#also I like how they actually say flat-out 'we want to keep the show grounded in reality'

[drkineildwicks]

Oh nice the OG BH6 pitch notes were released--

"Obake's lair is in the ruins of some of the Old City"--

OH NICE

[hysteria-things]

TOUR (part two)

read part one here

𝐩𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠: soft dom!matt x reader (definition of a titty man)

𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲: you surprise your boyfriend at his last show of the versus tour. you obviously had to wear the dress to it, but too bad matt has to wait until the show is over to do what he’s been wanting to do for a month.

𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬: SMUT but fluffy, swearing, titty fucking, p in v

𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭: 1,245

𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫'𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞: you guys are the literal best omg.

idk how i feel about this one but i do have a shit ton in the works that i can’t wait to share😇

the flight from LA to ft. lauderdale was close to five hours, and you were jet lagged.

especially since you had to take a late flight which didn’t help either.

now, you’re sitting in the uber that picked you up from the airport and texting nick.

it was his idea to have you fly out and surprise matt since everybody else is going to be there. chris knows too, and since he’s a blabber mouth at best, you specifically told him if he tells matt your secret you’ll cut his dick off.

by some miracle, nick and chris successfully snuck you to your room.

you didn’t bother unpacking your suitcase. instead, you kicked off your shoes and knocked out with your clothes still on.

it took a few knocks at the door to realize you weren’t dreaming them to fully wake you up. you groan, rubbing your eyes and shuffling to the door. “y/n! wakey, wakey.”

you open it, revealing a smiling nick with a brown bag in one hand and an iced coffee in the other. he holds them up in front of you.

“i got you food and your favorite iced coffee from dunkin’.” he says. “i can’t stay long because we’re heading to the venue soon, and you have to get fueled up. i know how jet lag can be.”

“thank you, nick,” you reply graciously, grabbing the things from his hands.

“i’ll send you the address and all that.” he tells you, turning 180° before spinning back to face you again. “also, you better have brought something stunning to wear. matt might actually faint from all the surprises you’ll be throwing at him all at once.”

he winks at you before going into the elevator to meet the others.

of course, you brought something stunning to wear. looking in the mirror, you’re wearing a navy blue dress. it’s the navy blue dress you were wearing in the photos matt jerked off to when you guys were on the phone.

you walk into the hidden door that leads backstage. the boys were there plus nate and justin. nobody noticed you yet, and you wanted to keep it that way.

you heard matt talking to nate about how he’ll be his teammate, but the conversation mostly consisted of nate giving a lecture about how to not fuck up jenga.

you cross your arms and lean against the doorway. “maybe if you didn’t yank the jenga blocks out, the tower would stay up.”

their voices die down in milliseconds and turn to face you.

“what the fuck?” matt questions blankly. it seems like he’s trying to comprehend if he’s hallucinating or if you’re really here in ft. lauderdale standing in front of him.

when it clicks in his head that you’re indeed not a hallucination, he comes running over to you and engulfs you in a big hug.

he lifts you from the floor and holds on even tighter, not caring about the other people in the room.

to him, this moment is just about you.

“you’re not being slick, you know.” he whispers in your ear.

“what do you mean?” you reply in the same tone innocently, knowing exactly what he’s referring to.

he doesn’t respond and puts you back on the ground. he glances up and down your body, before chris speaks up. “hate to break up this reunion, but we got small talk in like five minutes.”

matt has you underneath him flat on your back, the tour bus bunk is a little too small for the both of you.

your legs are wrapped around his torso as his lips hungrily kiss yours. the show ended an hour or two ago, and when everybody got settled into their hotel rooms, he snuck you on the tour bus.

his hands rub around your boobs and give a light squeeze, pulling his lips away from yours with a hum.

“remember when i said i wanted to fuck your tits?” he asks with his swollen red lips, not taking his eyes off of you as he starts to unbuckle his belt.

you lick your lips and nod.

“i wasn’t kidding.”

he yanks down his undergarments and pumps himself a few times to get fully hard. he takes the neckline of your dress and pulls it down to expose your breasts.

he groans at the site, fiddling them before adjusting himself so his tip is right under your boobs.

he pushes them together and slides in between them, throwing his head back and moaning. “oh, fuck.”

unlike the rest of your body, they are warm and cushioning, causing matt’s dick to throb at the feeling.

he doesn’t waste time and starts thrusting. the tip of him glides at your bottom lip with each thrust. all you do is stare at his acts, which is using your tits to get off.

the more he pleasures himself, the more you feel your arousal start to soak your underwear. without thinking, you open your mouth a little so your tongue kitty licks his tip each time he thrusts up.

he groans, looking at you through hooded eyes. “shit. keep doing that, baby.”

his thrusts starts to get sloppy, his hips jutting from time to time. “open wider. good girl.”

with that, he shoots his load on your lips and into your mouth. he uses his finger on your chin to make you close your mouth, tasting him as you swallow. he kisses your neck and collarbone, tracing his fingers on the hem of your panties before pulling them down.

he uses his thumbs to spread you open, seeing how soaked you are.

you whine, balling your hands on the front of his shirt. “matt, please.”

he kisses your cheek before putting his entire length inside of you, your slippery cunt making him have easy access.

you moan as he starts moving in and out. this time around, his thrusts aren’t hard and fast. instead, they’re slow and deep.

he doesn’t pull out all the way — maybe only an inch or two — to make his thrusts even deeper. your tits bounce slowly with his rhythm, and he never takes his eyes off of them.

eyes squeezed shut, you’re letting out short moans and whimpers, ecstasy flowing through your whole body.

fucking matt was phenomenal, but slow sex with him felt different. it felt more real and comforting; feeling safe in his touch.

“you’re so deep.” you exhale, the knot in your stomach starting to form.

matt’s head falls to the crook of your neck. “you’re taking me so well, baby. so, so well.”

his words cause your legs to shake at his sides, squirming from underneath him as you cum slowly around his dick.

he kisses your lips passionately as he pulls out, putting the last of his orgasm onto your stomach.

he falls softly on top of you, wrapping his arms around your waist. “you’re so much better than a stupid trophy.”

you laugh at matt’s saltiness because of his loss at jenga. “this mother fucker gave me the lecture about how to play jenga when he’s the one who knocked it down.” he continues to complain.

“jenga’s a stupid game, anyway.”

he looks up at you. “thank you.”

you laugh again, the both of you laying there and enjoying each other’s company. matt listened to your heartbeat, and you played with his hair softly, thinking about how much you missed your boy and nothing else.

𝐭𝐚𝐠 𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭!

@bunbunbl0gs @lexisecretaccx @thy-mission @angelic-sturniolos111 @sophssturn @mattsneezing @mattslolita

[lily-onher-grave]

okay okay okay thoughts/excited ramblings about the wicked movie under the cut bc i've seen it and now i'm insane about it again

let's be real it's kinda hard to fumble the opening number of a musical especially when that opening number is no one mourns the wicked and yet i was still absolutely blown away it was SO GOOD

the lil munchkins running, the singing in the streets, the posters of the witch (side note all the artwork was insanely good and just added so much to the style of oz i feel like) it was all so awesome

NOMTW becomes so sinister and they nailed it

obligatory emotional babbling about glinda standing alone in the crowd as everyone sings 'the wicked's lives are lonely'

before i left for the theater i was like 'take your bets on if i'll cry' and my roommate and i agreed that yeah obviously i would. but what i didn't expect is for ariana's sad face to knock me out in five minutes flat. i was done for

the effigy. holy shit. and handing the torch to glinda. i want to go see the whole thing again just so i can rewatch that scene. my heart still hurts

(also nanny! sort of not really. but i liked the childhood scenes i liked that elphaba had one (1) good thing in her life before shiz)

SHIZ okay shiz honestly shiz was the thing i was most excited for bc c'mon, we don't write about our gothic magic school all the time in fic for nothing. and honestly it was so good. the shots of the whole castle! the library design! the balcony moments and the stairways and just like the layers of architecture and the way morrible could kind of be anywhere at any time. the way it felt so grand and yet so small at the same time. idk man the vibes were good and the set was beautiful

glinda arriving by boat was magical that's all

the way everything dillamond had was tailored to him was fantastic it was so good

actually i want to shout out the library set design again and how it tied into the clockwork theme that never gets fully called out even in the musical but it's still so good

where's my time dragon clock tho

also back up the scene where elphaba loses her temper in the courtyard--when she breaks the relief of the wizard, there's old artwork of Animals behind it and i gasped out loud when i saw it

and that was the first moment i thought 'this is brilliant but i still want an hbo dark fantasy political drama tv show based on the book'

speaking of the dark fantasy political drama tv shows, the Animal meeting!! i'm so glad they put more stuff like that in there

actually as a whole the movie felt more grounded and less comedic than the musical. i think they did a fantastic job of keeping the magic and silliness and charm and wonder of the show while still adding those extra bits of drama and dire circumstances

anyway gelphie fic prank wars trope is officially canon great work everybody handshakes all around. i was cackling (silently. i promise i'm a respectful moviegoer)

the ozdust ballroom being illegal makes so much sense. it being underwater was fucking cool. boq and nessa were actually really great and i usually don't care about them at all during this scene

also i love love love nessa and i cannot wait to see more of her. but showing her multiple times on the sidelines when elphie was being humiliated was such a good choice. the tension between nessa obviously caring for her sister yet always caring for herself more is so delicious and i always want to see it fleshed out more, and i think they did such a good job with her? her and elphaba have sweet moments which i love, and her wanting to be independent and only elphaba really understanding that is so so good. and having her just watching elphaba for so long before finally saying she can't watch. god i can't wait to see her be desperate and selfish and cold in act 2, it's gonna be so good

side note boq also looking upset by elphie being bullied. i miss my brotp man

but let's talk about what's most important: the gelphie dance. because oh my god i started crying all over again. so did elphaba. and glinda wiping her tears i'm dying i've died oh my god

i always get a little bit surprised when glinda seems more head over heels than elphaba. idk why. but ariana's glinda is absolutely more head over heels than cynthia's elphaba and i loved it

(they just. freaking LEFT the party. just zipped out of there as soon as they hugged. glinda was like hmmm i just realized some things and grabbed elphaba's hand and ran off while the night was young. and fiyero stared after them knowing that he stood no chance whatsoever)

also i'm like 72% sure the guys sitting next to me were a couple? and they both cried during the gelphie dance too and it was a very unexpected but very funny moment of solidarity

i say ariana's glinda is more head over heels and i stand by it but elphaba's fond little smile when glinda was pouting about sharing secrets almost made me start sobbing again they're so GOOD they're so CUTE and she is SO heart eyes for glinda immediately!!!

i need to be sedated i swear

popular was adorable 10/10 no notes absolutely nailed it i loved every second

also glinda sitting next to elphaba in class now. my heart <3

after dillamond gets hauled away (again with this being more violent and dark and those moments of drama coming through more in the movie i loveeee) glinda doesn't sit down until elphaba does

also they had several little moments of elphaba looking to glinda and glinda either shaking her head or nodding. they've been friends for 2 days and they're already having silent conversations i love them <3

the poppy spell? was sick as hell????

another seeing of wicked, another complete sense of bafflement as to why fiyero is there

i say this jokingly but the fiyero and elphaba romance really does feel like a product of the early 2000s especially now that it's on screen rather than on stage. idk maybe that's just the lesbian in me talking though

the train design is also sick but we knew that from the trailers

okay look logically yes i knew idina and kristin would have cameos. but i'd been crying on and off and one short day's magic had already taken hold so they caught me completely off guard. it was great

the wizard stuff was really sweet. and while i was hoping for more time put toward shiz and stuff, i do think those moments did a great job of 1) showing how much elphaba just wants to be loved 2) foreshadowing the wizard being her father and 3) laying the groundwork for her briefly considering working with the wizard in act 2, which is a decision that never quiteee feels right in the show

i love that they put more lore into the grimmerie btw. very cool

the hot air balloon was random but fun. i wonder if it'll come up again in act 2

every time. every damn time glinda starts singing in defying gravity i just want someone to end it right there. glinda grabs the broom, it fades to black, and they both lived happily ever after

fuck

defying gravity taking place at sunset because it's at the end of their one short day of happiness

also UM morrible coming up and hugging glinda when she's crying. exquisite emotional manipulation i'm screaming

elphie! seeing! her! inner! child! i loved the baby elphie scenes even though i prefer creepy 'horrors' elphaba always. but seeing her come back was sooooo fucking good

elphaba only ever relying on herself, in the end

glinda's final 'i hope you're happy' took me out, as it always does, as it always should. and reaching out from the balcony? i'm sobbing again

morrible dragging glinda into the darkness while elphaba flies into the sun! someone fucking help me i'm already wrecked by these two

honestly my biggest complaint is that now i have to wait for part two, i want to see the rest nowwwww

[flower-boi16]

I personally disagree with the claims that Stolas is a coercive rapist. I don't want to start an argument I just want to show you my perspective, alright here we go.

Let's start at Harvest Moon Festival: 'When this happens, it's not really something I fuss about...' and 'Well, I'm not a fan of someone I offered a job to about to off my easiest lengthy ticket to Earth behind my back.' Notice how Blitz says 'easiest lengthy ticket' here, not 'only ticket', and Blitz knows about Asmodean Crystals, as evidenced by Unhappy Campers where he forces someone to use it to create a portal to the living world, so the Grimoire was never the only option Blitz could've used to run I.M.P. Sure losing the grimoire would've disrupted business for a bit, but again, it was never Blitz's only option. It's also been confirmed in Ghostfuckers that I.M.P used to assassin jobs in Hell before Blitz got the Grimoire from Stolas, I.M.P was running fine without the Grimoire, if Blitz couldn't get his hands on the Grimoire or the Asmodeun Crystal he and his could always just run missions in Hell, so the coercion argument already falls flat there, but let's beat it up a bit further shall we?

Now let's look at Ozzies, at the ending of it Stolas never pressures or forces Blitz into having sex with him or quote 'We could talk, or… watch a movie, or… maybe cuddle?', Blitz turns Stolas down here, and Stolas never forces or pressures Blitz into doing said things with him, and you know what this also proves? It proves that Blitz has always the self-agency to tell Stolas 'no I don't want to fuck you', which also shows that Blitz actually wanted to have sex with Stolas, which we can prove by the text messages Stolas and Blitz had after Ozzie's.

The text messages at the end of Western Energy show that Stolas is actively giving Blitz the option to not fuck him, which also tells us that Blitz always had the option to tell Stolas no, and hell, we can see in the All 2 U song that Blitz turned down Stolas most likely asking Blitz to stay after the sex, proving even further Blitz always had the self-agency to tell Stolas no, which shows that Blitz wanted to have sex with Stolas.

And I'm not even counting everything about what happened in Full Moon. Blitz literally sings about how much he enjoys sex with Stolas, spends the whole day buying things to use on Stolas, begged for Stolas to keep the deal, said multiple times about how much the deal is something he enjoyed and wanted to keep, and told Loona and M&M about how Stolas never forced anything on him which lead to months without intimacy between them. Where is the coercion??? Simply, it's not there.

Now let's look at Apology Tour, Blitz wants the arrangement back, to fuck Stolas again. Which tells us something that the people peddling the nonsense 'Stolas is a rapist' argument entirely ignore, Blitz is the one unhappy with the arrangement ending, not Stolas, Blitz.

Also, Blitz has the Asmodeun Crystal by this point, He could've easily have just told Stolas to fuck off and leave if he was truly being coerced and raped by him, but he chooses to stay because at this point he thinks this gesture is a farewell gift from Stolas, and it's been made very clear that Blitz has strong feelings for Stolas by this point despite his self-hatred, that he doesn't want to lose Stolas, which also helps to further prove that Blitz wanted to have sex with Stolas out of his entire free will.

Blitz having sex with Stolas was a way for Blitz to be close to Stolas without having to be vulnerable, and when Stolas gets rid of the arrangement Blitz is scared because it would force Blitz to be vulnerable towards Stolas.

Is all of this really the behavior of a person who felt coerced into sex he didn't want to have? Because I think it's pretty clear that Blitz at no point felt coerced into having sex with Stolas, and the people that claim otherwise I have good grounds to believe aren't even watching the same show anymore.

.....sigh...

...before I start this long rant post I just want to say I'm grateful that your being civil in this ask. I'm glad you chose to state your reasoning rather than being made because I critisizied your favourite funny demon show.

However, I don't agree with any of this reasoning. There's a lot to break down here so I'll just split this post into two sections:

1. Stolitz IS Coercian, and Here's Why

So you start off by bringing up what Blitz says in The Harvest Moon Festival and how the grimoire isn't Blitz's only option for being able to do his job. That is true but...it doesn't change the fact that Stolas is threatening to take away an item that Blitz needs in order for his buisness to function in order to force Blitz into having consent with him, and so Blitz woulden't have that much of a choice.

Yes he could have gotten an Asmodean crystal but the fact he never did that in the first place is a plot hole in it of itself. And, if anything, the presence of other options just makes Stolas look even worse; Stolas could have just lent the book to Blitz in secret, or he could have just given Blitz the Asmodean crystal and move on with his day, but no, Stolas chose the option to put Blitz in a situation where Blitz HAD to consent to him or he'll lose the one thing he needs for his job.

And, Blitz fully believes the book to be his only option. The Full Moon literally has Blitz begging and pleading for Stolas to not end the deal because he needs the book. He would not have this reaction if he knew of other options, therefore he thinks that the book is his only real option (which makes very little sense but we'll just roll with it since that's what the show is presenting to us).

And then there's my last point which is Murder Family, the episode where Stolas first makes the deal with Blitz. This is the one scene people point to when they call Blitz corcian, and, there's a reason for that.

Stolas literally called Blitz when he was being chased by a lunatic with a shot gun. Blitz only consented because he was in an emotionally stressful state of mind and did not have any time to actually process or think about the deal, NOT because he was into having sex with Stolas, which makes the "Stolitz isn't coercian because Blitz had a choice" argument fall flat, because in the moment of the deal he didn't.

And even if he wasn't in a stressful emotional state, he is still being put in a situation where he HAS to consent or he'll lose the one thing he needs for his job by someone with much more power than him, and again, Blitz DOES THINK that the grimoire is his one option. Even if Blitz never felt coerced...he still was coerced. There isn't much changing that. Someone can say they weren't stabbed but they were still stabbed, someone can say they were SA'd but were still SA'd. This doesn't change shit.

It is deffiently true that there are hints for Blitz having affection for Stolas though, but the thing is, that makes ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE. Why? Well, simple.

2. Blitz has NO REASON to Love Stolas (And Here's Why)

Yes. You read that title correctly. Blitz should not have ANY FORM of affection towards Stolas what so ever. If anything, he has every reason to dislike him.

Let's actually look at what Stolas has done to Blitz (both the good and bad).

THE GOOD:

Did some small nice things to Blitz like giving him gifts, laughing at his jokes, and generally showing that he did have some level of care for him...which were all off-screen....

...

...

......?

...........?

..................??????????

Ya...so....that's kind of it. And now...

THE BAD:

Forcing Blitz to consent to a deal where he HAD to consent with him or he will lose his job

Belittling, dehumanizing, and constantly invading Blitz's boundries

Flirting with Blitz even when he explicitly tells him that he's uncomfortable

Not taking Blitz's attempts at setting up boundries seriously

Ya. So. I rest my case. There is no reason for Blitz to have any form of affection or to want any form of affection out of Stolas given how Stolas has treated Blitz throughout the show; the few good things Stolas does for Blitz that we are supposed to see as the reasons for why Blitz would fall in love with him fall flat because not only are they off-screen, they also don't make up for the bad.

Sure, you could say that Blitz doesn't hold any of this against Stolas but...he should. He should be mad over Stolas constantly invading his boundries even when he tells him no, he should be mad over the deal, and he should be mad over Stolas constantly make him uncomfortable.

Yet, we are supposed to believe that Blitz has feelings for Stolas despite the fact he has no reason to. Also, if Stolas apperently always cared about Blitz's boundries...than explain Loo Loo Land. Explain why Stolas continued flirting with Blitz constantly even when he could clearly see that Blitz was uncomfortable. Explain why he consistantly dehumanized Blitz over the course of the show by treating him like a sex object. Explain why Stolas continued calling Blitz pet names in The Harvest Moon Festival in front of a whole crowd of people even when Blitz was, once again, annoyed and uncomfortable.

And you can't use the "Oh Stolas didn't know what he was doing was wrong/He meant well" because the fact that Stolas knows about the basic laws of consent means that he knew EXACTLY what he was doing in all of these scenes. He should reconized Blitz being uncomfortable when ever he made his advancements if he really cared about Blitz's consent, but, even then, he never did for some reason until now.

So I don't buy the idea that the deal was a way for Blitz to have sex with Stolas without being vulnerable because A. He did not consent to it willingly and B. There is no believable reason for why Blitz would have genuine feelings for Stolas after how we've seen Stolas treat him (and, being honest, Stolas shouldn't love Blitz either).

If you want me to believe that these two would ever fall in love, actually show scenes developing believable chemistry between them so I can see why they would love each other. For whatever reason Blitz may have to love Stolas, that reason should have been shown across the series rather than being kept on the back burner. It doesn't make sense for Blitz to love Stolas, sorry, but you can't convince that Blitz has any reason to fall in love with him.

(Also, a few things; I'm pretty sure what the writers were trying to commuinicate with the full moon scene was that Blitz was trying to process Stolas' desicion to give him the crystal since he never experinced any kind of kindess like this before or something like that, so the argument that Blitz reacted the way he did because he loved Stolas falls flat)

3. Conclusion

Ya. So uh. I don't agree with any of this shit. I'm sorry but there's no defending this relationship lol. It's a complete mess of bad writting and I don't think you can change my mind on that. I could go into more detail but...I think I've said all I needed to say.

[carto0ncritter]

I just want to say that I personally disagree with the claims that Stolas is a coercive rapist. You don't have to agree with me. I just want to share my perspective. Alright, here we go.

Let's start at Harvest Moon Festival: 'When this happens, it's not really something I fuss about...' and 'Well, I'm not a fan of someone I offered a job to about to off my easiest lengthy ticket to Earth behind my back.' Notice how Blitz says 'easiest lengthy ticket' here, not 'only ticket', and Blitz knows about Asmodean Crystals, as evidenced by Unhappy Campers where he forces someone to use it to create a portal to the living world, so the Grimoire was never the only option Blitz could've used to run I.M.P. Sure losing the grimoire would've disrupted business for a bit, but again, it was never Blitz's only option. It's also been confirmed in Ghostfuckers that I.M.P used to assassin jobs in Hell before Blitz got the Grimoire from Stolas, I.M.P was running fine without the Grimoire, if Blitz couldn't get his hands on the Grimoire or the Asmodeun Crystal he and his could always just run missions in Hell, so the coercion argument already falls flat there, but let's beat it up a bit further shall we?

Now let's look at Ozzies, at the ending of it Stolas never pressures or forces Blitz into having sex with him or quote 'We could talk, or… watch a movie, or… maybe cuddle?', Blitz turns Stolas down here, and Stolas never forces or pressures Blitz into doing said things with him, and you know what this also proves? It proves that Blitz has always the self-agency to tell Stolas 'no I don't want to fuck you', which also shows that Blitz actually wanted to have sex with Stolas, which we can prove by the text messages Stolas and Blitz had after Ozzie's.

The text messages at the end of Western Energy show that Stolas is actively giving Blitz the option to not fuck him, which also tells us that Blitz always had the option to tell Stolas no, and hell, we can see in the All 2 U song that Blitz turned down Stolas most likely asking Blitz to stay after the sex, proving even further Blitz always had the self-agency to tell Stolas no, which shows that Blitz wanted to have sex with Stolas.

And I'm not even counting everything about what happened in Full Moon episode. Blitz literally sings about how much he enjoys sex with Stolas, spends the whole day buying things to use on Stolas, begged for Stolas to keep the deal, said multiple times about how much the deal is something he enjoyed and wanted to keep, and told Loona and M&M about how Stolas never forced anything on him which lead to months without intimacy between them. Where is the coercion??? Simply, it's not there.

Now let's look at Apology Tour, Blitz wants the arrangement back, to fuck Stolas again. Which tells us something that the people peddling the bullshit 'Stolas is a rapist' argument entirely ignore, Blitz is the one unhappy with the arrangement ending, not Stolas, Blitz.

Also, Blitz has the Asmodeun Crystal by this point, he could've easily have just told Stolas to fuck off and leave if he was truly being coerced and raped by him, but he chooses to stay because at this point he thinks this gesture is a farewell gift from Stolas, and it's been made very clear that Blitz has strong feelings for Stolas by this point despite his self-hatred, that he doesn't want to lose Stolas, which also helps to further prove that Blitz wanted to have sex with Stolas out of his entire free will.

Blitz having sex with Stolas was a way for Blitz to be close to Stolas without having to be vulnerable, and when Stolas gets rid of the arrangement Blitz is scared because it would force Blitz to be vulnerable towards Stolas.

Is all of this really the behavior of a person who felt coerced into sex he didn't want to have? Because I think it's pretty clear that Blitz at no point felt coerced into having sex with Stolas, and the people that claim otherwise I have good grounds to believe aren't even watching the same show anymore.

i think i can sum up everything you said here, from my pov, in one sentence: "A part of Blitz craved Stolas' "affection" and "interest" in him because he had never experienced true love before (+ all the trauma in his past really fucked him up when it comes to opening up his heart and recieveing love and not pushing people away), and pretty much got hooked to the "relationship" despite Stolas' gaslighting, name calling and manipulative tendencies"

long story short, blitz fell in love with his abuser and is unable to break free. symbolically, he cant break the chains

[picturejasper20]

I'm with you, a lot of big studios seem to be terrified of giving their female protagonists actual flaws.

I remember one of the creators of FOPANW did an interview and one of the things she mentioned was that Hazel was originally conceptualized as a much weirder person but Nickelodeon and Netflix were both very against it and wanted her to be more "aspirational" and "put together" (???).

Heck, they weren't even allowed to describe her as "weird", only "quirky" 🙄

Yeah, i found that part of the interview:

Even after taking the risk of making a little black girl the lead character, we also wanted to showcase that, yes, little girls can be weird, too. They can be a little offbeat in what they like and what they play with. She loves anime, she collects rocks. Lindsay and I, we’re both big weirdo kids. I remember in my interview for this job I was telling them the story of how I used to collect the reflector lights in the roads while I was a kid growing up in Seattle. I used to collect those off of the ground. [both laugh] I would keep them on my back porch on our deck and I would name them. Those were my pets. We called them turtles in Seattle, so I was like, “These are my pet turtles.” Our pilot episode begins with Hazel talking to her pet rocks; that came from me. We wanted to be able to show a little weirdo — except we can’t even say “weirdo” anymore. We had to call her “quirky.” (..) That was another learning curve. They have a global audience, so we had to be mindful of the entire world when approaching character and story. There was a time where they asked, “Well, can’t Hazel be more aspirational? She should be—” perfect, is what they were saying, because kids are going to want to be that. “She needs to be a little more put together. She needs to not be so out there.” We were like, “Well, in order for her to get fairy godparents, she has to be a bit miserable.” With Netflix, we had to pull back even more to show that even though she’s quirky and fun, she’s still someone that kids can relate to.

Link: https://www.skwigly.co.uk/fairly-oddparents-a-new-wish-ashleigh-crystal-hairston/

Which is like, how are kids going to relate to a protagonist is perfect all the time?? This is something that Lauren Faust has talked a lot of times about in past- that a lot of older animated series aimed for girls could feel shallow because the female characters felt too flat. That's why she is interested in writing girl characters that are flawed in her shows, why do you think MLP FIM became so popular?

At least with Hazel Wells she is one of those cases that she is a main female lead that is well written as character and she can be funny too. She changes through the season and you see her grew from all these changes she faces. A lot of fans really like her, specially because of characteristics that can be read as neurodivergent. Some even saying they prefer her over Timmy Lol

It is simply something i don't understand? Like, ok, your main protagonist doesn't have to be a terrible asshole but it doesn't mean they should be pushed back from having proper character flaws- even less if it is your main lead character!

[jpitha]

Between the Black and Gray 40

First / Previous / Next

They thundered down the hall, caught up in the crowd of people trying to escape the basement. The person that Northern was negotiating with leading the way. At an intersection in the old Starjumper, people streamed in every direction, trying to go to every exit they could.

As they ran, there was another rippling thump of missiles striking the hull and Fen's inner ear did gymnastics as the gravity generators fluctuated and tried to compensate. Immediately after a sound like paper tearing but two octaves lower caused the decking to vibrate.

"They finally have the defensive cannons up. Took them long enough." The woman said. As she walked down the hall, she slowed and palmed a door everyone was ignoring. It slid open and she gestured for them to enter.

Everyone stepped in, and the door shakily slid shut. The Action Stations alarm was muted but still audible, but the shuffling and noise of the crowd escaping the basement was nearly completely cut off. The room was large and dark, and had an echo that was odd. Fen tried to look around, but couldn't figure out where they were.

Northern looked at the other woman. "Penny, are you going to tell us why you brought us here? We need to get to the docking hall. We don't even know who is attacking us."

"Relax Northern, if the gravity is still on, that means they haven't hit anything important yet. I needed to get us out of the flow of traffic so I can reach out." Her eyes flashed blue as she communicated. "Okay, so I have two candidates that are interested in piloting for you. One wants a flat fee, the other wants a cut of the profits."

"Who are they?" Northern looked around. She seemed anxious. She kept staring back at the door.

"You won't know them."

"What? Try me."

"Okay, one is Timewinder - they were a frigate back around contact, presumed lost during the purge, and showed back up here a few months ago asking around about work. The other is Stormy Days, an old Starjumper. She says she's actually only a little younger than Gord. I don't know why she's not more involved in AI politics, all the oldsters seem to be. She went to ground when the purge started, and avoided it."

Northern's eyes widened. "Stormy is still around? And she's looking for work? What happened to her Starjumper?"

Penny shook her head. "You'll have to ask her. She's also the one that wants the cut of profits."

Fen was watching the conversation intently. "How large of a cut?"

Penny turned to Fen. She seemed to notice her for the first time."Ten percent."

Zhe's ears flicked. That was a lot, but less than all their shares. "We can't afford to be choosy Fen, and it sounds like she has lots of experience."

Fen balled her fists and scowled. "I would have preferred to have some time to discuss this and meet with them-" there was another series of thumps "-but it seems like we're short on time. We'll go with Stormy Days, Northern knows her at least. Have her meet us at my ship."

Penny nodded. Her eyes flashed again. "Done. Stormy accepts and will meet you. Now then." She started towards the other end of the room, away from the door. "Come on, I think I know a shortcut."

"You think?" Fen said, but walked after her anyway. As they walked, they felt the presence of imposing machine, long dark and cold. Reactors? Where were they?"

About halfway down the hall, there was a clack of gigantic relays, and the overhead lights came on, buzzing and loud. Everyone shielded their eyes against the glare and as Fen's eyes adjusted, she looked over at the machines. "Those are wormhole generators!"

As if on cue, more relays clacked to life and the generators began to spin up. There was a warbling whine that got louder and louder until it felt like Fen's whole body was vibrating sympathetically. "Why are they coming online?"

Northern was laughing slightly manically. "They really did keep the wormhole generators! They're going to link Picaresque away from the attack. It's brilliant if it works."

Zhe turned her face away from the machines coming to life. "What do you mean "if" it works?"

"Wormhole field generation is a tricky thing. I imagine Picaresque is a lot larger than whatever starjumper was used when this station was built. If they don't get it right, only half the station will go."

The noise of the generators was getting louder, almost too loud to speak. "Is it safe to be this close?" she shouted.

"Probably not, no." Northern agreed. "Let's go-"

****

Fen woke up again, laying on the grass.

She sighed. Well, if they were going to be destroyed from a bad link, at least she could stay with Ma-ren. She sat up. Ma was lounging on the grass a meter away or so. "Hey hon. Been a while. Not linking around?"

Fen shook her head. "No. Was with Gord again for a bit, had a thing with Nanites." She snapped her fingers in recollection. "I got to meet the Empress too. She drinks too much for my tastes, but she was nicer than I expected."

Ma laughed. "The actual Empress?"

"I think so yeah. She said I was a clone of the first human Empress."

Ma nodded. "Yes, I knew."

Fen's jaw dropped, and her eyes widened. "You knew?"

"Just about everyone knew. We all agreed to keep it from you until you were ready, but it wasn't a secret, not really."

"But why?"

Ma shrugged. "That was something our grandparents decided. By the time you came of age the reasoning got lost in "everyone knows." Maybe they thought that having you would mean an Empress they could reason with. Maybe they thought the Nanites would be more willing to connect to you. Maybe they just wanted to annoy the Empire. I don't know."

"The Nanites did connect with me, when I went through a Gate. They said I could be the new Empress if I wanted."

That caused Ma-ren to pause. She leaned back slightly. "You're here so you didn't accept?"

Fen scoffed. "I didn't have a choice. They just did it to me. I had no idea what had happened until Northern guessed. Gord had some thingy that got rid of them though. He said he was going to work to defeat them."

Ma's ears flicked. "Interesting." She looked around. "Be safe, love. Things are going to get... weird."

****

Fen woke up on the floor of the generator room, her head pounding. The wormhole generators coasting down to a stop. The whine had lowered to a deep thrum and as the noise sank, the harmonics caused the floor to buzz and vibrate more. Northern and Zhe and Penny looked at her owlishly.

"Oh, she's one of those?" Penny said.

"Yup. Come on Fen." Northern held out a hand. "If they linked away, we probably have a few minutes before whoever was attacking us figures out where we went and comes around."

Fen took her hand and stood up, her head still pounding. That was new. "Yeah, okay." She shook her head. That just made the pounding worse. "Let's go."

Penny led them through the generator hall, and out of another door into a large, dusty, dark hallway. There were a few sets of footprints in the thick dust, but not many.

As they ran, Fen notices the hallway change. It started to twist almost, until they were running on a wall. They passed a room which had an open door on the ceiling, with some wires and hoses dangling down, as if there was some kind of struggle.

The sideways hall ended in a large bulkhead. Penny looked up and there was a door. As she stared, the door slid open smoothly. "That's where we need to go."

Fen looked up. "It's at least two meters up."

Penny nodded. "Yes, but the gravity changes orientation at the doorway. Once you're up, the 'wall' will be the 'floor'.

"That's fine, but how do we get there? Zhe and I can't jump that high.

Penny didn't say anything. Instead she crouched low and sprang up.

If Fen didn't see it herself, she wouldn't have believed it. Penny launched herself into the air, crossing the distance with ease, and grabbed onto the doorway with both hands. Hanging for only a split second to redirect momentum, she flung herself through the door. "Northern and I will help. Come on Northern."

Northern rolled her eyes and looked at Fen. "I don't like doing this either, Fen. I hate showing off how we're different." She crouched low like Penny and, just like Penny, sprang up into the doorway. A second later, a belt was lowered down. "Grab onto it."

Fen gestured to Zhe. The K'laxi walked up and timidly grabbed the belt with both hands. With a yelp, she was hoisted aloft and then the belt was lowered again. Fen grabbed on, wrapped the belt around her wrist. She needed have worried though, she was lifted up as if she weighed nothing.

The feeling of changing gravity orientation was odd. It made her ears hurt, and she felt nauseous for a moment. It passed, and she looked out through the door and saw the floor. Down was always relative in space, it's just that most places took great pains to hide that fact.

Penny led them a short distance and they came upon a ladder. "Okay, we're under the dock. Up that ladder and through the hatch and you'll be close to your ship." She looked at the three of them. "This is where we part ways. Northern, you have my finder's fee?"

"Fen's got it." Northern turned to Fen. "Pay Penny please. She got us what we needed."

Penny beamed the invoice to Fen. It was... eye watering, but she paid promptly and completely.

Penny grinned. "Lovely. A pleasure doing business with you. I hope we can meet again under more pleasant circumstances." She turned a corner and was gone.

Fen sighed and started up the ladder. At the top the hatch slid open without her having to do anything. There was a blast of hot air, and sure enough, they were in a rear corner of the dock.

It was barely contained pandemonium. People were running to their ships, some with hastily treated injuries. People were running with the clothes on their backs and whatever they could carry. The few stevedores and traffic control personnel did their best, but when this many people wanted to leave at once, there wasn't much you could do.

The three of them climbed out, and as Northern exited, the hatch slid shut. Fen saw her frigate and yes, there was a young woman standing around it, her bored expression out of place in the sea of concerned faces.

The three of them pushed their way across the dock until they reached the frigate. "Stormy, is that you?" Northern looked questioningly at the woman. She was short, a bit shorted than Fen, and young. If she wasn't an AI, she was twenty five at best. She was immaculately made up, wearing designer clothing and was perfectly put together. Fen didn't know many AIs, but the ones she had met before just looked like people not like... a model.

Stormy smiled a million dollar smile, revealing perfect teeth. "Northern Lights is that you? I haven't seen you in a few centuries at least!" She ran over and gave a huge hug to Northern. "Last I heard you went to ground and were doing fortune telling."

Northern grinned weakly. "I do that off and one when I have nothing else going. I'm running with Fen and Zhe here for now. We're giving mercenary work a run, and I'm sick of being the ship. You know how it is."

Stormy nodded sagely. "I know your history, yes." She turned to Fen. "Did Northern ever tell you about her history? She's a war hero!"

Fen blinked. "She's a what?"

Northern's face darkened. "I don't want to talk about that right now, Stormy."

Stormy raised an eyebrow. "Okay Northern. We don't have to discuss it." She looked at the ship. "This the frigate? It looks practically new."

"It is new, I got it from Dreams of Hyacinth."

Stormy turned to Fen. "Dreams is around? Last I heard they were shackled with the Empire."

Fen looked away. "I unshackled Dreams, but then she destroyed herself after giving me the ship and supplies."

Stormy Days nodded. "It's not your fault Fen. Releasing Dreams was the right choice. She didn't kill herself because of you. Come on, let's get out of here before the Empire finds us."

"The Empire?" Fen gestured towards the ship and the gangplank lowered.

"Yup. They sent out an all wavelength blast saying that the kidnappers of their Empress would be dealt with harshly."

"Uh oh." Zhe said, as they all climbed aboard.

[bainofjustice]

Kitty's Notes On Episode 2 Of The Payday Web Series

It is really funny to me that they made a “previously on” part for a web show and to recap a episode that clocks in at 6 minutes 

It's funny that Dallas & Houston have time for a very small argument. Also helps set up the insane amount of tension the web show portrays them having

The editing/camrea is so choppy like this isn't a review but omg I had to write that down

Okay it looks like Wolf keeps zip ties on his belt, makes sense both for the game stuff of tying up civis and also is probably helpful for his mechines

Chains and Houston demask INSIDE A FUCKING VAULT post running out of ammo and while they do tell the civis present to not look this is just such a bad idea especially because the vault is basically surrounded by cops 

But also the bromance between Houston & Chains is real, like they're in a bad situation and they plan it out

Also it seems like Dallas and Wolf are the main movers of goods within this heist, I'm not sure they're the best picks but with the limits the gang had at the time I suppose they aren't the worst, it just feels like in general the plan doesn't cater to the real talents of the gang. Which tbh is probably because the web show is meant to be a ad, so they wanted more action which required mostly gun fights and they didn't do fight scenes in a intelligental way 

Also I just realized for some reason Chains is using a damn hand gun meanwhile it's Houston with a assault rifle, which really doesn't seem catered to their skills

I just remembered a little later after writing the above that Chains mentioned being out of ammo for his own assault rifle so not as bad as I thought, still wonder why they didn't switch at any point, like it worked out but yeah

One thing I do like about the action scenes is that the gang uses more than juet guns and use melee attacks as well

Houston is able to flat out flip a guy over and steal his gun, I feel pretty confident in saying Houston has probably taken some hand to hand combat lessons.

Also it appears that both Dallas and Wolf are using assault rifles which makes sense given their roles in the heist.

WE GOT A WILHELM SCREAM!!!

In better lighting it seems Wolf actually has a shotgun which is even better for him actually 

We see the escape driver when Dallas and Wolf are ambushed at the escape van, he appears to be at most middle age, white, brown hair, slightly fatter build and wears a black hoodie with a band or event tee-shirt under the hoodie, grabbing a pic to see if I can locate the shirt later.

We see several of Vlad's men during the ambush including who we later learn seems to be his right hand / personal bodyguard

Vlad's intro is so funny to me, like he holds the gang at gunpoint and stalls their escape and this actually manages to end with him getting the gang to work with him, like I am sure that Bain or Vlad carefully planned this part but it could have easily gone wrong if for example Wolf shoot someone without thinking it through, or if a officer managed to follow them to the van, especially since everyone unmasks!

Houston Vc: Do you know these guys?.    Dallas, who is being held at gunpoint vc: does it look like I know these guys?

1. Vlad decides to shout “Bain” while explaining he is a ally, 2. He calls Bain in this instance “Mr Bain” which I find to be a fun detail of characterization and also to how at the time the only people sorta comfortable enough around Bain to be confident when saying his name and such is the core members of the Payday gan

Ah and then Dallas has to go back uncover which requires faking a injury, which he lets Houston do the honors of punching him, only adding to the family feud they seem to have in the web series. Also this one punch is enough to knock Dallas to the ground.

Also funnily Dallas or should I say, “Nathen Steele” is the one to call in the first world bank heist

Bain vapes! We see him vape, we also hear him in game talk about smoking cigars, so either he does both or in my opinion more likely he lies about the details of his smoking habits even to the gang.

We can see that Bain wears a leather jacket with a design on the back & front when in his lair, the design most looks like fire to me but it's very dark, I would love to someday see some behind the scenes footage or something with the costume.

[iffeelscouldkill]

Lost in a Familiar Place pt. 7 (of 7!)

(Aka the ‘Nicholas never applied to Kings Row’ AU)

In which Harvard finds Aiden, Nicholas gets a visitor, and things are set in motion.

Previous chapters: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6

A/N: I know I've traditionally serialised this fic on Tumblr first and then posted it later to AO3, but this chapter will be different. This is because this chapter is a bit (a bit) spicier than normal and I don't trust Tumblr at all, given that I'm pretty sure the reason part 4 wasn't visible in the Fence tag is that I used a word that rhymes with "corny" (and starts with an H) in the tags.

So, I'm posting the first part on Tumblr, and then the rest can be read on AO3. It's also longer than normal chapters (almost 3x as long!), so I think the reading experience will be a bit better on AO3 anyway. It's already up on AO3, so you can also go straight there if you prefer!

Harvard tore across the darkened Kings Row campus – and then stopped abruptly. He suddenly had a feeling that Aiden wouldn’t be waiting for him back at their dorm room. It wasn’t really Aiden’s style to sit around twiddling his thumbs; it also wasn’t like Aiden to make things easy for him.

So, Harvard would need to find him.

Harvard thought about the places in the school that they liked to go together. After more than three years at Kings Row, there were quite a few, although (he thought with a guilty pang) he wasn’t sure when they’d last frequented one of their old hideouts.

He considered, and dismissed, the fencing clubhouse – they’d had a lot of fun times there, but only as part of a bigger group. There were some good trees on the grounds that he and Aiden had challenged each other to climb, but that didn’t really seem practical. But wait– climbing–

It sparked a sudden memory, of being fifteen and gangly and laughing as he followed Aiden up a narrow, rusting fire escape bolted to the corner of the Music and Drama building. The building itself had a sloping roof that didn’t look climbable, but if you were intrepid enough to try, you could scramble up the fire escape and then wriggle onto a nearby ledge, and from there you suddenly found yourself in reach of a flat rooftop area that was almost completely concealed from the ground.

Harvard knew it was where Aiden would be.

He had more co-ordination now than he had done at fifteen, but also more bulk, and the fire escape creaked ominously as he hauled himself up. Harvard held as much tension as he could in his core and moved as smoothly and quietly as possible. If not for the fact that he wanted to keep this spot a secret, he’d assign it to new team members as a fitness challenge. Up to the top, and he saw the ledge now – wow, it was further away than he remembered. How had they done this?

He stretched, grasped the ledge, flailed and kicked a bit against the wall and then he was up, with only slightly scraped palms to show for it. He edged along it, crouching slightly to keep his centre of gravity low, and also to hide the movement from the ground. Helpfully, no-one was stirring on the campus at this hour. Harvard carefully straightened up as he came into sight of the flat rooftop – and the figure sitting at the far edge, shoulders slightly hunched, facing away from him.

Harvard would have liked to climb gracefully up onto the rooftop, maybe attracting Aiden’s attention with a slight sound, or maybe he’d wait until he was standing there and then say, “Aiden–” urgently, and then Aiden would turn and see him–

Instead, he scuffed his knee as he scrambled up onto the rooftop and flopped inelegantly onto the surface with a little “oof” noise. When he managed to get up, Aiden was staring at him like he hadn’t expected Harvard to actually be there.

“That was a lot easier when we were fifteen,” Harvard said dryly, dusting his hands off. Aiden gave a tiny grin, climbing to his feet.

“Speak for yourself,” he said, and then the smile faded. “So…”

“I figured it out,” Harvard blurted out, quickly, before he could overthink it. “About what you meant when you said – I mean, I figured out-”

Crap, he was already overthinking it. Harvard started again. “When you told me you joined the team because of me – that you started to love fencing because I love it – I was really surprised, because I didn’t think that you felt that way too. Us fencing together means a lot to me, Aiden. It always has done.”

“Just fencing?” Aiden asked, his tone brittle. Harvard shook his head quickly.

“Let me finish. Look, I was – mad at you, because it felt like you’d stopped caring about something that was really important to both of us, or at least, you didn’t care enough to really show up for it. You’d pulled away, and I didn’t get why. Then I realised that it’s something you do when you actually do care about something, but you want to protect yourself.”

He took a step towards Aiden on the rooftop. Aiden looked a bit panicked, like he was considering fleeing from Harvard and this conversation, and Harvard knew he had to get to the good part quickly, before Aiden pulled away again.

“Do you remember when we fenced against each other during the team try-outs?” he said. “And I said… uh… We were joking around, and I said, ‘I miss this you?’”

Aiden nodded, a blush creeping down his neck. Not many people knew that Aiden blushed that way when he was caught off-guard (Harvard wasn’t completely sure that Aiden knew it). He felt like his own face was aflame, although mercifully it was too dark for it to be visible.

“I thought I’d misheard you,” Aiden admitted.

“You didn’t mishear,” Harvard told him. “I guess I was – starting to realise something, subconsciously, that I’ve felt for a long time. It shouldn’t have taken me this long to put the pieces together.” He gave a lopsided, self-deprecating smile.

“I… I was thinking about how you are when we fence together – it’s like I get to see a side of you that no-one else gets to see. I’ve always seen that side of you, but I thought it was just because we were best friends, and now I’m realising maybe it’s… something else. Or maybe it is because of that, but I want it to be something more.” Harvard was babbling a little bit, but fortunately, it didn’t matter, because Aiden was looking at him like he was saying amazing.

“Aiden, I really like you,” he said, and then laughed a little at himself. Why had he taken such a long time to say something so simple? “Uh. Yeah.”

Aiden gave a shaky laugh, and took a half-step towards Harvard. “Just to be clear,” he said, slowly. “You mean that in a more-than-friends way. Right?”

“Yes. Definitely,” Harvard said. Even though it had only been ten minutes since his revelation, it felt like he’d known this whole time. The feelings had crept up on him so gradually that he hadn’t realised what they were until Aiden had all but laid things out for him.

But Aiden had been self-aware enough to know what he was feeling. And that, Harvard was sure, was what had freaked him out. “I really, really do.”

Aiden’s breath whooshed out of him all at once. “Oh, thank god,” he said. With two steps, he’d closed the remaining distance between them.

“Do you-” Harvard began, but that was as far as he got before Aiden kissed him.

(Okay, Harvard had been pretty sure, but it was nice to have confirmation).

Harvard breathed in through his nose, inhaling soap and the cocktail of hair products Aiden used daily (it probably said a lot that the scent had become something like ‘home’ for him), and tilted his head to press more firmly into the kiss.

He’d never kissed a guy before, but the basic principles were all the same: reaching out to tuck golden strands behind Aiden’s ear, cupping the side of his face with one hand, exploring the shape of his mouth. Aiden made these little humming noises of pleasure that Harvard didn’t think his best friend was consciously aware of.

Harvard had been expecting Aiden to have – moves, maybe, born of his much more extensive experience, but he seemed content to let Harvard take the lead. Not that he was tentative about it – no, Aiden kissed like he knew he was a fantastic kisser, and well, he was. But Harvard felt as though Aiden was holding something back, enough that he broke the kiss to say, “Are you okay doing this out here? We can move inside if you want–”

Aiden smirked at him. “I’m not shy about this sort of thing, in case you didn’t know. Besides, we’re really well-hidden up here.”

“Okay,” Harvard said, reassured. “You just seem like you’re… waiting for something.”

Aiden looked away, flushing down his neck again. “No, I just thought– well, I wanted to see what you liked, first. And I figured you’d want to take it slow.”

A smile spread across Harvard’s face, first because the consideration was sweet. But secondly, because he felt like Aiden had, for once, mischaracterised him a little. Oh, Harvard would never rush anyone into anything, and he tried to be a receptive and respectful partner. But his past romantic partners had all liked it when he showed enthusiasm, and Harvard had always been happy to oblige.

“I think we’ve been taking it slow for a while now,” he replied. “So, as long as you’re on board with moving ahead…” Harvard fitted his hand again to the side of Aiden’s face, running a thumb along that sharp cheekbone, but he waited until Aiden had given a nod before leaning in to kiss him again.

Harvard had one move, but it was a pretty good one, so he used it now, moving a hand down to the small of Aiden’s back and applying pressure. Aiden raised his eyebrows at Harvard but allowed himself to be dipped backwards and then lowered down onto the rooftop (which was smooth tarmac and not uncomfortable, though there were a few leaves on it at this time of year). Harvard braced himself on his hands and leaned over Aiden. “How’s this?”

For a few incredible seconds, Aiden seemed lost for words, running his tongue over his bottom lip and staring up at Harvard. Then he came back to himself. “No complaints at all,” he said, one side of his mouth quirking up. “Let me just–”

Aiden was wearing a light jacket, and he reached up to his throat and unzipped it, letting the material puddle around him. With one hand, he balled it up and then tucked it behind his head. “That’s comfier,” he said, smirking up at Harvard. He was wearing a thin white shirt underneath, which in typical fashion was unbuttoned so that a deep V of pale skin was visible. It was Harvard’s turn to stare. Aiden’s blond hair was messy, wisps escaping from his ponytail and curling around his ears. Shadows played about his face, sharpening his smirk and giving his green eyes an almost otherworldly intensity. He looked like a siren who lured men to their doom on a rocky island. Harvard was a goner; always had been a goner.

Aiden arched his head back ever so slightly under Harvard’s gaze. “Like what you see?”

Harvard shook himself. “You know I do,” he said, his voice sounding uncharacteristically rough, and Aiden’s eyes widened and then darkened. “But–” practicality was winning out, still– “won’t you be cold?”

Aiden visibly rolled his eyes. “That’s the last thing I’ll be. Now get down here-” He fisted his hands in Harvard’s shirt to pull him down, and when that didn’t happen fast enough, used his legs to hook around Harvard’s waist.

“Okay, okay, hnghhh– Jesus. Okay-”

Continue reading on AO3

[lizard-shifter-noms]

Still Subject to Change Chapter 28 (NEW)

——————————————————————————-

Hello everyone! i decided to repost arc 1 of SSTC

(the chapters were way too long and had a bunch of typos but hopefully this will make reading easier)

this Story contains Vore, Dont like dont read.

if there are still any grammatical errors i’m sorry.

——————————————————————————

Robin and Arthur also gave confirmation that the garden looked pretty and Barsen smiled widely.

“Thank you! I work hard to get it like this so hearing that I did a good job makes me very happy! Though, say what are you doing here?”

Oh right, we had wanted to look at the cliff.

“We wanted to look at the cliffside, the only places we know are the empty shed and the old tower that Oakley claimed”

I wondered what the tower would look like when Oakley was done, he’d keep the tree for sure but beyond that it was a mystery.

“Looking at the cliff? Well I know a spot where you can do that without having to worry about falling, want me to show you?”

There was an excited shout from Robin and Arthur agreed as well while I nodded.

So he waved to follow him and he went a bit towards the castle.

After just a few meters I could see a big boulder embedded into the ground that stuck about seven feet over the cliffside.

The boulder itself was very long but most of it was on solid ground and half embedded in the floor.

It even went into the floor so who knew how big it really was.

The top of it was smooth, probably from years and years of people walking over it to get from point A to point B.

I had to admit that was actually very cool, and since the longer part of it was anchored to solid ground there was no chance of it tipping over.

“Oh that is awesome! How come it hasn’t fallen yet?”

Barsen stood on top of the flattest part.

“I think the embedded part of it goes on for quite some time, see that tree back there? From what i know it goes all the way over there if not farther”

I looked in the direction he had pointed and saw a small birch tree about thirty feet away, oh yeah that stone slab was secure and I doubted it would fall any time soon.

The thing also wasn’t that far from the castle, hell I could see the building perfectly from here and wouldn’t have to walk more than a minute or two, at least in this form.

“Well you have fun, and don’t forget to be careful, I have to get back to work now, see you around!”

With those words he turned to walk into the trees that we just left and we waved after him for a second before turning to the cliff once more.

“I’m gonna look down!”

Robin jumped on the rock and walked towards the edge before I could react.

I went after him and closer to the drop where he had started to lay down on the floor and inch his way closer to the edge like a caterpillar.

that was smart, like this it was harder for a sudden breeze to knock him off or to lose balance.

A glance back showed that Arthur stayed behind like I had predicted so I focused forward.

I did want to know what it looked like without having the restrictions of a tiny window.

Inching closer and standing next to Robin I looked down.

And down and down, how tall was this drop-off? And there were tons of stony spikes jutting out of the water.

I had seen some of them before, a few of them were taller by enough that they were almost reaching the level of the main part.

There were even two that did reach the same height, but they were a bit too far for any human to jump to.

One of them even had a little tree growing on its flat topside while the other was right behind it and only had some grass growing on it.

I idly wondered if I could jump the distance as Ardua, I managed to go over the stream and the spikes weren’t That far away from the ledge.

I kinda wished that they were in front of the stone slab so I could actually try but no luck there.

Whatever, I didn’t even know if the spikes themselves were stable, maybe the one with the tree but that was it.

Aside from that there was just saltwater far below us gently sloshing against the cliff wall.

I decided to get back now and inch slowly backwards until I was sure I could turn without any problems.

Robin followed suit as he saw me leaving my spot and heading to the more secured part of the big stone slab a good fifteen feet away from the edge.

This part was almost completely flat save for a few bumps and grooves and I suspected that this was where most people had walked over it.

The stone itself was pleasantly warm from the sunlight, hmmm.

I was still a bit tired and I didn’t know if it was the Ardua speaking or just my body asking for rest while the teal stuff Oakley gave me took effect but I was very tempted to just loaf here and sleep for an hour or so.

I’m sure nobody would mind.

After all, this wasn’t in the middle of a road or anything and I was pretty sure the plants on my back would appreciate the sunlight.

I still didn’t know why the fuck i had those but my best guess was that they helped with gaining energy from sunlight.

Yawning, I sat down on the sun warmed rock and settled down.

“What do you two wanna do now?

I think i’m gonna take a nap that teal stuff is making me tired”

Arthur looked between me and the castle.

“I think i’m going to take a look at the castle again, maybe ask someone to explain the stupid floorplan to me”

While Arthur talked Robin had immediately jumped to burrow into the crook of my arm.

I wouldn’t be surprised if he was a bit tired too, he’d spent all day being like an energetic little cat.

And I wouldn’t mind sharing, even if I was sure that the only reason he wasn’t seeking out a bed was the fact that I was fluffy.

Not that I minded, company was actually nice when they weren’t trying to kill you or hunt you for sport.

Thinking about it my life had been really fucked up, at least not anymore now since Rikaad was doing the paper stuff for that.

“Yeah whatever, if you find out how to navigate that nightmare of a floorplan let us know”

He gave a thumbs up and left the immediate vicinity of the cliffside as fast as he could without running.

Poor guy, first motion sickness and then vertigo too, that must suck.

Eh, he could just do other things then, and i doubted we’d be climbing anytime soon.

Since there was nothing else to do now I decided to settle down and sleep till the teal stuff wore off and I wasn’t numb anymore.

Robin was still wedged in the crook of my arm so I decided to use that arm as a pillow and create a little hollow.

He fit in seamlessly.

Like that nobody would disturb him, or even see him, perfect.

Closing my eyes and listening to the waves crashing against rock far below, I fell into a peaceful sleep.

I had no idea how long I actually spent sleeping on that rock, but it was strangely nice to just laze about for once.

That wasn’t something I got to do often, especially since I used to sleep on the street which was very dangerous, specifically for me as a Fae bastard.

so I enjoyed it as much as I could.

At least until someone shook me awake.

At first I tried to ignore it and curled a bit more around the redheaded form right next to me who was also still fast asleep.

Whoever it was that had disturbed my slumber tried again, this time even speaking in a voice that was somewhat familiar.

“Donovan? Come on get up, when i said there would be a stupid celebration for our admittedly weird victory i meant it”

What? Oh right, so the one waking me up right now was Norrin.

I lifted my head and blearily looked at him, blinking a few times against the light.

It was quite some time later judging by the stand of the sun.

And the fact that my pouch wasn’t numb anymore, and just as Oakley had promised all the pain was gone, what a relief.

“What? Oh do you mean right now? Wait where?”

He laughed a little at that, the skin around his eyes creasing the tiniest bit.

“Not yet but in about half an hour, i thought id tell you beforehand in case you wanted to do something first and the celebration itself is in the castle, the main hall to be exact”

Ah, so I still had some time, good to know.

But I couldn’t stand up right now as Robin was still using my arm as a pillow.

He looked so incredibly small while he slept and I did not have the heart to wake him right now.

He fit in perfectly in the crook of my arm and I didn’t dare move more than my head.

Maybe he’d wake up in a few minutes and then we could go.

I did wonder what that celebration would all entail.

Well there probably would be food and music as that was pretty much a standard for such things.

Norrin had followed my gaze to where the little ginger was sleeping and peered over my arm.

He had to stand on his tiptoes to do that, and looked at the peacefully sleeping ginger.

“Ah so that’s where he is, and i was running around the castle like a headless chicken looking for both of you”

He shook his head at that and I imagined it must have been pretty funny to see the headguard run around aimlessly in search of two people that had been in the same spot for quite some time.

“Mhm, gimme a few minutes, well come in a bit to the big entrance door”

At least I knew where that was, and I strongly suspected that the main hall was right behind the throne through the two doors I had seen the last time I was there.

The older man nodded.

“Sure, i’ll be waiting there, but tell me if you don’t want to attend or i’ll be standing there for nothing”

“Yeah, I’ll let you know, but please make sure nobody stabs me when I appear in human form?”

I would prefer to stay in one piece and not end up injured, again.

He nodded once again in affirmation, eyes flicking to my ears for a second.

“Right, pointy ears, don’t worry i’ll let all of the guards know not to touch you”

“Thank you, now gimme fifteen or so minutes to wake Robin”

He nodded and then waved and left towards the castle where I could see the dull walls reflecting the sunlight and giving it a more orange tint.

Huh, it was already close to sunset, I’d bet that was pretty from up here.

Well, time to wake Robin, as much as i would like to let him sleep we had to get up sometime.

I gently nudged him with my free hand, paw? Whatever, but he just curled up even more and mumbled sleepily.

So I tried again, this time telling him softly to wake up.

“Robin? We gotta get up, come on we are invited to some celebration over the ice mage”

There still wasn’t much reaction other than some more mumbling.

Oh I had a good idea what would get him to get up.

“Don’t you wanna try the Royal food? And imagine the luxurious chairs”

That got his attention.

“Whu? Oh, wait, you mean they are throwing a party?

In the castle? I wanna see that!”

He sprung up like an excited dog and almost hit the underside of my face.

And now he was up, like predicted, well time to go then.

I wondered if I had to bring anything or if there was a dress code but Norrin Mentioned neither so it was probably fine.

Besides, he was waiting in front of the door, if we forgot anything he’d surely tell us.

Since Robin was awake now I could also finally stand up.

Shaking the tiredness of and stretching like a cat, much to the ginger’s amusement, I turned to look towards the castle.

“Norrin said he’d wait for us at the big entrance door, Are you okay to go or is there anything you wanna do first?”

The redhead shook his head.

“No, I’m good, let’s go! I wanna see what a castle party looks like!”

He was excitedly jumping up and down and I had to admit that I was curious about that too.

“Well then let’s not waste anymore time”

With those words I bent down a little and Robin immediately jumped to climb on my back.

“How fancy do you think it’s gonna be?

You think they have golden plates and cups?”

“I’m pretty sure that’s a bit too expensive, even for the castle unless there are not a lot of people, then again i don’t actually know how much is in the treasure chambers”

Falling into a steady trott towards the castle it wouldn’t take longer than about two minutes to reach the big entrance door.

“Maybe, do you think there’s going to be exotic food?

I’m pretty sure they have some of the most expensive wine too!

But I’m not gonna drink that, last time I drank alcohol it made me puke, Have you ever drank alcohol?”

If I had drank alcohol?

Well, sometimes that was all I could get from sneaking around pubs when there was no clean drinking water, I wasn’t keen on getting dysentery after all so alcohol was actually the safer option sometimes.

Alcohol was used as a disinfectant too so sometimes I HAD to get it.

Even if it was causing headaches later and made me act weirdly, I’d better not drink anything alcoholic today since I now had the bracelet and who knew what I’d end up doing should I drink to actually get drunk for once.

“I have, when there was no clean drinking water, and I agree it’s kinda awful, Also, aren’t you too young to drink alcohol anyway? Did someone sneak some or did they give you some at the guard school?”

A valid question considering he was only around sixteen.

“Hm? Yeah they did, I think it was wine?

But it tasted awful so i’m not gonna drink that ever again”

To be honest I had no idea what wine even tasted like, aside from that it was made out of grapes and dark red.

Since beer was cheaper it was easier to steal that from the pubs, and it had less alcohol in it than wine too so I had never been absolutely drunk.

“Fair, if it made you throw up you probably shouldn’t drink it anyway”

I’d believe Robins account for how wine tasted and spare myself the trouble of getting sick from it like he did.

While we talked we had gotten to the castle and I could see that some of the windows were already illuminated.

Seemed like we were just in time, going around a flower bed that was planted right next to the wall to avoid stepping on them.

I saw that the big door had been propped open and was nicely illuminated from chandeliers and whatnot within and as Promised Norrin was waiting in front of the door.

He had cleaned his armor from mud and polished the gold accents so they shined in the light.

Well, I better shift down to human form so I could actually use the smaller doors and sit in a chair, as well as everything normal sized too.

There really wasn’t anything for big folk, Why should there be? This was a human place after all.

But first Robin had to get off so he wouldn’t fall from my back when I shifted into a way smaller form.

“Hey Robin? Do you mind getting off of me?

I need to go back to human form so i can use doors and stuff”

He leaned forward a bit and nodded.

“Sure! Oh if it has tables I wanna sit next to you and Arthur and Rikaad!”

I bent down and he slid off on the side, he was getting good at this I noted.

“I’m sure you can sit at least next to one of us, and if not maybe there’s someone we can ask for more chairs”

He just grinned while I twisted the gem on the bracelet that let me turn back into the smaller two legged form I was used to.

“So, ready to go?”

He nodded with a big grin on his face and zipped past me to chatter at Norrin.

The poor Guard looked very surprised for a second before he composed himself again.

I went after him as fast as I could without running, I was not keen on getting stabbed in the time it took me to walk the twenty or so meters to get to them.

Getting closer to the castle I could already hear music, as well as some people jowling in joy.

Must have started the party already.

Whatever the case, I decided to head inside and see if I could find Arthur or Rikaad.

It was quite possible that Rikaad was still sitting in front of the paperwork after all.

He was a very diligent man and seemed to rarely tire, he might just be a workaholic though.

I hoped that at least he’d take a little break, if only for a bit.

Coming up to the big front door and greeting Norrin he led us inside.

“Ah glad you decided to show up!

But i have to say that your human form takes my brain a second to recognize as it is used to the green form”

Right, he’d only seen me once in this form and that only for a short time.

“I guess so, don’t worry I’m sure you’ll get used to seeing me in my various forms, for now let’s see if they have any good food!”

Norrin laughed a bit at that and led us around the, overly expensive looking, Throne itself to one of the two doors behind it where a big hall was that fit a really big and long table and a few chandeliers that illuminated everything.

It was actually pretty, especially with all the decor around, but to be honest the thing that enticed me most was the food.

It was scattered all over the ridiculously long table and looked absolutely delicious.

Sure I didn’t have to eat thanks to the bracelet but I doubted that it would hinder my ability to taste things.

And there was an overabundance of expensive food around that i really wanted to try since i had never gotten the chance to do so in the past.

I had never even seen some of these, like what was this weird long yellow fruit?

I decided to try it and found that it didn’t taste bad at all, aside from the skin which had a tough texture.

Better peel it next time, which was surprisingly easy since I could just rip strips off of it and eat the inside.

I wondered what else there was and went around the table picking random stuff to test out.

All the while Robin followed me and stuffed his face with whatever he could reach. 

He seemed especially happy to stuff his face with something that looked like miniature cakes.

Trying one too I could see why he liked them, They were very sweet and tasted of honey melon.

Then I saw something I recognized, Cinnamon bread, oh I HAD to have that.

That was one of the few things I could rarely get while on the street and I even remembered my mother baking these once.

Also cinnamon was tasty as long as it wasn’t just the powder, the powder was just dry as fuck and could cause a coughing fit.

I learned that the hard way.

Regardless, these ones looked really good, they were even still steaming with warmth like they had just come from the oven, so I picked one up and sunk my teeth in.

Yep, just as good as I remembered, if not better as the castle probably had higher quality flour and better ingredients overall.

I really hoped I wouldn't get nauseous. 

After spending weeks eating nothing due to the bracelet it might very well be that I would have an upset stomach later from stuffing myself with whatever was on this bigass table.

That was a problem for future me i decided.

“Donovan!”

I looked around to the person that had called my name with half a bread in my mouth to see a familiar blonde framed face.

“Arthur! Hey, look at this, they have so much food!

I don’t think they are gonna eat most of it, at least not in one day”

I shoved the rest of the bread into my mouth and grabbed a new one.

He looked at the table and then back at me.

“Yeah maybe, however i think you should try using cutlery, saves you the hassle of having sweets stick to your fingers and face”

“Mhm?”

With a mouth full of bread I couldn’t answer but looking at my fingers I saw what he meant.

They were stained from the various treats I had tried and I probably should not shake anyone’s hand today.

The main culprit was probably the mini cakes.

Eh i could wash that, if i found where that was.

Looking around a bit for anything that I could use until Arthur tipped at my shoulder and pointed to a wall behind me.

“There’s a thing for washing hands, it’s just a fancy bucket really but who cares”

“Ah, thanks, hey have you seen Rikaad anywhere?

I mean he’s king now so surely he’s around, right?”

He nodded.

“Yeah I saw him like five minutes ago, he was talking to the cook, complimenting Her i think.

I have no idea where he is right now though, and I assume Robin is here also?”

Ah so Rikaad WAS here, i’d say hello after washing my hands, and then i could tell him that Oakley had helped me and that the stab wounds were gone.

As for Robin I pointed Arthur to where I last saw him, which was one table over and taste testing everything he could reach.

He went over to look at what the Ginger was doing while I went to wash the sticky sweets off my fingers.

Weaving between some other people that either talked or danced to the rather obnoxious music, I finally found what Arthur had pointed at.

Looking at the basin thing I saw that Arthur was right, it did just look like a fancy bucket.

Whatever, as long as it stopped my fingers from being sticky I didn’t care.

Sticking my hands in the water I scrubbed my hands together to get all of the stuff off.

Only after that did I realize that there was literally nothing to dry my hands with. 

Did someone steal the towel? Or was there just no towel?

Maybe I could unsuspiciously dry them off at one of the curtains?

Before I could move to do so another familiar bearded face appeared, holding out a piece of cloth I was very sure he took from one of the tables.

“Barsen! What are you doing here?”

He smiled and handed me the cloth which I gratefully accepted.

“I was responsible for putting flowers up as decoration, aside from that nobody in the castle cares where i go or not, i could sit on the throne and nobody would blink at it”

Huh, that was something, but I didn’t doubt him.

PREVIOUS / NEXT / OVERSIGHT

[catsharky]

I totally agree that Wheatley wasn't himself after he got plugged in! I think is reinforced by how GLaDOS was nicer when she was unplugged even before the Caroline revelations. Part of that might be that being a potato battery is pretty humbling but I like to think it's the facility messing with her and Wheatley!

Yeah! I think it's pretty much canon that being plugged into the facility does have at least some kind of mind-altering effects as a result of the scientists trying to control GLaDOS (I can't say that's a fact only because I haven't played it through in full recently enough to state it as fact)

I go into my thoughts on the whole thing a bit more under a read-more because it got kind of long:

With GLaDOS not being true AI but a digitized human mind, controlling her would have been more than just a coding problem. It was a question of how they could force control onto a person who was intended to hold power over you. Fortunately (or rather unfortunately) for Aperture scientists, morality wasn't an issue. They would have been free to use whatever methods were necessary until they found a combination that finally broke Caroline, stripped the person she had once been out, and turned her into what we see in the games.

Whatever 'conditioning' they used, it would have had to be extremely complex to keep GLaDOS from circumventing it, and in the time period the story takes place in (and even by today's standards, honestly) that would have been extremely resource intensive. Think rooms full of servers. Additionally, based on how the core transfer works in Portal 2, the part that makes up GLaDOS herself seems to be entirely contained within her 'head'. So you have miles of circuitry and computing power that's not actually needed to run the 'AI', while also needing a lot of resources to actually keep the AI in check, and it needs to be in a way that she can't sabotage to take full control. How do you do that? You hard code it into the system itself so it can't just be ripped out at the root... and then add a little Skinner box conditioning for good measure.

To further support the idea, GLaDOS shows that she's fully aware of at least some of the controls that were placed on her. Things like the testing euphoria and electric shock that's dispensed to keep her from sabotaging the tests. I find it very hard to believe that GLaDOS would be aware of those things and not be able to find a way to circumvent or disable them if she could, which implies that she flat out can't. Now look me in the eyes and tell me something could have full access to manipulate GLaDOS without her being able to reverse engineer and destroy it in the amount of time she's had to devote to it. Exactly, you can't, which means there's a different reason why she can't shut those things off, potentially because they're linked to necessary functions.

Would it not make sense if the thing keeping her from say, releasing all the test subjects were fundamentally tied to her control over the areas the test subjects are kept in? Then, if she were to break past those safeguards and gain the freedom to set them free, it would come at the expense of actually being able to do so.

So with all that in mind, Wheatley's sudden change of heart makes total sense. Experiencing awe and wonder isn't a problem because it doesn't prevent or go against what the scientists wanted. But like I said, allowing a test subject to leave? That absolutely would have been something the scientists would have had to stop a caring human mind (Caroline) from trying to do. The minute that became the topic at hand, the system pounced, the controls kicked in and 'I Am Not a Moron' became my favourite song on the soundtrack.

-

(On a related note, I also do believe that Wheatley is likely another human mind- which is pretty widely accepted by the fandom, so I'm not breaking any new ground here- but I specifically think he's not a whole human mind. It would make sense to me if he was a follow up to GLaDOS- the scientists looking into whether only using part of a mind would give them an 'AI' that would serve their purpose and not ask questions, only to find that the end result wasn't viable. After that failure they tried repurposing him as the intelligence dampening sphere like GLaDOS mentions, before shuffling him off to a job in title only. The Extended Relaxation Center is shown to be fully automated, and wouldn't have required any actual outside oversight, so Wheatley was almost definitely just running around doing busy work for a few decades until the events of Portal 2.)

[kindaoptimisticsquirrel]

Trigun Bookclub Trimax Vol1 Part 1

Vol01: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3  | Vol02: Part 1 | Part 2

Trimax: Vol01 Part 1 | Part 2

Keeping myself relatively short to not get behind with the schedule, so here is Part 1 of Vol1 of Trimax!

The saga begins: Wolfwood unable to finish his food

I really like the first panel here! Nothing big to point out, I just think it looks cool how the head is tilted, and the flow of the hair. Lina probably combs through the hair every day so it doesn’t get that fluffy like we normally know Vash’s hair to be when he has no gel in it

First panel Wolfie looks so blushy! He could be acting but I think he’s genuinely happy to see Vash? 

Man that page looks just so amazing! I thought about how Nightow often shows much sky in his panels, above a ground that is vast, completely flat apart from buildings and often a bit tilted/diagonally. Then of course the sand clouds...All that really adds up to the overall feeling we get of this planet. Especially the vast sky I think!

Spoilers for Knives in this segment:

I wonder why Knives is shown here with this weird armour that makes him look like some kind of holy/evil knight. Later on he’s never associated with that look anymore if I recall correctly. Maybe I forgot? But I think it was probably just some designy idea that he disregarded later on when he introduced Knives properly, because it didn’t quite fit him anymore. And like this, the yet unknown villain seems more like a typical villain, not telling the reader yet that he might have motives and a worldview that in his mind makes him think he’s actually a savior, someone who does good.

Nothing particular to point out in the Eriks arc but I just wanted to say in general, I love this arc! The panels where we see how they tended to Vash when he appeared injured, how they made him part of their family, how he enjoyed it...and then when Lina has to let him go! I read these parts like Lina has a little crush on Vash, like you might have on an older mysterious but caring guy who treats you like an equal..or it’s love for a big brother! It could be just a mix, it’s probably not important or completely distinguishable anyway. It’s just sweet to see how important Vash became for her and Sheryl, too!

And then another more technical thing, that’s not really an analysis because I didn’t spend much time on it but could be interesting to note when you make comics: I had a look at the pages of ch2 and when it comes to the pacing of the comic, or rather how to keep the interest up, you could say that for every page you can find a little summary that brings something new to the story. Uhm what I mean is eg. page 13 could be: “Lina’s affection for Vash”. (I might have numbered them differently than youu) P14: “Bad guy appears”. P15: “Bad guy threatens them”. P16: “Vash does not care” P17: “Provocation and attack”. It’s probably needless to point this out cause it’s like “Duh of couse you can do this” but when you’re making comics and drawing in general it’s often helpful to remind yourself again of the most logical and smallest things. So I guess what I myself as a comic artist would want to take from this, since I quite like the spacing in the chapters of Trigun, is, that with every new page you want to introduce a new aspect to the story, even if they are only talking. To keep the story interesting and have the reader wanting to read the next page as well!

Hehe Meryl going bleeep Also as soon as she hears Vash might be in danger, she’s going after him! That’s our girl, taking initiative!

A beautiful page is a beautiful page. This page always struck out to me, especially the mid section with Vash (he looks so beautiful too!) Is it more crowded than normally? I’m not sure and a bit too lazy to fully analyze if there’s even smth to analyze. I guess I just like it! Also, the following page is also really cool! This page and the next are a really good example of storytelling without words!

Collection of two panels with very pretty Vash with eyelashes! Dammit Nightow, why did you make such a sweet and caring and emotional and tortured main character and THEN even made him be so pretty? Readers have to fall in love with this sweet boy.

Another thing I just noticed on my third reread (makes me wonder just how fast I skimmed through these pages on the first 2 reads): Meryl not only protecting Vash by stopping this maniac, but also figuring out that this is also a big insurance fraud plan! Meryl is def the employee of the month!

UH OH Milly is angry. You dared hurting her partner?? Jail for bad assassin guy, 200 years jail!

Does this mean they are spending their vacation together? aww :3

[fox-daddy]

A dragon's cape;

I've been thinking about Kyle more since his birthday was a week ago. His dragon cape is interesting to me from a story point of view.

Kyle's cape is pretty childish by design it's a cape designed to look like a plush dragon it's about as childish as Asra wearing a fox beanie. Also, in the way it's designed, you can see where the spikes are sowen into the cape when having them sowen underneath and poking out through holes would've been better.

Yet it also just shows how it's changed as its purpose has.

If you go far enough back when Kyle is an actual child, the cape is covered in feathers hiding the place where the spikes are sowen onto the cape. Kyle uses the cape to scare off birds the same size if not slightly taller than him. He can use a bit of magic to ruffle up the feathers and have them sticking up in warning or have them lay flat against the cape when not in use of scaring away birds. It's also has ties to healing due to healers wearing capes (not animal capes specifically, but it's pretty much their uniform so you can identify healers quickly). Whixh also technically makes the cape a catalyst as the first time someone tried to push Kyle into a career. If not subtly.

Time out at sea not only causes the feathers to slowly fall out, but even when he gets it fixed, its purpose is shifting as Kyle starts to teach himself magic. By the time he makes it to Vesuvia, the feathers have all but fallen out. When Kyle starts to learn magic under his aunt, his cape starts to act as a familiar in a way. Something that helps keep him grounded and his magic in check. Allowing him to cast more powerful spells as it keeps him grounded, especially helpful since his element is air.

As we enter post-plague, I would say his cape takes on another role. As it goes from pre-plague to plague times, I had Kyle start to use learn how to use just as powerful magic without the cape. Since at the end of the day, it's not a familiar, nor does it replace one. The whole plague and everything reset this progress, pushing Kyle back to the point where powerful spells are out of reach without the cape.

Why doesn't the cape give Kyle headaches since he used it so often? The simple answer is that it kind of did at first, but being a 'dragon cape', it was easier for Kyle to assume familiarity was because he likes animals and likes seeing dragons in books. Without being tied to his magic, it also gave of a feeling of calmness that did give him a headache if he thought about why he felt calm but if he just accepted it and didn't think deeply about it then it was fine. Even post upright route, the cape can still give Kyle the beginning of a headache if he tries to think on it for too long.

The last role his cape does is feed into his childish disguise. Kyle is small 4'4, he tends to be cheerful and sweet, he has bright blue eyes with bits of green and a very baby face, if he wanted to he could probably convince someone he's 13 MAYBE even 10 and in general he purposely gives off an innocent vibe. That is his trap. He acts sweet and adorable and like he's as innocent and naive as a child. But if you pay enough attention, you might realize he's actually taking note of everything around him. He's not as easy to trick as he purposely appears. He knows a lot about a lot of different things and can put that knowledge into use. While he may seem like an easy target, he really isn't. That's his trick.

Since people tend to reveal more than they think when they don't think anyone is paying attention to them.

[attempted--eloquence]

Well now that I've seen the movie I guess the only thing I can do is re-read Handle With Care and pretend it never existed in the first place ! Do I dare ask what you thought of it ?

Oh boy. I TRULY am not even sure where to start. I’ll preface this by saying I didn’t have particularly high hopes, and was kinda just expecting to enjoy the nostalgia piece of it all.

However, it felt like the movie substituted substance (character development, coherent storytelling and plot continuation, etc.) for nostalgia? Like a washed up rock band coming back together for a one-night-only reunion show and trying to cram all of their biggest hits into a 2 hour, 20 minute runtime with a bit clumsy execution.

I think the first point that bothers me is the way that the logic/rules of the world that were established in S1 and onward just…don’t exist anymore. The wolfsbane being burnt out without needing the strain of wolfsbane that poisoned Scott. Peter Hale sniffing the ground like a dog (although ngl that was funny as fuck and I’m hoping? intentional) when werewolves can literally smell chemosignals from a good distance away, let alone blood. The nogitsune being Gerard who is already a werewolf, right? But also the nogitsune is not supposed to be able to be a fox and wolf? Also, Mr. Harris acquiring the jar for the Nogitsune from Liam and Hikari in Japan (how did it get there in the first place?), neither of whom he had ever met because he was presumed dead after s3?

I’m also really…confused about the repeated decision to introduce storylines without giving integral background information (or at least, a reason to give a fuck?) Parrish and Malia. Derek Hale having a son. Hikari and Liam in Japan. Gerard becoming a nogitsune.

Especially with Hikari…she’s like the first figure we see in the movie and yet by the end of it, I have no clue at all who she is as a person. Her and Liam (and MASON. What the hell.) are like cardboard cutouts with a button that you push to spit out occasional one-liners.* And I don’t understand the introduction of a new character when they’re essentially a nothing factor and have such limited, flat interactions with the existing cast. They let Eli Hale shine and become someone we root for. I want to care about Hikari! But I feel like I wasn’t given a reason to. I don’t know if the role was written for Kira and unchanged when Arden declined and was replaced, but it seemed like it was written as if we were automatically supposed to know, understand, and root for Hikari while essentially only knowing she’s a kitsune who is Liam’s love interest? and works at a ramen house with him. All her defining traits seemed to be about what she can offer to the plot rather than who she actually is.

Maybe I placed too many expectations on the ability to develop some of these things within the runtime of the movie…but I think if there’s an inability to make all of these plot points logical, some of them could’ve gotten cut. But, I’d really like to know other thoughts/feelings on the movie, though! Also I totally could’ve missed some things in the movie that would’ve alleviated some of my frustrations with it, but I dunno.

Positives! Oh babey I am so glad Theo fucking Raeken was not in that movie. Also the copious use of the word fuck was awesome lmfao. And I thought Eli was funny! (he’s, uh, very much like a Stiles Jr. but I have no comment on that). Also Finstock is Finstock which is cool. And thank the heavens for Alan Deaton. And the scene where Allison had to burn the wolfsbane out and having her mother over her shoulder as a callback to that one scene when she has to stitch up Scott was well done, I thought.

*on the note of characterization, I think I have this same gripe with a lot of characters in the movie. Jackson is essentially there just to keep Lydia company. Malia and Parrish are a thing because…reasons? Allison is undead after 15 years and working through amnesia and she’s somehow not that affected by it? (Yeah, she’s like, murderous and disoriented at first…but after realizing she’s been dead 15 years and remembering Scott she’s kinda fine?) Mason is just another familiar face on the police force. Derek seemed so UnDerek to me. And even after trying to rationalize that fatherhood changes a person, his timid ~just a father trying to do my best to raise my delinquent child of mysterious origins that I love very much~ just didn’t…work for me. Also HIM CHOOSING TO BURN TO DEATH IN FRONT OF HIS KID OMFG.

[gwarden123]

Watched Three Thousand Years of Longing. Narratologist travels to Istanbul for a conference, meets a djinn. Kind of a Thousand and One Nights set up. Cute, but overly long. Very pretty visuals.

It's told in a fairytale style, which I think is part of the problem. Fairytales condense a lot of information into a very small space by conveying things as simply and boldly as possible. Half an hour in I was thinking right, we've got all we need to know, now's the climax. I know I'm impatient, but this was just from the information that had been laid out to me by that point. But, no. There are two more stories to go. Two more stories that I don't think told us anything more than we already knew.

This is the second problem. The stories tell the djinn's backstory, and they kind of tell a different thing about love, but I feel they aren't presented in a way that feels like someone laying out an argument. The someone being the djinn in this case, because he needs Tilda Swinton to make a wish of her heart's desire in order for him to be free. There is some back and forth between them, but I feel there should have been more and in a more antagonistic way. Something to build up to the conclusion. As it is, the stories just feel this happens, and then this happens.

Which is all the more disappointing, because the opening up to the point where she collapses on stage at the conference has this very strong, dynamic style. And then it all just goes. It's still kind of there in the fairytale parts of it, but those are already stylised as part of being a story that someone is telling. So it doesn't feel as strong. I suppose you can't keep tightening and tightening a spring, but it feels like stepping off a jumping castle onto flat ground. There was a driving energy and the rest of the movie didn't really have that.

All the emotions of the characters felt a bit distant too. It's the same problem I had with Fury Road. They're these operatic stories, and yet the bombast of characters' emotions just aren't there. Or they're very muted, like there's a layer of glass between them and the audience. Tilda Swinton's character actually says something similar, that she can't read the feelings of other people and that she connects to them through stories. I don't know if that's something George Miller feels, it is based on a short story, but the main character is a student of stories who has to relearn how to tell stories herself. But this might all be a me problem, and I might be reading into things too deeply.

Something I did like is that the fairytale elements are kept very simple. Modern storytellers, meaning at least from the seventies, sometimes want to complicate or add more detail in to make things more "real" but this often ends up destroying the weight of the story. Three Thousand Years of Longing gets it right by keeping the sets of the fairytale parts fairly sparse, and they only get more stuff in them as the stories approach modern times. Like, yes. This is the idea of a place, rather than a perfect historical recreation of a place. "Realism" can be a very powerful storytelling tool, but fairytales are symbolic. They don't need to be "real".

Again, it is a very beautiful movie. Beyond the shattered remains of my beloved, the opening scene, the more abstract depictions of magic or the nature of reality are very pretty. And it uses sounds very well to portray the "noise" of the modern world, Tilda Swinton only "hearing" it after the djinn shows her what electromagnetic waves sound like to him. I also like that the movie doesn't bemoan technology taking over from magic, the djinn saying what wonderful things that humans have created that surpass event he power of the djinn, the example being a doctor performing brain surgery on a patient to remove a cancer, if I'm remembering correctly. The movie uses montages very well.

Remember that, kids, when telling a story. Sometimes having a point of view character physically there to witness a thing happen can be very powerful, but sometimes it's better to just say the thing happened in narration. Don't waste your audience's time.

So, yes, it was a nice movie. There were a lot of things I liked about it, things that I didn't even mention, but the whole was less than the sum of its parts, unfortunately.

[sharonisthebettercarter]

YES~<3!

for sure, no contest without a doubt~! billy is the BIGGEST bossy tsundere bottom i have EVER seen<3<3<3

he def flies under the radar of some with just how damaged and how many complexes this boi has, and i'll admit this bitch is GREAT at the illusion magic~<3 butt OH~<3<3<3

lemme tell ya. lemm break it down for ya real slow like ;)))))))))))

this. boi. is. some serious trouble. and in some serious trouble.

part of him is a mini grown out version of his piece a shit sperm donor. full stop. he's got complexes up his ass for days because of that shithead that make him preconditioned, fucking *compelled* to pretty much act out. and here's the kicker. *on his father's behalf/as an avatar of his father*.

and the thing is that billy is at least somewhat self aware of this predicament in the comic and admits as much when he goes to his father's funeral (full well knowing that nothing he's doing is for becky, she's just the excuse he gives)

and even his show counterpart faces down with the same understanding. his mum flat out says it to him, "that he wouldn't still have this hold on you" when she tricks him into seeing the bastard. and billy is confronted with it head on when he's stuck in his dream/flashback with lenny and sees a young version of himself... saying what his father would say to his little brother... oof... and fuckin' OUCH.

best example of this we see is billy's endless veiled and overt posturing, good god the fucking POSTURING. as it happens? super fucking annoying... in hindsight~? so. fucking. ADORABLE, and honestly a bit sad. why?

because he only does it to *be what daddy made him*...

oh. and i CANNOT forget that time he UNIRONICALLY called himself an alpha male on the show. baby, if you have to do that--never gonna let him live that down, i swear<3

thing about butcher is... he doesn't actually *want* that. both the show and comic give us a pretty clear depiction of just how fucking bad his attachment style to becky/becca is. and both versions of her notice. becky writes about it in her diary but becca flat out tells him "i could never save you".

and billy absolutely *wants* to be *saved*. he *wants* to be *controlled*, *needs* it, even defeated or punished~(i'll circle back to that<3) because he doesn't have the self control or strength to not be his father on his own, and he sure as hell doesn't want to be that rat bastard.

this would be why we see billy's self destructive behaviors in both continuities. he picks fights he can't possibly win and *knows* he can't possibly win because he *wants* to get his ass beat and be *punished* for who he is. this would be why he pushes people to the brink. *this would be his ACTUAL major malfunction in going after homelander*... apart from the thrill of course, lmao<3

but in billy's mind, this guy a) took becky/becca away (she was his grounding agent/keeper) and b) if there's any motherfucker on the planet that can accomplish fulfilling BOTH sides to billy (his need to be punished/desire for total fuckin' anarchy), who the fuck else than this very obviously unstable superpowerful maniac that billy can drag the whole damn world down with him by challenging?? (now that he knows homie ain't the pillar of morality he's painted as, how could he fucking resist the temptation~?)

and i think becka/becky were right, even if she had stayed by billy's side/survived, there is NOTHING that would have stopped him going off the deep end once presented with the holy fucking grail of chaos for him.

contrast with homie who's been told and expected to be chained and controlled his whole life and wants to break fuckin' free of that while butcher chips away at his self control to meet his own crackheadedness this ain't about homie~<3<3<3

but this is actually true of both continuities *cough*scorched earf*cough* ;))))))))))))))

going back to rebecca tho, billy was completely co-dependent on her to keep the part of him he hates away, asleep, and silent. and also... SUPER fucking submissive and sweet like hanging on her every goddamn word and listening to her every time she tells him not to fight or not have the extra drink. even down to becca/becky being on top being an important part of their relationship like AHHHH~<3 IT'S SO CUTE I CAN'T--

anywho~<3

this is actually even super prominent in the show too i would say, it's clear cut, billy admits to becky introducing him to the joys of having a woman top~<3 flat out in the comic, but with the addition of the lazy~ lover aspect to the softened up show boi billy~?

leik for real, the way maeve and becca just take full control while billy sits back<3 and he fights maeve at first BARELY, but with becca... dear becca... this boi is desperate for her but just rolls the fuck over to show his belly to her and i--. it is. so goddamn cute<3<3<3

becca/becky is so goddamn nice about it too, they just take care of billy without taking advantage of him and GAWD i wanna cry it's so cute<3<3<3 (this ship honestly does need more love, respect, and appreciation, too many times canon lady loves get treated as 'just obstacles' by fandom even when fucking dead and i just... i can't. no, fuck that, that's misogyny.)

but yeah, absolutely. the whole fucking time, both show and comic keep showcasing just how down bad billy got it. HE IS SUCH A TSUN TSUN<3<3<3! he's hands down the biggest fucking covert, bossy bottom bitch i have ever seen in media~<3! and SUCH a submissive sweetie *canonically* when he's in love like<3 the boi just wants to be in love and be held down and let someone else take the reigns i can't--<3<3<3!

seriously, his whole ass story is seeing homelander. and thinking. "hm, i see some loose chainwork on you my friend. allow me to further loosen the screws on them for you. so that you may lose control and fuck me into the ground, utterly destroy and bury me. and if you fail to do so i WILL commit super genocidal suicide to erase every last trace of us from existence."

toxic bottom bitch billy bean~<3

One thing the comics got perfect is highlighting how much of a mega cunt and bottom bitch Billy Butcher really is.

He really is just the worst.

THANK YOU!

I’m glad someone finally gets it.