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byullielle · 1 year ago

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Walls Could Talk // Bang Chan x Mafia!Reader

Part 1/3

Trilogy Playlist, Till Death Do Us Part, is what the vows contain. Hitched off to notorious mafia boss Christopher Bahng, and despite her volatile and bratty attitude–it'll be only through her that anyone gets to kill her husband.

Tags: Yakuza/Mafia AU, Est. Marriage, Marriage for Convenience, Eventual Lovers, Resolved Sexual Tension, Smut, Hurt/Comfort

Disclaimer: how chan looks in the freeze mv is exactly how he looks in this fic. themes and graphic descriptions of violence, drugs, substance abuse, panic attacks and disorders, trauma and traumatic responses are present, proceed with caution. chan does NOT cause the reader's trauma, however, and vice versa. MINORS DNI. NSFW Content.

4.5k Words

"Boss," he clears his throat, a nervous gait to him, "We failed to take her," he reports with a shaky voice, "Resistance…it was more than we anticipated,"

Your phone buzzes against the cupholder while the car speeds through the busy Seoul streets. Annoyance flares through your body like an allergy as you grab it with a wince–switching to airplane mode before a yelp escapes your lips. “Sorry,” Felix lowly mutters while concentratedly patching up the wound on your thigh.

For what it’s worth, it wasn’t your fault you were running late to the stupid function your husband was currently throwing. With the guest of honor late and wounded in her car, you hoped to god that he already started without you. Although if you didn’t have the police force under your family’s grasp Seungmin would’ve gotten 5 speeding tickets, at least.

A loud yelp escapes you again, making Felix look up in concern while he’s putting pressure on the bleeding leg, making sure your pretty black dress isn’t soiled by blood. “Sure you can take it boss?” he asks with concern in his voice.

You huff, trying to lean back and endure the pain, especially the sore spot on your stomach after being kicked right by your diaphragm, “I can,”

You’ve argued to him many times that if he simply wanted to network he could do it without you there but apparently according to him, “Your presence is crucial,” and the second part, “Don’t run late,”

Normally, you weren’t one to be tardy to any function with special considerations such as this one but you highly doubt that was the conclusion your husband of 6 months would go to. Women and their womanly whims tend to make them late after all, you knew that much you’d get that specific flack for showing up almost an hour late. “Boss we’re almost there,” Seungmin announces before you groan and try to not mind the searing pain your body is going through before Felix places a square bandage on your thigh. You hand him the ice pack before turning your back so that he can put the dress back in place.

“You sure you could walk properly in this state boss?” he asks, concern lacing his voice before handing you your gun. You hum noncommittedly, slipping the weapon on the garter holster on your more decent thigh before pulling the dress down completely, “Not that I have much of a choice, Felix,”

By the time your car rolls into the estate, Minho, one of your husband’s closest guards is already waiting outside, phone pressed to his ear wearing a very unamused and apathetic expression on his face it scares you a bit. “We should’ve brought Jisung with us,” Seungmin murmurs as he turns exits the car, immediately jogging to your side as Felix heads out first to give instructions to the valet boy. Seungmin reaches a gloved hand out while you take it, trying not to wince in pain as you smile sheepishly at Minho. “Sorry I’m late,”

“The boss isn’t happy,” he immediately counters as you fix yourself up one last time, “Well I’m here now,” you let out with a sigh before straightening your posture.

Minho pushes the door to the function open, the creaking sound of the closed door calling attention towards you while Seungmin and Felix take their posts on your right and left, a few steps back. Some of the chatter stops, all eyes on you but your eyes immediately land on Christopher’s.

And evidently, he isn’t happy.

The eye contact lasts for about 10 seconds, before your eyes start roaming in caution–starting to read the faces of the people who showed up. It grows with you, your stellar ability to read people's body languages and looks, the hardest challenge posed to you is still none other than Christopher.

However, today, he was wearing his heart out his sleeve.

"Ladies and gentlemen," he grabs a pen nearby and taps it against the glass of wine he was nursing, "My beautiful wife," he announces, voice booming throughout the hall as the rest clap to your entrance. It does set off a few sensitive alarms off your head, the booming and drowning sound of claps flying all over, but you could feel Seungmin push you towards Christopher a bit more and snapping you out of the alarming noises.

"Sorry I'm late dear husband," you smile, saccharine and sweet before gently cupping his cheeks, pressing a very chaste kiss on his lips, "I hope I didn't crash the evening too much," you whisper, close to his face before you feel him grip your arm tightly, "You're in big trouble,"

You bite back your retort, knowing better than to start being a smartass now. 'How big a trouble could I truly get when it comes to you,'.

People start approaching you, the prickle of the skin on your arm making itself known as you shake each and every person's hand while trying to read their faces. Some old, some new, all just the same. Chris still had his hand placed on your hip, knowing that the very condition you set him to show up in the first place was for the people to not get too comfortable.

They say it’s a possessive husband’s desire, you say it’s a wife who knows how to play her cards.

Once the crowd around you has died down, distasteful comments of “Women getting ready,” and every variation of it finally gone, Christopher leans forward, “Where the fuck were you,”

You turn to him and smile, “Don’t you know women take forever to get ready, Christopher?”

A punch is lodged into your stomach as you groan. Felix digs his knife into the assailant’s back before tossing him aside, Jeongin is fending off two men single-handedly.

Who in their right mind would attack someone in front of their estate? Idiots. That’s who.

You roll onto your back to dodge an incoming attack from a knife, immediately extending your legs to kick the weapon away–as it flies mid-air you immediately rush to catch it before the assailant could. Once the hilt lands on your palm, you immediately slash the closest body part you can, handing a hit to the jugular.

Blood splatters against your face, making you wince before getting up, the adrenaline from all the defense you have to do still fending off the stomach pain you know would hurt like a bitch. About 5 unconscious bodies are scattered around the perimeter of the infiltrated courtyard, blood painting the pavement. Felix and Jisung manage to hoard in another 3 men while Jeongin finishes off the last one, accidentally ripping his sleeve off as the body slumps down coldly on the pavement. “How many do you think are dead?” you wipe off the blood from your face, “Only two Boss,” Felix estimates, “We’ll clean up here, go get ready,” he immediately suggests before you notion to Jeongin, “Help me walk, I think one of them managed to get me on the thigh,”

“Yes boss,”

“Just tell me why I need to be here Chris,” you exasperatedly sigh, wrenching his hand off you before a sharp pain comes with your inhale. He furrows his brow and raises his hand again, this time a gentle grip encasing your shoulder, “You’re hurt,” he states as a matter of fact, “What happened, Y/N?”

“Just a little scuffle,” you excuse, “Christopher, I swear I have it under control. This is just collateral damage now tell me why I’m here,” you impatiently prod on, not bothering to even shrug his hand off. “Are you sure you’re up for it?”

“Do I need to shank someone?”

“No,” he shakes his head, finally lowering his hand, “You just have to observe. You’ve always been good at that,”

You sigh out to relieve some of the pressure off your stomach, nodding along with it before letting out a hum, “What exactly should I be looking for then,”

Christopher looks around and shakes his head slightly, taking your hand before pulling you into a more secluded corner of the venue, dimmed to its maximum before placing a hand on your back, both of you walking around with his head nearly pressed against yours. It looks intimate in an outsider’s view, so loving and so sweet. The contents of his information are anything but.

“The shipments are supposed to arrive today. Instead, we were met with a truck-full of cocaine gone,” he sighs while you keep your eyes on him, “Unfortunately, I suspect we have a rat amongst our ranks,” You furrow your brows, a frown on your face, “And you're suspecting the rat is here?”

“That's what I want you to find out. Anything suspect, you immediately report to me,”

“How far back would it knock sales down?”

Chris shakes his head, “Not a lot, I got that covered at least,”

"Okay,” You nod, laying a hand on his arm before turning towards the crowd. You press a chaste kiss on his cheeks, nearly hitting the corner of his lips before you walk away from him, flipping your hair to the side while walking towards a few women with a confident stride. The stinging pain in your thigh was nothing, so long as you didn’t exert too much pressure against the leg, the stitches wouldn’t open. “Ah! If it isn’t miss Y/N!” one of them notices you as you take a glass of champagne from the passing waiter, a friendly smile immediately plastered on your face. “Hello ladies, mind if I join in?”

A few hours of chatting go by, and you're quite surprised you could find suspect so quickly.

“Oh my husband would never even let me enter his office,” one of the ladies rolls her eyes, while the wife of one Jung Kwang-ho nods erratically, eyes obviously dilated while she goes on rapid-fire speech about her husband getting mad at her for wanting to stay with him in the workspaces. “And I can’t believe he named his nephew heir for his seat in office! Nephew!” she rants while flailing her hands wildly, the sweat on her forehead beading while she wipes them off with a handkerchief already in her hand, “That sister-in-law of mine isn’t even half reliable,” she mutters before you step closer to her, “Are you feeling warm Jung-ssi? You seem like you need a cooler place,” you suggest despite the air conditioning around. You had to ask Seungmin about the temperature later.

“Oh don’t mind me,” she giggles with a little tinge of unhinge-ness to it, “This is just my hot flashes darling, menopausal and all,”

‘Sure,’ couldn’t help but nod, however aside from another wife she was the only one profusely sweating. Continuing to converse with the wives, you couldn't help but keep a keen eye on her. ‘This couldn’t be good,’

The water swishes around as you scroll through the files Jeongin has sent you on your tablet, half your body submerged in the floral fragrance of the tub. You furrow your brows at the percentages presented to you, the loss of the drugs was not that great but something wasn't adding up, something amiss that you couldn't point your finger on.

It was so reminiscent of something, long lost in the back of your mind but before you realize it a few drops of blood start dripping from your nose, a strong tremor shaking through your body as you feel your chest tighten. Tears blur your vision while the crushing weight on your lungs never lets out. You grip the sides of the tub, blurry vision seeing the bell your guards have left you for an emergency.

This was definitely one. Yet you couldn’t lunge forward to grab it, your bare body freezing cold in the water as nails scratching on the board tamper with your hearing. It was deafening, and you didn’t know if you were screaming or a silent wail unable to escape your throat. “Boss!” Jisung runs in with a towel in his hand immediately draping it over you not minding as the tips get dipped in the tub water, “Boss,” his voice softens, a steady hand on your shoulder, “Boss we’re here, should we call Soyeon?” he starts talking while trying to look at you in the eyes.

The searing pain in your thigh and stomach flare up, and then a stinging sensation by your spine jolts you up, tears flowing down as Jisung gently cajoles you back to reality.

It goes by like forever, but once the pain stops, and nothing but the breathlessness is left, you look at him with wide eyes before he shouts for Felix to get another towel.

“What happened there boss?” he softly asks, making you gulp down and gasp out, “The attack,” you mutter, “It’s the same thing that killed my mother,” you painfully recall, closing your eyes before Jisung hums in acknowledgment, not pushing you further. “Boss, you wanna get out now? Some warmth would do you good,”

You nod and have him help you out of the tub, water dripping from the first towel as Felix walks in and hands you the new one, both of them leaving the bathroom with the door ajar as you dry yourself up. You’re careful to pat the wound on your thigh before looking back on the tub, realizing that there was blood coming from your nose. But the water was simply cloudy with oils and bath agents, with no trace of blood either in the water or from your nose.

You furrow your brows and take a deep inhale, trembling hands patting the towel around your body. The faster you were out of this bathroom, the better.

With paper in your hands, your footfalls echo against the mosaic tiles of the manor, desolate and lonely. You couldn’t help but have goosebumps rise over your skin as you tread the seemingly endless hallway to Chris’ office, but once you get there, you heavily pound against the heavy wood door.

Stepping back a bit, you come face to face with Changbin and his glock. “Changbin,” you greet with a slight nod of your head. He lowers his gun and guard down before bowing politely to you, opening the door wider to reveal Chris scanning through papers, desk filled to the brim with files scattered around. All the legwork he did the past week was catching up to him, and you were about to add more.

“Yes?” he mumbles, not even bothering to look up at you while signaling for Changbin to grab a chair for you. You wait for the velvet chair to be placed in front of his desk before gently smacking the papers against the file he was reading. “Jung Kwang-ho, familiar?" you question, trying to contain the residual trembles on your hands, “Yes, one of our valued assets, what about him?"

"Does his wife have a history of drug intake?"

“Not that I'm familiar with," he furrows his brows, setting the files aside, now fully facing you. "I met Jung Hyeon-ssi on exactly three occasions, and none of them seemed off,"

“Not anymore,” you nip at the corner of your lower lip, peeling off the slight excess skin with your teeth, “We talked. It's too early to say but keeping an eye on her and the Jung family isn't out of our best interest,” you mutter while averting your gaze.

He sighs, leaning back against his chair with a finger pressed to his temple, “I'll keep that in mind,” he responds, another sentence about to spill from his mouth before you get interrupted by a knock on the door. Both you and Chris turn to look before Changbin opens it and announces his presence. "Mr. Jung Yejun is here,"

In alarm, you immediately shoot out of the seat before making yourself comfortable on Chris' lap right after.

"You didn't tell me someone was coming?" you scold through grit teeth while Changbin checks any weapons on the sudden guest. "Where would be the fun in that," Christopher smiles cockily at you, resting his hand on the shy of your satin-dressed back and pulling your legs closer with the other. "Oh you dog," you whisper in disbelief before the man himself enters.

"Oh, it's a pleasure to see you here today Miss Y/N, I hope you remember me,"

"I do," you smile, the mood immediately turning 180 come face to face with the guest. "Your aunt and I are well acquainted,"

Christopher draws small patterns on your back as you speak, your position on his lap making you seem like such a clingy spouse it makes you want to throw up. "Well, what brings you here Yejun-ah," Chris moves the process forward as he clears his throat. "Reports given by my uncle, our faction is already clearing out the fields to find the missing men belonging to the Jinyoung group, sir,"

"What missing men?" Chris then sits forward, hands still encasing you but adjusting you accordingly. Deciding to just end your suffering, you slide off his legs before placing both hands on the backrest of his chair, listening intently.

"Your uncle hasn't reported any missing men yet, Yejun,"

“Haven’t you heard sir?” Jung hands over a file, your hand point blank on his arm as the sleeve rides up a bit, scales inked near his wrist. You peer over Chris’ shoulder and start scanning the files. It’s men from his faction of the city. “They’ve been gone for a while now, a few more added. I don’t know who’s responsible for this yet although my uncle is looking into it,”

Chris looks up at you, silently asking if you know these men. You subtly pat Christopher’s shoulder before he lowers the file and nods, “Thank you for your input, Mr. Jung, any more?”

“None sir,”

“Then you’re dismissed. Your information is highly appreciated,”

He nods wordlessly. Getting up, he makes a very quick exit to the office. Changbin starts checking in case he left some recording device while you take the file off Chris' hands. Flipping through the papers, you're shocked to see a few of the men from your faction of the group as well.

"I thought only the cocaine was missing?" you question him with a scowl. "So did I," he sighs, "I'll look into it tomorrow. Jung would probably call me out-site. You keep on checking tabs on his wife,"

You nod, swallowing down the lump in your throat. Something was terribly wrong.

"Here Mrs. Jung," you kindly offer her a glass of iced water, "Oh thank you so much Y/N-ssi, what a darling you are," she smiles kindly, although her pupils are dilated widely there's still a certain endearment to how she looks. "How are you finding the party so far?"

"Oh, it's nothing too different. Nothing I haven't been to," she chuckles with whimsy laced in her voice, "Although the younger men are now in charge of their groups, it is my first time seeing their wives. Such as yourself," she starts to ramble. And you gladly let her, most of the time cocaine dependants are chatty, always giving out information with such little care in the world, it was quite convenient.

"How has your husband been treating you darling?" she asks, a hand on your arm before you couldn't help but flinch at the contact a bit, making her immediately detach from you. "Oh, sorry,"

"No, it's alright," you sheepishly chuckle, "I just get jumpy at times," you explain before straightening your dress, looking for Christopher amongst the crowd, "He's been wonderful," you try to dotingly muster, "He's been nothing but accommodating and kind to me,"

"Is that so?" Hyeon smiles, "Darling…you know you could tell me anything right," she woefully lays a gentle hand on yours, sweating profusely. You try to not let your brows shoot up in surprise at the sudden opening, "Oh me? I believe I don't have anything…" you try to excuse.

"Do you…?" you question with hesitation, unsure about where the conversation was going.

"Oh I do," she openly admits, there's no reason not to. Despite the confusion coursing through your body rumors about abuse regarding you aren't so far off the roster, "I've heard things my darling. This world wasn't always made for us," she smiles down at the glass of water, "But we can make it safer. At least your generation of wives,"

You control every nerve in your body to not snap in her direction, trying to ground yourself as you feign concern, "I don't quite understand," you gulp down before she hands you a slip of paper, a phone number scribbled onto it. "If Christopher touches you, call me, yeah?"

"Yeah, okay Jung-ssi,"

"Please, call me Hyeon-unnie,"

Leaning back against your chair, you furrow down at the piece of paper wedged between your fingers. Groaning you lean back and press your lips together. You suspect something off with the Jung family–with the messy case of the inheritance and Hyeon Jung’s potential drug addiction–it wasn’t the hardest to spot. What you were ultimately on the edge about was just how involved were they with your family.

For Hyeon to question how Chris treats you, an alleged abuse going on behind closed doors–where she got that information was beyond you.

To Christopher’s credit, you and he got along well in terms of a loveless marriage– your ultimate free reign over your activities save for the occasional heiress chores you have to air out, and the respect you had for each other was a far cry from domestic abuse. Sure, the both of you were still aloof around each other, glorified housemates if anything but you knew he wouldn’t lay a hand on you.

Letting a sigh roll out your lips, a knock comes from your door before you call out to let themselves in, "Felix," you tiredly smile at him, "Great timing I was about to call you,"

“Well I have a bit of bad news boss," he steps up in front of your desk, "What do you need?"

"Give me a background check on Jung Hyeon,"

“Sure,” he nods, “Here boss, the bad news," he hands you a folder. You thank him before he retreats from your office.

Opening the folder, you immediately see photographs of a tattoo, serpentine in shape and scaly, a mamba of sorts. You turn the picture and see a name tagged to it, one of the men slain in the assault yesterday. Flipping through the pages is the same variant of the tattoo, clothed and unclothed.

You have a sense you’ve seen it before.

Keeping up with the reading, the status of their factions are still unknown but there was a certain group they fell under. It didn’t take a genius–they were all part of the Jung family. Guards and marksmen.

A sense of dread spills into your stomach, and you immediately scramble to reach out for your phone, contacting Hyunjin who answers in two rings, “Miss Boss?”

“Where is Chris?” you ask with urgency. “He took Minho-hyungnim with him, they’re on their way to Daego-do, last time he updated had to get gas. If you need anything Changbin is also there,”

“What exactly are they gonna do in Daego-do,”

“Check out the missing men case Jung-ssi presented yesterday,” was all you had to hear before hanging up abruptly.

“Fuck,” you spit out.

Running past Jisung and Changbin, you hot-foot it to the garage, grabbing your gun and keys. The pair look at each other and hurriedly follow, grabbing car keys no questions asked. You snatch your helmet out of the garage stands before putting it on hurriedly, the key already starting in the ignition while you tuck your gun in the holster on your leg. You mount your motorbike and rev up the engine while Jisung scrambles to start the car.

You immediately take off, smoke filling the garage. You speed out of the estate as fast as you can, time and a life on the line because Hyeon’s voice doesn’t stop–playing over and over again like a broken record. The verbalization of the realization catches up a bit late, through grit teeth and the wind pressure ahead of you, ‘Jung Kwang-ho is gonna ambush Chris,’ You weren’t a hundred percent sure, but your intuitions never failed you.

Your eyes are zeroed in on the road, speeding and weaving through cars as they honk at you violently. Seoul traffic wasn’t that bad for a 2 PM rush but fuck, were you tempted to hit the very end of that speed meter. You increase the speed drastically, tilting the bike back a bit before fully speeding off into the highway. Chris left 10 minutes ago, he couldn’t have made it that far yet, from what you knew Minho was a cautious driver, not even risking to speed up on the freeway beyond its limit.

You could catch up, you had to.

You squint your eyes to try and see further, trying to spot a black GMC but so far it was futile. Unless Hyunjin was wrong there was only one South Highway in the entirety of Seoul City. You lean forward, pushing the limits of the bike as it shoots off, gradually getting faster before a relieved gasp escapes you, seeing Chris’ car approaching a tunnel.

The panic in your system spikes, already seeing how many ways this could go wrong. So with a final boost of speed, you get close enough to the tail of the car, slowing down as you feel for your gun plastered to your side before pointing it at the wheel behind.

Then a gunshot goes off, narrowly missing you as you curse, motorbike wobbling a bit. You grit your teeth and speed up to the side of the car, trying to match its speed before targeting the front right wheel. The car’s brakes screech against your ears painfully, making it careen off to the side only to be stopped by the railings along the highway, smashing against the front of the car. You immediately step on the brakes of the motorbike, swerving it to the side before r immediately pointing your gun at the invisible gunman.

You squint and take two chance shots, a yelp immediately coming from the foliage atop the wall before a man crashes down the concrete, helmet emitting a crack sound as you see his leg shot.

You look back hurriedly, seeing Jisung and Changbin try to catch up from the other side of the highway. You rush to Chris’ car, seeing the airbags activated before the door slams open, a gaping wound on Christopher's forehead, and a limp to his gait while holding his side, "What the fuck was that!" he yells as if he isn't in pain. You stand your ground and frown,"I'll explain later, help me get Minho out of the car," you push past him before rushing to the driver's side. Your own car stops, the doors flying open quickly “Fuck, boss what did you do!” Jisung curses as he gets out but you immediately signal to the dead man down on the highway.

“Get rid of the body quick, they probably retreated,” you look into the dark tunnel before you, “But this means war,”

Final disclaimer! This is not entirely accurate and is fabricated for the sake of storytelling. This is a work of pure fiction and does not represent any real-life people, events, or places.

> next part

> moodboard; sampler 1 | sampler 2

#skz #skz scenarios #skz bang chan #mafia bang chan #bang chan x reader #bang chan smut #bang chan #stray kids bang chan #skz chan #stray kids #skz chan imagines #chan x reader #bang chan x you #mafia au #elle☆walls could talk

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rivalsforlife · 2 months ago

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Ace Attorney Investigations Collection Interview Highlight

This is coming a little late - on September 1st, just before the release of the AAI collection, there was an interview on Netlab with Tatsuro Iwamoto (character designer), Kenichi Hashimoto (named in this article as the producer of the AA series overall), and Shunsuke Nishida (producer of the AAIC collection) about the games. It's a long interview with a lot of interesting elements including the reactions to the announcement, a brief mention of the consideration of changing some moments for modern times (example given is the LGBTQ content in the 456 collection - I believe referring to some events in DD, but no specifics), details into the process of upgrading the character minisprites, the staff's favorite characters and cases, why Franziska is 13 in the key art, and other fun details. The part I want to highlight here is what they say about upcoming merch and the future of the ace attorney series.

This small segment of the interview had one part previously translated by nintendoeverything, but there are some little details that I noticed in the full interview that were incorrect so I'm posting this here. But please note that I'm doing this primarily with auto-translate with tiny corrections on the tiny bits of AA-related words in Japanese that I know, which isn't much, so there are likely still inaccuracies in this. Please don't hesitate to correct me if you spot any!

--The " Ace Attorney Series" merchandise has been very popular, including the "Ace Attorney Investigations Lottery" held on Capkuji Online. What do you think about fans purchasing merchandise? Hashimoto : As for merchandise, I have the impression that it sells out across the board for the past few years. The "Ace Attorney" series merchandise is basically sold out on the first day, and it's the same for the "Ace Attorney Investigations" series. This year is the 15th anniversary of the "Ace Attorney Investigations" series, and I've been talking to the store staff about "putting out a lot of Ace Attorney Investigations-related merchandise". There are things that we haven't been able to put out before because it's the 15th anniversary, so this year, the "Ace Attorney Investigations" series is especially hot. There are still some goods that haven't been released, so please look forward to them.

Since there hasn't been much AAI merchandise since around the time of the original release of AAI, I'm super looking forward to seeing what they'll put out. The Capkuji Online lottery they speak of is the one that had the giant tsum of Edgeworth, and I really hope they someday will make that available for general purchase.

--Many fans are hoping that purchasing merchandise will lead to new releases, but is that actually the case? Hashimoto: That's true. The fact that we have such passionate players' support is something that the entire company, including the management, can recognize, even more than just us developers, so it's very important. Of course, the sales of merchandise itself do not cover the development costs of new titles, but it does lead to discussions about how to develop the game in the future if it's that popular, so the fact that people are purchasing merchandise is a very important indicator.

AA merchandise does seem to be doing very well.

--Since this is a work with many overseas fans, we asked overseas users, "What would you like to tell the developers? What would you like them to hear?" Particularly impressive was the feedback from users living in independent language regions, who were pleased with the multilingual support for "Ace Attorney Investigations 1 & 2 Collection," following "Ace Attorney Apollo Justice Trilogy." In the midst of all this, the one thing that has been attracting attention is the future development of the "Ace Attorney Investigations Series." What are your thoughts on this? Hashimoto : We will not stop the "Ace Attorney Investigations Series" content. Of course, we want to develop it in various ways, including other media types. I think there will be something to tell you when it is time to make an announcement, but at the moment I can't say anything.

This part is what was translated in the interview I linked, but it misses a few key distinctions: One is the specification of "Ace Attorney Investigations" over "Ace Attorney". (Or "Gyakuten Kenji" vs "Gyakuten Saiban", if that makes things clearer.) So that makes me think that this isn't referring to an AA7 or Apollo Justice anime, but something specific to the AAI games -- whether that's an anime adaptation, maybe another stage play, or possibly in the future...... aai3.

Another note is what the translated interview calls "mixed media", which comes from "メディアミックス" (literally "media mix"). "Mixed media" in English, to my knowledge, generally refers to a single piece of art which is made up of different forms, which is not what they're talking about here. The Japanese term used here appears to mean more of a "multimedia franchise" - extending the series beyond just games, to other forms that will bring in a wider audience - which makes me think they have something in the works that's not a new game, but something in a different form related to AAI. So I'm curious about what they have planned, whether it would be an adaptation of the existing games or original work with the same characters like my favorite stage play Turnabout Teleportation.

And on the topic of stage plays...

--While there are many die-hard fans of the plays, unfortunately the performance of " Ace Attorney: Turnabout Parallel World " has been postponed. Will we ever get to see lawyer Miles Edgeworth, the perfect idol Franziska von Karma, and the number one host Larry Butz? Also, is there any possibility of a novelization? Iwamoto : (Whispering) Please say it. Please say it more (laughs). Hashimoto : Due to the schedules of the cast, it may be difficult to do it in exactly the same format, but I personally would like to see it. I'm always thinking about how I want to do it and make it happen.

Turnabout Parallel World was a stage play intended for 2020 that got postponed for obvious reasons... and then rescheduled for 2021, where it was postponed again for the same obvious reasons. It hasn't been officially cancelled and we haven't heard anything about it since then, and to my knowledge this is the first acknowledgement of it since then. It does sound like they want to include it in some way.

Novelizations of new AA stories aren't a new concept, but have typically been Japan-only and not gained much traction in the English-speaking fandom.

Finally, Hashimoto's comments to close out the interview:

Hashimoto: As I mentioned at the beginning, I thought it was important to have people play existing content on the current platform, and with the release of "Ace Attorney Investigations 1 & 2 Collection," we're finally ready. I want to deliver it to people who don't know about the "Ace Attorney Series" or haven't touched it, including people in countries with additional languages, as well as in Japan. As I mentioned earlier, we will not stop the "Ace Attorney Series" after that, and it will continue to the 25th and 30th anniversaries. We would like to continue preparing for new developments and expand the series.

The use of "Ace Attorney Series" here doesn't make a distinction between mainline or investigations (just "Gyakuten series"). So while there's definitely something in the works for AAI, there's probably something for mainline as well.

The 25th anniversary is coming up fairly soon in 2026, with the 30th anniversary in 2031. This is not nearly as far away as it feels like it should be. Judging by this interview and similar ones over the last year, it feels more and more likely that we will be getting new ace attorney content in one form or another in the next couple of years at least.

Of note to the Athena fans, the interview also contains this comment from Hashimoto, when talking about favorite characters in AAIC and the series overall:

Throughout the series, I've always liked Athena (Cykes). I've always thought to myself, "I wonder if there's something Athena can do as the main character?" (laughs).

It's not the most serious statement or necessarily a promise, but maybe the tiniest nugget of hope for Athena fans.

Anyways, those are the highlights of the interview from me - again please correct me if there's anything that needs correcting. I highly encourage people to check out the full interview since it has lots of interesting stuff, and hopefully there will be a properly translated version of it out someday!

#ace attorney #aai merch. please. please. please. please. please.

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someonelookingpraediti · 28 days ago

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Special Editions

All for the Game Rainbow Crate Edition

It's been the best part of a year since I last did an unboxing post. I have still been receiving subscription boxes, and I've even been taking photos of them, with the intention of catching up on my blog posts, but it's now been so long that the idea of sitting down and catching up on ten months of posts is just too daunting.

So I'm just going to forget all the ones I've missed, and start afresh.

And here it is - the big one. Rainbow Crate's hardback editions of the original "All for the Game" trilogy!

There's been a lot of complaints online about these - they were a lot of money, and people have been really disappointed. But I have to say, I am so, so impressed with these books!

The reason people are complaining is that there are some printing errors on the dust jackets. Basically, some of the information on the flaps is wrong, and the blurbs have been mixed around. But it's only the dust jackets that are wrong, and that is such an easy fix.

And Rainbow Crate handled it really well, in my opinion. Before I'd even received my books, I had an email from them with a form to order replacement dust jackets for free. An easy solution.

I can't help but compare this to the last set of messed-up special editions I received, which was The Raven Cycle by Owlcrate. They had the exact same issue - the dust jackets were misprinted. For them, it was the colour that was wrong - they'd been printed green instead of blue. But instead of reprinting the dust jackets, they refused to acknowledge their mistake, and brushed people off.

Looking back, I really do think that was what made me lose my passion for this blog, and consequentially, for reading in general. I've really struggled to find joy in it ever since, and have moved on to new things. I just spent so much time stewing over it, that I got into a really bad mindset.

But maybe these Rainbow Crate editions will save me!

Dust Jackets:

I have to say, when they first announced their jacket design, I wasn't that excited about it. But it has grown on me, and I really like it now, despite the fact that it looks more like Enhypen fanart than Foxes artwork! Rainbow Crate also changed the jacket font after they went on sale. I don't know why they made the change after the artwork had already been finalised, but it made such a huge difference! The artwork looks so much better with the new, bolder font.

The inside of the jackets have the original (terrible) self-published cover designs, but they're sharper and foiled and not off-centre, so actually they somehow look professional?! I'm impressed that they managed to save those designs! The originals were awful, but the Rainbow Crate versions look nice!

Hardcase:

I actually almost wish that I had ordered two copies, although I really couldn't have afforded it. Because the hardcase designs are so gorgeous, I want to be able to display them! I've always loved this character art by llstarcasterll, so I'm thrilled to have it on the covers!

And I didn't realised there would be ribbon bookmarks, but I've never been so impressed with such a small detail! I always think a ribbon bookmark really makes a special edition, but these ones go so much further. They're each printed with a different quote! When I saw that, honestly, I was blown away!

Endpapers:

The endpapers are designed by my absolute favourite AFTG artist, ouijacine, so I was going to love them, no matter what. There are six different endpapers, two per book, and they're all beautiful.

I don't know what the rules are about selling art a publisher or subscription box has commissioned, but I'm hoping she'll be able to sell these as prints on her website, because I would definitely love to have some of these on my wall.

Sprayed Edges:

The edges are fairly standard, with the fox paw, key, and chess piece design stencilled in white, but I really like that the background colour for each one isn't just solid, it matches the dust jacket design. I guess this isn't quite so good if you're planning to display them with the reverse jackets or as naked hardcases. But I think they're still nice anyway.

And bonus points because even the outbox was amazing?! They'd had a special orange AFTG shipping box made, with a fox print on top, and quotes from the books. My one criticism with this is that it was very snug to the books, so if there had been any damage to the outbox, it probably would have transferred through to the books. A bit more room for bubble wrap would have been good. But it was so special coming home and seeing this beautiful orange box waiting on my doorstep, and knowing exactly what was inside!

I haven't read the bonus chapters yet, but I believe there's one at the end of each book. And all three books had tip-in signatures, which makes them extra special.

Overall, this was a total win, in my eyes. I think they've done a really good job with these editions, and there isn't anything more I could have asked from them. The only issue is with the misprinted jackets, and I was really impressed with the way Rainbow Crate resolved it so quickly and easily.

#unboxing #sorry this is so long #aftg #all for the game #rainbow crate #the foxhole court #nora sakavic #special editions

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oonaluna-art · 1 month ago

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In summary: I am in graduate school and don’t have as much time for drawing/writing as I did previously.

Following some recent comments, I realized that some followers are interested in a more detailed update on the status of my creative projects. I wanted to offer an explanation to those curious, as I often like knowing what my favorite creators are working on.

---

What follows is a summary of my active projects and their status; they are ordered alphabetically rather than in order of importance:

City of Medusa: A semi-modern retelling of the story of Perseus and Medusa becoming friends, emphasizing that both were victims of circumstance. -- This project is canceled. The first draft was completed, but the story felt too personal and emotional to tell, focusing heavily on themes of depression and mental illness. I would have made myself depressed while fleshing it out as a comic.

Daughters of the Sea: Focusing primarily on the protagonist, Photine, this story is of several teenage protagonists (and one villain) who find magical rings that imbue them with the power of the Greek god Poseidon. The two groups fight over personal drama, and who will unite the rings to become Poseidon’s heir. -- This project is inactive. I would like the prose series to be a trilogy, but I am stuck on the second book's ending.

Juno’s Legacy: The story of a young woman who discovers that she’s the reincarnation of an ancient, immortal warlord. She travels the universe while trying to establish her role in a series of interplanetary nations that have gone on 1,000 years after her death. This world is filled with allies and enemies who have a variety of opinions of who she was and who she should be. -- This project is semi-active. I am several drafts into the first book, but I keep putting this project on the back burner.

Maite: The story is set in the Late Greek Bronze Age, during a period of armistice in the mythological Titanomachy War. A young woman partially raised by Athena discovers that her father was an Ancient Greek Titan. After running away from her home, she sets out on a quest to discover who her father is. -- This project is semi-active. Currently, the comic is in its first draft of the script. I am not 100% sure I will pursue this project, but I will make my decision after I wrap up Our New Hope.

Our New Hope: A comic-format fanfiction of the Skywalker twins discovering their identities in their teen years (12-14) thanks to Ahsoka Tano and Darth Vader entering their lives. -- This comic is on hiatus. I had planned to finish this before leaving for graduate school, but my laptop broke, so I wasn’t able to work on it anymore. I hope to finish this project after completing my one-year program.

Resurrection OCT: An Original-Character Tournament around the theme of winning a flower that can return one individual from the dead. This is my only active project on the list. I help judge and moderate this community. If you’d like to follow the story, check out the canon reading guide I made on TVTropes.

---

As a final announcement: I am aware my art is slowing down. I’ve decided to queue up some of my old works. If you don’t want to see these “re-runs” just blacklist the tag “OonaLuna reblog.” Once I’m done my graduate school program, I will resume my old hobby. You will still see a handful of new posts, as I haven’t totally given up drawing.

#update #update post #oona lore #graduate school.

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aftg-omegaverse · 6 months ago

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Q: What is this? A: A week of daily prompts to inspire the creation of more omegaverse works in the AFTG fandom.

Q: Who can participate? A: Anyone who wants to participate.

Q: Is sign-up required? A: Nope. You just create your works and either add them to the AO3 collection or post them here on Tumblr with the tag #aftgow2024 and/or @ this blog so I can reblog it. (tag changes every year to reflect that year)

Q: When is this happening? A: Always in September. Which week specifically is announced each year. This year (2024) it will run 1-7 of September.

Q: Why announce it now, if it's happening in September? A: Prompts will be chosen by anyone interested, so I wanted to have enough time for prompt submissions, prompt votes, prompt release, and then still leave enough time for people to create their works. You can regard the event week as a posting week.

Q: What types of fanworks can I make? A: Any! All types of fanwork are welcome: -> Fic - Art - Moodboard - Headcanon - Podfic - Handcrafts - Cosplay - Whatever you wanna do!

Q: Is NSFW allowed? A: Yes. Both SFW and NSFW works are allowed. Your imagination is the limit (just tag things appropriately).

Q: Is there anything not allowed? A: AI generated works, RPF, things you didn't make yourself.

Q: When can I start creating? A: As soon as the prompts are released. You can find this year's event schedule here.

Q: When can I post? Is late-posting allowed? A: You can post starting on the corresponding day of whatever prompt you based your creation on. If your work was based on multiple prompts, it's up to your discretion which day you choose. Just don't post before the event week! Late posting is allowed, the AO3 collection will be open until next year's event.

Q: Can my work include multiple prompts at once? Do I have to do all the prompts? A: Sure, one work can have multiple prompts. And no, you don't have to do them all. Do as many or as few as you like. This is a “for fun” event :)

Q: Can my prompt fill be in a new chapter of a preexisting fic/comic/whatever? A: Yes.

Q: What if I start writing a longer fic/creating a longer comic/artwork/etc and don't finish by the time the event is over? A: Doesn't matter. Keep posting your work at your leisure, no problem.

Q: Is this just about the Foxes? Which characters can I create about? A: Not just the Foxes, no. Create about any AFTG character at all. That includes the og trilogy, TSC, and the EC.

Q: Why make this event? A: For fun. I like AFTG, I like omegaverse, I want more AFTG omegaverse works, and maybe you do too!

Q: Can I double dip? A: Sure. As long as it’s ok with the runners of whatever event/s you’re double dipping with. On this side of things, you’re good.

Have another question? The ask box is open!

#aftgow2024 #aftg omegaverse week #aftg #all for the game #the sunshine court #tsc #omegaverse #aftg omegaverse

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chattercap · 2 months ago

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Current Project Roadmap (September 2024)

As we enter the last part of the year, I figure that it would be a good time to do a quick rundown of all the projects that I'm currently working on!

First, regarding my previous announcement about removing animations, after receiving some feedback I've decided to go ahead with removing them, to give me a bit more flexibility in terms of asset creation and enable me to release Android builds. However, for the games that I've already released, I'll be retaining versions with the animations (so - Karamu, Kanau, and MindMindMind), except for The Deepwater Witch - since I only released a demo, and it would be awkward if half of it was animated and half of it wasn't LOL

Project: The Perfect Woman Key words: Psychological horror, literally the only thing that I've made that isn't a romance, this project has been stuck at 99% for the past three weeks

Current progress: The game is basically complete, and I just need to finish debugging some of the saving and loading. I basically ended up using this project as a playground for testing some new systems, so it took longer than expected LOL I'm going to take some time to document all of my changes before I focus on polishing it up. Expecting to release on September 13th.

Project: Karamu Trilogy Key words: Romance, horror, emotionally needy ex-boyfriends, blackmail and possessive behavior is okay if you have shared trauma, yandere love interest (who unfortunately becomes a better person, I apologize)

Project details: One love interest (M), established protagonist (F).

Current progress: The script for the final part is 100% complete, at 65k words (over double the length of Karamu and Kanau combined! Haha!) It has been revised and passed along to the voice actors. I'm also collaborating with some very kind translators to release a French translation of Karamu and Kanau and a Russian translation of Karamu.

Project: The Deepwater Witch Key words: Romance, surreal, post-apocalyptic, twisted fairy tale, grumpy practically homeless man x mute sunshine mermaid, Ramil is my BEST pathetic man and I stand by this

Project details: One love interest (F), established protagonist (M).

Current progress: The script is 100% complete, and I have a few CGs left to do.

Project: Actala: The Hero's Shadow Key words: Romance, fantasy, mystery, childhood friend romance with a good dosage of additional Eldritch horror, basically every tag that I could add for this would be a massive spoiler what do I do

Project details: Five love interests (M), established protagonist (F).

Current progress: The updated demo is about 50% complete, and I've been working slowly on the remaining CGs and sprites.

🌹Code Name: You Just Want to Plant Flowers but Your Yandere Knight Traps You in a Tower, Toxic GF Edition❄️

Key words: Romance, twisted fairy tale, hero-to-villain love interest, friends/lovers-to-enemies arc, GF that can either princess carry you or rip your head off, tragedy, yandere love interest

Project details: One love interest (F), customizable protagonist.

Summary: You're the heir to the royal family, but you've been kidnapped and trapped in a tower by one of the kingdom's strongest knights, who used to be your best friend. Although the kingdom sends knights to rescue you, she cuts them all down without mercy. Why is she doing this? How can you escape? And the question is… do you want to?

Current progress: The project is fully outlined, and writing is in progress. The logo is complete!

🔪Code Name: I'm Trapped on an Island With My Husband, Who Is Probably Going to Divorce Me or Stab Me🦑

Key words: Romance, psychological horror, marriage drama, tragedy, yandere love interest

Project details: One love interest (M), customizable protagonist.

Summary: Following a horrible family tragedy, you've retreated to a remote island with your loving husband. However, things aren't going well for your marriage. After a horrible fight, you wake up to find that your husband is… different. Kinder. More understanding. At first, you're happy, but he's also acting a bit strangely. You start to wonder… is this the man that you married?

Current progress: The project is fully outlined, and writing is in progress. The logo has been commissioned.

🌶️Code Name: I Got Isekaied into a Smutty AU Where My Demon Boyfriend Blackmails Me into Marriage!🕸️

Key words: Romance, smut, historical, revenge, murder spouses, blood makes everything sexier apparently, yandere love interest

Project details: This is a NSFW spinoff of one of my previous projects, Karamu, featuring the same characters and similar themes in a historical Japanese setting, with more sex and more murder! One love interest (M), established protagonist (F).

Summary: Every three days, a body appears in the harbor, surrounded by red flowers and covered in golden threads, its heart torn out of its chest. People say that it's the work of a demon. After her best friend is beaten half to death by her husband, Nelli decides to do anything to save her - even if it means making a deal with that very same demon.

Current progress: The project is fully outlined, and writing is in progress. Once I decide on a title, I'll commission a logo!

Additional note: Since this is a NSFW project, I'm not comfortable with making it freely accessible. As a result, I'll be paywalling at least the NSFW portion (depending on how integral the NSFW is to the plot, I'll either release this as free with NSFW DLC or a free demo + paid full game).

I'll be focusing on finishing up The Perfect Woman during the first half of September! After that I plan to release demoes (hopefully) for both the knight gf game and the husband-traps-you-on-an-island game sometime in December.

Other than that, I would be curious if anyone has projects that they're looking forward to! 🤔 I've basically been working on projects as I like, but if there are any projects that you're interested in particular, let me know and I'll try to prioritize accordingly! 🙇 If not I'll try to divide my time so that I make decent progress on all of them, prioritizing my announced projects.

Thank you to everyone who's following along with my work 😊

Chattercap

#general #general-dev #general-news

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nicosraf · 14 days ago

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hi :) i just finished angels&man and i wanted to tell you that i absolutely loved it omg! i love your writing and i think you’re incredibly talented!! i also have two questions if it’s not a problem :)

1) what was lucifer and michael’s reaction to azazel’s baby? like to an angel having a baby? and also how did they feel after accidentally killing it? sorry for the heavy topic😭😭

2) this is just a curiosity but when will the third book of the trilogy be set? will it talk about what angels and demons do trough history and modern times? cause i read some tweets and got really confused (i don’t know if you’ve already said or can’t/don’t want to answer, i’m REALLY sorry if that’s the case, i don’t want to be rude or something)

sorry about any mistakes, english is not my first language :)

hello! thank you so much for reading!! i appreciate it a lot, and i'm really honored you think so :')

i have an exclusive patreon "extra" chapter where Michael and Lucifer talk after the events of a&m and about the baby. basically: theyre confused and horrified initially, but Lucifer gets them Back to Business quickly (and they don't tell anyone)

Ahahja so I notoriously like confusing people about what a book is actually about before releasing it. I feel like A&M brought some new folk (thank you for being here!) but in the lead-up to me announcing A&M officially, nobody knew it was a flood book! Everyone just knew it was a sequel to ABM. I like to surprise people! That said, I've tried to be more open this time around :)

Angels 3 mostly takes place in contemporary times. I can't really hide this since I have art of characters from Angels 3 with guns and I make a lot of jokes about the angels doing modern things (Lucifer at a casino), but yeah. I saw that someone thought Angels 3 takes place in a near-future apocalypse or post-apocalypse. I see how people got that impression but... not really.

Dont worry — there's a lot about angels/demons in human history too (and abt Jesus and etc), so I'm not just ignoring everything in between A&M and the present.

#angels 3 isnt about a post-apocalypse future but i think the fact that it looks like that to people is very funny #mine #ask

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mildlybizarrecorvid · 3 months ago

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Remember how I said I'd talk about the guy who looted the UFO in my Dialtone lore post?

Let's talk about Nathaniel Robot.

Born in the early 19th century to middle classed immigrants, Nathaniel initially led a fairly standard life. Then at the age of 8, they left him behind on a family trip and were so caught up in frontier shit they failed to notice and get him back for two years.

A born entrepreneur, Nathaniel made his first break into business running a way station and general store. He quickly changed his surname to Robot, a set of random letters he got by asking strangers for their favorite letter, from his birth name of Murderface, fearing the effects it may have on business.

Nathaniel made his initial fortune, however, with a different business. He made his journey west, as was fashionable at the time, and he noticed a few things rather obvious nowadays.

1: People are happy to work for you if you treat them well, especially if other places won't.

2: There were a lot of women and minorities who wanted to get into various fields, but were unable to because this was the 19th century.

With this knowledge, he set about founding a variety of businesses with the fundamental principle of hiring and treating people solely off of the quality of their work. As you can guess, he was also staunchly pro-union. Because this is my fun lil oc world and I'm god, this worked great for him.

After some years of success and significantly moving the cultural norms leftward, he moved to Alaska in hopes of high yield snow farming. While there, he discovered an alien space ship which had crashed some years prior. Like any right thinking American, he investigated alone without telling anyone. Some time later, he ran into the nearest town raving of devices 'beyond comprehension' and scheduled a demonstration. Once the day came, he showed off a computer he's fixed up, powered by a solar panel he'd pried off the ship.

After he threw money at someone smart to reverse engineer the technology, he'd essentially thrown technology ahead over a century, furthering his business. Despite this, he made many of the patents public with the logic that if someone added a brilliant extra, he could hire them, or give a grant. He was less a brilliant businessman than lucky, and the type who's willing to throw money at anything vaguely interesting.

While technology was able to extend Robot's life significantly, he eventually passed away in the mid 20th century. However, he went out with a bang, mere weeks after announcements of his company creating the first autonomous computer, dubbed a robot in his honor.

Robot's was also a life-long supporter of civil rights movements, known for bragging about his 'anonymous' donations to whichever groups looked most likely to make an effective difference. These actions by someone with an enormous influence (just look at Edison [fuck Edison], or Carnegie for people who could approximate his status) resulted in much of that world achieving the closest to full equality and equity you're going to get in the late 20th century. A known bisexual, Robot's suspected relationship with gay activist Steven Mandater would likely have resulted in scandal if not for the public perception of him being batshit insane anyway.

Examples of what caused that view were his claim that seagulls only don't talk for fear of paying taxes, his claim to have invented calculus before Newton, and the fact that before anyone told him of motion picture technology he withdrew into his rooms for a week before returning with a full script for what would to a person from our world be recognizable as the original Star Wars trilogy.

#nathaniel robot #batshit oc #oc #oc lore #oc history #seagulls #hes kind of like my bootleg cave johnson #though cave probably wasnt liberal #ocs

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girlwonder-writes · 4 months ago

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An excerpt of a fic I'm working on to be posted at a later date after I've written and posted the main trilogy of the Beyond the Legacy series. This is a flashback of Olivia with her old partner, Noah Bolton, who is referenced in both Though I Know My Heart Would Break & Chapter 7 of Running Just To Catch Herself

“But you don’t look nervous.” Noah Bolton, the man she’d been partnered with as Ground Support, seemed impressed at her poise and composure. Olivia was oozing with confidence, as she always was. She had three years of experience before being reassigned to Squad 1701. She was young and known to be fearless with her background as a stunt performer and a Ninja Warrior athlete. “It’s because I’m not. My father has always told me to trust in the process. So that’s what I’m doing.” “Young and feisty, I love that for me, even if you’re a brat.” “You’re not that much older than me, Bolton. You’re still young enough to get laid, that’s good enough for me,” Olivia teased her partner, who was 15 years her senior. “Speaking of which, how’s the wife?” “She’s still got three months to go before she pops,” Noah reported. “All right all right all right, let’s get moving. Wanna see what the new guy’s made of.” “He’s military bred, old man, I’m sure he’ll manage fine.” “Hey, watch who you’re calling old man!” Continuing with their usual playful banter, the Ground Support duo walked over to the helitanker they were using for high rise fire suppression. It was meant to be a straightforward call. “Listen, it’s gonna be so sick if we get rooftop access!” Olivia exclaimed excitedly as she and Noah approached. They walked up to the aircraft to find the twins, recent additions not only to the team but to the 217 in general, only having been around for about a year. They seemed to be deep in conversation with each other as the team’s new pilot was doing the last of the pre-flight checks. “Hey Fly Boy, we ready for takeoff?” Olivia playfully quipped, immediately headed for the shotgun position next to Tommy. “Hell yeah!” Tommy matched her energy. “I’ll be transporting you and Bolton. This is strictly a transport run for me plus fire suppression from the sky.” The twins wore matching playful pouts before Tanner announced with a grin, “It’s fine, we’ve already been on half a dozen runs with the New Guy.” Tilting her head towards the station, Tessa tugged on Tanner’s arm and the pair took off.

No Pressure Tags

@werewolf44 @lavenderleahy @raethethey @bloombow

@keyweegirlie @v88sy @kitweewoos @nine-one-wanton @xofemeraldstars

@babyspacegay @herrmannhalsteadproduction

Anyone who wants to participate can say that I tagged them, can't wait to see your WIPs!

#gw teasers #911 oc: olivia chambers #usergirlwonder #series: btl #tommy kinard #911 oc: tanner richardson #911 oc: tessa richardson #fandom: 911

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iloveschiaparelli · 6 months ago

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Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes: My Love Letter Part 1

Okay okay okay SO Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes longpost time just my whole opinion/analysis/love letter for the whole film beginning with my Wes Ball backstory so skip to the Ruin screencap if you want to skim past all that.

I haven't talked about it on tumblr yet but I'm actually like a huge fat fan of the Maze Runner cinematic series directed by Wes Ball. Really I'm just a fan of Wes Ball. It not only singlehandedly got me through my first year of high school but also became the reason I ended up entering the film industry. I've watched all 3 movies at least 4-5 times each. Probably like 20-30 for Scorch Trials at this point because it's my favorite. I can quote probably at least half of it from memory. I've watched all of the BTS content that was on the DVDs + the bloopers on youtube like i was obsessed ok.

2019 was like the second worst year of my life so imagine my distress in january 2019 when I found out about Wes Ball's next movie, Mouse Guard, got Super Hyped Up for the multimillion dollar mice-with-swords movie (I eventually read some of the comics btw it's insanely good) And then within the same week found out Disney pulled the plug on the project after acquiring 20th Century Fox. TWO weeks before production was scheduled to begin. I was livid. I'm still bitter about it. Wes Ball then released the demo reel for the film to the public which iirc also had temp music.

So anyway yeah that was awful but then! I think it was later in 2020 that it was announced that Wes Ball was going to be directing the 4th POTA movie. This kicked off me seeing the original 1968 film and then the trilogy and wow did doing so increase my excitement. In my opinion Rupert Wyatt/Matt Reeves' directing styles and Wes Ball's were/are very compatible. I also took the time to get caught up on as much of Wes Ball's old projects as I could get my hands on at the time, including his animated short Ruin (screencap below). Which is fantastic BTW and apparently was purchased by Fox for a feature film that was never made (???) I swear, filmmakers have their past works splattered all over the internet like body parts after a landmine explosion: Good luck finding everything.

Now, Finally Finally FINALLY!!!!!!!! Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is out. I meant to see it on the premier night but my boyfriend broke up with me 2 days before so I forgot. I saw it tonight instead! So now with the backstory out of the way I can finally talk about the actual movie.

First of all, the beginning of the film absolutely WOWed me!!!! It honestly feels like a callback to Ruin, the way that the buildings are overgrown and the post-apocalyptic setting is super evident and feels so delightfully reclaimed by nature. It's also really neat to see how far VFX has come since Ruin was released if you compare the opening shots of the movie with the wide shots in Ruin. Wes Ball himself is also a VFX artist, so it's really neat to see how that affects his work especially since Planet of the Apes is by nature a very vfx-heavy franchise. This movie absoutely popped off in that area but we'll get to that.

Secondly, I forgot how much I missed Ball's directing! Oh my goodness, the performances he gets out of the actors are always so authentic. I still have yet to see a performance by Dylan O'Brien that was as raw and believable as in the Maze Runner movies, and I'm like halfway through Teen Wolf already. In the action scenes especially, I love how characters in Ball's movies, you can really feel their pain. Since pain and physical discomfort aren't communicated directly through film, we often forget just how hard it is to get back up again after getting kicked down, but with Wes Ball you never forget. Ugh, when Noa was getting beat up on top of the bunker at the end of the movie, I caught myself catching my own breath when he coughed up blood. Like, yeowch!

Additionally, everything this man makes is just, like, a masterpiece? On a technical level at least. That's really the mark of a good director, whose job is not only to evoke a performance from the actors, but also to tie together the whole crew. And KOTPOTA really showed off how well the team worked together. Just the establishing shots alone in a lot of these scenes! Oh. My. Word. You can clearly see the fruits of labor of not only the concept artists, but also the VFX artists and production designers, and how they worked with the DP and actors to get the shot. Here are some examples of what I'm talking about:

There are more that I'm thinking of, but unfortunately without a digital release available yet there's a limit to the screencaps that I'm able to obtain. The shot where Noa is walking up the escalator following Raka and you see the plane in the background indicating that Raka lives in an airport is one of them. There's also one or two establishing shots in nature that just show off the setting. The opening shots, of course. And then the shot where it pans up and you see Eagle Village for the first time. There's also an aerial of Proximus Caesar's camp, but I'm unable to find that one as well. The main one I want to look at is the telescope.

Just, like, Hello???? It looks like an art piece. This screencap is a little closer in than I'd like, but in the full frame you can see the absolute mastery of composition that it is, you can totally imagine it as a painting. Which in my experiences usually means there's a painting behind it somewhere in the process, lol. Let's go concept artists!!! But then you see how the colors are just, perfectly balanced, the plant growth is realistic and accentuating the set, and so on and so forth. It was just absolutely breathtaking to see for the first time. I'm pretty sure I audibly gasped. I did a lot of stimming during this movie just to stay quiet and not start babbling about the film pipeline to my father in theater auditorium.

Even more magic happens when Noa steps onto the set, and starts messing with the telescope. Suddenly it's real, it's tangible, it's touchable. Transforming what was likely a matte painting at one point into a set that the actors can interact with, and then into a shot where almost everything is overlaid with VFX, and having it look so real like that is truly magic.

The ship also had me dumbstruck, but slightly less so because we saw a similar setting in The Maze Runner: The Death Cure in 2018. Although it was slightly different for sure. What had me going even more in this movie was how much the characters interacted with the ship, moving in and around it, and trading glances with one another from on the ground and up inside. In TMR:DTC, you really only see the decrepit ships in the background, and one is referenced as a plot point but the characters never actually physically interact with any of them. So it's much easier for our brains to categorize the ships as gimmicks to help us believe the scene.

It's when props like these are woven into the scene as tangible objects that our brains start to shut up about the CGI and really start to believe what's happening onscreen! and KOTPOTA did an amazing job at this. Please bear in mind like, I literally have zero specialization in VFX, it's not my field and although I draw, I've never done concept art for film. I honestly believe that I'm simply in an appropriate level of awe for what this film accomplished.

The other thing that amazed me was how stylized the setting was. The greenery was so green, the ocean felt like a painting, the ship was red, the telescope shot is very, very blue. Several of the shapes used in the ape's costume design are simplified. And yet, despite the stylization, it never feels cartoony or polygonal, it still feels completely grounded in reality, and I could really believe I'd see it in real life. I think this owes partly to the fact that we rarely inspect any of these simplified items at a close distance, aside from Raka's necklace which appears to be made of either bone or whittled wood. It also owes to absolute geniuses in color grading that kept the stylized colors realistic enough for our brains to believe. Overall I'd take the visual style of the film to be Impressionist. I love impressionism.

My main interest in filmmaking is writing/directing. However, most of my experience lies in costume design (Student films rarely need costume "design" so its usually coordination) and production design. As a result I spent a good deal of my time watching KOTPOTA zeroed in on the production design.

I love post-apocalyptic science-fiction/fantasy worlds like this partly precisely because of how much you can learn from the production design alone. When Mae enters Trevathan's room for the first time I swear I was eating it up. Every single prop in this movie was carefully thought out by the PD, which is why his room absolutely stood out from the rest of the setting that we had seen up to that point. It was distinctly "human-centric" as opposed to the rest of the movie. I remember seeing it in the theater earlier today, laying eyes first on the bed by the door, thinking that it must be something they set up for Mae, but then wondering why or how the apes would know or want to set up a human-style bed for Mae when we're so many generations removed from human-dominated society.

Next it was on many miscellaneous table objects, thinking to myself "That looks like how a human would treat a space. Apes are generally too big to decorate at that scale." and then my eyes roved on to the furniture, seeing a human-sized table, human-sized chair, human-sized junk everywhere! Slowly, by observing the room, I gained a stronger and stronger sense of "there is another human here," which upon observing the rows and rows of books became "a smart human like Mae, who unlike her can read" (Remember at this point we still believed that Mae and her mother were the only smart humans that Mae had known growing up, and that she had been pursuing the opportunity to meet other smart humans and join them).

It was only upon the instant of realizing that this was a smart human that Trevathan spoke and appeared on the stairs. It was absolutely perfect timing. THIS, guys, is exceptional production design. It was honestly my absolute favorite piece of production design in the entire film, especially because of how much it contrasted what we've become used to seeing in the series as humans have diminished in population and apes and nature have taken over the space instead.

That exact sense of change or "otherness", that noticeability of contrast upon seeing what is honestly a pretty "normal" human space if you look at it in the context of our existing society, is only present because of how well PD treats the rest of the movie. In order to make a completely normal space feel strange, you have to change literally every other space to something alien but consistent with itself. And KOTPOTA does just that. The job was begun in the original trilogy, with the decline of humanity depicted across decades, nature taking over the gas station and the dam and even the city. But this movie had the biggest challenge because of simply how many years had passed before the story even began. Society as we know it today is completely and totally obliviated in KOTPOTA's setting. In every set that the characters interacted with in any way, PD had to fabricate a space where humans had been but the virus, decades of decay and post-apocalyptic living, and ape encroachment had transformed it.

This also brings me into the subject of the rich culture we see emerging in the world of the apes through this movie. The original trilogy, especially the first and second film, was all about the ape's identity. In the first film Caesar wonders whether he is human or ape, and whether apes are pets or equals to humans. He eventually comes to the realization that humans are never going to look out for apes the way that apes will and decides to become that person. In the second film, Caesar and the other characters involved have to figure out what being an ape means. Does it mean strength is power? That humans are always an enemy to defeated? Or a similar species to live alongside? It's about establishing what the ape race's relationship is to the human race. The third film I didn't get to rewatch before seeing KOTPOTA, but iirc it was about whether humans and apes could ever coexist, which is a theme we see continued in this movie, albeit in a slightly different way. Either that or more likely it was about whether apes will repeat the same mistakes as humans.

Anyway, I digress. In the script we already see a rich culture emerging in hints, right from the start of the movie. It's in the hunt for the eagle eggs at the beginning with mentions of some kind of coming-of-age ceremony, followed by Noa reminding Anaya and Soona that they must "leave one egg always. It is the law." Already in the first five minutes we've established that this particular ape civilization not only has cultural traditions surrounding youth and coming-of-age, but also rituals and laws surrounding their relationship with and the conservation of nature. And through dialogue we extrapolate that these apes have bonded animals (eagles). It honestly felt like a crossover between Native American Indian hunting practices and How To Train Your Dragon, which is wild I know. (Also can we talk about how the eagles in this movie actually made eagle sounds???? And not falcon sounds! Finally we're breaking the bad habit of making up animal noises to sound cooler when the original already sounded super cool by itself.)

So in just a few minutes guys!! We already have so much. Then the trio heads back to the village and has their first encounter with the Echoes (Ekos? If anyone could get spelling on that for me that would be fantastic) but are too afraid (or law-bound) to get too close to or cross through the tunnel "into the valley below". So through these we establish that there is a taboo around not just humans but also around leaving the village. The clan has taken an isolationist approach wherein they not only forbid their young clan members from leaving but also withhold information about the outsiders from them until they've come of age. Guys the cultural system arising here is absolutely wild. Like sorry not sorry but I eat this stuff up. (Screenwriters-- this is prime example material of "show don't tell")

There's also all of the ape social communication rules that we've already gotten used to, mainly a variation of the palm-up/palm-down gesture as a means of showing respect (submission) and asking for permission/approval.

In this movie however the hands are mostly closed and the palms are down for the sub as well as the ape they're seeking approval from, as opposed to the trilogy in which the submitting ape always had their palm up. At first I chalked this up to cultural differences among clans since we learned that this clan is not the clan descended from Caesar's apes in the trilogy, but then Caesar's descendants were doing it this way too? So I don't really know what to make of it but I'm going to decide that it's just global cultural evolution (at least, as global as the real-world evolution of Old English into modern English).

Through the production design of the beginning sequence in Eagle Village, we see that the eagles catch fish and then the vast quantities of fish and the smokehouse indicate that fish caught by the eagles are the main source of food for the Eagle Clan. We also see feathers as a motif throughout, worn especially by the parents and the elders as a sign of social status (we know it's social status bc Sylva rips it off of one of the elders as an intimidation tactic and everyone audibly gasps, indicating it worked). That last bit is honestly more costume design, they popped off too but one thing at a time or I'm going to become incomprehensible. I will repeat myself. It is inevitable.

Then throughout the film we learn that not only do they adhere strictly to the "law", but that that law is set by the elders alone. We also learn that they primarily relate to their eagles by singing to them which!!! is just!!!! so!!! metal!!! I love it. The way it plays into the end scene with Proximus just AGHRGHJHRHGR GROWL BARK BARK FERAL NOISES>

ahem

Also we see them building nests at home for their eagles and they've figured out falconry tools for the aerie and everything on their own like??

Then in contrast we see what's left of Caesar's clan, it's descendants. Proximus Caesar, we learn later from Trevathan, has gone completely fangirl over the ancient roman empire and decided to emulate it because "he likes it" and it makes him "feel good" (yeah he's probably the most textbook tyrant I've ever seen in media), choosing to morph Caesar's teachings into his own new worldview rather than adhering to them properly.

So the culture of Caesar's clan is very heavily roman-influenced, often copying practices outright such as the insitution of slavery, a lot of the fashion choices and even the way that banners are put up around the camp and the way that Proximus dines at a low-set table filled with an overabundance of food. And he has a throne and crown, and there are roman numerals inscribed on both his and Sylva's necklaces. But we still see influences of Caesar's original society, most noticeably the persistence of the window symbol and the architecture of the dam. The architecture wouldn't be significant at all, instead being noted as a stylistic choice for the whole series, if it weren't for the fact that it's different from Eagle Clan's architecture.

If Eagle Village resembles those spaghetti bridges that engineers build for class, with thatched roofs, then the dam at Caesar Clan's camp is much more brutalist by comparison. Eagle Clan was very spindly and focused on height and lightness of building materials: many of the logs were thinner and longer, more spaced out, and sometimes rounded at the ends. By contrast, Caesar Clan's dam is built with stumpier logs, closer together, and spiked at the top. The dam is also shored up with soil and other materials. Which yeah, is typical of beaver dams but is also typical of the structures in the original Caesar's village in the trilogy.

Unfortunately, there's only one image currently available of Eagle Village and it's after it was burned down. But you can still see how it differs from Caesar's village, instead of being chaotic it's more organized, allowing for a more lightweight structure.

This (below) is the closest I could get to having a picture of the dam's architecture, but you can still tell how it's more similar to OG Caesar's architecture than it is to Eagle Clan's, even though it's using a completely different building material (scrap metal instead of hewn trees).

Eagle Clan's architecture is also a further effect of how their society revolves around making a life bond with eagles, which are flying creatures. So of course they would be inclined to taller structures, especially ones that are more lightweight and have structural patterns, imitating the way that birds are built (see above).

I'll continue in part 2 as a reblog because it's 1 am and I'm running out of steam but YALL I need you to understand: It's been 6 years since the last time I had a Wes Ball film to overanalyze and rave about. I have SO MUCH to say about this film.

#kingdom of the planet of the apes #filmmaking #concept art #fiction #film #pota reboot #planet of the apes #planet of the apes trilogy #pota trilogy #wes ball #worldbuilding #culture #science fiction #cinema #cinephile

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4uru · 7 months ago

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Announcement on Biblically Accurate Misfortunes:

[Look at me pretending I'm hot shit or smth.]

There are several things I am going to touch on. For those who are interested in my original story based on Arthurian legends with inspiration taken heavily from BBC Merlin.

I would also like to thank my mutuals @thevagabondexpress @chaosandtwo @quantummeep @tleeaves for contributing to the creation of this story. This project wouldn't have been possible without y'all. I learnt alot from all of you.

P.S. Some of the points might change in future (mainly the schedule and the time frames.)

This story was supposed to be just text, uploaded on wattpad and Ao3. But that has changed. I'm thinking of making it a comic series.

The story was supposed to be a stand alone novel. But BC I am a whore for my main character, it is now a trilogy.

My plan is to create some yt shorts animations/animatics for some fun content as I set up the comic. I am thinking of releasing it on webtoon canvas and or tapas. I considered Tumblr, but the thing is, on Tumblr I wasn't satisfied with the serialisation as a reader. And as a creator it seems like a hassle. I will continue to post content here. But my main shop won't be here.

I am glad to announce that the outline for the story is finished. I will start to produce it once I get my iPad.

This one is not set in stone but, I am thinking this story might take about 1/2 to 2 years to finish. I want to finish it before I need to sit for my boards exam in 2026. I think the story is short enough to be done in that time frame, if I start in June. The update schedule might be 2 chapters a month.

Taglist: @thevagabondexpress @chaosandtwo @quantummeep @tleeaves @faithfromanewperspective @lesbocrocker @caterpillarinacave @fangirlghost-19 @totheidiot @mylovelyme @cult-of-the-eye @a-dream-dirty-and-bruised

#Biblically Accurate Misfortunes #original story #PSA ???

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rayanneisreading · 2 years ago

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A Curse for True Love Second POV

Heads up, I think this is going to be long lol.

So we have confirmation now that Jacks is getting a few chapters in his POV.

I feel like these will be toward the end, since Stephanie only recently mentioned adding them, and she’s currently at the tail end of writing the first draft). STILL THEORISING ON WHAT KIND OF SCENES THEY COULD BE.

There’s still that main second POV we haven’t gotten confirmation on, though! I couldn’t find my screenshot of when Stephanie first announced it on her story, but I do know that EVERYONE’S first assumption was Apollo.

But shortly after, Stephanie posted another story saying that the second POV wasn’t as obvious as she thought it was, and that she hadn’t seen many people guessing it. I don’t know about you, but I think I saw EVERYBODY guessing Apollo.

SO HERE’S MY THEORY.

I really don’t think an Apollo POV makes sense narratively.

1. Apollo’s POV would give too much away — we didn’t know he had the power to take memories before he did it, and I think his POV would tell us too quickly who he really is (though I have a theory).

AND about his past with Jacks.

Screenshot taken from @jackstheprinceofhearts because we didn’t have this edition in the UK :’).

I think this is something that would be more fun to discover, narratively, through Eva’s perspective, as she unravels the mystery of what really happened to her.

2. Apollo is our villain.

He’s keeping Evangeline and Jacks apart in this book. What’s the fun in knowing everything the villain will be scheming? I feel like a villain needs to stay unpredictable to surprise us (much like Jacks in the Caraval trilogy).

3. Our no.1 POV will be from Evangeline’s perspective...but she doesn’t REMEMBER the events of the last two books.

Presumably, she’ll be stuck in the palace with Apollo. It wouldn’t make sense for Apollo to be the second POV here either, because he has no real idea about what happened too (I mean, he was cursed in various ways the entire time). AND he’s in exactly the same place as her, offering us no fresh angle on the story. HE will see everything Evangeline will see, and there’d be no NEED for his POV when she can share everything that goes on in the palace.

What we need is an outside perspective of what’s happening, someone who has known Evangeline for the last two books, AND wants her to get her memories back.

It’s not Jacks. And from the blurb, we know Apollo wants to kill Jacks and keep them apart so Eva doesn’t find out what she lost. Jacks will probably be kept away from Evangeline for at least the first 1/4 of the book.

So, to me, that means the second POV has to be someone who can show us Jacks’ side of things, without it being Jacks himself. Most importantly, at the end of Ballad, Jacks was READY to give up Evangeline.

So we need to see the process that leads to him fighting for her again instead.

Without a second POV OUTSIDE of the palace (i.e., not Apollo), we probably wouldn’t be able to see Jacks at all for a good chunk of the book, and I doubt Stephanie wants that.

So my guess is LaLa.

Mostly because she’s a good plot device. She’s on the opposite side to Apollo, she’s friends with Evangeline, will want her to get her memories back, AND (mostly importantly) she’s friends with Jacks.

Chaos seems like he’d take too much attention away from the main plot to me. We don’t really know much about him, so I think FINDING out things about him would distract too much from Jacks and Evangeline. He seems like the perfect candidate for his own series tbh. His role reminds me a lot of Jacks in Caraval (and he seems like the kind of LI Stephanie would love to write — she loves vampires, after all).

Jacks would also NOT go to Chaos if he was in trouble, especially as we know he’ll be harbouring a grudge after what Chaos did to Eva in the other timeline. And an even greater one, if the blood on the arch means Chaos attacked JACKS instead the second time.

But we know Jacks goes to LaLa when he’s in trouble.

This is when the after-effects of the vampire venom leave him nearly passing out in the street.

So he might ALSO go to her if he were injured by Chaos.

As well as this, LaLa already has a romance built into the plot, with her dragon shifter, Dane. Who would have been released from the arch at the end of Ballad.

So her side plot as a POV character could only be REUNITING with Dane. I don’t think that would take much away from Evangeline and Jacks, as this is a pre-established romance that needs no build up. As opposed to the attention Chaos would steal. In fact, if she turns human again, seeing as the only reason she became a Fate was because she wanted to stop loving Dane — that would only make her all the more motivated to see Jacks happy too. They were friends as humans, after all.

Don’t forget, Jacks also just gave up what he sees as his only chance at ‘happily ever after’ by using the stones to save Evangeline, instead of going back to Tella. He not only just watched her die, but he can’t even have her now he’s saved her, because he’s afraid HE’LL kill her. He will need someone to motivate him again.

I think LaLa will be the one to realise something is wrong with Evangeline and that she’s in danger, spurring Jacks to action.

Maybe LaLa will want to thank Evangeline for opening the arch and giving her back Dane. But will realise her friend doesn’t remember her at all.

This way, we’re not starting from ground 0 again, with only Evangeline’s POV, and the relationship development between her and Jacks completely erased. If we only had Evangeline and Apollo’s POV, not knowing ANY of the prior plot, the whole book could’ve turned into a stream of “who’s this”, “wait, what happened?”.

If we have LaLa, we can see Jacks suffer. We can see how he will REALLY react to learning she’s forgotten him. We can see how cocky he is to Evangeline’s face (his whole “you can’t stay away from me” shtick), with it then skipping to LaLa’s POV where Jacks is crying into his apple cores. Y’know. That sounds a lot more fun to me than an Apollo POV.

AND just because it’s dual POV doesn’t mean they’ll be equally weighted dual POVs. The fact Jacks also has a few chapters just reinforces this for me. I think Evangeline will take precedent, and the second POV could be more of a plot device to build up to an EvaJacks reunion, showing us the situation from both sides.

AND we know there will be more scenes in the Hollow.

So maybe Evangeline will realise there’s something wrong with Apollo and run away with Jacks to find a solution?? Maybe I should write my theories for the actual plot in another post because this is getting LONG, BUT —

I don’t think the second POV is Apollo!

#evajacks #evangeline fox #jacks #jacks x evangeline #tbona #ouabh #prince of hearts #stephanie garber #tbona spoilers #the ballad of never after #once upon a broken heart #a curse for true love #acftl theories #acftl #second pov #apollo #LaLa #chaos #if it really is Apollo’s pov after all this I might jump off a cliff

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