#but the disappointment of not getting them would've been way better than what actually happened

[azurillturtle]

i don't talk much here, but it's gonna be long, and it needs to be said.

summary: eosym's lack of communication and the behavior of security were so bad that i would've been happier not going.

nothing to do with the music and performances. those were good, probably. i can't tell you for sure because the experience upset me so much i could barely pay attention, much less enjoy it.

we all know how fanfest went. i won't go into it, but i will say i'm a veteran of the worst-organized con in the nation, so yeah, it was bad, but i had fun. not so with eosym.

I've seen this being blamed on security, but SE itself is absolutely also at fault. the heart of the problem is that attendees were not provided with guidelines for what would be allowed into the show. only at security did they find out what they couldn't bring. it was water bottles. it was bags. it was, in my case, an ipad that i'd brought to write on while waiting.

i went to the evening show, so this was after the afternoon show's debacle with the water bottles. thanks to the forewarning, we knew a bit better how to prepare, but of course not everyone would hear. there were still water bottles being confiscated at the evening show. there was a staff member telling the people lined up that they couldn't bring in water bottles, but by that point it was much too late.

point one: we should not have to rely on word-of-mouth to know what is and isn't allowed. this was not a security problem. this was an SE problem.

next i want to frame the setting a bit. eosym is coming right off the heels of fanfest. even with assigned seats, it's going to be linecon. again, this is the evening show, so with pre-warning from the afternoon show, we know there's going to be merch but lines will be ridiculous. there are already (at a guess) hundreds of people in line at 7 PM, half an hour before doors are set to open. at 7:30 they start sending people through security, and that's where round two started.

people are arguing about their EMPTY water bottles, not having heard about the afternoon show. by now i've pulled out my ipad to have something to do in line, and i'm holding it in my hand as i walk through and set off the security sensors (probably because, y'know, electronics). they do not at that point tell me it's not allowed. instead they wave me to the detailed screening.

security doesn't even bother with the bag search. they take one look at what i'm holding.

security: you can't bring that in. me: what? security: you have to leave it in your car or your room. me: what?? I heard about the water bottles and bag sizes. I did not hear about this. security: well it's your fault for not paying attention. me: there was NOTHING said at ANY POINT about not being able to bring it in. security: you can't bring it. me: (already angry) then do i come back up here to the security gates or? security: get in the end of the line. me: you want me. to go behind all these [thousands of] people. back to the end of the line. security: it'll move fast.

(the line moving fast was the only thing they were right about.)

point two: you cannot reasonably expect attendees to have a place to store things they're suddenly told they can't bring. luckily we drove. most of the crowd? would've been shit out of luck.

point 2.5: did security have a list of things we weren't allowed that we never saw?? because i'm not convinced they weren't just making it up on the spot.

(i told her i was sorry for getting so angry, that i knew it wasn't her fault, but--no. actually, i was allowed to be angry. the policy wasn't her fault, but the gaslighting sure as hell was. i did my best! i used the information i had! i repacked my things in a smaller bag and didn't bring water! i tried, okay, what else was i supposed to do?)

what happens then if you're bumped to the end of the line? well for one thing, you're separated from your friends. stressful minutes trying to figure out how to split tickets so i could get in later and they could get in now. depending on situation, can't get in that merch line you might've showed up early for.

and that's point three: merch was, again, a disaster. even with fairly early line-up well before the doors opening, they quickly sold out of most of the shirt sizes and less expensive items. they might've failed to properly allocate merch between the two showings again. it wouldn't surprise me.

so say you have a place to leave your stuff. the venue was huge. parking, and presumably your room, are super far from the line. now walk of shame past the crowd, back to the parking lot, and back into line. 30-40 minutes. what would i have done if I started further back in line?

(other stuff happened here, specific to my situation, that contributed to my horrible mood but aren't super relevant. except that i was so angry i was dropping stuff and broke the leaf off the $50 elpis flower. you know. normal things.)

and, you know--that was fun. because you know who else was at the back of the line? latecomers, and others furious at being denied by security for ridiculous reasons. other people who had to go leave things in their car and line up again. one person who had left the line to go to the bathroom right outside, was told they had to go to the back again, and was worried they couldn't get in now because they'd been separated from the others in their group. (they also got stopped by security again on the way in, because of course they did.)

point four: mine was not an isolated case. security upset quite a lot of people.

and here is why that was a great way to ruin the night:

eosym is not the primals. it is not a high energy concert where you jump and dance and get carried away. it's a symphony. you sit still and quiet and enjoy the music.

but i got in fifteen minutes before they started--fifteen minutes, after an early line-up--and who can calm down and enjoy a quiet show given fifteen minutes?

for my part i cycled pretty quickly from anger to misery. i was desperately hoping the lights would dim before anyone noticed me crying. i couldn't focus on the music. and that made things worse, because from what i could tell it was a great show. and i couldn't listen at all.

so point five i guess: security's behavior was unacceptable. everyone was there to have a good time, and the rudeness, blame, and total lack of compassion ruined the show before it even started. that's not even touching the water bottle fiasco, which people only found out about after the show.

so no. eosym should have been easy. we had assigned seats and a different venue. i've done symphonies before. it was the one thing i was absolutely sure i'd love. and is there a worse feeling than experiencing a thing you know you should be loving, but it's wasted on you because you can't enjoy it at all?

& the worst part is that's it. it's done. regardless of whether my reasons for being upset were justified or not, it's too late, and now my only memories of what should've been one of the best experiences are of misery.

[crafty-butch]

Embalmed

A short story by me (tw: body horror, self-harm kinda)

Did you know embalming isn't actually that common, worldwide? I didn't. Sure, there are some famous exceptions–looking at you, pharaohs–but embalming random schlubs is mostly a US thing. Plenty of religions ban it outright. Islam, Judaism, several branches of Christianity…

Bear with me. I promise I have a point.

Anyway, I've got no opinion on what God wants us to do with our corpses. I've never been religious. I'm still not, weird as that sounds. But I'm with Islam, Judaism, and several branches of Christianity on this one. Just skip the embalming and bury the body before it starts to rot. It'll be easier for everyone, on the off chance someone decides to bring them back.

No, this isn't a joke. Look, I'm not saying it's likely, okay? I know the stats. Less than twenty confirmed resurrections in the last half-century. Maybe twice that many ambiguous cases. Actually ambiguous, that is. Just because someone is flaired “unconfirmed” on r/Resurrected doesn't mean there's a chance in Hell they're legit. So, yeah, I get it's unlikely. But let's jump back to embalming real quick.

You know how it works, right? At least vaguely? Blood goes out, formaldehyde goes in. Well, that's step one. Step two is sucking all the non-blood fluids out of your body cavity and swapping those for embalming fluid too. They also sew your mouth shut, stuff some cotton in you to stop any leaking–I could go on, but I won't. Like I said, I don't have any issue with embalming from a treatment-of-the-dead-body standpoint. I'm not trying to make anyone feel bad for embalming Great-Aunt Edith, here. I'm just saying, if the dead body becomes an alive body, you can see why there might be some issues.

Yeah, yeah, I know what you're going to say: “It's magic, dumbass.” And, yes, it is. That's why waking up with your mouth sewn shut and your body stuffed full of formaldehyde doesn't immediately kill you again. Doesn't make it fun, though.

Okay, maybe I shouldn't focus on the mouth thing. I'm sure it's happened to someone, but my sister cut the stitches out before she brought me back. She was thorough like that. I just feel like it's easier to picture, you know? Mouth won't open and hurts when you try. The rest of it's harder.

I don't blame my sister for not dealing with the formaldehyde. I know there wasn't much she could do about it. If she'd had more time, I'm sure she could've come up with something, but once you've dug up a body, you're kind of on a (ha) deadline. If someone sees you, you're done. So I get it. I've had a lot of time to think it over, and I'm still not sure what she could've done better. Other than just letting me stay dead.

I don't want to sound ungrateful, but…maybe I am? A little bit? I know that's an awful thing to say. It's not like I wanted to die. That's not what this is about. It's also not about how super amazingly great the afterlife is. Sorry to disappoint, but I have no idea. I don't remember anything between the hospital and waking up on the grass with a chest full of embalming fluid. Does that mean there's nothing after? Or did coming back just give me amnesia? No idea. I leave that one to the philosophers.

My sister probably would've had an opinion.

She was always…

Let me tell you about my sister.

She was great. I'm not saying this because of what happened. She really was incredible. Almost perfect. One of those people who's so smart and so kind and so beautiful and so goddamn humble but not so humble you can even accuse them of humblebragging, to the point where you can't help but hate them a little for making you look so fucking shitty in comparison and then you feel like the biggest bitch in the world and that just makes you hate them more.

Okay, maybe she wasn't quite as perfect as all that. After I came back, I learned some things. Turns out she was just as much of a fuckup as me, in her own way. She was just better at hiding it. But I never met that version of her. In my memories, she's still just Little Miss Impossibly Perfect. I wish she'd told me about any of it. Maybe…

No, that isn't fair. Why would she tell me anything that could get her in trouble? Maybe I would've hated her less, or maybe I would've just gone and told our parents. Even once we grew up. Would I really have been able to resist knocking her off that pedestal? I'd like to think I would, but come on. Look how I'm talking about her. And that's after she sold her soul for me.

If you're thinking right now that the world probably would've been better off with her instead of me, you're not the only one. Don't worry, I won't take it personally. Or maybe you're not thinking that at all. I've been told I project onto other people.

Maybe you're just confused about why I'm talking about her in the past tense. After all, it's not like selling your soul kills you, and you've probably never met someone unensouled. Or maybe you have, and you know exactly why I'm talking like this. Probably not, though. There are a lot more unensouled than there are people who were resurrected–people sell their souls for all sorts of reasons–but there are a lot more fakers too. Pro tip: if someone claiming they sold their soul gives any sign of caring about literally anything, including whether you believe them, they're lying to you.

So, yeah, she's still here. I know I keep saying it, but I'm not religious. I don't think my sister is burning in Hell while her empty husk sits up here, and if you ask me, that's just a real convenient excuse not to help the person who's still right there in front of you. Whatever a “soul” actually is, there's clearly someone here.

Sorry, I might be preaching to the choir here. And I don't want to sound like I think every religious person thinks that way. I just made the mistake of talking to my parents this weekend, and I'm still a little mad. Or a lot mad. Look, I know I'm getting off topic. Just, real quick, I want to explain.

She's still my sister. I'm not denying that. I keep saying she was this or she was that because she's not really any of those things anymore. She's not cruel, but she doesn't care enough to be kind. I'm sure she's still smart, but she doesn't actually want to use her smarts for anything. She barely eats if I don't pester her into it. I don't think she'd have an opinion on what my lack of memory says about the afterlife anymore. But, hey, maybe she would. Maybe I should ask.

Anyway. None of this is really my point. My point is, waking up next to your own open grave is freaky enough when you're not choking on formaldehyde. It took weeks before I was mostly bleeding blood again. (Yeah, I checked. Don't judge. You'd be curious too.) I coughed up embalming fluid for months. My insides still don't feel quite right. I could get them checked out, but I'll be honest with you. I don't want to know. I haven't been anywhere near a doctor since I got back.

I know, you don't think this will happen to you. No one you know is the right combination of smart enough to wade through all the bullshit to figure out how to revive you and stupid enough to go through with it. And you're probably right. But I thought that too.

[scribere-flores]

Sabo x Reader

~Just a hypothetical question~

Part 2. Other Parts

Word count: 2569 words

Short summary: how exactly does a shower work?

Once again, flirty stuff and even more spiraling thoughts in this chapter. But nothing graphic.

MDNI 18+

___

Koala felt exhausted as she fell flat on her bed.

It’s true that they were in the middle of a ceasefire at the moment, but that didn’t mean the other work related to the ongoing revolution stopped. There was a lot that needed to be done around their makeshift base, which had previously been a hotel before the owners offered to let them use it.

So she had been on her feet for most of the day. Sorting out useful intel from various documents, taking stock of things they needed to keep the civilians healthy, checking in with the volunteer army. She even held a strategy meeting Sabo was supposed to lead.

Running a revolution was not an easy task. Especially when you had to pick up the slack from your so-called partner, who had been missing for most of the day, doing God knows what.

Koala let out a deep sigh. She was already half-asleep when her bedroom door suddenly slammed open.

“Hey Koala! Cool if I sleep here tonight? Oh, great! Thank you!!” Sabo said without taking a break, not waiting for permission before he walked into her room and threw a pillow on the floor.

“NO YOU CAN’T! Sleep in your own goddamn room!” Koala shouted, sending him an angry glare.

“Can’t. Got kicked out.” Sabo answered as he laid down on the floor, putting his arms behind his head.

“By who?” She asked, confused, and then threw a book towards him. “And don’t make yourself comfortable!”

“Jane Doe.” He stated, catching the book before it hit his face, to Koala’s disappointment.

“Sabo. Don’t tell me you trapped that poor girl in your room?” She asked in a sharp tone.

“You make me sound like a pervert.” He stopped for a second as Koala gave him an unimpressed look. “That’s not what happened, I promise. She twisted her ankle when she was cleaning, so I took her to my room and wrapped it so it wouldn’t get worse. Then she got sleepy so I left. Oh, and I cleaned the cafeteria before I came here, so don’t worry about it.”

Oh, so that’s what’s going on.

Koala had of course noticed Sabo taking special interest in the mystery girl. In fact, everyone had noticed pretty early on, because Sabo hadn’t exactly been discrete about it.

He had been practically stalking the poor girl whenever he had some spare time. And if Koala hadn’t known Sabo for 10 years at this point, she would've punched him as soon as he started to torment the girl.

But she knew Sabo. And she knew that he would never do something that could harm that girl in any way, shape or form.

This was also a first. She had never seen Sabo actually take this kind of interest in a girl before. He had flings before, of course. Fleeting nights at various inns, before setting out to a new Island the next day. But all of them had those, even Koala at times. Romance didn’t exactly fit well with their line of work, so it could get lonely at times.

This was different. She hadn’t been sure at first, but now after hearing Sabo’s explanation, she knew. This wasn’t some fling or fleeting crush to temporarily fill the hole of emptiness.

“You like her.” Koala said in a teasing voice.

Silence.

“Sabo?” She asked and peeked down from the bed.

Then she flew back on her bed as a loud snore scared the shit out of her.

“Well, it’s better if he finds out on his own anyway.” She giggled quietly, before tucking herself in for the night and drifted asleep.

___

Y/N wished she could say she had a peaceful night, she really did. But if she said that, it wouldn’t be true.

She had been tossing and turning all night, unable to stay asleep more than 20 minutes at time, before remembering where she was. And the scent… The scent in this room was the biggest reason for her lack of sleep.

Everything smelled like him. The blanket. The Pillows. The Bed. She could even bet her life on that the curtains in this godforsaken room smelled like him. And it had been driving her insane.

Everytime Y/N drifted to sleep during the night, she had been greeted by Sabo in her dreams. Gentle touches by cold leather gloves all over her body. Sweet whispers in a honey-like voice tickling the skin by her neck. Big hands on her waist, pressing her back against his body.

And every time, Y/N woke up with heavy breaths, her whole body feeling hot and tingly.

She wasn’t stupid. Her mother had a rather uncomfortable talk with her once, about the birds and the bees. But this was nothing like her mother had described. What she had been told had sounded rather unpleasant, and to be frank, boring.

Yes, this was certainly nothing like that. So she chose to blame her lack of sleep and the weird dreams on Sabo’s lingering scent when she woke up this morning. For her own sanity's sake.

Y/N eyed the door as she sat on the edge of the bed. She should probably get out of here soon, go eat breakfast and then take a bath in the communal bathroom, to wash the lingering scent of her body.

The concept of a communal bathroom had baffled her at first, the thought of several people sharing just one bathroom sounding completely foreign to her. She had imagined it being a normal sized room and she couldn’t wrap her head around how it worked.

But it had all become clear to her when Koala showed her around on the day Y/N was released from the infirmary. And she had to admit, she had felt rather dumb after seeing the big, tiled room.

The concept had grown on her during the week she had spent here. She liked the feeling of… what did Koala call it again? Oh right, community. The only inconvenience she could think of was the waiting line, especially in the mornings.

Y/N looked over at the bathroom door in the room. Maybe if she was quick, she could wash up before Sabo got back, saving the time she would otherwise spend cueing. She placed her feet on the ground, pleasantly surprised when she didn’t feel the stinging pain in her ankle anymore. She took careful steps across the floor and opened the bathroom door, surprised to see the lack of a bathtub in the room.

“Oh… it’s one of those instead.” Y/N said to herself as she eyed the strange contraption. “Hmm, I’m sure I can figure it out if I give it a try.”

___

Sabo sighed as he stepped into his room, loosening his cravat and threw his coat and hat on the bed. He had unconsciously hoped that the girl would still be in his room, sleeping soundly in his bed. He didn’t exactly understand why, but he had felt eager to see her when he woke up this morning.

That girl and his urge to touch her in every possible way, was slowly driving him insane. He was glad Koala was still asleep when he woke. The effect last night's wet dream had on a certain part of his body, would have made things extremely awkward if his childhood friend had been awake.

The fact was starting to become more and more clear to Sabo, he needed to get his spiraling thoughts about the mystery girl out of his system.

He knew he had a tendency to become a little bit obsessive when it came to achieving his set goals. And right now, making that girl crack was at the top of his list. Making her moan his name over and over, a close second place.

But before he could do that, he first needed to figure out who the fuck she was. Or, at least know what her goddamn first name was.

His train of thought was suddenly interrupted when he heard a familiar, sweet voice coming from the bathroom.

“Why isn’t it working?”

Maybe he shouldn’t have given up hope so soon.

Sabo carefully opened the bathroom door and sure enough, there was the self proclaimed Jane Doe, back turned against him. Wearing the same dress that had traveled up her thighs last night and giving him the perfect, lewd view of her sitting on top of him.

And apparently, she was struggling to get the shower to work. Maybe if he helped her, she would ask him to join.

Sabo knew that was probably wishful thinking on his part. But hey, it could never hurt to mess a little with the poor girl. He did enjoy seeing her embarrassed so very much, a little too much in fact.

He walked with soundless steps until he stood only a few inches behind her, grateful that the girl seemed to be too focused on the shower to notice him.

“Maybe it’s this one?” The girl pondered.

“Need me to help?” Sabo whispered with an amused smile, placing his face right beside her neck.

A frightened scream left her mouth as she turned around and faced him.

Then Sabo heard a knocking sound coming from the pipes. And the hand placed on the shower knob. And the showerhead facing him.

He tried to back away, but it was too late. In the blink of an eye the water came bursting out, making him drenched wet in his clothes.

“I’m so sorry! I got scared, and then the water just came bursting out. And now you're soaking wet and…” She rambled on and made apologizing gestures with her hands, dropping the shower head in the process.

The girl’s panic only grew as the showerhead started moving over the tiled floor, spraying anything closeby with water. As Sabo watched the girl frantically try to catch the shower, and failing miserably, he reached his hand out and turned the knob off.

He took a deep inhale through his nose, trying to stay calm. Only the problem was, the image of her kneeling on the floor in front of him, in the now soaking wet dress that was clinging to her body and leaving little left for his imagination.

She looked up at him with glossy eyes and fuck… He was about to lose all control over himself if he didn’t get out of here fast. So he turned and started to slowly walk out of the steamed filled bathroom.

“Wait! I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to…” The girl quickly moved in front of him. “I’ll fix it, please stay.”

She was obviously still in a flustered state. Maybe that was why she didn’t seem to reflect over the fact that she was basically undressing him, frantic fingers moving from button to button down his shirt.

Yeah, he was definitely about to lose the battle against his own urges. Control? What was that even? Sabo had no idea anymore.

All that occupied his thoughts was the water drenched girl in front of him, face tinted red from embarrassment, fingers ever so often drifting over his chest, as her eyes stayed fully focused on the buttons.

He wanted to, no wait… He needed to feel those soft hands all over his body, clinging to him, fingernails pressing against the skin on his back. Lips, gently pressed against his neck, as he held her tight against his body. Sweet, airy moans escaping her mouth as she squirmed from his touch.

He needed all of those things, and he couldn’t stand to wait a moment longer.

“Guess I’m a lost cause…” Sabo chuckled quietly, as he placed his hands with a firm grip on her waist.

“W-wait,why-” The girl stuttered as he lifted her and placed her on the bathroom counter.

“Why? You were practically undressing me a moment ago, and you’re asking me why?” He said as he moved closer, caging her in.

He saw how her focus drifted down to the unbuttoned, wet shirt that hanged loosely over his torso, her eyes widening in panic.

“I didn’t think- Or I did, but I didn’t mean to- Dear God-I’m so sorry.” The girl’s incoherent words came out as small, baffled gasps.

“You’re fucking adorable when you’re flustered, you know that right?” His body moved on its own, placing soft kisses on her neck, making a small whimper slip past her lips. “Every time I see you like this, I get the urge to just-”

The spiraling, dirty words that came out of his mouth were stopped when he felt a small push against his chest. He moved his head back and was surprised to see the girl staring at his torso with a concerned look on her face.

“Are you okay?” She asked as her hand carefully grazed over the healed burn scars on his body.

This was definitely not how he thought things would go.

She looked up at him, genuine concern for him showing in her eyes. Sabo could have sworn he felt his heart stop for a moment.

He had processed what had happened years ago, so the scars from it rarely bothered him anymore. He had a small relapse when he got his memories back, because he could actually remember how he felt when the flames, caused by that fucking World Noble, wrecked havoc around him on his small boat.

But she didn’t know that. Sabo realized that the girl in front of him knew just as little about him as he did about her. And that bothered him, for some reason.

“I’m fine, it happened years ago” He gave her a smile and moved her hand away. “Does it bother you?”

Why did he ask that? He usually doesn’t care about what other people think.

“No, not at all. I just wanted to make sure you were okay, you know after I…” The girl's face turned red.

Why did her answer make him feel so relieved?

“Relax, it’s okay. In fact, I’d be happy to let you undress me any day of the week.” Sabo joked, trying to ignore his strange thoughts, not thinking about the bold statement he had just made.

An awkward silence hung in the air for what felt like hours.

“So, I’m gonna go…” She said as she gently pushed him away, making Sabo take a step back.

“Yeah, you do that.” He answered, feeling uncharacteristically unsure of what else to say.

Sabo watched as the girl hurried out of his room, before he walked over to his bed and fell flat on his back.

In any normal case, he would’ve just joked the question away and continued seducing the poor girl. This wasn’t the first time that some girl had asked about his scars when they saw his body, so why was it different? Was it because she had looked at him with concern, instead of morbid curiosity as most strangers did?

The fact that she had been unbothered by his strong advances and completely focused on making sure he was okay, made him even more confused. He had expected to see a stuttering, cute mess. But instead, she did that…

He let his hand drift over the places she had touched. It felt warm, and in some ways, comforting. The inside of his chest felt strange.

Weird…

___

[echobx]

Trick or treat! 👻

thanks for the ask 🥰🥰🥰

author's note: this is a fic I started but I will never finish, so it ends before anything happens that would actually be interesting. It's basically like foreplay that ends in a blank page. idk okay. I never finished it bc I didn't know how to continue, it's not like I can't tell you what was supposed to happen after, I very juch could, but I was never capable of writing it down and that's been like this for nearly a whole year cause I wrote this in late December last year. anyway, no more talking, here's the start of an unfinished fic.

summary/idea: y/n and JJ spend a day together on a boat in the open sea and use the time they have appropriately

word count: 1.8k

warnings: making out, suggestive language, JJ PoV, established relationship, fem!Kook!reader

This is 100% unedited and NOT finished!!!

ask game

“I know nothing about boats, I would need someone who knows what they are doing, the best one you got,” I heard her sweet voice trying to charm Guffy. “I'll pay extra if he's pretty,” she said and when I glanced up I could see him put a few bills into his pocket. “JJ!” he called out and I had to bite a grin away while she pretended to not know me at all. I walked over to them, cleaning off my hands and smiling politely to keep up the facade. “What do you need?” I asked. “One trip on the Ariadne, and be careful with our very charming client,” he said and eyed me intensely. “I won't disappoint, wouldn't dream of it,” I said and grinned before turning towards my girl. “M’lady,” I mused and held my hand out for her. She held onto me as I guided her towards the small yacht, before I went back to grab a cooler and Guffy pulled me away one last time. “I don't care what you do, but if she comes back happy, you'll get half of the winnings, do you hear me?” he whispered while staring into my eyes and I didn't really know how to feel about it. Maybe it would've been different if it had been anyone but y/n, but it still would've felt off that he even suggested it. “I'll see what I can do,” I said and grasped the cooler tighter before walking away to the boat.

I drove us far enough out to not get annoyed by anyone passing by, far enough to be able to do whatever we wanted without anyone seeing. “I heard you pay extra when they're pretty,” I teased her after dropping the anchor. y/n was lying on the wooden planks, bathing herself in the sunlight as if I wasn't there at all. “I like my boys pretty,” she replied before batting her eyes at me. “Sunbathing with a bikini on will leave lines,” I whispered while leaning down over her and she had pulled me in quicker than I could've said my own name. Her lips pressed against mine in a needy kiss and I forgot everything for a moment until she let go again and giggled. “This was the best idea I ever had, right after the one where I decided to not give up on making you fall for me.” “Pretty sure I fell for you way before I even knew I was capable of it,” I chuckled while walking into the small cabin.

She got up and followed me, the opened wrap dress flowing in the wind. “Oh, but you wouldn't have even noticed if I hadn't made sure you would.” “Took longer than you wanted it to,” I mumbled as she hugged me from behind. “Yeah, well, better that than never, right?” She said quietly. “How much did you pay him? He offered me half when I bring you back ‘happy’,” I drew quotation marks in the air as I said it and she giggled. “Oh, you'd throw me overboard if you knew, that's also why he didn't give you a timeslot, we have as much time as we want, we could stay a whole day, maybe even two, and he'd still have some left,” she pressed her face in between my shoulders while talking. “So, you are paying for me to fuck you? Maybe I should be turned off by that. Tell me again why that doesn't turn me off?” I asked while turning around to be able to look at her. “One, you love me so much. Two, you'd still do anything for money, and getting to have this much fun and making more than ever is probably very fucking good, I would think, especially because you love me. Three, I paid for you to spend the day with me, I can't help it if all you want to do is make me cum over and over and over and ov-” I cut her off with a kiss, sloppy and breathtaking, my hand fisting her hair behind her head, while hers rested on my hips, pressing her hips against my hardening cock. “You know what, I think you should go and look through my bag, maybe you'll find something interesting,” she hushed, her lips ghosting mine before she pulled away and spun me around as if I didn't weigh anything.

I picked up her bag and walked back over to where she had sat down. She looked like a model, the way her legs were angled on the white cushions, my sunglasses on her nose and the painted red lips drawn to a smile. Putting the bag down beside me as I sat down opposite of her, I started looking through it and putting the most interesting things on the small table in between us; teak wood, easy to clean, just like the rest of the fancy boat, apart from the cushions maybe, but I so rarely had to clean those before. “And?” she asked, anticipation swinging in her voice as she pulled the glasses down. “I didn't think this bag could fit this much,” I mumbled and put an Uno game and a small toiletry bag out, placing both on the table. Next followed a small box, which was locked, and when I gave her a questioning look she just smiled a bit wider before nodding to signal me to keep going. “If this is what I think it is-” I muttered while pulling a black hardshell travel kit out of the bag. “Please don't be something else,” I whispered to myself while slowly pulling the zipper open and revealing the camera inside. “Shit, I love being right,” I hissed as I thought about all of the things I would do to her later. “I see you like what I have in mind,” she giggled.

“How did you think of this?” I wondered while picking up the camera and turning it on, the settings were put to photographs and I couldn't stop myself from taking a few of her as she spoke. “Well, you know how Pamela Anderson had that tape of her and her ex husband leaked back in the 80s or 90s or whenever that was? I mean, that was horrible, but I know that they filmed mostly their honeymoon, which was on a boat, and I thought that would be a funny idea. And the camera isn't a rental, and I made sure that the SD card has a failsafe, it can only be accessed with a password that only I have, for now, and if it's typed in wrong more than three times, boom, no more anything. It's pretty smart, Pope did that for me, took a bit longer than I had expected, but better late than never, right?” “How good is that password?” I asked and put the camera back up, in between her explanation I had to take it down to just admire her as she was, smart and sexy and more than I could've ever wished for. “It's extremely long, and hard,” she said and flashed her eyebrows at me. “I don't think taking ‘JJ’s pretty dick’ as a password is as safe as I want it to be,” I joked and she threw a small pillow at me, that I barely caught before it could fall into the sea. “These pillows are expensive, just so you know,” I said but she just rolled her eyes at me before putting the sunglasses back on. “Now I won't tell you,” she said while crossing her arms in front of her chest and pouting in a joking manner. “How big is that card?” I asked while taking another shot, zooming in on her legs. “I don't think we'll be able to fill it in one day, not even in two,” she said with a mischievous smile.

“What if I wanna print one of these?” I asked and took another shot just as she pulled the glasses down a little. “Why would you wanna print them?” she asked. “To hang one up at home? I don't know, why wouldn't I?” I shrugged slightly and she got up and sat down next to me, taking the camera in her hand and looking through all the pictures I had already taken of her. “Maybe, but only if I get to take some of you too,” she said and got up again, just to take a picture and look at it for a while. “I'm not that good at this, my phone is easier,” she sounded defeated. “Show me,” I whispered after getting up and placing myself behind her. The picture wasn't bad, just a bit unsteady and unfocused. I pressed the little “auto” button and told her to try it again, while leaning against the railing. “I think this is better, but I hate that I have to use the fucking dummy mode to take good pictures of you,” she pouted and dragged herself over to me. “You are so effortlessly good at this, and I'm shit.” “Nothing bad about that, you are way better at so many things than me too, I can barely keep up.” My words managed to conjure a small smile on her lips. “Keep talking,” she hushed. “All right, you're way better at baking than me, or just cooking at all, which I will work on, I promise,” I wanted to keep going but she had to laugh. “You burnt spaghetti,” she was basically guffawing. “I'm gonna learn,” I tried to defend myself a little but had to laugh too, her laughter was just too addictive. “I love you so much,” she mused after managing to control her laughter. “Love you so much too, princess,” I whispered and kissed her gently.

“Do you wanna play a game of Uno?” she whispered against my lips and I opened my eyes to look at her, already staring back at me. “I have made up new rules, better rules.” “Tell me about those rules,” I said while pulling her back towards the table, which was still filled with the things from her bag. “Oh, you'll see in the game, I only changed a single thing really,” y/n was as vague as she could be and I didn't know if I was actually that fond of the game without knowing what would happen. I cleaned the table and we started playing, but when I placed the +4 card she didn't groan out of annoyance like she usually did, but instead grinned and took off the flimsy fabric of the dress, which was really only draped over her shoulders now, and then she kept playing without taking four. “That's a rule you'll never use when we play with anyone else,” I said she grinned a bit wider. After that it didn't take long for me to lose my shirt, and for her everything else she had on and suddenly the game was forgotten.

please don't copy and/or post my work onto other platforms! ~e©ho

[veninorchid]

Bridgerton S3 Review

Dearest gentle reader, I am disappointed, sadly.

And as I respect your opinion, so too, shall you respect mine. I'm not here to bash on #Polin fans and the fact that they enjoyed it, but what -was- season 3 of Bridgerton truly?

I love the Mondriches, but do they really need so much screen-time? What did their own ball add to the story exactly? Had the same feeling about the Dankworth-Finch ball at the end, but at least that one proved its necessity as -the reveal all- ball. Because there was of course no Duke of Hastings (Simon) to host it, so they improvised.

This season had too many stories going on at the same time which were all fighting for the spotlight when it should've focused on #Polin, cause that is what was advertised/hyped. It did not deliver…

Season 1 - Daphne and Simon They had the most screen-time and all other stories got a little bit of shine. But even then some of those had either Daphne or Simon in the picture/background. (Marina-Colin, with Daphne as chaperone is one of the examples) None of the other stories distracted from the main focus.

Season 2 - Kanthony Same here. While there was a lot going on in this season with Anthony courting Edwina and going all the way to the alter with her (creative license, since it didn't happen in the book) and then on the other hand we were seeing the other side with his having the thickest desire and longing for Kate. You could cut that shit with a knife, I tell you. But no side stories were overpowering. It was 90% lead character -stuff. Season 3 - Benedict---, I mean #Polin -minus the actual #Polin Were their (the directors/screenwriters) initial thoughts that we've been seeing them for 2 seasons, so we don't have to pay that much attention to the leads? Wrong! That was friendship, this is love, longing and passion. So much new ground to explore for these two. Little scenes like dancing in the church, stealing loving glances is cute and all, but we got nothing more than that. Nothing memorable.

No wait, we got carriage frolicking in part 1 and a mirror first time in part 2. You're right, I apologize. Anything else? Name any other thing you remember from this whole season. I'll wait, seriously.

Did maybe the night scene come up in your memories? Where they had an angry make out and he once again let his hand venture below? I felt the anger/passion in the coming together and pushing her against the shop, sure. The quick flash of him reaching between her thighs was more of a recycled scene from episode 4 or even from S03 Kanthony. I mean honestly. Was there really even a chance he'd take her in the streets? It felt unnecessary and forced. The dialogue was good and would've been better at their home where it's believable they could enter an intimate scene that -could- be finished if they so wanted it. Or not if his anger won over his desire. Did I mention they were both drinking before they met? I didn't say drunk, I said drinking.

I guess they improvised the whole Mme Delacroix scene (before the angry make out) with her offering advice and booze just to give Pen a reason to drink and coincidentally be in Colin's path for the scene? Wasted screen-time. Do I also need a drink to feel the -love- this season?

First part, Colin helping and chasing Pen. Second part, let's ignore and distance myself from her. They really stretched out Colin's pulling back from her because of the whole Whistledown thing, when they could've done fast forwards, saying things like 'Colin, it's been weeks. Or it's been so long, can we get passed this' just to show the time frame. But instead we get long minutes of silence and ignoring each other. Filming Colin from the back, zooming in. Then from the front zooming in. Then him watching her leave the house, slowly getting up from sleeping on the sofa, walking towards his desk. Lifting and opening and reading her old letters. Do you have any idea how long that feels? When she exited the bedroom and delivered her dialogue he could've already been behind his desk. Did we see Simon (S01E02) walk into the room, open his father's desk, take out the unopened letters etc.? No, the flashback ends with him already seated and holding the letters. Same thing could've been done here.

Oh, let's not forget side character-stuff. Let's talk more about that.

Again, I cannot stress it enough. Mondriches. Duke of Kent stuff and moving up, is fine. Seeing them struggle constantly onscreen is not. Wasted screen-time. You can easily have us hear about that in conversation. How miserable and sad he is because he had to close the bar when he became part of the ton. So many ways to handle that. Moving to part 2. Why did we have to get the whole preparation for their ball? What did it add to the story exactly? Just let everyone arrive at the ball and let that be the first we all see of the decorations. Did we see Lady Danbury prepare for the huge conservatory ball in S2? Lady Trowbridge's ball in S1? All of Her Majesty's balls? No, so it was wasted screen-time.

Francesca's story was sweet, bless her, but also unnecessary detailed. Was it the autism angle they were trying to push forward? I'm all for it, but only when you have a series with more than 8 episodes. (God, I miss 22 episode series) Because she is still a side character in #Polin's book, no matter which way you turn it. At Francesca's wedding we had the whole vows scene and everything and the two LEADS!!!! were stealing glances at each other while standing behind the whole ass family. You're the leads, act like it! It felt like S1 and S2 with them being in the background.

We all know Bridgerton's known for taking liberties with the wardrobe. The tailored waists for Pen enhance her body beautifully, but Cressida's wardrobe is bordering… scratch that! has taken a 250 MPH free-fall, into ridiculousness. I also absolutely did not care for -seeing- the reasons behind Cressida claiming to be Whistledown. Should've just kept her as a bitch. That's what we enjoyed about her. Fine, you decided on that development for her character, so here's an idea. She was so chummy with Eloise. Could've just had her tell Eloise that she was being pressured by her parents to marry and then being send to the country to live with a horrid aunt. Wasted screen-time. You only have 8 episodes to work with for crying out loud.

And then there's the side character of all side-characters. Benedict. Didn't they make the very -deliberate- decision to push back Benedict and Sophie's story in favor of #Polin as S3? To then give me so much useless Bentilly sexy time; Time that could've easily been given to #Polin things. If you can make up stories about him being confused as to his sexuality, you can just as easily come up with new, none book, stories for the actual leads. Could've left everything they forced on us about Benedict for his actual season. What's gonna be left for his own season? Wasted screen-time. Should've made him absent, continue the art-school in the background, anything. I mean, an extended honeymoon for Kanthony instead of a forced story to have them onscreen. Do the bloody same for Benedict and focus on #Polin. Every time we saw Benedict, he was playing twister with Tilly and later with what's his name (don't even care) It's not relevant, it's wasted screen-time.

I'm gonna end my review (rant!) with one last thing.

Shallow kisses. Heck it's acting, so you don't have to shove your tongue down your co-actor's throat, but keep your lips open and hollow out your mouth to at least make us think you're playing tongue-twister. As soon as their lips touched, they closed their mouths and it became a fervent peck-fest. Like kissing air and practicing in front of a mirror. Yes, they look good kissing each other, but the kissing itself was bleh.

First kiss in part 1 was going the right direction and was pretty believable, but after that… shallow as f*ck. And to think they were supposed to be increasing in passion after that first kiss. All of them were closed-mouth pecks, I'm sorry. Was it the height-difference that didn't allow them to actually suck each other's face off? ---------------

I will not do a TL;DR, because if you skip this review/rant, you will not have missed anything. Have a great day people.

Yours truly, Venin Orchid (aka Lady Regency-nerd) PS: did anyone notice the nice touch at the end? The Whistledown Silhouetted lady on the top of the page had been changed to look more like Penelope. You're welcome <3

[mokusilkani]

☆ﾟ⁠.⁠*⁠･⁠｡ﾟLuna x Saturn's Moon! Reader☆ﾟ⁠.⁠*⁠･⁠｡ﾟ

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☆ﾟ⁠.⁠*⁠･⁠｡ﾟCan be viewed as platonic or romantic head cannons ☆ﾟ⁠.⁠*⁠･⁠｡ﾟ

GN! Reader

_______________________________________________

If I must start this off, you and Luna are best buds! You're very close with him(⁠*⁠˘⁠︶⁠˘⁠*⁠)⁠.⁠｡⁠*⁠♡

Though your first meeting with him wasn't so great...

As one of Saturn's Moon, he often didn't pay attention to his other moons other than Titan and some others (I think? Or is it just Titan?) I mean he had over 120+ moons! He can't remember them all. Which was perfect for you to sneak away without him noticing and venture on to meet the Rocky planets!

Yes you heard of the Rocky planets from Saturn and it made you yearned to see them. Soon you made it to the asteroid belt, but to your disappointment you couldn't see any planet at all? That's not right... There should be a planet, unless they left their orbit? Let's say you got hyped up for no reason, best option is to head back to Saturn and be absolutely forgotten...

"Hah! I win again! That's another point for me!"

Huh? You thought there was no one but you surely heard a voice. You then found yourself heading closer to the voices and soon enough you found what you always wanted to meet!

The Earth! And Mars, and Venus, and and... Wait is that a moon?

Oh you forgot, apparently only two out of the four rocky planets have moons and Earth is one of them

What was his name again? You honestly don't know but you could just ask?

"Psst, hey!" You tried to get the attention of the moon but failed miserably

That's alright! You can try again! You'll be able to get his attention soon enough!

How many times has it been already...? 19? 20? 21? You weren't counting but this was taking longer than expected...

"No worries... I can try something else, just keep calm and think..." You murmured to yourself, and then you got the perfect idea!

Throw an asteroid towards him!... Wait what...? What are you even thinking!?

Too late... You had grabbed the nearest asteroid next to you and threw it as hard as you could

The moon was minding his own business till he looked behind him to find an asteroid going full speed at him!?

He managed to move quickly out of the way but that asteroid was so close that he would've sustained a bad hit... Not to mention that his life flashed before his very eyes

"Oh heavens! I'm so sorry I didn't mean to throw that asteroid so hard towards you! I'm truly very sorry..."

The moon who was still shocked and processing what just happened look at you for the very first time

"Wha...? Another moon!?"

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•Tbh you're relationship was kinda rocky at the beginning with the moon but hey it got better!

•You started calling him Luna after his sentence "STOP CALLING ME EARTH'S MOON!"

•A little secret, he loves it when you call him Luna instead of Earth's moon(⁠´⁠ ⁠.⁠ ⁠.̫⁠ ⁠.⁠ ⁠`⁠)

•You two actually got to spend a lot of time together since Saturn doesn't really notice

•If Luna ever has an argument with Earth, you're there to help him and show the right or wrongs

•It makes him feel better that he has someone to talk to

•The way you talk to him? It makes him melt and feel fuzzy every single time

•Honestly he gets sorta tired of you talking about the rocky planets

•Its not rocket science that you like them or anything

•Though he wishes that was him you'd talk about... WHAT WHO SAID THAT WHO SAID THAT!!!

•Yes Luna has been warming up to you lately

•Your friendly and cheerful personality is what makes him so allured to you

•A delightful moon indeed! You were too perfect for this world- *Cough cough(⁠゜⁠o⁠゜⁠; *

•Earth began to realize Luna's sudden disappearances and was pretty displeased about it

•That is until Luna finally reveals you to Earth after you begging him for days non-stop

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"Really? Awh thank you so much Luna! You know this means the world to me!" You chirped with such excitement and cheerfulness, you could feel the uncontrollable smile appear on your face.

"Yeah, I mean I had to or else you'd keep bothering for decades" Luna said with a pleased smile. He totally didn't do it to see you happy... Hahahaha...(⁠.⁠ ⁠❛⁠ ⁠ᴗ⁠ ⁠❛⁠.⁠)

You tilted your head(?) at him before getting closer so you could whisper something into his ear(?).

"I'll cherish this forever, I promise..." You spoke with a graceful tone and then left him by himself. The poor moon was left in awe struck by you.

You'd mean everything to him and he'd do anything to make you smile again... Wait why does he feel his face heating up?

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IM FINALLY FREE!ᕦ⁠[⁠ ⁠◑⁠ ⁠□⁠ ⁠◑⁠ ⁠]⁠ᕤ I'm so sorry that this took a long time to post. School is basically jail for me༼⁠;⁠´⁠༎ຶ⁠ ⁠۝ ⁠༎ຶ⁠༽

I'm also going to say that I've peaked a little bit of my interest in Solarballs again but it probably won't last longÓ⁠╭⁠╮⁠Ò

I hope you can enjoy this while I yippee (⁠人⁠ ⁠•͈⁠ᴗ⁠•͈⁠)

A/N: The end kinda cheesy tbh(8/9)

[joesalw]

ok since you said you're all for swiftie rants, i feel a bit better sending this in 😭 i'm still a fan of her music (for the most part) but her as a person? never again.

i've been a casual swiftie since i was little and since her debut. i say casual because i didn't involve myself with fandom drama. never had any fan accounts or went to concerts. i didn't obsessively follow her life. i just loved her music and she seemed like a cool person. i always looked forward to her albums and new music.

when she started dating joe, i remember liking him from the beginning. he seemed grounded and chill. and kind. and i loved that she found someone like that. that he helped her through a really difficult time in her life and career. she just had a different glow with him to me. he helped her for the better in many ways imo. then 2023 happened and i was just... very confused. i wasn't on anyone's side in the beginning, just a "they were together for so long and they're probably both hurting, i wish people would leave them alone" and then she started dating THAT man like a month after their breakup was announced. i didn't know who matty was and god i wish it stayed that way. her dating him was a big wakeup call for me to think "yk what maybe she's not as cool as you thought." that saying "show me who your friends are, and i'll tell you who you are" is true imo. i don't know how someone can be friends with let alone DATE a man who not only does this, but admitted to it and LAUGHED about getting off to black women being brutalized. and that's not even all he did, idc if it was just a "joke" or an "act." it's not fucking funny and never was.

joe got harrassed and slandered repeatedly for a whole year. multiple of his female costars/friends did too because swifties were convinced he cheated on her with them. and taylor did absolutely nothing at all to stop it. not surprising ig because she never does, but still disappointing. if anything, she encouraged it. and what do you know? she was actually the one who cheated on joe. with matty fucking healy, who she had been pining over for a decade. she was the one who left joe. all because he was "too depressed" for her. i'm sorry but i have to laugh. what is this??

as far as the album goes, personal drama aside, i did like it for the most part. wasn't my favorite but i still liked it and i would've enjoyed it A LOT more if it wasn't so on the nose about everything that happened (and yk the whole "without all the racists" line. really? after dating matty? i think you'd be pretty fine if they were there idk). i would REALLY love "guilty as sin" if i didn't know it was a confession to emotionally cheating on her bf of 6 years because he was depressed and masturbating to matty healy who's just about every ist and phobic out there. i would really love "but daddy i love him" if i didn't know it was her jumping after her fans for actually having more morals than her and calling her out for dating that man. it's just... ugh.

sorry i kinda went off there 😭 it's just really disappointing to see her act this way. thank you for this blog! it has been very helpful for me and i'm sure a lot of other fans upset with her and everything that's happened.

yup

[deer-carcasses]

"Great Alastor, altruist, died for his friends"

a deeper look into Alastor's solo part of the final song

The entire soundtrack has been stuck in my head since the show ended, but Alastor's part of the final specifically has been playing on a loop in my brain since I first heard it.

The slow downward pan from the Vee's feeling like they are now finally able to take over the city to the upward pan with Alasto's song starting was a fantastic choice, the contrast in their emotions, in the music, and still it all fit perfectly together.

"This place reeks of death," is such an underrated opening for this song in my eyes. We know Alastor is a cannibal, we've seen him eat a dead deer before, [^1] which would point toward him not having a problem with the smell of death and decay, but he goes out of his way to mention it smells of death. I don't think he truly meant the smell of death in this scene though. He might be talking about the death of his career if he had gotten killed in his fight with Adam. The line "Great Alastor, Altruist, died for his friends" is not him referring to himself as an altruist, it is the headlines he already sees if he truly would have died, seemingly for his friends, for the hotel. The way he follows it up with "Sorry to disappoint, this is not where it ends" shows this. It's him stating how absurd it is, but that this would be the story everyone would be thinking should it have happened. But I also feel like he says it because he knows there's the tiniest of truths behind it. Why did he fight Adam alone? Why did he fight in the first place? For the hotel, for his friends. As much as Alastor hates to admit it, he has gotten closer to the people in the hotel for sure, especially when we look at how he interacts with them all. He seems friendlier, even if it's just for show and to keep up his facade, but he truly does act like he at least cares a little but about them. The look he has while even saying it speaks volumes, he looks truly terrified of the implication that hell could see him as an altruist in this fight.

At first, his smile was an angry snarl, aggression about being humiliated by losing this fight clearly written all over his smile. But then it turns genuinely afraid like he fears the mere concept of being seen as a decent person, not even a good person, just decent enough to fight for the people in the hotel.

He digs his nails into his scalp, dragging his hands down the side of his face, but not at the prospect of dying, but at the idea of what would've come after he had died. [^2] At the idea that all of hell would know he not only died but died for someone else. Before this thought of what other people in hell would think of him, he looked more angry, enraged that Adam even dared be an opponent that Alastor had to run from in order to get out of there alive. His reaction is surprisingly human considering how Alastor normally holds himself. Sure he was alone ignoring the eyes following him around his destroyed radio tower, [^3] There's no one here that he would have to lie to, but he knows better than anyone that you're never truly alone in hell, so it still surprised me how honest he was with the viewers in this moment. It's the most we see of him that doesn't seem to be a character, a facade.

His whole persona is this blatant mask he wears constantly, obvious to everyone who knows him. He even admitted to Charlie that his smile is not real in the slightest. But it works. Every scene where Alastor was talking before his Breakdown Ballad in the finale, I second-guessed every single word that left his mouth. Wondering if it all is a performance. I see a lot of people online with the same thought, looking at everything he says twice, trying to see any hidden meaning, any clue as to what he truly wants to say behind words that, if said by any other character, would've been the least interesting thing ever. And even then, his fake smile keeps in place, even if the actual emotions behind it are clear as day, while alone in his destroyed tower. It might be to fool himself like he fools others, but I think his smile is not able to be dropped, let it be part of his deal or part of his punishment, Alastor will never be seen without his smile. [^4]

Overall i feel like Alastor does care about the Hotel staff and guests to a certain extent. I can't fully trust it, and I'd be less than surprised if I were to be wrong, but there are scenes where he seems too much like he cares.

Moving along on the song, the next lyrics are rather straightforward forward "I'm hungry for freedom like never before. The constraints of my deal surely have a backdoor" circling back to what I mentioned above. His current goal is to escape this deal that is constricting his powers, powers that would most likely have saved him from the injury he sustained. The next and final lines"Once I figure out how to unclip my wings. Guess who will be pulling all the strings?" strongly point towards how he is unable to use his full strength, that his full potential can't be reached while he is still under this deal he made. The thought of Alastor not being at his full potential in his fight with Adam is on some level truly terrifying, a Sinner can reach these kinds of powers in hell that he is able to fight someone like Adam, the first man, someone with approximately the same amount of power Lilith must have? I've just today talked to a friend of one about it. Yes, Alastor lost the fight, but he held up quite well and was a worthy opponent to the point that Adam had to seriously take a second, stop joking around, and concentrate on the fight to get a single hit on Alastor. All of this while Alastor also got a few hits in, not as strong as the ones he had to endure later on, but still. They were hits.

Regardless, in the end, Alastor came very close to dying, and that was for a cause that wasn't just for himself. Seeing what Adam did to the Hotel (or Sir Pentious while we're at it), Alastor has to honestly be glad he even survived that blow directly to his chest. There surely was some plot armor behind this decision, but it's still believable when we trust the theory that Alastor made a deal with someone far more powerful than anyone expects.

This show, and Alastor specifically, has taken over my thoughts completely.

[^1]: in my eyes his being a cannibal points to how he has a need for superiority. To always prove his worth. In his days alive he was a serial killer, a hunter, and now in hell, he has aspects of a deer, a prey animal. The cannibalism is purely to show that he is still on top, that he is superior even to those similar to him, to those that are the same as him. He might have characteristics of a prey animal, but he stays the hunter.

[^2]: this strengthens my theory that Alastor is also afraid of dying whiteout escaping the deal he is currently still bound to. I touch on it in this post a bit more clearly, it's almost at the end of the post.

[^3]: I'd like to link everyone to this post for some thoughts on the eyes in this scene. It's incredibly well written and I couldn't have phrased it better.

[^4]: the closest we ever get to not seeing him, or more part of him, not smiling is shortly before he vanishes from the fight with Adam. His shadow can be seen frowning in the background before quickly correcting itself. It's a blink-and-you-miss-it kind of situation.

[tabr1-s]

sunday rant and personal frustrations with him that i begun to write at 6am running on an entire 3 and a half hours of sleep (my cats woke me up.....)

(tldr at the end. i might be as bad as Sunday in terms of yap mileage (yappage) but i'll do one better than him and provide you with the concise version if you scroll all the way down.)

i have never felt such intense emotions about a character's moral viewpoint... Ever. and i've liked characters that were mass murderers before. morals (or lack thereof) usually never played a significant role in whether i liked a character or not (unless they did something i considered worse than plain ol murder, then i wouldn't associate with them), and 99% of the time i could find the character's motivations understandable under the circumstances that they were in.

and, technically, i can understand where Sunday is coming from too.

but that doesn't stop me from being Absolutely pissed at him.

(sunday-esque yap about myself incoming, i will eventually get to the point (which i will highlight))

as someone who has been told that i have "ocd features" Multiple times by my psychiatrist (practically each session) i understand the need for control. my obsessiveness manifests in the form of feeling the need to control practically everything - my current obsession for control being my own emotions, which extends to needing to control entire situations, and in turn makes me severely overthink all the possible outcomes to those given situations. i've also been guilty of controlling others before, and having the mentality of "i know what's best for you". hell, i still feel like that a lot, but i really try to push it back.

and this need for "control" is mainly the reason why i even find comfort in fiction. because it's oftentimes very predictable to me (it also made me think of how i do not find any interest in reading books, but i love writing stories of my own. particularly fan-fiction. and the only time i can feel comfortable enough to feel romance is towards fictional characters - because i control the narrative! it's something to think about.). if i like a character or a narrative, it's easy for me to pick apart where the writers will go with that story. and, even if the story turns out to disappoint me/be different than what i hoped for, i would still be Prepared for that possibility.

i somehow... failed to prepare for what would happen with Sunday.

i had set my sights on the wrong thing for 2.2. i invested my whole energy on trying to comfort myself that hoyo wouldn't take the ipc colonialism route (basically turning out to be capitalist/colonialist apologists) with penacony (which i Guess will be explored in 2.3? but now that i have some more context on the story and how it's unraveling i'm not as anxious about it anymore), that i overlooked a lot of other things that could've gone wrong.

namely, my favourite hsr character to be... Like that. (i'm not even being intentionally vague. i'm just dumbfounded)

i had Heard of the theory that Sunday is possessed by Ena (which didn't particularly make sense to me, and i refused to look at leaks concerning Sunday lest they upset me. either way i Really hated that theory. plus, Sunday being said to have ocd would've been an incredibly cheap way to foreshadow that he's "possessed" by the Order. you can't just create your first(?) important/playable character that has a confirmed mental illness and then go "it's okay actually he's Normal! he was just possessed". i took this very personally. and still am.), and saw a lot of theories concerning his involvement with the Order as well. i shut it all out, because i didn't like the implications of that.

which in turn made me Not think/comfort myself regarding the possibilities that he truly Was connected to the Order.

...

well, rest in pieces, me - it's always the things i don't pay much attention to/ignore/fail to think about. which is actually a bit strange because i was not expecting him to be an entirely sane person from the start - he was a politician type, a leader, and a manipulator, to name a few things. that much was obvious. in 2.0-2.1 i wouldn't have been surprised if it turned out that he was the one that "killed" Robin. again, nothing was out of the question. but, 2.1 showed a different side of him. one that cared for his sister and (seemingly) listened to her and cared about what she thought. so they became quite a comforting little sibling duo to me. tragic, yet you could depend on their mutual trust in eachother... or so i thought.

and then he... went and did all That. which just showed me how, despite him caring for his sister, he was still putting other things above her.

to conclude with my yap: in a sense, he is just my "grim reflection of the self". and although i feel sympathetic towards my past self and how naive and selfish i used to be, there are some flaws of mine i will never forgive myself for. and, Sunday, in a way, reminded me of... Everything. it was almost triggering.

(hey, writing this all down in one place helped me calm down! (it's a neverending cycle that will continue tomorrow. all it will take is seeing a post concerning him and his sister and i'll get pissed anew) yay!)

the point(s) (aka my qualms):

- how sunday manipulated robin + was planning to use her in the charmony festival to complete his plan. she was going to be an unwilling participant in creating a "utopia" that she would've been absolutely against, but he didn't stop to fucking. fill her in, maybe? talk it out? the sheer disrespect on the concept of free will and on the fact that your own sister is a human being of her own sickens me

- he should've cherished the relationship he had with her (x1000 because that's the ONE FAMILY MEMBER YOU HAD LEFT AND THAT IS SUCH A PRIVILEGE!!! IMAGINE HAVING SOMEONE CARE ABOUT YOU WHOLEHEARTEDLY AND THEN YOU GO AND THROW IT AWAY!!! YEAH I'VE ALMOST DONE THE SAME EXACT THING MULTIPLE TIMES (AND STILL WOULD) BUT THAT'S WHY I ALSO KNOW HOW MUCH OF AN ASSHOLE MOVE IT IS!!!)

- he forsook his own self and shoved down his own biases and interests (fucking rat. you can't change the fact you're human and i'm very much saying that from experience) to become something Grander than life itself and in fucking turn isolated himself and shut out the one person who actually cared and then had the Gall to complain about being misunderstood/alone. (when you're finally sitting in your unreachable throne in this "dream" that you've created, who will you blame for being lonely? who will you blame when you have no one to fall back into? no one to support you? when everybody you did this for forsakes You?)

- HE DIDN'T EVEN HUG ROBIN BACK AT THE LAST SCENE. LIKE SHUT UP ABOUT YOUR FAILED PLANS AND COME DOWN FROM THE CLOUDS A LITTLE - THE JOY YOU SEEK FOR IS RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU!

- all i hoped for was that sunday and robin would reunite and get the chance to be happy together, and the only true reason i'm mad is because i'm guilty of a lot of the same self sacrificial behaviours as him and very much understand the sentiment of "my loved ones would be better off without my negative presence and influence". but instead of empathizing with him, i feel betrayed. i thought he was better than me. i thought he was someone worthy of admiration, and that doesn't come easily from me. despite all the warning signs i fell for his obvious facade, and i Very rarely get taken by surprise - especially in a way like this.

- if it wasn't for the fact that Robin would feel sad if Sunday died i would personally go and strangle him myself

tldr; i'm just a big baby that placed a lot of faith on Sunday and his relationship with Robin post 2.1 and my ego took a Huge hit once he turned out to be just some immature emo idealist type. (come on, man - i genuinely thought you were better than me! someone worthy of respect! and i usually have a feeling of superiority over others! this was the biggest compliment/act of faith i could give! (talking to a wall (fictional character (I'M FUCKING UPSET))))

[aihoshiino]

chapter 144 thoughts!

I don't think any other chapter of Oshi no Ko has ever baffled and confounded me quite like this one. Viewed solely in isolation this is a perfectly fine, functional chapter but as the followup to 143 and everything it contained, I actually feel like I'm losing my mind a bit. 143 might as well not have happened for all the weight it's given in this chapter. Ruby is not remotely acting like a girl who just tongued her crush of 18 years and in general, the total absence of any reference or cushioning of the shock of that event is just so loud and so jarring and so completely out of touch with how OnK has handled romantic developments in the past.

Both AquAka kisses had at least a scene or two in the chapter immediately following of characters reacting to and reflecting on both the event itself and the status quo change it represents in the relationship. Even 124 has that scene of Ruby clinging onto Aqua to let the viewer know what the new dynamic between them is going to be from now on. This chapter has nothing of the sort; I wasn't kidding when it says it feels like the kiss never even happened. The only thing I can point to is Ruby's little "we have sensei at home" exchange with Tsukuyomi but that's… kind of just exactly what she would've said even before the kiss. So if it has resulted in absolutely no change to their dynamic that we can see thus far, what was the point in ending the chapter on that note?

The part of me that is cynical and jaded can't help but suspect that this is intentionally hot button reaction bait paced specifically for the purposes of keeping OnK a trendy topic in the lead up to season 2 of the anime airing, But Who's To Say, Really.

I also had my worries about this last chapter, but unless we skip back in time to address it, it really looks like we've skipped over the remainder of the KamiAi romance and everything to do with the early stages of Ai's pregnancy. This is incredibly frustrating to me - they're parts of Ai's story I had been incredibly curious about and was excited to see her thoughts and feelings on, even filtered through fiction. In general, the way the Movie Arc has been increasingly dropping its focus on actually conveying Ai's story has been a real sore point for me. I fully acknowledge this rankles me more than perhaps it should because I am so deeply invested in Ai above any other character but… fuck, man! Once again, remember when this was supposed to be an arc about her? About her inner life, her pain and struggles and Aqua and Ruby working to a better understanding of her? I was excited for the Movie Arc specifically because I thought we were going to get peeks at parts of Ai's life we weren't privy to beforehand, but at this point it almost feels like Akasaka has just lost interest in following through.

Not only that but… uh, where's that KamiAi breakup scene, Akasaka? The one we were promised during the script reading? That huge I CAN'T LOVE YOU elephant that's been patiently sitting in the room? I can only assume that the 15YL version of this breakup happens after the twins are born or maybe even when Kamiki visited Ai at the hospital the night the kids were born but. What the fuck is even going on here anymore lol. The Oshi no Brainrot discord has been kicking around a joke theory that we were seeing the events of the Movie Arc out of their actual chronological order and it is becoming increasingly less of a joke in my brain because I can't make any sense of its progression otherwise.

oh my god i'm almost 1000 words in and i haven't started talking about the actual point of this chapter yet. god help me.

Anyway, MY SON IS HERE LET'S GO MELT!!!!!!

Ngl, I've always been a little disappointed that we didn't see much more of Melt in this arc, both just because I like him and because I think there's some really interesting potential in drawing on the parallels between Melt and Kamiki. I'm not the first to point out that Melt's experience with a dubiously consensual sexual encounter at the hands of an upperclassman - when he wasn't that much older than Hikaru was when Airi began abusing him - echoes at least in spirit Kamiki's experiences as a CSA victim; both were young boys, noted to be pretty and desirable, who were taken advantage of by older female figures. I think it would be extremely interesting and a great character moment for Melt to have some degree of engagement with that material and maybe to have some thoughts about it. It feels like a little bit of a missed opportunity to pass up on that, but I also acknowledge that Melt is ultimately not a huge mover and shaker in the overall story and I don't know how that would've fit into the Movie Arc as it stands, so I'll just have to make eyes at the AO3 tag and hope someone writes a fic about it.

Anyway as a lot of people predicted… here's Ruby being a jackass to Melt about his performance!!! Joking aside, I will admit it's a little jarring to see Ruby being so hostile to Melt over this…? Gorou is a sore spot for her, obviously and she would undoubtedly have high standards for his role in the movie. In addition, Ruby being snitty with people who rub her the wrong way definitely isn't new for her, but it still feels kind of odd both coming off her own struggles to connect with Ai through acting and her little "holy shit other people have feelings" breakthrough in the wake of the RBKN fight for her to be like this about it. I do think this is mostly just supposed to be just goofs and I'm overthinking it, it was just one of those things that kind of gave me pause as I was reading.

ruby's little little princess shirt is really good though, as is her referring to herself as a fan of the 'original work'. both of those got a solid sensible chuckle out of me.

Another thing that gave me pause for a very different reason was Melt and Ruby's exchange about his little merch pin. First and foremost, I think this is a really good Melt moment; while we saw him busting his ass to improve his acting in Tokyo Blade, that was very much when he had something to prove. Here, he really does seem to be going above and beyond for what is basically a bit part purely out of a desire to improve his craft and a passion for acting overall. It's nice to see the story double down in this being a lesson he did properly take away from Sweet Today and that he has committed to acting upon it (no pun intended) in the long term, not just when under outside pressure to do so.

The other thing that jumped out to me about this exchange is that… technically speaking, both Ruby and Melt are wrong, here? It's a very nice, flowery description of Gorou and it certainly lines up with his more positive traits but the idea of him not wearing his Ai merch in front of Ai herself is actually incorrect. Gorou is depicted (in the anime, anyway) as openly wearing the charm at what's implied to be all times, even in front of Ai herself. The manga also implies by way of where the charm is on his person when Ruby finds his body that this is also the case in that version of events, too. I don't think it's a retcon and may be an unimportant detail in the grand scheme of things but it did pique my interest.

There's a few ways to take this, I think; a more positive spin is that this is in line with what the story wants us to take away from 15 Year Lie as a production, where the literal granular facts of its events are sometimes less important than and can be bent in favour of supporting the emotional narrative it wants to convey. Melt may not literally be correct here, but he at least achieves the spirit of the right answer in his efforts. "Lies are love", after all.

However, given that Ruby enthusiastically endorses this interpretation - and is thus wrong alongside Melt - this could potentially be an indication of there being cracks in Ruby's rose-tinted view of Gorou. This strikes me as a fascinating idea and one I hope the series plays with; it would follow quite naturally from last chapter's framing of Gorou as Ruby's 'idol' that she's 'gachikoi' for. Oshi no Ko has pretty consistently portrayed the idol/fan relationship as inherently unequal, even when approached with the best of intentions and to truly know someone, you must let them off their pedestal first. She has sort of begun this process with Ai, just through empathizing with her during the 15YL production but we have yet to see anything similar happen with Gorou - if anything, we see the opposite here, where she asserts herself as the authority on Gorou's character as if she has the final say on who he was and what he felt and thought.

But the thing is, how well can Ruby really say that she knew him? They were only in each others' lives for a few months and in that time, she was only exposed to a very narrow slice of his life and his personality. Hell, you could even argue that Akane knows more about Gorou than Ruby does, given that we have no indication that Ruby or Sarina was ever privy to the details of his birth and his home life. Again, it's entirely possible that I'm reading too much into this, but now the idea is in my brain I'm simmering on it a bit. If nothing else, I hope the series takes the time to prod and poke at this angle, especially now it has made the fan/idol aspect of this dynamic explicit and textual.

Ruby and Melt's little senpai/kouhai dynamic has the potential to be really cute and I do hope the series actually spends some time on it. I've always thought a RBML friendship could be really fun to watch play out and seeing Melt gain some confidence in himself by teaching someone else could be really great. But with how unfocused the Movie Arc has been, it's really hard to get my hopes up that we'll be sticking with this even past this chapter lol

oh hey there crow girl we thought you were dead

Surprisingly, I don't have a lot to really say about her little lore drop here, since it's mostly mystery boxing and implications and, man. It's been 69 (nice) chapters since she first started showing up ominously muttering about supernatural things and while I don't mind her presence and I think she's evolved into a fun character, it's a little hard for me to get interested in these little supernatural tidbits until they resolve into something that feels meaningful for the characters.

This isn't helped by the fact that we don't really know what kami means in the context she uses it here. While 'god' and 'gods' are not strictly incorrect as translations, I think an English speaking viewer is primed to think of Abrahamic, capital G-Gods, which isn't necessarily correct. The term kami is a catchall that covers all manner of things from divinities to venerated earthbound humans, so kami can perhaps best be understood as being an umbrella term for something like 'an otherworldly being', which I think better lines up with Tsukuyomi's assertion that those who have memories of past lives are like kami in of themselves.

Ultimately though until we know what kami really means and amounts to in Oshi no Ko, it's hard to say what this means for the characters and I am ultimately only really interested in the characters. So until we know what this actually amounts to in-story, I'm just kind of nodding long with whatever Crow Girl says because sure. This might as well happen.

can we talk about how fucking funny her anime antagonist jump out of the tree was, by the way

break next week, or so i've heard... one of these days, we'll beat the allegations....

[loveislandthegame]

my overall thoughts on season 7, writing edition: what in the world ? 😭 i cannot believe i thought this season was gonna be good. i’ll be joining rohan & S2 MC in the circus, since FB made me look like a damn clown. i don't even know where to begin

being a casa girl had so much potential, and it was something that a lot of players actually wanted, even before FB started doing these themed seasons. they really fumbled the bag here

i enjoyed casa amor. the guys were all unique, had their own dialogue, and it was cool to see their pre-established relationships (alex being the villa dad, bryson and rafa being partners in chaos, the beef between bryson & joyo) then we arrived in the villa, and it all went downhill from there:

everybody became an empty husk, so they could be forced into interchangeable roles: uma’s partner, bonnie’s partner, OG LI’s ex, loved up couple (summer/joyo or #rafne) to name a few. FB’s lazy asses ruined their own characters . why is alex, the supposed level-headed & mature one, being petty & childish af in my playthrough? 😭

MC literally had no thoughts, head empty. we barely participated in any of the challenges and games. it felt like we didn't do anything besides "get pulled for a chat" by your LI or the girls

the LI personality merge in this season was the worst it has ever been. all they do is agree with whatever you say, or tell you how great you are (gone are the days of LIs having their own interests, & getting extra dialogue because of that, like levi with artist MCs)

same problem as the most recent seasons, where MC doesn’t have friendships. she has a forced bestie, then potential LIs that sit around waiting for you to pick them, choose them, love them (they immediately disappear if you don’t pick them)

the plot made no sense at all. being a casa girl means we miss out on the first half of the season, but there were many different ways they could've shown what happened before we arrived (it couldve been something as simple as MC watching the show at home or during the jeep ride to the villa. lol) the timeline was inconsistent, so much important information was paywalled, and i’m pretty sure FB was just making shit up as they went along, since the drama with stephen and OG LI's ex genuinely came out of nowhere . he wasn’t previously mentioned in the beach hut, casa amor, nothing . his only purpose was to make the OG girl look bad.

speaking of the OG girls, what a disappointment . before we got to the villa, i honestly thought they were hinting at estelle and/or willow being LIs . even if they were forced to be our rival, they still could’ve had an interesting character arc . it would've been a lot more fun if she was like allegra, rather than OG LI's equivalent of suresh

i was gonna write, "why tf did she even make it to the finale?" but the answer is obvious : for the gem scenes. every damn volume, it's pay diamonds to upstage her, pay diamonds to clapback, pay diamonds so “your man” doesn't turn his head 🙄 it's already stupid enough, but it makes even less sense if you're not pursuing your OG LI

which leads me to the biggest problem of this season, the lack of branching. you're given the illusion of choice, everything leads to the same outcome . i didn't think it could get any worse, until i saw what happens when you choose the money . does your LI storm off? nope. they make you do the treasure hunt anyways...to win you back ??😭 MC should've called security on their ass

s7 had a promising start but ended up being a flop. it was better than s5, but that's really not saying much . i wish FB would just take their time—s1 and 2 had a whole year long gap between them. but it's clear that rushed seasons are gonna be the norm, season 8 is dropping in february . capitalism ruins everything luv x

[jicklet]

Oh no I forgot you ship Ted/Becca.

😆 Hi anon! I hope this doesn't ruin your day or anything, whomstever you are. If you don't ship it or ship something opposing or whatever's your bag, I'm sure we can still be friends, or whatever we are.

But I've been mulling this all over since the finale, and this is a good excuse to get my thoughts out. Because I come from ye old timey shipping days of "the idea of them together is cool, regardless of whether it happens or not." so that wasn't really my problem with the ending.

Here are the things that are true:

I really like themes and parallels. I like connecting dots and finding connections and all that jazz

The number of themes and parallels they set up between Ted and Rebecca was delicious and very fun for me.

My reaction to the finale is less upset than it is frustrated and confused.

My frustration isn't purely 'they didn't get together romantically so it sucks.' I had started making peace early S3 with realizing it probably wasn't gonna happen

I am frustrated because I wanted all those bits of cool narrative shit they laid out to Do Something

I am frustrated because it feels like Ted and Rebecca have had very few emotionally connected scenes since season one, and what's the point of parallel journeys and soulmateism if their journeys are going to stay so parallel and not join up more, and then just apparently diverge completely

And on the apparent diverging, I don't love it but it would have sucked less if their lines just matched up more in the middle! That could be poignant! But as is, it's more disappointing than tragic, because whatever potential was there wasn't almost realized and then lost, but instead just... never really approached. It feels wasted.

The show did not owe us them getting together, but what it did give us, I found unsatisfying. That's just a bummer, man.

Forgive me this metaphor but I cannot find a better way to put it: I am frustrated because I feel like I got ridden for 3 seasons while they went 'just wait it'll feel so good' and then they were like 'are you ready?' and then just hopped off and left.

I am confused because at the end of their story, I cannot figure out what I am meant to be feeling about it.

Again, I didn't need them to get together romantically, they totally could've found some other way to make it satisfying! But. Ted and Rebecca getting together romantically would have also tied it up in a lot of ways that worked and made the narrative satisfying.

Having a romance arc that works with their character arcs and the themes they've built on is just really cool as a story.

Obviously all that parallel journey stuff would've actually been leading them somewhere, ie to each other, yay woo

And not to each other just because they've been through similar shit, but because, as that last post said, among a lot of other reasons, they've been set up well to be what the other person needs.

Romance is not the be all, end all. But:

Ted and Rebecca both want to be in love with someone, someday.

Here is someone who already understands and balances and supports them.

Like, that's awesome. Is that not the qualities you want for them in a future romantic partner?

I can't see how it diminishes their friendship if it caries on very similar to it has been, just like, sometimes they smooch. Maybe I'm just too demisexual for this idk

Boat guy. I like boat guy, but he's a chiller version of Ted. I can't find that post that points out all the parallels there, but that episode by the time we got to Kenny Rogers I was like. Uh. Hm.

It's confusing to have boat guy have a beautifully intimate evening with Rebecca, all the while having so many specific details similar to Ted, and then just act like romantic Tedbecca is a wild, character-ruining concept.

Because the show ends with Ted leaving and Rebecca miserably walking out of the airport and straight into proxy-Ted. I have no idea how to feel about that.

I could keep going, but I'm about out for now, so uh. Woe, wasted Tedbecca potential be upon ye~

[explodingchantry]

In your heart shall burn is such a mixed bag. On one side, it's an absolutely iconic quest -- probably THE most iconic quest of DAI, followed by here lies the abyss (though I would argue here lies the abyss is infamous, rather than iconic). And it does a lot of things quite well.

It also just blunders on a lot of things that continue DAI's habit of bland storytelling.

I'm not super fond of the very beginning of the quest - of getting a cutscene with absolutely no say whatsoever, with the not-yet-quizzy sealing the breach with the aid of the mages/templars. It does try to frame this as grand, as impressive, but the fact that there's no gameplay, that you just get to watch the quizzy do something cool.... it's boring. And leaves you with the disappointment of "...that's it?"

Because the breach is built up as a world ending phenomena but you just grab a few dozen mages and a guy who barely knows how to control their mysterious mark and then... poof. it's gone. Sure, it's replaced with a bigger threat -- but I don't know if the excitement of the attack on haven fully washes away the disappointment felt upon sealing the breach so quickly.

The attack on haven itself though is, genuinely, very well done. You feel it as a consequence for your actions: You chose one side, so the other is attacking you. Furthermore it works much better as a window into the future: You see what happens to one side when you don't choose them and thus wonder, "what would've happened to the side I DID choose, if I left them alone?" and it's scary.

Obviously having chosen the mages, it is actually scary seeing the red templars turning into horrors. This is actually well done -- a much better way to show the threat of red lyrium than in hushed whispers ever could do.

The reveal of Corypheus as well, looming on his hill with Samson/Calpernia must've been extremely exciting for those who came to DAI from da2 Legacy as well -- and Legacy does hint at Corypheus' survival too, so it does feel earned for those who understood what Legacy's ending was hinting at.

The gameplay as well, of the attack on Haven, is fun. It reminds me of the battle of Denerim in dao. You do feel like the forces attacking you are overwhelming. I think they could've done more, but it might've been because I'm replaying DAI on medium out of laziness lmfao. And even on medium, you can actually get pretty overwhelmed. Good stuff.

I like the gameplay element of having to ready the trebuchet as well because it is fucking stressful, having to use one of your limited party members only to man the trebuchet whilst the others fight. It can be a bit frustrating depending on AI behaviours but in general it's actually rewarding.

The facedown with Corypheus itself is pretty good as well -- and the guy's got some raw lines. The voice acting could've done him better I think, but it's well decent. "Beg that I succeed, for I have seen the throne of the gods and it was empty" is also SO iconic. It does work to bring up dread.

Until it doesn't, lol.

See, I do like the concept of the not-yet-quizzie sacrificng themselves so the rest of haven can get away. I LIKE the concept of them seeing their beacon and deciding to mulan their way out of the confrontation. but.... I hate that it's all in a cutscene. I hate that there's no gameplay element to it. You get like three opportunities to choose your dialogue with Corypheus but then you don't get to actually choose to use the trebuchet. Quizzie does it for you. I never thought I'd say this but even a QTE would be better than this.

I wish this had been gameplay. I wish we got to fight with Corypheus, alone, see that nothing we did damaged him, get beaten, have a cutscene where he can be cool, and have a gameplay element somewhere in there where you get to choose to use the trebuchet. i dont know. it's such a huge mistake in video games to not let the player do the cool things the main character does.

The walk up the mountain in the blizzard could've also been done much better. The concept itself has the potential for a gripping video game moment: you walk, injured, cold, alone, and lost in a sea of snow. You can't see anything. You can't hear anything but wind and faraway wolves. Your character stumbles, and slows. It's great. But you keep getting these little skips, these fade to blacks between areas and animation changes. That kind of takes away from the whole thing, from the feeling of walking for what must've been hours in this state.

It would've hit better if there were no fade to blacks -- if the player genuinely had to just keep walking through this environment for actual minutes. It would ofc need to walk a fine line, because it could risk being boring or making replays more tedious. But I do think it could be done, and be done well. Because as the scene stands, you're left waiting for the next fade to black, rather than dreading when your not-yet-quizzie will finally collapse.

And then the dawn will come scene is just... so... awkward and uncomfortable. It, as well as the not-yet-quizzie BEING crowned quizzie, finding skyhold, which becomes a place of pilgrimmage... I think the game does attempt to make a point of the lack of agency the quizzie has. I do think it does want you to be uncomfortable with being held as herald, as inquisitor, as chosen. There's a few dialogue options that let you express this discomfort, after all. But it falls flat because you as a player also lack control and agency in too many points of the game, as I've already highlighted, and as is everpresent throughout the game. It's just not well done.

It also really feels like DAI is a christian or at least biblical story at its core. There's even some Jesus parallels when mother Giselle tells you the people of haven saw you die and rise again. And then you, their prophet, leads them through a harsh environment to a place of respite and safety like you were Moses or something. Obviously you can only stray so far from christianity when Andrastianism was always meant to be christianity if jesus was jeanne d'arc, but DAI really hits it right on the nose lol

And then of course Skyhold, as well as the cool little ability you get. So to summarise: You gain powerful allies in the mages/templars, you seal the breach, you lose haven... and then gain an impregnable fortress and a cool ability. Sure, the loss of haven can hit hard ,especially with the amount of corpses strewn around. You can even rescue and help named characters you might've grown an attachment to, and you might've grown an attachment to haven itself especially depending on how early you choose to play the quest. But this doesn't change that you gain so much more than you lose.

The stakes rise so impossibly high: You've got an ancient prophet of the old gods, one of the magisters who stepped into the fade physically, one of the harbinger of the blight itself, and apparently he even commands an archdemon. But when Cole mentions the archdemon in the chantry, Cullen shrugs it off. No one reacts. You would only react, and go "oh shit" if you'd played dao, or somehow done your research as a new player. Which new players on their first playthrough wouldn't really do. So this lack of reaction tells you that archdemon is just a fancy name for a dragon rather than a fucking terrifying thing to hear just flying above you in the sky. Hell, in dao you see the archdemon like 3 times before you fight it in denerim because it is that terrifying! It builds up its threat, everyone is scared, it wreaks absolute destruction!

But Haven was already basically done for before the archdemon even came in lol. And even if that wasn't the case, the lack of reaction from Cullen or anyone involved in that cutscene doesn't aid in building up its threat.

In your heart shall burn could've been AMAZING. Instead, it's just pretty good. It could've been an absolute gutpunch, a reality check showing you just how bad of a situation you're in. Instead, you just rise and rise and rise and then you just rise againb. You're untouchable now.

I wish the encounter with Cory left us weaker, somehow. Maybe impaired in some way. Especially with the anchor. I wish it did... SOMETHING other than give us a cool castle. But it doesn't.

In your heart shall burn tries REALLY, really hard -- but it's all these things that just make it stumble over the finish line. It's genuinely a shame.

[tokyo-daaaamn-ji-gang]

There's been something going on in my head lately. This topic is about Shinichiro and I feel disappointed. Because Shinichiro is a man who I see as the ideal older brother and parent, who is really good-hearted and loves his siblings more than anything. This is definitely Shinichiro. He is a really good-hearted man who can be easily trusted. But today, some of the things written in Izana's letter confused me a lot. We had discussions about this issue on Twitter and many things came to my mind. Our topic is this friends;

Shinichiro knew that Izana was brother to Emma, so he went to the Philippines to pick up his brother. He picked up his younger brother and went back to Japan. He gave Izana an incredibly beautiful day on the first day, and in fact, in Izana's words, gave him the best day of his life. He gave her the opportunity to live her beautiful day. Afterwards, she continued to take care of him and spend the day with him. What bothers me is that Shinichiro knew that Emma and Izana were sisters. Why didn't he come and tell Emma this in the first place? Was it such a difficult thing to say that you found your brother? For God's sake, he wasn't just Emma's brother, but theirs too. As soon as he found Izana, why didn't he bring her home and introduce her to Grandpa? Why didn't he take Mikey and Emma to their orphanage visits? Why did he promise Izana an empty family?

so apparently, from the letter we saw in the trailer, we find out that shinichiro actually /knew/ that emma and izana were related and still kept them separate when he could have adopted him...shinichiro, that's so sick and twisted shit is there an adult who didn't do izana wrong?The adoption process is surely hard but at this point he could have simply brought emma to visit him and introduce izana to mikey when he got to see him at the orphanage. Mikey was positive about the idea (as we see in the manga) so why didn't Shinichiro do anything about it?When he talks to mikey asking him his opinion on having another brother , he was already an adult, so why didn't he do anything? It's like he kinda forgot about izana because they're not "related", but at that point, why did he get izana's life in the first place? Because he was Emma's brother? And like this we get to the initial point again: he could have, at least, introduced them all

Well firstly I'm pretty sure Shinichiro didn't pick Izana up from the Philippines at all. Since Izana was in a foster home adoption type place and then juvie in Japan (that's how he met Kakucho at the foster home and then the S62 at juvie). I'm also not sure how a Japanese teenager would've been just allowed to take a kid from the Philippines to Japan like that. Actually Izana doesn't even seem to have known he had family in the Philippines until Karen told him. He thought she was his mum and that he had the same dad as Shinichiro (not clear if he knew the guys name or what he looked like though).

I agree though, from our perspective it does seem like Shinichiro made a big mistake here with not introducing Izana to the others or at least telling them. However Shinichiro didn't have our perspective. Shinichiro had no idea what was going to happen or what the consequences of doing that would be. I feel like this is one of those things which will divide the fandom, with some ageeeing and some disagreeing (both are totally fine though).

Like I think Shinichiro was right not to rush into things here, taking on the care of another child is a big responsibility and Shinichiro was already practically raising two, not to mention what kind of impact a change in environment could have on Izana's mental health, a kid he had known for a few hours at this point. I don't know a lot about the irl adoption process but I'm pretty sure you have to spend more then a few hours with the kid before deciding anything. I think that's why they then started exchanging letters, as a way for them to get to know each other better and get more comfortable with each other.

I'm guessing the next part of Shinichiro's plan was to get to know Izana better and get Izana more comfortable with him before introducing him to the others. We know Shinichiro was at least thinking about introducing Izana to them because of the question he asked Mikey.

But then I'm guessing what stopped him was all the complications. Aka Mikey ripped Sanzu's face open and Izana beat up a bunch of kids and then basically forced one to take his own life. Put them together and they don't get along and you're going to have a big problem on your hands. Like I understand why Shinichiro wanted to move slowly here, this isn't something that should've been rushed. Not to mention the warning signs Izana was already showing towards Mikey by asking Shinichiro to stop talking about him and saying hearing about Mikey gives him a headache.

I'd say the main mystery here is why he didn't tell Emma/ bring Emma with him to visit. I'm not sure if he didn't wanna get her hopes up or if he wss worried about her or Izana's reaction (though they both seem like they would've been positive), or if he didn't want to make Emma keep the secret from Mikey but didn't want to let Mikey know yet. That is a bit of mystery.

Also to be completely fair to Shinichiro I don't think he ever would've expected things to play out the way they did. He was only a teenager himself when he first met Izana and even as a young adult it's a big responsibility to bring Izana into the house and make sure all his siblings were doing ok. He clearly wanted to unite them all but wanted it done in the correct way. Shinichiro has only been shown to want the best for his siblings so I'm sure he thought he was doing the right thing here. Though obviously this is just my take and we're all going to have different opinions on this.

[semi-sketchy]

That...was it?

I mean, yeah, I probably should've expected it to end in a "adventure continues in SXSG" but that was very abrupt.

GUN, Rouge and Omega know there's something big coming, but just fuck off after this? There's no glimpse of what awaits Shadow? No real cliffhanger, it just stops? This wasn't satisfying.

It started with "Black Doom might be back I have to get to the ARK" and ended with "Black Doom might be back I'm on my way to the ARK." I stopped to look at the timer near the end because I was like "wait it's just gonna end here? We watched a travel animation?"

Maybe this is because I haven't been following SXSG super closely, but I don't understand how Shadow's campaign is going to start so I have no context for how this leads into the game. That's probably partly why it feels so abrupt right now.

I liked the music and action scenes, though I thought some lines should've been cut.

Like this is pretty obvious, but it keeps going.

The scene would've been better had this line been cut. Same thing happens in part 2.

Sometimes, silence speaks volumes. But of course, everything needs to be "spelled out" though that's an issue with the Maria scenes in general.

Man this shot of Shadow though with that music swelling, holy cow.

Hits you in the feels.

Overall though, it was okay!

My biggest compliment really goes to the sound design. I just love how the music and sound effects come together. Also really enjoy how snappy the animation is. By part 3 I definitely was able to tell I was looking at 3D models, but honestly I don't really care which medium it is as long as it's done well. This looked good!

Writing wise, I think part 1 was the worst and that's due to the stiff, on-the-nose interactions between Shadow and Maria (plus the slip-in of "low-gravity remission"). I definitely preferred the action scenes and interactions with Rouge, sadly Omega was just kinda there in the corner like "I CALL DIBS" and didn't contribute anything noteworthy.

I said this about Xenoblade 3 and it rings true here: this felt like watching a draft rather than a finished script. Some parts are cooked and others are raw. If Omega had nothing to do but blow a few things up in the background, why was he here? Even Shadow was the one to take down the GUN ship Omega originally engaged. Give him a bigger purpose or cut him.

The Maria scenes play out the most like a draft, something you'd write to get the basics of what you want the characters to convey before going back over and replacing those lines with actual dialogue. (This is something I do if I'm struggling.)

Now do I really care that the GUN Commander got his Archie name? No. Of all the things in this animation, Sonic Twitter picked the stupidest one to blow up about. I think the "low gravity remission" and Shadow knowing he's part alien is an actual issue. (Although I guess this could be argued since in ShTH he still had amnesia, he wouldn't remember so this wouldn't matter. Still, wasn't it supposed to be a secret? The Commander only found out by accident?)

Some things just aren't as well thought-out as others, which cements my thought that this script needed polishing.

All that said, this is the biggest promo animation project we've seen in Sonic yet and it's quite different from others before it. I don't think I'd call it "the best", I think the Frontiers one was super cool, but it also didn't have the run-time of Dark Beginnings. Like with XC3: Future Redeemed, it simply didn't have the time to screw stuff up as much.

There's good, there's ehh, so overall Dark Beginnings was just okay for me.

My biggest disappointment is still the fact that this animation simply wasn't what I wanted, which isn't its fault. I saw the teaser of Shadow and Maria on the ARK, I thought it was going to be about them on the ARK and it ended up just being about Shadow traveling to space. I wanted and was expecting something this animation was never going to be.

I guess we'll find out soon how the final game handles Shadow's story, though if this animation is anything to go off of, I'm keeping my expectations in check.

[cursedvibes]

"Don't interfere with Gojo's fight, you'll only be a burden" 🤡 anyways I think we all agree this was a terrible fight with a terribly executed ending. It feels like bad writing, with Gege unsealing Gojo and not knowing what to do with him having a bunch of characters waiting to progress and be developed. Just unnecessary, like what did the fight accomplish? Gojo straight up forgetting about Megumi and being like "oh nvm, i was never gonna win anywyay" just feels OOC.

One of the most anticipated fights in the whole manga and it was kinda trash. I hope the plot moves along now. Like you said, I want to see the students fighting Sukuna and Kenjaku, also give me the parent Kenjaku reveal moment with Yuji, Gege, and some KenJin flashbacks. Perhaps add in a little "Jin is actually alive". As compensation.

Also waiting on that Sukuna/Yuji fight. Please Gege let that one be good.

I don't know if it's because Gege lost passion for the story, but there would've been dozens of better options on how to do the fight besides "students sit on their ass and watch the live stream of their teacher's death". F in chat, guys! No, don't interfere, that would be too interesting and feel way too natural.

I really don't want to be this harsh, but everything since Gojo's unsealing has just been very questionable writing decisions. I like the Culling Game actually, I enjoyed it more than Shibuya, even when we were focusing on characters I didn't care as much about. It didn't have the constant threat of death I expected, but it was still good and I especially liked all the new lore and character exploration. Execution of Yuki's death was meh and there could've been done more with the fight, but it still moved me. Tsumiki turning out to be a piece of cardboard was my first real disappointment, but I could've looked past that if her and Yorozu's death would've been executed better. And after that it was just kinda...bad.

Angel agrees to unseal Gojo without explanation despite refusing to do that earlier. Backdoor has no drawbacks, Gojo is just out now. He's kinda weird post-Prison Realm and definitely different from before with changed priorities, but we don't get anything concrete about him or his time in containment that would give more depth to this. He just feels kinda detached. And then one month timeskip. I still remember when people said we would get flashbacks during the fight to explain what the characters were up to. But nope, nothing. Who knows if the main characters have an actual plan, Gojo definitely doesn't seem prepared. We get vague hints at Gojo using his time in the Prison Realm to adjust his domain, but we don't hear his perspective on that (would've been too interesting), we are just told about how he must feel by other characters. It's such basic things that could have made this fight more engaging and moving, but we barely get anything. On top of that it is stretched over 14 chapters and 4 months for no reason. Just make it hit harder from the beginning and shorten it that way. Kenjaku and Yuki were powerhouses and they didn't need this much time. Also the constant Gojover teasers got old very fast.

However, Gojo did manage to strip Sukuna off his domain and Mahoraga, so that will make things a little bit easier for the others. Sukuna can't just vaporize everyone with Malevolent Shrine anymore.

With the Kenjaku vs Gojo fight not happening, I am more confident though that we will get more focus on Kenjaku & Yuuji and explore their relationship and past. Feels like there will be more time dedicated to them, although that also depends on how Yuuji vs Sukuna goes. I am very excited for what's to come either way.