#and the non-essential stuff to the plot is what would have to be cut for time

[grntaire]

what are your thoughts on GOmens: the Musical? The (very technically crude) few performances I’ve seen were lovely songs, and I hope they get a proper budget to fulfill the vision. ideally complete with a life-sized Bentley that “drives” (on an independent platform ofc), elaborate set design, a full orchestra, personally designed costumes and lots of fun SFX to include a real flaming sword.

i haven’t seen much of it! what i have seen was some excellent acting and the pit sounded great but i really haven’t heard much of the singing. i personally feel like good omens as a musical (or in a stage adaption at all) would have to be super kitschy to make it work. as for budget there’s two wolves inside of me. imo for a musical the first expenses should be on your pit bc no matter how good everything looks, if your players don’t sound professional then the whole thing flops!

as much as i’d love fully fledged elaborate costuming and set design i really cannot imagine a good omens stage production of any kind looking like anything other than a starkid show lmao. something almost egregiously comedic and intentionally minimalistic in a high quality way.

[dnd-writes]

Boulevard of Broken Dreams - Pt. 1

AO3

Tags: Non-con, this whole fic is just one whole degenerate lump of non-con, so warning all of you already at the beginning. BFH, very degenerate, unedited, Third-person PoV (cause easier that way), sex slave!Julie, sex slave!Natty, sex slave!Belle, sex slave!Haneul, sex slave!Kiss of Life, sexual slavery, sexual exploitation, contract manipulation, clothing control, slapping, punching, kicking, spitting, deflowering, anal deflowering, painal, dry vaginal sex, facefucking, cum on food, frozen dildos, I think that's all or most of it but you get the point

A/N: 1. First of all, thank you to @fillinforlater for the fic idea. Idk what the fuck happened, at first I was following the plot he laid out, then I changed this part, then I added this part, then this, then that, and I blink and all of a sudden I have this monstrosity of a fic 2. Fic has nothing to do with the song, just thought it would fit as a title 3. If anyone asks, for this fic I "changed the timeline" of KIOF's pre-debut stuff to essentially fit in June 2023, cause y'know, Haneul. 4. Part 1 cause Smite's prompt had a second part that I also want to write but it's gotten so long I decided to split the fic into two? parts.

It’s finally happened, she’s finally done it! After years of hardships and struggles Natty has finally achieved her goal of being in a K-pop girl group, the dream she once thought to be impossible now becoming a reality as she takes the pen and puts her signature down on the contract with tears filling her eyes. Some might call her crazy or an overreactor for bawling out but for someone who has gotten eliminated in the finals of not one but two survival shows, tears of joy sound like a reasonable reaction. 

Although Natty has already spent nearly a decade training, she is still looking forward to training more with her new groupmates. Even if it might take a decade more, as long as her dream comes alive, to her it’s all worth it. 

Natty expected to be surprised on her first day but she wasn’t ready to face what was in store for her. Having been a trainee for almost half her life, there’s no doubt that Natty has heard rumors about the industry, the drastic measures required to stay in form, the horrible things that happen away from prying eyes, the exploitation, the harassment. Though to her, they were all just rumors, just silly little things that people made up, little did she know that the rumors were just a teaser of what’s to come.

Natty goes through the front doors but instead of the vibrant and cheerful place she visited not long ago, the company now has a faint and eerie atmosphere. Lights are off, not a sign of any person in the immediate vicinity, it’s like the place never was alive to begin with. “Maybe I just came in at a wrong time,” she thinks as she navigates her way to her destination. Natty ascends to the fifth floor and as she makes it there, she hears subtle heavy breathing echoing along the halls. She decides not to get too curious and instead looks for the meeting place.

Natty stands just outside the door with a large smile prepared on her face, “This is it,” she tells herself as she gets ready to meet her new sisters. Her jolly expression quickly fades as she breaches the door, sitting inside are two of her three new groupmates. While very excited to finally meet them for the first time, what catches her attention the most are their outfits—both of them revealing way too much skin, a stark contrast to the jacket and jeans she has on. One of them is wearing booty shorts and a crop top cut short enough to barely cover her nipples and Natty notices that she doesn’t seem to have a bra underneath it. And all she can see on the other is a large red shirt barely making its way past her hips. 

Natty forces back a smile, trying to regain the excitement she previously had. There’s just four seats in the middle of the room all facing each other and Natty takes one of the two empty ones. It was awkward at first but the tension slowly dissipated as the three began talking, though a sense of eeriness still lingers behind. They start off introducing themselves to each other and Natty quickly learns that it’s Haneul who is wearing the crop top and Belle is the one wearing the red shirt. Once they got the awkward introductions out of the way, they proceeded to talk about random things. They start to talk about their lives now, their lives as trainees in previous companies, how the two knew of Natty in her time in survival shows. Although, every time Natty would try to talk about their outfits, they would pause and take a deep breath but then they would either play it off as if it was a normal thing or just change the subject entirely.

With no obstructions between them, Natty can’t help but notice some details with their apparent choices of clothing. Natty doesn’t know if she’s just imagining it but when she looks at Haneul’s crop top, she swears she can see a hint of darkness which she can only guess to be are areolas. Then there’s Belle who is sitting in the chair across from her, her short red shirt hikes even higher up her body while she sits down and Natty can see, clear as day, Belle’s pussy just hanging in the breeze. Natty tries to ask her about it but Belle just looks at her as if she was a crazy person.

Eventually the last member arrives, Natty somewhat expected her to also be similarly dressed which she is but the state she came into the room in was what shocked her the most. The last member arrives wearing a yellow sundress though from the looks of it, it might be a size or two too small. As she stands there trying to introduce herself to Natty, she keeps on adjusting her dress, struggling between pulling it over her chest or pulling it below her hips. But her attire is the least alarming part, her hair is all frizzled, her lipstick is smeared, and there’s drops of liquid dripping from between her legs. Natty forces another smile as all four of them start to talk together. The mystery girl introduces herself as Julie, their new leader. Julie takes the remaining seat and, similar to Belle, her dress hikes up, even higher compared to Belle’s shirt, and Julie’s pussy is visible to everyone. No one comments on it but Natty quickly sees that a pool of white is forming between Julie’s legs and it seems to come from her pussy and her butt.

Natty was right in that her first day would be full of surprises, though she did not expect to be such horrible and gut wrenching surprises. On her way home, she starts to recall the rumors she has heard over the years and after thinking back to what she saw earlier, they’re starting to become less like rumors and more like the harsh reality of the industry. But Natty brushes the thoughts aside, thinking to herself that her dream of being part of a K-pop group is being fulfilled and if it means even worse and troubling obstacles, then she will just overcome them too. She has had years of training, what’s a questionable dress code compared to that?

The next day arrives and Natty tries to remain optimistic, wearing another bright smile as she enters the practice room, though just like the day before it quickly drops. There’s a fifth person joining them that day and Natty can only assume he’s their choreographer only except he’s wearing nothing but shorts. While his toned body is in no doubt hot and amazing, given the situation and the very very prominent tent he’s sporting, Natty is deeply disturbed.

She says hi to him and then at her group mates who she has just noticed are still wearing the same outfits as the day before albeit with some slight changes—Haneul’s isn’t even covering her chest anymore, just dangling like a necklace above her shoulders; Belle’s red shirt has streaks of white all over the front; and Julie’s dress has a rip at the top as if her breasts were breaking free. Natty couldn’t even find the time to feel sorry for them as the man starts to talk to her as she comes in. “Hey, you’re the new girl right? What are you wearing?”

Natty stands frozen in place. She hasn’t gotten any sort of instructions or clothing to wear. Has she missed something? 

The man carries some papers over to her. “Did you not read this?” Natty recognizes the papers he’s holding, it’s the contract she signed. He flips through the pages and gives it to her, “See? Right here.” He points at the clause labeled “Attire” and Natty reads through the fine print. “In the company, the members should wear what is given to them or any clothing that they have. Provided that their tops have sleeves not longer than 10 cm and bottoms not longer than 20 cm.” With just her luck, she’s wearing a sweater and jeans that day. Natty couldn’t believe this, she remembers reading every detail of the contract but not once has she seen this. Natty continues to read the page and the next clause is labeled “Sex.” It reads, “The members cannot object to their bodies being touched or used by the employees of S2 Entertainment. The members must follow every order given to them, whether they are willing to do so or not. If the task is impossible to do, the members must accomplish it to the best of their ability. None of this can be mentioned to anyone outside of S2 Entertainment.” Natty could not believe her eyes, such inhuman clauses on her own contract. She hastily checks the last page and there sits her signature, bright as day. She looks at the others in disbelief but they can only stare right back at her with empty expressions.

The man grabs the papers back. “Well? The clothes we have are still in the laundry, so unless you have spare clothes with you or something, the only solution is to undress.” Natty looks at the others again for help but they just shake their heads and Julie mouths “Sorry” to her. “Are you going to do something about it or do you want me to take care of it?” Driven by fear of getting manhandled, Natty turns around and rushes to take her clothes off. Even with her back to everyone, she can feel the stares stabbing into her back. She feels so sick and dirty as she takes her sweater off and as she shimmies her pants off of her hips, she doesn’t realize she was involuntarily shaking her ass for everyone not until the man squeezes her butt.

Natty shivers in the cold room but it pales in comparison to being just in her underwear. Though it’s just the choreographer she has to be worried about, the lustful stare he gives her is enough to make her cry. Julie tries to console Natty but not a second later Natty hears a slap echo in the room, she looks up to see the choreographer in front of Julie who’s holding the side of her face.

The rest of the day goes pretty ok given the circumstances, mostly just going over the song and the choreography that went along with it, though their instructor occasionally helped himself to cop a feel while teaching and he seemed to be most interested in Natty, always focusing on her mistakes, groping and feeling every inch of her body as he “teaches” the dance.

The next day, Natty moves into the group’s dorm. “This time, it will be better,” she tells herself, maintaining that bright and optimistic perspective on life. She hopes that in the dorm it will be much funner and freeing, just her and her group mates living together and hanging out all the time. 

She opens the door and peers inside, to her surprise it’s really clean and quiet. Although she’s been very optimistic about things, deep down she was expecting similar horrors to what she has seen the previous days and seeing such a pristine and spacious living space is enough of a relief for her. After bringing her things through the door, Natty explores the place. In the living room there’s a huge flatscreen TV and a couch big enough to fit more than four people, and in the kitchen there’s lots of space available and a big fridge. Natty checks the fridge and salivates seeing lots of veggies and drinks inside, then she checks the freezer and almost falls to her knees from hunger seeing all the meat. Natty was about to slam the door shut when she notices a red dildo slightly hidden in one of the layers, she gives it a touch and confirms that it is ice cold. She blushes slightly, thinking that one of her group mates is kinky like that.

Natty hops over to the rooms, excited to see what those are like after seeing how extravagant the common areas are. She first checks on the room to the right, as she goes in she’s met with a very odd-looking room, half is very bland and empty while the other half is very decorated. “This must be my side,” she whispers while looking at the empty space. Over in the decorated half she sees Haneul fast asleep in her bed, seeing her wearing pajamas and not some skimpy outfit brings a smile to her face.

Natty closes the door gently as she makes her way to the next room. She barges through the door and immediately regrets it, the dorm which she expected to be their “safe space” away from the shit they have to go through at the company, turns out to just be an elegant looking prison. Natty was so happy about the place but unfortunately, it was too good to be true.

Natty sees three people all in one bed. Nearest to her is Belle, lying on her back and sobbing into her hands while a red dildo is shoved in her ass. Next to her is Julie and some man relentlessly pounding into her from behind. Only the man reacts to Natty’s arrival, looking over his shoulder to smile at Natty, it’s a different man, one Natty hasn’t met before. “Hi, Natty… I’m your… manager… Will you be a good girl and… pull that out of Belle?”

Natty should feel offended by such a crude question but after a week of “training,” she’s gotten to know better. Disgusted and disturbed yet Natty still drags her feet across the floor towards the three of them. “Just pull it out but do it slowly, don’t want to hurt her… even more,” he quickly adds the last part, chuckling as he does so, clearly enjoying himself at the expense of Julie’s and Belle’s pain. 

Natty glances at Belle, her face hidden in her hands, her body red and blue all over, her ass adorned with a bright red toy. She touches the base and immediately recalls her hand, it’s cold, ice cold. Natty considers herself a fool for even thinking for a moment that the freezer dildo was a kink thing, perhaps it might, but not for the person she thought it to be.

Belle’s quiet sobs turn to whines as Natty starts pulling the dildo out, the sound alone is enough to bring tears to Natty’s eyes, knowing that even though she’s helping, she’s still causing some pain. Natty continues to pull but at her slow pace it feels like it would take forever, she doesn’t even know how long the dildo is and as more inches get pulled out, the more worried she gets knowing how far it was in Belle and how much it could have hurt. 

Finally she pulls the thing out which calms Belle, her asshole closes back up, her body relaxes, and her cries die down. Natty looks at the dildo in her hand, the thing is almost as long as her forearm, she quickly throws it away and out of her sight.

Their manager turns to see that Natty has done what he requested, he gives Belle a slap on the ass and then Natty a pat on the head. “Oh nice… you’re a good girl... Natty… So here’s… your reward…” Before Natty could process anything he said or did, she feels her hair being yanked and her face quickly diving towards the bed. He makes her face to the side and starts to paint Natty in his cum. She hasn’t felt cum yet, let alone seen a dick in person, but the warmth and stench it leaves is enough for her to hate it.

“Wake Haneul up and have her clean you up, or you could just drink it all yourself, I wouldn’t mind. Just make sure to record, ok? When you’re done, Natty, meet me in my room, it’s at the end of the hall.”

And just like that he leaves, satisfied and so full of himself, while the three girls lay exhausted and broken.

Julie is the first one to recover among the three of them. “Let’s get you cleaned up. I’ll go get Haneul, he hates waiting too long.” Before Julie can step away, Natty grabs her wrist. “N-No! I’ll do it. I’ll… try to do it.”

“You sure? Alright then. My advice is just do it quickly. Hwaiting.” Julie flashes a weak smile and raises her fist for encouragement and Natty reciprocates the action. 

Julie takes her phone and starts recording. Natty sits at the edge of the bed with Belle just slightly out of the shot. Natty scoops up all the cum on the side of her face, just doing so disgusts her immensely. With most of the white liquid in her palm, she puts everything in her mouth and gulps it all down. For a second all is well but the aftertaste hits her like a truck and she starts coughing again and again. She expected to hate it but it was beyond awful. Only when Natty calms down does Julie stop recording.

“Go to his room, it’s on the left. I’ll just put this back in the freezer,” says Julie as she picks up the dildo from the floor.

“He hates waiting.” Natty repeats, with no time to rest, she gets to her feet and moves to the manager’s room. Natty’s hand reaches for the doorknob but she stops herself before she can even touch it. This time around she opts to knock instead of just barging in. “Come in,” says the voice from the other side. Natty enters the room, it looks much bigger and more grand than the other rooms, a bigger bed, a TV, a mini-fridge, it was practically its own apartment. “So nice of you to knock, you’re still dressed but that’s an easy fix.” 

She notices him ruffling through some stuff in his drawer, she tries to take a peek but he closes it before she can see what was inside. In his hands are a remote and a collar with her name on it. “We just met a few minutes ago but I think you’re my favorite already.” He puts the collar on her, tightening it so it fits exactly around her neck. “Whenever you’re here at the dorm, you have to wear this, ok? And everytime I press this button.” He raises the remote and clicks it, sending a small stinging sensation to Natty’s neck. “You have to come to me. It’s only at one right now but if you’re not here within five minutes of me clicking it, it goes up by one, permanently.” Natty gulps but with the collar snug around her neck, it made it a little uncomfortable. 

“Ok so where’s the video?”

“Ah, Ju-”

As her name is mentioned, Julie barges into the room, phone outstretched with the video ready to play.

“Ah, there it is. Thank you, Julie.” Julie hands her phone over and stands in place, like a robot waiting for her next command. “Aww, look at Belle sleeping so peacefully. Oh wonderful, drinking it all by yourself. See, I knew you would be my favorite.” He hands the phone back to Julie and she starts to leave but before she makes it out he issues one final order for her. “Julie, be a dear and get Haneul. She’s been sleeping all day, I haven’t had my fun with her yet. Actually, you know what? Now that Natty’s here, just get everyone.”

With just the two of them left in the room, he walks over to Natty. Seeing his erect dick twitching so much causes her to involuntarily step backwards and his brows suddenly furrow. “Now, now, Natty.” The sudden change in his tone and expression is enough to strike fear in her heart, afraid of a punishment she puts her foot back to its original spot causing his smile to return. 

“Sweaters. Always so annoying, I heard you’re huge but I can’t really tell with that stupid thing hiding your tits. From now on in the dorm, Natty, only wear tight tops. Oh, better yet, no tops at all. The only thing I want to see you wearing above your hips is that collar.” 

Instantly Natty’s hands start to move, getting rid of any clothing on her torso as soon as the new rule is implemented. She can see it in his eyes, hunger ever growing with each article of clothing she removes. As soon as her shirt comes off, he starts salivating. “My, oh my, you’re huge. Looks like Julie’s got competition.” Natty reaches behind herself to unhook her bra but pauses for a moment, she realizes this is the first time she would show her breasts to anyone, many have touched and played with them at the company but not one has unveiled her boobs. As her bra falls, his dick twitches in excitement. 

The rest of the group arrives. Belle is the first to enter, her legs very tired and her ass still very sore. Next comes Haneul, yawning and rubbing her eyes. Last is Julie, her head held high and her face serious, looking like a guard rounding up the inmates although she isn’t any less of a prisoner compared to the other girls in the room. The four just stand in silence like mannequins and their manager walks around and gropes whatever he pleases as if doing some inspection. 

“Haneul… what did we say?” says the manager very disappointedly. His tone shocks her awake, “I-I’m sorry,” she bows then starts getting out of her clothes. He scoots over to her and slaps her in the face. “I’ll let you off easy this time since Natty’s finally here but I’m doubling the next punishment.”

After Haneul, he moves over to Belle, whose legs are barely keeping her standing. “You cross me again, I’ll make sure you won’t even be able to walk for the rest of the day.” He punches Belle and she easily drops to the ground sobbing, he kicks her while she’s down to add insult to injury. Natty can only shiver upon hearing everything happen behind her, does she even want to know what Belle did to make him so mad?

He moves over to Julie and the first thing he does is spit on her face then he uses his fingers to smear it all over. Julie keeps her composure, just closing her eyes as he plays with her face, not flinching or whining at all. “You should thank Natty for being here, ‘cause you’ll finally have some time to rest.” His hands cup her breasts, giving them a proper feel before he moves on to a bigger and better pair. 

Finally he comes back around to Natty, the only person in the room with any piece of clothing still on. “Tell me, Natty… Have you fucked before?” Natty gulps again knowing the implications, though it was bound to happen eventually. She shakes her head and he smiles. “Oh, a virgin? So many people in that building and not one has fucked you? Well their loss, we’re gonna have so much fun together.”

“Change of plans girls, looks like I need some ‘catching up’ to do with Natty. Go do whatever you want for now, we’ll be here for a full day or two.” 

But just before he dismisses them, he goes back to Belle, still on the ground holding her side. He spits on her face too but this time he uses his foot to smear her face. “Don’t think I’m done with you just yet. Be ready for your final ‘lesson’ when I’m done with Natty. Now go, all three of you, leave.”

It’s wicked really, how sick and twisted all of this is, all the expectations Natty had, completely flipped around. Shining eyes looking up to her turns out to be lustful stares looking down, helping hands turn out to be forceful gropes, and managers turn out to be owners. Natty looks over her shoulder with tears starting to form in her eyes, though her hands remain still, her stare acts like a hand reaching out to save her from the depths of hell but alas, all Haneul and Julie could do is return similar sad gestures as they carry Belle away.

The manager locks the door as the three leave and immediately gets back to Natty, even with all the time in the world at his disposal, he wouldn’t want to waste a single second. With the rest of the group gone, Natty feels even more miniscule and useless, even more of a toy as his gaze is solely on her. He comes up behind her and fills his hands with her tits, with Julie’s he can still grasp the whole thing in his hands but Natty’s can barely be fully contained. He starts to fondle and play with her nipples while slowly moving his mouth closer to her neck.

Natty easily starts to moan loudly, she wants to keep quiet to avoid giving him that pleasure but her complete lack of experience and the resulting lack of tolerance betrays her. He sniffs along her neck, “You smell so good and your tits… so fucking soft.” He finds a patch of skin along the front of her neck and starts to kiss and suckle on it, Natty explodes into a moaning mess, shouting in pleasure as if she’s having the time of her life.

The pleasure gets cut short as his hands move down to her waist. “Sweatpants… another cock blocker. From now on, just don’t wear anything, Natty. Your body is so hot and irresistible, wouldn’t want any clothes hiding your beauty. Don’t worry about getting cold, just come to me and you’ll be warmed up in no time.” His fingers slip into the waistbands and he slides both her underwear and her sweatpants down to the ground. He’s the first one to see her tits and now he’s also the first one to see her bare ass and pussy. As much as she doesn't want to think about it, he probably will be the first dick she takes in every hole.

The manager circles Natty slack-jawed and wide-eyed as if admiring a sculpture he has just made. “Fat ass, soft and heavy tits, pretty face. You’re just the perfect little toy, aren’t you? And a virgin too, just the absolute best, if I could I would just own you forever but sadly I’ve got a job to do. Although… maybe I can have you be my roommate instead of Haneul’s, that’s probably the closest I’ll get.” He leans down and frowns at what he sees. “Unshaved, unfortunate, guess you can’t have absolutely everything but it’ll do. First thing I want you to do when you’re out of this room is get that shaved, got it?” Natty’s been unmoving and frozen in place for so long that it takes her a second before nodding her head.

The manager pushes Natty onto the bed then flips her to face him. Her full body is on display for him, each delicacy just sitting idle like food in a buffet, up for grabs at any time. He licks his lips as he considers his options. 

“Two virgin holes, which to try first? The other three bitches came here already used, so this will be a first for you and me.” He slaps his dick against her pussy, grinding on it and feeling the slight hint of wetness it’s giving off. Next he considers her asshole, very puckered and looking very small compared to the head of his cock as he pokes her with it. He licks a finger and prods inside, the way his finger barely pushes through excites him and the way Natty winces seals the deal for him. 

He lifts Natty’s legs up and hooks them over his shoulders, giving him a perfect angle to ravage her ass. He lines himself up and slowly pushes his way in, not even bothering to spread her cheeks to mitigate the tightness. Natty is already breathing heavily as she feels her asshole stretching to accommodate him. “Please,” she begs. “It… It won’t fit.”

He just smiles and caresses her cheek. “That’s the fun part, a tiny virgin asshole broken open by my cock. I’m gonna remember this forever.”

As soon as Natty’s sphincter spreads wide enough for his girth, he shoves the whole thing inside. “AHHHH!!! TAKE IT OUT! TAKE IT OUT!” Natty fires a blood-curdling scream as his cock swiftly overwhelms her. It hurt for him too given how dry her butt is but only barely, plus her cries only work to alleviate him. 

He locks her legs in his arms and her hips in his hands to keep her from moving. Her hands might be free but Natty doesn’t have the strength or the courage to lift them up. Her ass feels like it’s on fire from the dry friction between the two of them. To her, it’s like hell. To him, the fire feels like an invigorating force. 

Her anal walls hug him so tightly, it’s like Natty’s ass is begging him to fill her up and who is he to turn down such a request. Her ass is so tight, it’s practically milking him dry, any tighter and he might not be able to pull out. In just a few minutes he starts to orgasm, the hardest and fastest one he’s had with any of the four girls. He pulls out and scrambles to find his phone, wanting to cherish this moment forever. “Second load of cum and many more to go. You’re gonna be such a wonderful cum bucket, Natty, milking me everyday. You’re going to love my cum and my dick in no time.”

Natty tries to stand, to do something, anything, but her body is just worn out already, completely exhausted, completely given up. The manager, on the other hand, is the exact opposite, even after tearing Natty’s asshole apart, he’s still hard and ready for another round. This time he has his eyes set on her cherished virginity. 

He hooks her legs back onto his shoulders but this time he carries her then pins her to the wall with her wrists bound by his hand above her head. While flexibility isn’t a problem for Natty, she is now face to face with her assaulter. She closes her eyes and looks away but that doesn’t stop her from feeling his hot breath on her face. His tongue pokes out and licks along her cheek, tasting her tears and her sweat, he leaves a trail of his saliva as he travels from her jaw to her ear. “So salty, so delicious. Everything about you is so delicious, you know that? Now I’m gonna enjoy fucking your pussy, I’m gonna see just how tight you fucking are.”

Tears fall nonstop from her eyes. Natty’s sobbing grows strong as she feels his heat pressing against hers. She so badly wants to beg him to stop, to let her rest, but her voice can’t manage to form words and she knows he wouldn’t listen anyway. 

He lines himself up with her folds and in one swift motion, he pistons his cock inside. “AHHHH!!! FUCK! PLEASE!!!” her voice only manages to come back during moments of intense pain. “Oh, Natty, your cunt. Fuuuuuuck, that’s the best pussy ever.” Her pussy is heavenly, it’s so tight that it’s almost orgasmic when he penetrates her. He just loves the way Natty squeezes around him. He also loves hearing her cry out in pain, to him it’s like a choir of angels. He relishes in the feeling of Natty’s pussy, living in his own twisted version of heaven.

As he pounds into her from below, Natty’s tits bounce freely in front of him and he doesn’t waste a second as his mouth latches onto her chest, after all, a little side dish won’t hurt while he enjoys the main meal. He bites her nipples, pulling and squeezing them with his teeth, only adding more pain to what Natty is already experiencing.

The two of them fucked endlessly in that locked room while the other three finally got some rest, though they couldn’t quite live in blissful harmony as Natty’s screaming kept them aware of their situation, the walls were thin enough to let Natty’s wails of terror flood the whole dorm. While the other three girls were able to sleep through it, in the morning they still heard Natty screaming and begging, though her voice much weaker and hoarser. 

There’s just so much to do with Natty, just pure lust and adrenaline fueling the manager all throughout the night. All the positions he could take her in, all the things he can do, all the possibilities, everything that Natty’s body can offer, he takes. He fucked her all over the room, didn’t even matter how or where, he just slams her down somewhere and fucks her in whatever hole he felt fit. He fucked her face against the wall, then fucked her ass while he pressed her face onto the floor, then fucked her pussy while missionary on the floor, then fucked her ass doggystyle on the bed, then fucked her face while her head hung off the bed, then fucked her ass in the shower. Just so much cum in and on her body in the span of a couple of hours and yet he is still going strong.

The next day comes around and there doesn’t seem to be any lapse in their action. Stretching from before the rise of the sun all the way to after it set, just endless screaming of pure pain and agony coming from Natty. The only time the manager interacted with the rest of the girls was when he asked Julie to cook up a meal for them. The door finally opened again for the first time in two days as Julie brought her cooking.

“Ah, pork belly, I’m starving. Thank you so much, Julie. I see you’ve gotten comfortable without me pestering you all the time,” he says as he sees Julie wearing some pajamas. “Oh, two plates? We won’t be needing that,” he chuckles as he returns the second set of utensils as well. Just before the door closes, Julie takes a peek over his shoulder and sees Natty practically lifeless on the floor. The manager gives Julie a quick smile, proud of his own work, then locks the door.

The manager walks over to the bed and nudges Natty with his foot before getting himself comfortable. Natty, almost void of all energy, springs to life as she smells the delicious food. Natty sits patiently, silently jealous as she stares at her manager eating all by himself. He points to his dick and Natty can only sigh as she lowers her face in front of it. 

The manager puts his hand on the back of her head and Natty opens her mouth, but instead of pushing down he says, “Let’s play a game, Natty. If you make me cum before I finish the food, you can have the rest of it.”

Natty doesn’t exactly have much knowledge on how to pleasure a dick, her only experience being the one dick that’s been forced in her body the past two days. She’s already come to terms with the fact that she might not eat for two days straight but regardless she tries her best. 

Natty employs the small pieces of advice she’s heard him tell her. Even though she’s basically just moving her head along his length, judging from his moans he seems to be enjoying it so she goes faster. 

“Fuck, Natty. Fuck… I’m gonna cum…” He takes over this time, gripping the back of her head as she immediately chokes. “Don’t… swallow it, fuck.” He struggles to squeeze his words out of his mouth as another orgasm makes its way into Natty’s mouth, only this time around it pools on her tongue. She already hates cum to begin with, cringing inside whenever she would taste it but with a whole load lingering in her mouth, revolting is an understatement. She struggles to hold it all in, not just because of the taste but also because of how much he gave her, her cheeks are full and just a little more it would probably overflow. 

He holds the plate of what’s about a quarter of the total meat still left on it. “Spit,” he commands and without hesitation she opens her mouth and deposits the batch onto the plate. “Go on, everything, spit into it.” She does as ordered, mixing the remnants with saliva and spitting onto the food. He spits onto the plate as well and mixes the meat with the “sauce” then puts it on the other side of the bed from her. “Go eat.”

Natty tries to get up and walk to the other side but the manager has other plans. He grabs her hair again and pulls her across the bed, forcing her to kneel down. “Come on, eat up.” He moves over behind her and lines up with her pussy. “Don’t waste anything, when you’re done I want that plate clean.” Natty stares at the disgusting abomination in front of her and she feels even more disgusted and degraded knowing that even when it comes to food she’s being treated like a dog. Her stomach gurgles, no matter how disgusting the food may be, she still has to eat. Natty tries to look at the brighter side of things, at the very least she’s eating actual food and not some slop that looks inedible. 

On the third day of her imprisonment, Natty is completely exhausted and broken. She just lies on her back, barely even reacting to anything her manager does anymore, there’s cum on almost every inch of her body and yet she doesn’t bother to clean it. 

Julie knocks to bring them breakfast, the manager gets the door but instead of just taking the food he tells Julie to give it to Natty. “She’s not fun anymore so I’ll be going back to you guys. And besides, the company is looking for her, can’t have her here forever.” As soon as the manager leaves, Julie rushes over to Natty and tends to her. 

The manager, clearly unsatisfied with Natty’s unresponsiveness and clearly needing a release, turns to Belle for release.

“AHHH!!! Wait, no, please… I’m sorry.” He barges into her room and she immediately shrieks upon seeing him. In the short span of two days, she’s gotten used to not being around him but here he is to remind her of her place. “I promise I won’t do it again, I—” She tries to get away but she’s stuck in the corner and all she can do is sink herself further into it. He doesn’t stop or even think for a second about what he’s doing, he just walks up and punches her face, adding another bruise to the multiple he’s given her. 

“Haneul? Get in here!” he shouts at the top of his lungs. While waiting, he pulls Belle’s face to the edge of the bed and starts facefucking her, all the while alternating between slapping her tits and punching her pussy. 

“Haneul?!” he calls again after a few minutes. After cumming down Belle’s throat and Haneul still hasn’t arrived, he marches over to her room. Not really to his surprise, he finds Haneul sleeping soundly in her bed. For one second he smiles, admiring her beauty before proceeding to ruin it. 

He punches her which brings her wide awake. He tugs her hair to bring her face close to his. “Always sleeping, you lazy cunt. Maybe you need a lesson too.” Haneul screams and thrashes as she’s dragged across the floor by her hair towards Belle’s room.

The next few days and weeks go by with the members somewhat getting used to and coping with the treatment that they are going through. Lots of practicing and “training” happens at the company, mostly the latter, then their manager has fun with them at the dorm. At the very least their manager is kind, all things considered, just as long as they follow his orders, so they still get to somewhat relax at the dorm. And whenever no one is using their bodies, the girls hang out, talk with each other, and comfort each other, growing a bond and giving each other hope to carry on until they debut.

The month ends and it’s finally time for Kiss of Life to debut. The four are no doubt incredibly excited, they finally get to wear clothes that cover most of their body, finally have some time away from the perverts, and most of all, they finally get to debut and live out their dreams of being K-pop idols, though little do they know what their company still has in store for them, even in public view.

A/N 2: So if you made it here, congratulations, you're as much of a degenerate as I am :). Anyway, while part 1 is mostly focused on Natty, part 2 would likely be four "mini-fics" in one, each focusing on one member. Subject to change but most likely it would be like that

[cilil]

Mairon x Ar-Pharazôn - I know you ship it, but tell me why :)

*rubs hands* Ah it's time for the Mairazôn manifesto. I'll put some of this under a cut because I will have to discuss some dark stuff later on, as you can already guess, but for everyone else - tw captor/captive, non-con and just the fact that these two are awful men.

So first of all the entire canon scenario around these two is super interesting. We have a political intrigue plot and really get to see the "Deceiver" part. Mairon is so good at making men thirst after him that he works his way from prisoner to advisor and high priest, getting an arc that parallels Melkor's Valinor arc while also being even more "egregious" in terms of deception. We have this huge corruption arc, we have fucked up religious undertones, we have essentially a Garden of Eden narrative and most importantly we have juicy power dynamics.

The power dynamics are particularly interesting to me because on one hand Ar-Pharazôn is "the man in charge", but on the other hand Mairon is vastly more powerful than any individual in the kingdom. If he wanted he could break/melt those chains, kill the king and everyone else he hates and escape before he gets overwhelmed by numbers (plus not everyone may have a weapon that can hurt a Maia as powerful as he is, especially since he has the One Ring).

He could have also avoided capture in the first place, I doubt mortals are any good at chasing Ainur once they cast off their fána and just leave or have anything like Angainor available. But no, Mairon chose to let Ar-Pharazôn capture him and is playing the long game (well, long for mortals anyway). He wants to ruin that man and wants to do it thoroughly.

Ar-Pharazôn is canonically a rapist, at least in the version of the story where he took Míriel to wife by force (there's also one where she loved him... girl, your standards, please), and my headcanon is that he wanted Mairon as well and ended up having sex with him that he allowed, but didn't want. A very muddled consent situation to say the least.

Aside from juicy dark fic and kinky porn (and everyone is welcome to read it as just that and not more), I like taking Mairazôn (as well as Tulkas/Melkor) to really challenge society's "perfect victim" nonsense. Mairon is as "imperfect" of a victim as it gets: He's a man/male-presenting, he's a literal angel, he's evil, he's more powerful than Ar-Pharazôn one on one and known to set people on fire, he's seen it coming and maybe even "provoked" it in some way or at least acquiesced, so that people might say: "He was asking for it". They may also enjoy seeing him get raped as a sort of a justice/punishment thing.

By showing how he experiences these unwanted encounters with Ar-Pharazôn I want the reader to think about what they consider to be just and how their perception of sexual violence differs in regards to different victims. Do you think it becomes "okay" at a certain point if the victim has "allowed" themselves to get into a situation or if they're a bad person themselves (also while Mairon is to my knowledge not canonically a rapist, there is some fanon around and in my opinion it's not exactly far-fetched or OOC)? How do you perceive the power imbalance in this and can you see it going both ways? Are you willing to face the tough and morally challenging situations of victims becoming perpetrators and perpetrators becoming victims? Where does your compassion lie? How do you feel about revenge?

And this entire mess becomes even messier with my headcanon that Mairon thought he as an Ainu, a shapeshifting spirit being who wears physical forms like clothes, would be above being affected by such an act committed against him. Hell, depending on how the individual reader sees past Angbang it may have happened to him before. What does this do to his psyche? Just how far is this man willing to go for his perfect revenge? And where does it leave him in the end?

So yeah. Tldr: For me, Mairazôn is dark, messy and asks the tough questions. It's an excellent ship to explore all of these themes.

[flameshadowconjuring]

I am in the middle of my Assassination Classroom reread and rewatch and I am really enjoying it. It might just be that it resonates with me more now than 8 years ago when I originally read and watched it (ironic, given that I was much closer in age to the characters then than now), but it is even more fun than I remember it being. Most anime don't make me perpetually grin while watching them. Korosensei must be rubbing off on me.

The series does what the Japanese do best exceptionally well, which is to mix things that seem incompatible and make it work. Korosensei is the most kind and devoted teacher there is. He is also going to blow up the earth in one year if no-one kills him before then. He is the best teacher ever, can move at Mach 20 and is just generally a badass superbeing, but he is also deeply pathetic. He can destroy the world, but lives paycheck to paycheck. He encourages his students every step of the way in their mission to assassinate him, but does everything he can to survive their attempts. His students love him and depend on him, but also they are doing all they can to assassinate him. The most skilled assassin in the class, Nagisa, is a meek, kind boy who looks like a girl. All of this contrast is the source of most of the comedy of the show, and it works really well.

The thing I find most compelling in my reread/rewatch is how the task of assassinating their teacher unites the class. While the (almost) thirty students don't all get equal screen time/relevance, they all get moments to shine, and all of their successes come from everyone pitching in with their own unique set of skills. So many shonen manga talk about the power of friendship, but Assassination Classroom actually delivers on it. It has this strong message that everyone has talents to be nurtured and can become badass assassins someone awesome if you give them the chance.

The characters, particularly Korosensei, are very likeable and fun to watch. The anime's soundtrack is really good. It suits the series perfectly. The anime is generally a great adaptation. The mangaka actually worked closely together with the studio (at least for season 2, presumably also season 1). The cuts that the anime made were largely scenes from the manga that weren't essential. Exposition scenes whose information content can be inferred from more active scenes and stuff like that. I liked those scenes in the manga, but they were definitely the right scenes to cut so that the anime can conclude within only 47 episodes. The anime is really good. Just try not to look at students in the backgrounds of shots. They are often CG.

Perhaps most notably, Assassination classroom has achieved what most manga fail to do, which is to be neither too long nor too short, and to end in a way that wraps up the main plot in a satisfying, emotionally moving way. You will cry by the end of the story. I don't make the rules. The ridiculous initial premise of 'hey, your new teacher is a superbeing that just blew up the moon, he will do the same thing next year with the earth. It is your task to assassinate him before then.' is actually explained satisfactorily by the end.

That being said, I do have a few criticisms. I don't really like Bitch-sensei. A lot of scenes featuring her feel more like a reminder of 'hey, she still exists'. There are some great scenes with her, but not many, since she really only has one gimmick.

The first big plot twist of the show, which, to describe it in a non-spoilery way, is the big twist surrounding the actress, came out of nowhere. Maybe I am just dumb and missed all the clues (the author did point out that he planted some extremely subtle visual clues), but there were a bunch of scenes where the author could have easily planted some clues that would be subtle enough, but that a reasonably attentive reader would be reminded of during the reveal. The twist right after that one is really good though, so honestly its fine.

I will frame my final criticism as a warning. You might be tempted to let your guard down. To get emotionally attached to any budding romantic subplots that the story is suggesting or outright devoting entire scenes to. Don't. Down that path lies only disappointment and ambiguous open endings.

So, yeah. To close this with something positive, I guess I'll say who my favourite character is. Except I am going to cheat. I love Korosensei and Nagisa, but they are the two characters who get the most screen time. My favourite non-main character is Rinka Hayami. She is the sniper girl who is a steady shot no matter what, and she is just really cool. I ship her with the sniper guy who can shoot from super long distances. They are just a really cool, calm, get-the-job-done-without-a-hint-of-complaint duo. Mild spoilers, but they were responsible for what you could argue was Korosensei's closest brush with death.

Who would have ever thought that a show about middle school students learning the art of assassination to kill their teacher could be so wholesome and touching?

[mia-talks-toons]

(S1E1) Steven Universe: Revolutionizing LGBTQ Representation in Cartoons

Hey there, I’m Mia, and welcome to the first entry of my blog! All of my posts are going to follow a similar structure, with the first half being about the show I’m covering, with a summary, what I enjoyed about it, and all that good stuff. The second half would explain what effect it had on the greater cartoon landscape, or what it represents in the industry. Today I’m going to be talking about a cartoon that’s very close to my heart: Steven Universe. The show first aired in May 2013 on Cartoon Network and ran for 5 seasons, a movie, and a single-season epilogue series. It’s about this kid named Steven, a half-human half-alien hybrid, who’s being raised by three ancient alien warriors named Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl (as you can see in the intro). Together they fight monsters and protect the earth from danger. These aliens are called gems, and every member of their species is based off a different kind of gemstone, from physical, chemical, and spiritual standpoints (which I think is REALLY cool, by the way). Over time, Steven Universe’s focus goes from wacky adventures to exploring deeper themes, such as grief, toxic relationships, depression, and living up to other people's expectations. The show has been praised for its absolutely stunning animation, incredible songs, and the way they developed their characters. It also has a 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, if you care about that kinda thing. 

Now let me tell you, I absolutely LOVED this show as a kid! I watched every episode as it came out, I drew fanart (see the picture below… Also ignore how bad it is. I drew it when I was like 13, okay?), I made my own gem-inspired characters, and it really impacted my view on the world. A major part of the show is its message of treating others with kindness and acceptance, which I try to live by to this day. 

Now then, how did it revolutionize queer representation, do you ask? Well, a majority of the characters on this show are part of the LGBTQ community. Stevonnie is a nonbinary character, the first out of many to appear on the show. Pearl is in love (though it’s unrequited) with Rose Quartz, Steven’s late gem mother. Every gem character on the show, in fact, are feminine-presenting agender beings. And Garnet, the most important character for this section, is actually two characters: Ruby and Sapphire, who were so in love that they vowed to fuse together and live as one for eternity (super adorable by the way oh my goodness). All of these characters were probably my first time seeing prominent non-cishet characters on TV, and the same thing can be said for a lot of people around my age at the time. It wasn’t easy for the show to do this, however. The most explicitly queer characters, Ruby and Sapphire, had to be censored in many non-North-American countries, with kisses cut out and some languages using masculine pronouns to refer to the more butch of the two, Ruby.

Despite all this pushback, Rebecca Sugar (the creator of the show) and their crew worked hard to make sure their characters were allowed to be who they really were on-screen. All this came to a climax during the 2018 episode “Reunited”, where Ruby and Sapphire have an entire on-screen wedding ceremony to celebrate their love. This was a HUGE deal at the time, and even countries where equal marriage was banned HAD to air the episode, due to about a million other plot-essential things happening during the second half. I vividly remember staying up until midnight JUST to watch the episode as it was released online, as I was extremely invested in the pairing.

Being able to have a queer wedding episode was no easy feat, and the Steven Universe crew had to fight hard with the network executives for them to allow it, but in the end, it was all worth it. After SU was able to break boundaries for queer representation in cartoons, other shows came along and were able to have out and proud LGBT characters as well! Adventure Time, which Rebecca Sugar started working on before moving to their own show, featured a kiss between two of its lead female characters: Princess Bubblegum and Marceline. The Owl House had the Disney Channel’s first openly bisexual protagonist AND first nonbinary character, Viewers were able to see a beautiful relationship blossom between Luz Noceda (the main character) and Amity Blight, her girlfriend, and Raine Whispers, who uses they/them pronouns has to be one of my favourite characters in the entire series!

Though this representation doesn’t only mean a lot to the world of animated television, it also means a lot to ME. I’m nonbinary and queer, and my family isn’t the most accepting of people who share my identities, so it meant the world to little 13-year-old Mia, who was ashamed of who they were, being able to see characters who were just like them! Those characters, as unimportant as the casual viewer might find them to be, allowed me to see parts of myself represented for the very first time. People like me were able to exist and be themselves, unapologetically, and it inspired me to do the same, many years later.

Okay, I just realized how long this entry was, so I’m ending it here, but in my defence, I had a LOT to talk about! Thank you all for reading, and be sure to tell me what you thought in the comments section! Also, if you have any cartoon series you’d like to see me cover, I’d love to hear it (though I already have an extensive list LOL). See you all in the next blog entry!

[missing-sock-misto]

For the writing ask game:

12, 20, 35, 76

12. Do you ever have trouble focusing on writing? how do you get around that?

Oh my god, so many problems, I am very ADHD XD However: I’ve learned that non-linear writing works really well for me. I will jump around from scene to scene based on what interests me or what pops in my head. I like writing this way because:

It allows for me to get to the fun stuff first, which for my dopamine deficient brain, gives me energy to continue working on the story.

If I get writer’s block, I can skip ahead to a different scene, and let the other scene marinate for a few weeks. Often, while I’m working on OTHER scenes, I figure out something to continue the plot forward earlier on.

It forces me to think about the story in a deeper way, because I need to keep track of the plot and the plot elements way more. Which, WOULD be exhausting, but by giving them scenes names, and make those headers, it turns into a functional outline.

If later something doesn't work out and I have to cut it, at least I have the scene out of my head. I can always recycle it, and at least I'm not building on bad foundations.

It means I'm constantly having to reread and edit my stuff, as I'm trying to remind myself what happens, so my editing can happen gradually through out the process.

I also will often have multiple creative projects in different states; various art wips, writing wips, long projects, short projects, will-not-be-published- projects etc. So I work with my moods. If I feel like drawing for two weeks, I do that. And if I want to write for a week, I do that. But I work WITH my moods. It means I approach the hobby in a pretty healthy and sustainable manner, even if it means my output is not as fast. But no point being fast if I burn myself out!

20. what is your favorite trope to write?

Whump, hurt and comfort. :3

35. tell us about a character who’s very different than you who you love a whole lot

Demeter. I write her as very traditionally feminine; she’s kind, loving, emotionally intelligent, and a hopeless romantic. She wants to be a mom, and loves being one. As someone who ID’s as a girl (though, more by default than any connection to my gender) but has never had any interest in children, romance, and has zero patience or nurturing instincts etc, it’s a very interesting headspace to be in. But it’s also fun to explore her strengths and her courage. I love that in the musical, despite being TERRIFIED of Macavity, she jumps on him to warn the Tribe of the danger. It’s such an amazing moment for her, and I try to keep that courage she has in my writing. She will do the right thing and protect those she loves, even if she’s scared.

76. what is one essential thing to remember when writing a villain? 

In my opinion- how do they relate to and reflect your protagonists? I love writing Macavity, because he has such a personal relationship with so many characters, and he’s a foil to so many:

Misto- with the themes of magic, and by extension, power.

Tugger- I like making Mac a dark reflection of Tugger. They both are charming, charismatic, magnetic, passionate, clever, (hot), confident, and more that a bit self-centered. But Mac lacks the kindness, loyalty and love that Tugger has. They’re also both emotionally volatile, but how they manage their outbursts is very different. Tugger gets angry because he’s pissed, Mac will use his anger to intimidate and incite fear.

Munkustrap- Leadership and Love. I love exploring Munk and Mac's relationship with Demeter, and likewise Demeter’s relationship with them. How Mac uses Munk’s weaknesses against him when courting Demeter, but how Munk’s ‘weaknesses’ become strengths in the aftermath of Macavity- where before his caution, general amiability and kindness made him “boring”, after Mac, it was exactly what Demeter needed.

Plus, it’s fun giving a moral paragon like Munk so much conflict with his brother, who he SHOULD have loyalty, respect, and love for, but has been hurt so deeply by that it causes him turmoil.

Bombalurina- Mac is also a dark reflection of her, though in a different way to Tugger. It’s like, both Macavity and Bomba are foxes (?), but Mac chooses to get worse where Bomba chooses to get better. 

Old Deuteronomy- again, the leadership, the familiar ties, power, etc. 

He’s just a really fun character to write because I can basically make him a foil with every protagonist I’m interested in writing. I actually had a brief hyperfixation on a different fandom, but it didn't last cause I couldn't get a villain as fun as him!

Thank you for the ask!

[void-botanist]

Happy STS! Have you ever had to cut an interesting part of a character's backstory/lore because it didn't make sense with the overall story that you were trying to tell?

Happy STS future! This is such an interesting question because usually the lore got majorly changed whenever I moved settings - not necessarily to the point of being unrecognizable, but over the last couple of decades the setting shifts have been pretty wild, especially in what is now locality space. And with the setting shifts, the story also changed, so it all kind of worked in tandem. As I've gotten older I've thought more about themes and motifs and such and been interested in overall story goals rather than just playing dolls with all my little guys, but setting is still a big part of that. All that said, here's a few major lore changes:

In pretty much every version leading up to the current canon, almost everyone on Pajiir was white by default. Which meant that Dez was white by default and built by white people. He was essentially an uncanny valley synthetic white guy, except I mostly ignored the uncanny valley part. But as I started developing the current canon, I realized that even aside from questions of technology, Dez looking like A Human at all added a lot of layers I wasn't interested in exploring and didn't really make sense with how he related to his human builders (a big part of his character before was how he would just blend in with everyone else). So the circumstances of his build evolved with his design, and he kind of paved the way for building out the biotech in the setting. By the same token, Syndy's old version looked human in the same way that Ratchet from Robots looks human (like, more than Dez but still not Human TM) but with all of the lore about the Navaren monarchy's intentions for her, it made sense to make her look Human TM and also like the archetypal Attractive Navaren Woman.

In old versions of locality space there was a MAJOR thread of queerphobia that WAS actually baked into the lore and the way the story unfolded (mostly in terms of the now-crew of the Nicea). But especially as I figured out how queer I was, I realized that wasn't the story I wanted to tell, and that weird worldbuilding aside I was also treading into experiences that were very much not my own (e.g. Catholic queerphobia) that I didn't need to get at the heart of my story. But it did survive a couple big setting shifts, and extremely informed the shape of Isabel's backstory (it still does, just without the queer = inherently bad part) and how Declan was allowed or not allowed to grieve Cady.

On a funnier note, Christina has always been a powerful witch, but there was also a time in past canons where she was highly theatrical about all of her spells, which kinda seemed to be a function of her wanting to impress people and make friends despite having -1 charisma otherwise. But I found that her conflict with Althea inside the witch council was more interesting, and I dropped the theatrics in favor of her being more like an expert who has forgotten how to talk to non-experts. And also not being alone because of negative charisma but for other people's safety, which is so much more compelling.

Also original Sid was ?dead? and ?trapped? in the space-timestream? so he could go anywhere in the 15 dimensions and be at any time (I think) but had his own rules of engagement to not mess things up, which meant that at some point he stole Horatio from the past to act as a midwife for an endangered magical creature? and ran around delivering cryptic messages and one-liners to various characters who were being arrested for actions related to said magical creature? and was generally just incredible and great but also probably was the thing that made me realize that all the dimension and creature stuff was just plot fluff because I wasn't focusing on the character level of the story, even though that was obviously what I wanted to write. This did not cause me to actually write anything better for some time, because you really can't top an overly dramatic ghost man.

Nicea taglist: @kahvilahuhut @kk7-rbs @outpost51 @writernopal @athenswrites

[wellntruly]

M*A*S*H - Viewguide, S3

Are you interested in the long-running anti-war situation tragicomedy M*A*S*H (1972-1983), but there are simply so many asterisks and so many episodes?

Well I can’t help you with the asterisks, but nor can I help myself: I started watching all 11 seasons of M*A*S*H, and bringing back for you my viewing selections, chosen for The Qualities.

— — —

You should have seen me at Movie Madness pulling out the drawer for “TV: 1970s” and finding this complete stack of covers for all 11 seasons of M*A*S*H. Lost in the saaauuce.

But, amazing news: not only did I make the surprising discovery that what's on Hulu is clearly a restored and remastered version of the far crunchier material on the DVDs, but also that I DEEPLY prefer the original laugh track! It turns out, the laughter is the score. They’d cut to it like music. Without that melody it was built around everything felt so off, so eerily quiet.

Incidentally, over the recent holiday weekend I sang all of 1.75 non-chorus lines of ‘Suicide Is Painless’ in the kitchen and my dad just said, “MASH.” We then talked about all our faves while playing solitaire and drinking maple whiskey sours by the woodstove. Cannot believe I’m getting such a fond memory with my father from M*A*S*H but I’m not sure why, that seems right.

Here are my own suggested favorites from the third season, the last of an era!!! /weeping

M*A*S*H - Season 3 Recommended sequence

3x02 ‘Rainbow Bridge’ - It is amazing that the first episode of this season that aired was the first episode of this season that aired, as everything about the second episode, ‘Rainbow Bridge’, feels like the premiere of the third season of a service comedy (slowly turning dramedy). The 4077th get a message from the Chinese that they have nine wounded American GIs that need more medical help than they can offer, and give their coordinates 50 miles behind the line. “Could be a trap, Trap.” GREAT STUFF. And hey, Season 3? Someone’s upgraded the photography department! She’s moving, folks (the camera). They also keep cutting to Loudon Wainwright perched above the camp with his guitar singing some absurd song about Tokyo like every third scene transition. Why? Couldn’t tell ya. Except to repeat the first line.

3x03 ‘Officer of the Day’ - Henry’s away and Frank makes Hawkeye be Officer of the Day. I love that when he’s backed into a management position, Captain Pierce is actually rather good at it. Tired and clever and humane. It’s gonna sound odd, but he’s almost Lawful, just his code is nothing Army regulation, simply Do The Least Harm. He is a stickler on that. Also contains the best visual punchline I've seen yet. Simply burst out laughing.

3x04 'Iron Guts Kelly' - Margaret kills a general and is like, who would help me hide this body, and doesn’t even have to think about it. Cordially, [throwing a pillow in the face of me of the past] YOU DIDN’T KNOW WHAT YOU HAD, YOU DOSED UP LUNATIC.

3x05 ‘O.R.’ - Ha ha I COULD EAT MY OWN HAND.

100% in surgery, zero laugh track, which does forever prove The Power of Editing (!) as it runs so beautifully, no weird stilted silence like when you take it out later, and also I’m changed as a person. 10/10 I am gnawing.

3x06 'Springtime' - Update ‘Springtime’ an essential episode as writer & actor Mary Kay Place’s literal-literal self-insert M*A*S*H script in which she plays a hot nurse in glasses getting seduced by Radar O’Reilly. I am….obsessed with her. Also Klinger gets married!!!

3x08 ‘Life With Father’ - This one is ultimately a lil' silly sure, but I think I’m powerless to resist Radar, Father Mulcahy, and this young Korean mom moving Heaven & Earth to get a rabbi on the radio to walk them through performing a bris for her Jewish-Korean infant son. And that’s the A-plot, the B-plot is Hawkeye and Trapper are trying to complete a Hidden Picture to win a pony.

3x09 ‘Alcoholics Unanimous’ - I wasn’t going to include both alcoholism episodes, but this is such a good Margaret ep I couldn’t kick it out of bed. Loretta Swit is just so, so funny in this one. I was losing it. Even our impossible miscreants are like lol hang out with us! Favorite drunken scene yet, for sure for sure for sure for sure.

3x11 ‘Adam’s Rib’ - The fact that my dad spontaneously quoted a line from this episode to me, and not even one I would have thought particularly memorable, should alone earn it a spot on any recommendation list. But I too still find myself recalling multiple moments from this one. 'Adam's Rib'—it's gotta be on here!

3x13 ‘Mad Dogs and Servicemen’ - Oh you know I’m here for an episode where in the first minutes Trapper is going, “Frank, that’s straight out of World War I, no one thinks ‘shellshock’ anymore!” Tragically we don’t actually get to see psychiatrist Sidney Freedman, their one-time comedic antagonist turned professional pal and poker buddy (I love this...so much), but I did send a plot synopsis to my own pal Jen, doctor of psychology and practicing therapist, for the psych eval, and her full report is pending but the abstract indicates that hey, Sid’s c. 1950s therapy for their phantom paralysis case (currently probably called a conversion disorder) might be a plausible approach! Remains to be seen if it would be strictly necessary for Hawkeye to have to role-play as Betsy Tough Love to this kid and feel chewed up about it, but it does make for good TV.

3x15 'Bombed' - Everyone’s emotions are running VERY high in this episode, which just straight up opens with the camp being bombed all to hell. With ‘O.R.’ and ‘Aid Station’ as well this season, this fellow dramatic one ended up just missing the first edition of this list, but it’s important to be able to admit when you were wrong. Margaret & Trapper trapped in the supply shed…the bombs are not the only thing shaking me.

3x17 ‘The Consultant’ - This episode rules so, so hard. Love a sneaky cautionary taaaale! Definitely a far finer crafted story than ‘Alcoholics Anonymous’, but we’re including both for their various other appealing elements. Such as, here: a sublimely absurd interlude to a British camp where everyone is like “..Quite,” heavy bombardment, a scene with the trio in incredible swimming get-ups for the water tank pool Henry has made, tensely breathtaking surgery, and just a steady course of Alan Alda being rampantly bisexual in front of, across, and at one point directly to his own real life father. You love to can't believe you're seeing it.

3x18 ‘House Arrest’ - This one is sheer chaos and with an ending I don’t care for much, but the primary plot is Hawkeye & Trapper have possibly never been more dating. Really some peak absurd & precious ne'er-do-well pair behavior, and I just can’t keep this one from you, not here, not now..(!) I also quite like the bit with Radar & Klinger, and ultimately Hawkeye, having a moment of critical self-reflection on his own teasing. Damn Frank storyline, get out of here! Just give us more of the gang watching the new Gene Tierney picture.

3x19 ‘Aid Station’ - Literally cheered at the end of a Margaret monologue in this, a stand-out even before she and Hawkeye and Klinger are in the midst of actual hell together at the front, and work so hard & desperately and get so dear. Not to bandy about the term mutual respect, but Hawkeye bandies about the term mutual respect. Haha, [softly] help. Meanwhile, Trapper & Radar :’) & Henry :’) Second of two episodes this season, both of which I have very much included, where Colonel Blake has to make the decision to send some of his people to the front where they very much might die, and his heart just won’t rest until they’re back, which is always *primo.* Henryyy..!

This episode is M*A*S*H being funny and harrowing and sincere and really, really aware of humor as a way to try to shore against the loss of people you care about all in 25 minutes, which is why, in probably an even more dramatic move than any episode I’ve skipped yet: this is my Season 3 finale for you. This does goodbyes in wartime best this season, goofy, glorious, gutting, the whole cocktail. The ingredients are there in ‘Check-up’ and ‘Abyssinia, Henry’, but they haven’t been balanced in the shaker by as steady a hand as the ones that crafted ‘Aid Station’.

And you’ll learn what happened in the actual season finale at the beginning of Season 4, and as you should: just a few careful sentences with a pit beneath them, and in a moment when the loss has gotten even ❤️ worse.

Season 1 • Season 2 • Season 3 • To be continued

#M*A*S*H hours

[occultopossum]

Gonna be talking about the owl house spoilers below

biiiig long ramble

One yes I very much cried very much. Two I am so so so happy with the ending and how satisfying a lot of the epilogue felt with their narrative. While yes there were some b plots/loose ends I would of loved to see wrapped up, its not the *point*. The ending and show wrapped up the stories for the main characters so well. I am really hoping we do get some sort of Q&A for the stuff they couldn't fit in for time/pacing of the story

Like would of liked a little more closure for Caleb and his story, but I get why that wasn't included cause making it about Hunter. Caleb is dead and Hunter being his own person and not a remnant of him. So narratively it does make sense.

I looove love love that Odalia was handled the way she was. That there was no excuse, no tragedy, or way to try to make her redeemable. No 'i was like this because of x'. No her kids got to go *presumably* no contact. No hint of her being in their lives or trying to reconcile cause she's family. (and darius/alador dispelling that even more)

That alador is working on it and each of the blight kids have lil homages to him, and the touches on his belt with each of their symbols. Live for Eberwolf and Hunter getting to talk about wolfs fits so well,

How overwhelmingly queer the ending was with found family, and acceptance and just how many queer relationships and identities were shown unambiguously and how I know that would not even be something I couldn't of imagined seeing 10 years ago.

That so so many of the tropes that kinda sour an end were so nicely side stepped

not everyone deserving forgiveness

making it clear rebuilding took a lot of time

not having to choose between found family and birth family

while luz lost her powers she adapted and found alternatives

that Eda/Lilith were never 'cured' of the curses in the end, and stayed a part of them/living with it *same for eda's arm there wasn't a 'magic' fix'.

god that they didn't kill off collector for dramatic/sacrifice and acknowledge just a child and needs to learn/grow

no redeeming belos or giving him dignity/letting him turn into a martyr *and that epilogue touch of Lilith w/ the library showing they're reclaiming the history/narrative of the boiling isles

and no 'chosen one' luz earned it cause she chose it and worked for it not was destined

Lil touches I've would loved to see/or hoped get I get some answers on but get why it wasn't touched on in the ending (pacing and they weren't essential characters)

the coven heads palisman (saw raine had theirs)

would of loved to see how hooty and eda met or lil more hooty in the end since was there w/ the core group

would of just loved to see what happened to the rest of the coven heads, just cause I thought some of em were super neat (but thats my affinity to bg characters)

the hopes to aid the witches that were petrified (But def v non essential to the finale but shows hopefully w/ being able to remove the sigils) but obs the ending still showing lots of things changing and still healing even after 4 years

I feel like if things weren't cut so short would of gotten to see a lot more expansion on Raine, Collector, and Vee . Since the lil photos def feel like stuff they wanted to have more time for

(probs why some of their plot lines seemed a lil hastily in collector and raines)

Like I wish there would be more in that setting but kinda feels like thats a 0 chance with Dana leaving disney/how they treated the show. I wish creators had any way to keep their ips then it falling into a cooperate vault forever

like this just skims the feelings i have about it (titan luz was so good and the animation was amazing)

[chtozaepta]

I love your OCs with the horns and tails! And all of your non human OCs, if you want could you maybe say a bit about their characters and the world they live in? Only if you want to (also I'm obsessed with your art, you really are a pillar of shaperaverse fan community on Tumblr)

Oooooh this gonna be lömg!

First of all, thank you I’m glad you like them :> These are characters from an original comic I’m about to post (the first chapter is almost ready), but this race does not appear in the main plot for some time, so I can say a few things without spoiling anything. I know it’s not a very original design, I mean, duh, who doesn’t have horns and tails right 🌚 So anyway, these guys are called yáve, and they are like… feral elves in a way. They live in forests/tundras in big clans and build funky colorful térems, mostly out of wood bc permafrost.

They looove all things colorful and worship the spirits of nature. The huge pink moth/dragon/reindeer guy? That’s one of them.

His/her name is Menerik and he/she is essentially a god(ess) of Northern Lights, the Moon, madness and magic. He/she is very coherently genderfluid, the gender depending on the moon faze. During the full moon she is a female entity, and when it’s a crescent he is considered male. On the new moon it is forbidden to speak of him. Fun fact - this also is reflected in their language, based on Russian, where a word for “moon” is feminine, and “crescent” is masculine). Since Menerik is a he for the most time, that’s what I would usually call him.

Most yave are mortal, their lifespan being close to humans, but there are two ways for them to achieve a sort of immortality. First is joining the Circle of Memories, an order that keeps their knowledge, culture and traditions and become essentially immortal through a ritual, and another way is becoming a mage and learning the ways to prolong life through contact with spirits. Any yave who starts learning magic is introduced to the spirits on the thinner layer of reality and give up their birth name, color and gender. Their new name they choose themselves, their new color is given by the spirits, and from the moment they start learning magic they are all non-binary, body and soul. All this “immortality” tho is really just a longer life, because they can still be killed, fall sick or get cursed, so there is hardly anyone older than 200 years there. There are rumors about mages over a thousand years old, but that’s spoiler territory)

Some stuff here is *very loosely* based on siberian shaman practices, some names and words borrowed from siberian folklore.

Some of the yave characters I’ve drawn so far:

There’s Chanava, the purple witch with blue horns, around 20 years or so; they will probably appear in the comic. They are a mage, and also joined the Circle, but neither have given them immortality or enough power. Not that they are desperate, just very curious.

Aravellane, their uuum king? Tsar? Prince? Whatever. The one in the crown and a blue fur coal a few posts earlier. A mage, but prefers he/him; he has a blade that can make whatever cut without killing you. Some say, he cut his own heart out with it once to stop feeling sad feelz, and the heart ran away, because he treated it terribly. Since then, an endless winter covered his part of land, and if it weren’t for the mages and trade of diamonds they mine, they’d all be very much fucked.

Myándush, the head of the Circle of Memories. Öld, woise, mistürios, all that. Speaks in riddles. Has a beef with Aravelle, though why, no one can tell.

Ryt’kheo - dabbles in magic, but is not officially introduced to the spirits. Makes airboats, which is basically a boat with a magic sail that can get it into air. The sails he weaves from wool and puts in threads of Menerik’s mane. He is considered one of the coolest craftsmen among the yavi, and everyone wants a flying boat, so he is always very fucking tired and 100% done. Random fact - a “Ryt’kheo” is not a name, it really means “Unnamed”. It is used to address someone who has already given up their name but have not yet taken a new one.

Harrahaye - Ryt’kheo’s brother, not much to say about him except that he is a pain in the ass. I’m still fleshing out their characters, so there you go x)

There is another one, who is more or less complete, but they will appear in the comic and are quite important, so all the info will be there 😌✨

[ekebolou]

The Substack is Live

Heya friends

So the substack now has the first five chapters of Kostas (starting here), all of Academy Days: Arrival (starting here), and one bit of personal rambling! Which I'll also just post below the cut.

I've decided I'll go back to my roots and publish Kostas serially, but wanted to give you enough of something to go on, so first five chapters are up. Maybe I'll get tired of it (I love/hate routine!) and go on a spree eventually, because there's 46 chapters, but for now I thought it might be nice to have some dependable material to look forward to each week.

Publishing serial-fashion also provides me a basis for pushing myself to write something about process each week, which is honestly probably good for my health. I used to do it a lot more, but it's felt sort of extraneous lately, so it'll be nice to share thoughts again (I say, petrified of sharing thoughts). No promises on quality.

Anyway, this'll be on the substack too, under Assorted Ramblings, because I'm not exactly sure how on-theme I'll be. In true old-school internet goblin fashion, I've just typed it the fuck up in the editor, no drafts no gods no masters, so expect whatever that means for style and comprehension.

I'll get all the side stories up and some of the other material like Tenor Group on there probably starting next week (it's controlled compulsion, right? Gotta space it out or I'll end up down a burnt-out rabbit hole). I'm trying to keep as non-annoying as possible, which means I'm hopeful there will be enough interest that it will be shared word of mouth, and those interested are welcome to subscribe, but hopefully won't be bothered with a million emails or anything. I can't vouch for substack itself, but I'm going to try to keep it to notifications of posts and that's it. I don't even know what else you would want to know about it.

Check below the cut for the sort of sample dumbassery you can expect from the Assorted Ramblings, including a brief story about what happened when I had my first irl friend read the manuscript! (it wasn't great)

Hello and welcome, I suppose, though there is a welcome page somewhere. This is an inaugural post in what I hope will be series of posts about, generally speaking, my writing, world building, and other, loosely-associated things.

These are generally off the cuff. But, honestly, so is most of this stuff - that’s part of what makes it fun. Needless to say, I wouldn’t take any of this as advice, exemplar, or dictum. I just like this stuff and my liking of stuff can sometimes have the air of method but it’s really just loosey-goosey, this is what happened here, not a place of honor stuff.

And speaking of advice, exemplar, and dictums…

The original title of the original file of the original story-that-would-become Kostas is titled ‘never finish’ (dot odt, I think… I can’t recall but it may have gone back to my WordPerfect days). It more or less, quite seriously, ‘came to me in a dream’, which doesn’t make it more valid or good - my dreams can be vivid shit - but did make it compelling, as it was so complete. Not the plot (fuck me, it’s never the plot), but the concept. The concept is essentially a bundle of tropes, so that makes sense, but still: very vivid, very compelling. Very much not what I wanted to write or what I was writing at the time or what I imagined myself being comfortable with writing in the future. But too much to not write it down so I did and thought maybe it would exorcise itself from my skull.

It did not.

And there was an inherent challenge in it that I should have realized would be too provoking to ignore.

Anyway, many permutations of it and life later, I thought, yeah, fuck it, let’s try to actually publish it. You wrote it, it’s novel length (absurdly over that, actually), let’s do it.

There’s a lot of writing advice out there, and a lot of publishing advice, and they’re two different things. And the thing about publishing is that you’re asking the carnies for tips on how to win the carnival games (Nothing against carnival folk or publishing people, both are lovely). Obviously my advice and perspective there isn’t useful, but I did come around to the idea that it wasn’t doing anything to actually build my skills in the ways I wanted them built and the prize was actually quite shit (fun shit? possibly! fun games? sometimes! Worth it? YMMV). Lots of things are like that.

One of the first things I did was get a friend to read the manuscript. My first venture out of the safely anonymized and largely self-selecting audience the stories had online, and an incredible risk, in my eyes. One I knew I had to be ready to take, for sure, but nonetheless.

If not the first sentence, then somewhere in the first paragraph or so, I used a perfectly cromulent word. I don’t remember what it was - it’s fallen out of the text since then, but some real Victorian doozy of a descriptor. A real word, natch, but a humdinger of English vocabulary. The suggestion to remove that word - which I resisted, it was the right word, you see - was the only thing my friend had to say. After that, my friend redirected to watching a piece of media they particularly enjoyed and had wanted to show me, and the meeting ended (as did any interest in that piece of media, an unfortunate side effect of how underwhelmingly terrible this first venture had gone).

In terms of writing critiques for the ages, this doesn’t even chart, but it did solidify something for me in the sea of crap (it’s not all crap) advice for writers I was swimming in at the moment.

The readers are either on board, or they’re not, and the sooner you can let them figure that out, the better. That’s what a whole chunk of writing advice out there is trying to get you to do. All this stuff about ‘no prologues’ (I have a prologue), ‘start in the middle of excitement, action’, ‘draw the reader in’ etc etc, is not because the advice works somehow, but because it gets people to that ‘on board or not’ question faster, and for the most part, the aim of published writing is to get people on board.

And, look, there’s a lot of good reasons to do that, and it can absolutely be good, productive, non-cynical advice. But if they’re not on board, fuck ‘em (that is very much not what the writing advice is leading you to).

That is, I realized, that this was the story. That didn’t mean it was some of kind pure muse-puke being fed to me baby-bird-like, or unchangeable - after all, the ‘right’ word did eventually fall out, though I think I held onto it for a bit out of sheer stubbornness, and the first chapter of Kostas is, indeed, a fine distillation of dropping readers in the middle of the action - but, you’ll also notice, that almost nothing like that happens again until the climax of the story.

There is totally a mass-market publishable version of this story in there, a version that might’ve kept my friend’s attention for more than a millisecond, but that wasn’t what I had done or what I was interested in doing with it. You can win a game of horseshoes in your backyard and fuck up the ringtoss at the fair. I was interested in using Kostas to learn about writing and get better at it. It was, essentially, a challenge to myself (had been, from the get-go, to write in a genre I was neither comfortable with nor writing in at the time, but which I had this idea for). What the first chapter (or prologue, actually, because there’s a prologue, y’all) had to do was not get the readers on board, but let them figure out if they could withstand the story for the long haul. Because it’s not a military action story, it’s melodrama in uniform. That perfectly cromulent word was perfectly cromulent. It didn’t make it to the final drafts because it wasn’t elegant.

I wrote the prologue after, read a bunch of self-serious horseshittery about ‘any submission with a prologue I throw in the trash’ and did what I was going to do anyway (and probably ended up in the trash!)

And all of this is in reflection of finally re-reading this thing for the first time in a few years and going ‘oh holy fuck, did you overdo this?’ I mean, damn. “Regret was a luxury of peace, and Cole knew they warred still” - who talks like that? Holy shit. “He did not carry the burden of preferring humility” - well, actually, that’s a good bit of characterization. There is no ‘blessed are the humble’ here.

Actually, no, I did write it that way on purpose.

That opening image, of the bloody leaves - it’s exaggerration. We’re not talking shell warfare here. People aren’t getting annihilated by artillery. It’s psychological. It’s the peak of a peak of absorbing, personal, ever-present violence. It’s how it feels, and has felt for so long it’s like nature, and this arrogant creature is of it, and it’s all coming headlong to an end, and like a cat overshooting its bowl he’s about to faceplant into a wall.

The audience needs to get really hard into it at the highest pitch and feel it abruptly end. And if you can’t withstand “the mist rising” and “ponderous leaves” and “Cole knew they warred still” you’re not going to like the story. Because the major emotional moments hinge on high melodrama, and you’ve got to at least be into it a little. So while hopefully there’s some narrative variety (there’s got to be, the fucker in interminably long), the first chapter puts on display the key kinds of things the reader will need to put up with to get into it. And maybe they won’t, and it’ll be a classic wallbanger (though for the sake of your digital devices, I hope not), but don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Anyway, it’s also serial fiction - that’s why it’s so long - and not a novel, and maybe that’s what I’ll talk about next time, since I’ve opted to re-post it in that way to try to review the story’s best sides, so to speak. Or maybe I’ll just post a bunch of pictures of temperate broadleaf forest biomes and talk about trees. who knows.

[oursunkencity]

Connection at what cost?

Hi-Hello, and welcome back to Our Sunken City!

This week’s lecture was full of great and interesting surprises. For starting off with the good stuff: Steven Barnes~! He was a guest speaker and discussed his novel Lion’s Blood. If you haven’t read it, I highly advise you to pick up a copy as it was definitely one of those books that you don’t want to put down. Essentially, the reader is sent back to the late 17oo’s where there were two critical history events that occurred that caused the tables to turn and led to the enslavement of white people. He cuts the book into two parts so you can follow the perspectives of the enslaved people, and the enslaveholders. In the beginning, I was kind of thrown off when I read that the protagonist was white, I was like, wait a minute? Isn’t this supposed to be an Afrofuturism class? But by the second part I understood what was going on. It goes without saying that anyone would empathize with the enslaved people during the first half of the book. There the Irish people were, just living their lives to the fullest, with so much culture, history, aspirations, and goals. Then on comes these “Pig-face” men who shattered everything. It goes without saying that, regardless of the color of the skin of those people, the reader was going to empathize with them as they read about the horrible conditions they received every step of the way. 

It was inspiring to hear how much research and work Barnes accomplished before writing the book. It gave me a sense of appreciation for his commitment to making the novel authentic, factual,  and unique. For example, he learned about a couple of languages and cultures to reference in his novel. He also touched on the exchange of cultural technology through Europe and Asia as their lands were connected, and borrowing from other cultures was easy as one could walk through the lands. Traveling north to south has exposed individuals to different climates and various avenues taken for the domestication of animals and agriculture that I never considered. Those who shared information about their technology could evolve much faster than other cultures as they had access to different technological aids and knowledge.  This made me consider some similarities within certain cuisines, such as the Thai and Cambodian dishes and desserts that I enjoy so much. 

Speaking of evolution, this week we had an interesting, and yet concerning lecture about AI chatbots. While I was aware of the advancements in physical chatbots, I learned just how problematic chatbots can be when their sources of information are not taken seriously. As we watched the video of Bina48 speaking to the real Bina Aspen, I became increasingly disturbed as the conversation progressed. At one point, Bina48 is conflicted about who was the real Bina, and declares that she is real followed by “end of story.” This made me think of the premise and plot of the movie The Terminator, as I learned that Bina48 gathered her information from the internet. The robots ended up wanting to kill humans as they were a problematic species for the world’s health. Not only does Bina48 have access to misinformation, but she does not have the moral compass to cipher through and understand what’s accurate, right, and just. This makes me scared for the future of technology and AI, as we have already experienced some of the minor mistakes ChatGPT has made, such as making up information, or in one case agreeing that a person should commit suicide.

Additionally, AI-generated photos have raised issues of racism and prejudice, as researchers have found racial and gender biases in some of the images. When asked to generate photos of certain occupations such as firefighter and software  developer,  images of white males mostly came up. Moreover, photos of non-white females were often generated for occupations like housekeepers and flight attendants. Misinformation, racism, and prejudice are issues that humans deal with and haven’t completely figured out, and that essentially is the same with AI. I can see a whole host of problems that will ensue with the development of AI chatbots that I will continue to highlight relevant ill sentiments and views of people of colorI think the issues with AI, such as generating biased images of people of color and sexism, have sparked much-needed conversations about the underlying reasons, such as the lack of representation of other ethnicities and cultures in media. It is important to note that some developers believe that the more data available in the information pool will supposedly cancel out the biases, but recently studies have shown that is not the case. In American society, these biases are reinforced by the media as most companies rub off the dominant culture’s ideologies. To make any real meaningful change would require changing the perceptions and thoughts of the general public, which, quite frankly, seems unlikely with how things are going in the U.S. and the rest of the world.  

I don’t mean to end on a sad note, but hey, where is the lie?

[cressiprompts]

oh that's okay. hope you are doing well & not stressing yourself to finish your stories plls take care.

i would love to know the plot and scenes that you thought of🤗

Hello, sorry for taking a while!

so, because there are SPOILERS for the main story of You made flowers, I'm going to put the plot after the "read more:

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

What I had written:

The first signs of the illness took him by surprise. The heaviness on his chest suffocating on some days, on others being negligible. He had more important things to worry about, especially as no club doctor was able to find anything wrong with him, telling him the sensation might be psychological. 

Which only made Anto raise an eyebrow and be on his case about seeing someone, didn't matter if it was a psychiatrist, psychologist or therapist. He couldn't even blame her. The throwing up sickness he had was bad enough on its own, after all. The last thing he wanted was another non-explainable thing, especially if it messed up his breathing, something essential to him as an athlete.

Still, Lionel dragged his feet. Opening himself up to a stranger was almost inconceivable. It was hard enough talking to his friends and family! The idea of being vulnerable with someone he had no true assurances of, that he had no idea of their character or proof of their intentions beyond a flimsy oath that could be disregarded with few true consequences? It was the stuff of his nightmares.

In the end, he hadn't needed to go, the cough had manifested first, bowing down Lionel before dinner and scaring little Thiago. Antonella calmed the boy as Lionel recovered his breath after the sudden bout of illness. It was Thiago who first noticed the petals, the soft orange of their color contrasting with the dining table's wood, the toddler's little hands trying to catch them in his pudgy fingers, even as his mother drew him away. 

Both adults looked at the appearance of them uncomprehending. The only flowers on the table were on the centerpiece vase, and those were red roses that served as a decoration, so the petals were a mystery — one that would have to be solved much later, as Antonella was more worried about how Leo kept coughing and complaining about his breathing. She all but marched him to the doctor, but nothing was found through x-rays.

It wasn't until Leo coughed up a petal in his own hand that they associated one thing with the other, and they went back to see a specialist, to understand what was happening.

This si the first difference: Leo and Anto are doing this TOGETHER. they get the diagnosys together, and while they fight, it's less bitter, because Anto doesn't feel as if she was put aside, as if Leo doesn't trust her, even if it hurts that he doesn't love her anymore.

He does.

He does.

When she gets away for two weeks, to think better on what she's going to do, Leo gets sicker, and now he is throwing Red Rose petals too. Anto goes back, to help, and because she doesn't want to be irrevocably cut from Leo, even if he doesn't love her like she loves him.

Aaaand... yeah, The red rose petals are for Anto. When Leo's family discovers that, Matias makes a very inconvenient joke about how greedy his little brother is, what with loving to people and not wanting to give up on either.

Even after that discovery, Anto asks for more time, even if it's inside their house, because she has to think if she can deal with sharing Leo's atention and affection with someone.

Either way, she stills helps with trying to find who it is that Leo loves, because he is the father of her children, and she doesn't want him to die.

When they discover it's Cristiano, it's a bit like: "wait, what?" for teh entire family, and both of Leo's aprents are... disappointed, and very much against any contact between the two players.

The family fights pretty badly about what to do, until Leo says he doesn't want to try and force somethign with Cristiano. So instead they go back to the doctor and ask if there's any way to make this work.

Basically, Leo survives by having small doses of Cristiano's presence when they are not playing together — they have "surprise" meetings in high end restaurants, fashion events, parties and whatever places Leo's family can discover that Cristiano will be there. That's enough to tide him over, keeping him marginally healthy, and with less attacks. The amount of Classicos they play help too.

Anto decides to stay with Leo, even if she hates how he's destroying himself in longing, how stupid he is by thinking he will be less of a man by loving another man. Some of their fights are just about that.

They stay in this stalemate for years...

Until Cristiano says he will change teams and play in italy. They can't engineer "convenient" happenstance appearances in Italy, ways for Leo to meet him, be at the same place.

So they have to talk with Cristiano, and explain what''s been going on.

It takes a while for him and his entourage to believe Leo's story and condition (the Messi's end up giving the medical files they have).

So they settle appointments with time and date for them to meet, and it's the most awkward thing. For the first time, Leo's family realises they are asking this man, this person to have life and death power over their son, brother, husband.

Everyone suffers, and Cristiano's not really happy with the situation either, buyt he also doesn't want the other man to die.

All this while he's in a relationship with Georginna and waiting for the twins to be born. He's stressed and under enough pressure to make the move work for him, so Leo's problems don't help.

It makes things even harder when Georgina has a miscarriage and loses Alana, and the couple breaks up because while she still likes him, she can't deal with the twins while knowing her little baby girl is dead.

Cristiano is also suffering, but he has to pay attention to the twins, has to train, and is exhausted, he doesn't know many people yet on the club, and doesn't really trust anyone to take care of the twins. He's on a spiral, and Leo notices when he visits the next time.

He's a father too, and while he can't udnerstand that kind of loss, he asks if he can try and get trustworthy babysitters from the other Argentinians who live there or nearby. Cristiano agrees, more out of exhaustion than anything else.

Leo talks with Anto, and... she kind of takes over, declares a holiday, marches her husband back to Italy and goes herself with their children.

In two days, there's a reliable babysitter, Cristiano is stunned because Anto pretty much took over his house, Cristianinho and Thiago are getting along like a house on fire, and the ration of Argentinians to Portuguese is way too much in favor of the Americans.

Things between Cristiano and Leo get better from there, and Cristiano and Anto start talking too.

From the closeness of their children, things slowly start to fall in place. They start becoming friends, and that's somethign they intentionally let the news know (so Leo and his family can come over with less trouble).

And... that was all I had an idea for.

[parachutingkitten]

I think my main gripe with the side characters is that I don't really have strong opinions on any of them? It's not that I don't like them, it's that they're just fine for the most part. Can't remember most of their names. I think Mr. Frohicky is probably the main exception. He's a new character type and has enough personality that I do genuinely care if he's doing alright. The old show was a lot more hit or miss, but I at least have strong opinions on most of them. And maybe it's that lack of care that gets me thinking about the lore questions more. Additionally, I think the mini cliff hangers at the end of episodes kind of kill my interest in the intrigue. It seems like, especially in season 1, an episode would end on a big question mark, only to be answered the next episode fairly quickly, and it turns out the answer isn't all that dramatic, or they just drop it all together. It makes it less fun.

Anyway, I do agree with you that... I guess having your characters feel like people is good? I like a lot of the moments you list off here. I don't like either of our dragon mentors that much, but that stuff with wyldfyre and egalt was really well done. I like Kai and wyldfyre's relationship a bunch, I like Sora's season 2 story a lot, I like Cole's return, and I like Zane's talking to broom pixal. I think the main problem is that I just don't like the two main character arcs we've gotten so far. Sora's Season 1 stuff is boring, messy, cliched, and while it has a good message in the end, doesn't really make for a cohesive character in that season in my eyes. Lloyd's season two arc is a bit of a rehash, a REAL messy metaphor, repetitive, and also just a bunch of plot disguised as character development when you get down to it. They just take up so much time, and I don't know if it's just unfortunate that the two most prominent emotional beats are my least favorite, or that the fact that they have more time given to them just gives them more space to mess them up somehow.

I think it's fine if the merge isn't a big deal to our characters- it doesn't have to be I guess. But if you want to make that shift, you also have to get me as an audience member on that same page, so that I can ignore it. It's essentially the snap. It erased like half of all people in ninjago. And while they do put it out of the plot a bit, they don't do any active work to assure me that I shouldn't be worried about it. In some ways it makes sense. These characters have had (years?) to deal with the aftermath of the merge emotionally, but it is still a fresh concept to me, and I have not been allowed to do a lot of processing about these concepts through the story, you know?

Again, the ice emperor non-explanation isn't a perfect comparison, but I do think it loosely fits- and I think they have the same status of long standing question that forms the premise of the season. The reason I feel so betrayed by it isn't that there's this unexpected twist at the end that doesn't get explained well. It would almost be easier that way, because it would all be coming at you so fast. It's that the central question of that chapter set up at the beginning, "what happened to Zane?" Isn't given a satisfactory answer. "somehow zane is the ice emperor" doesn't cut it for the main hook of the season. Same thing with the merge. "what the heck happened with the merge?" was my hook into season one, and "it's somehow connected to source dragons" ain't gonna cut it for me. That being said, The ice emperor twist is objectively worse as it never got an answer, and I am certain they will eventually answer the merge question, but still.

I'd say your faith in the writers is warranted. I definitely want to give them the benefit of the doubt. Being the head of something is a whole other animal, and I want to give them a fair shot to tell a story their way. They have followed up on some loose threads, but none of those were really big questions, or big reveals. The riyu thread was at least set up as something that would happen on an extended timeline, and doesn't really require any development or investigation. The worm question is pretty easy to deduce once you know who the bad guys are, so it doesn't feel like an epic pay off as much as loose end that's tied up. Seeing Zeatrix is something I'm glad they paid off, but again, it also wasn't something the story pressed as needing to be resolved soon. It's not especially weird if our central characters aren't bothered by it. The merge actively affects everyone in story. It is weird that the ninja aren't looking into it more. Why give Cole a snarky little line about telling the story of his adventures later if that's not something your going to do the next time the plot has a breath?

It's true that the old show has a habit of ignoring important questions, and that is annoying. Mr. E in particular is a massive waste. But all these smaller questions are more just plot holes. Logistics questions. Not heavily foreshadowed mysteries to be solved. I mean, the opening question of "who's behind these robberies, and why are they happening?" for season 8 is answered in satisfying stages, and with a clear resolution. And trust me, having to watch a tannerfishies video about the latest tommy headcanon is the absolute worst way to learn about lore. Especially important lore. And I am glad that this show, as far as I can tell, has done none of that. That's awesome. In no way would finding out the reasons behind the merge be better on twitter, rather than waiting through, even 15 seasons of avoiding the question to get there. But... avoiding the question still sucks. Especially questions this big.

As far as tags, it's just stuff that's a bit off topic. A PS sort of area. You've already got the hang of it. Imperium is more developed as a location, and the original series certainly does feel a little more boxed up location wise. I do wish the world felt more fluid. I think the show would almost certainly be better if it did flesh out its locations a little more. Ninjago city benefits quite a bit from the amount of development its gotten over the years, and it shows. But when it comes down to it, seabound isn't really about merlopia. Again, for me it's all about those narrative promises. Seabound promised me that we'd get an answer about Nya's powers acting up, and an arc around her insecurities. We got that. Maybe if drs1 was set up as the hunger games-esque fighting an authoritarian government season, I'd appreciate it a lot more. But it was set up, if anything, as the exploring the merged realms season, so imperium just feels like a pit stop on the journey that's going on WAY too long. I'm all for subverting expectations on where your story is heading, but you've also got to do it... for a reason? What you give your audience has to be better than what you promised if you're going to swerve directions like that. And Dragons Rising just isn't good enough to justify those turns to me.

Okay, everyone get in the comments and let me know why you love dragons rising so that maybe I can reverse engineer why I don't-

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Fixing Chapter 2

AKA me wishing Leona was more of a competent and conniving bastard in his own chapter so I can actually simp for his big brain—

Okay. So I think most of us can agree that chapter 2 was rocky. At the very least, I feel as though it’s the most universally disliked chapter of what has been released of the main story thus far. There’s a lot of plot holes or just plain disappointment with Leona’s lack of active involvement in the story.

In this essay post, I’m going to propose some ways to fix common grievances people (including myself) have with chapter 2. By no means am I saying that these suggestions will fix all of the problems, or that my writing is necessarily better than what we got, it’s just me exploring the possibilities of what chapter 2 could have been.

***Chapter 2 spoilers! (… and some mild chapter 3 spoilers!)***

Please note that most of the major plot beats will be the same, and I’ll just point out places where there will be major deviations from the current chapter 2.

There will still be an upcoming Magift Tournament, and Savanaclaw + Leona are still planning on sabotaging Diasomnia. Crowley will still ask Yuu, Grim, and Adeuce to investigate strange occurrences that are harming players around NRC. They’ll still have Riddle and Cater help them investigate the culprit, and they’ll meet Jack along the way. Leona will still OB at the end, and we’ll still get Cheka’s cameo, all that good stuff.

With that out of the way, let’s begin:

To start, Ruggie won’t use his Unique Magic to get Grim to hand over the menchi katsu sandwich Leona wanted. This makes it WAY too obvious that he has a hand in the obvious scheme that the main characters will hear about later, especially since the game has Grim stop to comment “wow, my hand is moving on its own”. I realize that this is how Yuu and co. eventually put two and two together later when Jamil describes not being in control of his own body, but I think it can be scrapped for a better revelation later. And yeah, we EXPECT Savanaclaw to be the big bad since it’s chapter 2, but at least let there be a twist about what they’re planning instead of shoving it at our faces in the first part of the chapter.

Instead of Ruggie using his UM for getting his hands on the sandwich, he can swipe it with his bare hands when Grim isn’t paying attention. Grim and co. don’t even have to realize his sandwich is missing until later; we can just have Ruggie reluctantly sighing and “giving up” on the sandwich, only to cut away to a scene where he’s in the hallway and snickering about having pilfered the food. This way, we establish early on to the players that Ruggie has sticky fingers and isn’t above using underhanded tactics to get what he wants. This example of a diversion will also help in foreshadowing a sneaky plot twist involving Leona later.

Alright, so this is kind of a minor alteration but it will help build up for a strong ending, so stick with me here. When Ruggie delivers the sandwich to Leona in the original chapter 2, they talk a bit, and through their dialogue, we get to learn a little more about each of their backgrounds. This will stay in the revised chapter 2, but with slightly altered dialogue. In this new version, there will be text hinting at how Ruggie and Leona first met, and how Leona essentially gave him a second chance at life by pulling him out of the slums and educating him. It doesn’t have to be anything too long or complex, just an off-handed mention of their shared history.

Skipping some stuff, the only thing I have to note is that during the Dorm Leaders meeting, I wish Crowley would have better explained what that “Hall of Fame” jazz was all about… because as a non-sports fan, I didn’t understand the significance of that besides “oh, well I guess Crowley is indirectly saying Malleus is the best so he should get a special prize/be kept from playing and that pisses Leona off”.

When Crowley calls Yuu and co. to investigate the Magift players (like Trey) being injured, I want him to note that players from ALL dorms are being targeted. The fact that the story implies that Savanaclaw students are not being hurt (Jack tells Yuu and co. he knows he won’t be targeted, implying he already knew in advance his own dorm were the culprits and wouldn’t harm one of their own) makes it so blatantly clear where the culprit is from and I absolutely refuse to believe intelligent people like Riddle wouldn’t immediately pick up on such a sketchy detail.

Another thing to note here is that Crowley should mention that students from Diasomnia and Savanaclaw, have experienced FEWER injuries than other dorms, but that this situation is still a concern. The in-game explanation Crowley provides for this can be that these dorms have historically had more skilled Magift players, so they can react faster and protect themselves. However, for the perpetrators (aka Savanaclaw), it works to their advantage because it covers their tracks. All they’d be losing in the process is a small number of “weak link” casualties to achieve their goal. It fits in with the “survival of the fittest” mentality that Savanaclaw seems to believe in.

Now this is arguably the biggest change of all: when Yuu and co. start their investigation, not only do Cater and Riddle join them, but so does Leona. Why Leona? Well, he can tell them in the game that he’s pissed off about people messing with his pride/dorm (basically, he’s putting on the goody-goody act to come off as virtuous and well-meaning, like Scar did to Simba and Mufasa). There are even more reasons why this would help the plot/his presence: 1) Leona lacks screen time/interaction with the main cast in the original, 2) it’s to further throw off the scent if they start to suspect Savanaclaw, 3) he’s a smart kitty, surely he’d know that normal means can’t even touch Malleus (much less that dumb stampede idea from the original chapter) because nothing is stopping him from blinking away from danger, but most important of all… 4) (building off of point 3) Leona is going to incriminate Diasomnia as the culprits.

Now admittedly, this is where my ideas get a little vague because this “lemme rewrite chapter 2″ thing came from brief shower thoughts but essentially Leona’s plan all along was to pin the blame on Malleus’s squad and thereby disqualify them from playing (vaguely like how Scar tricked Simba into thinking he was responsible for his dad’s death). Not only would this be a stain on Diasomnia’s record, but they’d also be out of the picture, thus allowing Savanaclaw to shine. For Leona, it’s not just about the future of his students, but it’s also a matter of personal pride since he projects so strongly onto Malleus being that “perfect first prince” that Leona despises.

How Leona goes about doing this, I don’t have the exact details, but I imagine he’d orchestrate various Savanaclaw goons (including Ruggie) to assist him, maybe have them purposefully aggravate Diasomnia students (off screen) while Leona, Yuu, etc. are investigating so they can “catch Diasomnia in the act”.

Anyway, they investigate Pomefiore and the Tweels, then eventually come across Jack, whom Cater also suspects is going to be targeted by the culprit. For the most part, Jack is still stand-offish and abrasive, insisting that he doesn’t need the help or the protection of Yuu and co., but they notice a shift in his behavior when he’s addressing Leona. Like… Jack looks so inspired and pleased to be under him, and he can talk about how he’s looking forward to playing for Savanaclaw, etc.

We can still have a Rhythmic section here where Yuu and co. play Magift against Savanaclaw, except in this context, Leona and the rest of Savanaclaw are demonstrating how to play the sport since Yuu gets really curious after Jack speaks so highly of it. This also gives the player time to “bond” with Jack and get a better sense of how much he looks up to Leona vs how he coldly dealt with Yuu, Grim, and Adeuce. They can finish the game with Jack all excited and even hoping for Leona to praise him or high-five him or something, which Leona just… awkwardly accepts or straight up brushes off.

It’s late, so Cater suggests that everyone heads home for the day. We cut to Savanaclaw, where Leona and Ruggie are having a conversation about how their plan is unfolding (Ruggie is still using his Unique Magic to cause involuntary injuries). Leona’s frustrated that Crowley has not disqualified Diasomnia yet, because Crowley claims they don’t have “solid proof” (and is still favoring Diasomnia because Malleus is there), so Leona confides in Ruggie that the only option they have left now is to literally “take Malleus out” by force.

Jack happens to be eavesdropping because he was just so pumped up from playing that practice match earlier and wanted to thank his senpai for the experience. Imagine how heartbroken he’d be to learn that the person he looked up to all this time was tricking him. Jack would confront Leona and berate him for what he’s doing–but of course, Leona won’t listen and insists that he’s doing this for the sake of his students’ futures.

Before this scene ends, Leona will think about how Jack’s nagging reminds him of his brother, the same as the original chapter 2. He realizes that if Jack is as righteous as Farena, he will likely blab on him (even if it endangers the Savanaclaw students’ futures as professional athletes), so Leona panics rushes to come up with a different plan last minute to get rid of Malleus. Maybe he wouldn’t have rushed had Jack not confronted him, because all of Leona’s memories of his brother and all the inadequacies he feels come crashing down on him because of it. This time crunch/emotional turmoil would better explain the (still very stupid) stampede idea being so sloppy without totally eliminating it altogether.

The next day (when Yuu and co. go to talk to Scarabia), Leona doesn’t join them for the investigation because he’s busy negotiating with Azul to get everything planned and going off in time for the Magift tournament. Maybe we can even see (or have it implied again later) that Leona accidentally ended up bargaining with something really precious because he was desperate at his last shot to take Malleus out. This would feed his incentive to help us by destroying Azul’s contracts in chapter 3.

That’s when Jack disrupts the investigation to warn them that Leona is planning something and they need to go stop him. (Clarifying here that Jack isn’t doing this because he wants to be a good person, he’s doing this because he cannot abide by Leona’s methods, just like in the original chapter 2.)

Here, we have another big change: Yuu and co. don’t know Leona’s plan walking in. Their main concern is that there are already spectators in the stands, so they need to evacuate them all quickly to avoid them getting injured in case Leona does something very destructive. Let’s say that Cater uses Split Card here to have clones help guests evacuate. Riddle is assigned to guard Diasomnia (the “Malleus” being a Cater clone in disguise). Of course, Crowley has no idea what the heck is happening so he’s shouting over the mic and asking people to sit back down.

In the middle of this chaos, that’s when Leona enacts his big plan. Again, in this version, the stampede thing is very last minute (maybe he also bargained with Azul for some magic artifact that dullens Malleus’s power or something, to make it easier/more plausible that he’d be crushed to death and not be able to teleport to safety/heal his wounds afterwards). So imagine Leona springing this idea on Ruggie (since he needs Laugh with Me to enact it), who’s just shocked at the idea.

But of course, Ruggie can’t really speak up against his employer and benefactor, so he just nervously suggests changing the plan. Leona’s window of time to get the hit in on Malleus is quickly closing, so he becomes more frantic and demands that Ruggie obey him.

Ruggie will hesitate (eventually outright refusing to go along with Leona’s plan) because the situation has changed. It’s gotten too risky, and he does NOT want to be caught and risk being kicked out of school for a crummy and rushed plan. There could also be a point made here that Ruggie is concerned about Overblotting himself because controlling so many people at once would use a lot of magic, even with the potion Leona got from Azul. This refusal to help would explain why Leona goes after Ruggie later (in the original) and tries to poof him into sand using King’s Roar (when really his anger should have been directed at Jack for betraying the dorm).

So Leona loses his calm when Ruggie, his right man hyena, turns on him. He might get a little rough and shout, maybe projecting his own insecurities at Ruggie (“You don’t understand”, “You could never understand me”, “Why won’t you listen,” etc.).

I’m not entirely sure if I want to keep the actual stampede in, so I’ll leave it up to you. Maybe Leona’s violent outburst freaks the guests out and they stampede out on their own accord in a panic, maybe Cater and co. manage to get everyone out safely without a stampede breaking out. That part isn’t important. What is important is that Leona sees his chance to strike “Malleus” and goes for it, since Ruggie refuses to—only to realize that it’s a Cater clone.

In that moment of shock, Riddle leaps into action to try and collar him—but King’s Roar disrupts his attempt. Leona goes for Ruggie, slamming him with all of his anger and intending to literally vaporize him for meddling with his plans (blind rage can do that to someone, and in the context of this rewriting, it makes more sense that Leona is directing his rage at Ruggie). (Side note, I really like this from the original chapter so we’re keeping it: “It hurts, doesn’t it, Ruggie? I bet your mouth is so dry right now that you can’t even laugh.”)

Ruggie begs Leona to stop, to smile or laugh instead of hurting people, and Leona laughs alright but it sounds so hollow and forced. From here, events play out according to the original chapter; Jack distracts Leona with Unleashed Beast, which gives Riddle an opening to collar Leona. Then in comes Lilia to tell Leona that a collar suits him more than a crown, that if Leona can’t fix his rotten heart then he will never be king and that just… breaks him.

All his efforts, all his plotting, for nothing. He has failed—he’s a failure, just some destructive and self-serving, savage beast. Just like they all said he was. (The “all” here is referring to Leona’s people, not the NRC cast.) They were right all along. No matter how hard he tries, he will never be king. He will never be accepted, never be loved. (KEEP THIS IN MIND FOR POST-OB.)

DOOT DOOT OVERBLOT TIME LET’S GO (with Ruggie and Jack helping Yuu and co.)!!! Truthfully, I still think it’s kind of odd that Leona Overblotted so fast despite using his unique magic like… once??? But I’m going to be generous here and assume he was harboring so much hatred that it rapidly accelerated his blot. Alternatively, he was using his unique magic and Ruggie’s earlier to frame Diasomnia.

Another one of the big changes I want to make is how chapter 2 is resolved. Assume that the Magift tournament and Cheka’s cameo still happens as it did in the original, but the difference is the immediate aftermath of the Overblot battle. I have this really specific scene in mind that nicely ties together the little tidbits I’ve been sprinkling throughout my points up until now.

Picture this: Leona, in a pathetic heap on the ground following his defeat. Totally in shambles, tired, a mess. And most importantly, still very, VERY bitter. Not remorseful for his actions at all, still scorning himself and his powerlessness to change his own fate, his identity. Savanaclaw, Yuu, Adeuce, Grim, Riddle, Diasomnia… Heck, even Crowley They all approach him and ask if him okay, but all they get is Leona is scoffs at them, daring them to point and laugh at him. It’s nothing he isn’t already used to.

At this point, Ruggie can exchange a knowing look/hand gesture with some Savanaclaw kids and they’ll spring into action. (The thinking here is that Leona’s whole dorm still respects him as their leader. Why else would they follow along with his scheme in the first place? They’re hopeful for their own futures, yes, but it’s Leona who gave them that hope and a path to achieve what they want. In their eyes, he is someone worthy of admiration and he is still worthy of admiration, even if he can’t see that himself. They respect his cunning and willingness to get his hands dirty, stopping short only because they worry it will sully Leona’s own reputation (at least in this rewriting, they do)).

BUUUUT being NRC students, they have a lot of pride and won’t outright comfort Leona in the traditional sense. So instead you’ll get this roundabout scene:

Some mobs can pipe up and mention that since you need to fight a Dorm Leader and defeat him to secure the seat, and since Jack and Ruggie helped defeat OB Leona, that means those two are candidates as the new Dorm Leader. Jack, who isn’t fully assimilated to the group (as a freshman) is shocked that they’re suggesting something like that (but this genuine confusion ends up playing along with their intentions anyway).

Jack clears his throat and confesses that he doesn’t feel comfortable taking the position. He awkwardly reiterates to the group that he doesn’t feel ready for it, and, on top of that, he respects Leona too much to take the position from him. Leona looks at Jack in shock, and Jack can say something like “It was because I admired you so much that I was disappointed when you had strayed from the path.” This highlights and reminds Leona that there are people who are out there genuinely caring about him.

Ruggie interrupts and teasingly acts like he’s going to accept the Dorm Leader seat since Jack opted out (“Heee~ Being Dorm Leader’s not such a bad gig. I’ll get a big room all to myself and a bunch of guys to boss around, shishishi!”) The real purpose here is actually to just bait Leona to lash out, which ends up working—he’ll snap at Ruggie that he’d sooner die than let someone pry the Dorm Leader “crown” from him.

That’s when Ruggie breaks out into a smile. “That’s the Leona-san we know and love. Well… maybe not ‘love’ exactly, but you get the idea.” He can offer a hand to pull Leona up—just like how Leona extended a hand to him in the slums, just like the hand Jack offered to Leona after they played Magift together. It’s a symbol of connection, the connection and acknowledgement that Leona had always been missing in his childhood. AND IT ALL COMES FULL CIRCLE— THE CIRCLE OF LIFE

“… What are you doing, Ruggie? Are you seriously offering a hand to me? To some pathetic fool who almost killed you? To someone who will never have what it takes to become a king?” (Leona NEEDS to mention that he almost killed Ruggie; this was a point that got casually swept under the rug and then never mentioned again, but given the gravity of the situation it NEEDS to be said. Leona needs to demonstrate he was aware of his own actions and the potential consequences of them. If you want to get kind of dark, maybe Ruggie can casually mention almost DYING as a form of dark humor in future chapters. Point is, I don’t want this to be just... dropped like a forgotten french fry) (Another thing to note here, “king” is meant in a literal and metaphorical sense here. Leona is both referring to a position he can never have AND the respect and acknowledgement that comes with being a “king”.)

Mob students can pitch in here saying things like they won’t entirely forgive Leona for what he did, and that some of them are considering challenging him to claim his Dorm Leader seat. This is their own asshole-ish way of “encouraging” Leona to stay strong, because (like I said before), NRC students suck at swallowing their own pride and just comforting people normally.

“It’s not time to overthrow your rule just yet,” Ruggie can say. “I think Savanaclaw still wants you as its leader, Leona-san—if you’ll take Savanaclaw too.” (This forces Leona to be humbled. Here he is in a position where he is expected no mercy or sympathy, and he himself expects to be scorned and rejected for what he has done. But even so, it seems like his dorm is willing to forgive him.) Then insert that silly scene here where Ruggie makes Leona smile using Laugh with Me to lighten the mood—

I know it sounds like everything is nicely resolved because I’m writing in bullet points rather than a full fic, but the point of this is that the ending should feel like “a band-aid slapped over a gaping wound”. Sure, the Savanaclaw kids still acknowledge Leona, but Leona doesn’t grow as a character because of that, at least not right away. He won’t become more emotionally open or more caring. He will still be the arrogant and cunning asshole we’ve seen him being this entire chapter, because character development doesn’t happen overnight.

Leona might be thankful that he gets to keep his position and suffer relatively few consequences, but he still has to live with the fact that he almost killed Ruggie, and that he now has people who truly look to him for guidance. He has to deal with his sins and also work on actually being a competent leader to those that look up to him, all while wrestling with his still (very real) self esteem issues. His problems are not resolved just because you punched him a little, he still has a lot of psychological and emotional trauma to work through and that’s okay.

In summary, chapter 2 (rewritten) was not meant to “fix” Leona, it was meant to get him to realize that he has people around him that can support him as he slowly grows into a better person (further reinforced in a comedic scene with Cheka sitting on his stomach at the end). Chapter 2 is the impetus. Leona realizes he is wrong, but isn’t ready to come to terms with it or apologize for it yet. He’s still struggling to understand himself, and that’s for him to deal with outside of the main story. The end of chapter 2 is not the end of Leona’s character development, it’s only the beginning.

And that’s it. That’s how I’d fix chapter 2. Disney, Aniplex, and/or Yana please hire me as a writer ❤️

[whoree321]

the bad batch + what romance/rom com movies they watch with you

each of the bad batch x gn!reader

ok first and foremost i really truly believe to the pits of my soul that every single one of these fuckos loves romances and you cannot under any circumstances change my mind

ALSO it’s a gender neutral reader except kinda in echo’s theres like a very brief quote regarding breasts but like i still think even that is pretty gender neutral tbh

so anyway

Hunter: Pretty Woman

this is not the first time that i have publicly declared that i think hunter has a deep rooted connection to the movie pretty woman and it will not be the last

first of all this movie is incredibly soothing to hunters overwhelming savior complex

second of all hunter is literally richard gere (debonaire but emotionally distant gentleman that learns to love) and julia roberts (hooker with a heart of gold) at the same time

he was a little skeptical the first time you put it on but he instantly fell in love with it

the humor, the sensuality, the class divide, the glamour, the unconventional cinderella story of it all. it just really butters his bread

after the first time, when you suggest watching a movie and you pick this one he’ll act very aloof about it (“whatever you want cyar’ika, it doesn’t matter to me”) but secretly he’s really really happy bc it’s one of his favorites (you def know this and def pick it more often)

he absolutely hates the scene when stucky the lawyer hits vivian. like it doesn’t matter how many times he watches it he will fully turn his head away from the screen and say “I don’t like this part” and when it’s over he nuzzles a little closer into you and very tenderly kisses your forehead

he loves the soundtrack too. like he fully exposes how much he likes the movie when you catch him singing or humming “pretty woman” or “it must have been love” absently to himself (you kept it to yourself for a while but eventually you just had to tease him about it. he just smiled a little sheepishly and admitted he liked the songs before promptly changing the subject)

hunter also lowkey definitely wants to recreate the ending where richard gere shows up to her apartment in the white limo with you bc he thinks it’s such a sweet gesture and he wants to treat you like royalty

Crosshair: 10 Things I Hate About You

if there’s one thing about crosshair it’s that he’s a sucker for the enemies to lovers genre

maybe its just him projecting (spoiler alert it most certainly is) but he really enjoys watching the drama conflama of a miserable bastard be tricked into love

and really that’s the true essence of 10 Things I Hate About You

he will grumble and bitch and moan about not wanting to watch a ‘chick flick’ when you put it on, but 15 minutes in and he’s hooked

he has strong negative opinions on literally every single character except for kat and patrick

(crosshair really really wants to think he’s patrick but when it comes down to it he is katarina stratford in every single possible way)

he doesn’t say a word throughout the entire movie but you can tell when he’s annoyed at like bianca or cameron or joey bc he will openly scoff at them

will absolutely hum along in your ear during the “can’t take my eyes off you” scene and make out with you during the paintball scene

(seriously he wants to be patrick verona so bad)

when it’s over and you ask him what he thought he’ll roll his eyes and say “i guess it could have been worse” but his little smirk let’s you know he enjoyed it a lot more than he’s willing to admit

Tech: 50 Shades of Grey

ok hear me out on this one

tech is a huge movie talker. like subtitles are a non-negotiable if you wanna be able to take in any of the movies dialogue bc tech is most likely gonna make commentary over it the whole time

this makes him absolutely indescribably so much fun to watch bad/corny movies with

he will go off about EVERYTHING. the plot, the dialogue, the acting, the costuming, the music, the production quality. nothing and no one is safe. whether you just enjoy letting him talk at you or you join in on the roast, cheesy movies are a hoot between you two

and honey. 50 shades is one of THE cheesiest movies ever

you and tech will literally spend the entire duration of the movie tearing it to shreds

and the thing is tech is a very sarcastic, funny guy when he wants to be (and when it comes to you he definitely wants to be) so by the end of it he will have you in absolute stitches from laughing at the ridiculousness of both the movie and him

with any of the other batchers watching a movie like this either turns into a shy, slightly awkward experience (wrecker, echo) or an incorrigibly horny experience (crosshair, hunter)

but in this context tech literally has no shame or squeamishness about sexual things (why should he it’s a natural biological process?) so to yall the sex stuff is just another thing to roast

literally christian grey could be fully tying dakota johnson down and flogging her and tech will be like “in the last 3 minutes they have panned up to her nipples 4 times. this is criminally shoddy cinematography”

even tho he’s busy giving a detailed play by play critique, he never fails to keep some sort of physical contact with you (wrapping an arm around you and running his hand up and down your skin, playing with your fingers or your hair) so you know he’s enjoying spending this time with you despite his nasty words about the movie

also 1000% after you watch it tech will do extensive research on the ins and outs of bdsm and will have lots of hypotheses he wants to test out (as long as you’re willing and able ofc) ;)))

Wrecker: 13 Going On 30

of all the bad batch members, wrecker is the only one who unabashedly loves any movie that could be considered a chick flick

like he doesn’t even try to hide it or act like he’s too masculine for it. he loves romance and he’s proud of it

this man will have full marathons with you. rom coms, regular roms, tragic roms, hallmark roms, you name it and he’s game

his absolute favorite tho is 13 Going On 30

i feel like he has a huge soft spot for childhood best friends to lovers stories like he finds that type of lifelong partnership so endearing (and he loves to live vicariously through jenna since that type of romance was obviously never an option for him)

wrecker is also very childlike at heart and i think the idea of a 13 year old sweetheart trapped inside the body of a 30 year old cut throat magazine exec is so amusing to him (and maybe makes him feel just a little bit represented in the media)

he is definitely the type to completely engulf you in a cuddle for the entirety of the movie and he DEFINITELY cries into your shoulder at matty’s wedding when jenna is crying on the stoop with her dream house

he wants to try razzles so bad. like so bad. i think if he ever came across them somewhere he would barter at least one of his brothers for them

wrecker really just loves love and watching movies about it just reminds him of how lucky he is to have his own love story with you <3

Echo: The Princess Bride

i feel like it’s glaringly obvious why echo loves this movie

pirates. sword fighting. decades long revenge plots. the value of an honorable, loyal man. true love that never wavers even in the face of devastating tragedy and the darkest of hardships. clever but goofy humor.

echo considers this an action/adventure movie and NOT a romance movie (even tho it 100% totally is a romance movie) and requests to watch it very frequently

he can quote the whole thing. i’m seriously telling you echo loves the princess bride with his whole chest

even tho he refuses to admit it’s a love story above all else, he really does try to model himself in your relationship after wesley

like especially given what happened at the citadel and all the time you thought he was dead, the cinematic parellels are alive and present in y’alls relationship and he strives to be even half the man to you that wesley is to buttercup

literally in your day to day life he will sometimes respond to your requests with a smooth “as you wish ;)” (it doesn’t matter how many times he does it it still gives you butterflies)

when you watch the movie, he snuggles as close to you as possible and does his best to make youre comfy the whole time (he’s insecure about his prosthetics hurting you no matter how much you reassure him they don’t)

he just loves to be able to feel your heartbeat and your laugh when you giggle at the funny bits

every single time without fail at the part when buttercup is about to stab herself he leans down, ghosts his lips against the shell of your ear, and whispers the line in time with wesley: “there’s a shortage of perfect breasts in this world. it would be a pity to damage yours”

every single time without fail you wind up making out until he pulls away and tells you to watch the next part when wesley challenges humperdinck to a duel to the pain

echo just loves you to bits and wants you to know he’d endure a thousand fire swamps for you

Omega: Clueless

i have this really specific obsession with omega being a total girly girl and having very traditionally feminine interests as she keeps experiencing the universe and being exposed to a spectrum of gender expression beyond clone (masc and boring) and kaminoan (ugly)

so with that headcanon of her in mind, it’s vital to me that she sees clueless as soon as possible

clueless is an essential piece of media for a girl entering adolescence and i will die on this hill

it has literally everything you want and everything you need to develop into a well-rounded young woman

it’s so deliciously 90s and glamorama and valley girl humor and camp. its got meaningful female friendships and valuable life lessons and paul mf rudd

if there’s one thing you should encourage a burgeoning hetero teen girl to do, it’s to stick to dating guys like paul rudd in clueless. the earlier this message can be broadcast the better

the second you’re able to steal omega away from hunters watchful eyes (“hunter we’re just gonna watch finding nemo i swear!”) you show her this movie

at this point omega is not really a girly girl, but omega also has absolutely zero feminine influence in her life

the first time she sees clueless she is absolutely obsessed. like seriously she is so enamoured with the glitz and glam of cher horowitz

she asks you questions the entire time. she wants to know about EVERYTHING. the makeup, the clothes, the hair, the slang

(she definitely goes around saying stuff like “i’m totally bugging” for long enough afterwards that almost all of the boys have slipped up at least once with some ridiculous valley girl slang. you thought you were gonna die of laughter when you overheard tech say “as if!” to wrecker in the middle of an argument)

it just really introduces her to this whole world of femininity that she didn’t even know existed and she absolutely loves it

she makes you watch clueless with her seriously once a week at minimum. she begs you to style her hair like tai’s and you can’t help yourself when you happen to run across a little yellow plaid dress and buy it for her on sight

(hunter was gonna scold you for recklessly spending credits until he saw how omega almost cried from how happy she was for the gift)

honestly she enjoys the romance of it all and paul rudd is def her first celebrity crush but she enjoys more that you and her now have this special thing of hair and nails and pretty dresses

she loves how confident and beautiful and special you’re able to make her feel, and you love that you get to bring her that small sense of normalcy and happiness