#i think they’re just glad to have something going on that’s not dumb family drama again lol

[outrunningthedark]

I had a nonnie in my inbox who asked me to expand my thoughts on the sperm donor arc and when I tried to post I got an error, so here is the answer without exact context, ugh:

I'm glad you brought this up because it's giving me a chance to express my thoughts more...calmly, as opposed to the *screaming into the void* moment I had yesterday. I, personally, am not a fan of what the show has done to Buck's character since season four. To me, it feels like the intention was to go one way with his story (the therapy arc, maybe revisit things with the parents in s5 to officially move on to the next phase), but then...problems? unforeseen circumstances? changed it up. I mean...think about it. We get this "huge" Buck backstory, he realizes he needs to start learning about his past/accepting it, and then...two episodes later...here comes his former hookup who causes nothing but drama and she's not just a blip on the radar again. They're bringing her back to be part of the cast in s5. If you want my opinion (and this is not a slight on any actors because it is what it is), once it was realized that Jennifer was pregnant and she would have to be written out, and then the question turned to what to do with Chimney... Buck in healing mode didn't mesh with how the audience would expect him to react to Madney "leaving", so...why not let him self-destruct even more! The show abandoned the therapy arc. That's the part people are ignoring. That's the part that makes their arguments about "healing not being linear" irrelevant. There was no hint at healing beyond those two conversations (the end of 4x05 and beginning of 4x06). Shit happened and the show changed course. Very quickly. Skipping ahead to the sperm donor storyline...Well. I would argue that it narratively doesn't make *total* sense when we left off 5x18 with Buck finally doing something for himself by breaking up with TayKay. Maybe if it was TayKay who cut ties, we could more easily accept him still not being willing to listen to that voice inside that knows he's doing the wrong thing(s). Also, now that we know "radical acceptance" isn't supposed to be explained the way Buck explained it (they should have just stuck with "saying yes to possibilities")...I'm annoyed that his behavior is the antithesis of radical acceptance and looking at the show like "you just threw fancy words out there hoping people would call you genius, huh?" (Sad to say it worked.) It makes the fandom look dumb af, too, "He's saying yes without thinking! He's bound to backslide!" He's...he's not performing radical acceptance until he STOPS falling into old habits, actually. It's now a conversation that could have been avoided if they didn't use THAT exact term. 🤦‍♀️ (It's like someone decided they should use a word other than 'open-minded' or even 'automatic' and chose radical without considering it's a real phrase with a completely different connotation.) I'm not a fan of the sperm donor arc, I've made no secret of that. The timing of it (to me) seems like a way to appease the people who want to think of him as a father (because Chris isn't biologically his and therefore it doesn't count 🙃) since it's probably gonna be awhile until he has a bio kid of his own, if ever. But. I was trying to stay optimistic. "Well, surely, this is not gonna work out and he's gonna have a moment where he realizes his purpose is to build/be a family with Eddie and Chris." And by "not work out" I mean he gets rejected or the attempts aren't successful. *That* would have been my preferred scenario - he makes a rash decision, but backs out before it's too late because he's finally like "Wtf am I doing? This isn't gonna make me happy." *That* would have fit with him putting himself first. *That* would have been a way to expand on the growth we saw a glimpse of in 5x18. Now...there might be a baby? (Still allowing a 1% chance that it ends up being Connor's baby after all...) And as long as there's a baby, people aren't going to let it go. "Is Buck gonna have to save his bio kid when they get sick???" "Will Connor and Kameron die to bring up a new trauma for Buck???" "Are we gonna get Big Man, Tiny Baby because he gets to be a friend to the family???" And the thing is...I can't blame people for going there with it. As long as there is a (hypothetical) child in the story, the show could bring them up at any time. To some in the fandom, Buck should be capable of walking away peacefully from this situation he's found himself in, but the fandom is not in the writers' room. If the show doesn't have any "better" ideas, if the show needs easy drama...Buck's attitude could change on a dime. The saving grace is that this storyline is happening now when (I highly doubt) we'll get to a season where the child is old enough to want to get to know their dad. Because you know that would happen.

[toehwa6]

Just got back from a drive to get a milkshake fucked up on Valium and I told my friend I was good but on the way back I was like I’m just trying to set myself up to wreck my car and kill my self. Hopefully I don’t take anyone with me and just hit a pole or something.

He was like that’s fucked but I was laughing like naw I’m a thrill seeker and he was like no thrill seekers make sure they can do shit again you’re just suicidal and I was like fuck I guess that’s what it is I guess.

Got “diagnosed” or whatever with fuckin agoraphobia today cause I’m afraid to leave my house.

I fr thought it was like being afraid of going outside but I looked it up and it’s like being afraid of being anywhere that isn’t “safe”

Dawg I dealt with this shit on the way home from work today I stopped to get gas and I was like holy fuck what am I feeling rn I’m going to fuck my arm up and take a bunch of pills idk I would kill my self to make this feeling go away

I wasn’t even depressed or nothin it was so weird I just didn’t want to feel that way anymore

Idk I just want to fuckin die I guess. I fuckin hate being alive and dealing with this shit

I thought back pain was bad but naw fr being afraid whenever I do shit sucks more idk at least if I’m in my house and my back hurts like I’m good at least idk

I fucking hate this shit I wish I could just fucking die

I got home and talked to the doc and he was like it’s cause you’re isolated and you don’t talk to no one that’s why you’re all fucked up btw stop smoking weed so that’s why I just took a Valium

Probably not a good idea but idfk this shit is fucked now I’m just writing this shit not thinkin about nothin

I just feel like I gotta get somethin out today fuckin sucked

I feel like everyday fucking sucks when I think about it but it doesn’t really, it just feels that way

I hope I get better eventually I just don’t know what’s wrong and everytime I think I’m getting better I just keep getting worse

I’m supposed to be good at this point but shit just keeps getting worse

I was tellin my friend if I get pulled over on Valium I don’t even care I’m just gonna tell the cop I’m trying to kill myself and go to jail idc

I fucking hate being alive

I hate talking to people I hate talking to doctors I hate talking to everyone I fucking hate this shit

I gotta go chill with these people I don’t really fuck with this weekend and I’m just gonna get fucked up on Valium or Tramadol or something and have a good time I guess

I tell people I don’t like them that much and they’re fucking annoying but it gets me out of the house and fr it’s a lot of drama that I enjoy which is kinda fucked

Idk I fuckin hate everyone

I’m happy I could open up to my gf and my good homie cause it feels good to talk about stuff but even then being vulnerable and talking about my problems feels like that makes shit worse too

Idk what to do about this shit I think I’m gonna get high even tho I’m not supposed to

Idk idk idk idk idk

I fucking hate this shit

Just gonna sleep this shit off and hope tomorrow is better even tho it won’t be

Again and again and again

Can’t wait to I fuckin kill myself even tho I don’t think I’m gonna do it

I’m afraid of goin to hell so I gotta push through and just deal with this shit

I think if I get fucked up on Valium and wreck my car and die that counts as suicide but idk I hope not I don’t want to go to hell I just want this shit to stop

I hate being alive

Glad I could get this out somewhere I don’t like talking to people about my problems so I just talk to myself and nothing on here

Idk I guess it makes me feel better

Idk I fuckin hate this shit

If someone reads this shit gets better even if it don’t feel like it I promise just hang in there and don’t give up that’s what’s important just push through

Fuck everyone else love yourself that’s what matters you’re all alone in the end

Funny I told my gf that and she was like that’s dumb as fuck what if you got family and shit around you when you die

I was like lol bitch that’s not the point but I love that you think like that

Mah bitch be holdin me down frfr

I fucking hate being alive

Sorry I keep saying that

Who am I talking to

Why can’t I stop saying sorry

No one cares anyway

Alright cya

[bluefox-den]

Year 5, Heart of Spring

The Lostwood pack has found another lone pup.

The last time one was found, it was Ellie, and she was already an adolescent at the time. Her being alone, while sad, was not surprising; many packs have a custom of sending their weaker members off on their own when they reach adolescence. It’s harsh, but among smaller packs especially, it’s important to make sure that only the strongest, most beneficial wolves stay.

This time, however, the pup is far younger. No one has managed to get near him, but from what they can tell he can’t be more than a few months old. After the first sighting, Shrike began asking anyone who went out to patrol to pay extra attention to any signs of an adult wolf near the territory, but no mother has been found.

The pup is hard to spot, his mottled gray and tan fur blending into the rocky shore of the lake. He spends far too much time that close to water for a young pup, in Salmonberry’s professional opinion. He seems to know what he’s doing however, although no one else can figure out what that might be. Almost every time he’s been spotted, he is sitting at the edge of the water, his muzzle just inches above the surface. He sits as still as the boulders that line the shore, just looking into the water.

It’s only been a few days since the first sighting of him, but judging by the lack of any scent from an unknown female in the territory, he’s been alone longer than that. It’s a miracle that he hasn’t starved yet. A pup his size would struggle to take down even a rabbit, and that’s assuming that he knew how to hunt at all. He must be getting food from some other source, then.

Several of Lostwood’s wolves have tried to catch him. Cedar and the other three wolves in his hunting party tried to chase the pup down as they would a deer, but he startled and darted off to some unknown hiding spot. Sitka ran into him on the way home from a scouting trip, but she’s no longer as quick or agile as she used to be, and couldn’t follow him through the maze of brambles that he ran into. Salmonberry too has tried to lure him closer to the base so that someone can properly take care of him, but he’s avoided even her gentle encouragement.

No solution has been found yet for how best to look after this seemingly abandoned pup, but trying to help him is the first thing in a while that the whole pack has been able to agree on.

[gb-patch]

Ask Answers: April 13th, 2021

And we’re back again with more replies so soon, haha. Thank you for the asks!

Your game literally saved me this hell ass year. Thank you so much for the most perfect piece of art I've ever laid eyes on 😫 ... Do you guys have a rough idea when step 3 DLC will be released? I hope I'm not coming off as rude. I just really really love your game.

I’m sorry for the late reply on this! You might’ve already seen the answer by now, but the Step 3 DLC is coming out on the 16th. We’re almost there :D

This may be a silly question but did Jeremy's parents ever find out that Pran had lied about his age and if so, when/how? :3

Pran came clean to them after a couple of years, when he felt secure enough that it wouldn’t ruin the relationship. The Kings were a little embarrassed, the dad more than the mom, but they’re quite good at brushing past those kind of mistakes so it was all water under the bridge pretty fast.

hi! i know you’ve answered a question about alterations in the our life moments by playing them in different orders, but i was wondering if there was a canon order that the moments for each step happen in? i figure with such a customizable game the “canon” timeline for the moments is whatever order the player completes them in, for example in step 1, i like playing the runaway moment pretty early, since cove trying to run away early in summer makes more sense to me personally. thanks!

Yeah, there’s no canon order we’d insist on. Whatever you like can be the official route for you! And that’s a neat way to look at that event.

What if your character isn’t that into physical contact but still wants to be in a relationship with Cove? Would he be offended if you shy away or something along those lines?

He wouldn’t be. Cove knows how hard that can be and is very understanding. If you set his initiative to low, the game always checks to make sure if you want to be touched or not rather than assuming that you do. And if you do choose that you don’t want to, there’s no stress or drama about it. Cove will just say that’s okay!

Hellu! First off, I want to thank you all for such a wonderful game, it's been the best feel-good game I've ever stumbled upon and I can't express enough how much it has meant to me. Second, I've seen lots of people having trouble with making Cove confess before MC which makes me wonder if people will have the same problem in the dlc when you can propose to him. Is it possible to post a guide for that as well when it no longer could count as a spoiler? Again, thanks for such a beautiful game <3

I’m really happy you had such a nice time with it c:. We’ll answer questions about it on tumblr/in the discord if they come up and, if need be, we’ll find somewhere to upload a guide.

Do we get steam key from buying dlc on itch io?

I’m afraid not. That’d be unfair to those who get it on Steam. Plus, Steam isn’t super cool with giving out thousands of keys to be handed out for free on other sites anymore. They can refuse to give us the keys if they feel we’re trying to take advantage of their system.

hi! so if we reject cove's confession in step 3, can we still have MC and cove get together in step 4?

You can confess to him, yeah. But Cove won’t ever try confessing again if the MC turns him down in Step 3.

What if MC acts like someone Cove doesn't like, like Lizzie or Baxter lol

You can’t do what Lizzie or Baxter does to make Cove dislike them. You can play the game and try, but it doesn’t work out. The MC is just too compatible with Cove if you’re fond/crush/love, haha.

Hi! I absolutely love your game, I love the characters they’re all so amazing, thank you for the game haha

I was wondering if you would get the NSFW DLC no matter what Patreon level you were at, or if you would could get it at any level? :)

&

What pateron tier do we need to get the 18+ content for Our Life? It's my new favourite game, keep up the good work!

It will eventually be available at the $5 tier and anything above that! Glad you both like OL ^^

On a scale from 1 (being the worst) to 10, how well do the XOXO jerk squad including JB handle horror?

JB: 8

Everett: 5

Nate: 4

Shiloh: 10

Bae: 10

Jeremy: 8 for non-gore horror, 2 for gory horror

Pran: 9

hello!! i was wondering if any of the boys from the Jerksquad would ever wear a skirt/dress?

None of them wear skirts/dresses out of personal preference. But if there was some kind of reason where they had to do it, none would be that bothered.

How does the jerk squad feel about Christmas? 

Everett: He fucking loves it. That’s the best time of year.

Nate: Commercialized nonsense.

Shiloh: It’s wonderful! So he claims.

Bae: He likes it quite a bit, but only for the joy it brings children/family. He thinks that’s sweet but is too mature to be whipped up into a festive fervor himself.

Jeremy: It’s awful.

Pran: He hates it.

does cove have any pet allergies? yes I know this is a little weirdly specific

He doesn’t! The lucky boy isn’t allergic to any animal.

Very important question: Would Lee and a musical-theatre loving MC run around belting Into The Unknown from Frozen 2? Because I feel that they would 

Probably, haha.

This might seem like a dumb question, so I’m sorry, but with the Derek DLC are we gonna get to hang out with him in person instead of just calling him in step 3? 

The Derek DLC adds events in Step 2 and Step 4. It’s part of his story that you don’t really get to be around him in Step 3. But you don’t need to apologize for wondering!

hello! i'd like to ask if it's possible to play the android version of the game with the dlcs after buying the dlcs from steam. i wasn't expecting my android version to have my dlcs since i bought them from steam, but it had my step 2 dlc for some reason. is this a glitch or does the apk actually detect what dlcs you already have on your pc? if so, how come i don't have the step 1 dlc appearing on android? thanks!

That is some kind of glitch. It isn’t possible for the Android DLCs to be unlocked by having them on PC. Maybe in one of the old builds we accidentally didn’t lock the Step 2 DLC properly. Sorry for the confusion!

Does Derek and Baxter have canon sexualities? Will Derek still flirts with the MC regardless of their gender?

They’re both pansexual and can like the MC regardless of what gender they have.

I was wondering if Miranda had a crush on Cove in Step 3? I'm not sure why, but I got those vibes from her?

She thinks of him only as a friend. Cove isn’t her type, haha.

This is probably a dumb hope, but I hope Cliff find someone he loves after Cove is grown up and everything. Or at the very least he has someone he's very close with after Cove leaves. 

That’s a really sweet thought to have. Cliff stays single, but he’s graysexual and not-particularly romantically inclined. He only dated when he was really young ‘cause that’s what everyone did. Family and friend relationships are more important to him, and he has plenty of that in his life ^^.

Heya! I was curious if there might be a nickname system in N&F? I kind of pull an Elizabeth when I play and choose a different variation of a name like having Rosie in step one and changing it to Rose in step two, then maybe Rosetta in step three for example, but it also feels a little bit odd being scolded using my nickname hehe. That's all I was wondering about, thank you for your time and the wonderful games!

We are hoping to include the option to go by a nickname in Our Life: Now & Forever. But nothing has been programmed yet, so we can’t 100% guarantee it, haha.

Just curious, what would Liz's and Cove's relationship be if MC wasn't around? I feel like they wouldn't get along as well as they do now, especially during the first and second step 

They’d definitely have a lot of friction growing up and they’d likely avoid each other as much as possible. Once they were both older, I imagine they’d be decent neighbor acquaintances. But they still wouldn’t be nearly as close as they are with the MC bringing Cove into things.

What do the customizable eyes look like in the game? Do they look as they are in the creating avatar section? Or do they look different when actually playing the game?

That’s up to you! The doll is just meant to be a general idea. You can apply it to your imagined MC as much or as little as you prefer.

Did Cove go through a "phase" during his adolescence? I don't really wanna headcanon it so I wonder if there's anything (cringy) canon since we missed out on the ages of 14-17 hahaha

Not really, aha. 14-17 Cove is pretty recognizable to his 13 and 18 year old self.

Hello! I'm sorry to bother you, especially with all the messages you get. I was just wondering if the religious wedding venue was exclusive to a church or if there will be different religions of weddings? Also, I love this VN so much, it's so well written and every character is so amazing, thank you for making such a beautiful game.

The church is treated as a historic building rather than anything actively religious, but it’s not the only option like that. There’s a historic synagogue and stuff too! And that’s really nice of you to say <3.

How differently would it play out If MC told their moms about the 20$ deal back when it happened? 

They wouldn’t have been happy and would’ve been far more skeptical of Cliff, aha. But they wouldn’t want to keep Cove away from the MC, so it wouldn’t have been too different in the long run.  

Hello may I ask what Cove's favorite fudge/ice cream flavor would be? Its alright if its not answered 

He appreciates them all, but his top favorites would be the fruit flavored ones and the ones with nuts.

Hi! I really wanted to make mc's house in a game and tried really hard to figure out the floor plan, but I wondered if you have the floor plan of the mc's house so that i can try again with more accuracy?

Thank you a lot for this game, i loved it a lot! (my first play took me 8 hours lol)

I’m really sorry, we don’t have anything like that. But at least you can headcanon that what you did is correct and nothing can prove it wrong, haha.

Hello,I recently started playing lake of voices (I put it off for a long while since I’m usually not very good with horror) and I’m really happy I did!I’m a big fan of your games in general and lake of voices was absolutely great as well.I loved the characters and the dark setting of it,I adored the beautiful art and music and the story was great too,sometimes unsettling and sometimes very sweet.My favorite Route in the game was definitely Lu,I liked his character and was really shocked and distraught by his Route at least two times.I didn’t see the plot twist(s) coming at all!

Besides these ramblings I’ve also wanted to ask if you still remember how to get the lower two CGs on page 5?I seem to always miss them and would appreciate any help.Anyways I hope I wasn’t too much of a bother and I wish the devs a great day!:)

Thank you for all the kind words <3. You get those DLCs by going through the end of the Guide’s character path. You can use the guides on Steam to help you find it/reach the end!

—– —– —– —–

Thank you again for all of these questions :D

We released a new FAQ! It answers common questions and we’ll keep adding more to it. Please check there before sending an ask. FAQ   Also, if you prefer to just see the main posts without all the asks/reblogs, feel free to follow our side account instead: GB Patch Updates Blog

[lovee-infected]

hi hi!!! i love your vil analysis post!! just wondering though...why does vil force epel to do traditionally “cute, feminine” things. i get that it’s, like, to counter neige for the vdc, but it kind of goes against vil’s ideology? like, how i see it, vil advocates for people to express themselves how they want without being bound by gender roles. i feel like if epel tried forcing his manliness ideology onto other people, he’d be justified in his “forcing epel to do cute things” plan, but i don’t think epel has ever shamed feminine guys? he just wants to be manly himself. could this be an allusion to how the evil queen turned ugly just to fulfill her goals? vil going against his core ideals and becoming “ugly” just to win?

Glad you enjoyed it dear! As for your question, I believe that'll be better if I go into details because I've seen many asking similar questions regarding chapter 5, and I guess that's causing some misunderstandings towards both Vil and Epel. Well, we're soon getting the rest of the Pomefiore Chapter, so I guess it's the best time for an analysis on Epel and Vil's relationship and how Chapter 5 has been going so far

First off, let me state something really really important about the Pomefiore chapter, this arc has got pretty wild spirits that are quite new compared to the previous chapters. We've got Neige, the first RSA character to appear as a real rival of a NRC student, Vil and Epel's rough relationship, Ace and Deuce joining MC on the new adventure once again and finally, the VDC: an event with is potentially important to not only the whole NRC but also Twisted Wonderland!

While all fans are surely excited to see what we'll be going through next, there are quite a few of misunderstandings and wrong interpretations that are considerably important regarding the Pomefiore chapter. In order to avoid possible dramas and more misinterpretions between the fans, let's try to take a better look at this Chapter and important Pomefiore hints that we've got so far:

(1)Epel's feelings; the most important element of chapter 5

One of the quite brilliant facts about Chapter 5, is the unique presence of characters and their roles in the story. This might seem quite unrecognizable, but right now Epel's appearance is effecting the audience way more than Vil's! This arc is mainly focusing on making the audience feel his pain and hard time, and I can say that they're doing it pretty well! We'll talk about how his feelings are being presented in part (6). Now, you may wonder why his feelings are so important in the Pomefiore arc? Isn't it supposed to be mostly about Vil? Well of course, the story is most likely leading us to Vil's overblot so he's the heart of this chapter, but the important thing is too see how crucial Epel's role is here. Watching how Epel is in pain, silenty crying and forced into doing something that he doesn't want to by Vil is savagely effecting this fandom's interpretation of Vil, some are commenting on how he's the worst or how horrible he is or hundreds of not really friendly critiques which is awfully frustrating... We'd continue to talk about this point in part (5)!

(2) Epel's relationship with Vil

Let's review what we've got through the side stories. To begin with, Epel obviously doesn't really like Vil, (I'm trying to cooperate and not say that he hates him) he didn't appreciate having him as the dorm leader from the very beginning. But he's got some strong reasons to dislike Vil so we can't really blame him:

1)Vil slapped him all of a sudden just because of his poor posture at the dinner table 2)Vil almost crashed Epels head between his hands while teaching him some manners 3)Vil's idealistic are just the opposite of Epel's 4)Vil is trying to change Epel, especially during chaptet 5. It sometimes feels like Vil is treating Epel like his puppet and Epel doesn't appreciate this all.

At the end of his SR lab story Epel stated how he's going to study his hardest in magic and potions, so maybe at some point he'd beat Vil, which goes to prove that he considers Vil a rival.

"Why is it so though? Isn't this pretty risky for Epel to challenge Vil, especially as Vil is a dorm leader and Epel's just a first year who's still an amateur at magic?"

Farewell, let me mention something about Epel, he's got a really strong will to the point of not giving up until proving everyone wrong. He's often looked down on, is called to be useless and dumb, and is sometimes insulted for being innocent and naïve. True, he still has a lot he needs to learn and he's aware, but he won't take being underestimated easily.

Just look at him! He's been raised in a farm and he still found his way to this school filled with stunning students coming from noble families while Epel is a simple country boy! He proved the point to us once again in his lab coat story where Crewel gave him an impossible task just to push him into giving up and coming to apologize afterwards. When Epel realized that he was just tricked by Crewel, he felt quite frustrated and started to cry, yet he didn't give up and used his personal experiments and what he'd learned back in his farm life and paved his road to success and impressing everyone including Crewel!

This is why he isn't backing up now, he doesn't want and isn't going to lose to Vil. Another important reason might be how Vil seems to have control over Epel, his manners, his attitude, the way he looks and basically, the person Epel is. Epel has indirectly said that Vil may be currently bounding his actions and life, but someday this will change. He mentioned similar lines several times and you can see he really has a strong will to prove everyone, especially Vil, that he's not a cute apple boy to sit still and look pretty. And if he's been waiting for the right time to stand against Vil, chapter 5 has got it. In part (7) you'll see why.

(3)What is happening in chapter 5?

Okay before we continue, let's just focus on what we've got in Pomefiore chapter: This year's vocal and dance championship has an unbelievable amount of media focused on it , because two of the world-famous influencers,Vil Schoenheit & Neige Leblanche, are joining. Both are great influencers and talented designers, but recently Neige has been getting really popular through the social media and TV, thus Vil realizes that the time to face his well-known rival, Neige, has come.

The VDC is no joke to him because hundreds of people are coming to watch this competition between two Celebrities, and his career is surely at risk. If the VDC doesn't go as well as he's planned, that'll be an end to his fame and clout, possibly his whole career! Therefore he has to make sure that nothing is going to ruin his plans for the big day, and that's why he is going to use his ultimate weapon, the red poisoned apple. Note that this isn't just about Vil, it's about protecting NRC's clout against RSA as well, so losing the VDC would seriously effect NRC's picture throughout the whole twisted wonderland. So a really important part of NRC's future is relying on Vil's hands right now.

Look, unlike the previous chapters, Vil's story is about nothing fictional or exaggerated; it's something that's pretty normal to see in real life! Two famous fashion designers joining a competition, both are giving in their best, aren't planning to lose, are going to be awfully strict towards training their models and making sure that nothing would be messed up, and are SERIOUS about winning because losing it to the other side would end in losing their clout and having the reports of their unfortunate fall-down spread worldwide.

Unlike the previous overblots, Vil's strictness and seriousness has NOTHING to do with being evil or crazy, he's just doing what he's supposed to be doing, working his hardest to defend his career. Anyone else who were in Vil's shoes would've done the same, and nothing about it chaotic, heartless or mad. His being pretty strict towards Epel because he's his main hope, Epel is the perfect beauty material and is definitely capable of achieving all the best through the VDC, that's why Vil's counting on him. Just as a fashion designer is strict with training their model, Vil is all serious with his way of couching Epel. And it's just about being professional, not being evil!

(4) It's not about Vil, it's about Epel

This is more of a continuation to part (3), but let's talk seriously about how wrong chapter 5 is being interpreted. "Vil is the worst! Can't he see that Epel doesn't want this?" or "Ew gross! People like Vil who use others for their very own benefits are just horrible" are some of the aggressive comments I've recently heard about how Vil is doing in Chapter 5, which is mainly because of Epel. I mentioned that Epel's feelings are most important element of chapter 5 and this is why!! Vil isn't doing anything that savage or mean but his actions seem to be a lot more appealing to fans due to how Epel's frustration and pain is being focused on. It's not because of Vil, it's because of Epel. Vil had been just the same with Leona back in the fairy gala event and most of the fans considered the story to be much of a comedy, but when Vil's treating Epel just the same way it sounds mean, cruel, harsh and heartless. See what I meant? Epel's presence was crucial to give Vil an evil perspective and make him seem just as bad as Azul or Leona.

I'm not defending his action since Epel as well is surely under a serious pressure. He doesn't even want to be joining the VDC, let alone having to follow all these strict rules that Vil's been teaching him so far. But since Epel forcedly made the deal with Vil and promised to help him for the VDC, there's no turning back now. Vil is counting on him as his very last hope and is putting his hardest of work and effort into training Epel, just like any professional fashion designer would've done.

(5)Vil is NOT the Evil Queen!

As for Vil's biggest difference with the Evil Queen, I must say that Vil does really work his hardest for what he desires. Evil Queen simply wanted Snow White dead while we've got Vil, working his ass off preparing everything for the VDC. He isn't just going to get mad and envies of Neige because his becoming popular, he doesn't want Neige dead either. All Vil has been doing so far was working and working and working and getting to be called cruel and heartless in return, I mean can't you just feel the amount of effort and nerve he's giving into work?

See, a considerable majority of the fandom is exaggerating the story of chapter 5 while Vil hasn't even shown a simple sign of having any ill intentions or evil plans in mind! We don't know what is going to happen i the next episodes but let's say that he hasn't done a single evil thing so far.

Just take a look at previous chapters! Leona was openly planning to unfairly harm and injure other students and Azul fooled nearly 200 students, took away their magic and forced them to work for him in Mostrolounge until they graduate from the very beginning. Heartslabyul and Scarabia weren't as severe as these two but they still did have some sort of a visibly unhealthy aura. Vil's current impression as the villain of chapter 5 is high-kay normal and chill compared to the previous chapters as he literally has done nothing evil so far, NOTHING. Most of the fandom is currently giving him the malicious aura that he doesn't have, or at least he doesn't yet have. Look, Vil's just doing his job. This doesn't even have anything to do with the Evil Queen! Also, Vil's rival ship with Neige has nothing to do with beauty, it's about fame, net-worth and popularity.

We don't know if he'd come up with any ill plans or serious intentions to harm Neige or anyone else in the new episodes, but his current impression in nothing more than going hard on Epel as his coach which is just being overly exaggerated by the fandom. A real life fashion designer would've done JUST the same thing! I know that this story is most likely going to end in Vil's overblot and him revealing his inner villain but come on, he hasn't done anything horrible so far!

(6)How Epel is being presented through Chapter 5

This point is the cause of many misunderstandings and confusions regarding Chapter 5, many find the context of Epel being forced to do what he doesn't like so cruel, some on the other hand are confused becaused Vil has clearly stated that his terms of beauty are gender neutral, so why would he force Epel to do these in the first place? As I said before, it's because of Epel, not Vil.

When it comes to perspectives on beauty, Epel's idealistics are just the opposite of Vil's. Look, Epel hates being mistaken with a girl or being considered soft and cute, this is something that has been bothering him for quite a long time. Being misgendered because of his appearance all over his life has had some negative effects on his perspective toward anything cute or feminine, as it just reminds him as how he often gets misunderstood because of his unwanted appearance and cuteness. Epel is awfully similar to Deuce and wants nothing more than getting to reveal the manliness he's holding within, through not only tastes but also abilities.

This is why he's been feeling quite uncomfortable in chapter 5 because Vil's basically pushing him into doing what he hates the most, looking cute and, well, something that Epel would consider feminine. The thing is, Vil does not consider stuff like 'Being able to sing beautifully, performing eye-catching movements voice, wearing stunning clothes and applying makeup' feminine at all, to Vil these are gender neutral terms of beauty and he doesn't get why Epel might consider them girlish or feminine either. Epel's comment on not wanting to do girlish things sounded naïve and low key rude to Vil because beauty isn't bound to being male or female, and he doesn't appreciate the idea of these works being called girlish at all.

This is neither Epel nor Vil's fault, it's just the difference in idealistics.

(7) Vil's on thin ice right now

Let me tell you a secret, 'choosing Epel to become the red poisoned apple wasn't an accidental act AT ALL'. Vil has been watching over Epel ever since he entered NRC and this is why he was so strict about changing this "Mudded potato" into a well-behaved Pomefiore student. Vil knew Epel's name and had discussed his case with Rook right at Epel's first day, and this is why he treated Epel so harshly at the dinner table because his plan to turn Epel into his red poisoned apple had already begun. He was preparing Epel from the very beginning and was just expecting the big day to arrive, the day he'd need Epel to defeat his rival, Neige.

Remember that I said how Epel's been waiting for a chance to stand against Vil and how Chapter 5 would be his BEST opportunity to do this? Before we explain this point, let's have a review on how Vil has been effecting and changing him so far. During his first days in NRC, Epel was more comfortable with shouting, fighting and opposing to other students including Vil. He used to disagree until Vil slapped him but now in Chapter 5, he doesn't even say a word when Vil tells him to do something, he just silently obeys as tears fall from his eyes. He no longer fights back as much as he used to.

But right now, Vil's career, status and future is bound to Epel. Vil has been working harder than ever trying to turn him into the Red poisoned Apple he's been expecting him to become, and if Epel backs up or decides to ruin the show and stop letting Vil have control over him, that'll seriously make Vil explode. And if you think that Vil deserves to be hurt like this, I gotta say that he doesn't, he seriously doesn't deserve this after all he's been going through. Just imagine being on Gil's shoes, how would you feel about having the result of all that hard work and effort you've given into work for YEARS ruined like this? Look, we need to judge this situation nonetheless, even is you don't really like Vil it's important to realize the unfairness of this possible future to the story.

Epel now has the opportunity to BREAK Vil like no one has ever done, after all Vil has been going through to coach Epel, teach him manners, change his nature and prepare him for the VDC this would certainly be the worst thing that may happen to him and it'll make him mad, like really really mad. The Vil we've seen through the story so far was nothing more than Vil's normal calm self so we can't even imagine how it might be to see him mad. At this point he won't be bound to any manners or consderations, and keep this in mind: "We won't like it when Vil is evil, and we can't imagine how evil he can be,"

I'm honestly so excited and terrified at the same time to see what we'll get to see in the rest of the Pomefiore chapter, the atmosphere is so nerve-wrecking right now and I can't help but to pray that the rest of this story doesn't traumatize us as much as it can- “Yana please, have mercy on us”

[dinosaurtsukki]

haikyuu!! × masterchef au (team captains vs. setters edition)

can y'all imagine how chaotic a captain vs. setter team challenge is gonna be

so at first the teams are daichi, bokuto, kuroo, ushijima, and oikawa but gordon did the whole switcheroo thing and let them exchange with another team

and everyone voted oikawa out in exchange for iwa

oikawa: 🆗️🆒️

he’s actually real bitter about it

everyone in team captain high-fives iwa

team setter is chaotic af cause u have sugawara and oikawa who are the drama queens with shirabu and akaashi trying to hold everything together

kenma likes to stir the pot (literally and figuratively)

kenma, stirring a pot: hey, shirabu. suga told me to tell you that maybe you should be the one to chop the vegetables. something about you not being able to handle the grill ?

shirabu: what? he thinks i can’t handle my mEAT? I’LL SHOW HIM WHO CAN HANDLE THE M E A T

over in team captain kuroo and daichi have a whole ‘who’s the team leader?’ moment

kuroo: ok, it says leader on your apron so you are the team leader. no questions

daichi: right

kuroo: 😬 r i g h t 😬

daichi: …i hate u

bokuto @ kuroo: you’re the leader in my eyes, bro 🤘🤘😩😩

kuroo: b r o

gordon ramsay, watching the absolute chaos that is the hierarchy of team captain: 👀👀👀👀

the only serious cooking happening in team setter is with akaashi and suga

because kenma has been stirring something in a pot that no one knows about for 30 fucking minutes

akaashi, an angel: ✨ ☆☆~~ ᵃᵉˢᵗʰᵉᵗᶦᶜᵃˡˡʸ ˢˡᶦᶜᶦⁿᵍ ᵒⁿᶦᵒⁿˢ~~☆☆ ✨

his sleeves: rolled up

his apron: spotless

most of the cameras are on him because thats some asmr shit right there

suga, the antichrist himself: *sticks entire fucking hand in a pot of boiling water* oh yeah, its boiling. time to add the pasta

gordon: did he just,,, stick his fucking hand,,, in a pot of boiling fucking water???

suga: *accidentally chops the chopping board as well while chopping tofu*

gordon: *surprised pikachu face*

meanwhile oikawa is trying to stir up drama but mainly with shirabu

shirabu: hey, oikawa. can you pass the butter

oikawa: i’m not giving you this butter its a competition

shirabu: WE’RE IN THE SAME TEAM

oikawa, in the interview room: this is AMERICA’S NEXT TOP MODEL not AMERICA’S NEXT TOP BEST FRIEND

interviewer: sir, this is masterchef

everyone in team captain are watching oikawa and are so fucking glad they got iwa

but then think twice when they see how bad iwa is at cooking

everyone in team captain actually can’t cook so they make a variety of egg dishes

iwa puts an entire egg in the microwave and it explodes

gordon: 👁👄👁

iwa exiles himself from the kitchen

daichi: where tf did iwaizumi go?

kuroo: he locked himself in the freezer

daichi, sees iwa in the freezer: 🆗️🆒️

iwa: 👍

ushijima is the only one doing some actual cooking but he’s looking up 'how to fry an egg’ on wikihow

he has michelin star dreams with a skill level of that dude from ratatouille (his name’s linguini right ??? idk)

ushijima: ɪ ᴡᴀɴᴛ ᴍʏ ᴅɪsʜ ᴛᴏ ʀᴇғʟᴇᴄᴛ ᴛʜᴇ ʙᴇᴀᴜᴛɪғᴜʟ ᴄᴏᴜɴᴛʀʏsɪᴅᴇ ᴏғ ʀᴜʀᴀʟ ᴊᴀᴘᴀɴ ᴀɴᴅ ᴛᴀsᴛᴇ ʟɪᴋᴇ ᴛʜᴇ sᴡᴇᴀᴛ ᴏғ ᴛʜᴇ ғᴀʀᴍᴇʀs ᴡʜᴏ ᴡᴏʀᴋ ᴛʜᴇ ʟᴀɴᴅ

his dish: three pieces of raw broccoli

meanwhile, bokuto

bokuto, crying: ᶦ ʰᵃᵛᵉ ᵗᵒ ʳᵉˢᵗᵃʳᵗ ᵐʸ ᵖᵒᵗᵃᵗᵒᵉˢ

*cuts to shot of bokuto frantically grating potatoes*

daichi: does he,,, know,,, we’re not using potatoes????

kuroo: just let him, this is all he has

bokuto: 🥺

kuroo uses this very rare, once in a lifetime moment to imitate gordon ramsay

kuroo, consoling bokuto while he’s making mashed potatoes: ᵒʰ ᵈᵉᵃʳ, ᵒʰ ᵈᵉᵃʳ. ᵍᵒʳᵍᵉᵒᵘˢ ✨✨✨

daichi: *breathes*

kuroo: ʏᴏᴜ ғᴜᴄᴋɪɴɢ ᴅᴏɴᴋᴇʏ 🖕🖕🖕

daichi, not taking any of kuroo’s shit: s U G A

sugawara: *throws the knife he was holding from all the way across the room, hitting the wall right near kuroo’s head*

kuroo: *backs off*

because of this, the producers replaced suga’s knives with those crinkle cut scissors

also gordon ended up hiding in the freezer with iwa

iwa: 🆒️

gordon: 🆒️

meanwhile akaashi has started plating his dish and kenma notices that it looks vERY fAMILIAr

 kenma: *gets the anton ego flashback from ratatouille* 😮😮😮

he actually stops stirring the pot and shirabu gasps

shirabu: *gAsP*

kenma: *whispering* did you notice akaashi has been wearing this stupid hat all this time?

shirabu: now that you mention it,,,,

both of them agree that something has to be done but they’re both really fucking scared of rats

so they enlist the help of oikawa

shirabu: hey, akaashi said u looked dumb because u don’t have a cool chef hat

oikawa: B I T C H *pulls off akaashi’s hat*

*insert windows xp sound*

under the hat there is a rat pulling akaashi’s hair

akaashi: ,,,,

oikawa: *faints because he’s fucking terrified of rats*

the other team, watching the entire thing go down: 👁👄👁

the producers have to tell gordon the entire story through the freezer and he eventually leaves

team setter is automatically disqualified and gordon is happy thinking he doesn’t have to taste whatever it is team captain made but boy was he wrong

gordon: *looks at the dish which has ushijima’s three (3) pieces of raw broccoli, bokuto’s mashed potatoes, an egg that daichi boiled, and an artful smear of ketchup courtesy of kuroo*

gordon: do i really have to eat this?

producer: you’re under contract

none of the things on that plate were good

eXCEPT

gordon: *tasting bokuto’s mashed potatoes* ғɪɴᴀʟʟʏ, sᴏᴍᴇ ɢᴏᴏᴅ ғᴜᴄᴋɪɴɢ ғᴏᴏᴅ~~♡♡♡

considering what he’s seen, it’s enough for team captain to win

ushijima: *stoic clapping sounds*

daichi: *crying and thanking his family*

iwa: *still in the freezer* 🆒️🆒️🆒️🆒️

kuroo: *pops a bottle of champagne that no ones know where he got it* 💃💃🍾🍾🍾

gordon, at camera: they do know they technically win by disqualification right?

bokuto, cheering: WE JUST WON IRON CHEF

camera: *zooms in on masterchef logo behind him*

(edit: check out part 2 feat. second gen captains vs. first years)

[thepointoftheneedle]

Happy New Year!

I wrote a little New Year’s Eve one shot.  It’s below the cut or you can read it on AO3 here.  (I’ve started a collection of short pieces just to keep things tidy.) I hope you are all able to celebrate safely and I wish you a healthy and happy 2021.

It was obvious that the party was going off the rails as soon as Archie started lining up shots along the whole length of the marble counter top.  He called Reggie out and Reggie never backed down from a challenge to his machismo so they both worked their way along the little bullets of stupid until, breathless and belly laughing, they slid to the floor, their eyes swivelling in their dumb skulls like cartoon coyotes that had just been smashed over the head with an Acme anvil.  It was nine fifteen. Betty had wondered if Veronica would be mad about it but she seemed in the mood for some chaos as she set up two more lines of glasses opposite each other on the counter and challenged Cheryl who had never met an unnecessary drama she didn’t like.  

Betty had drunk a very pleasant glass of good champagne and had been contemplating having a couple more before midnight.  She’d never been a big drinker so for her that was cutting loose.  It had been, to put it crudely, a shit-show of a year and she was glad to see the back of it.  At the last New Year’s party she had been showing off a dazzling engagement ring, about to start the job that she had been expensively and laboriously trained for and she and her intended had signed the lease on a cute and well appointed apartment in Sunset Park which everyone said was the up and coming neighbourhood. The world had been unfolding for her like a flower.  Then the frost had come and scorched the petals with its chill. This year she was single, her job sometimes felt like it was eating her up and that cute apartment burned through every cent of her pay check now she had to make the rent alone.  It was possible that she was the saddest girl in a cocktail dress on the whole island of Manhattan, she was certainly the soberest person at the party.

An hour later the shots were completely out of hand and Betty had only just prevented Ethel from throwing up into the piano.  Moose made some half hearted effort to restore order, offering glasses of water, trying to start a game of Charades, but Kevin was in too mischievous a mood for his efforts to bear any fruit and instead they were embarking on Drunk Jenga, the rules of which seemed to be that you took a shot whenever you removed a block and then another when you placed it on top of the stack.  She imagined you took a shot if the tower fell but she didn’t stick around to find out.  She sidled over to where the Pol Roger was stacked, neglected,  in its very own champagne refrigerator and helped herself while everyone else was supporting the economy of Mexico by the prodigious consumption of Patron Silver.

She took her recharged glass to the window and looked out at the snowy expanse of Central Park far below.  It looked like the idealised interior of a snow globe, the air glassy and still and a huge yellow moon surveying its domain.  Betty remembered walking through the park with Trev last Christmas, bundled in a thick coat and scarf.  They’d held hands inside one of his mittens. They’d made snow angels.  They’d skated at the Wollman Rink and drunk hot chocolate afterwards.  Her life had been a cover image from a romance novel. This year she had spent Christmas being patronised by Polly’s constant offers of introductions to a succession of Jason’s frat brothers and golfing buddies.  Eventually she’d pointed out that if she’d wanted some obstructionist, bigoted blowhard she could have found one herself, without Polly’s oh so sympathetic intervention.  Polly cried and Betty apologised but she still wasn’t going to go on a date with a junior vice president of acquisitions even if he did have a weekend place in Connecticut.  She wouldn’t tolerate being paraded in front of prospective suitors like a prize dairy cow at the county show, not by Veronica and certainly not by her sister.

As she reminisced she became aware of Archie and Veronica deep in conversation in the corner of the room.  “We have a teeny emergenshy,” Veronica said, her hand on Archie’s forearm.  Veronica was never less than perfectly composed but that slur at the end of her word and the ramped up sincerity gave her away to her best friend. She was sozzled. “Only two bottles of Patron left and then the cupboard is bare. I may have over-ordered on the fizz and neglected the tequila.”

Archie nodded, taking the situation as seriously as his wife.  Then some kind of light dawned on his handsome face.  “We’ll get the magic doorman to get us some.  He’ll be on duty now.  I’ll go slip him a fifty and he’ll take care of it.”  He turned to reach for his wallet and promptly fell on his face. It was ten to eleven and all was decidedly not well.

Betty went over to help Archie off the rug.  He grinned even though his nose was bloody. “Ronnie, Betty’s all sober and sensible.  She can go talk to the wizard.  Here Betty, here’s fifty for a tip and Ronnie’ll give you her credit card for the booze.  Okay?  Shit I’m bleeding… still it’s not a party til something gets broke.”

V was looking at her imploringly now.  Somewhere there was the sound of glass smashing and Monroe’s attempt to do chin ups on the kitchen doorframe seemed to be bringing plaster down on the floor.  Betty would rather be almost anywhere than right here so she nodded at her friend.  "What do you need V?”

V explained that the building’s night doorman was a kind of fixer.  When Tom in 204 had forgotten his wife’s birthday Jones had got him a gluten free chiffon cake iced with her name at two thirty on a Thursday morning along with a bouquet of out of season narcissuses....narcissi? When the little boy in 116 had told his mama at midnight that he needed a George Washington costume for school the next day the night doorman had sourced it, complete with powdered wig, before the little tyke had finished his cheerios.  When V had realised an hour before her 5.15 a.m. flight to Miami that she had completely forgotten her niece’s confirmation gift he had sourced a personalised Catholic Bible bound in white leather which he handed to her as she got into her cab.  “He’s a miracle worker B.  Just tell him we need a case…no two cases of Patron Silver before midnight.  Give him the fifty but tell him I’ll make it a hundred if he can fix it by eleven thirty. OK?”

“Sure.  On my way.”  

She travelled down in the elevator imagining the doorman.  He’d be some old guy in a uniform with gold braid on the chest. He probably knew all the residents and their dogs by name and had one of those old timey extended families so that he could reach out to Cousin Ike for last minute birthday cakes or get his nephew’s wife to sew a costume at no notice.  She needed a fixer herself since her life seemed so broken.  She wondered what he could do for a lonely woman who was trying to work out if getting a cat was too much of an admission that she had given up.

As she stepped out into the lobby she was slightly taken aback by the mismatch between her expectations and reality.  He was behind the reception desk, dark head bowed over a laptop, no braid in evidence, no grey whiskers or paunch, just this dark, poetic looking guy in a black sweater.  She approached the desk and he looked up at her, fingers still flying over the keys without him needing to glance down.  He seemed to reach a natural pause, closed the lid of the laptop and smiled politely.  “Yes ma’am, how can I help?”  His eyes were blue.  They seemed to look through her probably thinking she was just another rich girl bringing him problems.  He must get that a lot.

“Yeah, hi, I’m a guest of Mr and Mrs Lodge Andrews up in the penthouse.  They’re having a little New Year's Eve party and they’re running low on liquor.  They wondered if you could source them a couple of cases of…”

“Patron Silver?  Yes ma’am, of course.  Who should I charge it to?”  She had no idea how he could have known what she was going to ask for.  It made her want to say that they wanted Stolichnaya or absinthe or something, just to surprise him but she’d been sent for Patron and Patron she would get.

“Oh, yes, I have a credit card.” She handed it over,  “and Mr Andrews said to give you this for the trouble.”  She passed him the fifty, embarrassed.

“No incentive to get it here before the coaches turn into pumpkins?” he asked, eyebrow raised.  She thought he was making fun of her but she couldn’t be sure.  

“Oh yes, that’s right.  Veronica said another $50 if it’s here by eleven thirty.”

“Okay ma’am.  I’ll buzz up when it’s here.  If that’s all.”

“Oh please don’t call me ma’am.  I’m Betty.”

“I’m Jones... Jughead. Nickname. Long dull story.” He raised an eyebrow, clearly wondering why she was still standing in front of his desk.

“Look, it’s a little crazy up there.  Would it be okay if I just stay down here for a minute? Just say if it’s inconvenient. I don’t want to disturb you if you’re busy.” She didn’t think she could bear to be the responsible adult at Veronica’s party for a moment longer. Here it was quiet and no one needed her to hold back their hair while they were getting sick.

“Busy getting hold of twelve bottles of good tequila on New Year's Eve but that’s all.  I just need to make a call.  Excuse me.”  He stood and walked away from the desk, his back turned to her.  It was a good back.  He was wearing the black sweater over grey slacks with a key chain hanging from one of his belt loops.  He had broad shoulders but his neck was fine, not thick and meaty like the guys who needed to lift weights to manufacture some self esteem. He was slim at the waist and the hips, long legs, tall.  The hair was the USP though, dark waves of it tumbling freely as he dragged long fingers through it, waiting for someone to pick up his call.  Finally he yelled “Hey Toni.  Yeah, two cases of Patron Silver asap.  Yeah, I’d noticed that but mark it up. Can Sweetpea drop it over?  Yeah right now.  Hey, ask him to get me a burger on the way too.”  He turned and looked at Betty with a questioning look and she shrugged and nodded, “Two, make it two.  Ok, thanks Toni.  Yeah you too.  See you Sunday.”

He ended the call and made his way back to the desk.  “My pal Toni runs a bar,” he explained with a grin. 

“Veronica says you’re magic, a wizard,” she told him.

“Nothing occult about it.  I’m just observant, that’s all.”

“Seems magical to produce a George Washington costume overnight,” she countered.  

“Oh well, that was a lucky break.  My sister’s a textile artist.  A struggling one.  I gave her the brief and she knocked up the costume in a few hours.  Now all the upper east side mommies have her business card and she can afford to buy materials and pay her rent.  She had to pull an all nighter but it paid off pretty big in the end.”

“Birthday cake?  Out of season flowers?” 

“The husband’s kind of a dick.  He forgot last year too. They had a fight about it in this very lobby so I wrote down the date and got ready to save his bacon.  If he’d remembered the date I’d have had cake for my breakfast and sent my sister a bunch of flowers.  As it was I made a couple hundred bucks.”

Betty was laughing now at the smug look on his face.  “So you could have reminded him beforehand?”

“Could have, but maybe the expense’ll help him remember next time.  Anyway if the doorman knows more about your wife than you do it might be time to review your priorities.”

“Ok but what about the Bible?  That seems pretty miraculous.”

“Actually it’s kind of the opposite. The kid’s confirmation name is Maria. Hardly original.  My buddy Joaquin’s little sister was confirmed a few months ago.  Her confirmation name’s Maria.  She hadn’t made a whole lot of use of the Bible.  Your pal paid me three hundred, Joaquin’s kid sister got two hundred in her college fund.”

“Seems like the side hustles are more remunerative than the pay check,” Betty observed.

“It’s all a side hustle.  I’m a writer.  This job’s kept me supplied with characters and plot lines and given me eight hours of mostly uninterrupted writing time.”

Betty flushed pink and jumped up from the corner of the desk where she had been leaning.  “Oh I’m so sorry. Here I am wasting your time.  I’ll be on my way.”

“No, wait,” he reached out and put his hand on her arm.  It tingled.  “I didn’t mean it like that.  This is research.  Maybe I’ll put you in my next book.  The sad girl in a party frock who’d rather be in the lobby than with her friends at a party being kissed for New Year.”

“There’s no-one to kiss up there,” she confessed with a sad smile and then, without having any idea why, she said “I broke up with my fiancé last February.”

“Aha,” he said.  “There’s the plot.  Tell me.”

“He’s great.  A really good guy.  Kind, loyal, handsome.  Everything I should have wanted. Any girl would be lucky to have him. I think I broke his heart.”

“Why?”

“We started to plan the wedding and I wanted to run away.  I couldn’t bear to think about it.  Then one day I found myself imagining what I’d do if something bad happened that prevented it, like if he got sick or if I was in a car accident or something.  It was pretty clear that I couldn’t go through with it if I preferred the idea of one of us being in a coma to the idea of my wedding day.”

“Cold feet?”

“Oh freezing but it wasn’t just nerves.  When I imagined being married to him I couldn’t see myself, I was just a blank. It was… I don’t know how to say it…like I was finished.  I’d never be anything more than I was, never change or grow or struggle.  It was all too easy.  No grit in the oyster.  I know it’s crazy.”

“You didn’t say it was you not him did you?  You didn’t do that to him?” He was smiling at her, sympathising not mocking.

She blushed.  “I did.  All the clichés.  How could I explain?  I don’t even understand it myself.”

“I understand it.  You want to find out who you can be and he couldn’t give you that.  He was happy with who you were, didn’t want you to change.  He was probably scared of losing you. Anyone would be.” He looked at her with an intensity that made her nervous so she tried to change the subject.  

“A writer then?  What do you write?”

“Mostly mystery stories.  Magazines and online so far but I’ve just got a publisher for the novel.  I’m going to quit this next year.  What do you do?”

“I’m a psychologist.  I work with kids who are in trouble.  Try to get them back on track.  I love it but it’s hard sometimes.  I hear things that it’s tough to leave at the office.”

“You need to take care of you first.  You can’t save someone if you aren’t safe yourself. ”

“Writer or life coach?” she smiled.

He chuckled.  “Sorry.  I’m not good at small talk.  I get too intense too fast and freak people out.  Oh hey, cometh the man, cometh the tequila.”  

A tall guy in a leather jacket was pulling boxes out of the back of a truck that he’d illegally bumped up the curb outside..  He looked a little scary.  Once he was in the lobby she saw that he had a snake tattooed on his neck.  He fist bumped Jughead and then pulled him into a side hug. “Hey man.  Happy new year and all that. Hey,” he said, noticing Betty for the first time. 

“Hey.  Thanks so much for bringing it over. There’s a whole apartment full of drunk idiots upstairs just waiting to make themselves sick on it. Oh!” He turned back to Betty, aghast at what he’d said. “Sorry Betty.”

“You’ll not get an argument from me.  That’s why I’m down here talking to you.”

Neck tattoo laughed and held out his hand “Sweetpea.  Pleasure doing business with you.”  He turned back to Jughead,  “So I have to get back, I’m supposed to be on the door at the Wyrm.  See you Sunday?”

“Burgers?” Jug reminded him and his friend nodded, trotting back to the truck to grab a take out bag and toss it back to Jughead who snatched it from the air like a dolphin snatching a fish at Seaworld.

Betty buzzed up to the penthouse to get one of the assembled jocks to come and collect two cases of tequila and bring down a bottle of Pol Roger and the promised fifty dollars. It was eleven twenty four.  Ten minutes later she was sitting on the reception desk eating a burger, washing it down with $200 champagne.  “This is the best New Year's Eve I’ve ever had,” she grinned, a little disinhibited by the bubbles.  

“Weren’t you engaged last year?”

“This is much better.  I was pretending last year.  Now I’m just being me.”

“I always find that works better.  The not pretending bit. Especially not with someone you can love.”

She certainly wasn’t pretending at eleven fifty nine when she reached out to him and he took her in his arms and kissed her softly as cheers and yells rang out from the parties all over the city and fireworks exploded high above the park, casting confetti of coloured lights across the marble lobby. 

As the kiss ended she looked up into his blue eyes, wondering if it was the champagne that was making her blurry and relaxed or if it was him.  She thought she’d have to keep on kissing him to know for sure.  He really was a fixer though.  Her heart felt lighter, hopeful.

He grinned.  “Spectacular as that was, this is probably the most surveilled lobby in the city.  Can we schedule the repeat for when I’m not actually on the clock?”  He gestured at the security cameras covering every inch of the space and she blushed to think that somewhere there was taped evidence of her trying to seduce the sexy doorman.

“Can I stay here and talk to you some more if I promise not to touch?”

“I wish you would.  I get off at six and I know a great diner for breakfast.  We can tell people our first date was breakfast.  They’ll be scandalised.” She couldn’t hold back at the mention of the first date, of them telling people about it, so she kissed him on the cheek before retreating back to the edge of the desk with her hands up.

They talked about her work, his writing, they compiled an ultimate New Year's Eve playlist and top tens of movies and books.  She found herself distracted by the fullness of his lips, the expressiveness of his face, the heaviness of the locks of hair that fell forward over his eyes only to be pushed back impatiently.  They agreed on almost nothing and that was exactly how she liked it.  When she crept up to the penthouse at five thirty to collect her coat and change her party shoes for snow boots, she was met with a scene of devastation.  Prostrate bodies sprawled on every flat surface.  The two cases of tequila sat unopened in the kitchen, clearly surplus to requirements by the time they had been manifested.  She picked her way through the carnage and found the coat closet where Archie had put her things when she’d arrived the night before.  Opening the door she noticed the cases of liquor stacked inside, three unopened boxes of Patron among them.  She realised that Jug wasn’t the only fixer in the building.  She made sure to lean over her sleeping friend to place a kiss on her forehead before she let herself out, locking the door behind her.

[procrastinationonvacation]

I loved your Angband answer! I would love to keep hearing your thoughts (they’re really interesting!), so could I possibly ask about your opinions on The Wives (Nerdanel, Anairë and Eärwen)?

- Captain Anon (I like the name :))

Hello Captain anon!! I’m glad you like it :)

ok I think it was @feanorianethicsdepartment who came up with this: but they all suffer from being Chaotic as hell. To sum up what the post was, these three Voluntarily chose to be in this family, where no one has had a “chill” day in their life. (as usual im putting the bulk of this under a cut cause it got long)

The one exception in this family *might* be Arafinwe bc 1.did not join this life voluntarily and 2.seems pretty chill. So fine maybe Earwen isn’t That chaotic. They do have the most operative children after all.

-

anyways:

Nerdanel: “the wise.” pfft yeah right. The only person crazier than her is feanor and I say that endearingly. Arguably worse when it comes to crafting. Listen, Feanor is in part the way he is about his creations because he’s angry at everyone and generally has unresolved issues with his parents. The guy is like “my motivation is to be better than everyone. Because I hate everyone.” That’s our boy. Nerdanel has none of that, she wants to be better than everyone because she is. It’s pure hubris, unchecked ambition and “what even is that, how can I make it Cooler (more sparkly).” Mahtan and Finwe should run.

Obviously this gets a little toned down when her husband goes crazy over his three shiny-s. Obviously she realizes that considerations should be made before just rampantly making a thing when she sees what swords have done to her friends. I’m imagining it kind of like Walton in Frankenstien listening to Frankensteins story and thinking “ok it’s time to go back to my community because all consuming ambition has some pretty shit consequences”

Remember in some appendix some place they’re like “oh we mean wise but like,, only in being technically smart,,, these people were legit idiots” when talking about the Noldor? Yeah.

-

Anaire: Look at their kids and her husband and just TRY and tell me she was a normal person. Like yeah they all pass for normal, especially considering their relations, but the moment things start going south they go straight to eagle flying and morgoth challenging. Anyways I never rally say Fingolfin as an aggressive influence so I guess what I’m trying to say is it had to come from somewhere and Anaire will wreck your shit. Like at elven thanksgiving dinner, when the whole family gets together, if there’s a fight theres a 90% chance it’s Feanor and Anaire going at it, 10 seconds away from the first kinslaying at all times.

Also this is a complete reach, but her name means holy or something like that, so I imagine she’s pretty tight with the valor. And she and Earwen are friends, so all I’m saying is that they are the Worlds Best Gossips and have shit on Manwe himself.

Please understand I say this all affectionately.

-

Earwen: the one for who’s sanity a case could actually be made. She and Arafinwe are generally pretty removed from the drama, but that doesn’t mean they dont get visits. just imagine Anaire showing up to their house like “Arafinwe, you’ll never guess what your dumb brother is up to now. “ and then it’s time to play “is she mad at Feanor or Fingolfin” (plot twist it’s Findis’ husband)

Also I’m assuming she’s pretty forgiving because Arafinwe came back from the revolt of the noldor, and no one said anything about them having a divorce or something sooooooo… 100% uses it to get him to do stuff in later ages tho: “hey can we watch star wars” “no we watched it last week” “wow you’re really killing my dreams. Just stabbing them through-“ “star wars! such a great movie!! we should do a marathon!”

-

Thanks for the ask!!! I really enjoyed it!!

[ectora]

Review episode 312

It’s weird because I enjoyed the episode but most of my comments are actually criticism so bare with me 😂

Overall it was a nice episode to watch. The acting was on point especially for Sarah and Poppy imo they carried this episode but also probably cause they’re the one with the most compelling stories on this one. The episode kinda felt like a filler but honestly that’s because the show is focusing too much on the allergy and we know that’s not gonna be fixed til the end so as long as they make that the main story of the sisters, most episodes are gonna feel like fillers when it comes to them. Macy and Maggie had their own little adventure with a ghost which was funny (again kudo to Sarah), Harry and Mel went on a quest for a soul tho we still have no clue what it actually meant and Abigael was going through her own little traumatic hell in the tomb (Poppy really has been particularly slaying this storyline acting wise ).

Screen time

Abigael: 6m11s

Macy: 17m24s

Mel: 11m15s

Maggie: 18m24s

Harry: 11m03s

What I liked

Maggie still got the internship and I’m glad back she deserved it. I really don’t dislike Antonio but I’m also glad they kinda made it clear she wasn’t interested and that she finally made progress with her feelings for Jordan.

Abigael. I liked it because it gave us more insight on Abigael’s past (tho I still think they should have given us this earlier). I always theorised that from her childhood, she was obviously scared from the fact her mom never really accepted her demon side which created her deep feeling of rejection and how she was never accepted and never belonged. But I also thought she had some kind of loving family. Like to me these two things were not necessarily contradictory. Well apparently not. Her mom straight out abused her during her childhood. Which definitely explain why she choose the demon side like that. Both her parents were terrible to them but as she said in the past, at least she can understand demon a little but. She can rationalise it base on their nature. When it came from her mom however, it came fully from a place of dislike which must have been very harmful on a child. So obviously when I say I like it I don’t mean I like what her mom did to her, but I really like the insight and explanation. And again, Poppy did an amazing job. She made Abigael feel so vulnerable and scared, and confirmed that, ultimately what Abigael always wanted was acceptance. Which she first needs to give to herself.

Marisol and Macy sharing a scene. I have my issues with how it went which I’ll come to later. But I’m glad it existed and Mads really showed great emotions.

That was a short list because if I did enjoy the episode and there was some highlights I’ll talk about later, I also can’t really pintpoint things I loved.

What I disliked

Harry’s story. I just really don’t like how they make it all about the relationship when it could be so much deeper than that. I also am not sure I like the length to which he’s ready to go for it. Like the entire soul donation is a bit weird to me.

Marisol and Macy. Listen that one made me angry. Maybe it wouldn’t have if Macy actually had other stuff going on than her relationship with Harry but with the way the show has been writing her mostly around her relationship with Harry, it really didn’t come across well to me. The fact we had for the first time a in present tense scene between Macy and Marisol and all they talked about a man has me fuming. Maybe if they had had a longer time to talk. But they had like two minutes and most of it was about men.

The sisters. I don’t like the fact Mel wasn’t there when they were going to connect with their mom. I feel like that should have been a story kept for all three of them. I’m also annoyed that they once again refused to give us some Mel and Macy. I would have liked to see them a bit. Once again that sisterly bond feels like it’s non existent.

Melby. I cannot believe anyone would actually look at them and think yes that’s good. The treatment is absolutely terrible. The buildup was bad - because it was supposed to last - and the fact it’s all off screen is absolutely terrible. Ruby has been in three episode this season. One of them she didn’t actually share a scene with Ruby. The second episode they were full of drama and jealousy and they were so easily breaking up. And suddenly we jump to the I love yous. And were supposed to find that cute ? Like what are we supposed to think they love about each other? The constant breaking ups ? Cause that’s the most consistent thing about them. It kinda feels cheap in the way it’s done ngl.

What doesn’t make sense

Why was Jordan in the description ? I feel they’re kinda trying to avoid putting Abi’s name in the summaries (or at least it feels like it) but like .... Jordan had not reason to even be talked about. He didn’t appear once. It should have been Abi’s name in there.

The pills falling from the pocket Like ... Harry you had literally one job. How exactly did they fall ??

Why did they seem lost until their realised Jordy was a descendant and they could use his soul. Did I miss something saying it needed to be a male descendant ? Cause like ... Gil (Jil ? Idk) was literally right there. (Nevermind apparently I missed them saying « male descendent » my bad dkdjd

How did abi know she was in the tomb. Like I know my girl is smart but like ... she has basically no contact with the sisters at this point so how on earth did she learn how the tomb works and what happens inside ??

Highlights

The hammer. Listen, don’t ask me why but this picture of abi has been sending me for weeks now and I’ve been wondering the context since I’ve seen it. Like it gives me the biggest dumb bitch energy ever. The fact that abi is a very smart person and just thought a hammer would get her out of the tomb just has me laughing like it’s just too funny to me 😭

“The British hot lady” Swan I understand You

The way Maggie calls for Abi and gets into her apartment. I don’t know why I just love it.

Macy trying to lie to Antonio. Macy’s face when she lies is always a delight.

No but do any of these older generations know what not having an affair even mean? But I mean like father like son I guess.

« Who footnotes a spell » Macy’s face was so funny 😭 she was so done with it.

Theories

Not gonna lie. I’m a bit scare about next episode. I think it might be really interesting but also I’m very scare of the execution especially when it comes to Abigael and Macy. I do believe Macy has valid to distrust Abigael. However the show has been terrible at portraying those. And ultimately, especially lately, the sisters and Abigael have barely crossed paths. They’re barely in each other’s lives. All the do is coexist in the same city and interact when demons are involved which isn’t really the case. So right now all abi is doing is keeping the demons in lines. So I’m scared that Macy’s rightful dislike and distrust is almost gonna come across as pettiness or jealousy. But I also think that there is a difference between not trusting Abigael and say she deserves to be in the tomb. Cause at the end of the day past episode 4 what has she really done so terrible that deserves eternal suffering/delusion or whatever the tomb actually does. She’s manipulative and self serving sure but she also helps more than anything. The sisters have actually nothing to win have having Abigael stuck in there. And more to lose.

One theory is that the perfecti are trying to isolate the sisters. Putting abi and Jordan in the tomb is separating them from their allies and helping Harry to lose his powers is taking their guidance/healer away from them.

Another is just that really just have a very strict black and white vision and Abigael being a demon and Jordan helping them makes them automatically in the black category. Which the title seems to be referring to so it’s probably this.

I think the upcoming episode might be a way to introduce the whole controversy around Macy’s demon powers. And slowly bringing up the story of Abigael giving them back to her.

I think it also might be a way to actually have the show approach the wrongs Abigael did in the show. But also the rights. After all, it seems like they’ll need to prove she doesn’t deserve to be in it. Which I personally don’t think she does. Though she definitely did wrong things in her life. So I think they might actually use this as an occasion to have the sisters talk about what she did do that was wrong. And hopefully also highlight that she did help them on multiple occasions.

With the “previously in charmed” it makes it feel like they’re still going with Maggie not knowing Jordan can actually touch her and this doesn’t stop confusing me. But I can see the show have them hug once he’s out of the tomb and then kinda admit their feelings finally and Jordan say something in the lines that he kept it from her because he didn’t want to put pressure on her or that him being able to touch her didn’t change the fact she wanted to focus on herself or something on those lines.

One thing I want to talk about is Abigael. Please don’t read this paragraph if you haven’t heard about the rumours going around. //// The fact is, there is a very strong change Poppy is leaving the show. And the way they made this episode made it very clear Abigael was abused as a child. But that she is also absolutely craving love and acceptance. And that she does love her mom and always wanted her love. I’m very scared that if they make Abigael leave (better than die) they’d make her go back to her sister and family and try to fix their relationship. Which would absolutely be terrible message to give as we literally know now that she was abused. And making a character go back to their abusers because of the trauma it caused (her fear of rejection and inability to actually accept herself) would just be disgusting. But I’m scared that’s the road they’re gonna take.

[brellyius]

How was Hargreeves’ friendships when they were kids:

A long ass post of my ideas(probably dumb) inspired by both comic books and tv show)

starting with:

-Luther and Allison:

They were best of friends who had feelings for each other.(?)Let me dig this deeper. Luther was #1, which meant he was the unofficial leader of the Academy. His power is being super strong which is also a reason why he was the leader. Allison, is the only female with powers (SIKE) and her power was to rumor anyone, anything she wants which means she could easily get what she wanted, which probably also created an ego as a child. As being #1 and doing what you want, they could understand and relate to each other. In s1, allison says she got whatever she wanted with everything.. Do I think they have feelings for each other?? No. I think as children who grow up so close and alike, they thought they did. I think they have a special place for each other but not as “the one” and allison knows that.

-Luther and Diego:

As #1 and #2, they ALWAYS had a rival. Trying to impress daddy constantly. I think they sometimes had soft moments and both thought like “mb he’s not that bad” but ended up getting annoyed and saying “ughh i hate him” Reginald was why they never really liked each other to begin with.

-Luther and Klaus:

Klaus ANNOYED Luther. I’m sure of that. Luther was the one who’s always serious and reasonable and Klaus probably created a lot of drama. I can see Klaus making fun of Luther and Allison’s relationship. I think when Klaus did something funny, Luther always looked annoyed but he also found those funny.. Luther as a kid, loved having Klaus around but also annoyed with him. I think Luther always wanted to have fun as Klaus did. Klaus loved talking to Luther, he found Luther interesting. I think they had some really really soft moments. 🥺

-Luther and Five:

According to comic books, they’re twins. Five always thought he was better than all of them which annoyed Luther so much. Five constantly developed his power and more he developed, more he annoyed Luther. Five was also better at learning stuff like languages which also annoyed Luther. Bcz he wanted to be his dad’s fave and Five was a huge opponent. Even tho Luther saw Five as a thread, he took Five leaving hard.

-Luther and Ben:

Ok so this is a bit complicated because in comic books, they dig deeper on their relationship but not in TV show. In comic books, Luther blames himself for Ben’s death and in his moon station, he names his helper “Ben” . Ben is known as a gullible child, easily effected so Luther probably did a bad leading which lead to his death? Scary to think about. I think Ben was THAT one sibling, who everyone loved and got along. That’s why his death caused the end of the Academy. Luther loved Ben but I think he always pushed Ben? In missions, Ben was a HUGE impact, but Ben hated using his powers.

-Luther and Vanya:

Luther probably didn’t even think Vanya was a part of the family? I think he was mean towards her but as time went by, he regretted it and became closer with her. I think when Ben died, Vanya was the one who consolted Luther. Even tho she was suffering so much.

-Diego and Allison:

*eye rolls* , *grumble grumble* they DID not like each other’s company. Diego always crossed the line with everything and Allison always tried to stop him. They definitely had friction. Never got on well. After they went their seperate ways, Diego probably never seen any of Allison’s movies. Lol

-Diego and Klaus:

My fave. Diego PLAYED with Klaus. He tricked him to do dumb shit all the time. If he was bored, he went to Klaus. When he was upset, went to Klaus. They definitely messed with Luther A LOT. Klaus was his safety blanket. Klaus annoyed him a lot, but a second later, annoyed feelings were gone. He acted like BIG brother toward Klaus. Klaus also loved being around Diego.

-Diego and Five:

Their relationship was just like Luther and Five’s were. Rivalry. Hard. After five’s departure, Diego was very upset and started to question his dad. After Ben, Diego fell apart.

-Diego and Vanya:

Funfact: Diego has a thing for Vanya in comic books. Which I’m glad that it’s not portrayed like that in the TV Show. Diego was a total asshole to Vanya. No more no less. Vanya always felt for Diego tho. I think when Diego was suffering from difficulty of speaking, Vanya tried to be helpful but Diego always acted tough, he hated looking needy. He thought Vanya pitied him which annoyed him. Vanya tried to reach him but was blocked.

-Allison and Klaus:

Another fave. Loved each other so much. Always hugs, funny jokes. Allison being a BIG sister to Klaus. Klaus wanting to wear Allison’s clothes. She had a soft spot for Klaus. She knew how hard his powers were. Sometimes she wished she could help him but Klaus never let anyone know about his struggles. He always turned his traumas into fun.

-Allison and Five:

Another tough relationship. They both were strong characters. Allison was annoyed by Five bcz he thought so highly of himself. Five was annoyed bcz he could see right through her. Five knew what Allison was capable of and called her out all the time. It was tough to hear these for Allison but it did wonders for her character development. She also questioned her dad after Five’s departure.

-Allison and Ben:

Great buddies for sure. When Allison was upset, Ben was there. They loved each other. Allison felt for Ben. Ben hated his powers and Allison could see it and told Luther to stop pushing him. She was devastated after the incident.

-Allison and Vanya:

Barely talked but when they did, it was special. Allison mostly hung out with Luther in private. Sometimes she needed a female friend and went to Vanya. But after her problems were solved, she forgot about Vanya. Vanya always felt like they were gonna be closer but never became. When Five left, Allison thought it effected Vanya the most. Then Ben died and Vanya was even more traumatized. Allison could see this but didnt know what to do. She cared about Vanya more and more everyday.

-Klaus and Five:

They weren’t close at all. He definitely thought Klaus was an idiot. But I think Five discovered Klaus’ drinking at young age and knew his struggles but wasn’t around enough to help. In Hotel Oblivion, we see Five’s intervention with Klaus. I think even tho he’s %90 of the time an asshole to Klaus, he felt for Klaus. Klaus loved pissing him off tho.

-Ben and Klaus:

Partners in crime. Always tricked Ben to do something. Ben always tried to stop Klaus doing something dumb but ended up being a partner. Ben always wanted to watch out for Klaus. They both struggled with their powers. They sometimes talked about it. Ben knew about Klaus’ mausoleum incident. Ben hated Reggie. Hated how harsh he was on them. They loved each other so much, Klaus couldnt let him go.

-Klaus and Vanya:

Klaus loved Vanya and Vanya loved Klaus. Klaus was always there to cheer Vanya up. When Vanya felt left out, Klaus made a joke. It was always like that. Vanya never understood how Klaus handled his horrible power. Vanya was so worried about Klaus. They never talked deep, but could hear each other without talking.

-Five and Vanya:

BEST OF FRIENDS. Five always felt Vanya was so mature and smart. Talked about everything. Five always complained about his siblings and dad and told everything to Vanya and Vanya listened to him patiently. His departure hit her so so bad.

-Ben and Five:

Loved each other’s company. Worked so well together. Loved each other. Had midnight talks.

-Vanya and Ben:

Vanya listened to Five, Ben listened to Vanya. Ben was the ONLY person who cared so much about Vanya. He was her guardian, her safety blanket. When Vanya was upset, Ben grabbed Klaus to cheer Vanya up. After making Vanya laugh, Klaus went away and Ben and Vanya talked about everything.

So yeah, that’s all. I hope y’all enjoyed this. It took me a long time to write this down. Please share your thoughts and feelings. Thank youu 🥰🥰

[theannaredfield]

Day 2- Connection to cast

Yes I drew this months ago in preparation. No I don’t know if this post will work either.

So Ivey’s connection to the cast is a bit all over the place, but to summarize

Dante- you see, when a man and a woman love each other very much- yeah Dante and Ivey are a couple. I know, grill me for being unoriginal. While their relationship is a bit on and off throughout the series (mainly because Ivey isn’t around for 1 and 2), after DMC4 they are in a steady relationship. As of 5 they aren’t married or anything, and it’s a bit questionable if they’ll be okay since Dante is currently trapped in hell, but she sticks it out anyway. He was the first person she really got to know, and she admires him, not for his strength but for his humanity and His connection to humanity. He and Lady really did show her what it was like to be human and she felt like she could trust them both more than anything, they’d never judge her. She wants nothing more than for him to be safe, and has a tendency to go against what he says because of this. She nearly got herself killed in 5 just because she couldn’t just sit around and do nothing while he was possibly dead. In short- she is ride or die for this man, and will stand by him no matter what happens. She’s got the time.

Vergil/V- To be honest, Ivey had a feeling something was up with V. Something about him just seemed untrustworthy but she had nothing to go on and so she said nothing. With Vergil it’s a bit mixed, she doesn’t trust him to ever be doing anything good, and she thinks he’s a bit of a selfish dick at times, but he’s Dante’s brother and Dante cares a lot about him, so she doesn’t really speak on it. She tolerates Vergil for Dante but swears if Vergil does anything, she won’t hesitate. She was honestly horrified to find him as Nelo Angelo because “oh my god, what have they done to you.”

Lady- Lady was the first full human she ever met, and because of this, Ivey always had a sort of respect and admiration for her. Despite not having any of the benefits of being a demon, she still had the audacity to try and fight them, head on. She’s very powerful and determined, not willing to back down from a fight. It’s amazing. Her and Lady are friendly with each other, though Lady playfully bullies her for her bad taste in men.

Trish- since Ivey was in hell around the time during Trish’s creation, she had a bit of distrust in her at first, when she first saw Trish with Dante. This mainly stemmed from a self-preserving nature, seeing Trish still as Mundus’ lackey he would use to kill Dante. Though she quickly learned this isn’t true, not anymore, and befriended Trish, who tries to help her blend in better with humans. They have a bit in common, and can understand each other’s problems being fully demon surrounded by humans.

Lucia- Ivey hasn’t met Lucia, actually

Patty- Though she didn’t meet Patty until she was older, Ivey absolutely adores the little girl. She finds it quite funny how Patty nags the crap out of Dante for even the smallest things. In addition to Lady, Patty also is constantly asking Ivey to “do better” because “a pretty lady like you shouldn’t be with this lazy piece of crap.” Also she likes Patty’s dresses and thinks they suit her well.

Morrison- Ivey did actually meet Morrison after the events of DMC3, though she didn’t speak much with him, she always saw him as a respectable business man. Not to mention he’s a bit of a gentleman. He more or less saw her Dante and Lady as a group of dumb teenagers without parental supervision. Was he gonna give them supervision? Hell no. But he’d at least make sure they didn’t die doing something stupid.

Mundus- Ivey fears Mundus, and I mean fears him. He could squash her like a bug if she did anything to disappoint him, and she doesn’t think she could do anything against it. Not only that but he was trying to kill Dante and tried to hire her to do it, and she had to find some way out of it. If anyone found out about her connection to the Son of Sparda she’d be as good as dead. She’s glad he’s gone, he gave her a lot of stress. Now she can just relax and live how she wants.

Nico- Ivey hasn’t interacted with Nico a lot but she finds her… interesting? She’s very smart, especially when it comes to demonic weapons. Very talented as well.

Nero- Despite Nero being her nephew, she isn’t actually that close to him. This is mainly because she doesn’t know this until the end of DMC5 and hasn’t had time to interact with him otherwise. Though she does try to look out for him, he is family and she cares that he’s safe.

Kyrie- has briefly met Kyrie and thinks she’s a godsend. She is such a nice and lovely girl and so friendly. Not to mention she makes good food. She admires her and Nero’s love and honestly hopes to be invited to their wedding.

Sparda- Never met him

Eva- never met her.

Extra!-

Carden Antonio and Juwia Evonna- Ivey’s twin son and daughter. She almost died giving birth to them but every day she still thinks about how worth it it was. These two are her everything, and she will do whatever she can to keep them safe and alive. They were her main reason for becoming the queen of fire hell and the main reason she was horrified of Mundus. She needed to protect them and one wrong move could get them and herself killed. Because of extenuating circumstances, she mainly raised them by herself with some other mythical folks she met in her travels. Dante knew about them but didn’t really get to meet them until the events of 4, which both of them still feel very guilty over. They were just two people trying their best and doing what they thought was best, but they were wrong. The kids love their parents a lot though, and don’t hold anything against either of them. They’re just happy to have their family.

Beatrice Nova- much like Nero, Ivey doesn’t know a whole lot about Beatrice, and doesn’t have a huge relationship for that reason. Beatrice seems a lot like both her mother, Serephina, and Vergil. This both worries Ivey and gives her hope. She wants Beatrice and Nero to both be safe and not get themselves killed. She is happy that Beatrice gets along even just a little bit with Carden and Juwia. They’re cousins after all, and this family has enough drama in it.

[spurgie-cousin]

What do u think of sister wives so far? Can u give a brief opinion on K, M, J, C and R.

Lol I’m glad you specified ‘brief’ otherwise this might get real long real quick (edit: it got long anyway my bad)

I feel like this season so far is boring and frustrating. They started off with a bang with Janelle’s confrontation about the families living apart (which I agree with her on) which just ended with everyone but Christine being like ‘hmm interesting’ (and Meri lying). The rest is just them being frustrated with Flagstaff (still don’t understand why the hell they’re there), the petty squabbles that pop up around that, and then Kody and Meri’s relationship problems which, just shoot me in the head already. I can’t think of one other way that Kody can express that he’s done with the relationship and I feel like their storyline is equivalent to banging your head on the wall, nothing ever gets accomplished and you just have a headache after.

Kody: Unlike a lot of people I don’t totally hate Kody. I think he’s kind of a ditz and is very overly enthusiastic about a lot of things but he also comes across as one of the more open ones out of the 5 of them to me. He kinda just word vomits everything that crosses through his head which leads to interesting and relatively genuine insight into his feelings about polygamy/plural marriage/etc. I also think he’s the type of person who’s able to adjust their positions based on new information, which we kind of saw at the beginning of this episode regarding polygamy. His biggest fault for me is that he can also seem very over-bearing when he gets an idea in his head, and he comes across as very persistent and grating when others don’t agree with one of his decisions. One thing that’s very annoying to me about him this season is how ‘done’ he is with trying to figure out Flagstaff when it was his dumbass idea to begin with.

Meri: Meri is probably my least favorite of the 5 of them and that was even before the whole cat-fishing thing (but that didn’t help). She always kind of came across to me as someone who withheld a lot of the truth and was very ruled by emotions in a way that always positioned her as the victim. The catfish thing kind of confirmed some of that because she very obviously lied about a lot of the details, including the fact that it was romantic in nature. I can’t tell if it’s her and Kody or TLC that’s making their relationship arc so miserable but that definitely doesn’t help either. The narrative right now seems to be that Kody’s mentally and emotionally out and she still thinks they’re working on something somehow.

Christine: I like Christine as a person, she seems fun to hang out with and also comes across as fairly genuine. But she also seems like someone who just lets themselves get taken on a ride by emotion which leads to unnecessary drama. I can’t tell what they’re gearing up for this season with her whole ‘I can’t be married to Kody!’ anymore thing but it seems like it’s going to be something like that. I also get the feeling that she sincerely is not meant to be a plural wife. From early on the issues she’s had with jealousy especially seem like they’ve been borderline traumatic for her. I think that’s also evident in her reaction to the one house idea, where even the mention of it sends her into tears.

Janelle: She’s definitely my favorite of all of them because she’s so logical and pragmatic. To me it usually feels like she’s the only adult in the room lol. She also comes across to me as someone that’s truthful and open, and I like how she approaches issues with the mindset of ‘how are we going to resolve this’ instead of ‘oh no why is this happening’ (or ‘god will fix this and I don’t have to do anything’ cough Robyn). Janelle’s also not afraid to call the others out on their shit like in the first episode of this season where she essentially said ‘hey jerks, you either walk the walk or admit this is not how you want to live, because we’re not doing this right’. Overall big fan.

Robyn: A lot of people think Robyn is manipulative or attention-hungry and I think that’s giving her too much credit lol. She seems sweet, kind of dumb, and very emotional lol but I also think she’s the least confrontational. A lot of people on reddit especially think she’s always conniving a way to be the ‘favorite wife’ and I totally disagree, I think she really likes her other sister wives and enjoys being part of the family a lot. She’s like Meri and Christine though in the sense that she lets her emotions lead the way and it contributes to a lot of unnecessary drama. I can’t even count the number of times I’ve been watching her talk and have been like ‘god stop crying Robyn it’s not that friggin deep’.

[shirtlesssammy]

15x16 Bullet Point Rambles

This hotel doesn’t allow check-ins after 10? Man, that rules out me for like 90% of my road trips

Travis - a hunter??? - checks into Room 214. Oooooh no it’s a creepy echo-voiced kid! Those always mean REDRUM, man

Well, I see we’ve skipped right over that Dean/Cas conversation! It’s not like I wanted to watch it or anything

Boris: Who cares about these monster of the week cases right now? GAH! (Natasha: I am choosing to believe that this narrative exploration will serve the final point - like some middle paragraph in a 5 paragraph essay)

Dean ignores a text from Cas (or “Cass”) and as soon as they arrive at the hotel the Winchesters transform into bebes. Picture my hands as hand puppets now! Sam puppet: I’m going to college! Dean puppet: Duty and hunting the family business!

Baby Dean meets Travis (unghostified) and his sister Caitlin in the past. Flash forward again and we talk to her as she mourns her brother’s death. “She came back,” she tells them. The monster...

Travis encounters the candy bar monster (or the shapeless old woman who lives in their hotel?) Young Dean believes in the candy monster, but older Dean thinks it just went after kids, so it couldn’t have killed Travis

Boris: Witness! Sam eating candy

“This ain’t the freakin’ Goonies” Bby Dean and Caitlin head off on their very first hunt.

This Travis kid just has that generic kid actor face. Haven’t we seen him in something like 10 years ago? Is he actually ageless?

Meanwhile Sam and Travis are having a very dark game of Boggle during which they get attacked by a witchy lady. Bby Dean kills her, and her ring falls to the floor - the same ring Travis was wearing around his neck in the cold open! Listen, kids. WHY do I have to keep explaining that you NEVER keep the cursed ring of the monster who tried to kill you?

Me RN: What a waste of an Africa quote. Who’s up for a chaser of an Africa Destiel vid after this? 

“I should have told you” “You were just a kid” “We used to keep a lot of secrets from one another” DOES ANYONE SMELL ANY THEMES???

Billie pops up and asks Dean why he’s WORKING A CASE…NOW???!! Lol, Billie, same. She reveals that all the worlds - INCLUDING SQUIRREL WORLD - are gone

Billie’s driving home the hard truths about Jack and Dean’s inability to forgive (Natasha: Glad we get to see Billie in this episode!)

Caitlin realizes that her brother was SUPER DUMB and fixed the broken ring of Baba Yaga and that’s why he died (Boris: Sam is going to rush out and save Caitlin and then it’s going to be a comedic love quadrangle between Eileen and Rowena and Sam and Caitlin AND THEN Dean and Cas just kick back and smirk about their solid, drama-free romance.)

Sam and Dean head off to find Baba Yaga. (Boris: Is this episode 16? SIXTEEN OF TWENTY? argh)

We appreciate all the chicken paintings in this hotel

Dean gets trapped in room 214 and starts hallucinating. (Boris: TWIST! Dean dies in episode 16!)

In a fairly quick fight, Dean manages to pull off her ring and smashes it. She explodes in flames. METAL, BABY

HEY at least we got to see Misha on the Votesmart commercial!

(Boris, checking Twitter: Everyone’s wallowing merrily in Dean angst. Natasha: The ONE constant of Supernatural!)

Getting older…”You tell the truth more…” (Boris: why YES Dean DOES need to be truthful to himself!)

Sam tries to call Cas in the Impala of Feelings but Dean tells him to hang up the phone. He tells Sam that Jack’s ready to die and it’s time to move forward with the god-killing plan! Good talk

Sam: “I thought we were past something like this!” (Natasha: So did weeeeeeee)

Dean complains that Sam raises ethical questions and I high five Sam for his tendency towards inquiry. We leave the brothers working together - LOL JK they’re fighting again. See you next week, bbys!

[greycappedjester]

Tiny Daichi is so cute! Poor tiny OiSuga, what a bad year for them. If they became friends during the first year, who knows what would have happened. But Oikawa had Iwaizumi while Suga was alone for the first two years. Was Daichi so shy that he couldn't talk to him? And about betting pool for the ball... I read your answer: "Oikawa/Suga vs. Suga/Daichi: who's dating who" and "there's definitely more than a professor betting on polyamory" Who ships OiSugaDai (or whatever it's)? Ukai Jr? Irihata?

Tiny!Daichi definitely did talk to him (they were often partnered up in Charms and Herbology, actually). A large part of Suga’s isolation during the first few years actually didn’t come entirely from outside forces (as in people bullying him, though there were definitely whispers), it largely came from Suga not feeling comfortable getting close to people because he was so very cautious of them thinking he was like his family. Really, Suga opening up (or well, eavesdropping) in the first book/his third year was him consciously taking a stand to be less shy and face his fear of rejection...and it might’ve helped that the task in question was purposefully opposed to his family’s former actions (investigating a teacher who seemed to be prejudiced against muggleborns).

Oh, gosh, let me pull up my professors list. Okay, so a note just because I’ve been a teaching assistant before and think it’s weird (to beyond weird, given the case) for teachers to get overly involved in their student’s love life.Most of the professors are here are doing this for fun/ as a joke and are not in anyway actually involved in this. It’s more like teacher lounge talk/ complaints that they made a pool for fun on.

Irihata (Potions/Slytherin House Head): Abstaining from this specific pool since 2 out of 3 are students in his House (...there might’ve been some discussion on whether that gave him an unfair advantage). Interestingly enough, if I was going to do something like the second task, I think the other headmasters would let Irihata chose who Oikawa’s person should be.

Shimada (Herbology): all his Galleons on Suga/Daichi because he has seen Oikawa nearly poison himself way, way too many times in Herbology (only to be saved last minute by Iwaizumi) and Suga not even stop talking to Daichi--he knows Suga and Oiakwa are deinitely not dating.

Oiwake (Quidditch): Abstaining because he doesn’t know any of them well enough

Takinoue (Magical Creatures): Technically has only ever had a class with Daichi but loves some petty drama (also runs the pool in conjunction with Professor Yamiji). His moneys on Oikawa/Suga after a messy, heartbreaking breakup of Suga/Daichi (not going to happen fyi), specifically he’s betting on this for their graduation. He’s been watching waaaaaay too many wizard dramas lately.

Nekomata (Healing): In it for the sheer amusement and as a joint action with Headmaster Ukai to annoy Keishin Ukai. Oikawa/Dacihi...he doesn’t believe this but he enjoys how frustrated Keishin looked about the whole thing.

Onikobe (Divination): NOT ALLOWED TO BET ANYMORE! Suga/Daichi, adamant about this, others are still pissed because they think he has an edge because of the whole divination thing (which he does, he’s right 4 out of 5 times which is incredibly impressive for divination...if you’re not Akaashi)

Naoi (History of Magic): Suga/Oikawa but they can’t admit it from pressure from Suga’s family and Daichi’s knowingly being a frontman for them...this is entirely Suga and Oikawa’s fault because they got really bored in this class one time and made it up in notes they were passing back and forth (Suga’s Muggle Studies class happened to be reading Romeo and Juliet at the time). The notes got intercepted by Naoi...they tried to explain later it was a joke and he didn’t believe them (but he also felt so sympathetic for their “tragic love” that he let them out of detention)

Mizoguchi (Astronomy): Oikawa/Iwaizumi--the rest of the teachers think he’s crazy.

Oomizu (Runes): Oikawa/Kuroo and Suga/Daichi. To be fair, he did have Oikawa and Kuroo in the height of their school grades bet in their fifth year where Suga was highkey pretending he didn’t know them while they were in classes together because they were both insane

Yamiji (Arithmancy): Suga/Daichi/Oikawa because mathematically it means he’s at least slightly right however it turns out.

Anabara (Muggle Studies): Daichi/Suga, he has seen them flirt in his class, he knows things he already wishes he didn’t so he’d at least like some money out of this whole betting pool thing.

Keishin Ukai (Charms): Thinks the pool is dumb and unprofessional and is so dang annoyed that his old man grandfather and Nekomata are in on it! Ugh, he should’ve taken that job at Mahoutokoro School of Magic, he swears!

Ikkei Ukai (Headmaster): Suga/Daichi/Oikawa...because it will annoy the shit out of Keishin.

Takeda (Transfiguration): oh, um, he just wants all of them to be happy :)

Bonus: Matsu and Makki (Keishin Ukai: Why are they even in this pool?! They’re students! Takeda: *sigh* they blackmailed Takinoue to let them in. Ukai: THEY WHAT?!): Are so glad they have the privilege of getting in on this pool. See, what actually happened is that Oikawa was in love with Suga meanwhile Daichi had been pining after Suga for years. Then, the year that Daichi was going to ask him out, a giant monster attacked the school trying to defend Suga from romantic advances, Suga tried to protect his friends but then Oikawa got petrified trying to save him (they sell this as a big dramatic act of love), then the monster kidnapped Daichi and hid him deep within the walls so, Suga using Oikawa’s last piece of advice before he died (er, we mean was petrified) found and defeated the monster and singlehandedly saved Daichi before they had a very passionate and romantic moment in a hidden chamber made by the founder Slytherin himself. By the time Oikawa woke up, he realized his beloved had moved on and decided he only wanted to see him happy. And that’s totally and completely the real epic tale of Suga/Daichi/Oikawa, trust us, we’d know!

*Matsu and Makki have been kicked out of the betting pool with prejudice*

On a related note, Suga occasionally talks in his sleep and Matsu and Makki are very good at putting together the pieces.

[olderthannetfic]

Escapade Vid - The Untamed

I could say this was my attempt at meta on an underappreciated character and that's why I wanted to vid Wen Ning…

Nah, I just think he's hot.

Wen Ning has this adorable babyface and big eyes. Just my type. And then he got a goth makeover and became a creepy zombie, increasing his hotness by ten thousand times. The Living Dead was everything I wanted except for dubcon possession porn, and it both irritates and cracks me up to see how many people find it OOC and badly made. I agree the colors are an abomination though--but more on that later.

I like Wen Ning the best because 1. He's hot and 2. He's one of the most competent characters and compromises his morals the least. Mianmian might be one up on him given how her story turns out, but in a whole series of craven idiots, I like the suicidally moral characters, especially when they're competent.

And also JC. Because I like his face. (What? I never said my Untamed feels were deep.)

I wanted to make this vid last year, right after Escapade. I spent forever finding a song, and I'm glad I did it then because it was a nightmare. I can find love songs easily, but I don't really care about WN/WWX, nor would most love songs fit that. It's clearly one-sided, but WN is also clearly totally happy to follow him around forever. Happy love songs are out. Pining angst is out.

WN is also motivated by high ideals more than specific family feelings. WQ wants to protect her family. WN wants to repay his debts. WN is a shy doofus on the surface when we first see him, and he acts flustered around most of the older characters, but this is deceptive. I feel like the most revealing scene is when he pops up at Lotus Pier, ready to grab JC and take on his entire clan. In what universe was this a good idea? What is he even doing there? Why did it actually work???

I wanted a song that encapsulated WN's quiet stubbornness. The trouble is that like 99% of popular music is either about romance or about being a confident badass, and most of the confident badass music is "Fuck you, ex boyfriend, I'm stronger now". I did not want an ex boyfriend song. A bunch of other songs are macho, flexing dudes talking about how they'll win the sports competition. Obviously, that was out. There are a very few songs like Try Everything, but they're awfully perky for covering Wen Ning's entire story, including him getting, you know, gruesomely murdered.

I honestly can't remember how I found the song I picked. I was probably listening to Happy Hanukkah on endless repeat and saw it in the Youtube sidebar. (Look, it's a great song for all times of year. Shut up.) Matisyahu has many amazing songs that build and move in ways ideal for vids.

I then sat on this source/song combo for a year because, well, it sure was a year. But when we got close to Escapade, I realized I wanted to finish it for the con.

Clip choices:

I'm not going to include the full lyrics on their own since they're in English and on every lyrics site. Instead, I'm putting the relevant bits between my explanations of what I chose and why. A lot of it came together quickly. I knew I wanted to include cute WN moments, like him being bullied by kids, and they wouldn't fit in the main narrative, so I had to put them in the intro.

Feel like the world don't love you They only wanna push you away Some days people don't see you You feel like you're in the way

I had a lot of trouble with 'push you away' since, generally speaking, no one does push him away. However, this is a vid from Wen Ning's own perspective, so it felt like an acceptable match to use the part where Wen Qing tries to leave him behind as they go on a hunt. She's objectively correct to do so given what happens, but Wen Ning is clearly upset that she tried. He doesn't want to be protected, especially at the cost of other people's safety.

Today you feel as if everyone hates Pointing their fingers, looking at your mistakes You do good, but they want great No matter what you give they still wanna take

I was very clear from early on that I wanted to use 'mistakes' for what Wen Ning is actually upset about: ruining Jin Ling's life. Of course he feels super guilty about what he did, despite it not being his fault, but the specific fallout Wen Ning is going to care about is a kid's feelings, not the political drama. That gave me the idea for what to do with 'good' and 'great'. More than most characters in the series, WN is not impressed by the power structure or reputations--scared, yes, but not impressed. WN likes bringing people food, at little things that are quietly good, and their society does not value that. (Cf. everything about Jiang Yanli's betrothal before Jin Zixuan catches feelings.)

'No matter what you give' I used for a shot that is probably not going to read as anything in a convention vidshow. He's bruised up, so I was hoping it would read properly visually. The actual context of the shot is WN having been thrown in the dungeon for being a traitor to the Wen. And yet, when the Wen are defeated, does he get a pardon? Nope, ignominious death. It really didn't matter what he did: these factions are all thoroughly corrupt and the entire system is garbage. It's all power-hungry assholes and sanctimonious prisses ripe for manipulation. All that mattered was that he was a Wen, and the Wens were either on top or being exterminated.

Give your love and they throw it back You give your heart they go on attack When there's nothing left for you, Only thing that you can do, say

The next part is WWX being an ungrateful little bitch. He's understandably stressed, but it still cracks me up that he's all up in WN's face and WN is literally only there to help him. WN might feel an obligation, but WWX sure isn't earning it here.

'When there's nothing left' I wasn't sure about. WN hitting rock bottom is arguably when he gets killed or maybe when they're in the burial mounds, but that didn't work with my structure. I chose to put a montage here of all the times that WQ tells him to stay safe by ditching WWX. I sympathize with WQ, but as WN comments in one of these scenes, he's following their own family code that she taught him. WQ cares so much about protecting WN (and the rest of their little part of the clan, but let's be real, it's mostly about WN) that she's willing to collude with a mass murderer just to keep him safe. Maybe it's only because he's a younger sibling, but WN seems to see things a lot more clearly. I laugh every time he's like "Uh huh, uh huh" as she lectures, and then the next scene is him running off to do something dangerous again.

Today, today live like you wanna, Let yesterday burn and throw it in a fire, in a fire, in a fire, Fight like a warrior, Today, today live like you wanna, Let yesterday burn and throw it in a fire, in a fire, in a fire, Live like a warrior

For this round of the chorus, WN is burning his Wen clan membership in a fire, and the heroic thing is running away, living to fight another day. WN has no ego, nor would ego be helpful here.

Buuuut, equally, being an actual warrior means hurting people, and while he was literally mind controlled into murder, that still couldn't have happened if he hadn't been already involved in violence and fighting. Violence you regret is also part of this life, and so is accepting responsibility for your actions. (Sure, he's very literally not responsible here, but WN doesn't know that at the time and doesn't feel that even later.)

There's some things you should let go, They're only gonna pull you down, Just like weight on your shoulder They are only gonna make you drown

I swear The Untamed has the best casting for a variety of face types. I recognized everybody from the moment they appeared… Except for Su She. Whom I forgot entirely and couldn't recognize at all. Doh.

It wasn't till I was clipping the whole series for this vid that I realized that the reason Wen Ning gets possessed here is that he's the only one to notice Su She's plight and go to his aid right away. I think on first viewing, I read it as him just getting possessed before he could get in the air, but that's not what's happening at all. His dumb ass stayed behind to try to help someone. Seriously, fuck Su She. They live in a grotesquely shitty power structure, but WN responds in admirable ways, while Su She just whines that he's not on top.

We all swing high, we all swing low, We all got secrets people don't know We all got dreams we can't let go, We wanna be brave, don't be afraid

WN's secret is that he gets possessed so easily and why. WQ is refusing to tell WWX in this scene, but he has figured out something is up and gives her a talisman for WN, which shows up later in the plot to great emotional effect--though not in this vid, alas.

The butterfly reveal was one of the first things on my timeline as I recall. I have Many Feelings. Also, this is me, so yes, I totally ship them. >:D

WN and WQ showing up to accept responsibility is kind of a dumbass move, but it's definitely brave. I enjoy how WN just keeps barrelling through the plot in a way that should mean he's the cute woobie who dies early on to prove the world is bad… and that instead leads to him being one of the strongest fighters, making it through the series, and finding A-Yuan again. (Though, okay, he did that first thing also. Heh.)

I ended on Jin Ling because I was so struck on rewatch at how the juniors first meet Wen Ning.

Today, today live like you wanna, Let yesterday burn and throw it in a fire, in a fire, in a fire, Fight like a warrior, Today, today live like you wanna, Let yesterday burn and throw it in a fire, in a fire, in a fire, Live like a warrior

I dimly recalled this fight, but it wasn't till I was clipping that I realized just how much focus each of them gets and how WN is literally strangling them and such. I just remembered him fighting people, not who. It's hilarious how quickly after this (in their timeline) we have doofus woobie WN being cute and them being like "He's my murder zombie! ♥"

For this chorus, I focused on that change. WN is rescuing them. "Yesterday" is their scared faces. Here, being a "warrior" is apologizing to JL. And maybe WN doesn't really owe an apology, but JL does deserve one. Almost no one in the series seems to give a shit about how JL is feeling.

And then my favorite scene with my two faves! WN is finally telling JC what he has probably wanted to for ages. WN is a wuss when it comes to himself, but he gets righteously pissed when someone else is being mistreated. The yesterday he's letting burn here is his promise to keep quiet… along with viciously burning down every bit of self perception and hubris JC ever had. Ouch!

Your heart is too heavy from things you carry a long time, Been up you been down, tired and you don't know why, But you're never gonna go back, you only live one life Let go, let go, let go, let go, let go, let go,

Bless the sequel movie for literally being entirely about Wen Ning's internal struggle. The way he breaks free of the bad guy's hold is by accepting the past and letting go of his guilt over things he can't change.

Today, today live like you wanna, Let yesterday burn and throw it in a fire, in a fire, in a fire, Fight like a warrior,

He's just so hot in this movie! This first chorus is him coming out of the hallucination, having beaten his self doubt and then beating on the villain.

Today, today live like you wanna, Let yesterday burn and throw it in a fire, in a fire, in a fire, Live like a warrior

Okay, in actual canon, JL mostly joined them because he was competing with LSZ like the bratty little asshole he is, but I wanted to highlight how JL got over himself enough to join the other juniors on team WN. Also, WN defends both him and LSZ in this scene in ways he couldn't back then.

Today, today live like you wanna, Let yesterday burn and throw it in a fire, in a fire, in a fire, Fight like a warrior,

This I wasn't planning on at all. As I was clipping the whole series, I was thinking that WN's possessed footage here wouldn't be narratively useful since he went and got taken over again, but when I rewatched for visually impressive stuff to use interstitially, I realized that--holy shit--he's defending Jin Ling in this scene. And he succeeds. I included both a shot of Jin Zixuan, which everyone caught in the vidshow, and a shot that nobody mentioned: Wen Ning's bloody fist after ripping JZX heart out to go with Wen Ning's bloody hand on the sword in the present as he struggles to keep it from Jin Ling. Here, fighting like a warrior means keeping the sword off of JL, even if WN can't defeat the spirit or resolve the entire situation himself.

ALSO I HAVE MANY FEELS ABOUT JC JUMPING IN FRONT OF JL.

Today, today live like you wanna, Let yesterday burn and throw it in a fire, in a fire, in a fire, Live like a warrior

Sometimes, WN is not that sweet. He traps this dude in a hell of his own making instead of letting him kill himself because Wen Ning can be a vindictive little bitch. And then he strides off into the matte painting sunset.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Other vidding notes:

I totally wanted to do something with Chinese characters, but there wasn't really space, and after much dictionary-searching and asking, it's clear that Chinese does not use morality metaphors involving a compass pointing true north. But that effort was not wasted since I needed a good font for my other vid.

Vidding The Living Dead turned out to be a pain. I had completely forgotten it was in another aspect ratio. The shots look much more beautiful before one crops them. That said, none of them are that beautiful because the entire film has this atrocious green color filter over it. It's like they're all wading through mud at all times. Ughhhhh. I spent so long trying to fix the color on that final scene to be at least a little pretty for my vid.

Still, the film had exactly the emotional tone I wanted. It very much skewers the fanon that WN is entirely the bashful wimp he appears to be on the surface when we first see him. It makes overt the change that we see over the series. It's also fundamentally different because it's a situation where WN is the senior person and in charge of someone. We've seen him babysit a small child, and we've seen him around the juniors with lots of people of his generation also there, but we've basically never seen him out from under WQ and WWX's thumbs. It's only natural that he's acting more authoritative here. His smackdown of the villain is very much in line with how he treats JC during the golden core reveal. WN is not a forgiving guy when he thinks someone has been selfish and awful.

Throughout this vid, there are shittons of color, speed, and motion effects. I don't normally use a lot, but it turned out to be a lot of fun this time. I should find another project to use effects on.

The vid:

Available on AO3.

[thiscitychickk]

If you don't mind sharing, I would love to hear about how you came up with the idea for CLUAH (like giving them age gap, Hermione's backstory, anything about the characters, and your thought process for the plot so far) I am obsessed with this story and I'm always rereading when I wait for the next update!

Thank you so so much! I am glad you’re enjoying it :)

So I’ve always been annoyed by fics about American politics as they’re clearly written by people who’ve never worked in the federal government (which is fine!), and I wanted to write something accurate. It’s like the way the House and Senate look different on the sets of West Wing, Veep, Scandal, etc.. Nothing is accurate. So I’ve had little snippets written, but nothing with a plot fully fleshed out. Just the idea of Hermione and Draco meeting and falling in love in Washington.

I read a book a few months ago called The Idea of You by Robinne Lee that’s focused on a couple with an age gap (a la boyband member becoming infatuated with a fan’s mother at a meet and greet. book is incredible, buy it/read it/love it) and it spurred my inspiration to have Draco as a Member of Congress and Hermione as a staffer. There are a lot of dangerous power dynamics in Washington that I’ve been warned by women who are gracious enough to have helped me (and continue to help me!) get my feet under myself living across the country from my family and as a young female on the Hill. Whether it’s a chief of staff trying to be your friend or another office’s legislative director asking you to dinner at a business meeting or a lobbyist trying to hit you up... a lot of dynamics are dangerous and potentially illegal with the super strict ethics laws and guidelines we have to follow as staffers. So it seemed fun and challenging to try out!

Plotwise, all of my stories are dialogue heavy. My biggest pet peeve in any story I read is when couples fall in love but it feels like moving from A to B because it’s expected rather than giving them a decent background and love story with highs and lows and ‘moments’ that make a real relationship. What do the characters like? What do they hate? What is their day-to-day routine? Clearly you can’t fit everything in, but it’s important to get enough for me that people aren’t just like omg they’re in love and finally having sex BUT like... wow, I see why they’re in love and I’m so glad that they found each other! Smut is great, sure, but fully fleshed out relationships are much better in long fics.

A huge part of DC that is difficult, especially on the Hill, is being a Christian and a Democrat. On dating apps all of the first messages I get are ‘you’re a Democrat and Christian?’ or ‘are you fine if I’m conservative?’ That’s just part of DC and being a person of faith, and take faith out of it and dating across party lines is STILL weird. It’s something that I continue to navigate and I think it’s so fun to explore through this medium.

There’s absolutely NO way that Malfoys would be liberal or Hermione would be conservative in America, so this is a necessary plot point in CLUAH. Some people are saying ‘oh they’ve not fought at all so far, not realistic.’

And, I say, noooo offense, but have you been in a relationship where you’ve been super attracted to someone and have the best time with them and laugh all the time and push off serious stuff? Sure, you know their mom’s name and the funny story about their childhood cat and the drama about their dad’s step-dad, but like... you aren’t talking about tax policy and guns and the Supreme Court’s 1993 ruling on *insert issue here.* 

That will ALWAYS come up, and it did already in Hermione and Draco’s relationship. I did it in a theoretical way. Hermione is theoretical, and would certainly think that having that conversation checked off the box of ‘we had the political conversation and he doesn’t spit at gay people on the streets or try and convert people of a different religion if he sees them at a restaurant, so things are fine.’

There is a huge difference between living out your political beliefs and discussing them. There will be votes soon that Draco takes that piss Hermione off. If they want to be together, they’re going to have to live through that. Think of all of the campaign promises that Lucius will have to make to rally the base. So much is coming on that front, and that’s been a huge driver in my plot so far and will obviously continue to be as we move ahead.

In terms of the characters, I’ve been focused on filling some of the stereotypes on the Hill and DC in general.

There are a lot of people like Harry who rely on their parents’ wealth and either go to grad school or law school in DC or just have a really ridiculous job and spend most of their time at the bar and nice restaurants.

Pansy is the typical ‘my parents got me this internship’ girl, but I love her and wanted to help her grow past that.

A lot of chiefs are like Blaise, Remus and Severus, and honestly, that’s how good chiefs should be... incredibly loyal, to the death, for their member, but also knowing they’re the only person who can talk their member off a ledge and tell them their ideas are dumb or unethical or not well thought out.

Percy is the quintessential hardworker who annoys everyone, but somehow made their way up the chain and knows too much to ever get rid of. He doesn’t have many friends, but it’s totally fine because he is serving the public!!!! We love Percy, even if I don’t love Percy-types in real Hill life :)

This is super long and rambly, but hopefully I answered some of your questions!