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uvobreakmylegs · 4 years ago

Text

The Graveyard

Vampire!Hisoka

🎃~Happy Halloween~🎃

Warnings: violence, gore, kidnapping, threats of noncon

The Nostrade cemetery sat a few miles beyond your hometown of Milsy, tucked in between the trees of a vast forest that had stood there for ages. The cemetery itself had been there almost as long, and was consequently the subject of gossip and tales of the supernatural. Every child that was born in Milsy had it drilled into them at an early age that they were never to approach the old graveyard or the woods beyond it.

The older folk claimed it was a gateway to hell.

You had your doubts that there was anything out of the ordinary about the cemetery, however. The rumors circulated in your town calling the graveyard cursed and that all manner of creatures roamed around it at night, but exactly what kind of creatures changed depending on who you spoke to, though the most consistent one was stories of ghosts and other restless spirits who were trapped on the cursed spot of land. But asking questions on how it became cursed didn't get you much in the way of answers. Even the middle-aged women who had nothing better to do than gossip had little to say when you asked. The closest thing you had gotten resembling an explanation came from an old man at the retirement home who had told you that something 'unholy' had happened there, long before he was even born, and that since then, evil had been attracted to the place. His explanation shortly turned into a rant about how it was the cause of everything wrong in the town; from the mysterious illnesses that occasionally plagued the people living there, the claims wild beasts that roamed the forests that only ate human flesh, to the disappearances in the town where typically teens and sometimes children vanished without a trace.

One of the nurses at the retirement home had escorted you out after the old man's rant and asked that you not come back if you only intended on upsetting their patients.

It was hard to believe that a graveyard could be the cause of an occasional illness that went around, but you couldn't blame the man for thinking the disappearances were related to the area. All of the witnesses to the missing children saw them last near that cemetery. Same thing with the the teens. Anyone else who had gone missing just vanished one day with no warning. And based off of what you had heard, you suspected that they had the same interests as you in wanting to find out what made that graveyard so special.

Your family was aware of your curiosity and tried to keep you on a tight leash, keeping your days busy and trying to keep the thought of visiting the cemetery out of your mind. As hard as they had tried, you had still found your opportunity and slipped away. Maybe going to an abandoned, likely falling-apart graveyard probably wasn't the smartest thing you had ever done, but there were probably dumber things you could have done instead of that, and you swore to yourself that if you just went there once and just see the damn place, you could put the matter to rest in your own mind.

The sun was at its highest point in the sky as you entered through the rusted gateway, still a long way off from nightfall. Though you told yourself to not believe in such things, it gave you some comfort that it wasn't dark out. Every ghost and monster story you had ever heard always took place at night. If there was something otherworldly in the graveyard, it seemed unlikely that it would come out in the middle of the day.

All in all, you would say that you were underwhelmed. The abandoned Nostrade cemetery appeared to be just that: an abandoned cemetery. Within the confines of the stone walls, there were graves and headstones as far as you could see, with an occasional mausoleum that obscured parts of the vast graveyard. There were large portions that were overgrown as trees, bushes and other plant life covered the slabs of stone, turning the gray rock various shades of green. You approached one of the headstones, kneeling down to inspect it and see what had been carved into it. Unfortunately, all you could learn from that particular bit of rock was that it was old, as the weathered stone had been battered by time and the elements to the point that it was impossible to read anything off of it. As you made your way further into the cemetery, you found that to be true of all of the graves you came across. Though you had anticipated that to be the case, given that there was no one to take care of the place, you had hoped you could learn at least a little about the people who had been buried there. The most you were able to make out from a few was just the image of a skull with wings that adorned the tops of the headstones.

And as you went deeper still into the graveyard, no matter where you looked, there was still no sign of any ghost or ghoul that the people in town were convinced inhabited every corner of the ancient site.

Part of you told yourself that it was time to head back now. You had accomplished what you had come here for: you had seen the graveyard, and proved to yourself that the multitude of stories that were passed around were just stories told to scare children and keep them out. You could be content with knowing that there was nothing mystical about it and get on with your life.

But you didn't want to leave yet.

For whatever reason, you felt compelled to explore more of it, to see how far it went. The size of it confused you, as it was larger than you had expected, and you wondered how many generations of families were buried beneath your feet for so many graves to litter the area in the way they did.

'I'll leave after I see the back wall,' you told yourself. That way you would have explored at least a majority of the graveyard, as well as see if there was anything different at the back, maybe an ancient tool shed of some kind for the long-dead caretakers.

There was nothing of the sort when you saw that wall come into view. Walking around a crumbling mausoleum, your eyes scanned the wall and the foliage that covered it. There was quite a bit more plant life this side of the cemetery, the graves near the wall all but overtaken by vines and flowers you didn't recognize. A tall tree towards the back, and on closer inspection, you noticed that behind the tree a bit of the wall had collapsed, allowing you a view into the dense forest beyond the walls. Considering the amount of time that the cemetery had been standing here abandoned, it was a miracle that more parts of it weren't like that; that the majority of the structures within the walls were standing upright instead of crumbling and broken.

You glanced to your right, wondering if there were any more parts of the graveyard that were more dilapidated like the hole in the wall before you.

“And what might a little fruit like yourself be looking for in here?”

You jumped at the sound of a voice behind you, your heart racing as you turned around to see who had spoken.

A man sat behind the mausoleum you had passed by, sitting cross-legged on a raised stone casket. He was dressed strangely, with card symbols on the front and back of his shirt and black heels on his feet. His hair was a vibrant red, and when he glanced over to you, yellow eyes looked you over.

The two of you stared at each other for a moment. He then turned head towards you, smiling with his eyes closed.

“Well?” he asked, his tone cheerful.

“Uh.... Nothing, really?” you stuttered out, “I just wanted to look.”

“Ah, sightseeing, then?”

“I guess.”

He wore makeup as well, a star and a teardrop adorning his right and left cheeks respectively.

“And have the sights this cemetery has to offer been satisfactory to you?” he asked, turning his attention back to what was in front of him: a pyramid made out of playing cards. He held a card in each hand, carefully moving them to the top.

“For a cemetery, I guess it has,” you said, shrugging your shoulders.

He hummed, placing the last two cards on the pyramid and carefully pulling his hands away.

“You must have gone out of your way to come here, and yet you don't seem like you care much for this place. Why is that?” he asked, turning to look at you again.

“Everyone in town freaks out over this cemetery, saying that it's cursed. I wanted to see if that was true,” you answered, placing your hands on your hips as you looked around once more, “it seems like a normal graveyard to me.”

“Oh? So just because you don't see anything wrong with it means that it must be normal?”

“I mean, if it wasn't normal, would you be hanging out here?”

The man smiled and chuckled to himself.

“Fair enough,” he said. He then motioned to the spot before him.

“Sit with me.”

You huffed, but obliged as you walked towards him. While he definitely seemed strange, you didn't get any sort of feeling that he was dangerous. Just a harmless weirdo who hung out in graveyards playing with cards.

…. Saying that in your head like that didn't make it sound like he was harmless. But for now you decided to go along with it. If worse came to worse, you were certain you could outrun him.

“What's your name?” you asked as you pulled yourself up onto the casket, copying him in sitting with your legs crossed.

“Hisoka. And yours?”

You responded with your own name as you settled yourself. The old stone didn't make for a good seat, and you squirmed a bit as you tried to make yourself comfortable. Hisoka watched with amusement, his eyes taking in your form as you looked back to him.

“Would you like to try?” he asked, pointing to the tower of cards before him.

You shrugged.

“Okay.”

With a single finger, he knocked over the structure, sending the cards toppling down.

“I've never tried making one before, though,” you added.

“That's fine. I can show you. Watch,” Hisoka said, gathering the cards together.

He put the cards in a stack, and with a practiced ease, he passed them from one hand to the other in the same way a professional dealer would. He then set about making the base, setting up two cards together so they formed a small triangle. A second set of cards joined them, and then a third.

“.... So do you just come here to play around with cards?” you asked after the sixth card triangle had been placed.

“Sometimes,” he said, laying several cards over the ones he had set up, creating the base for the next row.

“Doesn't that get boring?”

“Not really. I've met many interesting people through my visits here.”

“Like who?”

Hisoka paused as he began setting up the next row, looking at you with a grin.

“..... Me?” you asked, an eyebrow raised.

He nodded at you, smiling.

“That's stupid,” you muttered.

“And why's that?”

“We just met and we're playing with cards. You can't call me an 'interesting person' just for that.”

“The fact that you're here at all is what interests me,” he said, placing another set of cards.

“You said that the people in your town dislike this place, and despite all you seemed to have heard you came here anyway. And it appears to have been all for your own satisfaction.”

He hummed to himself as he placed down another layer of cards on top, the second row complete.

“Does it not matter to you that people have gone missing around this area?” he asked.

“It's been over two years since someone last went missing, and they caught the guy who did it,” you said.

“Oh? They found out who took that young man?” Hisoka's eyebrows went up slightly.

“Yeah. It was some guy in the next town over. Serial killer, among other things.”

“And they confirmed that he was the one responsible?”

“Technically, no. But there's a lot of people who went missing while he was running lose, and he isn't telling the police where the bodies are. So it's a pretty good chance that he's the one who did it. It's not like there are any other suspects.”

“I see.”

Hisoka was smiling, and you swore he was holding back laughter.

“You think it's stupid that I came out here?” you stated more than asked.

“I would say that you're a bit more brave than the others in that town of yours. That, or you just have a poor sense of self-preservation,” he said. The third row was now done.

“Tell me, do you plan on telling people about your visit here?”

“If I did that my family would lock me in the house for a whole year,” you scoffed, “you said it yourself earlier; it's for my own satisfaction.”

Hisoka's smile had widened. To you, it seemed like it was slightly too wide. Like the edges of his mouth went further than they should have. You caught a flash of his teeth as well, and noted that something about them seemed off. Like they were somehow sharper than they should have been.

“That's rather selfish of you, isn't it?”

His words broke your train of thought.

“How so?” you asked. The last set of cards of the fourth row was being placed.

“You came here without telling anyone despite knowing that there's a possible danger. What would happen if you injured yourself and you couldn't get back? No one would know where you were, and in a worst case scenario, you could die before any search parties find you. If they were to find you at all.

“You really didn't think about anyone but yourself when you came out here, did you?”

“.... Well that's one way to make me feel guilty,” you mumbled, “but I don't plan on dying in a place like this,” you added with a bit more confidence.

“You'll survive through sheer force of will alone?” Hisoka prodded.

“Something like that,” you huffed.

Hisoka was chuckling again, looking back at you with amusement. He'd gotten to the fifth row of cards, leaving only the very top of it left. With the last two cards in hand, he repeated what you had seen him doing before and placed the cards at the top of the pyramid, pulling his hands away slowly and spreading his arms open with a slight flair.

“See? Easy,” he said.

“There's no way I can do that as fast as you can.”

“You'll never know unless you try.”

Just like before, he knocked over the tower with the tap of a finger, the cards fluttering down onto the stone below them. This time he made no move to collect them, and he leaned back on his palms as he looked at you expectantly. Taking the hint, you gathered up the cards, sticking them into a semi-neat pile before grabbing two and copying what you had seen him do.

Or you tried to, at least. It took you several tries before you could get the cards to stand upright, and when you grabbed two more, you accidentally brushed against the two you had just set up and sent them falling.

A beat of silence passed as both of you looked at your fallen cards.

“We're going to be here a while,” you mumbled.

“Fine by me. I didn't have any plans,” said Hisoka. It was like that smile never left his face.

Many more tries were made with similar results, and it didn't take long for you to become frustrated to the point that you were tempted to give up. But a look at Hisoka's face made you reconsider throwing in the towel. He was clearly enjoying your failures and how irritated you were becoming by them. He wanted you to give up. The smug look on his face pushed you to keep trying, unwilling to give him that satisfaction.

After a bit, you realized that you could cheat slightly with the first row. The surface of the stone casket you sat on was rough with many grooves and bumps that provided a bit of support that at least ensured that they wouldn't fall instantly. After some careful positioning you were finally able to get a row of six. If he disapproved of the tactic he didn't mention it. You copied what you had seen him do earlier, grabbing what would be the base of the second row and gently dropping them on top, holding your breath each time.

Neither of you had said anything during this time, and while he seemed content just to watch, the silence was starting to get to you.

“So have you been to Milsy?” you asked.

“Yes. I frequently find myself there,” he said.

“Do dress differently when you visit? I feel like I would have heard something about you before today. The older women there live off of gossip.”

Hisoka shook his head.

“I don't need a disguise, if that's what you're asking. I only let people see me if I want to be seen.”

“Hmm.”

The answer didn't tell you much of anything. You decided against asking what he meant by 'letting' people see him as he would likely only give you more cryptic replies.

You grabbed two cards, trying to place them as carefully as possible on top of the ones you had stacked so far to start the second row.

“So do you live near this area? In another town nearby, or are you some kind of hermit?”

“I'm a magician,” Hisoka said.

“Magician? So you do magic tricks?”

“Yes.”

“... Can you show me?”

“I could,” he drawled, tilting his head, “but it would be boring if I just did that for you without anything in return.”

Your eyes narrowed.

“What do you mean?”

“That we could make this a little more interesting! How about I'll show you a trick or two if you can successfully make a card tower?” he asked.

It sounded reasonable enough, so you nodded.

“Oka- Fuck!”

You weren't paying attention and had set the cards down too forcefully, causing the cards beneath to fall under the pressure.

“Ah, too bad!” Hisoka teased, “going to try again?”

“Of course,” you said, already gathering up the scattered cards.

Remembering your cheat, you were able to set up the base cards a little more quickly this time as you began the process again and built your way back up. Trying to rush through it ended with you being punished when your tower fell once again when you reached the same point as the last time. Hisoka continued to smile while you cursed and began again.

You tried asking more questions about him, but the answers you were getting stayed cryptic. Hisoka was born “somewhere” and had lived in the area for “a long time”. He had no friends or family but said that he had “acquaintances” that could “work in those roles” if he so needed. He also claimed that he had traveled quite a bit but wouldn't say where exactly, saying that you wouldn't know the places he was talking about.

“I'm starting to think you're trying to get me to leave, Hisoka,” you said, hissing as your tower fell for the umpteenth time.

“And why do you think that?”

“You've been doing everything to avoid actually giving me a straight answer to any of my questions.”

Beginning again, you glanced back up at him, not surprised to see that smile still on his face.

“You're not wrong,” he said, shrugging, “however, I think if I told you the truth you would still be upset.”

“Why?”

“Because you would still think I was lying.”

You sighed.

“You're impossible to deal with.”

“So I'm told.”

Setting up the bottom row of cards had become somewhat easier now, and by this point you had managed to make it up to the third row. A small breeze came through and you froze, hands going around the cards protectively as if you could shield them. Luckily, the cards stayed in place.

“I don't actually want you to give up and leave,” Hisoka said, leaning forward with his chin resting in his hand.

“After watching you for this long, I want nothing more than for you to succeed. I would hate it if you gave up now.”

“If you say so.”

You weren't at all trying to hide your tone, broadcasting that you still weren't convinced.

Hisoka sat quietly as he watched your tower grow once again, taking in your expression.

“How about along with a few tricks, I give you something good if you complete it?” he asked suddenly.

“I don't know. Do I actually want anything from you?”

“I think you might. Complete the house of cards, and I promise it'll be worth your while,” he said, “you just promise me that you won't give up.”

You sighed once again.

“I've wasted so much time now, I'm not letting that all be for nothing.”

“That's the spirit!” Hisoka encouraged.

With your focus on the cards that you continually built up over and over again, you didn't notice the way the sun slipped lower into the sky as time moved forward. Though sunset was still far away, certain lesser things within the cemetery and the surrounding woods were waking up and found themselves drawn to your scent, multiple sets of eyes peeking over and around the old stone to look at the human who had wandered in. You didn't notice any of them, nor did you notice the warning glances Hisoka sent to all of the beings that approached. The smile stayed on his face the whole time, daring them to try something.

No attempts were made on your life; they knew better.

“Is this going to be the one?” Hisoka asked.

“Shut up.”

Hisoka chuckled, amused at how hard you were concentrating. You had finally made it to the fifth layer of the pyramid, four cards leaning against each other at the top. You held a card horizontally above them, preparing to place it. If you got this one, then all you would need to worry about was the last two cards to finish it, and then you would finally be done with this and be able to laugh in Hisoka's face. You were aware of how stupid and petty this whole thing had become, but after all of that effort, you refused to let it be for nothing.

The card was in place and you pulled away, releasing a small sigh of relief when the cards stayed standing. Without taking your eyes off of the pyramid you grabbed the last two, ever so slowly bringing them up to face each other in what was now a well practiced motion. You positioned them on top, placing them so that the top edges leaned on each other to create the point, and slowly, slowly pulled your hands away, mirroring the way Hisoka had done it earlier.

“I did it,” you breathed, amazed with yourself. Despite how you had told yourself that you weren't going to leave before doing it, you hadn't actually been sure that you could pull off the trick, your original motivations of wanting to prove Hisoka wrong long forgotten. It was such a meaningless achievement and had taken more time to complete than it was worth, but you had done it, and you couldn't help the pride you felt when you looked up to Hisoka who was politely applauding for you.

“Very well done,” said Hisoka.

And with one flick of his index finger he sent the cards toppling down.

Your satisfaction turned to shock as you watched the result of all your effort fall back down to the rough surface of the stone. All that time you spent, and it only stood for a few measly seconds.

“..... I want to punch you.”

“Now now, don't be like that,” the magician laughed as he gathered up the cards, “you won, after all.”

You glared at him as he flashed you another smile, and you caught it again: something that was just off with his teeth.

“Now, I promised to show you some tricks, correct?”

His voice brought you back to what he was doing as he divided the stack into two, holding the stacks in both hands. He then brought his hands together with a clap. When he pulled them away, the cards were gone.

…... A sleight of hand. That was his trick.

“I'm going to punch you.”

“But it was a trick, like you asked for!” he gasped, feigning shock at your irritation.

You put your head in your hands. This time had been so thoroughly wasted on this asshole.

“If it really doesn't satisfy you, I can show you some others. But first! I'll keep my other promise.”

Lifting your head back up slightly to look through your fingers, you saw Hisoka as he hopped off the casket and extended a hand towards you.

“.... Something 'good'? Do you want to elaborate on what that is?” you asked.

“All in good time; I want to take you somewhere first.”

“Take me where?” you questioned as he continued to beckon you into taking his hand.

“It's a surprise~”

When you didn't reach out to take his hand, he gave you another grin - what was wrong with his teeth? - and grabbed you by your wrist.

His hand was large enough that it circled around your wrist completely, and his nails long and sharp enough that they lightly nicked your skin as he pulled you off of the stone and led you through the cemetery. Hisoka weaved through the headstones and plants while you trailed behind. Normally you would have protested someone grabbing you and leading you along like this, but you were caught off-guard by how cold his skin was. Like a person who had been left out in freezing temperatures, Hisoka's skin virtually sapped the heat away from yours in his iron grip. It didn't make sense given how mild the weather was at the moment, and the two of you had been out there for so long; how could his skin feel so cold when you were just fine?

“Hisoka, are you sick?”

He tilted his head back as he smiled at you.

“I've never felt better.”

The two of you made your way to the hole in the cemetery's wall, climbing up the exposed roots of the tree that stood in front of it before stepping over the crumbled rock and out into the vast expanse of the forest. He continued to lead you forward, dodging your questions of where he was taking you with the same claim of it being a “surprise” and that you would “find out soon”, while his faster pace required you to trot behind him while you tripped over the forest floor. His hand remained in place around your wrist, never letting you fall and pulling you closer to him when you began to fall too far behind.

It now dawned on you how much time you had spent out here. People in the town would have noticed your absence, and for those that knew you well, it wouldn't take much for them to figure out where you had gone. You were screwed, and the only thing you could do to try and make this better was to get back before sunset.

“Hisoka,” you tried, “I just realized I've been gone for too long. I really need to get back home.”

“Don't worry; I'll take you home.”

Worries about this man that you had pushed away earlier were now coming back, and you mentally berated yourself for even speaking to him. You should have left the instant you saw him. Instead you spent, what, hours with him? With a man who thought that fun was hanging out in graveyards and playing with cards over buried bodies. You had idiotically thought he was harmless, and now you were being dragged by this man through the woods, further and further away from the cemetery and any familiar landmarks that would lead you back home while you fought against the grip on your wrist that didn't budge in the slightest no matter how you pulled against it. Your pleas to know where you were going and for him to let go became increasingly desperate but appeared to fall onto deaf ears as Hisoka pressed onward.

“Hisoka, please stop and tell me what you're doing!” you yelled, exasperated.

To your surprise, he abruptly stopped in his tracks and you to almost ran into him. You took the chance to catch your breath, looking back up at the magician. He wasn't looking at you, still facing forward.

“.... Hisoka?”

A long, low moan sounded from the man, and he turned towards you as he ran a hand through his hair, tongue licking his lips and his eyes brimming with lust.

“Your little heart is beating so fast and it's making me so excited~” he breathed, pulling your wrist up to his face and nuzzling against it. A chill ran down your spine and you tried again to pull back your hand. But just as before he didn't budge.

“Let go of me,” you whispered.

“That would be a bad idea, little fruit. There are lots of things in this forest that would love to have a piece of you, but as long as you're with me, you're safe.”

“I don't feel safe.”

Hisoka smiled against your skin, his other hand reaching to grip the back of your head. All the while his eyes never left yours.

“Would you believe that you're the first person to ever finish making a card house for me? In all of the years I've been here, every other person gave up and tried to leave,” he said.

“.... I can't say I blame them. I should have given up, too,” you mumbled.

“That would have been very bad for you, dear,” he continued, his lips only a breath away from the skin of your wrist.

“And why's that?”

“Because I would have killed you.”

Despite the gravity of his words, Hisoka said them with a certain air of nonchalance, all while he kept your wrist up near his face, his thumb rubbing circles into your skin as his eyes gauged your reaction.

You didn't know what to say or how to react. The alarm bells in your head were blaring and you wanted to tear yourself away from his grip and escape this situation. But the longer you spent in his presence, a sick feeling rose within you that you wouldn't be getting away from this man.

“.... That's a sick joke, Hisoka.”

“I said earlier that if I told you the truth, you would think I was lying, didn't I? If I had been completely truthful, you would have been scared off and I would have needed to kill you. It's a little rule I made for myself,” he explained, “just killing anyone who wandered in became a bit boring, so I thought it would be more fun to give people a chance to save themselves by playing my game. But as I said, you're the only one who stuck through it. And I have to say, I couldn't be happier that the first person was you. Some of these people I simply-”

“Let go of me!”

Your yell interrupted his speech while you once again pulled against his hold on you, your other arm pushing against the one that held you by the head. His words sent a rush of adrenaline through you and you twisted and pulled to free your wrist while you kicked at him. He was insane, dangerous and if he wasn't going to kill you, you were willing to bet he was going to rape you just based off of the way he was looking you over.

“Did you not hear me? Right now you're safest with me,” said Hisoka, not at all bothered by your struggles.

“You wouldn't want to know what other kinds of things are around these parts.”

And with that he bit into your wrist.

You screamed as his teeth sunk into the flesh of your arm and broke through. Hitting and kicking at him, you felt him sucking out your blood, watching the way his throat moved as he swallowed it. He was drinking your blood. Actually drinking your blood.

Hisoka was unaffected by your attacks, ignoring the way you were beating at him in an attempt to get him off of you. In mere moments after he had bitten you, you began to feel dizzy, and when your free hand landed a soft blow to his head, it stayed there. He opened an eye, taking in your flushed appearance as the blood-loss – how had he taken so much so quickly? - began to get to you. The corners of the mouth that was still planted on your wrist turned upward as he sneered at you. He was enjoying your distress, and that realization had you seeing red.

In an action fueled by rage at being toyed with by this man, you moved the hand you had placed on his head-

And jammed your thumb into his eye socket.

Hisoka yelled out in a mixture of surprise and pain. He pulled away from your wrist as he staggered backwards.

You lifted a leg and kicked him, finally pulling away from him and turning to make a mad dash back to the cemetery. The adrenaline and the panic in your mind allowed you to not really think about what you had just done to him, only focusing on getting back to the cemetery and from there escape home. And after that, you swore you would never even think about this place again.

Dirt and leaves kicked up around you as you scrambled to get away from that man. You prayed that you would be able to find that entrance to the cemetery – whatever kind of freak Hisoka was, he wouldn't pursue you with a wounded eye, right?

You weren't sure if you tripped over a stray tree root or just simply lost your footing to sheer stupidity, but you stumbled as you ran and fell flat on your face, the speed at which you fell making you hit the ground hard. Your arms and legs flailed as you tried to push yourself back up and continue running, but the shakiness you were suddenly experiencing made it hard to control your limbs.

A heel slammed down on the base of your spine and you yelped as you were forced back down onto the ground. Struggling only made the heel dig in deeper and you screamed as the pain became too much, tears streaming down your face as you were forced into submission. Your whole body shook as you looked at the person standing over you: Hisoka, breathing hard, his eye shut and blood trailing down his cheek and ruining his make-up. Slowly, he brought a hand up to his bleeding eye, wiping the blood with a single finger. He inspected it, like it was something he had never seen before, never experienced. There was a wild look in his uninjured eye, and when he looked back at you he smiled, sharp bloody teeth on full display.

“You have a vicious streak in you,” he breathed, “ if you're willing to gouge out someone's eye just to get away from them.”

“You- you were drinking my blood, you freak,” you spat.

He groaned, licking up his own blood as he looked down at you.

“Darling, you're perfect.”

Suddenly his body was on top of yours, pressing down and holding you in place while he held your wrists above your head. His other hand roughly gripped your hair and pulled your head to the side. His teeth sunk into you again, this time into your neck.

Warm blood was dripping down your neck as he began to suck you dry. Your vision began spinning, and your limbs weren't moving like you wanted them to. When Hisoka pulled away the hand that held your wrists in favor of grabbing your waist, you could barely move them. Your strength was almost completely sapped and you whimpered, never imagining you would die like this.

Hisoka pulled off of you, licking up the blood he had missed before sitting up, virtually straddling you as he re-positioned himself.

“I needed to take a bit more since you injured me, and of course, now you're probably too weak for me to continue like I wanted to. Shame. I liked the idea of fucking you into the forest floor, but I really want you to be awake for it.”

With a good deal of effort, you glanced back up at him.

Two yellow eyes gazed back at you. Two, perfectly fine, yellow eyes that showed no sign of injury save for the lingering smear of blood on his cheek. The eye that you had shoved your thumb into had miraculously healed itself, and that wide smile formed once again when he saw your shock.

“I.... I.. M-my- how?”

“I just drank blood from your neck; you really can't figure it out?” Hisoka laughed, “you aren’t very bright, are you?”

He leaned back down, his nose nuzzling against your cheek. Hisoka sighed against your skin.

“I'm going to keep you like this for a while, let you live out a few more years as a human. You'll want for nothing, and I'll keep you safe. And eventually, I'll make you like me.”

'I don't want to be like you,' you wanted to scream, but you didn't have it in you to say anything. By now you were having a hard time keeping your eyes open. When he finally moved off of you, you made no move to run again. You physically couldn't.

He hauled you up by the back of your shirt, laughing as your head lolled back when he pressed your body against his.

Hisoka's hand on your jaw pulled you back, and his lips met yours in a sloppy kiss, tasting your own blood on his tongue as he shoved it into your slack mouth.

He pulled away, patting your cheek.

“Get some rest now. I expect a lot from you.”

You barely registered his words before unconsciousness finally overtook you.

With a satisfied hum, Hisoka slung you over his shoulder and began to make his journey back to his home deep within the forest. Licking the last of your blood off of his lips, he let out another satisfied sigh.

You were going to keep him entertained for a long time.

#yandere hunter x hunter #yandere #yandere x reader #Hisoka #hisoka x reader #hisoka morow #hisoka morow x reader #reader insert #yandere hxh #halloween #vampire #hxh hisoka

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davidmann95 · 4 years ago

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How about those JL storyboards?

In case you haven’t heard, Zack Snyder is putting on display the ‘storyboards’ - i.e. a rough plot summary accompanied by some Jim Lee sketches - for what would have been Justice League 2 and 3, or as this puts it 2 and ‘2A’. You can see them here (I imagine better-quality versions will soon be released), and read a transcript here. This is evidently a very early version: this was apparently pitched prior to the release of BvS and Justice League being rewritten in the wake of it, with numerous plot details that now don’t line up with what we know about the Snyder Cut, plus it outright mentions it builds on the originally planned versions of the Batman and Flash movies. But it’s a broad outline of what was gonna go down, and while I initially thought it was Snyder throwing in the towel, the timing - paired with the ambiguity left by the necessity for changes, including that this doesn’t factor whatever that “massive cliffhanger” at the end of the Cut is - says to me he’s hoping this’ll be a force multiplier behind efforts to will sequel/s into existence. He’s probably right.

I’ll be discussing spoilers below, but in short: with this Zack Snyder has finally lived up to Alan Moore, in that like Twilight of the Superheroes I wouldn’t believe this was real as opposed to a shockingly on-point parody if not for direct, irrefutable evidence.

Doing some rapid-fire bullet points for this baby to kick us off:

* Folks who know the subject say a lot of this is a yet further continuation of Snyder doing Arthuriana fanfic with the League reskinned over those major players, and I’ll take their word for it.

* I don’t know whether I love or hate that in Justice League 2 the Justice League are only an extant thing for the first scene, and then it’s Snyder giving everybody their own mini-movies. It’s compressing the entire MCU “loosely interconnected solo stories leading to a single big movie later” strategy into a single movie!

* Funniest line in the whole thing: "Even Lantern has heard of the Kryptonian, worried that he's under the control of Darkseid. He heard his spirit was unbreakable." Hal what fuckin' Superman movie did YOU watch? Second funniest being “IT WILL GIVE HIM POWER OVER ALL LIVING LIFE”

* 90% of the plot I have nothing to say about, it’s generic stage-setting crap. That to be clear is the ‘shocked it’s Snyder’ element, it feels so crassly commercial in a way I can’t believe is coming from the BvS guy.

* Most of what I have to say is unsurprisingly gonna be about a handful of characters but Cyborg’s happy ending being “he isn’t visibly disabled anymore!” is not great!

* The Goddess of War battle with Superman...never pays off? No clue why it’s there.

* What I’d originally heard was that the Codex in Superman’s blood was the last key to the Anti-Life Equation and that’s why Darkseid was coming to Earth. It’s not like all of this wouldn’t have already been averted by Kal-El’s pod smacking into an asteroid on the way to Earth so it’s not as if this makes it any more Superman’s fault, and it would have at least tied all this back to the beginning of the movies, but I suppose that was either fake or from a later draft.

* I have NO idea how this was reimagined without the ‘love triangle’, it’s the central character thing and the entire climax flows directly out of it!

* Darkseid’s kinda a chump in this, huh

Anonymous said: So: Does Zack Snyder hate Superman?

Look: the hilarity of this when Cuck Kent has been a go-to Snyder cult insult towards ‘inferior’ takes on Superman for years cannot be understated, yet at the same time I can almost wrap my brain around where Snyder’s coming from with that as the end for his take on the character. He talked in that Variety piece on how his interest in Superman is informed by having adopted children himself, and Deborah Snyder is the stepmother to his kids by previous relationships, so I can see where he’d be coming from, and I can even imagine how he’d see this as ‘rhyming’ in the sense of “the series begins with Kal-El being adopted by Earth, it ends with him adopting a child of Earth!” In the same way as MARTHA, I can envision how he would put these pieces together in his head thematically without registering or caring what the end result would actually look like. In this case, Superman raising the kid of the man who beat the shit out of him who Batman had with Clark’s wife, who earlier told Bruce she was staying with Clark because he ‘needed her’, suggesting if inadvertently that this really honest to god was a “she’s only staying with Superman out of pity, she really loved Batman more” thing.

But Clark is nothing in this. He’s sad and existential because of coming back from the dead I guess, then he’s corrupted, then time’s undone and he woo-rah rallies the collective armies of the world (interesting angle for the ‘anti-military/anti-establishment’ Superman he’s talked up as) as his big heroic moment in the finale, and then he stops being sad because he’s adopting a kid. So his big much-ballyhooed, extremely necessary five-movie character arc towards truly becoming Superman was:

Sad weird kid -> sad weird kid learns he’s an alien, is still weird and sad, maybe he shouldn’t save people because things could go really wrong? -> his dad is so convinced it could go wrong he lets himself die -> ????? -> Clark is saving people anyway -> learns his origin, gets an inspiring speech about being a bridge between worlds and a costume -> becomes superman (not Superman, that’s later) to save the world, albeit a very property-damagey version, rejects his heritage he just learned about and space dad’s bridge idea -> folks hate him being superman and that sucks though at least he’s got a girlfriend now -> things go so wrong he considers not being superman but his ghost dad reminds him shit always goes wrong so he should be good anyway, which sorta feels like it contradicts his previous advice -> immediate renewed goodness is out the window as he’s blackmailed into having to try and kill a dude but the dude happens to coincidentally have some things in common so they don’t kill each other after all -> big monster now but superman keeps supermaning at it because he loves his girlfriend and he dies -> he’s brought back, wears black which apparently means now he likes Krypton again? -> he has work friends now but he’s still sad because he was dead -> evil now! -> wait nevermind time travel -> rallies the troops -> his wife’s having a kid so he’s not sad anymore -> Superman! Who gives way to more Batman.

Do I think Zack Snyder is lying when he says he likes Superman? No. I think he sincerely finds much of the basic conceits and imagery engaging. But I don’t think he meaningfully gives shit about Clark as a character, just a vessel for Big Iconic Beats he wants to hit. Whereas while for instance he’s critical of Batman as an idea (at least up to a point), he’s much more passionately, directly enamored with him as a presence and personality. So while Superman may be the character whose ostensible myth cycle or arc or however it’s spun might be propelling a lot of events here, it’s a distant appreciation - of course the other guy takes over and subsumes him into his own narrative. Of course Batman is the savior, the past and the future (though if he’s supposed to be Batman’s kid raised by Superman there’s no excuse for him not to be Nightwing), the tragic martyr to our potential. Admittedly the implication here is also that Batman can apparently only REALLY with his whole heart be willing to sacrifice his life to save an innocent, for that matter apparently his great love, once said innocent is a receptacle for his Bat-brood, but he and Clark are both already irredeemable pieces of shit by the end of BvS so it’s not like this even registers by comparison.

Anonymous said: That “plan” Snyder had was utter dogshit. Picture proof that DC & WB hate Superman. Also I love how you’re like Jor-El: Every single idealistic take you had about Snyder, his fandom, and BvS was wrong. Snyder’s an edgy hack, his fanbase just wants to jerk off to their edgy self-insert Batgod as he screams FUCK while mowing people down with machine guns, and the idea that BvS said Superman was better than Bats was completely wrong. You know what comes next SuperMann: Either you die or I do.

In the final analysis, beyond that mother of god is there sure no conceivable excuse for the treatment of Lois in this? The temptation is to join that anon and say as I originally tweeted that these were “built entirely to disabuse every single redemptive reading of the previous work and any notion of these movies as nuanced, artistic, self-reflective, or meaningful”.

...

...yeah, okay, that’s mostly right. Zack Snyder’s vision really was the vision of an edgelord idiot with bad ideas who was never going to build up to anything that would reframe it all as a sensible whole. He’s a sincere edgelord genuinely trying really hard with his bad ideas who put some of them together quite cleverly! But they’re fucking bad and the endgame was never anything more than ramping up into smashing the action figures together as big as he could, the political overtones and moral sketchiness of BvS while trying to say something in that movie reverberated through the grand scheme of his pentalogy in no way beyond giving his boys a big sad pit to rise out of so when they kicked ass later it’d rule harder, and all the gods among men questions and horror and trappings were only that: trappings. Apparently he’s really pleasant and well-meaning in person, but at his core his art as embodied in a couple weeks in his 4-hour R-rated Justice League movie meant to be seen in black-and-white all comes down to that time he yelled at someone on Twitter that he couldn’t appreciate Snyder’s work because it’s for grown-ups. He made half-clever, occasionally exciting shit cape movies for a bunch of corny pseudo-intellectual douchebags, folks latching onto and justifying blockbusters that at least acknowledge how horrifying the world is right now even if the superheroes are basically useless in the face of it if not outright part of the problem until a convenient alien invasion shows up to justify them, and a handful of non-asshole smart people who vibe with it but...well. ‘Suckered’ is a harsh word, and definitely doesn’t apply to all of them re: what they’ve gotten out of it up to this point and would (somehow) get out of this. But it doesn’t apply to none of them, either.

#Justice League #Zack Snyder #Superman #Batman #DCEU #Opinion

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bookshopkat · 4 years ago

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Asian Fantasy Novels for the Lunar New Year

Photo by Thyla Jane

Happy Year of the Ox! The Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival, is a major celebration in many Asian countries. Marking the first new moon of the lunar calendar, this celebration lasts for days and is a time for family and friends, lantern festivals, dragon and lion dances, gifts of money, fireworks, and feasts. There’s something enchanting about the Lunar New Year, with its bright lanterns lining every street and its sparkling starbursts lighting the night sky. At its heart is tradition, cultural beliefs, and a mixture of mythology and magic. Simple charms are used to bring good luck and drive away evil. The supernatural has a firm place amid the celebrations, from shoe-stealing ghosts in South Korea to Vietnamese kitchen gods to the lion-like monster Nian in China. As such, this holiday presents a marvelous opportunity to both celebrate various Asian cultures and conjure a sense of wonder. So, to celebrate the Lunar New Year, here are four fantasy novels rooted in Asian culture and lore.

Jade City by Fonda Lee

On the island of Kekon, jade grants those with the ability to wield it special powers, but promises pain and death for anyone lacking the right genetics who tries to use it. As a result, jade smuggling is a profitable business and those families with the capacity to use the mineral, called Jade Bones, make up the highest class of society. But now ordinary citizens are somehow gaining the ability to use jade, and it is throwing the society of Kekon into turmoil. As suspicion fuels inter-clan warfare among the noble class, the future of the island nation hangs in the balance. In the midst of this chaos stands three siblings. Kaul Lan, the new, young, peace-loving leader of his family, finds himself faced with the uncomfortable necessity of bloodshed as he tries to steer his clan through these uncertain times. Lan’s brother, the hot-tempered and passionate Kaul Hilo, is like a warrior straight out of old tales: honorable, protective, and hungry for battle and glory. Their sister, Shae, is an independent modern woman who chose to cast aside her jade along with her traditional roles in favor of freedom and marriage to an outsider. Added to this cast of characters is Wen, Hilo’s forbidden lover, who is burdened by the combination of coming from a disgraced family and being a rare Stone Eye, a supposedly cursed person completely immune to jade. All four have their differences and disagreements, and the tension between them mirrors the growing strain in their homeland at large. It will take them all, however, to find out who is responsible for the dangerous drug allowing non-Jade Bones to wield the sacred stone before it is too late.

This is a novel that bridges high fantasy and urban fantasy, weaving a tale of heroism, betrayal, and intrigue against the backdrop of a thoroughly modernized enchanted society. Lee’s narrative is intricate and interesting, her world building is exceptional, and her magical system is comprehensive and intelligent. Running throughout the entire tale are elements of Chinese myth and culture, with folklore concerning gods and monsters playing a vital part. Complex, well-written, and engaging, Jade City is grand and unique fantasy adventure.

Tears of the Wind by Phung Lam

This collection of short stories is a touching as it is magical. Taking place on the fictional Island of Wishes, each tale explores human nature and the deepest desires people harbor in dark corners of their minds. From a lonely heart seeking solace to a soul hungry with ambition, this anthology explores the not only the power of wishes, but the question: what would people do if the one thing they truly wanted most could be theirs? It’s basically impossible to find an English version of this book, and I had to rely on the Smart Book translation application for the ebook format. That led to some odd phrasing in portions of the text, but the collection was nonetheless enjoyable. That is because Lam writes not only with imagination but also with a keen understanding of humanity.

The narratives are dreamlike, the content somewhat akin to magical realism and the tone ultimately surrealistic. Ranging from heartrending to horrifying, Lam weaves stories about the darkest parts of ourselves, when we harbor wishes we dare not name, as well as about the unforeseen and often terrible consequences of getting exactly what we think we want. The author explores the nature of love, the power of longing, and the baser side of our very nature. It’s an engaging collection that seems, and its core, to turn upon one basic thought: be careful what you wish for.

The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo

Set in late-nineteenth-century Malaya, on the island of Borneo, this novel sparkles with folk beliefs and superstitions. Li Lan is a spirited girl and only child from a family wrapped in what can only be called genteel poverty. Her life is certainly not perfect—her mother is dead, her father, although loving, has allowed his grief to lead to opium addiction, and her marriage prospects are extremely limited—but things aren’t so very bad. Apart from occasional longings for beautiful new clothing such as she sees other wealthier girls sporting, Li Lan would be reasonably content if it weren’t for one thing: her father has asked her if she would like become a ghost bride. He says it almost as a joke, but the moment he speaks the words, the wheels of fate start to turn. The rare tradition of ghost brides is meant to mollify the spirits of wealthy young men who died without marrying, and it presents both tempting and terrifying prospects. While accepting would mean financial help for her aging father as well as a place for Li Lan herself in one of Malacca city’s most affluent households, it would also mean giving up any dreams of love, passion, or children of her own.

Li Lan, of course, refuses, especially when she starts to develop feelings for another decided living man. But the choice may not be as easy as the thinks. She finds herself haunted by Lim Tiang Ching, her spectral suitor, and he is determined to have her. Tiang Ching, the young woman soon learns, was selfish and cruel when he was alive, and death hasn’t improved him. Desperate, Li Lan seeks the help of a local wise woman, and unwittingly finds herself embroiled in a supernatural struggle where ghosts are all too real and her only hope hangs on a mysterious young man who may be more than he seems, and who is most definitely keeping secrets. On top of that, she begins to realize that the Lim family is harboring some dark secrets of their own, and one of them may be deadly.

Choo’s narrative is imaginative as well as brimming with cultural folklore and traditions. A blend of mystery and fantasy, it is engaging from start to finish. Many of the characters are interesting and a little quirky, although a couple feel less well developed and there were a few moments when I felt the protagonist was a bit too flighty for my tastes. Nonetheless, this is a fun, entertaining fantasy book, perfect for an evening of light reading with a cup of tea or coffee at your side.

When You Trap a Tiger by Tae Keller

This is a truly wonderful novel blending together magical realism, mythology, family drama, and a deeply touching coming of age tale. It’s a beautifully written and imaginative narrative where opposites don’t so much collide as they do interweave in a complex dance. Dreams tangle with reality, childhood blurs with adolescence, Korean tradition intersects with modern America, folklore mingles with daily life, and stories become solid enough to touch. Through it all runs a profound understanding of emotion and the human spirit.

Lily has always loved visiting her Korean grandmother, catching stars to learn what stories they hold and listening to traditional tales from their ancestral homeland. This, however, is different. Now Lily, along with her mother and her sister, are moving in with the old woman because Lily’s grandmother is sick, and isn’t getting any better. A new city, a new school, and new fears about her beloved relative would all be difficult enough, but Lily has another problem: upon arriving, she sees a tiger straight out of one of her grandmother’s tales. This is both a metaphor for many things: words unsaid, terminal illness, fear, and long-ago mistakes. It is, however, also an introduction of the magical real. Upon informing her grandmother about the big cat, Lily begins unraveling the old woman’s greatest tale yet, and takes the first step in a personal journey to discover family secrets and leave her childhood behind. As marvelous as it is heartfelt, When You Trap a Tiger addresses conflicts between generations and cultures, as well as the reconciliation of the past, through the lens myths and storytelling. At its core, this is a novel about the power of both love and stories, as well as about one girl finding herself.

Perhaps one of these books will make an excellent companion over the next several days as celebrations of the Lunar New Year progress. Blending Asian folklore with a sense of the fantastic, these works may prove to be the perfect way for those not immersed in these festivities to still capture a bit of the season’s spirit. Readers hungry for an interesting narrative that is a little out of the ordinary will likely find any one of these to be a feast for the imagination, as well as a wonderful way to start of the Year of the Ox. Happy Reading!

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yooleestruck · 4 years ago

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in which lee rambles about how great writers are

I don’t really know what this is. I don’t know if now is the right time to do this, or a really bad time, or if it makes any sense, but I want to talk about it! I feel like a broken record saying ‘the writing matters most, the writing matters most’ but maybe I need to show what I mean by that? So, here is an attempt.

I’m sorry not all of these are the same length and not everyone is here, because every time I see that someone is a writer I do try to follow but I don’t always know/remember! Also I am weird about this sort of thing and don’t want to tag people in a monster-long post, so I’m just going to link. I also don’t want to make this a producers vs writers thing, it’s not, it’s just, when I say I notice writer-stuff, an explanation of what, specifically, I mean.

Writers have a style fingerprint. I’m sure someone with an actual creative writing or English background could describe it all academic-ly, but my ex-chemist ass is just going to call it a fingerprint.

My first game in Lovestruck was Starship Promise - I love Firefly, I’m a bisexual disaster scientist by education, it fit. But I had been REALLY put off by GIL when it first came out (this was back when they released stories in parts? And the heroine, which I will get to) and though I’d glanced at AFK, I mistrusted it after GIL and Medusa, who was who I was interested in, wasn’t out yet. So I resisted a LONG time. I finally picked up LS and SP and played it explicitly because a friend said, you need to give this another chance, for a list of specific reasons.

And when Atlas’s route came out, I read it a stupid number of times. I must have re-read his season 1 & 2 at least eight times apiece (he is still my most read route, despite the fact I have not read his last season because I want to leave the story open-ended) so when I read Neil Dresner’s route, I recognized the fingerprint. Not only that, when I was reading Jett and the episodes with the paint scene (YOU KNOW THE SCENE) came out, my breath caught with how lovely it was, a particular in-between moment and touch, and even though it wasn’t a phrase I had seen, the style of it, had me re-reading (because it was gorgeous) again and again from the log for like five minutes and I thought, “I bet Melissa wrote this” AND SHE DID.

Physical touch! (& in-betweens)

Melissa-grey has a particular way of writing about physical touch in very emotional moments that is very real and grounded and ironically the effect is just magical. It creates these so skillful “in between” moments, those little things that aren’t dialogue and aren’t metaphor but SHOW you that this closed off person is cracking for their little ray of sunshine. They are SO subtle and so beautiful, like, the heroine noticing the scent of a pillow, or a softening of an aborted hand movement. She sets up and executes these moments of physical touch as a conduit for emotional touch with characters who aren’t ready to admit he latter and it’s DELICIOUS. Those little in-betweens are what I live for in story - and it includes all the supporting cast moments, who swell up to make the world feel lived in, and balanced (I loathe love stories where no one else exists! That’s a recipe for disaster, people need networks) I noticed when she stopped writing, and because I missed it, I went and bought the entire Midnight Girl series, as well as Rated (I hope that is flattering and not creepy!) and that style of writing is so unique, that without KNOWING, I picked it up in four separate routes (noticed in Sev’s s1, too!)

Pacing (& friggen heartache)

Another fingerprint! Ripping your heart out! Arthoure has had me in tears, MULTIPLE TIMES and I get very grouchy about it every time because I am the least sentimental and romantic person that I know (I once MOVED STATES to avoid an ‘I love you’ conversation. I once said ‘yikes’ in response to an ‘I love you’ and I once broke up with someone because I thought he was going to propose. I’m a bitch) but I think it’s because of pacing! I know that producers play a role in that, but that actually makes it more impressive, because making each bit of story feel like it fits precisely the amount of space it needs when you don’t really get a say in how much space that is has got to take a MASSIVE amount of effort. Every little hint, every emotional beat, every character tell, they drop at a consistent build so the emotional payoff is just brutal (in a good, cathartic way?) every time a route makes me cry I wait and see and YEAH ITS ALWAYS ARTHOURE. The sweep and sentiment of Remy’s season 2 is unparalleled. Across Time is gutwrenching, and I actually stopped reading Renzei at one point because I was so emotional over it I had to like, LEGIT TAKE A BREAK to recover. Pacing and heartache. I have to stop and wonder - is it because the routes themselves are so gut-punching? OR is it because she knows how to wring every last emotional drop out of whatever story framework is handed to her? Because, Ezekiel’s villain costume is a bit silly (there I said it, it is) I get the cobra helmet shape in theory but in practice, ooof, but POINT BEING despite being skeptical I’d be able to take his story seriously as a result, I was hiccuping from crying so much (and I am gosh darn adult, in my thirties, with three degrees and a high-stress job at pretty major company. I DON’T CRY EASY)

Dialogue (& heroines!)

Xekstrin is the gosh damn master of dialogue. Clever, witty banter that doesn’t go where you expect it to, meandering but natural topic changes that are delightful to follow and feel real, and--special shoutout for this, okay--the navigation of viscerally important topics like consent, kink, self-worth, power in relationships, self-sacrifice, and apologies in a way that is not stilted or forced at all (listen, I know Viv & Lyris are the most recent and they are amazing but I remember this first hit me when I was reading Astraeus, and I spent half the route with my jaw on the floor going, oh shit, oh shit. The communication! The navigation of the complexity of emotion going on, chef’s kiss! Casual isn’t the right word, but, natural, maybe?). I don’t actually take that many screenshots of the app--it’s usually single lines that get me--but when I do, they are almost always conversations from one of her routes, because they’re so damn good, and often so unexpected, and yet always make such perfect sense for the characters involved. Dialogue is SO HARD OKAY. Actually try and transcribe a conversation sometime, it’s nuts how people talk vs how most people write people talking. Xekstrin also writes some of my absolute favorite MCs, and going back to fingerprints, I was reading Lyris s1 and right there in the first tavern scene, as we were following along with the heroine’s thoughts I went, ah, yes, I know who you belong to and I am SO EXCITED. Being able to give the heroine unique thoughts and quirks, to make her genuinely relatable, without overriding the necessary template of the genre dictates, is a skill all of its own. But I love her MCs! There is a beautiful balance of compassion, competence, and dash of bratty, wild, fun mischief. I can actually cheer for them. I can actually get behind them. I WANT the love interest to flop at their feet for who they are, not just because the story says so. And that comes from how the heroine’s thoughts are written, from her phrasing in conversations, how she sees situations, not just a producer saying ‘she is a strong lead who is self conscious about her ears and she’s nervous in the council meeting’ or whatever. I AM REALLY STRUGGLING to articulate this if you can’t tell from how long I have been blathering. Maybe this - the heroine is the same across every route, presumably, yes? Everyone has the same base. I NEVER question, when xekstrin is writing, why the love interest falls in love with her. Side note - I had hard written off GIL after a bad experience with the standalone app. I only read Aurora BECAUSE I learned she wrote it, and I would have SO MISSED OUT otherwise.

A complete aside in which Lee grumbles about heroines and not writers!

(Complete side vent: Often, the heroine is, if not a blank slate, a sort of collection of assigned traits, and she often remains so unless the story demands she become otherwise. Which is fine! I don’t personally, but I know a lot of folks self-insert, and so erring towards that makes sense. Almost all the otome I’ve played were originally written for a Japanese audience. When I played original Voltage games, starting back in 2014, I always had to remind myself - different culture, different culture, different culture, and it was not possible for me to relate to most of the heroines. I still enjoyed the stories, but I rarely cheered for the heroine’s romance, especially in some of the slice of life stories. I understood her, but I rarely wanted her to get with the love interest, I wanted her success to come in other ways! Another game company, Cybird, tried to ‘Americanize’ their heroine to IMO disastrous effect - it was such a stereotype, and made no sense since they didn’t also Americanize the context, so she come across as, frankly, ridiculous. And frankly, Voltage’s GIL heroine REEKED OF THAT. When they first posted her on social media I was legitimately annoyed about it, like could you lean into this more? I think not. So when I talk about being able to relate to and cheer for the heroine, it’s a big deal, because my blatant mistrust of Voltage and their ability to craft a heroine I could tolerate was a BIG factor in how long it took me to give Lovestruck a try. I was willing to tolerate it in translated stories, I was so skeptical of -en only ones.)

Metaphors (& balance)

literacouture writes beautiful metaphors for connection between humans! I’m really bad at keeping track of who writes what, but I purposefully kept an eye out on tumblr after reading Cal’s route, because there were some lines that were pure poetry, and I wanted to keep an eye out for more. It is HARD to spin metaphors prettily without delving into trite, painful, purple prose cringe territory, and it’s navigated beautifully in Cal’s route. There’s a balance between those spin-out moments and things that are tangible and anchoring and make it feel authentic and unique to the two characters involved, instead of just ‘I am trying to make this sound romantic and this is a romantic phrase so here it is’. That balance is really necessary. You NEED the mundane alongside the metaphor or it doesn’t feel authentic. Also. Trying really hard to write this without throwing any authors or producers under the bus, but...listen. I love Sin with Me. But the world logic (or LACK THEREOF) drives me up a wall. I don’t read Cal because of his character traits or sprite or (sigh) his story. I read him because literacouture writes a beautiful romance.

So anyway...

There are more! When I am less tired and don’t have meetings, I will try and write them up (Please know there are so many routes I love, and so many things I do recognize across chapters! I don’t even HAVE words for what theivorytowercrumbles accomplished with Helena’s story not to mention how much I adore Cyprin, SummerLightning’s handling of Onyx’s past relationship was so deftly done when it could have so quickly become ‘milk abuse for plot’ and joidecombat gave Sev a fresh, mischievous energy and navigated the dream/reality line with SUCH skill, and so on and so on.)

I’ve written a lot of reviews. And I try to give nods where I feel they’re due - sometimes, it really is obvious that the whole team’s work came together to makes something great, the world, the plot, the arc, the art, the words, and the music all fit into place in a well-crafted tour de force. And sometimes one piece or another is lacking, and I’ll admit I’ve left some...less than kind reviews to that end (I try and soften it, because I know there are humans on the other side of everything, but I’ve been harsh more than once with my opinions). I’ve read routes with plots that made me want to tear my hair out because I DO value consistency and logic to a degree, even if I’m going to accept at face value that, say, space travel is a thing or demons turn to sand when stabbed.

In the end, these are romance stories. So I will let a lot slide when it comes to plot. What sells a story are the words - not the outline.

And if Voltage doesn’t believe that - just remember that Hamlet existed long, long before Shakespeare wrote it. His was the version that lasted, because the people liked it best. The plot, the world, the characters, they all existed a hundred times over. Even just look at fan translations of manga. Why do people keep translating, even if someone else has? Because the words someone else picked don’t do the story justice.

I don’t know. I’m talking in circles because I don’t know my own thesis!

Maybe it’s just - the worlds these stories in are nice. But when I say I’m a fan of something, the premise is like. 10%. The rest is the writing.

#lovestruck #lovestruck voltage #lovestruck writers appreciation week #this isn't exactly one of the prompts #but #it's in the spirit of it #brevity may be the soul of wit #but that just means I'm not very witty I suppose #this is not a complaining post #except for maybe one section where I go off on heroines COUGH #but it's flagged

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ksmutclub · 4 years ago

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Let’s take a step...

Good Evening Everyone. Admin Tomi here.

I think we’ve reached the need for a full stop.

There’s going to be a lot here - please hang with me. I ask that you read this thoroughly, because I would like to have this be the cease fire for the current situation.

Firstly,

We are deeply sorry for any hurt, pain, trigger, or traumatic essence that has arisen in the midst of viewing the Monster Smash prompt list.

These prompts are based on popular horror movies and books. Things that we easily associate with Horror via authors like James Patterson and Stephen King [which a good chunk of these prompts come from]. So to us, and a majority of the voters/members, who wanted it to return? There was no issue.

The club rules *specifically* state that we do not allow the following

WHAT WE DON’T REBLOG

Sexualization of minors,

Incest,

Eating disorders,

Self harm,

Glorification of mental illnesses,

Animal abuse,

Any controversial topics,

Political topics,

Masterlists,

WIPs posts,

Domestic violence,

Abusive relationships,

Pedophilia,

Necrophilia,

Homophobic topics,

Racist topics.

Rape.

That has been the long standing no-no’s of this club since its inception. We didn’t understand why the anons, and few members that came forward, would think that we would:

A - allow any story that breaks the rules to pass through. B - that any of the writers/creators/esteemed members of this club would dip down to those levels to create material that does exactly what we ask not to be done.

We’re all adults, and trust that everyone knows right from wrong, and understands the ramifications of such issues.

We in no way intended to cause trauma, downplay anyone’s trauma, or ‘insult’ anyone with mental health issues.

But.

We cannot stop creators from writing things that may include dark topics.

We believe in the portent of trigger warnings required on each story. Because what could be a trigger for you? Could be a cathartic release for someone writing from a similar experience, or someone with an interest in said experiences.

We trust and believe in you all to believe in self-care. Meaning that if someone happens to post a yandere story with a trigger warning for blood? That you would move to the next story. We believe that every reader and creator are the masters of their Tumblr experience and will act in accordance with the safety of their well-being and mental health in consideration.

With that all being said? The h***ler prompt was missed/misstep. Again, we profusely apologize for that one making the list. There is no excuse, I will attempt to offer none. The K Smut Club Admins will do better to be more mindful/careful/watchful of such things in the future.

Now, a point was made during the back and forth of the evening. That one message cleared most of the confusion. A trigger warning on the prompt list. Which in hindsight, may or may not have made a difference. But, it would at least show that we DID hear you about the certain prompts [esp. the h**ler one, cause that should've never gone up. So we thank that member for catching it].

So going forward, since this has been a lesson, we will make sure to trigger warning as best we can for the next Monster Smash event. As a reminder, the prompts are purely voluntary to serve as an example of what you could possibly write. None of these were mandatory, or necessary to participate in the event.

Again, with any event the idea of your story and where it goes is always up to you, the creator.

To the matter of the prompt examples list?

We can all agree to disagree. Everyone perceives things differently. Again, we trust you all to be mindful of the rules and not write anything that would be considered illegal. For example:

A brother and sister find an old door in their basement that wasn’t there before.

Hansel and Gretel; or Brother and Sister monster hunters, sister gets kidnapped by demon that’s been lusting over Brother. Or in secret relationship with brother - sister is kidnapped with ultimatum to come on over to the bad side or they’ll make the sister disappear. So, no incest.

The abused animals of a zoo are unleashed and wreak havoc on a small town.

Based on James Patterson’s Book ‘Zoo’[and there was a miniseries]. Animals of the world suddenly developed a genetic abnormality that caused them to rise up and try to take the planet back. Believe it or not? There was romance/sex involved in the people trying to save the animals, the world, and themselves. One of the scientists fell for a reporter as they worked together for a cure. The story written could have the two people getting together and that amount of care they have for solving the menace - solves it. So, no abused animals.

Deceased soldiers return to their Civil War-era homes.

Based on multiple episodes of the Twilight Zone or the Outer Limits. People that may have died with strong regrets and the people who miss them terribly are given an opportunity to come back for one day. Fully alive, flesh and blood, breathing living - to spend one day with each other to help them move on. Also the movie Warm Bodies where a zombie regains his humanity, and undoes the curse of the undead by falling in love, of all things. The ‘zombie’ fully regains his humanity, living breathing, and bleeding - there’s even a kiss. So, no necrophilia.

A monster is terrified by the scary child who lives above his bed.

Based on Monsters Inc. and I’ve seen some Monster Inc Kpop fic smut out there, so it’s absolutely possible to have a single parent cleaning a kids room and shenanigans ensue, or not, and just be a super crack horror fic.

A family dog runs away from home. He returns a year later to the delight of his family. But there’s something different about him. Something demonic.

Based on Pet Sematary, Stephen King classic. Synopsis could be that parents lost a family pet, trying for a child, pet returns, horror ensues.

A child sleep-walks into their parent’s room and whispers, “I’m sorry. The devil told me to.”

Based on Case 39. A movie where the kid was a literally a demon posing as a child, and manipulated everyone around her and caused a bunch of deaths/mishaps.

I’ve made these few scant examples to prove there was no ill, illegal, or sick intent with the prompts posted. Each of them can be connected to a movie, book, or television series that many are familiar with.

Even though the rules state smut is required, where the smut happens within prompt depends on the story. But, wherever it should so appear would be required, of course, to act within the bounds of the clubs rules.

Because we trust you, the creators, to abide by them.

In closing,

Everybody has had different experiences in their lives. We are not going to pit pain against pain. No one’s pain is greater. Pain is pain and we all have suffered it, or will at some point. We must do what we need to in order to protect ourselves from things that hurt or trigger us.

I believe every network feels this sentiment and uses the trigger warning requirement in order to protect their readers from consuming content which would hurt them, while allowing the creator the opportunity to explore and create in the medium they see fit.

We are all humans trying to navigate a difficult time. We all have our ways to deal with these traumatic and painful happenings in our lives. We either talk about it with our peers who have the same experience, write to forge a path forward to some sort of healing in our own way- or we simply remove that reminder from our sphere of existence.

We will do the best in our capacity, in this network to create a space for both the reader and the creator to do what is best for them, while following all legal statutes set forth by Tumblr and the laws of the US where it is based.

If there are any club members that have issues with any of the prompts - we ask that you please DM the admin staff off anon, so that we can get an accurate count of the individuals that take offense.

There will be no bashing, no repercussions, or public shaming.

We want to make sure that the people in our network have a say in what happens within the club events. Just because we can see the story in the prompts, doesn’t mean everyone can. We would be happy to discuss the prompt or prompts in question, with examples or sources to assuage any fears that you have.

For those who were hurt, disturbed, disappointed, or felt the negativity wrought by this?

We again, humbly apologize that you have. We hope that we can move forward with the event and the growth of the club with your blessings and participation.

Sincerely, The Admin Team

P.S. - Death threats, threats of any kind are not ok. We’re all adults here. If you disagree then your blog is the space to do it. Stay out of folks DMs with that bullshit because you disagree - that goes for anybody that has spoken out disagreeing with the club and anyone outside toward the members within the club. We have differing opinions they should be respected. No one should be victimized any further than already experienced.

#announcements #monster smash 2020 #ksmutclub

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zachsgamejournal · 4 years ago

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PLAYING: Resident Evil 7

I know I'm about 3 years late to the party, but I was hesitant to trust that Capcom could get back in touch with their Survival Horror roots.

My very regrettable mistake...

So: Resident Evil for PS1/Saturn was great!

Cinematic Storytelling: The game could be completed in under 2 hours (if you knew what you were doing). So that means you're not spending days to get through a feature-film level story (unlike SOME games). It makes the plot and characters a more crucial part of the experience.

Puzzles: Sure, the puzzles are little wacky: like clicking buttons under pictures in chronological order or you get attacked by well-trained zombie birds. But it made the game more than moving from point-a-to-b. It's about exploring and understanding your environment. Speaking of which...

The Environment: The Mansion (and it's other areas) was a character unto itself. It had secrets and a past. And since the game wasn't designed as a series of sequential levels, you really get to know the environment.

Zombies: Zombies were not the mainstream success they are now. Hell, Vampires were just barely getting attention through Interview the Vampire. I became obsessed with zombies and bought all 3 major films in existence.

Such a different time...

Anyway, the point, RE1 was great, RE2 was better, RE: Code Veronica was pretty good, and RE4 is stupid.

Well...not stupid, but it completely changed Resident Evil, and not for the better. While folks loved RE4, it really was the start of a new franchise, which RE5 and RE6 followed. And that's fine--except they sacrificed what Resident Evil was to make way for this new product.

Succinct, mystery-driven storytelling was replaced with nonsensical twist and turns that did little to grow the overall world or its characters. They just stretched contrived cliffhangers across overlong campaigns of mass murder.

Puzzles, as best i can remember, were sacrificed for challenge rooms filled with enemies while the player looked for the exit switch.

The environment, as great as the graphics were, simply became battle zones meant to offer shallow context to the bloodbath gameplay. RE4 did have a strong aesthetic, but you don't get to know each room and hall like you do in the classics. Nothing but well-dressed strangers to high-five as you pass by.

And what happened to the Zombies. I mean, they still had zombies--but they weren't zombies. Whatever. Resident Evil has always had a diverse set of monsters. They didn't have to sacrifice zombies...

All this to say, Resident Evil 7 is awesome!

The opening was a little cheesy with poorly synced dialog and a helicopter shot of Louisiana swampland I'm sure they stole from True Detective stock footage.

But once I took over the character, I was hooked. The game looks great on my phone and TV via Stadia. I enjoyed walking through the woods and house, looking at every little detail the artists meticulously placed.

I've seen most of a playthrough on Youtube (though I was distracted). So I kind of knew what to expect. It's way more intense when you play. Having dialog and cutscenes playout without leaving the first person camera is great at making you feel "there". So all that goes down and I end up in the house for dinner.

Watching this bit on YouTube, I was a little turned off by the obvious Chainsaw Massacre connections: but original RE was heavily influenced by horror films, why not this? (I also have a better understanding of this family cause I know some things.)

Once I gained control, roaming around the kitchen/dining/living room area was great. I was seeing hints to future puzzles, scavenging for supplies, and finding notes giving clues to events that were happening. Very Resident Evil.

I struggled a bit trying to get away from Jack. Since they gave me a hiding spot, I assumed stealth was gonna be a major component. Nope. Not really. Eventually I get to the save room (A SAVE ROOM!!) and then on to the garage fight.

I wasted all my ammo when I probably just needed to grab the car keys. Lesson learned. Jack trying to run me over was kind of crazy, and maybe a little laughable since I was just swiping at him with a pocket knife for five minutes.

After that, more of the house opens up. It's insanely huge and illogically designed. While it creates some great hallways, and helps the designers break the home up into controllable sections: there's no house build like this: wtf...

Going into the basement reminded me of RE2. The molded, I think, are people the family has kidnapped and infected with something. Some change and some don't. Know they've turned into very lethal zombie-esque creatures. Since they're infected people stumbling about, I'm gonna say they've rekindled the zombie. Kinda.

To fight these guys, I've resorted to my pocket knife. Saves ammo. I basically dance around them like I did guards in Thief, wacking where I can. Eventually I chop off their hands, often without taking damage. But the crab guy in the incinerator required a shotgun blast.

One of the fights, he cut off my leg and I was crawling around. I thought it was a scripted scene (I mean, I lost my arm already). Nope. You're supposed to pick it up and reattach it. Ah-well.

Jack wandering around the new area was frustrating. It seemed I could never lose him, so wasted a lot of health and ammo stunning him. His boss fight was pretty rough. I nearly gave up. It took some time getting used to the chainsaw. Right as I was about to switch to easy, I had a near perfect run and defeated him. My wife laughed at the way I was squirming on the couch trying to get a hit in without being cut in half!

Made it to the old house with the bugs. This went way faster. It reminded me of the guard house from RE1, which also had giant wasps. Without Jack or molded zombies, it was actually really easy to explore the house and solve its secrets. Once the old lady showed up, I thought I could lure her away from the exit room. She didn't buy it, so I just ran past her.

When it came to her boss fight, it reminded me a lot of Laughing Octopus in Metal Gear Solid. Which that boss was practically a horror movie in of itself. I thought the flame thrower was gonna be the way to go, but a guide suggested focusing on her belly. And I kept running out of fuel, then being harassed by flies. So I opted for the shotgun and had a successful run.

About a year and a half ago, I played through the original RE as Chris. I remember there was a point about a third of the way through that I had about seven rounds of pistol ammo, and a single green herb--yet several zombies stood in my way. I wasn't sure I was going to make it. But then, I unlocked the shotgun and the game became a breeze. Suddenly I had too much ammo, and too many healing items!

That has kind of happened here. I'm doing well on healing items (though I've used up my shotgun). Still, I feel confident sprinting around and doing quick searches of spaces. I don't even fight the molded much anymore.

Getting into Zoe's trailer was interesting, but you can interact with her bra. I thought that was kind of pervy. I'm guessing Zoe is a part of the family? I imagine she's some how the source.

I think it's great they keep putting the grandma in different places without explanation. The way she looks at you sometimes is creepy...

I'm not a huge fan of the VHS flashbacks. Often, they have you play areas you've either already played or will play. While it's inspired some game ideas of my own, it just feels like a cheap gimmick to get more playtime.

Anyway, this really does feel like a reboot of Resident Evil. It's capturing the strong environmental storytelling of the originals, and making it more about the horror, less about the action. I'm actually getting into the plot and mystery. I look forward to getting my answers.

#Zach's Game Journal #PLAYING #Resident Evil 7 #Stadia

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jeremys-blogs · 4 years ago

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OTGW: What is the Unknown?

Though I've always had a love of the aesthetic of Halloween, the ghosts, the pumpkins and all that stuff, I'll fully admit that I've never really had that many Halloween traditions, at least not to the degree that I would for a time like Christmas. When this spookiest time of year creeps along, it's usually just me watching a few old favourites that seem appropriate for it, like the Halloween Tree or Scooby Doo on Zombie Island. But a few years ago, I stumbled on a little gem on Cartoon Network that has since become an absolute must for the month of October. The 2014 ten-episode miniseries, Over the Garden Wall. This show has rightfully gained a great deal of critical acclaim since it first came out, being regarded as one of the best shows Cartoon Network ever put out, which is saying something. The strange journey of Wirt and his brother Greg through the mysterious world of the Unknown as they attempt to find their way home was creepy and engaging in a way that few kids' shows were, and make no mistake, I loved every single bit of it. But while I could gush about it all day, what I truly wish to discuss about it is the question of its central locale. What, exactly, is the Unknown itself?

You see, from the moment I first watched this show, its main setting has always fascinated me. This bizarre other world where magic and monsters exist, yet contains far too many elements of the ordinary and the mundane to be as fantastic as other fictional worlds I've seen. A place where young girls can be controlled by mystical bells, yet also had old-timey schools run by seemingly-ordinary teachers. It's a weird one to be sure, and a lot of the show's feel can be attributed to the sheer mystery of the Unknown itself. Now, I am by no means the first person to speculate on what this place really is, and indeed you'll find that the show in general has been picked apart by numerous others over the years. So don't be surprised if you see ideas here that have been discussed in greater detail elsewhere. But while I fully acknowledge that the nature of the Unknown isn't really what the show is about, nor does it ever try to give any definitive answers about it, there are at least enough things in the story to give some idea of what we're dealing with, most notably in the big question on whether or not the Unknown is actually a real place, though I'll discuss that later.

Now the first of these ideas is pretty straightforward. The Unknown is simply a magical alternate world that Wirt and Greg somehow managed to transport themselves to after falling into the water. A gateway to another realm, like the wardrobe of Narnia. Admittedly, this isn't a very complicated or revolutionary notion, but the law of Occam's Razor is that the most likely explanation is usually the correct one, and the simple framework of children going to a magical place beyond the normal world is about as basic as you get in these sorts of tales. But simplicity in and of itself is no bad thing, as it provides a good foundation to build great stories on. And that's certainly the case here, as having the Unknown just be some world the brothers could journey to after their traumatic fall is a fine start to give old-school fairy tale and folk story episodes for. It's solid urban fantasy of the unreal hiding just beyond the world of the real, that just so happens to be pierced and entered by these two unwitting boys. It might not be the most imaginative of explanations for what this place is, but I think it was worth getting the easiest explanation out of the way first.

The second major theory on what the Unknown is might be less extraordinary, but it's also an incredibly plausible one, that being that the entire experience is just one big hallucination. That one or both of the brothers, but most likely Wirt, was knocked unconscious by the aforementioned fall into the water and the entire journey was all the creation of his own mind. Now, I realise that the trope of "it was all just a dream all along" isn't exactly a popular one, but let us not forget that plenty of other popular stories have managed to portray it well, like Alice and Wonderland. And to the credit of this show, if that was indeed the angle being worked then it was certainly an interesting way to view it. The biggest hint that this is the case is that much of what we see in the Unknown has to deal with people donning alternate identities to what they truly are, hiding their real selves, which would be an appropriate thing for a boy like Wirt to make up in his head given that he and his brother had just come off from a mass Halloween experience, where costumes and taking on fantasy personas are commonplace. To be sure, there's some ambiguity on whether Greg has the same experience as Wirt if it is indeed a hallucination, but there's no denying that the possibility of it being the work of imagination is there.

The final of the major ideas concerning the Unknown is that it is some sort of afterlife for the two boys. Specifically, that it's a kind of Limbo, between Heaven and Hell, where they must overcome some trial or work through some personal issue before they can move on. To me, this is the theory that seems to hold the most water, as it is only through working past their personal issues, like Wirt learning to be responsible for Greg, that the two manage to get back home. And when you couple that with things like the show's antagonist, the Beast, a clearly demonic-inspired tempter who leads people to their doom, there's definitely some religious undertones here. The fact that the Unknown is a place they only go to after going through an experience that could have killed them certainly adds to this. Consider also that throughout the show we get a gradual transition from an Autumn-like environment to the Winter we see in the final few episodes, a sign of things dying, perhaps to show the boys losing their way and going down the wrong path. Contrast with the likes of the Woodsman, who made a deal with this effective Devil and, as a result, got stuck in a terrible situation for who knows how long, trapped in his own personal Hell.

What gives this particular interpretation a great deal more weight is the inclusion of the show's third major character, the human-turned-bird Beatrice. Now, her being here is very likely to be a reference to the character of the same name from the famed story the Divine Comedy by Dante, better known as Dante's Inferno. Within that tale, Beatrice is the lost love of the book's central protagonist, and acts as a guide to him after he leaves the realm of Limbo and finally makes it into heaven. And since the Beatrice in this story also serves as a guide to those who are no longer within their own world, the connection is pretty easy to make. Granted, there are differences, like how the Unknown is no Heaven and that this particular Beatrice is in no way romantically involved with Wirt, but the general role she plays is far too similar to ignore, and lends massive credence to the theory that the Unknown is indeed a Limbo of some sort. But again, since Wirt is the poetic sort, it could also be that he knew of the literary Beatrice and, if this was the hallucination scenario instead, imagined her along with everything else without even realising he was doing it. Because naturally this sort of thing just couldn't be clear-cut for me.

As you can see from all of this, there's a lot that can be interpreted and theorised about the world of Over the Garden Wall. And really, you could probably take any single episode and create an entire thesis of what all the imagery and characters might mean, it's just that sort of show. As for the central question here of the nature of the Unknown, I don't think it's something we're ever going to get a proper answer to, and anyone watching it will likely have to come up with their own conclusions about it. As for me personally? Well, I've been of one school of thought or another over the last few years since I first watched this underrated gem, but if you were to hold a gun to my head and ask me to pick one and be done with it, I'd likely go for the Limbo theory. Mostly because it seems to strike the perfect balance between being both a fine fantasy idea as well as having just the right level of grimness and macabre for a story like this. After all, for a cartoon that aimed and succeeded to be a Halloween classic, what better scenario to give us that a world found within the place between life and death? 😉

#essay #writing #my stuff #otgw #over the garden wall #halloween #wirt and greg #cartoon network

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eurosong · 5 years ago

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Undo my ESC 2020 (SF1)

Good evening, folks! “Undo my ESC”, my look at how I would have changed this year’s contest, is back! Even though the EBU, well, indeed sadly and very literally did undo the ESC this year, there is still room for changing about my personal ideal Eurovision 2020. Let’s have a look at the first semi-final! 🇦🇺 Australia: I continue to be mightily impressed with the quality of Australia Decides, an NF putting forward a number of credible options to represent Oz. I felt the juries helped dodge a bullet this year, because the televote winning song was a rather cliché and dated choice, out of step with the relatively vibrant and contemporary feel of the field. The actual winner was pretty decent albeit with dubious live vocals and an even odder stage concept. It could be improved by working on those two factors, though even better would be to send instead the dramatic Rabbit Hole, truly a title for our season, or even better, the searingly emotional Raw stuff which knocked me off my feet upon first listen and still packs that punch 🇦🇿 Azerbaijan: Once again, Azerbaijan went down the “buy in a song from elsewhere and attempt to put on a thin gloss of local instrumentation onto a generic pop song in lieu of some actual authenticity. I can’t say I even hate the song this time, though I do dislike how they reportedly nabbed it off non-oil-rich San Marino in a bidding war. I would have brought back Dihaj or... anyone who could produce something halfway Azeri? Also, something that doesn’t make me do a full-body cringe as much as the country ranked the worst in the ESC-sphere for LGBT rights sending a song about “gay or straight or in between.”

🇧🇾 Belarus: Belarus made the right choice - I can really rarely say those words. For only the second time ever, we got a song in Belarusian, and whilst it isn’t up there with the gorgeous Historyja majho žyccia for me, Da widna is still a pleasant listen that soars above many of the hyped pre-contest fan favourites and was a nice surprise from a bad NF. The only thing that I would change? That the unhinged comic brilliance of Pavloni be in the final. Watch from about halfway through to the end for an absolute mood whiplash odyssey.

🇧🇪 Belgium: A lot of people had plenty of hope when they heard that the veteran Hooverphonic were set to represent Belgium in 2020, and I was amongst them. My reäction to what they ended up bringing though was tepid. It’s got the quality rich instrumentation that I expected from this band, pleasant vox, but as a song, it goes nowhere for me, in part because of how repetitive it is and lacking in a hook I find it. I would have picked a more immediate song for Eurovision, because this felt like another DNQ for Belgium, following the same mistakes as 2018 and 2019. They will be back in 2021, and I will be interested to see if they take a slightly different tack.

🇭🇷 Croatia: Following up on Belarus, Croatia was another example of a selection in which I had no hope providing something excellent to recompense for usually reliable countries going off the rails. I finally have from Croatia something to fit in with the likes of Adio from Montenegro and Nije ljubav stvar from Serbia as an epic Balkan ballad. Few people were expecting Divlji vjetre would win; I was over the moon that it did and would change nothing. I hope Croatia re-send the gentleman Damir next year with an equally strong song.

🇨🇾 Cyprus: After giving us a literal replay of Fuego last year, this year they’ve gone a slightly different route, but no less generic (even coming with one of the several duplicately named titles of this year), no less uninspiring, no less completely detached from Cypriot music. I’m longing for Cyprus to send something like Eimai anthropos kai ego again.

🇮🇪 Ireland: So RTÉ came into Eurovision all guns blazing this year, promising “an almighty bop” that will be “remembered in 10 years’ time like Euphoria.” I had feared that their frame of reference for their song would be 10 years’ stale, but instead they cast their net even further back to the mid-2000s. It properly sent me into hysterics when I heard this being compared to EVERY major female singer of that period, depending on whom you asked, before this came into general release. You know what, though? I hold my hands up and admit that I adore the anthemic Story of my life. It’s just so drenched in colour that I feel uplifted every time I listen to it, which is often! Lesley has such a likeable, authentic charisma that adds to the song too. I am so gutted we’ll never see the staging because I feel this would have been a memorable party moment. This is just 3 minutes of happy nostalgia and I live for it.

🇮🇱 Israel: You know, usually, I am not a fan of single-artist national finals, because if you are not a fan of the artist, your choice is very limited indeed. However - I don’t know how one can nót be a fan of Eden to some degree. Her music is not up my street, but she sells it to me through sheer force of personality, positivity and presence. She had four songs and she put her heart and soul into them all. The winner was the vibrant Feker libi, which I would only change by altering the chorus a bit, as its odd 90s dance vibe doesn’t sit so well with the rest of the song. As for Eden, she cried when she reälised she couldn’t go to ESC 2020 and again when she found out she’d been picked for 2021. I wish all artists had this amount of passion.

🇱🇹 Lithuania: There was a sea change in Lithuania this year. I don’t know what happened, but they went from punchline to packing a punch. Their national final had been one that pretty much no one watched, dragging on for several weeks and almost always to choose a mediocre, anticlimactic choice after all that effort. This year, it was one of the most entertaining and diverse NFs of the bunch. My early favourite to win was the powerhouse Monika Marija’s return with If I leave, very much up my street with its country stylings. However, by the time the final came, I had been won over also by the eventual winner, the offbeat and infectious On fire, whose victory I would not alter because it serves as a more dramatic turn of the page for Lithuania’s Eurovision presence. It was such a relief to see this prevailing, with a huge lead in the televote, over the awful, imported Unbreakable or the respectable but pedestrian Make me human. I hope the broadcasters will respect the support this has in Lithuania and allow the Roop to come back in 2021. 🇲🇰 Macedonia: Just no. No. No. Scrap everything about this, bring back Kaliopi and let her get her revenge for the juries screwing her out of qualification with the beautiful “Dona.” 🇲🇹 Malta: Malta have done the unthinkable and sent two songs in a row that I really like for the first time since 1997-8. As Ian would have put it, I was expecting a mere “vocal exercise” from Malta to show off the impressive range of Destiny. Instead, they came out with something so soulful that I have no choice but to enjoy. I hope they go a similar route in 21.

🇳🇴 Norway: So, finally Norway saw some sense and reverted to making the most of having a talented composer, Kjetil Mørland, who is so enthusiastic about Eurovision that he has come back since his success with A monster like me a few times. He should have won with En livredd mann; I wouldn’t have been unhappy at all had he won with Who we are, and indeed, Attention was another song that I had to consider as being amongst the best of its (bizarrely organised) selection. The one thing I’d change? The lyrics. It sounds like an infatuated 12 year old with low self-esteem singing, not a grown woman.

🇷🇴 Romania: It’s not up there with Goodbye or On a Sunday, but Romania have returned with a third song I really enjoy. Alcohol you was head and shoulders above the others in the single-artist selection, and I am still sent by the way she sabotaged the bop that was predicted to win the final so that she could send this more meditative, confessional effort. What would I change? The unnecessary revamp that abruptly shifts the direction of the song in the last third.🇷🇺 Russia: When this first came out, I thought “well done, Russia. Kept us waiting on you until way past the deadline, and all for this bizarre Aquaësque troll entry.” Despite myself, “Uno” has grown on me to some degree. Maybe it’s because of the death stare of the female backing singer who’s giving me some strong Rosa from Brooklyn 99 vibes, and I live for that. Maybe it’s because it’s serving a flourescent lime green in a year when there is so much beige that even an ugly odd colour seems pleasing. I wouldn’t change this, and I hope they get sent again next year because it’s delightful seeing Russia unpaired from Kirkorov.

🇸🇮 Slovenia: Again, I am going to find myself in a small minority, but Slovenia was, like Belarus and Croatia, an unappetising selection that nonetheless yielded a gem for me. They really said screw you to underlying trends and went for a song that moves at a glacial pace fitting of the title, Voda. This was constantly in last place on the Eurovision scoreboard app, which just speaks to the limited taste tolerance of many of its users. There is so much here to enjoy: Slovenia sticking with its language yet again; the ethereal vibes; the deep, rich voice of the singer; the melancholic and poëtic lyrics; and the fact that it was perhaps the only good “revamp” of the season, going in the opposite direction of Albania and inserting an orchestra to make it that much richer in sound. Wonderful stuff and hope she returns in 2021.

🇸🇪 Sweden: So, for the first time since 2014, Sweden has sent a female artist - 3 in fact - and with them, left the cookie cutter niche they’d occupied since then behind. They sent my favourite of their songs since 2013, Move, a joyous gospel-infused effort where the love and positivity of the Mamas gave me tingles to watch. And yet, it wasn’t my ideal choice. My personal winner would have been my favourite entry from Sweden since... possibly as far back as I morgon är en annan dag in 1992. I’m talking ‘bout Dotter of course. The artist whose beautiful Melodifestivalen début with Cry got bizarrely ignored had a superb redemptive arc this year, becoming the huge favourite with Bulletproof. I watched her performance of this over 200 times so far and still watch often. I find the song so poignant, the performance and her presence so bewitching. It’s a rarity for songwriters who also perform their songs to get this far in MF these days, and Dotter lost out by the narrowest of margins, but would have been a great encouragement to others like her had she won. It was widely said that Sweden had the potential for a record-equalling seventh win if they had sent Bulletproof. As much as I cherish Ireland’s record, had it been Dotter to equal it, I wouldn’t have been mad at all. 🇺🇦 Ukraine: Widbir got over their Maruw drama in great style, once again being one of the coolest and most alternative national finals out there. Well done, Ukraine! There were a number of propositions that I would have been happy to see represent the country. My initial favourite was Vegan, one of my most streamed songs of the season and one which always puts a smile on my face with Jerry’s facial expressions and puns like “‘cause I’m vegan, I can’t even call you honey.” And honestly, I would have loved to have seen it in Rotterdam. I also loved, amongst others, Tam kudy ja jdu and Picz, which were both the victims of being in a semi-final with all the good songs whilst the second semi-final was nowhere near as competitive. Having said all that, I am not sure that I would change the eventual winner, Solowej, because it’s its own brand of delightfully authentic. I would undo their unnecessary revamp and keep it as the live version linked to above, though. And the automatic qualifiers: 🇩🇪 Germany: As you would expect from one of the musical monoliths of Europe, Germany once had some of the best and most diverse national finals of the continent, but something went wrong - they kept inviting wild cards, whose scrappiness endeared them to the public even when their songs were mediocre, and so we saw complete no-marks getting the Teutonic nod despite star-studded competition. Nonetheless, “Unser Lied für” was always worth tuning in for, an annual dose of getting mesmer-eyes’d by Barbara Schöneberger too. This year, they threw it all away for one of the most repetitive songs of the year, with a young, confused looking Slovenian being the god knows how many’th contestant to channel his inner Justin Timberlake with another knockoff that sounds as German as fajitas. I would have kept the national final - or, if they’re really going to start doing internal selections, go daring with Lily among clouds, whose Surprise was one of the crown jewels of the previous NF season. 🇮🇹 Italy: Sanremo, which actually predates Eurovision, is so much more than an NF, but its own cultural institution, and the quality is such that a song can be your fifth or sixth in Sanremo but still rank really highly in your ESC rankings. Performing with, and composing for, the orchestra, seems to give its entries a timeless quality that few others compare with. My initial favourites were Tosca’s Ho amato tutto, which from its first strains to the final, saudadic “eh” that serves as an unofficial coda, breaks my heart still sublimely; Viceversa, a heartwarming effort by the unbelievably charming Gabbani and Tikibombom, a slice of Sicilian excellence with trenchant lyrics. My most streamed has been Sincero, remembered more for the hugely memetic moment of one of its representatives changing the lyrics and the other walking out disgusted, but which I adore for its synthy vibes and its brilliant lyrics. The eventual winner was Fai rumore, which I also love too much to propose that it be changed. The lines about “an unnatural silence between us” are all the more poignant now. Lowkey think this could have won Italy its long-awaited third victory. 🇳🇱 Netherlands: Now, this is what I call a host nation song. The way I see it, if you’re hosting, you have a direct ticket to the final that you may not enjoy again for a long time, so why not go for a risk? And a risk NL indeed took. Grow is a very atypical song. It builds in a way we do not expect it to. It is mostly minimalist, focusing most of our attention to Jeangu’s voice, making this an intimate, almost confessional track. The crescendo is cathartic. After Albania destroyed itself with an unnecessary revamp, this became my #1 and I would change nothing about it. It really sucks that a song so personal to its writer and performer won’t be allowed on the stage in 2021 - that’s what I would change. A ridiculous decision on the EBU’s part.

#eurovision #opinion #esc 2020 #eurovision song contest #eurovision 2020

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leo-interactive-fiction · 5 years ago

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I'm absolutely fascinated by The Residence of Reeker Hill, I'm very excited to see what you do with such an interesting premise! Would you be okay with sharing some info on the ROs, and what you mean by an unreliable perspective on your ROs?

Unfortunately, Residence of Reeker Hill is being put on the backburner as I work on my other two books, but due to that I don’t mind being a bit generous and going over some of the inner workings and ideas I have regarding it, but fair warning they are not so fleshed out and some of the ideas are in my mind at this point and not on paper. So spoilers from this point on haha.

So I had planned 7 ROs for this book: The Gardener, The Maid/Butler, The Cook, The Elusive Servant, The Failed Actor/Actress, The Salacious Twins, and The Nightmare. I’ll go over each one in detail later, but first I’ll detail a bit about the setting.

Setting: So I have this set in a mansion, colloquially known simply as the Residence. It’s detailed as more of an ethereal place, unable to be seen or entered by common folk. I kinda wanted to give it something of a Hotel California feel, but with a mansion. There’s a big lawn garden in front, the two story mansion in the center, and some open space in the back, while the entire area is surrounded by a thick forest. I have the mansion set up to have most of the residential and recreational stuff in the first floor east wing, while the utilities like kitchen, laundry, servants quarters are located in the first floor west wing. The second floor is divided into three sections, with the west being for an extremely large library, the middle serving as something of an observatory/drawing room, and the east being a forbidden area that no one is ever ever allowed to go into. This place would basically serve to move the plot along later once the MC gets (somewhat) more comfortable with their surroundings.

ROs: Each RO I have planned has a specified reason for actually being in the residence. The residence specifically targets those who are essentially down on their luck with no where else to turn, so each RO in turn has a problem such as that. Unfortunately, the residence is a cruel and toyful place, and while it allows each individual a new beginning and allows everyone to be the best version of themselves they can be, it also essentially works to personify the darker nature that caused the RO’s problem in the first place. This dark nature is showcased as a unique monster that symbolized each RO’s past that they run from.

Berry/Bonny: The first RO you meet is the gardener of the residence. They’re typically seen in dirty overalls and a straw hat, and tend to always carry around their watering can. They enjoy tending to the plants and have a considerable fear of flame and anything involving it, so they don’t eat anything cooked.

Burns/Burna: This is Berry/Bonny’s respective monster, a figure with charred and blackened skin, wearing a ragged jumpsuit, gasmask, and carrying a gasoline can. Wherever they show, a blazing fire is sure to follow. They represent the RO’s involvement with the fire that burned down the entirety of their family estate and killed those inside in the process.

Victor/Victoria: A raven haired butler/maid of the residence. They’re reserved to a fault, and talk only in short, submissive statements. The most efficient individual you’ll ever meet, they have a routine and timer for every action they take within the residence.

Viscer/Visceris: Victor/Victoria’s inner demon, a white haired, sadistic and hedonistic figure. While the only appearance change that happens is their hair, red eyes, and appearance of fangs, their personality takes a dramatic change to one of a self-seeking and human-loathing nature. They represent the repressed stress the RO faces from being a servant all their life and the pent up aggression that ultimately gets released. They are the reason for a past incident where they ultimately ended up murdering a family of five.

Cecil/Cecilia: The red-headed chef of the residence. Slightly snappy to those they feel have no common sense, they are on average a fairly kind individual, if a bit asocial. With a high sense of duty, they find great reward in having others enjoy the food they dedicate themselves to make.

Canibel/Canibella: The regret that haunts the RO, a stickly, long limbed monstrosity with rows of teeth in a mouth that stretches across the majority of their face. With sunken, hollow space in place of where their eyes are, they represent the blinding hunger they faced during an expedition they took with fellow friends in the arctic. With no more resources, Cecil/Cecilia turn to murdering and cooking the rest of the group, eating and acquiring an infatuation with human flesh.

Istellen/Istella: The shy young adult that accidentally mistakes their room for yours near the end of the book. Their name had yet to be revealed, but it is in the coding. They appear to personify a natural innocence. They are a failed actor/actress, due to the rise of an inexplicable case of stagefright that stained their reputation and ruined their chances in the industry. They have yet to recover and now very rarely talk to strangers and have a hard time being looked at by even a single person.

Inseen/Inseena: The creature responsible for the RO’s massive stage-fright, this short, sickly looking boy/girl stares unblinkingly with black, empty space where their eyes would be, an unknown black liquid seeping out of the sockets as an ever-present thin smile completes the face. The creature represents the RO’s past unreasonable desire to be the center of the spotlight, showcased by the creatures still figure until someone were to look away, then inexplicably they are one step closer. Unlike the rest of the monsters, this one is detached from the RO, and haunts them as well as you. The sleepless nights they caused the RO caused them mental fatigue that led to a psychotic episode on the stage.

Quinn/Quill: The elusive fourth servant of the house, seen so little that even the other servants forget their presence. A young adult who begins appearing to you like an apparition a little bit after the dining room scene, on the way back to your room alone. They wear a more Victorian-gothic era attire compared to the other residents. In all actuality, this servant is an apparition; a ghost of a long-dead servant that haunts the halls of the residence and has made themselves known to you due to your specific ability to see Vice (I'll explain the MC's actual vision meaning later). They wish to pass on, but require your help to find the person responsible for the accident that killed them all those years ago.

Sin/Sina: Quinn/Quill's alter-ego, a poltergeist spirit with a deep-seated hatred for humanity due to the accidental death that took their life along with Quinn/Quill's. They believe their was no accident, and it was a conspiration of several of the servants to see them killed. Unable to forgive, they seek to haunt and corrupt Quinn/Quill in order to enact their revenge through Quinn/Quill's more physical form, since they are unable to.

Penn & Lann/ Penta & Lana: The salacious twins. Pe can be identified by their more brightly colored hair and energetic attitude compared to the more muted color and personality of La. While two individuals, they are never seen apart. Consistently quoting each other as one body and mind, the two partake in every action together, from monotonous tasks like brushing teeth and sleeping to the more intricate duties of talking and sleeping with others. Being of similar spirit, they both enjoy the hunt and chase of finding partners to bed, leading to a considerably tainted reputation that eventually led to their excommunication from their community.

Pelatin/Pelatina: A grotesque and malformed clump of limbs sticking out of a singular misshapen body. Two heads can be seen vying for control of every limb, and the body juts in awkward ways due to this. This malformation represents the unnaturally strong dependency each of the twins has developed for the other, despite each wanting to be their own individual. This desire for independence and the inner competition between the two is what lead to them seeking sexual respite for validation, but eventually it lead to their invalidity.

The Nightmare: Not just a nightmare, this is Your Nightmare, and the reason for your spiral into insanity and eventual denouncement from your family. Showcased a shadowy and bloody figure, either masculine or feminine, they represent different things depending on your decisions through the game. If you embrace the nightmare, it represents your bloodthirsty desire. All of the events from before you entered the mansion weren't visions: You sought to murder every individual you met until your eventual escape from the family who attempted to shelter you. If you attempt to rehabilitate from your waking nightmares, they represent a malevolent dark spirit seeking to corrupt and possess you to undertake their gruesome actions. If you remain neutral or simply coexist with the nightmare, it represents your repressed stress from attempting to lead a normal life. It is an altered coping mechanism from the inability to successfully lead a fulfilling life.

Now about the visions, and what they really are. Most of it has to do with what Your Nightmare is to you, but one thing is certain: The visions are very lifelike. Basically, depending on your decisions and standing with the nightmare, there's different ways the visions can be determined: Sick and twisted hallucination of a demented individual attempting to justify their slaughter, The supernatural ability to see a completely different world known as Vice, or moments in which your Nightmare is attempting to possess you. This, and the decision of RO, will correlate to the ending of the game, of which there are several different interpretations for what actually happened, and what is or isn't real. So basically, the player chooses how the game interprets the symptoms you have haha.

Obvious disclaimer, this would be the fundamental basis that I have to work with, but is always subject to change as I flesh out more of the story at a later date haha.

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thefirstmortal · 5 years ago

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World Building

So for those not aware, Kaa is eventually going to the the main character in a series of novels I am working on. The concept in question is a modern urban fantasy, examining our world if the myths and magic of our various cultures and dreams were tangible and real.

I’m creating a world where vampires serve in congress, fae created the Tooth Fairy as propaganda and the elves of legend live in a secret world outside our own. Real life demons and angels wage war for the soul of humanity, and magic is taught in school.

Below will be a series of information on this world so that people who wish to rp in this setting with me can reference it. If you have questions about something not here, ask, and I’ll come up with an answer to add here as well.

This post is very much still under construction, but will always be evolving as I write.

Magic

Magic is a powerful force in this setting, and while nearly all human beings are capable of using magic not all of them do. For humans, magic is concrete and operates within the laws of physics. This is because magic is about perception and the majority of humans are fairly limited in their perception. Humans can create zombies, but cannot perform true resurrection. This is because the rules of death are set in stone in our minds. As much as we might wish to see our dead loved ones alive again, we understand death as inevitable. We cannot undo it.

Spellcasting requires great focus, and while many learn simple magic very few can truly consider themselves magicians. Perhaps your mother gardens, and learned a spell from her mother to sing to the flowers so that they grow in unusual colors.

Magic is like automotive work, or computer work. Almost everyone can drive or use a phone. Some people can even take them apart and figure out whats wrong with them. Very few of us can build a computer from scratch. The same is true for magic. Many learn basic magic, or how to do simple spells in High School. Very few people master the arts of magic.

There are dangers in casting spells. If your focus is not adamant or if you are not skilled enough there may be magical backlash. For this reason many people use an arcane focus; any sort of specially enchanted object which takes the backlash for you if your spell were to go wrong.

Beings

Vampires: As diverse as humanity itself, vampires come from every culture and region. While in ancient times they were considered evil monsters, vampires have since used marketing and good publicity to paint themselves as benevolent and kind.

Vampires have their own culture, which has adapted well to the modern world. Vampires tend to have a preference on their food, though they actively deny that they see humans this way. Most are fed through specialized blood banks. Though many vampires still feed from willing hosts, having created a societal fantasy of vampires as romantic and beautiful.

Vampires were the primary ruling class during the height of the Roman Empire, and Kaa had made it his singular mission to put an end to their clans. He lead a revolution against the vampire elders, and in order to survive they agreed to disband their clans and never again hold so much power.

Werewolves: cursed with lycanthropy, werewolves change during the nights of the full moon. They have no control over the beast, and most with the affliction quarantine themselves during this time. There is a great deal of stigma surrounding the condition, and even more false information.

Fae: fae are dangerous and secretive. Nothing is known about their home, as they never allow humans there. Their magic is mutable and transformation is common. It is often said that they know when they aren’t wanted, and that is why they show up.

Fae are small beings, rarely standing taller than a foot in height and frequently smaller. They are humanoid, but have insectoid and flower traits, as well. Relentless tricksters, they often play pranks on humans. It’s said that they use these to judge the character of men and women, and those with a good sense of humor may find a powerful ally in the fair folk.

Elves: the elves live in a mythical Other World named Tir Na Nog, which is only accessible during certain celestial events. The portals to this world exist in modern day Ireland, and the days of these portals are celebrated. They are the Wiccan Sabbats. Elves are magically powerful and skilled, and the mutable nature of their biology means that they practice magic much differently from humans.

In Tir Na Nog they are able to change their forms at will, based on what they need at any given time. Should they need to fly, they have wings. Should they need to swim, they have gills. It is unknown to humans if they change to their humanoid form intentionally to make their mortal cousins feel comfortable or if the human form is their natural state in our world.

Pop Culture

Shows like Ghost Hunters are much more interesting, because sometimes there are real ghosts. Though taunting them rarely ends well. Ghosts don’t like being mocked.

Cultural Relativism

Creation

Misc

The Battle Saint, Beloved Of Angels

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pixelgrotto · 4 years ago

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Ladies and lords of Waterdeep

From April of 2019 to June of 2020, I ran Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, a Dungeons & Dragons campaign for levels 1-5, for two groups - a party of three gals and a party of six guys. This was a tricky undertaking - mostly because as written, Dragon Heist is kind of a mess (more on that in a sec) - but also because I had to balance an adventure for two very different audiences that really only shared the commonality of being filled with D&D newbies. It was a worthwhile endeavor, though, and looking back on the experience reveals some interesting food for thought on how to remix an adventure, as well as how some ladies and gents experience roleplaying games differently.

First, let me briefly discuss the adventure itself. Dragon Heist is meant to be an urban outing set in the Forgotten Realms metropolis of Waterdeep, which I described to my New York-dwelling players as “pretty much a fantasy version of NYC.” Over the course of five levels, players inherit and possibly renovate an old tavern, catch wind of an ancient heap of gold beneath the city and run into a bunch of important figures from Forgotten Realms history, ranging from Laeral Silverhand to Volothamp Geddarm. All of that’s epic, and the only issue is that the adventure’s laid out in a pretty shoddy way.

There are four chapters in Dragon Heist, and the first is the only one that can be run with a minimum of hacking on the part of the Dungeon Master. The other three present a so-called “toolbox” of vague ideas for missions with Waterdeep’s various adventuring factions, as well as middling advice for scenes like a rooftop chase and a battle with a chain devil in a crypt, but it’s all highly disorganized with a minimum of connective tissue, requiring heavy lifting on the DM’s part to stitch together. The book is also rife with excessive red herrings for players to stumble upon as they search for the treasure trove, way too many characters with overly long names, and last but not least, there’s a lack of an actual “heist” in the grand finale, which is more scavenger hunt than Ocean’s Eleven.

With all these criticisms, why did I choose to run this book for not one, but two different groups at the same time? It was largely because I’d just finished playing through Dragon Heist with my own character - a mask-wearing teenage street urchin who fancied herself a swashbuckler. I’d had a more-enjoyable-than-not time with the folks I played with, but the guy who DMed had a habit of sending us on the aforementioned red herrings for multiple sessions at a time, with nary an interesting combat encounter or social challenge in sight. I don’t really blame him for this - especially seeing at how poorly the book was laid out afterwards - but immediately after finishing, I was approached by two friend groups who wanted to try their hand at D&D, and this gave me the excuse to see if I could do a better job.

Since I already had a clear example of which pitfalls to avoid, the version of Dragon Heist that I ran heavily remixed all of the elements in the book, with an emphasis on streamlining whenever possible and always making it feel like my players were accomplishing something. This is usually my underlying philosophy whenever I run a game, but it’s an essential strategy for newbies who might be driven off of roleplaying games altogether by bad pacing. For instance, as written, there’s an annoying series of fetch quests near the end of the story where players have to find a number of keys in order to open the hidden treasure vault. These keys are random as heck, ranging from semi-sensible McGuffins like a bronze dragon scale to bonkers junk like a ballad played by two dwarven bards and a friggin’ unicorn. This whole exercise in randomness reminded me of the worst of video game filler, and I cut it out entirely by having the son of the man who hid the treasure accompany the characters, with a drop of his blood activating the magic needed to open the vault’s doors. (This also led to an amusing situation where the guys were stuck as they ruminated on how to open the vault...until the dude playing the goliath suddenly shouted, “I GRAB RENAER’S HAND, CUT IT AND SMEAR THE BLOOD ALL OVER THE DOOR!” and I was like, “Okay. It...opens!”)

Because my players were nearly all D&D virgins, I also wanted them to get their money’s worth by encountering all four of Dragon Heist’s villains - Xanathar the beholder, the devil-worshipping Cassalanter nobles, Manshoon the cloned wizard and Jarlaxle the drow rogue. As written, Dragon Heist touts itself as highly replayable, since DMs are only supposed to choose one villain for their players to go up against. The problem is that all of the bad guys are teased on the cover, and the beginning chapters dangle most of them into the narrative with the players caught in the middle. This created a lot of confusion when I was a player, as my companions and I kept hearing about Xanathar and Manshoon...only for them to suddenly disappear halfway through as Jarlaxle took center stage as the big bad. And so, in order to circumvent this confusion and make both the boys and the girls feel like they were getting a quintessential experience with a minimum of loose ends, I threw in all the baddies. (I wasn’t the only one to do this - tabletop RPG designer Justin Alexander also recommends this approach on his blog The Alexandrian, where he offers an impressive revision of Dragon Heist that I probably would’ve used if I hadn’t discovered it too late.)

So, when it came down to actually rolling dice, how’d my two groups interact with the material? I think it’s safe to say that both the girls and the boys hit the same major story beats and had a grand time doing so, but the nuances of their experiences were fascinatingly different. The girls, for instance, dove into the art of roleplaying and devising histories for their characters, and one of them decided to play as an elf from a seafaring clan and gave me a whole backstory involving the ocean that inspired my “final boss” for Dragon Heist, an evil, decaying dragon from the Elemental Plane of Water that isn’t in the book. (Hey, it’s called Dungeons & Dragons, the story’s named Dragon Heist, and since I wasn’t sure if all of my players would stick around for future campaigns, I figured I’d better stick a notable battle with a big scaly lizard in there somewhere.)

The girls also got way more into some of the social justice subplots that permeated my version of Dragon Heist, pushing hard for Waterdeep to remove the anti-dragon magic bubble that surrounded the city and excluded an entire species from its borders. Their interactions with non-player characters - often progressing along the lines of “well, if you feel like you want us to do this quest for you, then we certainly can” - reflected this sort of empathy, and even though this sounds incredibly stereotypical, by the time the final session wrapped up, all three of the gals had either shipped or flirted with NPCs that they’d encountered during their journey. One of ‘em even ended up hitched with a baby!

The boys, by contrast, were much less likely to devise in-depth character histories beyond “I’M IN THIS CITY TO GET MY MONEY,” and their NPC conversations also frequently waded into “GIMME MY GOLD” territory. I don’t want to make it sound like their characters were just two dimensional mercenaries, though, because definite, organic progression occurred over the course of the campaign - the goliath who couldn’t read gradually worked his way through Volo’s Guide to Monsters and became fluent in Celestial after joining the Order of the Gauntlet, for instance.

Where the boys clearly felt more at home than the girls was in combat, probably because 1) there were six of them as opposed to the three ladies, and 2) they collectively had lots of video game knowledge, and D&D’s influence has kinda trickled down to every video game ever made. It didn’t take long for some of the dudes to begin subconsciously min/maxing their characters, and while there were two major deaths in unpredictable boss fights, the boys did go through a long period where they were just steamrolling everything to come their way and yelling, “LET’S FUCKIN’ GOOOO” as they did so. In contrast, DMing for the girls during combat sequences was occasionally a nail-biting experience where I didn’t know who was going to survive, and since some of this was due to my own slapdash encounter design where I underestimated the abilities of the monsters they were up against, I made sure to give them lots of friendly NPCs who could potentially offer a helping hand, or even resurrection spells if needed.

Both groups were aware of the other’s existence, and I’d sometimes playfully pit them against one another. (Example: The guys often forgot who was who, and one time one of ‘em looked down at his character sheet and was like, “MY NOTES ARE SUCH SHIT” which made me respond, “Well, y’know the girls take really good notes...”) But at the end of the campaign, when my players asked me which party was more fun to DM for, my answer was that both groups were great. The girls were bursting with imaginative roleplay, and they gave me real moments of glee as they responded to story twists with the legitimate surprise and wonder that comes from people who aren’t already overexposed to fantasy tropes and gaming culture. The boys gave me that feeling of what some fans affectionately call “beer & pretzels D&D,” where you’re shooting the breeze with your buddies, playfully teasing each other and going for broke in combat encounters.

I want to stress that the ladies I DMed for were absolutely not representative of how all women might approach D&D, and the exact same thing must be said for the fellas. This was no planned sociology or gender studies experiment that I conducted, in other words - it was merely a thing that I did with two friend groups, and the resulting experiences were two opposite yet totally valid sides of the same RPG coin. And while I doubt that I’ll run the same campaign in the future for two different groups at once (let alone a campaign as wonky as Dragon Heist), I like to think that as someone who tries to advocate for how roleplaying games can be fun, welcoming experiences for all, I played a small role (hah) in bringing swords, sorcery and storytelling to the lives of people who might not have experienced such imaginative forays otherwise.

Already, both the gals and the guys are whipping up ideas for future characters and checking out stuff like Critical Role...which means that my work here, at least for the moment, is done.

#pixel grotto #musings #tabletop gaming #dungeons & dragons #d&d #waterdeep: dragon heist

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johnlockficclub · 5 years ago

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Author Q&A Recap

We have to say, @prettysherlocksoldier was very lovely and everyone had a great time bantering back and forth. So much fun, that for space we’ve kept it to just the questions and answers:

@sherlock-nanowrimo: Did you have any headcanons as you wrote this fic, that didn't make it into the story?

@prettysherlocksoldier: Not exactly, but I did sort of come up with the whole idea originally with the concept for Irene's radio show, and I wanted initially to have her somehow in that capacity work to set John and Sherlock up, but it didn't really come together that way and I wish I could have spent more time with her radio show.

@elwinglyre: I loved the bantering that you included in this story. What inspiration did you use to write it?

@prettysherlocksoldier: Truthfully, I tend to write dialogue how I speak. And I'm EXTREMELY dry and sarcastic with my friends, so it just comes out of that with a characterized twist. WELL OKAY so they are all like different sides I guess. John bridges the gap between sarcastic Dani and supportive friend Dani, and Sherlock is "I would never dare say this to your face but I am thinking it very loudly" Dani.

@elwinglyre: It sounds like you like to write kind of stream of consciousness at times. How much do you generally plan out in your writing. The dialogue is spontaneous but the rest is…? I’m always interested about this.

@prettysherlocksoldier: I always try to be a planner but I am a pantser at heart. Any time I attempt to outline it goes off the rails fairly quickly and I just let it, so most of it ends up being spontaneous. The only thing I pay fairly close attention to is the chronology, especially with a holiday story which has a set deadline (ie Christmas). I don't want to mention it's been a week and that would be New Years or something, so I keep track of that but otherwise I'm a mess.

@blue-posey: I love the play on words and puns and turns in your writing, but esp ‘every silver lining

@prettysherlocksoldier: I really don't know haha! Again, I guess I just sort of write like I talk. And, being an English major and a writer and generally a hopeless romantic, I am also occasionally very poetic (coughmelodramaticcough).

@blue-posey: Well, it is poetic. As is the way Sherlock sees John throughout the book: golden hair, snowflake on his cheek etc.

@prettysherlocksoldier: I've seen too many Hallmark movies, I will put a snowflake on every eyelash within reach.

@sherlock-nanowrimo: What draws you to writing unilock stories? This was our first time reading unilock as a group and some folks hadn't ever read that trope before. It was a big hit

@prettysherlocksoldier: Well, at the time, I was in university, so that was a big part of it, but then I also just think it's a time of such potential, whether undergrad or grad school. I mean, school takes up so much of some people's lives, especially someone like John going into medicine, and those are formative years. So I like playing with the idea of meeting someone at this point in your life where everything is changing and you're trying to find your footing and settle into your own skin, and then here comes someone who shakes all that up and you sort of have to decide if you're going to grow TOGETHER or just keep forging your own path. It's a high-stakes time period and I'm just drawn to the dramatic potential in it, I suppose.

@elwinglyre: I also liked your foreshadowing in this with the elevator (going up and going down—so naughty and nice). And your whole pulling out the angst at the end with Sherlock. Great build up.

@prettysherlocksoldier: I love sort of...innocuous foreshadowing. Like it won't be HORRIBLE nothing TERRIBLE is going to happen because that's simply not what I write, but anything could come around again and suddenly have new meaning. It's just harmless turnabout haha.

@blue-posey: Can I say I did a fist-in-the-air jig when John said about ‘nice’ boys asking for nudes! It was really good to see it spelled out like that, esp coming from a male character.

@prettysherlocksoldier: I love John being this like...perfect stereotype of a Jock Jackass and then he's just...not. And it sort of unseats everyone around him and that's fun too. And I make everyone as raging liberal feminist as I am so there's also just that haha.

@elwinglyre: So… the big question: how do you feel about writing sex scenes???

@prettysherlocksoldier: OH MY GOD SO AWKWARD OH MY GOD I don't do it very often because I just... It is so difficult for me, I can't put my finger on why. When I do write them, they're either harried or I'm focusing more on the emotion because I just don't know how to make "thrust" sound sexy I just don't knowwww.

@sherlock-nanowrimo: There were a number of details we loved, departures from frustrating aspects of canon. Like Molly not having a crush on Sherlock because everyone knows he's gay. And John happily admitting he's bi. Did you have any intent to knock down some canon stuff or did it just come natural?

@prettysherlocksoldier: I think a lot of that comes out of unilock more than any particular intent of mine. Like, it's 2016 or whatever it was at the time, they're young, they're at a liberal universe in a world city, like I just...can't fathom Sherlock would not be out. Especially with someone like Irene around him, who I always make a supportive influence. John is a little more complication because of that jock persona and he might have some reservations about being open about his sexuality, but I just... I mean, growing up in a conservative home and environment that did not take kindly to me coming out, I just don't make much time for it in the worlds I get to create. Maybe I'm trying to rewrite my own history, but hey, the world's rough enough with even fictional gay people having to feel unsafe being themselves

@blue-posey: And talking about openness, I love how casually John says he’s bi

@prettysherlocksoldier: That moment actually meant a lot to me because it's like a chance for him to correct an assumption, and yes Sherlock is listening and that's part of it, but it's I think the moment when we're like OH WAIT HE MIGHT BE INTO IT and it's So Softe.

@wildishmazz: When they nearly got pornographic near the end, were you toying with the idea of someone having to say the title to them?

@prettysherlocksoldier: I almost ALMOST had them do the classic bump-the-microphone-and-everyone-hears-you-boning, but decided against it haha.

@sherlock-nanowrimo: as we were reading the part with Mary, I know I tensed up wondering just how it was going to go. But it wasn't toxic at all - -she made an effort to reconnect, but accepted her defeat with grace.

@prettysherlocksoldier: I have a hard time making Mary a rival. Maybe because I don't think she ever really was haha! But also I was disappointed in where her character ended up going and she deserved better and I am going to give it to her goshdarnit.

@blue-posey: I also loved this:

“Love conquers all,” the blond quipped, slowly lowering himself down beside Sherlock, back scraping against the wall. “No, it doesn’t,” Sherlock scoffed, turning through the pages. “It merely temporarily blinds people to flaws; it doesn’t actually conquer anything.”

I know it reads a bit defeatist, but I think it’s not.

@prettysherlocksoldier: I love a Sherlock who has sort of...put up this shield of cynicism around love simply because he doesn't think he'll find it, so it's easier to think the whole thing is stupid. I mean we've all had a bad breakup and been like NEVERMIND LOVE IS A SHAM for a while. Not to be a monster, but I always thought of Sherlock as someone who loves very deeply, just never expresses it because he perceives himself as unloveable.

@wildishmazz: did John assume they were on the same page re: having been on dates and so therefore being dating?

@prettysherlocksoldier: John, god bless him, I think totally thought he was like courting this dude and doing it up right and being Super Romantic, and then Sherlock is just like BUT YOU DID NOT EXPLICITLY STATE.

@blue-posey: @tildathings wanted to ask how you choose the radio station for the set up.

@prettysherlocksoldier: Oh god that is actually kind of embarrassing, so to be fair it was VERY LATE and I was DRIVING and I was VERY BORED but do y'all know that like late night advice radio show with that gravelly voice woman, Delilah?? I just thought what an Irene version of that would be like and everyone else just kind of came out of that and got their own shows and then it was just at a radio station and it's all Delilah's fault.

Thanks everyone for joining us for back to school fic! Many thanks to @prettysherlocksoldier for chatting with us!

#johnlock fic club #you're on the air

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dviciousbikefemme · 5 years ago

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This past week has been full of ups and downs. From long days in the desert to warm and quality company, we’ve been dealt a set of experiences that are unforgettable. Times have been tough. Phoenix wasn’t too inviting at first and I am thankful for the Warmshowers we ended up with last night. We will remain here until the rain is over. For those of you that don’t know what a Warmshowers is, it is a hosting network that puts long distance cyclists up in individuals’ homes for free. It’s essentially couch surfing for cyclists.

Once again, I think posting once or twice a week will be normal for me until I’m at a better cadence. Everyday is a little unpredictable and I never am quite sure where we will end up. But that’s the point and we’ve made it work so far. In so many ways this lifestyle has released a lot of anxiety and is relief from the sort of stories and assumptions I create in my head around daily interactions and subtleties. You know what I’m talking about. Mind chatter. I don’t have my therapist with me on the road but being on the road forces complete presence.

And when I’m typing these little snippets of life out, it always takes longer than I’d ever expect. You kinda rack your brain with “What do I want to share?””I want to be authentic” “Is this boring?”. This is for me as much as it is for y’all so looking back on these memories, I want to be able to connect with every flavor of feeling.

Since Ocotillo, we’ve pedaled through some major stretches. Leaving Ocotillo on the fourth day started out pleasant in the morning sun. We followed SR98 through the Yuha Desert and its interesting terrain. We paralleled the border with open skies and the mountains of Mexico on our south side. The temperature was great and I was feeling hopeful and touched from the night before. Upon exiting the Yuha, the landscape quickly changed as we drew closer to El Centro and Calexico city limits. Miles and miles of solar panels and broccoli that would never touch the small grocery stores in the very region that grows it. Small towns in the deserts are very much food deserts. You typically can find only packaged foods and meat. Vegetables are scarce and when you do run into them, they are brown and slimey. Once we reached Calexico, the traffic became heavy. There we entered SR111 where we did several miles beside semis and big box corporate stores. At the end of this 50 mile day we settled into a Days Inn in Brawley. We treated ourselves as we foresaw another long stretch ahead. Between the town of Brawley and the town of Blythe there’s about 80miles of limited resources. We wanted to be well rested for day five. That evening we stocked up on groceries and water and caught ourselves up on the Democratic campaign and Coronavirus drama.

Leaving Brawley we pushed through more agricultural land and passed by several sad lil CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations). This day was one of our hardest as it was roughly 65 miles and through some tough conditions. When we continued east on SR78, the landscape changed dramatically, once again. We entered into the Algodones Dunes of Southern California that would lead to the “town” of Glamis. Glamis is a town that exists seasonally. It’s a giant playground for folks with a lot of money. We saw some seriously fancy off-road vehicles in the Dunes. It’s scattered about with millions of dollars worth of trailers and RVs, dune buggies and generators. You have to see it for yourself. I didn’t quite capture this stretch in any quality photographs as it was a tough climb with a lot of sand on the shoulders, but I certainly never saw anything like it in my life. We had one guy dipped down off the road under the shade of his trailer awning, hollering up at us, wondering if we might like a beer. We politely declined with a peace sign as we thought it might be dangerous to try and slide down there. A couple miles after the friendly stranger, we dropped into the convenience store of this “town” for an ice cold cola and water refill. There I fantasized about riding around in the buggies. Sure would’ve been fun.

From Glamis on, the road conditions became worse as we proceeded down the shoulder-less 78 in high sun and head wind with cars traveling at about 65mph. Toward the end of it there were several miles in the desert full of dips in the road, making visibility very difficult for both us and for cars and trucks. I grew tired and hungry and frustrated. And with every little hill that came my way I would audibly groan a mighty groan. At about 5:30pm we reached the BLM Oxbow Campground, resting peacefully on the Colorado River. It had a very clean pit toilet but with no access to potable water. We wouldn’t reach all services again until the next day, 20 miles away in Blythe. Our moods quickly transformed from sour to sweet as we enjoyed the beautiful, cool and clear night sitting in the silence of the moonlight— silently loving, silently relieving pain and silently oozing with pride of the hard day’s work.

On Saturday morning we didn’t have much of an agenda and decided to take it easy. One of the snowbirds at the grounds asked us if we needed anything —we said YES COFFEE PLEASE. So we shared our morning with Don and Judy of British Columbia. We talked about music and the great North American landscape and the other bikers they’ve met through their years of travel. They eventually reminded us of the time and we began to pack up and head to Blythe.

Blythe was only about 20 miles out and once we arrived in Blythe we didn’t leave. We went to the Ace Hardware for some camping fuel. Outside the store we met Robin, a town local who invited us to his drinking hole that doubled as a Warmshowers host. We weren’t quite sure if we wanted to quit for the day. We went out to grab lunch (a delicious huevos rancheros!) and discussed what to do next. We wanted to check this Warmshowers out before completely dismissing it. It is located at the B and B (beer and bait shop) a couple of miles outside the main stretch. Upon arrival, we were greeted with ice cold Coors Lites... and another round... and another round... and another... and then we bought a round... and before we knew it we were setting up our tent behind the shop and getting a car ride to the grocery store. The property holds the shop, a few trailers with residents and a rescue goose named Lucy. We had a wonderful afternoon with a handful of kind folks and colorful stories. One man told us of “transporting bodies”. He’s rotated his work between being a medic and working in the prison system. Scott, on the other side of the table, was witness to a completely different set of experiences. He is a former addict and was incarcerated for several years. This group of sweet people spoke of the man, Wayne, that started the communal property and his love for everyone that came through. Warmshowers has been running there for 10+ years, still thriving, even after he sold the property to take care of his sick wife. I was touched by one of the community members that approached Bobby and I while we were setting up camp saying “Blythe is the armpit of CA. We feel forgotten about, but we do have each other here. We want you to feel comfortable and at home. Whatever is ours is yours and if you need anything at all, don’t hesitate to ask. We rely on one another in this town”. We felt grateful to have passed through Blythe and crossed such heart warming folks.

On Sunday morning, we rose early in the dark with the time change. We spent a lot of time going east on the I-10 that day. We met a couple of cyclists at a rest stop. One of them is from the US, the other from Australia. We expected to see them again, and the next day did at a Mexican restaurant whilst stopping for lunch. We did about 50 miles yet again and camped at Ramblin’ Roads RV Park in a place called Hope, AZ. We talked to another cycling group, this one consisting of three women from Maine. Mary chatted us up a bunch. They were not looking to stop quite yet and had a few more miles to do that day. We had a lot of time that evening so we made glorified Ramen and dug into the books we are reading. I caught up with my mama on the phone and encountered some of the cleanest showers I bathed in thus far.

Monday we trekked far into Wickenburg, our final stop before going into Phoenix. We stopped halfway for lunch and ran into both groups of women. The three from Maine goofed off and snacked on Mexican sweets in front of a convenience store. They were also heading to Wickenburg and figured we all might end up camping together. And we did that night at the Aztec Village RV Park. We had a grand time with these fine women. Noreen, the matriarch of the group, is hesitant to introduce herself to people at first and knows how she likes things. She is direct and communicates very well. I really like her— she’s very gentle and nurturing once she gets to know you a little more. She is a former Acadia National Park ranger. Working there is how she got to know Mary. Mary’s got a hankering for finding Gila monster skins and armadillo tails. Auralie (sp?) was the third and youngest of the group. Noreen met her by “shushing” her at a French film viewing. Auralie is French-American and is quite funny. She kept reminding us all that gender and time are both social constructs. Can’t say I disagree. We cooked dinner together and spoke of our adventures and about how much fun we were all having. They are a splendid group that really made me homesick for my SHRIMPS. Shrimps are the gals I bike and bond with back home in WA. Don’t ask as to why we are shrimps. We just are. That night it began to rain, it covered up the loud sound of traffic rushing by. We all woke up to wet tents. Bobby and I got an early start to Phoenix. Before taking off we said “See you later down the road” to our new cycling friends.

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ngame989 · 6 years ago

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SVTFOE 4A Prediction/Analysis Master Post

So we just had the first two episodes come out, and overall I enjoyed them. There’s been a lot of mixed reactions to the details, from myself included, so let’s dive in a bit. Apologies for when this becomes a giant wall of text in the back half, I'm not digging through promos for images.

Butterfly Follies

In the first episode, 98% of it is focused on Star feeling like shit because Moon is missing and nothing she does to try and find her works, and other people keep telling her she is screwing it up. Yeah, many of us thought this theme of “Star screwing up” would extend a bit more concretely to stuff with Marco and Tom, and it was present but only a tiny bit as a reminder. Her interaction with Tom was basically just a reminder that the situation from after Booth Buddies hadn’t budged - Star still was barely paying attention to him, Tom was still not really a companion to her at all, it just isn’t working, but they haven’t talked about it yet.

Tomstar has always had the candy coating of a romantic relationship (nicknames, handholding, occasional smooching, gossip and drama, etc) with virtually nothing underneath. We see this over and over - Demoncism has a genuine emotional connection between them in that moment, but once their relationship starts up again, it takes until Is Another Mystery for even a hint of true, genuine support between them, and it still doesn’t extend to either of them considering the other as a life companion at all. Most of it is going through the motions for both of them. When everyone’s lives were on the line, Tom stepped up, but this doesn’t immediately make him Marco 2 - the issues that existed before, the lack of commitment and drive between them (still candy-coated by nicknames and whatnot) is as present as ever, and arguably more so, now that Star has the events of the end of S3 dwelling somewhere in the recesses of her mind. Plus we get a moment of Tom checking in with Marco about Star’s comment, showing once again that Marco is the one Tom actually turns to for genuine support.

Contrast that with Starco in these episodes. Yes, it’s not magically perfect, there’s still lots of stuff to resolve and many people (myself included) have felt that it was a bit “off” (more on that soon). But there’s still a genuine sense of progression, where Marco is comfortable being close with Star again, being emotional support, even if he doesn’t always know how to help.

As predicted, Eclipsa’s style of ruling has mostly been “make disliking monsters entirely illegal because that’s Equality™” and it’s not working out so well for true social change. I expect this to be a major plot point moving forward.

Honestly, I dunno what all to make of the details of Glossy’s lines here. Considering the situation with Toffee was pretty explicitly Glossaryck’s intentional method of teaching Star how to do things her own way, this definitely isn’t literal. Maybe he’s playing 4D chess, and Star questioning whether Glossaryck was misleading her is all part of how he leads her. There’s a... nonzero chance, I suppose, that there is some more direct connection here and trying to fix past mistakes (since time travel is brought up very shortly) but I’d be incredibly shocked and largely appalled if that’s where things actually head.

(Skipping around on photos a bit here to just get the point across)

So let’s talk about this for a moment, shall we? I’ve seen a lot of talk about this photo and how it’s really sketchy that Star apparently knew it was from the future the whole time, given its past importance in Starcrushed. Granted, we don’t know exactly how it’s going to pay off yet, but I’ll take a strong educated guess - it’s basically a gag because the writers thought it would be fun. A relevant gag and kind of an asspull, yes, but still just a gag. Yes, the photo is now factually from the future and will be relevant again in that capacity, but I’m entirely convinced that the point of it wasn’t to intentionally retcon something about Starcrushed or anything like that - a meaningful photo of Star and Marco was used in Season 2 to generically remind her of their “good times” and their relationship as a whole, and that same photo was used here as a promise of happiness to come, and the primary purpose of the photo in each case is how it was written for that case.

I know it’s not a satisfying explanation, but it is entirely consistent with this show to have details occur that are largely arbitrary and inconsistent, and there’s a consistency to that inconsistency. Adult Marco is another example, Janna implying Kelly maybe had feelings for Marco in Stump Day is another, any time Star yeeted a high school student into some pit of horrors is another. All of these are situations where, if you examine them thoroughly as a whole and consider all the possible implications, they get kind of sketchy really fast. Yes, it is frustrating at times, but I think you just have to roll with it - Marco has memories of a 30 year old when the boarders want to make a cool reference before Marco does a bunch of fancy weapon tricks, but it never affects his normal existence unless it’s needed for a joke/reference. Janna says something that implies complicated romance drama incoming when the boarders want girly banter to accompany dudes fighting, but it doesn’t go anywhere beyond that. Star has a body count on Earth but she’s not a wanted criminal, probably. The consistency here is that if the show kind of glosses over some sort of possible implication and plays it off for a gag, then that’s what you should take it as.

Again, I don’t know exactly how this will pay itself off, but I have an incredibly strong suspicion that the answer to “what were the boarders thinking when they did this??? It screws up a core moment in Starcrushed!!!” is that they weren’t thinking about that. COULD they actually do something more in-depth with the time travel aspect? I guess, but “throwing organic core moments of character/relationship growth under the bus for the sake of wacky over-the-top plot” sounds like the opposite of this show. I’ll cover more about how I think this might actually work later.

A lot of people said Star and Marco felt like acquaintances this episode, and not best friends. I understand where they’re coming from - there weren’t all kinds of hugs and affection flying around, their talks were awkward. But this honestly makes a lot of sense for where we’re at now. We’re completely over the hump where they they're hesitant to even think of themselves as best buddies, where they’re struggling with their feelings just to spend time with the other. Marco is back to making all attempts to be her close friend and companion and support, Star is comfortable around him... but, there’s still some lingering “OK we moved forward from here, what now?” We saw in Divide that a simple hug between them brought out strong feelings for both of them. I think a lot of the awkwardness remaining could be attributed to the strong sour mood of the situation overall, but part of it could also be a subconscious “OK, Marco confessing his feelings made things better, and we’re OK being close, but...” lingering, waiting to be addressed. And given pancake and cereal clips, it will be soon.

Escape from the Pie Folk

I have less to say about this episode, it was fairly straightforward, honestly. It was 22 minutes of adventure and fights while trying to find and steal away Moon - lot of really fun and well-executed humor, it definitely was a strong showing for pretty much all the parts of the show besides “focus on the relationship growth of Star and Marco”.

More Marco trying to be constantly supportive, but still maybe having a bit of lingering tension in the how.

And sweet family moments.

Overall, a very isolated situation, honestly. The actions and interactions of the characters were put in a very specific, very focused situation where “finding Moon” overrode anything else, and didn’t allow for much other special elements to shine through. I liked the episodes, but some part of me was disappointed that most developments besides Moon were put on pause for the premiere. Still, resolving this in its entirety straight away sets up for some pretty strong coverage of the rest...

INTERMISSION

Let’s take a moment to talk about compartmentalization and the rules of TV pacing. I love Star vs the Forces of Evil, and I’m sure many of you do, even if its infuriating and painful at times. A lot of times. But I definitely think the show is special and does things differently than many others, to an extent. And that extent is key - I like to think of it as content vs structure. Content-wise, it is rather different from what you might expect (especially with character/relationship development). Characters come first, always, and there isn’t a sense of outside drama pushing characters around like ragdolls, changing their relationships and emotions in ways that they aren’t already naturally primed to at that moment. Romance isn’t handled as a drama-fest love triangle, with Star and Jackie or Tom and Marco directly vying for the affection of their love interest, nor do those love triangles ever damage the development of the main dynamic, Starco. Basically every shift in Star and Marco’s relationship, the ebbs and flows of it, can be entirely explained by just the two of them. Yes, seeing the other be romantic with someone else was a partial catalyst to individual moments of growth, but by and large Star and Marco themselves have been their own biggest obstacles, their own insecurities and missteps guiding the path of Starco 1000x more than Jarco or Tomstar or plot.

However, this doesn’t mean the show is magically free of the confines of episodic story pacing, and that’s where people often find faults in it. Many, including myself, went into the premiere thinking/hoping that it would include some relationship payoff, or skip some steps and just have Tom and Star break it off right away. And while anyone is free to disagree with the general concept of the premiere being entirely focused on Moon and plot setup, it’s completely logical for the show to take its development in concrete, compartmentalized chunks. An episode dedicating itself to a theme, to a concrete piece of plot, is likely going to focus on that. And this can be nuanced - I don’t think it was wrong of people to think that Follies could have had a theme of “Star confronted with her screwups” in a broader way that included multiple aspects of that, but it doubled down on Moon and it’s totally understandable that she didn’t take time during her hunt to figure out her feelings, etc. Still, it included reminders of the current situation, and we’ll see those pay off very soon. It’s not so reasonable to expect the show to bend over backwards to steamroll through Starco development right away, but it’s also unreasonable to expect no chunks of development at all, or for them to stop randomly.

More specifically, the way the episodic structure handles these chunks is to follow up underlying buildup with inevitable realizations. It’s very, very rare for an episode that confronts a character with a specific question (e.g. “How do I feel about my Earth life” - Marco in Sophomore Slump, or “How do I feel about Marco” - Star in Starcrushed) to actually have the emotional development required to understand it occur within that episode. Star isn’t confronted with her crush on Marco until it’s developed enough to be ready to burst out. Marco isn’t confronted with his priorities in life until he’s experience enough of a bold, adventurous life with Star that his heart has already decided, and in both cases it’s a matter of a climactic wake-up call to what’s already there. On that note, onto predictions.

Moon Remembers

Well, I dunno much specific to say about this. Seems like this will be the episode dedicated to trying to get Moon her memory back - we have scenes from the promos of them riding warnicorns and Eclipsa playing guitar with her, maybe just trying to jog it. Could lead to some type of plot revelation (”I remember something big I saw in the Realm of Magic!” etc) but who knows. Seems likely that it’s entirely plot/Moon-focused, maybe with some more tie-ins to magic lore.

Swim Suit

This is a big one. So from the synopsis, we know that this is when Star and Marco attempt to have their beach day (which we now know is a celebration of things being “back to normal”, with Moon being back) but get interrupted by Eclipsa. I don’t know specifics of it, but in general, I think this is going to be the episode where Star truly settles in to an understanding of how she feels.

Quick tangent about the photo and how I think it’ll be used: in Follies, it was primarily encouragement for finding her mom. It’s still definitely interesting, and intentional, that the particular reminder of future happiness is a time with Marco, but it wasn’t relevant immediately - I think it will be used that way moving forward. Basically like this - “I kept this photo as encouragement to think positively and know I’d find my Mom. We found Mom, so now I can be happy like in the photo. It feels really good being happy with Marco like I am in the photo. Huh, I wonder why it is that my ideal of happiness is having fun with Marco...” Clearly the underlying feelings are already there, this is just bringing them to the forefront, actually giving Star a chance to reflect on how her heart feels after recent weeks/months and big events. As for specifics, I think they won’t actually take the photo here. They’ll try to have a beach day, get interrupted, and throughout the course of Eclipsa shenanigans, the episodic plot will tie in towards thinking about her feelings, with the end result being a “well, we didn’t achieve Beach Happiness™, but it was still nice.” We already know that an Earth beach is in episode 16, so maybe the photo comes full circle then (and at that point, they’re completely together already, and the photo is spontaneous). Or maybe I’m wrong, but who knows, this is a level of specificity I can’t predict with any confidence.

Also note here that, provided animation studio order stays consistent as expected, the cereal/pancake/babysitting Meteora scenes aren’t actually from Swim Suit, so who knows where those end up.

Overall, my general expectations for this episode are to set the stage for Starco developments, to start the ball rolling on payoff from last season and to start characters recognizing those changes and truly moving forward. Of course Tomstar is likely not going away officially until Lake House Fever, so I don’t exactly expect Star and Marco to talk about their feelings in depth here, but it’ll still be an important episode for Starco regardless.

Ransomgram

Alright, let’s just make something clear here. Yes, we already know Star is going to be fawning over adult Marco’s hot bod here, and very likely before breaking up with Tom. I know a lot of people are gonna find that sketchy, and I don’t entirely disagree, but adult Marco (and Star thirsting after hot dudes in general) has always been a gag never treated with any real serious weight. Both Jarco and Tomstar overall, but especially Tomstar, never really ever are treated with any true weight in the story. Like, yes, it’s acknowledged that Marco and Star kissing while she’s dating Tom are bad, but none of the moments of Marco abandoning Jackie to be with Star, or Star ignoring Tom to be with Marco, or Tom being a really unhelpful/unsupportive boyfriend, are ever treated with any real gravity. In the real world, perhaps these would be frowned upon much more even in weaker relationships, but in the show, “Star and Tom are dating” is taken as a given in the background, and none of the actions that characters take are really ever truly treated seriously as hurtful. So yes, on some level it’s weird and questionable that Star will be drooling over Marco (again) while STILL not talking to Tom, but Compartmentalization™ and the general lack of concern for treating the possible implications of situations like this seriously add up to explain it. Feel however you want about it, but this is how I expect it to work, because it’s how it’s worked in the past.

MHC is gonna come back here, and there might be a connection to the monster side of the plot, figuring out where the old guard fits in with the new regime and how politics are moving forward. Also, as far as Starco goes, I think this will be a sort of emotional payoff to Swim Suit. Not that anything tangible will result within the episode, but showing the differences in how Star acts around Marco when she’s actually admitting to herself that she loves him. Just like how Marco Jr., for instance, showed a very clear and different Starco interaction than 3A episodes, as a result of the concrete development moments in Deep Dive. Or how their interactions in Divide were very clearly the result of changes in Booth Buddies. So on and so forth.

All of this, then, leads into...

Lake House Fever

So this is where Tomstar finally rots. We have all-but-confirmation from animation studios, hints in the title, and background/SFX “leaks” that this is where the Tom and Star clips in the promos are from. So how exactly might this work? I can’t even say for sure, but I think it’s going to follow the usual trend of Tomstar episodes and basically be a vehicle for Tom development. Let’s face it, Star basically got nothing out of Tomstar besides a general passive armor against having to contemplate heartbreak/feelings since Tom filled the checkbox of “romance” in her life. She initially at least did truly fulfill the role of “normal teenage girlfriend” by spending time with him, dates, etc, but that started to wane after Lava Lake Beach and kept doing so more and more, and it’s now basically at the point of Tomstar being a couple in name only, with 0 effort between either of them put into actually... being anything.

Let’s compare to Sophomore Slump for a minute, shall we? So in that episode, we had Marco who had undergone a ton of previous developments in how much he cared about adventure and a greater purpose in life and Star, and his heart had already basically made up its mind (Scent of a Hoodie’s ending and wearing the cape in Rest in Pudding, as clear signs of this). Sophomore Slump was the direct reality check, the final piece of the puzzle slotting into place, at least with regards to specifically “where he’d rather be” (even if the why still needed a bit more). So we could say, in effect, that Marco had fully developed everything underneath to answer the question of what mattered more to him, the old safe kid Marco’s ideal Earth life, or the new Marco’s life, and the breakup was simply everything that was already there clicking into place - he moves to Mewni immediately afterwards.

So how does this fit into Lake House Fever? I think the positioning of the episode is going to revolve around Star’s “growth” from it to work like Marco’s. In the Jarco case, the breakup wasn’t about Starco specifically, but Marco’s overall goals and focuses in life (Star was a part of that too, of course). It’s fairly clear that the Tomstar breakup will be different - the tension in their relationship is FAR more directly related to Starco itself (and also a much greater overall dysfunction within Tomstar compared to Jarco). It’s not a case of “this is a perfectly working relationship but it’ll eventually have issues, so let’s end it before we both become miserable”, it’s “this relationship isn’t working at all right now, for multiple reasons, among which are that Star prioritizes/loves someone else, but also general incompatibilities between them for committed companionship”.

I think on Star’s end of things, we’re going to enter the episode with her knowing, very close to the surface if not on the surface already, that she has feelings for Marco and they need to talk, but will just have the one last hesitation holding her back. Not a “I genuinely don’t know who I like/whether I want to keep going longterm with Tom”, but a “this overall situation needs resolved and I just don’t know exactly how to handle it”. From the very limited info we have from the title/promo (no synopsis yet), it seems like Star might be helping Tom with something - he kind of looked ill in the promos. Regardless, I still sort of predict a semi-arbitrary episodic plot leads them to meet up in the episode. Give em a reason to interact that isn’t directly related to awkward and complex feelings, and let the handling of those naturally evolve from there.

So as for Tom, I think the bulk of the change in this episode will be on his end. I think he’s going to sort of have an attitude not too dissimilar to Star - knowing they should talk at some point, but not really knowing how. I think the bulk of the episode’s plot, whatever it may be, will lead up towards Tom getting the wakeup call that it 100% won’t work and that he needs to pull the trigger on it. It would give Tom a really solid moment to follow up on some of his initial moments in Season 3, would give him some critical agency when he honestly hasn’t had much of it for a while (Starco developments just kind of happen around him, although of course his general lack of presence in Star’s life contributes to this as well - Star’s a fairly absentee girlfriend, but Tom’s no angel either). Getting over that initial hump of awkwardness would still accomplish things for both of them, but Tom being the one to first make the leap of faith into starting the uncomfortable conversation would fit best imo.

As for afterwards, much like how I said Jarco was the final puzzle piece for Marco decisively figuring out his priorities, I think this will be the same for Star’s feelings. She’ll be aware, nearly-consciously, that she has feelings for Marco ahead of time, but will just be stuck on inaction, not being confident enough to take a bold step forward on her own. So I think the breakup for Star’s feelings will do what the breakup did for Marco’s sense of accomplishment - the final domino will not only help her realize that she has feelings for Marco, but prime her to actually act on them.

Now if this breakup occurred earlier, I’d say it could have a major impact on Star’s own growth and understanding, and it still could, but I don’t think it’ll be so likely. There are certainly situations where the breakup would serve as a shakeup for her to consider her feelings, which would then take some more time afterwards to solidify, but I can’t help but assume that’s what the purpose of multiple Starco episodes beforehand is. The situation is too much of a powderkeg for Star to have any downtime with either of them that doesn’t start turning the gears in her brain. Anyway, that’s all for this.

Eps 5-7

Yada Yada Berries/Down by the River

The Ponyhead Show!/Surviving the Spiderbites

Out of Business/Kelly’s World

These, I have no clue on specifics, to be honest. There’s an RDK Ludo episode coming up, so that would be part of episode 5 most likely. Second half of that seems like a River episode contender, but who knows. The first half of episode 6 is some type of variety show involving Eclipsa in part - this may be part of the plot of Eclipsa trying to find her place as Queen. Spiderbites is a possible contender for the babysitting Meteora clip, the first half of episode 7 is Quest Buy with the Ocrams, and Kelly’s World is something with Marco and Kelly. We’ll circle back to these, but let’s look at broader strokes first.

Curse of the Blood Moon

I’m entirely confident that by the end of this episode (at the latest) Starco will be 100% canon, ready to move forward into Season 4 as a couple, romantic uncertainties behind them. It’s the only possible next “big” step in their development, one that was set up very directly in Booth Buddies with the idea that things were different now and they could no longer ignore their friendship meaning more than friendship. I’m sure it will be tied in to Starco relationship progress, but as I’ve said many times before, it’s entirely out of the realm of how this show handles development as a whole to actually prioritize plot over characters and obstruct character development with plot. The “Curse”, whatever it may be, could very well be activated by Starco itself, but it’s entirely out of line with everything the show has ever done with characterization to actually claim plot is “forcing” feelings, capisce?

Now how could this be accomplished? Well, given the pacing of the show in general, concrete chunks of development along the way seem most likely. And Star and Marco acknowledging the stronger nature of their relationship and stepping over the edge towards mutual romance, to me, seems like a different piece of the puzzle than something so strong as becoming 100% canon forever. After all, Bonbon for Jarco still had a Naysaya before it, a setup with clear and direct Jarco moments nudging it over the edge of romantic before going the whole way. Similarly, Tomstar had Demoncism before they officially confirmed they were a couple a few episodes later.

Curse is definitely going to be a big episode, but I don’t see it being very likely that we entire the episode with the entire prospect of Star and Marco talking about their feelings still completely looming over them. Another major reason I have to believe this, which is in some ways related to the above point, is that the show doesn’t overly fetishize romance. It’s all-too-common in media, especially family-friendly/kid media with romance, to warp the whole concept and make the “confession + big kiss + happily ever after” one monolithic moment at the very end, as the pinnacle of romance, often going so far as to delay natural developments and put roadblocks of misunderstanding in the way to keep the pair apart until both could have this moment. SVTFOE, on the other hand, historically hasn’t done this. It has always, thus far, recognized the ebbs and flows and slower progression of natural relationships, with steps in between “I guess we might like each other” to “yup we’re 100% dating”. So I can’t guarantee anything about the specific pacing along the way, but I’d wager that Starco has already crossed the threshold into mutual romance before Curse begins.

I have genuinely no idea what the plot will be here overall. We have a shot from the promo which is a newly animated version of the Blood Moon Waltz... flashback? Recreating the event? Time travel? I hope not the last one, but I have no clue.

So circling back around, we have the cereal, pancake, and babysitting Meteora scenes which (as far as I can tell, assuming animation studio order holds) are unaccounted for. There’s... I suppose a nonzero chance for a huge curveball, with some of them being Lake House Fever? Star wears the new S4 outfit in cereal/pancake as well as then, and they’re all Sugarcube. Another option I’d been considering was for Surviving the Spiderbites to be their attempt to spend time together, either resulting in feelingstalk or being the result of feelingstalk and tiptoeing into romance, with the cereal/pancake scenes being about trying to have a good “date” but getting interrupted... which is now the plot of Swim Suit, so I don’t know. Quest Buy has always, historically, involved heavy Starco importance, so perhaps that episode is a leadin to Curse on that front. Note that either everyone actually thinking Kelly’s World (and their baking scene in Ponyhead Show) is actually implying more love triangles is wrong, or the writers officially gave up and we can all go home.

As a note, I’m of course not really making any bold claims of confidence in the minutiae of these predictions: there’s so many options for curveballs that I can’t say anything for sure! But I think, in a general sense, the path of Starco buildup towards and through Curse is a sure thing, one way or another, because there’s basically nothing else meaningful that could happen!

Hope you enjoyed the read, and stay tuned for any new updates we get on future episodes.

#svtfoe #star vs the forces of evil #svtfoe spoilers #starco #tomstar

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davidmann95 · 6 years ago

Text

The Kingdom Hearts III Reaction

First thing’s first: yes, I got the responses to my initial reaction letting me know I could use L2 to cycle through triangle commands, and oh my god that made things so much more manageable, so thank you.

Gameplay wise, I said what I had to say right off the bat earlier: lot of fun, best version of the traditional playstyle. Gorgeous except for when it’s the most gorgeous. Way more game than I could handle on the margins, but it felt like fun available options I could choose whether to pursue or not rather than overwhelming.

Under the cut I’m gonna talk some broad structural stuff; I’ll avoid anything overtly spoilery, but it would certainly be understandable if you’d rather stay away. Under another bolded sign though I’m going to get into MAXIMUM spoiler territory, so those who just want my basic impressions but would prefer to hold off on more than that until they have their own go at it can know where to get off.

So this game does like 90% of everything I ever wanted it to do, plus so much MORE than I ever would have expected, resulting in a finale even more grand and resonant and satisfying than I might have imagined after nearly 13 years of waiting. The problem is that all that stuff is in the last 8 hours, and it is very, very clear that’s the part of the game Nomura and company actually cared about. This wasn’t interested in being Kingdom Hearts III, it wanted to be Kingdom Hearts III Part 3/3: The Finale after Dream Drop Distance and A Fragmentary Passage covered the other biggies, to the point of as mentioned before critically compromising the beginning of the game. It reached the point where Dream Drop Distance went from just baaaaarely pulling ahead of 358/2 Days to dead damn last in my ranking of these, because it not only set the tone for what went wrong here - even if this succeeded in the end in a way that couldn’t - but sponged off vital reveals and the conclusion to Riku’s character arc, both of which 1,000,000% needed to be in here so this could be a complete sequel rather than in an intermediary story where they were weakened by context.

Long story short, Nomura and Square are going to have to think very, very hard about what kind of a role the Disney worlds are going to play in these going forward, because the enthusiasm for them on the part of the writers is visibly dead. Not across the board, passion clearly went into the likes of the Toy Story and Big Hero 6 worlds, but it could not have been plainer that Monsters Inc. and Frozen were checkmarks being crossed off, perfunctory in a way I genuinely don’t feel the Disney worlds were in the past (though that may be in large part because this time around Sora is literally just there for level grinding, rather than an immediate search for friends, stripping away the central underlying emotional urgency of I and II). It would’ve been alright if there had been a major act break of the sort II had to provide a sense of forward momentum, but as is it really is just marking time while characters other than Sora drive the plot in the background, mostly in the form of catching up with what the audience already knows. They’ll always be a part of the franchise, and obviously the iconic Disney figures in Mickey and the rest will always be central, but unless the powers that be find a fresh new angle I think it’s getting to be time to scale the movie settings back in favor of the main story and original worlds, if not to the extent the Final Fantasy elements have received.

So I spent most of the game disappointed, figuring it would pull it all together for the finale and more than satisfy me, but not enough to retroactively redeem the game as a whole. And then it retroactively went and redeemed the game, because when I say it kicks off in the last 8 hours I don’t mean that that’s where things start getting parsed out in time for the finale. I mean it’s 8 solid hours of climax, physical and plot and character, the most intense and overwhelming of the franchise, answers to real-life-decade spanning mysteries and character resolutions and endgame-scale setpieces and catharsis being delivered just one after the other after the other. It’s the entire emotional underpinning of the game in a single titanic endrun, in an experience and at a pitch I’ve never seen before. Even the parts that should have been set up earlier in the game still have the entire rest of the series and years of anticipation leading into them, and while it’s a shame it had to bank on that advantage, it worked, because when I look back on the game in years to come it’s going to be this that I’ll remember, and when I someday a long time from now play through the franchise as a whole, I’ll go through the parts that previously irritated me with a smile on my face because it’ll just be a charming interlude rather than a dead stop. I can’t put this over II’s more well-rounded experience because of those structural issues, but while 0.2 is maybe the purest expression of intent thus far in the series, its brevity, and the fact that as good as it gets its best isn’t as good as this gets, puts III neck-and-neck with it as the franchise runner-up for me.

Okay, BIGGEST SPOILERS IN THE FUCKING WORLD UNDER THE IMAGE

So being a person who exists online in the 21st century, I had some key images of the ending spoiled for me well in advance, which sucked but was also maybe a blessing in disguise, because if I hadn’t been braced when those last three seconds came...that would have been rough. It was startlingly rough as is, which is odd because as much as I’ve always liked Sora as a character and appreciated the odd way his nature as a Disney hero in a Final Fantasy dark epic makes him a perfect lead and counterpoint, I never realized the depths of emotional investment I’d attached to his specific fate until the rug got pulled out. It would be as blatant a “but there’s no body!” moment as any there’s ever been even without the secret ending and the confirmation on Nomura’s part that Sora will remain the main character, it’s an emotional blow and a setback and a mystery for the others to solve rather than a full tragic ending (and one would have to imagine the characters themselves would believe that and will act accordingly given this entire story was itself about bringing back a bunch of Very Definitely Dead Folks), but it’s harsh as hell even if it’s very clearly the next step in a Master Plan rather than purely blueballing players for the cruel joy of it. Still, even if it’s reminiscent of stuff we’ve seen before, a melancholy-at-best ending is fully within the franchise wheelhouse; if I’m right and there’s one full trilogy of main games remaining in the series (I’m guessing without many if any spinoffs, Nomura’s bosses are definitely going to have his nose to the grindstone to get through the remainder of this thing on a sane timescale so as not to have another...well, this), maybe it’ll fully establish a sad-odd-numbered-ending, happy-even-numbered ending pattern, with IV having a gleeful reunion, V ending with all seeming lost, and the grand finale letting the heroes have their happily ever after.*

Before getting into the gushing praise for the rest of it, the reason this is at 90% of everything I wanted rather than complete: Kairi is bizarrely shortchanged here compared to every other central character, especially given her relationship with Sora is the foundation of the very end and she’s the logical main protagonist for IV. Even her ‘death’ isn’t my issue so much - by the end of the game Sora has rescued literally every other main character from beyond the veil of the afterlife or a living hell in fairly rapid succession, she’s just the last and biggest deal to him personally - as that even a few more scenes with her would have shored up so much. Not that her material isn’t good when she is there, I absolutely do think it was, and the emotional buildup from the series up to this point was more than enough in my opinion to carry her stuff through, but it’s the equivalent of, say, Lois Lane appearing out of nowhere at the end of a Justice League story to provide the impetus for Superman: obviously this works and makes sense because we know how much they mean to one another, but in the context of this as a lone narrative it’s a little out of nowhere. Riku gets it pretty bad too, if not as much so, but he has the ‘excuse’ of having his character arc resolved in Dream Drop Distance. Still though, it means the central trio is scarcely a thing in here the way it was in the past, though it looks like the next game is going to be entirely about getting them back together and hopefully they’ll stay as a complete unit from there on out.

Also prior to gushing praise: if Dream Drop Distance hadn’t happened, it would be so easy to restructure this in a way that would make the whole thing satisfying instead of just a perfect chunk of it. Open the game with Sora and Riku going into the Realm of Darkness to save Aqua, have Sora succeed but in the process of THAT lose his powers (making it a noble sacrifice on his part foreshadowing the end rather than a non-fuckup that the player pays for); Aqua has to recuperate, preferably with Kairi and Lea so they can get more screentime, Sora’s off regaining his powers and tracking down clues to the location of Castle Oblivion since it was under Organization control and therefore hidden, and Riku’s off with Mickey having his DDD arc. Stick the reveal of the real Organization XIII midgame, and keep the finale almost exactly as is. That way, plot and character’s doled out throughout, character screentime is rebalanced, and everything that worked stays working and comes to the exact same conclusion.

Gushing praise time: holy fuckin’ cow, this hit me in ways I did not see coming. The reunion of the other two trios was something I looked forward to well enough but not anything I fully expected to outright bowl me over, but by god they pushed those buttons as hard as they could and made them everything anyone could need them to be. But that was expected, to one extent or another; what I don’t think anyone could have seen coming was, in the final gasp of this saga of hilariously, broadly Arch villains, every single one of them turning out to be a real goddamn human being with understandable emotions and motivations and implied history and arcs. Monsters see the light (with the contextually hilarious exception of the one character fandom MOST wanted to see get a face turn with Vanitas, and even he finds understanding and peace) after a whole series of believing there’s one in the darkness when only one or two major characters had made a turnaround, and it doesn’t just make this game richer, it retroactively improves the entire series thematically and emotionally, as well as setting the stage for more of that approach based on what we know of what’s to come. And action-wise, it really does go for trying to beat II’s last Xemnas fight, and while I don’t know that it manages it in sheer cool thanks to that final laser blocking/dual wielding finale, it I think really does come out on top in the fights leading up to it and the spectacle and the emotional power and the beautiful interface screw (after the shit with the tornado earlier!), nevermind the absolute end where Our Nerd Dad Luke Skywalker** shows up to give his blessing to the franchise and usher out the story as it was.

As for the pair of post-credits scenes: in each instance I had something spoiled for me, but also in each instance not the BIG thing. I knew Xigbar would live and summon the Foretellers, which honestly is not that shocking for me. That he IS one of them, that he’s been putting on an act (one clearly in the shape of his teacher) and been a bigger villain than Xehanort THE ENTIRE TIME? I believe that got a literal gasp out of me, and THAT’S before it turned out that after bullheadedly clinging to the idea that she’s still a main villain for all these years, Maleficent might actually end up a main villain again. And the secret movie? I had the title spoiled - and god what a perfect twist, the most gleefully apeshit moment in the game and already probable best moment in gaming of the year coming back around in a completely serious way to define the future of the franchise - but assumed wrongly that it meant Sora would be in some way ‘reincarnated’ amnesiac as Yozora and needing to be returned to himself. But nope, Sora’s for real out there alive as himself in...something like the real world? Or The World Ends With You, which I understand is at least a lot closer? And Riku’s gonna wind up stuck out there too? And because Yozora’s there it means they’re in some kind of fuckin’ Flash of Two Worlds! situation?! Or if it’s in the same physical realm (which I have to doubt or Sora would rush home as soon as he got a ship) it’s the equivalent of that dope two-part Terra Obscura arc in Tom Strong?! Sora and Riku, trapped in a world where Kingdom Hearts is a Dark, Realistic Modern Urban Fantasy (which, if Sora got here by dying, does...does that mean Gritty Realworld! AU Kingdom Hearts fanfic is that universe’s version of hell? Because that would be beautiful) (did “This is a fantasy based on reality” end up carried over as the logline to Final Fantasy XV from Versus XIII? Because if not, absolutely use it here to keep that gag going) and having to fight their way back to their world and friends, hopefully with Kairi going on her own playable adventure on the other end of the cosmos to find them since there’s no way she wouldn’t be leading the search? And with the Master of Masters waiting in the wings, the perfect villain in general because if Sora is the MOST Disney character in this universe he appears to be the LEAST, and especially perfect here now that Sora’s symbolically if not possibly literally on his turf? Waiting I’m guessing another 3-5 years is gonna be hell (I’m guessing IV’ll be announced next year or maaaaaaaybe late this year because thus far Kingdom Hearts has never gone with no announced games on the horizon longer than the end of the next calendar year, and we’ll see how development goes after that; like I said, I imagine the pressure is on for Nomura), but this could not look more like my shit.

So that’s, after all these years, Kingdom Hearts III: an understandable, maybe unavoidable, but still crushing disappointment that undermined itself narratively before it even began production and ran on a burned-out crew that could never meet the impossible expectations surrounding it. Until it suddenly winks, brushes itself off, and lives up to damn near EVERYTHING on its shoulders in the most incredible ways possible while also transcending its previous limitations as a story right in front of you, and then breaking your heart before planting the seed to repair it and charting a path towards an even more exciting future. All said and done, I liked it a whole lot, and it’ll always be special to me.

* At this point, I really could go for the ending of the whole thing literally being Sora and Kairi walking into the sunset together, with the camera panning up into the sky and text (not mysterious narration like in the past, but old-school Disney-cartoon-style outside-the-world of the story cursive text) appearing to declare 𝒜𝓃𝒹 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓎 𝓁𝒾𝓋𝑒𝒹 𝒽𝒶𝓅𝓅𝒾𝓁𝓎 𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇 𝒶𝒻𝓉𝑒𝓇. That is the level of closure and myth and satisfaction it’s gotta be building towards after everything thus far and everything to come.

** If you are reading this without having played or watched the game: given I know that’s now in the realm of possibility, no, I don’t literally mean Luke Skywalker showed up.

Yet.

#Kingdom Hearts III #Kingdom Hearts #Analysis #Opinion

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