#for a show called 'the eclipse' frankly there was not as much eclipse as i would have liked

[sollucets]

rowan's eclipse anniversary celebration

week eight: parallels

[derpy-dogs-n-cats]

Courtship Misunderstanding.

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Neteyam x Fem! Metkayina! Reader.

Warnings: Talks about mating, implied sexual themes.

Summary: Neteyam finds out that he's still unaware of some of the customs of your people.

W/C: 2.5k+

Neteyam slowly rises from the water to the shore of the village of Awa’atlu, water pouring out of his hair as he drags the giant eel from the cord he’d brought along and tied around the base of its jaw. Stepping out of the water properly and turning to his left, he rests the end of the long cord in his hand over his shoulder, feeling satisfied at the sound of the heavy drag of the massive weight of the eel leaving a deep wet path on the sand.

It’d taken him days of exploring every inch of the waters, starting with the reefs and opening to the deeper ocean but he’d finally found a catch that was worthy of being gifted to you; an eel larger than him and almost as wide as his torso that quite frankly had him struggling, though he tried not to show. Neteyam watches how the sand suddenly turns dark, having him looking up and seeing that eclipse had started with nighttime falling upon them, urging him to walk faster.

Once he reaches the docks, he crouches down and squeezes his arms under the eel and between the sand, lifting it with a small grunt and placing it on the elastic sheet that creates paths to the marui. Placing his hands next to the eel firmly, he hoists himself up and lands on his knees on the path with a light bounce, taking the eel back in his arms and standing back on his feet, carrying it much like a newborn to further impress you with his strength..

His legs start walking the path to your family’s marui, careful that the eel doesn’t somehow leap out of his arms with the light bounce of his feet. As he walks to his destination, he crosses paths with a few metkayina walking by him, all turning around and eyeing him and his catch as they walk away, having him feeling somewhat giddy; the same feeling you elicit on him whenever you so much as look at him, and when you smile upon noticing him already looking at you…

He feels as if though his heart could just about explode. You make him feel just as innocently happy as when he was a child, back before the sky people returned, back before his father laid more weight on his shoulders, before he had bigger responsibilities, all of which his brother noticed which led to him being called ‘whipped’. He had no idea what it meant, but if this is what being ‘whipped’ felt like, he didn’t want it to stop.

Finally, he reaches your family’s pod and peeks in, standing at the corner of the entrance and seeing you sitting on your calves in front of the firepit at the center, using the light to weave a choker with thin vines and watching as you meticulously add a small white pearl into it, following an intricate pattern which will no doubt match the white freckles that beautifully adorn your body, the ones he can’t wait to trace patterns on.

“Neteyam!” You greet with a smile, having looked over and caught him staring at you. Your voice snaps him out of his trance and has him returning the same smile as you stand to approach him, having set down your choker. “Wow, your parents must be proud.” You compliment, eyeing the eel. “No, this… this is for you.” He smiles softly. “Me? Are you trying to feed my whole family?” You ask jokingly to which his tail nearly thrashes around excitedly.

“Yes.” He sheepishly answers. He knew you’d understand that he’s courting you, gifting you a hunt large enough to feed your entire family to prove he can provide for you and more once you have a few little ones running around. “Thank you so much.” You thank in a soft tone before being interrupted. “Neteyam.” The sound of your father’s voice speaks his name, having them looking at each other followed by your father hand gesturing that he sees him with Neteyam bowing his head.

“I see you.” He says, suddenly very nervous on your father reacting to his eldest daughter being courted. “What is this?” Your father waves his hand to the eel, wondering what he was doing with it in his pod when his family’s marui was on the other side of the village. “Neteyam caught this for us.” You answer with a warm feeling in your chest while said hunter’s ears lightly flick back in confusion. Just the presence alone of a na’vi outside of the family with a large catch should let him know you were being courted.

Maybe your father just didn’t want to accept the courting, was his catch not impressive enough? Surely he could understand that anything bigger wouldn’t have been able to be delivered, it was hard enough to carry the one in his arms. “Very well then.” Your father nods and takes the eel in his own arms with more ease than Neteyam, the small insecurity blossoming in his stomach subsiding the strain in his biceps despite being understandably younger.

While the eel is set near the fire, ready to be cut and cooked, the sound of your mother’s voice speaking your name enters your ears. “Mother.” You greet and approach her and Aonung, receiving a half hug from her due to your baby brother being carried in her other arm. “Neteyam brought us something.” You continue to boast with a smile, briefly pointing at the eel by the fire before taking the baby in your own arms.

Ronal looks at the eel with slightly wide eyes, the impressed expression filling Neteyam with a sense of pride and mostly relief, though unbeknownst to him, her surprise was due to never having seen one of the reef eels so big, given that they’re usually no larger than a na’vi’s forearm. Your mother gestures that he sees him as a thanks to which he responds while your older brother looks away in annoyance, refusing to return the gesture.

Your mother gives a small pinch to his arm with a more than fear-inducing look on her eyes, forcing him to return the gesture. “Aonung, go bring your sister.” Your father’s voice says to which he follows after letting out an exasperated sigh, picking up his pace once he realizes Tsireya’s swimming with Lo’ak. “Come, eat with us.” Your mother invites Neteyam to the pod while your father cuts the eel as the younger male lets out a quiet relieved sigh at his offering being accepted.

You take his hand in yours and lead him in with a smile, pulling him down to sit next to you as he lets out a nervous breath through his smile, the flustered expression not going unnoticed by your parents who share a knowing look with each other, staying quiet to the matter. The rest of the night goes smoothly, your parents cooking the eel as they make small conversation about the village, your baby brother napping in your arms as you talk with your sister and occasionally share a few words and smiles with Neteyam…

The only one who looked unhappy was Aonung with the seemingly permanent annoyed look he bared on his face, though you suspected he was never happy and didn’t give him much importance in the time being. Though while the night felt soothing to you, Neteyam felt as if though he’d already had four heart attacks. The entire dinner he’d been anxiously waiting for the conversation to be had with your parents, about whether or not they approved of him.

He waited as patiently as he could for your parents to start the conversation on the matter, for them to voice their concerns if they had any, if they bestowed their blessing on the two of you becoming mates, make sure that you’d be taken care of properly, anything, but it never came. So as the end of the meal neared, he assumed that your parents simply trusted him enough that they felt as though nothing needed to be said on the matter.

“Ah.” You open your mouth in a way to encourage the baby in your lap to follow suit and open his own mouth, placing a small piece of meat in and smiling as he chews. Neteyam eyes you feeding your brother, a soft smile on his face at the sight of how you treat babies, unable to stop himself from thinking about how you would treat your own baby. Thoughts of him coming to your shared marui only to see his beautiful mate carrying his baby, your baby in your arms floods his mind, a warm feeling settling in his chest.

While you bring another piece of meat to your brother’s mouth, you remain sat unaware of how Neteyam’s, without much thought, tail slowly slides to the side behind you and reaches for your own, gently wrapping around it as best as he could. A gasp almost instantly leaves your mouth, accidentally dropping the meat in surprise with your eyes widening. The sound of the baby on your lap letting out a huff followed by crying snaps you out of your shock with your eyes opening even wider.

“Oh, I’m so sorry tìyawn.” You apologize as you pick up the meat from your lap, readjusting his back to your stomach and trying to feed it to him again only for him to sloppily grab it and throw it away, your parents now having their full attention on you yet unable to find the cause of the disturbance. “Come, give him to me.” Your mother indicates, stopping your actions of lightly bouncing the baby on your leg while patting his back.

You hand him over to your mother and watch how she almost instantly gets him to stop crying while you push the slight insecurity away by remembering how she’s already had another three kids to practice with, of course she would’ve mastered it already. The sudden absence of the tail that was previously wrapped around yours has you thinking back to the recent incident while Neteyam’s stuck feeling somewhat embarrassed of the mess, not having meant to surprise you so much.

You think back to how his tail wrapped around yours and feel yourself getting flustered, not knowing what to think of the action. Metkayina didn’t wrap their tails with each other, in fact, you didn’t wrap them around anything, your tails not being thin enough to offer the flexibility to do so, but for some reason, despite not being familiar with said action and not knowing what it meant, it felt… intimate.

Your father clears his throat and breaks you out of your overanalyzing thoughts, making you look at him. “It’s gotten quite late, it would be best to leave.” He suggests to which Neteyam’s ear perk up to attention. “Yes.” He quickly agrees and stands, and while the action makes you think that he feels as though he overstayed his welcome, in reality, he’s quite eager for what’s to follow. “Sleep well.” You say to him.

His face contorts in confusion as he takes in the sight of your innocent eyes looking at him, remaining sat. “Is something wrong?” Your sister questions before you can, all eyes suddenly on him and his confused expression as he wonders what’s happening. Why weren’t you standing to leave with him? Why did your parents seem oblivious to what was happening? Why did everybody seem oblivious to it?

You should all know what follows next, having finished the meal from the catch that he’d brought for you, the only thing that was left to do was for you to leave with him to somewhere more private so you could mate with each other. Had you changed your mind after accepting his catch? Had he somehow overstepped when he wrapped his tail around yours? “Neteyam? What’s wrong?” You ask with genuine concern, confusing him even more.

“… Nothing- I…” He pauses. What was he supposed to say? Where would he even start? “Rest well.” He returns your words before leaving, you and your family sharing a look that lets each other know that no one understood what happened either. The walk to his family’s marui feels like a blur, hundreds of thoughts and questions unanswered in his head which feels as if though it's just about ready to start spinning in confusion.

“Neteyam, what is wrong?” He hears the concerning voice of his mother ask, realizing that he hasn't just reached his family's marui, but is now pacing in their pod, all eyes on him once again. “’I… I do not know.” He manages to get the words out of his mouth, his legs still pacing him around. “How can you not know?” Lo’ak asks while his pacing brother starts breathing faster. “Boy.” Jake almost shouts, finally managing to get him to stop pacing and look at his family.

“What’s going on?” He adds. “I… I show up to Y/N’s marui, I gift her a huge eel- bigger than me, she accepts it, I have dinner with her family… and they don’t say anything!” He explains with frustration, taking his family by surprise, seeing the usually calm and collected eldest starting to lose it. “It took me three days to find the right catch, and- and when I get up to leave, she doesn’t come with me and acts like she doesn’t know what’s happening.” He rushes the words out, breathing heavily by the time they’re out.

“Neteyam…” Neytiri speaks his name yet stares at the ground as if pondering about something, wondering where she should start to explain to her son what happened. “Sit.” She ushers him closer with a soft voice. After hesitating for a few seconds, he steps closer and kneels in front of her, watching as her mouth opens and closes a few times as if searching for the right words before answering the question he’s so desperately been searching an answer to.

“These are reef na’vi, different na’vi court in other ways.” She explains, the slow widening of his eyes showing the realization dawning on him. “… What?” He asks somewhat in disbelief. “You skxawng.” He hears Kiri insult him, making him shoot his head back at her. “You knew?” He asks, the tone in his voice showing how offended he feels that she didn’t tell him beforehand. “I didn’t know you were courting her!” She defends. “Neteyam is old enough to choose a woman.” Their mother interjects.

“Then what do I do?” He quickly redirects his gaze back at her. “I do not know.” She rushes out as if it were obvious she doesn’t know how metkayina court. “But you told me-” “I have told you everything that I know.” She interrupts her son who quickly looks at his other parent for answers. “Don’t look at me.” He raises his hands in defense, his eldest son continuing to look at his other family members for answers only to no avail, letting him know that if he wants to know how to court you; a metkayina, he’ll have to ask another metkayina.

[darkforestdreams]

(SAMS Spoilers) Moon's been ACTING off...

(SO MANY SPOILERS BELOW: YOU'VE BEEN WARNED!)

TL;DR: Moon isn't Moon, it's Nexus acting as him like how Dark Sun impersonated Lord Eclipse's Sun.

Yesterday's episode, "Lord Eclipse's Surprise"? I don't think Dark Sun's the only one who was acting.

We know Moon. We know how caring he's been -- taking other's emotions and past into account when he's talking to them. When he's in the middle of something, like finding out Ruin disappeared, he will now take the time to be mindful and not lash out emotionally. He's been trying to find coping methods for when he needs them and found a weekly schedule that seems to work for him.

So... with all of this into account, am I the only one who thought Moon was acting REALLY off when interacting with Solar? He randomly asks how how Solar's Sun and Moon are, apparently forgetting that they're DEAD.

Then he unintentionally insults Solar maybe three times -- the first two Solar called him out for -- and he even says "when you and Lunar invaded our heads" -- uh, pardon? Since he came back, when has the Moon we now know ever make a slip up like that? Moon's made it pretty clear through his actions that he sees Solar as a good friend at least and wants to be respectful of the guy's trauma.

At first I thought Moon was too preoccupied with an extremely important matter, but the more I watched the video, the more off he felt.

I firmly Moon has been taken away, or taken over, by Nexus.

Today's episode only helped cement it. Nexus was a bit better at hiding it, but there were still some slip ups with how he treated Sun. Being insensitive to him possibly having a mental crisis (or worse) and turning his emotions into a joke, YELLING at Sun for photos of the.. lab? (Was that what it was? Sorry, moot point.) Not to mention sounding rather bitter when the subject of lying and honesty came up.

Remember how the Bloodmoon simulation showed Nexus fighting Sun? ONCE AGAIN, Nexus made himself the victim over a pure assumption, and frankly just being an insensitive prick? Even for a simulation it was accurate to Nexus' petulance, and Moon said that the computer calculated the simulation, not him. I don't know where that detailed amount of info came from but my best guess is Sun's own memories. Moon probably asked Sun for them to use to make the simulation more accurate.

The BM Simulation arc wasn't just about Sun moving past his actions, it was reminding us of how Nexus began to act after Sun lied to him (WHICH, AGAIN, HE WAS WARNED ABOUT--sorry).

And Monty's line in today's episode: "Yer not who Ah think you is; you is not him you are you!"

That'd apply perfectly to Nexus if he really has taken Moon's place. Foreshadowing~!

OH! And remember when Ruin joined Dark Sun and Nexus? He was reciting Shakespeare beforehand and we KNOW that he's a big fan of acting.

I bet Ruin taught them how to act. Dark Sun can do it almost flawlessly but Nexus... yeah, not so much. I bet the latter felt overconfident and slipped up as a result.

[hearts4yawnzzn]

Only His // Lee Rang

Lee Rang x Siren!oc

Warnings!: this will be exactly written as the kdramas first season after 3 parts, so there will be mentions of; gore, death, murder, suicide, and torture.

Word Count: 2182 words.

~ HER POV ~

My mom has always refused for me to get into any physical contact with anyone else, although the reason is still unknown, she gets weird and tenses up whenever I ask her about it, I never knew why.

Yes, I could ask my dad, but he's always been dismissive about the subject, especially when I ask about it every single day. And honestly, I grew tired of it. I'm sick of hearing the same words when I ask about something so negligible.

"Miyeong-ah! Come down for dinner!" My mom calls out as I hear the clanking of pans from the kitchen, I hurriedly dismiss what I'm doing and speed out of my room and down the stairs.

If I'm being honest, I've always thought I've lived a fake life, ever since I was born, I would only get treatment from 'special' doctors. I'm sick of being different.

~ NO ONE'S POV ~

Miyeong's father was helping her mother set up the table, it was always four, not three. As Miyeong Ascended down the stairs, she rushed to kiss her father on the cheek and sat down across from him, her mother soon presented herself by carrying a big pot and placing it on the table, everything else was set beforehand.

"Eomma, why are you always forgetting that three people live here? You always put an extra set as if someone is going to randomly join us." The girl didn't waste a second waiting for her parents as she dug in, starting by eating some kimchi with her rice.

Her mother didn't have anything to say to her, frankly because she had no idea as well. The lid of the pot was open, and everyone was greeted by the mouth-watering smell of the cooked meat.

"The food tastes as amazing as it always is, honey." Her father complimented his wife, but Miyeong was sick of it, she was sick of living in such a fake ass family. Her metal chopsticks drop from her hand as she let out a loud scoff, sitting back in her chair.

"Eomma, Appa, are we going to keep doing this? Tell me why I can't communicate with people like a normal person!" she was enraged, the girl has said this many times before, but she never continued, now is her chance to finish.

She pushed her plate back aggressively, her parents looking at her in disbelief like their daughter had just gone insane.

Her mother slammed her hand down on the table, but her daughter didn't falter, she has learned to stand up against her mother, ever since day one. All by herself.

Miyeong wouldn't dare to show anyone around her that she was terrified, her parents never hit her, but still, she was scared of that possibility.

"Yah! Have you lost your mind!? Sit down and eat your food!" they were both yelling at each other, while the father stayed silent, he has endured this for the past 23 years, ever since they found her.

"No! Do you think I'm dumb!? You don't even treat me like your own daughter anymore!" tears were threatening to spill from her eyes, but she needed to hold back, just a little bit longer until she can leave this place.

The place she used to call 'home'.

"You're giving me so much stress! You don't even respect your own mother!" the girl stared at her in disbelief, she let out a scoff that soon turned into a laugh, was the woman in front of her serious right now?

Miyeong had planned it all.

She planned to pester them every day for the last 23 years.

She had planned to get into a big fight with the woman sitting across her, just a few days before the lunar eclipse.

Her bag was already waiting for her at the door, all she had to do now was make a dramatic closing to this argument, take her bag, and leave.

"I've been asking you every fucking day for the past 23 years! You didn't even say shit to me!! You think you can call yourself my 'mother' just because we both live under the same roof!?" she sat up from her chair and roughly pushed it against the table.

The entire table rocked as some of the empty glass cups were shattered onto the floor.

"I have had enough of dealing with you, and your husband." her tone was low, but you could feel the venom seeping through her words as her fists were balled, knuckles turning white.

It was time for her dramatic exit, Miyeong nodded her head one last time before taking out something that she was sitting on, papers. She gave one last look at the papers, then to the woman in front of her before finally throwing them to her face.

The old couple sitting at the table was stunned, they had never expected that their 'daughter' was capable of doing something like this. They had always thought of her as someone weak and emotional when facing herself or others.

Miyeong didn't dare to look back, she walked away from the table and headed towards the front door, as expected, her bag was on the floor, right beside her shoes. The brunette hurriedly put on her shoes and slung her bag over her shoulder, she didn't even know if she ore her shoes right, but that was not important.

Her hand made contact with the doorknob, and without even thinking back, she twisted it and opened the door, walking out of the darned house before slamming the door shut behind her.

Now all she could do is run, even though she might have planned this for 23 years, she didn't know she would get this far, she didn't know where to go.

She wanted to get lost, so she wouldn't get found by them ever again.

She will never go back.

Miyeong made sure, throughout planning her escape, that she wouldn't get caught by them again.

And nothing will stop her from getting what she wants.

The 23-year-old kept running through the streets, she was running for only a couple of minutes, but it felt like hours.

Her throat was becoming dry and cold, she wasn't taught to build her stamina. Ever since she was young she was homeschooled, her 'parents' haven't even bothered to give her PE classes.

The brunette kept looking back, she was terrified of them following her, she needed to look back to make sure they weren't there.

The bag on her shoulders was very heavy, it was putting so much weight on her, but that was not going to stop her.

Miyeong took the first left she saw, it looked like an apartment complex for rich people.

The people who kept her isolated for 23 years were definitely rich, the man who called himself her 'father' used to come home wearing suits every day, while the woman who called herself her 'mother' would always wear designer bags, shoes, clothes... Anything that she can get her hands on.

She diverted her sight to the main entrance, two bodyguards guarding the front while two other bodyguards were situated near the main gate.

Without placing any suspicion upon herself, the girl managed to swiftly walk over and sit on the bench. She took her bag off of her shoulder and placed it beside her, the heavy pressure she felt on her shoulders was instantly lifted, and she sighed in relief.

Miyeong didn't expect any company, she knew no one, she wasn't allowed to own any type of electronics, and she wasn't allowed to go outside.

Communication was definitely not her strongest skill.

The sound of the main gate slightly screeching open caught her attention, her head instantly turned to observe the vehicle approaching. The brunette raised her head to take a look at who was inside, the windows were very tinted. She barely saw their faces, but they definitely saw hers.

A woman was sitting in the driver's seat, she had long dark hair and an almost petite figure. On the other hand, a male was sitting in the passenger's seat, his hair was obviously short, and he was biting the nail of his thumb while resting his arm on the window. He looked really annoyed about something.

But other than that, Miyeong was curious to know more about him. By just barely looking at him once, she felt like she has known him for centuries, but maybe even then, he could be a rich clueless dumbass that she could rob. After all, aren't all rich people clueless and dumb?

The white car was heading for the garage, Miyeong stood up from the bench and approached the main gate, in order not to look suspicious, the brunette approached the secretary's desk and asked her if she could borrow her phone to 'make a call', while giving the secretary and excuse that her phone 'ran out of battery'.

The secretary didn't think anything of it and gladly handed her the phone, Miyeong smiled followed by a short bow.

She pretended to dial someone's phone number and placed the phone to her ear, "Hey Unnie! I'm in the building right now but I forgot what number your apartment is..." she proceeded to walk towards the elevator, nodding, and humming a few yeses. Miyeong averted her eyes and stared at the floor number above the elevator going up.

"Unnie, which floor are you on again?" The number above the elevator stopped, "Ah the 6th floor? Alright I'll be right there!" she 'hung up' the phone and returned it to the secretary. The girl quickly walked over to the elevator, and pressed the 'up' button several times, as soon as the elevator opened, she hurriedly walked inside and pressed the number 6 button.

The elevator closed and started to travel up, she tapped her foot against the floor anxiously, she was overthinking the situation now.

The brunette had no fighting skills and extremely poor communication skills. A 'ding' sound reached her ears as the elevator opened, she peaked her head through to make sure no one was in the hallway, once she confirmed that the coast was clear, she walked out of the elevator and proceeded to look for the guy's apartment.

It's like he knew she was going to rob him, or that he forgot to close his own door. Maybe he is that stupid.

Miyeong quietly approached the open door and she made the open gap a little bit greater so she could fit through.

Once she was through, she looked around his apartment, of course, it was very modern, and everything looked brand new and spotless, this man owns the latest models and versions of everything!

Out of her own curiosity, Miyeong slowly started heading for his kitchen, looking around in awe. She stared at his fridge, opening it slowly as she put some of the stuff inside in her bag, carefully closing the fridge, Miyeong stalked towards the living room.

It had two pairs of sofas, and a big TV against the wall, and a table in between with a vase full of red roses.

The apartment itself was very quiet and dark, the only source of light was coming from the kitchen. How could he just disappear after going inside, was he pranking her?

Miyeong made her way to the bedroom, she looked to her right to find a closed door with the light on.

'He must be taking a shower or something, I should probably hurry.' she shrugged and walked inside his room, she looked for anything that might contain some money or anything she could sell.

She stopped in front of a closet, extending her hand out to open it, but she felt a strong grip on her shoulder, turning her around and grabbing her by her neck, placing her in a chokehold.

The girl's hands immediately gripped the person's wrists, trying to pry their hands off of her, she looked up to see them.

Of course, it was him.

"Why did you break into my house?" his glare could burn a hole between her eyes as he spoke with a harsh tone, his grip slowly tightening on her neck.

Miyeong let out a small yelp as she coughed out her answer, "You left— your door open—" She was trying so hard to loosen his grip, but he was too strong.

His strength was abnormal, possibly too strong to even be human.

The man was raging, his question wasn't being answered and he definitely didn't seem like a patient type of person.

Miyeong was slowly losing air, she could barely breathe with the grip he had on her,

She had tried to speak, to give him an answer, but it was of no use.

The girl harshly closed her eyes as the grip on his wrist lightened, and when she opened her eyes again she felt lightheaded.

When their eyes met the male widened his in shock, his lips slightly disconnecting from each other.

And he immediately let go of her.

[heretherebedork]

Dear friend of mine, do you have any recs for shows that are long form, already completed, and a little dark? I'm not really feeling something light-hearted at the moment. Thank you ❤️

I gotta think about that a bit, let me go check on MDL. Also gonna tag @absolutebl because they are definitely better on the 'what is darkness' scale and knowledge than I am, lol.

I know you and am trying to find darkness that isn't cheating because there's a seriously dark and fucked up one of the the Philippines called Cheat that is about just that but is also SUPER dark and magic.

Long Time No See is a queer movie about, basically, two hitmen? Maybe not the darkest but definitely has a more serious and darker tone at points?

The Eclipse is one of the darkest BLs out of GMMTV which isn't saying much but, frankly, none of this is saying much? Sorry, darkness is not my best measure.

You might wanna try The Eighth Sense. It's much more realistic bits and hits of darkness but has a very good and hopeful ending... this is where I'm going with 'I dunno if this is darkness but it's serious'.

Honestly? A lot of War of Y might count for this? Not all of it, honestly, but a lot of it has darkness inherent and a lot of talk about how serious issues. But it's entirely, like, emotional darkness about being an actor so that might not count.

Sorry, darkness might be too general of a concept for me to really try to recommend stuff. I'm not super good at this. I've got a request for angsty recs in my inbox and I just haven't even begun to try to think because it's so general. (Sorry to that anon, my brain is not being super helpful right now. Two weeks to the end of the school year and hopefully working summer school will help me out on that front.)

I did come up with a chinese censored one that might be good for this but I'm not gonna recommend it unless you want it because, well, it is a censored bromance.

Anyway.

That's my best but it's not very good?

If you want absolute queer darker horror you go for He She It but I dunno if that's also darkness.

[mdhwrites]

I think you said once that Hexside and the "love interest" aspect of the show didn't contribute to the main plot at all.

So, what do you think a toh would be like if those were taken out? Like a toh without S1 and a third of S2?

You would end up with not TOH. And also with a show that probably did middling numbers at best because... Hexide presents a really big Catch 22 for the show. On the one hand, it has nothing to do with plot, narrative and tangentially at best works with the themes long term even if there are term moments that function. On the other hand, it is EASILY the best part of the show with most of the iconic moments in it, even if you're not a Lumity shipper, some of the best character moments, the only character even arguably a real arc (and frankly I still argue that Amity's arc is poorly done. Lumity isn't rushed because Amity's character was rushed and gutted.), and some of the clearer morals of the show. Because TOH's adventure element is where the plot is but it also gives zero fucks about that adventure element. Its villains are consistently incredibly weak and one note, often sharing the same note. The fights are mostly boring. Even the well animated ones have minimal good choreography or interesting elements going on with them and very rarely real emotional or characters stakes. The best fights of the series are easily Eclipse Lake and Covention and... That's about it. One of the things that helps those two fights admittedly is that not everything is energy blasts and vines in them and even then, Eclipse Lake isn't exactly clearing a high bar as far as choreography goes and its still lacking personality since one of the most memorable moments is Amity, graceful nerd Amity, sucker punching Hunter with a spiked gauntlet. Otherwise, the magic and world building is incredibly inconsistent. The characters are pointedly not interested in adventures, only Luz is so every adventure would be an argument and would get old fast. You'd probably get more episodes moralizing at you for their structure so I hope you liked Really Small Problems and Once Upon a Swap because that's likely what you'd get more of.

Actually, roll back a second because this IS important. One of the subversions of TOH is that classic question in fantasy of "Why is everyone going and getting themselves almost killed?" Eda and King embody that. It's explicit in S2 when Eda is trying to respect that King and Luz are kids but it's there in S1 too. In the second episode even when they consider Luz a fool because they see such little promise in the world that they don't interact with it. Which, you know, for a show is kind of a problem when two thirds of your main cast are lazy assholes who have to be bribed in someway to do fucking ANYTHING besides their mundane routine. It's part of why TOH fails so hard as an adventure show because they go on SO FEW ADVENTURES. It's also part of why Willow and Gus, who are enthusiastic and active, are inciters so much in S1 with three different episodes not being about them but them being the direct catalyst for those episodes because SOMETHING needs to get these fuckers to do ANYTHING. (Escaping Palisman, Covention and Really Small Problems for those curious. There may be more but those were three I could immediately think of.) And then there's the fact that as even you pointed out: You remove Hexide and you lose a LOOOT of the show. For something not actually important to the plot, it does consume at least a third of the show. Even the better adventure episodes usually were more about Hexide characters like Lost in Language or Adventure in the Elements, though calling that one adventure is admittedly a bit of a stretch. Like Hexide is so wrapped in everything going on, despite having little impact, it's hard to actually say what the show would look like without it.

Like I've made a lot of inflammatory statements but that's simply going off of what is in the show. These writers are not equipped to do an adventure show. Frankly, I wonder what show they would specialize best in due to the general issues with TOH, as its not like all the Hexide episodes are exactly bangers, but there is at least more joy and obvious interest in Amity and Romance. Which is also what would make it so that if you want TOH to have failed harder ratings wise... Take out Hexide. There's a lot of gay teenagers who watched the show after all. A lot of people wouldn't even talk about the show thought without Amity. Without there being such a forward facing, gay couple. Hell, take out Hexide and even Raeda becomes more awkward and Huntlow just doesn't happen. In fact, you lose a lot of your representation, admittedly just because the cast would be closer to a manageable size.

This is why I don't try to pretend that TOH could be magically rewritten and fixed. I don't pretend that a reboot would cause some magically perfect show to form from the aether now. TOH's identity crises, its fluff, its mishandling of things while being so confident about all these elements definitely needing to be here, to the point where they make up a FUCKING THIRD of the final season even, is part of what is identifiably TOH. You cannot cut out Hexide without a fundamentally different show.

And admittedly, probably just a really bad one. After all, Eda and King are not the Plantars. They aren't a part of a community that can get them to do things, they don't have their own real desires to motivate them and they don't have a real interest in the world outside their door. They're the cool kids who say they're so much better than everyone else and that their lives are so much better when really they do only lean against walls looking cool all day because acting like you're better than everything means you have nothing to fucking do.

Which, frankly, is a good metaphor for a lot of the show. Especially anything not to do with Hexide.

[thecarnivorousmuffinmeta]

I arrive late to the twilight renaissance, but what is up with the whole Jasper/Major split personality? Is this legit canon? I don't remember ever reading about this but then it's been years and I was like in middle/high school then so my critical thinking skills were very much subpar

Welcome to the renaissance, you've come to the wrong blog.

See, @therealvinelle are technically a part of it, but we came late as well and mostly just use the tag. Given we're heresy blogs, if you want standard thoughts on the renaissance fandom, you're better served by going to the other major blogs who don't... write things that make people upset.

I can give you my answer, but it won't be able to explain why fandom do because I'm not really fandom. I'm like that guy standing on the edge of the fandom river who sort of knows what's going on but not really.

Now, my insulting answer to your question.

It's not canon.

In canon we know Jasper has a murky history and that he was this feudal vampire warlord involved with Maria as well as a major in the army before that point (the reason he was turned).

However, he never shows a split personality, rarely talks about those old days, and when he does take charge in Eclipse for the newborn army subplot is perfectly coherent and shows no major shifts in personality.

This is called "fandoms likes people with a dark side/split personality". You see this in nearly every fandom where a character has, for lack of a better term, a complicated past/morality. They get a dark side personality that is oftentimes a literal other personality that they must constantly keep at bay.

Kenshin Himura suffers from this a lot in Rurouni Kenshin fanfiction due to his history as an assassin and later reform and redemption arc. Light Yagami suffers from this in Death Note fanfiction due to the Yotsuba Arc. I've even seen Harry suffer from this in Harry Potter fanfiction where the author feels Harry should have a dark side persona. I haven't dipped my toe into Reylo, but I'm sure Kylo Ren suffers this a lot as well with the clash between Kylo-Ren and Ben Solo.

Jasper gets to join a very long list of characters with a rich history of split personality dark sides.

Frankly, it's one of my fanfiction pet peeves, but it doesn't shock me whenever I see it.

[absolutebl]

Hello Phi ! Do you know why in Thai BL, male characters can be swimmers and all kind of ballers but we have very few martial artists and in particular Muay Thai boxers ? No boxing clubs love stories ? There is a fight in Not me and The Eclipse played around with Judo a bit but I never seen a Thai show do what Where your eyes linger did with Jujitsu. Much love.

Second Chance has a Muay Thai story arc and I think there is at least one other. Ah yes, erm... what was that BounPrem vehicle called... Even Sun!

Judo/JJ shows up in Blue of Winter and Tasty Florida as well.

Honestly, I don't know why not more. Maybe it's not considered sexy? There actually are comparatively few sports romances for the gay romance genre which frankly LOVES these, usually.

[cto10121]

Twilight Clownery—Part 2

In the guise of a personal essay on OP’s relationships with toxic men, at that. Honestly, the whole thing is so loosely conceived it just sounds like a parody of anti-Twilight clownery. Let’s get to it.

Already we have Bullshit #1. Although Team Jacob had its passionate adherents, Team Edward was definitely the most popular by a large margin. OP may have ~lucked out by having Team Jacob fans as her friends, but I was there. I remember the discourse, the fanfiction, the ~atmosphere. Most everyone was Team Edward.

Nowadays Jacob—the “healthy” choice—is mostly lambasted for his assault on Bella and his manipulation into kissing him. So already this essay and its ~Team Bella conclusion is several years outdated.

Tag yourself, I’m “reinforced his being a man.” 😂Also, “abstracted danger”—literally nomadic vampires and a whole-ass vampire royal family. Also, also, Edward considers himself a danger as well.

Charismatic and everyone despised them. That is some hot ice and wondrous strange snow right there. The quality of the prose here is truly ~~stunning.

Considering that Rosalie canonically hated Bella for 1) Edward liking her and 2) for Bella wanting to be a vampire and not choosing humanity like she would (*foot stomp*) and viewed her as a baby incubator in Breaking Dawn to the point of Jacob and Edward both calling her out for it in disgust…she is perhaps not the best character to use as a grand metaphor for your sapphic desires, Clown OP.

At this point I’m not at all convinced that Clown OP even watched the movies. This was in Eclipse, and Edward didn’t deflate the tires of her Chevy; he removed the engine. Nor did he forbid her to leave the house, only not to see Jacob or the werewolves. And homeboy literally just gave up after Bella’s toothless “grizzly bears” threat.

This is toxic, all right, and I’m not referring to Twilight. Seriously, wtf? Being heartbroken after a major breakup with someone you love is one of the most realistic parts of the whole series. It’s so real it’s frankly basic. Even Clown OP was appalled, lol.

The movies may have been godawful adaptations, but the fact that they depicted Bella’s heartbreak is not one of them. Had Meyer made Bella move on after a month or two with Jacob or a new beau, I would have called bullshit. Bella was so in love with Edward—he did save her life three times and stopped himself from draining her dry in the process—that no other response would have been plausible.

As if Jacob didn’t show “toxic” behaviors the fandom is in continual pearl-clutching over, to the extent of making the incredibly asinine fanon that Meyer purposefully “ruined” his character in Eclipse. Also, Clown OP unironically thinking that basic-ass compliment is “queer” is clownery of a very different kind.

…Doesn’t Bella actually attribute some of these traits to Edward? In Eclipse? Maybe not all of them, but most? I don’t think Clown OP is making the point she thinks she is making.

One of these days I will make a whole-ass post about this whole notion of reading characters as role models. There are truly people out there who read all fiction as medieval morality plays for actual instruction, and Clown OP is almost certainly one of them.

This is going to sound super wild, I know, but did Clown OP ever consider—just once—that Meyer may be doing this very much on purpose? That throughout the book Edward gets to know Bella and begins to like her as a person? That the whole metaphor of bloodlust isn’t so much carnal lust but dark impulses of (patriarchal?) violence and lack of empathy? That the the whole point of the book is to see Edward develop from an arrogant vampire to a boy in love struggling on being completely out of his element? Did Clown OP ever think of it or did she just want to talk about her awful experiences with men through very hazy memories of watching the first Twilight movie?

(Also, not to be mean or anything, but Clown OP criticizing Meyer’s prose…don’t go throwing stones in a glass house, hon. I’m just saying).

[centaurianthropology]

General Thoughts of Candela Obscura E1

So, for those who are waiting for the drop for Youtube, I’m just going to put these under a cut.

The first episode was ... fine.  I like the characters, but the story was a little less horror than I was hoping for.  I think this is likely a side-effect of it being an introduction to the system and the world, and I hope we dig deeper and get into way worse and creepy things in Oldfaire, because the town gives off some serious Yharnam vibes, and I really want to see much worse below the city.

The horror seems currently on the level of something like Fallen London (another strong similar vibe I got from the setting), where it can be mildly creepy, but nothing to spook even the biggest scardey-cats.  And part of that, I think, is Matt being first and foremost a D&D DM.  His favorite horror is body horror, clearly, and his sensibilities are geared for D&D combat and monsters.  And that is no bad thing, but so far I really haven’t seen him dig deep and come up with a really strong horror hook.  

And to be fair to him, doing horror in a TTRPG is HARD.  The sci-fi horror series ‘Eclipse’ had only one episode out of three seasons that really got me properly creeped out.  Taliesin’s Call of Cthulhu one-shot ‘Shadow of the Crystal Palace’ had some great horror moments, such as the moment with the guard and Travis, but that’s as close as we’ve come to proper horror content from CR.  And this introduction to Candela Obscura, despite being hyped as proper horror spooks, lacked any real fear.  We got ..blue ghosts?  A big warrior spirit?  Cool, sure, and definitely some fun visuals, but nothing that felt actually scary in that existential, unexpected way.

I also sort of wish Taliesin was playing the group’s Lightkeeper, as I think he’d bring more gravity and spooky shit to the table, essentially acting as a junior DM and NPC.  He would give the circle instructions and would be available to discuss lore and such with them as needed, but would always give off a vibe that interacting with him for too long might be dangerous.  It would also make his intros feel a little less separated from the rest of the episode.  

Now, all this may sound like I was pretty down on the episode, but I did enjoy it.  The characters are fun, they’re good horror tropes (particularly Laura’s crazy-eyed occultist, who gives off some delightfully weird vibes).  Having them have personal connections to one another is also great, as it gives them more to lose (and I am really hoping we do lose a few by the end of the third episode, as I want Matt to ratchet up the danger hard).

And as I said at the beginning, this is very much the first episode, with some kinks to work out.  I’m hoping that, now that the establishing episode is over and done with, Matt can destroy all my doubts and show me that he can really embrace the fucked-up horror vibes this show really needs to have proper teeth and linger with the audience.  Having a system weighted toward failure or only partial successes, with true success seeming like a rarity, could really help with this, and giving the characters more resource crunch could also be great.  ‘Call of Cthulu’, for example, has very few rules about fighting, but a lot about running away, because that’s what you’re supposed to do.  So it’s great that none of the characters in this current run are active combatants.  Sending them into Oldfaire with no real means of defending themselves and barely enough information to keep them alive could really up the terror, and leaning into reality-breaking cosmic weirdness seems like a great angle to take if and when they descend below the city streets.  

Setting up proper scares and paying them off would also be a huge benefit.  Taliesin had some great moments of this in ‘Shadow of the Crystal Palace’, as I mentioned, and though the rest of the series never quite rose to the same heights, the third episode of Eclipse, ‘The Dark Zone’ is frankly a masterclass at being properly spooky and unsettling that could be referenced for ways to get your players spooked and keep them there.  So it is doable, but it requires the DM to go in with spooks set up and ready to go.  Matt is fantastic at set-up and is an incredibly diligent DM, so I do trust he can do this.  And he’s got a good buddy who has experience doing it if he needs any ideas.

I am looking forward to following this run, and I think a lot of my issues with this first episode are simply early growing pains of a new system and new players.  I think by the third episode, if Matt really cranks up the horror, I am going to love this series, and I am both a big fan of CR and a big horror fan, particularly cosmic horror.  So I’m very excited to see what the next run might be like after the growing pains are over and the kinks are worked out.  I hope we get at least three runs with three different DMs, because getting to see how this system plays in different hands with different approaches would be really beneficial to those of us tempted to run Candela Obscura ourselves.  I would love to see Ivan van Norman DM one of the runs, as he’s got a great sense for horror.  And I would really like Taliesin to take the reigns.  This is his baby, and right now his distance from it is probably deliberate, as he wants to see how it plays without his interference, but I think his DM style from ‘Shadow of the Crystal Palace’ would really bring this setting to life, dragging his investigators into darker and darker places.

All in all, not a bad start.  Not great, but first episodes of any of CR’s campaigns (or frankly pilot episodes in general) are often weakened by everyone being new to their characters and the DM still figuring out the tone they want to go for.  I think that we’ll be seeing a lot of improvement, and a lot of what’s already strong (the characters) getting built out to the point where, if we start losing them in episode three, it’ll have some serious impact leading into the formation of the next circle for the next run.

[joyfullyacat]

butler cafe au

yeah i've been kinda sitting on this for a hot minute, namely bc i wanted to draw for it first and have it all in one cool collective post but!! regardless i might as well get some of it down while i wait for rust cleaners to take place-

essentially instead of investing in ✨pizza and children and the 80s✨

its "well what if we make the bEST FUCKING CATERING EXPERIENCE FOR THE ELITE" or something along those lines, maybe its part of a grand hotel scheme and its a restaurant apart of it but regardless

its incredibly self indulgent and very much a call out for how much i was into ouran high school host club back then and frankly still fucking am and no i will not take any commentary at this time-

where rich people get to spend too much time being doted on and such

it's bright, gaudy, flashy, it wreaks of wealth and the robots are top of the line?! consider it a status symbol to even be seen in a PHOTO with them.

idk quite what the era would reflect, im thinking regency or generally victorian- posh and finger sandwiches with tea yknow

moon, sun, and eclipse are the stars of the show, them being a "triplets" waiter act that can handle the largest of parties and brattiest of guests has given the trio a rep to handle just about anything thrown at them

roxy works the bar and yes sometimes the tail gets in the way its not her fault they made it fluffier than a raccoon's winter girth but at least drinks on top of the counter are okay!!

chica is #1 hostess even though she seems a bit like a mess more than someone you'd actually put in charge of organization and stuff but thats alright-

monty makes for a rlly funny chef but you bet your sweet suspiciously gator-skin pants that yes he is the best chef and there will be NO critiques at this hour. growls are standard, hissing is a paid event (all food has the slightest bit of spice and he will not be removing it any time soon, he likes to see those napkins at work wiping away sweat-)

freddy my heaven and angel above - he's probably another waiter?? he may be used exclusively for birthday parties though so he tends to just float around and be the /face/ of the cafe yknow?

vanessa and peepaw are ofc around as caretaker to the legendary owner himself

and of COURSE when ur dealing the high and mighty elite, money flows and people talk which means im sure that its TOTALLY COINCIDENCE that some of the most affluential individuals in political races or some such just,,suddenly take a swim in their soup! totally yep mhm

they /definitely/ just developed some on-the-spot condition or heart attack it doesnt matter their age- (maybe, could also do some other plot all together but its fine, need something for a suspicious history hehehoho)

but where does y/n fit in all this???

...i haven't really ironed that out admittedly but thats sorta the amalgam i have in mind currently!!

[josiebelladonna]

black moon | kinkmas | day fifteen

chapter title: “as seasons grey”

pairing: alex skolnick x fem!oc

tags: teacher/student (BOOM!)

ao3 link | kinktober/sister piece “eclipse”

minors dni, and forget about homework: it’s christmas, yo! ❄️💋❄️💋

“Christine?”

She turned her attention to the front of the classroom, where right in the middle of the blackboard, he stood there with a clipboard in his hand as he took roll call. The substitute teacher for the day, with his shoulder-length black hair and that long plume of gray upon his head, long and thin like that of a feather, as well as the fine lines of age upon his face.

“Present,” she declared, and he showed her a little smile and a twinkle in those deep-set eyes in response. The only older man in a room full of college students.

He moved down to the next round of names before he set the clipboard down on the desk.

“Are you the sub?” the girl at the other side of the room asked him.

“Yes, I am the substitute for the day,” he informed them as he rubbed his hands together. “I don’t know much about music theory, but I do know what today’s lesson holds for all of us.”

“So, we’re not going to watch a movie?” Christine chimed in.

“Oh, no,” he assured her with a shake of his head. “It’s going to be some time before we can watch a little movie.”

Every so often during that day’s lecture, he would look over at her with a playful little smirk on his face and that twinkle in his eye, as if he was up to mischief. It was hard to imagine a professor who carried his weight so well: the way that he walked around the front of the room with his hands clasped together before his chest and the way that the little soft-looking roll of fat around his waist poked out underneath his arms, the very beginnings of a middle-aged potbelly, made Christine think of elegance. Even with the little bit of extra weight on his body, he carried himself so well, with such grace and class, as if he belonged on a runway rather than the front of the classroom.

Whenever he tossed his hair back, he showed off his neck, in all its tender slim beauty. Even with the slight lines around his prominent Adam’s apple, he showed no signs of sagging there. He was graying, growing older, and yet he showed no signs of aging. If anything, he seemed to go along with that big pocket of grays at the front of his hair.

When he scribbled something on the blackboard, he flashed a fleeting, but knowing glance over at her, as if he was trying to read her mind, or come inside of her mind, rather. Whenever he wrote something at a quick pace, he stuck his tongue out at her, as if he was trying to tell her something.

At one point, he picked up a nylon-string guitar from the little black metallic rack on the floor, and he took his seat at the teacher’s desk with it plunked across his lap. A piece of his hair fell over his eyes and the bridge of his prominent nose, all to where Christine could only see his right eye and the right side of his face. Those long, lanky fingers spread across the neck of the guitar like the legs of a scorpion, and he pursed his lips and puckered them out as if he beckoned a kiss from her.

A chill ran up her spine at the sight of him as he played a piece of Latin music for them at a quick pace. Some of that lush, decadent spice, as if he was playing it all for her instead. She glanced over at the rest of the class and most of them did in fact look rather bored at the sight of him there: he was playing it all for her instead.

He jammed it for about ten minutes before he brought it down to a slower, more sensuous outro, and then he finished it out with a final strum of the pluck. A round of applause and he set it back down on the rack on the floor.

“Are there any questions?” he called out by the time there were five minutes left in the period.

“What are your influences?” one kid asked him.

“I’ll tell you later,” he frankly replied, and a couple of people giggled at that. One girl raised her hand.

“What’s the story behind your gray streak?” she asked him. “Like why is that one part of your head gray but the rest isn’t?”

“I don’t really know,” he confessed with a shake of his head. “I’ve heard some people say it’s a birthmark, or it’s a scar—one time, I went up to Indian Rock, north of Berkeley, where I'm from originally, when I was a kid and everyone in my class hit their head trying to go up this thing. I was about fourteen, I was brushing my hair one day and I found a gray hair down in the sink basin. I showed it to my mom, and she goes, ‘oh, it must be one of your father’s’ but my dad was like—completely bald at that point. As for the exact origin, though? I can’t really say.”

Christine then shot up her hand. He lowered his eyelids at her and nodded in her direction.

“What kind of underwear do you wear?” she quipped to him, and the students next to her giggled at that. Alex raised his eyebrows at that, and then he glanced back at the teacher aide, who snickered as well.

“We’ve got a little sassy one over here,” he declared, and he strode on over to her.

“It’s a simple question, actually,” she insisted. “I want to know if you’re comfortable at all when you play around with some nylons like that.”

Alex stood before her with his hands tucked into his pockets, and his shoulder-length hair sprawled over his narrow shoulders. Christine's eyes scanned him from his lanky feet all the way up his slender, spindly legs, to his slightly full hips, to his round waist and his deep chest, to the rolled sleeves on his elbows, to the sly little smirk on his round, handsome face.

“You know what—just for that, I ought to see you after class,” he remarked, and she swore that he had flashed her a little wink. The kids next to her whispered things to each other right then, and that was when the bell rang.

“Don’t tell Miss Mormino you watched a movie,” he called after the class as they all packed in for their round of a break followed by the next period. Christine lingered back until everyone had left the music theory class for the day, and then after a few minutes, she stood up to her feet and walked on over to him. He took his spot there behind the teacher desk with one leg cross over the other and his hand rested upon his knee in repose.

“You wanted to see me?” she asked him.

“I did, yes,” he replied, and once the last student had left the room, he squinted his eyes at her. “So, you wanna sniff my undies?”

“Unless you want to sniff mine,” she retorted back, and she tried her best to hold back a bout of laughter at that. And he let out a low whistle and shook his head at that.

“You know what? Just for that, I ought to take you over my knee and spank you,” he quipped.

Christine pressed her hands to her hips, and she showed off her figure to him.

“What’s on your mind right now?” she asked him.

He ran his hand along his knee and the inside of his thigh: her eyes followed the path of his hand there, all the way to the crotch of his blue jeans.

“I can’t say,” he told her with a slight flutter of his eyelids at her. Those eyelashes, like his flat, comma-shaped eyebrows, were dark and prominent, especially in junction with his milky white skin and the fine lines on his face.

“Really, what’s on your mind right now?” she asked him in a low voice.

“Right now? Oh, just—y’know, stuff.”

“What kind of stuff?” she continued, and she folded her arms over her chest. He never said anything. Christine moved in closer to him.

“Alex? What kind of stuff are we talking about here?”

“The kind of stuff that would—probably get us into a heap of trouble,” he said in a husky, near whisper of a voice.

“What kind of trouble are we talking?” she asked, and she rested her hand down on the top of the desk before her. Alex nibbled on his bottom lip at the sight of her hand. “Are we talking about like—detention? A week of detention? Suspended for a week?”

“Depends,” he declared, still with his voice husky and low: the way he lowered his voice like that made her think of melted dark chocolate, as rich and full as the act of sin itself. He lifted his gaze towards her, complete with his eyes hooded and his hand still rested upon the inside of his knee. “It depends, my dear Christine.” The tip of his tongue slithered out from his cherry lips like the tongue of a snake, ready to strike and take her down with his venom.

“Depends on the severity?” she asked him.

“Maybe.” He lowered his gaze to his legs and the edge of the desk before him again. “It could also depend on how it’s doable, too.”

“Is it doable?” she asked him.

He showed her his tongue again, and then he brought his gaze back up to her.

“Get up on top of the desk,” he told her in a near whisper. “Take off your pants, then get on top of the desk, and I’ll lock the door.”

“Deal.” She flashed him a wink, and she peeled off her jeans and her underwear, and then she climbed to the top of the desk. Alex himself, meanwhile, made his way over to the door of the classroom, and he clicked the lock on the handle with his thumb and his index finger. He then returned to her with that devilish smirk across his face: Christine suspended herself onto her hands and knees.

“From behind, I see,” he said, still with his voice down low.

“From behind, like the dirty dogs you and I both are,” she quipped. He chuckled at that as he slid a chair over to the side of the desk. She could hear him unzip his jeans, and then he climbed to the top of the chair and then the desk. His long, lanky fingers crept her bare hips and he gave her ass a little squeeze.

“Nice and soft, I see,” he noted.

“Not as soft as I am for you,” she teased him.

“I like you, Chris,” he told her. “You’re soft but you’re sassy, too—” He thrust hard into her. “Sassy is—always good—”

“Sassy is in charge!” she yelped out.

“Ah, but I am the teacher,” he assured her in between thrusts. “I’m leading the class. But you did—” He gently squeezed the left side of her ass. “—get my attention. Maybe you are the one who’s boss.”

“Fuck me, Alex,” she commanded him in a low growl of a voice. “Fuck me like the filthy dog you are.”

“I’m the teacher, remember?”

She licked her lips and gave her hair a toss back with a flick of her head.

“Fuck me, Mr. Skolnick,” she repeated, that time in a near whisper.

“There we go,” he declared, triumphant, and he gently patted her ass once again before he thrusted some more. The desk held the two of them rather well even though it wasn’t made for such an act: the hard surface hit up against Christine’s knees, but they kept her afloat all the way until he reached down in between her legs for a little fingering.

“There has to be another climax in there,” he chuckled to himself. “There just—has to be—”

His index and middle fingers slithered under her hood, and she gasped right then and there.

“Not if I make you cum first,” she retorted back to him.

“Ha! You'd have to reach back and grab me to do that. At least I have an easy reach here.”

As soon as the words left his lips, Christine lifted herself up onto her knees and she lunged for that full erection. She held onto him with both hands; the whole act caught him off guard, and so she was able to fondle him with ease. Alex closed his eyes, and he tilted his head back as she gave him a nice little hand job there. She could feel something oozing on the back of her hand. She looked down in time to find him ejaculating all down the top of her left hand as well as part of her wrist.

“Good boy,” she whispered into his face. She had dominated the one on top, right as the bell rang.

“Class dismissed,” he croaked out in a broken voice.

[yokefellows]

What Love Is: Choosing To Love All Year Long

Today’s Saying

Love sets a time to get back in touch. Love follows up, follows through.

Today’s Scripture

“Let all that you do be done in love.” 1 Corinthians 16:14 (NASB1995)

Today’s Sermonette

Many of us are suckers for New Year’s resolutions. And every year, you pick your resolutions in threes.

Two have hung around for a long time.

You pledge to eat nutritiously and exercise intentionally, more than just taking the garbage to the end of the driveway once a week.

For your third resolution, though, you go deeper — beyond working on your outside — and choose something to transform your inside.

Yet reflecting on years gone by, frankly, all other years, you realize you have missed so much. It’s like life is a movie, and you’re just a prop in the corner, an extra at best, mostly hanging in the back lot.

You don’t take enough time for people. Instead, you’re just playing a scripted role with lines that rarely change.

“Hi, how are you?”

“Fine. And you?”

“Fine.”

“Have a good day.”

Why are you asking a question if you don’t want to hear the answer? Maybe it’s because the answer might take too much of your very valuable and extremely limited time.

There are things to be done, after all. Emails to return, laundry to wash, errands to run, bills to pay, and if you don’t hit the grocery store on your way home from work, you won’t be eating leafy vegetables for dinner.

But God. God is love, and God tells us to love one another. In fact, God commands us through Paul in 1 Corinthians 16:14 to “Let all that you do be done in love.” That’s why my big resolution challenge for 2022 is to love — really love.

But how are you loving when you value your personal agenda above people? Surely it’s not love to ignore the person in front of you while thinking of everything ahead of you.

When a friend calls, you are not showing love by saying “uh-huh” as you watch the last few minutes of your favorite TV show. Does love take so little interest?

Real love, the way God loves, cares more about people than tasks … no matter the size of Mount Laundry. Relationships — loving and caring for people — eclipse TV and to-dos all day long.

You’ve overlooked opportunities to connect, to give love, to live love. I’m sure there have been many times when you asked the “how are you?” question, and the person who you’re supposed to love wanted or needed you to hear the answer.

Maybe they received a tough diagnosis, or they lost their job, or they were going through a hard time in their marriage and needed someone to care and pray, but your face said, Gotta run. No time for you.

What would love do? Love would stick around. Love would want to hear the answer. Then love would really listen.

Undistracted, giving full attention, right there, at that moment — loving the person like God does, not seeing them as an obstacle to our plans.

Without thinking about the turmoil of this morning’s carpool or the meeting later tonight — just patiently listening. Fully engaged, no distractions, really hearing, caring, putting feet on love.

Sure, there are deadlines and moments when there really is no time, at least not right then. But later, love sets a time to get back in touch. Love follows up, follows through.

This New Year, let’s choose to love. To listen intently. To live love and show love to the ones we’re with.

Let’s ask “how are you?” with our hearts and ears wide open. Because that is what love would do, and I resolve to love. Will you join me?

Today’s Supplication

Father, open my eyes, heart and ears to live and give love. Please don’t let another opportunity to love pass me by. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

[h-didanart]

Oooh, good choices there, alright!

You are correct on your assessments for the most part, yes Early Throes is an early version of Quiet Throes, yes Ex-Crack Ship is kinda funny ngl, yes someone technically does get locked away in Minecraft Prison, no no one gets amnesia in True Amnesia. Let me explain—

Let’s start with the youngest au here, True Amnesia, formal name- This Is What You Wanted, Isn’t It?

This is basically the intended version of This is What You Wanted, you probably do not remember but in the very first post for that au I left a small comment on the tags about forgetting a small detail or something. I was trying to be ominous and set stuff up for if I ever wrote that as a fic, which I had plans for, the seven days established for Bloodmoon to change back to drinking blood would’ve had two chapters each for a different member of the Celestials each day and Bloodmoon at night. However, I kinda realized that if I ever did write the fic… I’d have a lot of people pissed at me.

And honestly, they’d have good reasons, because if it’s advertised as an amnesia fic, pulling an uno reverse and revealing it was a prank all along would certainly make people mad. Because that’s what happens in the original version.

Bloodmoon got Eclipse to help them on an elaborate prank towards the Celestials and KC accidentally, and they were fucking committed to the bit. They’re shit at lying? Acting classes. They need to get better at managing their temper? Therapy. Their weird behaviors and terrible memory actually have an explanation and don’t mean they were made wrong? Unexpected but ok. They actually do need a suppressant to their code and something to ingest instead of blood? So be it.

Obviously, things get out of hand very quick, but Bloodmoon being Bloodmoon does not back down. One specific scene that has seared itself into my brain would be somewhere in the latter half of the week, KC would be trying to appease the twins and they’d kinda just snap and scream that they can’t live like this— ie, sharing the same body— and then run away into the forest, which- kinda gives KC a heart attack- Bloodmoon’s reasoning for being so cruel towards their father? They should’ve known it was a prank all along. Not in the gaslighty ‘it’s just a prank bro’ way, in the ‘we’ve been living together for five months, how the fuck did you not realize we’ve been to therapy for weeks?!’

Not much else to say about this one, they cut the prank by the week mark, call everyone a hypocrite, insult them all, then go back to living in the forest. It’s not a bad au per se, it’s just— it can be better.

And we have seen it be better- This is What You Wanted (Now Live With It), aka. the version I’ve been showing off for the past since-the-Chaos House tag-was-a-thing. I would not sacrifice Ruby and Vermillion’s existence to pull that storyline off, so I’ve simply moved to show off the red twin’s variant as opposed to the core au concept. And frankly, I think it’s better like this. Have some recent art, cuz I did not make any art at all of this one when I first made it that I haven’t shown off already

Ooooh, that was long. Anyways— moving along! Let’s go to the magical place of the garbage dumpster and dig up the old valentines candy shall we?

Ex-Crack Ship, formal name- Pumpkin guts under bloody lanterns, scrapped au. As the title suggests this is an au centered around the BloodyPumpkin pairing which at the time of au building would’ve been considered a crack ship (and also Jack’s age was kinda unclear back then, so xe is the same age as them).

I am aware you do not like the ship so I’ll try to keep things short and funny. Bloodmoon is bored one day and decides to try and mess with the Celestials, they get the hell beat out of them by Jack. They go back later for a rematch, they once again get defeated by Jack. Dumbfounded by the Halloween bot’s strength, they go once again to fight Jack. Xe wipes the floor with them.

And so starts a routine of the twins trying to defeat Jack only to be beaten over and over. Are they mad they keep losing? Oh yeah, absolutely, but they’re also having fun. Is Jack having fun? Actually yeah, fighting Bloodmoon is very good enrichment for it. And so between all their fights they get to know one another, Jack learns about Bloodmoon’s anime preferences, Bloodmoon gets pissed at Jack’s lack of self, y’know, stuff that leans into their aspects as perfect parallels of one another.

Anyways, stuff happens, BM gets captured, Jack goes against xyr programming, more stuff happens, vague fic outlines, blah blah, they kiss in the end.

Have some art (I have way too much of this shit)

Moving along and into one that also doesn’t have that much art and I technically already introduced you to (probably)

Minecraft Prison, unused au. The plot is fairly straightforward here, instead of killing the bad guys, Sun and Moon send them to a Minecraft server//dimension.

It all started with the first Takeover, Lunar and Eclipse sent Sun and Moon’s consciousnesses into Minecraft instead of having them in the mindscape, Lunar would then proceed to interact with the twins whenever they played the game who leads to the plan to defeat Eclipse. The Takeover moves as normal and ends with Sun successfully vanishing Eclipse to Minecraft. Skip to Ruin’s introduction and the revival of Bloodmoon, the Halloween duo are sneaking into the Daycare to place the bomb, Moon watches them on the cameras and right as they’re both in the ball pit, activates the portal. They are sent to Minecraft.

Though now that I’ve had this on my mind again, I think I’m gonna add some more stuff. KC’s intro arc- KillCode Moon is banished to Minecraft temporarily as Sun and Monty try to come up with something to do. Eclipse II manages to get Bloodmoon to also go into Minecraft so the team can be assembled and the deal made.

Bloodmoon’s death- instead of standing around and taunting Sun, the twins chase him around the daycare, which prompts Sun to push them into the ball pit and toss them into Minecraft. He tells no one about it.

Eclipse gets the star- he actually does get the Star but right as he gets it, Monty magics him into, you guessed it, Minecraft. Though thanks to the Star, Eclipse II is in creative mode which he proceeds to use to create everything his heart desires, but no amount of gold-trimmed giant diamond mansions could ever quench the utter loneliness in his heart. And then he finds Bloodmoon and first Eclipse and the three of them proceed to embark on their redemption arcs.

Moon’s death- Moon technically dies, but not really. His conscience is sent to Terraria— I mean, Minecraft, where he gets to see the Eclipses and BM get redeemed.

Second Takeover- Ruin and Bloodmoon aren’t banished to Minecraft, meaning they get to complete their plan, but Sun and Nem (New Moon) aren’t transported to Ruin’s dimension, instead they are dropped into a Minecraft Horror Mods Server. Guess who gets banished to said server when the twins get back to their world? That’s right, the Halloween duo. And they stay there for quite a while until a Higher Being from a neighboring server (Eclipse II) senses their presence and brings them to the world everyone else is at.

This is actually a really fun au what? Uh- anyways, art… there isn’t a lot, I only found some crossover doodles with- the next au actually!

I saved the one that holds the most brain space for last :D

Early Throes, canon name- Quiet Throes in Pooling Oil, early version. Ohhhhhh boy where to start… alright, first things first, chapter one barely changed from when I first wrote it to when I published it, just some adjustments and addition of everything prior to Ruin dragging them off. After chapter one though, things get different.

I am unsure about chapter three but can tell you that Bloodmoon did not have the same reactions to their nightmares as they do now, they were mostly confused about the fact they had been crying in their sleep. Then chapter five, the escalation of the Memory Updated sequence wasn’t really a thing, instead Bloodmoon was already cornered while the Bastard kept approaching and taunting them, and they were coherent enough to snap back at him for a bit before the memories seeped into their consciousness again and… well, that part stayed roughly the same between both versions.

Chapter six though. I have a drawing of this, I just forgot to take a picture but- picture this. Bloodmoon and Solar are back at the bunker, Solar is nervous, Bloodmoon is pissed. Solar tries to talk to Bloodmoon only for them to cut him off and yell at him to shut up. He lied to them, why should they listen to him? Solar gets mad and asks them what else he could’ve done. They aren’t given a chance to answer though, Solar seemingly snapping and just going off about how he couldn’t have just told them what happened on account of how they didn’t remember shit. He screams at them if being told that they had been horrifically assaulted for God knows how long in an impossible way then left to rot was really what they wanted. And then they’re both silent. Bloodmoon glares at him, tears running down their face. Solar calls out to them as they leave.

And here lies a vital distinction from the current au. It was meant to be a DadCode focused story.

You asked some days ago if KC would find out what happened to the twins, and they don’t, but they used to. They would straight up tell him due to them having gone to KC so the older could fix them with magic, which they can’t because that’s not something that can happen. And from then on they’d have stayed with KC and KC would’ve done their best to support the twins.

Early Chapter eight is the best example of this. Bloodmoon had fallen asleep at some point, and as would be expected, they had a nightmare. They are awoken by KC holding their arms in place, their head hurts, there’s some liquid running down the side of their head, there’s oil on their claws. They struggle to breathe as KC rubs circles in their hands, talking to them, telling them that they’re safe and that it was all a nightmare. They calm down after a bit, hugging themselves. KC looks at them sadly and apologizes for not being able to do much else. And then Bloodmoon starts crying. And so KC reaches out to them, and they flinch, but slowly they let them get close. And Bloodmoon sobs into KC’s arms.

That’s as far as I had thought out in terms of Chapter outlines, but I do have some more stuff. For starters their clothes, I had originally put them in a hoodie cuz I’m uncreative like that, though that quickly developed into the jacket we all know and love nowadays. Back then the twins did not have the overheating thing nor did they appear to have many hobbies besides being around KC, learning to cook, watching anime, and guarding the camp. Funnily enough despite being closer to KC, the Celestials would’ve made quite a few more appearances in their life in the early version, Sun and Moon visiting KC once in a while, KC’s assistance being required at the Daycare and stuff, the like.

And now… something I’m reluctant to talk about due to the Schrödinger’s state the character is at in current canon.

Ruin.

I made Quiet Throes at the very latest in mid-December of 2023, ie, Ruin had been cured already and Eclipse III wasn’t a thing yet. I am a Ruin fan, and I believed wholeheartedly in its innocence in the Show’s Canon. All this to say, in early Quiet Throes the virus was a thing and Ruin was cured of it. Ruin did not die.

In current Quiet Throes it might be different.

The early version focused more on Bloodmoon going off to live somewhere else after all the chaos is done and just trying to live their life. The current version not only is a lot more brutal in regards to Bloodmoon’s trauma, but it’s also a lot about the twins avoiding dealing with their problems leading them to more problems and stress.

Keeping Ruin alive in the way I originally planned it could serve as a point of conflict wherein there’d be a living reminder of all the shit the twins went through that they’d have absolutely no control over, along with bringing conflict between the Celestials and Solar.

On the other hand keeping Ruin alive and following canon could be really fucking devastating as was shown in ‘And You Drop Us Like That In a Nexus of Torment’. Not only would Ruin be a living reminder but he would actively remember the shit he put the twins through, and chances are he wouldn’t be sorry at all. That’s without pointing out the obvious, the dimensional destruction and Solar’s death. Solar’s death. Their Solar. Killed by the Bastard that abused them. There’d be a lot more angst in this variation of the au, and honestly I’m not sure if I’d be able to write that.

But if we kill Ruin, we remove that point of conflict in its entirety.

So as you can see, there’s plenty of stuff to think through here still. I’m not sure if I have more old notes on early Quiet Throes but I do have a few more doodles I wouldn’t mind sharing, for now have the first things I drew on paper of them.

Aaand that’s it! I have been writing for like two hours, so I apologize if my writings make no sense :P

:O

Alright!

Uh

Do I take that as a sign to write overviews of my Kirby au’s or something?

(Pretend this is anon or something)

Congratulations! You have unlocked ✨forbidden knowledge✨ and now may access data about scrapped//unused aus!

You may choose whatever au from the following, specific questions are allowed:

—original swap

—systems

—ghosts

—Minecraft prison

—death game

—true amnesia

—ex-crack ship

—early throes

If these genre of au’s (SAMS) aren’t of your interest feel free to poke into the wasp nest that is the Kirby aus :3

I’m very curious about Minecraft prison, true amnesia, ex-crack ship & early throes.

Im guessing early Throes is an early version of QTIPO, so I’m curious as to the differences there

Ex-crack ship just sounds funny, & I definitely need it rn.

Minecraft prison sounds like someone got locked away

& I’m very interested in who gets amnesia in true amnesia

Edit: I forgot to add the tags, but I’m gonna add here, I am going to tell one of my friends about your Kirby aus. He really likes Kirby.



[whaleofatjme1920]

Ok so Ik this has already been done with ej, but I’m a toby simp, and I wanted to ask. Reader finding out toby is cheating on them? Maximum of 1k words, a scenario idk, smth. Ty!

-👾

It's Dangerous, To Love the Sun

[Ticci Toby X F!Reader]

[Warnings: angst in general, physical and emotional cheating, violence, language]

[AN: I listened to Brooksie - Not Into You slowed + reverbed while writing this, I hope you enjoyed! Also went a lil over,,, the word count because I kinda liked this,,,,,,,,,,,]

You love Toby. Ever since he came into your life, you’ve been happier with him at your side. He makes you smile, he makes your heart sing. You’ve never felt so complete.

The way he looks at you is akin to gazing at a masterpiece. His eyes are so full of love when he gazes at you from across the room, wondering when you’ll finally break away from your conversation with Jeff to be at his side again.

His touch is gentle, never harsh. Toby’s fingers trace up and down your forearms and back, ghosts, whisper-like kisses of physical affection in an attempt to show you what he verbally cannot express. He’s always so warm, so loving, so whole.

He completes you, is what you’re trying to get at.

The two of you like to sit on rooftops late at night because neither Masky nor Hoodie can stand the two of you giggling at odd hours of the day in their presence. Kate’s not around long enough to actually care. When it’s just the two of you sitting up here, quiet, against each other and breathing in the sweet night air, you feel more complete than you’ve ever felt before.

You hum out, watching the stars twinkle in the sky, a dreamy expression on your face as Toby momentarily stops playing with your hair.

“What’s o-o-on your mind, b-baby?” He asks, a brow raised. Toby shifts on the shingles, his arms wrapping around you like an octopus, bringing you closer and closer into his warmth.

You find yourself blanketed in him and relax. “You’re so good to me, y’know that?” You say.

Toby scoffs and rolls his eyes. “O-Other way around,” he corrects.

You tilt your head and shake it slightly, telling him he’s wrong. “You’ve always been so good to me,” you continue, brushing off his attempts to play down your saccharine words.

He knows you’re not fibbing, but at the same time, he refuses to admit to your claims. “I d-d-did what w-was expected o-of me, you know t-that,” he states plainly.

You take in another deep breath before resting your head on his shoulder, melting into him. You pick up his scent: oak and burning winter, before retorting against him again in a voice a hair above a whisper. “You’re wrong.”

Toby laughs, his lips pressing to the side of your head. “If y-y-you say so,” he murmurs, pressing more kisses to your head and eventually your face. He revels in the sound of your laughter as he does so, leaving no inch of you unkissed.

“I know so.”

The two of you fall back into a pleasant silence.

You’ve always viewed Toby like he has power over the sun, because, as far as being a proxy goes? He does. When you were first plucked from your life and called for something ‘greater’, it was Toby who had taken pity on you, trained you, taught you all you needed to know and the ins and outs of this life. He was the one who shielded you from Masky, Hoodie and even Kate at times.

It was by his hand that you survived, and it is still by his hand that you thrive.

It was such a blinding adoration for a man you believed held dominion over the sun that kept you veiled from the truth of what he had been doing behind closed doors, yet could be seen through the windows.

Naturally, you didn’t want to believe it. Who would? The person you love’s heart has fled the place it used to live with you and taken up residence with someone else. That’s not an easy thing to admit, not when you realize that love truly is not all it takes.

Toby doesn’t want to admit it either. It started out as some strange infatuation, a fleeting crush - someone he would forget.

But her eyes? Her darling eyes? One of them the most beautiful shade of peridot he’d ever seen and the other a literal clock? They say the eyes (in her case, eye) are the window to the soul, and she had absolutely snared his. She was beautiful in a way Toby couldn’t describe, beautiful in a way that had him seeing a sky full of stars in the middle of the day, and beautiful in the sense she was timeless.

Toby knows he should be ashamed, that she’s his little secret, that what he has with Natalie can’t be compared with you, but he knows he can’t let you find out lest you go too far you can’t come back.

That blinding sun made you shrug off the bruises that were too keenly placed to be a victim’s sorry attempt at freeing themself. You shrugged off the scent of roses and wine. You shrugged off how his eyes saw past you, no longer at you. You shrugged it all off, choosing to stay blinded than face the truth.

And you would’ve happily lived in that ignorance if Toby didn’t grow cocky and arrogant and so fucking careless.

You’ve never really felt your world crash and burn until today. You've never been burned by the sun until this moment.

You’re looking into the eyes of a man you think owns the sun and see nothing but fear, regret, and pleading. Pleading for what? That you won’t leave him? That you’ll stay with him? You feel tears well in your eyes as you see him laying in your bed with her. The woman who had been naught but a shadow until now.

“R-Reader,” Toby begins, quickly wrestling up in the sheets, watching as your soul leaves your body in the doorway. “B-Baby, it’s n-no-”

You’re at a loss for words, and frankly, you don’t think he even deserves the right to your thoughts at this moment. Instead, you hold your hand up, silencing him, and turn to leave the temp house. You were out doing work for your fucking boss and get rewarded like this? The man you loved in bed with another woman, looking at her like she owned the moon. You take in a sharp breath and then begin to beeline to the front door when Toby finally gets out of the bed, ignoring the cries of confusion pouring from Natalie’s mouth.

Your heart races when you realize Toby is gaining on you. Your vision blurs through your tears.

He’s calling out for you, his stutter even stronger than before, bones popping louder and louder as he gets hit with the weight of what he’s done to you. “Stop! S-Stop fucking m-m-moving!” He hisses, his calloused hand reaching out for your wrist, successfully grabbing you.

You snarl like a caged, wounded animal, flesh burning at the contact. “Don’t fucking touch me,” you sneer as you attempt to rip your wrist from his iron grasp. In your other hand, you already have the car keys ready. You just want to be anywhere but here.

“I-I’m so s-s-sorry,” Toby says, attempting to pull you into a hug.

You struggle against him harder, hissing to be let go. The keys in your free hand are getting threaded in your fingertips. Your tears feel warm and boil your cheeks as they roll down like waterfalls. The harder he grips you, the more you feel you’ve been burned to a point of no return. “God fucking damn it, let me go!” You shout, not even noticing how Natalie has come out of the room to get Toby off of you. She’s quickly gaining in the hallway, confused on if she should step in or not.

Toby tries harder and harder to pull you into his embrace, and that’s when you strike.

You take your car key filled fingers and punch as hard as you can, the teeth of the keys dragging across Toby’s cheek, successfully shocking him into letting you go. You don’t even consider how badly you’ve hurt him and take the opportunity of his shock to flee the temp house, quickly hopping into the car.

“Reader!” Toby shouts, hand on his right cheek, not even caring about the claw marks you’ve left. “B-Baby, let’s t-talk about t-this-”

You start honking the horn to drown his voice out. Your eyebrows are furrowed, a scowl on your face, glare holding nothing but bullets towards Toby and Natalie as she attempts to wrangle him back into the house.

You watch as her arms wrap around his waist - she’s surprisingly gentle for dealing with such a belligerent man - before peeling out of the driveway, hand still honking the horn and practically waking up the neighborhood while you’re at it.

Your mind overloads as you drive, thoughts of the sun getting eclipsed by the other celestial body that overtakes it in full, swallowing it whole. You mutter angrily to yourself, turning on the radio for just noise as you finally get onto the expressway. And you drive. You drive until your head feels clear again, and when it does, you’re finally able to focus on something other than what’s in front of you on the endless stretch of road.

Autumn is making its way in, that much is apparent. Every now and then, specks of orange and red zip past your high beams. It’s cooler, and you swear you’ve passed a few flowering pumpkin patches.

You look to your left, gazing out the window for a moment or so.

The moon is decidedly absent this night.

You sigh as the fires extinguish in your heart, loneliness, sadness and any other emotion draining alongside it leaving a pit in your chest.

The emptiness quickly takes its place, haunting you like the ghost it is.

[quetzalpapalotl]

I didn't realise you were doing a character bingo! Uhh, MTMTE/LL Roddy? He makes my brain hurty.

(is that a good hurty or a bad hury) I'm sorry I left you waiting, here it is:

RODIMUS, now, this sure is a tricky one. Where do I even begin? I didn't even like him at first, now I adore him. It got a bit long so under the cut it goes

Rodimus is an asshole, but unlike other times where you're not sure if JRo is aware of how much of a jerk a given character comes across, the narrative is very much aware that Rodimus is, in fact, an asshole. But he's fascinating and even loveable. Someone who is very aware of his own flaws and yet can help himself and because of that he can be very compassionate at unexpected times given how petty he is. I ate that up.

I think that Rodimus is a character JRo has a very good grasp on and this is consistent the entire series, but at the same time he feels narratively unsatisfactory. He has a very strong arc going on, he acknowledges his mistakes and his virtues start to show, until Megatron was thrown in and warped eveything around him, Rodimus sort of regresses. And this back tracking is even ackowledged in the text and it makes sense in-universe. But as a character, Rodimus never quite recovers from the gravitational pull of Megatron, even after Megs leaves the repercussions are still there, like how Getaway ends up looking very different when you add Megatron to the equation (the motivation of throwing out Megatron instead of Drift is too big and sympathetic, eclipses his relationship with Rodimus, you have to go to greater lenghts to make him look bad). As Rodimus foil and a big focus of LL, if Getaway's character suffers, so does Rodimus'.

Rodimus has this frankly amazing moment with the "good enough" speech, which portrays the thesis statement of the series beautifully and it's Rodimus basically renouncing to his own specialness which is a big deal. And then you get to the next chapter and is like... idk, I go back and forth between Rodimus ending in the main universe. I don't mind the depressing note of LL #25 and once again, Rodimus falling back makes sense, it is in Rodimus character for his flaws to be cyclical and finding it hard to adapt to peace and rot outside the spothlight. but at the same time it feels like there should be something... more(?). I compare him to Arcee who is the thesis statement character for the sister series, and everything about her felt so neatly wrapped up while Rodimus feels like he's left hanging. Which is particulary dissapointing because JRo is supposed to be the better one at character focus.

Also, I wouldn't exactly said that no one understand them like I, especifically, do. You can find good Rodimus content and takes, but I do feel a lot of it sugar coats him even when the text explicitly and on multiple times points to Rodimus' assholery (and I have had people get mad at me for calling him an asshole), or focuses too much on Rodimus being A Great Prime and I actually don't think Rodimus would have made a good Prime, especially during peace time and it kind of defeats the point of everyone being able to open the matrix. And I guess there's also the band that hates him.

And also I'm fucking obsessed with Rodimus and how he's very similar to Optimus in some aspects and very different in other and how he and Bee are perfect foils and there's so much to bite there. But I've talked about that before and this already got too long for an ask meme. Just a reminder that I'm still thinking about it.