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gb-patch · 3 years ago

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Ask Answers: July 10th

I really let asks get away from me lately. I was super focused on working on that Patreon Moment. With that done I can finally think about doing other things, so here’s a new collection of answers!

Thank you for sending in questions everyone ^^.

For the new Patreon moment, will you be able to reference it in step 4? Or just like a tiny nod to it if you pick certain choices?

There won’t be. I’m sorry if you were hoping for that! The Patreon moment is meant to be entirely optional, it’s not something that gets you extra content in the main game.

Is the new CG artist the main one now? :0 I’ve noticed theres been a difference in the art style recently. Is the old CG artist still going to make art for the game? :0

The original artist still makes CGs for the game sometimes, but he mainly focuses on character sprites.

Are you going to put the NSFW our life moment on a website other than patreon? I would love to get it but I can't use patreon atm.

I don’t know. I'm afraid we can't release the Patreon Moment on a normal game storefront because we can't mix 18+ content with our family friendly game. If there's some other place similar to Patreon where it's not the normal type of full-scale public content releases we'd consider using that, but I’m not sure if there is another site that’s better than Patreon in that regard. I'm sorry.

Out of curiosity, in all of your games so far, which characters in each were the most fun to write? They obviously don't have to be your favorite characters!

Buffalo Seer in AFA, really everyone in XOD/XOBD is pretty equally entertaining to write, The Guide in LoV, and Cove in OL!

idk if you accept "personal" questions, but is there anything you've been watching/ listening to lately

Mostly, I’ve been watching/listening to Authortube videos as of late! It’s people who talk generally about the process of how books become traditionally published and/or share their own experience as they attempt to be published. I don’t have an interest in writing normal text based books, but it’s really interesting to hear about that world. I’m listening to a video about royalties right now as I answer these asks.

Will one of the desserts we get to pick be fudge? That'd be such a cute reference!

Haha, yeah, it should. Unless I completely blank on it and forget when trying to include the various referential food options.

I don't know if this has been asked previously but what would be the approximate heights for the presets MC can choose from Step 2 ~ 4? Are there any measurement you had in mind? Sorry if I didn't make myself clear kk I've been struggling with my English lately 💀

I don’t know, ahah. I didn’t have any numbers in mind for that. So it’s whatever you imagine it is!

I noticed a bug with the Patreon moment when it comes to what your character wears. When Jamie and Cove are kissing while my character only had dresses selected, I had both the option to remove the dress or to remove the shirt... Picking one of the options to interact with Cove, after he removed his shirt, it had Jamie remove their shirt followed by ther pants despite only having dresses picked.

Thank you for reporting ^^

I keep refreshing steam to see when the new doc for xobd will be released. I noticed you haven't posted anything about it in quite some time. Would it be possible to ask about a timeline/potential date? (If it's even this year—) I know you and your team are probably working super hard, I'm just super curious! ~Thank you!~

There are more stories done, I just haven’t gotten around to publicly releasing them. Hopefully I will have a chance to spend the time on that sooner rather than later!

hello!! i’m not sure if it’s an update but i’ve just replayed our life and at the end i can’t propose to cove anymore? :(( i’ve actually tried playing twice but the options are not there anymore, did you guys remove the options? i’m sorry if you’ve answered this before!! thank you and have a good one :)

I’m afraid things haven’t been changed or removed, so I think you might’ve accidentally picked the wrong things somewhere along the way and locked yourself out of being able to propose by mistake. Sometimes you meant to say you want to get married but instead you mis-click and have it so the MC isn’t thinking about marriage or something. All I can suggest is starting from the beginning of Step 3 and making sure to follow the steps listed in the FAQ. I’m sorry for that.

Did yall remove some of the options for when youre making out with Cove in the charity moment? I could've sworn you could grab his bonkadonk and its not there anymore

This is the same situation as the above. We didn’t remove things and you’re not wrong that there are sometimes those options. But there are various choices you have to make to get those options and it sounds like you accidentally missed something. If your relationship isn’t long-term, you can’t do it for example.

HI IM SO EXCITED I CAN FINALLY GET THE STEP 3 DLC

Thank you for getting it!

Is Shiloh super totally straight bc I’m very gay and a huge Shiloh fan, would my man make an exception?😩

Sadly, he is one of our super straight characters. I’m sorry.

Hi, I have a very dumb question. In Step 2 does Cove not wanna share his drink with us at the mall (or rather why he stops drinking it) because it's an indirect kiss? Or is it like ...weird to him to share? Because if I remember right he eats off our spoon in the birthday scene right?

Yeah, he’s awkward about it because he likes the MC and it feels very personal to share a straw with his crush.

Hi! If you don't mind me asking, who is the artist for OL2? Their style is so pretty!

Thank you for saying so! This is her Twitter- https://twitter.com/redridingheart

Do Beginnings & Always and Now & Forever exist in the same universe?

Yep! XOXO Droplets also exists in the same universe. It’s one big GB Patch world, haha.

Do Pran's parents regret the way they raised him? Do they feel ashamed of it?

No. They’re the type of people best cut out because they’re not gonna change. Which is why Pran does go very limited contact when he’s an adult.

Hi! I just wrapped up my second playthrough of Our Life, and I absolutely adore it, but I had a question. I went to the gallery and found I was missing 2 CGS (specifically Step 1-3 and 2-3) and I had no clue where they would've shown up. Which moments are those found in?

You get it by telling Cove about his dad offering you money to be his friend in Step 1 and Step 2. You can’t get both in one playthrough, since you can only tell Cove the truth once. I’m really glad you liked it!

Hi hi! Please, how tall is Baxter and Derek? Love the game so much and I can't wait to see more!

I don’t know, aha. I think Baxter was around 5′10 and Derek was like 5′8/5′9, maybe. I really am not one who has specific heights for things in mind.

is adult cove a bottom, top, or switch?

A switch, though would choose the top if he had to pick.

I was wondering if there is a way to transfer save data? Even if through the game files. I wanted to be able to transfer my save data from my desktop over to my laptop so that I could continue playing right where I left off from but I'm not entirely sure how to go about that.

If you save the save folder/persistent data of the game from your desktop and put it into the game folder on your other device, that could work.

Hi! Is it possible for us to know the date when our life: now and forever comes out on steam? Sorry if you've mentioned it before but I haven't seen it and I'm looking foward to that happening and just wanted to know :)

It’s gonna be a long time, I’m afraid. There’s no estimate right now.

I started playing Our Life with my sister a while ago, and I think you guys should know that we discovered your secret. >:)

L from death note and Cove are clearly the same person, and this whole game is just an origin story!!

I’ve never seen that show so I’m sorry to say I don’t understand the connection/reference you’re trying to make. I’m pretty out of the loop when it comes to media. I don’t watch movies or TV.

Will OL2 have options for disabled MCs?

I understand if it's too complicated, just curious

Unfortunately, it’s not really something we have a plan for. We couldn’t finish the game if we tried to include every disability and have it be meaningful. It’d just be too much content to create. But if we decide to only include a few, how would we choose which disabilities get to be represented and which are left out? I don’t know. It’ll probably have to be something we don’t include as an option again, sadly. I’m sorry.

playing our life > anything else

Haha, I’m glad you’re enjoying it.

Honestly, I would like to thank Our Life for helping me come to terms with my sexuality. Before, I never would've actually thought that it was possible to like boys romantically and still be asexual. Almost all of the BL visual novels I've read had unskippable sexual content in them and it honestly just didn't click with what I feel. I'm glad I found Our Life. I love the game, the developers, and this fandom so much. Now, I can safely come out as homoromantic AND asexual (at least anonymously here anyway; my parents are still huge homophobes 😂).

Aw, it’s great to hear you felt comfortable being yourself in the game! That’s wonderful. I’m really sorry about your parents, though.

Will the demo for OL2 be on android? Really not sure if I could wait any longer than I have to aha

Yeah, it’ll be available for Android once we eventually release a demo!

Do all these reveals perhaps mean development is progressing ahead of schedule? Please let that be the case I'm already obsessed with Qiu

No, sorry, aha. Art comes along much faster than script/programming-work for us. It’s gonna be a long time before the game is a finished thing you can actually play. But at least we can look at the beautiful images.

Hey! First of all I wanna say I reallllllyyyyy loooovvveeee Our Life and XOXO Droplets! I have over 300 hours of playtime on Our Life… Anyways, I was just wondering, are the Derek and Baxter DLCs going to come out at the same time? If not, which one do you plan to release first? :3

They will come out separately and Derek will be first! Glad you like the game.

I keep replaying Our Life to get every possible iteration and I am loving it <3 I was wondering if Cove gets locked out of his confession because MC was talking to Lee, would it be possible to confess to him in step 4?

Yeah, you can avoid the confession in Step 3 and then get it in Step 4.

Hi, my Cove wears bracelets through step 2 and 3 but I still don't get an option to give him a bracelet? I didn't even know that was possible until I seen someone else ask about it lol

Hm, did you use the Cove creator? Maybe there’s a bug where using the creator to add bracelets doesn’t fulfill the requirement to give Cove a bracelet in Step 3.

Wait, I'm dense, when does Baxter appear in step 2? Is it from big park firework? I feel so bad since i really love Baxter and waiting to buy his dlc.

It’s in the Soiree Moment. You have to be just friends with Cove, indifferent, or crushing but not ask Cove to the dance at all. Then while there you can find someone new to dance with. But if you bring Cove to the dance while crushing, the MC won’t wanna dance with anyone else so you can’t get the scene.

In step 2 when we go to the soiree I made my mc go alone and baxter chooses the mc to dance, i'm curious, why did he pick the mc? sorry if this has been asked before!

Because the MC looked to be around his age, seemed to also be searching for a partner, and had nice legs. A perfect option for him.

I read some of the FAQs, and I saw that we could tell Baxter about the condo that he rented there was previously the mean old grandparents. how do we get the mc to tell him that?

It happens in the DLC Moment “Late Shift”. If you don’t have a job you instead get a longer scene with Baxter.

I don’t know if you’ve addressed this or not, but are you planning on paying voice actors for our life: now and forever?

Yeah, we pay our VAs in all our projects.

hey can i ask how you did the moments thing in ol? im trying to get into making visual novels and while im VERY sure its out of my comfort zone and all that atm i kinda wanna know just for the future, bc im p sure it would work well for something i wanna do :O but its also fine if you cant say for other reasons :>

I’m afraid I’m not sure what you mean. Are you asking how we programmed the screen or something script related? Adding Moments like that is pretty straightforward, though. You just have buttons that open to different labels and then the scripts are essentially individual short stories/vignettes. Good luck with your VN!

Since Autumn becomes gender fluid later in the game, will there be a character who remains as he/him to romance in game?

OL1 has the he/him LIs, OL2 is all about other genders.

I don't want to impose on your creative plans, but a parrot could possibly make a good pet in an OL-type game? They're pretty long-lived and likely to still be thriving by the end even if the MC got them back in step 1.

I do appreciate the suggestion, but I’m afraid it’s not likely going to happen. I understand there are technically some animals that could theoretically live long enough to last the whole game that or we could have the MC only get a pet after some years have already passed. But the many things that would have to be considered/accommodated for makes it just something we probably can’t manage adding. I’m sorry.

As time passes will we be able to see Qiu and Tamarack's other stage arts as well?

They are both so cute i can't wait to be friends with them!

Yeah, we’ll show content from other Steps in the future. It’ll be a little while from now, though.

Can you date Cove and still have your family comfort you in the car?

You can’t get Cove’s Step 3 confession scene if you have the family comfort you in the car. But that’s not the only way to date him. You can get together with him earlier in the game or later on in Step 4.

Is Mc always going to be the one walking down the aisle or could Cove do it? Also could you choose to have one of your moms walk you?

No. Cove wouldn’t want to walk down the aisle like that and the MC automatically respects that. And the MC also gets to have their preferences respected, so it’s up to you whether they want to do an aisle walk or not. You also can pick who, if anyone, walks with you.

Once step 4 is out, will you be able to go the whole game on crush/love without either of you confessing?

Yes, as long as you tell the game you don’t want to progress the relationship. Even in Step 4 it won’t force you to officially get together.

Howdy, so in Step 4, there will be any Romance with Derek that is not part of any dlc?

He’s only a friend unless you get his romance story.

Will the step 4 in OL2 be one big step or are you considering moments?

Step 4 is just an epilogue in both games.

hi kind of a weird question but!! we know tht cliff doesn't start dating again but. wht abt flings? like does he ever do 1 night stands or anything? thank u!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nope. Cliff has a very small interest in sex. If he’s not in a real relationship with a partner he’s crazy about it simply isn’t something he feels a need for, so one night stands wouldn’t even cross his mind.

sorry if you've already answered this, but i was wondering if there were plans for there to be bonus love interests in OL2 like how we have derek and baxter in OL1.

Maybe! There are side characters who could be given romance stories, but whether or not it will happen depends on funding and how long everything else takes to finish.

I don't know if i'm allowed to ask about ol2 here yet, if not u can ignore this or answer it later. My question is can you date one of them and be good friends with the other? I don't want to be strangers with the other bcs i love them both a lot :<

Yes you can!

what patreon level do i have to be to unlock the nsfw moment? im on the $5 one right now, will that give me access to the moment, or just access to the moment progress?

That’ll give you access! Tier 2 and anything higher allows the player to download it.

#our life #ask #gb patch #gb patch games #all projects #Our Life Beginnings & Always #Our Life: Now & Forever

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m-o-o-n-s-g-o-o-n-s · 3 years ago

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IT’S MUSIC TIME MY GOONIES PT. 3

FT. MY YOUTUBE PLAYLIST

hehe, so i have been wanting to do one of these again for a while now, so here we are! but instead, we’re doing my youtube playlist, which has all the slowed, sadder versions of songs that i like. yes, i like sad songs, oops :P. ballads have always been my jam, probably always will be so, here are some songs from my playlist! once again, putting the playlist on shuffle and just going with the flow besides the occasional skip lol :P

people i feel like would like to see this: @loth-wolffe @weirdcharacter @ladykatakuri @ahsokasleftbicep

———

happier by olivia rodrigo but it’s ten times sadder

by wisterxiaa

i love slowed versions of songs, that is like the way to my heart lol 😂 this is really nice, her voice sounds really cool slowed down like this. the electric guitar in like the middle sounds so cool omgg. is it sad? yeah, a little, but it’s really nice slowed down like this. most of the time, the titles say this in my playlist, but i just like the way it’s slowed lol 😂. the thumbnail is so pretty 9/10, love the purple and the monarch butterflies :) overall, recommend this song when your in the mood for some olivia rodrigo, but a tad bit sadder. AND THE OOH’S AT THE END HIT DIFFERENT OMGGGG AND SHE SOUNDS SO BROKEN AND SOFT AT THE END APOBIHJ[OADSIJB

everybody loves somebody - dean martin (slowed n reverb)

by starclouds

pretty sure i got this song from General Angsty (if i didn’t, apologizes), but this slowed down verison HITS THE SPOT. i love his voice in this slowed way, it is so interesting. also, it’s reverb? like? yes, please. the thumbnail is actually a GIF that is a fountain, it’s pretty cool, 7/10, also this makes me wanna sway with like Echo or something (actually now that i think of it, i’m pretty sure i got this from General Angsty’s dancing post with the boys, which made me so SoFt omg :)) overall, recommend listen to this when you wanna sway with your lover in like a dance club, but your nestled into their neck and your pulled so close and it’s warm in their embrace :) the instruments also are really nice in this verison.

Clair De Lune Ethereal Remix

by A.Krishna

IF ALL MUSIC SUDDENLY BECAME ETHEREAL ON YOUTUBE, I WOULD MOST LIKELY CRY. so i love ethereal remixes, there’s just something so… whimsical about ethereal remixes. this song is so pretty and beautiful on ethereal omgggGGGg. the thumbnail is beautiful 10000000/10. I just- this sounds like a song you would use as like a look back through your entire life, like every memory and moment just appearing as this song plays WOW. and when the piano climax’s in the midDLE OMGGGG it is INSANE, LIKE THE EMOTIONS THAT GO THROUGH MY BRAIN AOBIASDNB and then it gets super soft and quiet aaaahhhh CAN YOU TELL I LIKE ETHEREAL?? IDK IF YOU CAN 😂 anyways, overall recommend this song when your just watching the rain fall and reminiscing about good times in your life :)

heather - conan gray ( slowed + reverb)

by Vibey

okay definitely this song is sadder slowed, like THE FEELS OMGG but it’s amazing slowed, like the original is awesome, AND THEN THIS???!! so the thumbnail is a really pretty GIF of this VHS tape just playing, and it’s purple so 10/10. this definitely brings the raspy part of his voice, and i really like it (or that’s just the reverb lol 😂) only thing i do not like about this slowed version is it cuts off the end of the song at the end of the video, and I don’t know why, but it’s still really good, so i don’t mind too much :). it’s very pretty and sad all at the same time. overall, recommend listening to this song when your just chilling, staring up at the ceiling and your like “let’s be a puddle of sad for a sec”

Chiquitita(slowed+reverbed)💜

by Brown Aesthetic Syndrome

LIL’ SOKA, IT’S OUR SONG!! OUR SONG SLOWED AND REVERBED IS SO PRETTY, AND AWESOME!!! MKAY, SO THE THUMBNAIL IS COOL, 8/10, THE FLOWERS ARE PRETTY!! YES, I WILL BE SCREAMING ABOUT THIS SONG LOL 😂 THE PIANO SOUNDS SO PRETTY IN THIS, LIKE IT’S SO MUCH MORE BROUGHT OUT :))), AND THEIR VOICES SOUND SO PRETTY SLOWED!!! OH AND THE CHORUS ITS DIFFERENT OMGGGGG AOPBINAS[FDPOIBJOFIBOAFINBPOJ IT’S SO INSANE OMGGG AOIBAPDOFSKGN!! ANYWAYS RECOMMEND THIS SONG WHEN YOU ARE LIKE “I NEED ABBA VIBES, BUT SLOWED” ALBKNDSPFOBIN

billie eilish - my future - slowed dreamy reverb

by ayabe

so this song is incredible, like it slowed really hits different. billie’s voice has always been so interesting to me because sometimes she sings like very whisper like, and other times she is full on belting like going insane, and i really like that she uses her voice in multiple different ways during her songs. billie is the number one artist i go to when i really wanna be in the feels, and this verison of my future is so amazing. the beat is so interesting, and the thumbnail is really cool 9/10, also i don’t know what the language is nor, do i know what it says, so if you do, let me know lol 😂 but the picture is cool. this song is one i listen to all the time because it’s just- yes. overall recommend this song when your chilling in bed, just in the dark, with the window open on a summer night :)

friends on the other side - s l o w e d

by angelicsounds

THIS IS SO EPIC SLOWED OMGGGGG I CAN’T NOT EVEN EXPLAIN AOBPINADOPBNF I REALLY FEEL LIKE A SPOOKY DUDE WHO KNOWS HOW TO DO SOME SPOOKY STUFF OMGGG i love the original song, and i also really like the cover by annapantsu, definitely recommend her verison too! this has got to be the coolest disney villain song slowed down, hands down. the thumbnail is a GIF of this anime character’s eyes doing weird looking highlight stuff lol idk what to call it, 8/10. overall, recommend when you wanna listen to a song that makes you feel like the main villain in a story :) AND THE ENDING HITS DIFFERENT OMGGGGGGGG

le valse de l’amour - patrick doyle (slowed down)

by mari

okay, so we all know that I love Cinderella. and this song is so incredible, i can’t- okay, but just imagine… the bad batch, undercover at a senate ball, you, trying to make sure the senators are safe. the boys are in their separate locations, you know, watching, making sure everyone is good. some random dude from out of nowhere tries to make you dance with him. you are obviously like “um, what the heck, please no sir.” and suddenly…

“may i have this dance?”

it’s Hunter (or crosshair, but i’ve written a fic about Hunter dancing with the reader, so i feel like he would be a good dancer).

anyways, he whisks you away from random dude, and your like “Hunter there’s no music” because the orchestra just finished their previous song, and he’s like

“just wait.”

bam, this song comes on.

and suddenly, Hunter’s waltzing with you and you didn’t even know he could waltz. and it’s exactly like the scene from Cinderella 2015. So you two are doing your own thing in the middle of the ballroom, and everyone starts moving out of the way because woah these people are really good at dancing

and you are just shocked because HOW??

and he just leads you through the whole thing. he spins you around, and if your wearing a dress and it’s got some tulle on it, it swishes around when he spins you and oh my god the butterflies and smile he gets when you giggle because you love the way it swirls around you. and then people start backing up more, because at this rate, you guys are taking up the whole dance floor.

and you just keep going, and he starts pick you up and spinning you around when the harp comes on. and he grabs you by the waist and starts swinging you around just like Kit & Ella do in the movie. and then the end of the song comes, and he dips you, brings you back up, and that’s it.

and when it’s all said and done, you just look at him, and well, he obviously looks extremely handsome, his suit is all pressed, and his hair is done back in a bun, but he’s got a few wisps coming out from your whole little dancing experience, and all you can say is:

“I-”

“shhh, mesh’la. later. i’ll tell you later.”

anyways, thumbnail is a solid 11/10, and recommend if you wanna daydream about dancing at a senator ball with Hunter.

no i am not planning on writing a fic about this, what you you implying? okay, yes i am, i am. no shame 😂

sleeping beauty - once upon a dream (slowed + reverb)

by Paige Coddington

sleeping beauty is one of my favorite disney princesses besides rapunzel & cinderella, so i love this. The GIF is so pretty, 10/10. Aurora’s voice is pretty, and her vibrato is so much more prominent in this verison, and i am obsessed. this is so pretty, I- speechless, actually. and then philip comes in and it’s just ✨ also, i always like aurora in the pink dress when i was younger, but now i kind of like the blue dress more. they should have just given her a purple dress i guess lol 😂 overall, really pretty, recommend when you are in the mood for some more nostalgic disney vibes :)

D a n c i n g Q u e e n 女王

by v a p o r w a v e

okay so i originally found this on an edit of “the snap from avengers infinity war, but dancing queen” -

and when i tell you that the snap got even sadder, I-

anyways, i also really like vaporwave music, very interesting and very cool. i love the video because i’m pretty sure it’s the original music video, but it looks like your looking through a kaleidoscope, so 100000000/10. this song is so good vaporwave, like, just yes. like when i say this hits different, like for real, this hits different. ABBA is always good, but this by far has to be my favorite thing of ABBA music i have ever found. It’s like…

it’s just incredible.

like i said with the ethereal remix of clair de lune, this is like a song that you put on your life, and just look at all the memories and moments that have happened to you.

overall, recommend when you wanna just sit and think for awhile, or maybe make the snap from avengers infinity war sadder

———

and that’s it! i decided that i would just stick to 10, the other ones i have done are about 12, and i just thought it was a good number lol 😂 i hope you guys enjoy these as much as I do, and check out my pinned post to see them all linked on one post :)

lots of spells (& music listening),

moony

#music #music time my goonies #youtube #hope you enjoy ☺️#wolffe :)#general angsty ✨#lady kuri 😏#bicep ahsoka 😎🧡💙#you need a new nickname lil’soka #since i call you that now #lil’soka 💙🤍🧡🌼

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certifiedceraunophile · 4 years ago

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Hi! A fan of your writing here. I just love the way you write Caroline. An Avoidable Heart is my comfort fic and I am constantly in awe with the way you write and craft the dynamics in that story. Caroline's inner monologue is just priceless and God! I just love that intro scene where Caroline is walking into the Mikaelson compound with vampires and hybrids in the surrounding ready to pounce on her.

I would love to hear how you would have visualized Caroline crossing over into TO or not? Like in what season and why? How it would have likely gone?

Thank you!

First of all lovely anon gimme a moment to breathe, asdfghjkl why are people so lovely 😭😭🥺✨ It means sooo much to me that you’d take the time to jump into my inbox and send these kind words, like please I’m not worthyyyyy, But you make me smile and feel really freaking warm so *handcuffs your hand to mine* you aint leaving 💖✨💞🙃

But OK ALSO oh my god dude THAT CAROLINE WALTZS INTO THE COMPOUND AND TAKES ON A COUPLE HUNDRED VAMPIRES BY HERSELF SCENE???? Ughhhhh I’m sorry but I have SUCH a boner for Caroline in that, like my badass -I admit kinda op- QUEEN IS HERE and she’s fucking shit up, I’m sorry but I love that scene so much it’s so dear to me I was killing myself over how self-indulgent and grossly Over powered Caroline is but like idgaf man it’s such a hot scene and Caroline is practically invincible and we just love to see that, so seriously lovely anon, you telling me you LOVE that scene??? Puts the biggest smile on my face and reassures me a LOT bc I was whining and cribbing over how absolutely unbalanced that scene is to literally everyone BUT LIKE YOU JUMPING OUT OF NOWHERE and pointing that exact scene UGHH…...meant to fucking be the both of us 💖💞✨

And ALSO Caroline’s monologue is quite honestly the easiest inner monologue out of the three voices I wrote for that work, Klaus’s is the real pain in the ass tbvh like it is NOT easy writing pretentious besotted losers with a Kardashian complex especially when you need to make them sound cool when they’re the lamest OP dude bros to ever exist - and no I don’t hate Klaus although I seem to try my darndest to convince ppl I do- I just personally believe that a feral fucker like that with a thousand years of existence under his belt can grow a pair and graduate from his kindergarten level of emotional maturity to adult sometime soon, But then on the flipside he’s so grossly adorkably smitten and feral for Caroline plus hella horny for her all the time that its usually easy to write the trashed and devoted idiot he is into something pretentious and powerful and potent when relating to his unflappable arrogance and his narcissism, but sometimes I also need him to be *deep* and ffs profound for the sake of the plot and jfc my muse just wont work with me on that, she’s like I’m sorry I’m not about to bust my ass to make this mongrel intelligible like no sir all I wanna do is make him uncomfortably horny for Caroline and leave him like that.

So smh yeah the struggle is real….but lmao Caroline is just so precious and fiercely protective and just so achingly lonely in that story, so desperate for connection and trust and intimacy yet so guarded and impervious to everyone like it hurts me to write her like that but it really challenges me as an author to balance out her inherent light with the “void” I create in her and through her, so yeah it’s a very fulfilling task and I wouldnt change it one bit, and also I had to balance out her physical op-ness w half a millennium of the ugliest emotional trauma lol so I guess that figures, but the point being….once again I am overjoyed knowing that you liked a facet of the story that I tried so hard to make as authentically Caroline and achingly real and moving as I can and I cannot possibly feel more accomplished than rn for it so ty ty ty ty for reaching out to me and telling me *tackle hugs* It makes me GIDDY knowing that you enjoyed that particular part of the story like ugh stab me please you're too sweet.

And ok NOW, coming to The Originals part of the ask, (also please note that when I say TO headcanon; Hope does not exist, Hayley is a dead in a ditch and ofc Klaus will stop being that lil bitch they tried to pawn off as Klaus in TO)

HEADCANON 1

Honestly my biggest headcanon when it comes to TO crossovers somehow always include non-humanity!Caroline like it’s just so perfect to me?? The opportunity to make shit BLOW UP b/w them like imagine the DEBAUCHERY, the heat, the SEXUAL TENSION, the repression of one Klaus Mikaelson, the EXPLORATIONS, and omg the role reversal when Klaus has to be the voice of moral reason between them and not bc he believes Caroline would not be able to stand herself if she does something heinous and monstrous but bc he wants her to be completely and utterly herself, and yk *aware*, when she DECIMATES ppl to the ground and is in full-on predator mode, like he wants her monster to come out and play with him when no part of Caroline is locked away or suppressed, so obviously when she is w/o her humanity KLAUS exercises restraint on her behalf, like can you imagine that, Klaus restraining himself and being the vague, extremely broken and just largely inaccurate moral compass between the two of them for ALL the wrong reasons- and the entirety of NOLA just standing there watching him herd this baby vampire who seems to be intent on riling him up and angering him when all she is doing is giving him a massive hybrid hard on, like IMAGINE THE GOODNESS of non-humanity Caroline wrecking NOLA and Klaus letting her wreck it bc he is helpless in the face of Caroline Forbes and also bc he is quite honestly *enjoying* the debauchery himself so why put a damper on the festivities.

-I might wanna add that I favour this headcanon a lot bc I genuinely do not even remotely *like* the idea of NOLA as Klaus's chosen place to set his roots so like I would love Caroline going to NOLA and destroying everything there just bc I detest NOLA and the storyline behind it in TO. (yes is it petty? Obvi, but like I am a petty soul and I make no apologies ma’am)

HEADCANON 2

So yeah that’s my main TO headcanon, but my other one being, one I talk about very frequently, scream about in tag rants to an obsessive level, and like this is a cracky one but still very valid, where Caroline rolls up to NOLA humanity intact and all, finds Hayley preggo and is just laughing her fucking ass off bc anybody ANYBODY, with half a brain and a two minute convo w klaus would know how UTTERLY stupid the entire baby shit is especially when it’s with an immemorable one night stand, and Caroline’s just losing her shit about how like an entire city is obssessed w this baby and she just straight up tells Klaus he’d SUCK as a dad (which he really does tho like he was a shitty fucking dad canonically too) and Klaus is just like *sigh* girl tell me about it. I mean basically he’s finally relieved that someone is on his side about the whole baby thing and how he definitely does not want his entire millennium of life to finally sum up to this one squalling leaking stinky infant/unicorn Hayley is apparently baking in her oven, and I say this headcanon is cracky bc klaus would never have put up w this mess long enough for Caroline to come in and sort it out, there’s this preferred method of disposal of his called heart ripping that would've been employed quite early on and honestly saved us all a lot of brain cells and minused years of life, bc let’s be real any Klaus who’s NOT a lil snivelling bitch wearing a Klaus skinsuit would’ve yeeted the baby and the mama first chance he got, and that’s just how I see it.

Lmao I really hope I didnt scare you away w my *strong* opinions Ik they can be a bit much but I enjoy having them so theyre not going anywhere, anyways this ask answer got WAYYYY too long but I’m hoping I answered your question well with this or atleast left you slightly confused and bemused over my feral screaming....either ways I’m really really really happy to have got your ask and the chance to rant so much bs, Twas cathartic and honestly I had nothing to do today so I was more than happy to dish this baby out for you. Thank you so much sweet anon for putting a smile on my face today I am absolutely HONOURED by your words you’sa cutie 💖💞✨🗣🗣

#first of all #LONG POST #second #I did rant a LOTTTT more than what was prolly expected but lmao am I sorry?#no #anyway so those are my general drivel-tastic thoughts straight from glitter graveyard brain #hope you enjo navigating through so much bs anon #and I hope someone puts a smile on your face that's as large and bright as the one you've put on mine today #anon asks #ask certified ceraunophile #anti the orginals #tvd headcanons #tvd #klaroline #anon youre the sweetest #shakes hand cuffed hand #you stuck w me lovely #💞💞

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imagineofallkindsxxx · 4 years ago

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Eternal Flame- Kol Mikaelson 3/?

Chapter 1- You're the Hybrid?

Summary: Singing. Thats all what Alexandra Gilbert has cared about since she was young and all she would care about until she met him.

With Alexandra fighting vampires, werewolves an all between she may do a thing she vowed never to do, fall in love.

And to think it all started with a walk in the woods...

The room was pitch black I could barely see what's in front of me my fingers getting clipped and cut on the item in my hands. Finally, it was fixed but then the worst thing happened. The door opened.

The room was filled with light from the lights on the ceiling of the room and all of the hard work we created was useless now with all the neatly placed mouse traps springing open making me question the reason of everything. I looked up and saw an alarmed looking Matt Donovan making me feel even more depressed, wondering what I ever did to deserve this.

"Oh come on! Seriously?!? Do you know how long this took for us to set all this up?!?" Caroline yelled at the blonde footballer essentially expressing my thoughts out loud.

"Forgot about senior prank night?" Tyler Lockwood asked his best friend.

"Clearly." he replied seeming confused by the whole ordeal that has been tradition since well ever.

"How could you forget We've only been waiting for this since freshman year!" Caroline once again yelled and not gonna lie I agree with her until last year all of us had been dying for us to prank the teachers following the footsteps of those before us trying to outdo them.

"Yeah, Matt if I'm doing this, you're doing this" Elena chipped in

"Doing what? Having fun what a travesty" I sassed rolling my eyes at my sister "Lord give me strength." I whispered so no one but Caroline would hear me throwing me a glare where I just shrugged innocently. I mean it's not my fault that Elena became boring when dumb and dumber came along.

"I'm surprised any of you are doing this" Matt said, what are we supposed to do just stand around and worry about what might happen? Feel guilty about the deaths we've caused? If we do that, we'll miss college.

"Caroline's making us." Bonnie piped up

"Not making me. To be perfectly honest I'm enjoying myself" I shrug attempting to fix a mouse trap not making eye contact with anyone but still managing to make Caroline to smile at me.

"We're about to be seniors. These are memories that will stay with us forever, and if we don't..." she trailed off still trying to be positive compared to the rest of us.

"And if we don't create memories now, then what's the point of it all?" My sister finished for her best friend making Caroline deflate at the tone of her voice making me feel like snapping at her again but for sake of Caroline I decided to focus on her more than my annoyance or Elena.

"Go ahead make fun, I don't care" She replied, obviously lying to us, hurt how the majority of her friends are making fun of an idea to get all of our mind of the supernatural by doing normal things a teen would enjoy. I wasn't the only one seeing how upset Caroline was with her boyfriend saying.

"You're all lame. And I've got ten more classes to prank." I decided to pitch in after he announced his leave.

"Yeah, I'm meeting my boys in the chem lab, we're 'doing something awesome to Jones' according to Jamie anyway" a small smirk on my face "See you losers later" winking at Caroline.

When out of the class I headed along the hall to get to the class seeing Tyler giving some students instructions "Seems like Caroline's rubbing off on you Ty" a small smile on my face, instead of verbally responding he just rolled his eyes playfully continuing to give instructions.

I kept on wondering down the dark and quiet hallway feeling creeped out. All of a sudden I heard a slamming of a door making me feel more aware of my surroundings ready to run in case of any well unusual people out there

"Who's there?" I shouted out on instinct before realising what a stupid move that was. Well done Alex if they didn't know you were here they do now my subconscious reminded me, I slowly walked towards the noise until I heard from behind me.

"Boo!" I turned around and punched whoever it was on instinct "Fucking hell Andie!" the mysterious 'creature' yelled making me realise it was just Mark then hearing laughter behind him making me see he isn't alone but thing one and two were here as well.

"Jesus Andie remind me never to get in a fight with you" Sam managed out before James saying "Yeah next boxing match I'm putting my money on you"

I give them an unimpressed look "oh you mean all 10 cent you know seeing as though the last time you bet you lost 100 dollars" casting up how he bet on the Dolphins winning the super bowl losing 100 dollars in the process. "And you. carry on way you're acting and we'll be getting in a fight quite soon" I told James.

"Not a word." was all I said to Mark knowing a sarcastic comment was coming causing him roll his eyes. "Right gents what class are we supposed to be pranking?" before following a still grinning James to the chemistry lab belonging to Mr Jones' the hatred between him and Jamie running deep with the detentions and destruction in the past 3 years.

"Of course it would be Jones. Your obsession with each other is genuinely unhealthy." Sam remarked with an eye roll.

"Gotta agree with Sammy on that Jame" Mark seconded with me making a noise of agreement while looking through the bag he brought with him finding confetti, superglue, a large cut out of about 8 feet cut out of the periodic table and purple paint?

"Yeah well, I could say same for you and Kayleigh Jackson." referring to the rivalry between Kayleigh a kind blonde braniac who was on the cheer squad and honestly the only girl in this school I would trust with my life. Her and Sam had a rivalry which stemmed from how Kayleigh fought over a red crayon with him in kindergarten ever since they fight over the most stupid things, from what colour nitrogen mixed with sulphuric acid to whose cake was better in home economics, honestly, it's just became a way of life.

"Right before we start fighting about whose rivalry is worse let's get on with the prank?" I suggested with the back up from my blue-eyed best friend.

"So, you want to superglue the periodic table coloured in purple his least favourite colour" I started before Sam butted in

"How do you know his least favourite colour exactly?"

"I have my ways you have yours" Jesus this is hard work but I tried to continue "Then rig up this contraption when he opens his door tomorrow, he'll have confetti fallen on him?"

"and superglue" he added

I stared at him for a few seconds before saying "Sounds good. I'll get started on the confetti and super glue"

We all joked and tried our best to prank Mr Jones to the best of our ability and not just because of the hated between a certain drummer and the teacher himself. After we did that, we walked to the next class Mr Curtis our favourite music teacher but before we could begin, we were interrupted by Harry from my political studies class coming in and telling all of us

"Hate to break it guys but we've been busted, teacher saw us pranking the gym hall." he told us with a sympathetic smile. once he told us this, we all groaned and complained

"That's shit"

"You're joking!"

"No. That aint right."

"Jesus Christ. Why is god against me?"

"Don't shoot the messenger guys." Harry replied with his hand up in surrender walking out of the class.

Mark sighed "Well this is shit."

"I know fucking hate this" James agreed shaking his head. I swear I saw a tear in his brown eye.

"What can we do gents? We're caught. Just think of Mr Jones face tomorrow that's all you have to think about to get through the day" I told them trying to show them a silver lining to this horrible end of a great night.

"Yeah, doesn't make it any better." The drummer moaned "Do any of you need a ride?"

"Yeah, that'd be great"

"Yes, please my man" the two other males answered the brunette.

"Can't sorry boys, have to go home with my sister. Sorry" I declined

"Good luck, Alex" Mark said somewhat making it sound sarcastic making me throw a pencil at him as he raced out the classroom.

"See ya tomorrow my girl"

"Adios gorgeous" the other two more sensible- at that moment- boys said. I waved them good bye before we walked out of the class going in opposite directions with them heading out to the parking lot and me like an idiot going through all the school looking for my sister. Texting her asking where she was.

"She better not have left me" I muttered before opening the doors to enter the Gym hall.

"Alex! get out of here!" was all I heard looking up from my phone seeing an unusual scene in front of me to say the least. An empty hall with the exception of my sister, chad from Miss Golds class and Dana the girl who co-organised the whole prank night with Caroline and a man in his 20's? next to Elena seeming to be talking to her.

For once it looked like my sister had the right so I turned and bolted towards the doors only to be stopped by the same man that was conversing with the doppelganger.

""Now, now love. Who may you be?" He said in a nice posh British accent looking into my eyes therefore me being able to understand I'm being compelled.

"Someone on vervain." I snarked back "Try an eat me and it'll be like drinking acid, or so I've been told." I told him acting innocent at the old. he rolls his eyes as though expecting the sarcasm. Stefan must have told him everything about the entirety of the school.

This dick of a vampire gripped my am tightly and threw me onto the ground.

"Jesus be a bit gentler. Love." adding a bit more English mannerisms sarcastically where he just smirked back. Asshole.

"Alex! Are you okay?" My sister asks worried for my safety. I looked around my surroundings once more seeing Dana keeping her leg up wobbling every now and kind of like she's being controlled.

"Been better, been worse." I replied to my sister getting up "What's wrong with Dana and Chad?" I asked the brunette doppelganger; she opened her mouth but before she could reply the mysterious and freak of a vampire answered for her.

"Well love I compelled them. You seem to know what that means?" I glared at him thinking of any wooded objects that would kill the vampire in front of me there's a pencil you stole from Sam in your back pocket use that but before I could I heard my sister ask the vampire.

"Where's Stefan? What did you do to him?"

"Stefan's on a bit of a time out" What? Stefans with that psycho hybrid? Oh my days... before anything else was said I gave out a little laugh

"You're the hybrid? the scary murderous sociopath everyone is talking about? you look like an old man with dire need of a new war-" but before I could finish, he ran towards me pushing me against the back wall threatening to kill me in a chokehold.

"That may be so but I can break your neck with a single flick." he said with a murderous tone and eyes that look like he wanted to kill me but couldn't?

"Duly noted." I managed to get out before hearing him laugh in my face letting me go and fall to the floor with a crash.

"Now what is your name sweetheart?" but before I could reply Bonnie and Matt open the doors and enter the huge hall

"Bonnie, get out of here!" My sister yelled

"Go, Bon, Leave!" I shouted along with her well attempted to shout. But in a blink of an eye the hybrid was in front of the Bennett witch, now this is a fight I would like to see. On Bonnies side of course.

"Ah I was wondering when you'd show up. Now we can get started."

***********************************************************

A/N: thought I'd end it like that cause I want to do two chapters an episode maybe. Therfore warning to readers itll be a while until you meet Kol however there will be bits and pieces which relate to Kol but not going to say anything else.

Let me know what you think and if I can do anything to improve my future writing or this chapter.

Also Ashleigh is a REALLY good friend of hers, her best girl friend.

Thank you for reading lovelies xxx

#kol mikaelson imagine #kol mikaelson series #kol mikaelson x reader #kol mikaelson #the vampire diaries imagine #the original imagines #the vampire diaries #the originals

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originalcontent · 4 years ago

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Oooookay. Welcome back. Posting about pathologic part 4 I think? Part 4. We just reached Act 4 too, so everything’s going according to schedule. This gaming session had some ups and downs. Ups: That good good lore, and a lot of quality time spent with my good pals Daniil and Changeling and also Clara apparently, although she might not be my good pal after all, but w/e. Downs: FUuuuUUUUCKkkk we are so bad at video games, and also the kin folk have become A Lot, holy shit. Where to start.

Okay so this time the game wasn’t actually super stressful for me personally bc this time I kind of just handed off the controls to my sister every time shit got dangerous. She’s a lot better at video games than me. Shoutout @akpaley for keeping me from dying from stress in real life.

The drawback of this is that since she’s a lot better at video games she’s also a lot more willing to actually take risks rather than just running away from literally everything. Which I won’t deny, has gotten us a lot of much-needed money and resources but also.

WELCOME TO THE FUCKING DEATH SPIRAL PART OF THE GAME. I guess it had to happen eventually, right? Fuuuuuuuck us, do you have any fucking idea how much shit you have to redo when you’re randomly shanked by some dude every fifteen minutes? And they’re harder to fight every time we come back, apparently, and also our health is like permanently half gone? Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck why are there not more clocks.

Victor Kain, you were the one who made the clocks?? I could fucking kiss you. I owe you my life. Or like, six hundred of my lives. Hhh.

Okay, seriously though, the clock lore is actually kind of sick. Victor told us that they’re smaller versions of the cathedral, and we were like “!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THaT’S WHerE wE RESET THE GaME IN THe PROLOGUE!!!!!!! METAPHYSICS!!!!!!!!!” The Kains are so cool.

(Maria Kaina got infected tho. Sorry, you. :( Although technically that happens later.)

Um, we gave the rest of our shmowder to Khan. We’re out now. We’ve been looking for more but haven’t found anything.

Also we made a random potion, and the plague showed up and was like “fuck you,” and I was like “damn, calm the hell down, you’re the one fucking killing people.”

Met with the Saburovs more. They were like “we have another suspect!” and I was like “yeah they probably don’t but w/e” and my sister was like “they’re in an infected land and we should probably save their lives” and I was like “why do we care about helping the Saburovs again, literally all they do is accuse random people of killing my dad, the Kains are obviously the best family, we should just be throwing in with them” and she was like “that’s not all they do, they also run the guards, you know those guys who patrol plague districts?” and I was like “okay fuck you’re right let’s visit them” and it turns out that that there was actually some super cool lore pertaining to the town’s mistresses. Also, god if they don’t have some cool reflections. I love everything about this town’s history.

Afterwards we randomly decided to visit Yulia for literally no reason, and she was like “I’m glad you’re here, I have a lot of super heavy important shit to discuss with you about the Inquisition that will be here tomorrow, it sure is convenient that you’re in my neighborhood for some reason even though I live in an incredibly inconvenient location?” Also she knows something about the nature of Artemy, Daniil, and Clara-or maybe the Changeling but she called her Clara? Oh yeah, Daniil was there too for some reason. Poor guy, I don’t think he’s okay. He cried on my shoulder a lot, he was endearingly open and earnest and for once I felt bad about the dialogue options wherein Artemy throws shade.

And then Clara happened to be standing outside literally right then? I wonder if that was going to be a big quest location and we just happened to arrive right before the game told us to go there anyway. I think that’s it actually. We’re so good, damn. Clara keeps pulling shit and then immediately trying to reconcile and asking for help. I really like her, but we really shouldn’t be trusting her right?

Oh Murky was also there and she set up a meeting between us and her “friend” and that night we went and Clara and Changeling were both there and I’m so confused???? What is her deal? But!! Changeling facilitated a deal between me and the plague! And Murky is now off the hit list!!!!!!!!!! Does this mean she’ll live? Anyway the plague started talking to us, and our infection rose a bit in an unhealable way, and, dumbasses that we were, said “wow this is probably all just the natural consequence of the bargain we made. Guess there’s literally nothing we can do to address this.” (Spoiler: That is not the case, the cost of the pact was literally just that we became infected and would have to cure it with fire before it killed us. We figured that out eventually, I promise.)

Fast forward to the next day after we finish the day’s entire fucking plotline, when we have done literally nothing so our infection’s increased a shit ton and it starts actually killing us. And since we only have like half our potential health bar from getting killed so much, we literally can’t survive long enough to treat it. We run around trying to cure ourselves and die like ten more times before we finally accept that we just have to go back in time to before the infection was this bad, try to get cured immediately, and redo the whole day. There’s a whole fucking skeleton out by the theatre by now btw. Fucking death spirals. This play session took a long fucking time okay?

Alright, flash backward again. After talking with Changeling, we visit Stakh because after rescuing him twice in a row he promised we could talk. We go to his house and he’s sleeping, or maybe just pretending to sleep, but either way Artemy has the absolute sweetest little monologue, just talking to him, and so much has happened but I can tell there’s still a lot of tenderness there between them even if it’s buried deep, and it’s just such a soft scene against such a harsh story.

Guess who’s dead by morning.

The next day Aglaya showed up and was like “see me immediately,” so obviously we visit Capella and then town hall first off. Daniil’s there, he bitches to me about Aglaya for a bit. So cute, we really are friends. I promise to help him with corpse duty bc Capella wanted me to visit Grace anyway. We talk to the official people at the official desks, one is collecting babies, one is giving me some lunch money as a very good reward for being a very good little surgeon, and one is telling me that actually money is illegal now but here are some free coupons that actually are too cheap to buy anything with.

Aglaya is the woman from the prologue! Hhhh things are really building to a point, aren’t they. I wonder how Yulia knows her. But damn, the whole village was out there waiting to meet with her weren’t they.

I made a deal with the rat prophet to clear some space in the graveyard so Grace would be okay. Dunno what will come of that. I’ve been seeing him everywhere lately though.

I met with Oyun and gave him my dad’s house. I met with Aspity and was like “did you kill Stakh” and she gave me some vague shit, and in general I am very upset at the kinfolk right now but I tried to save them anyway. Went to the termitary and did the whole termitary thing. Wow that sure is a place, right? God, have I ever mentioned how much I love all the screaming soundtracks in this game.

Damn, Taya’s whole child queen vibe is unsettling.

The whole termitary is horrible, and what the kin folk have been put through is horrible, but their obsession with blood and strength legit terrifies me. I’ve spent all my time until now trying to convince everyone that they aren’t bad, and that they aren’t to blame for the disease, but now they want to kill? And they really really really want me to be a killer too. And the whole thing with Taya is creepy as fuck too, she’s just a kid. Anyway, we’re sending Vlad the older to them, I don’t know whether he or his son deserves to be torn apart more, but Changeling was really upset at the idea of Vlad the younger going there, so I guess we’re backing her. We run all around town making sure the right Olgimsky is going, and then we realize we actually have a few hours left so we take a hospital shift too! And then we die of disease like six times.

Okay, flash forward again, we’ve gone back, gotten some guy to molotov cocktail us, redone the entire termitary thing, saved the game on Vlad’s clock after sending him to his doom (sorry dude). That’s where we’re at currently.

(Only it’s not actually, we went back and spent like an hour going back and forth between the termitary and Oyun again trying to deal with their shit, and everyone was like “murder all dissenters :D” and I was like “what the fuck” and the day was almost over but then a dude stabbed us and we randomly died, and none of these places had clocks, so at that point we were basically like “yeah it’s after midnight, let’s just call it quits.”)

Anything else......oh, the warehouses are at risk again. Notkin and Sticky, what would I do if anything happened to them. I hope my medicines are good enough, I gave some to Bad Grief too but now all there really is to do is wait. :(

Oh, I once again have thoughts on how fucking theatrical is it that everything in the game is simultaneously literal and metaphorical, it’s gorgeous, and have I mentioned the costuming choices for the Orderlies and the Plague, hhhhhhhh, not to say anything nice about Mark fucking Immortell, but he knows what he’s doing with this thing. Listen if this post weren’t already way too long I would just gush about the theatrical elements again, but sadly it is too long.

Okay, that was our latest session! We’ll be back either very soon or in like three weeks.

#kj plays pathologic #pathologic #pathologc 2 #this got so fucking long holy shit #also: can anyone tell me how old clara/changeling is?#teenager? twenties?#i initially guessed the latter but i'm growing unsure #theorizing that if clara's a teenager she might be the eighth? bc i still have no clue who that is and clara doesn't appear on the character #screen #but if she's an adult then that wouldn't make any sense

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sunnykeysmash · 5 years ago

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The connection between Brian LeFevre, death and macdennis/sunny meta

In my time obsessing over sunny recently I ended up noticing interesting stuff that I’m gonna try to show here, that was greatly expanded in s14 and that I believe gives us great odds over whether dennis will be acknowledged as gay in s15 or not.

Thesis: There has been an ongoing dichotomy, or “choice”, for Dennis, between Brian/Death/Son/Mandy and Dennis/Life/Love/Mac. Additionally, there has been purposeful ambiguity between what is sunny meta and what is dennis meta in season 14, enough for me to consider them one and the same in most cases. Information which puts Big Mo under a completely new light.

Long analysis under the cut.

Basically, Brian has been symbolically linked to death, thanks to an extensive use of metaphors and parallels, because Brian represents the death of Dennis’ identity. Not a true physical death, but the death of Dennis as a person.

Starting from the very beginning, of course, Brian is a dead guy.

In Dennis’ Double Life, it’s established textually, metatextually and visually that Dennis has an actual mirroring double life (Mandy vs Mac, Brian vs Dennis) and is stuck between the two of them.

This is also thanks to the heavy callbacks to suburbs. Here’s an excerpt from a previous analysis of mine explaining it:

(read more here, seriously I recommend it)

During this episode Dennis’ actually eventually fakes Brian’s death to try to get out of trouble, which is the second clear link to death for the persona.

It doesn’t work.

Mandy: “You can open your eyes now, I know you're not dead.”

Which also works as the first acknowledgement of Dennis not really wanting what the Brian life entails, as it’s a character death as much as it is the death of Dennis’ true wishes. He is not dead, he is not Brian, who IS dead.

Then, as he holds his son, something changes inside him. Suddenly, he is a father. His emotional involvement in choosing between the two lives changes drastically with this.

Nevertheless at the end of the episode Dennis is once again presented with the clear choice, which from this point forward I will address as Son/Death vs Love/Life, he looks at the RPG looming in the background and decides to go, not before a long hesitation and stopping immediately when he thought he was being asked not to go, showing us where his heart lies.

This, him choosing to go away, is because at this point in time, Dennis is still not in the right headspace to accept the right path for him. As Chop will put it, he feels “lonely and needs to do something extreme to feel special”, most of all though he feels lost. The conflicts that started in Boggs and Suburbs still make him unsure, and the presence of his son makes him feel like he has to be better for him, despite himself.

As he goes away, Mac blows up Dennis’ Range Rover with the RPG, car which is later in New Wheels metaphorically linked to Dennis’ identity.

Basically, as Dennis chooses Brian’s life, his actual identity dies.

So during the first half of season 13, he is nobody. He is not Brian and he’s struggling to be Dennis. He’s trying to get back into his old identity, desperate for any semblance of control and to belong, so he ends up looking like a caricature of himself, or rather, precisely who the gang thinks he is and who they see him as, not who he truly is.

New Wheels perfectly shows Dennis desperate to belong when he finds a new group of people, he tries on a whole new and different identity, which isn’t entirely him, but that at least feels welcoming enough. But it’s also a showcase of what Dennis truly wanted, which is to be acknowledged and seen by the gang, but particularly by Mac, feel like he matters to them and to him.

I say Mac specifically because the framing during the beginning scene seems to be fixated on a behind-Mac perspective on Dennis, almost like the conversation were happening just between the two of them, like Dennis was talking to him specifically when he pleads for questions.

These are all different shots, not the same one.

By the end of the episode he finally becomes himself again. And that’s that for s13.

Another thing worth pointing out though is that Dennis apparently has not been kicked out from ND, he himself says “I may go back” in New Wheels, and although in context it sounds more like an empty threat, it’s not empty because he can’t go back, it’s empty because he doesn’t really want to, as can be guessed thanks to his tone. This is because it’s then reinforced at the end of Chop with these lines of dialogue:

Charlie: “I can't believe how quick you gave up Poppins' puppies, though, you know? You didn't even think about keeping 'em.” Mac: “Well, that's a lot of responsibility, Charlie, right? And plus, there's no doggy paternity test to actually prove that they were Poppins' puppies in the first place. But, hey, if Poppins wants to stop by and say, "What's up?" and, like, be a dad for while, he's gonna. Or he won't. Dennis: “Yeah, that's how I do. That's how I do.”

Because of this, it can and should also be argued that the choice I am explaining in this analysis is something that Dennis still has to make, because he is, as it stands, still stuck between the two lives, and he has to settle on one, so choose between them, in order for the struggle to end. During all of s14 he is stuck trying to figure out which of the two he should choose, which is also the cause of his growing frustration. Currently speaking, getting a little speculatory here, I think everything feels like death to him, which is why he is having such a hard time deciding. He obviously doesn’t know the outcome of either option, because he’s not the audience or RCG, which means either of them can potentially kill him, and they both feel like they might to him.

Now, in season 14 is where all of this (the dichotomy of Death/Son vs Life/Love) starts to really become prominent in metatext, and this happens as the episodes start to purposefully confuse meta about the show itself with meta about Dennis. Let’s go through it in order one episode at a time, as that’s easier for me to dissect.

First of all, the backwards message at the end of all season 14 episodes, which is this:

“They leave but they all come back”

Is already a clear example of what I’m talking about. Is it about the show because of the false ending of Big Mo which actually ends with the message that “they’ll never stop doing sunny”? Is it about Dennis coming back from North Dakota? Unclear, but that’s entirely on purpose.

Episode 1: The Gang Gets Romantic

Now, there isn’t any clear connection to the choice as far as I am aware, but it is a first approach to the themes of romantic love, death, sons, as a whole. In this episode, while Frank and Charlie are paired with a father and son, Mac and Dennis get paired with a couple mourning a son (Dennis Jr, the “son” in the metaphor, is dead, but more in general it’s pointing to them slowly healing from the Suburbs conflict in my opinion though).

As a bonus fact, Charlie+Frank have always been set up to mirror Mac+Dennis. It is explicitly said in the Mac and Dennis Break Up commentary, and it shows in a bunch of episodes such as Dines Out, Chokes, or hell that one time Frank got a Charlie mannequin. Anyway, word of god, they are parallels.

TGGR presents us with two plotlines that mirror each other while going in the exact opposite direction, and the mirror element is the “structure”. Charlie and Frank’s plotline follows the romcom tropes closely, its structure, and is thus rewarded with a positive ending. Mac and Dennis’ plotline struggles against them (since the tropes are applying to Mac+Dennis, not Dennis+Lisa and Mac+Greg), which is why their plotline resolves negatively.

At the same time, this episode can have a sunny meta interpretation.

In this perspective, the Mac+Dennis plotline is the option for RCG to end sunny and each do their own thing, while the Charlie+Frank plotline is the option to keep it going, and at the end they conclude with the C+F one, seeing as it’s the option to keep going, which is ultimately what RCG wants.

So when this dialogue happens:

Mac: “You think they're gonna give us a bad review?” Dennis: “Yeah.” Mac: “I guess we're not gonna get that romantic comedy ending after all.”

It is about RCG choosing not to end the show (supported later by Big Mo), as it would not provide anything positive.

Or this:

Dennis: “It just feels like a lot of effort, and it feels desperate, you know what I mean? Like, I never put this much work into banging some cute meat.”

It can be interpreted as the effort to win an Emmy, especially since the Mac+Dennis plotline is the tired one, the one that’s failing.

And then when Alexi and Nikki say they’ll be back “next year”, and Charlie yells back “I love you!”, it can be interpreted that metaphorically Alexi and Nikki are sunny. Which also creates another link between love and the show continuing, or “staying alive”.

Finally, all the talk about “structure” and “acts”, particularly the three act structure, is a writer’s process, which also serves as an additional link to the RCG meta interpretation.

Episode 2: Thunder Gun 4: Maximum Cool

This episode leans heavily in the dichotomy, through various pieces of dialogue.

Starting from this:

Girl: "So, this is the midpoint twist. Thundergun finding out he has a son." Frank: "He has a son?" Girl: "Yes." Frank: "But how is this the twist? I mean, because he's got a kid? I mean, he's probably got a thousand kids, all the raw-dog loads he drops."

Which also calls back to the episode prior, where Dee’s role is called “diversionary plot-twist at best”. Now, all these words, midpoint and diversionary, imply an endgoal that is also opposite of what the twist shows.

The twist, obviously, being that Dennis has a secret life with a girl and a son.

It continues:

Dennis: “We’re feeling a lot of outrage right now, you know, because we want something, and we know we deserve it, - but we’re not getting it. [...] I wanna cling to the way things were, but they’re done. […] Let’s run from this.”

Being now aware of the metatext from Big Mo, once again, is this about RCG not getting an Emmy, being discouraged and wanting to end the show because they’re feeling stuck? Or is it about Dennis running away to North Dakota after he realizes in DDL that things have changed permanently despite Mac’s attempt at keeping them the exact same (the apartment restoration)?

The ambiguity that connects Dennis meta with Sunny/RCG meta continues.

Finally:

Dennis “No-no, you guys don’t get it. It’s a cliffhanger. Yeah? It’s a cliffhanger. We’re gonna find out what happened to John in the next movie, Thunder Gun 5.”

Dennis himself going against what is metaphorically his choice in DDL.

Let’s actually look into that, into what happens to Thundergun.

He sacrifices himself for his son, and dies in the process. Said film is then leaked by the gang and the audience hates it, so the franchise decides to “go back to its roots”. Very clearly sunny meta, but it can absolutely also be seen as Dennis meta. Dennis hating his choice (his thunderson ending) and deciding to come back (go back to his roots).

Additionally, Dennis literally says “give me dong or give me death” at one point, which in the context of all of this feels rather significant, you know?

Episode 3: Dee Day

Surprisingly, and thankfully for me, not much that I can see.

There is this:

Dennis: “And who cares about her feelings anyway? Nobody, that’s who. What about my feelings? Now, that’s interesting, okay?”

Which implies something going on with Dennis’ feelings, and which will more substantially be addressed by Jumper when it’s implied that Dennis tries to completely disregard them when it comes to choices, but other than that, really not much else.

Episode 4: The Gang Chokes

Once again we see a Mac+Dennis and Charlie+Frank parallel conflict. Charlie and Frank resolve their own with words (that mirror Dines Out) while Mac and Dennis resolve theirs with actions, while also solving the much bigger conflicts started by Suburbs (again, check out the other analysis for more context on this) and DDL.

It should also be stressed that Chokes starts by saying:

Charlie: “Uh, guys, I'd like to raise a glass to Frank. Frank, another year has gone by since you came into my life.”

He’s making a toast, which implies that they are celebrating their anniversary, as they were in Dines Out, and so the parallel becomes not only implied in dialogue as I’m about to show, but direct. It is unclear whether this is also a monthly dinner for Mac and Dennis or not, as I don’t think it was ever specified one way or the other.

As for the parallel in dialogue.

In Dines Out:

Mac: “I didn't have your back before, but now I'm gonna be the wind beneath your wings.”

In Chokes:

Frank (to the Waiter): “Hey, you had my back. Now I'm gonna have yours.”

and

Charlie: “Look, Frank, I'm sorry, dude. I screwed up, man. I should've saved you, and I'll always save you from now on, I promise.” Frank: “Thanks, Charlie. I knew you had my back.”

With Brian representing a death for Dennis, it is implied that what Charlie and Frank are saying in words is supposed to be fully applicable for Mac and Dennis, as there is a parallel between Frank almost dying by choking and Dennis almost dying by going to ND.

Therefore, this is about Dennis going to North Dakota and how he wanted to be stopped, “saved” by Mac. This is Mac apologizing, Dennis accepting the apology, and them implicitly moving forward from this conflict in their relationship and for any similar ones in the future if they present themselves. Mac learning the tools to deal with it, “I’ll always save you from now on”.

Which in a way further solidifies that the option that isn’t Brian, Death, Son, Mandy is fully intended as Dennis, Life, Love, Mac. Mac plays a role in the second option, so when choosing life, love, etc, Mac will be involved. As he is the savior in the context.

Continuing on Chokes, the episode itself again focuses a lot on death, both real and perceived, and being saved. There are three main points for this.

First point: Frank’s death.

So, he almost dies and no one helps. Sound familiar? It’s what happened when Dennis went to ND. As a result of no one helping him, Frank lashes out and decides to move out and distance himself. It is then shown that Frank keeps missing Charlie and comparing the Waiter to him subconsciously. It is constantly shown that Frank rejects Charlie’s attempts at helping him despite actually needing him. Which is also what applies to Mac and Dennis, throughout the episode Dennis is shown needing Mac’s help and taking it while verbally refusing it.

Charlie proposes to chew Frank’s food, Frank refuses his help, Frank chokes, Charlie doesn’t help.

Mac constantly helps Dennis, Dennis starts to push him away, Dennis “dies” (chooses to move to ND), Mac doesn’t help.

The episode concludes with the acknowledgement that they should’ve helped, and with the offended part forgiving the other.

Second point: Dee’s death

She witnesses death and is subsequently enthralled by it, seeking thrill by living on the edge. We can draw a parallel to Dennis’ enjoyment in “living in another man’s skin”, you know, “getting off”. It’s how Dennis started the double life he then got lost inside after all, it gave him a thrill. Then, it happened to him exactly what ends up happening to Dee. She experiences real death, is scared shitless by it, and decides to never do it again, going as far as to say this:

Dee: “I saw the other side. I didn't like it. I hated it. It was just blackness. There's nothing there. It's just dark. That's it. Just lights out. I don't want to do that anymore. I don't want to live on the edge. I don't want to die.”

So once again the choice rests on LIFE, it is like this for Dee, as it is for Sunny, as it is for Dennis.

It’s also interesting to point out that Dee is rescued by a third party, after Mac is able to say “No”; as if symbolically that is what should’ve happened to save Dennis, back when he was about to go. A “no”, to stop him.

Third point: Dennis’ death

Dennis witnesses Frank dying and no one helping him and is immediately reminded of his own situation, which he then proceeds to discuss when at home, with Mac. Thanks to Dennis making this correlation we can once again assume that it is meant to be interpreted as a nod to the ND twist. Not only this but it then keeps linking Dennis to the concept of death and being saved.

This dialogue happens:

Mac: “I would've stepped in, but, of course, I was taking my cues from you.” Dennis: “Why?” Mac: “Well, you didn't tell me whether I should save him or not.” Dennis: “But why? I mean, why do I still have to tell you what to do? Why do I still have to order your dinners for you? And why is it up to me to decide whether or not you're going to save a man's life? You know what the problem is? I can't depend on you. I can't depend on anyone. You know, I mean, if that had been me choking tonight, no one would've saved me.” Mac: “No. I would've saved you, Dennis. I would have saved you. If you told me to.” Dennis: “Oh, Jesus Christ if I told you to?”

Dennis is clearly still upset about no one helping him when he needed it, which is, no one stopping him from making the worst decision of his life, a well established metaphorical death, and is projecting this frustration by applying it to Frank’s situation.

Later on, again:

Dennis: “Christ. I feel like I'm dying.” Mac: “Just let me help you, Dennis!”

Then:

Mac: “Look, all the gluten and the sugar and the dairy just wreaks havoc on his system, you know? And it makes him so weak. And then he's gonna depend on me to take care of him, to bring him back from the brink of death.”

Or “from making a wrong decision”.

Continuing:

Dee: “But if you want Dennis to really depend on you, you’re gonna have to save his life for real.”

And:

Dennis: “So you were still gonna rely on a decision that somebody else made, only, this time, you were potentially gonna kill a man?”

In which Dennis is once again, always without fail, the dying man, and Mac the person who saves him, or tries to. Dennis is very adamant in wanting Mac to choose for himself, which is surprising for a man so “obsessed with control”, and specifically it ticks him off that Mac’s decision was once again gonna provoke the death of a man because he couldn’t take action.

All this implied connection between Dennis, North Dakota and Death reinforces the Death/Brian aspect, while also reinforcing the Life/Mac one, as it is Mac that is supposed to save Dennis.

Episode 5: The Gang Texts

A shorter one, but here things get a little interesting, because the dichotomy is highlighted by one particular joke.

Mac: “Bathrooms at zoos are, like, big Grindr spots for closeted dads.”

Mac says this, then later on, in comes Dennis, a dad, and if it weren’t enough, it’s Mac himself who points to the situation once again by asking if it’s a “grindr thing”.

So going with this, his particular struggle (Death/Son vs Life/Love) is being highlighted with a very fitting choice of words, as he is a dad, and so... also closeted. Going with this. These are the words chosen to describe him in the joke, and it ends up being very telling overall.

Episode 6: The Janitor Always Mops Twice

Nothing, pretty much. lol

I’m gonna use this empty space to write that I just realized that Mac is even more linked to the theme of romantic love because he gifts the RPG specifically on Valentines Day.

Also, generally speaking, Dennis leaving would imply the death of the show, so that’s another way in which dennis meta and sunny meta are linked, because every time one is referenced, the other is automatically implied. The show cannot exist without Dennis in it, and Dennis cannot exist if the show ends. And if that’s not enough, in Big Mo they outright link the end of the show to actual death, in a lot of ways that I’m gonna look into in a bit, so once again, remember that.

Finally, Dennis is very adamant on Mac acting in s14 because if Mac were to do it, he would basically make the decision for Dennis, something that he used to do all the time, if you recall Mac and Dennis Break Up.

Episode 7: The Gang Solves Global Warming

The subject itself can be considered a slow death of sorts, so it feels especially significant that it’s Dennis the member of the gang who cares most about stopping it, despite not being able to because Mac doesn’t help him.

That’s not the only reason he fails at the end though.

He keeps trying to be rational and keep feelings out of it, to rationalize with the situation, which is what ultimately crushes him, as that’s impossible long term.

In this episode, he keeps getting mad at Mac for not taking action and instead trusting God’s will.

Frank: “Where is your God now?” Mac: “He will reveal himself at some point.” Dennis: “Well, is he gonna do it before all these people revolt and destroy the place?” Mac: “I don’t know. I don’t question God’s will. If he wants to destroy the Earth, that’s on him. - I support it!”

I think this is stretching it a bit, but this can also be read as Mac accepting Dennis’ decision to leave despite hating it. Dennis is also frequently presented as “God” so it would make some sense.

The crowd “not wanting to stop” and rioting can be read as sunny meta also, though that’s also kind of a stretch to me, I’m pointing it out.

In the end, the whole episode Dennis and Mac keep arguing about action vs inaction, with Dennis insisting that Mac should take action and being distressed when he doesn’t. They also keep arguing about rationality vs God, something that will come up again in Jumper, surprisingly.

Episode 8: Paddy's Has a Jumper

Now, starting from the very obvious, because that’s what’s easy to me, the jumper is called Bryan O’Brien, and if that doesn’t scream Brian=death, then boy I don’t know what does.

Not only that, but the episode spends a significant portion really stressing and beating you over the head with the fact that the jumper is paralleling Dennis.

Not only is Frank mistaken for the father, but Dennis’ dialogue as a whole really insists on this in multiple points. But again let’s go in order.

Discussing his motivations and intentions:

Mac: ”I mean, maybe God is testing us.” Dee: “He's not gonna do anything. This is a classic cry for help.”

Plus, this episode feels like a writers’ room. When they say stuff like:

Charlie: “It doesn't matter if he wants to or he doesn't want to. He's not gonna die falling from that height.” Dennis: “Whoa. Hard disagree, pal. You could absolutely die if you jump from that height.”

This to me sounds equally about RCG discussing the choice for themselves (implying they did at one point consider outright killing Dennis, or at least argued the theoreticals of it in the writers room, as in “would he actually even die with a decision like that?”) as it is the characters arguing the ND thing in the metaphorical sense, with Dennis insisting that a jump would be fatal while the gang thinks he’s completely fine. So, again, the jump represents him moving to North Dakota, as we’ll see.

Also, in general, the whole episode sounds like RCG arguing over whether they should pull the plug on their own show or not (”become a suicide bar”, because again, without Dennis there is no show, if he chooses death, so does the show), RCG themselves stuck in Dennis’ choice. In particular with the whole “Could he? Would he? (choose one or the other?) Should we?”.

But in addition to this, the algorithm, actually algorithms in general, are once again something that Dennis uses regularly to solve his own problems (D.E.N.N.I.S system, hello), which is his downfall.

Dennis: “Based on the analytical conclusions that we draw here, we're gonna be able to come up with a mathematically-accurate, non-emotional answer to all of our questions. Okay? We just need to think like a computer.”

Speaking of rationality vs feelings.

Mac: “Let's not bring science into it. Okay? I mean, this is life or death. This is God's territory. All right? I mean, there is no science.”

Now, this is very important because it allows me to talk about another thing. If it hadn’t been clear enough by now, this choice Dennis is presented with is also one between rationality and feelings.

Choosing to care for your son and move to ND, that is the rational choice, and rational is everything Dennis has always tried to be, especially in this episode and in Global Warming (which also mentions God a lot!).

But throughout s12-13-14, as I have highlighted in this post so far, we have seen where Dennis’ heart lies, his feelings.

It is funny to notice that both in Global Warming and in Jumper, Mac is the half who keeps arguing for the side of religion, of faith, of feelings, while Dennis keeps arguing for the side of rationality, of objectivity, always wanting to keep feelings completely out of the equation.

Dennis: “I think I have a way that we can solve this argument without human emotion mucking it all up.”

Then:

Charlie: “I think what we learned is that there's no way that the jumper's gonna die from this height. You know? So there's no reason for us to do anything about it.”

Once again the gang not recognizing the gravity of the situation and choosing inaction, to which Dennis seems unsure and wants to do more testing.

Ok so, here’s where things get interesting, the biggest parallel links between Dennis and Bryan are brought to light as they are looking through his social media.

“Yeah, it looks like he likes to travel. He was recently on a cruise.”

Referring to how Dennis actually liked being in another man’s skin in general, and he was recently away to do just that.

The Gang: “Okay, so it looks like he's got a lot to live for.” “He's eating food.” Dennis: “Or-or-or is he? Because is-is that just what he wants you to believe?”

Once again it’s Dennis counterarguing, specifically on the points that sound most like himself, though this irony is lost on him. This also once again sounds like RCG discussing Dennis as a character and how the choice would actually impact him and has impacted him.

Generally, speaking about Dennis, everyone thought he was gonna be fine because on the surface, his choice in the s12 finale sounds like a pretty sweet deal, and exactly what Dennis has supposedly wanted ever since The Gang Misses The Boat, though even that episode itself proves that it simply isn’t what is right for him.

“He's hardly a child, but he's still hanging on to his youth. That suggests to me that maybe he's got some daddy issues. Abandonment, abuse.”

All things that perfectly apply to Dennis and that give us interesting insight on him.

“But recently the girlfriend, she's disappeared from his pictures, which tells me that, uh, she probably broke up with him, you know, because of all his father issues, and 'cause he's an alcoholic, and because of the copious requests for butt-eating, which, she was thinking was more of a one-time thing, and he was thinking, this is a thing now, like, from now on.”

Disregarding Dennis’ surprisingly canonical love for getting his butt ate, lol (despite how that could count as more indication of where his true feelings lie, knowing RCG and what their writing intentions might be), he brings out alcoholism out of seemingly nowhere, another thing that again confirms the link between Dennis and the jumper, Bryan.

Dennis: “Basically, what we've concluded is that it would actually be good for the bar if this guy jumps and dies. So the answer to the question of "should we get involved?" is actually yes. [...] You see, we've already established that this guy wants to die and that it would actually benefit our bar if he dies. Now, of course, from an emotional standpoint, we feel as though we should get involved, we feel as though we should save this guy, but the algorithm is actually telling us that that does not benefit anybody.”

This feels to me like Dennis realizing mid discussion that he should pick rationality aka Death, for the greater good, but being emotionally incapable of actually making that choice because of his feelings, and so implicitly pleading the gang to help him do it, to get involved and push him.

It also sounds like RCG coming to the conclusion that the algorithm, aka the show’s FORMULA, is telling them that Dennis ending up in the bad option of said choice is what would normally happen in a show like sunny, although they themselves don’t really want to go through with it.

Charlie: “Can I say something, though? I think this is for the best. You know what I mean? Like, we were going down a road I was not totally comfortable with.” Dee: “You guys want to go back to watching our show?” Charlie: “Let's get back to our show.”

So, a couple of things here. The jumper does not jump, he chooses life, which implies the same fate for Dennis. Coincidentally, pay attention to how the gang calls it “our” show, not like, “that” show, because this is, at the same time, RCG being glad of the decision to not end the show and kill Dennis off.

But here’s where things get real FUN, because the Melon is also used as a metaphor for sunny. Generally speaking, smashing it would’ve been ending it, it’s not a coincidence that the melon represents the jumper, they’re all one and the same.

Cricket: “Guys, why the hell are you wasting a perfectly good casaba melon?”

Why end a show that is doing perfectly fine?

Frank: “Where's my melon? Where's my casaba?” Dennis: “It's right here, man. Why do you care so much about this thing? What is the deal?” Frank: “It's where I stash my Maui Kush.” Charlie: “You hide your weed in a casaba melon?” Frank: “Yeah. In case the cops ransack the place, you got to find a good, unsuspecting spot to stash your drugs.” Mac: “Pot's pretty much legal now. You don't really have to stash it anywhere.” Charlie: “I don't think you have to hide it, man.” Frank: “When did that happen?”

Ok so, this might be the most speculative point I’m going to bring up, but I will anyway, because it’s my post and I do what I want. I think they’re talking about gay subtext here. It is simply something that is kept hidden (thus, subtext, duh), and that they don’t really need to hide anymore. The reason I think this has a metaphorical value is specifically because of how Charlie words “I don’t think you have to hide it, man” which beautifully applies to a Dennis who is still in the closet in the year of the lord 2020, if you catch my drift. Plus the whole situation reads kinda with a weird vibe in general, almost forced. You have to consider that they chose to include this dialogue over stuff like Frank bragging to Dennis about meeting Jackie DeNardo. He doesn’t bring her up at all, actually.

Mac: “Maybe that's, like, part of the problem of taking the humanity out of decisions.” Dennis: “Perhaps the science just isn't there yet.”

They acknowledge that any choice should be made following your feelings, not like a machine, and Dennis agrees with the point. Now, I don’t know about you, but to me Dennis agreeing that sometimes considering feelings in certain situations is necessary is something HUGE. Of course it is for the thesis I’m arguing, as it implies Dennis following his feelings when making the decision he is currently weighted by, and we know where those stand, but it is huge just in general, also. Dennis usually doesn’t do feelings, at least, he tries to repress them usually.

Cricket: “Where did we land on the casaba?” Dennis: “I think you can eat it, man. I think we're done with it.”

Basically, with the tinkering over, and a decision being made by RCG, they can hand it to Cricket (David Hornsby) to write the season finale.

Episode 9: A Woman’s Right To Chop

The salon’s insigna, pictured above.

This episode is full with dennis/sunny meta (which doubles as abortion meta, so bear with me), but it also has a son=death link once again, as “Poppins” is pregnant and were she to have the puppies (which are later directly used as a metaphor for Brian Jr as I already quoted in this post when explaining why Dennis could technically return to ND) she would die.

Poppins himself is linked to Dennis metaphorically, and as we all know it is a dog that simply does not die.

Mac: “Poppins! He came back! My dog came back!” Dennis: “How the hell is that dog still alive?” Dee: “Yeah, Mac, why don't you just put that poor thing out of its misery?” Mac: “Put him down? What, are you crazy? This is my dog, Dee. I love him.” Dee: “Well, he doesn't love you. Comes around every three or four years, eats a bunch of batteries or whatever, takes a giant dump on the floor, and then leaves again.” Mac: “Dee, Poppins comes and goes as he pleases 'cause that's his right as a male.”

Once again Mac is responsible for keeping him alive, and he does so because he loves him. As for “he doesn’t love you”, I mean, it’s Dee, the Gang’s perspective, of course they think that. They also thought Dennis had no feelings. But we know he does, they are why he came back after all.

Dennis: “And if we decide to leave, we're gonna leave. Yeah, 'cause that's nature. That's tradition.” Dee: “That's bullshit. Traditional roles are ridiculous, and they're made up by men.”

The episode discouraging the option of leaving from Dennis.

Now, cutting hair (while yes, abortion stuff, I’m not talking about that here) can also be interpreted as both a metaphor for ending the show, or Dennis cutting ties entirely. It works for all of them.

Dennis: “With luxurious locks like yours, it could take, oh, three, four years to grow back to its current length. Yeah, if it ever grows back.”

Ending the show with all the risks that it would imply, because it could take a while for them to get another show to get off the ground and a new thriving fanbase (years to grow back hair), that is, if it ever happens.

With relationships as established as those Dennis has, it could take years for him to find other people he can be close with, that is, if he ever finds them.

Dee: “Will you please leave these poor women alone? They're clearly bored and lonely and needing to do something extreme in order to make themselves feel special.”

That just screams “reason why Dennis went to ND” to me.

It’s also funny to consider that the episode as a whole is about choice.

And it’s also interesting that in this scenario Dennis is arguing to stop them from having the choice of “ruining their life”, which sounds rather dramatic and also like a lot of self projection on his part.

Reading the script, it also came to me that other people having a say in whether a haircut is made or not sounds like fans having a say in whether a show ends or not, so there’s that.

So, the burping in this episode is a metaphor for emotional pain.

In this case, Dee wants to get the haircut simply because she can, without understanding the ramifications of her actions, and this upsets Frank who actually does understands. He once had long beautiful hair, cut it and gave it away, and it never grew back. This fits in all three metaphorical perspectives, once again. In the end she ends up getting a haircut anyway, despite people trying to stop her, and ends up with a substitute wig that looks pretty much the same.

Dee: “I'm getting the haircut. I'm getting it.” Frank: “Don't do it, Deandra. You'll regret it! I'm telling you!” Car salesman: “What was that all about?” Frank: “Just trying to save a life.”

This is yes, a metaphor about adoption instead of abortion, but it doubles as Dennis meta for everything else we have discussed.

Not cutting, not jumping, not running away, is saving a life. It all works towards the same message without neglecting the episode’s main message.

All in all, I feel like the parallels and metaphors in this episode are only surface level, and the rest works to make the plot and the abortion stuff make sense. It is still significant though, it’s there.

Episode 10: Waiting For Big Mo

Not even gonna try to make sense of all the metaphors in here as I don’t even think they necessarily make sense at all.

The point of it all here is simple, and it is once again sunny meta as much as it is Dennis meta, which ends up being very important.

They always play the game guarding the base, never letting themselves have fun but following a clear formula (word actually used in the episode), because that is simply what has always worked. They have it down to a science.

Yet the desire to have fun keeps messing with it, getting them lower on the leaderboard, and so on so forth.

Dennis is afraid that this will bring on a death, if they can’t guard their base from Big Mo, so he keeps discouraging fun, and asks people to stay on track, manipulates them to reach this goal, even if it makes him miserable.

This is about Dennis keeping his perfected facade instead of following his feelings as much as it is about RCG following the formula instead of having fun with it. For Dennis, the goal of doing this is being perceived as perfect, being accepted, belonging. For RCG, the goal was winning an emmy and staying relevant.

So the episode starts by painting having fun (feelings in Dennis’ case) as something that will bring an inevitable death, which must be how it felt to RCG (if you don’t follow the formula they’ll cancel your show) and how it felt to Dennis (who knows what would happen if you opened up), which is what led him to make the wrong choice in the first place, to avoid getting hurt.

Except the episode then proceeds to make fun of that very notion:

Mac: “Who cares if we're losing?” Charlie: “Dennis said, like, if we leave the base, death is gonna come in the form of a fat kid who's gonna turn us into fart ghosts or something like that. So I got to stay.” Mac: “What?” Charlie: “It sounds crazy now that I'm saying it. Dennis explained it a lot more better. Dennis, we can't leave the base, right? That's the deal?” Dennis: “No. Frank was right. Rutherford B. Crazy's real name was Larry Takashi. Yeah, and he was the founder and owner of Laser Tag Fun Zone. Well, apparently, he killed himself.”

In the episode, Frank is the first to reveal the news to Dennis, and he doesn’t believe him. Up until that point in the ep, he had been using Rutherford/Larry (is it a coincidence that he also has two names? I’ll let you decide) as inspiration for himself and to keep going with his plan to win, the guy was always working towards his goal tirelessly, never having fun. His family hated him, he had no friends, he was completely alone. He died alone and miserable.

This part of the episode in particular feels very heavy, as we notice that Dennis (and it isn’t random that he’s the one having this revelation) is the only one who’s sitting, looking visibly shocked.

Now, Larry Takashi is based on Larry David, creator of Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm. This isn’t only obvious because of the first name, but also because Larry was the person who Rob met that convinced him to not end the show.

He said this to Rob:

“Don’t be an idiot. Never stop. Just keep doing it. One, because it’s the greatest job you could ever want and two, because if you do a final episode they’ll just destroy you for it.“

So it’s easy to assume that this character is an homage to him.

Anyway, Dennis has this realization, and it feels important that he’s the one having it, as the whole season has been subtly about him and his choice, him feeling like he has to be a father but secretly wanting to be Mac’s “leading man”.

Dennis: “I mean, the guy was miserable. But he spent his life building this empire, and it all meant nothing? Shit. So Rutherford be rich. Rutherford be successful as all hell. But you know what else Rutherford be? Rutherford be right. Because it all means nothing if you're not enjoying it.”

This works both ways, and is the right message, but it then gets twisted into “choosing death on our own terms”, obviously for the sake of tricking the audience with a fake finale; as we now know, they have actually chosen life. The dialogue continues to be specifically about sunny.

And with that, it segues into the fake finale, with them saying “time to end the game”, “goodbye base” and all of that.

And it seems like with that they’re giving up, accepting death as something that will happen regardless, ending the show. Saying “screw it, we won’t let others cancel our show, we’ll end it on our terms if that needs to happen”. Or in Dennis’ case “If I’m gonna have to live a miserable life might as well directly kill myself” as, again, so far the implied death of choosing Brian has been METAPHORICAL, the death of Dennis’ identity. Not, you know, real.

Whereas the show ending would imply his eventual real death.

But that’s not how it ends.

“Oh, what? You thought we'd gone? You'd like that, wouldn't you? We ain't going anywhere. We're never leaving, you little piece of shit.”

They’re never leaving. And so, by progression of the metaphor, neither is Dennis, of course, which implies the choice of the other option. Dennis, Life, Love, Mac.

So as the show chooses to live forever, then so should Dennis also choose the option for life, and everything that it implies with it.

And this is why all of this talk about meta and symbolism was very important for me to make, because this is the logical conclusion I have reached.

Logically speaking, for me, this is where all the signs seem to be pointing, and that’s very exciting.

Because as RCG chooses to keep their show alive, they are also choosing to have real fun with it, and this seems to imply that they won’t stick to the formula as closely.

So in a way, Big Mo, as this fake finale, does end up representing the end of sunny as we know it, if I’m reading into it correctly. It ends up being a proper finale and send off, but sunny is not over because of it. Only the one we are used to, whatever that means.

So not only is Dennis choosing that, but it seems RCG might be taking some real artistic liberties or whatever, not be afraid to sink down in the leaderboards anymore but simply do what they please.

So... macdennis? Well, come back to me in a year and we’ll find out together. That is another reason why I made this post after all, to look back at it in the future and see just how wrong or right I was.

Let’s see how Rob chooses to embrace sunny.

#iasip #it's always sunny in philadelphia #analysis #macdennis #macden #meta #dennis reynolds #mac mcdonald #season 14

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grlsgen · 4 years ago

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my favorite 2020 kpop songs

there were some bangers this year... this includes title tracks & bsides and everything else under the sun.

i always got shit to say and i always see youtube videos like this but i simply can’t edit so here we are

you never know - blackpink

okay yeah i didn’t really fw hylt or lovesick girls when i first heard them but when i listened to the album you never know really stuck with me... i never get sick of it. definitely the best track off the album imo. rosé’s prechorus has made me cry a few times ngl

alien - lee suhyun

alright miss thing... i was obsessed with this song when i first heard it... the pre chorus with the ooo ooo ooo and the switch to the chorus is so good it gets me every time. she’s cute i like her... while we’re here i’ll also mention i really liked her ost in your time for it’s okay to not be okay.. i loved that drama and that’s my fav ost from it.. but anyway

lalalilala - april

They Served. Big time. the music video is so pretty and the song was stuck in my head for 6 months straight... they really did the damn thing with this. kinda sounds like an apink song but that’s a compliment... overall this whole comeback was really good and deserved better. honorable mention : the bside on this ep you.zip is so good too

open your eyes - iz*one

this is all i listened to for months after bloomiz dropped... izone’s music is really a hit or miss for me and i didn’t really vibe with fiesta but i’m so glad i gave the album a chance because open your eyes is definitely in my top 5 releases of this year. their other bside dreamlike is really good too

the book of us : the demon - day6 album

now where do i start with this... to this day i am still obsessed with 1 to 10... like that’s gotta be the best off this album imo. zombie was so good and i really liked the lyrics. the album as a whole was really really good. i sound like a broken record

children - bvndit

oh boy... another one of my top 5 releases from this year. not only is the overall sound of this amazing but i love the lyrics too. these girls deserve so much better

d-2 - agust d/yoongi/suga mixtape

my king. i shit myself when this dropped ngl... i don’t even know how to elaborate on how much i love this. daechwita was stuck in my head for the longest time.. i think the highlights off this for me have to be people, honsool & dear my friend. this mixtape was really a moment.. i love yoongi y’all

love again - baekhyun / underwater - baekhyun

alright alright .. i put these two together since they’re from the same album idk but it took a while for candy to grow on me but i’ve loved these since i first heard them... i was Obsessed. the final bridge/chorus whatever the hell thing he does in love again put me into shock for 3 months straight and the beat in underwater is heavenly

the dream chapter : eternity - txt ep

this serve. has to be my favorite from txt yet... rookies with the best discography fr. i love dark concepts and really like that they did something different with this. can’t you see me was Amazinggg. fairy of shampoo has to be one of the best songs i’ve ever heard it’s insane. i also really liked eternally, who else has that range... Nobody. top to bottom this ep is really good, i hope they do another dark concept like this again soon bc this hit big time

eight - iu & suga

it took a while for this to grow on me but whew...when it did... kinda makes me feel like i’m in a coming of age movie and i like that, makes me nostalgic for that. eight soty, they both did great on this

# - loona ep

Now... Cmon. so what was either a hit or miss for a lot of people but something i think everyone can agree on is that the bridge is godsent. like that shit makes me cry sometimes. the music video was really good, i always come back to the subway/train scene. number 1 is also so damn good. overall i really loved this ep. they really ate with this one

eyes wide open - twice album

when i first heard this album i didn’t like it That much but it’s really grown on me lately. the whole retro trend was fun and then it got a little overdone so i was tired of it by the time this dropped but actually.. some of the bsides are insanely good. behind the mask is definitely a highlight for me, mina’s bridge is heavenly. i love mina so bad. but anyway, i can’t stop me took some time to grow on me as well but it always gets stuck in my head. i also really like up no more & depend on you, they’re cute

maybe - gidle

Y’all... i love this song. it’s short and simple but it was so addicting to me. i really like that one part in the last two choruses if you know what i’m talking about (i’m not sure who sings it ? some people say soyeon some say shuhua idk, shuhua my queen btw) and soojin’s verse in the bridge hits. to this day i’m still obsessed with this song

a song written easily - oneus

this is so underappreciated, this is easily one of my favorite title tracks released all year. i’m not a huge fan of beat drops but this one was really nice imo, i also liked the lead in before the drop and the final chorus. this was really good and i never get sick of it

wannabe - itzy

CUT THE DAMN CAMERAS.... no fr this is my #1 favorite song released this year. talented brilliant incredible amazing... itzy seriously ate up everyone with this. i keep going back to this song it’s insane. iconic choreo good mv good styling amazing song.. like everything here lined up. i don’t know how they’ll ever top this for me. definitely my soty (next to psycho)

black swan - bts

this is excellent idk what else to say. i thought it was just okay when i first heard it but it’s seriously so good, me being yoongi biased i loved that he got multiple verses but i love the do your thing with me now breakdown part too. the choreo is one of my favorite from them and the mv was really pretty. black swan is one of my favorite movies so the comparisons with it made me love this song more. overall, probably my favorite off mots7

my time - jungkook of bts

jungkook always has the best album solos fr. i loved this the second i heard it, kinda justin bieber esque but it’s so good. i love the lyrics and transition it takes thru the song. the chorus hits man.. this song always makes me a little sad but he really did amazing on this

monster - red velvet irene & seulgi ep

my queens what can i say. i was so excited for this unit and they did not disappoint. monster still hits, aged like wine. the best track is fr feel good, i still have it on repeat.. insanely good. seulgi really delivered with uncover, it’s so beautiful. i think sm’s intention was always to have a subunit this year but i thought it was smart to do while wendy was recovering, hoping for ot5 soon y’all..

never gonna dance again : act 2 - taemin album

taemin my king wtf!!! i loved criminal so i was really excited for this and of course... he always delivers. top to bottom i loved this album, he really did amazing on it. identity might be the best song i’ve ever heard... and of course i loved the collab with wendy 🙏 overall such a good album, taemin always serves the best

pporappippam - sunmi

what can i say i love a little retro tune. even though i just said earlier i was sick of it idc i loved this. sunmi always shows up, i don’t know what else to say. this song never gets old

dystopia : the tree of language - dreamcatcher album

i didn’t expect to love this album as much as i did... i don’t listen to it as often anymore but i can’t deny that scream was a major serve. every time i hear it it’s like the first time... their bside jazz bar was so good. dreamcatcher’s bsides always hit what can i say

12:00 - loona ep

Yes. why not is not necessarily my favorite title from them ever (it’s butterfly, btw) but it’s always stuck in my head... obviously i loved voice/star, was obsessed for weeks and i was happy they decided to promote it a little. styling on those stages were so cute btw. i also loved fall again from this ep, chuu sounds angelic on it. loona had some amazing cbs this year

la di da - everglow

Obsessed. i watched every stage as they dropped and listened to this every 5 seconds, Amazing. sihyeon really owned this era for me and shes my bias so of course i ate this whole thing up. this was definitely one for the books, what more can i say

literally everything gfriend released this year

this might be their best year yet for releases imo, i really liked how they tried out different concepts and sounds this year, i’ve always loved their music but the switch was refreshing yknow. crossroads was so good, i loved that mv. here we are is still on repeat almost a year later... and now APPLE. apple was so mf good. i love that they decided to do a dark concept, this song really fit them well, still obsessed w it. mago might be my least fave out of the 3 but it’s still so good. don’t even get me started on yuju in the mv.. Queen. i liked the subunits on walpurgis night, especially better me. gfriend had a really good year imo, they deserved more for it.

Anyways. that was my 2 cents.

wannabe & psycho soty

#kpop #red velvet #bts #itzy #twice #gfriend #so many good ass songs this year #hoping 2021 is even better...#txt #baekhyun #everglow #loona #taemin

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tcthetouch · 4 years ago

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𝓈𝑜𝓂𝑒 𝓂𝒶𝓀𝑒 𝒾𝓉 𝓌𝒽𝑒𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓎'𝓇𝑒 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓃𝑔, 𝓅𝑒𝓇𝒽𝒶𝓅𝓈 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓎 𝒽𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝒶 𝓈𝑜𝓊𝓁 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓎'𝓇𝑒 𝓊𝓃𝒶𝒻𝓇𝒶𝒾𝒹 𝓉𝑜 𝒷𝒶𝓇𝑒. 𝓅𝑒𝓇𝒽𝒶𝓅𝓈 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓇𝑒'𝓈 𝓃𝑜𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓇𝑒.

『 jamie lee curtis. sixty-one. cis woman. she/her. 』 oh heavens, is that JUDITH MILLER from FAIR LANE i see roaming around mapleview? minnie may’s always calling them -CYNICAL & -SELFISH. i happen to think they’re not that bad! they’re a pretty cool “RETIRED” ACTRESS and every time i’ve seen them, they’ve always been +MAGNETIC & +WITTY. i hope i see them around again! 『 may. 21. est. she/her. 』

hello my pals ! after a very long day, i am finally here with an intro for a sexy lowkey demon !

BACKGROUND:

triggers: emotional abuse, brief mention of war, brief mention of considered abortion, substance abuse, brief implication of child neglect, brief mentions of death (but like.... from old age)

So… I’m currently too tired to do the ‘whole chart,’ but… a Sagittarius. Know this.

Now, to understand our dear Judith, you must first understand her parents. Her mother was a wealthy young woman, progressive in her views on social issues… for the time. Nonetheless, she was expected to hold up the standards of the time. Her father was the younger brother of a man deemed ‘a great soldier’ who died fighting in WWII. Followed by the memory of him and his own parents’ obsession with the man, he placed pressure on himself to live up to that standard. Shame there was no war………………….

They met at Judith’s mother’s debutante ball and hit it off. It was, what they perceived to be, a match made in heaven. But that’s always easy to say – it’s harder to prove when a good night culminates in an unexpected pregnancy. To avoid any public scandal on her part, Judith’s mother and father married before she began showing and moved to Mapleview where she would become an excellent mother and he would live up to his brother’s standards by… he was still figuring it out… maybe making the next great scientific advancement? or writing the next great American novel?

Sadly, in spite of her lifetime’s worth of training, Judith’s mother… proved to lack natural maternal instinct. Perhaps it was passed down from her own mother, transgenerational trauma beginning long, long, long ago. Judith’s father was so consumed with his grand ideas that he hadn’t the time to help! Between becoming the next Walt Whitman one day and the next Albert Einstein the next, all while working for his father-in-law, he just didn’t have any time at all!

Their marriage grew strained and, as Judith grew, they made it even clearer that she was the cause. If she, herself, didn’t do something spectacular with her life, then it was all for nothing!

Her father wasn’t forced into the Vietnam War as a part of the drafting lottery. No, as it grew bigger, as the army grew more desperate, as she began slowly maturing, as his marriage continued falling apart, he voluntarily entered in 1965, when Judith was seven. Before drafting even began!

Before he entered the war, Judith was the victim of plenty of degrading remarks and the occasional Unusually Odd Punishment (think bojack horseman w like beatrice seeing ~7y/o bojack take a cigarette and forcing him to smoke all of it bc he couldn’t waste a perfectly good cigarette!). However, the remarks grew more biting after he left for “the war effort.” The two moved back to California, her mother’s birthplace, to be closer to her mother’s father – an even better source of income when his sympathies were being played on.

...but it was suddenly back-to-work, no-sympathies-for-you when the war ended and Judith’s father was still alive… and, furthermore, when the war was lost.

With her parents’ marriage worse off than ever, Judith’s unconscious attempts to please them and live up to their expectations began sooner than they would have had the war been won. Or had her father been shot.

Probably.

Commercials began at seventeen, but they weren’t impressive. Minor roles began at eighteen, but they weren’t impressive. It wasn’t until she was picked up by an actual agent at twenty that she began actually shining, so to speak.

Which is actually a great accidental pun on my part, as her first big role was, much like JLC’s, in one of the first slasher movies ever made. Hoorah! But it still wasn’t impressive. It wasn’t big or prestigious, Katharine Hepburn wouldn’t have taken the role.

But what was even less impressive?

The pregnancy that followed shortly thereafter.

Her first thought was to find a doctor who ‘specialized’ in such ‘inconveniences.’ Between the knowledge that a lack of maternal instinct ran in her blood, all women in her lineage getting mistreated to the point that they were simply unfit, as well as the knowledge that she would have to immediately quit the career that had just begun if she wanted to raise the child…

But the father wound up being a hurdle. He was meant to be a one-night-stand, but he started showing up… again… and again… and again… until she relented and confessed to him that she was pregnant with his child (so she assumed, at least). He was insistent that she keep it… so the compromise became she wouldn’t abort it, but she would immediately hand it off to the man to raise on his own.

Daniel, named by his father, was born. Judith kept in occasional contact, but ultimately tried to leave that chapter behind her.

After that small bump in the road, her agent began lining up more career offers for her. They ranged from OK-I-guess to Not-Katharine-Hepburn-But-Close-Enough. So she clearly went for the latter ones!

Now, for someone who tried to stay clear-headed enough… it became pretty hard as she grew more popular, was invited to more parties, and… given the decade, was surrounded by cocaine! Thus began some more god-awful decisions, a list so long even Leo Tolstoy would put it down before he could finish reading it.

A few years through her increasingly successful career and she found out that she’s gotten pregnant yet again, this time being the result of a one-night-stand had during a borderline bender. For a few days, she obviously considered abortion again. But… how good would it be for her image if she cleaned up and had the baby… and, who knows! maybe she would break the chain of terrible mothers! if she was willing to sacrifice hedonism, then she was clearly doing something right! and… she also felt some remorse for barely keeping in contact with Daniel… so hoorah! replacement!

Turns out she also didn’t have that mothering instinct :\

But it was not, at all, for lack of trying. She never intentionally mistreated her child, Mia (named for Mia Farrow) – she had family days with her and hung out with her and… tried to figure out how to bond with her. She was never cruel like her mother or her mother’s mother or mother’s mother’s mother, so on and so forth and what have you, but… she was Innocently Insensitive. Still caught up in The Scene, there were some nights that were… very loud when she forgot Mia was trying to sleep and invited a bunch of people over.

Some hedonistic tendencies returned and she found herself allowing a nanny to care for the child more and more often. Never malicious, never cruel, even asked Danny Devito to be Mia’s godfather… but still wound up being a really bad mom.

When Mia moved out, she was beginning to realize she was too old to continue going down the road she was on – to continue making the same mistakes over and over. One child was college-aged, the other was… somewhat older, although she’d lost track of the years. Yeah, she sent birthday cards and made calls every year, but time had just begun blurring together…

As a side-note, this was also around the time she was encouraged to write a memoir. She wound up having to get a memoirist which is a wc!!

The “best thing possible” happened when her mother died a year ago. Her father had already passed, but that was in Fresno – a quick trip. Her mother died in Mapleview, where her roots were laid. Also pls picture her eulogy for her mother like the eulogy in “Free Churro.” Anyway...

So what did Judith do?

Up and disappeared!

It would’ve been a really excellent publicity stunt… if she’d ever returned.

She likes to pretend she’ll never return to Los Angeles. The mountain air is so clean and crisp, life is so much simpler, people are so much less… corrupt.

Alas… somewhere in the back of her mind, has many plans to return to her old life. But she needs to make amends first, right?

TL;DR:

(tread lightly if any triggers under ‘backstory’ are triggers for you!)

born in mapleview. parents were awful but also it was a case of transgenerational trauma so there are nuances there. father “abandoned” her and her mom to go fight in the vietnam war bc he wasn’t able to fight in wwii like his brother. came back and joined them in fresno and judith’s mom was like “well u guys lost.... cant say it was unexpected with someone like u fighting :\” judith was like “well i’ve learned i’m what ruined their marriage even tho i’m also the reason they got married so guess i’ll go make something of myself bc i want them to be proud.” eventually got cast in a halloween-esque movie, because of course. got pregnant, yeet’d it to the father, “it” being daniel. became a class-a hedonist. got pregnant again, but got clean and kept her, named her “mia”. was a pretty good mom for a while, then forgot that kids weren’t “used” to the 1980s/90s equivalent of modern-day raves. mia left for college. judith was like “wait,,, im too old 2 keep living this life omg.” mom died a year ago. was like “oh wow perfect excuse to come back to mapleview and pretend i never lived in los angeles ever in my entire life goodbye all ties and connections!!!”

PERSONALITY/MISC.:

spent the majority of her life trying to live up to the expectations set by her mom when she basically said “you better be something great to make up for being alive” + trying to unconsciously make up for ‘ruining’ her parents’ marriage.

ngl family took inspiration from the sugarman-horseman family in bojack horseman bc i just finished rewatching it and :\ i miss it :\ which, in turn, means there’s a tiny bit of muse inspo from the eponymous, but,,,,,,,, like she may not be a good person,,,,,,, but if u’ve so much as seen up to s2e11,,,,, she aint THAT bad.

further basis was fictional director kelsey jannings (of such fame as “women who love women who love recycling”) when she said that celebrities tend to stagnate at the age they got famous. and judith got famous when she was 20.

I FEEL LIKE I NEED TO MAKE IT EXCESSIVELY CLEAR THAT SHE NEVER HAD MALICIOUS INTENTS TOWARDS HER CHILDREN. she just knew she wasn’t ready to be a mother with daniel - it was terrible timing and she genuinely worried about how she would be as a mother ( considering how poor maternal instincts were... basically passed down through generations ) - and she didn’t know how to connect with mia, especially as an addict in the hollywood machine that was literally filled with drugs, thus proving her hypothesis that she would be a poor mother correct. like... I JUST NEED TO MAKE IT CLEAR THAT THERE WAS NO ABUSE INVOLVED. SHE AT LEAST DID BETTER THAN HER MOTHER WITH THAT ASPECT.

but, as marina once said, “[she’s] now becoming [her] own self-fulfilled prophecy. oh, oh no! oh no! oh no!”

saddie disguised as a baddie.

also spent the majority of her life as an absolute hedonist. remains one, but is currently clean and trying to remain that way... maybe...

wants to be good so very bad, but doesn’t know how to be.

in spite of said hedonistic and escapist tendencies, she does have a very strong work-ethic. you know. thanks to both her parents + her capricorn moon.

no way to avoid saying she’s selfish, though. no way to.

CONNECTION IDEAS:

** all are open to any gender

her other child (a wc on the main!)

her memoirist (a wc on the main!)

her childhood friend from when she was still living in mapleview (a wc on the main!)

some fans! idk!

arm candy. pls. she’s bi so. they can be a himbo or a herbo or a thembo.

you see she’s decently older than all of the characters so i feel like most of this will rely on brainstorming and/or chemistry in threads

FEEL FREE TO EITHER LIKE THIS OR HMU 2 PLOT!!

#mapleviewintro #judith .#judith | intro .#this got so long ahsdlkfjasn #also. for all u aesthetic fans. i apologize for the capital letters i copied and pasted it all directly from google drive and.#did not feel like going back and correcting all of it afhskjdlajs #also!! there's a tl;dr at the bottom j bc. i accidentally wrote the next great american novel.

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silverbastardgoldenfool · 5 years ago

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Realm of the Quarantine Reread End-of-Book Questionnaire: Assassin’s Apprentice

Any differences between your first/previous reading experience and this one?

Uhhhhh yep!! I can’t even believe how different it was. Every scene has taken on an entirely different colour and flavour in my memory. I skimmed far too much the first time, yes, but also I just went into it with the wrong framework. I think I’ve mentioned this before but my mum recommended me these books on the basis of my love of A Song of Ice and Fire. She directly compared them and said how similar they were. Because of RotE’s length I had been putting it off for years, and only finally picked up Assassin’s Apprentice because I was itching to do an ASOIAF reread but was (and am) trying to wait until Winds of Winter to do it.

So you can imagine the difficulty settling into a book like Assassin’s Apprentice when you’re expecting Game of Thrones. I remember my overall impression on my first read being that it was a pretty standard fantasy novel with the only really exceptional thing about it being the characters and their relationships. Characters are always my top priority so it was enough to keep me invested and progressing onto the next book and the rest of the series, but I did so not having absorbed nearly as much as I should have from the first book in the series.

Now, just from revisiting that first book, my understanding of Fitz and the world he operates in has exponentially increased and I know that will transform my experience of every book going forward. I really made sure to make myself slow down and read every word; absorb descriptions and just be in each moment without racing to the next one. Overall this book (and all the Fitz books) are much more concerned with the human condition and the effects of abuse and trauma and deep loneliness than being an epic fantasy. In fact it barely reads like fantasy at all; it’s incredibly grounded and focused. Of course the elements are there, but while Assassin’s Apprentice may not be as subversive as the rest of the series, it is certainly not generic fantasy. This book just feels alive to me now in a way it didn’t before against the rest of the series. I can regard it as a beautiful piece of the puzzle in its own right instead of just the setup. I wanna reiterate I always really liked Assassin’s Apprentice but it just paled in comparison to my unholy obsession with the rest of it. Idk this reread just really shifted a lot of things into perspective for me and I’m excited!!

Something you can’t believe you forgot

So so much but most ridiculous GALEN IS QUEEN DESIRE’S BASTARD am I dumb??? I didn’t even remember until it was explicitly stated lol

Favourite character introduction moments/scenes

It’s gotta be a tie between the Fool, Kettricken and Patience (realising there is a common theme here of Fitz making an idiot of himself). I genuinely was laughing so hard when Fitz is like, actively making himself smaller and so pleased with himself trying to help the Fool, and of course the Fool’s iconic “listen you idiot” ugh it’s just chef’s kiss baby, that’s what we in the biz call a meet-cute! (I know they have seen each other before, but this is the first time the Fool talks to Fitz). Then of course we have Kettricken who poisons Fitz at their first meeting, and Patience who Fitz continuously embarrasses himself in front of before even realising who she is. The fact that all three of these people end up being some of Fitz’s only genuinely loving relationships makes it even better.

Favourite character arcs

I think I’ve gotta go with Verity and Burrich. Verity goes from kind of a bloke’s bloke (he was so different in the beginning than I remembered!) to being a proper King-in-Waiting. He is self-sacrificial but not for pride; he genuinely cares deeply for his people, as a whole and as individuals, and will do anything it takes to protect them. He is far from perfect, and he could have done a lot more for Fitz when he was younger, but once Fitz is in his eyeline and he is confronted with the life the boy has led he seems suitably shamed and tries to do his best for him. He’s a good boy and I love him!

Burrich of course is just. unlucky. His health deteriorates due to injuries. He gets saddled with some kid and is burdened to bring him up to an impossible standard he has set himself (to not shame a man he has an impossibly high opinion of). He’s deprived of a job he loved and was good at, and most importantly he’s deprived of his boyfriend I mean lover I mean “master”.

His arc is not a happy one at all but it is compelling, and I can’t help but love him and feel for him despite also disagreeing with him on almost everything :)

Favourite quote/s

Unfortunately I don’t have any tabs atm so I couldn’t really keep track, but my heart exploded when Fitz said to the Fool after going into his room, “I wish I had a place that were as much me as that place is you.”

Favourite relationships

Fitz/Fool obviously. Even though they don’t have that many interactions in this book I loved every single one of them. The Fool volunteering to care for Smithy after Fitz has endured a long day of horrendous abuse is just!!!!! Kindness! What a concept! I could really see why they develop such a deep bond so quickly.

Fitz/Burrich is just so real and so compelling and it hurts me but I love it. Fitz/Chade breaks my heart bc Chade is manipulating his way into Fitz’s heart - I think without realising it a lot of the time bc he is lonely too, but the power imbalance is not okay when he is the centre of Fitz’s world for a long time and the closest thing he has to a friend. Knowing how Chade behaves not too much later just makes it even worse when he is so nice in this book because it just shows why Fitz has such a hard time being his own person and saying no to Chade ever.

Fitz/Verity for obvious reasons. Fitz/Hands!! They’re cute but it makes me sad that Hands betrays him in AQ. Weirdly I liked Fitz/Molly way more this time but more their friendship than anything. And next is Royal Assassin and their deeply toxic romance soooooo.

And Fitz and his puppies BUT WE DON’T TALK ABOUT THAT.

Favourite setting

Do yourself a favour and read the description of the Mountain Kingdom and specifically the palace. It is STUNNING and something I completely skimmed over the first time cos I’m a dumb idiot bitch I could have been picturing a city of huge colourful tulips all this time but fuck me I guess!!

Favourite chapter

As a rereader I think I’ve gotta say chapter one. There’s just so much to pick apart all crammed into one chapter. It still holds a lot of mystery even when you’ve read the entire series.

Most loved character

At this point I’ve gotta say Fitz. That’s who my heart is with during this book and he NEEDS IT

Most hated character

Okay I found Regal a much better villain on this read and hated him A LOT but whomst I despised even more w the very fibre of my being was Galen bitch disgusting!!!!!! Verity was so like, smug?? when he killed him and it was so satisfying. It’s what she deserves!!

Raise your hand if you’ve been personally victimised by Robin Hobb (most heartbreaking and/or visceral moments)

Literally this whole book was so harsh and I was perpetually emo throughout but off the top of my head, Fitz’s depressive episode after Shrewd and Chade test his loyalty fricking broke me, as did the entirety of Galen’s abuse/training; since I was paying so much more attention this time it hit a lot harder that he is an absolute textbook abuser and the psychological torment he inflicts on Fitz is just. deeply upsetting to say the least. It really got under my skin.

Details, observations, spoilery notes made with the benefit of the full picture

Okay this is where I just dump all the notes I took while reading that don’t fit anywhere else. It’ll be long lol so strap in.

- It’s never not funny to me that Narrator Fitz comes across as like a hundred years old when in actuality he is like twenty. Also that he looks back on himself with such a sense of wisdom and superiority, yet we know there is dumbarsery aplenty to come. Amazing.

- I’ve never really registered that for the first six years of his life Fitz had a mother who loved him and I don’t know how to feel about that

- REVELATION THAT SEEMS REALLY OBVIOUS IN HINDSIGHT: Fitz most likely only spoke Chyurdan when he was abandoned, which would have played a huge role in why he was not only quiet but unresponsive to what was happening around him. He probably didn’t even understand that he wasn’t going to see his mother again until much later, and he didn’t know how to ask questions. When he goes to the Mountain Kingdom and Kettricken comments that he speaks Chyurdan like someone remembering the language he doesn’t comment on it, so it’s likely that future Fitz doesn’t register that he didn’t always speak Six Duchies(?). He mentions in the narration that the memory of being abandoned is incredibly stark but not necessarily reliable, and possibly shaped by the Skill, which to me opens up the possibility that his memory is essentially auto-translating for him things he didn’t understand at the time. We also know that at the time of writing this he’s given up his memories of his mother etc. up to the stone dragon, so obviously his recollections of these traumatic events are going to be warped by that. Anyway thanks to my sister for pointing this out and being much smarter than me.

- According to Fitz’s grandfather, Chivalry always knew about Fitz. Don’t know how trustworthy a man desperate to yeet his grandson out of his care is but there ya go.

- Weird and hilarious that Shrewd tries to see Fitz on the day he arrives but then just like. What? Forgets about him? For years? lol

- Chade literally tells Fitz that he is a king’s man now and that’s the most important thing about him YIKES

- Chade becomes the closest thing Fitz has to a friend for quite a long time and that is fucking depressing

- It’s interesting that Chade had to be convinced to teach Fitz. It’s hinted at that there was an ~incident~ the last time they tried to train someone, followed by a long period of Chade being left to rot in the walls.

- Not to be out here diagnosing fictional characters but like.Fitz. Literally has depression.

- Fitz having to turn down Fedwren’s offer of apprenticing for him is so sad. It’s the life Fitz should have had.

- The Fool’s non-binary gender is mentioned as early as Chapter Nine! (Published in 1995! We have no choice but to stan!)

- “So quickly we were all made accomplices in our own degradation.” OOF.

- I really realised this time that the reason Fitz seems so shit at things he trained his whole life for later is because all that training was interrupted by many months of isolation, deprivation and abuse. All at the age of like 13-14. He got out of the habit of subconsciously acting in a way that Burrich or Chade would approve of. For a long time the only person he needed approval from was Galen, and he became completely single-minded about it because that was his means of survival. And you don’t just recover from that - especially since neither Chade or Burrich would give him the time of day for an extended period *after* his training was done. When Chade did finally talk to him again it wasn’t to recommence training really; he just gave him a bunch of tasks to do. By the time Fitz got to the Mountain Kingdom he was completely out of practice, and still managed pretty bloody well in spite of it.

- Kind of related to the last point: I love that while Fitz isn’t a savant at anything he’s a pretty realistic jack of all trades. He not only has an aptitude for learning almost any skill or subject but a genuine broad curiosity too. It’s one of the few things that is just him, ya know? It’s just his personality and something he can find joy in, even if it does also factor into his being used by others.

- Imagine being Burrich and finding out that your son thought you were a dog murderer for like ten years lol ouch

- Fitz thinks about the Fool soooo often in the Mountain Kingdom, pointing out things that remind him of him, or things he would like. It’s v soft tbh I love them so much!!

- Another dumb thing I forgot is that Regal is convinced that Shrewd had Fitz poison his mother to death, which adds a rather important layer onto his motivations lol

Anyone doing a reread feel free to fill this out! You don’t have to use the tag :)

#rote #realm of the elderlings #realm of the quarantine #robin hobb #this has taken many days to finish bc tumblr has been a bully!!

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razberryyum · 5 years ago

Video

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The Untamed/陈情令 Rewatch, Episode 12

(spoilers for everything MDZS/Untamed)

[covers MDZS chapters 51 and 52]

WangXian meter: 🐰+🐰+🐰🐰+ 🐰🐰🐰🐰+ 🐰🐰+🐰🐰+🐰+🐰🐰🐰

There is so much to love about this scene, least of which is Wei Ying being in peak cuteness mode as he physically prepared himself to recite the Wen sect rules, only to immediately switch to troll mode by reciting the Gusu Lan sect rules instead. No matter how many times I’ve watched this scene, I laugh out loud and love it every time. Even though Lan Zhan was as stoic as ever, he had to be just a little proud of Wei Ying for the stunt he pulled. All that time spent at Cloud Recesses copying the rules obviously paid off in more ways than one. I also thought it was adorable how Nie Huaisang was the first person to recognize the Gusu Lan rules: if Big Bro Nie Mingjue was around, I’m sure he would’ve been a teeny bit proud of the fact that his little brother was able to retain all that arguably useful information he learned at Cloud Recesses. I say arguably because, let’s be honest, those visiting sect students probably broke like 90% of those rules as soon as they left the grounds of Cloud Recesses since they really don’t apply to their own sect’s way of living, so really, how useful ARE those 3000+ rules in ones’ life? I’m not even entirely convinced they actually help strengthen one’s moral fortitude since if someone was an immoral person to begin with, vacationing at Cloud Recesses for a few months and being forced to memorize a bunch of stuffy rules probably won’t change anything and might in fact have the opposite effect due to annoyance. That’s an aspect of the whole learning experience at Cloud Recesses that I always found a little odd: every sect has their own sect of house rules, why force visiting students to memorize theirs until they can recite it forwards and backwards. In the novel, Wei Ying’s initial indignation at having to copy them was pretty valid; good thing he ended up marrying into the Lan family anyway otherwise that really would’ve been a lot of effort pointlessly exerted.

When I first watched this episode, I was kind of impressed by how upstanding the Wen sect’s rules seemed to be: since they were set up to be the big bad sect in the show, I wasn’t expecting much in terms of moral standards. Too bad most of Wen Mao’s descendants strayed away from following them, or even remembering them, as Wen Chao would soon show. I did find it curious that he would even know the Gusu Lan sect rules enough to recognize them; it’s rather strange that he didn’t automatically assume Wei Ying was reciting his own Yunmeng Jiang sect rules since that would have been a pretty logical guess. Which begs the question, when did he even learn the Gusu Lan rules? I know that’s a question that no answer was ever provided for, and I’m sure Team CQL didn’t even think anyone would ever care enough to ask since the more important take-away point of that scene was Wei Ying adorably using the Gusu Lan sect rules as a means to slap Wen Chao in the face. And it was a pretty effective slap, even the usually disdainful Jin Zixuan was amused by his tactic. I’m sure both Jiang Cheng and Lan Zhan were impressed as well but were simply too worried about the repercussions to enjoy the moment.

I actually rejoiced a little when Wen Chao generously doled out his punishment to both JZX and Lan Zhan as well, instead of only singling out Wei Ying, since that of course instantly translated to me as more Wei Ying and Lan Zhan bonding time. Sure, JZX had to be the third wheel this time, but the upside to that was that yet another person got to witness Wei Ying’s preoccupation with Lan Zhan.

JZX’s reaction to Wei Ying’s insistence on chatting up a very unresponsive Lan Zhan was hilarious. He must’ve been wondering, what the heck is up with this guy and his obsession with Lan Wangji? I think even if JZX had asked Wei Ying that question directly, Wei Ying wouldn’t have even been able to explain himself. At that point in time, I don’t believe he even understood why he couldn’t leave Lan Zhan alone, only that he couldn’t and didn’t want to.

And of course likewise, neither could Lan Zhan leave Wei Ying alone, especially when he’s in danger, even though he really did all he could to resist responding to Wei Ying’s numerous attempts at interacting with him. It really was a great risk; I can only imagine the stress and turmoil Lan Zhan was feeling. Having just seen his home partially destroyed by the Wens (although in the novel/donghua it was worse since it wasn’t just partial), he must’ve been deathly afraid of getting Wei Ying involved lest harm befell him as well, and yet as soon as he was threatened, Lan Zhan immediately forgot all his concerns and defended Wei Ying.

I love that all his carefully maintained stoicism dissipated completely because of Wei Ying: not only did he valiantly defy and threaten Wen Chao, but then he also blatantly showed his concern on his face…

…and through his gestures since he couldn’t stop holding on to Wei Ying.

Wen Chao’s monologue took a good minute or two and yet the entire time, Lan Zhan never let go. In front of so many people he continued to unabashedly support Wei Ying. Like he just completely forgot everything other than protecting Wei Ying. It was beautiful.

I really wish Wen Chao had thrown Lan Zhan in the dungeon with Wei Ying as well, especially since he even threatened to. Not sure why Team CQL held back from that; the whole dung field scene was created just for the drama anyway, would’ve been lovely if they had gone the extra distance and WangXianed up the dungeon scene as well since that was also just a figment of their imagination. Not to mention, considering Lan Zhan did also fight back against Wen Chao, it would’ve made sense for him to also face the same punishment as Wei Ying. Wei Ying could’ve still been thrown into the doggy cell while Lan Zhan into the cell next to him, and then he would’ve had to spend the entire time listening to Wei Ying getting tortured by the puppy and just be worried sick until Wen Qing finally showed up with her needles. Darn it. Such a shame Team CQL passed up such a good Lan Zhan angsting opportunity.

Although I probably shouldn’t even complain since there was already a good amount of WangXian moments already, Wei Ying’s piggyback offer alone made up for the lack of a dungeon bonding scene.

Even though Lan Zhan declined his offer, just thinking about how he proceeded to hold on dearly to this memory because it was precious to him, and then to bring it up again a decade and a half later in order to return the favor, just makes me want to cry all over again for this sweet romantic man.

Wei Wuxian is Cool AF

I mean, that’s usually a given, but still, I always get a happy chill down my spine when I see him being all threatening like that. It’s like seeing the prelude to the Yiling Patriarch. Seeing Wei Ying boldly come to his rescue like that probably helped spur Lan Zhan into action to defend him.

Wen Ning is a Sweetheart

I believe that even if Wei Ying hadn’t saved his life, if their only encounter was that moment on Cloud Recesses when Wei Ying taught him to properly pull back on his bow and aim, Wen Ning would have still done everything he did for Wei Ying because that’s just the type of angel he is. For that one minor act of kindness, Wen Ning would have no doubt done all he can to help Wei Ying whenever he could; so far saving his life, Wen Ning would’ve died for him. I’m just so happy that he got a second chance at life, and at least in the drama his condition was a step up from zombie. The fact that he’s been there all along during the course of Wei Ying and Lan Zhan’s relationship and witnessed most of their major events together, especially during Wei Ying’s second lifetime, makes him even more endearing to me because he was always so supportive. I’m so glad that he is beloved by the juniors later on because he really deserves all the love he can get.

Poor Jiang Cheng

I felt bad for Jiang Cheng in this episode: here he is pining after his crush, looking forward to seeing her again while wrestling with his feelings as he tried to decided if he should give her the gift he’s been holding onto all this time, and yet when they finally have a one-on-one moment, all Wen Qing is concerned about is Wei Ying. I know that’s understandable under the circumstances since she did see Wen Chao drag Wei Ying away, but when I first watched this episode and thought Team CQL was aiming for the love triangle angle, I really thought this moment would be later utilized to plague Jiang Cheng to stir up his jealousy even more. I really cannot say enough how glad I am they never went in that direction.

Full Moon Rising

I guess it’s not unreasonable that werewolves exist in that world, since demons and otherworldly beasts do too—I mean, that’s what they were hunting at Phoenix Mountain after all—but man do I wish they would’ve just stuck with a normal puppy for this whole dungeon scenario cuz Mr. Wolfman just looked so damn fake and awful. Sometimes, Team CQL makes such bad technical choices that I actually have to rub my temples to stave off the headaches I get from them. I don’t understand why they didn’t just bring in a Doberman or mastiff or some other ferocious-looking black dog for that scene. I know it probably would have cost a little more to have a trained dog that can fake attack on command, but they could have easily gotten away with using camera tricks to feign an attack on Wei Ying. Every time I see that fake-ass stuffed dog I can’t help groaning a little. No amount of drool could make that thing look remotely real. Really, bless Xiao Zhan for selling the crap out of that scene and also the make-up department for doing a pretty stellar job with his blood and injuries, I would’ve felt nothing but embarrassment otherwise. But Wei Ying looked distressed and hurt enough that my heart always ends up aching a little at the sight of his horrible condition. I wanted to personally hurt Wen Chao for putting him through that ordeal.

Despite my criticism of the dungeon scene, I still liked it in general because in addition giving us the Wen’s siblings separate acts of aid to Wei Ying, it also provided us with this moment where Wei Ying selflessly saves the medicine for Lan Zhan despite his own serious injuries. That really is just so completely sweet…my only lament is that Lan Zhan never even really finds out what he did. He would’ve been so touched.

Questions I Still Have

Honestly I question the practicality and effectiveness of the whole hostage situation with each sect’s heirs and prized pupils, but I’m going to hold off on delving into that until probably the next episode since the choice Wen Chao makes at the Xuanwu cave really sets off my logic alarm.

Overall Episode Rating: 8 Lil Apples out of 10

Disclaimer: The Untamed would not be possible without Mo Dao Zu Shi and Mo Xiang Tong Xiu-laozi. I mean no disrespect whatsoever with my humble comparisons between the novel and the live action, even when I sometimes favor the changes in the show. All hail MDZS and MXTX-laozi always and forever!

#The Untamed #陈情令 #spoilers #WangXian #Untamed Rewatch #Mo Dao Zu Shi #CQL #MDZS #魔道祖师 #Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation #Wei Ying Wei Wuxian #Lan Zhan Lan Wangji #Wen Ning #Jiang Cheng #Wen Qing #ChengQing #Jin Zixuan #Wen Chao #Gusu Lan Sect

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unordinary-analysis · 5 years ago

Text

Episode 167

Honorable mentions:

Going to ignore Blyke for this week until we have some more development

My analysis of episode 161 is very closely related to this one (give or take a few statements), so I suggest going and reading that, though you don’t have to :)

^^^ like very closely related

If you do read it though, not all of what I said I would like to discuss again in this post because either I am unsure about it or I have better ideas now. I might say something in this post that contradicts what I said in my post about episode 161. Do not consider episode 161 equal to this episode. Everything I say in this post is what I am currently thinking and is more important at the moment. BASICALLY: RELEVANCE>

TLDR at the end

I tried to make the quotes I used in this analysis as easy to read as possible, but there were a lot of parentheses in the quotes I used so whenever I wanted to explain what something meant or clarify something, I completely closed and reopened my quote. Sorry if I made things more difficult to understand. It’s a struggle.

Anyway, this is wordy on purpose and meant to be formatted formally because I really like that style of analysis as compared to my looser commentary type.

Parallels:

Parallels are the best things. They’re phenomenal. And they create this easy way for readers to reflect on stories. And the one in this episode? Ooooooooo boy. I mean, it’s not exactly a new parallel, but it is the best and most important, recurring parallel in the entire plotline of UnOrdinary. And because of the way this parallel presents itself in this week’s episode, it will be discussed in the section below. This section just had to be included to acknowledge the great parallel work in this comic. Parallels are just such a great element and their use in UnOrdinary is extraordinary. Felt this needed to be said, repeatedly.

John:

This section will be the main, and only section for this episode analysis (discluding the small bit above) because it is extremely important and deserves your full attention. The episode this week was obviously very John centered and put heavy emphasis on his unhealthy relationships with Cecile, Seraphina, e.t.c., and though things similar have been touched on in the past, this episode has been the most obvious, the most telling, about this theme.

In this episode, we are reminded, again, of John’s obsession with Seraphina. And I said something similar in my post about episode 165, but, until recently, this hasn’t really stood out to the extent that it should. John has always seemed ‘obsessed’ with Seraphina, but there has never really been proper focus on that, as there is more and more of now. In episode 165, Arlo was explaining to Seraphina his history with John and kept saying that John would work himself up into a rage on her behalf, which, yeah we all knew, but it had never been pointed out as something as extreme as what Arlo described it as, which allowed us to view the whole situation in a whole new light. In this episode, John’s obsession with Seraphina is even more obvious, him growing so overwhelmed with anxiety at the thought of Seraphina not siding with him. He gets violent with Cecile, who really had nothing to do with Seraphina’s actions, and then right after hitting her to the ground, grabs her, and demands that she tell him what Sera said about him. The intensity of the way the panels read is hard to replicate in words. The comic really puts effort (the colors, blurs, etc) into stressing the feeling and passion behind John’s actions and words, multiplying the impact of what he is doing, what he’s saying. John’s anger is meant to be an intense thing and has always been meant to.

Now, the surface level objective of this episode is to stress John’s obsession with Seraphina, as the comic has been touching on and doing for the past couple of episodes. We are working towards a confrontation of some sorts, there is no doubt. But another very standout thing in this episode, and what I teased on in the introductory section, are the flashbacks from John to his past at New Bostin. The images of Adrion and Claire keep plaguing him. They always have. I said in the beginning of this post that they are “recurring”. In episode 161, there were similar flashbacks to this episode, and John kept seeing Claire. Anyways, these flashbacks, though they’ve always been recurring, have been becoming more and more common as of recently. And as I kept repeating in my analysis of episode 161, it’s hinting at how John’s past has slowly been catching up with him, overtaking him. John has been running from his past for so long, but now it’s leaking into his new created personality. This is very important to what my main idea of this post is.

The particular use of the parallels in this week’s episode is very interesting as a development from episode 161 because in ep 161, the images of Claire and New Bostin came in flashes as John’s subconscious saw similar images before him. In this episode, however, John doesn’t only get these split second flashbacks when he sees something that reminds him of his past, he is actively thinking about his past, which is such a huge leap. There is a major difference between being reminded of something because of a similar image and being reminded of something either because you experience a similar emotion (the beginning of this episode) or if you are seemingly unprompted by the current moment (the end of this episode). It is a sign that those images and thoughts are circulating around John’s head more and more (especially considering that there was a time when John would go months without experiencing a flashback). Again, this is teasing how John’s past is overwhelming him bit by bit. I keep repeating this and it’s for a reason. It. is. Important. John has been able to feel angry or passionate in the comic without reexperiencing his past before and the implication that that is no longer true is alarming.

I know I keep referring to the fact that John’s inner self, his past self, has been overwhelming and overtaking his new personality. I literally just said it. I’ve said it multiple times in both this post and in episode 161. And I’ve also just described the stark difference of John’s flashbacks in the earlier days of the comic until now. John rarely would get a flashback, only in nightmares or maybe an image every once in a while. Now, because the last few scenes where we got to see inside John’s head have included flashbacks, it’s safe to say that this is a very common occurrence now. This means that not only is the John of John’s past is overtaking him, but also that it has already made a huge amount of progress. I said in my analysis of episode 161, “His [John’s] evil half (symbolized by Joker) is interacting with, confronting, his better half (symbolized by Sera),” (referencing an earlier comment about how Sera represents the good in John), “. . . . -In both the image of Seraphina and the image of Claire, either John or Joker is standing above them, obviously a more powerful and evil force. And the fact that both are direct symbols of John implies that this [John’s evil side] is the side of John that is much more dominant.” The fact that there was sensible enough evidence in episode 161 that I felt I could tell that John’s dark side, his past self, was already greater than his better side means that currently, as we are now at episode 167, it is even greater. Assuming, of course, that the concept of it’s growth really is how I’ve described it to be.

All of these statements lead up to the same conclusion: John now isn’t the John he tried to be (the cripple, the dreamer, the passive). The fabricated John has been the lesser percentage of John for at least (and likely greater than if we look at the rate of growth) seven episodes now, using my evidence. This means:

John isn’t the John we know, isn’t the character we were introduced to in 2016. He has regressed back into the old John. The John of New Bostin who became king and went on a violent rampage, brutalizing, what was it, half of his class? We don’t know much about him other than that because John tried to hide from that side of himself for so long. And the idea of John not being who he tried to be is confusing as a concept when you realize that we don’t fully understand exactly who this ‘dark John’ or ‘past John’ is. And more importantly, we don’t know yet why he’s come back. I know that I’ve already said that the flashbacks to New Bostin have been evidence of the takeover, but why did they occur in the first place? Why couldn’t John maintain that illusion of the person he wanted to be?

I’m going to be straightforward with this part. First of all, Seraphina actually unknowingly played a huge part in John’s fantasy. We know that he relied on her. We know that he trusted her. But recently, Seraphina has been spending less and less time with John. Because: obviously, she knows now that he is Joker and wants nothing to do with him. Seraphina’s (who, again, for John represents his improved, fake self) absence has strongly affected John’s mind and rationality. The second reason as to why John wasn’t able to continue pretending to be who he wanted is a little more simple. It’s because John’s fabricated self was just that, fabricated. A fake was never going to hold up against John’s true nature or his true mind. And we know that John’s false personality was just him avoiding his old self, as John has canonically said multiple times. Due to the extreme lengths that John went to to delay his past self from overtaking him, old John is coming back strong.

Here’s where things get more interesting for me and more closely related to the concept of the recurring parallel that I was talking about earlier. John’s past self has been slowly manifesting itself into the fabricated John’s mind through flashbacks of their past. And because nothing else seems to get fake John as responsive, I’m going to assume that this is the only way that the true John has been able to make progress towards overtaking John’s body, through unwanted flashbacks reminding John of the reality of himself.

I’ve been very vague this whole analysis, not really using details from the actual episode (this episode: episode 167) to support anything that I’ve been saying, just using the general concepts, but here I want to talk about the flashbacks in particular and their contents. In this episode, the first flashback we get from John is after Cecile describes to him how Seraphina and Arlo have been meeting up and talking with each other. John instantly thinks of something that happened at New Bostin: his old errand boy, Adrion, is telling him that Claire has been meeting up with the jack. Not only that, but that Claire and the jack were gathering a crowd of students to attempt to take down John. Hold on to this because, obviously this mental association is going to impact John’s future actions.

The last flashback in this episode is when John is at home and rethinking his conversation with Cecile. We get the same images from John: his past self being warned that Claire and the jack were recruiting his enemies behind his back to take him down. But this time, after, we get the thought, “Sera… She wouldn’t… would she?” And the use of this particular scene in context of Seraphina and John’s relationship plus their current situation is very obvious about the message it is trying to convey.

The content of the flashbacks paired with John’s current situation suggests that John is relating what is happening to him now to his past, molding them together into this illusion. Because of the images of New Bostin appearing, John has convinced himself that he is in the same situations once again. This is big. This is huge. John’s flashbacks are making it so that John cannot separate the present from the past. He cannot exist at Wellston without his subconscious relating everything that is happening to what happened to John at New Bostin. He cannot tell the two apart, which is what I’ve been trying to express for this whole post and what I’d like to talk about. It caused the downfall of his attempt to reinvent himself and will cause the downfall of John in the future of the comic as both a leader, and as a friend.

But there is another flashback in this episode that I want to point your attention to. It does not appear in the same form as the others. It is not an image. It actually occurs in John’s outburst at Seraphina. It was obviously something so unexpected from John for him to blame Seraphina’s problems on her. Seraphina hasn’t done anything to wrong John, correct? In fact, she is (or was), in a way, acting as his emotional crutch, helping him in creating that illusion of his fake self. And yet, we see this fit from John at her expense, dragging her down, blaming her. I’m here to say that this. Is. A. Flashback. You will see why later, but honestly, because I’ve labeled this as a flashback for you, I’m sure it’s clear what I’m trying to get at and it’s been clear, but just in case you don’t understand my main point:

I keep saying that John cannot now separate his present from his past, but I haven’t exactly stressed what that means. This means that John also cannot separate people at Wellston from the people he knew at New Bostin. This episode’s flashbacks to Claire and situations revolving around her and the comparison to current events revolving around Seraphina, and especially the outburst by John at her; they all suggest that John doesn’t see Seraphina as her own person anymore, maybe that he never has (I’ll give John the benefit of the doubt though and say that for the majority of their friendship, he was able to view her in an unbiased and unaffected way).

It’s become clear that John is, currently at least, viewing Seraphina as another Claire. And I think that I’ve become numb to that after literally days of being obsessed with that fact and sorting through my thoughts to write it down here. But I first thought of this the night episode 167 came out and it completely blew my mind because everything lines up.

And obviously, the outburst in this episode towards Seraphina was formed from pent up anger towards Claire when she betrayed John. It’s pretty obvious now after I’ve told you what I think, but to John, because Claire’s betrayal started in the same way that it is presented that Arlo and Seraphina are talking, John is automatically assuming that it is the exact same situation. And he is channeling all of his anger at Claire for betraying him at Seraphina because he thinks that she’ll do the same thing Claire did because obviously, he has trouble distinguishing Claire from Serpahina, has trouble realizing that just because Claire would do one thing, Serpahina could do something completely different.

This statement helps to clarify all of my previous statements of, ‘the parallels in this comic, and especially this episode are amazing.’ Before now, there hasn’t technically been a clear parallel, but this parallel? It is no doubt the most important in UnOrdinary. So if the praise had seemed a little bit unwarranted until now, I apologize. I just really love parallels.

Anyways, the main idea of this whole post is that: John’s subconscious isn’t able to move past the events of New Boston, and while creating a whole new personality did help John pretend like he did for a while, it was only a temporary fix and is causing him to experience this fresh wave of trauma that wouldn’t have been as harsh if he didn’t run from it. John will never be free from the events of New Bostin and he will never be able to forget it. And: he will also never be able to move past being the person he was, the real him. Becoming his true self, the New Bostin John, is, and always was, unavoidable. And because his subconscious will never develop or evolve from New Bostin, because he can never move on, John is not able to completely distinguish between the past and the present, forever returning mentally to New Bostin. He is not able to fully view other people as separate from his past and automatically associates his friends and classmates with people he used to know, holding on to the biases from his past (ex. Hating on Seraphina because he associates her with Claire). John is also associating any current event with something that happened to him in the past, causing him to act disproportionately or irrationally when the situation does not call for it.

Even shorter: John thinks Sera is Claire and is hardcore relating the current storyline to his past at New Bostin. And parallels are literal works of art. Good day.

Bit of a choppy ending, but I was never good at those.

#unordinary #episode 167 #official #webtoon #unordinary webtoon #episode analysis

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dietaku · 5 years ago

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Amazing Quest 1: Chapter 4

The fourth chapter. You know how it is. Thanks for reading!

Chapter 4: 2 Million Leagues Under the Sea!- We get another sepia tone flashback, this time of an only slightly-younger Hiro and Emilia. Emilia: Well… your form is good. But you swing your sword like a little girl. Hiro: I don’t like hurting people, sis. Besides, everyone knows YOU’RE the messiah the Pudding tribe has awaited! I’m only here because mom had that bottle of aged tequila lying around. Emilia: That has nothing to do with anything! You need to have more confidence! … Wait, I got just the ticket! Emilia runs behind Hiro and plays with his hair. Hiro: Um. What’re you doing? Emilia: I’m giving you a Pudding Warrior Knot in your hair. It’s an ancient custom of our tribe that when a Pudding Warrior comes of age, he gets one! Hiro: Oh. That’s pretty neat. Emilia finishes, presenting the now French braided hero, Hiro, we know now. Hiro: Somehow I feel more fabulous than before. Can’t quite place my finger on it. Emilia: It’s perfect! You’ll be beating up Dark Puddings before you know it! The scene fades, then returns, Hiro, Ozma, Kimyawa and Loyroll laid out on a beach. Hiro: Ungh. I wonder why I never dream in color. Hiro gets up and the others join him. You’ll soon discover this area is only one screen wide, so you’re left to exhaust every possibility until you investigate the water. Not just any water, though, the ONE specific square, just to the left of center. Many players wasted HOURS trying to find this event flag, and many people wrongly believed it was an anti-piracy measure. Nope. Just shoddy programming. The mermaid from before surfaces. Mermaid: So, thief, ready to pay up? Ozma: Hey! We don’t even HAVE a thief in this party! Hiro: Just a reasonable facsimile. Loyroll: You flatter me, as always. Mermaid: You yoinked the goods from that place without paying its rightful owner! Kimyawa: Isn’t that technically liberating it? Mermaid: QUIT CHANGING THE TOPIC! Kimyawa: What’s your name, Stranger-chan? Mermaid: I’m Mancala! Call me Manny and I’ll punch ya in the mug, got it?! I’m the number one marine merchant mermaid you’ll ever see in the sea! Ozma: Meh, mehmehmeh? Mancala: Ignoring that. The point is you took stolen property. So I’m gonna maroon you here until you pay up! Hiro: (Great. Now what do we do?!) You then get a prompt which can result in some different dialogue options. 1) Barter 2) Lie 3) Beg -Barter- Hiro: Okay. It was just a few things. Can’t be THAT expensive. What’s the tab? Mancala: Well… since you asked so nicely! Mancala brandishes an abacus and begins calculating. Mancala: The items total net value, plus the emotional damage to this delicate mermaid, plus interest, plus tax not withheld, plus tax withheld, social security, deducting the “asked so nicely” fee… it all tallies up to a measly 36 trillion gold! Ozma: Can I crush her head like an overripe melon? Hiro: T-trillion?! Are you MAD?! Mancala: If you’re nice, I’ll even include the “cute boy” deduction! That would knock it all the way down to 34! Loyroll: And certainly a deduction for yours truly, if I may be so bold? Mancala: I’m not into girls. … Much. Loyroll: Pardon? Hiro: There’s no way we have that much. That price is absurd. I refuse. Mancala: SAY WHAT NOW?! -Lie- Hiro: What if I told you I know of a great treasure?! It’d more than make up the difference! Mancala: Okay, I’m listening now. Kimyawa: Hiro-ni-chan! You DO?! You’ve been holding out on us?! Ozma: Hiro, how could you?! Loyroll: Most unfabulous of you, my friend. Hiro: … Mancala: … Hiro: Err. Friendship is a sacred treasure, above all material wealth in the Pudding society! Ozma: (So it was just a lie…) Mancala: *Sigh* -Beg- Hiro: Please don’t make me beg. I am not a proud man. Ozma, Kimyawa & Mancala: (This is about to get really hot…) Hiro: (Suddenly, my pride is flaring up within me and I don’t know why…) Loyroll: Well? We’re waiting. Hiro: On second thought, I think I’ll just take a moment to absorb the scenery instead. Mancala: (Darn…) Regardless of your choice, it comes back to here afterward. Mancala: This isn’t getting us anywhere! Hiro: Is there no way to come to an agreement on this? Mancala: Well… you could be my servants for a while! Y’know, help with this, that and the other for a bit and we could call it square! Hiro: I somehow get the impression you’re more ambitious than that. Mancala: Aww, you flirt~! Hiro: (Not the intended reaction. Why does it feel like my life is in danger now?) Ozma & Kimyawa: *Stare* Hiro: At any rate, we don’t have the kind of money on-hand to pay. So I guess we’ve no choice. Mancala: Well, you’re in luck! I just so happened to overhear some of the Dark Puddings talking about the Water Talisman. Hiro: You did? Where is it now?! Mancala: In the Octopus Garden. It’s some ancient ruins not far from my hometown, Mermania. Regrettably, those have been locked up tight since far back as anyone can remember. But I just so happen to know some juicy gossip that may lead us to a key. The Legendary Ice Key! Hiro: Sounds like a lead! Ozma: Or a diversion from the main plot. Poh-tay-toe, pah-tah-tow. Mancala: Either way, I need some henchmen and you need the talisman, right?! I knew it soon as I saw that birthmark! Hiro takes a moment to examine himself. Hiro: Okay, seriously, where is this birthmark you people keep going on about and why do I not see it? Mancala: But that whole “air-breather” problem… there’s only one fix for that! Hiro: Oh no, not another racket… Mancala: Calm down, calm down. It’s a Mermaid’s Kiss! Hiro: Oh. Is that some kind of stone? Or maybe a plant? Or— Mancala leaps from the water, her tail morphs into legs, allowing her to glomp Hiro. Accompanying in a loud, cartoonish “SMOOCH” sound effect, which always gets a giggle out of me. Hiro: W-whoa. That was… brusque. Ozma: *Furious* Kimyawa: *Envious* Loyroll: *Yawns* Are we ready to go now? Then we can enter the water and dive to the underwater map. Though, thanks to aquatic canyons, we can’t just go anywhere we want… yet. Our first stop is down south a ways at Mermania, a recurring city throughout the franchise. There, we can get the “Bikni” armors for our female party members, which give a serviceable boost in defense to each. Hiro and Loyroll can get the “Trnks” which are a step up, but not as huge of one. How does an armor that covers less protect more? It is one of the long, lost legendary mysteries of JRPGs. Anyways, if we talk around at the merchant’s guild here, we’ll learn that Mancala has lost her trader’s license 17 different times due to “questionable practices”. The others roll their eyes when they learn this news but refrain from commenting. After talking to enough merfolk, Mancala fans out from the party. Mancala: Okay! We got everything we need? The legendary ice key is held in the underwater volcano! Hiro: I’d question the physical possibilities but somehow I feel like I’d just be encouraging you at this point. Mancala: Oh, don’t be so glum, chum! It’s pretty much a straight line there! … With a few curves and bumps. And a giant, angry dragon at the bottom. Hiro: Ah. There’s the hitch. I was waiting for that. Loyroll: Slaying a dragon? It’s a tad cliché but I think we can handle that! Mancala: Then what’re we waiting for?! Let’s do it! Ozma: What? You mean stroll up to the dragon and punch it in the face? Mancala: … Yes? Ozma: Metal. Kimyawa: Sugoi, Ozma-chan! At this point we can move back to the ocean floor and the cave in the top-right area is open now. Had we gone he previously, Hiro would’ve met the Giant Sentient Block, a really existential gag that plagues AQ players for years to come. In fact, in the early-internet era, whether this pseudo-character even existed was up for debate, as most of his appearances in this game are very easily missed. The cave itself is pretty straight-forward, except about midway, where the current puzzles spell out great confusion for those who tried to brute force the puzzles, which would flush them down a comically oversized pit where you’d battle the Toilet Snake monster, which is obsessed with poison attacks. Otherwise, the local monsters like the Munchkinfish, Seaweeder, and Poof Fish are actually quite weak compared to other monsters around this level. Here you can find a Coral Abacus for Mancala, replacing the nonsense “TmSn” Abacus she comes with normally (the Japanese name is “Termite Snack” and I guess they were okay with letting everyone assume it meant “Thompson” or something!). Afterward, you just press on down the stairs… up until you enter the gameshow chamber. Yeah, that’s not a joke. The party fans out and stands behind a podium as a huge, anime octopus-man plops down in a suit and tie. Octopus: Welcome, ladies and gentlefish to Amazing Quest: The Game Show: The Video Game: Home Edition v. 1992! I’m your host, Otto! And you lucky heroes are in for a treat today! You get to try my quiz game challenge! Win and you’ll receive fabulous prizes! Fail and you get… well, nothing! Are we ready to play?! We then get a prompt of “Squid yeah!” or “Fin no!”, but obviously the game won’t let you progress until you at least TRY, so, yeah… Otto: Question 1 will be an easy one to get your feet wet! What tribe is Hiro from? We get a prompt between “Pudding”, “Protagonist” and “Team Laser Explosion”. The answer is quite obvious. Otto: Correct! Question 2: What is Ozma’s family name? This one is a little trickier, being given the possible answers “Trouble”, “Tohrubble” and “Toruble”. Just be aware of what her name REALLY is, and you’ll be fine. Otto: Great job! Really kraken ‘em up! Question 3: What mystical artifacts, when united, unleash a great and terrible power? The answers this time are: “The DisKord Stones”, “Hell’s Bells”, and “The Talismans”. Interestingly enough, the other options are shout-outs to DOS-era adventure titles, which AQ4 later also shouts out to. Otto: Whooo! Now we’re gilly getting into it! Question 4: What elemental affinity is the first boss of this game? The prompt is just Fire, Water and Pie, so the answer is obviously water as it was the monster in Fog Tower. If you say Pie, Otto’s arms drop to his sides, as he turns to face the player directly and will stare at you for 10 tedious, unnerving seconds before prompting you to try again. Otto: ALRIGHT! Last one and this one separates the squids from the suckers! Question 5: Which of these is NOT an element of magic?! The answer prompt this time is four options wide, including: “Music”, “Emotion”, “Boobs” and “Food”. You’d only know the answer to this if you read the instruction booklet – which specifically references the elements of magic in the AQ universe. This is kind of a jerk move by the game devs, as losing the manual in the early SNES era was a foregone conclusion by all but the most dedicated collectors. The answer is technically food, but the AQ manga series actually contradicts this during the “Great Pudding Cook-Off” arc. Otto: N-no way! What an amazing contestant we had on the show! Everyone, put your fins together for our new winners! A bunch of fish suddenly leap-on screen and shake about excitedly as the SNES strains to emulate the sound of uproaring applause. Then they retreat to whence they came. Otto: How do you feel? Hiro: A little drunk? Otto: YOU HEARD IT HERE, FOLKS! Now, enjoy your fabulous prizes! For answering all five correct, we get 3 “Fishy Hats” which are helmet upgrades that anyone in the party can put on. We’re then booted from the quiz room and resume our trek through for a few more rooms up until we reach the boss chamber. There, there’s a huge hole in the center of the room, glowing red. Hiro: I have to assume this is where the dragon awaits us. Mancala: Better go up and check just to be sure, Hiro! We’ll wait back here, where it’s safe! Hiro: *Sigh* Very well. One moment. Hiro walks to the lip and looks down. Hiro: Deep. But I don’t see anything. Hiro kicks a small stone from the lip down below, then puts a hand to his ear to listen for it. Hiro: … Deep. Very deep. But I still don’t— The screen begins violently shaking. Hiro: Well, I’ve been wrong before. -Boss Fight!- Trench Serpent LP: 7500 MP: 1000 This gigantic beast is a real threat at last! I hope you took the time to level up on your way here! Your best bet is use Kimyawa’s Fox Flip, if you’re leveled high enough to have it by now, which can briefly confuse the monster to some considerable effect. However, it mandates being quite a bit over-leveled to use here, so she may be money ahead to spam the Mirror of Kii. The serpent’s most dangerous move is “COWABUNGA!” which sends a killer tidal wave over the party – never mind that we’re already underwater during this fight. Your Pudding Swirls should be sufficient, provided you’re not careless. If you monitor your HP burn, you should come out on top. -Boss Fight!- Hiro: Whew… that was surprising. Mancala: Look! The Ice Key! A banana in a block of ice floats down to Hiro’s hands. Hiro: I lack the words. As usual. Mancala: We have it! Now we can go to the Octopus’ Garden! Hiro: Tell me it’s not a quiz game. Mancala: Probably not! Loyroll: Life is far more fun when you never know what comes next, right? Hiro: I guess so. At this point we –can- go on to the next area, if we wanted to. However, a hilarious and easily-missed Easter egg awaits those who return back to Zaius and Heston. The people gather at a neutral ground once you walk into one of the cities. Hiro: Okay. Everyone. Watch very carefully. I’m gonna bring peaceful resolution to this once and for all. Hiro brandishes his sword, then cuts the Ice Key clean in half. Mancala: HIRO! WHAT THE HELL?! Hiro: Just watch. This is going some place. Hiro takes the banana free of the ice, then peels it from center-out on both ends. Crowd: WHAT?! N-no way! No one has ever… how did he DO THAT?! Hiro: See? Now you understand: there’s more than just two ways to do something! And each is equally valid. And now we all learned an important lesson, right? Crowd: HE HAS ANGERED THE VOLCANO GODS! Hiro: Beg pardon? The camera pans out as a nearby mountain erupts into a volcano, the magma pours out and wipes out both villages in a flash. It then cuts back to the party. Mancala: Oh. Right. This place is ruled by the twin brother gods of volcanoes: Rilk and Klir. They also had very particular food habits. And banana peeling was one of their sacred doctrines. Hiro: … How was I supposed to know that? So with two more destroyed cities under our belts, we find the Melted Blade, a new sword for Hiro as we return to the sea for the Octopus Garden. The garden is a 3D maze, using a really curious fixed-perspective isometric view and water spouts that move Hiro up and down as you run through. People have wasted HOURS of their lives here due to the numerous deadends and confusing layout. This is also only the first screen. The second area has moving platforms which Hiro must traverse in order to cross a river. For some reason, this ordeal seems quite nostalgic, doesn’t it? The third area introduces the garden’s true gimmick – the octopus jars and the red and blue octopi. When you get here, the party fans out. Mancala: Ah. I’ve heard of this room. We have to approach it from a certain angle! Hiro: I don’t suppose you know what it is? Mancala: Grandma said this: red octopi are friendly and will pull you near them for a closer look! Blue octopi are shy and if approached, will politely move you away from their homes! But don’t fear – neither will harm you! Hiro: What on Earth does THAT mean?! Mancala: I dunno. Why? Hiro: … Kimyawa: Nii-chan, I think I understand! The octopi-tachi are different colors here. Red will pull us near from far away and blue will push us from near to far. And the room is full of holes in the floor. So, to progress, we need octopi-tachi to move us from one spot to another. Hiro: So the riddle lies in the color and the distance. I see. This is the most head-scratching moments in the game, not due to the base mechanics, but to how fiendishly clever the rooms that lie ahead really are. As explained, red octopi reach out three or four spaces ahead to grab us, but will ignore us if we’re one or two spaces out from them, and blue octopi ignore us at distances of three or greater, and will move us away from them three to four spaces if we approach. Using this knowledge we must move about the map step by step to progress. The first room is very simple and just a test of how each works. The second room adds more walls and holes in the floor to test your critical thinking. The third room adds floors that collapse once stepped on (which reset if you leave and come back) and the final room adds conveyer belts for a touch of twitch-reflex testing! Even with random encounters turned off for these moments, this still routinely gets ranked in the top 5 most hair-pullingly frustrating dungeons in the series. Once you get to the end, we see another pit not unlike the underwater volcano end area. Mancala: Oh? Is this the center area of the Octopus Garden? Ozma: Ugh. Not a recolor boss fight. How uncreative can you get? The area rumbles as a large, purple Trench Serpent rises from below. Kimyawa: Ozma-chan, Snake-san didn’t like that comment. Hiro: Get ready, everyone! Before the battle can begin, something flashes across the screen, and the serpent roars, sinking back into the abyss. Hiro: Wait, what? Who was that?! ?: Light Puddings! Prepare yourselves! Ozma: Uh. Strictly speaking only one among us is a Pudding! A tall, slender man with an oversized tower shield on each arm stands before the party. Man: I am Praetorian Mih! Hiro: Of course you are. Loyroll: I understand your frustration, my friend, but you must admit, he’s got style! Mih: You’ve done enough damage, Light Pudding! It’s time your little escapade— Hiro: Excuse me. Mih: What? Hiro: How are you breathing right now? Did you kiss a mermaid too? Mih: Huh? Hiro: We’re underwater, so I just wanted to know if we did the same thing is all or if there was a better way. Mih: Kiss a mermaid? What are you on about? Everyone knows mermaids aren’t real. Mancala: *Ahem* Mih: Bah! I tire of this. Enough banter! Have at you! -Boss Battle!- Praetorian Mih LP: 8800 MP: 750 Praetorian Mih is every bit the human wall his massive design and dual-wielding shields might indicate, coupled with by far the most LP of anything we’ve yet encountered. The best thing to do is to use Ozma’s Table Flip in hopes it reduces this giant’s defenses and use Pudding Swirl with Hiro and Kimyawa in order to give him the offensive edge needed to compete. Loyroll should use the Mirror of Kii, exploiting Mih’s middling magic defenses. Mih’s most annoying ability will be “Safe & Sound”, a special technique accompanied by an unusually cool trumpet solo which will render him virtually invincible for two rounds before he opens up with a party-wide physical blow. However, if you can weather this, he has a 3 turn cooldown on the ability, so he cannot spam it. You’ll have to play the endurance game just as much as he does, but if you keep it up, you’ll send him packing. -Boss Battle!- Mih: Hahaha! Not bad. Not bad at all. But it will take way more than that to defeat the Human Wall, Praetorian Mih! Hiro: How many more times are you going to introduce yourself?! Loyroll: It seems our unstoppable tempo has met with an unmoving mountain! Kimyawa: Nii-chan, I think you’re mixing your metaphors. Ozma: Don’t give up. I have an idea! But I’ll need your help, Mancala! Mancala: Huh? Uh. Okay! Lay it on me! What’s the plan?! Ozma palms Mancala’s head in her hand. Mancala: Eh? Wait, what— Ozma then hurls Mancala head-first into Mih, who slides back as she impacts, coming to the rim of the pit behind him. Mancala falls flat, stars circling her head. Mancala: BARF! Mih: Hahahaa! You must be truly desperate to resort to such flailing, desperate measures! Ozma: Oh, am I? Mih: Huh? What did you…? Oh no! Mih panics, desperately attempting to run as the cliff below him gives out and he plummets into the pit below. After a few seconds of a whistling, falling sound, we hear a violent crash below. Kimyawa: Yatta! Hiro: That was, uh, a creative way of dealing with that. Ozma: I’m pretty pleased with myself. Mancala: My poor head… I’m gonna feel that for weeks! Ozma: Oh, walk it off. Mancala: How do you walk off a headache?! Hiro: C’mon, guys. The water talisman must be… huh? Do you guys hear something? The area rumbles distantly. Suddenly, an explosion rockets up from the pit, sending the party skyward. Hiro: He exploded?! Loyroll: Not just him! The serpent too! Hiro: BECAUSE THAT MAKES SO MUCH SENSE, RIGHT?! Something shiny flies among the party. Kimyawa: Sugoi! The water talisman! Guy-nii-chan! Ozma: I got it! Ozma grabs Mancala’s tail and swings her around, causing Mancala to grab it. Mancala: STOP THAT, YOU CRAZY BITCH! Ozma: But it just feels SO RIGHT! How can it be wrong?! Ozma learns the Dual Tech – Fish Slap! She’ll grab Mancala’s tail and swing her about like a flail, dealing great damage to a single target. This move deals water-type damage. And we get the Water Talisman! Ozma: The important thing is that we got the Water Talisman now, right? Hiro: No! The important thing is that we’re ABOUT TO FALL AND DIE!!! Ozma: Such a gloomy gus… The party is then viewed falling, crash-landing in a seaside village on the opposite side of one of the underwater canyons that previously prevented our passage from Mermania. They pick themselves up and survey the town. Mancala: Oh! I know where this is! This is Trackland, the town known for its enormous race track and horrible, crippling gambling debt! Hiro: That seems… informative. Never heard of a place that bagged on their own town when they were naming it. Ozma: Might as well have a look around. I don’t see anything else we can do for now. Here we can buy some upgrades, like Kimyawa’s CatCap helmet, Ozma’s Blaz Knuckles and Hiro’s Shing Sword, provided you didn’t find the Melted Blade earlier. By talking to the locals, we learn the Dark Puddings have already ransacked their town, and now their sole joy remains in the race track – famous for being so long it’s also the main highway to the next town! We then go to talk to the operations manager to find a means down said road. Hiro: Hello. We were wondering if it would be alright to head down the race track to the next town. Ops Guy: No, no, no. You don’t “head down” the race track. You RACE down it! That’s why they call it a RACE track! Mancala: Yeah? Then why do they call something you drive on a parkway and something you park on a driveway?! Ops Guy: Look, I don’t make the rules – I just enforce them. If you try any funny business, I’ll run your butts down and drag you back here for the biggest lecture of your lives! So race properly or don’t race at all! The party leaves the room, then spreads out again. Hiro: Well, so much for the direct route. Ozma: Anyone have any ideas? Loyroll: Why not do what he said? After all, a race sounds like fun! No one can keep up with our tempo! Mancala: We can’t just run the track. We’d pass out from exhaustion before we hit the midway. We need something we can ride. We need a pack mule! Hiro: A town renowned for its race track? Well, there has to be a ranch nearby with animals for such an occasion. Let’s ask around. Heading over to the ranch on the east side of town we can talk to the rancher – a strangely feminine man in a long, white trench coat. Hiro: We need— Rancher: A monster for the race, right? Hiro: Wow, you’re— Rancher: I am pretty awesome. Moreover, you’re wasting your time. The Dark Puddings raided my ranch last month and I’m still putting the pieces back together. Hiro: Isn’t there anything— Rancher: Yeah, if you get a few million going spare, I could lend you one of my thoroughbreds I’ve been raising. Hiro: We don’t have— Rancher: Neither does anyone else, bro. If you want the bargain bin, you’re in luck. This way. Hiro: Are you going to let me— Rancher: No. The rancher leads us over to one particular pen where a sad, squat lizard-like creature with a camel’s hump, two wings and two tails, weighed down by mace-like appendages crawls out. It coughs out dust on Hiro’s boots. Hiro: Is it dying? Rancher: I can only hope. This here is the bottom of the bottom of the barrel. This is the last of the Griffohumps. Hiro: Okay, you’re gonna need to explain that one to me. Rancher: It’s half griffon, half camel-dog. Its eyes also don’t align properly and it’s wantonly flatulent. I’ll let you take it for 100 gold. Take it or leave it. Hiro: Well, that’s a very reasonable price. For an unreasonable animal. I was thinking more of something like a horse… Rancher: Then you’re out of luck, chum. What little I have left other than this guy is for rebuilding and repopulating my ranch. Hiro: Looks like I don’t have much of a choice. We then get a Yes/No prompt, which is entirely pointless as saying no means we just walk around town until we go back and say Yes. In the GBA remake, however, if Kimyawa is level 37 (really, only a few levels higher than the average for this segment) and knows her Fox Inferno technique, this entire segment takes on an entirely DIFFERENT connotation as Kimyawa can replace the Griffohump as our pet in this minigame. But that’s creepy. So I’ll stick with the SNES version, thank you very much. The Griffohump is then dropped into a special Virtual Pet-style menu, which we can access whenever we want by speaking with the rancher. We’re then prompted to name the little guy – his default name is “Stinky”. We can feed it either mundane items, or special items the rancher will offer to sell us, which influence its stats. We can train it in minigames, or by fighting it like it was a monster encounter – which is the most effective means to raise it. Unequip the party and let it beat on the party and its stats will skyrocket, especially if it KOs the party. We can also have Hiro pet it and talk to it, which makes Hiro spout off nonsense jokes that were poorly translated from their original Japanese counterparts. You may persist in doing this as long as you’d like or until you hit the ludicrous 999 stat caps. Really, if you get it to around 150 in everything, Energy, Speed, Acceleration and Defense, you don’t need anything more than that. Return to the ops guy. Ops Guy: You again?! Didn’t you hear me?! Hiro: We’d like to enter the race properly now! Ops Guy: Really now? Well, that’s an entirely different story. Ready to begin? We then get a Yes/No prompt. Select Yes to continue. Ops Guy: Alright! To the starting line! This cues up the race minigame, with Hiro sitting astride the Griffohump, who is barely larger than his owner. The race itself involves running to the right-hand side of the screen as other racers try to jump on/over us. We’re ranked as we go and we must be in one of the top three places in order to win the minigame. Failure to do so drops us off where we started the race and Hiro mumbling something about “Not being on his A-Game today”. Clearing in higher ranks nets us better money and item rewards, but nothing worth freaking out over just yet – but they do get better as the plot progresses. But if we manage to win in 1st, 2nd or 3rd, we reach the chapter’s end! Narrator: And thus, Hiro and his party, riding gallantly atop Stinky, gracefully coast across the valley. What awaits them ahead? Only time will tell… We then get the Griffohump Feather, a key item we can use to access the virtual pet minigame from anywhere, anytime! Don’t forget to feed him from time to time!

#Adventure #fantasy #fiction #science fantasy #writing #infrequently asked questions #Amazing Quest

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hermionesterrier · 6 years ago

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More Than Human: Chapter 8 Liveblog!

“With the Girl at the Rock Show” *wink* *wink*

The change in the Blues' dynamic -in Boomer- is adorable and surreal and definitely healthier. Before this point, Boomer's obsession made me uncomfortable and now that he's so taken aback that she likes him back and she’s the one actually making the moves, he's so thrown off and nervous and falling so hard and just....KIDS *_*

Mrs. Morbucks = HBIC

I'm still not sure exactly what she does though....? Are we ever gonna find out?

Damn. So why aren't JS's clients looking for other Evil Corps to get their dirty work done?

Buttercup's blankie is making a guest appearance!! Bubbles, don't you dare hurt blankie!!

I feel like the girls' boyfriends would always come out scarred for life after a "conversation" with the Professor. Who knows what he does to those poor souls in his lab xD

Why do you want her to acknowledge your existence so badly, Brick, hmmm?

Hold on. Is that the same Julie from that messed family on the show? Or am I confusing Julies?

He glared at her. "You know, generally? You ask permission before doing that." "Generally you ask permission before letting a giant black spike of death stab a pretty girl in the heart, too," she responded. Daaaaamn, shots fired!

OH MY GOD THE LUNCH SCENE! ONE OF MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITES!! I'm gonna try not quote all of it xD

"You are setting a terrible example as a Senior." "I set a terrible example as a person," Butch corrected. I mean...no arguments there.

Ok, I really don't remember this Julie Bean from the show...

"I wouldn't solicit advice from someone who tried to sacrifice my sister in a dire situation." "That was an act of heroism!" he snapped. "Except it was going after you," Bubbles pointed out. "So it was less heroic and more cowardly," Buttercup said. "Say that a little louder, Buttercup," Brick seethed, his eyes glowing red. "I didn't quite catch that." Unperturbed, Buttercup looked him right in the eye and enunciated, "You're. A. Pussy." DAMN STRAIGHT!

"Speaking of fucking," Butch moaned. "This food? Is like an orgasm in my mouth."

I wanna taste Buttercup's food :'(

Even Brick's in love hahahahahaha

Did someone say Tabouli? *_* GIMME!

Poor Julie, she's so confused AHAHAHAHAHAHA

Ugh, get over yourself Brick. You're like a 5 year old throwing a temper tantrum because he's being ignored. And you did nothing to Bubbles? Really?

"I wish I'd been around to see that," he said, and meant it. He really did. He wished he hadn't been such a stupid little kid. He could've played with her, and they could've grown up friends instead of enemies, and he might've felt this sooner, this easing of an unbearable weight in his heart every time she looked at him, touched him, kissed him. This makes my heart ache. Blues are killing meeeeeee

Brick thinking he's so mature but actually being a complete baby tho AHAHAHAHAHAHA

Eww Butch stahp

THE PROFESSOR WATCHING ALL THE MALES LIKE A HAWK OMG HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Ugh Brick is so stupid I can't even...JUST ADMIT YOU WANTED TO SEE HER DANCE YOU IDIOT

"Butch, boobies," Bubbles said simply, and Butch suddenly shot to. "Where?" he said, eyes frantically darting around. Well that was easy xD

The Blues just standing there hugging tho xD

Bubbles wrapped her arm around Boomer's and beamed at him. "Come on," she said sweetly, encouragingly. Then she looked at Brick. A sudden chill shuddered through him at the sight of her expression, and before he could process it they were already gone. He couldn't even recall exactly what she had looked like as the door shut; it had happened so quickly and caught him so off guard. Bubbles may or may not be possessed but she definitely scares the shit out of Brick :')

That disappointment when you wanna see someone so bad and they're nowhere in sight. I feel ya, Blossom. Let me hug you.

Bubbles is such a little Reds shipper :D

Even I'm overwhelmed by how corny this is.

BUTTERCUP IS SINGING!!!!!

Boomer is outright challenging her. Show that bitch who’s boss, Buttercup!

The more comfortable she grew on stage, the more uncomfortable Butch grew watching her. Bubbles asked, "Butch? What's wrong?" "Great," he said, his voice flat. "She sounds great."

This Buttercup/Mitch conversation is fucking painful. All the would'ves and could'ves....

"I was talking with Mitch earlier," she said quietly, and Butch abruptly decided he'd never really liked Mitch anyway. CAN WE JUST TAKE A MOMENT TO APPRECIATE THAT THAT IS ALL IT TOOK FOR HIM TO DECIDE THAT? BUTTERCUP LOOKING SO SAD AND MITCH IS DONE FOR HIM

Butch struggling so hard to understand human emotion though...

"You've never really wanted to be with someone, have you, Butch?" she said, a small, bitter laugh curling around her words. Foreshadowing? :')

I cannot with the Greens. This rooftop scene is KILLING ME I’M GONNA CRY GIVE ME MY OTP PLZ SBJ PLZZZZZ

PERIOD DRESSES AND WHITE WIGS THIS IS ACTUALLY GOLDEN OMG AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Oh my god these costumes...whyyyyyy

It's interesting how well Brick is getting along with Buttercup and Bubbles. Like friends. Buttercup keeps talking to him and sharing her misery with him, while Bubbles just naturally gets along with everyone and everything. He's even acting like a normal person with Julie! And annoying Blossom, as usual hehehe

I wanna see what Bubbles is working on.

Buttercup jumping at the chance to embarrass Blossom with THAT STORY is what sisters are really for, isn't it?

I really wanna take hip hop classes

Mrs. Morbucks being a sly HBIC :D

Awww @ Blossom feeling pretty. You're beautiful all the time ❤

I hate this next part for her...

“Looks, brains, talent," Buttercup said, nodding. Her eyes glazed over. "Plus a chest that you want to... throw rocks at just so you can watch them bounce off." Bubbles shot her sister a look. "Buttercup, you... you're kinda weird." BUT THAT'S THE BEST THING ABOUT HER AHAHAHAHAHA

Fucking pedophile assholes leave Blossom the fuck alone how fucking dare you :(

Buttercup would kick (even more) ass being Evil...I think there was a comic or something where she lost her memories and joined the dark side?

All these ep references are making me want a PPG rewatch *_*

Brick wants to cheer her up so bad it's so...uncharacteristic and heartwarming

The AB virus...the only villainous thing the Amoeba Boys ever managed to do...unintentionally xD

BLOSSOM BEING A KNIGHT IN SHINING ARMOR LITERALLY SWEEPING BRICK OFF HIS FEET I LOVE ITTTT

I think I just fainted," Brick said feebly, eyes shut and breath once again warm and sick against her neck. "In front of everybody." "You crumpled to the floor in a very dignified manner," Blossom assured him. He pressed his head a little closer into her, almost a nuzzle. "So long as it was a manly faint." "Oh, I don't think it could've gotten more manly than that," she said, and turned to the silent room again once she reached his door. Everyone's eyes were still on the two of them. "At ease, men," she said dryly, and pushed into his room. MANLY FAINT AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

H O W did the girls not throw the sharpest object they could find at Butch? I totally would've. Not even exaggerating.

Way to ruin the moment, Brick.

UGH Blues being THAT couple

Someone learned his lesson and is actually accepting help :D

This is probably one of the most insightful conversations about Butch's psyche. His "jealousy" doesn't stem from the fact that it's Blossom, it stems from the fact that it's BRICK. It's not like he has problems getting girls, but, in his eyes, Brick gets everything and then some with no effort....can see why he thinks so. But then again, Brick's still a temperamental man-child with below zero social skills, so I guess you win some you lose some right?

Buttercup's right though. Butch likes bleeding for things. If he got the same things Brick does while also putting zero effort in it then he wouldn't want it anyway.

SHE'LL BE WAITING OKAY

Hmmm I wonder why Brick is taking so long to recover even though both his brothers were only sick for 1 day...does he have a lower immunity system? Or is it the pretty redhead taking care of him during this difficult time? :')

Boomer's deal with the Devil and how confused he is by Bubbles' horrified reaction...

There's something so incredibly sad and heartbreaking about Boomer's storyline here. When will Him come to collect, but more importantly, what will he be collecting...?

Mitch's grandmother tho...very Norman Bates-y xD

Not that into each other, Mitch? I call bullshit!

MOJO JOJO!!!!!

Awww, same, Bubbles I missed him too hahahaha

Mojo so offended and schooling Buttercup for her cussing tho xD

CLIFFHANGER DUN DUN DUNNN!!!

I really did try not to quote the whole entire chapter. I failed. Obviously xD

Click here for more quotable fic!

#sbj more than human #jess reads mth #my longest liveblog yet

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lovelysheepy · 6 years ago

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Eldritch Manors and Snow Globes

@spookyselfship Event Prompt Week 1 - Haunted Mansion

Rating: PG-13

Warnings: Major Character Death, Blood, and Gore.

Word Count: Approximately 4000 words

The shattering of a snow globe turns all of Hat Manor into a terrifying death trap, and unfortunately someone has to deal with the whole affair.

I woke up as the plane hit land at last. My eyes blinked the grogginess away as I tried to reaffirm myself back to reality and everything I’d need to do to return to my usual routine. My mind and eyes glaze over as I pick up my carry-on bag and exit the plane from my first class seat hat Black Hat insisted on, and I hurried to collect my luggage at the baggage claim.

Of all the things I expected, it certainly wasn’t Dr. Flug. I rubbed my eyes sleepily as I figured I was seeing shit - the doctor hardly ever left his laboratory, much less Hat Manor. I watched him twitch and look around in a panicked manner. I glanced at the baggage carousel to see if my luggage was there as I walked my way towards Flug.

“Hey.” I called to him. “What are you-”

He exclaims my name and runs towards me - cutting me off, clearly filled with anxiety. “Where were you this entire time?” I blinked at him in confusion at his distress.

“Out of the country.” I answered, trying to remain calm for Flug’s sake. “What’s wrong?”

“I need you to come back with me to the manor.” Flug insists, getting behind me and starting to push me forward.

“Hey!” I retort, using my heels to ground myself from moving. “Will you calm down?!”

“Calm down?! If you think I’m the one who needs calming, wait until you see your boyfriend!” Flug whispers to me, worried about making a scene. We caught a few stares, and I glared at everyone who did as some glanced away and some continued to stare.

“Well, I’ll go - but I need my fucking luggage first so can you keep a lid on it, paperbag?” I frown, obviously unhappy. As with most people, I did not enjoy being pushed around. I glance behind me, as Flug’s eyelids were half open in exasperation - clearly dissatisfied with my response. “Don’t give me that. I literally just got back after two weeks.”

“Fine.” Flug says, no longer trying to push me. Instead, he waits by the baggage carousel. I stand next to him, and he slips his hands into his pockets.

“What’s wrong with him?”

“Dementia… broke something. The Boss flipped. I’ll tell you more when there aren’t so many people around.”

I nod at him in understanding. After a few minutes my luggage finally shows up on the carousel, and I quickly go to retrieve it. We made our way to the airport’s parking lot in silence. I was tired and it was obvious Flug had something else on his mind. I felt a bitter taste in my mouth, hoping that I would have received a better greeting - this was the first I’ve ever been away from Black Hat and his subordinates. When we finally got to the black van that is Flug’s vehicle, company logo present on the side, Flug opens the back two doors of the van.

“Here.” Flug says, offering to take my luggage. I hand it over to him, as I watch him toss it into the back rather carefully.

“Thanks.”

“No problem.” He nods at me. I notice he was a lot more relaxed than before as he closes the doors and then goes around to the driver’s side of the van. I make my way around to the passenger side, and hop in.

“Y’know…” I start, securing myself with the seat belt. “You’re more relaxed than when I first saw you.”

“It’s… nice. To have a…” He quiets, squinting through the windshield. “....a friend.”

“Mhmm.”

“...How come you didn’t answer your phone?”

“I didn’t have signal out of the country, my plan doesn’t have that kind of coverage. Actually-” I reach to pull out my phone from my pocket, as a turn it on. When the phone finally turns on completely, I see a rush of messages and phone calls followed by way too many phone vibrations than is necessary, and I cringe. “Jesus.”

“Yeah. It’s been. Pretty bad, to say the least.”

“Christ, Flug. What in the fresh hell happened?” I stare at him as he takes a deep breath, beginning to reverse and drive out of the parking lot. My eyes glance back over to my phone, looking at the texts and the phone calls. Half of the phone calls are from Black Hat, and the other half are from Flug. All of the texts were from Flug, with very few from my boyfriend. The texts don’t particularly explain the scenario, but there is clear desperation and some really dark images sent from Flug’s end that of which I couldn’t make out, and then texts from Black Hat that seemed relatively normal.

“I don’t remember where she got it, but Dementia came into my lab with some snow globe she was obsessed with. Something about how it was shiny. Anyway, Black Hat came stomping in a fit from his office and into the lab, and the snow globe broke since Dementia dropped it. And then just like that, he… the Boss… just snapped.” Flug fumbles with his words, clearly unsure of how to describe it. “The whole manor is a death trap now.” Flug sighs, becoming tense. I nod, staring at the pictures.

“Is that what the pictures you sent are of? The manor?”

“Yeah.”

I stared at them in silence, trying to find any signs. I vaguely remembered giving Black Hat a snow globe awhile back, who told me that he used it as a decoration for his office desk. If it was the same snow globe, I could understand why he’d be upset. If someone came around and stole my shit and broke a gift that my boyfriend gave to me - to say the least I would not be able to guarantee their safety. I decided not to tell Flug the snow globe was from me - as it didn’t matter either way and I thought it’d be nice to keep some of Black Hat’s dignity intact.

“So is the whole manor like this?”

“The whole manor. I haven’t been staying there since five days ago when it happened.”

“Five days? Where have you been staying, Flug?”

“Your apartment.” He admits, gulping a bit. I give him a look of disbelief. “W-Well there wasn’t exactly anywhere else and y-you told me I could always drop b-by and I knew you’d have a sp-spare key underneath the flower pot so I…” He trails off.

“No, no. It’s okay, Flug. I get it. Desperate times call for desperate measures. Christ, sorry about the mess.” I shook my head and waved my hands. “Sorry. I forgot to clean before I left.” I began to scratch the back of my neck, sighing that this ordeal happened to begin with.

“I hope you don’t mind if 5.0.5 cleaned up your apartment while you were gone. I told him he shouldn’t mess with your stuff but he couldn’t help himself when I passed out that night.” I laughed.

“5.0.5 is such a sweetheart.” I glance at the road ahead. “It’s fine. As long as I can find my stuff.”

“...You don’t take care of yourself that much either, do you?”

“...No.”

“A bit of a hypocrite, aren’t you?” He snorts, clearly making a reference to the fact that I always made an effort to pester him about his self-care.

“Yeah. I guess I am. I try, but - y’know, you’ve seen the state of my apartment.” I sigh. “I suffer from major depressive disorder, it’s hard to get out of bed some days.”

“...Oh. I’m sorry. Are you taking medication?”

“Yeah.” I nod, vaguely remembering the medication in my bag. “It only does so much, though. That’s just how it is.”

“Does the Boss know?”

“I think? I take it in the evening so every time I’ve stayed overnight at the manor I’ve had to bring it with me. He’s seen me take it, but he’s never asked what it was for.” I answer honestly, finger rising to my chin as I stare at the road ahead in thought.

“I think you should tell him.” Flug states, making a turn. “...Sorry I didn’t ask before at the airport, but uh. How was your trip?”

“Oh, that’s okay.” I reassure him. “Hearing your situation, I can understand why. But uh, my trip was fine. I visited family. One of my cousins was finally getting married and she went through all the trouble to invite me and I couldn’t help but want to go there. Not to mention the rest of my family were also going so it was a pretty big reunion I couldn’t bring myself to miss out on. I told Black Hat about it before I left, hoping something like this wouldn’t happen. I thought he’d mention it to you, but doesn’t seem like that was the case.”

Flug sighs. “What he tells me is always on a need-to-know basis. You know he doesn’t approve of our amicable relationship.”

“Well, I disapprove of his disapproval.” I say with a huff. “He can learn how to deal.” I couldn’t help but smile, when I finally heard Flug laugh.

“If I ever said anything like that, Boss would have my head. I don’t understand how you do it.”

I shake my head, smile growing on my face. “It’s cause I’m cute.”

“I can neither confirm or deny.” His smug tone is clear.

“Well, I didn’t ask you.” I huff, crossing my arms over my chest. We both can’t help but laugh as we reach Hat Manor. I turn to stare out the window at the manor, which looks relatively as normal as ever. “Looks fine, Flug.” I notice Flug visibly swallow.

“It’s worse on the inside.” I nod at him as he turns to me, and I begin to undo my seat belt and get out of the van. I stand in front of the gates, expecting Black Hat to open up the doors and greet me like all the times he’s done before this. He doesn’t come out of the manor, so I squint - fully aware that something is very, very wrong.

“I’ll disable the security system.” Flug states, pulling a device out of his pocket. He presses a few buttons and keys. “There, now you should be able to safely get inside.”

“Are you not coming with me?” I ask him, concerned.

“Are you serious? If I go in there I’m sure I’ll die.” Flug retorts, pulling out a maglite from the back of the van and handing it to me. “You’ll need this.”

“Well, then why are you sending me in there?!”

“Because, I don’t think Black Hat will tear your head off.” I glare at Flug, who simply shrugs at me. I grab the maglite from him, and then I stare at the manor, squinting.

“Fine.” I grumble, as I open up the gates and walk my way into the manor. I turn back to Flug, who is watching me as I trek on. When I finally reach the doors to the manor, I’m disappointed that Black Hat had yet to greet me. I take a deep breath and open the doors - seeing an inky blackness inside. Even as the windows are obviously uncovered, there is no light in the foyer. I turn on the maglite in my hand, and step inside.

The moment I finally step inside, the door slams behind me. I turn back to jingle the handles of the entrance door, only to find that the door will no longer open and the handles are stuck. “Fuck.” I curse to myself, turning around to face the stairs.

The inside of the manor is pitch black, and completely silent. I step forward up the stairs quietly, hand touching the handrails of the entryway stairs, only to feel my hand become wet. I yelp in surprise, staring at my hand dripping with a black substance. I attempt to shake it off, unhappy with the mess. I continue to step up the stairs which creak with it’s age. It felt like walking through a haunted mansion, but this was very real.

I flashed the maglite around to the painting of Black Hat that had adorned the center of the manor’s entryway, staring at the distorted form before me. It looked as if something was pulsating over the painting of Black Hat of a nature and origin that I could not place. I regretted taking a sharp intake of breath as I tried to calm my nerves.

“Ugh.” I reel, a corpse-like stench emitting from the substance. I continue on to move away from the substance as quickly as possible, attempting to find the other stairway towards Flug’s lab. I was not sure where Black Hat would be - but if Flug’s story had been correct then that would be the first place to start searching. I wondered where Dementia was - if she was even alive at this point if this is how Black Hat lashed out.

It was further up the stairs where I found what looked to be Dementia’s body. I gasped, running over towards her. I flashed the maglite towards the walls and ceiling, which was covered in sticky and dry blood. “Oh, god.” I murmured, leaning down to touch her shoulder. She was cold. I bit my lip, and tried to turn her over with my foot. I held back a scream, seeing her torso completely mutilated - a gaping hole from her chest where her heart should have been. Dementia’s eyes were empty, her brain clearly visible in the back from where the eyes were no longer. I flinched away from her body, hand covering my mouth.

I felt goosebumps go through my spine, and began to feel a cold sweat on my brow as I stared at her lifeless form. Black Hat really had done this. All of this. My hands began to tremble, full of fear. Unable to look at her body anymore, I closed my eyes - trying to hold back tears. I always had known Dementia did not like me that much, or so I thought. I knew she had always resented me slightly, because of Black Hat’s favoritism - she pined for him so much. However, I had never felt ill-will towards her, and I knew that I would never wished for her end to be like this. It was just a gift - a fucking snow globe. I could’ve made a new snow globe, as many as it took.

I could not hold back a sniffle from escaping, as I tried to move forward away from her body. My mind drifted from Dementia to Black Hat, and I wondered why he had to go this far. I bit my lip, anger beginning to rise in my throat. It was so unnecessary. My anger was so overwhelming, I sniffled again - tears beginning to well up in the corners of my eyes.

My attention had switched from the grim thoughts of Dementia’s corpse, when I began to hear the sounds of shifting behind the hall which I walked from. I turned my head, glancing at the form of a black creature, moving in the manner of a biped on two spindly legs. It had two spindly arms, sharp and ended in a point similar to that of icicles. I took a deep breath, watching the creature in shock - the smell of corpses once again hitting my nose. I had to run. I had to get out of here. I had to find Black Hat.

I began to run forward in a sprint, making my way towards the lab. I turned back to watch as the creature got down on all fours to make chase after me. I would have screamed for help, if I wasn’t worried about attracted attention to any creature similar, and if I wasn’t worried about wasting my breath that I needed in my run. I could feel the creature gaining on me, speed being an advantage of a four-legged creature over a bipedal one. I turned the corner and laid eyes on the open door of Flug’s lab. I rushed towards it, entering the lab door as I began to fumble in a panic to close the sliding metal doors with the console.

“Hurry up, hurry up…” I said, watching the doors closing too slow as the creature began to pick up in speed to make it to the doors. Scared for my life, I began to feel my life flash before my eyes. At least I had gotten to say goodbye to my family at the reunion. I watched as the creature began to leap towards me through the small crack in the door, awaiting my demise. I flinched and closed my eyes - however pain nor death came. I opened an eye only to see the doors closed, and my life well intact. I began to cry, coming down from the adrenaline high. I took a deep breath after a few minutes, as I tried to collect myself.

I turned around to face the lab, eyes still stinging from the tears. I see a form besides the remains of a broken snow globe. The creature was similar to the one that had chased me before, but the shape was more human-like. I blinked, staring at the top hat-like mass on the head of the creature. My eyes glanced to the broken snow globe, and seeing the ground covered in red glitter - I had identified that this was in fact, the snow globe that I gave to him. I bit my lip, and approached the figure.

“Black Hat?” I called out to it. The creature turned to me.

"̵̢̕͢͝Y̸'̷̧͡ ̕͜͠͏ą͘h̕͠ ̵̨͘͠l̴̶͘҉̢'͜͢͢͝ ́s͞o͘͢͡͡͠r̷̵ŕ̴͏y̴͢͢,̛́͡ ̵̶̢y̴̢͟a̷̡͢ ̡͢ḑ̢̢͡e͏̷a҉̵̨̨r͢҉̷́́.̴̴̷̢͝"̨́͜͠

The creature speaks, but it comes out garbled. I squint, trying to make sense of what it says - but only barely. The language sounds very different from what I was familiar with, but I could make out the word “sorry” and “dear”. The message seemed clear enough.

“It’s okay.” I tell the creature, walking forward to touch it’s shoulder. It doesn’t flinch away from me when my hand makes contact, but it feels wet, and I can’t help but be uncomfortable. It takes a lot to keep my hand from retracting, but I let it stay. “What happened to you, Black Hat?”

"̴̧̧̛̀C̛͜a̛h̡́͢͡f̵̵̨͞ ́̕͜ǫ̛́t͘͡ ̧̀h͢͝͡h͘͞'͘͟͝ ́͘̕͘a̴̢͜͏h͟ ̵͟͢g̴i͜͡͠f͜͝t̸̶̸͘ ̸̧͟͝h̶͘͟͝u̷̡͢p҉͡ ̧͟͞y͡a̡̡̛ ͏҉̷͏̢o̷͏͏͏r͜͢͡ŗ́̕'͏̛͝͏͝ę̸͜ ҉̨̧u̵̕͡a͢͏̀a͘͢à̶̀͘͟h̵͢͢͝g͏̀͝o̡͢͟f̡̢͟'̶͏̵͟ń̶̢͞ ̷̨̀́̕a̷̷͞͝h̵͡͞ ̢͢s͡h̷͝͞͏̛a̶̢̨͢t̸͟҉t̸̶͟e̵̷̡͢ŗ͞͡͡ę̴́d̛͘ ͏҉̛͟l̸͜͡ļ͠͏̵͝l̷͏͡l͏͟͞ ̷͠҉͏͝á̕͡͏z̡̕a̸̡̢n̛͘a̡͞h̴͏́͟ó̡̨̧t̕͟҉̷̨h̵̵̸́͠.̛̕͜͝"̶̡͝

“I-” I stutter, trying to make sense of what is being said. It is definitely in a different language. I gulp. “I don’t understand what you are saying, I’m sorry.”

The creature stands up, and turns to me. I stare up at the creature, amazed by the two foot difference in height. While Black Hat often dwarfed me, I have never felt so small. I blinked in awe. The creature’s human-like hand takes mine.

"̛́̀͢͞L̢͜ĺ̷̡̀͟l̛͏̵̸̕l̢̡͢ ̶́̕͟͞n͟҉o̶͢͠͝g͘ ́́͘͠͠ý̴̨̧́a̧̢͠͠͝.̀͘͢͟͡"̧͟͜͢͠

I squint, still unable to understand as the creature attempts to drag me off towards the door. I gasp as I almost trip to keep up, the grip on my hand certain and insistent. I frown but try to keep up with the creature, assuming that it’s trying to get me to follow. The double doors open, as the creature leads me through the darkness. I shine my maglite in front of me, but the creature smacks it away.

“Hey!” I yell in surprise, and the creature growls. I stare into the darkness, completely unable to see. I sigh. “I can’t see anymore.”

"̡͜T̶͢͏̴ŕ͜͟ú́s̶̀͘͢͝t̵͡҉ ͞҉y̢̢͟͡a͏̵.̵̶̸͢"̴̡̢͝͝

I make out the word “trust”, and I simply sigh as I’m led away through the darkness in silence. After walking for awhile and hearing shuffling in the distance, I finally hear the sound of a door opening as a green light flickers from the room. I feel a hand on my back, as I assume the creature that was leading me beckons for me to step inside. I step inside, seeing a creature of unspeakable horror sit in front of the fireplace - tendrils and multiple appendages reach out to me, and touch my face and the rest of my body.

I stare in horror, and see it - the top hat. Was this Black Hat? I feel myself being tugged forward by the tendrils, and I stop by digging my heels into the ground. It only tugs harder, as I am swept off of my feet and absorbed into the Black Mass. I gasp, feeling like a dark tar begins to enter through my mouth and nostrils, the sensation burning and incredibly painful. I felt like I was going to drown, and then suddenly I felt nothing. However, I was clearly alive. The tar felt like air, and in the dark expanse I saw my boyfriend - his form monstrous and disheveled. The tendrils from the previous monstrosity led me to him, as tendrils that came from him and wrapped around me - as if the tendrils were passing me on. Once I was close enough, his arms wrapped around my form, and he buried his face into my neck. I sighed, wrapping my arms around him.

“I’m back, Black Hat.” I say, hoping for a response I could understand.

"̧Wel̕c͏o͠m̛è ́back." He says, voice and language discernible and understandable. I sigh, relieved to know what he was saying but unhappy with the lack of information regarding the manor’s current state.

“Thank you. ...Are you going to explain?” I sigh, and Black Hat grumbles.

“̴T͝he ̵ĺi͏z͏ar͘d̴ ̶br̴oke̸ ͜m̡y ̧g̀if͠t ̨f̀r͡o͠m̵ y̴o͞u. ̨S̢o ͏I ende̴d͞ ̸h͢er͜ l̢i҉fe.” I blinked a few times - in shock that my hypothesis was actually true. I didn’t know why I expected anything different, however.

“...I see.” I say, staring at the darkness behind him. It felt as if we were floating in water, my hair rising up on it’s own.

“̡..̸.͞Ar̸ȩ ̴yo̕u̷ ̢n̵ot̢ ̀angr̵y̡?͜”

“No?”

“́Y͜ou s͝h̸ould͝ ͜b̷e.”͞ He hisses.

“Why? It’s just a snow globe.”

“N͢o,̨ my ͘dea͠r. I͘t w̸a҉s҉ no͞t j̴us̛t a̵ ͟s̷n͜ow globe̶. It w͞a̢s͞ ͜yơur͡ s̡n̴ǫw̶ gl͞obȩ.̶”

“I can make more snow globes, Black Hat.”

“Y͜ou͝ ͡dón̶’͏t͞ ̴gȩt it̀.”͝ He growls. I could feel the tendrils tighten around my form.

“No - you know what? Okay. No, I definitely get it. I get where you’re coming from, because if someone decided to try and steal a gift that was from you and then go as far as to break it, I would be pretty mad, too. But I would not go as far as to kill someone over it - because you’re still here. As long as no one has hurt you, then everything will be okay.” I sigh, my hold on Black Hat tightening. He doesn’t respond.

“I will always have more gifts for you, so you don’t have to fret over the snow globe, okay? I know you treasured it, you even put it on your office desk and it was… really wonderful of you to do that. It made me feel special. But you didn’t have to kill Dementia for it - she didn’t deserve that.”

“͟You̶ ̴don’t knoẃ ̡w͜hat̷ sh̷e ͏desȩr͢v̵e͞d̨.́” He huffs.

“She didn’t deserve death, that’s for sure.” I retort with a bit of sass in my tone. “I don’t think she meant to break it, I think she just found it really nice to look at.”

“͠Well, ͞s̶h͡e͠ sh̶óul̕d͞ h̷av̛è ke̡pt h͜e҉r͢ sc̵a̧l̛y h̶a͏n̢ds̀ off͠ ́of it͏ ̸and͘ j͡ust l͠ooked̵ ̴a̧t ̛it͠.̡”̛

“Black Hat.” I sternly reply. He sighs.

“̀.͡..̶I d̡i̷d̶n’t kil͜l͜ ̡her̀. A҉l͢ļ ̷I ̀did ͟ẃa̛s ̷rip͡ h̵e͝r ̴śoul͏ out̕ of́ ̶her b͏o̴dy͏ a͝nd̷ mau̴led the ͟bod̷y.̸ ҉T͟h͝i҉s ҉is̀n͝’t͜ ̶the f̨ir̶st ͡t̨ime͏.́”̴

“Seriously?”

“Y̧es.̛ ̵I͜ ̨w̷i͜ll͘ ̡have F̷lu̸ģ ͜m҉ak̢e h͜e̢r a̢ n̶ȩw ̴b̶o͝d̴ý. I ̛was ͘t͘èac͟hing ͏t͢h̸e̢ ͏rưn̕t̵ a lesson͜.͞ ̛Sh̴e ͝was ͡j̨ust͝ a̕ ͝m̢utáted l͢iz͘a͘r͟d̵ ͞anywa͝y͝.”̧

“Then why have you been like this for five days?”

Silence.

“Black Hat.”

“I̸ ̴d̨i͡d n̶o̴t w͘a̸n̵t̡ to̢ ̛s̕e̡e̵ ͘any͟o̧n͢e’s f͘ac̕e ͟in t̕his ma͞nor un̴lés͘s it was̢ ͜yo͘urs.͟”͏

“Ah.” I respond, nodding to his honesty. “Fair. ...Will you turn back, at least?”

“In͝ a f͞e͠w hòu͞ŕs. A̕l̡śo͜, neve̛r̵ l̶ea͟v͜e ͝m͟e ̕a̛ga͠in.͜ S̛ta͘y͞ įn ͘th̶e͜ ͟ma̷no̷r ͢for̢ a ̷f̨eẃ d̸a̵y͟s͞.”͡ I can’t help but let out a laugh at his request.

“Okay. But I can’t just skirt family gatherings. So you’ll have to come with me next time. Can we make a deal?”

“̡..͏.F͠i̛ne.” He grumbles, dissatisfied but satisfied enough to agree.

“Alright. I also need to unpack my luggage at my apartment, but then I’ll pack some stuff so I can stay here for a few days.” He hums in response, and it was my notion of knowing it was fine.

As promised a few hours later, Black Hat eventually returned to normal. I was quick to send Flug a selfie of Black Hat and I - feeling warmed by the thumbs up in response.

Everything was going to be fine, I thought, cuddled up to Black Hat whose tendrils wrapped around me and my form, gently petting my hair and his hands firmly pressed against my waist.

Everything.

#spookysse18 #self ship #self shipping #villainous #fanfic #gore #blood #black hat #dr flug slys #dementia (villainous)

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