#esp for you since you seem to like my stuff for some reason so !! here !! hope you enjoy aaah

[merakiui]

MERA!!!! I have no one else to ramble/rant about this to since I fear it's a pretty uncommon experience, but have you ever read a wonderful piece of work by someone who unfortunately ended up deactivating/leaving most socials? ;ª;

There's this one darker Tweels fic called "Aphotic" currently listed on ao3 (https://archiveofourown.org/works/27124492/chapters/66236443 link for good measure)- which if im not sure if you've ever read, but oh. My. God. It's such a great fic that really hits the spot for darker content of the tweels. The characterization of Jade and Floyd are absolutely my favorite in this fic as they're just *incredibly* mean to the reader but in a tasteful way. Bonus points also go to how the author wrote the mc(reader) as well, everyone in this fic is just equally fucked up and reading through this story is just one incredible rocky ride..there are only two surviving chapters and one of the two is Floyd focused, but I don't wanna spoil the main plot of the fic for anyone that may be interested in reading just please take the warning that when I say the tweels are mean, they are MEAN..

unfortunately the fic is not only unfinished but as I mentioned earlier, in a devastating turn of events the author of the series completely deactivated D: they were also on tumblr once I think they went by twstedworks? But there's no longer any way to see any of their works on this platform anymore which is just so unfortunate,, I get an intense feeling of past-felt-fomo knowing I wasn't able to see any of their other stuff while they were an active writer knowing that they seemed to be active in 2020(?) Which was a time I wasn't really reading any written works for twst... but regardless of whatever reason they chose to leave the platform I do hope they're doing well now.

I'm sad that I'll never be able to see the jade centric part of Aphotic, or be able to see any of their previous dribbles or works since they've all been completely wiped. I have followed good yan/dark twst writers and blogs in the past that have deactivated or moved on for whatever personal reason in the past but it does really suck in this case not being able to at least, in the slightest , have been able to experience other stuff this author may have wrote which im sure was delightful orz...

Reminder to readers and consumers of fanfic on here to always show support and motivation to your favorite writers!! You never know when you'll never get the chance to read anything from them ever again :( and thank you esp Mera for being one of my favorite twst blogs of all time on here!! Your interpretations of the tweels have always been my favorite from any blog and the way you choose to write these characters in general never disappoints ✨️

If this does get answered, being as this is my first ever formal ask, may I be 🪆 anon? Or 🍮🥄 if that's taken ^_^

Hi hiii, 🍮🥄 anon!!! (˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶)

I know that experience... >_< it's happened to some of the stories/authors I followed. It's always so sad when writers deactivate/leave the platform or fandom/etc, but everyone has their reasons. I can only be grateful I was able to behold such enjoyable works!!! :D "Aphotic" sounds like such an interesting story!! I love mean tweels. <3 I'll have to check it out!

I think I've read some writings from twsted-works before they deactivated! It was so long ago (before I even had a tumblr account), but I remember adoring the way they wrote Octavinelle. I hope they're doing well wherever they are!!

And you're so right!!! It's always important to show support and love to artists, creators, writers, etc! Most, if not all, writers love to receive feedback on their work. Even something like a keyboard smash or a dozen heart emojis is very flattering to us because it shows us that you've enjoyed the work. Whether you show that enjoyment by commenting, liking, reblogging, or sending an ask on here, it's always lovely to spread appreciation for the hard work and time that goes into crafting wonderful stories!!! ദ്ദി(˵ •̀ ᴗ - ˵ ) ✧

Thank you so much for your sweet words!! I'm just happy to be able to write and share stories!! It's a huge honor you would consider me one of your favorite twst blogs. I'm beyond flattered!!!! ♥️✨

[mysteryanimator]

SENSES - Animatic breakdown :D

Breaking down my panels because I am silly and I know some people wanted me to break down my thoughts for this. THOUGH, I still leave a lot up for interpretation!

You can watch it here :D

(Also I ended up adding subtitles to this, so you can see what panels get timed to each lyric)

(I won't go through every single panel since 30 image limit BUT please know that 99.9% of the panels have been beamed with a lot of symbolism. I'm very passionate about this subject, esp with drama scenes LOL)

Also here proving to myself I don't use ten billion close up shots HAHAHAH, ty for three days ago me for thumbnailing everything

SECTION 1- MIZRAK'S POV

yes, the first verse and first chorus is from Mizrak's perspective/second verse is from Olrox's perspective.

OK, not only is the establishing shot, but it kinda establishes the major symbolism stuff I play into- hands and windows! Connection and dividers! Please keep in mind eyes are the window to the soul :D

It very much informs the entire animatic LOL.

From here on out (till a certain point :3) the window acts as a divider. This shot will be important for later btw :))) Also I have a feeling Olrox would say something like "Destiny always seemed make believe."

Fun fact, I ended up dropping a wip section 01 to a few people and they were all eviscerated by the part of Mizrak reaching for Olrox. This acted like a screen test for me and later informed me to focus on Mizrak's hand for a few more shots.

WHICH, BY WAY THE CHORUS BREAKUP SECTION FROM MIZRAK'S POV:

I won't delve too much into here, BUT mentally i decided that when interpreting the chorus, it was as if they were speaking to each other. It also happens again for the bridge part :DDD

SECTION 2- OLROX'S POV

What was important to me was getting Olrox's POV on Mizrak, since in Nocturne we explored Mizrak getting insight into Olrox's past I went "omg, let's do the reverse!" and get Olrox to gather insight on Mizrak's past.

I've perceived Mizrak to be a lot more snappier with his co-workers and friends (take for insistence him yelling at the other monks, and being a lot more direct without fanfare with Richter and Maria in the first ep)

PARALLELS !!! Which, the abbey is intentionally overlayed over Olrox, hahaha Mizrak needs to choose between duty and desire :))))) Also this is the sole reason why the placements are skewed heavily to one side, so they can literal mirrored version of each other and be put side by side.

I actually debated myself a lot for this part, because the plan was going to go in a very different direction, however I thought having them not facing the camera, much like how they both can't seem to face themselves (or each other directly for this matter). Which I noticed was a huge thing with the character acting between those two characters.

ANOTHER CALL BACK LOL. Also I personally interpret Mizrak saying "we make our own destiny".

Mizrak reaching out !!! Also, while there is no window, the wood panels are there to substitute for the division theme. Olrox is standing on that divide and Mizrak has to decide if he wants to "break" through that divider.

SECTION 3 - omg they do it

OK, the scenes where they do the deed!!! By this point I feel like you guys are already getting very used to all the call-back scenes, so instead of doing a mirrored version of the first chorus scene, I decided to make all of the lyrics a contradiction to what was happening on screen. This helps for the hard cut to their argument hit sooo much harder (well i would hope sooooo LOL)

also if this shot feels familar, It's from an animation wip I'm working on that's been shelved for now because of uni HAHAH

A fight? No no, you're getting them fuc-

HAND, this will be the only time they will touch hands. The only time they connect. Also I like the contradiction with the "leave me alone with all of my questions", while they literally hold hands as they do it LOL.

SECTION 4- The argument

OK SO, me explaining these frame isn't super important, its more so a fun fact BUT going back to them using parts of the song as their "dialogue", I thought it would be fun to have them jab at each other. SO when Olrox is paired with:

"Know you fell for the person that tried to be someone they're not." Olrox is taking a jab at Mizrak for not being himself.

"You long for a feeling you'll never get back and I'm scared that you'll finally give up." Mizrak is taking a jab at Olrox for being a 'coward'.

HA, so remember eyes are window to the soul? Well so I decided that for this argument section, I wanted to give off that the argument here was literally going to dig DEEP, so I just ended up reusing the exact same lighting/posing for them. Which is the reason why they're both dead center (and it helps make this section slightly disorientating).

Which by the way, I noticed in Nocturne, these characters don't face each other directly when being vulnerable- they're always like behind or off to their side. The only times where they've been face to face properly are these:

"You're an animal whose soul died centuries ago." "Oh, has the world abandoned you Mizrak?"

They're jabbing into each other's inner psyche, so I wanted to do that here :D

Yes, that is right. Briefly you see Olrox's lover and Olrox's amercia fit. I thought it would be SO angsty for the earring piece to come from Olrox's previous lover. Also the past versions only start appearing during the "but the one you'll never love." :))))))

Btw I'm not 100% solid on Olrox's prev lover design, but I'd love to develop him more someday (if he doesn't get further developed season 2)

SECTION 5- Aftermath

From here on out, I make the references so much more obvious! For Olrox waking up I ended up going backward of the introduction! Which as a final note, the abbey and Olrox are on opposite sides of the divide :)))

Also, around this time I had realised "oh I have 30 seconds left and I want this done now or else it'll fester and rot in my brain, making me unable to do anything else until I finish it." So instead of completely making new assets from scratch, a much more straightforward parallel was in order (and it makes it super angsty too, which double points)

The ending I wanted to leave very open ended! However, I will make it known that he crosses over that divider when he balls his hands into fists, unlike how he was unable to when I first showed this exact shot.

Also these are the three shots I reference back to for this final scene. Mizrak ends up crossing over that divide, much like he did when the animatic started. WHICH AGAIN, you are super free to infer and make up your own thoughts as to why these scenes were crucial for referencing.

By the way, every time we have seen Mizrak from the chest down, it starts from the back, then the side, and now the front :))))

As a side note, every time I cut off a character's head (specifically eyes too) in a shot, it is very purposeful to force the audience to infer what these characters are feeling and base it off their body language alone. It is also in a way, an attempt to conceal as much as I can about what the character is feeling, playing into the theme that eyes are the window to the soul, and we, as the audience, are not allowed into their private thoughts.

anddd done :D hope y'all enjoy this info-dumping soup. I'd love to try my hand at some action boards and see how my analytical brain puts drama beats there, since at this point applying emotional connections to compositions and camera angles is second nature. So that for action hrmmmmmm we'll see AFTER UNI THO (ANNETTE IT'S YOUR TURN)

I have one assignment left for this semester, wish my uni wouldn't adamantly put down 2d focused students (or wish they'd even teach us, though honestly teaching myself is very fun and rewarding) BUT I digress!

I had a lot of fun doing this! Ty for reading this far LOLOLOL

[hongluboobs]

(sending myself an ask I got on Retrospring a while back because I was able to get a really interesting answer with help from a friend and I think more people need to be aware of this stuff. the original asker was anonymous and this question was sparked because I was compiling Hong Lu's lines for something and noticed just how many tildes and ellipsis he uses... and that it was making its way into my own typing patterns lmao)

about the hong lu ellipsis/tilde thing: i remember hearing an offhand comment from a kr speaker that hong lu's speech quirk is talking girlishly, and while i am not an expert in korean by any means, i've read that women tend to speak softer and more passively, drag out their last syllables (probably the reason for all the tildes), and end their statements with rhetorical question tags more often, among other things. it's unfortunately generally theorized this is a result of misogyny in korean culture. i wish i could say more but i really don't know korean and i don't how it compares to like, everyone else in the cast

(Original post can be found here )

This was interesting to me and i’m lucky enough to know someone who natively speaks korean and plays limbus in kr so i asked him about it! All credit to Ciel @/10seisan for this incoming text wall :)

Here’s what he had to say:

I, too, read that Hong Lu’s tone and speech patterns as being more feminine. Specifically, I would describe his tone as sounding like a mixture of customer service and feminine speech, if that makes sense. His vocal inflexions are more noticeable and they tend to go upwards in pitch, which is associated with feminine speech patterns. I would say that what the asker sent about how women tend to speak here is accurate, and I think that misogyny plays a large role in it as well. As an example, the passive speaking, we have the word 돌려서 말하다, which means “to indirectly speak about a topic” or “beat around the bushes”. This is somewhat expected for people of all genders in formal situations to be polite, but women tend to do it more often and in less formal situations as well due to societal pressure to not seem “aggressive” by coming across “too strong”. Tangents aside, Hong Lu’s tildes in the text corresponds to the voice lines where he drags out syllables, speaks more softly, and/or has a particularly noticeable rise in inflexion at the end of a sentence, so they certainly are indicative of his feminine mannerisms in speech. As for the ellipses, this depends more on the context, since they can be used simply to indicate pauses, but I wouldn’t be surprised if at least some of them coincided with something specific to his speech mannerisms as well. As for how he compares to the other sinners, I would say that, in some ways, his speech sounds similar to Rodya’s, actually—more so than the other sinners. Especially when it comes to the (canonically) male sinners, his speech is not at all similar to any of them. Yi Sang may be the closest if I were required to choose—solely due to his voice being on the softer side—but even then, Yi Sang has very little inflexion and typically ends his sentences with a fall in pitch, unlike Hong Lu

(Ciel’s thoughts end here)

This is all really interesting to me because as an english speaker (and as a person who tends to tune out vocal performance in general, esp if it’s foreign) i can only catch some of it. The delivery on Hong Lu’s lines make sense, especially when taking his background from his source book into account. (whether you want to purely read this as overly formal speech bc of the whole “family is like a cohort of kin looking for a chance to stab you in the back” thing or you want to read gender in it is up to you)

The fact it’s most similar to Rodya’s speech patterns is interesting too… I notice this in the english text as well (i’ve seen people mistake abnormality log text written by Hong Lu for Rodya and vice versa on numerous occasions) Rodya plays up her feminity a lot as a mask so it makes a lot of sense that it’s the closest to Hong Lu’s but still. very interesting. I’m a huge fan of their dynamic in general but that’s a tangent for a different ask, it’ll just be interesting to see if/what can make Hong Lu drop those speaking patterns…

I could yap a bit more on this but i think i’m just gonna leave it be for now because Ciel did a really good job at explaining it all :)

[crushedsweets]

What about some lulu headcannons since you seem to like her? :)

oh anon u are spoiling me.... heres a little sketch of her college life. let me begin . . tw for general creepypasta things, abuse, bullying, death, etc

ok. so a lot lulus og stuff is gross obviously (although a majority of the og creepypastas have gross origins/creators). as a kid, i was pretty attached to her, but looking back , its just. ugghhghgh. which is why i want to try giving her her own horror type story while still following some of the core things that made her her. BEGONE WITH MIDDLE/HIGH SCHOOL KILLERS...

lulu is 24 but described as 'physically 14' which bugs me esp bc theres so much emphasis on her body being like an adult. and frankly i am not crazy about yet another 'little kid bullied/abused then goes crazy/demonic' story so i scrapped the bullshit ‘is 24 but looks 14 but is drawn like she’s 24!’. So I decided to just to make make her whole zalgo poisoning occur later in life. since its now set in university, a handful of things changed. mayhaps she knows jack ?

she grew up as a rich girl being put through several private schools growing up. she wasnt the smartest, she wasnt the most social, and while i think that the og story did this really fucking poorly, she did deal with harassment cuz she developed early. ranged from people calling her a slut for the same clothes as a thinner girl, to getting dress coded for no good reason, to rumors, etc. so, she's being bullied by her peers, though its moreso a ton of gossip rather than stuff in her og. overall school sucked for her

finally she goes to university. shes away from all those people, away from her helicopter parents, away from dress codes and loneliness. she tries SO hard to keep up the perfect daughter persona in public bc she knows shes walking on thin ice(having been punished for things out of her control all her life), with a wardrobe full of pencil skirts and button ups, but then she finally meets this guy named josh. but that shit gets seriously exhausting. and as many kids in her position do, she wants to Rebel .. she starts going to parties and whatnot w her edgy ass roommate. random garage shows, raves, generally reckless behavior etc. its not her fully her thing but she's there and having fun.

idk his name in the og story but there was that guy that led her on just to further abuse her. i changed him up and made him some guy in a frat that she met at a rando party. he was so sweet to her the first time they met, they talked for a long time at the party, he was cool overall and she never ever craved attention like this before - she never even GOT attention like this before, coming from an all girls school, so she clung. but he wasnt actually gonna date her, so he said some bullshit excuse about 'you know how greek life is, my frat wont let me date u unless u join this specific sorority!! soz' and he chose the worst, most clique-y sorority that has the most insane hazing ritual for girls that arent sought after. he thought there was no way she'd give it a shot and he could get her off his back. a dick move, but he didnt think she'd do it.

but, she does - and the hazing is fucking shit. the girls in the sorority are worse than the girls in highschool (and maybe in cliché fashion, one of her highschool bullies ended up in the sorority before her?). it starts off as things like 'oh you gotta buy your sorority sisters coffee for a week' to 'oh you have to be drunk/high throughout all your classes for a week' to completely deranged shit like branding yourself or slashing a professors tires. things nobody in their right mind would do, typically.

i havent decided exactly how exactly lulu hits the point where they think she's dead, but a group of sorority girls think she is. they panic, and in their panic cannot feel her pulse or hear breathing. she's completely unconscious, cold, and frankly on the way to death - so they take her to slenders forest and get to work

they bury her in a shallow grave, unaware of all the different demons residing in the forest watching one of the most gruesome displays of humanity. if youve watched girl from nowhere, theres a scene where nano gets buried alive by a group of her classmates then she wakes up . . imagine that.

im thinking, similar to the operator, zalgo can infect people as well . . maybe people on their death beds ? anyway, lulu's infected. long after the girls run off, lulu manages to dig herself out of the grave. shes wheezing, coughing, sobbing, its dark and cold and foggy, and she now has to come face to face with zalgo making some weird 'i saved you, i want something in return.' and there goes her eyes !!! rip lulu. maybe zalgo did it cuz hes a dick, maybe he actually needs human parts to seal the deal.

theres some more interaction but overall lulu doesnt have a ton of demon powers or anything. new wounds heal quickly, but her past ones will never will. she can be eerily quiet, popping in and out with fog, doesn't need food/water/sleep. . she does have kinda crazy strength(no agility or speed), but she's so mentally weak it does nothing for her

for a while she does just wander the forest in complete and utter mourning, until one of the proxies finds her and is like Oh Fuck that's not human. toby describes her as a zombie. so she's another job for them to handle

eventually they settle her in the hospital with ann.. the hospital is likely an area that experiences more fog, being closer to the lake perhaps, so it just makes sense to put her in an area she can see. it took a while for lulu to calm down bc she now has a pretty big fear around women , and the proxies have to CONSTANTLY come around and check in for a while, cuz she feels safer with them. maybe they tried putting her with jack but jack said absolutely the fuck not. bc lulus legitmately scary. she's constantly croaking, crying, wheezing, dripping blood everywhere she goes, etc.

she eventually gets along with ann, who thinks lulus cute and fun to chat with. i made a joke about them doing tiktok dances together but like. i could see it. maybe ann reminds lulu of her roommate, the only girl whos been completely nice to her ? dunno. (despite the roomie being the reason lulu got into the partying and stuff)

mmmmmm yeah. that is basically the entire rewrite .

i likely wont include her too much in the story just because the rewrite is so drastic+shes not all too popular but i used to feel very fondly towards her when i was 10 and i do think her character cconcept is super cool (the fog, the eye stuff, zalgo poisoning etc). theres just hella weird stuff but its a creepypasta from 2013 idk what we expect

[icedfini-tea]

•Imagine, Idol!reader thats also a pirate, their crew is basically their whole staff( /first fan base) and their right hand man as their manager. Reason why they became a pirate in the first place is that they just go wherever they want to have a concert and just…trespass, even tho they can just get a permit, but wheres the thrill in that?

•Idol!reader has a huge fanbase since they go around the seas to perform. Their concerts in the East blue is more tame since most of the fans there are teenagers and kids alike while on the North blue,,, theres no limit of what a performer can do ;). (South and West blue are one the middle)

•Sometimes they do collabs with other artists/musicians, like uta. When the announcement of their collab got announced and spread world wide, not even a day, almost all of the people celebrated (esp their die hard fans) in joy since- hello?? Two of the infamous idols are gonna do a music together and perform!

•The concerts of theirs is randomly vogue. since they don’t give schedules or any heads up to the people. the most they can do is give a singular clue to their fans and the rest is for them to solve (cause of the marines), Its like an investigation of when and where their next concert will be. If you got the info’s right then enjoy the show! If not then better luck next time ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ .

•Since they have a high bounty, the marines always keep track of them whenever they left a clue, sometimes they would be right and crash the show (just like how they crashes soul king’s performance) but most of the time,,,, not so much, since they’re cheeky like that.

•They have their own light sticks and merch like those kpop groups. Fans can collect photo cards (some are limited), keychains, stickers, pins, etc. reason why they have the budget of effects and other stuff.

₊✩‧₊˚౨ৎ˚₊✩‧₊ ₊✩‧₊˚౨ৎ˚₊✩‧₊ ₊✩‧₊˚౨ৎ˚₊✩‧₊ ₊✩‧₊˚౨ৎ˚₊✩‧₊

▶︎•၊၊||၊|။||||။၊|။• Extra

“Holy shit man, i cant believe we got to see them in live!” “Damn theres so many people here” “The code they gave for this concert is confusing as shit but i still managed to crack it!” “Your sacrifice for sleep will not be in vain brother”

as more people came to the venue to watch others kept chatting amongst themselves waiting for the performance to start.

Meanwhile a ship with a lion’s head approached an island, the sound of many voices chattering captivated the crew’s attention. Luffy, always one to follow his instincts, leaped to his feet, his eyes alight with curiosity.

"Hey, what's that sound?" he exclaimed, pointing toward the shore.

Nami, peered through her binoculars and grinned. "Looks like there's a concert happening on the island. Let's check it out!"

Excited at the prospect of new entertainment, the Straw Hats disembarked onto the lively island. Crowds of people gathered around a grand stage, where colorful lights danced to the rhythm of the music. The source of the beginning melody stood at the center of the stage, captivating the audience with their captivating voice and mesmerizing performance. The crowd roared with excitement as the show progressed.

“Oh my, how lucky we are to watch their live performance” The woman chuckled

“huh? What do you mean about that robin?” The reindeer tugged the woman’s hand, Robin then looked down at chopper

“ A legend among the seas, whose fame transcended oceans and boundaries. With their captivating charisma and unmatched talent, she held sway over the hearts of both pirates and civilians alike.” She then looked back at the stage seing the idol perform.

“Their voice carried the weight of countless adventures, each note resonating with the spirit of freedom and adventure.” As her story ended, the rest of the straw hats that were listening to her went back to the idol singing.

“YOHOHOHO, i couldnt believe i get to meet the infamous idol so soon!”

“Seems like it’s our lucky day!- wait where’s sanji?-“ ussop then looked around when suddenly

“LOVELY IDOL-CHAAAAAAAAAN~~~” popped out of nowhere holding two light sticks on each hand and a whole bag of merchandize in his back

“WHERE- AND HOW DID YOU EVEN MANAGE TO GET ALL THAT STUFF-“ ussop screached

“WOW! THIS CONCERT IS VERY SUUUUPEEEERRR!” As franky did his usual pose

“WAAAAH! LOOK AT ALL THOSE LIGHTS AND CONFETTIS!” chopper looked around amazed

“ tch, its theres too many people here..” zoro grumbled

“Well what do you expect from a very famous idol” nami smiled watching the performance

“We couldn’t go back now since theres too many people blocking the way, so lets just enjoy the show” jimbe chuckled abit at zoro

“Then ill make a way” before he pulls out one of his sword he then got bonked

“ARE YOU THAT HARD HEADED!?” Yelled nami and sanji at the same time

As the crew kept chatting/bickering while watching the performance, Luffy couldn’t help but wonder why the idol performing looks someone familiar he met before his adventure to be the pirate king. But in the end he just shrugged it off and continue enjoying the lively atmosphere of the concert with his crew.

[christiansorrell]

TTRPG Read-Through: Patchwork World

Here is a read-through I did last year (originally posted on Twitter) of one of the most unique PbtA games I've ever read: Patchwork World by Aaron King! - Christian

Credits up first. I know a lot of these folks and they are really cool! Excited to dig into this. I've heard good things, and it's been a while since I've read or played any Powered by the Apocalypse.

This is a cool, strong set up for me. I really like settings that ask characters to face a changing world and either take up change themselves or work to restore the old way of things. It's a headspace I find myself in a lot IRL these days so it's fun to explore.

I'm interested to see how the no stats, no playbooks angle of this game works, considering playbooks are typically such a staple of PbtA games.

Standard three-tired success, mixed success, fail forward resolution for rolls here and questions on the moves determine your bonus to the roll. Easy peasy. +2 is the max bonus.

Other types of rolls are described here. Interested to see how they come into play. I also love clocks and use them in pretty much every game I run so it's nice to see those laid out here too.

We just love a lil guy, don't we folks?

A good chunk of the opening here is spent on laying out a lot of solid foundations of roleplaying generally. It feels like a book (so far) that would work for entirely new players. It doesn't feel essential for me, but I never mind a game that supports varied experience levels.

Character creation is wide open, especially since there aren't playbooks and the text stresses that character creation is very much worldbuilding because of this. Fate-like concepts and tags are in here too which are things I generally enjoy. I like the Drawback mechanic.

Moves are in the playback I set in the other room so I'm gonna go grab those. You get two chosen moves and everyone has access to a number of default moves. You've got three other life/XP things to keep track of too. I'm especially interested in Hex.

There are a lot of moves! They seem quite varied and often very weird, fitting well with the titular patchwork world. You can have a duck's slick soul to dodge more easily or a magical space suit or speak to birds or be good at cartography. Overwhelming, but in an exciting way.

You also choose a community as a party. While PCs all have their original homelands (before the end of the old worlds), you know have a community that gets its own little sheet. This is a cool reshaping of the Gangs from Blades. I also like how the community can change over time.

Coming back to a PbtA game after months of more OSR-minded stuff, I think a lot of what these games contain are things that experienced players would say you could just do in any game at any time that it makes sense in the story, but I do find value in stating what's possible.

Esp since many players come to games with artificial limits on their options (whether that's from video games, more traditional RPGs, etc.). I just think good GMing here requires making sure that the players don't limit themselves just to the bevy of explicit options either.

GM moves (mostly to guide the response to failed rolls). I really think the community aspect of this set up is one of the biggest appeals to me so far. That and the wild list of moves, which I'm sure makes for amazing parties of characters.

I always feel like it's never something I should be in my own writing (for some probably unnecessary reason), but I enjoy the first-person, casual writing style throughout the book. Makes for a very chill read.

Good to see this game employs the Branson Reese style of NPC naming.

Stress acts as a single catch-all health and challenge rating for NPCs. Ideally, I'd hope this would help lead to the PCs approaching encounters with more than just violence.

Sections like this are what I'm referring to when I say this book feels very friendly to new players. It's got little anecdotes and thoughts like this throughout.

Look, it's been a while since I've seen A Christmas Story but... it didn't have ghosts in it right?

There's a sample adventure in the back (which I'll skip for this read-through) plus loads of random tables. Some wonderfully bizarre stuff in the characters and faction tables. Really gives you a good idea for how gonzo you can go with the setting.

Love these two in particular

Optional rules include hard mode (which I just think is kind of funny to see in PbtA, but could be cool if you lean heavy into the post-apoc setting) and some optional moves. I like that some moves focus on romance, something I enjoy IRL but never think to focus on in games.

I was wondering why this was the sixth edition!

That's all for the book itself. Going back to the packet to dig into the things I missed. Some expected bits in here but always one or two unique options I really enjoy. Leaking hex is cool (and could have some troubling cascade effects in certain situations).

I definitely wish, at least in sitting down to read like this, that the contents of the player packet was also in the book itself. I think PbtA has this tendency of leading to loads of pages on the table, but it can make them very easy to pick up and play or to learn as you play.

That element is definitely here, but I think the vast number of wide-ranging moves and the excitement that would drum up in my player group would more than makeup for that initial overwhelming feel of "whoa, that's a lot of papers out on the table".

Overall, it's the most I've wanted to play a game in this style in a while. I like that the base setup for the world is very much up to the players to determine via the characters they make. I like that PCs here will probably feel unlike any other folks have played before.

The community aspect feels like where I'd want to center my story around, as a player. Seeing that shift and change over time feels like it would be very rewarding and would help lean into the "the old world is dead, what do we want the new world to look like?" theme I enjoy.

Because Aaron King is cool and recently hit a lot of Twitter followers, Patchwork Worlds is now Pay-what-you-want over on Itch.

I'm not sure if physical copies are readily available. For full disclosure (guess I should have said this up front), I got this copy for free from Aaron! Not for the purposes of this thread or anything, just for fun a while back.

Thanks for reading more ramblings from me! If you like to do that sort of thing, check out my newsletter - Missives from the MeatCastle. It's got writings on my work, cool stuff I've run across the web in the last month, and exclusive rpg stuff! https://meatcastle.substack.com

[saruside-01]

So, I finished 2.6 story…

And’ve got lots of different thoughts (spoilers!)

First of all, rappa. I know that hoyo loves making us sad (esp when it comes to penacony characters), but oh my god, did they go hard on her

Like, wdym she’s super depressed actually and the only reason she’s not a nihility character is because her ‘master’ made her believe it’s all ninja training?? I had 2.1 flashbacks with her… (and I actually cried, which is very very rare)

The danganronpa blood… It makes me so sad that we can see how she thought she looked like (how she looks like now) and how she truly was. And it seems with every version, hoyo’s getting more bold with adding blood and darker stuff to hsr (and I love it). And also boothill?? He also made me cry, because profnana (whom I absolutely despise) made him have flashbacks?? Like hello?? Hoyo, you didn’t have to go that hard on the galaxy rangers, really.

And reca… Tbh, I am kinda disappointed, because I expected him to be more like sparkle… But since he’s not playable yet, maybe when we learn more about him, we’ll know that when it comes to films (memories), he’s a weirdo.

AND WDYM HE’S A MEMOKEEPER?? I THOGUH HE WAS A MASKED FOOL 😭 ngl, it actually makes sense, but still… I thought he was the one behind the monkeys

And what bout this scene? He doesn’t seem so nice here

I really hope we get to see more of that side, because I’m genuinely curious why he said what he said.

That’s not how a straight man sits. We know what you are, reca.

Boothill appreciation moment

He’s so squishible (listen, there are too many characters and got traumatised as children this game and I just wanna hug them all)

I’m adopting him. That’s my son from now on.

I also wish we got some more sunday crumbs, hit oh well

[sarah-cam]

This is the same anon that just messaged about Jeremiah/Conrad! I forgot to add sort of in the analysis Jelly/Bonrad and why you think one is "better" analysis-wise or even personal-preference-wise 😊

alright i’m going to start this with just my personal preference and then get into an analytical side. a lot of my opinions on the ships revolve around my opinions of conrad vs jeremiah, because a lot of the reasons i don't like jere have to do with jelly (that post is here)

again, i want to start this by saying that if you ship jelly that’s awesome for you but to be blunt lbr y’all are delulu if you genuinely believe that bonrad won’t be endgame 😂

jenny han spent several years and three books building the relationship between belly and conrad, and now two seasons of a show where not only are belly and conrad ALWAYS the underlying relationship, but conrad is imo clearly the lead male over jeremiah. he continuously has storylines outside of his relationship with belly, vs jere's focus pretty much only revolving around that so far. she’s not going to change the endgame… she’s just not 🤷🏻‍♀️

first things first — i don’t choose the ship, the ships choose me 🙏🏼 it’s pretty simple and probably is for a lot of people, i just get all the tingly feelings and that’s that

from that first slow motion walk up, the chemistry was CHEM👏🏼IS👏🏼TRY👏🏼ING👏🏼!!! lola and chris have such amazing chemistry in every single scene, even when they don’t even say anything, and that chemistry is romantic straight from that very first scene

and i will admit, lola and gavin have good chemistry too!! (lola honestly has such great, unique chemistry with every other actor) even though i have my issues with it, the scene between belly and jeremiah on the side of the road DID hit me in the feels. the issue for me though is that the vibes i get are just not romantic in the same way as it is with conrad, its bestie vibes. at the very least, they start the show with bestie vibes and romantic vibes "develop". it just feels forced in a way, especially since belly and conrad is just always there.

i should be able to see it - you shouldn't have to tell me. most notably, when trusky goes on that weird rant about their "vibes" when they were literally just standing next to each other, worrying about conrad, and jere was rolling his eyes about conrad being depressed over belly. they constantly talk about their "ESP" but when it comes time to show how well he knows her, it's not even just that he doesn't know her favorite candy is sour patch kids - he literally doesn't know that she hates swedish fish

taking some points from my conrad/jeremiah analysis, i don't like the way jeremiah is manipulative and constantly makes belly feel guilty for being happy or simply just existing next to conrad. rolling his eyes when she seems a little jealous of sophie and when she has a little smile when she learns conrad was staring at pictures of her, constantly eyeing them when belly worries about conrad in "love fool", interrupts them with an angry look when they talk in the store in "love fest", brings her up in his fight with conrad also in "love fest", keeps giving nasty looks in "love triangle" when conrad gives her his sweatshirt, the stuff with the candy, and when their hands BARELY touch at the motel. in that same lane, i just feel like he invalidates her feelings a lot, shames her for loving conrad, and dismisses/shuts her down when she tries to talk about it (which was funny when lola said in an interview that jere made belly feel more heard 😂 she's fighting for her life out there)

the episode with his narration was PAINFUL. i'm sorry but he gave off the biggest incel vibes. everything he said revolved around hating on conrad or victimizing himself, like "doesn't she know i would treat her so much better?? doesn't she know how much i want to be sitting next to her?? conrad had no right to date her after ignoring her for years." IT WAS GROSS. and also, not true. jere said himself that he started liking her after she 'turned pretty' which... i don't even believe. he only started liking her after he saw her almost kiss conrad. he is supportive of cam cameron and encourages their relationship. he's only jealous of conrad.

to conrad, this isn't a competition or a game. and if it was, he would voluntarily lose if it meant belly would be happy.

and in case you were still doubting the iconic soulmatism that only occurs in the ultimate endgames - here ya go!!

tropes: i found an amazing list laid out here and picked out some of the best ones

all girls want bad boys

anguished declaration of love (more so the 3rd book so it hasn't happened yet)

childhood friends/best friends to lovers (yes because conrad is ALSO her best friend)

childhood crush

everyone can see it

first love/first guy wins

i want my beloved to be happy

settle for sibling

single-target sexuality (conrad only ever loves belly and lbr she only ever truly loves him)

unrequited/secretly-requited love

music: like... come on... it's pretty clear (and before you bring up delicate, don't: "this ain't for the best" "we can't make any promises")

lover, "can we always be this close forever and ever?"

the way i loved you, "and i never knew i could feel that much"

this love, "these hands had to let it go free and this love came back to me"

false god, "we'd still worship this love"

august, "for me, it was enough to live for the hope of it all"

back to december, "it turns out freedom ain’t nothing but missing you"

last kiss, "i never thought we'd have a last kiss"

invisible string, "all along there was some invisible string tying you to me"

sweet nothing, "i find myself running home to your sweet nothings"

snow on the beach, "time can't stop me quite like you did"

exile, "we always walked a very thin line"

when the party's over, "i've learned to lose you, can't afford to"

drivers license, "how could i ever love someone else?

deja vu, "she thinks it's special but it's all reused"

never really over, "just because it's over doesn't mean it's really over"

steal my girl, "we want the same things we dream the same dreams"

i'm kissing you, "but watching stars without you my soul cried"

little things:

conrad was the only one growing up that ever included her

they have their own handshake in the volleyball game (vs belly teaching jere her and taylor’s)

he gets her meaningful presents (junior mint, glass unicorn, infinity necklace, bouquet of candy)

he always knows and gets her favorite things (muffins, candy)

they call each other all the time

he gives her his sweaters even when she says she's not cold, because he knows she doesn't mind the cold but likes being cozy

pictures of the two of them are constantly showed (belly's phone, her room, the polaroid)

conrad is the leader but they also look to belly as a leader too (deciding to throw the party, boardwalk, team belly/team conrad)

conrad cheers for steven to fight milo but breaks it up as soon as belly tells him to

always worrying about each other (conrad jumps in to defend laurel from adam when belly gets upset, she always looks to him first when something bad happens)

he can tell that she's awake in the motel because she isn't snoring

they have the same dream of the future (coming back to cousins)

and most of all, susannah, laurel, AND steven ship it 👑

parallels:

first off, the flashbacks typically mirror what's going on in present day and almost every flashback is of something important with conrad

the pool scenes with belly swimming while conrad has his feet in

she dreams of him kissing her in the beginning of s2 in the same way he kisses her when they are in front of the fireplace

they continuously have important scenes on the beach

he picks her up the same way the last time they were on the beach as a couple and the first time since their breakup

her wearing his cousins rowing shirt and then still having it, wearing his sweater/sweatshirt, wearing his t-shirt even when broken up

she brings up how he helped her with trig during 'shoot your shot'

he always plays with her hair/brushes it from her face

the infinity necklace and junior mint always being there

constant parallels to staylor (i made a post about them here), jenny has literally said that steven is taylor's conrad

quotes:

conrad - "i'm glad that it was me" "i do want you" "you're it for me" "my chest physically hurts to not be able to tell her that i'm in love with her" "i don't think i could ever get over you" "[you're cold-hearted] for everyone else maybe, not for you"

belly - "you were great" "being with you is all i'ver ever wanted" "i want it to be with you" "there's only you, there's only ever been you" "i was in love, steven, like, out of my mind in love" "he made it so hard not to love him" "i loved conrad longer and truer than anyone in my whole life" "i'll probably never love anyone like that again" "i would've fought for you" "i don't regret any of the times we were together"

laurel - "for belly, conrad is the sun, and when the sun comes out, the stars disappear", saying that a cozy campfire (jeremiah) is not enough compared to fireworks (conrad)

steven - "conrad's her soulmate"

susannah - "i knew it" "take care of him", the letters she's writing in her last scene

foreshadowing:

most obviously, infinity - like it's pretty hard to argue with. also, when conrad explains infinity he compares it to a racetrack, and at the boardwalk him and belly cross the finish line of the racetrack together

dancing - all of the times belly dances, it's with conrad. the deb ball dance especially foreshadows a first dance at a wedding

venus - it is an evening star before it disappears, and then it returns as a morning star. conrad disappears from her life before returning

belly flops - conrad is always holding her under the arms, by her heart

rollerblades - belly talks about her feelings for conrad being tucked away like her rollerblades, which came out of storage in s2

staylor - belly and taylor's conversation about forgetting first loves and then taylor immediately ignoring that and getting with steven... she's so real

deja vu - belly constantly sees things that remind her of conrad, especially when she is with jeremiah. the song literally plays while she's in the car with him. like again... "it's all reused" 😂

names- isabel susannah conklin and conrad beck fisher... talk about fate amirite

lighting - the motel scene... enough said

[ca-suffit]

Sam-reid reblogging posts from nalyra and accusing marius haters of having "surface level takes" is rich. She ignores everything about this blog (your blog which I love!) and deems to punish viewers for not being comfortable with a known pedophile rapist in a book. It's blogs like hers which make me glad to my bones that I'm not part of this fandom any longer. I get chills from the absolute hatred radiating from users like her and nalyra and oh the reciepts you posted about formerly Neilcfreak? I felt sick reading how she lashed out at that black fan who tried to explain to her about A03 and its policies. But sam-reid is a special brand of ignorance and cold indifference towards black fans and fans who have problems with certain areas of the books. She looks down on anyone who doesn't love every word of the books. If she's ok with grooming and rape more power to her; but she so arrogantly asserts that the ONLY reason someone might have problems with topics of RAPE AND GROOMING esp through a lens of pedophilia is because of surface level takes?!

Yikes. BIG YIKES. How someone can be so SURFACE LEVEL IGNORANT is frightening.

She seems to think only in fictional world terms because in the real world, rape happens frequently. Grooming happens daily. So for her to assert that the ONLY reason someone might have issues with a character is because of SURFACE LEVEL TAKES speaks volumes of what kind of human being she is.

Marius triggers victims of rape and grooming for very real reasons, as fiction tends to do, as reading tends to do. That's why we read, and that's why fiction affects us so DEEPLY. So while insensitive and callous racists like sam-reid use SURFACE LEVEL reasons to judge us, the rest of us will be over here, avoiding surface level jerks like sam-reid, on your blog as a safe place. ❤

hi and thank u for ur comment<3

Let me repost a link to the neilcfreak / gorrei / rei thing in case anyone needs to know the context, bcuz this is an important thing to know for ppl engaging with her. This just happened in 2023.

Anyway, I'm glad it feels safe here. I'm always happy to talk about this stuff or let ppl vent about it. The books *are* v triggering and most of the fandom will not talk about it, which doesn't help anyone tbh.

I'm gonna answer most of this under a cut bcuz of the topics, but let me clarify some stuff first. Anyone mentioned here is mentioned for a reason. There's been a real increase on complaints about sam-reid lately, so I hope she's rly paying attention and not just thinking everyone is saying this for no reason. Ppl get harmed when u have a big voice in the fandom and u say things like this and turn ppl against others who are more vulnerable than u, especially when it comes to real trauma issues? I'm gonna get into this more under the cut but just to clarify that this isn't some silly thing or personal bitching about someone for no reason. I don't have any thoughts about sam-reid as a person, idk them beyond posts here. But this same attitude is across all of the big fandom ppl and it trickles down to hurting everyone, which is a big reason why this account is even here.

(I posted these screenshots smaller together but they won't save like that so sry they post long like this)

I'd also like to say that monstersinthecosmos runs with the og white woman fandom bullies from before the show aired. The fact that the same usernames show up supporting each other all the time is never surprising tbh.

Anyway TW for trauma, CSA, abuse

Everyone handles trauma differently, so a lot of what I've seen from the fandom over the years is ppl who handle it like this ^^ insisting it's the only "correct" way bcuz they can't look at it any other way, yet or maybe ever. Since Marius is so tied to childhood sexual abuse, it's always made sense bcuz a) a lot of ppl read these books as kids and b) Anne Rice wrote things in a way that romanticizes abuse. If u have never looked at the characters and/or ur own abuse as an adult, then here we are. Everything is fiction, everything is fun, nothing needs to be "real." Bcuz abused kids disconnect from abuse that same way. Some ppl stay there forever.

I'm not shaming that either. U can't dictate how ppl move thru abuse and trauma. We all do what we do. Everyone who comes into the IWTV / VC stories however it happens prbly comes from trauma. It just sucks that Anne Rice inspired such a dogshit view of the world in ppl that a group that's already ripe for infighting (traumatized ppl) gets made worse bcuz she taught everyone to be loud and wrong and then louder and more wrong. Don't ever look at ur own actions, just shout ppl down!!

The reason ppl tend to dislike book ppl is bcuz nothing is ever discussed. There's this simultaneous mindset of "I'm v smart" but also "I'm never gonna talk in depth about anything." Everyone can see this but u can't ever get *them* to see it. Conversations are impossible. Then they constantly talk down on others like this to keep everything hostile. They have to be "right," so playing up as if their perspective is the only true one and acting as if criticism of Anne Rice or the books is "so mean" bcuz of misogyny or ppl lacking media literacy or "don't they know they're all monsters lol" is the only thing they know how to do.

Traumatized ppl don't like to feel stupid, ignored, and dismissed. These big voices don't come from nothing. A lot of the vampires in the books reflect real responses to trauma, both in their personalities and how they move around each other. We also reflect that. I wish ppl could learn from that more. Unfortunately, we're prbly always gonna be in two camps about it. That's why this fandom tends to remain small no matter how big anything gets. Those who want to speak more on these themes and explore abuse tend to leave, or at least leave a lot of public spaces, bcuz these ppl have set up to always take in new recruits and bully ppl in groups. They're a small number of fans tbh, in all reality, they just look bigger bcuz they work together to build that illusion. They don't individually have the strength to get attention on their own so they gather together to reference each other a lot, recommend each other to whoever (which has now extended to cast and crew as well), and get in more spaces. Then they get to feel more "important" and soothe all the childhood trauma of nobody noticing them then, but doesn't everyone notice them now? Except look at what u did to get there. They don't care tho, everyone they've stepped over is just a "hater" or w/e.

This is why it's crucial to examine these characters and then reflect on urself too and ask if maybe ur the fucking villain sometimes. The answer will surprise u!

[queenie-says-free-palestine]

Hi queenie! I hope I don't sound ignorant, but every single article on Palestine and Israel seems heavily biased and stuff, so I just wanted to ask you if you had a fully-fledged and explained post or something about the situation? Or, if you don't could you explain it to me?

I really want to know what's happening between the two places.

Sorry if I sound rude or ignorant

sorry this took a while to answer ive been kinda busy lol

dw idm !! im happy to explain it to you, but keep in mind that im only human n there might be missing info. all the information i use is verifiable—i didnt go off of rumors or anything like that

i explained the history briefly in a post i made on my main blog where i was tryna detail the israel-palestine situation:

zionist movements began in maybe mid 19th century, jews worldwide were being persecuted and they wanted a land to themselves. they had their eyes set on palestine, even tho the palestinian bedouins there have been living in palestine for at least 1500 years

wwii left millions of jews stranded, so in 1947, the united nations suggested dividing palestine into a jewish and arab state. the jews accepted, but the arabs rejected it. this rejection was ultimately ignored, and israel declared itself a state in 1947, leading to palestinian arabs being displaced and a war starting between israel and arab nations. this was known as nakba—literally the arabic word for disaster, it mainly refers to palestinians being displaced after israel declared independence

the six-day war of 1967 was a conflict ultimately won by israel—they took control of the west bank, the gaza strip, and east jerusalem. conflicts got worse from here, and violence against civilians grew. its been snowballing since then

now, what i didnt mention here was that jews do have a history in the land, but the reason i didnt mention that was because the vast majority of that history dates back to 2000 years ago, when they were exiled by the romans, n they still claim ties to the land due to this history and also the religious significance it has in judaism, as it has been mentioned in the torah several times. not to mention that jerusalem is the location of the west wall, which holds extreme significance in judaism

they have almost always lived in palestine as a minority. in fact, whent the un plan was made, the jews were given 55% of the land despite only being an estimated 30% of the population

what i also didnt mention is the extremely disproportionate number of casualties. the usa and uk have both been vocal in aiding israel, and esp the usa helps fund its military n help it build its military, whereas palestine has virtually no method of defense. according to the un, roughly 6400 palestinians and 300 israelis have been killed since 2008, not including recent fatalities, and not including the 60 years from the nakba until 2008

im sure youve seen videos or seen stories on the news of dead palestinian children, and these deaths are sometimes celebrated by israel because they were fighting back against the idf, however this form of "fighting back" is usually firing rocks at tanks using slingshots, and then proceeding to get shot

now, whats going on now is a result of the "snowballing" i mentioned. the problem was meant to be solved by the oslo accords, which was meant to be an agreement to help issues on both sides (for palestine it was meant to help economic development in palestinian society, as well as stop the construction and expansion of israeli settlements in the west bank n gaza strip. for israel it was meant to make a promise of peace, ending hostility esp from extremist palestinian movements such as hamas). however, the promises made in these accords were never met

now, hamas is something youve heard abt often, im sure. its an extremist militant group who works largely in gaza (they have absolutely no soldiers in the west bank, although they do have some support there) whose main objective is to take back palestine and give it to the palestinians. however, their methods of doing so are extremely unorthodox, as they tend to take courses of action such as smuggling rockets via a series of tunnels, suicide bombings, and also they largely target civilian populations

its also notable that they were voted for by the gazan population in 2006, where half of the population were children, so only a maximum of 50% of the gazan population voted for them. since this voting was also in 2006 (17 years ago) and the gazan population is still 50% minors, this means that only a maximum of 25% of the gazan population today were part of those who voted for hamas

what happened a couple weeks ago at the start of the war was that hamas had been planning for abt a year an attack on israel in retaliation for the thousands upon thousands of palestinians who have been killed, and the thing is that no one suspected it. thats one of the reasons why it shook the world

in the first couple days, israeli casualties outnumbered palestinian casualties, reaching abt 600 while palestine sat at just under 200. there was a music festival which hamas attacked, killing 260 civilians, injuring even more, and taking an unknown number of hostages, some of whom were not israeli and in fact just people visiting from other countries on israeli visas

israel retaliated heavily, with the israeli defense minister referring to palestinians as 'human animals', and they warned 1.1 million gazans to leave northern gaza (despite the fact that gaza is a 41km*12km piece of land thats been closed off for the past fifteen years) because they were going to level it. they also bombed a hospital, which is against international law and is a war crime, admitted it in a string of tweets, and then deleted them

they also damaged gaza's oldest church, the third oldest in the world which is estimated to be 1600 years old, where 400-500 palestinians were hiding. theres around 27 fatalities confirmed and an unknown number of people still trapped under the rubble

additionally theres a load of claims of things hamas has done (beheading babies n raping women being the most popular allegations) but basically none of these have based sources, and a lot of things israel accuses hamas of include crimes that members of the idf (israel defense force) has committed against palestinians in previous decades

so please fact check everything you hear, and be wary of biased sources

[troglobite]

tlovm major spoilers beneath the cut bc i'm talking campaign changes

i'm of two VERY disparate minds

i sobbed like a baby and was deeply moved by these episodes

i am fucking pissed as FUCK if they've changed bard's lament THAT FUCKING MUCH

they've softened scanlan to make it more believable i guess that he cares abt his daughter? but like. we've gotten very little backstory abt him to justify it, so he just seems like a wimp.

and on the one hand, that is important for the impact of bard's lament, to only get the major backstory THEN.

bc nobody thought to fucking ask and nobody cared. so when the audience ALSO doesn't notice or care, it'll be really impactful.

but.

idk.

keeping percy dead and then killing kash--WHO ISN'T SUPPOSED TO DIE? HE'S SUPPOSED TO LIVE AND HAVE A BABY WITH ZAHRA???? WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT???

kash is, canonically in the show, the ONLY person who could've res'd percy. and therefore, scanlan.

getting glintshore was exciting. i was fucking bummed abt the change to make it one-on-one and i'm PISSED that she fucking GOT AWAY.

SHE'S SUPPOSED TO DIE.

vex is SUPPOSED TO KILL HER FOR KILLING PERCY.

why didn't we get that???

like i'm SURE there IS a reason. and i'm sure it'll be interesting for the show! i'm here for departures that work!

but my problem is that there's now no clear way for percy to come back per the established canon of the show. [[ETA: glanced at twitter and realized ppl are probably correct that, since vax didn't see percy die/go to the matron, then he's probably trapped in anna ripley's gun. and perhaps killing her and destroying her weapon will free percy's soul? idk]]

they've ALREADY been to hell, so to say that orthax has his soul is like--well, been there fucking done that. if you wanted to combine things properly in the first half of the season, THAT would've been the opportunity: get the plate, save percy's soul. i thought that was what they were doing.

but then of course we find out abt zerxus. but they're having zerxus work with VECNA??? fucking WHY? and how and why is pike important for this? idk how i feel abt that! we have plenty of pike lore and story to expand upon, WHY tie her to VECNA?! that sucks! it's sad!

WHY DID THEY HAVE PIKE RENOUNCE THE EVERLIGHT?! pike's WHOLE THING is redemption! as is the everlight's! i'm ALL FOR adding more stuff and changing things up for pike, but how do you get the triumphant stuff with pike and the everlight at the end of season one and then end up HERE? like yes, narrative challenges etc., but THAT?

it's VERY un-pike. esp bc her renouncing her faith 1. wasn't narratively necessary, as established in s1, and 2. is part of making her ready for vecna's ascension for some reason. idfk abt that. it feels gross, and maybe that's the point, but i hate it.

i seriously can't get over the fact that they killed kash, though, FUCK THAT. FUCK THAT ENTIRELY. KASH IS NOT SUPPOSED TO FUCKING DIE.

you know who IS supposed to die? SCANLAN

AFTER HE TELLS KAYLIE THAT HE PROMISES NOT TO DIE

AND AFTER HE TELLS VOX MACHINA TO NEVER LET KAYLIE SEE HIM INJURED OR DEAD

and then he betrays/they betray BOTH those things and kaylie comes to see her father's dead body to try and resurrect him

how the fuck are they going to res percy?

and how the FUCK is bard's lament going to hit REMOTELY as hard as it did in the campaign WITHOUT THE BUILD UP? WITHOUT THE FULL RAISHAN FIGHT?!

also they DAMPENED grog's "fix him" moment!!! i sobbed like a baby once i realized what was happened and paused the thing to try and calm down.

BUT THEN IT WAS CUT SHORT! HE DIDN'T SAY IT EXACTLY THE SAME (which is fine, changes! acting!) BUT!!!!

IT'S NOT GOING TO LET BARD'S LAMENT HIT QUITE RIGHT

in what fucking world does scanlan leave the group NOW? it doesn't make sense! just bc he said, in passing, to pike that he can't be a father? he didn't even TRY to talk to kaylie again! he missed her! what was the fucking point?!

AND ARE WE GOING TO GET "DARLING, IT WAS ALWAYS YOURS" OR WHATEVER THE FUCK?! what's the POINT of percy dying if we don't get that? what's the POINT of changing up how perc'ahlia happened if WE DON'T GET THAT?

vaxleth is going great, no notes. thordak fight was crazy. vorugal fight was PERFECT. raishan reveal was AWESOME.

so many good things!

but i'm REALLY fucking pissed abt bard's lament being treated as lesser. scanlan's not dead, just "not waking up". he never promised kaylie he wouldn't die, and apparently it doesn't matter bc he's not dead. he never developed a drinking or drug problem (no spice here) to cope with his complicated and sublimated feelings that he was hiding from the team. he's a softie now. and like, scanlan's fun and great and i like a lot of the changes they made. but.

BUT.

that stuff is REALLY important for bard's lament.

i guess i'll have to wait to see if bard's lament will hit as hard for ppl who don't know the campaign.

that's why i watch these episodes twice: once to get my campaign-clouded reaction out and over with, and once w my mom so i can watch again w fresh eyes w her perspective.

so we'll just have to wait and see.

but i'm. honestly this is maybe stupid and maybe a bias i didn't realize i had.

but bard's lament death was more important to me than glintshore death.

i thought they would swap one for the other in terms of Actual Death, but the later they pushed things i figured, actually, we could get glintshore death one week, and bard's lament death the following week, bc raishan won't be until the last 3 eps.

and now turns out they DID swap out the deaths, and i DON'T LIKE THE CHOICE.

they changed how glintshore happened and went down, and that WAS interesting. it was a little like.....really? would anna really fall for that twice? it felt a little contrived and stupid. the ultimate showdown was cool. it was interesting to show percy's growth (which doesn't happen in the campaign really lol he's a salty bitch) in the show by having him offer her a chance. it was interesting. it sucks to then have his faith in humanity betrayed like that, but it WOULD then explain percy's later salty bitch-ness. and make it more layered.

however.

why couldn't HE have been in a coma?

bard's lament hits HARD. because scanlan is the comedic relief.

but he HASN'T been the comedic relief in a long time. GROG has. at this point, grog dying would have more impact than scanlan.

and i guess it doesn't matter bc SCANLAN'S NOT FUCKING DEAD! FUCK THAT!

scanlan is the comedic relief, butt of the joke, no one takes him seriously. he apologized to vex and she accepted it, no comments or snark. unreal.

i just don't see a version of the show where THAT'S the scanlan situation, AND bard's lament happens.

we HAVE to get tary--he's important for the ridiculousness that follows, and ALSO for establishing the lore abt aeormatons. he's important for establishing wildemount stuff, and his story is also wonderful.

but now i'm wondering if. we just. won't get it.

if we instead skip to the downtime after the chroma conclave is truly over, and scanlan........just leaves then. kiki finishes her aramente without everyone. we get pike's family. we get the slayer's cake.

and then scanlan comes back with news of vecna.

that. honestly i'd be pretty disappointed if we didn't get tary.

i really, really am not a sam stan. i like him, he's funny, he's ridiculous, his characters are ridiculous. i fucking HATE fcg. braius is funny and cool. veth is BELOVED. she's INCREDIBLE. and scanlan and tary are both ridiculous, but as is same fashion, they had/have hidden depths that are REALLY moving. the story btwn tary and his tutor? really, really touching.

but if scanlan doesn't die. if it doesn't happen in the raishan fight. if he hasn't been drinking and doing drugs. if he never promised kaylie anything. then i don't think bard's lament happens. and i don't think we get tary.

meanwhile if percy didn't fully die, we still could've gotten a version of "darling it was always yours"

and like. nothing else changes.

i want to have faith that they've made brilliant choices for the show but. fuck, man.

this week has me really disappointed in my favorite shows, i don't like it. lol the season finale for english teacher was fucking BIZARRE, and i DON'T LIKE MALCOLM. like ACTIVELY don't like him. the whole premise was AWFUL. and then abbott elementary tonight was funny, but fucking disgusting and frustrating.

and now tlovm is ruining what is apparently one of the most key and impactful moments for me in the campaign.

to me, undoing bard's lament is abt 70% as absurd as undoing vex in purvan's tomb for deathwalker's ward

vex's death changes the course of the ENTIRE STORY and helps to seal the fate of the end of the entire campaign.

but scanlan's death changes the entire back half of the campaign. it introduces tary. it forces everyone to reckon with their own priorities and behavior and views. it forces them to grow as people in ways they hadn't thought abt yet, what with the stakes typically being so high. they neglect the normal interpersonal stakes.

tary's resolution is wonderful for the campaign as a whole. it's a sweet story. maybe they think it'd be overdone bc now they've "fixed" things with syldor, so who needs another "impressing an abusive father" story? who needs another sweet queer romance since we have kima & allie, and since gilmore is there, i guess?

but that really changes the whole tone. scanlan and tary change the tone of the back half of the campaign.

scanlan choosing to come back with kaylie's blessing to face down vecna is really impactful. the dynamic changing within the group is really cool to see.

and it's DEVASTATING when scanlan can't cast his 9th level wish spell to save vax. i mean, really, that's a sam and liam moment. but it does still matter. idk if they could include that in the show, but like. still.

idk i don't like undoing and defanging bard's lament like this. idk how i feel abt the choice to potentially remove tary from the show entirely. i'll be really sad. i would get it, i guess. they have 12 half hour episodes each season. how much could they really commit to tary and doty, i guess.

fuck.

ppl on twitter keep talking abt bard's lament happening and i'm like ??? have we been watching the same show? there's no fucking way that happens. and what the FUCK is the raishan fight going to look like now that scanlan has "died" before the fight?

are they REALLY going to drag raishan AND ripley out for MORE than this season? THEY BOTH NEED TO BE DEAD BY THE END OF IT FOR VECNA TO WORK.

like. listen. i'm not a GOT fan but i'm starting to think that if i was, i would hate the shows for veering off so wildly from the established canon.

changes to the show that worked: grog and craven edge. reworking how all the magic and spells work. reviving draconia/preventing its demise. keeping the knowledge of thordak being the one who attacked byroden from vax & vex until s3e8. pike's spiritual journey in s1. j'mon sa ord and zerxus being included/involved. combining the trips to the fire plane and the hells. reworking how yenk ended up in the vorugal fight. splitting up for grog's post craven edge journey back to westruun and team half-elf (and percy)'s trip to the feywild and syngorn. the entire fenthras fight was fucking dope. they removed the extra stuff abt grog and the fairy in the feywild, as well as the tribe of werepeople in the feywild. all fine. clearly signalling that they've removed keyfish and the rakshasa from the main story.

ALL OF THOSE ARE GREAT CHANGES. they remove side quests and journeys and complicated shit that wouldn't necessarily work for the show. a really funny one is removing the boots of haste and how the twins constantly fight over them and steal them from each other.

another one that's not necessarily important since vax's daggers are cool is retrieving Whisper.

they still need to get cabal's ruin. it's important for percy to have since he distrusts magic and the gods. that hasn't really been a feature, but it might be now that he's died and has to come back. so there's that, still.

but like point being, I AM ON BOARD FOR A LOT OF THESE CHANGES. subtle ones, big ones, combining things, etc.

changing the way percy is revived after this could even work really well! i'm not opposed! i think it might end up working out really cool!

but if they have changed bard's lament as much as i think they have, i will be actively pissed and disappointed.

bc like. is that not the fucking problem that bard's lament exemplifies in the first place? it happens bc no one takes him seriously. it happens bc he's seen as weak, the butt of the joke, silly, unimportant. ridiculous.

so if they've defanged bard's lament.......that just is like. excuse you? that was really important?

sam didn't go home after scanlan's death, research everyone's character backstories online, and come in PREPARED FOR A FIGHT and WITH A PLAN TO LEAVE and EVEN A BACKUP CHARACTER READY TO GO just for that to be removed from the fucking tv show.

it's. it's so fucking important to me. i really didn't think i cared this much but i guess i do. and defanging and minimizing it like. he doesn't even actually die. grog doesn't get to say "fix him" and be angry at the party for abandoning scanlan and treating him like he's disposable.

scanlan didn't find kaylie and hasn't promised her anything. having him leave before glintshore seems SO POINTLESS. we got ONE GLIMPSE of him in nicodranas being too late to catch kaylie. WHAT WAS THE FUCKING POINT?!?!

i just feel like they're doing scanlan dirty. i was interested to see where things went in ep 6 when pike let him leave to go see kaylie. i thought THAT would be the promise he wouldn't die, the promise that he would be careful, the promise that he would return.

but no, nothing.

god it feels really cheap and i'm really bummed.

idk HOW they'll possibly fix this in the last 3 eps, but they do have three entire episodes. and they are notorious for somehow cramming in 2 hrs worth of action into 25 mins of tv.

so i guess we'll fucking see.

[hiveswap]

How do you get into mcyt?? I’ve tried a couple times and I can’t really figure out where everyone’s finding lore? Any tips?

Oh hi. i dont even know where to begin, i've been really out of the loop. But i have recommendations. This is going to be long

DreamSMP

Well, the dsmp has gone to shit for many reasons.

But if you do get into dsmp, blueberrytv on youtube is your best friend, they cut streams down to more digestible episodes so you can follow the story along. Yes it's long. Dear god it's long. Also @relaxxattack has a carrd that updated until fairly recently, i also recommended it many times.

The story was (i never thought i'd have to speak in past tense about it, the fucker seemed to drag through for decades in just 2 years) told through livestreams, quite a few of are lost forever because twitch deletes vods after 2 weeks and no one bothered to back them up. Also ignore everything after the disc war finale except quackity (and tales of the smp)

You can test the waters by watching Wilbur's L'manburg war video to see if you like the vibes. I usually recommend this, though it's not the earliest point in the story. (that would be tommy's disc war, which is also VERY important, but people tend to find him annoying at first, esp. 2020 tommy like jesus christ he was a different beast. Definietly watch it after the L'manburg independence, things will click.)

Sad-ist's animatics are classics that helped shape the story as it was being written. Watch them as you progress through.

Hermitcraft + Adjacent*

*as far as fandom/content creator overlap goes

1. Hermitcraft is more gameplay heavy. If you don't enjoy minecraft you're not gonna like it, but it's pretty straight forward. You find a youtuber and follow their series on youtube. People usually recommend Grian, GoodTimesWithScar, and Mumbo for beginners, (they are the most popular ones) and then you can branch out from there. Hermitcraft recap is a godsent if you want to know what's going on everywhere.

I personally loved season 8, it's also the shortest and the most lore-heavy. Really gives you a taste of what the series is like at its best.

2. The life series! (Third life, Last Life, Double life, Limited Life) again, find any participant want, then branch out if you want to. Lore is easy to find here, people were under pressure to make up stuff quickly because the series is short, and the result is funny, creative, and so so tragic.

3. People watch EvoSMP for grian, pearl and martyn lore but it really doesn't matter to anything that's going on right now. It's a good series, but Watcher (basically evil angel Grian) headcanons are far detached from it nowdays despite originating from it.

4. Yandere highschool! Do not watch Yandere highschool. No detail is worth it. Use adblock if you force yourself through it, no money for the creator he's an asshat and the other members apparently no longer talk to him.

QSMP

Since the last post, Quackity started the QSMP, in which spanish and english speaking youtubers play on the same server. It has roleplay but it's looser and less grimdark than the dsmp thankfully. They are on an island and they adopted little eggs that walk around and act all cute. It's streamed on twitch. Pick a person and look up their vods, if you're interested. Slimecicle is recommended to start with, and some spanish creators use english subtitles/translation mods. There aren't comprehensive sources to find every vod/video yet, since the server isn't that old.

EmpiresSMP

Start from participants' youtube channels, can't tall you more. I never got into it, not my thing. However, a lot of people left guides in the notes!

[6ftkyle]

hi hi!! was just wondering the appeal of k2 gen question haha please lmk i would love to read more about this i’m so curious lol!!

oh boy, well, good news for you, I love to justify why i love k2 so much!

for me personally, i guess it's not super related to anything in canon. they have a few small moments here and there, but i dont think i could point you in the direction of any "K2 episodes" or anything. its just like, the potential of a relationship between them that really makes me nuts (positive).

at their core, kenny and kyle are both people who fundamentally want to take care of people around them. i see it most in how they interact with their younger siblings (the karen/mysterion dynamic, kyles everything in 'miss teacher bangs a boy''), so i call it the big brother instinct.

for kyle, hes a busybody who goes out of his way to take care of most of the people around him. he's not always nice about it (the way he treats stan in 'raisins', for example), but he does act out of what he thinks is the best interests of people around him. he wants to guide people to what he thinks is best. on the flipside, i dont think he accepts help well. his mom's pretty smothering in the ways she thinks she's protecting him and it makes kyle reject care from others because he'd rather handle things on his own.

kenny, he's a little more selective. he's not that protective of his friends, but i like to think he's protective of those most important to him and that would extend to a crush / partner. when it comes to the reverse, kenny has never particularly had caregivers he could depend on. his parents don't take care for him, his own big brother is a negligible presence in his life, the other adults of south park don't seem to notice or care how the mccormick children are cared for. he's simply HAD to be the caregiver out of necessity. he's never been afforded a moment to let someone else take care of him because it's never been an option.

and that creates a central conflict for K2. two people who want to give care, but aren't good at accepting care for varying reasons. they have to learn how to let their guard down and let the other take care of them every now and then. makes for a lot of good tender moments that i very much enjoy when shipping characters.

there's also smaller things, that i dont think are really worth a big grand explanation or anything. i think there's some really good romeo & juliet vibes if you choose to believe that gerald and stuart still hate each other (esp if you, like me, think that kyle's relationship with gerald is a bit strained and he enjoys that gerald hates that his bf is a mccormick).

there's a bit of 'opposites attract' in there for me too. i like to think kenny grows up to be a bit of an impulsive free spirit (his actions dont have consequences, if he dies, he'll be back in the morning, he doesn't have to be careful or deliberate in his actions), whereas kyle overthinks everything he does and he's super pragmatic. as a couple, he grounds kenny from his silly-goofy antics but kenny also forces him to loosen up. kyle will indulge him and be a little silly goofy with him, while kyle reigns him in from the worst of his impulsive behaviors.

also kysterion with kyle being the medic and the guy in the chair to mysterion's supering antics? well i eat that shit up. that's just a superhero shipping dynamic that i love in almost any instance.

and lastly, its also just a lil bit of nostalgia for me! im ancient, ive been in and out of south park fandom since like 2005 and k2 was one of the first ships i really got invested in. reading k2 fics on deviantArt is actually how i made my first ever fandom friend. i lost touch with them a while ago and most of their stuff has been deleted or put in their dA storage, so i can't revisit it, but it's still a dear memory for me.

the short version is because there's not a whole lot of canon stuff to go off of, i get to inject a lot of headcanons and projection and cater it specifically to what i like.

[liquidstar]

Hello!! Goddess OC anon here! Today I would like to borrow your ear for a spot of cosmology! In my universe, all sapient beings have a potential direct-ish line to the gods in their minds. This is because the gods are not entities on their own, but the eventual result of tens of thousands of dead consciousnesses sharing a single thought or aim until a new being is shaped, like a metamorphic rock. Most of these are the result of cultish rituals, except for the protectoress and the seeker (god of knowledge), since that's what's generally needed to have so many people dying with the same intrinsic desire.

(None of these gods have names yet because I want to give them cool and intimidating titles yet am so very very bad at naming >.<)

The universe is a vast number of planets, many of which are inhospitable, lifeless, or in the last legs of their civilization. Travel between them is possible due to the remains of a prehistoric interstellar alchemy-powered civilization. Opening a star gate requires a sacrifice, not always in blood, but always terrible. Many species exist - some emerging from the radioactivity-and-blood-magic cocktail the Alchemeisters left on the planets they abandoned.

The lines connecting mortal to deity exist in almost everyone, but need to be opened. In the case of the god of knowledge, for example, everyone (well, 70% of every sapient, individual, mentally human-aligned species) is born with a logic puzzle in their mind. If they successful find, consider, and solve this puzzle, their connection to the god is opened up. The opening for the god of bloodshed is a sufficient amount of simple violence, one premediated murder, and one betrayal and butchery. Every female child is born with an open link. It's not perfect - there's all the problems of AGAB roles - but it's the easiest way through, especially since souls don't differentiate between humans and eldritch beings, let alone men and women.

The purpose of priests is to help with this psychic connection, help explain the clauses, to link one devotee's conscious to that of the rest of them to make a sort of psychic gathering. (A groupchat of sorts.) The reason the students of the seeker are so predominantly male is because priests will often crack open the hooks a tiny bit for male babies, making it easier for them to find the puzzle in the first place, and then to connect. Higher priests also serve as leaders of these gatherings.

Luna, the trans priestess from before, is also a member of the Seeker's flock, though these days she mostly just goes there to spy. She finds more fulfillment in the pen than the textbook, these days. This intelligence is how she managed to link herself to the protectoress' ladies by hand.

The Protectoress differs from the other gods in a few other ways, especially related to what happens to priestesses after their deaths but this is long enough.

Happy Belated Birthday, as well! All good wishes for your year to come.

i think this is all SUPER interesting and creative lore for the gods, im not really sure what else i could say beyond the fact that im very invested in this system! i am a bit curious abt the way some of the sex biases work and why though? esp since they dont differentiate between men and women but then at the same time they do? it might be on me for not fully getting it tho lol

i really do have to give you huge props for coming up with such intricate and HUGE lore for a system thats cosmically-based. not just terrestrial fantasy but THE WHOLE UNIVERSE its so cool. it creates such a great sense of scale here, like, the way you explain it really does make it seem big. bigger than anything going on on earth that we could really understand. but at the same time everyone has the potential to really connect with the gods on this scale, like the lines you described... its really very cool. the whole all is one and one is all thing.

AND from the little bits of info on other worldbuilding stuff you give its also clear theres a looooot going on for the mortals too. like the alchemisters and radioactivity magic and stuff. theres a lot of complex lore here building on top of itself that i find super fascinating. its awesome!!!

honestly im not great at names either, so i dont blame you for having a hard time coming up with ones to match this scale. i think my only suggestion (from experience) is to not overcomplicate the names. sometimes short and blunt sounds can convey power in just one syllable. its to the point, yknow? so i think thats something to consider when making names that sound grand too... also sometimes its not the name itself, but the context surrounding it! AT managed to make a name as silly as "golb" seem soo serious and important lol. so dont stress too much abt the name itself but what you can make with it, especially with lore this grand! but obvs youd know what fits them the best

and thank you!!! i appreciate it :) i hope your year is good too just in general :p

[feuqueerfire]

The Worst of Evil Live Blogging

Finished A Shop for Killers and was supposed to start My Stand-In so that I can be caught up for ep 10 but I have a Very Important Thing next week and idk I feel like My Stand-In might take up too much brain space and I also wanna savour it and spend time on it so... I'm starting this instead even though it's not like short or not intense lmfao. Good luck to me

I don't know much about this except 1) Wi Hajoon (he was literally the reason I started actually getting into dramas after Squid Game because usually I'd just watch a show every 6-12 months and not watch anything until the next show a year later lol but I watched a bunch of things for him and now here I am), 2) police drama? they're cops I think, 3) one of them has a wife, and 4) I saw an author who wrote a couple fanfics of them on AO3 but idk if it's like a bromance or if it's like just a ship the writer liked.

I'm excited to Wi Hajoon again after a long while, I haven't watched anything of his since Squid Game, all of it was stuff before Squid Game because I started watching it around the time SQ was released. I'm also curious about his current noona romance Midnight Romance in Hagwon but I'll give this one a try first.

I keep debating between this and My Stand-In because it feels like I'm kinda in the mood for something dark or heavy but I might also be in the mood for BL/romance/relationship stuff, so idk. we'll see how this one goes.

Ep 1 (June 21)

bloody fight to start with. the butcher knives make it more visceral, though not as intriguing as the Shop For Killers beginning violence

2 years ago, 1994

ah, the wife is an elite officer and so her brother is begging the husband because he's a "lowly detective" or smth

Wi Hajoon is a DJ? Girl I thought he was a cop. maybe he's undercover? anyway, this outfit reminds me of the serial killer fucker he played in Midnight

Wi Hajoon: Gicheul

oh, Gichul is actually being recruited by... some shady guy? he's the opposite of a cop lol

1 year later, 1995

ohh Gicheul is treated like shit and feels slighted so is making plans to wipe out the current top guys + their thugs at this hotel in the middle of the woods and just taking over Gangnam?

is this cool? I guess I'm supposed to think this sneak attack and planning to overthrow is cool? they mostly seem like posers other than the knife guy

oof, stupid dude Taeho

so they've killed the secondary boss guy who's their boss

Busan

Ah, okay, I was wondering how killing these people was just give them Gangnam, esp cuz they also worked for somebody but I guess Gicheul wants Gangnam from the big boss

So that's how the cop and Gicheul end up meeting. The detective is gonna infiltrate the gang to try to find who is selling meth to the Japanese gangs. also, when Gicheul was securing the hotel, he gave the guy in the car a little baggie with white stuff... I'm guessing that's what they're looking for?

Ah, his father is a drug user, that's why all that tension

damn, this fucker explicitly says he nor anybody higher-up would give a promotion to a drug addict's son

Gicheul's group (?) is known Gangnam Union and the 4 guys knew each other since high school (thus the hyung/donsaeng close relationship) and there are 3 of them now that Taeho's dead but the knife guy joined ig so it's 4 again. they appear like a social club but they've taken over nearly every club in Gangnam

fake identity: Taeho's non-existent cousin named Seungho

ooh, he wants to meet Gicheul his own way. If I was pretending to be Seungho but wanted to make sure I get close to Gicheul without raising suspicion... maybe I'd first start off antagonistic actually? Like oh you fuckers killed Taeho, how dare you, etc. etc. or make it seem like I was planning on doing something for revenge. because then they'd think I actually knew Taeho + am who I say I am + wouldn't be obvious that I'm clearly trying to get close to Gicheul

they don't translate the ssibals that Seungho (I can't remember his real name rip) keeps dropping every sentence smh

okay, Seungho went in a slightly similar route to me in that he made a scene and went in antagonistically but his plan was obviously more fleshed out and more fun/cool. I love a first meeting like this, with secrets and planning. The watch was a nice touch, is it a similar watch to which Taeho stole from that Sergeant Jang guy or what?

Fave scene: I love love love a first meeting or the initial scenes in a story where one party has secrets and the other party doesn't know. I'll also be very excited to see how Gicheul finds out Seungho's real identity and how he reacts.

I didn't know this was the synopsis of this show lmfao I feel like I didn't know anything for at the beginning for both this show and A Shop for Killers even though the things were in the synopsis lol it's fun this way though. I like an undercover story

Yo, I'm irritated, I thought the synopsis would probably have stuff just from this ep but from skimming it, I found out Seungho's wife is also gonna be undercover for this operation, wish I had found that out on my own.

Ep 2 (June 21)

okay, the father was also told by the cops Seungho's backstory and he's playing along

this was interesting because the guy literally told most of the other gangsters to not fight, it'll be like 1 v 7, not 1 v 30 lol so it makes why they're just standing around

okay but Taeho's killer is just the Sergeant Jang who they also killed, right? like Gicheul knifed that man

oh? one of Gicheul's friends (Heesung) who neither him nor the other old friend take seriously wants to team up with one of the guys they slashed back then (I'm guessing) to take down Gicheul? is this the thing that will have Gicheul and Seungho on the same side? i feel like that's too soon for Gicheul to fall from grace. or is this like... a trick?

Gicheul notices something about Heesung

not Heesung saying they're my friends and brothers so don't let anything bad happen and don't hurt them to much?? girl, what do you think is gonna happen exactly?

ohhh so it was indeed a trap

what must it feel like for the cop dude who's outside the building lmfao must feel like a trap for Seungho but indeed it's for the other guys who filed in. mans being like fuckkk do i call 112 or nah

oh brutal fucking torture wtf girl anyway if I was Seungho I'd be scared af of getting found out (maybe that's also why they're putting on a show of what happens when you betray Gicheul)

damn, why was the big boss looking at all those weapons? anyway, Gicheul isn't gonna send him money anymore apparently

but that's angering the boss and he wants Gicheul dead but the Japan guy the boss works with really likes Gicheul

right, okay, Seungho wasn't supposed to know that Srgt Jang was dead, so Gicheul finally tells him after kinda testing him + opening the place for Taeho

heh Seungho now being the maknae of the gang. i love the bureaucracy or mundaneness of gangster life, like some jokes about jobs and money in A Shop for Killers too

the cop also keeps patrolling and looking out for Seungho ig

Yongdae's so cute, our other maknae

a love triangle?

scary af too the gang know she's a cop and are like... you were meeting a cop. whelp

he's saying that his father is held at the police station for drugs... can they somehow check that Taeho's uncle is indeed there or whatever?

matching necklaces and first loves good god

If they were brave, we'd get a proper triangle lmfao bring Gicheul as a third into the marriage! but also i'm thinking, is Gicheul gonna die or be in prison or something by the end?

Also, I've heard Ji Chang Wook's name often but haven't watched anything he's in. He's doing really well as Junmo/Seungho so far. omg some people on the r/kdrama said the FL often dies in similar kdramas, esp with 2 main male leads and... no. she can't. This reminded me of The Devil Judge and Jinyoung's character's love interest dying and simply, no. if they kill the woman I'll be annoyed

Ep 3 (June 21)

oh Euijung bought the couple necklace for Gicheul, damn

I think Euijung started wearing it again since she just brought it home again recently but Gicheul always wears it still ig

what happened, Gicheul's parent was arrested or what?

omg okay Gicheul's asking his contact in the cops about Kwan Seungho's father's criminal record (to check that he's in jail from drugs or whatever Seungho said) + also checking for Euijung's cop husband

they faked Seungho's father's records so they must be able to give a photo of a different man for Euijung's husband

okay whew, can't blow cover in ep 3

they both call her noona ahhh

did the cops send in the thugs to Gicheol and have Seungho save him or whatever? but um what if some of these people die?

lol they all just left at once, a gunshot wasn't even fired, how choreographed, how suspicious imo

damn, Gicheol heard Seungho's "I'm Gicheul" to "trick" the people and now trusts him fully

oh, so they were literally cops, not even hired thugs omg and they're not being told that Gicheol had a literal gun (and they don't know that Seungho/Junmo is one of them because he's from a random village/town station, not Seoul ig)

Junmo-Seungho getting pissed as Gicheol talks about Euijung and also insults her husband lmfao

oof, Seungho managed to get away with not going to see Euijung's mother at the hospital with Gicheol bc she would def just be like oh, my police son-in-law Junmo, hello

damn, so the Japan guy also wants Gicheol gone? girl

lol Gicheol tryna get in Euijung's mother's good graces

oh wait, he wasn't the Japan guy that loves Gicheol. The Kanemoto guy who loves Gicheol making money for him killed the other guy ig. idk what's happening there lol

oh, that was Song Donghyuk. and Kanemoto or whoever is who Gicheol calls Father/Abeoji

There are cameras here but do they work when the electricity's out?

lmfaooo Gicheol used Euijung's birthday as the passcode for the most important door. Seungho mad as hell in the middle of his investigation

so that kid got Gangnam Crystal from one of the stores that the Gangnam Union runs right? hm, seems like he was selling something else before but now is selling this?

omg not the cops pretending to be thugs dropping a flashlight that day and now Gicheol and the top people know...

okay, yeah, the important Gangnam Union quartet + Seungho gathered to take down the other druglord guy

Gicheol quite scary as he's yelling at Seungho to kill the man to establish trust omg

Ep 4 (June 21)

I was supposed to have watched 3 eps the whole day, not 3 episodes before 3 pm and onto the 4th... I have things to do bruh. I should pause in the middle of the ep instead of waiting for the end bc they end on cliffhangers

so he couldn't kill the guy this time

i don't think i liked that transition into the title card lol

Heesung really doesn't trust Seungho and for good reason. i wonder at which point Gicheol will find out for certain and whether he'll tell everybody or how he'll react. i guess by the time the opening credit happens, he still doesn't know because Euijung's with him while Seungho's at the other side? or something

okay at least the other cop said they're not asking Junmo's wife for help, they're asking the talented and capable Inspector Euijung because agh it's so annoying somehow that Junmo gets to infiltrate the gang and show off his fighting skills and such while Euijung is supposed to like... flirt with Gicheol to get close to him. in a different show where this is the premise it'd be different but it feels unfair somehow that the men get to do cool and dangerous things while she's like a trophy they want to possess and there's anger and jealousy over her like agh

she's pretending she's had a divorce. fewer questions about her husband + Gicheol's gonna think he has a chance

okay I'll try to not be mad about how they're inserting her and how i think it's unfair and instead focus on the interesting and emotionally-charged dynamics between the 3 of them

interesting how Gicheol's the one in the dark while a literal police couple are the only other 2 people in the car

Won't Gicheol notice how Seungho keeps avoiding meeting Euijung's family or people who should know him?

but damn sucks that Junmo can't appear at his mother-in-law's funeral + Euijung's gonna have to field questions from her family about where tf her husband is

awwww the scene where Seungho peeks in and she sees and her lips start trembling and eyes watering but obviously they can't interact or comfort each other is so sad

omg this child calling Seungho 이모부, meaning maternal aunt's husband (not even just like oh regular old uncle who may not be related to me) in front of Gicheol but the other cop guy (the one whose working with them + is keeping an eye on everybody) whose photo is being used as Euijung's husband also showed up right then, whew

this fucking quartet lmfaoooooooo first we have Euijung, everybody knows her real identity and occupation. Then we have Gicheol, the guy who has been obsessed with Euijung since high school and still loves and is clearly aiming to date her. Witnessing all this is Junmo as Gicheol, Euijung's real husband but pretending to be just a friend who only kind of knows her and is Gicheol's minion but he's seething in jealousy and anger at all their interactions. Finally joins the cop who's in on the plan + is mascarading as Euijung's husband Junmo loll he can show some of the resentment the real Junmo feels but has to masquerade as a loser husband or rather ex-husband because they're pretend divorced as well

funny dynamic but also we've got a dick-measuring contest now while Euijung is mostly passive like alright

omg this is so sad, Junmo not being able to say goodbye to his MIL and her being pretty much the only person from Euijung's family who is actually good to him + also said she likes him more than her actual 2 sons that's crazy. reminds me a bit of 18 Again because we don't see MIL-son-in-law dynamics much but that one really gutted me

ah, okay, Gicheol's mother killed his father after the fucker came to find them after they ran away from his abusive ass. that's why she was both bloody and in cuffs in the flashback

hah. Gicheol wants Seungho's help to win over Euijung

I don't fully get everything and what gangs etc but ig another 2 gangs wanna pair up to take down Gicheol

oh and they're tryna recruit people from Gicheol's gang Gangnam Union or whatever

who is that face with the towel that they showed... i'm so fucking bad at facial recognition bruh. was it one of the top 3 people? honestly wouldn't be surprised if it's the knife guy because he seemed dissatisfied when speaking to Seungho

is the guy who pulled out of fishing really preoccupied or is he planning something? what with all these people tryna take down Gicheol. was he the one under the towel?

ah, they're taking Seungho fishing instead of the Seo knife guy. and Chief Seo and Seungho had also talked a bit about alliances kinda/sticking together

Heeseung or whoever long-haired also scheming?

how can they cliffhanger end on Seungho possibly shooting somebody to kill two eps in a row lmfaoo

Fave Scene: when Junmo and Euijung's eyes first meet at the funeral and it's so tragic that they can't meet. then when Junmo breaks down and bows while thinking about his MIL being kind to him.

Ep 5 (June 21)

um hm so last ep I did not stop halfway through the ep and now it's 4:30pm but I must do it this ep... around 5pm i should stop and do some work...

he really did start shooting people this time, even if not fatally

ah, towel guy was knife Seo

but he said he wouldn't betray them and also came in to help. took his sweet time to intervene though lmao

damn, I'm invested in Junmo/Euijung and also sometimes am into Seungho/Gicheol... why can't this be a fucking triangle bruh

why did those 2 guys (not the top two) who knew about them going fishing tell Seungho to be worried about himself... I know the long-haired Heesung was a rat, maybe Jeongdae is a rat, are these two also rats? Were they the people who met at the billiards thing idek can't remember the faces rip

Youngdae better not be a spy and he better not die, he's such a cutie. he legit thinks the world's gonna end in 4 years what the hell

Youngdae saw the cop getting out of the van after speaking to Seungho...

so is it not Heeseung fr? but he saw those vans following their car?

oh Seongho really does not want people die, especially not at his hands or because of him

oof, Gicheol's really letting him live... how can you be at the top of the gang if you just beat up the rat who almost got you and somebody else killed and also has caused problems with your drug trade with the Japanese lmfao now other people are gonna be like well even if i sell em out, i won't die

also I've been saying the wrong names!!!! long haired guy is Jeongbae, short haired guy is Heesung. i know once somebody else called long-haired as Jeongbae but I'd already thought he was Heeseong so I was like... I will ignore this

oh yeah, what was up with the old professor? she was mentioned at the very start but never again until this glimpse now... is the the one who makes or gives instructions on how to make the drugs? was she a prof of chemistry or smth i can't rmr

oh lol she's Yoon Wongil and she'd previously been caught for cooking meth, i see

okay wtf actually why is Gicheol fucking ditching the Chinese meeting (that's happening because of the ambush and them not being able to deliver their fucking drugs) to hang out with Euijung... be so serious right now. the day after he lets the rat live no less. are you cut out to be the leader like this wtf

right, we already know that long-hair Jeongbae (not Heeseung, wrong name) was in kahoots with the other gang

...did Seo knife guy do something at all? They showed him saying no etc but he was quite late in saving the 2 of them. but he's questioning now how they found Gicheol that night, so maybe he didn't tell them

Seo's killing the guy who attacked Gicheol... we know he followed them from Seoul but not in his own car... possibly in Seo's car?

okay, so Gicheol had said to take care of Kang Geon. and Heeseung and Jeongbae are clean. Jeongbae really had his kid we know that at least

Gicheol so fucking obvious, Jeongbae's like it's because of Euijeong right?

Jeongbae and Gicheol trusting each other and speaking... Euijeong and Junmo also meeting up alone after So Long at home... T.T

always makes me nervous when Junmo meets the cops

so these last 2 people were also part of the Chinese people who were coming right?

Euijung worries about her husband and gets mad at the lack of precautions and wants to help more to ensure he's safe/finishes the missions asap. I think that's a reasonable reaction where it respects his autonomy while also expressing her own feelings, I think it'd be fair if she has an even worse reaction considering he could die at any moment, even if he's done nothing to give anything away, because people wanna kill Gicheol.

Junmo on the other hand is so proprietary over Euijung like she is indeed also a cop, she's an inspector, she's ranked higher than you. And she's not even in as much of a danger, just that Gicheol likes her and doesn't like her husband and it's not like Euijung's gonna fucking get with Gicheol. it's not unreasonable for him to be jealous but the way he's so... yeah idk what else to say except proprietary and as if he can dictate her actions like stfu idk i'm so fucking picky in my het romances and how the man treats/views the woman. But I also get him because he feels that he's not good enough for her, everybody says so from his wife's family to fuckass Gicheol, so to have her flirt with somebody rich and perhaps more successful in the eyes of others will rub him the wrong way.

A lot of people on the on-air think Dohyung (the undercover cop guy) is actually working for the bad guys and tipping them off after communicating with Seungho. I didn't even think of that tbh lol

Ep 6 (June 21)

marriage?! Gicheol's been wanting to marry Euijung since high school, girl meet a different lover!

ah, the people at the end last ep were Japanese, not from the Chinese branch

this hotel meeting is filled with cops because of the Kr-Jpn-Chn meeting and also the Gangnam cops who are trailing them for murdering that Cho drug dealer

this meeting is just near heart attack one after the other

wants him to pretend nd stand so that he can see if he's being watched

lol do they just wanna talk alone

lmao yeah. so he aint even watching?

Jeongbae sees the undercover cops too

okay i was having dinner so barely wrote anything but lots of stuff happened

It's important that 1) Jeongbae has seen the undercover cop Dohyung but unrelated to Seungho 2) Yeongdae saw the cop coming out of/near the van when Seungho was in it

the Chinese woman keeps noting how Seungho's going far and risking his life for Gicheol lol

Talking about how Seungho fully trusts Gicheol. both Gicheol and the Chinese woman noting it

It's actually interesting that she's taking Such A Note of Seungho, like more than Gicheol, she's taking Seungho more into account regarding whether she'll continue business with them

also Junmo's so good at this lmfao he's fooling everybody about his identity and loyalties

bruh, Miss Lee likes Seungho

please, these cops

hah, Seungho being like yeah lemme turn myself into the police, I'll take the fall no worries, just let me in on the drug trade next time plsplspls

I love Miss Lee, loveeee her. the way she speaks and watches, ah. also her "your Japanese is acting like a kiiing" @ 50:45 is great. I hope she appears again later

Ep 7 (June 21)

I was supposed to watch 3 episodes today, how am I about to start ep 7, it's 8:30pm I've done nothing today except watch this show...

Damn, the clueless angry gangnam cop really beat the shit out of Seungho. I've never really considered whether he'd turn to the "bad" side tbh cuz he seems invested in his cop life and is averse to killing and he def wouldn't be worthy of his wife as a criminal but this sort of cop abuse of authority should at least make him consider wtf cops are lol

Jeongbae's intuitions crazy good + his suspicions all correct and yet they all keep brushing him off to protect Seungho lmfao fools

Ah, Gicheol feels inferior against the Chinese and Japanese reps and how they treat him

Is the Chinese assistant scouting out a new seller or anything

Miss Lee, I love you

pls not her basically dragging Seungho around on a date kinda

the way Seungho's speaking sounds like he's in love with Gicheol

damn, Gicheol's been stashing away some of the meth and selling here? or has that been Jeongbae (the Yankee kid was getting it from Jeongbae)

cringe "you can spend more time with me" i don't wanna watch omg, you think she gives a fuck about spending more time with you ohhhh men.

at least she barely laughed lol I was ready for a raucous laughter

ahh, they fucking got Jeongbae's ass and letting him go free made it even worse in Gicheol's eyes.

omg not their friendship falling the fuck apart because of lying etc

Jeongbae is literally correct that Gicheol needs him because Gicheol can't see Seungho's suspicious actions nor can he think because of Euijung

omg Jeongbae literally having an angry outburst but he's only yelling things that are true, this is wild

"One day you'll realize you were blinded. I guarantee it." oh Jeongbae, I hope you live to see it and that you're not collateral damage who dies or smth

their entire floor must be just cigarette butts and the burnt stuff

why the hell is Seo now fighting Jeongbae. I like Jeongbae, can we not do this right now... I need him to live and cackle when he finally hears down the grape vine that Seungho was indeed an undercover cop and Gicheol was a dumbass

omg... Gicheol did a very nice thing for Euijeong but he overheard one of the ladies and has figured out that Euijeong didn't use to live in the same city as Seungho...

ahhhh the corrupt cop fell off the roof in a fight with Seungho...

but Seungho's more relieved to see he got the papers that would've blown his cover

he's leaving the man like this and taking the documents + phone that would've ruined his gig

why the hell are Gicheol and Euijeong's dates and hangouts so fucking boring. I didn't care about their past flashbacks but that's not surprising but even their current scenes together are so... freaking mellow and feel kinda useless because it's not like Euijeong's really helping the case progress, it's so boring when they're together. i'd expected more mind games at least!

I started and ended this episode being like hm... Seungho going to the dark side possibly? I don't think he'd actually abandon it, but he's probably gonna become more and more ambiguous as time goes on, especially with how we ended this ep. Also interesting that both the start and end of this ep began with corrupt cops

okay hear me out so Gicheol is completely blind when it comes to Euijeong right, like she's a fucking cop but he's just hagnigng around her and plans to marry her lol and similarly... he is blinded by Seungho, he trusts him deeply and worries for him and wants him by his side. This means that Gicheol also likes/loves/has romantic feelings for Seungho. yes.

Ep 8 (June 21)

It's nearly 11pm, I want to say this will be my last episode for the day but who knows. What an addictive, exciting show

Miss Lee is too kind not killing these sexist fuckers

ah, Seungho being haunted by that guy's death. expected

woah, all 4 of them at one place. you know i was like let's have a 3some with euijeong/seungho/gicheol but now it's like 4some with Miss Lee let's go

but it's funny how Miss Lee immediately clocked Euijeong and Gicheol lmfao, she did Not like the way they looked at each other

I wanna know Yongdae's little mission so bad, what a cutie. I'll be mad as fuck if he dies frrrr

not Euijeong and Gicheol both looking at their guns...

and Euijeong and Seungho's dates both being like .hm. at them calling/their phone ringing

I... think Seungho and Miss Lee should kiss. actually i think it happens bc in the ep 6-7 on-air somebody mentioned an edit where they were kissing apparently

I'm so proud of Yongdae for all the intel and research yay

lmfao Gicheol has Yongdae pretending to be a cop

i'm so excited, they keep reaching for their guns and also I want to know exactly what and how much Yongdae said and Gicheol knows. like probably that Euijeong's father never worked at Wonju but did Yongdae say that the photo of Junmu is literally Seungho?

is he choosing between gun vs necklace?

the handheld cameras shakiness is throwing me off, I don't like it

aghhhh they keep covering their trails too well, now they've got Euijeong's dad working at Wonju smh and probably replaced the Junmu photo too

I want Gicheol to find out soon so fucking bad but I don't think he will in these 2 eps because I accidentally had clicked on the 8-9 on-air and the first comment was about how Seungho was doing so much and going so far for this mission or whatever. so we'll find out in the last quarter. i just want it not in the last 30 minutes or whatever man

Yongdae has now seen Dohyung the cop coming from the van/near the van where Seungho was + now at the police room + also... would he recognize him from Junmo's photo?

omg, the Gangnam cops found Seungho/Junmo's lighter at the PI death scene

poor Gicheol getting confessed to and Literally Crying over it but it's all A Lie. at least Euijeong's now taking the leap and getting even closer to Gicheol fr now

stay away from Gicheol at all costs tonight...???

Gicheol on a fucking date with a cop while the Japanese folks are talking to another gang lmfao what the hell man. he's so smart in some scenarios (keeps digging and cross-checking everything) but whenever he trusts Euijung, every rational thought goes out the window

I like Miss Lee and Seungho and I also know why Seungho's not expressing much outward interest toward her but I want better for her... after she compliments a man she's on a date with, he should also say what he likes about her, no? or show any sort of initiative or attraction

Gicheol wants to become a good person...? is he gonna push back on Seungho's drug deal and be like no i am to become a reformed person? lol

ahhhh I love Miss Lee/Seungho even though Seungho's uh... not really having a good time/into it. it started out kinda hot but got sadder as time went on. sorry that i was into it at first despite you experiencing workplace sexual harassment junmo. also i'm nervous he's gonna say Euijeong's name...

ah... China and Japan are teaming up with Jageon group and gonna attack Gicheol... will we Finally get the intro scene please?

ahh exciting

Ep 9 (June 21)

If we figure out the identities this ep, I'll be so happy. Also glad we're finally getting the intro scene cuz everything for me was like this isn't the intro scene yet, so they don't know this or that won't happen, etc

aw no, the flashback to their wedding and the father interruption

both Seungho and Gicheol noticing Euijung in a chokehold... and Gicheol having to save her... it's not that I don't get it but I'm just frustrated

just disgusting and violent and brutal... and Euijung witness Junmo-Seungho that way...

Miss Lee and Seungho on one side of the gladd, Euijeong and Gicheol on the other...

brutal... Seungho like this truly reminds me of Strangers From Hell last episode

Heeseung noticed how Gicheol didn't help him even as he nearly died (but was focused on the cop woman I think)

ah, both of them are reminiscing about the start of the relationship... also Euijeong clenched her fist when Gicheol kissed her both in the past and last episode but she kissed Junmo first and doesn't do that

clean office the next day lol

oof, almost got Seungho with the lighter thing

but he does know/have a very big hunch that Seungho killed the PI and he's correct

Seungho wants this trade to happen more than Gicheol does

and he’s willing to do anything wtf is this finger thing is Gicheol missing a finger at all

ah, betrayal in the Japanese yakuza

ah, Gicheol knew about the betrayal. that’s why he was disrespectful to the old man and fucking things up bc he knew he’ll do business with new guy

Euijung's actress is from True Beauty - the cool older sister

just insane. I’m really liking this show. only 3 more eps left, hope it doesn’t let me down ahh. I Need it to stick the landing

Ep 10 (June 22)

mad that i got woken up at 5:30am, esp bc i’ve got less than 5 hours of sleep or smth but uh, i wanna watch next ep…

lmfao Gicheol wants to hand over this thing to Seungho and walk away and be a normal man bc of Euijeong… girl both your right hand Seungho and your girl Euijeong want you in jail!!!

either Junmo nor Gicheol feeling worthy of Euijeong and wanting to be

i just feel like so far, despite doing too much and going too far, Seungho hasn’t shown interest in actually becoming the boss or staying in this lifestyle

no like this Mingoo cop is so bothersome like if he was like Jaengdo it’d be fine bc he’d be correct and it’d be ironic how they’re ignoring him but he’s also constantly abusing his power and it’s annoying. why the hell don’t the cops control him more

lol double date and it’ll be fun to see Euijung jealous

Miss Lee is funny as hell i love her

I just Neeeed to know whether Miss Lee can see the intense eye contact and emotion that Euijeong and Seungho share

i am ILL why do I like Miss Lee/Seungho so fucking much. like in the end i still want the real married couple in love to end up together and overcome this but I really like these two and their cute little dates (workplace sexual harassment not withstanding…). and also Seungho has been giving Miss Lee little smiles tonight, ah how cute

pls the way Miss Lee is like do you even have feelings for me? she’s so spoiled that she doesn’t care if he does or doesn’t, he wants him just bc she likes him.

Knife Seo pissed me the fuck off with brutalizing Jeongbae just as he was leaving but if he kills Mingoo i will be less mad

Junmo’s father?!?! Meth Park?

they’re trying to set up Knife Seo for Manager Cho’s death - which isn’t untrue but there’s a reason for the fake witness setup ig

stop suspecting Jeongnbae, you dumbass

ah, they gave up Knife Seo kinda to distract Mingoo ig…

Dohyung telling Junmo to not overdo it and that he’s a cop who needs to return to that life

Everybody going to the port while Euijeong sitting worried at home, agh this show

Jeonbae at the office… and saying he told Gicheol the cop bitch would screw him over…

Ep 11 (June 22)

Two episodes left, pleaseeee stick the landing

2 Days Earlier oof

It’s annoying because Mingoo is kinda good at his job in some aspects and so keeps catching onto things lmfao

i get more mad as they show Euijeong helpless to stop the deal from going through and is just upset and worried at home

Gicheol sees himself in Seungho

not this random ass car crash with Dodgers. is this Mingoo’s doing wtf

omg the car blowing up?!

oh that was Kyungjin (the previous rat), not Dodgers oops. So Jeongbae did this? omg

1 week to get the stolen drugs back oof, will they meander a lot? also when will Gicheol find out about the identities?

fucking he’ll, Mingoo’s at Junmo’s old station where people actually know him

what is Changchun to Seungho or maybe Junmo rather…

oh he’s just excited that he knows that the gang is based in Changchun

Dohyung playing as Park Junmo at Gangnam station with Mingoo but Knife Seo and Yongdae (guy who has seen Dohyung multiple times now including the piece of paper like 2 secs ago that Seo saw) also caught a glimpse from the outside

Gicheol having by to tell Seungho to not cross the line after he suggests fucking up Jeongbae’s family members omg

guess Jeongbae stole all the money and everything oof stupid, how can y’all leave everything unmanned?

fucks sake I’m so over Euijeong playing worried, useless wife. and Dohyung is annoying too like obviously Seungho’s fucked up. obviously he is. what the hell you want him to do

and Knife Seo + Yongdae know that the man (Dohyung cosplaying Junmo) is a narcotics division cop who swapped pages for an investigation

also they don’t fucking tell Seungho that his father was taken in for questioning at Gangnam. he may not realize at once that he’s Meth Park but some prep, some foresight could happen

omg Knife Seo brutalizing Dohyung and finding out he’s not Junmo and also not trusting Seungho and wanting him to stab Dohyung

Ep 12 (June 22)

one hour left… be good please. I’ll watch it at 1x speed

damn Seo killed Dohyung

Dohyung still telling Seungho that he’s a cop and to never forget

wonder what Yongdae’s gonna make of this and if he’ll inform Gicheol

I need Gicheol to find out the identities and soooon and have enough time for the realization and heartbreak and anger that comes with it

“If I’m gonna die anyway, I might as well be killed by hyung” Jeongbae to Gicheol omg… should’ve been shipping these two this whole time they make me so fucking sad

I need to kill Mingoo like actually. annoying ass fucker

Jeongbae and Heesung teaming up and going to Mingoo with the drugs… crazy but also funny in ways because the cops of this case Don’t Want That, they wanna catch em red-handed along w China and Japan branches

like Mingoo wants to catch Gicheol or whatever but that’s not what the investigation wants, they want whole drug ring and how it’s being passed around

Heeseung and Jeongbae really betrayed him like this. Can’t say I’m surprised

parallels of Gicheol getting taken away in the cop car

2nd purposeful car crash in two consecutive episodes lol

does Euijung actually do anything except stand and worry/cry?

no but what’s the plan lol like we have Gicheol but the drug trade ain’t gonna happen without the drugs

Dohyung died ig but they aren’t telling Seungho

okay, one more plan for handoff to Japan, everybody involved and knows what’s happening (though not everybody knows who else knows lol)

30 minutes left

I keep thinking Miss Lee’s guard mans is gonna interfere somehow

Mingoo if you don’t fucking stop brih

how did Mingoo and his lackey find out about Seungho being Junmo and the wedding photo before all of them im dead

okay god bless, Seungho was at least like how about you stay somewhere far away, so Miss Lee is still a lovesick fool (her and Gicheol similarities….) and I assume didn’t betray him even though she knows who he is

she’s stabbed Mingoo, thank you. hated that fucker

Think I could’ve also shipped Miss Lee with her guard, similar to History 3: Trapped

good luck Miss Lee, thank you for being here for these last few episodes because I couldn’t have taken it if fucking Euijung was out only female characters

Seungho betraying Gicheol but not revealing who he is but also keeping the key in the ignition of the car where he handcuffed Gicheol…

the arrest somehow anticlimactic but wrapping up well. need moreeee from Gicheol

ah okay Gicheol here in their apartment and knows things now

oof

damn, Junmo shot for the fucking heart, I thought he’d shoot Gicheol’s arm so that he can’t kill himself or whatever

the fact that he killed Gicheol like that is crazy like actually fr

what ring did Junmo leave… wedding ring??? w a cigarette. and Euijeong had left her cross matching necklace

I wonder why Jungmo killed Gicheol and what it accomplished. The only thing I can think of is that getting murdered is better than committing suicide, afterlife punishment wise, so in a twisted, romantic way you can think of it as Junmo saving Gicheol’s soul from eternal damnation or whatever due to suicide by surrendering his own soul to it instead since he committed murder. Some people said maybe he did it because then Euijeong didn't lead to her friend's suicide (even if she didn't love him like he wanted, she seemingly cared for Gicheol to a certain extent), but idk would her husband being a murderer be better?

Overall:

Surprised even myself by binging this in 24 hours (10am-10am June 21-22) when I was planning on watching ~3eps/day for 4 days. Intense, interesting, engaging, exciting, thrilling. How fun. Been a while since I couldn't stop watching a show from beginning to end because even when I'd be excited and binge a few eps, I'd usually lose interest or be disappointed or just falter after a couple episodes.

Last time I binged like this might've been Alice In Borderland last year, April 2023, S1 8 eps in ~14 hours. I did watch Good Bad Mother 14 episodes in ~50 hours this April 2024 though.

This was exciting because it made me feel like when I had just started watching k-dramas or thrillers, and everything was exciting and I'd just watch it for hours on end. Also helped because I straight up knew nothing about this except Wi Hajoon is in this (the guy who really had me getting into watching shows and dramas) + cop story; I literally thought they were a pair of cops lmfao not infiltration.

For A Shop for Killers, I started watching at 1.25x halfway through because it was slow and I wanted it to get a move on/finish certain parts quicker. This one I started with 1.25x from the very first episode and it goes very well with the fast-paced nature of this show.

The 90s timeline was a nice touch, it let us go farther with the "nobody in this city far away from where he lives/works knows what Junmo (a random cop in a random station) looks like"

I wasn't on anybody's side - I knew/suspected the cops and Seungho would win because that's just the kind of story but I wanted more and better from each side, I wanted them to be clever and to outsmart each other. When Gicheol did something clever, I was excited and when Seungho did something clever, I was equally excited.

It was also just a unique experience to have Jeongbae literally telling Gicheol about the suspicious people and being right on the money while Gicheol brushes him off. That one at least I enjoyed because I liked to see the group fracture and lose trust but I hated the Mingoo fucker so bad. It would've been one thing if he was actually just doing it all sneakily but ethically (as much as you can be as a cop lmfao) because he wanted to help or whatever, it would've been ironic how I still wouldn't want him to have much progress because I'd want the main investigation to go well, but this dirty cop motherfucker who also plays with these gangs but wants to arrest Gicheol for the police fame and notoriety too? Miss Lee you are a real and true winner for killing that motherfucker.

I pity Gicheol, he really had Seungho and Euijeong left at the end but they both were conspiring against him. But Seungho was right that Gicheol didn't need to do all this, it's an excuse, he just wanted to be powerful and at the top and rich. It's not surprising that others turned their back on him (didn't he himself kill the previous leader to take over + by the end he was only worried about himself and not really his friends or the guys under him) and it's not surprising how he turned out. He was also making such stupid decisions because of his love for Euijeong. he was not portrayed in a heinous light despite his criminal and cruel behaviour. Sometimes he would yell (ex. when he was yelling at Seungho to shoot Cho) and it felt like I could see more of his ruthless side

Seungho-Junmo's character was interesting too, enjoyed him constantly pushing farther and doing too much just to keep his cover and have the investigation continue. I don't think I ever really thought that Junmo would go to the dark side or really team up with Gicheol or anything, it seemed clear that he was doing this for the investigation and to keep his wife's involvement as low as possible + to prove himself as well. I haven't watched Ji Changwook in anything before this but he was impressive with the acting.

I liked the main romance at the beginning, it was so heartbreaking how Junmo couldn't be at his MIL's funeral and the scene when he and Euijeong made eye contact secretly was tragic and touching. The scenarios where they had to pretend to not be together and either going on dates with Gicheol or on that double date were also interesting. But after a while, it got boring and repetitive because they weren't giving Euijeong any new material. It makes sense that they divorced or stopped being together after that mission, Gicheol was a changed man, a more ruthless and cold man who is not doing alright and Euijeong saw him kill Gicheol in front of her. They had asked before the last scene if they could go back to normal like before and the answer is simply no.

I don't think she was romantically interested in Gicheol at all by the way.

I didn't think of The Devil Judge while watching this show but as I was thinking about it afterwards, I kind of started noticing similarities a bit, so I'll write some of my thoughts in comparison. SPOILERS ALSO FOR DEVIL JUDGE IF ANYBODY OTHER THAN ME IS READING THIS:

Taeho-Seungho and Yohan's brother-Gaon: the former was somebody close to Gicheol-Yohan who died and reminded him of him. Gaon was much more directly and often referred to as similar to Yohan's brother but Seungho had bits of Taeho as his cousin (though Seungho reminded Gicheol more of himself tbh)

Euijeong and Soohyun (I think that's her): our main characters Seungho and Gaon had female love interests who were also both cops but were underutilized, underwritten, and ultimately not very useful. I fucking wish Euijeong was more involved, did more cool things, not just wait around and be worried about Junmo (and Gicheol) and have extremely boring dates with Gicheol. at least she didn't die i guess...

Miss Lee Haeryeong and Seonah: ahhh my interesting, antagonist women who I was obsessed with. The were given more personality and dimension than the first love interests I'd mentioned but it could never work out with them because they were too dangerous or not on the right side and the one she likes does not like her back. I think Miss Lee was especially important here because Devil Judge at least had other female characters who got screentime (younger sister Elijah was a semi-prominent character and the Minister was a badass) but here she was the only one other than Euijeong and I've already expressed my dissatisfaction with how they used that character. Miss Lee Haeryeong was a lovesick fool truly, but I give it a pass because we have an even bigger lovesick fool in this cast (oh, Gicheol), so it wasn't just like a sexist stereotype. I had loved how unhinged Seonah and Yohan were like truly unpredictable and dangerous and this show wasn't that (well Haeryeong did sexually assault/coerce Seungho that one time yikes) but her dynamic with Seungho still brought some fun into it all. She was kinder in letting Seungho's plan go through though instead of Seonah backstabbing Yohan, but Seungho was also kinder to her by telling her to leave the countries than Yohan was so Seonah.

Gicheol and Yohan: the actors were very good choices for their roles because they are not good people but they are very charming and make you want to root for them even as they do bad things or commit crimes. Yohan was overall "better" while Gicheol was literally a criminal and drug dealer and murderer who owned businesses. I didn't think of Gicheol as the antagonist because despite him definitely being that and I think it's mostly due to the way he was portrayed in the show but also about how Wi Hajoon specifically idk

homoeroticism? I think it's Much more pronounced in The Devil Judge but here, I was like... we can get a threesome going with Euijeong involved. Seungho was never on Gicheol's side here unlike with Gaon and Yohan being allies/friends/whatever in Devil Judge and the scriptwriters also didn't frame it as a possible ship ever whereas it definitely seemed like something they were alluding to in DJ. But it's a fun thought, maybe if I rewatch it and am not just so focused on the plot, I can try looking at it in that way.

The Ending: ...sad. Gaon and Junmo are changed people. Gicheol's dead, which is not surprising to me, though the way it happened wasn't what I was expecting. Junmo is not doing well, his marriage is falling apart, he's killed people, Dohyung's death has taken a toll on him, he's a more jaded person, he resents the fact that he had to do this mission. It was a fitting ending after all this.

Anyway, not super similar plot-wise but certain threads are maybe just common tropes.

The Devil Judge started off with 7.5 stars but lost its 0.5 to become 7 because I can't actually remember much about the show's plot and hold no affection for the characters. I hope my feelings for this show ages better.

I'm especially curious how I'll feel because my 3 favourite k-dramas are Squid Game, Beyond Evil, and Squid Game and I felt so deeply for the characters there. However, for the Devil Judge, I didn't feel attached to the characters after watching and so I do not think about that show at all. While watching The Worst of Evil, I wasn't against anybody nor was I on anybody's side and I didn't form attachments to the characters, like I don't love the 2 main leads and their bond or anything. So I thoroughly enjoyed the thrilling ride for the first time but to make me rewatch or think about the show weeks and months from now, usually a strong character arc or character relationship is necessary and this show doesn't really have that. So we'll see how I feel about it later on. I wrote a whole lot omg

Rating: 7.5/10

[lighthouseshepard]

honestly amazed at how easily you seem to write amazing oneshots!! any tips? i’ve been trying to get back into writing (esp fic) and the motivation is just eluding me 😭

HI ELLA honestly thank you thats so kind ;_; 💖💖💖 ive been mulling this over since i saw it trying to come up with a good response but. eloquence is eluding me too 😭

i think honestly for me its just like. picking one Specific Concept and going from there! one idea or feeling or scene you want to get to, and then i usually work around it to properly shape it out! like for the yorick one, i knew i wanted him and john to be bickering (well john was bickering at him bc yorick is. yorick) so i started with that and then the thing with the nightmare just kind of naturally developed! theres another in progress right now where i knew i wanted human john having his first birthday party (was supposed to be done on the third HAHA OOPS) and so im kinda just rolling with that mental scene of him opening presents.

i also like oneshots cause they feel like cozy lil spaces to explore a bunch of different angles from! which is usually how i go from "oh thisll just be 300 words ha ha" to "god what have i done (: "

as far as motivation goes im literally coming out of a four year dry spell of having written NOTHING. not a wORD. and then i started listening to malev and got really abnormal about it <3 and that absolutely helped. not worrying abt whether something is 'perfect' helps as well! i get scared sometimes of even starting stuff bc i know it probably won't match up to the image i have in my head. but thats ok! drafts are drafts for a reason. even if you just start with some lines of dialogue and a few descriptions of what you wanna add to later the story can grow from there! i usually do that too, write down what i have and then come back later with fresh eyes. also helps to either start small - begin with a narrow focus on one thing and widen the "shot" - or start with action! hit the ground running kind thing where you drop the reader into the middle of something already occuring.

i dunno if any of this helps or is what you were looking for JFJEJDH im sorry. but im literally ALWAYS here if you ever want prompts! im chock full of aus at any given time❤️