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calebsmoocher · 2 months ago

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Sucking him off while he fucks you with his evol

Being a renowned thief, Caleb knows where to go first when his things go missing: her room. In his search, however, he finds a peculiar, pink, phallic possession of hers. Cw: smut, so MDNI, oral (m receiving), inappropriate use of evol, use of sex toy, girl i tried to put fluff in there

She had a habit of taking things. Well, borrowing, she’d justify vehemently. First it was his sweaters. Turn his back once and she’d snatch the pillars of comfort that got him through the winter.

“You know, I do your laundry as well,” he’d say. She wouldn’t spare him a glance, swaying slowly in her chair. She’d be hunched over her coursework, pen tapping at her lip.

“Yeah? Well why can’t I find my sweater? The pink one with hearts.”

“Now I’ve gotta fold your laundry as well?” He approached her focused form, leaning down to hover above her head. His fingers pinched the fabric of his sweater, the expanse of fabric allowing him to tug on it without the chance of pulling her arm with it. “It doesn’t even fit you.”

“I’m not taking it off. I’m too warm,” she whined, throwing her head back to lean against him. Warmth flooded his cheeks. Stifling a cough, he pushed her head back down playfully.

“I’m not asking; don’t worry. Go back to doing your work.”

Sometimes it would be his headphones.

“I have to twist mine a certain way to get them to work!” She’d cry.

Or his switch.

“Oh please, just ten more minutes. I even beat your high score!”

Even on occasion his aerospace textbooks.

Caleb was rifling through his bookcase, wanting to refresh his mind on his academy coursework. It was only after he cleared the first two shelves when had clocked his biggest mistake being not checking her room first. And there they were, right as his eyes landed on her desk. She had three of them stacked under her monitor.

“You’re just taking anything at this point. Are you sure it’s not because you miss me? Should I also take some time off?”

She’d scoff, handing him the books. “Yes, my eyes miss my monitor being at eye-level. You’re going to be the one massaging me when I have neck problems from hunching over this screen.”

With her constant violations of petty thievery, it was impossible to tell his room apart from hers.

And this behaviour continued its way to Skyhaven. She was staying with him while on leave at the association. Over her frequent but brief visits, a lot of her items had already accumulated within his house.

Caleb had just returned from an early finish at the fleet. He narrowed his eyes; his house was empty. Had she gone sightseeing without him? Pulling his uniform cap off, he figured he’d start on dinner. Would she even be back in time? Should he call her? He swallowed thickly. He should lay off her; she wasn’t a child anymore.

He pulled his gloves off and reached for his necklace on the bedside table. But his nails hit the smooth surface, no chain in sight. That was weird. He had placed it here before he left in the morning, the particular fleet mission not allowing him to wear metallic accessories. Had he placed it somewhere else? He wasn’t one to forget where he’d place such an important keepsake. Maybe his table? He turned around before scoffing. Oh. Nevermind. He was ashamed it hadn’t been his first instinct. Of course, she had taken it. Or borrowed it, whatever.

The first place he looked was her desk. It didn’t immediately jump out at him. Of course, she could have it on, he thought. But now that he was in her room, it’d give him the chance to retrieve any other items she had managed to paw off him.

He pulled the top drawer of her bedside table out. Score, he thought. There was an assortment of silver jewelry poking out between the ruffles of fabric of one of his favourite shirts. He’d hit two birds with one stone, he guessed. But when he pulled the shirt away his eyes widened, blood rushing to his ears. The pounding echo of his heartbeat was sounding right in his ears. Hidden, poorly under his shirt he’d add, was a pinkish translucent, silicon dildo. And it was rolling side to side in all its thick, girthy, glory. Caleb gaped. This thing was huge. Easily ten inches, with artificial veins protruding from its smooth surface.

The familiar chime of her placing her keys on the kitchen bench caught his attention with a jolt. He slammed the draw shut.

“Caleb?” The girl swung her head up at the sharp noise, cautiously dropping her bag. The noise had come from her bedroom. When she went to investigate, he was standing over her bed, not facing her. “You’re back already? I bought some mushrooms and water chestnuts. How about we make wontons tonight?” Caleb sucked in a breath before turning, slowly. He shot her a smile. As he took her in, there his chain lay, gleaming brightly on her chest. Maybe curiosity really had killed the cat. She followed his gaze and smiled sheepishly.

“Sorry, I felt like wearing it. I didn’t want it to be lonely.” “You’re cute.”

She reached for the clasp behind her neck. “Were you looking for…” Her voice slowed as her eyes moved over his rigid form. His face was calm, but the tips of his ears were ember. She furrowed her brows, eyes tracing down to his hands. He was holding her shirt. His shirt. The shirt. Her heart dropped.

No. Why did all the embarrassing shit happen to her? She didn’t have to address this. She’d turn right around and march back into the kitchen.

“You can say your excuses now. I’m listening.” Caleb had straightened up, relaxing from his previously robotic stance.

Run. Run. That’s all she knew how to do. Because crossing this boundary would destroy her. His jaw tightened in the silence. Was he letting her run away from this? Or was it finally time to address the overbearing tension that had been neglected for so long that it had seeped its way into their every interaction?

“I…” she took a step back. The kiss they silently swore to never talk about haunted her. Had it harrowed over his mind in the same ways?

She could play it off as not being a big deal. “I’m an adult. This… These things are natural,” she would argue.

“But wrapped in my shirt? I don’t think that’s appropriate.You know my feelings towards you,” is what he’d say in reply. Cold, callous and without the comforting, teasing lilt to his voice. She shook her head, wanting to scream into her fists. There were too many bad possibilities to come.

She felt the sting of tears brim at her waterline. Fuck. Caleb noticed, mouth opening then shutting then opening again. His eyes were frantic over her form.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to invade your privacy. I know it’s…” He began to stammer. “It’s…normal to…”

She cut him off. “It’s not weird, right?”

He shook his head slowly. A pause. “Weird that it was…?” At a loss for words, he gestured to his shirt still held tightly in his hand. Wrapped in his shirt.

Fuck. She swallowed thickly.

“Does it mean anything?” His voice was gentle. Cautious.

She shut her eyes tightly. “Maybe.” Her voice was barely above a whisper. “Is it weird?” Her voice was on the precipice of breaking. She felt his hand at the back of her head, bringing her in for a ginger hug. He laughed softly.

“No, it’s not weird.” He tilted her chin to meet her reluctant gaze. “How often do you use it?”

This time she actually sobbed. “You’re joking, right?”

He struggled to suppress a smile, wanting to shift the heaviness in the room out. “Do you think about me when you…”

Oh, she had had enough of this man. Almost smacking him across the face, she pressed her palm over his mouth. Fuck this was no happening right now. She did not just hear that.

Her eyes clenched shut as she hung her head. She felt him snicker into her palm and her brows creased.

“I’ve heard you in the shower, you know? Do you think about me when you’re…” She trailed off with purpose and furrowed her brows up at him. It contrasted his sickly sweet smile.

“Yes, I do.” His smile widened at her gasp. “Always. It’s only ever been you.”

“Caleb…”

He pulled her hand away from his mouth. His hand slid down from her head to her lower back, thumb pressing small strokes into the fabric.

“Can I kiss you?”

Instead of answering, she reached up to gently clasp at his neck, guiding him down. The few seconds it took for him to close in on her strained her breath. His eyes trained on her. The part of his lips and ragged breath that fanned over her own. She didn’t want to bask in it any longer, lest she lost the adrenaline thumping through her veins. His kiss was firm, nothing like the cautious exterior he had been so careful to display. His left hand cupped her cheek, tipping her jaw up to deepen the kiss. She clung to his wrist.

His scent engulfed her. She wanted to get closer, worm her way right against his chest. She wanted to run her fingers through his hair. See if she could elicit a sound so vulnerable from him.

When he broke the kiss, it was only to begin pressing frantic kisses down her jaw and neck. She gasped, using the moment to gently grab strands of hair at the back of his head, running her nails down to his nape.

He groaned into her. And she felt a spark in her stomach.

“Will you…” His breath was short as he continued to press kisses into her skin through his words. “Will you show me how you use it on yourself?” He had opened her bedside table again, pawing blinding at the silicone toy. Fuck, he was joking.

Her face reddened. “Caleb…”

“Am I asking for too much?” He asked genuinely through a laugh.

She rolled her eyes, feeling the adrenaline plateau inside her. He had left her breathless far too many times in the span of five minutes.

“I think you’ve done enough.” She pushed at his chest, guiding him backwards. When his legs hit her chair, she pushed him down into it. He laughed through his chest, gleaming up at her with an arrogant smile.

“You have me all to yourself. I’m completely in your care.”

She flushed at his brazenness, slowly dropping to her knees before him. Maybe the adrenaline was spiking again, but seeing him from this new angle had her heart threatening to jump out of her throat.

“Can I use my mouth on you?”

His arrogance slipped. He caressed her head again, searching her eyes. “Please,” he said. Gently, weakly.

She sucked in a breath before shakily reaching for his zipper. The whine of the zipper undoing was the only sound besides their ragged breaths. His eyes scrutinised her every move, mouth agape. He helped her drag his pants down, pooling at his knees. He guided her to look up at him again, and they both had a chance to recognise the mutual fear thrumming within them.

“You’re so pretty.” He stroked her hair. “My pretty girl.”

Through his briefs she guessed he was half-hard. She brought her hand up, palming him gently. She had never done this. Was this okay? Was she being too rough? Not rough enough? He sensed her hesitance, encompassing his own hand over hers.

“Like this,” he offered, pressing firmly. His fingers curled around hers, encouraging her to take a confident grip over the fabric. It was hot, and it filled her entire hand. She assumed a steady pace, moving her grip up and down. He let out a shaky breath, and his other hand tightened around the arm chair. She could feel his cock twitch and begin to fully harden. Something in her stomach jumped. Gaining confidence, she tugged at the waistband of his briefs, shimmying them down to join his pants. His cock sprung up against his stomach, beads of precum dripping down a thick girth. She swallowed in anticipation. And placed a fleeting kiss on his tip.

“Fuck…” His cheeks were dusted pink. He leaned forward planting his own quick kiss on her forehead before reaching down between her legs. “Should I help you out as well?” He tugged on her skirt, flipping the fabric up over her ass. His breath hitched as he stared down at her cotton panties. “Are these new?”

If she wasn’t gripping his cock and trying to pleasure him as best she could, she would have slapped him upside the head. “What, don’t tell me you’re a panty sniffer.”

He barked back a laugh. “I think it’s more concerning that you still ask me to do your laundry at your ripe age.”

“Yes, I’ve got the Colonel wrapped around my finger, doing trivial things like my laundry.”

He traced the seams of the fabric, pressing into her skin. “Yes, you’ve got the Colonel entirely to yourself. Will you be good to him?” His fingers followed the fabric to circle at her heat. She gasped. It was hard to keep a steady rhythm as his fingers teased pushing in. Eventually, he settled for drawing gentle circles at her clit; then looping down to tease her entrance through the fabric. “Don’t stop.”

She listened, guiding him into her mouth. She sucked at the tip, rolling her tongue to sweep the underside of his cock. She watched him intently, stomach mimicking all the sharp intakes he did as he shifted in his seat.

“You feel so good,” he whined. The steady motions of his hand were breaking up. But it felt good. Knowing that she was doing this to him. That her cunt was leaking and swollen in anticipation for his fingers. “Good girl,” he choked out, “you’re so good to me.”

She took him deeper, supporting the base of his cock with both of her hands. Her eyes were trained on his. Shaking slightly, she experimented with taking him deeper. The tip of his cock hit the back of her throat and she lurched back, gasping for her as he slid out from her.

“Fuck, are you okay?”

She laughed. “I’m okay. Was I okay? Did it feel good?”

He stroked her chin, wiping the saliva from her lips. “You were amazing. You made me feel so good.” He brushed the stray hairs away from her eyes. “Don’t push yourself to take more than you can.”

“I wanna keep going.” She nudged his hand away, taking the base of his cock into her hands again.

“Woah, wait up.” He reached over her towards her bed, grabbing her pillow. “Lift your legs.” Shakily, she let him place the pillow between her and the floor. She sunk down into the plush, her knees buzzing from being pressed into the carpet.

“Thanks…”

He leaned over her again, and she heard the drag of her bedside table opening. “I think it’s time you showed me how you’ve been using this toy of yours.” Her ears reddened.

“Caleb, that’s embarrassing.” She tried to grab the dildo from him, but he held it out of her reach. “Don’t you want me to keep using my mouth on you? You said it feels good. I want you to cum.” He remained unfazed by her words, much to her dismay.

“I really want to use this on you, though. Won’t you let me see you take it?” He studied the obscene phallic item closely. Now that she could see it in comparison to Caleb’s cock, she noted that while Caleb was thicker, the toy was longer. That’s what she got for ordering a size large.

“What are you going to do?” She mumbled. Her cheeks were still ablaze as she watched him.

“Don’t worry. I have an idea you’ll like.” To her horror, she watched as the dildo began to hover in his hand, held up by an invisible force. It rounded her field of vision until it prodded at the fabric of her panties. She felt her stomach flip. Like the ground beneath had suddenly given out and she was in free fall. “Pull your panties to the side.”

Shakily, she did as she was told. The rush of cold air almost made her jump until she felt the the cool silicone press against her heat.

“Your toy is so big. Can you really take all of it?”

She covered her face. She was never going to live this down. “Not all of it. Please be gentle.” She felt him kiss her forehead before lifting her head to meet his gaze.

“I’ll let you decide. You’re the one showing me how you use it, remember?” Confused, she nodded anyway. She guided the dildo into her swollen cunt, gasping shakily at the intrusion. No matter what she did, the initial push would always elicit a quivering moan. “Good girl. Hands on me.” She expected the toy to slide back out of her once she withdrew her hands but it stayed perfectly in place. Her hands returned to their position at the base of his cock. More precum had leaked out, dripping down into her hands. She suckled on the tip, eager to prevent anymore from making a mess. Caleb groaned, positioning one hand at the back of her head. The other, he held out beside her in a beckoning motion.

“Mmph!” Her eyes snapped open as the toy began to move inside her. Slowly. On its own. But shallowly. Her eyes caught onto Caleb’s fingers, matching the steady push and pull of the toy inside her.

“You can hold onto me. Show me how much you can take.”

Mouth full of his cock, she latched onto his hand for support, feeling him tug her fingers back and forth with him. Her index and third finger curled around his own two fingers. And he moved them slowly, bringing them closer to his palm. She felt the toy push into her. When his fingers expanded out again, she felt the toy retreat.

“Go faster or go slower; whatever you want. I want to see.”

Tears brimmed at her eyes. Her heart was pounding in her chest. Slowly, she maneuvered his fingers faster, fucking herself. His eyes gleamed as he stared down at her. His breath was uneven. He could barely contain his groans from spilling out. Here she was, fucking herself with her secret dildo through his evol. He didn’t know how much longer he could watch before he came.

She moaned onto his cock, the vibrations setting him off with another groan. The salty taste of his precum was all she could taste. His girth alone was stretching her mouth, forcing laboured breaths through her nose.

“You’re doing so well. Keep going. Keep fucking yourself.”

Maybe there was no shame in it. He wanted to see her fall apart. She pushed and pulled his fingers faster. Rougher. Brazenly pistoning the dildo in and out of herself. Her body jolted forwards, forcing his cock deeper in her mouth. She wasn’t sure she could fit more than half of him in her mouth without gagging.

“Mmmph.” She couldn’t even speak. And his words only pushed her further towards the edge.

“Fuck, you feel you so fucking good. Keep going, baby. I’m gonna cum.”

She moaned in reply. Her mind was going delirious. Her fingers began to falter around his, losing pace of the toy. She couldn’t keep focused on so many things at once.

Caleb leaned down to her ear. “Want me to decide?”

She groaned in approval, forfeiting control and letting her hand slide back down to his cock.

“Alright then.” The pace of the toy picked up. It was harder and faster, but she could take it. Her legs were shaking, barely able to hold her body up. She watched his fingers strain in their curled position, his frantic want for her to cum amplified through the dildo’s relentless thrusts.

“Are you going to cum?”

She moaned in affirmation, voice getting frantic. Her walls were clamping down along the toy. To stop it? To keep it from pulling out? She couldn’t tell; all her thoughts had melted down into drool seeping from the corners of her lips. She felt the coil in her stomach twinge and strain as her legs shook.

“Fuck. Come. You can let go. Let go for me.”

She whined, squeezing her legs together. The next thrust pushed her over the edge, snapping the coil and forcing her legs to squeeze as tight as she could. Caleb slowed his fingers, letting her ride out her orgasm.

She sucked in a huge gasp of air before lowering back down on his cock. She was determined to have him cum in her mouth after that.

“Fuck. Holy shit,” he groaned. His grip on her head tightened, following her movements as she moved up and down his length. “Stop. I’m gonna cum.” She met his eyes and shook her head. “I’m going to come in your mouth. Please…”

She gasped. “Do it. I want it.”

He groaned, throwing his head back. He couldn’t stop his hips from bucking, pushing his cock further into her mouth. She tried to swallow the gag, determined to let him finish. He bit his lip to filter out the sound of his groans as he came. Ropes of come spilled into her mouth. Hot and slightly thick. She furrowed her brows, not allowing any to escape. She wanted to be good for him.

He gave a few more weak thrusts up into her before sagging back down into the chair.

“You…” He laughed. His hands came around her face, lifting her off him. “Are you okay?”

She was breathless, forcing a smile through her exhaustion.

“Tired, but okay. How was it?”

“You killed me.” He wiped a hand over his brow. He was still using his evol to keep the dildo in place inside her. “Can I take it out?”

“Yeah. Slowly.” The toy withdrew from her and she winced as she felt the run of warm liquid down her thighs.

“Fuuck,” he dragged out. Despite the mess on both of them, he lifted her off her knees and pulled her into his lap. “Does it hurt anywhere?” She shook her head, leaning against him. He moved in to kiss her, but before he could she frowned.

“You want to kiss me? After all that?”

He shook his head in dismissal, scoffing at her. His lips met hers and he gave her a firm kiss. She felt her cheeks tingle at the sight.

“Let’s stay like this for a minute. Then I’ll clean ya up, promise.”

She nodded, reaching up to brush his hair away from his sweaty forehead. A silence enveloped them as they caught their breaths.

She shifted in his lap, looking up at him.

“How come you were in my room?”

He gave her an expression of feigned hurt. “Now I’m not allowed to come into your room?”

Shaking her head, the corner of her lips curled up. “I caught you snooping.”

He kissed her nose. “I think I caught you with something worse, you pervert.” Hell, he was never going to let her live this down.

a/n: the idea that made me create a tumblr! This has unfortunately just opened my mind to what else his evol might be capable of.

#love and deepspace #caleb love and deepspace #lads #lnds caleb #l&ds #lads caleb #caleb #caleb x mc #caleb smut #caleb x you #smut #lads x you #xia yizhou

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writing-for-life · 4 months ago

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Tales from the Flat Earth by Tanith Lee

A few thoughts on the supposed similarities with The Sandman—with actual comparisons (and a summary of the most important beats for those who want it)…

[This post is super long. It contains a lot of different thoughts, that’s why I broke it down into three parts: 1. General Considerations, 2. Boroson’s Claims and 3. A beat-by-beat summary of all five volumes of Tales from the Flat Earth. You might want to read this in instalments, or you might want to leave part three if you are still planning to read any of the five volumes.]

Part One: General Considerations

By now, many of you will have heard of Tanith Lee’s series “Tales from the Flat Earth”—not because the world all of a sudden woke up to a literary genius, but because of a Facebook post by Matthew Boroson in the immediate aftermath of the sexual assault allegations against Neil Gaiman. Boroson now made a further statement that he will “delete […] challenges so he can live”. I completely get the exhaustion of a post going viral—been there, got the T-Shirt—but why not just ignore it? Switch off notifications or comments altogether? Actively censoring only the people with different opinions, whom he even admits have mostly been engaging in good faith, because “he can’t do this 24/7”, while leaving up those in agreement (apparently he can do that 24/7)? He might not have thought through how bad this looks, and the irony of a man silencing dissenting voices and trying to control the conversation really shouldn’t be lost on people. But apparently, it is.

Anyway: I have absolutely no desire to defend Neil Gaiman. As should be clear from my blog, I stand with Gaiman’s victims and have done so since last summer when the allegations first broke. I believe those women, for both personal and professional reasons I won’t go into here. And I believe them, whether some author guy tells me I should or not. What grates on me is that this overshadows what’s actually important here, and I’ll get to why in a second.

I love Tanith Lee’s Tales from the Flat Earth and have read them first in the 1990s, and quite a few times since. For that very reason, I wish people would just read her work without trying to engage in a “gotcha” that is still all about Gaiman and not her. She was a great and talented writer who deserves more than now forever being known as “the woman whom Neil Gaiman plagiarised”. And to say it quite frankly: The sexual assault allegations can stand on their own and don’t need a male writer telling us, verbatim, “I have no difficulty believing the accusations against him. Because I know — KNOW — that he has felt entitled to take what he wants from a woman, without her permission, and without any acknowledgement of her contributions.”

I can’t even begin to say how problematic this statement is, for so many reasons. So all I’ll say is:

There is a certain tone-deafness in thinking a sexual assault claim holds even more weight because a male writer says, “See, he did this, so you should also believe that.” We should believe SA victims. Full stop. We don’t need wonky plagiarism or “inspiration without credit”-claims to give them more weight. These two things shouldn’t even be mentioned in the same sentence.

But all of that aside: Read Tanith Lee’s “Tales from the Flat Earth” because you are interested in a writer who crafted imaginative worlds in a florid prose-style that hearkens back to old fairy tales and Arabian Nights. If you only want to read it for a “gotcha”, I might be able to spare you the arduous work, although I strongly recommend you read it to come to your own conclusions (go to the source yourself. And I honestly wish more people did before they just blindly believe things). Again, spare a thought though if Tanith deserves to be “the woman NG plagiarised” to a new audience, because let’s be honest—that’s the only reason why so many people now read her works.

And that’s exactly why I thought so long and hard whether to even write this post, but there comes a point when people who actually know both works in depth need to speak up about the informational conformity bias that now has us at over 30,000 notes on Tumblr alone, all the while the person who put this into the world seems to actively censor anyone who dares to disagree. I get that Boroson’s claim is what a lot of people want to believe right now, but that doesn’t make it more true. Someone even said that “misinformation doesn’t matter in this case because only the result does.” That’s an incredibly dumb and also dangerous statement, but I’ll leave it at that.

Horrible people can create good art. We don’t need to pretend they were always hacks. We have to learn to sit with that cognitive dissonance and can disassociate ourselves from the creator regardless—because he’s an abuser.

Part Two: Boroson’s Claims

With all of that out of the road, let’s have a closer look at all that Boroson alleges in his FB post; quotes are verbatim.

1. “Despite the fact that the main character — a byronic, pale, otherworldly, deity-like character - is the prince of night and dreams.”

Here, we already have the first bit of wrong information. Azhrarn is one of the Lords of Darkness. He is the Prince of Demons. He is evil-aligned. He is not a “prince of dreams”. He is “Night’s Master” because he only walks the earth at night, and sunlight is lethal (oh?) for him. He is really nothing like Dream. One is all about rules and responsibilities, the other is about inconsistency, wickedness, mischief, changing his mind on a whim and treating humans as playthings (which he repeatedly admits himself). You could build a much stronger case for similarities between Azhrarn and Lucifer/Iblis (and Loki if you wanted to go Norse) than Dream, because Azhrarn actually hates the gods, and Lee’s whole series builds very strongly on how he (and then someone else) tries to bring them down. And Azhrarn might be older than gods, but whether he is truly more powerful depends on how you look at it—he even asks them for help at some point. Dream, on the other hand, is more than the gods. They begin in his realm, and they end there when people stop believing. Because gods come from the collective unconscious—and that’s who and what Dream is.

2. “Despite the fact that every time people see art depicting Tanith Lee's main character Azhrarn, they think it's Morpheus from the Sandman.”

This is interesting since the depiction Boroson chose for his FB claim is fanart. If you claim something like this, at least use original artwork, not works that have already gone through 20 subconscious filters. If you look at original art, you get this:

Azhrarn in the middle, Uhlume (Lord Death) to the right, Chuz (Lord Madness) to the left. And in the other picture, Azrharn in his eagle form. Which is just weird, soz. But that’s why he has feathers on his garb.

Maybe there’s a fleeting similarity in the one to the left, but there’s also literally none in the one to the right. And if you have ever read any dark fantasy of the 1980s and 90s (and even earlier), pretty much the majority of male protagonists fitted the stereotype of “pale, clad in black and byronic”. It was a dark fantasy trope—goths read that stuff in droves (I was one of them). And it became even more likely if the hero/antihero/villain was somehow aligned with the underworld. Which Azhrarn is.

And since artists are always influenced by other artworks and their own mental image of a character, have an actual description of Azhrarn’s looks from “Night’s Master”:

“marvelously handsome, with hair that shone like blue-black fire, and clothed in all the magnificence of night.”

But we also get this when he makes a not so great experience:

“He gazed to east and west, to north and south, and the face of Azhrarn, it is truly said, had become white. Long he looked, and long his pallor increased. A mortal man could not grow so pale and live.”

So we can reasonably deduce that he isn’t usually as white as Morpheus in his main form (I don’t know what else to call it)?

There are many other descriptions of a similar ilk. Is this really enough to say they look the same? Really? Instead of admitting that we might be filling in some blanks here if descriptions are so vague?

3. “Despite the fact that the dream lord's younger sibling is Death.”

That one truly made me laugh out loud. Apart from the fact that Gaiman’s Death is older and female (which one could say was a purposeful switch to “hide the tracks” 🙄)—only the least read people would assume this was in any way new or sensational and “borrowed” from any one particular writer. Hypnos (Sleep) and Thanatos (Death) are twin brothers in Greek mythology. And the closeness of Death and Dream in The Sandman (both conceptually and on a relational level) is much more of a mirror of that than the relationship between Azhrarn and Uhlume in Tales from the Flat Earth, because in all honesty: The latter two don’t get on that well, which Boroson conveniently forgets to mention. Their relationships are really nothing alike.

Hypnos is also a deity residing in the underworld, and you have to cross the river Lethe (forgetfulness/oblivion) to get to him. Lee borrows from that idea very heavily when she tells the story of Kazir visiting Azhrarn in Underearth. These are myths, told and retold by hundreds of writers over and over again, including Lee herself.

I don’t even know what to say about this one. It’s so thin that it immediately blows away if you as much as cough at it.

4. “Despite the fact that other members of his family include Delusion, Delirium.... They are not gods but beings older than gods, and when the gods die, Dream, Death, Delusion, and Delirium will remain. This family of immortal, eternal, unchanging beings, who each embody an eternal abstraction starting with the letter D.”

There are only two Lords of Darkness beginning with a D, and they are called Uhlume (Death) and Chuz (Delusion). Azhrarn is Wickedness.

There is no Dream, as I already stated. And guess what? There is also no separate Delirium. So wrong facts again. The character is Delirium’s Mistress (or at least that’s the title of the volume), and in that case, we are referring to her as being the lover of Chuz (so Delusion and Delirium are effectively the same person). And her name is Azhriaz; she is half human, half demon (and something else, but that would be too spoilery) and Azhrarn’s daughter. She looks like this in original artwork (sorry for the crappola photo):

Without wanting to give too much plot away because some of you might still want to read this: There are three Lords of Darkness (or one could argue five—more about that later) in Lee’s Tales, but they don’t all begin with a D—neither if you look at their names (their initials are A, U, C, K and A), nor at their functions (in which case it’s W, D, D, F and L).

Okay, the domains of two Lords of Darkness start with D. Is it really enough to be sure Gaiman borrowed from it, turning it into seven? Or is it perhaps far more likely that this still falls into the realm of literary archetypes? And even if Gaiman did expand on that idea—that’s not plagiarism (which, to say it very clearly, Boroson didn’t explicitly say it was. He just implied it a bit between the lines, and other people who probably didn’t read either ran with it). I don’t think it would even constitute “heavy borrowing”, especially since the characters, their relationships and the stories as such are so, so different.

Why is Boroson’s account riddled with inaccuracies? Why be so wrong in your descriptions of a work you supposedly know so well? I really don’t know. It’s either that he doesn’t know it as well as he says he does (which I can’t imagine, since he’s apparently been going on about this for years), or he purposefully misrepresents it to add more weight to it. Which looks bad to be honest. Or at least as if he’s a bit too taken with an idea and at the stage where he can’t let it go anymore.

5. “[…] description of a character who was clearly the inspiration for Gaiman’s Mazikeen.”

That’s also Chuz. As depicted in the art above, and also here:

One side of him is young and beautiful, the other old. I’ll let you decide if this is clearly the inspiration for Mazikeen:

“So she beheld the entire aspect of his face, one half youthfully bronzed, one half haggardly gray, the rusty hair and the blond, but it seemed to her it was the most natural face she had ever looked on.”

And to say it quite frankly: Framing it like that is a bit dishonest to start with? It’s not the description of “a character”. It’s the volume’s protagonist. Whom Boroson earlier insisted was the inspiration for Delirium (also a bit wonky that one, as I already wrote, since I bet most of the people who don’t know Lee’s work pictured her Delirium as a woman after reading Boroson’s account). But now it’s Mazikeen all of a sudden? Leaving out he’s actually talking about the same character here looks like wilfully obfuscating that neither of it truly holds water, so he’s picking little bits and offers them without context.

Mazikeen is a visual creation of Kelley Jones btw, so maybe Boroson should also take it up with him? The same could be said to everyone who might feel tempted to shoehorn a certain other character (DC’s Destiny) into this, woefully forgetting that Destiny is not a character created by Gaiman. He has existed in the DC Universe years before Lee wrote Tales from the Flat Earth. I don’t hear anyone complaining that Lee stole Kheshmet/Fate from DC because it would be quite frankly idiotic—these are literary archetypes!

6. “The prose, the characters, the narrative strategies, the mythology, the story structure, all of it: Gaiman found it all in Tanith Lee's writing and never gave her any credit.”

The prose is really hard to compare because one is a novel, the other a comic. I really recommend you read both yourself so you get the full picture, but just two examples here:

Tanith Lee:

“A mile from the enameled walls of the city, where the desert lay gleaming like golden glass, a beautiful woman sat in a stone tower, and she played with a bone.

“Will he come to me today?” she asked the bone, rocking it in her arms like a child. “Or will he seek me tonight? All the stars will shine, but he will shine more brightly. For sure, he dare not come by day, for he would outshine the sun. The sun would die of shame, and the whole world grow dark. But oh, he will come. Nemdur,” said the beautiful woman, “Nemdur, my lord.”

Her name was Jasrin; Nemdur was the king whose city stood one mile to the east. Once, he had been her husband.

No longer.”

Neil Gaiman:

As someone who’s read both many times over, my personal assessment is:

They are not very alike. Lee writes floridly, Gaiman is often fairly to the point. Even in Ramadan, which is one (out of 75!) issues that closest resembles the style of Arabian Nights (which is Lee’s inspiration), his voice seems distinct to me—as is hers. Lee’s prose always struck me as great, Gaiman’s as good (I always loved his world building more than his actual writing style). I think Lee’s prose is more accomplished, but that’s personal taste.

Characters: I already expanded on it.

Narrative strategy: This is so vague. Does he mean perspective? Point of view? Other narrative strategies like foreshadowing?

Since I don’t know what exactly Boroson is referring to because he likes to keep it nebulous, I really can’t say, but I don’t think the way the stories are told are in any way alike. And where they seem similar (“Night’s Master”, as an example, is told as interconnected stories in the style of Arabian Nights with a throughline. And of course the Sandman also contains some interconnected stories with a throughline, although they are in no way reminiscent of Arabian Nights to me, bar Ramadan), I seriously have to ask again:

Do we believe only one writer utilises these strategies and/or has a monopoly on them? Because there are truly only so many of them to go around. And we could say that Lee’s “narrative strategy” is hardly unique either. This is just a bit silly.

Mythology: Just no. Both Lee and Gaiman use themes that have been there a million times before them, I already brushed on it. Both lean heavily into existing mythologies, with Gaiman more into Greek, and Lee into Near- and Middle Eastern one (especially Mesopotamian/Babylonian—there are some parallels between her characters and deities like Nergal, Sin/Nanna and Ninazu), although they both also use others. But the bottom line is: Both have expanded on long existing mythologies.

Story structure: Again, what is Boroson insinuating here? He is truly the master of vagueness.

To say it very directly: The story structure is not the same. If you look at The Sandman in its entirety, it’s a clear three act tragedy with a lot of Hero’s Journey thrown-in. The fact that it’s told in 10 arcs changes nothing about that—you can clearly make out Campbell’s stages, like Call to Adventure, Crossing the First Threshold, Belly of the Whale… you name it. This is long enough already, but look at Campbell’s Hero’s Journey, and it’s fairly obvious (and no, the hero doesn’t always have to survive).

Tales from the Flat Earth have a throughline in their five volumes, but they are connected more loosely, with the odd referential throwback. Only “Delusion’s Master” and “Delirium’s Mistress” have an ongoing narrative (of sorts). “Night’s Sorceries” always seemed like an afterthought of material Lee would have liked in volume four but couldn’t fit in. They are all told in a way that hearkens back to oral storytelling (hence Lee saying she was inspired by 1001 Nights), and there is a clear sense of an unchanging, but not personally involved storyteller/narrator all the way through who sometimes even offers commentary.

7. “Tanith Lee was far more progressive about Igbtq+ identities, and that was twenty years earlier.”

Well, for starters: Ten years earlier (“Night’s Master” was published in 1978, the first issue of The Sandman in 1988).

Is Tales from the Flat Earth truly more progressive? I’m not sure. Both were progressive for their time, simply because they wrote about LGBTQ+ characters at all and gave them a voice. And to put it in a disclaimer: I don’t apply moral purity standards to fiction, neither do I believe certain things that would be problematic in real life can’t be written about in fiction (and dare I say: I find that take worrying, for many reasons, but that’s a different discussion). But if we’re talking about “progressiveness”:

A clearly bisexual Demon Prince grooms a child to then seduce him on his 16th birthday—in a time when gay men were often still thrown into one pot with groomers and even pedophiles?

A lesbian queen who basically gets cursed to have sex with many, many men because only a pregnancy can lift that curse (!), finds out she is barren and can only conceive if she has sex with a dead guy, makes a deal with Uhlume who then brings a man back from the dead so she can be impregnated and then, via many many twists and turns, turns into [I’ll tell you later if you really want to know]?

I don’t know, but it’d probably be the same people who find certain angles of the Sandman problematic who would also bolt or get outraged at this? And they would 100% engage in the same type of revisionist readings they now apply to Gaiman’s works if they ever found out that Lee did anything wrong. There is a lot, and I mean a lot, of rape, SA and questionable power dynamics in Lee’s work. But it’s also a work of fiction.

8. In the 1990s, toward the end of her life, she complained in an interview that magazines weren't buying her stories anymore.

[edit: Lee died in 2015, so Boroson’s claim the 90s were “towards the end of her life” also reads a bit weird to me—as if he’s consciously trying to appeal to the sympathy of his readers by portraying her as “the poor woman on her death bed”, when she still lived for another 20 years]

That’s a bit nebulous again. It’s amazing how some people never quote their sources. I am near certain that Boroson talks about this interview from 1998, but I stand corrected if it’s a different one:

Tanith talks about her troubles getting published, but she also says it’s a hard time for everyone right now. Plus, her bibliography also clearly indicates she still got published on the regular, and that the amount of works published in any given year didn’t really fluctuate all that much apart from a burst in the ‘70s (and “burst” refers to the difference of publishing four books instead of two per year), a dip towards the end of her life (when her output was probably affected by her illness) and then the sad thing that always happens when someone dies: Suddenly, there’s another uptick.

Someone even went through the trouble of visualising her published works in a graph:

Courtesy of Das_Mime

Does this honestly look like no one published her anymore?

Now, don’t get me wrong: Of course it is a nice gesture if those more successful put in a word for those who find themselves in a bit of dry spot. But to turn this almost into some conspiracy theory is just a bit weird if I’m honest. It’s much more likely that people are simply not on someone’s radar than that they are actively trying to hinder their career. Writing is hard. Getting published is hard, even if you already have a few published works under your belt. Ask me how I know…

These were the points Boroson made that I wanted to address directly. For those of you who want to get a feel if the story as such is actually in any way similar enough to even call it heavy borrowing, I’ll now do a summary of all major story beats for all five volumes.

Part Three: Tales from the Flat Earth Beat-by-Beat

I assume that most of my followers are familiar with The Sandman, but only a few with Tanith Lee. Hence I won’t do a summary of The Sandman, and once again: You really have to read both works yourself to understand why Boroson’s claims are so far out there. I’m more than willing to discuss and answer questions that come in good faith, but I’ll say it outright: I am not interested in engaging with anyone who just comes here to peddle conspiracy theories and platitudes like “misinformation doesn’t matter in this case because…” if they haven’t even read the works in question.

Just as a quick hint, because that’s where you’ll find the superficial similarities (and that’s my phrasing it with the utmost goodwill):

If you want to compare the entirety of both works, there’s no way around reading both.

For “Night’s Master”, I’d argue you also need to read the entirety of The Sandman, because in a nutshell, it is, at least at first glance, about the heel-face-turn of its protagonist. You’ll need at least Preludes and Nocturnes and The Kindly Ones, but it makes no sense to read them separately, so…

For “Death’s Master”, maybe read The Doll’s House and Season of Mists, because it is partly about a queen who wants to save her land (everything else would be too spoilery, but just so much: The similarities are fleeting at best, and that’s already generous).

For “Delusion’s Master”: Again The Doll’s House and Season of Mists, because at its very core we have a love story that gets torpedoed by a traitor. But other than that, said love story is truly nothing alike.

For “Delirium’s Mistress”: Honestly, I thought long and hard about this. I really don’t know because it is so different from the Sandman that I see absolutely no parallels at all. Maybe read Brief Lives, because there is something in there about parent/child relationships. But they are hardly unique in literature, so once again: I truly don’t know how anyone could find similarities here. And The Kindly Ones would be such an immense stretch that I won’t even go there.

For “Night’s Sorceries”: There are three stories that give a bit of context to the rest. If anything, I’d say read The Wake. But that would actually be insinuating Azhriaz is Daniel, and I’m like… no, massive stretch. If it’s just about loosely connected stories that somewhat fit into a greater narrative, read “World’s End”. But if we’re thinking that’s already a similarity, I truly cry for literary analysis…

Briefly about the world we’re in: The Flat Earth basically consists of four planes: Upperearth, home of the gods; Earth (the Earth of humans before it changed shape); Underearth, home of Azhrarn, Prince of Demons and Wickedness; Innerearth, home of Uhlume, Lord Death. Azhrarn’s kingdom, Druhim Vanashta, houses three classes of demons: Vazdru (most like Azhrarn himself, beautiful and prone to change into eagles and other animals), Eshva (basically mute servants to the Vazdru who can change gender at will) and Drin (ugly, exclusively male creatures and accomplished creators of beautiful and practical things). All three demon kind frequently visit earth to tempt and create chaos.

Volume One: Night’s Master

Night’s Master begins with Azhrarn finding a dying woman and her newborn son, Sivesh, on a hillside. After her death, Azhrarn becomes captivated by the beauty of the child and takes him back to Underearth to raise him (and then promptly seduces him on his 16th birthday). Azhrarn then creates a woman called Ferazhin from a flower for Sivesh (because, you know, Azhrarn thinks it’s good sport to sample a woman. As one does). However, nothing can prevent Sivesh from longing to live on earth because he is human, and the decision to leave Azhrarn for a life in the light offends the Demon Prince. So he consciously tricks him into death by drowning (by chapter three).

The next storyline shifts to a collar (crafted by a Drin) from Ferazhin’s tears because she is inconsolable. We follow the collar around on its journey to different owners (who all meet a gruesome end in one way or another). The final owner, the blind bard Kazir, is the only one not to get corrupted by it, and we conclude the first book with his journey to Underearth to give the collar back to Azhrarn in exchange for Ferazhin, whom he loves without ever having met her. Azhrarn agrees to let Ferazhin go if Kazir can answer a particular question, which he can (not going to get too deep into that, apart from: Azhrarn is rattled, and we’ll revisit it at the end of this volume). Kazir and Ferazhin are happy for a while, but as usual, Azhrarn changes his mind, and by the end of it, Ferazhin is dead (a bit of a nod to Romeo and Juliet in there, but that just as an aside). But lo and behold, Kazir manages to bring her back after a while, and “somewhere perhaps, some dark door slammed like thunder in a city underground.”

Book Two of Night’s Master focuses on Zorayas, who survived the overthrow of her father (a king) as a newborn but suffered severe disfigurement. After the death of the monk who took care of her, she seeks revenge for being raped by a Prince and takes back her father’s kingdom with the help of the Drin. And, as usual, she meets her demise through trickery orchestrated by Azhrarn.

Book Three. Azhrarn’s cruel prank on a young married couple goes wrong, escalates and ultimately leads to humanity teetering on the brink of destruction (the remnants of the husband turn into Hatred and wipe out everything). After seeking intervention from the gods of Upperearth in vain, Azhrarn makes, for once, a sacrifice to preserve humanity’s existence. But does he do so completely selflessly? Could be argued, and I guess Kazir knew, but that’d be too much of a spoiler… Suffice it to say, Earth enters an age of innocence without the presence of hatred and wickedness. Until… 🤣

Volume Two: Death’s Master

Narasen, Queen of Merh, is sexually assaulted by the magician Issak. Feigning cooperation, she manages to kill him. Before he dies, he curses Narasen and Merh, declaring that both will become barren. The curse can only be lifted if Narasen (we have deduced at this point that she is a lesbian because she “doesn’t lie with men”) gives birth to a child, but includes a stipulation that prevents this solution: “Your reluctant womb will never quicken from the seed of living man.” After numerous attempts to conceive, Narasen, driven by her desire to save her land and people, makes a deal with Uhlume to conceive a child from a dead man. In return, Narasen agrees to spend a thousand years in Uhlume’s kingdom. Narasen is poisoned shortly after childbirth.

After Narasen is locked in her tomb with her newborn child Simmu, Uhlume arrives to claim her, leaving the child behind. However, Simmu is rescued by two passing Eshva and lives with them by night. Simmu develops Eshva abilities, like changing gender at will. Eventually, the Eshva grow tired of Simmu and leave him at a temple near Merh, where he grows up among monks and becomes friends and later lovers with a boy called Zhirem.

Simmu and Zhirem eventually become separated and somewhat turn into the tools of Azhrarn (Simmu hates Death because he remembers him coming for his mother) and Uhlume, respectively.

Meanwhile, Uhlume and Narasen don’t get on too well—Narasen sets herself up as Lady Death and constantly struggles for power. To get her off his back, Uhlume grants her permission to spend a day in Merh, where she promptly destroys her city (yeah, after all that trouble…). Upon her return, she gradually takes over the supervision of Innerearth from Uhlume and turns into “Lady Death.”

Azhrarn saves Simmu during Narasen’s attack on Merh. He instructs Simmu to obtain water from the Cistern of Life (a little throwback to volume one). His plan is to kill Uhlume, hence bringing death to an end. The well is guarded by nine virgins called the Golden Daughters—Simmu makes use of his gender-changing abilities and sneaks into each of their chambers as a woman and then takes their virginity as a man. With their virginity taken, the well cracks, and Simmu founds the City of Simmurad (populated by immortal humans) with the golden daughter Kassafeh (too long-winded to get into it all).

Zhirem has embarked on his own adventures and eventually returns to Earth as the magician Zhirek. He agrees to serve Uhlume, who plans to destroy Simmurad, perceiving it as a threat. With the guidance of Azhrarn, who has grown weary of Simmu and Simmurad (you see, Azhrarn is not very consistent and doesn’t abide by rules nor responsibilities like our boy Morpheus 😉), Uhlume lets Zhirek destroy the city by submerging it under water after re-introducing death via creating and killing an insect. Simmu seemingly dies at the hands of Zhirek, who casts him into a well of fire. Zhirek retires into solitude, and Simmu is ultimately saved by Azhrarn, who transforms him into an Eshva and erases all memories of his past.

The story concludes with Narasen effectively ruling Innerearth and giving death, while Uhlume spends most of his time on Earth, finding solace in the presence of Kassafeh.

Volume Three: Delusion’s Master

We’re starting with a tale about Jasrin, the young wife of King Nemdur of Sheve. Because she is jealous of her newborn child, she abandons him in the desert, where he gets killed by dogs. Nemdur banishes Jasrin to a tower, where her sanity gradually deteriorates. She is visited by Chuz, the Prince of Madness (the third Lord of Darkness). Inquiring about her deepest desires, Jasrin expresses her wish for her husband to share her madness. Nemdur awakens with a crazy plan to construct a towering structure that reaches Upperearth (where the gods live). Inspired by the legend of Simmu, he envisions attaining immortality. The Tower of Babyhelu, aptly named “The Gate to the Gods,” grows and grows until it becomes unstable due to its immense weight, causing it to collapse with catastrophic consequences: The fall of the entire kingdom of Sheve.

Azhrarn and a few of his demons are drawn to the commotion, and a conversation between him and Chuz reignites Azhrarn’s disdain for the gods, who had failed to assist him in “Night’s Master”.

Hundreds of years later, we meet 7,000 pilgrims on their journey across the desert to worship the gods at Bhelsheved (Sheve rebuilt). Azhrarn is incensed that his sacrifice to save humanity in “Night’s Master” is credited to the gods. Disguised as a prophet, he reveals that a Lord of Darkness (not the gods) is the true saviour of humanity. For this, he is lashed with a whip and sheds three drops of blood. Azhrarn continues with his quest to destroy Bhelsheved but is unexpectedly diverted by the beauty of a young priestess named Dunizel. Recognising Azhrarn’s true intentions, Dunizel bravely offers to sacrifice herself to appease his wrath. Azhrarn turns into a wolf and bites off her lower arm, but when she encourages him to bite again instead of showing terror, he hesitates. Reminiscing about his own sacrifice to Hatred, he changes his mind, heals her with his own blood, and falls deeply in love with her.

We then learn the story of Dunizel’s mentally disabled mother, who was held captive by the assistant of an astronomer (who was on a field trip to observe a comet passing by). After impregnating the girl, the assistant attempted to abort the child by exposing her to the comet’s energy as it passed. The girl was instead exposed to a rainbow of light captured by the astronomer’s magical engine, regained her sanity and gave birth to Dunizel, who was also affected by the comet’s light. Dunizel’s mother raised her but gradually transformed into a fire elemental and ascended into the sky. The assistant gave Dunizel to a grieving mother from a nearby village, who raised her until she was chosen to join the religious cult (like her mother, she is also part solar being).

We are panning back to the love story of Dunizel and Azhrarn. Dunizel gives birth to a daughter named Soveh, who is initially mistaken for a goddess on Earth and grows at unnatural speed. Through the workings of Chuz though, the truth about the child’s paternity is revealed, and Dunizel dies at the hands of an angry mob (she also comes into contact with one of the drops of blood Azhrarn had formerly shed in the desert). Devastated, Azhrarn takes Soveh, whom he renames Azhriaz, to Underearth. Before he departs, he addresses Chuz and declares their relationship as “un-brothers, un-cousins, and now, un-friends”. He also reveals he will go to war with him and considers it a kindness he has informed him in advance.

The story concludes with Chuz finding Jasrin, who is haunting her tower, and releasing her.

Volume Four: Delirium’s Mistress

So if you waited for this to start with all-out war between Azhrarn and Chuz, you’ll be disappointed. We meet Oloru, a court jester to tyrannical prince Lak Hezoor. Oloru convinces Lak Hezoor to take him on a sightseeing tour of Underearth. It’s not going well—Lak Hezoor is torn apart by Azhrarn’s red hounds. Oloru transforms into a “slender rod of yellow radiation, vaguely purplishly limned” and flies towards the island where young adult Azhriaz has been sleeping since her arrival in Underearth (it’s a been a few years). Oloru, who is actually Chuz in disguise, awakens her, convinces her to escape, and takes her back to Earth. And of course they become lovers.

Kheshmet (King Fate) enters the story, just like that, and in no time, Azhrarn arrives and ends his quarrel with Chuz— also just like that. But to atone, Chuz has to agree to live a mortal lifetime, disfigured, without his powers and truly mad. Azhriaz initially stays with Chuz, but he forgets who she is.

Azhriaz, now without Chuz, despairs. She visits her mother’s grave with Khesmet and decides to embrace her father’s legacy: discrediting the gods. She replaces a king who committed suicide and ascends to the status of a cruel goddess on Earth, conquering much of the world who revels in her cruelty. Her teachings to humanity are that the gods care nothing for them: “Remember, to the gods, you are nothing. To Azhriaz, the Goddess, you are only grains of dust or sand.”

Khesmet arrives to foretell a looming war with sea and sky.

And weirdly, that war starts because a god, whom Azhrarn kissed in “Night’s Master”, awakens and decides that was sacrilege, plus he’s also not pleased with Azhriaz’s activities on Earth. The gods consequently hurl three shards into the sun that transform into three angels—the Malhukim of the gods: Ebriel, Yabael and Melquar. Azhrarn holds the angels at bay while Azhriaz escapes into the ocean aboard a special fish-ship crafted by the Drin, pursued by Ebriel and Yabael. Azhrarn fights Melquar in the air and narrowly avoids incineration. Azhriaz escapes imprisonment in an underwater city when Yabael destroys it with his sword. She receives no assistance from Azhrarn because he lies in a death-like coma in Druhim Vanashta and has been usurped by the demon Hazrond. Eventually, Azhrarn recovers and reclaims his kingdom. Azhriaz is still pursued by Yabael, who conveniently undergoes a transformation and forgets his mission in the process. Then pursued by Ebriel, she travels with Dathanja (Zhirek making a reappearance) and ultimately engages in an eternal battle with the angel. Realising she’ll be otherwise stuck there forever, she convinces Ebriel to stop by revealing her plan to give up her immortality.

Ebriel departs, snd Azhriaz (who is actually called Atmeh at this point, but that’d lead too far) seeks out Kassafeh for a bargain with Uhlume (who is in the process of abdicating to Narasen) to become mortal. She reunites with Chuz, who has paid his penance, and they stay together for a while until Chuz helps her with her final transformation into a mortal woman.

Atmeh/Azhriaz approaches death after 200 years or so, and is visited by Azhrarn, who tells her, “Humanity is my plaything no longer, only a toy for those that are mine under the earth. But you, you are her child. You are hers. You are Dunizel. Not mine. Never mine. Though I made you to be my curse upon the world. Though I made you to be myself. You are Dunizel, that I loved, Dunizel who was the moon and sun together.” Azhrarn expresses his sadness over his inability to cry, and Azhriaz responds: “Each word you have spoken has been a tear.”

Volume Five: Night’s Sorceries

I wasn’t sure if I should even go into this one, because “Delirium’s Mistress” always seemed like the final volume to me to be honest, and it concluded the story for me. “Night’s Sorceries” is a collection of short stories that seem connected to “Delirium’s Mistress” and fill in some gaps (that’s why each of them has an introduction that explains where we are, and when). So I will only go into three of them (there are seven altogether):

“The Prodigal” is essentially about Narasen’s reign as Queen Death.

“Dooniveh, The Moon” is written like a fairy tale about a monk from Nannafir. He travels to the moon on a winged horse, and by the end of his adventures, we witness the wedding of the Moon Queen and the Sun King. And that’s connected how? Well, the winged horse was a gift from Hazrond (who usurped Azhrarn) to Azhriaz.

“The Daughter of the Magician,” recounts the tale of a magician who successfully resurrects the soul of Azhriaz. But the child, named Ezail, ends up being offered as a sacrifice to a monster. And that’s connected how? Well, the monster was created as the counterpart of the winged horse in “Dooniveh, The Moon.” But Ezail regains Azhriaz’ memory and lo and behold, Chuz just happens to appear in the reincarnation of a young boy named Chavir. Together, they decide to take the monster with them and embark on a life together.

The main reason I did include this volume is that it somewhat puts the former four in context. The last sentence of “Night’s Sorceries” is:

“Love is also an immortal.”

Which somewhat suggests that Azhriaz is operating on the same plane as Azhrarn, Uhlume, Chuz and Kheshmet. And we already get hints at that in the other volumes.

In “Delusion’s Master”, Azhrarn says to Dunizel that their child will be his feminine aspect. It’s just ambiguous enough, but we also get this in “Delirium’s Mistress” when Azhrarn wonders about love: “There is no such commodity. There is carnality, our plaything. There is worship, and there is obsession. Death you may perceive walking the world, and Fate, and Delusion, too, in a form that I have kindly granted him. But no man sees love, and no demon sees it.”

So while many of the stories of Tales from the Flat Earth can stand on their own, there is also an overarching theme: Establishing another power that serves to balance out the others: Wickedness, Death, Delusion, and Fate—Azhriaz’ four “sons” (cryptically mentioned in the final chapter of Delirium’s Mistress)...

#the sandman #sandman #tales from the flat earth #tanith lee #neil gaiman #long post #an in-depth look at #Matthew Boroson’s claims #and a full summary of all five volumes of tales from the flat earth #sandman spoilers #tales from the flat earth spoilers

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judesmoonbeauty · 9 days ago

Text

𝕁𝕦𝕕𝕖 𝕁𝕒𝕫𝕫𝕒'𝕤 𝕄𝕒𝕚𝕟 𝕊𝕥𝕠𝕣𝕪: ℂ𝕙𝕒𝕡𝕥𝕖𝕣 𝟙𝟡 + ℙ𝕣𝕖𝕞𝕚𝕦𝕞, "𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝕕𝕒𝕣𝕜 𝕤𝕚𝕕𝕖 𝕠𝕗 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕞𝕠𝕠𝕟"

This is a fan translation only. Please expect grammatical errors and translation inaccuracies. This is a full translation. Creative liberties are taken for characterization and smoother translation process. Cybird owns everything. Re-blogs are appreciated, but please do not post my translation elsewhere. Thank you for your support! ☾.

[Neutral POV]

Jude: ….Augh……

Jude received a weighty upwards kick while chained.

British Soldier: What a stubborn man refusing to talk even after all that beating.

Jude: Toldja whether I talk o’ not, Crown ain’t involved.

Amethyst eyes calmly smiled despite being tortured.

Jude: The more people involved, the less of a cut each person gets.

Jude: But maybe a muscle-brained soldier can’t comprehend that?

The torturer looked down in disgust at the smile etched on his face.

British Soldier: ……I’ll keep torturing you until you talk, so look forward to tomorrow.

As the sound of heavy footsteps receded from the cell, Jude spat the blood that had collected in his mouth onto the floor.

Jude didn’t put up a fight whatsoever while being imprisoned.

Rather, what dominated his mind was resignation.

Jude: ……Don’t want Crown dragged into this shite, get taken down…..’n have ’em resent me.

Neither the Privy Council nor the British Army cared about the truth.

What was important was using Jude's research as bait to enforce a disbandment on the grounds that everyone at Crown was behind it.

Which is why they were torturing Jude in hopes that he would say something to support their objective.

Jude: ….Ah, damn. Just remembered somethin’ pointless.

This situation fit perfectly for the cursed fate of dying with hatred for the world.

Jude: …….Ha.

Jude: …..Whadda lame endin’.

A self-deprecating laugh spills from his mouth, and then—

Sensing someone drawing close to the cell, he looked up to find Gilbert approaching with the foot fall.

Senior Officer Gilbert: You look quite nice, Jude Jazza.

Jude: So, this’s what yer into, huh? Damn, ya got good taste.

Gilbert's face didn't move a muscle.

He looked down coldly on the tortured and tattered Jude, with neither hatred nor pity.

Senior Officer Gilbert: If you had just handed over the research, this wouldn't have happened.

Senior Officer Gilbert: Be that as it may….

Senior Officer Gilbert: I can't believe we were pouring so much money into such a vain fantasy as going to the moon.

He spouted indifferently as he approached dauntingly.

Senior Officer Gilbert: I’ve also looked into your past. It seems that you have had a lot of hardship up until now.

Senior Officer Gilbert: Even if you are the president of a trading company, at the end of the day, you’re nothing more than a laborer, with childish and troublesome ideas.

Senior Officer Gilbert: I suppose you were hoping to obtain land on the moon in order to rake in money.

Jude: …………

Despite all of Gilbert’s incorrect conjecture, Jude simply listened in silence.

Senior Officer Gilbert: But placing people to the moon is just an absurd dream.

Jude: Absurd dream, huh?

Jude: True ‘nough, I believe that more than anyone.

Gilbert frowned suspiciously at his reply.

Jude: Still.….

[Switches to Jude POV]

It’s such a crazy dream….why did I feel like talking about it at that time?

The first person I told about my unfulfillable promise was Kate—

[Flashback]

Jude: Yer not laughin’? That’s unusual.

Kate: I won’t laugh.

Kate: You’re definitely narrow-minded, arrogant, ruthless, and have an atrocious reputation, but….

Jude: Keep talkin’.

Kate: But……

Kate: I won’t laugh at serious dreams, no matter who they belong to.

Kate said decisively with a smile.

Kate: What you said just now, goes for you too.

Kate: Don't take it for granted that people will laugh at what’s precious to you.

[Flashback Ends]

….That’s all.

That was the only thing that had been floating like sediment in the depths of my heart.

It was more than simply what we talked about, because it was the first time anyone ever said anything like that to me.

That memory triggered Kate’s words as they flood my mind one after the other.

[Flashback]

Kate: Do you want to give up already?

Jude: ………

Jude: What if I did.

Kate: I don’t…..want you to give up.

[Flashback to the carriage scene]

Kate: Yes. If something miserable happens, we'll suffer together. If something happy happens, we'll laugh together.

Kate: Help each other out when there's danger, fight every now and then, and then make up.

Kate: Like that, forever and ever.

Jude: …………

Kate: Jude…..I promise you.

Kate: I will never die before you.

[Flashback ends]

Kate always looks at me with a smile as faint as the glow of the moon in the dead of the night, with a relentless strength.

Like waves that cannot resist the gravitational pull of the moon…..

[Flashback to the street scene]

Kate: I don’t want you to give up either.

Kate: I want you to keep shouting at the moon forever.

Kate: Even if it pains you.

[Flashback ends]

—So many irksome memories brim over in my mind they’re uncontainable.

Jude: Pff…..

Jude: She’s really….

Jude: “Don’t give up,” over ‘n over……it’s so annoyin’.

I felt like giving up, and yet I couldn't let go of the one hope that remained, clinging to the promise of something that would never come true.

But now that I’ve been driven into a corner, I thought as someone who has a difficult time giving up, I finally could.

My heart is screaming.

—I can’t give up.

In that moment, a terrifying obsession burned in my heart.

The obsession that burns in the depths of hell, turns into a flame that illuminates the surroundings, bringing vivid color back to the murky scenery.

My heart beats violently as I revive.

I’m sure…..this is the curse of love that’s been placed on me.

Senior Officer Gilbert: ….By "she," do you mean that poor woman you held captive?

Senior Officer Gilbert: I'm still taking very good care of that young lady.

Jude: Still?

As soon as I heard that I immediately understood.

Jude: …..Ah….I see, so that’s it….

Jude: Ha……Pff- Hahaha! She’s a fool. Such a stubborn woman.

[Switches to neutral POV]

Senior Officer Gilbert: What? What are you laughing at….

Jude instantly reached out to Gilbert, nearly snapping off the chains on both of his hands.

Senior Officer Gilbert: ………

However, the strong chains pulled Jude back just before they could touch each other, digging into his arms and preventing him from doing so.

His skin bruised, but Jude didn’t care and just smiled provokingly.

Jude: Aww, ya were s’easily duped. Serves ya right.

Jude: She ain’t just some poor lil’ robin.

Senior Officer Gilbert: Robin….?

Senior Officer Gilbert: Robin….the robin on the pocket watch……

Senior Officer Gilbert: Unbelievable…..

Gilbert’s face turned severely pale, and a sadistic smile appeared on Jude’s lips as he watched him dash out of the prison.

Jude had already thought of several ways to escape, and using his ability wasn’t a problem.

Jude: —Let’s go play in hell some more.

[Transitions to the balcony/Kate POV]

After parting ways with Ellis on the balcony…..

I obtained the contract between the Privy Council and the British Army as intended, and then cautiously started to look for a way to escape.

(How do I get out of here….)

I peered beneath the balcony to see if there was path and noticed some sturdy ivy wrapped around the wall of the building.

Kate: Guess I’ll just climb down the ivy.

I climbed up on the balcony and slowly reached out for the ivy…….

British Soldier: What the hell are you doing!

Kate: ……!

(…..Damn it, why did I mess up at such a crucial moment!)

While trying to escape, I was chased and captured.

Meanwhile…..

Senior Officer Gilbert: Where’s Kate?

British Soldier: Here, Sir!

When Gilbert spotted me, he looked at me differently than he had before - with bloodshot eyes.

His calm demeanor was nowhere to be seen, like something other than the fact that I fled my room happened.

Senior Officer Gilbert: I will question her. You all move along.

After dismissing everyone else, only Gilbert and I remained.

Senior Officer Gilbert: You were the one who stole the agreement from my room.

(…..So they’ve noticed.)

Kate: What do you mean by agreement???

Senior Officer Gilbert: Don’t play dumb. You were trying to escape.

Senior Officer Gilbert: Handover the agreement, and nothing harsh will happen to you. Now, give it to me.

(…..There’s no way I can hand it over.)

(Without it, I can’t clear Jude’s name.)

Senior Officer Gilbert: QUICKLY….!

Gilbert raised his voice.

Senior Officer Gilbert: Otherwise—

Kate: You’re going to kill me?

Senior Officer Gilbert: ……….

The stare from above and the stare from below silently cross each other.

Kate: I will never die.

I took out my gun and aimed it at Gilbert as I was speaking.

Kate: I’d rather kill you than be killed.

Kate: I promised that I would never die.

Senior Officer Gilbert: Do you really think you can pull the trigger with such trembling fingers?

(I can’t stop shaking….but)

I put all of my strength into my fingers.

Still undeterred, Gilbert drew closer one step at a time….and then blocked the muzzle of the gun with the palm of his hand.

Senior Officer Gilbert: Looks like you’ve never shot anyone before.

Kate: —

The hand gripping the gun barrel twisted forcefully, and I felt a cold sensation on my temple.

I can feel my finger tightening up on the trigger—

(….I’m going to be killed.)

Jude: …..Oy. D’ya know who’s belongin’s yer touchin’?

PREMIUM Story:

Where is the boundary between life and death?

If I pull this trigger…..I’ll know, but because of my lack of courage, the chance was stolen from me.

However…..

Jude: …..Oy. D’ya know who’s belongin’s yer touchin’?

Just before I was about to be killed, he showed up like a hero with the most unheroic expression in the world.

Kate: ……Jude……

Senior Officer Gilbert: How are you here……

Senior Officer Gilbert: There’s no way you could break out of that cell…..

Jude: Ain’t no absolutes in this world. Me standin’ in front of ya’s proof of that.

Jude: Rather, didnt’cha hear what I just said?

Jude walked over without hesitation and put an arm around my shoulders.

Jude: Can ya not smear yer filthy hands on my belongin’s? I'll demand damages.

Jude: …..’N get rid o’ that dangerous thing already.

The soft scent of sandalwood wafts through the air, tightening my chest.

(…..How can you possibly be here.)

(And yet—)

It's always the same, this man always comes to my aid when I'm in a pinch, with the most annoyed look in the world.

Senior Officer Gilbert: ….Haaa. Everyone’s so easily corrupted by evil.

Senior Officer Gilbert: Wicked people trying to travel to the moon in search of more riches for their illicit gains should be purged.

Kate: …..What if all the motives you gave for going to the moon are wrong?

Senior Officer Gilbert: ….What?

I remember his speech at the dinner party.

Kate: You want to protect the England by using Jude's research for military purposes.

Kate: I think that's a noble ambition.

Kate: But sometimes strong feelings can obscure the truth.

Kate: If you distort the truth and blindly carry out your word for the sake of justice...

Kate: Isn't that the same thing you detest the most?

It seems my question stirred Gilbert's excessive sense of justice.

Senior Officer Gilbert: ……Evil? Me?

A sense of agitation ran through his eyes.

Senior Officer Gilbert: I am…..I am for England—

BANG!

A popping sound echoes.

(What….)

Crimson blood spurts from his chest and Gilbert collapses.

Kate:…….Mister Gilbert!

Footsteps enter the room from behind.

Jude: …..Yeah figured it’d go down like that.

There stood a man from the Privy Council, his face the very embodiment of evil.

Jude: Ya made it look like ya were workin’ together, but ya were always plannin’ to silence everyone involved by killin’ ‘em off. The crime group, that officer, ‘n Kate too.

Jude: Then you’d frame me fer it ‘n crush Crown, plan complete.

Senior Officer Gilbert: Guh……ngh.

Hearing a faint groan, I quickly rush over to Gilbert.

(…..The bullet missed his heart.)

Kate: Please don’t move……

Privy Council Member: Yes, that’s right. The Privy Council agrees that only we get to establish a trusting relationship with Her Majesty, and gain power.

Privy Council Member: —All of you incompetent scum are standing in the way of that.

(They did this just to gain power?….How despicable can they be?)

Jude: I don’t care about a buncha screechin’ monkeys takin’ over the country—

Privy Councilman: What….?

Jude: I really don’t care, but….how many people have ya murdered till now?

Privy Councilman: Do you count of the amount of garbage you burn?

Privy Councilman: It’s not likely even you recall the amount of trash you’ve killed off yourself.

Jude: I remember every single one in detail.

(…..Ju-Jude?)

Jude’s voice takes an icy, piercing tone.

Jude: ….If bastards like ya don’t get shoved t’hell, you’ll just keep doin’ the same thing.

Jude picked up the gun from Gilbert's waist.

(….Oh my god.)

Jude: So I’ll just send ya straight t’hell now.

Privy Councilman: Haha, you’re going to kill me? How dare you do that to me, a Pricy Councill—

At almost the same time as the gunfire, a bright red flower blooms in the center of the man's heart.

Privy Councilman: ….Fo-ol…..

After a small groan, he fell forward…..and died in seeping pool of blood.

Jude: Let’s go.

Kate: Huh.

As soon as he grabbed my hand I heard a multitude of footsteps from a distance.

Before the those who heard the gunfire could gather, Jude and I escaped from the building and hid in the forest on the military base grounds.

Jude: We’ll wait ‘n watch things here ‘fore we go somewhere else.

Kate: Okay.

(Oh….)

Noticing there was blood on Jude's cheek, I wiped it away with my fingers.

Jude: …..Stop it, you’ll get dirty.

He let out a small huff and brushed my fingers away.

He’s completely indifferent about getting himself dirty.

Kate: ……….

I gently lower my gaze to Jude’s hand.

(Just a few moments ago, he killed a man with his own hands to protect me….)

Kate: …..Thanks for….saving me, Jude.

That was the only thing I could say.

Jude: Didn’t kill him off fer you, I killed him ‘cause he was a damn eyesore.

Kate: ….How?

Jude: Huh? How? Oh….ya mean yer shoddy actin’.

Jude: Ya hate losin’, so I can tell what yer gonna do.

Jude: But I never imagined you’d be huntin’ fer evidence.

Kate: That might be true, that’s not what I meant…..

Kate: How….are you in front of me like this now?

Kate: I….thought that maybe you gave up on everything, Jude.

That’s why I thought he didn’t put up a fight when he got arrested.

Jude: ….It’s yer fault.

(My fault?)

His amethyst eyes seemed to shake.

Jude: Y’keep on yellin’ don’t give up, it’s so noisy that I can’t rest in peace even if I wanted.

Kate: ………

I thought my words hadn't reached Jude, so I just repeated them a lot.

(But they really did reach him.)

The second I realized this, hot tears stream down my cheeks.

Jude: Such a hopeless princess.

And before I had time to catch my breath, Jude's face was surprisingly close.

A bony hand grabbed my cheek and pulled my face towards him…..

Kate: ……..

My shoulders tremble as he licked up my tears roughly with his tongue.

Jude: ….It’s salty. Yer cute face’s ruined, princess.

Jude: Toldja yer smilin’ face’s way cuter didn’t I?

His mischievous smile made my cheeks burn brightly.

(I don’t even know how Jude feels.)

(Why are you touching me so affectionately? You don’t even have feelings for me…)

Kate: Jude, why…..

My lips were suddenly sealed.

A smile carved into Jude’s lips when he saw me unconsciously protest with my eyes.

Jude: ….Isn’t yer fault?

Kate: What do you mean?

Jude: It's written all over yer face that yer happy bein’ untouched. ......Ya look s’lewd.

This is what he says, but...take this line with a grain of salt.

Kate: I-I don’t look like that…

Jude: That ain’t convincin’, ya birdbrain.

I readied myself as he drew close again, sinking his teeth into my earlobe.

Kate: …..Ah.

Jude: See, yer still makin’ a lewd face.….so nasty.

My body trembles as he whispers into my ear while lightly biting it.

Jude grabbed my chin and drops a kiss.

On my tears, on my eyelids, on my earlobes, on my lips.... I don't know where the kisses will touch, but my heart is at the mercy of it.

My whole body grows so hot that it feels like the blood is boiling.

Jude: No matter what I do t’ya, ya look pleased. ……Ya really like me dont’cha?

The sweet incitement finally stops with his teasing voice.

Even after all this, my feelings only grew to the point of pain rather than wavering.

Kate: …..I do….

Kate: ….I do like you….that’s why I want to know…..

Kate: Why did you kiss me?

Jude: I toldja to call me if ya need help.

Jude: Since ya didn’t call my name, that’s yer punishment.

I recall the chill of the gun barrel pressed against me by Gilbert.

But the fear that welled up within me was chased away again by the feeling of a falling kiss……

Kate: Mm—

Jude: It’s fine, just be quiet.

There’s so much to think about, and although we’re still not out of danger….

(Right now, I just want to forget about everything—)

[Main Story Master List] [Chapter 20]

Okay, but did you notice how his question to that evil bastard correlates with what happened in his past??? His sister was killed and forgotten by her killers when Jude questioned them, so Jude makes it a point to remember everyone that he kills in detail.

If you wish to be added (and 18+ YO), or removed from my translations tag list, please let me know!

Tag list: @sh0jun @theimaginativelyreticent @sapphire-323 @velisle @nateko @greatwitchsongsinger @injudescoat @aeyumicore @complexivelovely @yuoi-the-magnificent @husbandosandladders @nawlink @justgiulia @vickietickie @greedyqueensfavourite @sharigax @belphiesleftpinkytoe @reimy1164 @barellorkilaam @cosmowgyral @lunaaka @rosalyne08 @8the-perfect-lie8 @voydsoul @goustmilk @kraiyne @midnightsrunaway

#ikevil translations #cybird translations #ikevil jude #jude jazza #jude jazza translations #ikevil #ikemen villains #ikemen villains translations #Dividers: @.natimiles #Jude Jazza Route

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wisteria-lodge · 1 month ago

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What do you think about the take that Lucius is a little neglectful towards Draco?

It comes from how 1. When Harry and Draco met, Draco is by himself in a street, feeling bored. 2. Lucius scolds Draco about his grades and complaining about Harry yet seemingly failed to get a tutor or therapist or consider Draco’s feelings. 3. During Hogwarts Mystery, Lucius often leaves Draco in the Hands of others or by himself. (Even During a Christmas event, Draco is found on the streets by himself, upset and annoyed because he felt Lucius was not spending enough time with him.)

Okay, I'll play.

1 ~ Draco and Harry meet in a clothes shop, not the street, and here's the quote:

“My father’s next door buying my books and Mother’s up the street looking at wands,” said the boy. He had a bored, drawling voice. “Then I’m going to drag them off to look at racing brooms. I don’t see why first years can’t have their own. I think I’ll bully Father into getting me one and I’ll smuggle it in somehow.”

I actually don't think Draco's bored at all. I think he's having a good time being independent and showing off in front of the new kid. He's got a bored-sounding voice, which is different. A bored-sounding voice is low energy, too-cool-for-school, which is very Draco. And apparently, Lucius is running Draco's errands, and Draco thinks he can get him to buy him an extra present. That seems the opposite of being neglectful.

2 ~ Therapists aren't a thing in the wizarding world, and mind-healers are fanon, so I don't expect that would be on Lucius' radar. But here's the complaining about Harry bit:

“. . . everyone thinks he’s so smart, wonderful Potter with his scar and his broomstick —” “You have told me this at least a dozen times already,” said Mr. Malfoy, with a quelling look at his son. “And I would remind you that it is not — prudent — to appear less than fond of Harry Potter, not when most of our kind regard him as the hero who made the Dark Lord disappear —"

I wouldn't describe this as scolding. If anything, this is just advice. Yes, Lucius is clearly pretty done with the subject - and if this is indeed the twelfth time Draco has brought it up, I get that. But just the fact that Draco has been able to complain about Harry Potter so much to his father does mean that he had to have been around his father a lot in order to do it. And Lucius wasn't completely zoning out. So, that also does not read as neglectful to me.

“Ah, the Hand of Glory!” said Mr. Borgin, abandoning Mr. Malfoy’s list and scurrying over to Draco. “Insert a candle and it gives light only to the holder! Best friend of thieves and plunderers! Your son has fine taste, sir.” “I hope my son will amount to more than a thief or a plunderer, Borgin,” said Mr. Malfoy coldly, and Mr. Borgin said quickly, “No offense, sir, no offense meant —” “Though if his grades don’t pick up,” said Mr. Malfoy, more coldly still, “that may indeed be all he is fit for —" “It’s not my fault,” retorted Draco. “The teachers all have favorites, that Hermione Granger —” “I would have thought you’d be ashamed that a girl of no wizard family beat you in every exam,” snapped Mr. Malfoy.

This is the angriest Lucius ever gets with Draco, and I think it's an interesting snippet. Yes, Lucius is embarrassing Draco by bringing up his grades - but in a way that seems to be intended to correct or undercut Borgin's attempt to flatter Draco and butter him up. Lucius has also switched out of the more respectful "Mr. Borgin" he was using earlier in the scene to just "Borgin" - communicating to Draco that Borgin isn't actually important (unlike Draco, who is.)

Draco then talks back a little, comes up with an excuse which is - a lie. Hermione is a muggleborn, which Lucius comments on, so she's unlikely to be every teacher's favorite. Especially since one of those teachers is Snape, Lucius' buddy, and he knows for a fact that Draco is Snape's favorite.

This whole scene is really about Lucius telling Draco that he needs to be more tactical, and check his privilege. Lucius is in this shop because he's selling dark artifacts - he's powerful, but he's worried. He's not so powerful that no one can touch him. Draco's the same. Lucius is telling him he can't afford to make an enemy of Harry Potter, and he can't afford to just coast through his classes and blame bad grades on teachers playing favorites. Draco's catchphrase at this point is "Wait Till My Father Hears About This," and I think that's slightly worrying to Lucius. He *can't* swoop in and solve all Draco's problems.

(although he does try - buying the Slytherin team brooms is basically just a way to buy Draco friends, and when Draco says he's been mauled by a hippogriff, Lucius does everything he can to get rid of it. And Hagrid says, "’Spect Lucius Malfoy would’ve come marchin’ up ter school if yeh’d cursed his son [to vomit slugs]. Least yer not in trouble.” If anything, Lucius is slightly overprotective.)

Like, it's a plot point in Book 6 that Lucius cares so much about Draco that Voldemort is able to punish (and control) him through Draco. Also, just a detail I like - in Books 2 and 5, Lucius sends Draco newspaper clippings about the Weasleys getting in trouble because he (correctly) thinks that Draco will find them funny. I think that's kind of cute, in a very Malfoy sort of way.

3 ~ I've never played Hogwarts Mystery, and don't consider it canon. But honestly I just find it adorable that Lucius is taking Draco with him on errands? It's very bring-your-kid-to-work.

And getting your co-workers/employees to look after your kid on a bring-your-child-to-work day is pretty normal. In my experience anyway.

Draco "Wait Till My Father Hears About This" Malfoy is... kind of a daddy's boy, so it doesn't surprise me at all that he's kinda clingy and needy as a kid.

#also... is lucius wearing a choker in mystery at hogwarts?#and matching bracelets?#thats quite fabulous of him #hp #draco mafoy #lucius malfoy #the malfoys #hp close reading

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traincat · 1 month ago

Note

Hi, it's me again, with another comics question 😅

So, I will preface this by saying I really don't know much about Marvel's Civil War beyond the mcu (from what I do know I can gather that the Accords are rather different in comics than in the movie because I fear I'd be team iron man in the mcu but very anti-tony in the comics). Anyways, I know some main points- Peter starting off backing the Accords & revealing his identity, the F4 being against the Accords, Peter eventually deciding to switch sides and being bridal carried™️ by the Punisher.

I really don't want to read through ALL the civil war comics but I guess I'm wondering about the motives behind Johnny & Peter's positions. Why does Peter choose to back the Accords when literally every other vigilante recognizes it as a really not great idea? (Is it the /responsibility/ of it all? Do the F4 go against it as a team or is there infighting there? Do Johnny and Peter ever actually fight each other directly? Do they talk?

I'm so sorry for the bombardment of questions, but I guess they all boil down to: what comics do you recommend for someone (me) that wants to see Peter & Johnny's roles/relationship to the Accords, especially if they interact?

Thank you in advance!!!!!!! (I always appreciate the amount of effort that goes into your responses 🩷)

Okay, let's talk Civil War. Please note it's been a hot minute since I read it, and I'm not revisiting it beyond my refs folder, because I don't respect Civil War as an event enough to do that.

First off, what IS 616 Civil War, and how does it kick off? Let's find ourselves on the map. The year is 2006, and Peter Parker is on the Avengers because Brian Michael Bendis hates me personally. The New Warriors, a team of younger superheroes, have reformed themselves as a reality show, and are filming in Stamford, Connecticut. One of their members, Namorita, confronts escaped supervillain Nitro, whose power is exploding. And the extremely obvious happens.

The problem? In addition to killing Namorita and several other heroes, the explosion also kills sixty nearby school children. The government subsequently passes the Superhuman Registration Act, which would require powered individuals operating as heroes to register with the government and be subject to official regulation. Failure to do so results in imprisonment in a facility built in the Negative Zone. That part is not public knowledge.

So where are Johnny and Peter in this? For Johnny, it's pretty simple. You see, Johnny and Namorita used to date -- it's the first of what I call Johnny's "celebrity" relationships, where I think the appeal for him was being seen with another celebrity as opposed to any genuine attraction. (See: Kourtney, Darla Deering.) Namorita and Johnny broke up a long time ago, because they never spent any time together in the first place.

(FF v3 #55) It's very important to Have A Girlfriend so people know you're straight. What do you mean you should want to do literally anything with her.

The problem is, the relationship WAS incredibly public at the time. So Johnny is very much known as Nita's ex, and the anger surrounding Namorita's actions is boiling. While out on the town, Johnny is violently assaulted and knocked unconscious before he can flame on. The crowd then proceeds to beat him into a coma.

(Civil War #2) He wakes up at some point in here, but Johnny's involvement in Civil War is very limited after this. When Sue leaves the pro-Iron Man (and SHRA) side to join Captain America, he goes with her. That's pretty much all there is to it.

Now, as previously mentioned, Peter has been with the Avengers at this point in time. He's also living in Avengers Tower with Aunt May and MJ at this point, because his apartment and Aunt May's house were destroyed. Long story, only kind of interesting. He and Tony have gotten pretty close. This is where the Iron Dad fanon originally came from -- and I wouldn't ever personally say it's a father-son dynamic, there is an air of mentorship to it. (How in character I find this doesn't matter for the sake of this post.) Suffice to say, during this period, Tony and Peter have become close. And Tony is really going hard for the Superhero Registration Act, so he enlists Peter's help.

(ASM #529) 1) He's going to regret that. 2) Hahaha like Peter promising something means literally anything 75% of the time.

This is when Peter starts wearing the Iron Spider costume, as designed by Tony. It's also when he takes off the mask in front of the whole world and reveals his identity as Peter Parker.

(Civil War #2) He's really gonna regret that.

Things go uh. Bad. See, the thing with Peter is that he doesn't keep his identity secret for his own sake -- it is always to protect the ordinary people in his life. He's promised nothing will happen to them, but obviously as soon as his identity is out, there's a target on their backs. And Peter has a lot of enemies.

(ASM #533) It will.

Going to take a break here and say that Tony, especially from the Spider-Man side of things, does not come off as especially sympathetic during Civil War. I'm not an Iron Man expert and I'm not here to either defame characters or discuss about whether Civil War was particularly in character for anyone, including Tony. That's for other people who have the necessary background to talk about Tony's characterization in depth. I'm just here to talk about Peter's poor life choices.

(ASM #533) "I call you boss because I know it bugs you. Don't start taking it too seriously." A big part of Peter's characterization that I think gets overlooked is that, consistently, since he's been fifteen years old, he has almost always physically been the strongest person in the room, and he certainly believes the smartest. A lot of his interactions with Tony in ASM come with Peter's underlying belief that he could crack open the Iron Man suit like a crab claw.

(ASM #535)

Slowly, through a combination of things, Peter's faith in Tony and pro-Registration side disappears. Again, I'm not rereading Civil War, sorry. Anyway, he switches sides. The problem? He's still wearing that damn Iron Spider suit, which Tony can lock.

Well, I mean. Theoretically, that's a problem.

(ASM #536) This doesn't have anything to do with the main story really, I just wanted to post it because he's hypercompetent, and it's hot. My blog, my rules.

Yadda yadda yadda, Tony sends a team of supervillains to capture Peter, yadda yadda yadda, big fight, yadda yadda. This is where that famous scene of the Punisher bridal carrying absolutely beat to hell Peter comes from.

(Civil War #5) Hi Frank. Also in writing this post I discovered my Civil War refs are a mess.

Anyway, from here on, stuff happens, big superhero fight -- it's not too important from the Spider-Man side of things. What is important is that the aftermath of Peter's decision to unmask leads directly into One More Day, or the infamous Devil Divorce storyline where Peter sells his marriage to Mephisto in order to save Aunt May's life after she's shot by the Kingpin's assassin. I'm not going to go into all of that here, but I am a rare One More Day stan. I actually think it's a stunning piece of Peter Parker characterization -- it just led directly into a whole bunch of other stuff I hate, and the aftermath of it (the erased marriage and associated retcon) has gone on far too long. But that's not One More Day as a standalone story's fault. (People who complain that Peter chooses May over MJ miss the point entirely that Peter DID choose MJ over May, initially and instinctively -- the bullet was supposed to kill MJ, and Peter tackles her out of the way, leaving May in the path. THAT'S the whole thing and why Peter can't possibly make any other choice. Because he already made the choice, and the woman he views as his mother suffered for it.)

As for Spideytorch interaction in Civil War, there really isn't much to say. Johnny's in a coma for a chunk of it and Peter's got his own drama going on. Even when they're on the same side again, they don't really interact. Immediately post-Civil War, when Peter is hiding out in a shitty motel with Aunt May and MJ, Steve does ask Johnny if he can get in touch with Peter, since he's the closest with him.

(ASM #537) But it's Steve who goes to meet Peter, not Johnny. Shame.

As for comic recommendations. Oof. Civil War is kind of tricky -- I think if you're going to read it, it's best to read the main series, Civil War (2006), which is fairly short all things considered and very fast moving. It's basically the first of the big "modern events" which meant they hadn't yet nailed the practice of making it as awful as possible for everyone to follow. For Peter's involvement, I would read Amazing Spider-Man #529-537. (Pacing was different back then, she said, smoking a cigarette and staring wistfully out at the water.) It's not NECESSARY, but I would read from #538-543 just because it's GOOD. (#544 is the beginning of One More Day, and requires a different reading list.) This is where he confronts the Kingpin in prison and it's honestly so good. Top ten Spider-Man scenes of all time.

(ASM #543) I think about "it takes three seconds" all the time. Sidenote but JMS really has the perfect Peter voice, the best out of every modern Peter writer. Look how well the dialogue hits here, and the rhythm of it. No pointless joking, no rambling. Just beat, beat, beat.

I also think Civil War: Frontline is very good if you want Peter Civil War content. It's more Bugle-focused, which is really fun if you enjoy that set of characters.

Like I said, Peter and Johnny really don't interact during Civil War, and beyond getting violently assaulted in the first issue of Civil War #1, Johnny's not majorly important to the plot. Which is, uh. Very typically Johnny. Hey, at least it wasn't actively a homophobic hate crime this time, right? (Looking at you, Zodiac (Dark Reign). Don't read it, just know that's literally what happens.)

Here's a cute panel of him playing board games with Franklin and Val though.

There is significant infighting with the FF, where Reed sides with the pro-Registration side and even designs the Negative Zone prisons. Sue switches sides shortly after Johnny's recovery, going to Steve's side, and Johnny goes with her because that's what Johnny does. Ben, on the other hand, takes a neutral stance for the majority of the event.

If you do want to read anything for Johnny from it, there's a really good issue of Fantastic Four set while he's in a coma, though it's mostly a Ben character piece. (And a very good one.)

(FF #538) Listen, the only sensible person during all of Civil War was Ben, who was Team France. He went to France.

#traincat talks comics #long post/#*replies #johnny storm #peter parker

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average-mako-enjoyer · 1 month ago

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Okay, I honestly have to talk about this because this post doesn't give me peace.

I can't reblog it because OP blocked me (for good reason, I'm sure), but I saw it and now I have to talk about it because I found it fascinating.

So this is a reference to the ME3(!) scene that happens after Tuchanka(!!), where Joker and Garrus participate in the joke battle, telling mildly racist jokes about Humans and Turians.

One of the jokes is about Joker himself:

"Why does the Alliance hire pilots with Brittle-Bone Disease?" and the punchline is: "So their marines can beat someone in hand-to-hand drills."

Another is about how to tell when a turian is out of ammo. And the answer is: "He switches to the stick up his ass as a backup weapon."

Personally, I don't think this is a shining example of a failure to criticize racism. In fact, I think it's quite the opposite. Their bonding activity here isn't about being racist, it's about making fun of militant racism among friends. They're literally joking about racist stereotypes here.

Joker: What do you call it when a turian gets killed by a horrible spiky monster? Garrus: Friendly fire. Come on, that one goes back to Shanxi. Joker: Eh, you gotta respect the classics.

I think it's pretty obvious what this dialog is really about, but okay, I could be wrong.

It's like the "you missed the point by idolizing them" meme, but in reverse, I think.

Every single culture in Mass Effect is depicted as xenophobic. The Asari, despite being galactic mediators, have a huge superiority complex. The Turians are a militant empire that believes in striking first and talking later. The Hanar believe that they are the enlightened ones, and they have a subservient intelligent species that they use for their purposes. Salarians believe they can perform inhumane experiments on members of intelligent species because... well, because they can and no one can really stop them. Every Volus we meet thinks they are superior to everyone else. Every Batarian... shall I even talk about the Batarians and how pathetic the excuse is to exclude them from the Council alliance when planets like Illium exist and thrive? How about Krogans?

Everyone here is racist. Everyone. That's the point. You can and should examine how you feel about that.

There isn't a nation on this good old planet Earth that is any different. There's something very animalistic about it, right? We are sort of born with xenophobic attitudes (don't trust people outside your group), and we have to actively unlearn this reaction to people and things we consider dangerous. That's why the portrayal of xenophobia in fiction is so important. It allows us to safely examine these prejudices and unlearn these behaviors. It's not Mass Effect's fault that you see this very clear message as enabling.

Again, it's not the game's fault, it's the fandom's fault. They vilify the Virmire survivor for standing up to this Shepard's decision. But I have to agree that instead of giving us 10 mildly interesting companions in ME2, the game probably should have explored the fuckery of Shepard joining Cerberus and the whole resurrection business much, much further. Still, the VS is right, and the fandom chooses to ignore it.

Let's talk about Ashley first.

Is she really racist? Because she literally goes ballistic when accused of supporting the human supremacist group. She is very, very polite to every alien companion in ME1. She also immediately becomes protective of Tali because of the way she's been treated, and it's pretty easy to tell from her dialogue that she can relate to Tali's experience (Williams' curse, huh?).

Humanity is the dog in the story she tells Shepard, and she's also right in her assessment of the Council and their willingness to help Shepard's cause. Her distrust of aliens is also a very reasonable thing. She's the officer on the super-secret military starship, she knows the protocol, and she should question Shepard's decision to allow aliens near the ship's critical systems. It's literally her job, and if Shepard doesn't want to sabotage their mission, they should be grateful that Ash is keeping them in check. That's what officers do. She's also right about this, because Tali does end up stealing the super-secret information from the Normandy.

So… is Ashley really racist? My answer is no. She doesn't need this thing to be part of her character arc, and it's not part of it at all. Ashley's story is about her family's legacy, about the prejudice and hardship she faced at every step of her career. She treated Tali like a little sister in 1, and she treats her the same way in 3.

Now Garrus.

Yes. He's racist. He was raised that way. Turians really believe in their superiority, and he acts and thinks accordingly. And you know what? You're supposed to be uncomfortable with that. You're supposed to see how fucked up his behavior and his views are. You're not supposed to root for him and his actions on Citadel and with Saleon and later on Omega.

You're supposed to see him for what he is: a broken, lost, traumatized person who can only see the world in black and white. And the most interesting and beautiful thing is that he knows that. He knows his flaws, and he tells them to Shepard, and depending on who your Shepard is as a person, they can reflect on that and see that about Garrus, and they can help him, or they can ignore it, they can actively enable it, they can be so stupid and so caught up in their own shit that they don't even understand it. Shepard's romance with him is supposed to be a little toxic, a little unsettling because of the power dynamics and because it starts when they are both extremely vulnerable. It's not supposed to be cutesy. They're both fucked up.

And there's a real interest in exploring how fucked up that is, how fucked up he is. Him joking with Joker and Wrex is an example. Him finally apologizing to Tali for his previous behavior is another. Him supporting Shepard when they decide to sabotage the cure is also an amazing example.

Again, you're supposed to be uncomfortable with that. Garrus talks to Shepard about the calculus of war. If siding with the Salarians gives the Palaven a fighting chance, he can live with that, and you know what? This is GOOD writing. It's very realistic, and it's something that feels like Garrus.

We're talking about a galactic war that no Council species has won in any of the previous cycles. Everyone is grasping at straws. The Krogan are literally going, "Reverse the genophage or we won't help you." It's everybody's Hail Mary.

In times of crisis, everyone becomes more xenophobic. That's literally what's happening in the world right now. The economic crisis makes people more conservative and more focused on short-term goals. Can we really blame Garrus for remaining xenophobic in such an environment? Is this a time for him to reflect on his biases?

Or would it have been better if Shepard had said, "Stop being racist, Garrus," and he had just stopped? Is that how character development works? We can literally see him letting go of some of his prejudices, but it's a long, long process, and the galactic war is not the best time for it, if I'm being honest.

This is where I agree with this post 100%, because this is a problem for this fandom. People are infantilizing Garrus and being incredibly misogynistic towards Ashley. But these games are begging you to question Garrus' behavior, and I don't think it's the fault of the games or the writers that the fandom just ignores all the not-so-subtle messages and makes posts about how Garrus hasn't really done anything wrong, and posts about how Ashley is racist, and posts about how the narrative isn't interested in exploring how troubling Garrus' racism is, and how this series fails to critique racism at all.

Phew. I'm done.

Honestly, if I were the OP and hadn't blocked me yet, I would have done so by now. I really don't want to be an ass to them, so I won't tag them or anything, but I found this post so interesting that I couldn't help myself. Hope you found it interesting as well. Pls don't send anything nasty to the OP or alert them of this post, I don't want to ruin their day or anything. I'm just doing my reading comprehension duty here.

#mass effect #mass effect meta #my thoughts

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rafesproperty · 9 months ago

Note

Im BEGGING so hard they make Rarry happend (rafe and Barry) BECAUSE LIKE EVEN THE CAST SHIPS ITTTT

IM THE BIGGEST RARRY SOLDIER ON EARTHHHHH I LOVE THEM SM LETS DISCUSS THEM.

The thing is that if one of them was a girl everyone in the fandom would go insane over them, but since they are boys it probably won’t even happen.

THESE ARE NOT‼️ PLATONIC LOOKS. The eyes, chico, they never lie

Topper is me asf

They would literally make so much sense. The thing is Barry is so special to Rafe in so many ways. Notice the way Rafe lets Barry talk to him (sassy, making fun of him, Barry literally going “let me lead and SHUT UP” and Rafe just going “ok🥰”, Barry going “I’ll knock that J-Crew lookin ass out” and Rafe just smirking and blushing). Rafe would NOT let people speak to him the way he lets Barry speak to him… like ever 😭 Also when Barry told him he’ll lead it was when they went after the Pogues and it’s something Rafe very much cared about. HE’S A PROACTIVE TYPE OF PERSON, he would not let someone he doesn’t 100% trust “lead,” he’s a control freak. Yet here he was, just going “okay,” trusting Barry with something so important to him.

Barrys presence is so important in Rafes life and I feel like neither of them really realises but it genuinely is. RAFE ALWAYS RUNS TO BARRY FIRST. He would NOT let anyone know he killed Peterkin (Topper and Kelce are his closest friends and he’d never tell them), yet here he was on Barrys floor, confessing to him, allowing him to see his breakdown AND —

BRO DON’T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON THIS SCENE OMFG —

He slept AT BARRYS when he had probably the worst day ever (Ward screaming “Rafe you fucked us!” at him, him drowning Sarah and Topper beating him up happened in the same day) and the next scene we get is Rafe waking up on Barrys couch. I imagine him going into absolute panic in the middle of the night and not wanting to go home to his dad, the only place he can think of being Barrys… so he goes to Barry. We were so, so robbed of a scene where Rafe shows up in the middle of the night saying “I didn’t know where else to go” with a beat up face and Barry going “Shit, country club.”

I’m just convinced Rafe felt safe enough with Barry so he always ran to him.

Their first meeting in S3 as well. I’m pretty sure that was the first time they saw each other since Barry betrayed him in S2 and Rafe was just okay and calm and ASKED BARRY FOR HELP AGAIN. Rafe holds grudges like crazy, yet he trusted him enough after his betrayal to seek him out again. Like nothing ever happened. And Barry helped him again. Because Barry always helps him (he claims it’s just for the money but the thing is he was willing to murder for Rafe and that is not something he was comfortable with the entire show, I’m genuinely convinced he would not accept that offer from anyone, murder being over the line for him… yet for Rafe? Yeah).

We could see Barry being uncomfortable by Rafes murderous temptations in a few scenes (especially the one where he tried to drown Kie), but the second Rafe asked him to kill Ward he was like ALRIGHT I’LL DO IT FOR YOU. Also Rafe was so hyperfixated on his dad, it was the most important person in the world to him, so him asking Barry to do it just shows the level of trust. He asked Barry to free him of this burden.

Also Barry DOES NOT do it only for the money. In Season 2 when Rafe comes over to pick up his drugs and asks Barry for “a piece” (a gun), Barry giggles and makes jokes UNTIL Rafe says “Do you realise it’s either me or him (John B) in this situation, right?” and in that very moment Barry switches and goes full angry protective mode and pulls out an entire bag full of guns 😭 And is fully ready to go with Rafe and to protect him and shoot a Pogue for him. But Rafe did not ask for help. He didn’t offer him money. He just asked for a gun. Barry did all of that on his own and he went with him on his own. I think that’s also why Rafe told him “You know I’ll take care of you,” he himself was surprised someone was willing to protect him and go with him out of their own free will.

At the end of S1 Barry went with Rafe after the Pogues because they owed him money, but he still handled Rafes mental breakdown pretty well (NO other character ever managed that, not even his family), he cracked some jokes and got Rafe out of the panic state by motivating him to go do something about it, and joining him.

Also the shit they say to each other…

“You know I’ll take care of you.”

“I own you now.”

“Tranquilo?”

“Tranquilo, baby.”

Barry casually saying “How does that feel, babyboy?” in S1

THE WAY THEY LOOK AT EACH OTHER?!

Nice try mf I know love eyes when I see them

Another thing is their dynamic is absolutely perfect. Rafe, a bit psychotic, always taking everything seriously, grumpy asf and Barry, sassy mf that takes nothing seriously and is quite literally the only person that knows how to handle Rafe and how to talk back to him.

PLUS the actors shipping them is so wholesome and funny tbh (at least we won’t have another Jiara accident uhm…)

They also ADMITTED VERY PROUDLY that they send Rarry edits to each other 😭 “You know, whenever I miss Drew we’ll run back the tiktoks” dnsjskks

Drew literally going “Nick Cirillo who plays Barry in the show, my right hand… also my lover”

That’s boyfriends right there

One more thing I’d like to add is Barry was so judgy of Ward when he came to see Rafe (in S2 right before Rafe tried to run away and Ward came to warn him from the police), now it might be because Ward beat him up in S1 orrrrrr because he simply saw Rafes state (Rafe probably told him that his dad yelled at him that day when he slept over) and didn’t like his dad a single bit. I choose to go with the protective bf option.

Again, if one of them was a girl it would be one of the most popular ships just bc of their dynamic and banter and chemistry (JJPope situation all over again).

I hope Drew and Nick manage to sneak in a little bro kiss in some of the upcoming seasons (like that scene from Deadly Class when Marcus is randomly bro kissed), feel like it’s something they would 100% do 😭… Imagine drunk Barry going “Country cluuubbb, mwah” and Rafe just 🧍🏻

And I’d love to continue with more pics and edits but Tumblr won’t let me add more so we’ll end it here.

But they genuinely mean the world to me. I think a lot of people are shipping them as a joke but I’m IN LOVE with their ship and dynamic and the bond between them.

That’s all ty for reading 💕

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heartofbusan · 8 months ago

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A Tale of Two Earpods

Have you ever sat on a train while listening to music, and while you're watching the landscape, you feel heightened emotions? There's probably a name for this occurrence. It's almost cinematic even. When you're listening to music, it enhances this wonderful sense of detachment as the world passes you by at high speed.

That's probably what jikook were feeling, too, traveling past the pretty and snowy coastline. A little detached from the world inside the train, yet grounded in the music they're listening to together. We are invited into that bubble through the sounddesign as it gently invites us to come into their mindset.

There's a reason why this scene stands out. Something beyond the fact that when Jungkook gently laid his head on Jimin’s shoulder, he crushed the last dregs of sanity I had left, I mean.

----

The actual music we hear is considered a 'non-diegetic' layer. It's not something Jikook can hear, but it's added in later in post-production. This way, it functions as a guide for the audience to feel something. BUT, there is a very important physical element at play in this scene that gives an extra emotional entry into the minds of our main characters. The earpods.

Jikook are cutely sharing a pair of earpods 🥺 This places them inside a little auditory bubble separate from the audience: we can't hear what they're listening to. Luckily, Jungkook provides us with a genre: anime music.

So when Jimin remarks that it feels like they're in an animation (little did they know the scene would include actual illustrations), it was all those elements at play for him as well. The music is giving him the feels.

The soundtrack tries to let us in on their earpods by overlaying this moment with violin music, but it doesn't quite cut it tbh. I'm sure copyrights prevented them from sharing the actual music they're listening to. When Jimin starts to get playful and pretends to be a crying dog!?!?!? the cutest little flute/accordion piece starts playing. It's adorable and kind of folksy.

Then suddenly, the music switches to this soft electric guitar piece we've heard before in AYS, often at the end of sentimental scenes, like at the end of episode 4 when they're on the catamaran. It's a very melancholy yet hopeful piece, promising that this is not the end but a new beginning. At least, that's what it makes me feel.

In the train scene, this piece isn't used to end the scene, but it surprisingly builds towards something, a high point.

Here the music is reflecting not only their emotions: the train ride is amazing, they're really enjoying themselves, and it feels like another core memory being made, but it's also a guide for US watching THEM in THEIR moment. Like a little snapshot made for the audience. This is also OUR core memory now. Again, linking us directly to jikook, but also keeping us at a safe distance.

This concept feels foundational for AYS. Truly a show for them AND for us.

The actual highpoint of the scene ends with a beat of silence as JK puts his head on Jimin’s shoulder. After all the music, the silence at this exact moment is VERY LOUD in order to emphasize this gesture. A WORLD STOP.

And that's what I felt when I first saw it. That little beat of silence was an exclamation point, a silent scream. Your heart stopped beating for a second there, right? The sound design danced us right up until that point, swaying us gently from side to side and then suddenly it dipped us and made everyone take note. The shot fades out, the diegetic noise of the train can still be heard, and almost like we had to take a breath to clear our head, ... we're back to reality with JK's voice. Sigh.

If you're still reading this, I don't know what to tell you,...you too are obsessed with jikook 😮‍💨 send help.

----

I rarely travel on trains anymore, but next time I do , I look forward to emptying my mind of real-world problems, and I'll think of this little Jikook snapshot instead.

#jikook #when i said id never get over that moment i meant it #send help #blogger needs to MOVE ON #sapporo hot springs here we come

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halfmoonshines · 4 months ago

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marc spector/steven grant/jake lockley x reader

summary: you loved all of your boys equally. most days.

or; they're all amazing in their own ways, but definitely have their strong suits.

..••°°°°••....••°°°°••....••°°°°••....••°°°°••....••°°°°••....••°°°°••..

You were going to strangle Marc Spector, you were sure of it. You were also sure that Steven would forgive you, and Jake probably wouldn't bat an eye.

How many times had you told this man that you had a laundry basket for a reason? Fist of Vengeance or not, his socks still stunk and you were getting tired of padding around the apartment twice a week collecting them all.

You slammed the washer door shut a little too hard just as you heard the front door open and click shut.

"I'm home, love! They had a great deal on your favorite cream cheese at the shops." Steven's honey accent pierces the quiet of your anger and you immediately simmer; his sunny disposition a cold water on your raging fire. You had nearly forgotten that he was the one who went to the store.

"That's great." You said as you rounded the corner, a smile on your face.

Steven paused in his unloading the groceries, a furrow creasing his brow. "Are you alright, sweets? You look tense." He crossed the small kitchen over to you, hands settling lightly on your shoulders. Leave it to Steven to see the slightest bit of tension in you.

You have a loving eye roll, moving closer to wrap your own arms around him. "I'm okay, Steven. Just slightly peeved at Marc for being so messy."

His hold dropped to your waist and he rested his chin on top of your head, a mirthful chuckle rumbling out of his chest. "That he is, love. Right disgusting bugger. Shall we do something about him?"

"I thought you wouldn't take kindly to me choking him with the next dirty sock I find."

"I'm sure I can look the other way."

..••°°°°••....••°°°°••....••°°°°••....••°°°°••....••°°°°••..

"You're being ungrateful, you need to actually listen to me-"

Conversations with your mother never went over well, but this time you were well tired of listening to it.

"I am not being ungrateful, Sharon. I'm being realistic. Don't call me again." You slammed the phone down with a force, shaking the glass of water you had perched on the dining table. You winced, knowing that smart phones weren't made to take that kind of beating but you were far past the point of caring.

She always knew how to rile you up; to upset you and make you feel guilty. You didn't even know why you bothered to pick up her calls anymore. Some sick sense of ownership.

The hands that turned you were warm and familiar, the chest that greeted you smelling of musk and pine.

"You want to talk about it?" Marc's voice made you wince. Steven was the one that left the house this morning, you hadn't been aware that they planned to switch. You hated talking about this stuff with Marc, knowing full well it never compared to the relationship he suffered with his own mother.

You gave a shake of your head and met his dark brown gaze. "It's fine, babe. Same old attitude."

Marc's smirk lacked the usual humor. He raised one of his hands to twirl a loose piece of your hair, tracing the movement with his eyes. "You know you don't have to bottle it up, right? How you feel is important. Don't ignore that just because I have my own issues."

Your eyebrows raised in surprise. "That's quite the self aware statement, Mr. Spector. I'm impressed."

Marc's smile morphed into that familiar one and he returned your earlier eye roll. "Don't deflect. I'm here if you want to talk."

You dropped your hand to his and started to pull him towards the kitchen. "We can talk while we cook. I'm starving."

"I can agree with that."

..••°°°°••....••°°°°••....••°°°°••....••°°°°••....••°°°°••..

You were being followed, you were sure of it. You tried not to hasten your steps too much, knowing full well that the person who had been following you for the last six blocks would give chase.

You wouldn't escape them.

You and the boys had obviously gone through this kind of situation before. Being the fist of Khonshu didn't come with a fan club, but it certainly did build a repertoire of enemies. If they lived, that is.

Your breath was puffing out of you in clouds as you power walked down a road parallel to your own, debating the merits on showing this man where you lived on the off chance that Marc was home.

You could hear the footsteps behind you speed up and you returned it in kind, kicking into a slow jog - all pretense of being unaware going out the window.

You glanced over your shoulder to see the man approaching quickly, and that was the first mistake you made.

The second one was hesitating when another men stepped out of the shadows of a store front. You knocked into him firmly, breath escaping out of your chest while his harsh grip dug into your shoulders.

Oh, you were fucked.

The man who had been following you caught up to you then, hand clasping over your mouth to muffle the strangled scream you had attempted.

Those training sessions in the living room with Jake felt like a distant memory with the blood pumping through your veins. You kicked wildly at the man in front of you, managing to graze that sensitive bit between his legs.

"I'm going to enjoy this so much more now." The accent was Irish, but you were quickly distracted by the large knife he brought up to your throat.

You stopped thrashing, all too aware of the sharp tip of steel biting into the sensitive skin on your neck. A stray tear rolled out of your eye, fate becoming more concrete.

"Hurry it up, Joey. We don't have time to dally."

"Shut yer pipe-" The man holding the knives voice gurgled briefly before he collapsed on the ground in front of you, the tips of crescent moon shaped knives poking out of the front of his chest.

You found him instantly, half masked by the shadows on the street.

"Bloody fuck." The man holding you simply tightened his hold, one hand fisting in your hair and yanking your head back. The squeal you gave wasn't by choice but you could see the start that the suited man watching you gave. "Stay over there, white devil, or she will die with me. Do you hear-"

You almost didn't see it, the knife being thrown but it was embedded in the goon's throat before your next breath. He released you all at once and you fell forward from the force, gloved hands catching you before you could hit the pavement.

You were heaving breaths, vaguely aware that you were going into something akin to shock but unable to pull yourself out.

"Breathe, mi corazon. You need to take slow breaths." Jake's own hands were shaking almost imperceptibly, you could tell that he was struggling to keep a lid on his fury.

You dragged in a deep breath through your nose, forcing yourself to sit on it before exhaling. You folded into his embrace, fresh tears springing into your eyes. "I'm sorry."

Jake's scoff was almost offensive. "What the fuck are you sorry about?"

You gestured to yourself haphazardly. "Completely losing my shit the first time that something happens to me."

The suit disappeared then, his bare hand gripping your chin lightly, bringing your gaze to his. There was fire churning there, and you realized you mistook some of his anger. There was fear there too. For you, though. Never himself.

"Don't you ever apologize to me when there's," His hand lowered a bit, ghosting over the line of red that the knife had left on your throat. "Blood dripping down you. Blood that's my fault." You understood then, the hard clench of his jaw. "Mierda, babe. This could've ended so differently."

Your hand wraps around the his wrist, bringing it into your lap, willing him to look at you instead of the wound he was fixated on. "But it wasn't. Because you were here. I'm okay, Jake."

Something flashed in his eyes, and a cloud passed over his face. He was bottling it up, you could tell, but there wasn't much you could do about that right now. "Let's get you home."

You let him help you off the pavement, keeping a grounding hand on his arm. Jake hesitated a moment, question poised on his tongue.

"What is it?"

"Are you sure you're okay? If you want to talk it out, I can step back. It would probably be good to have someone to talk to-"

Your kiss was chaste, but served its purpose of shutting him up. "If I wanted to talk about it, I could do that with you, Jake. You don't need to go anywhere."

"You know I'm not very good at that-"

"You're perfect." You insisted. No room for arguments.

He smiled wryly, arm wrapping around your waist. "How about I run you a bath when we get home and we order some takeout. What are you hungry for?"

"Surprise me."

#marc spector #marc spector x f!reader #steven grant #steven grant x f!reader #jake lockley x f!reader #jake lockley #moon knight #mcu #my works #moon knight fanfiction

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crdteezv · 1 year ago

Text

Frat House - Xiaojun Ver.

DISCLAIMER (important): This is a continuation of a fratboy series I’m doing for all the Wayv members! I recommend you read the prologue here first so everything can make more sense. You can also choose the other members here or a the end if you are interested in seeing someone else!

Paring: !fratboy! xiaojun x f! reader

Genre: college! au, frat! au, smut

Synopsis: You continue playing an interesting game of Spin the Bottle/Truth or Dare with Ten and his friends. You were dared to spend the night with one of them. When the bottle was spun, it landed on Xiaojun. You wondered what type of things you and him were about to get into tonight…

Warnings: smut. !switch! sub to soft dom! xiaojun, dirty talk, praise, slight degradation, teasing, kissing, fingering, hair pulling, oral (receiving), edging, unprotected sex

Word Count: 2.6k words

A/N: It’s been a while since I last posted something (like 2 months…) I apologize for being inconsistent in uploading each part. I lacked motivation a lot of times hence why I haven’t been consistent like I used to be. Now that it’s summer, I have more time to write and I have a lot of good things coming soon!! But this series will soon come to an end! All I have left to do is Winwin and I’m done the Wayv Frat Series. I appreciate it if y’all just be patient with me 😭

After Hendery spun the bottle, it landed on Xiaojun.

You didn't feel bothered by it since you and he were once close friends, and there wouldn't be any awkwardness between you two.

“Well, I’m glad it’s you; now let’s head over to your room. I'm so tired.”

Xiaojun nodded his head and led you into his bedroom. Meanwhile, the others wished that the bottle would’ve landed on them instead of Xiaojun, especially Hendery. He is the reason all of this happened because of the dare he created.

“So here is my room!” Xiaojun said with enthusiasm.

You entered into an earthy tone and organized space. His room had almost a comforting feeling to it. You made your way over to his bed and got comfy.

“H-hey, if you’re not okay with us staying in the same room, I wouldn’t mind sleeping-”

“Uh, what are you talking about, dude? We used to be best friends and be with each other all the time. You should come to bed, silly. Don’t tell me you’re all shy about it now.”

“Pft, me, shy? Never. It's just different now, you know? We haven't been as close since we left high school," Xiaojun said.

He does have a point.

The friendship you once had with him was totally different now.

He was like Ten for you, always being at each other's houses after school and would sometimes stay over. Things between you and Xiaojun have always been purely platonic. But ever since you met Ten, you’ve been around him more.

“Yeah, I feel you, but hey, it will be just like old times, alright?”

He nodded his head and made his way over to you and laid down on the bed.

As the night wore on, you found yourselves reminiscing about old times, sharing stories and laughter. It was as if no time had passed since you last spoke as if the years of distance and silence had never existed. Memories of your past friendship flooded back, reminding you of the inside jokes, shared secrets, and the countless hours spent hanging out together. You both needed this chance to reconnect and remember the friendship you once had.

The room fell silent as Xiaojun slowly made direct eye contact with you. Your heart beat with anticipation, not knowing what he was going to say.

“What happened to us?”

You gave him a confused look and asked him what he meant by that.

He then proceeded to say, “You know, our friendship. We used to always goof around and be around each other all the time. Now I barely see you anymore. I really miss—”

He stopped himself from talking and did not want to embarrass himself anymore.

“You know what? Nevermind. I was just rambling about nothing important. It’s getting late, and we should—”

“You miss what, Jun?”

He had a sincere look on his face, almost as if he was holding himself back. He gently caressed your hand and said, “You. It’s you that I miss the most. Being with you all the time is what I miss.”

His statement caught you off guard and left you feeling flustered. You didn’t realize how much Xiaojun missed being friends with you. You always spent your time with Ten that you didn’t even realize it.

“Wow, I didn’t know you felt that way. I feel so bad because I was supposed to be your best friend.”

“No, don't feel bad, it’s okay. You have Ten now, and you see him way more than me anyway.”

You gave his hand a gentle squeeze and continued to hold eye contact with him.

“Still, you were there for my first, and I shouldn’t have gotten so distant with you—”

“I like you.”

Your heart felt like it was going to burst out of your chest at his sudden confession. You fell quiet for a second, which started to make Xiaojun even more nervous.

“Wait, you do? How long have you been feeling like this?”

“Since we started to become best friends. I know this is sudden, and I probably shouldn’t have said anything, but it’s just we finally have some alone time together and—”

You silenced him with a kiss, to which he gradually responded, and passion quickly sparked between you. You found yourself sitting on his lap, straddling him, as things intensified. He began to whimper softly as you exchanged kisses. Pulling back, you gave him a sinful look, leaving him utterly captivated and longing for more.

“Is it okay if I keep on going, Jun?”

He was too shy to speak, so he simply nodded. You began to shower kisses all over his neck, leaving marks. His whimpers and moans of pleasure echoed as you skillfully heightened his sensations. Lost in pleasure, he tilted his head back, prompting you to gently grasp his neck, urging him to meet your gaze.

“Oh, this is only going to work if you keep on looking at me. The moment you take your eyes off me, I will stop everything that I’m doing, understand?”

"Y-yes, I understand, I'm sorry," he stuttered.

You silenced him with another passionate kiss, then spoke firmly, "It better not happen again."

You felt something start to become hard underneath you.

“Aww, you like it when I treat you like this, don’t you, Jun?”

He nodded his head, feeling flustered and unable to help himself.

You started to grind against his crotch, making him even more of a mess for you. He began to softly whimper and melt into your arms. He loved that you were taking control and looking up into your eyes. You began to kiss him and wrapped your hand around his throat. He seemed to like that because you felt him harden underneath you once again.

You decided to take it further and started to move down onto his neck, marking him up. He bit his lip in an attempt to stifle his moans, but once you began to lower your hand and touch his erection, he couldn't contain himself.

"Mhm, you’re joining enjoy this, aren’t you, Jun?"

All he could do was nod his head in response.

You lifted up his shirt, and he did the same. He looked at you with such desperation, still unable to believe that all his fantasies were about to come to life. After one more passionate kiss, you proceeded to kiss down his chest. Moving lower, you pulled down his joggers and underwear.

His dick made contact with your face as it sprung up against it.

“Wow, you seem really excited about this.”

He nodded his head and started to shake a little. You noticed and gripped his waist with one of your hands to keep him in place. With your other hand, you began to slowly stroke his cock. He tried his best to stifle all of his sinful noises, but he couldn’t keep it together. He began to stroke up into your hand and get lost in his pleasure.

“Mhm, who would’ve thought that you were this needy for me? How long have you thought about this, Jun?”

“S-since I f-first met y-you. I couldn’t stop thinking about you.”

You started to stroke him at a faster pace than before.

"Oh, really? I didn't know you were this obsessed with me," you remarked.

You started to gently kiss all over his dick, and he began to whine and beg for you to stop.

“I find it very cute, honestly.”

That almost did it for him. Your teasing and taunting were pushing him to the edge and he wasn't sure how much longer he could resist you.

Then, you took him into your mouth.

He arched his back in pleasure, practically screaming out for you

You bobbed your head up and down on him, and he loved every second of it. You started using both hands to stroke the base of his member while sucking on the tip. You could feel him pulsing around your hands and in your mouth.

He couldn’t hold back, and he grabbed your hair and he started thrusting himself into your mouth with full force. You began to gag on him and felt your eyes start to water. As he was about to finish, he decided to lift you off of him and stop himself.

You were confused as to why he did that when he was so close. He then flipped you over onto your back and pinned your hands down above your head. He knelt into your ear and whispered,

“Now it’s my turn.”

He said it in such a husky and deep tone that it took you off guard for a second. You'd never seen Xiaojun look so serious and almost intimidating. His voice sent shivers down your spine. Even that desperate look in his eyes changed. It was as if he had become a completely different person now.

He started to wrap one of his hands around your throat and lower the other down into your shorts. He let out a cocky smirk and said, “Oh wow, honey, don’t tell me you got wet just from sucking me off. Here I thought I was the pathetic one. But you, my love—”

He took your shorts completely off and left your panties on. He pushed your panties to the side and inserted one of his fingers into your aching pussy. You let out a soft whimper and tried your best not to be too loud.

“You, my love, are just as desperate as I am.”

You knew he was right. You always had a crush on him, but you were always too scared to act on it. Since you and him stopped seeing each other as much, your feelings for him started to go away. But some part of you knew you still liked him regardless of that.

He started pounding his finger into you, and you wanted to melt in his arms instantly. He added a second finger into the mix, and you let out a loud moan. He knew that you were enjoying every second of this. He even started to rub your clit with his thumb. You didn’t care how loud you were being; you practically whined and screamed out in pleasure. You couldn’t control yourself anymore. You returned the same desperate and needy gaze he had given you earlier.

“Aww, you’re so pretty when you moan out for me, darling. Keep on making noises for me.”

You reveled in everything he was saying to you, and he loved seeing you in this state. He had been wanting this for so long, and now that it was finally happening, he couldn’t believe it. He felt that you were close to the edge and decided to pull out his fingers.

You whined from not feeling full anymore, but that didn’t last long when he positioned his cock against your pussy and shoved himself into you. You threw your head back in pleasure and wrapped your legs around his waist. He was giving you long but hard strokes. He took his time with you and wanted to savor this moment between the two of you.

“God, you're so beautiful, and I love when you look at me like that.”

You loved it when he would always praise and compliment you. All you could do was wrap your arms around his neck and kiss him. You felt almost connected to him in this moment and didn’t want to let go of him. He seemed like he was getting anxious and wanted to speed things up a bit. He grabbed onto the bedframe and started to thrust into you at a faster pace.

“Mhm, this feels so good, Jun—”

“I know, baby. You don’t have to tell me twice.”

You felt yourself start to loosen up around him, and he pushed your legs back around your head. He explored deeper into your core, touching places you never imagined could bring such pleasure. He found your sweet spot, which drove you more insane than before.

You didn’t know how long you could take this anymore.

“P-please, slow d-down, Junnie, I—”

It had been a while since you called him and he loved it so much. In a sudden burst of energy, he accelerated, moving as quickly as possible.

“Fuck, sweetie, if you keep calling me that, you’re going to drive me completely insane.”

You let out a smirk, and you had so much lust in your eyes as you said, “But I love calling you that. It makes you all flustered and you look cute.

You saw that his face started to become red, and he couldn’t even look you in the eye anymore.

“Aww, what’s wrong, Junnie? Where did all your confidence go? Don’t tell me you’re going to give up on me now…”

He didn’t like how much you were patronizing him, and he didn’t hold back. He started to choke you again, and he had this serious look in his eyes. He knelt down into your ear and said, “Now, darling, I'm not going to last very long, and you can run your mouth all you want, but if you don’t finish at the same time as me, you’re on your own.”

He looked as intimidating as before, and you knew he wasn’t messing around anymore. So you gave in to his demands. He thrust into you with such force and vigor, and you both reached your breaking points and came at the same time.

He collapsed onto your chest, he felt his whole body become weak.

“Hey, Jun, get off of me, you're too heavy.”

He let out a chuckle and rolled you over to the bed, and now you’re both facing each other side-by-side. You lay there for a minute and thought back on all the things that just happened. You didn’t know what to say, and then he finally spoke.

“Hey, look, if I was too rough or got carried away, I want to say I'm sorry for that—”

“Junnie, you don’t have to apologize for anything. That was all so good. I especially liked the part where you took control towards the end. I didn’t know you had that in you.”

He blushed at your words, still surprised that you allowed him to do all this to you and that you felt the same way about him.

“Aww, thanks, really. So what do we do now? I hope this doesn’t get in the way of you and Ten. I see the way he looks at you—”

“Oh, he will be fine. He is pretty understanding, and I don’t think he would have a problem with this. At the end of the day, he is my best friend, and he would support me no matter what.”

Xiaojun felt reassured about the situation. He understood that you were closer to Ten now and he just didn't want to cause any problems.

“But we should start hanging out more, Jun, and maybe even… go on a date?”

He froze for a second. He couldn’t believe that this was finally happening.

“U-um, I would really love that, actually!”

You kissed him on the lips and said, “Okay, so where do you want to go?”

**A/N: **If you want to see what would happen if the bottle landed on a different member, choose here: [KUN] [TEN] [WINWIN] [HENDERY] [YANGYANG]

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littlekiara96 · 7 months ago

Text

Hey, Penacony spoilers ahead for up to the end of 2.3. THEORY AHEAD. (kinda crack, kinda not, I'm talking about Gallagher)

Y'know, it's funny how Gallagher, a History Fictionologist, told like 1 lie.

And then, Mr. Reca, a Memokeeper, told some guy "Love the unknown" once.

Like, guys, switch places, please. That would make more sense.

I remember when I found inconsistencies with how people treated Gallagher; one of two Bloodhounds "recognising" him, another Bloodhound going "Who?" and then the receptionist at the Family's mansion acting as if he's some important person who's rarely sought out by people?

I swear, this still makes no sense... unless......

And Reca is sometimes a well-known director. Sometimes a self-proclaimed one.

Chabro and Aideen? Love the guy. Nobodies? Who does this dude think he is.

But hey. You know what makes me go "What the HELL is going on here"?

I have two questions.

Why "Mr. Reca"? And not Mr. Reca?

How the hell does this guy know about Gallagher AND HIS DEATH.

Okay, so I guess this Reca is indeed a Memokeeper who uses camera and film to record (rec - Reca) stuff and retell stories. He should be the same Memokeeper Black Swan mentions at the Studios.

And I suspect this censored movie to be his work.

Hey, remember who did so much to make sure that some people's names and true stories would be restored?

Yeah, funny coincidences.

And then, nobody remembers Gallagher, ironically. Except us, Nameless.

And except Reca, SOMEHOW. (Aideen. Gallagher is the guy thanked BEFORE YOUR OWN BRAND, DID YOU EVEN WATCH THE MOVIE.)

But ultimately, Aideen is right. Gallagher wasn't made to be remembered.

Sorry, I mean, "Gallagher the History Fictionologist" isn't meant to be remembered.

We know "Gallagher" is fake. And I'm not just talking about his appearance; ALL OF HIM is fictional. He is a character, a role. And like any role... there has to be an actor playing the part. The person who came up with "Gallagher". The person who is still there once the character isn't needed anymore.

The person we didn't see when "Gallagher" disappeared off-screen.

And I guess that person would also be the real Gallagher... The one who was so loyal to Mikhail.

Or... was he all that loyal to Mikhail?

There's something so fickle about calling an unshakable loyalty "imaginary". I know it's meant positively here, but it's so easy to turn this upside-down...

I mean, the purpose of "Gallagher" was to fulfill one promise to Mikhail. And once that has been done... the real Gallagher could do whatever, afterwards. He's free of his role as "Gallagher" the History Fictionologist... who did the exact opposite of what a Fictionologist would do...... by restoring the truth of the past.........

Gallagher is the worst at his job, isn't he. Almost like he should be a Memokeeper, instead.

Anyway. I have a technical question.

Where did Reca get the memory segments to recreate Firefly for the Scorchsand Venue movie?

I see two possibilities:

Got them from someone else (Aideen, other witnesses, maybe from the surroundings themselves?)

Himself

In the first case, it makes sense, I have no further question.

In the second case, though... When did Reca meet Firefly? Did he need to actually meet her or would just seeing her from afar suffice? Depending on the answers to those questions, things might get complicated.

Okay, it's time I stopped beating around the bush. I've been drawing mirrored parallels between "Gallagher" and "Mr. Reca" from the very start of this post. You're probably guessing what my point is by now.

But first... Remember Sleepie? a.k.a. Dormancy?

Poor thing came to Scorchsand searching for Gallagher...

But there was no trace of him there anymore since... before Sleepie arrived... Right?

And there's no way Gallagher would still be around... Right?

... why would you say that if you know your whole being will disappear once you're done with your final task...

i mean, it's not like there was yet another Hound statue in Dreamflux Reef, next to the three epitaphs of the Nameless, right?! Grmbl...

Remember when Himeko said "In the end, we still failed to figure out his true identity, or if he was even a "living person"? Because I SURE REMEMBER.

Anyway, we don't know where Reca was when Sleepie arrived at Scorchsand, but-

I think it's safe to say that they interracted to some extent.

BUT that's in fact still not what made me go "WHAT THE ACTUAL HELL IS GOING ON HERE???!!"

Remember how the movie started?

With the phrase: "Even now, the world is still filled with characters that we've played."

The hell do you mean by that, Reca.

And it ended with the phrase: "We will keep playing our roles, drunken and foolish in the moment, playing at life but never thinking to celebrate it." Then the credits roll.

Heyyyy, I know someone else who talks about celebrating life. And used bits of other people's lives to create a whole new "character". Kinda like how you can pick pieces of different stories to make a whole new story. Or movie, for that matter.

And hey... Reca told us "My lens is upon you… Don't let me down. And more importantly, don't let the audience down."

You know who told us we had interesting life stories? YEAH.

Hey. Let's go back to Brina. The receptionist.

You know how we could easily explain this?

If the real Gallagher's full name was Gallagher Reca.

Or maybe "Mr. Reca" is just yet another pseudonym. I mean, why would he credit himself as "Mr. Reca" and not Reca. That's fishy.

ANYWAY, this theory has been on my mind for maybe 4 months now, so I'm glad I've finally manage to write all of my thoughts down.

#honkai star rail #hsr theory #hsr gallagher #hsr reca #gallagher #mr reca #2.3 spoilers #finished somewhat on time >:'D

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thegamingcatmom · 8 months ago

Note

How do you think the denalis would react to a reader who loves giving head?

Same question for the Resident evil ladies

I mean-

Pretty much that, LMAO.

Ofc they´re all for it. What´s not to love about a beautiful lady expressing that love and devotion by devouring you like she´s got them cravings? 😩🤌

So, I´d say the inward reaction is more or less the same, no matter which lady we´re talking.

On the outside, however-

Listen, some of us got a reputation to uphold, aight?

...With that said:

(Imma switch to "you" here cause it flows a lot better and makes for a more immersive feeling. ;3)

Warning Promise: Things are about to get rather gay.

Tanya Denali:

doesn´t care about the place

outside, inside, up, down, above, under - great, she´ll take it

she does care about the position though

we´ve been through this - she´s no Bottom

so, don´t expect her to lie down like a pillow princess

she´s a leader, ffs

an alpha

she´s either gonna be sitting (preferably on your face) or standing

perhaps she´ll lift a leg for easier access if she´s standing

then it´s showtime

she enjoys herself thoroughly and has no problem letting the world know

why shouldn´t they know?

you belong to her just as she belongs to you, after all

let them hear

when she´s feeling particularly naughty, she´ll make sure to sound as much like a porn star as she can manage

to say she loves it when you turn as red as a lobster would be quite the understatement

it drives her wild

which is one of the reasons she does it in the first place

the other reason is to ensure her sisters won´t come within miles of the two of you

(and they better stay there)

...it´s also a massive boost to her ego though, it has to be said

seeing the effect she has on you, even when she´s the one receiving?

more often than not, that´s the final straw for her

Kate Denali:

like Tanya, she doesn´t really care about the place

but, unlike Tanya, she also doesn´t care about the position

she´s just damn happy to be here, yknow?

will curse

a lot

will also compliment you

a lot

it´s actually a combination, like-

"Fuck! You´re so pretty down on your knees. All f-for me? Fucking...p-perfect! My perfect little princezná. God-"

she loves letting you know what a mess she is

all because of you

her perfect little warrior

she´ll always worship you, even when she´s the one receiving

and not just vocally

she´ll touch anywhere she can reach

will comb her fingers through your hair

will cradle and stroke your cheek/s

stroke your back

massage your shoulders

just anywhere, yknow?

she needs that contact

(she might be a battle-hardened warrior, but she´ll turn into a huge sap softie for the right person)

she´s surprisingly sentimental too, afterwards

one might even call it poetic

"If my heart could still remember how to beat, it would race in your presence...my perfect little warrior."

Irina Denali

(I know that´s not from Twilight, but listen: I need me some gifs where Irina aka Maggie looks happy, pls and ty. 😭)

she´s big Mama

(yes, I´ll keep saying it because it´s important)

she finds your enthusiasm absolutely endearing

will giggle

hand covering her mouth and all

scrunching her nose

(she´s so precious)

unlike her sisters, she prefers a more private location

preferably in your shared bedroom

she might be convinced to do it just about anywhere in the house though, as long as it can be assured it´s free of prying eyes and ears

outside might work, but only if the area is rather secluded

(she´s a private person, aight? even more so when it comes to anything bedroom-related, like, excuse? it´s hard enough sharing you with her sisters, so she´s not gonna go and give some strangers a show that´s meant for her eyes alone-)

(...fine, and her sisters´)

(ugh)

vampires don´t get cramps or anything, but she still prefers lying down for it

it just makes the experience more intense for her because, despite being quite literally indestructible, she craves that vulnerability

it´s all about having someone you can bare your soul to, someone who gets you on a deep emotional level

she needs that connection to be able to fully let herself go

but when she does, oh boy-

she´ll make the sweetest sounds

whimpering, moaning, mewling - all of it rather high-pitched and shifting in volume, depending on how close she is

won´t stop running her fingers through your hair

will whisper sweet nothings

"My good girl...making me feel so good...I love you...so much."

will keep calling you her "good girl" all the way through because she loves seeing the effect it has on you

which affects her in return

which affects you in return

which affects-

Without further ado, onto the Village Ladies!

(Not sure if you were referring solely to the Dimi sisters? Anyhow, my thirsty ass added two more, hope you don´t mind. 🙃✌️)

Bela Dimitrescu

she´s a Momma´s girl

which means she's a mix between condescending and encouraging

(more condescending though)

will keep calling you her "little one"

she talks a lot actually

someone has to make sure you´re reminded of your place, after all

and of hers

(all that talking is more or less for her own ego tbh)

(she´s got a reputation to uphold, aight?)

(she´s more bark than bite, most of the time)

(except when she isn´t)

(that shit hurts like a bitch btw)

"Look at you, little one...d-down on your knees for me...as it s-should be..."

"You should count yourself l-lucky, little one...to be in a position d-desired by...many-" *proceeds to break into incoherent mumbling*

"S-Serve me well, little one, and I will...I will ask Mother to...k-keep you..."

(jokes on you, that was never a question)

you would never dare say it out loud (you rather enjoy living, tyvm), but the fact she´s such a tryhard will never not amuse you

it´s very obvious she´s trying to mimic her mother

trying to be all intimidating and shit

emphasis on trying

because she fails spectacularly at it

every time

she reminds you of a spitting kitten actually

(those claws hurt like a mf though)

Cassandra Dimitrescu

(I fucking love that shot. Look at that lazy ass bish. You just know she cba about pretty much anything.)

she´s a bit like Kate actually

minus the whole worshipping

which means she´ll pretty much curse the whole way through

also loves to dirty talk

"Fuck! Someone´s been practising, hm? F-Fucking the maids in secret, are you? Dirty little whore, of course you are...f-fuck! MORE!"

she´s loud

very

and proud

very

she loves letting the whole castle know just what the two of you are up to

especially because it annoys the heck outta her sisters

(especially Bela)

also has her sickle with her

always

(it´s her partner in crime, what did ya expect?)

she´ll use it as a way to ground herself

literally

sometimes, it misses you by a hair´s breadth when she goes about impaling the ground right next to you or the wall she´s leaning against

dw, she knows what she´s doing

...probably

listen-

there´s no way she´s gonna let such a dedicated little thing like you slip through her fingers

much less on accident

what a waste that would be

so I´d say you´re pretty safe

(for now)

Daniela Dimitrescu

she´s vibrating

literally

getting her to remain somewhat still is a struggle, lemme tell ya

she´s like a hyperactive puppy

and she chitters like a little birdie

sometimes, she´ll hiss like a spitting kitten too

with Dani, you got a whole farm in your bedroom, it has to be said

she´ll keep telling you how much she loves you

then she´ll switch to almost beheading you

accidently, ofc

she´s just so...excited, yknow?

and she has a rather tight grip on your hair indeed

oh wait, she´s back to telling you how much she loves you

...

it also becomes painfully clear to her that you haven´t said it back yet

"D-Don´t you love me?!"

...

"Mine, you´re mineminemineminemine-"

that´s her fav word btw

she´ll chant it like a mantra almost all the way through

sometimes, she´ll scream it too

"SAY THAT YOU´RE MINE!"

...

she´s back to telling you how she´s always dreamed of finding true love

all loving and tenderly

a stark contrast to the maniac who almost beheaded you only seconds ago

accidently, ofc

she loves you

"Y-You´re mine...my...my Princess Charming...aren´t you? J-Just like...in the books...yes? We shall have a...A SPRING WEDDING!"

...

ofc my love, whatever you say my love

(I luv u pls no kill)

Lady Alcina Dimitrescu

she´s Big Mama

literally

but also Scary Mama

literally

she´ll have them claws out just because

(mostly to intimidate you, let´s be real)

it makes her feel like the apex predator that she is as she reclines in that big chair of hers

it´s massive, really

(we still talking about the chair?)

one leg propped up as she´s being served like a true queen

as it should be

she´ll watch you with a mix of endearment and loftiness (much like in the gif)

dancing the tips of her claws along your back

or stroking them up and down

or running them through your hair when she´s having an extra soft moment

(those are rare)

her other hand is occupied holding a glass of wine

(duh)

swirling it occasionally

taking a sip here and there

in the meantime, she´ll be fantasizing about all the ways she could end your life

(shit turns dark rather quickly in this household)

a swipe of her hand would suffice...

it´s about power, aight?

thinking about the power she holds drives her wild

she also loves taunting you

"Sssuch a nimble little mouse..."

"Or perhaps...masochistic would be a more fitting term, hm? So eager to ssserve...a dragon..."

you won´t catch her moaning and whimpering like a mutt in heat

instead, she´ll draw out some of the syllables

or hiss

sometimes, she´ll pause in between words (probs the most apparent sign that what you´re doing is affecting her a lot more than she lets on)

when she´s getting closer, the occasional grunt might escape too

more like a growl, really

however, despite her aloof demeanor, she can´t deny that she finds your devotion most...charming

that´s probs why she keeps you around in the first place

cause we all know Big Mama likes getting her ego stroked

among other things

Mother Miranda

oh boy bird

she´s Birb Mama

feathers and all

she´s also crazy Mama

crazy eyes

crazy smile

yes, she does smile

occasionally

it´s more a smirk, tbh

she does so enjoy it when her devoted little followers show her just how devoted they are

she´ll wear them robes ofc

parted just enough to allow access

feathers poking out here and there

gotta be careful not to swallow one or smt

that´d be hella uncomfortable for sure

anyhow-

you´re in the church

(duh)

but the things going on there are far from holy

she´ll stand before you

more like you´ll kneel before her

as you should be

no hands

you ain´t touching none of that

divinity shall not be sullied by the likes of you

(...we´re not gonna talk about the fact you´re sullying her alright in this very moment)

just like Big Mama, she´ll taunt you

"Is this what you wish for in your prayers at night, hm?"

running her claws (aka her rings) through your hair

"Tell me, child...does this village harbor more corrupted souls such as yourself?"

grip getting tighter

and tighter

claws starting to dig in-

*hiss*

the sound of pain evokes a small chuckle

her grip loosens a smidge in response though

(see? she´s a huge softie :3)

"Perhaps I shall cleanse it, hm? Liberate it from its sinners... What do you think, little bird?"

it´s a rhetorical question ofc

(thank fuck)

Miranda does as Miranda damn well pleases

(the idea of Miranda threatening to erase a whole village while she´s being served is so real though)

she´s very composed, all things considered

("all things" being: you eating her out as if your life depends on it)

(I mean...)

it´s almost like she´s talking about the weather or smt, honestly

then she removes her rings

the only indication you´re nearing the grand finale

now she can actually hold on tight without having to worry about impaling your pretty head

very much so

shit hurts so good like hell

but it´s also a precaution

the thing is...Miranda might not be vocal about her feelings

but she doesn´t have to be

her transforming is all the confirmation you need

it´s her way of letting go, you could say

she won´t go all out though

just parts of herself

her fingers being one of them

(yall are familiar with her mutated form, right? them fingers be going on for days)

hence, the precaution

she has lost quite a few rings that way

she´s grown rather fond of the current set

it´s got black tips and all

🖤💅🏻

Yall noticed how it got more unhinged as we progressed? The slow descent into madness was real with this one, LMAO. 💀

I could feel the obsession starting to creep back in with every word, lel. Dani might have just become my fav among the daughters. :3

Thanks a lot for your ask! I had a lot of fun with this one. 💋

#tumblr asks #twilight #the twilight saga #resident evil 8 #re8 #resident evil village #re village #tanya denali #kate denali #irina denali #bela dimitrescu #cassandra dimitrescu #daniela dimitrescu #lady dimitrescu #alcina dimitrescu #mother miranda

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mari-lair · 1 year ago

Text

Let's talk about Akane's overprotection of Aoi and the dangers of not properly setting up a narrative tone.

We are told that Akane stalks Aoi because guys have been trying to force her into a relationship for years, so he protects her by beating up anyone who approaches. Nene and Kou are understandably horrified by this.

But in the very next page, Aidairo hit us with this tone switch:

What Akane is saying is contradictory to the violent and possessive narrative that was shown during his introduction, to this yandere role he played the entire chapter, but the manga is trying to convey that we should take him seriously here. Even the lighting and composition are the ones used when characters are vulnerable and Aidairo wants to show that what they feel is real.

It's strange...

Being possessive is never framed as something that leaves other characters in awe, just compare Akane's melancholic and peaceful gaze to the creepy tone used when Kou and Hanako have their "you are possessive" moment.

Both Kou and Hanako hate that part of themselves, Kou even rejects it, but it's still clear the rejection doesn't make him any less possessive. Both want to be dependable, they want to be the only choice, no one else is acceptable. It's a selfish feeling. Being 'the most important person' is more important than the joy of the person they want to help (Kou's wish is Mitsuba needing him, instead of Mitsuba happy as a human. Hanako wants to be the one to save Nene, the idea of Nene being saved by someone else does not satisfy him even if it would make her happy and safe)

So this isn't a "Akane is lying to himself" or a "he is delusional" case.

The narrative, which had presented Akane as a yandere, wants us to believe that "I will protect Ao-chan... Even if she never looks my way" is not only what Akane believes to be true, but also something admirable. A sentiment Nene craves directed her way, claiming to be 'a little jealous' of Aoi, despite calling Akane scary a single page ago.

Let's rewind to see how we got here.

Akane and Aoi's stories suffer from being mostly given to us in gags for a good chunk of the manga, as they are not very relevant in the early arcs, but the crumbs come together after their confrontation in chapter 69.

Why is Akane stalking Aoi? Because he worries about her. Not about someone stealing her necessarily, but about her being hurt or forced into situations she is uncomfortable with.

They are very codependent. They have been for years.

We can see Akane being shocked at the sight of people bullying Aoi since they were kids, it isn't just 'boys who want to date her' that makes her uncomfortable. Jealous girls do too.

Even when Aoi is left alone, using clothes completely out of her cutesy style to attract less attention, and just living her life, she is still harassed.

Aoi's life is a nightmare, it straight up sucks. She hates that, and when Akane notices this discomfort, he hates that too.

He is far more protective than possessive, he doesn't care when people are touchy with Aoi as long as she welcomes the touch: Take Nene as an example.

Akane never touches Aoi at the start of the manga but Nene does, a lot. He never think "Nene is touching my Ao-chan! Unforguivable". "Maybe Ao-chan likes Nene more than me is not far!" or anything of sorts

Even when Aidairo uses the same over-the-top/creepy gag humor I personally find excessive, and Aoi straight up flirts with Nene, Akane's only thoughts about it are the usual "I love her so much"

When he does show dislike for Nene it's never because she is of value to Aoi. It's because of how dismissive Nene can be, not taking Aoi's safety seriously and easily excusing Hanako's actions.

We only see him be aggressive with Nene when Hanako possesses her and makes Aoi uncomfortable.

The problem here is the framing, the comedy focus. It's hard to take it seriously.

Everything about Akane's intro chapter is hard to take seriously. We are told he is "Hard working. Reliable. What a nice and sweet person."

But we aren't shown these honorable qualities much, not explicitly at least. The big panels, the main focus, is on his gag.

And his main joke is that he loves excessively, even for this school standard where everyone is weird (like Nene writing a self-ship fanfic with Teru) so he needs to be over the top, his behavior has to stand out!

How do they try to achieve this? Yandere jokes.

It is overplayed, they spend pages on it. WHOLE PAGES on it.

It is an old narrative trick to present a twist character as a comic relief to lower suspicion, to keep the more important characterization for after a reveal when they are oficially important, but framing all his actions as comedic and devoid of dept to make his reveal as No.1 more unexpected leaves him in a strange position: Akane is intended to be written as a protector but framed as a joke, to the point his introduction become the satire of a protector.

When he is revealed as the clock keeper and allowed to be given more focus, Aidairo try to explain his behavior and show signs of him being a genuinely caring and kind person, as the first part of his intro had promised.

But it's to late.

His crazy actions and anger issues is in most people's minds, a few lines can't erase pages and pages of his introduction as a yandere like archetype, so it's easy for first impression bias to come into play and interpret all his actions as a simple "He is obsessive." instead of trying to find dept or nuance to the established dependence he has on Aoi.

When we are shown that above wanting to date her, he just wants her to be safe and happy, it does not become clear. The reader needs to pay a lot of attention to small moments like these:

Which a casual reader likely won't. Most are reading for the toilet trio at this point in the manga.

This fumble on his character introduction makes it hard to know what should and shouldn't be taken seriously. Aidairo discarded the yandere narrative relatively quick (we haven't seen Akane's bat in ages) but this gag about being happy as long as Aoi is happy turned out to be important:

It was used to further contrast Aoi's and Akane's mentality on their big arc, and highlight how much nearly losing Aoi affected him.

So the only way we can tell what joke to take seriously cause it will be used to build up his character and what is a gag is hindsight.

I did not care about Aoi and Akane's relationship when I first read the manga, i went 'oh cool!' on their conflict, cause that was very well done, but since their characters were not well introduced, I did not notice a lot of the ideas being shown to me.

Akane is a sweet boy. That's his core, his consistency. Even with Aoi, being kind is the priority over being with her.

Let's compare him with Hanako, who is an openly possessive character, and see how they approach their love interests when they don't know if their love interest likes them back yet, and they aren't reduced to a gag (so we'll dismiss Akane being 'a yandere with a bat', and Hanako's joke of him being a tactless pervert, like peaking under Nene's skirt when her time was frozen)

(so pre-chapter 86 to Hanako and pre-chap 69 to Akane)

Hanako traps Nene, he will cling to her anytime he can, he cares about Nene and loves her dearly, he even says he "loves everything about her" but he is greedy for her attention, he is selfish, always trying to make her focus on him out of everyone in the room and keeping her in his hold, out of others reach. His unsubtle possessive nature is a charm of his, makes for an interesting character.

Akane has a different vibe to it. He doesn't have many serious moments with Aoi before their spotlight arc, unfortunately, but when he does, he focuses on reassuring her (even when her time is frozen and she can't hear him) and avoids touching her at best he can. He has known her for more than 10 years, but he doesn't act as if she belongs to him.

I am not saying Akane is not possessive of her, he is. But he tends to be more worried about her than anything.

Using hanako as the trademark of possessiveness again, check out these two scenes:

At the start of the manga Kou likes Nene, and Akane is under the impression Teru like Aoi, so both scenes follow the basic premise of "A know B has a crush on their crush, and they get possessive over a possible romantic rival being too close."

Hanako doesn't say anything, but his message is clear "She is mine."

Akane explicitly says he doesn't like Teru near Aoi but he doesn't try to remove Aoi from Teru or try to do anything violent. Why would he? Aoi is in no danger, nor is she uncomfortable, so he changes focus to the person who is troubled, awkwardly reassuring Teru that his distress is, in his personal opinion, stupid, so "chill bro".

He wasn't like that with Teru before.

He was so determined to stop the wedding he even rejected hanging out with Aoi, crying tears of blood and asking for her forgiveness in his mind but prioritizing not making her get together with Teru above her joy.

Is that because of his development? Yes! A big part is. Notice the way he treats his mental image as reality? That was his biggest flaw, he imposed his views on Aoi (the view being "everyone is stupid in love with Teru" in this case), and assumed what he believes is a universal truth, doing exactly what Aoi accused him of: Not seeing her, just an idea of her.

But the reason he went so crazy and determined, it's because Akane saw Teru as someone dangerous. Someone who would use Aoi. Hurt her. He believes he is protecting Aoi from the big bad president. A view that makes sense when we take into consideration both Aoi's history of being forced into relationships, and when we go back to their interaction.

Look at this and tell me this isn't a threat:

Teru acts as if he barely remembers her name, she is just 'that cute girl', mostly a tool for him to use against Akane.

When his view of Teru changes to someone kinder who genuinely cares about Aoi as a person, he no longer enters protective mode.

He is still bothered about the idea of Aoi being with someone else, he does noooot look pleased even with his fairy tale vision of a happy couple, but the way he treats this possible 'rivalry of love' when he does believe Teru loves her is so different from his "Don't get close to her!! I will NOT allow it!!" approach.

There is no insecure overthinking. No aggression. He is playful about it. He even teases Teru.

He just wants to focus on rescuing Aoi. A 'rivalry' isn't important. He needs her to be safe.

These two parts of Akane have been juggling for a long while.

But now, character focus is the priority, and I am thankful the damage is being undone, that Aidairo let Akane's love take up whole pages instead of small panels buried under pages of jokes.

Their codependence, no matter how many issues it has, and how it can sabotage them, is based on so much care for each other.

It's a shame I only believe Akane was sincere when he said he'll always be there to protect Aoi regardless if he 'gets to be with her', because of what we see later in the manga, not because of what had been set up in his intro.

#Every time i see the page of Akane gently cradling Aoi's face and crying over her being safe my heart break #tbhk #toilet bound hanako kun #jshk #jibaku shounen hanako kun #look at me trying to do a narrative structure analysis despite always failing lit class #aoi akane #akane aoi #aoikane #aoiaoi #long post #character analysis

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