#how do you actually want me to feel any sense of tension or suspense during the action sequences

[myjollyfroggyfriend]

KIDNAP doesn't know its genre and it's very frustrating

[newspropaganda]

How do you know that Zexal's reception never made any clear if it was real or not that the show was polarizing, but hard to determine if it was well recevied or not?

Very simple: if the so-called fandom claims Zexal was 'well received in Japan,' where’s the actual source for that? All I heard in 2015 was this fake nonsense about Zexal being more popular and successful than 5D's. Konami supposedly wanted Zexal to be bigger, but it never really took off. Zexal relied more on shock factor, fake tension, and suspense, rather than being humanized. It took 11 years after its first episode for people like me to forget it even existed. Meanwhile, OCG Stories is better, even though its stories are short and just decent.

But if you want my actual opinion, the ratings for Zexal were abysmal, and the story was so narrowly focused that I never really got invested in the characters to begin with. Zexal struggled during its first half, but it got better later on—only for things to start going insane with the ratings. The fandom never really understood whether the episodes were well-received or not, because some were too distracted by the animation or, as ThatAnimeSnob would say, 'pretty colors.' Speaking of ThatAnimeSnob, he’s still trolling modern anime in his 40s, refusing to work like most people.

My actual point is that Zexal's reception and ratings are more mixed than I expected. The show isn’t good when it’s aimed at a younger audience, as older fans got split on how 'childish' the main character and the supporting cast are. So no, Zexal is nothing more than a rollercoaster for those who wanted something cheerful and colorful.

People call me ironic for using double standards, but most Yu-Gi-Oh! fans lack common sense. You can blame their own shortcomings from the 2010s.

I can only see why people want to revisit this topic—it’s because the fandom can’t acknowledge how terrible the duels in Zexal were. Take Kite vs. Mizar round 3 on the moon, for instance. It’s so bad that I wanted to burn my monitor after rewatching it, especially since they killed off a character who mattered more than the entire season. Zexal 2 is just a poorly written battle royale shounen that leans on a comedic and badly executed concept from Doma, or tries to copy the former (the Dark Signers from 5D's), which also failed. Zexal is too much of a mix of the first three Yu-Gi-Oh! anime instead of being its own thing or having a clear outcome. I’ve heard that both the show and the card game became problematic for Konami because it made things feel worse.

Another reason it failed is that its writer, Shin Yoshida, who everyone hated during Zexal, was in charge of the manga, which I think was much better than the anime.

[artsyjesseblue]

Sleeping Allura

There’s a scene in VLD, Season 8 Ep 10 (Knights of Light Part 2) that keeps sticking out to me with all sorts of red flags, indicating that there was more to come, but the rest was cut out. Not by the will of the very talented people who wrote, produced or animated this show. And I’ll prove my point below.

This time, it’s not a hard-evidence discussion on drawing flaws or animation issues. I rather base it on the logic of how movies, shows, anime, cartoons etc, are built.

(To recap the events, the Paladins traveled into Honerva’s mind, where they found out that she had been keeping the Old Paladins trapped. Together, they unveil what her ultimate plan was: she wants to find her perfect reality. At the end of this episode, all ten manage to escape Honerva’s mind by uniting to form Voltron. The present-time Paladins wake up in the real world, but Allura is collapsed on her chair, unconscious. This is the last shot of the episode. A dramatic violin music accompanies the scene.)

First, basic stuff:

— both Allura collapsed in her chair and the dun-dun-duuun violin orchestra finale (more about the music later) makes this a glaring cliffhanger, with the implied promise of a payoff in the upcoming episode(s).

— not to mention the desperate voices of the Paladins yelling “Allura, Allura!”, trying to wake her up. Cliffhanger with capital C.

— a more subtle observation: the color scheme and contre-jour effect create mystery and drama. Where can that lead to?

— why would someone pay the animation studio to make this scene, other than with the intent to continue it with some sort of reveal?

OK, now let’s move on to see what the “reveal” consisted of in the iteration of Season 8 we were presented with:

▶️ In the next episode, we are shown Allura in a hospital bed on Atlas, with the Paladins and Coran gathered around her, while she’s still unconscious. Coran scolds them with “I told you so”, etc etc. Nothing about what Allura experiences in her dream/coma/trance/whatever-this-is.

▶️ Later in the episode, Lance comes at her bedside with the classic “I need you,” and she finally wakes up. Honerva appears and says “the princess has awakened.”

▶️ Then we see Lance bringing a visibly grumpy Allura to the main deck of Atlas, where asked how she is feeling, she says “A little weak, but I’ll manage.”

▶️ Subsequently, the chase after Honerva unfolds, with the same information we were left off, which is: Honerva wants to find her perfect reality; and she will use Lotor’s mech to pierce realities.

And that was it. The big reveal of the cliffhanger. Huh?

We do not gather any new knowledge after this deep sleep Allura had gone through. Seems like a lot of wasted cinema time to concoct these scenes and pay an animation studio to do them.

OK, so here’s the common-sense question: Would you put your character in a deep sleep, make everything revolve around that event like it’s life-changing (including color schemes, musical theme), and then wake your character up to just say “I’m a little weak, but I’ll manage?” As a writer, producer, director, would you do this? Even a novice writer would not do that. It’s absolutely nonsensical. Maybe a child would write a third-grade essay like that.

To the ones that say the writers and producers did not know what they were doing, I say: they knew exactly what they were doing and someone else forced them to butcher their work. And the proof is the simple fact that this snippet of their work still exists in canon.

Simply based off of reading and watching movies and TV shows, I can tell you there are at least a couple of viable options for how a reveal should be handled after such a big suspense scene. 1) Either show the viewer what she actually experienced in her unconscious state. 2) Or make her recount in some way what she has seen, during or after a certain turning point of the story, as a final “mystery-solved” tension release. None of these two have happened.

And now on to more meta about the color scheme, music and some additional thoughts:

- Take a look at the red glow of the sky in the image I attached in the beginning, with Allura in her chair. The Dark Entity is red. Allura already followed the lead of the Entity all the way through Honerva’s mind for two episodes. It would make sense that she would still follow where the Entity drives her, if this is such an important cliffhanger. I do not believe they chose this red color because she was going to dream about picking juniberry flowers. Also, this red glow is not a pure, warm glowing red. It is a desaturated, muddied kind of red (and a dusty pink where the light hits through), fitting the color gamut of the Entity.

- Try to listen to the music background of this scene (again, for reference, S8E10, very last part). It is the musical theme used around Lotor scenes in S8. If you don’t believe me, try watching the scene where Allura sees Lotor in her dream in S8E8 - Clear Day and listen to the musical theme.

- Logical deduction: there were 10 Paladins when they punched out of Honerva’s mind at the end of this episode. Five are alive, five are deceased and exist only as “ghosts”. The ghost ones were trapped inside Honerva’s mind, but the real life Paladins saved them. They ALL pierce out of Honerva’s mind and are free. After that, we are left with only the real life Paladins. So, then, where did the ghosts go? (We eventually see the ghost Paladins at the very end of the series, bunched up together with Lotor as a farewell, and I hypothesized in a previous meta that they don’t belong there and that Lotor does not belong among them. We most likely were supposed to see the scene with the Old Paladins saying their farewell after this cliffhanger. Would make a lot of sense and would close the arc of the Old Paladins beautifully).

- Lotor tells Allura “Follow me!” at the end of her vision in the Clear Day episode. We never actually get to see her following him. It would make sense narratively for her to finally meet him in spirit now, as a closing arc for that path initiated in her visions. And who knows what they discuss. Important stuff, for sure, because she wakes up pretty worked up. Or maybe they discuss about picking juniberries (tongue-in-cheek). Oh, wait, he already told her stuff about juniberries in Clear Day.

- When Honerva says “The princess has awakened”, it makes no sense in the context in which it was inserted. So, listen: in the canon we’ve got, Allura is sound asleep, beauty-resting, she has no more visions (because we’re not shown or told about any). Everyone around her is freaking out. And here comes Honerva, who is also watching from a safe distance, stalking her through that Dark Entity. And they actually animate a scene in which she remarks that Allura has awakened. To what conclusion? Honerva was worried about her beauty sleep?

- OK, this last one is a bit more interpretative, but I’ll throw it in anyway. After Allura wakes up, she is escorted to the Atlas bridge by Lance, who looks kind of like “hey, I’m the nice guy, taking good care of her, but watch out, she’s a bit on the edge.” She looks um… dignified and angry I would say. The only hint that she might be a bit weak is Lance holding her protectively. A weakened state is usually when someone does not hold their spine and head straight. She walks straight as a pole, arms very close to her body, not in a relaxed manner for sure. Body language is important. And when she enters the bridge, she looks directly at Keith… Did he ever have anything to do with accusing Lotor of a lot of stuff in Season 6? What if Allura found out more in this little trip she had, and it’s going to challenge Keith’s initial assertions about Lotor?

This is all for now. I’m forever thankful to the #teampurplelion research and metas, which sparked my inspiration for writing this. This mini-meta of mine is a detail-focused analysis, based on a small part from @leakinghate ‘s work, “Seek Truth in Darkness”.

[agentnico]

Nope (2022) Review

In the words of Katy Perry “Do you ever feel like a plastic bag, drifting through the wind, wanting to start again?” That’s what came to my mind when I finally bared witness to the mysterious entity in this movie. And no, that’s not a compliment.

Plot: Two siblings running a horse ranch in California discover something wonderful and sinister in the skies above, while the owner of an adjacent theme park tries to profit from the mysterious, otherworldly phenomenon.

The issue I find with Jordan Peele is that he is unarguably great at executing concepts, however not so much creating them. Aside of Get Out, he tends to never really figure out the full scopes of the concepts that he creates, and most notably how to end them. That was my main issue with Us - that ending made absolutely no sense. And for anyone who turns to me and says “oh man, you just didn’t get it!!” I assure you, I got it, but it had logic fallacies that made the whole thing lack any sense. However as a movie itself, Us is actually decent, with great moments of horror and suspense, killer performances from the likes of Lupita Nyong’o and Winston Duke, it’s shot wonderfully and even the creative choices like the red outfits of the villains and the use of Beach Boys’ “Good Vibrations” are all amazing creative decisions. Again, the execution by Peele is very very good, however the actual narrative thread holding it all together doesn’t work. 

Now, moving onto Nope I see the same pattern occur. This is a gorgeously shot movie exhibiting the hilly plains of the American dessert, and features, again, real moments of tension that Peele is known for. In fact, there is a certain sequence involving a tube that manages to give one of the scariest depictions of claustrophobia/helplessness I’ve ever seen on film, and it was truly spine-chilling. However stripping the movie down to the bare basics, it has a very simple premise that tries to act more cleverer than it actually is by shoehorning in allegories that don’t actually have much pay-off. There’s this whole thing about a chimp that wrecked havoc on a film-set which is referred to in flashbacks a few times during the movie, and whilst those sequences themselves were truly incredible in actually creating a sense of dread and horror, their connection to the actual movie are very loose. I wouldn’t necessarily say pointless, but the way that event motivates a certain character in the movie doesn’t pertain to much as that character doesn’t actually play a major part. And the theme involving the chimp is, again, loose towards the rest of the film. It was as if it were two different movies meshed together.

Jumping back to the topic of Peele not knowing how to end his concepts. The mysterious entity in this movie is treated so well in the first half, with you only seeing certain glimpses of it, and that idea of not knowing yet wanting to know was done so well. That indeed sense of mystery and wonderment made me excited to see the pay-off, however that pay-off ended up being the detriment. Since once the entity is revealed fully (again, making me think of a plastic bag drifting through the wind), the movie becomes really silly and goofy and you can’t really take it seriously. I also understand the movie’s central theme/allegory of spectacle and people being blind-sided by wanting to be part of something big (Black Mirror anyone?), however the characters end up doing some flat out stupid things. For example, there is this film director who joins the main crew, and at the end he decides to ‘in the name of the impossible’ go on a suicide mission, after which you sit there thinking “why the fudge did he do that?”.

Cinema is all about being an experiential event. You go to the movies to feel something, to have that sense of experience. Nope truly provides that spectacle and blood pumping tension. It is indeed one to watch on the big screen, however it is also only valid for that one watch, as you start thinking deeper into the plot and that’s when it starts falling apart. But again, watch it for the experience. The cast are all great too - Daniel Kaluuya is tensely stoic; Steven Yeun is under-used but wears a cowboy hat which was great to see; Brandon Perea, Michael Wincott and a cameoing Keith David all do great work. I’ve heard a lot of rave reviews towards Keke Palmer’s performance, however though I admit she was very energetic and excited, she spoke way too fast for me to understand a lot of what she was saying. So yes, going to casually throw some shade at Keke Palmer cause why not. Anyway, Nope is better than Us, nowhere near as good as Get Out, but for a summer cinema flick it provides a suitable amount of entertainment.

Overall score: 6/10

[whetstonefires]

mcu ethics bad

The thing is that, while I was angry at Tony during Age of Ultron, particularly when he rode over Bruce’s compunctions about building a giant combat super-robot and pressured him into the project like a very very bad friend who happened to also be wrong...

...and when he equipped Hulkbuster armor and fought the Hulk in the middle of a city rather than attempting de-escalation or attempting to haul the Hulk out into the giant adjacent desert....

(And my suspension of disbelief snapped like a frayed cable when he brought down a skyscraper that had had no time to be evacuated on a street full of fleeing people and the only reason we were given to believe he hadn’t just cold-bloodedly created massive civilian casualties was that he told his AI to find the impossible magic angle where doing this wouldn’t kill anyone...)

While I was angry with him then, and unspeakably relieved that he recognized his own damage and retired at the end, haha psych, I was revolted by him during Civil War.

It’s supposed to make us sympathize with a character more, spending so much time with them, getting into their heads, being shown their emotional drives and reactions to things, and we spent so much time with Tony during that film, understanding his point of view. And...I did understand him. He’s not complicated. I even sympathized with his emotional state.

But in the context of his actions, throughout the film, I gazed into that understanding the way I did into Kylo Ren’s face in the seconds after he first unmasked. I see you, I know you, everything you are is written here, and the lines of your shame and self-revulsion are so thick upon you, and you should be ashamed but your self-destruction does not expiate or justify one jot of the harm you do.

Because everything Tony did in Civil War came from a place of selfishness. He was selfish all throughout that movie down to his very spine.

And selfishness isn’t itself necessarily bad--you need a little, to get through life, you have the right to your own portion of it. Your boundaries and your needs. But the type of selfishness that is forcing other people pay dearly for your emotional comfort and sense of control: no.

That is tyranny. That is not acceptable.

And you know how I know he was being selfish? Because his motive for pushing the Sokovia Accords was his personal guilt for the destruction of Sokovia.

But the Accords didn’t address that at all! They were tangential to the issue! None of the terms of the Accords would have saved Sokovia--in fact, the existence of them could easily have prevented the evacuation and harm-reduction the Avengers managed there, without saving a single soul.

The Ultron crisis was something Tony did, not as Iron Man but as Tony Stark, with Bruce Banner’s help, and which Wanda as criminal fugitive later helped exacerbate, and which all the other Avengers were involved in only to mitigate harm.

Legislation, or...treaties, idk, the UN isn’t actually empowered to pass laws so who knows what this thing was...aimed at preventing another Sokovia would mandate constant ethical oversight of billionaire science man’s mad science. At the very least! He never has to run things by ethics boards because he’s self-funded, at the very least let’s invent a mechanism to make up for that.

That would address the actual Sokovia issue, both in terms of risks and in terms of Tony’s personal guilt feelings.

But no one suggests that! It’s not even on the table! Because no one, certainly not any government, can tell Tony Stark what to do unless he lets them, that’s been a clear matter of record since Iron Man 2.

And because no one writing this legal instrument of whatever description was actually motivated by wanting to avoid another Sokovia, or even another ‘Wanda tries to neutralize a suicide bomber but merely gives him a different, smaller victim pool’ incident.

They didn’t care! They blatantly didn’t care! The entire thing was a ghoulish use of the dead to gain enough political leverage over the Avengers to put a leash on them!

(Which might not be a bad thing in principle, everything needs its checks, but when the last quasi-governmental organization you worked for turned out to be Nazis who were only prevented from staging a mass slaughter of undesireables by the skin of your teeth, I think you’re well within your rights to be very choosy about who you agree to obey, and to be firmly against pledging your honor to follow people whose first move was dishonest coercive tactics.

Actually you’re well within your rights to demand to negotiate the terms of even a much less sweeping contract, even without the Nazis. The whole approach to this thing stank to high heaven.

The fact that it was written by the UN like a treaty, expected to be signed by private individuals like a contract, and then enforced like a law except not because 1) laws are for everyone 2) if you break a law you get a trial not extrajudicial incarceration and 3) being pressured to consent to a restriction and then punished for refusing consent is hypocritical circular logic and in fact police corruption at its finest, all continues to show it was a bullshit nonsense franken-document.)

The whole movie is people ghoulishly using the dead to manipulate Tony into making bad decisions in response to his emotional pain. That’s. The plot of the film.

Then Zemo staged T’Chaka’s assassination and framed Bucky for it to raise the tension, ramp up the pressure, and prevent any sitting-down and talking reasonably through this, which might have allowed for the recognition of how extremely bullshit the entire concept was.

Tony was being used. Tony was a tool of bad people for most of that movie, and while Zemo banked on using his wrath for it, the politicos were leaning on his guilt.

And there’s honestly little I hold in deeper scorn than going out and hurting other people to assuage your own guilt and treating this as having the moral high ground. No. You don’t have the moral high ground on account of your guilt motivation. You have it if the actions you took were just, or at least could reasonably be assumed to have been so at the time.

And Tony fucking knew they weren’t. He didn’t even last to the end of the movie before recognizing that he’d been manipulated and fucked up, and doubling back.

That he then walked into a different manipulation, turned on a dime, and had to be stopped from doing a murder doesn’t unwrite that.

And it drives me nuts that people will say Tony was acting out of principle while Steve was acting out of personal attachment. Because sure, the Bucky thing was important, was the reason he was walking forward against all opposition instead of standing still to argue, but it wasn’t the reason Steve said no, while...

Tony wasn’t acting out of principle. Tony isn’t...very good at having principles. That’s not even a criticism or condemnation, it’s just how he functions. Since Iron Man he’s been substituting good intentions and emotional investment, which has worked out to varying degrees. It works best for huge, difficult, very straightforward decisions like ‘ride the nuke through the portal and save my hometown.’ It works less well for nuanced situations.

Tony was, as usual, acting out of emotion. And some awful shitheads who’d figured out where his levers were had calculated how to jiggle his emotion switches in the right places to make him do exactly what they wanted.

And you can tell he wasn’t acting out of principle because, for example, someone who was trying to get the superhero community under outside control for the sake of harm mitigation...

...well, firstly wouldn’t have chosen to stage a massive battle? But it’s possible someone in the UN specifically told him to do that, and in theory they at the very least signed off on it, presumably for its PR value of making Captain America look deranged and violent since it’s a deranged decision from every other angle, so yay, he can pass that responsibility up the chain and not have to angst about it, as promised.

But I was going to say would not have approached a minor who (this timeline takes pains to show us) had no prior experience of battle or even, somehow, serious violent crime, to recruit him to go be a government child soldier on another continent, without his guardian’s knowledge or consent. There were overtones of blackmail in Tony’s approach, before it turned out Peter was such a big fan he didn’t need that. What the fuck frankly.

That is not the action of someone who wants to start doing things by the letter, scaling the violence down, keeping within the law and putting the power of decisionmaking in other people’s hands because he’s realized he can’t trust his own.

And frankly even if he did act like that I wouldn’t necessarily support his choices, in particular his snap decision to behave coercively toward other Avengers with vastly less social power and security than he has.

And that’s the other thing! Everything about ‘Tony + Accords BFFs’ rings so hollow because he has never thought rules applied to him, and he knows perfectly well the entire time he’s fighting to force this surrender of agency down other people’s throats that he is going to be practically immune.

This man was technically a terrorist, proabably the most prolific single terrorist in world history until his rogue android exceeded his body count, but he was immune to prosecution because he was in tight with the United States military-industrial complex and basically untouchable due to his status within capitalism, and pursuing their international goals anyway. In the time between Iron Man and Iron Man II he was basically a one-man upgrade of the US drone program, and so good at it that the crest of blood he carved through the Middle East allowed him to announce he had ‘privatized world peace.’

(You are never going to get a world peace worth anything on the basis of a giant flying gun, okay.)

He went to war as a private individual, against non-state actors who were not directly threatening him, which is very much defined as ‘mass murder’ in all domestic and international law, and the US army in response sued him for control of his weapon. And lost! Lost.

No one attempted to press charges. No one. Because Tony Stark is above all that. And he knows it.

And like. I’m willing to accept the mass murder under the heading of ‘superheroing’ within the terms of this setting! Even if, after his vengeance rampage on his specific kidnappers, this violence was kept strictly off-screen for a reason. I did that! I bent that far! Genre convention!

But this history is kind of vitally important to any analysis of what he thought he was doing, and what he actually was doing, when he decided to become the iron gauntlet of the Sokovia Accords.

The currently active member of the Avengers who needed muzzling most was very manifestly Iron Man, and he knew even as he jammed the muzzle on all his comrades to make himself feel better that it would affect him the least, even if he didn’t finally retire for real this time. You don’t force Tony Stark. Not if you want anything out of it but blown up. You persuade him.

And once you have...oh, look at what he can do.

[lesbianrobin]

have u done an analysis on endgame st ships? a penny for ur thoughts

i have not!! i would like two pennies please. my thoughts are not actually worth that much but i think i deserve them anyway. i’m gonna talk about some stuff that may seem unrelated or only loosely related to the question but i prommy it’s relevant <3 warning this ended up being like a thousand words somehow idk how that happened but i’m putting it under a cut bc i’m nice like that.

so! something that’s kinda unique/interesting to me about stranger things is how all of their ships are so clearly telegraphed and quickly developed. there’s a sense of... impatience, for lack of a better word. on the surface, it appears to be largely an effect of the cinematic style of the show; there’s very little room for questioning who someone’s gonna end up with or for slowly developing a relationship over time when you only get eight episodes every like. twoish years. AND you have about a dozen main characters AND evil government forces AND monsters from another dimension. it’s a lot to juggle!

stranger things has a lot to accomplish in a pretty short amount of time. the timeline of a single season usually spans no more than a week (excluding flashbacks/end-of-season timeskips), and well... nobody wants the important stuff to happen offscreen! i’ll use the stoncy love triangle as an example: jancy was originally intended to get together at the end of s1 after steve’s death, but since they decided to let steve redeem himself and survive, there was just no time to separate stancy and get jancy together without it seeming wayyy too abrupt. since jancy was always their plan, they didn’t want to leave nancy with steve, but they knew they couldn’t just have that boyfriend swap occur offscreen... which is why s2 Had to have a stancy breakup plot in order for the writers to accomplish their goal of getting jancy together.

the main characters in stranger things tend to maintain homeostasis between seasons, their circumstances and relationships rarely changing any more than the audience might have just assumed they would anyway (like lucas and max dancing together + sharing a kiss at the end of s2 and officially dating by the start of s3). steve and nancy are dating at the end of s1, so they must still be dating at the start of s2, and thus we must break them up DURING s2. joyce and hopper are friends with some deeply buried feelings in s2, so they’re friends with Less Buried feelings that must become apparent during s3. excluding the stancy situation (for reasons which i think are obvious but i will talk more about later), momentum is always forwards. mileven, lumax, and jancy argue, but they come back together, presumably more mature and stronger than before. 

all of this is to say that stranger things has thus far been rather dedicated to their starting ships. there isn’t much misdirection; mike’s crush on el is obvious from the start, nancy and jonathan share charged moments even while she is with steve in the beginning, lucas shows interest in max immediately and shares more significant interactions with her than the other boys from early on in s2, and the deep loyalty and care between joyce and hop is always apparent. steve and robin (initially intended to be together romantically) hold hands quite early in s3 and dustin asks steve about whether he likes her. 

the point? stranger things doesn’t dick around when it comes to love! they handle their ships with remarkable efficiency. in each season, it tends to be pretty obvious from the start who’s going to end up with who, and heading into the show’s fourth season, almost everybody is paired off: mike and el, max and lucas, joyce and hop, nancy and jonathan. which leaves us asking... are all of them going to last until the end?

we’ve only had one true breakup on the show so far, and as i’ve said before, the stancy breakup is an anomaly as it was essentially “righting a wrong,” allowing jonathan and nancy to get together as they were intended to do from the start. the only other romantic relationship to end on the show was between joyce and bob, and well... we all know why that ended, and it started/ended within the confines of a single season. 

stranger things tends to treat each season as an extended film, right? they draw inspiration from classic 80′s films, and each subsequent season after s1 is treated as a sequel (they are Literally referred to as stranger things 2 and stranger things 3). when they introduce tension in a season, they’re inclined to resolve that tension by the season’s end so that people leave satisfied, while also providing a plot hook for the next “sequel” for audiences to theorize about. this hook is always part of the grander plot, not a will-they-won’t-they tease or something else of the sort. remember, they could have broken up steve and nancy in s2 and waited to get jancy together in s3, but they didn’t! they wanted to go ahead and resolve the tension! 

while there are narrative and practical incentives that i’ve covered for this impatience/efficiency/[insert better word i can’t think of here], i also think it kinda reveals something about the writers of the show. to some degree, they genuinely care about and want their ships to be together! we’ve watched them introduce new characters just to kill them off a couple of times now, and i think it’s fair to say that the writers might be a bit too attached to the mains to consider killing any of them off (at least prior to the series finale). maybe... this reluctance to kill their darlings extends to ships.

romance isn’t the primary draw of the show, but an indulgence, something that there may not always be time for but that the writers continue to prioritize as much as they can because they enjoy it, or feel that it is important to the overall product. if we accept this idea, that the inclusion of and focus on so many romantic relationships in stranger things is (to some degree) indicative of the writers’ own desires, then it might inform our speculation regarding endgame ships.

i’m not here to like... really actually assert that i know what’ll be endgame, because i don’t really know jack shit. however, i do think that the writers are pretty invested in all of the current canon st ships (and yes, i am including jopper in that, as their romantic development was explicit in s3). i also think that the writers like catering to fans, leaning into popular jokes (steve “the hair” harrington) and devoting more and more time to the ships fans obsess over (particularly mileven). 

with this all in mind... i really think that most if not all of the current canon ships will be endgame. 

i think that barring any extreme circumstances (i.e. a character Actually dying instead of just fake dying) jopper will be endgame. they’re the only ones that the writers have had the restraint to actually do a slow burn with, and i really can’t see them devoting so much to developing their dynamic just to say it was all for nothing in the end. 

i’m less confident on the others. there are some signs in canon that the remaining couples have some serious problems and may not last, but these issues are often dismissed, played for comedy or brushed over within the text itself, and many of the details within the text contradicting this dismissal are often so small that it’s unclear whether they’re intentional or not. while breaking up mileven might make perfect sense for a fan who reads into subtext and pays attention to unusual acting choices and subtle parallels, it would be a pretty risky move on the surface level. allowing these ships to remain canon for awhile and garner large fanbases only to break them up later would require both a willingness to actively contradict the desires of their audience as well as a certain degree of restraint in their romantic storytelling, which runs counter to the impression i personally have of the st writers (this is, of course, my own personal opinion).

there’s a good chance that at least one of the current canon ships will break up by the end, if only because i think that it would be a little boring if every relationship stayed the same for almost the entirety of the show’s run, and the stranger writers like to keep things new and exciting. perhaps long distance will kill jancy or mileven, or lucas and max will go off again and never come back on, but either way i wouldn’t be surprised if we got a breakup in s4. even with that, though, i think it’s somewhat likely that a current couple may break up in s4 and get back together for the series finale, just for the sake of a little suspense. overall, though, i feel like our current canon ships are going to be more or less the same at the end of the show.

that’s about it. i suppose i didn’t really... answer the question you asked skdndsdkjc i feel like you probably just wanted to know like if i’m a byler endgame truther (which i am not but i could happily be proven wrong). thank you for asking, though! i hope this made at least a little bit of sense.

[everythingsinred]

Let's Talk About NatsuMikan: The Anime (pt. 4)

The anime is a different species than the manga, something that frequently happens during the adaptation from page to screen. Since they’re so different, I’ll analyze them separately.

In the last few parts, we talked about NatsuMikan's story divergence in the anime, and how an even minor change can seem pretty significant with added context. Here, we'll be exploring just two episodes, but two episodes that are pretty layered and have plenty of stuff to analyze!

Episode 18 vs. Chapter 21

The haunted house episode was pretty well-adapted in the anime. They did a good job of elongating the events and filling up the timespan of an episode while keeping the events interesting and suspenseful. I love the addition of Sumire and Jinno (especially with the discovery that he’s easily frightened). Jinno electrocuting the house and causing the electric problems makes a lot more sense than Iinchou passing out due to fear and coincidentally falling on the generator. In any case, the anime makes Natsume’s jealousy when Mikan clings to Ruka more clear.

The anime adds Natsume shielding Mikan from the wall when it falls, something that I always thought was cute, especially when Mikan reveals she had been awake but in shock and Natsume reacts with frustration. It further proves Ruka’s point from earlier in the episode that despite Natsume’s attitude, he is actually selfless. He will do selfless things and then act like they didn’t happen, like they didn’t bother him, etc., even if they resulted in something serious, like his leg being injured.

It just…. keeps me going.

Much of the events are the same but with minor tweaks, such as Natsume just seeing Mikan’s underwear instead of kicking her skirt up. The anime also has a much less suggestive scene for Iinchou and Ruka to walk in on. In the anime, Mikan is simply hanging over Natsume. Natsume is even flinching away from her. Leave room for Jesus.

The difference though.

The episode starts with the tea scene, as well, unlike in the chapter, and it concludes with Mikan discussing with Ruka her dream of seeing her grandfather again and becoming a strong alice. Ruka doesn’t share his dream, but we see a glimpse of it: living on a farm with many animals and Natsume, his best friend, and Mikan. There’s also more emphasis on the parallels between Natsume and Ruka’s friendship with Hotaru and Mikan. The manga does explore these similarities on its own time, but the anime jumps right in. No, they aren’t perfect mirrors of each other, but there are parallels. But Mikan and Ruka aren’t the only ones who have much in common. And just like Natsume and Mikan have a lot in common, so do Ruka and Hotaru, one of the sadly unexplored relationships in both the anime and the manga. But that’s not what this essay is about so we will move on ;-;

Episode 19 vs. Chapter 23 & 24

The next episode is the play one. There is more suspense leading up to the reveal of Ruka’s role in the Somatic play and more humorous additions to fill the episode. It adds Mikan scolding Natsume for being selfish when he refuses to dress as a cat for the play, giving him one more incentive in addition to “Narumi told him to” and “the kid is sad”. Just like in the manga, but with more emphasis, Mikan is the only girl unafraid to call Natsume cute and affectionately tease him for his outfit. In the anime, she giggles as she pokes his ears and it’s very cute. Naturally, in both versions, he reacts by flicking her forehead.

Mikan is a furry becau--

And Natsume is, in both versions, the one who volunteers Mikan for the role of the prince without really thinking about the consequences (because he’s an idiot). In the anime, he’s more spiteful, acting out of revenge for having to dress up as a cat. When she tries to refuse, it’s his turn to scold her, when he reminds her that everyone’s freaked out by the sticky balls and are in the same boat.

There’s consequent jealousy (because of course there is; Natsume is an idiot). Ruka and Mikan bond over their roles and forced situations and Natsume watches from afar, probably feeling nothing but regret because he’s the one that made it all happen. Ah… how poetic. There’s an added scene where Mikan and Sumire have a fight and Sumire’s character dies in a horrible explosion (that was funny but also kind of unnecessary). The almost-kiss is much more poetic in the anime, of course. Natsume throws an apple at Mikan to stop her from kissing Ruka for the play, and Hotaru is seen assisting him by switching off the lights, signaling an end to the show. The kid to whom Natsume is attached (and whose apple was stolen) is watching him with confusion and Natsume stares at his hand so there’s no confusion who interfered with the play.

In the manga, he throws some nondescript box thing (I never got exactly what it was so feel free to tell me if you do know), but the apple is much more dramatic. The play is Snow White, and the apple is what causes the princess to fall unconscious. It’s a symbol tied to evil, and depending on how much analysis we want to go into for just the folktale by itself, it is also tied to apples being related to the knowledge of good and evil, sowing seeds of discord, etc. Natsume throws an apple at Mikan to stop the kiss, because the story and the play is not as important to him. What caused the princess to fall unconscious is what could potentially--in play universe--keep her unconscious, because if she doesn’t get the kiss, she doesn’t wake up. But in a more Natsumikan sense, the apple sows potential seeds of discord between Natsume and Ruka. After all, after the play, Ruka knows who interfered. He knows why. He’s visibly upset about it, more sad than anything, and in the next episode there’s even more tension between Natsume and Ruka over Mikan.

The episode ends with Natsume still being jealous and Mikan and Ruka being embarrassed about what almost happened. However, Mikan and Ruka make up and decide to forget about it, and the kid takes Natsume’s hand and pulls him over to his friends. The episode concludes with them all being friends, even if there are undiscussed tensions bubbling between them all. Aww, how cute. The anime does a good job of making the love triangle seem equally balanced.

Summary

In this section, we only covered two episodes, though they were pretty interesting to discuss (also I can only put ten images in a post, I'm sorry). In these two eps, a new element is added to the story, the tension and jealousy between Natsume and Ruka, who both like the same girl and have trouble communicating with each other about it. When it comes to the anime, this tension will become very important in the next episode.

<- Previous Part Next Part ->

[upinmyfeelz]

Red

Red -  Yandere! Tendou x Reader

Hey! If you’ve stopped on this little story there are a few things I want to mention. First, please read the bold warnings below, just encase. Secondly, this is my first one-shot I’ve written, well written and put out here, as well as being my first Yandere fic ever! So please be kind, although constructive criticism is always welcome!   

I would also like to mention some songs I listened to which inspired this, you could even listen to them as you read if you like! 

Cologne, by Alec Wigdahl

Choke, by I DONT KNOW HOW BUT THEY FOUND ME

Nightmare, by Set it off

High Enough, by K.Flay

There will be Blood, by Kim Petras

Lemons - Demo, by Brye

Warnings: Gore, toxic relationship, abuse, violence, rape, self-harm and more dark themes. Also its a little bit of a slow burn? If you aren’t comfortable reading these kinds of things, please don’t click on this one as I don’t intend on upsetting anyone. If you suffer from some of the topics in this story, I’m sorry you have or are going through it and just know that help can always be found, even in the smallest of ways. 

10.3 K words / 40 ish min read. 

Without further adieu, I present to you my first Yandere Fic! Have fun!

•❅──────✧❅✦❅✧──────❅•

The air was thick with tension as the hilariously underestimated Karasuno high scored yet another point against the powerhouse team of Shiratorizawa, bringing the game to a match point. Meaning that if they score the next point it won’t be Shiratorizawa going to nationals. The stands were in chaos with suspense, some fans screaming loudly while others stood back in a cold sweat, eyes fixated on the court in anticipation. There was a small pause as the players set themselves for another round, their setter readying the ball. The players had given their all, the evidence in the sweat that dripped from their every pore and were now running on nothing but determination as their joints ached from overexertion. While things were tense enough for the powerhouse team with their position at nationals seriously at risk, what they didn’t know was that a much bigger event for one of them was about to be set in motion by this very game, something involving the unsuspecting girl in the stands.

•❅──────✧❅✦❅✧──────❅•

Your interest in the volleyball team’s notorious blocker started with something so small and cliché it was almost pathetic. The day had been like all the ones before and it had come to its usual lunchtime break when your eyes got distracted from your very animated friend by the streak of red in your view. Your eyes then focused to see that, yes, that tall guy really did have bright red hair. It was that same shade of hair that you began to pick out in crowds during school assembles and you found that you were pretty good at noticing whenever he was in the same room as you as your eyes always wandered over to him naturally. It created a strange sort of feeling in the pit of your stomach, it was as if your subconscious was attracted to him or there was some kind of unseen force that drew you to him. So, naturally the more you noticed him the more you became interested in him. You began to collect all the little snippets of information about him you could get your hands. From what you could see, he had a childlike aura surrounding him as was always smiling while also making others smile. He walked through life with a spring in his step and he had a carefree attitude towards things that, in the long run, didn’t actually matter. After seeing all of this you found yourself wanting to know even more about him but this time you wanted to find out from the man himself; as you wanted to be one of those people he smiles the brightest for.

So, when the class representative came in during the morning class to ask for audience members for Shiratorizawa’s up-coming important match, of course, there was no way you couldn’t go. However, you realised with a sinking feeling in your chest, you were going to have to go alone. There would be no way your friends would want to come, not after their reactions to your crush.

     "He’s just so weird! I don’t see it."

     "I don’t get why you like him of all the volleyball team, I get nothing but creepy vibes from him."

     "Honestly, I’d say it’s better you stayed away from him. They say he’s nicknamed as a monster!"

     "Speaking of monsters! He shares the name with a really creepy one that can read your mind, Satori!"

Your frown deepened as you remember their comments. First of all, on the court, he was nicknamed the ‘Guess Monster’ because he was extremely good at guessing the attack and stopping it. Secondly, he was not creepy, he was just a little more extroverted and eccentric, which you’d take over boring any day. But of course, even when you tried protesting this to them, they just got even more annoying about it, which made you more defensive. It was a headache trying to talk to them about it so you actually should be thankful for going to this game alone, it would give you a chance to watch the game in pace.

And so, you found yourself front and centre to their match, your voice joining the masses as you cheered for your team to win as they always do. You as the game progress it became more apparent that this was no ordinary, straightforward, game as Karasuno seemed to continue to take the lead, leaving Shiratorizawa on the ropes. There was a lull of silence through the hall as both teams set themselves up for another toss which had the potential to send your team home. Feeling an overwhelming urge to give them one last push, you flung caution to the wind as you shouted at the top of your lungs.

‘GO TENDOU!’

Red irises darted to yours within seconds of your shout, your cry had awoken everyone in the stands as they erupted again with their chants. Those crimson eyes still held you captive as the moment shared between you seemed to go on forever. At that moment you witness a shift in his gaze as his eyes narrowed from their wide exploded position from the shock into something darker, something intangible. Then those eyes left you, focusing back on the game, and you felt as if you could breathe again as a shiver of cold ran through you.

The feeling Tendou got when your eyes locked for the first time after you cried out his name was nothing like he had ever felt before. His entire existence felt weighed down and defined by this very moment as if he had been living in a simulation his whole life leading up to this one moment that had pulled him from his dream state into a vibrant reality. All of his senses felt heightened when he had heard his name fall from your lip, saw your eyes widen in shock as they met his own. Everything pulled him towards you at that moment, as if all his ties of reality had now been tethered to your existence. While he struggled to put a name to these newly awoken, primal, feelings he shifted his focus back to the court. He had to finish off here and figure out what to do about all of this. However, he found himself unable to give the last part of the game 100% of his attention because of the nagging feeling on the back of his head that you were in crowds, alone, and without his attention.

•❅──────✧❅✦❅✧──────❅•

The day after the match had gone by as normal, classes in the morning were a drag and lunchtime was ever the same. So, when you went to your last class of the day you really didn’t expect much and were just looking forward to heading home so you could be done with the day. It almost slipped your mind a certain someone was in this class but found it to be a pleasant surprise when you see his familiar red hair sitting on his usual seat closer to the front beside the window. Feeling a little chirpier, you took your seat diagonally behind him and took your notebook out. The class was dragging on. Your motivation for the day was hitting rock bottom and there was nothing you could do about it, no amount of positive re-enforcement from yourself about the day almost ending or glances in his direction could change that. However, you were snapped out of your self-pity spiral by the girl in front of you subtly sliding you a folded note across your desk when the teacher has his back to the class. Making sure you wouldn’t get caught, you unfolded it to see scribbly handwriting.

“Meet me out back after school. Alone.”

Vague. You tensed up a little wondering who would single you out like that. As you made your way through possible people in the class that’d want to talk to you, you found yourself coming up short. You hadn’t upset anyone, as far as you knew, and you didn’t really talk to anyone in this class. Unless… your eyes flicked over to the spiky red hair in front of you. The game yesterday. Had you upset him with your rather obnoxious cheer for him? Did it throw him off his game? You frowned at the thought of causing him problems from wanting to show him support. You had to own up to whatever this was for, so you sent a quick text to your friends telling them not to wait up for you without disclosing the details. They would be opposed to meeting up with him alone, saying you wouldn’t be safe. You rolled your eyes at their thoughts, sure the concern was appreciated but it was just a boy from school wanting to talk, on school grounds none the less, not much could go wrong.

Suddenly the time had gone in faster with the added anticipation of meeting Tendou and the next thing you knew; were on your way to the meeting point. Reaching the back door, you one-over-ed yourself as you made sure nothing was out of place. Then, taking a breath, you opened the door.

‘Well, hello! I knew you’d come, tell me, did you figure out it was me?’

There stood Tendou Satori in his full glory, up close and personal. While you had expected to see him, it was still a little overwhelming and it left you a little flustered.

‘I-I wasn’t completely sure, but I guessed it was you, Tendou… ’

‘Oh? And just who else did you expect to meet? Did I disappoint you?’ Tendou tried to keep his tone light and playful but his eyes revealed a different story, one he wasn’t able to fully contain as it leaked a little into his words and face. To think you had been contemplating someone else in his place, even a little bit, infuriated him to a whole new level he never knew he could reach. Taking a sharp breath in through his noes he blinked his expression away to a more neutral one and gave his head a playful tilt as he stared into your eyes, daring you to lie to him.

‘N-No! You didn’t disappoint me, Tendou.’ You flushed under his intense gaze, it unnerved you a little, it was as if he was staring into the depths of your soul. You fidgeted with your hands as your eyes found his shoes. ‘I honestly didn’t know who or what to expect… I-I haven’t upset you, have I?’ Your mind cast back to the ominous note he gave, and you felt a spike of panic.

‘I don’t know, have you done anything that I should be upset about, Angel?’ He bent himself over leaning into your personal space for emphasis, so his face was right in front of your own. Were you hiding something from him?

‘D-Did I, um… Did I somehow throw you off your game yesterday with my shouting? I-I’m sorry if I did I-’

‘No, don’t apologise for that.’ You shouldn’t be apologising for finally revelling yourself to him, it irked him a little, but you meant well. He kept that closed eye smile pinned to his face. ‘I really liked it, especially since it was all for me! Although I think next time you cheer you can call me Satori.’ He winked as you as he brought his face closer hoping you’d catch onto his intention.

Tendo was smirking as he raised his eyebrow at you, it was so adorable to watch his little angel fret over possibly upsetting him. Now he just needed to be close to you and keep her closer to him. He had to make his move now, he was sure that just from the looks of your fragile frame you simply couldn’t last another day without him to protect you. Heck, he was surprised you’d managed it this far on your own! Poor dove must’ve been aching for his attention and care for a while after all he had noticed there had been a set of eyes on him recently. He felt a little stab of remorse for not noticing your pleas sooner. Now was his chance to make it up to you, and he wouldn’t let it slide this time as he did on the court yesterday.

‘A-Are you sure that’s o-okay?’ You looked so flustered as you picked up on his implications, was he serious? Did he really want to drop formalities so quickly and actually start seeing you in that way or …? You got a little shock, what if you were misreading the offer entirely! ‘I-I mean, why would you, um…’ How were you supposed to ask this and clear things up?

Tendou watched you squirm a little under his intense gaze before he put you out of your misery and clarified what he had meant.

‘Of course, it’s alright, can’t have my girlfriend calling me by my last name, can I? People would think we were fighting!’ He leant closer to whisper in her ear. ‘Besides I want you to be my personal cheerleader from now on, so no looking or cheering for anyone else. Okay?’ He took both of your smaller hands in his for emphasis. And oh my god, all he could think about was how your hands fit perfectly in his own, how soft and delicate they were, just like you, just like his petite Angel.

You flushed under his stare again and you began to worry about the amount of blood going to your face and head right now as you went dizzy with excitement. He was asking you out! Him! The guy you’ve been drawn to for a few months now! You let out an excited squeak in reply as you told him yes. His face split with the biggest grin you had ever seen, and he tugged you towards him as he caged you in a hug, spinning you.

‘You’ve made me so happy, Angel!’

However, just as abruptly he pulled away to hold you at an arm’s length to look you in the eye as he said in a light but bordering on a sombre tone as his face still held his smile but his contrastingly chill eyes sent a shiver down your spine as he spoke.

‘But I’ll say this again, you’ve got to promise me not to look at anyone else, okay? Only me.’

You nodded in earnest, the look he was giving you had scared you a little, but, you thought, maybe someone had cheated on him in the past and he needed the reassurance? If so, you would readily give it. Placing your smaller hands onto his larger ones that gripped your shoulders, you squeezed them in affirmation.

‘Don’t worry, Ten-S-Satori! I’ll keep my eyes on you!’

Just like that, the tension in the air dispelled and he was left grinning again.

‘That’s a good Angel! I’ll walk you home today, so lead the way!’

•❅──────✧❅✦❅✧──────❅•

It had been a little while into dating Satori now and you had begun to settle into a new norm with your hyperactive boyfriend. He would walk you to and from every class, regardless if he was in the class nearby or not, he somehow always managed to be there when the bell rang. When you had asked him how he made it to your class so fast, curious to how he got away from his own classes or if he was even going to them, he’d simply brush off the concern and saying, “The thought of seeing you made me go at the speed of light!”. He also whisked you away during breaks, taking you straight from your class to a new spot you both found that was secluded from the rest of the school which was always remained desolate of people. “A perfect spot for us to have some alone time, those other people hog you too much!” At the beginning of your relationship with Satori, he also had you sit with him at your own table at lunch. However, that didn’t last long as something had unnerved him which made you both moved to have your lunches somewhere far away from others.

It happened just a few days after you and Satori had started dating. You were still getting used to the new normal of not sitting with your friends during lunch, as Satori insisted you pay him all your attention as he was your boyfriend after all. Everything was going smoothly; you had managed to find a table that was empty and in the corner of the hall so you both sat down and began to chat away about nothing at all. Then another plate was placed down beside Satoris. You looked up to find Ushijima had taken his place beside his friend as he nodded to Satori, who had tensed at his fellow player’s arrival. Goshiki also sat beside the ace, wanting to talk about their recent practice more about how well he was doing on his route to be the future ace. Both men stopped in their tracks when they saw you, their eyes freezing for a moment before looking over at Satori. Goshiki was the first to speak up.

‘You never told us about your girlfriend, Tendou!’ He then turned to you and gave a little bow with his head, ‘Nice to meet you, I’m Goshiki Tsutomu!’ You smiled and bowed your head in return and looked at Ushijima as he too done the same then introduced himself.

While they were saying their hellos, Tendou could feel himself burning all over. It was like he was itching all over. His eyes remained fixed on the lunch box in front of him, unable to look at anything else or he might explode. His right side, where they sat next to him, felt like it was on fire as he had to witness them looking at his treasure, his sacred angel that was for his eyes only. Knowing they were looking at you right now was hard to prosses and he felt the snake of jealousy wrap itself around his lungs travelling all the way up to constrict around his throat making it almost impossible to breathe. His mind was doing overtime as it burned with one thought over and over and over again, someone else is looking at my sacred treasure. His heart was beating out of his chest and he was filled to the brim with burning hot fire that threatened to seep out of his pores if he let it. Then you smiled. You SMILED at someone who wasn’t him. And Tendou saw RED.

Standing Abruptly from the table, Satori lifted his lunch, grabbed your wrist from across the table and pulled you from your seat. He spoke in the lowest tone you’d ever heard him use and it terrified you. Scrambling to get your stuff as Tendou continued to drag you away, you never even got to excuse yourself as you left the two men wide-eyed wondering what had happened. When you and Satori hand reached your spot, he dropped everything and roughly shoved you against the wall. One hand rested on the wall above your head while the other was in your hair tightly, you winced a little at his grip but said nothing. His breathing was heavy as he rested his head on yours with his eyes closed. His hand in your hair started to move, slowly twirling your hair and running his fingers through it, then he moved to trace the side of your face, which led him to your chin until finally, his hand rested menacingly on your throat. His thumb resting on your pulse. He finally opened his eyes to look into your own petrified ones. He was the one to break the silence.

‘From now on, we’re eating here.’

Not wanting to agitate him further you nodded in submission. You’d keep your questions for later when he was calmer, right now your mind was going crazy with fear as his overpowering figure engulfed you.

‘You looked at someone else, Angel. You promised me you wouldn’t do that. You said, “I’ll keep my eyes on you!”’ He mocked your tone in a sickeningly high sweet one of his own before growling. ‘You lied to me. My Angel shouldn’t lie.’

Your eyes widened at the accusation and the threat that was laced in his words as you started to sweat. You noticed his eyes hadn’t lost their fire. A little confused, your brow frowned a little. You had only spoken to Ushijima and Goshiki, you hadn’t flirted with them or anything. Unless a smile counted? Did it?

‘I-I was only smiling-’

His finger on your pulse pressed down as he let out a heated breath and he tightened his grip on your windpipes. His eyes narrowing into small beams.

‘Only Smiling, huh? Angel, do you even know what a smile can do?’ He looked so furious, but it was more than that. There was something else in his eyes, something you still found you couldn’t understand, it was that same look he held when their eyes first met. You were skating on thin ice. ‘You don’t do you?’ He sighed as if the weight of the world was on his shoulders and he took a moment to collect himself.

‘You don’t know that it’s your smile that brought me to you, one that holds all of your light. You showed it to someone else. You can’t do that, you promised you’d only look at me and you need to keep your promises. I’m doing this for your own sake! If you got me with that smile, and that look in your eyes, can you even imagine what it could do to someone else?! Do want someone else to have you, is that what this is?!’

He looked positively crazed now and you wanted to simply run away. You normally felt so safe, protected, around Satori but this was nothing like that. He was terrifying. It was as if he had read your mind as he relaxed his actions. He released his grip on your throat and moved it to the back of your neck, stroking it in soothing motions. The corners of his eyes began to tear up as he looked away from you off to the side, biting his quivering lip. Clearly, there was a deeper-rooted issue that he needed help with, maybe this was something he was struggling with. From the looks of him now, he seemed remorseful for hurting you. You felt slightly guilty and ashamed for your thoughts of abandoning him when he clearly needed your support.

‘I-I… I don’t want anyone else Satori, I-I never realised I made you feel that way. I’m sorry.’

You looked down to his chest unable to meet his eyes. You were sure you were only being friendly, but from the looks of it, you had begun to screw up with your just-blossoming relationship with Satori. This was something you’d have to try and address with him later. In the meantime, you were going to have to be more mindful. Taking in a small breath, albeit a shaky one after his hand’s tight grip leaving you a little bruised, you met his eyes.

‘Don’t cry, Satori. Can you forgive me?’

Some tension left him as he could see your little eyes look up at him pleadingly and as he felt your shaky hands come up to his face to caress his cheeks while wiping the tears away. Perfect. Of course, he would forgive you, his angel. You truly were far too precious for this world, you had to be shielded from it at all costs. No one else deserved to see this look in your eyes, they were all too tainted and dirty. He was sent to guard you, be your best blocker against people trying to defile you. He leaned into your palms and closed his eyes, relishing the moment.

‘Of course, I forgive you.’

Then he snapped his eyes wide open staring unblinkingly right through you, tears nowhere in sight.

‘But, don’t let it happen again. You won’t like what happens.’

Ever since that encounter, you both ate alone at your spot so no one else can disturb you. You also found that you never saw Goshiki and Ushijima again, and when you asked after them Satori got really hostile. ‘Why are you even thinking about them? You’re with me, you don’t need them.’ Even when you explained all you wanted to do was apologise for being rude, he had snapped back ‘They don’t need your apology, you shouldn’t be so concerned about other people and what they think.’ Any retaliation on the matter was met with a hard stare that unnerved you to no end.

Months into this relationship you found that the glamour of it had long since worn off. You were second-guessing yourself at every turn, walking on eggshells around Satori and other people, worried about what would set off your explosive boyfriend. You couldn’t meet up with your friends anymore, ‘They’re backstabbers, just look at them! They haven’t even tried to keep up with you so why should you keep up with them?’ Which was true, he had a valid point. Not one of your friends had tried to contact you since the second week into your relationship, which was strange. Normally they would at least text you if you couldn’t see them much during the day. Satori had also put that down to them being jealous of you, which you couldn’t understand but according to Satori, there was a lot of things you didn’t understand that you needed him to explain for you.

Honestly, it was getting exhausting. Satori was wearing you down by the minute and ever since that day during lunch similar scenarios kept coming up. You would space out in the wrong direction in class, which he would take as you looking for someone else. Or, heaven forbid, you would take too long getting dressed in the morning which implied you didn’t love him as much as he loved you and your parents were keeping you from him. It got more and more ridiculous as time went on and the punishment got even more severe. It started out with a hand menacingly placed on the back of your neck in the presence of others, squeezing a little too tight or sharply yanking on the back of your hair ‘Playfully teasing’ you enough to leave tears in the corners of your eyes. If you really upset him, he’d wait until you were alone so that he could ram you into walls, giving you mini concussions, and bruised you silly with his tight grip or from spanks on any area he saw fit. He never held back for one second if he felt you deserved it, leaving you in tears every time only to kiss them away after explaining how you deserved it, how it was to help you keep your promise you were having so much difficulty keeping.

So, there had been a build-up to your situation now, which was you being utterly terrified of your manipulative, abusive boyfriend who had warped your mind with fear to submit to him. You really felt helpless. There was no way out, he’d simply find you and the punishment would be so severe you wouldn’t be able to show your face in public for weeks. But you had to try, you can’t just accept this and live the rest of your life like this. That was an even more terrifying prospect, living with this for the rest of your life was not an option. Feeling a little determined to start somewhere, you snuck out your phone while you were in class. The substitute teacher you had right now wouldn’t notice a thing and the lesson you were covering was actually one covered a few weeks ago by the regular teacher. They always say to start small, tell someone, baby steps. While you hadn’t contacted your friends in months, you knew they would understand. They’d help you. You sucked in a breath as you hit send with a shaking thumb.

“Hey, sorry it’s been so long, can we talk?”

It didn’t even take her long to reply, she must be in her free period right now.

“Hey, er, now’s not a great time. I’m a little caught up with something.”

You blinked at her reply, had you really driven her that far away? You’ve been such a horrible friend to her lately that you guess you deserved that. Not wanting to lose hope, you tried to apologise first.

“I’m sorry if I am interrupting something, but I really need to apologise to you. I’ve been a really shitty friend to you lately, ever since I started dating Satori, I noticed I’ve not spoken to you. I’m really sorry.”

You watched as the typing bubbles appeared on the screen quickly then went away for a moment before they reappeared.

“Look, you’ve got Tendou now. Just leave me alone.”

Why was she acting like this? This wasn’t like her at all, had she changed drastically since you last spoke to her? Feeling a little dejected you let out a sigh, but this was important. If she knew you actually needed serious help, she’d understand. You tried again.

“Look I’m really, really sorry, for leaving you for Satori. But he is why I need help right now, he’s scaring me. I’m planning on how to break the news to him that I can’t do it anymore but I’m too scared! Please, I know you can hate me for not being a good friend but please, please help me figure this out.”

There was a moment of silence as you watch her read the reply. The minute lasted longer than an hour for you before she franticly texted back.

“RUN!”

“HE SEEN MY TEXTS.”

“HE’S COMING.”

“RUN! I’LL CALL FOR HELP!”

•❅──────✧❅✦❅✧──────❅•

As soon as you saw those messages you could feel your heartbeat in your throat, every limb shook on its own accord and you swear there was no blood left in your body as everything turned stone cold. Your nausea must’ve shown on your face as you raised a shaking hand to be excused to the toilet because the teacher didn’t even question it, only giving you a look of sympathy that was all too fitting and telling you to try sipping some water. None of which helped your current predicament. Stepping calmly out of the classroom you sprinted in the opposite direction of where you think your friend was knowing he’d be on his way from there. That sentence haunted you, HE’S COMING, and kept you going at a speed you never knew you could run at, but you guess things change when you’re threatened.

HE’S COMING. Your mind was a mess, you looked up ahead to find yourself at the end of the corridor, you didn’t even know where you were going so you took the first turn that came to mind. HE’S COMING. You went left, straight on, through the doors and ran frantically down the stairs. Hoping to buy some time, you hid under the staircase. You sat with your legs hugged to your chest as you rested your head on your knees, rocking a little. HE’S COMING. Trying to get one cohesive thought was hard enough at the moment, so you had absolutely no clue what to do next. Should you run out of school? Or Should you go to a teacher? HE’S COMING You should go to a teacher; they’d help and know what to do. HE’S COMING. At the very least, they’d be there to protect you. HE’S COMING He wouldn’t do anything with them there. HE’S COMING Taking a deep breath in, you lifted your head and opened your eyes. Only to be met with a pair of dead, stone-cold vermilion eyes that stared back, unblinkingly into your soul. His head tilted to the side.

‘What’s wrong, Angel? Scared?’

He brought his face closer to yours so your noses were touching, never breaking eye contact. You could feel his breath on your skin, he was like a predator checking that his prey was actually dead and not just acting. You felt dead at that moment, unable to even feel your own heartbeat as you went cold and stiff under his glaze. The sheer amount of dread that filled your body weighed you down to the floor, your body turned to stone, like a deer caught in headlights only you knew the car would run you over. Shivering, your eyes glazed with tears as your lungs started to fail you.

‘Shhhhhhh, Angel, don’t cry. That’s what you told me right? Don’t cry.’ He mocked as he stroked your cheek, his eye twitching as you flinch. ‘It’s everyone else around you, isn’t it? They’re making you feel this way, getting you to say these things to hurt me?’

Tendou knew, deep down, why you’d decided to run. However, his mind wouldn’t let him accept that explanation. His mind was sent reeling when he had seen those texts. It had been just another day as he went to check up on how well your little ‘friends’ were holding up their end of the bargain when you started to reach out to one of them. She thought she could hide her phone in time for him not to catch the flash of your name across the screen, but she was, oh, so, wrong. He then demanded she hand her phone over, which she did. He noted that she had already replied to you, saying she was busy, not bad but a little stiff for an excuse. He then saw the typing bubbles, so he kept it to see your response. “…I’ve been a really shitty friend to you lately, ever since I started dating Satori, I noticed I’ve not spoken to you. I’m really sorry.”? “I’m really sorry.”? He had already TOLD you about apologising to other people, they didn’t deserve your apologies and besides, you shouldn’t even be THINKING about anyone else. Why would they matter when you two are together? He felt his brow frown and his mouth slip into a scowl. He clearly needed to teach you a lesson tonight, one you wouldn’t forget in a hurry. He replied in place of your friend, trying to get you away from her. Something along the lines of “leave me alone”, that usually worked, people couldn’t handle bluntness well. The typing bubbles appeared again, just what were you playing at? What he saw next; he wasn’t prepared for.

“Look I’m really, really sorry, for leaving you for Satori. But he is why I need help right now, he’s scaring me. I’m planning on how to break the news to him that I can’t do it anymore but I’m too scared! Please, I know you can hate me for not being a good friend but please, please help me figure this out.”

Red. Everything went red. His head throbbed as your words echoed in his mind ‘I can’t do it anymore’. ‘I’m scared.’ You now had a fucking reason to be.

He had to try and think straight but every time he thought back to those words and something in him burned. It was like when Ushijima and Goshiki set their eyes on you but this time it was worst, so much worse. What he felt now, was like staring into the abyss and having it stare back into you, this all-consuming rage that just took over his body without him having any say. Heat radiated all over his body and it felt as if he was being licked by blue flames as his skin crawled, boiling over and the blood in his veins turned to acid. His eyesight was going haywire. How could you ever want to leave him? You couldn’t. It was impossible, you were his angel. You called on him that day. You sought him out. You smiled at him. He had seen it when you first started dating, that innocence, where had it gone? What went wrong? Where did he go wrong?!

An image of you flashed through his head, of you smiling at Goshiki, smiling at Ushijima, glancing at your friends, texting your friends, being looked at in the hallways, being looked at during class. Being looked at and looking back. Of course, how could he have been so stupid? He had made such a grave mistake and his poor, sweet, now falling, Angel is paying the price for it.

He mindlessly gave your friend back her phone as he left to find you. He should never have left you as you were, so exposed to the outside world. He had let the world taint you, all because he was to blind to see what it was doing to you. If only he had seen this sooner, maybe things could have been different. But it was okay, he was on his way. He would make it all better now! He’ll right the wrong and save his darling angel from falling from grace before it was too late. He’ll save the day; you just leave it to him. He’ll need to find you first and he couldn’t be too slow about it either, wouldn’t want you getting into more trouble or falling further! He wanted the corridors around the class you should’ve been in but, as expected, you weren’t there, your friend must have told you to leave. Just further proof that the world was poisoning you. He mindlessly went to your spot. He remembered the many times he pressed you against that wall, hand on your throat while his mouth was on your lips. If only it had stayed that way, but it was his fault for not noticing you struggling. He heard shallow breaths. His eyes widened as his ears perked up at the sound, could you really be here of all places? He wandered around to under the stairs and sure enough, you were there, all balled up. He made sure not to make a sound, he wanted to just watch you for a moment, engrave every detail into his mind all over again. You just being here had to mean you still needed him, still loved him, even if you wouldn’t admit it because you came to a place where both of you would wander off to too feel safe. It was your safe haven because he was here.

Your head lifted and your eyes met his own, you looked so fragile. Tears threatening to spill over, shaking like a leaf and pale as a sheet. Poor Angel, what have they done to you?

‘What’s wrong, Angel? Scared?’

Everything blurred for you as you were straight-up panicking. The rocking increased and you buried your face in your knees again with your eyes squeezed shut, wishing it would all go away. Arms encircled you, drawing you closer to them. Your mind wasn’t even registering it was Tendou at this point. Nothing was registering past the shock. He rocked you and combed your hair, wanting to have a moment of peace with you. He kissed your head.

‘Let’s get out of here, Angel.’

Your head shook franticly as the fear rose in your eyes again. He sighed, knowing it was wishful thinking that you’d be cooperative. He put in a little more force.

‘I’m not asking.’

Still, the same response was repeated back to him. His eye twitched and he cracked his neck.

‘You asked for this, Angel.’

And your world goes dark.

•❅──────✧❅✦❅✧──────❅•

The first thing you could feel was the thin layer of sweat that covered your body as you gradually regained consciousness. You started to slowly become aware of the rest of your body like you had woken up from a really deep sleep. Every part of you felt heavy and you found you couldn’t lift your arms or move your legs as they felt weighted to the bed you were currently lying in. Looking around to gauge your surroundings didn’t help much as everything was pitch black, making it impossible to see anything. Feeling groggy, you frowned your brow thinking about how you had gotten here in the first place.

Tendou.

The last thing you remember before your world went black was staring into his wide eyes in terror. There was an ache from the side of your head which served as a reminder of where he had hit you, which you couldn’t even see coming because he was that fast in serving his blow. Volleyball had served him well. Your heart sped up a bit as you remembered him, where is he now? More importantly, how much time do you have before he comes back? You couldn’t see right now, so you’d better get up and start searching for a way out. However, just as you went to move your stiff limbs it was brought to your attention that you were tied down to each bedpost by what looked to be cushioned handcuffs. Your raised head hit the pillow as you let out a sigh in frustration. Of course, you had been restrained, you hadn’t been very cooperative with him.

You started to panic as you struggled to come up with any solution to get out of this mess. You pulled and pulled on all four restraints, none of which were giving-in any time soon. If you couldn’t get out of these restraints before Tendou came back… you shuddered to think what would happen to you. You knew you couldn’t take him on directly either; the man was a machine, a genius guessing machine at that. You really cursed your past self for not trusting your friend’s instincts more. If you had only listened to them and stayed away, you might not be in this mess right now. Your friends. They could still save you! They knew he was after you, she had even told you she was going to call for help! That’s it, just pull through until they can get help and you’ll be okay. Just breath, that’s all you have to do right now, just keep breathing…

The door opened with a creak and light came flooding in, casting a shadow on the floor. Tendou had been finishing up the last of his preparations for tonight, everything had been set and taken care of. All that was left to do now was enjoy his time with his precious angel and right his mistake while asking for her forgiveness for his ignorance.

You looked so pretty all tied up like that on his bed, just like a present on Christmas morning ready to be unwrapped. However, he felt his eyes darken as he drank you in, knowing that while you looked so good and pure right now, he had failed the main goal of his guardianship which was to keep you untainted by the world. It was as if their eyes had left traces on your precious skin, they might as well have left fingerprints all over you as Tendou examined your exposed flesh from a closer angle. He felt that familiar lick of rage inside of him as he knelt by your bedside and laid his head on the bed in a bow to you. It was all so overwhelming to him, the feeling of failure, of rage, of pain, of protectiveness. He needed to take this slow, go through all the motions or this wouldn’t work. And he couldn’t fail you this time, he wouldn’t. His voice was thick with emotion and remorse as he croaked out,

‘Angel, there’s a lot I want to explain to you before I do anything, so please hear me out, okay?’

When there was a slight pause, he moved his face and flicked his eyes up to your face. Vermillion eyes daring you to protest but also holding so much emotion. There was still that one unreadable look in his eyes.

‘I-I’ll listen, S-Satori, but-’

‘There should be no “but’s”, Angel. All you have to do is listen, so I’ll take that as a yes.’

‘Why am I being t-tied up? C-Can’t you let me go?’

A hard look crossed his face and instantly she felt the ghost of a hand around her throat, thinking back to all the times before when she had ticked him off in some way.

‘If you’re willing to listen, all your questions will be answered in time.’

It was not up for further debate. He turned his face back down towards the bed, regaining the air of someone submitting themselves for confession.

‘Angel. I failed, and I am so sorry. You were put into my care by whoever it may be, be it fate, destiny or some kind of deity. My one goal through all of this was to protect you from everyone, to keep your aura clean from contamination. To keep you as pure as the day you were entrusted to me. I tried so hard. I made sure no one got too close to you in class, I took you to and from everywhere so as you’d have minimal exposure to people. When I noticed others looking at you during breaks or lunches, I took you away so it was just me you could see. I regularly made sure that no-one would even dream about coming close to you so that you could remain as you were. However, I failed to see…’ A small hiccup sounded through the eerily silent room as Tendou let his tears wet the bed covers. ‘I failed to see your struggle, Angel. I failed to see that even minimal contact was too much for you, that they were still poisoning you. I had thought about taking you away from it all nearer the beginning, I really did! I just thought that it would cause more complications and that what we had going on at that time was enough. I didn’t realise just the environment was toxic for you. I’m so sorry for failing you and not doing the right thing sooner, I swear to you it won’t ever happen again. I don’t care what it costs, I will do what I need to do for you.’ He, almost shyly, raised his head to now look you in the eyes. ‘Angel, can you forgive me?’

You lay there stunned at his words. How could you even begin to process what he just said? He thought he had somehow failed you by keeping you in amongst society. There was so much wrong with all of his speech. He wanted to keep you all to himself, but it was more than the typical boyfriend ‘I don’t want to share this side of you’ because he wanted to isolate you from everyone bar himself. First things first, you had to get yourself out of this crazy situation. So maybe when he said he’d do the right thing for you, it meant listening to you? You sure hoped so because this might be your one shot at it. Schooling your fearful expression a little, you look back at him.

‘I-I forgive you, Satori-’

He sprang into immediate action, up from his bowing position right on top of you on the bed to give you the tightest hug you’d ever received. His breath was tickling your neck as you squirmed beneath him.

‘Oh, thank you so much! I was so scared you wouldn’t forgive me! That would cause so many more problems…’

‘But, listen, Satori…’

He pushed off the bed so he could face you.

‘Yes, Angel?’

‘Can you untie me, please?’

His expression snapped from bubbly to eerie neutral at the drop of a coin.

‘I’m afraid I can’t do that.’

‘W-Why?’

He looked at you like you were some incompetent child who had just asked why you can’t see you dead pet again.

‘You see, you’re still infected, Angel. We need to clean you all up first.’

‘C-clean me? I can clean myself, Satori.’

He clicked his tongue and continued to speak in a condescending tone while stroking your cheek with the back of his hand.

‘Oh, I know you can, I know, but this is a special kind of cleaning that only I can do you see.’ He gave a smile that didn’t look as if it belonged on a human face. ‘Don’t worry though, I won’t expose you too much. It’s just on the parts that are dirty.’

He then lent over you from a straddling position above and began by removing your tie.

‘R-Really, Satori, please don’t. I can do it myself, please.’

‘Tut, tut. The more you protest the more it shows me how badly you need this. It isn’t something you can do alone, Angel, because once you’ve got this kind of dirt on you it infects you mind so you can’t clean it off properly. Besides, you need me for this.’ He sounded all too happy about this outcome, and you weren’t in a great protesting position. However, that didn’t mean you had to give up.

‘Tendou, I said no. Now stop taking off my shirt! I thought you’d listen to me?’

Your words bounced right off him, leaving you with a cold feeling inside as you seen his eyes darken at the use of his last name. He unbuttoned the whole of your shirt and you had noticed that your shoes, socks and shirt were also missing; leaving you in nothing but pants, a bra and an open shirt. Why he hadn’t pre-removed that as well, you wouldn’t question and just thank whoever was above that he hadn’t, not that it was offering much protection now. While you were now mainly exposed, you still remained warm as the room seemed to have been pre-set to a warmer temperature, as if he’d known this would happen.

If you were uncomfortable and scared now, there were no words to describe just how terrified you felt when Tendou then proceeded to take out a decently sized blade from his pocket.

‘What are you doing with that, Tendou?’ Your voice came out in a fragile whisper thinking that if you spoke too loudly, you’d somehow break the safety bubble that the quiet provided you with.

‘I’m about to make up for my mistakes, Angel’ He had a twisted smile on his face, and you had to push the raising bile down from your throat, as you watched him bring the blade down. Somehow it disturbed you, even more, to see that, instead of slicing you open, he painstakingly dragged the blade across his own forearm, creating a large gash in its wake that immediately gushed blood down his arm, trickling down his palms and dripping from his fingers onto your stomach. You had a harder time keeping the sick down now as you watched him repeat this process further up the same arm with the same results.

There was a twisted look of fascination in his eyes as he made the incisions in his arm and watched the blood spill from himself. It was in that moment you could finally read what was hidden behind his guarded eyes this whole time, pure unadulterated insanity. He was a breed separate from the rest. This is the reason he was called a monster because he was a demon. The hardest part to swallow was how painfully obvious it had been from the start. The many signs you had simply ignored and driven by suddenly flooded in front of your eyes. Your friend’s warnings came back to you like a stab in the gut, they had said he was creepy along with being called a monster and you had dismissed everything. Even when you had come face to face with this lurking demon inside him when you stared into his eyes and he stared back with his hand wrapped around your throat after body-slamming you into a wall for looking at Ushijima and Goshiki. The gut feeling you had towards him, the pull you thought you had felt to his red hair, was really a massive warning trying to alert you to the danger that awaited beneath as it pointed to the one thing that should trigger alarm bells. The colour red.

The red that was now currently pouring down on you from above as he squeezed his heavily bleeding arm over your exposed flesh. His face menacingly hovered above you with the edges of his screwy grin turned up completing the unhinged look that covered his face as he finally let himself go into a rabid frenzy above you. All you could do was lie there, trying not to choke on your own vomit, while you prayed to whatever god there was that you’d make it out of this alive.

This was it. Tendou could feel himself go lightheaded with the amount of excitement he was experiencing. Having you below him like this was all too much. He hadn’t anticipated this being so … euphoric. He had, admittedly, made a show of giving himself the cuts because he simply wanted to see that expression on your face again, that one when you looked like you were either going to cry, pissing yourself or passing out from fear. When he’d first seen it at school with you curled up under the stairs, he hadn’t gotten to fully appreciate it in his blind rage. But, now, he got to see it in its full glory, and it did not disappoint. There were tears and snot dripping down your flushed and blotchy face, your eyes looking a little pink with how hard you were crying. God, the things that face did to him. Needless to say, the combination of your expression as it was, you being tied beneath him, and his blood beginning to cover every exposed inch of you… he was beginning to have a little bit of a situation on his hands. But he wouldn’t indulge himself, no, not yet, his Angel wasn’t herself just yet. You needed to be fully cleansed before he touched either one of you like that.

He was making good progress on covering all of you in his blood, he would start by kissing the area, dripping the hot, sticky substance on you and rubbing it around the area before moving to the next. It was a slow, rewarding process as he began to feel the catharsis as he washed away the stains of other’s eyes and touches from you with his own DNA.

‘Yes, Angel, that’s it your doing so well. It’s working so nicely; can’t you feel everyone else being washed away and being replaced by me?’

There was nothing but continued crying from you, but he was too far gone in his own head to really register anything you were saying anyway.

‘Don’t you just love it? … Being covered …’

He kissed down her red smothered neck, trailing down the valley of her equally blood-coated breasts to then kiss her stomach.

‘… All the way from your head…’

He kisses further down, running his crimson hands down each of her legs, to then kiss the red arches on either of her feet.

‘… Right down to the ends of your toes, in nothing but me.’

Once he was satisfied you were fully dowsed in his blood, looking oh so pretty. He decided it was now okay for him to let loose a little. He mounted you again, this time his lips went straight to your mouth, smothering any protests in the process. His hands found your own above your head and he wove his fingers between your own. Immediately he growled and began grinding you so hard into the mattress you felt it dip and spring up again. Your mind was screaming in protest and you felt your chest tighten as you struggled to breathe both from his aggressive onslaught on kisses and your other-worldly fear of this man. While your mind was crying, other parts of yourself awoken as it would under normal circumstances. You tried to tell it repeatedly that this was not regular circumstances and you’d like to have some dignity. Biology never really listens.

Tendou was panting now as he trailed hot, sloppy kisses down the side of your jaw and throat. Everything was just getting too much for him, yet he couldn’t help but crave more and more of you. Nothing was enough. He bit down hard and was rewarded with a yelp from you, smirking he kept up his attack.

‘How does my Angel like having me on top of her like this, hmmm?’ He released a hand from her hold to quickly undo his belt and his fly, just to get closer, keeping the layers for more friction. His eyes rolled to the back of his head at the next thrust of his hips, you were so wet for him. Had you felt this way the whole time too? Did you get the same overwhelming feeling from seeing yourself fully claimed and covered in him? His mind just couldn’t keep up with the rush of feelings that kept crashing over him like a tsunami every two seconds. His eye barely knew where to look, everywhere on you begged for his attention. He licked a line up the drying blood up the middle of your throat to then steal your mouth in a heated kiss by first shoving his tongue inside. What he hadn’t counted on was you fighting back a little by biting down so hard on his tongue that it drew blood. This almost sent him overboard as the act of protest immediately backfired on you, sending him on another hysterical spiral. He kept up his brutal pace with you as he pulled his face back with a look across his face that spelt ecstasy.

‘Angel! Yes, yes, yes! O-Of course, a-ah… l-let’s make a blood bond right now. I can’t believe I didn’t think of tha-ah-t.’

He then assaulted your mouth once more only this time he came with teeth as he bit down hard on your own tongue. He then let out a groan as your tongues swirled around each other, mixing the blood and saliva. Everything was getting hazy and the sides of your vision began to blur. It was too much. He was getting closer to the edge too from the way he was panting and franticly rutting against you. His free hand clamped down on your airways suddenly as he stiffened up, gritting his teeth he said.

‘Don’t you faint again on me! UgH! Now, my sweet sweet Aaangel. Oh, fuck…nh, cum with me, DO IT! NOW!’

It was almost shameful how easily pushed over the edge you were by that. That tone, the hand, the feeling of him everywhere and the lack of oxygen just sent you teetering off the edge and your vision went white. You questioned yourself silently if you were some kind of sick masochist before blaming the entire thing on lack of oxygen going to your brain.

Coming down from his high left Tendou with a radiating kind of afterglow. His twisted mind still shining through as he did one last thing to fully satisfy himself, for all his hard work he deserved a reward to. He reached into his messed up pants taking his cum on three fingers before he took them to your mouth, putting them in. From your mouth, he also gathered your mixed blood and saliva, all while revelling in your fucked-out face with his cum in your mouth. Taking his fingers from your greedy mouth, he made sure he collected everything on his fingers before he thrust them deep inside you, stuffing you with your bonded blood and his cum. He kept that up for a while, listening to your oversensitive whines of protest before he then took some of your juices for himself. The taste of you and him together, in every way, blood, cum, sweat and spit in his mouth was otherworldly. There was nothing like it. He lapped up everything, swirling his tongue around the combination of you both in a drunken haze, you were bonded forever now.

Well, he was about to work on the forever part of that fantasy. Seeing you so boneless was perfect for the final step in his plan. Everything was perfect, it couldn’t have gone better, you were both now connected forever. He let his weight press gently down on you as he sang your praises for being so good for him as he kissed you softly, stroking your hair with one hand while the other remained laced with your own. He then trailed his hand down from your hair, along your side to then reach into his side pocket where he gripped the smooth fabric. Only the best silk for his Angel. Trailing back up, he released your hand to bring it to the sides of your face as he continued to distract you while he delicately wrapped the soft material around your neck. Your brow frowned at the sensation, but the fabric was so smooth and gentle, was he giving you something?

Your eyes went wide with panic and you gasped as the smooth silk violently constricted around your windpipes. Your eyes franticly searched for his, pleading for your fucking life again. You shook your head and thrashed against your restraints.

‘Sh, sh, sh, hush now.’ He stroked your cheek with such a gentle, bubbly look on his face. ‘You wouldn’t want to end our perfect moment like this, would you? I’d hate for you to remember it like this…’

The noose around your neck tightened again and you’re sure your face was going a darker shade of red and you franticly gasped for air, making strangled noises you’d hear in horror movies. But the tighter it got, the less oxygen you received, and your eyes began to roll around, your limbs losing their fight to survive.

‘No, no. Look at me, look here.’ When, for some unknown reason you did as he asked, he cooed. His blissed-out face looking to disgustingly happy, he was fucking giddy, as he spoke his last few words to you as you started to drift off and see stars.

‘They say you relive the last few moments of your life over and over again for all eternity. I really hope that’s true, Angel. I’m so happy I could fill those moments for you, and don’t worry, you’ll be my last moments too!’

The last thing you saw was the hysterical look of twisted love on his face, with his signature deranged smile and the unhinged look in his piercing vermillion eyes that you hated. Fuck the colour red.

‘I love you, My Angel.'

[atxlxs]

Beyond The Veil: Chapter 10

The Bakugo family dynamic was one of the most unusual Eras has ever seen.

Mrs.Bakugo was an aggressive woman with a confident set to her shoulders and a mouth that puts sailors to shame. Mr.Bakugo, Masaru, was calm and serene. He only stepped in when Mitsuki, Mrs.Bakugo, either didn’t get her point across or was getting riled up. The two complimented each other well and Eras would have been amused if they weren’t currently grating on the last of her nerves.

The word “conditioned” came to mind when she remembered Muska’s parting words from the nurse’s office.

She really hopes these people didn’t help create whatever mental state the ‘Bakugo’ responsible had. She was also starting to realize how confusing referring to people by last names was. You’d think she’d be used to it after all these years. God, she wished she wasn’t here.

During this thought process, the glare she pinned All Might with from earlier never let up. The man was shivering.

“Ah, Welcome! I see You’ve already met Midoriya-san?” Nedzu asked.

The three newest members of the meeting room all nodded as they sat down. The Bakugo’s spared more than a few glances at the newly inflated All Might and Eras herself. She could understand on some base level that seeing someone glare at the number 1 hero was probably rare.

“We’ve been best fucking friends since highschool. Also, I already know it’ll be fuckin confusing so just call Me Mistuki and Masa here Masaru.” She said head held high yet Eras noted the slight defensiveness in her posture.

That was expected, they were here for a training accident after all. One caused by her son but Eras had a feeling she didn't know that yet.

“You can call me Inko as well,” Inko shifted with nerves as she wrung her hands together in an effort to still them, “Is my son alright?”

Nedzu nodded and went to speak, however Eras spoke up first, finally tearing her gaze away from All Might. The man let out a barely audible sigh of relief as she did so.

“You son is doing fine Inko-san. He was quizzing my ward when I went to the infirmary earlier. Sorry to cut you off, Nedzu, however I believe a first hand account would be better than one given by a principal, even if she doesn't know me personally.” Eras saw the tension ease a bit in Inko’s shoulders in response.

“Ah thank you, You're right about that. Your ward? Ah sorry I never caught your name either.” Inko asked, a nervous but nonetheless bright smile on her face.

“My name is Viridis Eras, You can call me Eras considering we’ll be speaking of my ward during this meeting, and I say ward because though she is not my child she is under my care. I was good friends with her parents and so after they passed she came under my guardianship.” Holding up a hand to preemptively silence the condolences, she continued. “It happened years ago so no need for the sorrys.”

The newest occupants of the room all nodded as they redirected their attention to Nedzu, confusion evident on their faces. Nedzu, seemingly able to sense the need for an explanation, cleared his throat and replaced the polite smile on his face with a serious look.

“Thank you for that, Eras-san, though I believe I need to specify why I have called you all here today." Well that confirmed her suspicions from earlier, " As Eras-san already knows, considering her circumstances she was given a summary before getting here, there was a training accident during class 1-A’s heroics class. The injured participants were Viridis Muska and Midoriya Izuku. Though both are completely healed now, except for some aggravated skin where burns were healed.”

Inko looked to be on the verge of crying and the Bakugo’s looked to be edging on realization to why they were called. The word ‘burns’ probably clued them in. They kept shooting glances between Inko and herself.

“The cause of these burns was a gauntlet used as support equipment for Bakugo Katsuki. He was warned beforehand that at close range and indoors, his equipment could be lethal and was ordered by the present instructor, All Might, to stop. He didn’t listen.”

Nedzu paused and let reality seep in. Inko was now actually crying, though not as much as Midoriya was in the infirmary, and the Bakugo pair were now pale. Eras sighed and it dragged the attention back to her. Confusion starting to invade previously horrified faces. Eras allowed her gaze to remain neutral as she turned it onto the Bakugo pair.

“Before I speak my mind on the matter, I would like to ask whether or not this behavior present in your son was encouraged,” once again raising a hand to silence the onslaught she continued, “not that I expect you to encourage violence in him, but did you ever notice previously that his schooling may have intentionally avoided discouraging his tendencies?”

Mitsuki opened and closed her mouth, obviously wanting to retaliate but she sat back and shut her mouth with a scrunched expression. Probably searching for any moments her son’s schooling did in fact do such a thing, after all the person who asked had a child under her care that was just fucking maimed so, small mercies. Surprisingly, it was Masaru who spoke up for the first time since he entered the meeting.

“I believe they did encourage his more… aggressive... ways. It was subtle at first glance but as he grew older I noticed that he stopped speaking about his schooling and instead focused only on himself. As if there was nothing else but his aptitude.” He said with a grimace.

Mitsuki looked appalled for a good second before something may have clicked. Wide eyes of disbelief followed shortly by a sigh of resignation. Eras watched it all, evaluating, analyzing. Once she determined that the parents were, disappointingly, unaware of their son’s habits, she spoke up.

“Muska had warned me before coming here that she believes Bakugo was conditioned into what he is now. Seeing your confirmation, sadly, only proves her right. I have a feeling that his previous schooling was sub par when it came to actively punishing or at least telling him no. This means that he doesn’t even realize that what he did was wrong.” Eras sighed, once again, as she thought about how much of a mess this all was.

“I agree,” Nedzu stated, he had his computer out and seemed to find something on it that prompted his involvement, “I pulled up his middle school records and some concerning things have been made apparent. His record is squeaky clean, even described as a pleasure to have in class and works well with others.”

A snort came from Aizawa who was still leaning against the wall, drawing attention to himself. He sighed as he realized that attention was now on him. Ah, what a mood.

“First day of school he called a student an ‘extra’. I sincerely doubt he was a pleasure in class. Also, considering during the exercise today he immediately left his partner to hunt down the glory for himself, I don’t believe he works well with others either.”

Dry sarcasm is the bane of Eras’s continued intimidation tactic. Seriously, if this man keeps up she may just actually snort. That would ruin the image she was trying to convey damnit.

The group of people sat in silence for a minute. Nedzu sat silently watching the group though, by his tail movement, Eras could tell he had settled on something already. Eras turned back towards All Might with an unimpressed face. Time to wrap this meeting up.

“I recommend giving Bakugo a second chance. Not suspension, but something else. Muska recommended therapy and I recommend anger management. Both may be the best option. As for All Might, I’ll let Aizawa-san rip into you himself regarding your, frankly, stupid idea to set teenagers with little to no training loose in a battle exercise.” Eras glanced at said gruff teacher who gave her a subtle nod and an impish grin. Satisfied that he would take care of it (and he will enjoy the hell out of it), she continued, “Now I will excuse myself to the infirmary once more. Hopefully, I don’t need to come back for a reason like this one again.” The ‘you won’t like what happens’ went unsaid but by the looks on their faces, it was understood.

Standing up, Eras walked over to the door and cracked it open, turning her head to Aizawa, she smiled a fanged smile.

“Keep me updated. I’ll trust your judgement for his punishment.”

With that, she left.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

He was confused.

Scared.

Lost.

Constricted.

It's been years now hasn’t it? When was the last time he could control his own body? Could he even remember his name?

oboKurogiri

No that’s not it…

He was OboroKurogiri.

Why can't he remember???

An insistent pulling kept tugging at his mind. Trying to do… something, but he couldn’t for the life of him figure out what. Vaguely he knew that the pull came from something or someone else. Something unnatural was crying out in desperation and hurt. To find...what? What did he need to find?

Sighing, Kurogiri turned to Tomura. The young adult had been extraordinarily calm as he stared at the T.V. The game he was playing early was currently paused. As he continued to clean the bar’s glass, Kurogiri allowed himself to keep an eye on the man. The last time he was so still, his bar’s stools disintegrated.

“Kurogiri.”

Snapping to attention (he begs for his body to stay still, to run, to get away he doesn’t want to be here-) Kurogiri turns to the T.V that sat ominously in the bar.

“Yes, sir?” Kurogiri asked.

“Tomorrow morning, take Tomura to UA, the coordinates will be given in the morning. I think it's time we paid them a visit and gathered some material.”

Nodding his acceptance, Kurokumo can’t help but despair. He doesn’t know why. Can’t figure out who or what was at UA that he didn’t want to see. Or was the word he didn’t want to use harm? He really just couldn’t tell. He couldn’t tell and it tore him apart inside.

The metal on his neck burned, he wanted to rip it off. To be free.

Instead, he polished the glasses in the bar once more.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tags:

@baguettehead

[myaekingheart]

137. Dishonor

read the scarecrow and the bell on ao3 index | from the beginning | < previous | next >

               Storm clouds rolled in overhead as Rei made her way cautiously to the dango shop. Toshio peered up at the sky, tongue lopping out of his mouth as if he was anxiously awaiting the first raindrops. Truthfully, Rei didn’t want to do this. Not today. Not ever, actually. But Sekkachi had not given her much of a choice. She said what she had said, left her consolation gift, and Rei was required to confront her now. To interrogate her on this rapid change of heart. Had Rei’s scathing words really gotten through to her? Or was Sekkachi just attempting to stroke her own ego? Expecting forgiveness on the grounds of having given a thoughtful gift? Either way, Rei didn’t think she cared enough to find out and yet here she was, meeting her anyway. The unavoidable tug in her chest dragged her onward.

               Sekakchi was seated in their usual spot when Rei arrived, a cigarette pinched between taut lips. She gazed out at the passerby, absentminded and forlorn. Rei idled in the doorway, clenching and unclenching her fist at her side. From behind the counter, Amai gently invited Rei to sit with a gentle nod toward the table. The look in her rosy eyes hinted that she was somehow emotionally invested in the situation, even though this had nothing to do with her whatsoever. Gritting her teeth, Rei made her way to the table, crossed her arms authoritatively, and cleared her throat.

               “I was wondering how much longer you were going to keep me waiting” Sekkachi said. She frowned as she smashed the tip of her cigarette into the ash tray.

               “Is that really all you have to say?” Rei snapped back. “Not even a ‘hello’? No ‘how are you’?” Rolling her eyes, she flopped down into the booth with great frustration, already regretting ever doing this.

               Sekkachi reached for her glass of water, rolling it back and forth between her hands and letting the condensation drip down her fingers. “So is there a reason you called me here?” she asked. Her voice was far less abrasive than usual; her trademark sting had completely dissolved. Instead, she sounded strained, bitter, sad. Rei refused to let this fact snuff out her anger.

               “Don’t you start with me” she snapped, pointing a harsh index finger in Sekkach’is face. “Listen, the only reason I asked you here was to formally thank you for the gift. Nothing else.” She gritted her teeth, forced herself to concentrate. “Honestly, if my own morals weren’t so damn loud, I wouldn’t even give you this much, but it didn’t feel right to not at least acknowledge it, so there. Thank you. Now fuck you.”

               Long, calloused fingers traced the grooves of the wooden table as Sekkachi pursed her lips and absorbed the sharp, heartless gratitude. “You’re never going to forgive me, are you?” she asked softly.

               “Why the fuck should I?” Rei snapped. “I’ve forgiven you way too many times, Sekkachi. This is the last straw. I’m through.”

               “I know” Sekkachi whispered. For a moment, Rei even thought she saw sincere regret in her face. But no, that was impossible. A trick of the light, even. Sekkachi regretted nothing. Or at least nothing they spoke of aloud.

               Rei leaned back in her seat, mildly satisfied with Sekkachi’s dejection. “I’m glad we’re on the same page then” she muttered. “Honestly, I hope you get to sit with this for the rest of your life. And I hope it eats you away inside every miserable morning you wake up.”

               “It will” Sekkachi pursed her lips.

               “Good” Rei spat. She eyed the door, began scooting her way out of the booth. “Well then, I’ve said everything I needed to say.”

               “Wait!” Sekkachi called, suddenly desperate. She reached out to take hold of Rei’s wrist. Her eyes were wide with longing. A clap of thunder rattled the sky. “You only just got here” she said. “And the weather’s bad. At least stay and…and get something to eat.”

               “Why should I?” Rei scoffed. “It’s not like you are.”

               Sighing, Sekkachi reined in her mounting frustrated and muttered, “Fine. I’ll get food, too. Just…don’t go. Not yet.”

               In all their years of friendship, Rei didn’t think she had ever seen Sekkachi so pathetic and needy. As much as she wanted to abandon her, to revel in the sight of her groveling in the mud, deep down Rei wanted to keep twisting the knife. It wasn’t often that she was given an opportunity like this.

               The pair sat in silence for a long, torturous moment, speaking only to place their orders with Amai. She cocked a brow in suspicion when Sekkachi ordered something other than ice water for once in her life, but did not question it. The tension was almost palpable. Her emotional investment had since waned in contrast.

               “So…” Rei finally said, attempting to sound as apathetic as possible, “What made you get that blanket, anyway?”

               “Chikara suggested it” Sekkachi replied, eyes downcast. Rei froze. So she had spoken with Chikara after all. It made sense. Rei didn’t really consider Sekkachi capable of coming to terms with this on her own. Sekkachi took a meager sip of her water and continued. “I was so pissed about what happened, I called her up to see if she thought I was being irrational or not.”

               “And?”

               “What do you think?” Sekkachi snarked. A little of her usual flame lingered in her tone.

               “I’m not surprised” Rei replied, suppressing a chuckle. “She always did know how to whip your ass back in line.”

               Shaking her head, Sekkachi swirled her water in her glass and replied softly, “She made it very clear to me just how out of line I was. I just—I don’t know, there’s been a lot of shit going through my mind lately.”

               “Oh yeah?” Rei scoffed. “Like what?” She doubted anything Sekkachi was facing was any worse than her own inner turmoil.

               Sekkachi swatted at the air dismissively. “It’s not that important, shit’s just hit the fan on the home front” she said sourly. “Tenjikubotan recently broke up with one of her gentleman callers, and has been hysterical ever since. As if she doesn’t have dozens of men lining up for her on the daily, the dumb bitch. And Roru had to drop out of the chunin exams at the last minute. Turns out one of her teammates is anorexic or something. Passed out during training and had to get rushed to the hospital. So of course I’m stuck dealing with all of their bullshit.”

               Rei cocked a brow, unamused but deep down involuntarily sympathetic. “As if that gives you a free pass to talk shit” she muttered.

               “I said I was sorry!” Sekkachi shouted, gripping at her sapphire hair in frustration. “What more do you want from me? Listen, I’m still not totally happy about this but I know it’s not my place to say anything. I heard that loud and clear when Chikara ripped me a new one. But also, I just…I don’t want to lose you.”

               Pursing her lips, Rei turned her attention to the street as she considered Sekkachi’s words. The rain was pouring heavily now, soaking the ground and fogging shop windows. Something uncomfortable took root in the pit of her chest. An uncertainty. “So what?” Rei finally muttered, bitter. “Still doesn’t mean I forgive you.”

               “And I wouldn’t expect you to” Sekkachi replied. “I just want you to know that I admit I made a big fucking mistake. I fucked shit up. I never should have said what I did. I know you’re happy about this, and that this is what you’ve always wanted. I had no right to shit on your parade. I was just…” Here, her voice trailed off and her brown eyes dropped to the floor. Toshio tilted his head up at her from underneath the table.

               “Just what?” Rei asked. She was nowhere near in the mood for suspense.

               Sekkachi chewed her lower lip, shook her head. She hated to admit this. She hated feeling weak and pathetic and—“Scared” she finally answered. Heaving a sigh, she asked, “Remember that mission where you got captured, and the enemy was convinced you were knocked up? And you got so freaked out about it that you dragged me to the hospital to get a formal test done?” Rei nodded. “I told you that no matter what the result would be, I’d be there for you. I wasn’t lying when I said that. But I also knew deep down that you were fine. I didn’t think you were pregnant, and you weren’t. Listen, Rei, I want to be there for you. I don’t want to abandon you. I’d never be able to live with myself if something happened to you when I had my back turned. But I’m just…I’m fucking terrified for you. I don’t want you to end up getting hurt, or worse—”

               “I won’t” Rei interrupted. Slightly taken aback, Sekkachi recoiled. Her eyes glistened, her mouth slack. This was perhaps the most vulnerable Rei had ever seen her and that alone scared her. Where was the sharp sting of her words? The abrasive apathy? Rei had underestimated just how badly Naru’s death had broken her, it seemed. Amai slipped their orders across the table, acting quickly so as to not interrupt their conversation. Rei gave a minute smile and nod as thank you, waited for privacy before saying more. “I know you’re scared, and I know you have every reason to be, but don’t you think I’m fucking terrified, too? This wasn’t exactly part of the plan, I-I didn’t mean for things to happen this way” she admitted.

               “Do you regret it?” Sekkachi asked. She knew the question was likely out of line, but she needed to know regardless.

               Sucking in a sharp breath, Rei shook her head. “No. I don’t regret it at all.”

               Sekkachi nodded slowly, deliberating. “That’s…that’s good” she whispered. “That’s really good.”

               “Do you regret it?” Rei asked, and it was not her own pregnancy that she was referring to but rather Sekkachi’s less than stellar reaction.

               Sekkachi poked at her food, unable to look Rei in the eyes. She had ordered a big brick of honey toast, one of Naru’s favorites, that she knew she would never realistically be able to eat. Sitting before it at a time like this just felt right. Comforting. As if Naru was somehow here with them. She would’ve known exactly what to say and do at a time like this. Naru would’ve kept Sekkachi in check, clapped a hand over her mouth before she said something dumb and encouraged her to be more enthusiastic and involved.

               Truthfully, Sekkachi regretted a lot of things. This—the circumstance at hand—just so happened to be one of them. “Haven’t I proven myself guilty enough?” she said sourly. “Rei, I accept it now. If this is what you want, I accept it. I’ll do my best to be there for you, and to help as much as I can. I just…I need you to promise me one thing.”

               “What?” Rei asked. She was almost even too scared to know.

               Sekkachi glanced around the shop once, twice, three times over as if she questioned the validity of their privacy. They were like actors on a stage, spotlights glaring, with an entire audience privy to their own personal melodrama. That was all well and good but this, this one fragile moment, they could not have. Squeezing her eyes shut tight, Sekkachi’s hand skated slowly across the table to take hold of Rei’s. Her grip was tight, clammy, desperate. Rei wondered if her illness had already begun to flare. And then she opened her eyes, locking tight on Rei. A hoarse whisper hung on her tense, quivering lips. “Just…don’t you dare die on me. You promise?”

               Rei gulped back her own anxiety, squeezed Sekkachi’s hand in terrified solidarity. “I promise.”

[allthefilmsiveseenforfree]

The Mothman Prophecies

I know nothing about this gem from 2002, but Wes requested I review this, and I am very excited. Here are my initial questions - is it a man that looks like a moth or a moth that looks like a man? Only time will tell, I suppose. This movie is supposedly based on a true story of some weird happenings in West Virginia in the 60s, and the Mothman legend has persisted for decades - they even hold a Mothman festival every year (during non-Covid times of course). So who is this mysterious figure who goes bump in the night? And what exactly is he prophesying? Well...

Let’s just say the movie is playing fast and loose with some kinda sorta weird stuff that maybe possibly happened to a few people one time. Basically, based on some Wikipedia research, this movie is probably about as accurate as a Maury Povich lie detector test. The summary of the movie is that John Klein (Richard Gere) and his wife Mary (Debra Messing) are a normal happy suburban couple when something weird happens to Mary - she sees something strange, gets into a car accident, and subsequently passes away. As John grieves and searches for answers, he finds himself inexplicably in a small town in West Virginia even though he was on his way somewhere completely different - and this town is experiencing the same kind of weird stuff Mary did before she died. John begins investigating, and eventually he starts getting contacted by Mr. Moth, and that’s when things REALLY go off the rails. 

Some thoughts:

First clue that this is an early 2000s relic: Richard Gere is a “star reporter” and he and his wife are looking to buy an enormous new house. Second clue: the credits, which feature out of focus streetlights, a time lapse of a clock ticking down the minutes, and music by a musical arrangement called tomandandy.

Side note - I think “Tom an’ Dandy” would be an excellent name for an old timey vaudeville act.

Ohh get it, the shape on Mary’s CAT scan turns into wings with red eyes. LIKE THE MOTHMAN. 

Incidentally, I’ve been saying “Moth-mun” in my head instead of Moth Man, and that’s really been adding to the experience for me. 

Now they’re trying to make the reflectors at the top of construction barrels seem menacing. We are already stretching the suspension of disbelief that moths can be scary, now construction barrels?  

They’re really pulling out all the stops. When Richard Gere gets bad news, the heavy strings kick in alongside the sound of a beating heart that abruptly stops. Do you see - because Mary’s heart stopped. I know, this is groundbreaking stuff. That’s just a subtle filmmaking tip from me to you - it’s free, I won’t charge you for it or anything.

When a movie character flips through a disturbing journal full of angry sketches or words written over and over again, all I can think of is how much fun the art department had making that journal.

This movie does a great job of portraying what it feels like to be a stranger in a small, broke, busted town. The curious looks, the feeling that you’re just not wanted. 

These transitions are....a choice. I can’t tell if they’re aping The Ring or if director Mark Pennington cut his teeth on music videos for groups like Trapt or Breaking Benjamin, [ETA: I was close - 76 directing credits on IMDB and at least 60 of them are music videos] but he’s throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks. We’ve got full red filter obscuring the screen, just a general focus blur, sometimes the transition looks like that shitty Photo Booth filter on old Macbooks that looks like you’re drawn in pencil. It’s distracting as hell and just so....not the atmosphere this story deserved. 

I say that because the story itself is incredibly compelling - I think most horror and thriller films work best when they’re rooted in grief because nothing is more terrifying than the threat of losing that which we love most. And the events are ambiguous enough that you can’t tell how much of it is the trauma John is experiencing, and how much of it is legitimately supernatural. That being said, I wish the scares were more effective? As soon as Mr. Moth starts calling on the phone (under the alias Indrid Cold) things get decidedly weirder but also less...coherent. 

This movie feels particularly relevant as we watch John descend further and further into his obsession. He rejects any and all rational explanations for the events taking place and the “prophecies” he’s receiving. Where his obsession is fueled by grief and the need to understand the un-understandable, I see the same fear in him that I see in the QAnon supporters who are fueled by white supremacist rage and fear at losing their position in the world. The difference is, John’s delusion really only destroys himself. Not so much with QAnon, unfortunately. 

Laura Linney is absolutely wasted as a small town cop who gets drawn into John’s schemes. She has more of an arc in her 8 minutes of screen time in Love Actually than she does in this. #JusticeForLauraLinney

Did I Cry? I teared up once the wheels of the final prophecy started in motion. For all the other bonkers choices in this movie, this sequence is genuinely terrifying and so drawn out that it feels like you’re actually trapped in the middle of a disaster along with everyone else. It’s absolutely horrifying. This is BY FAR the strongest sequence in the film. It reminded me a lot of the later Final Destination films that really draw out the tension during the initial disaster sequence to an absolutely exquisite, agonizing degree.

This is a weird one. There’s no real resolution or catharsis, no explanation for all of the weird things we’ve just seen. Just a lingering sense of unease. It’s not...unsatisfying, but it’s not really satisfying either. Obviously I went to Wikipedia right after this was done, and that kind of dashed my hopes of the enduring mystery of this legend. It sounds pretty uh...not real. Which is a bummer, because I’m very into reading about weird paranormal things, and if things had happened the way the movie said they did, I would be a Mothman Truther 4 Lyfe. As it stands, this is one cryptid whose legend leaves something to be desired. Looks like nothing can replace Nessie as the cryptid of my heart <3. 

If you liked this review, please consider reblogging or subscribing to my Patreon! For as low as $1, you can access bonus content and movie reviews, or even request that I review any movie of your choice.

[twentiethcenturymoviesandtv]

Episode Spotlight: Star Trek Season 1: Episode 5: The Enemy Within

“Captain’s log, stardate 1672.1. Specimen gathering mission on planet Alpha 177. Unknown to any of us during this time a duplicate of me, some strange alter ego, had been created by the transporter malfunction.”

The first of Captain Kirk’s Captain’s Logs of The Enemy Within serves as a relatively apt description of the episode in whole, the fifth of the opening season of this new science-fiction show: Star Trek.  Written by Richard Matheson (A frequent writer of Twilight Zone episodes and the author of I Am Legend) and directed by Leo Penn, The Enemy Within aired on October 6th of 1966, and became a codifier of many things Star Trek would become known for, including Mr. Spock’s Vulcan nerve-pinch (invented by Leonard Nimoy, who portrayed the character) and Dr. McCoy’s catchphrase: “He’s dead, Jim.”  This would also mark the beginning of the ‘transporter malfunction’ episodes, creating a plot-device that would be used multiple times as the show progressed.

The Enemy Within has become something of a fan-favorite among Star Trek audiences, ranked highly among episodes of both the original series, and the franchise as a whole, praised as a solid episode in story, concept, and execution, with special compliments to William Shatner’s performance.

Today, we’re going to see if that praise is merited or not.  Join us for today’s Episode Spotlight as we take a closer look at the episode: The Enemy Within.

The episode goes something like this: (Spoilers below!)

The Enterprise is in orbit around the planet Alfa 177 as an away team performs a planetary survey on its surface.  The team, led by Captain Kirk, hits a brief hiccup in the survey as a geological technician named Fisher falls, injuring his hand, and getting covered in a fine magnetic powder.

After checking on the crewman, Kirk orders Fisher to beam up to the Enterprise and report to the Sickbay to treat his hand.  Fisher obeys, but as he does so, there’s a brief problem with the transporter.  Chief Engineer Scotty and another engineer, Wilson, look over the equipment, and although he sends Wilson to do another check, Scotty feels confident enough to beam up Kirk to the ship, which he does.

As he arrives, Kirk feels a little off, light-headed and dizzy.  Scotty helps the Captain to his quarters, leaving the transporter room unattended for a brief minute.

Naturally, it’s just long enough for the plot to get going.

After Kirk and Scotty leave, the transporter activates again, with no one at the control panel.  Another figure appears on the transporter pad: an exact duplicate of Captain Kirk.

Wilson returns to the transporter room and offers to give him a hand.  The duplicate of Kirk completely ignores him, and leaves.

While the original Kirk goes about his business (receiving reports from Yeoman Rand, etc. before going for a nap), the duplicate storms into Sickbay, where Dr. McCoy is patching up Fisher.  Ignoring the work going on, the duplicate Kirk demands a bottle of Saurian brandy, and staggers off, searching for Yeoman Rand’s quarters.

Meanwhile, Mr. Spock arrives at Kirk’s quarters, explaining that McCoy had reported Kirk’s odd behavior in Sickbay and thought it deserved to be looked into.  Kirk laughs it off, explaining that McCoy must have been playing a joke on him.

Kirk (now wearing a different shirt, so we can differentiate the two) and Spock are called to report to the transporter room, where Scotty reveals a potential problem: the landing party has sent up an animal native to the planet, and it split in two: one docile, one savage and vicious.  Scotty explains that he is worried about the possibility of beaming up the landing party, fearing what it would do to a person.  This wouldn’t be a problem, if it wasn’t for the fact that the planet’s surface reaches temperatures of 120-below-zero degree weather at night.  If he can’t get the transporter working again, the party will freeze to death.

While all this is going on, the Kirk duplicate finds Yeoman Rand’s quarters, and assaults her, attempting to force himself on her.  She breaks away, defending herself and leaving a series of scratches on his face as she gets away.  During the struggle, Fisher, who was walking through the hallway outside Rand’s quarters, calls security, and the duplicate Kirk attacks him, knocking him unconscious and escaping.

In Sickbay, Rand explains to Spock, McCoy, and the original Kirk what happened, backed up by Fisher’s testimony.  Kirk is confused, denying everything, (obviously) despite Rand’s insistence that she was attacked by Kirk, and that she scratched his face.  Spock admits that they found the brandy in Rand’s quarters, but he has an alternate solution to just blaming Kirk: he believes there’s an imposter on board.

Naturally, this doesn’t come as a surprise to the audience.  From the beginning, the episode has shown the viewers exactly what’s been going on, leaving us with no ambiguity (thanks to the dark underlighting and the other Kirk’s behavior) as to the situation: There’s two Kirks, a Jekyll and a Hyde, one good, one bad.  The surprise and suspense is not in the actual explanation, but more in the conclusion: now that they know there’s another Kirk, what are they going to do about it, and how are they going to put them back together?  On top of that, the subplot of the crewmen on the planet surface, in danger of freezing to death, offers a neat time-crunch scenario, ramping the tension of the episode even higher.  It’s a good setup, albeit one outside of the realm of science, and it’s all about to come to a head in the second act.

In the meantime, Scotty has figured out that the magnetic ore that Fisher beamed up with is what damaged the transporter, but he can’t figure out how long it will take to fix it.  Kirk, now becoming increasingly indecisive, implores Spock to help him figure out not only how to catch the duplicate, but also to keep up the facade to the crew that the captain is invincible and perfect.  If his image slips, he runs the risk of losing the faith of the crew, and in the end, command of the Enterprise.

Kirk knows this, and admits that he doesn’t know how he forgot.  Instead, he makes an announcement to the crew: explaining that there’s an imposter on board, identified by the scratches on his face.  The announcement sends the duplicate of Kirk into a fit, causing him to wreck the captain’s quarters, screaming:

“I’m Captain Kirk!”

After this, he rummages through the Captain’s drawers, finding some makeup that he uses to cover up the scratches on his face.  He leaves Kirk’s quarters and heads down the hallway, attacking Wilson and stealing his phaser.

Meanwhile, Spock has figured out something very important: The duplicate of Kirk has all of the knowledge and experience as the original, rendering him twice as dangerous.  He and Kirk discuss possible hiding places for the duplicate, and Kirk realizes that if it were him, he’d hide in the lower decks of the ship.  He and Spock head for the engineering deck, and once there, find the duplicate.  After a tense game of cat and mouse, Spock renders the duplicate unconscious with the Vulcan nerve pinch, and they take him to Sickbay, restraining him to a bed.

This seems kind of an odd place for this to happen.  It would seem to make the most sense from a dramatic standpoint if this scene, as tense and interesting as it is, happens later in the episode, but there’s still plenty of time left.  The episode’s main tension seems to be gone.  After all, with the hunt for Kirk’s duplicate over, it seems like a lot of potential scenes of crewmen trying to determine which was the real Captain have gone to waste.

But it’s here that the episode switches gears.

It’s already been hinted at that something isn’t right with the original Captain Kirk.  He’s been just slightly off: still more himself than this duplicate, but he’s lost his willpower, his determination, his decisive nature.  The episode has changed the problem, and the conflict by introducing the concept that the duplicate is not simply a duplicate, but is instead a darker half of Kirk’s personality that has already existed, hidden underneath and alongside his positive nature.  In other words, the question has changed from: ‘how do we find the duplicate?’ to: ‘can Kirk live without the darker side of his personality?’

It is in this element that the episode truly begins to shine, as the tension ramps up.  You see, during the fight with the duplicate, the stolen phaser went off, damaging some components to the transporter, effectively complicating the problem of retrieving the landing party, trapped on the freezing planet surface.  Despite best attempts, no heaters beamed down do any good, producing ineffective copies of the originals.

Kirk attempts to reassure Sulu from the Enterprise, but falters, becoming more and more uncertain in his command abilities.  Spock steps in, telling Sulu to hold on for a little longer.  In the meantime, the Kirk duplicate, strapped to the Sickbay bed, is in intense pain as a result of his body’s biorhythms being weakened from the duplication process.  To put it simply, he’s dying.  The original Kirk urges the other Kirk to use his mind, and to not give in to his savage nature.

McCoy helps Kirk realize that, as much as Kirk doesn’t want to admit it, he needs the other half of his personality, the darker, savage nature, in order to continue as a whole person.  The argument, less an example of innate good vs. evil, and more a discussion of the ego, superego and id (funnily enough, the three elements that Kirk, Spock and McCoy themselves embody).  The ‘darker’ aspects of Kirk’s nature, the fear in the decisive ‘instinctual’ nature, fuel his natural compassion, courage, and intelligence present in his personality, and he can’t live as one half of a whole.

In the transporter room, Spock and Scotty have repaired the transporter as best as they can, and put the duplicated animal(s) through in order to test it.  It works – sort of.  The animal reappears as a whole, but the process brings it back dead.

Spock is of the opinion that Kirk’s intelligence would give him the strength of mind to survive the process, but McCoy’s concern is that the error is something in the machinery or the process itself.  McCoy wants another check on the machinery and to give the animal an autopsy, but there’s no time: the landing party is in serious trouble.

Kirk, increasingly stressed, makes a decision: he’ll go through the transporter, but sends McCoy to check on the animal in the meantime.  Alone in Sickbay, he tries to take his duplicate to the transporter pad at phaser-point.

Unfortunately, as previously established, the duplicate is just as smart as Kirk is, and tricks him, knocking him out, scratching his face so that the two are identical, and changing his shirt in order to match.  He makes for the bridge, meeting Janice Rand on the way and convincingly pretending to be the original Kirk.  Once on the bridge, the duplicate orders the ship out of orbit, abandoning the landing party.

It looks like he might get away with it, until the original Kirk, along with McCoy, arrive on the bridge to stop him.  After a brief tense moment, the duplicate Kirk collapses, and both Kirks go through the transporter, emerging as a whole, live person.

The unharmed, confident captain steps off the transporter pad and orders the landing party beamed up, immediately, just in time.

The day is saved, Kirk is back to normal, and the Enterprise moves on to a new mission.  The end.

The Enemy Within serves as one of the most memorable episodes of the original series of Star Trek for multiple reasons.  Not only was it the origin of the legendary Vulcan nerve pinch, the engine room set, Kirk’s green tunic, and the catchphrase: “He’s dead, Jim”, it also served as the first uses of plenty more Star Trek essentials: character interactions and storytelling.

The Enemy Within serves as the beginning of the functioning trio of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy, slowly beginning to grow accustomed to their dynamic: Kirk in the center, with Spock as the intellect and McCoy as the heart.  Notably, in this episode, whereas later Kirk would be able to make decisions based on the pair’s suggestions, he is reduced to switching sides repeatedly, waffling between the two, unable to choose.  It’s an interesting look at the dynamic that would become familiar in later episodes.

Another Star Trek staple that makes its debut in this episode is the idea of the central story itself.  Star Trek would go on to make a name for itself in the realm of science fiction and drama, focusing attention on characters, their struggles, and questions about the human condition, in this case: can we live without our ‘bad side’?

The Enemy Within is meant to make the audience think, presenting to them a question, and a few potential answers coming from multiple different people.  The episode wants the audience to consider the question and value its answer, not just because it’s an important question, but because it’s vital to the characters, who are, by now, well-realized in Star Trek canon.  

This episode also marked the beginning of Spock’s mixed heritage, half human, half Vulcan, and how it affects him:

“Being split in two halves is no theory with me, Doctor. I have a human half, you see, as well as an alien half—submerged, constantly at war with each other. Personal experience, Doctor—I survive it because my intelligence wins over both, makes them live together.”

These tidbits, as early as episode five, begin to strengthen and deepen the show’s cast of characters and use of stories, as they begin to delve deeper into the human condition and how it can be explored through the lens of science fiction.  These things are important, to both television history and Star Trek history, but when it’s all said and done, The Enemy Within is just a good episode.

The episode is one of the poster-examples of the best of Star Trek, demonstrating everything it would be good at and known for in the future.  The cast’s chemistry is on fire, a clear showing of how the group interacts, and even William Shatner’s performances as both sides of Captain Kirk are distinct and interesting, his body language making it easy to tell which is which, even without the scratches.  Fittingly, mostly taking place on the Enterprise, the episode has a claustrophobic feel to it that adds to the constraints and tension of the rest of the episode, making it an interesting watch, one that can surprise you, even if you know that of course, Captain Kirk will be fine.

It’s a daring story, one that confronts its audience with the information that their lead has some darkness to him, and one that forces them to ask questions, and debate their own answers much as Spock and McCoy do throughout the episode.  It was an early glimmer of the legacy that Star Trek would leave, a genuinely exciting, interesting episode that well-deserves its place as a beloved installment in an equally beloved show.

Thank you guys so much for reading, and I hope to see you guys in the next article! If you’re interested in more Star Trek, check out my 8-part series on the original series as a whole, and stay tuned for more episode spotlights!

[sagemoderocklee]

Ooh, directors commentary on TAOL?? I know it's an epic so maybe just on the chapter where Lee and Gaara are traveling in Jade Country :3

sorry for letting this sit in my ask box for a couple days. i got kinda sidetracked and then had to go back to work today, which is not a fun time tbh but the evils of capitalism and so on....

anyways, im thrilled you asked for this particular part of TAoL because I absolutely loved that chapter (x) and put a lot of work into it between building up the culture of Gyokukakushin and making sure all the Arabic and Chinese I used was legit (which is partly why it took like 4 months to write). plus the chapter has a lot of great GaaLee moments that make me really happy.

one of my biggest downfalls as a writer is how long it takes me to actually finish anything. as i think most people who follow my writing know, i tend to prefer lengthier stories with lots of heavy politics, and that tends to mean that the build up of romance takes a while... which is again how i like it. i prefer a slow burn--a proper slow burn, not these 2k fics tagged slow burn. i mean, 100k into the story and the most you’ve got is an accidental hand brushing another and some intense eye contact... which admittedly TAoL has given more than just a little bit of physical contact and intense staring, but my point is that when i say slow burn i mean S L O W

anyways, onto the actual director’s commentary

So, Jade Province--as it’s not a country in itself, but a province within Wind Country--is a sprawling section of the south-east portion of Wind. I started building Jade Province and its capitol, Gyokukakushin sometime before I started on Ch10 of TAoL, but it was all a very loose idea. I’d initially conceptualized some things about it for the one shot I wrote, Keepsakes, because I’d been doing some background work on the Kazekage lineage and the culture surrounding the Kazekage family--such as arranged marriages, treaties, etc.

My idea is that Karura and Yashamaru are actually from Gyokukakushin. They would have been the children of a person in the political sphere within the capitol, and the marriage between Karura and Rasa would have been arranged early on and she would have been sent to Suna as a pre-teen or teen so that she would feel that Suna was home. I imagine she and Rasa would have married sometime when she was between 18-20. This was the main reason Rasa was able to take on the roll of Kazekage, based on the family tree I built up for the Kazekage line--he was the only one who was married and could produce heirs.

Not that any of this ever comes up during TAoL. In fact, Gaara doesn’t even realize that in going to Gyokukakushin he’s actually visiting half of his ancestral home. However, there’s a lot of fun hints about his connection to Gyokukakushin if you recall the many mentions of the color the same shade as Gaara’s eyes in that chapter. This was a specific nod to his heritage, and something that the locals definitely would have been fascinated by because there’s lots of significance surrounding that particular color in the region. I also wanted to use the reference to his eyes to highlight Lee’s particular fascination with Gaara’s appearance, and especially the element of Gaara’s eyes and the many ways he looks at Lee.

The biggest challenge within this chapter, of course, was the fact that I was using languages I’m not familiar with and had to find a good place to gather resources. Thanks to @ghoste-catte I discovered that reddit (of all places) has a translation subreddit which I was able to use to help bring that aspect of the story to life in an organic and respectful way. My Japanese is rusty, but I have a much better grasp on it than I do Chinese or Arabic, and so I spent many, many, many, many, many..... many hours searching for resources, watching YT vidoes, at the bookstore--I even bought a small book on Arabic. In the end, the subreddit was way more helpful than anything else because it allowed me the chance to get more concrete explanations from native speakers, so I could understand exactly why something was said the way it was. Most of the phrases used in that chapter aren’t really Gaara saying anything special--things like “be quiet” or “stop”--which I usually alluded to with Lee racking his brain trying to drudge up the vocabulary Gaara has taught him.

However, there’s one line--which I hope people did not turn to google translate for--that makes me especially happy, and that line really would not have been possible without that subreddit. I think the best part about being able to successfully navigate the challenge of using other languages is creating the same confusion Lee feels for those readers who doesn’t know those languages, and for those who do, offering them a nice glimpse at what’s going on that Lee cannot grasp. It’s fun and really changes the experience for each reader.

Language is such a beautiful and intricate aspect of people and culture, and my biggest fear with approaching the use of Arabic and Chinese was not only saying the wrong thing, but being disrespectful. So it was an incredibly good experience, and I was incredibly lucky to receive the help I did!

Building up the tension between Gaara and Lee was something I’d really wanted to execute well, too. It’s not often I write stories where the romance doesn’t start from scratch. With TAoL, Lee needed to already be in love with Gaara, and that was a big stress for me because I’m constantly asking myself: is this earned? I think one of the biggest failings of fanfiction is that people don’t ask that question. You really have to ask if your romance is earned. If your character growth is earned. If a redemption arc is earned. And I constantly worry that I’m moving too quickly with romance in particular, especially for Gaara and Lee. I’m not big on putting them together without a lot of development, and I’m not big on established relationship fics (that aren’t sequels) for them either. I like the work it takes to get them together, I like the journey of getting them together. And I don’t like it to be easy.

But for me, TAoL is one of my best actualized works. I think Alliance really helped me build the skills I needed to execute a story like TAoL on so many levels--from the complicated political landscapes, to the cultures, to the relationships between each character. And so I do feel like Lee being in love with Gaara at this point in their lives makes sense, and does work despite the fact that we didn’t see him fall in love with Gaara during the course of this fic. There are subtle nods to his feelings for Gaara in the early chapters, but I didn’t go too hard at indicating those feelings until really the second Lee chapter, this chapter I’m talking about now. I think there were some hints in the first Lee chapter--the chapter where he broke Gaara out of prison and whisked him away from Suna--but I tried to keep those things to a minimum, partly to not over do it and ease people in to that, and partly because I wanted to keep the suspense alive surrounding the real purpose for Lee being in Suna.

So when they get to Gyokukakushin, it really gave me a much better chance at showcasing his feelings. There were moments prior to Gyokukakushin, but those were from Gaara’s PoV--like the moment within the destroyed village, Myoujou, where they’re hiding from the group of shinobi and Gaara’s trying desperately to get Lee to focus his chakra enough to mask it.

But the success of that particular moment is lost on Gaara because he doesn’t really know how Lee feels about him at that point in time, so his impact on Lee is entirely lost to him....not to mention he’s dealing with a lot of grief and trauma, so he hardly has the wherewithal to be paying attention to whether or not his rescuer is secretly in love with him.

One of my favorite tender moments is this one:

“Do you have a favorite word?” Lee asked, before a yawn interrupted him.

“In Indigosi? Or in general?”

“Both.”

Gaara glanced at Lee from the corner of his eye. “Affection,” he murmured, almost as though he were afraid to admit it. “In Indigosi...” Gaara was silent, his gaze shifting away from Lee to the window. A warmth spread across his brown skin, a blush rising on his high cheekbones. “Rohi.”

He looked down at Lee, something bright behind his eyes.

Heat burned Lee's face like an inferno. “What does that mean?”

Gaara looked away again, hiding from Lee in plain sight. “My soul." The words hung in the air with some other meaning, one that Lee could not decipher. Gaara would forever be a paradox, an ever expanding puzzle for Lee to piece together. He didn't ever want to figure him out completely, but he would never stop trying to get as close to epiphany as he could.

“That is beautiful,” Lee told him as another yawn overtook him.

“I should let you sleep,” Gaara said, moving to get up.

Lee stopped him with an imploring hand against Gaara's forearm. “Stay? You did not finish telling me about your trip to Dusk Country.”

“You kept interrupting,” Gaara teased lightly, settling back into place.

Lee smiled up at him, ever so slightly cheeky. “I promise I will be quiet.”

“You're going to fall asleep,” Gaara corrected.

“Probably. It is very late.”

I love so many of the emotional scenes from this particular chapter, but I love how simple and sweet this moment is. There’s such a wealth of affection in small actions, and I really wanted to highlight that Lee and Gaara have grown closer during their time traveling from Myoujou to Gyokukakushin, and things that were born of necessity (like sleeping close together for warmth) are now things done because they want to. There’s comfort in the closeness of sitting next to one another, there’s something peaceful about Lee falling asleep while Gaara talks to him. It’s a nice moment, less high emotion and more quiet contentment, which I think is much needed after everything they’ve been through.

I think that my other favorite scene would be the scene on the beach, right after they’ve watched the sand artist and Gaara makes his model of Suna. That scene is a complicated affair for Lee because he’s both enjoying his time with Gaara and feeling guilty for enjoying that time together. And of course Gaara’s got a lot going on too, which Lee can only guess at.

One of the other things I really enjoyed about this chapter is the fact of Lee and Gaara being in disguise, and really the use of their aliases. I particularly like any excuse to get Gaara to call Lee “Ren”. I’m particularly in love with that stroke of genius regarding Lee’s alias, and there’s a certain emotion, a certain connection that I really hope I could convey with how they use each other’s aliases.

I could probably talk about this chapter forever, but unfortunately there’s also thins I don’t want to say at the risk of spoiling future chapters since this is still a WIP (and probably will be for a while longer, though we’re almost halfway there! Two more chapters to the halfway mark!) Thank you so much for sending this particular ask anon! I had fun chatting about it and I hope you enjoyed reading my comments! 

[brownhardyho]

Roommates - Part Four (1st half)

Ben X Reader roommate collab series

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

A/N: I’M BAAACK! Y’all I’m so sorry it took me so freaking long to finally write this! Life has been a lil crazy, but I really hope this was worth the wait!

(P.S the reason why I split Part 4 into 2 parts is because it’s been a HOT minute since I wrote a Ben fic and I’m one wordy bitch and have a new found appreciation for suspense. K BAIII)

So this series is the brainchild of mine and @wanderlustandsmut’s shared frustration of Ben muthafuckin Hardy. Honest to God, we basically talk daily about Ben so we took this concept to the next level and decided to write about it! Previous parts have been linked above, hope you all enjoy!

Premise: Ben X Reader are roommates and childhood friends…What happens when their mostly platonic relationship turns sexual??

Warnings: Fluff, a lil smutty goodness 

Word Count: 2,234 (she’s long fam)

With the heavy bass of Saweetie’s summer anthem My Type lowly pounding on the walls of you and Ben’s humble abode, you bob your head to the catchy beat as you make your way across your room to get your outfit of the night. The excitement of having a date tonight was strong enough to damper your stay in tendencies, work has kept you very busy recently and Ben had been away for a month doing interviews and attending fashion shows. It had been a couple weeks since you and Ben’s intimate romp on the couch and you had not gotten any since (so to speak). So to say that you were excited to go out tonight was a bit of an understatement.

Even though you hadn’t seen Ben in person for a while, it’s not like you haven’t been in touch. Quite the opposite actually; you both text each other almost everyday, sending each other funny memes and reminders, because that’s obviously what roommates do!

Slipping on your favorite red lacy bralette and thong set, you smooth on your warm coconut scented lotions across your freshly washed body. With the potential of actually getting laid tonight, you were not playing around. Just as you were about to put the new black body con dress, your thoughts were interrupted by the ping alert on your phone. Clicking it on and glancing down at who sent you the message, your face falls into a frown immediately when you read the words:

So sorry to do this, but something came up and I have to cancel on dinner tonight! Let’s take a raincheck?

“Are you fucking kidding me right now?” you exasperate out loud, feeling severely annoyed at the situation. You had met this guy on Bumble a few weeks prior, and really hit it off. The guy had pursued you first by initiating the conversation. You both had similar tastes in music and travel and even talked about pet peeves. This guy already knew you had no patience for people that wasted your time so the fact that he pulled this shit on you more than peeved you.

“Boy bye! You are cancelled!” You say to yourself as you delete his number from your phone, not feeling guilty at all for ghosting him. With the slight disruption to your night plans, you turn up the volume of the music and dance your way into the kitchen, your mind set on making brownies, cuz what better way to spend a night in than wearing lingerie, dancing carelessly, while making sweet treats?

The brownie batter was made in record time, with the recipe ingrained into your mind and the sheer determination of living your best life powering the night, you were on a roll and you showed no signs of slowing down.

Balancing the pan with the brownies in your hands, you swayed your hips to the beat of the tempo, squatting lower to the ground to place said pan into the preheated oven. You shut the oven door, singing along to the song, turning around eyes widening in pure surprise.

You are greeted to the sight of Ben, looking especially gorgeous in a pink suit and a white shirt. His blonde hair seemingly longer since you last saw him in person, slightly disheveled from his habit of running his hands through his hair. Despite looking tired, with how busy his travel schedule was, Ben looked absolutely content with finally coming home, especially to a sight he had only dreamt of: you dancing in nothing but lingerie. In his eyes, you embodied all that it means to be devastatingly sexy and cute all at once.

“Holy shit! Ben I almost shat myself!” You shout breathlessly, slapping Ben’s shoulder “A lil announcement would have been nice.”

“Well, hello to you too love,” Ben laughed, his sea foam green eyes quickly tracking over your appearance before settling on your eyes “I thought you had a date tonight?”

“Nooope,” you reply, hopping on the counter and rolling your eyes in annoyance. “He talks me up these paste few weeks and then cancels without even explaining himself! What kind of guy even does that?” you huff, unconsciously pouting your lips and making Ben feel things in the process.

“Clearly, a guy that doesn’t deserve you,” Ben responds, shedding his pink suit jacket, draping it on the kitchen table and making his way over to you, stopping in between your legs. “It’s his loss, love.”

“I know, it’s just frustrating sometimes when a guy knows damn well he isn’t ready and will continue to convince you to waste your time on him!” you rant, venting your frustrations to your blonde best friend.

Ben nods understandingly and comes in for one of his ever famous bear hugs. If there’s one thing about Ben that’s trademark, it’s that he’s a tactile person. Physical touch is basically one of his love languages and not just in a sexual sense. Throughout your long friendship, it wasn’t uncommon for Ben to cuddle next to you on the couch during a movie marathon. And in the reverse, you didn’t hesitate to cuddle next to him and he would gladly wrap his arm around your shoulder.

“Feel better?” Ben mumbles into your hair right before you break away from his warm embrace.

“Much!” you smile, a smirk playing your lips “Now go shower, you stink!”

“Hey now! You can’t blame me, I just got off the plane!” Ben exclaims, lightly smacking your bare thigh. “Movie and brownie sesh?”

“As if you have to ask!” you chuckle, hopping off the counter to check on the brownies. It was tradition for you both to gorge on brownies and watch a movie when Ben came back from long work trips.

Ben turns around and fetches his jacket from the table before making his way to the bathroom. You can’t help but admire the way his arm and back muscles glide under the snug fit of his white tee shirt. As if on cue, Ben calls out, “take a picture it’ll last longer!” before turning around and looking at you from the hallway.

“Oh dear lord, why would I do that now that you’re back home!” you stick your tongue out, silently trying to calm your mind that Ben caught you practically gawking at him. How in the world did he even know?! He was turned away from you for gods sake!

Not too long after, the timer goes off and you retrieve the brownies, basking in the sweet chocolatey aroma that fills the kitchen. You let the brownies cool off while you go off to the living room to pick the movie of the night. My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Can’t go wrong with a classic, you thought to yourself. And it’s been a while since you’ve watched it.

“Ben! These brownies aren’t gonna eat themselves!” you call out, lounging horizontally on the couch, the plate of brownies sitting on your stomach. “I swear to God, you take freaking long showers. It baffles me sometimes that-“ the beginning of your small rant cut short at the sight of a freshly showered Ben, his blonde hair still damp, and his toned chest on display as he was only wearing boxers.

“That what, love?” Ben smirks at you, knowing exactly how his current appearance is affecting you.

“..nothing,” you mumble, feeling the heat rise in your cheeks, pulling yourself up to sit down next to Ben, handing over the plate of brownies.

You both started watching the movie and Ben didn’t tease you during it. Thankfully, the funny and relatable antics of the movie put a pause to the sexual tension and you were both laughing along to the film in no time.

Sighing in content, you place the plate with the small remainder of brownies on the coffee table and settle back to your spot next to Ben. When you turn around to look at your roommate, you can’t help but smile because your eyes are welcomed with the sight of a knocked out Ben, head tipped back, mouth slightly open with soft snores starting to escape. Poor guy, you thought to yourself leaning over his body carefully, as to not wake him, to grab the blanket.

Right as your hand made its way to the soft fabric, Ben let out a groan causing you to lose your balance and fall right on his lap. Luckily, a pillow was atop his lap before, thus providing a cushioned barrier to soften your fall.

“Ooof!” you mumble out, slightly freaking out because of the awkward positioning and the fact that just a pillow currently separates your chest from Ben’s crotch.

“Woah woah,” Ben’s groggy, deep voice interrupts your thoughts “If you wanted me that bad, you could have just said so love!”

“You are so so full of yourself Ben!” you exasperate, going on to explain the situation “I didn’t want you to get cold..” your eyes gesture to the blanket that’s still in your hand. His emerald eyes tracked yours and suddenly his hands grasped your body and pulled you on his lap. You settled your arms around his broad shoulders to keep your balance and he settle his arms around your hips in response, his fingers softly teasing at the lace of your panties.

“There, now I won’t get cold. Body heat does more than blanket ever will!” he smiles, his eyes seemingly looking into your soul, as if to reassure you that this won’t change your relationship.

“Hmm,” you sigh, adjusting your position on his lap, consciously testing out the waters of this sexually charged atmosphere. “I missed you, Ben.”

“And I missed you too, peaches,” Ben hums into your neck, reveling in the feeling of your warm body pressed up against his. Even though you were just sitting on his lap, the feeling of you being in his arms felt so damn right, so natural, so effortless.

His soft lips eventually made their way against your jawline and you hummed in delight, shift your hips slowly on top of his lap. It wasn’t too long after that you started to feel him getting hard and you could help but silently scream in your head.

“Already, Ben?” you smirk, tilting his chin up from your neck so you could look at him.

“Love, don’t be so surprised,” Ben explains, his cheeks becoming rosy. “You could be wearing just a burlap sack and I’d be ready to go in a second! You. Are. Stunning.” He emphasizes those last three words with firm kisses to each of your collarbones and the last one smack on your lips. Your lips latch on to his and all is right in the world. He sucks on your lower lip, silently asking permission to deepen the kiss and you happily oblige. This makeout session is getting hotter and hotter by the second, your hands exploring each other’s bodies. No words are exchanged, only actions.

“Oh Ben,” you moan aloud throwing your head back, in return pushing your décolletage closer to his lone of vision. Ben groans in appreciation and dives right in, placing wet kisses all over.

“You are so beautiful, love,” Ben murmurs lowly, his hands trailing down the cur of your hips, settling down on the round globes of your glutes, squeezing them. “Wet already?” he says, as he feels your drenched panties grinding on his hard cock. Truthfully, he just wants to undress already and finally feel your naked core against him.

“Ben, don’t be so surprised,” you laugh, lightly mocking his previous statement. “I was wet the moment I saw you in that pink suit!”

“I should wear it more often then,” he thinks aloud, shifting his hips up to meet yours, causing your eyes to roll back in pleasure.

“Ben, take me to bed please,” you say, letting your desire and emotions out in the open.

A small part of you was advising against this because going all the way with Ben, your best friend and roommate, could change the dynamic between the both of you. But, a bigger part of you and your gut was telling you to take that leap into the unknown, because oh honey, what if it turns out good, amazing even? That was a possibility that you were definitely willing to take that risk.

“Whatever the lady desires,” Ben says softly, his beaming up at you. What you didn’t know yet was that Ben wanted this too. “Wrap your legs around me peaches, I got you.”

With your arms and legs wrapped around this Adonis of a man, Ben walks you both to his room and sets you down gently on his plush bed. You go to take your bra off, but Ben stops you.

“Can I do it, please?” he whispers softly, his eyes pleading with yours.

“Oh yes!” you nod frantically. “Why are you whispering?”

“Because I don’t want this to go away, this all feels like a dream that I don’t want to wake up from,” Ben confesses, and your heart just breaks a little because you’ve never seen him so vulnerable and that’s saying a lot considering that you’ve known him for most of your life.

“Ben, look at me,” you say, bringing his hand to your chest so he can feel how fast your heart is beating. “Feel that? This is real.”

Taglist: @rogershamsandwich @big-deak-energy @rrrogah-tayluhh @hardzzellos @prettylittlegoldfish @queeniebean01@yourebeyondperfect @ramibaby @anikatcmh @shannonlxto@shreyuhhstudies @libita @orchideax @meowmeow230 @devil-in-those-eyes @luvborhap @ixchel-9275 @caborhapch @qweenly 

[micahcharlson]

Is It Time to Rethink Swain's Sequels?

This post is in response to a guest post by Peter von Stackelberg on K.M. Weiland’s blog, and what he had to say about creating scene structure (An Intuitive 4-Step Process for Creating Vibrant Scene Structure), as well as the questions it raised for myself and others.

An understanding of Dwight V. Swain’s Scene and Sequel technique is necessary for every writer hoping for success, but if you’re unfamiliar with it then reading Katie’s excellent series on How to Structure Scenes in Your Story should get you up to speed.

This will be my attempt to synthesize Swain’s concepts with what von Stackelberg had to say about creating scene structure, specifically regarding how I feel von Stackelberg’s concepts fits into Swain’s. (It’s entirely possible I’ll find it makes more sense looking at it the other way around—how Swain’s concepts fit into von Stackelberg—though when all’s said and done, I’ve knows about Swain’s work longest.)

When relying on comments left on Weiland’s blog, I’ll give credit to the commenter and note the time/date of their comment.

To begin…

My Initial Thoughts

Here are my initial thoughts before reading any of the comments readers left. That is, my initial thoughts based solely on von Stackelberg’s post.

I believe before implementing von Stackelberg’s four questions under “Scene Structure as a Writing Template”, writers must understand the character’s scene goal.

Once the character’s scene goal has been determined, it’s possible to proceed to those four questions. After they’re used to flesh out the scene, they can be interwoven into Swain’s scene structure. Sequels are another matter entirely.

The resulting merging of the steps looks like this:

Step 1: Identify the POV character’s immediate goal for this new Scene.

Step 2: Determine what the Scene’s Peak action is.

Step 3: Identify what set into motion the Peak action? What is the Initiate element?

Step 4: What is the result of the Peak action? What is the Release?

Step 5: Where did this all happen? When? Who was involved? This is the Establish element.

Step 6: Fill in Orienting information about the setting, timing, or context of the scene which will help the reader understand the where, when, and who of the scene.

Step 7: Fill in additional Details about character’s, settings, or significant objects in the Initiate (or, sparingly, the Release) elements.

Step 8: Add Prolongs, additional actions that prolong the overall action, to create suspense—which heightens dramatic tension—typically in the Initiate sequence (or, rarely, in the Release sequence.)

Step 9: Write the Sequel (Reaction, Dilemma, Decision) as normal, creating the character’s goal for the next scene.

My Subsequent Thoughts (During/After Reading Comments)

Reading through all the comments forced me to reconsider some of what I earlier determined to be true.

In these comments below, any italicized text indicates points I found to be of particular interest.

Based on this comment from Peter Moore (JULY 13, 2020 AT 12:52 PM):

Great post. Thanks for having Peter as a guest. The more us newbies learn about the craft, the better. I have a question though. How do scenes that end with heightened tension fit into this scene structure? For example, chapter ending scenes in action/detective/sci fi/fantasy movies and books where characters are wounded, the scene fades and we don’t know if he/she lives or dies. I’m thinking of Peter Jackson’s movie adaptation of The Return of the King where Frodo is stung by Shelob. He immediately sends us to scenes with other characters. Tolkien handles it more like Peter states, even placing it as one of the last scenes of The Two Tower, and ending the book with ‘Frodo was alive but taken by the Enemy.’

I’ve seen a lot of posts that advise increasing the tension at the end of each chapter as a page turner device instead of releasing the tension. Is that one of the ‘except when it doesn’t’ things that Peter says at the beginning of the post, or am I misunderstanding something?

And this response from pvonstackelberg (JULY 13, 2020 AT 1:58 PM):

In my opinion, the use of cliffhangers needs to be approached with great caution. As a reader or viewer, I absolutely HATE obvious cliffhangers that appear manipulative and intended solely to get me to move on to the next chapter/episode. An example of this kind of thing is when the shot is fired…and then nothing…there is no Release.

From the story flow perspective, this kind of cliffhanger is very disruptive for a couple of reasons:

1) It leaves readers hanging without any sort of resolution to what happened in the scene

2) It disrupts the flow of the story because you then need to have the Release at the beginning of the next chapter/scene or, if there are intervening chapters/scenes, at the beginning of the scene where you return to the part of the storyline where you left off with the cliffhanger. The research (and I tend to be a believer in research) tells us that the sequence of Establish > Initiate > Peak > Release is important for readers/viewers understanding of what happens in a scene.

As a writer, I want my scenes to end in a way that prompts readers to move on to the next chapter.

You can certainly do it by going Release (for previous scene) > Establish > Initiate > Peak. However, as both a writer and a reader, that sequence of elements leaves me feeling unsatisfied. I want some sort of conclusion to the scene.

I think the answer to “Where do you end a chapter?” is not in moving the Release to some other chapter, but to focus on using the Release as a place where you basically let your audience know whether the scene’s main character achieved his/her scene goal. The suspense comes not from withholding information (i.e. the Release), but by adding a tidbit of new information.

For example, your protagonist has achieved (or not achieved) his/her scene goals but…is now in deeper doo-doo because…

This raising and releasing of dramatic tension is a real challenge to pull off. Once you master it, however, you are well on your way to writing some real page-turners.

And this response from Elizabeth L Richards (JULY 22, 2020 AT 11:07 PM):

Your comment about not liking cliffhangers resonated with me. Giving the reader more information to ratchet up the tension is so much more difficult but also more organic/less contrived.

Thinking about why cliffhangers are not fun, I realised that a cliffhanger requires me as the reader to devote part of my attention to maintaining the unresolved scene. Which leaves less of my attention to focus on the next part of the story. And given that humans have limited ability to hold multiple concepts in working memory (4-7 depending on what you read), you are actually Distracting your reader from the next scene. With less attention To focus, they are less invested. And so they wander off – maybe to jump ahead and see how the dangling bit gets resolved or to do something else that caught their limited attention.

But more relevant information, that builds on what the reader already knows, thrusts/carries the reader forward into the next scene with the confidence that their questions are going to be resolved. They are eager to read to the end of the next scene.

I think it’s like going into a restaurant that smells really good, reading a compelling menu, oRedoing something that sounds great…and then waiting too long for the entree to be delivered. Waiting doesn’t increase my pleasure, And it doesn’t make me want to come back.

I must conclude that a scene isn’t finished until the Release has been incorporated. The resulting suspense isn’t built so much from “What happened next?” as it is from the reader asking “How did what happened just affect the character, thereby changing the character’s thinking, plans, and the character’s core being?”

Based on this comment from Jennifer Bobrowicz (JULY 14, 2020 AT 9:40 AM):

Your article helps me better understand how to keep my scenes focused while including important details. This is my first attempt at a novel, so my learning curve has been steep. In a nutshell, the scene’s Peak drives the writing of that scene.

However, I’m confused on how I could use your framework along with the model of scene/sequel KM Weiland explains in her books. Katy’s method has helped immensely with structuring my WIP, but I’d like to know if I can meld the two. So, here are my specific questions.

The Peak Action seems like it could be the Disaster in the Scene (Weiland) and the Outcome [Micah Charlson’s note: I believe this is the Release?] seems like it could apply to the Reaction in the Sequel (Weiland). The Outcome would then go into the next scene or even the next chapter. Your framework has scenes divided into 4 parts, while Katy shows two types of scenes (Scene/Sequel) with each divided into 3 parts. Perhaps, I’m splitting hairs or not fully understanding something. The Scene/Sequel framework (Weiland) seems to work well in establishing goal, conflict, and a mini climax (Disaster in the Scene), and then it (hopefully) keeps the reader wondering how the character will respond in the next scene/chapter.

So, can the two methods be melded together? In your opinion, is ending with the Peak and picking up with the Outcome a mistake? Do I understand correctly that the scene should be wrapped up (no cliffhangers) with the Outcome, then a new question should be raised to keep the reader going?

Thanks for this article. This website has been so helpful to me and given me a boost of confidence to begin. Hopefully, this makes sense.

And this partial response from pvonstackelberg ( JULY 14, 2020 AT 1:51 PM):

…

These two scenes from “All the President’s Men” — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gn3MSQogVeY — for a great example of how to use the Establish > Initiate > Peak > Release structure. As well, these two scenes are an excellent example of how to do the 1-2 punch of Scene & Sequel that Katie talks about.

The terminology of “Scene” and “Sequel” can, I think, be somewhat misleading because it makes it appear that there is one of each. In fact, I think as Katie has pointed out, both the “Scene” and “Sequel” are scenes as we would normally define them — they have their own set of characters interacting in a well defined time and space.

Both the initial scene and the one that follows should be developed using the E.I.P.R. structure. In the clip from All the President’s Men, these phases are pretty clear in the first scene but a little more subtle in the second scene but also follows the E.I.P.R. structure.

I’ll admit this twists my thinking a bit.

To explain, I’ll use the following definitions of Scenes and Sequels as I’ve always understood them:

A Scene is a scene in which the character attempts to achieve an immediate goal—this attempt being one type of action in the cycle of “Goal, Conflict, Disaster”, though I prefer the terminology of “Goal, Conflict, Outcome”—in the service of achieving the overall story goal, whatever that may be. I think I’d say most of the time, if not always, Scenes provide the external action, or the plot. (But it is early as I write this, “early” herein defined as “I haven’t had nearly enough coffee yet.” Still, I’d bet I’m correct, keeping in mind I did say “most of the time.”)

A Sequel is a scene in which the character processes the Scene’s Outcome (good or bad)—this processing itself being simply another type of action, in the pattern of “Reaction, Dilemma, Decision” (leading to the next Scene’s Goal.) So a Sequel, it could be said, is just a scene with a different type of goal than the goal of a Scene:

The goal of a Sequel could be stated as “to process the previous Scene’s Outcome, weighing the pros and cons of each option going forward, and considering all the benefits and consequences inherent in each possible action, in order to determine the best course of action for continuing to pursue the overall story goal.” This processing of the Outcome is, in a Sequel, known as the Reaction. (This is a kind of cost-benefit analysis (CBA) of the contemplated actions for the next Scene.)

This pursuit of the Sequel’s goal—the actual performance of the CBA if you will—is the Sequel’s version of the Scene’s Conflict, which in a Sequel is called the Dilemma, an internal conflict.

This internal conflict, this CBA (even if a team effort, with much back and forth dialogue and apparent plot action) must lead the character—alone, in essence—to make a Decision (the Sequel’s version of the Scene’s Outcome) he or she will commit to—if only in the short term. This commitment to the Decision will always be initially an internal act, even if expressed explicitly after the Decision has been made. (You gotta decide before you can tell anyone what you’ve decided, right?)

Now, before I make my controversial suggestion here, let it be known that I still believe Dwight Swain was a genius and I’ll highly revere all that he’s taught all of us. That said, if a Sequel is simply another type of Scene, and should be developed no differently than a Scene employing the overlying mesh of E.I.P.R., then perhaps it’s time to scrap the idea of a Sequel completely. Because, in reality, a Sequel could also be viewed as having these parts:

Goal (react to the Scene’s Disaster and determine the next course of action—i.e., the next Scene’s Goal)

Conflict (struggle within—i.e., an internal conflict—with the pros and cons alternative courses of action and the consequences of each; literally, a Dilemma)

Outcome (whereby a decision is reached and the next Scene’s Goal is established)

So, it might be helpful (to some of us) to forgo any thought of writing Sequels altogether, and instead think of writing internal Scenes in their place.

Probably the same end result, but the change in our own internal thought processes might point our minds in different directions, and unlock other possibilities for our stories.

Another possibility is when, while reviewing previous work writing in the Scene/Sequel format, making the attempt at looking at these Sequels through this different lens.

So, finally, bringing all this back to von Stackelberg and this excellent post, each scene—Scene or Sequel—will end with a Outcome, which will require the Release element be incorporated into the Scene (external/“Scene”, or internal/“Sequel”.) Deleting Step 9 from the merging that resulted, the steps look like this:

Step 1: Identify the character’s immediate goal for this new Scene

External: What action has the character decided upon after the last internal scene.

Internal: How did the previous scenes Outcome affect the character as he or she begins to come to a decision what to do next?

Step 2: Determine what the Scene’s Peak action is.

Step 3: Identify what set into motion the Peak action? What is the Initiate element?

Step 4: What is the result of the Peak action? What is the Release?

Step 5: Where did this all happen? When? Who was involved? This is the Establish element.

Step 6: Fill in Orienting information about the setting, timing, or context of the scene which will help the reader understand the where, when, and who of the scene.

Step 7: Fill in additional Details about character’s, settings, or significant objects in the Initiate (or, sparingly, the Release) elements.

Step 8: Add Prolongs, additional actions that prolong the overall action, to create suspense—which heightens dramatic tension—typically in the Initiate sequence (or, rarely, in the Release Peak sequence.)

[terramythos]

TerraMythos' 2020 Reading Challenge - Book 1 of 26

Title: The Devil and the Deep: Horror Stories of the Sea (2018)

Author: Various (edited by Ellen Datlow)

Genre/Tags: Short Story Anthology, Horror (Various), Female Protagonist(s), LGBT Protagonist(s). 

Rating: 7/10 (note: this is an average of all the stories)

Date Began: 1/1/2020

Date Finished: 1/6/2020

I don’t usually read short story collections. But since I kicked off 2020 with a trip outside the US, I wanted something that could easily be picked up and read in short bursts. So I dove into a short story anthology @mistressofmuses gave me for Christmas. Since I was staying on the coast, this seemed like an appropriate choice. 

This anthology is a collection of 15 original horror stories by different authors, each somehow associated with the sea. Like any anthology, they were pretty hit or miss, but there were some I really enjoyed. Honorable mentions (scoring 8/10 or higher): 

Fodder’s Jig by Lee Thomas (9/10) 

The Whalers Song by Ray Cluley (9/10) 

A Ship of the South Wind by Bradley Denton (8/10) 

Broken Record by Stephen Graham Jones (8/10) 

A Moment Before Breaking by A. C. Wise (9/10) 

Sister, Dearest Sister, Let Me Show To You The Sea by Seanan McGuire (10/10) 

He Sings of Salt and Wormwood by Brian Hodge (10/10)

For a brief summary of all the stories and impression of each, see below the cut. These are in the order they appear and contain minor/implied spoilers.

1. Deadwater by Simon Bestwick - 4/10

Summary: A man living in a coastal tourist town is found dead by the shore. When her cop boyfriend rules it a suicide, the man's best friend Emily investigates the death on her own.

Thoughts: This one was very predictable. I'd figured out the "twist" and exactly how it would end by the half way point. It wasn’t super exciting and the writing just wasn't engaging for me. I did appreciate the occasional thematic callback and the whole thing about broken people needing to stick together, but there wasn’t enough of that in the actual story to sell me on it. 

2. Fodder’s Jig by Lee Thomas - 9/10 

Summary: Two men in their 60s fall in love with each other and try to form a life together. However, amid one’s rough divorce, a bizarre disease emerges that causes people to dance wildly and speak in tongues after exposure to the ocean. When one of the two men begins to exhibit symptoms of the disease, everything changes. Thoughts: Well done, creepy cosmic horror, and the ending was phenomenal. I loved that it was about two old gay dudes trying to find happiness late in life, struggling with manipulative family issues, and how all of it seamlessly blended with the horror. The prose was great too, and the zinger when you fully understand the title is... an experience. I thought it was interesting that the flashback scenes were in present tense and the current scenes were in past tense, but it sort of makes sense with the themes of the story.  

3. The Curious Allure of the Sea by Christopher Golden - 7/10 

Summary: A woman's father is lost at sea. To honor his memory, she tattoos herself with a strange symbol found in his abandoned boat. However, afterward, sea creatures and people alike find themselves drawn to her. Thoughts: It was moderately creepy. The part where Jenny burns off the tattoo (spoilers) was viscerally horrifying. Beyond that, it didn't stick out a whole lot. Sort of like a “wouldn’t that be fucked up?” Twilight Zone episode. 

4. The Tryal Attract by Terry Dowling - 5/10 

Summary:  After a conversation with his neighbor, a man agrees to spend several nights in the neighbor's house to commune with a talking human skull which he has recurring dreams about. 

Thoughts: The prose was good enough, but the actual horror element was sort of like one of those creepypastas that’s just unintentionally funny. It felt very Scooby Doo and I don’t think that was the intent. 

5. The Whalers Song by Ray Cluley - 9/10 

Summary: When a Norwegian whaling ship sinks after a catch, the small crew manages to escape. On shore, however, the eerie artifacts they find of old whaling ships are more than they bargained for.

Thoughts: Way way way eerie, and the prose was great; very stilted yet beautiful. There was an underlying theme of the past and present, which Cluley explores in multiple ways. It has a slow start but it pays off. One of the more haunting ones in the collection. 

6. A Ship of the South Wind by Bradley Denton - 8/10 

Summary: Three years after the Civil War, two Native Americans -- a boy named Charley and his uncle JoJim -- are accosted by a group of travelers in the plains of Kansas. They find that help comes from an unexpected source-- an eccentric, quasi-supernatural figure named Captain Thomas, whom JoJim met decades ago.

Thoughts: Honestly, setting a sea-themed horror story entirely in Kansas was a power move, but I think it worked. Did a great job building and maintaining tension. I loved the small details, like keeping the villains as "Red-beard" and "Black-beard" even after we learn their real names to keep things nautical. It's kind of like if No Country for Old Men crossed over with a pretty good episode of Goosebumps with some pseudo steampunk elements.

7. What My Mother Left Me by Alyssa Wong - 6/10 

Summary:  Following the death of her mother and breakup with her abusive boyfriend, Emma and her new girlfriend visit her mom's old beach house to collect her things. However, things get weird when they discover partially decomposed, yet still living fish along the shore.

Thoughts: I’m torn on this one. The writing was really good, but it felt like the story couldn’t decide between being a straight-up slasher flick or a deep, heartfelt exploration of family and surviving domestic abuse. I really felt like it needed to be longer, as both elements felt underdeveloped. 

8. Broken Record by Stephen Graham Jones - 8/10 

Summary: A man is trapped on a deserted island.

Thoughts:  I do not want to spoil the "twist" of this one but it's good and a fun scenario to imagine. Toed the line between humor and horror well.  

9. Saudade by Steve Rasnic Tem - 5/10 

Summary: A man agrees to go on a senior singles cruise at the behest of his daughters, but feels awkward and out of place. He is drawn to a bizarre woman who occasionally appears and causes something strange and unsettling to happen.

Thoughts: The writing is good, but Tem spends the bulk of the story focusing on protagonist Lee wandering a cruise ship and being sad about it. I loved the ending and its callback to an earlier, seemingly unrelated scene, but beyond that I feel there’s way more you can do with the inherent horror of a cruise ship. 

10. A Moment Before Breaking by A. C. Wise - 9/10 

Summary: While a little girl and her mother are immigrating to the United States, the ship they are on suddenly sinks. The girl is captured by cultists who perform a strange ritual, binding her to a creature called the prince of the sea.

Thoughts: I really dug this one-- it's just so weird. I loved how the narrative treated the shared body between Ana and the prince, and that we get to see Ana in various stages of her life. The prose was gorgeous. Definitely one of my favorites in the collection.

11. Sister, Dearest Sister, Let Me Show To You The Sea by Seanan McGuire - 10/10 

Summary: When her little sister drowns her in the tide pools by their Washington home, a teenage girl makes a deal with an eel-like entity of the sea to get her revenge. Thoughts: "Holy fucking shit" was pretty much all I could say when I finished this one. Visceral body horror at its finest, and I'm always a sucker for revenge. The prose was beautiful and horrid in the best way. I'm a big fan of the author already but this exceeded my expectations.

12. The Deep Sea Swell by John Langan - 3/10 

Summary: A couple is traveling by ship. One of the two, Susan, recalls a few supernatural stories their mutual friend Giorgio told them before she has her own supernatural encounter.

Thoughts: I found myself begging the author to press the enter key on his keyboard a few times. Beyond that, this was the first story that actually challenged my suspension of disbelief with what happens and how it relates to the main character. I didn't find the horror element very scary at all. There were some cool visuals but that's about all I got out of it. 

13. He Sings of Salt and Wormwood by Brian Hodge - 10/10 

Summary: During a deep sea diving exercise, a competitive surfer comes across an old, sunken yacht. He is horrified by the strange worm-like creatures devouring the wood. However, when he returns home to his wife, they begin to find strange, humanoid carvings every day on the Oregon coast. Thoughts: GOD was this good. Superb voice and writing, very creepy, and everything comes together so well in the ending. I felt an emotional connection to the love and longing between Danny and Gail, which is always hard to accomplish in a short story. Just a stellar read.

14. Shit Happens by Michael Marshall Smith - 3/10 

Summary: A higher-up from a tech conglomerate attends a company conference aboard a converted boat-hotel, but things go south when guests start to experience acute gastrointestinal distress. Thoughts: This gets like 3 points for making me genuinely laugh a few times and -7 points for everything else.

15. Haunt by Siobhan Carroll - 6/10 

Summary: In 1799, a cargo ship is troubled by a ghost ship on their trail. When the passengers and crew are stranded in the middle of the ocean, the dark pasts of the crew slowly come to light. Thoughts: The writing was good, the author clearly knows her shit, and I can admire what she is going for. However, the whole thing was just a bit too brutal and graphic for me, especially knowing that some of the things described were based on real events. I guess that was probably the point based on her author’s note, but I can’t recommend this as an entertaining read.