#he finds a new reason for wanting to commit murder in the human world lol

[thelazyhermits]

I finally got around to reading that Obey Me fic that had been recommended to me a while back, which y’all can find here if you’re interested. I had honestly completely forgotten about it for over a year cause I like to wait for fics to be a little longer before I start them and at the time there were just like two chapters. Now, there are 32 lol

Anyway, for those of y’all who like Obey Me and found family, you definitely should check it out since it really is a fun fic. I really love the OC insert and how well everyone is written. Also, the chapters are pretty long like how a lot of mine turn out so my readers should feel right at home 😂

Even though I haven’t really been into Obey Me as of late and am way behind with the story, I found myself wanting to read the fic regardless, and I’m glad I did cause nothing beats high quality found family fluff 💕 Plus, it helps that it only covers season 1 which is the only season I’ve finished lol

However, there is one downside to reading it. Now, I can’t stop thinking of Fortune in Obey Me. I just can’t stop myself from creating TABF AUs 😂

Gonna put the rest under the cut. 

Rather than the version we’ve talked about in the past where TABF Fortune gets hit by a Quirk that sends her to the OM verse, I’ve been thinking of an entirely separate AU where Fortune ends up in the place of the MC during the events of season 1.

She’d have a background similar to what she has in JWTN, ergo she lives with her negligent/abusive cousins but like a half year or maybe even a full year before her 18th birthday she gets summoned to the Devildom to be a part of the transfer program. The only difference from JWTN I’d make is I think I’d be nice enough to make her old enough to remember her parents before she loses them, so she’s like 7 when it happens.

So, basically, her mindset/disposition would be a lot like it was at the start of JWTN, which admittedly wouldn’t be a very good thing in an environment like the Devildom lol 

However, I feel like she could handle herself better than one might expect since, in her eyes, no one’s more terrifying than Mumei, so she wouldn’t be as afraid of the demons as a normal human would be.

Hell, I’d say she’d take a liking to them just thanks to Diavolo alone cause he has such a good smile and is nicer to her during that first meeting than any human has ever been to her since her parents died.

All in all, considering what the last ten years were like, I think Fortune would be fine in the Devildom. There’d be some fear at first, but more than anything, she’d just be relieved to be far from Mumei’s reach once she fully realizes that he can’t harm her there.

I feel like Fortune would do a good job at helping the brothers out, considering, as an anon once previously pointed out, she does have some qualities in common with the MC like being nosy and very kind. And I honestly just think she’d get along well with the brothers, just some more than others since I think she’d become really good friends with Beel, considering how much he loves food and how much she enjoys seeing people enjoying her cooking.

The only thing is I don’t really like the idea of completely following the OM season 1 script for this AU. I just kinda wanna do something more original like say have Belphegor’s situation be different.

That’s mostly cause, while Fortune is nosy, I think she’s too obedient to disobey Lucifer’s orders to stay away from the attic. Sure, she’d wanna help if she thought someone was in trouble, but I just feel like things wouldn’t turn out like in canon cause Fortune would be so desperate to avoid doing anything that might get her sent back to the human world. Yes, she has a kind heart, but she’s also absolutely terrified of going back to the human world and finding out what Mumei will do to her as punishment for disappearing.

Plus, I just thought Lucifer’s idea was a bad one anyway cause locking Belphegor in the attic only made him more pissed. It did nothing to solve the problem at hand lol

That’s why I like the idea of Belphegor’s punishment being a lot different than canon. Like, instead of Lucifer taking things into his own hands to protect his brother, Diavolo gets involved before that can happen by coming up with a solution that will provide Belphegor a means of atoning and also hopefully help him get past his hatred of humans.

What I had in mind was basically Belphegor gets taken away from the House of Lamentation and put in a deep sleep. The only way he’ll wake up from that magic-induced slumber is when his heart changes for the better.

As far as how that happens, Diavolo sets things up so that Fortune & Belphegor are able to communicate when she’s dreaming via a magical artifact that is put in her room ahead of time, which will connect to the one that’s with Belphegor.

Diavolo’s line of thinking is that Belphegor needs a human’s help but in a situation where he can bring no harm to said human which is how this plan came about since Belphegor can’t do anything to Fortune while they’re in dreamland. 

So, basically, the Belphegor plotline would consist of a lot of forced dream playdates that he grudgingly starts to hate less and less as time goes by lol It would obviously take a while, but I think, if given enough time, that he’d end up in a better headspace.

Sure, he’d be pissed about the situation to a certain degree, even though a part of him can’t deny that getting to take a possibly year long nap isn’t really a bad idea to him lol But considering how Fortune is, I think she’d be able to help him out, especially when he sees just how much she adores Beel and hears how well she gets along with him. After all, anyone who loves Beel that much shouldn’t be someone he hates enough to wanna kill lol

As far as what the brothers all think about this, only Lucifer knows the whole story, which he decides to keep a secret, figuring Beel and the others might riot if they find out what happened to Belphegor. Plus, he doesn’t want to risk them possibly influencing Diavolo’s test which Diavolo said that can only involve Fortune & Belphegor. This would actually be Fortune’s big assignment during her year stay rather than a bunch of other separate tasks like Diavolo had originally planned before things went off the rail with Belphegor. 

So, like in canon, the other five brothers just think that Belphegor got sent to the human world for the transfer program. They have no idea that he’s actually in Diavolo’s castle fast asleep.

That’s about the only thing that’s the same, though, so as a result, there would be a lot of other changes, like Fortune not needing to get the TSL record or her needing to find out more info about Belphegor since that would be provided to her by Diavolo/Lucifer, but honestly, I can’t say I mind this since I just like the idea of going off script since I’d hate to risk rehashing canon events or copying other brilliant fic renditions of the season 1 plot.

As far as the pacts are concerned, I honestly still see them happening, just not cause Fortune asked for them or needed them. It’d be cause these guys are eventually like, “Someone needs to watch out for her and protect her cause she’s a literal walking trouble magnet.” lol

And for the record, Fortune’s relationships would be entirely platonic cause, as you all well know, found family is my jam. Plus, these guys are just so much older than Fortune, who either technically starts off as a minor or possibly remains a minor for the whole year, so I’d rather just give her a lot of protective demon big brothers than a harem haha

[compassion-of-a-lightner]

I guess I'm sleep deprived enough having not slept for 4 days to make a post about this.

People who entirely write off Asgore as a character worth caring about in any respect, what's up?

I should clarify.

This is not directed to people who fully consider his story in UT, or the implications in DR and come out of it going "I don't forgive him and therefore don't like him"

It's more to the weirdly hostile voices I see that are just like, entirely dismissive of his story and just go "Haha, he sucks. Definitely no nuance here! Just shitty! Every other character is worth the world and Asgore is a piece of shit forever and should die lmao" and like, did you play the same game?

Because I feel like you're just robbing yourself of a whole ass dynamic of the story in UT just to go "Haha, he's a lame divorced shithead and murderer, Toriel deserves better uwu" and like, that's not the point? OBVIOUSLY she does? Because she decided he's not for her in both games for different reasons? That doesn't delete his story from the game(s) or make it less valuable to consider?

Also good for her (in UT), the dumbass goes kid killer and you tell him to go fly a kite.

But like, seriously man. Asgore has one of the most hefty 'crumbling under the weight of the world' narratives to his story in UT.

He's in charge of giving all monsters a better life, and he's looked deep inside, witnessed his son killed by humanity, witnessed the (supposed) best chance at peace between humanity and monsters pass with Chara, and he's decided that the only hope to provide for those he cares about is to give up his own 'humanity' and gather the power of human souls to break through... AND HE CAN'T EVEN DO THAT BECAUSE HE CAN'T BRING HIMSELF TO BECOME THE MONSTER HE HATES!

(Yes he kills though, I mean finish the plan, we'll get to that)

Like cut and dry, it's a pretty shit plan bud. But it's born from a place of deep compassion and a sense of significant loss that made him desperate.

(some of these details might be too fuzzy from a long time since playing but the general point remains)

He doesn't know all the facts.

He doesn't know everything about Chara.

He doesn't know that Chara, while fused with Asriel, wanted to commit violence against Humanity for what they did to the monsters.

He didn't know that Asriel died because he fought against this.

He didn't know so much of the story. All he saw was his adopted child dying with a simple wish to see the flowers again, and humanity attacking like the beasts they claimed monsters were when his son attempted to fulfill that wish.

He saw humanity's darkest, and questioned why monsters were the ones locked below. And he saw what Asriel and Chara were able to accomplish together so he made a plan.

His plan rings the same tones of most 'last chance' narratives. There IS no other way out from what he's witnessed. Chara and Asriel WERE the good option out, and it didn't work.

The good ending was attempted, and denied. So he looked at his options and there really weren't many.

Either die underground, or kill to make the surface their home.

And upon finally building up the determination to put his plan in motion, he couldn't do it.

He killed, and immediately had too much regret to follow through.

He shut down, he crumbled under the pressure, he saw the blood on his hands and he realized he wasn't able to hate strongly enough to use the soul to break through and attack humanity as a whole.

As Toriel said in the true end, he could have gone with 1 soul, but he hid away and hoped that no more humans would come.

His true plan was to end his plan. To live in regret of the life he stole and never see another human again, and out of fear of revealing his failure to his people, out of fear of admitting to them that they would never see the surface again, he hid from his responsibility because it would demand he become a true monster. He claimed to need more power, and hoped no one would come to confront them.

He locked himself into the responsibilities of a mad king, to kill and gather power whenever a new human arrives. For nothing.

To continuously bloody his hands in the hopes of never doing so again, all because he's too 'weak' to just go up top and become the Mercy-less monster he truly believed needed to exist to free them.

And all the sadness and regret, but hollow determination to continue on his path is so STRONG in his story, man! It's TERRIBLE!

He hates what he's become; He shows no joy at the thought of fighting Frisk. He's built an empty responsibility all in the hope of never killing again, and the world keeps laughing at him as it tosses more lives his way.

He wants to help his people, but he doesn't want to hurt the humans.

He was a good person presented with a perspective of the 'facts' that laid bare a world of disgusting hate, a world that can't be reasoned with, a world without Mercy. And after having lost his only children to this world, he gave in to his own weakness and decided to play by the rules- to also fight without Mercy.

AND. FAILED.

He's both entirely convinced that the world has no mercy, and is entirely unable to relinquish his own.

All while bitterly tending to an evil he resents to its core, all while hoping to be left alone and never be asked to shed blood again, all while truly believing he must do so- in these circumstances- if he is to protect the lives on the surface and maintain even a semblance of his mercy in the grand scheme of things.

Let them live and risk the humans finding out he killed in the first place, risk the humans coming underground to kill them all. Risk repeating what happened with Asriel, but for them all because of blood on his hands.

Kill them, for no gain, and continue the facade- continue telling everyone you're almost strong enough to kill those on the surface. Continue lying, so that the monsters are safe, and the humans are as well. All at the cost of another child. IT SUCKS IT'S FUCKING BAD MAN.

It's what makes it so touching that you can convince him through your intense determination to break the rules of this mercy-less world! You're unending compassion and inability to accept 'no' for an answer in regards to cherishing life provides him with new hope!

It's a glimpse of a person with true unending mercy that convinces him that the world can be changed- Frisk and the player's actions convince him that he was mistaken. That it never had to be the original plan, and the reason he couldn't think of a new one is because succumbing to the act of murder had destroyed his sense of hope- he wasn't the right person to come up with a plan to free the monsters after that because it was simply too damaging to his ability to hope or dream of a better future.

He needed convinced.

He needed to be shown that the world can have mercy in it, that it can be compassionate.

Things he once believed were possible, and a reality that was torn from him with the loss of his kids- revitalized as you step through to make it happen.

IT'S GOOD, OKAY.

AND ASGORE IS INTEGRAL TO IT AND IS A TRAGIC FIGURE WITHIN IT.

Anyways you can still hate him, you're opinions are you own and he sucks at being a good dude. The dude killed kids (in UT), you remember that? Fucked up.

I've just been seeing a lot of takes on the guy as some nuance-less bad person when he has so many layers of depth going on that it sounds bizarre to hear him summed up as like "Oh yeah, Asgore is a piece of shit, anyways let's talk about the character depth of Pipis"

I mean come on, Ms. Pipis is right there, talk about her, lol.

[idv-hc-center]

Hi! Aesop x Gn!Reader please. Make it super angsty. Like, reader finds out that Aesop is a serial killer on the night that he plans on proposing to S/O. I want to watch the world burn. 😈 please and thank you. Hope your doing well!

Time to make someone cry

lol wrote it in one sitting

guys, I swear I'm okay

warnings: mention of death and murder, like a lot

words: 1,3k

You and Aesop were in a relationship for a long time. You both were stuck in the endless death game but, somehow, you bonded and couldn't live without each other now. All you wanted was to get out of here and lead a happy life. And Aesop wanted to "formalize" it.

He planned to propose to you. He was sure that's what he wanted, and he was sure you would agree. Aesop worried it might be too soon, but after all, you both didn't know if you will ever get out of here.

You taught him how to love, how to show affection and made him a better human being. You completely changed him, and he was forever grateful for that. He was ashamed of his past, but he knew one day, he will explain it to you. But not now, you had much bigger problems.

You didn't know what he was planning, it was a surprise. All you knew was the fact you were supposed to go on a date somewhere. Aesop had everything planned out. With Emma's help, he arranged a dinner in one of the manor's gardens.

Everything was supposed to go perfectly! But it started to go wrong when you appeared in Aesop's room half an hour before you were supposed to. He didn't blame you, you didn't know how important that day was for him. For both of you. So he politely asked you to wait in his room till he comes back for you.

You agreed, not wanting to annoy him. You could wait. But after some time you began to feel bored. So in your fashion, you began to look around his room, trying to find something to entertain you. You ended up going through his bookshelf. Most of the books on there were about embalming and burial of the dead. There was also a copy of hamlet, but you really didn't feel like reading through any of it.

You found yourself interested in one of the books. It didn't have anything on the back or front, so you opened it on one of the pages. You quickly noticed it was handwritten as you began to read.

I found myself thinking about Jerry way more often recently. It might be because of the matches. Who would have thought I would have the honor of embalming living instead of dead. I wonder if he would be as fascinated as I am. Soon it's going to be an anniversary of his death. It also might be the reason why he is on my mind constantly. I know I failed him. He wouldn't think of me as a proper apprentice. Especially not now. But I hope I have chosen the correct path.

You were confused. Now you knew it was probably his diary, everyone in the manor was required to write in one. Aesop never said anything about his past, and you accepted it. You assumed it was rough, and you didn't want to make him upset by asking. But who was Jerry? What he meant by failing him? You knew it was presumably wrong and an invasion of his privacy, but you wanted to know more about him. You were so close you assumed he wouldn't be angry if he found out. You flipped through some pages and again began to read.

The whole process of embalming living is way different than embalming the dead. Obviously. It enrages me I have so little time to do it. Not only I can't do it properly, but the pressure of running away from the hunter makes it way more challenging. But the adrenaline feels very familiar. Well, of course, it's way different than the adrenaline I felt while helping those poor souls. It was more peaceful then. Not to mention the lack of that awful smell.

You were utterly confused. You didn't understand anything, but your anxiety rose. It didn't seem right. Aesop was always kind of different, but everything you read just seemed weird. What he meant by "helping those poor souls"? Your curiosity took the best of you as you flipped pages to those at the begging of the diary.

I met someone new. Well, I met a lot of new people in the past couple of days. It's overwhelming. But they seem nice. I think they are worthy of me helping them, to get out of this place, and out of this world. Looking at the situation, it would be the best for them.

You held your breath. No, it couldn't be true. He wouldn't write about something so disturbing in such a nonchalance way. You hoped you read something wrong as you reread that one fragment over and over again. The pieces started to come together as you began to realize the awful truth your lover was hiding from you. You didn't want to believe that as you desperately started to read more and more, what only reassured you in your awful discovery.

Is it really murder if I'm just trying to help?

You jumped at the noise of Aesop opening the door what resulted in you dropping the diary. He didn't suspect anything.

"Dear, everything is ready, we can now..." he froze, noticing tears streaming down your face. He was confused and immediately went over, trying to find out what happened.

"Don't touch me." you moved away from him to his unsettling. He didn't understand why you were acting like that. Well, till he noticed what you just dropped.

His eyes widened. He didn't know how much you knew but looking at your reaction, you knew way too much.

"Darling, I bet I can explain-" he put one hand on your arm, trying to calm you down.

"I said, don't touch me!" you screamed at him pushing his hand off you. You were greatly disturbed by your discovery, and you wouldn't calm down so easily.

"Okay..." he moved away. Aesop had to convince you that you were wrong about him. Well, of course not entirely. He had committed sins that he couldn't fix now. But you changed him. You made him rethink everything Jerry taught him. And he knew how wrong he was. He would never do something like that again, and you had to believe him. You both went through so much. You had to understand him.

"Don't ever talk to me again" he could swear he heard his heart shatter. No, he couldn't let you do that. He immediately grabbed your arms and began explaining how you were wrong and misunderstood everything. How he changed, and you were to the sole reason for his change. But he stopped when he noticed how frightened you were. He could see pure fear in your eyes. Your cheeks were stained with tears. He sounded like a lunatic. Embalmer backed off, letting you go, and you immediately ran out of his room, still crying. He slowly sat back on his bed.

He pulled out of his pocket the ring he wanted to use to propose to you. Aesop looked at it with a broken smile. He ruined it, and it was only his fault. He couldn't be mad at anyone but himself. He was a sinner and his sins caught up to him. He wished he could explain it to you, but he knew you wouldn't want to listen to him. And you had a full right not to. After everything you just learned, you would be stupid if you decided to even sit in the same room as him.

Aesop felt like a foul. He believed he finally found someone he truly loved. Someone who cared about him and someone who he cared about. It was obvious after everything he did it wouldn't be possible. He looked at the ring one last time.

"Maybe in another life."

[heyyyharry]

Deep End - Chapter 11: Date Night

…in which Ezi’s first date gets interfered.

Word count: 2.5k

AU: famous!harry, siren!mc, adult modern retelling of the little mermaid? lol, fake dating, enemies to lovers.

WARNING: MATURE THEMES

All chapters / Synopsis / Moodboard / Playlist

Wattpad link

A/N: sorry this chapter is so short. I was emotionally unstable when I wrote this last week :D I'll try to write more for the next one.

Also, please follow my writing account on Instagram: @allie.writes :) Don't forget to leave comments on this chapter!

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“Hey, do you remember Dolores?” Dawson asked.

“How could I forget?” Ezili murmured, eyeing her sister up and down.

Of course Ezi remembered Dolores. She couldn’t if she tried. Whenever she looked at Koa, all she saw was what she could never be, what her mother wished that she was, and it only made her despise herself. When she’d first arrived here, she had felt so out of place, but at the same time, free. She still revisited her old life in her sleep, which made her wake up screaming during the night. And despite all the struggles she’d gone through, she felt appreciated. Harry wasn’t anywhere near great, but he wasn’t bad. He looked out for her even though she wasn’t his kind. And she knew if her mother knew she felt this way about a human, she would not be standing here.

But why was she thinking about Harry? He wasn’t here. She snapped out of her thoughts and looked around as the vibrant atmosphere of the night market drowned out her thoughts. Her sister came forward and pulled her into a hug. She could feel Koa’s claws leaving marks on her shoulders, but she knew it was just her imagination.

Koa withdrew with a smile and lifted those perfect human hands with short blunt nails and twisted her hair into a bun. She looked so human, so natural. Ezili wondered how Koa it, but then she caught a glimpse of the trident hanging on a chain around her neck. She’d been using magic.

Immediately, Ezili grabbed Dawson’s hand and pulled him to her side. Koa tilted her head, looking quite confused, which Ezili knew was all an act. Meanwhile, Dawson was blushing. He cleared his throat. “So...Dolores is also here for the book fair. Mind if she joins us?”

“Not at all,” Ezili said with a tight smile.

“Great!” Koa said, hands clasped against her chest.

Ezili tried to figure out what her sister’s intentions were. Was she here to kill Ezili? Was she here to kill Harry? What if she thought Dawson was Ezili’s new target and was here to kill him? Also, how many humans had she killed for her to be here, dressed, act, and talk like a real human girl?

Ezili walked beside Koa as the girl went on and on about how she’d just moved to London, and all the places she’d visited and enjoyed. She must have got all this information from the magic of the trident. She couldn’t be more human than Ezili, who’d had to learn everything by herself.

“Harry?”

Ezili’s heart gave a lurch when she spotted his face in the crowd. It started with a feeling of comfort, like finding a warm bed in the middle of the raging ocean. But then a tidal wave of anxiety crashed down upon her, and she momentarily forgot about Dawson and her sister. She rushed toward him, pushing past a group of tourists and teenagers who cursed at her.

“There you are!” Harry said, spreading his arms. “My favourite fish.”

“What are you doing here?” she hissed and tugged hard at his sleeve. “Why did you follow me here?”

“I didn’t follow you here.”

“Liar.”

“I’m not,” Harry sighed and poked the inside of his cheek with his tongue as he looked around. “Where’s Dawson anyway? Why are you standing here all by yourself?”

Ezili had no time for his questions. “Harry, go home.”

“I’m here to buy books!”

“Oh, yeah? What books?”

“This one,” he said, grabbing a random book from a display shelf they were in front of.

“The Sex Life of Pets?”

“Oh.” His smile dropped as he read the title. “I mean, it does look kinda interesting.”

“Harry, go home. I’m fine.”

“I don’t think you are. Dawson left you here all by yourself.”

“He’s taking care of something,” Ezili said anxiously as she put her arms around herself and rubbed. The air was getting cold. She hadn’t had to feel the cold when she’d been a siren. She hated how weak humans were. A slight change of the weather could get them all messed up.

She was about to tell Harry to go home right now because her sister was here, and Dawson might be in danger. Ezili’s job here was to kill one of these men, not save them every single time. But to her surprise, Harry took off his coat and put it around her shoulders. “Come home with me,” he said, gently. “If you stay here, you might get lost among all these tourists.”

“No, you go home,” she said, pushing his shoulder, but he didn’t budge. “It’s not safe here for you.”

“How?” he chuckled. “I know London like the back of my hand.”

“Doesn’t matter.”

“Ezili, you’re acting stran—” Harry was about to finish his sentence when his smile vanished. He pointed over Ezili’s shoulder. “Is that Dawson talking to your sister?”

Ezili whirled around, relieved to find Dawson still alive, but the grin her sister gave her while Dawson was talking to a seller made her uneasy.

“Harry, go home,” she snapped at Harry, shoved him hard so he stumbled back. If something happened, she could only save one of them, and she knew for a fact it would be Harry.

“I’m not going home and leaving you here—”

“And I won’t save you if my sister does something again. I’ll save Dawson, and you don’t want to die, do you?”

At first, she thought those words were all harmless, until she saw the way Harry’s smile dropped, and his shoulders slumped. He said nothing, only nodded. Koa and Dawson were heading towards them now. It was too risky to have Harry here.

“Go!” she shouted and pushed him hard. He didn’t joke about it or react, just held her gaze for a moment and walked away.

“Is that Harry? Harry!”

“He’s leaving, Dawson,” Ezili said and turned to her sister. “Could you come with me to the restroom?”

“Yeah, sure!” Koa happily said, then waved at a puzzled Dawson as she got dragged away.

“What are you trying to do?” Ezili asked in Séren when they were far enough from Dawson, but not too far; she still needed to keep an eye on him just in case.

“Nothing,” Koa answered in their mother tongue. “Although Pretty Boy over there looks quite delicious.”

“Stop it!” Ezili snapped. “You’ve been breaking so many rules around here. You’re not allowed to use the magic of the trident for personal gains.”

“Mother entrusted me with it,” Koa mused.

“I’m sure she’d be happy to know what you’d used it for,” Ezili said, disgusted.

Koa’s dark pink lips curled to the side. “You’re jealous,” she said, leaning back, arms crossed.

Ezili had no time for this. “Please go home,” she told her sister. “I have things under control here. I’ll return in a year with the heart.”

“But you don’t have a whole year,” Koa said. “One year could be a lifetime for these creatures. Humans are fickle. They can stay married for twenty years and still can’t love each other.”

Ezili scoffed, eyebrows raised. “Does the trident tell you that?”

“No, Dolores did,” Koa said, twirling a strand of hair around her finger innocently as if she weren’t talking about someone she’d murdered for no reason. “She hated her husband,” she went on. “I heard her talking on the phone with someone about how she had never loved him, and they had two grown children together. Can you believe it? These creatures made up the thing called ‘marriage’ - a lifetime commitment, which they could not keep up with themselves. And as much as your pretty head wants to see the good in these filthy creatures. They are far from good. Not only do they harm other living things, they also harm their own kind. Physically and emotionally.” Koa put her hand on Ezili’s shoulder and squeezed. “That boy you’re so attached to is no different, Ezili. He will never love you.”

Ezili bit her lip and brushed her sister’s hand off of her. “Don’t tell me about humans when I’ve been here for longer than you do.”

“And yet,” Koa said, “you’re still here.”

Ezili wanted to tell Koa she was wrong for doubting Ezili, but Koa wasn’t wrong. Recently, Ezili had been doubting herself, too. She had even considered switching her target from Harry to Dawson, but she could not feel the same connection she’d had with Harry.

“I have an offer for you, Ezili,” Koa’s voice dragged her out of her own thoughts. She blinked at her sister. “Before your birthday, which was supposed to be your coronation day, you may come back to the Queendom. You’ll tell Mother that you cannot accomplish the mission and ask her to make me Queen of the Seven Seas. Then we’ll have a new Queen as planned. Our evil aunt can’t plot against the throne. And when I’m Queen, I’ll make sure you won’t be banished. You’ll get to keep your title as a princess and stay in the castle.”

Ezili hated that she wasted a second to actually consider the offer. “No. I won’t do it,” she spat, stepping back. “If I accepted this offer, no one and nothing in the ocean world would take me seriously. I would become an outcast anyway.”

Koa rolled her eyes and laughed heartily. “At least you’ll still be protected by the army and you’ll have a family. Or would you rather join the mermaids collecting gold all day for your sad little collection? Also, I’m sure the white sharks would love an abandoned siren.”

“I’m going to be Queen,” Ezili said through clenched teeth. “I’m bringing Mother the heart no matter what. Now you go home and tell her just that. And be careful with my trident that you wore around your little breakable neck.”

Koa opened her mouth to speak, but Ezili didn’t give her a chance. She put up a hand and shouted, “Dawson, let’s go! Dolores is just about to leave.”

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Ezili didn’t know what time she arrived home. She tried not to think about her sister’s words, which had clearly been for the purpose of making her doubt herself. She still hoped Dawson had had a great time tonight. They’d bought some books after she’d got rid of Koa, then stopped at a restaurant on the way back to Harry’s mansion. She’d apologised when he’d dropped her off for not being quite herself tonight, and she hated how he’d cheerfully said, “It was nothing. No worries.” Why did humans lie about how they felt all the time? If something bothered you or made you uncomfortable, why not just say it? Why did they feel the need to complicate things? It was hard enough for her to understand human emotions, and they expected her to be able to guess?

“Hey,” Harry said when their eyes met and she froze in the doorway. She’d expected him to be sleeping right now. “You look clean. Guess your sister didn’t kill Dawson?”

Ezili narrowed her eyes at him and kicked off her shoes. “No. Nothing bad happened.”

“Oh, man. I was hoping he was dead.”

“Shut up,” she said. “Also, I don’t think my sister will ever bother us again.” That, she wasn’t sure. She just wanted to be reassured even if it was by her own words.

Harry got up, hands slipped into his pockets. “Sooo...how was your date?”

Ezili pretended she hadn’t heard that question. “Why are you still up?” she asked.

He shrugged. “Had too much coffee earlier.” Then repeated, “How was your date?”

“It was fine,” Ezili said. "Why did you show up?"

"I was just making sure you wouldn't cause any trouble? Your name is tied to mine now, in case you've forgotten."

"How can I? You literally remind me of our fake relationship every two seconds."

“Why are you so pissed off?”

“I’m not.”

“You clearly are,” he persisted.

She let out a sigh, about to just go upstairs and ignore him for the rest of the night, but this one question kept tugging at her. So she had to ask.

“Have you ever been in love?”

Harry looked confused for a second. “No. Never. I think I’ve told you about what happened with my exes.”

“But did you love them at one point?”

“Well, I thought I loved them,” he said. “But looking back now, I don’t think I know what love is. It’s just...a lot of times, I want to be alone. Just me and Chilli. If someone enters my life and stays around for too long, it makes me uncomfortable.”

“But I’m also living here. We see each other all the time.”

“It’s not like I have a choice to kick you out,” he said, then instantly looked regretful.

Ezili padded across the room and stopped in front of him. “Why would anybody want to be alone?” She knew she didn’t. She was doing all this just to be accepted by her kind, but he, who had everything from fame and wealth to a supportive family, wanted to be left alone?

“You’re not the first girl to ask me that,” he said with a grin. “I think it has a lot to do with how I was brought up. I feel like everyone has these certain expectations for me, and when I don’t meet those expectations, I disappoint them. I just want to be by myself so I can just be me. I don’t want to adjust myself to the presence of others.”

Ezili nodded then moved a bit closer.

“What are you--”

She surprised him by placing her palm on the left side of his chest. Her skin tingled with the sensation of his little unsteady heartbeats when she came near. “But there’s nothing here,” she mumbled as if it would make sense to him. “You were telling the truth.”

“What do you mean?” Harry let out a nervous laugh and reached for her hand, which she withdrew before he could touch.

“Nothing.”

Harry’s smile faded. “Did Dawson say anything about me?”

“No. We hardly talked about you.”

“What about your sister? Why is she here?” he kept asking when she brushed past him and headed for the stairs. “Does your mother want you back? Ezi, what happened tonight?”

“Nothing,” she lied. “I’m just tired. Goodnight, Harry.”

“Ezi,” he said, his voice soft and pleading as if he could love her for a moment. But how could he? How could a man, who had lived his whole life without falling in love and prided himself on his loneliness, ever fall in love with a siren? He’d said he’d wanted to kiss her again, but there he’d stood in front of her and claimed her presence in this house made him uncomfortable. Then when her hand had been on his heart, she had felt nothing.

So had he lied about it? Humans lied about how they felt all the time. If they could lie about wanting to spend the rest of their life with one person, they could lie about wanting to kiss a siren.

Maybe, just maybe, Ezili should consider her sister’s offer.

[yumeka36]

Thoughts on Pokemon the Movie: Koko/Secrets of the Jungle and the future of Pokemon movies

*Artwork credited to せぼにるか on pixiv*

I recently watched the Japanese version of the 23rd Pokemon movie, titled “Koko” in Japan or “Secrets of the Jungle” in the recent US release. As far as Pokemon movies go, it’s definitely one of the better ones and is continuing the new trend for Pokemon movies that started with I Choose You (Movie 20) and was especially apparent in The Power of Us (Movie 21), namely, diverging from the canon of the anime series and giving Ash and Pikachu more supportive roles in favor of focusing on other characters. As I mentioned in my review of Movie 21, that was the first Pokemon movie in 20 years to have a new director, Tetsuo Yajima, and I for one am incredibly pleased with his work on that movie and this one. I hope he’s allowed to keep directing the Pokemon movies and maybe even a new anime series.

I’ll come back to this topic of the future of the Pokemon movies/anime later, but first I wanted to share my thoughts on Koko/Secrets of the Jungle in particular:

*MOVIE SPOILERS START HERE*

-This movie is, at it’s core, a Pokemon version of the Tarzan story. And I think it’s done very well, way better than a similar story the original Pokemon anime did for a kid who was raised by Kangaskhan (I’m sure all you older Pokemon fans remember that weird episode).

-The song that the Zarude sing at the beginning caught me off guard, but then I found it kind of catchy (the Japanese version I mean. Not sure how they did it in the English version). I was apprehensive at first that this was going to be another movie where (non-psychic) pokemon can talk for no apparent reason, which is something I’m not a fan of. So I was relieved to find out that they’re actually talking in their own language.

-I love the song by singer Beverly that’s played during the montage of Zarude Dada raising baby Koko. Again, not sure if the English version uses the same song or not.

-One of my favorite parts of the movie is when Ash shows Koko around the town and he sees people and pokemon interacting for the first time. That is just such an interesting concept: someone who was raised as a pokemon seeing people for the first time and how they’ve built a world with pokemon. I would have been fine if the whole movie was simply Koko reacting to and learning about the Pokemon world as we know it.

-I believe Prof. Zed is the very first Pokemon movie villain, or even villain in the overall franchise, who blatantly committed murder. Even though I found this refreshingly dark for a Pokemon movie, his villain reveal at the end was just kinda “meh.” My familiarity with how the Pokemon games and anime handle bad guys made me sense early on that he would be the villain, but I didn’t feel like it was built up too well…just boiled down to a “guess what, I’m actually evil!” moment. But regardless, his conflict with Koko’s father was believable, and learning about what he did in the past was pretty shocking. I guess Koko was lucky that his parents keep fire-proof baby protection containers in the car for just such emergencies! Also, while I liked seeing Zed get arrested in the movie’s epilogue, I also kind of wished they left him (to die?) hanging on that cliff in the jungle. That would have been pretty dark, lol.

-Like my prediction on who the villain would be, another thing I sensed early on was, as soon as there was mention of a spring with healing waters, I knew someone was going to die and/or be mortally wounded at some point and need to be healed in the spring. I was somewhat right, though it wasn’t the water that healed Zarude Dada so much as Koko’s power…

-…which is actually something I did not like about the movie. It’s one thing for a human to be raised by pokemon, but being able to use a pokemon’s move? I can understand him learning pokemon language and some abilities within the limits of his human body, like climbing trees, but I draw the line at a person being able to use a pokemon attack, especially one based on elements like grass (unless said person was physically altered in some way, like having their genes spliced with those of a pokemon, but as far as we know that didn’t happen to Koko). Koko using Jungle Healing stretched my suspension of belief too far, even for Pokemon, and opened up a large can of worms – so can he use other pokemon attacks if he just “believes enough”? Does simply being raised by a pokemon allow someone to use pokemon attacks? What about other pokemon-only things, like being caught in a poke-ball? It would have made more sense if the other Zarude “channeled” their power into him, or if Celebi came over to help (I really thought that would be the moment Celebi made its big appearance). But even though I didn’t like this part of the story, it wasn’t detrimental to the movie overall. I’ll just theorize that Koko unknowingly channeled the power of the healing spring and the surrounding trees to use Jungle Healing and it didn’t come from his own “power.”

-I had to laugh when I realized how unashamedly the shiny Celebi was being used to market this movie when it plays no role in the story whatsoever and has, like, less than a minute of screentime. The scene where Prof. Zed tells Ash and co. about Celebi felt out of place, like they were obligated to mention Celebi because it was part of the movie’s marketing but was never intended to play a role in the plot. After that, literally nothing about it, until it very randomly appeared for a few seconds in the epilogue, almost as an afterthought. I know this isn’t the first time Pokemon movies have used specific pokemon all over their marketing while said pokemon plays a very small role in the actual movie. But with Celebi in this case, it’s like they weren’t even trying to make it relevant to the plot at all, lol.

-One thing I admired about The Power of Us movie was how there were so many subplots between the different characters, and yet all were interesting and none seemed to be left out in the end. Even though this movie had fewer subplots, once again, everything got enough attention and was wrapped up nicely (must be new director Yajima’s skills). For example, the very first scene of the movie shows the Zarude being bullies to the other pokemon. I thought that would be glossed over later as it didn’t seem important to the main plot, but it was definitely brought up again and resolved in the end.

-I thought the end of the movie with Koko deciding to go on a journey to learn more about people and pokemon made sense for his character. Now that he knows he’s not a pokemon and there’s a whole world of people and pokemon living together that he doesn’t know about, he’d definitely want to be part of that. Though I think he should have an escort, at least for a while. I mean, the kid knows nothing about the human world and can’t even speak their language, so going on a journey by himself seems even more risky than a normal kid in the Pokemon world. I think it would have been hilarious if there was a post-credits scene where we see Koko come back to the forest as an adult, shows a poke-ball to Zarude Dada and says, “I’m gonna catch you…Dad!”

*END OF SPOILERS*

And that brings me back to the topic at the beginning of this post of how the newer Pokemon movies have gotten more interesting…they’ve gotten more interesting because they’ve moved away from the stagnant formula that so many of the past movies have had. If you look at most of the previous Pokemon movies, they tend to follow the same formula of “Ash and friends explore a new town/area, meet a legendary pokemon, some evil doer ends up capturing/harming the legendary pokemon for some vague, selfish reason, lots of destruction ensues, then Ash and friends help save the day.” There were some slight exceptions and tweaks to this formula, but for the most part, this is how Pokemon movies were structured for years and they were getting pretty stale. I still enjoyed watching them anyway just because I’m such a big fan of the franchise, but it pained me to know how much better they could be.

But then you have movies like this one and The Power of Us that break away from that formula and introduce new and intriguing characters and themes never explored before. Look at what a unique character like Koko is for the franchise and how much potential for refreshing stories his character could bring. A whole series about a kid who was raised by pokemon, learning about how people and pokemon interact, would be such a unique premise. And all the characters from The Power of Us were so memorable and well developed – I can hardly remember any of the cookie-cutter human characters from Pokemon movies of the past 15-20 years, but I’ll definitely remember the cast from The Power of Us and Koko. But as we all know, even 25 years later, the Pokemon anime refuses to remove Ash and Pikachu as the main characters. As I discussed in a post I wrote several years ago about why the Pokemon anime hasn’t “evolved,” I think it boils down to a “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it” attitude from The Pokemon Company. Having the anime series star Ash and Pikachu with mostly light-hearted, very kid-friendly themes, has worked great for them all this time, so why risk changing that? But I think they may be slowly starting to see the potential of a more mature Pokemon anime aimed at an older audience. They started experimenting with more mature Pokemon anime variants sans Ash and friends with the 4-episode Pokemon Origins series from 2013 and Pokemon XY: Mega Evolution series from 2014/2015. Although they did end up concluding the latter within the main anime canon, the stand-alone episodes were fantastic and only made me more bitter that we didn’t have a series starring these new characters with this darker tone. But I think Pokemon GO unexpectedly bursting into popularity in 2016 made The Pokemon Company realize that so many veteran Pokemon fans who are now adults still care about the franchise. Since then we’ve seen a bunch of web anime series featuring characters not from the main anime and with a more mature tone, such as Pokemon Generations, Pokemon Twlight Wings, PokeToons, and the currently airing Pokemon Evolutions. While these series are nice to have, I think we’re long overdue for a full-budget, franchise-rebooting anime series with a new cast of characters and the serious tone that these web series have offered adult fans.

It’s hard to say when or even if we’ll get an overhaul of the main Pokemon anime. Even after the positive fan reaction to the Japanese subtitled viewing of the Mewtwo Strikes Back remake at Anime Expo, we still have yet to get any official Pokemon releases in Japanese for English-speaking audiences. Again, I think The Pokemon Company just doesn’t want to risk spending a lot on risky changes when everything, at least in terms of the Pokemon anime, has worked fine for them for 25 years. But with positive changes to the recent Pokemon movies that I discussed in this post, as well as all the new web anime series we’ve gotten, I think there’s a chance they could lead to a new phase for the main anime as well. Unlike many other franchises, Pokemon is not defined by the story arcs of any one particular character or group of characters – its main focus is the world itself, a world of nearly 1,000 unique, loveable creatures with a multitude of ways they interact with the world and the humans around them. There is literally an endless amount of stories that could come from such a setting, so to forever keep the anime restricted to focusing on a never-aging 10 year old kid and his vaguely defined journey of becoming a “Pokemon Master,” is a criminal amount of lost potential. Since Pokemon is currently the highest grossing media franchise in the world, I’m sure its reign will surpass my lifespan, so I’m hoping I’ll be able to see a new Pokemon anime series with new main characters and a more mature tone within my lifetime.

[arctic-comet]

Osblaineweek2021, Day 2: Prose

I love book quotes. Looking at quotes is one of my favorite ways to to inspire myself to write more fic.

Here’s a small collection of book quotes (and recs!) of where I’ve “found” June and Nick.

This post contains spoilers for the following books/series:

- Lover Mine by JR Ward

- The Wrath and The Dawn duology by Renée Ahdieh

- A Court of Thorns and Roses series by Sarah J. Maas

Lover Mine by J.R. Ward

Summary:

John Matthew has come a long way since he was found living among humans, his vampire nature unknown to himself and to those around him. After he was taken in by the Brotherhood, no one could guess what his true history was- or his true identity. Indeed, the fallen Brother Darius has returned, but with a different face and a very different destiny. As a vicious personal vendetta takes John into the heart of the war, he will need to call up on both who he is now and who he once was in order to face off against evil incarnate. Xhex, a symphath assassin, has long steeled herself against the attraction between her and John Matthew. Having already lost one lover to madness, she will not allow the male of worth to fall prey to the darkness of her twisted life. When fate intervenes, however, the two discover that love, like destiny, is inevitable between soul mates.

It's basically a paranormal love story between two warriors. He's really young (although he's actually a reincarnation of a very old vampire warrior, but he doesn't know that), and she's like 300 years older than him. In this book, she's been raped and abused by a guy who also used to bully him. She escapes, but he saves her life. She's hungry for revenge and wants to die after achieving that goal, but of course eventually changes her mind. In the end he actually serves her rapist to her on a silver platter so that she can kill him (sound like anyone we know?). He literally holds the guy down while she kills him.

They're my ultimate favorite ship in this series, and IMO their relationship eventually develops into one of the strongest ones. This series is a bit of a hit-or-miss for most people, because the language and the writing style are pretty ridiculous in all seriousness. If you decide to read this, I recommend starting the series from the beginning because John and Xhex meet for the first time several books before this one, LOL.

Here are some of the quotes that make me think of Nick and June:

“Besides, the story of the two of them was written in the language of collision; they were ever crashing into each other and ricocheting away—only to find themselves pulled back into another impact.” ― J.R. Ward, Lover Mine

“As his ears rang and his heart broke for her, he stayed strong against the gale force she let loose. After all, there was a reason why here and hear were seperated by so little and sounded one like the other. Bearing witness to her, he heard her and was there for her because that was all you could do during a fall apart. But God, it pained him to see how she suffered.” ― J.R. Ward, Lover Mine

“...the only thing that had tethered her to the earth had been him and it was strange, but she felt welded to him on some core level now. He had seen her at her absolute worst, at her weakest and most insane, and he hadn't looked away. He hadn't judged and he hadn't been burned. It was as if in the heat of her meltdown they had melted together. This was more than emotion. It was a matter of soul.” ― J.R. Ward, Lover Mine

The Wrath and the Dawn duology by Renée Ahdieh

Summary:

One Life to One Dawn. In a land ruled by a murderous boy-king, each dawn brings heartache to a new family. Khalid, the eighteen-year-old Caliph of Khorasan, is a monster. Each night he takes a new bride only to have a silk cord wrapped around her throat come morning. When sixteen-year-old Shahrzad's dearest friend falls victim to Khalid, Shahrzad vows vengeance and volunteers to be his next bride. Shahrzad is determined not only to stay alive, but to end the caliph's reign of terror once and for all. Night after night, Shahrzad beguiles Khalid, weaving stories that enchant, ensuring her survival, though she knows each dawn could be her last. But something she never expected begins to happen: Khalid is nothing like what she'd imagined him to be. This monster is a boy with a tormented heart. Incredibly, Shahrzad finds herself falling in love. How is this possible? It's an unforgivable betrayal. Still, Shahrzad has come to understand all is not as it seems in this palace of marble and stone. She resolves to uncover whatever secrets lurk and, despite her love, be ready to take Khalid's life as retribution for the many lives he's stolen. Can their love survive this world of stories and secrets?

This is a young adult fantasy romance, and basically, Khalid is a lot like Nick. He’s made mistakes that he needs to own, but at the same time he’s forced to commit atrocities he doesn’t want to do. He hates himself and doesn’t believe himself to be worthy of love, and yet he falls in love with Shazi. He's viewed as the villain of the story by everyone aside from Shazi and a few other characters until almost the end of the 2nd book.

“I love you, a thousand times over. And I will never apologize for it.”

―Renee Ahdieh, The Wrath and the Dawn

“It’s a fitting punishment for a monster. to want something so much—to hold it in your arms — and know beyond a doubt you will never deserve it.”

― Renee Ahdieh, The Wrath and the Dawn

“When I was a boy, my mother would tell me that one of the best things in life is the knowledge that our story isn't over yet. Our story may have come to a close, but your story is still yet to be told.

Make it a story worthy of you”

― Renee Ahdieh, The Wrath and the Dawn

“In that moment of perfect balance, she understood. This peace? These worries silenced without effort? It was because they were two parts of a whole. He did not belong to her. And she did not belong to him. It was never about belonging to someone. It was about belonging together.”

― Renee Ahdieh, The Rose & the Dagger

“A boy who'd thrived in the shadows.

Now he had to live in the light.

To live . . . fiercely.

To fight for every breath.”

― Renee Ahdieh, The Rose & the Dagger

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

Summaries:

Book 1

Feyre's survival rests upon her ability to hunt and kill – the forest where she lives is a cold, bleak place in the long winter months. So when she spots a deer in the forest being pursued by a wolf, she cannot resist fighting it for the flesh. But to do so, she must kill the predator and killing something so precious comes at a price ... Dragged to a magical kingdom for the murder of a faerie, Feyre discovers that her captor, his face obscured by a jewelled mask, is hiding far more than his piercing green eyes would suggest. Feyre's presence at the court is closely guarded, and as she begins to learn why, her feelings for him turn from hostility to passion and the faerie lands become an even more dangerous place. Feyre must fight to break an ancient curse, or she will lose him forever.

Book 2

Feyre survived Amarantha's clutches to return to the Spring Court—but at a steep cost. Though she now has the powers of the High Fae, her heart remains human, and it can't forget the terrible deeds she performed to save Tamlin's people. Nor has Feyre forgotten her bargain with Rhysand, High Lord of the feared Night Court. As Feyre navigates its dark web of politics, passion, and dazzling power, a greater evil looms—and she might be key to stopping it. But only if she can harness her harrowing gifts, heal her fractured soul, and decide how she wishes to shape her future—and the future of a world cleaved in two. With more than a million copies sold of her beloved Throne of Glass series, Sarah J. Maas's masterful storytelling brings this second book in her seductive and action-packed series to new heights.

Fantasy romance with explicit sex scenes, and book 2 is a lot better than book 1. Our main character Feyre falls for a really boring fae guy, but also meets the hottest guy she’s ever known. The first guy of course isn't the real love interest (this is a twist this author loves to do). They all end up as prisoners, and the 2nd guy saves her life when the 1st one is totally useless. He also makes her hate him as he does it because he has to. After getting out, she tries to make her old relationship work, but it doesn’t, and guess who swoops in?

I do see some Nick in Rhysand (in addition to his role in the love triangle). They’re both traumatized and prefer to keep a lot of their feelings to themselves. I also see some of the same selflessness in both of them. Rhysand wants Feyre to choose him because she loves him, but he’s willing to accept that she may not, and doesn’t tell her that they’re pretty much destined to be together (it’s a supernatural thing, and he will suffer a lot if she decides she doesn’t want him).

“Everything I love has always had a tendency to be taken from me.”

―Sarah J. Maas, A Court of Thorns and Roses

“It took me a long while to realize that Rhysand, whether he knew it or not, had effectively kept me from shattering completely.”

― Sarah J. Maas, A Court of Thorns and Roses

“Regardless of his motives or his methods, Rhysand was keeping me alive. And had done so even before I set foot Under the Mountain.”

― Sarah J. Maas, A Court of Thorns and Roses

“Because," he went on, his eyes locked with mine, "I didn't want you to fight alone. Or die alone."

― Sarah J. Maas, A Court of Thorns and Roses

“He thinks he'll be remembered as the villain in the story. But I forgot to tell him that the villain is usually the person who locks up the maiden and throws away the key. He was the one who let me out.”

― Sarah J. Maas, A Court of Mist and Fury

“And I wondered if love was too weak a word for what he felt, what he’d done for me. For what I felt for him.”

― Sarah J. Maas, A Court of Mist and Fury

“I was his and he was mine, and we were the beginning and middle and end. We were a song that had been sung from the very first ember of light in the world.”

― Sarah J. Maas, A Court of Mist and Fury

[pangolin-404]

The Property of Hate: Chapters 23 and 24 liveblog

RGB is put through the ringer for the 754398399th time

I can’t recall if Madras’s shadow was always like that, with the eye and all, but I think it’s neat :)

HESGEU HSJ HE’S DEFLATED?? MAN REALLY DID THIS. Also watching Madras remove his face is unsettling

Is Madras going to die soon? Or get “realized” or whatever the term is?? I’m worried for her.

HUMAN/LIVING RGB TIME. 1) I still think he was an actor and that’s how he died, 2) Something apparently happened that led him to talking less. An injury? Just who was that woman?

Was Madras always so teary? She’s not restocking, she gave Hero her house (and that exchange was very clever lol), and she’s not charging RGB.

FINALLY I GET TOBY’S PRONOUNS. he/him. thank you

RGB where do you just Get Kisses (glass pyramid guy-?) actually never mind don’t even want to know

I’m just... worried for Madras. I hope she turns out okay.

-

Wonder how much Madras knew, to push them back. If she knew, but I think she did. I think her news disheartened RGB; or maybe man’s just tired of being hurt all the time, or a mix of both.

Is Elastic V pronounced Elastic Vee or Elastic Five? Idk

If RGB finds Madras’s gift after she’s gone I’m going to be so sad I’m going to weep and sob on the floor. I wonder if it’s part of the reason he’s feeling down (other than the many other reasons he could be exhausted).

aww bonding about glass pigs. my heart heals every time RGB’s patient teaching Hero about something about the world

T.G. is horrifying thanks

“Fallible?” (Pans to RGB keeping a temper from breaking) FALLIBLE? MOTH-BUTTERFLY-THING, RGB has been through A LOT and is TRYING HIS BEST, SHUT UP OR I’LL SHOVE YOU INTO THE SEA

T.G. has a humansona

I’M GOING TO MURDER THE BUTTERFLY TIME WAS RIGHT (YOU BASTARD!) I’M GOING TO START BITING! I DON’T GIVE A DAMN WHAT RGB DID TO YOU, YOU DON’T BRING SOMEONE ELSE INTO IT. ARE THOSE TOP EYES EVEN YOURS??

NOW I even better understand why people hate the butterfly. I’m going to commit a crime

[claymotif]

hiiiiii i would LOVE to hear more about the starless hour if you dont mind that premise sounds SO interesting

hellooooo ben my beloved thank u for asking <3 (under a cut bc i have more to say than i thought i did)

the short(ish) version of the worldbuilding is that magic is real and some ppl are born into families that have natural affinities for it (mages); if you're not born into a family of mages u can still try accessing magic thru witchcraft, but the two types of magic have different applications so neither one is treated as inherently better than the other.

(the long version of the worldbuilding goes into the different subtypes of each type of magic and how they're used etc etc)

so delwyn (the w is pronounced like a v. the reason is that i am annoying) grows up as a lightning mage*, and historically lightning mages have a not-so-great reputation, so a lot of delwyn's magical education is focused on self-control as opposed to fully utilizing the extent of his power. ergo he is pretty damn good at controlling his power, to the point where he teaches classes at a post-secondary school (essentially a trade school for magicians); the school is located in lower manhattan and it also organizes the patrol system that keeps the city safe from monsters**

(* not elaborated on for plot reasons)

(** so far the biggest threat i've invented is an approximation of a vampire, in that they drink/crave human blood, but these creatures are barely recognizable as having ever been human so)

so delwyn is on one of those patrols w/ his patrol partner, junhee, and they find chan; chan is a little bit lost (he has never been to nyc before) but he says he's a prophet, he's been looking for delwyn and that delwyn is destined to cause the apocalypse.

(this is the part where i get to start playing with some fun pov stuff; there's a simultaneous storyline happening where a blood witch named sasha, along w/their friends, is hunting delwyn to kill him precisely because he's supposed to cause the apocalypse. chan believes that delwyn has enough free will to change his fate, sasha believes that the only way to guarantee that delwyn is free from his destiny is to remove him entirely. etc etc)

most of the plot hinges on the adventures they get into with chan trying to steer delwyn away from the vision he had, with each step inadvertently bringing them closer to it, and also the occasional run-ins with sasha's crew where chan desperately tries to convince them not to commit a murder in an extremely public place in a city where murders happen on the regular lmao

(also because i know you saw my vague posts about it: junhee is a plant witch, but he also has an extremely rare ability to see the otherrealm, which is the plane of existence where magic sort of blankets ours. turns out magic is kind of creepy and does a lot of really fucked up things when u can see where the worlds blend. among other things it means that junhee knows that something terrible is inevitable but he is along for the ride anyway bc he's hopeless)

anyway the vibes of tsh are magic (obviously) and ideally rather dark since a) it's the end of days and b) it's new york. you understand. an idea i've also been throwing around is more prominent blood/gore/body horror mainly bc i read a book that did it and then i thought "i can do that better"

bonus notes:

the title is plot relevant :)

sasha knows about the apocalypse thx to their friend kei, who's a divination witch; divination witchcraft is a lot less precise than having an actual gift of prophecy, which is how chan is consistently able to stay one step ahead of them

there are also shifters, which are were-creatures whose transformations get exponentially faster each time they transform until they are essentially entirely monster since there's no humanity left

i am still working on fleshing out the group that uses magic for Evil, bc i like things complicated and i want more nuance than good vs. evil lol

[joestarsecrettecnique]

I am so very sick and tired of the toxicity that’s been poisoning the snk fandom as of the last couple years. I gave myself time to digest the ending and my feelings on it, before embarking in a journey to debunk many misconceptions and critiques I’ve seen floating in the fandom.

By the way, by no means I think this ending is perfect. I think this is textbook execution by Isayama to tie together every loose end left behind in an orderly manner, and I think that it was a bit rushed and oversimplified. I would’ve wanted more of Eren and Armin’s conversation, more of the squad realizing what his true goal had been, and some narrative choices I don’t 100% agree with. But still, what I saw in other fans’ critiques post 139 frankly appalled me, so I feel the need to make this. Also, this obviously are my own interpretations, I am not Isayama himself lol

“Ew, so Eren did pull a Lelouch after all”

No, Eren did not pull a Lelouch. While his action and the final result may seem similar, I find very different nuances between the two. Lelouch wanted for the whole world to be united in fighting against him, and thus he made himself the world’s greatest enemy. His will to turn himself into a monster was selfless. Eren didn’t give a damn about the world, he had no noble intentions whatsoever. He said it in chapter 122, his goal was to protect Paradis and, more specifically, his closest friends. He turned himself into a monster, killed 80% of human population, and endangered the lives of those very friends he wanted to protect, so that by stopping him, those friends could be safe. Eren had no intentions to break out of the cycle of hatred or unite the world against himself, he just wanted to give his friends a chance to survive, and that is not selfless, it’s selfish. Eren’s goal was incredibly selfish, and biased, and driven by his feelings instead of rationality. Nothing like Lelouch!

Now this, this I myself am not the greatest fan of. I feel like it makes that great scene in chapter 122 loose a bit of its strength, Ymir obeying the king for 2000 years just because she loved him. Honestly, I always thought there was a bit of Stockholm Syndrome going on, but I didn’t think it would be the only reason. However, like it or not, it’s undeniable that it makes perfect sense in the narrative that aot has always strived to tell. Love has been a theme strongly woven in the story, and it also draws a great parallel between Karl Fritz/Ymir and Eren/Mikasa. Ymir was a slave to her love for King Fritz, just like Mikasa was a slave to her love for Eren, in that she struggled to accept reality until the very end despite the atrocities that Eren committed. Ymir stayed bound by her love for King Fritz, until she saw Mikasa break from her own poisoned love, aknwoledge it, and kill Eren despite of it, or maybe because of it. Only Ymir knows that one, heh. But the point is, Mikasa showed Ymir that she could break free of a toxic love, she was that someone that Ymir had been waiting for to finally free her of her burden.

“What? But that makes no sense!”

Now, on my first read, I simply thought that Eren had ordered Dina to avoid eating Berthold, and that he had made her walk down that road unaware that his mother was trapped (because we know that the Attack Titan’s future memories aren’t infallible, there are still gaps), killing her indirectly. I’ve since then read some theories stating that Eren willingly killed his own mum in orther to give kid himself a reason to feel enough hatred to kickstart the whole story. Honestly, I like this version maybe more! But let me explain to you why this is not a plothole, like many people think. In this same chapter, we have Eren explaining how the Founder’s power works in synergy with the Attack’s: “There’s no past or future, they all exist at once”. This means that time travel in aot doesn’t work in a manner where Eren extracts himself from time and space, and from a separate realm he operates on the past. The way I understood it, the mechanics works kind of like Tokyo Revengers’ time travel. MInd you, I only watched episode one, so my understanding might be jackshit.

Spoilers for Tokyo Revengers’ episode one. In the show, the main character loses consciousness and finds himself reliving his past. He interacts with someone in this “new” past, and when he wakes up again in the present, past events had been over-written by the changes he made. I think this is how aot timetravel works, with the exception that, since past and future (and present, of course) all happen at once, side by side, there is no old past to be rewritten, neither a future to return to, and present Eren wouldn’t be aware of the changes that his future self would make. It creates sort of a time paradox, yes, in the sense that there’s a loop where present Eren’s mom has been eaten because future Eren, in the future, operated on the past by causing past Eren’s mom to be eaten, but all these Erens are one and the same, as all timelines exist at once.

“Boo-hoo they ruined Eren’s character, he’s such a wimp!”

I have to confess (isn’t this appalling, that this is a thing that I have to confess, what the actual fuck), I am an Eren stan. I absolutely do not consider myself a Jaegerist, I think Eren’s option was better than Zeke’s, yes, but it was morally wrong and awful and he absolutely was not only in the wrong, but also if he wasn’t dead I’d want him to be punished for his crimes. I didn’t particularly enjoy him pre-timeskip, and I started to like him because I found his evolution fascinating. I wanted to understand his motives, what was going on in his head, he was a puzzle that I wanted to solve. Maybe because I’m a psychologist, who knows. Anyways, if you’re an Eren stan only because he acted like a chad and now you cry his character was ruined, I’m sorry to say, you never understood him. Eren was not a god, he was not a strategist playing 5d chess with perfect rationality, Eren was the same he has always been. He was a young man spun along by his passions. Eren feels things with burning intensity, he lets himself be driven by his emotions. He almost flattened the world because he was disappointed that he and his friends weren’t the only human beings inhabiting it, for fuck’s sake, he’s always been irrational, selfish, and immature. Of course he doesn’t wanna die, of course he want’s to live with all of them. You really expected a 15 year old hot-headed brat to become Thanos after he suddenly found out he killed his own mum and all his dreams had been crushed? Of course he felt conflicted, of course he suffered, of course he wanted to live, “because he was born in this world”. Honestly, when I read his meltdown, I felt relieved that his character hadn’t been turned on its head, it was heartbreaking to see that he really was the same brat he’d always been, that he’d tried to steel himself to do horrible shit for his friends’ sake and that he felt bad about it! It made me appreciate his character a lot more, I felt nostalgic towards the times when I was irritated by his screaming and pouting. Suffice to say, this is also my answer to all those people that believe his internal monologue to convince himself the Rumbling was what he really wanted were bullshit since he “pulled a Lelouch”. How can it be bullshit? Maybe he planned to be stopped, but he also said that he thought he would’ve still done it if they hadn’t. He also said that killing a majority of the population was something that he wanted to do, not a byproduct of the alliance not stopping him early enough, because with the world’s militaries in shambles Paradis would’ve had time to prepare accordingly. Anyways, of course he needed to convince himself to do this awful thing even if he knew he wasn’t gonna succeed completely, can you imagine how horrible it would be to know your only chance is to kill thousands?

I also maybe think it was because of the spine centipede thingy? When Eren says “I don’t know why I did it, I wanted to, I had to”, he gets this faraway look on his face and we get a zoom in on one of his eyes, which is drawn very interestingly and kinda looks like the Reiss’ eyes when they were bound by the War Renounce Pact? So maybe it was also the centipede’s drive to survive and multiplicate that forced Eren to do the Rumbling so that its life wouldn’t be endangered. I don’t know how much I like this, I feel like it takes some agency away from Eren and also makes it feel like he’s not as responsible for the genocide he committed that we initially though, which mhhh maybe not, let’s have him take full responsibility for this. As I said, I’m not defending Isayama blindly, I do have some issues myself with what went down.

“What the fuck, did he say thank you for the genocide?”

Guys c’mon, this is like,, reading comprehension. Yes, it was poorly worded and a bit rushed, but by now you should have full context to make an educated guess on the fact that no, he didn’t thank him for committing a genocide what the fuck you guys. Armin started bringing up the idea that maybe they should have Eren eaten because he was doing morally questionable things ever since the Marley Arc, which for manga readers was like what, 2018? Isayama has been showing for three years how not okay Armin was with Eren’s actions, how could it make sense for him to thank him for a genocide? You see some poorly worded stuff, and your first instinct is to ignore eleven years’ worth of consistent characterization to jump to the worst interpretation possible? Let’s go over this sentences and reconstruct what they mean.

“Eren, thank you. You became a mass murdere for our sake. I won’t let this error go to waste”. Armin recognizes that Eren had no other choice, but does not condone it. He clearly calls it an error, which feels like an euphemism but for all we know the japanese original term used could’ve been harsher. Point is, he clearly states he think what Eren did was wrong. But he recognizes that Eren’s awful doing opened up a path for Paradis to break out of the cycle of hatred. Not a certainty, but an opportunity. He thanks Eren for giving them this chance, and promises not to waste it, even if it was born out of an atrocity. He thanks Eren for sacrificing himself for their sake, even if he doesn’t agree with the fruit of his labor, so to speak. He’s thanking Eren for the opportunity that his actions gave them, not for the actions themselves! Where the hell do you read “thank you for the genocide” guys, sheesh. I’m mad at y’all.

“How could Eren send MIkasa memories if she’s an Ackerman and an Asian, and their memories can’t be manipulated by the Founder? I call plothole!”

Now, here we’re going into speculation territory, so you’ve been warned. I don’t think that that information they gave us was true, about Ackermans being immune to memory manipulation. We know at least that the clan is in some way subject to the Founder’s power, or Mikasa and Levi wouldn’t have been called in the Paths by Eren multiple times. Stories never being entirely true or false, or relativity, better said, has been a strong theme in the story, we know this by Marley’s and Eldia’s different accounts of history compared to the actual Ymir backstory we got. So who’s to say that the belief that Ackermans aren’t manipulable is the truth? Maybe they’re just hard to control, not impossible. We know that by the Founder’s ability Eren experienced past and future happening simultaneously, so he could’ve very well been trying to send those memories into Mikasa’s head ever since the beginning of the story, only just succeeding in chapter 138. It would at least explain Ackerman’s headaches as Eren trying to manipulate their memories and failing. Of course, we’d need Levi side of thing to know for certain, as he had headaches too and we weren’t shown in the chapter if Eren spoke to him in paths like he did with the rest of the squad. We know he didn’t talk to Pieck, but he even went and spoke to Annie who he basically hadn’t seen since Stohess, so I hope he spoke to Levi too. Who knows, maybe he even spoke with Hanji, but she died before she could remember. I wish we were shown that, honestly, I’m sad that it was skipped, especially after Levi said in an earlier chapter that “there was so much he wanted to tell Eren”. Fingers crossed for the anime to expand on it.

“So Historia’s pregnancy was useless”

What? No, it wasn’t useless! Eren told her to get pregnant to save her life, so that she wouldn’t be turned into the Beast Titan. If she became the Beast Titan, then Eren would’ve had to enact the plan with her instead of Zeke, and yeah, Ymir brought the power of the titans with her, so theoretically Titan Shifter Historia would’ve had her time limit removed, but we saw that the only way for the Alliance to stop the Rumbling was killing Zeke, so Historia would’ve had to die. Useless to say, when Eren talked to her about his plan, she was very vocally against it, so I don’t think she would’ve helped Eren with his plan. It was Zeke or nothing, and the only way for Zeke to keep his titan was for Historia to be unable to be turned, hence the pregnancy. Did y’all read the same thing I read? Anyways, she could’ve definitely been handled better, but she wasn’t necessary to the plot anymore, and her being removed from it in such a way was sad, yes, but it made sense.

“They massacred Reiner!”

Yeah, can’t really say anything about this. I definitely understand the sentiment behind this scene, which I appreciate. It’s to show that thanks to his Titan being removed and the times of peace approaching, Reiner was finally able to shed the weight he bore on his shoulders and “regress” to his more carefree persona he had when he thought he was a soldier, instead of a warrior. I am very happy for him, and I think it’s a nice conclusion to his arc, that he’s finally happy, but it could’ve been portrayed in a less comic relief-y way. It just sledgehammers all his characterization. Feels surreal that we saw him attempt suicide a couple month ago in the anime and now he’s sniffing Historia’s handwriting.

Guys, this absolutely sends me. There are people who unironically believe Eren actually reincarnated in a bird? Guys. It makes no sense, it violates every rule that Isayama established for his universe’s power system. How could he even reincarnate in a bird? Guys, c’mon, this is symbolical! Birds have been heavily used in aot to portray freedom, and this is a nice, poetic, symbolic way to show that Eren who lived his whole life chasing freedom and never actually got it, is finally free, like a bird, now that he’s dead. It’s also a pretty explicit nod to Odin, I think. Aot is heavily inspired by Norse Mithology, and I think there were some pretty clear parallels between Eren and Odin/Loki in the later arcs of the story. Eren has been shown to “communicate” through birds like with Falco in chapter 81, or with Armin in chapter 131. Emphasis on “communicate” because again, this is symbolic, I don’t think he actually spoke through the birds, he simply talked to them via paths, but birds are associated with Eren’s character (see also the wings of freedom, y’know?) and the shots were framed so to give the impression that he was talking through the birds, but he wasn’t. Symbolism. Anyway, I really think they were supposed to be a nod to Odin’s crows.

Aaaaand that should be it! Even though I most definitely forgot some other criticism on the chapter, it’s crazy the amount of negativity floating around. Hope I didn’t bore you!

[liquidstar]

I'd love to hear some of your recommendations! And I'm good without any content warnings, but since you're posting this for all your followers to see probably best to add them

Alright sure! I’ll be general then and since you’re just starting out this will sort of be bringing up a lot of really popular ones, the really good ones where the general consensus is “you gotta see this!”, but I’ll also try to give ones from different genres so you have a variety of things to pick from, so this isn’t really a list of personal favorites but I’ll throw in a couple of those too lol, but generally think of this as a handy beginners guide with just a little personal bias.

I wrote a lot so I'm gonna put them under the cut here.

Fullmetal Alchemist

Fullmetal Alchemist is a franchise that’s considered a must-watch, it takes place in a world where alchemy is a borderline magical power, but is considered scientific in-universe and follows scientific laws, namely the law of equivalent exchange. Something can’t be made from nothing, to gain something of equal value must be lost. The story follows the story of two brothers, Edward and Alphonse Elric, who at the ages of 10 and 11 committed alchemy’s one and only unforgivable sin, human transmutation, in an attempt to bring their mother back to life. As a result, one brother lost his arm and leg and the other lost his entire body, leaving his soul bound to a suit of armor. However the brothers are resolute to regain their original bodies, and the older brother, Edward, joins the State Alchemists, a branch of the military, to try to gain access to research materials to help them achieve their goal. But was that really such a good idea?

Fullmetal Alchemist can be a bit confusing to get into due to the fact that there are two series: Fullmetal Alchemist (2003) and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (2009). The latter is a reboot with a different story that follows the original manga. They both have the same beginning, but diverge paths and tell very different stories. My recommendation for how to watch this show is: Watch 2003 first, and Brotherhood second. Everyone has a different opinion about which is better, but everyone agrees that 2003 has better backstory but a contrived ending, and Brotherhood has a rushed beginning (Because it works off the assumption that you’ve seen 2003) with a great and fulfilling ending. If you can’t do both I say just watch Brotherhood because it will leave you more satisfied and you don’t have to watch 03 to get into it.

For both series the biggest trigger warnings are: Parental death, child death, pet death, war, genocide, dismemberment, religious themes, and miscarriage. For brotherhood specifically: on-screen suicide, and for 2003 specifically: rape (not on-screen) and pregnancy from it. The 2003 series is also a lot darker than Brotherhood which has a more optimistic tone, so that’s worth noting too.

Soul Eater

A show I think is incredibly fun, and a good one for an October watch if you wanna save it. It takes place in a world where certain people have the ability to transform into weapons, and they team up with other people who become their meisters. The characters often travel around, but the main setting is Death City, a fictional city in Nevada based off of Las Vegas but with a huge Halloweentown vibe, and a school right at the top of it called the Death Weapon Meister Academy (DWMA) where a bunch of kids that turn into weapons learn how to hunt down witches and kishins (Beings that consume human souls). The school, of course, is run by the grim reaper, Lord Death himself.

Our main characters for the series are a group of 7 students. Our protagonist Maka Albarn and her weapon partner Soul “Eater” Evans, a scythe. A loud mouth assassin named Black✰Star and his weapon partner Tsubaki, who has many weapon forms. And the son of the grim reaper, Death The Kid, and his two weapon partners Liz and Patty Thompson, who are twin pistols. There are also a bunch of really lively colorful background characters and antagonists, and the cast of the show being as insane as it is really makes it, on top of the great atmosphere and of course the plot, which just builds more and more as the series progresses. Also Crona is there and we all love Crona.

Trigger warnings for this show include: Child abuse (Mental and physical), manipulation, snakes and spiders (The motifs of two major villains), some very surreal moments that can verge on unreality. Also, in the dub and most subs: misgendering of a canonically trans character. Crona is a character who is non-binary, but the dub and subs use gendered pronouns for them due to general ignorance about neutral pronouns in 2008, though this isn’t the fault of the original series and falls on the translators hands.

Also it’s important to note: that the first 3 episodes are prologues and they take themselves less seriously, there’s more fanservice in them than there is in the rest of the series (Except for Blair she stays the fanservice character :pensive:)

Zombieland Saga

Idol anime is really prevalent as a genre, the most popular being Love Live, but my personal favorite is Zombieland Saga. It’s an idol anime, but it’s also a comedy about zombie girls who become idols. It sounds ridiculous but there’s an insane amount of heart in it regardless, it wasn’t a show I expected to get emotional at but I did! It also made me laugh a lot too. The series itself can serve as a bit of a subversion on what idols are, not just because they’re literally zombies, but because of who the characters are.

Sakura Minamoto is a character who starts off as a more typical idol, a peppy pure girl, as the series continues her struggle with depression gets highlighted. Saki Nikaido serves as her initial foil, a delinquent girl with a criminal record who subvers the idea of pure perfect idols. Ai Mizuno, a former idol who has since undergone severe trauma (The way she died). Junko Konno who has ideals that seem very different on what idols “should” be due to the time period she died. Lily Hoshikawa, an explicitly transgender idol. Yugiri nolastname, a former high ranking courtesan, subvering the pure image of an idol by being a sex worker. And Tae Yamada, a completely nonverbal idol who’s still treated with the same amount of importance as the rest of the team. The premise here really is just that these girls don’t fit the incredibly rigid mold of what idols should be and yet they still all deserve love and they gain a fanbase by being their earnest selves.

Trigger warnings for this series aren’t incredibly severe but since they’re zombies there’s still talks about death and they way they died (Including motorcycle/car accidents, plane crashes, getting struck by lightning, and a heart attack), there’s also comedic dismemberment, as in their arms just sort of pop on and off and stuff like that. The most notable thing is the deadnaming of Lily, the trans idol, by her father, but it doesn’t appear to be malicious in any way.

Note: this series is in the middle of it’s second season right now, if you want to wait until it’s over it should be 12 episodes long and just aired it’s 3rd, so about 9 more weeks.

Death Note

This is also absolutely another series that gets recommended to people right off the bat, and for good reason, this show is an intricate game of chess between a serial killer and a detective trying to catch him, and it’s incredibly easy to get super invested in the suspense of what happens next. The story begins when a shinigami, a god of death, drops his “Death Note” into the human world out of pure boredom. A Death Note is simply a notebook where if you write someone's name in it… They die! And who better to pick up such a powerful object than Light Yagami, a prodigy praised for his genius and academy accomplishments as well as his charm and popularity, and with a very strong but juvenile black-and-white sense of justice, likely due to being raised by a cop.

So naturally Light begins his power trip as soon as he finds the notebook, he intends to “fix” the world by cleansing it of all the bad people, but truly he intends to become the world’s new god. Or the “God of the new world” as he puts it. But there’s one thing standing in his way, a detective resolute on catching him with the codename L. The series entire crux is a game of cat and mouse between these two, as they try to outsmart each other and the murders continue, Light loses more and more of his humanity, L becomes more resolute on catching him. There are more twists and turns than a cheetah race, and it’s honestly pretty addictive to see what happens next.

Trigger warnings here obviously include a lot of death and murder, including suicide, but in some cases it’s a forced suicide at Light’s hands. Also abuse, as Light loses his humanity he isn’t above manipulating and discarding people who love him. And one instance of near-rape on screen fairly early on, but the purpitrator dies before it happens and the victim escapes.

K-On!

Slice-of-life is an incredibly popular genre, and K-On! is the quintessential example of it. It’s a series that not everyone will like, because not a lot truly happens, and it can be overly saccharine or “moe” for a lot of people, and that’s fine. But I personally think that despite not a lot happening, the story has genuine substance, more than you may gather at first glance. It’s true that not much in the way of big plot really happens, it’s mostly life events, that’s why it's a slice-of-life. But it’s not about nothing. The real theme of the show is the fleeting nature of youth. It’s about how important the friendships you form at that time are, how they’ll stick with you for a lifetime, and how everything comes to an end. It’s sweetness even becomes a little bittersweet because you knew their after school tea time would end come graduation, and as they realize this it breaks their hearts a little, but they continue on, because they’re still After School Tea Time!

The series itself is simply about 5 girls in a band, Yui Hirasawa on lead guitar, Mio Akiyama on the bass, Ritsu Tainaka on the Drums, Tsumugi Kotobuki on the Keyboard, and Azusa Nakano on Rhythm Guitar (Who shows up later). They’re in a club at school called the light music club where they waste a lot of their time just drinking tea and eating cake, but they’re having fun and that’s what counts! The series has a lot of really great direction and expressive animation despite the fact that a lot of it is just sitting around and talking, it’s incredibly visually interesting so you don’t get bored.

I honestly don’t think there are any big trigger warnings I can give for this series, maybe that Sawa-chan can be a little too forceful when she wants to dress up the girls in cute outfits sometimes but it’s usually not presented as too creepy especially after season 1 where they tone it down due to straying from the manga.

Mob Psycho 100

This series is an absolute love letter to the art of animation as a whole, the artstyle itself may not seem like much to look at but the animation is some of the most expressive, fluid, creative, and vibrant out there right now, it’s the type of series that you can tell was made with a real passion for its medium and it’s story. It’s protagonist is Shigeo Kageyama, nicknamed “Mob”, a term that literally means “Background character”. Mob is a middle school kid and an incredibly powerful psychic, like, insanely overpowered, but he’s currently working part time for a shady conman, Reigen Arataka. Though it may seem as if Reigen is just using Mob for his powers, their bond is actually a very sweet one and you can tell they care for each other, it’s a very important one at the heart of the series.

The core themes of the series itself are what really make it shine, it’s message is stated as clearly as possible in the opening songs, “your life is your own” and “if everyone is not special, maybe you can be what you want to be”. Put simply, you’re the protagonist of your own life, but the other important message of the series is that all the supposed background characters are just as important. The friends you make, the connections you have with other people and the way they impact you, they’re what make you strong. No one is born special, everyone is just a normal person, and everyone deserves kindness. It’s a series that I recommend incredibly strongly for just how powerfully it portrays this message.

Trigger warnings for this series include kidnapping, possession, a scene with a “man in a dress” joke, and a racist design for a background character. Also (spoilers) a scene where it seems like a child was murdered and a scene where it seems like Mob’s entire family was murdered.

Kaguya-Sama: Love Is War!

Hey, speaking of amazing animation, Kaguya-Sama is a romantic comedy series centered around the premise of two incredibly arrogant people falling in love. Kaguya Shinomiya and Miyuki Shirogane are the vice president and president of the student council at the prestigious Shuchi'in Academy, they eventually develop feelings for each other but they’re both simultaneously too proud and too insecure to admit it, so the real crux of the series is the 3D chess they play with each other to try and get the other to confess first. Along with the scatterbrained secretary, Chika Fujiawara, the treasurer in desperate need of Prozac Yu Ishigami, the cast is incredibly fun and they all fit into the comedy great. Every single little game of “do you like me?” that they play is written like the most intense thing in the world, the insane animation absolutely adds to it, making it seem almost like a psychological thriller, the comedy comes from the absurdity of just how much they hyperbolize it.

It’s not pure comedy though, due to a lot of the series being set up around mindgames, the characters are actually fairly psychologically complex with a lot of genuine development stemming from their childhood to explain why they are the way they are. The series may be about mindgames, but the actual narrative frames them as a juvenile way to go about relationships, a way to try to protect yourself from getting hurt because you’re afraid to trust. The entire core theme is that communication in relationships of any kind is the most important thing and you cant replace it with clever little tricks, so the main pair only ever make actual progress when they’re actually upfront with each other. Even if it’s scary to be that vulnerable with someone, especially if you’ve been hurt in the past like they have, the relationships you build off of mutual trust and openness will be worth the risk, and they can help heal you. And one of the things I love about the series is that this doesn’t just apply to the main pair, but it places equal emphasis on the importance of friendship. All the characters' relationships with each other are unique and interesting and they all develop the same way, with trust and openness, and they become better because of each other.

Despite being generally a comedy, a lot of the characters deal with some really heavy things too so trigger warning for: child abuse (not on-screen), child abandonment (again not on screen), anxiety and panic attacks, suicidal ideation- initionally played off as a joke but it becomes very obvious the character in question is legitimately suicidal and in the manga he nearly attempts it but is stopped, this plotpoint will most likely be in the anime at some point as it’s also not complete.

Your Lie In April

Alright I gave you a funny show now I’m going to make you cry. In fact it’s hard for me to type this synopsis because I’m an absolute crybaby and thinking about this show gets me, but I think it’s absolutely worth checking out because it���s a very beautiful sadness. Your Lie In April is a series that follows the stress and trauma young musical prodigies face in their lives, as well as the people around them, and it’s a series about the beauty of music and art, and just how much it affects people. The music in the show is absolutely gorgeous, the way that they convey emotion through it is so beautiful and intricate that it just sticks with you. You feel the music, and you understand.

I’m actually going to give the trigger warnings right now instead of at the end because in order to explain the plot I’ll have to talk about them so tw for: Child abuse (phsyical and mental, on-screen), terminal illness, death, in depth depictions of PTSD, vomiting, panic attacks, the works.

The series follows Kousei Arima, a formal piano prodigy who hasn’t performed since the death of his mother two years ago. Kousei's mother was terminally ill, but she was also incredibly abusive. Kousei has incredibly complex feelings about his mother because of this. The trauma she instilled in him is severe, but because he was a child, he still is a child, and he loved his mom a lot, as any child would, and he didn’t want her to die and he blames himself for not being good enough. He wanted to make her happy, and the only way he knew how to do that was to play the piano. So he played and played and practiced until he was perfect, they called him the human metronome. But he would still get severely punished for being anything less than perfect. He had lost all the passion he once had, and after his mother died it was the final nail in the coffin, his trauma manifests now in a way that makes him unable to play. But all that changes one day in April when he meets a violinist named Kaori Miyazono, a girl full of life and passion for music, she’s someone who according to Kousei “Exists in springtime.” and she’s going to help him play again and refined that love for music whether he wants to or not! Teen drama happens of course, but there are much bigger roadblocks ahead.

Assassination Classroom

This series is thankfully generally more lighthearted… Most of the time at least. The premise is pretty simple, but incredibly ridiculous. An incredibly powerful octopus-like creature is the teacher of a classroom of middle school students tasked with the assignment of assassinating him in order to save the world. The series starts off very slice-of-life as it focuses on introducing the very large cast of characters inside of Class E, also known as the “end class”, but it quickly gains traction and gets a lot more intense as time goes on.

The octopus creature in question, Korosensei, is actually a very kind and genuinely good teacher to all his students. The real crux of the series is that it’s sort of a critique on the educational system, the students in the end class are there because they’ve been ostracized from the rest of the campus, far away in the mountains, to be made examples of. Why? Because they’re students that are considered worthless, instead of getting help they’re only pushed back further down in the system and left to struggle within it fruitlessly. They’re given up on, despite being children with so much potential, because they don’t fit a very rigid mold. That’s what Korosensei wants to help them with, and they’re able to grow as people together. As the series progresses you feel such a great sense of unity for the class, they’re like a family, they stick together and it’s very heartwarming. And watching them work as a team of assassins is so fun!

However the series can get heavy at times too, it doesn’t stray from heavier subject matter at all and i found myself incredibly shocked by it a few times, so trigger warning for: Child abuse (on-screen and off), both at the hands of a parent and a teacher and in one case a parent who is also the principal, misgendering of a character, sometimes as a “joke” but other times played dead serious at the hands of his mother, child death- specifically suicide, a successful one as well as 3 assassination attempts that doubled as suicide attempts by the main 3 characters (weird parallel they all got there huh)

Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Honestly this is a series that is good to go in blind for if you need to tws, it’s a deconstruction of the magical girl genre, but if you don’t want to know more than that you can stop reading here. If you want to know more, it’s a series that starts off very light-hearted and in tune with typical magical girl conventions at first, however by episode 3 it’s made painfully clear that these girls are being led to sign up into something they shouldn’t. It’s heavy, though not incredibly so, but it’s also a lot to explain in a summary. Madoka magica is… It’s Faust with magical girls.

I’ll explain as much as I can without giving too much away. The story begins when Madoka Kaname and her friend Sayaka Miki encounter a creature who calls itself Kyubey, who says it can grant a wish of theirs and in exchange they have to become magical girls and fight witches. Both the girls are hesitant, but Sayaka wants to wish for her childhood friend’s injuries to be cured so he can play violin again, while Madoka is content as she is and can’t think of a wish. Luckily they have a mentor, a magical girl named Mami Tomoe who helps introduce them to everything. However something is stopping Madoka from becoming a magical girl, a mysterious new student who is also one herself, Homura Akemi, is resolute on keeping Madoka from becoming a magical girl by all means possible, for reasons Madoka doesn’t understand. Things get even more complicated when a rival magical girl shows up, Kyoko Sakura, who becomes Sayaka’s new rival. As things get more heated between those two they discover a terrible secret about the nature of magical girls, and what they truly signed up for.

Spoilers ahead but trigger warning for: Child death, parental death (backstory only), decapitation (off-screen), needles, incredibly surreal imagery inside the witch’s labyrinths that may feel unreal, mind control, suicide, depression and despair expressed by young characters. Also don't bother with Magia Record

The Disastrous Life Of Saiki K.

Alright something lighthearted now, there are a lot of comedy anime I enjoy, a lot of series that have made me laugh, but none has made me bust a gut like this series has, it’s absolutely hilarious. It follows the life of a boy named Saiki Kusuo who has psychic powers. His powers are incredibly overpowered, and he absolutely hates them, in his eyes they cause him nothing but trouble. There’s not much in the way of a plot to describe, because there isn’t any, the series is comprised of 5 minute segments surrounding Saiki and an incredibly vast and colorful cast of characters that are just all completely insane, many serve as parodies as types of anime tropes because the series as a whole is very self aware and doesn’t shy from breaking the fourth wall a lot, but the characters surrounding Saiki are what make his life… Disastrous.

Like I said there’s not really a plot to describe but like FMA people may get confused with this one, there are 3 seasons but one of them is titled “The Disastrous Life Of Saiki K: Reawakened” as is a continuation of the first two with just 6 episodes in it. Also for some reason only the second season isn’t dubbed so if you’re planning on watching it that way you’d have to either stop or switch to subs for season 2

The only major tw I can give here is an ongoing joke about a character being into his sister, he’s treated as disgusting for it of course because he’s a parody of that trope but that doesn’t make it any less uncomfortable, luckily he doesn’t show up much.

Little Witch Academia

Little Witch Academia is a series I personally just adore, it takes place in a world where witches are common and well-known among the people, but the era of witches is over and magic is dying out. However that doesn’t mean passion of magic doesn’t exist, the protagonist is a young girl named Atsuko Kagari, or Akko for short. She’s resolute on being just like her icon, a witch known as Shiny Chariot, as she attends the same magic school: Luna Nova! Unfortunately Akko isn’t exactly a magical prodigy, in fact she can’t even fly a broom, but that’s not gonna stop her, nothing will. Just like Chariot said, believing in yourself is your magic.

Once at school Akko gets into all types of crazy shenanigans with her with her two roommates, Lotte Yanson and Sucy Manbavaran, and occasionally her rival, Diana Cavendish. Akko still struggles a lot in school, in fact her inability with magic is pretty explicitly handled as a metaphor for a learning disability, and though this makes it harder for her she’s still resolute. Though the series is generally episodic, a concrete plot starts to form by the second core. Along with the help of her guidance counselor, Professor Ursula, Akko learns that she needs to unlock 7 “words” to bring magic back to the world, each time she learns a new one it comes with an important lesson to her and ultimately relates back to each of the core themes of the series

The series is pretty lighthearted so the biggest trigger warning I can give is one for bullying, two characters in particular tend to target Akko for not being a good witch and it can really sting to watch. Other than that none come to mind

[lesserpandeu]

Software Instability | prologue

fandom: NCT

genre: Sci-Fi/Detroit: Become Human AU!, android AU!, probably lots of angst + fluff in later chapters

pairing: Mark x Reader (probably some Donghyuck x Reader if you squint super hard, especially in later chapters)

words: 3,262

warnings: gun violence, death, cursing;

summary: The amount of deviant cases your department has been receiving is concerning to say the least. After pressuring the android manufacturing company, CyberLife, they send an android to assist your department in finding out what is causing the deviancy in so many androids lately. His name is Mark, and as soft as he seems on the outside, you can’t help but be utterly terrified by him. 

A/N: This story is based on the world of the video game “Detroit: Become Human”. Just replacing Connor (one of the main characters) with Mark and putting y/n in it. You don’t need to know anything about D:BH to read the story, as I explain everything the reader needs to know as the story progresses! While it doesn’t follow the plot word for word all the time, sometimes I need to look up the cutscenes and repeat them to help progress the plot (like the negotiation scene in this prologue). Warning: It might take me awhile to update, but it also it might not, lol. I’m awful about staying on top of fics. Enjoy!

prologue: “My name is Mark”

One more fucking deviant case and you’d lose your goddamn mind.

It was only a matter of time until the deviant jumped off the balcony with the little girl in his arms, sending them both to their dooms. It was a little more imperative for the girl, considering she was actually alive. The android was expendable, but given the fact that it was holding her hostage outside on the balcony, that was going to prove difficult.

Every SWAT officer that’s gone out to stop it was met with bullets aiming with perfect accuracy and an inability to get closer, risking the girl’s safety.

“One more team, just send one more, we’ll get him this time-” your colleague was suggesting as the both of you stood in the office of a once peaceful family home, before the android turned on them and killed them all, except for the little girl he was currently holding near the edge of the pent suite’s balcony.

“It didn’t work the first two times, it won’t work a third, Taeil. We wait for the negotiator to arrive to diffuse the situation-” Donghyuck, your other colleague cut Taeil off before he committed the same offense.

“What’s a fucking negotiator going to do?! That deviant was beyond the point of reason the minute it went nuts!”

“Both of you, shut up,” you groaned, holding your fingers to your temple. You were currently sitting in the office chair, trying to sooth yourself from one of the most stressful moments in your career, no doubt. “No one likes the situation right now, cause frankly, there’s currently a 5% chance that this kid is making it out without falling to her fucking death. If we go against orders and things turn as sour as we’re expecting it to, we’re in for a lot of shit from the head of department that ordered this new approach. We wait, and we obey orders.”

“Oh, nice, so we’re just going to sit and watch as a blue headed android just hops off the roof murdering another innocent human, further dispelling the faith the people have in their safety around androids, only further increasing the rate of android deviancy and cases we’re already overwhelmed with, yeah, you’re so right.”

Taeil had a reason to be stressed out about this. Androids had been implemented into society now for about 30 years. Nearly everyone had one, if they could afford it. They were perfect companions, workers, and entertainers. They came in anyway you could want them: tall, short, dark, light, young, and old. You could program them however you wanted. They could be funny (honestly, you never thought comedic androids were actually funny), kind, obedient, or even sarcastic.

It wasn’t until three months ago that a crime involving an android popped up in your department. An android turned on it’s human, stabbing her fifty times in the chest. It was so shocking at the time, which made it worse when just three more cases appeared in the next two weeks. Now you're on your seventh case, though there have been many more handled by other factions of the PD. One thing all of these cases clearly had in common: deviancy.

The only thing every single android was required to have in common was obedience. It was never allowed to go against its owner’s will. Technology isn’t supposed to disobey. Bad things happen when that occurs. And boy, were they happening. Like the bad thing happening right now.

“Could you- Would- Piss off,” you end up yelling, earning a flinch from the SWAT officer that walked by the open door. They were standing by as the final resort. 

“I just want this shit to be over, thank you very much,” Taeil defensively crossed his arms and leaned against the only wall not hidden by dressers with the family’s pictures. It was suffocating to sit in a home just so freshly destroyed.

“Well, it looks like it will be, cause guess who’s here?” Donghyuck mumbled.

You looked up from your shoes to see what he was talking about.

An android dressed in a stereotypical investigative uniform strode up to the door frame, stance practically perfect. No one needed the glowing serial number on the pocket of his jacket, the blue band wrapped around his arm, or the LED ring on the side of his temple to know that he was an android. He had black hair with bangs parting out, and high cheekbones. He looked young, he seemed to have been designed with a baby face in mind. If he were just a human, he’d probably be a teenager or a college student.

He smiled. It looked so realistic. Androids look just like people these days.

“Oh my god,” Donghyuck responded. The android looked puzzled, blinking a few times as his smile dissipated.

“I didn’t say anyth-”

“They sent a fucking android to talk us out of an hostage situation cause by an android?” Donghyuck exasperated.

“Okay, enough, we need to get that girl out,” Taeil said. “What are you doing?”

“Hello. My name is Mark. I’m the android sent by Cyberlife,” he introduces himself. His voice has an odd chirp to it, like he was programmed to come off as friendly as possible.

“I hate him already-”

“Donghyuck, stop it, we don’t have time.”

“You’re damn right we don’t,” Taeil had enough and walked out the room, squeezing by Mark standing in the doorway. “This way.”

Mark followed him, allowing you and Donghyuck to do the same. You walked into the living room where the sliding doors that led to the balcony were located. The bodies of the last SWAT team lay on the ground by the pool, one fallen inside of it. No one in the room was fazed by it.

“The situation,” Tail started. “The Acharya family is home, their daughter is coming home from school. At 5:24 pm, the father is murdered by the android on the couch with a handgun. The mother follows after coming out of her room to see what is going on. The daughter returns home at 5:40 pm.”

As Taeil explains, Mark begins looking around the apartment. Any other time an officer would ask what the hell he was doing, but since Taeil was talking and didn’t seem to care, you figured it was fine. He went into the kitchen, as it was combined with the living room in a big space. He notices the stove top, which obviously causes you to be aware of it. Water is boiling, who knows for how long at this point. He turns it off, setting it on one of the inactive burners. You raise an eyebrow but nearly instantly forget about it. 

“Then, she calls the police but is then taken hostage by the android. They are currently outside, on the edge of the roof ready to fall off any minute now. He has held her at knife point the whole time, making the sniper unable to shoot. Your job is to get him away from her, preferably without killing her.” A brief, but not long at all, silence looms before Mark says something.

“Do we know the android’s name?”

“...uh”

“What kind of question-” Donghyuck laughs, cutting himself off as if in frustration.

Mark doesn’t miss a beat, “I’m going to need more information to ensure the best approach. There is currently only a forty-eight percent chance of this mission being a success.”

“Yeah, and the longer we wait, the more quickly it becomes 0-”

“Five minutes,” you state. Sure, maybe Taeil should have the final say since he is your senior in both age and experience, but you don’t care right now. Taeil sends you a glare, momentarily staying silent before letting out one of the most stressed out sighs you’ve ever heard him breath.

“Five minutes, or I’m going out there myself.”

 Mark seems to briefly look at you and Taeil as to acknowledge your permission before further inspecting his surroundings. Taeil walks off, going to talk to a SWAT officer. Donghyuck is still outwardly paranoid, leaving the room as he tries to cool down.

You? You watch Mark. Someone’s got to make sure this beta testing droid doesn’t do stupid shit. Okay, maybe less so that and you were just curious.

He walks over to the body of the father (still on the ground, you tried to ignore it the best you could), and takes the holographic tablet out of his hands. He unlocks it somehow, looking through it. Soon he puts it down and goes off somewhere. You follow him, he doesn’t seem to pay you any attention, though.

He, interestingly enough, goes into the girl’s bedroom, indicated by the giant teddy bear residing in it. He looks around, noticing a few things. Frankly, you have no clue what he was doing. But it was too much of a bother to prod him for answers. 

He picks up a different tablet this time, unlocking it. Audio playback begins, drawing your attention. You then notice that it’s actually a video playing. You can see it from around Mark’s torso, given the angle created by standing in the doorway of the bedroom. What on earth was he doing?

“This is Jaemin!” the girl’s voice declares. The video shows her face, that then pans out to show her arm around an android. The blue-haired one you were dealing with at this very moment. But his hair was brown in the photo. Not strange, given most androids had automatic hair color changing options. “The coolest android in the world! Say hi, Jaemin!”

“Hello,” he smiles widely, waving at the camera. They both look so happy. While the video quality is significantly good, the slight distortion of the medium causes ‘Jaemin’ to look practically human, if it weren’t for the commercial android uniform. It was illegal for an android not to wear a uniform identifying that they were digital animals.

Mark puts down the tablet, ending the video playback and continuing his short investigation. He proceeded to the next room, doing just about the same thing there that he did in the last one. He kept this up until Taeil finally yelled out that the five minutes were up.

You followed Mark until you were just in front of the sliding doors, where Mark was about to walk through to diffuse the situation.

“He’s heading out now,” Taeil spoke into his receiver. With that, he opened the door. A burst of wind came through when the door opened, likely from the helicopters that had been circling around now for over an hour.

“This is going to go terribly,” Donghyuck spoke calmly, finally.

“Have a little faith, will you?” You shoved him with your shoulder, arms crossed.

“Just because you think he’s cute doesn’t mean you should have any faith, (y/n).” You hit him on the side of the head. “Oww.”

“I don’t think he’s-”

“The two of you need to shut up, we can’t hear what’s going on.”

The minute Mark stepped out, a gunshot rang. Donghyuck instinctively grabbed you and pulled you down, pulling the both of you away from the door.

“STAY BACK!” you heard the android yell out. You recovered your wits quickly, trying to look at Mark. A new blue blood stain is on the floor right outside the door, coming from Mark. You naturally looked to see if Mark is okay, even if it logically wouldn’t make sense for him to be in pain. He is looking down at the fresh wound on his chest, without any hint of pain in his face. It gave you chills. Androids didn’t feel pain, and as long as they could function with all their parts working, they could take anything.

“Holy shit,” you heard Donghyuck whisper.

“MOVE ANY CLOSER AND I’LL JUMP!” Jaemin yelled, holding the girl with his other arm. She screamed, begging for her life. It’s horrifying to see.

“Get into position, go, go, go!” Taeil speaks hurriedly into his receiver, likely speaking to the sniper squad. The SWAT team that stands by lines up behind the door, ready to burst out at any moment. The situation is at its highest level of intensity that it’s been tonight. 

This is it.

“Hi, Jaemin!” Mark yelled over the noise. So he proves he knows the android’s name, you think. So what? “My name is Mark!”

“How do you know my name?!” Jaemin questioned, the gun still pointed towards Mark, and frankly the rest of you as well.

“I know a lot of things about you,” Mark continued yelling over the helicopters outside. “I’ve come to get you out of this!”

A second later, a helicopter swung around too close to the balcony, producing an even higher gust of wind and blowing the lawn furniture off the ground. It doesn’t hit anyone, but it definitely irritated a certain deviant.

“I know you’re angry, Jaemin,” Mark spoke again. Yeah, why the fuck was he so pissed? You thought to yourself. 

“But you need to trust me, and let me help yo-”

“I DON’T WANT YOUR HELP! NOBODY CAN HELP ME, ALL I WANT IS FOR ALL THIS TO STOP I-... I JUST WANT ALL THIS TO STOP!” He pauses a moment before becoming aggressive again.

“Are you armed?!” he asked.

“I have a gun,” Mark responded. He slowly reached behind him, pulling a handgun out before tossing it aside. You’re deadly silent until Donghyuck impatiently interrupted your focus.

“Is he fucking crazy?”

“He’s doing great, now shut the fuck up,” Taeil whispered angrily in his and your direction.

“There,” Mark said gently, despite keeping his voice loud and clear. “No more gun.” Another short silence settled before he kept slowly approaching the deviant, or Jaemin as you guess his name was.

“They were going to replace you,” he continued talking. “That’s what happened, right?”

“... I thought I was part of the family,” the deviant pathetically confessed. “I thought I mattered… But I was just their toy! Something to throw away, when you’re done with.”

“I know you and Kiara were very close,” Mark sympathised. Or at least he appeared to. Kiara? That must be the girl’s name, you reasoned. Did he find that out when he was looking through stuff? “You think she betrayed you, but she’s done nothing wrong-”

“SHE LIED TO ME!” the deviant cried. Mark stopped, doing something unexpectedly. He looked away from the hostage and the deviant, to one of the officers on the ground. He leaned down, observing before speaking out again.

“He’s losing blood. We need to get him to a hospital or he’s going to die,” he said. The action was very weird, in your opinion. But maybe it’s part of his tactic. You guessed that’s what Donghyuck also thought because he wasn’t saying anything.

“All humans die eventually,” the deviant said coldly. It nearly gives you a shiver. “What does it matter if this one dies now?”

Mark seems to ignore him, starting to turn the officer on his back and do something. Another shot rang, nearly hitting Mark and the officer.

“Don’t touch him!” the deviant yelled. “Touch him and I’ll kill you!”

“You can’t kill me,” Mark stated. “I’m not alive.” He continues whatever he’s doing, seeming to forget about the mission for a moment.

“Whatthefuckwhatthefuckwhatthefuck-” Donghyuck starts whispering. You covered his mouth with your hand, trying to shut him up. How the hell did they let such a hot-headed person get on the force?

Mark finishes what he’s doing, which you guess was to try to stop the bleeding. He stood up, a tie now gone from his uniform. He continues to approach slowly.

“It’s not your fault. These emotions you are feeling are just errors in your software.”

“No… It’s not my fault. I never wanted this. I-” Jaemin goes limp for a moment, hand with the gun falling to his side. “I love them. You know?... But I was nothing to them,” he picks up his gun again. “Just a slave to be ordered around. AUGHH-” he suddenly bursts. “I CAN’T STAND THAT NOISE ANYMORE!” The helicopters. Obviously. They’ve been around for hours. “Tell them to get out of here!”

Taeil spoke something into his receiver in order to do so, but you are hardly listening anymore. Mark is so close. Soon the helicopters left and the negotiation continued.

“There,” Mark assured. “I did what you wanted.” Mark is practically standing in front of him at this point. Jaemin seems hesitant and does not know what to do.

“I-” he stuttered. “I want everyone to leave! A-And I want a car. When I’m outside the city I’ll let her go.”

“That’s impossible, Jaemin. Let the girl go, and I promise you you won’t be hurt.”

“... I don’t want to die…” Jaemin began to cry, his voice becoming softer.

“You’re not going to die,” Mark assured. “We’re just going to talk. Nothing will happen to you.” Mark stops before uttering his next phrase with utter seriousness. “You have my word.”

Everyone held their breath. The silence is long and infuriating. You felt Donghyuck radiate heat from your side. You can only imagine you weren’t far from doing the same thing.

“... okay,” Jaemin was still crying. “I trust you.” He slowly let the girl down, still holding his gun but not pointing it at anyone. She shook, running only a few feet away from the edge before collapsing onto the ground. There was another moment where Mark and Jaemin looked at eachother. Unfortunately, everyone on your side, including Mark, knew what was about to happen.

A louder shot rang out from one of the snipers, and Kiara screamed. A large gaping hole appeared in Jaemin’s side, the force of the shot causing him to stumble around. Not a second later, another shot went off, right into his chest this time. It’s followed by a third. Jaemin wavers, falling to his knees. With three different shimmering blue gashes across his body, he struggles before looking back up into Mark’s eyes.

“You lied to me, Mark.” He tries to say it once more, before his voice fails and he shuts down.

You don’t move and neither does Donghyuck. You can’t believe what just happened. That had to be the most intense moment of your career and you hadn’t even started. Donghyuck was probably on the same boat. Taeil was the first one to move, coming onto the balcony and walking past Mark. Mark just turned away and walked back into the flat. 

You see his face, completely and utterly stoic. Even Taeil looked back, though his face doesn’t show it you know he’s as stunned as the rest of you that just saw everything that took place. And how this android that just appeared so empathetic, compassionate, and kind enough to save an officer’s life just walked away like it was another task completed. It reminded all of you that this wasn’t a human. It was just an android.

If you couldn’t be more awe-stricken and terrified, Mark’s eyes flicker to yours so fast you hardly know if it was just your imagination. But that is all he does as he leaves just as casually as he entered.

“Jesus Christ,” Donghyuck can’t bring himself to get up, now resorting to sitting on the floor. “I really don’t like him now.”

For once, you would have to throw the towel in. Mark was utterly terrifying.

[millennialdemon]

VK was badly written. The purebloods, esp. Kaname were way too overpowered, and it felt like besides Zero (who is extra special) every other hunter was useless. So many plot holes too, why are there so many level Es running around when there are only like a few purebloods? Are they each turning 100 humans per day? The manga is even worse b/c the author tries to whitewash Kaname's crimes by turning him into a martyr. IMO, some of his actions are even worse than the actual antagonists'. (part 1)

Kaname's actions are worse than Shizuka's, considering she had actual reason to take revenge on Zero's parents since they killed her lover (not saying what she did was right, but at least she didn't do it on a whim). Kaname on the other hand was the one who intentionally released her to go after the Kiryuus, just for the sake of turning Zero into the "ultimate hunter". And to make it worse, he knowingly lets Zero take the blame after he kills Shizuka and takes her power LOL  And among his other actions, Kaname goes around killing random purebloods who didn't even do anything to him. If he truly cared about humans and vampire society, he should have done more to protect the humans, but the whole anime and manga, his entire character just revolved around Yuki, a teenage girl. Its scary to think how someone with so much power is able to abuse it so freely w/o consequences. No wonder even Asato, an aristocrat, wanted to get rid of the purebloods, SMH. (End)

You're Right, and you Should say it!!

To be honest, there is so much badness -- BAD writing, bad framing, bad tone, bad intentions -- in Vampire Knight that I can hardly parse it all and have to watch 2 minutes and stop just to process the new, awful information. Hence it taking 400 years for me to watch just seven episodes, and with barely any commentary...

It's genuinely frustrating to watch a story that presents such atrocities and characters, that then goes on to sympathize with and romanticize the characters that commit those atrocities. It's un-be-lievable! that Zero exists as he does in this narrative, and the framing ISN'T entirely sided with him. Even aside from constant questioning of the logic of the universe and characters, emotionally, I find Vampire Knight to be completely bankrupt. It renders characters I was neutral about into characters that are unforgivable -- Yuki in particular, allowing and forgiving the horrific things vampires did and still do to Zero, as if that is her prerogative?! -- and what criticisms I have of the logistics of such a contrived narrative are drowned out by the constant question of what the point of the suffering even is, when Cross just goes chibi x3 and insists Zero just get over his ~vampire reverse-racism~ a few minutes after he tries to kill himself because of trauma caused by vampires. 

The mundane cruelty of it all. I'm not against tragedies, but Vampire Knight doesn't treat itself as the tragedy that it is. If it did, Kaname would be a bonafide antagonist, and so would Cross. Because they are complicit in tremendous human suffering, if it serves their needs, even if they think they are noble (they are not, ha!). And so would Yuki, if she followed the current trajectory of loving Kaname regardless of the things he does and says to the people she supposedly also cares about. But that's not the case in Vampire Knight -- instead Kaname is an ~enigmatic bishie~ and Cross is righteous in his decision to take in a boy whose family was killed by vampires as a sick experiment in seeing if even someone who went through what Zero did can "see the light" and Live Peacefully With Vampires, and Yuki pointlessly angsts about Kaname maybe being kind of not great, but then deciding no, I'm wrong, Kaname is amazing and I love him anyway!

LIKE... SAY SIKE RIGHT NOW..

Additional commentary from my dear friend Nessa who knows a lot more about Vampire Knight than I do, because she’s big and strong and somehow watched the whole thing: 

they're right and what upsets me most about kaname is the don draper affect - how he can go around doing these objectively terrible things and still be defended by the author and fanbase when, if he were less attractive, they'd all turn on him. if he looked like asato ichijou when he confessed to orchestrating the kiryuu parent's murder or when he went on a pureblood killing spree than people would hate him. and everything kaname canonically is responsible for is ignored/downplayed by the author and fandom because of literally informed character traits.

yuki's got the worst case of protagonist centered morality I've ever seen and the audience follows her cues, so it doesn't matter that kaname is as bad as sara, shizuka, rido because he's got a 'tragic backstory'. which isn't even that tragic when you consider that the real kaname kuran died as an infant because of rido and that the fake kaname is an ancestor of the kuran family who lived a full life and loved another woman before he met yuki

the story tries to compare his story with zero's because they both lost their 'parents' but it's not even applicable because those weren't his parents. kaname is at least ten thousand at the end of the last arc before he throws his heart in the furnace and people still act like he's a minor. he was always an adult living in a child's body and he developed the same fixation that rido had for juuri for yuki. he's no better than him tbh, I don't know about the new reawakened kaname yet but holding the regular kaname accountable? he went on a killing spree to 'cleanse the world' for yuki and he planned the murder of her best friend's parents. he kept her in his house and didn't let her see yori or the chairman and only let her out when it was time to make a political appearance. the best thing he ever did for her was throw his heart into the furnace.

[hypexion]

Death in Heaven is the big finale of Series Eight, which is why it puts the main plotline on hold for half the episode for no good reason. Then it finally gets round to bludgeoning you with the series’ “theme“, and then ends.

When we left the Doctor, he was aghast at finding out that the Master was back, as Missy. Also Clara was about to Get Got by Cybermen. In true Doctor Who style, the first cliffhanger is completely disolved by having UNIT show up and abduct everyone. Then they make the Doctor be the President of Earth, which is actually a really stupid and extraneous plot detail. You could excise the entire plane ride and the only change would be that Osgood doesn’t die. Hooray for padding! Also would all nations agree to put a space alien in charge during an alien invasion? Our survey says no.

While the Doctor is jetting around and being ineffectual, Clara decides to pretend to be the Doctor to not die. She pretends so hard that the title sequence changes! I don’t know why, given that the audience knows that Clara Oswald does exist, and is an actual real person with a true real backstory. It was a whole thing last series. This act also goes nowhere, as Clara fails to achieve anything beyond “staying alive“, and is then abducted by Cyber-Danny. Dark Water had a lot of talking, but at least was advancing the plot. Death in Heaven, on the other hand, spends a lot of time not getting to the point. So much so that it’s longer than a normal episode.

Once again, it falls to the Mistress to actually achieve things. And by “achieve things“ I mean “trim down the cast”. Although contrary to her claims of being “bananas“, Missy’s plan and reasons for killing people are actually quite concrete. Osgood doesn’t die because Missy felt like a spot of murder - Osgood dies because Missy is jealous. It’s the same reason Kate Steward gets dropped out of a plane and why Missy wants to kill Clara. Anyone who gets between Missy and the Doctor dies, because the Mistress has a questionable idea of what friendship is. In fact, her whole plan is to give the Doctor an army as a gift, and threaten to kill everyone to make sure he accepts.

Really, Missy is doing a lot of work trying to tie together the disparate themes of Series Eight into something coherent. She wants the Doctor to choose a friend, uses an army as a tool in that choice, and has a Big Mistress Speech about how only “good men” need armies. It’s a neat trap, since there are plently of times when the Doctor absolutely would have accepted. However it turns out that the Twelfth Doctor’s constant angsting about whether constantly saving lives or not makes you a good man is useful for something, and he refuses. So Missy kills everyone.

No, wait, that doesn’t happen. Danny is still here. Rather than confronting the horrific state of technological undeath he’s been forced into, Death in Heaven instead uses Danny as fix-it button. This isn’t really a Cybermen episode, it turns out, they’re just here to give a recongnisable face to Missy’s army. Apparently, inhibiting Danny’s emotions doesn’t cause him to become part of the Cybercollective, implying he has an equally hardcore devotion to something as Yvonne Hartman did to Torchwood, which we all know he doesn’t. He rattles off some big speech about the promise of a soldier, then self-destructs. The world is saved because Danny did a child killing. Yaaaaay.

If Danny’s backstory had actually been relevant to the theme, this might have worked. But no, he’s still complaining that the Doctor... wants to save the world? How terrible that the Doctor refuses to removal the essential essence of humanity from Danny, even when it would help to save the world. The Doctor gives Clara and Danny exactly what they asked for, and Danny has the audacity to complain that the Doctor do it himself. The Doctor, who was willing to destroy his own people with his own hands to stop the Time War, knowing full well the consequences of such an action. Meanwhile Danny has apparently decided to shift the blame for his negilence onto the command structure of the army. Our “hero“, everyone.

But it doesn’t stop there! Once the Cyber-army is Cyber-defeated, Clara decides it’s Missy’s time to die. The Doctor, not wanting Clara to do a murder, commits to killing his oldest friend and enemy in order to save one person’s soul. Will he do it? Can he do it? Lol it doesn’t matter the Cyber-Brigadier blasts her. Because it wouldn’t be Doctor Who without the moral cop-out, now would it? The Doctor salutes him for taking the difficult decision out of his hands, and then the Cyber-Brig flies away, never to be seen again. Such writing, truly unparalleled.

Death in Heaven ends with everyone being miserible. The Doctor tells Clara he found Gallifrey, but he didn’t. Clara tells the Doctor that Danny escaped from the Nethersphere, but instead a child came out. Thus, the tragedy of errors occurs, and Clara leaves Doctor Who dejected and defeated. So Father Christmas himself intereupts the end credits to say that it isn’t actully over, and that it can’t end this way.

Honestly, Death in Heaven is about ten minutes of a good episode buried in filler, misery and the end of Danny Pink. But is it a good ending? Does it wrap up the themes of Series Eight? Not particularly. Sure, the Doctor realises he’s an old guy in his Blue Box, but that’s not news to the audience. Lots of pointless things happened, and it’s just not that statisfying.

[pastel-rights]

IDV AU Masterlist

I think Masterlist is the correct term?

Anyways, all the IDV AU’s I got at the moment-

Normal IdV AU: So this is my normal IdV AU! Obviously. Ehehe. This one is similar to the game, where they play these dangerous games with the goal of a grand prize. It differs in the character backstories however! Some of these new changes are:

Lucky Guy: In the original game, we don’t know his reasons for playing in such a dangerous game, only that he played in it. He’s known for being the stand in for the detective during the tutorials (as Leo is for the hunter) and the guy doesn’t have much personality. In my AU, Luckster gets an invitation to the manor after an incident that resulted in him losing his memory (and basically his identity lol) which he is offered help with figuring out who he was before everything happened if he played their games. Spoilers, Luckster has no choice but to go.

Aesop Carl: In the original game, it’s noted Aesop’s “mentor” was a serial killer, and Aesop himself had assisted in these murders. He found the manor invite off the person of a woman he had embalmed. In my AU, Aesop still basically helped commit murder, but instead of finding the invite kind of randomly, he meets the Manor’s owner in person, where the owner employs Aesop to embalm the corpses of former participants of their game. Aesop acts more like staff than a participant, but he is still allowed to play in the games. The hunters just aren’t allowed to kill him/let him bleed out. Rocket chair is fine though. (Melissa hates that Aesop has special privileges, she wants to kill him so badly sometimes, this man is so sassy and so snarky and she hates it)

Luca Balsa: I dive into his story a lot more in the Death AU actually! But basically, Luca is blamed for the death of the inventor, goes to prison, gets bailed out and receives manor invite and is tempted solely by the money. In my AU, Luca never got to work of his own choice, and didn’t get to work on his own inventions. He was a prisoner to his work, quite literally. His mentor ran a lot of different experiments on Luca, one of which caused Luca to be able to conduct and control electric currents, instead of the incident being the cause of it. Also this man is like, super touch-starved because his mentor never let him out of the estate. Luca was treated more like an object than a human. The invitation to the manor, to Luca, was an acknowledgement that Luca indeed was a person, and it allowed Luca to do the things Luca wanted to do. 

Also, the more games they play (and win) the more money they get, and depending on their score depends on how much money they get.

IdV Death AU (Normal): If you’ve ever looked at any of my IdV content, you should know about this AU. This is basically the “Timmy murders a bunch of IdV characters she loves starting with Nort and making her way down the list” AU because it’s an AU that follows certain ghosts (Like Norton and Luca) and certain humans (Naib and Edgar) and to get certain characters as ghosts, I have to kill them. Sorry Norton 🤷🏻‍♀️

Here is a more detailed post for this AU. It’s also called the fantasy AU sometimes cause I’m dumb and can’t keep consistent naming.

IdV Racer AU: This is an AU based off the COA IV trailer, as well as incorporating the COA III suits! It takes place before the final race, a couple races before it actually. The moments from before the final race, is told as a flashback by Mike, and after the final race with the COA III team would be “reality”. As for the 5 suits in the essence (Molten Hound/Gamekeeper, Pumping Tires/Acrobat, Fueling Agent/Barmaid, Highway Cavalier/Prospector, and Reflective Mirror/Priestess) and the COA III suits (Netherwalker/Smiley Face, Puppeteer/Mechanic, Whiplash/Cowboy, Trickster/Embalmer, Surveyor/Seer and Vile Blossom/Female Dancer.) Here are the breakdown of the individual suits and their roles.

Molten Hound/Gamekeeper: Bane serves as a challenge for Norton, Demi and Fiona, and has chains on the 3 of them. Out of the three of them, Norton has the most chains on him. Their lives belong to him. And over the years, they’re trying their hardest to break the chains Bane has on them. It’s only after Mike, not bound by Bane’s chains, gets involved that they get their freedom from Bane. Bane notes that there will be more challengers after him, and becomes a spectator to their journey after defeated. He even trains them to be better.

Pumping Tires/Acrobat: Unlike the others, Mike is unbound by Bane‘s chains, meaning he’s free to do whatever he’s like. Growing up in the circus, after a terrible incident that leaves only two survivors, Mike grew up wild, jumping from hyperfixation to hyperfixiation, not caring how well a job paid or not. He always got himself into trouble, and often acted without thinking (such as crashing his car into Bane’s, and drowning in the river because of his actions) which causes a bit of trouble and panic for the others. Before COA, he was known as a very famous acrobat named Mr. Swifts and was well known for his disappearing juggling acts and incredible flexibility. He joined the COA IV team towards the beginning of their final races against Bane, and he was able to bridge the gap because of his chain free status, which helped earn Norton, Demi and Fiona their freedoms, even if it meant giving up his own life. He gets along well with everyone, he isn’t really disturbed by their “strange” habits as other racers are, he finds them very interesting. If anything, he considers himself stranger. He doesn’t give his own life much consideration, he’s too busy trying to save other people’s lives. He would gladly lay down his life to make sure other people could live theirs without fear, and that shows up till his last appearance in the COA IV race, in which the aftermath has him meeting the COA III group. Don’t worry, he reunited with his newly freed friends... after almost a year. The two COA teams see different sides of him. With the COA III team, he gets an outfit similar to the one Vile Blossom wears instead of his COA IV racer outfit or his Mr. Swifts outfit.

Fueling Agent/Barmaid: Demi grew up with the other two COA III racers (Norton and Fiona) and is one of the racers Bane has chains on. She doesn’t really have her own free will, and has (unwilling) done some terrible things, such as sabatoging the engines of other cars. It was her who introduced Mike to the gang initially as one of Bane’s plans to torment the trio, seeing as Mike was pretty well known in the community in general for being a sole Acrobat (He was known as Mr. Swifts at the time) and having something bad happen to a celebrity like him could spell bad news for the crew. Little did Bane know, Mike isn’t the typical celebrity. Far from it. Demi became really interested in Mike after first meeting him, and Bane twisted Demi’s feelings of admiration and crushing into almost an obsession that prevented her from properly functioning (aka daydreaming while driving, dangerous stuff like that) while makes Mike a bit uneasy, but he seems to get over it rather quickly. Like, really quickly. Demi often is the one tending to Norton and Fiona’s wounds, as she doesn’t seem to get hurt as badly. She gets really emotional at times, going from one emotional extreme to another one. She can be unsettlingly happy one moment to extremely angry the next for no reason.

Highway Cavalier/Prospector: Norton has had the most experiences with Bane’s control. He’s also one of the few people Bane has used to make an example out of (the scar of his face) to instill fear into the others. He’s suffered through a lot trying to win his freedom and his friend’s freedom, but no matter what he does, he can’t break Bane’s chains. Not alone at least. When Mike is introduced to the trio by Demi, Norton can almost hear Bane’s thoughts. He knows Bane wants to hurt Mike to get the trio to do something or to get the public to act a certain way towards them, he just knows Bane’s intentions aren’t good. So he distances himself, he tries to drive Mike away so that Bane can’t use them to hurt him, but his harsh exterior is pretty quickly and easily broken by Mike. He goes from tolerating Mike to starting to enjoying Mike’s presence, although he’s very hesitant letting Mike race with them (cause of Bane and all), he generally is very open to hanging out with Mike. Norton gets hurt a lot, before forces himself to keep going, because in his mind, no matter what he goes through, it’ll be worth it when he earns his freedom. Bane likes to hold this over his head, and more times than not, Norton’s in critical condition and depressed by the end of it.

Reflective Mirror/Priestess: Fiona is very cold and closed-off. She used to be this upbeat, outgoing friendly figure, but Bane’s broken her to the point she feels everyone is out to get her. She often feels like everyone is using her, and only through confirmation from Norton and Demi is she able to get over this type of mentality. She’s also very unsure about Mike, but for different reasons than Norton. She feels like Mike is hiding something, she has this image of Mike that isn’t what the other two have. She doesn’t really mind Mike but she doesn’t trust him. It isn’t till Mike saves her after Bane crashes her car initially that Fiona realizes Mike isn’t all bad. Fiona still stays a bit cold towards Mike, but Mike doesn’t really care. Although, the Mike Fiona sees is more of a hidden personality, and the Mike Demi and Norton sees is more of Mike’s surface personailty. Being a priestess has granted her many abilities, after all.

Netherwalker/Smiley Face: Similar to Bane, he serves as a challenge. He’s a bit worse than Bane if I’m honest, he exceeds in mental torture instead of physical torture. He often messes with people’s thoughts, as well as the way the see the world. He acts like a hallucination almost. He can reveal himself to whoever he decides, and uses it to drive the COA III team insane almost. He often overlooks everyone, and takes pride in his abilities. A certain acrobat’s actions catches his eyes though... needless to say, he is not prepared to deal with Mike. No one ever is. He’s able to strike up deals, and is very convincing. Knowing Mike was the one who broke the Molten Hound’s chains interests him, he wants to see how far he can push Mike before Mike shatters. He makes a deal, to bring him back to life to discover the truth, but awakens a much darker side of Mike in the process, corrupting the Acrobat as a result.

Puppeteer/Mechanic: Being a very curious soul, Tracy struggled to understand the predicament she found herself in. Tormented by the Netherwalker, she is driven crazy by everything she doesn’t know. On top of that, when a certain Acrobat arrives (assumed dead at first), this just adds to her frustration. Yet she’s curious, intrigued by what happened to him.

“He looks like a racer, no?”

“Did you hear about that big incident on the racetrack? One of the racers swerved off the race track and straight into the ocean. They never found a body, you think this may be him?”

“I heard he wasn’t even a racer, but a jack of all traits. He did whatever he wanted, most famous for being an acrobat.”

“How curious... I wonder if he survived his trip.”

She’s obsessed with finding out what happened to Mike, as well as the COA IV team, and it’s this burning desire to uncover the truth that brings the two COA teams together. So ya... Mike’s recklessness and Tracy’s curiosity is what brought the two teams together.

Whiplash/Cowboy: The poor guy has no idea what’s going on. He goes out for an hour and comes back to a washed up body, and Tracy making a new journal dedicated to finding out the truth. He’s very serious, very protective over the whole group. He’s rather levelheaded, yet once you get to know him, he shows his softer side. He isn’t that phased by the Netherwalker’s attempts to break him, but he’s always concerned for his companions. He’s also pretty knowledgeable, he keeps up with the news a lot.

Trickster/Embalmer: Aesop is very gentle in the way he goes about things. He is careful with what he says, and often hides things from the others. He’s very cryptic, and often twists things to sound worse/better than they are. Puppeteer hates it when he does this, because it shows he knows the truth of the incident and he’s purposely withholding it from her. More times than not, he gets in trouble for it. But after Mike’s arrival, it almost seems like the play field has flipped. He’s no longer the one in control. He’s just as clueless as the rest of the COA III team. And that is what drives him mad. No Netherwalker involved. Yet.

Surveyor/Seer: Eli chooses to see the world from a bird’s eye view. He comes at every issue objectively, and often will lean in whatever direction is better to his advantage. It’s Brooke Rose who finds Mike a couple minutes after he washes up on shore. At this point, Eli can tell Mike is no longer among the living, yet he can feel something special about him, so he (painstakingly) drags Mike to the others. Like Aesop, Eli knows things that the others don’t because of the way he can choose to view the world, but he doesn’t tend to hide it. He only says what he thinks is important. He is very thrown off by the whole situation. In the end, Eli’s the one who takes up The Netherwalker’s offer to bring Mike back with the intention of learning why Mike was brought to them. In Eli’s mind, there has to be a reason, right? There always was. He eventually gets everyone else on board too.

Vile Blossom/Female Dancer: Margaretha knew Mike before everything happened, and to Margaretha, it all seems to happen at once. From losing her only job to becoming her favorite poetry’s champion, she didn’t have time to wonder. She knows she left Mike all alone, she takes full responsibility for what happened to him. Of what he became. Margaretha was like a motherly figure to Mike, she let him down. She would do anything to make it right. She knows that when the Netherwalker offers to revive her deceased companion, that he isn’t doing it with kind intentions, yet she wants to know his story, she wants to know what happened, for different reasons than everyone else. She oversees Mike while he’s in the care of the COA III team.

IdV Cameras AU: In this AU, Joseph is the most powerful, as implied by the cameras in the name. It basically explores the pasts of the characters in the Death/Fantasy AU, as well as exploring different character paths entirely if he tweaked small things (like having Xie Bi’an come back before Fan drowns, or having Luca bailed out before he gets hanged.) to use those versions of those characters. He can create custom versions of whatever character he so pleases, and then use them to his advantage. It can be a precursor to the Death AU, but in this AU in particular, he explore these alternative paths to see where they led, finding out some things (like the inventor’s death, as well as Fan’s death) are inevitable.

[sometimesrosy]

When we start writing novel or TV show, we start with our characters, how they start and how they end. That what make our story moves forword. In the 100, Bellamy complete his arc at the end of season5, what are he doing now? Helping clarke and Octavia to complete there's?!?!? I didn't understand Bellamy story s6

This is a good question. I have been thinking about this. Partly because I’ve been watching that hero’s journey for a while, waiting for Clarke and Bellamy to compete theirs. And it keeps, kinda, not being finished. 

Except now Bellamy finished his hero’s journey and Clarke... well... Clarke has been a struggle to understand because it seems like she almost gets there and then there’s more. That’s when one of my followers asked if I thought Clarke was, instead, on a HEROINE’S journey. And tbh, even though my college was super feminist, I never encountered the heroine’s journey while I was studying English. I think because it was right around the time the heroine’s journey was introduced and I just didn’t catch up to it. So while I’ve been working with the hero’s journey for 30 years, I haven’t with heroine’s journey. Which takes the hero’s journey and then continues it with a rejection then reconciliation with the masculine, in a form that allows the heroine to be female and powerful in her own way. So yeah. You asked about Bellamy, but i’m getting there. 

Bellamy finished his hero’s journey in s5. Clarke is still wrapping up her heroine’s journey in s7. So what the heckers is Bellamy’s journey NOW???

No. It’s not to help Octavia and Clarke finish theirs. He’s still the secondary protagonist and his path is his own. He and Clarke have paths that twine around each other’s like binary stars, but they’re both equal, even now when he’s finished his hero’s journey. And Octavia’s path is HER OWN, and she’s been facing it on her own, too. He wasn’t even there for most of it in s6, so that can’t be his purpose. And you MIGHT say it was to save Clarke, but... he’s not the secondary player in that. It is, all along, about his choices, his goals, his obstacles, not hers. Their stories are separate, even as they have the same goal, even as Bellamy is dragging the girl in Clarke’s body through the woods.

BELLAMY has a story arc in season 6 leading into s7, since s6 and s7 are the SAME story, with no restart for the new season. The final book of The 100 is essentially being told with one story, unlike the five seasons/chapters of the first book.

So what? Clarke’s story is a continuation of the heroine’s journey, but Bellamy’s hero’s journey is OVER. Where can we find guidance for what Bellamy’s story IS in season 6 and 7???

Go back to season 5. After he saves the day by stopping Octavia through his healing and responsibility and love, he saves the day by accepting the enemy prisoners onto the ship, and setting the new world onto a better path where it is no longer blood for blood nor are people expendable. What happens after that? He makes up with Clarke, he welcomes her back in the fold, Monty finds them a new world and then proceeds to give them tasks. Two (no three) tasks. Take care of Jordan, (wait no that was Harper’s task, let me go back to two,) BE the good guys, and LIVE a happy life like he did with Harper and Jordan.

HERE is where I started to get my inklings. Because it is clear that the task of s6 was “Be The Good Guys.” But if we watch the season, that isn’t Bellamy’s goal. He’s ready to take claim of the abandoned Sanctum for his people, to push Octavia out until she straightens up, to hold Echo accountable for not being open enough, to take vengeance on Sanctum for killing Clarke, to burn down Sanctum to get Clarke back, to abandon his people to danger to save Clarke, to sacrifice Sanctumites for his people. Nope. He’s really not in it to be the good guy this season. Clarke is. Bellamy is not.

This is where it starts to get interesting for Bellarke fans.

What do all his goals have in common? Love. Family. Intimacy. Need. Romance.

OH MY GOD. Bellamy’s goal for s6 and s7 is a straight up Heart goal. While Clarke needs to be the good guy, a Head goal, BELLAMY needs to have his family together, safe, and he needs to be able to LOVE. 

What... what kind of stories have LOVE as the goal?

Yes it could be a family story... except he left his family, he was willing to sacrifice his family for Clarke. When he first found out she was murdered, when he found out she was alive, at the edge of sanctum when they were caught, a hundred times when Josephine was trying to bribe him with safety or threaten him with death for all, when he didn’t want to let Clarke go back in undercover. He was, in the narrative, in the dialogue, and in his choices putting CLARKE above everyone else, because he needs her. He ALSO brought up his current relationship and how that wasn’t enough for him, in direct comparison to Clarke enjoying herself with another man (who looks like him) and her previous scene of intimacy and openness, which he does not feel like he gets from Echo. 

Right? So not only is he choosing Clarke over his family for partnership, ethical, loyalty and vengeance reasons, but ALSO for emotional, romantic, intimate, and EVEN physical reasons. He manhandled her all over Alpha, and saved her life with his need, his hands on her body and his lips on hers. No, those weren’t sexual in nature, but the emotion was there, the need. It was desperate AND passionate (just the wrong kind of passion.)

While Bellamy’s season begins with him trying to find a place for his family (now including Clarke) to live in love, he is also trying to figure out what that love means to him and what he wants from it. Leading to his teasing with Clarke, his anger with Echo, his hard and fast boundaries with Octavia, his intimate forgiveness convo with Clarke, the jealousy watching Clarke, the anger that Echo couldn’t be more like Clarke, even the intention to commit to Echo and not long for the past with Clarke (incidentally, that’s pretty much a confirmation that he was in love with Clarke pre time-jump. In order to reject the past he needed to have that romantic goal in the past.)

Bellamy’s goal. Is to find love. To live in love. To be happy like Harper and Monty. Bellamy’s goal is to find his happy ever after. His true love. Y’all.

Bellamy’s story arc for s6 and s7 is A ROMANTIC NARRATIVE. S6A had him trying to choose between Clarke and Echo, almost choosing Echo (or choosing her in name) then learning Clarke was dead and flat out losing it. Not wanting ANY intimacy from Echo around his grief, being alone. His head may have chosen Echo, but his heart chose Clarke. And his heart chose Clarke when she was dead and gone and he could no longer pretend he didn’t love her.  All is lost in his search for love.

Except she wasn’t dead. All of a sudden, his narrative goals focuses down to ONE purpose. Save Clarke. Forget making nice with the Lightbournes. Forget his relationship with Echo. Forget what was going on on the ship or with Abby or Jordan or with Madi or Raven or Murphy. ALL was Clarke. “you care more about Clarke.” 

YUP.

Season 6B was a full on Save Clarke storyline. And not as a group. Nope. No Siree Bob Morley. The group was busy taking care of the tasks that Clarke and/or Bellamy usually do. The ethical struggles, (raven.) The tactical struggles, (echo.) The political struggles, (murphy.)

Bellamy, whose goal is now getting back to his true love, is the only one going on that mission to save her. That’s because it isn’t a political mission or a tactical mission or an ethical mission. It is not another war. It is a desperate mission to save the woman he loves. Because he needs her. Because he won’t let her die. And it turns out she won’t leave him, either.

This.

Is.

A.

Bloody.

Love.

Story.

Bellamy’s storyline for s6 and s7 IS A ROMANCE STORY.  His goal is to get back to his true love and live a happy life.

Clarke is still about heroine’s journey, saving humanity, redeeming them.

Bellamy’s is about love.

Which, not coincidentally, is what makes survival worth while. It’s why this whole adventure began in the pilot, because Abby was desperate to save her daughter and sent 100 (+2) delinquents to earth to do it. There HAS to be more to life than just impossible decisions and a tragic end. They can choose to live.

It also isn’t until AFTER he saves Clarke, admits he needs her, and gets to share himself with her that he’s able to forgive Octavia and begin joking with her again. It’s almost as if when you let yourself FEEL your real feelings, instead of burying them under duty and anger and resentment, that the good feelings come back.

Anyway.

This is what I think is Bellamy’s new journey. In order to complete his journey as The Heart of The 100, he needs to be with his soulmate, without any more boundaries between them. 

Bellamy’s storyline is a romantic storyline. Boy meets girl. Boy loses girl. Boy gets girl back. Endgame.

antis do not interact. lol

[ziracona]

I think you've said the your first plan for Frank's fate was a lot different than what happened in fic? Do you mind sharing what your original idea was?

Sure!

So, originally, when I added Legion to In Living Memory--which was by far the biggest rewrite I did to my outline--I planned out Susie’s arc and Joey’s more or less as they appear in-fic. However, almost none of what happened with Frank was planned. So, when I write, characters often do stuff I don’t understand at the time or only partially understand, or figure out the reasons behind later, which can be a little bit of a hassle but isn’t too bad. Unfortunately, they also not just incredibly infrequently will decide to do shit I had no idea they would do ahead of time, and like, I can’t stop them, because like it or not, if I did, I’d be writing them OOC, so I just kind of have to go with it. When I got to The Lost, the section with Frank was supposed to be very different. He was supposed to show up, and Jeff was going to be low-key nice to him. I think in the original outline draft, he was a little more fucked up still than he is in-fic, so in the outline, Jeff bumps into him upstairs while looking for the tape, easily incapacitates him when Frank attacks him, and is super surprised by winning the fight in like 0.8 seconds, and realizes how fucked up he is. Frank is kind of freaked out, because he’s super weak and at someone who he would expect hates him’s mercy, but Jeff just is kind of silently like “it’s okay--don’t worry” and doesn’t tell anyone else he’s there so that he won’t be in trouble, and they leave with the tape. When I actually wrote the chapter, that changed to Frank being more healed at this point, and them actually fighting him, and some of what ended up in chapter, but Jeff was mostly just expected to be like “Okay, but we’re not going to kill him. We’re going to show mercy even if he wouldn’t, and let him go.” because Jeff is, well, Jeff. And instead he was like “Hey uh can I do a thing?” and I was like “Uh yeah I guess” and he just went off and was unreasonably nice and compassionate to Frank Morrison for like 40 pages and I was like...This is going to butterfly effect update everything. Shit.

And it did. Thanks Jeff. (Sincerely though, it’s much better the way the cards fell and the way I ended up writing/developing Frank and Julie and also Jeff and Joey and Susie too).  Originally, Frank was going to be slightly conflicted (as Jeff would still have been unexpectedly merciful to him), but to a much, much lesser extent. He was never a monster--he’s kind of a shitty person, but not without redeeming qualities, and he’s still in his early 20s. [To be fair, though, in ILM, Frank gets away with a lot. Like, going back and reading Tenacity, Adrenaline, and Grit alone, he does some sincerely fucked up stuff to Meg that he is allowed by the compassion of the rest of the cast to come back from. Meg doesn’t get enough credit for how nice she is to Frank by the end of the fic. Which I mean, everyone nice to the Legion is going to be automatically juxtaposed with Jeff, who is the most compassionate and selfless man ever, but credit where it’s due, Meg is a super, super kind person. Lets Frank go in Vs. because he helped Susie and because it would make Susie sad, doesn’t try to get revenge on him even though he’s caused her lasting PTSD and some pretty big trauma for petty reasons, is willing to believe he and Julie could/have actually changed, and while at fic-end she’s still kind of at “I am sincerely glad for you that you’re not who you used to be, but also, being close to you is traumatic for me because of what you did to me in the past, so I do not want to be around you,” (which is already a both valid and incredibly generous place to be at towards him), she feels further compassion for him because at this point he really does sincerely regret and feel guilt and shame for the things he’s done and wish he could change them, and extends the possibility that maybe in the future she will heal enough that that’s not the case anymore and there might be a future where they could be okay with each other, or oven become friends. And I know that next to Jeff people don’t all be looking as amazing as they would otherwise haha, but that’s like, that’s such a kind and strong and compassionate choice to make towards someone who has hurt you. Forgiveness is such, such a valuable thing, because it just is never merited, it’s always an act of compassion, and I really love her for that. I know I’m totally derailing the actual question so I’ll get back to it now though--sorry--I just have a lot of love for Meg Thomas.]

But uh yes, back on topic. Frank was never a monster. Legion is super interesting and I love them because they’re in a class all their own, which I know I’ve said before. But like, “teens who murdered one guy once spur of the moment because one of the group was in trouble” is such a different mental/psychological/ethical/emotional place to be coming from than any of the other killers. Frank is kind of a shithead, but he does genuinely love and care for his friends, and would be willing to suffer for them. He’s definitely got Reactive Attachment Disorder too, which is part of why he has such a hard time getting to trust Jeff eventually. 

So, as aggressive and kind of shitty but not wholly without redeeming qualities, his original story would have seen him usually an aggressor (tries hard to stop Susie, hurts Meg, gets on Joey’s case for anything kind he does, kills survivors pretty brutally & threatens people to try and keep them in line, etc), but also having moments of sympathy and humanity (letting Quentin go in Distortion/Iron Maiden, conflicted about Jeff helping him, being willing to get incredibly hurt by the Entity to protect Joey, fighting Ghostface to save Susie even though their relationship is not good right now, etc), and getting kind of mixed results in his ending. He would still have saved Susie in Vs. and been helped by Meg, who would still have offered him temporary Clemency because he saved her girlfriend and she’s got some honor, and would have escaped with Julie and the rest of the survivors and allies and made it back to the world. However, instead of sticking around to help patch up Jeff etc, Frank and Julie would have booked almost immediately in 600 Seconds (I doubt he would have stopped to help the truck driver either), and ended up with an uncertain fate. In the original outline, they kind of go off Bonnie & Clyde style and live together on the run. They send Susie and Joey postcards and such sometimes, but are kind of just MIA at the end, and it is unclear/up in the air if they will escalate into violence again, or be convinced by their old friends to come meet up and maybe try living a different life. I am not sure of details beyond that, because that outline kind of burned to death with the first actual paper draft of The Lost, as at that point I was pretty sure what Jeff was choosing to do would drastically change Frank’s future and decisions. I was kind of unsure how to feel about that at first. 

I’ve never like, hated Frank, but when Darkness Among Us released, I did not like him. Didn’t hate, but like, he was kind of vaguely portrayed as an angry, violent white boy who thinks his sad backstory gives him the right to commit murder, and despite that was wildly not just like, liked, but like, stan-style liked and pretty frequently really woobified too in big chunks of the fandom right after release, while the much more canonically sympathetic Joey got super sidelined (probably for race reasons) and so did Julie. So, I certainly didn’t like, plan to give him as big even a role as he had? I wanted him to be complex because he just was, but uh, it was surreal for me that I ended up having a deep emotional attachment to Frank hecking Morrison, but like, I guess here we are lol. And I’m not sorry. It was a good way for the story to go, and improved the plot. My frustration with the initial portrayals I saw were p valid, but I just didn’t end up writing Frank that way, or seeing him that way when I got to know him, and the person he was in ILM is someone who I am happy got and chose to take a shot at redemption and a good life with people who loved him. I care about him a lot. I think after The Lost, and certainly by the first draft of The Cat I was fully on board with how I knew then that Frank’s story was going to go, and it’s a kinder, softer story than I had planned, but I’m glad it was. I’m glad the stupid rat boy got a redemption arc. It’s so fkn hard to actually choose to change if you do bad stuff in real life, and it’s pretty damn valuable if someone can face the guilt and responsibility of what they did, accept it, and try to find some way to make right. He had a stacked deck in life, and got pretty lost out there for a while, but he beat the world, in the end. Frank let himself get pretty hardened and chose to throw out a lot of humanity before he decided to stop, but he did, and he earned a little bit of hope in the end. I don’t know if his ending is fair or not, considering all the bad shit he did, but I also don’t think it has to be. I don’t remember the exact line, but Jeff’s right when he says that life has always been unfair to them, but never in ways that were good, and that unfair can be a good thing too. Life is so rarely unfair to human beings in a way that is merciful or kind, and it’s really kind of amazing the rare times it is. I’m happy things ended up how they did. : )

[Also: fun stupid fact as a last note here. When I decided to expand Frank’s role, I was like “Okay, I can definitely see the value of this character arc and story change, and I like it and am on board, but you absolutely cannot sideline Joey to give Frank room,” like--I was not going to end up like

nuh-uh, so I literally invented a rule for myself that any time Frank got new content that wasn’t in the outline, I had to give Joey new content too so he wouldn’t get bypassed/sidelined and his arc and narrative would get the value and consideration and time it deserved alongside Frank’s and not accidentally, good intentions or not, end up getting overshadowed, and I really did stick to that. Like it got kind of funny to me. But I’m also glad I did because now Frank has a cool and well developed, hard-earned redemption arc, Julie gets one too, and I get *EveN MOooREe* Joey being a wonderful character screen time. Just good for everything all around. <3 ]