#it seems like she's probably gonna be somewhat the same as her counterpart from when she was phantylia so i'm really happy about that

[stellarfoxian]

SPOILERS FOR THE HSR 2.5 TRAILBLAZE CONTINUANCE QUEST

I KNEW IT. I KNEW SHE'D COME BACK. I NEVER DOUBTED HER. TINGYUN MY BELOVED I NEVER DOUBTED YOU I'M SO HAPPY RN. LITERALLY SHAKING IM SO GIDDY HSHDJKFDHJGB

[yogurtverse]

Right, now that all the reveals are officially out for Disventure Camp 4 I've decided to make both a prediction list and a personal ranking list while fully expecting both to be proven wrong immediately.

Alessio

From the reveal I decided Alessio would be my favorite. He just seems like a cool guy and I like his design. But that being said, I could imagine his plotline only lasting a few episodes as he tries to find inspiration in the moment, while getting easily distracted. I would love if this was another Zee situation where he just flies under the rader and pulls some genuinely impressive moves, possibly making an art piece so good it stops him being voted out, but for now I don't see it.

Personal ranking-1/18

Prediction ranking-18/20

Amalie

Amalie grew on me. I'm guessing she'd be an early villain interested solely on making deals with other players and cutting what she perceives as the weak links from her team (I am fully expecting her to say 'nothing personal, it's just buisness' at some point) but by the time the merge hits she's alienated most of the cast and nobody really wants to keep her around.

Personal ranking-10/18

Prediction ranking-11/20

Anastasia

I see Anastasia as an early game villain. She'd be the most obviously evil player from the start akin to Heather or Julia, but this attitude and ruthlessness leads to her getting blindsided by the main villain of the season and one of the last pre-merge boots. Although I do really like her design.

Personal ranking-5/18

Prediction ranking-14/20

Benji

Benji the type of guy to say 'all caps when you spell the man's name' when you type mf doom in lowercase. Anyway, I see him as being the first victim of a villains alliance due to being a genuinely easy target as he'd probably be too trusting early on. But he'd win a comeback challenge around the merge, and actually become a pretty good player due to a mix of genuinely impressive moves and dumb luck (like just guessing or accidentally implying he knows about someone having a game changing twist on them and letting him use it in exchange for his silence) he'd get voted out near the end for being an actual threat, which he'd take as a personal win.

Personal ranking-3/18

Prediction ranking-19-6/20

Diego

Yeah Diego probably wins because yaoi. He just seems like a nice and dependable guy nobody would want to target while helping other characters be the best they could be. Also he and Spencer are probably gonna smooch.

Personal ranking-8/18

Prediction ranking-1/20

Hannah

Look, Hannah could be cool, but I currently see her as the Ashley of this season, where's she's just a therapist for the other characters (although that could go to Tristan) IDK, that or she has some convoluted romance plot. That's all I see for her currently although I'd love to be proven wrong. But like Ashley, I'm guessing she's first merge boot.

Personal ranking-12/18

Prediction ranking-12/20

Isabel

As an atheist, I'm really hoping Isabel isn't just a strawman of religious people. Gameplay wise, I see her as somewhat innocent, getting in over her head and becoming part of a villains scheme to get further, trying to justify it to herself by saying it's for the greater good, only to take the fall and get booted.

Personal ranking-13/18

Prediction ranking-8/20

Ivy

Look, I think Ivy has the potential to get real grating real fast, and I don't care for her 'hehe I'm quirky' attitude. But seeing as she's an actress, I can see her being like Riyas good counterpart, where she acts evil around more villainous players for the sake of collecting dirt on them and actually getting a few eliminated. I can also imagine her and Benji on the same wavelength around the merge.

Personal ranking-15/18

Prediction ranking-5/20

Jade

I have pretty much no strong opinions on Jade. My current guess is that she's gonna have an alliance with Spencer and Diego, balancing the extremes of Spencers brains and Diego's emotions, while being the best of the three at navigating the game. Unfortunately, this makes her a prime target for the villains who boot her during the pre-merge.

Personal ranking-14/18

Prediction ranking-15/20

Logan

I'll be honest, Logan just looks like a guy I don't like drawn in the TD artstyle which is the sole reason he's at the bottom of my list. He's probably the best player in terms of physical ability, and that combined with his friendly attitude makes me think he'll be seen as an obvious threat and be the final pre-merge elimination.

Personal ranking-18/18

Prediction ranking-13/20

Lynda

Lynda's my pick for the seasons main villain. As said in her audition, she'll be crafty, seeming like an innocent middle aged woman who helps in challenges and provides an ear to players going through things, but then using that information against them.

Personal ranking-4/18

Prediction ranking-2/20

Marissa

Marissa just hasn't left much of an impact on me. "I want to play honestly and join the military" okay cool I guess. I think she's my pick for first boot, as honesty really doesn't work well in a game like this. (For what it's worth, it took a while to think about who the first boot could be)

Personal ranking-17/18

Prediction ranking-20/20

Natalia

Natalia seems great. One of my favorite designs and she seems she'll be a real force of personality who doesn't take shit from anyone and is ready to press further to see who people really are. Unfortunately, this lands her on the wrong side of a villain and she gets booted early on, but wins a comeback challenge and is on the front lines against whoever voted her off the first times, refusing to pump the breaks until the finale

Personal ranking-6/18

Prediction ranking-16-3/20

Richard

Richard just seems cool. Probably the highest jump on my list from reveal to audition. While age is catching up and he's not physically as good as he was, he'd serve well as both a mentor and a tactician for his team and allies, later on serving as the heart of the heroes group like Connor in all stars, later on being targeted purely for how good he is socially.

Personal ranking-7/18

Prediction ranking-10/20

Spencer

Spencer has my favorite VA so far. But bro said he doesn't anticipate a twist eliminating him so that's probably gonna happen. I see him making merge for several reasons (mainly him and Diego getting together) and I also see this twist happening at any point during the merge. 9th is probably the lowest I'm guessing he'll go I see him ranking anywhere from 4-9, but 9 feels right so far.

Personal ranking-9/18

Prediction ranking-9/20

Ted

Ted seems funny. I think he'll he villainous in actions, but not in personality. Personality wise I think he'll just be kinda sad, as his VA showcase implied people leaving him behind is a regular occurrence (I know they're not canon but they'll probably give a hint to what their arcs are) and I think he'll come to regret his actions near the endgame, voting off people he's grown a genuine connection with to get further in the game (I'm guessing him and Richard will have something together and voting him off will be the start of his redemption arc) getting voted off near the end but making the game much harder for whatever villains are left by that point.

Personal ranking-2/18

Prediction ranking-4/20 (haha)

Tristan

Tristan seems fine to me. Like Ivy, their personality seems nice but could get grating quickly, because a lot of their early dialogue implies the writers are gonna try hard to make them quirky (them calling themselves a spunky little guy just rubbed me the wrong way, don't know why) gameplay wise, I see them just being a nice person, super calm and accepting of other people and able to bring people together. I also think they're getting far solely due to being the first NB character in DC. Like Spencer, I can see them getting further than I suggested, maybe even finalist potential, but for now I see 7th as a good place.

Personal ranking-11/18

Prediction ranking-7/20

Zaid

Zaid has left like, no impact on me. He's a chef which could be something, and he seems like a good guy, but I don't think he has the force of personality at the moment, although I could see him getting wrapped up in something major and coming out the winner of the confrontation. Honestly, this is the early elimination I'm most confident will be wrong, he could end up anywhere placement wise.

Personal ranking-16/18

Prediction ranking-17/20

Current ranking (personality)

Alessio

Ted

Benji

Lynda

Anastasia

Natalia

Richard

Diego

Spencer

Amalie

Tristan

Hannah

Isabel

Jade

Ivy

Zaid

Marissa

Logan

Current prediction

1 Diego

2 Lynda

3 Natalia

4 Ted

5 Ivy

6 Benji

7 Tristan

8 Isabel

9 Spencer

10 Richard

11 Amalie

12 Hannah

Merge (Benji and Natalia come back)

13 Logan

14 Anastasia

15 Jade

16 Natalia

17 Zaid

18 Alessio

19 Benji

20 Marissa

So there's my ranking. Again, this is purely vibes based and I'm fully expecting both lists to be proven wrong immediately, but hey, it's fun to speculate.

[lunavagans]

In celebration of my upcoming graduation I‘ve been replaying A Link between Worlds as the first loz title I ever finished, and like. Y‘all this game is really good. Some things I‘ve noticed, now that I‘m playing it as someone who has been to school and learnt about characters, story analysis, and as someone who just wants to rant about it (naturally, spoilers abound below, though I can‘t imagine anyone not knowing about the gist? It‘s an old game, after all):

In Zelda‘s office, there are hearts in the corners of the room. In Hilda‘s, there aren‘t. However, once you reach Zelda‘s office, there‘s not really an urgent need for you to heal up anymore, especially since you can get hearts out of pots shortly before. As such, they most likely hold metaphorical value (aka the developers ship Zelink).

Perhaps a bit obvious, but maybe one of the most jarring things to notice as a first-time player is the contrast between the symbol of the triforce on the pink carpet in Zelda‘s office and the upside down triforce on Hilda‘s purple one. I still think that‘s an awesome choice storytelling-wise.

Immediately outside of Hilda‘s office, there are torches with the same kind of colorful fire that Yuga‘s staff has in his second boss fight.

Speaking of his second boss fight, why the fuck are the two walls that go down/up with his defeat so colorful? Just why? It looks like lego.

The first time when the little witch‘s broom gets me without her and it just goes „…“ still hurts just as much. I love Irene.

DAMN, Impa has a big nose in her portrait.

Wow, that little bit with fatphobia and Oreen really went over my head as a child.

Ganny doesn‘t even get to say one word in his first scene, huh? Goes to show who‘s really the boss.

Love how we see Link being woken up twice and both times have to do with the forge.

That place where we find Gully‘s bag has birds and squirrels and the place with the master sword also does… foreshadowing? Probably.

The wife of Lorule‘s blacksmith can talk all she wants about hating children, but she did pick me up from the road and lay me on the table instead of the ground.

Why does Hilda get to be Queen and Zelda doesn‘t? The latter part of the question is only I pose everyday about every game.

That bit where Yuga says he dislikes Zelda‘s haircolor but still finds the portrait beautiful shows how he really doesn‘t care about the actual looks of the people he hunts down, only who they are and if he needs them/if they pose a threat or annoyance to him. This is also why he finds Link himself ugly; Yuga attributes beauty to character as he subjectively perceives it. (I really don’t know if that sentence works?? English isn’t my first language; but I’m also not gonna look up the words). HOWEVER,Yuga also compliments Zelda‘s facial features. As we‘ve established, he doesn‘t care about the looks themselves, so maybe there‘s a correlation with Zelda and Hilda being counterparts. Yuga knows Hilda and might think of her positively, which is why he finds the superficial features they share beautiful.

From Ravio‘s identity reveal, we learn that he somewhat knows how to do the Basic Human Interaction Thing. So why‘s he so obnoxious when he‘s literally asking to live in my house because he‘s a fugitive back home or something??? Is he trying to be quirky? To seem like a non-scammer so I‘ll take his items? Those items are the only thin in Hyrule that‘ll get me through the dungeons, why does he think he has to kiss my feet to endear himself to me??

I choose to believe that, since no other person even shows knowledge of the existence of Ravio‘s items save for Osfala, that they do not exist anywhere else. So where did he acquire them? In the diary in his house, he mentions having magic, and magic runs in the items as well, in form of the meter that runs out to the side. Maybe he invented them. He does mention not being brave, but being smart in the ending when he reveals himself.

That stinky armband. What‘s the trigger for its use? In the game, Link gets put into time-out (the wall). Is the trigger just being put in there by someone else?

I love how some characters just tend to break the fourth wall. Gully and his dad with the saving, Ravio with the quick switch for the items, Mother Maiamai (her name‘s Mama Maimai in german, btw, thus she will be henceforth referred to as Mama) with the maimai map… also the old man introducing you to streetpass. The latter is also referenced by the rumor guy in the woods as extremely dangerous and keen on keeping his secrets.

Skulls sure are a choice of decoration for Ravio‘s little yard. Makes me wonder if he maybe used those as intimidation tactic, or maybe, judging by just how many there are in Lorule, they‘re just plants that evolved to look that way for the exact same purpose. (There’s probably some parallels between Ravio and the plants with mimicry here.) But then again, why would so many be in the dungeons?

Irene and Mama know each other?? Over her grandmother maybe?

The merchant at Lake Hylia proves that Lorule has more than one language, which is more than Hyrule can say of itself. But like, if Lorule is supposedly a mirrored image of Hyrule, then this means that that is only in the landscape and some characteristics of the people born there, p.e. Ravio and Link being similar in terms of looks, but not in character. They do not have a similar development in (I would bet on) anything else, also as proven by Boris‘ counterpart, or rather his death decades before the hyrulean version‘s.

Thee are speaking animals in Lorule. There are giant speaking turtles in Lorule. Nobody questions this. Speaking animals are normal. The only speaking animal in Hyrule is Mama, and she is hidden away in a cave. What the fuck?

(They also have tiny dragons as ravens. This is so important, personally.)

Why is the hylian shield in a Lorule dungeon?

The great fairies look like they could have been Kokiri once upon a time. At least now we know what happened to them in this time line.

Are those dragon statues on the outside of the palace of darkness??? (Okay, maybe that‘s just because these guys worship monsters, but dragons are cool as hell in every situation. At the very least, they‘ve got taste.(They kinda look like Toothless-))

Once you free the fourth sage, you get a cutscene with Hilda telling you about a Hero of Lorule long ago. I get that Ravio is supposed to be the present Hero of Lorule, but like……… I wanna know about that former hero. New game with that hero?? Pls?

Okay, the priest in Lorule‘s church basically tells us the silver triforce was destroyed three years ago. What happened between then and before Ravio‘s appearance at our doorstep??

Where do the monster cult members go after the dark palace???

I LOVE THE BOMB FLOWER MERCHANT!!! Also, does he call Link Thunder Flower Kid/Bomb Flower Kid in the english version, too? I probably won‘t bother to google that.

You know that cellar you need to go through the enter the church for the first time? Yeah, in the lorulean version, there are bats whose body consists of only a giant eyeball. I can‘t help but wonder if perhaps Vaati somehow caught a glimpse of them before he stole the minish cap… But for that to be possible, it has to exist in that same timeline, so idk.

THERE ARE LITTLE CUTE GHOSTS ON THE MAP AT LORULE‘S GRAVEYARD. OH MY GOD.

The fortune teller and the witch should‘ve had a happy ending. I don‘t care about Zelda, let me play matchmaker, Nintendo.

Mama has one hundred children. The fact that her species seems to thrive on the principle of „get many children, be happy if only a few survive“ tells us that barely any of them will live much longer. On that account, where are the other Parent Maimais? I propose that she has eaten her mate like praying mantises (what‘s the plural?) do.

I really like the floor pattern of the skull wood dungeon.

Going by the sound those eyeballs make when you throw them, they‘ve got to have a jelly consistency. I think they‘d be tasty, like those sour halloween eyeballs. Do they have those outside of Germany? I don‘t know, I never hear about them anywhere else.

When I played through the skull wood dungeon, my cat was laying on the bed with me, and the mattress vibrated from his purring. Very important info.

Wait wait wait. There are not lorulean counterparts for any of the sages, except for Zelda (Hilda). Why?? Did Yuga get rid of them all for some reason and nobody tells us? If they existed at all, then it would somewhat explain why Hilda vaguely knows the sages themselves? (I know I‘m contradicting that one point from earlier that there‘s no correlation between counterparts except for sheer existence, but eh.)

If I could be bothered to, this would be a ALbW hinox hate account, okay? But get this… the hinoxen on the ice mountain wear sweaters to not freeze.

The signs up to the ice dungeon sure are a mood. It feels like I‘m in a movie, together with the music that slaps unreasonably hard.

I hate the ice dungeon.

Okay, in the North American French localization, it‘s implied that Ravio made up his name when he met Link and like??? Why?? Did he also make up Sheerow‘s name??

Who the hell even is Yuga? Why can he go 2d?

Okay, so Lorule‘s triforce was destroyed in a civil war to avoid constant conflict. Cool. The fact that they even had a triforce means that they were visited by the goddesses, so some form of their counterparts. After the triforce - evidence of those godesses‘ favor - was destroyed, the kingdom fell into ruin. That‘s so much pettier than greek tragedies where only a bloodline is cursed at most.

[galaxina-the-pyro]

So I'm kinda curious, what is your "Like Father, Like Son" Au?

Oh my...I was honestly afraid someone was gonna ask me this, but I kinda wanna answer it so...yeah. X'D

The AU started off as a "Doof is Phineas' dad" fan fic that evolved into something else entirely...sort of. Doof's not Phineas' BIO dad in this AU to put it simply - that just wouldn't make sense for the story I've written for it.

Basically, the AU takes place in "another 2nd Dimension" - the 2nd Dimension with the 2D cast still exists, this just takes place on another route (because I doubt that the number of dimensions is that finite if the movie is to be believed). Kinda like @lyllaotterofhalfworld's Platydad AU, everyone there is kinda the opposite of their canon counterparts, only I take a different approach.

Phineas is the main protagonist of this AU - he is an orphaned/abandoned little ragamuffin that Doofenshmirtz and Schnitzel ended up taking in after finding him in a dumpster. He is creative and fun-loving much like the Phineas we know, but has a much more destructive way of going about it, often choosing to blow stuff up than build something in particular (though he CAN build things and has - his favorite part is just the demolition). He's a little troublemaker who likes to break rules, worldly possessions, and starts some fires here and there. He's also inhumanely strong and indestructible, with boundless amounts of near-unhealthy optimism. He can be pretty selfish and a brat, often at odds with the people who took him in, but ultimately is very caring towards others in spite of his more unstable tendencies. He's an adventurous daredevil that is incredibly extroverted.

Doofenshmirtz is the deuteragonist, and much like in the 2nd Dimension, he is a dictator (though his reign goes far beyond just the 2nd Dimension). He is almost nothing like his counterpart - rarely cracks jokes or smiles, is very no-nonsense, and is incredibly intimidating - it's also very clear that while he never wanted to be a dictator, he is the only reason why the inhabitants of Danville have not been killed by their own hubris. He's often the straight man to everyone else's insanity, though he too is quite the character, often displaying the same kind of reckless behavior and Phineas (and even somewhat encouraging it). He tends to keep people at arms length, but cares a lot for Phineas and Schnitzel's well-being and happiness. He lost both Charlene and Vanessa in a blimp accident and was never the same ever since. He also has a softer side when it comes to animals, stating that they're easier to understand than most people. Though he often is fine with Phineas' antics, he's equally overprotective of him.

Schnitzel (my OC) is the tritagonist, and is Doof's righthand (wo)man. She's a medical professional who's in charge of multiple factions of DEI, and is always stressed and suffers from high levels of anxiety. Always having to keep an eye on Phineas and to make sure Doofenshmirtz doesn't feel like being an idiot, she's often the voice-of-reason, or at least tries to be, her fear often driving most of her decisions. She is incredibly motherly, but can be very blunt and violent when provoked to rage. The universe seems to absolutely hate her, seeing as she's often the target of a lot of the slapstick in the AU. She's Doofenshmirtz's love interest and closest friend, being incredibly loyal to him and Phineas, as well as to Charlene even after she died. In spite of being the universe's punching bag, she often comes through when the call to action arises.

The AU centers on these three dealing with multiple antagonistic forces such as the OWCA, a "heroic" organization that experiments on animal agents to take on DEI (led by Monogram, the man that supposedly was responsible for Charlene and Vanessa's deaths), The Resistance, a group of teens bent on overthrowing Doofenshmirtz by any means necessary (that's also lead by Phineas' older sister, Candace, who very much hates him and is sadly blinded by anger to see that she's not being reasonable), and even LOVEMUFFIN, the very organization that rules over most of the planet that Doofenshmirtz and Schnitzel both work for. They also deal with a bunch of misadventures as well, some typical familial drama, that kinda stuff.

A lot of the times Isabella, Phineas' best friend/crush (the boy just...loves her so very much, he can't even, if only she frigging knew, come on, it's so obvious), will tagalong on these adventures along with the likes of Ferb (who is NOT Phineas' stepbrother in this, but is considered his OTHER best friend - really, Ferb is trying to assassinate Doofenshmirtz for Candace, but grows attached to the very annoying triangular redhead), Buford, Baljeet, Irving, Django, and the Homicide Girls (the Fireside Girls of this AU). There's more to them as well, but that's about the gist of it.

Phineas also has a hamster named Freddie (ala @sortofcaffeinateddoodles) instead of Perry - I'm not actually entirely sure what Perry's role IS in this AU, anymore. He's definitely THERE, I'm just not sure what his relationship is with everyone else, or even if he's a good guy or a bad guy. Freddie's fun - he's got a knife. No one knows where he got it from, but he has one, and Doofenshmirtz and Schnitzel are concerned.

This is mostly a very self-indulgent AU, that I guarantee is not for everyone - especially since I portray certain characters like Candace and Linda in particular in a very bad light, some characters like Vanessa are dead/are probably gonna die, and the fact that there are OCs in this story, blahblahblah. Oh. And they cuss a LOT - this isn't a kid friendly AU. I do plan on writing a fic where the canon-verse meets this AU, cuz I feel like it would be interesting for the characters to interact. Though I already do that with @lyllaotterofhalfworld, and our three-way AU where her AU, my AU, and the canon-verse Phineases all interact and stuff, and it's great and I wanna do more of that.

[hansolmates]

jjk; angel’s trumpet [04]

summary; one second, your life is flashing before your eyes and the next, you’re transported into a world exactly like your own. but the jungkook you meet in this world isn’t a renowned singer or your former almost-lover, in fact he has no clue who you are and why you know him so well. as you work to find your way home lost and confused, you conclude that you’re either dead or in the middle of the most wicked drug trip of your life. pairing; idol!jk x reader (f), alternatively film producer!jk x reader genre/warnings; fluff, angst, supernatural, idol!au, non-idol!au, alternate universes, themes of fate, language, alcohol consumption, mentions of smut in future chapters w.c; 5k a/n; lot of angst in this one!! if your heart aches i urge u to do what i do and hug some stuffies (my current fav stuffie is my bt21baby cooky) i hope u enjoy more of w1!jk, ty for all the love pls share and like if you enjoy!  

[03] [04] [05] -> masterpost

W1. 

Jungkook is strongly advised not to visit you. 

Jungkook has been strongly advised over the past two weeks not to visit you, despite the fact that visitors have been allowed since two days ago considering the fact that you are confirmed comatose. 

A coma. You’re in a coma. It’s weird how much the notion echoes in Jungkook’s thoughts, constantly nudging the back of his mind like a petulant child wanting an out. He’s never met anyone who’s been in a coma before, the condition only reserved for late night melodramas and medical movies. 

And in all of those shows, the person bedridden until further notice always looks like a wreck. He feels like ripping his heart out at the thought of you with tubes and liquids going in and out of your body, face ashen and devoid of any thought other than pain. He needed to see you, to support you even if you didn’t know. 

After days of persistence and Namjoon’s inability to say no to Jungkook, Namjoon agreed to let Jungkook swing by the hospital after his solo recordings. He couldn’t get there fast enough, knowing Namjoon is already there and probably taking care of you. 

He takes slow steps to your room, as if trudging through a sea of molasses. Careful to not let his combat boots strike the linoleum, he catches the tail end of a conversation. Your room is large enough for two patients, but so far you’re the only one checked in. There are three other people in your room, concealed by a thin curtain revealing them as shadows. Jungkook lingers behind, staring intently at the shadow of your figure laying in bed. 

“How inhiberated was your friend the night of the incident?” Jungkook’s presuming it’s your nurse, going over protocol. 

The second voice is Sehlyung, the bubbly coordinator who immediately befriended you the week you got hired. Her voice is no longer chipper, but strained and weak, as if she’s been crying for days. 

“I don’t know exactly how much,” she sniffs, “but it was a lot. She had a rough day, I—I just wanted to help her forget a little,” her soft cries reverberate throughout the white-walled room. “I should’ve, I should’ve helped her upstairs. I knew how messed up she was and I left her alone!” 

Jungkook’s fists clench beneath his hoodie, familiar moisture creeping into his eyes. 

Sehlyung’s words felt like a jab to his form, already aching at the wounds in his own heart. It isn’t the answer the nurse wants, but it seems like the poor woman has been holding in a lot of pent up stress. Namjoon’s trying to placate her, and Jungkook can see the way he’s patting your friend’s shoulder in a gesture of comfort. “No one’s blaming you, so please don’t blame yourself,” Namjoon’s words are like a balm to the proverbial wound, “Nurse, is it possible to project how long it’ll take until she wakes up?” 

“Hard to say,” your nurse replies, and has the decency to sound sad, “it could be weeks, or even months. Judging by her high amount of brain activity however, she’s predicted to awake with very minimal brain damage.” 

Brain damage? 

“Eventually her insurance will run out however, the longer we need to sustain her will depend on how much her cosigner—”

“Money will not be an issue,” Namjoon cuts in smoothly, almost sounding insulted that the nurse would even bring up such a thing. “We can’t put a price on our precious friend’s life.” 

As much as Namjoon’s words alleviated Jungkook’s initial anxieties, the question still stands. Will you come out of this the same person you left? How long will that take, weeks, months, years? He’s extensively Googled before this, reading way too many WebMD articles that he probably shouldn’t have, effectively skewing his perception on the matter. 

He fiddles with his hands in the kangaroo pocket of his sweater, clammy from the heat. You’re suffering, and just like Sehlyung, he’s trying very hard not to blame himself. 

•━━━━━━»•»💮💮💮«•«━━•••

W2. 

Angel’s Trumpet  Scientific Name: Brugmansia  Order and Family: Polimonailes and Solanaceae Summary: A higher order of nightshade, the Angel’s Trumpet is a show-stopping pendulous flower that hangs like bells. In myth, they were prized as chimes holding magical properties. In modern use, Angel's Trumpets have occasionally been used to create recreational drugs, but the risk of overdose is so high that these uses often have deadly consequences.

So you’re either dead or in the middle of the most wicked drug trip of your life. 

You push away from your MacBook, rolling over to your bed to mull. It’s near two in the morning, and you’ve channeled both your love for Buzzfeed Unsolved and your poster making skills in order to construct The Timeline. 

Using your somewhat solid memory from the past two weeks and Hoseok’s own timeline from his daycare shift, you spent the entire night plotting as to why you’re in W2 and how you can leave. 

Your plan of action is minimal, definitively so because there are no leads other than Sehlyung’s wine dealer, and Jungkook. 

Something must’ve been in the angel’s wine, something dangerous. You remember the sky flickering that night, wondering if you were hallucinating or very drunk. Scientifically speaking however, if you really are under the influence of this flower, the hallucinogens should’ve left your body by now. 

Unless it’s magic that brought you to this world. As absurd as it is, the notion of magic gets easier and easier to cite as the days go on. 

And if it is some form of magic, something tells you that Jungkook has something to do with it. But why? 

One: Jungkook’s birth flower, you muse. You think back to how vivid the ink appeared on Jungkook’s skin, how precious the design meant to him. It made you think back to your Jungkook, who couldn’t stop fidgeting as he was so excited to get some serious ink done when visiting a friend in Jeju island. How bright his face glowed after it healed and how proud he was to show it off. 

Two: The last thing Jungkook said to you. How coincidental must it be for him to specifically cite your relationship could work in “another world”? 

You’re definitely overheating your brain at this point, and you trudge yourself out of bed to make something to eat. If you were going to spiral, you were going to spiral with a full stomach. 

The pot as the water starts to boil, crackling and bubbling angrily because you are impatient and cranked up the heat to high. An open ramen block sits on the counter, ready to be softened. Suddenly, the door unclicks and you point your fork at the door. Panic fills you, wondering who could be visiting at this hour. 

“Home sweet home!” Taehyung cries, swinging the door open so hard that it reverbs and hits him in the forehead. However he is unfettered, flashing you a toothy smile as he dumps his luggage at his feet. “Care to open another ramen packet for me, roomie?” 

You lower your fork, remembering that Taehyung’s due to come back sometime this week. “Welcome back,” you exhale, forcing a smile as you watch Taehyung arrange his mess in a corner, “did you have a good trip?” 

“Yeah, Busan’s nice,” he replies easily, dumping his body on the couch. He looks the same, shaggy brown-black hair and mischievous chocolate eyes. He still has an affinity for earth tones and long coats that make his shoulders look good. Despite the fact that you always expect that their counterparts will look alike, it baffles you how easy it is to forget you’re not in your world. “What about you? Why’re up so late?” 

“My thesis was bugging me,” you lie easily, “I’m gonna work on it in the library tomorrow.”

“Ah, is that why you’ve been ignoring Jimin’s texts?” 

You stop swirling the noodles in your pot, looking up from your spot at the counter. “He told you?” 

Truth be told, you haven’t been exactly comfortable conversing with Jimin. You feel a little bad if your alternate self had a thing for the young man, but you know in your heart you definitely did not hold any romantic or sexual attraction towards him. 

“Duh. You’ve hurt his heart.” 

You scoff, dividing the pale yellow noodles and soup between two bowls. “Jimin’s a big baby, that’s why.” 

“C’mon, you love that big baby,” Taehyung jests, “have lunch with us tomorrow during his break,” his eyes are glued to the bowls in your hands, as you carefully walk over to place them on the coffee table. Like an eager puppy, he scrambles off the couch and onto the floor, joining you in your meal. 

You bite back a sigh, stuffing your face with hot noodles to give yourself some time. It still grossed you out that you supposedly hooked up with Jimin on the regular, but at the possibility that you were potentially messing up your alternate universes’ life still held you back for telling Jimin to kindly stop sending dick pics. 

“If you pick me up from the library tomorrow I’ll come,” you concede, “just don’t make it weird, okay? I’ve had a hard week.” 

“Done,” and that became that. 

Taehyung and you cite the silence as being exhausted from today’s events, and you two quickly scarfed down your meal and headed off to bed. Another day gone, and another day longer it takes for you to return to your world. 

•━━━━━━»•»💮💮💮«•«━━•••

“Your life’s totally an anime movie,” 

As much as you love Hoseok’s support, the fact that he’s so excited is a little unnerving. 

“You’re like an alien! Or Phil of the Future who’s trying to get back to his timeline!” 

“Hoseok…” 

“Right, right. Sorry. But think about it,” he jabs a finger in your notebook, citing the pastel pink sticky note where it’s crossed out. “If you fall in love with W2 Jungkook like W1 Jungkook implied, it’ll fulfill your prophecy and you can go back home! And then when you go back home, W1 Jungkook will realize he was being a pussy and then grovel at your knees for forgiveness and—”

“Please stop,” your head is throbbing. The fact that you’re talking about two Jungkooks is terrifying, because it was hard enough for you to handle one Jungkook on their own. “Even so, what’s to say that Jungkook and I really aren’t meant to be? It’s not like W1 Jungkook was wrong. He has a busy life and I know a romantic relationship could add extra stress on him.” 

A little part of you felt good to tell another person about your struggles between Jungkook and yours’ unnamed relationship. Of course, you had to catch yourself sometimes when you delve a little too much. Hoseok after all, doesn’t know either Jungkook. You also forget yourself, often muttering a variant of  “shut up Hobi you absolute Fruit Loop” when Hoseok gets too giddy. The Hoesok next to you is still just as new of a friend, not this co-worker you’ve spent the better half of two years with. 

But back to his theory, while there was no symbolic chime that signaled the start, it grew into a slow, easy love, at least for you. As your and Jungkook’s feelings grew, the more your panic bubbled to the surface. Was it a risk you were both willing to take? Evidently not, from the way Jungkook had slammed the door in your face. 

Another reason why you’re hesitant to test the falling in love theory—it’s too easy to fall in love with Jungkook all over again. It scares you. Without his music career in the way, what’s stopping you? 

Hoseok squeezes your hand at the way you stare so intently into your timeline, sending you a tender smile, “Don’t think so hard. Even so, a little date won’t hurt, right?” he whispers, picking up his things, “text me if anything happens. My kids are coming soon.”

You give him a halfhearted wave, leaving him to his shift at the daycare. You were so engrossed with the influx of information yesterday that you failed to ask Jungkook for his phone number. This meant that you had to do some intense social media stalking in order to find him. If he’s anything like W1 Jungkook, you’re going to have a hard time finding any updates from him.

“Excuse me? Professor?” 

Tilting your head from your notepad, you notice an undergrad had replaced the seat that Hoseok previously occupied. She’s a pretty thing, with long raven black hair and almond shaped eyes. You suddenly feel very ratty and underdressed as a professor, the leggings and oversized sweater with a questionable stain really giving off baked-potato vibes. 

“Do… yeon?” you say, remembering her from an email thread you sent a while ago. 

She beams, “Yeah! I’m so glad I found you. I know Professor Kim said he’d be absorbing your classes since you’re on leave, but I really need help with my final draft. Professor Kim tried to help me and…” 

“Let me guess,” you smirk, “his thoughts were way too convoluted and you need me to get straight to the point.” 

Doyeon snaps her fingers, “Exactly!” 

While apprehensive with medical knowledge, you can still find confidence in your essay grading skills. You spend the next half hour looking over Doyeon’s paper, pointing out how things she could improve on or articles she could cite. Soon enough, Doyeon texted two other members for her study group, saying that it’s a once-in-a-semester-offer to get some time with you. 

And you’re baffled at how easy it is to fall into this professor role. It makes you believe that if you really wanted to, being a professor would also be a perfect job for you. The students are buzzing around your table, excitedly whispering how happy they are to work with you after so long, and that they miss the way you teach your lectures. For two blissful hours, you forget your circumstance and keep your focus entirely on your students. 

A loud, obnoxious cough breaks you and your students out of their work bubble. Taehyung is tapping his Valentino loafers impatiently, holding a very large back of what seemed to be you and Jimin’s lunch. 

“Sorry kiddos,” Taehyung sing songs, already stuffing your work stuff in your bag, “she promised to go out and have lunch with mature adults.” 

“We’re literally like, a couple years younger than you,” Chan scrunches his face, sending you a pleading look. 

“Sorry Chan, I did say I was going to have lunch,” you concede, “but please email me if you have any more questions. Otherwise, you’re right on track!” 

You wave at the thankful students happily, and Taehyung literally has to drag you out by the arm and shove him into his Uber before you could relent. 

“Damn girl,” Taehyung chuckles, relieved to finally get you out of the library, “you didn’t hear me the first three times I was calling you. Chan looked like he was about to rip my head off!” 

You shrug lightly, “What can I say, the time really flew with them.” 

•━━━━━━»•»💮💮💮«•«━━•••

What a coincidence, you’re in the same place he is, again. More specifically, his new workplace. 

How is it possible that you have so many handsome friends? Jungkook is baffled by the way Park Jimin and the dark-haired friend feed you fries like you’re their precious daughter. In response, you scrunch up your nose and push them off, instead deciding to shove five fries in your mouth all at once. 

As much as he wanted to ask you out since you admired his tattoos yesterday, he can’t find it in him to go up and interrupt your lunch. Besides, he has work and he doesn’t want to complicate things if Jimin finds out he was the one responsible for nearly running you over the other day. 

If he walks fast enough, he can avoid any awkward interaction and make it to his office so he can give the day’s full report—

“Jungkook! Get your cute butt over here and meet my friends!” 

Crap. 

Trying not to glare daggers at his new co-worker, he places a thin smile on his face as he moves to your table in the corner of the cafeteria. He lets Jimin give the whole spiel on how he hired him, and Jungkook decides to hover awkwardly while the rest of you are sitting. The sun filters its way through the windows and bleeds brightly onto your body, making his throat dry and constrict in awe. Your expression is definitely more positive since that time at the library, and he wonders what he has to do to reach that level of contentment you’re sporting. 

“Guys, this is Jungkook. I just hired him last week. He’s like my son.” 

“Ewh,” the dark haired guy upturns his nose. “But hi, I’m Taehyung.” 

While Jimin goes into detail about how amazing he found his work, he can’t help but notice the fond smile that melts upon your face as you listen intently to Jimin. Jungkook wants to archive that expression on your face and save it to memory, the way you look so pretty with your chin nestled in your hand, turning your head slightly to gaze at him with a look of what—pride? Affection? 

“You sound like quite the artist,” you muse, “I would love to see some of your work if Jimin says it’s that good.” 

He rubs his head bashfully, clutching the camera hanging on his chest like an anchor. “Oh no, I’m just starting out,” he replies shyly, although he would be lying if he said he didn’t crave the attention you were bestowing on him. 

“He’s actually going out to Dongdaemun to get some stuff done for his portfolio,” Jimin pipes up, “hopefully get some good content for the commercial he’s filming.” 

“Oh, do you mind if I tag along?” you ask, picking at a hangnail, “I’ve always been so curious about the producing process.” 

Jungkook’s eyes dart between Jimin and his friend, noticing the telepathic conversation they’re exchanging between you two. Jungkook’s palms start to sweat, not because Jimin definitely wants to probe, but because you made the first move. You pay no mind to the boys, nonchalantly pushing in your chair as you practically float to Jungkook’s side. 

“Wait,” Taehyung recovers first, “you know him?” 

You agree with a vague wave of your hand, “we work in the same area.” 

Jungkook knows for a fact that’s not true, as you only started appearing in his life when he almost knocked you out. But Jungkook can only nod like a bobblehead, not wanting to get into the nitty-gritty. 

“I promise to stay out of your way,” you say, “but don’t feel pressured if you don’t want me to go at all!” 

“No no, I want you to come!” and Jungkook raises his voice a little too high to be deemed mannerly, and he watches you step back a bit at the sudden intrusion. His face is on fire, especially when there’s a little smirk grazing your lips. 

“Well if you want me, you’ll have me.” you flirt, gesturing for him to take the lead. 

Jimin and Taehyung’s faces have fallen flat. There’s a stray bit of limp lettuce hanging sadly  from Jimin’s lip as he watches Jungkook escort you out of the building. Meanwhile, Jungkook is swallowing the biggest smile on his face. He’s going to spend the rest of the day with you. He doesn’t know if he’s going to get a decent shot in because you’re a definite distraction, but it’s totally worth it if he can get to know you a little better. 

You mention that you haven’t walked around Seoul in a while. Jungkook wants to ask more about it, but as open as you display yourself, there’s definitely something guarding you. Jungkook wants to chalk it up behind the whole fiasco of mistaking him for someone else the other day, so he doesn’t want to step on those eggshells again. 

But Jungkook is here to work. So he tells you to walk on and lead the way to Dongdaemun while he gets ample footage of the city. 

He’s taking pictures of you along the way, but he decides to leave that part out. He likes the way your long red dress swishes in the breeze, the tail end of the fabric brushing against his legs whenever he gets too close. 

You stop in front of a pet store, face glowing as you point to their aquarium tank. “Look!” you cry, tugging his sleeve over as if you’re long lost friends, “it’s my boi Nemo!”

He cracks up at your joke, as you excitedly shout to Jungkook that “you found your son!” and it spurs him on to continue his peals of laughter. The joke isn’t that funny but it’s humorous enough coming from you and the smile on your face is enough for him to return one equally as big. 

“C’mon,” his fingers brush over the bare skin of  your forearm, sending sparks straight to his heart, “it’s getting dark. Just keep swimming.” 

Jungkook manages to get some good sunset content before the sky turns navy. He’s not a big fan of photographic tourism spots, but Jimin insisted that the big boss wanted a specific style for their company and he needed to get used to making the usual seem unique. 

Looking over his shoulder, he sees you swinging your legs on a nearby bench. You’re munching on a bubble waffle, cheeks puffed as you concentrate on the Cheonggyecheon stream, water babbling. 

He’s about to ask you if you want him to take a picture of you, because he thinks you would look beautiful with your dress billowing as you hop over the stones, but he notices the sadness in your face as you gaze at the water. 

Lowering his camera, he sees the way your chewing slows, as if you don’t feel like putting anymore effort in the action. Your dimmed gaze seems to peer into a different world, as if you could dive right into the water and transport yourself far, far away from here. 

Jungkook takes tentative steps, crouching down from your space at the bench so he would have to look up at you. His hand hovers to balance himself on your thigh, but he thinks better of it and decides to hold onto the wood. 

“Can I ask you something?” 

He doesn’t comment on the strain in your smile, “Sure.” 

“Do I remind you of y’know, him? Your Jungkook?” 

Your smile increases, and he doesn’t expect it. Shifting over, you pat the space next to him. It’s a tight fit, and your thighs brush his. “Yes and no. It doesn’t hurt or anything, really,” you answer softly, and you reach for his hand, pulling the long sleeves apart to reveal his tiger lily tattoo. He doesn’t believe your excuse for a damn second, but decides better than to speak against you. “He’s still around, even if he isn’t here. I guess I was just thinking about how we could never go out like this.” 

He tenses under your ministrations, and you immediately pick up on it like a sixth sense. “I’m not trying to replace him,” you add, and he tries to relax as you trace the petals on his arm, “I’m sorry if you felt that way. But it’s... impossible to compare you to him, really.” 

“So, would you be interested in seeing me again?” 

“I’d be upset if you weren’t, Kook.” you manage to pout, and you slide your hand down to thread your fingers between his. “Can I take you out on a date?” 

“Only if I can take you out on one after.” 

And it’s easy for the both of you to forget your circumstances, at least for tonight. 

•━━━━━━»•»💮💮💮«•«━━•••

Jungkook drops you off at your apartment soon after, and it feels nice to kick off your shoes and place your bare feet on your soft carpet. 

Your roommate’s feet are propped up, covered by a fuzzy grapefruit-colored blanket. Taehyung stretches his head from the couch to throw you a teasing smile, “Sooo, how was your night?” 

Instead, you point a finger at the flatscreen playing some Korean drama. “Is that Jin?” you balk.

Taehyung cranes his neck to where he paused the drama. The man on the screen is definitely Kim Seokjin, judging from the plush lips and irritatingly symmetrical face. He looks absolutely comical in his Joseon get up and mustache, and you’re not surprised that he made it to the acting industry. 

“Kim Seokjin? Yeahhhh,” Taehyung melts, relaxing into the couch, “that man is so fine I just want him to bend me over that little well and—”

You physically gag, causing Taehyung to break into peals of laughter, forgetting about his fruitless celebrity crush. Only you would never forget this interaction, the words currently searing  into your memory at the thought of seeing Seokjin and Taehyung in the same room when you manage to return. “So?” he goads, “Jungkook? He looked like a scared bunny when Jimin glared at him.” 

“It was… good,” you settle as an answer, reaching over to ruffle Taehyung’s messy bed head. “I like him, Tae.” 

“That’s good,” Taehyung nods, “you deserve more happiness in your life.” 

“You think so?” 

“I know so!” Taehyung jerks up, punching his fist in the air. You giggle at his antics, and he ushers you over to the couch, “good things are coming, y/n. I can feel it.” 

You don’t tell him, but you can feel it too. Sharing his blanket you snuggle further into the couch, asking questions about the famous actor Kim Seokjin and his litany of dramas he’s filmed under his belt. Tonight, falling asleep next to Taehyung, you have the best night’s sleep in weeks.

•━━━━━━»•»💮💮💮«•«━━•••

W1. 

Jungkook sits in your sickness. 

Namjoon says he doesn’t have to, doesn’t need to stay the night. You’ll be fine, your family will come in the morning and care for you. For once, Jungkook tucks his tail and says he wants to, even compromises to bring his work so he doesn’t miss a deadline. 

But he can barely get a bar in because he’s too focused on you, your form all-encompassing as he makes sure you’re well-taken care of. Sehlyung dropped off your things from the apartment, carefully packed neatly in a duffle bag you’ve never used. 

Soft, lo-fi hip hop plays from his computer speakers as he takes the time to nurture you, care for you. It’s dark outside, the only light emanating from the hallway and a dim desk lamp. He’s done his research, making sure to keep you as clean as you would like to be. He brushes your hair, takes the time to remove the tangles and pin it out of your face. His hands are slightly greasy when he’s done, and his hand falls to your hospital sleeve. 

“I wonder how I should wash your hair,” he says aloud, “maybe I can get a small basin or something? It’s not the first time I washed your hair, remember when you sprained your arm after we snuck around in Dongdaemun?” he smiles at your peaceful expression, neutral, “you were such a baby, didn’t feel like shampooing with one hand.” 

Talking is also good, too. They say that sometimes the patient can hear and recall conversations family and friends have shared. It’s a little jarring to them, almost like they’re drowning in their heads and unable to bubble up to the surface to reply, but it’s still reassuring to hear familiar voices. 

He massages your limbs with lavender scented baby lotion, making sure your body isn’t wasting away and stretches your fingers and toes. You’d have a fit if you didn’t do your whole lotion routine daily, wanting to be soft and huggable at all times of the day. He puts on a pair of pink bunny socks, making sure your feet don’t get too cold in the sterile room. 

Running out of things to talk about, he settles for singing along to his playlist, knowing how much you loved to fall asleep to the sound of his voice. He’s tired and he doesn’t feel one-hundred percent, but he hopes you appreciate the sentiment either way. 

Weaving through the wires and cords that sustain you he places your hand in his larger one. Jungkook wishes he could care for you everyday like this, treat your body like a temple and wait for you to wake up. Resting his head on the mattress, his soft locks brush against your thigh unkempt as he focuses on tracing words on your palm. 

Lavender. Chicken. Netflix. 

Your nurse steps in, giving Jungkook a polite wave as she does her nightly rounds. He mumbles a half-hearted greeting in response, immersed in working between the lines on your soft skin as he traces character by character. Your nurse is quick with her work as she checks things off on her iPad and checks the machines that keep them informed. As if she’s intruding on an intimate moment, she types her findings faster. 

JK. y/n. Still with you. Sorry. Love. 

Your hand twitches in his grasp. It’s minuscule, a brief curl of your fingers. The pad of your thumb barely brushes his knuckle and Jungkook’s reeling. It’s only half a second, but Jungkook cries “whoa!” and sits up straight, startling your nurse, “she’s moving!” 

Your nurse smiles sadly at the sparkles of hope in his eyes. “It’s only muscle spasms, Jungkook. It happens sometimes,” and she catches herself before Jungkook’s shoulders deflate and sink into the floor, “but see her eyes?” 

He blinks, watching as the nurse gestures to your face. She’s right, your eyes are movie, flickering back and forth. Your lids may not be open, but the movement is there.

“She’s either dreaming or really listening to you, Jungkook,” your nurse murmurs fondly, “make sure you keep her entertained, being in a coma is awfully boring.” 

Jungkook thanks her, sending a terse smile as she whisks herself away. He squeezes your hand firmly, wishing you would give him another sign. He feels like he’s chasing you now, reaching out to you, talking to you in hopes you’ll reply. It’s ironic, considering this time he’s not sure if you’ll turn around this time, bounce back as you once were. 

Wiping the wetness from his eyes, he tucks you in and scoots his chair closer to your bed. “Wake up soon, yeah? We’re waiting for you,” he whispers, holding your hand next to his head as he tries to fall asleep. 

Tonight, he’s dreamless. 

[geekgemsspooksandtoons]

GeekGem’s Major RE8 Rewrite Details & More

I am writing this because my good friend @kaijuguy19​ was very interested in this. And I want to kind of get it out of the way. So I am gonna write a post that almost seems like a leak of before a movie or a game gets released like this very old Sonic movie leak that I still recall. https://www.reddit.com/r/SonicTheHedgehog/comments/7e8a15/some_info_about_the_upcoming_sonic_film/

Including I will reveal other details such as changed canon relating to RE6, and this version’s RE9. But it is mainly about RE8.

I am done with the post and I put, “& More” in the title....be warned. If you’re gonna read this, this is long. And there is some sensitive subjects I talk about. If you’re interested...I hope you can enjoy this. Which sounds very sick considering some of the details in this.

1. The protagonist of Resident Evil 7, 8, and 9 in these rewrites is going to be Emma Rosemary Winters. The daughter of Ethan and Mia Winters. Originally she was meant to be a different character and Rose was still a baby, maybe a sibling. But things just developed and she’s now the daughter that was a big deal in RE8. In this version, Emma is the focus of the trilogy. And not as a plot device.

She was born in 1999, making her 18 in 2017, and 22 in 2021. Much older than her, “Canon” counterpart. She was born a year after the events of Resident Evil 1, 2, 3, and Code Veronica.

2. More classic characters would be more involved. With Jill Valentine possibly being more involved in RE7 and not as a ending surprise for RE7. With her character being what Chris was to Ethan. But it’s more of a aunt and niece relationship in a way. Especially in Resident Evil 8.

Including other details that are revealed in this that Jill sadly became infertile because of being used as a BOW by Wesker in Resident Evil 5. Making a strong and sadly...depressing connection to that game. Along with the many infections that have happened to her in her years. Including she mostly has been dying her hair brown for years. 

3. Spoilers for Resident Evil 6. Compared to the, “Canon” events of the timeline. The USA is no longer a superpower. After the knowledge that the US military had a hand/knew about Umbrella’s development of BOW’s in 1998. 

Ever since 2013, America has been mainly disowned by other countries and maybe not actually demilitarized...and my comment is that America became pussyifed. Which my friend found to be a derogatory term to describe demilitarization. But it is likely not a failing country, but one that is no longer in control of many others.

4. It is likely Leon joined the BSAA sometime or somewhere else. But in 2015, Leon and Claire finally...boned with Leon moving on from Ada. So that Redfield bloodline stuff is done with.

One of the reasons why is that the CGI films are likely not canon in these rewrites...or mainly the recent ones.

5. Resident Evil 8 biggest themes would be about mothers. And that Mia and the truth of who she is. It is a big focus and Emma trying to find her possibly. But also on another mission.

6. As with classic characters returning. Hunk is supposed to be a major part in RE8. Along with the return and the canonization of the Umbrella Security Team Delta known as the Wolf Pack. 

Having first returned in a DLC story to RE7 featuring Jake Muller, Nikolai Zinoviev, and Sherry Birkin. Which features Hunk as the playable character killing Nikolai, rescuing but using the already captured Sherry(Who was captured by Nikolai) as bait for Jake. Which results in a fight to the death between Jake and Hunk. With Hunk winning and killing Jake, but leaving Sherry alive.

This ends in possibly Hunk(Who was hired by The Connections to kill Nikolai and Jake) being able to get into the BSAA as a mole and get close with the Winters family.

7. Replacing the stupid twist at the start of the game. For the next four years, Hunk has been secretly posing as a different man. But using his real name because his real identity has never been revealed.

Originally having the name Derek. His real name is Hank, and called, “Uncle Hank” by Emma. He has been keeping tabs on the Winters family for The Connections. 

But during one night, personally sent by Bailey(The leader of The Connections), Hunk and the Wolf Pack invade the Winters home and replaces the opening scene from RE8. With a moment of Emma realizing Hank is Hunk, but telling her to not call him that, but instead what he’s usually called.

And during the scene with him saying, “I’m not sorry Emma” before kicking Mia in the face in front of Emma. Showcasing even more Hunk did not validate or cared about Emma’s own trauma or well being.

8. In RE7, the Bakers are gonna be less sympathetic minus Zoe. Maybe having some tragic angles, but there’s no mind control really. Instead, Eveline is portrayed in a more tragic light and as a victim. Instead of how the, “Canon” RE7 did with her treatment.

With the tragic angle of Emma seeing Eveline at first as a young girl. But soon understanding she’s not who she is and what she was built for. With Emma knowing she has to kill her, despite she doesn’t want to. And even Eveline not wanting die as well.

9. The story with Emma in the RE8 rewrite is a big thing. And it’s what I have really focused on. While still using a lot of the same story from RE8. But being inspired by Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge.

After the events of RE7, Eveline dying, and some months after that sneaking out with Party Girl to a mall. She gets kidnapped by Ada and put for ransom for her mother to secretly help her to give her information from the BSAA and The Connections. And to make sure Emma doesn’t know her involvement too.

For years, Emma has slowly grown a little bitter. Despite being compassionate. Having developed anger toward hers captor and not wanting to be a victim anymore. But in RE8, this is where her mindset starts to darken even more.

But the night Hunk and the Wolf Pack invade their home, kidnap them. Including one scene akin to Mission Impossible 3, with Hunk shooting Mia(Who is somehow still infected with the Mold) in the head in front of Emma. But Mia doesn’t die and slowly healing. With Hunk doing this to force Emma to be complaint and quiet.

Because of this moment, Emma vows revenge by saying she’s going to kill of the Wolf Pack, and Hunk personally. Developing a hatred for the man the most after he revealed who he was and what he had done. Including the Wolf Pack leader Lupo after she thinks she learns a hard truth.

Throughout the game, her mindset darkens as she starts to think humanity isn’t worth saving as she faces against the four Lords, and the Wolf Pack. 

While not killing all of the Wolf Pack. She does brutally hack Bertha to death, and somehow killing Beltway and possibly Vector. But when she thinks she learns a horrible truth that the Wolf Pack leader known as Lupo may of somehow murdered her father.

She fights the woman, breaks an arm of hers, and stabs her in the side of the breasts. But before killing her, Lupo reveals she wants to see her family one last time. Which stops Emma cold once she hears those words.

With it resulting in Emma turning Lupo in to Jill. And Lupo somewhat, “Redeeming” herself by revealing vital information about The Connections. But also getting a visit from Burton’s and apologizing to them.

10. A big theme and...it’s gonna be dialed down. Is that Emma is slowly sharing this dark view on humanity. As she starts to share similar beliefs such as Mother Miranda, and other similar villains. She feels like vengeance is going to help her against the Wolf Pack and the four lords.

Originally, her story was inspired by the story of Scorpion/Hanzo Hasashi from Mortal Kombat. But...things are slowly changing.

But the point is with my original intentions. Emma was gonna be more savage in these RE8 rewrites, hating the lords such as Alcina Dimitrescu, Karl Heisenberg, Moreau, but not really Donna. But her focus seemed to be more on the Wolf Pack. But again, things have changed.

Yet what’s the cause of this is that she is viewing the world in such a black and white way. With Jill, the Duchess, and whoever else trying to teach her that she needs to realize this isn’t how things should be handled.

But the big twist of the game is where Mother Miranda reveals to her who Mia is. Which shakes Emma’s viewpoint forever.

11. I have talked about dialing things down. With understandable criticism I needed from a friend who’s been helping me. 

I felt like my intention with Emma was very extreme. I felt like my idea was very disrespect towards people who have endured trauma and Emma’s reaction seemed more selfish and she seems unaware of certain shit. 

The best way my friend put it as. I’m gonna share this one paragraph.

“That being said, I do think with the way girls are raised, even in modern times and with strong mothers like Mia probably is, the reaction to trauma is less "I'm gonna go burn down everything in my way" and more "I want to get strong enough to move past this pain." Maybe that sentiment's changing with the kind of upbringing people have now, especially with feminism encouraging women to speak up and not be shut up, but I'll also say that there is a big difference towards fantasizing about revenge and actually having to cope with the often unavengable violence many people have to deal with. Like if everyone just acted out vengefully over every single 'wrong' done to them, the world would be a far more chaotic and unstable place. I think even with all the pain and anger Emma feels, her socialization as a 'normal' girl would have her motivations be more geared towards trying to spare others the pain she felt rather than necessarily a desire to torture and destroy.”

Along with the mentions that she isn’t a Mortal Kombat character or a soldier. While there is some vengeance stuff and anger going on...it’s gonna be dialed down a bit. Bertha is likely still killed brutally liked how I mentioned, and the fight with Lupo is still brutal. I feel this paragraph helps with what I’m talking about too.

“Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Emma can't be a fighter and I actually do like the irony of this small and terrified damsel managing to survive extraordinary odds and defeat incredibly powerful enemies...I just think she probably wouldn't just be swearing and yelling all the time, and honestly she'd probably be better using guns rather than doing everything up close. Think of all the RE heroines and how none of them needed to really punch a boulder (or carry a stupid huge BFG, at least before the remake) to be "strong" - of course, I know part of that is that their designs are meant to appeal to the 'male gaze' and that's why they're all so curvy yet skinny, but I think if you are going for "realism" and "horror" then it's MORE believable to have a protagonist who isn't a brawler. Think of Silent Hill, or Clock Tower, or Fatal Frame.”

12. A major new character or some what new is Eris.

A BOW originally named in developed as, “The Perfect Nemesis” because he is a Nemesis BOW The Connections have made. But what made him perfect was the combination of the Mold with the Nemesis Parasite. Making it easier to control him. Despite thinking about it, he looks more akin to the original Nemesis than the remake version. But with some differences.

He is dropped into the village after Hunk contacts The Connections for a little help to find Emma and even Mia. Including the realization of the four lords and the powers they possess.

But the major twist is that Eris is actually Ethan Winters. Who back in 2017, was murdered by Hunk in a likely story DLC maybe titled, “End Of Ethan”. 

Ethan does pop up in RE7, but supposedly dies. But it is revealed in a DLC he is somehow alive. Considered to be a biohazard and maybe trying to save his family, including his daughter. But it ends with Hunk finding and killing him.

Due to the Mold being in Ethan’s body. He is the perfect candidate for Eris. Being sent on missions to kill certain people. And nearly killing Leon Kennedy on one mission but failing.

He doesn’t really mutate because of the Mold, which controls the Nemesis Parasite. Thus, making him perfect in a way, easier to control.

But compared to Nemesis, who was still quite intelligent for a BOW. Eris seems to showcase more intelligence. Such as being able to talk a bit more. Talking in a way similar to the likes of Grimlock from Transformers. Because of the Mold and this Ethan’s memory slowly popping up. 

Basically, he can’t talk regularly. He just has a bigger vocabulary. Such as these.

“Eris....head...hurt”. “Winters....familiar”. “Emma.....Rose.” And whatever else, it depends.

There are also snippets of blonde hair on Eris’s head. Showcasing the last remaining human parts of Ethan.

It is likely he does at the end of his arc, remember who his daughter is and maybe is the one who kills Hunk instead of Emma. Despite my idea of Emma stabbing Hunk in the balls and chest, but him being so stubborn to pain that he doesn’t care.

During the story, Eris tries to follow Emma and Jill around the village. And even facing off against some of the lords such as Alcina, maybe Moreau, and likely Heisenberg.

It is likely Heisenberg is the one that kills him. But I think I’ll have Emma kill Hunk instead. I want to put that in. Yeah...Hunk is maybe getting stabbed in the balls.

The big reveal where Emma finds out(With Jill telling her) Eris is her dad. Which seems to replace the scene where Ethan discovers Rose’s head in a flask. Because of some reason, she thinks Lupo is the one who murdered her father. Which results in her trying to find the woman and killing her. Until she finds out she was wrong and Lupo reveals it was Hunk who did it.

He dies with a death scream in a similar way of how Superman dies in the beginning of Zack Snyder’s Justice League. And in way...Eris is basically a more tragic version of The Iron Giant.

13. In a retcon or not. The part of Wesker in Resident Evil 1 saying Barry Burton’s family was taken hostage is actually true in this. With the Wolf Pack taking them hostage. But leaving them alive after they hear on a radio Wesker betraying Umbrella, but also because of Lupo due to Kathy holding out for her children.

Outside of the main story. Kathy, and many well known RE characters such as Jill, Chris, Leon, Claire, Sheva, are considered family friends to Emma and Mia. 

With a mention from Emma that people like Jill, Chris, Leon, and Claire(Maybe others like Barry) posed as family for Emma’s college graduation in 2020. It’s really meant as the closest easter egg and to namedrop certain characters without using them in the story.

Along with the fact before RE8, Jill, Sheva, Rebecca, Kathy, and likely Claire have also talked with Emma about personal things. Such as trauma. And that she had therapy for years. But Mia has not done any therapy. Which bothers and saddens Emma. 

At times she tries to ask her mother if she wants to talk about what happened in 2017 and even the events with Ada. But Mia politely asks her she doesn’t wanna talk about it.

14. Compared to their Operation Racoon City counterparts, which was their first appearance. The ages for the Wolf Pack and Echo-6 are very different.

Most of the Wolf Pack are near the age range of Chris Redfield. Such as Lupo being a little older than Jill. Such as maybe being born in 1971. Making all of them middle aged in 2021.

Most of Echo-6 were born in the 90′s. Making them mostly in their 20′s in 2021.

15. Compared to the, “Canon” version of RE8. There is almost a three way war between The Connections/Wolf Pack, the BSAA/Jill with Echo-6, and Mother Miranda with the four lords. 

With Emma in the middle trying to find her mother. And considering the notes, it is likely the BSAA is still corrupted. But that’s another topic.

16. Unlike the, “Canon” story, Donna Beneviento lives with Emma not wanting to kill her after she discovers some things that makes realize Donna isn’t in the right mental state. I won’t reveal much more more of this.

17. Compared to her father in, “Canon”. I have called and thanks to my friend giving me this idea. But I have called Emma the, “Perfect Hybrid” because she was infected in RE7 during her time at the Bakers. I’m gonna share some shots.

Despite my original intention to make Emma normal...she kind of still is...

So she’s not having her limbs cut off. But this explains her recent increase in strength and anger in RE8.

18. Compared to how the real RE8 is. Mia is a bigger focus with the biggest twist in the game is Mother Miranda revealing that Mia was a clone of hers. How she escaped the village years ago was because of an arranged kidnapping done by Heisenberg.

But the big twist is that Miranda reveals that Mia was responsible for being involved with The Connections, knowing who Eveline was and what she did to the Bakers, knowing who Ada was and why she was kidnapped. And also saying Mia was the reason Ethan was murdered and turned into Eris(Which she wasn’t).

She puts it in a way that Mia was responsible for every horrible thing that happened to her. Including that she’s the reason their family was destroyed.

After this and it’s not a boss fight. It results in well...I did make some dialogue. But it’s deep somewhere...I just wanna share some shots.

But the idea I’ve been thinking Jill finds her after the reveal. And takes her back to this small HQ where the remaining survivors of the village and Echo-6 are at.

I don’t think that, “Megamycete” might be a thing. I want Miranda to be fully aware of what she’s doing.

The point also being Miranda see’s Emma as a perfect host because she sees a younger but more savage version of herself. Including she decides to reveal everything of why some characters are saying, “You don’t know who your mother is”.

19. Elena, and maybe Luiza survive. Along with a new character named Vincent survive. The entire village doesn’t die...that just wasn’t needed. Some die, but not those three.

20. The Duke is now the Duchess...who’s basically a more kinder and wiser lady who may not look that good. And usually when I read the word Duchess, I think of the character from Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends.

21. One of the ideas is to showcase more of the Dimitrescu’s because of their popularity. But also to make them possibly...more evil and whatever else. Seeming more like sexual predators(Which they are in a way.), and Emma having a huge desire to kill them. But one of the daughters, Daniela showcases more of her humanity. Who feels like she’s in love with Emma. But she’s really not right in the hand.

Including one of the weapons Emma gains is a flame thrower...which may do some damage to the daughter’s and even Alcina.

22. Considering the zombies in the Dimitrescu and Beneviento areas are themed to fit for those places. Instead of Lycans in Moreau’s area. You have more Gillman like creatures. Which fits the fish aesthetic of the area.

23. It is likely Chris is in there...just not a whole bunch now. He’s likely in RE7. But Jill overtakes his role and...he’s not doing the stupid shit in RE8.

24. For RE9, the focus is on Emma working with Leon trying to save president Ashely Graham on an island with the help of Carlos Oliviera. Including Claire Redfield is involved. Along with Emma and Leon having to work with Ada. Despite Emma having an intense relationship with Ada as she realizes this is the woman that started her downward spiral into anger.

With Natalia from RE Revelations finally being the leader of The Connections because of Alex Wesker controlling her. Including the island is the home base of The Connections...

25. Mia is gonna be more...sympathetic is maybe the word. She’s more akin to Bioshock’s Brigid Tenenbaum. She regrets things she’s done. And she didn’t want her family to know because she was afraid of her daughter hating her. And the relationship with Mia continues in RE9. 

Despite her relationship with Emma is scorned. A little in the ending of RE8 maybe and in RE9. She soon hugs her mother and forgives her.

RE9 is basically gonna be my own RE4/5.

26. I think this is gonna be the last part. I’ve been writing this for way too damn long. Maybe nearly two hours or so....

So....why did I stop this for awhile...I have talked about this has honestly depressed me.

Dealing with themes such as trauma, a young woman discovering her mother was a bioterrorist basically, Jill being infertile, Lupo’s children actually found out who she was and disowned her when they got older.

There is also the old idea(Might still add it) that Lupo was raped and one of her children were born because of that(Yet Lupo later on in life would murder the man). But also Miranda was raped by the soldiers(An idea from me).

But also Ethan becoming a BOW and forced to hunt down his daughter...it’s also the whole tragedy of the Winters family too and other thing that really dampened my mood for sometime. Including the whole theme about trauma, governments, and vengeance.

This...this was the shit that depressed me and why I needed a break...this is what I was talking about in some of my other posts...this is why my interest kind of...changed to cartoon stuff.

This is why I worried of being a, “Diet Neil Druckmann”. 

I think I’ve written enough...I’m gonna have to warn the readers about how long this is.

[bigmeatymudcrabchitins]

A not-so-brief overview of my Skyrim Dova OCs bc i need to scream to the digital void about my ideas

Freyora Lind, more commonly known by her strange alias “Bjorne Icepick”

A Nord-eventually-turned-werewolf who orphaned during the Great War and taken in by a Dunmeri mercenary whose residence was in Windhelm’s Gray Quarter. Grew up in a cramped boarding house setting among desperate mercenaries of varying backgrounds. Many of them would all come and go, but there was always some sort of a familial bond between them all.

From a young age she got in a lot of fights against people who insulted her for living in the Gray Quarter among the dark elves. Eventually she took a fight too far and was jailed for murder around 14, but was broken out shortly after by a band of masked vampires. Turns out some of her mercenary comrades unwittingly caught vampirism during a contract to clear out a vampire den and had to skip town, but not before ensuring one of their own wasn’t left to rot.

Lived in Cyrodil for about 15 years, but returned to Skyrim pursuing rumors surrounding a cure to vampirism, as her adoptive father would be nearing the end of his elven lifespan and had wished to die a normal death.

Seeing as she was literally a fugitive, and her long-belated parents were somewhat renowned for their battlefield prowess, she took on a false identity. AND an act to match it.

She’ll eat raw meat, chase prey with swords instead of using a bow like a normal person, harp about irrational conspiracy theories, and more. Everyone’s foul reactions to her outlandish act are plainly hilarious to her and only encourage her to act even stranger.

The alias “Bjorne Icepick” was simply the most ridiculous name she could think of.

Not the most morally outstanding. Besides drunken brawling, she’ll steal from anyone who angers her, even if it’s things she literally won’t ever need such as all the goblets in a household. It’s the pettiness that counts. “Try drinking your damn high-end wine now, jackass.”

Calls Dwarven Automatons “Gundams.” Including she herself, no one knows what that means.

Joins the Companions out of homesickness and a desire to fill in a gap that leaving home left.

Hasn’t bothered curing herself of lycanthropy because her whole schtick is being incredibly resourceful, and that includes using any means of power necessary. Still doesn’t fancy Hircine’s Hunting Grounds as her desired afterlife, though.

As her journey goes on, however, her lightheartedly eccentric face starts to fall off as a number of events push her to begin to question the legitimacy of her actions up until that point.

Some of which include the eventual death of her adoptive father (and how she was indirectly responsible for it even if it was what he wanted), Delphine’s ultimatum, the civil war as a collective, learning the tragic history behind the Falmer and the original Companions’ role in it, and killing of Vyrthur (no matter how much he genuinely deserved it).

She grows disgusted by herself down to the core. She takes to skooma to cope, and starts to be plagued by serious skooma-induced side effects. She ends up shutting herself away from all her responsibilities and distancing herself from her friends.

Does she get better? Maybe. I haven’t thought up anything past this point lol

Moureneris Alta

A very, VERY ancient vampiric snow elf, (though it’s notable she was born a considerable amount of time after the razing of Sarthaal)

Survived many atrocities. Stayed in isolation with a band of vampires for countless years out of sheer disgust for the nature of the sapient races. (I’ll explain her full story some other time. It’s pretty complicated)

She was abducted from her isolated lifestyle by a certain person i’ll talk about later. She managed to free herself south of Skyrim, and uh, walks right into that Imperial ambush. The rest is history.

Super ignorant to modern society as a result of centuries of isolation. Exploited for comedic relief. (“What in the name of Oblivion is a Cyrodilic Empire? Are you messing with me? And please, how does levitation magic simply get outlawed by this hypothetical Empire? What are you to do when you fall down a crevice? Just... let yourself perish? How degrading.)

She reintegrated herself into society with vengeance in mind under the belief that all humans are savage bloodlusting murderers who had to answer for their treachery. (And she was royally angry there was no Dwemer left to spite, but partially satisfied at the same time). But she grows conflicted after being shown genuine kindness, even as early as being freed from her binds in Helgen.

Subsequently has a very muddled redemption arc. Queue Dragonborn hero stuff

She has impaired vision, but she cultivated detect life magic to aid her in daily life and combat (think Hyakkimaru from Dororo ‘19 and his soul detection or Toph Beifong from ATLA and her seismic sense). At her peak, she can detect life from about a kilometer away.

She can just barely read, but only if she holds the text incredibly close to her face, not to mention her Cyrodilic lessons were left unfinished after her abduction, making reading a very taxing process. Weary travelers are often spooked at the sight of a floating, ghastly looking elven woman with her nose pressed up against crossroad signs, and it has become somewhat of an urban legend.

Isn’t as nearly as skilled with detecting the dead and tenses up in burial crypts or around other vampires for that reason. Unfortunately, being the Dragonborn and all, she finds herself in a lot of crypts...

When questioned about her background due to her unique appearance: “Oh, yeah. My mother was one of those mer from the east. You know the ones. Dark elves, I think? And my father was one of those er, tall elv- no, sorry, HIGH elves. Yeah. They both died in a big fire or something though. It was horrible. I can’t get the noxious smell or the deafening screams out of my head. Good talk, but never ask me about that again.”

Queue sheltered old immortal antics: “Wow, you’re THAT old? Enlighten me on how it felt witnessing the fall of the Dwemer. Or perhaps the rise of Tiber Septim’s Empire. The Gates of Ob-“ “Oblivion if I know. I lived in someone’s basement for thousands of years. And I still don’t know what everyone means by Empire. You all are messing with me, aren’t you? That really annoys me.”

She ultimately returns to faith in Auri-El and makes it her life’s purpose to help the Betrayed find peace, as well as to seek out any remaining snow elf groups. Probably good friends with Gelebor or something.

Had a crush on Serana. We all know how THAT went. Damned temples.

Was originally gonna spiral into a much darker corruption arc (another ATLA comparison being Jet or Hama) but I just felt bad for her. Moureneris can have a little found peace. As a treat.

That’s her preliminary design made. I’ll need a mod to properly play her, because that right there was made by choosing Dunmer as her race. But I can’t do that. I’m on console, and while I got the Steam port a month ago, my PC’s stone age specs can’t handle Skyrim yet and I’ll need to wait until I can afford a better graphics card (thanks economic inflation)

Alexandre Armasi, jokingly nicknamed Alexandre the Curious

A complete and unapologetic export of my character from a dead and unfinished DND campaign. Except there are no Aasimar in Skyrim, so he’s half Altmer half Bosmer. And his initial last name was Armas but I thought Armasi suited his Skyrim counterpart more, as subtle a change it is.

He’s mainly Bosmer in appearance and constitution, save for his hair and eyes, which are more similar to that of his Altmeri father’s.

I can’t really export his original backstory though because the campaign wouldn’t translate well into TES lore at all.

He’s a writer who came wandering into Skyrim in search of inspiration. While he mainly writes dramatic fables, he wanted to divert his focus to crafting his own bestiary and herbal compendium surrounding Skyrim’s fauna and flora. The ones at home are simply too vague to him!

He’s very altruistic, wishing to spread cheer wherever he goes, through the art of song (even though he was a cleric in DND and not a bard. My bad.) However, many of his verses are just blatant self promotions of his published fables.

But he’s too naive for his own good. Dangerously so. In fact, he says what’s on his mind with little forethought, with little grasp on the consequences of his actions, which lands him in lots of trouble. “I don’t favor him myself, but you guys kill people over Talos worship? That’s not very cool. A bit scary, if you ask me.” or “A Stormcloak rebel? Didn’t your leader kill a bunch of Reachmen rebels years back, or so I’ve heard. By the divines that’s not a man I’d make a symbol of nonconformity.”

He’s also insatiably curious. The type to ACTUALLY shove alchemic ingredients in his mouth with no knowledge of their properties, experiment with dangerous rune spells, throw rocks at pressure plates, and more. Needless to say he’s very accident prone.

Doesn’t know common curse words. People exploit this for laughs. Think that episode of Spongebob.

Everyone is a little baffled that HE of all people is the prophesied Dragonborn of legend. This agonizingly imbecilic writer who has absentmindedly wandered into burial crypts, troll dens, bandit forts, and more, too busy juggling his manuscripts to pay attention to his surroundings.

His past doesn’t exactly reflect his outlook on life. His mother and father fought in the Great War aligned with the Imperials despite their elven background. Both managed to live to see the war’s conclusion, but his father vanished without a trace shortly after, and it seems his mother knows something she won’t tell him.

With plenty of exposure to bad influences, his innocence is slowly lost throughout the course of his journey, and his altruism begins to grow twisted. But nevertheless, he maintains his jovial, social persona, except this time with much darker undertones. Kinda like a creepy dentist or something.

Whoops. He winds up becoming a feared Dark Brotherhood assassin. (Haha get it “Innocence Lost”???) He somehow deluded himself into thinking that the life of an assassin was the right thing to do. But he’s a funky little guy so he gets a pass for his heinous crimes against society

[autisticsupervillain]

The Macabre Madame Megido

Here it is. My take on an Evil Aradia. Get cozy, it's a long one.

Oh, Aradia. Everyone's favorite chaos loving time goddess.

I'm going to have to take a different approach to Aradia then I did with John and Karkat. Out the three big bads I've created so far, Aradia has probably coped best with everything that has happened to her. She still has a lot of the same light in her eyes and she's able to accept her tragic past as a part of her. It certainly helps that the loved ones she's lost along the way came back to life, which is more than can be said about John and Karkat.

Simply digging open old wounds and then hammering in the nails in won't cut it this time. So, here's a different method...

After the creation of Earth C, Aradia distances herself from the rest of the cast somewhat. Not for any angsty reasons, mind you. It's just that, aside from Sollux, she isn't especially close to any of the people who made it to Earth C. Instead, she dedicates herself towards serving as a grim reaper of sorts. She seeks out the recently deceased in the dreambubbles and works to guide them through the afterlife, helping them come to grips with their death and work through their grief.

When she isn't doing that, she's hanging out with Sollux. Playing video games, talking shit, and making sure Sollux gets out of the house and doesn't waste away into his couch. It all settles into a nice little routine.

...Which she eventually gets bored of.

Aradia is an adventurer at heart. Yes, this happily ever after is nice. It's nice to finally live somewhere peaceful. It's nice to finally kick back and relax. It's so damn nice to not get yanked around by fate anymore. But, it's not in her nature to sit around and do nothing.

So, she grabs Sollux and drags him with her to the dreambubbles, intent on discovering her next adventure.

In time, she discovers it. Whispers echoing across Paradox Space of a mysterious artifact that reveals to its holder one absolute truth. That reveals one small part of how Paradox Space operates and puts its user one-step closer to absolute understanding of the nature of Paradox Space before vanishing to be found again by some other adventurer. They call it The Scroll of Secrets.

Aradia can't resist that challenge and Sollux knows damn well that he couldn't talk her down even if he wanted too.

Aradia and Sollux spend the next few years searching for this artifact. Investigating rumors, running into dead ends, and chasing desperate leads. In the end, it takes a bit of reasoning to figure out the truth. Aradia reasons that something that freely reveals cosmic secrets of that caliber would most likely belong to a Lord of Light, so they'd just have to find one and steal it from them. Sollux points out that stealing from someone who is both nigh-omniscient and nigh-omnipotent is likely to go horribly, but Aradia has an idea.

A Muse of Void would be the Masterclass that passively hides things. As such, even the barest influence of a Muse of Void should be enough to hide them from the Lord's sight, so long as he isn't actively looking for them. Just learning the name of a Muse should be influence enough to keep a Lord from seeing them and the only people who would know such a thing are the Horrorterrors. Lickily, Feferi is on good terms with the Horrorterrors and Sollux is on good terms with Feferi.

Aradia and Sollux track down Feferi in the dreambubbles and the three of them catch up. Aradia puts the whole quest thing on hold for awhile so they can catch up and spend some time together. Feferi admits to being weirdly nostalgic for questing with Sollux during their time in SGRUB and is quiet happy to help with their quest. Sollux and Aradia would also be happy to find a way to revive her afterwards, but Feferi asks them to hold on that idea. She's more useful to them dead then alive right now.

A few trolls against impossible odds, just like the good old days!

So, Feferi asks one of the Horrorterrors for the name of a Muse of Void and the three set of to steal from a Lord of Light. Sneak into the Lord's castle, steal the scroll, sneak out. Aradia had to stop herself from nabbing every ancient relic that wasn't nailed down.

The Scroll of Secrets shows the three a horrible truth.

Simply put, history is destined to repeat itself. There must always be a big bad. Some grand villain who will spread chaos across Paradox Space. A villain will rise, causes death and destruction, and will then be defeated by some underdog heroes.

As the scroll vanishes, Sollux grumbles about losing their hard earned happy ending. Feferi optimistically points out that they don't know when the next villain will rise. It could be long after they're all dead. Aradia suggests that they just look for some way to see into the future. That way they could see who the next villain was gonna be and plan accordingly.

While the Lord of Light would likely have something that would let them view the future, trying to steal from him again would be stupid. So, they instead decide to try their luck with his opposite. A Muse of Light would be able to grant them this level of precognition, the only issue was finding one. Luckily, Feferi had them covered. She just asked Horrorterrors to point them in the direction of the nearest Muse of Light.

The Muse is actually quite impressed that they managed to steal from a Lord of Light and finds Aradia to be quite the interesting conversational partner. She’s able to keep up with all the meta-narrative mumbo jumbo and her rebellious attitude provides a breath of fresh air for the Muse. So, the Muse agrees to give Aradia the future sight she needs.

Aradia looks into the future to find that she’s destined to be the next main villain.

She sees herself reclining in a large throne draped in shadow.

She sees herself floating in the sky as Earth C burns.

She sees herself staring down at the golden blood on her hands.

Aradia is taken aback briefly… but she quickly brushes it off. Aradia is used to being toyed with by fate by now and, more importantly, she has an out here.

Remember, John has Retcon Powers. He exists outside the typical rules of Paradox Space. If anyone could feasibly help them deny fate here, it’s him.

So, Aradia thanks the Muse for her time and she and Sollux head to visit John (Feferi can’t really join them, as she’s still dead and, thus, confined to the dreambubbles). They explain their situation and Aradia reveals her plan. Have John teleport her over to the Retcon Juju before John himself picked it up so she can collect it. The Retcon Powers would then allow Aradia to exist outside the laws of Paradox Space and keep her from turning evil per what fate had intended.

While that does sidestep the issue, Sollux cynically points out that now someone else would become the next villain. Aradia hadn’t so much solved the issue as she had handed off the “become the next villain” problem to someone else. They’re still likely to lose their happy ending.

So, Aradia, Sollux, and John meet back up with Feferi to discuss their next move. John brings up how Lord English seemed to be able to influence fate and the plot somewhat at the peak of his power, which he noticed while fighting him. Sollux cynically remarks that imitating Lord English is the very thing they were trying to avoid and Aradia kinda agrees. Aradia feels that she doesn’t really want to control the narrative. She wants to destroy it.

Think about it. Nothing suggests that they need a narrative to exist. Even if they were to operate under the assumption that they are fictional characters, they still wouldn’t need a narrative. Minecraft is a game with no narrative. No story. No plot. But characters still go about their lives within it. Villagers still live their daily lives, mobs still exist, and players still build things. All destroying the narrative would do is give them control over their lives.

John agrees with the idea, he felt he got dicked around by the plot a lot too before he got the Retcon Powers. Even Sollux admits that the idea would be pretty nice while Feferi just kinda goes along with it. She hasn’t really had the same experiences as the other three, but she trusts their judgement.

But, the same question remains. How are they gonna do it?

The four of them bat some ideas back and forth and this is the plan they come up with:

The Retcon Powers are the only known way to defy the plot and break the rules of the story. So, it makes sense that if they find a way to empower the Retcon Powers, they could be used as a means of destroying the narrative. They’d just need to find a way to do that. Aradia suggests asking a First Guardian, but John laments that Earth C doesn’t have one or, if it does, they haven’t found it yet. While they can time travel, none of them would be able to understand Becquerel and there’s no way they can trust Doc Scratch. Then, Feferi pipes up.

She’d been in the dreambubbles long enough to hear about Beforus and, logically speaking, Beforus would have a First Guardian. While they may not know where that First Guardian is, it’s likely Feferi's Beforus counterpart would. As the Empress, she’d have an interest in keeping tabs on an asset like that. So, the group teleports in to a Doomed Timeline Beforus and explain their situation. Her Everlasting Compassion specifically asks Feferi for proof. Aradia and John promptly demonstrate their God-Tier abilities, proving to the Compassionate that they are in fact Gods from another world.

In the ensuing conversation, HEC continues to only refer to and address Feferi, even occasionally speaking over the rest of the group. The group is quick to get annoyed and Feferi asks her to stop. HEC takes her younger self aside for a private chat, leaving her guards to “watch the lowbloods". Aradia is amused that she thinks the guards can do anything against two Gods and the strongest psionic on Alternia.

The Compassionate asks Feferi why she allows “her lowbloods" to be so mouthy. Feferi is very… put off by how the HEC sees it that way. She asserts that her companions deserve more respect. HEC dismisses this as a case of “agree to disagree" and changes the subject. The HEC promises that she’ll speak with her First Guardian and find a way to empower their Retcon Powers.

Her true intentions are a little more sinister however.

The next night, she has John and Aradia strap themselves into a machine she swears will enhance their powers and even makes a point of apologizing to them for last night. All Sollux has to do is start it up. All seems to be going well… until Sollux hears Aradia’s voice.

He hears Aradia’s voice in his head.

Sollux’s warning gives the two just enough time to escape the machine before it blows, although all three are highly injured.

Sollux doesn’t notice his injuries at first.

That's twice now he’s heard Aradia’s last words in his head. Twice that he knew that she was about to die. And this time he saved her life. He defied fate. He’d never felt so… free.

HEC orders the three be put into medical care faculties and consuls a distraught Feferi.

In truth, John and Aradia are being taken away to gave their powers studied and potentially extracted, while Sollux is chipped with a psionic dampener and taken to a daycare to be “re-educated so his needs can be met".

There, Sollux sees firsthand how lowbloods and mutants are treated on Beforus. They’re coddled. Handheld. They’re treated like children, well into adulthood, and have all their freedoms stripped away. Any showing of disobedience has them treated with shock therapy and, at worst, lobotomy .

HEC tries to guilt Feferi for this failure, implying that if she had taken “better care of her lowbloods” that this wouldn’t have happened. She’s trying to bring her counterpart around to her way of thinking.

In the HEC's mind, the highbloods protect and coddle the lowbloods from an uncaring world that they aren’t ready for. Lowbloods aren’t people her. They’re pets. Feferi, by contrast, has spent enough time with Aradia and Sollux to respect them and she finds the HEC's implications to be disturbing.

Luckily, Aradia and John prove to be difficult to contain. They easily escape their restraints, even with their injuries, and they team up to rescue Sollux.

The HEC sees this as another opportunity to try and make her point.

She has Feferi sent away to a separate location, knowing the three will first look for her at her palace. The HEC meets them there and, after feigning a fight, lies about Feferi’s location when defeated.

In truth, she sends them towards one of her daycares. The ensuing struggle with security inadvertently gets several bystanders killed.

While everyone is reeling from what they just did, the HEC spins the incident as “two lowbloods and a mutant" rejecting her “compassionate guidance”, resulting in massive casualties. She uses this to justify her policies to the public and tries to use this to convince Feferi that “her lowbloods" need her guidance and will only hurt themselves without her. Feferi almost believes her, but then questions what she could’ve done to stop them from screwing up like that.

John, Aradia, and Sollux regroup and teleport over to The Compassionate, overthrowing and killing her. Sollux finds and rescues Feferi, but he comes back to see Aradia staring blankly at the HEC's throne.

It’s the same throne Aradia saw in her vision.

It used to belong to HEC. From a certain point of view, Aradia inherited it.

Aradia notes this out loud and the three move to comfort her. Sollux brings up how, for the very first time, he was able to save someone who he heard die in his head. For the very first time, he defied fate, defied the inevitable, and saved her life. They clearly aren’t bound by inevitability anymore. Feferi, meanwhile, relates to where she’s coming from. HEC was… uncomfortably close to what she would probably be like if she hadn’t met any lowbloods growing up. If she hadn’t gotten to know Sollux and Aradia as people. Highbloods aren’t exactly raised to think of the needs of lowbloods very often, even in a comparatively peaceful setting.

Even still, Aradia is disturbed by the coincidence. Fate is an insidious thing. You tend to end up doing what it says, even when you think you’re ahead. So, Feferi comes up with an idea to ease Aradia’s conscience a bit.

Logically speaking, Beforus Feferi ending up the way that she die would be predestined to happen. She’d need to rule the way she did so that the Alpha Trolls would fail their session, allowing the Beta trolls to exist and so on. So, if they’re able to prevent Beforus Feferi from turning evil, that would prove that they’re still operating outside of the plot. John points out that that this is a Doomed Timeline, meaning they’re already outside of fate's boundaries anyways. Preventing Beforus Feferi from ending up like the HEC wouldn’t do anything. Feferi sheepishly admits to still not fully understanding how timelines work, as she has the least experience with all this meta narrative nonsense.

Regardless, Aradia agrees to go back with Feferi to prevent Beforus Feferi from becoming the tyrannical despot they had to deal with. Both Aradia and Sollux can kinda tell that this is affecting Feferi more than she lets on, even if they don’t say anything about it. Plus, it’ll help take Aradia’s mind off things, while Sollux and John stay in the present to find the First Guardian and get their advice.

Feferi and Aradia visit Beforus Feferi at various points in her life, giving her life advice and giving her the perspective Her Everlasting Compassion didn’t have. Meanwhile, John and Sollux are able to find where the First Guardian lives via the Beforus archives. The First Guardian tells them that, while this is slightly outside the realm of their omniscience, they do believe it could be possible to enhance the Retcon Powers with energy from the Green Sun.

The two teams meet up again in the dreambubbles afterwards and catch each other up on their little side adventures. Feferi wants to see how Beforus has changed now that they’ve fiddled the Beforus Feferi’s past.

When the group arrives on New Beforus, they find Her Imperious Benevolence waiting for them. They make polite conversation, getting HIB caught up on who John and Sollux are. HIB thanks Aradia, specifically, for all the advice she’d given over the sweeps and says she wants to thank her. So, as a gift, HIB gives her the throne of Beforus.

The same throne that Aradia saw in her vision.

All that existential dread that she’d been burying and avoiding all this time stabs through her all at once. No matter where she goes, no matter what she does, fate is still there. Mocking her. Taunting her. Controlling her. Just when she thinks she’s escaped it, something reminds her of that vision. Reminds her that she isn’t free.

As long as the narrative exists, she’s doomed to become the bad guy. That’s the only way she can interpret this. The only conclusion she can offer to the throne in her vision being outright handed to her.

Aradia maintains her composure and politely refuses. After Feferi talks HIB down and the group teleports back over to the First Guardian again. The First Guardian offers up a bit of their energy over to Aradia, explaining that she should be capable of absorbing it thanks to the Retcon Juju. Aradia takes the amount of energy offered, but then a thought occurs to her.

She’d get more energy if she absorbs more. And, with all the hints fate has been giving her, it’s entirely possible she’ll need it. She might still be on track to become the next villain, so she’ll need to destroy the narrative quickly. It should be fine, First Guardian’s are tough. She’ll just absorb a little bit more….

Next thing she knows, the First Guardian has dropped dead on the floor in front of her.

Everyone freaks out. Aradia quickly explains that it was an accident. She admits that she was likely still distracted by the throne earlier. She was still worried. Afraid that fate was hanging over her.

So, the group buries the First Guardian, show their respects, and leave.

As soon as she’s able, Feferi takes John and Sollux off to the side and expresses her concerns.

Between the throne cropping up twice now, and Aradia killing the First Guardian, maybe she’s still going to become the villain after all? Maybe they haven’t actually escaped fate at all. John and Sollux are still unconvinced. John maintains that he knows how the Retcon Powers work and Sollux knows he’s never been able to defy his precognition before. Feferi concedes but remains skeptical.

The team puts together a new plan. Now that they know Aradia can drain First Guardians until they’re just lifeless husks, they could farm them. More specifically, they could farm Doc Scratch. Scratch is a complete monster, so there’s no moral reservation to be had in doing so. So they farm versions of Scratch from Doomed Timelines and each time, Aradia meets an alternate version of the Handmaiden.

Each time, Aradia’ conversation with Handmaiden gets her thinking.

What makes you think you’ve escaped fate? Why aren’t you doing more to get more powerful, to destroy the narrative faster? Surely doing so would be in everyone’s best interest, right?

After a few stops, Aradia notes that she hasn’t really gotten all that stronger. Absorbing the Green Sun outright isn’t an option, absorbing that much power at once would likely kill her. But, maybe there are other power sources she could drain from? Aradia notes how Jade and Calliope are both stronger than Scratch, which gets John immediately protective. He makes it clear that Jade is off the list and Aradia backpedals. She didn’t mean anything by it. She was just thinking out loud. Still, she can’t help but notice the looks both John and Feferi are giving her now. Apparently Feferi’s concerns influenced John more than he realized.

The versions of the Handmaiden Aradia meets now note the distrust most of the team holds towards her. If they can’t trust you, how can you trust yourself?

One Handmaiden claims she has a way to get the power Aradia craves faster. Aradia says she’ll think about it.

The cycle continues for a few days. Eventually, Aradia comes to Sollux in the middle of the night, asking him to come with her. She wants to have his opinion on hand, to keep her from doing something stupid. The two approach the Handmaiden and Aradia asks about her offer.

The Handmaiden takes them to a timeline where the Condescension won. The heroes were destroyed, the Earth belongs to Condy forevermore… and a Grimbark Jade will be forced to serve the Condescension for eternity.

Surely, it would be more merciful to put her out of her misery.

Sollux immediately tries to veto this idea.

Killing a version of John’s sister behind his back like this, even one that’s nothing but a mindless drone now, is unbelievably cruel.

Aradia looks at Sollux and then she looks down at her hands. She remembers the golden blood dripping from them. Sollux’s blood.

She decides she can’t take that risk.

So, Aradia sucks the life out of the Grimbark Jade.

Sollux tells the others what happened when they get back and the three confront her about it.

Aradia begs for them to understand it from her perspective. She just did what she had to do. It was a mercy kill. She wouldn’t have stooped that low if she had a choice.

The group wants to pull out of this plan. Get Aradia locked up until the narrative can be destroyed. For everyone’s safety.

Aradia teleports away. Since her Retcon Powers are now far stronger than John’s, he can’t keep up with her.

Aradia hides in a dark corner of Paradox Space, trying to keep herself together.

She’s gone to far now. She has to destroy the narrative and fast. It’s the only way she can fix this. It’s the only way she can keep everyone alive.

Part of her even believes it’s the only way she can get her friends back.

So, as John, Sollux, and Feferi teleport back to Earth C to get everyone caught up and prepared for war, Aradia does some preparations of her own.

She creates a horde of her time duplicates and sends the all across Paradox Space. They bring First Guardians and God-Tiered Space Players to her for her to suck the life out of, fueling up the “main" version of herself to be as strong as possible. Her end goal is to become strong enough to absorb the Green Sun. And if that didn’t make her strong enough, she’d invade Earth C as a Plan B. Overpower everyone and absorb Calliope's life force. Then, she'll be powerful enough to destroy the narrative.

She'll free herself. She'll free everyone. Even if she has to fight her closest friends.

As her body count rises, her reputation spreads. Every Space Player knows now to run when a horde of Aradias appear outside your door.

They know none survive getting dragged before Madame Megido.

[btschooseafic]

Hey you, what’s your dream?

Pairing: platonic!oc x ot7

Details: manager!oc, predebut/idolverse, partial BTS World!verse

Summary: Jimin does his best to get abs worth showing off.

Warnings: This is a fictional story based on real events. The characters presented here are not the same as their real life counterparts. (TW: eating disordered behavior/body image issues/perfectionism) [Masterlist]

Track 13: Jimin’s diet

Body Terror Song-AJJ

“I'm very sorry that you have to have a body

One that will hurt you and be the subject of so much of your fear”

Aviva had somewhat been avoiding Jin since their last conversation—which was difficult, as she was his manager, and they were smack-dab in the middle of a busy training schedule.

Hoseok was currently working with the choreographers to put together a routine to go with their debut song. Aviva hadn’t come to every rehearsal like she used to, busy talking to booking agents, and besides that, not having much (any) experience to do with dancing. Still Hoseok was a friend, and an important group member, so when he asked her to come see what they were working on and give him some feedback, she came.

“This part is on the offbeat, then you turn,” Hoseok explained, demonstrating the move for the other boys. “So, you want to take it from the top?”

Aviva applauded as she entered. “As expected from our dance captain!” She grinned at him, never unimpressed with Hobi’s dance skills. He smiled back at her.

“Don’t overdo it, Avi-yah, his head is big enough already,” Namjoon warned.

“Go hydrate while you have the chance!” Hoseok ordered, pointing off to the side where there was a line of water bottles along the floor. Jimin was already sitting, drinking and stretching. The others moved over to him, chatting as Hoseok sighed.

“What’s wrong, Hobi?” Aviva wondered. Hoseok shrugged.

“It’s going pretty well for our first run, but… there’s just one problem. I can’t help but feel like something’s missing…” He tapped his chin, looking frustrated. “What do you think, Avi?”

Aviva grimaced. “Sorry, I think I’m pretty useless in this situation. I’ve told you before, I don’t know much about dance routines—”

“Yah! Don’t put yourself down like that,” Hoseok said. “You might not be a dancer, but I’ve seen you speaking to the choreographers, watching videos, attending practices and taking notes. You’re our manager, and you’re our friend, your opinion is worth something.”

“Okay…” Sometimes Hoseok made her feel like crying with his emotional words. Half the time she was pretty sure he was doing it on purpose.

After watching the routine, Aviva spoke to Hoseok off to the side again.

“Yeah, I kind of get what you mean. It’s a pretty solid routine, but there’s no…” She made a like explosion movement with her hands. “No spice to make it stand out.”

Hoseok laughed, copying her movement. “Spice! You’re adorable, Aviva.”

“Shut up,” she muttered, feeling her face get hot.

“You know… I think you might have given me an idea though,” he said, leaning down to whisper it in her ear. Her eyes widened.

“Well that’s… daring.”

“Right?” He grinned widely.

“And, I guess, from a numbers standpoint, that would fit our projected demographic well.”

“You mean we’re hot so teenage girls are gonna be into it,” Hoseok translated.

“Teenage girls are one of the most powerful forces I know of,” Aviva said seriously.

“Hey, I’m not gonna argue with that.” Hoseok nodded. “I grew up with an older sister and five girl cousins around my age, and they saved my ass several times in our teenaged years.” He paused. “Come to think of it, they were the reason I got into trouble in the first place, half of the time, but eh, at least they cleaned up after themselves. Anyway…” He cupped his hands over his mouth. “Okay, boys, I have an important announcement to make as your choreographer!” The boys gathered around. “We have a signature dance move for our debut song! It’s… drum roll, please.” Yoongi slapped at Jin’s arm, creating a staccato beat. Jin winced and pouted at him. Hoseok laughed. “The ab reveal! We’re gonna pull up our shirts in the middle of the routine and show them off!”

Namjoon’s eyes widened.

“Are you sure? Pulling up our shirts? That seems… over the top.”

“The top over your head?” Aviva suggested, grinning. Everyone blinked at her. Aviva tilted her head. “Ah, that doesn’t work as well in Korean…”

Namjoon repeated it slowly to himself in English and then rolled his eyes.

“Ah, who are you, Jin-hyung?”

“She’s not as handsome,” Jin said immediately. Then he shrunk back as she looked at him. “Sorry…”

“Joon’s right though, we don’t want to overwhelm our audience,” Hoseok said thoughtfully. “So let’s just have one person do it! More of an impact!” He pointed excitedly at Jimin.

“Why… why are you looking at me…?”

“We’re counting on you, Jimin-ah! The success of our debut song is riding on your abs!” Namjoon said, clapping him on the shoulder and then speeding out of the room, the other boys following suit, as if afraid Hoseok might change his mind and make them all do it again. Aviva frowned.

“You okay, Jiminie? If it’s too much pressure, Hoseok can think of something else.”

Hoseok frowned. “What? I like this idea,” he grumbled. She elbowed him. “Yeah, sure, fine. Leave to me, manager.”

“No, it’s fine,” Jimin said, his smile a lot weaker than his usual shining grin. “I’ll do it. Don’t worry about me, manager-noona.” He left the room quickly. Aviva let out a breath.

“You guys better not pressure him too much. Honestly, it’s like we’ve learned nothing from that whole thing with Kookie…”

Over the next few days, Aviva kept an eye out for Jimin. She made a worrying observation that he didn’t appear to be eating, turning down even Jin’s home cooked meals in favor of diet shakes.

So Aviva sucked up her pride and asked Jin and Taehyung for help.

“I’ve heard it’s unfortunately pretty common in the idol industry, but has Jimin-ah done anything like this before?” Aviva asked Tae as they gathered in her kitchen early in the morning.

Taehyung had been excited to be invited to her apartment, but now seemed nervous. “Ah, noona, you know, I’m not really sure it’s my place to talk about that.”

“Right…” Aviva let out a breath. “Right, that’s true. I should just talk to him about it directly, but I was worried he was going to get embarrassed and not want to talk…”

“That’s a possibility,” Taehyung agreed.

“So, I thought I’d carry out Plan B at the same time as Plan A,” she told him.

“Is that where I come in?” Jin wondered, pointing at himself. Aviva nodded.

“I wanted to ask for your help making a lunchbox for Jimin-ah.”

“A lunchbox!” Taehyung clapped his hands together excitedly.

Jin smiled. “That’s a lovely idea.”

“If you’re comfortable telling me some of his favorite foods, and we can try to keep it as healthy as possible as well,” Aviva thought.

“Right!” Taehyung nodded, his expression turning serious. “I will make a list.”

“I’ll think of some healthy recipes,” Jin added. Aviva smiled.

“Thank you both.”

“Ah, there is something I wanted to talk to you about, Aviva-yah, if you don’t mind,” Jin said. She looked at him, curious. He cleared his throat. “In private, maybe?” Taehyung glanced at him, looking slightly suspicious. Aviva considered for a moment, and then pulled out her wallet.

“This is the company card,” she told Taehyung, giving it to him. “Why don’t you buy some ingredients for us to work with?”

“Yes!” Taehyung flashed his typical victory sign. “Grocery store, here I come!” He rushed out the door.

“Don’t forget your coat… ah, too late.” Aviva shook her head. “That boy.” She turned, seeing Jin smiling at her. “What?”

“Ah, no, I just thought, for all their flirting, mostly you just seem like their mom.”

She blinked. “Really? I thought that was Namjoon-ah, or you, maybe.”

“Me?” Jin tilted his head. “Well, I guess we can all share the burden. It takes a village to raise a child, right?”

“What did you want to talk to me about?” She cut to the chase.

“I wanted to apologize, again, for overstepping, when I was drunk,” he said. She frowned. “I wouldn’t bring it up again, but I know you’ve been avoiding me, so I realized it must have really hurt your feelings.” She ran her hand through her hair.

“I don’t know… It, that wasn’t very professional of me, oppa, sorry.”

“I accept the apology from you as a manager, but from you as a friend… it’s unnecessary. In the matter of friendship, I was in the wrong.”

“You didn’t hurt my feelings,” she said. “You just brought up something… something I’m not ready to think about, and I was worried you might bring it up again if we talked one-on-one.”

“Ah, well, I guess I almost have done that?” Jin smiled sheepishly at her. “I’ll do my best to avoid it from now on.”

“…Okay,” she said. “But, maybe… some day, if I ever feel like I’m ready to talk about it, would you… would you listen to me? Even if it doesn’t make very much sense.”

“Of course,” Jin said, taking her hands in his and squeezing them lightly before letting go. “Now! Please tell me you have a spare apron, because I am too handsome in this shirt to get it messy.”

She snorted. “Ah, yeah, there’s the one I bought for Soonie as a gag gift.” She pulled the frilly pink apron out of a closet and handed it to him.

“Hmmm…” He was blushing slightly.

“Oppa?” She gave him a weird look.

“Ah, it’s nothing. I just thought… she’d probably look cute in this.”

Aviva nodded. “Of course. She looks cute in everything.”

Jin laughed. “Hmm.”

Later that day, Aviva headed to the studio. She could hear Jimin working on his moves in the room down the hall. Then she heard a loud slam and ran forward to find Jimin collapsed on the ground.

“Jimin!” She quickly moved over to him, pulling his head onto his lap. He groaned.

“Ah!” He put a hand on his head, wincing. She ran her fingers through his hair gently, trying to see if she could feel any bumps or cuts. Jimin made a happy little noise, closing his eyes for a moment before jerking out of her arms. “Manager-noona!” He sat up, scouting away from her. “I’m alright. I just got a bit dizzy and it made me mess up the step.”

“Jimin-ah,” she said, trying to catch his eye, though he appeared to be avoiding her gaze. “I know this can be a sensitive topic for some people, but have you eaten today?”

“Hmm, that’s right, it’s about lunch time. Do you think you can hand me my bag? There’s a shake in there.”

“Jimin-ah,” she said again, taking his hands in hers. They were shaking. “I’m worried about you.”

“I’m fine!” Jimin said, his cheerful tone a little forced to her ears. “This diet is really working! I’m starting to get abs! Wanna see?” He started pulling up his shirt. “Here—”

“Yah, pabo!” Taehyung appeared in the doorway.

“Ah.” Aviva smiled slightly. “I thought you might have followed me here.”

“Tae?” Jimin frowned at him. “Who’re you calling pabo?”

“You!” Taehyung said. “I saw you fall over.” Jimin’s face flushed. Tae looked at Aviva.

“Show him what we made for him.”

Jimin looked at Aviva. She opened her bag and held out the lunchbox to him.

“Tae helped make this?” Jimin said doubtfully. “Tae Tae, you know I appreciate your cooking, but—”

“Don’t worry, Jin-hyung and Avi-noona did all of the cooking, I just helped pick out the ingredients,” Taehyung told him. “I know I’m not a very good cook.”

He wilted a little.

“I still appreciated the thought,” Jimin said quietly. “When you’ve tried making food for me in the past…”

“Yeah, but I don’t think Avi-noona appreciated when I set her smoke alarm off,” Tae thought. Jimin squinted at him.

“Tae, you bad boy—”

“It wasn’t too bad,” Aviva interrupted, waving her hands. “Everyone’s safe, so that’s all that matter—”

“You went to noona’s apartment without me?” Jimin pouted at him. Aviva blinked.

“What? That’s what you…?” She sighed.

“Yeah, so? You get to eat her home cooked meal,” Taehyung pointed out. “So you’d better appreciate it.”

“I will.” Jimin turned to her. “I do.”

“Say that after you eat it, maybe?” She suggested.

“Anyway, Jin-hyung was there the whole time, so it’s not like anything could’ve happened,” Taehyung muttered. Jimin grinned, opening the box.

“Yeah, I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that,” Aviva said.

“It looks really good,” Jimin said, staring at the food. “But, my diet…”

“Noona and Jin-hyung specially picked the recipes so that the food was healthy, particularly for a dancer,” Taehyung told him. “Noona printed out scientific articles like she was possessed by Namjoon-hyung or something.”

Jimin snickered, and then his face turned serious.

“You did all that for me?” He asked Aviva. She nodded. “But, I’m trying to help too. I’m trying to be the best I can be, for this group. That’s why everything’s got to be perfect… When it’s perfect, I’ll feel better.”

Aviva sighed, pulling her knees up to her chest, and resting her chin there, staring at her feet. “You sound like Jungkookie, or my sister, or me…” She looked up again, finally catching Jimin’s gaze. “But let me tell you a secret, Jimin-ah. You’re never going to be perfect. There will always be another loose thread you can pick at. If you keep doing that, whatever it is you want to do, will never get done. Sometimes the best you can do, is the best you can do at that moment. Maybe one day you will be better, but that kind of change can’t happen instantaneously.” She smiled. “But what am I telling you that for? You know. You’re one of the hardest working people I know, Jiminie.” Jimin rubbed at his face and then took a deep breath.

“Don’t you make me cry!” He warned her.

“It’s okay if you cry,” Taehyung said. “I’ll hold you if you do.” Jimin made a face.

“…Only if Avi-noona joins.”

“…How about a pat on the head?” She offered instead.

Jimin ate half the lunch, slowly. He apologized for not finishing it all, but Aviva assured him that was okay. He hadn’t been eating, so eating quickly all of a sudden could make him sick.

She and Taehyung stuck around for the rest of Jimin’s practice, Tae doing his best to follow along, Aviva even joining along for a couple moves, making them all laugh as she growled with frustration at not being able to follow the choreography.

“Rome wasn’t built in a day, manager,” Jimin teased her.

“Oh, I know,” she grumbled. “But I would’ve probably died trying.”

“Ah.” Jimin nodded. “I can understand that.”

“Live instead,” Tae suggested, slinging his arms around their shoulders. “It’s more fun to hang out all together. I’ll get lonely alone.”

“Okay, but get off of me,” Jimin said, shoving him. “You’re sweaty.”

“We all are,” Aviva said, wrinkling her nose as she looked down at her business clothes. “Hobi’s gonna yell at me for wrinkling my clothes again.”

Jimin snickered. “Oh yeah, hyung does that to me all the time! You’ve just got to change quickly and hide the clothes before he sees them.”

“Yeah, but I was going to drive you back, so he’ll see me,” Aviva thought, chewing at her lip. Jimin smiled slyly.

“We could stop by your place first, and could can change.”

“Ooh, can we borrow your shower?” Taehyung asked, his smile matching Jimin’s.

Aviva sighed. “Boys, I really don’t think it’s your intention to make me feel unsafe in my own home, hmm?”

They both blinked, and then exchanged a guilty look.

“Not at all!” They said in unison.

“Sorry.” Tae bowed slightly. “I know I’ve been teasing you a bit too much lately. I got overexcited because your reactions are amusing and I enjoy learning new things about you.”

“Alright, alright,” Aviva said. “Just get in the car.” She drove them back to the dorm.

“You practice this late every night?” Taehyung asked, looking up at the dark sky as they moved down the path towards the dorm. “Alone? Amazing!”

Aviva frowned. “Jiminie... are you sleeping enough?”

“I’m fine!” He said. “I’m not tired!”

“That’s not what I—“

“I’ve got to make sacrifices for my abs,” Jimin interrupted.

Taehyung poked at his own stomach.

“Hmmm. I’ll just hope for them in the next life.”

Aviva touched her stomach. “A healthy body looks different for everyone,” she said quietly. Taehyung and Jimin exchanged a thoughtful look.

“I know I said I’d stop teasing, but you do have a nice body, manager-noona,” Tae commented. Jimin shoved him.

“Tae! You can’t just say things like that!”

“What? She’s soft and nice to touch.”

“That’s worse!”

Aviva sighed, rubbing her temples. “Taehyung-ah, I think maybe you mean well, but you’re giving me a headache. Jimin-ah’s right, it’s not appropriate to say things like that.”

Jimin shot Tae a pointed look. “Okay, okay.” Taehyung waved his hand. “I’ll retract my statement.” He made a weird swooping movement as if swallowing back his words. She snorted. He smiled slightly. “There now… don’t be sad, manager. You and Jiminie can both have abs if you really want, but do it in a healthy way, please.”

Jimin blinked. “Tae, you—” He squeaked. “What the fuck was that?”

“Huh?” Tae looked around.

“I just saw someone sneak out of the dorm!” Jimin said, pointing at a far off darting shadow. Aviva squinted.

“It’s too dark, and my eyesight isn’t good enough to see who it is. Maybe it’s just Hoseok sneaking out to party. I know he did that sometimes in the early days of training.”

“Did he?” Jimin’s lips twitched. “Sounds fun.”

When they got inside, Yoongi was sitting on the couch working at his laptop.

He looked up when they entered.

“You’re back late.” He crossed his arms over his chest, giving them a pointed look. “Just what will I tell your mother?” Taehyung laughed as Jimin rolled his eyes.

“….Jin-oppa is the mom?” Aviva guessed.

“Of course.” Yoongi grinned.

Aviva looked around. “Joon isn’t up working with you tonight?”

Yoongi shook his head. “Everyone else is asleep.”

“Alright, boys. Get some sleep. I’ll be back in…” She glanced at her watch and groaned. “We’ve only got a few hours. By the time I drive back home and then I have to clean up, and then go to sleep and then wake up and come back here and—”

Jimin held his finger in front of her mouth.

“Why don’t you stay over?” He suggested. “I promise Tae and I will behave.”

“I will,” Tae seconded. “I don’t want you driving while you’re so tired, noona.”

Her brow furrowed. “Well, I guess you’ve got a point…”

Tae smiled. “Yay! Where are you going to sleep? Cause I like to snuggle—“

“Nope!” Jimin said, slapping him over the back of the head. “You literally just promised you’d behave.” Taehyung whined as Jimin pulled him out of the room. “Let’s go take a shower before bed.”

“Are they showering together?” Aviva wondered. Yoongi shrugged.

“Saves time.”

“…South Korea is surprisingly open-minded about some things,” Aviva thought.

“Maybe,” Yoongi said. “Or maybe it’s just us. Anyway, I’m going to be working for a while longer, so you can use my bed if you want. No cuddling with hormonal teenagers necessary.”

“Cuddling aside, I don’t particularly want to be sleeping in a room with six to seven boys,” she told him. He nodded.

“That’s fair. Neither do I.”

“... Sorry I haven’t found a bigger place for you guys.”

He sighed, brushing his bangs away from his face. “That’s not what I meant, Aviva-yah.”

“Okay...” She chewed at her lip. “Can’t I just sleep out here?” She pointed at the couch.

“You don’t mind me working?” He wondered. She shook her head.

“You don’t mind me snoring?”

He laughed. “I’m used to Joon-ah and Jiminie already.” He stood up, stretching. “I should get you a blanket or something—and do you need something to sleep in?” She hesitated, and then nodded. “You’d better come into the room with me, so you can tell me what’s okay.”

She frowned. “Won’t I wake them?”

He shook his head. “They’ll be dead to the world at this point.”

They walked into the bedroom. Yoongi walked over to the dresser, searching through a drawer. Aviva glanced around at the sleeping boys. Hoseok had his hand on his stomach. Jin was surrounded by a sea of stuffed animals. Jungkook was wrapped in his blankets like a caterpillar. She glanced up at Namjoon, who was sleeping with his laptop open on his chest. She hesitated and then climbed up the ladder, taking the laptop from him. He grunted and rolled over, continuing to snore. Aviva started climbing down the ladder, but fumbled while trying to hold the laptop steady.

She half fell on top of Yoongi.

He sighed, his breath in her ear.

“You’re just as bad as Namjoon-ah, honestly.” He steadied her on her feet and stepped away, shaking his head.

“…Thanks.” She placed Namjoon’s laptop on top of the dresser, careful not to disturb any of Hoseok’s figurines.

“Would these work?” Yoongi held up a pair of basketball shorts and a t-shirt.

She chewed her lip. “The shorts are fine, but the shirt would be a little… tight.”

“I figured.” He glanced her over and then looked away. “Namjoon-ah’s shirts are the biggest, but I can’t tell what of his is clean.”

“It’s fine,” she said. “I can just sleep in my undershirt.”

“…Alright. And there’s an extra blanket in the closet.” He smirked. “I’m not sure you’re tall enough to reach it.” She rolled her eyes.

“You’re barely taller than me.”

“Still counts!”

“You keep telling yourself that,” Jimin said, walking in with a towel wrapped around his waist. He glanced at Aviva and then quickly avoided eye contact, his face turning pink. “Ah… a little privacy please, noona?”

“Of course!” Aviva zipped out of the room, past an equally shirtless Taehyung, who just gave her his patented blank faced look. Yoongi followed her at a slower pace. He walked over to the closet and opened it. Aviva walked up to him. “Are there clean towels in there? I’m thinking maybe I should take a shower too. I tried to dance, so I’m all gross.”

Yoongi glanced her over again.“You look… fine, but I understand the feeling.” He handed her a blue towel with a yellow duck on it. “I haven’t used this since I last washed it, so it’s clean.”

She stared at it. “This is yours?”

“Yeah.” He shot her a challenging look. “So?”

She just grinned. “So, you’re cute.”

“Just… just go shower,” he said, his face flushing. “Go shower and then get some sleep before you have to start your day.”

Aviva felt much better after showering. She could use Hobi’s iron in the morning on her button up, and trousers, she thought it had some kind of gentle clean setting on it. She came back into the living room, wearing her camisole and Yoongi’s shorts, which were a bit tight on her, but not too much so.

Yoongi glanced up at her when she walked in. He froze. She sniffed, glancing at the mug in his hand. “Coffee? Are you not even trying to sleep?”

“I have to finish this, but you…” He frowned. “You’re the one who’s cute…”

She blinked at him. “What?”

“Too cute.” He suddenly pulled off his hoodie and held it out to her. “Wear that and cover up before the maknae line rushes over here drooling.”

“Stop being gross,” she said, pulling the sweater over her head anyway. It was warm. The fabric was worn, but not overly soft, it felt nice against her skin. “But thanks for this.” She snuggled into the sweater further.

“…I made it worse,” he muttered.

She squinted at him. “What’s that?”

“Nothing. Go to sleep. The blanket’s over the back of the couch. I’m going to record your snoring and use it in a track.”

“Use Joonie’s, it’ll have more impact,” she told him. He snorted. She plugged her phone into a charger and then put her glasses down on the side table. “Night, Yoongi.”

“…Night, Aviva.”

[infizero]

“Star” Teaser Analysis

(disclaimer: this is less of an “analysis” and more of a “pointing out possible connections to past lore without really theorizing on what it could mean” since im not good at coming up with actual theories ;;)

Well, I wasn’t expecting Loona to drop a teaser out of nowhere, but here we are! Even in this short teaser we can see that the lore is continuing from Why Not. Analysis under the cut!

ok so first off, the pairings we get in the group shot are very interesting. we get a close-up of everyone. first is chuu and go won:

who have obviously been paired together before via their scenes in so what:

as well as just both being members of yyxy. (although during why not they weren’t in the same subunit)

next, we have jinsoul and kim lip:

aside from both being members of OEC, them in particular out of the 3 are connected, as they worked together in love cherry motion to lure choerry to cosmos/the middle world (jinsoul leaving the cherry & kim lip using the flashing mirror thing)

^^^ (seen in the “reveal” teaser)

^^^ (kim lip is seen in the LCM field in the “reveal” teaser so this is most likely her)

anyways, then we have the final group before we go to solo shots of the girls sitting by themselves; olivia hye, yves, and heejin:

heejin and yves don’t have any particular connections as far as I know, (let me know of anything if there is!) but olivia has connections to both yves and heejin. let’s start with yves.

obviously they’re both members of yyxy, but as most of you know, it runs deeper than that. i’ll try to summarize since there’s a lot to their relationship.

the lyrics of egoist seem to imply that olivia trusted yves at one point (and perhaps even loved her), but something happened that severed their bond, known only as “letting her fall” - it’s unclear if that’s literal or a metaphor for something else, but the important thing is that olivia gained a deep-seated anger (what she in yyxy represents as seen in “one”) towards yves.

(this possibly led to olivia killing vivi in order to hurt yves, but that’s a whole other theory, let’s get back on track lol)

anyways, in hi high, we see olivia being reluctant to join the rest of loona, but eventually she jumps down from eden after seeing yves smiling up at her from earth, so it seems in the end olivia forgave yves for whatever happened.

they seem to be on good terms, since olivia is literally resting her head on yves’ shoulder, but if this is the same altered timeline as why not, then it’s possible that in this timeline nothing bad ever happened between them.

we get a rehash of egoist in why not, but it only parallels the aesthetics of that mv - it’s unclear if olivia was doing what she was doing because of drama with yves like in the og predebut timeline or for some other reason.

anyways, what matters is they are connected. now let’s move onto heejin.

olivia and heejin are ALSO pretty obviously connected. heejin is the first girl to be revealed, and olivia is the last. they meet at the end of egoist:

and have been seen to parallel each other during the likes of so what and other material. while heejin is often interpreted to be some kind of god-figure in the loonaverse, a force of good, olivia is often made out to be the bad guy - burning the moon in so what, refusing to join the rest of loona in hi high, etc. this can also be seen in their outfits - heejin in white, olivia in black.

anyways, that’s enough about olivia. let’s get back to the teaser. after getting close ups of all the girls in the first group shot, we get this:

a shot of two hands separating, a close up of heejin opening her eyes, and a shot of heejin waking up in a bed of pillows and looking around. now what does this remind you of?

that’s right - it’s egoist babey!! you thought we were done with olivia? HAH

ok, on a more serious note. this clearly parallels the opening of egoist in which we get a shot of hands (which from promo pictures we know to be yves and olivia’s) separating, and then olivia opens her eyes and wakes up on a matress.

it also seems to somewhat parallel olivia’s appearance in the XIIIX teaser, where she wakes up at the bottom of a staircase.

back to the star teaser, we then get this shot:

from the blurry reflection im gonna tenatively say this is hyunjin, but it could also be choerry. or who knows, maybe it’s both! they are counterparts after all.

(if it is choerry, it’s interesting that we’re getting her staring at her reflection again - perhaps another appearance of the other choerry from the flipped side of the mobius strip?)

we then see go won standing in front of the same window, looking somewhat surprised or intrigued. go won has connections to both hyunjin and choerry, so either one makes sense.

go won made the bracelet that the cat delivers to hyunjin in around you, as seen in see saw when she completes it and gives to said cat:

(along with a cat also appearing in go won’s solo mv one&only)

go won also set out a table for choerry in her castle, as seen by the cherries on the plate in one&only. choerry also directly appears in the one&only mv, delivering an apple to go won by yves:

so whether it’s hyunjin or choerry, the connection makes sense.

after go won’s window shot, we get a shot of chuu sitting on the floor. this seems to be one of many “filler shots” - there for the mv, not the lore. all loona mvs have them - most dance breaks, any shots where they’re singing directly to the camera, etc. i will be skipping these since i dont see any lore significance in them - if you or someone else does, great! i probably just missed it lol

anyways, the next shot i want to talk about is the one right after the chuu one.

we see heejin walking into a circle with the other members. there aren’t any connections i can think of so to speak, (other than the fact that heejin is standing beside hyunjin and olivia, both whom have connections with her) but we get another shot of this scene after one of heejin amongst the stars.

satanic ritual with the girls xoxoxo

ok but in all seriousness, i feel like this post has significance. loona is no stranger to magic (1/3 literally cast an “arcane spell of love” to rescue yeojin in sonatine), so it’s possible that they are doing some sort of spell or something.

 the pattern on the ground seems to resemble the sun, but knowing loona’s long-standing connections with the moon, and the burning moon in why not that appeared to be the sun, this could also be the moon; specifically, the moon after olivia set it on fire in so what.

perhaps they’re trying to “heal” it/return it back to normal? we see them dancing on the (perfectly ok) moon in why not, so perhaps this scene takes place between the burning moon scenes in why not and the moon dancing scenes? who knows.

another big thing i noticed is that they’re organized by subunit AND reveal order!!!

if you start at heejin and go counter-clockwise around the circle, they’re all in reveal order!!! 

heejin -> hyunjin -> yeojin -> vivi -> kim lip -> jinsoul -> choerry -> yves -> chuu -> go won -> olivia hye

that’s just... so cool to see aksjgjkagshjk ;;;

ok let’s continue. 

this next shot (aside from being really cool, im sure this is gonna become plenty of people’s headers lol) sort of reminds me of the og midnight festival teaser image. idk, maybe it’s just the twinkly stars and chuu looking back at the camera. as a sidenote, the arrangement of the girls in this shot doesn’t seem to have any meaning.

we get a bunch of filler shots of the girls (looking stunning as always!!) and then we get THIS:

ONCE AGAIN, HEEJIN & OLIVIA!!! this was the first scene in the teaser to actually make me squeal out loud lol. 

this part seems to signify what’s been shown before - heejin and olivia are parallels, counterparts, opposites. heejin is the first girl; she is light, good, regal and godly. olivia is the last girl; dark, “evil”, lowly and broken.

i find their expressions interesting. heejin once again has this very regal look about her, and while olivia gazes directly at her, heejin is focused on their touching hands. she looks almost.... bored. it gives me this sense of like “ugh, i cant believe im having to associate with HER” kinda vibe. idk, maybe that’s just me.

olivia on the other hand doesn’t seem to have any sort of distaste in her expression, she just has this focused, intent look towards heejin. i wonder if there’s any significance in the fact that olivia is looking right at heejin, while heejin avoids eye contact and instead looks at their hands?

a few filler shots later, and we get this one with yeojin and go won:

the first thing i thought of when i saw this was that part in the “#3″ teaser for so what with go won and chuu:

although it’s interesting to note that while in that shot, both go won and chuu turn around to peek at the camera, in this one, only yeojin turns her head while go won stays faced away.

at first i was a little confused, since connections between yeojin and go won didn’t immediately pop to mind. but then i remembered a connection between them i had been thinking about literally like a week ago - they’re both princesses!

go won seems to live in some sort of castle in one&only and is repeatedly seen with crown imagery or actual crowns:

yeojin’s princess imagery is a bit less obvious, but she wears a white dress with a tiara and is seen dreaming about princes and becoming a princess.

there’s also some theory that states that this flower thing yeojin wears on her chest in her main outfit for the mv is supposed to represent royalty IRL or something like that (i dont remember)

so there is a connection there, even if they haven’t really interacted one-on-one before.

after the shot of yeojin and go won, we get this shot:

choerry’s divorced moms

KFJSKGHJ OK IN ALL SERIOUSNESS, why do they look so.... passive aggressive?? they’re not smiling, they’re just staring at each other in this relaxed yet oddly confrontational way...

we’ve already gone over their connection, but i wanted to leave this in since i feel it has significance of some sort.

after a shot of hyunjin’s hair blowing in some unseen wind, we return to the first group shot, with them all admiring the floating stars together, and that’s where the teaser ends.

Whew! That was a lot! I’m sorry this got so long, once I started analyzing there was more than I thought there was.

Please reblog or reply with your own observations or theories, I’d love to hear them! I’m very excited to see what this new MV brings us this Wednesday!

- infizero

[saventhhaven]

Musically Inclined

Pairing; Sam Winchester x reader

Tags: implied smut, flustered!reader, flustered!Sam, Supernatural the Musical, confused!Dean

Word Count: 1,720

A/N: Based on S10, E5

(Gif not mine)

The two Winchesters got out of the front seats of the car in unrehearsed and unplanned unison, causing you to roll your eyes. It's like they were trying to be the unrealistic FBI agents from hoaky television shows. By the time you made it out of the car, they were already making their way up to the school. Damn them and their long legs.

"Hey!" you called after them irritably. "Are you guys gonna wait for me, or what?"

"Nah," Dean responded. Had you not been trying to keep up the professional façade, you may or may not have punched him in the arm.

"So," Sam started his signature run-down, "the last place Mrs. Chandler was seen by anyone was in the auditorium. Turns out, she's the drama teacher." Dean let out an exasperated sigh as you walked, his face more than enough for you to be able to tell that he already didn't like where this case was going.

"Theater kids. Great," he mumbled sarcastically.

"I was a theater kid," Sam said defensively. A wide grin broke out across your face, and you looked up at the tall Winchester with glee.

"No shit? I've got to hear this." Sam's lips turned almost nonexistent as he pressed them into a tight line. "No, wait, don't tell me. I can see it now: Sam Winchester himself on a stage under a spotlight, reciting Shakespearian verses in iambic pentameter."

"That ain't too far off from what he does now," Dean said under his breath as he leaned toward you conspiratorially. You snorted loudly, and Sam came to an immediate stop. Had you not been paying attention, you probably would've rammed right into him.

"You done?" he asked. Dean clapped his brother on the shoulder.

"Oh, come on, Sam, give us a line!" He only shook his head in response as the two of you continued to poke fun at him.

"Shut up."

"That's a shame," you piped up. "He would've made a great Hamlet." As the younger Winchester turned away, you thought you caught him fighting a smile. When the three of you entered the auditorium, Dean shook his head with slight disgust.

"Okay, seriously, what could possibly-"

"Idjits!" The three of you turned in surprise. It had been a long time since you had heard that. The only person who ever called the boys that was... Bobby? A teenage girl turned around, dressed in a khaki fisherman's vest, a plaid button-up t-shirt, and a worn baseball hat. She even had on a fake beard to match Bobby's appearance. "You are idjits!" she continued. You turned to the boys with a question on your lips, but before you could say anything-

"Hey, assbutt!" Another girl further away held a fake molotov cocktail with sparkly angel wings, a trenchcoat, and an unmistakable blue tie.

"Do-" You were cut off once again as an urgent piano chorus began to play throughout the auditorium, effectively causing you and the boys to jolt in surprise.

"John and Mary, husband and wife. Bringing home a brand-new life.” Your attention was diverted to the stage, where what you were assuming what was supposed to be Sam and Dean's parents carried in a fake baby, placing it in a crib.

"No way," you breathed as you latched onto Sam's arm for support. You were in total shock as the musical number continued to go on. "Th-that's you!" you stammered, fighting the urge to point. Sam nodded tightly.

"I know," he replied.

"On the road so far. They met a woman on the way-” The teenage actress version of you came onto the stage with an impressive-looking fake shotgun. The weapon recoiled in her hands, and the fake werewolf collapsed to the ground. 

“And that’s me!” You remembered meeting the boys like it was yesterday, but seeing it acted out in front of you with such accuracy was surreal.

“When the boys were toast, she saved the day. Birds of a feather, now they hunt together. Teaming up to save the world.”

"Cut!" Suddenly, the music came to a stop, and a girl with a beret leaped to her feet in the front row.

"What in the h-holy..." Dean breathed.

"There is a case," Sam put in. "Probably has something to do with all this." How he was able to keep such a level head right now, you had no clue. You could barely think straight.

"You think?" Dean sassed. The girl with the beret came rushing up to the three of you with another girl at her side, and all traces of your conversation died.

"Are you guys from the publisher?" she asked excitedly. She didn't even wait to take a breath before continuing. "I'm Marie, the writer/director, this is Maeve, my stage manager, and..." Marie trailed off as you fished through your blazer pocket for your FBI badge. Before you could get it out, though, Sam placed an urgent hand on your arm, causing you to look up at the stage. No way. The three girls playing Sam, Dean, and you were all holding up fake badges to their counterparts.

"I'm Special Agent Smith," Sam introduced somewhat breathlessly. "These are my partners, Special Agent-"

"Jones," you filled in.

"Smith," Dean said. Two Smiths? You would have to remember to thank Dean for overcomplicating things later.

"No relation," Sam was quick to explain. "We're here to look into the appearance-"

"There's no singing in Supernatural!" Dean exclaimed. Biting back a sigh, you and Sam both shot Dean a look. So much for subtlety.

"Well, this is Marie's interpretation," Maeve said with a frown. Dean let out a sound that was a mixture of a strangled laugh and a groan.

"They're entitled to their creative vision," you justified before he could say anything else. "Just because you don't like that they made Supernatural into a musical doesn't mean that you have to-"

"Dean cannot find out about this." The words instantly clicked in your brain, and you totally lost track of what you had been saying. On the stage behind Marie and Maeve, the two actresses playing Sam and yourself were running lines. "He would never let us live it down." Sam's actress took your actress's hand, and you felt a blush rise to your cheeks.

"If Dean finds out, he can deal with it. We're all adults here. Besides, it's not like he's never slept with someone before." The teenage actress version of you shook her head.

"Yeah, Sam, but it's different this time! We're not just talking about sex between two random people. This is you and me that we're talking about here."

"Oh, God," was all you were able to say. That had happened a few years ago when you were still blissfully unaware that Chuck was writing and selling books about your life with the Winchesters. That moment, in particular, was supposed to be private. Sam caught your eye with an expression of horror that was incredibly similar to your own. Holy shit. Dean spluttered for a moment before he was finally able to get comprehensible words out. He looked at you with disbelief.

"You-" Thankfully, you were able to give him a discreet shake of your head before he totally blew your cover. "Y/N and Sam," he corrected himself, "are... together?"

"They're not together," you and Sam chimed in at the same time. The skin between Marie's eyebrows crinkled as she stared at you.

"What are you talking about?" she asked incredulously. "Y/N and Sam have been hooking up since book two. That's canon."

"Oh my God," you repeated miserably. You barely heard a word the boys said as they did the standard case questioning with Marie and Maeve. Meanwhile, you were more focused on how many of your intimate moments with Sam were going to be on stage.

"So, how 'bout you give the two of us a behind-the-scenes tour-" You tuned in just as Sam was gesturing between him and yourself. "-while your director shows my partner Mrs. Chandler's office. Deal?" The two girls nodded wordlessly. "Great. Give us a moment, please."

"Okay," Marie agreed. As the two of them made their way back down to the stage, you continued to stand there in stunned silence.

"I'm gonna throw up," Dean said. You nodded numbly.

"Seconded."

"Yeah, by the way, were you two ever gonna tell me about that?" he asked.

"No."

"Absolutely not." Both your and Sam's words came out in a jumble, and you glanced at the tall man sheepishly.

"Well, you heard the girl!" Dean said, throwing his hands up in the air. "It's 'canon!' So, is it still going on, or what?" You made a face at his question.

"Dean!" Sam scolded. Your entire lives were on display in musical form for the rest of the world to see, and he wanted to know if you were still sleeping with his brother?

"That can't seriously be what you're most concerned about right now," you huffed as you crossed your arms over your chest. Dean's eyes only got wider as he ignored your comment.

"Well?" he pressed on. "Is it?" You and the younger Winchester exchanged another wary glance. He clearly wasn't going to let it go until he got his answer.

"No!" you exclaimed. Dean arched an eyebrow disbelievingly. "I'm serious, Dean. Sam and I haven't hooked up in a long time." The oldest Winchester looked to his brother for verification.

"It's true," Sam confirmed. Dean shook his head somewhat manically.

"I can't believe this. Friggin' musicals," he started to mutter as he shuffled away. "Andrew Floyd Webber crap."

"Andrew Lloyd," Sam corrected. Dean turned around, making a face.

"What?" When you shook your head at him, he rolled his eyes and headed for the stage. When he was finally out of earshot, you let out a breath of relief.

"I think we're in the clear," you whispered. Sam watched his brother, who seemed to be coaching "Cas" on how to throw his molotov cocktail. What a dweeb. The younger Winchester's hand found its way to the small of your back.

"You really think he bought that?" he leaned down to murmur in your ear. You shrugged.

"I don't know," you admitted. "But maybe we should knock it off for a while just to be safe." Sam nodded.

"Agreed."

Thank you so much for reading!

As always, links to my masterlist, taglist, and inbox (requests are open!) are in my bio!

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Sam Darlings:

@calaofnoldor​

[yuvon-writes-letters]

It seems many letters have to travel today. But that's fine.

Hey Yu, Jake :)

Huh, where to start...Ah I know! Yeah, I guess you're right. Reading and not taking part probably is like reading an amazing book and always waiting for a chapter or something. And that not everyone wants to be part of our freak-show (I mean, that's basically what it is) is completely understandable. I think my reaction was also a bit in the heat of the moment. But really, asking for waffels or pancakes?

But putting that aside; the letters, papers or whatever..How is the deciffering going? Anything till now?

And I really hope that both of you are not in any kind of great danger (as far as we can say this with your situation)

Pocket Dimension of a reality warper.. [the writing becomes a little shaky here] hm yeah, that sounds logical.

And sorry, I just cannot write while laughing. This whole thing reminds me a *little bit* of a character from my favourite show. (If you both know Supernatural) But yah.

Also no, you two were right, my Jake didn't answer when I wrote the other letters. (And no, I didn't flirt with him. At least I don't think so)

But I know now why he didn't respond at first.

I did send Nymos this message you told me, Jake, and after some time it returned 'true'. Like you said. That was honestly pretty relieving.

And that also made Jake (I am writing him with a different pen now, it's easier) text me back.

It seems I really went totally wrong over the situation, but I wasn't really thinking right when I was back in my flat.

I guess I couldn't have worried him more. When he called me the night I returned (you know, after he saw the picture the MWAF sent me and he texted me my golden friends' message and I didn't reply) he got access to my camera. It seems in my shock I didn't realise.

Yu, I texted you how I looked like, right? I mean, basically like hell. And, who would've thought, as if I'd been kidnapped.

And like this I told him he shouldn't worry. Yeah, not my greatest moment.

It also was kind of dark so it could have been that I wasn't alone (at least from Jakes perspective). Oh, and did I tell you that my shirt was torn where the bullet originally hit me? So he saw the raven scar...I didn't realise that till now either.

Long story short: I worried him sick.

Cause when I texted Jake this morning he couldn't be sure it was me. Or me alone. And he didn't want to bring me in any more danger. So he started doing Jake-stuff and accessing goldies profile.

But that didn't work out as planned. I mean, sure, it's the profile of an entity...So I guess it makes sense.

And then I texted Nymos.

He's just reading the last letters (I think). We didn't talk about the 'erased-kidnapping-thing' yet. But he promised me that he'd find a way so we could safely call... :)

Thank you Jake, I guess without you Jake would still think I was kidnapped [the 😅 emoji is drawn there]

Lis🐾🔥

Ps; I almost forgot: Jake say thanks, too xD

Lis,

I’ll ask Jake how the deciphering is going in a bit. I’m going to pretend I don’t notice him stealing glances at me for a little longer first XD

Though I don’t think he’s doing it for the normal reasons people steal glances. He’s sort of hypervigilant, I’ve noticed. Which makes sense. I just can’t tell if he’s worried I could be a threat or if he’s looking out for me. I’d understand if he sees me as a possible threat, this IS the first time we’re really meeting after all. Doesn’t make me feel great, but honestly given how he got here, I COULD be a serious inadvertent threat. I don’t blame him at all.

I don’t think I’m in danger? No danger I don’t put myself in, at least. Where’s this coming from all of a sudden?

Jake told you the demiplane theory, I’m guessing. Yeah, it does seem logical. Also, I have watched Supernatural before, but it was a long time ago and I never watched the whole thing, because I got obsessed with something else and forgot all about it XD   I think I made it up to the beginning of the leviathan arc or so, I don’t remember what season that was though.

Oh, wow, we completely misunderstood the situation with Jake didn’t we? XD

I’m glad it got cleared up, at least, and that you two are talking again. I wonder if it confused him at first that you knew to send that code to Nymos. Though obviously he probably gets it now. ...I also wonder just how many features Jake actually put in Nymos. Every time I deal with the bot another feature seems to pop up.

You’re welcome, Lis’s Jake :)

Alright, I’m gonna get my Jake now. Talk to you later! Or write to you later. Something. Bye.

(The handwriting changes to Jake’s.) Hallo, Lis.

What is this about waffles and pancakes? Please excuse me for a moment while I ask Yuvon.

I am not commenting on this matter.

As for the deciphering: I have made no progress thus far. It is quite vexing. Yuvon has taken to searching the “Death Room” from top to bottom, hoping to find something of interest or that could help the matter, though she has agreed to leave the actual deciphering to myself.

It is impossible to tell the exact depth of the danger we are in, as I suspect that may vary by the whims of whatever pulled Yuvon here in the first place. I do not know what “Supernatural” is. I’m afraid I will need to bother Yuvon again. At this rate, I am somewhat afraid she will grow frustrated with me.

It does sound like a fairly interesting show. Perhaps, once we are out of this place, I will be able to watch it. Perhaps even with Yuvon.

Oh. That does make quite a bit of sense, actually. I feel quite a bit of pity for my counterpart, now. If I had seen Yuvon in a similar state, I believe I would have likely reacted much the same way. I am glad I recalled that function; I would prefer not to have my counterpart suffer undue stress.

It is a shame my counterpart could not find anything helpful in the golden profile, but I suppose it is to be expected. These entities seem to find enjoyment in completely bypassing the laws of logic, physics, and reality itself where they are inconvenient.

You are welcome, Lis and Jake :)

I am glad I was able to help you both.

It is troubling that Yuvon believes I see her as a threat, however. It is quite the opposite. I am not entirely sure how to proceed, or indeed to even begin tackling that issue, but clearly this needs to be worked out quickly.

Though, I worry that this may be merely the least of Yuvon’s troubles. She is not precisely the most open person in the world, especially when it comes to her own issues. It was quite difficult to make her speak about Richy’s uncertain fate.

As for NYM-0S’s features: I suppose you will have to wait and see ;)

I should likely return to attempting to decipher this nonsense. Goodbye for now,

Jake & Yuvon

(The letter tucks itself into the paper clip with the others.)

[feliciamontagues]

My Ranking of Every Hercule Flambeau Episode (S01-S08)

There are some spoilers for S7 and S8, but they are fairly vague and pretty much the sort of thing that you might see on the official press release. So not true spoilers as such. Also this is totally subjective and the result of my own personal biases. It’s also behind the cut because it’s looooonnng. 

8. The Two Deaths of Hercule Flambeau (s06e10)--

So, this episode is *fine*. It’s hardly the worst episode of the show, but it’s easily the weakest of the Flamby eps, despite their being a few isolated moments I enjoy. (Hercule getting a long overdue bedroom scene for one :P)

My main gripe is with this episode is the uneven way Lisandra Flambeau is written. The script seems to flip-flop over whether we are supposed to find her sympathetic or not.  On one hand,  many scenes imply that she genuinely loves Hercule despite them having a shotgun marriage after only a few days of knowing each other. On the other hand, she does not hesitate for a minute before poisoning an innocent (Fr. B) for no other reason than to hurt Flamby, which makes her lose a lot of sympathy points.

And as a result, it seems to make Flambeau seem like more of arse than normal for betraying her, while somehow also absolving him of responsibility for doing so, because she turns around and does *THAT.*

And ngl, it does make me a little uncomfortable that while the character of Lisandra (as an Italian) is possibly not meant to be interpreted as a POC, the actress portraying her definitely is. (Sara Martins is of Afro-Portuguese descent).  Which makes the uneven characterization (and underwritten-ness) seem even more glaring, especially  when compared to that of the other (white) women in Flambeau’s life (his first love Rebecca and his daughter Marianne, arguably Lady Felicia as well). It just leaves a bad taste in my mouth even if  in all likelihood, the part wasn’t written with Sara Martins in mind.

I think a much more interesting approach to Lisandra would be to have intending to betray Flambeau all along. Maybe she had her own agenda for seducing Flamby, meanwhile he thinks he’s the one using her for his plan. Maybe she does develop some feelings for him along the way, but it only makes her hesitate for a moment before going ahead with her original plan. That way, she keeps her agency and isn’t reduced to the “woman scorned” stereotype while also leaving the writers free to ship Flamby with others in the future without seemingly endorsing guilt-free adultery .

Other random note: I can’t take  parts of this episode seriously because the “Crown of Lombardy” is very obviously Guinevere’s crown from BBC Merlin with no attempt to alter or disguise it. 

7. The Daughter of Autolycus (s04e05)--

Not gonna lie, I am not really a fan of “character has long lost relative that we’ve never heard of until now” plots. And that goes double when said long-lost relative is a child or sibling. As such my low ranking of this episode is partly due to unconscious personal biases against that trope.

That being said, if we had to get a long-lost relative that we’ve never heard of until now plot, I’m so glad we got Marianne--even if it takes her another episode to really live up to her potential. 

I have to knock off a few more points for Nero Hound as a villain. For one thing, he was played by Nancy Carroll’s real-life hubby, but they didn’t let let him interact with Lady F at all. Such a *waste.*  Also Nero Hound is far too similar a name to Nero Wolfe, and I’ve definitely confused them on more than one occasion). He’s also rather generic in my opinion, even compared to some of Flambeau’s other “generic mobster” rivals/associates like the ones in S8.

However, there are some moments in this episode I genuinely like--particularly the theft “imagine spot” and Flambeau’s bishop disguise in general. Plus, the scenes where Flambeau and Marianne appear together are excellent, as are the hints that Marianne will become a redemptive trigger in Flambeau’s life.

6. The Judgement of Man (s03e10)--

Again, the low ranking of this one may be due to personal biases.  In this case, I’m still low-key bitter--five years later-- at the BBC marketing department for baiting me with the idea of Flambeau actually interacting with the rest of the squad (esp romantic tiems with Lady F)  and then giving me the absolute minimum of Felicia/Flambeau flirting and no Flambeau/Sid and Flambeau/Mrs. M interaction.

But there are other reasons why this is in my bottom 3 Flambeau episodes. 

Honestly, I feel like an equally compelling episode about the Vatican’s complicity in Nazi art theft could’ve been made without having to insert Flambeau in it. I mean I suppose it does make sense to have the art thief character  in the art episode, but still I feel like both Flambeau backstory and important historical lesson about Nazis, the Church, and Jewish art suffer from being crammed into the same episode. 

That being said, Mrs. McCarthy’s duchess disguise in this episode cleared my skin, watered my crops, etc, which is why I’ve ranked it higher than the previous two. 

5. The Folly of Jephthah (s08e05)

It loses a few points because I got very exited about the idea of Marianne becoming Bunty’s thief gf cool new friend, and yet in the episode itself, they only shared one scene and didn’t really interact much in it. That being said, I did like like that Bunty and Mrs. M had a bigger role in this episode than the squad usually gets in Flambeau episodes. 

Overall, I feel this episode works a lot better than most of the other “backstory-heavy” Flambeau episodes, because we’ve already gotten the Marianne-related exposition out of the way and can focus more on allowing her character, Flambeau’s and their relationship with each other to develop.

I’m also a bit smug in that I predicted (or at least hoped for) this exact character arc for Marianne within a few weeks of “The Daughter of Autocylus” airing and that my hopes came to fruition so beautifully.

It doesn’t particularly impact the ranking too much, but I do feel like this episode deserves a special shout out, because it has established a (hopefully-continuing!) pattern of Father Brown calling Flamby  almost exclusively by his first name, which is a major significant step in their bromance and deserves recognition as such. 

4. The Blue Cross (s01e10)--

As someone who was first exposed to Father Brown through reading the stories for a college course, I always find it especially interesting to look at the episodes that were adapted from Chesterton. 

This episode is neither the most faithful book-to-show adaptation (which is probably “The Three Tools of Death”) nor is it the best (imo “The Sign of the Broken Sword’) , but it is arguably the most significant. “The Blue Cross” was the first ever Fr. Brown story and is probably the most well-known. It’s also the first real look we get at the character of Flambeau, who (in the stories and arguably the show as well) is probably the closest thing we get to a clear character arc.

The show keeps some of the important elements of the short  story: Flambeau’s clergyman disguise, the switching of the packages. But it also has the challenging task of upping the relatively low stakes of the story, as well as introducing a major recurring character that resembles his book counterpart but remains distinct enough to justify the fairly different direction show canon is taking him. 

The show does this reasonably well--if not particularly imaginatively. I do enjoy some of the touches (I’ve written an entire meta before about Flamby’s reading material on the train and how it relates to his character)--particularly the show’s choice to have Flambeau fixated on religious art specifically (RIP for Flambeau’s Dairy Company though. It will always live in my heart).

Unfortunately in the adaptation, loses a few points for not really using the show-original characters particularly effectively. It loses still more for Flambeau’s characterization in this episode . He comes across as much more  serious and menacing in this episode than in all the others. It works okay when we consider this as a standalone episode but provides some glaring Early Installment Weirdness when we compare it to other episodes. 

3. The Penitent Man (s05e15)--

So as the rest of this list  will testify, I have strong preference for the “fun” Flambeau episodes over the more series ones. This is the exception that proves the rule--the  serious, cerebral, melancholy episode that simply “works” for me in the way that some of the others have not.

A lot of it is due to the more-intense-than-usual Flambeau character focus that goes into this. Sure, we’ve met his (presumably ex-by-now) wife, his daughter, and his first love by this point, but all of those episodes focused primarily on Flambeau as an extension of the relationships with others. (”The Judgement of Man”  in particular is far more Rebecca’s story than Hercule’s.)

Whereas this episode is very definitively focused on Flambeau himself and allows more nuanced exploration of two of the most defining facets of Flambeau’s character:  (1) his fascination with religion--and spiritual salvation in particular--  as  something he seems to resist and crave in near equal measure  (2) his almost masochistic streak of recklessness.

Even though Flambeau’s supposed “piety” is revealed to be all part of his heist plan, there are strong hints that his desire for redemption and atonement are at least somewhat genuine, even if he is not  ready to pursue them just yet. 

Off topic, but a few random things of note in this episode: this episode all-but-confirms bi!Flambeau, wet!Flambeau at the end is extremely relevant to my interests, Father Brown attempts to smuggle Flamby a lock pick from the beginning and has the audacity to say “ I only use it when I get locked out of the presbytery.”

Also, it has this iconic exchange:

Goodfellow: What is that awful smell?

Father Brown (covered in sewage): It’s me

2. The Honorable Thief (S07e10)-- So nearly all of the Flambeau-centered episodes from S3 on  have been a little preoccupied with filling in some of the gaps in Flambeau’s backstory, which is *fine*, but honestly, I feel like in doing so, they’ve really lost sight of why we fell in love with the character in the first place. 

 He’s vibrant and clever and funny and over-the-top. But most importantly, Flambeau is a lot of fun. Therefore, it follows that episodes that feature him should be a lot of fun too. 

And well... they are all fun in some way,  but they aren’t as fun as they really could be. John Light is insanely charismatic, but charisma can only go so far when the episode in question is a downer.

Fortunately, this episode is the furthest thing from a downer imaginable. It’s absolutely delightful from start to finish. The plot is serious enough to keep things engaging, but also light enough to keep us from getting too distracted by angst. 

I’m also incredibly biased in favor of this episode, because it finally gave me the Felicia/Flambeau ship tease I’d been passionately hoping for (if not really expecting to get after “The Judgement of Man” disappointed me). But it was so much and so good, and I wasn’t ready for it.

In a broader sense though, this episode really delivered with Flambeau/squad interaction in general--which was a key component that has been missing from most of the other episodes. And the Father Brown & Flambeau interactions were also has heartwarming and funny as they always are.

If I have one tiny little gripe with the episode, it’s that Daniel is not Sid. He has enough broad similarities with Sid that I can’t help but wonder if the episode was originally written with Sid and then hastily re-written when Alex Price couldn’t return. That being said, he was a likable enough guest character in his own right, and I wouldn’t mind seeing him again.

1.  The Mysteries of the Rosary (S02e05)-- Perfection. Not only is this THE definitive Flambeau episode, but is also one of the best episodes of the show overall. It has everything: the birth of bearded Flamby, bromantic road trips, a treasure hunt, great guest turns from Anton Lesser and Sylvestra Le Touzel.

I think part of the reason this episode resonates so strongly with me is that it’s really the first proper sense that we get of Show!Flambeau as a character. Sure we officially met him in “The Blue Cross,” but considering he didn’t show up until halfway through the episode and was in disguise for most of it, we didn’t really get much of a sense of who he is.

This episode changes all that and sets Flambeau up as the character we will know and love for the rest of the series--charming, urbane, funny, passionate, a carefree carpe diem exterior masking (or overcompensating for?) a sense of uncertainty and conflictedness.

Somewhat off topic, but as great an episode as this is for Flambeau’s character, it is nearly as wonderful for both Sid and Father Brown’s characters. We get to see Sid’s  ease with Father Brown, the casual camraderie that the two of them have--as well as Sid’s protectiveness (and jealousy) when Flambeau decides to gatecrash their bromantic road trip. 

Honestly, there are so many things that are great about this episode that I don’t think I could possibly list them--but one little detail that really struck my the last time I watched was that the first proper glimpse we see of Flambeau in this episode (we see him in shadow in a flashback before) involves him  saving Father Brown’s life.  Whereas the last proper glimpse we see of Flambeau is after Father Brown has saved Flambeau’s life.  Thematic reversals. Cinematic parallels. We love to see it. 

[davidmann95]

All-Star Superman #3

This is gonna be a tough one.

Not the toughest, mind you - that’s probably going to be #7. But after two issues of establishing the tone, aesthetics, and thematic concerns of the series, this is one of the pair of issues in All-Star that for the most part functions as a ‘normal’ Superman adventure story, though in this case one following up on the themes established by the previous issue, while #7 will set up the one coming after it. It’s also likely the most commonly critiqued issue of the series in retrospect its use of Lois Lane as an essentially passive figure to be fought over, and while her characterization here lends some interesting dimension to that choice, it’s hard to disagree it’s the series’ most unfortunate framing and substantial missed opportunity. None of that however can overrule that on examination, there’s still considerably more going on in here than the traditional tale of Superman beating down monsters and showing up bullies, the harsh slap to the face of reality for Clark after his actions last issue and his redemption in the form of showing what makes him different from his predecessors as the strongman-savior template.

So I haven’t talked the lettering much in this series - it is, they say, the invisible art - but Phil Balsman absolutely kills it here with KRULL WILL EAT YOU!, and the decision on the next page to render the ZEE ZEE ZEE ZEE of Jimmy Olsen’s signal watch in the font of the title pages is absolutely inspired, nevermind what he does with the Ultrasphinx later on. The bombast of the bastard lizard prince of the underworld and his cronies wreaking havoc aside though, what this page succinctly does is set up the entire conflict of the issue. It’s not just a monster, it’s a monster out of the past mimicking the cover of Action Comics #1, and apparently by way of terraforming Metropolis via steam clouds, trying to take control of Superman’s ‘world’. From Krull to Steve Lombard (“You tell me what a spaceman flying around in his underwear can give her that a good old hunk of prime American manhood can’t?”) to Samson and Atlas to the Ultrasphinx, this is a story of Superman up against dinosaurs in his image.

Ironically, however, it’s this Superman vs. Bros comic that has perhaps the most Bro sensibilities in the series. Per Morrison on the subject, “For that particular story, I wanted to see Superman doing tough guy shit again, like he did in the early days and then again in the 70s, when he was written as a supremely cocky macho bastard for a while. I thought a little bit of that would be an antidote to the slightly soppy, Super–Christ portrayal that was starting to gain ground. Hence Samson’s broken arm, twisted in two directions beyond all repair. And Atlas in the hospital. And then Superman’s got his hot girlfriend dressed like a girl from Krypton and they’re making out on the moon.” That’s not unto itself a problem; it’s a precursor to Morrison’s t-shirt and jeans reinvention in that sense (which leapt back from the 70s to the 30s for inspiration), and when Superman himself finally gets his own back here it’s more than deserved. But it becomes a problem when Lois at theoretically her literal most empowered does little with her new powers and is framed narratively as a prize to be won in this ‘game’ of godlings, with Superman literally muttering “What do I have to do to make you keep your hands off my girl?” Morrison seems to be somewhat aware of the problems given Lois’s reasons for playing along (which are actually rather significant to the point of the issue) and her amused distaste at the suggestion of being ‘won’, and the issue is ultimately something of an argument against the macho storytelling tropes that drive that thinking. But it’s a far cry from the nuanced look at her and Superman’s relationship last issue offered, and there’s no virtue in overlooking it. As will be demonstrated again later on in the series in less structurally-embedded but more pointed ways, this was written almost 15 years ago, and mistakes were made.

Now we get to the book’s superheroed-up takes on Samson and Atlas, who are such delightful assholes. Occupying the Mxyzptlk/Prankster/Bizarro-in-his-friendlier-moods role of being the enemies to make Superman go ‘oh god, this guy’ as much as direct counterparts to him, they’re basically fratboys tooling around history and getting into trouble together, and Superman’s clearly had to clean up their messes before. They’re the champions of myth who operate by a morality that in no way precluded thievery, deception, and murder in pursuit of their grand ‘heroic’ conquests, the alpha male swaggering dipshit dudebro operating on Superman’s scale. And as much as they’re a pair of craven dumbasses who literally compare cock-sizes in here who Lois has no real interest in, their appearance is also the first and one of the only times in the series Superman puffs his chest out and does some traditional iconic posing, and he has good reason to be threatened - they’re trying to ply her with gifts and tales of miraculous feats basically exactly the same way he did last issue. He may have started to come clean with her, but he’s still playing his old Silver Age nervous bachelor games, and now that she’s got powers and costume to match his she’s showing him exactly where that bullshit is going to get him, teaching him a lesson just like he tried to teach her so many once upon a time.

As we’re around the midpoint of the issue, let’s talk the art. Quitely and Grant aren’t as showy with the tricks and effects as the first two issues; the one real noticeable structural thing is a consistent rhythm of zooming in-and-out on our four leads throughout the issue to keep a sense of momentum to a story mostly driven by conversation, culminating in the hyper zoom-ins of the Ultrasphnix sequence. But GOD there are so many perfect little details in here. The bow coming undone on Lois’s present, the glow of the super-serum (it feels so right that it literally glows, the ultimate alchemical potion), Lombard’s bouquet for Lois’s birthday party while Jimmy is bringing a conch of some sort as a presumed gift to whoever they’ll be meeting at Poseidonis, Jimmy’s happy-meal looking signal watch WHICH HAS A WRISTBAND SHAPED LIKE AN S, more beautiful Metropolis architecture and a good look at how the Daily Planet globe actually works, poor dopey-lookin’ Krull bursting through the satellite twirling around like a cat in a half-second of freefall, the Chronomobile, the far-off monumental stone towers of the Subterranosauri, the glow of the lava fading out as Samson reveals Superman’s fate, the bioelectric crackle around Atom-Hotep, mermaids waving up at Superman and Lois, and of course the pinup. It’s such a damn pretty book.

Just before the arrival of the Ultrasphnix, we have the mythic architecture of the series explained to us, naturally by the figure out of myth:

As noted by Morrison, the exact nature of the 12 challenges are never explained within the story because it’s only in retrospect that history will declare those specific feats as being of note in light of them being Superman’s last accomplishments before his ‘death’; Superman himself isn’t sure how many he’s done later on. It’s an apt if seemingly out-of-left-field bit of commentary on the way epics of the kind this story itself aspires towards are reinterpreted over time, but hindsight being 20/20? That this is a story of a massively iconic, archetypal take on Superman being brought out of the public eye to his physical and emotional lowest at every turn (hence the ACTUAL structure of the series being a solar arc across the sky, from day to a nighttime journey through the underworld and back again), that is now generally thought of being a fun fluffy story of how great and perfect Superman is, entirely bears it out. The 12 Labors of Superman are what Clark’s roughest year looks like to the awestruck onlookers, both in and as it turns out in large part out of text.

After Samson and Atlas seemingly show nobler colors by offering Superman aid in a genuinely stirring moment before Superman accurately dismisses it as the empty machismo posturing it is, Ultrasphinx - yet another super-champion of the past, this one an amoral god rather than a ‘hero’ on a quest - poses the unanswerable question of what happens when the unstoppable force meets the immovable object with Lois both alive and dead until he does (one of those unions of opposites Morrison loves), basically creating a high-stakes literalization of their relationship. Superman and Lois Lane had been playing will-they-or-won’t-they for almost 70 years at the time this was published (culturally at least), her trying to pry into his secrets while he screwed around with her in turn, running in circles until we finally reach the acidic psychodrama of Superman’s Forbidden Room and something has to break one way or another. And Superman answers that it’s time to surrender. Has he inspired the car ad we see at the end of the issue, or vice-versa? Either way, it’s illustrating by example what the deal is with the super-labors.

Superman, learning his lesson as he has and showing his greater heroism stems from his nobility, intellect, and willingness to transcend his worst instincts, still takes a minute to teach Samson and Atlas a well-deserved lesson (paired with that absolutely perfect shot of the rock cracking on Lois’s head), before taking us to my absolute favorite statement on why Superman loves Lois Lane which also connects back to the idea of surrender, and the iconic moon shot. And as Superman holds her as she falls asleep, his Clark voice in all its vulnerable humanity manifests itself as he tries to propose; the tough guys of the past wanted Lois for a day when she was finally operating on ‘their level’, Superman ‘lowers’ himself to his most human alongside her reassumed mortality as he tries to tell her he wants her for what lifetime he has left. We’re only halfway there at most, he still hasn’t admitted his condition and she still can’t accept that he’s Clark, but this is Superman taking his first step along his quiet character arc.

Additional notes

* Interestingly, the original solicitation for this issue declared “Meanwhile, Lex Luthor's plans simmer as the criminal mastermind exerts his charisma and intellect over the hardcore inmates who share his maximum-security prison.” One of many bits that changed in the process of actually putting the book together.

* Perhaps this story of very manly men out of time doing manly stuff and getting their asses kicked for it across generations is represented in part by Krull being the son of a king whose battle cry is KRULL WILL EAT YOUR CHILL-DRUNN! That might be reading a *bit* much into it though. That Morrison describes Krull in backmatter however as “the living embodiment of the savage, swaggering ‘R Complex’ or reptile brain” definitely plays into the ideas of the issue as I understood them.

* Jimmy’s declaration of “Ms. Grant, Mr. Lombard, I’m taking immediate steps” is a perfect little moment for him - he’s calm and on top of things, but there’s also that little touch of naive ego in thinking that it’s thanks to him that Superman’s going to notice the dinosaur invasion of Metropolis.

* In backmatter and interviews Morrison had substantially further fleshed-out backstories for several of the new characters here. Samson is indeed the original champion, plucked from his era by a pair of foolish time-travelers searching for a savior; instead, enamored and corrupted by future culture he stole their malfunctioning Chronomobile and went on adventures to slake his lust, for fortune, flesh, and adventure alike. Atlas meanwhile is the boisterous yet quietly burdened young prince of the New Mythos, a society of super-godlings torn between New Elysium and Hadia, Morrison’s vision of a Jack Kirby Olympian saga for DC following in the wake of Thor’s Norse myths rather than the full-blown invention of the New Gods. And the Ultrasphinx “is the super-champion of a lost Egyptian Atomic Age in the 80th century BC. When he crashed to Earth his otherworldly science founded the advanced, ancient dynasty of Atem-Hotep [sic], a civilization eventually destroyed by the nuclear war that left Northern Africa a desert”. A. Morrison backmatter rules and you should read it whenever you get the chance, and B. This notion of proto-civilizations mirroring the eventual legends of a mere handful of millennia past is one he followed much further in Seven Soldiers of Victory with Shining Knight and its antediluvian Camelot.

* The main inspiration for this particular story was the frequent use of ancient strongmen as rivals to the Man of Steel in the Silver Age, which Morrison noted preferring to the use of analogue characters like Majestic for their broad cultural standing, culminating in this:

...though with Atlas swapped in, as Marvel already had the definitive take on Hercules in superhero comics (and, one imagines, since putting Hercules in the comic where Superman gets 12 labors would have had to be addressed), though he’d tackle him later on in the...controversial Wonder Woman: Earth One. Morrison’s analysis of this cover in Supergods basically lays out the thesis of this issue quite cleanly: “This was what happened when you couldn’t make decisions or offer any lasting commitment. Samson pounced on your best girl. And for Superman, it was a horrific challenge to his modernity. Was he really no better than these archaic toughs? Or could he prove himself stronger, faster than any previous man-god?” Fun fact: I myself hate this comic because it’s an entirely standard issue that fully returns to status quo by the end, sullying the good name and promise of Imaginary Stories for nothing more than fooling readers into thinking this was one of the issues were anything could really happen. Shameful false advertisement.

* Worth noting this is a rare instance where the glowing-red angry heat vision eyes work for me. Those two were real dicks and had it coming, and for that matter Superman looking for all the world a wrathful god promising banishment to a very different sort of underworld more than underscores his relative position next to the suitably abashed adventurers.

* It’s an interesting choice to use Poseidonis here, the capital city of Aquaman - it’s a sensible place for Superman to travel (though the real implications regarding the Justice League in this world won’t be for awhile yet), but it’s Tritonis that’s the undersea home to Superman’s onetime love, the mermaid Lori Lemaris. Perhaps Morrison just didn’t want a subset of readers in the know and pining after all these decades for Clark to find succor in the arms of his fishy love to dwell on that particular what-could-have-been; either way, Atlantis in general as what sprung up from a devastated ancient civilization is a perfectly logical inclusion for this issue in general.

* Lois’s description of her super-senses is not only lovely, but sets up the victory of #12 right in the first act. Additionally Lois keeping a cactus is such a perfect little bit for her character - it’ll prick ya, but she’s working to keep the thing alive.

* The journeys to the moon and ‘underworld’ for this issue, but in playful and romantic contexts, marks this issue as the (depending on whether you read it as a 4 or 6 issue arc) final installment before All-Star Superman begins its structural descent into the night.

* A very happy birthday to Justin Martin (and a day-before-birthday to myself) with this, annotations of the issue of All-Star Superman about a birthday. Birthdays themselves being a signpost of time and evolution, a forward march, making it a potent occasion to highlight in this series in general and this installment in particular.

[trashogram]

Devotee II. 

Ryuk/Misa

Warnings: Emotional/Psychological Manipulation, Abusive Relationships, Dubious Consent to Interspecies Relations, Painful Sex, and Sociopath Light Yagami

Part One | Part Three

When he fully processed Light’s proposition, Ryuk had cackled madly. His crowing built up like oncoming thunder, and the chains he wore rattled and clinked with the intensity. He laughed so hard that he had to hold onto his sides, long arms wrapping around his emaciated stomach as if it truly strained him.

Misa had stood behind the arrogant man, looking pale as a ghost. Her eyes were wide as the moon and she was uncharacteristically silent during their exchange, but it wasn’t hard to see why with the whole picture.

“You’ve finally lost it, Light-o.” Ryuk guffawed, feet finally back on the ground after he’d risen out of astonishment.

Light was unphased. “It’s not a joke.”

The laughter finally stopped, and Ryuk stood there with mounting confusion.

“... Why…?” He was truly dumbfounded, brain short-circuiting over how this could possibly be happening.

“You can’t trade her for the eyes.” The god of death chided Light. “No way would - ”

“ - Would offering Misa be enough to gain Shinigami eyes?” Light interrupted. “That’s fine. I figured as much.”  

“That’s not what I want.” Light said, lips quirking. “I don’t want anything from you.”

He reached behind himself and pulled Misa forward by the wrist, holding her out for the shinigami to take, as if Misa was just another apple.  

Ryuk reared back, head swiveling so fast that were he not already impervious to death, he would’ve broken his neck. Misa looked up at him with her hands clasped together in prayer.

“Ryuk.” She addressed him, voice hoarse. “Please, please do this with me. It’s all I want.”

     He’d grown so accustomed to these particular humans, it wasn’t far-fetched to think he’d seen everything they had to offer. Misa’s devotion to Light Yagami went to great lengths, so far that she’d been willing to give her life for his ‘cause’... But this was crossing a different line entirely.

Ryuk’s bulbous eyes bore into the second Kira. He wouldn’t lie to himself. Misa may have been a human, and he a Shinigami, but Ryuk found the young woman plenty attractive. It didn’t matter much, knowing how crazy she was for Light, and how Misa wouldn’t have considered this in the first place. This kind of thing had likely never crossed her mind, nevertheless she was currently begging for Ryuk to fuck her.

She’d rather die first, wouldn’t she?

Or maybe she would die if she didn’t do this. Misa did look like a hostage at the moment, and Light was keeping her there with a harsh grip.

“Please?” Misa’s voice thickened with emotion, misery.

Ryuk was a little sad at the thought of Misa being disposed of so soon. And there was no rule against this, so if he did ‘help’ her here, it wouldn’t be enough to kill him.  

There was another long silence, before Ryuk acquiesced by nodding.

“Alright.”

-------------

“You have to pretend it’s me.” Light had Misa by the shoulders, the caricature of a life coach trying to pep up a client. “That’s the only way this is going to work.”

His natural nonchalance so understated the demand that he had made of her, which he was well aware of. If this parasite of a woman weren’t so delusional, she’d already have left him and never looked back. Of course, she wouldn’t get very far considering he would just kill her, but still.

No sane person would possibly go through with this.

Light had adapted to Ryuk’s presence quickly, and regarded him with the same fondness one might bestow a stray cat. At his best, Ryuk was a not-quite-captive audience to Light’s triumphs, completely aware of how far Light had gone to secure his place as god.

That didn’t erase the fact that Ryuk was inhuman.

He was hideous. 7 feet tall while hunching, with grotesque blue-gray skin marred by stitches and deep grooves in his eccentric clothing. Ryuk was the stuff of nightmares, watching everyone with unblinking yellow eyes and a permanent grin on his ghastly face.

To Light, the shinigami barely resembled a man and looked more like an abomination trying to pretend it was human.

So, Light almost felt sorry for goading the little blonde gnat he called a girlfriend into fucking said abomination.

There wasn’t any reason for Misa to do this, truth be told. He’d planted the seed in her head that this was some nebulous albeit highly necessary test to prove her worth. If she had time to think it over, Misa would’ve realized how little sense this “test” made.

But for his own intrigue, and out of more than a little resentment, Misa’s strings were plucked expertly. She was already so needy, wanting affirmations of his love if ever he could spare them.

Light squeezed her shoulders and held her close. He faked actual care with all the grace of a trained actor.

“I know, I know.” He hushed. “It’s scary. It must seem impossible to you. It would seem that way to anyone, I’m sure.”

Why put her through it, then? Ryuk thought wryly. Aren’t you supposed to protect people you love?

Ryuk waited on the edge of the couple’s bed meanwhile, observing their silhouettes while listening to them whispering in the doorway. He felt confident that Misa herself was aware, on some level, that everything Light said was bullshit, but also knew that that didn’t matter.

Misa Amane wasn’t stupid - she was spontaneous and flighty, posing an issue more because she didn’t fit into Light’s rigid worldview then because of a lack of a brain. Nevertheless, her heart typically outbid her head when it came to decision making; and she was perpetually a prisoner to the irrational fantasy that Light genuinely cared for her.

“But I know you can do this for me, Misa.” Light said tenderly. “You’re so brave. The only one that’s worthy enough to be Kira’s wife.”

Ryuk wouldn’t have believed it had he not been Light’s shadow for this long, but that faux kindness worked. It took longer than Light would have probably liked for Misa’s shaking to have lessened somewhat. Her heavy breathing tampered down while her boyfriend held her close and rested his head atop hers, arms wrapped around her tightly like she was precious.

Light gently detached her from him again after a small eternity, putting a hand under her chin to ensure they made eye contact. Misa sniffled, nodding slowly.

—-----

The door opened with a creak, with Light and Misa filing in, the latter of whom looking like she was about to be executed.

When Misa turned on her heels to face Ryuk, she was unaware of the smug look on Yagami’s handsome face. Ryuk didn’t comment, averse to the unprecedented disgust that settled in his gut at Light’s callousness. He’d never felt disdain for Light’s actions before, though he’d gone beyond what Ryuk believed to be the limit of atrocities for a single human.

Instead, Ryuk’s attention focused on Misa as the girl crept forward, inch by literal inch. She was standing six-feet away from him before he reached out and carefully tugged her the rest of the way by her waist, making her squeak. He let go as he saw the clear trepidation in her brown eyes from this close.  

The woman looked lost standing there, until Light cleared his throat expectantly.

Ryuk’s brow lifted. “You’re gonna be in here, too?”

Light shrugged, taking a seat parallel to the bed. The bastard was actually failing at containing the smirk on his face over this.  

“Freak.” Ryuk chortled uncomfortably.  

Misa inhaled and exhaled a few times, shoulders rising and falling, before masking her fear with determination. Her counterpart cocked his head, watching her curiously.

Without warning, Misa’s eyes shut tight and Ryuk balked when she pitched forward. The woman was so short that she needed to apply her weight on her toes as she made to kiss him. She couldn’t make it all the way, with Ryuk’s mouth being as big as it was, but she pecked his lower lip before drawing back.

He watched her return upright, noting the scrunch of her nose. Oddly, it wasn’t a look of disgust on her face as much as it was one of perplexity.

“You’re really cold.” Misa determined out loud.

“Oh, uh yeah...” Ryuk replied, flinching at the sound of his own voice. “Sorry, about that. Not much I can do…”

The silence that followed was awkward, making Ryuk twitch, and he scoured his brain for a way to end it all.

His taloned hands came to rest on Misa’s hips, allowing him the opportunity to savor the heat that had seeped from her body into her clothes. Even with the fabric of her shorts in the way, he was able to feel the shape of her, and her supple flesh.

Misa grabbed Ryuk’s claws, steadying herself in his grip and wincing at the fact that the shinigami’s hands were just as cold as his lip. Her hands quickly slid from his, up to grasp the leather covering his lean arms.

Her touch started a flurry of feelings inside his abdomen. He was uncomfortable, but the feeling was slowly fading away in favor of excitement.

It had been a while since Misa’s touch had forced him to dematerialize out of shyness. He still felt strangely when she made contact with him, but it was less of a churning in his stomach and more of a fluttering. Ryuk had begun anticipating her affectionate gestures over time, to where he was bummed out if a day passed and he’d been neglected.

Never had his desire for physical contact with her amounted to a shared embrace or groping, however. He wasn’t as delusional as Misa, no matter how badly he wanted something.

“Don’t you think she’s overdressed, Ryuk?” Light asked across from them.

Misa dug her nails into Ryuk’s sleeves while his hands rose to the hem of her tank top and he started to lift it up. He was already pulling the flimsy piece of clothing over her shoulders before Misa remembered to lift her arms up.

When it was off and thrown to the side, the girl immediately covered her chest.

Ryuk chuckled, dragging his knuckles against her side, feeling her ribs beneath layers of skin and muscle. For her part, Misa did an excellent job of not recoiling violently as she so obviously wanted to.

Her arms were akimbo for a moment. Then, Misa placed her much smaller hand over his, holding on to stymy any potential brusqueness on his part.

He didn’t apply any pressure or make a grab for her. Ryuk skimmed, content with just being able to touch her for the time being. His hand traveled past her shoulder up to her neck, and soon tangled in her hair. The palm of his hand was large enough to cover the back of her head in full.

Ryuk’s shoulders straightened when Misa warily leaned into his touch, letting him cradle her head and thread her yellow locks between his spindly fingers in earnest. He didn’t say anything when Misa closed her eyes, just marvelled at how silky her hair was and how it compared to her skin.

Humans were squishy beings, but Misa in particular was soft and smooth just about everywhere.

Ryuk hadn’t given it too much thought before then, but he liked the consistency. Touching her was nice, even more so when Misa gave him access to her willingly - well, semi-willingly.

Their audience of one sighed on the sidelines, unwilling to pretend to be a wallflower.

Light rested his head on one hand, watching the two, who, to Light’s chagrin, weren’t exactly falling in line. He knew that Misa was a magnet for shinigami, but seeing Ryuk be so gentle with her upset Light’s stomach. The man supposed that it was his own fault, hoping that Ryuk might lose the few brain cells he had and break Misa as soon as he got to her.

Then again, that reluctance only solidified proof that Ryuk was able to be manipulated where Misa was concerned.

“You do know what sex is, right Ryuk?” Light spoke up again, impatient. “Or do we need to give you the talk?”

Ryuk scoffed, mood souring somewhat.

“You don’t have to be so nosy, ya know?” He snapped, pushing aside the irony of his own words.

Misa looked toward Light each time he spoke, and Ryuk found that to be a contributing factor to his own ire. He felt like complaining over her lack of enthusiasm as well… maybe that was overdoing it in terms of ignoring irony, though.

        The shinigami eyed the shorts around her waist and the bra on her chest. Given his purpose in life, Ryuk possessed a wealth of patience compared to your average human, but considered that he might be on a time limit.

The tentative exploration ended as soon as it began, and without another word Ryuk yanked at her shorts with his free hand.

“Hey!” Misa went rigid with alarm. The shinigami silenced her by placing his mouth over hers, eagerly pulling her in until she was crushed against his bony chest.

The model began to thrash, unprepared for Ryuk’s tongue to sweep over her lips and worm its way down her throat. She took in a mouthful of him, gagging on the unbelievably long appendage. He was too rough, too clumsy, and literally tore off her brazier in his insistence to swallow her whole.

At the feeling of sharp teeth pressed against her, Misa felt fear consume her. It would be very easy for Ryuk to either choke her this way, or for his fangs to bite off her tongue and make her bleed out.

“You’re going to suffocate her, Ryuk.” Light’s voice put a pause on things.

Ryuk halted, and Misa pulled away until she was free to gasp for air. Ryuk was dismayed at first, regarding Light as a pest in a bizarre switch of roles. Yet, when he saw Misa’s skin beginning to return to a normal shade, from the bluish cast it had taken on, Ryuk felt sheepish.

“Oops.”  

“It’s fine.” Light was perched on an armchair, legs crossed as he maintained the role of a passive observer. “Just keep it in mind that humans have to breathe from now on.”  

Misa twisted in Ryuk’s grasp as much as she could, incredulous. “Light! Can we st -”

“AH!” She shrieked.

Ryuk didn’t wait for more information before he was at her again. She was in shock as Ryuk took one of her breasts in his mouth and swirled his tongue over her nipple. He hummed against her malleable flesh, delighting in how Misa began struggling again while simultaneously mewling.

Ryuk hadn’t spent a lot of time watching humans engaging in sexual activity -- if he saw it, it was usually by accident and normally just tickled his funny bone.

Her hands had moved from his arms to his shoulders, and now she was digging her manicured nails into the back of his neck, either to keep stable or to throw him off.

If her intention was to ward him away, Misa was failing spectacularly. The feeling of being clawed wracked Ryuk’s body with tremors, encouraging him to return the favor by marking her back with his talons.

He’d seen humans going at it before, in all kinds of ways and in all kinds of places, but was surprised by how much he was enjoying it.

Still suckling, the death god finally managed to take off her shorts with minimal damage. Misa was completely bare by the time Ryuk let go of one breast to suck greedily at the other, his shark-like teeth grazing her areola.

Misa was jarred forward, feeling like an unwitting passenger on the world’s worst rollercoaster while being pulled, prodded and wrenched to the shinigami’s liking. His talons were scraping over every bit of skin that he could reach, from her upper back down to her ass, which he kneaded with bruising enthusiasm.

Ryuk let go, drool pouring down his chin as he gave her a hooded stare.

“Yum.” He said huskily.

Misa flushed as a sharp, gleaming grin stretched the corners of Ryuk’s mouth. His typical laugh was muffled while he moved in for another slobbery kiss. With the return of his overly-long tongue, Misa clamped down on it with her blunt teeth in an effort to stop the assault. She jumped when all it did was change Ryuk’s sniggering into a groan, provoking a twinge of heat in her lower belly.  

The second Kira whimpered, losing her will to continue fighting. In the background, Kira himself smirked as her conviction visibly dwindled.  

[diamondnokouzai]

talking abt the visual novel characters under the cut <3

mayhart player character. red-haired human commoner, youngest child of her family, last child born of her mother before mother died and father remarried. shorter than average (5′2″ as female, 5′5″ as male) named mayhart because she was born on the fourth of may. wild & uncontrollable, bearing a rage that she herself doesn’t even understand. grew up a commoner alongside her childhood friend yerick. widely rumored in town to be a changeling- she doesn’t act the way a normal human should, never knowing when to leave well enough alone or how to calm down and settle for her lot in life (the number of times when she, accompanied with yerick, has been chased back to town by some beast she provoked in the woods is uncountable). was recently conscripted into the army and adopted by the duchess koballe after her latent magic appeared. one of very few people who can use offensive magic and not purely reconnaissance/traveling magic. finally has an outlet for her rage, and somewhat hates the things she does. wears standard military uniform but badly- doesnt entirely understand how all the straps & bindings work and will not learn :) as the player character, she can be male or female. as a male, his rage turns inward, and as a result he is less open with his own emotions and keeps all his feelings hidden within himself. openly contemptuous of the war, but far more polite than his female counterpart. neither version holds any respect for anyone who hurts the weak. neither can hold their liquor either. 21 in human years

demavieve eldest princess of the draconic realm- as such, the future sovereign. the draconic realm is the only country allied with perine in this war which makes several people very nervous (its like if the us allied with luxembourg in a war against belgium france germany & the uk excep the us was the only country with nukes). demavieve has a very strong sense of honor though so constrains herself to a human form along with swordplay. this is less dangerous than it seems because if demavieves human form dies then she just turns back into her draconic form. her human form also has red hair, but its far more tameable than mayhart’s. she wears it tied back in a ponytail in general. she wears a perine knight’s uniform with vestments from the draconic realm to signify that she is (a) a foreign-lent soldier and (b) a commander. her human form is muscular and about 6′6″. hot and well aware of it.arrogant but also very friendly about it- ‘you love me? haha, of course you are! you seem great too!’. kind of sees this whole thing as a game- dragons live a lot longer than humans, and something like this is just a blip on her radar. very low empathy until someone she cares about is hurt at which point everything goes out the window (and she cares about pretty much all the perine soldiers- not in a very respectful way, but she loves them all and she goes apeshit sometimes). very friendly with serenina. can absolutely hold her liquor. only romanceable as f!mayhart. 23 in human years, ~150 in real time.

serenina the only princess of the former emperor and empress. i spoke about her in more detail in another post so this is gonna mostly be glossed over. wears her hair in afropuffs cause she does her own hair and shes proud of it. temporal (reconnaissance) magic. desperate to please. legally only friends with demavieve, although also friendly with yerick. about 5′0″ although she desperately wants to grow taller (unlikely). her eyes look like theyre black but if you look closely (which she probably wont let you do) theyre actually purple/indigo. is completely out of touch with the rest of the world because shes a princess but she is also very sincere and tries her best to be helpful when she can. very expressionless and sensible. not very well-liked as the former princess of the warmongering emperor and empress. actually very touch starved. does not wear standard military uniform outside of mage’s robes, which she wears over tea dresses (which is another reason some soldiers dislike her) is kept away from alcohol as much as grayson can and as such will get drunk off half a cup of wine. sleepy drunk. 18 in human years.

grayson the bastard son of the former emperor, sereninas older half-brother. grew up as a commoner in the same area as serenina & yerick until he was brought into the royal castle at age 9. fiercely protective of serenina. faux affable- you know the ‘expressionless smile’ princes from otome games/manga always have? thats graysons face pretty much always. legally not eligible to the crown (due to some religious issues with committing patricide & stepmatricide) but like. like hes already doing everything? yk how it is. highest commander of his troops attempting to broker peace with the other countries perine was at war with (most noticeably alloue, nawolem, & farik in order to attack caledonia, which was the puppeteer behind the former reign) but is not above underhanded methods/tactics including attacking noncombatant targets (they dont even have geneva). very intelligent & very calculating- consistently calculates highest reward/lowest risk maneuvers and has them executed flawlessly. his own cunning scares him on occasion, but he mostly locks that away- theres no time for those kinds of feelings in war. a foil to f!mayhart- she is wild, he is restrained; she shows her true feelings regardless, he always acts at a happy neutral; mayhart confronts her uncomfortable feelings, grayson hides them from everyone. about 5′11″, has long dreads that he keeps tied back. dressed in perfect military regalia, including commander’s cape & military crown (basically just a circlet). also cant hold his liquor- hes nearly as bad as serenina. 25 in human years.

izyn the son of count dau claire, the only noble house in perine that has been loyal to grayson since before the deaths of the former emperor and empress. very quiet because he has social anxiety. completely brainless. very friendly but his height (6′4″) and imposing aura (he gets nervous) means that the only people who can easily communicate with him are yerick and grayson. black hair, cropped short, and green eyes. skilled swordsman, mid-commander. will get trapped in an unwinnable situation which yerick needs to save him from. wears his military uniform right but...........not really? he wears the base uniform right but always forgets his commander’s cape. has a dedicated fanbase that came about when he did his training shirtless. literally doesnt think that any of his problems are that deep (honestly doesnt think anything is that deep). suffice to say, theres a reason why count dau claire never shows up and doesnt seem to be involved in any of the decision making of the count’s matters. very protective of yerick (younger brother). is the most visibly affected by the war- as the one who is usually in the center of the violence and doesnt have a survival cheat like demavieve, he has pretty bad ptsd which coupled with his anxiety issues make him a hot mess. his hobbies include hiding in dark rooms that have been reinforced to the point where literally only yerick can get in. despite his size he gets drunk very easily- not as bad as grayson & serenina, but 1-2 mugs of beer puts him out. 26 in human years. only romanceable as m!mayhart

yerick adopted son of count dau clarie. childhood friend of mayhart. born an orphan, an old woman took care of him til he was 4 and she died. stuck around mayharts town cause their family would give him food whenever he stopped by. still ended up fairly malnourished. small but vicious- hes screamed at mayhart lots of times for the stupid shit they would get him into and is not afraid to smack some sense into them. however he is not a good fighter because hes physically very weak- most of his energy in developing went to his magical capabilities, which came to fruition when he was 6. about a year after that (with a great deal more shunning from the townsfolk besides mayhart), he was adopted by count dau claire. was sealed with a subordination seal (used in order to ensure compliance with reasonable requests as long as a reasonable argument is made) for a year to ensure that he wouldnt run away. izyn liked him right away, but it took about 18 months for yerick to not be completely vicious whenever he was approached. as of the modern day of the vn, yerick is as protective over izyn as izyn is him- yerick has seen some of the worst of the world, and in his opinion izyn has not (this is despite the fact that izyn helped overthrow the royal family at age 15 but in fairness to him izyn told yerick none of this) so he wants to make sure his big brother stays happy. yerick holds absolutely no loyalty towards count dau claire or even to grayson- he is loyal to his own needs first, with a decent second being izyn and an even further distant third being mayhart & their family. very prickly & well acquainted with the fact that most people are inherently selfish and would turn away from an orphan on the streets. abandonment issues. his spatial magic is mostly used on rescue ops (mostly mostly getting izyn out of situations where hes surrounded by enemy soldiers but this extends to other perine soldiers). wears his uniform properly, including mage’s robes & commander’s cape over the standard perine uniform. hates to ever appear weak ever, so when he has to go to the medical tent izyn has to either force him there or pretend to be tsundere and throw bandages at him. izyn desperately wants to dote on him but that is one of yericks Hard Boundaries. theres like ONE time when yerick falls asleep because of arcane overexertion and izyn piggybacks him back to camp and yerick acts like its the most shameful secret in the world. foil to m!mayhart- very open with his anger & feelings and shows when he is angry and accepts that part of himself, open with his loyalties and doesnt give a fuck about it, doesnt like the war but does respect it. despite his size, it takes easily 3 barrels of alcohol to even get him tipsy, izyns lack of alcohol tolerance pisses him off cause he has to walk him back to his tent. 5′4″ and wants to grow taller but has accepted his fate. 19 in human years.

eliya legally not a combatant. former princess of caledonia, was discovered at 12 to hold the power of the divine will and so was sent away from her mother and father (who she perceived as loving) to be raised within the church as a holy sacrifice (those who hold the power of the divine will release a huge psychic shockwave when theyre killed, so she was basically raised to be a holy tyke bomb). has a lot of religious obsession, prays 3x a day and has been brainwashed into believing in the power of holy judgement- essentially, her church handler (aka the deacon of the church where she was raised) has raised her to believe that if she commits a sin she’ll be killed so she has a LOT of anxiety over doing the right thing.at the same time shes been brainwashed into believing that doing anything in the service of the throne of caledonia is morally & theologically correct. shes also had occasional contact with her parents (like a yearly dinner or smth) and so still has a lot of loyalty to them due to how they manipulated her and her relationship with her little siblings (7 yrs younger x 2, 2 yrs younger, 13 yrs younger). completely devoted to her church, would gladly martyr herself for them (however this wouldnt trigger the shockwave needed by the army). is loyal to her parents, the deacon, and then the church. is captured by the perine army after a raid on a noncombatant area and spends a lot of time figuring herself out. foil to serenina (esp in terms of loyalty & parents/siblings, emotions (eliya has a lot of them and shows them, serenina is the opposite), their royal treatment, their relationship with trust (serenina doesnt, eliya does and worringly easily). long golden hair, light blue eyes. wears neither a military uniform nor a priests’ uniform, instead wears a one-piece white ‘dress’ (really more a tunic/oversized shirt) & is barefoot. desperate for attention, praise, love, etc. widely disliked due to her POW status but she really thinks shes making all these friends. has quite literally not been able to make her own choices since she was 12 years old. above average alcohol tolerance but nowhere near yerick. 19 in human years.