#it’s either gonna be at the beginning or right before the main event

[organizechaoss]

the hardest part about a writing flashback sequence is figuring out where tf it’s supposed to go 😤

[xaharadesert]

MC Who Sleeps Like The Dead - Headcanon

Arcana Characters (Main 6) x MC

A/N: for another lovely anon! I just finished drawing one of my OCs to prepare for art fight, so I’m feeling a bit more inspired than usual! Please let me know if there are any spelling or grammar mistakes :) requests are open!

❤️Julian❤️

This is a man who runs on stress and caffeine, so he’s always up at ungodly hours of the night

Your ability to sleep through every instance of him stubbing his toe or bumping his head, or just generally swearing at whatever script or medical case he’s having trouble with at the moment is a blessing in his opinion

Of course, on the rare occasions that you manage to get him to bed, he’ll be as out of it as you are, if not more so

He flails in his sleep, and since it won’t be waking either of you up any time soon, there’s a good chance you’ll both end up with some mystery bruises

He’ll feel a bit bad about it in the morning, but it’s nothing some kisses can’t fix

🧡Portia🧡

Considering how tired she usually is by the end of the day, she’s a surprisingly light sleeper

This can be a problem for her when Pepi decides she wants to make biscuits and Portia’s the only potential victim around

So when you two start sleeping in the same bed, she sacrifices you to Pepi and makes sure she’s the one sleeping next to the wall

Pepi seems satisfied with this arrangement and leaves Portia alone, meaning she gets the sleep she needs and you get a cat to cuddle with while you’re unconscious

It’s also great for when she needs to get up early for work; she can make as much noise as she wants while she’s getting ready, and you’ll sleep right through it

💛Lucio💛

No no no, this will not do

Lucio operates under the assumption that if he’s awake, you’re also supposed to be awake

So if he’s having trouble sleeping while you’re snoozing away next to him, he will be trying his best to wake you up

His attempts will start with whispers and a couple gentle pokes, but when you don’t look like you’ll be getting up soon it quickly becomes less subtle

This man will fully kick you off the bed and onto the cold floor to get you up

If you sleep through that, he’s gonna get really close to your ear and scream

For the sake of everyone else nearby, you may need to learn to sleep less heavily

💚Muriel💚

He’s a light sleeper thanks to anxiety, and he doesn’t really understand how someone can sleep as deeply as you do

In the early days of your relationship he was a bit worried that there might be something wrong with you

Once he settles into the idea that you Will Not Be Woken Up before you’re good and ready, he takes full advantage of the extra alone time it gives him

It’s nice to just coexist with you and go about his day without worrying about waking you up

Once Inanna took a nap on you and he thought you may have actually suffocated under her, but turns out you were fine

He does not mention this to you when you wake up

💙Asra💙

While he certainly sleep often, he does not sleep heavily

If he’s sitting down, then he’s probably already at least 10% asleep

He doesn’t usually sleep in the traditional sense, and instead takes a few extended naps throughout the day

So when you’re getting your proper 8 hours, he may be laying awake beside you, gently rubbing your back and reading a book

He likes that his sleep schedule doesn’t affect yours, and that he gets to see you so peaceful and far from the stresses of life

💜Nadia💜

Most of her life is on a pretty tight schedule, so your sleep habits are not something she’s particularly fond of

If you’re asleep when she wakes up to begin her day, then she’s learned not to bother trying to wake you

She’ll kiss your temple and try to find some time to spend with you at the end of the day, but she misses the quiet moments you two could share while the rest of the world starts to wake up

Overall it’s not a hassle, just something she has to adapt to

Unless of course there’s an early morning event that you’re also supposed to attend with her

Then she’s trying to figure out the most gentle way to pry you from the hands of sleep (she may quite literally drag you out of the bed and start getting you ready before you wake up)

[heechwe]

chai tea latte | 𝐞𝐬

⋆✴︎˚｡⋆ fic for @kvanity-main's "fall for you" event! ୨୧ pairing: eric sohn x fem!reader ୨୧ word count: 1.2k ୨୧ genre: fluff ୨୧ tags: established relationship au ୨୧ synopsis: You haven't been with Eric long, but you do know that doing any menial task together, including baking an apple pie from scratch, will be memorable. ➸ Title inspired by the song by Angel Taylor! Prompt for the fic is: "'It's a brand new romantic relationship and you're baking together for the first time."

“That definitely does not go into the filling.” Eric presses his head into your neck as he looks over your shoulder. The recipe for apple pie Sangyeon supplied you with is pretty easy, although your baking partner is making it difficult to follow the directions to the letter. A dozen or so ingredients litter the kitchen counter, alongside the baking instruments needed to make the dessert.

“Yes it does! It says so right there,” you point to the fourth step, proving your point. Your boyfriend snatches the paper with a free hand to stuff into his jean pocket, a smirk stretching across his face. “Hey, give that back!”

“Maybe the best plan is to not have one, don’t you think?” His eyes sparkle with their typical mischievous nature in the afternoon sun. His ability to act care-free is what you love about him, even if you haven’t said those words out loud yet. It was only two months of dating, and diving in deep so soon felt more terrifying than anything else.

Well, besides the thought of messing up one of Eric’s mother’s favorite baked goods for the Thanksgiving party.

“Seeing as baking is even more precise than cooking, I’m gonna say no,” you respond in jest, poking your tongue out following the last word.

Eric takes your cheeks into his hands, lightly squishing them with his fingertips until you laugh. “Maybe,” he says, “you should trust me.”

You roll your eyes, followed by a huff of exasperated air leaving your lips. “I do trust you, I just don’t want to screw this up.”

Your words hold more weight as they leave your lips. The double-meaning is evident in the way your brows knit together and your lips downturn into a frown.

Eric catches it, and presses a quick smothering of kisses to your lips and cheeks, another giggle emitting from your lips. “You can’t, I promise.” His words and actions assuage the fears that begin to bubble up.

Your anxiety is slowly forgotten as you and Eric continue with the baking process. He takes his time cutting up the apples as you begin making the crust, opening the bag of flour for the process of rolling out the necessary dry ingredients. 

His humor was the biggest thing that attracted you to him initially, but his instinctual way of helping others before himself that slowly revealed itself the longer you were together made you fall harder than you imagined you could.

“What’s the point of adding lemon to pie filling?” He thinks out loud, reading Sangyeon’s instructions again with a skeptical tone that has you grinning to yourself.

Still, the fact remains that Eric can’t help but turn the humor a dial or two up when you least expect it, in both the best and worst times.

Like now, when he takes a handful of flour from the bag next to you and wipes his hand across your face. “Eric!”

Before he can laugh at your shocked expression, you take your own pile to throw. His face and hair become coated in the substance, most of it sticking to his nose.

“Okay, now it’s war.”

The next second, it looks like a bomb of white smoke exploded in your tiny kitchen. The two of you as well as the counters and cabinets are caked in baking flour, your skin and clothes a few shades lighter than they should be.

With anyone else, you would either be a bumbling mess or throwing a fit about the state of events. But, with Eric, it’s so easy to get lost in the ridiculousness of the situation.

“I think I won,” he says in triumph.

You scoff and press your back to the counter, crossing your arms. “I’d say it was a tie.”

Eric raises one eyebrow as a smirk grows on his lips. He places one hand on the bag of sugar, fingers dancing across the opening. “Is that a challenge?”

You shake your head instantly, giggling. “No, God, no. That’s how we get ants.”

He doesn’t move his position, still testing your resolve. “Then I guess you’ll just have to admit defeat. Or it’s goodbye, pest-free apartment.”

“Okay, fine, you win!”

Eric is suddenly pressing his chest to yours, the mood transforming due to the lack of space between your bodies. You can’t see his hands as they’re pressed into the countertop on either side of you, caging you in. His lips are dangerously close to yours, his minty breath hitting your face. If you have to guess, he’s decided to tease you in a far more torturous way.

Out of the corner of your eye, you see the  index finger of his hand writing something in the flour on the counter, the white powder in contrast with the black linoleum.

I LOVE YOU.

It’s safe to say the silent, written confession leaves you speechless. The man of many words has you covered, though.

“I know it’s soon, but I’ve never felt this way before about anyone. And you know by now I can’t keep anything in.” He laughs, but all that floods in his eyes is uncertainty, the fear of your impending and potentially negative response pervading his body. “If you don’t feel the same yet, I completely-“

You close the distance between the two of you in the next second, hoping your responding kiss is charged with the power to quiet the nerves he has. How he doesn’t think you feel the same is ludicrous, and you wonder now why you hadn’t told him before he had the chance to beat you to the punch.

His tongue presses your lips open to enter your mouth, and you can’t fight the moan that leaves your throat when he wraps his arms around your body to squeeze your ass. How did the day start with such a simple task of baking and end up here, the two of you ready to pounce on each other?

Eric grows impatient, suddenly lifting you up to wrap your legs around his waist. He takes his lips from yours, his lips puffy and eyes love-swept. “I’m gonna guess from that reaction that you feel the same, right?”

You nod. “I love you, Eric Sohn.”

His resounding grin is electric, his expression akin to one of a child receiving their favorite candy. You resume kissing, but Eric takes advantage of your position of being carried to take you away from the kitchen.

“Baby, the pie!” You reach your arms out in the direction of the ingredients, laughing, but he just trails his lips to your neck and keeps his arms tightly wrapped around your thighs.

He chuckles on your way to the bedroom. “I’ll buy one from the store later. Lemme just take care of the girl I love first.”

@yvnempire @sjylouvre @mini-mews @jayparked @heesuncore @yoursjaeyun @sungbeams @jenoslutie @loserlvrss @pars-ley @lovetaroandtaemin @wonwovy

𝐧𝐞𝐭𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬 ౨ৎ˚₊

@kvanity-main @sweetvenomnet @onedoornet @sayxonet @violetanet @svthub @whipped-kpop-creators

[parasolladyansy]

DxP Ask - Mizumi & Time Travel

NOTE: this has minor spoilers about one of the main characters of DxP REWRITE if you haven’t read up to the most recent comic - if you’re caught up (or don’t care lol), go on ahead!

bca_private from Instagram asked:

Something I’ve been wondering about Mizumi: I understand that she’s Ansy’s ancestor, but she was also from the future and brought to Hisui by Arceus, right? From when is she? Was she born in the same era as Ansy (making it a paradox), or was she from an earlier time regardless?

Mizumi was a modern girl from Sinnoh - just a normal 15-year-old girl who went to a certain school in Jubilife City until a fateful trip up Mt. Coronet, where she got isekai’ed to Hisui about 150 years in the past. Legends Arceus happens, & eventually she restarts her family line to become Ansy’s great-great-grandmother.

She was born when Ansy was about 19 & living in Unova (while the rest of her family lived either in Kanto, Unova, & Alola). Meanwhile, Ansy’s paternal side of the family is living in Kalos around the time of Legends Arceus (already planning for Legends ZA lol) before they immigrated to Unova. All to say that no one in Ansy’s family apart from Mizumi & her family live/lived in Sinnoh.

So yeah - not a grandfather paradox (none of that), but still paradoxical as Ansy was technically born before her ancestor was.

However, two rules of time travel that exist in at least Ansy’s tiny corner of the Pokéverse are this: self-repairing timeline & multiverse theory. I imagine one of Dialga’s roles as the deity of time is sorting through time paradoxes: seeing which ones are “canon” with Arceus, correcting the flow of time to accommodate it, & for the ones that aren’t, create another spacetime together with Palkia for it (like we saw in Scarlet x Violet, & a few of the games themselves)

As I’d recently added to Ansy’s profile page, apart from me just wanting to play as Ansy’s maternal ancestor, it actually does seem to be the canon that isekai’ed Rei / Akari IS Lucas / Dawn’s ancestor. My biggest evidence for this is if you have a completed save in Legends Arceus (aka you befriended Arceus), & then start a save in BDSP, you’ll find the Azure Flute in your room at the very beginning of the game, like it’s a family heirloom that’s made it’s way down to you.

In the SxV Epilogue leading into DxP REWRITE, Mizumi passed the Azure Flute down to Ansy in a slightly different way lol, but same principle.

One last little note to wrap this all up: as of the events of Paldea (the first time either of them really encountered space-time travel), Ansy & Ikrit have shared notes about the rules that exist for them. Ikrit, being a student of Professor Cozmo & astrophysics, goes more in depth while Ansy can follow well enough when numbers aren’t involved lol.

So far their notes include: AU’s (multiverse theory), self-repairing timelines, converging timelines (& memory correction), & what I’m just gonna call “uninterrupted time” because I can’t find an official name of this theory / principle anywhere lol (time moves in either points of the timeline at the same pace since the time traveler left the present - Mizumi spent 2 years in Hisui, 2 years have gone by in the present, same for Ingo’s 7 years).

That’s it for me geeking out about time travel for now. Later! 🌧️

[flying-nightwing]

I gotta know.

In your professional opinion, do you think slade knows the hand on the lower stomach trick and the pillow trick?

Do you think anyone else your write for knows them? 👀

hehehheheHEHEHE 👀😏

I believe Slade knows, and knows it *very* well. HOWEVAH. Him using either entirely depends on whether or not he cares about the pleasure of the person he's having sex with. He's definitely not using the techniques on someone he's having a one time thing with, that he never wants to see again. Can't afford to have someone trail after him begging for more and/or have them recognize him out of all things because of it if he's on a mission or smth, y'know? bc yeah that will happen he's that good (man's got an ego to the moon). But if it's someone he wants around? Someone he wants to see again? He's never gonna tell them that, that's for sure but that orgasm WILL bring them back to him without fail. every. goddamn. time.

As for the other characters, Bruce knows them. And he's good at it. Selina taught him and it changed his mf life. He definitely uses them more leisurely than Slade, Brucie's a giver in bed and he just LOVES to see his partner's soul ascend from what he's doing to them. He's got a reputation to uphold and he'll literally die before he lets down a partner of his.

Dick knows too. I refuse to believe he wouldn't. But I feel like he would act like it's something incredibly normal. Like, he wouldn't even notice he's doing it, and he'd genuinely be surprised when his partner reveals it was the first time a man did that to them (eventually he'll realize that not everyone actually knows that or are bothered to do it, but he still wouldn't treat it as a special event kind of thing). He's just out there, casually raising the bar for everyone else. Dick game strong in every sense of the term babes.

Jason's case is a bit more complicated. If we take him right after his resurrection, them no he doesn't. Jason died a virgin, I will die on that hill, and whatever happened with Talia didn't actually happen I don't know what you mean. Bro's caught up in revenge and taking over a crime empire, he does NOT have the time for a game of dating and seduction. He's under so much stress, oh my god. And when he begins to chill, his partner is Roy, and Jaybird's not the one on top babes (again, HILL I WILL DIE ON). But Roy does teach him the trick so older Jay knows too. When he uses the tricks, it's already bc he trusts his partner enough to see him naked and vulnerable so it's pretty much always in a sweet way.

Since we're on the topic of Roy, well, he obviously knows. Roy "I seduced a dangerous international assassin to the point where she had my kid" Harper absolutely knows and he's SMUG about it. As the Youth™ says, bro's got rizz. He knows your exes weren't as good as him. By the time he's done with you, you won't even remember you had exes.

Tim read about it one time when he fell down a rabbit hole of research after opening the internet to (initially) look up romantic gestures idea. He tries to use it but it turns awkward the first few time, bc he treats it like any other skill and it just breaks the mood. Until he can find someone he trusts enough to practice with, he'll just refrain from doing it.

Steph knows. And she will openly criticize the men in her life that doesn't. Being ego checked by Steph is probably the most mortifying thing ever. "Oh? You don't know about those? Yikes... That's embarrassing. Yeah. Yeah no you should take down that tweet about being a sex god, yeah, you're just embarrassing yourself more now. Please stop" She's braver than any US marines.

(that's pretty much the main ones but if i forgot any lmk)

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Someone suggested that either Noble Bell or Royal Sword is gonna come over and save Night Raven and idk which is funnier: Rollo going "I KNEW IT! I KNEW IT! THAT DRACONIA WAS BAD NEWS FROM THE START!" While he goes to fight Malleus

Or NRC students getting pissed off when they realized that they got saved by Royal Sword students

It’s not completely clear yet how Malleus’s unique magic works! Like… do you need to be in close proximity to him to fall asleep??? Do you need to touch the thorns (you know, like how Aurora pricked her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel) to fall asleep??? If the latter is true, then there’s a chance there are people on Sage’s Island that are totally conscious and have no idea what the fuck is going on 😂

But??? I think the idea is that everyone on Sage’s Island has fallen asleep (this would be like in Sleeping Beauty, when fairies sent the whole kingdom into a deep slumber). In which case, the RSA boys couldn’t do anything. We’ll have to wait until the next update to see which way the magic sways!

I agree that it would be really funny and entertaining to see Rollo and/or RSA (Neige, Chenya, etc) coming in to help or to save the day but thinking about it realistically 🥲 I don’t think it would happen?? I want Rollo back SO badly, but I’d imagine it would be extremely confusing for anyone that didn’t play Glorious Masquerade to suddenly have this character they’ve never seen before pulling up and rambling about how he’s here to destroy Malleus Draconia and to scrub the SIN of magic off the face of Twisted Wonderland. (It would also ruin the twist for the Glorious Masquerade rerun in fall 2023 in JP and the first time run in EN. It’s a very… heavy event that I don’t think can just be quickly summarized or given a flashback to explain away his presence. There’s also the fact that the main story never acknowledges what happens in events, even major ones like the Halloween events or when they meet family members. It would be… weird?? If they started doing that this late in the game.

On that note, how would Rollo even find out about this catastrophe to act on it?? It’s not like anyone would report it to him all the way in Pyroxene (especially in the case where everyone on Sage’s Island fell asleep, thus limiting communication; if people were awake, they could easily use their phones to call for help from the outside world, especially given the rich and powerful students that attend NRC/RSA).

As for RSA, their involvement is heavily dependent on the parameters and limitations of Malleus’s magic. Either way, I still don’t see why or how they’d get involved??? How would RSA even know that the source of these thorns is Malleus/NRC to begin with? Even if they did somehow figure it out, how would they travel all the way to NRC??? RSA is on the complete opposite side of Sage’s Island, right?? Why would their first thought be to save the school on the other end when there are people in the town inbetween them and who could also use their help? I don’t get the sense that Idia would willingly go and ask them (or Rollo) for help.

EDIT: book 7 confirms that Malleus's thorns have consumed ALL of Sage's Island. Therefore, RSA students and staff are also sleeping and are unable to act.

Even though I doubt that Rollo and/or RSA would step in sorry, blame my pragmatism 😅 I still think the idea of it is so cool and fun to explore!! fbjsbsjendjw Rollo rushing in to save the day from OB Malleus will forever be my copium… and, of course, gotta love how petty the NRC boys would be if they woke up only to learn that they got rescued their goody-two-shoes rivals 😂 The NRC boys would probably proceed to lock the RSA ones in a tower or tell them to fuck off next time they need help/j

… I’m more inclined to believe the fourth years return to campus from their final internships to graduate and they see the massive mess Malleus has made 😂

[tokiro07]

Undead Unluck ch.221 thoughts

[That's a Helluva Cold Open]

or [Bad and Naughty Children Get Put in the Kessler Effect]

(Contents: narrative analysis - story structure; thematic analysis - friendship/growth/loyalty; predictions)

Title Drop TWO!!!

And we have a title!!! ... Again!!!

Admittedly it loses a little bit of its impact this time around, but David Evelyn couldn't have known Tozuka was gonna literally have Andy say "Undead Unluck" when Fuuko previously used furigana to technically say it

I also don't know if there was a way to avoid double dipping like this in English without losing the original meaning in the first place; previously, Fuuko said "Unluck" as the furigana for the "Undead" kanji, so she was literally saying both at once, just in a more subtle way that doesn't translate in English. If it were me and I knew this chapter was going to have Andy say Undead Unluck, I think I would have had Fuuko say "here comes my Undead," since it's clearly a reference to her usual catchphrase while also incorporating the new meaning, but it does come across a little weaker than saying Undead Unluck

I'm not here to gripe about translation choices, though, especially since, again, David made the most of what he was given and couldn't have known it would retroactively become repetitive. No one's at fault here, it's just unfortunate that it made the moment a teeny bit less special

Still, the idea that this is the beginning of the real story does make the timing of that title drop pretty appropriate; I think it's fair to say that a lot of us considered L100 to be a sort of prologue, as once we learned about the loops (and even before that in my case) it was pretty much a forgone conclusion that L100 would end in failure. L101 then seemed like it was the "main" story, but realizing now that the final enemy team was basically hidden behind what amounts to a cutscene gate makes it clear that all of the teambuilding of L101 was basically a crazy long training arc, the tutorial if you will

To put it simply, L100 was the intro of Symphony of the Night (fighting the final boss and losing access to the apparent main character), L101 up to now has been Dracula's Castle (the true main character gaining experience and equipment), and we've only just now reached the Reverse castle (the original main character returns, but so too is the true final boss accessible now after completing a few more challenges, including finding specific key items first)

To continue the SotN metaphor, the boss of the first half is also someone who should be on the main cast's side but is wrongly under the influence of the final boss and his minions!

Hard Lessons

As I expected, the focus of this chapter is definitely Ruin, though perhaps not quite in the way I expected

I figured that either the majority of the chapter would be dedicated to exploring his backstory or Andy would trigger a monologue by saying the right thing. What we got instead was Andy almost taking on a mentor role, using their similar experiences to relate to Ruin's life path and even celebrating it

In much the same way that Andy progressed from being a complete unknown to being "Captain," then "Undead," and finally "Andy" thanks to Fuuko's influence, Ruin went from being a scared, powerless child to "Unruin" and a follower of God thanks to the influence of Blood and Shadow. As I said last week, Ruin has no control over the flow of his life, just as Andy didn't until he met Fuuko

Just like Fuuko wanted to be for Tatiana what Andy was for her, Andy now wants to be for Ruin what Fuuko was for him: the culmination of "dumb luck," the one to turn that luck into fate, the one who can turn the bad hand that was dealt into a big win. All of the events of Ruin's life have led him to Andy here and now, and Andy is the one person who can show Ruin just how massively a person can change and grow when exposed to others

Mutual Growth

Andy gets to make this demonstration twofold: not only is his final attack, Bad Loop, only possible because he has Fuuko, but Ruin will only have the chance to escape it (or at least make the most of his time while caught in it) because Andy released Blood and Shadow and allowed them to go to Ruin's side

Sure, Blood and Shadow are still of the belief that Ruin's only hope for happiness is to defeat the Union and serve God, but based on the rest of the chapter, I don't think that they themselves are all that loyal to God in the first place. Their refutation that Andy's philosophy will help Ruin at first seems like propaganda for God, but I think it's more likely that the three of them have mutually come to the conclusion that this is the right path

After all, Blood and Shadow are the equivalent of Clothy, and it was Clothy who put his faith in them to help Ruin. Andy's partnership with Clothy allowed them to come to an understanding almost wordlessly, with Andy reading Clothy's expression easily and asking a vague question to determine the right course of action. If any UMA can recognize one that values a human over God, it's Clothy

It's also worth noting that Ruin already augments Unruin w/ his UMA pals, so it's not like he's completely unfamiliar with the concept of mutual growth, he just needs to recognize that there isn't really a difference between the UMA and Negators. Sure, they're shaped differently and born by different means, but they all manipulate the rules of the world in some way, and all of them have distinct personalities. I don't think there's a single UMA that's been portrayed as a totally mindless beast, just that some of them aren't given any dialogue to demonstrate their personalities

In a sense, they're all people. Ruin is just trying to create a world where the people he likes can live, and honestly he probably thinks that the Union is trying to kill them. Sure, sometimes they have to kill them, but...really think about why they have to. Who is making them kill the Rules?

God. God is the one letting Ruin's precious Rules be killed, and is even facilitating it. In fact, the idea seems to be that the ones who are targeted for elimination in Quests are the ones that are "expendable" to God's ideal world; is Ruin so bought in that it's okay for Rules to die so long as God says so?

Picking Sides

Given the kind of upbringing that we see Ruin had, it's not hard to see how he might accept something so cruel as just. As @wickedsick pointed out earlier in the week, Ruin's...father? Guardian? Owner? is specifically depicted in silhouette, lifting his foot to kick and stomp at Ruin while scalding him with steaming hot liquid, giving him almost exactly the aesthetic of Sun's descent during Ragnarok

I believe this is meant to demonstrate that Ruin views humanity as exactly the same kind of oppressive force that God is to the Union, but it's also possible that it's a symbol for how, as a Negator, Ruin will always be facing that sort of oppression so long as he refuses to ally with the people who are like him

As Andy says, Ruin is currently taking the easy way out; he's giving up his own autonomy to work under God, selling out everyone else so that he can cling to his own false idea of happiness. He doesn't have to think about the morality of his choices if he just goes along with what he's told, if he buys the lie that all of humanity is an afront to the world and not literally the point of its existence. The Rules of the world are crafted to prompt humanity to find "the greatest life ever" through suffering, and Ruin is an agent meant to provide that suffering. God doesn't have any intention of letting Ruin have a place in his world, as evidenced by the fact that he wrongfully believed Unruin would let him survive the loops. Therefore, Ruin is faced with two choices:

Stay the course and view humanity as the others, remaining in conflict with them only to ultimately be hurt and rejected by both sides

Join forces with humanity and rise against God, breaking the cycle and finding real happiness by creating a world where humanity and the Rules can support and guide each other

Bad Loop

The irony of Andy and Fuuko being the ones to put Ruin through an infinite loop of pain and death that he's capable of actually surviving is pretty interesting, as this is literally what he's always wanted from God but he's receiving it from humanity. Furthermore, by being forced to endure this torture, Ruin is being shown a microcosm of what Andy had to experience, both in the first several million years when he was simply drifting through space as a scrap of his own skull and in the remaining 4 billion where he deliberately planted himself on the surface of the sun. He is experiencing a fraction of the suffering he always wanted and being given the opportunity to really think about the implications of that

By being repeatedly buffeted with death, Ruin will have endless, rapid-fire opportunities to test, understand and improve Unruin, and eventually come to realize that even after all of that, there's a limit to what he's capable of. That's what happened to Andy; he learned everything there is to know about Undead as a standalone ability, and presumably had the time to consider combination techniques, but realized that no matter how hard he thought about it, the only things that would allow him any further growth would be inspiration in the moment or a perspective he isn't capable of providing

After all, Andy only knows everything about Undead. He knows a good deal about everyone else, but just like how Billy couldn't draw out the full power of any of his copied abilities, Andy can only coordinate so well with the rest of his team without first seeing how they've personally enhanced their capabilities. If Unstoppable is different now than it used to be but Andy doesn't realize that, it's just as much Top's responsibility to come up with combo ideas as it is Andy's

Ruin, meanwhile, still hasn't even reached the starting line where he actually knows how to use Unruin in combat. Right now he's just using Blood and Shadow as weapons and augmenting them with his infinite blood supply, but Unruin itself hasn't grown or changed. The problem is that he's still thinking of Unruin as a regenerative ability, as a lesser Undead, and hasn't determined what makes it unique yet. Once he knows how to actually use it, once he accepts his humanity and understands himself, he'll be able to max out his personal growth and begin his interpersonal growth, both with his UMAs and his future Union compatriots

Of course, the real question now is how long until that future arrives

The Final Saga

With Andy's declaration that the final fight is beginning, I've seen a lot of doom and gloom about the series ending. While UU is ostensibly not performing well compared to other Jump manga, it's apparently still selling better than a lot of top-sellers outside of Jump, so I doubt Shueisha plans to axe it

Even if that's not what people are worried about and instead they're just lamenting the knowledge that the end is in sight, I can't help but feel the opposite. In fact, I've never felt so glad to have a series I like declare it's intention to conclude - it means that it won't be forcefully dragged on

This review series was spawned by my opinion that Jump manga are at their peak at the four-year mark, and that they tend to lose interest after the six-year mark. While I'm sure I could love Undead Unluck all the same no matter how long it went, I can't deny the possibility that I would grow tired of it past that point. I became fatigued with Hero Academy despite how much I loved it from the beginning. Food Wars earned my respect by the end of year one but lost it a year or two before its conclusion. Aside from One Piece, I have no evidence of a weekly series holding my attention for so long without developing some feeling of negativity, so it's a valid concern that even UU would pass the threshold and begin to decline

I'm ecstatic that UU is approaching the end of its fifth full year. I love that this past year has been one of if not its best so far, but I'd be lying if I said I could see it doubling that. The story that Tozuka wants to tell has a specific number of beats that have been foreshadowed already, and while it will certainly have plenty of surprises within, it can't produce more indefinitely without deviating from the initial vision. While there may be some cuts or rushed plot points, it's clear that Tozuka is getting to tell the main story that he wants to get across, and that's all I've ever wanted for any Jump manga

With eight Master Rules to fight, the likely return of Seal, and the conflicts with both Sun and Luna on the horizon, there are likely at least 9 storylines to cover, depending on if any of the remaining enemies team up or if there are any more moments of downtime in between like searching for Artifact Heart

Even if we assume this is going to be like the Spring arc and each individual fight prior to the final battle is only like three chapters, that's 27 chapters right there, more than half a year of content, which would then lead into the fight(s) with Sun and Luna, which would likely be at least ten chapters minimum. That would put us ten chapters shy of a full year's worth, landing us in July or August, which is just six months away from the sixth anniversary

I don't know about you, but I could easily see Tozuka making the series last another year and a half from now to hit the six-year mark on the dot, which would give us plenty of time to explore all of the Master Rules, the underdeveloped Union members, the Gods, and give us a good capstone to Andy and Fuuko's relationship

Even if it's just the bare minimum, though, like I've always said, I trust in Tozuka. While the pacing is a bit fast at times, he's never failed to leave me with a satisfying story in the end; even the weaker arcs were a blast to read through the whole time, and I look back on every one of them fondly. I don't want the rest to be rushed at all, but Tozuka has a clear vision of what he wants, and I trust he won't waste any of the time that he's given

Until next time, let's enjoy life!

[eating-plastic]

Turn That Frown Upside Down: Jester!Maison Talo x Fem!Reader

Warning: Fluff, comfort, angst, swearing, reader has a shitty (ex) boyfriend and (ex) friend, unhealthy relationship, cheating, they get their comeuppance in the end, so that means brief mentions of blood, injuries, death at the end, Maison becomes obsessed with reader which leads to blossoming yandere-esque tendencies basically, I wanted to imply that reader kinda matches his freak tho, reader is fem because I kinda got bored with keeping it gender neutral, jester AU (you'll see what I mean), probably some grammatical errors

Word Count: 7874 words

A/N: Happy Halloween everyone (early, late, or on the dot. Depends on when you read this)! So I know this seems really random and out of nowhere but let me explain. Basically I reblogged fanart of Maison dressed up as a jester by @voqalber. I wrote in the tags that I had an idea for a Jester!Maison x reader fic, and they encouraged me to actually write that fic out so here it is! A big thank you to them for giving me the inspiration to write this and also being super sweet! Enjoy everyone 🎃!

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"Come one, come all, for the show of a lifetime! Witness thrills, chills, and laughs unlike ever before! Hurry hurry to the big top now! The show will begin in ten minutes!"

Your head shoots up to the speaker that was hung up near you. You can feel your hand slipping out of the grasp that was holding it as you listen to the announcement. Giddiness fills you as you turn your attention to the two other individuals you were attending the Uncanny Valley Halloween Carnival with.

"Hey guys, maybe we should go!" you chirp and motion towards the large tent in the center of the whole carnival.

"Why? it's probably just gonna be some lame magic act or clown show," scoffed your friend. You could practically hear her rolling her eyes at your childish joy for the main event of the night, though her face didn't convey it.

"Yeah, it sounds like a waste of time. I'd rather go on one of the rides. Seems like those are the only things worth doing around here," said your boyfriend, who didn't try to hide his dislike for your delight.

"Well, I-I don't know. I think it sounds fun...," your face drops and you can feel your cheeks heat up in embarrassment. "I mean...maybe it's a little childish, but what's wrong with that? It might still be fun."

"Well then why don't you go by yourself?" your friend shoots back, sounding rather pushy. "We don't want to go, so why don't you? We'll catch up with you when you're done."

"Oh...um, okay," you mumble and watch as both your friend and boyfriend don't waste any more time abandoning you where you stand.

You let out a disheartened sigh and swallow a thick lump that was forming in your throat. You hate how much you feel like crying right now.

You don't know why you even bothered bringing them or even why you still had them in your life, honestly. Your relationship with your boyfriend felt like it was beyond salvaging at this point, it felt like he merely tolerated you now. Scratch that, it was more like barely tolerated you because of how often he would snap at you when you'd go on about your interests and say straight to your face if they were stupid and immature. Not even you directly tearing up from this would stop him as he would then just yell at you to "grow up." Sure he'd attempt to make it up to you afterward, but that still didn't stop it from hurting like hell though.

You knew you should just leave him, but there was still this foolish little voice in your head that said it would get better. You didn't know why; fear of loneliness perhaps? Like at least being in a relationship was better than being in none at all? Either way, that was why you wanted to invite him to come to the carnival with you, even though you knew he would hate it. It wasn't until you mentioned that you would just go with your friend that he seemed to oddly give in.

Speaking of your friend, you noticed how she seemed to be acting a bit colder towards you as well, or at least she was being less secretive about it. At least she tried to seem polite towards you and your likes despite it becoming more and more obvious that she truly couldn't care less. What good are someone's manners if they aren't genuine, you'd sometimes wonder. And yet, just like your boyfriend, you kept her around. At least she gave you the excuse that she's just been very stressed lately. Whether that was true or not, you didn't know, but hey at least it was something.

All you wanted was to just make them both feel better. To try and have fun with them. To see them laugh and smile after who knows how long. And what better place to do that than at a place that was known for smiles and laughter?

'Whatever,' you thought. 'They'll find something they enjoy. And I already found mine.'

You make your way to the large tent that was beckoning to you, following the small crowd that was also heading to see the show. As you pass through the opening flaps of the entrance, you can feel your breath being taken away as you stare in awe at how spacious the inside is; it honestly felt like it was bigger on the inside. You gaze up at the lights that decorate the roof of the tent, bathing everything in a bright, vibrant glow. You find a seat, making sure you are sitting somewhere that will help you see everything the show has to offer.

After some waiting, the lights dim, and a disembodied voice begins to speak.

"Ladies. Gentlemen. You have all made an excellent choice tonight. Under this big top, you will witness sights unlike ever before. Sights meant to amaze, sights meant to scare, but above all, you will witness sights meant to amuse. It is my greatest honor and privilege to welcome you all...to the greatest. Show. On Earth!"

The lights begin to flash bright colors, almost giving the illusion of orange, green, and purple fireworks, making the crowd roar with wonder and excitement. You yourself can feel your eyes widening as you stare at the beautiful display. At the center of the tent, a spotlight shines on the source of the voice. A tall man stands clad in a red and black jester uniform and a white mask with a little red diamond on the left cheek covers his face, almost making him look like a mannequin from afar. You're honestly impressed that his voice can even come out so loud and clear despite him wearing it.

It's an odd uniform for what you assume to be the ringmaster to wear. Then again, you can see that the other performers in the shadows were also adorned in similar jester costumes. Even some of the booth workers you had seen previously wore the same jovial outfits, albeit without the masks.

'Must just be a part of the attire,' you figure. No matter, you already knew you were going to enjoy the show.

--------------------

Every performance was phenomenal to you. The suspenseful acts had you on the edge of your seat, the scary acts would make your heart jolt in the best way, and the funny acts would have you bursting out in laughter unlike anything you had ever experienced before. You were so enthralled by the show that you didn't even notice the pair of eyes that would always drift to you at every chance.

The jesters always scanned the crowds, looking for the right person to lure to their private tents to consume. It could get quite competitive amongst them, often fighting over one person, before one would have to step down and find someone else. No matter what though, the ringmaster always had first pick.

Maison always got a better look of the crowd first. There in the center of the tent, arms spread and gazing out at everyone who had decided to see the show.

Tonight was no different as he panned his eyes from left to right, scanning every person in the audience. Just then, his eyes caught on to someone, but...not on someone he wanted to eat.

The first thing that he thought when he gazed at you from his place on the show floor was one word.

'Beautiful.'

He stared at you in your seat on the top row. Sitting so high up so that you could see everything. It made you look more angelic to him. But what really won the ringmaster over though, was your smile. It shined so bright that even in the dim lights of the crowd, it looked like the spotlight was on you. At least to Maison it was.

As the show continued, his eyes would constantly drift to you, taking in every one of your reactions like a sweet breath of fresh air. After each act, you would always clap with such enthusiasm, indicating your enjoyment. What he loved the most though, was how you would laugh at the funny acts. You wouldn't hide your mouth or try to stifle your laughter like most people. No, you let it out proudly, even grasping your stomach and rocking a bit at something really outrageous. Oh how he wished he could hear it clearly.

You didn't hide your joy, you flaunted it without a care in the world.

And Maison loved it.

After the show wrapped up and he gave his "end of the show" speech, he was antsy to find you again. He knew he'd have to meet with the other jesters to discuss who was going to be their potential meals, and he knew he'd have to say you just so he would ensure none of his fellow performers would lay a hand on you. After that, he didn't care about what the others decided or fought over. He excused himself quickly to look for you.

He needed to see you again. He needed to know your name, he needed to know what else brought you so much joy in your life, he needed to actually hear your laughter, and above all, he needed to know if he would ever see you here at the carnival again.

--------------------

When you exit the tent, you don't see your boyfriend or friend waiting for you like you thought. You honestly figured that those two grumps wouldn't find anything they found fun, so they would be stuck just waiting for you and being bored.

You wander around, looking from booth after booth, ride after ride trying to find them. You try not to get too distracted from how fun a game looks or how thrilling an attraction looks. At the time, you would've thought that it would've been better if you had gotten side tracked. Now though, you're happy you discovered what you did. If you didn't, you wouldn't have ended up having such a wonderful night.

As you round a corner to look down a dim alleyway, you spot the two figures you were looking for. Just as you are about to approach them and call their names, you almost trip over your own two feet and let out a soft choke at the sight.

Everything looks like it's happening in slow motion as if your brain still doesn't want to process what's going on right in front of your eyes. Your "friend" practically throwing herself onto your "boyfriend" as they begin to make out like two shameless teenagers at a drive in. Their hands roaming everywhere over and underneath clothes.

Tears sting your eyes as your cheeks heat up in rage and humiliation. Your feet feel like they are glued to the ground despite you wanting so desperately to just turn and run away. To just jump in your car and speed off to your apartment, where you would just hide away for the rest of your life. There is also a tiny voice in your head though, that wants you to run up and kill the both of them with anything you could find in that dingy alley.

Eventually, you finally feel your legs moving, but they choose to go with the former thought you had over the latter. You dart around, looking for the entrance of the carnival so you can get in your car and cry properly, but there are so many people and your tears feel like they're coming down hard now. You ultimately decide to just hide away in a dark corner devoid of all people. You curl up into a ball, hiding your head in your knees as you begin to sob.

Your brain is a melting pot of sorrow and complete hatred. Hatred at both your now ex friend and ex boyfriend for betraying you, hatred at them for never even really liking you in the first place, hatred at them for fucking around behind your back and hurting you. But above all, you feel hatred towards yourself. You hate yourself for being so trusting, and naive, and childish and pathetic, and stupid.

"Stupid stupid stupid," you cry, shaking your head. "Worthless, no good, w-waste of space."

You mutter out every single cruel thing you could think of calling yourself because you really do feel like those things were what you were.

"...Unlovable," you finally choke out as a last nail in the coffin to your self esteem and happiness. If even your own boyfriend and friend didn't love or care about you, then you truly must be unlovable.

"Oh dear, what's this?" a male voice questions.

Your head rockets up and quickly turns to the sound. Through your blurry vision, you can see a tall man standing before you with his face obscured by a white mask. You completely forget that what this man is wearing is simply the attire of the performers at the show you had seen earlier, and instead assume it to be a masked psycho ready to kill you. A dark voice in your head tells you that you would honestly be okay with that after everything that has happened to you.

Seeing the look of fear in your red eyes, the man raises his hands to absentmindedly run his fingers along the porcelain lips of the mask. He then perks up in realization.

"I suppose you would feel more comfortable if I removed this, wouldn't you," he says while motioning to the mask.

You feel yourself being weirdly drawn towards this man's voice; it sounds so smooth and comforting, familiar even, but where did you hear it? Either way, you nod slowly.

"I figured. One moment, please," he says, before raising one hand to hold the front of the mask, while the other moves to the back of his head to undo the straps.

Once his mask is undone, he carefully removes it from his face and attaches it to his belt so it would dangle off of his hip. He then smooths over and adjusts his gray hair.

"There. That's better, right?" he asks, his voice sounding more clear and soft. He kneels down to look at you with warm eyes that hold a hint of empathy in them. Now seeing him better, you realize why his voice sounded so familiar, even without it being loud and grandiose. How could you forget the ringmaster of the show that gave you a moment of happiness before it was destroyed?

You don't know why, but you didn't expect him to look like an older gentleman despite seeing his gray hair, not that you were complaining. He was very handsome, and here he was feeling concerned for you. You even notice the little red diamond painted on his cheek corresponding with the mark on his mask; you find that to be oddly cute. When your brain finally registers that he asked you another question, you once again nod.

He then reaches into one of his sleeves to pull out a red handkerchief and holds it out to you. Tentatively, you take the cloth and wipe your eyes with it, sniffling all the while.

"Tell me, my dear, what has made you so miserable?" he tilts his head to rest his cheek on the palm of his hand. When Maison wanted to find you after the show, he absolutely did not want to find you like this.

'Oh you poor thing,' he thinks. Mere minutes ago you were all smiles and laughter. Now here you sit, sobbing and saying the most horrible things about yourself. It was awful, sounding akin to nails on a chalkboard to the ringmaster. He has to know what upset you, and he has to know how he can fix it.

"W-well mister...um," you begin, waiting for him to give you his name. You feel like you honestly have nothing left to lose, making yourself even more pathetic to a complete stranger.

"Talo. Maison Talo," he answers.

"Well Mr. Talo, I was a complete idiot," you restart, bluntly.

"Idiot? Come now, dear, you're being too hard on yourself," his face drops at the harsh word you are using to describe yourself.

"But it's true. I'm a complete fucking idiot!" you cry. "I came here with two people that I thought loved me, but no! I should've known they never cared about me! I should've known they'd do this to me, I should've left him, and I should've stopped having her as a friend, I-I should've...I sh-should...."

Your voice dissolves into another round of sobbing, causing Maison to carefully pull you into his arms to hold you while you cry. He gently pets your hair while softly cooing to you like a mother would to comfort her child; though he only got bits and pieces of the whole story through your rant, he could understand just what happened. You don't know why you're allowing a stranger to hold you, but you figure that you just don't have anything to lose anymore; you just don't care anymore. Besides, his embrace was warm, his voice was nice, and it felt like everything about him was wrapping around you like a blanket.

Even when your second round of tears ceases, you don't want him to let you go. Luckily, he doesn't. Despite not hearing your sobs anymore, he still holds you close to his chest. Your eyes drift around to look at anything to keep your mind off of the people who hurt you. They eventually settle on a weird pin that you hadn't noticed on Maison's jester costume before: a blue house with a yellow roof.

'How odd,' you think, though you guess jesters are supposed to be a bit strange and random. 'I saw those on the booth workers too. Must just be another part of the weird attire.'

You sigh and finally pull away to slump onto the ground, hand smoothing over some patches of dried grass and orange leaves.

Just then, a pleasant smell catches your attention, making you look around due to how strong it is. Maison seems to smell it too and gets an idea.

"You know, maybe a little treat would cheer you up, hm? Something sweet," he throws out, before standing and holding his hands out for you. "Come on, I know good food tends to cheer me up."

You look from his hands to his face. Staring into those soft eyes of his, this time with a jovial spark mixed in. The combination of his gaze with a small grumble in your stomach tells you that maybe a bit of food is what you need. You give him a weak smile before taking his hands into your own, allowing yourself to be pulled up.

Now that you both are standing, Maison holds his arm out for you to loop it with your own. You look at him oddly for a moment before you decide to do just that.

'Why not?' you think.

You are then led back to the main part of the carnival, though your eyes do dart around to try and spot your ex friend and ex boyfriend in the crowd. What would you do if you saw them? Ignore them? Try to hide again? Actually go up and confront them? No, if you tried to confront them, then you knew you would try to kill them, even if it was in front of everyone.

"Anything piquing your interest, Miss um...oh dear, how rude of me. I never asked you your name," Maison realizes, turning to look down at you.

"Hm? Oh! It's Y/N. Y/N LN," you squeak out, getting too lost in your thoughts for your own good.

"Such a pretty name, it's quite fitting for you," he smiles. His comment and look made your cheeks heat up. "Tell me, Miss. Y/N, what sounds good to you right now?"

"Hm," you think, looking from booth to booth before you just shrug. "I don't know. What do you like?"

The question causes Maison to freeze, but only for a brief moment. His eyes begin to dart around a bit, before settling on the first food booth they landed on.

"Apple pie," he says. Despite how quick he said it, it still sounds genuine, and you don't think anything odd about it. To really sell it though, he adds on. "I've always been fond of that dessert, over others."

"That does sound good," you nod. "I think I want that."

"An excellent choice, my dear, a very excellent choice," he grins and leads you to the titular booth.

Both Maison and the booth worker share a brief interaction of recognition before ordering a nice slice of warm apple pie for you. Before you can even get the chance to pay for your dessert, the tall jester at your side takes the plate and leads you to a picnic table off to the side.

"Huh? Hey, wait! Don't you want me to pay for that?" you stutter out, confused.

"Please, it's my treat. You've had such a rough night, allow me to make it better," Maison says with a dismissive wave of his hand.

"Why?" you ask, while you both take a seat at the table. "I mean...why do you care?"

"A carnival is no place for sorrow. It is a place where you leave all sadness at the door. If you cry at a place like this, then it truly must've been hurt by something awful. Something that just a simple joke can't fix," he explains, resting his elbows on the table and interlocking his fingers.

"Ah," you begin to think while breaking off a piece of apple pie with a plastic fork. "I see that joy is a big deal to you. Your costume makes sense now."

Maison let out a short, endearing chuckle at that, making a small smile break out on your face.

"Happiness is a very beautiful thing," he begins, a fond grin on his face. "A smile is worth more than the finest of art, and laughter is more melodic than the finest of symphonies. When I gaze up into that crowd during a show, it is the greatest pleasure of mine to see the looks of delight on the audience's faces. And when I saw you in the crowd tonight, it was perfect. Your smile was so bright, and when I watched you laugh it felt like I was admiring a flawless painting. "

If your face wasn't warm before, then it was on fire now. You think back to how you must've looked while watching the show, and a wave of self consciousness washes over you.

"Wow, uh...hehe. Well...I've never heard anyone tell me that before," you laugh nervously. You aren't used to this kind of attention, being doted on like this and getting complimented in such a way. Despite the fluttery sensation it formed in your heart, you can't help but feel suspicious of Maison's intentions thanks to your damaged self esteem after seeing you-know-what. Surely there was no way that this handsome, older gentleman sitting in front of you could actually see you as akin to a work of perfection.

"Really?' he asks, confusion and even a hint of sadness embedded in his voice.

"Ah...well, no," you admit. You just shake your head and wave your hands dismissively. "Oh well, whatever. It really doesn't matter. I really don't wanna think about it, this is all about having fun right?"

Maison opens his mouth to speak, but closes it and changes the direction of the conversation.

"You're right. But just know that what I said is true," he flashes you a reassuring smile before motioning to your pie. "Now, why don't you finish that before it gets cold."

He didn't have to tell you twice. You go back to eating your dessert, savoring the tastes of apples, cinnamon, and brown sugar. It's a pleasant silence until you suddenly perk up when you realize something.

"Hey, I just remembered. I made you laugh. I made a jester laugh. That gives me extra points, right?"

Maison laughs once more, just as endearing as it was previously. He was wrong when he saw you in the crowds previously that night. You weren't just a little delight. No, now that he has had the chance to properly sit down with you, he could see that you were the embodiment of complete sunshine.

--------------------

"Really? Huh, I didn't know that was how that trick was done. That's so cool," you say in awe.

"Isn't it? It is amazing the kind of illusions you can create using something so simple," Maison replies.

The two of you had been walking around the carnival, talking about different acts and tricks done during shows, your conversations being broken up by the occasional game.

"Oh! Maison! Can we try that one!" you suddenly pipe up, pointing to another game booth.

"Of course we can," he grins and ushers you up to the booth.

Like with getting your slice of pie, the ringmaster gives a greeting of familiarity to his fellow jester when you two get close enough. The game you had pointed to was a simple game where you would try to knock down stacked milk bottles.

The booth worker sets three baseballs on the counter, but before you could grab one, Maison stops you.

"Wait a moment," he says while taking the balls from you. You cock your head to the side in confusion until you watch in awe as the older gentleman juggles the three baseballs. You almost think he's trying to show off until he successfully stops without having any of the balls hit the ground, and hands them back to you. "A bit of good luck for you."

You take them from him with a cheerful "thank you" before turning your attention to the bottles.

First baseball, two bottles down.

Second baseball, three bottles down.

Only one baseball and one bottle left.

You take a deep breath through your nose as you carefully line up your shot. You squint one of your eyes and your tongue creeps past your lips in concentration. Maison had seen this look of focus on your face during some of the previous games; he found it to be absolutely adorable. You move your arm back and....

The last bottle clatters loudly to the floor!

You stare in shock for a brief moment, before a noise of triumph escapes you.

"Wahoo! I did it! I did it!" you cheer.

"All thanks to my little bit of good luck," Maison jokes, but still proudly applauds your work.

With a polite "here ya go," the booth worker hands you your prize: a cute ghost plushie with a red and black ribbon tied around its neck as a bow. You notice how it reminds you of Maison's jester uniform, and it makes you love it even more.

"Thank you!" you grin at the other jester before turning to walk with Maison some more until you suddenly stop.

A soft gasp leaves your lips as you stare at two familiar faces in the crowd ahead. Both your ex friend and ex boyfriend were looking around and calling your name as if they didn't just get done fucking in a dingy alley. The sight shatters the perfect bubble of fun Maison had constructed for you that night, and you squeeze the plushie in your arms for comfort like a child would after having a bad dream.

Maison quickly follows your line of sight and can feel the rage boiling within him at the sight of the two individuals who had broken your spirits. He quickly motions his fellow jester closer to him and mutters something in the booth worker's ear. They pull away and share a nod of understanding before the ringmaster wraps his hands around your shoulders and turns you both around so that you are standing in front of him and out of sight from the two most loathed people in both of your worlds.

"It's okay. Just keep walking," Maison whispers comfortingly into your ear.

After maneuvering deeper into the crowds for a bit, you both come out on the other side of the carnival by a ferris wheel.

"Thank you," you mumble, still holding your ghost plush close to your chest. You let out a disheartened sigh though, when you realize how late it is and that the fun would have to come to an end. "I should start thinking about heading home though. As much as I don't want to...I know I have to go back and gather them to head on out. I am their ride after all. Augh and then I'm gonna have to confront them about what I saw."

You can feel tears welling up in your eyes at the thought. Even though you hated them and would give anything to call them the most abhorrent shit you could come up with, hell you literally had the brief thought about killing them, you are filled to the brim with anxiety about the whole thing and knew you wouldn't be able to do any of those things despite how much you wanted to.

"Hey, it'll be okay, shhh," Maison coos and pulls you into his arms once more, although this time you notice how he seems to be holding you tighter than he did previously.

"Why can't they just go away? W-Why can't they just disappear?" you sob and bury your face into his chest.

"Shh shhh, I know I know," he says while petting your hair like before. He replays your questions in his head though, and has to keep from having a sinister smile spread across his lips at the thought.

''Why can't they just go away? Why can't they just disappear?' Oh, my darling, they will disappear before the night is done,' Maison thinks as he continues to console you.

"Why do you need them to ride back with you?" he asks. You pull away confused, and give him a look that says 'isn't it obvious?'"They betrayed you, hurt you, you want to cut them out of your life entirely, so why give them kindness and courtesy that they don't deserve?"

"I...I can't just do that," you say, but your stutter gives it away that you are considering it.

"Yes, you can. You can, and you will. If you do this, the fun will last just a little while longer. Besides, taking the bus won't kill them," Maison pushes. You mull it over in your head for a bit, before looking back up to him.

"Okay...I'll do it," you decide, nodding your head to confirm it to both him and yourself.

He carefully moves his hand to tuck a strand of hair behind your ear, before resting his palm against your cheek. He takes in just how beautiful you look under the bright, colorful lights of the ferris wheel, cementing your face in his mind.

Slowly, Maison's eyes travel from your face and then upwards and he looks at the large attraction you both were standing by. A small smile forms and he looks back to you.

"How about one last bit of fun for the night, hm?" he asks. You look behind you at the bright, spinning wheel and feel a smile form on your own lips as well.

"I'd like that very much," you beam, looking up at him.

With that, you both turn to go on the ride. Once your car comes to a halt and it's safe to board, Maison opens the door for you and motions for you to enter. You smile at that and take a seat on the bench inside. The older man enters after you and sits at your side.

There is a pause before the ride starts up and the car slowly begins to rise upwards. Without noticing, your hand grasps Maison's instinctually from the sudden movement.

"You're okay, look," he reassures and squeezes your hand. He then points out the large window in front of you. You look ahead and your eyes widen as you slowly begin to see more and more of the Uncanny Valley from above. Though it is dark, all of the lights from the street lamps, windows of buildings, and signs for different establishments illuminate the island perfectly.

"Woah," you breathe, completely mesmerized by the view. "You can see everything from up here."

"Indeed," Maison agrees, taking in his own beautiful sight of your wowed face. "Everyone seems to prefer seeing the view during the day. I suppose you can see everything clearer then. But I have always been fond of seeing lights when it's dark. And then there are the stars and the moon that make it all seem so right."

You stop your task of trying to spot your apartment complex from the ferris wheel as his words begin to sink in. You quickly noticed how he talks about the things he finds beautiful. He talks about them like they are fine art, mentioning every detail he loves about them. Happiness, the view.

You.

The gentle feeling of Maison's fingertips against your chin makes you turn to face him. If the view of the Uncanny Valley at night didn't take your breath away, then the realization of how close you two are does. All thoughts in your head seem to cease as you stare into his eyes and notice him carefully easing your face closer to his.

Would you have done the same thing under different circumstances, or even under the same circumstances? You have no idea. And yet you can't stop yourself from saying "yes" every time. As long as it was with Maison, then yes, you would've done what you did at the end of the night. He turned your night from horrible to perfect, resurrected your happiness after you thought your cheating ex boyfriend and ex friend killed it, made you actually feel cared for and loved for the first time in forever.

It felt right. You and him felt right.

It was gentle, his lips softly brushing over yours for a moment, savoring it before kissing you properly. It feels like he's treating you like you're made of porcelain like his mask, as if the most sudden movement would make you crack.

No, Maison will make sure you never shatter on his watch. As long as you are his, you will never feel neglected or unloved. This carnival would become your new home, his tent would become your new home. The whole fairgrounds would be your shelter from the cruelties that come with life. A place for him to construct a perfect bubble for you to forget your worries and grief, just like tonight.

Maybe he'd even make you a performer as well, if that was what you wanted. He has seen your interest in different acts during the show. With some practice, you could become a star, though you already are in his heart. Just imagine you in your jester costume and mask, captivating the audience, wowing them, scaring them, or making them laugh. Of course some of the others would probably protest that decision, hell they'd probably protest him loving you, but he was the ringmaster and he had the last say. If he said you're staying, then you're staying. And if he says you would perform, then you'd perform.

Slowly, Maison pulls away, getting a brief view of the look of content on your face. Your eyes flutter open and you raise a hand to touch your lips.

"You kissed me..." your voice comes out a little bit louder than a whisper as you utter the only thing your reeling mind can come up with.

"I did," the ringmaster says with a warm smile.

You can't think of anything else to say, so you just beam back at him and rest your head on his shoulder. He wraps an arm around you and holds you closer as you both feel yourselves starting to descend back down to the ground.

Once the car stops, Maison steps out and holds the door open for you just like before. With his arm held out for you, he leads you through the carnival and towards the entrance. You expect to say your goodbyes there but to your surprise, he continues walking into the parking lot, slowing his pace and moving you in front of him so you can find your car.

Now standing by your vehicle, you turn back to look up at the jester that made your night so wonderful.

"I guess this is goodbye, huh?" you mumble while rubbing your arm.

"Goodbye for now," he corrects, holding your face in his hands and giving you one last smile for the night, which you return. "If you ever need a bit of cheering up again, you know where to find me. Until then however...how about a little something to remember me by?"

Suddenly, he pulls out a deck of playing cards from out of nowhere and fans them out to you.

"Pick a card, but do not tell me what it is," he says, speaking like he's performed this trick a thousand times.

You look at the cards carefully, eyes panning over each one, until you finally take the one that speaks to you. The card is the ace of diamonds.

"Good, now set it back in the deck," he continues, waiting for you to do as he says. With that, he reshuffles the cards, even closing his eyes to really show off to you. Once he's done, he stacks the deck nicely in his hands and takes the first card on the top. "Is this your card?"

Staring back at you is the same red diamond you had seen previously.

"Yes sir," you chirp, taking the card again." But I know the trick to this one."

"Oh? And what's that?" Maison questions, intrigued.

"The whole deck is the same card; they're all the ace of diamonds," you nod confidently.

"Really?" he turns the deck up so that the front of the cards is facing you. To your surprise, you can see that it really is a normal deck with the different suits and all.

"Woah," you breathe, amazement in your voice. "Must be great being so lucky."

"Of course it is. I wouldn't have been able to meet you if I wasn't," Maison then moves his hands around the deck of cards until they vanish into thin air.

"Wait, don't you want this card back?" you ask, all while you are trying to figure out where a whole deck of cards went.

"I said I was going to give you something to remember me by," he retorts. "Think of it as a good luck charm. Besides, I'm sure I have another one lying around somewhere."

You look from the card then back to the ringmaster, smiling.

"Thank you, Maison. Thank you for everything. You really made the night perfect."

"It is my pleasure, always," he gives you a little bow, before taking one of your hands into his own and raising it to his lip to plant a soft kiss to your knuckles. "Please be safe my dear and sleep well."

"Y-Yeah, of course, "you let out a shy chuckle, still not used to this level of affection, but you can certainly get there. "Goodnight to you too."

With that, Maison takes a step back, giving you the space to climb into your car. Once you start it up, you look out your window and give him a small wave, which he returns.

The tall jester stands there watching as your car gets farther and farther away until it disappears from view entirely.

--------------------

You can practically feel yourself dance walking down the hallway to your apartment, as the sounds of carnival music still play in your ears. After letting yourself in and locking the front door behind you, you set your ghost plushie down on a counter in your kitchen along with the card. You fidget with the little stubby arms of your soft specter, humming a tune you hear sometime tonight, your eyes drifting to the familiar colored ribbon around its neck.

You then turn your attention to the card, just flipping it between your fingers until you stop when you notice something that definitely was not there before. The front of the card is the same, it still shows the ace of diamonds, but on the back there is writing; a little message addressed to you.

To my dearest little diamond, Y/N,

Your beauty shall remain in my mind always. Your smile, your laugh, and you, sweet little you. Please don't be a stranger, my heart would never be able to take it.

With love,

Maison.

Underneath the sweet message, was a phone number.

You place your hand over your heart and grin widely from ear to ear. How could you possibly stay away from the ringmaster after tonight? The affection he gave you was addicting. He was addicting. And you were obsessed. You fell right into his trap, right where you wanted to be.

His plan was to win you over and he got it and so much more.

No, you definitely won't be a stranger at all.

--------------------

It was very late at night, and all light had been extinguished from the carnival, making you think that no one was around. However, if you went just a little bit deeper into the fairgrounds, you would notice the lights still on in the large tent at the center, and speaking could be heard from within.

"Ladies. Gentlemen. What a very special performance I have for you tonight," the loud voice came from none other than the ringmaster, wearing his signature mask as always, but the audience was not his usual audience. No, the audience was of his fellow jesters.

The voice caused two figures that were tied to the spinning wheels used for knife throwing to stir. Their heads pounded hard and they could both taste a hint of blood in their mouths.

"These two 'delightful' individuals decided to so graciously volunteer for this act. Isn't that just so 'polite' of them?" Maison continued on, bitter sarcasm heavy in his voice. The whole crowd began to jeer at the two partially conscious people.

Once they fully awaken, both your ex friend and ex boyfriend try to speak, to ask what the hell's going on, but are prohibited by the large clumps of cloth in their mouths.

"I must admit, I have never performed a live dissection act, but do you all, my lovely performers, not deserve something new? Something fresh?" he carried on, voice becoming even more grandiose. The crowd responded with a noise of uncertainty until their ringmaster continued. "I know what you are all thinking: isn't this all a waste of two perfectly good meals? Oh, I can assure you all, these two are much too rotten for consumption. No no no, these...things are only good for an act now."

The crowd only got more rowdy at that, but Maison raised his hands to calm them.

"Ah, I knew you all wouldn't want to take my word for it, so why don't we all get a little taste?" he moved to stand in front of a table that was covered with a black and white checkered cloth, making sure his fellow jester and the "performers" would be able to see what was underneath the sheet.

With one swift motion, the cloth was ripped from the table, revealing a row of sharp knives varying in size. If the two hostages weren't panicking already, then they definitely were now. Muffled cries of fear fill the show floor, and your ex friend even had tears streaming down her cheeks.

Maison picked up a steak knife and slowly crept towards your ex boyfriend, like a predator stalking its prey. Once he got close enough, he speaks quietly, so only the two unwilling volunteers could hear.

"It's funny," he began, dragging his red nails along the edge of the blade. "I think I would've done this, even if you hadn't hurt Y/N."

His eyes went wide at the sound of your name and at the jester in front of him bringing the blade closer to his face.

"No matter what, you never deserved her," Maison purrs, sinisterly. "She was mine the moment I laid eyes on her tonight. No matter what, you were never worthy of her, you stupid boy."

He let out a sickeningly playful click of his tongue before quickly turning to your ex friend.

"And you," he sneered. "What kind of friend are you?" Had you been nice, you wouldn't have been here. You would've been at home, sleeping in bed like an infant....Yet here you are."

He then looked between the two of them. Though they couldn't see his face, they could see his eyes through the holes in his mask, and oh, how they were seething with rage.

"I don't know which one of you is more rotten," Maison said, though his voice was much louder so his audience would hear him. Slowly he turned to look back at the male hostage, and a cruel grin formed under his mask. "But I think I'll try you, just because I hate you more."

Like a flash, he swiped the knife across your ex boyfriend's cheek, carving it so it looked like half of a bloody smile was on his face. The crowd roared with excitement at that, antsy to get their hands on some of the knives as well.

With one hand, Maison raised his mask up enough so that his mouth was exposed. Carefully, he dragged the bloodied knife across his tongue, getting the taste of the crimson that stained the blade. In an instant, his face contorted in disgust and he pulls his mask down.

"Bitter, not to my liking...but I'm sure some of you may enjoy it," he announced, watching as his consensus seemed to intrigue some of his fellow performers. He then motioned his knife to the female hostage before continuing. "As for her...well...I think I'll let you all find that out for yourselves. Ladies and gentlemen, I now invite you all to come. On. Down!"

With that, a number of jesters got up from their seats to line up and take a blade while others sat back to watch the carnage just as their ringmaster was doing.

Such a gruesome display was before him. Something that would've made him sick had the "volunteers" been different. But for you, he got nothing but a sick sense of catharsis watching it.

Maison smiled as he thought about you. He thought about what you had whimpered when you both found refuge at the ferris wheel.

"Why can't they go away? Why can't they just disappear?"

'Well, my little diamond,' he thought. 'They're gone now. They'll never hurt you again. No one will ever hurt you. I will make sure of that.'

[gon-and-killuas-mother]

realized that we don't have any recent Superman video games??? no, no, don't fucking look at Superman 64, look at me, look into my eyes, leave that nonsense behind.

DC and WB been giving all the games to fucking Batman. like, i'm not complaining about having Batman games but hello???

so i've been mulling over a potential Superman game concept. the tutorial takes place as he's growing up and learning his powers, of course. main game starts sometime after he's moved to Metropolis. maybe have some open-world elements to let Clark explore Metropolis and help people out wherever he goes.

i'd also include semi-frequent "events" where Superman hears a cry for help elsewhere in the world, and you'd fly over to deal with some disaster or something.

i'd love for it to be an RPG, to allow for player choices affecting the flavor of Superman that Clark becomes. does he try to be kind? does he hold onto his humanity? does he befriend or fight Batman? does he join the Justice League? or does he go rogue and become Lord Superman?

and! if it's an RPG (and if i'm the one in charge lol) there's gonna be ROMANCE OPTIONS!! that's right, this baby could be a dating simulator if WB and DC weren't fucking COWARDS

romance options would include:

Lois (duh)

Jimmy (bc why not)

Diana

Bruce

Lex (but only if Clark goes the evil corporate route)

obviously WB would never let me make Clark queer but this is my dream sshhh

and since it's my dream, there's gonna be the option to pursue both Diana and Bruce in a polyamorous relationship. maybe even before you begin to flirt with either of them, Bruce and Diana could already have their "interested in each other but not acting on it" deal we saw in the animated Justice League, but it wouldn't be brought up unless the Polycule Route is triggered.

as for Superman's powers. obviously there'd be an upper limit to how much of his canonical abilities can be feasibly portrayed in a video game format, but if developers wanted to push those limits, i think there's potential to see some really fucking cool shit. like. use his different super visions and super hearing to solve mysteries. take a quick trip up into space to the Watchtower. literally use your flight and speed to fast travel to where you need to go.

look man, my boy Clark deserves as many (good) games as Bruce already has.

DC and WB y'all better fucking hire me i can make y'all so much goddamn money. listen to me-- no no LISTEN, hear me OUT. there are so many queer nerds that would jump on the chance to make Clark kiss whoever they fucking wanted, this is a chance to profit off the pockets of lonely queers -- no NO WAIT COME BACK---!!!

[lanternbats]

first, i gotta apologise if this makes literally no sense timeline wise. most of the comics i’ve read are like from the 60s, so my knowledge of anything after 1968 is murky at best. also, this is sorta going off on the last ask but not really—

i’ve had this idea bouncing around in my head about Bruce and Hal sorta dating from early days. maybe it was before Hal became GL, maybe not. doesn’t matter much for this. but the main idea is this:

the whole Parallax thing sorta lines up with Jason’s death. so Bruce is so angry at himself not only for losing Jason, but because he was so blinded by his grief and anger that he failed to recognise Hal literally getting possessed by a space monster.

another idea i had that has no proper story to be worked into is Tim walking up to Hal after Bruce gets lost in time or is presumed dead or whatever and going “you’re gonna help me find Bruce right now.” and Hal just goes “…fair.”

again, i have no clue if either of these would even work. but it sounds good on paper for endless angst so. thought i’d share :)

If you wanna get crazy self indulgent, Jason’s death could be one of the events that leads to Hal's weakening mental state that allowed for Parallax to posses him 👀 Like Hal returns from space only to find out that his and Bruce's son has been dead for months and the corps didn't think this was worth interrupting the mission he was on, which is just another drop in the "man the guardians suck" ocean. He missed the funeral and Bruce isn't talking to him and the break up is messy and horrible for everyone involved and Hal notices that beginning of grey hair on his temples and he's only in his 30's but goddammit it's been a stressful year this totally isn't a sign of anything else ahaha ;)

So Hal wouldn't be around when Tim enters the family, but Tim is very much aware of who Hal is and what he means to Bruce, and Bruce getting lost in time would probably be a great time for them to bond and meet.

[sirthisisa-wendys]

Err happy late v-day Wendy!!

If there's still a slot, can i have an NSFW vday with daddy Ran? TYSM! 💋

Just ignore this if slots are full. 😉

PERIODT

YES

A Quiet Affair: Ran Haitani x Fem!Reader

wc: 668

tw: smut

Valentine's Day Event Masterlist

Main TR Masterlist

"You look really cute after a few drinks..." Ran's face breaks out into a smirk, and he leans forward.

"So I didn't look cute after I spent all of my money on these gifts?" You giggle and press a hand to his bare chest, taking another glance around the room.

"You did spend a lot of money on me..." Ran takes your hand and kisses up and down your arm with care. "I guess you do love me."

"You guess?" Ran takes your forefinger and places it on his bottom lip. "You know I love you, pumpkin." You hum softly and lean over to kiss his lips once, twice, three times before Ran pulls you into a deep embrace.

You reckon you're so enamored with his lips that you completely forget to mention the healing cut on Ran's side. Later - in the morning - you'll give him an earful about it, but for now, Ran's got you hook, line, and sinker.

"I need you," you whisper against his lips, praying that he'll reply with something in the affirmative. But his right hand travels up your bare leg and under the robe, toying with the underwear thoughtfully.

"You need me?"

"Right now." Ran's eyes are unfocused as he looks up at you, and you know he's contemplating taking your underwear off and ravaging you on the bed without ceasing. But when his grip on your flesh softens, you moan, praying he'd come to some conclusion and fast.

"We have to be quiet," Ran replies, climbing over you and trapping your wrists on either side of you. "Can't wake the girls."

"I'll be quiet," you promise as Ran leans down to kiss your neck.

"No loud moaning," he adds as you lace your fingers around his neck. "No whining. Nothing. Perfectly silent."

"Yes, sir," you answer, and Ran undoes your robe with gentle fingers.

"Good girl." You bite your lip to keep quiet as he takes off your clothes with a painstaking slowness you can't bear. You cover your mouth with one hand while he eats you out, his violet eyes gazing at you while he holds your other hand tight.

"Princess," Ran murmurs from time to time, daring you to gasp or grunt. "Princess, you feel so good." You bury your face in the pillows as your husband takes you from behind, his fingers holding your hips.

It isn't until Ran's got your stomach down on the bed and his hips rock into you as he grips the headboard that your resolve begins slipping.

"I'm gonna cum," you hiss, gasping for air. "Daddy, I--"

"Shhh, shhh," Ran urges you, his cock still driving into your core. "Cum for me. But you need to do it quietly."

"I-I can't, I--"

"You can, pretty girl. I know you can."

It takes everything in you not to groan and heave a loud sigh as your orgasm crests, taking over your senses and making you shudder. Your legs shake violently as Ran continues his ceaseless motion, his hands holding you flush to the mattress. A hand reaches up and pulls your face out of the pillows, holding your neck before slipping up to cover your mouth tightly. You breathe rapidly, praying Ran will let you have a moment to vocalize your pleasure.

"I can feel you cumming," he chants, pressing soft kisses to your neck. "I'm right behind you, Mrs. Haitani. You're doing amazing."

You want to ask him for mercy, but Ran's hips drive into yours faster and faster - so fast that the bed creaks under the weight before he releases his cum into you, each twitch of his cock filling you up.

When Ran's high has come and gone, he lets you go and pulls out. His hands turn you over and pry your still-quivering legs apart, and he lowers himself once more, mouth open to lick at your cunt.

"I'll clean you up," he offers, grinning. "You know the rule."

You nod, still keeping deathly quiet.

[thegeminisage]

star trek: the motion picture rewrite

star trek the motion picture was bad so i'm fixing it. here's how

problem #1: everybody got interesting setups and nobody got any payoffs.

problem #2: ilia and decker were just not that interesting (sorry ilia and decker) and they either needed to be more interesting or have less screen time or both.

problem #3: it took more than half the film for the enterprise to even leave earth. this seems like poor pacing, which the overall film also suffers from.

problem #4: those damn 20-minute cgi scenery sequences. enough is enough.

sorry in advance but this post won't make much sense if you haven't seen the first star trek movie, "star trek: the motion picture." i don't have the time or patience to re-explain the entire plot! the novelization also ties into this but i do explain some of that.

MAIN PLOT

it wasn't a GREAT plot but i'm keeping it mostly the same, except a few changes:

the enterprise leaves much earlier in the film. all the interpersonal drama can happen ON THE WAY to v'ger and it would make very little difference to the main script and series of events, but the reminds that they're only x hours away from interception would help keep things tense and moving along. also, it would get spock in here earlier. we went a LONG time without seeing him.

the engines can still fail at the outset and get fixed by spock, but it's kind of weird that he shows up out of nowhere. i would change this to kirk leaving him messages - and spock finally answering at the exact right moment (more on this in spock's section)

less of those long cgi sequences, obviously. the enterprise deserves all the fanfare in the world but we do have other stuff to do. maybe we can learn a little about v'ger through the ilia-probe in bits and pieces before we get there rather than learning all at once at the end - the book sort of did that and it was better. but i think we just need to cut them to allow time for a LITTLE more interpersonal drama - the balance of interpersonal stuff to plot stuff was WAY off, even after you consider how the tos episodes are somtimes

i don't think decker should fuck the probe.

the book and movie seem to disagree on whether the ilia-probe really "is" ilia or a very convincing copy. i think we would do better to leave it open, as scifi so often is, because both answers feel slightly wrong to me

kirk just taking the ship at the end and going "ok thattaway" was heartwarming but lacks any semblance of logic. rather than beaming down to debrief, though - in case they don't let him go back up - i'd like to see him doing a power move where the required personnel for his debrief come to HIM. and THEN when the dust clears he can go "thattaway"

CHARACTER ARC: KIRK

there's a lot more on this in the book than the movie, but kirk begins this story three years post his five year journey. in the movie he's framed as "washed up" but the book sometimes implies he's "damaged." starfleet offered him the promotion to admiral to keep him out of space because his was the first ship to come back relatively intact after a five-year and they're using him as a poster boy for their pro-space propaganda. (kirk wholly disagrees with "intact"; he lost a total of 94 crew members over those five years and objects strongly to his new legendary fame.) it's worth noting that bones begged him NOT to take the promotion and he and some other officers actually RESIGNED over it.

also, for the first year back on earth, starfleet totally just SENT HIM A WOMAN? to like keep him distracted and "happy." he got honeypotted into not going back out into space. how many planets have tried to trap people by making them happy? how many times has kirk refused to stay in such a place because it leaves him nothing to strive for? and then, irony of horrific ironies, he was trapped on earth. he doesn't realize this woman was basically sent to pacify him until the very beginning of the film/book. anyway, this woman's name is lori, she's gonna matter just a little bit later. after she left, kirk got pushed into a desk job he was utterly fucking miserable in. he notes that it was the only time he ever ignored bones's advice and he suffered greatly for it.

when the "intruder" (v'ger, obvs) is revealed to be approaching earth (via brain implants? stupid, let's just switch to everyone seeing it on TV), kirk, for totally normal reasons, jumps at the chance to take the enterprise away from decker ostensibly because he's got more experience but also because (the book gets into this) he feels like he's been jerked around on a string for the last three years by the admirals (specifically he names nogura to give us a face but they were all in on it) and also that he's totally dead inside. he has to guilt trip bordering on BLACKMAIL nogura into letting him back aboard (ie bringing up the fact that he placated kirk with a woman and sweet promises instead of like...actually caring about his PTSD). we're keeping that part because it's sexy and fun.

the question the movie seems to be asking is, "is jim kirk too old and feeble to captain the enterprise again?" i would like to posit instead we go with "is jim kirk too DAMAGED to captain the enterprise again?" they really put him through the wringer in season 3 in particular and that total nervous breakdown from the romulan espionage episode was supposed to have been REAL before they changed it, so i'm sticking it in that three year timeskip instead. in the book, jim fucks up several times - can't figure out his seatbelt, gets lost, and notably fails to be able to save his former honeypot lori and his new vulcan first officer (off-brand spock) during a transport malfunction - they get rearranged horrifically and then die right in front of him. rather than frame this as jim being old and out of practice i'd like to frame it around the totally untreated PTSD of space and his five-year finally catching up to him.

the book ALSO gets into how jim feels more at home in space, how being away from it gives him physical symptoms almost like withdrawal, and how he felt he has been brought back from the dead and out of a miserable, meaningless life when stepping aboard for the first time. IMPORTANT FOR LATER.

at the same time though i think we might greatly benefit from mixed feelings - perhaps JIM HIMSELF has wondered if he was too damaged to get back out there - if, after everything, part of him wasn't a little hesitant to go back out into the unknown and risk putting himself through the kind of hell he got put through in some of those later tos episodes. maybe he wanted the captaincy to prove it to himself, yes, but also it was something he was determined to do (even though part of him was a little worried about doing it) because he thought he was the only one that COULD. there's a hidden element in this film of facing one's fears to benefit emotionally, so it would be important to squeeze something like this in, even if it's only in hints or light implications.

the ultimate answer to jim's question of course is that he ISN'T too damaged to be back out in space, especially not if spock and bones and the others are out there with him. but to get into that we have to move to...

CHARACTER ARC: DECKER AND ILIA

i'm putting these 2 together because (sorry) i don't care very much. side characters in trek are always supposed to just highlight the main characters anyway, right? again, i'm so sorry. anyway so. in the movie and especially the book, ilia is pretty constantly sexualized - deltan females and their pheromones or whatever - and she has very little personality. decker is mostly just mad (justifiably) that kirk stole his job after 18 months of prep and sad that ilia got zapped, but we feel neither of these things very strongly. the movie doesn't even MENTION decker's father killing himself in space* which is a huge waste of potential when you consider the name of the game re: kirk's arc, at least in the book, is PTSD.

*matt decker, will decker's father, is the captain from doomsday machine (consider this a spoiler warning): when a giant machine showed up and engaged in battle with his ship, the constellation, he evacuated his crew to a nearby planet and stayed behind, planning to go down with the ship. unfortunately the machine was a planet-eater, and ate the planet his crew was on, so his crew all died while he listened to them beg him for help, and he later tried to suicide bomb the machine with the enterprise and then later one of its shuttles, which tragically ended in his mostly-pointless death. kirk did at least use the idea to suicide bomb the machine with the damaged constellation and have himself beamed out just in time though, and he had the record made that matt decker died in the line of duty, omitting some of his shadier actions so as not to stain his memory or whatever.

ANYWAY, i think the only way to make decker and ilia interesting is to foil them with kirk and spock. decker is who kirk was before his five-year: smart, capable, ready to take on anything and chomping at the bit to get out there and bite off as much as he can chew and then some. also, he's emotionally distant from women because of his status as captain/his need to not be tied down so he can explore space.

ILIA on the other hand is more like spock - she has limited telepathic abilities, she is othered and sometimes sexualized by the people around her because of her VULCAN BIOLOGY sorry because of her race, and she has a passion for learning and pursuits of intellect. and also a semi-formal telepathic link with decker - they had met before, and were preparing to bond (the way a vulcan might), and then decker more or less got cold feet and left her at the altar because his own passion for being in space left him unable to commit. but she WENT AFTER HIM (important for later) and wound up as the enterprise navigator.

for decker, instead of showing kirk up once near the beginning, apologizing, and gradually learning to get along with him, i think i'd like him to be showing kirk up a lot - being subtly snide when kirk can't work his seatbelt, for example. this film has no real antagonist aside from an incomprehensible alien entity, but we could bring a little humanity to it by having decker justifiably resent not only being confronted with ilia again but also having his captaincy snatched away from him after EIGHTEEN. MONTHS. of prep. that's some serious bullshit.

but, while decker IS younger and more familiar with the enterprise's redesign, while he's had more recent space hours and suffers from none of kirk's PTSD, what he lacks is experience - this was the whole basis of kirk taking the fucking ship to begin with, and the movie as it is kind of totally invalidates that plot point. to that end, near the end of the film when they're in v'ger, i would make a bigger deal out of kirk knowing better than to perform the scan - because that's what got the klingons killed (when v'ger interpreted their scan as hostile). decker, shaken, realizes his own hasty decision would have resulted in all of them dying horrifically, and rather than kirk grudgingly respecting decker first, we get it the other way around - decker grudgingly respecting kirk, and kirk returning that respect after decker stops being an asshole. this does the job of helping the AUDIENCE respect kirk after spending so much time wondering if he was indeed too washed up and damaged to do the job, and it helps to begin to warm us up to decker too.

also, it would be fun to have decker overhear bones arguing with kirk or spock or even talking to chapel or something, to know that kirk was thought too washed up EVEN BY THE ADMIRALS (who decker does respect bc he doesn't know better yet), and then for decker to realize later kirk got jerked around - and maybe realize, once he begins to see kirk as a person instead of an obstacle, that something like that might be in his own future even if he succeeds in almost every possible way, as kirk had. we might even use this to get into decker's dad basically killing himself after losing his crew - it can go other ways than right for captains. it can also go so, so, so wrong. (this would require some exposition, though, since we can't expect everyone to have both seen the episode and remember the details.)

another moment that wasn't used to its full potential is when decker basically has to honeypot the ilia probe - this is extremely difficult on him emotionally, and kirk knows all about the perils of emotionally difficult honeypot missions (sorry that i'm linking to this twice). i think decker realizing kirk has done this same kind of thing like a zillion times and that's part of what led to his breakdown gives him respect not just for KIRK but for the position of captain itself - he would have no choice but to do this to protect 500 lives, if it were him. you don't get to tap out when you're captain. and this is good for kirk too, because in sympathizing with decker (and the horrific situation of having to honeypot the image of his dead lover) he can learn to sympathize with himself, and forgive himself for being at less than his best during his own worst moments - some of them during the five-year, some of them after, when he felt weak and without purpose. it also gives him the job of connecting the audience to decker - through him, through thinking of decker as a younger version of him, we can forgive decker for being an asshole earlier and sympathize with his pain. and he becomes someone we root for.

as for ilia - i think she should have gotten to yell at decker rather than passively act like he wasn't even there and hide her pain. her pain at being left behind and betrayed and having to find her own way could mirror spock's (more on this in a sec) but it could also mirror v'ger and its abandonment issues, even though she was abandoned by a boyfriend and not god. there's only so much you can do with truly misogynistic writing but she could've been likable!! her sitch and spock's are the same and she gets to complain while he refuses! even one iota of a personality would have helped so much.

ALSO, on that point, at least one conversation between her and spock would have done a lot to make her more interesting too, because then she would be adjacent to him. spock, too, left his home planet to chase after a space captain he was in um a relationship with, and that bit of kinship ("your answers are not here") could lead to a bonding moment - i think spock would respect what she's doing and that would lend her a lot of credit in the eyes of the audience. much like v'ger, much like spock, ilia has left her home to find out who she is, and part of that answer lies within emotion, within the people she loves: in this case, decker. i would also, if we HAVE to fridge her (DO WE?? more on this in the ending section), choose to have her take a blow meant for decker - her last act being one of love, because the film IS ultimately about love's importance, even in spite of all the pain it also causes (see: decker in his grief).

which leads us to...

CHARACTER ARC: BONES

we have to have a brief interlude here for bones. unfortunately, bones in this movie is little more than an extremely loveable afterthought. while fixing his ENTIRE deal is out of the scope of this tumblr post, what i WOULD do is give him more screentime by having both his AND spock's lives upended by the same event: kirk, the Main Character(tm), choosing to take the admiral stripes and "abandon" them.

i think theres enough evidence in tos to argue the case that bones places a lot of importance on jim and spock's lives - he claims to hate space, but he never resigns, and he finds meaning in taking care of them, even if (to my own interpretation), he can sometimes feel like a third wheel to their legendary "friendship" (so legendary that it's historically important both in-universe and in real life). when kirk agrees to "retire" and let starfleet make him their poster boy because he has PTSD and burnout, bones CANONICALLY objects to what starfleet is trying to do to him so strongly that he literally resigns. again, kirk notes in the book that "retiring" is the only time he ever ignored bones's advice and he came regret it deeply. so kirk needs bones back - in the book, he says outright he needs bones back because he, gaslit, cannot trust himself to be making solid calls emotionally, and he wants bones to call him out if he steps out of line.

for fun, i think bones should be a little more pissed about being "drafted" and like genuinely grumpy rather than fond and gruff - at least, until kirk apologizes. he tells bones all about being yanked around by the admirals and being honeypotted and how much he regretted not listening to his advice...and the gaslighting, not bones's medical expertise, is why kirk feels he needs bones now - why all of earth needs him, because this is a mission to save the entire planet. i think bones LOVES to be needed and especially by jim and/or spock, and he of course has a natural desire to caretake, so after the apology he could soften up to "gruff." he found meaning in what he was doing on earth, but he finds meaning in this too, and kirk telling him that of COURSE he can leave if he wants solidifies his decision to stay, even at the end of the film when the immediate threat has passed. put simply: he loves kirk and spock, and, like them, he wants the three of them to stay together, even though they previously broke his heart.

i think also that once spock comes aboard this gives bones a second job, which is to poke holes in spock's outward unemotional demeanor, which he genuinely is doing from a place of love (since it was bones who said the release of emotions is healthy). instead of standing around and being a lovable and nostalgic set piece, this would give him an actual purpose and an arc, even if his arc (healing spock via negging, healing jim via not gaslighting people) is holding up the other characters.

and speaking of spock...

CHARACTER ARC: SPOCK

post five-year, spock goes back to vulcan to undergo the kolinahr, a ritual meant to purge all remaining emotion from vulcans. he does this because he detests his human half and the many weaknesses and challenges it brings him etc etc but i also would like it if he does this because kirk retires - he has no logical, ready-made excuse to be around kirk and bones anymore, and just like kirk, he truly felt at home on the enterprise, where people valued him for his skill and what he could do rather than what he was (or wasn't). (this sentiment from spock is semi-canonical - it's in william shatner's tarsus iv novel, collision course.) kirk and bones are both an important part of his support system and it is crumbling without any way to save it - of COURSE he chooses not to feel emotion rather than face that pain. every human being ever has wished at some point or another they could numb themselves rather than hurt, and spock is half human, too. (that said, i would also not complain if kohlinahr was spock's way to escape the trauma of what the five-year did to HIM, making him feel emotions differently than what he believed was acceptable, changing him fundamentally as a person, and kirk only agreed to resign because space wasn't worth it without spock aka because he got dumped, but this is a minor detail.)

while on vulcan, kirk, equally adrift, sends him messages (this does admittedly make more sense if kirk only resigned because spock did) - but spock is potentially kind of mad at him (if kirk resigned first) and also trying not to feel anything, so he ignores those and goes out into the desert to get rid of all his gross icky feelings. when the masters read his mind and see that jim accidentally contacted him telepathically (which...girl WHAT was that all about did they bond fr during amok time) and that "his answer is not here," he reads or listens to all the messages at once (maybe including the deleted one spock prime had from aos...ouch), gets emotional (or resists, but it's a near thing), and realizes that if he can't purge kirk from his mind he has to at least find out why. the last message can be about the intruder (v'ger) and their fucked up engines, spock can feel reluctant concern and race to the rescue.

spock is initially very very cold to his old shipmates because he is trying to hold onto his logic and not allow the emotion back in his mind, but absolutely nobody is having this. like in the movie, kirk and bones drag him away to the lounge to interrogate him (he should admit to feeling kirk telepathically here just as he did in the book - i don't know that i'd go into the whole bond business in this movie because that's just writing fanfiction and is also a lot of exposition but i would never deny fanfic writers their fodder).

later, after talking with ilia, who did a brave thing (in spock's eyes, anyway, because he is terrified of what HE'S doing) by chasing down her man to give him an earful, spock is troubled, which prompts bones to start going IS THAT AN EMOTION I SEE MR SPOCK? (and make him more troubled). i think spock grieves ilia's death in his own way because of how much like him she is, or was. all of this culminates in his choice to attempt to mind-meld with v'ger, in the end - if he isn't a human and isn't a vulcan, WHAT is he? if he can't live with the emotion and he can't purge it, what is he supposed to do? if he dies in the mindmeld so be it, but at least he will have been useful - iirc, i think it was roddenberry or leonard nimoy who said that was always a primary motivation of his.

of course, AFTER the mindmeld, he does indeed realize that logic is pointless without emotion, and that he's been adrift not BECAUSE of his emotions but because of his refusal to deal with them and his refusal to feel. so spock, too, will decide to stay at the end of the film.

side bar on the scene where spock cries for v'ger: it's kind of dumb because v'ger is so unknowable. i think spock crying could be a bigger deal - maybe with happiness, as he holds jim's hand, or maybe when he thinks they're all gonna die (kirk says when he sees spock crying "it's not for us" but like what if it was though). i'd prefer him to cry after he finishes laughing post mindmeld of course but either instance could work.

and finally...

THE ENDING

i don't mind the ending in its plot - that v'ger really was just looking for its creator, as a child looks for its parent - but i really want the question of whether or not the probe IS ILIA to remain open. if you make an exact copy of a person that truly believes it is the original, is it? if it's indistinguishable from who ilia used to be even to itself, is it ilia? i like leaving this open because i DON'T like fridging her, but i also think it stretches believability to have this machine magically extract a consciousness and put it in a robot when we had a whole episode of s1 revolve around this exact same plot twist (is chapel's now-android fiance really still her fiance just because he thinks he is?)

it should be spock's idea to have a human join with v'ger - it was the joining with humans that ultimately led to HIS feeling emotions he was unable to ignore, which ultimately led to his understanding and acceptance of emotion and its value in general. spock would see the ilia probe as still being ilia, but in distress, as he was when he came aboard the enterprise, as v'ger is now. and he knows what fixed him (holding jim's hand lol sorry i mean accepting his emotions) and what would fix her.

and then of course decker does join with her - volunteers, insists even. i think he takes the chance on optimism and hope - something kirk lost along the way due to various traumas - but also because this film is about the importance of love, and he can't bear to live without his, even in facsimile. it's partially a sacrifice too though - decker's life and body as he knows it in exchange for the earth's safety - because that's what kirk would have done, what he HAS done. he did learn from kirk after all.

and kirk learns from him too - decker, who by now will know about the awful years the brass put kirk through prior to the start of the film, would tell kirk to give 'em hell, like it's something that can actually be done, because at his heart he's an optimist, and that's something kirk sorely needs emotionally at this low point in his life. a very gen-z-saving0the-millennials moment. (apologies to both gen z and millennials.)

so after the dust has settled, kirk, who has just saved earth, can basically ask for anything he wants, and what he wants is not to get sent out to pasture again. so that leads into him refusing to leave the ship and letting the admirals and everyone else who wants to debrief him come to HIM instead of him going down - he finally has back what he needed, which was simply control and agency over his own life, and his loved ones - since spock and bones decided to stay aboard. i would have liked some challenging action moment prior to the ending with the ilia-probe and decker included, a moment to highlight that kirk has still got it (kind of like his badass moment in the deadly years where he saves the ship in .2 seconds once they cure his dementia). but insisting that they see v'ger directly and not deal with its probe is okay too.

FINALLY, after we've established that kirk is In Control again and not just like, stealing a starship, we can do his scene where he begins a new five-year mission, and when directing sulu, says, "out there - thattaway."

THEMES

HOPEFULLY this ties together the various themes and foils in everybody's arc - the main ones being the importance of dealing with emotions, even painful ones, the importance of love, and the question "who am i?" - the theme of seeking answers

kirk wants to know who he is - is he still a starship captain who braved the unknown and returned alive? he tried to numb himself (or rather starfleet tried to numb him) after his five-year mission with a woman and a desk job and it didn't help - he had to risk getting back out there to do himself any good at all.

spock asks if he is a vulcan or a human, and seeks to answer the question by purging emotion, but must answer it by accepting the emotion instead - and he learns this from v'ger, who is asking the same question and cannot answer it without emotion anymore than spock could. spock is and always will be both vulcan AND human and no amount of resistance on his part can change that.

bones feels adrift without loved ones to take care of - who is HE if kirk won't even listen to his advice not to "retire" - and of course he is someone who takes care of others. which is a little sad because it's not a deeper arc, but it sort of rhymes with his whole deal in tos and there ARE five other movies. there's also a little bit in there about being willing to try again after your heart's been broken, which is also something kirk and spock are struggling with, to have the trio's arc rhyming with each other.

decker asking who he is - is he a real captain or a psycho case like his dad and kirk, is he someone who could have been ilia's husband - and ilia wondering if she is someone who could have been his wife, and later the PROBE wondering if it's truly ilia or not. MORE questions that have to be answered by overcoming fear of emotional pain - decker takes the chance and joins with her to answer both his own question, and the probe's - and, of course, v'ger's.

THIS CONCLUDES. my movie rewrite. i am so glad to have gotten it off my chest, which is the main reason i wrote it, but i don't think it's terribly popular...so if you actually read this whole thing you're a rock star. okay BYE!!!

[aravas-writing]

And now, the continuation no one asked for:

A funnyman's recap of Blue Archive

Prologue

It begins with the player character having a weird dream while on the train to Kivotos, which is ominous enough. Sensei awakens and steps off the train to meet with the person in charge

Her name is Rin, and she is a stand-in. The president of the General Student Council - the Big Cheese, basically - has gone missing and named Sensei, i.e. the player, as the person to summon in this case. Sensei is referred to with gender neutral pronouns, so can be either/or/neither, whatever floats your boat.

(Rin not pictured here BC she doesn't really become relevant to the overall story until way later.)

She functions as a proxy for the Prez while they're gone and brief Sensei on what's happening in the city and Great Googly Moogly, it's gone to shit in a heartbeat.

The seven most notorious criminals of the city had just been all apprehended as the Prez disappears so now they take the confusion as the chance to escape.

And one of them wants to fucking bomb the main tower.

For fun.

She is Kosaka Wakamo, Fox of Calamity (the reference to Tamamo-no-Mae jumps out immediately, no?)

Rin informs Sensei that it's up to them now and with the help of a nice tablet called

...

The..

The Shittim Chest.

Yes, I know. No, I don't think they workshopped it enough. Let's just call it the tablet.

Anyway, Rin also introduces four students, representatives of the Three Great Academies, who have come to aid Sensei and the GSC. They are, essentially, the starters.

Before it goes to battle, however, Sensei boots up the tablet using a passcode of ominous origin. It came to them in a dream (?).

And then an AI helper comes out!

Behold Arona! The AI of the tablet and adorable widdle babby who you can actually headpat. But that comes later.

And now, in cliffnotes, introducing the starters!

Hayase Yuuka

Treasurer at Millennium Academy

Can solve complex calculations in her head

Wields two Sig MPX, called "Logic & Reason"

Falls victim to a rumor about her actually weighing 100kg (someone manipulated her health check data)

Easily flustered when caught off-guard

Tries to be no-nonsense, fails at times

Develops a crush on Sensei with time

Hanekawa Hasumi

Dear god her artist is cooking the finest chili in the land

Vice president of the Justice Task Force at Trinity Academy (note the angel theme)

Uses a 1914 Enfield rifle named "Impalement"

Very conscious about her weight (GEE I WONDER WHERE ITS GOING)

Also has a sweet tooth

Constant sufferer of her own diets

Competent at her job

Effortlessly gorgeous

Hinomiya Chinatsu

Member of the Prefect Team at Gehenna Academy

Healer and good at it

Very adorable when flustered

Most transparent crush on Sensei after Yuuka

Wields a M712 Mauser pistol called "Support Pointer"

Feels constantly overworked, relishes rest

Morizuki Suzumi

Member of Vigilante Club at trinity

Literally just tagged along because she wanted to help

Gun: SIG MCX Virtus Patrol "Safety"

Stern, but kind

Bad at socialising

Has a really big stockpile of flash grenades.

Now you may see the guns and think "well damn, that is surprising" and/or "these girls are gonna die?"

Well.

Once they step out to meet the thugs that Wakamo rallied for max destruction, Yuuka gets shot in the head...and complains that hollow point bullets hurt like hell.

That's right, just about every inhabitant of Kivotos is bulletproof.

Except Sensei.

Fucked, innit?

Anywho, Sensei decides to use the tablet to give tactical support to the four girls at the front, who actually succeed in subduing Wakamo...

Except not really, she ran off into the tower to look what she can wreck with bombs.

She sees Sensei.

"Come here often?"

She excuses herself and bolts, which brings up several questions. All of which are answered in the Valentine's event.

And by me here and now: this girl fell in love at first sight and promises to be a good girl for a crumb of affection by the, apparently, only adult in Kivotos!

And that's how Sensei establishes themselves, as well as the club called Schale they helm from then on.

End prologue, welcome to Blue Archive, please leave your common sense at the door

[last-ofthe-realones]

I need a place to yap ab my demon slayer ocs and I've chosen tumblr as my victim so get ready

Say hello to Kei Igarashi (born Kei Imamura) and Jun Igarashi. I'm gonna give a brief over view of their backstories as well as a few fun facts.

╔══ஓ๑♡๑ஓ══╗

Without spoiling too much, this story begins with Kei being adopted by her aunt when she was an infant. Unfortunately, Keis aunt was alone in raising her as her husband was murdered shortly beforehand. Her and Kei lived together on a rice farm in peace, where Kei displayed signs of having an unusually high Iq and agility. One evening Kei's mother (her aunt) left her to watch the farmhouse while she investigated claims of demons living on their farm in secret. Unfortunately for Kei this would be the last time she sees her mother.

Kei spent several days attempting to maintain the farm in vain as she's only 7 years old at this time. One night Kei was woken up to a demon standing over her, watching her sleep. After a short scuffle, Kei ended up burning her home to the ground but ultimately overpowered by the demon. Moments before she was consumed, she was saved by a mysterious man with a sword.

This man was Tarō Igarashi, a demon slayer. Out of pity Tarō took Kei to his home, the Igarashi mansion where she met his wife and child, Momoe and Jun. Little did the Igarashi family know, Kei was carrying a disease that cause Momoe to fall ill. Shortly after Kei's arrival, Momoe succumbed to her illness and passed.

Tarō was so overcome with grief and fury that he threw Kei out of the mansion die in the wild. Or at least that's how it should have gone if he hadn't found Kei in the courtyard the next day gripping onto a hairpin so hard her hands began dripping blood. Kei explained that she dropped the hairpin after Tarō kicked her out and she snuck back in to get it. Tarō was so impressed with Kei breaking into their impenetrable mansion that he decided not only to let her stay, but that he was going to train her to become a demon slayer along with Jun.

╚══ஓ๑♡๑ஓ══╝

So if you didn't guess already, Kei is going to be my main focus of the story. Dont worry though I will give my boy Jun some love I just need to flesh out his character more.

.⋅ ۵♡۵ ⋅. .⋅ ۵♡۵ ⋅.

SO! FACTS TIME(^.^)

Since Jun and Kei were taught by Tarō, they both use smoke breathing which derives from Flame breathing. However, both of them have very different fighting styles and utilize their breathing forms differently

Jun is transgender (ftm) and bisexual w a male preference. Kei is a lesbian (I'm projecting)

Both Jun and Kei fight w 2 weapons. Kei uses one normal sized sword and one that is almost sawed in half(its closer in size to a dagger). Jun fights w 2 swords but they can be combined to form one large one. No I cannot draw so I can't provide an example.

My story takes place during the events of the demon slayer anime but they won't have much interactions w Tanjiro (as of right now)

Jun is 27 years old during at this point in the story and Kei is 25

Jun and Kei will be able to speak on this page! Ik there's not a lot of ppl following me but if you ask a question directed to either of them, they will answer in character!

Kei will always write in Orange and sign off with a♡. Jun will write in blue and sign off with☆.

Dont be afraid we won't bite!

Speak for yourself.

Well I won't bite..

DAMN this post was longer than I thought it'd be sorry there's so much. Unfortunately this only scrapes the surface of what I have in store for them but luckily for everyone I'm inconsistent and will probably write their lore in lil drabbles.

[unreadpoppy]

Galatea's background

Because I reorganized some stuff I decided to finally write down Galatea's back story into a post. It's gonna be bullet points because I don't have energy for paragraphs right now.

BEFORE

Her father was human noble from Cormyr and her mother was a sun elf. Her family didn't approve of the marriage but they went with it anyways.

The couple struggled to conceive, after years of trying.

One of their servants over hears them talking about their struggles and offers help. She tells them to meet with this 'healer', promising that she'll have the solutions to their problems.

They meet with this 'healer' and she tells them of a ritual they could perform, a offering to some fertility god, and they'd be blessed with a child.

They do the ritual and she gets pregnant.

Baby is born and it's a tiefling. No one is happy. The baby is named Galatea. Of all family members, her grandmother (on mother's side) is the one who apparently hates her the most.

CHILDHOOD

Galatea doesn't have a lot of friends, and most of her family members seem to resent her. Her parents are slighlty less cold, but there's still this air of uneaseness to them.

To make herself feel less lonely, she starts playing with her imaginary friend, the Shadow Man.

The Shadow Man is literally a shadow in her room in the shape of large, horned man, who doesn't talk but plays with her by interacting with the objects in her room. She considers him her only friend.

When she's 10, her mother gets pregnant again, and this time, a beautiful half elf daughter is born, whom they named Briseidas.

Galatea gets very upset at all the attention that her younger sister is getting, and that's when she starts manifesting magic. At the same time, the Shadow Man begins to talk, encouraging her to use more of her magic.

Eventually tho, Galatea warms up to her sister and they do form a bond, becoming inseparable.

ADULTHOOD

Years had passed, and Galatea's grandmother was getting very agitated over the fact that she hadn't married yet. The main problem is the marriage proposals keep getting turned down by either Galatea herself, or possible suitors.

Also, the more that Galatea uses her sorcery powers, dark marks start to show up on her neck. She tried to cover it up with makeup but it didn't work. The Shadow Man tells her to not be ashamed.

Eventually her family sees this. They try to clean her, but seeing that it wasn't dirt or paint, her parents finally decide it's time to tell the truth.

They tell her grandmother about the ritual. Then, a research is conducted and they track down both the servant and the 'healer'.

They reveal that both of them were in service to a devil and the ritual the parents performed was actually a deal - they'd have a child, but that child would forever be marked by that devil and this is why Galatea was born a tiefling.

And yes, the shadow man is the devil .

After discovering this, her grandmother sends her away to a monastery that is in a very isolated island, so that she will no longer be a problem to the family.

While on the boat, due to her anger, Galatea's magic ends up causing an explosion of sorts (like a ball of energy) and everyone but her dies. She decides to then jump into the waters cause there's nothing else for her to do.

She gets found by a ship of wannabe-pirates and ends up travelling with them for awhile. Because of her powers over the elements, especially thunder and lightning, they nickname her 'Storm Witch.' Also, she gets into a brief relationship with the captain.

During that time, Galatea adopts the surname 'von DeWilde'.

Eventually, Briseidas, with the help of a cleric, sends her a sending message, telling her she now lives in Baldur's Gate with her husband and asking Galatea to go visit her.

Galatea starts living with her sister and brother in law. It's while living there that she gets tadpoles and the events of the game begin.

[plan-3-tmars]

okay i don't really know how to title this so im just gonna call it how Half tells the story of Kazui's marriage with Stages.

Half opens up with a green apple in the center of a stage, the spotlight illuminating it. The green apple in Kazui's MVs is tied to Kazui's sin. The apple being in the center of the stage before the 'performance' even begins could represent that this is Kazui's main motive for acting and lying, this is the reason for the show.

The Kazui of the present is in the audience of the play. Throughout the entirety of Half he is there watching the events leading up to Hinako's death with us. We are the audience watching the video but also the literal audience of this performance. I think this could represent Kazui reflecting on his actions and what he did throughout his marriage while in Milgram, or right before Milgram (which I'll get into at the end.)

It then cuts back to the stage, where we see the Kazui of the past walk onto the stage wearing a mask - the performance is about to begin. This is, I'm assuming, when he is freshly married. Sure he would've had to lie while they were engaged or simply partners but there's not so much at stake at that stage in a relationship rather then when he's married. Kazui is wearing a mask to cover up his sins with lies and now he is also acting, putting up the performance of a happy marriage for others so they wouldn't question his true motives for getting married or see the real him.

When we see flashbacks of Kazui during his marriage, we can see either stagelights or the background never filling up the entire screen. This also ties to the fact that, even when Kazui isn't wearing his mask, he is still acting and putting up the performance of being content in his marriage with Hinako. I've chosen this scene to showcase this because it shows both at the same time but this happens in the bar scene too.

In this scene Kazui is singing the chorus of Half while acting on stage. However, he is wearing his mask and doesn't show alot of emotain in his movements or expressions. This could be interpretated as the effects of hiding his true self that Kazui experiences, which can really be seen considering the fact that the lyrics and way his VA sings them is very intense and rich with emotain, compared to how Kazui's expression and movements are animated

In this same scene, there is a shot of an empty chair on stage alongside Kazui. This most likely referances Hinako's involvement in Kazui's 'performance', or lack thereof, as empty chairs usually represent the empty space of a person in art. This could be interpreted in different ways: Hinako isn't shown in the performance anymore because she's dead, Hinako isn't shown in the performance because she wasn't aware of it happening so her presence is replaced by a chair - etc.

This scene in Half is one of my favourites for a multitude of reasons, so let's point out the things that stand out first and then we'll delve into my understanding of their meaning. Firstly: Kazui isn't wearing a mask in this scene but he also isn't on the stage, which has more meaning considering the other times we saw Kazui without his mask, he was still on stage - still acting. Here his performance has fallen. Secondly: the green apple is atop the stage in between Kazui and Hinako. I've already established my previous interpretation of the apple on the stage at the very start, but I think its appearance here is in a different context. This is the scene where Kazui tells Hinako the truth, so his mask and performance has stopped because these are both tied to him hiding his true self and his lies. The apple being on the stage in the middle of the two of them could mean that this is the topic of conversation. It is illuminated because they are litteraly bringing to light the elephant in the room that has been putting a wedge in their relationship. The reason why it's still on the stage might be because Kazui is still hiding what his sin is from us, so in a way his sin is putting on its own performance - disguising itself as an apple.

After Kazui tells the truth, his performance is alot more emotional. His movements are more dramatic, and so are his expressions. He's not trying to hide his real feelings anymore, and after years of doing so, they come bursting out all at once. He is still acting and putting on a performance, so we can assume at this point in time Hinako is still alive and they are still married, but he's unmasked. He's no longer lying to her.

In this scene, Kazui takes what looks to be a final bow infront of the chair before walking off the stage. I think this scene shows Kazui's intentions when it came to telling the truth. He told Hinako the truth and expected them too get a divorce afterwards, so he walks off the stage - ending the performance (their marriage.) The bow to the chair could be interpreted in different ways: a goodbye, an apology etc.

However, despite what Kazui's actual intentions where when it came to telling Hinako the truth, they didn't happen. Kazui sees the apple shattered on the ground (Hinako's death) and goes back onto the stage. He starts his performance again, this time as a mourning widow, and starts lying again too. He puts back on the mask, scared of what might happen if he were to reveal the truth about himself to someone again.

Remember what I said at the start of this painfully long post about how this might be pre-Milgram Kazui watching his performance? Yeah, this is where that comes into play. There are things I had to leave out because of tumblr's 10 photo limit, but the main point is that this Kazui on stage at the end of Half and the Kazui in the audience are wearing the same outfit. I think this might be a case of Kazui reflecting on what happened in his marriage right after Hinako's death and pinpointing where he went 'wrong' (in this case, he deciphers that telling the truth was his mistake) and decides to start his performance all over again, careful to not repeat his mistake - vowing to never reveal his sin to anyone else.