#in a good way! Love me some creepy and disturbing media!

[lesbianmothman3000]

Just finished WTNV 89 for the first time- gotta hand it to them, I did NOT realize they knew how to do horror like that. That one's going to be rattling around in my head for a while.

[theemporium]

Hi!

🐈‍⬛ Reader hearing scary noises while being home alone on Halloween and calls Jack to come over and take care of her🥲

thank you for requesting!🫶🏽

.

You loved Halloween.

You loved the festivities in the month leading up to the holiday. You loved the spooky movies that made you laugh and the horror movies that made you jump. You loved the ghost stories and the old wives’ tales people whispered and shared during the month of October. There truly wasn’t an aspect you didn’t like.

But maybe your obsession meant you got in your own head a lot.

A coincidence was no longer just a coincidence. Things didn’t just happen by chance. And weird noises weren’t just random, one-time situations.

It sucked that you had gotten sick during one of your favourite holidays of the year. You hated the fact you had been confined to the couch, a blanket thrown over your lap and a marathon of movies playing on the tv since you had woken up this morning.

You had felt like shit. Your social media pages were flooded with everyone celebrating the holiday, dressing up and posting funny little stories and clips to their pages. It just made you resent the stuffy nose, sore throat and headache you had been sporting the last few days.

And Jack knew you were sick. He wanted to come over and spend the holiday with you. But you had been stubborn and firm that you didn’t want to get him sick, nor did you want him to miss out celebrating with his teammates.

You could survive a night alone.

However, thirty minutes into some creepy horror movie that left you more disturbed than scared, everything changed.

You didn’t hear the first noise, just passing it off as a noise in the movie. The second time, you became painfully aware that you were alone in an apartment that was in a building probably just as empty with everyone out and about. By the third noise, your chest was tightening with uneasiness and your finger was pressing Jack’s name before you could stop yourself.

“My favourite girl! How are you feeling, babe?”

You swallowed back the lump in your throat, feeling guilty at how excited and happy he sounded on the phone. You didn’t want to ruin his night.

“Babe, you there?”

“Jack—” you started but a small, choked out whimper cut you off.

“Hey, no, it’s okay. I’m on my way right now. Just stay on the line with me, baby? Tell me what’s happened.”

“It’s stupid,” you confessed to your boyfriend in a hushed whisper, glancing around the house like you expected someone to pop out.

“Nothing is stupid when it comes to you, sweetheart. I can promise you that.”

Just as he promised, Jack stayed on the phone with you until he made it to your apartment. After seeing how shaken up you were, he made a point of doing a full swoop of the apartment before he joined you in the living room.

“All clear, baby,” he murmured as he tucked himself under the blanket, pulling you until you were practically draped on his lap. He knew he was taking advantage of the fact you were scared to finally be able to hold you after a few days since you had banned him. Then again, he didn’t care what reason he had to hold you, he just loved doing it. “Not gonna let anything happen to my girl.”

“Can you stay here tonight?” You asked in whispered voice, nuzzling your face into his chest as you pressed your ear against his chest, against his beating heart.

“Of course, baby,” he murmured, leaning down to kiss the top of your head. “Gonna stay as long as you want me.”

“Good,” you said. “You can be the ones the ghosts attack first so I can escape.”

Jack snorted. “Oh wow.”

“I love you.”

“Yeah, I’m really feeling the love here.”

.

[catihere]

For your character ask game : Luke Castellan

1. Why do you like or dislike this character? 4. If you could put this character in any other media, be it a book, a movie, anything, what would you put them in? 8. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you despise? 14. Assign a fashion aesthetic to this character. 26. FREEBIE QUESTION!!

Oh Luke you say… *cracks knuckles* (thank you for the ask :D)

1- I’ve always appreciated Luke’s ambition and initiative to better the life of demigods. He saw the problem with the system he grew up in and ought to fix it, even though his means were limited. What I don’t like about him was the disposition he had to hurt, betray and manipulate his loved ones in order to achieve the goal he believed to be right. The extents he’s gone to serve Kronos, especially the ones affecting his relationship to Annabeth, are quite disturbing to me and stray him away from my “favorite characters” list. Either way, I find him extremely complex and well-written.

4- This is an interesting question, and I’m not exactly sure how to answer it… I guess he’d be really cool in some sort of post-apocalyptic, high-stakes setting. That would test his morals and abilities in a pretty appealing way. I’m sorry that I can’t think of a specific piece of media, I hope you get what I mean!

8- OH GOD.

I hate hate hate when people base his whole character on the perspective that he would have had a crush on Annabeth, which is a concept purely based on the misinterpretation of two throwaway lines in the books. It’s a huge disservice to his character to be framed as nothing more than a predator, which more often than not leads to his trauma and motivations being overlooked. It’s a dumb and creepy assumption and I die a little more every time I encounter it. And before anyone attacks me: I’m not saying that Luke is “perfect”or even a good person, (in fact I hate when people portray him as that) I just want to highlight that he deserves to be analyzed more before making assumptions on his moral stance.

14- Bro I don’t know, if I’m to be honest, I either draw him wearing a black buttoned shirt or a ripped undervest, but maybe some minimalist and grunge afashion stuff? Or even alt, considering the time he’d spent with Thalia. Anyway, I don’t think he invests too much in his appearance, and even if he does, he probably tries to look pretty formal leading a fucking army.

26- Uuh I think the freebie question means that you’re allowed to ask me whatever you want about him! Go on if you want :)

[dalighteevee]

Coraline Review (Warning: Potential Spoilers)

To celebrate its 15th Anniversary, I will review one of my favourite films Coraline. The film was released in 2009 by Laika as its first film and directed by Henry Selick of Nightmare Before Christmas fame (another one of my favourite films). The film was an adaptation of a book by Neil Gaiman that was released in 2002. When I first watched it, I did have the often joked-about childhood scares from some of the more disturbing imagery, definitely didn't help my fear of needles. But enjoying the effort and beauty of the film always reduces the fear to me. Being able to rewatch it in remastered 3D was glorious and something I highly recommend to any fan of the film, really helps highlight particular scenes. So let's walk through the tiny door and into the world of Coraline.

One of my favourite types of films and film effects is stop-motion animation with some favourite film studios being the aforementioned Laika alongside Aardman of Wallace & Gromit fame. The care and skill it takes at every step of production is something I could never take for granted when watching the films and behind-the-scenes features. Every detail is finely crafted to build the world of the film with features such as the Jones family portrait which reveals Coraline to share her mother's black hair. Even this detail alone has many strands behind it regarding the initial character design of Coraline, originally making her have blue streaks rather than a full blue head of hair, as well as in-film showing the disconnect between her and her parents. To me, the animation in the film is gorgeous and was a perfect medium for the story in my opinion.

One of the first things I prioritise and appreciate when engaging with media is the characters. To me, if there isn't a single character I like, it's a pass for me. Fortunately, Coraline does its characters justice in my eyes. With intriguing designs and brilliant chemistry and dynamics between them. A good example being the Amazing Bobinksy/Mr B. At first glance his blue skin seems odd considering everyone else has realistic skin tones. But the medal helps put a perspective on it. It is believed that Mr B is a survivor of Chernobyl which explains the skin along with the medal, a medal of honour. My top 3 favourites are Coraline, the Cat, and the Beldam/Other Mother. To begin with, I enjoy Coraline's spunky personality, shown through her headstrong attitude and sarcastic remarks, is something I enjoy. There is also her intellect and quick planning as seen with her final stand off with the Beldam. For the cat I am a huge cat lover since I grew up with them. The voice acting by Keith David helps bring the cat a mysterious but cocky presence. Even when he's a simple cat that doesn't speak, you can still tell his personality through his actions alongside the adherence to following cat behaviours such as slow blinks. The Beldam is one of my favourite villains of all time for how effective she is in her role. She is able to pose a genuine threat towards our hero alongside portraying a genuine threat to.the audience. Cause to me, she is an example I would use when warning others of predators and manipulators. Not all predators have to be outwardly creepy, sometimes a friendly face can be more dangerous. I also adore her design and how it gradually shifts through each visit. Each time we see her we can see her become more spider-like before her actual reveal which I enjoy as someone who loves rewatches.

When it comes to the story of Coraline, it is a simple yet effective one. The message I gain from the film is being able to appreciate what you have yet not be shamed for wanting change. Coraline starts the film with distance between her and her parents, struggling to find her place in a new place and situation. She feels she doesn't fit in. But from her journey in the film she grows to see it in a new way, ironically from the wonders the Other Mother created. By the end she starts connecting with her parents and the neighbours, realising that she could help bring the change she originally wanted at the start.

To be honest, I don't have a lot of personal critiques to the film. More just small nitpicks. When reading the book a reference is made towards a creature that lurks within the doorway between the worlds, something more malevolent and older than the Beldam. A hint towards it would have been an enjoyable nod towards book readers.

But in conclusion, I adore this film and I don't think I could ever get tired of it. The mystical soundtrack and gorgeous art style will be stuck in my head. I would always recommend Coraline as a film to watch to newbies or as a Halloween flick. Hope you guys enjoyed reading and staying positive!

[heartxshaped-bruises]

✧･ﾟ 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐋𝐈𝐂𝐊 𝐈𝐍𝐒𝐏𝐈𝐑𝐄𝐃 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐒

bc my bestie and I sold our souls to him and satan.

“Why do you think we’re out here? I’m not wearing any pants.”

 “God left us in a hot car to die and I think we deserve it.”  

“What?! What are you suggesting here that we do, this is really macabre.”

“I’m gonna bring the dinosaurs back and I’m gonna make them gay.”

“Social Media was a mistake made by the mistake of humanity.”

“There’s only one solution to this: Organized Crime.”

“Is this like a malicious compliance thing?”

“Well, now you get fired and I get a giftcard -- yeihh!”

“I’d say apply cold water to the burned area, but there’s no cold water that could cure this.”

“Well, nothing brings people together like a common enemy, am I right?”

“How much of this stuff can we sneak in before they catch us?”

“I’m so disappointed, this day sucks.”

“You really know how to... uh, savor your emotions for the ‘important’ things in life.”

“No, thanks. Just sex, drugs and rock’n roll for me.”

 “You stole my pokemon-card when I was twelve, get fucked!”  

“This isn’t facepalming. This is me ripping my entire face off.”

“How can any human have so little compassion and kindness?”

“Why is this a debate?! You can solve this with two sticks!”

“This is very disturbing but also very creative. Jesus.”

“That just sounds like prostitution with extra steps.”

“Who in their right mind would do this?”

“Oh yeah! I can feel the hellfire coming all along!”

“Why must you ruin everything I hold dear in life?”

 “The only people who’d call you a good catch are probably the cops.”

“So you’re not only proving that you’re creepy, you’re also proving that you’re a complete idiot.”

“What kind of shrooms where you smoking when you made this?”

“Just because your body can physically survive something doesn’t mean that your... uh, whole being is ready for it.”

“This is where this was going?!”

“There we go. You really nailed this one.”

“Come on. You’re not an edgy anime-character. STOP.”

“I will rake you like I rake my yard!”

“You know when the sky opens up and it’s raining blood? This is like that. But worse.”

“I don’t think you know what it means to be the good guy.”

“Oh my god! That was like 4 plot twists and I had at least 3 heartattacks!”  

"I know every cloud has a silver lining and all - but I'm not sure it applies to a nuclear mushroom cloud."

"We need to move back into the woods and eat pinecones, I swear to God."

“You have no idea how impressed I am by your big, throbbing brain.”  

“You know... when you have these biblical moments to play out before your eyes, they don’t really pop the same way as they do in the old scriptures.”

“I mean, everyone can mourn in their own way but FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, WHY?!”

“If my wedding doesn’t have ostriches I’m gonna sue someone.”

“I’d say go to hell, but that is too good for you.”

“I drink alcohol to make you bareable. It’s not that I am too awkward without alcohol, I just need to numb the mental pain.”  

“I’m not a religious person by any means, but sometimes I wish god was real so some people can burn in hell.”

“Seems kinda cool on the surface, but we don’t wanna open this pandora’s box, do we?” 

[blushedarmybunny]

At His Mercy | Min Yoongi One Shot

☽ Pairing: Min Yoongi x fem reader

☽ Summary: You have been captive, but he had to make sure that it stays that way forever.

☽ Word count:  800

☽ Genre: yandere, angst.

☽ Warnings: drug use, kidnapping, abuse, manipulation.

You woke up in a different room than usual.

Seated in a chair, well to be more precise it looked more like abandoned medical equipment.

What he would do now? to yn it was a mystery, both for her horror and her curiosity.

But thinking hurts, everything hurt.

You were immobilized too, so tight that your blood stream was slowing, leaving your feet numb.

Some steps, confusion and dizziness when you turn your head to look at him, slurring and a mumbling trying to say his name.

Then a burning sensation in your arm, it was a I.V.

More drugs, you thought, as your weak body pleads for a break from harsh treatments.

You had remained doped with something that made you feel so good that you could imagine yourself in a galaxy far away from the hell you were living, you don’t remember much, he kept supplying that stuff for a few days, you could dare to say an exact period of time, you honestly had lost count since he had taken you away.

Maybe he gave you a little too much this time, but the fact that he saved your life felt more like a punishment than a reward.

Soon you realized that he was draining your blood.

“Its too tight” you said to him weak and pathetic exactly how he wanted you.

He looked at you as if he didn’t expect you to speak.

“Wake up already, little one? It’s almost finished, I know you are uncomfortable you’d been a good girl” his cat like eyes curled up in a supposed to be comforting smile, from a stranger’s perspective the young man can be considered a trustworthy and handsome guy, after all nobody could doubt his cover, behind closed doors he resembles more like a calculated beast.

Deranged, crazy, mad.

But he called that love.

He was a sick, sick man, and he already tried every trick in the book to break you.

And he did.

And to be honest you preferred his delicate touch than his aggressive grab, his soft lips than his cruel treatment, sweet nicknames than degradation.

It made your nightmare more bearable.

The boy didn’t look like a creepy sweaty old man like the media usually portrayed guys like him, he had delicate features, a not so big frame and jet black hair parted in the middle, eyes small and feline like, pink fine lips, fair perfect skin, he was the opposite of what anyone would expect, it made your job of getting repulsed at him more difficult, because when he really tried he could be the sweetest person alive, treating you with such care and love that made you doubt yourself.

But things like this, what he was doing to you right now serve as a quick reality check of his monstruous nature.

When he collected what he wanted, he untied you and put you on the bed, you felt so dizzy and lightheaded, it wasn’t a small amount of blood.

“P.J. will take care of you, I’ll be out but don’t worry it would be only for a night, I promise” he kissed your lips softly.

“Yoongi, what did you do to me?” you asked him looking at his eyes, his soulless eyes.

“I explain you latter, please behave, ok?” he couldn’t resist to kiss you again.

P.J. the creep that was as unhinged as your captor, you could only guess he was severely codependent to Yoongi, so he does as he says, in exchange you don’t know exactly what Yoongi does to make that pest his minion.

He usually doesn’t talk to you much, nor he looks like he gives two shits about you but he follows Yoongi’s instructions very carefully. So he bathed you and feed you, he also detangled your hair not so carefully plucking enough strands to made you complain, he just slapped you hard on the cheek, you stayed silent after that.

Yoongi came next morning, P.J. left immediately.

Soon the fresh showered pair of arms embraced you from behind, his face on your neck.

“Now we can be together without anyone disturbing us ever again” Yoongi said, his voice exited.

“What do you mean?” you tried to sound innocent, he liked that.

“I fixed it, honey, don’t make a lot of questions, since I fixed it we can do a lot of stuff we couldn’t do before” he said leaving small kisses in your neck.

“what stuff?”

“We can go on dates outside, for example, if P.J. finish your new identity we can even get legally married!” he couldn’t contain his joy, he was elated.

You cringed and recoiled at the mention of his plans, you could not bear the thought of belonging to him forever, but he seamed like it was already decided, and you didn’t have any option really. You were at his mercy.

[13tinysocks]

I wanna see some anti fanfic rec plspls

You asked for it. May I present, a creepypasta x reader anti-reading list.

Quick Disclaimer: No author names will be dropped nor fic links or sites they’re on. I dislike these works but I don’t want anybody to be harassed. Don’t go after people, holy shit. These works are only here because of some heavily disturbing content. One of them just makes me super mad because of a few circumstances. These are purely my opinions. I am not writing Jesus nor do I write the cleanest stories out there. Dark topics should be explored in fiction. However, some things just shouldn’t fucking be romanticized. Fanfic is practice, I’m not taking points off for wonky writing.

You’re allowed to like whatever the fuck you want. I’m not shaming you or the authors. I’m talking about media I dislike, which I am completely allowed to do. If your friend or favorite author’s work is in here, maybe don’t send this to them. I get it’s tempting but still, it could be upsetting. Again, don’t fucking harass anybody. 

This list is in order of - Pisses me off to FBI open up to whatthefuckwhatthefuckwhatthefuck.

Content warning for: Rape, miscarriages, abortion, necrophilia, sexism, child grooming, multiple types of abuse, ablism, and meanie head criticism of popular fics. Seriously, this gets exceptionally bad at the final one. 

First up in our lineup a pretty popular. It’s the least upsetting and problematic. It’s a various creepypasta x reader mansion fic. This is more of an honorable mention because it’s frustrating to read over being super bad.

Recruited.

Summary: (Y/n) killed an attempted rapist and covered it up years ago. She is recruited into the cpp’s to be considered as a proxy along with two others. Follow her through a journey of no character development into becoming a proxy.

What’s wrong with it?

-Brian literally is a misogynist. He literally hates women.

-(Y/n) is an asshole. Not in an entertaining bad bitch way. No, in an unaware bland way. Points off for being a business major, girl you have no soul and it shows.

-She is treated like the voice of reason who is always morally correct. Thing is, if anyone is neurodivergent or mentally ill and ya’know shows symptoms of it, they’re cRaZy, evil, and an annoyance. 

-Yes, people creeping on or getting clingy can be shitty/annoying but sometimes the way (Y/n) acts is completely unjust. It left a bad taste in my mouth because the character felt okay to be shitty to people who weren’t like her.

-The endings are disheartening and make no fucking sense. Cody, who is clingy at worst, gets rejected Jack, who TRIES TO BREAK (Y/N)’S FUCKING LEG, gets with her. Can I get a HELLO?????? 

-(Y/n) also doesn’t get with Jeff who suddenly turned into her brother character after hundreds of pages of romantic tension. Again, Recruited is not inherently bad but it may be really disappointing to people who are here for 1-2 specific characters.

-Queer bait-y author’s notes and inconstant love interests. Author’s notes would read like “Teehee, maybe I’ll make (Y/n) have Jane and/or Natalie endings……” But that never happens after it’s teased multiple times. I get not wanting to add more to your plate but don’t suggest it if you don’t want to do it or only want to please heterosexual readers.

-They put Tim outside like a dog for being a bad boy. 

-Author’s notes and percentages fill in details for the reader that aren’t in the fic. I’m not going to read all of that. Put important information in the fic. 

-Lot’s of excessive jealousy. Painfully heteronormative. 

What about the good?

Readable. Dramatic like Big Brother. Can be an entertaining read if it’s your thing.

Conclusion

Left a bad taste in my mouth. I feel like the author literally hated half the cast and was annoyed while writing them. When you don’t enjoy writing something it shows. Also, her other work (pandemic! Reader X X-Virus) is super tone-deaf and I don’t recommend that either. Don’t recommend joining this fic’s Discord server either. Won’t get into details but in my and my friend's experience: it’s not a good environment with a lot of playing favorites. 

-

Next up on our list is a grossly popular Eyeless Jack X Reader fic.

My Imaginary Monster

Summary: Immoral monster, Eyeless Jack, sneaking into a 5-year-old girl's room. He gets attached, sticks around through her childhood. Thing is, he gets real creepy. Starts to catch feelings for a 16-year-old he’s watched grow up. He kisses a minor who reciprocates his feelings which is textbook child grooming. Nasty fucker runs away, there’s some drama from that. (Y/n) grows up, comes back to town, and Jack’s a’creepin’.

What’s wrong with it?

-Jack is a literal child groomer. 

-Do I need to say more??? Immortal adult kisses a 16 y/o. Gross.

-People in the comments are going gaga for grooming. Are you kidding me, he’s a pedophile.

-The OC’s take up more than half of the ~200 page run time. I couldn’t get attached to any of them even after the supposed significance. Which is fine but they took up so much of the fic that it got boring and annoying incredibly quickly.

What’s good about it?

I enjoyed Ben. He did the right thing and I can respect that. Trans and poluyamourus reprrensentation.

Conclusion:

No child grooming in my fucking lobby. I think the author was trying to paint it in a bad light. But the thing is, you can write a creepy stalker fic without making them a groomer. A lot of people are trying to escape their troubles through fanfic, including those who’ve dealt with sexual abuse. Don’t bring that into x reader spaces. Don’t put readers through that again. 

-

Last and absolutely least we got a Tim X Reader. 

BIG TW. FUCKING HUGE TW. MOST OF THE TW’S FROM EARLIER ARE FROM THIS ONE FIC. 

Pure Forgiveness.

Summary: (Y/n) is abused by her mom. Her dad killed himself and she’s all (Y/n)’s got in this world. Until Tim comes along and “saves” her. He takes her to the mansion and keeps her as a pet to torture. 

I’m going to get into all the nitty-gritty to satisfy your morbid curiosities so you don’t read it. 

What’s wrong with it?

-Chapter 1 opens with (Y/n)’s miserable life. Her mom hates her so much she has a fucking torture table for (Y/n).

-There’s an attempted rape in chapter 2.

- She’s taken to the mansion by Tim in chapter 3 because he’s “off his medication” and “acting nicer than normal”. Hi, mentally ill person here, that’s not how it fucking works you ding dong. 

-Mental illness is made out to we wholly evil.

-Also tic’s are made out to be scary. As a person with tics, don’t write tics as scary or super weird. Thanks.

-(Y/n) not being able to escape, fight back rapists, and other horrible shit is labeled as weak.

-At one point (Y/n) is dragged through the mansion, beer bottles and used condoms are thrown at her. Girl has to shower off cum.

-(Y/n) is tortured in various ways. Mostly beaten, berated, burned, cut, starved, etc. 

-She is drugged and repeatedly raped by Brian and Toby. These rapes are recorded and shown to (Y/n).

-Brian has black hair. Why?

-Toby and Brian give (Y/n) a forced abortion.  

-(Y/n) gets raped almost every fucking chapter.

-At one point Jack orally rapes (Y/n) to abort a baby. 

-Toby and Brian are necrophiles. They skull fuck a corpse at some point. It is graphically described how they like to have sex with dead bodies.

-Slenderman forcefully impregnates (Y/n) to “keep the (Tim’s) baby safe” whatever the fuck that means.

Why does this happen?

Because Tim wants a kid because his dad raped his mom and his mom was a prostitute. He’s soooo sad guys :(((

Feeling hungry? Here’s some things that are eaten by various characters.

-Hair 

-Cum (forced)

-Toby 

-Piss 

-A miscarried baby 

What’s good about it?

Nothing. Fucking nothing. Don’t read it.

Conclusion

If you like this fic you need therapy, I’m not joking. It’s like a car crash and Rob Zombie movie horribly mish-mashed together. It sucks. The comments praise literal abuse and berate (Y/n) for being afraid. Fuck this fic and everything it stands for. It’s shock horror and torture for the sake of it. It makes no fucking sense and it’s harmful. People think this is okay. It’s not. 

-

Thank you to my pals in the server for helping out and finishing some of these where I could not. Especially you Connie, everyone say thank you Connie she got through Pure Forgiveness. Absolute trooper legend. Again, don’t go out of your way to harass these people. I made this list so you can avoid these works because they have the potential to be upsetting. I’m not the police, I can’t force anyone to stop nor do I want to. Author’s are allowed to explore dark topics but some should be done respectfully or not at-fucking-all. I hope these people grow as writers and understand treating some things a certain way isn’t cool. You can enjoy dark fics, I do too, fuck I write them too, but Jesus God, some things are a no from me chief.

[spaaaaaaaark-uwu]

hi local yandere fan and sister of the original submitter here!! this is a fascinating way to look at it honestly. i still (respectfully) disagree but i wanna talk about it now because you make a lot of good points:

1) "no amount of living someone and of having it be returned will ever be enough to satisfy either party"

this is honestly what fascinated me the most in your commentary, this idea that yandereism is a symptom of a need that is doomed to failure?? that it is a pursuit of a replacement for something (emotional security, confidence, etc.) that can never be met or assured by yandere behavior. i'll say more on this towards the end

2) the idea that yandere behaviors exist solely to cope with extreme paranoia and anxiety (if I'm reading this correctly)

this is really interesting too because i can totally see that. actually makes me think, more than just intense broken love, yanderes could be a good allegory to people learning to love with things like PTSD, BPD, etc. like i think you absolutely nailed some of the emotional/psychological vibes underlying common yandere themes that I relate to.

and that's WHY i disagree, because essentially the vibe i'm getting is that if you are mentally ill (ESPECIALLY with personality disorders) and love someone, it is doomed to be dysfunctional and hurt everyone. this is exactly WHY i love the yandere trope so much. because to me, if both parties are willing to listen and heal, you can have a relationship that retains most of the "icky yandere" features that weird people out— the possessiveness, the intensity, the violence, in certain instances even a lack of morality or sociopathy— but that IS genuinely well adjusted to the boundaries and needs of both parties WITHIN the relationship. the appeal of the yandere trope to me is this idea that "healthy relationship" doesn't HAVE to meet standard conventional romantic expectations.

the appeal of yanderes isn't actually that they stay dysfunctional forever. it's that, some things make people Weird about stuff forever, and even when they learn to cope well and respect people's boundaries and function, the way they behave and love and think and feel still carries remnants of their past that is conventionally disturbing.

as for romantic codependency, i would argue that codependency is inherently dysfunctional but definition, but what is romantic is INTENSE dependency. actually, I'm not sure i would even call it dependency, but rather, investment. intense investment and connection. there are nuances to these things that are hard to herd into words, but functionally, the thing is, people who aren't living with these kind of things often look at this broad range of things and lump them all together.

to a "regular person", someone who is healing from really complex traumas, trying to love other people while coping with c-ptsd or bpd or did or anything else.... is indistinguishable from a "yandere", or from the general vibe of "creepy, codependent, annoying, unwanted, intense, predator, stalker" that is painted upon the trope. in this way, it's kind of like finding representation in a slur or a stereotype — the traditional yandere is very different from a "broken lover" so to speak, but nonetheless, the way they are often looked at and treated with distaste feels familiar, and we come to identify with it.

3) "there's too many anime girls wielding knives acting like murder hobos over dudes they don't even like"

hard disagree, I'm sorry on this one I don't have anything interesting to say besides just that i think more girls should be over the top crazy. actually i think there should be more insensitive tactless caricatures of ""insanity"" as long as they don't claim to be any particular illness (it's one thing to show a bpd-coded knife wielding maniac, it's another to actually say "this is bpd rep this is what bpd looks like it's scary and evil btw") because they're very accessible for people who ARE mentally ill to see themselves in media. and also i like it :]

also for 4) i personally think that the natural evolution of the yandere is what the kids nowadays are calling ""yuri"" . because the word yuri has kind of evolved in the internet fandom colloquial to no longer be restricted to wlw anime media but rather describe instead an intensely homoerotic and tormented, devoted relationship. it's weird but yeah that's a thing i think.

to loop back around to 1) with a tldr:

i don't think the yandere trope inherently romanticizes mental illnesses and dysfunctional toxic relationships, i think it provides representation for people with mental illnesses and disorders in general. and naturally a lot of those ARE dysfunctional, but it's not inherent to the yandere genre, because no matter how much you actually heal and cope well, you will be conflated with the yandere crowd, because the general population can't tell the difference. so, yanderes are good, dysfunctional relationships and codependency is not. not morally wrong either, just kind of tragic.

also sorry vell for derailing your take with my psycho bullshit lmao

Yanderes aren't for everyone, so I've included a content warning.

HOT TAKE TOURNAMENT!

PRELIMINARY #223

Submission 720

yanderes are good, actually

i know for a fact this is hot because the inverse take was validated earlier. but i'm also gonna justify it just because.

the yandere trope is good and cool. people bash it for being a glorification of abuse or "toxic" or basically... bizarre and disturbing. but have you ever stopped to consider consensual yandere tropes? because the problem isn't ACTUALLY the "yandere" behavior, it's that in "classical" yandere media, it's portrayed as unwanted or frightening to the recipient. the problem is that it's portrayed as unconsenting. but that isn't a problem that's UNIQUE to the yandere genre.

whereas, if you were to consider a consensual yandere relationship...

what if the recipient WANTED someone to be a little obsessive, controlling, devoted to them? what if, in all their devotion, the yandere LISTENED to feedback and catered to their partner's wants and needs? what if "yandere" is simply a trope designed for the weird, the broken, the overinvested, the traumatized? what if to be loved possessively is not a sign of abuse, but a metric of security? what if a yandere is simply a person who is too broken to be well adjusted to the conventional levels at which society expects them to love? what if that love is so WARPED by their lived experience that it appears bizarre and shocking and frightening to the public, but warm and intense and unrelenting, unyielding and securely present, to its recipient? what if, such a person could exist, that would only feel at ease with such a devoted and intense form of love? what then? what if being a yandere were about jealousy and selfishness and possessiveness and control, but moreover, about devotion and care and dedication and conviction to never leave, to care deeply and passionately even when it doesn't seem acceptable, to love in a way that feels safe and ensured.

the yandere trope represents intense and broken lovers and i unironically love it. i WILL die on this hill.

Can I... tell you a secret? It's kind of embarassing, so... keep it between us, okay? I said this poll was for everyone, but really, it was only for you... so I hope you liked it!

Maybe this is a little too forward, but I'd love it if you posted propaganda! B-but you don't have to, if you don't want to! Just being seen by you, being able to be near you... that would be enough... for now, that's enough...

And it's okay for you to reblog our favourite polls for exposure... it feels weird sharing our special things, having everyone see my love for you... but it makes me happy! I want them to know - to know that you're mine... But if you don't reblog them, that makes me happy too! It's like I get to keep you all to myself...

[RESPONSES TO THE ORIGINAL TAKE BELOW]

[ao3-sucks]

An Archive of Someone’s Own: my experiences being groomed in fandom circles on AO3

TW: Childhood sexual abuse, grooming, mentions of incest and rape.

I used to be a big writer of fanfiction. It was the logical choice for me. I loved to write and create bold and immersive worlds, and I craved an audience who would enjoy my work as much as I did. Since my writing wasn’t actually good, I needed a community of other amateurs who wouldn’t mind that, and by tweaking my characters and settings into ones from canonical media, I got the audience I so craved.

I started writing fanfiction online when I was 14, posting initially on FanFiction.net and then moving to AO3 a few months later. As I got back into writing original fiction towards the end of high school, I lost interest in this community, and it’s been a long time since I posted anything much on AO3.

I’ve always struggled with the fact I display a lot of symptoms of CSA, and for the longest time, I couldn’t figure out why. Throughout my teen years, I refused to get changed or bathe when anyone was even vaguely nearby, constantly paranoid about being spied on; I developed a severe touch phobia, and would have frequent panic attacks from something as small as brushing arms with a passerby; I resolutely identified as asexual and refused to get into anything resembling a relationship with others because the very concept disgusted and repulsed me.

Weird, considering I had grown up pretty normal and all of these symptoms had started around my early teens. It was only when I told my friends about my friendship with a 30 year old I had met online that the pieces started falling into place for me.

Child grooming is usually discussed in the context of one adult going out of their way to befriend a child with the goal of lowering their resistance to sexual abuse, through normalisation and friendliness. I’d like to talk about how that worked on the fanfiction website AO3. Since it’s an open website and most communication takes place between anonymous users or accounts in the comments section of a work, there is very little delineation between spaces for adults to discuss whatever dark topics they like and spaces for kids to do the same.

This frequently leads to pretty inappropriate conversations between people of widely varying ages and life experiences, which is how I ended up talking sex as a fourteen year old with people ranging from a couple of years older than me, who were generally okay, to more than twice my age. The 30 year old in question listed on her profile how many pedophilic ships she loved, and she knew my age but pushed me to keep discussing sexual topics with her. Sounds like a red flag, yeah? Well. I was 14, and very stupid.

This 30 year old woman, who I will call Aku (because it’s similar to her screen name and because it’s funny to name her after the bad guy from Samurai Jack) would start conversations with me whenever I posted anything to AO3 and would refuse to take no for an answer when I tried to back out of conversations with her, and since these conversations were public and occurring within comments, I didn’t want to be rude to her since this was taking place on content I was trying to promote.

I told her my age multiple times and she would either pretend she forgot from last time (saying her memory is super bad) or continue as though it was just trivia about me and not a sign she shouldn’t have been pushing me. My primary objection to what she would say to me (since most of it was just her being annoying) was her insistence on sexualising everything I wrote, and her determination to push me into writing pornographic content, which I eventually gave in to.

Yes, she was a terrible person. She emailed me using her personal email address, so I know her full name and place of residence, because she’s an idiot. These emails also contain sexually explicit materials. Nothing much ever happened between us except for these very creepy interactions and the fact we remained online friends for a few years. But here’s the thing: she wasn’t the only person pushing me into creating sexual content. Lots of people would comment on my writing demanding that I show explicit sexual content when I really didn’t want to.

After a while it felt like I couldn’t write a longer, romantic fanfiction without including explicit sexual content. Like my work wasn’t valid without it. Other, more popular writers were usually sexual in their content, and I wanted to be like them and bring in the views, right? So, when I look at my back catalog of works, I can see how my content moved from completely non-sexual to featuring sexual content over time, and the views usually came with. In this way, I was in an environment that was encouraging me on many levels to sexualise my own work, which impacted the way I thought about my creative process.

Here’s another example I remember. When I was a young sprout, I remember reading down someone’s list of fanfiction recommendations and seeing a work called Hug Therapy, which I promptly read. While the work is marked as explicit and containing the Loki/Thor pairing, the use of relationship and rating tags on AO3 is so poorly regulated that it didn’t really mean anything to me to see either of those. People tag hardcore material as non-explicit and tag friendships as relationships, because there’s no motivation to tag properly. Plus, someone I followed here on Tumblr had recommended it to me.

Now, you wouldn’t know from the listing, but while this piece starts out as comedy, it turns out in the end to include rape, incest, and BDSM in very explicit terms. The fact it was tagged as being explicit didn’t slow me down, because the liberal use of these tags could mean that an explicit tag was just there because sexual content was implied or mentioned, which I thought would be the case based on the rest of the listing. Out of curiosity, I recently tried to report this work to the moderators for containing no warnings about incest or rape, and I got this in response:

“Selecting “Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings” satisfies a creator’s obligation under the warnings policy. Users who wish to avoid specific elements entirely should not access fanworks marked with “Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings”. Our Terms of Service note: “You understand that using the Archive may expose you to material that is offensive, triggering, erroneous, sexually explicit, indecent, blasphemous, objectionable, grammatically incorrect, or badly spelled. ….. This decision is in accordance with our policy of maximum inclusiveness; we have therefore closed this case and will not be investigating further.”

Which, yeah, I guess. The frustration comes from how ‘Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings’ is an extremely commonly used tag, and most things that it’s used on are totally harmless.

This fanfiction, which I was recommended by a friend, is hugely popular, in the top 60 most read fanfictions in the entire fandom. You wanna hear the kicker? The author, Astolat, is one of the founders of AO3. They’re not just some random author who isn’t following the rules. They’re a creator of the whole website, and they made the rules. This is pretty telling about how seriously the website actually takes protecting their users.

My final example I want to give is one of fetish content. People in fetish communities generally (not always) say that fetishes are probably something one should work up to after the onset of sexual activity, especially potentially harmful stuff like BDSM. In the circles I was running in, if you weren’t sporting a fetish or two (no matter your age) you were a boring bitch.

Maybe this isn’t true of everywhere in the fanfiction community, but I used to feel that bizarre pressure until I got out. Bear in mind that my main time in this community was from ages 14 to 17. I never made my age a secret, either. I told people outright I was that age, I was in high school, I was playing hockey and studying The Great Gatsby when I wasn’t online.

Since I was in the Avengers fandom and I liked Loki and the Asgardians, I was frequently exposed to incestuous content between Loki and Thor, and a lot of it came out of nowhere or was poorly tagged. This was considered the norm, and while I at first felt completely horrified and repulsed, within a year or two I no longer gave a shit. It’s only in the last few years as I’ve begun to unpack everything that I’ve started to get that strong revulsion reaction to incestuous content.

In the circles I was in, it was relentlessly normal. Normal to the point that people who disliked it were usually shouted down. Even to this day, debate rages on in fandom spaces about whether or not content like this normalises this kind of abuse. In my own personal experience, which I don’t usually like to talk about, it absolutely does.

In real life, this normalisation started to have serious consequences for my mental health and interpersonal relationships. In fanfiction, any occasion when you are alone with someone could become sexual, any familial relationship is possibly sexual, and it doesn’t matter if you like it or not. I became incredibly anxious around male family members for fear of being sexually assaulted, and my OCD, which I had been developing since I was a child, turned from thoughts of physical violence to thoughts of graphically sexually assaulted by anyone and everyone around me.

My fear of being touched got to the point where I would have panic attacks if anyone came anywhere close to touching me. I quit sports, fucked up my romantic relationships, and didn’t hug anyone, not even members of my family, for years. All the while, I had bought my first laptop and was consuming more fanfiction than ever before. I struggled with my sexuality growing up, as I am bisexual, and while fanfiction provided LGBT content to help me, the content was frequently so disturbing that I viewed any expression of sexuality as something evil and predatory.

The community on AO3, whether you like it or not, is often sexual, and provides no barriers between the casual user looking for content and extremely intense fetish material. It’s sometimes called the Pornhub of fanfiction, but considering the wide range of people who use it, it’s more like if you opened Youtube and saw niche hardcore fetish videos just on the front page, recommended and trending.

Sure, you have to click a little button to confirm you’re 18 before you can actually read a story, but the tags and descriptions of readily available works can be extremely explicit. Fanfiction also brings you into close contact with fellow readers and the author, and encourages you to become a content creator, which in some ways makes it more dangerous.

I was affected much more strongly by what I saw than most people would be, because I was already treading shaky ground. But I’m also not the only person out there who has been hurt in this way. Most of my friends who grew up in fandom can report the impact that fanfiction culture had on them. One of my friends from high school knew a panoply of porn terms at age 14 or so due to reading fanfiction, and another of my other friends at high school almost exclusively read rape porn because it was her favourite. I didn’t have friends who watched porn; I had friends who read fanfiction. These are just as troubling to me as any other accounts of young people consuming visual porn from a very early age.

It’s frequently cited that fanfiction gives minority groups the opportunity for creative outlet. It was a great place for me to cut my teeth as a content creator, and a source of acceptance and kindness when times were tough. Fanfiction communities have historically been the domain of women and minorities, and create a space for these people to tell their own stories.

It’s largely because of this that fanfiction communities fear censorship and strict moderation, as they have been attacked in the past on homophobic or misogynistic grounds, resulting in mass deletions of works or the shutdown of websites. But there must be some middle ground between total censorship and the kind of free rein that puts vulnerable people in danger, and I strongly encourage the board of AO3 to seek this middle ground out.

But it’s the community itself that needs to shape up; AO3 is, after all, a community-led website built by fans for fans, so the fact that this website has such issues is a reflection of the issues that run deeply within the people who created it. Aku didn’t talk to me with the intention of doing me harm, or so I believe at this time, and she didn’t pursue me as a lone wolf or in isolation.

She was simply a particularly brazen member of a community that was used to having inappropriate conversations with young people and sexualising everything they did. Even people my own age were jokingly pushing me into discussing and consuming extremely sexual content. It was just normal. That’s what I want to say here. Inside the world of fandom on AO3, the grooming of children with sexual content is normal. And that’s scary.

- Mod Daft

[pirate-tink]

Ok, my initial thoughts on last night's episode:

The whole storyline with Hudson is just gross. I don't like him. At. All. It's getting Criminal Minds levels of creepy and disturbing. Also, wouldn't his face have been all over the news? Social media? It was a big local case. Someone should have recognized him.

Kinda proud of Michael for knowing Athena and realizing what she was gonna do, and insisting to come along.

Was proud of Harry for getting out of the trunk, but then thought he should have fought harder to resist getting in the car? It feels like he gave up... I mean, Jeffery did have a gun... but still...

And he comes feral Bobby. He is... not handling Harry's kidnapping well. I'm glad the team/his family saw and called him on it.

Ok, the moment with Athena and Michael in the car was cute. Slightly crass, but not as much as it could have been. It also feels humanizing? in a weird way? It's a down moment for them in the chaos, and they're together, and something about camaraderie too.

I don't like that they had Athena kill Jeffery. I'm glad he's not coming back, but I don't like that they wrote the story that way. I love that she called Bobby and the team came out. I'm glad she had a plan and didn't run off half cocked and shoot him in a fit of rage with no witnesses. They could have really done her dirty with a storyline like that but they didn't. While it wasn't exactly sanctioned, it was probably the best they would've been able to come up with given the circumstances, even if they had sat down and talked it all out.

Harry's rescue scene was intense. They really had everyone in there, didn't they? (I love that Eddie busted through the wall and climbed in the cubby with Michael to get Harry out, and that Buck lifted him up onto the gurney.) Poor Harry's gonna have some recovery ahead of him...

Oh! It's happening! Wow! Part of me can't believe they actually did it, they had Eddie break up with Ana, but where else were they gonna go with that storyline? This scene was actually really great, they didn't make either one the 'bad guy,' and they both had good points and things to say.

Guh, Chimney, Maddie, Jee... My emotions can't handle this. She's running? Poor Maddie. Anyone would have a hard time under those pressures, but her head's just not in a good place right now. I really hope they do amazing things with her storyline. I'm cautiously hopeful, but there's always a worry they'll make a dumb choice.

Now, to play dash-catch-up all day... apologies for what will inevitably be 30 reblogs an hour or so as I steal spare moments between patients at work.

[a-magical-artist]

Top Ten Favorite Doppels

Turned in less than five minutes before Halloween ends, but whatever:

10. Abigail

Hagumu is really just a scared kid despite being a Neo Magius stooge, and Abigail is a very good representation of that; Hagumu closes her eyes whenever she comes out, to which, same as Abigail is a very intimidating doppel filled with teeth and spikes. Her form’s listed as a “reversible shape” and she gives the impression of a torn up, straw-filled doll with a toothy mouth and spines/shards all throughout her inner lining. It’s also a good twist that since Hagumu’s magic makes her unusually strong against witches, Abigail is the opposite, being effective against magical girls. 

I really love the exterior on this one, it looks very pretty and ornate, and it does a nice job contrasting with the messy, shard-filled fiber underneath.

9. Gothel

I’m very close to unlocking Gothel (all I need are materials for Magia leveling), but I already love her design. She takes Yozuru’s wish and magnifies/projects it as many witches (or doppels) do, in her case, trying to find someone or something that can make Yozuru feel the emotions she wished away. She takes the form of a tower (name being a great Rapunzel reference) with exposed ribs she uses to drag in and crush whatever she sees, which is...fairly impressive as a doppel design without being too gory (a reason why Beatrice and Therisia aren’t here or in this slot). 

8. Clothette

I...really, really don’t like Suzune Magica, and I don’t like Suzune. I do however, have a grudging respect for her Doppel design. Clothette’s based around a gadfly, comes out of Suzune’s eye, has bells for eyes, and is constantly on fire. It’s a great design, but points off for coming from a character I can’t stand.

7. Gibdaughter

So, fun fact about hummingbirds for anyone who doesn’t know; they’re beautiful little birds...that have the worst tempers. I love them for that, and I’m happy to see one used as a base for a doppel design. Gibdaughter, as per usual, externalizes Kanae’s wish to be left in peace by using her very love of music. Her main attacks all revolve around the vibrations she gives off, adjusting them to resonate with her targets until they shatter. Given both the animal and the character of Kanae, this was an all too appropriate fit. The doppel’s mechanical appearance is pretty and both a nice reference to hummer feathers (they give off a metallic sheen when light hits them), and to Kanae’s aloof exterior.

6. Sylvie

Given how sweet and caring Ikumi is, this one was a surprise. Sylvie’s a very invasive doppel-moreso than Hevelius even-in that she’s not only formed from Ikumi’s lower half, but also seems to thread her way through her entire body given Ikumi’s eyes turn into glowing, barbed anchors. Definitely lines up with her nature, but...jesus. She gives the impression she’s based around one of those cymbal monkey toys, which is already creepy enough, but Sylvie’s “head” is just Ikumi, and also the gigantic screw jutting out of her upper back. The accordion midsection does not help in any of this and makes Sylvie’s movements look off, even for a doppel. Good but horrifying design, though the glowing eye anchors are a little over the top for me. 

5. Hund Balou

Hund Balou is one of the rare genuinely disturbing doppels; Hanna was already very close to being her by externalizing her curse on the world and those around her, so there’s not much for Hund to do except just. be destructive. Her form is creepy, her description’s creepy, everything about Hund is really screwed up. And Hanna, being spiteful, vindictive Hanna, loves her and thankfully, never got the opportunity to use her for some pretty obvious reasons. Hanna’s relationship with Hund is similar to Alina’s with Old Dorothy-both are in sync with their doppels and have the same goal, which is...horrifying given both characters. Hund is really cluttered and witch-like in appearance, being covered in leashes, chains, and buttons with a splattered green/purple/blue dress topping it all off. Her mixed media feel is pronounced, which is a good indication of how close Hanna is to her, and how messed up her implications really are.

4. Ein Roter Drache

This is the stupidest, and yet most awesome doppel I have ever seen; it’s a dragon that makes its entrance by riding on its hoard of treasure and smacks its targets with its tail. The tiny crown is a really funny touch for it and I will forever be sad that I can’t get Elisa outside of a support as of NA’s shutdown

Also love how it’s just Elisa’s bottom half to give the illusion she’s riding the doppel-that’s awesome and I love the creativity going into it

3. Oaji

*Insert the “What are you doing in my swamp” mere here*

Oaji takes the appearance of an entire swamp that lures people in, hinting at both the barrier of the witch and the witch herself possibly being similar to Zola, which is a cool concept. I love how simple she looks, and her coming out from behind Chiharu lines up with her misguided efforts to help her. She kind of gives off a similar vibe to Elsa Maria from the original series-even the branches bring the Sebastian familiars to mind. Also really love the lantern and the gray pool forming underneath Chiharu-the gold streaks just really top everything off here.

2. Marita

I love assassin bugs and so I love Marita. Instant number two for me

For real though, I didn’t expect these to be used as a doppel base, so I was very surprised when Sunao came out and her doppel had this as one. It looks appropriately creepy and very elegant, and I like the little necklaces hanging just below the head of the doppel. Marita also shares the needle/sewing aesthetic with Latria, and although there’s no blood, the giant one serving as a mouth is scary enough in implication. The crystal ball (that turns red during attacks) being the doppel’s abdomen’s also a nice touch. 

Honorable Mentions:

Old Dorothy: Old Dorothy in-game is described as witch-like, and that’s because unless the viewer knows where her core body is, she just looks like an unrecognizable mass of puffballs and paper flowers dipped in orange paint. With witches, you can never really tell what it is you’re looking at, so Old Dorothy gives off that same impression. She didn’t officially make it because of her weird little core body, but I do love her gimmick. 

Theresia: I do like Theresia, but I felt her design wouldn’t fit since I’m trying to avoid the more gory doppels. I do like how she’s literally just Sana’s ears, and how there’s two versions of her that have an equal chance of coming out (though this does present some complications when going competitive with Sana).

Poker Alice: Too much of what looks to be exposed muscle for me to feel comfortable putting her in, but I adore the skulls exploding outward behind the chair and the hands covering Yukika’s eyes. Speaking of, the eyes on this thing are both cool and nicely scary in contrast to the simplicity of the rocking chair. 

Gosirsa: Colorful and very beautiful, the wheels at the front make for a surreal touch, something that many doppels tend to lack due to being scaled down versions of the full witch. Didn’t make it because there’s too few slots and too many doppels to choose from, but definitely in my personal faves.

1. Campanella

Campanella’s just the right amount of dumb, elegant, and unsettling, hence her being here at the number one spot. Yachiyo’s training event also helped me warm up to her; while Yu Hong and Cyan were self-defeating and frustrated respectively, Camp was really, really mellow by contrast. She seemed willing to work with Yachiyo as long as she accepted and stopped rejecting her, which was, at the time, a very nice change from the usual (not that Camp doesn’t try to take over however-once Yachiyo implies she’s going to keep running from her, she goes on the attack). She takes the form of a ticket puncher holding a lantern, comes out of Yachiyo’s leg, and gives the overall impression of a scorpion, ridiculously oversized shoes and all. Her anime appearances are a nice representation of Yachiyo’s fears and it’s just really satisfying to find out  that they have enough of a relationship to where she can use her in fights. Doppels when it comes down to it are a sort of agreement/truce between the magical girl and their witch self; not only does it allow them to come back, it allows them to make peace with their insecurities and fears without the danger of turning into a witch. Campanella, both in-game and the anime, represents that relationship to its fullest, so she’s at the #1 spot. 

[wuzzupketchup]

UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN

This drama came out in 2019 but it’s only now that I got the time and energy to watch it. I’ve had a lot of recommendations from a bunch of people to check this one out. Finally, I did. This is gonna be a full-on review so brace yourselves. Warning: Spoilers possibly ahead.

Time and again, I’ve told people that I am a sucker for great storytelling. Toss me a line in your opening sequences and if I like it, I’m gonna grab on and sink into the story with you. What happened here was that I kept tugging at the line and wasn’t able to sink until about Episode 4.

Okay. The show actually has merits. I’ll list them down one by one.

1. Great concept. Right off the bat, it is nice to see a BL defy the norm. The soulmate/reincarnation theme was something that we normally get to watch on heteronormal media. Really refreshing to see it incorporated into a BL series to separate it from the “usual” themes we have in this genre.

2. Cooking/cuisine. I love the fact that we are introduced to Thai cuisine, specifically, desserts. My knowledge of Thai food is just basically limited to pad thai and tom yum. So it’s nice to get educated in this area especially international viewers like me.

3. Soundtrack. The series has pretty decent music. It’s not the most outstanding, but it was enough to put you into the mood to watch the scenes/episodes. The upbeat song they used for the more cheerful scenes was my favorite.

4. Dean/Pharm relationship. I’d have to say that this was in fact a very healthy relationship. I liked that boundaries are explicitly established and that even if they were together, consent was still a major factor.

5. Side couple supremacy. I’m sorry but I was really more interested in the Team-Win duo. Eventhough they had such limited screentime, they actually managed to steal my attention. Every single frame that Buon is onscreen, he effortlessly grabs the attention. Prem, on the other hand, was so natural that I had his character as my most favorite. The way he was overprotecting Pharm like he was a baby was just so endearing to me.

6. No girlfriend to ruin the story. I’m so done with stories that incorporate a girl just to stir things up. That being said, the female support in this series was so good to watch (well, maybe Manaow can be a bit irritating most of the time lol).

Now, where do I begin for the not so positive points? For the record, I was meaning to drop the entire show after Episode 3. It wasn’t doing anything for me. But thankfully, I chose to stick it out. Although, I don’t recall watching another BL show where I had to fast forward scenes more than this one. I’ll talk about it later. Here goes the list of minus points:

1. Opening sequences. Good Lord. I wasn’t prepared for it. Like, it literally shocked me I had to stop watching after just 5 minutes in. Once I got over the initial shock, I came back and just started shaking my head. The entire opening was devoid of logic and badly executed. But hey, I can forgive this bit because the whole story is hinged on it.

2. Korn and Intouch. Pivotal characters but sadly, falls short, by a long shot. I should say first and foremost, they were miscast. Not the actors’ fault though, more on the production’s side. There was literally no chemistry between Kao and Earth. Now here’s one major problem for me. I didn’t feel connected with the supposedly OG couple to even care about their reincarnated souls. I had to fast forward their scenes because I found them borderline disturbing and cringey. I was looking for clues as to why Korn fell madly in love with Intouch but I didn’t find any. Intouch, to me, was annoying and creepy. Emotional investment was really hard to come by with this series.

3. Pharm. Oh Pharm. You were cute with your shyboy demeanor at first, but I was mildly irritated once the series progressed. I felt like he had a rather boring personality. Had he not been the reincarnated Intouch, would Dean even bother? That’s a question I was waiting to be answered in the end but I think I’ll just draw out my own conclusion.

4. It’s awfully long, to the point it has already become dragging. Literally, it was a struggle to finish the whole thing. I mean, 17-45 minutes-ish episodes are nothing compared to your normal dramas but from a BL standard, it’s rather long. Some scenes could have been chopped off but still would push the narrative forward. Was this fan service? I don’t know really.

5. Dream sequences. Okay. These were important to the story but midseries, I was so done with them because it seemed like nothing was coming out of it. Fine, Kao and Earth story arc was the focus. And that it was to establish that Dean and Pharm were the reincarnations. But other than that, what was accomplished? Just have some random nightmare and then hyperventilate? At least Dean made a move by having Korn and In investigated but Pharm? What did you do about your nightmares? Me thinks it was just a ploy to have Dean by his side.

6. The final revelations were anti-climactic. Imagine building up the events of the tragic past, only to have a resolution that seemed too convenient. Why say so? Was it just me or did any of you feel like all the obstacles that were supposed to be in Dean and Pharm’s way were consciously removed? This was where I felt super underwhelmed with the writing. The OG lovers had hell to deal with but the reincarnated lovers seemed to have a walk in the park. I’m not saying that they should also go through hell but seriously, there was no real conflict to resolve by the end. Hence, it was a let down.

7. Switching families. Korn being reborn into In’s lineage and In being reborn into the other. I didn’t actually get the point here. I was predisposed to the notion that reincarnated souls tend to come out in the place where they felt they were most loved. Or did I not get the memo it has already changed? Lol. But yeah. It didn’t make sense for me for the OG couple to be reborn in the other side of their respective families. I mean, where’s the familiarity there? It wasn’t even shown that each one had a deep seated connection with members of the other’s families to merit such occurence.

Overall, I enjoyed the story for the most part. I’m sorry if the points I raised in here differ from yours. But the thing is, I watch not only to be entertained. I was constantly trying to find logic to what was happening onscreen especially towards the end when the revelations started coming out. The writers, I have to say, had a penchant with creating unnecessary moments.

Kudos to LineTV and Wabi Sabi for coming up with this very out of the box series. Although I had a lot of reservations, I was still able to appreciate the effort. There were moments of brilliance, but sadly, it was inconsistent.

Would I rewatch it? Hmm. Maybe Team-Win sequences only.

I’d give this a 6.5 out of 10 stars. ⭐️

[travel-hopefully]

A collective post of everything I watched on Netflix in 2020

I finally found the watch history function on Netflix which I wanted in order to reminisce over the TV/film I watched over the last year, including the good and the bad. I’ve included a little round-up of my thoughts for each, as lockdown has got me with plenty of time on my hands. If anyone has watched any of the below feel free to give me a message- happy to discuss anything!

Travelers (season 3) - this was an unforgettable show with some great characters and definitely put me through hell (in a good way), I am a David x Marcy shipper for sure!

IT Crowd (season 4 & 5) - my favourite comedy show ever, and I mean the UK version

Explained (random episodes) - interesting bite-sized episodes on a variety of topics

Sherlock (season 3 & 4) - it kinda went downhill from season 4...and doesn’t help that there is no season 5 in sight

Unforgettable - must be pretty forgettable cause I couldn’t remember watching, a typical revenge plot romp I think

The Mind, Explained - same as for Explained above, except more pyshcological

You (season 2) - binge-worthy! I love to hate Joe Goldberg.

Don’t F**k with Cats - wow, this was disturbing but so gripping.

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle - geniunely a good remake and rather amusing

Sex, Explained - as for Explained but a little more intriguing ;)

The Stranger (season 1) - full of suspense and a good binge watch but ultimately full of plot holes with an unsatisfying conclusion

Gavin & Stacey (season 3) - a classic which I only started watching in 2019

Sex Education (all of it) - comedy gold!

Unbelievable (limited series) - very harrowing, an emotional rollercoaster based on a real-life rape case

Atypical (all of it) - light-hearted and fun to binge

The Sinner (season 1) - it was okay... wasn’t spectacular compared to other similar dramas I’ve seen

Love Is Blind (season 1) - cringey but satisfying

In the Shadow of the Moon - I hardly remember this one :)

Dunkirk - a stand-out historical movie

The Stepfather - typical killer stepfather plot but rather enjoyable

The Super - an interesting premise, but not that super

Saw VI - all gore not much plot

Doctor Who (random episodes) - no words needed :D

Louis Theroux and Louis Theroux’s Weird Weekends (random episodes) - I love his style of interviewing - what a man!

The Revenant - a lot of... well, not much

Nightcrawler - it was decent, but something was missing which I couldn’t put my finger on

How To Get Away With Murder (seasons 1-5) - probably my biggest new watch of the year, a rollercoaster of suspense, drama and murder, another season to go...

Ocean’s Eleven - fun but cheesey

Blumhouse’s Truth or Dare - creepy faces and an interesting ending

Eli - it started one way then went another, I wasn’t convinced

Star Trek (2009) - I couldn’t really get into this one...

In the Tall Grass - a lot of running around in grass

Bloodride (season 1) - i loved this, a quirky idea, i binged it

Apostle - intense, a satisfying religious cult horror

The Platform - great idea, not sure on the ending

What Keeps You Alive - what happened in this one again?

History 101 - didn’t watch many episodes :P

The Prodigy - a decent child possession horror

Into the Night (season 1) - really enjoyed this, a highlight of the year for me, hoping for a season 2

It - pretty chilling and creepy, but a tad cheesey

Jurassic World and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom - the first one has a brilliant dinosaur fight scene, the second one has too many plot holes and inconsistencies to take seriously

Knowing - a Nicholas Cage sci-fi/apocalpytic classic, pretty decent

Stranger Things (random episodes) - i tried to get my bf into the show but sadly he still isn’t much of a TV fan

Miranda (random episodes) - such fun!

Black Mirror (seasons 1 & 2) - another one i introduced the bf to, i got a bit further with him on this one, the very first episode being the highlight

The Last House on the Left - a decent remake, but nothing outstanding

Dark (season 3) - this, my friends, is one of the greatest shows of all time. want a timey-wimey story where everything is connected and has an amazingly satisfying conclusion? this is the show for you!

The Silence - a bad ‘A Quiet Place’

Geostorm - i’m a fan of disaster movies but this one wasn’t in the same league as some of the greats

Panic Room - a mum and kid hides in the panic room when a group of thugs break into the house, it was enjoyable but not all that memorable

Prisoners - a very long film with some enjoyable parts but overall unsatisfying

Girl on the Third Floor - it was okay, i can’t remember much of it

The Woods (season 1) - another Harlan Coben adaptation- not as good as ‘Safe’ or ‘The Stranger’ but still a gripping thriller

Time Trap - a fun time-travel film with some interesting turns of events

72 Dangerous/Cutest Animals (random episodes) - just ‘cause i love animals

Slasher (all of it) - some very gory deaths, especially in season 3. quite disturbing but keeps the suspense up throughout.

2012 - a guilty pleasure of mine, realistic or not

Kingsman: The Secret Service - a fun spy film, will be looking to watch the second one soon

Blackfish - this was harrowing, it really made me think, but overall i’m on the side of tilikum

Unsolved Mysteries (season 1 & 2) - watching some of these my jaw dropped, love theorising on this kind of stuff

Down to Earth with Zac Efron (season 1) - Zac is great in this, he seems so chill and literally ‘down to earth’

The Call - I love this film, seen it 3 times now

Contagion - very relatable right now, interesting to see the parallels with todays situation

Next in Fashion (season 1) - i didn’t get too far with this, i found it a little superficial

Searching - another of those internet web-cam based films. decent but not memorable.

Non-stop - another Nicholas Cage classic, this time a suspense thriller

Freaks - as the title suggests this one was rather weird, i didn’t quite gel with it

The Perfection - wow, that was an experience. definitely memorable, even if some characters make questionable decisions...

Extraction - not usually a fan of action-type thrillers, but i actually enjoyed this one, plus it has Chris Hemsworth in it!

Line of Duty (season 2) - full of suspense, a great build-up in the first 5 episodes, but the way they tied it up really grated on me 

Insidious - watched this one with my sister. a genuinely good horror film on rewatch with an amazing cliff-hanger

A Quiet Place - another one watched with my sister. labelled a horror but its more sci-fi, either way its a classic. bring on the second film!

The Dark Tower - disappointing mostly.

Gladiator - i’d never seen this before and now i understand the hype- what an epic movie!

Criminal UK (season 2) - didn’t disappoint following the exceptional first season

Venom - a fun comedic marvel film, definitely need to watch more from Marvel in the next year- i need an order to watch them in as don’t know where to start

Our Planet (season 1) - chill David Attenborough to put on in the background

The Equalizer - a great action revenge thriller plot with a badass Denzel

Merlin (random episodes) - who doesn’t love a trip down memory lane with some nostalgic bbc merlin?

A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) - pretty scary remake

The Witcher (season 1) - rewatched in order to familiarise myself again before season 2 - i didn’t realise how funny the show was until this time round, gotta love Jaskier!

American Murder: The Family Next Door - this was haunting

The Haunting of Bly Manor - phenomenal, emotional, creepy, heartbreaking - i much preferred it to Hill House

Abducted in Plain Sight - seriously, how naive are the parents in this? i could have a rant for hours about this!

The End of the F***ing World (seasons 1 & 2) - very bingeable, Alyssa makes me laugh too much, i love how relatable the show is

Fractured - didn’t expect much from this consipiracy-type film but it kept me guessing right till the end

The Ripper (limited series) - very intriguing, but the mysogyny in this was shocking

Inconceivable - a typical mother looking for her baby revenge plot but still entertaining

The Midnight Sky - i’d heard rave reviews for this but was disappointed by a lacklustre plot which was sacrificed for award-winning cinematography

Killer Women with Piers Morgan (season 2) - a pyschological interview series which looks into the mind of murderers, rather interesting

May the Devil Take You - scarier and jumpier than i thought it would be!

So 2020 obviously gave me a lot of time to watch a s**t load of stuff and looking back at it i feel like i got a decent amount of my watch-list ticked off! And obviously this is not including shows watched on other media so there’s that too (a special shout-out to the William Hartnell era of Doctor Who which I watched this year on BritBox). In all, 2020 has definitely introduced me to a few new fandoms and progressed my love for others. 

[pinkbarefacedbeauty]

The Darkling is Problematic

Ok, admittedly I haven’t gotten around reading the book yet. I was watching the show…for the 4th time, I just caught something. I guess I might be slow or something because I literally just caught what was said.

Everyone at this point knows that the Darkling is a pedophile simply off the fact that he is over centuries old by trying to mess with Alina.

I don’’t know what people’s obsession with old ass men messing with teenage girls. Like you don’t even have the girl be of legal age? Doesn’t make it any better but you don’t even want it to be a woman in her thirties or mid-twenties, at the very least??

Even worse, it is a known fact that these type of books and media are targeted to teenage girls and their exaggerated imagination. I remember being in my teens and thirsting after older men and books that I could imagine myself as this betty sue character who all the guys are fawning over. Like i’d take off my glasses and i’d be banging hot.(because in media wearing glasses always equated to ugliness for some reason. No, for real, the heroine would literally take off her glasses, put a little eyeliner and lip gloss and suddenly everyone loved her new revealing style. Overnight hottie.) Like there are actual adults writing and encouraging pedophilia.

Leigh Bardugo wrote possibly everything about the Darkling being creepy as fuck. She didn’t intend for the Darkling to end up with Alina. She made it known how toxic he was. Like even in the Netflix show, you see his background and feel like “awww, how sad” but that doesn’t change all the creepy and horrible shit he has done since then. In her book and show, it is very clear that she is not shipping the Darkling and Alina together. She is making the darkling as villainous as possible.

The Darkling reads Alina’s letters to Mal. This is not some high school boy who stupidly thinks that reading the diary of the girl he likes would bring him closer to her because he just so really likes her. 

This is a man who is over a century old invading the privacy of a 17 year old girl through reading her letters. He reads her letters to find information on how to manipulate her, and he does just that. He feeds her this boohoo story of how he was never accepted and how he was mistreated based on his ancestor’s actions (like she was mistreated because she was half-shu). Everything he does is to get her to only lean on him: the random horseback excursions, the gloves, the story, etc.

Classic abuser behavior (besides actual abuse like collaring her) is to try and make her feel isolated and dependent on him, cutting her off from the people that actually loves her. He tries and make it seem like he is the only person she can lean on.  There are literally people that find it adorable that not only did he read her letters to Mal, manipulate her with the information in those letters, but that he also never had her letters sent out to Mal. They say, “Omg, he’s jealous of Mal”, like…. no, Mal is an obstacle to his ability to have Alina under his thumb. He even uses the information that Mal gave him about her favorite flowers to then give said flowers to this naive, and love-starved little girl. You know what would have been a better present? Let Alina see Mal, her one true North (As he knows from creepily reading her letters).

Like y’all really want a man that cuts you off from your home and family, goes through your mail without permission, guilt trips you (everyone at Little Palace was doing so), abuses you, and makes you feel as  if you’re nothing without him???  People are really obsessed with toxicity nowadays. Like i’m honestly scared for this world. 

If he was actually caring for Alina and looking out for her best interest, he would have (1) let her letters be delivered and receive letters to and from Mal, (2) he would have let Alina see Mal. Everyone else in Little Palace receives letters from loved ones but her. He would have done everything to make sure her new residency made her feel welcomed. 

The excuse of locking her up in Little Palace was for protection from the rest of the world, which made sense as we watched/read about the Grisha hunters. That was like okay, there was no choice in order to protect her. But the rest of his actions are completely inexcusable. His mother basically said it might have started off with good intentions, but he is just power hungry. When you are at war, there is bound to be casualties, but he is treating the Grisha as expendable tools to get his revenge against the country. 

Not only does he pimp out Genya to the king, but like his own mother said, he has had centuries to master manipulating naive little girls. He literally told Zoya and Alina the same thing “You and I are going to change the world”. The scene I just noticed and was thrown off by because it was the most overt thing was when Zoya basically sexually propositioned the Darkling, because it usually took his mind off of whatever was bothering him. Like old times….LIKE OLD TIMES??! 

Now, Zoya’s age is listed as 19-20 in the first book. But her saying “like old times” doesn’t give me the impression of one year ago or hell even four years ago. It seems like a distant past. That would mean this man who is over a century old was messing around with Zoya while she was even younger than Alina’s age (17) in first book. He has messed with countless young/underage impressionable girls who felt like they had no one else to rely on. He is literally preying on children and people are…..shipping this?

People like to excuse when gross ass men mess with 17 year old girls because (1) they are 17 year old girls themselves and consider themselves grown and the man to be hot or (2) they think that since they are only one year from 18 that that makes them grown.. Like no, these are still children. Literally, most people don’t even fully mature until age 25, some people for longer. But seventeen, eighteen, nineteen….these are still teenagers. Children. Then people want to say, ‘well that’s how it was back then!!! blah blah blah’……so you decide to ship it rather the more healthy, legal and logical choice??

It’s like people will shame you for shaming them for liking pedophilia. Like if you know it is gross as hell and you ship it, how can you blame others for shaming you? People like to call it kink-shaming. But I think that just diverts attention away from the issue. This is not shaming someone for liking to be spanked or their hair pulled. This is shaming grown ass men and women for encouraging pedophilia.

If he looked like Jason Voorhees under the mask, then these same people thirsting over the Darkling would be anything but supportive. But hey, I guess foul and disgusting evil behavior can all be excused if it is a hot guy with a sad story, right?

There were also people complaining about how older Ben Barnes looked than Jessi Mei Li, even if he is hot. Y’all know the character is supposed to be over a century right? Y’all should be satisfied that he didn’t show up looking like Albus Dumbledore. That’s the whole point…of how older he is than everyone around him. He is supposed to look older because *SURPRISE!* he is way older than her. 

Like the more I rewatch, I catch up all the little things and it just disturbs me even more that people are encouraging this. I can’t control what people think in their heads,  but don’t fuck up the rest of the generation by encouraging this disgusting shit. It creeps me the fuck out. 

[hecallsmehischild]

Recent Media Consumed

Books

War Nerd by Gary Brecher. I have a lot of conflicting feelings about this book. First off, I had to try three times to read it, because the first two times I read it, I was in an emotionally unstable period, and this is NOT a book to read in emotionally unstable periods. On the third try, I blew right through it. Second thing is about the way it’s written. On the one hand, I wish all history texts were written with HALF the color and vigor and humor of this writer, because I would have retained way more information. On the other hand, it was incredibly difficult for me to come to terms with this style of angry, bitter humor combined with a worldview I can’t really understand. Which, I suppose, leads into some of my major take-aways from this book: human nature is not basically good (I already believed that, but this is a pretty good secular argument for it), human nature seems to crave war and peace is the exception, and there literally are people in the world who I will never understand no matter how hard I try because they want things that are antithetical to absolutely everything I deem important. I don’t mean minor things or even the things we all know come into conflict, like religion. I’m talking about things like peace. If you look at what peoples’ actions tell you over their words, it seems like some people (individuals AND nation groups) genuinely thrive on death and war, and that that was in fact the state of things for far longer than attempts at peace. It’s a difficult book on all fronts (except readability, it’s quite readable and certainly more enjoyable than most history texts as I’ve said), but it makes you think. I also can’t speak for how accurate this book is, but it is written by someone who clearly has a hyperfixation, so...

Inside The Robe by Katherine Mader. Judge Mader, a criminal court judge in LA County, kept a court diary throughout 2016. This book is the result of that diary, and is her attempt at giving an “insider’s view” on being a criminal court judge. She is a colorful writer with very clear descriptions and a distinctive voice. This book was a pleasure to read and gave me a better understanding of the incentives and constraints on judges through her daily vignettes.

Economic Facts and Fallacies by Thomas Sowell. I read this in the wake of my second reading of Basic Economics and thought this would be a good follow-up read. There’s a lot of overlap here, but this book delves more in-depth into some concepts that Sowell had to give less attention to in Basic Economics for the sake of providing a broader overview. As usual, there are some concepts that get a little too abstract for me to hang onto very well, but the majority of his work is very understandable and makes sense to me. I am grateful for the clarity with which he writes.

A Man of Letters by Thomas Sowell. This is actually a good accompaniment to his memoir, A Personal Odyssey. He collects several letters he wrote (and a few select ones addressed to him) to sketch his reactions to various events in his life. He has quite the dry wit. It was a treat to get a further glimpse into his life.

Books I had to drop and why

Battles of the Bible by Chaim Herzog and Mordechai Gichon. Sometimes I have to admit I made a mistake and not keep trying to force myself to spend time on a book I’m not enjoying. I thought perhaps this book would help me understand some context of the Biblical stories more, but really what this is is comprehensive step-by-step war strategy (complete with diagrams and TERRAIN MAPS) of each battle in the Old Testament. And… that’s not what I’m looking for.

The Road to Serfdom by Friedrich Hayek. I’m kind of sad about this one. Thomas Sowell has referenced Hayek reverently and I was told The Road to Serfdom would be a good read for me. Unfortunately what I’m coming to understand is that it’s very difficult for me to grasp ideas when talked about ONLY in the abstract. This is why Sowell is usually a much better read for me, because he tends toward giving concrete examples, so after about 3 chapters of barely getting what Hayek wanted to convey, I switched over to…

Marxism by Thomas Sowell. And I was also crestfallen here. From the fragments I gather, Marx (who Sowell studied extensively and followed wholeheartedly in his college days) broke things down almost exclusively to their most abstract concepts before building back toward concrete ideas and tended to look down on any economist who only examined things as they appeared. Prior to this I had some vague notion that maybe I could eventually read Marx and understand the root texts of socialism/communism, but according to Sowell, there’s a lot of pre-requisite reading involved in really understanding what Marx & Engels were talking about. He also criticized most interpreters of not bothering to do their homework on surrounding texts and that many have mangled some of Marx’s points. I was not able to make it past chapter two of this book because I was floundering pretty hard. It’s a little discouraging to feel the limits of my comprehension so sharply. I’m going to take a break with some fiction.

Video Games

Bendy and the Ink Machine. Want to talk about being late to the bandwagon? I mean, I got on the bandwagon when everyone was talking about it, but then I got through chapter 3 and there was a graphics reboot, so I started playing from the top and then kind of… dropped off? Never got past chapter 3. Finally, I felt like I was in a good place and could take the jump scares, so I blasted through the first three chapters in about a night. Then for the next couple days I played through the last two chapters. I have to say, chapter 4 is my favorite and has probably the most disturbing image that, while disturbing, was epic and fantastic in its own creepy way (merry-go-round-and-round, anybody?). I didn’t really understand the ending, but there were some interesting theories to be found on Youtube about what it all means. This was an enjoyable game for someone like me who can’t really handle high level horror and isn’t too adept with controls because it had simple controls and the horror was… toned down, I’d say. I played through Soma and I tried (and absolutely ditched) Amnesia, and Bendy is at about the level of horror I can deal with. Good game.

Confess My Love. Started and ditched it. I was very, very annoyed at the girl by five rejections. In the end, I rejected HER by uninstalling the game.

Movies

Wolfwalkers. *inarticulate noises* f-f-found family…. nnngh…. *gentle sobbing*

[nekoannie-chan]

My Princess

Pairing: Dark! Steve Rogers X Reader

Word count: 3628 words.

Summary: What will Steve be able to do to have the person he loves with him?

Warnings: Obsession, stalker, non-con., kidnapping, physical and psychologic punishment, maybe torture, violence, abuse, death of characters (not explicit), if I miss a warning, please let me know. IF YOU ARE UNDER 18, DON’T READ IT.

A/N: This is my entry to the @sherrybaby14 ‘s Sherry’s Reader-insert Smut Prompt Challenge! with the Steve Rogers’ prompt #9:

“Dark! Steve x Reader where he takes her and brings her to his mansion that he designed to be like a castle? And he calls her princess all the time and makes her dress like a princess”

My native language is Spanish so I wanna improve my writing skills in English if you notice any mistake please let me know and I will correct it.

I don’t give any kind of permission that my fics be posted in other platforms or languages (I translate myself my work) or the use of my graphics (my dividers are included in this), I did them exclusively for my fics, please respect my work and don’t steal it. There are some people here who make dividers that anyone can use, mine is not this type, please look for the other’s people. The only exception is the ones I gifted ‘cuz now belong to someone else. If you find any of my works on a different platform and is not one of my accounts, please let me know. Reblogs and comments are always welcome.  THIS ONE-SHOT IS +18

DISCLAIMER: I don’t own Marvel’s characters (unfortunately), except for the original characters and the story.

My other media where I publish: Wattpad, Ao3, ffnet. 

If you like it please vote, comment, and give me feedback to improve my skills and reblog.

DO NOT PROCEED IF YOU’RE UNDER 18. 

Steve kissed your shoulder a little, the night before he had left you exhausted making love with him.

Seeing that you were not waking up, he got dressed and left without anyone looking at him, he had to go to supervise that everything was in order and finished.

Steve was overseeing how the mansion had turned out, he had asked for exaggerated discretion for the transaction, he did not want anyone to know of that property, he had made the design to look like a castle and he wanted his princess to feel like one.

He went in and began to check the closet, the princess dresses he had sent to make especially for you were already arranged there, he was sure that you were going to see very well with them. He did not even care how much he had to pay for them, he had also taken care of the design of each one of them, not only dresses but also nightgowns, slippers, tiaras, hair accessories, whatever he thought was necessary.

He put the last perfume he had taken from your room on the dresser, he had made sure to get the makeup you liked the most.

He smiled, he observed one of your photos he had on his cell phone, realizing the time he decided to leave, and he did not want to be late for training

“Where were you babe?” you asked to see he came in.

"I went for a walk," he replied.

You approached him to kiss him when the door opened and Tony entered.

“Am I interrupting something? Are you going to do something? Ah… of course I forgot that the Capipaleta is a virgin, “Tony scoffed.

“Stark! “You warned him.

Steve smiled internally, no one suspected what they had, they still thought he was so innocent, that would be very helpful for what he planned to do.

While you were with your friends, Steve sneaked into your room.

Everyone believed that you slept in separate rooms, but it was not so until now no one had discovered them.

It was the third time that Steve entered your room without your permission, he smiled with satisfaction when noticing that you hadn't noticed yet, he took one of the perfumes that you had in the dressing table.

He searched among your drawers, careful not to disturb anything, he took the set of underwear that he liked so much to wear; He stealthily left the place, he was always very careful so that no one discovered him, he could not arouse any suspicion.

If Steve was in love with you, according to him, who could not fall before your charm?

But he was also clear about something, no one could deny what he wanted, everyone adored him, he knew that girls could not resist his physique, he could take advantage of those advantages of his position.

He had taken advantage of that to convince you that you were in a relationship.

“You still don't agree that Y/N and Steve are dating, right?” Pietro asked.

"No," Wanda said.

“Y/N loves him, I don't see the problem.”

"There is something I do not like about all this, I would not like something to happen to Y/N" Wanda commented with concern.

Pietro made an awkward gesture.

"It's all his fault, Steve likes to have all that attention, he's obsessed with her, he doesn't want to leave her for a single moment alone," Wanda continued. 

Steve watched you while you slept, he couldn't help it, he seemed beautiful to him, and he took out his cell phone and took some photos, being careful not to wake up

"So beautiful looks like an angel," he thought.

He came out trying not to be noise, but he didn't realize that he threw your jewelry box on the floor.

Because of the noise, you woke up.

"Who's there?" You asked sleepily.

When there was no answer, you turned on the light of the nightstand someone or something had entered your room

You got up, covered your body with your robe, and went out, saw Steve in the hallway.

"Steve, did you see if anyone came out of my room?"

"No doll, shouldn't you be sleeping?" he replied trying to look calm.

"I already was, but someone threw away my jewelry box, by the way, what are you doing here?" Shouldn't you be on a mission?”

“I finished it earlier than expected, I was going to train, and I’m still not sleepy.”

You shrugged, there were not many explanations for what had happened to you.

"Maybe it was a Stark experiment or there are ghosts at the base," you determined.

Steve laughed upon hearing your deduction.

"Always such a creative doll."

"Well, I'll go back to sleep," you said with a bit of annoyance.

"Rest" he approached and I kissed you on the forehead

"Wanda, something strange happened last night," you commented.

“What?”

“Someone came into my bedroom while I was sleeping, I woke up when I heard the jewelry box fall.”

"Didn't you see who it was?" Wanda asked.

"No, there was nobody when I turned on the light apart some of my things are missing," you replied.

“What kind of things?”

“A perfume, some of my makeup, some accessories, and…”

“AND?”

"Clothes, even underwear," you said embarrassed.

"That's weird, don't you have a suspect?"

“No.”

"Steve!" Wanda called him.

He ignored her, she ran to catch up with him, seeing her in front of him stopped.

"Steve, what are your true intentions with Y/N?" Wanda asked.

"Y/N is my princess, so I don't think it's your concern."

"YOU'RE OBSESSED WITH Y/N!" She yelled at him.

"No Wanda, you are jealous of our relationship

"I'm not jealous, Y/N is my best friend and I care about her" Wanda said firmly.

"You're not going to separate us," Steve said.

Before she could answer, he was gone.

"I must find out before I tell her," Wanda said as she paced around the room.

"If you are so suspicious of him, you should read his mind," her twin suggested.

"I can't, it's I don't know ... I don't know what he's doing, but it's as if I can only read his superficial thoughts but not his true intentions."

"We must warn them, this can become dangerous."

Steve finished preparing, everything else was ready, the only thing missing was for you to receive the notification, so no one would suspect what was about to happen and when they realized it would be too late.

He was not going to allow anyone to interfere between him and his beloved, not even the consequences that it might have.

He sent the message, now he was going to look for you, obviously taking care that no one else saw them, especially Wanda.

You were walking through the corridors of the base when you met Steve.

"Why aren't you ready?" he asked.

“Ready for what?”

You were confused, you didn't remember having any plans.

"We have a mission," he informed you.

“What you mean? No, none notify me.”

You checked your mobile phone, there was the notification, and it had arrived just five minutes ago.

"Aren't the others going on a mission?"

"It's just the two of us," he clarified.

"I'm going to go to tell to Wanda so she doesn't worry," you said, turning around.

"Y/N, we have to go now."

He took you by the arm, you sighed.

"Okay, let's go."

You went on his motorcycle.

"You look good," he flattered you.

“Thanks.”

He stopped suddenly, they got off the motorcycle, and it looked like you had arrived at the place.

"Did they give you the information?"

“This”.

He gave you a few papers that he had taken out of his pocket. You started reading it, it seemed kind of routine so it shouldn't be difficult.

You started walking through a forest, Steve was guiding you until you reached the place

"It looks creepy," you commented.

You had a bad feeling, that place looked like a horror movie.

"There is nothing to fear, I will protect you," he assured you.

"What about Y/N?" Wanda asked.

"I don't know," Pietro replied.

"I haven't seen her," Nat said.

"Does anyone know where Steve is?" Tony asked.

“Oh no...”

"Is something wrong?" Nat asked.

You entered the place, agreed that it was better to separate to cover more terrain, and finish the mission faster.

You walked into a room, what you saw there left you frozen, one of the walls was full of photos of you, photos that you never remembered someone took you, some of them looked as if they had been taken in fragrant and your lost things were also there. Steve appeared behind you.

"Steve ... What ...?" What is this? ”You questioned as soon as you saw him.

"I didn't think you'd find it that soon," he replied.

"Steve, what does all this mean?"

Steve's face changed, a malevolent smile appeared on his face, and you swallowed out.

"Steve, honey, what does this mean?" Do I have a secret admirer or something? It's a joke?” You questioned.

Silence, for a moment it crossed your mind that this was a trap.

"Steve, let's go please, let's go back to the base," you asked, trying to stay calm.

"There is nothing to fear princess," he assured you.

"We have to go back to the base," you ordered, your voice faltering.

"You don't know how much I love you," he replied.

"I know you love me, but Steve is scaring me," you said as you turned to go to the door.

He was faster than you and closed the door with a lock so you could not escape, you tried to take out your weapon, but he took you by the arm, the struggled a little, he managed to make you throw it, with another movement he knocked you unconscious.

He took you to the castle, took off your clothes and put on the lilac princess dress that he had liked so much, he smiled with satisfaction, you looked just as you had imagined, he brushed your hair put on your tiara, and left you in the room.

Now he had to get rid of the communicators and anything that might indicate the location.

A few hours later you woke up, you blinked several times to adjust to the light, where you were lying was not your bed, it had tulle, it seemed like the beds of the princess stories you read when you were a girl; As you sat you saw the outfit you were wearing, you frowned, you have never seen those clothes before.

How did you get there?

And above all, why did you have a dress on?

You got up looking for your boots, but you only found matching shoes, you sighed, you had no choice but to put on a pair, you looked up and saw yourself in the mirror.

Was it some kind of joke?

You looked down at the dresser, there were almost all the things you were missing from your room, you covered your mouth with your hand.

Had someone taken the form of Steve and kidnapped you?

You looked for all the furniture and drawers for the communicator to ask for help, nothing was there, then your mobile phone was not there, none of your belongings that you had taken to the mission.

You saw the door, maybe there was someone on the other side waiting for you, you went to the window, it had bars inside and outside, you couldn't escape through there, you opened the door, it was rare that I didn't have a lock, you tried to open the others but if they were closed with insurance, all the windows in the hall also had bars, you tried to peek through one, it seemed that what you saw was the tower of a castle.

For a moment you thought you were in Transylvania, you walked up the stairs and down, you went to the main entrance and tried to open, it was impossible.

"You woke up princess at last," Steve said.

"Steven, what does this mean?" you asked.

He did not answer your question.

You came up annoyed and you slapped him, I was hoping that if he was someone with the appearance of your boyfriend maybe he would show his true face, but nothing changed more than his expression, now he felt a little annoyed.

Steve grabbed your wrist and dragged you to the table, you tried to get away without success.

"Let go of me, you hurt me," you complained.

"You have to eat," he ordered.

He forced you to sit down, you looked at the plate with food, you were not going to eat anything, but your stomach protested, so you had no other option, although you could not deny that the food was delicious.

"Let's dance princess," Steve said suddenly.

"I don't want to," you refused.

He pulled you hard to get up.

"I said we are going to dance."

He was guiding you, you were trying not to move, but it was practically impossible.

"Why are you doing this?"

"Because I love you and they want to separate us," he replied.

"Steve, let's go back to base, please," you asked.

"No princess, I will not allow anyone to separate us."

He tried to kiss you.

“Don’t!

You pushed him, took off your shoes, and started running all over the place trying to escape, all the doors were still closed, and he caught you.

"You are behaving very badly princess," he sentenced.

"Leave me!" You shouted.

He struggled and dragged you to the room where you woke up, you kept screaming, maybe if someone listened to you they could help you.

"Shout all you want, no one will listen to you, I built this castle especially for you," he explained.

"I don't care, I want to go back to base, I don't want to be here," you whimpered.

Steve looked hurt, he had done all that especially for you and you didn't appreciate it.

"You need a punishment," he sentenced.

He took out handcuffs and chained you to one of the bedposts.

"You will stay like this until tomorrow, I hope you think about your behavior princess."

You saw the clock, it was four o'clock in the afternoon, you screamed and cried until you fell asleep, you did not know where he had gone, you hoped that others would notice that they were not there and would look for you and find you, although you were not sure if they would believe you.

At seven the next morning, Steve came in, he saw you asleep, started kissing you.

"Time to wake up princess," he whispered in your ear.

"Steve, let's go back to the base please," you asked again.

"No princess, let's have breakfast," he refused.

He took you to the dining room, maybe it was best not to make him mad, but you probably wouldn't eat all day.

Then he decided it was time to take a bath, he entered the bathroom with you but not the tub, and he began to wash your body with the sponge.

"Steve, I can do it alone," you said calmly, you didn't want to alter it.

"I want to help you, princess," he replied.

It was awkward, yet you were at a noticeable disadvantage.

"Put this on," she said, giving you another dress.

“Don’t you have jeans or something? “You asked.

"I want you to dress appropriately princess."

You put on the light blue dress that you had reluctantly chosen under Steve's watchful eye.

“You like them? I had them made especially for you, “he commented.

“They are cute”.

He brushed your hair and then put on another tiara, you felt ridiculous dressing like this, and you looked away from the mirror.

"Like you, princess, you know, we are going to be very happy here," he assured you.

"Something must have happened to Steve and Y/N," Natasha said concerned.

"I'm sure Steve is guilty," said Wanda.

"Come on, I don't think Capsicle will be able to harm someone," Tony commented.

Wanda tried to call you unsuccessfully for the tenth time. After several more attempts, they managed to locate your mobile phone near a river.

Steve managed to send false leads, making others believe that here you were kidnapped by some enemy.

Again he had left you alone, but this time you were not handcuffed, you started to check the place looking for an escape.

As soon as you heard the castle door open, you ran, maybe you could escape, Steve threw you to the ground to get away so you got up and changed your strategy, you locked yourself in the room, he opened it easily since he had the keys.

You started throwing at him what you were hiring without importing if you broke or hit him, you wanted to keep him away from you and as soon as you had the opportunity you would go out the door.

He kept coming closer, he threw you against the bed and got on top of you, easily taking off your dress.

"No, no, what are you doing?" you asked, trying to pull him away from you without success.

"You need a lesson, I wanted to do things well, but you refuse to cooperate, then it will be otherwise," he said.

He started stroking your breasts roughly and sucking your body, you kept struggling and the tears started to come out of your eyes, previously Steve had never forced you into anything, but now he seemed not to care what you want.

He penetrated you without caring that you weren't ready, it hurt a lot.

“Stop!”

He covered your mouth with one of his hands as he continued, stopped until he came.

"We will get married and have many children," he said before leaving.

You did not know how much you were going to endure, but you were completely sure that you would find a way to escape.

Taking advantage that Steve was asleep, you hated that princess nightgown that forced you to sleep.

You didn't put on your sneakers, which would give you away, you carefully took the keys, and you knew Steve was smart, but anyone could make a mistake.

You held your breath, one wrong move and it could all end… it didn't sound like such a bad idea if you were sure he was going to kill you, but you knew it wouldn't, it was much worse.

You walked as fast as you could.

You opened the door and started running through the garden, you had no idea where the entrance was.

You didn't even care to feel the grass against your bare feet or the stones, you ran as fast as you could look for the exit.

You heard Steve's voice calling out to you behind you.

You entered the maze, there you could lose it and sneak away, and you hoped that the exit was the door if so, you would go to the nearest town to call Wanda.

You kept walking, sometimes you stopped when you thought you heard Steve close by.

It seemed endless, honestly, you had no idea where you were going, and suddenly Steve tackled you, knocking you to the ground.

"You did something very bad princess," he said between his teeth.

He carried you, you tried to get away, bit him, kicked him, however, he was stronger and taller than you, easily pinned you down, took you back inside the castle.

He tore your nightgown and put you in the tub, he carved you with great force.

"Steve, stop, you hurt me," you asked.

"You have been a very bad girl, princess," he repeated.

“You can have what you want, I can give you anything and still you're trying to escape”

He tied your hands to the headboard.

"You have me kidnapped!"

He slapped you so hard that tears came out of your eyes, he turned you so that you were face down.

“When princesses are bad, they should be taught a lesson.”

He took off his belt and hit your ass several times with it, at first you tried not to make any noise, but the pain was more so you ended up screaming, after a while, you weren't sure if it had been minutes or hours, but what that if you knew is that probably in a few days you could not sit down.

What were you going to do? You had no way out.

If you tried to run away again or something he did not like, he was surely going to do the same, if you did what he wanted even if it was against your wishes, you did not know where you had gone again, he refused to answer your questions, your body still hurt and you were hungry.

"My King, you returned," you said in a shaky voice.

"I see that you finally understood, princess," he congratulated you.

You looked away, you didn't know exactly how you should behave and you were terrified of doing something that would infuriate him, but you were determined to play along.

"I have something to show you," he commented.

He took your hand and led you to the living room showed you some photos.

You covered your face with your hands horrified to see the photos with the crime he had committed, Steve had murdered everyone, your friends too.

"Steve ... why?" You asked crying.

"No one is going to separate us," he assured you with a smile.

No one was going to save you, you would be trapped in that place for the rest of your life.