#in case it wasn't already abundantly clear

[the-arch-conservative]

We must protect and uphold our beautiful arches! They must not be replaced with square frames, which are boring! And also degenerate or something!

And this blog totally isn't just being held by me for the sake of keeping a reactionary from holding this URL! That couldn't be me!

Uphold the tradition of arches, which are round, and are therefore friend-shaped! Friend-shaped arches are cool and good, and should be conserved!

If you do not cry in near-patriotic reverence every time you see an arch, you are stinky and I do not like nor trust you!

Monarchs, oligarchs, matriarchs, patriarchs. Why can't we just have a regular arch

[justauthoring]

hi! congrats on 32k! for your milestone event (?) i choose sanemi and the prompt, ⭐️ - stepping in front of the other to shield them (preferably a happy ending but feel free to write what you want, i don't mind. i'm just a sucker for happy endings 😅) anyway, thank you and congratulations again!

⭐️ - stepping in front of the other to shield them

word count: 849

a/n: this ended up being much longer than i expected... :)))

a cry rips from your throat, echoing in the dark and empty forest.

but you don't hear it. all you hear is the rapid and heavy pounding of your heart against your chest - thump thump - blood racing through your veins and freezing your muscles because of the fear.

it wasn't like you hadn't thought this would ever happen, but it was different being faced with it in reality. signing up for the demon slayer corps with the understanding that it could end with your death hadn't been a second thought in your mind. you were prepared for the worst case scenario.

or, at least, you thought you had been.

because you're terrified. the sinking realization comes with a weight upon your body you can't afford to entertain in this moment; very well, an action like that could lead to your death.

but you're in pain. a lot of pain. there's a gaping wound in your left hip that is bleeding - a lot - and your vision is blurred because of the way your head had bounced against the tree trunk you're no leaning against seconds ago. you can't afford to lose consciousness, because then you really will die but your head is throbbing and your body aches and you can't see straight.

i'm going to die. the thought occurs to you almost like a cruel joke.

this demon, meant to be nothing more, turned out to be a lower moon demon and you, a tsuguko, were not trained enough to handle a lower moon demon all on your own.

you'd held your own for as long as you could but your strength was dwindling and it was becoming abundantly more clear that death was becoming more and more likely.

you don't want to die - that thought occurs to you as well. although joining the demon corps had seemed like a sure way to end your life early, and you'd told yourself you understood that, you didn't want to die.

pressing your bloodied palms to the forest floor, you try to heft yourself back up to your feet. it ends in failure as your back crashes into the bark of the tree once again, scratching you're already torn uniform and cutting into your skin.

the menacing laughter of the lower moon approaches and the striking fear makes you feel like you could cry.

it's large body shadows you, blocking the moonlight from your body and enveloping you in further darkness. you feel your eyes water but hold back the desperate need to cry; even if these were to be your final moments, you were still a demon slayer. even further, you were the tsuguko of the wind hashira.

that was no easy feat.

you would not succumb to tears.

it's eyes glow in the darkness and you see the claws that glint down at you. you brace yourself, clutching your katana even if the act in of itself is useless, waiting for the inevitable.

it never comes.

it takes you a second to force your eyes open once more. your eyelashes stick together from the caked and dried blood, but you blink them open, swallowing back the lump in your throat, thinking that it must be a sick twist of fate to be toyed with in your final moments.

but then you see a familiar head of white hair and the familiar kanji that reads; 'to kill'.

"sanemi!"

it doesn't even occur to you that you call him by his first name, the name leaving your lips in a shrill and crack cry of relief.

he stands strong in front of you, shoulders wide and body tense with the anticipation for a fight. you've no idea why he's here or how he even found you, but your relief at the sight is palpable and the choked smile that curls on your lips is undeniable.

"it'll be okay," he calls out, voice sharp and determined. it's softer than you're used to and it warms you in a way you hadn't thought possible. "just stay there," he orders, "don't die on me."

he's moving in a flash before you can say anything, striking at the demon and moving in the way that's always brought you pure admiration. he's incredibly skilled, moving in such flow and precise movement that you could only dream of achieving.

it feels like seconds but is probably at least a few minutes before sanemi returns to you. skin covered in a thin coat of sweat but otherwise unscathed, sanemi falls to his knees next to you, eyes peeling across your body and assessing your injuries.

"sanemi-"

"don't speak," he cuts in. "we need to get you to the butterfly mansion. you're bleeding too much."

he's reaching to grab you and you fall into his grasp with ease, enjoying his touch and the safety it brings. as he pulls you up and into your arms, you notice the way he holds onto your like you might disappear from his very grasp.

"i'm going to get you somewhere safe, okay?" comes his hoarse and gruff voice, "just hold on til then."

[a-killer-obsession]

PITCHING TENTS ⛺️

Kid Pirates x AFAB Reader Modern AU Campground Series

🔞 MINORS DNI 🔞

It wasn't something you'd ever admit to those who knew you, they all made the reasonable assumption that you went camping to spend time alone. At first, that had been the case, but you'd quickly come to learn that other single men your age were doing the same thing, and you found yourself loving the thrill of a romp with a stranger.

Masterlist || AO3 || Part One

PART 3/6 - GETTING WET (Kid + bonus Killer)

CW: sex with stranger, afab reader, semi-public sex, handjobs, shower sex, p in v sex, unsafe sex, blowjobs, oral, squirting, facials, kid is a bit shy, pool/spa sex, unsafe sex, anal fingering, rough sex, face fucking, degrading language, creampie

WC: ~4k

Taglist: @nocturnalrorobin @bbnbhm

You were feeling pretty damn good when you got up the next morning. You had four lovely prospects for fucking right next door, though you were more than happy if it turned out only Killer was down to fuck. The dreams you'd had about him and that fat cock of his were sensational, and with how wet you were when you woke you wouldn't be surprised if you'd cum in your sleep. An early riser by habit because of your office job, you decided to have a shower before thinking about food, still a little sticky from last night's unexpected kitchen romp. You weren't super surprised to see that of your neighbours, only Killer was awake, sitting in a folding camp chair with his feet up on another, a book in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other.

You flashed him a smile, and then you flashed him your tits. His grin grew wide and he quickly put down his coffee and book, stalking you to the showers. You weren't sure you'd seen any other females in the campgrounds other than Margie, so the bathrooms would no doubt be deserted, perfect. He scanned the grounds for a moment to check nobody was watching before following you in, shower already running and clothes already discarded. He pulled off his shirt as he approached, closing the cubicle door behind him and kicking off his shoes and pants before locking his mouth with yours. Your hand found his cock quickly, pumping it a few times before pulling away and turning to face the wall, arching your back and sticking out your ass so it was abundantly clear what you wanted. He was quick to shealth himself in you, fucking you hard till your legs were jelly and he had to hold you steady, practically using you like a cock sleeve. You fucking loved every second of it, and he got you cumming twice before you turned and knelt in front of him, eagerly blowing him, your mouth stretching and your eyes watering as he hit the back of your throat. He pulled out of your mouth with a pop, jerking himself off and cumming ropes of hot cum over your face and waiting tongue.

He spanked your ass as you stood back up and excused himself, but promised to bring you breakfast when you got out. You finished your shower in post coital bliss, your legs still wobbly. Dressed in a fresh set of clothes for the day, a summery dress with a deep neckline and a short skirt, you headed back to your tent with a skip in your step. He came over with two plates of bacon, scrambled eggs, and buttered toast, sitting in your ‘guest’ chair as he handed yours.

“Nice setup you have here,” he noted.

“Yeah, took a few years to get it the way I like,” you hummed, taking a forkful of delicious eggs, “you should see the bed. Most important part.”

“I'd love to later,” he grinned. “So this is your thing then? You come to camp and fuck random dudes?”

“Yup, pretty much,” you smiled coyly. “Annual tradition”

“Admirable, really,” he replied. “I love a woman who knows what she wants.”

“What I want is a taste of your friends as well,” you smiled, “think they're game?”

“For you? Absolutely,” he laughed, “They should just count themselves lucky that I'm fine with sharing, or I'd have you locked away in that tent for the next few days”

“Baby I'd suck you dry,” you replied smugly.

“Oh I fully believe that,” he grinned. “How long you here for?”

“Few more days,” you told him, “but don't tell your friends I'm trying to fuck them, I like the hunt”

“Well, if you're unsuccessful you know where to find me,” he said as he stood and took your empty plate.

“Oh I'm sure I will anyway,” you winked, “catch you later, I'm gonna go binge watch some trashy tv shows”

“Sounds like fun,” he smiled as he headed to the kitchen to wash up, “later.”

After a decent few hours of watching some trashy tv drama on your laptop, you fixed yourself a quick lunch, read a little of your book, and decided to hit up the pool. Your neighbours were currently not in, you'd heard their ute starting up an hour or so ago, no doubt headed to town. Slipping on one of the several bikinis you'd brought with you, you grabbed a towel and your slip on sandals and headed to the pool. You were surprised when you got there to see a puff of red hair from someone at the deep end of the pool resting against the side, his back to you. You deposited your shoes and towel in a cubby and slipped into the water, heading for the opposite side of the deep end. The pool wasn't a massive complex, just one decently sized pool with a shallow end where the water came up to your waist, and a deep end where you couldn't reach the floor. The deep end was covered in a large fabric cover for shade, and there was also a smaller, very shallow, covered pool for little ones, currently very much abandoned. Both pools were filled with naturally heated water that gave off a slight sulphur smell.

You mirrored the redhead and leaned against the titled edge of the pool. The cool tile was a nice contrast to the warm water, which you knew from the advertising for this place was enriched with minerals due to the source of the heated water. It was supposed to be healing, though you weren't sure how true that was. The hot water did feel soothing on the muscles though.

“Thought you all went to town,” you said loud enough for the redhead to hear, which wasn't difficult due to the pool pumps being the only sound other than the birds in the surrounding forest. It was one of the reasons you loved this camp, the pool complex was right at the edge of the grounds, untouched native forest visible on just the other side of the chain link fence, and you often saw birds you would never dream of seeing in the city.

“Stump was hurtin’” he mumbled back, waving what was left of his left arm in example, “Killer said the water here is supposed to be healing or some shit”

“Yeah, it's supposed to have minerals or something in the water, cos of the geothermal source,” you explained, “I don't know if it's just a tourist trap thing or something but the warm water is certainly nice on sore bodies”

“Mmm,” he replied, closing his eyes and resting his head back against the cold tile. “What's your name?”

“[Y/N], you?”

“Kid”

“Nice to meet you, Kid,” you smiled. You turned over and let the back of your head rest against the metal rail that circled the pool just under the water level, letting the rest of your body float weightlessly. Your eyes were closed as you let yourself softly bob in the water for a while. When you opened them the redhead was staring, a small blush creeping over his face as he realised you'd caught him and he quickly looked away. “You don't have to be shy you know, I don't mind you looking. You can even touch if you want,” you purred at him.

His face went through a million different expressions, looking between you and the gate to the pool complex. You wondered whether he was checking if he was going to get in trouble, or whether he was considering fleeing. You took it upon yourself to give him some encouragement, swimming over to him lazily.

“Would you like to touch me, Kid?” You asked, voice laced with honey. It worked like a siren song, and he pinned you between his body and the side of the pool, running his hand up your exposed belly till his fingers ran under the edge of your bikini top and his hand groped your breast. “There you are, no need to be shy, I don't bite, unless you want me to”

You ran a hand down his chest, you could feel the solid muscle under the soft outer layer, and you traced a long scar that ran down from left armpit to his abdomen. “These scars are sexy,” you hummed, before sliding your hand over the front of his swimming shorts. They were severely tented, you could feel his large cock straining against the fabric, and he made a little groan as you stroked him through it. Curious to see how he compared to his friend, you tugged on the waistband of his shorts till his cock sprung free. It was a little shorter than Killer's, but fuck did it have a girth that was going to split you wide open.

“Fuck,” you whispered under your breath as you struggled to wrap a hand around it, pumping it a few times, “look at you, how's that gonna fit in me?”

He grinned, beaming with pride, his hand slipping under your own waistband. You lifted a leg so he could feel the slick between your legs, and you let out a small moan as he pushed a thick finger inside you.

“Don't get greedy girlie,” he growled, “I ain't fucking you out in the open in the middle of the fuckin’ day”

“No? Not one for a little public indecency?” You tutted, “that fat cock of yours is making me ache though, what if I find us somewhere more private?”

“What did you have in mind?” You bucked a little as he slid in a second finger. God, even his fingers were girthy.

“Give me five minutes,” you whispered in his ear before tugging on the lobe with your teeth. He made a little growl but removed his fingers from you. The emptiness disappointed you but it would be all worth it for that monster he was holding back on. “Come with me”

You held his hand and led him out of the pool, letting go to grab your stuff from the cubby. Tucked back into his pants, not that it made his erection any less obvious, he grabbed his own shit and followed you out the opposite gate from where he had entered. The small complex was fenced off and had two gates: one that connected to the camp grounds, and one that connected to a secluded back path, actually paved as opposed to the gravel that was everywhere else, and leading to the office/shop building. This was the entry that visitors just here for the pool used, but there was also another facility along this path. Stopping at a gate next to a tall fence, you instructed him to wait there a few minutes and you continued down the path.

The shop was of course unmanned, so you rang the little bell on the counter and Margie came hobbling out.

“[Y/N]! I see you've been having a swim,” she smiled, “what can I do for you?”

“Well Marg my dear,” you replied with your sweetest tone, “I was just enjoying the warm water and was thinking about how much some even hotter water would feel great on my aching muscles. You know how camping beds can be. I left my wallet back at the tent though, is there any chance I could rent a spa and pay for it when I come grab ice later?”

“Of course sweetheart,” she grabbed a key from a back wall, a thick white tag with a number on it hanging from the keyring. “We ain't expecting any other rentals today, stay however long you like, I'll just charge you for what you use”

“You're an absolutely angel, Marg,” you grinned back, grabbing the key and flashing her a grateful smile before heading back down the path.

Kid was patiently waiting for you, shuffling on his feet, his hand itching to palm himself but preoccupied holding his shit. Absolute worst time to only have one arm. You jiggled the key at him happily and led him inside the tall gate he'd been waiting next to.

“What's the key for?” He asked curiously.

“You'll see,” you winked. Inside the tall fence was a series of five large, round, concrete huts with conical tiled roofs. You unlocked the door to the one that matched the number on the key tag and held the door open for Kid, who followed you in with a suspicious gaze. Inside the room was a large private spa, heated with the same nearby geothermal activity, but not watered down with cold water like the main pools. Well, not as much anyway. The source water actually ran unhindered in a small stream through part of the camp, with the world's least practical fence (aka a single wire with an occasional post) and dotted signs that warned you would absolutely be boiled alive if you fell in. It wasn't a fancy spa, since it didn't require electronic heating like most did. Instead it was a large raised tub, mostly cement with decorative tiles, set in a wooden platform that took up the back half of the round room, with buttons to activate jet pumps and a tap for adding cool water if you so required to adjust to your comfort. The water was cycled continuously to keep the tubs hot, and since there was no need for power to heat them they were kept hot 24/7, the small pump being the only electronic, and also the only sound in the small echoed room. Next to the door was a small wooden bench, where you dumped your things, as well as your bikini. Kid watched you with a blush as you shamelessly peeled it off and slid into the spa, letting out a satisfied moan at the hot water and sliding over to the edge to hit the jet button. Nudity was frowned upon in these private rooms, and sex was very much even more discouraged, but in the small soundproof room behind a locked door, who was going to stop you? Certainly not Margie. Hopefully not Kid.

The water sprang to life, bubbling around you from the jets, and you sat yourself on the built in bench with a jet massaging the small of your back. Kid dumped his stuff next to yours and checked the door was locked, awkwardly standing near the bench and palming himself through his shorts at the sight of your tits jiggling in the water.

“Care to join me?” You smiled.

Finally he let his shorts drop to the floor, and he lifted himself with his one hand to sit on the wood that surrounded the spa, swivelling on his ass to put his legs in. Before he could slide in entirely you swam over, placing a hand on his wide thigh to still him as your other wrapped around the base of his hard dick.

“Allow me,” you smirked, running your tongue up the underside of his cock. He tasted of chlorine from the pool but you paid it no mind, he'd be tasting of saliva and precum in no time. He groaned and fisted his hand in your hair as you ran your tongue over the head of his cock, before sucking it into your mouth and hollowing your cheeks. You knew you could take his length, but his girth was another thing, and your lips were stretched to their limit as you swallowed him into your throat. He let out a deep groan as your nose met his curly red pubes, his hand holding you in place till you tapped his thigh and he let you go to breathe. You ran your tongue up the underside again before your started bobbing your head on his cock, blowing him with practised skill as he let out a string of curses and grunts.

In the mood to get rough, you put your hand against his and encourage him to push, to control the movement of your head. He eagerly took your suggestion and held your hair tight, pulling your head back and forth and making small thrusts to match, making his cock touch the back of your throat as he fucked your face. One of your hands gripped his thigh hard and the other reached between your legs, rubbing your clit furiously and fingering yourself as you enjoyed being used by a stranger.

“Ohh fuck yes,” Kid groaned, “I'm gonna cum right down that tight little slut throat of yours, take it you fucking whore”

You whined with his cock deep in your mouth, the vibrations putting him over the edge. Thick salty cum coated your throat as he let out a roar that sent tingles down your spine. He pulled his cock out with a pop and you gave him a half lidded grin as he pulled your hair, pressing his hungry lips to yours in a bruising kiss and tasting his own cum on your tongue as he rubbed his against it.

“Let me return the favour,” he smiled, sliding into the water and guiding you to take his place on the edge. You spread your legs wide for him the same way you had last night for Killer, you feet planted flat either side of you on the wooden boards, though it was easier here with the curved edge of the tub meaning your feet didn't have to be as far back.

“Fucking beautiful,” he mumbled to himself before diving between you legs and running a wide stripe with his tongue between your folds. You shuddered at the contact, already sensitive from touching yourself, and he eagerly sucked at your clit and rolled his tongue against it as he slid two fingers inside you, pumping you hard and fast. Your moans were loud and throaty as he ate you out and finger fucked you, and your hand fisted his soft red hair eagerly. He added a third finger and made come hither motions, zeroing in on your g-spot and driving you wild.

“Ohhhhhh fuck,” you growled in a deeper tone than normal, your voice shakey with the quickly building pleasure, “just like that, fuck, you're gonna make me squirt”

He looked up at you with sharp amber coloured eyes and grinned against your pussy, the hungry look in his eyes putting you over the edge as you screamed and pulled his hair hard, coming with a wild gush that splashed against his chin and hand, dripping into the spa water. You shook hard as he worked you through it, a delirious smile on your face as your head lolled back. When your pussy stopped clamping around him he removed his fingers, making one more wide lick up your centre before he knelt on the built in bench to hover over you. You wrapped your arms around his shoulder and your legs around his waist and kissed him eagerly, tasting yourself on him. Wrapping his arm under your ass, he pulled you into the water, seating you in his lap on the opposite side of the small pool.

His cock was hard again underneath you and you eagerly rubbed yourself against it before giving in, reaching down and lining yourself up with him. The stretch was insane as you lowered yourself onto him, your head buried in his shoulder, you swore you could cum again from the stretch alone.

“There's a good little slut,” Kid purred as you started to bounce yourself on his cock, his hand teasing and pinching your nipple, “taking my fat cock like a champ, good fucking slut”

“Fuck your big dick feels so good inside me,” you moaned, “so fucking big, fuck~”

Your legs were jelly at this point and he could feel how shakey you were, so he flipped the two of you so you were underneath him and pulled out.

“Bend over for me sweetheart,” he asked, lining himself back up immediately and starting a deep but languid pace. His heavy member pressed against your g-spot, rutting against it with every thrust, making you whine and claw at the wooden boards. His hand squeezed at your ass cheek before rubbing a thumb over your asshole, waiting for you to protest. When you didn't he sunk his thumb into the first knuckle, and you let out a deep moan that made him grin.

His pace increased as his thumb went deeper, pumping your asshole slowly as you loosened around him, till his thumb could match the pace of his cock. You were a mewling mess underneath him with both your holes being filled, cursing that you didn't have any lube on you for him to go the whole way and fuck your ass. You'd done anal before, but never with a stranger, and the mere suggestion had you cumming again, clamping down on him.

“Oh fuck bitch, you're so fucking tight,” he groaned, “can I cum in you?”

“Yess, fuck, fill me up,” you whined. Was it a mistake not using a condom? Probably. But you had your birth control so one or two creampies wouldn't hurt, right?

As soon as you granted permission he was unloading inside you, gripping your hip hard as he made a few more thrusts inside you before letting out a satisfied groan and resting his head against your back. He caught his breath for a few moments and pulled out, pulling you back into the water with him to sit in his lap. You turned yourself sideways to sit across him, happily letting him suck on your neck while your own breathing settled. His arm stayed around your waist to keep you in place and you very nearly fell asleep from the combination of hot water and satisfying orgasms.

“You're a lot more confident that you make out to be,” you noted.

“Yeah, well, I used to be like that all the time,” he said, a tint of sadness in his voice. “Before, you know,” he lifted the stump that remained of his arm and sighed.

“Did it all happen at the same time?” You asked curiously, “the arm and the scars? You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to, I'm just curious”

“Yeah, motorsport accident,” he explained, “used to race formula one cars. Was pretty fucking good too till a dodgy wheel burst mid race and sent me spiralling. Doctors said I'm lucky to be alive, but as you can imagine, my confidence isn't where it used to be”

“That's understandable,” you replied, nestling your head into the crook of his neck in a comforting embrace, “I imagine it was a big change for you, I can't imagine losing a limb is easy either. For the record though, I think its sexy. You look like a bad boy who gets in a lot of fights”

Kid snorted and grinned, amused. “To be fair, I do get in a lot of fights”

“Aha!” You exclaimed, “So you are a bad boy! I'm sure the girls must be all over you back home”

“Used to be, not so much these days,” he sighed.

“Maybe you just gotta fake it till you make it,” you suggested, “give em the confidence you gave me in here and they'll be drooling and dropping panties for that fat dick in no time”

Kid laughed and squeezed you closer. “You're a weird chick, I like it”

“Why thank you sir,” you replied, “I'll remember that kind compliment when your cum is dripping out of me next time I stand up. Which should probably be soon, I'm going wrinkly, and Margie is charging me for whatever time I use”

“Let me know what you owe her, I'll cover it,” he replied, helping you off his lap. You climbed over the edge of the tub and stretched your arms out.

“Nah don't worry about it,” you smiled as you stood and grabbed your towel to dry off, “it was money well spent, and it was my idea anyway”

“Alright, but I owe you a beer,” he huffed as he started drying himself off. Even flaccid, his cock was impressive.

“Killer already invited me for drinks some time so I'll definitely take you up on that,” you smiled.

“Aye, when did you talk to Kil?” He asked, sliding his shorts back on.

“After he fucked me in the kitchen last night,” you winked, and his brows, or rather the space where they would be, shot up in surprise, “and in the shower this morning”

“That fucking dog,” he laughed, “so you're just tryna to fuck all of us then? Is that it?”

“You betcha,” you smiled as you finished redressing, “but don't tell the one with the tattoos or the tall one, I like the fun of luring them in”

“You're certainly fucking effective, goddamn siren,” he smirked, “not even twenty four hours and you've fucked half of us. I'm impressed, honestly. Their names are Heat and Wire by the way, Wire is the tall one”

“Oh, thanks!” You smiled, making sure to turn off the jets and check you hadn't forgotten anything before locking up. You paused outside the tall gate. “I gotta go return the key, I'll catch you later. You boys drinking tonight?”

“No doubt, the others went to town mostly to get more booze and weed,” he replied.

“Great, count me in then,” you started walking towards the store, “see ya later!”

He gave you a small peace sign in reply and headed the other way back to camp.

[NEXT PART]

[vidavalor]

My recent Neil Gaiman post was also a bit of an experiment so here are the results I've yielded: I have now received fourteen different Asks in the last 30 minutes since posting it, all using the same three, scripted phrases in their messages... in case it wasn't clear that there is some serious, coordinated, bot farm action happening with this whole Neil Gaiman thing. To make it *abundantly* clear: I believe his victims and he self-admitted to predatory behavior. None of that is even in question at this point. The anti-trans bigots and whatever anti-West countries are helping support them are definitely all over this, though, as I'm sure many of you can already tell. A lot of the bloggers you don't know that you are engaging with on this are likely not real people. Just thought I'd share that in case it helps anyone who is feeling frustrated.

[biffhofosho]

Who's ready to talk about the 7th brother I won't let anyone forget? Gotta start my Wonho thread simply before I get completely untethered.

[thelost-in-time]

Til death do us part and beyond

Divider by @cafekitsune

This fic is not going to fall in line with the Canon and may not be exactly the same as the actual characters personalities.

Anos Voldigoad x gn! Reader

Featuring an Anos Voldigoad and a reader who have a playful banter of Anos saying reader is his future monarch (since he is king) and reader saying no: but they've been married since two thousand years ago so reader is the monarch while Anos is king, and find the banter funny.

Tw: death. Also super ooc so don't fight me.

@aizawasecretlover this Anos Voldigoad x reader fic is yours 👀

Anos Voldigoad. The demon king reborn that so happens to have stolen the hearts of men and women alike.

And yet there was one single person who his heart was set on, one single person who his gaze always lingered on.

You.

"You should meet my parents. They'll love you."

Anos said as he put his hands in his pockets before glancing over at you, the one who would make his steady heart beat rapidly when nobody else could do so.

"Didn't I already meet them?"

You had asked him as you raised an eyebrow, because it was true. Anos did introduce his parents to his friends, and you were there when he did so.

His parents adored you, maybe more than the others, and yet nobody could explain why, nobody except the Demon King himself.

But he gave no explanation.

"Yes, but I want you to meet them again. Just you and I."

Anos said with a shrug, but you couldn't help but narrow your eyes as you saw that mischievous glint in his eyes.

You already knew what was comimg.

"Is this a—"

"Maybe."

Damn. He didn't even try to hide it. He made his courting to you abundantly clear to you and eveyone around.

Not that you minded too much.

"Have some kind of shame, Anos. If people see you flirting so openly with your other right hand person, then it's going to be a problem."

You say with an exasperated sigh as the two of you continue to walk around, even stopping at a bakery to grab some of the treats to eat.

"They already know. I haven't hid anything."

He smirks as he carefully pulled the leaf out that had been tangled in your hair, muttering something about being careful in case there were bugs on the tree.

"In any case, you're not just my right hand person. You're my future monarch too."

He said with a proud smirk, causing you to roll your eyes. He was never going to shut up about teasing you about being the future monarch.

But was that so bad when his teasing was as gentle and loving as it was.

Before he could get another word in, he found the pastry held to his mouth and a serious look on your face.

He smiled and happily obliged. If it was cutting down on the teasing while you ate that you wanted, it was what he would give you.

Tonight was a night that reminded you both of final night of your previous lives.

It was a night where Anos wasn't playfully bantering with you. He just stood under the blanket of the night sky and began to ponder, reminiscing, regretting.

*Back to the past*

"Anos, come on. You can't be serious."

The voice of his beloved rang out that day, clear in his head as he sat on his throne with Hero Kanon in front of him.

"If it means that there will be peace among our people, then I don't mind it. Peace is something we agreed we wanted."

He said as he stood up and looked over at you, one of his greatest friends, one of his companions, and more importantly his spouse.

"I don't want you to do this, but I know you're insistent on this."

You sigh before you looked over at Hero Kanon with a determination in your eyes that Anos was used to seeing when you wouldn't back down. It was one of the things he loved about you, but now it worried him.

"Love, what are you—"

"Kanon, kill me alongside Anos."

Silence.

It was so sudden, and it was as if time froze at your words. Anos would swear that he's never been more afraid of anything until that moment. The fear of having you lose your life just so you could be together in death as well was a bittersweet moment for him.

And Kanon? He was just as stunned, and he was far more hesitant to let you meet the same fate as Anos, especially when he saw how shaken up the demon king was. It was a sight nobody had ever witnessed before. It was... unsettling that there was actually something that scared the demon king of tyranny.

"No. I won't allow for your life to be cut so short. Why would you even think of something like that, my monarch?"

Anos asked as he gently grabbed your arm, looking at you with a desperation in his eyes that was never ever seen before. It was quite heartbreaking for you to have to witness such a sight, since your husband had no fears except losing you.

"Anos, it's not living if it's not with you."

You told him, your tone gentle as you gently held his hands and interwined your fingers, almost hearing the heartbeat of the man in front of you that you'd exchanged vows with.

"I can't... you..."

He couldn't get any words out yet, his heart heavy, trying to think of ways to convince you not to go through with it.

"Anos, I love you. And until death do us part, but even death can't separate us. And hey, we could always reincarnate together."

You say, holding back your own tears over all this. But you told yourself that at least one of you needed to be strong, and if your husband would fall apart, you'd be the one to hold him together, because you loved him as much as he loved you.

"You better find me, my beloved, otherwise there's going to be problems."

Anos said softly as he rested his forehead against yours, hugging you close to him as the two of you just teared up together, embracing the warmth together one last time before you would need to reincarnate after two thousand years.

"I'll find you. I promise. My thoughts will echo your name until I see you again."

You told him as he leaned in and kissed your forehead, gently cupping your cheek before he rested his forehead against yours again.

"Likewise, I'll also think of you until we meet again. Not only was I enchanted to meet you, but being married to you is one of the best things to ever happen to me."

Anos said as you two just let the moment engulf you a little longer before pulling away reluctantly and nodding to Hero Kanon, who had been silent to let you have your moment.

It was time.

*Present day*

Anos didn't even know he was crying, nor did he even sense your presence until you gently wiped his tears and gave him a hug, having already figured out what he was thinking about since he was clenching his fists hard enough for his knuckles to turn white.

"You remembered our final day before reincarnation, didn't you?"

You asked him the rhetorical question as he hugged you back, hugging you as if he would lose you once more.

He hummed in confirmation, and you gently rubbed his back.

"Then let me remind you of our marriage. Think of the good times, my love."

You mumble, and he hummed once more as he too, remembered the first time you both got married.

*Even further back to the past*

You and Anos had just finished fighting a battle alongside each other before he gently cupped your cheek and wiped the blood off your face.

"Beloved..."

He began to speak as you had set down your sword to instead turn your gaze to him, wondering what he would say next.

"You've always been at my side."

He spoke once more, carefully choosing his words as the stars seemed to shine extra bright that night. It was a clear night.

"Yeah? You're not planning on firing me as your most trusted knight outside of Shin, right?"

You joked as you gently elbowed him, causing Anos to smile before he gently held your hands, looking deep into your eyes.

"Marry me."

He was so blunt that you choked on your spit, letting out a fit of coughs.

"Come again?!"

"Be my monarch, rule alongside me. Be mine."

Anos spoke again, kneeling on one knee in front of you as he held one of your hands in his, and his other hand rested over his heart.

"You're kidding."

In all fairness, you both had discussed it multiple times, but you always assumed he was kidding due to his rank.

"I've never been more serious about anything in my life. You and me. Through this life, and every other lifetimes. No matter how many times we have to be reborn, I will find you and you'll continue having my heart."

His confession was so real, straight from his heart. And you knew he meant every single word, because he looked at you like you were the only one in his entire world.

"You know what? Let's do it. Every birth from now and potential reincarnations, we will be born together, and we will never part."

You said and Anos smiled, standing up as he wrapped his arms around you and gently pressed a kiss to your forehead, a soft look in his eyes.

"I never thought that I would fall in love until I saw you, and I would never fall in love again until I find you again. And I would never fall, unless it's you I fall into."

Anos made his promise to you under the stars, the two of you accepting your love with the stars as a witness to your love and marriage.

*Present day... again...*

"I was lost within the darkness, but then I found you."

You tell him as he looks at you with love even to this day, as your heart and gazed filled with as much love for him as he had for you.

Anos smiles and kisses your hand, lightly tracing your ring finger as he looks at you, no sign of the cocky and teasing Anos Voldigoad that he shows to others. Only the man who fell in love with you.

"Now... ready to meet my parents as my lawfully wedded partner?"

"I'm ready as I'll ever be."

And with that, he held your hand, both of you linking your fingers as you walked home together, talking and laughing under the night sky.

BONUS:

*In another life, modern timeline*

An alarm went off, and when you had checked it, you couldn't help but smile since it was Anos who set the alarm.

He set a little message for you before sending you a text so you could go downstairs.

As you walk downstairs, you pass by Izabella and Gusta who both wish you a happy wedding anniversary with Izabella getting emotional at the fact that you're the spouse of Anos, and how thankful she was to be your mother-in-law.

And once you go downstairs, Anos had a smile on his face as he held his phone in one hand, and a bouquet of your favourite flowers in the other.

"I confirmed our reservation to your favourite restaurant. Are you ready?"

He asked with a soft tone as you took the flowers and put them in water before you looked over at him with a loving look.

"I sure am. Happy anniversary, my king."

You say, wrapping your arms around him to give him a warm embrace and gentle kiss.

"Happy anniversary, my monarch."

He mutters as he looks at you with love as well, noticing how both your wedding rings were shining in the light.

You loved each other in every life, and would continue to do so for every life too.

For not even death could do you part.

It was a love til death and beyond, and your vows said it too.

Until death do us part and beyond.

Hello! Please like and reblog my fic. I put so much effort into it and I already know there's not many fics of this man, so please give me support on this so I don't get lost in the Tumblr void.

[silcoitus]

Just in case it wasn't already abundantly clear:

Do not upload my fanfics (or any of my original work for that matter) to other platforms. ESPECIALLY AI ones.

If I find out you've done so, not only will I block you on everything so you can never read my works ever again, but I will make sure every author and every artist that I know will know your name, too, so that you may be blacklisted from anything we ever create. I will make it clear to every creative within my reach that you BETRAY the very people who give you art by STEALING it. That you are undeserving of the products of our love and labor.

My fury knows no bounds. My body is a vessel in which my rage is precariously tethered. I will not hesitate to unleash it if I feel I must do so.

[acquired-stardust]

Game Spotlight #15: Policenauts (1996)

Ash finds herself firmly back in the Kojimaverse as she talks about the 1996 Sega Saturn version of Policenauts for Acquired-Stardust's first spotlight of our second year. Disappointing followup or misunderstood masterpiece? And just what is a "sexy adventure" anyway? Come read along as we answer all these questions and more!

Oh, Hideo Kojima. When last we covered his work in written form on the blog it was almost a year ago in the form of a spotlight on 1994's Sega CD port of Snatcher (which you can read by clicking here). If it wasn't already abundantly clear let me state the obvious: I'm a huge fan of the man and his work. I think he's one of gaming's top creative geniuses alongside the likes of Yasumi Matsuno, Fumito Ueda and Yoko Taro. But you could be forgiven for not sharing that feeling when looking at Policenauts on a surface level or by taking common talking points about it at face value.

Policenauts is something of a black sheep in the Kojima portfolio that is often maligned by people for being 'Snatcher but worse'. It has a similar fish out of water setup taking place in a near-future science fiction world. Its lead character, the womanizing Jonathan Ingram, has a similar relationship with a former lover to Snatcher's Gillian Seed and even looks a bit like him, a point that is alluded to in the game itself as part of a meta cameo (one of several callbacks and references to Snatcher). The sexuality and its use for attempts at comedy can be obnoxious and over the top. Some of the themes of Policenauts are also retreads of themes Snatcher deals with, which can certainly dip into feeling like they were less effective this time around. What's more, the game is far more linear and on-rails than Snatcher, presenting far fewer opportunities to tinker with it and discover much in the way of hidden easter eggs or cleverly placed extras. Some of its later developments feel a little bit like 'a hat on a hat' and not entirely necessary. Its featured romance is very forced and odd (though ultimately executed extremely well). These things are all true.

Be that as it may, make no mistake about it: Policenauts is a fantastic experience that is, like its lead character, a fascinating time capsule from a long gone era. Following a similar blueprint to Snatcher's usage of various sci-fi media (most notably Blade Runner), Policenauts is heavily patterned after the Lethal Weapon franchise, and uses the familiarity one may have with its buddy cop formula to get its foot in the door before subverting your expectations as it deviates into its own original work rather quickly.

Opening after an accident in combination policeman-astronaut (the titular Policenauts) Jonathan Ingram's testing of a high tech mech suit during a spacewalk outside of the space colony Beyond Coast that sends him adrift in space for 25 years while cryogenically frozen, Jonathan picks up where he left off by becoming a private investigator of meager success in Earth's Old LA. Finding himself a stranger in a world he is 25 years removed from and stricken with severe cosmophobia from his ordeal. Jonathan's former wife has moved on and remarried. His four fellow policenauts have settled into comfortable lives on space colony Beyond Coast as something of heroes and celebrities. Forced to overcome his cosmophobia when a very personal case sends him once more to Beyond Coast, Jonathan reunites with his best friend and former fellow policenaut Ed Brown (himself still a cop on the aforementioned space colony) to unravel a conspiracy.

It's often said that Jonathan is a very unlikable character, but I find the opposite to be true. There is a solemness, sadness and resilience to him that comes across very well, being inherently at odds with a time that did not stop and life that moved on without him. Much is also made, as previously noted, of his womanizing, and I'd like to address that talking point by first pointing out that much like Snatcher, the vast majority (in fact all but one or two instances) of the sexuality of the game is entirely optional and serves as a bit of meta humor. Jonathan's inability to control himself is a direct result of his literal inability to control himself as he is at the complete mercy of the player, who can decide to pester multiple female characters to with zero benefit. Just as well, Policenauts lands firmly in the genre of something I like to call 'Sexy Adventure', a term borrowed from a song featured in the iconic Lupin III franchise that contains works you might be familiar with such as Space Dandy, City Hunter, Dirty Pair and indeed Lupin III.

Several tropes of the genre include a strong sense of Japanese sensuality and horniness, action sequences involving guns and cars, romance, large scale conspiracies and characters who are masters of their particular fields to an absurd degree. Jonathan's womanizing, something almost exclusively indulged in as optional behavior by the player, is certainly less than Arsene Lupin III for example, but coming to terms with the horniness of this micro-genre is imperative if you hope to enjoy anything it has to offer. Just as well, Policenauts' original release platform before being ported to the Sega Saturn was the PC98 which (along with the earlier PC88) was known for a frankly overwhelming amount of pornographic hentai games. To a large extent this was very much the norm for games on the platform and the time, and while nothing in Policenauts borders on pornographic, the sexuality of it is to be expected.

Policenauts doubles down on a distinguishing feature of Snatcher in its thorough worldbuilding, and is perhaps the key area that the game shines in most especially when compared to Snatcher. Containing an in-game encyclopedia that is always accessible at the touch of a button, it is dauntingly dense and features countless clickable entries detailing many aspects of life, culture and science in the Policenauts universe, often dipping into heavy doses of hard science with surprisingly detailed explanations behind even mundane parts of everyday life on Beyond Coast, such as biodegradable plastics, a problem which Kojima envisioned solved by 2040. I was a bit taken aback by given the foresight of the plastics issue given our own real-world news cycles being dominated by topics like microplastics in recent years.

The level of real science involved in the encyclopedia is rewarding for those of us who like to devour every bit of information we can get our hands on and can pick out the real from the fictional and it helps make Beyond Coast feel all the more real. The sci-fi Japanifornia that is Beyond Coast is almost a character unto itself to an even further extent than Snatcher's setting of Neo Kobe and remains in my book one of the most fleshed out and believable settings in all of gaming. Furthermore the knowledge Hideo Kojima has in a time before the level of availability and access to information we have in the current internet age is hugely impressive.

Overwhelming density is a recurring aspect of the game which may make or break your enjoyment of it. For a game that is less interactive than Snatcher it is somehow more dense, intimidatingly so if you are willing to indulge in its encyclopedia and really study the universe that Kojima created. The player is also able to examine a shocking number of elements of backgrounds and get multiple optional lines of dialogue about them, although as previously noted Policenauts offers much less in the way of diversion and distraction, and is significantly more linear.

Some of the core themes and strengths of Policenauts are similar to Snatcher, and while not all of them are as well executed this time around, a number of them exceed Snatcher. The importance of family, as well as different utilizations of it, is highlighted through the game. For Jonathan it is a trauma. A source of obligation and a constant reminder of not belonging in the world. Fellow former policenauts Ed Brown and Joseph Sadaoki Tokugawa are also used to explore these themes, with Ed's family keeping him grounded after personal and professional tragedy leaves him similarly traumatized and Tokugawa's lineage is a guiding beacon, instilling in him an ambition that sees his rise to the head of the Tokugawa Corporation, which has become large enough in the 25 years Jonathan spent in cryo sleep that it's said to quite literally own outer space. Ed's scenes with his family are perhaps the emotional core of the game and are shockingly well done for a game that features slapping a woman's breasts in an attempt to swat a mosquito.

Further themes explored are the way that the past becomes the future, and how easily it is manipulated by bad actors with agendas when few people who lived through it are around to contradict those agendas and narratives. Policenauts also plays into real history in its utilization of time as a story theme with its character names, often referencing real Sengoku-era Japanese family clans.

It is a fascinating predictor for some of the subjects explored through some of Kojima's later works. The toll that time takes on individuals is is also a constant fixture of the story. Pioneering heroes become broken down and traumatized. Corruption will slowly trickle in if you allow it to in ways that a past self would've stood against. One's life can always change in the future for both better and worse in ways that the present self could never have foreseen.

Jonathan contrasts Snatcher's Gillian Seed masterfully in this particular regard as a man who is a literal manifestation of the past, confronting his former comrades and the state of the world head-on as a reminder of the bright ideals that guided mankind to space to begin with. Also of particular note, without delving too much into spoiler territory, is the remarkable way that Jonathan trusts the corrupting factor of time to help Ed's son Marc given all the damage Jon has seen it do to those around him as well as the world itself.

Although there is a genuine tension to the game as well as a real feeling of both being and interacting with important in-universe figures, the conclusion of the game is a bit lackluster and sudden. Policenauts' plot is largely intentionally predictable, only containing a few twists you might not expect. The game's romance, previously noted as being a bit inexplicable, is ultimately resolved very satisfyingly and in a way that reinforces some prominent themes of the game.

Just as well the game takes criticism of Snatcher (and adventure games as well as visual novels as a whole) a little unevenly. It is far more linear than Snatcher, but features significantly more combat sections that see the player shoot an ungodly number of bullets and drop a frankly impossibly comedic amount of enemies by the end of the game. They are unnecessary and detract from the experience a bit, but understandable over-correctons to criticism of the traditional Japanese adventure game genre as well as Snatcher in particular.

As an aside, Policenauts features one of the most clever inclusions of a sound test mode that allows you to listen to various tracks from the game including its haunting opening theme "End of the Dark" as well as the fantastic "One Night in Neo Kobe" that was featured in the opening of Snatcher.

Policenauts is an uneven experience that in some ways reflects common trappings of its time while also looking forward to humanity's future. It asks some very pertinent questions about humanity's ability to conquer big issues if we are so unable to conquer the worst aspects of ourselves. Its usage of time and the trauma it can inflict on even the best of us can be rather sobering to see, and Jonathan's hope for Ed's son in the face of that is rather inspiring.

In some ways it reacts too strongly to criticism of adventure games as whole as well as Snatcher in particular by creating a lighter, more predictable and linear experience with more lightgun gameplay segments that detract from the overall package. Its sexuality and hamfisted comedy that comes part and parcel with the sexy adventure micro-genre can be a pain point, and it can be off putting in its density if you allow it to be. In some ways it is inferior to Snatcher, which makes an incredible case for the necessity of actually playing a good adventure game rather than just watching it that Policenauts sadly does not live up to.

But despite it all Policenauts is every bit as clever as Snatcher and in some ways it is just as strong, if not even stronger, a predictor of Hideo Kojima's future runaway success with Metal Gear Solid. Its highs may often not reach the peaks that Snatcher does, but even its valleys remain far higher than most games you could spend your time on and it remains a constant influence on some of the most popular indie game standouts like VA-11 Hall-A, 2064: Read Only Memories and Mullet Mad Jack.

If you have an interest in the works of Hideo Kojima, traditional Japanese style adventure games or the sexy adventure micro-genre, a vacation to Beyond Coast might be just the thing for you.

A gem hidden among the stones, Policenauts is undoubtedly stardust.

-- Ash

[befuddled-calico-whump]

Total $hit$how: An Array of Unanswered Questions

in which Kaius maybe embraces friendship a little bit

cw: referenced/fear of torture, manhandling

previous // masterlist // next

×~×~×

The air was thick with the promise of rain when Kaius stepped out of the compound. Ruebin trailed a few steps behind, his usual uncertainty plain on his face. They hadn't exchanged many words since receiving their assignment; Ruebin spent the rest of the evening in his room with the door closed, and Kaius had taken the opportunity to pore over the files they'd already acquired.

Vic's sudden decision to drop Finley didn't surprise him. Their handler had seemed opposed to the idea of speaking with her from the start. Investigation of the supposed drop-site, however, seemed as though it would be just as fruitless. Was Vic just trying to keep them occupied while the others worked on more crucial tasks? Perhaps. 

A sleek black car with darkened windows, identical to the vehicle that had brought him here, pulled up within a few minutes of their exit, and Kaius climbed inside, Ruebin once again trailing behind. The other man's nerves were palpable. He hoped they wouldn't interfere with their task. It would already be difficult enough as it was. The odds of running into Finley's customers and gleaning anything from them were minimal, and the site itself would likely be barren. With all his distaste for wasting another day, Vic certainly seemed intent on a wild goose chase.

Unless he had some ulterior motive; another thing that would not surprise Kaius. He knew very little about Vic. Normally, he'd expect as much from an employer—it wasn't as if he cared what the other man got up to after business hours—but lately it seemed ignorance was a dangerous game. The man was an enigma, leaving little to be picked up on, even with careful observance. 

A few things could be gathered. Vic was in his fifties, and had been in this game for decades. Desensitized to violence, lacking empathy, dangerous. He seemed to report to a federal or governmental agency on some level, as suggested by the drivers and nondescript vehicles he had at his disposal, but Kaius didn't know if he was an asset or merely an errand boy, paid off to do the bidding of those in power.

If the latter was the case, he remained perplexed as to why Vic would delegate the task to them. He'd made it abundantly clear that he outshone their skills and experience in this area, and even if they held certain skills he did not possess, the gap didn't seem large enough to warrant hiring proxies. He'd spent time, money, and energy on getting them to the minimum level of preparation required for the mission when he could've already enacted it himself. Something wasn't adding up, but Kaius couldn't figure out what. 

Vic had saved them, or so he said, but he didn't do such a thing from the goodness of his heart. It was a simple exchanging of favors. He hadn't heard the circumstances that brought the others into the compound, but Kaius had been in hot water, pursued by a pair of strangers, cornered, saved at the last minute. His rescuer had acted on Vic's orders, delivering him from a fate he didn't want to dwell on and right into Vic’s hands. His freedom for the elimination of a threat. It seemed fair.

But how far would their handler go to see this mission completed the way he wanted?

Kaius was content to sit and think on everything for the duration of the car ride, but beside him, Ruebin seemed twitchy and nervous. Hardly optimal. He didn't want to deal with the man's anxieties on top of watching for danger and effectively searching the scene. Better to nip it in the bud.

“You seem on edge,” he said in a low voice, and Ruebin’s eyes darted to meet his.

“Yeah,” he said. “I just… the drop site. Seems like the scary one, y'know?”

Kaius raised an eyebrow. “The scary one?”

Ruebin gestured vaguely. “Crime drop-site? What if we run into a criminal?”

“Are you not a criminal?”

“I am, but I'm not dangerous. Vic outright said Finley’s customers are dangerous. I’d just… I wish he would've picked you and Jericho. Or you and Joy.”

“Anyone other than you,” Kaius mused. It seemed a pointless thing to wish for when they were already en route.

“Anyone bigger than me,” Ruebin said. “What will we do if we run into trouble? I mean, you’ve seen me fight. I can’t do anything.”

“I’ll plan an escape route once we arrive,” Kaius said. “If we come across trouble, we run.”

“Okay,” Ruebin said, not sounding entirely convinced. He rubbed his forehead. “Fuck, jail is almost sounding like the preferred alternative.”

Kaius huffed. “Do you honestly believe that?” Ruebin had been a thief before he was picked up. Didn't his whole job revolve around risk and reward? Why couldn't he apply the same principles here?

Ruebin's shoulders slumped. “I mean… not really, I guess. I just don't wanna get jumped or something. And I don't have the best feeling about this.”

Neither did Kaius, but he elected to keep that to himself. Someone needed to be the voice of reason.

Ruebin continued. “I just… I don't think I'm cut out for something like this. This isn't stealing from some too-rich dipshit. This is real.”

Kaius sighed, pressing his back into the leather seat. “And what you did before, was that not real?”

The other man shrugged. “You know what I mean “

“I don't.”

“Well…” He blew out a puff of air, pushing a wave of thick black hair over his shoulder. “I guess it always felt more like a game? Well, mostly. There were other days, days where it got real, but those weren’t exactly frequent.” He fiddled with the collar of his shirt. “We just had our task. One job, no bigger picture. No ‘thousands of people will die if you fail’, y'know?”

Kaius wanted to point out that it was a possibility, not a certainty, but he got the feeling it wasn't what Ruebin wanted to hear. Instead, he nodded. Pressure. It made sense.

“I don't think I'm ready for that to be on me,” Ruebin said. “Not for this job, and definitely not for the whole thing. I think… I think you all could do this without me.”

Was that what this was? Not cowardice, but feeling useless? Kaius knew Ruebin wasn't the boldest of the group, but a life of crime required some degree of bravado. The man hadn't run from the task Vic had given them in the labyrinth, but he had seemed somewhat dejected after the fact.

“Do you not think your skills are adequate?” Kaius asked. “Necessary?”

“I’m a lockpick,” Ruebin said with a short laugh. “I’m a couple steps above a street magician. We’re a dime a dozen.”

Maybe that was it. “Regardless of how common your skillset is, it will be needed here,” he countered. “You’re a thief. I’m an investigator. Right now, we need to pull critical information from a delicate location. Both our talents are required.” 

“Yeah,” Ruebin said, not quite sounding convinced. Kaius tried again.

“I know your record isn’t spotless, seeing as you’ve wound up here, but you avoided being caught up until this point, did you not?”

Ruebin shrugged. “Yeah. I mean, I guess I did, but—”

“Then you’re essential here,” Kaius said, leaving no room in his tone for argument. “Your chosen lifestyle has given you an edge when it comes to escaping notice and fleeing the scene. If we do wish to avoid trouble, we’ll need your instincts to make it happen. Do you agree?”

Ruebin’s expression was twitchy, his face flushing a few shades brighter, as if from a sunburn. “I mean— I, yeah. Yeah, guess so.” He rubbed his neck “Jeez, alright.”

His eyes were on the carpeted floor of the car, but there was a slight smile on his face. Despite knowing the argument was necessary for Ruebin’s confidence, and therefore necessary for today's mission, Kaius felt an odd pleasantness at the sight of it.

Perhaps it was the familiar satisfaction that came with winning an argument. Perhaps not

After approximately an hour and a half of driving, the car came to a stop, and the driver gestured for them to get out. Kaius obliged, Ruebin on his heels. They were parked adjacent to a moneylender, on a street with an unfamiliar name. The driver, silent up until this point, rolled down her window and extended a gloved hand towards Kaius. There was something in her palm; a little metal capsule, silver buttons shielded by a clear plastic lid.

“What's this?” he asked, taking it from her.

“A way to tell me you're done,” the driver replied. 

“You're not staying?” Ruebin squeaked, clearly not enthused with the idea of being left there alone.

“It's policy,” she replied simply. It seemed sensible. If there was a risk of interception, it was better to have as few people involved as possible.

“Is the site nearby?” Kaius asked.

“I don't know about any site. This is where I was told to go.” 

Before he could ask any further questions, she rolled the window up. Kaius tried to keep himself from scowling. He understood the mission specifics were likely revealed on a need-to-know basis, but that didn't make the exchange less aggravating.

So it was on them to find the exact location. Fortunately, Kaius had been the one to identify its existence in the first place, and had a vague idea of where it would be. He watched the car pull away, feeling Ruebin deflate beside him as it disappeared into the sunrise.

“Let's move,” he said. “Keep your eyes sharp.”

“Sharp.” His voice lacked enthusiasm. “Got it.”

The sun wasn't quite high enough to light up the block, and the surrounding buildings were painted in a blue wash. Scanning the area, Kaius saw no one out and about, but given that these streets seemed to be made up of businesses and it was just shy of seven in the morning, he wasn't overly surprised. Kaius led the way, searching for anything familiar from what he'd read. Within a quarter of an hour, he’d found it: A wide gap between a bar and a bodega, more of a loading area for a semi truck than the usual alleyway. A sensible spot; if Finley met her customers at night they could easily be taken for bar patrons. It still made little sense why they were there. At this hour, the bar was closed, so it wasn't even as if Kaius could question the staff.

Pointless. But if Vic wanted a futile search, that was what he'd get. He gestured towards the open area.

“There,” he said. “This was the listed location.”

Ruebin nodded, taking in the blank pavement ahead; plain brick walls with smatterings of graffiti here and there, a singular rubbish bin sitting against the bar’s exterior.

It would be a quick search. Kaius directed Ruebin to the bodega side, not wanting the man to get his fishnets in a twist combing over the bin, and began scouring his own area. He fell into step rather quickly, beginning a methodical search for anything that seemed out of place. Useless as their task may be, it felt almost relaxing to get back into groundwork. Relying on his senses to find details others had missed, applying the tiniest clues to the bigger picture.

Just a few more days, and he could go back to work; moving in solitude, solving small mysteries or collecting information. It meant working long days, constantly looking over his shoulder, but Kaius could never get enough. Once a question was posed, he had to find its answer. If unsolvable, he had to find out why.

Much like the question of Vic. His mannerisms and motivations could boil down to personality and lifestyle, but Kaius couldn't shake the feeling that he was missing something. He knew he should put it to rest and focus on the mission ahead, but his thoughts kept trailing back to it.

It doesn't matter, he tried to tell himself. In a matter of days, you'll be gone, and you'll never see him again. Or the rest of them.

The thought wasn't as neutral as Kaius had imagined it would be. He found himself wondering what the others would do with their own freedoms. Would they return to their individual crimes? Jericho had a family, he knew. Did Harbor? Ruebin?

He knelt beside the rubbish bin, checking its exterior for tampering.

It wasn't as if he were going to do anything about it if they didn't. They were all adults with their own lives, and a few scant weeks wouldn't change that. Kaius would certainly be fine. He enjoyed being alone. Still, as irritating as the rest of the group could be at times, he had to admit it was nice not being lonely. 

After a handful of minutes, Kaius was satisfied with his own search. He cast a glance back at Ruebin, and found him standing still, eyes on the bodega’s wall. Kaius frowned. What was he doing? Attempting to read the jagged scrawl of some vandal?

“Hey, Kaius? What exactly did the thing you read say? About this spot?”

“Not much,” Kaius replied. “A vague description and some coordinates.”

“Nothing about like… a secret cubby or anything?”

His frown deepened. “What?” In two strides, he was at Ruebin's side, staring in the same spot. After a moment, he spotted it; a clear seam cutting through the bricks.

Odd. He certainly hadn't expected a physical drop site, much less something so concealed. 

“Good eye,” he murmured, stepping closer to the wall and tracing the seam with his eyes. The area it surrounded was quite small, only amounting to two bricks, stacked directly on top of each other. Easily missed if you weren't looking for it. Perhaps there was something useful to be found here after all.

Kaius reached for it, hesitating when he remembered he didn't have any gloves. Damn it. Lacking a better option, he tugged the sleeve of his jumper over his fingertips. The brick would likely snag the material, but it was better than nothing.

“Keep watch,” he said to Ruebin as he dug his knit-covered fingers into the seam and worked the cover off. A little upwards force, and the brick panel slid right into his hands, allowing Kaius to peer into the gap.

At a glance, it seemed empty. No papers or boxes. Then, his eyes landed on the thin wire, running through the upper corner of the compartment and down to a small metallic shape. He squinted at it, and the object flashed green. Slowly, his gaze dropped to the panel in his hands.

There was a sensor there.

“Damn it,” he whispered through clenched teeth, slipping the brick panel back into place as quick as he could.

“What's wrong?” Ruebin asked, but Kaius shook his head, rolling his sleeves back.

“It's monitored.”

“What?”

“They know someone's been here.”

Ruebin's eyes widened. “Oh shit. Shit… they'll take some time to get here, won't they? We have time to run?”

“Some.” Kaius scanned the street ahead. “There. Cafe. Let's get breakfast.”

Ruebin gave a too-sharp nod. “Right. Hiding. Blending in.”

“Walk, don't run,” Kaius said. “Try not to look like you've done anything wrong.” To his surprise, an expression of friendly ease crossed Ruebin's face. Just like that. His disbelief must've shown, because the look quickly changed to a frown.

“What? Too calm?”

Kaius blinked. “No. No, it's perfect. Carry on.” 

Side by side, they strolled through the alley, casual as Kaius could muster. It was still early morning, and the streets ahead were still empty. Both a good and a bad sign; no one to see them and grow suspicious, but no witnesses either. 

“I've heard this spot makes a mean macchiato,” Ruebin said, and Kaius turned his head abruptly to look at him, his brows drawing down. Ruebin sighed as he did, seemingly exasperated.

“What?” he whispered. “Do you want me calm or not?”

Kaius faced forward again, rubbing his eyes. “We're not… I didn't realize you were an actor.”

“Maybe you should take some classes. You're tense.”

“I'm not—” Kaius froze mid sentence at the sound of an engine. Behind them. Framing it as stretching his neck, he cast a glance back and saw a van pulling around the corner. White. Well-used, no front license plate.

“Kaius—”

“Keep walking.”

Ruebin let out a nervous sound, but obeyed, his steps falling a little quicker.

“We’ll be fine,” Kaius assured him under his breath, though his own heart was thumping. That could be a lie. The two of them stood out in the empty streets; the only plausible culprits. He scanned the block ahead, spotting two possible paths down alleys too narrow to fit a van.

“Between the cafe and the comic shop,” he murmured. “As soon as we hit the sidewalk, dash for the alley and lose them. Just stay with me. We'll be—”

The engine behind them suddenly let out a roar, pealing forward, hooking at the end of the alley to cut them off. The rear door slid open, and Kaius locked eyes with a tall figure in a hockey mask.

“Fuck!” Ruebin yelped.

“Run!” Kaius snapped.

The alley met the road not three meters ahead. The van took up most of the path, but there was a two meter gap on either side. He could see the silhouette of the driver, and no one else. One person at the ready for chasing them, not prepared to pursue two targets.

“Left,” Kaius said, giving Ruebin a shove. “Take the path. I'll find you.” Thankfully, Ruebin was quick to respond, breaking out into a sprint towards the rear of the vehicle as Kaius made a break for the front.

It had the intended effect, stopping the masked figure short as they decided which target to run after. The heavy footfall on his tail told Kaius he was the lucky pick. He did not slow. He'd run for his life enough times to be rather good at it, and if he could only make it to the next alley—

The van cut him off, and Kaius stopped short to avoid impacting its side. He nearly tripped over himself trying to change directions, but the masked figure was on him, crushing him in a bearhug. It took a split second to accept that his arms were pinned and he'd need to find another avenue of escape. He kicked his legs, driving his heel upwards to try and catch his captor in the groin, but the figure barely stumbled at the contact, letting out a curse. The door slid open, and he was flung into the cab. The masked figure wrestled his arms behind him, and someone else, also masked, darted forward to zip tie his wrists. The door was already slamming closed, the van already pealing away. 

Kaius clenched his jaw, trying to get a look around. Battered interior, smelled like old chips, seats taken out to make the rear compartment flat and open—

Before he could take in much more, a bag was thrown over his head and cinched tight.

Damn it all.

“Fuckin’ hell this one's quick,” a masculine voice complained, breathless. He could assume this was his pursuer. Loud voice, English accent with a lilt bordering on cockney. 

“What about the other one?” his companion replied. American. Smooth voice, annoyed.

“Only need one, eh?”

Despite the hood obscuring his vision, Kaius squeezed his eyes shut, trying to breathe deeply. Focus. He was caught, there was no changing that. The next step was to anticipate what exactly they wanted with him, decide how much he was willing to comply, and search for a way out.

There were three assailants in the vehicle with him, unless a fourth was making an effort to hide. With the ski masks and battered van, he could assume they were thugs for hire, lacking organization and proper funding. But who had hired them? The supposed drop site had been a come-along, but was it meant to target anyone who came looking for Finley, or only Vic? In the case of the former, he could perhaps talk his way out. He had no quarrel with the woman, no desire to steal her customers or blackmail her. On the other hand, if they were targeting Vic, he could be in trouble. What if they were with Rotorworx?

His mind went to the video, Sahota's brush with the Rotorworx hires, and he suppressed a shudder. It wasn't like that, was it? Would they torture him in an effort to reach Vic or uncover the team's plot? He wouldn't do well maintaining silence; he needed to brew up a convincing lie. Damn it, unless he was meant to be used as bait. Screaming for the camera in an effort to draw out his comrades.

He was all too familiar with the ways a person could be made to feel pain. Though he'd never seen his mother or father at work, he'd seen the remains they'd left behind; the tools carefully organized, shining against a bloodstained backdrop.

Kaius bit down on his tongue, trying to use the pain to anchor his thoughts. He didn't know that was his fate. He didn't know anything yet, and until he did, his best chance was to be still and silent.

“Is he alive back there?” A third voice, the driver. Feminine with an accent he couldn't quite place. Spanish, perhaps?

“He's fine,” said the loud one. “Sometimes they stop moving, y'know?”

“You know?”

“Well I read about it. It's the fight or flight reflex.”

“He does not seem to be doing either.”

“There's more than just those.”

The trio seemed to be fairly stupid, which could either work for or against Kaius. Easier to trick, easier to outwit and escape. Harder if they decided he had to know something about Vic's operation and decided to drag it out of him. Again, he suppressed a shudder, realizing for the first time just how badly his hands were shaking.

Enough. Enough, there's still time, it won't come to that. None of them had been unnecessarily rough or intentionally hurt him. He wouldn't panic for no reason. …At least that's what he ordered himself to do. His body failed to obey, feeling so rigid he wasn't sure he could move quickly if he tried.

Breathe deeply, stop it. Stop.

Even his breaths became stilted when the van made a sharp turn and shortly came to a stop. No matter how he tried to correct himself, no matter how illogical he knew he was being, Kaius was physically afraid. He managed to retain his silence as the van’s door was pulled open. A big pair of hands wrapped around his shoulders, propping him up into a seated position.

“Would you look at that? We actually caught one.” A new voice. Feminine, somewhat rougher than the driver's, American accent. Kaius clamped his teeth down on his tongue, trying to ignore the turning of his stomach. 

“You're one of Shepard's bodies, huh?”

The question caught him off-guard, and for a moment, he forgot his resolve not to speak. “Who?”

A short laugh above him. “Right. It's Vic to his friends, isn't it?”

Damnit, the group was after Vic then. They couldn't prove he worked for him. He just had to stay quiet.

“You don't have to answer that. I already know. Why else would you be snooping around where you were?”

They couldn't prove anything.

“Look, I'm not here to grill you on that asshole’s comings and goings. I brought you here as a favor.”

“A favor?” Again, his silence was forgotten at the sheer incredulity.

“Yeah. You… fucking shit, I can't keep doing this with the bag. Jazz, be a gentleman will ya?”

There was a tug at his neck, and then the bag slid off his head, pulling at his hair. Kaius squinted up at the newest speaker. 

He came face to face with a lean woman, her hair an offensively bright shade of yellow, cut into a jagged mullet. Her face and shoulders were covered in freckles, and her eyes seemed to glitter as she looked down at him.

“Damn, where'd Vic pull you from? Juvie?”

He couldn't tell if it was meant to be an insult, or just a misplaced observation. This time, he remembered his silence, but the woman was unbothered by his lack of response.

“So tell me about your little group. How many of you are there?”

The query was more along the lines of what Kaius expected, and he set his jaw, staring back without a word. The woman sighed.

“Come on babyface, I'm not your enemy. I want the same thing as you. Wrecking the Reality Cage, yeah?”

Less expected. Kaius frowned. “If that's what you want, then why are you impeding my progress?”

“Impeding? You came looking for me, didn't you?” She spread her arms. “I'd say I made your life easier.”

He'd figured as much, but hadn't wanted to assume outright. “Finley.”

“In the flesh.” She cast a look behind him then, tossing her head in a gesture to the loud one.

“Bring him inside.”

The hands were around his torso again, hauling him up and setting him on the ground, large fingers remaining behind to encircle his upper arm. Scanning his surroundings seemed a better use of his focus than getting frustrated at the unwanted contact, so Kaius turned his attention past Finley, into the room beyond. 

They were in a large bay, the sort a fire brigade might use to park their vehicles, though it was empty save the van and a few scattered shelves. A singular office was inlaid in white cinderblock, and Finley seemed to be making her way for it.

“Don't drag your feet, I won't bite,” the woman said, flashing a grin over her shoulder. Kaius did not return it. His thoughts were in a whirlwind.

She knew about Vic, that shouldn't be a surprise. Knowing about the Cage was to be expected considering she'd had a hand in it, but she wanted to destroy it? Why then was Vic so set on keeping away from her? On killing her if they had to meet?

He needed answers. But maybe this was the person who could give them to him. Ahead, Finley pushed the office door open, leaning on its frame.

“I think it's high time we had a chat.”

×~×~×

tag list:

@theonewithallthefixations , @violets-whumperflies , @whump-me ,

@pirefyrelight , @soheavyaburden , @snakebites-and-ink , @whumpsday , @kixngiggles ,

@echo-goes-aaa , @whumpcateyes , @clickerflight , @sodacreampuff , @starfields08000

[ingravinoveritas]

(Putting this in a separate post because I sort of scattered my thoughts across two different posts last night.)

So by now we've all probably seen the Ask that Neil answered saying that the kissing scene in GO 2 required only one take. There were a couple of things that came to my mind when I read this, and perhaps the most immediate was that the OP asked how many times the scene had to be filmed, and that means the scene entire--the confession, the pleading, everything--not necessarily just the kiss itself. To that end, I wonder how Neil was answering--i.e., referring to the entire scene, or just the kiss. Because as it stands, the question (and answer) are a bit ambiguous/confusing, and lend themselves to greater discussion.

Assuming that this is all true, however, and that the kiss/scene was filmed in one take (though I'm not sure I believe this was actually the case, given the multitude of camera angles and other cinematographic necessities), I'd like to share a few thoughts. I keep seeing people say that Michael and David are actors, consummate professionals, and how could one underestimate their abilities so as to think they would need more than one take. The thing is, we do know that they are actors. Two of the finest this world has ever seen, even. But it is also abundantly clear that if the kiss was achieved in one take, it was not simply because they are actors, but because it was Michael and David. Together.

To stand across from someone and give/react to such an emotional performance involves so much intimacy and trust, in a way not many of us can understand. If we draw a comparison to OFMD, Rhys Darby and Taika Waititi talked about their kiss in season 1 being awkward, even though they have been friends for a long time. Michael and David, by contrast, have been close friends (if not more) for only a few years, yet there was not a moment's hesitation in that kiss. David, who was nearly blind in that scene from the combination of contact lenses and sunglasses, found his way to Michael's lips with a practiced ease, an approach borne of both skill and familiarity. And Michael trusted David so fully in that moment--trusted him enough to be vulnerable, to let himself be kissed and give up control to David.

The gasp when their mouths met. The hands coming to rest on David's back. The way Michael seemingly leans up partway through, leans into David while expertly conveying the myriad of emotions Aziraphale is experiencing. Could it all have been done in one take? Perhaps. But that still doesn't mean there wasn't more to it. The accumulation of so much that had built between Michael and David over the intervening years between season 1 and season 2, further adding to their already incredible on-screen chemistry. All there for us to see, to make us want more. To make us ache.

Whatever the case may be--whether the kiss truly was accomplished in one take, or was the result of countless rehearsals between Michael and David in the days/weeks/months beforehand (be it at the S2 table read, while working on scene blocking, or the two of them "rehearsing" on their own) we are beyond fortunate to have witnessed something so precious and rare. And hopefully we'll soon get to hear Michael and David themselves telling us all about what it was like...

[thekingofwinterblog]

Sasha's Parents

Allright, so thanks to the diary we finally got some definite info on Sasha's parents. Let's dissect it, and analyze how the divorce might have turned her into the person she is today.

According to Anne, Sasha's parents divorced when she was around four- or five-years-old. Her father remarried and doesn't seem to have had any other kids, while her mother has a long-term boyfriend who has kids of his own.

So what does this tell us? Well, the first thing we have to do is speculate which of Sasha's parents has custody of her, because knowing that, we can draw a lot of conclusions.

Personally, I am almost certain that it's her father, for reason i'll go into below.

Firstly, let's analyze the events of the divorce, before trying to figure out how the events of the series relates to the original plan the creators had to have an episode where Sasha reveals the full details of her backstory to Anne.

Mr and Mrs Waybright divorced when Sasha was 5 years old, but the implication we get from what little we know about the two people involved suggests that this wasn't simply a case of two people realizing things weren't working out... Because the implications seems to be that Mrs Waybright left her husband for another man... Who already had kids of his own, and who she very explicitly did not marry.

Why is this important? Because it explains everything we ever needed to know about Sasha's seething, burning desire to always be in control, and more importantly, on top.

Because in Sasha's 5 year old mind, seeing her mom leave her dad for another man, who already had a bunch of kids, while abandoning her, is tantamount to saying that she was worthless in her mother's eyes. She didn't measure up. Clearly her mom cared more about these kids than her... When in reality, it was the new boyfriend she actually cared about, not the kids. Neither the new ones... Or her own flesh and blood.

It also explains perfectly why Sasha's reaction to the Plantars "Stealing" Anne from her turned her downright murderous. In her mind it was basically history repeating itself again. Her losing someone she loved to another family she knew nothing about.

No wonder this girl hated the very concept of family.

Meanwhile, her dad married another woman, which which can safely assume was not a warm, loving relationship. More likely than not, whether this woman wanted to try and be a mother to Sasha, it's abundantly clear that that wasn't gonna happen. After the divorce, Sasha would have rejected any and all attempts at replacing her mother, and that stuck.

Her eternal quest to make Anne and Marcy happy is also explained by this. Sasha wants to make the people she loves happy. She wants them to like her, to appreciate her, to be rewarded with love and attention by people she loves and cares about.

But while this does explain a lot(Her control issues, her disdain for family, her non existent love for said family) there is still some things it does not explain, or at least there seems to be something more we aren't told.

So, let's put forth another question, to explain the things that a simple, if ugly divorce does not explain.

Was Sasha abused by her parents?

Throughout the series, Sasha continously says some extremely heavy lines, that though they fit perfectly with what is happening in the moment, all seem to be as a response to something else that happened previously in Sasha's life, that we just don't have the context for.

When Sasha hits her absolute lowest point, after having seemingly destroyed the only thing she truly cared about for Good and all, Sasha very deliberately refers to herself as belonging in the Trash, and that it's all someone like her deserves, in a tone that suggests she is accepting something she felt deep in her heart was innevitable.

That could be her being overly dramatic... But it could be something else.

Like she had been told that this was all she amounted to, a worthless brat who no one would love, who belonged in the trash.

Not while Anne and Marcy are getting by withouth me.

This line is pretty clear in it's meaning, but again, the way it's said and worded suggests it's referencing something someone else said at some point.

Hey anne... Maybe you're better off without me.

Sasha's famous line when she decides to kill herself is an important one, and one where she proves that she is willing to lay down her life for anne if it comes to that.

But knowing the circumstances with her parents divorce, it's hard not to read more into it. That Sasha had a genuine fear that her mother didn't just leave her, but that she was better off withouth her.

That could be projecting... but it doesn't have to be. Sasha could have heard it straight from the horse's mouth.

End of discussion

This one is absolutely referencing a line. This is a line Sasha uses to shut down any arguments Anne has when Sasha wants the discussion to end.

But that isn't something kids tend to learn on their own. They learn that by example. By mimicking others.

So before going into speculation of how Sasha may or may not have been abused, lets finish by pointing out the biggest argument for it.

The incredibly unsettling, and unnatural way Sasha does not care about her Parents in any way.

Sasha makes it abundantly clear throughout the entire series that she does not care about her parents. At all. Her relationship with them isn't a complicated one. It's nonexistent. As far as she cares, it does not exist.

That is incredibly unnatural behavior from a child. Even the most abused, or neglected of children will usually have some form of natural attachment to their parents, or parental figures. It's simply the way human beings are made.

It takes A LOT to break that bond completely, even for an adult.

But Sasha isn't an adult. She is a child. And yet her bond to her parents is as far as she is concerned for most of the series, broken beyond any repair.

And she doesn't care to try and fix it. That all on it's own speaks volumes of just how BAD her relationship with her folks are.

So, let's get to speculating on what exactly the kind of abuse Sasha might have gone through with her parents, because there is probably two very distinct kinds from each of her parents.

Of the two, I would guess that if she was abused, the most visceral part came from her mom.

Most of Sasha's biggest issues are clearly a result of her mother leaving her, and so this would make sense.

So, what sort of abuse might Sasha have suffered at the hands of her mother that broke her down so badly, given the woman left her behind, and so probably didn't interact with her much beyond this?

If i had to guess, all of it probably stems for what happened during the divorce, where her mom essentially put all her cards on the table, and let her real feelings be put on full display.

And there are several reasons her mom might have had to lash out at her own child. It could be as simple as the fact she used Sasha to hurt her now ex-husband. Rubbing in that he was stuck with her now.

It could be that sasha was an unplanned child that she didn't want, and had secretly resented for all five years of her life.

She may have been pressured into having her by her Mr Waybright, and now that she no longer had to even try to make him happy, she made it abundantly clear how much she never wanted the damned child he put in her.

Or she could flat out not have liked Sasha, based solely on her personality.

Whatever the reasons, it's clear that the events of the divorce shattered Sasha to her core, and would be essential into forming her into the person she was at the start of the series.

Having one of the people that Sasha(Who is a person who forms STRONG attachments) loves more than any other, turn on her completely, and reveal she always hated her would probably have done the trick.

Now, let's move on to Mr Waybright.

I am very certain that Sasha probably learned the "End. Of. Discussion." From him, as their relationship seems to have been a different kind of breakdown.

Namely that he seems to have given up on Sasha, giving her a level of personal control over her life that is downright irresponsible, letting her throw parties on the regular, seemingly giving her free access to cash as she needs it, and having failed to instill any discipline into his kid.

These are all classic symptoms of a relationship where the parent has given up, and simply gives the kid what they want so they don't have to deal with them.

But was this always the case?

The simple fact is, that with what we know of Mrs Waybright, the extreme destruction of her relationship with Sasha makes sense. There are details one has to speculate on, but there is a clear line to follow from point A to B.

Not so with Mr Waybright.

We know where they ended up, the turning point, but not the steps between.

The only thing we have to go on, Is that amongst her many, many unusual traits for someone so young, Sasha has a much older person's view on discipline. Namely she does not respond to it, because she does not respect the person delivering it, be they teachers or Grime.

It does not take a genius to figure out that this probably stems from her relationship with her father.

The simplest, and most likely explanation is that Mr Waybright attempts at parenting probably involved a lot of discipline, and attempts to instill Sasha with a sense dread at a phrace with the meaning of "This conversation is over".

In this he obviously failed, Because for whatever reason(probably something that happened during the divorce) Sasha does not respect him... But Sasha in turn seems to have learned this very kind of tactic herself from him.

Mr Waybright thusly seems to have had more of a sense of familial obligation to Sasha... At least trying to instill her with something resembling discipline... Until finally just giving up on her all together and just letting her do as she pleased.

All in all whether there was actual abuse involved, or just a child's entire world crumbling due to a very ugly divorce, I really, really wish we'd gotten Sasha's backstory episode.

[alicepao13]

Hudson and Rex S04E10 - Blood and Diamonds - Part B

That was your best behavior? You were goading Tennant half of that time.

Dama mention! I like dama.

Hey, we just got everyone to trust Rex, we don't need outsiders to come and doubt us.

It's about the sense of self-preservation. Which, of course, goes out the window the minute Charlie asks something.

His nose is doing all the job, ma'am.

"Otto Hart is your nephew." Dum-dum-dum.

I believe that. Otherwise Tennant would have heard all about Charlie kissing Eva already. Not very fan of "my team", though.

"I needed to make sure Major Crimes took my opinion on this case seriously." Joke's on you because they'd do what they always do anyway.

That's a good line.

You pushover! Yeah, it's that bad. The higher up the ladder you are, the worse you can influence a case. Not to mention (because they don't know yet) that the fact that Tennant has now said the whole truth doesn't mean her nephew did.

The thing is that cases like these with familial attachments shouldn't happen often but in crime shows there's a 10% possibility you'll hit a family member in each case. So, this scenario, which realistically should be totally non-relatable, is in fact totally relatable for most. That's why Joe doesn't have a rebuttal.

More unnecessary touching.

Some undercover work for Sarah too.

The fucking seagull on the camera lol

Jesse was not ready to improvise at all. And we see Charlie rushing to cover for him, then he realizes he's got his badge strapped on his belt and he covers it with his jacket.

They look like a couple of gay PIs on a show I just made up.

Not Terry! Come on, Jesse.

She just wanted to pull out her badge so bad. But I kinda wanted her to as well.

Adele: "Well, from where I'm standing, you were made." Charlie: "To a point." No, like, completely. Let's be honest. The cover is supposed to get someone to either trust or ignore you. The target thinking you're a PI does the exact opposite.

"This is why you don't bring a dog to a stakeout." What? Rex didn't blow our cover.

We're the only ones in the inner circle of trust.

Get him!

You've got a lot of nerve, buddy. You just made a fool of her in front of her subordinates. Aside from the whole murder and diamond smuggling thing.

We got intruders in our bar. Just kidding.

Not that I didn't know that Rex was calling the shots all along.

All their faces are like, "Charlie why?" lmao

Rex: "I don't believe you. Grovel a bit more."

"An apology with food? How can I say no?"

I mean, they totally humiliated her, so no, I wasn't a fan of that. We see every time that this team, and especially Rex, are better than literally any other cop or agent or whatever, they didn't need to do that. But the episode is enjoyable even like that. There's a lot of comedy which helps. It's just that I don't think we needed to be introduced to a character of a female deputy chief who from the first interaction to almost the last needed to be taken down a peg. And that's made abundantly clear throughout the two episodes that we have of her. Not to mention all the gossiping everyone does behind her back. I'm not a fan of these elements.

[archivalofsins]

Gunsli as a Mikoto enjoyer you must be losing your shit now that his second trial is drawing closer and closer! You're going to avidly defend him, right?

Meanwhile

Me *carrying a large stick around the panopticon*: FUTA, MU I JUST WANT TO TALK COME OUT! GET THE FUCK OUT HERE!

Futa & Mu: We're not on trial anymore-

Me: The phones...

Them: Huh?

Me: WHOSE FUCKING PHONES ARE THESE?!

Them: ?!

Me:

Well?! Any answers?

Mu: You already did this with me during my trial?!

Yeah, it wasn't really about you it was just for the bit-

So, huh Futa?! Huh whose phone, is it?! Because I know this isn't your phone for several reasons!

So, let's run this down from the beginning-

Question 1

Which cellphone is Futa's?

Sorry, to disappoint but in the battle between iPhone and Android Futa is firmly on the side of Android.

This is made abundantly clear by the fact that unlike Yuno who owns wireless earbuds, Futa's owns wired ones. Something not supported on Apple devices since 2016.

So, why did someone who owns an android phone have what appears to be an Apple charger plugged into his laptop near that flash drive? Well chances are he hooked up that iPhone to his computer to get some information off the phone, erase that information, then move it from his laptop to that flash drive.

We also know this iPhone isn't Futa's because he displays the UI of his actual phone while looking through the color inverted version of twitter-

At which point we can see his UI is completely different from the phone we see breaking at the end of Bring It On.

Futa's phone is also put on full display at the beginning of Bring It On and in other instances showing multiple physical discrepancies between it and the phone that breaks at the end.

From camera placement to general make of the phone and the brightness on the red of the phone case. All things that have remained consistent over the course of Milgram. Making it more apparent which phone is his.

Question two,

Why would Futa take someone else's phone and what information could he need?

He states what he needs and what he's using the phone for at the beginning of Bring It On,

"Found one…! Countdown till I make you say sorry. Let’s go! A victory march! Dan-Da-Dan. Eat this! Don’t act like you have no idea! We won’t forgive you. You’re the crazy one! Ban-Ba-Bang." - "All evil hypocrites should disappear. I won’t stop until you say “sorry”. Now let’s begin to hunt down the liars."

He's using it to get information on the people involved in the incident and track them down.

The rest of the members of the party he was working with for a time. That ended up putting all the blame for that incident on him. This is probably why he's not hanging out with them when he goes to the arcade and is instead watching from a distance.

Using the situation to get rid of two people at once since the hat girl was possibly involved with the group as well hence the line,

"Flames closing in, are both sides losers?"

"Fuck it! You won’t be forgiven; it was stupid licking each other’s wounds." - "You can’t escape, how do you like the taste of punishment." - "You gotta be kidding, I’m an undead hero!"

I've already speculated that Futa's murder was the result of him reacting to the outcome of the hat girl situation and that Futa and this other victim were a part of the same group before.

(I have made way too many posts on Futa: X, X, X, X, X, X, X and many more. Back to the topic at hand though.)

However, the hat girl could have been uninvolved with the group as well. Yet, taking into consideration the very targeted and extreme harassment the group is depicted doing in Backdraft while Futa is looking on in shock and terror I think it's hard for me to not consider this being personal in some way.

That display perfectly calls back to these lines of Futa's in Bring It On,

"I won’t stop until you say “sorry”." - "Now, let’s be reasonable. We are the ones that blow the horn for justice. We will punish you down, this is a warning."

Futa has made it abundantly clear he only does this until the other party apologizes or backs down. Something the hat girl was already doing while the others continued to attack her anyway.

In Backdraft, Futa also spray paints the ones who did this in black as they were doing it. Then we see their tags on the image of the victims have been spray painted over on the wall with black as well once it cuts to the girl.

Black is used as the color to highlight the words on Futa's second trial CD as well,

I believe this color is being used to highlight Futa's version of justice. Just as he says in the voice drama that Es and him are no different, both simply stating that something was bad and things going out of control.

Adding to this Es (and the audiences) judgement of Futa is represented with the same color at the end. As if visually stating the judgement the audience gave to Futa should actually be given to these people instead and reiterating the little difference Futa sees between what he did and what Es and the audience is doing now.

Backdraft even going as far as to have the eyes behind Es be the same color as the spray paint, the people in the group are portrayed using to harass that girl. Making it seem as though by punishing Futa we're supporting the people who did this instead of the other way around.

This makes Futa's question of,

"Should I succumb, make your wish come true?"

Come off as though he's not only speaking about Milgram (Es, and the audience), but the others involved in the harassment of that girl who may have begun doing the same to Futa hoping he'd react in a similar way to their previous victim.

Something alluded to through this image and messages at the end of Bring It On.

QRT Storm Pazuzu　（＝Futa）            I think I’ve got all her details now. Based on her previous tweets I’ve worked out her school. The fact she lives so close is hilarious lol Judgement☨Onizuka You’re the worst offender of all.

"Full of yourselves, are you?" - "Bye bye idiots and devils with the faces of angels." - "You gotta be kidding! I’m the real hero!" - "You gotta be kidding, I’m an undead hero!" - "You’re the crazy one! Ban-Ba-Bang!"

Also we see in Bring It On through Futa's inverted colored phone screen that his icon looks like blue fire or mirrors JudgementOnizuka's normal colored one and vice versa. Implying some sort of connection between the two of them.

It's also telling that Futa is represented by fire and Onizuka water especially given the repeated line of,

"Can't douse this fire."

Within Backdraft.

The lyrics,

"Don’t get cocky, you in that cypher!"- "Holler-holler from safety, so worthless."

These lines can not only refer to the audience or Es but the people he used to hang out with or individuals getting overzealous/too confident with their harassment online. Something the group he used to be in did.

Backdraft also shows off Futa's willingness to just fight head-to-head about it through the line.

"The fight’s up here! Come up to the ring and face me!"

"You won’t be forgiven, a coward, never!"

Question 3

How did he get the phone? Whose is it?

"Are both sides losers?" - "The fact she lives so close is hilarious lol."

It's more than likely the hat girl's phone. Just like the phone we see get smashed in After Pain appears to have belonged to Mu's victim and former friend. Once again, making this another way Futa and Mu parallel each other and why they were paired up.

If the hat girl were also in the group or followers of these people before she began getting harassed, Futa would have an easier time looking over, keeping up with, and figuring out who was responsible for the harassment. That is if he did get her phone after she died.

It would also be similar to how Mu's victim seems to have been involved with Mu or the friend group Mu was in before she passed away as well. However, the phone could belong to Futa's actual victim then when we see it falling to the ground and breaking in Bring It On could be during the altercation portrayed in Undercover.

One thing is for sure Futa and Mu both use breaking phones as imagery for silencing others-

That and they both have a very firm grasp of framing.

Futa would still be able to look over old interactions he was in from his own phone. So, like with Mu in After Pain and It's Not My Fault there may be some playing around with time. In fact, I think there may be playing around with time present in all the prisoner's music videos that becomes more overt depending on the prisoner's personality.

In Futa's case, this is probably why the interactions on his own phone have those inverted colors while the interactions on the one we see break later does not. This coloring choice could denote that these interactions happened before what we are witnessing now. You know how flash backs are usually put in grey or muted colors.

Just as it's implied through After Pain that the messages on Mu's phone happened before her bullying. Futa just goes about displaying this in a vaguer manner.

There are also these things from Bring It On as well that I covered elsewhere before, but I believe it was in reply to someone else's post or something because I can't find it in my archive.

These read,

WARNING [FUTA'S TWITTER ICON] "CONGRATULATIONS [REDACTED]! YOU BROUGHT JUSTICE TO THE WORLD!!! CONGRATULATIONS [REDACTED]? YOU BROUGHT JUSTICE TO THE WORLD???" WARNING [FUTA'S TWITTER ICON] CONGRATULATIONS [REDACTED] YOU BROUGHT [REDACTED] TO THE WORLD!!! CONGRATULATIONS [REDACTED]? YOUR BROUGHT [REDACTED] TO THE WORLD???

I also mentioned this before with this but again can't find it but on the map during the final fight we can see Futa's indicator moving away while appearing to spawn back in.

Also the D in world is styled after his twitter icon-

And at the beginning of Bring It On his phone switches between the Bring It On screen and his twitter feed each time the video glitches before he heads out-

So, yeah- Some credit for all the work Futa did trial one trying to cover up the truth is long overdue.

Whelp that's it. Fuck you Futa for pulling one over on me though really thought that was his phone he dropped.

[autistic-demon]

Despair is an insane episode and it had the queer just plain text from the beginning.

It starts with apocalypse world Charlie watching her girlfriend Stevie die. She sees her vanish into thin air, taken by Chuck (the writer of the story) so already we have homophobia ex machina in the opening scenes.

This is foreshadowing for the final death in the episode of Cas, and it's not a coincidence they chose to bookend the episode like this with two queer characters.

Then in the middle we have Sam also "watch" Eileen die as text bubbles on his phone. So even the straight love didn't win. They didn't even give him a moment with her, she's killed off screen (only to be blurry in the finale)

But the running theme is we have them all watch the person they love die. And it's made abundantly clear in both Charlie and Sam's cases that love was romantic and reciprocated. So in the final scene between Dean and Cas it sends a pretty clear message.

We don't need more evidence it was clearly reciprocated and romantic, but I think the episode was thematically on point and sent a very clear message to anyone paying attention.

Burying the gays once this episode wasn't enough, they had to do it twice.

[tobiasdrake]

AA4-2, Trial Day 1. We finally met our client five minutes ago and already we know this case is going to be an ordeal.

4-1 was Apollo's first case, but it wasn't really his first case because he had Phoenix there to walk him through it. This is going to be the deep end for Apollo Justice.

As with the last few minutes of the Investigation, any amount of time spent in the company of our client makes crystal-clear what our chief obstacle here is going to be.

Wocky Kitaki is set up to be a nightmare of a client, especially for a rookie lawyer like Apollo. The kind you do not, under any circumstances, allow to make any kind of statement because everything he says can and will be used against us.

So. Yeah. We're not winning this on criminal intent. Wocky is so determined to get sent to prison that he's gleefully painting himself into a corner, made worse by an incredibly open-shut motive.

So. Yeah. This is about as ugly as it can get. We have a defendant with enthusiastic killing intent and a clear motive for violent retaliation. The Prosecution still needs to prove that Wocky did but it takes only one testimony to make a clear and compelling argument that Wocky would.

This is bad. It's bad for us. But, as Gavin points out, it's also bad for Wocky.

With Dr. Malpractice dead, Wocky's days are numbered; A fact that Gavin, so confident in his prosecution, takes clear enjoyment from revealing.

This is an effective introduction for our rival, who's going to be the chief antagonist for this game: Klavier Gavin, the literal rockstar prosecutor.

There's always a personal touch to the Prosecutor. For Klavier Gavin, it's revenge. Despite his music career taking off, Gavin came back because of a personal vendetta.

Out of four prosecutors, Gavin is the third to have revenge as his chief motivation. Edgeworth is the only prosecutor thus far who had something else going on. So that's wearing a bit thin as a source of conflict.

However, I do like how deliciously complex Gavin's vendetta is. Franziska's vendetta was fairly straightforward while Godot's was gross, but Klavier's is interesting. From his perspective, it breaks down like this.

-> Klavier and his brother Kristoph were a legal duo, one working defense and the other in prosecution to ensure justice. -> Phoenix was a crooked attorney who used phony evidence to rig the court and win acquittals for murderers. -> Klavier exposed Phoenix for the fraud he was and ended his entire legal career. -> Seven years later, Kristoph hired Apollo and took him under his wing. -> Phoenix was arrested for murder. -> Apollo, under Phoenix's guidance, betrayed Kristoph and threw him under the bus to acquit Phoenix using questionable evidence.

To Gavin, this whole thing reeks of foul play. And it's easy to see why. He has no love of Phoenix or his tactics, which he makes abundantly clear.

And yet, there's a playfulness to his attitude. Despite his skepticism of Apollo, Gavin's demeanor stands out among the rivals. He lacks the contempt that Edgeworth, the Von Karmas, and Godot so often displayed. He's amicable, which makes for a unique attorney/prosecutor dynamic.

This case also gives Trucy her first chance to shine as our trusty paralegal. Big shoes to fill, as Maya's served in that spot for three games. Maya's spirit channeling was a strong influence on the series for three games straight, and now Trucy has to fill that void.

She doesn't have ghost magic. But she does have the single greatest shenanigan that a paralegal has ever pulled in this courtroom.

HOLY SHIT A MADMAN IS ABOUT TO STAB TRUCY WITH A KNIFE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE TRIAL

HOLY SHIT A MADMAN IS ABOUT TO STAB TRUCY WITH A KNIFE AND HIS NAME IS ME

The audacity of this move. This is crime. We did a crime. But I guess that's fine because we're mob lawyers.

Unfortunately, as much fun as the setup to this bit is, the payoff winds up being an introduction to the Perceive minigame that was already introduced in 4-1.

Yes, we already know about this minigame, Trucy. Your dad explained it already. We do get a little bit of backstory lore for Trucy out of this.

But it's not much. The staged abduction is a good bit, but it'd be better if Trucy had something more substantive that she wanted to talk to Apollo about. Gonna be honest, I don't know why this even needed to be some kind of superpower. It's "being good at noticing subtle things" but presented as a unique ability passed down to Trucy and Apollo.

I like the mechanic but it's weird that it's presented like a Weird Super Thing on the level of spirit channeling and stuff. Do they read Daredevil comics in Japan? Because this feels like someone liked Daredevil comics.

Of course, the funny thing about this mechanic is that, according to Trucy, it's externally observable when Trucy or Apollo is using their enhanced sensitivity.

It's funny to think that, for seven years, Phoenix would play poker with his daughter sitting next to him. And her eyes would be going fucknuts the entire time. Just. Like. Popping out of her skull and wibble-wobbling all over the place.

And. Like. Nobody ever said anything. They sat there. Playing cards. Trying not to make a thing about what must be some terrible medical condition for this child.

In any case, Trucy's presence in court is interesting because she's tasked with pulling double duty for the Feys. She has to fill the shoes of Maya, as Apollo's partner sounding board to bounce ideas off of. But she also has to fill the role of Mia, the experienced legal practitioner who has her shit together and could pull Phoenix out of a jam.

To that end, splitting the difference by making her Not A Lawyer but having her be Phoenix's kid puts her in a nice middle ground, where she's not doing most of the heavy lifting but she can still jump in from time to time.

Though Stickler himself is an annoying witness to have to question, 4-2 is much more of a classic Ace Attorney case than 4-1. We begin on the backfoot with no clear hope in sight and, by the end of it, we've created enough wiggle room to persevere. The facts in evidence make a clear case that Wocky at least went after Dr. Malpractice with malicious intent that night.

However, the prosecution's failure to meet its burden of proof is pretty stark.

Two trajectories from which Wocky could have shot Dr. Malpractice exist but both rely on his bullet magically stopping midair, orbiting around the doc's head to a different location, and then resuming its course.

When it hasn't even been proven that he ever touched the gun to begin with, since the only weapon that's been connected to him is a shiv.

Despite Wocky's best efforts, we close this trial day in a pretty good spot. Though not quite ideal, as our defense while strong rests on the assumption that the victim had no reason to look to his left before being shot.

And between the two options, which is more plausible?

-> The victim, for some reason, turned his head to the left. -> Another person, invisible to both Wocky and Stickler, somehow managed to fire a gunshot without Stickler ever noticing that another person was present.

This trial day ends in a place that feels at first blush like we've conclusively proven innocence. But the more I sit and settle on it, the more precarious the defense's position begins to feel. A good spot to be in for the midpoint of an Ace Attorney case.

Overall, I would call this trial a pretty middling one. It lays out a typical AA scenario that looks straightforward but is actually full of mysteries, this one tying back to last night's bizarre crime spree. It gives our important characters some nice moments of characterization and contains Trucy's hilarious self-kidnapping trick.

But Stickler takes up the bulk of the cross-examinations, and he isn't a particularly interesting or fun witness to lock horns with. His snooty Ivy League Academic persona gets old fast. Additionally, including a second Perceive tutorial complete with spoiling the solution is super irritating.

[stormyoceans]

https://x.com/jjslovie/status/1821025284151243153

💪yeah

PINNING THIS AT THE TOP OF MY BLOG BECAUSE IF THERE'S ONE THING I NEED EVERYONE TO KNOW ABOUT ME IT IS INDEED THIS (just in case it wasn't already been made abundantly clear by you know. the whole entire state of this blog ;;;;;;;;;)

TRULY THE ONLY MEDALS I WOULD EVER HAVE THE CHANCE OF WINNING PUT ME IN COACH IM READY TO BRING THEM ALL HOME