#his performance was lacking in the last immortal

[fortycumber]

give me an attractive man blinded by anger and revenge, with a good set of luscious grey hair and you know I'll be on board...no matter what becomes of this drama

[ourolite2]

ᨳິ petites idées!　　nsfw, smut. xiao + wanderer.　what kind of bottom they would be?! *round of applause* themes — hinted dacryphilia, overstimulation, god complexes, edging, you name it! with other honorable mentions such as m!oral receiving, praise kicks, breeding kinks, blindfolding- oh, and cowgirl. ༄

❀ “You speak of my approval with such ease, it is no easy feat to make me approve such lecherous ideas.” — Says the cross-armed, baleful-eyed yaksha.

❀ “It is when you’re HIM!” — Retorts the smug-faced gn!adventurer who lacks every meaning of self-preservation.

��� No because you felt like THEE shit when you managed to convince him to bottom for you simply because his confirmation evinced that he trusts you greatly. You’re also quite sure he understands the vulnerability of his position, hence his hesitation even towards your reassurance and lighthearted jokes. Anyway, I’m sure he’s a demanding yet pleasing bottom. Not an ounce of kinkiness or brattiness radiates from his sweet self. His primary focus is to please you, after all.

✿ He’d do anything to give and receive said pleasure, though when he’s on the receiving end, he’s more demanding simply because he knows what he wants. Surely he’s still somewhat timid when it comes down to it, but not enough to disclose discomfort. Though, you almost never cause enough discomfort for him to relent completely. Surely he’s still somewhat timid when it comes down to it, but not enough to disclose discomfort. Though, you almost never cause enough discomfort for him to relent completely.

✿ But the downside to such PARADISE is him tending to lose focus when he’s too stimulated, so without proper communication you’re likely to get harmed during the process. Such as him biting your shoulder to the point where you’re dripping with blood, for example. Hence he’s a runner not because he’s overstimulated, but worried for your safety.

✿ LIKE OKAY LET ME COOK RQ ITS OKAY JUST LISTEN—

꒰꒰　　“[Y/n], why aren’t you speaking?”

𝒲hile gyrating his pearly-white hips to define impatience, the bleary-eyed adeptus questioned the one between his thighs who was unsuccessfully managing to retain a smile on his face. His baltic gold eyes were lowered with intemperance as if the concept of composure has yet to fill his mind. Though of course, considering the titillating scene below him, an innate look of intimidation is the last thing he could perform at the moment, for his cheeks suffused with crimson once your lips enriched his rubified tip with an amorous smooch.

Conflicted, since your immortal lover twitched rhythmically in your palm as if he isn’t upset over something minor, you stared up at him as you seasoned kisses along the viridian designs that journeyed from his faultless abs to his soppy tip. His expression softened sequentially once you’ve acknowledged that you forgot something during your travels, which was to fetch a kiss from the agitated yaksha’s lips below you, earning a waspish whine from him. Confused, you did just that, and while speaking “Alatian” has its perks, you do wish sometimes he would just speak his mind at times.

“Would you like for me to talk to you, Alatus?” You asked him against his departing lips, which were faminished and quivering for more than just a meaningless peck. Shamelessly, he nodded, his arousal unbridled much like his leather-gloved hands that found solace within your thighs. He gripped them with imprudence, his fingertips excavating into your skin to the point where you moaned at the seething sensation. You tittered at his display of desperation with another one of those teasing pecks he learned to loathe, but he wouldn’t dare make his move. Not in the volatile state he was in. Not yet at least.

“Okay, my love. I’ll talk you through it. Just lay down and relax, and everything will be alright.”

Your promising tone was the personification of qingxins. It even sparked the coldest stare to convert into a dewy-eyed state, his dick throbbing relentlessly without a lick of consideration for his depleting composure. Once you lowered yourself back towards the issue, your siren-like glare fixated on him, and if your mouth wasn’t enough to have him clenching the life out of the silky duvets, your voice certainly did the trick. Despite being capable of maintaining eye contact, his head gradually tilted backwards, trotted by a shaky moan eluding his lips.

“I… Hah… Hah…” He panted brainlessly as your mouth enveloped around his aching shaft, roughly and greedily sucking him as your head bobbed at a reasonable pace. Although you believed that he was going to last a little longer, the excessive twitching down your throat begged to differ. Alatus’s forearm was concealing his line of sight as his hips uncharacteristically thrusts inside of your mouth in order to amplify the whirling pleasure. A muffed gag rumbled beneath your throat in response, though your warning was needless to the needy thing, for he only groaned ecstatically when the vibrations blessed his slobber-coated dick. Times like this, it’s practically an obligation to relent. Even though you’re alright with the idea of him obliterating your vocal chords, he tends to get a little too animalistic at times.

His dick slid from off your drooling tongue with a heavy breath, though the metallic connection between his tip and your mouth was inseparable; he needed to be in your mouth, desired to hear how you’d sound after he fucked your throat with such potency. Instinctively, with a low whimper to correspond with his impulses, he shoved himself back in your mouth, causing you to gag louder than before. You pulled back innately in order to let out a strained cough, but you still possessed the consciousness to continue stimulating him by wrapping your supple fingers around his drenched length. Alatus’s teary eyes widened apologetically once he processed his actions, but bestowing a raspy chuckle in response to his desperation made his worries dissipate within milliseconds.

“N-Not yet… not yet… Need.. more?”

He immediately begged without a breath in his lungs, but that was expected with the way he was panting as if someone was asphyxiating him. His look was still flushed with apologies that his arousal refused to verbalize (expect him to latch onto you apologizing once you two finish, however). It would be intrusive to force him to dwell in such an agonizing state, though the way his tears brightened his amber-blessed eyes only made you squirm even more in anticipation. It was a difficult choice, whether to make him cum now or see how long it would take for him to finally break.

Such a poor thing, please treat him accordingly, would you?　　꒱꒱

❀ “Huh… and what makes someone like you so worthy of that?” — Asserts the haughty, anthropologic doll.

❀ “Well, what do I need to do to deserve all of you?” — The hispanic!male adventurer replies with a similarly haughty appearance.

✿ You’d need an unreasonable amount of self-control to deal with him. I’m sure we’re all aware that he also fits in the switch category, and I’d also like to believe that he’s definitely a degrading, punishing top who would probably make you beg to cum only for him to refuse each time. Him bottoming didn’t change his personality much as well, because now he’s a power bottom brat who doesn’t understand when or how to be quiet. The most you could do is practice the term “patience”.

✿ Oddly, despite his disrespectful antics, he adores praise, just like any other individual with narcissistic tendencies. Adulation is something any God should bask in, yes? Instead of punishing him for his mouth, which takes longer to rectify, you should keep a kind smile and claim that his pretty face is better when drenched with tears. Now this nigga sobbing with each chance he gets, ordering you to compliment him.

✿ I also like to believe that Wanderer knows many variations of Spanish… iykyk. His Shouki no Kami was probably inspired by Latin American folklore and history. Y’all know them damn them Incas was unnecessarily strong. In order to study it, he needed to explore the languages first.

✿ Man, just let me cook- LET ME COOK, PLEASE.

꒰꒰　　𝓑illowing smoke of the burning Kalpalata lotus aromatized the bleak vicinity to help catalyze the whirling arousal in your abdomen in order to free yourself from exasperation, though even a sex-inducing flower wasn’t enough to reach a singular orgasm considering your doll’s intentions. Your senses were reliant on touch and smell, from remnants of padisarahs and plastic wafting in your face since Kuni’s hat was disrupting your line of vision, to your dick being swallowed effortlessly by the failed deity, who was also grunting waspishly because of such. Really, it was forbidden to even consider anything but him during such a pious session. How dare you burn something so useless when there was an intoxicant bringing ambrosial warmth, mewling and groaning endlessly around your shaft, embellishing the reddened beige with hallowed ivory? You were mocking him and he knew it.

“Dámelo,” He panted begrudgingly causing spittle to elude his lips that were perishing from desiccation. Without giving you a moment to relish in his faultless lilt that wasn’t programmed in his system, but rather studied simply by analyzing how you speak, he snatched the floral-based joint from between your fingers before tossing it elsewhere. You didn’t need it. You needed him to cum, but it was beginning to sound like he was convincing himself more than anything.

He could even feel you grinning puckishly underneath his meretricious hat, which he forbade you to remove since you didn’t deserve to bask in the glory he endowed upon you, but you could definitely rely on your imagination. From what you’ve learned was a cross-armed, disdainful-appearing doll converting into a needy, irritable lover who needs to feel you come undone beneath him. “Do you ever consider being more God-fearing, [Y/n], or do you have some sort of dying wish?”

Irreverently, you nodded to affirm his revulsion; he was on the verge of leaving you hard and impatient to accentuate his disappointment. You understood this, seeing as he placed his frigid palms on your pecs in order to ascend his hips, but you grasped one of them instinctively, coaxing his walls to remember why they contract to begin with. Meanwhile your other hand occupied his rubified dick, your thumb anointed with cum that seeped from his sensitive tip. A spate of overwhelming, awe-inspiring, sacrilegious images permeated your memories once your fingers journeyed along his maculated hips, your dick twitching harshly inside of him since the overwhelming desire to paint his ass with crimson handprints inveigled you greatly. It’s almost as if he hasn’t even threatened you to begin with, for the broken whimpers that were poorly disguised as resentful grumbles desired endless adulation.

“¿Ay, muñeco… Quieres más?” You questioned sonorously as your thumb gyrated around his tip, your tone somewhat strained due to the fact that Kuni pulsated and clenched around you because of appropriate addressment. Although he despised the fact that he needed to reduce to fragility to become utilitarian, libations of cum spluttering from his hole as you fuck him during plethoras of orgasms was considerable for the night. The mortifying idea left him ironically blinded, which was determined with the way his hips wiggled and rutted irregularly onto your dick.

Even with his condescending persona, it was evident that he wanted to be of some use to you; he could hardly restrain the tears that painted his porcelain-based eyes as a spew of no’s eluded his lips. In fact, he hasn’t even given you any time to process, since he already snatched your hand away from his tip to avoid finishing too fast… for the third time.

“W-Wait, please…” Imploringly, he hissed under his breath, an innate curse muttering afterwards when he expressed with vulnerability. Deplorable, to say the least. Extremely, to say the least. You adored every second of it; it took you the rest of your self-possession not to batter into him to the point he was charming incantations as if you were his lord. Though, you respected his wishes for now, especially because the cool zephyr kissing your sweat-painted face provided by him finally removing his hat was enough to bring solace to your impulses. “Don’t make me… not again…”

Kuni’s resilience was impeccable, and despite his muddled vision, tousled, empurpled blue hair, panting lips, and entirety of his fucked out exterior, he was willing for more that you had in store for him. You bit your bottom lip with another one of your infamous smiles as you finally grasped both of his hips with both hands. He was startled, let alone offended, at first, but once you began gradually lifting and plunging him down on your dick, the negativities dissipated like flower petals in February. His authenticity was enough, and you could already feel your orgasm approaching rather quickly since you preferred the stammered whimpers rather than the taunting comments. He was more appropriate like this, after all.

“That’s it, fuck me fast- mierda. Want an oblation? Then show me. Show me you need me to cum.” 　　꒱꒱

⑅ neso productions. all rights fucking reserved, do not plagiarize.

[iceclew]

hahaha, yeah, might have been re-obsessed with my own AU here, because some @mechazushi fueled my brain with new content about them..so I can't help it.. once again diving deep into the fantasyy... and next to the Witcher and Skyrim law... well I came along with something else as well now :D

*mushes WOW into the fantasy pile*

Part 1 here

Oh, and THIS time I'll add my thoughts about them IN the description, how 'bout that? (▀U ▀-͠)

Narumi Gen:

Witcher/Hunter and counterpart/companion of Soshiro Hoshina. They both initially travelled to the mountains to find a rumored dragon's den to slay said. His skills are very much resembling what a witchers can do, and he is remarkable in swords art, but also a formidable sourcerer for fight related magic and enchantment. Hoshina lacks the skill for advanced spells. They have an unspoken agreement to help each other get better with the skills the lack. He also prepares most of their potions.

Mina Ashiro:

(OK, listen Reno bb, pls don't cry, I promise you get your own ref sheet, I already made some scribbles as well!! She just shoved herself into my brain last night, and I liked it, so I simply had to do this! (~￣³￣)~ I'll make it up buddy <3)

I very much loved the idea of her being a long gone friend of dragon Kafka, that gifted him his human form and influenced his life so much. It suits the story sooo good!! But I kinda was sad she wasn't part of the current story anymore... ಡ ﹏ ಡ Well yeah, that's what I thought about yesterday while working on Narumi, got to bed, and at like 2 am a word hit me like a rock and I was fcking wide awake..

Banshee... ╭( ๐_๐)╮omg, that's gonna be awesome, I'mma make her a banshee like Sylvana and she's gonna be there and has to rediscover the world, since she was gone so long.

sfhfsdldkjthat's what I did. She is a banshee now, lol. A half-elf banshee, might I add. Revived by a necromancer in a very complicated ritual. So basically - welcome to season 2 of this AU of ours I guess? The necromancer in question (oh my, who could it possibly be, I ask? It's ma gurl Rin, of course) contacted Kafka and his party, with the intention to perform a ritual on Mina's grave to free her soul, which is still clinging to earth because of a later discovered act of betrayal that 'caused Tachikawa to fall when their enemies arrived. (smth like this, I dunno, I didn't think this part through a lot, lol)

For performing the ritual she needs, amongst other things, detailed information and a contribution of someone that was close with the deceased. After finding Mina's grave and corpse deep down in the catacombs of Tachikawas ruins they start the ritual. Kafka needs to contribute a scale and some details about Mina in the past, that the necromancer incorporates into the ritual. To everyone's suprise she also adds her own blood. The necromancer reveals her true goal to not free but capture Mina's soul and obtain her powers. But something goes wrong (maybe because of Kafka interrupting the ritual now, or smth idk) and instead Mina is revived as an undead soul with a new (but slightly unfinished) body. Because of the contributed blood she is bound to her summoner for as long as it takes her to find and free the part of her soul that is in fact still captured somewhere on earth. (Oh no - so Kafka gets his bestie back, that is also basically immortal :| And I def. have in mind some enemies to lovers bullsh*t here with the banshee and her necromancer, lol sorry not sorry)

I used a whole bunch of references that I would like to mention:poses 1 2 3 + clothing 1 2

[horizon-verizon]

Interview with a Vampire: Claudia

I watched this series a long time ago, both season, but I remember that I never expressed my disdain for Claudia-hate.

Some people argue Claudia had no right to be angry at Louis for telling Armand about Lestat...ugh.

While you may be part of a community, I don't think that means that said community has a right to force you to dehumanise yourself or to dehumanise/infantilize you. Or to ignore and dismiss what are very deep core, defining wounds in favor of their own "order". They know she is an adult and a community very much can change or shape itself towards some members' emotional needs as long as there's a unresentful understanding amongst all.

That play, if you notice, is basically describing--metaphorically--Claudia's existence, how others see her, how the coven members can and might abuse her, as well as foreshadowing the end of this story Claudia may have chosen to be a part of a coven, and specifically one in theatre, but she did not ask for infantilization. It's like if you have an insecurity and then tried to find a group to "belong" to, say a church community, but you find out right after you joined that you have to basically hone or perform your insecurity many times a week. For Claudia, that's x50. If you go back to the last episode, in the after credits, the directors and actors reveal that for the vampires, performing's only purpose is for them to be as they are (killing humans for glee, blood, etc.) while in front of the very humans they have to hide from so as to not be hunted or else.

Claudia has another layer of tragedy--her being a vampire adult stuck in an immortal body. And she has been forced into posing as a child for all of her vampire life, AND she has never been a human adult. While every other vampire she has met has at least experienced--even if they don't remember--what being a human adult was like and have carried whatever makes one "adult"/become physically "mature". Claudia is arrested in childhood not just physically of body but partially of mind, as you said. She has been trying to understand what it means to be a vampire and to be a realized vampire all this time, which is why she was so single-minded in finding other vampires--to find any frame of reference as well a a community that knows and appreciates their own vampire "self". So she could then find what she can be without it always going back to her entrapped state. Who is she, what is she? The girl who has never been "fully" mature? Who has only known adult" life as a vampire but is trapped with the form of the human self she no longer has any real attachment to? She quite literally doesn't have much clue what it's like being a more comparatively complex "human" (kids are still people, still complex, and have good cognitive skills) and has had no mental grasp or sensory experience of "humanness" to actively use when defining-measuring her own actions and self. Or others'. Other than the memories of an abusive aunt and a father who neglected her that are diluted to its most potent foundation of fear that obviously she nor others would want to dwell on, thereby making her even more focused on being a "vampire". There is quite literally nothing like the "leftover" shame Louis has from his mortal life in her, nor something else in the same "family" in potency.

Therefore she has no real interest or feeling of proximity or stake in understanding humanity nor her own proximity to the possible meanings of "humanity"--which explains her lack of patience or care or empathy for humans. She has nothing else but vampirism. So yes, there are more sticky, overlapping motivations for her "demanding" is not strictly the same sort of demanding as the kind of a child's natural forwardness, curiosity, & self-centeredness. Rather, this is a separate, related, and mutually informing phenomenon to how she is partially always a child with impulsive, demanding self-concern of a teen/child.

No one else has this sort of condition, even if they are also trapped in some ways and by their own actions. Only for her to be forced into playing a child in front of the very mortals she and the others do not think of as actual people. It is also like they are excluding her from their own process of self-actualization of vampirism, even inadvertedly. The effect is cruel and unnecessary. She can play a little person, or Armand can do as she asks and relegate her to the back, but he specifically states how he wont' bec "he said so", she should be "grateful", and that they are making a lot of money. As if that is actually why they perform in the first place. So, it's also form of exploitation. In a way, the coven is "feeding" off of her or she is going through special "punishment" before Armand actually punishes her. Child star, anyone? It's also interesting, considering how she is a walking violation of their laws, how they already show that they hate when their precious rules are broken, and how they resent Armand for making Louis just walk around breaking rules...she likely will/would have always been an outlier--socially--in the community she looked for all her life. So, they could also be said to take pleasure in her de-personing similarly to how they take joy/self affirmation when they kill humans onstage--"look at how we enforce our own laws, watch us punish this girl and watch as how we mock 'innocence', how opposed we are to the very concept." And they literally sucked the joy of performing from Claudia by trapping her in the performance she wanted to use to "free" herself--a thing she would have loved and thrived in, used to destroy her.

Claudia is in the most danger if the coven finds out abt Lestat, since Louis is at least in Armand's favor by having slept with him/Armand being in love w/him. And she is physically weaker, smaller as well as a literal "abomination". Louis using the reason of "you were unhappy" is simply not enough in the face of this danger mostly stacked against her, so his superior motivation is that he wanted to keep close to Armand. He had a whole year, mind you, to tell her Armand knows. S2Claudia is not the girl who kept secret the bodies of people she indiscriminately killed after her breakdown last season, which itself again was, as self-destructive and messy for not just her but Louis and Lestat, was a mental breakdown from THEIR actions in turning her as she is now that lead to her killing her first crush/how Lestat handled that. Yes, she needed to know her actions' consequences; however, with Lestat & Louis having not actually not engaging with her as a person but more an accessory-child so they could properly discipline her teenage-child stage, that was also most of their own doing. They needed to connect the consequences of their own actions to their actions that have lead them all to that point--w/o them, Claudia wouldn't have had to live as she did, and that will never change or not matter or not define why she does what she does! (btw, the first crush kill has its own plethora of meaning: it is when Claudia first really comes to realize that she is too dangerous to even that who she could love/value [like a child who's finally broken a much-loved thing what it did not fully internalize was the same as all the other things they did not "love"]).

Having read the book, this TV iteration Armand is not at all interested in really incorporating Claudia into the coven on her own merit, but just to keep Louis around, so he tolerates her emotions and psychological state even less. In fact, it works toward his benefit, bc it isolates her from Louis. I think it's good to remember that these people/vamps are not really trying to act in good faith to each other and might=right is what they really respond to unless they actually like you. Which isn't often.

Then there are those who question why Claudia is so fascinated and comes to trust Madeliene. And vice versa.

Claudia is fascinated by Madeline bc Madeline is a woman who really lives in her womanhood with no trace of self victimization or apologizing for it. Madeline actively listens to her, to her pain, Claudia is the interested in her own. Madeline is not distracted or putting anyone else above Claudia and is interested in what she has to say. It began with Claudia seeing how isolated the woman was in the other episode, how people tried to "warn" her away from her, and defying that boundary to see for herself what made this woman so ostracized. Like a teenager who doesn't like being told what to do (like Lestat), but also bc she had already desired to see herself in a dress that the woman was making that she wanted to use to see herself as she thinks of herself--a woman. You can compare it to how a trans person will wear clothes they/we see as "feminine" or "masculine" to identify and see their denied inner selves outwards. And the guy telling her not to enter likely re-reminded her of her limitations & childness. Also, Claudia cannot talk to other vampires both bc they are not interested and she would have to divulge information that could get her killed. Which makes Louis' telling Armand all the more enraging for her bc it's not just his secret but hers, she has been keeping the end of the silent deal they have to do so, and he never told her he was thinking of telling anyone--much less the vampire who could destroy them both consequently. In fact, Claudia is so much alike to Lestat. It is true that Claudia is trying to go back to Louis with how the coven is doing what they are doing, but she is very valid in that considering all the above and how we still expect our loved ones to have space for us when we see that the space we found with others is actually not conducive to our happiness or safety or mental stability--as the coven has proven to be and she instinctively knows but is clinging onto she has also felt Louis to be so unhappy even before they arrived at Paris (remember how he talked about wanting to go back home, how she was incessant in her search as if he resented her for the constant movement). In fact, it can be literally be life saving.

No, Madeliene is not a pedo nor does she only love or is attracted to Claudia bc she reminds her of her younger sister who she lost and their relationship re-fulfills a lonely failed-protector need in her. Just because you may not like her or understand why she has any appeal to anyone in the series or in real life, doesn't mean she has none nor that there isn't real meaning people get from her character.

Madeleine loves her, is loyal to her, and wants to be her vampire companion in any way--platonically or romantically--bec Claudia similarly rejects nothing about her when quite literally most people in Madeline's life has rejected-abused her or has died. Gender and sexism is a huge part of that; we see how Mad is dragged to the public and had her hair shaved in a public shaming for sleeping with the Nazi guy, and no I don't think sleeping with a Nazi soldier is morally unquestionable (at best), but the crowd's fury was not at her seeming inhumaness but them deciding to re-enforce a control over the female body. think Cersei's walk of shame, how that was clearly not about her murdering people but punishing her sexual decisions culturally denied to women. Would we really have seen a mal townsman be similarly shamed in public if he had slept with a Nazi lady spy or office worker, or the wife of a Nazi officer? A female Nazi officer?

Madeliene loves Claudia because despite all that Claudia has been through and still goes through, she is defiant and relatively easygoing (if people leave her be) and is as defiant as she is. She loves her strength and humor; is impressed by how Claudia is herself and relatively steady in her convictions to be herself. This inspires not just admiration but a faith that Claudia has an emotional steadfastness to be a "permanent" fixture in her life when change in Mad's life has mostly always been negative AND constant. Claudia is both intriguing, never boring, as well as immortal. Which goes back to why the book Mad wanted to be changed and be bk!Claudia's eternal companion--having lost her daughter and having lived her life forever haunted by the regret, she saw Claudia as a self restoration. With show Mad, she's also eager to leave behind human life not just for her lost sister but everything else on top of that. Where she would not have to be beholden to tragedy and have the vampire beauty and strength to be her "optimal" self. Humanity offered her nothing but pain and with the war, and thus far into her life as a dressmaker, she didn't seem to feel there was hope for an actually satisfying life...and without Claudia saving her from being raped, she def would have had an even worse life.

And she likes/is grateful for that Claudia is not put off by her own weirdness; Madeline is weird, she invited a vampire to suck her blood without really knowing beforehand what could happen to her aside from Claudia perhaps losing control and killing her accidentally. (No, I don't include her being dismissive and flippant with Armand when he was questioning her abt her readiness to become a vampire. One, she might have learned from Claudia abt his treatment of her and we already know that she puts Claudia before literally everyone else. Two, Armand may have been sincere in his desire to assess her and impart vampirism's bleakness, but he also was very clearly trying to intimidate her and it is very clear Madeline is not a person to take such things for long & unchallenged...she was nearly raped for it before. She's quite literally the definition of protecting any shred of dignity & happiness over he very life, she's just very...hard as reflective of her "dead" and disillusioned era. We have to remember that this is a time where people are coming back from a terrible world war and brought out the very worst in people--survivors aren't going to majorly be exactly pleasant to be around nor emotionally accommodating but challenge people to assess worth of personal investment.) If you really think abouu Claudia as a person instead of as an attachment or "obstacle" to LouisxLestat or some sort of "child", it's really not difficult at all why anyone could admire her. She could have folded at any time but she pushes on.

They match each other's "freak" AND sense of survivorship, basically.

Was it at first a little strange that she took an interest in Claudia before she ever saw her as a vampire or knew of her nature since Claudia is supposed to look like a teenager? And is Claudia's trappedness as adult-in-body define much of the material that developed into those traits I described? Yeah. But she's hardly a pedo if she has proven herself to see Claudia as an actual woman and treated her like she was one as if she instinctually knew she was (which is what I think happened)...unlike book Marius' weird attraction for kids.

[wasyago]

okay um

riptide spoilers for the recent episodes!!!

I dont usually write theories and stuff but i haven't really seen anyone talk about it (maybe i just missed it), and i need to get these thoughts written down because my mind is going a million miles per hour and its driving me crazy.

(Also i guess, disclaimer, im not a patron so the last ep i saw was 108, and i don't know any of the information shared in rolled.)

So. This team of strong pirates, Captain Widow, they're turning the Dread Queen into a lich, right? Like, that's the only logical solution i can think of. They're talking about the Dread Queen obtaining power over life and death, which is like the main lich thing - immortality and the ability to be both dead and alive at the same time. They're performing a long complicated ritual, which is also necessary to become a lich, and that ritual requires a lot of sacrifices and feeding energy and nutrients to the Dread Queen. (And, i apologize, all my knowledge about liches comes from Pointy Hat's videos, but i think they're pretty good to base a theory on).

From what i can recall and what i relistened to: no one knows anything about the Dread Queen, Shadowbeard has never talked about her, in the newspaper about the Lords she was just a silhouette, in the memory Jay got from the Black Sea all they said is that they needed to find her corpse in order to make someone a pirate lord (which clarifies nothing), Drey thought she and all the rest of the Pirate Lords were dead. From what we know about the Lords, Rose dissappeared in the hole in the sea accident. According to Lizzie's words, a couple years ago two more of the Pirate Lords went missing, which are the Dread Queen and our boy Hendrix (which we know is hiding in his pocket dimension). And then Shadowbeard was murdered by Ava in the Shadow Scull Masacre.

As we know from Zamia, the Dread Queen's crew didn't disappear but instead came to the black sea and took over an island. And because there's no contact with the outside world from the black sea, and because Navy freely allows pirates passage there, its fair that the world thought the Dread Queen was dead. And this lack of contact and no Navy activity is probably why the Dread Queen chose the Black Sea as a place for her lich ritual. No one will know about it and no one will interfere, no one will stop them from taking over an entire island and killing it's emperor and doing whatever dark magics they want.

Im not sure why they picked this island specifically. Whether its because of the Great Tree (tm) that is "the way of life and connects every corner of the island and gives it life" and probably has a lot of nutrients for the ritual in it. Or for any other reason, maybe it was just the first island they saw, maybe they just wanted a cool castle, maybe because it's the capital, i don't know but I'm sure there's a smart reason.

Gardeck The Scull Crusher aka the minotaur guy did say that their captain is blessed, and its the reason why death is temporary to them, which is one of the details that confuses me. Because first, who is he referring to, the Dread Queen or Captain Widow, both are technically captains. And second, if he is talking about Widow, then uhhh, how? If he's talking about the Dread Queen and if she is undergoing a lich ritual, (and becoming a lich would grant her the power to freely revive people), then how is she able to cast spells while in a cocoon and probably unconscious and probably not yet a lich?

Uhhh don't know how to end these things but that's all i got for now. Also HUGE respect to Grizzly for coming up with all this and connecting so many things and parallels. Because some of the information comes from as far back as episode 32, and its still relevant and accurate and comes up in the plot now, and oh my god.

[jeanie-g]

First of all I would like to say that I love your writing and could you tell us more about “I’m putting all my bets on you?”

thank you!! <3 and yes! lets turn up the angst hehe

this is inspired by (and named after) the song "nothing matters" by the last dinner party.

it's a short snapshot into the devil's not-so-great season coming out of the winter months and how jack and nico handled that stress in maybe not the best way. we know now that jack was playing through an injury and just stewing in that frustration and lack of control. add in nico's captaincy "i'm-responsible-for-everything" complex, put them both in a bed, and we get some "fuck me like nothing matters" hours. here's a snippet (slight nsfw?)

Jack is grateful for Nico. Nico doesn’t ask any questions. Nico knows what he needs and when he needs it, and delivers dutifully. He’s always been like that, able to read his plays on the ice that no one but his brothers can. Lately, it’s been in a different manner, something that unfolded over a bottle of red wine and Jack’s bed when he was on IR in January, Jack desperate immediately, Nico there to placate him. The attraction was certainly there, and it was excellent stress relief. It minimized Jack’s cabin fever, having someone so close to him and engaging in something so intimate with them. It continued, Nico looking beyond Jacks’ awkward means of bringing it up, knowing what he meant and giving it to him without complaint.

Like now, silent as he brushes Jack’s hair out of his eyes and thrusts into him so gently, so carefully, like Jack is something that will break. And Jack feels like it might be true; his shoulder is all but shot from all the way back in November, from that stupid fall out a hundred that managed to do some lasting damage. It hurts every time he does something as innocuous as flip a frying pan, but he can’t go on IR again, not when there’s still the smallest chance they could snatch the wildcard spot. He can’t sit up in the rafters alone again, forced to sit and watch his team fall to another beatable team when he can actually go and do something about it. He’s been lying to the trainers when they ask him, saying that the physical therapy is helping, that it’s feeling better instead of getting worse. He knows he’ll have to tell the truth eventually—that, at this point, he’ll likely have to get it operated on, but that’s a problem for future Jack. Future Jack who still has the possibility of hoisting the Stanley Cup in June.

Nico, though—Nico has a Midos’ touch, healing him from the inside out with every push, every languid roll of his hips and kiss to Jack’s temple. Jack can close his eyes and stretch his limbs and let Nico turn him inside out until all there’s left is what Nico’s carved out of him—the parts of himself that shine gold with youth and immortality, the parts that come to life in the bedroom and make Jack feel desirable and lovely and worth something after all. If this is the only kind of healing Jack will get, he can live with it. He’ll take it greedily, in fact.

Because most of all, Nico helps him forget. Forget that they followed their record breaking season with the joke of a performance they’re putting on now. Forget that his social media is clogged with comments telling them how much of a failure he is. Forget the gripping fear that he knows Nico shares—that last year was a fluke, that they’re doomed for the pits of missing playoffs for seasons to come. That everything has changed, and yet, nothing has changed at all.

thanks for the ask @iamnotawakeenoughforthis !!

[mecachrome]

https://www.tumblr.com/mecachrome/755898222862548992/httpsxcomthisisformu1a1status181200033146074?source=share

This anon reminded me how last year Jenson said that Oscar lacked personality (around the Mexican GP) and then blamed Oscar for the Imolia incident in qualifying even though Tom said it was his mistake. He seriously has a problem with Oscar.

As for the second part, McLaren has a serious operational problem because Oscar was unable to complete a clean lap in qualifying due to a team error. I know that McLaren last fought for regular victories in 2012 and that returning to the top costs many mistakes that have to be made during this process, but these mistakes must end quickly. Especially now that Mercedes has joined the group of teams that fight for something bigger than only points. I'm really curious about the next two races.

hi anon! LOL yes i recall having thoughts on that incident but i don't remember the exact quote, would you happen to have it somewhere? i don't want to get too tinhatty on this but i do feel like jenson sometimes doesn't really know how to feel about oscar... to be clear he's definitely been complimentary before and obviously isn't constantly lambasting him or anything but it's true that a lot of his quotes about oscar tend to be somewhat... measured + occasionally veering into critical??? personally it amuses me a little because a lot of people (incl jenson's colleagues) compare him and oscar personality-wise and constantly talk about oscar's "maturity" & he and oscar have similar contractgate lore except between the two of them oscar is the one who came out on the better side, and it makes me think of how jenson kind of enjoys being the Unaffected Mature guy around younger drivers and is used to being an object of idolization so he's kind of just like .....? what am i supposed to do with this one. but that's just how i see it hlsdkfh i totally get if people are put off overall 🙇‍♀️

anyway re: more important point!!! i totally agree with you, so many of oscar's biggest "what-ifs" have come off the back of mclaren compromising his qualifying performance instead of his own lack of pace which is deeply frustrating as an oscar fan. speaking of their previous competitive era though it's kind of funny that that was literally with jenson AND that tom was on his side of the garage during his entire mclaren tenure (also andrea was race engineering nando at the time... that man is immortal) 😭 but yes, overall the personnel in the team has changed massively since then so it's not really the same "team" anymore and it makes sense that they're struggling with the transition, but as you said there's a lot of urgency behind getting to the other side as quickly as possible now that mercedes have found better form. the thing is that coming into the season the goal from leadership was always cautiously structured around "fighting for wins," so in that sense we've accomplished the goal and are in a good position, but obviously we now need to push toward "winning the championship" with much more insistency and there are clearly still pieces missing. i don't have many hopes for the wcc this year because the fact that there are always teams duking it out in the top 4 (ferrari were stronger than us at the start of the season, but now that they've fallen off we're still getting points taken away because of merc's competitiveness) means it's difficult to meaningfully make up those numbers on red bull so i'm not very optimistic about that 🤷‍♀️ but that being said i'm still excited and intrigued by how the next few races will go!!! especially since spa is 2nd and we all know how oscar feels about it 🥺

[sourbat]

Summary: The sin of lust reflects over a new feeling that's been creeping up on him, becoming ever more prominent whenever he so much as thinks about a certain imp.

Pairings: Asmodeus/Fizzarolli

Warnings: Implied sexual content

Click the link above to read on Ao3, or read below!

Asmodeus remembers the beginning. Many millennia ago, so far back only a select few could manage to recall, much less enact every detail with their words. A cruel and unfathomable period when the seven rings of hell were more intimately connected, and sinners oozed into the realms like dripping honey. Cursed, immoral and immortal flesh that could be chained and trained to endure. Bodies that cultured lust into a dangerous, but delectable contagion. A deep enough dive revealed fragmented images of tarnished human souls engaged, sometimes unwillingly, in a never-ending parade of debauchery. What few pieces Asmodeus could still string together evoked a deep and filling satisfaction. It was so far back, Asmodeus himself isn’t entirely confident he can put the sensation into words, but with some concentration and enough focus from all three minds, he can still pull forth the taste, the sheer delight of a delectable spice that could only be replicated through a sinner’s lust-laden soul. All of lust burned in a sea of raw energy, not a single bit of land wasn’t claimed by blue flickering flame with Asmodeus, the entity of lust itself, being the single blazing source. 

Hellborn lust just doesn’t come close. He still thrives, promotes and encourages his denizens and worshippers to partake in carnal displays, and each night Asmodeus easily gets his fill before the second half of his shows. However, while he certainly enjoys his banquet halls filled with horny succubi and incubi, hellhounds in heat, puckish imps and the like, as far as flavor goes, the lack of an immortal spirit left something to be desired. A crucial ingredient was missing. Was it just the presence of the soul, or was it really just nothing more than a spice, one that could be replicated through alternative means? Though he’d never admit to it now, a far younger incarnation had fantasized, hypothesized and even gone as far as to research a means to replicate the addictive force of a sinner’s raw lust. Nothing ever came of it, and like the rest of his ungodly brethren Asmodeus settled and tempered his flames, adapted and refined his palate to the taste of the more sophisticated hellish desire and was satiated . 

And for the longest time it was good enough. 

A new flavor lingers in the back of his throat. 

Asmodeus ceases the meticulous act of pruning his decorative feathers, his attention pulled from his vanity’s large mirror to the faint, subtle taste of something sweet. It’s past midnight, and while his club is still open for another few hours, Asmodeus has taken it upon himself to refrain from another night of overseeing performances in favor of preparing for a last-minute, practically  impromptu meeting. Though he hadn’t made much of an effort on his part to feast, he was rather satiated. The saccharine sensation now slowly engulfing him is uncalled for, but not unwelcome. Upon its registry, the glow of his eyes briefly intensifies, and his usually controlled mane temporarily gives sway and flickers. It normalizes, as does the deadly sin, but unlike the brief shiver or twitch of the tail feathers, the energy produced stays and Asmodeus is rendered incapable of ignoring it.  

He swallows in the near silence, but not before gathering the raw sweetness that he’s come to recognize and associate with a certain work associate. The bull’s head turns and stares beyond the confines of the bedroom, through the thick doubled doors. The ram perks its ears and registers –and by extension Asmodeus– something along with the growing flutter developing in his stomach; the faintest ring of metal lightly hitting marble. 

The second it takes for Asmodeus to absorb this realization lasts forever. A second later, and he returns to his grooming, a slightly mischievous smiling being the only indicator of the mounting nerves. His chest plumes up, but he carefully hoists his robes over his shoulders to cover himself. The rising heat spreading across his form is manageable. His aroused senses are nothing. 

It’s the trickle of sweet dew dripping into his heart that leaves him nervous. 

It’s him, an excited thought intrudes from his left. 

So tasty, came from his right. 

More, both plead, and before long Asmodeus finds himself thinking the same. 

Asmodeus takes his hands away from his mane to bring his attention to the warmth filling his gut. Though it makes him tense, it’s nothing new. It’s been there a while now, coming and going at the rise of a thought, of a certain name that haunts and consumes Asmodeus’ minds more and more. 

It’s getting harder to control. 

The door creaks open. Both ram and bull go wide-eyed and Asmodeus has to remind himself not to get too excited. All three sets of eyes turn away as he becomes increasingly aware of the energy spilling to the room. It's the same energy now tormenting him, but from an entirely different source. The not-so-mysterious swell of buttery tenderness drowning his heart tells him to break and call forth the name, but as the king of lust he refrains and instead focuses on keeping his composure. Lust is an art, and while the lust beating from Fizzarolli gives his position away in this dark room, Asmodeus knows better than to spoil a mood. 

The gentle clink of metal hooves are graceful. Asmodeus feigns ignorance and masks the careful steps with a low hum. Back to preening, he insists to himself, but when he meets his reflection he can see what a flustered mess he’s become. Why? This isn’t like him. Fizzarolli isn’t the first hellborn to lust after him, nor would be the last. Asmodeus rams the thought as far deep as he can, but nothing smothers the rosy quell aching in him, the anticipation for something greater than unmet arousal. 

Need, need, need , the lesser minds echo, but before Asmodeus can take command he’s taken  off guard by a wave of overwhelming sweetness, followed by the smooth and cool touch of metal swirling up his waist. 

“Hey, Ozzie, ” a raspy voice asks in the darkness. Long, black robotic arms spring and coil around his body, dragging some of his loosened robe back down one of his broad shoulders as it stretches and springs forth from its end shimmering black claws. One reached for the neck while the other playfully went for the eyes, doing a poor job to clever his vision. 

Asmodeus shuts his other two sets of eyes while a cackle plays behind him. 

“Guess who?” he hears Fizz brazenly whisper to him, igniting a bright swirl of color, a delicate frenzy of something Asmodeus gets closer to understanding, but refuses to bring the words forth. 

After all, how was it possible that this little imp produced such delectable flavors? And what was Asmodeus feeding off of, if this wasn’t the standard hellborn lust? Because it was something else, and what it was– 

“Oh, I wonder?” Asmodeus tilts his head as far as his gentle restraints will allow. 

The metal encircling his neck starts to squeeze. This time, Asmodeus tastes lust and ulterior motives. The familiar mixes with the frighteningly new. Asmodeus’ mouths water at the delectable combination, but with two distinct flavors across his mind it’s undeniable what he’s feeling is more than just lust. 

A complaint and jingle of bells removes him from his line of thought. “C’mon, give us a guess.” 

The begging is adorable. The smaller body that held him in place wriggles. Asmodeus barely holds in a coy grin as he listens to Fizzarolli’s legs spring up from the ground. The cybernetic arms tighten their grip, giving an almost possessive hug while his lower appendages retract, tiny pinpoints for feet landing and bouncing excitedly against the arch of Asmodeus’ back. 

Want, want!

What is it? 

Him! Him! 

What was pouring out from Fizzarolli? What was eating at his heart? What was this new, addicting sensation? 

Asmodeus wants to open his eyes, free himself of his bindings and ask the imp if this is real, if what he’s sensing from the two of them is real, or if he’s looking too deep into places where he shouldn't meddle. 

“Hmm? Well, judging by all this hopping,” Asmodeus begins, then gives his shoulders a shake to purposely have his capture slip and stumble over him, “...I’m guessing a talking beelzebufo ?”

The hand vanishes from his face. The other untwists as the rest of Fizzarolli crawls up his back and rests upon his shoulder. As Asmodues opens his eyes, he’s greeted to a glowing set of eyes full of mirth and a toothy grin set upon him. 

“Did you just call me a frog? I’m offended.” Fizz feigns a hurt expression as he glides one of his glistening claws down his face to mimic a tear. 

Kiss! 

Kiss! 

It takes all the energy in the world for him to deny the intrusive thoughts and continue the game.

Asmodeus raises a brow. “Am I wrong?” 

Fizz raises a finger at him, ready to remark, but Asmodeus purposely jolts  his shoulders before there’s any opportunity for smart remarks. The gesture, though intended to be playful, turned out rougher than anticipated. The imp slips forward, and without thinking Asmodeus breaks from his pose to catch Fizzarolli. In the seconds it takes for him to snatch him up, for the two of them to look at one another with widened eyes, recover, smile and laugh at their behavior, it all becomes clear. In their shared stare the world ignites like a match, lighting up and burning Asmodeus worse than anything he had felt in a long time, and as they laugh and blame one another it only gets worse. His and Fizz’s shared fervor does more than satiates. It satisfies. Fulfills. It burns and soothes and it aches to pretend that it’s anything other than what it was.  

Love, he thinks. He’d been in denial for a while now, but with Fizz looking up at him, it was obvious what was blazing through his veins. 

But how? 

How was it possible that this tiny little hellborn being could saturate him in something so pure it mimics the power of an immortal soul? 

A cool, solid palm places itself against Asmodeus’ face. All three sets of eyes drop down to the colorful imp lying in his arms, staring up at him. “Hey, Oz, you alright up there?”  

How could they? How could he , the King of Lust and desire? 

Asmodeus’ inability to answer leaves him on edge. It doesn't make sense. He’s a deadly sin who thrives off lust. That’s what he was, so how? 

With Fizz below expecting an answer, Asmodeus reaches down and, making sure not to let his size and strength get in the way this time, teases the imp with a prod. “ Yeah , and why wouldn't I be?” 

It’s enough to change the mood, for his tiny jester to return to form, hop off of him and replace his once concerned look with a cheery performance. Asmodeus waits on his host, pretending to care about a few split feathers as Fizzarolli entertains him with a line of excuses as to why they needed to meet this late at night, and how they definitely ought to make the most of it with some wine he just so happened to pick up along the way, and maybe a bit of fooling around. Arms glow as they stretch and retract to exemplify each justification, and although it’s become obvious to Asmodeus this is all a ruse, he smiles along and plays along to this new rendition of their game. If there is any consolation to this queer revelation, it's seeing that he’s not in it alone. It frustrates Asmodeus to not understand the situation, but knowing he’s sharing this private hell with Fizz and that these exquisite flavors are a result of their shared obsession with one another makes their predicament feel less treacherous. 

Fizzarolli once again steals away his attention, coming into Asmodeus’ view with a jump. In his hands was a bottle. 

“Wanna taste?” His wide and puckish grin cannot hide the soothing sweet energy that already leaves Asmodeus intoxicated and hungry for more. 

The embodiment of lust, feasting off love?

Ludicrous, he thinks. 

Neither of the lesser heads seemed to agree. Taste, taste! 

So, he does. He kneels down, skipping the bottle held up to him to instead rest a hand on Fizzarolli’s cheek.

And he feasts.

[flameleads]

Upon further analysis of his transmutations, there is a pattern to what fingers Roy uses when he transmutes. A previous analysis, which is GIF heavy, can be found here. I’m making some slight adjustments to it in this post.

Roy does not actually snap his fingers when he performs his transmutation. The snap sound itself comes from the alchemical reaction when he manipulates the oxygen atoms in the air. What he actually does with his fingers is rubs or taps them together. However, which finger he uses matters: his index versus his middle.

This post is going to get image heavy, so I will put it under a readmore.

(Chapter 4: Battle on the Train)

In the manga, this is the first transmutation we ever see Roy perform. Roy taps his fingers before rubbing them together. He uses his index finger and thumb to perform what he would consider a simple transmutation and create a small explosion. From what we can see, he did not use his alchemy directly on Bald (his target) but in front of him in order to knock him back.

Most of the time, when we see Roy transmute, he uses his index finger. Here are some examples:

(Chapter 35: Sacrificial Lamb; Chapter 49: A Monster Among Men; Chapter 59; The Immoral Alchemist; Chapter 89: Soldiers’ Return; Chapter 93: Archenemy; Chapter 94: Flames of Vengeance; Chapter 107: The Last Battle)

It’s his default, and there is a reason for it: restraint. Even against Immortal Soldiers, Envy, and Father, Roy used only his index finger. In the case of Father, there are two good explanations: pain and lack of sight. With Envy, however, he used two hands because, while he still wanted to temper his flames, he wanted a lot of them and quickly. Outside of someone who has gone through the portal (the Elrics and Izumi), or those such as Father and Hohenheim, Roy has the fastest transmutations in Fullmetal Alchemist. Kimblee comes in a close second.

Addition to that: When going through the manga, I will say I couldn’t analyze several of Roy’s transmutation scenes too closely simply because Arakawa drew his hand moving too fast. If you watch him in 03 or FMAB, you run into a similar problem. Roy has incredible reflexes, likely developed during his time in Ishval.

Now, is there ever an instance in the manga where he uses his middle finger to transmute? I found one, and it is telling:

(Chapter 38: Signal to Strike)

The circumstances at play that cause Roy to react stronger: PTSD and his first interaction with a Homunculus. We know from the previous chapter that he recalled his last phone call with Hughes as he heard Hawkeye not answer. His emotions are heightened. He’s triggered. He enters the scene to see Hawkeye and Fuery fighting for their lives, and he did not hesitate to use more force. They were not going to take anyone else from him today.

From what I could find, that is the only time in the manga we see him use his middle finger to transmute. Why does the finger difference matter? My theory is that the middle finger gives him more ignition cloth to work with. No, it’s not a big difference to us, but Roy’s alchemy requires a lot of finesse, fine control, and pinpoint accuracy. The slightest change makes a huge difference.

My not-serious theory is he’s flipping off his enemies. Anyway.

When it comes to 03 or FMAB, Roy continues to use his index finger for most transmutations. I’m going to try and go chronologically here starting in Ishval.

In Ishval, where he was ordered to be at his full strength, he refused to do more than simple transmutations. Yet, look at how powerful those simple movements were. Two fingers can cause that much damage.

From the 03 anime, this is Roy during Fullmetal vs. Flame, which is canonical to the manga. He has quick movement, makes upturn of the wrist, and he’s using his index finger and thumb to transmute.

From the same fight, this is another simple transmutation, and he did it with the intent of not hurting Edward. Again, he uses his index finger.

Against Freezer’s ice in the first episode of FMAB, he uses his index finger and thumb to transmute. Artillery fire and guns couldn’t handle it. Roy’s flames could.

This is on the Promised Day. It’s hard to see because he’s moving so fast, and the camera pans as well, but he’s using his index and thumb. His goal is not to cause injuries, but to disable his enemies.

Ignore the text. I didn’t want to go hunting for new GIFs, and I think it’s funny anyway.

That one is against Father. Again, he is still using his index finger and thumb, but for good reason. He can’t see what he’s doing, and it would hurt him more to use his middle finger. The only person he wants to aim his flames at is Father, so he still restrains himself. He still holds back.

Now, there are fourinstances in particular that stand out for him using his middle finger to transmute in FMAB. None of them are against Gluttony like in the manga, and they line up chronologically.

#1: When Roy “kills” Maria Ross, this particular transmutation is a performance. To everyone else, Roy brutally kills the person who killed Brigadier General Maes Hughes, his friend. The transmutation could be seen from a distance: Edward could see the fire and smoke from the explosion in the sky when he was streets away. According to Knox, who performed the autopsy, the corpse was burned almost beyond recognition save for the dental records.

Why does Roy do this? He does this to make a point to everyone watching, especially the Homunculi. He’s aware that something is foul in the state of Amestris when Maria Ross is named the primary suspect in Maes Hughes’s murder, but he is not aware the Homunculi are behind it. So, he sets out to control the narrative. He wants there to be no questions possible about whether or not Maria Ross is dead, and he wants to show that he is willing to do that to his friend’s killer.

This was not meant to be okay. It was meant to be upsetting and alarming because he wanted it to be. And it worked.

Directly after, we know that Roy makes his moves against the Homunculi. But, it all started here.

(I did not have a GIF for this one, so I used stills)

#2: Episode 49: Filial Affection: Roy blows up a car near a Central soldier. It does not appear to be the same vehicle that he and the team drove in with, but another vehicle used by military police. The aim here is likely to send a message: "pay attention to me and what I'm doing." He wants eyes on him because he has Mrs. Bradley with him, and he wants to make it clear that the military is corrupt. The military does the rest of the work for him from there.

Now, as this is not a human, he needs to use more force. Cars are made of much tougher material, and he needs the transmutation to be more powerful. The explosion is loud, but short. It's not a showy transmutation by any means.

#3: The Immortal Soldiers. I emphasized this in my previous post about Roy’s alchemy, but I think it bears repeating: this is an incredibly powerful transmutation. The Immortal Soldiers were not weak enemies. Edward and Co, along with the soldiers upstairs like Olivier, struggled with them. They are powered by Philosopher’s Stones. Edward Elric is a skilled fighter, and so is Scar. So is everyone there. The fact that it took Roy seconds to take the Immortal Soldiers out with a single transmutation should not only be impressive, but it should be terrifying. Edward’s reaction encapsulates the proper reaction to Roy’s alchemy (and what’s to come).

What’s to come:

#4: Envy.

It’s difficult to see because of the speed, but, if one looks closely, what fingers are Roy using on both of his hands when he transmutes against Envy? His middle fingers. Not only is Roy using two hands, which we have never seen him do throughout the entire series, but he is not holding back. Like I mentioned in my previous post as well, Roy is also putting in every bit of effort he has to transmute with his arm movements.

This isn’t a show. This is pure, untamed fury. Envy killed a man he loved, so they deserved the worst death possible.

Slower, but you can see the middle finger as he transmutes. There is no restraint or mercy here like there was with Lust. In his mind, Envy doesn’t deserve it.

Now you see what had Edward concerned and why it took three people to talk this man down, and it was a good thing they did. A good leader shows restraint. Edward, Scar, and Hawkeye reminded Roy who he needed to be.

So, what have we learned today?

Roy Mustang restrains himself when he transmutes most of the time. In the manga, it looks like the only time he didn’t was with Gluttony. In FMAB, we see it at least twice, and those two instances are also telling of what’s going on and what kind of man he is. All of that should also tell just how powerful flame alchemy is.

From the creator of flame alchemy himself: “My technique is the GREATEST and most powerful form of alchemy, but in the wrong hands, it would bring naught but ill fortune.”

There can only be one Flame Alchemist, and that Flame Alchemist has to be Roy Mustang.

[tobiasdrake]

One last time: Arise, Mystery Labyrinth!

So. Game plan: Murder. Murder is the game plan. I want to kill Makoto for revenge.

Makoto is a homunculus and therefore cannot be killed by any means that we know of. He will regenerate from anything, demonstrably up to and including Shinigami's soul reaping, after one day.

So I'm going to cut off his head, put it in a small metal box, and then hurl that box into the ocean. Then his immortality can be his problem, not mine.

Yes, I am that angry.

Aww, we're reminiscing about all the murders we've committed together. :') We really have come a long way. We painted this city pink. Kanai Ward doesn't know what hit it.

In, uh, more ways than one, even.

Yuma has learned nothing from Vivia. Which is to be expected, given that Yuma won the philosophical battle with Vivia in the previous Labyrinth.

Wonder what Makoto's doing during this time. We left him up in the real world. I assumed he wanted to enter the Mystery Labyrinth but there's a non-zero chance he's taking advantage of the time-freeze to do something up there instead.

Something Something Mystery Labyrinth nonetheless remains the most likely.

...

Y'know, about the metaphysics of the labyrinth.

Shinigami's told us that if we can't solve the mystery, eventually we'll fade away and become a phantom that haunts this place forever. Trapped in the labyrinth for all time.

She's also mentioned that there exists a way to escape the labyrinth without solving it.

I wonder if we could Something Something to bail on this labyrinth before completing it, and leave Makoto stranded here?

Even Yuma's starting to realize that whatever Makoto's game-plan here is, it's the whole reason he was given the Book of Death and sent to Kanai Ward in the first place. This is the endgame that everything's been building to.

Starting with the most basic.

It's hard to make out, but it asks what caused Amaterasu and Kanai Ward's development. The answer, of course, is that Amaterasu was engaging in homunculus research as part of a contract with Unified Government. Though UG was also operating their own, better homunculus labs.

Turns out that offering a public option for homunculus development resulted in much more affordable and higher quality undying counterfeit humans than the private sector's profit motives could achieve. Imagine that.

Pretty much every mystery about the Secret of Kanai Ward relates back to the homunculus experiments. Yuma, you are in for a trip.

That old cliche of "The military was performing evil experiments to develop super-soldiers."

It's serviceable as answers go but kinda lame.

Hold up, Real Yuma? The fuck is Real Yuma doing here? Mystery Phantoms take on the form of people who are trying to conceal the truth of the mystery.

If Real Yuma is here, then that raises a ton of new questions about who he is, why he keeps running into us and then dashing off, and what his weird-ass repeating ramen shop is about.

Hm. Y'know he did say that he first tried to recreate the flavor of KANAI WARD SIGANTURE MEAT BUNS but then that was a bust so he went off and did culinary magic to create his fantastic dish. We should not discount the possibility that he's, like, legitimately running an awesome ramen shop. Like. Maybe that is actually the game he's playing.

Maybe Real Yuma's out there trying to find a source of nutrition that can satisfy homunculi without having to eat human flesh?

I dunno. Spitballing.

Okay, so not Real Yuma, then. Yuma, are you concealing the truth of this case?

...well, I suppose if Real Yuma is actually the real Yuma, this would also make sense. At this point, I'd assumed that name was little more than an artifact of a dead theory that I've still been using for lack of anything else to call him.

I wasn't expecting sitcom shenanigans to be the tone for the Final Mystery Labyrinth but I'm here for this. XD I hope this is Real Yuma and not a manifestation of Yuma's own subconscious because that would make this a full-on Wacky Misunderstanding.

More likely, however, this is the part of Yuma that subconsciously wants to shield Kurumi from knowing. In the back of his mind, he's realized what she is. It'd be hard to deny after the way the sunlight affected her.

When we learned that the meat buns are made with soylent green, Yuma wouldn't let Kurumi go in there and see it for herself. He insisted on moving along and outright lied to her, saying there's nothing of interested through that door. Despite his "I WILL REVEAL THE TRUTH" declarations, his actions have demonstrated a reluctance to let Kurumi know these dark secrets.

This ties directly into Yakou and Vivia's final talks. Is revealing the truth to Kurumi the right thing to do? That's something Yuma's probably struggling with, resulting in this particular Phantom manifesting.

And his name is Makoto Kagutsuchi. Created from the DNA of the "world's greatest mind", Number One. We can't stick our heads in the sand and pretend homunculi aren't real. Not if we're going to solve the Ultimate Secret of Kanai Ward.

Huh. That's the clocktower from the Nail Man killings. I wonder if this Labyrinth is going to take the form of every crime we've investigated up to this point? Sounds like a typical Final Dungeon thing to do.

Number One of the World Detective Organization, of course. Whose real name is, itself, probably Makoto Kagutsuchi. Everyone knows him only as Number One so his homunculus wouldn't need to take on a fake name.

He's using the WDO to solve crimes around the world and then abducting the culprits. Then he's bringing them to Kanai Ward, to fill the meat buns and keep the homunculi fed and rational.

Okay, I want a Shinigami Mystery Phantom now. Because she is freaking out about the fact that we fingered Number One as the source for the UG homunculus's DNA. She aggressively does not want to talk about this particular topic. Despite having been so gung-ho about "Woo hoo let's solve every mystery!" since we've known her, this is a rabbit hole she refuses to go down.

She's always been dodgy about Number One, as well as about her history with the WDO. It may even relate to the contract itself that Yuma has with her, the details of which she's been similarly cagey about.

Oh, it was the worst. Lab exploded. Feral homunculi, exposed to sunlight, went berserk and killed e-v-e-r-y-o-n-e. While the UG was patting themselves on the back for producing Makoto, Huesca's rushed experiment proved thoroughly disastrous.

Working under crunch conditions is not conducive to manufacturing the best possible product. Too strict of deadlines easily results in cut corners and unsatisfactory product development.

A total rush job that Huesca masterminded under pressure to beat UG to the first successful homunculus. Turns out, competition doesn't always encourage people to bring their A-game.

Mass blood draws of every civilian in the city, so they could make a homunculus for every single person here.

Terrible idea. Huesca went for quantity over quality because he's a dipshit.

That's where they got the gene samples. Amaterasu created a corresponding homunculus to every single person in Kanai Ward. Except Kurumi's grandfather and the handful of others in his circle of friends, who dodged the "blood tests" due to well-founded but tragically ironic suspicion towards Amaterasu.

Yuma's taken a critical step towards piecing together the true horror of this situation.

Not just an effort, Yuma. They succeeded. Horrifyingly.

UG found a perfect candidate to create a single exceptional homunculus. Meanwhile Huesca, in a panic, threw up his arms and went, "FUCK IT. We'll mass-produce homunculi with EVERY GENE SAMPLE WE HAVE and then see which ones stick."

That's what they mean when they keep saying that Huesca rushed the project. Instead of taking his time to calmly assess gene samples and look for viable DNA like UG did, Huesca impatiently created an army of ravenous immortals that feast on human flesh.

The more I learn about Huesca, the less remorse I have over helping Yakou stick him in the back. And I started at none. I have negative remorse right now.

This does raise a question: Did they get a successful specimen? We can be reasonably sure that Makoto is the UG homunculus. But if viability of DNA is the main problem that resulted in the defects then one has to wonder if Huesca did, strictly by spamming probability, pull off a win nonetheless.

Could there be a non-defective Amaterasu homunculus?

Yuma, maybe? Halara was speculating earlier that Yuma's Forte may be related to immortality. That felt, at the time, like foreshadowing. It could be that Yuma, like Makoto, is a successful homunculus with all of the immortality and none of the drawbacks.

[dreamingsushi]

Till the End of the Moon - Overall Review

Hey there! It’s me once again and for the last time on the drama Till the End of the Moon. What ride it was right? Now that it’s over, I don’t feel any emptiness, it was in its ways satisfying, so for those of you wondering wether it’s worth the hype and your time, hopefully this review is going to help you decide. However, these are my personal opinions, some people might disagree with it, so please still use your own judgement.

Plot

The story is about an immortal girl who travels back to the past to prevent the becoming of a demon god who would wreck havoc on the world and cause the death of her loved ones. Even though it’s nothing super original as it follows the trope enemies to lovers, there are a lot of very good elements in the writing of the scenario. First of all, everything that is introduced (places, artifacts, objects, people...) serves a purpose and appears multiple times in the story. This was something I really liked. Sometimes a drama will introduce a magical item, for example, they will use it like for 2-3 episodes or even less and then it never comes back. Here, each object that has been brought on had more than one purpose. They explained the origins behind them. It was a very strong point to this story.

Furthermore, it was mostly consistent with the characters. Their decisions were obviously questionable, way too often, especially as the viewer knowing everything there’s to be known to judge if it’s a bad or a good decision. Sometimes, it was extremely frustrating, but if I have to be honest, there are only two things I am still very unsatisfied with. One being Susu getting drunk a night she’s supposed to hunt a demon, which really didn’t make sense to me since she’s not the type to overlook her duty. The other one being Ye Qingyu and resenting Tantai Jin, because it was an useless addition in my opinion since they didn’t really mention anything about it until the end, and it could have been overlooked. It wasn’t necessary.

Overall, the plot gets a bit 8/10 for me. It was very well written, there no big plot holes and everything was mostly very consistent. It loses a little bit of points because it wasn’t necessarily orignal and sometimes the characters were a little too frustrating.

Acting

At first, I really couldn’t stand Luo Yunxi’s acting. His character starts off as emotionless and something was bugging me about it. It felt kind of way too forced. However, as the character started to learn how to love, what’s happiness and sadness, I saw a big improvement. During the last episodes, while he’s being thorn between what he feels and what he must act like, he got me through a huge range of emotions. He did a very good job overall.

I liked in general Bai Lu’s acting, even thought it felt simpler. But maybe that’s what I liked. She didn’t show as much growth though compared to Luo Yunxi’s character and there were moment when I felt the script kind of went in a weird way when it came to her actions and reasonings. But overall, I enjoyed the different nuances between her three characters. She managed to make me cry, but also to warm up my heart. She did a good job.

I can’t completely just ignore the other great actors just because they weren’t main leads. I want to point out Chen Duling’s performance throughout the drama. She was amazing. Her character was very complex ad when it was time to hate her, I did. When i was time to forgive her, I did. She really impressed me. Su Zhenni’s performance was also great, even though she didn’t get as much spotlight. She was flawless. On the other hand, Deng Wei’s acting didn’t leave a big impression on me. It was better when he was acting as Xiao Lin, but there was something that felt a little weak, I don’t really know how to explain it. Eddy Geng did an okay job, I think his acting just lacks a little maturity for now.

One thing I really found annoying was all the shouting. I don’t put that on the acting skills of the actors, but rather more onto the director Every time they launched a big power, were in pain, they’d just scream... But like.. I guess I would shout from the pain too if I was struck multiple times by lightning, but most of the time it just didn’t work for me, it looked foolish and didn’t convey any emotions.

The general note for acting stands at 8/10 for me.

Visuals

So let’s just talk about what I disliked first to get it out of the way... The CGI. Oh god. When I first watched the first episode, I had a headache from everything flying around in my screen. Too much is like not enough, even worse. I thought it was going to be internet troll like, low budget. It turned out that the first episode was the worst of all and the on including the most of that crap. I think they had the budget for going all in, but it went overboard. At some other instances, they stroke back with the overwhelming special effects, but it was only for a short limited moment. It’s just a shame because the first episode is so bad that it doesn’t entice to keep watching without being very generous.

Now let’s move on to my favourite part... the costumes! Oh dear me... They were gorgeous. I was so fascinated by Li Susu’s headpieces all the time. She changed so many times, to the point that sometimes I couldn’t explain how could she change her outfit to something so luxurious in the middle of nowhere, but I don’t care. The structures on some of Tantai Jin’s capes too were very impressive. But generally speaking, all the costumes were great. Even the grass cape grew on me. That was a very strong point visually for me.

The filming places were beautiful too. The only moments I liked it less was when it was all constructed by the computer. In the space like universe. But the dark side. Anything related to the realm of the gods was beautiful. I loved the decors.

This drama could have rated higher in terms of visuals, but the CGI is really that bad, so I have no other choice but to give it a 7/10. The costumes really do bring up the ratings.

Soundtrack

I’m in love with the soundtrack. I keep humming it. At no point was it ill chosen, it always enhanced any scenes it was paired with. I don’t have much to say, just listen to the OST even if you opt out of watching the drama. It’s worth a solid 9/10 for me.

Should you watch it?

If you like a drama with no plot holes, go for it. Nothing is left behind. The acting is good overall. There are beautiful costumes. It was an interesting story. Even though it wasn’t the most original, it often left me wondering what was going to happen next. So I think it’s worth trying to overcome the big cringe of episode 1.

However, if you are not into romantic dramas, I would not recommend it to you as most of the story is focusing on the love between the two main characters. I wouldn’t say it’s what we should call a healthy relationship (as in many dramas...) so keep that into mind too when debating.

This overall gets a fat 8/10 for me. I enjoyed the ride and was happy with the ending, so going through the 40 episodes wasn’t a waste of time. Not on my rewatch list, but definitely on my no regrets, I recommend list.

List of full recaps

All / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 / 12 / 13 / 14 / 15 / 16 / 17 / 18 / 19 / 20 / 21 / 22 / 23 / 24 / 25 / 26 / 27 / 28 / 29 / 30 / 31 / 32 / 33 / 34 / 35 / 36 / 37 / 38 / 39 / 40

[nellie-elizabeth]

What We Do in the Shadows: The Roast (5x08)

Oh my god, this was an AMAZING episode.

Cons:

I feel bad for continuing to harp on this, but The Guide continues to feel like such a wasted character! I like the performance, I don't think it has to be this way, there could be some really funny stuff here! But instead it's the same joke again and again. It's like she's the Jerry from Parks and Rec��or the Toby from The Office. But this show didn't really need that, they're all a bunch of losers, and there's already the vampires treating Guillermo like he's disposable to fall back on as a joke? I don't know. She had plot relevance this week, but it feels like we could have done this without her.

Pros:

Lazlo's ennui was really funny, the way he keeps dismissing everyone's attempt to snap him out of it... one of the funniest exchanges was right at the top, when Nadja and Nandor were talking about Lazlo lacking interest in his old hobbies: Nadja - "We are down to like sixteen fucks a week." / Nandor - "We're down to three". And Nadja reaches out and puts a hand on Nandor's arm, in horror and sympathy to hear something so terrible! That really made me laugh.

Honestly, this episode was laughs all the way through, I can't even pick favorite lines from everyone. But I loved Colin's failed roast of Lazlo, I loved Nadja saying that maybe dying wouldn't be so bad, and Nandor being like "wtf" and then Nadja being like "I've just been going through a lot lately."

The main plot here is that the Baron discovers that Guillermo was the one who accidentally burned him up a few years ago, and he wants revenge. As ridiculous as all the antics were, I was also genuinely moved by Nadja and Nandor both begging for Guillermo's life and trying to dissuade the Baron. But at the same time, they're all worried about Guillermo killing the Baron, because he's the origin of their line of vampires, and his vampire descendants might die as well! What a fun and twisted web of allegiances. Guillermo doesn't try and kill the Baron, in part because it puts his friends at risk. And yet his friends can't let the Baron kill Guillermo either!

Things are... sort of resolved... when Guillermo tells the Baron that he has renounced his vampire killing family legacy by becoming a vampire himself. The Baron finds the whole situation with Nandor not being the one to change him kind of hilarious and he's also sympathetic to Guillermo because of it, so he calls off his vengeance. And then... Guillermo accidentally burns him in the sunlight again.

Genuinely, the sight of Nandor clutching Guillermo's sweater, and then his grief when he sees "Guillermo" dead on the ground in front of him... I'm sure the whole fandom is celebrating hardcore. It was so much. Pair that with the utterly callous way that Lazlo guts the corpse, to show everyone that it's not really "Gizmo", but one of his clone experiments gone awry... this show is utterly ridiculous in the very best way.

The sweet Guillermo and Nandor moments don't stop there. When Nandor finds Guillermo hiding in his coffin, after thinking he has fled never to be seen again, he asks him questions to make sure it's the real him. One of them is, what's in the card you gave to me the first day you were my familiar? And Guillermo quotes it exactly, with Nandor mouthing along. "To be a vampire is my dream, but to be your familiar would be my honor." What the heck kind of high romance? Amazing. I can't believe next week we're going to see Nandor find out about Guillermo at last. Everyone's been building up again and again how Nandor will be forced to kill Guillermo and then himself. I wonder what's going to happen!

Turns out, Lazlo's strange mood was just because he was trying to figure out how to alphabetize his books. I love this gag as like... a fun example of what longevity and immortality might really be like. You can afford to just space out for a couple weeks to make a decision if you like! There's so much time stretched before you.

It was so funny to see Doug Jones as the Baron, sans any weird crazy make-up or prosthetics, only for the episode to involve him getting all burned up and disfigured again. I guess he's back to untold hours in the makeup chair any time he's on this show! I love it. I also loved how the Baron accepted Guillermo as a vampire right away, in a way the others who are in the know haven't quite done. He's all-in for his fellow vamps, and now he's got a bunch of Guillermo animal clones to hang out with at his place!

I'm not ready for this season to be over, it all happened too quickly! This may be the best episode of the season.

9.5/10

[cptn-m]

One Piece chapter 1111 review

Last one going into another long break. Potentially but not definitely the end of volume 109. And I think a shift into the final bit of action for the Egghead Arc. While I'm disappointed to have to go three weeks without, I definitely prefer Oda getting the downtime he needs to carry the story through to its end inn the best way possible. And the phrase "scheduled maintenance" in the announcement makes me think this is going to end up being an annual thing, which at least means it won't be a surprise in future years.

We do at least get some gorgeous colour pages for a send-off. The classic piratey vibe of the Jump cover has a whole lot of appeal while the colour spread has some gorgeous lighting for Copic work. The transparency on the jellyfish is stunning. There's cute symbolism in giving Kuma a seahorse shirt, perfect for the series' most dedicated single dad. Bonney and Vegapunk getting to be included is also a good touch, Always nice when current arc characters get to hang out with the crew on these things. I also really like the One Piece logo down the bottom with the jellyfish top and tentacles around the O.

Mars breaks inside the barrier. I initially thought he'd was rebuffed by the lasers last week, but I should have known he'd be able to use his immortality to power through undaunted. And that makes the situation really bad for the crew.

The apparent lack of concern the Strawhats have for Vegapunk's broadcast is interesting. I actually had to go back and double check if they even knew it was happening at all. They do, but it still doesn't really seem to concern them. Escape has become the most important thing, and though I'm sure they'd stand and fight if one of the surviving Vegapunks said it was their greatest dream and the Stella's dying wish to make sure it goes through, but even they seem to be putting their lives first. It's actually kind of funny the number of people complaining last week about Oda using the 'ticking clock' trope in yet another arc, only for the crew to just outright ignore it and continue with their original plan of escaping. All this plus the escape map to lay out the distances and groups involved paint a picture of how the final stage of the arc is likely to play out.

This is an interesting chapter for Lucci. Obviously a commanding show of strength to stay standing after Zoro's big hit and then to remain conscious and clear-headed after Jinbei's subsequent blast, but also to call Kaku his partner and beg for his life to the ultimate authority of the Five Elders. Remember, in Lucci's eyes 'gods are not bound by logic' and 'it is the natural order for gods to have whatever they desire' (chapter 907). He also showed an extreme callousness toward any team member he thought wasn't performing up to par at Water Seven, like the potentially now-dead Nero. To make the request at all, to a man whose desires and whims have complete priority, speaks to a kind of camaraderie I never would have figured he had in him. At some point I'll have to go back over Water Seven properly and see if there's anything that can be interpreted differently with this side of him in mind.

Lucci also looks absolutely terrified when Mars appears, but he immediately recognises the Elder even in his monstrous form and doesn't hesitate to obey. We were told before that anyone below the rank of commodore can't even meet them, but it wasn't clear how much of a secret their specific powers were. York's reaction at the end of the chapter shows that she wasn't aware of the demon forms, despite the Vegapunks having had audiences with the Elders.

The Haki roar is a cool show of power. I'm looking forward to learning more about the limits of the physical effects of Conqueror's Haki and how much they can be controlled. I also loved the visual gag of all of Luffy's stuff blowing off, seeing him stick his scars back on. Amazing comic instincts on that one.

I think one of the big important things to remember for Luffy's characterisation in this chapter is the way the giants talk both with him and about him to Warcurcy. They say that he looks like the god they've heard tales of, but when Warcury asks who Luffy is to them, the only important part is that Luffy is their friend. And we learn concretely that it wasn't even the Nika appearance that inspired them to come intervene, they just saw that he seemed like he was in trouble in a place they were close enough to. Luffy isn't the messiah of the giants (at least not yet), just a guy who makes the right friends.

I try not to dwell on spoilers without the full story, but they definitely coloured my perception of this chapter's baseball bat gag. When I read that Luffy 'conjures' a bat, I was extremely worried. I have raged against the perception that Luffy's new power is literal imagination and that he can magic things into existence or warp reality in any tangible way. I would not want that to be the way the story progresses. Imagine my relief when the outcome is only as absurd as turning a palm tree into a bat with his teeth. I could take or leave the paint and hat. They only interact with Luffy himself and are gone in less than a page, so I can take them as part of the bit. The paint in particular is funny because to leaves the bat looking exactly the same as if it had a layer of Armament Haki (at least as far as Haki is portrayed to the readers). That's like the one part Luffy could have just manifested through willpower and he finds paint instead.

I expected more emphasis to be placed on Ju Peter's revival, but he's just kind of there after the explosion. Do we think the original head reattached to his body, or did he grow a new one? Maybe Oda's saving that reveal for later, when we go further into what the Elders really are.

As much as I want to see Franky get some action, I think the three vice admirals are setting up a Kuma moment, probably his big finale for the arc, whether it's a full awakening or death, or taking his daughter and teleporting away. Borsalino seems to be out for good, understandably overwhelmed by his emotional distress. I wonder if there'll be a tangible difference in the next fight against him, if it happens in a scenario where his heart can truly be in it. And then the robot, with that big, important Joyboy connection promising big things to come. I wonder, if the Strawhats are being characterised as unconcerned with Vegapunk's broadcast, if the robot will then be the force that makes sure it plays in full. Or is there some kind of twist coming about the broadcast's source that we haven't considered yet. Mars asks York about the room Vegapunk is in, as if he thinks the broadcast is actually live. Saturn only said to the other Elders that he thinks Borsalino killed Vegapunk, so they may be operating on the assumption he's somewhere else, especially if the technology to record and repeat a message via snails is not widespread.

But these are questions for three weeks from now. Meantime, I hope Oda enjoys his rest and processes everything he needs to process about Toriyama and comes back to the series refreshed for the home stretch of the arc.

[vibrantpixels]

gosh, i wanted to be an author so bad when i was a kid. i went to delete my old abandoned email when i noticed the storage drive had a folder with all my book ideas and i want to share the most fleshed-out, non-fanfic, one here because i have nowhere else to post it and i want to immortalize it in some way. im sorry for the cringe but this is entirely for me

"Ofelia… (WHY I CHOSE MY OWN INTERNET NAME IDK)

…Is what they called her and she didn’t know why.

As she opened her eyes for what felt like the first time in her life, the brown-eyed girl was met with faces she couldn’t recognize but knew she should have. Ofelia, she heard called out over and over again in the background while tears of joy fell from the eyes of a middle-aged man sat at her bedside, who wore harsh laugh lines on both corners of his mouth and had splotches of blue, green, and purple staining the thin skin beneath his cloudy gray eyes; the tears dampening the cotton blue sheets that encompassed the girl’s fragile limbs. (I STILL LOVE RUN-ON SENTENCES)

Those eyes of his in which she saw pain, hopelessness, and fear; the color, lacking any saturation; so pale and unblemished that they would appear to fade into the white canvas surrounding the iris if it weren’t for the fine blue tint that outlined the gray. Those eyes that she intrinsically knew and brought her immediate comfort. Not the calling of her name, which should sound familiar, or the tight and welcoming embraces from her supposed “loved ones,” but the haunted eyes of a man who claimed to be her father.

While trying to piece together the broken fragments of her memory, the girl named Ofelia discovers terrible truths about herself and the world she lives in.

~PLOT~

Ofelia. No last name. Father is a visionary. (Can perceive future events in dreams or while in a trance) Government makes everyone who is a suspected visionary undergo rigorous testing. If they are found as a positive subject, the patient’s melanin is drained from their eyes (they turn pale gray) in order to be identified (naturally gray eyes do not exist for the purpose of this plot) in public. These people are protected at all times and are well respected in society (though they are strictly prohibited from discussing any visions with anyone but government officials in exchange for said protection), but can be targeted by border-hopping criminals (their intentions are to save the people from their corrupt government, but the government makes them the enemy and their people follow). Border-hoppers want to capture visionaries to prove to the other citizens that their future is bleak under their government’s rule. Subjects who test negative are not spared. These people are killed because the conditions in which they are treated and the tests they go through reveal too much about the corrupt ways of the government that they couldn’t risk letting them go free. Ofelia is a visionary and gets scary dreams often so her father requests for the tests to be performed on her (her father is one so it is common that children inherit this “gift”). When Ofelia takes the tests, she doesn’t take them seriously and fails, not knowing of the consequences. While waiting on death row (she does not know that she is awaiting her death), at the same time, her father is trying to convince the president to give his daughter another chance. Just as the president is about to agree, the room where the ‘negative’ visionaries are held until their death gets a tranquilizing vapor siphoned through the air vents, and they are all dragged out by the Border Hoppers. Ofelia begs to be taken back home, but she is knocked out. When she awakens, she meets a girl she once knew dressed in border-hopper-attire [WHATEVER THAT IS LOL, I CAN'T PICTURE IT]. Ofelia feels betrayed. The girl tells Ofelia what her government does to those that fail the test and that it was going to happen to her. Ofelia doesn’t believe her so they show her hidden security footage that the border-hoppers stole from the government building (they had an inside man; her father) and she cries. Her father shows up briefly to reassure her and ask her to help the border-hoppers destroy their government. She was the key. Ofelia only gets visions in her sleep, so she is sedated for most of the day, only conscious to eat and use the restroom. She almost gives up because she is so weak and tired from being under all the time. Then she encounters a boy, a boy she knew was still living on the other side. They were speaking through their visions but he was not found as a visionary yet. Together, they slowly reveal all of their government’s secrets and manage to tear down the wall that separated the two states. But it is not over yet.

FIRST OF ALL, I smell the Divergent trilogy influence as it was one of my favorite book series during this time (2014!!!! can u believe??!?!?) like killing all divergents and tris' mom being in on the whole shebang

Sprinkle in some divided nations specifically from the legend series by Marie Lu (god i loved those books; i bought champion and rebel years ago but have yet to read them :| )

And you see how I set up the idea for a sequel when i never even wrote a single chapter for this one????? i was CONFIDENT

if you read all this, im sorry

[muraenide]

History of the Leech Family - Part I The Leech Family had been part of the underwater Mafia for as long as civilization existed among merkingdoms, but they were not the only ones in the Trench. Underwater Mafia history went back to three thousand years ago, approximately five generations of the average merfolk. It all began with a single man (or merfolk): Bermuda von Mar Ionio, a nobleman who is distantly related to the Royal Family of the Coral Sea.

Bermuda wanted to do something to protect the merpeople of the Trench, which at that time, was a wartorn, anarchic city left in the dust from the negligence of Atlantica after the war with Titans and humans. Common citizens in the Trench would frequently suffer from robbery, murders, and kidnapping among other things. There wasn't enough food to go around. Death was a common everyday sight. Bodies could be found at every turn of the corner. Strange diseases that caused death and deformation run rampant. Without funding from the Royal Family or their consent, even as a nobleman, there was nothing Bermuda could do. But lacking funding and manpower didn't discourage him from his noble quest. He established the first group of vigilantes under his name.

After some time his charisma and exceptional leadership drew people to him. More and more vigilante groups formed, volunteering to set various operations into motion in the Trench so that they could operate independently from Atlantica. Their operations covered external trade, domestic trade, defense, agriculture and food security, arts and culture, foreign affairs, advancement of science, technology, and development. Gradually, the Trench started to become more civilized, alleviating people's lives by massive strokes. Touched by the power of group work, Bermuda suggested forming a brotherhood among ten of his closest companions who were all leaders of their own vigilante groups, which consists of:

Bermuda von Mar Ionio

Mariana

Leech

Alyss

Balthis

Nautilus

Ghiaccio

Dohrn

Anjo

Mareel

The confederation was called the Court of the Abyss, led by Bermuda with Mariana as his second-in-command. To further prove their loyalty to Bermuda, the Court of the Abyss performed a blood oath. They each swore fealty and loyalty to Bermuda by signing their names on a special contract infused with powerful and ancient magic. This magic also extends to ten rings for each of the parties involved, to keep their spirits bound to each other for all of eternity.

Each of their vigilante groups begins calling themselves a name, using their founder's first name as their last name and adding 'Family' to refer to themselves as a whole. It was what Bermuda wanted as he sees everyone as his family. For example, the members of the Alyss Family might not necessarily be blood-related to each other, but all of them would proudly call themselves a part of the Alyss Family.

Though the Court of the Abyss was first established to alleviate the lives of less fortunate people, it gradually starts to take a different course as years passed. Some merfolk lived longer than others; it would be seven generations of the Mareels long before one generation of the Ghiaccios. The Dohrn Family's members, though few in number, were all immortals that could never ever die. As the bosses of the families switched out from the original, the next might not always agree with its predecessor. The first family that gradually turned to crime was the Nautiluses when the second leader got sick of always giving but never asking for rewards, realizing that he has enough people to steal and that it would instead gain him higher returns, the entire family of Nautiluses soon abandoned their post to provide enough food for the Trench and turned to robbery of merchant and pirate ships.

Peace and stability were short-lived, but the tipping point that would eventually cause the Brotherhood to break apart was Leech's betrayal of Bermuda.

[ohwynne]

TIMING: November 2022. LOCATION: Protherian estate, on the shores of Moosehead lake. WARNINGS: Mentions of animal murder, abuse. SUMMARY: In a moment of clarity, Wynne decides to leave the commune and everything they know and love behind.

The moon stood bright on the night sky, nearly full but not yet, and shone through the curtains of Wynne’s room. One of the best in the estate, with one of the better mattresses (lined with the remnants of animals long past) and vivid oil paintings on the wall. Depicted there was Wales, the fields, the horses, the sheep, the forefather and even gythraul, hiding in many corners of the painted canvases. 

Wynne was awake, staring at the dress hanging from a clothes hanger from their wardrobe, half reflected in the rusting mirror. It was the dress they’d have to wear the next evening, on the moment in the night when the betrayer’s moon was highest. Dark cotton, a simple cut that would hang from their shoulders to their ankles. A low neckline, so there would be no pushing away the fabric when the patriarch would slide his hunter’s knife to their throat and slit.

They hadn’t been able to eat today. Since the last ritual, mealtime had become a strange thing altogether, with people asking Wynne’s blessing on their food, with Wynne sitting on the main table, looking over all Protherians as if they were a lady in a medieval hall. They were glad they could make people feel a little better, that there was some worth in this position they’d been granted. The honor, they reminded themself, the honor of doing something that would be good for the entire community. How many other people can say they’re going to do such a thing in their life, Wynne? 

They sat there sleepless for hours, staring at the dress of death, fiddling with the phalange of a rabbit as if the repeated motions would make their heart feel a little easier. There was so little time left and here they sat, completely alone. For a straight hour, Wynne considered going to their parents and appealing to them, but there was no bravery. No use in it, either: they wouldn’t listen to them, if they voiced their fear and reluctance of dying. To them, it was a gift — to have their child be chosen to perform the highest honor there was among Protherians, to have the Hughes family name be immortalized forever, to be thanked for their sacrifice for the years to come.

Bravery did come eventually, though. The panic that raced through their body made it feel like they were being chased, and weren’t they? If they remained here, they’d not make it another twenty four hours. Their mother and cousins would come to help them dress, stick flowers in their hair and scented hair on exposed skin, would whisper words of admiration and jealousy. Eirwen would pull their hair on accident and speak with a venomous nature that Wynne always wanted to meet with that same vitriol. If you’re so jealous, why don’t you go up there and die? If they remained here, Siors would walk up to them laid on that altar and whisper the name of gythraul in their ear and slit their throat, completely. He may as well be chasing them now.

Wynne didn’t have a suitcase. Protherians didn’t travel, especially not those intended to die. But there were bags in this room, a backpack used for days out to the town for trading and shopping and smaller ones, for carrying things around on the estate. They were thrown on the bed. Then a bundle of clothes, their ritual dress tossed onto the floor in a pathetic heap. More clothes. A picture frame of them and their brother. Two of the books they liked to read. Notebooks, their own. An extra pair of leather shoes, sturdy and strong. They packed as if Siors was on the other side of the door with his hunting knife, trying to make as little noise as possible and trying even harder not to cry.

The instinct was easily suppressed. Their facade of acceptance was teetering and slipping, but the lack of emotion and fear in regards to their own situation remained. All there was was instinct, a ringing in their ear. I don’t want to die, I don’t want them to watch me die.

When their bags were filled to the brim they buttoned close their coat, pulled a thick scarf around their face and neck, and spent one last moment writing a note. They didn’t have any words besides: I don’t want to die, I’m sorry, so they didn’t write more. It was placed on their bed. For the first time in ten years, they didn’t make it before leaving their room.

On socks, they moved through the building where the community slept. The doors were bolted shut with keys they didn’t own, but Wynne knew from their days of sneaking around with Beca (who hadn’t wanted to be with someone about to be nothing more than a sanctified martyr) that the kitchen window propped open with ease. Out they went. Put on their shoes, their toes already cold from the frigid air.

They stood there, staring up at the dark building and all the dark ones around them. The sheep and chickens and horses were all sleeping, as were the dogs. Maybe one of the barn cats was hunting, though. Not even Collen could be seen prodding a fire. It was like they were the only one left alive, rather than just the only one awake.

They stared, wondering where to go next. They had no plan, despite the fact that they had imagined doing what they were doing for years now. As if the plan had already written itself in their mind, as they smiled and bowed their head and killed a chicken at the altar and just let it all happen, continuously, convinced that the honor they were supposed to feel was real. Something must have happened during all that pretense – if that was what it had been, and not just duty – and now here they stood, viscerally aware of the rate of bus tickets in the next town over. Of the fact that they had to get money, that they had to start walking soon before the first people started to rise. That it would be a long walk, longer than they were used to. That there was so much out there, though, and that most of it would be time they wouldn’t have had here. Every second on the run was one more second lived than intended.

And yet, there was the doubt. Doubt was betrayal, they knew that — but who were they betraying with this doubt? Because wanting to stay was to be loyal to the community as they were supposed to.

Maybe this doubt was disloyalty to themself, then. It wasn’t a thing Wynne had ever considered before.

And so Wynne kept pushing onward, breaking the glass of the building only elders were supposed to go into. They breathed hard through their moment of thievery, a rule that was punished severely among the members of the commune — they were expected to share, after all, and not take for themself. They stepped over cracked glass with three thousand dollars wrapped up in old papers, stuffed in their coat pockets. They considered smashing it all to bits, all the things in that building where they had never been. They considered ransacking it and reading every bit of paper they could get their hands on, as if there would be an explanation of why it had to be them, why it even had to be anyone, why people were like this and even more dangerously, why demons were.

But they were running, not researching, so they moved. Their steps heavy, their heart heavier. There was one stop left to make. 

Wynne kneeled at the altar, their bags on either side of them. The stone table was engraved with ancient markings, or so they had been told, the grooves having turned permanently darker from the blood of previous sacrifice, or so they had been told. From one of the pockets on their skirt, Wynne pulled some dried lavender. There was no fire to light it with. The rabbit phalange joined, next to it. They breathed in deep and exhaled deeper, tears streaming quietly.

One small sacrifice was made, Wynne nicking their thumb on the sharp edge of the bone on purpose and watching a steady drop of blood form. It was a clumsy process, the bone not sharp enough and their tears blurring their vision, but once it came they smeared it on the stone. 

They didn’t know what It would do to the ones that remained here, in gythraul’s domain. They didn’t know what It would do to them, once they left and were practically asking to be hunted down. But this was a plea, the first one made in years. This time, there was no one to hear them make it and thus, no one to strike back. No backhand from their mother, no retribution from their mentor Padrig, no silent fear from their brother. There was just them whispering, “Please,” as if there was any reasoning to do with demons.

And in spite of their doubt, and in spite of their fear, Wynne got up with their bags and started walking. Only once, they looked back over their shoulder, to the commune that slept while they were wide awake.