#i think it was mentioned that someone married the grim reaper and i remember thinking ''wow im related to death now?''

[missazura]

not sure if this is an omen or anything but I keep seeing death related things in my dream

[ryuzakemo128]

Grim Reaper Part Six

Pairings: Poly 141 x female reader / female reader x her mental health x König

Content Warnings: Hint of future darker content?, Kidnapping, mention of miscarriage, possessive & obsessed Austrian man, the affair partner comes in, domestic abuse mentioned, controlling behaviour mentioned, many other possible topics you may or may not find disturbing. Reader discrestion is advised.

Words: 2574

Masterlist - Prequel - Part One - Part Two - Part Three - Part Four - Part Five - Part Six - Part Seven - Part Eight - Part Nine

Supernatural AU - Poem

Credit for Dividers: @cafekitsune + @strangergraphics

Summary:

You felt peaceful at home in Alaska.

Austria keeps you on tenterhooks.

A month into your kidnapping, you were never in the main house for longer than a maximum of three days of the week. König wouldn’t risk the task force finding you so quickly, he finally managed to get you back Mäuschen. Don’t you understand? He wanted to keep you for a little longer. How much longer you ask? Why do you need to know Mäuschen? You don’t have a choice in the matter.

Sit there, look pretty for him. Don’t you fucking move a muscle as a painter etches your new look into an oil painting. Into another canvas he would later neglect much like anything your relationship fostered between the two of you. You were too tired to protest or argue with him. The jet lag getting to you faster than a snail escaping a squirrel.

König’s cooing in your ear didn’t help the matter any more if you weren’t tired and fighting the urge to punch him in the face. He seemed too keen on making sure you had this child in his presence inside of his home.

You felt peaceful at home in Alaska.

Austria keeps you on tenterhooks.

Here screamed danger. Betrayal. Heartbreak. Nothing good for you.

That's a diet level not to recommend; a morgue visit seems more apt.

The cottage's redeeming feature is the panoramic countryside view from every angle.

Things kept inside of it? They were a little too perfect, perfected and placed in a ‘aesthetically’ pleasing view. If someone wasn’t paying too close attention to it. Someone with a keen eye would point out it was purposefully styled this way to get you to stay longer.

From Monday to Thursday, you focused on crafting an escape plan while in a different Austrian region. Upon returning, you had no intention of taking chances. Staring at the harp in one of the rooms. In another life you would be playing it still. In another life you would still be married. You wouldn’t have lost your child the first time. Things would have been…...better?

It didn’t matter. It is what it is and thinking about what ifs wouldn’t change a damn thing about it either. Your mind like a stonewall remained steadfast in your choices leading up to your divorce. There was nothing he would or could say to prove otherwise.

On a Friday morning, you were drinking your green tea while someone waltzed into your room. A smug grin plastered on her face. Painted on her face like a well-rehearsed lyric, line in a play and a notable quote from a novel you liked to read.

You finally saw the woman he was seeing behind your back, your face carefully posed neutrally. If looks could have killed, she would have died the moment she walked through the door. “Do I know you?” You asked raising an eyebrow at her.

Her tactics didn't amuse you at all. In fact, it was a mere joke in a failing comical script by a piss poor comedian. Raised by failing artists who thought they could raise a success amongst two failures. You would have pitied her if you didn’t already want to immediately want to melt her face off.

"You don't remember? I figured you would." She jeered.

“You are no longer an integral part of my life. Therefore, your presence in my mind does not exist. Your name is lost in my history, forever a number in a line of cowards I have met in my life.”

“Fancy words for someone locked away in her old bedroom.” She rolled eyes. “I suppose that’s what happens when you run to a group of men instead of remaining loyal to the one guy who could have given you everything you could have wanted.”

“Oh. You sweet summer child. He told you that or did you concoct inside that head of yours all by yourself?” you snorted as you rolled your eyes at her naivety. You just created a job opening sweetheart. He’s serial cheater. You did yourself no favours by staying with him. I have no pity for you. None for a woman who took the life of my first born child from me. You dug your hole here. Lie in it and stay there.

You didn’t dare speak those words aloud. Not yet. You wouldn’t give this woman the satisfaction of her seeing you emotionally react to her. Once in a blue moon you will find your soul here. A version of yourself untainted by the future hurt you would feel soon after. A piece of yourself forever lying inside of the walls of this place no matter how many coats of paint he will put upon these walls.

No matter how much he denies it. You were first and foremost the one who might end up killing him by the end of it all. As you promised you would have if you ever found him cheating on you. Not one to take back your promise as it would go against your morals, your personal code of ethics. A promise is a promise after all.

Like a mythic fox, you're crafty, sharp-witted, and never succumb to trivial vanity. While König laid the game's foundation, you held more hidden cards. You weren’t going to lay around all day helpless like a damsel in distress this time around.

You had an Italian phrase etched into your forearm the month after your divorce, ‘Fino alla morte ogni coglione ci arriva.’ Meaning ‘Until we die anything and everything can happen.’

The phrase slowly becoming your mantra, your personal hymn and prayer you would say yourself over and over. It became your saving grace. Something you cling onto with vehemently. Close to your chest long enough to burn into your soul.

Yet this woman seemed to be so keen on getting right into your face about your pregnancy. You snapped, ordering her back onto König's cock, claiming he'd already fucked her senseless. Best she returns to her sole expertise before you consider doing it for him. Maybe not the optimal phrasing, but it seemed the sole means to make her retreat into a room that felt like a cave.

“Apart from your girlfriend's foolishness, you've done well,” you said calmly. “Well enough for a man of stature.”

König had never seen your temper rise this much. To this level before, it was pointed, angled at him and somehow, he felt his skin fluster. A bundle of nerves aroused by the thought of you losing your temper at her or him. He wanted more. No, he needed more of it. Aimed at him more than anything. Even when you threatened to fuck his girlfriend for him, which to anyone else, it would be odd to hear about right?

König didn't disagree. It was in fact odd to hear the first time she told him. He felt the need to hear repeat inside of his mind. Like a small voice in the back of his skull. Thoughts lingering around. He didn’t know he could think of you in that way. He only saw you as pure. Delicate. A flower.

Upon hearing this now. He desired you to sleep with her from the get-go. A desire which grew from the depths of his soul straight to his cock. Upon hearing, he was even angrier, you didn't. He wanted you to, solely to prove a point. The point where you weren’t the same woman he met years ago. Yet you sent her away. Slamming his fists against the table, sending a few pens rolling off the other side.

A few papers on his desk jumped from the top of his desk. Grunting at the thought of you taking his girlfriend in such an aggressive manner made his cock rock hard in a way he couldn’t hope to describe. Tempting like fudge he wasn’t allowed to eat. Irresistible like the last slice of pizza he hadn’t eaten in years. An apple from a tree, God had forbade Adam and Eve from picking and eating. Lucious, delicious, irresistible.

He'll confine you another weekday henceforth, leveraging your fiery nature for his gain. The potential is immense and endless, ready for his consumption, much like savouring shreds of slow-roasted pork. Can't you see, Maus? Don't you see his longing? Are you truly oblivious? He wants you face first into the white pillows mewling, begging for his thick cock to be shoved deep inside of you until your legs were weak, wobbly like a fawn learning to walk for the first time.

The deep thought of the mockery you would bring for the name branded things he had bought his girlfriend gave him the urge to jerk off inside of a condom pretending it was your tight pussy instead. Tricking his mind into believing he was cock deep inside of you.

Its your fault you look hotter while you are angry, tears streaming down your face and chest heaving as the sobbing wracked through you. Body and soul. Things he took for granted the first time. Yet if only he could take you like he did recently. Over and over without the fear of you ‘remembering’ somehow or in some way in the future. It was far too tempting to not play with that thought right?

You should understand what he’s capable Maus. You fucked with the wrong man this time. I mean it would always wind up to be your fault right Mäuschen? You get a sniff, a lick, a taste and a bite of freedom. And you act up like this Mäuschen?

You must be punished.

You need to be shown who’s really in charge.

And do you really think it’s you? Really?

Need a wake-up call? König is more than prepared to give you one. Or two.

“Taking her away from me? Laughable excuse among many. Pathetic.” He grumbled. Brow creasing into a frown.

Your mantra from ‘I don’t need you. Just as you don't need me’ to the more comforting ‘Until we die anything and everything can happen.’ Though the process was tough, she felt relief at escaping someone cold and uncaring. Her past often surprised her when she least anticipated it. Finding her miss parts of it more than she felt like she should have.

The same platinum blonde and light brown ombre coloured hair tied with pink hair ties in two piggy tails. The pastel pink headband matching the hair ties. The corseted, A-line pink and white dress. It screamed ‘try hard’ to a desperate degree. You just hoped she liked dressing this way before he met her.

She batted her eyelashes as stepped closer to you, you stepped away from her, yet with each step further away. She matched it with two tiny ones of hers. One step back and two steps forward. Pressing your back against the wall. Her light grey eyes looking into yours like you had something inside you worth keeping for herself.

Thief and liar. Two typically dreadful things combined. Evoking a distinctive atmosphere of neglect akin to that found in a Lovecraft or King horror novel. Commonly appealing to horror fans over partygoers.

Odd. She’s silent this time.

Good. She learnt her fucking lesson.

I wish she would stay out of my face though.

Not my problem for much longer.

Her gaze delved deep, as if manually reorganising your insides, all without a trace of physical contact. As you mustered the courage to ask her to go away, the door suddenly opened, and a maid brought in your breakfast. You moved to the table, the young woman gazing in your wake.

What the fuck is her problem? Doesn’t she have something better to do? Did Konig put her up to this? That stupid sick fucker. Probably getting off to the thought of sending her here.

It's likely he has three to four cameras here now.

I located one above the bathroom door and another right above the showerhead, closer to the shower. The third was likely behind the bathroom mirror.

I wouldn’t put it past him. Even with an affair, he remained controlling. Subtly controlling, unnoticed until my departure. Cameras were just one of the few things I remember. I am sure the meals were just as restrictive as they were back then. Can’t gain weight when your husband controls what you eat right? In this case ex-husband.

It felt odd to be watched in this manner. You expected it to come from a stonewall mute who only spoke in sign language or morse code. Not whatever this was.

His mind has flown the coop. It would have to be long gone by now.

He creates chaos and expects me to fix it, accepting the blame for his actions to ease his conscience. Not anymore. As I told him the first day.

I don’t need him anymore. He’s no longer the first thing on my mind. Yet it’s like he’s not listening to the words I’m telling him through my actions. Deliberately misreading them to a dangerous degree.

I can’t find the words to describe how pathetic he seems to me now. Knowing what kind of person, he has shown himself to be.

To think I’m the monster in your eyes. Especially considering the lengths you go to get what you think is yours. Pathetic. Utterly pathetic.

You are far luckier you’re not in front of me now. No matter. If I need to bide my time. I will bide my time. Inch by inch. Centimetre by Centimetre. You will not get away with ruining my life.

Another strange thing you picked up on. There were no clocks inside the entire place. Not even digital ones. Not a single clock anywhere. No calendars kept anywhere to let you know what day or month of the year it was.

There is no ceramic dishes or glasses. Replaced by plastic plates, cups and cutlery. As if he tried to baby wrap and baby proof every aspect of your time here. You are sure the rest of the furniture has the same theme of ‘safety’. As if he didn’t think you were capable of caring for yourself properly.

Insulting as well as utterly demeaning.

He even cleared the books.

None of the erotic tales he'd suspect you of reading behind his back. He called it cheating to read them. Said you were reading them to get back at him on an emotional level of some kind.

Made him doubt your marital fidelity compared to his.

Stated it was your responsibility for his initial infidelity.

Ludicrous. Absurd and utterly false.

He yelled, calling it the ultimate betrayal for writing it on your own terms. He'd have remained unaware if he'd ignored the mail that day. You sold the manuscript a few months into his deployment for extra cash. You'd typically use this while earning, when he's usually away.

He’d be home. While you were deployed. It was an opposite of each other.

He didn’t know you. Not in the way you hoped.

He'd bring gold jewellery, but you liked silver more.

He’d bring you plain green tea. You preferred hibiscus and strawberry hibiscus.

Purposefully getting things wrong to the point where it felt like he just didn’t care. On purpose to a deeper degree, you couldn’t understand at the time. You couldn’t put your finger on the reason for it.

You guess you ought to be glad you got out of there in one piece the first time.

[mossy123302]

I am not exactly entirely good with character or relationship analysis (A reason why my dumb fox head is aroace because I am not good w/ navigating romantic relationships)

So this is just my best effort writing the dynamic Q! Philza and Q! Missa have.

I do like to headcanon, like others, that Philza is indeed aroace, but not in a way, that like he doesn't understand what platonic or romantic means. Sure, it's funny to tease Philza about it, but it's also true that close friends could very much do so. I think Philza is quite aware of what is romantic and platonic, he knows the boundaries of it. I mean Philza is literally married to the Goddess of Death (implied) Kristin. It's more or less that Philza doesn't simply care for such labels. (I very much hc that Philza could probably be genderfluid, like me- Peeposmile)

It's something Philza even mentioned in the live stream when talking about the deities in hardcore world. It's something they don't care about and just vibe with whatever they're vibing with. They don't care and I think Philza is the same in that mindset. He just doesn't care, and will be blunt about it, if he needs to actually talk about it.

Philza seems to deeply cherish those that are ... similar to himself from what I can tell. I don't fully watch Fit or other POV to get a clear understanding of Phil's relationship w/ others so I'm sorry if I don't include them, same with Technoblade. I've recently started watching mcyt again and I don't want to talk about something I don't have a full understanding of.

Anyways, Phil deeply connects with those that share similar traits to him in some regard. Techno whose the Blood God, who clearly has an understanding of death, war and loyalty and this clearly shows via Missa too. Missa, while not a fighter, does understand death and how important it is... He literally is a gentle grim reaper. He understands death much clearly, because his mother is also a Goddess tied to Death as well. Missa is also fiercely loyal to Phil and his children, because honestly, he was so busy! He didn't have to return to Quesadilla Island but he did because he cares about Phil and his children, quickly adopted Tallulah and he hadn't even seen her yet.

Whoever Phil trusted and guards with his life, Missa will guard that person with his life as well. Of course, unless, we talk about BadboyHalo then that's another discussion LOL. Such a mess between the demon (?) and grim reaper.

Anyways, we know how much Phil values such loyalty that, I cannot remember what Tubbo said, but he immediately locked Tubbo out of his own home because of what he said about someone and while despite implied flings with others. Philza never spoke about others the way he speaks about Missa.

Their relationship definitely...crosses the line of platonic and romantic. I can see why it would be considered queer platonic relationship, but also at the same time, it's like there is some line being breached which makes everyone raise an eyebrow cause sir, what do you mean platonic-

Philza is clearly...possessive over Missa, because the way he got so defensive when Bagi mentions Antoine (right?) and Missa should date. Philza didn't have to get so defensive, because Missa already immediately denied. Philza could have kissed anyone else, like Fit, but chose Missa instead. He even demanded Tall Missa to the admins, got jealous over any shipping fanart and acts like he's fine and doesn't miss Missa at all. *Coughs in* "I'm going to f*cking off myself. Did Missa log on again?!" (Side eye Philza)

Like he's done lots of things that makes everyone just raise an eyebrow- Philza is fooling no one but himself (& Missa)

I also enjoy the lore Missa has going on with accepting that he is indeed a part of the family and isn't alone. Missa had just lost Spreen, and suddenly, he had no one but the Angel of Death as his assigned partner. Missa must have felt so unmatched compared to Philza because what could he even offer to the family? He had nothing but his music and kind words, which is everyone that Death Family wanted. Missa brought a different change to the family that makes them be vulnerable, to not be so serious all the time and to actually just relax and be like a family that's just on vacation.

I mean, and just talking about loyalty and kindness. Missa never gave up... He fought his way back, despite getting taken away by wolves and suddenly Badboyhalo being so cruel. He always made sure his family was safe and always brought something for them.

Didn't Missa say he got lost because he tried to find a gift for Philza?! Like...the commitment to find a perfect gift for Philza, and still returning (sure, without the gift). While it's hilarious, Missa doesn't run away because of his wet cat behavior. He runs away because he doesn't want to put his family in danger, he cannot fight as well as others can. He relies on others to fight for him and then he jumps in to help, but because the time zone doesn't allow such things. Missa is forced to run.

And Missa is good at it. He will run as far as he can, if it means his family will be safe. He isn't running away from his family, but the danger because at the end of it all, he will return back to his family, no matter how long it takes.

And Missa casually admitted to Chayanne that he needs Philza more than he realized, the same way Philza realizes he needed Missa but didn't dare admit, whether it is out of fear or something else that he couldn't voice it. But Philza clearly showed it through his actions, that he brought/dragged Missa to Rose's Sanctuary before they went to sleep forever. He didn't have to do so, but he did... indicating their bond is much deeper because Rose's Sanctuary is literally a pocket dimension that no one cannot access.

Missa has access. Now he sleeps eternally with his family...

Also their whole dynamic just being Sun/Moon. Fated to never see each other at times, until an eclipse and yet...they still leave signs to let the other know that they're still remembered. This also brought to my attention how Missa is afraid of the sky, while Philza yearns for the sky/to fly.

You think The Sun (Philza) misses the Moon (Missa) so much, because of how far they are, instead of just not seeing each other. The Moon clings to Earth, because they're afraid to go beyond...to something unknown while the Sun cannot stay still, and yearns to burn and be free.

Deathduo/Pissa has me on chokehold.

I do hope this was an interesting analysis, I'm not very good at this..honestly it's probably just me rambling if anything.

[quirrrky]

🔮  @tobibam​—who will you marry? 🔮

DISCLAIMER: Please keep in mind that this reading is just for fun! If anything resonates, then it’s even more fun! 😊 Also, please don’t be mad at me if you don’t get your selfship characters 🥺

🔮 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐲

the tower, knight of swords, 2 of pentacles, 8 of wands, addiction Bam! Your future husband is someone with a very strong presence. Like, when he enters the room people are gonna be noticing. He’s the type of person who goes after what he wants without hesitation. He never backs down from life’s challenges no matter how hard it is. A really tough fellow. He’s very straightforward and clear when it comes to communicating what he wants. He can multitask very well and has a lot of engagements. Deffo not a boring person. As I’ve mentioned, when he wants something he stops at nothing, and it includes liking you, Bam! Your future husband will be very focused on pursuing you and you’ll certainly know it. He’ll be a very dedicating husband.

the emperor, 7 of cups, 6 of swords, princess of swords, the grim reaper Your future husband can be authoritative at times (controlling) Mehe...remember me saying he’s dedicating lmao, he’s just soooo dedicating sometimes. He might also overwork and have alot on his plate more than he can take. He may also gossip a lot too. Lol Bam! Hahahaah and he may troll around people and talk trash in front of him. Your future husband is reminding me of this one character ISTG Also, he’s not fond of giving second chances. 

let go of control issues, free yourself, camera, wedding rings, paradise, visual cards, sun, moon, 11th house Well, well, as I’ve mentioned your future husband can be a bit controlling at times. He really has this take-charge aura around him. Though, I can see that it is because he views you as the delicate side of him. Like his soft, squishy and baby counterpart that he must protect at all cost. He treats you with special care that he comes off like a strict dad sometimes, because he loves you that much. You’re the type of couple who may be prone to show affection in public tho. Lovey dovey! And you’ll treat each other like you’re best friends! You’ll take. lots of pictures together and you two would love to flaunt it online, maybe??? Your relationship will be filled with cuddling. I see him loving to have you encaged in his strong arms. There will be lots of playfulness and flirting between you two. I can see traveling as well. You’d be what each other needs as he gives you a dependable arms to lean on and you give him the gentleness he needs to remind him that life is not always as rough as it seems.

🍰𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬

your first impression of your future husband the shadow, the move, the change, the song, chariot Woah! This is an interesting first impression. I’m picking up here that you think your future husband is a little mysterious. Maybe, when you see him from afar, he comes off like that. I see someone lancing at you from afar then you meet eyes. Then he comes forward and woah! He doesn’t come off as very introverted at all. He can be too forward even, but I don’t see you not liking it. In fact, you might like it. He may have a very smooth voice that you’ll love. You’ll think he’s very charismatic. He’s someone you wanna talk with. I really perceive here that he’ll hit on you pretty fast. Lol! Your person is just that damn fast. 

your future husband’s first impression of you the dream, the create, the dark, the dash Girl! You’re his dream girl! And he feels like you guys are moving fast. Yo! But this guy’s fast so I guess it’s his thing too. He likes the rush that you gave him that surge of immediate and instant attraction that he may not have felt with anyone else. He sees you as someone very creative and he loves listening to your ideas! You might talk too fast 💀 He’ll find that adorable though. You make your dreams come true and he likes that go getter in you. Still, he thinks there are parts of you he wishes to unravel. All in all this person thinks you’re his dream come true right off the bat!

You might get married/engaged with this person with just little time in the dating phase. I’ve been sensing this urgency of you both to be with each other, the attraction and tension you both have. It could be possible that you’ll meet this person during at the right age. When you both are decided that marriage is what you wanted out of life. So for now, enjoy being free baby Bam! (lol cuz your future hubby can be a little controlling at times :P)

💍 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐟𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞/𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐧𝐞𝐫

-/ he may seem like dabi at first but he’s really a bakugou lmao! I really see him having a soft side for you though like he won’t be able to resist it when you just play cutesy around him xD this is the 3rd bakugou now in this match up! but ir’s really him I can’t even-

🔮 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠

[jwirecs]

Recommended BTS Social Media Au’s of August 2021📱

Just a small compilation of some of my favorite SMAU’s that I have read so far and would absolutely love to recommend to others!

** anything in parentheses and bolded are my thoughts that can be disregarded if needed **

🔞smut || 💔angst || 💕fluff || ✅ completed || 🔄ongoing || 💯favorite

The Pact || @sopebubbles💕💔✅

↳ after Min Yoongi broke her heart and ended their engagement during senior year of college, Jeon Yn made a pact with her best friend Kim Seokjin that they would get married if they were still single at 30. At the end of their twenties, will they keep the promise? (i honestly love these friends to lovers au. makes me remember that i got no love life but thats okay🙃)

'Til Death Do Us Part || @cinnaminsvga💕💔✅

↳ jungkook is the god of thunder who comes down from olympus to destroy humankind, but accidentally gets hooked on twitter instead

Cursed || @bloomsuga🔞💕💔✅💯

↳ in which you are a wedding florist plagued by ghosts, taehyung is a witch with a secretive past, yoongi is a grim reaper who hates his job, and jin is your guardian angel who’s just trying his best

Just Watch || @hxseok-honee💕💔✅💯💯

↳ (there wasnt a summary, but please give it a read regardless!)

The Most Beautiful Moment in Life || @bts-reveries💕💔✅💯💯💯💯💯💯

↳ (a beautiful smau that is connected and yall bet that this entire series is gonna be on this list. like yall dont know how long i waited for this. like bro i love this. not to mention that they have the Life Goes On drabble series in the works. its chef’s kiss.)

I Hate That I’m In Love With You || @prkchimins💕💔✅

↳ Jimin, Taehyung, and Yoongi set up their master plan for Y/N to hook up with Jungkook as a one way ticket into his famous college parties.Unfortunately, things don’t exactly go to plan. Jungkook despises Y/N, whilst she thinks he’s a self-centered fuckboy.Jungkook and Y/N end up hating each other, but will they catch feelings ? (this is really cute, like bro🥺)

Catch My Ghost || @smaubts​💕💔✅

↳ convinced that her apartment is haunted y/n accepts her friends offer to ask for professional help, kim taehyung. what she doesn't expect is that the professional help isn't that professional and happens to be scared of ghosts. (the amount of crackhead energy in this is amazing)

#fake || @knpjpr💕💔✅💯💯

↳ "first loves have always been confusing, but when you're bestfriend confesses she likes someone, your willing to do anything, even fake date and even so, find your first love."

So Show Me, I’ll Show You || @yonkimint💕💔✅💯

↳ Seemingly out of the blue, y/n packs up everything to move halfway around the world to teach English in the heart of Seoul. You plan to keep your head down, work hard, and avoid anything that might let a past you would rather forget catch up with you. You aren’t expecting anything but a fresh start and a chance to breathe. Maybe that’s why you’re so reckless when a beautiful idol singer walks into your favorite cafe and strikes up a conversation, consequences be damned.

Do check out all of the other BTS SMAU’s that I have reblogged on my blog as well!!!

** if there’s any fic that you guys could recommend me to read, i would love to get some recommendations! im slowly running out of smau’s to read. **

[iloveseung-gi]

My sad farewell to the Goblin/Guardian: The Lonely and Great God:

07/05/2021: The Goblin found the Grim Reaper and because of the memories of their new founded friendship he let the Grim Reaper go, although he used the excuse that the Grim Reaper couldn’t remember anything. Then the Grim Reaper was called before the auditors of the Afterlife who gave the Reaper a punishment and suspension because he gave memories back to a human. The punishment: to remember everything, including the 600 years in hell. And with the memories of all of the tragedies he had caused, the Grim Reaper was devastated.

Learning that the Goblin Bride was to die in a week and realizing that the only sword to kill the evil spirit was the one embedded in his chest, the Goblin came up with a plan. The Goblin took his bride to a rooftop and left her there while he searched for the evil spirit. After a confrontation with the Goblin, the spirit went to where the Goblin Bride was and began to attack her. She was able to call on the Goblin who came and rescued her. The evil spirit then entered into the Bride’s body and using her hands he grasps the sword, but the Grim Reaper suddenly shouted his name and he came out of her body. Still grasping the sword the Bride passed out and the Goblin grabbed her hands around the sword handle and pulled the sword out himself. He struck the evil spirit with the sword and the spirit was vanquished. The goblin fell to his knees. Waking up and realising what was happening the Goblin Bride held onto him, begging him not to leave. He told her, “I will come with the rain and with the first snow”, and after a very sad and tearful farewell the Goblin began to turn into ashes that floated away in the wind. And I cried with the bride! 😭😭😭 And everyone associated with the Goblin felt his passing and everything associated with him began to erase as if he’d never existed, especially their memories. The Bride was able to write down a few things before her memories disappeared.

07/06/2021: Just to back up for a second: the Bride could bring him to her when she blew out a fire, candle, match, even an app on her phone of a candle. And she uses it when frightened and for fun. That’s how they met. She was alone on the jetties with a cake on her 19th birthday when she wished for someone that would love her and blew out the candle… And he appeared.

Back to now: The Goblin chose not to erase his memories and then also chose to remain where he was, a netherland, between worlds. For 9 years he walked through freezing temperatures and knee-deep snow towards the woman he loved. She graduated from college and was working at a radio station. And when it rained and the first snow came, she would panic and with her heart hurting, she would lay in bed and cry and cry and cry, but not understanding why. She would read what she had written but she had no memory of it. For nine years she no longer saw ghosts. One day, while she was thinking of Kim Shin (the Goblin ‘s true name) and who he could be, she blew out a candle and he appeared. He ran to her and hugged her but she pushed back and asked, “who are you?” But he was happy, she was there in front of him and he was back home. He followed her and she continued to be wary of him and threatened to call the police. He even followed her to Canada where he had taken her several times and that’s where her memories came flooding back, she crying and screaming, “I’ve missed you!, I’ve missed you!” and he was there and he kissed her.

Being a Grim Reaper, his memories were not erased and, I think, because the Grim Reaper had kissed the General’s sister, she too had kept her memories. The sister decided to leave because she loved the Grim Reaper but couldn’t forgive him for what he had done.

Finally on the spur of the moment the Goblin and his bride were married. For a short while everything was perfect, but one day while driving her car she saw a large truck coming backwards down a hill towards a bus being filled with small children and she stopped between the truck and the children and the truck hit her and the children lived. She died and she told the devastated Goblin, “I will run there and I will run back as fast as I can” and the Goblin told her, “be it 10 years or 100 years I will be waiting for you” and she took the stairs to Heaven and I cried with the grieving and devastated Goblin.

30 years passed and finally with his punishment ending, the Grim Reaper received his last calling and it was Sunny, the General’s sister and the Grim Reaper’s only love. And together they climbed the stairs upward toward heaven. Years later the Goblin saw their reincarnations. The Grim Reaper was a detective hired as a consultant for a movie studio and Sunny was an actress for the same studio. So they found each other again.

Soon afterwards, while sitting at the grave site of the people he loved, a familiar voice called out to the Goblin and it was his bride, reincarnated…..the end!

P. S. The last 3 episodes are behind the scenes segments hosted by the a few of the main cast. The first 2 episodes were hosted by Sunny (Yoo In-Na) and the Grim Reaper (Lee Dong-Wook). The 3rd episode is hosted by Secretary Kim played by Kim Byung-Chul. There were some great behind the scenes shots, even scenes that were cut and never seen before.

This 3rd episode shows the meeting of the Goblin and his bride and the progression of their relationship. Secondly it showed the relationship of Sunny and the Grim Reaper. This series was so beautifully written and staged and I loved every second of it! Series 2 of the Goblin was mentioned, and I hope they do bring it… I will not miss it. (The scene that took my breath away was Kim Go-eun’s screaming cry of devastation as the Goblin dies and disintegrates. It was so realistic it reached my soul and I felt my heart being shredded. She is an absolute masterpiece!) The end.

[nicetomeetmew]

If LU was an anime (VA headcanons)

Okay so! A while back I uploaded a video (which you can find here) giving the LU boys voice actors. And in the description of said video, I promised that I was going to post a list of explanations for my voices and link it. Which I am only doing now.

These choices, bar a few, are my own personal opinion, so I'd love to hear your thoughts about them! I spent far to long working and watching anime for this but I am pretty happy with the end result, bar one (glares at Four). So I hope you enjoy! And prepare yourself. Cause this is LONG.

Legend - Vic Mignoga (Edward Elric from Fullmetal Alchemist and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood)

So fun fact. Back when I first discovered LU, I almost immediately imaged Leg with this voice. He had strong Ed vibes for me and when I started making this list, he was the only one I immediately knew was perfect. At least to me. It just has that quality; the snark with the capability of being genuine and emotional (I do apologise if the voice clips I included in the video made you sad. That's a hazard of FMA). I didn't consider anyone else for Legend, even though I did briefly consider Vic Mignoga for Warriors (more on that later).

Sky - Aleks Le (Zenitsu Agatsuma from Demon Slayer)

Man, I considered a fair few KnY voices for this list, including the voice of Tanjiro for Wild and the voice of Giyu for Twilight. But this is the one that stuck. I was struck between Sky having a youthful, soft voice or an older, soft voice (I knew his voice had to be soft. I mean. It's Sky.)

I watched the dub of Demon Slayer solely for this and it never would've occurred to me to consider Zenitsu's voice for Sky. But as the show progressed and I heard it when he wasn't... you know... begging some poor lass to marry him, I realised he actually has quite a soft voice. And when I heard it get all serious I thought "Yep. That works." And thus I placed Aleks Le as the Chosen Hero. You could argue that his voice is a bit too youthful for him but I still think it works.

Wind - Amanda Miller (Boruto from Boruto: Naruto Next Generations)

Ugh. Ugh. *increasing sounds of disgust*. I hate this.

But let's start from the beginning. Right off the bat, I was 99.9% sure Wind would be voiced by a woman. Okay so he's not 10 (that will make more sense in a second), but he's still pretty young and I imagine him with quite a youthful voice. For him, I considered Sarah Natochenny, the current voice of Ash Ketchum in Pokémon, and also Colleen Clickenbeard's voice for Monkey D. Luffy in One Piece. But these two voices shared the same problem. They were too raspy. I just cannot see Wind with a raspy voice. I guess if you really, really, really focus on it it could work but I just could get it to work for me hfff.

And then... ugh. I spoke to a mate about. He doesn't know about LU so I just told him I was making voice headcanons and couldn't think of a good one for a 14 year old boy. And he said "have you heard Boruto's English voice?" And I think my response was something along the lines of, "Ben, I have standards." But he insisted it would probably work so I watched a clip of Boruto on YouTube and much to my horror, it did seem to work. But there was problem. None of the clips had lines I could picture Wind saying. And because of that I was struggling to actually give Wind the voice. But something told me that it was the right one so... I... *shudders*... watched Boruto. I watched I think 5 full episodes before I had no more braincells and skipped thorough a bunch more and sure enough, I could finally see Wind with that voice. I think it fits him great and it honestly might be my favourite choice just because I had to watch that nightmare.

Hyrule - Justin Briner (Izuku Midoriya from My Hero Academia)

Ah. This one is much more pleasant. First of all, I never realised this at first but Midoriya and Hyrule are kind of similar. For one thing, they do kinda look alike. And for another they have the same "I will never give up" kinda thing going on.

Roolie is another one I knew would have a soft voice. I think Justin Briner was always down as a choice for him, except for when I briefly considered him for Four (more on that later *big sigh*). This is another anime I watched the dub for solely for this and there were a ton of lines right from the get go I could instantly imagine Roolie saying. So yeah. Aside from the tiny moment I almost assigned Justin Briner to Four, this was a pretty easy one. Midoriya has a soft voice that I could easily imagine Hyrule having. And when he got angry and his voice got harsher, I could also easily see Roolie like that too. Fun fact: there's another BNHA voice on this list... heh.

Wild - Michael Sinternklaas (Dagger from Black Butler)

AW YEAH. YOU HAVE BEEN DIAGNOSED WITH BRITISH BOI.

Ahem. Anyway. Yes Wild is British. Everyone rejoice. I was unsure of how people would react to this but I think this is the only voice on the list everyone agreed on. Which I'm happy about.

As I mentioned, I considered the English voice of Tanjiro (Zach Aguilar) for Wild. There were issues with this; mainly that it was too soft, too young, and made him sound too similar to Sky. Now here's the thing. I WANTED to give Wild a English accent. I am almost certain he would have one, like most people. However the only anime I could think of with decent English accents was Black Butler (and yes I know his final voice is from it, bear with me) and there was a problem with that. Most of the voices from Black Butler are ridiculously posh. Now you may be thinking "But Kai, Zelda has a posh English accent" and to that I would say "Ah yes but she's a princess and Wild is not". And now you might be thinking "But Kai, he's a knight an probably spent a lot of time in a place with posh English accents". To which I would say "But he wasn't always". Two words. Hateno Village.

Let me explain.

I feel like a lot of people hear the words 'English accent' and immediately think of an accent like Zelda's (and no, I am not saying everyone does and I'm also not implying that there aren't people out there who aren't British and know that there are multiple accents). Anyway, English accents are different depending on the place. And, since one can assume Wild is from Hateno Village, I would imagine their accent is different to that of those born in Castle Town. So that's why I was reluctant to give Wild a voice from Black Butler. Because all the voices that weren't insanely fancy were either far too old or did not have the right vibe.

Then one day, taking a break from this, I was watching season 3 of Black Butler (one of the only anime I watch dubbed) and I heard two voices that I suddenly thought, hang on just a second. One of those was the voice of Ronald Knox, who's a grim reaper. And the other, of course, was Dagger. I was leaning towards Dagger and what sold me was one scene in particular, which I chose as the final voice clip for Wild (you cannot tell me that is not exactly something he would say). And that was it. But Wild's was easily one of the most frustrating (not the most *glares at Four again*).

Time - David Matranga (The Father from Wolf Children)

Another tough one and also one I heavily considered for Twilight (for obvious reasons). Time's was kind of tricky because I knew I wanted it to be deep but there's such of variety of deep voices. At one point I even considered dumping the deep voice idea because it was so hard. It was a this time I thought of the voice of space cowboy extraordinaire, Spike Spiegel. But my brain said "hell no". There were other voices I considered for him, loads of which I cannot find the notes for and another one which will likely appear in part two as another character (no spoilers), but when I was picking a voice for Twi, some of the lines the father said just kept ringing big old Time vibes with me. So in the end, I decided to for it. Like I said, I imagine time with a deep voice and while to father's might be a bit more... gravelly (?) than I imagined, I think it fits him pretty well. It's serious and mature but still a certain kindness I'd imagine Time's voice to have.

Warriors - Johnny Yong Bosch (Ichigo Kurosaki from Bleach)

Don't lie. You knew Johnny Yong Bosch was gonna be on here and not just because I put his name (albeit spelled incorrectly) in the thumbnail. When I started making this, I knew I wanted to fit JYB into it. In my mind, LU would be an amazing anime and almost all amazing anime have Johnny Yong Bosch in it.

Now, I spent a lot of time trying to figure out whether he would be better for Wars or Twi. At one point I was convinced he would be best for Twi and that's when I briefly thought about Vic Mignoga for Warriors (his voice for Tamaki Suoh from Ouran High School Host Club. Don't tell me Tamaki and Wars aren't at least a tiny bit similar). But I could bear to part with Vic for Legend so I decided heck it, Johnny is Warriors and I'll find someone else for Twi later. As for the voice in particular, the two voices I considered for Twi definitely did not fit Wars. And then I remembered Bleach and immediately I thought "Yep. That's the one". I imagine Warriors having an authoritative voice, not too deep and very... uh... I don't know the right word. Clean sounding? Anyway, Ichigo just seemed to fit nicely and thus it was so.

Four - Micah Solusod (Yukine from Noragamai)

Ugh. UGH. Okay. This is my least favourite. Four was, excuse my French, A FUCKING NIGHTMARES. There was not ONE SINGLE VOICE that seemed to work for him at all. I watched a bit of the Noragmai dub because I was thinking about Yato's voice for someone (I can't remember who. It might have been Wild) and I heard Yukine's and decided to put it into reserve. As in, my last resort. And I had to use it. Oh my god Four. I love you but your voice is literally a nightmare. Is it high? Is it low? Is it young sounding? Surprisingly grown up sounding? I DON'T FREAKING KNOW.

I mentioned earlier that I considered Justin Briner for him. I was thinking about his voice for Luck from Black Clover, which may have honestly worked a bit better, but I was pretty attached to Justin as Roolie by this point. So I had to whip out Micah.

Let me be clear. No, I do not think this works well at all. I appreciate the people who tried to see that good in it, but I honestly just don't think it works. The only reason I went for it is because Yukine's voice switches between older sounding and younger sounding throughout the show and since I could decide what Four's would sound like I said to myself "Fine. Four can be the same", found some clips, slapped it together and never looked back.

I am still looking for another voice for Four and if I find a decent one, I will include it in part two.

And last but not least...

Twilight - Aaron Mitchell Dismuke (Tamaki Amajiki - My Hero Academia)

Told ya there was another BHNA voice.

So Twi was another tricky one. As I mentioned, I was seriously considering Johnny Yong Bosch for him. More specifically, his voices for Giyu Tomioka from Demon Slayer and Kiba from Wolf's Rain (for obvious reasons). I did almost go for Kiba but something was stopping me. I'm honestly not sure what.

So I was talking to a mate (and by that I mean I rambled. A lot) about VA's and at one point he suggested Aaron Mitchell Dismuke but not for Twilight. I can't actually remember who he suggested it for but anyway, that didn't work out. But when I was looking through his work, I saw that we played Amajiki and I was curious. I listened to him and I liked it.

Okay to be fair I wanted a country accent for Twi. Of course I did. But I could not a find a decent one. They few I found were absolutely terrible. So I gave up on that and decided that was Amajiki. And that was that.

And that concludes the Links VA headcanons! I am happy with most of them and once more these are my opinion but I would love to hear your own ideas!

As I have said many times, I am working on a part two and as a sneak peak (sort of) I'll tell you two of the characters that will be featured (excluding Four, if I find him another voice).

Dink (even though he hasn't, technically shown up yet) and Malon (which is proving to be a lot tricker than I thought). There a couple more but my lips are sealed heh.

Oh and speaking of Dink, the voice I considered for Time and then thought it would be better for someone else? Yeah that's the voice that's currently in the lead to be Dink's :)

I hope enjoyed my long winded explanations! And thank you for reading/watching!

[wetalkinboutbooks]

The Bird King by G. Willow Wilson

Summary

The Bird King is a 2019 fantasy novel set in 1491, the novel takes place in the Emirate of Granada during the territory’s final days. The story concerns the flight of Fatima and Hassan, a concubine and mapmaker, respectively, from service to the Emirate’s last sultan. (Taken from Wikipedia)

We follow Fatima and Hassan on their search for the Bird King as they avoid soldiers of the Spanish inquisition, and meet a variety of characters along the way.

Our Ratings: 

 → Geena: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

 → Kae: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Overall: The Bird King is an amazing book that manages to be complex yet light-hearted. It touches on subjects like faith, love, and friendship. The characters are engaging (and absolute drama queens) and the plot is fast-paced so there’s never a dull moment. The dynamic between the characters leads to the funniest situations that will have you dying. In summary, reasons to read this book if you haven’t already:

A- ONE SUPER FUNNY BOOK PLZ READ IT

B - THE DRAMAAA OF FATIMA AND HASAAN

C - Vikram 

D - Stupid

~ Spoiler-full discussion below ~

The Good: 

→ Hassan and Fatima’s Relationship

Geena: The best thing about the bird king (aside from the horse named Stupid) was Hassan and Fatima’s friendship. IMO it was so wholesome and they were so in love (PLATONICALLY!!!!). When Hassan said seeing Fatima walking around was like seeing his heart outside his body…… a BITCH DIED!!! Also, the fact they would take shots at each other constantly? Loved it. HOW COULD I FORGET… HASSAN CONSTANTLY BEING HORNY AND FATIMA BEING LIKE “CAN U CHILL!”  

Kae: OKAY MOOD LMAOOO. So boom. Geena covered it. We love this book! Hassan and Fatima are the definition of the 💯 emoji. But these bestie-bitches are DRAMATIC af. I’ve never seen two best friends who love each other as much as they do. They’re hugging and crying one moment, then the next they’re jealous that one of them is talking to someone else. DRAMATIC. I love it. Have we talked about Gwenny and Stupid yet?  

Geena: WE HAVEN’T TALKED ABOUT THEM, the perfect accessories to the Hassan-Fatima duo. Gwen is the token white boi, there for Hassan to thirst over and Fatima to learn how to sail a ship. Stupid on the other hand…. God bless that horse all it did was drown and then LIVE!!!! The absolute legend.  BUT Kae HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE GWEN AND STUPID? HMMM

Gwen: I only love God

Also Gwen: *sleeps with Fatima on the deck of the ship while Hassan is 3 feet away* 

Kae: Well... Gwennec. Ol’ Gwenny Gwen Gwen. Gwen, the Monk who FUCKS. PAHAAHA. Gwen was a new Monk who was at first, totally against helping our favorite bestie-bitches. But Fatima was all “Don’t test me white boi I will kick ya ass.” And Gwen lowkey thought it was hot so he let them slide. He taught Fatima and Hassan how to sail while Hassan made googly eyes at him and definitely wanted to tap that. But, as previously stated, Fatima and Gwen got it ooonnn.  Hassan found out and as like “Fa, I can’t believe you slept with my husband who doesn’t know we’re married yet!”,  and that was basically that.. Then we have Stupid. The horse who was just as damn stupid as his name. The horse lived to spite the Grim Reaper just to prove it would breathe another day. We also haven’t mentioned our Jinn friend and their literal lifesaver/guardian angel, Vikram.  

Geena: VIKRAM, aka another dude/djinn/dog man that Hassan wanted to fuck but couldn’t :( Vikram was essentially the only one in the group that had a substantial amount of brain cells, and spent most of the time trying to make sure Fatima didn’t accidentally kill herself. The fact that he saw his death and it was in the arms of a “beautiful woman” should sum up his character really well. 

Kae: Geena is sooo right. Vikram was the only one with brain cells because Fatima and Hassan both shared two. Our loveable, dramatic, but also a little dimwitted faves wouldn’t have survived any of their adventure without Vikram. He lead them through a Jinn filled tunnel that Hassan made. Escorted them across the land with the Inquisition right on their asses, and fought off whoever tried to hurt them. Initially, he agreed to save them because of a debt he owed to Fatima’s Sultana. But in the end, Vikram helped them because he wanted to. He was a weirddog/man/Jinn who just wanted Fatima and Hassan to stop being dumbasses for five seconds. But they couldn’t so he was constantly annoyed and probs wanted to eat them to shut them up. BUT WE STAN THAT FURRY LEGEND BECAUSE WITHOUT HIM, OUR ESCAPEES WOULD BE DEAD-EEE. Also he was one suave, smooth talking mofo and I feel like if he walked up to you and said “You’re lovely, but you’re an idiot. It’s okay, because you’re pretty tho.” that compliment sandwich would go right over your head and you’d thank him.  

Geena: ok FIRST OFF I would be like “why do you have a tail” but god Kae you hit all the points. 

The Bad AND The Ugly

→ The Sultan and His Mom Being Pedos 

Geena: Ok so, Fatima is 17 and I’m assuming the Sultan was in his mid-thirties, because he has kids Fatima’s age 👀. So I am sure it was historically accurate, the fact that the old ass man had a 17 year old concubine, but that doesn’t make it any less gross!!!! What’s worse is that Fatima’s mom was originally a slave for the sultan, so when she was born the sultan’s mom raised her and had her instated as a concubine when she was 15!!!!!! Scuse me while I 🤮. 

Kae: Yea, Geena said it all. The Sultan was ewww. Fatima was his favorite and I guess he talked to her like she wasn’t a concubine? She was treated very well. For a concubine. Probably better than any concubine I’ve read about Like, she had rights and could talk shit without punishment. But still, DISGUSTEEENNNG. Our girl was groomed so we do NOT stan the Sultan. 

→ Luz

Kae: we also have our main villain, Luz. She arrived at their palace to play peaceful, but she had ulterior motives that involved her spreading the word of the LORDT and taking Hassan in to be tried for Witchcraft and all that magic shit. Because if we didn’t say it before, Hassan can draw anything on a map and make that place a reality. Luz has this little worm in her eye that basically makes her super weirdly strong and badass. But fuck Luz. When Fatima finds out that Hassan is to be tried for witchcraft, she goes to him so they can both escape. Fatima wants to be free and she doesn’t want to see her bestie die. So what do they do? They dip. And now our friends are on the run. 

Geena: UGH Yes, can I just say the moment that Fatima realized that Hassan would get canned she was like “fuck all these people” and peaced out with Hassan? Friendship goals… But yes LUZ!! I enjoyed reading her as a villain because she genuinely thinks she’s a good person and that her life’s mission is to “Save” people like Fatima from people like Hassan. You really end up liking her in the beginning, and then she turns around and murders a few people and you’re like…. Ah…… i see….. aND THEN it turns out she was being controlled by some brainworm that was also trying to get to the Bird King and you kind of wonder…. How much of what Luz did was her being a violent inquisitor and how much was the worm controlling her… you kno? She redeems herself by dying, so I guess she gets…. Like one (1) right. 

Kae: Damn girl! Well said!!! LITCHERALY that is a perfect summary of Luz’s character. I can’t say anything else because it’s been SAID.  Villains are always interesting when they don’t see themselves as the bad guy. They’re righteous and unforgiving because they believe they are doing the right thing. That’s what scary about them. 

Conclusion 

Kae: Okay, so in conclusion. This is an amazing book and in all honesty, I enjoyed the hell out of it. I was never bored reading it. Hassan, Fatima, and Vikram had quite the adventure and all the dramatics of made it that much more enjoyable. They left the palace in hopes of freedom. Hassan and Fatima got the idea of The Bird King from a story they liked to read, but never knew the ending. So they continued the story on their own, making it up along the way. In hopes of escaping their new fate to Luz and the Inquisition, Hassan drew up a map to the Bird King in hopes to find it. Their journey took them to meet Gwennec who sailed them to said island, where they discovered used to be inhabited long, long ago. Soon, others began to show up on the island. Hassan even got him a MANS. A DOCTOR. Whew. He’s got taste. The island is also forever changing and some of the remaining inhabitants are Jinn. 

Geena: Kae summarized the story really well!!! The journey to the end was an absolute trip, but G. Willow Wilson tied up the story neatly. We get to see Fatima become less dependent on Hassan (thanks to his doctor bf who told her to chill out) and Hassan finally find the happiness he deserves. Gwen, unfortunately, doesn’t make it to the end (press F to pay respect). Luz essentially sacrifices herself by taking the map Hassan drew, getting off the island, and ripping it up. Why does she do this? Because to make a place or passage Hassan drew disappear the map has to be ripped. And leaving the map to the island wasn’t an option because the Spanish inquisition never stops!!

Kae: And if they ripped the map on the island, the island would cease to exist! Upon arrival to the island, everyone had their ships wrecked. Luz got fucked up on the shipwreck and that worm thing got ripped out of her eyes and then it became a monster on the island that was NOT to be trifled with. Since Luz got all jacked up, she was gonna die anyway and no one wanted her to stay--

Geena: Everyone said “u cant sit with us” to luz. OKAY DISCUSSING THIS BOOK MADE ME REMEMBER HOW MUCH IT MADE ME LAUGH, GENUINELY ONE OF THE FUNNIEST BOOKS I’VE READ. 10/10 FOR ME!!

Kae: LMAOOO HONESTLY. XPECIALLY FATIMA NEVER HAVING WALKED SO FAR BEFORE AND BEING A BIG OL BABY. but she DIIIID have messed up shoes that blistered so I’ll give her that BUT YES HASSAN WAS A DRAMA QUEEN “waaah, I have red hair and im pale BUT I'M STILL HOT AND I LIKE TO F U C K” But yeah, Luz got voted off the island and voted herself off the island, ripped up the map, and then they were safe and lived happily ever after. Vikram even made his final appearance to say his goodbyes to Fatima, even though he hates goodbyes. I give this book a 10/10. It was funny, the characters were likeable and relatable, and it was just a good adventure read.

[warholiana]

The Times (London, England)

By Roger Lewis

Huge claims are made for Andy Warhol in this massive book. He is, says Blake Gopnik, "the most important and influential artist of the 20th century", who knocked Picasso off his throne. "Andy will go down in history," one of Warhol's teachers asserts, as being "in the same league as Alexander Pope, William Hogarth, Toulouse-Lautrec and Goya as a social critic". To which the only intelligent response is a derisive: pig's bottom!

Warhol, surely, was a tiny overinflated talent, very much a product of Fifties and Sixties pop culture, whose sole insight was that lowly illustration had potential as fine art, that the transitory could be creative. Warhol believed that the "brash materialist objects on which America is built"-- such as Brillo pad boxes, Coca-Cola bottles, Campbell's soup cans, movie star posters and comic books -- had as much right to be displayed in galleries as on trash telly commercials or as props in the colourful films of Jerry Lewis.

But how did anyone think this was new? The Dadaists had been playing games with found objects, and painting moustaches on the Mona Lisa, for years. Toulouse-Lautrec's cabaret posters had long been recognised as genuine art -- and what about Alphonse Mucha, whom Gopnik does not mention? The Czech's fin-desiecle advertisements for soap or lavender water anticipate Warhol's love of packaging, his love of Fifth Avenue shopping sprees.

The Warhols, or Warholas, and before that the Varcholas, originated in modernday Slovakia, on the edge of the Carpathians. His parents emigrated to industrial Pittsburgh, where according to Warhol, "the smog would turn a white shirt black by the end of the day". Warhol was born there in 1928; as a child he was sickly -- he suffered from Sydenham's chorea (then known as St Vitus Dance), which caused twitching and bedwetting, obsessive compulsive behaviour and bad skin.

He wasn't much interested in sports -- "everybody knows that I'm a queen" -- and preferred drawing flowers and butterflies. Warhol enjoyed art class, developing, said a teacher, "a decorative quality that was very becoming". It is true he retained "a childlike directness" -- there was never anything complicated or subtle about his work. Everything is very flat.

Warhol proceeded to the Carnegie Institute of Technology, in his home city, where he did a degree in pictorial design. His earliest jobs were decorating window displays for department stores, and producing campy ink drawings for catalogues and magazines. When he moved to Manhattan in 1949, he instantly received many a lucrative commission from Conde Nast and the Hearst corporation. Warhol decorated deluxe brochures, record sleeves, and even designed a bookplate for Audrey Hepburn.

Gopnik, an American art critic, follows Warhol every step of the way, from cockroach-infested cold-water walk-ups in Greenwich Village to his later Park Avenue mansions, where the rooms, crammed with antiques, were kept locked and unvisited. He was never alone, however.

Warhol's mother came to visit, to do the laundry, and remained for 20 years. She never ceased looking for a "nice girl" for him to marry.

A large part of the Warhol mystique was his personal manner, which overcame his looks. "Andy was one of the plainest boys I've ever seen in my life," said an art dealer from the mid-Fifties, "a pimply faced adolescent with a deformed, bulbous nose that was always inflamed." Yet despite this unprepossessing head topped by a silver wig -- he got his toupee in the early Fifties to cover his thinning hair -- he became an indispensable celebrity, owing more to Quentin Crisp than Henri Matisse. He cultivated a creepy, vampiric manner -- Richard Burton called him "a horror film gentleman" -- and affected to be blank and moronic, speaking in monosyllables.

Underneath the "surface diffidence", however, Gopnik assures us that Warhol was widely read and knowledgeable, well versed in everyone from Cocteau to Fred Astaire. Although he drifted in and out of lots of parties, never raising his eyes, a friend said: "There's nothing he hasn't observed." Gopnik calls him "the world's greatest sponge", sucking up experiences and influences -- and giving nothing back.

What's peculiar is that instead of repulsing people, they were fascinated. When he expanded his studio, and named it the Factory, the place was as thronged as a royal court -- even if Warhol's courtiers were chiefly drifters and no-hopers, "drag queens and queers, street hustlers and rough trade, drug dealers and psychiatric basket-cases".

Warhol found sex (his words) "messy and distasteful". Yet he may not have been as asexual as he sometimes pretended. He underwent surgery for anal warts and took a course of penicillin for venereal disease. Warhol, though, preferred to spend hours on the phone, calling friends to get lurid details of their sex lives. A voyeur, he observed the emotions of others while experiencing none of his own.

This sounds very dead, and deadening. Yet that is the effect of his art too. His famous screen prints, where he would use rubber squeegees to slop paint around photographic stencils, were of electric chairs, car crashes and deceased celebrities, such as Marilyn or JFK -- "chaos pulled from the media". Jackie Onassis is the tragic widow. Elizabeth Taylor joined the club because of her myriad near-fatal illnesses. Everything is depicted in violet pink, orange, poison-apple green and magenta. In the 2,700 images Warhol made of Mao, the Chairman looks embalmed.

In 1968 the Grim Reaper nearly polished off the artist himself. Valerie Solanas, "a troubled hanger-on" at the Factory, shot Warhol at point-blank range, annoyed that he had misplaced the typescript of her play Up Your Ass. Luckily, at the hospital, Warhol ended up in the hands of a highly trained surgeon who knew all about bullets. But Warhol's innards were wrecked (he had a "monumental hernia" and his addiction to Valium caused constipation so bad that he needed daily enemas), contributing to the gall bladder trouble that killed him in 1987, at the age of 58, the organ having become gangrenous.

The effect of the shooting was to drive up the value of Warhol's work, and by now there was a team of assistants churning out print runs of 2,500 -- multiple repeat images of Elvis or Shirley Temple, cans and bottle tops. It was as if Warhol was insisting on the virtue of monotony and banality, with pictures that were, his dealer said, "blank, blunt, bleak, stark".

When we are informed, by Gopnik, that "Warhol always talked about his love of boredom", it is fair to say there's no surprise there: the soporific effect of his prints of stamps or banknotes; his films about someone sleeping or the Empire State Building doing nothing; his fondness for tape recording inane chatter and for taking blurry Polaroids at Studio 54 -- with Warhol, form and content were as one.

Towards the end, he dumped his riff-raff followers and sought the company of minor European royalty and the Shah of Iran, desperate to secure portrait commissions. He collected Czech folk art, decorated eggs, carpets, vintage store signs, carved carousel horses, Slavonic church icons. He packed ticket stubs, receipts and Christmas cards into 609 boxes, which he called Time Capsules, the more ephemeral the better. He surrounded himself with the bric-a-brac of his own mausoleum.

Screen prints, priced at $800 originally, now fetch $105 million at auction. The estate, its headquarters in Pittsburgh, is worth billions. Although I always liked the exquisite drawings of perfume bottles or shoes, the laces and filigree and bits of gold leaf, Warhol destroyed his archives of early commercial art. He wanted to be remembered only for his society portraits, which are tawdry. Much like this appallingly bloated book, with its naff prose: "licking his lips at the prospect", "muddied the waters", "dipped a tentative toe", "to add injury to insult", "spent a pretty penny".

Asked why she shot Warhol, Solanas said: "He's a piece of garbage." His work mostly was. Up Your Ass was finally staged in 2000.

A Life as Art by Blake Gopnik Allen Lane, 930pp; PS35

[stray-keeper]

Innocent or Guilty

tagged by both @sand-seeks-sun​ and @lumei-xiv​ , thank you so much ♥ !

I tag YOU who reads this! and I want to see it ♥♥♥

Asked someone to marry you? — “Ohh, I wish I had someone to ask..” dreamy sigh. “But no..” Innocent.

Kissed one of your friends? — ”Friend’s are the best ones to kiss!” Guilty.

Danced on a table in a bar/tavern? — “Sometimes it’s difficult to keep me off!” Guilty.

Ever told a lie? — “Nooo…~”  Guilty.

Had feelings for someone you can’t have? — ears flatten.. “This happens to me more often than I’d like to admit..” Guilty.

Ever kissed someone of the same sex? — ears are once more quick to perk up over the mention of kissing.. a purr even slips outs. “Surrre have and would gladly again!” Guilty.

Kissed a picture? —  “Maybeeee? Hard to think of a particular time but I’m surrre it’s happened especially when lonely and not sober.” Guilty? Slept until 5pm? — “I love my sleep!” Guilty. Worked at a fast-food chain/restaurant? — “Me working around food? That’d be bad idea.” chuckles. “I’d sneak a lot of food.. and probably some customers..” stomach loudly growls over the mention of consumption.. he attempts to laugh it off, though he thinks.. ‘shit, I forgot to eat..’  Innocent. Stolen something? — “Ohhh yes, lots of things..” not proud of this fact, Naoh turns his gaze away in shame, quietly muttering, “but I always try to pay back what I take…” Guilty. Been fired from a job? — “Yeah, uhh… Had this gig back in Kugane but my boss did not like me..” a thoughtful hum. “Hm.. to this day, I wonder why I was spared..”  Guilty. Done something you regret? — ”Me? Regretful? Hah!” Though he scoffs over the thought… ‘more likely than you think.’ Guilty. Laughed until something you were drinking came out of your nose? — “Maybeee when drunk but I’d think I’d remember something like that..”  Innocent? Guilty? Caught a snowflake on your tongue? — “There are people who haven’t at least tried?” Guilty. Sat on a rooftop? — “I often do! I rrreally enjoy stargazing.. ” Guilty. Kissed someone you shouldn’t have? — ”I live to make these mistakes!” Guilty. Sang in the shower? — ”It makes it fun~!” Guilty. Been pushed into a body of water with all your clothes on? —  “Mmh yes..” Shivers over the memory, Naoh thinking back to the painful chill.. “Only a few times as an adult, but when I was younger my brother did that kind of shit all the time..” Guilty. Shaved your head? — “Never!” Innocent. Made a boyfriend/girlfriend cry? — “Can’t say I have.. never been in anything serious enough to warrant tears out of it.” Innocent. Shot a gun? —  “Once before but just as a warning shot!” ears go low to his head as he squeezes a stone necklaced under his shirt, muttering softly to himself, “haaate that sound..” Guilty. Still love someone you shouldn’t? — ”I..” never been good with lying, Naoh struggles to make any eye contact.. looking down as if in shame once more. “Would really rather not talk about it..”  Guilty. Liked someone, but will never tell who? — ”Naah.. it’s already  well known who I like, unfortunately..”  Innocent. Been too honest? — “I don’t know how not to be sometimes!” Guilty. Ruined a surprise? — “Not yet buuut! Don’t trust me with such secrets, I will ruin them!” Innocent… so far. Been told that you’re beautiful by someone who totally meant what they said? — ”Oooh… I’d crrry if someone called me beautiful..!” Naoh even almost tears up over the mere thought.. Innocent. Stalked someone? — “Yeaah.. but it was a wellness check!” Guilty. Thoughts about murder? —  “Mmh..” hesitation, Naoh fears to mention what has as of late troubled his thoughts.. “I’d.. I’d rather not..” not a lie but certainly avoiding the potential..  Guilty. How about mass murder? —  “Oh, absolutely not!” this, at least, is a truth he can confidently admit to.  Innocent. Cheated on someone? —”Some would argue that my line of work is cheating, but..”  Innocent. Gotten so angry that you cried? —   “I don’t really get angry so.. when I do, I don’t handle it very well!” Guilty. Tried to stay away from someone for their own good? — a sad smile.. “How relevant of a question.. I’m doing that as we speak” Guilty. Thoughts about suicide? — ”I’m better off dead for sure but I’m farrr too afraid of death to take my own life so.. grim reaper, come at me!” Innocent. Had a girlfriend/boyfriend? —  “Yesss..? All were very short term though, it’s hard to call it much of a relationship..” Guilty. Gotten totally drunk during a holiday? — ”It’s the only way to spend a holiday!” Guilty.

[deadxtalks]

I don't know if this is too much but I need to know more about you! All of the sweet and soft questions ^_^

“Well, it’s not much at all! Let’s answer these, shall we?”

🐰- do you believe in soul mates?

“Yes, I do, actually. And I’m thankful that I found mine in my beloved Ephemera.”

💌- diary or journal?

“In my case, journal. I mainly use it to plan out Dead Talks or I use it to document the progress of my students.”

✨- which fictional character (book, show, or movie) do you relate to most?

“Hmm, this is tough. I don’t feel like I relate to any fictional characters. If anyone from my dear audience disagrees, let me know. Although, Kat said I remind of her of an older ‘Darkiplier’, whatever that is.”

💕- are you crushing on someone?

“Does my wife count? I’m always crushing on her, obviously.”

💋- kissing in the dark or kissing in the rain?

“In the dark, 100 percent.”

🐝- describe your aesthetic in emojis

“☠️😈⚰️🖤🔪🎃💀👻”

🍼- what is your favorite memory?

“I have quite a few, but my absolute favorite is also my only memory of my early life. I scared the crap out of an older person and it was great.”

🌸- what is your favorite flower?

“This one.”

💖- have you ever been in love?

“Yes, of course. I am married, after all. I would hope it was out of love.”

🍰- strawberry or vanilla?

“Vanilla, out of these choices. In all honesty, chocolate is my favorite.”

🍯- describe your favorite smell

“Musky, incense, old leather, burning wood. Really heavy wood scents too.”

🎂- if you had 3 wishes, what would they be?

“Hmm, I’m not sure. I have everything I wanted in my life. I’m the Grim Reaper, I’m a motivational death coach, I’m happily married, I have a good group of friends and my beloved cat and her kittens. I have no need for three wishes when I have all that I need already.”

🍪- cookie dough or cookies?

“Cookies. I can’t eat raw cookie dough, bothers my stomach. Yes, despite being the Grim Reaper, I’m still prone to stomach aches.” 

☕- coffee or tea?

“Both. I tend to switch between the two drinks, depending on my mood.”

🍃- would you rather live in a sea with mermaids or a forest with fairies?

“Um, neither. I’ll stick to the Underworld or the Pantages, thank you very much.”

🍂- what’s your middle name?

“It starts with an ‘S’, and that’s all I will tell you.”

💫- what is your sun, moon, and rising sign?

“Given I don’t know when I was born, I can’t really answer this one. If I recall, you need a birthday for these, so I really don’t know. Sorry.”

🌧️- favorite thing to do on rainy days?

“Mostly just relaxing with Ephemera, Muffin and the kittens. We’ll either just watch movies or read all day.”

🍭- how tall are you?

“Around 6′3″.”

💒- which show would you want to live in?

“Show? Like a TV show? Hmm, I’m not sure. Maybe Castlevania, given I’d have plenty of business to keep me occupied. Plus I could be friends with Dracula.”

🎄- what is your favorite holiday?

“Halloween, of course!”

🍦- what scented candle is your favorite?

“Kat, my mun, has a wide collection of candles, most of them are from a horror theme online shop called SickWix. One of the ones she has is called ‘Black Cherry Bloodbath’ and it smells fantastic.”

🎶- favorite song right now?

“Well, again going back to Kat, she listens to a lot of the musician Aurelio Voltaire, so I’ve grown to enjoy his music a lot. My current favorite song is by him, it’s called ‘The Projectionist’.”

💘- 3 ways to win your heart?

“1 - be a cat lover. 2 - enjoy durian. 3 - respect and appreciate my work.”

🍩- current mood?

“Content, and also rather amused that you asked me this entire post.”

❄️- what is your favorite season?

“Autumn.”

💍- your current relationship status?

“Happily married.”

📷- a photo of yourself

💅🏻- do you like being spoiled?

“Not really. There’s no need for it.”

🕊️- 3 habits you have?

“I’m not sure. I guess I work a lot, I can be obsessive over things, and I tend to read when I’m stressed, for some reason.”

🦄- how do you perceive yourself?

“I perceive myself as a hard worker, someone very dedicated to their work, as well as someone who is fiercely protective of those they care about.”

🦋- how do you think others perceive you?

“Hopefully in a positive way. I don’t think I’m a bad person, despite the fact that I’m the Grim Reaper.”

🌈- things I find attractive in girls/guys

“Strength is a big one. I also love passionate people.”

🍓- one secret about yourself

“Hmm….I don’t hate dogs, I actually like them. I just like cats more. Not much of a secret, huh?”

🍒- how do you act when you have a crush?

“Rather calm and collected, if I do say so myself.”

Ephemera: “Honey, when we first met, you were stuttering like crazy.”

*Gideon is now blushing* “Ephemera, why?”

💔- the reason behind your last breakup?

“I honestly had no relationships before I met Ephemera, so thankfully I’ve never dealt with breakups.”

💬- what your last text message says?

“I texted Ephemera about something for the kittens and it said, ‘I think we need more catnip, it’s the only thing that keeps them from scratching me during training’.”

🎥- what show are you currently binging on?

“Monty Python’s Flying Circus. It’s just so damn funny.”

⛅- what is your morning routine?

“I wake up fairly early, I shower, get dressed, feed Muffin and the kittens, and then I have breakfast with Ephemera before I begin my day’s work.”

💗- who do you miss?

“My dear friend Kelsey (@violetxsilverxstark), I haven’t spoken to her in quite some time. I hope everything is okay.”

🥀- last time you cried?

“I don’t cry. Ever.”

🎁- when is your birthday?

“Not a clue, I don’t remember my life before becoming Grim Reaper, other than the memory mentioned earlier.”

🔪- scariest/creepiest experience?

“My entire life is my scariest experience, and I’m so grateful for it.”

💤- date someone younger, older, or same age as you?

“A little younger, like a human year younger. Same age is fine too.”

🎀- any question you want

“I have no other questions to add. Thank you for suggesting this, anon. This was quite the little journey.” 

[mlek13]

Winter, Year 5: The Royals

The Royal kittens grew up.  I took pictures of both of them, but as with all of my pet babies lately, the siblings look virtually identical.

I’m not sure if I remembered to mention it last time or not, but Tilly had run away from home.  Navin Langerak found her and brought her back home.

Brigid wanted to prevent that from happening again and wanted to buy a pet collar.  I meant to send her to the pet shoppe, but clicked off of her before the dialogue box popped up.  (I do that often.)  Lydia ended up going instead.  Which was fine because she later rolled the want too and I don’t think it credited for either of them.

I thought I’d let her socialize while she was there, but it didn’t go so well.

Oh no, Death has come knocking on the castle door.  (Actually he doesn’t knock, he just makes his was dramatically down the hallway.)

R.I.P. Brigid Cook.  You served the Royal family well.  She leaves behind no biological family.  She knew a few loves in her lifetime, but never married or bore children.  She was 78.

The cats are really going to miss her.

Meanwhile, things are turning dramatic for the Queen and her King.  She turns him down for photobooth woohoo!  I guess now that he caught her smooching Trevor there’s no denying her true feelings?  Maybe now that she has an heir, she doesn’t need him anymore?

Or maybe she’s just opposed to using the photobooth for amorous purposes.  Maybe she finds public woohoo undignified for someone of her station.  Because later, in the bedroom, she’s all for it.

While this was going on Lydia had a romantic interaction for Kevin lined up, but it dropped out of the queue before she could make any moves.  (I’m preparing myself for the drama!)

But the drama that unfolded was not the drama that I had been anticipating.  Kevin fell ill and collapsed in the upper hallway.

All of the pets have gathered to mourn and Rosalin is standing in disbelief. 

I feel bad that I didn’t make more of an attempt to save him.  He was a good guy.  But I’m eager to see what this means for the Royal family.  Will Queen Rosalin remain single or marry again?  As far as my point system goes, she might be better off without him.  He had always been an unusual marriage choice.  R.I.P. King Kevin Lam.

There were deaths this round, but there were also birthdays.  Prince Elton is now a teenager.   He’s following in the footsteps of the rest of the men in this family and is in pursuit of family.  He likes fat sims with glasses who are not high in their careers.  (An interesting combination there . . .)

The twins, Princess Lilah, and Prince Calvin, age in to a pair of Cancer toddlers.

You look good in that chair, Elton, but don’t get too comfy.  Sadly, it’s not for you.

I invited the upperclass teens over to get to know Elton.  There haven’t been many of them lately, but I’m starting to see more age up.  He and Sabrina Burgos really hit it off.  The giggle and gossip all the time.

They are actually first cousins (I tend to lose track), so there’s no romantic attraction there.  Besides Sabrina seems to have her sights set on Evan Cade.

Even though he only has relatives on his mother’s side of the family, a lot of the girls his age are relatives.  He also meets and gets along with another of his cousins, Princess Sheridan.

He’s really feeling the absence of his father.  He and his mother cry through their first dinner without him.  He isn’t far from their thoughts.

Lydia is having a tough time too.  I’m not sure if she’s sad about Kevin or if her aspiration is just too low and she’s generally unhappy.  I thought Brigid had been taking it easy in her later years, but I’m finding the amount of work that needs doing around the castle has been difficult for Lydia to keep up with on her own.

I wanted to have a meeting for my political group,but I was having a hard time getting everyone together.  There is so much that needs to be done for the family.  Rosalin has been keeping herself extra busy with the children without Brigid and Kevin to help.  Between the toddlers and helping Laurence with his studies, she doesn’t have a lot of down time.  I really need to find a way to hire a tutor.

Laurence is a very studious, mature child.

I do manage to summon the ladies of the Noble families, Nicolette, Erin, and Laurel, but it’s difficult to get everyone to sit down together, even when breakfast is offered.

Rosalin does manage to find time to chat with each of them individually.  Nicolette seems really keen to tackle the issue of crime in the kingdom.

Rosalin has a passionate discussion with Erin about the wonders of comfort soup and how it should be spread to everyone in the kingdom.

Hyacinth, who just happens to be visiting, seems to agree that promoting comfort soup is a good idea.

Laurel, is more resistant though.

Or maybe she just seems that way at first.  She does seem interested in preventing sickness in the kingdom.

Deaths by Sickness: 1 Deaths by Old Age: 1 Grim Reaper Visits: 2

[jimlingss]

Beyond Reach [1]

Chapters 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 (Finale) Words: 2.5k Genre: Angst, Grim Reaper!Au, Ghost!Au Summary: If someone could see what you could, they’d pass out. But you don't blame them. Who would ever expect for a ghost, a priestess and a grim reaper to be together - much less be rescuing others. Warnings: Lots of death (future mentions of murder, suicide, accidents and illness). 

Darkness.

He awakens to darkness. There’s nothing else but an empty void before him.

Yet, slowly as his lids peel back, a beam of light caresses down to burn his eyes. He lifts a hand to shield away from the intensity, opening his mouth to cry for ‘help’. But his throat is parched and he wonders how long he’s gone without water, how long it’s been since he’s spoken at all. Why? His body feels light and he slowly sits himself up. Where am I?

Who am I?

The man doesn’t even know his own name. No matter how much he scrambles inside his head, searching and racing to know - he can’t. It’s hollow. He doesn’t remember a single thing.

“E-excuse me….” He manages to croak out as his knees wobble to stand. “S-someone…”

He’s in rubble, black dust coating his hands. It’s a mountain of rock where he remains, barren and cold. The man’s eyes narrow to a distant building and he begins to walk. He moves. He limps. He forces his body and as if he is no longer alive, the heavy feeling that sits in his bones and the thirst that has withered his lungs away dissipates. He feels agile. He is being freed. Perhaps his feet aren’t even touching the dirt anymore.

But there’s something there that still grounds him to the Earth. Something far and distant that is waiting for him. Someone.

“Help me.” He pleads to the person who walks out of the building in a blue jumpsuit and plastic helmet. “Please. I-I woke up and I don’t know where I am or w-who I am. I don’t know what’s going on. Can someone please tell me?”

The man ignores him, walking right past.

He lets out a whimper of a sob, rushing to another person who hopefully has more empathy. “Please. C-Can you help me? I-I don’t know where I am. I just woke up in the middle of nowhere. Help me.”

The woman looks right past him…..no….right over him as if he is invisible. He waves his hand frantically in front of her face. “Please!” And in that moment, she strides through him.

The man stumbles back in horror, looking at his arm and his body. “W-what?!” He screams in panic and terror, feeling his torso and his face with his hands. “HELP ME!”

No one sees him. No one flinches. No one bats a single eyelash. The man is left running around aimlessly, walking through walls, unable to touch objects.

When he tries to grab onto another, his hand passes through their flesh. He dives in front of cars for them to drive through. His shouts and screeches are soundless. Even the Earth does not acknowledge his existence, his footprints never imprinted into the land. And the man is left in the middle of the intersection, the people pushing through him and racing to their destinations. No one notices. He is helpless.

He cannot feel.

He cannot feel the wind smack against his cheeks, the heat of the sun or the chill of the air that nips at his nose. There are very few emotions that he can muster - sadness, anger, confusion. The beauty of life itself has faded from his fingertips. He is but a mere phantom of a shadow.

“Jung Hoseok.” A voice booms and a darkening presence forms behind him, particles being stitched together from thin air. “Born February 18, 1994. Your time has arrived.”

Hoseok finally realizes his name when it’s uttered. There is no time to rejoice in the discovery when he staggers backwards at the dark figure covered by a cloak. “Come. The underworld is waiting. It is time for your judgment and the world of the afterlife.”

“What?”

“The world of the afterlife.” The shape in front of him repeats. “I must bring you away.”

“W-who are you?” Hoseok’s back hits a brick wall and he begins to slide himself into the alleyway. “W-..what do you want from me?”

The mysterious cloaked voice sighs tiredly. “You ask a lot of questions, don’t you?” He decides for his own amusement to entertain Hoseok and he flicks off his hood with his finger. “I am the Grim Reaper. Messenger of Heaven and Hell. Bridge of all the worlds and universes.”

“If you must call me by a name...Namjoon.” He smirks and dissolves away. The Reaper appears again to the left of Hoseok where he was trying to escape to and he crouches down to whisper with a slithering voice-

“You’re dead.”

He runs. Hoseok’s flight-or-fight response withholds him without thought. He can’t think of anything as he pushes off the surface of the rough wall and his legs propel him forward. He sprints with his quaking knees through the people, walking past their flesh without thinking twice. Fear and fright maneuvers what is left of him.

“No. No. It can’t be.” A horrendous wail breaks from his throat, failing to be held in by his sealed lips. “No!”

“There’s nothing that you can do.” Namjoon’s voice mutters in his ear, face appearing to his right and the cloak blowing in the breeze. The Reaper’s body is missing from his neck. “You’re a ghost now.”

“I refuse.” Hoseok is drowning in his denial, agony ripping apart his limbs. “I can’t be dead! I can’t be!” The memories are missing from his mind. How can he leave when he doesn’t remember anything? He hasn’t lived yet. It’s unfair. It’s impossible. How can he be dead?

“Stop running.” The Grim Reaper demands, his ice hands slinking out past his sleeves. “There’s nowhere you can go. There is nothing that you can do. The world is unfair. But now you belong to the world of the dead.”

Hoseok screams at the top of his lungs, mourning with what’s left of his life- “NO!”

Namjoon’s fingers grip around the ghost’s wrist, despite the latter man still running, and he begins to prepare for the summoning of the underworld’s door. The motionless air tares a few meters ahead, glowing white and opening the gates but then with someone’s gentle murmur, Namjoon is suddenly propelled backwards. “H-How?”

The Grim Reaper cannot take him.

Hoseok keeps running to the end of the world.

The birds chirp with a trill, swooping down and over the roofs. The sunlight is blazing, capturing the rolling hills in a vivid hue of verdant. In the countryside, it has always been serene. But unlike the surroundings that call for your peace, your consciousness has not been laid to rest.

Your hands are moving in a consistent gesture, wrapped around the handle as the broom sweeps away the dirt from the courtyard. Your eyes are pinned to the white clouds.

“Y/N.” She comes lurching over. “Y/N.” When you don’t respond, she inhales a huge breath to shout- “Y/N!” Her rumbling voice causes the birds to fly from the tree tops.

The crimson skirt twirls and the strands of your hair flurries as you spin around. In every way that your mother taught you, poised and elegant, the ceremonial dances that have been engraved into your bones, even the movement of turning around is fluid and graceful. The old woman sheepishly smiles, pondering when the young child grew up to be so beautiful that even the angels in Heaven would sigh at. If your parents were still alive, every inch of them would be prideful to have such a daughter.

At least that’s what your grandmother believes. She doesn’t know how ugly you are inside.

“Yes?”

“What are you thinking about so deeply that you don’t even hear me calling your name?” She comes closer with her cane, humming inquisitively. “It’s been months, Y/N. You cannot bring back what is gone.”

“I know.” You stare back down to finish cleaning. “I’m sorry. I should concentrate.”

“Come.” She walks away. “There is someone.”

You grew up taking care of the shrine. A sacred home that had been passed down from generation to generation. Your mother was a priestess before she married your father and your grandmother once was too. All your ancestors were linked back to this very place. And it seemed like fate had already predetermined this path for you too. You hate it.

“Is there something the matter?” You’re seated across the low table from a young man.

“I-...”

He crumbles under your serious stare, lips that never twitch into a comforting smile. “My girlfriend…” The stranger’s eyes begin to cloud with tears as he releases his hurt. “..She passed away....”

A millennium ago, shrine maidens like you were known as oracles. Though somewhere along the way, receiving prophecies became less and less. But that didn’t mean your spiritual connections had died off. It was still lying dormant within your blood. A curse.

“I-I never got to tell her.” The man in front of you intensely weeps, droplets falling onto the wooden surface, his soul shattering into pieces. “I never got to say it...that-th...at….that I-”

“She loves you.”

The man looks up and he meets your eyes. Your irises are over his shoulder. To him, you’re staring through the open doors and outside at the sky. “I-I love her.”

“And she knows. She’s always known it without you needing to say anything. She loves you.”

The stranger whom you do not recognize sobs out his laments and sorrows. At the same time his heart begins to mend back together. The tears are his threads. The ache within his chest is the needle piercing through. After this pain, the pieces will become whole again. “I love her.”

In the world there are four types of regrets.

One...regret for what you will do. There are things in this world that we know we must do, things that we cannot stop, things that we’ve regretted beforehand, before they are even committed.

Two...regret for what you did. By the moment we feel guilt for what we’ve done and the words spewed hastily out of anger, passion and pain - it’s too late. Time seals in all. The whispers that speak and the ears that listen; nothing can be erased.

Three...regret for what you didn’t do. The questions won’t cease - what could we have done? There are a million possibilities and a thousand more endings. The grief lies within our hands when we recognize the power we had, our responsibilities that had went forgotten.

Four….regret for what you can never do. The capacity of fantasy and imagination can bring more harm than good. There are so many things that we want to do but things that we can’t.

These regrets make us wonder what ‘could have been’. If the path had been laid out in another way, if we made different choices in our lives - what would the future be like? But the universe works under the constraint of time, sand that trickles from one side of the hour glass to the other. No matter what guilt or remorse we feel, we must continue to live on.

The wind chimes drift without ringing. You turn around. The sky is cerulean blue, without wind.

You can feel it to the very core. Your intuition singing out a heartrending melody.

There’s something strange in the air.

“I don’t know what’s going on.” Namjoon is standing in the middle of nowhere, everywhere and everything all at the same time. In other words, it’s another dimension, a passageway between the world of the dead and the alive. The white luminescent light fills the empty space. “It was almost like I couldn’t take him. Like he was bounded to something.”

His companion who is also another reaper sighs, “Look. We have one job, Namjoon. We have one. job. We have to do it.”

“You don’t understand, Jackson.” He exhales in exasperation, throwing his arms up. “I can’t!”

“There are too many souls who have gone loose lately.” Jackson says as he polishes his scythe blade. Such an object is too old school for Namjoon’s tastes but his friend insists that it adds to the menacing vibe he’s trying to create. “At this rate everything in the world will become haunted.”

“What do you suppose I do?”

“Hunt the ghost down.” He shrugs like it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “Complete your death list from top to bottom. We can’t let the dead wander the world of the living” Jackson smirks deviously, looking like the personification of death himself as he pokes Namjoon. “One job.”

“Alright, alright. Fine!”

The Grim Reaper grabs onto the edge of his cloak, whirling around and vanishing into thin air.

Hoseok never really stops. The reason being - he can’t feel exhaustion. He isn’t quite sure what he’s afraid of, why he is so desperately trying to escape. He can’t die after all. He’s already dead.

Perhaps it is the fear of being taken away. He doesn’t know who he is. He can’t remember a single thing about his entire life. He didn’t even know his own name.

Hoseok isn’t ready to leave.

“Stop it!” Namjoon’s booming voice appears again. This time, the Reaper’s thrown away his intimidating act, drained from chasing one ghost from this corner to the next. He has a whole list to complete. “Stop running, dammit!”

“Leave me alone!”

“You idiot!”

Namjoon manages to catch up with the fleeting ghost but when he reaches out, an invisible wall conceals him as if a shield of protection. The will of the ghost is too strong. It’s resisting against Namjoon’s powers. The soul won’t go willingly with the Reaper.

There must be something holding him back.

Hoseok doesn’t think about where he’s going. He lets his legs carry himself to wherever the destination may be. It’s without thought. It’s without consciousness. It’s intuition.

The wind chimes ring.

A figure in sacred attire, a flaming pleated skirt tied with a bow and a white jacket spirals around. The clothing flutters in the movement, gentle and elegant in a way that seems as if it was ingrained into blood. The strands of the stranger’s hair is held together by a red ribbon, thrown over the shoulder carelessly. If Hoseok could feel, if his heart could still beat - it would certainly stop at the sight of you.

You’re glaring at him.

Hoseok halts for the first time since he’s begun.

“Can you see me?”

He asks it with worry, with fear that it’s part of his imagination. That he’ll be left in disappointment. After wandering around the planet for what should be the past four days, he’s been an invisible being beyond reach. No one’s said a single thing, acknowledged his existence, gave him answers that he craved to know. He could be less than air. A speck of dust.

“Can you see me?” Hoseok repeats it again, his eyes softening into tenderness. His breath is being held, forgetting that he doesn’t need to breathe at all. There’s something about you that goes beyond beauty……

Namjoon finally approaches after being left behind. The moment he reaches the shrine, he stops. The Reaper stares at you peculiarly and a smile grows on his face. You and the ghost are lost in your own world-

It’s your wretched curse.

“I can see you.”

[stacks-reviews]

New Releases 10/3/17

Happy New Release Day! 

In Books --The Name of the Wind 10th Anniversary Deluxe Edition by Patrick Rothfuss “My name is Kvothe. I have stolen princesses back from sleeping barrow kings. I burned down the town of Trebon. I have spent the night with Felurian and left with both my sanity and my life. I was expelled from the University at a younger age than most people are allowed in. I tread paths by moonlight that others fear to speak of during day. I have talked to Gods, loved women, and written songs that would make the minstrels weep. You may have heard of me. So begins a tale unequaled in fantasy literature - the story of a hero told in his own voice. It is a tale of sorrow, a tale of survival, a tale of one man’s search for meaning in his universe, and how that search, and the indomitable will that drove it, gave birth to a legend.”

This book more than likely did not require me to provide a description. But I just love the description so much that I just had to put it up. This is my current top favorite book. I really love it and I am very excited to see an anniversary edition for it. I have been wanting to retire my mass market paperback for a while. I did get to meet Pat at a book signing a few years back and got that copy signed, as well as my copy of The Wise Man’s Fear, and my hardcover of A Slow Regard of Silent Things. I’ve been wanting to retire these signed copies so that nothing happens to them so this anniversary edition is just what I’ve been waiting for. At least until I can meet him again and get this one signed.

This edition has a new cover by designer Paul Buckley and artist Sam Weber. I’m not crazy about the cover. I prefer the standard cover used now. I’m having some trouble trying to understand just what all the images represent in the story so that’s what is really making me not like it as much. There is also some never before seen illustrations by artist Dan Dos Santos. Nate Taylor created a updated and detailed map of the world. An appendix of the calendar system, the currencies, and a pronunciation guide was added. And Pat wrote a new author’s note for this edition.

As of this writing (around 10:30pm Monday) it has not arrived at any of the bookstores near me but I have seen where it it out at other locations. I’m hoping it will arrive near me sometime today. Then I guess I’ll have to plan a fourth (or maybe a fifth. I don’t remember) reread of it soon.

--Anime Supremacy! by Mizuki Tsujimura “Japanese animation - the globally acclaimed, family-friendly theatrical features are the exception rather than the rule for a TV-oriented industry that has been pushed into late-night slots in an era of fragmented audiences. When only three titles among fifty might turn a profit, topping the charts is hardly an overambitious aim. Yet as three women, a producer, a director, and an animator, survive in a business infamous for its murderous schedules, demoralizing compromises, and incorrigible men, moments of uplift emerge against all odds - and how. More than just a window into an entertainment niche, here’s a kickass ode to work.”

A new; though only volume, manga about the animation industry in Japan. It sounds like a good look into this industry and it follows three women as they try to make their way in an industry full of ‘incorrigible’ men. Which this might be the first manga to follow women in this industry. I’m not positive but I’m fairly sure most of the manga that has used this type of story has mainly followed men. I can think of maybe one or two that has some ladies but I can’t recall for sure.

--Assassination Classroom Volume 18 by Yusei Matsui “Nagisa and Karma travel to the International Space Station in hopes of learning the secret to saving Koro Sensei’s life. Meanwhile, Yanagisawa and the upstart Grim Reaper II train ever harder to assassinate him. Then, when academic setbacks lower the spirits of his students, Koro Sensei comes up with an ingenious - or perhaps idiotic - way to cheer them up. Next, Valentine’s Day arrives! Will any of the 3-E students or teachers find true love? And will the meddling and teasing of the others help or hinder Cupid’s arrow in finding its target...?”

I’m reading this volume right now. But in Volume 17 Nagisa and Karma faced off in their fight to determine if they should save or assassinate Koro Sensei. Nagisa won and they learned that information about Koro Sensei was on the ISS that could potentially help them save his life. It ended with Nagisa and Karma sneaking into a rocket prototype to retrieve said information. Which was handed over fairly easily in this volume. The part with Yanagisawa and the Grim Reaper were short which is for the best to keep us wondering what they will try to do to kill Koro Sensei. I last left off during the start of the Valentine’s Day chapters which I will finish sometime today.

--Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Illustrated Edition by J.K. Rowling and illustrated by Jim Kay Finally! I love the illustrations in these editions and just how full and how many are used in them. PoA is my favorite of this series, mainly because of this is when we are introduced to Sirius (my favorite) and Lupin.

Though as the rest of these are released I start to wonder how much longer they will be released as a single volume. At some point; either for money or for the binding of the books, they will probably be split into volumes. For my bookshelf’s well-being, I hope that is not the case but it could happen.

--The Last Namsara by Kristen Ciccarelli “In the beginning, there was the Namsara: the child of sky and spirit, who carried love and laugher wherever he went. But where there is light, there must be dark - and so there was also the Iskari. The child of blood and moonlight. The destroyer. The death bringer. These are the legends that Asha, daughter of the king of Firgaard, has grown up hearing in hushed whispers, drawn to the forbidden figures of the past. But it isn’t until she becomes the fiercest, most feared dragon slayer in the land that she takes on the role of the next Iskari - a lonely destiny that leaves her feeling more like a weapon than a girl. Asha conquers each dragon and brings its head to the king, but no kill can free her from the shackles that await her at home: her betrothal to the cruel commandant, a man who holds the truth about her nature in his palm. When she’s offered the chance to gain her freedom in exchange for the life of the most powerful dragon in Firgaard, she finds that there may be more truth to the ancient stories than she ever could have expected. With the help of a secret friend - a slave boy from her betrothed’s household - Asha must shed the layers of her Iskari bondage and open her heart to love, light, and a truth that has been kept from her.”

I have a few questions regarding this book. Mainly revolving around the Namsara since it isn’t mention again in the description except in the beginning. Is Asha’s betrothed the only one who knows that she is the Iskari? If so, is she being blackmailed into marrying him? My theory right now is that by killing all these dragons it makes her the Iskari but since light and dark are two sides of the same coin, she has the possibility to turn into the Namsara. Cause I expect the legends to end up saying that it was the same person.  It sounds like it could be pretty good. There’s dragons, fights with dragons (don’t kill dragons cause they are awesome), and the classic light vs dark. 

--The Water Dragon’s Bride Volume 3 by Rei Toma “Unable to return home, Asahi grows into a lovely young woman. As a priestess, she must spend time with the water dragon god for a ritual every year, but because of her connection to the water dragon god’s power, someone kidnaps her! Will Asahi be able to escape unscathed?”

Such a cute and still surprisingly dark series. The first two volumes were kind of dark because her best friends; Subaru, mother tried to have her killed a few times. And the water dragon god didn’t care if she lived or died. He only really intervened when the other gods started annoying him. 

This volume came out early where I live so I read it over the weekend. The volume was mostly about Asahi being kidnapped, then rescued by Subaru, which then started a war between her village and the one that kidnapped her. The water dragon god does sorta intervere and helps them out a little. But he slowly seems to be changing and might eventually develop feelings for Asahi. Which will interesting since Subaru obviously loves her and she him. Though she may not realize that herself yet. 

--Yona of the Dawn Volume 8 by Mizuho Kusanagi “Jaeha, the Green Dragon, joins Yona’s party after their harrowing adventure together in Awa. Now the group must find the Yellow Dragon - the last dragon from the prophecy that Ik-su told Yona! Meanwhile, Su-won visits Chishin Palace and tells General Geun-tae, chief of the Earth Tribe, that he should hold a mock battle and festival. But what could be the true intent behind Su-won’s proposition?”

I think the last volume I read was six. Seven never came in near where I live and I haven’t been able to order it. Last I read was Yona and Yoon got themselves onto the pirates boat so that they could try and send a signal for the others to attack the right boat. 

I can’t wait to see what the Yellow Dragon is like and I’m interested to see what this mock battle will be about.

In Movies --Revolutionary Girl Utena Set 1 (Blu-Ray) “‘Never lose that strength or nobility, even when you grow up.’ When Utena was just a child and in the depths of sorrow, she found salvation in those words. They were the words of a prince, who wrapped her in his rose-scented embrace and bestowed upon her both a ring and the promise that it would lead her to him again. She never forgot the encounter. In fact, she was so impressed that she aspired to like the prince and also help those in need. Now a spirited teenager, Utena attends the prestigious Ohtori Academy. However, her strong sense of chivalry soon places her at odds with the school’s student council and thrusts her into a series of mysterious and dangerous duels against its members.”

For the first time the hit anime is being released on blu-ray. I have only seen the series and the movie once. One of my friends can explain it a lot better than I can. The next time I watch it I will not be putting so much time in between each season. There is a lot of symbolism throughout the show so it can be easy to forget or miss something. It is a really good show and worth checking out. The manga of the same name (by Chiho Saito) that it was based on is also available in an awesome box set that was released by Shojo Beat. 

This set contains the first twelve episodes. Set two is not street dated until 11/7/17 but is now available on Rightstuf. Set three is set for 12/5/17, might also be out before that day but not at this moment of writing, and includes the movie. There is also a box set coming out on 12/5/17 that contains the complete series, the movie, a replica Rose Crest Ring, a replica Black Rose ring, and a 264 page art book with sliver foil numbering.

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Generations Challenge Official Rules!

You can find the original post at https://forums.thesims.com/en_us/discussion/840590/sims-4-generation-challenge-beta I have literally just copied and pasted the post down below and in addition to that I have added my own notes in bold for modifications I have made to personalize my challenge a bit. For rules I eliminated entirely I used the strike through tool. As mentioned in my introductory post, I have reduced my challenge to just 5 generations rather than 10. So when I decided which challenges I should do throughout each generation, I used a random number generator for numbers 1 through 9 to select which challenges I would use for gens 1 through 4. I then used the final challenge (originally gen 10) for my 5th generation. 

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

Official Rules: “This challenge is to make you think of the game differently. The Generation Challenge is similar to The Legacy Challenge, but completely different at the same time. The goal is to make it through 10 5 generations with completely different personalities for each generation and a new challenge to complete with each set of children.

Gameplay Setup

When starting the Generations Challenge it is best to start out by making a new world, if you put your Founder in a town with other pre made sims you can’t play the other sims in that world. You do this by clicking the + at the top of the startup screen in the Sims 4.

Your journey begins in Create a Sim (CAS). Here you begin making your sim. Do whatever you want, the only restrictions are it has to be a young adult and the only sim in the household. Feel free to pick any traits you want, but remember genetics aren't the only thing passed down from generation from generation.

Once you finish up in CAS then you move on to the next part, moving in. Start by picking an empty 30x20 lot. This is not your forever home, you will be assigned to move later in the game (optional). It should cost your sim 2,000 simoleons. The challenge that offered this task was not one of the ones selected by the random number generator so it is not one I will be doing.

Now after all that is decided you must pick your Heir Factors. The Heir Factors decides who will be the one to continue the family into the next generation. Once you pick these you can’t go back. These are based off of the Legacy Challenges Succession Laws.

Gender

Female Only- Females can only be heirs, unless there are no living female children.

Male Only- Males can only be heirs, unless there are no living male children.

Alternating- Going male, female, till the end of the game. I intend to play this with the chance that some sims may be gender neutral so for this challenge, I will be going by biological sex upon birth.

Equality- Heirs can be either male or female.

Blood

Blood Relation- Direct descendant of the parents, unless there are no living blood relation children. I like this option best as I like to see how genetics change over time. Please also note that I have mods (MC Command Centre) that will allow two sims of the same sex to impregnate one another. I haven’t decided if I will be using that feature as of yet or if I will go the adoption route, but I will deal with that when the time comes.

Foster Only- Only adopted children can be heirs, unless there are no living adopted children.

Equality- Adopted or blood related sims can be heirs.

Heir

First Born- The first born child is the heir.

Youngest- The youngest child is the heir.

Friendship- The highest friendship with the parent is the heir.

Pool- All eligible children are randomly drawn to be the heir. I chose this option because I find I will ignore the non-heir child if I know exactly which one will be heir. This will offer the most equal parenting for all children.

Rules

No restarting after a bad event. Quitting after a bad event also gets rid of all the good ones. See how you can fix the mistakes!

No cheats/mods that make give you an unfair advantage. It ruins the fun and also makes it not as a challenge as it should be. I have installed some mods, but I don’t think they are overly beneficial to the challenge. The main one I have is MC Command Centre which allows for many modifications to the game. Some of these that may seem like “cheating” are the child support mod in which the parent of the sim’s child pays weekly child support based on their personal worth - but only if the sims are not living together. I will also be using Risky Woohoo, as I find the vanilla pregnancy mechanics incredibly unrealistic and frustrating. I have allowed a 2% chance of pregnancy for every “woohoo” and a 25% chance for pregnancy during “try for baby.” If you’re wondering why I have made these percentages what they are, it is because I find them the most realistic. Most birth controls have approximately a  70% to 99% effectiveness, but apart from abstinence, no birth control is 100% effective (yet!). So 2% seems to be a good number. As for the 25%, I remember reading somewhere that unprotected sex offers a 30% chance of pregnancy in two healthy, fertile individuals. I know 30% is higher than 25% and often time someone who is trying to conceive has a fairly higher chance due to medical intervention and whatnot, but for this game, I have decided to honour my best friend who has been suffering from infertility for about 8 years now. Additionally, I feel this will add an extra challenge to the game.

No bringing the dead back, you CAN plead the with the reaper though and have ghosts, but nothing else.

Anti-aging potion can only be used once per generation.

You can only have one played household in the world. You can add households in the world for friends, but not spouses.

You can’t move out the heir CHILD once they are elders you can do whatever you would like with them, but you can move out the spares (kids who aren't heirs).

Spouse

When getting married Sims can bring in money, but not so much that it would be like using cheats. If your spouse has a child when you marry them in, then that child MUST move in with your spouse. If that child moves in as anything younger than a teen, it CAN become an heir as long as it fits along the guidelines.

After awhile the dating pool starts to deplete and you CAN bring in some households from the gallery or make them in CAS. Use a random trait generator for the traits. The only rule on doing that is it can have no more than 4 sims in the household. If you would like to help out with the households upload them with the hashtag

#MakeAGeneration

I love this! My 8 year old daughter already claimed dibs on making a sim for me, but if anyone else would like to submit someone, please feel free! But also know that I won’t necessarily use that sim in my challenge. I might add them to the town and even become friends with them, but I won’t necessarily make them a mother/father.

Children

Children, no matter if they are the heir or not, can be introduced into the family through pregnancy or adoption. If a child is adopted they must be an infant. If you are adopting a child their last name must be the same as the family who adopted them. When picking the child's trait and aspiration it must have one similar trait to the mother or father, ex: good trait to charismatic or evil to mean, the two other traits are completely up to you. The aspiration can be anything you believe fit to the child's personality. You MAY NOT influence gender. Any Sim that is abducted by aliens and becomes pregnant has a choice of keeping the child, the child counts as adopted and with whatever your heir rules are may or may not become an heir.

Generations and Generation Challenges

Generation challenges are the mini-challenges that you have to complete before you finish the generation. You have to complete at least 4 of the 5 before the original parent of the generation dies AND the heir grows into a young adult. If your heir is the first born you have less time to complete the challenges ahead.

Each generation is a little bit different, from the challenges, to the entire personality of the children in it. The challenges may grow harder, or may grow easier. You DO NOT have to do the challenges in order. With each expansion pack or game pack there will be a replacement generation where you can carry out the challenge with that generation instead of the one originally listed. If you pick to use the replacement generation and still complete the original generation you will only score with the first 10 generations of children.

Generation 1:

Have a boy and a girl

Have any child/teen have a level 10 skill in two skills

Be good friends with all of your children

Throw a house party gold level

Reach maximum level in your career

Generation 2:

Get married

Have 2 eligible children for heirs

Become a writer

Marry 2 kids out

Have one enemy and two friends

^^^ This is the challenge for my 3rd generation

Generation 3:

Reach level 10 in the criminal career

Reach level 10 in the mischief skill

Have an evil child

Be disliked by one of your children

Be enemies with the Grim Reaper

^^^ This is the challenge for my 4th generation

Generation 4:

Be best friends with the Grim Reaper

Have 5 kids (one adopted)

Move all your kids out other than the heir

Throw a party and get a gold medal on it

Have 5 good friends

Generation 5:

Reach maximum level at the piano and the guitar

Have kids all musically talented

Reach level 10 of the entertainment career on the music branch

Preform at a party rated gold

Move to a bigger lot (optional)

*This is for the Simmers that have Get to Work, ignore if you don't have it

Generation 5 Replacement:

Own a retail store

Make 60,000 from your retail store

Have an alien child

Be friends with an alien

Move to a bigger lot (optional)

Generation 6:

Have gloomy kids

Give yourself a pep talk

Have your heir be ‘goth’ or the ‘outcast’

Have an happy child with ‘goth’ siblings

Change your appearance in the mirror ^^^ This is my generation one challenge

Generation 7:

Have two successful romances

Be stuck in a love triangle

Have your teenage sims go out on a date

Have one of your kids be a dirty cheater

Have one of your kids find their soulmate on the first try

Generation 8:

Get the logic skill to level 10

Get on the honor roll for two of your kids

Have 2 of your kids be geniuses

Get 2 skills to level 10 for 3 of your kids

Become an astronaut and get maximum level for the job

^^^ This is my generation 2 challenge

Generation 9:

Become a spy for the good guys

Have your spouse be a spy for the villains

Have 2 evil kids and 2 cheerful kids

Have your evil kids get enemies

Have your good kids become friends with 5 or more sims

Generation 10(Final Generation):

Have a family reunion with all the living family members

Adopt a child

Reach level 5 of the painting, writing, and any instrument skill

Read 10 books

Marry all of your children out

This is the challenge for my 5th generation

End of Challenge

Once your reach generation 10 you can continue the generations for as long as you wish, but only score on the first 10 generations. There are six good categories. Also there is one penalty category which you can lose points up to 40. Scores can be found out by adding up your points from each category below. EVERY HEIR INCLUDES THE FOUNDER AS WELL. This is the challenge for my 5th generation

Generation Challenges

15 points for completing ⅘ of the challenges for each generation

2 points for completing ½ of the generations challenges completely

3 points completing all of the challenges for each generation

Love

1 point for each child married out of the house

5 points for every heir reaching soul mate with their spouses

10 points for being best friends with all the heirs

Family

10 points for being friends with your family

5 points for having your heir be friends with at least 1 of their siblings every generation

Popularity

10 points per heir having 2+ friends

5 points for throwing every type of party gold level at least once

5 points for having a best friend for every heir

Creativity

5 points for having one family member for every generation be level 5 or higher for one creative skill

3 points for writing a song/publishing a book/making a painting on the highest quality level it can be

7 points for having 2 generations be creatively inclined

5 points for reaching maximum level on one of the following jobs Entertainer, Writer, Culinary, or Painter jobs (either branch is fine)

Fitness

5 points for having one sim go from fat to skinny

5 points for becoming the strongest you can be

10 points for reaching maximum skill level for three sims

Brain Power

10 points for having one child per generation get on the A honor roll

5 points for getting the logic skill to maximum level

5 points for reaching level in the astronaut profession

Penalties

-15 points for a child dying before they become a young adult

-5 points for a child to be taken away by the social services

-3 points when you get your power or plumbing being shut off

-17 points if you heir dies before they can continue the generation

[purple-possibilities]

you are sick???????? i will come fight your illness for you. like. metaphorically. anyways... kakashi for the character impressions? because, duh.

I am sick :( I’ve got a cold and the world’s most horrible migraine, and life is pain, nausea, and congestion atm.  But these are sufficiently distracting.  I am imagining you punching my illness in the face, and it is satisfying.

First impression

…your name is Poop Death.  Kaka = poop in Greek, Shi = death in Japanese.  He is either the deadliest poo, or poo’s grim reaper.  Nice hair though.  I like the way it flops 

Impression now

Some days I think I am Kakashi.  Other days, I want to marry Kakashi.  I think I am in love with myself.  That must mean I have great self-esteem.  I also love his giggle.  Most fun character to write, because there are so many versions of him.  You could write him a hundred different ways, and I would still call each of them in character.  He’s just super well flushed out and dynamic.  I still love his hair.  It’s super fun to draw.

Favorite moment

This is tough.  Can I choose every moment?  No? Um… I really liked when Kakashi died, went to the afterlife and spoke with his dad.  I mean, I was dying because he died he can’t die what the hell he can’t be dead not after Jiraiya I’m still crying about that! but it was such a satisfying interaction.  You see him grow in that moment, and honestly, any moment where life stops shitting on Kakashi for five minutes and gives him a break is a good moment to me.  Second best is a tie between this giggle and this Hot Blooded Rival Challenge.  Third is his fight with Obito (so beautifully animated, it was stunning.  One of the best fights in the anime, if not the best).

Idea for a story

SO MANY IDEAS.  Let’s see, one that I haven’t mentioned yet…honestly I am sort of writing a story where Sakumo lives.  Canon gets thrown on it’s head, because Papamo is here to be the World’s Best Papa and honestly that’s all I want for Kakashi.  The Adventures of Papamo and Kakachibi, where everyone is Loved and Nothing Bad Happens (or I kill you.  Nothing bad better happen).

Unpopular opinion

I really hate how Kakashi is always saving Sakura.  I mean, I love Kakashi.  I love that he looks out for his comrades, but I think it steals from her own potential as a character.  Lots of people say ‘look he’s always there for her, such a great bond, go KakaSaku they’re soulmates’ but I see it more as ‘look, Kishimoto is stealing another moment for a female character to visibly demonstrate being successful in any sort of battle.’  Kishi tried to make Sakura popular by making her more beautiful, and by giving her a bunch of written qualifications that rarely get demonstrated.  And Kakashi, not being Naruto or Sasuke and thus being stuck somewhere between a supporting role and a main character, gets his glory shots by saving Sakura.  All.  The.  Time.  Half of his BAMF moments are him rushing in to save poor Sakura.  

And honestly, it just feels like he’s stealing from her. Kakashi’s character does many a disservice to Sakura, from not training her properly as a genin, to not training her at all when he’s lying on a bench reading Icha Icha while Naruto tries to split leaves, because there is no point to helping her at all, apparently, even though she is there every day trying to be useful by making millions of medicinal balls or whatever the fuck those gross things are called for Naruto because she wants to help dammit Kakashi get your head out of your ass and pay attention!  Like, she couldn’t be more desperate for attention, you oblivious neanderthal.  Get your head out of your book, stop being lazy, and train her! (ok this isn’t the most unpopular opinion but it bothers me so here we are). 

Favorite relationship

While I love the Rival Challenges with Konoha’s Green Beast, I have to go with Kakashi’s relationship with Sakumo.  Maybe it’s because I grew up watching Full House, or maybe it’s because I have a stereotypical stoic father who I had to force cuddles on until he stopped being embarrassed to be seen displaying any form of affection, but nothing is more special to me than a father who is open about his love for his children.  No “manly” bs, no “he was tough, but I could tell what he meant in what he didn’t say,” no “looking back, I realised he was a dick because he loved me,” none of that garbage.  

Sakumo adored Kakashi and he showed it in everything he did.  Kakashi was his sun and his moon and his stars and his sky and his earth and his air…I love, well, love, what can I say?  There are issues I have with the relationship—Sakumo teaching Kakashi ninja skills and letting him join the academy at four, or the thought that, since Kakashi was a Chuunin, he’d be better off without a dad, but these are things borne from the universe and less from the relationship.  

Favorite headcanon

Kakashi is Sarada’s touchan (daddy) while Sasuke is her otousan (father).  It doesn’t have to be a KakaSaku thing, but that girl deserves a dad, and since Sasuke is out of the village and presumably never speaks to her, Kakashi comes in, helps Sakura through her pregnancy, and helps to raise Sarada.  She just randomly starts calling him touchan one day, and Sakura cries privately later, but they all go with it (even Sasuke, when he finds out.  Sasuke is relieved that there’s someone there to love Sarada in the ways Sasuke cannot express, because he is just too shattered still, and it hasn’t been long enough for the sands of time to blunt his sharp edges).  Sarada still loves Sasuke and knows he’s her bio-dad (it’s hard not to love your biological parents, even if they’re not the best) but Kakashi is the one who takes her for ice-cream (even though he hates it himself—too sweet) and Kakashi is the one carrying her around on his shoulders (her little hands buried in his hair—he keeps it short because she complains that tickles her nose when it’s too long) and Kakashi is there when the kids at school tease her for her glasses, or because her biological father isn’t around (he wipes her tears and teaches her little, harmless jutsu to get back at them—the kids stop messing with her).  

Kakashi is an awkward potato, but he remembers his father, and remembers Minato, and he finds a way to love a little lost child, with a legacy too big for her little feet to walk in (he remembers how he felt, walking in his father’s shadow when Sakumo was no longer there to block the stares, and he wants to keep her safe from that responsibility.  She’s too young and no one should turn out like him).  

And in doing that, part of him heals. Breathing comes a little easier, and everyday isn’t just for the village, it’s for the little girl with stars in her eyes when she looks at her touchan.  He is always over to read bedtime stories (even if he has to keep a clone working overtime in the office while he skips away to tuck her in).  

Again, there doesn’t have to be a romantic connection between him and Sakura, but I think that a sort of blended family comes around, where Sarada has one mom and two dads and (as mouse and I have discussed in the past) Inojin and Boruto are jealous because ‘Why does Sarada get to have two dads? I want two dads!’ and everyone is loved.  Sasuke comes back eventually, or maybe not at all.  But he is always welcome.

This ask meme is here.  If you want to send in a character (canon or OC) or a ship, I’d love to answer this for you! (coming up next is Shino, then Tenzou, Gai, and Genma, Hidan, Adult!Obito, Rock Lee, and Ino but I’d be stoked to answer this for anyone else!)

Already done: Madara