#also being someone who lives and has grown up in a particular location IS a form of cultural identity

[wardensantoineandevka]

I keep thinking and laughing about this person who was really mad that I said that the insistence on "destroy the Veil" is a desire for a specific power fantasy and they cheered a frankly tepid rebuttal to my post with "OP having 'New Yorker' in bio like that's an ethnic identity and not a city is killing me, Americans need to be sedated", which is just such an incredibly funny attempt at a dig.

First, it isn't at all abnormal for people who live in major cities, regions, or countries to list them in their bio using the demonym form, especially when they lived there all their life. I've seen all sorts of demonyms that aren't denoting ethnic identity, or national for that matter, but a place association. Second, and even funnier, the precise next thing in my bio is "Pinay", an ethnic identity.

Like, this is a legitimately funny thing to say and think you're actually accomplishing anything clever or making a deep point. I keep thinking about it because it's just so incredibly misguided and hilarious. Like, truly thought something was being said there.

also, especially because it has no relation to any discussion about, like, Solas, the collapse of the Veil, or even narrative construction across the series

[melodic-haze]

☆ — SONG TITLE: I know what you tell your friends (it's casual)

☆ — PAIRING: mermaid!Kokomi x artist!Reader

☆ — TYPE: SFW, bittersweet angst? I honest to god don't know

☆ — CONTENT WARNINGS: POTENTIALLY OOC for the purpose of the character......mostly, light depictions of blood, drowning

☆ — NOTES: HI ALL I DIED BUT WHO'S SHOCKED LMAO 😜😜 this is for @edgeray's Halloween event, though it's a bit late bc I was ill at the last week of it and I'm lazy😭 GO CHECK OUT EVERYONE ELSE'S STUFF HOLY HELL. Also, my interp of a mermaid is moreso leaning towards what people nowadays THINK sirens are. I js couldn't bear to USE 'siren' bc of how they're acc supposed to be like. Winged creatures, not fish people

☆ — WORD COUNT: 2,801 words

It was often said that one must not go into the beach all alone.

Naturally, people would often tell you of sensible reasons such as possibly having your fragile items like your phone being dropped into the sand or, god forbid, the water or losing said belongings if you were to ever leave them somehow.

However, the most notably repetitive reasoning came out to be the possibility of being missing.. or ‘taken by the sea’, as everyone else would say.

It was a lot easier to just say that someone was lost or missing, but there was a certain reason why most have opted to disregard practicality for the sake of glamorisation—where you live, there has been a concerning surplus of missing persons cases with their last-seen location all being the beach, the seaside, the shore, all the same thing. And no matter how much the police had tried to investigate it (and it’s crazy that they actually did try, though that might be due to government concern), they found nothing conclusive about how the victims disappeared.

Perhaps it was because of the tides washing any sort of evidence away, though such an assumption led to the cases all collectively being dismissed as a suicide because.. well, really, they had to put some sort of conclusion to the case when they couldn’t really find any other possible outcomes without it sounding like more of a conspiracy than it already was.

(Fat lot that did anyway, because you can’t even put nightwatch on post there without them getting taken too.)

..So to a normal person, being at the beach all alone with nothing but a phone and a sketchbook in hand in the middle of the night would equate to one of the dumbest things you can do out here.

It wasn’t like you didn’t care about what would happen to you, or that you were experiencing that particular phase where you went against what was advised of you just because you wanted to be cool or popular or something (you weren’t a child, you were a grown adult with a life, for god’s sake), but oftentimes people like you all had one common flaw: artists were all dedicated to their craft, suffocatingly so.

And you were no exception, even if it had been too long since you drew with any sort of creative inspiration.

You remember when you walked back from god knows where and witnessing the way the moonlight hit the water, its gentle glow reflecting on the tide like fluid glass.

You remember that sweet dulcet tone stopping you in your tracks in the midst of your misery once your headphones lost power, the singing voice holding a certain alluring cadence that rooted you to the spot.

You remember the sight of dark crimson on shimmering claws and scales of blue, pink and purple, the palette much too distinct to be considered ‘natural’.

You remember the brief contact of eyes between your own and a set of glowing orbs that were no less striking than the tail that flapped behind the entity once it turned to have its body be entirely consumed by the ocean’s depths.

As an artist, you knew you had to immortalise the vision seared into your brain. And so, the day after that fateful encounter and consecutive days after that, you visited the beach at the exact time you remembered from before, picked up a pencil and opened your sketchbook to sketch like a madman possessed.

But of course as time passed, so did the freshness of your memory and your recollection of the details that had you entranced in the moment. The background itself? You had no problem. The issue was the oceanic figure; what details were you missing? What was its scale pattern? Was the red meant to mesh with the purple? What was it doing there?

Eventually you convinced yourself that maybe you were seeing things, and the messy scribbles of faint recollections were erased and drawn over with lines that connected the ever-flowing sea. Even when artists were seen as delusional, prone to confuse one thing with another—perhaps that thing was just a trick of the light, or maybe you’re starting to go insane, whichever tickled your fancy—you knew where to stop and come back to reality.

..Still doesn’t mean you had to keep coming back to the spot at the same time over and over again but alas, you couldn’t help it when you woke up at the dead of night just for your legs to lead you to the exact same spot you remember being at that very night.

Despite the constant warnings against the act of going to the beach all by yourself, nothing had happened to you or interrupted your creative flow despite being completely alone so the nights you spent on that exact spot were often peaceful, if a bit devoid of life. That was fine for you though, it meant less distractions from finally finishing this piece and moving on with your--

(You feel warm breath against your skin before you hear--)

“What are you doing?”

You startle, the pencil losing its gentle stability and creating an atrocious line across the page, and for a moment the irritation actually takes over any form of self-preservation you have.

So you start to complain, “I was drawing until you scared me—” then you turn to look at her, "—and made me ruin my own--"

...

Shimmering blue.

"..work."

Your speech fell flat the minute your gaze clocked onto those glaringly familiar set of eyes that pulled you in as if it were the ocean's depths itself. Its highlights were some sort of pearly pink, a soft contrast to the deep dark unknown.

And no pupils.

Maybe a trick of the light again, maybe you're hallucinating. Though you guessed even some of the best painters were kinda crazy back then.

"I apologise for disturbing you but, ah.. I don't suppose you can stop staring now?" And the mystery woman giggles lightly, her hand—a normal human hand, although her nails were manicured sharp and painted a glittering blue—moving to hover over her mouth as if to cover it politely, "I don't think I have anything of interest on my person to give you for.. emotional compensation?"

You blink, and you are drawn back to reality, "Physical, actually. You ruined my work."

"Even worse."

"You don't seem all that apologetic."

"But I am... Can't you tell?"

"It's dark, and our only light source right now are some busted tungsen street lamps." You sighed, putting your sketchbook and pencil down beside you, "Whatever, did you need something? No one's supposed to be out at the beach this late."

"Why not?"

"..Are you a tourist? Actually, no, if you were a tourist, you'd have to be real ignorant to not know... Though I've never actually seen you before."

You weren't sure if you lied just now or not. In fact, you're pretty sure you told the truth, but...

You see her stare at you, and you're unsure of what to do with the quiet.. until she shrugs, "I've been curious of what you were doing all alone at night. No one else seems to come outside."

"Don't you think that's any sort of indication to maybe mind your own business?"

"Forgive my curiosity."

You almost do, and you know not of why.

(Her gentle voice, a soothing lullaby, putting your safety to sleep.)

Instead, you relent, "People have gone missing after giving this place a visit all alone in the dead of night. Nobody really wants to die, so mornings and afternoons are when the people crowd here."

And you tear your gaze away from the stranger to look at the ever-expanding sea, "Come midnight, you won't see a single soul standing on the sand."

"But you're here," she says. "Why?"

"If I tell you, you'll think I'm crazy."

"I don't think I will."

"I doubt that—I don't even know your name."

"Kokomi."

You look back at her, brows raised slightly, "What?"

"My name is Kokomi. Yours?"

...

You tell her your name and state your purpose for coming here every single night. And from then on, the two of you talk until the sun comes up, sketchbook forgotten.

She asks you if you're going to come back now that your drawing's been ruined. You tell her that you don't know, considering your current lack of purpose, but then she says that she'll sit with you as you recreate your ruined art as if that's going to make up for the ruined days—weeks, even—of meticulously-sketched pencil art.

..For some reason, you were compelled to agree.

(Maybe it was the voice, maybe it was the eyes.)

(Maybe it was the feeling of unsettling familiarity that drew you in, or that strange feeling of fight-or-flight.)

And so you continue to go down to the beach at night despite everyone's constant warnings, putting pencil to a new page in your sketchbook after having taken out and thrown away your previous attempt. Though even then, while there are still all sorts of warnings, people have noticed that there have been less and less people going missing from the shore. Can't help but think 'no wonder', considering how you haven't been killed or kidnapped after continuously coming here for so long.

Either way, nothing much has changed in your schedule.. save for a brand new companion appearing at night, her pink hair flowing behind you before going to sit beside you and observe.

Sometimes the two of you sit in comfortable silence, other times one of you talks of whatever comes to mind and it turns into some sort of winding discussion that ends with your sketchbook completely forgotten until you need to leave.

"..If you have something to say, you may as well spit it out."

"Hm?"

"I can feel your eyes burning holes into my skull. You may as well."

"Ah, I hadn't realised that I was staring so hard!" You feel her body draw back from originally leaning onto you and you suppress the urge to pull her back next to you as she continues, "I'm just wondering... Was no one particularly interested in coming outside with you?"

You put your pencil down on the page and look at her with a raised brow, "Are you calling me lonely?"

"No? ..Well, perhaps a little, I admit. I don't ever see you outside with anyone else."

"Oh, so you've been watching me. A bit creepy, no?"

She shook her head, "The observation merely struck me just now. I haven't seen you with anyone else at night, apart from me."

Instead of giving the curious girl an answer, you look down on the pencilled page. There wasn't much that you could really say beyond the fact that everyone else was asleep at this time.. and...

"I like being alone at the end of the day."

"Mmm. Me too."

"..That so."

No one points out the fact that neither of you are alone right now.

Nothing else is said, and you continue on sketching.

Oftentimes, that's what usually happens.

And it's.. nice, being able to just sit there with soothing company—she isn't overwhelming, nor is she insufferably awkward or borderline unbearable. She was like a smooth current, her voice akin to the sound of gentle water and her touch against your skin as she leaned into you cool and refreshing.

Not like you'd admit it.

(You wouldn't because saying that to a stranger's face is, quite frankly, really lame.. though you couldn't help but touch upon the water's detailing a lot more delicately in your sketches.)

(Or think about drawing her as your muse under the moonlight instead.)

One certain topic she was particularly interested in was the iridescent visage you witnessed all those nights ago—anyone would be, of course, in an 'entertaining-the-schizo' sort of way, not.. not her way. Not with genuine curiosity laced with something much more hidden, inquisitive.

"What would you do if that thing came back?"

"Like, to do what?"

"Who knows." Kokomi wore a soft, jesting smile, "Eat you, perhaps?"

"Would you be there with me?"

"Let's start with a 'no'."

"Probably sit there."

"Really?"

As you muse on the question, you take the cap off your water bottle, "May as well die finishing this rather than live with it gnawing on my mind."

"You have no self-preservation, do you?"

"Would it be edgy if I said it was overrated?"

"Perhaps," she shrugged, letting her hair shift and cascade from her shoulders and her arms down to her back. "What would you do if I was there, then?"

You took a sip, "..Say thank you, maybe."

"Oh? Why?"

"For keeping me company? I guess? Dunno, I just feel like I should thank you if I died on this beach with you."

You turn to look at her, and before you could say anything more, you notice the look on her face; it's indecipherable, blank, as if she were sizing you up and profiling you within her mind palace.. but what for?

Her eyes are unsettling—a touch of hunger glimmers in the ocean depths—as they stare at you (and has she ever even blinked once?) but then the moment you blink, her light expression is back as if it was never taken off.

"Let's hope that neither of us die, haha."

"Right..."

You also can't help but notice the way that you are reminded of said visage whenever you look at her, especially when she's by the water.

"Join me?"

"Why should I?"

"Perhaps you need a change of pace," she says as she takes off her lavender jacket and leaves her slippers off the sand. "I get the feeling, but you've been concentrating on your work for a while now."

"I don't swim."

"Don't? Or can't? I can teach you."

"Why?"

"Perhaps being in the water may help you gain a bit more perspective with your art."

"But I only need one perspective. Plus the water would be cold."

Kokomi stares at you with a slightly tilted head, and you can't help but notice her unusual eyes softly glowing but you do nothing but dismiss it, and then ends up shrugging, "Alright. I won't force you, of course. Just..."

She turns her head, "You never know, maybe getting into the water will turn out to be your final step."

..And as she walks off into the ocean, you don't even notice yourself taking off your shoes and chasing her after a beat until--

"Wait!"

She turns around, an eyebrow raised and a gentle half smile on her lips, "Yes?"

You stop just short of her, "Fine, I'll.. I'll go. With you. But you're not letting me go. I know how to swim but it's dark. So."

"Of course not," she reassures you, "I sought you out, after all."

"Huh?"

You don't get a chance to react, not when she takes your hand in hers and leads you to the water.

You don't get a chance to react, not when the both of you submerge yourselves and you are thrown back to that very night at the sight of clustered scales on pale skin.

..Or maybe you can't react at all, not when water starts clogging up your lungs and your consciousness sung to sleep.

...

You woke up coughing your lungs out, sore and very much still full of saltwater.

You woke up alone on the shore, probably for the first time since Kokomi had decided to come up and startle you enough to ruin your focus.

And you got up and ran.

You don't tell anyone, because the only person who would have ever believed you turned out to be someone you wish you hallucinated.

(Never felt so lonely like this in so long, like you don't have a purpose--)

You don't visit the beach for a while. And when you do, you wish you hadn't.

Not when you see a crumpled piece of paper—your scrapped mistake—on the spot the both of you had always occupied at night.

Not when you see the scribbled-out 'thank you' on the back of the page.

Not when you spot that same visage at night all over again, yet with the tainted memory of your near-death and of the brief company that you kept.

And certainly not when she looked at you with those shimmering blue eyes, her claws clear of any sort of metallic red, before she looked away and disappeared into the ocean depths.

(Though you end up finishing what could have been your magnum opus forged from looking at death in the eye all those many nights, you voluntarily put a line across the page and close your sketchbook.)

(You don't end up opening it anymore, not when you feel disjointed.)

(Incomplete.)

[sneakystorms]

Thoughts about the Banshees of Inisherin in no particular order because I'm insane and I spent at least a third of the screening with tears streaming down my face

Padraic starting out the film happy and one by one realising how few things he was relying on to stay that way, just the dreadful hit after hit as he loses his friend, his sister, his donkey and even the village idiot he couldn't get to leave him alone

Something which reminds me of the most painful moments of catcher in the rye or lord of the rings - having a protagonist who does not suffer stoically, does not repress his emotions until a breaking point, but laments and begs for help and reaches out again and again and is broken by the pain inflicted upon him and is not strong enough to survive through it

The most horrible sight to behold in our culture - a grown man crying

In general that whole scene. Padraic standing up to the shithole cop, getting assaulted, Colm wordlessly helping him up but refusing to comfort him once he broke down or stay with him past the crossing

Jenny being buried in padraic's blanket

The hooked stick.

The second confession scene containing both "kind of weird, but strictly speaking not a sin" and "you got me there"

"and what about the despair?" "It's back a bit" "but you're not going to do anything about it, are you?" "No, I'm not"

I wish I knew enough about Irish or English history to say something more about the civil war's significance to the story but I can at least say the faraway conflict gives an eerily absurd tone to Padraic and Colm's feud, like they are simultaneously squabbling over nothing and waging some great existential battle

Speaking of which I was absolutely astounded to see a genuine discussion about the meaning of life in like the first ten minutes of this film. Padraic represents my own belief that a life spent enjoying yourself and making others happy is well lived and valuable, while Colm is obsessed with being remembered and believes his life will only have been worthwhile if he does something remarkable, if he leaves something behind. I kind of wanted Padraic to ask him what it matters to him how someone will feel about him long after he's dead in the ground, but regardless this was a genuinely compelling and shockingly well laid out philosophical conflict

In general I'm stunned by how seamlessly and plainly the themes are interwoven with the story. It's hard to put into words exactly but it's some damn good scriptwriting

I called this movie a masterpiece of small scale tragedy on letterboxd and I fully stand by this. This microscopic in the grand scale of things drama - made to look even smaller by the fact that it's two grown men having it - is simultaneously shown very clearly to encompass padraic's entire world. The tiny island setting is used wonderfully to emphasise this

Speaking of which, I have a massive soft spot for stories where the location is a character unto itself, or in any case has a huge role to play. This is a perfect example of a story like that

And speaking of the tragedy genre, this is maybe the best example I have ever seen of comedy and tragedy/drama woven together completely seamlessly? I can't think of a single moment where the tone shift felt jarring or the mood felt inappropriate. One of the moments I remember most clearly as integrating humour with drama is when Siobhan sees the first finger and padraic's comically stunned reaction combines with her comically realistic one to create a genuine air of tragedy somehow. It's also a good example of the similarly seamless weaving together of naturalistic and stylised storytelling

Not only the horror of loving someone who hates you, but of having that person leverage your love for them in order to keep you away

In general, most heartbreaking film I think I've literally ever watched. 10/10 masterpiece probably will not watch again all the way through because it's too painful

[stxleslyds]

Robin Jason, a friend and ally of the Titans.

PART 2.

Hi! Welcome to Part 2 of this post, as I said in the last one, I will be talking about Robin Jason’s moments and not reviewing the issues from a story point of view but I think I will have to give a little more context in this one because honestly I am a little lost with this particular storyline, there is too much going on and Jason isn't part of many pages so yeah, I hope this post isn't too boring or bad though.

I will link part 1 Here!

Let’s begin!

·         NTT (1884) #26-28

In my last post I talked about how Jason would be called by Donna to help the Titans save Dick and Raven from Brother Blood’s people. We start #26 with Mother Mayhem giving a public speech on television. What you have to get from this is that this cult is using the image of the two Titans/Heroes (Nightwing and Raven) that they captured as propaganda for their intentions, their intentions being resurrecting Brother Blood and making the world believe that they are good people. Obviously, Dick and Raven are not there because they are supportive of their cause, they were both brainwashed.

In this issue the Titans team that had fallen apart in issue #19 is back, so we find Donna, Beast boy, Cyborg, Joey and Wally together once more and they are trying to figure out what to do because they have two problems, on one hand Beast Boy’s father is killing people and captured Garth and on the other a whole ass cult is doing cult-y shit and captured Dick and Raven. In the end they choose to go save Dick and Raven first but they do it because Beast Boy says this “I…don’t know. I can’t say what we should do. We need Dick here…he’s a tactician. We need him as out leader”. Never in my life would I have thought that I would agree with beast boy but yeah…hard agree.

Donna understands that even though the team is (mostly) back on its feet they still need more firepower and that’s why she calls Jason. While it was kinda rude of Cyborg to say that Jason is not all that (in terms of firepower) any kind of tension is quicky gone because Starfire comes back (talk about firepower).

We have various moments of Beast Boy being a perv towards Kory (thanks a lot Marv) but that’s not important, what’s important is that now the Titans have to tell Kory that Dick has been captured and they are on their way to save him.

They all leave to Zandia (where Brother Blood’s Church is located) and a fight ensues as soon as they arrive, they fight but their goal is to get to the Church as fast as possible. Jason doesn’t say anything in these panels but he is fighting alongside the others. When things get a bit more complicated Jason starts to feel that maybe he isn’t that capable of handling himself but he doesn’t have to do anything by himself because this time he has a team that can back him up. Kory gives him a lift as soon as Jason is surrounded, he is of course thankful and a little bit pervy (thanks a lot Marv).

Kory is shot just after she gets him out of trouble and Jason as the adorable kid that he is becomes worried for her well-being. After Beast Boy is also injured in the fight the Titans decide to leave back to camp. Thankfully both Kory and BB are okay but they are all still worried about how they will get to the Church. We see here once more Donna being a bit overwhelmed with leading the Titans and beating herself up over what happened in Switzerland (#20 and #21) but Jason reassures her instantly that she did a good job and she doesn’t need to be so hard on herself.

This interaction here is particularly nice because Jason reassures Donna without her asking for it. In my last post Donna looked for reassurance in Robin several times but she didn’t do it because she actually wanted Jason to give his thoughts, she did it because she was hoping Jason would act like Dick and eventually take over the team’s leadership. Here that isn’t the case, Jason just tells her what he thinks.

After Donna talks about her doubts Kory says that she is impatient and worried about Dick but also expresses being unsure because the last time that she saw Dick they kinda left things off on “bad terms”. I say this because just like it happened with Jason and Roy, Jason and Kory also have differences, she is a grown and experienced woman that is going through adult problems and Jason is a kid that is just happy that he was called to join them on another adventure.

If we back a few panels to when Jason said that Kory “was a sight for sore eyes” Kory responds saying “first Changeling, now you. It’s got to be puberty”, she is obviously not pleased about Jason making that comment about her and it’s also made clear that he is just a teenager.

This is where I rant about how different what we see here is from what we get later in New 52. Just like Roy (in New 52) Kory is also seemingly very close or the same age as Jason and she is the one that is written as wanting to take Jason to bed or, at the very least, attracted to him. Kory being an adult in comparison with Jason is taken away from her and she is just transformed into something to fit Jason’s new beginning as the Red Hood. Lobdell didn’t do Kory any favours, he annihilated her character and made her out to be just eye candy that can come off as stupid and way too reckless just to prop Jason up, believe it or not Jason sometimes was the voice of reason to both Roy and Kory’s antics.

It’s even worse when you consider the fact that in this issue Kory is feeling better and more confident because she finally understands what she wants and has accepted Earth as her real home, all of that is gone in New 52, Kory is lost, insecure, she even depends on Jason a bit too much at the start (because she “didn’t remember” her time on earth or Dick) and goes back to killing. All in all, Lobdell’s version of Kory was very damaging and a disservice to her past history.

Back to the issue, as Donna and the others are going to start coming up with a plan (with only two days until resurrection day) we move scenes and find ourselves in a meeting where people are complaining about the Titans messing up their plans, but that is not what matters, apparently the people in that meeting wanted to “summon the Brotherhood” and here is where we are introduced to the person who will make the Titans’ lives a little more complicated…Twister. She is one of the people that were victims to Brother Blood’s brainwashing and experiments.

In the next page we see the Titans resting but Cyborg is awake so thanks to that he hears someone coming straight to them, here Kory takes the lead and she says once more that she will not kill whoever that is, that she can’t and won’t do that anymore…I wonder if Lobdell ever read these issues, maybe not.

The attacker was Twister and in seconds she twists the Titans’ reality and leaves them all incapacitated. She then goes to look for and recruit the Brotherhood of Evil. While she did that though the Titans slowly made their way back to the city and are now getting ready to attack. Donnas plans as we soon find out don’t include Jason as one of their front line fighters, in fact he has to be left behind as back up.

Jason is not very happy about this; he is the boy wonder! But because it’s the plan and the Titans are experienced, he decided to stay put (at least for now). Its funny to me that even Beast Boy calls Jason a kid. What is sad from these panels is obviously the last thing that Jason says “I can’t wait until I am sixteen!”. I mean, this issue came out exactly two years before Jason’s death, there was no way they could have seen that coming but yeah, it’s just sad. Jason really was in a better and happier place around this time, little did he know everything would turn upside down after a while.  

The rest of the Titans fight, Donna starts to feel like she is finally in control and that she is doing a great job at keeping the Titans together, Kory is having her inner turmoil about Dick but she is doing her job and when she decides to go help Cyborg and Joey they come across the Brotherhood of Evil. This is where #26 ends.

Issue #27 starts with a very difficult fight for Kory, Cyborg and Joey, it ends with Kory injured, Joey captured and with Cyborg thrown off a window. The only one of them that Donna, Beast Boy and Jason are able to save is Kory.

The Titans that re left have to retreat and find a place to recover, Jason is very silent all the time but Donna and Kory are the ones that are having interesting talks, they have to find out where the Brotherhood has Joey and Cyborg and their time to save Dick and Raven is running out but if they don’t save the others they might die. It’s a complicated situation and they are both impatient but Donna tells Kory this “Dick would be the first to tell you to plan first, attack later”, I bring this up because nowadays its very common for fanon and current writers to think of Dick as someone that doesn’t plan, that doesn’t think before jumping. Even Beast boy called him a tactician, I know this is a Jason post but its also a post about how characterizations are also kinda destroyed. Dick has suffered a lot from mischaracterization so its nice to go back to these stories and see that what we think Dick should be now isn’t something that we once imagined but something that mas modified or taken away from him either by fanon or current writers.

After the Titans decide to wait for the storm to pass to go looking for Joey and Cyborg, we actually see that Cyborg is in the city looking for shelter, he is injured and as he falls unconscious we meet a couple that decides to save him. Back to the Titans once more we have Jason say that the storm that is forming look “like something out of Ghostbusters” its then that the Brotherhood makes itself known, they are taunting them and they have roped Joey to the top of the capitol building and they are asking the Titans to surrender or Joey dies.

Its here where Donna takes full control of the Titans and even though she and Kory have different ideas of what to do she says that she is the leader now and what she says gets done. Donna will be in charge of saving Joey while the others will make their way towards the Brother Blood Church to help Dick and Raven.

Before they go their separate ways Jason says this about Donna “Wow! I wouldn’t wanna be in her shoes for all the garbage pail kid stickers in the world.” I am going to be honest, I had to look those stickers up and all I have to say is what the hell. But I am not here to talk about stickers I am here to talk about how funny its that Jason is being so uninterested about leading a team. Now, don’t get me wrong, Jason has the ability to lead, yes, but he is better at leading himself or an operation, we have all read UtRH, we know how well the Red Hood can handle himself and his plans but a team of heroes? Controversial opinion but I think that Jason should have never been given a team and I am talking about Kory and Roy as well as Artemis and Bizarro. Was Rebirth better than New 52? Absolutely. But I just don’t see Jason as a leader of a team of heroes and it’s also incredibly repetitive, just because he was Robin doesn’t mean that he needs his own team. I know that Robin Jason and Red Hood Jason aren’t the same person and that they might think differently but if Lobdell had never come into Red Hood/Jason Todd’s life when he did we might have never seen Jason lead his own team and that to me is proof enough that it should have never happened. I quite enjoyed the Prince of Gotham storyline in Red Hood: Outlaw, he didn’t have a team but he had an operation going on and people working FOR him not WITH him. In my opinion that’s better for Jason (if you would like to see me review that storyline let me know).

There is a lot happening story wise and I am finding it more and more difficult to continue talking about Jason’s moments here without giving context so I am going to resume what happened between Donna leaving to save Joey and Jason’s next appearance in this issue. Here we go, Brain tells Monsieur Mallah that he decided to “help” Twister take down the Titans because he wants to use Brother Blood’s Blood Pool because he is dying, Twister goes back to her family’s home and we get to see how brainwashed she is, her family is shocked to see her and they are also the ones that took care of Cyborg while he was unconscious, Cyborg leaves to find the Titans but Twister sees where he left to, she tells the Brotherhood where he might have gone to but protects her family by not telling them that they were the ones that protected Cyborg in the first place and Donna was able to save Joey. I think that was everything.

We see Jason again when he is just outside Brother Blood’s Church with Kory (who is giving him a lift) and Beast Boy. But because life can’t be easy for them the Brotherhood of Evil teleports there and a fight ensues. Kory takes the lead and Jason gets to work.

Kory praises Jason for his work here not because she can’t do anything but because she is seeing that a kid is doing an excellent job. Make no mistake, she is the one with experience but she is nice and gives credit when its due.

Cyborg arrives and the fight continues. We see Beast Boy warning Jason about some of the villains’ powers and Jason being the excellent Robin that he is pays attention and escapes Plasmus’ touch.

I might not think that Red Hood is a team player but Robin Jason absolutely is, and the Titans are nice and care for his safety.

While all of this was happening, Cyborg had made his way to the Church and there he gathers all kinds of information including the location of Brother Bloods main Church in the US. He also makes the alarms sound so everyone leaves because he set up the Church to blow up. Somewhere else Monsieur Mallah is threatening to kill Brain after the later insults him again. And there is where this issue ends.

In issue #28 Jason and the rest of the Titans appear after several pages of Mother Mayhem being a creep, Azrael the angel rising and trying to resurrect Brother Blood through the power of prayers, people watching the live broadcasting of the event and Dick trying to break free from his own head but as soon as he does it Mother Mayhem brainwashes him right away.

The Titans are back in their tower where we see Wally again but that is not all, Frances Kane and Robotman come in too. After all the people who are willing to fight get together the Titans make their way to Brother Bloods Church.

It’s in the jet with Wally that we see Jason and this time he gets to talk too! Jason is talking about how much braver the Titans are compared to him but Wally calms him down by saying that even though he has been doing this for a while he is also scared.

The fact that Jason joined the Titans on another adventure without mentioning it to Bruce is funny to me, he was probably so happy that Donna called him again! Maybe Jason was more bored of being with the Bat than he let on and maybe he didn’t feel appreciated enough or heard. I also like to think that Donna got Jason’s number through Dick, like do you remember that Dick gave Jason his number if he ever wanted to talk shit about the Bat with him? What if they did talk and then Dick put Jason’s number on the Titans’ data base? That would be cool and really sweet!

Jason continues to be a team player and being useful during the fights, he has the Titans’ back as much as the Titans have his.

They fight their way in Brother Blood’s Church and once there they find a dude called the Confessor with Arella (Raven’s mother) but he tells the Titans that she is dead. Somewhere else though is where the real trouble is at, between Azrael and Raven, Brother Blood has finally been resurrected. 

It’s in the last page where Brother Blood is looking all mighty and powerful that Dick seems to have broken free from his brainwashing once more.

 That’s the end of that issue and this part of the post. This one was super difficult to write and it’s even longer than part one, I hope I didn’t make it super difficult to read. At some points I felt like I was explaining too much and in others too little. I guess it’s very difficult to show how one character participates in a story without giving context but I just didn’t want this post to be too plot heavy.

These issues had some cool Jason moments but the ones in issues #29 to #31 are even better!

[clareguilty]

Only Yours

My second follower giveaway fic! These are coming out wayyyy longer than i anticipated so thats why they take so long LOL Charles Smith/fem!Reader Word Count: ~2600 Rating: Explicit | A/B/O, heats/ruts, smut, inherent dubcon of heats/ruts

It should never have been so sudden. Out of the blue. One minute, you were making your way through the crowd of the train station, and the next you could feel everyone’s eyes on you.

Most of the looks were of pity. Your discomfort and fear were written clear across your face.

And then there was the danger. A pack of men in dark coats who were making their way off the platform had turned at the scent of the wind.

You were an omega, alone, going into heat.

It had come out of nowhere, weeks earlier than you anticipated. Otherwise they never would have put you up for this job, never would have dropped you off in Saint Denis by yourself.

Still, you were on the middle of the train platform, surrounded by people. You were safe for now. No one would try anything unless they could get you alone. You just had to do your part.

Dutch had explained the job carefully. You would board the train in the city, case the passenger cars and anywhere else before the rest of the gang slowed the train farther out into the marsh. Once they boarded, you would lead them to the wealthiest passengers and steal as much as you could before escaping with them.

Except now you were going to be the most noticeable passenger on board, unmated and on your own at the very start of your heat. The law would no doubt be able to track you by your scent alone once you escaped the train.

You kept your eyes to the ground as you handed the conductor your ticket, intentionally picking a seat as far back away from the other passengers as possible. Most of them were polite enough to give you your space.

The fever was setting in, and the last place you wanted to be was around all of these strangers. Why couldn’t you be at camp? Safely curled up in your tent with the others to look after you?

It felt like an eternity before the car pulled out of the station and over the murky water. You watched it all pass by with your fingers curled tightly in your skirt and your lip caught between your teeth.

You still had quite a while until you reached the location Dutch had planned to stop the train. Trapped in your seat, you watched the feathered plumes of the ladies a few seats ahead of you bob with their conversation.

The sound of the wheels screeching on the tracks snapped you out of your daze, and you glanced out the window to confirm that is was far too soon for the train to stop. Something wasn’t going according to plan.

That something revealed itself in a booming voice in the car ahead of you. “Why don’t you go ahead and see if these folks have any valuables while I look for our little treasure.” It was an unfamiliar voice, definitely not someone from the gang. You knew you weren’t safe, not in your state.

The door to the car banged open and you slid down in your seat until you were out of sight. “She’s in here,” the voice called. “I can smell her.”

Oh. That would be you. The only one on this train dealing with a particular biological failing that made you detectable to anyone around.

“Where is she?” the man demanded. You knew these strangers would give you up in a heartbeat. Sure enough, heavy boot steps sounded down the aisle towards where you were hiding. “Come out, come out,” he teased.

You pulled your revolver from your satchel, pulling the hammer back as quietly as possible. You could definitely shoot this guy, then maybe escape out of the back of the car before anyone else could get you.

The man came into view and you recognized him as one of the leering asses from the train station. An alpha, but a dangerous one. He seemed surprised to find you with a gun in your hand, but he only chuckled and lunged for you.

You squeezed the trigger.

He staggered back, clearly offended that you shot him. You didn’t wait around, climbing over the seat in front of you and stumbling down the aisle with your head spinning. The other robbers noticed you, glancing up from the car ahead. You gathered your skirts and jumped the moment you reached the platform beyond the car door. Scrambling away from the tracks you took off through the mud and the trees. You had only made it a few yards when someone massive tackled you to the ground and the sound of a gunshot rang through the air, startling the birds.

You had moved to elbow your attacker when a low, familiar voice reached your ears.

“It’s just me.You’re safe. We need to move quickly.”

“Charles,” you breathed. “Thank Christ.” Charles was probably one of the only alphas you trusted to be around you during your heat. Some of that may have been attributed to your poorly hidden feelings for him, but also because he was a good man.

“C’mon,” he pulled you to your feet and led you into the brush, whistling for Taima. You climbed into the saddle as soon as she came into view. Charles settled in behind you and you dutifully passed him the reins. He spurred her into a swift gallop, racing along the tracks. “We need to tell the others the train has already been hit.”

“I can’t stay,” you said. “They’ll track my scent.”

“We’ll go north.”

“No!” you exclaimed. “I have to go alone.”

Charles hummed low, not happy with your defiance. “I’m not letting you.”

You wanted to argue, but knew it was useless. You didn’t even have a horse to take. You would have to ride with him. But the thought of being alone with Charles when you were so out of your mind -- what if you made a mistake?

A lantern was lit at the sound of Taima’s hooves, and Lenny’s face peeked out of the trees. “It’s Charles!” he called.

One by one, Dutch, John, Arthur, and Bill appeared out of the dusk.

“The train was hit by another group about two miles back. You all should scatter before the law gets here.” Charles reported.

John and Arthur nodded. Dutch reached for your hand where it was clinging to the saddle horn. You fought the urge to recoil. As much as you were loyal to Dutch, you did not want him near you when you were in heat. “Are you going to be alright?” he asked.

You nodded. “They’ve got my scent. I’ve got to get out of here quick. I’ll head back to camp in a few days.”

Dutch nodded, turning and immediately shouting orders to the other men. Charles turned Taima and took off again. It was a blessing that damn horse could cover so much ground. The two of you made it to the plains in just a few tortuous hours. Hours of you trying to ignore how close you were to Charles, how right it felt to be near him, how much you wanted more.

Charles followed along the creek bed until you came to a run down mill. “We can stay here for the time being,” he said. You staggered out of the saddle. The door was locked, but easy enough to pick without breaking. You scoped out the dusty interior. 

It looked safe enough. Charles dropped a lantern, bedroll, and saddle bag before heading back out to take care of Taima.

You lit the lantern and hid yourself away in the corner. Your heat had only grown stronger and you worried what you would do with Charles so close by. You trusted him. With your life. But he was still and alpha, and just the nearness to him during the ride had made your life a living hell of desire and frustration.

He finished bringing things in and taking care of Taima. When he saw where you were curled in on yourself he frowned, watching carefully for a moment.

“Would you like me to stay outside?” he asked.

“Maybe,” you said weakly.

He nodded. “Do you need anything?” you noticed he was favoring his left arm as he looked through his saddlebag. In the dim lantern light you could see the blood staining his shirt.

“You’re hurt!” you shot up off the ground. “What happened?” you rushed to his side, bracing yourself on the table as your head spun.

“It’s nothing,” he said, grabbing a tonic and a roll of gauze from his bag.

“The men from the train,” you remembered the gunshot. They must have been aiming for you and hit Charles when he tackled you.

“It’s just a scrape,” Charles insisted.

“Let me clean it. It’s the least I can do.” You tried to pry the gauze from his hands.

He relented after a moment of stubbornness. You tugged at his shirt as silent instruction for him to remove it. Maybe you would have time to wash and mend it during your heat -- though it wasn’t likely.

“We shouldn’t-” Charles pushed you away. You knew it was just as hard for him to be near you as it was for you to be near him. He was everything your body wanted: a protective alpha to watch over you and keep you safe. And you were catering to his every instinct at the moment.

“Hold your breath. I’ll do the same.” You grabbed the clearest liquor you could find and wet your bandana to wash away the blood.

He growled low at the sting, but kept his gaze pointed away. You held your own breath, trying to keep your eyes on the scrape instead of anything else. The broadness of his chest, the shine of his hair, the unmarred skin at the junction of his neck and shoulder.

You weren’t looking.

It felt like too long before you tied off the bandage. But you couldn’t pull your fingers from his skin, letting them trail over the muscles of his arm.

Charles grabbed your wrist, squeezing in warning. “Don’t,” he breathed.

“I trust you,” you said. You knew it was just the heat talking. At least partially. But those poorly hidden feelings of yours were tumbling from your lips before you could stop them. “If it were going to be anyone, I’d want it to be you.”

He moved on instinct, to fast for you to understand. You were flush against his chest, held tightly in his arms.

“I’m not that good. I don’t deserve you.” He looked pained, avoiding your gaze.

“What do you mean? You’re one of the best men I know.” Now that you were in his arms, you let yourself run your hands over his chest.

“Why would I have brought you all the way out here alone? Would it not have been safer for you to go with Lenny?” He grinned wryly, as if he was disappointed in himself.

It was true, Lenny was a beta but still perfectly capable of protecting you. You could just as easily have left with him.

But you liked being with Charles, and you were flattered that he would want you like that.

“I’m selfish,” Charles said.

“I want you to be selfish,” you wrapped your arms around him, pressing your cheek to his bare skin.

He lifted you into his arms and knelt so he could lay you down on his bedroll. “I don’t want to hurt you,” he whispered.

“I want you to,” you moaned, baring your neck to him. You were done fighting off your desires, and you just wanted to be knotted and mated and taken.

“Take your clothes off before I tear them,” he growled. You had never undone your buttons so fast in your life. It felt like a victory, knowing that Charles wanted you, that he would have you like this.

Charles removed his trousers and helped you tug your skirts over your thighs. “I’m going to knot you,” he murmured. He crawled over you, kissing you feverishly as you clung to him. He kissed over your jaw, down your neck to the sensitive, aching skin just above your collarbone.

You turned your head to bare your neck, gasping at the slight scrape of teeth. “Please,” you begged. It was the heat talking. As much as you cared for Charles, it was irresponsible of him to mate you, especially when you could barely think about anything but his knot.

He chuckled, his breath warm against your already burning skin. “Not today.” His lips trailed down over your chest. You were thankful that he would watch over you, keep you from making any rash decisions. There was no other alpha you trusted like him. He was the only one who could have you like this. You wrapped your arms around his neck and pulled him up for a bruising kiss.

You slid onto his lap, thighs bracketing his hips. His cock was hard and aching between your bodies. He leaned back, and you moved so you could grind your dripping pussy along his length. It felt amazing, but it wasn’t enough.

He held still as you lifted your hips and began to sink down onto his cock. “Ah, fuck,” you dug your nails into his shoulders as your thighs shook.

“Easy now,” he moved his hands to your hips to help support you. You didn’t want easy. You wanted to be filled. Furrowing your brows, you took him as deep as you could in one motion. Both of you moaned at the sudden sensation. He was so deep inside you, the swell of his knot pressing against your clit. You rolled your hips carefully, delighting in the way Charles’s hold on you tightened.

Every movement felt so good; you began to ride him desperately, spurred on by your heat. His hands roamed over you body, squeezing your ass and rubbing over your thighs.

You came embarrassingly quickly, you hips stuttering and shaking as you tightened around his cock. Charles -- remarkably strong even for an alpha -- simply grabbed your hips and moved you on his cock, chasing his own release.

It was everything you needed, fucked through the oversensitivity and aftershocks of your orgasm, stoking the desire that still burned through you. With a thrust of his hips, Charles knotted you. You cried out and fell forward against his chest, panting and whimpering as he filled you.

It was quiet save for the sound of your breathing and Charles’s low moans. Both of you laid still for several minutes, enjoying the feeling of being tied together.

You were pulled from the haze of pleasure as Charles lifted you off of him. His knot slipped free and you winced. You were still very much in heat, and the emptiness was like an ache.

“Turn over for me,” Charles murmured, and you obeyed. Laying on your stomach, resting your head on your arms, you were surprised when Charles pushed your thighs apart.

Oh. You got the message. You lifted your ass, spreading your legs so Charles could push back into you from behind. “That’s a good girl,” he squeezed your ass.

It felt so good, being taken from behind. Charles’s cock seemed to hit every right spot as he fucked you into the bedroll.

“You’re sleeping in my tent when we get back to camp,” he said, voice breathy and low. “You’re going to be mine. No one else can have you.”

“Yours,” you moaned as he knotted you again. He continued to move, fucking you with shallow thrusts as he came again.

You whine when he moved you again, rolling you so both of you could lay on your sides with Charles still inside you. “Get some rest,” he murmured.

“Only yours,” you murmured, lost to your heat and the pleasure. Just the warmth of Charles holding you, his scent. Only his.

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[juteanworld]

Some local foods on the world’s most remote inhabited island, and the English terms used for them

English is spoken across the globe and has many local varieties, each with their own peculiarities that correspond to local history, culture and geography. Of particular interest for me are food terms, since they can reveal a lot about all three of those by telling you about what local foods are special enough to have their own terms diverging from other varieties. An interesting case is the English spoken on Tristan da Cunha, which has the most isolated English-speaking community in the world.

Tristan da Cunha or simply Tristan is a group of supremely remotely located volcanic islands in the South Atlantic. According to Wikipedia, they are “lying approximately 1,732 miles (2,787 km) off the coast of Cape Town in South Africa, 1,514 miles (2,437 km) from Saint Helena (the island Napoleon was banished to) and 2,487 miles (4,002 km) off the coast of the Falkland Islands“.

Only one is inhabited, also called Tristan da Cunha, the most remote inhabited island in the world. The islands were discovered, uninhabited, in 1506 by Tristão da Cunha, a Portuguese explorer, but only settled in December 1810, by Jonathan Lambert from Salem in Massachusetts, USA alongside two other people. A fourth person later joined. One of the three first settlers was the only one to survive. The British later annexed it to prevent it being used as a base from which prisonbreak operations to free Napoleon could be conducted, but later abandoned it.

Eventually, the population grew slowly after a garrison of British Marines was stationed and as whalers turned the island into a base, but generally the islands remained extremely isolated and suffered many hardships. Nonetheless, it remains a tight-knit community where everyone goes by nicknames rather than legal names, a tradition mostly shared with the inhabitants of St. Helena that Tristan da Cunha administratively belongs to.

The small population (241 in May 2022, 19 of which live or work overseas), late settlement and the fact that everyone lives in the same village (Edinburgh of the Seven Seas or simply “the village” or “the settlement”) mean that the language is very uniform (no regional, social or other varieties exist), and mostly similar to British English, however there are some interesting differences in meanings of common words.

sthelena.se provides some helpful lists, e.g. on food items, that I haven’t been able to factcheck independently (owing to my inability to conduct fieldwork on the island or access to any relevant literature), but is also linked to on the blog of the Russian-American linguist Asya Pereltsvaig (an Aramaic first name and a Yiddish family name, in case you are wondering) who taught for over a decade at Stanford, so it seems credible enough.

Some of the highlights from the food list of words:

Big Heaps: A lunch party.

Black cake: A fruit cake.

Bread: In the early 20th century this referred to ships’s biscuits or hardtack, a common military and navy provision biscuit so dry and hard it was considered almost dense enough to stop a musket ball, and hence inedible until it was softened up in a liquid

Cabbage brady: A cabbage dish with fried meat.

Cake: Normal breads and rolls were called cake.

Fanni’es tea: A drink made of boiled water and milk, also called “fancy tea” after an old lady whose name was Fanny

Fleshie’s tea: A herbal tea made from Dysphania tomentosa, a wild herb growing on the island

German’s nuts: A potato pudding in the form of baked round cakes, named after a man called “German”, similar to how German chocolate cake got its name.

German’s rice: Porridge made from boiled grated potatoes. Presumably named after the same man or someone related to him.

Old Tom: A sour cider made of the apples grown at Sandy Point.

Read more:

Tristan da Cunha English Dec 8, 2010 by Asya Pereltsvaig

Schreier, Daniel; Peter Trudgill, Edgar W. Schneider, and Jeffrey P. Williams, The lesser-known varieties of English, Cambridge University Press 2010

Image sources:

Map of Tristan da Cunha and neighboring islands: Varp, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Location map: Tentotwo, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Photo of Edinburgh of the Seven Seas: Brian Gratwicke from DC, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

[perhapsthanatos]

10:32 pm with yuta ♡

nct’s yuta x fem!reader (got inspired by a dream of mine & found the idea really cute)

alternate title: be the james dean to my audrey hepburn

genre: fluff. a pinch of angst. non idol au. badboy!yuta au.

word count: 1400~

playlist: chinatown by wild nothing, lover’s rock by tv girl & work this time by king gizzard and the lizard wizard.

warnings: featuring johnny (not a warning though). smoking cigarettes. cursing. lowercase intended. not proofread.

a/n: hi i was supposed to post a vampire!haechan fic but i really wasnt happy w it in general :( the plot or overall idea of the fic was really good, but i just felt as if i didnt do it justice so here we are :( but ngl, i kind of like this concept more? maybe bc i can see it more vividly? idk, i feel like my writings r getting repetitive & its getting on my nerves lmaoo this is getting long im sorry do u guys even read this part anyway? i would also like to apologize abt the amount of projecting im doing lmao ive been having some rough days & i love my sister but hate being compared to her so often so this is a way for me to rant abt it ig? also so sorry its coming out a little later bc i woke up late today (& procrastinated for the rest of it so here i am posting really late at night) & decided to go to the convenience store to get ice cream (& a ton of other bad shit pls dont do this its rlly unhealthy) for breakfast bc i can :) any who, enjoy lovelies <3

“oh my, y/n! you’ve grown up so well! just like your sister!”

“oh! i’m sorry i’ve almost mistaken you for your sister! y/n is your name, correct?”

“y/n, darling, you are looking so dashing! you really do resemble your sister, don’t you?”

“ah, you must be y/n! i’ve heard all about you and your sister from your father!”

you swear that your reddening cheeks are threatening to fall off any moment now from all the fake smiling. the hundreds of superficial compliments, the insincere flattery and the need for these people to constantly compare you to your godforsaken sister makes you feel even weaker than you are. it gets harder and harder to keep up with a big persona that isn’t at all you. as lucky as you are to live such a lavish lifestyle, you can’t help but hate how your family has to be so perfect. you hate how you have never fit in with them, even if you are so good at faking it. you hate how you have always been stuck in your sister’s shadow, constantly haunted with the reminder that you yourself aren’t good enough. you hate how you now have to entertain the rich and brainless guests at your parent’s gala because she’s gone for some stupid prodigy competition and everyone is only talking about her in front of your face. so what if she’s better the better sister? you still have the right to earn respect, right?

you’re exhausted from all the small talk. your facade gets more brittle by the second under all the pressure. your body feels as if it's gonna give out due to your brain shutting down after all that interacting. you try to keep on going with the night as it unravels itself by being the perfectly poised poster child, trying to make your parents proud. but alive yet almost completely devoid, you decide enough was enough. what if you left right now? no one would notice, would they?

after pulling up your phone discreetly to send a few text messages, you pass through lots of people dressed in gold and finery in a way that wouldn’t have you noticed right away. keep your head down and don’t you dare make eye contact with anyone. nearing the end of the room, grabbing the first glass of whatever alcohol you see and downing it in one gulp, you start walking away as quickly as possible from the ballroom. “ignorant privileged fucks,” you angrily whisper to no one in particular, setting the now empty glass on whatever surface and begin to head to the main exit where no one could spot you running away.

“and what do you think you’re doing here, miss?”

a voice interrupts you, looking up you see that it is your father’s head butler; johnny. he is dressed in a simple black suit that makes him appear taller than he is. his long brown hair is slicked back and his bowtie seems brand new. you have known the man since he started working in your household less than ten years back. you were a reckless child, often trying to find ways to sneak out, finding a way to escape from this life and he sympathized with you. after all, he could barely imagine living your life, never catching a break for yourself and always pretending to be someone you weren’t. he often helped planning when you would sneak out into the night, scheduling things like what time you should leave and what time you should be back, more specifically a time when no one would notice. he would take care of your form of transportation and have your location on at all times, just to be extra safe. as much as he wants you to have fun and have a bit of freedom, he still worries that something might happen to you. because of all this, you two have grown to have a very strong bond. you could confidently say that he is most definitely a parental figure in your life since your parents (and even your sister) are often overseas for work.

“what do you think i’m doing? you think i wanna be in a room with those half-baked bipeds? fuck no!”

“i know, i was just joking. you looked like you were about to explode in there, i wish i could help.” he laughs, pulling out his phone preparing what you might need. “so what will it be for today? the driver? we just need to pay him to keep his mouth shut. a taxi? it’s cheaper than paying the driver, but you still need to pay… not like that’s a problem for you though. maybe an uber would be good enough—“

“actually, i got myself covered. thanks.”

his jaw slightly drops and his eyebrows furrow. he looks straight at you in shock. “what do you mean you got yourself covered?”

you look down at your feet, a nervous habit. “i got myself a ride, you don’t need to help me. i’ll be back as soon as dawn comes.”

he raises his eyebrow. “who’s your ride?”

“doesn’t matter,” you glance down at your phone seeing a notification and wave a goodbye, leaving rather suddenly. “i gotta go, i’ll text you when you need to open the gates!”

“y/n! wait! who’s your ride— and she’s gone.” johnny sighs, watching as you run towards the front gates, tossing your stiletto heels away on the grass while you’re at it. he heads back inside, silently hoping you’ll be fine.

knocking the window of the old black mustang parked outside behind the big bushes, the driver rolls down his window and sends the most charming smile.

yuta in his black beanie, long blonde hair, worn out doc martens, signature leather jacket and black skinny jeans. it almost makes you laugh on how he wears the same thing almost everyday but still manages to look so good.

he is most notable for having a big bad boy reputation and you knew that he was the breath of fresh air you needed in your life. a person who can understand having the pressure of having to be or to fulfill your persona. a person you can completely be yourself around. a person who is full of warmth no matter how cold he may seem on the outside.

“get in, princess.”

and that was all you needed. you tiredly walked to the other door and sat yourself in the car. rolling his window back up, he looks at you. you are wearing a simple yet stunning black dress along with silver jewelry adorned on your neck and wrists. your makeup is perfectly done but still struggles to hide the fog in your eyes. he has the sudden urge to clear them away. he softens at the sight of you. no one is perfect, but he finds you being perfect enough without ever having to dress up.

“where to?” he asks as gently as he could. he knows that you are most vulnerable during these moments and that it is hard to finally break down your walls after a day full of stress, so he doesn’t pry immediately. all he wants to do is to keep you here, safe and away from your burdens and for you to stay comfortable with him, even if it couldn't be for long. but is that too selfish of him to ask? he hates how you hate your life and it is taking every bone in his body to not run away with you. but who is he to tell you what to do or what to change anyway? all he can do for now is try to find a way to make you genuinely smile.

“take me anywhere,” you whisper to the latter. “i just want to be as far from myself and my life as possible. miles away or the nearest convenience store, just take the long way home before dawn.”

you look down at the cup holders, spotting an open cigarette box. you tug one out of the nineteen and light it with the lighter you kept in your pocket. you lean back and close your eyes. he only admires as you bring the cigarette to your lips, exhaling a cloud of smoke afterwards. letting the radio play quietly, he starts the car and begins to drive away from the mansion. he can’t help but wonder how you (an elegant daughter) and him (a bad boy) are millions of worlds apart, but more similar than you think.

© perhapsthanatos (efa)

[danceworshipper]

Giulio Moretti - HPMA Character Profile

template by me // images created using the zepeto app

NOTE: I am a cisgender female. As such, I have been hesitant to make a trans oc and will not be going into much detail about Giulio's experiences specifically related to his gender. If anything in here feels iffy to anyone not cisgender, please let me know and I'll correct it

Personal

Full Name: Giulio Antonio Moretti

Gender: Male (trans)

Sexuality: Demisexual, polyamorous

Birthday: June 1st

Age: 11

Birthstone: Alexandrite

Zodiac Sign: Gemini

Blood Status: Full Veela

- I'm mostly using these headcanons written by @carmilla-the-bird, though over time I might end up changing a couple details

- I'm not certain if full Veelas would even use wands/go to magic school but these ones do because I say so

- What I'm specifically adding is that since HPMA takes place later than the full HP series, there has been a new method developed to allow full veelas to better coexist with wizards. This comes in the form of a clear gemstone that can be inserted into any piece of jewelry, usually necklaces. While the stone is worn, the charm [or allure, as I call it] that all veelas have while glamored is dampened by up to 80%. Another effect is that when angered, the veela won't be able to lash out with their fire magic, unless they've trained their magic well enough that's it's less of an instinct and more of a conscious choice. Minors are legally required to wear it at all times, except in their own home with only their family around. Once an adult the veela can choose whether they want to wear it or not. The stone has a similar trace to underaged magic, so when a Veela who's a minor takes it off, the Ministry is alerted and their location will be tracked

3 Positive Traits:

- Empathetic

- Resourceful

- Playful

3 Negative Traits:

- Irritable

- Addictive

- Pessimistic

Usual First Impression: When meeting Giulio, most people see him as a spoiled and stuck up little boy. This isn't true. He's just very wary of strangers, so he doesn't tend to leave a good first impression. Once he's more comfortable around someone, his positive traits outshine the more negative ones

Location

Birthplace: A Veela-specific clinic in southern Italy. His mother travelled there for all of her children's births, and the midwife there is the woman who delivered her

Current Home: His family home in England, a medium sized house under a strict Fidelius charm, which his aunt is the Secret Keeper for. His bedroom is on the second floor, looking out over the fish pond in the backyard

Future Home(s): Fresh out of Hogwarts he'll share an apartment with Lori with heavily warded Floo access. Later homes TBD once his love interests are planned out

Favorite Place: The little house the family rents for a month every summer in southern Italy. The town is full of good culture, and better yet, good food. It feels peaceful, even when there's a loud festival going on

Disliked Place: The woods a mile down the road from his home. The woods are the last place Giulio saw his grandmother before she went missing, and now they feel like they're haunted. He refuses to go on walks there anymore

Appearance

Face Shape: Round, slightly pointy chin

Eye Color: Deep teal

Hair Color: Whitish blond

Hair Style: Self cut (horrifies his mother), slightly uneven, medium length. Not brushed every day, fluffy

Skin Tone: Pale

Freckles/Spots: A few beauty marks on his face, two near his right eye and one on the left side of his chin

Scars: None yet

Piercings/Tattoos: None

Height: 5'7" [fully grown]

Weight: ~ 135 lbs [fully grown]

Physique: Thin. Luckily for him, Giulio's family has always had rather "boyish" bodies - wide shoulders, not very curvy - but he's still got too much woman in him to be fully happy with his form

Clothing Style: Baggy tops, loose pants, nothing fancy. Giulio tries to attract as little attention as possible, because while he's glamored people stare at him a lot anyway, even with the dampener. He does like colored pants, but his tops are usually grey and black. His dampening necklace is the most eye catching thing he wears (as it was a gift from his missing grandmother) and he wishes he could take it off, but he legally can't

Carried Items:

- The last picture of him, his sisters, and his grandmother ever taken

- A lighter. He likes having the fire near him since he can't access his own fire magic

- His hair scissors, for whenever he feels like it needs to be trimmed

- A container of Silly Putty he got from a Muggle convenience store

- His water bottle

Magic

Wand: 10" Veela hair wand in Fir wood. A very pale colored wand that's a bit rough around the edges. The hair is from his younger sister Martina, who yanked the strand right out and handed it to the wandmaker after no wands appeared to choose a very defeated looking Giulio. The wand was made while Giulio watched, and he checked it many times throughout the process to make sure it felt like it would have him, which it did.

Animagus: As a veela, Giulio can transform into pretty much any bird shape. He has no need to go through the animagus process

Boggart Form: Him, fully matured, very womanly, and in a wedding gown just like the ones his older sister Alessia fawns over

Riddikulus Form: Him in a ridiculously exaggerated Bloody Baron costume

Amortentia (to others): Someone smelling Giulio would smell new pillows, the faint burning metal scent that clings to him, and the dry shampoo he uses

Amortentia (to them): He doesn't smell any sort of romantic interest yet. What he smells now are safe, comforting smells, like the cigars his mother and aunt smoke, the perfume all his sisters use, and the smell of his favorite restaurant in southern Italy

Patronus: Bird of Paradise

Happiest Memory: Receiving his wand once it was completed, and finally feeling the connection and power he'd heard so much about but thought he'd never have

Mirror of Erised: Some might consider it sad, but all he sees is him, happy, the way he wishes he was - including not looking at all like a Veela. Someday this will change

Family Spells: It's not really a spell, but the Morettis have a particular bird call that, when paired with the right charm, will alert every living family member to the caller's location, should one desperately need help. It's only to be used in emergencies. Giulio isn't sure he wants to know why his grandmother never used it

Inherent Magic: Veela stuff - storm sense, fire, bird transformations, allure, slight levitation abilities

Family

Grandmother: Francesca is not an ideal parental figure. She grew up in a time when full Veelas were treated with nearly the same suspicion and prejudice as werewolves, so she's very anti-human. However, she was still one of Giulio's best defenders and most treasured family members. She places a huge importance on family and is the one who came up with the idea of the special danger call. Francesca went missing when Giulio was seven, and there have been no clues as to what happened.

Mother: Valentina is a kind, gentle woman who cares for her family before anyone else. She and her sister were taught all their lives to be nothing more than a pretty face, and while Bianca rejected this, Valentina embraced it. Even now, with her own mother nowhere to be found, she has trouble remembering to be herself. She wears her necklace at all times, terrified to be without it

Father: Giulio never knew him. He's not sure he even has one

Aunt: Bianca is, in many ways, the exact opposite of her sister. Bianca embraces all of her less than proper instincts, and even walks around in public completely unglamored, acting as a good deterrent to anyone who might want to come say hi, innocent intentions or not. Gets angry very easily, and has caused public property damage more often than Valentina would appreciate

Sisters: Two older sisters, one younger. All Slytherins while in school

- Alessia, six years older, prefect. A headstrong young woman who takes advantage of her allure to get what she wants, and is skilled enough to fight off anyone who gets too "friendly". She likes to have a collection of boy toys she never lets get too close, but secretly only has eyes for the Hufflepuff prefect, Lina.

- Emilia, four years older, Quidditch captain. Hates her allure with a passion and refuses to even think about romance until she's out of school. Could kick anyone's ass, and will do so if she feels the need to. Very protective of Giulio, has gotten into at least eight shouting matches with those who misgender him

- Martina, one year younger. The baby of the family. A bit of a spoiled brat, and too young to fully understand exactly why her older siblings are all so wary of strangers, or letting her out of their sight. She dreams of being the Minister of Magic, and of being able to take her "stupid, ugly, and stupid" necklace off for good

Pets: The two family screech owls which trade off being at school/home, and an Abraxan Giulio found on Hogwarts grounds that likes him a lot

Family Values: The Morettis hold nothing higher than each other. The family's main priority is sticking together, and always doing whatever they can to help each other achieve whatever they wish. The family is also, as a whole, rather reclusive

Opinion of Family: Giulio loves his family. For all their faults, they hold true to their values and he couldn't imagine one of them ever betraying another. Even if they won't ever truly understand him, they've all tried and they do what they can, and it means more than he can say

Friendships

Introverted or Extroverted: Introverted

Best Friend: Oleander Loris. Her anger issues, her weird pink eyes, and her tendency to drag him along to social outings are all things that Giulio comes to appreciate over time. He originally became curious about her on the train ride to school, when she stumbled looking at his older sisters but didn't notice him at all, and they spoke for the first time in Flying class. Lori is definitely a force to be reckoned with, and the fact that she's not affected by his allure in the slightest makes him feel really happy

Worst Friend: TBD

Friend He Didn't Expect: Cassandra. They aren't the best of friends, and maybe they can't be considered friends at all, but she doesn't hold the contempt she seems to hold for most others for him

Who He Wishes Was His Friend: Kestra Fernera. She's got fire powers, and she doesn't have to be chained down by the Ministry. He thinks she's super cool, and is very jealous of her and how popular she is, but he's far too nervous to try and talk to her

List of Casual Friends:

- Brian Haywood-Reese @catohphm

- others TBD, but likely the main cast of the game. Mc friends welcome, if any are interested!

Romance

Current Crush: None

Current Partner: None

Past Partners: None

Future Partners: TBD

His Type: Pretty much anyone who's able to look past the allure that Giulio hates so much and also isn't afraid of him in his natural form, though most people haven't even seen it

Hogwarts

House: Slytherin

Prefect Status: No

Quidditch: Not on the team, but plays casually

Clubs: TBD

Organizations: None

Favorite Class: Flying. Duh

Least Favorite Class: Potions. It gives him a headache surrounded by all the fumes

Favorite Professor: TBD

Least Favorite Professor: TBD

Timeline

Young Childhood:

- Giulio realizes young that he hates the idea of being a girl, and insists that his mother change his name. His family thought it was a phase, but once they realized it wasn't, they became more serious and started to see what they could do to help him

- He's a sheltered child, learning early the importance of staying close to a trusted adult. He sees the horrors of what can happen to a Veela caught unaware at a young age when he almost loses his mother to someone who wanted to sell her, and never looks at strangers the same way again

- At five years old Giulio is given his dampener necklace. He refuses to wear it until his grandmother forcibly puts it on him. He decides it's not that bad, though it feels like it's choking him and he doesn't like the muted feeling in his hands that comes from the loss of his instinctual magic

- At seven years old, Giulio is on a walk with his grandmother in the woods when he hears a loud screech. She sends him back toward the house, saying she'll be right behind him. Hours pass, and she never follows. There's no evidence as to what that screech was, or what happened to his grandmother

- At eleven years old, Giulio spends a week traveling to different wandmakers around Europe trying to find a wand so he can go to school in the fall. For some reason, his magic is picky and not a single wand even comes close to working for him. When he's given up all hope, his little sister Martina asks if the wandmaker takes custom orders, and rips out her own hair to be used for Giulio's wand. It's the first time Giulio cries happy tears, hovering his hand over the uncompleted wand and feeling it call to him already

School Years: TBD once I'm able to play the game

Post Graduation: Giulio moves into an apartment with Lori soon after graduating. While she immediately starts work, Giulio takes time to find some higher education, and work on training his Veela magic now that he can take his necklace off whenever he wants

Career(s): TBD

Marriage and Children: TBD

Death: Giulio will be murdered by [redacted] in order to save [redacted]'s life, but he'll be very old (around 200) and will have outlived his lovers, so he doesn't see it as too much of a shame. He'll be buried in the family garden and have some lovely flower bushes planted over him

Notable Facts Not Previously Mentioned

- The Veela magic in Giulio recognizes him as a boy as soon as he does. When his allure kicks in, anyone attracted to men finds themself affected, while those strictly into women do not, even though male Veelas are practically unheard of

- His aunt Bianca paid a personal visit to Hogwarts before he was enrolled, ready to throw flames if he was going to be put into the female dorms. Luckily, she didn't need to worry, as once the situation was explained it was settled with a simple change in his paperwork

- Giulio hates being cooped up indoors for too long. Even in the coldest days of winter, he'll spend as much time as possible outside

- Starting in third year, Lori will figure out how to get the necklace off of him without alerting anyone [putting it on herself within a few seconds], and Giulio will occasionally spend a few hours free and in his natural form in the Forbidden Forest. Unbeknownst to him, wearing the necklace saps at Lori's magical core, and it takes her a day or so to regain her strength if she wears it for more than thirty minutes

- Giulio will likely have three partners in the future. He could never even imagine having one, so if his younger self was told he would have three he would probably have a difficult time believing it

- Cutting his hair so frequently doesn't affect his magic like his mother feared it would, though he does feel nauseous when he does it

- The dark teal eyes are something only he and his sisters have, which is how he knows they all have the same "father" or whatever they had. His mother, aunt, and grandmother all have the traditional black eyes. Not even Alessia ever saw any type of man around when her younger siblings were born, so there are no clues as to how the four of them exist

- As much as he hates the dampener, it does him a lot of good when he's younger. He gets angry easily and often feels very defensive, so without it he could have gotten into a lot of trouble

- Though he doesn't like his allure, Giulio will sometimes take advantage of it like Alessia does if he wants to get out of something. He won't fight it, he'll play nice, and let whoever he needs to back off get a little dazed

- He wanted to hide the fact that he was a Veela when he first came to Hogwarts, but with two older sisters and his allure he couldn't

[megashadowdragon]

Warning: this theory contains HEAVY SPOILERS! If you’re not fully caught up with the manga, read at your own risk.

Since English isn’t my first language, I apologize in advance for any spelling/grammar mistakes. Also, this is my first time posting.

It’s practically obvious to everyone that we will get a Kaido flashback in this arc, whether he dies or not: of course, there will be a part about his time in the Rocks Pirates, but we will also get to know possibly one of the most important people for him: his wife.

Because, let’s face it, Oda hasn’t done much yet to give his personality some depth and not being just an arrogant, cruel, child-beating antagonist with a penchant for alcohol and an obsession for death, and a figure such a woman he loved could be a great opportunity for doing so.

Some might speculate that she’s actually dead and that’s why Kaido started drinking.

It could be true but, knowing Oda, he would never introduce a deceased character of that importance out of the blue, without some sort of foreshadowing: a well-kept grave located in a secret place where an important character stumbles upon in the Onigashima raid (on screen, obviously), a framed portrait on a desk or a wall, a name seemingly being thrown offhandedly in a conversation… but there is nothing in Wano which even remotely resembles one of those things.

Therefore, she must be alive.

(Also, there are already too much fundamental figures in various characters’ history who ended up dead in flashbacks, such as Bellemere, Rocinante, Russian and so on. Come on, Oda.)

Is she going to be someone new, at least?

Well, that’s a possibility, however in next arc(s) new characters will be introduced and One Piece has got more than a thousand of them already… quite a lot, aren’t they? Consequently, there is a very good chance for her to be someone who has been already introduced into the story.

Of course, there must have been some sort of foreshadowing when she had been introduced, too: she was the lover of a Yonko, after all. Has there been a woman with an unknown lover in the past arcs?

Yes, actually.

It was her:

And I believe that the mysterious man she fell in love with was none other than Kaido himself. But wait, there’s more: Gloriosa has also eaten a Devil Fruit. An extremely powerful one.

Don’t worry, I will explain everything on the way. Now, hold onto your seat, because this will be quite the long ride.

Kaido and Gloriosa comparison

Kaido of the Beasts, Governor General of the Beasts Pirates, one of the Four Emperors, the Strongest Being in the world and Gloriosa, a former Kuja ruler. These two may have little to nothing in common... or have they?

Probably the most striking difference between them is their respective height: while Kaido easily dwarfs normal humans, Gloriosa is shorter than Luffy; however, both of their heights are currently not canonically stated.

Unstated as both of their ages are, although it’s clear that both of them are past their younger days: in Gloriosa this is highlighted by her grey hair and wrinkled face, but it’s clear that Kaido is not that young any more, too, having crow’s feet under his eyes and forehead lines. It is likely that these two are quite close in age, actually.

A notably interesting fact is, canon heights and ages of the various characters, along with things such as their favourite food, are revealed in the SBS corner in manga volumes. And yet, not even one of these little pieces of information has been revealed for both Kaido and Gloriosa.

It’s very unlikely that nobody has ever sent these question to Oda, or that the latter forgot to answer them; given the importance of the two characters in the arc where they have appeared, there must be a very specific reason why Oda didn’t tell us a thing. More than that, when Gloriosa talked about her Love Sickness in chapter 522, there was no flashback; not even silhouettes.

With these things and questions on mind, let’s move on to their position. Kaido is now an Emperor of the Sea, and Gloriosa was an Empress of the Kuja. Also, while Gloriosa was an Empress Kaido held no particular position, except by maybe being a pirate captain; and now the tables have turned, Kaido being an Emperor and Gloriosa being a nobody. A neat little parallel, isn’t it?

Now, let’s get to their Haki usage and knowledge: Gloriosa seems to have some knowledge about how it works and the characteristics of the people who are able to use the various Colours: in fact, in chapter 521 she comments about Luffy’s Haki, surprised by how he willingly bowed his head to Hancock to help those who saved him instead of a boat to leave the island without a second thought. She is not a confirmed user of any form of Haki; however, in a place where pretty much every powerful warrior can use at least Observation and Armament, it is hinted she is a wielder of these two colours at least and, since she used to be an Empress, there is also a chance she can use Conqueror’s, too. Kaido is a confirmed Observation, Armament and Conqueror user, and also one of the very few people, as he himself stated in chapter 1010, who can make the latter colour flowing through their body and coat their weapon(s). In the very same chapter, he also recognized Zoro’s illusions while performing Ashura as a manifestation of Conqueror’s Haki, revealing his in-depth knowledge about the subject.

Last but certainly not least... their strength. Kaido one-shot Luffy in Gear Fourth despite the Emperor being so drunk he could not stand on his feet properly; also, he was able to clash against a fellow Yonko for days and tanked pretty much both all the Scabbard’s hits and the majority of the Supernova’s attacks on the rooftop. Moreover, how can his absolutely epic introduction not be taken into account? He fell from a Sky Island literally 10000 metres above the sea level and he ended up with... a strong headache. I’ll tell you what: Gloriosa fell from a great height, too! In addiction to it, she landed without suffering any serious consequences, as shown in chapter 517, where she landed on her feet seemingly undamaged after Hancock quite literally threw her out of the Kuja Castle. As Gloriosa herself said, she might have grown old, but she is still a Kuja warrior. Also, being a former ruler where strength is beauty, she undoubtedly was a force to be reckoned with in her prime.

That being said*... Maybe they’re not so different, after all, huh?*

Mythology references

One Piece has loads of references to Japanese myths and folklore, however Wano is especially loaded with these; and how could it not be? It is inspired by Japan, after all.

Moreover, since Kaido can transform into a dragon, there must be some kind of reference to Japanese myths and legends regarding these legendary creatures.

There’s one in particular, which might be the key to Kaido’s backstory: the story of the Enoshima Dragon.

According to this myth, in the mountains near the Koshigoe village lived a five-headed dragon, called Gozuryu, who terrorized the inhabitants over a period of some-thousand years by provoking countless natural disasters such as huge storms, floods and earthquakes, as well as eating their children. The villagers kept praying and praying, until something happened: in 31st May, 552 AD, during a bigger and more violent storm than the usual, the clouds split in two and a rock began to emerge from the sea. A beautiful woman descended from a ray of light where the clouds slit and sat foot on the island just created, making it her home. The dragon, who assisted to the whole thing, immediately fell in love with her and asked her to marry him.

The woman, who was perfectly aware of the dragon’s evil actions, was none other than the goddess Benzaiten herself.

Benzaiten on a white dragon

Now, there are two versions of how the story ends: in one, the goddess turned him down at first, and told the dragon she would have considered his proposal only if he helped the people he used to terrorise. Gozuryu accepted and the village prospered thanks to their dual protection; in the end, the goddess agreed to marry him and the couple lived happily until the dragon met his demise. In the other version, Benzaiten straight up refused Gozuryu’s proposal due to his evil actions; ashamed for his wrongdoings, the dragon promised the goddess he would have never disturbed the village again, and retired in the mountains where he died of guilt.

Anyway, regardless of how the story goes, when the dragon died he fused with the land of Kamakura, creating the Dragon’s Mouth hill (Japanese: Tatsu no kuchi yama) facing south, the direction of the island where his beloved lived. Needless to say, the island of the myth is Enoshima.

The comparison between Kaido and Gozuryu is immediate: both are extremely cruel towards children, with the former having no qualms beating them, even his own, and the latter eating them. Moreover, the Emperor, much like the five-headed dragon, terrorizes the inhabitants of the place near where he lives (Wano Country and Koshigoe Village respectively) turning the land into completely inhabitable wasteland in the process, and is capable of causing huge storms; his apparition in chapter 921 is also being accompanied by a thunderstorm. Note that, in Chapter 1003, Zoro states that fighting Kaido was like “facing a natural disaster”, much like the natural catastrophes Gozuryu caused.

Now, let’s talk about Benzaiten.

Goddess of water (especially rivers), eloquence, and good fortune, Benzaiten is considered one of the protector deities of Japan, where she’s one of the most beloved and revered gods: every major city has at least one place for her worship and countless temples and shrines dedicated to her cult are present in many other areas across the country, all located near water sources such as rivers, ponds, lakes or even in the sea. She is part of Japan’s Seven Lucky Gods, and she’s the only woman among them.

Benzaiten, however, is not originally Japanese: she is in fact a syncretic deity derived from the Hindu goddess Saraswati whose cult was brought to Japan by Buddhist monks who arrived in the VII century from China.

Due to her extreme complexity, only the most relevant facts to this theory will be reported.

She wasn’t very popular until the XI century, when her cult was fused with Ugajin’s, an obscure Japanese Kami of water, agriculture and good fortune, often represented as an old man with a snake body. Once this happened, her popularity skyrocketed as a goddess of water and by assonance ‘of everything that flows’: rivers, eloquence, knowledge, music, art and Haki. Even nowadays, Uga Benzaiten, the goddess with Ugajin on her head, is one of the most common Benzaiten representations.

Both lived in an island inhabited only by women: Gloriosa in Amazon Lily, and Benzaiten in Enoshima, since she was the sole inhabitant of said island and also a woman;

Benzaiten originated from an Indian goddess and Gloriosas, the flowers which Gloriosa was named after, grow in India too! Gloriosa superba is even Tamil Nadu’s national flower.

Due to being goddess of water, Benzaiten was naturally associated with animals connected with said element: snakes, turtles… and dragons. Especially the white ones, since this colour is linked with water in Japanese culture.

Snakes are a big part of Amazon Lily’s culture: almost every warrior on the island has her own Snake Weapon which can be used as a bow, the island’s dome is sculpted with snake motifs, the Perfume Yuda, Kuja Pirates’ flagship, is carried by two Yuda snakes, even Kuja, the name of the tribe, means ‘Nine snakes’

White snakes were considered to be Benzaiten’s main messengers and avatars and Gloriosa in Share the World opening appeared with a blue top and*...* a white snake.

Also, the traditional representation of the Black Warrior is a turtle intertwined with a snake, much like Kujas with their Snake Weapon. Due to these facts, I believe that Gloriosa has eaten the Mythical Zoan Kame Kame no Mi model: Genbu.

Timeline and character analysis – a PERSONAL take on what could have happened and when (and why)

For this section, other than time markings scattered throughout the story, Momonosuke’s (biological 8 – actual 28), Yamato’s (28), and Hancock’s (31) ages will also be taken into account for comparison.

It is known that the Rocks Pirates were defeated and subsequently disbanded 38 years before the current time. Also, Kaido was captured, and presumably sentenced to jail, eighteen times; given his reputation and danger, it’s pretty safe to assume that at least one of those nine prison ships he sunk was directed to Impel Down.

Impel Down is actually not that far from Amazon Lily: the journey takes one sailing week with an average ship, while Marine ones can make it in just four days, about half the time, because of the reserved currents. In my opinion, it makes sense thinking that Kaido has sunk a prison ship in the Paradise and somehow ended up in Amazon Lily.

Now, everyone here knows the supreme rule of the Island of Women:

NO. MEN. ALLOWED.

For any reasons.

So, by the laws of the island, he was imprisoned and, just like Luffy, was sentenced to death. But, like the latter pirate did, Kaido defeated/broke/knocked unconscious all the animal/things commonly used for executions on the island, therefore the Empress finally decided to take the matter into her own hands.

I believe the Kuja Empress at the time was Gloriosa. Why?

Well, it was stated that 33 years ago the remnants of the Rocks Pirates sent off to found their own crews, and probably Kaido arrived in Amazon Lily even earlier, between 38 and 33 years ago. As Hancock stated, Gloriosa is actually the former-former-former empress of Amazon Lily: this means that there were two Empresses between her and Hancock; since the latter is stated to have become Empress at the age of 18, 13 years ago, and given that the other two unnamed Empresses died of Love Sickness which probably is more likely to strike the unlucky rulers at a fairly young age, 20-25 years are more than enough for two Empresses to have reigned.

To estimate her actual force at the time, let’s analyse her name a bit.

Like all Kujas, Gloriosa is named after a flower (or a genus of those): Gloriosa is a genus of 12 flower species, widely spread in areas of the world such as Africa, the Arabic Peninsula and tropical parts of Asia. It can reach 3 metres in height and they display showy, vibrant-colored flowers with distinctively shaped petals, earning them the nickname of fire lily.

So, the question arises spontaneously: why is this short, wrinkly old woman named after one of the most beautiful (and tallest) flowers in the world? Given Oda’s attention even for the tiniest details, I highly doubt he chose this name randomly; at least, not for her.

Either she’s a grotesque parody of her own name… or it could be a foreshadow.

Gloriosa is also the Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Catalan word meaning ‘glorious’, if the subject it’s related to is feminine and singular. A truly fitting name for a ruler and the wife of a Yonko, isn’t it? And Kaido want his death to be… glorious.

Maybe Gloriosa in her prime was actually even more beautiful and stronger than the current Hancock, to the point where nobody had ever beaten her in combat.

Anyway, you know how the saying goes: if it’s one on one, always bet on Kaido.

Therefore, Gloriosa was defeated for the first time. By a man.

Hancock’s case probably gives us how Empresses fall ill with Love Sickness: it happens when a man catches them off guard by behaving in a totally and positively unexpected way, defying all the previous experiences the rulers have. Hancock fell in love with Luffy because he showed her kindness and didn’t judge her when she told him about her past; Gloriosa got Love Sickness because she fell in love with Kaido for his strength.

Because love… is always like a Dragon Twister hurricane!

How about Kaido?

It is common knowledge that he respects physical strength, even in his enemies.

That’s probably why he joined the Rocks Pirates in the first place: out of respect for Rocks D. Xebec, because he was actually the first person ever to defeat him in combat.

Just like Zoro with Kuina, or Douglas Bullet with Gol D. Roger (in the Stampede movie).

Gloriosa may have not defeated him in combat, but she surely gave him a very good run for his money, maybe she almost won. And he respected her for that, to the point where he actually accepted to leave Amazon Lily, even if he won. He stayed there for a little more, while a ship for him to sail the sea was being prepared, and lived peacefully (meaning: extensively touched and examined) with the Kujas.; what are the chances that one of his favourite (or least) foods is actually penne with Gorgonzola and Sea King’s meat, the island’s culinary speciality?

When he sat sail, he probably found out that the Empress snuck aboard his ship when he was far away from the island already. He thought of bringing her back, but, after listening to her reasons, he decided to let her stay with him because, let’s face it, Kaido is not Luffy, he actually appreciates the company of women.

The most beautiful woman in the world fell in love with him and contracted a mysterious illness which would have killed her if she didn’t go with him and follow him anywhere?

Oh no! /s

I’ll tell you what, I don’t think that Kaido was actually in love with her at first that much. He surely enjoyed spending passionate nights with her, and was amused by her curiosity due to Gloriosa knowing little to nothing about the external world.

There was a specific moment when he actually fell in love with her.

Have you noticed that, despite being often shirtless, Kaido's back is never fully uncovered even in his dragon form? He always wears a coat, a shirt, or both.

That hints that Kaido has some kind of mark on his back he wants to hide from public view, just like the Gorgon Sisters. Something must have happened that made him show her said mark, maybe Gloriosa caught a glimpse and asked him to see it. Anyway, Kaido was reclutant at first, but she had the right to know, she was his wife after all.

So he showed it to her, in a way that, when it will be shown in the flashback, might be a callback to when Hancock showed Luffy the Celestial Dragon hoof.

That mark meant that for the world he had and would always have been something inhuman, a failed experiment, a monster; even Big Mom, who has the best spy network in the world, calls him a 'thing'. But Gloriosa didn’t judge him for said mark, nor she believed he was a monster. For Gloriosa, he was just Kaido, the man who she had fallen in love with.

That's when Kaido fell for her. And he fell hard, probably to the point of no return.

At some point, the two conceived a child, and that's when Kaido decided that it was time to move to Wano instead of travelling the world: the pirate life is dangerous for grown people let alone for a child, plus he was one of the most wanted men by the World Government, meaning the child was in danger simply by existing.

But how did Kaido know about Wano?

He probably heard something about the Continent Puller and the ‘country’ he formed about 600 years before but, since it was a closed nation, he probably didn’t know much more until he met someone who escaped from said island: Kurozumi Higurashi.

41 years ago, she told Orochi that she fled the country because of the persecutions against the Kurozumi clan, and because she knew nothing about the outside world, joining pirates was the easier choice. Also, in that way she could have found allies and power for the Kurozumi cause easier.

The Mane Mane no Mi allows the user to create a perfect copy of a person whose face has been touched. She transformed in a woman, who, judging by the color scheme in the anime, is heavily hinted to be Bakkin and a young Shiki, both known members of the Rocks Pirates, so Higurashi may have traveled with said crew for a while. There she met Kaido, who she sensed he could have been a great help for the Kurozumis: big, powerful, and stupid, easy to manipulate.

A closed off country not part of the World Government: a perfect nation for Kaido to reside to ensure the safety of his family (mainly his child, because Gloriosa was more than capable of defending herself) and to use as a base for his operations.

When Oden went with Whitebeard 29 years ago, there were no factories in Wano, but they were there when Toki arrived in Wano with Momonosuke, who was 3 at the time, and Hiyori; so Kaido must have arrived in Wano three years earlier at last.

Gloriosa may not have been the Kuja Empress anymore, but had everything a woman like her could ask for: she was one of the heads of a soon to be powerful army, plus a devoted, loving husband and a child.

Why did she leave it all behind?

I have already talked about the parallels between Gloriosa and turtles in the mythology section, but here’s another one: in Chinese culture, turtle (especially turtle egg) is a very serious insult regarding the morality of one’s mother; that’s why Genbu is called Black Warrior instead of Black Tortoise.

This also expands one of Wano’s most prominent themes: betrayal.

Gloriosa was forced to leave Wano and Yamato behind because she cheated on Kaido. But with who?

Well, the Beast Pirates follow a card games and decks naming theme, and currently there is none named Ace; also, when Oden faced Kaido, Jack was only 8, so my hypothesis is that the third Calamity before him was called Ace. He probably had a crush on Gloriosa and when she went to him for comfort while Kaido was away, probably out to recruit subordinates or captured, he couldn’t resist.

But Kaido caught the two in the act, and was absolutely furious.

He killed Ace, and his position remained vacant for quite some time, until Jack finally took his place in the Calamities; that's why, in Episode 972, there were only King and Queen along with the fodder.

However, Kaido couldn't bring himself to kill his wife personally, so he offered her a choice: be dispatched by the hands of King or Queen, or leave and never return.

Gloriosa chose the second option.

She packed her things and left, only to realize she had nowhere to go: Wano obviously was not an option, but she couldn't just go back to Amazon Lily, not after she betrayed Kujas by abandoning them while she was an Empress. Plus, as a pirate, she was wanted by the Marine. So she lived on the run, continuously assuming new identities and never staying in the same place for too long.

Also, Love Sickness certainly has played its role in weakening her, making her age faster and dramatically decreasing her height in the process.

Taking a look at Hancock’s bed, it’s decisiverly oversized for her: said bed could comfortably fit a laid Boa Hancock together with her Snake Weapon, which is way larger than the others, her sisters, the doctor and Gloriosa, and still have room left for someone else to stand on it.

It is very likely that this bed was the Empress’s for a long time, and, since that position is not inherited, it had to fit Kujas of all sizes. So Gloriosa could have been taller in her youth, maybe a little shorter than Kaido, but still enough to handle him.

Anyway, Gloriosa managed to survive through sheer willpower, the same that allows her to snap out of Hancock’s charm much faster than the others, until her feelings for Kaido eventually faded away, thus healing from said illness.

When she finally arrived to Sabaody Archipelago, at least fifteen years ago, she was unrecognisable. Coincidentally, Shakky's Rip-Off bar was searching for new waiters, and Gloriosa applied because she needed money. The former pirate immediately recognised her.

How is that possible? Feminine intuition!

In chapter 591, she correctly predicted that Hancock would became smitten with Luffy despite not seeing her for thirteen years and every evidence in Hancock's behaviour pointing out the contrary. (Also in the very same chapter Hancock asks Gloriosa how to have a proper marriage while surrounded by monkeys wearing Wano's typical hat. Let that sink in).

Shakky understood that Kaido had no interest in her anymore and let her stay with her and Rayleigh, until the Boa sisters arrived and Gloriosa could finally return to Amazon Lily with the excuse of bringing them back home.

On the other hand, Kaido was devastated, to say the least.

Can you blame him? His beloved wife was cheating on him with one of his most trusted subordinates. He needed to forget, to get rid of all those negative feelings overwhelming him: that's why he started drinking.

However, Kaido isn't stupid. Okay, he may not be as smart as Benn Beckman, the most intelligent person introduced in the East Blue arc, but he surely has some brains: you don't reach and mantain high positions within a crew without some smarts, let alone being an Emperor of the Sea. Kaido soon realised that he caught the two relatively easily. Too easily.

Almost if they wanted to get caught in the act.

While Kaido was drinking his sorrow away, someone else was toasting to a risky plan gone smoothly.

The Kurozumi clan.

Higurashi may have lured Kaido into Wano and the alliance with the Kurozumi, but she didn’t predict that he would have arrived with a wife and a child. Gloriosa probably had a great influence on Kaido, who was (and maybe is still) regarded as little more than a muscle head; and the Kurozumis were actually afraid that she may have been plotting something. This impression was confirmed by the Onibanshu who spied the two pirates: probably Gloriosa wasn't happy about the shogun and suggested her husband some ways to dethronate him.

She was a threat, and they needed to get rid of her as soon as possible.

They sensed that one of Kaido’s top subordinates had feelings for Gloriosa, and they decided to use this fact to their advantage. So Higurashi transformed using her Devil Fruit powers and seduced the crew’s Ace, in a time and a place where she was sure Kaido could see them, while someone else distracted Gloriosa. In the end, everything went according to plan.

However, when Kaido saw the old hag using her powers some time after, he understood everything. But he had no concrete proofs, and certainly wasn't in the position to kill someone so important to his pawn based only on simple suspects; so he waited, until the perfect moment arrived.

Meanwhile, Kaido kept drinking, to forget his actions and to numb his guilt. At first, a little quantity of alcohol did the trick, but eventually he needed more and more, slowly falling into addiction.

You know, Gloriosas’ beauty is only matched by their toxicity: as proud members of the Colchicaceae family, they contain colchicine, a powerful metabolic toxin; all parts of these plants can be fatal if eaten, even a simple touch can cause skin irritation. Due to this, Gloriosa superba has been used for centuries to commit suicide.

Just like colchicine corrodes the body, alcohol, together with shame, guilt and anger, slowly eroded Kaido’s soul, corrupting him from within.

While Kaido's original plan for Wano was simply to make the island his operational base, after all that happened he decided to destroy and utterly annihililate it, just like Orochi destroyed his happiness. The shogun was fine with his ally’s devastations and never suspected that Kaido knew. The latter made Orochi believe he wouldn’t touch the Flower Capital, just to completely erase it from the face of Earth once his army would have been powerful enough to fight an all-out war. Revenge is a dish best served cold and then smashed on the forehead.

The rest is history.

Surely Kaido will be defeated, but he will not be completely dealt with in this arc.

Yamato probably got their kind, selfless nature from Gloriosa. The latter would have never approved of the terms of Kaido’s promise to Oden, let alone all the hostages and atrocities done by her husband; since Oden began to dance naked in the streets 25 years ago, probably Gloriosa was already gone at that time.

Because of this, Yamato has little to no memories of their mother, so they will likely ask Kaido about her at the end of the battle. However, Kaido himself doesn’t know her whereabouts because he didn’t send spies after her; at first, because he didn’t care about her anymore. When he realised his mistake, he still didn’t search for her because otherwise it would have shown that she was still important to him. He is not naive, he knows there are spies in his ranks, even at high levels; therefore he wants to avoid attracting unwanted attentions to her.

Plus, Kaido doesn’t even want to know, because Gloriosa probably is dead or has found another person to be with; and he deep down knows that those news would definitely break him.

However, there’s one little detail: Gloriosa’s speech quirk-nyon. Even if her appearance has changed quite a bit, she surely did nyot change her way of talking. Luffy would probably understand Kaido is talking about her because of this, and will tell them that she’s alive and well in Amazon Lily.

It is a known fact that our protagonist either kills the villains’ dreams or changes them: Kaido will change his goal too. He wouldn’t want to die yet, he will probably want to meet Gloriosa again to apologize properly for what he had done to her.

Thus, he will survive the battle and somehow, after almost thirty years, Kaido and Gloriosa will meet again.

Will Gloriosa forgive him? Will she not?

Only Oda will tell.

Other references

Black Maria Many people actually believe she’s a Kuja, and I admit, they have pretty good reasons for thinking so. Let’s start by her name: other than being a card game, Black Maria is also a variety of bougainvillea, a clear reference to Kuja’s floral naming theme; there is also a flower named Spider Lily (Lycoris radiata) referencing her Devil Fruit powers and Amazon Lily alike. Black Maria has also flowers in her hair; the most prominent ones, colored in red, have also five petals, much like the one Gloriosa wears in her hair! She is also the owner of a brothel in Onigashima and, also due to her size, it’s heavily implied that she and Kaido have a… passionate relationship, as Oda would put it (However, Kaido probably views her as nothing more than a distraction). Of course, Kaido and his wife must have had their passionate moments, since they have a child. Moreover, Benzaiten is almost always represented playing a biwa, and, as shown in chapter 992, Black Maria can play it very well. She also has a remarkable singing voice, a feature which was one of the basic requisites to become a geisha. Geishas also were protected by Benzaiten. All in all, Black Maria is actually the biggest reference to Gloriosa... in a literal and figurative sense! Oh, one last thing: the men tied to her webs in Chapter 1005 can be a symbol for Kaido’s soul, unable to move on and perpetually being trapped in the memories and regrets of his relationship with Gloriosa together with his alcohol addiction.

Kaido’s flagship Currently, Kaido’s flagship is the only one among the four Emperors’ which has yet to be seen or named. Some speculate that it’s actually Onigashima, but, in my opinion, that’s not the case: why would he travel with his entire home, with the concrete risk of it being destroyed every time he faces an opponent? Also, Yamato is in there: they have explosive handcuffs which doesn’t allow them to leave the island, but what if someone with internal destruction haki actually removes them thus freeing Yamato and letting them escape? Also, what if Yamato actually gets severely wounded, or worse, killed by invaders? Kaido actually strikes me as an overprotective dad, thus he will never directly expose his child to external danger. The handcuffs will explode if and only if Yamato actually tries to leave Onigashima: if they stay there, nothing will happen. Plus, in chapter 997, when Kaido started lifting Onigashima someone said that the island had never trembled like that before. Kaido actually has his flagship, and the reason why it hasn’t been shown is its name. I’ve said before that Gloriosa means glorious in some languages, therefore there’s a big chance that the ship will have in its name also the Japanese word of the same meaning. Maybe it’s called ‘Glorious Dragon’ in Japanese, or something like that.

Yamato Now, this will touch one of the most controversial topics within the community right now, which is Yamato’s gender; I wish not to discuss about it under this post, because this isn’t the time nor the place (IMO it’s better to delay the discussion at the end of this arc, when Yamato will hopefully detach from the Kozuki Oden persona and find their own identity). Regardless of all this, Yamato was born as a female: and Kujas give birth to female babies only.

Kaido and Big Mom comparison: Although they were part of the same pirate crew for some time and both of them being now Emperors, there are a lot of things about their characters which mark these two as counterparts: first of all, Kaido is male and Big Mom is female. Big Mom belongs to the older generations of pirates, while Kaido belongs to the new one (together with Shanks). Kaido drinks a lot while Big Mom eats a lot. Big Mom has more than 80 children, while Kaido just one*. Lastly, Big Mom has had many unknown husbands, who she married and treated as equals only to discard them when their children are born, revealing she had zero feelings towards them. With the previous comparisons in mind, it would make perfect sense for Kaido to have had only one wife who has already appeared in the story and who he has loved dearly and maybe still does.

*In my opinion, Katakuri, Oven and Daifuku aren’t Kaido’s sons. Even if the physical resemblance is uncanny, there are two major arguments against this supposed paternity: first, the triplets don’t display any type of horns, which Yamato, the known child of Kaido, has. Secondly, the Yonko’s age: he is surely younger than 68, since this is Big Mom’s age and she considers him like a little brother; however, being heavily implied that Shakuyaku was part of the Rocks Pirates as well and she was considered a pirate, while Kaido was only an apprentice, it’s implicitly stated that he must be younger than her, too. She’s now 64, and this puts his maximum age at 63; given the triplet’s age, 48, Kaido may have had them when he was 15, which is an age when men usually have reached their sexual maturity, but he may be even younger than that, so draw your conclusion.

I admit, this turned out a lot longer than I actually expected. My sincerest kudos to you, dear reader, for reading all this time-consuming post – I hope you enjoyed it as much as I had fun writing it.

Please, let me know your thoughts, they are more than welcome!

TL;DR: Gloriosa is Kaido’s wife and Yamato’s mother, she has eaten the mythical variant of the Kame Kame fruit, Katakuri is not Kaido’s son and Gin will become Pirate King.

comments on reddit  :

kaido has been revealed to be 59 

I really want to know who yamatos mother was and I am willing to accept any theory for now

[ask-the-riders]

Eager Deal Maker

Not all demons enjoy making deals and stealing souls

But most of them thrive off of it

((Gonna add some warnings for implied abuse, implied domestic disturbances, threats, manipulation, threats against animals, and dark themes))

The drama was a frequent occurrence within the household, and frankly, none of it came as a surprise anymore. If anything, the demon found it amusing, and the negative environment fed him well. It began when the dumb brunette harlot moved in with her worthless drunk of a boyfriend. Naturally, her teenage daughter went with her; Not that she was  given a choice on the matter. The woman’s boyfriend also had a daughter of his own, who’d made it clear from the very beginning that she had no interest in befriending the other girl.

Living together wasn’t always the best, but it was doable. Then the family relocated, and a little time passed before the woman’s eldest child moved in with them, absolutely riddled with anxiety and depression. Of course, while Othni relished those emotions, it was the fear and anger that blossomed there that really caught his attention. First it was from the pair of siblings and their overactive imaginations, causing them to fear their new home’s basement. They despised the dirt and cobwebs, the old, musty odor, and the various dark crawl spaces. Their minds painted the image of monsters lingering in the gloom, and more than once, they feared that if they looked into the darkness too long, they’d catch something looking back at them. Othni had been so very tempted to indulge their imagination a little, and he contemplated all the various forms he could take to scare them.

He never got the chance, though. The rage that took hold of the house was located on the second floor, and it was provided by the daughter of the mother’s boyfriend. She was so angry and often carried the stench of jealousy, and Othni was intrigued. She had such an easy life; So he didn’t understand what she had to be angry about. Her parents loved her, she didn’t have to work even a single moment to attain anything she currently owned, she had a loving boyfriend of her own, and she had virtually the entire upstairs of the house to herself. She was bitter and ungrateful, and Othni could hardly believe some of the things that she had the audacity to say to her father. Hell, if he’d even considered saying such things to his father…

Othni shook off those thoughts, refocusing his attention on the present moment. Right now, a fluffy black cat that belonged to the pair of siblings was staring at him from across the small living room, it’s large, green eyes locked on his every move. He paused, stopping in the doorway that connected the living room to the kitchen, and he arched an eyebrow, watching the cat tilt its head and take one tiny, cautious step toward him. Smiling slightly in amusement, the demon slowly lowered himself to the floor and sat down, turning his body a bit and facing away from the cat. As he’d expected, the fluffball continued to very cautiously approach him, stretching its neck and sniffing the air. This was a creature that was pure of heart, and he could tell how timid it was, so he did his best to stay as still as possible. 

Crouched low to the ground, it crept even closer, slowly making its way around him and sniffing at his arms and hands. Looking up at him with wide eyes, its mouth hung open as it tried to process the new scent, and he chuckled, amused by the way that particular expression looked on its face. A door slammed upstairs and the cat immediately bolted for the stairs, likely to go hide in its owners’ room. Othni made a face, pouting as he watched it leave; It was fluffy and timid, and it reminded him of his precious Misfit. It saddened him ever so slightly that the fluffball was gone now, but he shoved the feeling aside. After all, he could always see it some other time. 

The stairs creaked and he vanished into the shadows, quietly watching as the resident home-wrecker descended. Usually she emitted nothing but anger and jealousy, but at the moment, she gave off a sick, twisted sense of joy and satisfaction. Noting the cocky smirk she wore, he frowned; Oh, wonderful. Just what in the hell had she done now?

He waited for her to pass from the room before he warped through the shadows and manifested in the shadows that occupied the guest room. Careful to stay out of sight, he took a deep breath, sensing the anger, frustration, fear, and despair from across the hall. The elder sibling’s anxiety had grown so much that it was almost suffocating, and he furrowed his brows in puzzlement. Again, he warped through the shadows of the house, manifesting a second time within the siblings' closed bedroom closet. Listening in, he caught the sound of sniffling, as if one of them was crying. When they spoke, their voice shook, “If she does anything to him, I swear… I’m gonna throw the bitch down the damn stairs. I’m not letting her get away with this.” As they spoke, he could hear the anger and venom that were laced into their words, and he tilted his head. 

He was all for violence and revenge, but just what was going on? The one that was speaking was usually so reserved and considerate of others. They reeked of kindness and empathy, and this was incredibly out of character for them. Willing to risk being seen, he warped through the small gap beneath the door, quickly finding a new spot just outside one of their windows. Peering inside, his eyes scanned the room before they settled on a piece of paper that laid on the foot end of one of their beds. Squinting a bit, he focused in on it, and then immediately bristled. On it, there was a threat to kill their cat, along with an additional insult. From the brief meeting he’d had with their little black fluffball, he could tell that it was a sweetheart. In such a short amount of time, it reminded him so much of Misfit that he felt his long dead heart give a small pulse in affection, and he found himself already harboring the urge to protect it. This… This wouldn’t fly. If these humans didn’t do something to protect it, then he’d be taking it with him, and that was all there was to it. 

“I can see you out there!” The other siblings' words caught Othni by surprise and he jolted, quickly ducking out of their line of sight. Hiding in the shadows again, he listened as the first sibling questioned them, frowning as they gave their response, “There was a shadow out there. It was all dark, and then I saw it move.” The demon mentally kicked himself for not being more careful and he remained frozen in place, waiting for their conversation to change before he moved again. When it did eventually drift back to the subject from before, he prepared to move, but then abruptly stopped, listening as he caught the tail end of something the first sibling had said, “-I wish demons were real. At this point, I’d willingly give one of them my damn soul if it meant getting rid of that bitch and keeping Bubby safe.”

A lightbulb went off in the demon’s mind, and a wide, sharp toothed grin stretched across his face; An opportunity to make a deal had just presented itself, it seemed. He didn’t even care if he laid claim to their soul or not, all that mattered was protecting their little feline friend. Grinning devilishly to himself in delight, he warped back into their closet and waited. Some time passed before their light shut off and the room became illuminated by nothing more than a small, handheld lamp, and he prepared himself, his tail and claws disappearing, his sharpened teeth becoming dull and human while his eyes faded and turned emerald green. He allowed his greyed skin to shift, becoming a more human looking color before he rapped on the door exactly three times and waited. 

Naturally, a few expletives slipped from their mouths, and he arched a brow. There was the sound of movement before the closet door slowly opened after a moment and the pair of siblings gawked at him. Clearing his throat, he took the most polite tone he could manage, “One of you wished for a demon to solve your recent problems for you, so here I am.” While the elder of the two continued to stare at him, the younger one seemed taken aback, “Uhh, no, we didn’t. Who the hell are you, and why are you in our closet?” The demon  couldn’t help the amused grin that found its way onto his face and he tilted his head, “One of you said they’d willingly give up their soul to get rid of that dunderheaded doxy across the hall and to keep your pet safe.” The younger sibling shot a look at the elder of the two, and the elder seemed to shrink back a bit, offering them a small, guilty smile. 

Shifting his attention to them, he hummed, “I presume it was you?” They sheepishly nodded, not quite meeting his gaze, and he warped through the distance between them, “Luckily for you, I can do that. I can get rid of her, and I can make sure your cat is safe. You caught me on a good day, so I won’t even ask for your soul.” The elder of the two siblings regarded him with a look of clear suspicion, narrowing their eyes, “…What would you be getting out of it? You’re a demon, so I don’t think you’d ever do anything just for the sake of being nice.” He chuckled lowly to himself; Oh, so they were a clever one. How interesting. 

The demon shrugged his shoulders, noting the way their cheeks reddened the slightest bit as he drew even closer to them and leaned down, wrapping an arm around them. Lowering his voice, Othni murmured, “I saw the note she left, where she threatened to kill your cat.” He paused, slowly letting his appearance shift back to normal. As his fair skin became greyed and his teeth sharpened, his eyes began to glow a vibrant shade of blue and his tail appeared, unwinding from around his waist. It curled around the elder sibling’s waist and he dug his clawed fingertips into the fabric of their shorts as he purred, “As you can probably imagine, I happen to love cats. If someone has the audacity to kill a cat, then I kill them. Simple as that.” Registering the change in his appearance, the tail around their waist, and his words, their eyes widened and they froze, unsure what to do.

Sensing this, he lifted his free hand, delicately turning their head so they’d meet his gaze. As their eyes met his, he offered them a sharp, charming grin, “While your soul would be a nice little add-on to this deal, I don’t need it. All I want is the satisfaction of ridding this home of someone who’d dare hurt an innocent animal. All you’d have to do is keep your mouth shut and let me feed off of the growing negativity here.” He stole a glance at the younger sibling, “Both of you. Do you think you could do that?” The siblings shared a look, the younger one nodding first before the elder nodded back. Meeting Othni’s gaze again, the elder sibling made a soft sound in agreement, “Yeah… We could do that.” He seemed to light up, his grin widening, “Wonderful, I’m glad! Since I am still making a deal with you though, I’ll need you to shake my hand.” Offering them a blackened hand, he patiently waited as they internally battled with themselves. 

A few seconds passed before they hesitantly took his hand, and his grin became mischievous. He tightened his grip on their hand and dug his claws into their skin, drawing a small amount of blood as he hissed, “Excellent, I’ll get started immediately, then. I’d suggest putting your headphones on… You might not want to hear the screams.” 

[literatigifs]

anonymous asked: What is your opinion on the arguments rogans use that Logan ‘called Rory out on her privilege’? I don’t really agree with it

The short answer would be that I hate it and don’t really agree with it. The long answer is that the show overall doesn’t handle the topic of privilege and money as seriously as it should, and when it pretends to, like in this particular episode, it’s mainly used for fodder to bring up some random argument between them before they half-heartedly make up from my perspective. And I don’t say this even as a form of jab against Rogan as a relationship in this episode, I just think the storyline is poorly handled and Logan’s overall aggression towards Rory over this is overdone and frankly asshole-ish from his side. It’s like this: I don’t consider Rory to be underprivileged, and contextually, she is more privileged than other people in her life, namely Lane or Jess, for example. But Rory also isn’t privileged on the same level as someone like Logan is, and she didn’t grow up with the same kind of lifestyle he did. Now, I’ve seen people use the same arguments Logan did in that episode regarding Rory’s privilege in how she does have her grandparents’ support and money, and even gets to live rent-free in his apartment. But here’s the thing: Rory only allows herself support from her grandparents and their money when it comes to her education, not when it comes to the lifestyle she leads. And the apartment thing is frankly offensive to be brought up from Logan’s side because he offered her to say in it while he was away. When he brings it up, she quickly decides to go back to living with Paris, because obviously she doesn’t really care where she lives as long as she has a solid place to stay. This is where the main differences between them and their privilege overall comes to light: we only ever see Logan in spacious, expensive apartments or huge houses like his home, but when it comes to Rory, even when she stayed with her grandparents, she went to live in the pool house instead of the main one with them, and even afterwards notes on how she’s begun to hate the life she lead there. Rory grew up in a garden shed and then went to live in a house that she and her mother called ‘the crap shack’. Even as we continue to see her grow up and even be an adult in the revival, we don’t see her spending money to live in some lavish location, courtesy of her trust fund money or even her grandmother.

This brings me to another point which is that even when Rory is in a way privileged for getting the chance to study at Yale, and potentially rack up more connections for future job inquiries, she’s still going to have to get the jobs and stories herself. It’s not even remotely on the same level as Logan, who has a guaranteed company to run and high-end job to fulfill ever since he’s born, and one that he obviously takes up despite his complaints in season 7 and again in the revival. Rory is definitely privileged, but she’s also not as privileged as people who’ve grown up like Logan are and will continue to be sheltered with their own money and legacy, which truthfully, Rory never fully accepts or takes advantage of from her grandparents. Now, when it comes to the topic of “calling out rich people”, I honestly didn’t see that there was much of a problem with her article besides it lacking more self-awareness on her end and how her own privilege allows her to see these rich people up close, but also be able to judge them because of that. But the episode itself never makes it a point where Rory realizes her mistake, but is also given space to be critical of other people’s privilege, as well as her own. I’ve read articles from Yale graduates in the Yale News itself where they’ve discussed how much they’re aware of their privilege of being able to focus on school and affording to go to an Ivy League one while also noting on the numerous other classmates that have this and continue to be unaware of it. Contrary to many rogan shippers’ weird beliefs, it’s actually possible for a rich or privileged person to criticize people from their rank or even above them, so long as they also leave space in noting on their own standing and doing something more with it. This episode doesn’t have any of that, though. It just circles back to Rory and Logan apologizing for their argument, him giving some vague “well you write so well you made me feel this intense need to argue with you” remark instead of idk, even giving her some basic advice over the article like toning it down, but still being fine with her publishing it or even being encouraging about it. And afterwards, there’s no real storyline that directly tackles either of their privilege or family money. Logan manages to quit his family’s job but still obviously gets to keep his trust fund since he had no problem buying a house in San Francisco and even proposing to Rory with a ring. And Rory’s storyline mainly goes back to graduating and then finding a job. Even the choice she made by declining an offer in Providence for the sake of a fellowship in the NYT could’ve been noted as one made by a person that still has the comfort of waiting on a desirable position instead of directly grabbing any chance they could for a job, but the show obviously doesn’t get this and doesn’t make any note of it. And I don’t even necessarily fault Rory for this choice, either, since working in New York was something she had wanted for a while. Final offhand note but it’s also ironic how rogan fans love scenes like this where they explicitly note that Logan “put Rory in her place”, or conveniently never mention his outburst at her in the bar in 6x08, but are more than ready to get the pitch forks when Jess asks her why she dropped out in that same episode, lol. Other offhand note but Logan quitting his job and then acting all “I’m gonna do this right” is still an incredibly lackluster storyline, because even if he doesn’t have his family job, he still has his trust fund, his family name, as well as his experience in working for his father’s company and graduating from Yale to back him up in any job he tries out for. This is also obvious in the job that he even gets to accept at the end too; he doesn’t just get some regular low-level paying job, he gets one that is closer to his previous position.

[argumentl]

The Freedom of Expression, radio version - Ep 49, Sep 2016 - Diverse beauty pageant, Sex doll theft.

Kaoru starts by saying he is currently in the process of rehearsing for the DSS tour and for a live show in Taiwan which the band will soon be doing. DSS is quite a recent album and a lot of people will remember it, so he is not sure exactly how to go about it, or whether to make it very different from the original DSS or not. He asks listeners to send in their impressions of the tour after they see it. Kaoru then goes to play his first record, but asks for a bit of time while he finds his papers so he can read out the song title without making a mistake. The song is, 'Hageshisa to, kono mune no naka de karamitsuita shakunetsu no yami'. He stumbles over the pronunciation of  'karamitsuita' and has to try again.

Kaoru's first story of interest relates to a beauty pageant at the Faculty of Arts in Nihon University(Nichidai) in Tokyo. (*In Japanese 'beauty pageant' is expressed as 'Miss con'*). This particular time of year is apparently 'Miss con' season in schools, but the pageant at the Faculty of Arts in Nichidai is slightly different from your average beauty pageant, partly because it includes a cross-dressing gay man (Kaoru uses the word 'オカマ/okama' for this). Kaoru then reads out part of a news article which explains how this pageant differs from the usual glamorous pageants, with its edgy fashion, and focus on prioritizing identity. The name of the male member of their group is Tsune chan. Kaoru thinks its pretty great that he is participating, and questions the use of 'Miss' in 'Miss con'. Joe thinks that Tsune chan does appear to be in tune with this definition though. Kaoru says that even if 'Miss' is in the name of the contest, anyone can still join. Joe thinks this is a good thing. Kaoru admits that when he first saw the image of this Nichidai group, he didn't immediately think of beauty pageants. He doesn't necessarily think they have to be called 'Miss cons'. ..Maybe something like 'おもろいやつ集合!/omoroi yatsu shūgō!'('Interesting people get together!')

Joe says that beauty pageants in general are often targets of criticism, in that women competing with each other based on beauty is a result of sexism is society. But he thinks they can also be an opportunity to show how diverse people are. He refers back to the topic from last week about the judge posting underwear selfies on twitter, and the concepts of neutrality and fairness. These words come up a lot when working for a magazine like Rolling Stone. Rolling Stone had originally grown to be a magazine which supports the Democratic Party in America, but for the Japanese version, Joe has often been told to feature more opinions from both sides of the political spectrum in the name of neutrality, instead of just the more left leaning opinions. However, Joe doesn't think featuring both sides is necessarily more neutral. To him, being more neutral means being more diverse. Diversity is the most important thing, rather than just a balance of political opinion. Similarly, in regards to beauty pageants, he feels like the definition of 'a contest for beautiful women' is quite narrow, a better way to describe it would be 'a contest of diversity'.

Kaoru thinks that Nichidai's diverse beauty pageant seems more interesting than the regular type. He even wants to go and watch the pageant himself. They wonder about the male competitor Tsune chan, what type of artwork is he making in the Faculty of Arts at Nichidai? Kaoru feels like he might have seen him on TV somewhere, but he isn't sure.

Tasai joins them next for the Tokyo Sports corner. His first comment is that the word 'オカマ/okama' used earlier is considered to be a slightly offensive/discriminatory term these days. The word 'ゲイ/gay' is more commonly used now in the case of men. Kaoru and Joe say they were both unaware of this, are quick to offer an apology. The times are changing faster than they have been able to keep up. Joe says they too need to educate themselves. Tasai points out that it was the word used in the headline of the article, which is why Kaoru said it (i.e. it wasn't originally Kaoru's choice of words).

After declining the idea of taking a phone call on air from Hiranabe (who is apparently currently drinking in a 'mature hostess' pub in Hakata), Tasai brings up some Tokyo Sports-esque news. This is the news of a man from Iwate prefecture who set up a photoshoot in some ruins with his 4 sex dolls. After the photoshoot ended at 6pm, he decided to leave the dolls there and come back for them in the morning...only to find they had been stolen when he arrived to collect them the next day. Each of the dolls is said to have cost ¥600,000. Kaoru and Joe think that the owner should never have left something that expensive out overnight. Kaoru thinks he probably just couldn't be bothered hauling them all home in the evening. Tasai says that Tokyo Sports nicked-named the 4 dolls the 'Sumire Unit'. Their combined price comes to ¥2,380,000. Tokyo Sports is apparently puzzled as to why someone would steal them, knowing they would probably get tracked down as soon as they tried to sell them. Kaoru suggests thats not what the thief was thinking about.

They wonder how the pre-theft photos turned out. Photography in ruins is quite trendy recently with real humans, especially Idols or actors. Kaoru says that whenever ruins are suggested for a Dir en grey photoshoot or pv, they always pass on the idea these days. Its become too normal to imagine them in ruins, quite boring. Tasai asks Kaoru if Dir en grey have ever had photoshoots in weird locations, for example, Onsen grounds etc. Kaoru says they have actually done a photoshoot in the ruins of a public bath somewhere in Kanto before. Joe asks him if there are any locations he really wants to do a photoshoot in. He says there aren't really.

To finish, Kaoru says he is thinking of some new plan for the show (as next time is the 50th epidode), something in which the listeners can express/introduce themselves through either fashion or other creative means. He hasn't really got the specifics organized yet, but is thinking about how to do it.

Songs - Dir en grey/ Hageshisa to, kono mune no naka de karamitsuita shakunetsu no yami, Nine Inch Nails/Vessel, Dir en grey/Utafumi.

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[glassworkspiderlilies]

cordial

Genshin Impact | @albelumiweek 2021 Day 7 | Free Day | AO3 Summary: She makes a fist without being asked, and he gives her a faint smile before he opens his mouth, offering a brief view of his pointed incisors before he bites down. Lumine does not flinch, not anymore. She watches serenely as he feeds, ever polite, ever elegant despite the nature of the process. Notes: Ending the week with a vampire AU!! thank you everyone who’s followed along for the week, and thank you to the mods who hosted!!! <3

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Albedo is soundless when he slips through the door, but Lumine has grown more used to registering his presence and looks up in time to see him crossing the space to her desk. He smiles at her as he approaches, and she merely looks back down at the paperwork she is going through as though she were not interrupted. 

"That time already?" she asks idly, and she feels rather than sees him take a seat. 

"Yes. But I will wait," Albedo replies amiably, and gives him a grateful arch of her brow.

It takes a little longer than she would have liked to reach a good stopping point. She sets down her pen and leans back in her chair, rubbing at her eyes, though she doesn't get very far before she feels a feather-light touch on the back of her hand. 

"That's not good for your vision," Albedo says softly, and she looks up at him blearily, putting her hands in her lap with a sigh. 

"Neither is staring at paperwork for so long," she says ruefully, looking a little despairingly at what she has left. 

"Then perhaps now is a good time for a break, to indulge me?" 

"I would hardly call this an indulgence." 

But she holds out her hand, and Albedo trails a finger down the length of her forearm. He chooses a vein, then loosens his cravat to tie it tightly around her arm. He taps at her skin, then glances up briefly. She makes a fist without being asked, and he gives her a faint smile before he opens his mouth, offering a brief view of his pointed incisors before he bites down.

Lumine does not flinch, not anymore. She watches serenely as he feeds, ever polite, ever elegant despite the nature of the process. He has always treated this so...medically that even during the first time, it never felt wholly wrong. 

As she watches him this time, however, a thought floats up to the forefont of her brain, a stupid curiosity that she is voicing before she can stop herself. (Later, she will blame it on her fuzzy mind, a result of overworking.)

"Do you ever drink from elsewhere?" she asks, and Albedo lifts his head, blinking in surprise, his teeth still red. 

"I...well, yes, sometimes," he says, glancing down at the punctures on her arm. "But the arm is...easier."

"And the neck?" 

"The neck?"

"Yes. Like in the classic stories." 

Albedo tilts his head, eyes a little wider, almost innocent, though there is a particular gleam as well. 

"Why...are you asking?" 

"Curiosity, I suppose. Your method is very different from the stories, from what I've seen."

He chuckles a little, then bends back down to swipe the blood surfacing from his bite with his tongue. In the next moment, he's wrapping a clean bandage around her arm.  

"The neck can be easier in other ways," he concedes, his focus on his task, "But it can also be...dangerous."

"How so?" 

"You've larger and more important veins there. They require more pressure afterwards, and if you are not terribly careful with the bite to begin with, then you could very well kill someone. It is why the classic stories feature it thus, as we...did not care about being careful."

Lumine taps her fingers a couple times on her desk. 

"And that is why the Hunts against your kind became so fevered."

Albedo inclines his head.

"Just so." 

They are silent for a moment as he finishes wrapping her arm, the extent of the bandage a little more excessive than usual. Lumine does not pull her hand back when he finished, and nor does he remove his own.

"But it's possible?" she says, the question seeming too loud in the air, "To drink from the neck, without killing."

Albedo sits back, his eyes narrowing a little.

"Most things are possible," he says, the implication of but that does not mean they should all be attempted clear. 

Lumine hums, considering.

"I'd like you to indulge me," she says, and he draws in a sharp breath.

He stares at her, almost in disbelief. She can tell that he is mapping out the reasons why she offers—there's a few, really. At present, he needs to feed often from her, and she can tell from the amount he takes at a time that it is not quite enough to satiate him. When he does feed, it's always from the arm, which makes for a sore spot due to the frequency. If he were able to draw from her neck, while she might be more tired after, it would sustain him longer. And...it's an exercise of trust, yes between a vampire and the Lightbearer, which would go a long way in repairing reputation.

But most of all, it is an extension of trust between them as individuals. 

Even so. Such a thing favors Albedo wholly, and he gazes at her, trying to determine what the benefit is for her.

She smiles, understanding the unspoken question.

“It’s a secret,” she says, only a little mischievously, “Are you willing to find out?”

His brow furrows lightly, and he leans forward, highly hesitant. But she begins to unbutton the high neck of her dress, pulling back the collar to reveal her slender neck, and he will not pretend disinterest; he cannot hide the hunger that lights his eyes.

“Be gentle, will you?” she teases, and he tilts his head.

“Am I not always?” he asks, and her eyes crinkle.

“Yes,” she says, quietly. “Sometimes, too much so.”

It is silent between them again.

Lumine pulls back her collar even further; Albedo meets her eyes again, then looks to her neck. He trails his fingers down its length as he did with her arm, then hovers his lips just above her skin.

After a moment, she feels wetness of his tongue, then the slight prick of his teeth before they sink in entirely. She lets out a small noise—it is a new sensation, in a new location—but Albedo does not pull back.

He drinks.

The new position is exquisitely intimate, and the longer they stay that way the faster she feels her heart beat. She begins to feel dizzy—though she doesn’t know whether it’s from the heat flushing her body or blood loss. She doesn’t know how long his lips have been on her neck, but it’s not in protest when she reaches up a hand and twines her fingers into his hair.

She feels it when he drinks deep, and a gasp escapes as he does so. In the next moment he’s pulling back as though ripping himself from her, putting a hand over her puncture wounds and pressing down, reaching for bandages again.

She’s a little dazed. Lumine allows him his ministrations, but there’s a stiffer manner to him now, as though he is relying on the politeness rather than extending it the natural way he usually does.

“Was that enough of an indulgence?” he asks quietly as he steps back, and it takes a minute for Lumine to answer him, distracted by his lashes, the way he won’t look at her, the way his own pale skin is suffused with just a hint of color.

“Perhaps,” she murmurs. “And for you?”

He looks at her sharply, his brows knitted in what seems like irritation or confusion. But she smiles. He can be distant, yes, and may be lacking in interpersonal skills. But he is a smart man, too, and she can tell that he is coming to realize just what it is she’s gained from the interaction.

A break in his defenses.

“You walk a dangerous line,” he says quietly, his hands curling into fists before he hides them behind his back.

“I always do; it is part of my work.”

He says nothing, looking at the ground. She is not offended by his reticence and leans back in her seat, glancing out the window at the shifting night that never lifts.

“The years are long, Albedo,” she finally says, her voice soft, “And very empty.”

He goes still at the familiar sentiment voiced aloud. There are not many as long-lived as they.

It is only now that he comes to realize their meeting may not only have been a miracle to him.  

“…They are,” he says soberly.  

There is no more room to hesitate, he supposes. He’d thought to allow her space where he could, when he’d already occupied her body to sustain himself—but she continues to draw him.

And creatures such as him are greedy—though such is his own nature, as well.

He gives a defeated sigh and walks back to her, perching himself on the arm of her chair.

She looks up at him, holds out her hand. He bends down and presses her palm to his cheek, then turns his lips to the inside of her wrist.

“It does not have to be,” he murmurs, and her laugh is a little choked, as well.

He presses a kiss against her lips—chaste, too gentle. She sighs against his mouth, and leans into his side after they part.  

They sit there for some time, still and silent, holding each other’s hands, taking comfort that they no longer have to walk through the darkness alone.    

[hanawrites404]

Journey

@oc-growth-and-development

(trigger warning : smoking, mention of death)

Another day, another restorative morning, as if nothing else can motivate me enough to finally cut my laze and start the new day already.

I got off my bed and my eyes instinctively gazed out the window beside me at the wall. As usual, there wasn't much outside, just the same trees and lawns you would find in any other neighbourhood, yet I never seem to get tired of looking at them over and over every time I wake up. It was like a part of my everyday morning ritual which I definitely shouldn't miss, and honestly, I was fine with it. I was not the type of person to actively look for spices in my life after all, and even if I start to crave for it someday, I just wait for it to come to me.

Otherwise, everything just gotta be restful, that's all I want, to be honest.

The water was pleasantly chill to bathe in, too, and so was the dawn's sea breeze swishing through the balcony as soon as the curtains were tucked out and the windows were pulled open. If anything warm right now, it was the brisk sun and the brimming cup of steaming café au lait thawing my bare arms and fingers as I stepped out to lean onto the grill of my terrace. My feet were bare as well, touching the cool tiles beneath them as I felt the tingling sensation through my nerves.

I was still in my pyjamas, my hair up in a bun and it was still seven. Other than some elder citizens walking outside to get the minty air rushing and stray cats and dogs yawning and stretching, the scene in front of me was almost deserted.

It all felt quiet, but it wasn't prickly. The birds were still tweeting, the bulk of leaves rustled in a shimmer, and I could even hear my sigh as I blew the hot vapour from my cup, my lips slowly savouring the coffee bit by bit. It was very peaceful, I liked it.

But unfortunately, it wasn't real.

"미스......미스.....일어나 미스!"

I jolted up from the unfamiliar voice presumably calling out for me. So it was all a dream? I wasn't enjoying a utopian morning at my balcony back in Miami?? But it all felt so real....from the taste of coffee to the warmth I felt of the drink. So it was all my imagination? Wow huh....looks like the power of my mind is going to be a mystery to me for a while. I never knew that my brain could fool me into believing that I was relaxing at my home, and not dozing off in a Korean tourist bus.

"Ugghmm...Huh?" Still groggy from my sleep, I blinked twice before looking outside the window of the bus. By the look of it, I think we had come to the final stop. Before letting out anything else from my mouth, I silently turned my gaze onto the one who broke my slumber, namely the bus conductor.

He is looking right at me. Come on, say something....!!

"U-Ummm...." I stumbled, my index slowly moving to point at the complex the bus had stopped near at.

"역???" I cringed as I tried to pronounce the exotic word. Fuck. I didn't expect my voice to crack right in front of the bus conductor. And before anyone raises a question, no. I don't know Korean. I just happened to memorize only the important words I might need to communicate during my journey to Korea. But while I was still at home I felt pretty confident in myself, what happened to me now? It wasn't unusual of me, I am a human after all and I get nervous at times too. Yet it was.... surprising.

Hmm...it must be the anxiety of being in an alien country where everything is different from what I am aware of and what I have experienced so far. Different ambience, different language, and different people. Very strange and foreign, to be frank. But fresh and young, like a bite of a ripe green apple.

Nevertheless, the conductor just laughed at me and patted my shoulder very strongly. Ouch but Woah, now I could see why he was hired as the conductor. Strong arms, sharp eyes, along with a charm of his own to make people at ease. Even to a 'lost' newcomer like me.

"Yes yes! 역! Correct! Wanna come out??" With a grin twinkling on his bright face, he stepped away to let me through. I felt more relaxed than before as soon as I heard English from him, and it was pretty fluent too.

A small relieved smile broke on my lips too as I grab hold of my guitar case and my backpack and get up. My legs had gotten a bit numb inside my boots from not moving them much throughout the ride, and my jacket was almost off my shoulders.

"감사합니다" I quickly muttered before adjusting everything on me and stepping out of the bus. I didn't want to stammer again and, even if I wasn't in a hurry, I still wanted to make sure I reach where I was called to at an early hand.

"Have a safe journey!" The conductor waved at me, and I gladly turned around to return the gesture before entering the lobby. After I had made it inside, I left my belongings at a convenient place and went to the bathroom to fix my face and clothes.

I had been travelling for almost twenty hours; An eighteen-hour flight and a two-hour bus. It was back-to-back, and hardly I had the time to refresh myself properly and smoke a bit, but now was my chance to do so before I carry on to reach my destination.

With the help of the large mirror on the wall, I first removed my contact lenses and then washed my face and combed my hair. It had grown pretty long. But I wasn't planning on cutting them any sooner. I also dusted my jacket and jeans off and straightened my t-shirt inside.

After I was sure everything had been set, I put my lenses back on and vaguely looked around the room, and finding no one except me, I quickly stand near the ventilator above me and light my cigarette. What I was doing right now poses a threat to my health and is illegal, but this was a guilty pleasure of mine. I admit it shamelessly because why not. I have nothing to lose. We all are gonna die one day, so it's better we make the most of our lives and I was just doing that. Nothing more, nothing less.

Just because I said I don't seek adventure vigorously, does not mean I don't have any thrill in my life at all. I do have it. Everyone has it. You just gotta make it interesting in your way, and that's how you gotta roll, champ.

Anyways, after a couple of puffs, I got disposed of the cigar and shooed off the smoke around me. It was only after everything seemed clear that I washed my life hands and dried them, then left the restroom and grabbed my luggage back before I started to stride again, to the reception counter.

After all the formalities were taken care of, I finally breathed the outside air of Korean afternoon. The sun was luminous and overhead, but the heat wasn't as severe as back in Miami. The number of clouds here are much more than there, or was it just for this particular day? I had no idea.

I am not a tourist here. I came here for a business trip, you can say. A man from here, a freelancing musical artist, had personally requested and invited me for a musical collaboration. The deal itself sounded quite intriguing, also with the fact that I'm half-Korean thanks to my father's lineage, yet ironically I have neither ever seen Korea with my own eyes nor I have witnessed its culture. Until today, that is.

So here I am now, strolling in the middle of the bustling city surrounded by college students touring around, laughing and talking with their classmates and munching on unique dishes and snacks I had never seen before. And while I was busy observing them, someone bumped into me, breaking my contact.

"Oh! 실례합니다!" It was a young blond guy, wearing a light blue hoodie with a couple of smiley badges pinned to his chest. He quickly bowed after apologizing and for briefly taking a glance at my face, hastily trots in the opposite direction. I eyed him, judging by his clothes and the books he was carrying in his arms, he looked like a college student. Hmm...no wonder why he was in a hurry. He must be late to class or something.

But anyway, I continued walking. That musical man had told me to wait near the back alley of a coffee shop that was close to the station. Hmm, that would be easy to locate. The coffee shop was right in front of me! Hah, how easy.

And so, without wasting any time, I ambled towards the cafè. It was a cute little shop, in my opinion. The smell of roasted coffee beans and bubbling creamy milk was evident in the atmosphere, and the colour scheme of the shop had pallettes of vanilla and caramel. It was like I had entered not a shop but inside a nestling coffee cup! Pretty cool, especially for someone who loves coffee like me.

Also, a bunch of customers were inside too. This place was not lonely at all. Some couples were on a date, singles who just want peace of mind with a complimentary cup of coffee, and business workers too! To be honest, I liked one of the employee's suits too. It was of a short brunette woman with glasses. She was kind of cute too. And by how she was still typing away rapidly on her phone even while on her break, tells how much of a busy woman she must be. Damn, God forbid that I ever be this much busy in my career.

Working even at breaks. Scary, in my opinion.

Needless to say, that wasn't why I was here for. The city was new to me so naturally, I would be curious, but business comes first in such a case. And in this case, it's my case. So bringing myself back to schedule, I leave to the back alley, waiting for that man so we could finally meet after talking through emails and phone calls.

But......what was that man's name again?

Ah....Zen.....

Hmm, weird name. But as someone who prefers to be called CJ than Catherine Joseph, I am no one to say so. Or even judge so.

Zen......I wonder what kind of person he would be in flesh. Same friendly and confident as the impression of him in my mind? Or just some different personality I never saw coming? Well, only time will tell that. But right now, we wait.

[conradscrime]

The Watcher

March 28, 2021 

In June 2014 Derek Broaddus and his wife Maria closed in on their dream home located at 657 Boulevard in Westfield, New Jersey. The house was beautiful and included 6 bedrooms, which was perfect because the Broaddus family had three children. It was spacious and the perfect family home. Maria had been raised in Westfield and this new home was only a few blocks away from her childhood home. Derek had grown up in Maine and worked for an insurance company and had worked his way to becoming senior vice-president. 

The Broaddus’ wanted some renovations done and a few days after closing in on the house Derek went to do some painting of his own. While he was there he happened to check the mail and found an envelope with the words to “The New Owner” scrawled in chunky letters. 

The letter read, 

“Dearest new neighbour at 657 Boulevard, allow me to welcome you to the neighbourhood. 657 Boulevard has been the subject of my family for decades now and as it approaches its 110th birthday, I have been put in charge of watching and waiting for its second coming. My grandfather watched the house in the 1920s and my father watched in the 1960s. It is now my time. Do you know the history of the house? Do you know what lies within the walls of 657 Boulevard? Why are you here? I will find out.“ 

Whoever had written the letter seemed to already know a decent amount of information about the Broaddus family including their children, knowing how many they had, though the writer had not yet identified their names. 

A letter from the writer about the children is as follows, 

“Do you need to fill the house with the young blood I requested? Better for me. Was your old house too small for the growing family? Or was it greed to bring me your children? Once I know their names I will call to them and draw them too [sic] me.“

The Broaddus family had no idea who could be sending the letters, the writer only signed them as being written by “The Watcher.” 

Derek was obviously freaked out at the amount of information this unknown person already knew about the family. Also the way the letters are written is very strange and very sinister, it doesn’t really seem like a joke. Derek called the police who were just as confused as him over the contents of the letters and asked if Derek had any known enemies. 

The Broaddus family could not think of anyone that would be sending these kinds of letters to them. They contacted the couple that had sold them the house, John and Andrea Woods and asked them if they had ever received any letters during the time they lived at 657 Boulevard. Andrea Woods claimed that a few days before they moved out of the house they had in fact received a sketchy letter in the mail from someone referring to themselves as The Watcher. However, that was the only letter John and Andrea had ever received from The Watcher and they had lived in the house for 23 years. They did think the letter was odd but didn’t think much of it and threw it out. 

The police felt that whoever this Watcher person was must be a neighbour living near the house. They advised the Broaddus family to not mention these letters to anyone while they investigated potential neighbourhood suspects. 

In the coming weeks the Broaddus family was starting to unpack things into the house and it seemed as though the Watcher was present for all of this. Maria had received another letter this time addressing both her and Derek as “Mr. and Mrs. Braddus.” Though the Watcher spelled their last name wrong they were obviously close enough in earshot to hear. The Watcher also named the three children in birth order and knew of their nicknames. 

The letters started getting even creepier. One letter in particular mentioned the sleeping arrangements and what bedrooms the children would have. 

“Will they sleep in the attic? Or will you all sleep on the second floor? Who has the bedrooms facing the street? I’ll know as soon as you move in. It will help me to know who is in which bedroom. Then I can plan better.“

A suspicious thing happened when one day Derek was showing the renovations they made to another couple living on the block. During the tour the wife said, “It’ll be nice to have some young blood in the neighbourhood.” Young blood is something that only the Watcher had said in their letters about the Broaddus children. 

Closer and closer to move in day and the Watcher was definitely around. 

“I pass by many times a day. 657 Boulevard is my job, my life, my obsession. And now you are too Braddus family. Welcome to the product of your greed! Greed is what brought the past three families to 657 Boulevard and now it has brought you to me.Have a happy moving in day. You know I will be watching.“

The Broaddus’ seemed too afraid to move into their new dream home due to the letters and they were scared for their children’s safety. One potential suspect, a man named Michael Langford who lived in a house nearby and did not work. He lived with his mother, Peggy Langford who was up in her 90′s. Several of Peggy’s adult children lived with her, most of them in their 60′s which seemed odd to Derek. 

The Langford’s had lived there since the 1960′s which the first letter from the Watcher confirmed that’s when their father had started watching 657 Boulevard. Richard Langford died 12 years earlier and it would make sense that Michael took over for him, considering the Watcher’s letter said they had been watching for ‘the better part of two decades.’ 

Michael was questioned but there was never enough evidence to charge him with anything. The police were pretty much tied with no evidence which led Derek and Maria to become quite frustrated. They didn’t feel safe in their new home, their dream home that they just wanted to enjoy. Derek and Maria tried to investigate themselves, finding out that the only family that had lived in the neighbourhood since the 1960′s was the Langfords. They even hired their own private investigator but no new information was found. 

There were a few other sketchy occurrences. For example, one of the housepainters noticed that the couple who lived behind the Broaddus family had two lawn chairs that seemed to be really close to the Broaddus house. One day the painter looked out the window and noticed the man sitting in one of the chairs, facing the Broaddus’ house. 

The Broaddus family did not feel comfortable moving into 657 Boulevard and they had already sold their house so they moved in with Maria’s parents for the time being. They still paid the mortgage and property taxes on 657 Boulevard, but refused to live there and put their children in harms way. 

Six months after buying 657 Boulevard, the Broaddus family put it up on the market. They originally priced it higher than they had paid for because they made a lot of renovations, but no one wanted to buy it because of gossip about the Watcher. 

Derek and Maria filed a legal complaint against the Woods’ on June 2, 2015 about a year after they first bought the house. They felt that the Woods’ should have let them know that they had received a letter from the Watcher before selling them the house. The Woods’ claim that they did not disclose the information about the letter because they didn’t find it threatening, they had never felt ‘watched’ in 23 years, in fact they rarely ever locked their doors while living there. 

The Watcher sent the Broaddus family 3 letters in total, all about details about the house and their life. It was reported that a neighbour living at 633 Boulevard had also received a letter from the Watcher around the same time the Broaddus family did, though not a whole lot of information has come out about that. 

In July 2019 the Broaddus family finally sold 657 Boulevard for $959,000, about $400,000 cheaper than they paid for it. Some people believe that the Broaddus family themselves were writing the letters to themselves as some scheme, to get a movie deal or maybe realized they couldn’t afford to have the house and wanted to get out of the deal, though to me it seems strange that they would do that because they lost their dream home and they lost a lot of money in the process of selling the house. 

No one has ever been charged for being The Watcher and this case remains unsolved. 

[yegarts]

“I Am YEG Arts” Series: Josh Languedoc

There is an aliveness to theatre—something visceral and empathic about sitting in a space with other people, feeling exactly what the performers and storytellers are feeling. Never thought of it that way? Playwright Josh Languedoc has. Not only are those his words, they’re an inspiration. When it comes to inspiration, Languedoc finds it everywhere: in dreams that are gifts from his ancestors, in mentors who help him move forward, and in the arts community he continues to shape and make stronger. Determined, hopeful, and endlessly curious about the stories we share, this week’s “I Am YEG Arts” story belongs to Josh Languedoc.

Tell us about your connection to Edmonton and how it’s influenced your path.

I grew up in St. Albert but spent a lot of my time in Edmonton. I found I would always be journeying into the city to watch some sort of show, concert, or presentation. Edmonton has always had such a vibrant arts community, and it's only gotten richer as I have grown older. The creative drive and the ability for artists to take risks in a very vibrant community has given me a lot of inspiration to take my own risks and to grow into the community with my own voice.

What is it about plays, in particular, that suit your strengths as a storyteller?

It is the live nature of theatre. There is something visceral and empathic about sitting in a space with other human beings and breathing the same air and feeling the same feelings as the storyteller/performer. There is a real aliveness to theatre. And as someone who is endlessly curious about humanity and the stories we share, theatre and plays have been such a powerful space to unpack my own curiosity and stories into that same aliveness we feel in a performance space.

What is the writing process like for you? Where do you usually begin, and how do you develop an idea?

For me, inspiration for writing comes from so, so many different places. The first are my ancestors. Whether it be in my dreams, moments I have in nature, or visions I have, I often find some sort of inspiration that are gifts from my ancestors. These gifts sometimes take the form of character voices, locations, or just general story ideas. I will also draw inspiration from real-life events—stories that make me angry, excited, sad, and any other emotion you can think of. Once I realize this gift or source of inspiration, I will usually find some time to explore the voices of characters to bring the story to life. Usually this leads to a general idea of where I am going, but often I will improvise with these voices and find the overall story I want to tell. “Content leads to the form,” as a few mentors of mine have taught me.

Tell us about Punctuate! Theatre and the other organizations you work with.

I am currently in the Pemmican Punctuate Playwrighting Circle with four other amazing Indigenous artists. We get together once a month over Zoom, share writing with each other, and help out one another's projects to grow and find its frame. We’ll have public readings of our work later in the year.

I also currently work as the Director of Indigenous Strategic Planning at the Edmonton Fringe, and the Youth Education Outreach Coordinator at Workshop West Playwrights’ Theatre. I've also been teaching for about eight years at the Citadel Theatre’s Foote Theatre School.

Tell us about someone who’s been a mentor to you and the role that mentorship continues to play in your life.

Two of my biggest mentors as a playwright have been Vern Thiessen and Kenneth T. Williams. Vern has known me since I was 14 years old and was the one who introduced me to the world of playwrighting. Ken has been incredibly instrumental in helping me trust and grow my voice as an Indigenous playwright and how to create my own practice separate from the dominant western colonial narrative. To me, mentorship is so important because it’s empowering knowing someone has your back and will always be watching out for you. Someone who believes in you in a way you may not believe in yourself. It’s helped me continue to move forward as an artist, and it is something I also try to pass on when I have been given chances to mentor younger artists.

Who’s someone inspiring you right now?

I'm currently working on the production of Bear Grease that was adapted and written by MC RedCloud and Crystle Lightning. These two are also very much inspiring me right now. Not only are they a beautiful and talented power couple, but they have such a strong drive to keep bringing Indigenous people into theatre, film, visual art, and hip-hop. Their drive and pure kindness really inspire me, and I have felt so grateful to be working with them.

Tell us about your studies at the U of A. What’s one thing it’s confirmed about your approach to storytelling, and what’s one thing it’s made you question?

One thing my studies at the U of A have taught me is how much work still needs to be done. The only Indigenous person to graduate from my MFA program was Ken Williams 30 years ago. That gap is absolutely incredible, and it reaffirms to me how overlooked Indigenous people have been in most theatre programs. One thing the program has challenged, in terms of my storytelling capacities, is how much variation there already its. I have been fortunate to read and learn about other incredible Indigenous-led arts-based creation methodologies, such as Story Weaving, Beading, Metissage, Land-Based Positionality, Circle-Based Storytelling, and so many more. I truly have been inspired by how strong of a body of work there already is out there, and it motivates me even more to find my own methodology to add to this body of work.

What are you currently writing or hoping to explore next?

I am writing and exploring a new solo show called Amik Tails. It explores my own journey in connection to my Cree name I was given as a child. I also have three other plays I will be working on at three separate time frames throughout the year—CIVIL BLOOD: A Treaty Story that I am workshopping with Thou Art Here Theatre throughout the year; The Eyes Of Spirits, a play I have been working on for over a decade that I have some grant money to workshop and write a final draft; and IN-COR-RI-GI-BLE: The Legend of Thundervoice, my MFA Thesis play exploring the life of my dad as a first generation 60's Scoop survivor that will premiere at the Blythe Festival within the next two years.

What makes you hopeful these days?

The willingness around the world right now. We still have A LOT of work to do, yet I am hopeful that the world is to a large extent ready to have these difficult conversations connected to the genocide and destruction of Indigenous ways of being. This general acknowledgement helps me realize that healing will start to happen and meaningful relationships can start to be formed.

You visit Edmonton 20 years from now. What do you hope has changed? What do you hope has stayed the same?

I hope the Edmonton Arts Community is still as vibrant and bustling as it is, yet it is populated with incredible Indigenous and BIPOC artists exploring their own stories in their own ways and are completely and unapologetically a part of the definition of theatre and storytelling without being labeled as “other.” One thing that I hope stays the same is the Old Strathcona Farmers’ Market. I mean...it’s pretty AMAZING and absolutely delicious. Would totally miss that if it were gone!

Want more YEG Arts Stories? We’ll be sharing them here all year and on social media using the hashtag #IamYegArts. Follow along! Click here to learn more about Josh Languedoc and here for more info about grants and awards that support artists.

About Josh Languedoc

Josh Languedoc is a proud member of Saugeen First Nation and lives as a guest in Treaty 6 Territory as an Anishinaabe playwright, storyteller, teacher, and producer. Some of Josh’s plays include Rocko and Nakota: Tales From the Land (Theatre Prospero, Banff Centre), Feast (University of Alberta, Fringe 2021), CIVIL BLOOD: A Treaty Story (Thou Art Here Theatre) and The Eyes Of Spirits (Rubaboo Festival, Native Earth Performing Arts, Citadel Theatre). Josh also teaches around the Edmonton area with the Citadel’s Foote Theatre School, Edmonton Public Schools, Artstrek, Northern Alberta YMCA, and Workshop West Playwrights’ Theatre. Josh is currently finishing his MFA Theatre Practices at the University of Alberta and works as the Director of Indigenous Strategic Planning at the Edmonton Fringe and the Youth Education Coordinator at Workshop West Playwrights’ Theatre.