiders do - that they are irrevocably flawed and there is something significant truly missing in them (us) - AND is told by the person he loves SO much he would literally be a pathway to their other love that he is boring and not special and not enough... THAT is relatable! (Even though nobody has told me this, as I am simply isolated, personally! Yet, still, I feel it!)

“A splinter of coldness in you. Is that what makes you fascinating?” “Even his transgressions are ordinary.”

The way Armand looks at Daniel when he says “Do you want to hear my story?” - “An eager black hole.” Armand seeking if it is how Daniel listens that makes him fascinating to Louis…

Armand communicating to Lestat “I won’t say a word.” What is Lestat telling Armand here about where he is?

Their feet in the stones

“All I talked about him was trash.” “Yes, you said that. But why? It’s not exactly how you’ve talked about him to me. Did I catch you in a fantasy?” A fantasy where Lestat reads Louis nasty embellishments and comes chasing after him again….

“This prison of empathy I’ve locked you in.” Gosh, I love the language

“I am your maker’s voice: Louis, mon Cher. You anted to say something to me? Why are you ill? What’s happened to you? I love you Louis. Tell him Armand.”

Armand really does this in such selfless love for Louis and of course Armand cannot bring himself to speak Lestat’s I love you to Louis. It is too much. Especially seeing as all Armand ever asked of Lestat was for Lestat to love *him*! Oh Armand! You deserve love!

A final act of service

“You left me for death.”

Louis, using Daniel’s “And then…”

I am the quiet you have been longing for after all the garishness of life. The way Armand eases Daniel into death. Sensual. Beautiful. Terrible. And Anne’s words.

Daniel saying how Armand redacted himself from his mind reminded me of Daniel saying “Disregard” to Armand’s input to the story at the start of the season

Armand did edit Louis and Daniel’s brains… but Louis was suicidal… so there was cause…

Louis’ anger at the end

Trial starting next episode…!

Assad: “Armand can’t ever relax with the truth”

Jacob in the post episode thing - saying he can’t think of a bigger betrayal than rewriting the history of a person you love and that it makes him angry… referring to what Armand does to Louis… when IN THIS SAME EPISODE, that’s literally what Louis does to Lestat, albeit not in Lestat’s mind… but still… there are similarities!! Haha

Lestat is my boy, and Sam IS Lestat… and everyone in this episode is so incredible - but ASSAD'S ARMAND. Armand was always my second favourite vampire, but Assad - I do not understand how you are making me love Armand even MORE! Be MORE evil, Armand. And more tragic. And more loving. Be every thing you are. I know you are fascinating!!!!! Every episode, I love Assad even more.

Finally: reviewers were wrong - this is ABSOLUTELY the foundation of The Devil’s Minion. From horror, grows love. Though this episode is mainly created, there is SO MUCH of Anne Rice in it and it feels 100% her. He words, her feelings. Her gothic romance. ADORE.

Oh and PS, it's both hilarious and totally tragic that sexy Loumand times can't truly happen until Armand has literally WIPED Lestat from Louis' mind, hahahahahaha! Poor Armand. Obviously he's monstrous in this episode. And I love you for every ounce of your monstrosity and all of the pain beneath it!!!

#iwtv e12 #interview with the vampire #anne rice #amc interview with the vampire #assad zaman #iwtv louis #louis de pointe du lac #the vampire armand #Daniel molloy #the devils minion

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notglutenfresh · 7 months ago

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Some House of Black headcannons:

TW: Mental health issues (ED, Bipolar, GAD, Schizophrenia), abuse, starvation, slight mention of death

All of them have a mental illness of some sort. Bellatrix has schizophrenia, this developed when she was around 23, before then, while she would've still been a really messed up person, her actions were her own, but I think that the longer the war went on she started worrying about everything because she started hallucinating that the ministry wanted to get her specifically. Narcissa and Andromeda both have very bad GAD: most of Narcissa's anxiety comes from her family situation, namely her husband and sister being a very high up Death Eater; most of Andromeda's anxiety comes from her running away to be with Ted Tonks because she feels as though her family is gonna hunt them down and destroy everything they made together. Sirius is Bipolar, this developed when he was 15 or 16 but before the prank, which I think would've been his first manic episode. Regulus has anorexia and depression: I think Walburga starving him proper messed up his view of his body, as if it was something that needed to be purged- he only eats breakfast when he's at Hogwarts which is normally just an apple and a slice of plain toast, when he's at Grimmauld Place he tries to skip out on meals but when Walburga forces him to eat with her he just makes himself sick afterwards or take laxatives to get all the food out of his body and when he's not in class or doing homework, he's normally on the Quidditch pitch practicing by himself or running laps around Hogwarts for as long as he can before he feels like he's about to pass out.

Narcissa really misses Andromeda and wants to meet her at least one more time before either of them die.

Bellatrix was like Sirius in the fact that she would take punishments for her sisters, which made her fall deeper into her madness rather than being scared of it like Sirius.

When Sirius first went to Hogwarts, Regulus started to get into trouble with Walburga for the slightest misstep. Partially to try and ensure Regulus was in Slytherin, but also because Sirius wasn't around to take the fall for Regulus anymore. By the time Sirius came back from Christmas break in his first year, Regulus had been crucioed so much that he couldn't stop shaking and could barely get out of bed without crying due to how much pain he was in.

Kreacher would help Sirius and Regulus escape punishment if he was certain that Walburga wouldn't find out what happened. Even if he couldn’t help heal them, he would put small portions of healing potions into the dismal meals they were allowed during their punishments.

Orion was an extremely neglectful father basically all year round, yet on birthdays and Christmas' he always managed to get Sirius and Regulus exactly what they wanted without fail. Thinking that the presents would make up for his lack of presence in their lives.

Walburga did love Sirius and Regulus in a really twisted way. She was raised by abusive parents, and she swore to never be like them, but when it came to her own kids, she had no idea how to parent them without the abuse, so she thought it was necessary. In her head, every time she punished Sirius and Regulus, she was showing her love for them. When Sirius ran away, she wouldn't leave her room for weeks. She wouldn't cry she would just stare at the ceiling, wondering why she became exactly what she feared, why she forced her own son into running away out of fear. When Regulus died, she completely broke down. She lost both of her sons because she forced them away from her. She died not long after Regulus went missing.

#the house of black #sirius black #regulus black #marauders #black brothers #walburga black #walburga's a+ parenting #orion black #andromeda black #bellatrix black #narcissa black #marauders headcanon #marauders era #bellatrix lestrange #narcissa malfoy #andromeda tonks

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schafpudel · 11 months ago

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Epidemiology of the Raven's Blood

Part 0: Prologue

Realistically, the blood does things because it's convenient to the plot of the anime, and no deeper thought needs to be put in than that. However, while it does explain inconsistencies in its writing, it's boring and not fun to my pattern-seeking brain. I like to piece together coherent internal logic to stuff in fiction, even if I know the authors themselves didn't think that hard about it. It's fun to me!

At the same time, Princess Tutu's meta-fictional conceit does give us some wiggle room to borrow the Doylist understanding and smuggle it back into a Watsonian explanation. So...

In-universe, I think, the purpose of the Raven’s Blood can be understood as a plot device to easily convert a separate “character” and their body into a narrative extension of the Raven; that this is why Drosselmeyer would write it into the logic of his story. Bored of a character you introduced previously and want to heighten the stakes? They're a toadie of the Raven now. And when we go a level down in fictionality...

To the Raven, other living things exist to be exploited. The only use you can have, beyond being a meal, is being a pawn who can get it what it wants – and what it wants is to consume. Like some ancient castle-bound vampire or wicked dragon, its power and intelligence are ultimately in service of a simple predatory desire. If you are neither edible nor manipulable, you are simply a nuisance.

Diseases and parasites will manipulate pain and pleasure, fear and love, the body and the brain. But while a real disease or parasite’s goal in psychological and physiological manipulation is to reproduce, to turn the infected into a means by which to spread itself to new hosts... the Raven's curse is uninterested in this. What matters, to the Raven, is that the cursed becomes a minion and a pawn, who can bring its prey closer to its own mouth.

Part 1: Lay All Your Love On Me

Part 2: Serving Your Heart On A Platter

I’m sure you’ve heard of a sickness that feeds predators their prey. Toxoplasmosis, for example makes male rats as horny and lovesick over the smell of cat urine as they are at the scent of female rats, switching the pathways of fear and desire, to lure them into being devoured. The pathways between the two run parallel, you see. For the infected, every cat becomes a succubus, a siren, a beautiful creature calling its prey to their willing doom. And, if the parasite gets what it wants, this is how the rat dies.

Why am I talking about this? Because Mytho starts talking about feeding himself to birds literally the day that his symptoms start presenting, in episode 14.

It’s true he’s saying this while antagonizing Fakir, so one could also brush it off as him just Saying Shit to make his roommate as uncomfortable as possible. But also – we know what the Raven wants, in the end.

For most of season 2, however, Raven!Mytho doesn’t continue to talk about feeding himself to crows. He’s mostly focused on seducing sacrifices, manipulating public opinion, having meltdowns about not being loved enough, and being petty to Fakir and Kraehe. His sense of self-preservation (in as much as Mytho has ever had one, cough) seems genuinely intact for episodes 15 through 21. If Mytho is feeling weirdly giggly about getting eaten during that timespan, he’s doing an awfully good job of hiding it.

And then Mytho starts molting into a crow monster at the end of episode 21, and the rat toxoplasmosis symptoms kicks back in.

(We're not told what he's smiling about here in episode 22, but the next episode, episode 23, makes it obvious:)

This does seem likely to be a Mytho-specific symptom; Rue shows no sign of this. The Raven has been particularly invested in eating Mytho’s heart for a long time, after all; Mytho’s job as the Raven’s doordash delivery guy was always going to be temporary even if he hadn’t beeninterrupted every time. It’s entirely possible that other people could end up with this “symptom” too, but we never see it.

The fact that Raven!Mytho proceeds to acts so strangely cuddly after telling Kraehe she’s an ugly fuck (but also that he needs her love) feels somehow related to this enthusiasm for getting eaten by crows. His voice delivery in the Japanese audio for the heart/lips/blood line sounds… …I hate to say this.

It sounds like he thinks a crow girl ripping out his heart and touching it onto her mouth is really hot.

(Yea, of course she's shaped like an uggo human (and he's in the process of moulting into a majestic raven and he's sosososo excited for that) - but hey, she's technically a crow as far as he knows, and she has black feathers....)

(And while regular!Mytho seems negative to neutral about that in season 1, Raven!Mytho only ever complimented Kraehe for having crow-like qualities.)

Anyways! In Mytho's final state under the Raven's Blood, he immediately obeys the Raven's orders to be devoured, completely ignoring Rue and Tutu's pleas.

...You know, until the Fairytale Confession of Love, because this is a magical curse and it is a fairytale.

Part 3 and Part 4 are not ready yet but are in the works. See you soon.

#princess tutu

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appalamutte · 11 months ago

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isn't it still march? aren't i still sitting in the sun in july, fingers sticky with watermelon and skin with sunscreen? wasn't the first frost in october just last night, won't there still be months until i have to make this list?

...haha anyway.

this is an incredibly subjective list and i by no means think these fics are better than others. these are just fics that i continue to think about, that i have reread in chase of the feelings i felt when i first read them, or that impacted me in a way that i can’t explain. there are no real set criteria. there’s no real rhyme or reason. these are just my 23 favorite fics i read in 2023*.

these fics come from multiple fandoms and contain a wide array of genres/tropes. they’re listed in alphabetical order by author. some summaries i cut down due to length.

*these are fics i have read in 2023, they weren’t all published in 2023

Attack on Titan

fragility in waves by searwrites [rating: not rated | words: 4.0k | read: july] Most tragedies come and go in the blink of an eye - the things that affect us most are the ones you pay the least attention to at the time. Jean wouldn't even say that dying is something to be feared anymore, only pain. Death becomes a sigh in the wind, a force of nature. It's living that was always the most difficult thing to do. .

Check, Please!

walk with you through everything by idrilka [rating: mature | words: 6.6k | read: march] After Jack retires from the NHL, he takes his time to heal, in more ways than one. Bitty is there for him every step of the way. .

Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulation

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood by gremble [rating: explicit | words: 136.7k | read: february] It takes Robert one evening to fall for the New Guy, and the better part of two years to figure out... everything else. .

Haikyuu!!

yours, forevermore. by amaanogawa [rating: teen | words: 2.5k | read: september] But now it is time to reap the consequences of his weakness, for Tetsurou is a man destined for greatness and Daichi is a mere tool to be used in his quest for it. .

one plus one by Anonymous [rating: teen | words: 4.9k | read: september] The resonance hits him before they've even entered the gymnasium. It hits him with all the subtlety of a derailing train, and he barely hears Daichi calling his name over the roaring in his ears and the bile choking his throat. "That's our new setter, then," Koushi manages, before doubling over to throw up the rest of his lunch. .

the contest between by batman [rating: explicit | words: 75.2k | read: september] 'What do you want to do with a chef whose specialty is rice ball takeaway, who refused a Michelin star, and who doesn't want to be on your show?' Keiji asks. 'Get him on my show,' comes the answer. Chef's Table Season 4, Episode 1: Miya Osamu .

butterfly in the subway by bigspoonnoya [rating: teen | words: 62.8k | read: august] Sugawara Koushi has no idea he's already in love with the man he's supposed to hate. .

Say Hello to My Heart by cerasi [rating: explicit | words: 17.1k | read: october] S., 24 in tokyo for a couple weeks for work. not looking for anything serious, but if u can show me around to some good food that's a plus... or i can just make breakfast at ur place ;) Akaashi meets Osamu on a hookup app. .

the galaxy is endless (i thought we were, too) by cosmogony [rating: teen | words: 30.9k | read: august] soulmate /ˈsəʊlmeɪt/ • noun A person who was made from the same star as you. Kuroken AU where the last words your soulmate will say to you appear on your skin when you turn 16, and how Kenma and Kuroo learn what this means over the course of their lives. .

Earthquake by gghostnebula [rating: mature | words: 62.3k | read: september] If 'Koushi' means 'support', then Sugawara really lives up to their name. Daichi couldn't be more grateful if he tried, and he does everything in his power to return the favor. .

do my best to do you right by mareas [rating: explicit | words: 10.7k | read: october] Sakusa Kiyoomi has found the only corner of the entire tip-of-the-iceberg part of the Internet that has the potential to ruin his life. No, it's not the "out of stock" message from the site where he gets his shaving cream. It is what seems to be Ushijima Wakatoshi's Instagram page. .

why did it have to be you? by ofmorninglory [rating: teen | words: 16.5k | read: september] Ushijima Wakatoshi doesn't like working with idols. That is, until he meets Sugawara Koushi. .

Taberu Rayu by suspiciousflashlight [rating: explicit | words: 12.8k | read: august] Mostly, though, Suga blames his inordinate love of hot chili oil and Daichi's inability to comprehend exponential functions, because somehow, improbably, the collision of those two innocent variables is what kickstarts this whole mortifying situation in the first place. .

somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond by themorninglark [rating: teen | words: 5.2k | read: august] Suga has learned to solve his problems, save for one. It's their graduation day, and he's staring at it. .

in between evenings by thispieceofmind [rating: mature | words: 31.2k | read: august] The thing about falling in love with your best friend is that it happens so slow. .

Fate is Kinda a Bitch by UhohShouto [rating: explicit | words: 57.3k | read: september] Suga is swearing off casual sex. He's had his fun—plenty of it—but he's ready for something serious again. He's ready to love somebody. His new resolution is going absolutely fabulously (he's barely even peeked at a hot stranger for fifteen hours!) until he spots the man stealing glances at him from across the bar. A tucked-in button-up, a pair of dummy thicc thighs, and a bewildering blush are all it takes, apparently, because then Suga's pulling the stranger into the club bathroom and sliding to his knees before him. .

Hockey

saving nickels, saving dimes by CoffeeStars [rating: teen | words: 6.3k | read: january] Poor Sidney, is what Geno must think. Poor, poor, lonely Sidney. Unloved, unwanted. What a shame it is, to be the best player in his generation but still be no one at the same time. .

The Mandalorian / Star Wars

His Beacon, His Harbor by annathaema [rating: explicit | words: 21.9k | read: march] The Mandalorian becomes Din Djarin. Din Djarin becomes. (Luke helps.) .

Pragmatics by Derkish [rating: mature | words: 57.2k | read: april] Luke is a grad student trying to finish his linguistics PhD after an unexpected leave of absence. His neighbor, Din, is a single dad and delivery guy at Pizza Parsec. (Actually, Pizza Parsec is just a front for the bounty hunters' guild. But Luke doesn't need to know that.) .

staring down the barrel of the hot sun by magneticwave [rating: general | words: 25.7k | read: march] “Gone to a Child of the Watch, the Darksaber has,” Grand Master Yoda announces in his creaky little voice. “Peace, there is not, and yet peace, there must be.” .

Don't Let it in (With No Intention to Keep it) by Purplesauris [rating: explicit | words: 48.1k | read: april] Obi-Wan and Master Yoda always made it seem so serene. I am one with the Force, and the Force is with me. But no one ever told him that peace was hard to find while drowning. .

Christ in Repose by spqr [rating: teen | words: 7.7k | read: march] More on this story as it develops. Subscribe to HNN’s JEDI WATCH newsletter for instant updates on Jedi sightings throughout the galaxy. .

who carried the hill by spqr [rating: mature | words: 22.3k | read: march] Din’s about to head up the ramp onto the newly-repaired Razor Crest when a string pulls taut around his heart and yanks him into the sky. .

that's it! honestly, i'm a little sad i didn't read much omgcp fic this year, but as it goes, when a newer hyperfixation makes it way into my head, it overtakes whatever was there before it. (also when i went through my haikyuu phase, i was severely depressed...it just consumed me while i was at my most vulnerable.)

here's to the new year!!

#fic rec #can't believe i'm already posting this #nearly forgot to do it in time oops

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celtfather · 8 months ago

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Redemption #283

Pain is hard to deal with. Sometimes it feels overwhelming. You can get through it with maybe a little help from Doctor Who. We talk about my song Redemption.

You can learn all about it today on Pub Songs & Stories #283

0:16 - Marc Gunn “By Amazing Grace” from Come Adventure With Me

By Amazing Grace, Hat Came Back, Tartanic

Inspired by the Firefly episode “Heart of Glass”

featuring Andrew McKee of Brobdingnagian Bards and Jamie Haeuser)

4:23 - WELCOME TO PUB SONGS & STORIES

I am Marc Gunn. I’m a Sci F’Irish musician and podcaster living in Atlanta, Georgia.

If you’re new to the show, please subscribe. You can do that PubSong.com or Just send me an email to follow@celtfather.

New Poll: What are your favorite songs on Sci Fi Drinking Songs?

New Merch Bundle: CD, Album Pin, Poster and Songbook for $90

9:32 - UPCOMING SHOWS

MAR 23-24: Sherwood Forest Faire, Paige, TX

MAR 28: Dragon Con Filk Music Concert w/Brobdingnagian Bards @ 8 PM

MAR 30-31: Sherwood Forest Faire, Paige, TX

APR 19-21: Jordan Con, Crowne Plaza Ravinia, Atlanta, GA

Make sure you check the calendar on the Marc Gunn homepage to see the latest list of performances.

10:35 - Vicki Swan & Jonny Dyer “Folk Club Song” from Twelve Months & A Day

15:44 - JOIN THE CLUB

The show is brought to you by my supporters on Patreon. If you enjoy this podcast or my music, please join the Club. You get something new every week. It could be bonus podcasts, downloadable songs, printed sheet music, blogs, or stories from the road. Plus, you’ll get access to videos like my Coffee with The Celtfather video concerts. Email follow@celtfather !

If you can’t support me financially, just sign up on Patreon for free. Special thanks to our newest and returning patrons: Laura Belle, Michelle Powers, James Regan

17:20 - THE STORY OF REDEMPTION

Recorded for The War Doctor | Doctor Who #2.3

Inspired by “The Day of the Doctor” from Doctor Who

Download the “Redemption” MP3

Lyrics and music Marc Gunn. Marc Gunn: autoharp, vocals; Rich Brotherton: bass, guitar, percussion. Mixed by Rich Brotherton

Background

This is a story about finding redemption. In the 50th anniversary Doctor Who episode "The Day of the Doctor", the 10th (Matt Smith) and 11th Doctor (David Tennant) meet The War Doctor. They are horrified and filled with dread to once again see themselves as the man who committed horrible atrocities wiping out the Time Lords and the Daleks with a doomsday weapon.

But after centuries dealing with that pain. They finally come to grips with it. They accept the decision they made even though it caused the death of billions of people. But even better, they remember Who they are. The Doctor. Never cruel or cowardly. Never give up or give in. Doctors give hope. They are finally able to save the people they thought they lost.

Redemption Lyrics

I was so young. I made a mistake That I have never shared. Much to regret. I tried to forget. I ran. That just laid it bare.

To speak the words out loud made me Shudder for the harm I done Now I help the innocent Still I feel the need to run.

* Because I burn. I burn. It won't cover the pain But it's time I learn. Time I learn. Redemption can come again (x3)

Are great men truly forged in fire? While others light the flame? That's what I tell myself so that I can avoid the blame.

Deep down inside there's a scared little child Smashing statues, filled with fright. Under cover, changing faces To hide away in plain sight

But still I burn. I burn. It won't cover the pain But it's time I learn. It's time I learn. Redemption can come again (x3)

And still my monsters come from my past They shatter my future bones. Scary to face them, but time will heal Don't have to do it alone

Promise to keep, tho I may weep For the pain I kept deep down Face my fears for 1200 years Hope will turn my life around

No longer burn. No longer burn. It may not cover the pain But it's time I learn. It's time I learn. Redemption can come again (x3)

26:11 - Marc Gunn “Redemption” from Come Adventure With Me

29:47 - CLOSING

33:25 - CREDITS

Thanks for listening to Pub Songs & Stories. This episode was edited by Mitchell Petersen.

You can follow and listen to the show on my Patreon or wherever you find podcasts. Sign up to my mailing list to learn more about songs featured in this podcast and discover where I’m performing.

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johnkrrasinski · 4 years ago

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ℑ𝔫𝔱𝔬 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔚𝔬𝔬𝔡𝔰

Chapter 1: The Archer & The Prey

full masterlist // series masterlist

Pairings: dark!Steve Rogers x female!reader

Word count: 4,517

Warnings: sexual themes, kidnapping, stalking. (MUST BE 18+)

Summary: after the death of your mother, you decided that you were going to do something new to honor her. You chose a perfect camping spot somewhere down South. You thought it was going to be the life-changing vacation that you never had in your life, until Steve Rogers, a man existed in roughness and control all his life, found you.

a/n: this is the dark!steve rogers series that i have promised. this one is going to be much darker than the last one shot fic i posted, so please leave, if you are under 18+. please leave a like and comment. enjoy!

It had been a long time since you last went on a vacation. You had been taking care of your then sick mother, every day and barely got enough time for yourself between working your humdrum job as an accountant at Stark's Industries and rushing to the hospital every night to your mother to keep her company.

However, it's not your concern anymore now. You had just gone home from attending her funeral. It was bleak and wearisome. You had to deal with your family and friends who put on these fake, mournful faces and pretended that they were heartbroken when they never gave a shit when she was still alive and healthy. They barely took their time to visit her during her hospitalization.

Your mother was your best friend, the only person in your life who truly cared for you and took care of you during your childhood and teenager years, even after you were an adult, your mother still saw you as this little girl who needed some tending after she scrapped her knees.

You were a shy, delicate, and reticent person who kept to herself and didn't keep a lot of companion in your life. You had some classmates from high school and college that you still kept in touch with, you also had some colleagues that you would text with once in a while regarding professional matters.

However, you wouldn't consider them as friends, it wasn't about trust issues or anything severe, it was simply just who you are. You were an introvert who felt much more at ease when you are not surrounded by anyone. But your mother was the only exception, growing up as the only child of a single mother, it wasn't easy to simply let your guard down to anyone. You had learned that when you are alone, you felt less anxious and you'd like to keep it that way. Working at the Stark Industries rewarded you well but it was stressful enough as it is, you wouldn't want to add that pile of stress.

Now that your mother is gone, you've never felt more alone in your life. You walked into your apartment with hands buried in the pocket of your black coat, with your head down, you tried to hold yourself steady as you fumble for your key. You unlocked the door and you stepped into your home. You took a moment to take a deep breath and took a look at your surrounding. You felt helpless. So you took off your coat, went into a shower, and broke down into tears.

You dried yourself off later that night and put on your favorite oversized sweater, you call it your "pity sweater", you've had it in your closet since you were fifteen and every time you hit rock bottom, like the time when you first received the news that your mom was terribly ill and she only had a few more months to live, you decide that to drown yourself in your own self-pity party and of course you'd wear the right outfit to celebrate it.

You laid on your bed later that night, under the opacity of your room, trying to numb the pain by ingesting some sleeping pills, but it didn't help, your eyes are still wide open and you can still hear the resonance of your muffled sobs. Slowly but surely, the seconds turned into minutes, and before you knew it, you were fast asleep, drifting away into the land of dreams.

You are running in the middle of a dark forest, being chased by the wolves with their cuspidate teeth glistening in the murk threatening to devour you. They were running faster than the wind, you were having trouble of trying to outrun them, you felt your energy started to dwindle down, your feet got weaker and cold sweats started to break out of your skin. You were so fixated on running that you didn't realize one of the wolfpacks had caught onto your dress, it was torn away from you and you tripped and your back hit the ground. The last thing you saw was a blue-eyed wolf, gritting its fangs, staring deep into your eyes, with its face closer and closer to yours then everything went black.

The next day, you went back to your work, as usual, your boss, Tony Stark had been generous enough to offer you to take a day off, you refused it at first because if you were left alone one more second doing nothing productive, your mind would start to wander to your mother and you would end up having another breakdown on your kitchen floor. So you had to distract yourself, get your gloomy mind off the tragedy that had befallen on you. Your only escape was work.

It's not like you would hit the bar and order some drinks, it wasn't your thing. It would trigger your anxiety the minute you step foot on the door. To be at peace, all it needed was the companion of your romance novels and some hot chocolate. The concept of dressing up and going home shit faced is a foreign idea to you. It would absolutely be madness if you risked your own comfort zone just to end up in a stranger's car and not remembering a single event that happened last night. Your mother always warned you about being reckless and talking to strange men.

She would always say; "you have to be careful, y/n, there are men who are steadily seeking their next prey. They would lure you into their charm and capitalize on you in their bed. And the next thing you know, you are 4 weeks pregnant and you are going to have to carry that tiny life inside you and raise it on your own."

That's how you were born into this world, actually. You never knew who your father was, and nor did your mother. She was only 23 when she decided to live her life and savor her youth. She was a brilliant young woman who was supposed to have a long, bright future ahead of her. She had graduated from college with a psychology degree and one night, she decided to break out of her shell and accepted her roommate's invitation to go to a party. Little did she know, that party was going to turn her life upside down, forever.

She still walked away with a degree, but there wasn't an ounce of bright future left for her. She had this frail life in her belly depending on her to keep it alive. She had gone to her parents and asked for their help, but they abandoned her. They were filled with rage when your mother told them the jaw-dropping news. They were disappointed in her for being so stupid and negligent. They had high expectations for her. So when your mother begged for their forgiveness, they told her to leave their home and never show her face ever again instead.

Hence, you never knew your grandparents too well either, your mother had shown you some pictures of them, the ones that she still had despite never talking to them again, but she spoke wonderfully about how they raised her right despite their strictness and their unwavering push on her to do better. Your mother was anything but. She took care of you with gentleness and she decided that she didn't want you to live in fear of your own mother.

You loved her more than anything in life. Your mother was your whole world, the one who cured all the rainy days and gave you a secure home when the hurricane in your life was too mighty. Your world was crushed, burned, and taken away when she died. You had to be your own person now.

So you decided to take on Tony's offer of letting a week off. He told you that you need to take your time to mourn and that he didn't need you to be operating his finance when your head was clearly not in the right place. You went home early that day and make yourself some lunch.

You sat on your couch with a bowl filled with cereal in your hands, watching the rerun of Friends. It was the episode where they were going on a ski trip but Phoebe's car broke down. You loved this series and each episode always gave you a good laugh even when you don't feel like it.

It struck an idea in you, what if... You decided to go on a vacation instead of limping around in your apartment, wallowing in self-pity? Maybe it's time for you to get out of your comfort zone and do what might be best for you. It's going to be new and different and scary for sure, but you might never know if you never try. This might help you find yourself and your own inner peace. Your mom would want that for you. She used to always talk about wanting to go camping, especially when she was sick.

She said, "you know when all of this is over and I'm finally free out of this condition, I wanna go camping in the middle of the woods."

You looked up from the book you were reading, with a chuckle you amused her. "Camping, mom? Really? Never knew you were a nature person."

"Oh, I am sweetheart, I used to go hiking and climbing and skiing when I was young. I never really had that chance anymore now that I am older." She lied, she would never say it was because she had to have you that she couldn't go on all these adventures anymore. "The only problem now is that I have to endure this pain a little longer then we can explore the world as long as we want, dear." She chuckled, but her cough interrupted it.

You put down your book on your thighs and immediately reached out her hand.

"Mom, you are gonna get better, I promise. You have to."

You decided to google some camping spots that might intrigue you, you weren't looking for anything opulent or temerarious, just enough to clear your mind off the gloom and to invigorate the spirit in you to go back to work. Maybe, you'd try to meditate in the middle of the woods, yeah, you've always wondered about that, would it really be effective? This might be the time to discover the answer. You can picture it, the fresh air encompassing you, the sound of the birds chirping as if they were welcoming you, and there wouldn't be a single soul that could intrude your solitude.

After doing some research, you decided that you have found the perfect spot. A green-covered land somewhere down South, you did a little deeper digging into its whereabouts, and you took a screenshot of it and bookmarked the page.

That night, you started to feel like the match inside you was lit. After days of being engulfed in grief, you started to feel hope, just a sheer of it. But it was enough to make you feel like you weren't so lost and hopeless. You decided to have an early night after you finished watching Friends and get yourself some rest. You are going to wake up early to pack and prepare yourself to leave this godforsaken town for a few days. You were excited to see what tomorrow holds.

The next morning, you took a shower and got yourself ready. You had packed just enough to last a few days in the woods. You brought your camping tent with you, the one your mother had bought but never actually got to use it. You put your travel bag in the trunk of your car and you sat on the driver's seat to heat up the engine.

You put on some relaxing Jazz music to console your ears and to prevent your thoughts from drifting to your mother. You were going to focus on the roads and what was waiting ahead of you. The soft hum of the engine soothed you. You were savoring the crisp air of Autumn. Fall was your favorite season, the way everything seems chill and slow, it wasn't loud and harsh like summer, but it does feel like a faint new beginning in a way, like the transition of the 5 am sky, from dark hue midnight sky to a luminous royal blue.

You had the windows rolled down as the wind wafted your skin. You were dressed in your cotton knit cream sweater and a knee-length denim shorts. You had taken a quick stop at the nearest Starbucks outlet to get a cup of hot chocolate. You weren't exactly a coffee type of person. You didn't exactly get what makes people so addicted to it. You didn't like the still remaining taste despite pouring three packets of sugar on it. You loved the hot chocolate because sweetness always enlightened your mood. Your mother used to make you a glass of hot chocolate when you were groggy or when you were anxious. You guess it sticks with you no matter how old you are.

A few hours down the road, the temperature started to rise, you can feel the sticky sweat clinging on your skin cloaked under the thickness of your sweater. You stopped by the gas station to fill in your tank, you were back on the road after you bought some snacks. Not only your car that needed to be loaded, but your stomach also did.

You finally arrived at your destination. You had to drive down some uneven roads that bounced all your items inside and you were feeling a bit nauseated after hours of sitting on the driver's seat and the coarse path. But when you finally reached the spot that you found on the internet, it was worth it. You forgot all the hindrances that you had to endure to get yourself here. The pictures that you saved on your phone didn't do justice to the real scenery.

The land was surrounded by nothing but pine green circling around you. The trees were tall, venerable, and benignant. You could hear the sound of the waterfall coursing through the river and it was a picturesque sight. You took a deep breath to inhale the fresh air. For a second, you forgot what you were here in the first place, you relished the stunning mother nature before you.

But then a picture of your mother, smiling emerged into view. You remembered the look on her face when she talked about all the travel plans she had when she recovers. She never had that chance, and it tore you to pieces, again. The thing about losing someone you love the most is that no matter how many good things you have throwing themselves on your way, the pain doesn't just vanish into thin air. It leaves and comes back every once in a while. It gives you space to breathe and to collect yourself and then when it knows you've walked long enough in the light, it comes back to haunt you, reminding you that it never really left.

But you tried to focus on the present, you can't make your mother come back or travel back in time to keep her alive, so you were going to cherish this moment for her. You were going to feast on this fleeting tranquility that you have.

You stood there until you felt like you were jaded for being on your feet for too long. You went back to your car to take your tent and try to set it up. You had to look that up on the internet too, to get it standing perfectly. After what feels like your thousandth attempts, you were glad that it finally relented and let you use it as a makeshift home.

By the time you were done, it was already afternoon. You decided that you were going to take a look around the woods, you weren't going to just stay in one spot, you still had a few hours until it goes dark and of course you weren't going to be stupid enough to wander around the forest that you had never been to after dusk.

You decided you were going to just walk in nearby areas. You were terrified of getting too far, you might end up lost and couldn't find your way back. You only brought your cellphone that was practically useless because you couldn't find any signal there, but you still needed it to take pictures. You also decided to take a bottle of water with you. Quenching your thirst is essential in a journey through the woods.

You kept on walking while stopping once in a while to capture what you find stunning. You were so lost in looking for your next shot to snap, you didn't see the edged branch that was tapered pointedly until your skin grazed against it, causing a deep, painful cut on your left thigh. It was so piked that it left a horizontal shred on your knee-high shorts too.

You dropped your phone to the soil and yielded a high pitched squeal. It reminded you of the traumatic incident in kindergarten, where you were playing chase and run with a classmate, and you stumbled on a hard rock that left a permanent scar on your right knee.

You fell on the ground because you couldn't withhold the agony any longer. You try to stop the bleeding by ripping a piece of your torn jeans, even though it required some struggle. You did not want to let it get infected. You bandaged the crimson wound and you sat there for a few minutes to calm yourself down. You held yourself back on your hands pressed to the soil, you didn't care that it was going to get dirty, you just needed to find a comfortable position until you decide that you were strong enough to return to your tent.

Little did you know, your shriek had invited an unwanted presence. No, no, not the spooky kind. More like a starving wolf that you saw in your dreams a couple of nights ago, with spiked tusks ready to hunt its prey.

So much for thinking that this would be the best vacation of your life...

Steve Rogers had been living in this enormous cabin in the woods all his life. He was raised by his parents whom his grandparents trusted to take care of the cabin. When his grandfather died, he left it to his parents as his inheritance. His father used to teach him hunting and his mother used to teach him how to cook. They taught him a lot of things to survive living in the woods. It wasn't an easy life, they had to get things done all by themselves.

They had to work hard to get their basic needs. They had to habituate themselves in being isolated. It wasn't a difficult thing for Steve because he was always a lone wolf who was vigilant towards his privacy, but a part of he couldn't help but wish that he had someone to take care of. Someone he could keep to himself. Someone who he could call his and his only. Someone who he could... possess. He didn't feel lonely, no, he loved being alone. He loved his autonomy. But he was only a man after all and man has needs. When he was feeling needy and jerking himself off wasn't just doing it anymore for him, he would often go to the city, an hour drive was all it took to get to the nearest brothel house.

Whenever he walked into the door of that ranch, his steps were heard loud and clear and his presence was witnessed effortlessly. It wasn't difficult for a man like him to spend hours in the bordello, his stamina was ceaseless and, let's just say that he was an... ingenious man. He understood a woman's body and what it desires. He wasn't afraid to use his skill and his expertise to fulfill his appetite and his subject. Oh, and how he could take his time to satisfy each one of these ladies.

But whenever he was finished, he would return home with this feeling of void, yes his physical thirst was quenched and his cock wasn't painfully hard anymore that it hurt, at least he got to release the tension that would've left him high and dry if he hadn't fucked some pussy, but there was still something missing. He still hadn't found that one thing he could domineer within the privacy of the woods. The brothel provided private rooms for their customers for sure, but nothing was more pleasant to him than being in his own private quarters, and the thought that these women he had a good time with weren't exactly his, bored him.

He was fatigued by the fact that they have slept with other people too. It's not like he had some sort of attachment to any of them, but that just reminded him of something he still couldn't find. He needed to make a quick move. He was a determined man, once he set his mind on something, he will do whatever it takes to obtain it. And once he found that one girl that he knew would be his favorite possession, he would take her without a second thought and he would make her his.

He drove his beatdown truck back into the woods, the deserted road had become too familiar to him to turn on the beam headlights. He cleaned himself off under the boiling hot water, wipe away the droplets of water that were clinging to his slightly tanned skin, after years of hunting in the middle of the day where the sun was scorching hot and he never bothered of covering every inch of himself up, nobody was going to see him after all.

Later that night, he dropped himself on to the mattress without being bothered to put on any coverups. He always slept nude. It started drizzling outside when he decided that he was going to call it a night. He was going to go hunting tomorrow, so he needed to gather all his energy to make sure he wouldn't miss his target on the day. So he shut his eyes away and drifted into unconsciousness.

The next morning, he woke up precisely at 7.30 am and gathered all his hunting tools. He had his rifle and his bullets with him. Although he didn't really need much because he had been doing this his whole life, he almost never missed a shot. He was patient enough to observe his target, and he calculated his next move meticulously. He put the rifle near his nose then he waited until he knew his shot would be hit exactly between the target's eyes. Then bam! Within a matter of seconds, it ceased to breathe. Then he put the lifeless creature into his sack.

The day was still young and he decided to repose and chugged down half of the water container. When he felt energized enough, he decided to hike a little farther into the outer parts of the woods. He packed up his rifle and his water container along with his deceased prey.

That's when he heard it. An earsplitting squeal. His senses were alert enough to measure the direction of where it came from. His pace was accelerated towards it. He didn't halt until he saw a tiny, cotton-knit wrapped figure, reclining on the muddy ground, bandaging what seemed to be her wounded thigh with a piece of ripped jeans.

He stood there behind a giant tree, leaning on his arm against it, and observed the sight before him. A young, beautiful girl who didn't look any older than 25, she looked in distress. Her hands were dirty of mud. She seemed unaware of her environs.

She kept mewling in pain, he didn't know how she got the wound, although he could put it in his head that with the phone that was lying next to her, the screen still on display, and next to her head was a very twinged branch, he could put the math together and theorized that she was too starstruck by the sceneries in this woods, just like any other local tourist would, that she didn't notice the poked out, nature-made shank.

But he was entranced by the sight before him. She was really pretty, the kind of beauty that makes you want to keep your eyes on nothing else but her. Like the constellation had aligned, burst into flames, landed on the Earth, and gave birth to a woman. It was divine and striking, in the most heartwarming way.

He wasn't standing too far away but it was enough to not alarm her. The benefit was that he could keep ogling as long as he wanted. About twenty minutes had passed and she finally decided to get on her feet. She picked up her phone and pat her hands together to brush off the remnants of the dirt that were still clinging to her palms. Her sweater was slightly tarnished but she didn't seem to bother stroking it off. She walked to the other direction. She was limping but she held herself straight.

She finally halted at the place where there was a tent, illuminated from the inside, and there was a car. He learned immediately that, that's where she was staying. The usual tourist spot. He didn't see anyone else with her. She seemed to be camping alone.

That was odd, usually, couples, a group of high school kids, or families camp together. He was always irked by those intruders who occupied the land. They luxuriated from nature, but how did they pay her in return? By littering the surface and leaving junk all over the site. They didn't even bother gathering them in one place so that it would be easier for the Foresters to pick them up.

Poor girl, he thought. She must be really lonely to go out here alone. People don't choose these woods to have 'alone' time. They usually choose the libraries or the Bahamas, if they want to go a little extravagant. This girl mustn't know a lot about camping too, from the way she set up her tent, it looks slightly rumpled, it could still keep her safe though, well not too safe, now that he's here. But at least she wouldn't be soaked if it rains.

Her car was parked right behind the tent, it was a simple pearl white Chevy Spark. She seemed to travel light. He couldn't see much through the tinted windows, but he had seen giant truck cars and jeeps that were overweight with travel bags more than necessary. He memorized all the details of the setting and made a fixed resolution on his mind.

He is doing some hunting tonight...

578 notes · View notes

lilypixels · 3 years ago

Note

...............all of them.....?

It took me an hr to do this....🥲💀

1. coffee mugs, teacups, wine glasses, water bottles, or soda cans?

Teacupsss

2. chocolate bars or lollipops?

Lollipops

3. bubblegum or cotton candy?

Uhhh cotton candy

4. how did your elementary school teachers describe you?

Probably quiet and smart lol I did my school work and was friendly with everyone so I was a favorite and heard all the nice things 🙈

5. do you prefer to drink soda from soda cans, soda bottles, plastic cups or glass cups?

I kinda like bottles more but like the glass ones with the caps that could slice your fingers-

6. pastel, boho, tomboy, preppy, goth, grunge, formal or sportswear?

I’m for all but sports lol

7. earbuds or headphones?

Earbuds

8. movies or tv shows?

Shows cause I’m the type to watch an hr long episode vs hr long movie idk why but I’m rarely in mood for them

12. name of your favorite playlist?

Drop the beat (ie songs that are upbeat and I like most)

13. lanyard or key ring?

Hmm...I guess lanyard?

14. favorite non-chocolate candy?

Skittles or twizzlers

15. favorite book you read as a school assignment?

I had lots I had to read in school but only ever finished a handful lol my favorite I think was maybe Macbeth? I would say Odyssey but I don’t think we read the full thing cause I remember being disappointed about something like that...

16. most comfortable position to sit in?

Sitting with my legs bent up in seat with me in some way

17. most frequently worn pair of shoes?

Converse and some nice but cheap sneakers from Walmart

18. ideal weather?

Not too hot, not too cold, mild like before/after a rain (most the time), idc if it’s raining or sunny but as long as temp is comfortable I’m fine

19. sleeping position?

On my side most often

20. preferred place to write (i.e., in a note book, on your laptop, sketchpad, post-it notes, etc.)?

Phone and notebook

21. obsession from childhood?

Oh gosh uhhh I guess my like of dolls maybe? Or obsession with anything ✨unexplained✨ like ghosts, aliens, cryptids, etc

22. role model?

Kim Namjoon lol just kidding (sorta)

23. strange habits?

Ok I know I have some and my friends would be more than happy to point them all out but hm let me think...idk if these count as habits but I’ll never place a mirror facing a bed (this is more superstitious I guess than habit,,,) I can’t stand my food touching, if I have a tray like in cafeteria I have a certain spot for everything and uh my mind just went blank-

24. favorite crystal?

Moonstone, lapis lazuli, and I feel obligated to say garnet cause it’s my birthstone

25. first song you remember hearing?

Circle of Life maybe who knows xD

26. favorite activity to do in warm weather?

Walk or clean,,I’m more active and about with warm/nice weather

27. favorite activity to do in cold weather?

...stay inside where it’s warm

28. five songs to describe you?

Not this again😭 uhhh idk you tell me ajdbd

29. best way to bond with you?

Indulge me when I go off about things I like or learn 😔✊ I know I’ll talk your ear off and I’m sorry but know I don’t often talk about these things with people so once I start it’s hard to stop,,and it makes me really happy when people do listen to me about these things and send me related items every so often or even look into it themselves to learn more 🥺

30. places that you find sacred?

For some reason this feels like a trick question...um cemeteries and anything with ages of history I guess

31. what outfit do you wear to kick ass and take names?

Oof do I really have a true outfit?? I have shoes for this which are just black platform sneakers I call stomping shoes

32. top five favorite vines?

I never,,,watched these,,,

33. most used phrase in your phone?

“Yes”...?

34. advertisements you have stuck in your head?

State Farm and McDonald’s, always

35. average time you fall asleep?

10-11...usually...

36. what is the first meme you remember ever seeing?

Uhhh that one with the ginger dude (I think it was someone’s yearbook photo??) I don’t remember much else about the meme but it was on ifunny, or whatever the app was, a lot

37. suitcase or duffel bag?

Suitcase

38. lemonade or tea?

Easy, tea

39. lemon cake or lemon meringue pie?

...neither

40. weirdest thing to ever happen at your school?

Dude these questions really testing my brain power here- for senior prank someone put cereal in some bathroom sinks I think

41. last person you texted?

My mom

42. jacket pockets or pants pockets?

I’m gonna say jacket since I wear those often

43. hoodie, leather jacket, cardigan, jean jacket or bomber jacket?

Hoodie or cardigan

45. which genre: sci-fi, fantasy or superhero?

Fantasy

46. most comfortable outfit to sleep in?

Usually whatever shirt I’m wearing that day and some pj/lounge pants 🤷

47. favorite type of cheese?

Mozzarella

48. if you were a fruit, what kind would you be?

I-what kind of question is this? How does one even answer this?

49. what saying or quote do you live by?

What comes around goes around lol (yes I’m a heavy believer of karma)

50. what made you laugh the hardest you ever have?

Lol who knows, probably something dumb me and my siblings were doing or something we watched cause there’s been plenty times of that xD

51. current stresses?

Homework vs free time e-e

52. favorite font?

I like the gothic looking ones but it’s usually not practical to use so idk

53. what is the current state of your hands?

My hands...? They’re fine ??

54. what did you learn from your first job?

How to care for babies and little kids, how to put on a diaper lol

56. favorite tradition?

I can’t remember a particular one off hand but I’m trying to start few new ones like decorating cookies for Halloween uwu

57. the three biggest struggles you’ve overcome?

Uhhhhh like personally or...? Cause we’ve overcome homelessness before, um finishing assignments idk😭 oh maybe bullying?? That’s all I can think of since I still struggle with a lot,,

58. four talents you’re proud of having?

Alright let’s do thisss: creativity (mostly in writing sense), I can bake/cook, I have amazing organization skills and many work places have used that lol (bonus is I don’t mind, I actually really enjoy it, very peaceful), surprisingly good balance all things considered, I’m a quick learner

59. if you were a video game character, what would your catchphrase be?

“I’m too tired for this.”

60. if you were a character in an anime, what kind of anime would you want it to be?

Good question good question🤔 I don’t think I’d last in any of them/have a terrible side character role so 💀

61. favorite line you heard from a book/movie/tv show/etc.?

“Life’s too short to hold grudges.”

62. seven characters you relate to?

Dude this is gonna get embarrassing I can feel it🤠

Itaru, Iori, Sogo, Belle, Simeon (obey me), Nozaki (he’s clueless about romance irl and doesn’t know when someone has a crush on him yet can write romance well enough and yeah it’s me lol), and uhh Swindler/Ordinary Person in Akudama Drive (still can’t believe no one really has names in that anime but the way she gets wrapped in everything felt like something that’d happen to me lol)

63. five songs that would play in your club?

Like nightclub...? I’m skipping this ajdbd

64. favorite website from your childhood?

Probably the Barbie site, me and my sister played all the dress up games almost daily istg

65. any permanent scars?

Appendectomy scars and then looks like I have one on a toe but it’s possible it still might heal...

66. favorite flower(s)?

Nightshade, foxglove, baby’s breath, bellflowers, roses

67. good luck charms?

I don’t think I have any...

68. worst flavor of any food or drink you’ve ever tried?

Lemon

69. a fun fact that you don’t know how you learned?

Let me think...I read something once about flowers having ears(?) but like not ear ears just something about having a part that picks up sound waves

70. left or right handed?

Right

71. least favorite pattern?

Lolll animal print I think

72. worst subject?

Physics...the worst science

74. at what pain level out of ten (1 through 10) do you have to be at before you take an advil or ibuprofen?

6...?

75. when did you lose your first tooth?

I don’t remember, it probably happened when i was 6. I do remember losing one of my front teeth during my birthday one year and I was happy since the tooth had been loose for some time xD

76. what’s your favorite potato food (i.e. tater tots, baked potatoes, fries, chips, etc.)?

Chips I guess or just like fried in skillet

77. best plant to grow on a windowsill?

A succulent probably

78. coffee from a gas station or sushi from a grocery store?

Neither ew

79. which looks better, your school id photo or your driver’s license photo?

They are both about equally terrible

80. earth tones or jewel tones?

Earth

81. fireflies or lightning bugs?

Fireflies

82. pc or console?

I am on pc side now

83. writing or drawing?

Writing

84. podcasts or talk radio?

Podcasts I guess

84. barbie or polly pocket?

Barbie

85. fairy tales or mythology?

Mythology, it’s too fun and chaotic lol

86. cookies or cupcakes?

Hm...cupcakes

87. your greatest fear?

Uh,,,I don’t have many fears but I guess one would be falling from a great height? So I would get scared of crossing a bridge and it collapsing or riding a plane and it falling easily

88. your greatest wish?

World peace🥲

89. who would you put before everyone else?

My mom maybe...?

90. luckiest mistake?

I honestly don’t remember but something I do remember is I out semicolon instead of period and turned out to be correct grammar lol

91. boxes or bags?

Boxes

92. lamps, overhead lights, sunlight or fairy lights?

Sunlight or fairy lights, I don’t require much either way and prefer more natural lighting

93. nicknames?

Lassie, twinkle toes, Ash, poody butt (by 3 yr old I sometimes watch and play with lol he means it affectionately; I call him monkey butt and it’s catching on slowly instead)

94. favorite season?

Starting to be fall just a little more but I like transition times most

95. favorite app on your phone?

Let’s go with twitter

96. desktop background?

It is a moriarty and gang pic

97. how many phone numbers do you have memorized?

2: mine and my moms

98. favorite historical era?

Ooo tough one but I’ll say renaissance as some of the coolest things came from that time

#if there’s something messed up in this string of text #ignore it cause I’m not proofreading again ajdbd #I did not realize there were so many questions pls #asks #jade why 😔💜

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zeppelin-and-unicorns · 4 years ago

Text

Fanfic recommendations part two: Stories that take place during season 8 (canon divergence)

This is a smaller category than the previous one, but I promise that those stories are amazing. I’ve read and reread every single one of them, and I love them all with all of my heart. I hope this post is useful to you. Lots of love ❤️

(And yes, they are in alphabetical order. I wish I’ve done that with the post season 8 post too, but it’s up for a while now and it would be just too much work to edit the whole thing)

All These Things That I’ve Done by c00kiefic

Story based on the sexual tension between Jackie and Hyde during season 8.

This story is complete.

26k words, 9 chapters.

Rated M.

Pairings: Jackie/Hyde

Don’t Stand so Close to Me by c00kiefic

A story when Eric came back way earlier than he planned to because his friends were being dumbasses and needed some direction. Gotta love Eric Forman.

This story is complete and it’s a super fun read, 10/10.

95k words, 24 chapters.

Rated M.

Pairings: Jackie/Hyde, Eric/Donna, Kelso/Brooke, background Red/Kitty

Fear and Loathing in Wisconsin by elphabacan

What if Jackie had decided enough was enough after the slumberparty with Donna and Sam and recruited Brooke to go to Vegas? And what if turnabout is fairplay when they run afoul a charming lounge singer named Jude?

Lots and lots of love for this story. It’s amazing and it’s complete.

42k words, 15 chapters.

Rated T.

Pairings: Jackie/Hyde, Brooke/Kelso

Get Away From The Edge by BlueZeppelin

Jackie has been down for a while and it leads her to the Water Tower, alone and depressed. She wants to jump but will Hyde let her?

This story is kind of sad, but it’s still good. I just wish it gave us more details. Don’t read it if you’re triggered by depressive thoughts. It’s complete.

5k words, 3 chapters.

Rated T.

Pairings: Jackie/Hyde

I Think it’s a Real Waste by Jaded

In which Fez and Donna are decent friends to Jackie, and Hyde knows he fucked up. There’s a lot of J/H, but the story also focuses on all the gang. This is a really good story, please read this.

This story is complete.

120k words, 13 chapters.

Rated T.

Pairings: Jackie/Hyde, Eric/Donna, Brooke/Kelso, Fez/OC

Into the Woods by c00kiefic

Once upon a time, there lived a beautiful princess with long raven hair and enchanting eyes, whose only desire was to be loved by the handsome, yet distant prince…

I absolutely adore this story, I really, really do. It reminds me of fairytales and it makes me want to cry at the same time. Also, both Hyde and Donna get an not so pleasant “wake up call”, that they rightfully deserved btw.

This story is complete.

41k words, 10 chapters.

Rated T

Pairings: Jackie/Hyde mainly, some background Eric/Donna angst

Pain Without Love by YouLivexYouDie

This story made me cry so hard. It has a happy ending though, so it was worth it.

Jackie Burkhart is about to experience something life changing. She will never be the same afterwards, nor will the people who love her.

This story is complete.

12k words, 3 chapters.

Rated T.

Pairings: Jackie/Hyde

Confession by heavinly-vixen

After the torture Hyde had been inflicting upon Jackie since the arrival of his 'wife', Jackie just needs to talk to someone who's on her side.

This story is complete and it has a sequel! It’s called Reconciliation and it’s also complete.

12k words, 9 chapters.

Rated T. The sequel is rated M.

Pairings: Jackie/Hyde

Made Bare by MistyMountainHop

A heartbroken Hyde considers his relationship with Jackie kaput. Too bad Jackie sees it differently. She intends to get a proper resolution with him, but breaking through his hostility — and getting past his wife — may well prove impossible.

This story is complete.

50k words, 8 chapters.

Rated M.

Pairings: Jackie/Hyde, background Eric/Donna

Also available on AO3

Someone To Love by Bunny1

Hyde comes back from his 3 month bender to the unexpected.

This story is complete.

6k words, 7 chapters.

Rated M.

Pairings: Jackie/Hyde

The Birds and The Bees by c00kiefic

Jackie’s pregnant and the father of her child is married to someone else. Amazing story, what I love the most about it is Jackie and Donna’s friendship.

This story is basically complete, the only thing missing is the epilogue.

22k words, 6 chapters.

Rated T.

Pairings: Jackie/Hyde, Eric/Donna

The Right Road Lost by zpplnchick

After a car accident, Hyde wakes up to a twisted version of reality he comes to find is actual hell and with no memory of how he got there, a hell that Jackie's been living in for the past few months. Set during Season 8, shortly after "Sweet Lady".

This story is complete.

43k words, 20 chapters.

Rated M.

Pairings: Jackie/Hyde

The Road to Redemption by Hyde’s Bride

Jackie leaves the group because of Hyde and Donna's behavior. Eric comes back early to find how things have changed. When he forms a new bond with Jackie, will it force Hyde and Donna to fight for them? Or will they lose their loves forever?

This story is complete.

33k words, 12 chapters.

Rated M.

Pairings: Jackie/Hyde, Jackie/Eric, Eric/Donna

When The Leeve Breaks by zeppelinandunicorns

What would've happened if Jackie and Donna left Point Place when Eric moved to Africa and Hyde married a stripper?

Donna and Jackie moved to Chicago once they realized that they've sacrificed themselves enough for the sake of their relationships with Eric and Hyde. Will it be too late to fix things once the boys realize what they're missing?

This story is a WIP.

So far, 125k words, 23 chapters. This story will be 54 chapters long so... yeah.

Trigger warning: Depression, past eating disorders, child abuse

Rated T.

Pairings: Jackie/Hyde, Eric/Donna

Zen Vision by Ultrawoman

A series of one-shots turning each and every episode of the horrendous Season 8 into a happy Jackie and Hyde love affair!

This story is complete.

37k words, 22 chapters.

Rated T.

Pairings: Jackie/Hyde

One-shots during season 8:

Being Here by UnfitWriter

Set in season 8, after Sam's departure. Jackie and Hyde can't stand each other, but when something horrible happens to Hyde, Jackie will try to console him in only way she knows how.

5k words.

Rated M.

Pairings: Jackie/Hyde

Here Comes Goodbye by nannygirl

Sometimes you just have to say goodbye. Or not.

5k words.

Rated T.

Pairings: Jackie/Hyde, background Red/Kitty

Reconnecting by SerenitySparrow

During the party at WB's house in season 8. Jackie and Hyde hook up in a coat closet during the party.

3k words.

Rated M. Very M.

Pairings: Jackie/Hyde

Tipping Point by janus_74 (tanner)

How a different Perfect Man list could change the end of Season 8.

4k words.

Rated T.

Pairings: Jackie/Hyde

So far, this is all.

I’ll repeat this at the end of every single post: speaking as someone who writes, it would be really cool if you guys decide to leave a review (or a comment, if the story is on AO3) in the stories you read, especially the unfinished ones. It really motivates the authors, and receiving a compliment is always a mood lifter. I’ve seen some authors updating stories after years because of nice reviews, so… yeah, this is just an idea.

If you think I left out a good story, feel free to reply to this post!

Next category: Season 7 fix-its.

#jackie x hyde #jackie and hyde #fanfic rec #zenmasters #that 70s show #that '70s show #fanfic recommendations

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lizacstuff · 4 years ago

Note

Hello, Liza! I hope you are doing well. Passing by because I (and everyone else I think) would like to know your thoughts about episode 25. I watch this show trying my best to avoid spoilers but today somehow I ended up seeing everything. Twitter was and still is mad about the episode and I thought I was going to have the same reaction as them. Surprise, surprise, I didn't which left me speechless. I feel like you might have the same reaction as me so I would love to know your thoughts! xo

Hello! I have a lot of asks and rather than flooding my dash, I think I’ll put them all in one place, so this is going to get very long. I have mixed feelings. I didn’t hate it, but it was a hard episode to watch.

I wish I had seen the reaction before I watched, then I would have adjusted my expectations. The whole time I was waiting for a twist at the end that didn’t come. Partly because of my own speculation, but partly because I’d watch the live with Hande and Kerem and from the translations, Kerem said there was a shock at the end and called the ending beautiful. Never trust Kerem! LMAO. Not because he would ever intentionally mislead, but boyfriend never remembers anything that happens in any episode. Though he was right about the shock, just not about it being beautiful. (Prince be crazy!) Anyway I kept hoping for the twist of them working together and fooling everyone and it didn’t come.

So I was disappointed at the end, but with adjusted expectations the episode, taken for what it is, is actually decent and I can definitely get onboard with Eda sacrificing everything to save him. That’s very romantic and they did a great job of setting up how devastated she was and how serious the threat is from Babaanne. Eda did not crumble in the face of a couple of idle threats. No, every moment that Eda waited to break up with him, Babaanne introduced some very real and catastrophic consequence to Serkan or his family. Shit got real and Eda was pushed into a no-win corner and needed to act fast. I’ll talk about that more, but first, I’ll mention a couple of thoughts about the writing and the new writers:

(more under the cut)

Good

Structure - The structure of the episode was a lot better than last week. Scenes actually made sense one after the other, the emotions of the characters were consistent and it all flowed.

Plot - I’m not necessarily praising what happened in the episode, more that there was one. And it’s one that will not be forgotten in the next episode and it feels like this plot could sustain a number of episodes which his necessary if the show is to continue.

Characterizations - The characters felt true to what we’ve watched the last 20+ episodes. As I said above, work went into showing us both Eda and Serkan’s mindset and how that led to the ultimate outcome. It’s impressive that they put together one of the most heartbreaking breakup scenes I’ve seen, and the characters weren’t actually even together.

Not-so-good

Proposal dream - I’m not a big fan of fooling the audience like this, and I’m really not a big fan of putting it in a teaser or promo. That is a bait and switch, and I think it’s a cheap trick for the production company to have featured it in the fragman. Badly done. In next week’s fragman we see Serkan “punching” the Prince, I fear that is not real, possibly Serkan’s fantasy, and I’m really hoping that “fake scenes” are not going to be the go-to for these new writers. We’ve already spent 50+ hours with Eda and Serkan, we don’t need to see imaginary things, we need real scenes. No fake outs at this juncture.

Humor and ‘sparkle’ - I think this is what’s going to be missing from the new writer’s scripts. They tried really hard with the game night at the newlywed’s house and Chef Alexander love triangle, (Team Aydan all the way, Ayfer can fuck off. If she doesn’t care about her niece’s happiness, then she shouldn’t get any herself) but it just didn’t get there comedy wise. Ayse really had a way of pulling together very funny scenarios and making everything sparkle, and I’ll miss that.

Lack of Edser - This is their show, they are the ONLY reason most people watch. You can’t build a plot that separates them. When Serkan broke up with Eda they were able to build a scenario where they were still thrown together all of the time, and kept finding excuses to be with the other. Their screen time didn’t suffer that much. I’m not sure this scenario will allow the same with him being at risk if Babaanne spots them together. However, for this episode I’m willing to give the benefit of the doubt as @jan31 brought up to me, Kerem and Hande were very busy last week with rehearsals and then shooting The Voice, so that might have contributed to why there was so much focus on the other characters this ep, they needed to release the leads for other commitments.

hawaiigirl84 said: So I'm on a SCK Facebook group looking at a lot of irate fans. If you haven't seen the episode yet, I think you're going to have to gird your loins for this one.

@hawaiigirl84 Haha. I wish I’d seen this ask so I could have adjusted expectations. I went on twitter last night and then backed away slowly. Lots of dramatic rending of garments and gnashing of teeth. You know the fan reaction is bad when both the producer Asena and Nesliyan (Aydan) tweeted out reassurances about the journey to love and then this morning the production company twitter account released video of Eda kissing Serkan in the jail. Trying to feed the fans who were out for blood, I’d guess.

Anonymous said: Okay so the latest episode of SCK had to be the show creating a very low point for Eda & Serkan in order to build them back up, right? My thought after the episode ended was that things honestly could not get worse. That episode was just disappointing. While I get why Eda did what she did I still absolutely hated it and was pissed the writers could not come up with something better. And how heartbreaking was it to realize the proposal scene was a dream 😭. And now they released a clip showing Eda did kiss Serkan in the jail cell but they decided to cut it out? I get that the show has to create drama but the promotion of the episode as being super romantic was certainly a gut punch. The fragman has me hopefully that Eda & Serkan might finally work together to bring down Grandma or at least Eda will let him in on her plan. I will say even though that episode hurt the actors were absolutely killing it.

Are we the same person?? I think I went through all of these thoughts/emotions since watching, lmao.

And 100% they are taking Eda and Serkan to their low point before building them back up. Also, think about it, after this they will both have a much better understanding of one another. Eda will understand how he could have made the decision to breakup rather than confide in her, and Serkan will understand why doing what he did hurt her so much and why it wasn’t easy for her to get over it. They’ll both have experienced the situation from all sides. Ultimately, this will make them stronger.

Honestly, Eda has a LOT better reason to do what she’s doing than Serkan did. As I said above, Evil!Granny is not playing. She is deadly serious and seems to be capable of anything. In the course of 48 hours she had manufactured charges against Serkan that were serious and landed him in jail, she caused him to lose the tender they’d won which would have huge ripple affects for the business, and she was able to set up Alptekin and get him thrown in jail. At this point I could see her ordering a hit! Eda needed to call her off and get her to stop or who the heck knows would have happened to Serkan, Aydan and the business in the next 24 hours. Eda needed to move fast and she needed to be convincing.

Right now I think Eda is just buying time, so Serkan is safe while she tries to fight her grandmother. No way she’s rolling over. Not Eda. I’m still very hopeful that Serkan will figure out what she’s up to sooner rather than later and they will start to work together.

Also, YES, to the performances. The actors were stellar. Hande and Kerem both brought it. I physically felt their pain.

Anonymous said: I'm completely convinced that the writers' room for this last episode wrote it without any knowledge of ep 24 except for the fact that it ended with Serkan getting arrested on NYE. Like I still wouldn't like it, but if we had gone from ep 23 to ep 25, it would make more sense. But not after ep 24. Did Ayse just say "fuck it" while writing that episode and gave the fans everything she could knowing full well what the other writers' plans were? Talk about some severe whiplash.

I don’t know what the background is on the writer change, but I don’t think this is fair. I got whiplash from the fragman (proposal) to the episode, but not from ep 24 to this one. When watching ep 24 didn’t you think it was just a matter of time before the other shoe dropped? I thought that it was obvious that a dark cloud was gathering, just as Eda was willing to start fresh with him. Babaanne directly threatened Serkan several times to Eda. She told Eda she would destroy Serkan if she found they were together. Episode 24 was Eda being defiant and letting herself be with Serkan and this episode was the consequences of that.

There are things to criticize, but I completely disagree with you that this is one.

Anonymous said: I think Eda didn't say ily at that time because she must have already thought about maybe accepting what her grandmother had asked for. It would have been weird if she told him I love you and then broke up with him right afterwards. It wasn't the right time, I think the writers are saving it for a big confession like in episode 11. At least for now we could hear her say it in her dream.

Agreed on the timing, and you’re right about the dream. While I am annoyed they put it in the trailer, in the narrative it did serve to tell us exactly where Eda’s head is at in regards to their relationship. She loves Serkan, she wants to marry Serkan. So we know beyond a shadow of a doubt, that none of her actions are because of any lingering “confusion,” right now she is acting out of pure love for him. That’s beautiful. (maybe that’s what Kerem meant by the ending being beautiful, lmao)

Anonymous said: Eda really breaking him by called what they had a mistake and threwing him the parents death in his face like it was his fault, he doesn’t deserve all this. At least im happy serkan walked away first! although he loves her with all his being, he's fed up with Eda behaviour... if she really wants him, she has to fight for him.

Oh boy.

You understand that Eda didn’t mean anything she said, right? That the only way for her to convince Serkan she was serious was to bring out the big guns, and that she only did it to save him?

Yes, that was hard to watch. My heart absolutely breaks for Serkan. Actually, it breaks for both of them. But it’s supposed to, they are in love, and Babaanne is tearing them apart. Did you watch Eda all episode? She was devastated the entire time. That’s one of the reasons this ep was hard to watch. It’s hard to see a beloved character be at that low of a point for 2 straight hours.

This storyline will be easier for you to watch if you reframe this from applauding Serkan for being “fed up” at Eda, to Eda loving him so much that she is going to do whatever is necessary to save him. She sacrificed and now she’s going to risk it all fighting Babaanne, and all of it is for LOVE.

Anonymous said: The ending is so ridiculous, and let's not even talk about the fragman of the next episode I really don't know if I want to continue watching

Okay, you’ve just hit my pet peeve. DO NOT come into my inbox with flounce threats. I don’t care if you watch or not. If you’re done, fine, move on, no need to announce it on anon or add it to any of my posts. Because why even talk about something you’re not going to watch? If you’re not serious, but just saying that cause you’re throwing a temper tantrum and think that you can bring about change that way or think you’re making a point by threatening to withhold your support, I’m not going to validate you. You’re being manipulative and all you’re doing is trying to make other people feel bad. Anyone else who does this will be blocked.

Anonymous said: The new writers are really destroying the series. Eda blamed serkan for not telling her the truth and now she did exactly the same. They're ruining eda's character by doing that. Eda wouldn’t have ever, nor left herself be defeated like this by babaanne, nor used the words she did with Serkan, it was beyond mean, and unnecessary for this plot, im so upset

Dude, pull yourself together. It’s not that bad. The new writers are definitely evolving the series, if feels like it’s going to be more plot driven, than situational, but I think that had to happen if they were going to continue making episodes. Maybe you believe they should just end it, and that’s a fine opinion to have, but if it’s to continue, and I personally want it to, there needs to be a plot, there needs to be a big obstacle and this is what these writers’ have chosen.

Out of all the thing they could have done, it’s actually a good direction to go. Once again, they’ve chosen to separate them, not because one betrayed the other. Not because of some third-party love interest. Not because one is uncertain about their feelings. Not because one of them made a bad choice that hurt the other. They’re separated because of something that happened when they were children, something completely out of their control. And Eda made the decision she did, because she loves him more than anything.

For drama in a romantic story its about as good as you can hope for. Because despite your knee-jerk, overly emotional take, the reality is there is nothing here that taints either character or their love for one another.

They are NOT ruining Eda’s character. Eda was pushed into a corner and she made a hasty decision to save the man she loves. Babaanne was watching her constantly, she was having her followed. Eda did what was necessary to get Serkan out of jail and then to stop Babaanne’s relentless, and successful, attacks against him. She said what she said, because that’s the only thing that would have convinced him she was for real. Anything else he wouldn’t have believed, and if he didn’t believe it then Babaanne wouldn’t have stopped. Also, Eda hasn’t let herself be defeated. She did what she needed to do, so she can keep Serkan safe while she fights. This is just one battle, Babaanne won’t win the war.

They’ll get to the point when they’re fighting her together, but we’re getting this part first. The part that will give both of them greater insight into the other, and the perspective they both need to truly understand how each felt during the first break up. And it will give us angst and longing and pining and jealousy and all sorts of things.

Also, curious, why is it okay for Serkan to break her heart because he was afraid of her reaction to the truth of the past, but it’s not okay for Eda to break his heart to save him from huge and real threats to his safety, livelihood, freedom and family?

Anonymous said: I am so sad for serkan he doesn't deserve this. Eda ended up abandoning him like everyone else who comes into his life. The worst thing about it is that he knew it was going to happen and he was afraid it would happen and it did happen 😭

It’s definitely gut-wrenching. Serkan doesn’t deserve this, but neither did Eda. And Eda didn’t abandon him because she wanted to, she did it because very bad things were happening and she had to act quickly.

However, think about what you just said: he knew it was going to happen. It’s also not like the consequences of going against Babaanne are unknown to him. He knows he was thrown in jail, he knows his dad is in jail, he knows there were serious threats to his business. So what that means is that it won’t take Serkan long to figure out that Babaanne is behind everything and Eda is 100% acting out of love for him.

He will just need to shake off the sting of her words, and the haze of heartbreak and he’ll see that she did it for him.

#Sen Çal Kapımı #sen cal kapimi #edser #sck episode discussion #edser discussion #sck 1x25 #sckask #anonymous #asklizac #alicekepley

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stars-are-just-ghosts · 4 years ago

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Supernatural Isn’t Just A Show

I started watching Supernatural fifteen years ago, just like many of you. I followed the paths of two young men who hunted the evils in the world that the rest of us couldn’t have imagined on a good day. Vampires and demons and monsters. Greek gods, angels, Lucifer himself. The stories were heartfelt and humorous and dark and tender. They challenged us to see that monsters could be good, and being evil was a choice. They brought us into a reality of hope and fighting the whole world if it meant that your family was safe.

That’s what the show was really about, you see. The hunting and the laughter and the dark and everything in between was just the icing on the cake. The real story? That was family. Two brothers who came together and saved the world, again and again. Two brothers who fought side by side, and sometimes with each other, and always for what was right, even if the drawn line was hard to see. Two brothers whose devotion bled into the world around them and brought other amazing people into the fold. Two brothers who grew to have a circle of people who were the epitome of family, because ‘family don’t end with blood.’ Castiel and Charlie and Bobby and Kevin and Crowley and Jack and the list goes on. A list that extended beyond the characters, beyond the actors, beyond the show itself. One that includes you, me... JoAnn and Steven and Jeffrey.

Let me tell you about JoAnn.

Her daughter and I went to school together, a beautiful young woman named Sarah. Over the years I spent so much time at their house and with JoAnn that it was beyond easy to see them as family. And JoAnn became incredibly special to me. My mother and I have always had a strained, tumultuous relationship with very little in the way of affection. JoAnn, however, became the emotional mother I’d never had. We would laugh together (she had a killer sense of humor,) I would call her just to share something or vent (there was never a moment she wasn’t willing to listen,) she was able to hold all four of my babies after they were born (and they lovingly called her Auntie JoAnn.) And I even managed to get her addicted to Supernatural.

She loved Dean, especially Dean’s rear end. (-wiggles brows-)

Shortly before her first and only grandson was born, JoAnn became terminally ill and passed away. She never got to see her grandson, or hold him, or watch him grow up. I think about that all the time, especially when I see a picture of him that Sarah has posted. When I’m watching Supernatural, and Dean says something familiar or I remember a moment in the show that JoAnn particularly loved, I think about JoAnn and how much I wish she could have seen her grandbaby. And how much I wish her daughter, the lovely Sarah, could have experienced that, too. I wonder if JoAnn would have shared this show with her adorable little grandson. I miss that woman every day.

Now, let me tell you about Steven.

His father, Steve, is one of my best friends. I’ve known him for over twenty years. And when his three children were little, I used to babysit them. His son, Steven, was born with severe Cerebral Palsy. He was nonverbal, wheelchair bound, and was tube fed. But he was also the funniest, brightest, most happy boy I’d ever met. He had the most brilliant smile, and the greatest laugh. And whenever someone he loved or really liked walked into a room, his eyes would light up like stars.

When Steven hit adulthood, I would help his Dad out when Steven was at his house. We liked to watch movies and tv shows together. And I offered up the suggestion of Supernatural. It became like tradition after that. We would all be there in the living room, Steven on the floor with his Dad, and we’d watch the episodes in order. It always made me happy, to be able to share that with them.

About four years ago, Steven became ill, landing in the hospital. While there, his heart gave out. He passed away without ever having finished the show he had grown to love. Since then, his Dad hasn’t been able to watch anymore. It’s too painful. Too hard to think that Steven isn’t there to watch it with him. I understand completely. Because I’ll watch an old episode and remember Steven’s unabashed laughter. And I wish he was still here to watch it with us. I talked with Steve about giving it another try. He heard the show is ending soon, and I think he is finally ready to see it through, to finish it for both himself and his son. Let me tell you about Jeffrey.

Jeffrey has lived in NYC for over 20 years now. He is my big brother, and was diagnosed with different mental illnesses, including Borderline Personality Disorder. He’s still made a life for himself that makes him happy in a place I know for sure I would never survive in. (I’m a small town girl, through and through.) And it was because of my brother that I found out about GISHWHES.

You have to understand, my brother doesn’t open up to people easily or step out of his comfort zone for just anyone or anything. But in doing this scavenger hunt? My brother walked around NYC in a robot costume, including taking the subway and walking crowded streets. He also wore a bikini made of lettuce, and not once was shy about it. He dove right in and gave it his all in order to help other people, and to this day I am still insanely proud of him for it.

After everything he went through, from living on the subway for nearly two years (and never telling us) to going from corporate work (which he hated) to doing something he really loved (comic books, baby) to being hospitalized for suicidal tendencies to finally being diagnosed with things he had struggled with all his life but never had taken care of, and finally having a sense of mental health in a new job as a live-in dog nanny, this amazing man is finally happy. And when I think of that, I think of the video of him wandering around dressed as a robot because of GISHWHES. Now, if you’ll bare with me... let me tell you about myself.

I am a pansexual woman married to my best friend with four amazing children.

I have depression and anger issues that I have struggled most of life with.

I have spent a good chunk of my adult life being a stay-at-home-mom and only now am going back to school to learn a new career. I have rescued and taken care of animals since I was 17, something my children have grown to love as well. And I am happier now than I have ever been. But it wasn’t always that way.

I had my best friend die in my arms when I was 12, that being my first experience with death and grief and unchecked anger. And I grew up a lonely kid who spent most of my time hiding how depressed I was, doing everything I could to take care of everyone else in my life, the majority of them never knowing how much I actually struggled with just living. The first love of my life was killed in a car accident when I was 16. My parents divorced when I was 17 and I dropped out of high school, working three jobs just so I wouldn’t be home with my mother.

I was married to a selfish and controlling man at 18, had my first child at 19, second at 20, third at 23, and divorced at 23 with three small children and no job. I was terrified and didn’t know what I was going to do. Everything was up and down and inside out.

But I have a very clear memory of sitting down one night, after the kids had gone to sleep and the apartment was quiet and I was alone with nothing but my thoughts and the television… and a repeat episode of Supernatural (Season 2, Episode 16 – Roadkill) was on. (Spoilers ahead if you, by chance, have not seen this episode.)

In that moment, I was barely paying attention to it. I was a wreck, filled with guilt and fear. My face was covered in tears, and I was sobbing as I sat there and rocked with a pillow held in my grip (I oddly remember that pillow vividly because it had rough edges.) But as the episode progressed, I began to quiet. I remember listening intently to Sam and Molly as they sat on an old bed in Greeley’s home, looking at the letters he’d written to his wife.

“It’s a love letter he wrote her… my God, it’s beautiful… I don’t understand how a guy like this can turn into a monster.” Molly said to Sam. I mirrored that sentiment, in my own way. (I know my situation wasn’t the same.) I’d married a man I’d thought I’d loved. A man I thought loved me. But his actions and selfishness lead to the downfall of our marriage, our family, and my (then) situation. But I had been the one to make the decision to end things, right? After everything he’d done, I couldn’t be with someone I couldn’t trust. And it wasn’t just about me… it was about our children. They needed a mother who was happy…

At the end of the episode, Molly is faced with the reality that she has been dead the entire time and that her husband David had already said his goodbyes, moving on without her.

“What am I supposed to do?” Molly asked, in tears.

“Just… let go. Of David. Of everything. You do that… we think you’ll move on.” Sam responded gently.

Isn’t that what I should be doing? I thought. Because by that point, I’d been stuck in grief and fear for months. I don’t think I knew it until that point, but I’d been holding onto it like a security blanket because it made sense, it seemed like I deserved it.

“But you don’t know where…” Molly responded, her voice still soft with tears.

“No... Molly, you don’t belong here. Haven’t you suffered long enough?” Sam asked. “It’s time… it’s time to go.”

I sat there in stunned silence.

As odd as it sounds, it felt like he was talking to me. Because for years I’d tried to keep our marriage together because I thought I had to for our children. For years, I’d practically raised those three children alone. For months, I had sat in a holding pattern, waiting for my shoulders to finally break under all the weight from the failure I felt and the misery I was drowning in, doing everything I could to be a good mother with nothing to fall back on. But then I watched Molly walk into the light, tears streaming down her face, a smile ghosting across her lips, and I realized… I really had suffered long enough.

“You really think she’s going to a better place?” Dean asked after Molly moved on.

“I hope so.” Sam replied.

“I guess we’ll never know, not until we take the plunge ourselves, huh?” Dean said with half a smirk.

“Doesn’t really matter, Dean. Hope’s kind of the whole point.” Sam said.

And there it was. What I’d been missing. Hope.

This show, these two actors, those two brothers opened my eyes to something that had been right in front of me the whole time. I didn’t know what the future would bring, I didn’t know what I was going to do next. But I was certain I had suffered enough. I was certain I needed to move on, for my children, for myself. And as the episode ended, I wiped my tears off my face, shut off the tv and kissed every one of my sleeping children a few dozen times. And I went to bed thinking about the depiction of that light, that hope.

Two years later, I married my best friend – the love of my life, a good man who never lies, never hurts me or my kids, lifts me up when I feel down, makes me laugh every day, treats me far better than I will ever think I deserve. We had a baby boy together, bringing our family to a total of four amazing kids who all call him Dad. We have our own home which we work so hard for, we have a plethora of animals who make every day adventurous, and I am finally on a career track I feel excited about. All because I decided to stop living in my suffering, and move on.

That is why this show is not ‘just a show.’ For me, anyway. Because of JoAnn and Steven and Jeffrey. Because of the hope I found with the show itself. And I know I am not alone in at least this sentiment.

Every season since, I have watched the episodes. I have followed the stories and witnessed the amazing things this fandom has done for each other and complete strangers. I have seen people’s lives changed by the show and the actors, I have been able to connect with other people I never would have known, and get closer to those I already did. I have shared this series with my children, who all love it and the main characters as much as I do.

And right now, as we get near the end of the series, I am not ashamed to admit that I am hurting. I feel a genuine heartache. A genuine loss. I feel like a part of my history is coming to a close. But like at that moment when my world was inside out and I was trapped in my own little hell, I have hope.

I don’t know what waits for me. I never have. I don’t know what awaits any of us. But this show will never really die. The connections we’ve made, the way the stories and people have touched us… that never really goes away.

Whether we watch Supernatural on repeat on a bad day, or follow the actors as they move on to new adventures, or get someone in our life to start watching it, this show will always be around. Just like hope. And… isn’t it like Sam said? “Hope’s kind of the whole point.”

So, hold on to hope. And message me if you’re grieving, if you need an ear from a fellow fan, or just someone to shoot Supernatural memes back and forth with. We’re a family. You, me, all of us. And I’ll always be here for you.

(P.S. I will ship Destiel till the bitter end.)

Love,

QuietDarkness (stars-are-just-ghosts)

#Supernatural #SPN #forever a fan #season 15 #this isn't the end #hope is the whole point #Sam Winchester #Dean Winchester #Castiel #GISHWHES #misha collins #jared padalecki #Jensen Ackles #some spn spoilers

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o-w-quinlan · 4 years ago

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Digimon Adventure 2020, episode 20 reaction (and over-analysis)

This week, Takeru says “Onii-chan” 8 times and Yamato says “Takeru” 23 times. Also, the best episode in the series so far.

Let’s start with the small scene with Sora and Koushiro. When we see Koushiro, he’s trying to contact Taichi again, which shows how close he’s gotten to the other boy. He’s not looking for their partner digimon as he had promised he would, though. Maybe he’s unsure about his ability to do so without Taichi’s constant reassurance? He did only say he would after Taichi told him he trusted in his abilities. Anyway, Sora soon appears, carrying two drinks for herself and Koushiro. She’s also the one Mimi and Jou contact to tell her they’ll be late. Not surprising, since Sora quickly developed a bond with every member of the group except Koushiro, while Koushiro only really developed one with Taichi.

Then Sora brings up her mother’s reaction, and the contrast between the two deepens even further. For while Sora can freely speak about how her mother reacted when she came back home (reasonably for an adult, though it’s still weird that she’d let Sora leave the house the very next day), Koushiro can only really talk generally about the situation (”oh, it’s a normal reaction”) but is deeply uncomfortable about his own family situation. Generally speaking this short scene deepened what we already knew about both of them and introduced new possibilities for Koushiro.

And then the Digimon contact them, and we are introduced to what’ll most likely be their role in the following episodes. Calamaramon is leading a group of Algomon in eating data from the human world, which none of the characters know yet but can feel the effects, be it because of the problems in the connections after the black-out, or because everything is in chaos in the world of the internet.

There you have it, 3 paragraphs on the shortest scene in the episode. Can you tell it was great?

Anyway, back to the main plot, the episode starts with some further shots of Takeru in the tank, and he looks deeply unhealthy due to the lighting, the shadows making him seem as if he was famished. The reunion is interrupted by the Corrupted Beast Spirit of Darkness, Velgrmon, who Leomon recognizes even before seeing due to feeling his attack. Velgrmon steals Takeru and utterly destroys Valvemon, which Leomon and the others barely escape. The group tries to follow their new enemy when a Megadramon appears. It’s interesting that it seems to consider Leomon a more important target than the 2 Children, since when the lion digimon tried to lure it away from them, it looks at the kids for half a second before following.

Taichi and Yamato follow Velgrmon, and WereGarurumon proves himself as the (second) MVP in the episode. Be it figuring out how to catch up to Velgrmon, shielding Yamato from the feather attacks, catching the brothers after they fall or reminding them all after rescuing Takeru that they must still defeat Velgrmon, he always knows what must be done and doesn’t hesitate for a second to do it. The only exception to this is when he offer Yamato help in getting Takeru out of the miasma sphere and the boy refuses. It makes me wonder if there’ll be some sort of conflict between the two later.

As far as the brothers go, Yamato has never, ever, looked cooler than here. Running alongside MetalGreymon’s metal claw, resisting the obvious pain from the miasma sphere to rescue his brother, immediately trying to shield him from the fall once Velgrmon attacks. There’s no place for nuance in their situation during this episode, but it completely succeeds in portraying him as desperate and afraid, a great climax to his character so far, the cold and logical boy who is doing this all to prevent the possibility of his brother getting hurt, suddenly confronted with something beyond his worst nightmares. As for Takeru... he’s mostly there for Yamato’s characterization rather than his own, which is uniformly “sad little boy” at all points of the episode except for one. Which one? The moment he turns to face Velgrmon after being abducted for a second time, and instead of fear (which he’s still clearly feeling) he’s overcome by anger. Doesn’t make this a good introduction to his character (I hope we get that next week), nor does it make up for every single one of his lines before that being just “Onii-chan”, but at least it’s something.

Then there’s, of course, Angemon’s appearence, and it’s great. Not because of some tragedy from Takeru losing his partner, no, we don’t know either of them nearly enough for that. It’s great because the entire series has built up the Holy Digimon as massively important allies that they must rescue, and Angemon here completely justifies all of those efforts. He exudes power, more so than any other digimon so far except perhaps Omegamon, but he’s also warm and inviting, the clear signs of his imprisonment and torture only making him seem more noble, the miracle being not the defeat of their enemy but rather their wounds being healed and suddenly gaining the power to win themselves (and their attack purifies the miasma around Velgrmon before killing him). He lives up to any expectation the series had built up to the Big Good Digimon, and then he dies. The moment his digitama appears is also very well executed, with Agumon and Gabumon explaining what this mean, how the life of a digimon is, and approaching Takeru to see the egg more clearly, as if in reverence.

We end on a cliffhanger of SkullKnightmon stealing the egg and Devimon saying that this unplanned event will be beneficial for them. After several episodes of cliffhangers, this isn’t among the better ones, but it’s still intriguing enough to mull over for a week.

Other notes:

Leomon is an extremely powerful Adult to be able to defeat a Perfect, even with help.

The Takenouchi family is still very traditional, apparently.

Gomamon makes sure to reassure Palmon in a very paternal fashion.

This is the best episode in the series so far, beating even episode 6 and 12. While I’m scared that the preview next week means we’ll get WarGreymon (which would ruin the series’ pacing yet again), I’m willing to give it the benefit of the doubt.

#digimon #Digimon Adventure:#Digimon Adventure 2020 #Yamato Ishida #Takeru Takaishi #Angemon #Sora Takenouchi #Koushiro Izumi

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mysticdragon3md3 · 3 years ago

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I finally tried reading "Spy x Family" and I ended up reading 2 of the free chapters. ^_^ I think I need to buy this manga. ^o^ It's a fun time.

I saw this Tweet of merch for Spy X Family and it reminded me that I've been meaning to check out that manga:

7/20/2021https://twitter.com/ichibanKUJI/status/1417416576991592449/photo/1

https://www.viz.com/shonenjump/chapters/spy-x-family?locale=en

It's about time I checked out Spy X Family. I can't keep believing it'll be really good and something special that appeals to my specific tastes, just based on vague hunches...Then either never read it, or eventually read it but find out I don't like it. I don't want to encounter the same fate as The Ancient Magus's Bride again.

1:55 PM 7/20/2021

The first _THREE_ chapters are free! ^o^

1:56 PM 7/20/2021

oh yeah...That's right...I forgot. I was looking forward to this being a family that knew each other's secret identities, but were working together to hide as "normal" people as a "normal family". But I think I heard it was actually about each member of the family keeping secrets about their real identities from each other. ;_; I wanted that unity! That comradery! That relatable sense of being a weirdo---group of weirdos in a "normal" world! ;o;! I wanted that relatable sense of trying to pass as a "mundane" and the pain of trying to hide your authentic weirdness. But this story might actually be about individual family members' paranoia towards each other. I don't know if I want to relive constant anxiety from the people you live with. ;_; The constant hiding and fear of being found...I relate to that too, but it's not something I want to remember. ;_;

Well, let's turn the page.

2:02 PM 7/20/2021

Finished page 9.

I thought maybe this manga-ka watched Mr . & Mrs. Smith. But maybe they just wanted to take the idea of "spy of a thousand faces" and correlate that to family members (or fathers) who have a different "face" towards their family. Even Durarara had an episode about that. Also that pig in Aggretsuko....~w~?!?!? Fuck that mother fucker! Being a good father and nice to your family doesn't earn you the right to treat people like shit every single day, just on your whim! Just so you can let off steam from your personal stress! Go to hell! Eat shit and die!!!!!!! ...See? This is why I can't watch Aggretsuko.

Anyway, I hope this spy Twilight isn't like that. Or doesn't remind me of that. (Any more than he already has brought my thoughts down that path.)

2:05 PM 7/20/2021

Well, pages 10-11 suggested Twilight might either subconsciously long for a serene domestic life or he might find happiness if he gets that situation. That could be sweet. I like domestic fluff and "slice of life".

2:09 PM 7/20/2021

Page 17.

Oh shit. Twilight's "father" persona has a genki himbo sunshine smiling look in his eyes. Goddamnit. Don't you dare steal my heart from Claude von Riegan and Ryuji Sakamoto!

2:13 PM 7/20/2021

Pages 20-23.

Anya is super cute. Not just her big eyes and tiny body. But she's so eager/desperate to be accepted, to get a family. And I can see how they're trying to get extra sympathy points with her reading the orphanage operator's mind and hearing his bad thoughts towards her. But doesn't that only work when you show her reaction to those words? And her reactions show her sadness and knowing she's not accepted by the orphanage/others around her?

2:19 PM 7/20/2021

Pages 24-25.

Ok. It's SUPER CUTE how much she wants Twilight to like her and how she thinks he's cool. lol

2:31 PM 7/20/2021

Pages 38-39.

"Twilight here. Catch me if you can." OHHHHHHHHHHHHH NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO~ o-O!!!

2:36 PM 7/20/2021

Pages 48-49.

Gee, I wonder if the "Twilight" with a bag over his head is the goon and the "goon" is Twilight in a disguise? lol I don't' care. It'll be a fun reveal. especially from Anya's perspective. ^_^

2:50 PM 7/20/2021

pages 70-71.

I was afraid during all those previous scenes of Twilight having trouble taking care of Anya, that he'd get the assassin to play the family's mom, out of some stereotypical assumption that "women are better suited to childcare" or "it's a woman's job to keep the kids out of trouble, or away from bothering the dad, or to stay at home with", etc. But they didn't do any of that. It's just: The school mandates that "both parents" attend the family interview for admissions. Kind of horrible that a school would presume that all families must have 2 parents, but at least it's just 1 short line at the end, instead of long scenes earlier, implying all that heteronormative "traditional gender roles" BS.

2:54 PM 7/20/2021

Done with chapter 1 of Spy X Family. I like it! I want to read more of it! ^_^

2:54 PM 7/20/2021

https://www.viz.com/shonenjump/spy-x-family-chapter-2/chapter/19256?action=read

I just want to see how the assassin comes to play the mom. I won't read the whole thing. I've got to do more with my day. It's so late already! ;o;

2:59 PM 7/20/2021

Pages 4-7

Being a single 30 year old woman is "suspicious"? Instead of being horrified, these women laugh and agree????? This is disgusting. I can't wait to see how Yor or Fate sticks it to them.

All Yor did was FAINTLY rebuff their suggestion that she catch a sexual partner! She just said she wants to focus on work instead. And that apparently was enough to make this woman feel the need to indirectly threaten her? Calling her weird and suggesting she was weird enough to be "turned in by neighbors for being suspicious"? What an insecure bitch. There better be a come-uppens.

Pages 8-9.

This whole "you need to find a husband" traditional gender roles thing is gross. Please, let's get past these type of scenes already.

3:12 PM 7/20/2021

Page 10.

Why does Yor's sister Yuri know someone from her office named Dominic? Isn't that the name of the bad guy that Twilight is trying to kill or infiltrate?

3:14 PM 7/20/2021

Oh! Yuri is Yor's BROTHER! Why did I assume a sister?

3:20 PM 7/20/2021

Pages 18-19.

I was wondering why Twilight's spy agency just didn't supply him with a colleague to team up with. Maybe those "suspicious" bachelorettes really were spies?!? That was some sneaking foreshadowing. But if most of his agency's female spies were "wiped out during the recent spy sweeps" and the ones remaining don't fit in with the image of the wife of a young man, then it suddenly makes sense that all these bachelorettes were arrested.

3:24 PM 7/20/2021

Pages 21-22.

I really like this martial artist/warrior's version of noticing the significant other during the "meet-cute". "How did she not set off my warrior senses honed to detect all?! She's amazing!" ^o^!

3:28 PM 7/20/2021

Page 23.

They're both so awkward. ^o^ Maybe I've always been into that awkward couple thing? Is that why I loved Ryouga/Akari so much? ^o^

3:30 PM 7/20/2021

Page 25.

"The girl was starved for entertainment."???? C'mon, Narrator. Isn't it enough that she thinks her future parents are both sooooo coooooool for being being an assassin and a spy? lol

3:38 PM 7/20/2021

Page 33.

Is Loid going to propose during the party?! LOL ^o^ Whether in terms of thinking Yor is a normal girl he could trick into quickly marrying him, or whether from her perspective, a proposal in the middle of a party that her brother is going to get a report about, to evaluate if her boyfriend is a reliable/good guy...! It's perfect! Perfect for both of their schemes/uses! ^o^

3:41 PM 7/20/2021

"Should we report her for lying?" About having a boyfriend?!

"For all we know, she's a spy sent here to lower the country's birth rate!" What the actual FUCK!?!? OH MY GAWD. tHESE GENDER ROLE POLICING BITCHES!!!!!!!

"She's probably just a weirdo. Leave her alone." Thanks, but being single doesn't make you a "weirdo". Go fuck yourselves.

3:44 PM 7/20/2021

Page 35.

This Camilla bitch is going to try to sabotage Yor's life just because her boyfriend talked to Yor at a PARTY? What the actual fuck is the matter with people?!? He initiated a conversation with her! A completely innocent conversation! The Camilla bitch better get arrested as a "possible spy"!

I like that even Dominic is giving Camilla the side eye for saying such asshole things. Why is he even dating her? There are nicer people to fuck if you just want someone to fuck.

3:48 PM 7/20/2021

I like that Yor's solution to everything is to kill everyone in the room. lol But then she cutely shakes herself out of that line of thought. She's adorable. ^-^

3:51 PM 7/20/2021

Pages 38-39.

Aw, I guess we're not going to get a proposal scene in the middle of this party. Even if Loid accidentally introduced himself as her husband, he could have saved it by correcting himself in front of everyone and "confessing" that he had planned to propose marriage to Yor soon. He just got mixed up because his psychiatry patient hit him in the head enough to bleed. It's believable! lol Anyway, I'm glad he's there for her.

4:01 PM 7/20/2021

Page 50.

Ok. I didn't expect Yor to ask Loid to marry her! LOL ^o^!!! This is a great manga! ^o^ LOL

4:03 PM 7/20/2021

Pages 52-53.

Ok. We just went to another level of ridiculous territory! LOL Why is making marriage vows in the middle of a fight, while using a grenade pin ring?! LOL ^o^!!!!!!!!

4:07 PM 7/20/2021

I guess I finished chapter 2. ^o^ I should buy this manga. There's one more chapter for free on Viz's website. But I should stop here. Its' already so late in the day and I didn't get anything done. x_x; Good manga, though.

#reactions #manga #md3 reads spy x family #md3reads #SpyKazoku

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love-sapphirerose · 4 years ago

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Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon Episode 23

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/review/yashahime-princess-half-demon/episode-23/.170583

For me, a key part of writing these weekly reviews is breaking down the plot and themes of each episode. Now, I'm trying my best, dear readers, but more so than even the worst of the episodes that preceded it, “The Princesses Strike Back” really does feel like a bunch of random scenes that were haphazardly slapped together with no rhyme or reason to speak of. I'd be lying if I told you that I fully understood what was even going on, by the end of things, but I guess I'll give it a shot?

We open in the present, with Mr. Kirin bumping into Sota and his little family to ominously inquire about Towa's whereabouts. Here is where I will be as fair as I can possibly be and highlight the one moment of the episode I liked, where Sota blames Towa's extended absence on a medley of random illnesses, just like Kagome's folks did back in the day for her. That was a cute callback, and what I wouldn't give for a version of Yashahime where we got more connections to the original series like it. Mr. Kirin also takes a moment to point out the spooky demon comet in the sky to Sota, but Sota can't even see it, so the only reason this scene exists is to establish that Kirinmaru has some kind of cross-temporal connection with his…what? His doppelganger? Descendant? Time clone?

Who cares! The show definitely doesn't, since it immediately transitions to Kirinmaru meeting up with none other than Sesshomaru's Mother, whose name is…”Sesshomaru's Mother”. Very creative. Anyways, here is where Kirinmaru and Sesshomaru engage in some incredibly vague conversation that nearly explains what our villain's motivations are beyond simply murdering SesshMoMaru's grandkids, but nope. That would make too much sense, so the show decides to skip all of that and introduce the Windmill of Time, which as best as I can tell is a completely new thing that is not a holdover from InuYasha, and all of my Googling of “time windmill” only turned up some obscure non-fiction books. What is the Windmill of Time? I don't know! All that Kirinmaru mentions is that Sesshomaru has been seeking something called Akuru's Pinwheel. What is that? I don't know! Later on, we see a kid named Akuru with a pinwheel that Sesshomaru completely ignores so…yeah, no, I've got nothing.

Now, here's where we need to double back a bit; this episode is titled “The Three Princesses Strike Back”, right? What are they striking back against? That one, at least, is simple enough to track: The girls are taking the fight back to Zero, and Setsuna even has the mysterious “Blood Blade” to add to her fighting repertoire. The last fight with Zero was a relative highlight of the series' back half, so at this point I was still wondering if the show could manage the same trick of being sort-of decent twice in a row. It turns out the exact opposite happened, instead; once the girls arrive at the burnt-out ruins of the old Grampyasha manor, the episode takes a full nosedive in quality and basically devolves into utter nonsense.

Here's the shakedown: After a bunch of lame banter between the girls, Zero, and Riku, the pirate boy eventually reveals that, now that Moroha and Setsuna have arrived with their Red and Gold Rainbow Pearls, he's gathered every one of the lost gems to return to Zero. She was apparently unaware that this plot was even in place, and reacts very angrily, though she ends up taking the Rainbow Pearls back anyways. Now, the show has repeatedly claimed that the Pearls are the source of her demon powers, except she's had demon powers this whole time, and when she finally does reunite the collection of off-brand Infinity Stones that Yashahime has been building up for twenty-three weeks now, the grand result is…Setsuna killing her in less than a minute, with a single blow from her Blood Blade.

I'm not kidding. After all of the hullabaloo Yashahime raised over “Rainbow Pearl, this” and “Rainbow Pearl, that”, Zero ends up getting one-shotted by Setsuna and dying in Riku's arms. Does…does Yashahime realize how inconceivably stupid this looks from the audience's perspective? It gets worse, too: When she dies, Zero's spirit is whisked off to the underworld, where she gets into a very long back-and-forth with SessMoMaru about the respective pain they suffered over Grampyasha's stepping around over the years. The conversation doesn't go anywhere at all except for Zero freaking out when SeshMoMaru accuses her of indulging in petty “human” emotions. Oh, I guess there's the teensy detail that we learn of how, when Zero dies, Rin also must die, so Sesshomaru pops in to use the Tenseiga's life-giving powers on Zero's corpse.

In all of this chaos, Rin wakes up with the goofiest look on her face for all of five seconds or so, and then immediately dozes off without a single word when Zero comes back to life. Rin isn't the only victim of the episode's truly terrible artistic gaffes, though; there's one shot of Zero's dead body that literally looks as if someone cropped a JPEG of the character from a different scene into the frame, and then flipped it on its side to make it look dead. It has to be seen to be believed:

Look, I know it's COVID times, and I know that animation is one of the most difficult and underpaid jobs pretty much anywhere, but for real. Yashahime. What the heck are we doing here? And then, when Zero wakes up and angrily demands the Rainbow Pearls from Riku, despite them being just a couple of feet away on the ground, only to have the about-face interrupted by Kirinmaru descending from heaven like some kind of Hot Topic Emo Demon Jesus? I ask again: Just what in the heck are we doing, Yashahime?

The preview for “Sesshomaru's Daughter” has an ominous mood that goes so far as to foreshadow that Setsuna is going to die, and it bills itself as “The final episode”. On the one hand, please God, yes, let this finally be over! On the other hand, there is no universe wherein Yashahime can satisfactorily wrap up its story in a mere 22 minutes. We're one week away from the finale, and I'm not even sure that the story has started, yet. I don't know what I fear more: The possibility that Yashahime might truly attempt to conclude this terrible, terrible story for good in just one week, or the possibility that there might be more weeks, months, or even years of Yashahime yet to come…

Odds and Ends

• I damn near forgot to mention that, when Zero is revived and raging at Sesshomaru, Towa's inner-monologue pops in, and she muses, “Living in the world is hard. If you don't follow the set rules, you're treated as an outcast. I was so tired of it when I was in the other world. What Zero is feeling now is probably like how I felt back then.” This is, generously, one of the most inane and incompetent bits of writing I've seen in, God, I don't know how long. It's even worse than that wretched non-sequitur about Towa being too addicted to her cellphone from Episode 14, and that's really saying something. I'm far more accustomed to Yashahime's flagrant, spiteful disregard for “making sense” and “letting its characters sound like functional human beings”, so I guess it didn't hit me quite as hard.

#anti yashahime #anti hanyo no yashahime #anti sunrise #anti towa

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miguel-manbemel · 4 years ago

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Aspects & Fanfics Ep. 47: The Cave of Doom Part 2: Give Me My Son Back!

New entry in the main storyline of this fanfic blog inspired on Sanders Sides by Thomas Sanders and Joan S. We continue this multipart story and I hope you are enjoying it so far. Until next time.

SYNOPSIS: Knowing that the ghouls have kidnapped Chris, Virgil, Roman and the rest of the Sides make plans to go after them into the cave to rescue Virgil and Roman’s son. Meanwhile, the ghouls take Chris to the center of the cave and tell Chris their desperate story.

WARNINGS: Mentions to blood wounds, moments of angst and a brief panic attack.Virgil shows traces of an unsympathetic cruel behavior towards the ghouls in the story.

EPISODE INDEX

[Roman is in his room, writing in his diary. His royal suit is covered in dirt, he sports some wounds on his face and a tear falls down his cheek as he writes and his voice narrates what he’s writing]

ROMAN: [voice] Dear diary… we have just returned from the most horrible adventure we have ever faced. I can’t believe that, in order to save us all, I had to give up to my own flesh and bone, my own son… It all started innocently. Virgil suggested our son Chris, who was moving out of our room to live independently as an adult, that he could move to his old room, as it was now empty. So that he could have access to every door in the room, Virgil gave him all the keys he owned from it, but there was one particular key he asked him never to use, the key of the front door. After that, we left him to clean the room, very dusty after so much time unused, and we returned to our own room as we had work to do for Thomas. Virgil decided to take a nap first and startled me when he screamed in his dreams, a scream I could hear from the living room. He said he had a nightmare about Chris, and his intuition was on point as when we returned to Chris’ room, we found that the front door was open and Chris was missing. It was then when Virgil confessed that at the other side of that door there was the Cave of Doom, populated by ghouls, each one fulfilling one of Thomas’ fears. He said that they had kidnapped Chris to lure him into coming back as he, as he finally confessed, was the King and Father of ghouls and had left them to live with us. After all these revelations, we tried to make up a plan to follow them into that cave and rescue our son, before it was too late… The adventure was about to begin, and we didn’t know yet how everything was going to end. If only we had known… Maybe I could have been prepared to prevent… [sobs] losing my son…

[intro sequence]

[The Sides and Thomas look at the half open door]

VIRGIL: [sighs] Okay, guys, the time has come. Are we all ready?

DILLON: Actually… I’m kinda scared, dad…

VIRGIL: Oh, Dillon…

DILLON: But at the same time, I want to help. He’s my brother. It’s just that I don’t know if I could be of much help or if I would be a burden instead. I’m too young and inexperienced as a Side to be of any help. But will I ever improve as a Side if I don’t follow you in your missions? I want to be better… but I’m afraid. I’m sorry if that’s a disappointment for you, but I can’t help it.

VIRGIL: [grabbing Dillon’s shoulders] No, Dillon, you’re not a disappointment! You could never be!

ROMAN: It is not a disappointment at all, son. It’s totally okay that you are afraid and we would never ever push you into doing anything you don’t wanna do before you feel ready.

VIRGIL: You can stay here if you want, and that’s not disappointing at all, son. Problem is, what are you going to do on your own in the Mind Palace? You need someone to be with you while we’re out, just in case someone tried to enter the room from the cave. But who could stay with you?

THOMAS: Yeah, I could have asked Joan or Talyn… but they’re busy out of town today, I can’t call them.

IAN: Guys, if you think you can handle this yourselves, I can stay behind with Dillon to take care of him. If something serious happened, I could know through Janus’ memories and join you to help. What do you think?

VIRGIL: Actually, that’s a great idea, Ian, and I’d be very grateful if you would take care of Dillon while we’re gone.

IAN: Then it’s settled. Dillon and I will wait for you here while you guys get in there.

DILLON: Be careful, dad, father. Please, save Chris.

VIRGIL: We’ll be careful, I promise.

ROMAN: And we’ll bring your brother back, you’ll see.

[Dillon hugs his parents]

DILLON: I know you will.

JANUS: Pay attention to every step we take in the cave through my memories, Ian. Who knows if you’ll need to remember the path if you have to follow us for some reason.

IAN: Don’t worry, I have a very good memory as you know. You guys, be careful, okay?

JANUS: We’ll be careful. You two, cover our backs from here.

IAN: We will, right Dillon?

DILLON: Right.

VIRGIL: Okay, guys. Let’s go.

[Virgil opens the door and they all go through it. As soon as they cross the door, they’re in a half-lit cave that goes deep down]

THOMAS: Were is the light coming from? I don’t see any torches or any source of light at all.

VIRGIL: There can’t be shadows without light. And this place is full of shadows ready to strike behind any corner of these caves.

THOMAS: [concerned and ironic] Heh… thanks for cheering us up, Virge…

JANUS: I’m totally not about to poop my pants right now…

[The gang starts walking through the cave, always down on a 45 degree slope. They keep walking and walking]

ROMAN: What I wonder is how we’re going to come back. Descending is more or less easy, but ascending is gonna be like climbing a mountain.

REMUS: If we do have the chance to ascend…

ROMAN: Remus, for goodness sake!

REMUS: What? I’m just saying what we are all thinking right now, that’s all!

THOMAS: What I was thinking is… I thought you said this cave was labyrinthine, and up to this point, this has all been a straight cave with not even a turn or a bifurcation.

VIRGIL: You shouldn’t trust your eyes, Thomas, not in this place. The truth is we’ve already made lots of turns, it’s just that you’re under the illusion that you’re walking straight.

THOMAS: The illusion of walking straight? That’s the story of the first 23 years of my life…

VIRGIL: [beat, frowns] …Only I can defeat the illusion, that’s why I’m guiding you.

THOMAS: I find it hard to believe it…

VIRGIL: You do? Well, how do you explain this? Look behind you.

[Thomas and everybody looks behind them. There’s a wall a few steps behind them, no sign of an exit anywhere]

ROMAN: [impersonating Frollo from Hunchback of Notre Dame] Witchcraft!

JANUS: How are we going to come back if there’s no path anymore?

VIRGIL: Don’t worry, as I said, it’s all an illusion. That wall isn’t real and if I stand in front… [Virgil walks to the rear part of the group in front of the wall, and the wall suddenly dissolves and shows an ascending pathway] …you’ll see how the wall evaporates as if it was steam from just-made coffee.

THOMAS: Goodness… Sorry for doubting you, Virge… Then it’s clear we mustn’t split out, under any circumstances, or we’ll get lost in the caves.

VIRGIL: Exactly. Whatever it happens, don’t… walk… away from me. Now, let’s go on. I think we’re not too far away from where we need to go now.

ROMAN: Okay, your majesty, lead the way.

VIRGIL: Please, don’t call me “your majesty”. I’ll only admit “your highness” as consort prince of Sandersia, nothing more.

ROMAN: As you wish, your highness.

[The gang keeps on walking through the cave. Meanwhile, in a huge cavern well lit a group of shadows carry a huge tied bag shaking. Chris’ voice is heard in muffled yells]

CHRIS: Let me outta here, whoever you are! This is outrageous!

GHOUL #1: In a minute, your majesty. We’ve finally arrived.

GHOUL #2: He surely has put out a fight all the way. I’m gonna have sore arms for days!

CHRIS: Let me out and the sore arms will be the most insignificant of your pains

GHOUL #1: Heh, you were always so funny, your majesty. Your dark humor was always the best.

CHRIS: Why do you call me your majesty!? And let me out NOW!

[The ghouls place the bag on the ground, then they untie it and Chris takes his head out gasping for air]

CHRIS: Finally, I can breath again! I mean, I can’t die of suffocation, but it’s so uncomfortable… who are you?

GHOUL #1: We are your humble servants, your majesty, and we’re glad to have you back in our kingdom which is all yours as always.

CHRIS: [getting rid of the bag and standing up] What are you talking about? I’ve never seen you in my life! What is this place!?

GHOUL #2: Okay, your majesty, for a joke, it’s been funny, but, please, cut it out. You have a kingdom to govern and we need your help. Nice new outfit, by the way.

CHRIS: Do I look like a joker to you? I’m telling you I’ve never been in this place and I don’t know who you are or where I am!

GHOUL #1: [scared, to his ghoul friend] Oh, no. Could it be that… we got the wrong guy, Rejection?

CHRIS: You did get the wrong guy, certainly! Get me back to where you found me, right now!

REJECTION: That’s impossible, Height. He was in our king’s bedroom in his private room. Who else would sleep in that bed other than the king himself?

[Chris shows a face of realization and starts understanding what is going on]

CHRIS: Wait, wait a second… that king you’re mentioning… Is his name… Virgil, by any chance?

HEIGHT: [beat] Yes…?

CHRIS: Well, you got the wrong Side. I’m not Virgil! Virgil is my father! And what do you want him for!?

HEIGHT: Your father!? You mean, he’s had offspring?

CHRIS: Yes. He has two children, my brother Dillon and me. My name is Christian, but you can call me Chris… if you were friends, that is, because you have kidnapped me, and you intended to kidnap my father! I demand you to take me back to where you found me and leave my father alone!

REJECTION: I… I’m very sorry for the confusion… your highness, but that won’t be possible.

CHRIS: What do you mean it won’t be possible!? You brought me here, you’ll send me back! And, once again, I demand you to tell me where here is.

HEIGHT: Certainly, your highness. You’re standing in the center of the ancient underground kingdom called the Cave of Doom. Your father, King Virgil the 1st, Father of Ghouls, ruled and protected our kingdom for many years.

CHRIS: My father… a king? A real king?

HEIGHT: Yes, and since you’re his son, that makes you a prince. Sorry if the news of discovering that you’re royalty are too shocking for you.

CHRIS: I mean… I’m already a prince. Prince Christian Gerard Sanders, heir of the Principality of Sandersia. My other father, and Virgil’s husband, is Prince Roman, ruler of said principality.

HEIGHT: Principality of Sandersia? A principality is like a kingdom, is it not? A foreign kingdom… Does that mean that… we could enter in a diplomatic conflict over what we’ve just done? Just what we needed, a war with a neighbor nation when our homeland is in such a serious disadvantage!

REJECTION: Don’t be silly. If our King has married that prince, that means that he’s annexed that place, Sandersia, for our kingdom, under the same government. No wonder he didn’t give sign of life, our monarch has been busy bringing glory to the Cave of Doom.

HEIGHT: Well, glory or not, we need our King here and now! This place is collapsing! Oh, no, don’t worry your highness, I didn’t mean the ceiling literally collapsing over our heads, it was just an expression…

CHRIS: [beat] I got you the first time… What do you mean this place is collapsing?

HEIGHT: You see, since his majesty left us, we’ve been ungoverned. Now, chaos has spread throughout all of the cave. We remain loyal to the legitimate king and wait patiently for his return, but there are other ghouls…

REJECTION: A bunch of vile traitors, those are the other ghouls! They think that the King is not coming back, so one of them decided to seize power and push their evil agenda over the rest of the ghouls. I can’t begin to narrate the atrocities they committed over their own brothers of shadow who didn’t want to betray King Virgil. Everyday we were less and less… We need your father. He’s the only one who can save us. We need him desperately.

CHRIS: Well, I’m very sorry to hear that, but my father never mentioned your existence at all. Perhaps it’s true that he doesn’t want to come back.

HEIGHT: But he must! If he doesn’t, what have we been fighting for? What have so many ghouls like us lost their freedom for? He wouldn’t just leave us like this? He’s our father of shadow!

CHRIS: Father of shadow? What does that exactly mean?

HEIGHT: We’re incarnations of Thomas’ fears… Yes, we never get out of this cave, but we know about Thomas, because our King usually mentioned him when he was here. Virgil’s our father of shadow, because he gave us birth. He created us as Thomas felt us. For instance, I’m Thomas’ fear of heights. Call me Height for short.

REJECTION: And I’m Thomas’ fear of rejection. That’s why Height called me Rejection.

CHRIS: I understand. Nice to meet you, I guess. But still, if he never mentioned you, he must have a good reason.

VIRGIL: [speaking behind them] I do.

[everybody turns around. The gang has just entered the place. Virgil looks at them with a mixed face of relieve and anger]

CHRIS: Dad! You’re here! I’m so happy to see you!

HEIGHT: Your majesty! It’s an honor to see you again!

VIRGIL: [yelling, angry, with his tempest tongue] How dare you speak to me without being spoken to! Be quiet in my presence! And how dare you take my son! I should crush you till you’re nothing but dust!

REJECTION: We’re sorry, your majesty… We were desperate…

CHRIS: It’s okay, dad. They didn’t mean any harm to me, they told me the whole story and…

VIRGIL: [still in tempest tongue] And you! Why did you disobey me!? I gave you strict orders about not opening the front door under any circumstances! Look what you have forced me to do! I hate putting on this dark warlord persona! I never wanted to do it again and I had to, and it was your fault!

CHRIS: Wait, wait, wait, what are you talking about? I didn’t open the front door! I didn’t even know that this place was beyond the front door! Someone got me while I was taking a nap, put me in a sack and brought me here. I didn’t open the door! I wouldn’t disobey you, dad, much less when it seemed so important and serious for you to leave that door locked. I didn’t open it, I promise! I… I’m not even carrying the key chain, I left it on the kitchen counter before I went to the bedroom! If you don’t believe me, search me if you want!

[Virgil shows a face of confusion]

VIRGIL: [normal voice] But if it wasn’t you… Then who…?

JANUS: [suddenly yelling in pain and grabbing his head with both hands] Awww! My head! Awww!

[Everybody gets startled and looks at Janus]

REMUS: [scared] Janus, what’s wrong with you!?

JANUS: [a little relieved, he lowers his hands] I don’t… I don’t know… I suddenly felt a huge headache, as if I had been hit on the head again, like the last time… then the headache suddenly disappeared.

REMUS: But you’re okay now, right?

JANUS: I don’t know… I’m feeling okay… mostly, but at the same time, I don’t know, I feel something weird in my head, I don’t know… But I’m okay now, sorry for startling you.

PATTON: What could have caused that sudden pain? It’s had to happen for a reason.

VIRGIL: We’ll think about it later. Now, the important thing is to get back to my room and out of this place.

HEIGHT: Please, your majesty, we’re begging of you! Don’t leave us! We’re desperate!

REJECTION: [panicking] I’m getting heightened… I’m getting heightened… He’s rejecting us! Everything’s lost! Everything’s lost!

CHRIS: Please, dad, listen to them. They told me their story and they really need our…

VIRGIL: That’s completely out of the question! For starters, you’re coming back to our room with Roman and I until we find a safer place for you in the Mind Palace. [looking at the ghouls] And as for you, I can’t lock my room without my key chain, but that won’t be necessary, cause you can’t get out of my room to other places of the Mind Palace and no one is gonna return to that room ever again!

HEIGHT: I knew you were dark and ominous… but I never thought you could be so cruel and cold hearted…

VIRGIL: How dare you speak to your king with such disrespect!

HEIGHT: Except you’re not, you said it yourself, and I didn’t say any lies! You’re being cruel and cold with us, your children of shadow, the children you’ve blatantly denied. Don’t worry, your former highness, we won’t disturb you in your bright life under the sun anymore. We’ll escort you back to your room, then you can do as you want while we just perish in here. Follow us, please.

[The ghouls lead the way through the caverns. Time goes by and they reach the door]

HEIGHT: Well, you’re here, your majesty, safe and sound. I wish we could say the same about ourselves.

CHRIS: Dad, please… these guys may be ghouls, but they seem nice and in danger. Why not helping them if we can?

VIRGIL: I said no. The only one whose safety I’m worried about is you. Do you have any idea of how worried I was about your safety?

CHRIS: [angry] Yes, I do, cause you’ve always been like this! You’re always trying to overprotect me! I know it’s part of who you are, but I became independent for a reason, dad, to take care of myself on my own terms without the need for your protection. And let me remind you that you agreed on these terms and recognized I needed to be on my own. So when are you going to stop treating me like a baby and consider me an equal adult like all the rest of the Sides? Tell me, dad, when!?

[Virgil does not have time to answer as Thomas interrupts them]

THOMAS: I can’t open the door! It is locked!

VIRGIL: What!?

[Virgil tries to open the door too. He can’t]

VIRGIL: [to the ghouls] You two! You locked the door, didn’t you!? Give me the keys right now!

HEIGHT: What are you talking about? We don’t have the keys!

VIRGIL: But you got in there, and if Chris didn’t open the door, it had to be you! Who else!?

REJECT: The door was open when we got in. Besides, think carefully. You all went through that door and it was still open. When you crossed the door, we were already deep in the caves carrying your son. How could we have locked the door? We can’t teleport.

VIRGIL: Then it was one of your accomplices! You gave the keys to someone and…

HEIGHT: We have no accomplices. We are the two last ghouls of our kind, no other ghoul in their current subjugated state of mind would have wanted you back to this kingdom. And besides, the keys were originally in the room on the other side of the door. We’re shadows, not ghosts. We couldn’t go through the door to fetch the keys, and if we could, what would have we needed the keys for in the first place?

LOGAN: Virgil, you must admit that his logic is completely sound.

VIRGIL: [beat] I know… but there’s something amiss here. That door couldn’t have opened itself! Someone must have opened it… and the only ones who knew of the existence of that key chain, other than the ghouls, were Chris himself, Roman and me.

ROMAN: Well, I…

VIRGIL: I know you didn’t Roman, I know you’d never do that to our son.

ROMAN: Thanks for trusting me, my love.

VIRGIL: And it’s out of the question I didn’t do it, I would have never opened that door on my own free will.

REMUS: Speaking about free will…

VIRGIL: What?

REMUS: Could it be that someone had been forced to open the door against his will?

ROMAN: I know what you’re implying Remus, and if you think the Paladin took control of me and forced me to open the door, I can confirm that’s not the case. I didn’t open the door and the Paladin didn’t take my body. I would have remembered everything I’d have done as the Paladin, and certainly I would have never hidden that to you, much less to Virgil.

REMUS: Okay, it was only a theory… a Remus theory.

ROMAN: A wrong theory. Besides, since Thomas got released from hospital, I’ve been feeling better than ever. I have never had any visits from the Paladin again after the last brief one that almost costed me my marriage. Not ever again. I think the Paladin’s very well reined in and we won’t know about him for a long time. I don’t even feel any trace of his presence at all, as if he had left me for good. I hope that’s the case.

REMUS: Okay, if you say so. Sorry if I’ve offended you, brother.

ROMAN: It’s okay. You had the right to ask and it was good that you did, so that I could clarify it.

VIRGIL: But then, who?

VOICE: Awww…

JANUS: [overlapping with the voice that no one seems to notice] Awww… My head… it’s started hurting again… Aw…

REMUS: Let me see, Janus, take your bowler hat off…

[Remus takes Janus’ hat off. He gets scared when he sees blood on the hair]

REMUS: Honey, you’re bleeding! Your hair is stained in blood! I’m not impressed by the sight of blood, of course, I’m accustomed to it… but if it’s your blood, that concerns me a lot! Did you hit your head or something?

JANUS: No, not at all. How is this possible?

VOICE: Awww…

LOGAN: Wait, what’s that sound? I heard it before but I thought it was Janus. And it certainly is not coming from him.

VOICE: Awww…

VIRGIL: It comes from that corner of the cave on the right side of the door.

[they all come to check the origin of the sound and they all get horrified when they find Ian with his head full of blood, lying on the ground]

JANUS: For goodness sake, Ian, are you okay!?

[Janus lies down to attend Ian, he’s barely conscious, unable to answer Janus, other than with painful groaning]

LOGAN: Well, that explains Janus’ sudden headache and his weird later sensation. Ian is Janus’ Siamese brother and they share memories, and what affects one affects the other, just like Roman and Remus. If Ian was knocked out, he couldn’t feel his memories anymore. And that explains the blood on his head too… but what it doesn’t explain is who did this to Ian.

PATTON: Step aside, Janus, maybe I can be of help. I’ll try to heal him with the gift from the Core.

JANUS: Thank you, Patton.

[Patton gets closer to Ian and puts his hand on Ian’s forehead. A light blue aura surrounds them both. The wound on Ian’s head then slowly disappears. The aura disappears and Ian opens his eyes]

JANUS: The wound is gone from me too, I can feel the pain is gone. Thank you, Patton.

PATTON: Happy to oblige, kiddo.

IAN: How… how did I get here? Where am I?

JANUS: Thank goodness you’re okay, Ian. What happened?

IAN: I’m not sure… I can’t remember… My last memories were that I was with Dillon watching a rerun of The Munsters on TV. Then, I remember I got up from the couch, for some reason, and after that my memories are blurry, then nothing. I can’t remember anything else.

VIRGIL: My son, Dillon, where is he?

IAN: I’m sorry, I don’t remember. What happened to me? [touches his face, and his hand gets stained with a trace of blood falling from his now healed forehead, he sees the blood on his fingers and gets scared] And how did my head get covered in blood? What is going on?

LOGAN: Obviously, someone must have attacked you from behind and rendered you unconscious. You must have lost the last few minutes before the attack due to the damage in your head, otherwise you would remember the attack. Then, while you were unconscious, the attacker, whoever they are, dragged you to the cave and locked the door. They must be the one who unlocked the door in the first place.

VIRGIL: [panicking] If the attacker hit Ian so easily, they must have done the same to my son! He could be anywhere and he could be wounded or worse! Can’t you remember anything, Ian? At all? Please, this is important, try to remember!

IAN: [anxious over Virgil’s state of panic] I’m… I’m sorry, Virgil… I can’t… I can’t!

ROMAN: [holding Virgil’s shoulders] Calm down, Virgil. Don’t harass Ian. He’s helping as much as he can now and we need to give him some room to recover.

VIRGIL: [after breathing slowly for a couple times] You’re right… I’m sorry, Ian.

IAN: It’s okay, I understand your concern and I would help if I could. But I can’t. I have no idea where Dillon is.

THOMAS: Guys, I suddenly had a thought. When we couldn’t get to Logan’s library because of his door being locked, you made me conjure a new key to unlock it. Can’t I do the same with this door?

VIRGIL: You could, Thomas… if you were in the Mind Palace, on the other side of the door. As long as we’re here, you can’t conjure a new key, just like I can’t conjure it myself. I should have conjured it before entering the cave, that was a terrible oversight on my part. But I thought Chris had the keys with him, and most importantly, I never thought someone would shut us out here.

REMUS: I’m sorry for being the Devil’s lawyer again, Virgil, but… if none of us unlocked the door, and the only one out of sight right now when we’re all trapped here is Dillon… couldn’t it have been Dillon who opened the door in the first place?

VIRGIL: What? Dillon? That’s the craziest thing you’ve ever said, and it was difficult to top them! That’s impossible!

REMUS: Sorry for insisting, but he’s the only prime suspect we have. Think about it. Ian was alone with Dillon when he was attacked. Who else could have attacked him? And he could have been the only one able to open the door, drag Ian inside and lock the door again.

VIRGIL: No, I can’t believe it. I refuse to believe it! Why would he do that in the first place? You say he’s the prime suspect, but to be a suspect, you need a motivation. What motivation would Dillon have to do that to us, to his own brother and family who love him?

REMUS: I’m sorry, Virgil. I really am. Dillon is my nephew too and it hurts me too to bring up these accusations, but you know that it’s a very strong possibility. You’re right, I don’t know why he would do that, but reviewing the facts, he’s the only one who could have done it. Maybe he’s being controlled by someone, like when the Dark Master’s Dark Sprite took control of Ira, I don’t know.

VIRGIL: Oh, gosh… you may be right… Dillon would have never done that on his own free will… but perhaps this is all another of the Dark Master’s plans to return to the Mind Palace. Gosh, not even being trapped in the Core is gonna stop him? Is he never gonna let us live happily ever after?

ROMAN: Relax, Virge. If this is the Dark Master’s doing, we’ll find a way to defeat him, as we’ve always done, and if he has our son, we’ll set him free. But for now, we must find a way to get out of this place, and soon. It won’t be long till someone starts missing Thomas in the outer world, and that could put him in trouble, as if it wasn’t enough the trouble we’re currently facing in this cave.

[to be continued, guys gals and non binary pals]

[end card]

[Remus is furiously hitting the door with his Morningstar, trying to bring it down, but despite his furious efforts and the violence of the bumps, the door doesn’t show a single dent]

VIRGIL: Don’t tire yourself up, Remus. I told you it’s completely useless. That door, like all our front doors, is completely indestructible and impossible to open without the key.

REMUS: [panting, frustrated] Not even a dent… [yelling] F*ck!

LOGAN: Well, it seems to be obvious that we can’t get away from this cave, at least through this door, so we need to think on something else.

HEIGHT: I have an idea that could be of help. We, ghouls, could help you search the whole cave to find the key, wherever it’s hidden.

CHRIS: Although we don’t even know if it’s hidden here. The culprit could very well have stayed in the Mind Palace and locked us all here. And besides, didn’t you just say that there were only two of you left?

VIRGIL: I find it hard to believe. Where are all the other ghouls. There used to be hundreds.

REJECTION: Yeah, we used to be a lot, until you abandoned us. Then one of the ghouls decided to take charge and started subjugating the other ghouls into following him. Only the two of us are left out of his control, and frankly, I don’t know how we have lasted for so long.

VIRGIL: Let’s see… if I helped you get rid of that ghoul and liberated all the rest of the ghouls that are under his control, would you help us find the key to get us out of here?

HEIGHT: You would do that for us, your highness?

VIRGIL: I would do that for the key, that’s my number one priority.

REJECTION: Your majesty… what did we ever do to you so that you hate us so much? Why did you abandon us like this?

[Virgil sighs]

VIRGIL: It’s not that I hate you… I don’t hate you… In any case, the only ghoul I hate is… myself.

PATTON: I will physically fight you!

VIRGIL: I don’t mean that I hate myself as a whole, dad, I mean that I hate the ghoul part of myself. I don’t want to be a ghoul anymore.

HEIGHT: That’s not much better for us, in all honesty. What’s so wrong about being a ghoul?

VIRGIL: You are all of Thomas’ fears. You cause him to feel fear and that makes Thomas suffer… and I don’t want Thomas to suffer, much less because of me.

REJECTION: We don’t want Thomas to suffer either, your majesty. We don’t do our work to torture him. It’s just… that that’s what we’re programmed to do and we have to do it. We don’t understand why, but we have to, and something inside us tells us that, in fact, we are supposed to do what we do and it would be worse for Thomas if we didn’t do it.

THOMAS: I think I understand. It’s the same principle about why we accepted you in the first place, Virgil. These ghouls you created don’t exist to make my life a misery. They exist to help me get my guard up and protect myself from the dangers in the world. If I didn’t have any fears at all, yeah, that would be a utopianly wonderfully calm and relaxed life… but I would be unable to identify danger and I eventually would end up hurt or even dead if I didn’t know when to respond to threats. Just like this cave is an extension of your room, these ghouls are an extension of your purpose, Virgil. You shouldn’t feel ashamed for making me feel fear. Sure, some fears may be irrational and hindering, and I might benefit from not having those in particular, but most of the times… these ghouls could be saving my life, and it would be thanks to you because you created them to protect me. Embrace that part of yourself just as I’m embracing it too, because there’s nothing in you that you should look at in shame. Be proud of being the King of Ghouls. I am proud of who you are, of each and every aspect of who you are, my dear friend Virge.

[Virgil looks at Thomas, emotional. He doesn’t say a word, he just hugs Thomas tightly. Then he looks at the ghouls]

VIRGIL: I’m sorry. Thomas is right and I owe you an apology. Everything you have been going through has been my fault. I hope you can forgive me, and I’ll do my best to help you in your ordeal and make sure it never happens again.

HEIGHT: Of course we forgive you, your majesty. You are our father of shadow. We knew that, eventually, you would help us.

REJECTION: And after that, we’ll help you all find a way to get out of here back to your world. We promise.

VIRGIL: Thank you…

THOMAS: Who would have thought? These ghouls are actually very nice.

VIRGIL: [low voice] Wait to see them doing their job, Thomas… [Thomas goes a little pale over Virgil’s gloomy way of saying that, but he says nothing] Okay, then let’s get cracking. Who is the ghoul that has rebelled against my legacy and wants to overthrow me in the throne? In other words, whose face do I need to punch.

HEIGHT: The truth is, not much is known about that ghoul. It’s one of the latest ghouls to be added to the cave. Before he assumed power, the only thing we knew about him, and not everyone knew it, was his name.

VIRGIL: And what’s his name? I’m asking because I didn’t know I could create ghouls without noticing. If you say he came recently, I was out of here when he was born.

REJECTION: Yes, your majesty, he came recently. In fact, he showed up barely a couple months ago and turned this cave into a mess in such short time. His name is… Paranoia.

[Virgil shows a face of shock when he hears that name and is rendered speechless, with a dash of fear in his eyes]

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