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foryoufics · 4 months ago

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Authors Note: There isn't much plot to this, I'm reading a classic book that I am loving and I can't talk about it with anyone so I thought of a cute little one shot idea. Hope you all enjoy :)

Word Count: 1975(?)

Warnings: maybe a little cursing here and there, neeeerrrrdddds~, reading, mention of previous divorce, extremely healthy happy relationship dynamics, teasing both innocently and the dirty kind (not smut, I apologize), innuendo, not proofread!

Summary: You and your best friend decide to tease Jungkook one day as he comes home and he has a trick up his sleeve for you that surprises you both; it's a good thing she can read a room and the little one was out camping with his uncles

Characters: "wife!" Long term established gf & fiance!, mentions of Jungkook's and best friend OC's son!, best friend + Jk's ex! Oc

“Have you ever looked back on everything….I mean all that has happened to us and I don't know…..wonder or possibly wish how things could have gone…differently?” You ask your best friend as you lay your feet in her lap. You two had been sitting on the couch and talking for you had no clue how long now. Twenty minutes could be an hour with you two since she had come back into your life; after all, it had only been about a year since her unforseen return into your life after having no idea if she still wandered the earth or not for over twenty years. You had known each other your entire lives, yet somehow, having been estranged for so long, were still practically strangers now.

You had met Shyann as a young child, both of you being the same age of about four, she was your neighbor for a few years. You never lost the memories of your sleepovers, the palettes made with blankets on the floor, you had a everlasting memory of the two of you lying on them while someone took a photo and you both smiled for the camera, probably one of your mother's seeing as her stepdad was between you in the photo, the photo you lost long ago yet still held the mental image of. You had a blurred memory, not quite as visible and vivid, of the day that Shyann had said a bad word and her mother blamed you, was about to punish you for it until your aunt stepped in; the two of you weren't allowed to see that, your aunt was sure of that. After that, there were no memories shared with the two of you, seeing as you were apart for all those years. Now, here you sat, co-parenting your stepson, whom you love as none other than your own, and you sometimes do the same with him; there are similar photos of him and Jungkook, and him with you and Shyann just behind you on a table that you glance at for a moment as you ask her this question.

Her eyes follow the path of yours, “Hey bitch, it's our night~,” she whines and gives a little giggle. You smile, “Shut up, I miss him…I can't help it,” you admit pouting. “Girl, it is your first night away from him, I get it, but he's with the guys camping he's fine. I'm sure he's having a good time. Besides, he's my kid, now, back to the question, before I answer, I want to start with a followup question. Are you and Gguk alright?” She asks, leaning forward to grab her drink from the coffee table.

“Yes, everything with Gguk and I are wonderful, dare I say perfect,” you giggle. “Okay, okay, you don't have to rub it in,” she smiles with a half smirk, you both knew she was happy to hear that. She loves you and Jungkook, even after everything. “Alright, which part specifically?” She asks

“I mean…..all of it I guess, how we lost touch back then, I mean I'm sure you forgot all about my existence but I never forgot you and I never thought I'd see you again, I definitely was not expecting what happened last year-”

“You mean finding out your boyfriend was married with a pending divorce and a child arriving soon, you had no idea of any of it, him coming clean and telling you everything, you meeting the wife and seeing that it was your best childhood friend, that the three of us came to an agreement and forgave each other and it is working so well?” She recounts as she places a kiss to the back of your hand that she had taken into her own, “that now it was a very unique and loving little family?”

You smile and chuckle a little, “well yes, all of that…but…..you know, word had gotten back to me years ago that you had di--”

“I know, but I didn't….and as twisted as it all happened, I don't know it seems kinda romantic….don't you think?”

“Well, yeah, obviously, but would you have done anything differently?”

She thinks for a moment, or two, or three, “no….I don't think so….what happened to us is so rare”

“Yeah…me either…..how were you able to forgive me?”

“We were getting divorced and you didn't know,” she shrugs

“I'm glad the divorce went over easily, I'm glad to have you, I'm glad we have Munchkin, and that the three of us still love each other…..I just can't believe I ever forgave him,” you admit laughing, but you all knew that, you always had a hard time with forgiveness. In this situation though, you couldn't think of any other option, not only did you understand Jungkook and were able to empathize with him but it was like a fairytale that it happened to be Shyann and their little boy had you wrapped around his finger the moment he entered the world and wrapped his fist around yours for the first time; besides, like she said, given the circumstances, Jungkook wasn't cheating on her and he was trying to be honest with you both, he had just realized that his feelings were with you.

“What time is he supposed to be home?” She breaks your train of thought, “I don't know, he wasn't sure”

“You're sure everything is good with you two?”

“I'm positive. He's so sweet and loving and he's so full of surprises, he really can do anything he tries and he's actually quite romantic”

“Are we thinking about the same man?”

“The very same,” you chuckle

“Surprising how? I mean romantically?”

“Well he, when he wants to, actually can plan really sweet little trips and things like that”

“Well yeah, I knew that,” she rolls her eyes, she did

The door clicked and you both look towards it as the man in question walks in.

“Hi ladies,” he smiles and flashes his pearly whites at you both as he takes off his watch and the contents of his pockets, the pockets of his unnecessarily tight jeans that you were both admiring.

“Hi Kook,” you reply in unison and giggle, clinking your glasses as he's removing his rings into the bowl on the little table by the door.

“What are you laughing at?” He asks smiling, still with his eyes on the bowl, as he reaches into his back pocket to remove the wallet and has to shake to wriggle it out

“Pants too tight?” You ask smirking

“Yeah,” he laughs, tossing the wallet in the bowl, followed by his phone which he sat next to the bowl

“Careful, you'll make your lips bleed,” Shyann smirks at you and laughs

“What?” You and Jungkook retort simultaneously with big innocent doe eyes

“You two, I swear,” she laughs, “How was work?” She asks him and he finally looks up as he walks towards you both

“It was good but first things first, where the fuck is my son?”

“Chill, he's out on his first camping trip with Jimin and Yoongi for his birthday”

Jungkook nods and accepts that answer, “you girls hungry? I'm starving,” he asks, walking over to the fridge, “I know you're both looking at my ass, want any other meat? Wait-that came out wrong-”

“I know what you meant,” she laughs, “does the offer still stand for her?”

“Always,” he laughs as he grabs everything he needs and you watch him start cooking, with a little wink at you

“So, Y/N here was just telling me how cute and romantic you can be?”

“Was she? Nah~, she's just being nice,” he grinned down at the veggies on the cutting board

“No you really are~,” you insist, “remember a few weeks ago you planned the little surprise trip and took me to Disneyland because you knew I always wanted to go?” You get up and go over to hug his back from behind

“I remember that one!!” She proclaims and smiles at you, as much as you loved her and this arrangement worked unbelievably well, sometimes you still feel as though she came out on top. She actually got to call Jungkook her husband, you were still waiting, and as much as you tried to convince yourself of the contrary deep down you knew your Munchkin was hers.

“She was also saying how you're so good at everything, there has to be something you can't do though it's just no one has been able to find it”

“Oh yeah, bet,” he chuckles, “they don't call me golden boy for nothing”

You smile up towards the back of his head at the confidence and rejoin her

“Y'know Gguk, she's right honey, there has to be something,” you join her on teasing him

“Alright, let's test the theory right now”

“Hmmm, you can't catch this cork and cut those veggies at the same time,” Shyann proposed as she tossed the cork from her white wine bottle at his head, which he caught with one hand without looking up and proceeded chopping

“What the fuck?” She pouts

“Uhmm, my turn,” you glance around the room as you think, “you can't……you can't”

“T-Today junior,” he laughs

“Fuck you,” you laugh

“Is that an official offer?” He smirks, “what's the challenge Princess?”

“I'm thinking, I'm thinking~~,” it must have taken a while because they waited patiently

“Got anything?” She finally grows impatient

“No….,” you pout

“You can't make her squirt”

“You're so childish,” he gives her a semi-annoyed look then looks at you, then back to the dinner.

Her eyes followed suit in looking at you, “well-no,” her face becomes deadpan in disbelief, “I could nev-,” she starts, seeing your blush say it all

“Don't even need my dick,” he smirks and winks at her, you couldn't help the tiny bit of pride, even at something so trivial, it was something you had that apparently she hadn't

“Your turn, you still haven't given him anything,” she grumbles

“Uhm…..he can't…..oh! Clean the toilet”

“I can clean the toilet, I just don't like to and you said we had a deal, I do the dishes and drains,x he half glares and points at you, “don't test me, I'll tease you back”

“He can't read, I still think he needs to be tested, there's no way he's sat down and read a actual book”

He shoots her a playful glare, gently places the knife down while he didn't need to watch what was cooking for a moment and slowly walks in and over to you, keeping eye contact and rolling his sleeves up

“I sometimes have a queer feeling with regard to you-especially when you are near me, as now,” he was in front of you now, leaned over with his hands on your knees, still keeping that unwavering eye contact, “it is as inextricably knotted to a similar string situated in the corresponding quarter of your little frame. And if that boisterous channel, and two hundred miles or so of land come broad between us, I am afraid that cord of communion will be snapped; and then I've a nervous notion I should take to bleeding inwardly. As for you-you'd forget me”

You were awestruck to say the least and speechless, “that's Jane Eyre, chapter 23…,” you mumble, your mind feeling like mush as you're lost in his alluring eyes, sensual yet at the same time soft and as pure as puppy dog eyes, damn those eyes

“EWWW GET A ROOM YOU TWO ARE NASTY, FUCKING NERDS!!” She retreats from the couch to the kitchen when you mindlessly and playfully push her face

“Don't mind if I do,” he smirks and lifts you up, “we will try to be quiet”

“Please do, so the dinner? Hey guys!! Guys! The dinn-oh no, no, I'll cook, don't worry about it”

#bts imagines #bts fanfic #bts x reader #bts #jungkook #jungkook x reader #bts oneshot #fluff #dad!jungkook #bts fluff #jeon jungkook #jane eyre #reading #x reader #reader insert #fem reader #jungkookxafab!reader #reader

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serendertothesquad · 3 months ago

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Seren's Studies: Odd Squad UK -- "A Dicey Situation" Episode Followup, Part 1

Captain O origins episode! "Totally Odd Squad" Mk. II! Call it what you like, I'm just hoping this is good. After the hell that was "Mission O Possible", I like to be prepared. Almost anything could surpass that, really.

Let's dive in below the break! (Pun unintended.)

...It's another Tasha episode.

I can hear that stupid "oh no" TikTok song playing as I fucking type this. I'm not confident after "The Triangle Sisters". I'm praying to Don't-Fuck-This-Up-God.

Hey. Hey. You guys remember when Otis threw a fit because Rebecca was exploiting Odd Squad for moving services?

This is just as egregious and yet will go entirely undetected. You don't need two pseudo-government agents to pull up Google Maps and punch in the location of the nearest Aldi's, for God sakes.

I see this milk came from the same cow that the Town Baker's milk came from.

I'd go investigate that cow, really.

You guys also remember Otis giving therapy to a plant?

THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT THIS IS BUT IT'S MILK. And it's just as amusing here as it was there.

"Breakfast is the most important meal of the day!"

Thank you, edutainment overlords, for this obligatory healthy eating message.

Asshole cereal box is making up lies for himself, methinks. Dude just tipped over on his own the second his owner picked up the milk pitcher.

hhhhheeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEY THIS AIN'T MY SWAMPS 'N GATORS. WHERE'S MY SWAMPS 'N GATORS YOU CHUCKWADS.

...No but seriously what is this game and why does it look like Odd Squad Risk to me.

I remember when there was a brief shot of Oona failing at chess and Oprah telling her that's not how the game is played.

That was fun.

This is fun too, and nice to see, but it doesn't hit the same.

Good segue. Not as good as Oprah calling everyone out on their RPS strategies.

(You will see me make a lot of TOS cracks and references. I will not regret a single one of 'em.)

Hot damn, she can dim the lights with her mind! That's craaaaaaaaaaaazeeeeeeeeeeeeee-

So that would make her ship the Odd Squad Odd Squad.

Instead of Screw Steamer Odd Squad, or Steam Ship Odd Squad, both of which sound much better.

And are actually canon in the franchise.

(No, really. Go listen to the Squadcast. The S.S. Odd Squad is a 100% canon ship.)

Honestly, if you had told me about a year ago that that sailor in that promo picture SSE put out was a chef named Osgood, I'd have laughed at you.

RIP to the days when I thought that sailor was an assistant of Captain O's and not her first mate.

Ohhhh, a wavy flashback effect! Standard in a ton of shows, but Odd Squad has never really employed it as far as I'm aware. Nice to see they're going to effect basics!

Aside from that, wow that is...a tiny ship. Tinier than I was expecting. I was expecting something huge and not...y'know...a little BB thing.

I'm sorry, I just did an entire fuck-ass wheeze at her saying SHE KNEW OSGOOD SINCE NURSERY SCHOOL.

These two ARE FUCKING CHILDHOOD FRIENDS.

Genuinely fucking flabbergasted, because it's rare that we get childhood friends who were main characters in this franchise and joined Odd Squad together. Not even Olive and Otto can attest to that! Or Olympia and Otis!

Best bit in the entire episode so far bar nearly none.

I mean...on the plus side, at least he only has two mouths to feed.

That being said, I will once again raise the issue of there being couch cushions in a ship like that.

...Goldfish.

Huge-ass Goldfish.

You can't fool me.

They're Goldfish.

If there is one thing I utterly despise about Captain O as a character, it's the stupid euphemisms.

They're not amusing. They're not funny. I've heard better from other characters.

Okay, a shell phone is actually pretty clever. One point to Tasha, and don't make me revoke it as quickly as I did last time.

(Choosing to overlook the fact that there's an Admiral because...I mean...pretty standard sailor stuff. And me and other fans can work with the lore.)

Definitely not the intent, but I can't stop reading this line as utterly sarcastic since Captain O did a hard aversion off the "Newhart Phone Call" cliff.

"So this look isn't a fashion choice?"

Osgood, you poor Ohlm-like sonuvagun.

No, sir, actually those are holes. They got depth to 'em. Swiss cheese is not made with polka dots.

"See? You're a fashion trendsetter."

Ohhhhh it's like...the woman in "Double O Trouble"...but 's...fuckin' polka dots...

Great, I hate it, thanks.

*squints*

*more*

*even more*

...Bitch that is a cluster of fucking trees. That is not an island. Now how and why would you spend pounds on a fucking CLUSTER OF TRE-

THIS IS HOW THEY CHOOSE TO REMIND US THAT ORLI AND OZZIE ARE STILL HERE?????? WITH THE OBLIGATORY MATH LESSON?!?!?!?!?!?

Oh piss ALL the fuckin' way off.

If this is gonna have a lesson at the end, like in "The Weight of the World Depends on Orla", I'm going to lose my fuckin' mind.

Because, for all that Season 3 sucks, that episode was actually pretty solid.

it was just her and osgood

this guy shows up

not even the two canon characters from the odd squadcast they could've used

...I get it. You need someone to steer the ship. Fine. But for the love of God, just include the one driving the boat in your roll call!

I'm...I'm so tired. We are halfway into this episode. I am tired.

I honestly can't be bothered to ask why this woman has a rotary phone and how the fuck it can get service out here where there would, in most other instances, be no phone lines. Or electricity. OR FUCKING SPEAKERPHONE.

I do like the pirate getup Dottie here has going on, though.

Well, the last time a villain alleged to not have a pattern...they had a pattern.

I don't expect Dottie to be much different in that regard.

ohhhhhh oodelallyoohdelally it's the chekhov's gun wheeeeeeeeeeeeee-

She spun in the chair for all of time, bored out of her wits.

(On to Part 2!)

#seren's studies #odd squad #odd squad pbs kids #odd squad uk

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fruitcoops · 1 year ago

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hello lovely eve. ive been having thoughts, recently. anyway wondering if you would want to write something to do with the day/time after a hard day. youve done some of my absolutely favourite fics for like Bad Days (im thinking esp rn of what we deserve (i think thats what its called)) but also after that? bc the after support is so crucial and i think the lions would do so well. any ship!! if not, i totally understand, i hope your day/week is lovelylovely!!

This is such a great prompt! The aftershocks of hard events are just as important as the conflict itself--this ask was combined with one for a timeskip followup to Self-Care, a fic about Finn's bad habits. All characters belong to @lumosinlove <3

Leo paused at the back of the couch and bent, nestling a kiss on the top of Finn’s head. “Good book?”

A quiet hum answered.

“Good part?”

Another hum; Finn pressed up and Leo tilted his head to leave another kiss on his temple. A clatter and a soft curse filtered out of the kitchen, but Finn hardly flinched.

Leo nuzzled against the wispy, silken ends of his hair until his cheek could slot just above Finn’s ear. The couch dug into his stomach a bit, but he didn’t mind. “You tired?”

Finn’s laugh answered his question before his words ever could. “Yeah.”

He picked at the hem of Leo’s threadbare Saints sweatshirt with a sleepy kind of apathy. His book hung limp from the fingers of his other hand, abandoned only two pages past where it had been the last time Leo checked on him. Finn’s breaths were methodic when he rubbed a palm over his chest and nibbled the shell of his ear, just to watch a smile pull at his tired eyes. “Come to bed.”

Finn cast him a sideways, skeptical look. “It’s 8:45.”

“And you’re the sleep police?” Leo hooked a finger in the collar of his sweatshirt and pulled. “It’s been a long day. You’re tired. We can fix that problem with our nice new mattress.”

Finn was quiet for a moment; Leo felt him lean back into the cushions and the cradle of his arm, a slow breath leaving him when Leo began toying with the hoodie strings. “You know, I kind of miss the old one.”

“It barely fit us.”

“Yeah.” Fondness shone on every word. “It was nice. Waking up all over each other. Always had you in arm’s reach.” Another beat of silence passed. “I lose you at night, sometimes.”

Oh god. Leo’s heart yanked—he held Finn a little tighter. “Sorry, cher.”

“Not your fault.”

“Is that…is that why you were upset today?” Logan came out of the kitchen with a precarious tray of tea, tongue poking out over his lower lip as he balanced their mugs on the table. Leo caught his eye and gave a small smile that relaxed the pinch of his forehead.

Finn took no notice of the change, save for a shift to the side in an obvious bid to have Logan sit next to him. “Nah,” he said as Logan took the hint and tucked himself between the arm rest and Finn. “Just a bad day, I think. Sorry.”

“Nothing to be sorry for.” Logan tugged the book from Finn’s hands and set it aside, then replaced it with a mug of tea and pressed his fingers around the warm ceramic with an encouraging nudge. “Drink. You’ll sleep better.”

Finn smiled wryly. “Morphine? Chloroform?”

“Decaf. Very potent.”

“Thanks, Lo.”

Logan poked his ankle with his foot and snuggled Finn under his arm. “Don’t thank me for things you do every day.”

Finn went to protest, but something on their faces must have stopped him, because he bit back the words and took an obedient sip of tea. Leo didn’t know why he watched so intently—maybe for reassurance, maybe to make sure Finn was really on the up-and-up. Steam curled up around his copper lashes and turned the tips invisible when he blinked. He gave a nod. “ ‘S good.”

“Of course it is.”

“I’m—” Finn pressed his lips together and exhaled; steam billowed off his mug. “I’m sorry my brain doesn’t work right.”

Once, that would have broken Leo’s heart. Once, he would have jumped to soothe and bent over backwards to fix it all. Once, he would have taken it as personally as a slap to the face. Not enough. Not good enough. Missing Finn’s signals left and right—did Leo even love him, if he couldn’t pay attention?

The tight ball of insecurity in his chest may as well have been a marble, rolling about and looking for something to knock over in an empty room. He kissed the top of Finn’s head again. “I don’t see anything you need to be sorry for.”

“I’m sorry I missed your pass earlier,” Logan said, taking a long sip of his own tea. “It was a good one. I just wasn’t looking.”

Finn’s shoulders relaxed under Leo’s hand. Fuck yeah, Tremblay. There’s my MVP. “Really?”

“Mhmm.”

“What about—”

“You were on form.” Normally, Leo didn’t like it when Logan interrupted. This seemed like a much-needed exception. Logan raised his eyebrows at Finn’s suspicious look. “You were. I know you don’t feel like it, but you looked really good out there. That pass was on me.”

Finn’s punch to his shoulder was a roll of knuckles at best. Logan still smiled, still took it with faux-hurt and a hand over the heart. “Eyes up, Tremzy.”

Logan whistled quietly. “Five for fighting and two for roughing. What would Coach say?”

“Doesn’t count if you deserved it.”

“Oh, is that how that works?” Leo laughed. Logan glanced up at him with an impish grin, and passed the last mug over the couch. Peppermint filled the air, sweetened by honey.

They drank in relative silence, hands and legs and arms looped around each other until Leo could hardly tell where one ended and another began. Finn was right; however nice it was to not risk falling off the mattress in the middle of the night, he did miss the inevitable proximity of fitting three people on a single bed.

He supposed it wouldn’t be too hard to make an effort tonight.

The clock ticked as nine o’clock arrived at last. Leo finished the last of his tea and leaned over Finn to set it on the table, offering an apology in the form of a kiss to his cheekbone. “Bedtime.”

“Yeah.”

Logan took the mugs, Leo took Finn, and Finn went without protest into a brief, firm hug. “Love you,” Leo murmured. He felt the answering mumble more than he heard it. “Your brain isn’t broken.”

Finn sighed, slipping his hands under Leo’s shirt to rest against his skin. “Feels broken.”

“I think it’s pretty great, regardless.”

“You’re just a really nice person, Le.”

“I just love you a whole lot.” He let Finn pull away and cupped his face in both hands, running his thumbs along the summer lilac under his eyes. Exhaustion tarnished his bright edges. “Come to bed with me?”

Finn rested there for several seconds, then nodded. They went together.

Leo had only just managed to tuck Finn into the curve of his body before Logan was there, shuffling under the sheets to join them and reaching over Finn’s waist to hold the crook of Leo’s elbow. Finn made a quiet, sleepy noise and pushed his face into Logan’s chest; Logan’s eyes crinkled at the corners, and his expression only grew more contented when he looked up and found Leo already watching them.

Leo waited until Finn had mostly relaxed into drowsy limbo before risking a thumbs-up across the sheets. Logan fought back a smile and returned it, nose scrunching. Success. Another win for their tally. It was a shit day, a hard day, but they could still end it like this and that would be more than enough.

#leo knut #finn ohara #logan tremblay #oknutzy #cubs #coast to coast #sweater weather #lumosinlove #my fic #fanfic #hurt/ comfort #fluff #sleepy #caretaking

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amemenojaku · 7 months ago

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can we get the diao ye zong top ten songs ? (or album tier list)

we sure can!!! I'll put this under a readmore though because it's very long

1) 墓標 (bohyou): I'll be honest here I think this song and the hohuri album are one of the main reasons behind the DiPP Renaissance in 2015-2020 (significant increase of DiPP fanworks/fans being able to recognize jacketko & labelko). a big circle making DiPP songs led to more fans reading the original story and then making fancontent of it which in turn got more people into it etc. so to my dear followers if you're reading this and you're not a dyz fan but you gave DiPP a try thanks to people creating more content of it after 2015 mayyybe you should also listen to 屠 (hohuri) by diao ye zong...... anyway the song itself is really good. the intro is chilling - just imagine getting that CD back in the summer of 2014, putting it in your music player/pc expecting the first track to be an arrange of A Sacred Lot like written on the tracklist and instead you get THIS! (I did with my friends and it was scary.) the instrumental is amazing, I love that it's mostly original with bits of arranges from DiPP here and there, and Merami's performance is leagues above everything else she'd ever sung for the circle until then imo (and it kept getting better after that). and just, that last part...

2) 悠久の子守唄 (yuukyuu no komoriuta): dyz song I have the strongest emotional attachment to.... it's a bit old now (you can even hear the difference in quality of Merami's mic lol) but it still makes me feel so many things... when I say I'm really invested in hakurei shrine maidens fanworks this is what always comes to mind first

3) Dolls into pitiful pretenders: DiPP meta song where jacketko mocks both the other honest men AND the DiPP fan community at large (if you want to interpret it that way). Merami's best performance to date imo, even now, especially during the reverie part

4) n_tegralより愛をこめて (integral yori (a)i wo komete): it's difficult to choose one dyz hifuu(renmerry) song above all the others, there's just too many good ones..... but if I have to then it HAS to be the followup song to the fucked up hifuu cat music (iykyk). has shaped my interpretation of merry's character like literally nothing else ever will. also it's just beautiful. 'together we will become a world' etc etc...

5) まぼろしの友達 (maboroshi no tomodachi): like with the hifuu above it's tough to choose one akyuusuzu/FS song out of the (still)growing selection of really good remixes we got over the years... but this one is so emotional and soft and the different layers of interpretation are the cherry on top of the cake for me. there isn't a single line in the lyrics that doesn't hurt me lol

6) 幻想萬歳楽 (gensou manzairaku): very very different from everything else in this list but I love noh and this one based on the okina opening performance is just genius. the instrumental is beautiful. I had a paper to write on noh a few years ago and just listened to it on loop

7) 異聞『正義の味方』 (ibun "seigi no mikata"): I was hoping for a vocal remix of little princess from dyz so the first version of seigi no mikata (kishin/輝針「セイギノミカタ」 from sasage) already had me really glad, but then a few years later they made a new one that's much, much darker and I love it even more. it reminds me of the like 2-3 really dark shinmyoumaru songs some circles released the year following DDC... very powerful and desperate. I love that it can be interpreted in two opposite ways - shinmyoumaru's anger at the betrayal, or this (fucked up and funnier)

8) 夏の終わり／世界の終わり (natsu no owari/sekai no owari): RENMERRY KABOOM <3 when the fear of being left behind in a boring unchanging world pushes you over the edge. 'if you plan to cross over that boundary, I'll find every door possible, close them shut and break the keys!' chilling despite the catchy instrumental. similar to maboroshi no tomodachi in the 'it's ok if you end up hating me for what I'm about to do. I love you and that's what matters most to me right now' it's just... ough.... uaghh...... hurts :)

9) ハロー、マイフレンド (hello, my friend): alternate universe where marisa lives an ordinary, unfulfilling student life in the outside world and sometimes dreams about a shrine maiden flying in the sky. MUST be listened to with the instrumental remix of Casket of Star that comes right before it in the album, it's beautiful and has that little phone alarm at the end of it - pulling marisa out of her dream. I think this song would resonate with a lot of people for whom fiction is one of the only respites from real life. it sure did with me!!!

10) Salvator noster: this is a crazy mix of so many things - keiki's theme and pokemon SV area zero music and gregorian chants and buddhist (?!) imagery and that dyz-typical everpresent undertone of something going really, really wrong. definitely my favorite arrange of Idolatrize World ever and up there in the list of Merami's best performances (she never stumbles once in the fast parts and it's amazing)

for my top 10 albums:

屠 (hohuri) (cannot be dethroned): flawless from beginning to end despite turning 10 years old this year. god I feel ancient

Q: would be number 1 if hohuri didn't exist. I already wrote a short review of it here but anyway it's the dyz album I'd recommend the most to anyone who's looking for a whole experience

喩 (tatoe): full of what-ifs and interesting AU concepts. really, really solid and relatively easy to get into for newcomers as long as they're fine with some darker topics from time to time (if not then number 7 on my list is a better pick)

慄 (furue) (not on spotify yet): hifuu-only with the added flavor of being based on Lafcadio Hearn's works. so like, perfect lol. narrated/drama tracks between every song and I really recommend those in particular, they're amazing, especially the one where merry goes a bit crazy insane. my fav is the arrange of Infinite Nightmare but it's worth checking out for 無間夢幻無想夢想幻葬 and its longass title alone

△ (tetra): the ultimate hifuu dyz album!!! hifuu club hallelujah etc etc. I know the go-to dyz hifuu song is absolute one-way street but I hope this album as a whole will reach same levels of popularity one day... every song has its own identity and explores different sides of science fiction as a genre. also a good variety of vocalists in this one if you get tired of Merami

伝 (tsutae): built around the concept of a day of noh, with its opening performances, plays in all the different categories and kyogen inbetween. they're not actual plays ofc but the premise really works. I always wonder how different it would've been if this one had been made after HSiFS released

奉 (sasage): most newcomer-friendly dyz album imo. simple concept: one song to represent each main game from EoSD to DDC. the atmosphere of each game is transcribed perfectly into each song. nothing ever gets particularly dark. in the same spirit 掲 (kakage) (its twin sister album to me), themed around spell cards, is pretty good for dyz beginners too and since it gets a bit heavier at times I think it works well as a transition to some other better but more fucked up albums

騙 (katari): the album that got me into dyz :') when it came out I'd been into touhou for a little while and had already listened to a few dyz songs, but this is the one that really caught my eye. it's messed up and hopeful and bittersweet... 真実の詩 and rebellion -たいせつなもののために- (the followup to absolute one-way street) make me feel especially nostalgic

彁 ( ): I love that the album themed around 'fantasy' as a concept uses a kanji that doesn't exist as its title. overall solid album (I just don't like the clownpiece song but only because I'm not a fan of that vocalist). the reimu song at the end is perfect. maybe THE reimu song to me (even if Hearken unto, from the latest album, is a strong contender now)

密 (hisoka): secrets!!! the first two tracks are a punch to the guts, the reimari song is the softest thing ever, the 3-part keine song is an amazing experience and Kirisame Eversion is like... it sure is something lol (saying this positively. I adore it). really good hidden secret song too

other contenders which I like very very much in chronological order: 遙 (haruka), 辿／誘 (tadori/izanai), 薦 (susume), 音 (omoi), 逆 (sakasa), 軛 (kubiki)

if you've read all of this: thank you :] sorry for being insane

#this is what 12 years of dyz does to a man #dyz

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kallie-den · 1 year ago

Text

Renewable Energy: Trend Setting

Malacanthe is a high-powered businesswoman succubus who hopes that her newly-brainwashed perma-virgin will be the perfect accessory to show up her social rival, Juiblexia, at brunch. But when Juiblexia has a perma-virgin of her own, the only thing left to do is to publicly settle the question: who's virgin is the most pathetic?

Another followup to Renewable Energy, set a little further along after Ziratha's invention has just begun to take off

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Malacanthe checked her expensive watch impatiently; as always, Juiblexia was late. ‘Fashionably late’, in her terminology, although Malacanthe firmly believed there was nothing fashionable about tardiness. Every time they met up, Malacanthe was tempted to arrive even later, just to show her ‘friend’ what it felt like to be kept waiting for a change. The main reason she didn’t was that she sensed Juiblexia would delight in seeing her sink to the other succubus’s level.

It was always like that with her. Juiblexia had an infuriating way of taking everything in stride and turning everything to her advantage - but not this time. This time, Malacanthe held the trump card that was sure to put her friend in her place once and for all.

“Hana,” she called expectantly. “Come here.”

The shorter human accompanying her hurried to obey. It wasn’t like she could stray far, not with Malacanthe holding the leash that was tied to her wrist. Malacanthe immediately started fussing over the trans girl, making sure every last hair on her head was in place and smoothing out her long, tasteful skirt. A smile came to Malacanthe’s face, especially once her refined, demonic senses started to pick up on the surge of arousal coming from her new pet.

Hana was something special. A perma-virgin.

It was the very newest thing. A succubus named Ziratha - a genius, clearly - had created a device called a Transcranial Magical Stimulation Unit, a kind of helmet that could regress a normal human into a perma-virgin - someone permanently arrested in a state of total, inescapable virginity as far as their sexual skills, mores, and energy output were concerned.

The result was nothing short of miraculous. Before, sexual energy had been a declining, non-renewable resource. Virgins, the tastiest and most nourishing meals, had to be taken sparingly. Now, virgin energy could be harvested endlessly and infinitely from just a single partner. Thanks to all that energy, Malacanthe had become a vastly magnified version of her former self; tall, looming, and lithe, with elegant, spiraling horns and a tail that had split in two halfway down its length. She looked and felt better than ever.

But that wasn’t the best part. The best part was that, as of yet, the Transcranial Magical Stimulation Unit hadn’t reached market. It was still navigating a few regulatory obstacles, and as a result, the only devices out there were a few dozen testing units. The technology was still so new that most people hadn’t heard of it, and those few units were fantastically expensive and all but impossible to get a hold of.

But Malacanthe had managed it.

Her Transcranial Magical Stimulation Unit had cost a fortune, but thanks to her position as the CEO of a large and prestigious company, Malacanthe could afford it. She was absolutely sure that this was the next big thing, and that she was so far ahead of the curve that it was sure to make Juiblexia green with envy. Malacanthe was still seething from their last brunch friend-date, when the socialite had one-upped her brand-new tail sheathe from Christian Dior’s latest range with a one-of-a-kind, custom-made set of horn adornments from Louis Vuitton. The embarrassment!

But now, at long last, she was going to get one over on her friend. That was why Malacanthe was so impatient. She simply couldn’t wait to see the look Hana was going to put on Juiblexia’s face.

“Oh, hi darling! I do hope I haven’t kept you waiting.”

Malacanthe turned at the sound of her friend’s voice, plastering an insincere smile on her face. “Juiblexia! So good to see you! Not at all - in fact, I only just arrived.”

Once she caught sight of her friend, Malacanthe’s smile wavered by just a hair. Juiblexia looked good. Too good.

She was taller. Almost as tall as Malacanthe, which made her at least eight feet. Juiblexia had always been decidedly Rubenesque, but her weight and softness seemed to have grown even more than her height, leaving her with a jaw-droppingly voluptuous figure that radiated magnificence and presence. The kinked bull horns on her head had become similarly huge, and her tail was a thick pillar of alluring, demonic flesh. As usual, Juiblexia was wearing a long, flowing, sheer, low-cut dress that accentuated all her best assets and showed off a tasteful but daring amount of pink-tinted skin.

She looked like a queen, and it was making Malacanthe furious.

“Darling, you look wonderful!” Juiblexia exclaimed. A broad smile was on her face, but it was just a little too tight. “But, who’s your cute little friend? You should have warned me!”

Malacanthe’s confidence was starting to return. She could tell Juiblexia was displeased.

“Hardly a friend,” she replied. “More of a pet, you see. She’s lovely, and so well-trained, even if I do need to keep her on a leash. I wouldn’t want her to wander off. Some people might even be tempted to try and poach her kind.”

“Her kind?” Juiblexia tilted her head, affecting a casual curiosity Malacanthe could tell was feigned. “Whatever do you mean, darling?”

A smirk came to Malacanthe’s face. This was her moment. “A perma-virgin. I suppose you must not have heard of them yet. I know the circles you move in can be so old-fashioned. But they’re to die for, I can promise you. You really must get one - well, as soon as you can, anyway.”

Juiblexia was an old-money socialite, and proud of it. Her family was the richest of the rich. The kind of people who had never truly worked a day in their lives, and were proud of it. Malacanthe despised them. She knew they loved looking down their noses at “nouveau riche” succubi like her - almost as much as they loved bragging about which circle of hell their families were originally from. But they had money and they had influence, and so Malacanthe’s role as CEO often required her to rub shoulders with them and suck up to them. It was how she and Juiblexia had met.

“Such kind advice!” Juiblexia exclaimed. “But there’s really no need. Simone, come! Stop hiding, you silly girl.”

It was only then that Malacanthe noticed the leash tucked around Juiblexia’s wrist. As the other succubus tugged on it, her heart sank. And a moment later, Juiblexia’s very own perma-virgin emerged into view.

Simone had an athletic body and a genuine varsity team jacket, but none of the confidence that usually went with them. She had been completely hiding behind Juiblexia’s large, plush body, and now that she was in the spotlight, she had adopted a deer-in-headlights expression that Malacanthe had learned was the perma-virgin trademark. The presence of two such enhanced succubi was making her arousal flare, and she began to cling to Juiblexia’s side for comfort.

Suddenly, Juiblexia’s remarkable glow-up made perfect sense. Malacanthe was seething with rage at having her victory stolen, and the only consolation was knowing that Juiblexia was almost certainly just as mad. There was only one thing she could do to save face: try not to let her disappointment show.

“Wow!” she cooed. “She’s lovely. But…” Her curiosity got the better of her, she couldn’t help it. “How did you get a Transcranial Magical Stimulation Unit?”

“Oh, dearest Mommy knows all the right people,” Juiblexia replied disdainfully. “And… you? I suppose you had to pay for it.”

“That’s usually how people get things,” Malacanthe shot back. “With their own money, in fact. It’s much nicer than having to rely on your family name to get you everything. You should try it!”

“Malacanthe! You’re so funny, as always.” The two of them laughed like it was nothing more than a friendly joke. Then, Juiblexia bent down to peer at Hana. “And yours is… well, she’s so you, darling.”

Malacanthe took that as a compliment, even though she knew it wasn’t meant as one. In fact, she’d selected Hana to be her pet precisely because the two of them were such a good match. Hana was an exceptionally bright, hard-working, ambitious college student who’d won a summer internship at Malacanthe’s company. After Malacanthe had seduced her and persuaded her to try the Transcranial Magical Stimulation Unit, her demeanor had changed a little - but in Malacanthe’s eyes, she was perfect.

Naturally, she’d co-ordinated both of their outfits. Even at a friendly brunch, Malacanthe liked to dress formal. She was wearing a tailored blazer with matching pants and a white shirt, open at the collar. She’d dressed Hana up in a pretty, white blouse and a long, gray, pleated skirt. Along with her glasses and her ponytail, it made her look wonderfully demure. Perfect, for the preppy college student.

“Thank you,” Malacanthe replied gracefully, before gesturing to a nearby restaurant. “Shall we head inside?”

The two of them were standing directly in front of Apolline’s, the city’s finest and most exclusive bakery-cum-restaurant. It was particularly popular amongst succubi and getting a reservation there usually took months, but Malacanthe had been able to secure one for herself and Juiblexia within the week. A server was immediately there to greet them at the door, and mimosas were already waiting for them at their usual table - a cute little diner-style booth, right by the window.

No one asked about Hana or Simone. Their leashes - Hana’s tied around her wrist, Simone’s around her neck - made their status more than clear.

Happily, Apolline’s permitted pets.

Once they were seated, each succubus-human pair opposite the other, an unhappy silence descended on the group, punctuated only by the occasional sound of Juiblexia slurping at her mimosa. Both Hana and Simone looked woefully uncomfortable, and were clearly trying to look anywhere except at the two statuesque succubi next to them. Simply looking at a woman could be difficult for perma-virgins; looking at a sex demon who had been enhanced by an unending flood of unholy vitality was beyond overwhelming. Malacanthe, meanwhile, was still stewing with frustration at Juiblexia for having stolen her thunder, and she could sense that the feeling was mutual.

“Hana?” Simone said suddenly, in a hushed voice, like she was hoping the succubi wouldn’t hear. “I-is that… that’s really you, right?”

Hana didn’t reply. She turned her head aside haughtily, but her cheeks were tinged with color.

“Wow,” Simone breathed, undissuaded. “You too. That’s really something.”

It was hard to tell if she was appalled or amused. Or both.

“Oh my!” Juiblexia purred, turning to her pet. “What’s this? Do you two know each other?”

Simone immediately shrank into herself as she felt the weight of Juiblexia’s attention on her. But it wasn’t fear that made her recoil. It was arousal.

“Hana?” Malacanthe gave Hana’s leash a gentle but insistent tug. She was just as curious as Juiblexia. “Is this true?”

Hana immediately blushed and looked down under the table, and nodded.

“Well, well, well!” Juiblexia seemed delighted by the new development. “What a surprise! Malacanthe, darling, I know they say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but you really could have gone a little further afield.”

Malacanthe started grinding her teeth. “Where did you find yours?”

“At the college,” Juiblexia replied smugly. “Simone’s quite something, you know. A real varsity girl. Ace of the women’s soccer team. She was so confident, and so eager to brag about adding a succubus like myself to her already-impressive tally. In bed, she was so very cocky, and up for anything. Until… well, you know.” She winked. “And you?”

“Hana’s also a student. She applied for a summer internship at my company. Her résumé caught my eye at once.” Malacanthe’s competitive urge immediately roused itself. She couldn’t resist bragging. “She’s a top student. Truly exceptional. A shoo-in for valedictorian. She worked very hard, and she was so flattered by my attention. So, of course, I had to make her mine.”

“I’m sure!” Juiblexia let out a rambunctious laugh that made her whole body jiggle, and the table along with it. She turned to Simone. “So, bauble, spill it! What’s the story?”

Simone blushed very deeply, especially when Juiblexia reached over and started patting her on the head no differently from how she might have petted a beloved puppy, messing up Simone’s radiant, blonde hair in the process.

“I… we… um…” she spluttered. Watching her struggle like this, Malacanthe found it impossible to picture her as the cocky college athlete she’d been before Ziratha’s device had worked its magic. “We… know each other from, um, college.”

“Oh? Are you friends?” Juiblexia tittered. “How cute!”

“No!” Hana cried, her voice tense. “With her? Please.”

She seemed to regret her outburst when both Juiblexia and Malacanthe immediately rounded on her.

“Exes, then?” Malacanthe probed, eyes alight with curiosity.

“N-n-no!” Hana protested, cheeks burning.

“Then… rivals?” Juiblexia speculated. The looks on the humans’ faces seemed to confirm that. “Wonderful! Prep versus jock. A tale as old as time.”

“Tell me more,” Malacanthe demanded of her pet. “Now, Hana.”

“S-she…” Hana’s cheeks were burning and she was rubbing her legs together beneath her skirt, uncomfortably aware of Malacanthe’s closeness. “S-she brings the school into disrepute! All that f-flirting and s-s-s-sleeping around with other girls! As the r-representative of the varsity team, she should act more responsibly.”

“That’s so dumb!” Simone exclaimed. She looked utterly mortified at the mention of her promiscuity. “L-little miss perfect student wants college to be nothing more than classes and tests. Some of us actually want to live. Maybe you should try going out and g-getting l… la… um… having fun for a change.”

The two humans glared fiercely at each other, even as they squirmed and blushed with superhuman levels of arousal and embarrassment. A smile played across Malacanthe’s face. It was a little like watching two puppies yap at each other.

“Ladies!” At that moment, a young, diminutive, succubus waitress appeared at their booth. “Can I take your orders?”

At once, her nostrils started to flare and she stared at Hana and Simone with barely-disguised lust in her eyes. Malacanthe wasn’t surprised. Any succubus could smell a normal virgin at ten paces, and these weren’t just normal virgins. Their energy was at peak potency, constantly elevated by shame and arousal. Being around Juiblexia and Malacanthe certainly wasn’t helping matters. Especially now, the two succubi exuded powerful auras of lust and desire, and the perma-virgins were as ill-equipped to handle it as possible.

“I’ll have a selection of the house pastries,” Malacanthe said. She gestured to Hana, who opened her mouth, but Malacanthe spoke for her. “Nothing for her. She’s watching her figure.”

Hana looked faintly disappointed but didn’t argue.

“The same for me,” Juiblexia told the waitress. “Only, make it a deluxe selection. Oh, and Simone here will have a set of macarons and a Danish.”

Simone looked surprised and tugged nervously at Juiblexia’s sleeve. “B-but,” she whispered. “C-couch said I’m supposed to… I mean, with the big game coming up…”

“Nonsense!” Juiblexia scoffed merrily. “My bauble deserves a special treat.”

She started petting Simone again, which was more than enough to silence her.

“Of course. That’ll be ready shortly.” The waitress nodded and headed back to the kitchen, although not without a parting look of longing at the two perma-virgins.

That was one of the reasons Malacanthe kept Hana on a leash, and she presumed it was the same for Juiblexia and Simone. The last thing either of them wanted was for another succubus to try and steal their precious perma-virgins away.

“You know, you should really give her something,” Juiblexia complained, glancing at Hana. “Her figure is just fine. If you ask me, she could use a little extra meat.”

She licked her lips. Hana quivered like she was about to cream herself.

“Then it’s a good thing I didn’t,” Malacanthe retorted tersely. “I’ve no wish to spoil her. Perhaps you should think about that.”

Juiblexia just shrugged. “I’m thinking of you, darling. If nothing else, she’ll need some energy if you want to be able to enjoy her properly.”

She filled the word ‘enjoy’ with enough sultry lust to make both humans at the table shiver and squirm.

“Thank you. But you needn’t be concerned.” A thin smile came to Malacanthe’s face. She reached over and rested a hand on the back of Hana’s neck, massaging her. Hana let out a squeak. “My Hana is perfectly enjoyable. Always. You wouldn’t believe how good she is. Unlike some, I know how to get my girls performing properly.”

She looked pointedly across at Juiblexia. Hana, meanwhile, looked like she was about to explode. She was looking down, an expression of utmost shame on her face, and couldn’t stop tugging frantically at her skirt.

“Oh I’d believe it,” Juiblexia purred, taking another sip from her mimosa. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure she’s… adequate. But, darling, you’ve never had quite the right eye for taste. Forgive me for saying so. It’s what comes from a rough upbringing, I suppose. Take it from me: a girl like Simone is so much better.”

Simone had been looking faintly amused at Hana’s plight. For her, it was clearly satisfying to see the uptight valedictorian squirm and be spoken about in such vulgar terms. When attention shifted back to her, though, she started spluttering and choking. Her face lit up briefly with smug pride at Juiblexia’s praise, but it soon turned, becoming far more embarrassed and uncertain as she blushed.

She might have been a stud before, but she was a virgin now.

“I’m surprised, Juiblexia,” Malacanthe retorted. “Even for you, that’s cliché. The big, popular, athletic girl? It’s been done already. Her type has always been popular amongst succubi. You should try updating your fashion a little. Broaden your horizons. Get a little more experimental. You wouldn’t want to be left behind.”

She was hoping to deflate Juiblexia a little, but the other succubus just puffed herself up even further.

“Darling! I thought you’d know better than to judge a book by its cover,” she scolded. “My Simone is very special.”

“Sure.” Malacanthe rolled her eyes. Juiblexia was nothing but hot air. She was sure of it. “But she’s got nothing on my Hana.”

“Hmm.” Juiblexia’s eyes flashed suddenly. “Would you care to put that to the test?”

“What do you mean?” Malacanthe asked guardedly.

Juiblexia licked her lips again. “A friendly competition.”

“I’m game,” Malacanthe replied at once. A competition was perfect. She’d take any chance she got to put Juiblexia in her place. “What did you have in mind?”

“Let’s keep it simple,” Juiblexia proposed. “Whoever can get the most out of their perma-virgin wins. The most energy. The greatest nourishment. The richest, most delightful flavor. I’m sure you get the picture.”

“You’re on.” Malancathe was grinning. She couldn’t wait. She was going to make Juiblexia realize that fawning over sports players was beyond passé. “Allow me to demonstrate Hana’s most admirable qualities.”

Before her pet could brace herself, Malacanthe leaned over and wrapped a hand around Hana’s head to cradle her and prevent her from pulling away. Then, she put her lips to the poor perma-virgin’s neck and started to kiss her. Her kisses were long, languid, and hungry; she took her time drawing her tongue in slow strokes across Hana’s skin, peeling away the student’s high collar and drooling a little on her pretty blouse. Malacanthe’s tongue seemed impossibly long, and as she unfolded it further and further out of her mouth, she started coiling it, serpentine, around Hana’s neck.

The effect her affections had on the human was dramatic and immediate. Hana was trying as hard as she possibly could to remain dignified and unmoved - and it wasn’t working. She stared determinedly at a single point underneath the table as her cheeks turned a deep, furious red and she started to quiver. The poor girl was gripping the folds of her skirt so hard her knuckles had turned white; she seemed to be trying to smooth out the garment, but with little success. A distinctive bulge was already forming a tent beneath the fabric.

Peering over the table, Juiblexia licked her lips again as she noted that Hana was already rock hard.

“So that’s your preferred flavor?” the curvy succubus asked. “Darling, I approve! Trans girls make for so much fun.”

Malacanthe allowed herself a smug smile. “Indeed. But that wasn’t all I meant when I said Hana was special. You’ll see.” She kissed Hana again, but this time sucked hard enough to leave a bright red mark. “I just need to get her worked up properly first.”

As Malacanthe gave her the hickey, Hana sat up completely straight and rigid, like she was being struck by lightning. She was struggling not to pant.

Neither of the succubi needed to look at her to know how painfully aroused she was, though. They could sense it. The raw, untapped, sexual energy within her was blazing like a beacon. Her alluring virgin-scent poured out of her, so dense and heavy it was like a fog. Neither Malacanthe nor Juiblexia were wanting for nourishment, but Hana’s arousal was making each of them ravenous. And they weren’t the only ones; some of Apolline’s other succubus patrons were already turning to look, expressions of undisguised envy on their faces.

“Well, don’t think I’ll let you get too much of a head start,” Juiblexia commented. “Come here, Simone.”

Simone already looked decidedly uncomfortable with what was going on on the opposite side of the table. She was red in the face and shivered, and when Juiblexia called her name, she flinched, but nonetheless obediently pulled closer to the statuesque succubus.

“A succubus getting a girl all worked up from a kiss doesn’t strike me as very impressive, darling,” Juiblexia commented, throwing one of her big arms across Simone’s shoulder. “Watch and learn.”

With a big, theatrical gesture, she reached down and stroked a few of her fingertips along Simone’s hip.

Malacanthe wasn’t expecting much. Simone was wearing jeans, after all. She was shocked, then, when the jock girl immediately exploded into motion, squirming and thrashing madly like she was already in the throes of orgasm. Staccato moans filled the air as Simone was wracked with pleasure, and after a few moments, she turned to cling tightly to Juiblexia, taking paradoxical comfort in the succubus who was tormenting her.

Juiblexia let out a satisfied purr at the look on Malacanthe’s face.

“Hyper-sensitivity,” she explained proudly. “With the right education, everything is sexual. And our sweet little things are so poorly-equipped to handle that, aren’t they? You add to that a little sensory deprivation here, a little over-stimulation there, and… well. I think the results speak for themselves.”

Despite herself, Malacanthe was impressed. She could feel the rich glow of Simone’s arousal, and even though Juiblexia had already stopped caressing her thigh, the human’s moans were only slowly dying away. Clearly, Juiblexia had been experimenting with her Transcranial Magical Stimulation Unit. Extracting so much with so little was quite the feat.

Not that she would ever tell that to Juiblexia.

“Perhaps,” Malacanthe sniffed. “But we’re only just beginning. Hana, let me-“

“Excuse me,” came a nervous voice. “Um… I have your orders.”

Both Malacanthe and Juiblexia turned to see the waitress from earlier standing next to their table, pushing a cart that was stacked high with rich, fancy pastries. At first she simply looked awkward, but after a few moments in close proximity to two pent-up virgins she started drooling lustfully.

“Thank you?” Juiblexia prompted.

“R-right,” the succubus waitress said nervously. “Here you go.”

She started handing out various plates, all the while throwing wanton glances at Hana and Simone, both of whom looked like they desperately hoped the ground beneath them was about to open up and swallow them. The word ‘mortified’ was wholly inadequate, and they only looked more pained as the waitress started to sweat visibly from sheer need.

“W-will there be anything else?” she asked in a pained voice.

“No, thank you,” Malacanthe said stiffly.

“Then, enjoy your, um, food.”

The waitress left the table, although as she walked away she looked over her shoulder longingly a few times. Juiblexia preened, apparently enjoying the envy, whilst Malacanthe growled. Hana belonged to her, and her alone.

“You see?” Juiblexia taunted. “Everyone admires my Simone.”

That instantly lit a fire under Malacanthe. “Don’t be foolish,” she shot back. “She was obviously looking at my Hana. Who wouldn’t?”

“I’m simply not sure what there is to look at, darling.” Juiblexia’s face was drawn into a crafty, poisonous smirk. “Uptight schoolgirl getting a little too hot and bothered? We’ve all seen it.”

“Not like this.” Now it was Malacanthe’s turn to smirk. “Just wait and see. All it takes is pushing the right buttons. You’re not the only one who’s been doing a little experimenting.”

She turned to Hana. Now, the trans girl was truly sweating. She kept shaking her head and throwing nervous glances across to Simone. Clearly, she didn’t want her rival to see this. But Malacanthe wasn’t inclined to be merciful. Not when she needed to show off.

“Hana,” Malacanthe cooed. “I need you inside me.”

Immediately, Hana shuddered. Her back arched, and a wet moan escaped from her lips. The tent in her skirt twitched.

“Don’t you need to be inside me too?” Malacanthe’s voice, usually so stiff and stern, became breathy and shockingly seductive. “I can tell you do.”

Hana whimpered. The tent in her skirt kept growing, and her hips were starting to move, like she was inadvertently thrusting against the fabric of her own clothes. Her eyes were starting to turn wild and roll back into her own head.

“You’re so big,” Malacanthe whispered, putting her mouth near Hana’s ear and letting her long tongue drool out of her mouth. “So… so virile.”

Another whimper, louder and more strained than the last. Hana opened her mouth but no words came out, only drool.

“It’s been days since we last fucked.” Hana twitched, visibly uncomfortable with the curse word. “I bet your balls are so full. Throbbing. Churning. I can’t stop thinking about it. About how much you could fill me up right now.”

“N-n-n-noooo,” Hana protested, shaking her head from side to side. The proud, morally-upright valedictorian was coming apart at the seams. There was nothing dignified about her now.

“Yes,” Malacanthe teased. She reached down and let a few of her fingertips play in the air over Hana’s bulge. “I need it, Hana. I need you to breed me.”

At the word ‘breed’, Hana gave up holding back. She moaned long and loud, her drool forming into froth at her lips, and the wild, twitching motion of her head turned from shaking into nodding.

“Breed me,” Malacanthe urged. “Knock me up. Pump me full of your cum, Hana. I need to feel you filling me up. Don’t you need it too? Don’t you need to get my belly nice and full?”

“Yes!” Hana panted. Her cheeks were still burning with shame but, stoked by Malacanthe’s words, her desperation was enough to overcome it. She had a virgin’s overeagerness. “Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!”

Malacanthe turned to glance pointedly at Juiblexia. The other succubus looked, despite herself, hungry and faintly envious. It was easy to see why. To the keen, supernatural senses of a succubus, Hana was lit up like a lighthouse, impossibly aroused and impossibly ripe for feeding on.

Victory.

Usually, people assumed that a virgin with a succubus was like a mouse caught in a trap. And usually, they were right. Most virgins were passive and uncertain, and most succubi were active and predatory. Malacanthe, though, had a taste for something different. She liked her pets to do the work for her. And she had found that, with the right conditioning and the right encouragement, it was entirely possible to turn a blushing virgin into a rutting beast.

That was the other reason she’d chosen Hana: the latent breeding kink she’d been able to pick up on.

And now, thanks to Ziratha’s invention and her own skill, it wasn’t latent at all. By teasing the right fantasies, she could get Hana so worked up that she was about to have a mind-breaking orgasm - all without even touching her.

“So,” Malacanthe said to Juiblexia, smirking, while Hana tugged at her arm and bucked her hips into the air. “Ready to concede defeat?”

“Hardly.” Now it was Juiblexia who sounded terse. “We’re just warming up, after all. Simone, dear.”

“H-huh?”

The aroused jock girl perked up at the sound of her name being called. She had seemed all but hypnotized by the sight of what Malacanthe was doing to Hana, squirming from both discomfort and fascination in equal measure. Simone turned to look up at Juiblexia, and immediately started to let out shrill, wordless protests when Juiblexia put her hands on Simone’s waist, lifted her bodily into the air, and set her back down in the plump succubus’s warm, inviting lap.

“C-c’mon,” she pleaded weakly “N-n-not in front of h-her, can’t- ah!”

She broke off into pitiful moaning when Juiblexia completely blew past her protests and started running her hands all over Simone’s body.

Juiblexia wasn’t groping, exactly. She didn’t need to. Even the lightest possible touches across Simone’s body, through her clothes, were enough to reduce the perma-virginized girl to a trembling, drooling, moaning mess. There was something almost juvenile about it; Juiblexia’s touch was like the heavy petting teens gave each other when they were playing seven minutes in heaven and were too nervous to truly reach for second base.

From the look on Juiblexia’s face, it was clear that seeing someone who had been so strong, so proud, so sexually confident, brought to the point of orgasm by something so innocent was at least half the pleasure.

"You might be able to get your pet virgin drooling with just a few words,” Juiblexia purred. “But look what I can do to mine with just… this.”

With ease, she pried Simone’s legs apart and then, after pointedly holding up a single finger, dragged it along Simone’s sensitive inner thigh.

This touch, so much more intimate than simple petting, made Simone go wild. She thrashed like mad, limbs splaying apart and flailing so violently she might have tipped over the table if not for Juiblexia effortlessly restraining her. The expression on the jock girl’s face transcended pleasure and became pained again, like she was completely, unbearably overwhelmed by what she was feeling. A stain formed of her wetness began to seep through the front of her jeans, attesting to the thunderous orgasms tearing through Simone.

Within moments, the whole of Apolline’s was filled with the heady scent of Simone’s arousal.

“So,” Juiblexia said, looking up at Malacanthe with a grin on her face. “Would you like to concede, darling?”

Malacanthe glared at her furiously. She would never, ever give in to Juiblexia - and besides, her hunger was only growing. She plastered a seductive smile, full of sinister promise, over her frown and turned to Hana.

“Hana?” she cooed, in a simpering voice. “Won’t you come and knock me up?”

The perma-virgin’s eyes flashed with untempered lust, before she glanced nervously around the room. “B-but… um… aren’t we….”

“Hana,” Malacanthe interrupted, injecting as much lust and need into her voice as possible. “Come fuck a baby into me.”

That was all it took to completely break the hopeless perma-virgin.

“P-p-please!” Hana cried, suddenly pawing at Malacanthe. An awed expression came to her face, like she couldn’t believe her luck.

“Here,” Malacanthe instructed, smirking. “Now.”

She reached down and unbuttoned her pants. Immediately, Hana started to clamber on top of her, tearing clumsily at her own skirt. Uncontrolled arousal made her so uncoordinated she couldn’t seem to remove her clothes, and was tearing up in frustration before Malacanthe reached out to help her. Once she was naked, all eyes were on Hana’s hard, proud, dripping cock. She was blushing and trembling furiously with overwhelming shame, but her need was greater, especially when Malacanthe pulled her panties aside to expose her pussy and propped each of her legs up on the table on either side of her pet.

With a pitiful, humiliated squeak, Hana thrust forward and entered her owner.

Watching on the other side of the table, Juiblexia wasn’t about to be outdone. She started unceremoniously stripping Simone without giving the overwhelmed virgin even a moment to recover. Simone whined in protest, but she was far, far too weak to stop the voluptuous succubus from removing her varsity jacket, then her jeans, and then her tank top.

But she stopped there, leaving Simone in her sports bra and matching boxers. Unlike Malacanthe, Juiblexia wasn’t interested in sex. In fact, she had firmly resolved that, after her rebirth as a blushing perma-virgin, Simone should remain as pure and virginal as possible.

She just wanted to show off what bare, skin-to-skin contact would do to her.

Sure enough, as soon as Simone felt Juiblexia’s bare skin against hers, she came explosively. Her boxers were already hopelessly soaked through, but now her wetness started dripping from her thighs, soaking Juiblexia’s lap and forming a wet, sticky puddle on the floor underneath. Simone started screaming her moans in a voice so loud and so needy it filled the entire restaurant and made every head turn. After a few seconds she ran out of breath, but she kept arching her back and throwing back her head, screaming wordless bliss with a ridiculous, pleasure-drunk expression on her face.

And all simply because Juiblexia had been stroking down her side, and running a hand over her bare arm.

“P-p-p-please!” Simone howled, after finding the strength to take a breath. “I’m not… ngghhh… I’m not r-ready yettt…”

“For a little heavy petting?” Juiblexia mocked, resting a hand on Simone’s belly to make her squirm. “Aren’t you just precious?”

Meanwhile, opposite them, Malacanthe and Hana had progressed far beyond heavy petting. Malacanthe was leaning back, legs up and apart, whilst Hana mounted the much larger succubus. Hana was unbelievably red in the face and was rutting into Malacanthe with quick, eager, clumsy, desperate strokes, all of her proud, stiff composure now hopelessly lost. All she was thinking about was how badly she needed to pump her load into Malacanthe.

And Malacanthe, drinking greedily from the perma-virgin’s energy, looked prouder and stronger than ever.

"Harder,” she said to Hana in a lover’s whisper. “More. Fill me up. Knock me up.”

Hana was already cumming, but one orgasm wasn’t nearly enough for the pent-up perma-virgin. She just kept going, pumping more and more of her load into Malacanthe with each thrust, eyes rolled back into her skull from the impossible, overwhelming pleasure of multiple orgasms, each one riding on the next, her brain now hard-wired so that she couldn’t possible acclimate herself to it.

“I love you!” Hana babbled, a broad, goofy, addled grin spreading across her face. “I love you, I love you, I love you!”

Malacanthe didn’t say it back, but she did smile fondly at her pet. She loved seeing Hana reduced to this.

Simone was just as ruined; even Malacanthe couldn’t deny that. The jock girl was rolling her hips now, rubbing herself on nothing but her own boxers, and the motion made it look, more than anything, like she was simply trying to snuggle deeper into Juiblexia’s lap. Juiblexia’s hands were still all over her and they were slowly becoming more possessive and more intrusive, but they still did nothing more than trace the swell of her breasts and tease the hem of her boxers.

Juiblexia was determined to give her once-cocky pet no more than the barest taste of real, mature sex.

It might not have been sex, but Juiblexia was nourished by it all the same. Her face was flush and her eyes were shining, and Malacanthe could sense her drawing energy from her pet. It was difficult for her not to envy the exquisite flavor she was surely getting from Simone, even as she could tell Juiblexia was coveting Hana’s.

Which begged a question:

“How do we decide who wins?” Malacanthe asked, in a voice punctuated by breathy pants every time Hana thrust into her.

“We…” Juiblexia frowned. “Ah. Perhaps I overlooked something, darling.”

The two of them shared an awkward look before they were again interrupted. Not by the waitress, but by someone who was clearly more senior. It was the manager. Another succubus, she was dressed smartly, and wore a displeased look on her face.

“Ladies,” she said stiffly. “We here at Apolline’s aim to curate a permissive and lively atmosphere, and allow our patrons to enjoy pleasures beyond simply our baking.” Her frown deepened when she noticed the pastries that had been brought to the table earlier, still untouched. “Nonetheless, we have received a few comments about the level of noise coming fr-“

Her words died in her throat once she caught Hana and Simone’s scents from up close.

The polite, managerial stiffness in her demeanor vanished in a single moment. She started leaning forward, a ravenous look on her face. A red blush strained her cheeks, and drool fell from her lips to stain her immaculate uniform. Her stomach growled with hunger.

Malacanthe and Juiblexia exchanged another look.

“Our apologies,” Malacanthe said smoothly. Hana was still plowing into her with all her overeager energy. “Actually, we just need you to settle something for us.”

“Yes,” Juiblexia put in. “The two of us were having a friendly little contest, and it seems we’re in need of a judge. So, darling: which one of our little pets here do you think makes for the best, tastiest, most nourishing meal?”

The manager nodded, stupefied by the overwhelming outpour of sexual energy happening around the table. She looked first at Hana, then at Simone, and then back again. Finally, after long moments of contemplation, she shook her head.

“I don’t know,” she said. Her voice sounded wet. “I can’t pick. They’re both perfect.”

Malacanthe blinked. A draw? She hadn’t considered that. Normally, she would never accept anything less than complete victory over Juiblexia, but Hana’s exertions were putting her in a good mood. Perhaps, just this once, she could make her peace with it.

“I just have one question,” the manager added, unable to hold back. She pointed at each of the mind-broken perma-virgins in turn. “How did you get these girls?”

Juiblexia and Malacanthe exchanged one last look, and prepared to spread the good word.

—

I would like to express my gratitude for the generosity of all those who support me on Patreon, and to give a special thanks to the following patrons in particular for their exceptional support:

Artemis, Chloe, J, Secret Subject, Kathryn, Lucy, Dex, orangesya, Red, dmtph, Ember, MegatronTarantulas, Vanessa, Matt, Jeremy, Mattilda, Emily, William, ntad, Flluffie, Silgon, The Flock, ourladyoflilacs, Luna, Abigail, steb, Hypnogirl_Stephanie_, nicholas, Sue, Alan_, mintyasleep, Noelle, Lavender, Madness, Michael, Tasteful Ardour, Michael, Matthew, Full Blown Marxism, Anonymous, GrillFan65, Huge_Nerd, ZephanyZephZeph, Tram345, 8947jts, Chris, Breadloaf, Kyle, Emma, Jack the Monkey, Paul, Willow, Shadows exile, Drone 8315, Matthew, Alex, Madness, Sam, Selina, Daniel, Bubble_Butt, Francesca, WhyamIhere, John, Sarah, Crittergang, Setcab, Erin, Elysium, Bacon Man, Flintnsteal, Arik, John, bluaph, Kyle, Morriel, Jack the Monkey, Sola, NewtypeWoman, Envy, hellenberg, shoktherapy, L, Jim, Black Star, Kay, Michael, John, Praxis Memetics LLC, Frank, William, Christopher, Charlotte, Faun, Riley, Brinn, Brendon, B, Jackson, Kyle, Dennis, Nandi, Sanya, David, Morder, Myles_EXVS, Jade, Skylar, Foridin, gabbermoth, Jennifer, Selina, Violet, Slifer274, paxDulcetGirl, Roxxie, Hal, Phoenix, Ivy, Jim, Michael, Joseph, June, Yaoups, Peter, Paige, Sophie, imaencuru, Thomas, Liz, naivetynkohan, Ada, EepyTimeTea, nitin, Sebastian, ds2coffin, Yaoups, SuperJellyFrogEx, Utumnon, Bacon Man, J, ohgreatratqueen, Daedalus, Maxence, VVH, JFritz, Queenfisher, night, Basic dev

Finally, thank you again to GrillFan65 for commissioning this story!

#renewableenergy #story

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ahmedmootaz · 10 months ago

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To my fellow anon who just finished reading the same chapters I did, take my handshake in congratulations and sympathy.

To AhmedMootaz, take my tears and kudos as thanks for all the chapters and some questions in followup for the last ask on what if Ayin died .

If Ayin really DID die because of the Sweepers and they had to haul his corpse home somehow after X and Roland inevitably wope out the Sweeper nest, how would they store his corpse on the car that Roland fixes to bring it home?

Shove it in the trunk like a kidnapping?

Tie it to the back like a spare wheel?

Tie it to the front like a hunter's deer kill?

Tie it down on the roof of the car like luggage?

Strap it in using a seatbelt like a passenger?

Drag it behind them using a sled made of metal like an even more messed up Rudolta?

Drop the body in the passenger seat eother on top of someone's lap or just the seat itself?

Drop it on the floor in front of the passenger seat and below everyone's leg and behind the driver's and navigator's seat?

Something else entirely

Either way, the road trip on the way back is going to very quiet aside from maybe a bunch of crying especially from Ayin's kids and maybe Roland and X quietly talking about what they were gonna do now that Ayin was dead.

Hopefully they at least use Ayin's labcoat to cover him up in a makeshift funeral shroud. Although maybe they should just use Roland's suit jacket or X's labcoat instead if there's a large hole with bloodstains spreading out from it on Ayin's labcoat. Red really stains white. It's a good thing Ayin or his corpse at least is wearing black underneath the white coat. That hides most of the gore and blood.

But that's not the only question I have, I have more questions I'll send in the next ask since this one is already way to long.

(Ask Part 1)

Dear Anonymous,

Well, that was quick. So many people get inspired and send asks whenever I ask something that includes Ayin's death...I guess us Ayin fans are true sado-masochists, kehehe. And I will be taking those tears, thank you very much! Now I can fuel my future plans for writing! And thank you very much for the kudos as well. It makes me happy to know you enjoyed AiP.

First of all, are you feeling particularly evil today, Anon? I mean, all those violent manners of harming Ayin's lifeless body...I like it. A true Ayin fan; loving Ayin while wanting to harm him immensely, hehe. If you ask me, I'd think that Ayin's body would be treated very respectfully; he would be laid on the back seat on his back, his hands neatly tucked by his sides, while X's labcoat covers Ayin, just as Ayin had given X his own labcoat back in Chapter 8 when X had gotten drenched while bathing his girls. A poetic, painful parallel~

X would probably sit in the car's trunk while the older children sit in front of the back seat in the small space where you'd usually put your legs; I'd assume the older kids would at least fight the urge to look back at Ayin lifeless body, while the younger ones wouldn't be able to do so, which would...well, it would result in a lot more crying than needed.

I think X sitting in the trunk and letting the seat next to the driver for the kids would enhance the pain when Roland and X need to talk about what comes next; it would leave X blindsided and a little shielded from the reality that, yes, Ayin is dead, and his body is right there. There's nothing to do. Nothing that can save the one man who looked after him, and who left shoes so, so massive that almost nobody can ever hope to fill, and who left behind a grieving Distortion wrecking havoc on the City.

What a mess.

Seems like you have more pain to inflict on our Yinnie, so I'll be seeing you in the next ask! See ya'!

#lobotomy corporation #library of ruina #my writing #ask #ayin #manager x #roland

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lonelier-version-of-you · 11 months ago

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So, I have to say: tonight I have had, at best, very mixed feelings about Casualty.

I don't want to feel that way, because if one puts the Faith scenes aside, there was some good stuff in it. But how could I put the Faith scenes aside when she took up like half the screentime? I can't.

First of all: it was great to see Jacob again after he wasn't around last week. But yet again, he seemed to disappear after halfway through the ep! I'm just so tired of the show seemingly not caring about Jacob. It's exhausting, I'm fed up of it. There are still so many interesting things to be done with his character, and he needs a proper storyline about handling his trauma. At the very least, I want to know he's seeing a therapist. He deserves it.

I still despise Faith. I tried my best to distract myself from her scenes, but that got complicated when she had scenes with Max or Stevie, two of my favourite characters. So that was all very frustrating. Seeing Max be far nicer to her than she deserves, and seeing her be so awful to Stevie, made it worse. Especially with Stevie - I don't care if Faith thinks Stevie's self-centred or that she has unhealthy coping mechanisms. Maybe she is, maybe she does, but there are people I would consider it far more worthwhile to see her have a conversation about it with than Faith. Faith is also one of the most self-centred characters the show has ever had, so that was all incredibly hypocritical of her.

Also: this worries me that Henrik will indeed turn up for an appearance at some point, because he's the only character I can think of who would do something as incompetent as letting Faith stay. Sigh. She's awful to just about everyone around her and has been for basically as long as she's been at Holby, someone please just make her leave!

The lack of followup on Max's storyline is also very frustrating to me. I'm way more interested in him and Jodie, and in whatever his backstory is, than I have ever been in Faith. And I'm assuming it can't be long at all now until he leaves, so why is the storyline still not going anywhere?

I'm not sure, to say the least, how to feel about where Stevie's storyline went this week. It reminded me of the terribly handled Madge storyline on Holby. I also hate Harry almost as much as I hate Faith, so this wasn't a good week for me to say the least. Maybe Casualty would have been able to do a better "parents struggling to cope with caring for their disabled son" storyline, one that shows all sides of the issue and how the disabled person feels about it, if it hadn't had Harry of all characters at the centre.

Also, while I think this story has mostly been quite well done, I hope Stevie gets some happy stories once this one is over. I'm worried she's going to end up in a Henrik-like scenario otherwise and just keep getting sad storylines.

Okay, I'm now going to talk about some good sides of this week.

The Dylan and Rash stuff was fantastic! Seeing Dylan in that sort of encouraging role is just so nice, and I love Rash, so this was great. I'm also glad this got to be Dylan's storyline this week, instead of getting him involved with Faith again.

Jacob, Teddy, Rash, Dylan, and Ngozi might be the best team anyone could possibly have to treat them if they were a patient. I love them all so much, so the show putting them all together like that was great for me.

It was nice to see Ngozi get more to do in general, although I would've liked for her to have a bigger part to play this week than she did.

Let's hope that Jacob and Ngozi get more significant storylines soon, Stevie's story goes back to being good, and Faith fades into the background or outright leaves.

#BBC Casualty #Casualty spoilers

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chromochaotic · 2 years ago

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Reads of 2023 Part II (so far)

i was sad i couldn't fit all the cover pictures in my Part I post without it going off the screen, so might as well split it into 2 posts! update as of 6/11!

thoughts/reviews:

Heaven Official's Blessing: Volume 1

It's happening! My friends have been deep in this author's works/fandom for a while now, I'm pretty late to the party... Well, I guess I've dabbled in some of the animated/live action content that's out there for the different series. Anyway, this was a fun read! There's something so lush about historical dramas that definitely comes through here. When you add in the bits of humor and adventure, the whole story is really refreshing.

Even though the translation is still a tiny bit unprofessional, it's clearer than other options, haha. I was able to get a way better sense of the world and characters on this attempt (I had a good time watching the animated show! But as my friend put it, the season moved lightning fast, so it brushed over a lot of things). I don't have any other real nitpicks, other than like... the odd sexism that pops up now and then. Lmao

I am ofc in love with the main characters... They invented love... They invented devotion... I'm also delighted by the pace of things! Their relationship has managed to be both teasingly slow (like, the gradual reveal of Hua Cheng's true identity) but also very satisfyingly forward (the escorting!! the painting!! the righteous anger!!). Excited to see where things go with them, and the rest of the cast! (3.5/5—would be a 4, but the translation still kind of hampers things.)

Naomi Vandoren's Forest of Light

The second art book I bought from this artist! Same thoughts as before; for a quick browse, this was a refreshing little collection. Her style is just nice and soothing, with some fun surrealism/dreamscape vibes thrown in.

I'm not sure I'll buy any more of these, since the book didn't add quite as much insight into the works as I was hoping. Plus some of the concepts don't really resonate with me/seem that well researched...

I think one of my favorite things included was this abstract work the artist did—she wrote that she started with random watercolor mark-making, and then turned that into a piece. Those were very cool explorations! (2.5/5)

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Last Olympian

Done!! With the series! (Unless... It looks like there might be some followups to the main story?) I understand why the darker tone got dialed up, and other than the excursion with Nico, why the story kind of broke from the wacky-roadtrip vibe of the others. It made sense, while still keeping some of the lighthearted narration from the others, which was nice. I think what I appreciate the most about the series is the fun it has with its world. (Side note—I watched the movie based on the first book recently, and I can only assume it didn't do well! Bc omg, it completely missed the mood of the books. Instead of lingering on the whimsy, they focused on... making Grover a very cringey stereotype? Nah.) (ALSO??? THEY CUT OUT MY DAUGHTER CLARISSE????? THE AUDACITY???????)

I think my biggest gripe with the book was the very weird way the Annabeth-Percy-Rachel dynamic was handled. Like, it just got kind of tiring after a bit, especially with the way Annabeth acted so uncharacteristically catty at times. Plus, like, Percy's off falling in love with Calypso after like 5 minutes, the girl is right that he's kind of flighty. Rachel's ending also felt, just... eh.

Other than that, I was very into the last book!! There were some really moving character moments, like, Nico struggling with his place in the story, everything we learned about Luke... AND THE BIGGEST MASTERSTROKE OF ALL!!! I have been waiting to scream about the sapphic Patrochilles take??? At the end??? Clarisse has two hands and she can hold both Chris's and Silena's. She was moved to go into battle!!!! For her!!!!! She defeated one of the most terrifying foes in NO ARMOR just with a SICK ASS SPEAR and I LOVE HER. Anyway no notes, except they better do Clarisse justice in the new adaptation or I will riot. (4/5)

Secrets of the Oak Woodlands

Ooo I'm out of practice doing these reviews... Mostly from a funny cocktail of outside factors slowing me down, but also because nonfiction can be such a slog for me to get through. Tragic, because I do want to learn more ecology, I'm just... bad at it. Anyway! Bought this book on a fun West Coast road trip, I think I picked this up in the Sequoia National Park gift shop? The writing itself is great, especially how it tackles some pretty complex concepts in a way that's approachable. The book doesn't feel like Baby's First Nature Guide, but it also doesn't completely lose me when it explores why coyote populations actually rise when they're hunted or why Oak Mistletoe is a keystone species.

Even though the watercolor illustrations in the book were lovely, I sort of wish the visuals could have focused more on the tougher scientific concepts being explained. Like, instead of the illustrated "anecdote" of a quail sitting sentry, it could have been good to have a cross-section diagram of an oak gall or something. I guess it's always hard to balance interest and clarity in scientific writing, though. Overall, I think this was a pretty good eco-starter book! I'm just a square peg trying to force myself into a round hole, reading these nonfiction books. (So... 3/5?)

The Dragon's Bride

Hoo boy... Hoo boy... Listened to this audiobook at the recommendation of my friend who's very into erotica/romances. Which was an adventure, for me! To start with the good points, I really like the founding premise of this whole world/story. Deals with demons walk that perfect line for me of intricate and taboo power dynamics—and at the same time, the author satisfied my inner hopeless romantic by making all the demons (that we've met so far, at least) morally viable! So yeah, the world building and characterization is really nice, tbh.

I think my two sticking points are the smut itself, and that I didn't find these particular protags very compelling... It's interesting comparing this to, say, an above-average smut fic. On the one hand this has better prose, but on the other hand the smut veered into being a little too flowery now and then... (not to say all the sex scenes were like that. Uh. There were some choice ones.) I also personally found the frequency of the sex scenes a little ridiculous, but for most people that's probably a positive! 😂 And then, when it comes to the main characters themselves, I think they were well-rounded and the dynamic itself made sense. The personalities just aren't the kind I normally latch onto, though—they're not my blorbos, you know? So, where I'd go into a smut fic already attached (and therefore more into the smut itself), these... I could take it or leave it, haha.

That said, this installment did pique my interest for others in the series. I'm curious about the one with the succubus........ And the one with Eve..................... Those tidbits seem more up my alley. :] Also, the voice acting was pretty fun, tbh. They got separate VAs for Briar and Sol, the two POV characters, and they knocked it out of the park (even/especially in the smut scenes)! (well, except for a very funny instance where the guy VA had to voice Briar's lines in a smut scene in a Sol POV chapter. Damn, did he try.) Might pick up one of the other installments... if they come out on audiobook! (3.5/5)

Legends & Lattes

Another recommendation!! From a different friend! Apparently this book is popular on booktok but since booktok sounds like a cesspool (not really—pls don't come for me) I'm glad I didn't know that going in. As a purveyor and avid consumer of slice-of-life fluff.......... I loved this!!! First of all, the main character is My Kind of Girl, and exactly the kind of character I want to see getting a happy ending. Then, the rest of cast provided so many different kinds of delight—the warm Found Family feeling of a grumpy kind father figure and an adorable little Creature baking actual cinnamon rolls and a prim but secretly dorky girlfriend and and and—so many greats! Even the antagonists were enjoyable, in their way.

Hmmm... for the negative part of my postive-negative-positive sandwich, I think I'd just echo what I've seen in a few other reviews—I could have done with a teensy bit more of the romance. Or I guess, more of the cuteness of it? All we really got was a little bit of lead-up and then a big get-together, but I feel like the romance scenes I like most (shy flirting, a tiny bit of pining) got sort of skipped over. It's not a huge negative! Especially for this story, which seemed like it hit exactly the balance the author intended. Yeah, I might have just had the epilogue cover the main ship being cute and in love, instead of the little righteous vengeance scene that we got.

So this was a perfect little comfort listen (audiobook again! with really nice acting done by the author himself!). I saw other people calling the first chapters slow, but tbh I loved the steady, hopeful mood that came from all that straightforward hard work happening and then paying off. A great story, if you go in with the right expectations! (4.5/5) (P.S.: also this article touches on some other L&L points that I think explain why it resonates so well in post-pandemic life) (P.P.S. now I'm trying to parse out why I liked this book so much more than House in the Cerulean Sea... I think part of it is that the cast felt more respected? Like, it was more than just The Most Special-est Pretty Boy and his Plucky Boyfriend Fix Fantasy Racism)

#hi my name is chromo #book review #?#i got real slowed down on the other nonfiction ecology book that i might dnf #plus i picked up some old crafting hobbies #AND fell into binging some comfort shows after getting bad news from the vet (that turned out maybe not so bad?)#so anyway!#been an interesting few months

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jasonejohnson11 · 2 months ago

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A Head Lice's Last Stand - A Surefire Two Hour Lice Treatment

You can search on the internet or speak with experts; no you may tell you the inescapable fact regarding head lice . They will tell you to apply lice shampoos, to comb nits out, to repeat the treatment, but all dinners out of very not help an individual rid of these parasites because may well be a missing piece within the puzzle.

Fortunately the cheapest olive oil you get is also the best, to ensure that will not cost basically fortune to make. If you are unfortunate enough to fail with the first attempt, you will not have pay out a fortune to have another head. Extra Virgin Olive Oil is not essential. Make sure you have a lice treatment followup comb ready. If not then get the cheapest comb you'll find. A bonus would comprise bit of lavender or tea tree oil as head lice hate the smell of each of these.

Regularly check your child's top notice potential lice or nits, specifically in the area under the fringe, back of the neck and above the ears. If at university where the little one is learning, a lice epidemic is announced, check his head thoroughly every few a short time. The best way to tell if he has lice not really is to comb his hair using a wet comb (see the "Treatment" part below). For you to prevent these parasites, comb the hair twice a week with a comb drizzled with warm water, in anyone poured 10 drops of tea tree oil.

Now that we are alone, you know I'm truly serious this putty knife stuff, fantastic? But I am serious when I have faith that I have a powerful head lice treatment that can obtain rid of creepy, crawly critters. Well actually I possess a few until then I will share the one I a most effective, because overall performance proven itself to me time after time again.

Get yourself and family into the laundry one simultaneously and get the hair as wet also .. Rub the olive oil direct in the hair and make certain it is robust and thick and spread all via. Leave it in for 15 to 30 minutes, allowing time for the lice to suffocate. Next, be sure to ready your comb and comb the actual hair thoroughly, wiping the comb in some recoverable format towels after done a. Hope fully you will pull all with the nits away from the stems. Confident that a good and proper check made.

First of all, you'll possess to apply vinegar thoroughly on your head and scalp. After that, wrap his head with a towel or shower cap and permit it remain for a handful of hours. Dinners out of very cut off oxygen supply to the lice and suffocate your kids. When time is up, wash the hair thoroughly to take out vinegar. While hair for being wet, make use of a metal lice comb get rid of the dead lice or any living lice or nits that should still stay on hair.

Remember this can a sometimes complicated process. Rush it anyone will be doing it again the next day and time after. You will need to examine your family for a week anyway, so don't result in mistake of rushing and achieving to run through the whole process again. If you don't use whatever lice providing caught all the eggs then your olive oil treatment really should have worked.

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bebepac · 2 years ago

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And Everything Nice

I am participating in @choicesprompts second challenge. The prompt will appear in bold.

I am also participating in @choices-september-challenge-blog day #14 prompt which will also appear in bold.

This was a surprise followup to Cinammon Spice which started as an ask by the lovely @dcbbw .

This fic and the previous Cinnamon Spice have a bit of a Pretty Woman like feel to them which is the vibe I going for. Hope you enjoy this part.

The Book: TRR (No Royals) The Pairings: Liam x Bebe (Liam x F!OC) Word Count: 1335 Ratings and Warnings: Teen / Sexual Innuendo.

Original Post: 09/13/22 at 8:22PM EST.

“Holy crap, we’re gonna be late!” the woman yelped when her eyes glanced up at the decorative wall clock. “Turn that off!” she ordered in a cross tone to her companion, who was still watching the streaming show.

“Late? For what?” The question was asked in a tone that was both confused and distracted.

“The THING!”

Her companion finally pulled their eyes away from the 60-inch screen, brows furrowed. “I know of no THING,” they protest.

She heaved a huge sigh of exasperation. “It’s on your calendar! Now, stop talking and start moving!” She gently slapped their forearm in light admonishment. “I’m done with the conversation now!”

She turned away to plump her pillows.

Her eyes widened in surprise when she felt arms wrap around her waist and pads of thumbs press into her hips. Her body is a feather as it’s pulled back onto the bed.

“Sit back down!” her companion ordered.

The woman frowns at him before her eyes find the television screen again.

What the...? Is that …? WHAT is he doing?

“I’m sat!”

He smiled at her. The way she said those words had come across with a little southern sass that she had complied with him.

“Was that so very difficult for you, Mrs. Spice-Forbes?”

“But we’re going to be late for the thing on your calendar. We have an arrangement, and the last thing I want is to not make a good impression on these people I’m supposed to impress.”

“Why does it matter to you? After this week, you won’t have to see any of these people ever again?”

“But you will, and from what I can tell Mr. Forbes, you like to have a certain type of reputation to be upheld, and I don’t want to be the one to mess that up for you. It takes a lifetime to build a good reputation, and a minute to ruin it.”

“More sage advice from Mother Spice I presume?”

“Something like that, but they are words to live by.”

“Seems like a lot of pressure to put on yourself at any one given time.”

“You would know about that wouldn’t you?”

And in that one moment she didn't realize how close she had hit to the vest. At least, he thought she didn’t. She saw the look on his face, and lightened the mood.

“But isn’t that how diamonds are made Liam? And I think we’re both diamonds, I’m more the ‘in the rough’ type.

You’re the more obvious sparkling type.”

“I beg to differ, Bebe. You sparkle.”

Bebe could quickly deflect the conversation from herself back to someone else, almost flawlessly. He stood, holding his hand out to her.

“You were right. We are going to be late.”

“What!?!?!”

“It’s time to go shopping. I set us a few appointments.”

With Liam, she was now heading into stores, she never thought she would ever be shopping at in her life.

“Are you trying to give me my own Cinderella story here?”

Liam chuckled. “Are you trying to call me your fairy godmother? That’s a new one.”

Liam had already picked up a few things for Bebe to try on, and even though she was not paying, she looked at the price tags. One dress was almost her portion of the rent she shared with her roommate Riley in their apartment that wasn’t even on the decent side of town.

“Don’t worry about that Bebe. I can afford anything here that gives you the Mrs. Forbes look.”

“So what would that look like exactly?”

Liam thought for a second.

“Corporate America Chic meets trophy wife.”

"Seriously?"

"I mean it's not like you can't pull that look off." Liam commented with a wink.

The saleswoman laughed looking at the two of them.

"I’m sure we have plenty of items that fit that bill. At least he's being honest with you. How long have the two of you been married?"

Liam looked at his watch.

"We have been enjoying marital bliss for nineteen magical hours so far."

Bebe pulled Liam’s arm closer to her, to closely inspect his watch.

"Nineteen hours and thirty eight minutes to be exact my darling, but who's keeping track? Not me Honey!!!”

Liam’s smile widened.

The saleswoman picked out even more outfits for Bebe that were professional and had a hint of saucy sex appeal.

Bebe was staring at the form fitting royal blue dress on the hanger.

“I don’t think this one is going to go.”

“No it’s going, you got to trust me on it.”

“Carmen, I feel like since we have spent this time together this afternoon, and you’ve legit dressed every part of me at this point we can call each other by our first names. Carmen, that itty bitty dress isn’t going to fit on this body.”

“Bebe you’re going to have to trust me, it will, and hubby’s eyes are going to fall out his head when he sees this one on you. This one screams trophy wife.”

She smiled. “This one, he picked special for you.”

“Okay…..I’m trusting you.”

Liam had picked out a few special pieces that Mrs. Forbes would be wearing, in a very special fashion show for him later that evening. He heard commotion in the dressing room, and Bebe cackling with laughter.

Liam raised an eyebrow, as now his interest had been piqued, when he heard the saleswoman giggling too..

“Are you ladies okay in there? Do you require assistance?”

“We’re fine.” Both women finally assured him.

“Well in that case, I have one more thing for you to try on Bebe with that dress.”

A box slid under the door.

“Every Cinderella needs her shoes.”

Carmen opened the box and gasped.

“You better hold on tight to him! He got you the Jimmy Choo Alia pumps.”

The shoes were nothing less than Cinderella worthy which made Bebe wonder, that Liam was so intent in spoiling her in this moment to give them the appearance of a happily married couple, why couldn’t he just have this on his own? Why did he have to ‘buy’ it? He seemed like a nice enough guy. But she was single too. Dating in the city proved to be very difficult at times.

Especially when men found out you had a job as an escort. They all assumed that being an escort always meant a “happy ending.” That was not always the case. Some men Bebe had been around, truly did only want companionship. And some, of course some were dogs. Liam seemed like the one that truly did want companionship, but just hadn’t been exactly lucky at love.

“Told you it would go.”

“But breathing is optional apparently.”

“You won’t be wearing that dress long. Trust me.”

Bebe walked out of the dressing room. Liam was staring down at his phone until he heard the clicks of the heels approaching him.

Liam glanced up, his eyes widening traveling up her body.

His eyes stopped when they met hers.

“So it’s a no right?” Not feeling this one? Me neither, I’ll just go....”

Liam grabbed her arm and she started laughing.

“It’s a hell yes! It’s a she’s wearing that out of here. We’re ready to check out right now.”

“Okay! Let me go and change.”

“Did I stutter Woman!?!?! You’re wearing that out of here, we’re leaving now.”

“Guess he likes it.”

In a matter of minutes they were headed to Liam’s vehicle back to his place. The way he looked at her, and the way his hand gently caressed her thigh as he drove back to his apartment, Bebe had a decision to make. They could barely keep their hands off each other as they rode the elevator to his penthouse apartment.

Her decision was yes. They were two consenting adults, hell they were married for that matter. Well maybe not married, but she did have a ring.

“One request Mrs. Forbes?”

“Yes Mr. Forbes?”

“Cinderella should keep her shoes on for now.”

Bebe winked. “I can do that. One request for you Mr. Forbes?”

Liam raised an eyebrow. “Yes Mrs. Forbes?”

“Bite me.”

Liam licked his lips. “If you Insist.”

#bebepac writes #choices fanfiction #play choices #choices fic writers creations #choices september challenge #choices prompt #bebe x liam #liam rys #trr liam #cinammon spice

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popculturebuffet · 3 years ago

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Top 20 Cartoon Episodes of 2021: #’s 10-1

CLICK HERE FOR PART 1

Getting anyone just coming to part 2 up to speed: I’m Jake, I review stuff and since last year I take all the animated shows I got around to watching last year, pick 5 episodes from each and pick the best of the best. This is the top 10. If you want to see who else made the list, my thoughts on the year and other good stuff, click on that link above then come back for the final countdown. Otherwise join me under the cut as I finish counting down one truly excellent year of animation.

Warning: Entry Five contains talks of sexual trauma, so please skip past it if you must for your own mental health.

10. The Flood (Tuca and Bertie)

“Maybe it’s me... maybe i’m the reason I’m alone” “Tuca.. your never alone”

Tuca and Bertie got a raw deal with it’s half assed cancelation after being out only a month, despite plenty of people loving it and more slowly finding it. Thankfully the second time’s the charm and not only did Adult Swim snap up the show, but they promoted it to hell and back, including a giant floatie in a river. Sadly no merch but thankfully i’m covered there thanks to some wonderful fan merch my buddy @jess-the-vampire got me for christmas

And despite having some hills to climb: having to reach a new audience despite not being able to re-air season 1, being on cable instead of streaming this go round and of course having to follow a giant incest baby TWICE, the show rose to new heights, deftly easing new viewers in while not throwing out season one as a whole, having tons of call backs and followup to the previous season. The result was a true work of art, taking what made season one great and making it even better, with more deep themes, more delightful weirdness and way more Speckle. I didn’t know I needed him making out with a translucent toilet but it made my day better so thank you Speckle. Thank you toilet.

So it’s not a huge shock Tuca and Bertie not only kicks off the top 10, but has two more entries. So keep out for that. But this one’s no slouch, ending season 2 in a flood of tears and on a wave of vibrator fish and hope.

This episode brings Season 2′s main arcs to a conclusion: After months/a season of therapy with her wonderful therapist played by Pamela Aadlon, Bertie is worried she’s made no progress. Meanwhile Tuca is at the end of her abusive relationship with Kara, a seagull nurse she met with a ton of chemistry, meetings we’ll get to.. before Kara’s selfishness, desire to change Tuca in ways she didn’t need ,and refusal to really let Tuca’s friends into her life slowly reared their ugly head. Now Tuca’s desperatley trying to hold onto something she knows is unhelathy while Bertie’s trying not to interfere due to finding out Tuca blames her for keeping her alone, having screamed that anxiety and others into a cup.

The two end up flooded out of the apartment though, and that’s where the episodes amazing gimmick comes into play: Tuca unleashes those anxieties which manefest into neat forms from birds cirlcing her iwth doubts, to her intrusive nighttime thoughts allowing Tuca to become their impromptu boat’s motor, to the most heartbreaking, a giant whale representing Tuca’s unresolved issues iwth her deceased mother.

But most heartbreaking is Tuca’s denial her situation is unhelathy and her desperaton to get to Kara.. only to find her just fine, partying with her friends and not even remotely bothered by Tuca’s clear anguish or risking her life for her. It sums up their relationship in the most painfully accurate way possible: Tuca puts in tons of work and love.. and gets nothing back. It’s there both threads mentioned come together: Therapy allows Bertie to have the healthy perpsecitve to help her friend, inslirping Tuca to get her own. The two also pick up Speckle who sees his dream house flooded and learns he was the prettiest doorknob all along. And for those who haven’t watched the show, no i’m not giving you context there. It’s a stirring, warm ending to a truly spectacular season.

9. Cats Do Dance (Jellystone!)

“Wait hold up why’d you draw yourself like that?” “Like what?” “Like wiith Gorgeous Muscular Legs”

Jellystone was easily one of my most anticipated shows coming to HBO Max. The next cartoon by CH Greenblaht after the shoddy way Nick treated him, CH came home to Warner and was given free reign to do whatever the hell he wanted with the Hannah Barbera Cinematic Universe.

The result is the wonderfully offbeat, insane and heartfelt jellystone. Going back to a more chowder style of madcap humor, Jellystone takes the vast library of HB funny animals, from big names like Yogi Bear, Top Cat and Huckleberry hound, to smaller ones I only found out about thanks to this series like Loopy De Loup, and lovingly taking their own spin on them. The result is pure comedy gold, succesfully updating the properties for a new millnium, givng us some nice trans represntation, and in general just being fucking hilarous.

And while I had plenty of options, the one that made it’s way to the top of the heap was Cats Do Dance, our first ep focusing on what I consider to be the show’s best group: Top Cat and his gang. Though Jabberjaw and Loopy are a close second, they just need more episodes.

Top Cat, played to perfection by Thomas Lennon, is as always trying to hustle, but this time around his gang face a new threat: the main cast of forgotten Happy Days knockoff Heyyyy It’s the King who dance them out of their beloved ally home and into Peter Potamus’ house, whose gone from asking if you got that thing he sentcha to being a hardcore weeb who tries our heroes patience but at least netted Choo Choo a girlfriend and me my most popular post of the year.

As you can tell this one’s all about the jokes, the finest of these being the gang’s brainstorming session which.. I can’t even put into words and that’s my job.

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The rest of the ep is a whilrwind of half assed schemes, blasters, and a bonkers climax where all of this turns out ot have been a delicate plan that results in Choo Choo sicking a KILL SAT ON THEM. Killabunga indeed. This series is fucking great and I won’t be shocked if it makes the list next year. I’d be suprised if it didn’t honestly.

8. Yesterday’s Lie (The Owl House)

“You chose to stay there?”

Whelp this one hurt even more than I was expecting. As I said last time Owl House is having it’s best season, and sadly that will likely remain true given season 3 has the unenviable task of cramming an entire seasons worth of content into essentially 6 episodes. It’ll still be good, don’t get me wrong, I have faith in Dana to pull it off. She just shoudln’t of HAD to.

So with this one we get some long hinted at payoff as Luz finally returns home. And what I expected to be a tense confrontation with a malvelonet mysterious doppleganger who stole Luz’s life... ended up being somethign far diffrent, wtih the crew wisely leaning on the audience thinking Doppleluz would be something sinister.. only to turn out to just be someone deeply scared longing for home.

Upon finding a way home, albeit as a mirorr projection that won’t last forever, Luz finds someone else living her life and takes it about as well as you’d expect... as does Vee the person living her life.

It’s only when Vee gets caught in a trap, and finds her shapeshifting breaking down, that she finally listens to Luz who while understandably suprised at what’s going on, is willing to listen. Vee turns out not to be some monster.. but just a lost child herself, a baslisk jurassic parked by belos who escaped. However given Belos is such a resonable and sexy man.. he naturlaly had the poor creature hunted till she just so happened to wonder through the open portal to earth shortly after Luz arrived back in episode 1. With Luz’s quirky nature helping ease things, she went to camp then fit in fine afterwords.

This swereve is brilliant not only adding further worldbuilding and hinting at just what Belos is doing, hello hunter sorry you didn’t make the list, but also allowing Luz a look at what would’ve happened had she stayed, finding her mother with the daughter she always wanted and Vee having made the kind of friends at camp Luz has been desperate for her whole life. We can’t blame her for running, Conformist Camp looked like a horrible place and Camilla came off a bit bad trying to get her daughter to let go of herself. Wanting Luz to change was fine, as we’ve seen these two seasons Luz needed to grow as a person, but wanting her to give up who she was wasn’t.

Thankfully this episode fixes the Pilot’s mess by showing that Camillia.. didn’t want that. For starters we find out her first actions to Luz after the book thing.. was to apologize and offer to drive her down, with it all but stated she realized she was a bit hard on the girl, gets she’s diffrent, and wants their last memory together not be leaving the girl on a bus while she’s already upset.. but taking her there herself and sharing a few hours together before they won’t see each other for months.

The rest of the ep fully fleshes out Camillia, showing her as a kind compasionate woman who lets an animal out of a trap and helps treat it, supports her daughters intrest and even salvages Luz’s old stuff when Vee tries to throw it out, seeing it as a phase and something she’ll regret actaully doing down the line. She’s not perfect, but no parent is and having a kid whose neurodivergent, especially as a single parent can be difficult. My mom had to deal with that all through middle and high school after my parents divorce. While dad didn’t abandon me he wasn’t the one attending IEP meetings or being called when I had a mental breakdown. It was mom who had to carry that weight so seeing Camillia a second time helped me empathize more, realize she was carrying that same weight.

And we see her compassion and empathy at it’s best when she finally find sout just what’s going on, when luz is forced to bring Camillia to help a captive vee when a local asshole wants to disect her live. While the shock of her daughter being replaced by a changeling is naturally a lot, once Camillia has a second she sees vee for what she is: another child and just as much her daughter as the one currently trapped in a world she never made. So she quickly dispatches Qanon Roger Craig Smith.

But things aren’t so easily resolved with Luz.. especailly one Camillia found out her daughter chose to stay.. and Luz isn’t given enough time to explain it’s not Camillia’s fault. She just had.. nothing else but her mom back there. She was alone. She’s not here.. which makes Camilla promising luz to come back tos tay all the more tragic. Luz can’t possibly keep that, especially with the stakes as high as they are with Bellos.. but can she possibly do this to her mom again? We’ll see soon enough and the wait is as painful as it is intresting.

7. True Colors (Amphibia)

Did it ever occur to you — Anne, Sasha — that one of you knew more than she was letting on? That one of you might've gotten you stranded in Amphibia... on purpose?

I ranted at length about how much of a clusterfuck this episodes airing was.

The episode was delayed at the last minute, leaked and thus had a LOT of pressure put on it. Lesser episodes would be swallowed entirely by this level of controversy, stupidity and network dumbfuckery.

Thankfully True Colors is NOT that kind of episode and after a season’s build to it and an extra month of tension waiting, it proved to be the culmiation of everything Season 2 had acomplished and the springboard for the show’s best season yet.

Season 2 itself was a bit lopsided. The first quarter was a mess, mostly wasting the road trip premise that got me pumped for the season, with hardly any of the worldbuilding you’d expect and only two standout episodes. The Newtopia arc was slightly better, giving us a new city and part of amphbian society to explore, the glory that is Marcy Wu, and some truly fun and sometimes heartbreaking character stuff. It’s only true flaw was a lack of Marcy, especailly given they KNEW she wouldn’t be there next season.. or at least not the same.

Thankfully the second half ratcheted things up to the quality the show has now with a return to wartwood with tons of character development, plot progression via the temple and reflection on how much Anne’s grown.

And it all lead here: with the gems charged and Sasha reunited with the group, our heroes prepare to go home.. only for Sasha to flip the script and sweep the leg, staging a Coup. This ends up being the last straw for Anne, Anne ends up fighting to stop her.. and Sasha ends up fighting knowing Anne freeing andrias will be VERY bad after seeing a tapestry. It’s not as good as what’s to come but the opening act nicely sets things up, leaving us with a no win scneario: sasha and grime becoming dictators isn’t much better than Andrias winning, but while we don’t know his full plan, it’s not good. Whoever wins we loose and the tension in the sword fight because of that makes it an utter joy to watch.. and crushing when Sasha looses.

I also have to give props to an often forgotten part of this ep: Sprig Vs Grime. It’s a matchup I never expected, mostly because I thought it’d be one sided: a seasoned warrior with a mythical war hammer versus a kid who while resourceful and scrappy and no slouch as a fighter.. is still going up against a brick wall with a sledgehammer that has rockets to it.

Instead what I got was a spider-man, or daredevil if you prefer both fights have the same kinds of rythum, vs kingpin style slugfest: a much more agile oponent going up against a much stronger brickier one and in a mostly up close fight, going against Sprig’s strengths as a sniper. Seeing sprig have a close but ultimately triumphant fight with grime wher ehe uses the enviroment and grimes own weapon to sucker the old toad was a brilliant and awesome thing I was not expecting.

The next half though blows an already great first half out of the water, starting with that truly amazing shot of Andrias.

Just how unsettling he looks as he’s only moments from his goal... and how Anne unknowingly gives him the tools he needs to carry out multiversal conquest. it’s brilliant.

And while the rest of the cast does briliantly from here on out, the star of the show is far and away Keith David. He spent a season having to hold back, playing the goofily charming king.. all while the Audience knew there was something worse under there, but we coudln’t quite figure out what. Just who WAS this guy under his facade.

And the answer is the best kind of villian; totally, thoughly loathsome but immensely engaging to watch. We find out his backstory where he was betrayed by his closest friends, robbed of his possible multiversal empire and left sething and playing the long game for a thousand years.. and how he played everyone there to see it finished. He told Marcy his people were exploerers.. but their really conquerers, earth is next, and going home isn’t an option as they could warn people. The true meance and cruetly David gives Andrias is awe inspiring, being laughably evil one minute and terrifyingly petty and vindictive the next, throwing out cruel jokes as he murders, attempted murders and ruins lives.

Which leads to the best and most utterly crushing moment in the episode: Marcy reveals she was only on board as traveling, to keep her friends together after the amazing opening revealed she sent them there on purpose, even if she didn’t know it’d work. And being a petty sort of bastard, Andrias reveals this right in front of Sasha and anne and that Marcy was mereley another piece to be sacrficed in his grand game of flipwart.

The resulting scene is easily Haley Tju’s finest work. I’ve raved about how good she is in past articles and reviews, but it bears repearting: this woman is fantastic and her delivery here as Marcy DESPERATLEY tries to justify the unjustifable, all while Anne, Sasha and Sprig back away from her and Anne, already betrayed horribly once today seems utterly broken by it.. it’s fucking powerful. She tries to justfiy it with all she gave, and while we empathize given the circumstances.. it dosen’t make what she did any less harmful as Anne, in Brenda Song’s own finest hour, fires back with what it put her parents through, how much danger they were in. It’s painful.

The insuing fight is also great as our heroes easily overpower the frobo’s andrias has produced and get the box.. only for Andrias to pull the classic “i’ll kill your friend if you don’t” move by threatneing to drop sprig out a window.. and then doing it anyway because he’s an evil dick. And this is AFTER killing frobo and telling a fucking BABY “don’t worry you’ll be with him soon” good good he’s amazingly evil.

This leads to another shocker as Anne’s hinted at blue gem powers finally make her go super sayian god super sayian in a sequence that echoes and easily matches Dragon Ball’s most iconic super sayian transformatoins with Goku and SS2 Gohan. The sheer fury in her voice, the fear and majesty coming out of the transformation it’s awesome as is the cathartic beating she briefly gives andrias. Thankfully Marcy’s woken from her shock and saved sprig and then we get the devastating ending as one by one Anne’s best friends are left behind, first Sasha who, hoping to make up for her terrible actions helping cause this, holds the line (love is always on time), while Marcy gets them the box for the same reasons.. only to get gutted

I’ve used this shot for comedic effect plenty.. and will again, but it dosen’t make it any less horrifying to see a 13 year old suddenly stabbed by her mentor figure while he mutters a low gutteral “look what you made me do”. And it all ends with a brilliant flipping of the series on it’s head: Anne stranded back home in LA.. but with the Plantars by her side, now with her froggy family trapped in a world they never made. Add in the season 3 opening after this and you have an utter masterpiece. True brilliance and the fact it’s only #7.. speaks to how high the bar’s been this year.

6. What If?... Dr. Strange Lost his Heart Instead of His Hands? (What If?)

“ I know, but the world! The world shouldn't pay for my arrogance. I-I read about you; sensed your presence. You're a god. You can undo this.” “ I'm not a god. And neither are you.”

This year saw a WELCOME return of animated superhero shows. After Marvel had been easing off them due to the failure of their Disney XD universe and there sorta attempt at a new one with Marvel’s Spider-Man and DC has been sticking to slice of life comedies and utter garbage, we hadn’t got many. But thankfully this year Young Justice returned, Kid Cosmic Debuted and I failed to get to both. Luckily I Managed to get to two aimed at mostly adults that were tremendous and give me hope for the future, this one especially given Marvel has MORE animated shows coming. And wanting to catch up on X-Men TAS before the sequel series means i’ll probably be covering that series soon so look for that.

What If? is marvel’s first stab at animation for the MCU and is the perfect property for animation. Like the original comic it asks the titular questoin and shows us what happens when things go slightly diffrently from Hank Pym massacering the avengers before they could avenge, to a zombie outbreak to Black Panther becoming Star Lord instead. It’s all damn good stuff though I was reluctant to jump into the show at first, not sure if it’d really grab me. while Episode 3 got my attention it was this episode that cemented the true potetial for the show, how it could take things from the movies that hadn’t quite landed and make them matter

In this case it goes back to one of my faviorite MCU Outings, Dr. Strange and uses it’s weakest element to tell a truly heartbreaking and unvierse shattering tale. In this case that element is Dr. Christine Palmer, Strange’s love intrest whose just sorta there, dosen’t really impact him or the plot, and felt utterly anniclary in a tale with this scope.

So What If? finds a way to both lampshade that and show just what she brought ot the table: she was Stephen’s heart and together or not, was the only person he HAD before Kamar Taj. And this ep shows just what would happen if instead of being to operate.. he lost her instead.

Said lampshading is the fact that the events of the film.. don’t change. Christine’s death is now what brings Stephen to learn magic, he still does, things with forgetable bland guy and Dormmamu still happen, all that. It’s very much pushing the film to the side quick to get to the story.. but the story’s so good I can’t balme them.

So Strange, now sorcrer supreme, wallows in his grief despite saving the world.. and plans to undo that night, not realizing he’s trying to undo a fixed point in time and unlike the doctor not getting that this is a VERY bad thing. But we also wee WHY he goes so far with the first act: with the time stone he keeps going back to that night, keeps trying to change it.. but true to final destination rules chrstine somehow dies no matter what he does? Take her for pizza? a mugger gets her. Not go at all? She dies anyway in an unrealted accident, try and make himself die instead? Dosen’t work. No matter what he tries he’s left in an awful loop of watching the love of his life die again. and again. AND AGAIN.

So the lengths he goes.. aren’t suprising but are horrifying, slowly eating eldtich monster after monster till he’s left a pale, nightmarish, barely human shell of himself ready to tear apart everything to bring back one person. This leaves The Spirit of the Ancient ONe forced to call in a strange form an earlier piece of time, a plot device that would be used in a diffrent but still awesome way in the comics with the death of dr. strange, to stop him. This fails.. and what happens next is miserable. Strange saves christine.. but not only is she now afraid of him.. but it destroys reality.

And the final scene is what REALLY brought it up this high. While the rest of it is amazing from the horrifying time loop of deaths to the spellbinding and equally nightmarish scnee of strange absorbing beings while taking on their traits, it’s this that truly puts it over the top: Strange begging the watcher, who he can see, for help. Bendect Cumberbatch truly owns this episode from his arrogance, to his slow slide into evil, to his heartbreak but here he’s at the best he’s been as the character, and the movies he’s been in have given it PLENTY to compete against, begging the watcher to undo it.. with Jeffery Wright equalling him, being stern but not unfeeling. He’d undo this if he could. but it’d only put more unvierses at risk.. so even if he dosen’t WANT to watch multiversal genocide. He has no choice but to watch as Stephen is trapped in a prison of his own making, alone and broken. God damn this was some good stuff, can’t wait for season 2 or multiverse of madness. hot dam.

5. Vibe Check (Tuca and Bertie)

“That hurts my cervix just looking at it”

If you thought going back to colorful birds after the last one would be a break...

This ep is packed with great jokes: from Tuca’s build a vibe up there which as quoted hurts Bertie’s cervix just looking at it, to the entire concept of a vuild a vibe in the first place, to bertie throwing her vibarator into a river leading to it mating with a fish somehow (and those children coming back as a chekovs gun0, to Speckle deciding to just farm instead of quest with his best bud HairyStallion69, and yes he does use that sign on despite knowing the horses name and yes there is context to that your not getting, and finally the clerk at the store telling Bertie vibrators aren’t responsible for sex nightmares.. except the sex nightmare of course.

But what brings the episode here is how this bucket of fun is deftly ballanced around two mature and deeply intresting plots: the first is the lighter one as Tuca has a flirty relationship with Kara, the nurse she met in a later entry on this list and who utterly broke her heart earlier on this list. We get some fun bits with the two having great chemstiry and tuca accidently liking one of Kara’s old pictures while scrolling instagram.. only for Kara to do the same as a joking response to. But it goes from loose as a goose and ready to gander to “poor tuca” as Tuca tries to find Kara after she gets those dreaed three conversation dots. While this leads to another great gag of everyone bringing it up, from Speckle pointing out his sister dottie to Bertie bringing up her period, which leads to a phone smash and Tuca crashing Kara’s night with the girls.. but not before a forboding warning from a bartender who SEEMS to just be smarting from the breakup.. but instead sets up just how bad things are going to go later.

Though the two end up sharing a passionate kiss that had me playing this on loop for a few days

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This.. this can’t not have been intentional.

The darker plot of the episode though that gives it both it’s name and gave us the sex nightmare, is Bertie’s own sex nightmares. While having some vibrator alone time while Speckle games, something I applaud the series for as it tackles bertie having a vibrator as normal and simply makes vibrator jokes out of fun instead of “oh look sex thign”. I’ve seen too many sitcom back massager jokes for one lifetime.

But it soon takes a turn when Bertie’s abuser from last season, Pastry Pete, who she had a weird and horrifying psychosexual attraction to, intrudes the dream. While her therapist tells her it’s normal and something she’ll have to deal with bertie spirals, literally falling apart.

And what fixes it.. is easily the most touching scene of the year. Bertie games with Speckle so she can finally talk this out with him and while fighting a dragon due to a messup, finally admits what’s been making her act erratic all week (she also threw out their bed).. and Speckle is understanding. Not only was he aware of her crush on Pastry Pete, and thus easily figures out he abused her, but he sympathizes with her, pointing out that ther’es nothing wrong with her, he’s here for her and ther’es nothing to be ashamed about. He also relates his own far less traumtizing story about having a crush on a friends mom who baked... and thus revealing par tof why he likes Bertie is a baking fetish. Not the main reasons, he’s a good boy but he does want his dick rolled up in a crossant if possible, which he knows it isn’t. The two find a way to have rough sex without it fuly traumtizing Bertie and the episode is resolved not with shouting like most couples resolve things on tv or big emotinal moments.. but with two adults talking through a serious bout of ptsd like mature responsbale people and growing closer as a result. And that, that is the sohws true magic: taking very serious topics and not overblowing them or getting melodramatic, but not underselling how bad things are either. They simply play things are realistic.. despite being in a world of vibrator fish and bara tomatoes, it works.

4. Knock Knock Knockin On Hooty’s Door (The Owl House)

“Dang Hooty.. you really are something”

So yeah let’s discuss the elephant in the room: no one had high expectations going into this episode. While we all love and begrudingly tolerate Hooty much like our main trio, we all understandably expected a Hootycentric episode to be a fun side plot before things got more serious and we got to more intresting things like Lumity next week. Cue the episode actually coming out and..

Yeah Dana got us good, not only adding depth to our beloved owl tube but managing to advance ALL THREE of the main cast’s arcs for the season in one episode. How someone pulls that off I do not know but those glorious sons, daughters and others of bitches did it.

And I do mean it gives depth as we find out beneath the screechness, oblviousness and clingyness hooty radiates the guy has some talents as well as genuine insight into his friends, being an expert with his own contacts on the three demon types, a master baker, phrasing, and shockingly knowing luz and romance well enough to land a 3 point romantic gesture for his young friend. And it all starts finding a useful way to use one of the dumber decisions this season to their advantage: Lilith leaving. While i’m still against Lilith’s exit, as I feel her addition to the main cast added something for her breif tenure and nicely shook things up, this episode almost justifes it by showing the impact it has on her only friend: Hooty. Hooty is naturally devistated the one person who ever respected him and cared about his company at the house has left and is in a deep depression. Lilith, seeing her friends pain, messages him back with hope and that he CAN help his friends. So naturally he sets about it in the most hooty way possible leading to three seperate but equally great stories.

First off is king who Hooty kidnaps/eats for the venture.. despite taking him to King’s own room for it. But as I said Hooty is an expert on demons so we learn the three types, including hooty’s which is suprisingly insect as he’s some form of worm.

Did.. did not need to know that. After some tests including our good old friend big nose (”I gwaduated from med school!” , good for you sweetie), we find out King.. isn’t a demon. It’s a suprising and intresting twist that begs the question of just what he is.. and leaves the poor boy spiraling, both at his abandoment issues and at not knowing who he is.. and gaining a sonic scream that would make Banshee and Black Canary both deaf and proud.

Hooty thinks he failed and tries eda and once again his way of starting things is some crimes... this time by giving eda some mmmmm drugs to get her to sleep as Eda’s been hyperfocused on trying to stop Belos, which is fair but she can’t fight tyranny if she dosen’t sleep.

Said sleep forces her to deal with her least faviorite person: the owl beast, who takes her through a traumatastic tour of her life that shows just how horribly the curse, and eda’s own hangups about it have impacted her life, from a horrifying incident where she claws her dad’s eye out to refusing to open up to Rahne, destroying their relationship.

But with the third flashback Eda finally gets some clarity: the owl beast isn’t some heartless monster trying to ruin her life on purpose.. but a lost beast horifically bound to the curse by a mysterious question mark man whose just as trapped as she was. It’s at it’s core.. just an animal who was lashing out due to it’s own extreme emotions meshing with eda’s. It didn’t MEAN to hurt anyone it just does what an animal does when cornered.. and this twist is both utterly awesome, taking a character I honestly didn’t think was one and giving them a heartbreaking twist, and allowing eda to finally accept her curse.. and thus unlock a kick ass new mode. And hot too, and hey she said it first i’m just confirming.

So onto our final contestant. Luz is distracted by her feelings for amity as well as her inablility to get the echo mouse to talk.. so to speak. So Hooty does one more crime and kidnaps Amity. Just straight up naps her. It’s a hilaroius reveal just having her burst out of a sack.

And once again he proves to have the right idea, making a tunnel of love that’s ENTIRELY something Luz would do. Out of all of these it showed the most thought and consideration, the only thing Hooty didn’t consider was Luz’s own insecurities. We find out Luz has been rejected quite a bit for being too cheesy, which helps explain WHY she was so oblivious at first to Amity’s affections: having a lifetime of people she liked NOT feel the same way meant she coudln’t possibly fathom Amity feeling that way until the proof was calling her mine while fighting a giant blob monster.

And even then she panics, and while Amity likes the gesture, luz has no serenade, no fire brigade just pyromania for the tunnel, making Amity think she dosen’t want her.

This, in a painfully relatable way sends Hooty spiraling. Like the creepy tube man, I too am constantly afraid of fucking up and thus overreact when I think I have. Granted I don’t try to yank myself out of the walls but that’s not how my anatomy works. Trust me I would if I could.

So King and eda are forced to clean up this mess while Luz is forced to be honest.. and thus it FINALLY happens. we FINALLY , after generous well set up build up, see Luz and Lumity come together, with Amity asking her out, Luz doing the same in return and the two finally being a couple.

Look I havent’ remotely held back on how well written and adorable I find this romance is, why start now. While it was a shock to get it an episode earlier, it was the best way to do it, forcing Luz to realize she dosen’t have to be “cool enough”, she IS enough and having Hooty realize he’s truly the richest man of all.. and to please never do that again. All in all a truly great episode.. feels like i’m forgetting something. oh yeah kings dad, the letter, all that... just in case you thought there HADN’T been enough plot movement dana smacks us with another bit that’s bound to come back. Truly spectacular.

3. OZZIE’S (Helluva Boss)

“ Stolas, don't act like what we have is anything but you wanting me to fuck you. Okay? You make that really clear all the time. But I just... I-I can't do it tonight. Okay? I'm sorry.

So we’re back from mildly painful to good god this is a gaping wound with Helluva Boss’ last episode for the year and part one of a season finale. As of this article we haven’t gotten anything close to a release date for part 2 but given the show moves at a “when it’s done and at it’s best” pace, I can patiently wait for the resolution to this episode kali ma-ing my heart out of my chest.

This episode is the blow-up that’s been building all season: Blitzo’s clear loninless.. and Stolas treatment of him keeping the two from having an actual relationship. At first Stolas harrasment of blitz was largely played for laughs, something he put up with because he had to and to the show’s credit lead to easily it’s funniest moment in the series back in episode 2

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But the same ep also showed the core of the two’s broken dynamic: Blitzo tries to keep Stolas at arms length due to seemingly having no romantic intrest in the bhird, while Stolas agressively flirts and is oblivious to just how unequal their paring is or how demeaning he treats blitzo, his position as royal menaing he never really HAD to enagage anyone lower than him on the totem pole as an equal, and thus dosen’t know HOW to treat Blitzo.

And as the episodes go on we see that Blitzo.. is just as emotoinally stuntned, trying to wedge himself into Moxxie and Milie’s relationship at every opportunity to have what they have while being overly protective of a daughter who can take care of herself. It’s clear from the start Blitzo has attachment issues.. but it isn’t til lthe episode beofre this that we get full clarity. Via his drug trip, we, along with Blitzo realize he has a terrible habit of putting up walls pushing and pushing at people till they leave him because he feels it’s inentivitble. And ONCE AGAIN, that’ ssomething I can relate to. Most tellingly though his vision of stolas.. is being forced to crawl to the guy in chains, badly wanting something more but feeling he can’t get it because Stolas dosen’t treat him like more than a plaything. While the vision helps Blitzo not push Moxxie away and helps a little with stolas.. one person in a relationshp having an ephinay isn’t enough to solve it.. and the messy end that was always coming came next episode.

And it’s natural starting Point is blitzo’s desperatoin to have what M and M have. When Moxxie decides to take Milie out for his anniversary to the hottest joint in the lust ring, Blitzo decides to do his usual thing and stalk them. But it comes off diffrent: normally it’s mildly creepy but entirely played for laughs, hiding in a fridge, recording their dates, hiding in the celing. Here though it’s just.. sad. It hits home the guy ONLY has three people in his life, two of them happily married and would be fine without him, and one who while his adopted daughter struggles to accept their family, that he just WANTS what they have desperatley but isn’t healthy enough to have that. And while I haven’t stalked anyone, it again hits close to home: wanting that to fill the void but not being emotoinalyl ready or having a prospective partner.

So needing to get in, he does something somehow even lower than stalking his two employees on a date. He calls Stolas. And we see Stolas isn’t doing so well, sulking at home in an empty mansion, watching hella novellas (”That’s a mood gabriella”) and naturally darting to the phone when Blitzy calls him. We learn at the end that he and Stella have, thank Lucifier, gotten a seperation. And while that’s good in the long run, it leaves Stolas in the same position: without the one person in his life. The two’s situation mirror each other: two broken, lonely people who would be happier together.. but they don’t know HOW to do that. Stolas can’t stop treating Blitzo as beneath him and as a result Blitzo can’t see him as anything other than an annoyance. While Blitzo calling Stolas for a date seems cruel, to him he simply dosen’t get Stolas does love him.. he’s just an idiot.. but after treating him like a fucktoy and nothing else for so long nad never really seeming to care about him till now, how could he? Things only get worse after an awkard silence when we meet the clubs MC: Fizzarolli, aka that jester what had a robot him. I honestly didn’t pay robofizz much attention, figuring that while Blitzo probably had some issue with the real one, that the real one didn’t matter. In hindsight that waas dumb: not only did they get beetlejuice himself Alex Brightman to play him, a big get honestly in a cast full of stacked talent, but it was clear the two had more of a history and Blitzo himself had a history with the original.

And we find out here that a long time ago they used to be friends, then clearly more, then it fell apart. .and judging by the season 2 trailer and his positoin as right hand for Asmoedus, Fizz abandoned blitzo for both a better career and a fucking hell lord to fuck. So having to face him isn’t great. Stolas also isn’ tstoked one of the 7 deadly sins is running this club.

And while the two MIGHT have dodged the clubs heads... something happens. Moxxie decides to sing a lovestruck ballid to millie.. in the middle of a club dedicated to F-U-C-K-I-N-G. Sure people are on dates and it’s a couples club, but it’s less about the sappy aside and more about the getting nasty side. Nothing wrong with that mind you, especailly for Stolas butler who has a harem. Good for him. Cannot be an easy job especailly when Stella was around. But it awakens the sleeping giant and for the first time in either side of this franchise, we’re introduce to a hell lord, Asmodeus, lord of lust, actually giant cock, and velvety voiced assholed played by James Monroe Engleheart, who went from not really doing any voice acting to jumping hard into it first with Tarus Bulba last year, then with vortex and ozzie this year. Good for him, he’s damn good at it.

This results in at least a third if not more of the episode being a big, showy music number as the ambigiously coupled assholes torment Moxxie. And once in a nice moment of noblility, knowing he’s painting a target on his back and revealing his scam to Stolas as well as his pathetic stalking to moxxie and millie, Blitzo stands up for them (If also revealing he’s watched the happy couple have sex multiple times which while gross and horrible.. is also not suprising).. and thus gets verbally demolished by both Fizz and Veroskia, who happens to be there both because we missed her.. and because let’s face it if your going to make blitzo’s life hell might as well tag in the person who doe sit best. We also find out that , as hinted at in “Truth Seekers”, their relationship falling apart was his fault: he was all take and no give and it clearly does bother him to have his failures brougth up. While before he was utterly defensive with her and her bitchy with him.. i’ts VERY clear he hurt her, even if she tries not to show it.

Stolas dosent escape either: not only does he not try to help blitzo but he’s left hiding behind a menu when Ozzie zeroes in on him, pointing out he “gave up his life for a thrust”. And while ti’s more complicated than that, it still hits him enough to not do anything.. and for blitzo to leave miserable and humilated, seemingly validated that Stolas dosen’t care about him. For her part though MIllie bludgons fizz and given she beat up the secret boyfriend of a hell-god, and all she and her husband god for it was a GET OUT, props to her. The fact Ozzie IDND’T kill her for it and simply asked her to get out, something more reasonable, is remarkable as these two.

So we get an utterly devistating scene as Blitzo drives stolas home and Stolas tries to simply have cuddles inside, tries to do the right thing.. but it’s too little too late, with Blitzo, as quoted above making it painfully clear how he thinks the owl man feels.. and how frankly Stolas has MADE HIM FEEL. It may of been accidentla.. but it still hurts and i’ts clear saying this.. is a lot for Blitzo. He wants to like him on some level but to Blitz.. all Stolas sees is a toy. And unless that changes... there’s nothing worth saving there.

So that leaves our hero, with Loona having gone out partying, to sob on the couch as he revisits his lfie.. with seeing his sisters hitting him the hardest. What this means... we’ll have to wait for next time but Brandon Rogers kills it, both before this finally breaking it to stolas.. and after with his quite sobs. God damn man, this may be his first major voice roll but god damn he could be one of the greats if he keeps going like this. Truly amazing stuff. Waiting on part 2.

2. Nighttime Friend (Tuca and Bertie)

“Tuca. Tell. Bertie. About. This. Shit. “

And coming in second we have Tuca and Bertie with it’s most inventive episode yet. It reminds me of the format breaks Bojack Horseman tended to do, doing more as the series go on, playing with the medium to create something truly memorable from the scratchy writing based drawings of “Good Damage” to the silent episode to Free Churro being a monologe. And given LIsa Hanawalt is both a very visual creator and was responsible for Bojack’s visuals, it’s no shocked she decided to do an ep like this herself and even less of a suprise hers is a masterpiece.

This one focuses entirley on Tuca as she wonders around bird town every night due to her insomina. The other half of our main duo isn’t absent, as each night starts with Bertie TRYIGN to watch the latest prestige drama on Nestflix, something I can relate to. Best Boy Speckle also isn’t left out as he gets a fitness watch.. and ends up sleepwalking every night, escalating to biking, canoing and other swole activites with his legs getting super jacked, a nice running gag.

As such we get an absolutely gorgous nighttime view of the city, done in sharp contrasts with the backgrounds almost entirely back with only dots of light or the people around illuminating it. The buildnigs Tuca enters are also starkly lit, a diner she goes to is bathed in pink, the convience store she goes to in green, etc.

There’s also a really nice runner with an adorable elderly couple who play checkers and get fresh.. only for night 2 to have one of them gone, clearly dead... and a truly happy ending when a bunch of teens from an earlier event accidently bring his ghost back, reuniting them.

There’s other connective tissue too: a kid, who turns out to be a teen in a great payoff, asking Tuca to sing him to sleep, and said teens, who Tuca interupts when they have a screning of vintage campy sexy movie, aka rocky horror but with brids. God I want that whole sexual eagle song.

But the main one is Tuca’s aunt Talula. Coming back from last season where Tuca broke off her relationship with the woman, despite getting cut off as a result, due to Talulua’s constant abuse, here the two have reconnected... albeit still unhealhlity sneaking her booze. Talula decides to give Tuca power of attorney, something Talula’s nurce Kara questoins. We’ve seen her before here, but this is where Kara first showed up, serving as a mildly judgmental but ultimately right concisence. With an added push from Bertie Tuca takes her duty seriously.. only for Talula to shift back to Tuca’s sister Terri once i’ts clear she won’t be able to easily manipulate her niece.

This leads to Tuca finding some solace in Kara, the two hanging out and having real chemstiry and Tuca finding her the next night, leading to a truly sweet ending where Kara sings her to sleep. Granted things quickly went down hill as should be obvious, but it dosen’t lesson the ending’s impact as Tuca finally has good nigh’ts sleep and hope for her future. And frankly the later abuse is more effective given that Kara , like most abusers, STARTS OUT nice. There’s hints of the gaslighting bitch she is deep down, but the story wouldn’t of worked if we didn’t buy into the romance as much as tuca did before the cracks settled in. Still even with future events this is a brilliant, atmospheric episode with some of the best animation all year. And with it we’re down to 1. And given the cover image and the fact it hasn’t come up yet, you all know what’s coming.

1. Where I Really Come From (Invincible)

“ WHY DID YOU MAKE ME DO THIS?! YOU'RE FIGHTING SO YOU CAN WATCH EVERYONE AROUND YOU DIE! THINK, MARK! You'll outlast every fragile, insignificant being on this PLANET! You'll live to see this world crumble to dust and BLOW AWAY! EVERYONE and EVERYTHING you know WILL BE GONE! WHAT WILL YOU HAVE AFTER FIVE HUNDRED YEARS!?” “ ...You, dad...I'd still have you...”

Invincible.. was one of my most anticipated shows for some time. Not only were they adapting a comic I truly enjoyed, even more so having now finished the entire run, but as they announced the voice cast I only got MORE excited. JK Simmons, Steven Yuen, Gillian Jacobs, Jason Mantzokus, Andrew Rannels, Mahershala Ali. I could go on and on, but I was hyped.

That said I had some understandable worries too: I worried about the budget, since an adult superhero animated show that wasn’t a comedy hadn’t been attempted in decades, about the show finding an audience, and about the streamer as Amazon Prime had previously canceled the utterly brilliant Tick Reboot after two seasons.

And once the show started airing.. all those worries were sent hurtling away like a teeange boy tossing some garbage only to find out he’s super strong now. The animation was gorgeous, with only the ocasional corner cut. The audience quickly found it as the show became massively popular, and Amazon Prime , unlike last time, realized what they had and quickly gave it two more seasons.

The show is easily one of the best adaptations i’ve ever seen and being a big fan of superheros, a work that, much like the source material, is both a deconsturction and love letter to superheroes. Like many works it shows what it’d take to actually have superheroes around, a shadowy goverment orginzation ran by an equally shadowy and dubious head in Cecil who nonetheless makes sure superheroes widows are taken care of, helps cover up identites and helps out when needed, as well as the real cost: unlike most super hero works Invincible in both mediums is CAKED in blood, nicely lampshaded by the titlecards which get bloodier with each episode, and shows the massive damage taken by both the heroes and the environment. The show goes a step farther even by showing how the silver age concept of hiding your idtenity from your love intrest.. is deeply stupid after a certain point.

But unlike other deconsturctions like the boys or kick ass (and especially their far more edge lordy comic versions), Invincible shows these heroes are still NECESSARY, and that underneath most of them are good people trying to make some diffrence in the world. And that in the end if you have the power to help someone, you should, wether it works out or not.

The other aspect that makes it work is remixing thigns: some plots are moved up, some are taken out all together (an insufferable plot about William dating eve was removed, in part because the series choose to make him gay from minute one instead of in the closet), and it all works, helping keep the plot moving at a steady clip and compress hundreds of issues of story into what will likely be 5 or 6 seasons. Maybe 7.

All that comes together in the cumilation of the season’s major arc: At the start, the show comes off as a breezy, if honest look at a teen superhero. Marc Grayson, played by the utterly spectacular Steven Yuen whose gladly getting the career he deserves and thankfully has this roll to replace his wonderful one as Little Cato, the son of the world’s greatest hero Omni Man (Played by JK “Get me pictures of spider-man” Simmons”) and Debbie, played by the utterly awesome Sandrah Oh)

The show seems normal.. until the end of episode 1. See both series have a major twist, one now widely known thanks to the “think mark” meme I couldnt resist using as the image here as it’s also the perfect one for this episode: Omni Man isn’t some beneveloent hero from another world, but a conquerer, sent to see if they can breed offspring, and protect the world till the Villtrumite Empire comes for it. And he first shows this off by brutally and horrifcally murdering the Global Guardians, basically thin stand ins for the justice league of america.

Where the show improved on it was captalizing on a regret Robert Kirkman had: Rob had regretted NOT having this as the ending ot issue one, a big twist that he could then develop in the background. As such season 1 is spent on investigating Omni Man’s massacre of the guardians, as Cecil naturally suspects him but wonders what the actual hell he can do to STOP Omni Man. LIkewise Debbie starts to grow suspcious of her husband, taking her from what was essentially a block of wood for the first 20 or so issues of the comic, to an dynamic charcter who dosen’t like her husband showing his true colors, and serves as a necessary counterballance to the more viltrum flavored way Nolan’s teaching their son, even leaving the guy with a fuck you. Despite KNOWING he could snap her in half.

This season long manhunt cumilates in the way it had to: the episode before this had Nolan easily tearing thorugh most of Cecil’s stalling tactcs to keep nolan from grabbing mark, who was busy working through stuff. The father and son reunite to fight a giant monster.. only to be interupted during it bythe Immortal, one of the heroes killed. Because really he’s a guy called the immortal, Nolan should’ve seen this coming.

Much like the comic, Nolan rips him in half... and Mark sees it leading into this masterpiece of the episode. While we see plenty of the others as they worry for mark and the world, the global guardians get a paticuarlly nice moment defying ceciil’s orders to go save lives, the real action is where it was in the issues this adapts: Between father and son as Mark reels at his dad’s true nature. It’s the painful confrontation I knew was coming, the moment I waited all season to see adapted.. and as you can tell by the fact it’s # 1 it not only didn’t disapoint, it IMPROVED on the original, beautifulyl adapting the best bits while expanding it in horrifying annd mesmerising ways.

For starters Mark, naturally given he’s a superhero and this is a comic book universe, tries to snap his dad out of brainwashing. This fails because he’s NOT brainwashed and quickly explains the whole conquerer bit in a great flashback. But naturally Nolan trying to pitch “hey son let’s enslave everyone you’ve ever cared about and go against everythign your mom and I ever taught you” dosen’t work. Mark is the true hero Nolan PRETENDED to be. Thanks to his father’s inspriation and his mom’s kind nature, Mark truly grew up to be a great hero. Flawed sure, who isn’t, but a good kid.. who now , depsite KNOWING he likely stands no chance against his dad, KNOWING his dad will likely kill him, stands firm. Nolan isn’t taking this planet without a fight.

And the fight that insues.. is a total, nightmarish curbstomp. Mark does his best but he’s mostly a punching bag for his dad. It shows Mark’s badassery in his own way, refusing to back down no matter HOW much his dad puts him thorugh, but it dosen’t make it any easier to watch as Nolan absolutley destroys his son.

And the cartoon decided to somehow make a grown man beating up his child for doing the right thing even worse as Nolan goes out of his way to try to mentally break his son. He kills as many people as possible, tells mark how he only saw his mother as a pet, and in a peak dick move when Mark manages to save a person... nolan makes sure they die JUST to spite the boy.

The peak of this though is the train sequence. Good fucking god the train sequence. Nolan PLOWS HIS SON THORUGH A TRAIN. And we see ALL THE PEOPLE DIE ALONG THE WAY.

This cumilates in the comic’s best scene (still plenty of great stuff after it, but still), which the cartoon takes and makes better. It’s the scene I was waiting for all season, that I could easily here Yuen and Simmons deliver in my head based on how great their performances were. And they did not disapoint.

It starts with Nolan psyotically and savagely beating his son, giving up on breaking him and settling for killing him “What’s another 17 years”. The show then goes into a flashabck of Mark getting his first homerun.. and of Debbie teaching Nolan to be invested in her son and his job.

His facade of not carring abotu earth, or debbie or his son cracking, Nolan screams the rant above, taken exactly from the comics and performed as well as you’d expect from JK motherfucking Simmons... and with the gutpunch of a response that utterly destroys Nolan and the audeince emotinally “You dad, i’d still have you” Even after EVERYTHING, Mark still loves his dad.

We get one final improvment as the animation shows every emotin on NOlans face, from his pain, to his relization of what he truly is, to his decison to leave, crying as he leaves atmosphere. If you haven’t seen the scene.. well here’s yoru chance go do it now.

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The rest of the episode is great, dealing with the faloout and mark taking ab reak from the trauma. Granted Season 2′s coming so he’ll be back and the final scene is great: Mark talks with Alan, an alien who showed up earlier in the season, fill shim in on wha thappened, and we get an awesome montage preparing us for season 2 set to “Hate to say I told you so”. The button gag is also great.

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But let’s face it, that scene above? Everything before it. It’s instnatly iconic. And I don’t throw that around. This is the scene that MAKES a show and makes me excited to see what’s next and really.. I can’t think of antyhing that could top this. It’s #1 and I have a feeling next year Invincible might just take it again.

And that’s really this year in a nutshell: what we have here is fantastic.. and with the vast majority of these shows either having at least one act left for us or in most cases only having just begun, it gives me hope for animation. At the end of last year, I was worried this golden age was ending, that with so many classics going away the roof was about to cave in. And maybe it will some day. But for now.. we have some damn fine programs holding it up.

If you enjoyed this look back at the year, please follow this blog for more reviews every week. I’ve got some stacked plans this year: an ongoing venture bros retrospective, wrapping up some ongoing retrospectives.. and launching some new. We’ve got a watchmen retrospective starting next week, a sonic month in april, and more I have up my sleeve I’m trying not to announce till i’m sure it’s happening. But stick around kids, we’ve only just begun. And i’d like to thank you all, new, old, and what have you for reading this and for reading this blog. I never thought i’d make it to another year. but now i’m confident i’ll be here again next year. If you’d like to help me kepe it going consider joining my patreon., link’s bellow. See ya real soon.

PATREON IS HERE

ALSO HAVE MY PUBLIC DISCORD SERVER FOR ALL OF YOU TO TALK CARTOONS AND SHIT

And vote on an episdoe of Danny phantom for me to review!

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serendertothesquad · 3 months ago

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Seren's Studies: Odd Squad UK -- "Lift Off" Episode Followup, Part 1

Lift Off! *pump pump* Lift On! *pump pump* The Lifter!

...Wow that was a hell of an old reference.

This time around, we have "Lift Off", which is an Orli-centric episode that deals with her facing one of the biggest cultural differences she will ever have to face.

So let's lift off below the break, and hope it won't become a Failure to Lunch. (I had to drop that in somewhere.)

And your writer for this episode. Omar has a very tiny resume, only having worked on something called Piglets once before as a script associate.

...You can probably tell what my reaction is going to be from here. And you'd be right. Everyone has to start somewhere, but for my sacred Christian baby franchise, I'm not doin' amateur hour. Tons of other fish in the kids show sea, thank you.

Huh. Been a hot minute since we've seen any scuba-diving suits. I know they were last seen in Season 3, but I'm blanking on where. I think maybe "The Thrill of the Face", but I'd have to check.

...No, wait. I'm remembering Osmerelda wore hers briefly in "H2 Oh No". Never mind.

I'm sorry, let me see if I'm hearing this right.

She battled demon sharks in a huge-ass whirlpool, and only has a tinny lil' bit of seaweed on her?

I mean okay I get it. They're not going to show rips and tears, for obvious reasons. But they're FUCKING DEMON SHARKS. I've seen sharks. You've seen sharks. You and I know how sharks are, and they're basically what everyone perceives them to be whenever they read about a shark sighting.

But to imply that she didn't even get remotely injured during a battle with demon sharks, where she is sorely outnumbered, where she has another body to protect, is so fucking laughable it's killing me inside.

I'll say this now: I don't expect much advanced logic from this show. I do, however, require basic logic. If I want anything else, I'll rejoin Facebook.

Dude got off some hella crazy anesthesia, but it's the kind where you can bippity-bop and move around while still being loopy.

Either that, or Alexander just won the lottery and got one hell of a good lawyer.

Okay, so tell me about the other 59.

Tell me.

I got a lotta time to kill.

Tell me, coward.

Tell me.

No, no. You misheard. I said the past 59, not the 61st.

...Exactly why do they have a compo- oh. PBS. Yeah. Kinda forgot for a second there.

Is this like the Odd Squad equivalent of a magical girl detransformation? Because it feels like the Odd Squad equivalent of a magical girl detransformation.

And that includes every discussion ever had about why villains don't attack them and how much time passes and all that shit.

Clearly Asha has been spending enough time here to pick up a British accent and do it well. In the span of a year. That's impressive.

That aside, though, you remember in "Running on Empty" when Oswald spoke in a British accent twice and everyone hated it the second time around? That's what this is, only Ozzie actually finds it funny because he's high on crazy shit.

Oh. I see we've entered Odd Squad UK: Portal to Aquatic Heaven.

Is it too late to make a crack theory that Orli died during the demon shark battle and everything after the beginning of this episode is the afterlife, including this depiction of God?

...Okay. Headcanon accepted.

I was genuinely not expecting his greeting to be "Greetings, human children" and now I'm cackling because the God parallels are only becoming more intense.

(God was a human, yes. But this is the Oddverse, where we have oracles that can summon time sheep. You remember that.)

(...Yes, that also explains why he is speaking underwater and behind a wall of water.)

I'm- wait, lemme spell this right...Starlet Cleffia?

That might be too out-there of a name even by Odd Squad standards.

"Lady Calamity's the greatest singer the universe has ever seen!"

Incorrect! That would actually be Saki Fujita, the voice provider for the ever-iconic Hatsune Miku, my Lord and savior.

You can't beat an iconic piece of software that's been around for two decades, sir.

Oh well actually I don't know...I bought some Applebee's but I don't know if that qualifies as gay food or- oh wait that's not what you're saying are you.

These two conversing awkwardly with this guy is the absolute funniest shit. Speaks to my soul because this is just how I interact with people all the time.

...Hehh.

We have fucking BELLHOPS in this precinct???

I'm...awww man, I was hoping this would be a solo venture!! WHAT THE FUCK-

Ohhhh no. Ohhhhhhh no. I can already see where the fuck this is going, and it's going the route of "I go with an average-looking guy but he's really Matt Damon".

"Can I push the button?"

"Afraid not, 'cause then I'd have nothing to do."

YOU WORK IN THE FUCKING MAINTENANCE/TRANSPORTATION DEPARTMENT YOU DING-DONG. YOU CAN FIX UP HQ. BE A GREETER. WHY IN THE ACTUAL SHIT.

Odd...Odd Squad FILING Department and it's just people filing their fucking na-

*long deep sigh* This is gonna be some long shit isn't it.

Okay, I can't complain about this one because it's fitting.

However, that doesn't mean I can't get mad because it's an obvious avoidance of the Eternal Money Discussion.

Pretty sure that's not how actual lifts work, and all this is doing is confusing children who will go to Britain, use a lift, and ask why it isn't going up two floors at a time.

Absolutely sore missed opportunity for a Thomas reference.

...Or maybe this is a Thomas reference and I'm missing it.

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA "BITCH WE'RE NOT DEALING WITH YOUR PROBLEMS WE ARE DEALING WITH MY PROBLEMS".

Funniest interpretation of God yet. He's got my vote.

There were about ten planets, fifteen moons, and countless lives lost in this one scream alone.

"And why didn't you tell me this before?"

"...We're only halfway into the episode."

"The what?"

"I...never mind. Just go to the ten lift."

Either Sinking Ship's headquarters, or the Kids and Family branch of BBC Studio's headquarters.

There is no other option.

Take your pick.

Either Omar has some weird thing with sleeping the way Tim has time travel, or the crew actually saw my Seren Reacts video for "In Your Dreams" and are paying me dearly with interest.

THERE IS NO GRAY AREA.

TAKE YOUR FUCKING PICK.

(Post-editing note: I have been informed that this is not a prodco's studio, but is actually, in fact, an IKEA. Between the meatball reference in "Portalandia" and this, we've come full circle.)

Funny how I mentioned Oswald earlier and now here this redhead comes that reminds me of him.

They don't look similar, but...it's the red hair.

I'm sorry...does that say Oddington or am I fucking tripping?

Well, if they won't weaponize it in-series, then I sure as hell will in-fanfic!

(On to Part 2!)

#seren's studies #odd squad #odd squad pbs kids #odd squad uk

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bump1nthen1ght · 4 years ago

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I’m Still Hurting (Orc x Reader) Part 2

Pairings: Fem!Reader/Male!Orc

Genre: Urban Fantasy, Angst

Warnings: None

Word Count: 2107 words

Summary: You and your boyfriend establish a new normal

A/N: At long last, the highly requested part two! I had a bit of struggle coming up with a proper followup to the first part (which was part of why I left it with an open-ended ending in the first place lol). Little less angst this time, I felt these two deserved a little sweetness after the last chapter. Hope y'all enjoy!

Part 1

The first thing that caught your eye when you walked by the music store was the Grand Piano. It was gorgeous: Polished mahogany, a nice velvet seat, and keys that looked like they had never seen the sticky fingers of a curious 8 year old.

“Wow, is that new?”

You nod, admiring the old-fashioned air of the instrument. You knew jack shit about music, but even you could tell that this piano was an antique, one probably worth a good chunk of change.

“Must be. I’ve never seen it before and this place is on my way to work.”

Waruck hmms, pressing his hands up against the glass. His eyes sparkle when he sees the “Free to Play” sign right next to the piano. It probably reminds him of his Grandpa’s, the one he played when you guys visited his family for Christmas.

That was a long time ago.

“Want to go in?”

Waruck pulls away from the glass, eyebrows raised. He rubs the back of his neck and steps a couple feet back, trying to curb his enthusiasm.

“Uh, we don’t have to-”

“I don’t mind. It's been a while-” You pause, the slight-anxiety in the air making every casual word difficult, “It’s been a while since I’ve heard you play.”

Waruck smiles, small and polite, and opens the door of the shop for you. Before, he might have done a little bow and said “Ladies First” in a British accent.

But that was before, and this is now. Now, every comment is walking on eggshells, whispered tentatively and under your breath. Testing the waters for how comfortable you two could get around each other.

Still, it was exponential growth from two months ago.

--------

After your meeting at the coffee shop, you had asked Waruck for a month; A month of privacy, for you to collect your thoughts and feelings, to be alone for a bit. He had agreed immediately, shuffling out of the cafe with a hunched back and a melancholy air, but he had kept his promise. You took the time to focus on other things, shifting your relationship to the back of your mind and enjoying the day-to-day.

But a part of you felt a little bad, like maybe you were stringing Waruck along for an inevitable breakup. Getting his hopes up for an extra tortuous punishment that left a sour taste in your mouth. So on one brave Saturday night, you sent him a meme you saw on Instagram, one that reminded you of him.

That second month saw the two of you texting more and more frequently, sending little jokes, asking how your day was, so and so. Each week rebuilt a little bit more of that familiarity, that comfortableness. It finally got to the point where Waruck asked if you were free one weekend. He just wanted to get some lunch and stroll around the neighborhood for a bit. For the first time in a while, that idea didn’t seem too bad.

--------

The air is considerably cooler inside the store, a tiny bell ringing as a rush of air-conditioned air hits both of you. Waruck makes a beeline for the piano, his footsteps short and quick. You feel a smile crawl on your face; He always acted like an excited kid when it came to music.

Waruck plops down in the center of the stool, fingers lightly brushing over the keys in awe. You walk up the piano’s side, laying your hand on the wood and admiring the lack of smudge marks on the polished wood. Waruck tests out a G note and although the sound is short, it’s extremely pleasant. Waruck’s smile grows even larger.

“When I was a young boy…”

You mutter under your breath. Waruck chuckles, quickly continuing onto a G flat.

“My father took me into the city,” Waruck hums

“To see a marching band.” The two of you sing together, laughing a little bit too loudly and gaining a sharp look from the tired sales clerk. Waruck waves a little apology, but that playful grin stays on his face.

“Wow, that brings back some repressed Hot Topic memories.”

“Seriously. I can almost feel the book my band teacher used to thwack me with. Me and my buddies would sneak into the choir room and play that all the time.” Waruck’s fingers dance over a couple more notes, aimless.

You’ve always liked watching Waruck play. His fingers were so dextrous and controlled, not to mention long and nicely articulated. He’d probably make good money from a hand-model side-gig.

“Want to take a seat?”

You shift your focus away from Waruck’s hands. He’s made space on the bench and pats the open space next to him.

“Yeah, sure.” You say, despite the fast pace your heart is now beating.

You keep a solid two inches of distance between your bodies, keeping your thighs together as to not brush your legs with his. It felt like a middle school dance, keeping a bible length away from your partner to avoid the disapproving stare of the chaperones.

Waruck nods, absentmindedly running his fingers up the scale. “Any requests?”

Immediately, all non-love songs depart from your brain. One of your favorite pieces sits on the tip of your tongue and your brain refuses to let it go. You shake your head.

“Nope. It’s all yours, music man.”

Waruck chuckles, a little louder and a lot more comfortable, as he sits deeper in his seat.

“Prepare,” Waruck cracks his knuckles, “to be amazed.”

You bite back a laugh. He’s still such a dork.

He starts to play, his hands easily finding the right keys, moving like a well-oiled machine. Your heart nearly skips a beat before it melts into a puddle of sentiment.

It’s your favorite.

The song brings back memories of your childhood, a rainy day in, and delicious food. It’s like chicken soup for the soul and you can feel any of the left over tension leave your body.

Waruck’s eyebrows furrow with concentration, but he has a large smile on his face, his large tusks peeking out from his lips. His arm stretches across the piano as the song hits its most fast-paced part. His biceps and shoulders lean more into your space, but the feeling isn’t unwelcome. It feels natural, as if his presence and yours is part of the piece itself.

Waruck’s thigh brushes against yours, but his pace doesn’t falter and neither does yours. You stay enraptured, watching how easily he slips into the music. You barely even notice how you have begun to lean closer to his side; Your mind says it’s to give his arms plenty of space to play, but it’s still far more comfortable than you are willing to admit.

How easy it feels, in the moment, to fall back into routine.

The song begins slowing to a stop, only a couple seconds left, when the sounds of the music shop return to you. A giggle from not too far rings discordant with Waruck’s piano.

Three girls stand not too far from you, watching with fascination as Waruck plays.

“Wow, he is so good!” One whispers to her friends.

There is nothing even remotely lascivious in their eyes or in their words, but a knife still twists in your gut. Your throat constricts as flashes of your bedroom, of unanswered texts, and a picture of a bar corner booth send needles down your spine and into your heart.

Is this wrong? Is this giddy feeling you have only distracting you from reality? Is it like this song, Waruck’s playing, beautiful but temporary?

“Ugh, I want what they have.”

“I know, right? How romantic.”

They’re wrong, you’re wrong, this is wrong; It’s fake, fake, fa-

Your eyes dart to and fro, trying to desperately avoid Waruck’s quickly overwhelming body heat and your audience, before it catches on the distorted shape of your reflection in the window.

The glass is old, slightly drooping, even the golden lettering of the music shop’s name looks dusty and sun-bleached.

But what is unmistakable is you and Waruck. Waruck, playing piano, and looking at you. Looking at you with the love in his eyes you thought had died, or had never been there at all. The group of girls stands in the background, small and out of focus.

And Waruck is staring at you.

“Are you okay?” Waruck asks, his warm hand on your shoulder.

You whip your neck around, almost getting whiplash.

You’re here, in the music store, with your boyfriend. He looks at you, brow slightly puzzled from your wild eyes.

“Yeah, yeah, I,” You suck in a deep breath, “Sorry, I guess I got lost in my own head. That song gets me kind of nostalgic.”

Waruck pats your shoulder and you miss it’s heat when he pulls it back to his side. He smiles, but you can tell he is still slightly worried.

“No problem, I get it.”

You notice now how much closer Waruck is to you. His chest has shifted towards yours, the fabric of his shirt sleeve pressing against the skin of your bicep. Waruck’s knee absentmindedly knocks into yours, but the contact doesn’t sting or jolt you. Not even the continuing silence makes the situation awkward.

It’s nice.

“Do you want to check out the record aisle? They might actually have that piece on vinyl.”

Waruck gestures with his thumb to the piles of CD’s and records not too far from you two. You nod

“Yeah, that sounds great.”

--------

The two of you spend about an hour in the music store, pointing out hilarious cover art and admiring some vintage finds. Waruck even gets you to chuckle a couple of times, slowly bringing out his old cheesy puns.

Waruck’s missed this.

You two walk out of the music store at the tail end of one of Waruck’s jokes, you playfully punching his shoulder.

The two of you wander, in the opposite direction of your cars, for a little while. But Waruck hasn’t lost track of time; No, he’s soaking in every moment he can, every smile and lingering look you give him. Every reminder that this is real.

He spent a week agonizing over what he did. Stuck in silence as he gave you your space. His friends (His real friends, not those assholes from the bar) had offered to come by and keep him company, but he turned it down.

When Waruck got back into routine, it was slow-rolling. It was difficult to fight the instinct to check his phone for a good-morning text, or check your Instagram for any ‘post-breakup’ partying.

No, he had already broken your trust once. The least he could do was give you some time. Spend some hour not wallowing in self-pity, but actively make a change.

Waruck began to accept those invites to a chill hang out, playing some poker and sipping on beer with the gang. He played his keyboard when the thoughts got too loud and went jogging when the music wasn’t loud enough. He called his mom a couple of times, even sent his sister a couple of texts to catch up. They hadn’t spoken outside of holidays for almost three years.

Maybe he was the one that needed time.

God, why did you have to be so smart?

“Oh shit, how long have we been walking?” You mutter, checking your watch for the time. Waruck turns around you, already knowing the answer was 27 minutes, exactly. The both of you were nearing the edge of the neighborhood, cafes and shops turning into residential suburbs. “Dang, time really flies, huh?”

Waruck smiles.

“With you? It always does.”

You give him a half smile, patting his bicep. “Oh my god, you’re such a cheeseball.”

Waruck winks and shoots you some finger guns.

“You know it babe.”

You giggle, checking your watch once more, face turning just a little bit.

“I should probably head back, I’m getting dinner with some friends tonight.”

A small part of Waruck yearns for more time, but he lets it go.

Space, this was about establishing space.

“I had a lot of fun today, Waruck.” You step a little closer, Waruck’s heart skips a beat.

“Me too.” He whispers, his breath catching as your fingers brush against his.

It’s a simple gesture, one you’ve down a million times. But when your palm slips into his, your finger’s interlocking, it’s like fireworks have gone off.

“Same time, next week?”

Waruck nods, not trusting himself to speak without a voice crack.

That’s all he needed, all you wanted; The promise of the future.

“Yes, I would love that.”

#my writing #orc x reader #reader insert #female reader insert #orc/human #monster/human #monster x reader #monster/reader #angst #orc

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the-insomniac-emporium · 4 years ago

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Serenade (Daniela Dimitrescu/Reader) Pt. 1

Fandom: Resident Evil: Village Pairing: Daniela Dimitrescu/Reader Rating: T for teen for mild language. Later entries in the series will be more mature though, just a heads up Warnings: None this chapter. There will probably be canon typical violence/blood mentioned or referenced in future chapters though, cuz, ya know, vampire ladies? Notes: No beta reader, we die like Ethan Winters’ hands (repeatedly, and with odd frequency)

Chapter 1: Nocturne

Of all the tasks assigned to you, none were as bittersweet as that of dusting Lady Dimitrescu’s piano. Years ago, before you had been shuffled off to a remote European village, before you had been roughly snatched from your home, before… this, you had been taught to play music. From a young age it brought you comfort, entertained you on quiet days, and even made you your fair share of friends. Though you had experimented with a handful of instruments, none felt more natural than piano. Leaving your family’s heirloom piano behind was one of the hardest things you had ever had to do.

Until you arrived at Castle Dimitrescu, at least. Sweat often dropped off your brow as you spent endless hours scrubbing floors, carrying baskets of clothes or mysterious parcels of meat up and down flights of stairs, rushing to and fro rooms across the estate. Physical labor was no stranger to you, but no employer had ever been as demanding as those you now served. Hence part of why you always breathed a sigh of relief when you were chosen to dust the piano. It was hardly a demanding task, even when you had to take care not to accidentally let the keys make any noise. No one was allowed to play it without permission (and that was never given).

Which brought you an aching sensation at the core of your chest, balled up alongside past regrets, a hundred million thoughts of alternative realities where you didn’t hurt so much. There was no point in imagining what choices might have saved you from your fate… and yet you did so anyway. Sometimes you thought about barricading yourself in the room, just so you could play a couple songs, even if it would guarantee you a painful death. But you could never bring yourself to willingly disobey Lady Dimitrescu; not when you had heard the wails and screams of Maidens a few floors below.

Yes, you would never willingly, knowingly do such. That wasn’t to say you were incapable of mistakes. No, you weren’t that fortunate. It was such a simple error, really, just a misjudgment of the cloth held between your fingers. Your hand slipped. That was all. But that slip led to an accidental press of a key- f#, if you heard right- that sounded throughout the room with damning clarity. Just like that, you felt the pitiful thing you called life shatter to pieces on the floor. Inside your chest your heart started to pound, a metronome speeding this performance along to its end.

Had you not been paralyzed with dread, you might have accepted your fate with enough grace to sit down, play those last few tunes like you had daydreamed about so many times. But you didn’t, couldn’t. All you felt you could do was strain your ears and listen for the impending sounds of angry footsteps.

Instead your concentration was interrupted by a door flying open, hitting the wall with a slam you knew would leave a dent, as a swarm of insects burst in. Nearly jumping out of your skin you put a hand to your chest, half expecting not to feel a heartbeat anymore. The rhythm was off, for sure, and it skipped a beat when the swarm surged together to form a somewhat familiar figure: Daniela Dimitrescu. Leaning against the piano, one hand bracing against it, the woman pretended to examine her sickle, idly twisting it back and forth in her hand. When she spoke, she didn’t even bother to glance in your direction.

“I never understood why mother dedicated a whole room to this,” she muses, casually inclining her head towards the piano. “It’s not like any of our instructors lasted very long. Why not let this gather dust with the rest of the useless junk somewhere upstairs?” There’s a pause, and for a moment you mentally debate whether or not you’re supposed to respond. Apparently not, as Daniela soon turns to you and speaks more directly, which is grand, really, as your tongue felt as if it was glued to the roof of your mouth. “Maybe she knew someday someone would come along to serenade us. And you clearly know how to play, otherwise you wouldn’t have dared to make a sound.”

Stepping forward, she extends a gloved hand, cupping your chin so gently that you almost couldn’t feel her touch. Her gaze, however, was dangerously intense, unblinking, and filled with far less joy than her grin would suggest. The touch lasts only a few seconds. Just long enough to leave you shaking with anticipation. Daniela’s toothy smile only widens as she backs up, keeping her eyes on you even as she reclines into a chair in the corner of the room. You almost wished she would just get it over with and kill you. Whatever she had in mind would be worse in the end, yes?

“Well? Aren’t you going to play for me? Show me how much you love me? I don’t have all night,” Daniela says expectantly. She’s relaxed fully, sitting with one leg crossed over the other, spine pressed up against the back of the chair, but she hasn’t set her sickle down. There’s a clear threat in the way she holds it, grip tight enough to let you know that she’s still ready (and itching) to use it.

You couldn’t help but wonder if she’d be acting differently if she knew that you did, in fact, know how to play. Was this just a teasing start to your punishment? Or was there a part of her genuinely interested in hearing music? Obviously you hoped for the latter. Hell, you practically prayed for it as you slowly pulled out the piano bench, awkwardly sat down, and urged your body to remember a song. What genre would a vampire from the 1950’s even enjoy? All you knew were bits and pieces of a few classics, a couple chord progressions from early 2000’s hits, and a handful of songs you had written yourself.

There wasn’t much time to ponder, not with Daniela’s gaze burning a whole in the side of your head. So you simply pressed your fingers to the keys, took a deep breath, and let muscle memory take over. Your eyes became half lidded as you started to play, hardly paying attention to what you were doing. It felt like a single glance at your captor would result in the worst case of stage fright known to mankind. Instead you focused on the piano’s wooden frame, and the many grain marks twisting within.

All the while your fingers glided over the keys, delicately pressing here and there, starting with something simple. Little more than a chord on your left hand, followed with a few short notes on your right, repeating in different places up and down the scale. It was almost a test, a gentle showing to see what Daniela would do. You still refused to look at her, even when you heard what sounded like a bored sigh. A knot tied itself in your stomach, and you gulped, before you shifted mental gears. Evidently “soft and simple” wasn’t going to cut it. Hopefully you could please one Lady without earning the ire of any of the others.

So you paused, letting the notes suspend in the air for a moment, and came back swinging. The kiddy gloves were off, abandoned on the floor with your sense of caution. Grander things came back to mind as your fingers danced atop the keys, stretching chords and melodies alongside each other, the best of what you recalled pouring out of you without a sign of stopping. Out of the corner of your eyes you saw Daniela sit up, paying more attention then she had at the start. Confidence found itself growing at the center of your chest, and it managed to turn your lips up into a smile. How long had it been since you had been able to perform like this? Years? A decade, even? You didn’t know. It didn’t matter.

Minutes passed by like this, with your hands moving constantly, even as your gaze never shifted. It was heaven channeled on Earth. Whatever was to come after, death or dismemberment, you couldn’t care less. Let them take your blood, your life. They could never take this music from your mind, from your memories, or the joy it inspired in you. If you were to die soon, at least you had been given one last soliloquy.

Eventually the song had to end. It was a bitter moment, one you dreaded for its followup, but otherwise would have found pride in. After all, you were evidently the first maiden to give a performance (at least of this variety) to one of the Dimitrescu sisters! Certainly that was an accomplishment? Maybe your brain would let you celebrate later… assuming you survived. Daniela had stayed quiet since her earlier sigh, letting you play on without interruption thus far. Now that the song was over you didn’t know what to expect. Knowing Daniela, or at least knowing the rumors surrounding you, it was hard to imagine that anything you could expect would be accurate.

“How long have you been hiding this little talent of yours?” She coos, clapping her hands together with a short giggle. So far so good, you thought, clinging desperately to hope. Once more she rose to her feet, moving so smoothly she might as well have been gliding, and ended up by your side. This time her hand rested on your shoulder, putting enough pressure to keep you from moving. “Don’t tell me you’re shy, that would simply be too… precious.” With that said her hand trails along your shoulder, across your collarbone, up your neck, then rests for a moment on your cheek. The touch sends a shiver down your spine, which only encourages Daniela, and she tucks a strand of your hair behind her ear.

Before she can say more, or you could even attempt to form words, there’s the faint sound of someone yelling in the distance. A name, you think, although it’s not loud enough for you to make out who’s being called. The answer becomes evident soon enough, however, as Daniela pulls back from you suddenly, smile trading out for a scowl. Some part of you instantly misses her touch, leaving the rest of you confused more than anything.

“Get back to your work, then,” Daniela says, roughly, the playfulness in her voice now entirely absent. It was such a sudden change in demeanor that you didn’t know how to react. Thankfully her eyes were no longer on you, and she was already moving towards the door. Had you really managed to play your way out of a punishment? You knew for a fact that at least one other maiden had lost her life for making the same mistake you did, yet now Daniela looks ready to leave without so much as a slap on the wrist. But she does pause in the doorway, as if reading your thoughts, and throws you a look over her shoulder. Her eyes narrow for a split second before she gives you one last wicked grin. “Don’t worry, sweet thing, I won’t forget you anytime soon.”

Just like that she was gone, into a cloud of insects, out the door and into the corridor beyond. The tension in the room had left, you could finally breathe easy… and yet still your mind was racing. Those words she had left you with- were they a threat? Or a promise of something softer? Only time would tell.

#daniela dimitrescu #daniela dimitrescu x reader #resident evil: village #re8 village #the reader's gender isn't explicitly stated here #but is implied to be female cuz of that whole maiden thing #i might split up future chapters based on idk how to word it #version with dick and version without dick #2 for the price of 1 #for smut reasons obviously #i aint into that whole sex thing #but i have no qualms writing it lol

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