#cannot emphasize how much i did enjoy watching it

[pathetickuroo]

i'm a film student. here's how i felt about the edge of sleep.

for a bit of background on my "credentials" so to speak: i'm in my second to last semester of studying digital media/journalism at my university. in my program you are required to take a "digital media core" that teaches you the technical aspect of film as well as analysis and a number of writing and screen/scriptwriting classes that respectfully i performed extremely well in. i don't throw "film student" around lightly even though my emphasis is in journalism.

and here's an obligatory disclaimer that this is about the show, not mark. anyway.

overall i found the show enjoyable. it was a very fun watch featuring (and produced by) a youtuber that i've been a fan of for almost a decade. i have to say this, though, and it's going to sound harsh before i get a chance to explain what i mean by it: there is a distinction between enjoyable and "good". i liked the five nights at freddy's movie. that doesn't mean it was good.

i'm not going to come on here and say edge of sleep was bad, because it wasn't! i do think it was good. however (and clearly mark's influence on these things is more than likely slim to nil so don't come into my replies yelling at me for criticizing the show), there were a lot of things that just were kind of okay to me.

firstly, the whale. i believe this was in episode one. frankly? terrible first impression. i found the pitched down voice entirely out of place. it would have been better i think (especially considering the whale only talks that one time and never again) for it to be whalesong with subtitles, the same way they provided subtitles with safet. to be quite honest i think if not for markiplier i maybe would have turned the show off or found it an irredeemable thing based on what had been shown so far, but because i am also a film student, it was likely exacerbated by the fact that i have the mind and knowledge for film. things like this affect "normal people" or "laymen" less, and even aside from what i'm studying i also know my standards in general are. um. high. lmao. in fairness yes for this point i am nitpicking, but a first episode is the "hook" of a show so for it to have had something in it that took me out of it so much was disheartening.

some of the writing felt a bit janky and to be fair i suspect that comes from it being adapted from long-form storytelling into a six-episode, twenty-minute-segment form. i'd like to point out specifically a lot of the problems that i have with the writing/character approach apply mostly to matteo's character. with him i felt there was a lot of, "what the fuck i can't believe this. well whatever i actually don't care anymore so let's do that." he continually, more than anyone else, went back and forth on what his hard limits were in that situation. there wasn't any scene where they were trying to convince him of something (or convince him to do something!) where i felt he actually put up any kind of resistance. it all felt too easy. he should have been more in the middle of the spectrum, for or against, or completely on one side or the other and taken a longer time to convince, rather than swinging from one end of the extreme to neutral in the span of 30 seconds. i like matteo as a character. i think his plot-related decisions were poorly written.

it was also difficult for me to find really any of the characters likeable or particularly interesting or feel sympathetic to them and their struggles. it felt almost as if the writers ran with the assumption that it would be natural to care about the characters because they're characters in the show and you "have to". as a viewer i was never able to really "build a relationship" with the characters. i didn't find linda particularly interesting. frankly i really didn't think dave was a very compelling protagonist either (but this could also be a criticism of the "chosen one" archetype). i didn't care much for ruth. i think the characters i liked the most were katie and dr. castaneda.

something with a technical aspect of the show and its sense of pacing: i thought the "x hours without sleep" endcards were. i mean. they did the job. they certainly did the job. i found them a bit lazy. is it possible for me to say both that "it was clever" and "it was lazy"? that's how i feel. after the initial sequence of dave and matteo driving to the party, it was never dark out again that i can recall. the characters weren't sleeping because they couldn't sleep. why did they never do anything at night? why did the directors (or the editor or whoever) choose the "cop-out" option over ever shooting at night? was it budgetary? was it a time constraint? regardless of the "why", it was noticeable. it felt like one endless day instead of several days on end. there was also (sorry to costuming and makeup) to me almost no visual change in the characters, or there was only sometimes a change. there was one scene where dave had deep circles under his eyes and i was like, "yeah, that's a guy who hasn't slept in a long time." other times later in the plot it was almost unnoticeable. the physical variables that could convey a passage of time (darkness, personal appearance) were missing, i thought.

perhaps they're leaving it open for a season 2, but the ending felt very "whatever" to me. like, okay, we're doing this now. sure. there's a war. okay. aristera. sure. whatever.

additionally: how did they know aristera was 1) real and 2) how to get there? there was no scene or glimpse of them looking on a map or googling (which they have to have been able to do because phones were working, unless the battery had ran out which was also not established in the text) it or anything, so how did they know? how did matteo know where to fly them? it just felt like there were a lot of things that only made sense because they had to magically make sense and not because there was an actual explanation.

to be honest i thought the acting was fine. i don't have anything glaring to comment on with the acting and also, that isn't my area of expertise anyway. i heard some people were saying the acting was too "meh", but i was talking to a friend about it and she pointed out, like, "they're supposed to be sleep deprived. the acting isn't gonna look like normal acting." there's that for your consideration as well.

so do i think it was good? sure. i'd be more likely to say i thought it was fine. do i think for a non-fan it would be a must-see? probably not. do i think it was TECHNICALLY groundbreaking, in terms of direction writing et cetera? no. it had a lot to accomplish based on the source material in not a lot of time and not a lot of budget and you can tell. they did do a good job with what they were provided in terms of resources, but it could have been better.

i was also watching charlie(as in penguinz0 moist charlie)'s review of the show (got 2.5m in before i decided to write my own first) and he brought up a point i think cannot be understated: people who aren't already fans of mark will be less forgiving of these things. i think what happened with me was that i turned off the "markiplier goggles" and saw the show objectively instead of "markiplier did this".

there were also obviously constraints like i said before that would be out of mark's control (direction at large, budget, etc.) so i feel like it's also incredibly unfair and a misrepresentation of the project as a whole to just call it markiplier's thing. i think this whole whatever that's going on with amazon and this and iron lung is unfair, because mark did not write the edge of sleep. he DID write iron lung. for that to be hanging in the balance is absurd. any writing criticism like my own that gets directed towards the edge of sleep may also be unfairly applied to iron lung before it even has legs to stand on. so just in case it wasn't crystal clear: i know iron lung will be good. i want iron lung. that doesn't mean the edge of sleep couldn't have been better.

[buggachat]

SEASON 6 ILLUSTRHATER THOUGHTS

honestly, I was expecting the animation to be more jarring for me than it actually was. It was actually really easy for me to get into and tbh just looks really nice. Adrien is the character I'll need to get used to the most, but I like his look fine, I just need to get used to it.

But like. special shoutout to nino. NINO????? NINO LOOKS. SO FUCKING CUTE. I love him so much I want to squish his face?? I'm almost unable to watch this episode in a normal way because I'm too busy staring at Nino's adorable face the whole time.

the DJWifi was so cute in this episode. theyre so sweet

in general I really like the redesigns of all the characters. I think they all look like... them. Like Nathaniel looks more like Nathaniel to me, Kagami looks more like Kagami, Sabrina looks like Sabrina and Ivan looks like Ivan. I can't describe it — they look like they've matured enough to have a better understanding of who they are. I like it.

Also, the intro sequence. If there's still any doubt about whether the show will address "marinette's lie coming back to bite her / looming over her" this season, I feel like the intro answers that pretty clearly and with a distinct tone

Another thing — the background characters look soooo much better in the new animation. Not only do they not look like terrifying low res monstrosities like they did in the old show, but they have such a wide array of distinct body types that i really appreciate. a lot of diversity in the crowds w race and disability too. and they look good. it's really refreshing.

I. LOVE. the new butterfly-telepathy sequences. the way that butterfly!lila talks to her victims in a little dreamscape where she's able to use her body language and manipulation tactics. I cannot actually emphasize how much this strangely excited me. It feels so much more emotionally impactful and interesting and dynamic and Lila than what Hawkmoth did

I know people are going to be upset about Marinette being awkward around Adrien again, but I feel like it makes a lot of sense to me. In the more general sense, it makes a lot of sense for this soft-refresh of the show that is marketing itself to a new audience to re-introduce the adrienette dynamic in a way that is just a smidge redundant to old fans. This is kind of important background on how Adrien and Marinette have always been with each other and the context of their relationship! That's important to show.

As a more in-character/universe explanation — while, yes, Adrien and Marinette started to get much more comfortable in their relationship in the old season, they never really got time to BREATHE. they were awkward and messy for the majority of their time together in s5, and then right as they started to get comfortable, Gabriel started puppeteering Adrien in a way that made things pretty tense for them, and then a whole whirlwind happened where he was sent away, and then his DAD DIED and he presumably spent a lot of the summer in mourning and— and— i dunno. I don't think it's too much of a stretch for me to believe that their relationship still feels awkward, especially when a new butterfly villain just popped up and likely reminded marinette of the whole Fiasco and threw her into mega-stress mode.

Their relationship isn't technically all that "new" like they act like it is, but this IS actually probably the first time they've been able to go on regular dates like this! So it feels new, they're still sort of in that "new" stage. Before, Gabriel was keeping Adrien away, and then Adrien probably wasn't in a good headspace for a lot of the summer after he died.

(Also, I just enjoy watching Marinette be awkward about Adrien. I definitely prefer them re-treading some old ground to new audiences than for their relationship to feel too jarringly different than how we've seen them interact in the past. I wouldn't want the time skip to be used as too much of a crutch, especially when I expect that Adrien spent a lot of it in mourning)

But anyway, they're still kissing in the season intro, and this is only episode TWO of the season, so I'm excited to see them gradually get more lovey dovey as the season goes on. (Or for Marinette's stress and guilt to overwhelm her! Who knows! I'm down!)

Oh also, Ladybug looks SO GOOD. she is so shiny and pretty and I love the red in her hair and i love her and I love ladynoir talking about their relationships and and and. and. i love them. thanks for coming to my ted talk

[fipindustries]

I think one thing that is so interesting about the penguin show is how it inadvertedly reinforces a theme that we see in the batman movie. Which is that batman is a fucking weirdo.

The movie makes clear time and again how people think batman is a freak and the camera constantly frames him as a creepy guy that is just out of place. Why is this adult walking around dressed like a bat all over crime scenes?

So then the penguin show comes in and we get 8 hours of gritty, realistic, grimy, down to earth criminal violence. Is all so grounded and dirty. The stakes are so realistic, the human drama so immediate and visceral. It feels like batman cannot be part of this world. If the batman were to show up at any point in this story it would feel as out of place as the batman showing up in the wire.

But it also emphasizes how much of an out of context threat the batman is for criminals, how much of a nuclear bomb he is on the criminal proceedings of the city because the fact remains that he could show up at any minute. That is just how he operates, while sofia and salvatore and oz are all running around trying to put their ducks in a row batman could have at any moment burst out from the fucking ceiling, beat the shit out of everyone and ruin everyones month.

Oswald and sofia have to plan so much to try and outsmart each other, they are constantly having to maneuver and pull whatever threads of influence they have. They desperatly improvise and play these elaborate games of chess around each other and their families and the city to get a single inch.

They pay so much attention to what muscle they have, and their money and their conections and their reputation. At any given moment how many people you have around you and their guns and your money are vital to keep track of. The batman doesnt care about any of that. No matter how many goons you hire or how feared you are on the streets, the batman can just come and brute force his way through all of it and leave them upside down tied to a light pole.

With all this in mind going through this show felt like a kind of tragedy, not because of the moral putrefaction of the main character, because ultimatly when you watch a show about the penguin you expect that. It felt like a tragedy because i knew that no matter how hard oz tries, and no matter how clever his plans get, and no matter if he wins in the end and he defeats his enemies and triumphes in conquering the city... the batman is waiting for him at the end of this all. It will all prove to be completly futile, because the fate of the penguin is to get his shit pushed in by the batman.

And i say tragedy, because that is what it felt like as i watched the show. But when i reached the end... well lets just say by the time i reached the end i was begging for the batman to come in, my one biggest consolation from watching this human wasteland of a show is that oswald cobb wont get to enjoy this for long because batman will come as the righteous hero as well as the only force in this city capable of stopping him, and will have him taste the mean end of a batarang.

Truly this show did for the penguin what heath ledger did for the joker

[lavnderwonu]

book lovers | wen junhui

pairing: bookish!jun x bookish!fem!reader

genre: college au, strangers to lovers, fluff, smut

rating: mature

summary: working at your campus library and attending classes gets kinda lonely, until someone comes along and changes that.

warnings: contains smut (!!!), meet-cute, jun is tooth rottenly sweet (yes! that’s a warning!), semi public sex (in a library), unprotected sex, kinda sorta a quickie(?) idk its sorta rushed, bigdick! jun, size kink, oral sex (f. receiving), multiple orgasms.

mini playlist 🎵: into you by ariana grande, little bit by lykke li, feel you by okayceci

word count: 2.3k

author’s note!: AHHHH this was so much fun to write. i literally spent so much time daydreaming about this whole plot & the characters. im a little women enthusiast & a classic book lover, i know im a nerd! also i will always always find an excuse to write fluff. i just love love love writing cute shit! im sort of a sucker for it. THIS WAS IN MY DRAFTS FOR SO LONG TOO LMAO but as always, i appreciate any feedback, & i hope you enjoy! 🩷

click here to join my taglist!

“So… you’re assignment is to read the passage, then write a minimum 3 page essay whether you agree or disagree with the author’s viewpoint.”

Your professor gestures to the board behind him, emphasizing how important it is to acknowledge.

“Due by Monday, I won’t be giving any extensions. Class dismissed.”

“Y/n.” Your friend nudges you, as you currently have your face buried in your book, totally ignoring the lecture. “C’mon, class is over… did you even hear what the assignment was?”

You shut your book, Little Women, a book you’ve read numerous times but you never got sick of. It was a million times more appealing than hearing your literature professor ramble during a lecture.

“Yeah… some three page essay.” You remark, tossing the book in your bag. “I gotta hurry, I have a shift at the library for a few hours. Text me the assignment, okay?”

She nods. “Yeah, of course. I’ll see you later.”

You quickly grab your binder & notebook and walk out of class, headed for the library.

You’re about halfway there, until someone passing by bumps your shoulder, knocking your things to the ground.

Crouching down to pick them up, you hear somebody shouting sorry! in the distance as you mumble under your breath, “Doesn’t anybody watch where they’re going? Jesus…”

You’re gathering up some papers that fell out of your binder, until you spot an extra set of hands suddenly helping you, and a voice saying, “Let me help you with that.”

You look up, eyes locking with a tall, cute brown-haired boy, whom was now handing you your papers and notebook.

“Sorry, I couldn’t just walk by and not help. People can be so rude.” He smiles sweetly, handing over your papers he picked up. “I’m Jun, I’m in your literature class.”

“Y/n, and thanks, it’s what I get for not paying attention in lecture I guess.” You joke, finishing putting your stuff away as you both stand.

“How is Little Women?” Jun asks.

“I’ve read it before, it’s one of my favorite— wait how did you know that’s what i was reading?”

He laughs. “I saw you reading it in class, you have an incredible attention span. Quite impressive actually.”

“Last week, you read Jane Eyre, and during lecture Soonyoung came in late and the professor got mad, then they both got into this whole big argument, but you didn’t look up once, just kept reading. I’ve been watching you.

“Watching me?” You must have a confused, creeped out look on your face, cause the way he responds next makes you laugh.

“No, No, I don’t mean that in a creepy way like I’m watching you, I just mean that I noticed you, that’s all.”

You couldn’t help but blush, avoiding his gaze for a moment.

A cute boy like him noticed you?

“Laurie proposes to Jo and she says no, even though she’s still in love with him!” You exclaim, explaining your favorite book to Jun, as he holds it in his hands. “I cannot believe you never read it before.”

He shrugs, “I don’t read all that much.”

“We’ll, I think you’ll love it. The story is very enjoyable, and it’s not hard to read, which is surprising since it was written so long ago.” You continue.

“…Would your love for this book have anything to do with the fact that in both movies Laurie was played by Christian Bale, and Timothee Chalamet?”

“No,” You fail at attempting to hide your grin. “But it’s an added bonus. Christian Bale is a very underrated Laurie in my opinion, by the way.”

“Okay, I’ll read it,” Jun gives in, examining the book thoroughly and thumbing through it. “When do you need it back?”

“Whenever,” You say. “I don’t need it back by any certain time so you can take your time with it, and really enjoy it.”

“Oh, I know I will.” Jun smiles.

“Make sure you put these all away before you close up tonight,” Your library coworker tells you, as she gets ready to leave for the night. “Apparently the boss said she wants them out on display up front for tomorrow.”

“Okay, I’ll do it right now, before I forget,” You reply, retrieving the small stack from the counter. “I have to run those returns upstairs to reshelve.” 

You walk over to the front table just as you hear the door open. 

“We close in thirty- oh! It’s you.” Your coworker says, making you turn around to see who it was. 

It was Jun. “Y/n! Your boyfriend is here.” 

You smile at him as he walks over to you, “What are you doing here?” 

“I wanted to see if you wanted to do something tonight, maybe dinner… a movie?” He says, as he now towers over you & kisses your forehead. “You’re already dressed cute,” he makes note of your outfit. “I like that skirt.”

“I’m working right now…” You sigh.

“That’s okay, I can wait. I only have…” Jun checks his watch. “Oh, twenty five minutes now.” 

“Whatever,” You smile as you chuckle at him. “Just go sit at the desk, don’t mess up anything.” 

“Oh, before I forget, I brought your book back.” Jun starts as he sits down, reaching into his book bag. 

“There’s no way you already finished it. I gave it to you yesterday.” 

“I just wanted to leave you some notes in the margins for you.” Jun says, handing the book over to you.

You flip through the book, seeing how it’s littered with sticky notes and tabs, marking the different pages.

“You’ve read this before…” You glance over the notes written on a page. 

“A few times.” He smiles as your eyes meet his.

“I thought you didn’t read much?” 

“What is much…?” 

You lean in closer to him, kissing him. “You’re unbelievable.” You smile.

“You liked it? I was wondering if you’d be mad if I nearly defaced your book.” He says, with a chuckle.

“No, no, I couldn’t be mad,” You smile, playfully running your fingers through his hair. “Besides you didn’t actually write in it, if you did, that might be a different story.”

You kiss him one more time, “Well I have some stuff to finish really quick, wait here?” 

“Yeah, yeah, that’s fine. I’m sure I can find something to keep me entertained for a few.” Jun remarks, picking up a book that was in the return stack on the counter.

You finish up the rest of your display, and the returns you had to put away (…even unfortunately stealing the book that Jun was occupying). Your coworker had left for the night and it was time to close up.

“Okay, that’s it for the night.” You announce to Jun, starting to gather up your things. 

“All done?” 

“Yeah, I think that’s- shit!” You realize you still had stuff to put away upstairs. “I forgot to put these ones upstairs.” You grab the few books.

“Come with me?” 

“You won’t be okay by yourself?” He asks, obviously joking with you.

“Cmon, it’s eerie when it’s so quiet, just cmon.” You grab his hand and nearly pull him to the elevator. 

“These few go over here,” You lead him over to the fiction section. “And these go… over here…” You start walking to the next aisle over.

You reach up to attempt to place the last book on the highest shelf, but you’re just a little too short.

“Can you help me?” You laugh, turning to the 6 foot man standing close to you. “I’m too short for this.”

Jun laughs with you, grabbing the book from you. “Where’s it go?” 

“Right next to that one, with the red cover.” 

He places it on the shelf, “Is that the only one?”

“Yeah, that’s all of them.” 

Jun moves to stand in front of you, conveniently trapping you between him and the bookshelf behind you. You mentally thank whoever designed the floor plan in the library to make the aisles so small.

He moves closer to you, nearly pressing himself against you, so close you can smell the cologne he has on.

“You know I can’t help but realize… we’re all alone here.” 

“Yeah… I know, it’s almost-“ You start, as you're cut off with him kissing you.

You moan against his lips as his hands slide up your cardigan sweater, and he trails kisses down your neck.

“Jun…” You moan, fingers tangling in his hair.

“Is this okay?” He whispers, kissing your lips again.

“Yes, very much.” You whisper, his face still close to yours. “But we can’t do this here…”

“Why not? There’s nobody here…” Jun whispers, as he kisses your neck a few times.

“The cameras, there’s cameras around here..” You say, then you grab his hand. “Cmon, in here.” You lead him down the hall down to one of the study rooms. 

You enter the dimly lit room, and shut the door behind you, but not before realizing how secluded and somehow intimate these rooms somehow are. Okay… mentally noted.

You sit on the table as Jun slots himself between your thighs, he’s kissing on your neck as he’s pulling your sweater off your body. He pauses to pull his sweater and t-shirt off of himself. 

Jun kisses your lips again, more fervently this time, as you’ve both become more eager.

“Lay back for me.” Jun whispers against your lips.

You kiss him again, tangling your fingers in his long hair as you lean back on the table, and you try not to giggle as his lips trail from your chest, and down your stomach, tickling you a little.

“God, you’re so pretty…” He mumbles into your skin, in between kisses.

You smile as you run your fingers through his hair once more, and you feel Jun’s hands side up your thighs underneath your skirt.

“Can I take these off?” Jun asks, eyes meeting yours as his fingers tug on the waistband of your underwear.

“Yeah…” you speak, lifting your hips to give him better access. You start to take your skirt off, but he stops you. 

“No… leave it on.” Oh. You can feel your face get hot.

After many times being in these study rooms, you couldn’t ever imagine that you’d ever be in here… like this, with a gorgeous boy as he’s taking off your clothes, yet here you are.

“Jun…” You sigh, as his hands are pulling you to the edge of the table, and pushing your thighs apart.

“This okay?” He questions, as he’s putting your legs over his shoulders.

“Yeah…” You breathe, nodding, as your hands find the edge of the table to grip it with anticipation. Afterall, you can’t see him with your skirt in the way… hmm, suppose it's all part of his plan.

“God, you're so wet and all I did was kiss you…” Jun says lowly, kissing your thigh gently as his breath fans over your core. 

You don’t even have a chance to respond before he’s bringing his thumb to your clit, circling it slowly a few times, making your breath hitch at the contact.

“Jun, please…” You whine, aching for more.

“Alright baby…” He all but mumbles back to you, and you feel his tongue slide over your clit, and you throw your head back at the feeling.

“Fuck…” Your brows furrow as your eyes flutter shut, focusing on the feeling. He groans against your clit as he slides two fingers inside you, making you arch your back and practically grind your hips down on his hand.

“Shit, baby…” You whine, as his fingers effortlessly reach your sweet spot repeatedly. “Right there… I’m gonna fucking come…” 

“Go on baby,” Jun pulls back, kissing your thigh a few times, all while his fingers don’t let up “C’mon…”

You practically cry his name, as you feel the orgasm rush over you, leaving your chest heaving as you catch your breath. 

“Are you ready, baby?” Jun whispers to you, as you hear rustling and the clink of a belt buckle as he’s undoing his jeans. 

“Yeah…” You whisper, finally catching your breath, but your breath hitches in your throat as he’s suddenly dragging the tip of his cock through your wet folds, the tip bumping your sensitive clit as you’re hinted at the mere size of him.

He slowly sinks into you, the stretch making your nails dig into his biceps. 

“Fuck…” Jun curses as he hovering over you, kissing your neck as he bottoms out, his thrusts shallow so you can get used to him.

“Jun… shit,” You moan, your fingers threading through his hair. “You’re too big.”

“You can take me.” His lips softly graze your collarbone, just as his hand trails lower and lower, until his fingers find your clit.

You whine his name, suddenly your senses are overwhelmed with the feeling of the pressure on your clit and his cock inside you, hitting spots so deep it almost has you seeing stars.

A particularly hard thrust nearly pushes you further up the table, making you nearly cry as you’re already on the edge.

“Shit, I’m already gonna come…” You cry, arching your back as you already feel the familiar tingle spreading through you, making your toes curl.

“C’mon…” Jun grunts, as his fingers find your clit again, and it feels divine with the way he’s pounding into you. “Come for me… give me one more…”

Your legs shake as you come with a loud cry of his name, he keeps going until he’s coming too, slowly rolling his hips to fuck you through your high.

You both say nothing for a few, catching your breath, until you fully register what you just did.

“Oh my god…” You say as you’re getting dressed. “I cannot believe we just did that…” You cover your face as you blush, but also can’t help but laugh.

Afterall, who would've thought?

“Why are you laughing?” Jun notices you trying to hide the fact that you’re blushing, pulling your hand away. “You didn’t like it?” He already knows the answer. 

“Yeah… but I never thought I’d do that, you know… here.” You smile right before you kiss him. 

“But that doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t do it again…”

tags: @chiefjunlover @cosmojinyoung @wonuwrites @aaniag @jenoslutie

[eyrieofsynapses]

why Aurora's art is genius

It's break for me, and I've been meaning to sit down and read the Aurora webcomic (https://comicaurora.com/, @comicaurora on Tumblr) for quite a bit. So I did that over the last few days.

And… y'know. I can't actually say "I should've read this earlier," because otherwise I would've been up at 2:30-3am when I had responsibilities in the morning and I couldn't have properly enjoyed it, but. Holy shit guys THIS COMIC.

I intended to just do a generalized "hello this is all the things I love about this story," and I wrote a paragraph or two about art style. …and then another. And another. And I realized I needed to actually reference things so I would stop being too vague. I was reading the comic on my tablet or phone, because I wanted to stay curled up in my chair, but I type at a big monitor and so I saw more details… aaaaaand it turned into its own giant-ass post.

SO. Enjoy a few thousand words of me nerding out about this insanely cool art style and how fucking gorgeous this comic is? (There are screenshots, I promise it isn't just a wall of text.) In my defense, I just spent two semesters in graphic design classes focusing on the Adobe Suite, so… I get to be a nerd about pretty things…???

All positive feedback btw! No downers here. <3

---

I cannot emphasize enough how much I love the beautiful, simple stylistic method of drawing characters and figures. It is absolutely stunning and effortless and utterly graceful—it is so hard to capture the sheer beauty and fluidity of the human form in such a fashion. Even a simple outline of a character feels dynamic! It's gorgeous!

Though I do have a love-hate relationship with this, because my artistic side looks at that lovely simplicity, goes "I CAN DO THAT!" and then I sit down and go to the paper and realize that no, in fact, I cannot do that yet, because that simplicity is born of a hell of a lot of practice and understanding of bodies and actually is really hard to do. It's a very developed style that only looks simple because the artist knows what they're doing. The human body is hard to pull off, and this comic does so beautifully and makes it look effortless.

Also: line weight line weight line weight. It's especially important in simplified shapes and figures like this, and hoo boy is it used excellently. It's especially apparent the newer the pages get—I love watching that improvement over time—but with simpler figures and lines, you get nice light lines to emphasize both smaller details, like in the draping of clothing and the curls of hair—which, hello, yes—and thicker lines to emphasize bigger and more important details and silhouettes. It's the sort of thing that's essential to most illustrations, but I wanted to make a note of it because it's so vital to this art style.

THE USE OF LAYER BLENDING MODES OH MY GODS. (...uhhh, apologies to the people who don't know what that means, it's a digital art program thing? This article explains it for beginners.)

Bear with me, I just finished my second Photoshop course, I spent months and months working on projects with this shit so I see the genius use of Screen and/or its siblings (of which there are many—if I say "Screen" here, assume I mean the entire umbrella of Screen blending modes and possibly Overlay) and go nuts, but seriously it's so clever and also fucking gorgeous:

Firstly: the use of screened-on sound effect words over an action? A "CRACK" written over a branch and then put on Screen in glowy green so that it's subtle enough that it doesn't disrupt the visual flow, but still sticks out enough to make itself heard? Little "scritches" that are transparent where they're laid on without outlines to emphasize the sound without disrupting the underlying image? FUCK YES. I haven't seen this done literally anywhere else—granted, I haven't read a massive amount of comics, but I've read enough—and it is so clever and I adore it. Examples:

Secondly: The beautiful lighting effects. The curling leaves, all the magic, the various glowing eyes, the fog, the way it's all so vividly colored but doesn't burn your eyeballs out—a balance that's way harder to achieve than you'd think—and the soft glows around them, eeeee it's so pretty so pretty SO PRETTY. Not sure if some of these are Outer/Inner Glow/Shadow layer effects or if it's entirely hand-drawn, but major kudos either way; I can see the beautiful use of blending modes and I SALUTE YOUR GENIUS.

I keep looking at some of this stuff and go "is that a layer effect or is it done by hand?" Because you can make some similar things with the Satin layer effect in Photoshop (I don't know if other programs have this? I'm gonna have to find out since I won't have access to PS for much longer ;-;) that resembles some of the swirly inner bits on some of the lit effects, but I'm not sure if it is that or not. Or you could mask over textures? There's... many ways to do it.

If done by hand: oh my gods the patience, how. If done with layer effects: really clever work that knows how to stop said effects from looking wonky, because ugh those things get temperamental. If done with a layer of texture that's been masked over: very, very good masking work. No matter the method, pretty shimmers and swirly bits inside the bigger pretty swirls!

Next: The way color contrast is used! I will never be over the glowy green-on-black Primordial Life vibes when Alinua gets dropped into that… unconscious space?? with Life, for example, and the sharp contrast of vines and crack and branches and leaves against pitch black is just visually stunning. The way the roots sink into the ground and the three-dimensional sensation of it is particularly badass here:

Friggin. How does this imply depth like that. HOW. IT'S SO FREAKING COOL.

A huge point here is also color language and use! Everybody has their own particular shade, generally matching their eyes, magic, and personality, and I adore how this is used to make it clear who's talking or who's doing an action. That was especially apparent to me with Dainix and Falst in the caves—their colors are both fairly warm, but quite distinct, and I love how this clarifies who's doing what in panels with a lot of action from both of them. There is a particular bit that stuck out to me, so I dug up the panels (see this page and the following one https://comicaurora.com/aurora/1-20-30/):

(Gods it looks even prettier now that I put it against a plain background. Also, appreciation to Falst for managing a bridal-carry midair, damn.)

The way that their colors MERGE here! And the immense attention to detail in doing so—Dainix is higher up than Falst is in the first panel, so Dainix's orange fades into Falst's orange at the base. The next panel has gold up top and orange on bottom; we can't really tell in that panel where each of them are, but that's carried over to the next panel—

—where we now see that Falst's position is raised above Dainix's due to the way he's carrying him. (Points for continuity!) And, of course, we see the little "huffs" flowing from orange to yellow over their heads (where Dainix's head is higher than Falst's) to merge the sound of their breathing, which is absurdly clever because it emphasizes to the viewer how we hear two sets of huffing overlaying each other, not one. Absolutely brilliant.

(A few other notes of appreciation to that panel: beautiful glows around them, the sparks, the jagged silhouette of the spider legs, the lovely colors that have no right to make the area around a spider corpse that pretty, the excellent texturing on the cave walls plus perspective, the way Falst's movements imply Dainix's hefty weight, the natural posing of the characters, their on-point expressions that convey exactly how fuckin terrifying everything is right now, the slight glows to their eyes, and also they're just handsome boys <3)

Next up: Rain!!!! So well done! It's subtle enough that it never ever disrupts the impact of the focal point, but evident enough you can tell! And more importantly: THE MIST OFF THE CHARACTERS. Rain does this irl, it has that little vapor that comes off you and makes that little misty effect that plays with lighting, it's so cool-looking and here it's used to such pretty effect!

One of the panel captions says something about it blurring out all the injuries on the characters but like THAT AIN'T TOO BIG OF A PROBLEM when it gets across the environmental vibes, and also that'd be how it would look in real life too so like… outside viewer's angle is the same as the characters', mostly? my point is: that's the environment!!! that's the vibes, that's the feel! It gets it across and it does so in the most pretty way possible!

And another thing re: rain, the use of it to establish perspective, particularly in panels like this—

—where we can tell we're looking down at Tynan due to the perspective on the rain and where it's pointing. Excellent. (Also, kudos for looking down and emphasizing how Tynan's losing his advantage—lovely use of visual storytelling.)

Additionally, the misting here:

We see it most heavily in the leftmost panel, where it's quite foggy as you would expect in a rainstorm, especially in an environment with a lot of heat, but it's also lightly powdered on in the following two panels and tends to follow light sources, which makes complete sense given how light bounces off particles in the air.

A major point of strength in these too is a thorough understanding of lighting, like rim lighting, the various hues and shades, and an intricate understanding of how light bounces off surfaces even when they're in shadow (we'll see a faint glow in spots where characters are half in shadow, but that's how it would work in real life, because of how light bounces around).

Bringing some of these points together: the fluidity of the lines in magic, and the way simple glowing lines are used to emphasize motion and the magic itself, is deeply clever. I'm basically pulling at random from panels and there's definitely even better examples, but here's one (see this page https://comicaurora.com/aurora/1-16-33/):

First panel, listed in numbers because these build on each other:

The tension of the lines in Tess's magic here. This works on a couple levels: first, the way she's holding her fists, as if she's pulling a rope taut.

The way there's one primary line, emphasizing the rope feeling, accompanied by smaller ones.

The additional lines starbursting around her hands, to indicate the energy crackling in her hands and how she's doing a good bit more than just holding it. (That combined with the fists suggests some tension to the magic, too.) Also the variations in brightness, a feature you'll find in actual lightning. :D Additional kudos for how the lightning sparks and breaks off the metal of the sword.

A handful of miscellaneous notes on the second panel:

The reflection of the flames in Erin's typically dark blue eyes (which bears a remarkable resemblance to Dainix, incidentally—almost a thematic sort of parallel given Erin's using the same magic Dainix specializes in?)

The flowing of fabric in the wind and associated variation in the lineart

The way Erin's tattoos interact with the fire he's pulling to his hand

The way the rain overlays some of the fainter areas of fire (attention! to! detail! hell yeah!)

I could go on. I won't because this is a lot of writing already.

Third panel gets paragraphs, not bullets:

Erin's giant-ass "FWOOM" of fire there, and the way the outline of the word is puffy-edged and gradated to feel almost three-dimensional, plus once again using Screen or a variation on it so that the stars show up in the background. All this against that stunning plume of fire, which ripples and sparks so gorgeously, and the ending "om" of the onomatopoeia is emphasized incredibly brightly against that, adding to the punch of it and making the plume feel even brighter.

Also, once again, rain helping establish perspective, especially in how it's very angular in the left side of the panel and then slowly becomes more like a point to the right to indicate it's falling directly down on the viewer. Add in the bright, beautiful glow effects, fainter but no less important black lines beneath them to emphasize the sky and smoke and the like, and the stunningly beautiful lighting and gradated glows surrounding Erin plus the lightning jagging up at him from below, and you get one hell of an impactful panel right there. (And there is definitely more in there I could break down, this is just a lot already.)

And in general: The colors in this? Incredible. The blues and purples and oranges and golds compliment so well, and it's all so rich.

Like, seriously, just throughout the whole comic, the use of gradients, blending modes, color balance and hues, all the things, all the things, it makes for the most beautiful effects and glows and such a rich environment. There's a very distinct style to this comic in its simplified backgrounds (which I recognize are done partly because it's way easier and also backgrounds are so time-consuming dear gods but lemme say this) and vivid, smoothly drawn characters; the simplicity lets them come to the front and gives room for those beautiful, richly saturated focal points, letting the stylized designs of the magic and characters shine. The use of distinct silhouettes is insanely good. Honestly, complex backgrounds might run the risk of making everything too visually busy in this case. It's just, augh, so GORGEOUS.

Another bit, take a look at this page (https://comicaurora.com/aurora/1-15-28/):

It's not quite as evident here as it is in the next page, but this one does some other fun things so I'm grabbing it. Points:

Once again, using different colors to represent different character actions. The "WHAM" of Kendal hitting the ground is caused by Dainix's force, so it's orange (and kudos for doubling the word over to add a shake effect). But we see blue layered underneath, which could be an environmental choice, but might also be because it's Kendal, whose color is blue.

And speaking off, take a look at the right-most panel on top, where Kendal grabs the spear: his motion is, again, illustrated in bright blue, versus the atmospheric screened-on orange lines that point toward him around the whole panel (I'm sure these have a name, I think they might be more of a manga thing though and the only experience I have in manga is reading a bit of Fullmetal Alchemist). Those lines emphasize the weight of the spear being shoved at him, and their color tells us Dainix is responsible for it.

One of my all-time favorite effects in this comic is the way cracks manifest across Dainix's body to represent when he starts to lose control; it is utterly gorgeous and wonderfully thematic. These are more evident in the page before and after this one, but you get a decent idea here. I love the way they glow softly, the way the fire juuuust flickers through at the start and then becomes more evident over time, and the cracks feel so realistic, like his skin is made of pottery. Additional points for how fire begins to creep into his hair.

A small detail that's generally consistent across the comic, but which I want to make note of here because you can see it pretty well: Kendal's eyes glow about the same as the jewel in his sword, mirroring his connection to said sword and calling back to how the jewel became Vash's eye temporarily and thus was once Kendal's eye. You can always see this connection (though there might be some spots where this also changes in a symbolic manner; I went through it quickly on the first time around, so I'll pay more attention when I inevitably reread this), where Kendal's always got that little shine of blue in his eyes the same as the jewel. It's a beautiful visual parallel that encourages the reader to subconsciously link them together, especially since the lines used to illustrate character movements typically mirror their eye color. It's an extension of Kendal.

Did I mention how ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL the colors in this are?

Also, the mythological/legend-type scenes are illustrated in familiar style often used for that type of story, a simple and heavily symbolic two-dimensional cave-painting-like look. They are absolutely beautiful on many levels, employing simple, lovely gradients, slightly rougher and thicker lineart that is nonetheless smoothly beautiful, and working with clear silhouettes (a major strength of this art style, but also a strength in the comic overall). But in particular, I wanted to call attention to a particular thing (see this page https://comicaurora.com/aurora/1-12-4/):

The flowing symbolic lineart surrounding each character. This is actually quite consistent across characters—see also Life's typical lines and how they curl:

What's particularly interesting here is how these symbols are often similar, but not the same. Vash's lines are always smooth, clean curls, often playing off each other and echoing one another like ripples in a pond. You'd think they'd look too similar to Life's—but they don't. Life's curl like vines, and they remain connected; where one curve might echo another but exist entirely detached from each other in Vash's, Life's lines still remain wound together, because vines are continuous and don't float around. :P

Tahraim's are less continuous, often breaking up with significantly smaller bits and pieces floating around like—of course—sparks, and come to sharper points. These are also constants: we see the vines repeated over and over in Alinua's dreams of Life, and the echoing ripples of Vash are consistent wherever we encounter him. Kendal's dream of the ghost citizens of the city of Vash in the last few chapters is filled with these rippling, echoing patterns, to beautiful effect (https://comicaurora.com/aurora/1-20-14/):

They ripple and spiral, often in long, sinuous curves, with smooth elegance. It reminds me a great deal of images of space and sine waves and the like. This establishes a definite feel to these different characters and their magic. And the thing is, that's not something that had to be done—the colors are good at emphasizing who's who. But it was done, and it adds a whole other dimension to the story. Whenever you're in a deity's domain, you know whose it is no matter the color.

Regarding that shape language, I wanted to make another note, too—Vash is sometimes described as chaotic and doing what he likes, which is interesting to me, because smooth, elegant curves and the color blue aren't generally associated with chaos. So while Vash might behave like that on the surface, I'm guessing he's got a lot more going on underneath; he's probably much more intentional in his actions than you'd think at a glance, and he is certainly quite caring with his city. The other thing is that this suits Kendal perfectly. He's a paragon character; he is kind, virtuous, and self-sacrificing, and often we see him aiming to calm others and keep them safe. Blue is such a good color for him. There is… probably more to this, but I'm not deep enough in yet to say.

And here's the thing: I'm only scratching the surface. There is so much more here I'm not covering (color palettes! outfits! character design! environment! the deities! so much more!) and a lot more I can't cover, because I don't have the experience; this is me as a hobbyist artist who happened to take a couple design classes because I wanted to. The art style to this comic is so clever and creative and beautiful, though, I just had to go off about it. <3

...brownie points for getting all the way down here? Have a cookie.

[quijotine]

OK OK I FINISHED BINGING THE ENTIRETY OF NATLA AND I GOTTA SAY IT WAS A GREAT ADAPTATION!!!

Here are my thoughts so far:

The parts where I still had my reservations for the first half were definitely addressed in the second. There were more Kataang beats, especially in the last three episodes.

Please that whole part before the zutara showdown where Aang goes like "go easy, enough ppl have suffered" and zuko is more or less like "lol it's cute u think i'd hold back" and then aang has this proud little smirk like "oh i wasn’t talking to you"😏 Also his proud little smirk when Katara is fighting Pakku PLEASE HE IS GOING TO BE THE PROUDEST BF

They covered the most important points and had a decent few scenes of fan service, loved that.

However, the adaptation is not perfect and there are definitely parts that were lacking, at least to me. Primarily, I think they did our girl Katara a little dirty not emphasizing as much on her arc as opposed to Sokka's, for example, and also the way her ascension to master was pretty telly instead of showy

There was definitely something to love in every episode, but I think the weakest ones have to be Omashu and Spirited Away.

My ABSOULUTE FAVORITE episodes were Into the Dark and Masks. Dallas, Paul, and Gordon did SUCH a great job in them. I cannot WAIT for the proper leaves from the vine scene and also to have more of zuko interacting with aang.

ZUKO IS BABY BOY AND DOES NOT KNOW ANYTHING NOT EVEN ABCs 🥺🥺🥺

My favorite was Zuko by far, yes. I think the performance and the was he was written struck the best balance of that goofiness and tragedy atla is originally known for. That’s not to say the other kids didn't do a good job, but Dallas' Zuko was by far the best imo

I understand now what the showrunners meant by making the show more mature and serious. I cannot say I didn't like it, but I can see it being an acquired taste especially for the part of the fandom that is more purist/demanding. I like that the focus emphasized more on the consequences of war and that it reflected on the cycles of violence and hurt, what they do to a person and how the wounds pass down generationally. I think this emphasis on war, compassion, kindness, all those things are definitely an important message in this time and day. However, it is a little too serious for my taste, PRECISELY because of the times we are living in. Back when the OG came about the world was in a time of relative peace. But now we get pictures of carnage and genocide mixed in with videos of cute puppies, so it's definitely a different place. It was much easier to understand the gravity of the genocidal/bombing scenes imo, almost to a point that they seemed watered down/kid friendly compared to the real thing that we see on our phones everyday. Because of that, I think erring more on the comedy, the balance between what it ACTUALLY means to be hopeful and not just talking about it, is the one thing the show could improve upon for next seasons.

All in all I am VERY pleased with the adaptation. There were moments where I definitely bawled my eyes out, shouted, and laughed the same way I did the first time I watched the show. All I can say is, for those still on the fence about watching it, so long as you go in with an open mind and with the explicit objective of enjoying yourself, it will be a fun watch.

[mcytegg]

another thing that kills me abt the conversation team awesome had after ro had made the decision to leave s4 behind was how at the start of the convo, it was all three of them talking face to face w mapicc, ro, and zam all stood together but as things progressed— the gap between ro and mapicc & zam became so large that there is both a metaphorical and literal chasm between them as they are saying their final pieces, and ro is saying her goodbyes. things ended w ro looking upon mapicc and zam amidst the chaos of their own creation and turning away from it all (turning away from them) and w them watching her go from a distance.

and like. tbh. idk if ro has said otherwise so ill take it back if she has but i just dont,,, have a reason to believe that she would have ever Not left, yk? even if she didnt have her own plans, if she Had wanted to join the team genuinely, if she wasnt massively distrusted— i dont think s4 ro ever wouldve ever been happy to destroy a world she had spent the entire season trying to preserve. even if it was w mapicc and zam, for as much as she loved them, she hated their destructiveness until the very end

i think After this ro definitely changed— if her helping end the server in s5 is indicative of anything, but like even during s5 itself she didnt LIKE the destructiveness. she never once turned her back on mapicc no matter what he said or did until he gave her a real reason to by (and the other abyss people) starting to destroy the server once again, and killing ro nd the one teammate of hers on lalas that she Actually cared abt

like even when she joined the players and agreed to help destroy things, the destruction was pitched to her by zam and mapicc as going back to what once was w the destruction just being a means to get there bc ro herself isnt someone who enjoys destruction for the sake of destruction— she'll fw almost Anything as long as it has meaning she can understand, and they made sure to give her smt she'd understand bc they know this abt her

which like . :')))) i cannot emphasize enough how much it Kills me that when given a choice on who they could end the world w, ro was the one zam & mapicc chose. they chose her and refused to go back on either killing everyone else or dying together in their efforts no matter how difficult and shitty things got. devotions were able to trust ro and had the choice to keep her by their side this time around, and ro was finally able to accept the inevitability of change and valued the sense of belonging she feels w her friends over the server, her own morals, and just,, everything bc none of it has any meaning if she isnt w the people who give things meaning to her

sorry i feel like this doesnt rly make sense but i wanted to yap abt team awesome bc they actually mean so very much to me. their relationship was permanently changed bc of s4 and now all 3 of them have this weird bond/attachment that transcends seasons & teams

[writerblue275]

Mask of the Black Rose! Ezreal One-Shot

Inspiration: I’m fucking feral at this splash art oh my fucking god. I love formal attire on people. (Oh my god those are thigh high boots on him.) Also damn, Jarro Darkfeather confirmed? Lmaooo. (I cannot think of a title for this my brain is mush I’m so sorry.)

Champion: Ezreal (tying this into my FWB!Ezreal fic general universe because I can. But like it can be read on its own.)

Genre: One-shot

Type: Mostly fluff. A teeny bit of angst to start things off but it gets fluffier. And a little suggestive at the end.

Gender: Gender Neutral reader.

TW: SPOILERS for ARCANE S2 plot points (you have been warned!!!!). Slight angst (in form of worry for the well-being of a partner). Slightly suggestive at the end. Swearing.

“Ezreal, you what??” Your voice peaked with shock and you gaped at your now sheepish-looking boyfriend.

“Shhhh! Baby! Baby, I promise I was fine. I’m here now, right? Nothing to worry about!” He gestured to himself with his hands to emphasize his point.

You breath left you in a incredulous laugh. “Ezreal Lymere, what do you mean ‘nothing to worry about?’ You were dealing with the fucking Black Rose of Noxus?? You went to a Black Rose Masquerade?! They know about you? They know you’re Jarro Lightfeather?” You couldn’t help as a touch of panic entered your voice.

Ezreal realized he needed to shift things. He gave you a small pout. “Hey…come on…you know me…Are my talents not worth the recognition?”

You hummed and pouted back, but Ezreal could see you relax a little. “You know that’s not what I meant, baby. You do deserve recognition. But the Black Rose…” You stepped closer to him and hugged him tightly. “I know you can take care of yourself. As you said, you’re here now. But Ez, the Black Rose is so dangerous. You heard how easily they were able to infiltrate Piltovan society during Ambessa Medarda’s attempted takeover. And they weren’t even on her side. What do they want with you?”

Ez wrapped his arms around you and kissed your forehead softly, reassuring you he truly was there. “They didn’t say anything specific. So I guess it really was just an introduction to each other. I don’t mean to worry you, Angel, I promise that’s not my goal. They just made their interest in me clear throughout my time in Noxus, and it didn’t seem like the smartest move to ignore them when I got the invite to the Silken Danse. I do know they’re dangerous. That’s why I didn’t want to blow them off.”

You sighed and nodded, resting your head on his shoulder. “I suppose that makes sense. But the Silken Danse,” you murmured. “What an interesting name for a party. Did you at least have fun?” You looked up at him curiously.

Ez grinned down at you. “We thought the Piltovan society parties were stuffy…oh man you havn’t seen anything like a Noxian masquerade.”

“So is that a no?” You giggled.

“Well I for sure would have enjoyed it more if you were there. You make any event a million more times fun and enjoyable.” His grin morphed into a playful smirk.

You gently pushed his chest and laughed. “You’re such a charmer, oh Prodigal explorer. Now answer my question.”

“It was…interesting, I’ll give it that. Thank fuck for the cotillion lessons we had as kids. The dance floor in Noxus is just as much of a battlefield as a gladiator arena. Knowing how to navigate around society types at least allowed for some interesting people watching.” His voice grew thoughtful as he mused.

“Anyone I’d know? Wait that might be a silly question considering it was a masquerade.”

Ezreal chuckled. “Actually there was a familiar face. You know of Renata Glasc, yes?”

You stared at him with wide eyes. “Miss Glasc was there? Oh that’s interesting…and a little alarming but…I suppose it’s fine.”

He nodded. “Those were my thoughts as well.”

“Any interesting dance partners?” You can’t help as a little tiny twinge of jealousy slipped into your tone.

He immediately shook his head and pecked your lips softly. “Nope. None of them were you.” His voice and expression were sincere.

Your cheeks blushed the slightest pink as you grinned. “Good answer, Lymere.” You said, making his smirk return to his face.

“Thank fuck I wore reinforced shoes though, otherwise my feet would have been in a lot of pain. Turns out Noxians are very hit-or-miss when it comes to dancing abilities.” He let out on a chuckle.

“Oh really? Are you sure it was them and not you?” You gently teased, even though you knew from personal experience that Ez was a surprisingly divine dancer.

You continued. “Speaking of your shoes, what else did you wear? Will you describe it for me?” You loved when Ezreal wore more formal attire, and he definitely knew this.

One of his eyebrows arched. “Now how did I know you’d ask that? I can actually do you better than just telling you. I brought the entire outfit home with me, mask included. Would you like to see it?”

You can’t help but let out a happy little gasp. “Wait really? Of course I would!”

You helped Ezreal unpack the clothes, admiring them. “Oh wow…I’ve seen you in formal wear, but never something this…intricate! The vest especially is beautiful.” You picked up the gold mask and held it up to his face. “Oh! It seems like this wouldn’t work with your hair in front, Ez. Did you push your bangs back?”

He nodded and pecked your lips quickly. “I did. Give me a second in the bathroom while I change, and I can also show you how that worked. You’ll have to tell me what you think.”

You waited on his bed as he went into the bathroom to change. After what felt like a half hour, (but was really only 10 minutes) he walked out of the bathroom. “So? What do you think?”

You could only blink at him with wide eyes and pink cheeks, rendered speechless as you take in the site of your usually handsome boyfriend looking downright dashing in this new outfit.

It was tailored to perfection on him. While Ezreal wasn’t buff, he was certainly in shape, and this outfit showed that off. The coloring on the outfit also fit his coloring very well. The gold mask covering the top half of his face was striking. And his hair! His normally slightly messy hair was brushed up and neatly slicked back away from his forehead. You felt your heart flutter and race as you studied him, and you took a deep breath to try and steady yourself.

Your reaction brought a smirk to his lips as he slowly walked closer to you. “Well well…normally I have to work a lot harder to render you speechless.” His smirk widened as his words flustered you further and you let out a soft squeak.

Ezreal stopped directly in front of you and gave a practiced bow. “Now, may I please have this dance?”

Despite your brain currently short-circuiting, you managed to whisper, “Y-yes…fuck yes,” in response, taking his hand and allowing him to pull you to your feet.

Once you were on your feet, you seemed to snap back to reality. Almost without thinking, you gripped the collar of his jacket and eagerly kissed him, the gold of his mask surprisingly warm against your face as it absorbed his body heat.

Ezreal chuckled softly once you pulled back for air, beginning to sway with you. “So your reaction tells me I should wear this again. Is that correct?”

You allowed him to lead you, grinning widely and smoothing out his collar. You ran your hands down his chest to feel the luxurious material of the vest beneath your fingertips. “I certainly have no qualms if you break this outfit, or any elements of this outfit, out the next time we’re required to get a little fancy. I should commission an outfit to match.”

Ezreal pecked the tip of your nose softly. “Two steps ahead of you. It’s already paid for, you just need to go get measured and tell the tailors what you want.”

You laughed. “I should have known. I’m sure you knew exactly what my reaction to this outfit would be, hrm?”

Ez smirked and kissed your neck softly, causing you to gently shiver in his arms. “I had an idea. But now I have an even better idea.”

Your voice became breathier as he continued to nibble along your jaw. “Oh? And what might that be?”

Ezreal’s voice was like silk as he whispered in your ear. “Now I want to see your reaction as I take it off~…”

AHHHH. I haven’t felt so inspired to write like this in a while lmao. I wrote this same day (apologies for any typos). Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed!! 💙

[nephriteknight]

so a while back i made a post about what my blorbos' playstyles would be like in botc/social deduction games in general, and at the time i didn't include tma because they have so much highly specific trauma and dangerous eldritch appetites that this would be terrible for, but i just can't stop thinking about the very silly scenario where the tma characters play botc together. it would go so badly.

the banned character list includes fortune teller, spy, snake charmer, oracle, evil twin, vigormortis, no dashii, pacifist, cannibal, cult leader, fisherman, pixie, golem, plague doctor, organ grinder, and ojo, because elias keeps cheating. ojo and oracle somehow keep ending up in the bag anyway.

daisy gets way too into hunting down the demon. Guns Will Be Drawn.

jon and tim handle this game Extremely Predictably. i just know s1 tim would adore botc but s3 tim is having an awful time. oh great yeah one of our friends is a shape shifting demon lying to our faces? perfect. jon is on the verge of a panic attack but instead of breaking down he's just interrogating everyone very aggressively. hey, at least everyone believes he's on the good team.

basira solves the game right away and spends the rest of the game trying to convince everyone else. only georgie believes her.

martin is very good at being evil in these kinds of games (and also benefits from people not expecting him to be good at it), so when he pulls the demon he could demolish good, but, uh, he's honestly not sure jon could handle that right now so he gets caught on purpose without letting anyone else realize he threw.

elias insisted peter would attend and he did not in fact show. luckily no one believed he would come so it's not really a problem. ("you called it a 'social deduction' game, elias, it's in the name! no i'm not coming--")

...annabelle's the storyteller? i mean. she obviously would if she was there. i feel like sasha gives me st vibes as well but i might just be projecting again.

multiple games are ruined because jon accidentally compels the demon to tell him their role. one of those was not fully an accident.

simon is having a grand old time but he really doesn't give a shit about winning/the game which is less of a problem when he's good but very much a problem for his teammates when he's evil.

melanie draws the psychopath "by chance" several times and enjoys it way too much. daisy handles an outed evil player whom town can't easily execute exactly as poorly as you'd expect. i cannot emphasize enough how unlikely it is that canon team archives could play this game without at least one person getting hurt, killed, or giving in to the dark powers completely.

helen is eating it all up. literally. (elias is still pissed that the spy got banned.) she still never outright lies, which unfortunately for everyone else but fortunately for her (and simon, who thinks its hilarious) means she can't tell outright truths when she's good either or it'll look suspicious when she's evil. no one is ever fully certain what she is or what she's doing. pure chaos and we love her for it. (we being me; team archives does not in fact love her for it.)

elias is still cheating, but when they threaten to fill the room with eyeless dolls he decides to quit while he's (not) ahead and just watch from his office like an eldritch twitch chat.

[mediocreanomaly]

Amen.

Priest!Wolfwood x Reader (NSFW)

**GN!Reader**

Authors Note: I have an issue. Yes Priest!Wolfwood sparks joy, so please enjoy 4,539 of depravity as my welcome back, small note at the end!

**Content Warning: I grew up religious so I'm using real scripture here, if you're religious or that makes you uncomfy this might be a skip for you, if you're depraved like me read on**

Being raised Catholic was a one-way street to spoonfuls of guilt being shoved down your throat. Most everyone in the church was more or less aware of that fact, whether they acknowledged it or not.

However, there’s a warning they don't bother to put on the good book. A warning about the more...complicated relationship you develop with religion once the guilt that's swelled up in your chest has nowhere else to go.

"Then God said, 'Take your son to the land of Moriah and kill your son there as a sacrifice for me. This must be Isaac, your only son, the one you love. Use him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains there. I will tell you which mountain.” Church sometimes God ask things from us, things that seem...unimaginable, unbearable, but we are not led blindly. No, quite the opposite, God-' " Father Wolfwood emphasizes by pointing to the rafters of the church as if the big man himself was sitting there, watching. "He has a plan, a plan so great and magnificent that we cannot begin to comprehend. With that understanding Abraham takes his son, because he trust, church, he trust God enough to follow-"

The sermon is drowned out. To anyone around you you'd look devout. Pious even with how well you focus on Father Wolfwood, but it's not the bible that makes you show up every Sunday. It's the dark black tousled hair that trails into stubble lining his cheek. It's those big brown eyes wide and confident as he preaches to the congregation. It's those hands, large and calloused, that make you wonder what life he must have lived before this as he moves them around with his speech. It's his skin, perfectly tan and forehead beading with sweat from the insufferable heat of the church, no doubt that cassock isn't helping. It's his voice, deep and raspy with that perfect cadence that makes you wonder what it'd be like if he said your name while bending you over-

"Y/n?" The altar boy who you didn't even realize had come to your pew ask. He's holding out communion in a way that tells you he's been there for a second.

"Oh! Uh-" you reach out for the wine when a hand around your wrist stops you, you blink a few times and look up to see the man you were just ogling at meeting your gaze with dark eyes.

"Why don't you pass that out to the other pews, y/n is joining me for a special communion after church, they had something they wanted to pray on with me" Father Wolfwood says easily.

"I do?" the words fall from your mouth dumbly which causes Wolfwood to raise an eyebrow at you as if you're stupid. You let yourself swallow and bow your head as if scolded, you wonder what part of being a priest blessed him with so much sass.

"ah- right! Yes I had forgotten, thank you Father Wolfwood" you correct. You had not, in fact, discussed anything of the sort with the Father, but there was clearly something you were missing here.

He gives you a curt nod before softening his eyes and turning back to the young boy.

"Go on" he insist. He does, continuing to the next pew with all the confirmation he needed and Wolfwood finally lets go of your wrist. The warmth of his hand that lingers isn't lost on you as you wearily glance up at him.

"Special communion?" You try hoping to gather a bit more information on the situation you'll be faced with after Mass.

"mhmm, God has called me to you. Something weighs on your mind, perhaps a repentance is in order?" his face gives away nothing, although you swear his eyes darken as he watches you with a pleasant smile that stays locked on his face.

Alarm bells ring in your head. Did...did he know? You had done your best to hide your less than innocent gaze as worship. Thinking back on it, perhaps you were less conspicuous about it than you thought, that or God was the worst wingman ever.

"Father Wolfwood I-"

He holds up his hand to pause the word vomit that was about to stutter out and shakes his head.

"Later. Best to confess without prying eyes, no?"

He lets you simmer on that as he makes his way back to the front of the church. When he leads the church in prayer you do take it upon yourself to pray for once. You pray you'll sink into the floor or be struck dead before the end of the sermon.

By the time the church doors are opened and people file out, you're sure your heart will burst anyway. You stay seated in the front pew, not moving an inch because if you stand it'll be to bolt out the door and... well technically nothing was keeping you from it. It's not like the goddamn (sorry God) preacher would shoot you if you attempted to run. He had simply suggested you confess. Easy. He probably hears people's fucked up sexual fantasies all the time sitting in that booth. You knew the sheriff’s wife was sleeping with the banker, and you knew the sheriff was sleeping with the widow down the street, so it's not like the stuff that’s pulled from the great Catholics of No Mans Land weren't anything he hadn't heard before.

That's the thought you try and let comfort you as Father Wolfwood finishes up thanking people for coming to church and shaking hands.

The church doors shut with a thud that makes you jump in your seat; you press your hands together firmly and feel your fingernails dig into the skin there. This was fine.

"You know," Father Wolfwood folds his hands politely behind his back and takes agonizingly slow steps down the aisle, "People with guilty conscience are more likely to be startled by loud noises."

You keep your head bowed slightly in what must look like a mock prayer, but you aren’t praying anymore; you're just doing everything possible to not throw up on the church's nice red carpet, carpet that is interrupted when two black dress shows come into view.

"y/n?"

That voice. It makes you press your lips in a firm line, scared of what filth might come out of it if you speak. Instead, to show you're listening, you slowly raise your head to meet Wolfwoods eyes, the likes of which seem clouded in some strong emotion. Were priests always this intense? Well, the easy answer was yes, but this was a different type of intensity, not the kind that filled revering words but one that more closely resembled a predator zoning in on its prey.

"Y/n" he says it again, albeit softer this time as if coaxing forward a scared animal. "You have something on your mind, don't you? Something that plagues you?"

You feel your fingers instinctively move to fiddle with the hem of your shirt. If the heat from the church was unbearable before then this is downright swelting.

"Don't you usually do this kind of thing in the booth?" a poor attempt of a smile graces your lips in a desperate attempt to lighten whatever mood was starting to suffocate the air.

"Usually yes. This is a special case I believe though..." he leans down and your heart slams against your chest, his breath fans against your cheek. You can smell lingering cologne and... was that smoke? Surely not, if your local priest smoked it'd be the talk of the town, although now that you think about it those plush lips would look perfect balancing a cigarette between them, and they'd look even better if he used those teeth to-

"I almost forgot! You haven't received communion." He straightens out in an instant and claps his hands together, nearly scaring you out of your skin while your face heats up from pure embarrassment.

You watch as he crosses from the pew to the table behind the pulpit and grabs a small cup of wine and bread. Just as quickly he's back in front of you with the objects. You reach out to accept them when he pulls his hands back.

"ah ah ah, I said this was a special communion didn't I? I'll deliver it unto you, you just sit and do as you're told."

Oh. Yeah, that definitely didn't do anything to you. Nothing like a gruff handsome man in priest wear telling you to obey in the house of God. This was for sure not bubbling up any worrying realizations about yourself. Nope. Not in the slightest.

He steps back putting a little bit of room between the two of you before his eyes flicker from you to the carpet in front of him.

"Kneel."

You go instantly and willingly, a bit too willingly. Your mind flashes with Father Wolfwoods sermons about the disciples who kissed Jesus’ feet. You wonder if this was an elaborate way to get you to read the bible more because you're beginning to understand what was going through their minds now as you sit on your knees in front of the priest.

You aren’t sure if Wolfwood expected you to be so eager. He pauses for a moment before you swear a hint of a smirk plays at his lips. He raises the glass and the bit of bread slightly.

"Listen to me closely, we wouldn't want to spill and stain the carpet now, would we?" he ask.

You shake your head no. He makes a satisfied hum and continues.

"Tilt your head back.”

You do as you're told, tilting your head back until your eye level is forced to be centered on the man in front of you.

"Open your mouth.”

Your mouth begins to salivate despite the fact there’s nothing in it yet. Perhaps it's due to the fact that what he's about to put in it isn't want you’d like to have resting on your tongue.

"Good. Why don't you stick your tongue out a little bit? I don't want you to dribble."

Fuck him. Fuck him so bad. There was no way he didn't know what he was doing but if had any hint about this sadistic game he was playing with you he gave no indication, he remained at stoic as ever as if you weren't having the most unholy thoughts imagined about your fucking priest.

There’s no going back though. You follow his instructions and let your tongue loll out of your mouth. You swear something flickers in his eyes, but it's gone as soon as it arrives.

He raises the glass and bread more as if offering it to God.

"Close your eyes.”

You do. You let the light of stained-glass windows be blotted out by your own blind obedience.

“Corpus Domini Nostri Iesu Christi custodiat animam tuam in vitam aeternam....Amen."

You feel him press the small bit of bread onto your tongue, you close and eat. You don't need to be told before you're opening your mouth again.

The wine follows right after, poured into your mouth and you swallow it down focusing on not letting any hit the ground with the speed at which the contents are emptied down your throat.

What realistically could not have been more than a few seconds feels as though it's lasted a lifetime. You take a deep breath once the bitter wine has settled in your stomach and before you can even think about getting up and excusing yourself from the church Wolfwood puts a hand on your shoulder, signaling for you to stay in place.

"Good. Why don't we get that confession out of the way then?"

Right. The reason he had probably pulled you aside for all of this in the first place. Had he seen through you? Seen how hungry your gaze had become? Probably. Looking back on it sitting in the front row was probably not the best idea when the entire reason for your Sunday visits was for potential fantasy fuel. There didn't seem like any reason to lie though, it's not like a priest could tell anyone about these things and outside of church Father Wolfwood was a bit of an anomaly to the town.

He didn't have any friends that you knew of, didn't gossip, or hang out at the bar, the man lived in this church which was making you feel a bit more guilty about your infatuation now that you thought of it but hey, if you weren't guilty about something then were you even a catholic?

"Forgive me Father I have sinned..."

With a grimace, you realize why the damn confession booths were so popular. Admitting this to God or a wooden wall was a little too easy. Admitting this to Wolfwood was like someone slowly peeling off your skin.

"I see, well, tell me child what is your confession?"

a swallow, then a leap.

"I have been...ah having inappropriate thoughts about someone. Someone who I go out of my way to see to add to these...fantasy's I have."

He listens closely and his hand comes up to cup the back of your head.

"I see...lust then?"

You nod in response, and he makes an affirming noise.

"And what do you imagine happening in these...fantasies of yours?"

The silence in the empty church is so loud it's deafening. Your hands scrunch and unscrunch the fabric of your pants.

"I...I imagine him pushing me down against these very pews, Father. That one day as I'm standing up to leave mass, he'll shove me right back down and take me against the wood."

It's said strained but even you must admit maybe there’s something to this confession shit because you feel a bit lighter with it off your shoulders. Father Wolfwood looks less light. In fact, he looks like you've just damned him to hell.

"Is that all?" he asks but it comes out breathier than he means it to.

The tone sends something to your core, oh you see it now. Lamb and shepherd your ass, you were still most certainly the lamb but the Father was no shepherd, he was the Wolf. Maybe God himself had put that divine foreshadowing into his name.

You shift on your knees and press yourself flatter trying to rub your thighs together. Wolfwoods eyes flicker down to the action, then back up to your face. He opens his mouth to say something, but you beat him to it.

"No Father. Sometimes I imagine him taking me on the stand in front of the whole congregation. Still preaching while he finishes in me, holy words even in his most sinful act. But...do you know what I really want Father?"

Wolfwood swallows, his fingers trace along your face, and you fight every instinct to lean into it. He looks like this is paining him, He's all gritted teeth and square shoulders as he speaks.

"What do you want?"

Hook. Line. Sinker.

"I imagine he'd keep me here after church, that he'd have me kneel before him still while wearing his holy clothes, that collar, the rosary...and I wish he'd undo his belt to-"

"Enough."

Your mouth snaps shut, scared you've pushed too far. You can feel heat bloom across your face in embarrassment now that your words are catching up to you, this was meant to be a confession not a shit porno, maybe you DID need God...

"You drive me insane you know that? Every day you come in here- the house of god mind you and stare at me like..." He clicks his tongue and motions to you.

"Well like that."

You aren't sure what to make of his tone, it's scolding and firm but hinges on needy at the end. You're starting to worry you broke the poor man before he makes an irritated noise.

"Fine. You want to repent so bad?" Wolfwoods hands go to his belt and with a soft clink of the metal it comes fastened. Your eyes flicker to look towards the door to make sure that no one was about to walk in on the scene that'd put Judas’ sin to shame when you're snapped out of your thoughts.

"Pay attention sweetheart, you were doing so good before, what happened?" The mask of a holy man cracks and gives way to something cockier, more taunting, more...Wolfwood.

"Unless you need scripture to keep your focus?" he works to undo the button and the zip of his dress pants as he tilts his head.

"Then here's something for you, 'the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” When Eve saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom..' "

He frees himself from the confines of his pants. You feel your mouth water and although your knees are starting to hurt from kneeling for so long you have a feeling you're about to get your real communion.

" '...and she opened her mouth, and took.' "

In beat with his preaching you let your mouth fall open. In all honesty, you get it now. You get how appealing that lush fruit must have been to Eve, you get why even after being promised paradise, she gave in to temptation. The weight that settles on your tongue as Wolfwood presses into your mouth makes your eyes roll back, and an involuntary moan escapes your throat. Wolfwoods breath stutters.

"God..." He groans and if your mouth wasn't currently full you might have made a witty comment about using the lords name in vain but a quick hand lacing through your hair from Wolfwood serves well enough to sever whatever thought had flitted through your mind.

You flatten your tongue and take more, allowing as much as you can to the back of your throat but when tears prick your eyes and you gag slightly on the sensation he pulls you off with a wet pop. You whine slightly at loss before Wolfwoods hand grabs your chin while he uses his thumb to wipe up the drool leaking from your lips that you hadn't realized was there.

"Patience, don’t you listen to a word I say up there?” he muses, you sheepishly look up at him through your eyelashes and it’s answer enough. He pulls you back in front of his cock, "Be good then, swallow every drop and I might forgive you"

You don't have much time to argue as his hand guides you back. You're more prepared this time, the way you sit on your knees...you’re a picture perfect saint and who's here to judge you for your sin anyways? Wolfwood? Sounded like a setup to a joke.

"Fuck, yeah baby just like that. So good-" His words break off with a grunt and his hips stutter forward, he pulls your head forward and you reach up to steady yourself with his thighs. He rocks his hips to your mouth as he face fucks you in the middle of the church. When his breathing speeds up and he mutters out a sting of gentle curses you know he’s close. You close your eyes and let him use you as he spills down your throat. You're desperate to show him you can listen, you swallow down as much as you can trying to not let a single drop of cum hit the floor.

When the rough handful of hair is released, you pull back to try and catch your breath, a worthless endeavor it would seem considering you're just as quickly being lifted up by your arm. You feel yourself being tugged up the steps towards the pulpit and make peace with the fact you're officially the worst Catholic ever...well besides the priest who's currently the instigator of this depravity.

"Not done yet sweetheart, the grace of god doesn't come with a blow job surprisingly" Wolfwood huffs amused as he presses down on your shoulder to force you to bend off the wood stand.

"Are you even a priest?" wrong question you guess because Wolfwood makes an irritated noise.

"Aren't you supposed to be repenting?" His hands grope at your thighs, spreading them apart much more slowly than you'd like, as if he's savoring it...reverence, you think.

"Father-"

He chuckles lowly at that.

"Father" he imitates "you let that name fall from your lips like it doesn't turn you on just to say it"

His fingers ghost over your thighs, then around the area you want him most before sliding up under your shirt to explore flesh. It's so hot in the church, and when you peer out across the wooden pews, you see the stained glass window casting rainbow light that sprawls out across the floor all the way up to your body.

"Focus on me" Wolfwood corrects your wandering mind by nipping along your neck and your body instinctively shudders against him. You press your hips back to feel his growing hardness pressed against your ass. His hands slide your shirt up over your head and he begins to focus on trailing kisses along your back.

"Thank you, Lord," His lips move against your shoulder blade.

"For delivering this sinner unto me, so that I may show them rapture."

His fingers hook along the hem of your pants and tug them down your legs until they rest right at your knees.

"Despite that, I must confess, I have sinned."

His fingers trace along your entrance before slowly sinking in. You groan and press your head to the wood in front of you, fingers scratching against the surface.

"I have lusted for someone of my own congregation. I have imagined them kneeling for me and worst of all I have imagined me taking them, devouring them until there is nothing left to fill them but me"

Another finger lazily joins the first and he begins a slow rhythm of pumping them in and out. You attempt to wiggle your hips back to chase the feeling, but his other hand keeps your waist flush against the stand.

"But I am only a man so with my mortal body I will show them euphoria"

You feel his fingers pull out and whine at the loss only to feel the blunt head of his own cock begin to line up with you.

"Amen"

Wolfwood doesn't give you much more warning before roughly pressing in. You moan as he sets a backbreaking pace, thankful that he at least prepped you before. He's leaned over your body; his hair tickles the back of your neck slightly as he pants in your ear. You imagine your own noises can't be much better as his left hand, the one he's apparently wrapped in a rosary, comes up to catch your chin, two fingers press into your mouth as he supports your head. His other hand stays at your hip, bringing your body back against his with every thrust.

It's so hot in the church, sweat beads along your body and you can feel your hair beginning to stick to your forehead. Your mind feels foggy and you lap absent mindedly at the fingers invading your mouth. Wolfwood groans and pushes you down further against the stand and it'd be uncomfortable if you could focus on anything other than the priest fucking your brains out. He produces an ungodly amount of precum, you can feel it making a mess between your thighs right as drool begins to leak from the corners of your mouth and bead down to the wood below.

Wolfwoods hand shifts from your hip to where a blooming warmth has begun. You nearly cry out with relief babbling nonsense around his fingers, hell maybe even a few prayers. His own mouth is becoming less of that of a reverend and more of that of a ravenous man, mouthing and biting at what he can reach. The fingers press deeper into your mouth, and you feel the smooth beads of the rosary as you toy with them with your tongue. You're close, you tremble beneath Wolfwood and he catches on because both his hands pull away to once again fit along your hips. You nearly sob from the new lack of stimulation as he rocks into you.

"Beg for it," Wolfwood says so firmly you'd have sworn he was once again leading the congregation. Your mind is halfway to mush right now, so it doesn't take much convincing to do what he wants.

"Please please please let me, I’m sorry, I’ll be good, I repent" you babble out hoping you’ve said the magic words.

His hand comes down firmly on your ass as he thrust into you then finally finally reaches to touch between your thighs.

It sends you over the edge instantly, your legs trembling as you whine and moan, Wolfwoods own obscene noises match your own as he finishes inside you, letting you milk him for all he's worth.

The two of you stay like that for a moment, you become aware of the fact your priest is pressed up against your back, trying to catch his breath from fucking the ever loving daylights out of you. You whine slightly and Wolfwood responds by nuzzling his face against your neck.

"Are you okay?"

You do actually laugh at that one, letting your forehead rest against the podium.

"The priest I've been fantasizing about fucking me for a year now just has. This has been the best lay of my life and you want to ask if I'm okay?"

"You're awfully vulgar aren't you?"

You snap your head up to make several points about the irony of the statement but when you turn you see a shit eating grin on his face. You playfully hit his chest and groan.

"You've got to be the worst priest ever"

"Can't say I'd deny that claim" He leans forward and kisses you, you go into it easily but the taste of his lips reminds you of something, when you pull away you raise an eyebrow

"Do you smoke?"

He shrugs and keeps his hands on your waist.

"I prefer to keep certain things in my life separated from the church"

"and me?"

"Consider yourself a special case." He smirks and takes hold of your chin between his fingers "Although I do hope this was enough to keep you coming to my sermons?" he ask

You swallow at the dark look in his eye and place your hands on his chest.

"and miss the holy word? Perish the thought"

He chuckles lowly at that as your hands begin to play with the collar of the cassock he wears.

"Although Father, I fear I may not have properly confessed."

He raises an eyebrow and eyes you "No?"

You shake your head "See I only...repented for two out of three fantasies I had also mentioned being taken against the pews"

Wolfwoods hands tighten around his hips and his smile widens.

"Well...let's fix that, shall we?"

Author's note: ahhhh I'm back! I've been storin this little beauty away for awhile now. This is my welcome back post because I feel like I lost the way I wanted to organize and write for a little while and this was the first piece that got me back in the flow of things. I missed you guys! We're back baby! (I'll add my spacers in later I'm missin the files rn and I don't feel like searching for them)

[ficnoire2]

An Ode to The King, Briana Irene Matthews

When I say I love this character, I say it with my whole chest.  I cannot begin to express the joy I experienced when one of my fellow educators passed me this book and said “I’ve got a fantasy book for you, and there is a black girl on the cover.”  I am a child of The Neverending Story, Legend, Willow, etc (Google if you need to) and brown faces were few and far between, if there at all.  There are so many things I admire and appreciate about Bree Bree and the power she holds can’t be understated. 

*Spoilers Ahead so Exit Stage Left if You Need To*

Choices

In a story where choice has been hijacked for so many of our faves, I love the choice she makes at the end of Bloodmarked. To choose herself.  I know there has been controversy regarding this but fuck all that, she said what she said.  The fact that black girls need to be perfect and make decisions that are equally as perfect no matter what they are up against is absurd.  That line of thinking has real world consequences.  I love that she tried to consult with elders, those that came before her.  She seemed to be following this implied protocol that did not bear the fruit she’d hoped for.  

When she says, “I realize now why Jessie’s mantra to call root didn’t work for me.”  She said,  “Think of the power you possess and the woman who gave it to you.” I smile sadly,  “I used to think that woman was my mother, and through her, you.  Tried it her way and it didn’t work.  Because you all didn’t give me my power.”  I kneel to face the streams, thrust my hands into the earth from which they came. 

“I did.”

This was a hell of a scene because she is finally shutting off the noise of the outside world, the distracting chatter blocking her self actualization.  Arthur, the ancestors, the Legendborn, and choosing Bree.  Much like she puts the broken pieces of  Excalibur back together, she is in a sense doing the same for herself (pain welded blade).  It even bears a deep purple stone in the pommel. The color meant to speak to this pain, this literal and figurative bruising and beating she has taken.  In addition, the choice to go with Erebus and the uncertainty that hangs there was pure fearlessness.  As her character sheet says, she is intrepid, bold.  The way she is written, you just know it is in her soul.  As Tracy says in her dedication, For every Black girl who was “the first.”  Black is capitalized here, emphasized, because we are often demonized for making decisions or having experiences that those that came before may not have had the courage or opportunity to step into.  The First.  In Bree’s line everyone ran and she decided to stop running and turn to face the unknown, whatever may come with her chin up.  

In addition to being a clever badass, I loved watching how she navigated her relationships with Nick and Sel.  Again, another hot button topic where folks are clutching pearls and clenching ass cheeks.  I am not interested in “ship wars” but what did catch my eye was the way Bree allowed herself to be loved on.  The safety and soft intimacy she received and craved from Nick in a time where her world had been completely shattered was beautiful to read.  “I’m impressed, despite my still racing heartbeat.  How does he do it?  How does this boy navigate my emotions like a seasoned sailor, finding the clear skies and bringing them closer, when all I seem able to do is hold fast to the storms?”  He is patient with her.  The way he speaks, comforting and protective.  I love that she had this!  The giddiness at that age of meeting someone that makes you dizzy in the best way.  I love that Bree allowed herself to experience the respite Nick offered.  That relationship represents the light in her, hearkens back to a simpler time.

I also think Bree enjoys the challenge Sel presents.  Aside from him trying to kill her in the beginning (and being an all around asshole), she always seems to find interest in him (her shadow side).  “He’s dressed in black, as always, but his long coat is gone.  His tattoos are on full display below sleeves rolled at the elbow.  They wind down his forearms and wrists, and I can’t help but study them.  I wonder how far they go and how many he has before I remember that I detest him and shouldn’t care about his tattoos at all.”  

Bree is fiery (quite literally) and finds herself drawn to the darkness and mystery of Sel.  In truth, she likes to stir the pot.  When Vaughn is giving her shit about being Nick’s page, she intentionally fucks with him.  “But I’m not going to disappear.  And I don’t want to keep my head down.  Instead, I’m going to give Vaughn a glimpse of who I really am, and show him exactly who I’m not.”

She then throws the haymaker, “You’re a bigot and a bully, Scheafer.  You insult me because you think you know what I am capable of, but you don’t.  I must make you nervous, though, for you to expose your insecurities about your odds of success in the tournament.”

Long story short, Briana Irene is with the shits! How many times have you had to check in a loser such as Vaughn, who in all their mediocrity, thinks they are superior?  I love that she essentially says, “aight then.”

I say all that to say that I like that she is feeling her feelings.  She can acknowledge and accept the safety and easiness of Nick, while also reveling in the mystery and chaos of Sel.  Those two desires can (and do) live in the same body.  I love that this is confusing for her and she grapples with it because, what 16 year old wouldn’t! Low key/high key, folks my age would grapple with certain aspects of that but again, her choices.  

Bree is supposed to be complicated. At times infuriating.  I find it strange however, when folks don’t give her the space she has earned to develop.  So many of us Black girls are not afforded this space.  No room to grow, change our minds, or choose a different path.  She is grappling with grief and grief is messy, complicated.  The vessel in which she entered the world ceases to exist on the plane of the living and she is floating in the darkness and uncertainty of that.  “Your anguish is wrapped around your very heart.”   Not to mention navigating racism, sexism, supernatural beings, and understanding her own body and power.  That is a tall order.  She represents multitudes of girls who were “the first” and I am so glad I get to witness her in all her flaws and greatness.  THE KING.  Rumble black girl, rumble.  

[independent-fics]

Inde Watches Leverage: Redemption

S01EP— The Rest of Season 1 because I told myself to stop reviewing each episode and just enjoy watching it because I was making myself anxious trying to analyze it to compare it to the original and had to take a break but now wanted to get back to it because I have two weeks to watch it before season 3 but ended up making a bit of a live reaction post anyways.

TLDR: I enjoyed the second half of season 1 immensely! I think I just became annoyed with some of the growing pains I noticed in the first half of the season combined with many out of character moments and cinematic choices (I know the characters are different years later but there were some moments that they felt like they were caricatures of themselves/or writers were highlighting fan favorite traits of them and emphasizing them) like Eliot exploding over Parker eating his carrot cake in “The Rollin on the River Job” felt overdone? Like yeah he gets grumpy but I can’t think of moments where he growled or huffed off that dramatically except in fanfic. Even genuinely angry he’s a controlled guy or used sly words and targeted insults and occasionally gets huffy. There were a couple moments with Parker but I can’t remember rn. Also cinematically honestly the only thing that bothered me was in “The Bucket Job” when Eliot is having his flashback at RIZ. Im sorry we can do flashbacks better than this we have done them better. The rapid head shake gave looney toons and I never wanna see it again. But honestly the beginning was rough but I did love the ending as I think the character interactions smoothed out writing wise, and I’m excited to finally start season 2 (finally inde goodness!) which everyone and their mother has told me gets even better.

Now the rest of this post is just my live reactions from the rest of the season which I did NOT want to do but ended up in this post anyways so if you care to read it’s under the cut. But come scream at me about leverage I love to talk about it especially now that I’m finally making myself sit down a catch up with redemption!

Spoilers I guess under the cut? But if you’re like me and behind on Redemption go watch it!

S01EP11 The Jackal Job

I knew I was gonna love this one because I hate the mark so much and also more grifters! Also broke my heart to see her losing her memories. And I also love Parker and Eliot’s Emerson/Aerosmith quote moment.(I just love all their little moments this episode actually) And Eliot’s “I don’t use guns but I still know about em” he’s so grumpy I love him.

Also it said London but the cars were on the wrong side for London. BUT ALSO HISTORICAL EPISODE WITH SOPHIE AHHHH. AND WOMEN IN LOVE. Also Breanna’s “we needed used crap that looked expensive. And boring. Like you.” And Parker’s “this is better than Disneyland. A box is basically a vent that moves” and now I have to see the ot3 at Disneyland.

Absoloutly love her pouring Eliot a beer and saying he’ll kick the marks teeth in and basically going yes maam.

“Never define a love by its length only its depth” MY HEART.

Parker only having to use her name to cut a deal I love to see it.

S01EP12 The Golf Job

Okay ngl golf episode opening up with human trafficking nail salons not what I expected but this tells me it’s gonna be good. But hellooooo James Marsters.

Also loving Hurley being back hello and how he is obsessed with Eliot I love it. And Parker and his crazy hug. Also Korean leverage reference! And Eliot the dog hehehe.

Also I just see Hardison as a camp counselor. I need this missing episode.

Eliot please golf or not you know you’re not gonna leave a kid.

Hurley you’re a really good grifter convincing Eliot to do this I cannot this was so funny. But I cannot Eliot actually saying the GOAT. (Also did Eliot throw the shirt on the floor in the golf shop??? Who is this man) and I’m sorry the upside down backwards visor how is that working for him rn.

Sophie dressed as a priest?? Taking a call with southern accent I cannot.

Eliot managing to get a dart into his drink is amazing.

I nearly screamed at Hurley figuring out how to help Eliot play amazingly. And then when he posted his chili recipe Eliot nearly said “damnit Hardison” I did scream hahaha. Hurley being like he’s missing chaos (aka Hardison rambling in his ear the whole time my heart)

Harry you are shining in this episode. Love a bomb bluff.

S01EP13 The Hurricane Job

Aka the episode everyone has told me about and that I have been waiting for.

I am loving Parker in this episode like yes she is uncomfortable and give her time she’ll explain Eliot. And he’s being as patient as possible while trying to figure out why she’s being the way she is about Maria. Also Eliot you cannot tell me that you don’t know how to work a ham radio are you fr.

I do love Maria’s sass though. Eliot you’re usually so good with imitations you cannot think that was anywhere close to that guys voice.

Harry is so proud of himself for that doctor grift I love him for it and the reference.

The way every partnership always splits with one guy telling the other one they’re weak. Like yall gotta have more loyalty than this. Also smart gun wtf. And Parker you being sad about giving back the lottery ticket ahhhh I love you.

Ahhh I loved Parker’s facial expressions in the last moment with her and Eliot because you could tell she was trying to be honest even if she didn’t like the feelings she was expressing. Wished it lasted a beat longer before the comedic touch was added but still cute hahah I love them.

S01EP14 The Great Train Job

Oh goodness give me farmers or miners (the underground job) and you’ve got me I know this is gonna be good and small town and heartfelt and im going to love it.

NOOOO I HOPE HANDLEBAR MUSTACHES EVERYTHING BREAKS.

Directed by Beth Riesgraf I love it!

Breanna’s total offense at Harry for thinking things just disappeared from the internet hahaha.

It’s okay Parker I would be so excited to rob a special safe in a train.

I too fear bachelorette parties.

Gosh of course it’s Nazis.

I love Sophie having 30 characters in her bag. But ugh Eliot looking out for Breanna oh goodness this episode might scare me no one touch my baby.

Breanna scandalized that Sophie wants her to turn her into royalty immediately. It’s giving Hardison’s “I have to wait for her to finish making it [her backstory] up.”

I love the convo between Eliot and Harry I do but all I can think is the tik tok audio “I’m tired grandpa” “you keep diggin.”

I knew it was battery waste! I love the rise of electrical things but as we advance we don’t have proper ways of disposing electric car batteries and things like that. (At least not ways a lot of places are doing properly. So many places think it’s just easier to dump tech). It’s leading to a potential for so much waste as more and more companies create electric cars. (I blame Elon musk so much for buying Tesla and just mass producing it just to be first).

I’m loving Breanna attempting to flirt so much. I love them.

I love the Canadian Mounties fear. And the fact that they’re all wanted there hahahah. I want to see all these cons they did to get wanted by them.

“I think I am gonna hurl.” “Rub some dirt on it.” Eliot that is not how that works.

The wired reference I can’t. Also I love Parker’s excitement pushing a guy off a train.

AHHHHHH TAKEDOWN. AND THEN KISSING. I LOVE THEM. Taking down a corrupt business man who is also a white supremacist is such a fun first date.

Low key though they missed out on a potential historical episode with that title and handlebar mustache guy. Still loved it though but I need Sophie in a train murder mystery Orient Express style.

S01EP15 The Muddy Waters Job

Ah Eliot I have missed your commitment to whatever the headquarters is at the time. And the doctor who references.

Ahhh finally get to meet Harry’s daughter!

“Bad guy side part” I can’t I love you Breanna.

“I didn’t even know we could go on strike.” “It doesn’t come up a lot.”

Omg Parker I love you “I’m gonna call the us Marshall I know”

You right Maria he is very cute when he’s grumpy.

“A haunted baby doll” I love you Parker.

Ah the efficiency expert con. I have missed you from “The Inside Job.”

“I’ll find it, Eliot’ll keep us safe, and Breanna can hack into the computers” ahhh I love it. Beautiful Parker.

I love Eliot’s dramatic planning and Breanna completely ruining his moment. And Eliot desperately trying not to squint his eyes and twitch his eyebrows.

Eliot I saw the smile you love Parker’s relationship advice. I love Parker and her relationship advice.

Eliot getting a baby shower instead of getting to fight 12 guys I love it.

Gosh dang okay Harry’s ex wife.

GOSH DANG WTF OF AN ENDING NO

Wait DOUBLE WTF.

S01EP16 The Harry Wilson Job

“Fire fixes everything” yes it does Parker. “I wanna kill a lot of people all the time” same. I love how it’s Eliot no (wouldn’t kill) and Parker is a maybe. (I know someone made a post about this recently).

Okay weirdly animated R.I.Z. building.

Dang calling Harry Sophie’s project is wild.

“112 days without an incident. They’re due” what a wild statement Parker.

AHHHHHHH I KNEW HE WAS COMING BUT AHHHHH HARDISON MY BELOVED. You know he’s gonna hold that KO over Eliot. Love him tossing the wrench not even looking and Eliot catches it. Same vibe as Parker and Eliot in “The Hurricane Job.”

Please debate the coolness of the entrance (still my fav gifset for this episode from @246bce that I saw the other day).

“Guilt ruined my family I wasn’t going to let it ruin yours” ahhhh Harry. Yes once again the don’t con your team talk love it coming from Sophie the first one who did it.

The epic side eye Hardison. But Eliot and Hardison’s smiles when they hug I love it. And Sophie being like yeah did he apologize yet hehehe.

The level of this RIZ conspiracy is crazy and will give me nightmares once again because I think about these types of risks all the time with our digital age. Also Eliot I love your random knowledge.

Oo Parker back to masterminding. “Harry. Don’t die. I need you around to make me look good.” I love them and Harry completely accepts that he’s the novice at everything here but at the same time he’s so brave about it all.

Low key for a US Marshall she should have been asking these questions a long time ago.

Mcsweetin and Taggert love that for them.

Always wanted to be a US Marshall? Of all things how does a kid decide that? Oop breakup but got the codes anyways okay then.

Goodness yes I’ve been waiting for this grift. And the breakup talk with Eliot. “You can make a puppet out of anything you can stick your hand in” Parker please. “Hey skipper negative words” stroking his shoulder omg. I really want to know when they measured his head.

Gosh dang it Bligh. I know like it’s for the plot and all but she’s not really a good private contractor otherwise she would have killed him right there probably.

Such a secure building that lets someone they are looking out for walk right in? I love you Sophie.

Why that photo of all things for Eliot omg.

BREANNA MY BABY WITH THE VENT TRAINING.

SLAY HARRY WITH THE FANCY DESK.

I love to see Bligh suffer here go Sophie.

I love how the theme of this episode is the old fashioned way works.

I also love that Hardison unintentionally gave Parker a really good con date. Like she gets to work with everyone, take down a major bad guy, jump from a building, push him off a building. She’s having the time of her life.

The fact that he made it through the building to get to Sophie in that 60 seconds. And gave Harry the punch I love it!

IN SO PROUD OF YOU TOO BREANNA.

Dang Aldis those arms.

Harry getting his daughter back? I love that for him. Yes Harry a little bit of everything.

Honestly don’t know how I feel about Sophie taking off that ring ugh my heart.

Ahhhh what an ending. Who gets reimbursed for the drone how does that work when Breanna’s the one crashing em hahaha. And Eliot please which hair got cut that it was a $300 haircut I cannot hahaha.

[velvetvexations]

I'm genuinely trying to not just be constantly negative and starting shit and arguing with people. I feel like even the people I mostly agree with are getting put off by it if they haven't already. I'm very self-conscious about my opinions and how much I talk on a given subject, and I know I do have issues that make my expressed opinions more pointed than necessary.

But like, me jokingly comparing the Bad Kids to the protagonists of 8-Bit Theater is interesting, because I love 8-Bit Theater to death, it's an extremely important work to me, it hurts a lot that I didn't hear about the scriptbook Kickstarter until it was over and I'll always be looking for a pre-owned copy for the rest of my life.

Like, I think the issue isn't that I have a problem with the Bad Kids acting so awfully. That's okay, especially in a comedy. Comedic sociopathy is a totally fine trope and I enjoy it on a regular basis. The issue that gets me is that it's such a hard counter to not only D20's usual tone, but also the way the DM, the players, the narrative itself, and most of all the fandom treat them and their actions.

That's why I soured on Kristen specifically so hard and so fast, because before JY I just thought she was like, A Lot, but not really a big deal and had some good, solid moments in SY (I did not like FY in general for completely unrelated reasons, sadly). But with JY, it was like, right out the gate she's ignoring Cassandra literally half to death, and I wonder if that would have seriously bothered me as much as it did if the fandom wasn't determined to completely excuse her for it in spite of the fact that it was clearly meant to be a personal character flaw and not just "unfortunately mental illness is happening to her".

Even then I was like, hey, I watched those promo videos, this is obviously something that's been planned ahead and will be dealt with. I'm very far from the first person to point out that we're now entering the season finale and chaos has not yet stopped being cute. Partially that in particular may have been hamstrung by the dice rebellion in the mall fight, with the original plan having been for Cassandra to not get separated from Kristen so fast and subsequently unable to have them actively work on their relationship and Kristen's commitment to her. Kristen running for president also likely threw a monkey wrench into decutifying chaos, because there was never any chance of Ally going about that by having Kristen put on a slick suit and say "I need to take this seriously and research school governance and formulate a policy I'll elaborate on in a debate with Kipperlilly". The race for president could only possibly be a bit the second it went to her instead of Riz, not because I don't think Ally could handle that kinna plot if they set their mind to it, Margret Encino would have killed it just as good as Riz, but because it's simply so far from who Kristen Applebees is as a character.

So anyway, I sat there watching this season waiting for Kristen to grow up because I had faith that was going to happen. But lest you think I just hate Kristen and possibly also Ally, these last few weeks they've been the least of the issue.

As hilarious as it was I don't understand how in the good Lord's name we're supposed to care about Oisin "making Adaine think she liked him" by acting a little flustered around her when Fig literally started catfishing Ruben on the first day of school ages before they had any in-character reasons to suspect the Rat Grinders of anything, all so she could...no, really, why the fuck did she do that? What was the impetus for that decision? I cannot emphasize enough how little motivation is given for this course of action:

There is nothing to it except that Emily correctly pegged he'd be an antagonist later. It's like the detectives on Law & Order arresting someone because they recognized the special guest star.

And like, other people, I get it, other people who don't like the direction JY has taken can shrug it off more easily than I can, there are a million reasons to not treat this like the end of the world, but unfortunately my autism gets me stuck on shit and I just cannot reconcile things like this. I cannot take the show seriously and care about the protagonists as people and share joy in their triumphs and sorrow in their failures and ignore something as blatantly breaking the logic as stuff like this.

I'll grant you, okay, Adaine was understandably hurt but neither the Bad Kids nor the Intrepid Heroes were really like "oh now we have to really fucking ruin Oisin for being the worst person alive". The fandom treated it like he Frozen'd her but fandoms are dumb and should not dictate as much of my opinion as they do, I simply cannot fathom the kind of person who'll cry over the deep and traumatic emotional damage Oisin caused Adaine with his missed beer pong shots but doesn't think Fig should be in jail.

That's also not the end of it, though. I could keep going on just about Fig specifically and the fact that she is at least sex crimes-adjacent, not to mention Emily's infantilization of a very autistic-coded character, but I'm trying very hard to not just come off as being like the people who have harassed Emily and Ally over their roleplaying choices in the past. As I keep stressing, I like both of them and especially Emily because I've been a CollegeHumor fan longer than some D20 fans have been alive. I think I actually like Fig more accepting that she kinna canonically sucks and taking her as more a Complicated Woman than someone whose actions I need to reconcile with the expectation of her being better than that, although I know none of it will ever actually be addressed.

So yeah, all the Bad Kids have been fucking weird this season in ways they weren't in SY. Adaine's intense and completely inexplicable loathing of Kipperlilly was funny at first and then increasingly uncomfortable as it fed into the fans wanting to crucify her. Gorgug going full bully was weird but also like, a one line bit, but whatever. Riz stealing Kipperlilly's file was gross and would or SHOULD deeply hurt Jawbone if he ever found out, and you can say they had to do this horribly unethical action in the name of homeland security or whatever, I accept that there were extenuating circumstances, but it's given no thought whatsoever and absolutely no regard is given to the fact that she was trying to address her issues with the closest mental health professional available who Brennan goes out of his way to note is failing her by overcorrecting for his bias towards the BKs.

But as much as I genuinely believe Brennan has been planting seeds the Rat Grinders could be reached, he's not been great here either and like Mice & Murder these things are more on him than any of the players because he's the director here. Like, I'm embarrassed I got snippy with someone who guessed ahead of time that Kipperlilly desecrated the rogue teacher's grave, but nonetheless think it was a weird conclusion to reach and that it's just even more bizarre that it ended up being "right", except the way it's described doesn't even make sense.

Like, the goal was "find the rogue teacher", right? And the rogue teacher is dead. So to me, it certainly seems like bringing a back hoe to the graveyard is one hundred percent the right move! But even if we accept the apparent canonical intent that was Kipperlilly threatening to merely destroy the grave as an act of vandalism rather than retrieve the body, it's like...so what? Literally who cares? As if the Bad Kids or any other adventuring party wouldn't dig up a dead body to cast Speak with Dead or something, as if the foundational Dungeons & Dragons formula wasn't raiding tombs like 19th-century colonial archeologists? And why would any of that be necessary anyway, when Riz found Eugenia by just...walking up to the grave?

But regardless, that, you might say, is a matter of the Rat Grinders being unfairly presented as evil and not the Bad Kids being unfairly presented as good. When it comes to Brennan's part in it, though, these are the same issue, because as the creator and director of every atom of the world outside the PCs, he's just so very willing to go with what the players start to expect. That's fine for a home game, but this is like, a television show that people pay money for, and that's an issue. He'll plant enough seeds of the Rat Grinders being better than they're treated that a chunk of the audience will notice and think the players are being weird about them, but he won't push it further than that and instead just rolls with the players being weird because his first priority is their enjoyment.

Again, fine in a home game, obviously. But it creates this divide between the players and the audience because the world has been crafted in such a way that when the players being weird is noticed it's like, why are they being rewarded for that? Why are they getting zero pushback? Brennan and I both heavily, heavily value collaborative storytelling for good reason, it's why I love TTRPGs and actual plays, but if this were a story told by a single person you could either have the protagonists pick up on those hints, have it be a point that they didn't pick up on them, or just not even include them in the first place.

One of the reasons I really, really like Aabria's DMing, as I've said recently, is that she truly remains firm in her worldbuilding and is not shy about providing realistic consequences or acknowledging PC behavior is dissonant with what's going on around them. And it just makes it super ironic that Kipperlilly's whole deal is correctly identifying the fact that the world is warped around the Bad Kids, and in this season more than ever the DM is like, fully changing reality to accommodate them and giving them plot resolutions on a silver platter, to the point of letting them just full-on take back spells because the target turned out to not be there, which is pretty far beyond the quibble about the climactic move in Calamity's final boss fight.

It's not that I think D20 is 'rigged' exactly, because it's not really a game, or at least it's not really Dungeons & Dragons. This was a revelation I had when I watched Critical Role other than Calamity for the first time and was amazed by how they'd stand around after a battle looting bodies for random magic items. D20 isn't a sandbox TTRPG, it's a very on-rails shooting gallery with roughly as much choice in the narrative as a modern RPG video game, and it has to all wrap within a certain amount of sessions. That's fine, but occasionally it can feel deceptive when we pretend there's much chance of things going radically wrong. One of the reasons I liked the first half of Crown of Candy and all of The Ravening War so much is because they're the only times where failure has really, truly been on the table in an Intrepid Heroes season, but I still liked most of the other Intrepid Hero seasons nonetheless.

This season, I just, I dunno man. I don't believe Ice Feast just accidentally wah wah wah had the effect of completely neutralizing the primary threat of the final boss fight. And Blimeygate, like, I thought it was mostly a fun moment, but it also felt like the most exaggerated-for-marketing-purposes the "got'em!" bits have ever been.

But despite all that, I am still currently capable of enjoying the next season. I'm hoping next week does not make things dramatically worse.

[thedragonagebigbang]

Bang Creator Interview: Tumblr: @warpedlegacy  |  AO3: warpedlegacy

The Collaboration period has begun! In these quiet months before works are due, we want to foster a sense of excitement, camaraderie, and celebration among our participants. To that end, all participants were given the option of a formal interview by our mod, Dema, or an informal “ask-game” survey. We hope you enjoy getting to know our phenomenal creators as much as we have!

Q&A With Duchess

What is your favorite character to romance?

I am a dedicated Cullenmancer. He was my first romance when playing DAI and I have stuck with him on nearly every subsequent playthrough since. He embodies one of my favorite character archetypes - the reformed sinner. He's ashamed of the things he did and believed in his past and is doing his best to atone. He seeks forgiveness but doesn't understand that forgiveness must come from within. Or he cannot fathom forgiving himself. I relate so much to his self-doubt and uncertainty, as well as his drive to improve and do better. 

I especially love romancing him as a Circle mage - there's just SO MANY juicy, messy layers to explore with that dynamic! How the Circle just hangs like a specter over their relationship. Does it haunt them forever? Or do they have the trust in each other to confront it head-on? 

What is your favorite specific moment in the DA series?

The Herald, alone and exhausted and hurt, trudging through the snow after the avalanche. In Your Heart Shall Burn is my favorite quest and my favorite part of the game, but that specific moment gets me every time. The way the sound mixing emphasizes the wind and the wolves howling, and then you start to hear your Herald shivering and panting. As you push them forward, their steps start to slow. It's agonizing to watch. When they finally see the lights of the Inquisition's camp ahead and collapse to their knees, I feel that relief along with them. The first time I played this game, that was the moment where, I think, I knew this was going to be my new obsession. 

Do you have any writing tips?

It sounds cliche, but write for yourself, first and foremost. Don't fall into the trap of "all writers must do x". There's so much advice out there, and lots of it seems to contradict. It can be so easy to get overwhelmed, and what works for someone else may not work for you - and that's fine! I need to outline my fics before I start writing, but I know some dedicated pantsers who write brilliant and beautiful work. The key is to find what works for you. There are no rules but the ones you make for yourself. 

Related to that, I think it's important to identify your style. We all have unique voices, and trying to make yourself sound just like someone else will only end in frustration. Play to your strengths! Do you prefer writing action or romance? Do you like intense angst or lighthearted fluff? Does dialogue or prose come easier to you? Do you like long, descriptive text, or do you prefer brevity? All of these things shape the kinds of stories that you will gravitate toward, and it also shapes the overall voice of your writing. What you are known for, in other words. It's okay if it takes you a while to find it, and it's okay if you have to try on a lot of different "hats" before you find the one (or several) that fit you. Writing is a journey of self-discovery in a lot of ways - that's why I love it so much!

[agenderarcee]

well i guess it's appropriate that i'd be forced onto tumblr to talk about this lol!! watched the nimona movie with jordan (one of our original bonding points!!) and really enjoyed it

my only disappointments:

goldenloin's luxurious hair... where did u go

why did they call him ballister boldheart and NOT have that be setup for calling him ballister blackheart as a villain that wouldve worked perfectly

blitzmeyer!! i get why she didnt fit but i missed her. bal couldve had a mad scientist gal pal....

i also miss nimona's fake backstory where she was turned into a dragon by a witch. "wait then why can you turn into other things" "the spell was slippery. she wasn't a very good witch"

her "evil dragon" form was cooler in the comic

but!! there were also a lot of changes i really enjoyed

nimona's FANGIES!! overall she was such an expressive little goblin it was great

ballister was also way hotter which i appreciated, the mustache adds a lot

lot of great new jokes. off the top of my head the demon child thing was great, "chopping off arms is not a love language!!", fake goldenloin death throes, and much more

i was a little turned off by the director not being Pointy at first but i kind of like that they made her look like a white pixar mom it fits with the narrative better. also she had a great villain speech

nimona's TRAGIC BABY YURI FLASHBACK!!!!!! CAnnot emphasize this enough

also making nimona's trans/nb allegoriness feel more front and center

great stuff with the ballister/ambrosius romance too i really liked how they developed it, loved little bits like ambrosius arguing that ballister should choose him over nimona

ANYWAY great movie great adaptation, loved the art style, the movement, the humor, the feelings.... i think i mightve liked to see a little more about what was Beyond The Wall (and also how nimona got over it but i mean it wouldnt necessarily be hard for her she can turn into a bird. which just goes to show how unnecessary the wall was in the first place) but yeah very happy with it

[altschmerzes]

THE 13 BOOKS I READ IN 2023 IN ORDER FROM BEST TO WORST + THE PROTAGONIST'S SUPERLATIVE. PART 2.

6. A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L'Engel. a timeless classic that i love love love. meg is such a fun protagonist and i really enjoyed experiencing this as an adult again. the whole like… helpless devastated rage she feels when she realizes that adults can't just. fix everything? that sequence will always rattle me around like a mason jar fulla beans. she's such a like… man. the way the narrative was like. this isn't fair. it isn't right. it's happening anyway. i'm so sorry, but it's happening anyway. that really got me.

Protagonist: Meg Murry. Most Likely To Have A Profound And Life Altering Impact On Adolescent Weird Girls Who Read Her Book.

7. Whiskeyjack by Victoria Goddard. third book in the series, slightly less fun than the others but only very slightly. i cannot emphasize enough how difficult it was to rank like, 2-8. had some VERY fun stuff with like…. things you learn that then go back and recontextualize everything else. ended on a scene that made me fucking sob which is always a plus in my book. themes of FAMILY and LOYALTY and SACRIFICE. my fucking beloved. yes please. the pov character continues to have a horrible little time. also love that.

Protagonist: (again, series has dual protagonists, so switching back) Peregrine Dart. Most Likely To Be The Unwitting Conduit Of The Deus Ex Machina. Deus Ex Dart.

8. One By One by Ruth Ware. just a really good classic mystery thriller. i love a mystery thriller, and ruth ware seems to always hit for me. managed to pull off a pov switch between two pov characters one of whom had a massive, MASSIVE secret without it seeming completely nonsensical once revealed or relying on the pov character talking in deliberately obtuse or evasive ways that would be really tiresome and insulting if carried through. there was a set of tech bro startup characters that were obnoxious and infuriating in exactly the way that those people are in real life, so points for that for SURE even though i did wanna throttle them.

Protagonist: Erin (Lastname). Most Deserving Of A Tropical Vacation.

9. The Ritual by Adam Nevill. this is the most brutal book i have read in recent memory. possibly at all. this guy gets put all the way through the wringer physically and emotionally and it is visceral in the way it is described. the protagonist was a profoundly unpleasant person a lot of the time but this was deliberate and really engaging, honestly. there were some moments of stark self-reflection from him about the ways in which he did not like who he was and the things he did, and when he recognized how like. unfair and cruel he was being to the others in his head. wasn't as good as the movie, imo, but the changes that they made between the book and film made total sense given the sheer level of interiority in the book. and boy howdy how much interiority. whoof.

Protagonist: Luke. Most Surprising Survival.

10. I Am Not Who You Think I Am by Eric Rickstad. i think the most damning thing that can be said about this book is that i literally can't remember almost anything about it. it was compelling in some ways and there were a few very specific moments that i was really gripped by but most of it was like. a really flat letdown. it was interesting enough as a mystery that i finished it but i don't even really remember why, now.

Protagonist: Wayland Maynard. Most Forgettable Guy.

11. The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken. just. ugh. dystopia ya in a bad way. too complicated and not well established. dumbass colour coding system. it could've been so fun, i love traumatized teenagers with powers and an evil government in all sincerity but this just did not do anything good with it. it looked like it COULD have but it DIDN'T. the love interest character was a DICK. there was some weird gender takes that popped out of nowhere. jump-scared by gender. did enjoy watching the movie though because it was fucking insane and gave me a scene where the protagonist and the love interest shared a passionate embrace over what fully appeared to be the dead body of the love interest's theoretical best friend. amazing. no notes.

Protagonist: Ruby Daly. Most Likely To One Day Decide She's Tired Of Being Nice And She Does Want To Go Apeshit Actually.

12. Reputation by Sarah Vaughan. [VIDEODROME PRESCREEN AUDIENCE REVIEW WHERE THEY JSUT WROTE 'SUCKED' AND GOT SO UPSET ABOUT HOW BAD IT WAS THEY MARKED THE WRONG GENDER] this book was BAD. the writing was bad. the characters were bad and not on purpose. the politics of the book were uh. whoof. what if white girlboss feminism was a novel. points for some of the hardest i've laughed tho at Nice Dick Mike the journalist that the protagonist cannot respect after she sleeps with him and Lady Cop With Bangs, the traitor to womanhood.

Protagonist: Emma Webster. Most Likely To Submit An Extremely Long Post To Reddit Dot Com Slash Am I The Asshole That Leaves Out A Lot Of Like, Extremely Critical Information That When Uncovered All Makes Her Look Really Fucking Bad While She Seems To Still Think It Was Entirely Irrelevant And Honestly Unfair To Even Consider. Gd Forbid Women Do Anything.

UNCATEGORIZED: 21st Century Jocks: Sporting Men And Contemporary Heterosexuality by Eric Anderson. there was simply no way to rank this among the others, it was too completely different. they were all very different books but this was just. entirely different. had a wonderful time with it though!! gave me a lot to think about as someone who thinks a lot

thank you for joining me on this journey. i loved reading books again this year and would wholeheartedly recommend anything ranked 1-9 on this list, provided you like the genre/vibe.