#hes FINALLY giving enough backstory details i can write about his life

[throughtrialbyfire]

ohohohohohohoho i LOVE when a characters backstory finally clicks into place. wyndrelis my dear bestie i am so sorry for what im about to do to you

[pedroscurls]

training partners (pt. 10)

summary: with your trainer's help this last week, you slowly find your way back to yourself again... and you finally have the courage to tell hugh more details about your relationship with jack and it only makes him angrier. pairing: hugh jackman x fem!reader warnings: angst - mentions of toxic relationship, verbal / physical abuse (not with hugh!). implied age gap (hugh is 55, reader is in late 20s-early 30s), no use of y/n. word count: 2.4k a/n: anyway, we're getting into the reader's backstory with jack, so it's going to be a bit dark... and consider this the first argument between reader and hugh... gonna be a tough next couple of chapters, but trust me when i say there will be a happy ending at the end of all of this! as always, this is purely fictional! i mean no disrespect to hugh jackman. prev part. - next part.

You’d taken today off to drop your trainer off at the airport. This last week had gone too fast and while it was emotionally and mentally exhausting, it was just what you needed to remind yourself just how far you’d come. There’s still something lingering in the pit of your stomach, the anxiety that you’ll need to have a conversation with Hugh about everything that’s happened with you and Jack. He knows bits and pieces that you’ve shared before, but he doesn’t know the full picture. 

“You gonna be okay?” she asks. 

“I think so,” you nod. “I can’t let Jack run my life anymore.”

Your trainer pulls you into a hug, holding you tight. “You’re a good person,” she whispers. “And you never should have gone through what you did. He should have never put you through that.” 

You can feel tears stinging your eyes as you wrap your arms around her as well. She had been a godsend and so important in your journey in finding yourself again. She empowered you, motivated you, and helped you see just how worthy you are. 

When she pulls away, she smiles in your direction. “Hugh loves you,” she points out. “Allow yourself to be loved because you’re worthy of it. You’re enough.” 

You nod, wiping any fallen tears from your cheeks. “I just don’t want to disappoint him… What if he realizes that I’m not what he thought I’d be, that maybe all the pain I’m still working through isn’t worth it?”

She rolls her eyes playfully. “You don’t see the way he looks at you, do you?”  

You share your head. 

“Well, that man looks at you like you can do no wrong. Like you’re the only person that matters. Trust me, you are worth it.” 

“Part of me is also nervous… To talk to Hugh and tell him everything. He knows bits and pieces, but…”

“He’ll understand,” she replies. 

“And if he doesn’t?”

“He will.” 

You sigh and then pull her in for another hug. “Thank you for coming here, for being there for me. Again.” 

She lets out a quiet laugh and gives you a tight squeeze before she pulls away. “If Hugh wants to invite me back, let me know. I’d be happy to visit again,” she winks. 

“I’ll let him know. Get home safe.” 

“Remember how far you’ve come, okay?” she says. “And if Jack crosses any lines, it might be time to get the authorities involved.”

You nod in agreement. “I know… I just don’t want it to get to that point.” 

“Let’s hope it doesn’t.” 

—

Later that night, you’re sitting out on the balcony of the hotel room with a notebook on your lap. You had tried to write some talking points to go over when Hugh gets home. You know he’s going to be tired, but you know that if you don’t have this conversation with him, you may never will. 

You know he’s on his way back to the hotel and your heart races faster and faster. You can feel the anxiety course through your veins and even with the notes you had written down, you still don’t feel all that confident. It’s not the fact that you have to tell Hugh what happened, but it’s the fact that you’d have to relive everything that Jack had put you through. 

When you hear the hotel room door open, you stand up and turn to look over your shoulder and make eye contact with Hugh. He looks tired, but at the sight of you, his eyes light up and a broad smile lines his lips. This must be what your trainer was referring to… about the way he looks at you. It eases your nerves, calms you down and keeps you grounded because with Hugh, you have always felt safe. 

He steps out into the balcony with you and pulls you into his arms, leaning down to kiss your forehead. “Hi, baby. Missed you on set today.” 

You smile to yourself and shut your notebook, setting it on the chair you were sitting on and away from his line of view. “I missed you too.” You wrap your arms around his shoulders, hands playing with the hair at his nape. “How was filming?”

“It was good. Movie’s coming along.” Hugh holds you closer to him, eyes falling shut as he holds you in his arms. This was what he was looking forward to all day. Being with you. He knows that this last week had helped a great deal, having your personal trainer here had helped immensely. You weren’t so much on edge anymore and it felt like things were going back to normal. Before Jack entered the picture. “And how was your day? You get home safe after dropping her off?” 

“Oh yeah,” you nod. “It was nice having her here. Thank you for doing that, baby. You really didn’t need to and–”

“I know,” he says quietly. “But I wanted to. I knew she would help… in ways that I couldn’t.” 

“I love you,” you smile. “I’m really lucky.” 

“I love you too, baby.” He pecks your lips and then slowly pulls away. “I’m gonna take a quick shower and maybe we can order in for dinner?” 

“Wait, Hugh…” 

“Yeah?”

“After your shower, can we talk?” 

Hugh’s brow furrows, biting the inside of his cheek as his hands move to rest on your hips. “What about?” 

“Just…” you bite your lower lip. “It’s nothing bad. I just–” 

Hugh tilts his head to the side. He can sense your worry, your anxiety, so he just nods and leans in to peck your lips lightly. “Okay, baby. We’ll talk after my shower.” As he turns to walk back into the room, you reach out for him and pull him back into a tight hug. Your face buries into his chest, arms tightening around his frame as you hold onto him for a few seconds longer. 

“You sure you’re okay?” he whispers. 

“I will be.” 

—

Hugh’s shower doesn’t last that long. He tries not to overthink about what you wanted to talk about, but he can’t help the tug he feels in the pit of his stomach. Now he’s worried, he’s concerned. He quickly changes into a pair of black sweatpants and a Global Citizen t-shirt. He dries his damp hair with a towel and steps back out into the room, seeing you still outside on the balcony. You’re writing in your notebook again and he knows that you only write when you have something on your mind, something that you can’t shake. 

Quietly, he steps out with you and smiles in your direction. Hugh watches you close your notebook, setting it on the small table. He doesn’t let you get up, instead, he scoops you into his arms and then sits in the same chair with you on his lap. 

“Okay, let’s talk, baby,” he says, leaning in to kiss your cheek as he drapes an arm over your legs. Hugh tries not to make it seem like he’s nervous and he isn’t even sure if you take notice because he can see that your mind has drifted, and can feel the tension in your shoulder blades. 

“Jack–”

“What?” 

You take a deep breath and move an arm around his shoulders. “I need to tell you about– about Jack.”

“Baby, you don’t have to–”

“I need to, Hugh.” 

He can see the tears in your eyes and a piece of his heart breaks at the sight. Hugh cups your cheek and gently brushes his thumb across your skin, leaning in to kiss the tip of your nose. “Okay,” he says softly. “I’m here. I’m listening.”

You nod and bite your lower lip. “So, we were together for three years…” 

“That I knew.” 

“The– The abuse, the manipulation, everything happened so fast. I didn’t even realize what was happening until I realized it was too late.” 

Hugh tightens his jaw. He feels anger bubbling within him, but he opts to remain quiet, to keep a neutral look on his face. He knows that you need this, that you need to tell him and he can’t react because he fears that if he does, you’re going to pull away and he knows how important this is that you’re telling him. 

“I had gotten used to his insults… so much so that I started to believe him.” you’re about to get off his lap, about to pull away from him, but he keeps a firm hold on you. When you look into his eyes, all you can see is the concern in his features and the subtle desire to take your pain away. 

“Oh baby…” Hugh whispers quietly. 

“I’m weak and I’m not brave,” you continue. “And that’s because of Jack. I should have left at the first sign of his verbal abuse, but I always–” you can feel your breath catch in your throat. “I always justified his actions. Always felt like it was my fault, that he was acting the way he was and saying the things he’d say because of me. Because I was making things difficult for him.” 

Hugh tightens his jaw when you look away from him, the anger simmering in the pit of his stomach. 

“And I believed him. I thought– I thought I could give all of my love to him and he’d see how much I cared for him, how much I was willing to do anything for him. Because I did,” you say with a disappointed tone. “I did love him and when he broke up with me – he broke up with me –” you shake your head. “It was my fault. It was always my fault. Mine.” 

“Baby, no…” Hugh shakes his head and cups your cheek, his gaze locked onto yours. 

“I couldn’t even break up with him, Hugh. All of the nasty things he’s said to me and I couldn’t–” you shake your head and stand up from his lap before he can pull you back. “I was heartbroken when Jack broke up with me because he made me believe that no one would ever love me… that I wasn’t worthy of love and I fucking believed him.”

Hugh’s foot taps against the floor incessantly. He wants to reach out for you, but he always wants to find Jack and cause him just the same amount of pain – if not more. But then, he hears the words leave your lips and he jumps up from his chair. 

“He hit me once.”

“What?” 

“Hugh…”

“No no, he what?” 

You bite your lower lip and stare up at him. You can see the anger clear in his features and you gently reach out for him, but he just shakes his head. He’s fuming, hands shaking at his sides at your admission. You know this was going to happen, had even expected this reaction, but seeing it firsthand is entirely different. You don’t know how you can even calm him down. 

“I got angry because he had made me make him dinner after a long fucking day at work and–” you sigh. “After that, I learned how to fight because I knew that if he put his hands on me again, I’d fight back and–” 

“Wait, he hit you? Put his hands on you?”

“Hugh…”

“No, baby.” Tears are now pooling at his eyes. “He doesn’t get to do that, do you hear me? He has no fucking right–”

“Hugh!” you raise your voice, staring up at him. “I’m not telling you this to make you angry. I’m telling you this so you can understand why he had so much control over me, why I reacted the way I did when I saw him that one night at dinner, why it’s so fucking hard for me to see how worthy I am of this, of you.” 

Hugh shakes his head. He’s trying – truly, he’s trying so fucking hard to understand (and there’s a big part of him that does), but all he can see is this man putting his hands on you, putting thoughts and words into your mind that aren’t true. 

“Give me his number. The number he called you from a couple of weeks ago,” Hugh says. 

“No.”

“Baby, he can’t just get away with thinking that what he did to you was okay. He can’t get away with still making you feel the way that you do.”

“What are you going to do? Go and beat him up?” you ask, shaking your head. “Hugh, you’d get arrested! It’d be all over the media and–”

“I don’t care!” Hugh yells – it’s the first time that he’s ever raised his voice at you and when he sees you take a step back, it brings him back to reality. “I’m sorry,” he sighs. “I didn’t mean to raise my voice. I just– I can’t fathom this man walking around thinking like he did no wrong, baby.” 

“Nothing you do will help him see that, Hugh.”

“No? Well he hasn’t dealt with someone like me and–”

“Just stop!” 

Hugh furrows a brow. “Baby–”

“No, Hugh…” you cross your arms over your chest, wanting so badly to just get away from this all, away from Jack, away from Hugh. “I don’t need you to save me… I don’t need you to go back to my past and make things better. I just need you to understand the shit I went through is what made me who I am today. And I’m still healing… I’m still working on it, and I just–” your breath catches in your throat once more. “You’ve been so patient with me, so understanding that I figured I’d at least tell you everything because… because I will have moments where it’ll be hard for me to snap out of it.”

“I know, and I appreciate you telling me all of this, baby–” Hugh sighs. “But I can’t just sit here and not do anything about it.”

“You know what,” you tell him, opening the sliding door to walk back into the hotel room. “I’m gonna go for a walk. I can’t be here right now. This wasn’t how I thought this conversation would go.”

“Baby, no–” Hugh walks after you, watching you pull on a jacket and slip on your shoes as you grab your bag. “Please, just stay. I’m sorry.”

“I’m not mad at you,” you tell him quietly. “I just need some space right now.”

“I love you,” Hugh whispers. 

“I know,” you reply, grabbing the hotel key card and setting it in your bag. “I love you too, Hugh, but I just need to be alone right now. We both need to calm down before we say something we’re both going to regret.” 

You don’t give him a chance to respond because just as his mouth opens to say something, you’re already out the door. 

---

taglist (if links don't work, i'm sorry!): @corvusmorte - @dragonqueen89 - @whimsiwitchy - @kellyxo1

@wolviehugh - @moonxknightx - @sullyselena - @angelofthorr - @spectorrrhgf

@needz1nk - @fandomxo00 - @godlypresley - @kythefangirl25 - @callsignyourmom

@sue8724 - @squishyfruitloop - @sylviavf - @emotrash1 - @dissentientss

@sir-thisisadndserver - @absolutepie - @millajay - @itsallyscorner - @haytchee

@wolverigrl - @its-in-the-woods - @d3ad2you - @definitely-not-chill - @khxna

[bunnakit]

ok im going to try to articulate my thoughts on why i'm, personally, not bothered with the writing and what we've seen of the backstory in The Sign.

would i like to see more of their past? absolutely, however, with the limitations of episode count, the budget for special effects, etc. i totally understand the limited view we're getting and personally i do think they give us everything we need to know.

based on the amount of parallels we're seeing between this life and their first life we can pretty safely use current day phaya and tharn as a cipher to unlock their backstory to their previous life.

we see wansarut bold and unapologetic in the face of sakuna? is that his name in the book? remains unclear to me but sure. garuda!phaya. we see garuda!phaya push her boundaries and push to get closer to her despite her protests. this is a direct correlation to present day tharn and phaya and the dance they've done with their relationship. with this in mind we can pretty much assume their relationship formed similarly, through a back and forth, clash of personalities, meeting on common ground, and finally wansarut's walls coming down to let sakuna in where he then simply adores her in the same manner phaya adores tharn.

again, i would love to see that journey, but i'm okay not seeing it when i use the context clues given by the rest of the narrative to fill in those gaps. i personally find it fun to imagine what may have been different, what may have been the same, etc. i think it gives fanfic authors and creative types the opportunity to play with the characters and connect to them in their own ways. i don't always think we need to know every tiny detail of the characters we love as this allows us to see more of ourselves in them.

as for the way modern day phaya and tharn's relationship has been written i also haven't been upset with that either. there's a certain magnetism we've seen between them that draws them together in the way tharn instinctively leans into phaya immediately in episode 1, the way he wants so very badly to kiss phaya in episode 2, etc. i think it's been a beautiful waltz between them, a careful give and take, you step back and i step forward until our steps reduce and we meet in the middle.

there is a point to be made for how quickly things progressed after the kiss but these are two people whose instincts and bodies have been calling to each other on a soul deep level and i don't think it's entirely out of the realm of possibility to say that perhaps in that moment they became wansarut and sakuna again, they had the opportunity to greet each other again and say 'i've missed you.'

i think you can gain a lot from The Sign by looking at it through a romantic lens rather than something purely analytical, but that could just be me and my romantic whimsy.

as for everything about their karma, i'm simply not educated on that aspect of things enough and i'm not really worrying about it. i'm just kind of viewing it as some kind of misfortune on both of them for the perceived slight against chalothorn and rolling with it.

all this to say everyone's thoughts are completely valid. i've really enjoyed seeing the differing thoughts and gaining a different perspective from my own. i think the one thing we can all agree on is that these two deserve to be happy and be at peace and i hope we get to see that.

[andreafmn]

Bound | Chapter 1

Word Count: 3.3K Warnings: graphic depictions of death, implied/referenced SA

Summary: Rosalie always carried the resentment of not being able to fulfill the image of the perfect family she had in her head. But the universe had set out to grant her everything she could've hoped for in the most unconventional way and in the form of a witch. Can their love withstand the promise of forever or will Rosalie and (Y/N) succumb to the grapples of time?

A/N: tried my best to write the pain and turmoil Rosalie might have felt during such a horrendous moment. I feel like her backstory is so overlooked in the story and, for me, it's one of the most tragic. I hope I do her justice with this and the coming chapters. Also, I want to say to any and all survivors of SA that you are not alone and what happened to you is not your fault, it never will be. I hope you have healed or are healing. And if you ever just need an ear to listen, I am here. 🤍

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Rosalie Hale should have been protected. That much she knew to be true. She should have been able to revel in a perfect life. A perfect house, perfect children, a perfect husband, all complements to her being a perfect wife. 

Everything should have been perfect because she already was. 

But there was something about a perfect thing that she did not know until it was too late. Whenever it was scrutinized, the cracks started to appear. The paint that was used to make everything seamless was bulky and uneven. Nothing was perfect. Nothing could even come close. 

Still, it had been far too late to see all the flaws of what was supposed to be her perfect life. 

Everything had happened to her so quickly. Her courtship to Royce King the Second, to their engagement, to the date of the wedding. It was the thing of fairytales. Or at least, that was what she had thought –what she had been raised to believe. The perfect prince to the beautiful princess. 

His façade was impeccable. He did the right things, said the right things; he played the part well. Too well. It made it easy for Royce to hide his faults. Because they didn’t exist to the naked eye. His lingering eye was only witnessed by the women he would make uncomfortable, but they would never speak of it. His drunkenness was reserved for the late hours of the night, in the company of his closest friends. His blatant disregard for Rosalie was only spoken of in whispers, spilling into the ears of his most trusted confidantes. He did not have to worry about anyone else knowing just how execrable he actually was. 

The fact that he was marrying the Rosalie Hale was enough to allow his behavior. She was a testament to the fact that he could have anything he wanted without having to work too hard at it. All it took to reel her in were a few words and flowers, some public outings and he had her trapped in his spell. 

At that point, she didn’t know it. That the love he seemed to have for her was only his part to play. How could she? Royce King was her ticket to everything she had ever worked toward. He was the trophy for the part she had to play. It didn’t matter that she was not in love with him, she loved everything he could give her. She didn’t mind feeling like an empty shell of a human if it looked like she had everything. She knew it was vain and shallow, but it was what she had been molded to be. 

What she never thought was that the same person she believed would grant her every dream would be the very reason it was taken away. Ripped and taken from her without another thought. 

The day had started well enough for her. With her wedding only a week away, her head could only be preoccupied with the final details of the event and everything that would come after. Even as she spent the night with Vera, her best friend, watching as her husband loved her and her son grew beautifully, Rosalie could only think of when it would be her own child reaching their arms up to be carried. She would have the life she wanted because that was what she was promised. 

But the night was harsh and unforgiving. In hindsight, she would have taken that as a warning. The cold truth was slapping her in the face long before real hands had. When she was yelled at by Royce on the empty street, she should have turned around. She should have listened to the trembling in her limbs as he treated her as nothing more than a prize he had won. She should have ran and kept running. 

But his grasp around her was tight, bruising. He grabbed her like she was his possession, as though her body had never belonged to her. And he wanted to show her off because she did, she belonged to him. 

She remembered trying to fight. Whatever happened next, she could hold on to the fact that she had tried to fight. Even if it had been to no avail. No amount of strength could have been enough to protect her, at least not of any she knew. 

Then, she remembered how frozen she had felt. Not because of the cold in the weather, but because her limbs had gone stiff. Royce and his friend were drinking in her pain, rejoicing in her screams. She couldn’t give them that. So, she froze. Rosalie allowed them to take everything from her but the fact that she was in so much pain. 

They took her clothes, they took her will, they took her beauty, they took her body. They took and took until there was nothing left to give. They even believed they had taken her life. But something inside her was holding on. Something she cried would just let it all end. There was nothing left for her to hold on to, Rosalie just wanted the nightmare to end since her dream definitely had. 

Rosalie could have sworn that she had spent hours on that dimly lit street begging for death to take her in its arms and whisk her away. She didn’t want to be cold, she didn’t want to be in pain. She no longer wanted to be. All she could do was wait until it all stopped. 

Instead of the impending doom of death, she had been carried away by someone she couldn’t identify at first. At first, she believed it was the Angel of Death crossing her to the afterlife. The speed at which they were traveling felt as much. But soon she was being laid on a bed, where she was bitten on every inch of her body and it made her wish she was back to the pain from before. At least that was bearable until death came. This kind of ache ran across her entire body, freezing her veins and adjusting every fiber of her being. It was overwhelming enough that she could smell… sage? Maybe even moringa and rosemary. Possibly even a hint of ginger. 

Rosalie wanted to laugh at that realization, not that her body allowed her to. She wanted to chuckle at the mere fact that her brain had decided to trick her with the smells of herbs as she went through the worst agony of her life. But she had to admit, it had eased her slightly. And she wished she had perceived those very smells until the change happened. 

She also wished for the longest time that Carlisle had never saved her. What he did felt more like pity rather than a moment of salvation –she did not want to be saved. When he took her in his arms she wasn’t thankful, she was tired. If she’d had the ability to speak, she would have begged him to end it. Rosalie would have used every last breath she had to beacon death quicker than it was coming. 

Instead, he saved her in the worst way possible. He submitted her to a life where she would never have anything she desired. She would have her beauty, and she would have a sort of family, but she would never have something that was truly hers.  But nothing that was hers. Nothing that was just hers. 

At least there was one thing that the imposed immortality had brought her. She was strong. Stronger than all those men the night before. She could feel it. The solidness of her skin, the strain in her muscles, the itching in her limbs for speed. It was supernatural strength. An unlimited source of unimaginable power. 

A vampire. That was what they had told her she was now and she knew it was the truth. The burning in her throat yearned for only one thing and none of the people in the room she had woken in had it running through their veins. She craved the crimson liquid as though it was the sweetest nectar in the world and it was the only thing to satiate the deep void in her stomach. 

But that hunger was nothing compared to the appetite she had for revenge. For the craving she had developed to have the same men that had made her tremble in her sacred body to quiver in theirs. She wanted them to beg her for their lives, to know what it feels for their lives to be in the hands of someone that could not give two shits about them. She wanted them to plead until their voices were hoarse. Until they were so scared that she could hear their skeletons rattle inside their bodies. She wanted them to pray to their god for their lives and then she would take them with her own hands. Her eyes would watch as their souls left their bodies, a sickeningly sweet smile on her face. 

She could have answered Carlisle Cullen at that moment. When he had asked her if she wanted to join their family, she knew the answer was yes. Not because they were the perfect choice, but because it was the only one she had. Rosalie didn’t want to be alone and the Cullens were offering her companionship. She would say yes, eventually. First, she had something to do. So, she asked them for a couple of days to set her head in order.

Rosalie waited until the sun had set and dressed up for the occasion. She styled herself in perfect curls and demure makeup. She was dressed in tailored clothes and high heels. At the end of the day, she was still Rosalie Hale and those men would know exactly who it was that would take their lives. 

The first two were easy to find. Buck and Andre Hubert, brothers that still lived under the same roof. With her newfound strength and speed, she slipped into their house without making a single sound. One thing she knew was every party and social appearance the rich people of Rochester, New York had to attend. She knew who would be where and when. And it just so happened that Mr. and Mrs. Hubert would be out all night. 

She wanted to go play with their minds first. Start building that nest of fear deep in their chest as they had done to her. To laugh as they questioned if they were losing their minds. 

The brothers were in the drawing room. Maybe reading, maybe drinking. Definitely drinking. It made her smile. Her legs took her to the table in their foyer, slamming a vase she had admired for years against the wall. 

“Who goes there?” Buck called out from the room to be met with the crackling of the fireplace in response. “I’ll let you know that I have a gun.”  

Rosalie remained quiet, instead making noise by slamming a framed picture of the brothers to the floor. She stared as the frame splintered around her and the glass bounced off her impenetrable skin. Bring your gun, she wanted to say, there’s nothing you can do to hurt me now. 

But she kept her silence. She wanted to draw both of them out, not just their guns. Their bodies would be the first warming call to the other three men. So, she broke more things, until the room was filled with splintered wood, glass, and roses. How she detested roses now. 

“What the fuck is going on, Buck?” Andre said, his voice shaking slightly. “Who’s there?”  

“I don’t know, man,” he sighed in frustration. “I’ll go check.” 

No. It had to be both of them. She called out, “Why don’t you both come to check?” 

“No way,” she heard one of them whisper, not really caring which one. 

They walked out slowly, each sporting a rifle in their arms. They stood tall, their eyes trained on hers, trying to appear courageous. But she knew they weren’t. She could hear their hearts racing, she could see the beads of sweat forming on their forehead, she could smell their desperation. 

“Rosalie Hale,” Buck said. “What are you doing here?”  

“Surprised to see me, boys?” She smiled sweetly and she could see the way it made them shiver. “I just thought I would pay you a visit after last night. You left without so much as a goodbye.”  

 “No, but you… you were…” Andre stammered. He was so young and it showed. His brother towered over him and he was shaking in inexperience. 

“What’s wrong, Andre?” she feigned worry. She had also been so young and they had not cared. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”  

“You died last night,” Buck interjected in big brother fashion. “We left you on the street and you were dead.” 

“Correct!” Rosalie clapped in fake excitement. “You did leave me on the street, but I wasn’t dead. No. I suffered for hours waiting to die. But alas, death arrived in a different way.” 

She took steps toward them, closing the distance of the large entryway. Her movement made Buck fire his gun, the bullet flying right by her ear. It was so close she could hear the whistle of the shot as it passed her. 

“Careful, Buck,” she reprimanded. “You can’t kill something that’s already dead.”  

“W-what?” 

“I know, it’s practically unbelievable,” she chuckled. “Death becomes me, doesn’t it?”  

Rosalie was so close now that it would only take four steps for her to be nose-to-nose with them. Her appearance was illuminated by the moonlight streaming through the open front door, every feature now unmistakable to the men in front of her. 

As they looked into her eyes, they couldn’t help the scream that bubbled from their throats. It was at that moment that they knew their guns would be useless against the intruder. She was definitely not human anymore. 

Buck shot at her stomach, watching in astonishment as the bullets ricocheted against her rather than fly through her. On the other hand, Andre decided to take off in a run. Rosalie could only laugh. Her beautiful voice made their veins run cold, fear grasping them by the throats. 

The blonde took Buck’s gun in her hand, bending the barrel until no more bullets could move through, and grabbed him by his throat, walking toward Andre. She dragged the man's body with one hand, smiling as he tried to claw free, twisting and turning in her grasp. In a couple of seconds, she was behind the younger Hubert. With the damaged gun, she shattered his right leg, smiling as he yelled in pain. 

“Please, please,” Andre cried. Tears and snot mixed on his face, the mask of pure desperation sliding onto him. “Just let us go. We’re sorry, Rosalie. We were just having some fun. It should have never gotten to that point.” 

“Oh, then, please. Tell me when I was having fun?”  Rosalie said. She had dropped both brothers on the floor, one right next to the other, kneeling. “Was it when I begged you all to stop? Was it when my body had been assaulted to the point where I could not even move a finger? Or maybe it was when you were telling Royce he had to start looking for a new wife since I was dead? I would love to know what was fun about any of that.”  

“It wasn’t,” Buck blubbered. “We were wrong, Rosalie. What we did was despicable.”  

“It was, wasn’t it? It was the most vile thing you could ever do to a woman –to anyone,” she smiled. “But you still did it. And it cost me my life. Now, it’s gonna cost you yours.”  

The brothers let out strings of ‘no, please’s and ‘have mercy, Rosalie’s, and it made the fire inside her burn hotter. The vampire stared at Andre first, the youngest of the two. The one she had gone to school with. The one that was only a couple of months her junior. The boy that had acted like a man and taken everything from her. His cheeks were stained with tears, his eyes red and swollen from crying. 

“You could’ve made a woman very happy, Andre,” she smiled. “At least, the boy I knew in school would have. You, as you are now, don’t deserve the dirt on my shoes.” 

“I’m so sorry, Rosalie,” he sobbed. The attractive boy she had known had been battered to a sorry excuse for a human, and she reveled in it. “Please, just let me go. I promise I’ll never do it again.”  

“You’re right. You won’t do it again,” she said, wrapping her hands around his neck. “Save your sorry for your god, Andre.” 

And she snapped his neck, watching as his body slumped to the floor. 

Beside him, Buck let out a guttural scream. A completely broken and full of agony wail. Music to her ears. “Does it hurt, Buck?” she said. “To see the body of the little brother you had sworn to protect, lifeless and beaten? Does it hurt that there was absolutely nothing you could have done to save his life?”

When he kept quiet, only responding in whimpers and whines, she took his left arm and broke it under her grip. “Answer me,”  she seethed. “How bad does it hurt.” 

“It’s the worst pain imaginable,” he yelled out. “I should have saved him. Saved him from you!” 

“No, Buck,” she tsked. “You should have saved him from you. From the wickedness of your mind and your actions. Your brother? Your baby brother is dead because of you. And you can let him know when you join him.” 

Her pale hands wrapped around his throat once more, her eyes observing as the fight left his body. With his only hand, he tried to claw at her skin, to sink his nails into her in an attempt to free himself, but it was futile. He couldn’t even squeeze her. 

She stared into his eyes, the way they pleaded, and she committed them to memory. And she wondered. She wondered if they had looked into her eyes, would they have shown her mercy? Would they have at least let her live to see another day? The fact was that they hadn’t and she would not dwell on them. On these men that were barely human. 

Rosalie squeezed until Buck’s hand fell to his side and his heart stopped beating. She squeezed until there was nothing left in his eyes but the colored irises. She squeezed until she was satisfied. Once she was done, she let his body fall to the floor, slumping against his brother. They were a masterpiece before her. Dead without shedding a single drop of blood. 

She called the police after, claiming to be a neighbor that heard a ruckus in the Hubert house and she watched from the shadows as the scene unveiled before her. The Huber parents arrived before the police, though they weren’t far behind. Mrs. Hubert let out a heart wrenching wail, calling for her boys as she collapsed in her husband’s arms. And, instead of feeling guilty, she wondered how her own parents would have reacted to finding her body. 

Would her mother shriek? Would her father turn heaven and hell until he found the culprit? Would he yell at the policemen to do their job and find the bastard that did such a violent act as Mr. Hubert? Those were answers she would never get. There was no body for her parents to find, no crime to be reported. Not anymore. 

The girl remained at the scene for only a moment more, waiting until the front of the estate was flooded with neighbors and people from deep in the town surely woken from the commotion. She waited until everyone’s attention was on the Hubert brothers and none would be on the people farther away. Especially people staying at hotels in the town center.  

There were two men down on her list. Three more to go. And she would not give them even a second to escape. Their karma was coming for them in the shape of a beautiful vampire. 

Next ->

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[devdevlin]

Hi Devlin I want to ask about peremo, what detailed conversation did Tom and Hermione have that made Tom sulk and not want to give Hermione salt😄

Ooooh, okay, I’ll answer below the line because it’s a bit spoilery and it’s a long answer, because I have a whole story in my head for it.

SO, throughout the story and epilogue (granted it’s limited from Klaus’ POV), we see that Hermione and Tom’s relationship is tumultuous. At the point of the epilogue you’re referring to, where we’ve just seen Tom ensure that Hermione’s friends are never born and the Order will never be formed, it’s therefore safe for you to assume that they (offscreen) had a sizeable butting-of-heads.

Now, the overall backstory for Tom and Hermione that is in my mind, while it’s not really included in the epilogue considering the POV, is that Hermione is constantly pushing back against Tom, even though Klaus doesn’t witness it. She’s being blackmailed and forced to stay with Tom, and he’s forcing her silence in regards to their son, so she does whatever she can to quietly push back. One of the ways she pushes back, is by hiding her memories of Harry and the Order. This is the fight we see in the kitchen coming to a head—Tom finding out she’s been keeping memories from him of the people who in her time were responsible for his downfall.

So, weeks later, after Tom finally gets enough details out of her, the murders of the Potters, Longbottoms, Weasleys and Prewetts take place. As a result, Hermione—now with her best friends ensured to never have been born—sinks into a deeper depression, loses weight, withdraws further into herself. Now, Tom, at this point, is pretty well obsessed with Hermione. Now that he’s back in her life, he’s gradually stripping her of everything, her house, status of master of death, her son, her job, her memories, all in a bid to ensure that she has nothing but him and their relationship will become willing. She’s been resisting him for years at this point, and so then when he figures out she’s been hiding her friends and takes them from her too, he thinks that’s it. He thinks he’s removed all of the obstacles, and now she is free to properly be his.

Hermione, however, still isn’t having it, and even with nothing left, still wants her freedom from Tom. So without her wand, without freedom of speech, and without the hope of her friends one day coming together to form the Order, Hermione comes to him with this, with logic: now that he’s taken everything from her, what more can she give him? He has nothing more to gain from her, she is no longer a threat to him, why doesn’t he just let her go?

This rejection, naturally, is baffling to Tom and causes the conflict. And… that’s the master plan! I don’t think I’ll ever write it all out—it’s convoluted and dark and it’d be a whole other fic in itself—but I do hope that makes sense and answers your question 🤗🥰🖤

[yinyuedijun]

seems like a very specific audience was woken up by that fic...

But hi Mao! I'm here to talk about it! Honestly and whole heartedly i want to say it was worth the wait! I enjoyed it so much. I enjoyed that ratio is absolutely baffled at first by reader wanting to open the relationship specifically with aven but is unbothered enough and trusts reader enough to go along with it. And the idea of aven slowly integrating himself into both veritas and reader's personal like by doing things like making all three of them dinner? Also loved that detail.

Absolutely lost it both at the part where veritas is trying to work and can hear aven fucking reader in the other room and also the creampie reveal. like both aven and reader are trying to slowly work him toward their shared bed in more and more brazen fashion. I could imagine being so anxious about the idea despite wanting and aventurine just gently coaxing us along.

and and i know i already said it in my tags but the sheer euphoria of finally having a fic where i get to be called good boy by aven and things like his boyfriend? Amazing 100/10. this will be a fic i go back to again and again.

also loved the detail of aven getting legitimately protective and peeved at veritas for his lil outburst at reader but letting reader handle it so he was able to see they were fine so he immediately relaxed.

i just could go on about all the lil details i loved in this fic. thank you so much for writing it despite veritas not being one of your favs and writing him being out of your comfort zone

(please excuse and blame any typos on my migraine hangover and not feeling well)

HI ROSSIIII !!!! thank you so much for giving such thoughtful feedback to my lil kinktober fic. I am honestly so glad you felt it was worth the wait AGLDJSKDJS the guilt was truly haunting me all of Nov for not having written it so hearing that was like a weight off my shoulders

I am especially so happy that you enjoyed all the lil relationship details! I could have written just 500 words of porn but I couldn't resist cramming in some backstory about potential ratiorine/reader dynamics. it made me so happy that you caught all the little things I was getting at too (aventurine integrating himself in their daily life, the fact that he got protective over the reader, etc...). it is so rewarding to me to know that you read the fic so closely - thank you 🥺💗

ALSO. I AM SO HAPPY TO HEAR ABT THE GENDER EUPHORIA!!! I was super excited to write a masc reader fic because AHDLWJWLDDJS aventurine calling us a good boy 😳 so thank you so much for giving me that opportunity with your prompt !!! and though I did have my own fun with it, ultimately it was a fic written for you since you requested it, so it really makes me so happy to hear that it has brought you so much joy ^^

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! and I do hope your migraine issues will resolve btw ;; sending u healing energy...!!!

[whetstonefires]

Fanfic meme: questions 1 & 11, for a fic of your choice.

Oh no vikings, it's so much harder when I have to pick which one! 😭 What if I praise myself for a fic nobody likes or something?

I'll roll dice. I will...okay online rng rolled a 165 sided 'die' and came up 69. Which is not at all a sexy fic I regret(?) to tell you. 69 fics back is and amber is ageless, the Earth-3 Ultraman pov fic where he adopts a kitten.

1: What inspired you to write the fic this way?

Hah! Well, for one thing, my actual kitten that I found in a bush. Provided me with a lot of detailed inspiration about the minutiae of taking in and settling down a diseased little feline who'd been through the wringer, made that part basically effortless. I'd already decided Ultraman kept a cat in the Fortress, because he is so isolated and despite it all he's a version of Clark Kent and doesn't like too much alone, but drawing on recent personal experience made that part fun and easy to write.

The other 'this way' is 'from Kal's pov with only a dim self-awareness wrt how much he sucks' and that's harder to pin down. Lotta factors.

It's the second Ultraman pov fic I did, but the first one was only a little for the sake of his perspective and mostly to get outside pov on a Jokester & Alex Luthor interaction and showcase the hammer I'd lifted from the Countdown to Final Crisis earth-3 Jokester design. And I'd done his backstory as Lois breaking down her research for Alex. Because this setting is deliberately structured to focus on its own heroes, since canon mirrorverses get hung up on the evil version of their protagonists.

So part of it was I wanted a place to really dig into what makes him tick. The way Ultraman is a product of his upbringing in the opposite direction from Superman, but also the alignment flip I gave the world left him predisposed to dickishness in a way Superman is predisposed toward being considerate. Superman is always choosing to be good, largely as a result of the person the Kents raised him to be and the bedrock emotional security associated with that self-identity.

Ultraman is the opposite and I wanted to really get on the page how much insecurity in all senses plays into that.

Because I'd done Owlman and he is extremely uh. Strange person. Weird priorities. Possibly compelled by a variety of monomanias he believes to be purely rational. Sincerely convinced of his own supremacy, although also just vulnerable enough to doubt on this subject that his need to validate his own ego is still an exploitable weakness, in the way of supervillains.

(Superwoman can be baited this way only by the prospect of losing a head-to-head physical fight, but is much more easily distracted than Owlman because she cares about enjoying herself more than increasing or showing off her naturally enormous power.)

And the thing with Kal is that he's not. Not really strange. Does not really qualify for any kind of personality disorder. Psychologically he's mostly a pretty standard product of trauma and bad life decisions, the kind of guy who resents everything because he's so unhappy but can't conceive of a way to change his life to make him happier beyond hollow external models of 'success' like getting the girl. Who just so happens to have godlike power.

Of course it's not just so happens, because he was tough and strong from early childhood and accidentally killed his parents in a fairly normal grade-school tantrum, ruining his own life.

Which like. Definitely inspired by the old superbaby comics where Jonathan Kent is constantly stressing about the baby giving away his secret identity and it's like. Your life is in danger this toddler does not know how to not kill you.

Anyway he came up through the Kansas foster system having a bad time, and not having a much worse one only because of powers he kind of hated and felt freakish for because again he accidentally killed his own parents and only got away with it because no one knew he had super strength so lying about a 'big monster' smooshing his parents with the dining room table was more plausible. A huge part of his personality is based around the inadequate coping mechanisms he developed to cope with this formative trauma.

The idea that he was a Superior Existence (who was alone in the universe for reasons that were not his fault) was delivered to him when he went back to the old farmhouse, recovered the Jor-el materials, found out he was an alien, and set up the Fortress, and for him supervillainy is very much compensating for his underlying lack of self-worth and repressed guilt and vague sense of dysphoria, because when you feel like A Very Normal Guy who is also A Freak that's what happens. I think finding out he was an alien helped a lot with hating his own body, his body which was also himself and his chief asset considering he's an orphan who got a shit education.

Kal is both the one of the Big Three villains in this setting who is the most normal and whose behavior can be most accurately attributed to 'mental illness' as such, which I think is a neat dichotomy.

11: What do you like best about this fic?

I think I might have already covered this, whoops! Lmao it's definitely the effect I got where Kal is Just Some Guy who like, feels entitled to the girl he likes and thinks shitty misogynistic things when resenting other people's happiness. And whose gruesome fantasies of violence in reaction to minor inconveniences hit the beats of the average person's sense of aggravation but are backed by the fact that he really could put his hand through someone's face on a whim and has been known to do so.

But who also just. Is capable of being charmed by the attitude of a stray cat and wearing a leather glove to protect it from his skin when it keeps biting.

I think the technical element I'm most satisfied with is how I linked his reaction to Matchbox's defiance with his complicated Thing for Lois. I feel like I built up to it and showed it happening in a natural way, rather than just being like 'the kitten reminded him of Lois Lane.'

[bearmemesreviews]

FotW: SDMI - The Shrieking Madness

As you can tell by our episode's title, today Mystery Incorporated tackles the Chthulu mythos! Gotta love those weird ugly squid gods, and the fact that their writer chickened out when it came to describing them only adds to their charm. Everyone loves designing creatures that can "break" the mind of anyone who looks at it directly.

Scooby-Doo was neither the first nor the last children's show to tackle this topic, but MI is our first real representation of it for the franchise. Let's talk about it and the gang's first college tour.

Backstory: The gang are all driven to the Darrow University by their parents whose motives are far different from their children's. Meanwhile, the college is playing host to two popular writers who couldn't be any more different. Harlan Ellison is a no-nonsense tightwad whose work is more "respectable" than the cosmic horror tales written by H.P. Hatecraft - this universe's version of our H.P.

One of Ellison's fans disparages the works of Hatecraft, and is swiftly attacked and kidnapped by the main villain of those stories. The gang mostly stumbles into this mystery by accident, preoccupied by their early brushes with college life. Daphne becomes a communist, Fred is put through homoerotic hazing, and Shaggy points out that he's no longer voiced by a vegetarian in a very unsubtle way.

Velma is the one who actually came to meet Ellison at a book signing, and the gang soon cross each other's paths before finding Ellison being terrorized by green Squidward.

The gang still have their hang-ups, much more strained thanks to everyone's love troubles. They even get distracted from the mystery thanks to their previous college antics, until Char Gar Gothakon attacks Shag and Scoob directly. When the gang confronts Hatecraft, he first gives them the "whispers from another world that I translate into the best-selling written word" spiel. However, to dispel the beast he decides to reveal to an entire class of people the truth.

He made it all up, there is no dark force from an alternate dimension giving him material to write. This upsets his number one fan, but that pales in comparison to how badly Charizard Gengar Gothita takes the news. The Gangrene Illithid kidnaps his creator and takes him back to Hateman's house, which is also where the Ellison fan was being kept prisoner in.

Chary Gary becomes another attempted murderer, deciding that Hatecraft deserved an appointment with the ground after a trip to the roof. The gang distracts the monster long enough to save both Hatecraft, and Char Gar Gothakon, when they nearly fall off the roof. They finally muzzled his tentacles, a trick Fred learned from his college buddies, solving the mystery you already did several minutes ago.

Design: Char Gar Gothakon is a humanoid octopus-human hybrid wearing cultish robes, obviously based on Chthulu and Illithids from D&D. Octopus-faced monsters are just awesome, with the sea creature they're based on already being some of the coolest things on our planet. Did you know all of them are venomous, and some of the best hunter-killers in the sea? They're like wolves in that way, creatures we can both hype up as supernatural omens of death and real-life predators you don't mess with.

Char Gar Gothakon: The Beast with no name, is rather lanky despite how stocky its wearer is. It has diamond-shaped eyes with orange irises and yellow sclera and pupils. It has a globular smooth head and wriggling tentacles encompassing most of its lower face. It's body, especially its "forehead", is covered in skin patterns resembling green splotches like the markings of a frog. It also has small siphons, two on each side of its head, in place of ears. Another easy to miss detail are the gillman-like fins on its forearms.

Its outfit is rather flamboyant, resembling a priest's dressing with a turned-up high collar that's too large for its already giant head. Its shoulder pads are gigantic and connected to the rest of the outfit by the belt. It's belt and bicep bracelets are all gold.

It doesn't even wear a shirt, the middle piece of its outfit being mostly made-up of intersecting strips that expose its shoulders, ribs, and V-line.

Honestly, it's a pretty slutty costume. Besides it's vertical striped long skirt it also wears fingerless elbow-length gloves that also have gaps to expose MORE of its skin.

For powers, it uses a sonic screech that's powerful enough to Launch a grown man onto a car's hood. Its face tentacles can also stretch out, revealing a large circular maw full of sharp teeth underneath, to entangle a victim. The tentacles also stretch and contort in a way that shouldn't even be physically possible since they were taken from a real dead octopus.

Reveal: The true culprit turns out to be Hatecraft's own superfan and student assistant, Howard E. Roberts (named after Robert E. Howard). He decided to bring Hatecraft's monster to life to get back at the haters. However, when Hatecraft declared himself a fraud the superfan decided that the author needed to be destroyed. He made his sonic death blast technology with the help of his college courses by the way.

It is actually through deriding their fans that Ellison and Hatecraft find companionship with each other, leaving the gang to discover the archived documents stolen by Mr. E left in the Mystery Machine.

The plot thickens.

5/5, Western Media needs more Mindflayer rep. Nice Gregorian Chants by the way.

See, you can talk about Lovecraft without mentioned his cat being named after the N-Word.

[bozepomagaj]

Modern/College AU HC's! (Twins edition)

Nai/Knives Saverem

I plan on writing a small drabble on Rem's backstory and how she met&adopted the twins so I don't wanna spoil too much but as I mentioned, she worked as a biologist, made plenty of discoveries but then later on started focusing on rheumatology after taking the twins in. She found out after she adopted them that they both have a rare disease that barely any doctor was willing to work with, let alone give them some kind of treatment. Thankfully, Knives spent most of his life in remission, and when his symptoms did show, it was nowhere near like Vash. Vash's longest remission lasted for around 2 years. Since doctors didn't know what illness he had at first, they just stuffed him with random drugs that ended up causing other problems and illnesses in his body. I can go more into detail about the illnesses they have, but... maybe another time.

Due to all this, Knives takes meticulous care of his body. Goes to the gym regularly, makes sure to eat enough calories every day, takes supplements if needed, and has an extensive skincare routine. He has his sweet cravings, but he never indulges in them. 'Cheat days'? Never heard of them. Alcohol? He'd rather drink poison. I mean to him, it's the same.

Everyone thinks that the nickname 'Knives' came from Wolfwood, who kept calling him that because of his incredible cooking skills. In reality, it's because Knives had an affinity towards 'pretty' knives since he was a kid. A black higonokami and a trapper are his favorite possessions at the moment.

To add to the previous hc, Knives wanted to play darts so badly as a kid. He thought it would make him look cool, but Rem refused to buy him the game. So he just started throwing knives at the wall until she caved in and finally bought him the game so he'd stop making holes in her walls because she loved him. He loves playing 301 because he gets to show off how precise he can be.

Knives and Vash's shared apartment is big, but definitely not big enough to fit a grand piano, and it irks him. He bought an electric piano, but he absolutely despises it. It sounds too soulless, too shallow for him.

Cat dad? More like plant dad. That man has an insane amount of cacti in his room, their entire apartment is filled to the brim with all kinds of greenery Vash could rarely go outside as a kid due to him constantly going from hospital to hospital so plants and nature calm him down, he loves being surrounded by flowers but you can only find the cacti in his room, no other plant. Except... a singular Adam and Eve orchid next to his bed.

Surprisingly, Knives does enjoy video games. In fact, he was the one who first started playing them and got Vash into them. Anything with deep, unique plots and lots and lots of world building will have him drooling. Avid player of FF14 and a huge Zenos fan and defender. As for his favorite game, without a doubt, it's 'The Last Guardian' but he'll never admit it if you ask him.

Out of the entire friend group, the only person he actually likes is Milly, surprisingly. He knew her prior to finding out she's a part of Vash's friend group. They often went to the gym around the same times and left around the same times. It started with Milly trying to talk to him, but he'd never pay her any heed. But she continued. Hours upon hours. Every day. After some time, he finally started giving in, nodding and agreeing with what she's saying. Until they eventually started making actual conversations, giving each other tips, exchanging their favorite protein bars and their drinks. Vash was presently surprised by their friendship.

He enjoys sketching. Never actually making full-fledged art but just sketching either some type of scenery that left an impression on him or practicing dynamic poses he sees online or in fashion magazines. When he gets frustrated with his piano because it just 'doesn't sound right,' he'll plop down on hus bed, get himself a notebook, and start sketching until he gets bored of it. He wouldn't classify it as a hobby since he doesn't do it as often, but if he wanted to, he could definitely make some beautiful pieces of art.

Vash The Stampede

Plant dad #2 except he SUCKS. He has so many plants, sometimes when he's caught up with things he will completely forget to water them. He'll only notice when they wilt and he'll spend hours crying over it and feeling bad No, Knives isn't holding his laugh back when this happens, its just the allergies messing with him, he's just coughing.

Despite being incredibly ill, drumroll please... Vash has no allergies! He does have food restrictions, but hey, at least he can eat peanut butter!

Unlike his dear brother, he doesn't really watch after himself that well. Sure, he goes out on walks and spends an hour or two at the gym but dieting? Hell no, he's eating whatever he can, whenever he can.

Also, that man is as clumsy as it can get. He could be walking on a completely flat surface, and he'll still find a way to fall and hurt something.

Y'know how some people can tell when its gonna rain due to their joints hurting? Vash. Just... Vash. Everytime. But hey, at least everyone has their umbrellas always ready!

Like I mentioned with Knives, Vash loves video games! Simulators, RPG-s, point-and-click horror, anything! His favorite would definitely have to be 'Ori and the Will of the Wisps'. Loves the way it looks, and he always, and I mean always, cries when he sees Shrieks' backstory. The ending, too, makes him cry.

Also unlike Knives, he absolutely loves the multiplayer part of FF14. He'll spend hours of talking with people, making friends and just doing dumb shit.

Can't read notes for shit but will somehow make the most heart-wrenching tunes known to man when he gets ahold of his brothers piano. Knives will just stare at him, mouth agape, lowkey jealous...

Has plenty of cheesy, donut themed stuff around the house. Earrings, rings, cups with lil donuts on them, plates in the shape of a donut, shirts with donut puns, everything! This is due to Knives finally snapping and telling him to stop eating so much sugar every day. He is now allowed only 4 donuts per week.

He tends to get overwhelmed by beautiful scenery to the point of tears. Rem took them to a nearby forest once, near a stream during spring when flowers were in full bloom, and Vash ended up breaking down into tears because it was so beautiful to him.

Despite what Knives thinks, Vash doesn't always drink when he goes out. He does get drunk from time to time, but the cause of his clothes always smelling like alcohol is from constantly being on the dancefloor and bumping into people

Barely anyone knows about his condition, actually. He begged his professors not to tell anyone when he brought in the papers for the first time. As for his constant hospital visits, he'll just say he's 'unlucky' and got sick again, same goes for when he's gone for a couple of days/weeks.

That's it for now I think. If anyone has any questions or wants me to elaborate, I would absolutely love to do so🫡

[taemcains]

I wonder if Lane was an anomaly or she's actually given second chance in life. Her story reminds me so much of ppl who wake up after years in coma. I think it's the latter but I know sm players believe the first one because no one could remember their birth except for Lane in ep. 4.

Also, I like how every characters in HSR has different ways to respond to their traumas. Lane's so desperate to be acknowledged by other ppl. How cold and withdrawn Dmitry is (although he can be nice). Anna can get really anxious sometimes. Kira's being emotional the WHOLE TIME (this girl is annoying as heck ngl). Noah is constantly complaining about his friend's death and eventually going berserk. Greg's trying to keep himself sane even if he knew he's stressed out by the loss of his stepsister and Nick. Cain is showing his guilt and anger everytime someone brings up his past. I like how mature this book is. Alexandra K. is great at fleshing out each character without doing too much. I like the way she's focusing on what part of the story need to be told on each episode. The first episodes she's more focused on the abominations, the zombies, and the book of Apocalyse. In June update, she put more details about the cults, the rituals, and just a bit about the shaman. This is one of those books I could enjoy even if I weren't dating anyone in the game. I think one of Alexandra's strongest suit is she's great at pacing her story and balancing every element in her story. If she kept this up until season 3, I think she's going to be one of the best RC writers.

Sorry for the long ask.

her backstory must've been mentioned for a reason so it's likely she was always meant to be here and be the one to decipher the book, but i agree with you. i'm tired of the chosen one trope too and with the themes of coming back to life/resurrection in hsr and lane thinking about why she's even holding onto life, it would be a great set up for her to be a random person given a second chance to save/doom her soul/humanity based off the path you choose.

omg i never thought of that?? lane's need to be useful came from being raised by parents that didn't want her. she had to try to earn their love by proving she was smart and worthy enough for all the pain her birth caused them ohhh my baby :((

since it's a book set during the apocalypse, it has to be plot driven but she's balancing it well with gradually revealing more about each character. it never overshadows the actual plot but all the subtle details she mentions adds up to give us a cast of characters who we know enough about to care for while still keeping the tension and mystery that's characteristic of this book.

yes!! if she'd immediately jumped into the cult aspect of the story, it would've been confusing. i liked that she took the time to set the stage, slowly increasing the scale of horror. this update was a lot darker than the previous eps and i wouldn't mind if it gets even worse bc she writes it well enough to deliver confusion and dread, without going overboard.

that's what i said too!! hsr can stand alone without the lis bc of how interesting and complex both lane and the plot are (although the routes with each li are compelling too). i really can't wait to see what she's cooking for the next update & season. i already trust her so much so i know that finale is going to decimate us next year 🙏

pls don't apologize omg i love hsr analyses bc everyone comes up with smth new !! i never even thought about the trauma thing wow

[misfitsandmusings]

⭐️ Half-hearted “theory”/wishful thinking and musing on Law, Doflamingo, Rosinante, and the “man marked by flames”. ⭐️

POTENTIAL SPOILER WARNING for the end of Wano (but not really bc my Wano knowledge as a whole is lacking. But I mention one scene at the end of it and give a vibe nod to Egghead/current events without any details. Read more-ing it from here because it’s a longish post in general and somewhat crack in nature.

I’ve been screaming with @clownquixote and have screamed at @climatact about this before but since I’m feeling unapologetically myself in my ridiculousness today I’m going to share a far-fetched “it would never happen but I self indulgently WANT it to happen so let me find this little stretch of a thread to tug on” hope/theory. (On the AMAZINGLY UNLIKELY chance that this happens I’m putting it out there right now and if it defies all the odds and comes true I demand of the universe the equivalent of Law’s bounty in… idk, something dumb like chocolate mints or bread bc as much as I love Law this chick cannot relate to the bread hate.)

But anyway- after all Law has been through in his life and series as a whole, even though YES I know his death was important to his story and character growth, I think he deserves and I would not be mad to see a plot twist in which Rosinante lived. I feel like Sabo’s reappearance came out of left field when it happened and has been widely accepted so I don’t think it’s THAT much of a stretch and if it can happen once it can happen again. The stretch of a thread I’m picking at in my self-indulgent desire to see this happen? The tiny and (I think) thus far unexplained references to the man marked by flames? When Kid says something about that mystery figure being his objective there’s a single panel -that I of course do not have saved. Will find and rb later- where it shifts to Law and he has this vaguely interested/curious look on his face. And yes, Law is curious by nature and that could and probably doesn’t mean anything.

And you would think with a cool tagline like that it would be some really important, powerful, badass character in the making but. What if it’s actually just a clumsy clown of a character prone to setting himself on fire?

I’m thinking a lot on this today because I was revisiting Law & Rosinante backstory episodes in preparation for writing kid!Law for the first time (yay!) but I jumped to episode 700 and decided to watch the entire thing instead of jumping to the actual flashbacks of Law’s childhood. The first few minutes are Law vs. Doflamingo with the latter ranting about the hidden secret use of the Ope Ope no Mi and him stating that if he’d had access to its abilities then, he would have been able to get his hands on whatever he knows is hidden at Mariejois. I have long suspected we (the fandom and poor Law) aren’t done with Creepy Mingo yet, and I won’t really get into current arc stuff because I’ve mentally checked out on it in light of some of the recent events so I’m not well-informed enough to pick it apart just yet. But I do think that bit of info, Doflamingo, and Law are going to come into play again in regards to that conversation some 300+ episodes ago. Since I didn’t claim this would be a fully fleshed out theory I don’t have much more to offer plausibility/possibility-wise yet but I am JUST SAYING Law has been through so much, Doflamingo will end up back in the fray, and I could 100% see a Rosinante that survived and has been laying low on the sidelines for his own various reasons showing up to interfere with his brother and save Law or at least finally give him some much needed light/good news/happiness in his life.

So the tl;dr highlights that I noncommittally hope but don’t really expect will happen (I’m cashing in if I’m right though okay): Doflamingo essential to whatever’s going down, Law still has some stuff to go through and will get roped into this presumably against his will, Rosinante survived and is the “man marked by flames” and will show up to help and/or protect Law. I make no apologies for wishful thinking or for not coming with receipts/all the lore knowledge I need to further explore it yet. I just wanted to get it on the record and scream about how much I want good things for Law.

Okay thanks for reading my silly rambly nonsense that I hope will come true if you did. 🙃 you can pick it apart if you want but keep in mind I make no secret my overall lore knowledge is not the best, or you can scream about it with me if you like it too.

UPDATE: I FOUND IT. (Ch. 1056. I feel like I brought receipts now even though this really established nothing. But like, why that face, Law? It seems INTERESTING. Where’d your thoughts go? Foreshadowing? Does he know something? Do flames just make him think of someone setting their clumsy self on fire all the time? Sus enough for me.)

[joshhhhhhhhhhhhhhh]

mario movie thoughts ig lol

I don’t really have any idea how to concisely sum up my thoughts on the Mario movie, so uh, to hell with being concise! Spoilers and also negativity if that bothers you

I’m absolutely gonna have way more negatives than positives so just gonna get the positives out of the way before I start complaining.

The effective intro to the movie is good. Mario and Luigi are set up pretty well as characters and especially as brothers that value one another. They’re embracing the plumbers from Brooklyn backstory and even giving Mario tons of new family members who can treat him like shit so that we want to root for the underdog and stuff. And it works, it’s endearing. Also full of general Nintendo references because hey, enjoy your 5 microseconds of spotlight Punch Out and Starfox fans lmao. Not gonna call this part flawless, but it’s effective at setting up the central conflict and emotional core of the movie. It’s also very much the reason that Mario finally rescuing Luigi at the end of the movie worked well, in fact that scene ended up being almost the only time I felt emotion in the entire movie lol.

I think Donkey Kong is done fairly well? The approach they take is effectively making him and Mario frienemies with more in common than they like to admit. They’re able to see themselves in one another through their poor relationships with their dads and while it’s not explored in uhh any depth at all I think it’s a nice idea, in general I appreciate that Donkey Kong’s history is recognised here and he’s given quite a large role in the movie accordingly.

On embracing the Brooklyn stuff, I think in general it’s nice how open this movie is in its appreciation for Mario’s history and lore. They’re not trying to soften Mario for the masses or anything, Bowser’s still out to marry the princess, Mario still eats mushroom to go big, Nintendo like recently said Mario’s not really a plumber anymore but he sure as hell is in this movie. There’s not actually too many more examples, but it’s still just nice to see a movie that’s unafraid of its source material. There are even a few ways it builds on the source, the thing sticking out most in my mind being DK and Peach getting to use the fire and ice flowers respectively, which is sick! We’ve not seen that in Mario before and it lets them have cool new designs and stuff! I’m about it!

The other big point of praise is of course that the movie looks and sounds pretty fucking great. These character designs are iconic for a reason and this animation brings them to life in a way we’ve never gotten before, with a Mushroom Kingdom at scale to match. It’s a stream of Mario iconography rendered in beautiful detail beamed straight into your eyes. And indeed, taking a series as musically rich and remembered as Mario and just giving those tunes movie composition worked super well, the soundtrack breathes even more life into the world. Even the voice acting was better than expected, Pratt was competent enough to work in his role and most of the rest of the cast give fine performances.

And that about ends the praise! Yep, really. Fuck, if anything I gave more praise there than I thought I’d manage to when I set out to write this. And so, let’s dig into where I thought the movie sucked.

The biggest thing I feel is wrong with this movie, by far, is that it concerned itself with looking and feeling like Mario, and then accomplished absolutely nothing else. There’s like nothing that happens in this that’s worth caring about in the slightest. It jumps from scene to scene to stuff as much Mario imagery down your throat as possible without letting you have time to breathe and appreciate what’s on screen for more than 5 seconds. Emotional beats are introduced and handwaved away in the span of mere moments for the sake of, what exactly? There’s a scene where Peach is evacuating the toads and tells main Toad to go, and main Toad says he’ll stay because he promised to protect her, and then Peach just smiles and the scene continues. No buildup, no catharsis, no actual character arc or growth or recognition of anything they’re worth - it just kind of happens in a 5 second window and then moves on. And then the whole movie feels like that. It knows it’s supposed to tell a story since hey it’s a movie, but it’s afraid of actually committing to that, so we just get literal scraps of interesting characterisation while the movie instead focuses on doing action scenes or telling shitty jokes.

And god for that matter the jokes really do suck. You can feel the sheer “this would be good in a trailer” for every single one of them. Haha Mario’s dressed like a cat and DK is laughing! Haha that cute baby luma with child voice is actually saying cynical edgy stuff! Haha the toads are calling themselves adorable! And because there’s no attempt to actually build on any jokes and create like actually interesting and funny running gags, it’s literally just a series of nonsequitor one-liners that exist for like... the sake of gifs? For parents to share on facebook? Or something? There’s a couple fun slapstick visual gags but the actual joke writing is just eye-rolling.

Also despite liking DK himself in this movie, I found the Kongs in general to feel super weird? Like I’m not strictly a Donkey Kong fan - I’ve beat Country Returns and honestly that’s about it - but for having praised the movie’s accuracy to Mario lore earlier I feel I should call out how little a shit it gives about Donkey Kong lore. There’s no attempt to embrace any aspects of the DK setting or original lore whatsoever, it’s all just new shit made up for this movie, things that outright contradict DK lore even. Cranky is DK’s dad now! That’s not correct! And not just that but Cranky is the fucking king? Of the Kong species and the Jungle Kingdom? Like what?? If the movie wasn’t really faithful to Mario this wouldn’t bother me in the slightest but because they’re so careful to accurately represent Mario lore it feels downright disingenuous to just throw everything that ever mattered in Donkey Kong out the window. Like yeah the movie is called Mario but guess what the first game with Mario was called, yeah? And on Kongs, Cranky is absolutely fucking unbearable. Like actually by far the most insufferably unfunny and atrociously acted character in the movie, bar none. I was actively annoyed when I had to listen to him speak, I’d take a whole cast of Chris Pratt over the voice that Cranky ended up with.

I’m also weird on Peach. I don’t necessarily mind the girlbossification - if anything she gets the coolest action scenes in the movie anyway and she ends up quite fun to watch for it, but they actively scrub away Peach’s usual self to that end? I’m down with her playing a leading role and getting to kick ass and not just being a damsel in distress but surely the polite pink super girly princess that she’s always been can also be a thing this movie recognises, right? It’s not out of character for Peach to be both at the same time, we literally have Smash! Most things Mario the series does are timeless and inoffensive with Peach being the only real holdover from earlier bad attitudes, but hey movie execs you know you’re allowed to have your cake and eat it here? Peach can bake cakes and be badass at the same time? Girls give me gender envy man I’m tired of seeing traditionally girly characters forced into the exact same badass cool girl mold, it literally feels more sexist to admit that you can’t be badass and girly at the same time. Mario’s an everyman, it’s hard to get him wrong. Luigi’s cowardly but rises to the occasion, despite a lack of screentime the movie still portrays the Luigi we know and expect. Bowser’s an evil fucking bastard that wants to marry the princess, the movie delivers exactly that. Peach is the missing link. The Peach we know and love, only half of her is in the movie. It sucks.

I’ve probably not emphasised the sheer lack of even remotely interesting storytelling in the movie so I’m gonna double dip to complain about Mario and Peach’s relationship. It’s just so, not a thing that feels written by humans. Peach is excited to meet Mario because he’s a human. Then she’s kinda just standoffish almost because #Girlboss. Then without him really doing anything Peach suddenly thinks of Mario as like her closest friend. And that’s effectively where they stay the whole movie. There’s not like a moment where it clicks that they have good chemistry or anything, there’s no established setting that sells me on their dynamic with few words like Mario and Luigi earlier in the movie, it’s just they’ve met and they’re kind of a thing. There’s even a scene where Mario like chats to Peach and DK is like “dude your flirting game SUCKS she’d never date you!!” and Toad is like “uhh fuck you she totally would!!” and Peach is just like “come on guys” all playfully, end scene. What’s the fucking POINT dude. This movie’s the origin story! And it’s being exposed to millions upon millions of people that have never stomped a goomba before! You can’t just “boy meets girl” Mario and Peach’s relationship in the context of a feature length animated film! There needs to be chemistry there needs to be development there needs to be conflict there needs to be something worth latching onto and there just isn’t.

Feel like I’m running out of specific things to say here so I’ll probably just end it here roughly. The tl;dr is that the movie’s good at being Mario but really bad at being a movie, and yeah as it turns out that’s absolutely a bad thing. Yeah maybe your favourite Mario enemy appeared and maybe you heard a familiar tune but did you get good writing? Or even a fun story? Nice humour? Anything that goes into a good movie? I get that Mario’s not story heavy so making a movie was a tough shot in the first place but there’s gotta be more that can be done than this. Game accuracy and following the lore doesn’t have to come at the expense of writing a good linear movie. It’s nice that we got game accuracy! But we should be aiming higher than that. Alas, we got the safe, bland, totally inoffensive and unmemorable Illumination movie we all feared we’d get. And somehow I’m still disappointed.

As a parting note, it’s 2023, post-credits scenes for life. This movie’s post-credits scene is woah a Yoshi egg and it hatches but cuts to black before we see what’s inside of it! With the “Yoshi!” voice line then playing! Gee I wonder. But fucking honestly, if the movie does well and we get this sequel they’re baiting. I don’t see myself watching it in cinemas at all. I’m sure I’d watch Mario movie 2 or whatever but at this level of quality? I certainly wouldn’t dare pay money for it. That’s all.

[the-bugsnax-journalists]

Alright, little sneak peak!

Although I wanted to finish the piece today, a few things happened that got in the way (hence why I'm posting this, well, this late) That being said though, I have finished the line art of the Journalists as I had promised, and since I wanted to at least post something, I'll post this! Some silhouettes of the characters in question!

Although the first is, well, pretty obvious who it is, I still wanted to make more than just one, and I thought to base them off the colors you can choose yourself while in-game! (Which is why I'm sticking for a reasoning of why the blue is blue and pink lol)

That being said though, under the cut I will write a few things for each of them ahead of time! Thought to make it a week thing where each day I expand a little more on them but that's too long lol, so instead I decided to write little summaries for each of them! Relationships and such will play into them at a later time when I post each one by one with more expanded upon details!

"Buddy" ~~~~ The Main Journalist (They/Them)

The first oc I made for the game, who I've decided to keep nameless since I can't quite stick to one single name lol. That being said, there is so much I haven't been able to really say about them, despite my brain thinking up SO many ways to tell them to you all! Sadly though, life got in the way so I guess we're sticking with text instead!

First and foremost, Buddy is mute. The reason for this is because they speak through signs and recorders. (Think of it like cartoons, were silent characters speak through signs and what have you.) The reason for this is actually because of a movie I saw in my childhood. Idk if any of y'all know about "Tadeo Jones", but one of their movies was the one I had watched through and the bird in it spoke through signs soooo yeah!

Of course, I made it so they naturally defy the laws of gravity as much as they can, to the dismay of the others- but there's more to it and such, I will post the relationship charts and such when the full pictures get released! For details regarding their backstory, I'll focus on those when we get there, but I will say this: Their family is aware of the Triplicate.

"Cleomie Worncloth" ~~~~ The Barista with a part time job (He/Him)

The second OC is part of a duo (the second half being the 4th Journalist) that I made after I had been here for quite a few. Most of you folks may or may not actually have seen their old designs! But I decided to revamp them a little bit, for the sake of my eyes and my MUCH NEEDED redesign era lmao. That being said though, I guess I should go about their usual thing.

Originally they weren't a Journalist OC, but I decided to go ahead and slap them here since in the end they would have ended up in this predicament. But basically, his schtick is rather simple. He likes to blend Bugsnax and turn them into Syrups and use them to make new drinks. Mostly as an experiment effort, of course. They want to expand their horizons of cuisine for the family cafe owned by their folks, and to get a quicker method of going around the world, he took up Journalism! That being said though, he isn't exactly the most social outside of their work, so when they aren't taking interviews and such, they usually spend time in their little corner, awaiting Bugsnax to be sent to them by their friend."

"Cottontail Tinkerlot" ~~~~ The Engineer with a dream (She/Her)

Now this one, THIS one I never really got to draw proper myself. Mostly duo to lack of motivation and such. BUT now that I finally have the time to do so, I get to properly give her a design! Mostly made for a roleplay between friends, she finally comes out of the shadows and into her own spotlight!

Cottontail as an engineer wants to create robots that can assist and support people across the globe with her energetic attitude and outgoing vigor, enough to either revitalize those that see her, or get a migraine. That being said though, why WOULD she be a journalist? Why, to document the discoveries of the scientific world of course! With her reports being mostly on the fields of robotics and such, Cottontail got inspired to take up the wrench herself, and is now on the island to see if any material can be used to create her dreams into reality!

"Ridamin Northshiver" ~~~~ The Geologist who probably broke something again- (Trans FtM - They/Them)

Alright, THIS one was the second duo to the 2nd Journalist. The reason for their design was rather simple actually. Much like how Floofty is missing a leg, I thought it interesting to go about designing a character with a prosthetic leg. (Hence the difference on the leg on the silhouette). Of course, I wanted him to be unique from Floofty, so I decided to go with a unique route with him:

Much like Cleomie, they weren't originally going to be a Journalist, but my mind decided to say "Screw it!" and go with it anyway! That being said though, Ridamin was going to originally be a Geologist. And while Cleomie still kept their previous title technically, with Ridamin it's a bit difficult to mix them together, right? WRONG! ..Probably-

The way I'm going to go about it is rather simple, Ridamin's family (much like Triffany) was full with people who worked in the historic field, but rather than being an Archeologist, they were Geologists! (I know, REAL smart way to differentiate them) That being said though, given a certain incident that caused them to lose their leg, Ridamin was told to not force themselves given their injury, but that only felt like they were being underestimated by their peers because of a single disability. Ridamin wanted to prove them wrong of course, despite their disability they can still shine much like anyone else! And if nobody is shining the light on them, then they'll get their own light another way. So that's why they took Journalism! Sure it isn't the same job, but in a way it kinda fits either way! To get interviews on how places were born, created, along with the rich history to back it up! It may not be picking dirt and... I don't know, eating it with a spoon to tell how old it is via the crunch or whatever their family does. But soon enough they'll transition to Geology, they just have to plant the base to jump high up to their goal!

[foofsterwolf]

are the first eight the new ones? tell me about them!!

The only new one that isn’t totally new is Tacenda. But otherwise. All are new! :D

So the first is Camboy Stiles which is Stiles being a Camboy and finding a NSFW website centered around werewolves. Scott visits and Stiles proposes they make a video together, here’s the snippet:

He is very happy to be back from the airport. He hates driving through D.C. traffic. Scott is led to the guest bedroom. Stiles expects him to go straight for the bed, but somehow his friend seems to have endless energy and sits on the floor in front of the boxes.

“Dude I don’t even know what is in those. Get some sleep.” Stiles complains as Scott opens the first one. He pulls out a bag of rubber bands. Stiles was wondering where those went.

“You should turn these into one of those balls.” Scott tosses them aside. Stiles gives him another look, if he’s tired, there is no way Scott -who has been up since two am- is not. “I’m not going to sleep at three in the afternoon. Sit down.” With a groan, a sigh and a stamp of his foot, Stiles complies.

Next up is Not Okay Colin. It was basically, “he will calm down if he gets pegged” as a fic. Here you go:

She moves with such grace that it knocks the breath out of Colin. That or it’s the weed talking. But the way she inhaled the smoke and blew it back out sends shivers down his spine. He could watch her for hours. She seems to have other plans however.

Her hand runs up his thigh, the action causing his longing to grow more. She’s the one. Well, every woman is the one in the moment when they collide. Whoever is there to help him when he needs it is made for him specifically. He doesn’t like to think about it too hard. He just considers himself easy to please.

“Take off your clothes,” she instructs. He eagerly complies. His hands quickly goes to undo the buttons on his branded shirt. He would do anything for her.

SK AU, oh yes. It’s for the Teen Wolf Mini Bang. I’m so excited to post it:

Blood, it covers every thought and action he does. Melds with his mind in a mix of pink and scarlet that can’t ever be truly washed away. It’s like it controls him, and commands him. He needs it. He is one with it.

It’s beautiful, washing down the walls and across the floor. Filling all of the cracks in the floor, it’s bliss. Filling him with a peace he was missing his whole childhood. He brings the knife down again, savoring the sinking and the noise that accompanies the motion. The firm releasing of the flesh under the blade, the resistance as it gives in. A high lingers over him.

Every sense is hyper-aware of every detail. His fingers slip along the hilt of the blade and he can taste the blood in the air. He feels at peace. Like a part of him that is always gone is finally where it needs to be. His soul is complete.

The whump exchange I’m writing is about Stiles surviving torture and having PTSD. Mostly it’s about him recovering slowly.

“How much sleep have you gotten?” Scott asks, he sounds tired himself. The call feels like an afterthought to a long day of work at the animal shelter.

“Plenty, you woke me up,” Stiles manages to sound more alert. He’s thankful that Scott did call him. His living through more of that dream is not his ideal night.

“Plenty? How much this week?” Leave it to Scott to hear one mention of Stiles having nightmares and then decide he needs to monitor Stiles’ every sleeping moment.

“A couple hours a night,” He lies, he is relying on Scott not hearing his heartbeat since the phone's mic can’t pick it up. He forgets that Scott has known him long enough that he doesn’t need it.

San Francisco’s finest, my darling! I haven’t actually written any of the story. I have half of the overview done though. I’ve done soooo much research for this story. It takes place in the year 1955 during real life events of the Mafia. I have 5000 words of research. Here’s Stiles’ short snippet of backstory:

Backstory: Born Mieczyslaw Genim Stilinski 1930 to Claudia and Noah Stilinski, Stiles was raised by his father to be the next in line in the Stilinski family organization. From a young age he started learning about how to run a successful crime family, by 1946 he had taken his first life in a fight with a business owner who refused to pay for protection. In 1950 he was shot two times by Isaac Lahey as Lahey defected to the new family in town, the Argents.

Tacenda is probably my current and maybe permanent magnum opus. The story is so good. I love it but it still hasn’t been properly edited:

Stiles can’t help but let out a small sigh as he paces his room. After the Nogitsune left his body the tension holding him taut like a bowstring had mostly dissipated. Mostly being the keyword. After years of only experiencing anxiety over things like possibly losing Scott, or something happening to Lydia. Having a near constant stream of it was exhausting.

In some ways he enjoys it. It’s always something to cut through the numbness he normally feels. A constant source of something for him to grasp onto. It’s hard to be bored if you can’t breathe or the words on your page are all out of order.

It’s not all gone of course, but neither is the Nogitsune. Stiles supposed that he got so used to having a voice in his head that once it was gone, the already broken collection of gray matter grasped onto it. A small comfort in an uncomfortable time. So what if he hears a voice in his head that tells him they will kill everyone close to him. It doesn’t mean he will. And it’s not like it’s all the time.

Subspace is my fictional band. I created the band for On the Road Again. Here is part of Danny’s (the drummer’s) backstory:

He grew up in a middle class family in the suburbs of Boston. His father was a doctor and his mother was a homemaker. He grew to resent the area he lived in from around the age of 10 when he started to notice how miserable his parents really were. He started playing the drums as an outlet, driving his neighbors crazy.

Once he got to high school, he quickly found his place with a group of outsiders. Frequently hosting parties at his place, he met Jack when he came by to deal pot to the party-goers. They didn’t get along at first, Danny didn’t like that Jack was dealing at his place. But he put up with it.

Last one, Stiles says they’re gay. This one is from Scott’s POV, he is woken up to Stiles and Melissa talking to each other. Stiles comes out to her before anyone else. Then starts talking about a relationship he is in. Here’s a snippet of Scott thinking Stiles and Isaac are dating:

“You two are so sweet, I don’t know why I failed to notice this sooner. Looking back, it makes so much sense.” Sweet? Isaac? He can think of a lot of ways to describe Stiles and Isaac in a room together and ‘sweet’ is not one of them.

“Isaac, sweet?” Scott mumbles into Stiles’ side. It makes Stiles laugh a little bit. Scott always forgets how ticklish he can be. He pulls back and repeats himself.

“Hush, Scotty. Go back to sleep.” Stiles says and gently pushes Scott back to the pillow. Scott doesn’t fight it. He finds the pillow far too comfortable to ignore. Plus he’s warm. He just wishes Stiles would lay back down so they can cuddle again.

“What do you think we are talking about?” His mom laughs slightly. But stands up to leave. “I’ll talk to your dad after work. Get some more rest. You boys need a lot of it after all you have gone through.” She then kisses Stiles in the forehead and ruffles his hair. She walks out of the room. Leaving just Stiles and him.

[llycaons]

atogai last lb. they finally got to fuck 😭 it was a little underwhelming tho so I can see why mx. rowland relies more on suggestion and implication than outright explicit content

oh tadek is so funny

I haven't mentioned evemer's mom bc I do not like her 😭 her harshness doesn't ease enough into genuine care and it makes it look like she raised evemer to be insane about disciple. like that isn't really good for people....and why is his only personal possession a copy of military history? thats insane. that's not healthy. he's frankly quite underdeveloped!

the hints at the softer things like the appreciation of beauty were nice but I wish they were elaborated on...also! no tragic backstory?? he's just like that?? mama mia...

kadou doesn't have this problem. he's a wonderful character, finely wrought and full of life and of the specific details that give someone a personality

this is actually the first time I've seen a marriage act as an obstacle to two characters getting together. original, if still a little weird

oh boy he has temple therapists to talk to

this trial is actually kind of crazy. they just chain them up and accuse them? and the accused have to just take it, they have no legal defenses or opportunities to defend themselves? it's not public? they're in a foreign govenrment!

sylvia's contempt for her brother is pretty funny, but it's a little underwhelming that THESE are the great masterminds. they're acting like quarreling children...

it's so sad that the sultan said she'd not take another lover...she should have good things and companionship too...

also 'even if the government sends people for you, they owe us a ton of money' their economic power is crazzyyyy

it's also kind of weird that his panic attacks stopped happening or mattering even in actual life or death situations when initially they were like a commonplace occurance. maybe having something meaningful to do really did improve his mental state that dramatically. also evemer being around

oh literally as soon as I write that, it came back. ah, chronic mental battles

gotta say, the way kadou comes to realize he loves evemer is a little anticlimactic. and then they've been having like, over the clothes sex where evemer doesn't come bc apparently that doesn't count for the purposes of annulment? this is weird and uncomfortable and I kind of wish they'd just stuck with straight celibacy for the simplicity

aw sweet they've gotten together for real. the confession was a bit weak, but eh.

oh shit this might be that sex scene I've been looking for. unfortunately there's a lot going on around me irl rn and I can't concentrate on it

okay they're gone

YESS THEY FINALLY HAD A FULL SEX SCENE

the dialogue is honestly pretty charming and funny. the sex scene itself is fine - I've read better on ao3 - and I wish it was more umm thorough but you know what I'll take what I can get. I think they're better at buildup that delivering bc they have this tendency of having characters discuss what they want to do or will do in vague but appealing terms and then not doing it bc there's no time or opportunity or w/e. but they'll do it later! offscreen! maybe I wanted the chapter-long full nudity stuff...ah well that's what ao3 is for ig

it is kind of fun that the prince is the one giving head. like there's potentially some heavily weighted expectations on their sexual dynamics bc of the nature of their bodyguard/prince relationship but it's not really about service at all. we don't even know who tops...the yaoi fangirls are weeping....

I'm satisfied in the sense that I understandal why mx. rowland doesn't write longer sex scenes and I think it's because that's simply not their forté as a writer. alas...good sex scenes are hard to come by in original fiction. or maybe I just don't read enough to know. or maybe I need to be extremely invested in the characters. hence the fanfic

but yeah I think the buildup waa so good that I had really high hopes for the actual scene itself, both here and in unstrictly ballroom, and it felt like I was being cheated so it was frustrating...but it's simoly not their strong suit and I can accept that

yayy personal growth for kadou!!! yayy the rings!!! yayyy the honeymoon!!!! yayy plans for the future!!!

what a sweet ending. a little less dramatic plot-wise, and the only hurdles were internal, but it was nice

the afterward was rly sweet too....AR clearly poured a lot of love and passion into this book and it's really heartwarming to read it

they were planning on killing tadek? damn...I knew I could scent the death flags on him. I don't know how skillfully they could have navigated that loss, and I like tadek, but I do think it would have added a heavier emotional weight to the story, and perhaps a maturity and a solid depth that was lacking

they said the first draft was written in 2016 so it's unlikely evemer was heavily inspired by lwj - in fact, AR might have liked wx or lwj because it appealed to a dynamic they already enjoyed. or maybe evemer was altered a little during the later edits. no way of knowing

also apparently the cover is ARTWORK? I for real thought that they were models, damn...well kadou is way too ugly I'm sorry. and they're both way too pale <- said as if I understand the character designs better than the author

also 6 inches is such a huge height difference. don't love height differences in general they piss me off

either way, I like the ending. a romance is easy to enjoy finishing if you like both the characters and are happy to see them together

and that's it! I do plan on reading their other books, and I do have interest in this general genre of lgbt romance historical/fantasy, but man...the bodyguard stuff really isn't my thing. I'm umpressed how well AR navigated it but if it wasn't for a set of specific circumstances, I wouldn't be reading this

as it is, the original characters were fine, the worldbuilding was pretty good if rather under, the romance was nice, the plot was uninspiring, the comedy and dialogue was actually great, the emotional and social intelligence of the writing was extremely impressive - I liked this book, but I do think AR is even better as a fanfic writer than an original writer

then again I have read some truly awful stuff on their page so. jury's mixed ig

but! there's still their other book series to read :) which I definitely will, it sounds rly good

[greysfall]

My 4444-word review of NEO TWEWY (with personal illustration + heavy spoilers)

My overall critical score for the game is 7.5/10, while my personal enjoyment score is 8.5/10. This review is posted as I have 80% completed the game, got the secret ending and achieved the Angel psychic rank. I’ll first start with the main pros and cons as follows.

PROS:

-        Enjoyable as a whole, still upholding the first game’s spirit in world building and sharing the same backbone - which was mostly revealed in the Secret Reports, it’s impossible to grasp the story without reading them.

-        The new cast and new game is charming in their own way

-        The old cast’s return is one of the biggest highlights for sure, it was fun and impactful. Everyone stays true to themselves and also had their own stories wrapped up nicely.

-        Boss designs are cool, new pins are fun to use and collect

-        The connection between the old and new cast is well written and executed, including but are not limited to the tension between the old and new protagonist, the weird but fun interaction between the 2 Composers, the new friendships revealed and formed

-        Sho being in the main cast is something so uniquely TWEWY and uniquely Sho

-        Still good music

-        Still many fun side quests, some of them really uphold the same quirky spirit of the old game and some are surprisingly touching

-        Many new nice stores and yummy looking foods to explore

-        The map is really easy to memorize for me, it’s fun to travel around the “current” Shibuya to see all the differences compared to the past

-        The social network is crazy and interesting to read through

-        Has an anti-frustration system to help 100% complete the game more easily and earn money faster, so post-game is relatively managable.

-        Overall, I really feel the efforts the team poured into making this as their passion project, not just during the development process but for all the last 14 years. They showed the vision of what they wanted to make, at the same time giving something to both the old as well as new fans.

CONS:

-        The biggest problem with the game is scenario writing. The story is so heavily back-loaded. The director himself thought it would be better to balance out the tension flow by adding more at the beginning but gave in to the scenario writer in the end, probably due to time pressure. This results in an underwhelming execution of characterization and lots of wasted potentials for the first half of the game.  

-        I struggle to view it as a stand-alone game, since the backstory and the old cast both play such an important role in the core of the game. If someone plays this game without having played the OG, they can only enjoy it on surface value at best.

-        The new cast is nice but most of them aren’t quite as intriguing as the old cast, maybe it’s cuz they’re all too nice deep down that they lack a little bit of an edge, of that batshit craziness that everyone in the OG used to have? I think some characters (Fret, Nagi) ended up weaker in terms of characterization because the writer is too afraid of making them unlikeable – which kind of backlashed cuz they only became likable in the most expectable way to cater for a specific group of fans. I would have wished for the other team leaders to be more crazy too, had they not suffered 30+ loops of the Game…

-        The CAMERAWORK IS HELL.

-        Gameplay does get tedious at certain points with all the time travels.

-        Shiba is so badly written as a villain, some Shinjuku characters should be given more screentime cutting into Shiba’s– like Hishima or Kaie or even, Hazuki (though his limited presence also solidified his importance).

-        Some of the main character designs, for example Beat’s hairstyle and his food reactions are hilariously bad. What’s the point of covering up most of his unique facial features?

-        Some of the minor/side characters’ design are too cool for them to have such a small role (eg: Ayano, Eiru). Ryoji did get much screentime but is nowhere as fun as Makoto was.

-        Overall the scope of this game is made a little too big for the team to handle as perfectly as the last game that was very compact, it felt somewhat rushed in development too so the missing pieces are clearly there in the final picture

The entry fee versus paying for it all in the end

An important difference between the Neo game and the original Shibuya game was that the Shibuya rule asked for an entry fee that is the Player’s most important asset, stated as a chance the Composer gives them to reexamine themselves. Meanwhile, the Shinjuku rule neither encourages nor allows personal growth and ultimately aims to erase as many Players as possible. It’s a pity we were never introduced to the full Shinjuku rulebook, as it seems like the system there focuses more on building up power and a grand government to compare with the individuality-driven system of Shibuya.

When you have to compare the new game and the original game (OG), this is an important factor to consider. Also, the OG has a serious storyline running through and through, locked with a different partner/GM creating unique atmosphere for each week and you don’t get to see your old partners again until the end. NEO’s team system does not allow such deep insight and communication between the Players. All of your teammates are always there throughout, the dynamic does change with each new addition but it is not as prominent as a partner change.

Another important factor is how the OG was built from scratch for a new platform as “something no one has ever seen before”, while Neo recycled a lot of old unused ideas from the previous development (check out this interview for more details). The development team for NEO lacks 2 key members and had a change of writer so the final product is not as strongly bound together as the last game.

The new cast is definitely inspired by today’s teenagers (from the view of creators), compared to the old cast they’re more sociable and always seem to take whatever works for them despite feeling unstable inside. They are all innocent and genuinely nice kids, avoiding to hurt each other to a degree that they end up keeping some sort of distance. They’re also unable to communicate at deeper levels, always stagnant at this half-baked stage of equilibrium without any motivation to get to the core of things. That is the cost of entering the game without an entry fee, without even dying or having a reason to be there/to fight seriously. These kids were stolen from the RG into a Game that was decidedly the worst environment for them to change or develop, just wandering around cluelessly to find a way “out” until tragedies started to unfold one by one and they ended up being charged the total sum of the price for their actions – ultimately losing everything in the end.

That is, I believe, a story arc which can resonate more to the youth of today rather than of my generation. If the message of the old game was to “listen”, enjoy life to the fullest and accept to trust others, the message of the new game is to “speak up” from the inside, trying to understand yourself and take actions instead of just going with the flow and finally, to take responsibility for such actions.

If Neku was handpicked by the Composer for being the special one with an all-dense soul to ensure victory of the game then Rindo was just a normal kid chosen out of random by Kubo to be his back-up plan, who just happened to have a high enough imagination to awaken the incredible power from his pin. Rindo was then officially chosen by the Composer as Josh picked up and handed the pin to him again, this time not as Josh’s personal Proxy – but as the Proxy to represent the normal people of Shibuya and via whom he could gamble if humans can fight for their own fate.

The underworld heroine and the hero with little of his own

Shoka is for me a refreshing and layered heroine. She’s the kind of character that took at least 3 trials of creators to form as a complete individual – that included Nomura who gave her the base design and Reaper background, Gen who gave a more cunning touch and the writers who made her English dialogues more punchy. Dishonesty equals “tsundere” is such a cliché, so the English writers tried really hard to avoid that trope in my opinion, while still letting her good intention come through.

She serves as the character who is informed of everything the players should have known, and there was almost nothing she could do about it. Almost. Until she met Rindo.

They were drawn to each other by sharing a state of “not having anything of their own”. They both started out with not being able to truly know themselves, Shoka even hated her RG life but also managed to mature from that stage before Rindo. She must have vibed with Shiki’s love and passion in the Gatto Nero threads, initiating her connection with Shibuya and understanding herself more. With Shoka as Swallow, they were able to open up to each other and offer mental support… but was still not getting to the centre of their problems because for all this time, Shoka could not tell Rindo the most important things about herself.

How did Shoka feel when she met Rindo at the UG? She probably didn’t want to hope that he would live the day until she witnessed the Twisters’ potentials. From the very beginning, they were both incredibly conscious of each other and also constantly frustrated that the person they happened to “notice” was such a condescending bitch/a clueless loser. The Shinjuku Reapers are overall quite drunk in power and uncompassionate to Players, Shoka included. She is also a master of dissociation, which results in her constant boredom, tone swings, haughtiness and subconsciously distancing herself from the friend – the boy she cares about – from false hope, as she judged from facts that it was a hopeless situation where nothing could ever be. Maybe she is naturally a bit of a chameleon just like her name suggests (Shoka 紫陽花 = hydrangea, the color-changing flower), so putting on an act and always dissociating herself from what’s important was easy, while hiding her contradiction was impossible. It was the ex-Reaper Beat who broke it out to her, that she should decide whether she really cared and wanted to do something for a change. He knew how it felt like to cross that line, and knew she wanted to too.  

Shoka is endeared by many of the Shinjuku Reapers and has shown independent acts of kindness (the Shinjuku ghost), proving that her kind and truthful side is as real as her harsh and dishonest side – which makes her a nice mirror to the previous heroine Shiki, who also embraced a dichotomy of self-complex and self-love within her character. In the end, she was the first of the new cast to ultimately accept all that is important to her and independently made the decision to help save Shibuya despite all costs.

She was jealous at Rindo’s interaction with Tsugumi and Kanon but remained silent cuz she wasn’t at a place to have any say about it. She also didn’t reveal about Swallow because that would only add an awkward irrelevance to their current situation, as she was too ready to face erasure at the end of the Game. She only wished to “play a game” with him, be it FanGo or the Reapers’ Game. The tension that the team could only feel at the end, she’s felt it the entire time. The song “DIVIDE” is applicable to not just one bond in the game, but it always makes me think of theirs. There is always a “divide” between her and Rindo throughout the course of their journey, as the living and the dead, as a Player and Reaper, as someone who has a place to return to and someone who doesn’t, someone who knows little but wields too much power and someone who knows a lot despite not being able to do much.

“If only I had the chance to connect with you on the other side

But time goes on, and without us realizing it

The battle is getting heated

Time goes on, and without us realiazing it

Divided again”

To be honest, maybe I didn’t grow any affection for the new main cast from Rindo’s perspective but from Shoka’s. Since I started to sympathize with Shoka, I started to see the boy in a more “real” way. The real Rindo, behind his peaceful façade with others, would lash out on Shoka for her unfairly harsh attitude while none of the others cared. He could also subtly feel that mantle of unspoken secrets from her, her own contradictions, the unresolved chemistry between themselves – and not knowing what to do with it rather than to feel angry with all the unfairness he could not process. (As a Libra too, he’s triggered the most by unfairness!)

It is actually a positive development as he’s at least “reacting” to something strongly now rather than to keep evading his problems. During my replay, I clearly saw the difficult situation Shoka was in, her remaining harshness after the Motoi incident was due to her internal struggle with a mission to save her own life, versus a chance to really be with the team. Her decision was to do both at the risk of losing favour from both sides. Rindo started to accept her layer by layer, as the person who resonated the most to her contradicting nature from the start and knew that via learning her resolve, he has learnt his too.

Later into the game, she even got too much of his attention. Maybe even without knowing she’s Swallow, he’s familiar with her thinking direction and Swallow had always been closer to him than any other friend. It was only after she had to betray her important ones twice that she could start being truly honest. The scene when she died a 2nd time left a strong impression in me, the little reveal let Rindo know that he is also losing Swallow as he’s losing Shoka – and that only death could drive the last secret out of her. Her final “Later, loser” echoed through Rindo as it was the final truth, with only him remaining to hear it: they had actually, already lost everything.

Rindo was the boy who never dared to face all that matters to him until he lost it all, fighting an unfair battle in the faith that they would somehow still win. Shoka was the girl who always knew what was dear to her, but never dared to think she could be together with them ever after and still threw her all into a battle she knew was losing. I think they stir each other on naturally to fill out their gaps, similar to what the Shibuya game partner systerm would have aimed for. The end reward was a little divine intervention to help close up the divide between them once and for all.  

During the game there was not enough space to process anything personal so at the ending when they officially became “friends”, it was an important affirmation of their bond. Some people complained it was friendzoning but it’s not, they just have arrived at the perfect place to start something more. “From now on, we will truly be together” – I read it as that kind of message.  

The heroine from a lost battle, with her story taken away

After reading the secret reports and playing the game to be surprised of how small a role Tsugumi had in the main game despite being the “Hype-chan” thought to be a major character of the next TWEWY installment, many fans would feel sad at a missed opportunity to see the Shinjuku arc in full depiction.

It was shown clearly that, a Shinjuku arc was very carefully planned out and is a vital part of the whole story, yet it could not be made due to various circumstances behind the development scene. I would assume, that the team were not able to make a TWEWY game that ended on a despairing note, but it already happened in their mind, thus becoming a mental burden that forced them to break away from it and started the game anew with NEO. A significant part of NEO became the healing arc for the Shinjuku characters, especially for Tsugumi though I really wished more emphasis should have been placed on her rather than Shiba. We didn’t even get to see her brother – Shinjuku’s Conductor who had a vital role and instead was given the clueless Shiba, who had absolutely no idea what’s going on all the way until the last day in NEO. It’s as if Tsugumi has had her story stolen away from her, because her own battle ended with a saddening loss.

I think every time the game creators look at Tsugumi, they would feel that sadness too. Maybe to them, she is a bigger character than what is seen by the fans, as despite their failed effort to depict her story, she’s lived in their mind for all these years through periods of destruction, healing and rebuild.  Though it is a pity we could not get to experience the full scope of the Shinjuku story, the creators was clear about the place they wished for it to arrive at.    

Individuality, connection and the social network

The team system adapted from Shinjuku rulebook does not allow much room for personal development, as the team dynamic is closer to a work relationship forced to bear results, than a spiritual bond to max out all corners of understanding as found in the partnership system. The old Shibuya system allowed only 1 winner and 1 week limit per game, while the new rule declares for a 1 winning team and only the team at last place will be erased – the other teams will enter another loop. Furthermore, whichever team to challenge the unwinnable Ruinbringers will face the risk of ending up dead last followed by erasure. As a result, the longest-standing teams are most likely not the strongest ever recorded, but the ones who have figured out a strategy to simply survive until something changes, enjoying their newly found social constructs while they are at it. Basically, it is a system to hypnotise players into the illusion that they are still “living”.

Therefore, we as players would not get to the core of each Player individually as fast and directly as we did in the last game. The Twisters were able to stand out not because they’re powerful, they only started to have a real chance after growing enough to each form a meaningful and personal connection to another teammate. It did not come as a team, nor did it intiate from the existing friendship between Rindo and Fret. In fact, I did not find much solidity or anything truly note-worthy about the main team and new characters within themselves until they started clashing with other team members, Reapers and new recruits from week 2 onwards. Rindo found his personal development with Shoka (via a clash with Motoi and pretty much a mini dating sim between them), then via the confrontation of his role with Neku; Fret found his with Kanon then Nagi, the team learned about the real Neku via Beat, Neku entered the UG via Coco’s wish to save Tsugumi… it was not the team but their personal links that empowered them to fight and solve each of their problems.

The other team leaders may have failed because they did not form such personal links, after 30+ hopeless loops Fuya’s team all fell apart to pursue their own interest even at the cost of erasure, Motoi quit his KOL façade to work like a dog for the Reapers (probably to save just his own ass not his team), while Kanon dropped her tricks to find changes via honest cooperation in acceptance of a fair loss. The despairing note in that is huge without making much of a scene because their failure didn’t happen at their best effort to “win”, but in their last attempt to find a way “out”. Even Shiba got his way “out” in the end thanked to his personal friendship with Hishima and Tsugumi.

Something has shifted in the mindset of the game creators in the last 14 years, as both games are about “connection vs individuality” but the last game focuses more on connection between just individuals and this one on the overall network that is formed out of those individual connections.

The introduction of Beat into the main cast was truly the bridge between old and new, they helped each other out in several turns before officially recruiting him. Beat is a character whom a lot of fans including myself have felt somewhat concerned about after Neku disappeared from the RG, so when the new kids welcomed Beat with warm and organic interaction and Beat seemed happy, I started to feel like I wanted to help them out too! I think the overall team chemistry is enjoyable enough for new players, but I could warm up to the new kids more from the pov of a returning character – whom I’m glad to be Beat, as the older brother figure who is genuinely kind, fun, serious and upbeat at the same time; who is needed and needs the kids in return.

The social network is a fun and refreshing feature. You can read all of the crazy tidbits about Shibuya and the links each character have formed with the town people, it’s also fun to visualize how the characters act off screen. Characters’ profiles provide extra insight into their background too, like how it reveals Tsugumi has been friend with Coco during her time in the RG. During the game when not all characters have showed up, you can sometimes guess which empty spot will belong to whom. For example there is a 1 character linking to Neky that is not linked to anyone else, so I could guess that was Joshua, and that another character linking only to Joshua was probably Hazuki, hinting that the 2 Composers are related before either of them even showed up.

Hazuki only showed up for 5 minutes, but his presence is so vital and true to the game that I think he is the most memorable out of the new cast. The two Composers have such an intriguing bond, with their yin/yang or phoenix/dragon themes, opposite color design, the sempai/kouhai tone and the way they keep some sort of distance/work relationship as if it’s mandatory between Higher beings, yet at the same time they can talk so casually because they are truly equal – and different from one another. I have written a separate meta on them here.

Some people pointed out, that all Shinjuku characters’ names and themes are based off Hanafuda cards and the Phoenix in Hanafuda belongs to the Paulownia suit – which is Joshua’s name flower. This is so interesting because it feels like the creators somehow saw it as a sign to interweave the Shibuya and Shinjuku storylines together. Though it doesn’t come out much on the surface, it’s fascinating nonetheless considering both Josh and Haz had at some point interfered with the other town’s affairs.

“Shibuya tour with Haz” was such a special scene, as it happened between 2 characters who do not/no longer have a reason to care about Shibuya, on the subject of what is worth saving about Shibuya. Hazuki carried out the purification of Shinjuku and stepped in to restore Shibuya just as part of his job and unlike Hanekoma or Joshua who both possess profound understanding of humanity, he really didn’t know humans at all. Rindo’s irrational wish invoked in him a sense of curiosity, to try gambling on something irrationally and learning a bit of what his senior have experienced. With all the pieces put together, it provides an overview on Higher beings as a whole, and that Joshua and Hanekoma are really the odd ones out with Hazuki being somewhere in between them and the rest.        

The old friends

It’s easy to have returning characters overshadow the new cast as they have already matured out of their personal story arc and stayed in our hearts for all this time. In the end, I have managed to enjoy both the old and new cast separately and altogether, and they will both find their own place in our memory of this game for the long term.

Sho is truly as crazy as ever, the game wouldn’t be the same if Sho is any less of what he is. Sometimes it doesn’t feel like Neky or Beat is younger than Nagi at all, with moments when it seems like Neky has aged 14 years instead of 3 years. His friendship with Coco surprised me pleasantly, and their interaction together with Beat was fun to watch. Rhyme’s found a new dream and her friendship with Kaie is precious too, especially considering that she can still talk to him online after the game ended. Josh and Neku’s interaction suggested that they have resolved the past and are on equal terms now, they even parted ways in good spirit and I don’t feel any worry about them like I did before.

Neku and Shiki’s reunion scene was beautiful, theirs is such a special bond that it has grown and supported them even without being able to see each other. I am so happy to see them all again and that they stay true to who they are, albeit looking more grown up, cooler and happier than ever before.  

Overall, NEO can’t become a classic on par with the OG, but is definitely a good sequel and a good game in its own rights. I’m happy with whether or not there will be a 3rd game to complete the 3 monkeys theme, but if there will be – I hope the creators can really find the time to learn from the last 2 games and start over with a fresh mindset and strong core.