#idk how that happens tho but whatever we'll figure it out

[normal-sea-urchin]

Casey Jones Fucking Dies: Chapter 4

idk how but im pumping these out like, daily. idk what's gonna happen in the next chapter tho. tbh most of this chapter was made up as i wrote it

There was a second face, a distorted one, staring back at him, a few feet behind him. The face resembled a skeleton and the figure had a greenish glow similar to the one around the white haze. Raph whipped around and without hesitation, threw a punch towards the figure. He only realized it wasn't there when his fist hit the wall, making him cry out in pain. Just a few short seconds later, all three of Raph's brother were on the other side of the door.

"Raph are you okay?" Leo asked?

"What happened?" Donnie questioned

"Uhh, I'm fine! Just, uh, tripped!" Raph said, trying his best to sound casual.

Leo made an unsatisfied noise, but he and Donnie both left. But Raph saw Mikey's shadow creep underneath the door. "Mikey I can see your shadow, what do you want?" Raph grumbled, not really wanting to talk to his any of his brothers, but knowing it was the only way to get Mikey to leave.

"You sure you're okay, bro?" Mikey asked in a rather small voice. 

"For the last time, I'm fine Mikey!" Raph snarled.

"Okay..." Mikey sighed. A few seconds later Mikey's footsteps could be heard walking away. Now with all his brothers gone, Raph could bring his mind back to what he saw. What did he see? The image of that face flashed in his mind. He wasn't sure he really wanted to know, but he also had a feeling he would find out either way.

The next day, Raph was paired with April for patrol, much to Donnie's disliking. Raph didn't exactly like it either. He didn't like hanging around April. Knowing how she felt about Casey's death, and knowing she didn't know who the murderer was. Yet here they both were, patrolling through the sewers, looking for whatever destroyed one of Donnie's cameras. It was probably just a stupid rat anyways (no offense to Master Splinter).

"So," april began, "uh, how's your day going?" she asked, trying to make polite conversation.

The question caught Raph off guard, he wasn't exactly one for small talk, it's not like he got much practice considering he grew up in the sewers. "Uh, good, I guess" he replied hesitantly. He kind of knew how he should respond, after having seen people partake in small talk on TV. 

"Mm." she hummed in reply. The turtle didn't know how to take that. People on TV usually started talking about stuff happening in their life, right? But what would he tell her? Had to think of something. Think of something.

"Uh so how are you feeling with your friend's death?" he blurted out. 'Why the fuck would i ask that?' he scolded himself mentally. April inhaled deeply before exhaling slowly, letting her shoulders drop. Raph could tell he struck a nerve. But before he could retract the statement, she replied.

"I just," she began, "miss him. So, so, much." Her voice began to crack as her eyes teared up. Raphael felt like he was about to scream. He was in no way, a sentimental type. He wasn't good with emotions, not even his own.

"Mm, I'm... sorry. For your loss." he mumbled, cautious not to make April cry.

"Thanks, Raph." she responded after a moment. Thankfully, before any more words could be said, the turtle's T-phone rang. He pulled it out of his belt, answering the call.

"Hey Raph, we found out what broke the security camera. Turns out it was just some stupid rat. You and April can come on back now." his brother Donnie said, his voice crackling through the phone.

"Ok, sounds good, we'll start walking back" Raph commented. And with that, April and Raph started the walk back to his home.

                _______________________

Later that day, right before training, Raph couldn't find one of his sai, again. He checked on the shelves, in the drawers of his bedside table, and even under his bed. He just had it earlier today too. He was about to start looking underneath the rug in his room at this point, when his older brother, Leo peeked through the door frame.

"Wow, still having trouble finding your sai, huh?" he pondered.

"I swear I just had it! I bet this is some dumb prank by Mikey." Raph yelled, already prepared to defend himself. By this point, Leo was leaning on the doorway staring at his nails, for the sake of making Raph mad.

"Well, you better find it quick, Master Splinter won't like you being late because you lost your weapon again." Leo remarked, grazing over Raph's small outburst. And with that, he left, leaving Raph alone in his room, frantically searching for his sai. He swiftly check the shelves again; and he checked the drawers in his bedside table again. He looked under his bed again, and found his weapon lying there. Right there. But he had already checked there! He swears he had already checked there. 

Whatever the matter, he decided to grab it and rush over to the dojo so as to avoid being any more late than he probably already was. 

                _______________________

Several hours passed, and with that, training was over for the day. As he and his brothers walked out of the dojo, April was already sitting on the couch, presumably waiting for them to finish. Upon hearing them leave the dojo she turned around to face them.

"Hi guys!" she perked up at the sight of them.

"Hi April! Hope you're not tired from the walk here, cause I spotted something on some of the security cams, I think we should check it out." Donnie mentioned.

"What'd you see Don?" Mikey questioned. Raph began to space out around this time, only really hearing something along the lines of 'let's go to the lab' so he absentmindedly complied and started walking towards the lab. While spacing out he began to think about the face he saw in the mirror yesterday. A hand on his shoulder snapped him out of his thoughts. He turned around to see it was april.

"Hey Raph, can I talk to you real quick?" she inquired politely, flashing a small smile. Raph really didn't want to talk to her, but thought that if he told her no it would only make him more suspicious.

"Uh, yeah sure." he answered. He tried to avoid eye contact, not wanting to seem engaged in the conversation.

"It's just that," she started, "You've been acting kind of weird lately. Mikey said that a few days ago you were acting weird while in the sewers placing the cameras, and Leo mentioned that you've been really forgetful with your sais. Is something going on?"

Raph took that all in. So his brothers really had noticed his weird behavior. And even worse, they told April. "Ugh, I'm fine." Raph stated. He didn't want to say anything more than that. He just wanted April to leave him alone. 

"Are you sure? The past few weeks, you've been acting kind of weird. And your vibe has been kind of... off. Not bad just, off" she questioned.

"I'm fine, seriously April." Raph sternly replied. 

"Hmm, okay." April muttered, walking past him into the lab. Raph followed her into the lab. once behind Donnie who was sitting at his desk, what April said finally processed. what did she mean off?

Chapter 1/Chapter 3/Masterpost

[sorryimananti-romantic]

i need advice yumi ☹

my best friend (long distance) hasnt been texting me lately, if i dont text her first she wont text me ☹☹ idk what i should do

it always hurts me whenever i find myself texting her just to get her to remember me. but it also hurts me when i stop texting her to see if she will notice my absence

and i understand that she has a life that doesnt revolve around me, but 6 days? 6 days of me having to remind her of my existence, of our friendship. not even a "hi" or "good morning" or "how are you" or "i miss you"

idk if im too attatched to her 😭 like is this a normal thing? is it normal for your best friend to be like this? what should i do bro this turned into a vent halfway

me who doesn't talk to my best friend for 6 months straight 🧍‍♀️

okay here's the thing- i have a few context questions bc i can't give advice without them but i feel like you're the anon who just moved? and was scared to part ways with their best friend? if you are then:

a) it's normal to not talk for days- it feels overwhelming for the person who moved bc the other person is living their life just like usual and they literally forget sometimes, and that's completely okay

b) if you've talked regularly but:

if you've always been texting first, they might have gotten used to just waiting for you to text first 🧍‍♀️ which means lack of effort from them for sure

or if you text each other but they haven't texted you in 6 days, it's prob that life happened. that's okay, it's always okay to text first and you know what's even better? communicating about this. communication with friends and like just talking about how your friendship if going to work

for example me who has decades old friends but we don't talk for 6 months straight (exchanging memes don't count) its bc we have acknowledged early on in our relationship that we have our own lives but we'll always be there for eo especially when we need it. communication is imp!!

also with long distance you might have to get used to not talking for weeks or even months. that will eventually happen, tho sometimes you really do talk regularly. whatever the case, it's imp to either talk or figure out on your own what kind of communication they want from you, how much effort are yall gonna put into your friendship. i feel like for you it's still too early to judge if this a sign that they dont wanna talk anymore (in case you're the anon who just moved)

i do have some bitter realistic advice too but i kept this friendly and hopeful LOL let me know if you want that but i'll need more context bc i suffer from goldfish memory and i feel like i know you but i can't be sure bc im also a certified clown :D

[marengogo]

hello heres are some naked series ideas if you don't mind ahem

jikook in japan ( when asked whats your fave memories of that day) sir jungkook said watching jimin playing on his phone until 5 am they were almost late for their flight lol

bon voyage commentary ( they asked jungkook the difference between bv1 and bv2) lmao he couldnt answer i wonder why😏

the fact that jungkook keep telling people namjoon is the reasom he joigned bighit dont sit right with me its like theyre a layer to it we'll never know... cos as a 14-15 yo he didnt even talk through it to his parent or sum.. and their first meeting tho i cringe...

minimoni idk why but i dont like that pairing...

in the soop jimin imitates the way jungkook "snores" and me thinks its the other kind cos who in their right mind snores like that are they fr💀

This is that famous ASK I have spoken about at the beginning of me answering ASKS.I received this ASK August 22, 2022 and it took me this long because of how I decided to tackle it. To begin with, there were a lot of topics I didn’t want to just breeze over (like the NamKook part). In addition, the tone of the whole ASK got me a bit itchy in all the wrong places, so I’ve been trying to keep my cringe at bay.

Hence … dear Anon, I do apologize for the delay in replying to this ASK, but here I am! And I’ll discuss the cringe-feeling I had with the tone at the very end, so hang in there with me that is if you are still around, cause gurl/boi/enby more than half a year is admittedly a long-ass time, I’ll give you that 😬😬.

So I’ve begun speaking about Minimoni and NamKook in the posts right here so please feel free to read those → MINIMONI & NAMKOOK. For the rest, let’s beginning with the first part of the ASK.

“JIKOOK IN JAPAN” 

Anon is referring to a specific infamous? moment that happened during BTS’ AbemaTV Christmas Special interview on December 21, 2017, which you can find kindly translated here by BangtanSubs. As always I base whatever I discuss on all the Original Content (OC) provided so, I’d always advise watching this content before continuing reading if you haven’t already.

I think I have touched the subject of translating privately in my DM, but I can’t quite recall if I have on my blog. Some of you may know that I can speak Japanese, to a level where I mostly don’t need subtitles (unless there is a vocab I don’t know which I then have to look up). Now translating for a fandom like BTS is: TOUGH AF. 

As you know we have solo stans, shippers, casual listeners, here only for the boys interaction, but not the music-stans, YOU NAME IT stans, so when someone provides you with a translation, for the most part they have to decide amongst 3 choice/courses of action:

Just translate the words and you can figure out implied meanings

I will translate in a way that the implied meaning is understood even if they didn’t say those words

Just translate the words, then take some time to make notes and explain what it could mean and also add already known facts with regards to the statement. 

If you ask me, choice 3 would have to be the way to go; always. BUT LET’S BE REAL. It takes hella time to translate correctly. Imagine having to explain everything, every time, when the demand for instant translations is so high, particularly in a fandom like ours, especially when there are many moments which translators feel nobody should misunderstand. 

Also, choice 1, prevents for the most part being attacked by people in the fandom, whereas choice 2 is the quickest way to getting things spectacularly wrong if you turn out to have mistakenly interpreted what you thought they meant.  All of the aforementioned, are the reasons why Choice-1-Translators are the most common. But if I may add my 2 cents, do take the time to find some Choice-3-Translators when/if you can. Obviously, not for everything, but when/if in doubt, look for multiple sources until you are sure you’ve found various reputable, different-in-nature, sources who agree on the same meaning. 

Good Choice-1-Translators are hella quick, 95% accurate and rely heavily on context. So what is the context of this Jikook-moment.

Following is the context as righteously translated by BangtanSub:

This is the actual Japanese part without the translate caption:

おもしろトーク is the construct which was translated as “funniest story”, which is not wrong, but like A LOT OF ANYTHING in Japanese it has nuance and other meanings. The word おもしろい (read omoshiroi) mainly means “interesting” and the second most common meaning is “funny”, as something funny is culturally considered also interesting it’s a bit complicated a concept to understand but stick with me for a sec. Anyways, the person with the most interesting/funniest answer would win the price. 

As they start answering, J-Hope begins with promoting his solo songs off the bat, which has nothing to do with his questions, hence in a way, it was kinda funny/interesting for him to answer like that LOL. And then it is JK’s turn. 

Now, this was 2 months after they had gone to Tokyo together and we know just how much they loved talking about this trip. They literally took every chance to mention it.

So when JK decided to talk about that trip, instead of an experience of them presently being in Japan, I’m sure nobody was shocked, however what I think happened then was that people gave too much importance to the “memorable” part instead of the “funny/interesting” part. I believe that JK told that story because the fact that they stayed up until 5am was truly memorable because it was truly funny/interesting to him.  

What happened in those hours that they remained awake using JM’s phone? I don’t know. But using JM’s phone seems to be something that JK does more often than not now lowkey JK doesn’t seem like someone who really uses, or cares much about his own phone.

In fact, if anything, the rest of the members seem to be the ones who were almost worried as to what JK would say. Hobi decided to just give him the gift before even allowing him to finish, JM seemed to agree with that idea, everyone seemed to be just waiting to see what would happen, almost like when JK told the “rainy day” story during BTS Festa 2020. JK seems to really like having everyone wonder what he is about to say, almost to the point where they are borderline anxious; he really liked likes that.

SO TO ANSWER YOU/ANON: JK didn’t say he was watching JM until 5AM though he might have, who knows right?. They were on JM’s phone until 5AM, doing what? If they don’t tell us; we will never know, but also I really don’t think JK would have shared something personal between the two of them if JM wasn’t okay with it but that’s just me. So basically, I really don’t think this was a big moment for Jikook. Interesting/funny? Sure. Moving On!

“BON VOYAGE 2 (BV2)” 

The live Anon is referring to is BTS’ reaction and commentary to their first episode of Bon Voyage Season 2.

These 2 lives both used to be on vlive. However, as we all should know, vlive and weverse have now merged, AND UNFORTUNATELY FOR US, these two particular lives seem to have been lost in the interweb as I couldn’t find them on weverse might try and look better later, BUT, you know me OC.OG. (Original Content OG), wasn’t going to pull up to this ASK reason why I ended up only answering to 1 ASK … without finding a way to make everyone participate in the same discourse, so I didn't stop until I found links to both cause;

It may take days IT TOOK ME FOREVER, but guys, the interweb never really forgets so keep trying, IT IS ALL OUT THERE after that, if you can't find anything, like anything in life, please do ask for help, but my people, at least give it a solid try first.

Aloha, Hawaii!:

Special Commentary Live:

BACK TO THE QUESTION! Just like the previously discussed “Jikook in Tokyo” Jikookers, who MOST LIKELY were not around when this happened, saw the following cut out clip and started thinking that perhaps JK was alluding to the things that he and JM went through BV2, and proceeded to make this a significant moment because of the way JM looked at JK when he was trying to explain the difference between Season 1 and Season 2.

Don’t get me wrong. I do think that the way JM looks at JK in this situation is actually endearing and unique to them, and I’ll explain why. If you watched the commentary video, quite clearly, JK HAD NO CLUE WHAT THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SEASON 1 AND SEASON 2 WAS, at least with regards to them as a band, which was what that live was about “BTS reacting to Bon Voyage Season 2”. 

And the members knew that he didn’t, which is why they proceeded to start teasing him, saying that perhaps Namjoon should help him, but JK is a SORE LOSER; we all know that. He likes to win, no matter what, so he was going to say something, regardless of whether or not it was going to make sense or be impressive, and I think JM knew that and I think that THAT was the reason why JM was looking at JK in that way; he was waiting to see what this boi was going to come up with, and while doing that, his expression betrayed him for a couple of seconds, revealing that, even just that part of JK, was so cute, and like, “Why is he so cute even with stuff like this?!...” kinda way. 

SO TO ANSWER YOU/ANON: JM wasn’t staring at JK in that way because he thought about the fact that, for example, they didn’t show them in their room, or that perhaps they might have been playing footsie, ETC, which CORRECT ME IF I AM WRONG, you seem to be implying? 

This may come as a shocker but I honestly don’t believe that Jikook is out there trying to out themselves. I think they are conscious of the situation they are in, be it a homophobic country, members' safety, or global repercussions. They know that, and they live with it the best they can. Believe it or not, they are very careful, until they are not; for a second or two in front of the camera, or longer off-camera AKA fuck up slightly. We still don’t know completely the type of humans they are, but whoever they are and whatever they choose to be for each other, once again; THEY ARE DOING THE BEST THEY CAN TO LOVE, LIVE & SURVIVE. 

Moving on to the last part! FINALLY. 

“IN THE SOOP - 1” 

Anon is talking about this particular moment from IN THE SOOP 1 Episode 1:

If you want to watch the whole episode:

I’ll keep this VERY short …

SO TO ANSWER YOU/ANON: No. I don't think that JM was imitating JK moaning. Because this is what you were implying right? If you had watched the whole episode though, you’d see that JM also imitates RM, so what? JM is randomly going around describing how members moan in their private lives? Common’ Anon …

And I will conclude this LONG-ASS POST discussing why I felt cringe by your whole post: IT WAS THE WHOLE “IMPLYING”. There was a general sexual and dissing undertone to your ask, and I might be wrong about my vibe-check, so as always feel free to correct me, but I really … was like *shiver-down-my-spine* about it. 

I am an adult. I don’t mind discussing adult topics. But like everything in life, there is a way and way to approach the topic. When it comes to people who, for the most part, are NOT DISPLAYING THEIR PRIVATE, AND SEXUAL, LIVES OVERTLY, you must know and understand there are boundaries right? Because even though they are not that open and out, the members are sensual beings in their craft and some also a little bit in their ways, and this part they don’t seem to mind displaying and THAT PART WITHIN PROPER REASON, ETIQUETTE AND BOUNDARIES I am very happy to discuss. 

NAKED is not a series I started to begin an AV CONTENT channel, it is a series to strip down moments to their core. Just re-explaining in case it was lost in translation. The fact that I just so happen to be a very sensual and flirty being is all about me. 

So let us not project. Okay?

Alright. Good. I’ll let y’all go, I'll continue answering ask later when I get back home from work!

Always respectfully yours  💜🫰🏾,

Marengo.

[foolish-rat]

How bad does a person have to act towards another person for it to be considered abuse? Lowkey tryna figure out if my roommate is being abusive or just really unempathetic towards how I feel about things.

Here are some examples of the things she has said/done. These are the worst things so take that with a grain of salt, they don’t represent her as a person and honestly its not that bad, I just wanna make sure I’m not overreacting or overthinking things:

Confronted me on the 3rd day of knowing each other about how we weren’t close enough friends

Confronted me again a week later with the same conversation

Asked to meet with RAs and then told me over text that she wanted to swap roommates

Complained about me to the RAs for an hour. here’s a mini list of what was brought up:

- she feels like she has to walk on eggshells around me

- I don’t let her stay up late since I am an early riser (I have never told her she couldn’t)

- claimed she was bed hopping because she doesn’t want to wake me up because then I get irritated. When I asked what she meant by irritated she brought up something that had happened a few nights earlier. She came back to the dorm at like 2 am and she said that every time she made a sound, I would move around in the bed and that I just seemed really irritated (I was half asleep)

- Once again talked about how we weren’t besties and thar she and the person that she has been staying with have connected more and are closer in the past 2 days than the 2 weeks that she and I were roommates at the time of this discussion

- started crying during the meeting and I’m still not really sure what about

Alright now post-meeting drama:

Next day, I get a text

just to let you know, my bf is coming by tomorrow and spending two nights here. most likely will be staying in the dorm again with me

Is there another day he can come?

Like instead of Tuesday?

I mean he's working 24/7, he kinda cant

That’s my birthday tho

Then we'll spend the second night somewhere else if you dont want us in the dorm that day. I'm already out of the dorm all the time

The day after that:

I'll stay the night tonight with my bf, and we'll leave the dorm after we wake up

We got the night at a hotel

Thanks, man

I appreciate it

Next day (my birthday)

Js fyi since neither of us are 21 we arent staying at the hotel

We're going back.

(She never did tell me happy birthday which kinda hurt my feelings)

Today:

We had a second meeting with the RAs in which I mostly talked unlike last time and I brought up that I wanted to be asked a few days in advance if her bf can stay the night. I also brought up that it felt like she was being kind of mean and ignoring me. The RAs didn’t really let her talk and did tell her off for her passive aggressiveness and for not telling me happy birthday which that second part did kind of feel like an overreaction but whatever. After the meeting she messaged me

Hey, look, I'm sorry for not saying happy birthday and have been 'ignoring' you but I'm genuinely not happy with the way things are

Yeah, me neither. I really do want things to get better

I think this warrants another conversation at some point without the RAs but I genuinely don't want to stay at the dorm considering our situation. Idk what you talked about with the RAs but being pinned as an instigator when I made clear I tried to talk to you about this before is really frustrating (The RAs came up to me after the first meeting because I just let her talk for most of it so they wanted to hear my side. It was like a 10 minute talk)

Bc at this point the RAs are just making it worse tbh

I'm not gonna lie, I'm not really keen on staying. It's more of a schedule conflict because I genuinely don't want to bother your sleep--and I know you said you don't wake up to small noises but you have before and I don't want to fuck up your sleeping schedule considering my major (art, not saying that art isn’t a hard major, I am literally a music major and an artist, just wanted to give some context) requires a lot of crunch time

I am gonna talk to the RAs more about our situation because this is only stressing me out more than it is helping, and I know you probably didn't realize you were treating me wrong but I felt like I talked to a brick wall every single time we had a conversation (this is a perfect example of how most of our conversations went)

What do you mean by treating you wrong?

As in every time I tried to have a meaningful conversation with you regarding my wants for a roommate, you seemed to brush it off/not really listen. I've already talked to you twice about how I felt when we were together in the dorm at the same time and it seems like you only really started to try the other day after the first conversation with the RAs

Ntm I get not being friends but it feels kinda rude for me to be compliant just because we ended up being drastically different in person rather than online--I made it clear I wanted someone to be decent friends with when sharing the dorm. I'm sorry if it seems sudden to you but I don't want to keep dragging this situation out because it's getting pretty frustrating and stressful

I never said that we didn’t have to be friends. If anything, I would still like to be friends

At this point though, after trying to be friends for maybe 3 weeks before giving up, I don't really feel comfortable with that idea

I know you've stated you had problems before that affected you to this day but I don't think we're compatible in any way unless you count us talking online before we met in person

I'm sorry, I'm trying to be transparent with you but this situation is stressing me out more than it should

Yeah, it’s stressing me out too

So how can we fix it?

Honestly, roommate swap is my first thought

But for now, I am fine with sleeping at a friend's unless my bf here

And then she walked into the dorm and the rest of the conversation was in person. Nothing important happened it was basically just the convo from above being said in like 12 different fonts. I eventually told her that if she wanted to swap roommates, she could but I was not going to help her with the process and we kind of left it there.

I know my situation isn’t bad necessarily, but it really has been effecting my mental health and I wanna make sure that I am the reasonable one.

[heartsings]

for doyle’s ghost verse.  the progression i envision for it is also extended to a resurrection plot at some point in time  ( exact timeline, as well as the verse in general is up for discussion ).

  -   his death is excruciatingly painful. the beacon doesn’t just eviscerate him ; the supernatural nature of it causes to sever a clear link between reality from which he was taken, and the afterlife assigned to him after his sacrifice. the flash following his death drops him off in a hell dimension where many souls executed by the scourge reside, tortured and toiling for the likes of purebloods set on remaking them for their own benefit by removing whatever’s left of their humanity. first time, he’s there barely a moment before being ripped back to the docks overlooking the spot where he died.

  -   it doesn’t take long to figure out he’s a ghost, but it takes a while to get used to his new reality. he’s mostly floating at first, invisible and unheard. for most of it, he doesn’t get sent back to hell for long, but there are flashes of it every now and then that keep him on edge. he tries looking over angel and cordelia, or even harriet or his mum, but it’s hard to tether himself at first, and perhaps even harder to watch them mourn him. it gets better eventually and sometimes he watches them, increasingly more frustrated that he can do nothing else to help.  he remains invisible for entirety of season one.

  -   he finds an unexpected ally in dennis. stuck together on the same plane, doyle may just be the first person who sees and hears dennis when he answers ever since his spirit was released. against all odds, they develop an easy friendship. uncomfortable to watch cordelia at home when she doesn’t know he’s there, doyle usually comes around when she’s gone, so he can catch up on things he may have missed. dennis is usually the one he seeks first after he’s been gone a while.

  -   it’s around season two when things start to change. it may be the force of will trying to get through to cordelia stuck in a series of unending visions that triggers it. at first, he’s able to manipulate material things or possess them, then brief echoes of his voice or apparitions from the corner of an eye. it takes a series of textbook hauntings before he first manifests, to the shock of his friends, some time more for him to be able to stay longer, and then longer, and even help them in his new ghostly fashion.

  -   just as soon as that starts, the trips to hell become more frequent, though he never really tells anyone what happens when he disappears. time flies differently when he’s there. for the hours or days he spends on earth, there are years in hell. the longer he’s there, the harder are returns, and it’s dennis who’s most helpful and helps him keep track of events. it makes him feel detached, and clear on the fact he doesn’t really belong with the living, but the reality of staying in hell where it seems he belongs after all anyway, feels even worse.

  -   his stay in hell, however, is not without a purpose, though he doesn’t really know it. not all souls trapped there are lost, and he tries to help free them, and even succeeds with some. it’s not an easy task, but it’s one he chooses just as he chose to sacrifice himself, as the other option was to succumb into the torture and become the monster he already thinks he may be. 

  -   his death wasn’t without meaning, and such was his choice that it made him a subject of a prophecy, which he fulfilled and became the proverbial chosen one of half - bloods like him. now torn between hell and ghostly earth, with the former becoming a more frequent reality, it’s down to giving into the torture, or working out a way for him to return and pick up the path of becoming a champion in his own right.

  -  now, the when and how it occurs is up to plot. the longer down in the series it happens, the bigger chance that doyle’s ghostly appearances become less and less. doyle is tightlipped about things that concern him on such a level, but i imagine it becomes obvious something is going on at some point. as for resurrection, should it happen, it’s important to take note that it takes time for him to heal afterwards. his death itself was traumatic, he already had layers of issues before dying, now clearly enforced by the hell experience and the fact that he was even scheduled there in the first place, not to mention the guilt he feels, primarily about passing his visions onto cordelia that are threatening to kill her. though the whole thing was also certainly eye opening in some cases, but things like this need time. 

  -   this is mostly just a note that whichever way, i’m not assuming anything! i’d love to discuss and plot things beforehand, since realistically speaking doyle’s dead in canon. but who is canon anyway, amirite?

[rev3rb]

Hello again! Idk about you, but I’m left feeling kinda pleasant/neutral about this chp. I honestly didn’t expect much clarity, so hopefully the next will live up to this ending’s promise.

There were some cute moments tho. I enjoyed the parallel between Guren calling for Mahito and Yu calling for Mika. And the split panel of Mika & Shinoa watching Yu. As well as the extra dose of gay that was Mahiru bringing up Shinya’s admiration for Guren (they really aren’t slick with the queer subtext at this point). Plus I always love seeing Krul, Ferid, & Crowley interact, even if it does kind of have that bittersweet tone to it.

The ending was sweet, but I’m kinda iffy on the whole forgiveness thing though like… maybe we should hold off on that until Guren actually comes through in resurrecting the thousands of ppl he promised to 🤨. Call me cold or whatever, but I believe in cutting family members off for things such as murdering your childhood family. I get that relationships can be complex and if everything works out in the end, fine I guess. But unless that happens, me personally, I’d be holding revenge in the back of my mind at all times. I would not be afraid to go out with hate in my heart 😌

What do you think about this release?

Hello Anon!

I'm glad to hear that you're feeling neutral/pleasant with this chapter. I saw a lot of hate for this chapter from a large portion of the community before the chapter dropped and while I didn't really read any of it since I don't read leaks, it left me worried. I understand why some people don't like the chapter though, but I'll get into that in a bit. Yeah, it's not surprising that we'll have to wait another chapter before we get answers. I'm pretty sure last time I said we should start getting some answers, but we were always going to have to wait for this fight to wrap up before that happened so idk what I was thinking lol.

Yeah! It was actually the small character moments that make me like this chapter a lot. I love that Yuu's just out there headbutting Guren while everyone watches. It made me laugh imagining it play out in real time. The things I really liked though were on Guren's end and the vampires. It's interesting to see how Mahiru's changed. I don't think it really marks a progression in her character necessarily, but up until this point, she's always semi, or straight up mocked Guren for his weakness even though she, as she says, likes that about him. Here she's supporting him. You could swap Mahiru out with Shinya and not change the lines and it would fit perfectly. On that note, I do love that Mahiru mentions Shinya because their admiration really does stem from the same place. It's why they understand each other so well back in C@16. Also yeah, as you mention, we gotta have that subtext. Love to see it. But I digress. On top of all that, Guren looking at Yuu squad and seeing his own friends is just perfect. It hurts (me at least) and is bittersweet. Krul, Ferid, and Crowley were just perfect. I love seeing nigh immortal characters getting beheaded for humor reasons. Always funny, and I've honestly quite missed Ferid's "nothing in life matters :)))" attitude. He really is out here like "haha I've been alone all my life :D". It does have that bittersweet feeling to it like you said. I hope we get to see more of them interacting as we go forward.

Another small thing I wanted to mention before we move into the bulk of what I wanted to briefly talk about is the return of magic. Not going to lie, I often forget that there's this whole realm of rarely tapped on power (as in ability, not strength) in OnS while reading Vampire Reign. It gets used so infrequently since demon weapons are just so much better. I love to see it make a return for trickier tactics like this.

Okay but with all that out of the way let's get into the biggest problem with this chapter, Yuu's forgiving Guren. Again, I didn't read all the posts bc spoilers, but from what little bits I gleaned before I figured out they were spoilers, people's big dislike is Yuu forgiving Guren easily. I get it! It's unrealistic for a normal person. As you say, I'm quite sure everyone reading would hold a grudge against Guren. I would too, but here's the thing. For Yuu it makes perfect sense. It's consistent with his character. Did we forget how Guren killed Mika, and Yuu was perfectly fine with forgiving him once he learned that Mika could be saved? Did we forget how Yuu (indirectly) forgave Ferid and is willing to work with him because he learned that there's a way to bring his old family back? Not only that, but Guren is one of the most important people in Guren's life, and Yuu is WILDLY sympathetic towards him because of that. Guren's whole motivation is protecting the ones he loves, even if he has to hurt them (much as he hates that) to do it. Yuu is really the same way. Guren sort of instilled that ideology in Yuu (I ish have a meta on that here if anyone is interested in hearing more about that). They parallel each other in that regard (and a lot of others) and because of that, Yuu understands Guren more than a lot of other characters. Yuu can see where Guren comes from even if he doesn't agree with it. I won't delve into it too deeply here because of length reasons, but there's a disconnect between what Yuu, our protagonist, would do bc he feels is right and what we the audience would want, bc we feel it's right, and it's been there a while. That's not great, but it's not like it's a sudden thing this chapter. But anyway, for that reason, personally, I'm okay with it, even if it is, again, unrealistic. Do I love it? No, but I didn't expect any different. I don't fault anyone for disliking it though.

Edit: It seems people didn’t dislike it as much as I was thinking. It was just twitter lol

[scover-va]

YOUR ART IS SO COOL!! also i think if the haunted house au was an actual sjm mod sado's spawn area would be the prison from the hex where lazarus frees sado except you're in the first person pov of lazarus (except you're also not lazarus you're some guy who went into a mansion and now has to face the consequences. maybe instead of hitting the buttons with the gun like in the hex you hit them with the axe), and when you free sado and she disappears suddenly everything becomes dark. everyone in the cells disappears and a hallway that wasnt there before opens up back at the beginning and the lasers disappear (i feel like it would be much easier to explain what im talking about if i drew it but that would require making a hex sideblog so i can show you. and ive been procrastinating making a hex sideblog). i think sado's chase would be like a dark void behind her with eyes in it (like specimen 7's wall. except it wouldnt instakill if you touched it bc i think that would be unfair) and the walls during the chase would also be completely dark with eyes on them (also like specimen 7). i think sado would be able to go through walls quicker like specimen 8 also. idk how much damage she would deal yet or all the other specimen stat stuff they put on the sjm wiki but i hope my rambling isnt incomprehensible im going to go back and make sure theres no run on sentences so its actually readable -sjm anon

Okok finally answering this bc I gotta get over my fear of. Im not sure what it is but boy does it exist.

Aight first bc im gonna go in chronological-ish order with this: Ty!!! Gonna try to make more concept designs and shit this weekend, we'll see hehe. Gotta add a read more bc its long so. Yeah

Honestly?? I do like the concept of Sado having to be freed as a reference to vg2 in the actual au. Not to mention the horror aspect. Might serve as some sort of fun transition type thing. Maybe between FPP and Reggie/Jeremiah's thing?? Bc i DO have her whole thing planned out when it comes to the actual encounter, but also it might help solidify my plans with R+J. And yeah Lionel would DEF be facing the consequences of goin into the mansion so like. Smth smth poor wet paper towel of a man or whatever.

i DID have to google Specimens 7 + 8 despite rping an au of sjm with my gf, bc i COMPLETELY forget which specimen is which. And also I didnt see all their designs, so like. Yknow. Forgot the cat was surrounded by weird flesh walls tbh and I was VERY confused. I did recognize the 2 tho!! So I mean. I get brownie points for that, right? /j I also saw the game over thing for if Spec. 8 kills you, bc my gf sent it to me. That fucker reminds me of Bone Lord in a way I can't explain /pos

Also yeah i DO gotta figure out actual stats for these bitches huh. Might also ref. sjm for that bc my only ideas for stats would be like. Health and damage. Sooo yknow. Idk what the stats in sjm are but im assuming theres gotta be AT LEAST 1 or 2 more than that. I'd watch a playthrough but bc of that au my gf and i did i already know the important lore and shit, and i get bored VERY easily so. We'll see what happens. And personally playing it aint an option. I cant personally play horror games, im a coward.

Also dw sjm anon, i COMPLETELY understand the bit abt the ramble being comprehensible or not. I have gone on many rambles to my friends/gf that probably made 0 sense, but who cares bc im havin fun

Going back to a thing I mentioned earlier, I'll go over my R+J plans I figured out while rambling to my gf in a different post, bc I wanna make a proper post abt that. And also with the new Sado ideas I need to solidify some stuff first lmao