#also his kidnapped counter going up this episode

[artlocke]

watching rtte while doodling, this is probably one of my fav episodes

might do more?

[thesunfyre4446]

I’m surprised to see so many people happy with the Sept scene, it’s complete illogical fan service.

They should’ve been clawing at each others faces. Instead you have Rhaenyra chuckling and joking “I’ve begun badly” girl, Vhagar made a mukkbang out of your son. A little bit of “Bitchy Alicent” peeked out towards Rhaenyra but still. Alicent knows Rhaenyra is a liar, the “On my mother’s memory” is a dig at that so why should Alicent believe at face value that Rhaenyra didn’t order Jaehaerys’s murder?

Rhaenyra also never apologizes about Jaehaerys, never expresses remorse or condolence. Her feelings last episode were more to do with it being bad publicity and less that a child her littlest sons ages was murdered. The whole thing is being treated like a one sided Rhaenicent fic where they wax on and on about Luke’s death and Alicent must repent for it every single day and twice on Sundays. While Jaehaerys is brushed over, that is if he’s even mentioned at all. His murder is never something that Rhaenyra needs to atone for. It’s never something Alicent or Helaena hold a grudge towards her for. All is forgiven.

That’s what the show is doing.

Not only that the Sept scene has ruined the potential of f Rhaenyra taking King’s landing. This meeting didn’t end badly, they didn’t throw insults or hands. Both just said they had no part in the murders of their son and grandson, both believed the other. Then Alicent let Rhaenyra go peacefully and Rhaenyra never intended on actually stabbing Alicent.

Alicent tells Rhaenyra that she meant it when she said she’d make a fine Queen- despite Rhaenyra never showing the potential to be a great ruler and Alicent deploring her for years because Rhaenyra’s lack of regard for duty usually led to Alicent having to fulfill them as well as her own and Viserys’s.

While Rhaenyra walks away from this reaffirmed with this thought that Alicent is still this pure soul and gentle heart- despite Rhaenyra accusing Alicent of hiding her true nature behind a cloak of righteousness and then saying “Now they see you as you are”. How do you go from getting sliced by Alicent to basically saying “Alicent is a sweetheart, she wouldn’t hurt a fly!”

Sure Aegon is about to almost die from injuries gotten in battle against the blacks and Rhaenyra will lose Jace and Viserys, that is going to impact both women but after this meeting of “It wasn’t me!” The other things can be explained away too, can’t they? Rhaenyra didn’t directly burn Aegon and Alicent isn’t the one who skewered Jace and kidnapped Viserys.

The build up of tension, rage, hate, resentment was just destroyed with this meeting. It doesn’t bode well for the Queen in chains/Half year reign/Maegor with teats storyline. We probably aren’t going to get one of the lines of all time, Alicent saying that her Grandson was an innocent child and Rhaenyra’s sons were “bastard blood shed at war” and Rhaenyra probably won’t even put Alicent in gold chains.

The entire war just seems pointless after this, these two started this way before Viserys died. With Driftmark or even long before that when Rhaenyra had Alicent’s father exiled from Kingslanding and Alicent wore that dress… but they don’t want to finish it anymore?? These women are about to sacrifice their whole families for this and neither of them want it. Now they realize how pointless it all was? How they could’ve co-existed in the same place?

Also, why have the writers seemingly forgotten about Alicent’s very valid fear for her children’s lives if Rhaenyra ascended? Her fears are being validated with each episode yet they’re hinging it all on the ramblings of a dying man while he was dope sick?? On Viserys’s ramblings why didn’t Alicent(the writers) remember the conversation Alicent and Viserys had by the fire in ep 3? The one where Viserys explicitly says “a male babe born to me wearing the conquerors crown” he’s describing his son Aegon. Could Alicent have not countered Rhaenyra’s “he meant the conqueror” with “No, years ago he told me the same thing”

After having the blame of her Grandson’s murder placed on her for having non dissociative sex for once in her life, yet again Alicent will be filled with guilt. This time at the thought that the entire war and its casualties are her fault because of a misunderstanding.

Free Alicent, Ryan Condals whipping boy.

I would honestly take Benioff and Weiss, at least the seasons where they had the material laid all out for them were good. Condal has a full story outline but is still fucking up right out of the gate.

(Sorry for the long rant)

anon you ate and left no crumbs. i truly have nothing to add.

up until ep 7 the show made sense. in ep 6 alicent tells aegon that if rhaenyra becomes queen him and his brother will be murdered. but by ep 8 she apparently doesn't give a fuck anymore?

[weebsinstash]

My Valentino thirst is killing me. I must quench!!!

Combining these two asks so I can babble about both of em at the same time lmao, this is kind of just different ideas all smashed around lol

ALSO CAN I JUST SAY THE ABSOLUTE NERVE OF SHOWING VAL IN THE NEWEST TRAILER BUT NOT HAVING HIM SPEAK 😩 but we can hear Vox so I guess that's something?

- first off, ok, let's just get this out right now: the newest episodes of helluva boss showed that Ozzie can shift his height, THEREFORE THIS MAN IS A SWITCH AND HE'D BE DELIGHTED IF YOU EVER TOPPED HIM SEND POST

Like seriously that's obviously how he can manage to have sex with Fizz despite their extreme height difference, meanwhile, do you guys ever think about the huge height discrepancy between Angel and Valentino in like...., ok. There's literally one specific thing that's been in my head for ages as a "how did that even work or was that just for visual effect". The Addict music video had that shot of Valentino like, you know, behind Angel, but. Like. Angel wouldn't be tall enough to just be bent over even if Val practically bent himself in half, right? Unless I'm remembering Val a lot larger than he actually is, I'm pretty sure angel is over 6ft and Val is like. 10-12 or something?

-Anyways So, saying all that, I think sex with Valentino in general involves him having you set you up onto things like counters or desks or stools or makeup vanities, you get the point. Your standing height is basically like. His waist. And yeah he'd probably be gross about that

-could you EVEN Fucking Imagine I mean it like seriously actually the grossness of it, standing near this nasty motherfucker and you can tell he's bricked up and maybe he's even like deliberately talking to you and shit knowing you're like, you know, in proximity to your boss' absolute rager that you're dying to not look at and he's just, SOAKING in your humiliation and secondhand embarrassment

-I just feel like 99% of interactions with yandere Valentino are him thinking it's cute/funny/sexy/entertaining to fuck with you. Make you embarrassed, make you drunk, make you cry, horny, whatever. He's either fucking with you, wanting TO fuck you, or wanting attention from you. But I've also been thinking about like, what are some more darker things he could do

-partially inspired by myself but do you guys hate people who turn off read receipts and stuff. Imagine the whole "Val gifts you a phone" scenario and then he starts setting the standards of what he actually wants you to do with it, like always having your read receipts on, always answer his texts within a REALLY short amount of time, don't ignore his calls (do you think he'd give you a phone that literally can't ignore his calls like Mammon did to Fizz because like I'm sure that was a throw away gag but, lowkey hot)

Imagine you're just getting to know Val, maybe even a sort of, situationship with him, and he sends you a text, just something super innocuous. I'm talking something like "don't forget you have a shift tonight" or "limos broken down, leaving for the club later than usual", like, something that doesn't outright require some sort of immediate reply, and you hop in the shower and you come back to like a text bomb and 12 missed calls, like obsessive drug addict alcoholic rage escalation from "you there?" "answer bitch" "pick up the goddamn phone" "you better be kidnapped, beaten, or dead right now"

Imagine hopping out of the shower and you had your phone open in the other room and you exit the bathroom in a towel and he's sitting there on your bed and your entire room's been trashed like shits BROKEN and he's, got a cigarette lit and his arms are crossed and he's got your phone in one of his hands , he can clearly see you were in the shower, and instead of apologizing for like going absolutely manic, he just, either, gets gross about how you're wearing a towel and how you got him so worked up and you need to make it up to him, or, he just basically whines that you should've just waited until he was done talking to you to shower

-Val's a yandere who will give you something, break it in a rage to punish you or when he's feeling hurt or betrayed by you, and then replace it with something nicer and more expensive. But then he'll also break things he didn't give you to try and replace everything you own with things he's provided and you'll hate those things, they aren't sentimental to you and maybe not even to your tastes. Oh what's that, you made a new friend? You guys want to Lu Lu Land and he got you a shitty little ring from a carnival game and it's sentimental and important to you? That's cool, don't mind Valentino ruining it or throwing it away the second you take it off and "consoling you" in your grief of "losing it" by getting you a ring from HIM

-genuinely I could see him being one of those guys where if he somehow did manage to pull off enough bullshit to convince you to date him and he's not a total freak, he'd pull some shit like that and then you realize what a huge mistake you've made. he's trying to backpedal and make it up to you but, you've seen his true colors now, and maybe he actually broke something that was really special to you and you really liked him for

-I just don't know how anyone would, realistically, be able to resist Asmodeus in a scenario where he offers you safe harbor from Valentino. A new place to stay rent free? He'd help get you food and clothes and whatever you need? Val would have you so terrorized that, unless you basically had, uh, an unhealthy attachment to him, or insecurity issues, you wouldn't even consider staying with Val over your new "friend". Ozzie is Mr Steal Yo Girl

- i was kinda thinking "how would a yandere Ozzie hypothetically get sex out of you in a scenario where he wants consent" and I feel like he'd just kinda, lovebomb you and maybe manipulate you a little bit and maybe have some blurred ethics on how drunk or high he thinks you're allowed to be while it's still in his definition of consensual. Yeah you said yes to sex with him but you'd taken molly and had some drinks!

Godddd would it be considered gaslighting if, afterwards when you're feeling like embarrassed and regretful, because maybe he's a good friend and you feel it's ruined now, he fakes how remorseful he feels with intentions to, in turn, emotionally manipulate you into thinking he's not as creepy as he actually is. Like, oh gosh, he just seems SO upset over this, can't you let him make it up to you 🥺

- also like. Uh. Having the ol "i liked you as a friend but I was vulnerable and I'm really embarrassed i slept with you even if I liked you so I can't talk to you right now or maybe ever again" reaction with Ozzie would uh. Not work??? It'd be bad??? Like imagine if nothing else you kind of ghost him because you're really embarrassed and insecure and he's like freaking out you were fucking kidnapped or something or WORSE, meanwhile he finds out, like. You're just really embarrassed he saw you naked and couldn't face him and he'd think that's SO CUTE YOU HAVE NO IDEA 🥺❤️

-Ozzie is obviously sex positive and I think you getting flustered and horny and embarrassed would be like his cookies and cream. Even if you have no experience he doesn't mind and he loves to teach you all kinda of things or even just talk about, naughty stuff with you. Imagine he's just like reading a book across the room and suddenly he looks over to you, "hey have you ever had anyone tie you up before? Just curious uwu"

- on the flip side I feel like Valentino needles in at all your insecurities amd with a chubby Readet he'd definitely flip flop between treating you nicely and then mocking you in front of other people. Like, a "good" yandere Val would get incredibly defensive of you as much as he would himself, but one on the meaner end of the spectrum would actively neg you and knock down your self esteem so that it feel really, REALLY good when he finally praises you and flirts with you

-I just picture you offhandedly telling Asmodeus some of the stuff that's happened between you and Val and Ozzies just sitting there, "baby can I be real with you? This guy wants to fuck you so bad he makes himself look stupid" and it's Ozzie's "feedback" that makes you kind of lose your temper with Val one day and, yeah you just deadass repeat some shit like "you wanna fuck me so bad it makes you look stupid" and Val is just AGHAST like where did this ATTITUDE come from. And I picture you kinda get into it, like he kinda sputters a bit but is clearly pissed at you and he gives some like, threat that in full context makes you realize he really DOES have some kind of thing to you. Like it's weird that a THREAT could convey that, he just says some shit like "you better stop running your mouth before I take a paddle to that fat ass of yours" but it's also like, if you're taking potshots at his self esteem and getting personal digs, it's really kind of being let off that he just makes threats and doesn't, like, do something right then and there

You just take a shot of the rest of his drink, "yeah you would like to spank me wouldn't you 😘 you're always commenting on my ass all the time, you don't have to be embarrassed if you like to look" and maybe you like sneak some backhanded compliment in there, before being like, covering your tracks, or sarcastically being like, "ok Daddy love you too 🥰" and giving him a peck on the cheek like really being cheeky with it before you fuck off to another part of the club and then later on when you've sobered up and the Oh Shit What The Fuck Did I Do stage kicks in, you eventually have to give him a refill or something and he's like, oddly silent while you're like a shrinking violet, all bravado just GONE, and at the end of your shift he like, actually beckons you closer and you think you're being punished and he just. Smirks and crosses his legs, "don't get too cocky with me, k sweetie?" and just silently threatening you, but, also, shoving a larger than usual tip directly under the waistband of your pants.

I've also thought about that as well? Like Val shoving tips in your clothes, like in your bra or even in your panties/boxers/whatever as like, a double-sided threat/reward/threatening flirting. You mouth off and tease him about him being thirsty for you and later on he's practically got an entire hand in your bra to leave some 5s there and deliberately grazing your nipples the entire time (swear to God if he pinched I thought I'd go aggressive crazy on his ass)

-but Val saying some shit like you're too gross to be a hooker or a porn star and that's why you just wait tables and later on down the line you've ditched him and you're modeling or shooting like female oriented porn down on the Lust Ring. Lmaoooo Valentino trying to neg you and 6 months later he's being cucked and hating himself as he's cranking it to like softcore porn of a maintenance guy being super nice and respectful to you after making some repairs around your house before eating your pussy and then. Straight up leaving. Vals just over here "why am I even-- this isn't even hot" as he beats his shmeat because he wants to see someone "Break My Choker" you and you just, you didn't even suck the guy off he just rocked up with some tongue action and left like You're Living Your Best Life, Angel Dust is over here like "goddamn I wish I could get paid to just have someone go down on me and leave 😭"

-Ozzie's over here having like safe sex meetings before the porn shoots and making sure everyone is in the right headspace and feeling OK and meanwhile up in Pride you've got shit where like, one of Vals pornstars didn't show and when you briefly enter the set to bring him a lemonade he makes a split second decision to have you restrained and have a train ran on you because he'd rather psychologically scar you then come out of this failed filming session empty handed with wasted money

-I just have this visual of, you're not anything "with" Valentino or Ozzie and, maybe they've encouraged you to be more sexually free, but then you actually start being more adventurous and they're like "oh you know what? Thanks i Extremely Hate this Actually". You're sitting on the couch at the club next to one of them and your phone buzzes and you're answering it, getting kind of flirty sorh whomever is on the other line as your cohort gets more and more jealous, and then you're randomly dropping, "so hey not to be horny but what are you doing tonight? I could use me a deep dick pizza with an extra helping of cuddles afterward" and Val/Ozzie is just, SPITTING HIS DRINK

-like you go from sitting in Vals limo or sitting next to him and he's constantly shamelessly watching like nudes or porn or snaps on his phone right next to you and you're forced to endure that, and one day YOUR earbuds aren't connected properly and Val gets blasted with 5 seconds of something like a male or female or whomever, someone who isnt you, "ugh god I love the taste of you 😩❤️" and he's, the attention is ON, eyes on you IMMEDIATELY, just, "what the fuck was that???"

Imagine you're straight up looking up D/P pics on your phone and suddenly you sense a presence and he's like. You've got Valentino's massive form leaning practically from one end of the couch to the other to look at your phone from over your shoulder/above you. The notoriously narcissistic attention seeking loudmouth drunk just, having been silently whisper quiet watching you for who knows how long, you're not sure if he can even read or see what's going on bit he definitely sees the picture

Goddd can you even think of it, he finds out you're fucking around with someone because he snatches your phone out of your hand as like, a tease, because he saw you looking at dick pics and he's all "oooo, giiiiiirl what have you got HERE", but then he starts going through your entire gallery and all your messages and the smile is wiped off his face. Imagine the like. 30 second pipeline of "teasing you, snatching your phone as a joke, going through your phone, immediately chucking your phone directly at the floor"

Ozzie thinks you're fucking GHOSTING HIM and he's getting PANIC ATTACKS over here because, you know, you make his heart do the flippy thing, meanwhile it's like, nah, Valentino has just shifted into Ultra Possessive "Someone Touched My Shit" Mode and you literally aren't allowed to have a phone or so much as be alone anymore amd the next time Asmodeus is seeing you, it's on Sinstagram, being made to hang off Valentino as he had the picture captioned something about, "some of his bitches he just doesn't like to share"

[sawyerslvt]

Johnny or Leland? | Episode 1

Previous Episode ♡ Next Episode Hiyyaa <33 This is a choose your own ending story. I'm sure this has been done before on here, but I've always been obsessed with the option of choosing your own path in stories. I wanted to make a love triangle story between Leland and Johnny but I just couldn't choose who to pick in the end so this was the best solution to my problem. I have also included links to porn in this series, for better visualization ;) I hope you enjoy the story! <3 Word Count: 1,644 Warnings: MDNI, kidnapping

You've always had such a hard time choosing. You find yourself spending ages making simple decisions and you don't understand how hard it can be… Do I want regular Coca Cola or Coca Cola cherry? You're standing in front of the open fridge at the convenience store, shutting it only after the cashier starts giving you dirty looks. You continue holding both of the glass bottles in your hand. Taking turns looking from one soda to the other. You feel this is a losing battle regardless, whatever you end up not choosing, will be the one you crave after taking one sip of your chosen drink. You take a deep sigh and don't take notice of the man approaching you. 

“Havin’ a hard time deciding?” Your gaze shoots up from the bottles and you're met with a young man smirking at you, leaned up against one of the soda fridges. “uhh, yeah… which one would you pick?”, you tilt your head curiously. You just want this small inconvenience to be over with already. “I'm more of a classic guy. Don't like cherry too much. Go with the original”. He’s confident in the way he’s speaking. “Well, I do like cherry. I just-” He cuts you off, “cherry it is then sweetheart, come on, i'll get it for ya”. He opens the fridge and grabs the original coke from your hand to place it back in its place. You feel his hand graze yours, making your eyes shoot up to look at his face. He’s close to you as he reaches into the fridge. You get a whiff of his cologne and he smells really good. 

He walks over to the cash register and you place the cherry coke on the counter. The man pulls out his wallet and flips through his cash to bring out a dollar bill. You haven't stopped staring since the first time you laid eyes on him, he’s beautiful and the way he occasionally licks his lips makes you feel some type of way. He finally takes notice, and as the cashier collects his change, he looks over to you to shoot you a quick wink. He lets his head drop, chuckling and your cheeks burn hotter than the sun. The cashier is unamused, rolling his eyes at the cheesy scene unfolding before his unfortunate eyes. You grab your drink off the counter while your head stays down to hide your hard blushing. 

He holds the door open for you and gestures for you to walk in front of him. Once you exit the store, you're met with the cool night breeze. The sun has already set so it doesn't burn your skin to be outside, but you still feel that damn heat nonetheless. “Thank you for the drink, sir. You shouldn't have” your voice is sweet and gentle, you appreciate his kind gesture. “Sir?! alright, please don't tell me I look like a sir to you!”. His mouth is left agape but you see him smiling through his shock. You giggle at his reaction… it was intentional, he didn't look old at all but you just couldn't refrain from teasing him. “Oh, I don't know. Why don't you introduce yourself?”. You look up at him with a warm smile and he laughs, loving your playfulness. “Well darlin’, since you asked so kindly. The name’s Leland, I'm not a sir and I’d love to get to know a beautiful woman like yourself”. He looks down to your blushed face and smirks, loving your mannerism every time he directly flirts with you. 

You look down at the ground but he steps closer to you, bringing his hand to your chin to have you facing him again. “No need to act all shy with me, sugar”. He’s only inches away from your face. You feel the warmth of his breath bounce off your lips. He’s still holding onto your chin and staring directly at your lips, making you lick them to prepare for him. He looks into your eyes briefly, smirking, then quickly pulls in to connect his lips with yours. His lips are soft and you feel like you're melting into the strangers arms as he uses his free hand to pull your waist closer. You shoot your eyes open as you hear a tree branch breaking behind you. It sounded close enough for you to turn around completely, facing the direction of the noise. 

Leland looks at you with a raised eyebrow, wondering what's with the theatrics. “Did you hear that?” Your voice is almost whispering. “It was probably some squirrel. What? You're scared of some cute critter?”. He teases you and you laugh, playfully hitting his shoulder. He makes a face, pretending you hurt him, holding his shoulder and letting out fake pained grunts until he eventually also breaks into laughter with you. His teasing made you let your guard back down. He gently turns you back around and pulls you in again, you couldn't shake the feeling that you were being watched as you continued kissing him. You were most likely paranoid due to the pitch blackness of the forest behind you. Anything could lurk in the shadows and your fear of the unknown is taking a toll on you, it was probably nothing. You feel a chill run up your spine, making you shiver and hug yourself. Leland notices your discomfort and  pulls away from the kiss. He places both his arms around you, covering you like a warm blanket. “...you wanna warm up in my car?”. He looks down at you with his kind eyes. You nod into his chest and look up at him giving him a warm smile. He returns the smile and keeps one arm around your shoulder as the two of you walk over to his car. 

Once both of you are seated in his car, he looks over to you. Your hands are tucked between your thighs, partially because of the dropping temperature. But it was also a way to calm the butterflies going wild between your legs. Just looking at the man made your thoughts act up. His lips were softer than cotton and thinking about them again made your lips tingle. Your thoughts get interrupted by his hand making its way to your thigh. His hand gives you a gentle squeeze as it rests warm and soft on your thigh. “You’re beautiful”. His words escaped him as if he was nervous. There were no hints of nervousness coming from him from the second you met him. You look at him and there is innocence to his mannerism, you find yourself smiling over his sweetness. Without saying anything, you lean in and let your lips find his. Your hands rest on his lap and he has one of his hands wrapped around your waist while the other is behind your neck. 

You deepen the kiss, squeezing your hands in his lap. Your hands are resting close to his bulge and you feel how big the curve is. You moan into his kiss and he responds giving you a deep groan. He introduces his tongue and you gladly welcome it inside your mouth. Your spit and tongues swirl together and you can tell he’s experienced. You feel your pussy get wetter as you kiss him but break away from it to look down at his growing bulge. You look into his narrowed eyes and you can tell he wants you badly. You stroke the print of his shaft from the outside of his tight fitting jeans. You bite your lip as you continue stroking and he leans his head back, releasing a wonderful groan to express how good your soft hands feel on his clothed cock. 

He lets his head return to meet your gaze and in that moment it was just you and him. Both of you were completely unaware of your surroundings as you started to unbuckle his belt. You unzip his jeans, breaking away from the kiss to focus on the zipper for a second. To your absolute horror, you hear the driver’s window shatter, and before you realize what had happened, you see Leland’s head collapsed on the steering wheel and blood gushing from the back of his head. You see the stone that was used to break the window and a faceless man rushing behind the car to make his way to your side. 

“Leland!!! Please wake up!” you try shaking him but your desperate pleas prove to be useless as he’s knocked out cold. Your fight or flight kicks in and you unlock the door to get away before the man gets to you. You swing the car door open, crying as you feel horrible for leaving Leland behind. You run but your heart skips a beat when you hear heavy footsteps chase after you. You’re smart enough to not look back and continue running for your life, screaming for help as you try to make it back to the convenience store. You had no idea how close the man was to you but you become very aware the second he manages to hit you across the back of your head, making you fall to the ground. Your head is pressed against the concrete with his big hands, making it impossible to move and your vision starts to blur until everything fades to black. 

Previous Episode ♡ Next Episode

credit for dividers: @y-onb @plutism <3

[thefandomenchantress]

youre so real bro i think i almost cried during the episode😭😭 im also like completely stuck, because like im in huge denial that uts ace for obvious reasons, and hust. eden makes so much SENSE. but im not sure if she actually does or if its just me being biased so im super conflicted. ofc ill always believe in eden culprit or third party yntil its WITHOUT A DOUBT ace, and probably even then ill still deny it.

ive been trying to come to terms with it but man, this has just hit me oht of left field and i was so unprepared for him to be on the chopping block this early.

and yeahh, that one signular acevid interaction was my one win😭 lowkey hoping they get some more interactions throughout this trial, considering david has been the inly person to defend ace even slightly. as for acevi..yeah, im soo...it was definitely a moment! i think now i defintiely prefer them as a tragedy type relationship, especially on aces part.

I feel so bad for him thi bro he hasnt caught a break all chapter??

Chapter 2 Episode 14 Spoilers! Plus Eden/Ace Culprit discussion.

Pretty much agree with allllll of this. Eden makes more sense as a culprit to me personally, both narratively and logically, but I’m getting really scared for Ace. I was so sure the logic of him taking the tape didn’t make sense that I sorta figured everything else didn’t matter, but now the narrative is treating it like it would possibly make sense so I’m at a loss…Why would he even grab the tape?? I’ve heard every counter-argument known to man and still don’t think any of them explain it…I really wanna ramble about it here but idk if people want to see me do that again, haha. But I guess one thing I will say is that Teruko said they can’t assume the culprit worked logically, so maybe the reason will be that he took it just…because, with no real reason. That would be a little unsatisfying, but I genuinely don’t think any explanation makes sense. (Must contain rant ahhhh—)

As for Acevid, I can at least take comfort in the fact that if Ace actually manages to hold his ground for forty-five minutes, it’s probably because David (plus maybe Levi) is doing most of the talking. Like Min barely lasted twenty minutes, so Ace doubling that all by himself would be very funny and ironic for a ‘dumb’ character to do, but also kinda unlikely.

Ace seems like the type to definitely start falling apart mentally and breaking down reeeeally fast if he’s actually the culprit, so if he is the culprit I’m surprised he’s even made it this far into the trial without any major outbursts not surrounding the almost murder. He was even kinda chill (for his standards) about the Levi debacle, not much yelling at all. But all this is to say if he’s the culprit and Teruko starts grilling him for answers…yeeeeeeah my guess is he’ll end up just panicking or yelling while someone else tries to help or bring up counter-arguments. If he’s not the culprit, maybe he’ll have enough left in him to make some sort of defense by himself (I personally think Levi will try to help either way, though).

This man can indeed not catch a break. After going to a school he didn’t even want to attend, he was kidnapped, put in a killing game, had the person he thought was his friend betray him, almost got murdered, and now is getting blamed for a different murder because he had the misfortune of being almost murdered. Sure, he’s not blameless in it all, but it still really sucks for him. I’m half-expecting him to be revealed to have a version of Teruko-luck down the line if he survives haha.

[nofacednerd]

okay finale thoughts

I don't think they took out any scenes but I do think it's funny that they renamed the title of the episode

hughie's... counter-proposal I guess? was so genuinely sweet that I'm mad it wasn't real

On that. 3rd time in back to back episodes not even 5 minutes in. That's gotta be a record. I thought they were actually going to acknowledge it as assault when he seemingly got very upset about the pegging joke she made and started squeezing the water bottle, but I guess not. My hope is that all the criticism they received while handling all of this, they'll actually take and acknowledge it in the show

Hughie canon bottom but at what cost...........

BUTCHER WITH THE TEMP-V INDUCED WHITE HAIR STREAKS. MY HEADCANON IS REAL

I think it's so funny that Butcher's last wish was for hughie to go to some random hooters in Nevada for him. Part of me wonders if he knew about the stupid Maid in Manhattan tour he went on entirely because it was his dad's last wish and wanted to see what he would agree to if he sounded sad enough about it

Ashley my problematic queen I hope you get to have fucking awesome scary superpowers next season and help take down the supes w the gang

Just. Shoutout to Erin Moriarty for being an insanely talented actress. Love that the shapeshifter just kept biting people as her go-to attack. Fucking knocked it out of the park

Annie choking the shapeshifter to death instead of using her powers felt symbolic somehow but it's 4 in the morning and I can't think about it rn. Good for her either way.

They also never actually explained why her powers just. Stopped working?? I'm guessing it was an emotional thing but I felt like things didn't change THAT much by the end of the season for her to suddenly be charged up enough to fly?

Okay but also. I'm kind of mad that they didn't acknowledge what the shapeshifter did to Hughie was assault and not only that but they had Annie get mad at HIM about it. Like girl hello???? Out of literally everyone I would expect at least Annie to understand, but for some reason they show loves having them have relationship drama that comes from fucking nowhere

That being said, I am SO glad they didn't break up again. That would have fucking sucked. Curious if the engagement thing will ever come up again since she got the ring back. I imagine if it does it'll be the end of the show

Also his little "FUCK YESSS" fist pump to himself. I just need to take a second to appreciate that that was so funny LMAO

I'm not gonna lie... I actually got pretty on-board with the Frenchie Kimiko QPR. aroace Kimiko you still live in my head rent free

I just know. I just KNOW. There's going to be SO MANY tentacle smut fics about Butcher by the end of the week. You horny motherfuckers are going to eat that shit up

Also going to be honest. I'm kind of mad they took out Neuman. She was such an interesting character and I always thought her views didn't conflict at all with the rest of The Boys, so I was really hoping for a redemption arc. She also had such an interesting dynamic with both Hughie and Annie (and Zoe having beef with Kimiko is fucking great). Idk she could have been a fun addition to the group

I was actually kind of excited to see The Boys split off to different countries and have to come back together next season, but I think them all getting kidnapped (and presumably thrown in prisons?) is much more interesting. I kind of hope they let Hughie be the main character again next season now that Butcher has gone off the rails and might? be a villain next season? But I know it's probably going to be Annie

Kimiko speaking I kind of assumed would happen at some point (since they established that as kind of her arc this season with the speech therapy) but I'm excited to see if that goes anywhere next season. I think best case scenario, she has selective mutism and only goes verbal sometimes. They've been pretty good about her disability so far

also speaking of, I've been trying to figure out what her sign for each of The Boys' names are and. is Hughie's supposed to look like someone running away because that's so funny if true (it's hard to tell because the captions are obviously not synced up with the visuals on her signing)

My overall thoughts are kinda... eh. This season ultimately felt directionless to me, too many plotlines trying to happen all at once and while I think individual episodes were really good, as a whole nothing felt super connected (I mean, in episode 6 Hughie was super fucked up over his dad's death and presumably what happened at Tek Knight's party, but episode 7 they just seem to have completely forgotten that he's having an active mental breakdown, a trend that continues into episode 8. And that's just one example from this season). I also think they fumbled the supes' plotline at the very end. I trusted the writers that they actually knew what Sage's plan was, but it mostly just seems like she swooped in at the end to tell us her plan worked, without saying what it actually was. I was hoping there was going to be actual clever writing there, but I guess it's hard to write the world's smartest character if she's only as smart as the writer's room can be.

I understand that, ultimately, it's incredibly difficult to write satisfying arcs with very limited time (this is an issue of streaming in general, not specifically an issue with The Boys), so I don't really fault them for that. I just hope next season is more focused.

The biggest problem with season 3 is, obviously, Hughie getting sexually assaulted three times in 3 back-to-back episodes, with zero acknowledgement (and on one occasion, implied mockery) from the show itself or anyone involved. I REALLY hope they take the criticism and actually make something of it next season, or at least acknowledge that it was fucked up.

Anyway, not a terrible season, but it had a lot of glaring issues. I'm holding out hope for season 5 being good, but it'll be another year or two before we get it anyway, so...

[localebra]

DC Kitten

Thank you to @maxivermismind reminding me of Kitten. The daughter of Killer Moth and girlfriend of the Fang. The spoiled brat has first appeared in the Teen Titans episode Date with Destiny. In which Fang had dumped her with her junior prom is tomorrow. She bullies her father into adding the condition that Robin must go with her to the prom to his scheme blackmail the city with his swarm of mutated moths. Kitten dosent have any interest in Robin in the beginning and is only doing this to make Fang jealous. This works making Fang attack Robin, at the same time a jealous Starfire attacks Kitten for forcing Robin into this role. Fang, Kitten and her father are all arrested, while swearing vengeance on Robin.

Next appearing in Revved Up alongside Fang as a part of the super-villain entourage racing Ding Dong Daddy for Robin's personal secret. She drives a pink Limousines like what would be driven to prom and it is cut in half by Red X.

Her last on screen appearances was as a members of the Brotherhood of Evil, her and Killer Moth ambush Starfire who came to rescue Argent. Stealing Starfire's communicator to say hi to Robin who was surprised, she was pleased to see him and taunted him before attacking Starfire. Using a swarm of her father's mutant moths and an electric whip. She was not defeated along side the Brotherhood Of Evil.

Next appearing in the pages of Teen Titans Go! #15 in Pop Quiz Kitten looked for all purposes like she was kidnapped by Kwiz Kid. When in reality Kwiz Kid was her new boyfriend, who she was just using to get rescue by Robin. Turns out Kwiz Kid was just using her to lure the Titans in to his trap, being more interested in matching wits with Robin. Offended Kitten dumps him and trys to slap him, discovering he had escaped leaving a hologram in his place. Later Killer Moth takes Kitten back home, scolding her for not telling him the truth about her fake kidnapping by Kwiz Kid.

 Next Appearing in Teen Titans Go! #41 Bad Girls were Kitten dresses up as multiple of the Teen Titans villains while claiming to be their daughters: Pink X (Red X), Marionette (The Puppet King), Mad Maud (Mad Mod), Daughter Blood (Brother Blood), and Joy Stick (Control Freak). All the newspaper clip on a panel shows Gemini (Madame Rouge), and Madamoiselle Mallah (Monsieur Mallah) and her in a Slade-like outfit, resembling Ravager. It is revealed that her plan was all a way to get her father's attention. He does spoiling her, but rarely actually spent time with her, the Titans help sort the matter out and Killer Moth promises to cut back on super villainy in order to spend more time with his daughter.

Lastly in Teen Titans Go! #44, Kitten calls the Titans asking them to come save her father from Red Raven.

For general thoughts to me she is the antithesis to Stephanie Brown, the daughter of a villain who does not care who gets hurt. They're both blonde, headstrong, dated a Robin and have fathers but barely counters supervillains. Her theme was originally based around prom, as a super villain theme that is pretty weak. Psychologically though I believe it's spot-on, it's what every normal girl thinks about in any time any negative consequences from her father's supervillain actions come in to her life they are treated like a father being embarrassing. I believe she wants all of the benefits but none of the downsides of having a super villain father.

Her popular girl attitude has also got me thinking of who she would be connected to. We've seen her boyfriends Fang & Kwiz Kid, one being super powered with a similar theme to her fathers and the other being a mirror of Robin. Kwiz Kid could even shrimp in by Stephanie Brown connection with her father cluemaster and him sharing Riddlers theme. I believe she would be an anti-side kick. Not a Spoiler, more of a spoiled brat who would complain the whole time if she had to lift boxes let alone help with a heist. The only other thing of note is with her supervillain connections I believe could be used as the head of a group of supervillains children. High profile criminals children like jokers' daughter will always go to jail, but no one will ever think to check Killer Moth's daughter. She would be the head of a group of low level supervillains spawns whose parents are successful enough they can get whatever they want, but not famous enough to bring the hammer down on the entire family. This can show what life could have been like for Stephanie if she didn't become Spoiler.

[aconstantstateofbladerunner]

If you're still doing things like this; AU where All Might fought AfO earlier, and in the aftermath, All Might finds his archnemisis' infant son, in a little crib crying his lungs out. He has a small amount of green hair and the brightest green eyes you've ever seen.

It's not even a choice, All Might takes the boy in, despite the HSPC telling him to kill the boy, to make sure nothing of All For One remains.

I actually had an au i never got to writing with basically this exact premise, except Izuku was a clone of AFO Toshinori rescued from a lab. I’m going to try and mix it up a little though.

Toshinori finds a secret door in the ruins of the villain lair he and a bunch of other heroes just busted. A baby room, complete with a toy box in the corner, animals painted on the walls, and a tiny crib in the middle. He immediately shifts from fight mode to rescue mode, cradling the tiny crying bundle. The raid started hours ago, who knows how long he was alone? He’s in denial at first, maybe this was a child of one of AFO’s lackies, or a baby they kidnapped and planned to experiment on. But examinations and further research of the site confirm that this is the son of All for One.

The HPSC won’t stoop so low as to order an infant killed, but they are very interested in using the child’s potential for their own benefit. And it’s best he’s raised in closely monitored captivity to contain him in the event he inherited his father’s affinity for violence. Toshinori believes that if the kid is raised under the assumption he’ll be a villain or weapon, that’s all he’ll ever be. But a stable home full of love would make him just like anyone else. And since he doesn’t trust anyone else not to be manipulated by the Commission, Toshinori takes on the responsibility himself.

In my original clone concept, Toshinori named him Izuku after the number 9 on his growth pod. In this, let’s say he just liked the name. And Izuku is by all accounts, a normal baby. He has only two significant abnormalities: an extra joint in his pinky toe, indicating quirklessness, and the fact that he hardly ever cries. Not when he’s hungry, not when he needs to be changed. The implication is that he was used to being left alone, in attended to. As a result, Toshinori has to watch him very closely. But this ends up being a brief episode, and Izuku quickly learns how to be clingy instead.

The clinginess continues as he gets older. As a compromise with the HPSC, Izuku isn’t allowed to attend normal school and needs to be homeschooled. As a result, he grows up very isolated and poorly socialized, with a desperate attachment to his dad, Toshinori. He’s also got a potent anxiety disorder that leaves him spiraling at even small changes in his life. It’s extremely unhealthy, and it’s only going to get worse if the HPSC gets their way to make him one of their private heroes. So Toshinori sneaks around the HPSC and makes a deal with UA to enroll him.

Once Izuku is in UA and clearly showing signs of All Might’s quirk after being tested for quirklessness, the HPSC threatens to denounce All Might and ruin his career. He counters that he has 15 years of documentation about their insistence of treating an innocent child like a war criminal. So it’s a stalemate. Izuku on the other hand has no idea. He’s just excited to be around kids his own age, even if he’s a little awkward with them. He grows especially close to Todoroki after the sports festival, bonding over their shared experience as the isolated children of big heroes they struggle to live up to. He doesn’t find out about his true father until much later.

[precuredaily]

Precure Day 241

Episode: Yes! Precure 5 Go Go! 42 - “Komachi's Decision and the Arabian Nights“ Date watched: 10 January 2024 Original air date: 7 December 2008 Screenshots Precure Metamorphose Gallery | Sky Rose Translate Gallery Project info and master list of posts

Komachi, fabulous she, shielding and blocking

You know what’s fun? The night. What’s more fun than night? An Arabian night! What’s even more fun than an Arabian night? How about a thousand and one of them? Yes, today we are going to dive into another classic story to fight some bad guys, and learn some lessons along the way about self-worth. Let’s dig in!

The Plot

Anacondy pays Shibiretta a visit to implicitly threaten her job, so the witch gets fired up in plans to retaliate against Eternal’s second in command, as well as capture the Rose Pact.

Komachi and Nozomi are chatting in the library about the value of stories and just how many of them there are that Komachi’s could get lost. Nozomi tells her that no matter what, she’ll find her friend’s book. Suddenly, everyone finds themselves sucked into another world… or several, and facing unique individual threats from their stories.

Despite being separated, the girls and fairies figure out that this is another of Shibiretta’s plots and manage to reunite with each other by following the narratives and intents of the tales. They confront the witch and tell her she’s using stories wrong, which she rebuts as they’re just tools to use however she wants. Everyone was able to reunite with each other because they respected the stories. Nuts adds that the story of 1001 Arabian Nights is about a woman telling stories to the brutal king every night, in an attempt to get him to soften his ways; and what Shibiretta is doing is completely counter to that narrative.

In response, Shibiretta creates a genie Hoshiia and kidnaps the fairies and rose pact, so the girls transform, and the battle moves outside of the palace. They have trouble fighting it, since it can turn into smoke and their attacks just pass right through it.

Cure Mint and Shibiretta engage in a verbal tete-a-tete:  the Witch from Eternal says they both uses stories to suit their needs, but Dream defends Komachi saying her stories are exciting and heartfelt and she loves them, while Shibiretta just makes messes of existing stories. Shibiretta retorts that she tried telling stories to the director, and he was unmoved, causing Mint to shoot back that stories won’t respond to her methods. They fight again; Milky Rose defeats the Hoshiina while the Cures take out Shibiretta once and for all with Rainbow Rose Explosion.

Before the world dissolves, Aqua assures Mint that all of them are looking forward to her next book. Over in Eternal, Anacondy remarks that a report for this would be pointless.

At dusk, Komachi tells Nuts she wants to write about her amazing friends and share the feelings of all the good times they have together, in hopes that if someone lonely reads it they'll be inspired to find friends like hers. Everyone else was listening in and all of them want to be the main character of her story, with their own spins, and this ends the episode.

The Analysis

What I Liked

It’s one of the better Shibiretta episodes. I’ve often criticized her episodes for only using the surface elements of the story and not putting the characters through the plot. This time they actually addressed that and made it the entire point of the episode: Shibiretta is only taking advantage of the stories for what she can gain from them (monsters and distractions to attack the precures) and not the underlying morals and emotions. I thought it was especially poignant how she said she had read stories to the director and he was bored, so that means stories are worthless at inspiring emotion; and Komachi shoots back that it’s precisely because all she does is to use stories like tools.

Also, as per the narrative, you can actually see the difference between embracing the story and using it as a tool. The girls are able to reunite by understanding the tales that they are in. Rin kindly asks the magic carpet to help them and it responds. Urara’s sincere feelings to protect Syrup revert him from 40 clones of himself back to one. Nozomi uses “Open Sesame” on the door, and later Karen asks for a sign of the right way to go to find Komachi. It’s a bit convenient but hey it works.

On that note, as usual the antics that the girls get up to in the story world are great, they make some good jokes and gags out of them. The 40 (actually 39) Syrups, the magic carpet, the “Open Sesame” scene and of course the genie Hoshiina, all great uses of the setting. I also like their outfits.

I feel like Nozomi and Komachi are one of the less explored pairings in this series. Sure, Nozomi was the one who first enticed Komachi to become a Precure, but they haven’t done much together since then. Komachi is usually paired up with her longtime friend Karen, and there was that one time she and Urara had a really good bond. It’s true that everyone has been supportive of Komachi’s writing throughout both seasons, but this episode is the first time that Nozomi explicitly praises, uplifts, and defends Komachi’s writing and what it means to her, and that translates to a really great climax where they work together to ward off Shibiretta.

The fight against the genie Hoshiina that turns into smoke kept me on the edge of my seat. Its permeability is a distinct advantage but then Rose turns around and uses that to her gain, before dealing the finishing blow. It’s the kind of creativity I live for here.

Similarly, the battle of the Precure against Shibiretta was really well realized with some great stylized animation and action. Shibiretta launches herself like a rocket, but Mint and Dream combo their attacks to deflect her, and then Lemonade and Rouge kick her out of the sky so the team can perform their final attack on her.

What I DIdn’t Like Nothing comes to mind.

Miscellaneous

When Nozomi uses “Open Sesame” on the cave entrance, she does Kamen Rider’s henshin pose.

One Thousand and One Nights is a compilation of stories from the Middle Eastern region, from a variety of authors and tracing origins back over a millennium. The earliest known mention of the central character Scheherazade is in the 9th century, but many of the individual tales are believed to be much older, hailing from India and Persia. Over time stories from West African, Hebrew, Greek, and other traditions made their way. It’s a dynamic work that was passed down by storytellers over many generations and cultures. There’s no singular version of the text, there may not even actually be 1001 stories as some of the most famous ones, which incidentally are the ones featured in this episode (Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, Aladdin and the Lamp, The Tale of Sinbad the Sailor) were actually separate stories that later got rolled into the collection much later. Trying (and failing) to unravel this complex history to give context to the references in the episode was a bigger undertaking than this blog merits.

In the scene where Syrup is supposedly cloned 40 times, as the 40 thieves that attacked Ali Baba, there are actually only 39 of him.

Conclusion

This was a fun episode exploring some real juicy feelings about anxiety and the future and legacy, and also the purpose of stories. It was a nice sendoff to Shibiretta, whom I’ve had very mixed feelings about throughout the show. She was a step up from the duo but solidly middle tier as far as Precure villains go. Smile Precure will give us another witch character to play around with so when I get to that series I’ll do a compare/contrast.

Next time on Precure Daily, Nozomi comes face to face with the director of Eternal! Look forward to it!

Pink Precure Catchphrase Count: 1 kettei!

[gamesception]

lets read rgu chapter 10

So we ended off chapter 10 at the party from anime episode 3, only instead of Nanami’s disintegrating dress gag, Sionji shows up to try to kidnap Anthy and or murder Utena outright, something he didn’t get around to until like episode 9 in the anime.  I’m not even sure how this is going to end...

But I probably should have guessed it would end the same as Sionji’s episode 9 outburst, with Touga jumping in to protect Utena & getting hurt.

So we really are just doing the episode 9 thing, only without the weirdness of the whole dueling ritual falling apart and/or skipping to the end/the castle collapsing/Anthy returning to her coffin when Saionji forces events out of order.

In the anime that whole situation was explicitly set up by Touga to manipulate Utena’s feelings.  Here at least for the moment it seems like Saionji was acting on his own and Touga’s self sacrificial heroics were at least partially sincere.

I know Saito wasn’t working with a full summary or script, so this might be accidental rather than a deliberate move, but if it was intentional it strikes me as a good call, plot wise.  For one, it’s more believable for Touga’s eventual win if he has more time between his injury and the duel, for another the manga wants to put deliberately more emphasis on Utena’s relationship with Touga, and moving this moment much earlier in the plot helps enable that, giving Utena a reason to look past his playboy reputation and red flag behavior to this point.  This also effectively combines Saionji’s second duel and later rampage, saving some time.

At the emergency clinic Utena, Anthy, and the student council gather to wait on news of Touga’s condition, and, us, what are you doing Juri?

Um, I’m not sure what’s going on here?  Is Juri trying to warn Utena not to fall for Touga’s act?  Or... please don’t tell me she’s jealous?  If manga Juri strays so far from her anime characterization that she has a thing for Touga, I’ll be sorely disappointed.

Juri’s introduction is pretty hostile.  Miki by comparison seems much nicer, and sticks with the anime’s conviction that dueling over Anthy is wrong, a conviction I’m sure will prove every bit as fragile as in the anime.

Wakaba also shows up, which is nice, but we really only get her being possessive over Utena.  That was part of her anime characterization, but we’re still missing the more fun & funny aspects of her character.

The student council talks to Touga, & it’s not terribly clear if his actions towards Utena were sincere or not.  Apparently they discuss what to do with Saionji off panel, because the next scene is Juri and Miki confronting Saionji:

2 week suspension?  He attempted to murder another student in public with dozens of witnesses and severely harmed the student council president in the process.  In the anime he was expelled, and there were no independent witnesses there?

Anyway, Saionji argues he shoudln’t be punished for hurting Touga because Touga had interrupted a proper duel, but nobody buys it - Touga had to step in as student council president since it wasn’t a duel, just one student attacking the other.  Saionji counters that Touga only stepped in because he’s smitten with Utena, which Juri objects to, and...

“compared to you who loves Touga”?  Please, please don’t be going there.  Please let this either be a mistranslation, or Saionji being an idiot who doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

I don’t have much to say about the rest of the chapter.  Utena brings flowers to the clinic for Touga and Juri mocks her for it.  Juri and Miki talk about Utena while fencing.  While playing baseball utena knocks a foul ball into the fencing room and Juri catches it on the point of her sword...

That’s kind of cool at least.

The chapter ends with Utena and Juri staring each other down, but I’m still just distracted with dread over the direction the manga seems to be taking one of my favorite characters.

[hells-favorites]

The Red Light (Episode 1)

(Tw blood, description of torture)

Hundreds of soldiers run while boots smack the wet dirt as a man raises his sword to the sky. The man was only in his twenties yet he had long flowing hair, only a few shades lighter than his pale skin, set aside by the red coloring from time out in the sun. Two long elf ears poked out from inside the strands of hair. Mud reached up his boots laced with loose strands of grass over his soldier's uniform.

"For the king! For Typhon!" yelled the man with a battle cry.

Dante, the man with nothing but a first name.

Dante was pulled out of his memories by the sound of a chair sliding. The man sitting next to him wore a black tank top under a brown leather jacket covered by two tan wings perched on his back, brown feathers splattered across each one.

"Woah, I didn't know Chicken Nuggets could order drinks," said Dante, sitting up.

"I've heard much worse than Chicken Nugget," responded the man with a laugh. "I'm Nolan, an Aracokra. I'm not the only one with wings."

Dante glanced around the room, finally taking in his surroundings. The bar's walls were lined with rows of books interrupted periodically by warm windows with large crowds filling the room. The crowd was full of colorful species, every creature of every high dotted around the room.

"I'm Dante and what town did I wander into? I've seen less colors in a rainbow," said Dante, looking back at Nolan.

"A bird and an elf being served by a dog."

Nolan pointed at a man behind a counter. The man resembled a wolf with a long drawn out snout and shaggy gray fur, well worn from previous battles. The fur around his snout, neck and ears were matted and bloodstained like rope had been yanked through it. He was also dressed for travel. A long brown coat topped travel gear well worn in dust.

"Woah. Fluffy," said Dante reaching out to the bartender's ear.

"Yes, sir, I know I am fluffy but there's no need to pet me without asking."

"Yeah, Dante, that's his girlfriend's job," laughed Nolan.

Dante laughed and pulled his hand back. As Dante set his hand down he saw the crust of dried blood splattered across his hand.

"Woah, what happened?" asked Dante, whipping the dried blood onto Nolan's jacket.

The man scratched the back of his ear, brushing aside more blood. "Oh, it's nothing. Just some scratches."

"Oh come on! It's a bar, everyone has a story," Dante booed.

The man stared off into the distance for a second, taking in deep sigh. "I was a Prisoner of war. The wounds are from my shackles. The new king, Typhon, kidnapped me because I was the old king's son.

Linus was a good man but he killed him when I was young. I shouldn't keep going. He hears all you know," the man picked up the glass he was washing and walked away, lost in his thoughts.

The brief silence was cut off by the clickof Dante's lighter. "Was anyone paying attention to that? Because I sure wasn't," asked Dante, lighting a cigarette. "Well! What a downer huh? Now, what brings you here Bird-Wings?"

The bartender scoffed, starting to ignore Dante

"I was a soldier, and ever since the war ended 5 years ago I've just been roaming. I'm sort of an outlaw. But it seems like we're all just traveling. There's safety in numbers. Why don't we stick together?"

"Hey, the law is just a suggestion at this point," laughed Dante. "But, why not? I'm headed to Port Damil next. You two can tag along. Run along with the main show over here. There's no real reason I'm going there just feels right. Going with the stream of the blood ya know?"

"Then let's get out of here."

[m3char0b0l0v3r]

When welcome home kidnaps u into it’s fandom hel

Meet Midnight Metal! Another Shopkeeper.

My oc looks humanoid but actually a robot puppet that sells anything related to electronics and tools (plus, he sells plank wood and stuff, such like glow in the dark stuff. But stuff that isnt in Howdy's bodega!)

And sure, she isn't the happiest shopkeeper unlike Howdy but she loves doing her job and being in the neighbourhood.

His shop has those metal shelves at the half right side of his shop where it stores the electronic and tools, the other side is where he sells those plank wood, glue, glow in the dark things, things where howdy doesn’t have. A small side only has food which most is apples since Wally almost tries to take all of Howdy apples-

From outside its like a square shape, the front has a wall faced front, it has nothing fancy compared to howdy if u count electronics/tools as fancy things. Those dangly lights outside are decorated outside on top where the roof would be but it's on the wall.

The windows are blue and the shop bags are still the same as howdy but replaced logo!

Shes probably like..19 apples tall? (For all I know I haven’t decided on her height, only shorter than my best friend Wh oc.)

Gacha version:

And yes!! He does give 100% off on special occasions, payment aswell can be like, answering her questions, telling jokes, handmade money too! Or she'll gift u some stuff. (Midnight pronouns are she/him)

Most of the time she'll be cleaning the whole damn shop whenever there's no customers she would be outside looking at the sky or at night she would stargaze for a few moments before heading in.

Says Howdy as a greeting whenever her neighbours comes into her shop, even before she moved in! …maybe?

Anything special about her is, her arms can stretch to atleast 2 meters to get stuff that's far from him. His bed are those one that hangs up by the poles But, sleepover with his neighbours maybe would scare the living puppets out of them..her eyes, wrist, chest and antennas. Glows in the dark which is why she sells glow in the dark stuff. (THAT SALLY ACTUALLY BUYS OFTEN FOR HER STAGE!!!)

Maybe sells a toy car that literally fits wally inside to let the 12 apple short puppet drive around the neighbourhood??? (she found it outside of the forest and cleaned it before showing Wally which, now he wants to borrow it almost 24/7 so now Midnight is so close to banning it.)

Also memory lost is a thing + terrible eyesight even for a robot puppet! Sometimes she keeps forgetting things so she maybe finds her things for a long time before realising that it was with her. And...He stays up often at night, unlike Howdy which closes earlier than her. He knows that the neighbour is asleep but will still open the shop till late hours before closing (She does this to quickly restore everything and clean before heading to sleep) and will lock the doors,, sssooo that's why he'll be tired everyday and accidentally passes out on the counter.

Midnight does sometimes go out on breaks to check on Howdy and maybe hang out with him till the breaks are over.

He sells weaponry. Literally no one knows cause Midnight definitely knows this kind neighbourhood will have no such chaos.

Oh? Why was Midnight Metal made for? He was made for a episode called 'new shopkeeper in Home' When Howdy can finally meet a new shopkeeper other than himself + the others also meeting another shopkeeper, where they finally can learn that other puppets can sells things other than selling fruits and others.

[kchasm]

Let’s Watch: Kamen Rider: Episode 4: The Man-Eating Sarraceanian

At a small theme park, a little kid named Kenji and his older sister Yukie are checking out the orangery, which is a word I had to look up. Turns out it's a kind of greenhouse, called that because historically they were used to protect orange trees during the winter. Don't say Kamen Rider never taught you nothin'.

One particularly plastic-looking plant they've got is the King Sarracenian (Sarracenia being the genus of the pitcher plant, those carnivorous plants where the insects fall into the Dissolving Soup and can't get out again).

Suddenly, the pitcher plant transforms into a dude and kidnaps Yukie, pulling her underground!

Kenji is understandably distraught.

At the theme park, Hiromi and Ruriko come across Kenji, walking about making the fakest crying sounds I've heard all week. When they hear that a flower ate his sister, they bring him over to Takeshi and Tobee, who might treat the kid's story with the appropriate disbelief except that apparently six people have already disappeared in the vicinity of that orangery, so what the hell, it's a lead.

That said, even though they suspect something's hinky, they keep telling the kid, "Oh, I'm sure your sister is back home waiting for you!" which is a real nice way of telling the kid—whether it's true or not—that they don't really believe him. Kind of irked me, but I had a bad childhood.

(Incidentally, it comes out during this talk that the kid is being looked after by his sister, and no one else. The parents aren't in the picture. Incidentally incidentally is this guy working at Amigo, behind the counter:)

(This is Shiro. He might have appeared in an earlier episode? He doesn't seem to play a major role, and it's not clear to me whether he's been read into the whole Shocker thing. I include him for completeness' sake, and also so if he does do anything impressive later I don't have to go "oh by the way this guy was here the whole time I just didn't mention him.")

Kenji takes Ruriko and Takeshi part of his apartment, where his sister—isn't there, of course, which sets the kid into another bout of tears. Takeshi, trying to comfort the guy, takes his hands—but is apparently still too used to his Cyborg Strength, crushing the kid's wrists somewhat and leaving big ugly bruises. Suitably angst-filled, he departs, but the kid runs after him, offering him his model plane in exchange for Takeshi finding his sister.

Takeshi, touched, accep—

Wait, you actually did take the kid's plane? What the hell, Takeshi.

Takeshi heads off to the scene of the crime, where the pitcher plant isn't there anymore. Suddenly, Shocker!

The sloppy assassination attempt fails, though the model plane is a fatality when Takeshi uses it to deflect the projectile, and the Shocker goons flee with Takeshi giving chase. They attempt to spray straight up nerve gas from their escape car, which seems to work for a second, but Takeshi transforms into Kamen Rider and he's alright. I'm not sure why the nerve gas only affects him when he's Takeshi and not when he's Kamen Rider if he's a cyborg either way, but I guess the increased energy he has in his Kamen Rider form does something to increase the efficiency of his, uh, whatever part of the body is responsible for flushing away nerve gas? I am not a doctor.

Further fleeing is hampered by Takeshi straight up jumping in front of the car in a super-dramatic fashion no matter which way they turn, so a scuffle ensues, which of course Takeshi wins, taking a goon captive. Hey, maybe we can get some answers! Is what I wanna say, but Shocker Brainwashing is still a thing here, so who knows?

Back at the Shocker base, Yukie, strapped down, awakens and reasonably wants to know what's going on.

The Big Shocker Voice tells Pitcher-Plant Man that as "Number 3" has been taken captive, in accordance with Shocker's laws he must now be eliminated, then deigns to answer Yukie's questions. There's another dude lying there in front of her, and the Big Shocker Voice informs her that this guy's been given a preliminary injection (of... some sort, I guess) in preparation for testing whether he's good enough to become a Shocker cyborg. As part of the testing, they run 50,000 volts through his body, then 100,000!

This kills the man, which is a bummer, but good news! Yukie will have her own chance to pass the are-you-ready-to-be-a-cyborg test at noon!

Yukie is understandably distraught.

Meanwhile meanwhile, Takeshi brings the Shocker goon back to the kid's apartment and asks him where the Shocker base is. Sudden cut to Takeshi motorcycling away, which I guess means the goon just completely squealed? Well, I'm not complaining.

Also, someone in production gets to go completely wacko with the drum fills.

Predictably, Takeshi busts all up into the place and saves Yukie, who tells him that Pitcher-Plant Man was instructed to go and kill off the captured Shocker mook. Which means now he has to rush back.

Unfortunately for Ruriko et al., Pitcher-Plant Man is already there, and kills off the goon in a sequence that is actually kind of unsettling!

Before he can move on to the witnesses, though, Takeshi (To Kenji's delight) busts into the room. What follows is the expected boss battle of the episode, with Takeshi defeating the baddie with a Rider Kick.

Not gonna lie, I initially assumed this was the baddie turning back into plant form and escaping, but he doesn't appear again in this episode (like in a stinger or anything), so I guess it's supposed to be a way of communicating to us, the viewer, that he dissolved? It's not a very good communication, though. Somehow, this children's show does not rise to my cinematographic standards!

Takeshi as Kamen Rider gives Kenji a friendly pat on the head and rides away, leaving Kenji naturally curious over who that dude was, for which either Ruriko or Hiromi (god, I am incredibly bad at faces) informs him that that dude was Kamen Rider.

And of course, Kenji is reunited with his sister.

Takeshi's there, which means he just sort of instantly circled back as soon as he was out of sight as Kamen Rider, which is kind of hilarious to me, but I understand that my sense of humor is weird.

The next day (I assume), Kenji and Yukie visit Takeshi at the university to thank him. Takeshi pats Kenji on the head in a friendly way, which gives Kenji to remark that he's just like Kamen Rider! In that the way Takeshi patted his head and the way the Kamen Rider patted his head are similar! Or maybe he just meant that both Takeshi and Kamen Rider patted his head, period, which sounds a lot more reasonable. Or maybe a lot less reasonable? Because what I'm getting from this scene is that Kenji is either incredibly discerning in his analysis of headpats or that he consders both Takeshi and Kamen Rider to, in addition to being similar to each other, to be similar to every single other individual who has ever patted him on the head.

What I am saying here is that Kenji is either the next Sherlock Holmes of headpats or drastically needs to narrow his taxonomical methodology.

Anyway, Kenji thanks Takeshi for keeping his promise and helping save his sister—remember, Takeshi took and instantly broke his model plane and everything? Takeshi explains to Yukie, and the two leave to buy Kenji a new model plane. Which Takeshi should really be paying for, since he shouldn't have taken the kid's model to begin with.

But while Kenji and Yukie have each other for support, the narrator dramatically intones, Takeshi in his dark and lonely battle with Shocker, has no such luxury.

Except, you know, for Tobee.

And Ruriko.

And Hiromi to a lesser extent? I admit she hasn't done much, but she's there.

At some point this lonesome hero schtick begins to look like a deliberate choice, Takeshi!

[leilaaleila]

HEY!!! NERD INCOMING🤓!!!

I.O.N. is a dramatic show about nuclear disaster, death, and losing your past life forever. its about these objects who wake up in a nuclear power plant after a nuclear disaster just happened, and they want to figure out what happened to them and to this power plant before the explosion

when I.O.N. was first released, a few clips in episode 1 showed Cracklin blushing. (i feel the need to point out hes a geiger counter, a device that measures radiation)

like here when Cracklin was talking to himself about what happened to him after waking up in a basement

“What if…What if I was kidnapped by some psychopath!?”

or when he pressed a button on himself and sets off an alarm on accident (also by doing this, he deleted some important information about the radiation in the basement he came from)

“I’m sorry, Chief…It was an accident! I won’t do it again, I promise…”

there are more scenes i dont feel like writing about, but basically none of these scenes meant anything sexual. it was just OSCtok going insane as always😭

Cracklin is often embarrassed, whether the reason is obvious or not. he doesnt always control his thoughts and he doesnt know how to regulate his feelings.

I only know ion from some edit a few years ago with the yellow thing being really h0rny???? uhm. what is that show about

Plaintext:

I only know ion from some edit a few years ago with the yellow thing being really horny???? uhm. what is that show about

[anthonysstupiddailyblog]

Anthony’s Stupid Daily Blog (300): Tue 10th Jan 2023

Up early despite it being my day off as I wanted to take the motorbike to get the left footrest fixed. The guy at the garage said that he should have it fixed by the end of the day and to call him up at. teatime to ask about the progress. It did mean that I had to walk all the way back up the hill in my full motorbike gear and carrying the helmet which wasn’t ideal but made more tolerable by listening to Margaret Miller’s Beast in View which I listened to on audiobook. Every time I read a book that I like I buy an audiobook of it and Beast In View was the first book in the Edgar Award winners challenge I read that I fucking adored. I phoned the guy at half 1 and he said that it was already fixed and I could come and get it. I asked how much it would be and he replied £40 which almost made my eyeballs pop out of my arse out of shock as I was expecting him to charge me hundreds. Before going to collect the bike I got the bus to the town so that I could deposit my cheque into the bank. The bank has gone through massive renovations with the row of cubicles with the bullet proof glass being replaced by…a single desk with a bloke behind it. It’s crazy because every time unused to go nun there is see a queue and one bank teller at one cubicle. So their way of dealing with this problem is to completely eliminate the other cubicles so that disgruntled customers can’t say “Why can’t you open another counter?” anymore since there are no other counters. I went to Yo Sushi and had some vegan chicken sushi which was lovely and I also popped into the market to buy some gloves since I left mine in the house and I didn’t want to ride my bike home with no gloves on as they would probably drop off from the cold by the time I got home. I got the bus back to Southwick and walked back down the hill to the bike place to pick up the old girl and the shop had done a great job as the footrest was firmly fixed back in and you couldn’t tell there was ever any damage to it. I also asked the guy if I needed to go to BDS to get it serviced every time or if I could just bring it to him and he said he’d be happy to service it when the time comes. Glad that’s sorted and next time it snows I’ll leave it until a good week after the last of it has gone just in case there’s a little shithead patch of ice that decides to stick around and make me slip off the bike again like last time.

Tuned into tonight’s Hollyoaks.

I was hoping that this year they'd start introducing interesting new characters but even I wasn't expecting a long lost McQueen who's a living Christmas tree!

There was some come comedy early on in the episode as Oscar gave Darren a cape with a big D on it and Darren spent the episode pretending to be a superhero. Oh I hope they do a storyline where Darren gets a head injury while wearing the cape and when he wakes up he believes he actually is a superhero. Later on Darren and Nancy had a bit of a talk outside the school gates and while they did an extra walked past carrying a chair into the school. Why? What was the point of that?

It always makes me laugh to see the unnecessary things they have extras do in TV shows. This extra must've turned up thinking they were going to be playing a pivotal role but they showed up and were told "We need you to carry this chair and don't show your face"

The bulk of the episode featured the culmination of the Eric the incel storyline. At the start of the episode Eric kidnapped Maxine, locked her in his caravan then headed to The Dog with his crossbow to carry out his manifesto. At the start of the show when Eric took Maxine to his family’s farmhouse which has been left abandoned for years what would Eric have done if he took Maxine to the cottage and there was a gang of smackheads with guns in there? The hostage crisis at The Dog where Eric took everyone inside prisoner was a little bit intense but not as intense as it should have been because Eric’s weapon of choice was a crossbow. Why would you choose something that takes 20 seconds to reload with you when taking a group of people hostage. Hell there was one moment where he was sat crouched down with the crossbow pointed at the floor. Why didn’t they all just rugby tackle him to the ground? The episode ended with Maxine arriving and calling Eric out for being a pathetic loser and Eric shot an arrow at her as a police swat team broke in and arrested the creepy bastard. As the episode ended I thought to myself  Maxine better not be dead or else I was done with Hollyoaks for good and my Twitter page was going to change to “Silly Home and Away Tweets” but in the tease for tomorrows episode we see that she is still alive so we’re good. This was a great episode and amazing culmination of this incel storyline but shame on the show for not actually giving Verity a funeral. Two years on the show (plus being unnecessarily killed off) and we don't even get a proper goodbye for her, they just go straight to the wake? Bullshit

[onyxbird]

Unified Theory of Lethal Weapon (2016)

Having watched a handful of Lethal Weapon (2016) episodes, read the initial thesis from @darkfinch, and in further consultation (read: frequently outraged live-messaging during watches) with Finch, I have developed a tentative theory for how this show actually works.

The fundamental premise is that this is a Who Framed Roger Rabbit? type world, wherein a “Toon” world and a “Live-Action” world following different physical principles coexist and interact. The confusing part about Lethal Weapon is that both the Toon and Live-Action worlds look like live-action, making them difficult to distinguish. Note that the “Live-Action” world is still Hollywood fiction, so it still has notable differences from the real world, but it's closer to reality than Toon world and includes, for example, more realism and nuance in things like grief and suicidal tendencies.

E.g., in Toon LA, fireballs in the middle of LA are fine and only lead to scolding from the boss and a comedic running tally of how much the property damage has cost. In Toon LA, cops responding to a burglary results in a wacky car chase with people's gardens getting run over, and a van crashing into someone's garage only for the occupants to re-emerge seconds later on a motorcycle to continue the chase, all without anyone getting seriously hurt. In Live-Action LA, on the other hand, there is genuine danger to a child who was kidnapped to coerce his mother or to someone trapped in a house being burglarized who has to decide whether to hide or attempt to flee.

Roger Murtaugh, like his more charming namesake Mr. Rabbit, is a Toon, and he works in a Toon police department.

Like Roger Rabbit, who can free himself from handcuffs only when it's funny, Roger's capabilities depend on whether or not an action would be “funny” within the (fairly crass) buddy-cop comedy framework he is meant to inhabit. For example, Roger's heart condition affects the show when it facilitates something “funny,” like his heart-rate monitor going off in the middle of a car chase, or an argument with Riggs about whether or not he should avoid dangerous situations. Otherwise, e.g., if it would make it risky to tase a guy they're fighting in a sopping-wet shower, it does not exist.

Within the rules of Toon World, Murtaugh's "jokes" are cutting but not capable of inflicting real/lasting harm, similar to how Roger-Rabbit Toons can pop right back from physical damage that would destroy a Live-Action person. As a result, Roger tends to throw both cruel remarks and (sometimes) physical violence around liberally with the expectation that there will be zero repercussions after the metaphorical little birdies finish circling, so long as his actions are at all funny within his own buddy-cop story framework. (And, indeed, with his Toon colleagues, his behavior leads to little more than annoyance).

Martin Riggs is a Live-Action person working in a Toon police department.

I suspect, based on his opening scene and his course of action at the bank robbery when he arrives in LA, that the department he transferred from in Texas is also a Toon department. In any case, Martin is clearly experienced enough with the Toon world rules to utilize them effectively in some circumstances. E.g., Martin uses some very Toony police tactics and recognizes that he has substantial flexibility to defy his boss and/or dodge his employer-mandated therapist as long as he does so comedically (likewise, the therapist can counter some of his evasions to pin him down as long as she acts comedically, such as boldly following him into the men's restroom when he tries to side-step an unwanted conversation).

However, Martin is not a Toon, so being used as a punching bag (literally or metaphorically) does harm him. He chose to work in a Toon department, prepared to handle explosions and cartoonishly exaggerated police work and dodging (or not) the equivalent of grand pianos falling off the second floor towards his head, and instead ended up with a Toon partner who will poke fun at his mental health for jokes on a daily basis.

Trish (Roger's wife, for those of you following along while smartly avoiding direct contact with the trainwreck) is a Live-Action person who married a Toon. She lives primarily in Toon LA, likely due to her marriage to Roger, but can easily code-switch to her native Live-Action behavior, as she frequently does in interactions with Martin outside of Roger's presence. Trish and Roger's children, being half-Toon/half-Live-Action and raised in contact with both worlds, also show significantly more Live-Action nuance than their father and are fully capable of operating in both worlds.

Miranda (Martin's late wife) and her parents appear to be Live-Action people from Live-Action LA.

I will be collecting more data to substantiate or disprove these hypotheses as I continue viewing. Please use appropriate safety controls if you* attempt to replicate my findings or check the primary source in the course of peer review, since this research involves hazardous material.

*@wolves-in-the-world