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invalidtumbls · 2 years ago

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De-rezzed in the Second Act

So, I have this weird habit: I am fascinated not by perfect stories, but those that start well and fall apart for no particularly good reason. I remember seeing Atlantis: The Lost Empire in the theater and being carried away by the efficient setup in the first 20 minutes, only to hit a point when things slow down and thinking “wait, when did this suddenly start to suck?”

I hear ya Vinny. I’m bored too.

The problem, as story theorists know, is second act trouble. It’s that problem of the long middle of the story where initial enthusiasm fades, attention drifts, and momentum fails.

Well, that’s what it does when you’ve got second act trouble, anyways. Obviously, some movies/games/shows don’t have this problem, because they don’t have a defective second act. Nobody in 1977 came out of Star Wars saying “man, that stuff on board the Death Star went on way too long.”

Anyways, let’s define our terms. Three-act structure splits the story into three parts:

Setup — Introduce the characters and the situation. An inciting incident gets the ball rolling, ultimately leading to the first plot point, where an irreversible change occurs and the conflict begins.

Conflict — The protagonist attempts to achieve their goal, dealing with a progression of complications that arise naturally from each of their actions along the way. Eventually, this leads to the second plot point, at which the back-and-forth of the main conflict cannot continue, and a conclusion (for good or ill) must be reached.

Resolution — A new, final conflict ends the story, with the protagonist succeeding or failing (or, sometimes, a combination of both, like discovering the thing they originally wanted and have now attained isn’t what they actually need).

Thing is, these aren’t divvied up in tidy one-third portions. In practice, the acts are in more of a 25%-50%-25% split, or 20-50-30 if you go by the Scriptnotes podcast’s t-shirt. Author K. M. Weiland has an extraordinary site for story theorists that breaks all the key moments (or beats) of this structure into blogs, podcasts, and compilation books.

So, after seeing YouTube videos of the cool new Tron roller coaster at Disney World, I was reminded of 2010's Tron Legacy, the would-be franchise-relaunching, torch-passing, sci-fi film that basically did none of those things. It's another film that I remember deflates about halfway through, so I thought it would be worth a rewatch to see where it goes wrong.

This being a sequel to 1982’s Tron, you’d figure some the audience would need a reminder of the first film, since it had been been 28 years. You could just watch the first movie, but… surprise… Disney let it quietly go out of print in the year or two prior to the debut of Tron Legacy. Corporate incompetence? I’d argue quite the opposite: whatever you think of the original Tron, it’s not as good as you remember. To modern eyes, it’s clunky, talky, and slow, and certainly can’t coast on the power of its dated special effects. Chance are, if 2010 audiences could have gone back to watch Tron, they’d have been less likely to get tickets to Tron Legacy. Which is why I think Disney drained the retail market of Tron DVDs on purpose. After all, they were perfectly happy to issue a Blu-Ray of "Tron: The Original Classic" once Legacy had finished its theatrical run and got its home media release.

Come for the space frisbees, stay for the Wendy Carlos soundtrack that you remember from the arcade game.

So, instead, Tron Legacy opens with a scene of a digitally de-aged Jeff Bridges — well, a digitally de-aged back of Jeff Bridges’ head — reprising the character of Kevin Flynn, the protagonist of the first movie, a coder who went inside the computer called “The Grid” to defeat evil programs. He tells his son about how he fought alongside the heroic program “Tron”, and created another program named “Clu” to care for The Grid in Flynn’s absence. That’s basically everything you need to know from the first movie. All the other details — Sark, the MCP, Yori, Dumont — none of it matters. See how much time you saved by not rewatching it?

Next scene: info-dump. A news story reports Kevin Flynn’s disappearance, as it plays out over footage of the lonely, and increasingly troubled young Sam Flynn. It moves fast enough, and it’s fine for what it is.

Now, though, we are six minutes into the movie and don’t really know the protagonist. A 10-minute action sequence takes care of that. With an implicit timeskip, we see the young adult Sam speeding on his motorcycle, escaping the police, and breaking into the corporate tower of his father’s former company, which is having a board meeting to announce their new operating system. This is one of the already-dated bits of Tron Legacy: the now-evil version of ENCOM is a pretty obvious expy for Microsoft, as it prepares to launch its new operating system with a high new price tag and no new features.

When Apple did this, they called it “Snow Leopard” and everyone thought it was great. Shouldn’t we cut ENCOM a break?

I don’t think this bit lands today like it did just 13 years ago. People under 35 don’t recall Microsoft’s cutthroat monopoly days and mostly just know Microsoft as the Xbox company, not that different from Sony or Nintendo. An evil computer company today would probably be portrayed as directly creeping on its users, like Google or Facebook, or perhaps an Apple-style aesthetic dictatorship. Maybe with an Elon Musk caricature because, man, that dude is creepy.

As the board meeting continues, Sam sneaks into a server room and starts hacking, narrowly avoiding a security guard. As the board goes to launch their new OS, Sam’s hack reveals itself as a looping video of a barking dog, despite the “world-class security” claimed by the company. Better yet, Flynn’s last remaining loyalist at the company, Alan (the creator of the original “Tron” program), discovers that Sam’s hack has released the OS for free on the web.

At the top of the building, the security guard reaches Sam as he stands atop a crane. Sam, as the main shareholder in the company, justifies his hack as stealing from himself… then jumps off the building. Halfway down, he opens a parachute to complete his daring escape… except that he gets caught in a traffic light on the way down and the cops catch him.

Fifteen minutes into the film and Garret Hedlund is almost effortlessly charming. Pity it doesn’t last.

After bailing out of jail, Sam returns to his home — a makeshift bachelor pad built of stacked shipping containers — to find Alan waiting for him with news: Alan received an alert from a pager left to him by Kevin Flynn 20 years ago. From a long-since disconnected number.

Bruce Boxleitner has such a low-key charm, it’s a shame we didn’t see him in more stuff. Although now I’m sure you’re all going to tell me to watch Babylon 5, aren’t you?

Sam laughs off the idea that his father is waiting for him at the old arcade, but eventually rides over to check it out. Finding a secret room behind the “Tron” machine, Sam discovers Kevin’s office, and after a few ill-considered commands at the terminal, he gets zapped into The Grid.

So, in 20 minutes, there’s Act I. The essentials, from a story perspective:

Protagonist: Sam Flynn, genius hacker, prankster, lost-boy-without-a-father-figure trope.

The hook: Can Sam figure out what happened to Kevin Flynn all those years ago, and find him? And could doing so set things right both with Sam and the company?

The inciting event: Alan receives a page from Flynn’s pager, and lets Sam know.

First plot point: Sam is zapped into The Grid, the world inside the computer.

All told, this is really good. The movie efficiently gets us on board with a fun, exciting protagonist, and gives him a compelling purpose. You’d figure we’re in for a good time at this point.

(Reader, we are not in for a good time.)

OK, so Act II. There’s lots to do in the second act — it’s half the running time after all — so it’s helpful to break it down more granularly. Weiland writes, “[the] first half of the second act is where your characters find the time and space to react to the first major plot point.” Since the plot point was getting zapped into The Grid, it makes sense that the reaction — Sam’s first order of business — is figuring out where he is and what do to do. So we start with a five-minute sequence of Sam immediately being captured by the authorities, outfitted with his Tron-land uniform and identity disc, and brought to the game grid.

I hadn’t realized until this rewatch that Sam being pinned down by the Recognizer’s searchlight is a callback to when the police helicopter gets him back in Act I.

From here, we go into what everyone expects from the Tron movies: the videogame stuff. Sam immediately ends up in “Disc Wars”, the gladiatorial death frisbee from the first movie, albeit with updated effects. Using his innate athleticism and cleverness, he survives to a faceoff with the champion Rinzler, who wounds Sam and realizes from a blood drop that Sam is not a program, but a user. A mysterious figure lording over the games demands that Sam be brought to him.

As Sam is ferried up to the throne room, the mysterious figure reveals himself as the spitting image of the 35-year-old Kevin Flynn. Sam greets his dad and insists they go home, only to be told the leader isn’t Kevin Flynn after all. Sam realizes that this is Clu, a program that Flynn created (owing to the Tron convention that programs resemble the person who created them).

The convention of programs resembling their “users” also speaks to the mainframe-era idioms of the original Tron, when a user and programmer were one and the same, typically someone who wrote a program to solve computational problems for themselves.

Clu sends Sam back out to the game grid, presumably to die in combat in the lightcycle game. So, shut off your brain, we get another zippy five-minute action sequence. It’s playing out just like the original Tron at this point in the second act, arguably better because Act I established Sam’s motorcycle skills, so the lightcycle action sequence and his success in it is actually motivated by his character.

40 minutes in and he’s still charming. If only it had lasted.

Despite being outgunned by opponents with better equipment, Sam leads his team and puts up a solid fight. Eventually though, dirty tricks kill off his compatriots, leaving Sam with a wrecked bike and facing certain doom at the edge of Clu's outstretched disc. Suddenly, a four-wheeler bursts onto the grid and rescues Sam. The driver wrecks most of the pursuing lightcycles, then blasts a hole in the arena to escape to a barren outland beyond the grid, where the pursuers’ vehicles can’t operate. Removing her helmet, the driver introduces herself as Quorra, promising that Sam’s questions will be answered in due course.

Things slow down as the car weaves its way through hidden passages to a secret lair. Quorra brings Sam inside an elegant home, where a solitary figure resides in a seated meditation.

For those of you keeping track, the Blu-Ray is at 48 minutes, 30 seconds, and the movie is about to fall apart, though we don’t know it yet.

We’re now approaching the midpoint of the second act, and thus, the midpoint of the movie itself. This is a separate phase of the second act, one that is uniquely situated to keep the story from flagging. That is, if you actually do something with it. As Weiland writes:

The midpoint is what keeps your second act from dragging. It’s what caps the reactions in the first half of the book and sets up the chain of actions that will lead the characters into the climax. In many ways, the midpoint is like a second inciting event. Like the first inciting event, it directly influences the plot. It changes the paradigm of the story. And it requires a definitive and story-altering response from the characters.

So, a good story probably wants to do something big at the midpoint, something that changes the stakes, changes the conflict, and forces the protagonist to act. Revelations! Betrayal! Explosions! The good stuff!

Tron Legacy, by comparison, sits down to have dinner.

What’s wrong, Quorra? You haven’t had any of your uncannily realistic roast pig.

The reunion scenes with Sam and (Kevin) Flynn stretch out for about 15 minutes… a full one-eighth of the movie. It’s all dialogue, much of it while seated. That’s already tough to make dramatic. What’s even harder to chew through is a staggering amount of info-dumping:

Sam insists they leave the Grid together, but Flynn says it’s impossible.

Awkwardly, Sam and Flynn try to catch up over the lost years, but it turns to why Flynn didn’t return. Flynn explains the discovery of the “Isos”, isomorphic algorithms, a spontaneously-generated digital life form that could change the world.

As Flynn's story turns to flashback, Clu sees the Isos as a corruption of the perfect system Flynn created him to build, and stages a coup against Flynn. Tron (apparently) dies defending Flynn, who flees into exile to escape. With no one left to stop him, Clu commits genocide against the Isos, wiping them out in one stroke.

The portal between The Grid and the real world closes, trapping Flynn within. It can only be opened from the outside, meaning Sam’s entry has opened it.

Flynn suspects that Clu is organizing something, and that he wants the power of Flynn’s identity disc. Flynn reveals that he didn’t send the page to Alan, meaning that Clu must have done so, as a means of laying a trap to lure out Flynn.

Yeah yeah, I was around in the 80s. I remember “War Games” too.

It’s kind of a chore to get through all of this material. It’s good for the story to breathe after the action of the game grid, but 15 minutes is probably too much. And to be fair, this does meet one of the requirements of the midpoint: it changes the protagonist’s goals and actions. Sam realizes he can’t convince Flynn to come with him to the portal. Instead, as he explains to Quorra, if he can just get to the portal himself, then out in the real world he can delete Clu with just a keystroke. Quorra thinks about it, then gives him the contact information for “Zuse”, a program who can get anyone to anywhere. Sam takes this information, steals Flynn’s old lightcycle, and heads back into the Grid.

We are now at one hour, five minutes into the movie, and believe it or not, this is the last time in the movie that our protagonist will take action entirely on his own. But more on that later.

Sam meets a female program who takes him to the End of the Line Club to meet Zuse, through an intermediary named Castor. Meanwhile, Clu's forces find the lightcycle and trace it back to Flynn’s hidden lair. Sam negotiates with Castor (who turns out to be Zuse himself) for transport to the portal, but is betrayed when it all turns out to have been a trap and Clu’s forces crash in from above. This kicks off a big bar fight sequence — the first action in nearly a half-hour at this point — with Quorra arriving to help protect Sam.

The Daft Punk cameo is a cute touch, since the soundtrack they created is quite likely the most enduring and best thing about the film. It’s a pity the Blu-Ray doesn’t have a music-only audio track, because then you could turn the entire movie into a two-hour Daft Punk music video.

The fight goes badly, with Sam overwhelmed and Quorra losing an arm to one of Clu’s goons before Flynn arrives to use his convenient god-like powers to turn the tide of the fight. He urges Sam to escape with the wounded Quorra to the elevator, but as they leave, one of Clu’s minions steals Flynn’s identity disc: exactly what Flynn has tried to prevent all these years.

Flynn and Sam steal a solar sailer and set off, Flynn reluctantly agreeing to Sam’s plan to make a rush to the portal. With the in-flight downtime, Flynn starts to use his magical user power to start healing Quorra. As Sam watches Flynn work, he realizes the truth: Quorra is an Iso, in fact, the last surviving Iso.

And this pause gives us an opportunity to bring up something about Tron Legacy: what is the point of this entire exercise? Ideally, a good story should have a theme that it expresses. The title gives us a hint: "legacy", things left behind by previous generations.

There's a really interesting idea when you think about it: Flynn basically has three children in this story:

Sam, his biological human son.

Clu, the program he created literally in his own image.

Quorra, his adoptive Iso daughter.

…and it doesn’t really do anything with that idea. Clu is motivated not by his resentment of Sam (or Quorra, if he’s even aware of her), but by his political ambitions to create a perfect world. Sam arrives to see Quorra living with Flynn and doesn’t for a second consider the idea he’s been effectively replaced by her in his father’s concerns and affections. If anything, the movie wants us to see a spark of romantic interest between Sam and Quorra, and if years of watching anime on Crunchyroll has taught me anything, it’s to never fuck your sister, even if you’re not blood-related.

(Looks up suddenly, taps earpiece.) Uh, Wolf, I’m getting word that what anime actually says is to always fuck your sister. Back to you in Atlanta.

The scene of Flynn magically healing Quorra’s disintegrated arm also brings up what a missed opportunity this is. Between these three characters, they chose the least interesting option. To wit, could Sam heal Quorra? We’ve seen he’s got 1337 4ax0r 5k1llz back in Act I; does that give him magical abilities inside The Matrix The Grid? Do all users have that, or is it just Flynn?

Turn it around another way: what if it’s Flynn or Sam who gets injured. Can Quorra heal them? Flynn tells us that the Isos are these fascinating creatures who are going to reshape the real world, but we never see anything like that. Quorra is at best a quality Action Girl, but nothing she does in the story appears to have any relevance to her identity as an Iso. It’s another failure to “show, don’t tell”, in a movie that does an heck of a lot of telling to begin with.

Moreover, this sequence is taking us to the end of Act II. Citing Weiland again, this post-midpoint section is supposed to set up the protagonist for his or her final actions in Act III.

Because the second half of the second act will lead right into the slugfest of the climax, this is the author’s last chance to get all his playing pieces into position. We have to set up the line of dominoes that will knock into the final major plot point at the 75% mark, and we do that by creating a series of actions from the main character. Although he’s not likely to be in control of the situation, he’s at least moving forward and calling a few shots of his own, instead of taking it and taking it from the antagonistic force.

Tron Legacy has an even worse problem than the protagonist sitting back and taking it. Over the course of the last 10 minutes or so, Sam has been all but replaced as the protagonist by Flynn. Following the fiasco at the club, Flynn is the one driving the action (stopping the falling elevator in the escape from the club, healing Quorra) and providing all the information to drive us to the third act. Sam has been just going along with it, suddenly demoted to damn near sidekick status in the The Jeff Bridges Show Starring Jeff Bridges, with Special Guest Star Digitally De-Aged Jeff Bridges. Also appearing: Garret Hedlund and Olivia Wilde. And it's only going to get worse in Act III.

But before we get to Act III, there are two completely unnecessary scenes that drag even more momentum from a story that’s already at a virtual standstill:

Back at the End of Line Club, Castor/Zuse negotiates with Clu over Flynn’s identity disc. Clu coerces him into handing it over, then his minions bomb the club, killing Zuse inside. It’s now been almost 15 minutes since the breakout from the club, and the lead characters are long gone. Why should we care about Zuze? And if the point is to remind us that Clu is a cold-blooded murderer… um, I think we got that when he exterminated all the Isos.

On the solar sailer, Quorra tells Sam the story of how Flynn rescued her from The Purge that killed the Isos. She asks Sam what a sunrise is like, and he describes it in romantic terms as he briefly looks into her eyes. This could be a charming moment that lets the story breathe, if it weren’t for the fact that this whole second act has been largely sitting on its ass for nearly an hour.

No. Just no, OK? Don’t even think it, Sam Flynn.

At one hour, thirty two minutes into the film, we now head into Act III. The solar sailer arrives unexpectedly at an industrial facility, rather than the portal. The trio finds barges of kidnapped, zombified programs, who they realize are being amassed into an army by Clu. As they skulk about the facility, Quorra gives her disc to Flynn and makes a run for it. While she's easily captured by Rinzler, her distraction allows Flynn and Sam to further infiltrate the facility.

Plot point two, in screenplay theory, puts an end to the the conflict of Act II and forces the conclusion that will play out in Act III. Here, it comes in the form of Clu’s speech to his army, in which he reveals his plan: he will use the army he has created and take it through the portal, using Flynn’s identity disc, to conquer the real world.

Straight-up Triumph of the Will here, because Hitler Is Bad is the easiest point in the world to make.

The conflict of the second act was Sam trying to get back to the real world, preferably with Flynn in tow. Now that they know Clu’s plan, they can’t just run away. They have a new goal: Clu must be stopped here, on The Grid. That’s what takes us into Act III.

Well, for what it’s worth of course. We burned an hour in Act II not doing very much action-wise, not doing anything thematically, and spending just a staggering amount of time in flashback info-dumps. The momentum has fizzled, and this movie wouldn't be saved by Act III even if it were great.

As it is, Sam and Flynn split up, with Flynn getting an escape ship ready while Sam makes an all-too-easy trip up to the throne room to recover Quorra and the disc. Seriously, Flynn’s disc is the most important thing in the world and you’ve got like three guards? It’s a pretty rote action scene that takes less than three minutes of screen time, and that’s with intercutting to Clu finishing his speech and reacting to an alarm when the disc goes missing.

As the trio take off in a stolen lightplane — with Quorra driving, Sam shooting, and Flynn calling the shots (because he’s all but the protagonist at this point) — they get chased by Clu, Rinzler, and their goons, basically replaying the lightcycle sequence, but now it’s flying.

And the thing about this is, the action doesn’t really lean on anything specific to Sam or Quorra that’s been established earlier in the movie. There’s one line about how Sam’s glider-assisted escape from the throne ship tower is a trick he learned a few nights prior at ENCOM Tower. But there’s nothing really thematically about Sam, who he is, what he values, how he solves problems — no “use the Force, Luke” moment — because the prior two acts never really set any of that up. So what’s left now is pew-pew CGI light show.

At least they should have gotten a good PS4 game out of this, right?

Dispatching the pursuers — including Rinzler, who turns out to be the corrupted Tron in a subplot that feels like it just barely escaped being left on the cutting room floor — the trio reaches the portal, only to find Clu waiting to confront them. So now, with Clu standing between them and their goal, does Sam take the role of the protagonist and vanquish the antagonist once and for all? Does he deliver the thematic truth, proving the righteousness of his world-view, and putting a bow on the whole point of the story?

What, are you kidding? No, of course not. Because this is Tron Legacy. Flynn does it instead.

If you squint, you can just barely see the putative protagonist, out of focus in the background.

Flynn offers a reconciliation; Clu rejects it Because Evil. After a brief fight, Clu retakes Flynn's disc, only to discover he's been tricked by a switcheroo and is holding Quorra's disc, while Sam and Quorra make their escape with the real disc. Clu attempts to stop them, forcing Flynn to use his Magical User Power to merge with Clu, seemingly killing them both, or at least reducing them to a little glowing light, which match-dissolves to Sam back in the real world, saving something (possibly Flynn’s data) to a USB stick.

After this climax, there’s just wrap-up bits of falling action in the real world to whip through before the credits. Sam finds Alan at the arcade, telling him to meet tomorrow morning at ENCOM Tower to retake the company. And we end with a cute shot — even if so much of the film doesn’t work, it is a lovely note to end on — of Sam on his motorcycle giving a now-human Quorra a ride and showing her the sunrise.

For the last time, Sam, do not bang your de facto stepsister.

So, what have we learned? I’d argue that the problems of the second act that doom the film aren’t just that not enough happens. That kind of audience-gets-bored-easily thinking is what gets us more dumb, loud movies. I think the problem of the second act is that it loses track of what the story was supposed to be about, if it ever had a point at all. The story raises a question of what would happen if the son ever finds his long-lost father inside the computer, but never settled on a good answer before they started banging out pages. And with no point to the whole exercise, there’s no natural pull of where the story should go. Perhaps it’s inevitable that Flynn ends up stealing the movie from Sam, because there’s no answer, no conclusion, that Sam’s story is working towards.

Still, the movie got one thing right: ORIGINAL MUSIC BY DAFT PUNK.

It’s a widely acknowledged truth that the Tron Legacy soundtrack is the best coding music ever created. As a software engineer, I can confirm.

#tron legacy #second act trouble #three act structure

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pohtiongho · 1 year ago

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The Story of a Greedy Man

This guy was telling me that when a gigantic tree had been chopped down, all the evil and greedy monkeys would be exposed. These monkeys would be running everywhere, scheming, plotting, and plundering. History has never been short of such incidents, because that was part of human nature.

This greedy man was very interested to overthrow the existing government. He had been running down the good name of the statesmen in the ruling government. I told him that if he was sincere, he should join the Opposition, help to run the party, and maybe he could stand out and be on the top. Every country is short of dynamic leaders who could make positive contribution. He disliked the idea because he must be the top man. So this coward approached an old man, over 80 years old, and assisted him to have a new party registered. Two years after that party was officially registered, the old man passed away.

I told that greedy guy there was no need to have another party registered, because it was obvious that the Opposition was improving, as during the last three GEs (general elections), the number of members of parliament for that party was rising after every election. It was a matter of time that it would form the next government, may be 10 years from today, maybe 15 years. What sort of statesman are you if you cannot wait 10 to 15 years? When a gardener drops a durian seed on the ground, do you know how many years he has to wait before that tree can bear fruits? Your yard will start to bloom, after many years of tender care.

Online anonymity enables these cowards to shout as if they are really brave, posting defamatory and insulting remarks everywhere. Those lies go viral within minutes. Wild claims and hearsay are no substitute for solid evidence. These hypocrites who despite their malicious intention, pretend to have good will and sympathy. We are now sure of their ulterior motive. These are the jealous and lascivious bandits. Hatred, greed and jealousy burn and smolder in their heart. They are always defamatory, scandalous and untrue. They are always armed with vociferous quackery, and stoking sectarian tension is their best skill. They don’t even know that honesty enhance human’s physical, psychological and spiritual life. We want accountability, and political corruption must be stopped. The barbarity of what happened in the past has attracted international attention.

To retain your sanity, you must not get involved with ruthless and tyrannical party. People look for an alternative because they want concrete answers to the economy and social crises. A matured person will be stable, compassionate, and humble. He will have clarity of the mind. The public must prevent the thugs from fanning the flames of fear, jealousy and hatred. These thugs are good at creating the ill will of schism which can last for centuries.

If you can put forward-looking, progressive, modern, liberal, enterprising, and dynamic government, why not come forward sincerely and introduce yourself? How do you narrow down the gap between rich and poor, which is now widening?

The gadflies are annoying. They are evil and greedy. They swindled and murdered, just like mad people. Why are they still walking freely on the streets? The heroes are only trying to jettison decades of barbarity created by colonists. Integrity, reliability and openness, made it a catalyst for freedom, and prosperity.

This greed which seizes them tenaciously, is embedded in their subconscious part of the mind, for so long that their stubbornness and tenacity grow stronger every day. Even if they have accumulated 1 000000 tons of gold in the Swiss Bank, they would still be not satisfied and would not be happy if they have not cheated or swindled for just one day. It is indeed more thuggery than anything else. The Treasury is a mine of gold. That is the only reason they want to run the government.

#love #greed; hypocrites;pretence;cheats;slandar;

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intramoon · 2 years ago

Note

How are you doing Aj? Do you have any tips for new writers, or people who are interested in making a simblr or story like myself? ♡

I can try my best to give you advice from back when my story was in its prime! This is more story advice, if you are looking for more Simblr advice let me know but I could do a whole podcast that ;-;

Don't wait, just post unapologetically. I think one of the biggest cruces to people not telling their sims stories is the illusion it needs to be finished or perfected for you to be able to post it. That mindset will keep you from posting, you'll always find a reason why your story is not "finished" or "perfect" but your story is art, and art is mostly "unfinished". My advice to you is to understand your characters, their environment, and their antagonist(s), know the beginning of your story and just start posting. Some storytelling requires experience, an experience you'll only get from doing. Once you start posting you'll learn so much about yourself and your story, and that knowledge will help your story tell better as you progress.

Sometimes it'll feel like no one is reading your story or that no one cares about your story but keep going! Story content is just one of those things, it can be hard to find readers who are very interactive because of the nature of the stories. You have to keep up with them, have a foundational knowledge of the story, etc. My advice to you is to do these two things, find enjoyment in creating the content that is independent of you posting it. Have fun seeing your characters posed, editing them, decorating lots/creating their world, if you can do that it will make storytelling not only more enjoyable but easier because it's giving you something just from the process and that’s something Tumblr cannot. Secondly, this is more as you get into posting, know that just because you do not see people interacting with your story that does not mean no one is reading it or cares. There are so many people who read but never like, reblog, comment or ask but they are there so do not dismiss them!

You don't have to adhere to any particular kind of planning style, just use what works for you! Notion and Milanote are popular options, but they've never worked for me. I like to write things down, sometimes doddle scenes. With where I am now I know my whole story off the top of my head so I don't write out my plans all that often. I would lead with whatever kind of learner you are but if you don't like to write things down/type things out, do not feel you have to plan a certain amount/way to start storytelling.

Research is not all you need to tell a compelling story. I used to think being knowledgable = qualified, but it does not. In addition to knowing what you're writing about well, you need to know how to use that knowledge in tangent with character development, plot devices, literary devices, and just general writing/storytelling knowledge. It's a long game. If you are tackling trauma, it is not about the immediate event and the immediate aftermath, it's the long-term effects it's how those effects affect others and how those people respond. It's about how did we get here. It's the journey. It is usually not linear. It can definitely be done, just be thoughtful and sensational.

More practical tips!

Look into cinematography to help you with taking screenshots and editing your photos. Use the media you like (or want to emulate) as a reference. Even graphic novels can be helpful! If you are a visual person, Pinterest is a great place to find show/movie screencaps to use as a reference. I recommend branching out and away from the media in your native country and seeing how film varies in different regions.

Similarly really explore editing, I know I edit pretty heavy compared to most and I am not saying you should do the same but know how to change the color of a photo to create other moods, a little photo manipulation if you want to add something to a scene, just a handful of things you may want to use for specific scenes. You can really elevate your posts if you can set the mood right.

#Non Sims #Asks #anonymous #I know I am a little washed up #but this is #advice I stand by #but if you need more resources like where to go for this and that #let me know and I can give those to you!

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retroyousei · 4 years ago

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Female characters in retro shojo [70s edition, part 1]

Ah, the 1970s (and early 80s), where a majority of the shojo manga stories took place in a distant European country or in America, surrounding either orphan girls from the 19th or early 20th century, who remain cheerful and have adventures, trying to find out who they are, making friends and falling in love, or epic historical stories filled with war, scandals and larger than life characters. If the manga was taking place in Japan, the plot was somehow more down to earth -though most of the time it restrained the same amount of unrealism- and it was either about following the journey of a girl who pursues the career of her dreams and evolves into a notable person, or a high school story filled either with melodrama and angst or a more heartwarming romantic comedy. But in this two-part article I won’t talk about plot tropes of the shojo manga of that era -as this topic deserves an exclusive article-, but about the female characters (I will dedicate an article on male characters some other time). Those characters are very important, as they set the standards of today’s manga and anime. But it should be noted that back then the formula of their design and characteristics are different from today’s. Those are the categories that I’ve noticed, regarding the appearance and personality.

The “average” protagonists

They are the most common category. Usually, they come from middle class and they are presented either as cheerful and a little dense schoolgirls, or plain looking and unrefined, as oppose to their antagonists or rivals who are well educated, beautiful and more talented, but this may serve as a determination for them to improve. Other times they are presented as headstrong heroines, ahead of their time, who refuse to compromise and for this they are a pain to their old-fashion society. Either way, they are kind, good, well-intentioned and want to help the others, that’s why they make friends easily. The thing that really works with these characters and makes them much more interesting than they may seem, is that they are independent and built their future on their own and they never give up, no matter what happens and what someone might say about them. Even when they are not sure of themselves, they always keep trying, until they reach to their dream. They use their obstacles as strength and determination to go on, proving that they are not average at all.

Maya, the protagonist of “Glass Mask” is a great example of this. She starts as a good-for-nothing daughter of a poor family, who isn’t particularly accomplished, but has a hidden passion for acting which she hadn’t realise it herself at that point. But when she is discovered by Tsukigake, a former legendary actress, she realises how much she wants to be an actress to a point that she lied saying that her mother allowed her to study to sensei’s acting school and ran away from home. Not even when her mother told her that she doesn’t consider her as her daughter anymore, she didn’t gave up, in spite of being very hurt by this. Her path towards acting wasn’t easy. Many times she has to face many who say that she doesn’t belong to that industry, or who are jealous of her talent and means her harm, but with her faith in herself, she always overcomes those obstacles. An admirable thing about her is that she dislikes fame, being shy, as she just wants to act and that she does not gives up, no matter what and even when she does, she quickly stands up. The most interesting dynamic of the story is her worthy rivalry with Ayumi, that is clearly a case of the trope “technician vs performer”, with Maya as the performer, as her standard method to learn how to play a character is to become that character. As the story progresses, Maya evolves from a girl with a hidden talent, to a young actress who portraits an original take to classic characters, but who still had much to learn, to one of the greatest actresses of her generation.

In “Yokohama Monogatari”, Uno starts as a plain, poor, orphan girl, who is ignorant about the world, as she hasn’t even seen the sea before and she believed that westerners were vampires who could drink people’s blood, that’s why they had blonde hair and blue eyes. She starts to work as a companion in a rich family to their daughter Mariko, who is the same age as her. Besides their differences, they become quickly best friends. While Mariko is a little spoiled, Uno, despite of her ignorance of world, can be more considerate and responsible in some matters. She also has a lust for learning and soon her and Mariko pursuade her family to go to school. There, she meets many people, among them there are a few foreigners too, she makes a lot of friends, and she excels at all of her studies, being hardworking. As the years passed by, Japan changes and allows exchange of ideas from many cultures -it’s Meiji era we are taking about, that means the last quarter of the 19th century- and Uno evolves from a poor, -many would say- hopeless for her situation, clueless of the world girl, to an open minded, educated and refined woman, surrounded by many people she loves.

In “Tokimeki Tonight”, Ranze -well except of being the daughter of Dracula and warewolf and having her own vampire powers as well- is an average girl who is friendly, sweet and little quirky girl who goes to school and falls in love with Shuun. Some may say that she is pretty basic, but in fact, she knows her self worth well, so even when her parents were disappointed with her not having any power yet, at the beginning of the story, she wasn’t particularly bothered by it. Also she is very headstrong that she falls in love with a human boy, while she knows well that a creature from the demon world and a human cannot be together. But in spite of all of that, she decides to stay true to her own feelings and even though she’s not so sure about Shuun’s feelings for her either, she doesn’t give up and waits for him, because she hopes and deep down knows that he likes her too and she is right. And even when her parents want her to marry prince Aaron of the demon world and even the king- learn that she likes a human, in spite of that being against the rules, she isn’t afraid to stand up for her beliefs. Later though, we learn that Shuun is the lost prince of the demon world, so he is not a human after all, but that’s another story.

In “Aim For The Ace”, Hiromi is a typical schoolgirl who struggles to get better in tennis, when she gets selected as one of the club’s main players in school by the new coach, as he saw potential in her. Some of her seniors are jealous of her because of that and at first she thinks that she is not worth such a discrimination, but soon she improves and realises how much she loves tennis. There’s also a very similar rivalry dynamic with “glass mask” between Hiromi and Reika who grow to be worthy opponents.

In “Haikara San Ga Toru”, Benio is a headstrong young woman who studies Kendo, drinks sake and prefers reading literature and feminist ideas, rather than being interested in housework. She also likes to dress in western clothes, rather than the traditional kimono and strongly believes that women should have the right to decide for their future on their own and they should marry for love. But her world turns upside down when her father announces that he has arranged a marriage for her. The one that he indends for her is someone she knew before, very briefly and accidentally, a lieutenant named Shinobu. Of course, she refuses, being loyal to her ideals and she goes out of her way to avoid him, just to satisfy her pride, in spite of actually starting developing feelings for him. When she moves to his grandparents’ house to get prepared as his wife, she purposely fails in all of her duties as a housewife and constantly argues with his grandparents, but all of that only makes Shinobu fall for her even more. It’s only when he leaves to go to the war, when she realises her feelings for him and during at that time when everyone thought that he was dead, she matured and became even stronger, remaining loyal to him and determined to work as a journalist to support his family, but also tracking him down, hoping that he’s still alive. Of course, at the very end, they live happily ever after together. Benio’s character development is admirable; starting as a clever, but headstrong girl, to an independent and wise woman, proving that you don’t have to disagree with everyone in order to prove that you are the one who chooses how to live your own life.

The villains

Their extreme pride and vain is their common nature. Most of the times they come from a wealthy family, so they are either oujo-sans who are always dressed elegantly, are seemingly refined and they tend to have curly, blonde hair -as blonde hair seem to be associated with wealth and sophistication in Japan-, or they are just spoiled brats that demand that everyone will do as they say. They are the main antagonist of the story for different reasons. The most common one is that they are jealous of the heroine, either because they are their love rivals and they are jealous of the heroine’s relationship with the love interest of the story, or because they are just pathologically jealous of the heroine because of her looks, her happiness, her luck and her loving nature. Another reason they act the way they do is because they want power and success, or they just want to secure all of that. The worse and least complex reason of all is that they are just mean for no particular reason.

Eliza, from “Candy Candy” is the typical alpha b*tch who is pathologically jealous of Candy. At first, she along with her brother, makes her life miserable, by blaming her for the bad things they do, such as hurting the horses in the stables, provoking her and then telling to their mother that she’s wild and leaving her alone in a town she doesn’t know and locking her in dark rooms. After that, during their time in London, Eliza says to everyone that Candy is an orphan who made her life miserable, even blaming her for Antony’s death. Later, having the habit of falling in love with the one that Candy likes too, school, she falls for Terry and constantly tries to turn him against her, failing miserably. She also writes a fake letter to her that it was supposedly from Terry and to Terry too, to meet each other in the stables at night and with this, she blabs them to the teachers and Candy, having no choice, leaves school. Later, when Candy was pursuing a career as a nurse, she continues her cruel ways and her mother also threats the director of the hospital where she was working, that if they won’t fire her, the Leagan family will withdraw their funds for the hospital and she also made sure that no hospital from Chicago will hire her, leaving Candy in a difficult situation. Those are only of few of the things that Leagan family did to Candy. The worst part is that they don’t pay for what they did at the end.

Fukiko from “Oniisama e” fits well this image; She is a refined lady from a rich family, the president of the sorority and very educated, that’s why she is admired by everyone. However, in reality she is manipulative, proud and very possessive. She wants to control everyone and she’s even willing to go out of her way to achieve what she wants. For instanse, she’s jealous of Nanako because she is close to Henmi Takehito, the one that she (Fukiko) is in love with, so to control her, she chooses her to be a member of the sorority and demands that she will stay away from him, even by pulling her into the lake and attempt to drown her . She also makes Rei’s life miserable, by stepping into her weakness, refuse to accept her as a member of their family and constantly manipulating her with the cruelest of ways. Also, it’s revealed that her friends from the sorority are feeling pressured because of her. Later, with the death of Rei, along with her realisation that Henmi and Kaoru No Kimi are truly in love, surprisingly, she regrets, gives up on her cruel ways and matures, growing even more beautiful for all of that.

Yoko from “Tokimeki Tonight” is a different case. She is the love rival of the story and the have loved Shuun ever since they were little. Being the only daughter of a rich businessman, she is spoiled and when something doesn’t go as she wants, she is is angry and demands that everything will go the way she wants. She envies Ranze for her close relationship with Makabe and ever since she accidentally saw her transforming, she tried desperately to prove others that she (Ranze) is a vampire. Her character is less dramatic and more comedic, as she is often grumpy and clumsy. But she isn’t really a bad person and she doesn’t really cause an awful lot of trouble.

In “The Rose of Versailles”, Madam Du Barry, the king’s mistress, wants to sustain her place in the court and demands that Marie Antoinette, who was at that time the dauphine, will speak to her. She also have tried to poison one of the court ladies. Countess De polignag becomes the queen’s best friend, for her own benefits and manipulates her without her (Marie Antoinette) knowing, like telling her to lie about being pregnant and also persuade her to start gambling in the court, which was illegal. She’s also Rosalie’s biological mother and accidentally kills the woman which raised her daughter and she’s the reason that her other daughter suicides, because she cannot handle the marriage the she arranged for her. Besides of her daughter’s death, she doesn’t seem to regret for any of her actions as she tries to make Rosalie merry the same man. Luckily Rosalie escapes. Also, she tried to sabotage Oscar many times and all this was just for the sake of power and money.

In “Glass Mask”, Norie Otobe, befriends Maya and she is supposedly her assistant, but in reality she just waits for the right moment to strike and steal Maya’s role and career. Unfortunately, she succeeds and it costs a lot for Maya, for a while. Luckily Ayumi discovers this and punishes her with the best way ever.

The tomboys

They are either mysterious, or lively, but one thing is for sure; they are dressed in clothes that are considered to be “manly”, they are handsome and they are constantly mistaken for a boy. They are also very elegant and educated and their image is that of a prince. That’s why they are admired by both women and men. Some may say that even though they are trying to be like a man, they are still weak, but they point out that just because they dress more “tomboyish”, doesn’t mean that it makes them less of a woman. After all, when they want to, they can transform into the most feminine girl of all. They also prove that their sexuality is not associated with their looks, as a “masculine” girl has the same possibilities of being heterosexual or homosexual, with a more “feminine” one. So, they break all the stereotypes regarding women. Many times, they are portrayed as headstrong heroines who stand up for their beliefs and their friends.

The most famous character that supports this image is Oscar from “the Rose of Versailles”. Oscar is one of the daughters of the Jerjeyes household. Not having any son, her father decided to raise her as a boy so that one day she will succeed him. Oscar dresses in boys’ clothes and learns activities like fencing and archery. When she was fourteen, she was tasked to serve as Marie Antoinette’s bodyguard. The manga often pointed out how different those two were regarding appearance and character, even if they were in the same age. Oscar has a strong sense of justice and she always protects the weak and is not afraid to challenge someone that she believes that isn’t right. Of course, she is admired by men and women alike and she is also a great and loyal friend. At one point she falls in love with Fersen, who loves Marie Antoinette. But because of her respect for the queen and her love of Fersen, she helps them, despite being heartbroken. At the end, she realises that she loves her childhood friend, Andre. She loves medieval combat, drinking heavy drinks, talking about politics and playing violin. Many pointed out that being a woman she was weaker but she always proved them wrong, pointing out that women can do anything and that it doesn’t matter if you are a man or a woman, only how skilful you are. She was hiding her femininity not because she wanted to be a man, but because that if she acted like a woman, the society might think that she was weak and she wouldn’t be able to have the access and the freedom to do what women normally wouldn’t do back then, because women were alowed to limited things. In the early 1970s, by the time this manga was ongoing, the second wave of feminism had already started and women started fighting for equal legal and social rights, so Oscar’s character was influenced by all this.

Rei from “Oniisama e”, is admired by her fellow classmates and is also called “saint Juste”, named after one of the leaders from French Revolution, due to her physical resemblance to him. She is very charismatic, excelling to sports, piano, guitar and theatre, she is very elegant and dresses often in a black suit. Unfortunately she is drug-addict, she smokes and can be suicidal, carrying always pills and a sharp object with her. She is also obsessed with Fukiko, the sorority’s president, for many reasons, causing her to be controlled and abused by her. She also lives alone in a depressing house filled with mirrors and this also causes to be depressed. Her best friend is Kaoru no Kimi, who’s also a tomboy, but they are entirely different and she befriends Nanako and her friends. In the end she suicides, taking too many sleeping pills, having everyone, especially Nanako, left devastated.

Also from “Oniisama e”, Kaoru, is a tomboy who is strong and energetic. She is athletic and excels at basketball, but she is also very cool and doesn’t seem to care that she is the best at something that she’s doing, that’s why she is admired by her fellow classmates who gave her the nickname “Kaoru no Kimi”, from a Japanese classical novel; “the tale of Genji”. She also has a great sense of justice, as when she sees classmates being bullied, she defends them and put the bullies on their place. She is also very loyal and supportive and cares deeply about her friends, helping them when they are in need, especially her best friend, Rei, for whom she is very concerned. But in spite of her energetic appearance, she suffers from breast cancer and tries to keep it a secret, pretending that she is healthy and that everything is under control. But in fact, she pushes away her beloved, Henmi Takehito, concealing her true feelings, in order for him to be happy without her and not suffer anymore, showing how selfless she is and how much she loves him to a point of sacrificing her own feelings. At the end, it pays off and they end up together, living happily.

Another honourable mention is Rei, from “Glass Mask”. Rei is the older student of Tsukikage sensei’s company and one of Maya’s best friends. She is a tomboy who wears those characteristic 70s jeans and for some reason is mistaken by a boy -much to her dislike-, despite of being obvious that she is a girl. Being an actress, she can transform into a beautiful princess in no time, but she also portraits very well a prince. In the first volumes, she portrayed Jo, from “little women” which was a role very suited for her. As a sister figure for Maya, she is loyal, friendly and the responsible one who helps the theatre company stay organised and is a very strict teacher to Maya, helping her because she knows her potential. Also from “Glass Mask”, Keiko from the “Ikkakuju group” is also mistaken as boy, but she can transform into a pretty princess in no time.

Note: At the first half of the 20th century “Little Women” were very popular in Japan, particularly Jo, who was tomboyish and outspoken and her character had inspired the first female mangakas of the 60s for their stories and characters.

#retro shojo #shojo manga #70s manga #80s manga #glass mask #Tokimeki tonight #haikara san ga tooru #Oniisama e #the Rose of Versailles #Candy Candy #Yokohama monogatari #aim for the ace #character types #Shojo

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dramaqueeenamby · 4 years ago

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𝐑𝐄𝐃 ⧼𝑏. 𝑏𝑎𝑟𝑛𝑒𝑠⧽

A/N: It’s almost a new year! Figured I’d finish this one off with a bang. Literally. Okay, I’ll shut up. Also, I’ve never written Bucky before, so I apologize in advance for the massacre and disrespect of his characterization.

Summary: ❝You still remember the first time he walked in, the baseball cap and glasses told a story you knew all too well.❞

Warnings: Smut with a bit of plot. Sorta. Mostly, just smut. Vaginal penetration. Oral (female receiving). Light Dom themes (specifically, choking). Blink and you miss it cockwarming.

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Reader

Words: 3K

RED

You don’t even know his name.

Don’t know where he’s from, who his people are, where he lays his head at night. None of it. Actually, the last one is a lie. You know it’s not here, in this town of less than 1,000 where the only people of color, including yourself, can be counted on one hand.

It’s not ideal, but when wanting to become consumed by a blanket of invisibility and needing to erase your existence from the greater world, you do what you have to do.

You still remember the first time he walked in, the baseball cap and glasses told a story you knew all too well.

Privacy. It was all he wanted, and you’d give him that, along with any alcoholic beverage he wanted. And, he wanted a lot.

You’d once commented that his liver had to be nonexistent and asked just how long he’d been drinking, because no matter how much he consumed, he remained coherent enough to leave a kind tip and close his tab. He said nothing.

He was a man of few words, when in public, at least.

You liked that as well. Maybe it was because he recognized that you had a job to do, or perhaps he detected that look in your eyes. It was that same look that he had, that plea for solitude.

You had a feeling that you weren’t the only one who could be in a room full of people and still feel all alone. You lived by that. So did he.

Interactions and meetings outside of the shabby bar commenced through the most generic of circumstance. It was a copy and paste situation. A rowdy, drunk customer became too intoxicated to remain inside the establishment. You calmly asked him to leave, security was preoccupied with another violent drunk, and next thing you knew, he’d grabbed you by your forearm. His grip was relentless but so was your dedication to break free. Unfortunately, mental fortitude didn’t outweigh physical capability.

He’d shoved you into the a nearby table, sending you onto the floor, your head and side loud with its throbbing. Your eyes shut as the pain coursed. However, seconds later, your attacker was outside, flat on his ass, unconscious.

That was the first time he saved you, and it was all it took for you two to progress into something more. You couldn’t say intimacy. For you, intimacy meant feelings, and feelings were nonexistent here.

This was an arrangement, a source of release.

It was mutually beneficial.

You both received something from the other, an ironic arrangement considering you had a feeling he, like you, had little else to give.

The first time occurred in your car, in the back seat. He was big—in more ways than one—so it wasn’t ideal, but he’d stated that he received a ride, so he had nowhere to offer. You certainly weren’t bringing him back to your apartment. Stranger danger and the fact that it was rundown.

So, that left your vehicle, which again, wasn’t the best place, but it wasn’t the worst. And at least you got to be on top, one of your favorite positions

The time after that, despite your initial protest, happened in the storage closet in the back of the bar. He’d shifted an old keg to block the door before he promptly placed you up and ate you out.

You’d received head before, but this was something different. You’d never had a man leave you as delirious and feeble with just his mouth alone. Hell, most of the time, you had to instruct more than a professor.

The more you thought about it, the more you regretted not charging tuition.

Especially considering most failed every time.

Not him. No, it was as though he knew exactly what you wanted, and he gave off the impression that he wanted it too.

You’d allowed him to lower you to the ground, hands on your hips as he kept you upright and stabilized. For good reason, your legs were bowling balls, and you needed time to find your equilibrium.

However, when you finally came to and attempted to fall to your knees, he stopped you.

You looked up, not saying a word, your furrowed eyes conveying confusion. What man refused head?

You waited for an explanation. He offered none, bringing you back to your feet as he moved the keg and left you alone, confused and still very much on a high from your orgasm.

And sure, at first, you berated yourself for letting a stranger go down on you. You didn’t know his sexual history, but to be fair, he didn’t know yours either. You were both reckless, but with the mind-blowing pleasure he caused you, you weren’t exactly stressing over longterm implications.

You didn’t see him for a few weeks after that, and as much as you hated to admit that you missed him, you did. Mostly because the sex was addictive, but also because every time he came around, you could just see that something was off.

Something ate at him, but whatever it was, you’d never know. And it was better that way. Converging demons never ended well for anyone. Two fucked up people doing more than just fucking and leaving would benefit no one and harm everything.

That sexual tryst also occurred in your vehicle, but the two of you were more creative that time around. You played around with different positions, testing your both your flexibility and comfortability.

You finally told him your name.

He was mid-stroke when you blurted it out, his pace slowing as his eyes met yours. You swallowed and repeated it, louder. On the second round, he used it, quietly mumbling it into the sheen of sweat on your neck, but you heard it, and he knew it. That was all that mattered.

He didn’t tell you his.

That was a few weeks ago, and no matter how busy you get, your head still turns every time the welcome bell chimes. You know better than to eagerly await for a stranger who you’ve fucked on several occasions and know nothing else about. It’s stupid, but in the litany of stupid decisions you’ve made over the years, this ranks pretty low.

And that’s saying something.

Exactly one month since your last sexual tryst, as you dig in your purse for your keys while walking to your car, you look up, key between your index and middle finger when you jump upon hearing your name.

Spinning around with the key lifted high, ready to be used in a defensive manner, your heart rate settles when you see it’s him. He’s leaning back against the brick, arms tucked in his pocket.

Closing your eyes, you place your hand over your chest and scold him. “Jesus Christ, you scared the shit out of me—“

“Your place.”

A couple of things cross your mind in that moment, the main one being that this bastard is insane. You don’t know shit about him, except for the fact that his stroke game is impeccable and his tongue is the 8th world wonder. Other than that, he is a complete stranger.

Him knowing where you work is one thing, him knowing and visiting where you lay your head at night is another.

There are some lines that you just cannot cross, and this one is bolded, italicized, underlined, and in red.

You can’t.

—

The door shuts, forcing the cheap wall key holder that you’d picked up from the local goodwill to shudder against the peeling wallpaper. In the distance, you can hear something else fall, no doubt breaking, but none of that pulls you off of him.

You moan into his mouth as he pushes you against the wall, his tongue dancing with yours. His hands move to your ass, tugging you into his crotch. You moan again, eyes fluttering sporadically.

How the hell you went from telling him to fuck off to having him minutes away from fucking you is beyond you. It’s also above you now.

Just how he’ll be in five minutes.

“Bedroom,” you murmur against his lip, waiting for him to loosen his grip. His shirt is scrunched in your hand as you lead him to your bedroom. It doesn’t take long, your one bedroom, one bathroom apartment can be explored in its entirety in less than five minutes.

You’re thankful that evening approaches and the light dims by the minute. Just as shining a light into your life would ward off any buyers, so would the light into your apartment.

He tosses you on the bed, and in seconds, you’re on your knees, helping him to pull his shirt off. Naturally, your hands roam his chest. As lighting has technically never been in abundance during the sex, you’re only able to feel areas of his skin that are raised. Scars. They tell a story. His story.

One you’ll never be told.

His hands are against your shoulders before you’re flat on your bed. He pulls your legs from underneath you and spreads them. Your fingers grasp at the button of your jeans as you unbutton them. Lifting your hips, you move quickly to slide them off, but he’s already ahead of you. They’re already tossed to the floor.

You sit up and remove your shirt when he once again shoves you back.

Looking down your body, you realize he’s already nude, dick rigid and leaking precum. Stomach coiling with anticipation, you lick your lips and close your eyes when he grabs you by your hips and tugs you down the bed.

“Fuck.” Your back once again arched off the full sized mattress as he grabbed your thighs, holding you against his mouth. Your hands grasped at the wall behind you, nails scraping as his tongue danced against your sensitive bundle of nerves.

Once thing you’d learned was that he was a man of limited patience, when he wanted something, he wanted it now. Immediate gratification was his dominant preference, and you had zero complaints, because right about now, you wanted the same thing.

Your body wormed as a natural reaction towards his tongue exploring every bit of your pussy. Your clit attracted him the most, but he was generous in the regards that nothing was left untouched. He sucked with skill and hunger and something else you couldn’t pinpoint.

Eyes rolling in the back of your head, however, there wasn’t much you could focus on expect for the man between your legs, even if you tried.

At times, you became too frisky for him, and he’d move one hand to your core, holding you steady. His strength was inhuman. You hated when he did that, though, because your stomach would cave as your insides twisted. It was impossible not to shift away from him, especially when he expertly circled his tongue around your nub.

You could have sworn you felt him spelling something, perhaps your name, maybe even his.

Again, questions you’d never receive answers to.

You weren’t certain, but you got the feeling that he was motivated to continue to push you based on how your body responded to him. And every tryst had shown that you responded almost perfectly to the slightest of his touches. Everything he did wound you up, he got off to that. Maybe that’s why he never wanted you to reciprocate what you did for him, no matter how badly you wanted to.

He preferred to please, not be pleased.

Stars filtered the vision of your ceiling, and even those became blurred and grainy as that familiar feeling bubbled from the deepest part of you and exploded in a majestic display of pants, moans, and breathy profanities.

You were barely coherent as he trailed sticky kisses up your body, past your pupa, over your tummy, both breast, and finally, your mouth. Tasting yourself and him, you brought your hands to his cheeks holding him. You wanted to savor every second of this. He returned your passion, never breaking the kiss as he lined himself at your slick entrance.

You knew the question of readiness was nearing, and quite frankly, you weren’t for it. You wanted him, and you wanted him now.

Lifting your hips to speed up his entry, you nearly screamed when he slammed into you. You weren’t expecting it, but holy fuck, you loved it. You weren’t prepared for the rapid and consistent snapping of his hips into yours or the way his hands pinned yours down above your head, but you cherished it.

You felt every inch of him, every ridge of his dick, his balls slapping against the bottom of your ass. All of it. And you loved every second of this. You missed this. You missed him.

The latter realization took you for surprise as your eyes opened, where you were again surprised to find that he was looking directly at you. He was studying you, searching your face for any sign of pain, discomfort, or even dissatisfaction. He would find none.

He never would.

Your thighs tightened around him, and you saw him grit his teeth, his eyes momentarily shutting as he lowered over you. You tugged against his hold on your wrists, thankful when he released you. Your hands immediately went to his back, pulling him against you, your breast against his broad and muscular chest. Every inch of him was chiseled and defined, and you always felt the strength he possessed barely reaching its peak when you two fucked.

This time was no different.

You waited for the moment where his thrusts slowed just enough for you to switch positions, and when it arose, you wasted no time. He was suddenly under you, with you on top of him. Your hands planted on his chest as you rode him. Unlike his rapid pace, you settled for a slow and meticulous pace, gradually working your way up.

You were confident there was no way that you could match his speed, but that didn’t deter you from trying.

Selfishly, you didn’t bother to search his face for any sign of pleasure, too consumed in your own fantasy. Your hands moved from his chest to the wall as you moved to your toes to access a better angle, one that emitted a prolonged mixture of a moan and a groan.

While he was vocal only in the form of occasional profanities and infrequent breathing patterns, you were determined to let the whole building know that you were getting fucked, and you were getting fucked thoroughly.

A letter from your landlord would surely be awaiting for you in the next couple days.

None of that mattered, though.

You’re not sure how long you go at it, but you recognize what’s coming. And so does he. You’re briefly caught off guard when he sits up and holds you against his chest. Both of your mouth are parted, and he never tears his eyes away from you, even as bliss overcompensates will, and your eyes shut. Your teeth bite into your bottom lip, and you close your mouth to quiet your scream when you reach your climax, as you both reach your release.

As his warm seed spreads insides you and yours coats his bottom half, along with your bedding, your heavy breathing and sluggish body alerts you to just how fast and how hard you two were at it. Completely spent and unwilling to move, you fall on top of him, uncaring of the mess that coats you.

Besides, you expect him to carefully peel you off of him. Instead, you receive the opposite, he brings him arms around you, holding you against him.

Your eyes shut. A few minutes of silence fill the void until he fills it with a proclamation.

“I’m not what you need.”

For some reason, his statement causes you to smile. This is the most verbal he’s ever been with you, and you recognize that. You appreciate it.

You appreciate his honesty.

“And I’m not what you need,” you speak into his slick chest while he rubs circles on the small of your back. “But this is what we need.”

He says nothing.

A few minutes go by when you finally gather the courage to ask what you wanted to ask from the minute you saw him standing outside the bar. “You staying the night?”

He takes a few moments to answer, but it’s long enough for you to regret even asking. And then, he speaks.

“I can.”

His answer takes you by surprise. It’s not a no, and it’s technically not a yes, either. However, you recognize the optional aspect in his voice.

You don’t provide a verbal answer. You simply cradle your face into his neck, sighing at the calming feeling of him still being inside you.

You know he won’t be there when you open your eyes, and that’s okay. He’s here now, and while you don’t know for certain, but you’re confident that he’ll be back.

And that is what allows you to peacefully close your eyes and succumb to slumber.

#bucky barnes smut #bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes fanfiction #bucky barnes fanfic #bucky barnes oneshot #winter soldier #marvel fanfiction #fic: red

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apothecarinomicon · 3 years ago

Text

Spring week 1 part 1

I’m not quite sure how to begin.

I’m not typically one for journaling but it would appear to be part of the gig, as it were. I found this book—the one I’m writing in, heavy and musty and leather-bound—sitting on the table when I arrived, open to a blank page. There are at least a thousand pages filled before it, and no matter how many blank pages I flip past this one I can’t reach the back cover without closing the book entirely.

Mòrag told me things that present themselves for investigation here tend to be worth exploring, and if my gut tells me what’s right not to stray from its guidance. But I’m getting ahead of myself—you don’t even know who I am.

My name is Fionn Gill, and I’m a witch. I know, I know, but I don’t get into all that “warlock” “wizard” shit. It’s just a way to separate and belittle the same practice based solely on the gender of the practitioner, in my opinion. My specialty lies in potion-making, though I’m not very experienced. I’ve really only just finished my training—I’m from Huntsmanland and they’re not nearly as magically-inclined there as they are in High Rannoc. This is the first part of the country I’ve visited other than my tutor’s homestead and I must say, it hasn’t made the most stellar impression.

My tutor Edith received a letter stating that services would be required in the town of Greenmoor, and since the letter didn’t specify her services, she sent me to take care of it. I don’t know if she expected it to be an indefinite position, but here we are.

I didn’t bring a lot with me—just enough for the journey. It was about all I could carry walking. I arrived in Greenmoor with just about the clothes on my back, hoping they had an apothecary of their own so I could get this over with.

I’ve never really been one for small towns, and nor do they have much love for me. I’ve always thought I was meant for adventure—movement, action, peril, all of it. Small town life just feels so… stagnant. Nothing changes, no one grows or changes or has anything interesting to talk about. It’s enough to drive you mad.

Not to mention the natural suspicion of outsiders. I could see it on Mòrag McKinney’s face, even as she greeted me at the edge of town in her official capacity as mayor. Her hair was done up in a huge bun of thick braids on top of her head—a hairstyle with a formality at odds with her armored clothing.

She seemed surprised when I told her I was the witch. That’s not uncommon—like most intellectual and healing work, witchcraft is traditionally the domain of women. Even in the relatively forward-thinking country of High Rannoc, I tend to get some variation on ‘oh, how progressive!’ when I tell people my vocation. Often if you get a man doing witchcraft, his neighbors will whisper certain things about him. My neighbors back home were whispering those things about me anyway, so that wasn’t much of a hurdle to me.

Mòrag (she insisted I call her by her first name once we’d been properly introduced) gave me a brief tour of Greenmoor. It is, to put it lightly, tiny. I’d estimate a population around fifty. Near everyone has a job that serves an internal function to the community, with maybe the exception of the innkeeper. There are blacksmiths, miners, a carpenter, a tanner… she didn’t indicate any artists or poets or anything of that sort to me, which was disheartening. Even when I thought I would only be here briefly, I was hoping to enjoy the finer things the locals had to offer. The closest this town comes is a library, but I sorely doubt they have any kind of collection of works by local authors.

Mòrag pointed out all the magical resources in town, and some of them impressed me—the lunar tower and ritual circle in particular looked useful. She did not show me any apothecary, and following her aforementioned advice, I took that to mean there wasn’t one. Can’t wait to go out and experience the joys of foraging in the wilderness myself.

Once we’d gone through the entire village, she showed me to the cottage where I’ll be staying. It’s a little ways away from the town proper, down a walking path through some trees. It’s little more than a one-room thing, with only the washroom closed off from the rest of the space. The walls and door are made of dark wood, and the outside still has bark attached in many places. The roof is sloped and overgrown with moss and ivy. Inside the main room there is a bed, a large set of shelves which ought to have reagents and potion-making materials on them but are mostly bare, and a table on which this book sits. The washroom has a tub and a latrine—no plumbing to be found. Out back sits the remains of a garden, only one plot of which looks salvageable. A ways back into the trees there’s a creek. Most of the rest of the clearing is in the early stages of becoming overgrown, with trees and bushes and flowers starting to stretch themselves out and remembering how to be wild.

Mòrag told me the witch who was here before me was a bit of a recluse. No one in town knew very much about her, and she seemed to prefer it that way. They came to her for her healing potions and never made it past small talk and kept inviting her to parties and festivals even though she never attended. And then one day nearly everyone in town woke up with a gift from her—the farmers received her animals, the barkeep her ferments, the innkeeper and bakers her crops. As the townspeople tallied their gifts they realized it amounted to nearly everything she owned. They went together to her cottage to ask her why she’d given it all away, and found her cottage—this cottage—empty. The ensuing search turned up no body, no note, not a shred of evidence to speak of. It was as if she’d disappeared into thin air. As the townsfolk talked and wondered what had happened, they quickly realized no one knew her well enough to provide any real insight. They couldn’t even come to a consensus on what her name was.

They had quickly moved on to discussing the more pressing issue: the town was lacking a healer. The general store owner had worked with my tutor Edith in years prior (Edith loved to tell stories of the time she spent pursuing the culinary arts). Thus, the letter and thus, my presence.

Mòrag told me she hoped I might be more engaged in the community than my predecessor. I decided to refrain from telling her not to get her hopes up, and instead expressed my confusion: I’d thought this was a single gig, that I was to heal someone of their illness and then leave.

She disabused me of that notion with rather more intensity than I think was warranted.

She told me that unless my predecessor reappeared, I was all they had. She said Edith had spoken highly of my abilities in her return letter (I doubted that—Edith never spoke highly of anyone). She told me I would receive a base pay of 20 silver per cure to start, and that if I did the townsfolk well and they grew to like me, they’d most certainly be willing to pay more. She told me that the folks of Greenmoor were good people, even if they were a bit disaster-prone and some of them could make good use of a little more common sense.

And, well, how do you say no to that?

When I asked where I would be getting my materials, she told me the areas surrounding Greenmoor were rich in natural resources. So it will be as I feared. I’m glad I brought my off-road boots.

Mòrag left me to get settled in and I immediately took stock. There are no reagents on the shelves (of course not! Why would there be?), but I did find a cauldron, mortar and pestle, and a copper alembic (which is used for distilling)—so at least once I have the reagents I’ll be able to do some basic cooking with them. I also found a small leather-bound book with vague descriptions of some of the areas surrounding the village. I should be able to cross-reference it with my notes on the environments where useful reagents can be found to make searching for materials a bit less painful.

I pulled a matted tangle of weeds out of the garden plot, but it looks like whatever was planted underneath already shriveled away to nothing. Well, at least the land’s clear now.

One thing that I knew I’d need if I was going to be able to handle this was a familiar. I’ve never been one for conjuration but in this case it’s an unfortunate necessity. I was supposed to be getting one within the next few weeks at Edith’s anyway, and I already knew the process. You’re supposed to have a more experienced witch observe your first time, but that’s just academic formality—there’s nothing actually dangerous about the process.

I found what looks to be a quarter cran basket (was my predecessor into fishing…?) under the bed, and set out around the property collecting small rocks and flowers and toadstools that had the right kinds of vibration. They were for use in the ritual, but also collecting them was a good start to cleaning the property up. Because if I’m going to be living here, it cannot stay looking like this.

I took the basket into the woods near the creek and laid its contents out in a circle as wide as I was tall. Before I placed each one down, I held it for a moment and asked it to help me with my task. Then, I sat in the center of my circle and closed my eyes and tried to meditate. Clearing my head has never been my strong suit, but I’m usually able to fudge the process enough to do what needs doing. This time took a bit longer than usual but eventually I managed. I felt my energy (spirit, consciousness, whatever) radiating out from me, pink and orange and bright and loud, first to the edges of the circle and then beyond. All of it asked a single question and listened for the answer.

The response came from much closer than anticipated, when I felt something small hop onto my knee.

I opened my eyes and looked down to see a frog staring back at me, blinking lazily and making small, guttural noises. Her back was green and rough and slimy. One of her eyes was milky, pointing vaguely off to the left, while the other gazed straight at me. The tips of her toes (three on each foot) edged closer to brown than the rest of her body.

Having clearly presented herself, she now asked if my gut said we would be good partners.

I’ve named her Ailean.

And now here I am, writing all of this down. I don’t know if I’ll be able to manage this every day. Whoever reads this may have to settle for a few times a week. With that said, I do think I’d like to go back and read what my predecessor wrote. Maybe it’ll give a clue as to where she’s gone, and help me escape this position sooner. She seems to have been quite the prolific writer—getting through her logs could take months, especially if the townsfolk keep me particularly busy with their various woes. I’ll have to start reading sooner rather than later.

Speak of the devil, there’s a knock on my door. It hasn’t even been a full day and I might already have my first customer. I’ll finish this later.

⇦●〇●⇨

#writing #writers on tumblr #writeblr #original writing #fantasy #apothecaria #entry #amwriting #creative writing #fiction #rpg #roleplaying game #high rannoc #writeblr community #writers #writblr

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xae-in-a-coat · 3 years ago

Text

Xaje(Z-Age): The Poetic Murderer

Yours truly made a Kingdom Hearts/Organization XIII Sona recently & finally decided to post about him here due to the fact that he somehow managed to develop an everlasting fear of people stealing his hard earned brain-work over night. Anyway, just take these small scrap doodles & angst ridden quotes I created earlier. None of this really counts as attention-worthy in my eyes, believe me, I am well aware of the fact at this point, but it’s solely for the sake of me not losing my mind over the possibility of my ideas being stolen anytime soon(plus, truth be told, I’ve actually grown quite fond of this miniscule scheme we artists call “character design”). Now, where were we? Ah yes, my quotes & in-game dialogue:

“Shadows can’t appear without light nor can stars shine without the darkness. In conclusion, our worlds require both one & the other in order to exist within a state of tranquil harmony. Perhaps we should start encountering that terribly desirable goal by changing your uneducated perspective.”

-𝚇𝚊𝚓𝚎

“You blinded light dwellers would never understand, you believe that the world is filled with happiness & success, that even in the darkest of times there’ll always be that last sliver of hope worth holding onto, that all of your feeblest dreams will one day come true. Well you’re wrong. The world is nothing more than darkness in itself, and we’re living proof of that. Us Nobodies were once like you, foolish, ignorant, weak, we clung to those same beliefs that you now spout and look where it’s landed us. An endless, inescapable abyss of nothingness in which we gather & begrudgingly call a home. Welcome to The Castle That Never Was.”

-𝚇𝚊𝚓𝚎

“Do I cause you to question the English language itself? Good. Confusion is the mind’s greatest weakness after all. Along with curiosity of course, but I’ll gladly settle for either of the two.”

-𝚇𝚊𝚓𝚎

“Allow me to put a quick end to this poorly written story of yours. It’s plot is becoming terselessly bland & ever so flavorless, these pages could endanger the less prepared minds of vain readers, & besides, not even the characters seem to know what they’re doing anymore.”

-𝚇𝚊𝚓𝚎

“Thank you, but no. I prefer to eat in private. Being here amongst the presence of all your beautiful faces is causing me to feel deeply self loathsome, or for the less educated, gross.”

-𝚇𝚊𝚓𝚎

“Yeah, I study gems. Nothing crazy though, mainly just a load of Google searches & me being pretentious, heh. Anyway, what was that really cool thing you were doing with that giant key just now?”

-𝙹𝚊𝚎

“I’m a poet, just living out my life & writing my own stories I guess. Not like anyone else would bother reading them anyway.”

-𝙹𝚊𝚎

“Hey uh- Is that a pen? Cause I kinda need one right now. Crazy bunch of ideas just flooded my pea sized brain. Wouldn’t wanna forget them right? A mind-full of words now could turn into a completely full fledged story later, who knows.”

-𝙹𝚊𝚎

“Blueberries, literature, & dreams. These are the few things I’ve stayed alive for. Yup, fourteen years of being a hopeless idiot & disappointing everyone I come by.”

-𝙹𝚊𝚎

“But why do we hate darkness even though we’re literally surrounded by it every night!? I thought you Keyblade idiots knew better, I thought you were better! Heh, guess I was wrong… Note to self: Never put your trust in anybody EVER AGAIN! BECAUSE THIS UNIVERSE IS NOTHING MORE THAN A FILTHY BREEDING POT FULL OF EVEN FILTHIER BACKSTABBERS!-”

-𝙹𝚊𝚎

“Unfortunately enough, it seems that I’ve run out of stories to tell… Heh, I should’ve realized this moment was going to come for me sooner or later. A writer’s charm only lasts so long before it fades, just as a pen will eventually run out of ink, or an uncharted idea will eventually be forgotten. Yet again, that bothersome light you use to fight us is no different when compared to those few simpleminded examples. Expiable, inconsistent, just like the hearts you so proudly hold.”

-𝚇𝚊𝚓𝚎

“Why must inspiration always come to me at the worst of times?- Ugh, I suppose that new writing prompt of mine will just have to wait for later, you on the other hand, shall be dealt with now.”

-𝚇𝚊𝚓𝚎

“Your specialty should be renewed into a weapon of some sort. Coming naturally to you in times of need, refined, retrained, & unlike what it was before. Here, take my trusty Fountain Pen for example: From normal size to weaponized! It’s quite fun actually, not that I have a heart to garner the enjoyment of course, but still, one cannot deny when one has alas discovered the thing they endearingly call ‘a hobby.’”

-𝚇𝚊𝚓𝚎

“The beings I once called ‘family’ were nothing more than burdensome unaccepting hate speakers, & surely enough, they still are. It was because of them that I ended my miserable self & landed here, fractured, incomplete, but more relieved than I can ever recall being whilst I still garnered a heart from within. Yes yes, it may not be the most apparent thing to you newcomers, but being a Nobody has its perks, especially if you willingly chose to be one.”

-𝚇𝚊𝚓𝚎

Now for an unanimated cutscene of two characters conversing through the unprofessional script put together by yours truly:

Xaje: We’re nothing more than a stain on the pristinely white pages of your world, an unwanted drop of ink that was never meant to exist in the first place, a thing you unaccepting light dwellers would call ‘a mistake.’ Still we roam freely, collecting the negative reputation you’ve forcefully written us to have. Ever spreading, ever growing, never stopping till we’ve met our untimely ends. Perhaps you & I aren’t so different after all, P/N.

Protagonist: Shut it, I’m nothing like you!

Xaje: Hm, don’t be so foolish light dweller, our respective roles as heroes & well… Antiheroes, will always set us apart of course, but in the end we both want what’s best for this dreaded empire, don’t we? deny it not any further P/N, we’re one in the same, you’re simply far too blinded by the light to see truth when it’s clearly there. Well, if I can’t persuade you now, perhaps I’ll try again another time, good day.

Protagonist: Huh?! Hey, come back! QUIT RUNNING AWAY FROM ME YOU COWARD!

Xaje: You see what I mean, foolish, ignorant, weak. Are baseless insults & vile acts of bullying really your only powers? Tsk tsk tsk, how very sad indeed.

Protagonist: SHUT UP!

Xaje: Till we meet again dearest light dweller, be sure to keep that precious little heart of yours safe whilst we’re apart, won’t you? I find that it can be quite fragile at times.

Protagonist: I SAID BE QUIET!- Aaannnd he’s gone… AGAIN!

-𝙵𝚒𝚗

Progress shots:

#kingdom hearts #organization xiii OC #organization xiii #organization 13 #my sona #nobody #oc artwork #my art #fanart #fountain pen #my quotes #writer #flipaclip #main protagonist #antagonist

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my-happy-little-bean · 3 years ago

Text

The Bookkeeper – Chapter 6

Chapter 6: 50 First Dates

pairings: logicality, prinxiety words: 3369 chapter warnings: mild swearing, mild NSFW content, reference to death chapter summary: and hijinks, do in fact, ensue.

[read on ao3] [masterlist]

< previous chapter

–

Roman has been on two dates before.

It’s not like he couldn’t get any– oh, he could get many– but he never really considered the several outings he’d been on ‘dates’. He had met a lot of wonderful people, but when the star met the moon, he didn’t need any more stepping stones; he had landed, safe and sound, in the clouds.

And he thought about his first date (he liked to think they had only been on one date before a series of adventures) almost constantly. He thought about it whenever he would travel idly through stories detailing a million first dates. He thought about it whenever Logan wasn’t around to guard his precious books. He thought about it whenever the thought of his first book nook crossed his mind.

Roman has been on two dates before.

His last date was so boring, it killed him.

His first date, however, was in a library.

“That simply won’t do.”

Logan threw yet another argyle vest into the growing pile of sweater vests on his bed.

“What should I wear then, Roman?”

“For a first date? Something else.”

Logan groaned, turning back to his wooden wardrobe and fishing through all his clothes.

“This isn’t a first date, Roman.”

“Riiiiight. On a completely unrelated note, Patton told me that he wanted you to have this!”

Roman flew up to Logan and blew him a kiss. A flurry of red magic hit Logan’s cheek and left a lip-shaped mark. Logan huffed, swatting the magic away as Roman simply laughed, flying into his wardrobe and giving a few clothes a red aura — Roman’s stamp of approval, Logan presumed.

Logan begrudgingly picked out a few of Roman’s selections and began to try them on.

“He is simply accompanying me on this...art-venture,” Logan continued, slipping on a white button-up. “It is in the pursuit of knowledge–”

“Call it what you want,” Roman cut him off, tossing a bit of magic to neatly fold Logan’s sleeves just below his elbow. “But I’m telling you, you’re on a date.”

“And how exactly would you know that?”

Roman narrowed his eyes at Logan. “I’ve had a very full life before becoming your magical librarian, thank you very much.”

“...Right.” Logan cleared his throat. A beat of silence passed. Logan half-expected Roman to lift the mood right back up, but all he did was stare at him.

“I...I’m sorry, Roman,” Logan finally said.

Roman’s aura dimmed. “It’s all good, Specs. I just...I’ve never seen you care about something this much before. I’m just trying to help.”

Logan paused, before hesitantly outstretching his hand towards his wardrobe. A trail of navy blue magic was thrown into the closet like a rope and pulled out a grey blazer towards him.

“Fine.” Logan put on the blazer and went over to the full length mirror leaning against the wall, adjusting the collar. “Say this is– hypothetically – a date. What would you recommend I do?”

“Stand a bit straighter and be yourself,” Roman recited, flying up behind Logan and forcing him to straighten his posture. He eventually rested on Logan’s shoulder and smiled. “You tend to show others a good time when you’re having a good time, Logan. I don’t think there’s much you can do that’s wrong.”

A pause. “Except for wearing ivory socks when they should be eggshell-white.”

Logan huffed, going over to his dresser as Roman floated right off him. Mid-way through switching out his socks, he heard bells chiming downstairs. Logan checked his watch.

“How is he already here?” he muttered to himself, slipping on some black dress shoes and taking one more look at himself in the mirror. Logan sighed, smoothing out his tucked in shirt. “How do I look?”

“...Just fine, Lo.” Logan caught sight of Roman’s smile falling in the mirror. “You look just fine.”

Logan nodded and rushed down the stairs, Roman trailing not too far behind him. When he got downstairs, he found Patton sitting on the armchair, waiting for him. He wore some bootcut, light-washed jeans and a long, grey cardigan over a light blue dress-shirt. In his hair were little, blue and white plastic butterfly clips buried between each curl. His eyes went starry and wide behind his round glasses as he stood up and grinned.

“Hey! You look just– wow .”

Logan felt himself go warm. “Er, thank you. You...you look good...too.”

He could hear the muffled sounds of groans behind him.

Patton giggled, outstretching his hand towards Logan. “Shall we go?”

Logan swallowed down his nerves and took Patton’s hand, wordlessly nodding.

As Patton led Logan out, Logan turned around to face Roman.

“Roman, are you sure you do not want to join us?” He patted his small shirt pocket. “You’re always welcome to.”

Roman’s expression twisted ever so slightly.

“I’m fine here, Specs,” he finally said with a faded smile. “I don’t know, maybe I can really get some work done around here without you.”

Logan stuck his tongue out at Roman before finally turning back around and out the door.

Patton smiled and leaned his head against Logan’s shoulder as they began walking towards the theatre. Logan initially stiffened at the contact, but eventually relaxed his shoulders and let himself melt under Patton’s touch.

Logan took one more look through his shop windows as they passed by it. He caught a glimpse of a blur of red near the shelf behind the front counter. A few seconds later, he saw a brown book floating through the air.

But before he could catch sight of what the book was, Patton dragged him past the window with a smile brighter than the stars above him. And then he was gone.

—

They arrived early at the theatre, settling in their seats with a large bucket of popcorn. Logan watched a few trailers that advertised some of the romantic-comedies that would be playing for the next few weekends. He grimaced.

“Why do these movies...hm, how do I say this – exist?”

Patton laughed. “Maybe someone felt like they needed to exist! Every story means something to someone, Lo.”

The title and tagline of a rom-com flashed on the screen in front of him: " Around Him for 80 Days": Your Hot-Air Balloon of Love, flying soon next week…

Logan stared at Patton with a deadpanned expression. Patton sheepishly smiled.

“Okay, so maybe the answer is money…”

Logan snorted, popping a piece of popcorn into his mouth.

The lights around the two eventually dimmed, and Logan let himself be immersed in the movie, as cheesy as it was.

The film eventually began with bright, blue, all-too-cheery skies. And as the film progressed, the plot, Logan told Patton, stayed fixated in its ‘lightly humorous but completely unrealistic’ nature; which, Patton informed him, was not the point.

The movie followed the shenanigans of Henry falling in love with a girl named Lucy, who suffered from anterograde amnesia. Logan did his best to keep his mouth sealed at every inaccuracy, if only to impress Patton, who was beaming the entire time. He even found himself following in Patton’s laughter like some sort of a strange puppet (though there were some moments that admittedly made him chuckle on his own).

However, against his will, Logan found himself endeared to the story towards the end. He watched the blurry VCR footage of a wedding unfolding in front of him with wide eyes and, for a brief moment, felt himself being pulled into an unknown world that was still similar to his own. The film’s message wasn’t too hard to extract. Two people were able to form a bond that transcended their adversities because of love and...

‘And someone wanted to share what that feeling was like.’

Logan snuck a glance at Patton, who was tearing up at the end (of course). His vision went blurry for a split second, a flash of navy blue flickering in his line of sight; and then, it was gone.

Logan reached inside the bucket of popcorn to see if there was anything left, and felt his hand graze Patton’s. Warmth fluttered in his chest. Of course.

When they left the theatre—and eventually got the ice cream Patton had promised—Patton rambled on and on about the movie, with Logan quietly walking beside him. Logan switched his focus between Patton’s words and the cool, night air hitting his face. He furrowed his brow as he became lost in his own thoughts.

‘ Everything was real, even that story which wasn’t real– but it felt real, it is all real…’

“How about you?” Patton said, snapping Logan out of his trance. “How’d you like the movie? I know it’s not really your thing–”

“No no,” Logan said with a smile, toying with his spoon in cup. “I cannot believe I am truly saying this but...but I enjoyed it.”

A gasp. Patton stopped dead in his tracks beside him. He rolled his eyes.

“Oh come on , you drew this out of me...”

“Logan Fray– the Logan Fray– enjoyed a ‘nonsensical’ romance movie?”

“It was a fine story, Patton, no need to over-sell this–”

“I can’t wait to tell Roman!” Patton’s smile was oh-so blisteringly bright as he danced ahead of Logan, nearly dropping his ice cream cone and singing a song Logan didn’t recognize. Logan chuckled.

The streets felt emptier in Patton’s company, Logan noticed. He wasn’t quite in solitude, but he was not overrun by a crowd of thought, opinions, and expectations held by not only others, but himself — it was just him and Patton; it was just the two of them together.

“What’s on your mind?” Patton asked, suddenly beside him. Logan blinked, then shook his head.

“Nothing, Patton. I am having a lovely evening with you.”

Patton squinted at him. “You have your thinking face on.”

A pause.

“I am just thinking of how I could tie this experience to my research,” he finally responded, a feeble attempt at a lie. Patton’s mouth thinned into a small frown.

“Ah...right.”

Patton continued to walk, now alongside Logan in an awkward silence. Logan, not really knowing what he had expected, followed suit.

“Logan?” Patton asked after a few minutes.

“Yes?”

“...Why do you want to know what the meaning of art is?”

Logan frowned. “I have to, for my–”

“For your speech, yeah,” Patton finished for him. “I know it’s for your speech, but...”

“It could possibly serve as an onset to a prospective publication,” Logan tried again.

“It just seems sad,” Patton blurted out. “Don’t you think?”

Logan felt his heart drop, almost ashamed. Patton seemed to catch on almost immediately.

“Sorry, that was like– wow, so uncalled for–”

“You’re not wrong.” Logan squeezed his eyes shut. “You are not wrong at all.”

They walked in a bit more silence before Logan sighed.

“Sometimes, after what feels like a lifetime of barely-surmountable adversities...you tend to lose sight of the path, let alone what lies at the end of it.” Logan looked at Patton, eyes wide and earnest. “Have you ever felt that way?”

“A little, but not as much as you do, maybe.” Patton shrugged. “I have never really lost anything. Though, I have never had too much to lose, heh.”

“I see,” Logan murmured.

A beat of silence.

“I suppose art has always followed me,” Logan said, voice barely above a whisper. “My grandfather would bring stories to life in front of my very eyes, every single night. And then...well, they died with him. At some point in my life, I couldn’t live without his stories and...and now I can . There...there must be a reason for that, no?”

“I’m not sure.” Patton looked up at Logan. “Do...do you think you have ever really lived without his stories?”

Time seemingly stopped around them as Logan felt himself taken aback by Patton’s question. For a few moments, he thought about the shop, the way the books on the shelves have always been there. He thought about his grandfather and the stories he would bring to life. He thought about his parents and the hazy memory of the summer days he’d spend with them in the backyard, looking at insects with a magnifying glass and a toothy grin. He thought about his magic, the way it was first pulled out of him and into the air above his head in a swirl of faintly-coloured wind.

He thought about Roman, and how he’s always been there. Always.

(And in his chest, Logan felt a puzzle– one he almost forgot was ever fragmented– slowly piece itself back together.)

They eventually find their way back to Fray and Far Fables, with Logan mostly quiet the whole way back. He had reassured Patton that he did nothing wrong; he was just thinking, as he always did. Patton didn’t press on.

“Well, here we are,” Logan said as they neared the front door. He awkwardly shifted in his place in front of Patton, averting his glance to the floor.

“Here we are!” Patton echoed back with a nervous laugh. He smiled at Logan regardless. “I had a really good time, Logan.”

“I did as well.” A pause. Logan hesitantly added, “I...I enjoy spending time with you.”

“Aw, Lo! I like spending time with you too!” Patton smiled, almost embarrassed. “You...you make me think! And I like thinking with you, really.”

Logan couldn’t help but look at Patton. Under the faint lights of his shop, Patton’s eyes looked like a mix of honey and wine, sweet and tempting. And Logan never realized it until now, but his freckles reassembled the same sort of stars he always saw in Patton’s smile.

Logan blinked, and felt Patton’s gaze on him narrow; perhaps he was under similar examination.

“Um...I should get going.”

Patton laughed, even more nervous than the first time.

“Oh! Yes, of course!” He rubbed the back of his neck. “And hey, thank you for indulging me in these silly art-ventures, heh. I know you don’t have to, but...well, it’s nice to know that you’re getting something out of these.”

“I…” Logan took a deep breath. (For a brief moment, he wondered how one would encapsulate this crazy and horrifying feeling in a campy romantic comedy.)

“I get more from being with you, Patton,” Logan finally said. “You...you challenge me in a way that reminds me that there is more than just a...a finite answer. You make me want to seek more .” A step forward. "And...and there has to be more."

And before he could say anything else, Patton leaned forward on the tips of his toes and pulled Logan into a kiss.

—

Here’s what Logan knows.

He knows that despite there being something out there, there is nothing—truly nothing—in this life. There are bonds and spirits and magic that surround the world, sure. But you come from nothing and leave, ultimately, with nothing, because everything you could ever want to have is left behind.

However, he now knows this as well: the very act of creation immortalizes what little space you make for yourself, and everything that he once believed was true is actually—and this is rather unfortunate—complete and utter bullshit.

Logan felt his back hit the door as Patton pressed against him in their kiss. He swore he could feel both their hearts racing through their clothes. And in that very moment, Logan decided that he would do just about anything to be as close to Patton’s heart as possible, as if the two of their heartbeats could create a symphony if they were just a bit closer, closer, closer.

Logan fumbled for the door handle and with a struggled twist of his wrist, he sent the two of them stumbling backwards into the shop mid-kiss. Patton pulled back for a moment to let out a breathy laugh. Logan, almost desperately, ran his hand through Patton’s hair and pulled him into another kiss, and another, and another.

They bumped into a few display tables, knocking a few books onto the floor. Logan jumped back at the noise, then looked at Patton. Patton was still clutching onto Logan’s blazer collar, his cheeks glowing red. He wore the smallest and shakiest of smiles. A few of the butterfly clips in his hair were askew, and Logan didn’t even know when this happened, but Patton’s cardigan was completely undone, as well as a few buttons of his shirt.

He nodded towards the staircase and Patton nodded, seemingly breathless.

As they were heading up, it dawned on Logan that he had never had someone else upstairs since his grandfather passed. It was mostly rather small and, quite frankly, unimpressive. A rush of insecurity flooded Logan’s being, but all too late.

There were two doors when they reached the top: to the left was a small, cramped bathroom; and to the right, his bedroom.

Patton looked at Logan, who sighed and braced himself as he opened the right door.

In typical attic fashion, the ceiling was slanted towards a small window near the back of the room. Underneath the window was a kitchenette with a sink and a few appliances, as well as a rack of pots and pans lining the walls beside the window. His bed rested on the right side of his room, and across from it were rows of shelves filled with old books and picture frames, with some boxes and drawers laying underneath. A string of fairy lights and small light bulbs were strung from each shelf and illuminated the room with a warm glow.

In a small interlude from their intimacy, Patton looked around in awe.

“ Wow. I can’t believe this has been up here the whole time.”

Logan shifted in his place, taking a deep breath.

“I know it is not much, but this...well, this is home. Always has been.”

“I love it, Logan.” Patton looked up at Logan with a small smile. “I love it.”

Logan grinned, a mix of relief and realization settling in his chest. He felt himself become lighter in Patton’s presence as he pulled Patton into another kiss, one that was softer than the previous ones.

And Logan held Patton close as if he was every answer he was searching for, as if their embrace could create a space in the vast world for just the two of them; as if life was no longer empty, but full.

Logan held Patton close in a warm, ‘ thank-you-for-all-of-this’ kiss, and then closed the door behind him.

—

When he heard the sound of the door closing upstairs, Roman decidedly floated up from behind the counter. He looked at the staircase and in his mind, remembered the sounds of Logan and Patton’s hurried footsteps leading to Logan’s bedroom.

Roman flew over to lock the front door and took a glance out the window. He stared at the place where Logan and Patton were standing before he had hidden behind the counter; he recalled the way they looked at each other, the way they held each other in such closeness and warmth. And he recalled seeing something that he knew Logan wouldn’t have noticed: he saw the glow of a pulsing, navy blue aura surrounding Logan when he kissed Patton.

Roman held his gaze with the city outside of the shop, and realized with a shattered heart that he had been in here longer than he had originally planned for; that someone was waiting for him in the same way he knew Logan had been waiting for someone like Patton (even if that someone was there, he was always fucking there–)

At that moment, Roman realized that he held every answer that his new life ever needed, yet everything was out of reach once again.

Fighting back tears, Roman locked the door and quietly floated back onto the surface of the front counter. The brown, leather-bound copy of The Midnight Forest laid open in front of him.

Roman looked up at the staircase one more time, forcing himself to not hear the giggles and the creaking of the bed and the love, love, love.

He steeled himself and silenced it all, before pressing his hands against the pages of The Midnight Forest and disappearing in a flurry of red smoke.

—

next chapter >

#TS Storytime 2021 #gabbie writes things #sanders sides #sanders sides fanfic #logicality #prinxiety #logan sanders #patton sanders #roman sanders #virgil sanders #logan/patton #roman/virgil #logic/morality #creativity/anxiety

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notalittlebutalottie · 4 years ago

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KCFICRECEVENT -Day 8 - Quick-Fire Questions

Belated Quick Fire answers, here we go! @klaroline-events

1. Who are your favorite KC writers?

@she-walked-away @bellemorte180 @lalainajanes (LalainaJ) @marvelouskatie @strongbeautifulfulloflight (Wrecklessrighter) to name a few!

2. Who’s your favorite KC smut writer?

I have spent a good amount of time plowing through @lalainajanes‘s one shot collection Make Some Noise, which includes a fair amount of smutty drabbles, and every single one manages to be just as good as the last. I think that when you write so much smut, you can get worried about scenes becoming too similar (that’s what I stress over especially) but they write their smut so effortlessly and each scene is unique and crafted to the context of the prompt! (I also appreciate the commitment to recognising how dangerous shower sex is)

3. A fic that you have read more than once.

Dirty Little Secret & Unexpected Exposure by @she-walked-away. I cannot tell you how many times I have read them. Dirty Little Secret is the reason I began and completed my first official Klaroline WIP (my crappy attempts a year prior don’t count), back when I actually...prepared multiple chapters before posting... And Unexpected Exposure is arguably my favourite fic that I have ever laid eyes on. Their writing is so consistent in both narration and dialogue and their charactersation is marvelous!

4. A feel-good fic that never fails to make you smile. + 5. A fic that has made you cry.

Family Game Night by @strongbeautifulfulloflight hands down! The very first time I read it years ago, I laughed so hard that I cried (which I guess answers question 5 as well). In fact, the scene in which Kol has clearly lost the plot after his phone is destroyed and he loses his high score is what inspired his first scene in my story Psychedelic Kicks! This story is just absolutely a bundle of fun and laughter and I recommend it to anyone who hasn’t read it.

6. A fix-it fic that has made you feel vindicated.

Fortitude by @life-needs-epic. Obviously, I recommended it for day 3 of the event so you can see my review and graphic there!

7. A fic that has made your romantic heart scream.

Picturesque by @supernutellastuff. I have definitely mentioned my love for it before and I really wanted to recommend it for this event BUT I held myself to a criteria of active/ongoing fics for the main 7 days. Still, I LOVE THIS FIC SO MUCH. I think this writer has a wonderful gift in building chemistry between two characters whether it’s romantic or platonic. The details of their friends arguing over things like coffee beans and other seemingly innocuous topics are fantastic. Their friendship group feels so natural and there’s not a single one of them to dislike regardless of flaws. There is one scene in which Caroline calls Klaus very late at night just to clarify whether he had been in the same country as her at the same time and it makes my heart scream SO MUCH.

8. Your favorite drabble writer?

@itsnotacrimetoloveyou has written so many wonderful drabbles including one that I recommended this week! Luiza never fails to create such cohesive and compact stories within these drabbles and her writing is just so engaging.

9. What was the story that made you fall in love KC fanfiction?

The Madness Underneath by @marvelouskatie. If you haven’t read it, go read it. The biggest reason I love this fic is that it is honest and realistic. It doesn’t try to bend in favour of the ship by making it all fluffy and sweet. These characters feel like real people and the plot is interesting enough that KC are just the cherry on top.

10. A fic you love and wish more people would read.

The Other Side of Sacrifice by @queencarolinemikaelson. You can find my review for it on day 2 of this event along with the graphic under the kcficrecevent tag! I just want to point out again, however, how they do such a wonderful job writing this diversion of canon. It takes how the diversion would affect their relationship into account without going too far off base of who their characters are. Klaus is starts off quite cold (because well he’s dead, duh) but it’s an expected and understandable level that just works for this story. They have to get to know each other under an entirely different circumstance and that circumstance is so interesting. I really can’t wait to see what’s in store and I hope the author knows just how much I love it!

11. A fic that isn’t your regular cup of tea for whatever reason but that you love anyway.

Demonology by @bellemorte180. I know I know, ‘Lottie, you have recommended three fics in this post that you have ALREADY recommended this week’ but it’s my fic rec post and I’ll do what I want. Let me start this off by saying: I love horror. HOWEVER, when it comes to Klaroline fics, I am extremely wary of fics that label themselves as ‘dark’. If you want to know my complete reasoning then I will happily share but expect a rant lmao. With all of that in mind, this story, though in its early days, is setting the stage for a roller coaster of madness and I am ready. Right off the bat, Erica throws a curve ball and from then on, the story only sinks its teeth into your soul more and more. The way the progression of Klaus and Caroline’s relationship is intertwining with the story so far is flawless and I hope that if you haven’t read this yet, you will give it a shot. I promise you’ll adore it.

12. A multichapter you wish would be updated NOW!

Fair Silvers of Us by @carolineforbae (like seriously, Giulia, I GOTTA KNOW HOW IT ENDS). This is another type of fic that wouldn’t usually be my cup of tea but Giulia is an excellent and engaging writer. How could I not fall in love with it? I think that mates as a trope can be a very delicate thing to handle, but Giulia deals with the issues expertly throughout the story. GO READ IT.

#kcficrecevent #klaroline #klaus and caroline #I had to stop myself from writing a full on essay for question 11 because I wanted to focus on the story rec

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wolffnichols · 4 years ago

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Yo, you good after that spn finale or...? Cause like, that shit was wack.

(fair warning this absolutely became SUPER long so buckle up my dudes here’s a rant from someone who finally came back to this show after years (i kept up with it over the years and always wanted to go back but didn’t until the end) and is super pissed. also shout out to all of those who stuck through. y’all the real heroes. anyways, here we go)

THE ABSOLUTE WACKEST

so wacked that when it went to commercial break after Dean died I literally laughed. bc it was SO UPSURD. dean was literally like:

when Sam could’ve just called the ambulance? Like I get it, there’s decapitated bodies on the ground, they’d be suspicious. but like Sam could’ve quickly hid or burnt them as they waited for the ambulance while Dean still could’ve said his goodbye. and like, even if Dean didn’t want Sam to and just him die, he said that there was no time and that he was fading and yet they just? kept talking? and yes i cried bc jensen’s and jared’s acting were beautiful and all. but like? OF ALL OF THE WAYS DEAN HAD DIED IN THE PAST AND COULD’VE STILL IN THE FINALE?? THIS IS HOW HE DIES?? BY A RANDOM GOON FROM A RIDICLOUS MONSTER OF THE WEEK LET ALONE FINAL ‘VILLIAN’ WHO JUST LIKE...ACCIDENTALLY SHOVED HIM AGAINST A HOOK/POLE/WHATEVER THE HELL THAT STUPID THING WAS. LIKE DEAN FREAKING WINCHESTER?? i feel like they were trying to go with a ‘mundane’ ending bc this entire episode was them going back to like s1 without connecting to any plot and just them being two hunters again. (i’ll get to all of that in a sec) but like 1) going the mundane route is a terrible way for him to go unless it was executed extremely well which it was the opposite of. and 2) it was so incredibly anticlimactic and just an entire spit in the face of his character development.

and you know what? even if they still kept his death like that and pretty much else the same, I’d be okay with the ending if they changed just two things 1) brought freaking Cas (and Jack) back since he apparently helped jack create this perfect heaven for dean and everyone else, (i mean bobby literally said that this was the Heaven that he deserved. you cannot convince me that Cas didn’t explain all of this to Bobby and said those exact words that this was the Heaven that Dean deserves). And 2) at least brought the dead characters back when Dean was in Heaven. Instead Dean was like “I could see my dead parents but I’m just going to take a long drive in Baby whichcasmadeformebcheknowsmesowellandlovesmesomuchandwantsmetohavetheperfectheavenbutimnotgonnaackloweledgeanyofit and drive until Sam dies and then I’ll say hi to everyone I lost and been away from a lot longer than I’ve been away from Sam”. Like how beautiful would it have been if we saw Mary and John like we did in the 300th episode? And everyone else they had lost over the years? Like, I know that montage at the end of 15x19 was supposed to be the final ‘honor’ of all of the characters, but this is the finale. And as much as they kept on trying to say that this show was always just about Sam and Dean, it evolved into Sam and Dean and people they’ve cared about over the years. They were important too! Especially Cas. The show literally became Sam, Dean & Cas but he’s just gonna be mentioned twice...okay. Which brings me back to my 1st point. THEY SHOULD”VE BROUGHT CAS BACK IN HEAVEN. like we got a mention with Dean smiling and Bobby giving him a Knowing™ look but besides that, not only did we not see Cas I’m left with so many more questions. Like how did Cas help make Heaven with Jack? Did Jack bring Cas out of the Empty and just didn’t tell the brothers? Or is Cas still in the empty but helping Jack bc he’s just that damn good? But if he did bring Cas back, how did he help Jack create this new Heaven? Does he have god powers now too?? and yet when Bobby mentions this, Dean smiles (granted it was a cute smile bc to me it felt like a sorta ‘that’s my cas’ smile) not questioning the fact that the last he heard Cas was taken by the Empty to never return again and Dean wanted to honor his sacrifice by living (which don’t even get me started on that) and now he helped create Heaven with Jack. Dean doesn’t even look that much surprised. Which actually makes me think...did Dean know that Jack brought Cas back from the Empty this entire time but had to keep it from Sam bc... ✨reasons✨ and that was why he said that about missing them and having to honor their sacrifice and live, even though all of the other times Cas died he went batshit out of his mind? But not this time, bc Dean actually knew that Jack brought him back. omg was Cas the dog this entire time??? with Cas’ newfound powers did he just like morph into the dog so for some reason Sam couldn’t know bc...you know....✨reasons✨ okay i’m getting delirious here. let’s get back on track. my whole point is, Cas should’ve been there. and even if they wanted more of an ambiguous ending for destiel (which don’t even get me started on THAT) they could’ve at least still had Cas be there to also welcome Dean there along with everyone else. Like, as much as I love Bobby, how more beautiful and fitting wouldn’t it have been if Dean saw Cas there who explained everything there before Dean reunites with all of his loved ones? Cas deserved to be there (and Jack while we’re at it). HE FREAKING HELPED CREATE THIS NEW HEAVEN. He deserved to be there. like tbh I was desperately hoping that he’d at least appear in Baby when Dean started driving. BUT NOPE.

but you know what, back to me wishing we got other important characters in Heaven, if we did I think it would’ve been better if both Sam and Dean died together and reunited with all of them together (which they prob will in canon since Dean ignored them until Sam came back akhsjshjshsjh). like would Eileen be there? which reminds me, speaking of Eileen, WHERE WAS EILEEN?? was she in Heaven this whole time like Bobby was? and who tf was Sam’s rando wife?? UGH. you know how i’d say i’d accept the finale if they just changed it to where Cas (and possibly Jack) was also there along with some of their dead loved ones? i’d prob still be (barely but it would 100% be better than this) but MAN this ENTIRE EP from the beginning was just WACK. like the beginning showing the ‘ordinary life’? i didn’t really mind it that much bc it seemed like that was the natural way to go. but for me personally, I was hoping and wishing that their journey was realizing that it’s not just them anymore and they both end up happy (maybe still hunting) but with their loved one by their sides (especially Cas and Eilleen). but you know, I’m used to not getting what I want and understand that what i want for a story isn’t necessarily the same as the storyteller’s/natural narrative progression. i may hate the the direction and think that it’s a load of crap, but whatever. but this? the entire narrative was OFF. like what even was the point of those weird mime-pires (who btw my sister couldn’t help but compare to clowns 👀.) and not to mention that random lady from like s1? it all felt off but I was hoping it was leading to something. only it lead to Dean’s wack-ass demise. also like, poor freaking Sam. he had to grow old, without his brother and any more family members by his side. which (someone eloquently pointed out) was what s1 Sam wanted but definitely not s15 Sam (not that s1/pre-series Sam wanted his family dead or anything he just wanted to live a normal life and start a family without his family) And we don’t even know who the hell his wife was and how the hell that happened. also, at least he mentioned missing Cas and Jack. but WHAT ABOUT EILEEN??

which brings me to one of my main problems with this whack ass finale (and there are PLENTY more I can talk about) their cohesive narrative between this ep and the rest of s15 and even longer, is just...not there? it’s like they forgot about everything they built just so they can go back to the basics of Sam and Dean. and like, I get it, they’re the heart and soul of the show. they’re supernatural. but like, it also grew more than that? like what was the point of them being parental figures to Jack? what was the point of their 12 season friendship/relationship with Cas? what was the point of all of their connections that they made on the way? and you know what? what was the point of this show lasting so damn long if both of Sam and Dean’s character developments just went ✨poof✨? like as someone who just recently came back to the show, I could just think that this was another early season episode but both of them looking older. (not saying that early seasons were bad. i LOVE early seasons but like as a storyteller and a viewer you want your characters to idk GROW and KEEP that growth).

ANWAYS this became WAY TOO LONG and all over the place and everyone els e is saying all of this too, but I just needed to vent. basically, i’m not doing good from that wack ass finale my friend. sam and dean both deserved to grow old. and Cas deserved to come back (like the show became sam, dean, AND cas, for YEARS like don’t even get me started on THAT bc i could go on and on about how they did him/lgbtq+ community/his fans so dirty) and destiel deserved to be canon dammit (like what was the point of his love confession if they weren’t ever going to mention it? they could’ve still had cas die without that. but since they did it needed WAAAY better resolution dammit) and the finale deserved to have a better freaking cohesive narrative.

Again, so sorry this became such a long ass rant. But I guess I needed to rant. Also, please no one send me hate for this. These are just my thoughts that I needed to get out. Anyways, how are you doing this this whack finale, Nonnie?? And thank you so much for the question!

#kj gets an ask #kj gets a nonnie #is this aj? for some reason i'm thinking that this is aj lol #supernatural #spn spoilers #i'm not sure if i should put this in the tags but whatever #i spent like two hours writing this lol #long post

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wichols · 4 years ago

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Angst/Fluff Writing Prompt Fun Wrap Up!

Now that I have finally finished all the submitted prompts I thought it would be fun to do a cute little wrap up in case you might have missed any of the stories along the way, along with some background/thoughts/feels about each one! Duration May 13th - July 15th (that was longer than I expected but cool!) 1. Rain and Confessions (Kyoya X Haruhi WC: 1,662) Prompt: “And yet, you’re still not enough.” Summary: After her graduation from law school, Haruhi and Kyoya pack up her apartment in preparation of Haruhi moving back to Japan. Kyoya has been waiting years for this moment and he is going to let Haruhi know exactly how he feels about Haruhi and isn't going to let a little rain ruin his plans for them. AO3, Tumblr, FF.Net Thoughts: This prompt is a canon insecurity for Kyoya and so it was easy for me to write- considering I posted the prompt list on the 13th and uploaded it on the 14th. But also it was so hard to write because they are my OTP!! It pained me to make them suffer like this. To make Kyoya vulnerable is tough. To bring down his walls in front of someone is a struggle. Upon reading back through it I dare say there is a peep of inspiration from Pride and Prejudice (can you spot the hidden Mr. Darcy-like quote?). Favorite Line: “You say that you will do all these things out of your love for me but it is because of my love for you that I cannot accept your offer because you become less of who you are and more of the person you think I need.” 2. Public Masks for Private Matters (Takashi x Haruhi WC: 1,269) Prompt: “Being alone would be better than being married to you.”

Summary: Haruhi has finally reached her breaking point. After winning her career-defining case her world comes crashing down. Blame has been assigned and trust has been broken between Haruhi and Takashi.

AO3, Tumblr, FF.Net Thoughts: The TakaHaru ship is by far one of the hardest ships to use with angsty writing because of the nature of Takashi. The hurt he could inflict on Haruhi isn’t something so obvious like physical/mental/emotional abuse. I think in my mind that it is his lack of response is the most believable response to causing conflict between them- his inability/insecurity to say the right thing at the right time. At least that is what it would come off to others. Takashi is an introvert/observer. If he was experiencing emotional distress he would probably cave in and bottle things up, holding the burden alone. (Spoliers!!) The real secret behind this fic is that Takashi only ever told her the truth. Haruhi busted a major company for the terrible working conditions of their low income employees. A week after the close of the trial she was jumped by a group of people and was sent to the hospital. They had know she was pregnant for a short while and wanted to keep it a secret because of the high profile nature of the case- not even telling friends or family. They lost the baby and it broke them. To this day they still have not mentioned the loss of their child. So naturally they suffer alone, putting on masks for the public. I honestly thought about writing something more with this background information but it just seemed a little difficult to set up the scene. Favorite Line: “The love I held for you is what blinded me.“ 3. Cameras and Questions (Kyoya x Haruhi WC: 1,181) Prompt: An almost kiss Summary: Yet again Kyoya convinces Haruhi to be his date to another gala event. Haruhi asks a question that gets answered in the most unusual way. Is there more going on between a young no-name lawyer and one of Japan's Top 5 Eligible Bachelors than the public is aware? AO3, Tumblr, FF.Net

Thoughts: This was so fun to write! I love writing snarky Haruhi. I also love writing the back and forth between them. I mean they are my OTP I love the chase. XD I feel like they both can be very up front with each other but that they enjoy the subtleties of their conversations. I love the challenge between them, and how they push and test each other. I think in the beginning I didn’t quite know how to put them in a situation where there was an almost kiss, mostly because I still couldn’t get myself to fully commit to a fluffy piece of writing. But I think with what I did I could classify it as fluff defined by my standards (nobody died and everyone is happy). Favorite Line: “I don’t know any Ootori man to half-ass anything.” 4. Disgust and Devotion (Hikaru x Haruhi WC:1,083) Prompt: “Please don’t cry.” & “It’s three in the morning. What could you possibly want?” Summary: They said that it wouldn't work between them. Are their worlds so far apart that it is impossible? Hikaru is caught up in another scandal and Haruhi has reached her limit. Does she love him enough to stay or is she just too weak to leave? AO3, Tumblr, FF.Net Thoughts: I think at this point in the prompts I still couldn’t get myself to write fluff and this ask was a fluff/angst mix with the two prompts provided. I do enjoy writing the HikaHaru ship even if there is not much out there. Originally when I was working on brainstorming ideas the end game was for them to have angry makeup sex. But I just couldn’t twist what I had in a way that would flow naturally with the base plot. I think I like writing Hikaru slightly drunk. It curves his temper and makes him more mellow. But he is still our impulsive little boy and he still has a ways to grow up. This wasn’t the first time that something like this has come up. Though both times he was not at fault (though in the original idea he totally did cheat one drunk night but couldn’t really remember). If anything the fluff is implied at the end.... Favorite Line: “The media can make it look like anything they want to with a well-timed photo.” 5. Love Over Reason (Takashi x Haruhi WC: 2,102) Prompt: “Are you blushing?” Summary: Loving someone is complicated. Sometimes we feel as though the ones we love deserve more than we can give. Does spending six months apart change Takashi and Haruhi's feelings for the better or for worse? AO3, Tumblr, FF.Net Thoughts: There was about 5 days between this fic and Disgust and Devotion and I still couldn’t really bring myself to write straight fluff... But this turned into quite a piece. I think I was hitting a stride of coffee shop AUs and I just couldn’t help myself. Ever love someone so much you push them away because you think it will be better than dragging them through your mess? Well same. I think the fluff in this fic is subtle. They care so deeply for one another that they don’t want to hurt each other more. And just to be kind I added more fluff at the end. I’m not sure I really like how I used the prompt for this one but what’s posted is posted. Favorite Line: “All I have ever wanted from you is you.” - This line still gets me all sorts of choked up when I read it.

6. Brutality Mixed With Intimacy (Takashi x Haruhi WC: 1,455)

Prompt: 'Please don't cry' or 'You know I have feelings for you, right?'

Summary: After months of following dead ends, the Ouran Association finally has a solid lead to obtaining useful information on the ring leader of a major underground human trafficking organization in Japan. All other hits had gone to plan for Takashi but this one hit too close to home. With Haruhi as their next target, he couldn't handle the risk of possibly losing her.

AO3, Tumblr, FF.Net

Thoughts: Cue the beginning evidence of my current obsession with Mafia AU’s... The mafia au is just the perfect setting for my dark angsty heart! I just couldn’t resist. Especially when fluff was so far down the list of things I still wanted to write. I won’t name names but a certain TakaHaru shipper threatened me that they were going to write a fix it fic so that Haruhi actually ended up with Takashi instead of Tamaki. And of course she would end up with Tamaki, he of all of them would have the least blood on his hands.

Favorite Line: “You were never going to make it to the drop off location.”

7. Fashion and Feelings (Hikaru x Haruhi WC: 2,691)

Prompt: “You know I have feelings for you right?”

Summary: After years of silently watching and pining for Haruhi from afar, Hikaru finally gets the courage to reveal his true feelings for her. With his new spring line debuting in a few short days Hikaru is going to lay his fashion reputation and love all on the line in hopes of having his feelings reciprocated.

AO3, Tumblr, FF.Net

Thoughts: Finally, FINALLY, finally I was able to pull out just the most fluffy fluff I could write! Like it took everything I had to put no angst in this one at all. This prompt sat for weeks and weeks without progress. I didn’t have a clue with what I was going to do with it. Like, it laughed at me with it’s blank doc. I wanted this final prompt to be just fluff so I left it to sit until I finally had a spark of fluff. This can be read alone or as part of the back story for Disgust and Devotion.

Favorite Line: “Most people would be creeped out by someone other than a significant other who bought them lingerie.” Final Thoughts:

Shortest- Cameras and Questions Longest- Fashion and Feelings Combined Total Word Count: 11,443 Title Themes- I really wanted to give this round of prompts a slightly longer title theme. My favorite is probably Brutality Mixed With Intimacy but a close runner up is Public Masks for Private Matters.

Favorite- Fashion and Feelings Least Favorite- Love Over Reason Thanks to everyone who submitted requests! It is always a pleasure writing for you!

#OHSHC #ouran host club #ouran hshc #ouran high school host club #haruhi fujioka #tamaki suoh #Kyoya Ootori #hikaru hitachiin #takashi morinozuka #Takashi x Haruhi #Kyoya x Haruhi #Hikaru x Haruhi

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fyrapartnersearch · 4 years ago

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|| 𝕮𝖔𝖒𝖊 𝖑𝖎𝖙𝖙𝖑𝖊 𝖗𝖔𝖑𝖊𝖕𝖑𝖆𝖞𝖊𝖗𝖘 ||

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𝐼'𝓁𝓁 𝓉𝒶𝓀𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝑒 𝒶𝓌𝒶𝓎…

𝒾𝓃𝓉𝑜 𝒶 𝓁𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝑜𝒻 𝑒𝓃𝒸𝒽𝒶𝓃𝓉𝓂𝑒𝓃𝓉…

 haha ^^

 To all the curious ladies and gents out here, you may call me Imp.

Short, sweet and straight to the point. ;)   I am a lady in her twenties, with a strong penchant for roleplaying, writing, and drawing. The Holy Trinity if you will. I am a huge nerd and aesthetic lover boy - plain and simple. One of my main passions being video-games, illustrations, comics, live-action films, series and anime/cartoon shows, elements that shaped me during my years of growing up.

  It’s been a while since I’ve posted my first ever ad on any website, and I was very much positively surprised by the amazing people that have reached out to me.

And since I am a greedy little mf, I wanted to fish for more partners. I’ve been roleplaying for a few years now and gradually gathered a good amount of experience throughout the years, but it’s always fun to meet and learn something new.

   Name: Imp  

Age: 27 years

  Experience: 11 years  

Preferences: 1:1 Roleplaying

  Partner: Should be at least [18+], but I rather much prefer my counterpart to be 21 years or older   

EMAIL: [email protected]

I am a very creative sort of individual with hundreds of ideas constantly occupying my little impish head. And I am very spontaneous too, so I can always adjust to a new setting, depending on how good and compelling the concept is.  Inspirations come from various sources and origins, be it a fandom (an already existing universe) or an original storyline. Please read through these paragraphs carefully before you decide to contact me! It’s important to avoid any misunderstanding later! And I would less likely respond to a message with the title ‘Hey, wanna rp?’, since I hadn’t had any good experiences with these said messages. Thank you.    °°°·.°·..·°¯°·._.· ☥ ·._.·°¯°·.·° .·°°° °°°·.°·..·°¯°·._.· ☥ ·._.·°¯°·.·° .·°°°

   Communication: It’s certainly chill. You can talk to me about whatever occupies your mind since I am very open and always happy to listen to others. I also tend to be chatty, sharing a meme or a joke every now and to loosen up the mood. If you consider choosing me as your roleplaying partner, be sure to maintain a certain consistency. I have nothing against going on a longer break or even a hiatus, but the whole `ghosting stick´ is something I have no patience for. So if you’re unsure of upholding a stable, long term partnership, feel free to skim past this ad.    Plotting: Also very important to note! I am fairly quick when it comes to building new characters, concepts, premises, storylines, backstories, etc… This means there is certain flexibility available which allows me to adjust. Even though it is a hobby, I am still extremely passionate about good storytelling and interesting character arcs. I hope to meet someone who is just as enthusiastic and willing to put in the same amount of effort as I am. If it’s only me who’s pulling all the weight, I will lose interest fast, just to get it out there. Aside from that, I love going a little crazy with the possibilities and push things to their absolute limits. Of course within the boundaries of the given setting.   Pairing & Romance: Okay, right off the bat, I am a hopeless romantic through and through. I enjoy good and strong chemistry between characters just as much as the next, and this will be no exception. I prefer the good ol’ MxF pairing because I have more experience with this. But I also like playing a FxF dynamic or MxM. Everyone is welcome! When it comes to pairing itself, I want to make sure our creations are compatible, for I hate forcing characters into a romantic relationship for the sake of progression. A natural flow is what I am aiming for. ;)   Mature? Yes, very much so: Adult and taboo topics are absolute. There’s no way around it because, in my stories, it is a running theme. The adult world is not easy to handle, but it’s definitely interesting to explore. That includes violence, cursing, shocking content, and all that dark stuff. My limits are few, safe for a couple of minor pet peeves that I have, I am pretty much open to some experimentation. When it comes to action-heavy scenes (be it an intimate situation between two characters or something on a cataclysmic scale), I won’t fade to black since I am not a huge fan of censoring. However, I will not force or push my partner into something they are not comfortable with. If you want to know the extent to how far I am willing to go, what sort of content or how detailed my writing will be, you can ask me directly. As for smut or lemons, whatever you call it, it will never be the focus of any of my roleplays, but I enjoy a good erotic scene with a lot of tension (if they are good).    Boundaries: Not a big fan of things like pedophilia, necrophilia, scat, bestiality, or those dreaded ‘futas’.  Inspirations and interests: There’s a pretty broad spectrum of what I deem interesting and inspirational. From fallen angels and demon/monster hunters, mages, criminal masterminds, cybernetically enhanced characters to futuristic dystopian settings, ancient kingdoms who have fallen against the test of time. All of it causes my heart to skip a beat. For original content, I’ll just give a brief list of bullet points of the general themes that fall in line with my current interests.   Writing: My texts are lengthy, detailed, and elaborate. Third-person is usually my preferred way of playing my character unless there’s a special case where an exception can be made. Word count usually fluctuates, though I have a standard form of 400-500+ words per response. It also highly depends on the given situation. I don’t want to set anything in stone… just to give you a basic idea of what you’re in for. I also expect my partner to have an at least adequate, if not decent grasp on basic grammar and punctuation.    Doubling: Yes, absolutely! If you are prone to doubling, chances are I might accept you as my partner straight away! Although I have nothing against the simple form of roleplaying, doubling is something I’ve done since my first time joining.    Characters: Very character-driven with the main focus being on interaction. I take my time writing characters and love nothing more than well-structured sheets that illustrate the vision of their creator. (But!) There’s no need to write 10-20 pages worth of character information, but I wouldn’t want to limit you either. As for the depiction of the given character, I won’t be as presumptuous as to tell you what sort of medium you can and cannot use. Face claims such as photos of real models, illustrations, 3D models, drawings or descriptions are all okay. As long as it gets its point across, I am happy.   Aversions: A few minor things that irritate me, or let’s say, aren’t really my style are one-liners, low effort responses and out of character behaviors in canon characters. We all have different takes on characters, which is totally fine by me since I basically do the same. Though if the character acts and behaves unlike their personality dictates, it will break the immersion. I hope to stay true to my own words when saying this. If it happens on my side, just let me know! Another pet peeve of mine is that one plot that has been done time and time again…. and I’ve grown quite jaded towards it, which is ‘supernaturals trying to fit into human society’ thing… I mean, I’m not opposed to borrowing from this idea, but for me, it grew old pretty fast. Speaking from experience.   Passione: My wish is to find a partner whom I can have a good time with and develop some chemistry. After all it is a fun hobby. We both should have fun with what we’re writing. Brainstorming among other things is one of my favorite things to do. To see how things unfold and how the characters react to the given situation is the highlight of any story.

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FANDOM:

  I love roleplaying fandoms just as much as I have a blast with building something original universes. Worldbuilding is my preferred cup of tea… but if we opt for something more fandom inspired, I highly welcome in on expanding on the given universe and add some original lore too!

Hellsing: Haven’t done that one before and I am curious as to how things play out, especially in such a dark and mystifying universe like Hellsing. There’s a lot of subject matter that we can delve into, plus I am a big fan of powerful vampire characters!

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: I would love you for this. No, seriously, I would. This fandom has sucked me into a downward spiral and there’s no possible chance of escaping this inescapable void. The absolute insanity of this franchise had me hooked from the second I laid eyes on it and I would be forever ecstatic if you’d message me on behalf of roleplaying Jojo. I have plenty of ideas for this one, just you wait.

Full Metal Alchemist: One of my favorite mangas and animes ever made. Recently I’ve begun rewatching FMA Brotherhood and felt a small hint of nostalgia swelling inside my blackened heart. I’d be open to play it, though it is not one of my top cravings at the moment.

Justice League / Young Justice / Justice League Dark: Huge DC fan, though I much prefer the animations and comics over the live-action cinematic. Let’s just say, I like the expansive and dynamic set of possibilities and deep, well-written cast. For instance Hellblazer Constantine or Raven.

Bayonetta: Need I say more? Let’s dance boys!

APH Hetalia: That includes the 2P version ;)

The Boys: Well.. the 2nd season came out. And I am simply stoked.

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ORIGINAL:   

Supernatural: From angels to demons, from gods to monsters, I’ve seen it all and I absolutely love it. There can be any sort of creature or being involved, ranging from vampires to sirens to elves, you have it. However, I’ve never done something quite relating to angelic beings and their offspring before. I’ve read up on Nephilim and angels and found it rather fascinating, and it’s a different approach from the usual vampire vs werewolf cliche.  

Crime and intrigue: I never stray too far from the supernatural path, but hell, there’s nothing better than some good old gritty mafia inspired stories with a complex cast of characters and a solid storyline.

Sci-fi and urban fantasy: So this could be basically anything from genetically engineered superhuman (superheroes / - villains) with a dark take on the human psyche, dismantling the idea of heroism and villainy. Or a world where mankind began their interstellar journey to colonize neighboring planets, galaxies before transcending their own humanity by merging themselves with deadly technology. I have a few plans for this…

Historical and mysterious setting: So one of my favorite eras is the Victorian time period, 30s - 40s - 80s, Renaissance or Ancient times during the rise of the Egyptian / Roman / Sumerian Empire. During these times, a dark discovery was made by man, learning that they were not alone in this world. In fact, they weren’t even the supreme race that destined themselves to dominate the world, for another race of humanoids have lied dormant deep beneath the earth, slumbering through the millennia only to be re-awakened by a cataclysmic event. These ancient humanoids are gods among men, superior in every way imaginable, and they have made it their mission to reclaim their right to rule. But their nature is not what most people think it is…

The idea: I have an idea for a plot, in which I can give you if you ask for it. It is however merely a suggestion for what we could write - not a mandatory thing. If you don’t like the idea, we can always figure stuff out and keep on home-brewing till we find something we both can enjoy. There’s no need to immediately end things if the first thing doesn’t really fire you up.

  °°°·.°·..·°¯°·._.· ☥ ·._.·°¯°·.·° .·°°° °°°·.°·..·°¯°·._.· ☥ ·._.·°¯°·.·° .·°°°    If you’re still here and haven’t fallen asleep reading through my loooong paragraphs, then I would like to thank you for bearing with me this far. I am looking forward to your messages.   Have a wonderful day!

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neokad · 5 years ago

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Lost Sphear review! - I Am Setsuna: the sequel!

I am finally back from being... honestly much lazier than I should have :P In my defense! The reason why I haven’t started writing this article just yet is because I became addicted to the game I’ll be reviewing next~ But to be honest with you all - and I’ll jump the gun a bit as well - this game... well, it’s honestly a bit hard to write about it for me ;-; I might as well get the basics out of the way though: Lost Sphear is a JRPG by Tokyo RPG Factory, which you may know for being the devs of I Am Setsuna a few years ago! Sadly, both games have gathered a pretty mixed reception from both critics and players. I personally adored I Am Setsuna despite some of its issues, due to how unique it was in many aspects, so naturally I was really hoping Lost Sphear would be a magical experience that would polish some of the flaws of IaS

And... I think they did too good of a job at that.

First off, for those who did not play IaS, let me tell you first that you absolutely should, especially since it’s decently short, at around 20 hours! But if you did not and don’t plan to, there is no story connection between two of those games - although some enemies and assets are reused in LS, and the battle system s largely the same. In fact, let’s start with that! I am very relieved to say that combat in LS is possibly even more fun than ever! It still uses the same base as in IaS, as you still have a normal attack command, as well as skills that can be physical or magical special attacks, as well as special buff and debuff skills. Y’know, typical RPG stuff. However, just like in IaS, this otherwise very simple combat is complemented by the absolutely lovely Momentum mode, which is a bar separate of your normal Active Time Battle bar. It fills up whenever you complete an action OR wait before you choose a command. If it fills completely, you can store a special orb tied to that character (up to three, in fact), which you can then activate along with an attack/skill for extra damage or effects if you can time it right! This mechanic is in short, AMAZING. It makes you think about when to use that extra boost, when to attack enemies or use skills, and the fact that you need to time it makes battles very engaging! But keep in mind, all of this was also present in Setsuna, so how did they make it better here? Well, Lost Sphear actually allows you to move your characters around the map when battling! This allows you to place them to avoid attacks, as well as hit enemies as efficiently as possible! LS also introduces Momentum Boosting, which allows you to customize whatever skill you chose to put on your party member with special effects, like healing or elemental damage! Those two changes, while it makes experimentation and battling even more satisfying, does make regular battles even easier than in IaS - though you CAN make the game harder in the settings at any time if you find regular battles to not be exciting enough! That, and the bosses are usually decently strong anyway :P

Another notable feature are the Vulcosuits! These are a new combat feautre you obtain relatively early in the game. While using them spends some pretty limited VulcoPoints, it does boosts your stats, and most importantly allows you to perform special attacks either alone or with a party member (and you can have up to four of them in a battle instead of three now!) This is a pretty cool system, and I’m glad that they incited you to not overuse it by limiting the VPs you can get. But sadly it also makes so that you cannot do combo skills with a partner like in IaS, which I always thought made battles more fun and strategic too ;-; If I’ll fault LS’s gameplay somewhere else, it’s how it had a tendency to spare you of checkpoints sometimes. It’s not a very constant issue, but I sometimes had to fight a boss after not having a save point given to me for minutes - and it made me lose 40 minutes of progress once, so that was fun :/ But besides this and a couple of annoying bosses, I can say that the gameplay in LS is overall better than its prequel!

Sadly, gameplay isn’t what’s the meat and potatoes of any JRPG, so what kind of setting are we dealing with this time? Well, this is where I think Lost Sphear starts to fall flat. After a mysterious flashback sequence, we start off in the small village of Elgarthe, where we meet with Kanata, Lumina and Locke (no, not the treasure hunter). As we do, a strange phenomenon starts to occur, where we see the entire town being enveloped in snow-like mist, which translate to the town being “lost”. Curious to see why this even happened at all, our main trio, which is quickly joined by the strange, emo Van, set out in an adventure to not only find out more by visiting the capital of this game’s empire, but also to restore whatever lost things they come across. Why? Because Kanata - for reasons I will not go into - has the ability to make things return to how they are if he has enough connection/memories tied to them! (As a side note, you can even gain some stat bonuses/effects of your choice by restoring specific points on the map This setup is decently interesting, but to me? I feel like it’s not enough to really keep me engaged ;-; It’s certainly not bad, of course not, but I found it a bit boring and cliché at times to be honest. Without going into specifics for spoiler reasons, it’s a lot of “the empire is bad” and “we can save the world” and “we’re the good guys”, which while not horrible plot devices, aren’t very engaging either.And that same point extends to the characters as well ;-; I do think some of them are quite good, but even then I did not really fall in love with anyone, like I usually do in most RPGs I play, which... well, sucks. There is a few characters with neat backstories and events happening to them (such as Van, Galdra and Lumina) but overall even these three just didn’t have enough to them for me to become attached ;-;

And welp... this goes true for the music and art of LS, too. Now, I wanna say that the soundtrack to Lost Sphear was actually pretty good overall! Just like in IaS, the village themes are beautifully peaceful and relaxing, and the battle theme has a nice ring to it as well, to give just a few examples. And this time, the composer actually learned the existence of instruments other than the piano! However, I do think that the minimalistic soundtrack for IaS was a lot more memorable overall - not just for how much it stood out for that reason, but also because I think the compositions themselves were just a bit more memorable ^^ But I get that most people prefer variety, and music taste is pretty suggestive anyway :P And I also get that a more standard soundtrack - which is still good, mind you! - would fit better in a less unique world - and speaking of...

The world of LS is a lot more typical of what you would find in a RPG - you’ve got your remote villages, your massive empire city, your port areas, and so on, all presented in a grassy setting. I know this is a very strange statement to point out, but despite Lost Sphear having some very pretty shots from time to time, I really feel like it matters when you compare it to its ancestor. One of the things I loved about IaS was its snowy, setting, which blended perfectly with the minimalist piano soundtrack to create a breathtaking atmopshere. And while what’s there still works - and is much more varied for sure - I feel like a lot of the soul was lost in the atmopshere given to the player. And honestly? I think this sums up the game very well.

Lost Sphear is a good game. But that’s exactly why it was so disappointing to me. It’s just “good” and ultimately forgettable. IaS, while not perfect, blew me away with its charming cast, beautiful music, breathtaking setting, unique story and fun battle system. And while that last part is still there and mostly improved, this game, by being so much more by the books, is not nearly as interesting ;-; The story is fine, but I do feel like I’ve heard most of it before. The characters are okay, but they just don’t do enough to be nearly as likeable as I want them to be. The graphics and audio are both solid too, but again it’s just not the same. Don’t get me wrong, Lost Sphear is a solid time. But as far as RPGs go, I feel like the player should be impressed, and LS... just doesn’t do it. I definitively recommend going through I am Setsuna first <3

Rating: 7.2/10

#gaming #neokad #i am setsuna #lost sphear #review

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