#it's sto related so it goes here

[bandagemanl0ver]

Why I believe Chuuya will not only survive Mersault but ALSO have a major / meaningful role in future time. (Theory) (Hypothesis) (Insane Ramble) (You Name It!)

First of all, I think it’s plain clear that Chuuya’s not dying here. Kinda.

There’s a lot to read, but I promise it’s worth it!! (Mostly if you’re worried about best boy best BSD and best animanga character ever, Chuuya Nakahara) (No bias here)

I will start with my main point which is related to Stormbringer, and then move on to other points. There is spoilers for a lot of stuff here!

For those who haven’t read Stormbringer, I will try to give an introduction / context to the theme in the least detailed possible way I can, and even though like I said it won’t be very detailed or have major SB spoilers, it does describe the ending result of Verlaine’s plans as a whole and his state six years after, in the current BSD time.

So after Paul Verlaine, Chuuya’s crazy protective older brother, is forced into corruption and goes batshit insane and almost destroys Yokohama and possibly the entire world, Chuuya beats the shit out of him, they create this insane epic fight thing and after that everyone thinks Verlaine’s dead afterwards. (Except the Port Mafia) But he’s not! Dude decides that there’s no reason to be in the outer world (as there is literally no one he wants to see.) and stays in the fucking Port Mafia’s basement training the PM’s potential assassins (As he’s (one of ??) the best in the world, duh)

So all that shit goes down after much more other shit went down which I won’t talk about because it’s 1. Not related 2. I’m not that cruel as to spoil it entirely for those who haven’t read SB

And then the story tells how aside from training, Verlaine does no other thing rather than wait. Wait for what? His only reply is always “the storm.”

So this is where Chuuya kicks in!!

There is nothing alive that Verlaine could care about so much to constantly wait for other than Chuuya / Something that affects Chuuya considering Rimbaud is fucking dead. “The storm” is an ominous fucking name that makes you think “Oh damn, what’s gonna happen?” and for Verlaine to be INVOLVED in it to the point he’s waiting for it means it’s most definitely related to Chuuya, because just as only Chuuya could stop Verlaine in his corrupted form, aside from Dazai I think only Verlaine can stop Chuuya. (And let’s speak hypothetically if Chuuya went as batshit as Verlaine did and created this whole space time breach I don’t think Dazai would be able to cross it. That shit was deadly and Chuuya himself only survived because of 1. Adam’s weapon 2. He’s literally god)

Now I’m going to sound like fucking MatPat here, but if you think of the title “Storm Bringer” it’s basically the bringer of the storm, or like, the one who brings the storm. The storm Verlaine talks about, the insane storm only him and Chuuya can create, so the bringer of the storm is Chuuya, the Storm Bringer!!!! See that makes total sense and isn’t at all delusional

So if Chuuya fucking dies, then “the storm” Verlaine is waiting for is either something entirely different (which I doubt) or Asagiri forgot about it LMAO. (which I also doubt)

PLUS such a cliffhanger on the theme and something that is keeping Verlaine, the overpowered fuck, in waiting, probably means it’ll be important or at least memorable, which is good because Chuuya deserves some fucking screentime.

Also I’ve heard the rumor (key word: RUMOR; I don’t think it’s confirmed or at least I haven’t seen proof of so) that the novel to open BSD’s S4 will be SB, and in the last novels we’ve had implemented in the anime, they are chosen like that because they complement the events of the current timeline in some way, so if SB were to be chosen then it could probably add context for anime only watchers about something that *may* happen in Mersault, and it would be pointless if Chuuya just went gluglugluglu and went limp there. (If none of this happens, then fuck me!)

(Maybe the storm is coming sooner than we thought!!! I am not insane)

Okay that’s all relating SB and now I’ll move on to these side bulletpoints that don’t really contribute to Chuuya getting a major role but DO contribute to my belief of Chuuya surviving.

* It’s fucking lame. Like okay fine I know authors mess up sometimes but if Chuuya just went and died there it would be the most disappointing, boring, lame, stupid, red-face-and-smoke-coming-out-of-ears-inducing EPIC FAIL in animanga history. I’m not even being biased here it would just suck. Chuuya’s entire story, character development, whole fucking world building relating him, and Asagiri’s comments in the SB afterword just feel like a huge buildup to something bigger, and for it to be just cut like that would be so plot convenient and boring and a let down and it would suck. And if he did just die there, maybe it could lead to some major catastrophe like Dazai feeling like crap (even more) or the PM going insane over it, but that would just make Chuuya a plot device!!! For other characters!!! I think NOT. Complex, well developed, strong ass Chuuya, being killed for the sake of the development of others? Or even worse, nobody gives a shit and some people just go boo hoo and whatever? Never!! And if that does happen I am rewriting BSD myself. (Jokes on you I don’t have the motivation)

* Dazai. Look I don’t really give a damn wether you see Soukoku as platonic or romantic because either way it kinda works, but there’s no denying that Dazai does give a shit about him. Although Dazai has sometimes done some mess ups in his plans (as he’s no omnipotent god unlike fanon sometimes presents him.) he usually has everything already predicted to the point it makes you think what the fuck man? And his methods are usually so dramatic and terrible for no reason, yes, but he’s never let Chuuya die. (Unless he died too, but if he died too then there should be other people dying too, because there is no way in hell he’d ever commit a double suicide with Chuuya, key SB where Mori tells him that and Dazai is like FUCK NO! and gets to work immediately.) “But wait!!! Dazai said there wasn’t any memorable moments which means he doesn’t care and he said goodbye.” Okay, he did, but what kind of utter fool actually believes the shit Dazai says?? Everyone knows that Dazai likes to be misleading because he’s a piece of shit, so why believe him now??? Honestly I don’t understand that fucking idiot sometimes, and there is No Way In Hell you can actually believe that everything Dazai says, mostly when he’s being obviously exaggerated, Is the plain truth. There could be the possibility that Dazai had no idea Fyodor would bring Chuuya there and shit and drowning Chuuya was his only option, and then he tried to give Chuuya this whole heartwarming goodbye but then was like ew and started hiding his feelings again and didn’t, but nonetheless he comes up with alternative plans in like, minutes. (Key SB, Again) And speaking of Fyodor bringing Chuuya, we move on to our next point!

* How in the flying fuck did Fyodor GET Chuuya to help him? Like first of all how was Chuuya even bitten??? Who brought him? What the hell?? Yes, this could be only for plot convenience and maybe it’ll go unexplained, but I like to think it was some sort of plan, wether from the PM, or just HOPING that maybe they’re working with Dazai too from the beginning.

* The Vampires. I don’t know if you guys have noticed, but the vampires eyes are progressively turning from black to white. Chuuya’s not the only example, as this is happening with Akutagawa too, so I’m wondering what the fuck that is and hoping it’s not an artistic error. (Which professionals obviously wouldn’t commit, but I would..) I’m still mentally debating wether Chuuya’s eyes changed to human or white the moment he was drowning, but I don’t think they’d show us that Right Before He Sinks only for him to drop dead. Bleh.

* THE WATER IS AGAINST ABILITIES BUT CHUUYA’S ABILITY ISN’T A REAL ABILITY. Plus, how do you know Nikolai wasn’t lying?? The whole prison layout was plain weird and BSD LOVES plot twists.

* You know which other plot twist bsd loves? “Haha bro’s dead oh wait no SIKE!!!!” This happened with Nikolai, Sigma, Kyouka, Kunikida, yada yada yada.

* CHUUYA IS STRONG AS FUCK AND so fucking cool guys. He is so fucking cool I spend hours in the mirror trying to do my hair slightly resemble his. No bias.

* I don’t think Fyodor’s dying either. Man looked pissed of though, so I’m curious about that.

Like I said at the beginning I think it’s very obvious that there’s more to it than Chuuya just dying there, but there’s still people going Ooo no Chuuya dead fr. Maybe I’m just insane in denial or something but the crazy proof is there!! And I’m thinking these people are like, freaking out, not thinking enough about it (which honestly doesn’t really need mental gymnastics) or are just utter morons. Yeah. Gn. (It’s 3pm)

But that’s just a theory!

A ga—

-bandagemanl0ver.

[uptoolateart]

Adrien's Fight for Self-Control

So, you’ll know by now that I have an Adrien obsession, because my inner child just relates to him so hard. I’ve wanted to talk about his fight for self-control for so long, and Season 5 is pushing the issue further – so here goes!

Warning: This is one of my long ones! I've broken it up with some fanart :) I’ve also posted it in 3 separate parts, for easier reading.

Childhood Programming

Let’s get the basics out of the way. Adrien was home schooled for years, enabling his parents to select his friends for him - Chloe and Felix. The first decision Adrien makes on his own is to go to school. Plagg calls him strange for it, but it isn’t about school – it’s about those precious hours out of the house, without being watched, and being able to choose his own friends.

All his talents were chosen for him – fencing, piano, Chinese, etc. His career in modelling was forced on him. Even when he admits to Plagg that he wants to quit, he attends an expo looking for food booths, trying to find an identity through his kwami.

We see in ‘Wishmaker’ that he only ever wanted to be was what his parents wanted him to be. This implicates Emilie, too. Adrien didn’t just learn how to do all these things overnight, and he wasn’t home schooled only since she died. At the very least, Emilie allowed Gabriel to dictate their son’s life. One way or another, she had a hand in Adrien’s oppression.

Imprisonment

I’ve pointed out before that Adrien’s bedroom windows are covered in bars, and as Cat Noir he’s often shown using his cataclysm to break through bars. Keeping him at home all those years and moulding him into someone he’s not is another form of imprisonment – but so is the state of grief.

He doesn’t know it, but his home is a mausoleum, with Emilie’s body in the basement and statues in the garden. He’s trapped by the memories of his mother, and his father’s inability to move on. Adrien can’t live, can’t breathe. And for the longest time, I think he’s been trapped inside himself, struggling to get out of the shell that is the brand Adrien Agreste or even the character he made for himself as Cat Noir.

The Twin Rings

This is not to speak of the rings, which give literal control over Adrien in episodes like ‘Ephemeral’ and ‘Risk’. And let’s recall that Emilie had one of these, which again implicates her. I noted in Season 5 that Nathalie still wears the ring Gabriel passed to her in ‘Risk’. Chekov’s gun tells us that is definitely coming back. If she wanted, just what could she do to him?

Felix stole one of these rings, which was him trying to take back control of himself. Getting the peacock miraculous furthered this, and it waits to be seen what he’ll use it for. It’s clearly more than just self-protection. Adrien isn’t even there yet, but we know he will eventually surpass his cousin – because Adrien is not out for vengeance and hurt. I fully expect him to have a dark moment, but he will overcome it, because kindness is one of his greatest innate strengths.

Adrien’s Friendship Group

Moving outside the Agreste Mansion, let’s look at Adrien’s friendship group. How many times do they make decisions for him, or push him to do things he feels uncomfortable about? Even though we all know Nino means the best for him, in ‘The Bubbler’ he pressures Adrien into the birthday party that goes wildly wrong, and in ‘Party Crasher’ he leads all the boys to pressure Adrien into a secret shindig at the mansion.

All of this comes from the heart, of course – but these aren’t Adrien’s decisions. They’re Adrien being bossed around, just by people who mean better than his father.

Ladybug

We all know Ladybug bosses him around all the time, too. Worse than this, she repeatedly uses him, for instance as a weapon, and he sacrifices himself over and over again. We’re seeing this change in S5, the crucial moment being in ‘Reunion’ when Pharoah throws Cat down and Ladybug expresses concern that he got hurt. I’m pretty sure this is the first time she ever stopped to consider that he wasn’t invulnerable and might actually appreciate some care for his wellbeing. It was a long time coming, and ultimately it came about through Cat getting some self-respect and showing her that he was worth caring about. As long as he allowed her to boss him around, she was never going to stop. I don’t think it was done out of cruelty – she just had to learn.

Kagami

Kagami has never been shy and retiring. In ‘Frozer’ she tells Marinette that you have to be decisive and go after what you want. The way she talks about Adrien as her ‘target’ implies that she doesn’t really see him for him. He’s just an object of conquest, because this is how Ms Tsurugi has trained Kagami to think.

Kagami forces herself on Adrien, pushing a kiss on him that leaves him flustered, and he tells her he wasn’t ready. He dates her because she basically tells him to and he doesn’t know how to tell anyone no, at that point. In ‘Lies’ she pushes him against a wall and tells him that the silly side to him isn’t who he really is – ‘this is who you are’ (an intimidated mess totally cornered with no room to breathe or even stand up straight). He goes as far as asking, ‘Do you really think…?’ as if she might know who he is better than he does. But he ducks out of the situation and escapes, which is a key moment of development for him.

Even so, he doesn’t have the nerve to end things. Kagami is the one who dumps him. She calls all the shots. By the end of the season, in ‘Risk’ she calls him and tells him off for letting Felix literally take his place to stand up to his father, to enable Adrien to hide from his personal responsibilities. After barely seeing her through most of the season, she finally acknowledges that she pushed him around when they dated, and he let her and it was wrong. We can assume she spent the season self-reflecting on how badly she acted…but she’s right that it was half his fault. He enabled the behaviour, because that’s what he’s groomed for.

Ironically, the only reason he rushes back to the mansion to take back his identity after Felix stole it, and stand up to his father, is because Kagami told him to. I’m relieved Adrien didn’t get the chance to confront his father in that episode, because it would not have come from him. We’ll get back to this later.

Becoming Cat Noir

As Cat Noir, he gets the opportunity for some degree of freedom, although it leads to a similar situation – again, he’s a celebrity icon no one truly knows. He can’t be himself – he’s a character.

In S5 we saw Ladybug and Cat Noir go back in time and meet Master Fu without him knowing their identities. It got me thinking – did he remember them from that and did it lead to his judgments in who to choose as the miraculous holders, later on?

Then I was thinking for the umpteenth time: why did he select Adrien for the cat? He must have watched Adrien and Marinette for a time before entrusting them with such responsibilities. He had to have known who Adrien was – he’s a global celebrity, after all. Maybe he saw the pretty perfect boy and thought this kid needs to get out more and have some fun – there’s a fire in his eyes that needs expression. Maybe he saw the goodness in there, too.

I can’t help but think Adrien has this self-destructive streak, which pairs well with his power. It’s almost like someone said, let’s give you the ultimate power of destruction and see what you do with it. Because he could very well use that cataclysm on himself, or his father. We’ve seen this hinted at multiple times, such as in ‘Guilt Trip’ and ‘Cat Blanc’. But when that power is literally in your hands, not just theory…could you actually use it?? This is Adrien’s test. I’ll touch on this more, later on.

Emotions

So, we’ve looked at how Adrien is controlled, and struggling to take back that control over his own life. But self-control is also about managing your emotions.

We see moments like in ‘Sentibubbler’ when he smashes down a wall and stares at it in surprise, like he didn’t even realise he had that in him. In New York, he cataclysmed Uncanny Valley and realised for the first time that he’s basically a god of destruction. It hadn’t previously occurred to him just how far his power could go – he doesn’t remember ‘Cat Blanc’. From that point onward, we saw him have more and more of these ‘dark’ moments where he loses control of himself because his feelings best him.

This also comes out in the way he forces his feelings on Ladybug. But in ‘Glaciator 2.0’ and then ‘Kuro Neko’ he comes to terms with this and begins to change. We could see Kuro Neko as a symbol of how far he let it all blow up – but by the end, it’s just a tiny black kitten in need of tender care. That’s what Adrien is inside.

Similar to the cataclysm, part of Adrien’s journey is learning the art of restraint. Only someone in total self-control can truly wield the power of destruction.

Strike Back

The moment at the end of ‘Strike Back’ changed him, letting him see that Ladybug had actually been struggling with self-control all that time too. I mean, we could write a whole essay on that too, but briefly: as Marinette and as Ladybug, she comes up with all these elaborate schemes and dictates what should happen, as a means of controlling the outcome of literally everything. When things don’t work out as she planned, she melts down. This is classic anxiety. She needs to learn to let go more, and we see this happening in S5, especially in ‘Passion’ when she is paralysed and it’s down to Adrien to come up with all the ideas and release the akuma.

But sometimes you need to break completely before you can build yourself up again, and that’s what happens in ‘Strike Back’ when she has that panic attack. This is also the first time Adrien steps up and takes charge – simply by being kind. This is his true identity, after so much time trying to figure it out.

That strong stance at the end, just showing her that he will never stop being there for her – letting go of all the romance and seeing what really matters, being her friend – that was powerful. Remember moments like in ‘Party Crasher’ when Fu told him to think sensibly and not go rushing in, and Cat stared blankly before hurling himself at the villain and getting captured. In ‘Strike Back’ he could have done something similar – gone after Felix, for instance. But Adrien pushed all of that aside, took responsibility and just showed up for Ladybug. When she looked at him with new eyes, it was because she was seeing a Cat Noir in total control of himself and his emotions.

Alliance

This paves the way for a new Adrien in S5. At the end of S4, in ‘Risk’ we saw Marinette show him understanding and support about his frustrations with his father dictating his life. In S5, far from just doing what Kagami told him to do, Adrien thinks of Marinette’s words of encouragement and he makes the decision for himself – to quit modelling. It’s on his own terms. We can also see this as the direct result of him being forced into cataclysming a human for the first time, which we’ll look at next. The point is: he’d had enough.

Unfortunately, Adrien’s freedom is granted via Gabriel designing Alliance. Now Adrien is owned by just about everyone. And let’s not overlook the fact that this is all done via rings. There were first two rings wielding power over him, and now there are millions. In a story where identity is such a strong theme, this is an act of identity theft in perhaps its darkest form. Not just that, but in ‘Elation’ we see fans chasing Adrien down the street again, thinking they know him or have a stake in him.

Importantly, I believe Marinette is the only one not wearing one of these rings. She is the only one not trying to own him – and this is paralleled by her making the decision to let him go as a love interest.

Cataclysm

We can’t look at this subject without examining ‘Cat Blanc’ – particularly that moment when Hawk Moth revealed himself as Gabriel and Cat’s first impulse was to cataclysm his own father, in full knowledge of who he was. He stopped himself at the last second – but it was foreshadowing. Similarly, Cat struggling to decide who he should listen to and obey, Ladybug or Gabriel, was foreshadowing.

Jump to S5, in ‘Destruction’ Ladybug made a complicated plan (again without telling Cat in advance) that involved tying him to Monarch, cataclysm charged as a threat. I think this was probably Ladybug’s worst moment, and I do hope the show has her reflect on things like this, as the series goes on.

Monarch is the one who forces the cataclysm. Adrien has now initiated his own father’s slow painful death, completely against his will. It’s a turning point, because then in ‘Jubilation’ after Cat’s dream is shattered, he knowingly and purposely launches his cataclysm at Darker Owl. He stops himself at the last second, but you can see it in his eyes – he nearly lost control and he’s terrified by the power of his own rage.

As an aside, when that dream fades, we could see this as Adrien being forced to give up the dream of being with Ladybug. It’s no coincidence that the very next episode is ‘Determination’, where he’s moving on to Marinette.

Exaltation

And now we push on to ‘Elation’, a strange title choice in English when the original French title ‘Exaltation’ is a word in English, as well.

I prefer ‘Exaltation’ because of its additional meanings:

1.       A feeling or state of extreme happiness

2.       The action of elevating someone in rank or power

3.       The action of praising someone or something highly

Moreover, in astrology exaltation refers to the state of total awareness in relation to a particular planet – in other words, owning the qualities that planet symbolizes.

Not only was this episode about the joy Marinette and Cat Noir both felt for a while, but Adrien / Cat’s elevation as a person when he exercised the greatest self-control he could.

He gets his wish – Marinette kisses him – but he stops the kiss because it’s the right thing to do (as I’ve discussed in a previous post). He had exactly what he wanted, but he refused to have it on deceptive terms. He won’t push someone else around the way he’s been pushed around all his life.

This is not a needy Adrien / Cat Noir. He’s not reached his full potential yet, but he is definitely well on his journey.

Owning Your Cat Blanc

Finally, I leave you with a brief extract from my fic ‘Breaking Free’, where I explored the theme of Adrien’s need to own his Cat Blanc. The truth is that we all have one and we can’t just get rid of it. That potential is always in Adrien and that’s part of what he’s battling with.

We’re unlikely to see anything like this in the show so directly, but this is what I’m waiting for symbolically, expressed however the writers want to do it:

‘Cat Blanc,’ he said, bold enough to be heard over the sound of metal beginning to collapse beneath them. ‘I’ve been afraid of you ever since Marinette told me about you. But that’s just because I’ve been afraid of losing control. If I’m a blank slate….’ He glanced down for a moment, then gave a brief laugh and met Cat’s eyes again. ‘That means I don’t have to live up to anyone’s expectations. I don’t care what my father thinks anymore.’

He paused and savoured that epiphany. ‘I truly don’t care. He’s not even my father. He’s just the figure in this reality who’s been tasked with raising me. But I’m something beyond just his son Adrien, and he’s something beyond being just my father. There’s more to be explored.’

Then, without giving his former opponent time to respond, Adrien leaned in and embraced Cat Blanc, speaking softly over his shoulder. ‘I don’t want to defeat you. I accept you. You’re flawed – but you’re part of me, and that’s okay. I never wanted to be perfect anyway. I’m not afraid of you anymore.’

Come on, Adrien - you're nearly there!!!

[flames-bring-a-ton-of-ash]

Irresistible Danger - Part 60

Synopsis:  After being caught outside the compound on your own, Negan decides to punish you in the best way possible ;)

Words: 3,229

Warnings: nsfw, smut, swearing

ID Masterlist can be found HERE

Masterlist of all my fics can be found HERE

Author’s Note: We’re back! Omg y’all...I finally have a path to the ending for this fic! After this chapter, I’m planning for there to be 5 more chapters until the end, which will give ID a total of 65 chapters. I’m still working on writing and editing these last chapters, but I’m pretty confident in that timeline :D I also plan to post each Friday again, so there should be chapters now through September 10th, if all goes according to plan. 

PDA

You woke with a smile the next morning, partially because of the happiness filling your chest like a balloon. The other part was because the warm body behind you, accompanied by a rasp of beard on your shoulder and soft lips on your neck, signalled that you weren’t alone. 

The florid orange rays coming in the large windows told you that it was still early, the sun barely risen above the horizon. Turning over onto your other side to face Negan, you took in his tousled hair and heavy-lidded gaze. 

“Mornin’ doll,” he said, voice raspy with sleep. 

“Morning,” you whispered back, pressing a kiss to his irresistible mouth. “No crack-of-dawn meetings today?”

His lips quirked against yours. “Nope, thank fuck,” he murmured, before rolling atop you and spending a good portion of the morning taking you apart with pleasure, then putting you back together piece by piece with cuddles and toe-curling kisses. 

When he later glanced over at the clock and saw that it was almost 10am, he gave a groan and flopped onto his back with a forearm covering his eyes. “Much as I’d love to stay here all day, I gotta go with a couple Saviors to check out one of the nearby outposts. They reported some concerns about their fucking security measures, and also requested a few more men be stationed out there to help divvy up their shifts, so I wanna go see if there’s any fucking issues for myself.”

While you felt a tiny thrill that he was so willing to tell you this information, to let you know about his duties as leader, you also had a moment of worry about him possibly assigning more men out to work the outpost. “Is that the one you brought Simon in from a couple weeks ago?” 

Knowing exactly where your thoughts were headed, he said, “Don’t get your fucking panties in a bunch, doll. If the outpost needs more hands, I was planning to send a couple of my newer Saviors.”

Pleased at this response, you smiled and leaned in close so your mouth was hovering mere millimeters from his, before whispering, “I’m not wearing any panties to get in a bunch.” 

Before he could react, you rolled out of the bed and strode to the bathroom, putting a little extra swing to your hips. The growl and unmistakable rustling sound of sheets being thrown off was your only warning before Negan scooped you up into his arms and marched into the bathroom. 

An hour later and you were both sufficiently clean (after first getting extra dirty against the shower wall), and you saw Negan off from his rooms with a kiss and warning to be careful. He gave an arrogant smirk at that, which got him an eye roll and playful shake of your head as a response. 

You watched as he strode down the hall towards the staircase, shoulders encased in leather and his whistle echoing off the walls. While they’d never dare ask him about it, you couldn’t help but give a little smile at the thought of his men wondering why the hell their usually punctual leader was almost ten minutes late to leave for the outpost...and why he seemed so happy about it.

~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

Unable to contain your excitement over the events of the night before, you headed over to Ben’s room not long after Negan left. Thankfully he was there, having just returned from finishing up serving breakfast. His roommate was out this time, so you were able to huddle across from one another on his bottom bunk and catch him up on your conversation with Negan.

Ben listened intently, mouth slowly falling further and further open as you went on. When you got to the part about Negan admitting he wanted only you, and called you his partner, Ben let out a whoop of joy and threw his arms around you in a hug. 

“I knew it!” he exclaimed. “That big lug is head over heels for you.” 

The two of you chatted happily for a bit, before you left and wandered back down to your own room. It had felt like forever since you had a chunk of time to just relax in your bed without over analyzing or stressing over something Negan-related. Gone was the weight of that padlocked box of questions, which made both your brain and subconscious very happy. The three of you snuggled up on the bed and spent the next couple of hours finishing your re-read of Harry Potter before it was time to head down to the kitchen for dinner prep. 

Today’s menu consisted of lasagna using leftover deer meat thawed from the freezer, with the signature side of rolls. Trixie had unofficially promoted herself as being in charge of roll duty, making sure the dough was the right consistency and the ovens at the perfect baking temperature. She wasn’t rude about it, but the little bit of authority she showed when instructing another staff member how to properly knead the dough seemed to fulfill her need to be seen as a knowledgeable and important part of the staff. And in all honesty, none of her feedback to the others was incorrect, so rather than reprimand her or say she was out of line, you had caught her eye at one point and given an almost imperceptible nod of approval. This caused her smile to beam so bright that it was a wonder you didn’t need sunglasses. 

As it turned out, you weren’t the only one who had noticed Trixie’s presence and been keeping a stealthy eye on her. Andrew, a member of the food prep crew, had been not-so-subtly following Trixie with his gaze lately, and today was no exception. He was an attractive man in his early 20s with shoulder-length black hair and kind brown eyes, a much more appropriate candidate for Trixie than her previous choice.

It seemed safe to say that Trixie was aware of the attention as well, as she found every reason possible to flounce past where Andrew was busy loading trays of lasagna into an oven. At one point, she even stopped to chat briefly with him, and out of the corner of your eye you saw her toss back her head and laugh at something he said. If it seemed a bit overly dramatic to you, well, Andrew didn’t seem to mind. In fact, her reaction caused him to fumble with the tray of pasta he was holding, almost spilling the entire thing onto the ground. He thankfully saved it at the last second, otherwise you would’ve had to interrupt and lecture the two of them about focusing on their work and not chit-chatting. And you didn’t want to do that, not when Trixie finally seemed interested in a guy more her age who was actually available and seemed to genuinely like her. 

Despite your initial tension with Trixie, you now realized that she had just been struggling to find where she fit in, to feel like an important part of the community. She’d initially been scooped up and led astray by Amber, but thankfully she had found her way back on the correct path and was making progress at getting along with the others, rather than isolating herself and using condescension as an emotional wall. Someone like Andrew, who was kind-hearted and considerate, not to mention absolutely captivated by her, was exactly what she needed. 

Focusing your attention away from young romance and back to meal prep, you spent the next forty-five minutes making sure everything was baked to perfection before sending out the first trays of lasagna and rolls. However, your mind kept randomly returning to Negan, almost unable to contain a secret smile each time you remembered where the two of you now stood. The usual worry and second-guessing had been replaced by the stability of knowing how he felt, and each time you remembered his words from last night a flutter of butterflies went off in your stomach. 

Negan had told you this morning that the outpost he and a small team of men were going to was less than an hour’s drive from the Sanctuary, so he planned to be back around dinnertime. Sure enough, about 20 minutes into when the first round of food was being served, you saw a small group of Saviors enter the cafeteria and settle down at a table. You guessed that they were the ones who had been out on the mini mission, and breathed a sigh of relief at seeing them back safely and with jovial expressions on their faces. You could always tell when things went wrong on a run, due to the overall aura of the men who returned, but this time they were smiling and talking animatedly with one another. Hopefully this also meant that Negan was in a happy, and perhaps affectionate, mood when you went to visit him later...

It was as if your thoughts had conjured the man himself. You were out in the cafeteria with a large water pitcher, making rounds to refill empty glasses for people, when a hush in conversation made you still and look up.

And there he was, standing at the entrance to the cafeteria with his signature leather jacket unzipped just enough so that the edge of a white tee peeked out over the top. He scanned over the tables like a king surveying his domain, looking both intimidating and absolutely delicious with the arrogant way he held himself, as if he had no cares in the world but was also ready to take on anything.

When his eyes landed on you, those sinful lips quirked upwards at the edges, and you swore that even from the distance of half a cafeteria you could see his golden gaze light up at the sight of you. He moved, striding with determination and purpose to close the space between your bodies. The breath caught in your chest at his beauty, at the raw masculinity and almost animal magnetism that surrounded him. 

He stopped mere inches away, and you gazed up at him in both welcome and a bit of confusion. Trying to act calm and unaffected, and not show how much you wanted to grin and launch yourself at him, you said, “Welcome back.” 

Your eyebrow cocked in question when he shook his head with a low chuckle. “Oh no, doll, that won’t do at all.” And with that, he wrapped an arm around your waist and lowered his head...

And kissed you in front of the entire Sanctuary. 

A wave of shock jolted through you, at the same time as your body automatically responded, molding itself to his. Your brain was flatlined on the floor from the unexpected move, while your subconscious ran around it in circles screaming with excitement. 

You could practically feel all the astonished stares from community members, as they watched their all-powerful leader break one of his cardinal rules and kiss you to within an inch of your life. And dear god, what a kiss it was! His lips were firm yet gentle, his tongue just barely tracing your bottom lip, as if he couldn’t help but steal a little taste. He wasn’t holding back, and the primal part of you recognized that he was publicly staking his claim for all to see. There could be no question after this moment that you were his, and that he wanted everyone to know it. 

When he finally pulled back, you could only look up at him with what must’ve been an utterly dazed expression, if his pleased smirk was anything to go by. Glancing to his left and then right, his brow furrowed and expression turned serious as he bellowed, “What the fuck are you all looking at?”

His words had the desired effect, as eyes dropped back to their plates and the community stuttered back to action, obviously trying and failing to act like something monumental didn’t just happen. You’d have given a lot of points to know what they were all thinking, but you didn’t see any angry expressionsand no one had said anything or acted out of line, so hopefully that was a good sign. 

Negan’s warm hand rubbed comfortingly up your bare arm, and it was then that you noticed he didn’t have his gloves on. That also sparked the realization that he wasn’t carrying Lucille, which was strange since he always had her on his person when making an appearance in front of the community. 

Now that you’re thinking about it, did he even have her this morning, when he left?

You thought back to when you had kissed him goodbye and watched as he walked down the hallway. Surely he’d have taken her with him to the outpost...but you honestly couldn’t remember seeing her up over his shoulder. You had to just be forgetting, because there was no way he’d leave her behind. 

That train of thought was brought to a halt when the hand on your arm trailed down along your waist and settled possessively on your hip. “I wanted to put in a request for one of your staff members to bring two servings of dinner to my room, for Simon and yours truly.” 

Before you could ask if he needed time alone once you were done with dinner, he provided the answer. “We need to go over the fucking outpost inspection results, but I’ll come and find you once it’s done.” It was the second time he’d done that today, answering a question before you had the chance to voice it out loud, which was a sign of how well he was coming to predict your thought process. 

You were still a bit in shock at all of this, especially how he was discussing his evening plan with you so publicly and audibly, as if to show that you were more than just his in a physical sense. He was broadcasting to the community that you were what he had already told you last night: his partner. His voice had been low enough that only the nearby tables would’ve heard, but you knew every moment of this interaction would be spread across the entire community within minutes after he left. 

Giving a smile and trying to look like ‘yep, this is completely normal, no big deal, I am totally not internally screaming with joy and wanting to climb his fine ass like a tree’, you replied, “Of course. I’ll have it sent up immediately.”

“Thanks, doll,” he said with a final smirk. Then his face morphed back into the intense, badass expression of the Sanctuary’s leader, and he strode out of the cafeteria. 

You were left standing there, still a bit shell-shocked by what had just occurred, but also giddy as hell over it. That emotional high was only slightly dimmed by the awareness that now, with Negan gone, you were the sole center of everyone’s attention. A quick scan of the cafeteria showed that most community members were trying not to openly stare. However, the lack of chewing and frequent side glances thrown your way as your legs finally unfroze and started back towards the kitchen were proof that they had all seen Negan’s display of affection. 

While the rest of the community might’ve at least been making a feeble attempt not to obviously stare, the same couldn’t be said of the kitchen staff. At least a couple of them must’ve witnessed what happened when serving trays of food, and those members must’ve scurried back to the kitchen to report it to the others. Every single one of them was staring in wide-eyed silence with a mixture of shock and fascinated curiosity when you walked back through the swinging doors. 

Even though your face felt heated and you were a bit off-kilter, you still managed to sound slightly firm when announcing, “Alright folks, back to work. And no, I don’t want to talk about it.”

You breathed a sigh of relief when they didn’t argue, but a couple of them did give knowing grins, Trixie included, though at least they all seemed good-natured about it. Trying to act as though your world hadn’t just been spun off its axis with that public kiss, you went over to Ben, who was the only one that had stayed fairly composed the entire time. In fact, his eyes danced with mirth and he was obviously trying to hold back a smirk, so you felt only minimally evil when telling him of Negan’s request that two servings of dinner be taken up to his rooms for him and Simon. Ben gave a playful glare when you told him to take up the food himself, saying it loud enough that some others heard, making him unable to say no without looking a bit suspect. 

When the tray was ready to go a few minutes later, you quietly murmured to Ben as he passed by on his way out of the kitchen, “Say hi to Simon for me.” The words caused a hint of pink to flare in his cheeks as he gave a halfhearted glare. You almost felt guilty for teasing him, but knew Ben would more than forgive you when Negan came through on his promise to get Simon his own room.  

Though the kitchen staff still threw glances your way here and there, they quickly fell back into their usual routine and no one made any direct comments. You were safe from scrutiny...at least for now. At least no one seemed to have any extreme concerns about what had happened, making you wonder how many of them had suspected what was going on between you and Negan before now.

Once dinner and cleanup were over, you headed back up to your room. Negan had said he would come find you when he was ready, so you planned to just lay back and relax until then. 

Oh, who were you kidding. After that kiss, you were totally going to sit on your bed and think about all the dirty things you wanted to do to him the moment the two of you were alone. 

Trying to convince yourself that you could be at least semi-productive and pretend to have a hobby other than fantasizing about the leader of the Sanctuary, you pulled the copy of Harry Potter off your bedside table. You were just opening to the first page, planning to restart it again from the beginning, when a firm knock sounded at your door. 

Pulse jumping with excitement, you rose from the bed and didn’t even hesitate to cross the room and reach for the doorknob. It never occurred to you that it might be anyone other than Negan, let alone for it to be the last person you’d have ever expected to see at your door. But things had been going so well today that it was almost as if fate was bored with your happiness and wanted to add some drama to the mix. 

Totally ignoring the warning prickle that ran up your spine, you opened the door with a welcome smile. It quickly died on your lips at the sight of who was standing on the other side, hands on hips and eyes throwing daggers your way. 

It was Amber...and she looked pissed.

~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

[fictionadventurer]

@lady-merian, Well, now you’ve made me curious. How does each chapter of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe end? I’m going to use the same categories I used to classify the Hunger Games chapters, but there are a few things that alter how these endings function in this book.

Genre: This is a portal fantasy, not an action-adventure book. To borrow terminology from Orson Scott Card, this is a Milieu story rather than an Event Story. The tension comes as much from exploring a new world as from navigating a plot, so a lot of the revelations and narrative changes aren’t going to be as dramatic or devastating as they might be in a more intense narrative.

POV: Rather than a first-person narrator, this book has an omniscient narrator who can show us things that the main characters don’t know about. This means that chapter endings are classified by how they function for the reader rather than the characters, since we know things that the characters don’t know.

The Categories

Bombshell: A surprise event or revelation occurs that’s outside the characters’ control. We want to turn the page to see the fallout from it.

Cliffhanger: Something is about to happen or be revealed, but we’re not sure what it is yet. We turn the page in the hope of learning this new information.

Tension-builder: We’ve just learned some new information that  makes the situation more difficult or stressful.. It’s sort of a long-term cliffhanger--we know this is going to have an effect on the story, but not necessarily at the beginning of the next chapter.

Initiative: Characters are about to or have done something to take action.

Resolution: Main conflict of the chapter has been successfully resolved.

The Chapters

Chapter 1: Lucy has just entered Narnia and seen a faun. The faun is startled by her and drops his packages. Bombshell.

Chapter 2: Lucy comes back to the spare room and announces to everyone that she’s alright. Resolution.

Chapter 3: The witch demands to know what Edmund is. Edmund says he doesn’t know what she means, and says he’s at school, but it’s the holidays now. It’s a very odd place to end a chapter, since the next chapter picks up with the same argument, and this is the second time that the Witch has asked what Edmund is.  I’ll call it a Cliffhanger, since we’re waiting to find out what the Witch means by asking “what” Edmund is.

Chapter 4: Edmund and Lucy are going back to the wardrobe. Edmund feels sick knowing that his siblings are on the side of the animals and he’s sympathetic to the witch. Lucy says, “What fun we shall have now that we’re all in it together.” A nice little bit of irony that serves as a Tension-builder.

Chapter 5: The four children hide in the wardrobe (and they don’t shut the door, because you never shut yourself in the wardrobe). Cliffhanger.

Chapter 6: Edmund and Peter argue if they can trust their guide, and Edmund points out that they don’t know the way to get back home. Bombshell.

Chapter 7: The children have just finished a meal with the Beavers and Mr. Beaver says it’s time to get down to business (and that the snow means no one will find tracks if someone’s trying to follow them). The gentlest form of Cliffhanger. We’re about to get an infodump, and we turn the page to learn the answers to questions, but it’s not a dramatic need-to-turn-the-page-now kind of tension.

Chapter 8: They’ve just found out that Edmund has gone to the White Witch, and the Beavers tell them they have to flee immediately. I’m going to call this a Bombshell, because Edmund’s defection is a huge surprise to the other three, and the announcement that they have to leave feels like an extension of that surprise.

Chapter 9: Edmund has just told the witch where his siblings are, and the witch orders her sled without bells to be prepared. Tension-builder.

Chapter 10: After everyone enjoys tea and sandwiches in the cave, Mr. Beaver tells them it’s time to move on. Initiative.

Chapter 11: The dwarf tells the White Witch that winter has been destroyed and it’s Aslan’s doing, and the Witch says anyone mentioning that name will be instantly killed. Tension-builder.

Chapter 12: Peter, still shaky after killing the Wolf, kneels before Aslan and is dubbed Wolf’s-Bane. “Whatever happens, never forget to clean your sword.”  Peter has just been prepared for the coming war. Initiative. 

Chapter 13: Aslan announces he’s made a deal and the Witch has renounced her claim on Edmund. When the Witch questions his promise, Aslan roars, and she flees for her life. Resolution.

Chapter 14: The children cover their eyes as Aslan is killed. Bombshell.

Chapter 15: Aslan brings the girls to the Witch’s home and they find themselves in a courtyard of statues. A resolution, because Aslan is alive, the journey’s over, and they’re safe, but as I’m reading it, it feels like a mild Cliffhanger, because we’re still curious about what Aslan’s going to do next.

Chapter 16: Aslan’s forces join the battle; Peter’s tired forces cheer, Aslan’s forces roar, and the enemy gibbers. Cliffhanger, since we’re not told how the battle goes, but an extremely joyful one, since it’s clear that circumstances are on the side of good. (And the first line of the next chapter tells us the battle was over in minutes). 

Chapter 17: “And that is the very end of the adventure of the wardrobe. But if the Professor was right it was only the beginning of the adventures of Narnia.” Resolution of the whole story, but with a tantalizing promise of more.

Observations

The children are pulled along by the narrative and make no decisions for themselves (at least in the chapter endings). Even in the two chapters that end in Initiative, other characters are telling the children what action to resolve upon: Mr. Beaver tells them to keep moving after tea and Aslan tells Peter to go forward in the fight. And in both cases, they’re just continuing actions that have already been happening: the flight from the Witch and the battle against the Witch’s forces. This is part of the function as a middle-grade portal fantasy. First off, they’re children, who usually need authority figures to tell them what to do. Second, the characters are just vehicles to explore the world; we don’t need to explore their struggles with finding the right course of action. We just need them to go along for the ride so we can see more of Narnia.

Only three chapters end with neat Resolutions: Lucy coming back from meeting Mr. Tumnus, Aslan sending the Witch fleeing in terror, and the very end of the book. The first one serves to set the tone: this is a place where you can go on wild, fantastical adventures, but don’t worry because you’ll get home safely in the end. (It’s like those two chapters are a miniature form of the entire book). The second one gives us a moment of triumph before the ultimate, heartbreaking defeat of the story’s lowest point. And the last one is there because the book has come to an end (though we do get imagination-firing sequel promises).

The tension-builders all relate to the villain’s wider plot. They all relate to Edmund, and two of them come when Edmund is with the Witch and separated from his siblings. This makes sense, because the villain’s plot is the only large-scale thing happening in this otherwise very immediate quest story. The story isn’t driven by tension between the characters (except the tension introduced by the Witch). It’s a very concrete “we need to go here and do this” kind of story, which provides more opportunities for the promises of immediate resolution that we get from cliffhangers and bombshells.

The cliffhangers are all very mild. It’s not “oh no, are they going to be okay?” It’s a much gentler, “I want to find out what happens next” or “I want to find out what’s going on.” We turn the page, not necessarily because we’re worried about the characters, but because we’re curious. This makes sense with the portal fantasy structure. The story is driven by that sense of wonder and curiosity.

The bombshells are the hardest-hitting moments of the story. And this story provides plenty of opportunities for them, since the children aren’t the ones driving the narrative. The four bombshells actually provide some of the turning points of the story according to Seven-Point Story Structure.

Plot Turn 1(The character’s world changes): Lucy discovers Narnia in the wardrobe

Pinch 1 (forces the characters to action): Learning that they don’t know the way home forces them to continue with the adventure, but the third bombshell is the actual pinch point that forces them to act, because Edmund’s defection is what them to flee from the Beavers’ home.

(Midpoint is Peter joining the battle after meeting Aslan)

Pinch 2 (lowest point): Aslan’s death

This function of the bombshells makes sense according to the demands of the structure. The midpoint occurs when the characters move from reacting to taking action, so it can’t come from a bombshell, but the Plot Turns and Pinches happen when the characters are faced with events that are outside of their control.

All this is fascinating to me, because we have an story where the main characters make almost no choices, yet the underlying structure is still present and still satisfying. The characters aren’t driving the story; they’re just swept up into it, yet it works because a portal fantasy is driven by wonder and curiosity. We’re the ones going on this adventure, swept up by the story with no control over where it goes, so the story functions best when the characters themselves lack that control. The story’s momentum comes not necessarily from life or death stakes, but by the readers’ curiosity to know what happens next or what’s around the next corner. And yet, because so much of the story is outside of the characters’ control, we have opportunities for bombshell revelations that provide the story structure. There are a couple of odd chapter endings, but Lewis knows what he’s doing, and can keep up the tension in a way that’s appropriate for the tone of the story. No wonder this book has become a classic.

[space-morningstar]

I wanted to add another thought about this post but I don't want to bother so I'll write it here

The whole thing about the chosen one works a bit like scpaism of "I would like to live in that world and be like you, with those skills and such an exciting life! With so many friends!". 

Who would not want to leave his abusive and horrible family to go to a magic school where others treated you as if you were finally worth something? 

And could you befriend the whole school if you wanted? Where did the teachers value you and really believe in you? 

Where did you really seem to be someone?

Makes sense doesn't it?

Now I want to emphasize the first book, in this we are introduced to the magical world and the houses of Hogwarts. You may like more or less HP but surely if someone asks you "What is your Hogwarts house?" you will calmly reply "It's-".

Because you know it? because you wanted to go to one of those houses when you read the book or watched the movie, and you remember the description of each house because you wanted to know which one you would fit the best into. That was the option, a magical world full of odds and flashy jobs.

The thing is, it was still the trope of the chosen one, the fact of entering Hogwarts made you a chosen one, only the best wizards went to Hogwarts after all

That is why I find it so wonderful the decision that in the Discworld, the characters have normal jobs, it could be argued that wizards and witches have a different education and that they are also different, but, witches do not have an education as such, And wizards, Well, anyone who goes to college knows how it works it is not so much an education, it depends a lot on whether or not the magician wants to learn about something.

Rincewind? He is a wizard it is true, but he does not know how to do magic, he lives in a university full of wizards, all wizards end up in the same place (a university). There is nothing very special about it if you think about it, wizards are like academics, or scientists in some cases

Samuel Vimes? He is a guard, a policeman, nothing more. Even with his duties as a duke he manages to always remain a guard. He doesn't want to be anything else, he is just an ordinary cop who ends up in very strange situations even when he actively forces himself to avoid them.

Susan Sto Helit? She is a duchess, but she works as a teacher, which is a pretty normal job, nothing extraordinary or requiring superhuman powers (although she always helps having them in that kind of job), just teaching kids, she only teaches children, she does not seek to work in a funeral home or with something related to death but she moved away as much as possible and looked for a normal job

Until Death acts more like a public worker who is in charge of helping people to pass to the other world

Moist Von Lipwig? he is a postman! a banker! all are public services! literally jobs that anyone can have, jobs that are considered the most monotonous of life.

Granny? She is a witch, which can be very incredible yes, but it is more than any image, using magic is dangerous after all, I have always seen witches more like nurses / doctors, try to help and avoid problems, they try to that everything is in order and that there are no problems, of course they deal with them when it is unavoidable but they still know they have another job

Vetinari himself is a politician, and we are not portrayed as one of those politicians who are always surrounded by luxuries and expensive things and who enjoy being at the top of life to the fullest. No, instead we are shown how difficult it can sometimes be to run a city, dealing with people who do not want to understand a point of view other than their own, we are told how much work this entails

What I mean is, no one has a really extraordinary job or that is far from reality, those same jobs can be found in our world, or their equivalents. And it's not like they show them as the best jobs in the world either, they show them as they are most of the time, with its bad things and its good things, its responsibilities and problems.

You don't even have to choose one of the main character's careers, there are so many jobs and possibilities that you are really free to choose, you can choose where to work, where to study (or you can even choose not to study!), You can choose whatever ...

At the end of the day, they are just "normal" people doing their best job.

[hobidreams]

A Bit of Magic

pairing: platonic best friends hoseok x yoongi genre: fluffy fluff words: 1.1k contains: magic au, there is a cat, meow a/n: this drabble is sponsored by a generous anonymous donor to the Black Lives Matter movement!!! get your own fic here.

“I’ve decided.” Yoongi’s drawl comes floating down the stairs with the man himself. He’s holding the same (unopened) white envelope he disappeared with about an hour and a half ago.

“Aaaand?” Sitting at the worn kitchen table, Hoseok’s eyes shine with a sunny hope as he nurses a glass of something clear and bubbly. A few feet away, Jiminie the calico dozes on his favorite pillow.

Yoongi stops short when he reaches the end of the stairs. Promptly lets the envelope thunk into the trash can. “Nope.” Then he plops his butt down on the chair opposite Hoseok’s with just as much decorum.

“First of all, it’s 2020. Recycle.” Hoseok jokes as he twirls his hand and the envelope promptly floats out of the bin, doing somersaults in the air before landing right on the table. Face up, with Yoongi’s name emblazoned across it in jet black script.

Yoongi snaps his fingers. Right back into the trash it goes, though not nearly with the same elegance.

“Hyung.” Hoseok fetches it again, this time placing a spread hand firmly over the mail with now slightly dented corners. “What are you scared of?”

“Fireworks. Heights. Namjoon’s cooking. All rational things.”

“Yet opening a measly little envelope?” Hoseok taps the paper with the tip of his nails and little stars fly out, dissolving on contact with the wood.

Yoongi very pointedly stands up and steps to the kitchen counter. Jiminie opens a lazy eye and gives a small yawn at the movement. “’m not scared,” Yoongi mutters. He looks at the pot that’s simmering away above an artificial fire, then gives it a slow stir with a rotation of his skinny wrist. “Potion almost done?”

“Yeah!” Hoseok’s face brightens, then falls when he joins Yoongi and looks in the mini cauldron. “I think. Maybe. Is it supposed to be that color?” Owl droppings is the polite way of putting it. He ladles a few spoonfuls into a glass and observes the rather chunky texture.

Thing is, Hoseok hasn’t been making concoctions for very long, preferring intuitive or physical magic usually, so the last few experiments have been... very iffy. Yoongi’s far better at the craft, able to whip up brews that even taste good, in addition to being super effective against illnesses. But... Hoseok figures Yoongi won’t always be around to make his potions for him, so he should at least know the basics, right?

“Uhh, depends on what you’re making.”

Hoseok’s mouth opens. He’s about to answer when he thinks better of it. Just grins instead, opening his hand to summon the envelope. With his other hand, he picks up the warm glass. “Hyung. Open this or drink the mystery potion.”

Here comes Yoongi’s familiar scowl as his eyes flick between the two options. In Hoseok’s mind, this is a simple decision. Any rational person would just—

Yoongi grabs the glass and drains the entire damn thing.

“O-Oh s-shit, that’s really hot,” Yoongi sputters out, swallowing hard as he refills the glass with cold water and throws that back too. That leaves him with water dripping down his lips, a slight burn reaching down his throat as he leans against the counter for support.

Well, the good news is that other than adding to a lifetime of potion-related trauma at Hoseok’s hands, Yoongi doesn’t feel very different. He still has two eyes and all his fingers and toes. Nothing is spontaneously growing out of his ass (“it was one time!” Hoseok cries as he watches Yoongi check his backside with suspicion), nor has his hair changed into any outrageous colors.

Hoseok beams, showing all his pearly teeth. “Hey! You’re okay!”

Yoongi does not like the genuine surprise in Hoseok’s tone one bit.

“Was I not supposed to b—meow.”

They both freeze.

Slowly turn their heads to look at Jiminie, who’s gleefully licking himself on the table, blissfully lost in his own world of hairballs.

Hoseok goes first. “D-Did you say...”

“No, I didn—meow.”

Hoseok’s lips quirk up in the way it always does before bellyaching laughter and he quickly slaps a hand over his mouth when Yoongi’s scowl gets even deeper.

“What the fu—meow.” Yoongi’s fists tighten with annoyance. “How do I sto—meow?!”

Hoseok flies to the stove, peering into the murky potion depths. “Oops... Guess some of Jiminie’s hair must have gotten into the pot somehow!” At the sound of his name, the cat perks up, gives a tiny consolation mew of his own.

Yoongi clutches his forehead as if an awful headache is coming on. “See, with shit like this, meow, how am I supposed to leave you all alone?”

“But you’re not? Leaving me?”

Yoongi supresses a meow by swallowing at the same time. “What do you think... is gonna happen if I open that envelope?”

“But hyung, it’s your dream!” Hoseok grabs the letter. “You can’t just keep avoiding it. It’s not going to go away. Besides, I’m sure you got in!”

“But what if that’s not the answer I’m hoping for meow?!”

(Hoseok bites back the fact that it’s starting to sound like part of Yoongi’s regular speech.)

“You’ve been studying for this for so many years. You didn’t even sleep the night before you sent the application in because you were so excited. Trust me, you want this.”

“Fine. Fine!” Yoongi snatches the envelope away. “You want me to leave so badly? I’ll go.” He tears it open, not caring if the paper scrapes harshly against his finger and he could have just used magic. Not like it’d be stable right now anyway. He doesn’t stop until they’re both staring at the words that read ACCEPTED and WELCOME TO BANGTAN WIZARDRY and in that moment, everything becomes real.

“Holy—meow—fuck.”

“You did it!” Hoseok’s a little teary eyed as he crushes Yoongi into a hug. The letter flutters to the ground, any argument forgotten. “I knew you would! Ahhh, hyung, you’re going to university!”

Yoongi swallows, hard.

He forces his arms to move, to return Hoseok’s affection even as disbelief and excitement and fear and too many mixed emotions come surging up just to get stuck in his throat. “H-Hoseok-ah,” he eventually says in a voice so tiny. “I did it.”

“Don’t you worry about me. It’s just a year. Then I’ll be joining you right before you know it.” Hoseok grins as he lets Yoongi go, Jiminie winding his way through both of their legs as he wants to share in the festivities.

“Are you sure?” Yoongi frowns. “Absolutely sure?”

“Hell yes! And if you don’t believe me, I’ll drink the potion too. As proof.”

Turns out, Hoseok made a pretty damn powerful draft. Their meows don’t fade until three days later, but they spend all that time packing and poking fun at each other about the purrs. In between throwing out old broken timekeepers and spent candles, they reminisce about their childhood, then dream about the good days yet to come.

[lesbian-roguefort]

all of supernova’s lore lol

! disclaimer i wrote this universe like. four years ago lol. !

also it’s split up into three time periods

part one

so basically to preface the concept of the entire au with some context (the details of which i remember the least out of anything): something something the fucking war happens. you know, the one with xerneas and yveltal? they find a compromise to stop tearing humanity apart and shit by choosing a prophet to fight every 200 years or so. whoever gets 5 or so wins in a row (i don’t remember the exact amount) wins the war. the two agree on this and go sleepy.

enter asteria, an aspiring pokémon professor in the region of miramare (a region that i made up out of my whole ass) (tl;dr it’s a small tourist-y island region in the waters between sinnoh and johto). she grows up in a small town on the western end of the island with her friend calypso. they both have big dreams of training pokémon — at least, until calypso’s dad dies in a pokemon-related accident and her mother forbids her from leaving their small town in fear that she’ll die the same way. asteria is saddened by this of course, but continues to pursue her goals

one night, asteria is instructed by her local Pokémon professor, the woman whom she had been taught under, to go out into the forest east of their town. she is told by the professor (prof. redwood, iirc) that that night would be the night that xerneas and yveltal would each choose their prophets, and that scientists were picking up traces of their energy in their own region. asteria understands and sets out for the forest that night. what she doesn’t know is that calypso ends up running away from her home that same night, determined to become a Pokémon trainer like her friends would soon become. do you see where this is going.

something something xerneas chooses asteria as their prophet, effectively trashing asteria’s dreams of becoming a professor, and yveltal chooses calypso as their prophet.

a few days after that night, when asteria has had enough time to process her thoughts, she realizes that oh shit she has to fucking do this because the weight of the world is literally in her hands. she goes back to her professor and chooses her starter Pokémon for the first time. she chooses cyndaquil :)

as she sets out on her journey for the first time, she discovers that, oh shit!, xerneas also blessed her with the ability to understand Pokémon. her cyndaquil ends up telling her that his name is Vincent. vincent is slow to warm up to asteria, but they eventually become friends :)

asteria’s next Pokémon that she catches is none other than sora, a kind little starly who is the actual greatest ever /lh. she and Vincent become friends quickly, forming a sort of brotp together as a powerful double team :) they enjoy training together and they (eventually) become really good friends.

the next Pokémon to join the party is none other than spark, a shinx (which you just saw how he dies. So,). he and sora become friends REMARKABLY fast, hitting it off immediately. spark, who is a little smartass and a bit of a competitive asshole, appeals to the competitive part of sora’s personality and they get along very well.

so sora and spark become really good friends and form a sort of... you know... rivalry :) asteria and Vincent are just standing by each other in the back like 🧍‍♀️🧍

the next Pokémon that asteria catches is a kirlia who was trapped under a fallen tree. she’s very shy at first, but eventually she introduces herself as Eleanor. she’s got A Backstory and tl;dr in her colony her mother raised her to be the leader, putting a lot of pressure on her to act proper and mature at all times. her father was much kinder to her and allowed her to have a lot more freedom, but he eventually died. Eleanor was like ‘ok fuck this’ and ran away.

tl;dr for that tl;dr eleanor had mommy issues

eleanor finds her place as both a healer and a fighter, and she gets along especially well with Vincent, who shares her calm nature.

then, of course, they encounter the very final member of their party: marti. and good lord.

marti is a young misdreavus who traps the team in their little spooky pocket dimension before asteria and the others find out what’s going on and confront them about it. it turns out that marti had lived alone in the forest for as long as they could remember, being a mischievous little bastard and playing around with everyone they saw. asteria enjoys their nature and invites them onto the team.

marti and eleanor become very good friends, with marti especially looking to learn healing magic from eleanor. everyone grows to love them tbh. literally no one could hate marti.

so to start off with how sora and spark’s dynamic develops, we’d have to start with when sora first evolves. spark becomes a little bit jealous with his competitive nature and all and starts training like hell to top her. when he eventually does evolve though, something switches in those two. they go from playful rivals to Rivals Rivals and become a little more bitter towards each other

eventually their bitterness towards each other becomes Serious and they go from rivals to borderline enemies. spark evolves into a luxray Much quicker than sora reaches her final stage, simply because he’s been so fucking. competitive with her. sora’s just fucking tired man she wants to Rest. she likes fighting w/ spark but she eventually gets VERY fed up and lashes out against him. the two fight and sora Finally evolves mid battle, knocking him the Fuck out.

after that, the two agree to be a little kinder to each other, agreeing that mayhaps their fighting got a little out of hand. they become playful rivals again :)

now for eleanor and marti because i love them

i think i originally had them have a kind of falling out like sora and spark had? but i don’t like that anymore actually so it’s getting scrapped 💖

eleanor and marti’s development is best summarized by them becoming closer with one another and marti learning how to heal ppl with their moves n shit. they are literally the fucking cutest help idk how else to summarize it

part one of supernova ends with the team settling down in a house :)

and that’s a wrap babey!!

part two

so remember calypso? yeah? well she’s coming back for part two lol

basically she ends up meeting a young banette with no name who literally fucking murdered their entire family. Lol. she takes them into her team as her first and ONLY Pokémon. fucking idiot

i did say that yveltal chose calypso as their prophet right. because that happened and basically ooOoOoOoO mind control yadda yadda and she’s told of her mission to kill asteria. she agrees because she has literally no choice. calypso ends up telling banette of her mission, who agrees to help her unconditionally because she’s the first person to actually show them love.

basically banette is literally a m//njumper type character who turns out to be a puppeteer-kind. Lol!

so here’s where the story gets a little more confusing lol

it’s easier if i preface this with a little knowledge on calypso’s character. so, uh, fun fact: she really likes knives! like, she really likes knives.

so yveltal blesses her with a special little knife that can mind control anyone it stabs. Wow! incredible

if i remember correctly there were three times that the knife was used prominently. the first time was when a wild Pokémon attacked calypso out of the blue and she had no other choice but to use the knife on it. from there she was able to control it for a bit before releasing it from her control and leaving it unconscious. she kinda goes :o and takes note of how it’s used

she later devises a plan to use it against asteria and co.!

banette sneaks into asteria’s house at night and sets up a sound barrier in the entrance so that no one can hear they’re there. using the power of Spooky Shit they lure the only awake Pokémon on asteria’s team out of their room. and, wouldn’t you believe it!, it’s spark!

banette lures spark in and traps him in a little shadow dome arena type area, where they fight for a bit until banette eventually bests him and stabs him RIGHT the fuck in the chest. bada bing bada bam spark is now under banette (and effectively also calypso)’s control. yay! /s

spark stays under calypso’s control, attempting to blend in with everyone else and, y’know, not appear possessed for several days as calypso bides her time. eventually, she has spark lure asteria and everyone else outside directly into a trap by calypso and banette, who attack them on first sight.

asteria and co are taken off guard and forced into battle, and now spark is against them! oh fucking no! sora is especially distraught by this lol

still though it’s 2 v 4, and marti eventually fires a shadow ball that breaks the knife. seeing that they can’t win, calypso and banette fled, leaving spark Un fucking conscious on the ground in front of asteria and everyone else

so spark is left behind, again, Un Fucking Conscious. asteria and the rest of the team are left to decide what the Fuck to do with him.

after healing themselves all up, they take spark back to their house and are left to just kinda. Wait for him to wake the fuck up? sora ends up visiting him the most frequently because she’s bored when he’s not around . And also she misses him. A lot. Because she Cares Him.

asteria’s like “well shit what now?” and everyone agrees like. “We just wait for spark to wake up because he’s like. Important?” and asteria just goes “yea agreed”

spark stays comatose for a solid six or so days until he FINALLY wakes the fuck up. when he’s questioned about what happened with calypso he explains that all he remembers is getting stabbed before blacking out. everyone just looks at each other like 👀  and they just kinda agree that it was good that they destroyed the knife.

uhhh something something asteria and co end up going to Actual Hell for their final battle with calypso :) and when I say hell I mean The Nether Minecraft. it’s got red stone and lava and yeah it’s literally just the nether fucking minecraft. they fight nearby this fortress built out of dark red stone and it’s literally just a nether fortress.

this time they can’t pussy out of the battle and they have to actually Fight Calypso to the Death so. :)

asteria’s team ends up getting their shit Rocked by banette because of the circumstances and the special Attributes of Hell allow them to mega evolve w/o a mega stone. so they end up getting Big Ass Claws that they use to absolutely FUCK over most everyone. eleanor and marti try their best to keep the rest of the team alive but they’re fucking dying too.

(also special thing abt this universe: in this universe, Pokémon have two health bars! one is the health bar that you see in game, the one that counts down to them passing out. after that health bar runs out, if the Pokémon wills it, they can Wake Up. then they gain a second health bar, which counts down until they Die. Like For Real.)

(this battle is to the death so they Die or they Live.)

in the center of this fortress they’re fighting in is a BIG ass void. like a pit that drops down into a void. asteria and calypso are fighting near this giant ass void, asteria with spark and sora by her side and calypso w/ banette. something something spark gets Severely fucking injured. Like a huge ass claw injury down his side. so does sora but ykyk.

asteria gets pushed and nearly falls down into the void. she’s hanging onto the ledge. just as calypso is about to push her off, she suddenly snaps back to reality in a moment of “oh shit what have i done” and attempts to save her. banette, to put it shortly, doesn’t like this. they have become obsessed with calypso’s original goal of killing asteria and nearly kills calypso getting her away from asteria.

banette, left with asteria alone, pushes her down into the void below, literally killing her. Like Literally Killing Her.

caught up in their victory, though, banette doesn’t see everyone else about to get their ass. tl;dr banette gets shoved down into the void as well and asteria’s team wins the battle, despite asteria being. Y’know. Dead

something something asteria ends up coming back to life through the power of xerneas going “wait she won. She should be alive.”

everything is good and the team is nice and happy and generally alive :)

haha......... unless?

part three

okay, so before we get into how asteria’s team ends up tying in with the crew in part 3. i’d like to preface this with some information on the characters of part 3 :)

alexis is the Pokémon trainer for everyone in part 3! she’s a bit like asteria, just w/o all the prophet stuff. she loves the outdoors and is generally very outgoing and adventurous. she has a huge heart and loves literally everyone. except people undeserving of love but yk

lance is a decidueye and was alexis’s starter pokemon! when we first meet him in the story he’s a dartrix but Eventually. eventually he becomes a decidueye. he’s a little quiet but he’s also very nice and especially enjoys reading a lot :). he’s quick to anger though. so. yes that’s important shhh.

hazel is a ribombee and is literally the sweetest person ever. she’s the healer of the team and is an absolute sweetheart. she’s the kind of person to give platonic kisses. she can be a bit cowardly at times though.

edith is a mimikyu! she’s generally very shy and quiet, but once you get to know her, she’s the absolute best. she would literally give her friends the world if she could. she’s also very skilled in battle and is probably the strongest of the whole team.

cheryl.... gets introduced later ;)

soooooo we all remember spark right? right? ahaha. Haha.

so basically this man goes to sleep one night and then the next morning wakes up in alola. this is obviously terrifying for. Numerous reasons. but the main one on top of him being completely lost is that he is no longer a luxray, but rather he’s been changed back into a luxio. he’s also lost all of his abilities. so not only is he completely lost, but he’s also powerless, too. he’s got damn terrified.

so he’s lost and confused, barely even knowing how he got there, half believing he was in a dream. and then, at last, to top it all off, some fucking dartrix comes flying at him and half scratches his face. and then he gets a fucking pokeball thrown at him. overall, he is not having a good time.

disoriented beyond belief, spark is brought to a pokecenter where he meets his new trainer and teammates. turns out that dartrix that attacked him was a chill dude named lance, and he also had two other teammates, hazel and edith.

(i actually don’t remember how alexis came to know spark’s real name? we’ll just say that edith can speak in alexis’s mind and translate aight)

they all introduce themselves properly, with edith being shyer than the rest. overall though, spark’s terrified and just wants to go back home lol. even at this point, he’s still convinced he’s in a dream of some kind. because, of course, at any time now he was going to wake back up at home. aaaaany time now. /s

the new team end up going through the day together, and spark goes to sleep that night still exhausted and confused.

when he wakes back up in the same place the next morning, he’s even more confused.

despite the circumstances, lance and spark end up becoming good friends. spark also gets along well with hazel, and he eventually is able to befriend edith, too. he’s hesitant to become loyal to alexis, though, because his loyalty still only lied with asteria.

and then he starts getting weird dreams about another island. one with beautiful gardens, tall mountains, and trees. he starts to recognize that something is there, but he’s not sure what.

someone else has a different revelation around this time. surprisingly enough, it’s lance! despite him and spark being friends, he starts finding some things about him to be a bit strange. like how he’s weirdly skilled in battle for being such a low level. and how he hardly responds to alexis. at first he shrugs it off, but then it becomes too strong to ignore. he starts to look for answers.

on their way across the region, lance ends up stopping at numerous libraries, looking for books that might contain the answers he’s looking for. for a while, he finds absolutely nothing, and as he searches, he considers giving up. he starts wondering if everything really is just a coincidence.

at the same time, spark starts getting even more vivid dreams about this place. he discovers that it’s a valley of some kind, one with lots of trees and greenery. it’s nice. one night, he gets the sudden revelation that there might be something there waiting for him. the thought resonates too much for him to leave it alone.

spark also begins to warm up to Alexis as he begins to realize that this could very well just be his life now. he doesn’t want to give up hope that he could go back, but he’s like 🤏 this close. That Fucking Close. the only reasons he’s hanging on are because a) he had literally spent years w/ asteria and b) he has no clue how he even ended up in alola in the first place.

insert the Pokémon moon plot as filler. anyways,

alexis and her team head over to ula’ula island as their next destination! and something that i remember very vividly from the plot was that y’know how you battle hau as soon as you get off the boat? yeah spark gets K fuckin O’d in that battle, but as soon as he’s unconscious, he gets the most vivid dream he’d had yet. he then realizes that ‘oh shit is that valley on this island?’

enter route 10!

meanwhile, lance stays behind to check out the library in town. lo and behold, he finds information on exactly what he was looking for and discovers a little known phenomenon known as the island scan effect, in which abnormal energy levels in an area can cause a Pokémon to have their entire consciousness move into a body that materializes somewhere in another region. the Pokémon’s former body on the other end of the island scan effect enters a coma until the Pokémon dies. or, if the Pokémon’s comatose body dies, then the Pokémon’s new body will become their true one. lance, reading up on this, realizes that it explains a little too much about spark.

the realization then dawns upon him that in order for him to have become so skilled in battle, for him to have taken so long to warm up to alexis, he must have originally belonged to a different trainer.

this causes lance to fall into a spiral of bitterness in which he no longer believes spark is deserving of a spot on the team, and especially not a spot in alexis’s heart.

MEANWHILE, spark walks the fuck into route 10, immediately recognizing it as the location from his dreams! he barely even takes a few steps past from where he made that realization before he’s ambushed just as he had when he’d first awoken in alola: talons to his face.

lo and behold, guess who the fuck it is. Guess. Guess. You definitely can’t guess. Not my fave OC at all. No sir nope not at all. Not predictable whatsoever.

it’s sora because of course she’s here :)

ma’am is in a very similar position to spark: she got bumped down an evolution, and had to live her life in a completely different region. however, when they meet each other, they recognize each other immediately. there’s just something innate about them that brings them to realize that the other was. There.

as soon as they realize that the other is There. In Front of Them. they both become super happy with the reunion :). alexis sees this and goes :)?? but is generally happy that spark has found someone he. Recognizes? she guesses. and, of course, sora joins the party :)

soon after, spark ends up Finally evolving back into a luxray. sora is a little jealous. Just a little.

pov i say meanwhile a hundred times to demonstrate how lance and spark’s stories end up branching off from each other. Anyways,

meanwhile, lance is Thinking about how what the fuck, where is spark even from?? sinnoh??? bitch. and how he just apparently met someone that he previously knew? and how she’s super skilled too? and how she hardly responds to alexis either? he realizes that basically, this is absolutely no coincidence and is absolutely the work of some weird natural phenomenon. his bitterness increases.

meanwhile spark and sora are very happy to see each other again, and they start talking about what the fuck just happened? Like lol they just suddenly got zoomed off to alola? fucking alola? aka completely foreign land and they just had to blend in like it was nothing. they bond over this weird experience and also start to question whether or not they’ll ever get back to asteria again. they decide that even if they never see her or the others again, they’ll still have each other. they’ll figure out a way, of course.

from this point forward it’s mostly just filler with the plot of moon UNTIL...... cheryl arrives :)

alexis trades to get cheryl, a young vulpix who is very sweet but naive. she ends up falling mostly under the wing of lance, who takes her as a kind of daughter figure, acting as her mentor. for a while, he forgets about spark’s whole situation and simply takes care of cheryl. he gets so caught up in helping her out that he stops being bitter for a bit :)

sora and spark enjoy her presence as well, sora especially, who find enjoyment in sharing with cheryl her best battle tactics and strategies. the two end up bonding a lot.

cheryl also ends up being one of the only people who edith warms up to quickly! edith actually ends up loving cheryl /p :) (edith also ends up loving hazel. no slash p we’re girl kissers here)

so as the plot moves forward, cheryl eventually evolves into a ninetales. she also learns the move sheer cold. you know. the one that only has a 30% accuracy but will always kill when it hits? yeah this is important :)

plot progresses yadda yadda and alexis becomes champion! yahoo! now what?

well, as it would turn out, sora and spark are not the only two who have made their way into alola. banette’s there too, but not physically. since ghost type Pokémon can’t truly die (they’re already dead), banette(‘s spirit) goes over to alola to fuck with sora and spark a bit. maybe to get them killed. who knows. they may or may not have manifested themself within lance’s mind and fucked with his bitterness towards spark a bit. Mayhaps.

now, you may be wondering, where’s the ultra specific plot device to propel the plot forward into the climax chapters? well, i’ve got just the thing for you!: a deadly hurricane is on course to hit alola, and as champion, alexis is expected to help deal with it. she doesn’t want to risk any of her Pokémon getting hurt though, of course, so she sends them all into The Box. Ahaha. Ha.

little does she know what terrors will occur in The Box.

so you know how each box will have a background, right? well inside The Box, each sectioned background is a different area. everyone is set down in an area that resembles a sort of maze. they split off, searching for the exit to the maze so that they can find an area to relax a little. spark and lance team up as well as hazel and edith, whereas cheryl and sora split off on their own.

spark and lance find the middle clearing of the maze. from the center clearing, there’s a little open end that stretches out into open sea. spark looks out over that open sea, admiring the water and how the artificial sun sets upon it. too bad he shouldn’t have turned his back to lance, though.

lance takes an arrow and shoots it clean through his throat, just as spark turns around to face him.

almost immediately, lance regrets doing this, of course. because, i mean, what the fuck? and then there comes the cherry on top. guess who discovers the center of the maze just in time to watch that arrow slice spark’s throat?

sora lol

it goes without saying but she is absolutely mortified. she runs over to spark as he collapses on the ground, only to find that he’s already dead and the blow was fatal. she is infuriated.

sora, absolutely blinded by terror and fury, flings herself at lance to get vengeance. she fights him for a good minute until lance leaves himself open for too long and she is able to slice open his own throat with her wing. he also dies pretty much immediately, the blood loss being a bit too much.

this traumatizes sora lol

soon enough, the others reach the center of the maze and sora is forced to explain what happened to them. hazel makes futile attempts to heal the two of them while edith is just fucking depressed, man.

cheryl runs away, sobbing inconsolably.

hazel urges sora to go after her and to try and explain what had happened. understanding, sora attempts to follow cheryl the best she could, taking tips from other Pokémon in The Box at times.

no longer having a host in lance, guess who banette proceeds to infect the mind of next. Guess. Guess. Guess. Guess who’s emotionally fragile and naive enough to fall under their order. Guess. /lh

sora eventually tracks cheryl into a box much farther from where the murder had taken place, discovering that she had gone into a snowy themed area. when she finally confronts cheryl about lance’s death, she refuses to listen. she absolutely can’t stand to hear any justification for a murder like that because lance would never kill anyone, right? she only ever knew him as the kind man who helped introduce her to the team. he would never have killed anyone. especially not one of his own teammates, right?

sora doesn’t know how to respond. she tries again to explain, but before she can speak again, cheryl lashes out at her, suddenly overcome by a foreign power. completely mad with grief, cheryl attacks sora with everything she has in her. every attack, every tactic: everything. sora can’t find it in herself to fight back. all she tries to do is defend herself, but it’s difficult. eventually she slips out of consciousness, and then back into consciousness. as soon as she recovers though, cheryl sends her her final move: sheer cold. it’s dead accurate, and as soon as it strikes sora, the biting cold freezes her to death.

and then she wakes up in her bed back at asteria’s house, surrounded by all of her former teammates.

including spark. Who is alive.

she cries and hugs him. obviously both are deeply traumatized now, and the situation back in alola isn’t getting solved any time soon, but for now they have each other.

also marti x eleanor is canon because i said so.

[soudamweek]

Day 4

Free Day/No Prompt

Non-despair, Main and Reserve Courses are Equal Yandere Gundham AU 

(AN: Warning, this has a depiction of a stalker. If you find yourself or someone you know with a stalker, contact the authorities and get out of that situation immediately. If you are or are becoming a stalker, then please seek help to stop)

It was a completely casual June day at Hope’s Peak Academy. Well, as casual as you can get when you’re at Hope’s Peak, the kind of place where if something Hope’s Peak related caused the apocalypse, at least a few people would have to pay up on bets in the time before everything goes completely to hell. 

Currently, it was lunchtime and the members of class 77-B were variously split up into their own little groups. One of the largest groups, composed of Nagito, Hajime (Reserve Course student moved into this class and quickly proved to be an excellent influence on his classmates), Fuyuhiko, and Kazuichi were eating handmade bentos (they made a bet on who between Fuyuhiko, Kazuichi, and Hajime would make the best bento last night; Hajime won since he knows how to cook decently, so the others just got theirs from Teruteru) and sitting under one of the biggest trees in the athletic field, making intermittent commentary on how insane Sakura Oogami’s training regime is (seriously, she’s doing one-handed pushups while Aoi and Makoto sit on her back!!) As Hajime helps to feed Nagito, who had broken his arms due to a terrible accident last week, Fuyuhiko and Kazuichi get on the topic of their recent romantic endeavors and how those are going. Honestly, Fuyuhiko’s attempts to romance Peko are going rather poorly, since he’s just so bad at expressing his feelings and really Peko’s not that good at emotions either.

“Well,” Fuyuhiko yelled as Hajime and Kazuichi start laughing at the tale of Fuyuhiko’s latest try at giving Peko a present that ended in him running away in embarrassment “what the hell are you doing with Gundham, huh?! It’s not like you’ve managed to do anything!!”

That’s when a thought (something rather rare for Kazuichi, in his friends’ opinions) crossed Kazuichi’s mind, only partially related to the topic. Since Kazuichi wasn’t very known to hide his thoughts from his friends, he voiced it.

“Hey, did I do something to make everyone mad at me lately?” he asked, to the rest of the group’s confusion and worry.

“W-why do you ask that?” Hajime asked, feeling a bead of sweat roll down his spine.

“Well, how do I put this? Uh, you know how everyone else’s been weird around me lately? With Mikan running off in tears the other day and Ibuki getting tackled by Akane when she tried to tell me something last night? Seriously did something happen to make everyone mad?”

What Kazuichi is referring to, of course, is the sudden change in his classmates following the last week. He’s going to be completely honest, he did not know much of what happened. But he does know that suddenly everything’s all tense whenever he comes into the room.

The reason for this is not because of anything that Kazuichi himself did, it’s that Gundham, who has been absolutely obsessed with Kazuichi ever since they met, is always following him around and glares at people like he’s ready to strangle them if they even dared to get in his way with Kazuichi.

The whole class knows about it, really. It’s really hard not to when several people find a stalker shrine hidden in Gundham’s room and Hajime got a “Fall in love with my Kazuichi and you won’t live to regret it” note delivered to him early in the year by a spectacularly well trained Bengal tiger, in his room, at 7 am. It’s just that no one can agree on what they can do about it since Gundham’s a very strong, tall, terrifying man with a distinct interest in the occult and many, many highly trained and dangerous animals completely loyal to him and they’re all very, very certain that telling Kazuichi about Gundham’s true nature would cause Gundham to kill them very, very painfully. 

Of course, there’s naturally no way they can tell Kazuichi any of that stuff, but now they have to walk on eggshells around him because no one can decide on what to do about it. 

“What?! No!” Fuyuhiko yelled out defensively, involuntarily glancing at the school menagerie where Gundham is not even really hiding that he’s staring at them as he pets a grown brown bear with disturbing calm.

“Well, what’s up with everyone, huh?!” Kazuichi yelled angrily and with some panic.

At this point, Hajime had to think fast. He can either tell Kazuichi and die or he can keep Kazuichi in the dark and risk something going really wrong if they ever get together. Then the choice was made for him.

“Actually, your birthday’s coming up soon, right? Oops, I guess the secret’s out then” Nagito said, clearly being the MVP here by expertly switching the topic.

At first, Kazuichi was pretty confused on what the hell he was talking about, then he remembered that oh yeah, his birthday was coming up this week!!

“Ohh!!” Kazuichi said, a lightbulb clearly coming above his head for a completely wrong reason “Yeah, it’s the end of the week, how’d you guess?!”

“Well, I’d heard something about a trip to that tech sto-”

Hajime clicked on what he was getting at and played along, interrupting with a “Nagito!!”

“Oh, my bad. We weren’t supposed to say anything about that.” Nagito then did that thing where he looks at his hand in self-deprecation, which would be more serious if he didn’t have both forearms in casts.

Before he could listen to any of the (faked) argument, the bell rings, signaling the end of lunch and Kazuichi’s ability to listen for the day. Kazuichi practically skipped off to the classroom building, ready to start eagerly speculating on what his friends and classmates were going to do for his birthday, not noticing Gundham putting away the bear in the menagerie and following after him at all.

[shirtlesssammy]

8x01: We Need to Talk About Kevin

Then:

P U R G A T O R Y

Now:

100-Mile Wilderness, Maine

1 Year Later

A couple is sleeping peacefully in the forest when a bright light fills the sky, waking the woman.

The couple goes out to investigate when they hear rustling outside. It’s a deer! Close...it’s Dean! He’s looking more like a feral rat than a deer. I would not want to run into someone looking like Dean in the middle of nowhere, that’s for sure. He pulls his gun, asks where the road is, grabs a bag of their stuff, and skedaddles. Yikes. First, for anyone not caught up, let’s all collectively scream what we all thought on our first viewing: Where’s Cas??! Second, who the fuck hikes anywhere, let alone the 100 Mile Wilderness trail with that kind of gear?! Camp chairs? A lantern the size of a dining room chandelier? A tent that’s making Harry Potter quake? Anyway, I lol thinking this is the most unbelievable part of this scene, and not the dude who just got back from Purgatory. 

Clayton, Louisiana

4 Days Later

Cue up Styx “Man in the Wilderness”, and sit back and watch one of my favorite montages. Watching Dean walk down a road never gets old. He walks to a cemetery and digs up a grave. He chants an incantation over some bones, and voilà, he brings back to life a vampire! They embrace.

Wait, what? 

In Kermit, Texas, Sam’s ditching on a woman AND a dog. He drives to Rufus’s cabin in Montana, where a hiding Dean assaults him with all the monster tests. They both pass, and hug. Sam is shocked. “I guess standing too close to exploding dick, sends your ass straight to Purgatory.” Dean explains the situation with the first dick joke of the season. Sam has further questions, and Dean is vague on the details. Sam also wonders about Cas. Dean shuts down a little more and admits, “Yeah, Cas didn’t make it.” 

Sam presses the matter. “Something happened to him down there. Things got pretty hairy towards the end, and he... just let go,” Dean adds. So, he admits that Cas let go here, did he alter his memory after this? In any event, Dean’s really broken about it. 

Sam then admits that he got out of the life, tossed all his phones, etc. “Something happened to me this year, too.” Gah, like a complete breakdown and fugue state, but I will reserve my thoughts for my non-existent essay on the state of Sam’s mind when Dean and Cas were in Purgatory. That sends Dean into an anger spiral. (Natasha: LIMES)

He listens to all of Sam’s phone messages --the increasingly desperate and eventually disillusioned pleas for help from Kevin. 

He was their responsibility, and Sam just ditched him. Uh, because he was in complete mental failure! Sam hears something in the background of the last message and is able to isolate the sound to a bus station. They track him to Michigan, where his girlfriend, Channing, is attending college. 

Once at the motel, Dean sees two boys playing with their toy guns, which sends him into a memory spiral. He’s chasing a vamp in Purgatory and eventually catches him. “Where’s the angel?”

WhEreS tHe aNgEl?

W H E R E ‘ S  T H E  A N G E L?

??

?

(Don’t touch me.)

“You’re him. The human.” 

Like, excuse me? The monsters are all meeting up talking about the human wandering around Purgatory looking for that angel? LIKE PLEASE. No, please STOp. I can’t take it, even after all these years. 

Anyway, Dean keeps demanding to know where that goddamned angel is. The vamp refuses to say so Mr. Dramatic lops his head off set to a very elegant camera angle. 

Another monster attacks but Dean’s too far from his machete. Then ANOTHER monster attacks THAT monster. Spoiler: IT’S BENNY! 

Later, in the motel, Dean suggests moving on, but Sam thinks he should get some rest. Dean goes into another anger spiral --probably because he couldn’t sleep for a year and all Sam did was sleep due to his complete breakdown. Sam trying to ignore that he didn’t have control of his world isn’t helping him with Dean. Sam found “a girl.” Well, actually, she was a fully grown woman, but go on… Listen, I don't like the Amelia stuff as much as the next person, so I have a very elaborate headcanon of Sam’s mental break and the symbolic fantasy world he created while he barely existed at the cabin. 

Anyway, Sam asks Dean what Purgatory was like. “It was bloody. Messy. 31 flavors of bottom-dwelling nasties. Hell, most days felt like 360-degree combat. But there was something about being there.”

“It felt pure.”

It fElT PuRe

I T  F E L T  P U R E

Flashback to Purgatory, where Dean’s life is still saved by Benny, the vampire. Dean threatens to shiv him up the ass so...every friendship needs to start somewhere? The vampire knows an escape hatch out of Purgatory! But it’s only for humans. He’ll show him the portal as long as Dean smuggles his soul out of Purgatory. 

The first rule of Purgatory is you can’t trust anyone. Dean doesn’t trust Benny - not an inch. But he does need allies. He tells Benny that he’ll agree to that tenuous deal as long as they find “the angel” first.

At a college, the Winchesters interview Channing. She hasn’t heard a word from Kevin and furthermore, would spurn his love forever now that he’s no longer going to Princeton. Ouch! After they leave, Channing’s eyes go black and she slices her roommate's throat so she can make a phone call. DOUBLE OUCH! She reports that Kevin still hasn’t gotten in touch with her, but Dean Winchester is back.

Trying to get some work done amongst the students, Sam experiences his own mournful flashback. He hit a dog! He shouted at veterinary hospital employees! Damn it, this is an animal hospital!!! I hand you a bloody dog, you fix! Shouting helps things happen! 

Sam bby.

Dean arrives with a burger in hand, reunited with one of the loves of his life at least. Sam reports that he’s tracked Kevin to Iowa.

At a run down church in Iowa, the Winchesters pay a house call. Kevin immediately confronts them with a Borax-loaded supersoaker. Once he figures out they’re human, Kevin gives them the tour of his new digs. He’s learned how to ward against demons. And then while explaining his recent past, Kevin has his own flashback! Everyone gets one! 

In Kevin’s flashback, he’s been captured by Crowley who sits him down to work on another tablet. A DEMON tablet! Dun dun DUN! Kevin mines its secrets and tells Crowley that there’s a hell gate in Wisconsin. (Made out of cheese?) Demons gather ingredients for him and Kevin gets to have a MONTAGE of preparing a spell to open the gate. Only…

...Kevin was hoodwinking the demons the whole time. 

He’d found a demon bomb recipe and blasts away his guards while Crowley waits on a distant Wisconsin farm. 

Back in the present, Kevin’s stowed the tablet somewhere safe but before he did that, he made sure to memorize one more important spell from the tablet: a spell to close the gates of Hell...FOREVER. 

Dean and Sam head outside to the...second story church deck?...to chat. Sam’s disappointed that Kevin seems further into the hunting life than before. Dean’s proud of the kid - “he’s in it whether he likes it or not.” Oof. Dean, your Winchester is showing.

Sam heads down to the candle-lit church. He apologizes to Kevin for bugging out on him - and on everything hunting related. It’s definitely staged like a confession.

Kevin admits that he’s perturbed when he really stops and thinks about his life, post-prophet-revelation. Sam assures him that “it gets better.” Hmm RLY? Sam’s an optimist, and continues: if they can banish all the demons, Kevin might actually be free to live a good life. BRB weeping and shouting angrily at this show!

In Sam’s hazy flashback, he waits anxiously for the news from the vet. She reports that his dog will be okay. Sam corrects her - the dog isn’t his! She double barrel blasts him with sarcasm, implying that if he doesn’t take care of the dog he hit then he’s the worst person in the world. Which. Okay. I generally don’t mind Amelia though I think she demonstrably has terrible luck picking stable, healthy relationships. But this scene always has me rolling my eyes. It’s so normal to foist a dog on a stranger! Everyone has the means and time to care for a dog, not to mention a dog who has been seriously injured! A vet would not do this! Amelia, plz. 

Amelia puppy dog eyes Sam, and he’s toast. He’s spent so many years working on his offensive puppy eyed tactics, he never thought to work on his defense!

The church begins to shake and wood splits apart Kevin’s devil’s traps. A couple of demons arrive, armed with more swagger than weaponry. There’s a zappy flashy kicky fight and then Crowley and Channing arrive. Crowley demands the tablet for Channing’s life. He flashes Channing back into control for a moment as proof of life. Kevin offers himself up in exchange for Channing’s freedom and heads off to “pack up.” Then Kevin lures Crowley and Channing to a holy water trap.

As they’re being doused, the Winchesters and Kevin escape. While they drive away, Crowley orders the demon out of Channing and then kills her. Oof. 

Later, Dean gets a phone call as they stop for gas and snacks, and then passes it off as a wrong number. Kevin passes on donuts and beef jerky. He just saw his girlfriend die and that doesn’t lend itself well to gas station snacks. 

Dean offers up words of Winchester Solace™. “You’re in it now. Whether you like it or not you do what you gotta do.” Good talk, Dean! 

On Dean’s pee break, he furtively places a phone call. It’s Benny, the vampire from earlier! He’s lurking on the edges of a funeral in a not-at-all-suspicious way. He figured out cell phones! But not fashion.

Dean tells him that they shouldn’t talk for a while since they’re both adjusting to life. Benny wistfully tells Dean that Purgatory WAS pure and he should have appreciated it more while he was there. They both admonish each other to be good (and presumably not go on a murderous rampage). Good talk!

WHERE’RE THE QUOTES?

We made it, brother

I don't know whether to give you a hug or take a shower

Nothing says "family" quite like the whole family being dead

Where’s the angel?

Hey, the rules are simple, Sam. You don't take a joint from a guy named Don, and there's no dogs in the car!

So you're looking for a soul train

There's a demon in you, and you're going to your safety school

Want to read more? Check out our Recap Archive! 

[cowtale-utau]

Person B: Daring, inventive, but always impatient to start new things. Adaptable, and flexible they take everything in stride but they tend to logic through emotions rather than feel them at times. A very determined individual they sometimes forget the forest for the trees. They seemingly have an endless store of energy but knows where to direct it even if they can come off as childish at times. And along with this energy comes endless patience, it is hard to rile (if you can) this individual. Their relationship is a partnership and they are very, very frank about their feelings but have a knack for being tactful, usually.

Match 2 of 3.

Saturn

This one has more caution than you seem to, but is equally driven by a want to start and reach new things. He’s always seeking the next project, the next breakthrough. He’s undeniably a workaholic. Despite this his energy levels aren’t the highest. He won’t hold you back in anyway, but he’s liable to let you run ahead and do your own thing.

Saturn is a bit like a cat. He wants attention when he wants it, and left alone otherwise. He values his space and independence and is happy to provide the same in routine. But much like a planet in orbit, while he always moves away, he also always come back around. He also needs time with his partner, to balance out his loneliness. He is quite cuddly and will take every opportunity you give him.

Despite his normally logical way of thinking, he’s pretty emotionally volatile. Help remind him of logical priorities, and get him away from lashing out and focusing on problem solving. That’s when he really thrives.

Saturn is ideal for someone who wants both a relationship and independence.

Scout

This skele has no issue keeping up with your energy. Your traits match in may ways. He’s happy to drag you on his own adventures, or tag along yours. He constantly seeks new and exciting experiences. He loves pushing limits and edges. Rein him in, or encourage his wild streak, either way can prove fun.

While Scout is more emotion than logic driven, he does believe in honest communication. He wants to lay all the cards on the table and discuss options. He’ll enjoy your more logical contributions, as long as you try to respect his more emotional way of expressing. Together you should be able to find a good middle ground you can agree on.

This is a relationship built on new experiences and communication.

[nightingaleandtheredredrose]

Search for a Cookbook

Word Count: 5,628

Fandom: Ozmafia!!

Characters: Lynette, Silas, Manboy, Alfani, Hansel, Gretel, Scarlet, Caramia, Kyrie, Axel, Soh, and OTHERS???? 

Trigger Warnings: None

A/N: (PLEASE READ THIS A/N BEFORE READING THE STORY) This is just a fun, lighthearted fic that I wrote of my two babies so I could better imagine how they would interact with people around town! Also, just a heads up, this is a draft that I’ve kept for a couple of months now, so;;; um;;; The OCs/OC blogs I mention might not be as active as they were before;;; Or they’re just straight out dead;; And to those of you who know what it is, I mentioned the Carroll Famiglia like once for a small joke, but I’m not sure if that project was discarded, so please forgive any mistakes I make. Oh! This also goes for the OCs I included in this story! I tried to write in a good amount of other people’s Ozmafia OCs who would be, more or less, related to the plot. Unfortunately I couldn’t include everyone (b/c I also wanted to make sure each OC had more than one speaking line), so I’m really, really sorry to anyone I left out (T-T) And for those people whose OCs I did include, please forgive me if I accidentally made them OOC;; Since this author’s note has gone on for so long, I’ll give credit to these characters at the end! (^-^) NOW ON WITH THE SHOW!

Upon hearing the tinkle of a small bell and the creak of the door swinging open, Lynette looked up from the register to see who had just walked in. She beamed, delighted to see a familiar face. “Manboy! Nice to see you!” she exclaimed.

Before Manboy could reply, Lynette heard a giggle and the mess of blonde locks that had followed Manboy through the door finally popped up from behind him. “Hello, Lynette~” sang Alfani, cheerily waving at the now less enthused store owner.

“And… you brought Alfani… Wonderful…” The girl couldn’t help but let some of her uneasiness show. It wasn’t as if she hated Alfani, but rather she worried over how he spoke while he was outside of the salon. He had little to no filter, so the possibility of him accidentally letting an innuendo slip through his lips was too high. It didn’t help that the children’s storytime was starting in a few minutes either. Lynette especially didn’t want Alfani to recount any bondage experiences he’d had during The Lion and the Mouse, especially with that many innocent eyes and ears gathered into one room.

Silas wasn’t very fond of Alfani either. Alfani was too grabby, and Silas hated being touched. Thankfully, he was still in the back storeroom searching for the puppet dolls that were going to be used for storytime, but it would only be a matter of time until he came out.

While Lynette weighed the pros against the cons of locking her employee in the storeroom until this storm had passed, Manboy cleared his throat to get her attention. “Good morning, Lynette. I’m sorry to bother you, but I am in need of your services today,” he explained with a slight bow of his head.

Lynette tensed up at this. Her services? This early in the day? But she normally carried out her murders late at night to avoid suspicion.

Seeing her smile falter, Manboy was quick to correct himself. “Ah! Please forgive me, Lynette! I didn’t mean those kind of services. I just came to purchase a book from your store for a… client of mine.”

The smile that had almost slipped off of Lynette’s face reappeared again, topped off with a playfully raised eyebrow. After handing a purchased book to a waiting customer, she leaned across the counter and said, “Oh? A client you say? That was, ah, quite a pause there, Manboy. Sure you’re not hiding something?”

Manboy’s face flushed at the suggestion. Before he could respond, Alfani laughed and threw his arms around him. “My dear Manboy is gonna get a present for his secret sweetheart! Isn’t that cute? Hey, do you wanna know who they are, Lynette? It’s-”

“Al!” Manboy exclaimed before clapping a hand over Alfani’s mouth. “I’m sure Lynette already has her hands full running her bookstore, so we mustn’t take up any more time than necessary.”

Lynette pouted. Darn. She was always down for some juicy love gossip. But no matter. She’ll let it slide this one time for the sake of Manboy’s dignity. “So what’s the book called? I can go check if we have it in stock once you tell me,” she told Manboy, handling another customer’s purchase as she did so. 

“I believe it was called Cooking 101. It had a hundred and one recipes, so it piqued my client’s interest, but they just couldn’t get their hands on it due to their busy schedule. They intended to try some of the recipes out for an event that was coming up as well as just around the household.”

Lynette hummed in thought as she handed the customer their stack of books along with their change. “Now that I think about it, we did have a cookbook on display a couple of weeks ago. I’m guessing your lov- I mean- your client must have seen it while passing by one of our windows?”

Manboy managed a small smile. “They did admit that they saw it on the way to the salon, yes.”

“If you two are talking about Cooking 101, then sorry, but we ran out.”

Everyone looked up to see where the voice had come from. Alfani let out a small gasp and ran over to the newcomer. “Silas! So you were here! Give me a hu- Ow~!”

Silas kept Alfani at a distance by pressing his hand against his face, keeping that one arm extended to fight against the flailing limbs that desperately stretched out to reach him. “No way in hell,” seethed Silas.

Alfani let out a disappointed groan. “Geez, Silas. There’s no need to hold back, y’know. Just throw me to the ground like you usually do!” “There are children around, so I’ll have to refuse.”

“What, seriously? I thought we still had some at the back,” Lynette inquired.

“Miss Lynette, I can’t even tell what we have at the back anymore. It’s such a mess in the storeroom that I only managed to procure the beheaded lion and the dusty mouse.” Silas fished the headless lion puppet out of his apron pocket and tossed it to Lynette.

She in turn forlornly gazed at the poor doll, caressing the bit of stuffing that was sticking out of its now stump of a head. “Poor Mr Caramia. What’s the Oz famiglia gonna do without you now?” murmured Lynette. 

“Are you sure? Can you… check again?” Manboy asked, a hint of desperation in his voice as he did so. 

Silas looked at Manboy for a few moments before sighing, using his unoccupied hand to rub the back of his neck. He began to feel bad for him. “I’m sorry, Mr Manboy, but that was a bestseller of ours. It was especially popular among those in the mafia. Considering all of that, we more than likely have none left in sto-”

Struck by an idea, Lynette suddenly smacked her fist against an open palm. “That’s it! We’ll just ask those people to give us their copy! Easy peasy! We’ll reimburse them and everything! It’s just a book after all!” she declared.

Already tired from the very thought of exercise, Silas grimaced. “Wait, Miss Lynette-”

It was too late; she was on a roll. She hastily stuffed her apron under the counter and grabbed her dark blue hood, slipping it on as she ran towards the door. She gestured for Silas to follow her as she ran in place at the doorway. “C’mon, Silas. You’re coming with me. Give Manboy the keys to the store too; he’s gonna be in charge today.”

Silas hesitated for a moment but then decided it would be best not to say anything. An argument with Lynette would never end, after all.

Instead, he nodded and tossed his keys to Manboy before following after Lynette. 

Manboy just barely caught the keys and shot a panicked look at the escaping shop workers. “Wait! Lynette! I can’t possibly-!”

“Sure you can! I believe in you, Manboy!” encouraged Lynette as she gave him an overly enthusiastic thumbs up.

“No, it’s not an issue with my self esteem that I’m referring to!”

“Oh! Then don’t worry about the fact that it’s a Sunday. Sales tend to dwindle towards the end of the day, so feel free to lock up early. You could just read the book on the counter to the kids since the puppets just kind of, y’know, died. I’m super sorry for having you do this on your day off, but I promise to have that book you want before today ends, okay? Byyeeee~”

“But still-!”

And before he knew it, the pair had run off to who knows where. Manboy sighed and rubbed at his temples. That Lynette… As flighty as ever. If he didn’t know any better he would’ve thought she was just doing this as an excuse to skip work.

Well… No, that was probably one of the reasons she took up his request. He shouldn’t get ahead of himself. But Lynette was also just too selfless for her own good. The fact that she set a solid deadline for the book retrieval was proof enough. Although there was still one more thing that was bothering him.

“How did she figure out that today was my day off?” Manboy wondered aloud.

“Hey, Manboy! Look at this!” Alfani was holding up the book Silas had left on the counter. He had opened it up to the page where the lion lay entangled in the hunter’s net, Alfani’s eyes shining just a tad too brightly for such a scene. “I could be the lion instead! All we need is a net!”

“... Thank you, Al, but for the children’s sake I think we should stick to just reading them the story from the book.”

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

1st Stop: Grimm famiglia

Peering out from behind her older brother, Gretel narrowed her eyes at the people who were browsing the bookshelves in the study. “How the hell did they get in here? Hey, Hansel, don’t tell me you let them in again,” she darkly murmured.

Hansel turned his head to look back at her and sheepishly smiled. “Aahh… No, not this time, Gretel. I actually don’t know how they got in unless…” He let out a startled exclamation and snapped his fingers as if he had just realized something. “I got it! There’s an age old tunnel beneath the estate, and they crawled in through that!”

“Actually, I just let them in. They asked me if they could buy back one of Scarlet’s books,” explained Florentia, leaning against a wall near the door. 

Gretel’s glower became worse. “And you let them in for such a flimsy reason?”

“Well… But they asked politely? They won’t do us any harm as far as I’m concerned.”

Overhearing their conversation, Lynette paused mid search to do a little fist pump. “Yeah, we asked politely! Ain’t that right, Silas?”

“Kindness rules,” Silas chimed in with a deadpan voice. 

“Shut up you annoying little bird and you overgrown broccoli head, and find your damn book before I egg your pathetic excuse of a store with my grenades.”

“...Sorry, Miss Gretel.”

“Sorry, ma’am.” And they resumed their search in a more frenzied manner.

Once this pair was dealt with, Gretel again confronted Florentia. “‘They won’t do us any harm’? How can you be so sure? That annoying bird just reeks of disaster (Lynette flinched when she heard this but continued to look through the books). Spending all that time around that cat lady’s place really dulled your senses.”

Instead of getting mad, Florentia’s expression brightened as she came to remember something. “Oh! That’s right! I need to go visit her estate before the day ends. Hmmm, maybe I’ll pick up the others on the way back-”

“Tch. She already stopped listening to me,” Gretel muttered before retreating behind Hansel’s back once more.

Her brother waved farewell to Florentia as she rushed to leave. “See ya, Florentia! I’ll tell Scarlet that you and the others will be late for dinner tonight!”

Florentia smiled and waved back. “That would be great! Thank you, Hansel!”

“Don’t get yourself killed due to your airheadedness.” “Pffft! I doubt I will, but I’ll keep that in mind, Gretel!”

“Hey, Miss Florentia!” Before she could turn the doorknob, Lynette had called out to her which caused her to look back.

“Yes, what is it, Lynette?” she asked.

Lynette gave her a playful wink and said, “Don’t have too much fun over there with Miss Pashet, okay?”

Florentia responded with a small laugh and a wink in return. “Don’t  worry. I have this all under control~” And with that last remark, she left the room, shutting the door behind her.

Silas and Lynette attempted to continue scouring the shelves but stopped when they heard the door opening. The person who had just walked in pushed back his red hood, sighed, and began with, “Hansel. Gretel. I just saw Florentia run by me and-” Scarlet stopped when he noticed that they had visitors. “Ah…”

Silas and Lynette awkwardly waved at the stunned caporegime. “Hey, Mr Scarlet,” Lynette greeted. Silas gave him a small nod.

“Thanks for letting us into your home, Mr Scarlet.”

Scarlet pinched the bridge of his nose. He didn’t get paid enough to deal with this. “Hansel, did you let them in again?” he asked.

“Eeehhh? First Gretel and now you? Geez~ It’s like none of you trust me,” Hansel said with a huff. He then folded his arms across his chest and turned away pouting.

Although Scarlet felt the need to bring up the other time Hansel allowed these two into the estate (which ended… badly…), he decided to let this go. “I’m sorry, Hansel. You know I didn’t mean it like that. I just…” Seeing that Hansel wasn’t going to turn around anytime soon, Scarlet gave up and spoke to Lynette. “Then if it wasn’t Hansel, was it Florentia?”

Lynette nodded and fidgeted with the ribbons on her arms. “Ah, yes! It was Florentia. She let us in so we can… Umm…” The longer she gazed at Scarlet, the more she remembered how he unknowingly rejected her confession months ago. She blushed in embarrassment and quickly turned her head to clear her throat. “SILAS. WHAT ARE WE HERE FOR AGAIN?”

Silas looked up from his place on the floor to answer. “Do you happen to have the Cooking 101 book, Mr Scarlet? We want to buy it back from you, so we could spice up Mr Manboy’s love life.”

‘Don’t be that honest!’ Lynette mentally reprimanded but forced herself not to say aloud. Instead she let the smile that was already on her face grow uncomfortably wider. Through gritted teeth, Lynette said, “That’s… right!”

“Cooking 101? Hey, Hansel, wasn’t that the book we blew up in our little experiment last week?” Gretel asked, causing Hansel to snap his fingers a second time.

“Ah! That’s right! The one with the weird cover! We used it as fuel for the fire...eheheheh, sorry, Scarlet.”

Upon hearing this news, Silas and Lynette made their way to the door. Time to search somewhere else. 

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

2nd Stop: Oz famiglia

They were at a standoff. Granted, it was four against one (so it was a pretty pathetic scene) , but it was a standoff nevertheless.

Caramia stood on one side of the dining table while everyone else stood on the other. He protectively held his cookbook to his chest and gave his opposition a shaky smile. “Ca-Can we calm down just for a minute here?”

Despite his words, Silas and Lynette already had their hands up in the form of an odd battle stance, ready to grab the hardcover from his arms. There was a dangerous glint in Lynette’s eyes as she replied, “Not an option, Mr Caramia. I just spent two hours searching for a book that had already been blown up, so I don’t want to waste anymore time than I have to! Give it up already! … Please.”

Kyrie stood a couple ways off from this scene with his arms folded against his chest. He scoffed. “Just stop being the shitty idiot lion that you are and hand over that book of yours. It’s not as if your meals have become any less inedible because of it. Honestly-” His gaze darkened as he raised his head, a fist poised under his chin. “You’re acting like a pitiful orphan going to get their precious toy snatched by a gang of older children who are just waiting to beat you senseless. For amusement of course.”

“You could have just said I was acting childish! Ah, geez, why did you have to make it that dark, Kyrie?”

Kyrie huffed and turned to leave the room. “I’m terribly sorry; did I hear something? The cries of the pitiful orphan simply do not reach my ears~” And then he was gone.

Caramia sighed. “Well, I didn’t expect Kyrie to help me in the first place. But Axel! At least you’re on my side, right?”

The caporegime hesitated for a moment. He was debating between pointing out that fact that he was obviously standing on the side opposite to his don or staying quiet and obediently joining Caramia. His sweets were at stake here; Axel couldn’t afford another ban on his life source. Eventually, he decided to just let him down easy, also not finding it in his heart to lie to him. “Boss. As much as I hate to say it… Kyrie is ri-rig-righ-” Axel coughed. “You’re acting like a child. I’m sorry, but it’s true.”

Everybody could see Caramia’s heart breaking before their eyes. He stumbled a few steps back, clutching at his chest with an unoccupied hand. This… Is this what betrayal felt like? His own men turning against him? With a hollow voice, Caramia asked, “Axel… How could you?” Then he gritted his teeth. “Why don’t any of you understand? This has become more than a book to me. It’s opened my eyes to new cuisines, it’s helped me perfect my old recipes-”

“What’s… going on here?” a voice called out from the kitchen entrance. Running a hand through her long blue hair in an effort to smooth it down, Nana stood in the open doorway with a flustered expression. Kyrie had told her that there was something she had to take care of in the kitchen; he implied that it was urgent so she ran all the way there, but she was honestly unsure on what to make of the scene before her. 

Lynette grinned. “Perfect timing, Miss Nana! Help us wrangle the book from your fiancé’s hands!” she said.

“‘Wrangle the book’? But why-?”

Caramia smiled as well. “Good afternoon, Amore mio. Will you please call them off? You know how much this book means to me, right?”

“Huh?! Ah, yes, but-”

This then prompted Lynette to turn an accusatory finger on Caramia. Deep down she knew that this was the time to stop, but she unknowingly got swept up in the rush of this senseless argument. “But does that book mean more to you than the very love of your life?!” Lynette placed a hand to the side of her mouth and spoke in a loud whisper. “Miss Nana! This is your chance! Try to convince him to let go of the book by using your charms!”

Nana was at a bypass. On one hand, she wanted to take her lover’s side. She loved Caramia after all, and all this fuss over a simple book just wasn’t worth it. On the other hand, though, Nana had become curious. How exactly did she measure up to that book?

Her curiosity won out in the end, and she stepped forward. Nana fiddled with her earrings as she asked, “Caramia… Please forgive me if it’s rude to ask, but how much does that book mean to you? I’m sure you may have had many wonderful memories with it, but…” She meant to continue, but her voice faltered, and her gaze slowly lowered to the ground in shame. Nana couldn’t do it; she couldn’t bring herself to guilt trip Caramia. 

She let out a small gasp when she felt someone’s fingers interlace with her own. Caramia had set the book onto the table and walked over to Nana in order to grasp her hands in his. He gave her a gentle smile. “Nana, you know you mean more to me than Cooking 101. It’s just a… silly… little… book.” He coughed before continuing, almost as if it had physically hurt him to admit that. “You mean the world to me, Nana. Please don’t ever forget that.”

With tears brimming in her eyes, Nana responded with a choked up, “Caramia-!”

“Now’s the time, Silas! Let’s grab the book while he’s distracted!”

“NO, WAIT! KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF THAT BOOK!”

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3rd Stop: Falada 

Silas and Lynette sat at a table in the Falada café. Lynette had her head in her hands while Silas angrily munched on his fifth salad. 

“I’m… really sorry that I made you go after Mr Caramia alone,” Lynette began.

Silas shoved another forkful of lettuce into his mouth. “Don’t bother mentioning it.”

Lynette winced at his cold tone of voice. Yikes. She had really messed up this time. She had initially meant to snatch the book as well, but Silas had been the first to reach it. Unfortunately, this prompted Caramia to pounce on him like, well, a lion on meat, which ended in a few bruises and a dejected Silas and Lynette being shown the door. She sighed. “I’m sorry for being such an awful person, Silas. I know I should’ve stopped before things got out of hand.”

All she was met with in response was some miffed chewing noises. “Gah… How do I make it up to you, Silas? Do you want me to throw you an apology party or something?”

“Do we even have enough money for that?”

“I-I’ll take out a loan? That’s a thing, right?”

Their table shook when Liesl suddenly dropped a heavy book onto it, causing the pair to jump in their seats. Liesl brushed a strand of blonde hair behind her ear and sighed. “Here you go! Cooking 1001! You would not believe the stack of cookbooks and recipe sheets I had to go through in order to-”

“Wait. Cooking 1001? I’m sorry, Liesl, but we were looking for Cooking 101,” corrected Lynette.

Silas poked at the side of the thicc hardcover with the other end of his fork, marveling at how many pages there were. “There are 1001 recipes in here?” he muttered. “Who could possibly have that much free time?”

Liesl gave Silas a weary smile as she took back her book. “Apparently I do since I wasted a good thirty minutes trying to find the wrong book.”

“Been there,” Lynette remarked.

Liesl let out a little grunt as she readjusted the book in her arms. “Well, if it’s Cooking 101 you’re looking for, I would suggest the Stivali estate. I think I lent it to… Bercy? The cat boy with the earmuffs?”

Silas and Lynette nodded. Of course they remembered who Bercy was; they had placed bets on him when they first met him. They debated on what Bercy could possibly be hiding under his seemingly useless earmuffs. They still hadn’t figured it out yet, but Silas guessed that he was hiding a skin condition. Lynette, on the other hand, theorized that Bercy had a secret set of human ears in addition to his cat ones and that he wore earmuffs to save himself from embarrassment. 

���Yes, I lent it to him for the day. You could go pick it up from him, and pay me back when you two return with my book.”

Lynette quickly rose from her seat, throwing her chair back with a clatter. “Well what are we waiting for?! We need to get over there before the sun starts setting! C’mon, Silas!”

Silas shot Lynette a worried look as he also stood up. “Miss Lynette? Aren’t you also going to eat? We’ve been running around since morning, remember?”

“There’s no time to eat! Let’s go! Bye, Liesl! Thanks for everything!”

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4th Stop: Stivali/Boots famiglia

As the pair approached the castle-like estate, they heard a violent rustling  sound coming from above which startled some birds out of a tree. Both of them tensed, bracing themselves for an attack.

Seeing a flash of brown and green hurtle towards the ground, Silas warned Lynette to watch out. Lynette did so and quickly backed away from the tree, her fingers already wrapped around the handles of her daggers within her sheaths. She was aware of the Sunday Compromise, but she had no idea what she was dealing with. It was best to err on the side of caution just for now.

The cat lady who had just dropped in (ha) stood up from her landing position. The large bell in her hair jingled as she moved to draw her sword with narrowed eyes. “You there! Both of you! State your names, famiglia affiliations, and business before I cut you down!” she declared.

Lynette grinned and Silas relaxed. Oh, it was just Hazel. 

“Oh, c’mon, Hazel! You remember us! It’s Lynette and Silas from the bookstore!” Lynette chirped.

Silas gazed at the sword tip that was pointed at them with a bored look in his eyes. “You really shouldn’t be waving that thing around, Miss Hazel. The Sunday Compromise is in effect today.” ‘Plus it’s not as if you can actually kill us.’ was what he wanted to add, but it sounded too much like a challenge that Hazel would be more than willing to take.

This seemed to break her composure a bit. Hazel became red in the face and growled in frustration, resheathing her sword. “Fi-Fine. It doesn’t matter anyway. I could still beat you two in unarm- Wait, hey! You still haven’t given me your business, you spies!” she shouted, peeved that they had almost led her off topic.

Lynette raised her open palms in self defense. “We just came to pick up the cookbook Liesl lent to Bercy.”

Hazel shook her head. “No can do. Only the don can allow non-famiglia members into the estate. We put up pretty strict security measures to protect against intruders like you two.”

Despite how harsh Hazel’s tone had become, Lynette couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at the implication that Pashet was out. “Oh? And where exactly is Miss Pashet right now? Out of the estate, I presume?” she teasingly asked, already having a good idea where the don could possibly be. 

The blush on Hazel’s face deepened as she became even more flustered. “Tha-That’s none of your business! The don’s whereabouts are highly classified informa-”

“Perhaps Miss Pashet is having an enjoyable time in town. Pulled along by a certain Grimm famiglia member, I presume?” suggested Silas.

“Mrow!! You two really are spies! Both of you better leave Stivali territory before I run you off myself!”

Watching Hazel getting ready to charge, Lynette urgently tugged at Silas’ sleeve. “Hey, did we buy any bread from Falada while we were there? That would be real handy right now,” she whispered.

Silas stared at her straight in the eyes. “You saw me eat five servings of salad, did you not?”

The two exchanged panicked glances before reaching a silent agreement, nodding, and making a break for it.

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

5th Stop: Soh’s Food Stall

“And then we tried going over to the Adelheids, but Miss Heidi told us to go away too! Then Silas recommended we try the- the- What’s the name of that other famiglia? Y’know, the song famiglia?” asked Lynette.

“Are you referring to the Carroll famiglia, Miss Lynette?”

“Yeah, fa la la la la. Deck the halls. The Carol famiglia.”

“It’s a different type of carroll, Miss Lynette. With two r’s and two l’s,” corrected Silas.

“What, seriously? Well anyway, we decided against going there in the end. I didn’t think any of them would’ve bought that book in the first place. Some of them give me a bad vibe for some reason too,” explained Lynette with a shudder.

Silas and Lynette now sat at a table next to Soh’s food stall. The sun was already beginning to set, so Soh was in the process of packing up shop as he listened to their story. Lillian was also there, sitting across from them as she gave them a sour look over her cup of coffee. “Why did you even try to ask Miss Heidi to give you anything? All she gives us is work and cheap silverware to defend ourselves,” she bitterly remarked.

Well that explained why Lynette had often seen Lillian tote around things like forks while walking around town. Lynette had just assumed it was a cleanliness issue, like the forks at restaurants being too filthy to eat with.

Soh walked over to their table with his hands clasped behind his back. “Uwah, that sounds tough, Lyn-Lyn. So you were both running all over town just to find the book for Boy-Boy, huh?”

“Mmmm… But in the end we couldn’t find a single copy.” Lynette sighed. “Maybe I could ask some of the townspeople if they have the book? But where would I even start?”

Lillian furrowed her brow in concern as she watched Lynette’s face fall. “Why did you even take up the offer in the first place? Aren’t you already plenty busy with your bookstore?” she asked.

“Y’know how bad I am at turning down favors. It was also Manboy who had asked me for something. He doesn’t deserve any more disappointment. And the bookstore’s doing fine without us. Manboy’s watching over everything.”

Silas took a sip of his tea. “With Mr Alfani,” he added.

“Oh… yeah… him too…”

There was an uncomfortable silence that followed that was spent worrying about the bookstore’s reputation. Hopefully it would still be family friendly when they got back.

Soh broke the silence by cheerily announcing, “Well, anyway, I have a little surprise for you, Lyn-Lyn!”

“What is it?” 

“Eheheh, you’ll have to guess-!” 

Throwing her chair back with a clatter, Lynette growled, “DAMMIT, SOH, I HAVE BEEN TO HELL AND BACK-”

“Ah!! I get it, I get it! I’ll just show it you then, so calm down!”

With a grin, Soh brought out Cooking 101 from behind his back. “Ta-dah! Here, you can give my copy of the book to Boy-Bo- Whoa!” Lynette tackled Soh with a hug mid sentence.

Having underwent a sudden change of heart, she sobbed, “Thank you, Soh! Thank you so much!”

As Soh laughed and tried to politely wriggle out of Lynette’s iron grip, Silas nonchalantly leaned across the table to whisper to Lillian. “Kind of wish you were in Miss Lynette’s position over there, right, Miss Lillian?” he murmured, fully aware of Lillian’s crush on Soh.

Although she felt the urge to punch Silas for even suggesting such things, Lillian too had information she could use to her advantage. She raised her cup to her lips and cooly replied, “O-Oh? From your point of view, I would have thought being in Soh’s position would seem more favorable. Being that close to Lynette, I mean.”

Silas maintained his usual neutral expression but couldn’t help the sudden burning at the tips of his ears. “Touché.”

They drank their beverages in mutual embarrassment. 

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

Final Stop: The Bird’s Bookshelf

By the time Silas and Lynette returned to their bookstore it was already nighttime. Thankfully they had enough time to stop by a gift-wrapper on the way there and handed the prettily decorated bag to Manboy.

He took it from them, his mouth slightly agape as he pulled Cooking 101 out of the tissue paper. “You actually found a copy…” he said in disbelief, causing Lynette to grin.

“Was there any doubt?” she replied.

“Yea. A bit :/”

“Ah, no, of course not, Lynette. Thank you both for getting this for me.”

While Manboy bowed to show his appreciation, Silas glanced over the man’s shoulder, trying to peer through the windows of the seemingly empty bookstore. “Where did Mr Alfani go? Gone with the wind?” he queried. 

“He got bored soon after you two left. Don’t worry; he didn’t cause too much trouble in your store.”

Lynette sighed in relief. “Thank goodne-” She tried taking a few steps forward but ended up stumbling instead. Huh? Why was she suddenly dizzy? She heard Manboy call out her name in worry, and she responded with a shaky nod as she tried to regain her balance. “Yeah- yeah- I’m fine. I ju-” Lynette lost consciousness mid-sentence. Silas barely managed to catch her before her face met the pavement below. He didn’t have the quickest of reflexes, but the way Lynette ran around all day while also skipping meals made him guess that this was going to happen eventually.

After he had hoisted Lynette onto his back, Silas bowed to Manboy. “Thank you for watching over our store, Mr Manboy. Good luck with your gift giving.”

Manboy hummed in thought as a response, smiling at the scene before him.

“What is it? Did you need something else?”

“Ah, no!” Manboy then smiled. “It appears you’ve become kinder, Silas. Back when you used to work at the sal-” Silas’ eyes widened. Images of looming shadows and bruising hands came to mind, causing him to cut Manboy off. 

“Please don’t ever bring that up. Not around here. Not ever.”

Although he was taken aback by Silas’ outburst, Manboy noted the pain that entered his eyes the moment he began to talk about the salon. He felt ashamed for even mentioning it. Of course that was a sensitive topic for him.  “I’m sorry, Silas. Please have a good rest of your evening.”

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

Silas felt Lynette stir as he walked across the bookstore.

Her eyes opened halfway, and her voice was small as she called Silas’ name. “Yes?” he responded, stopping in place.

“Did I… do something good today? I felt like I was more of a nuisance than anything else,” she asked.

Silas moved to pat her head but decided against it. If he let her go, she’ll fall too. Instead, he settled for a light bump of the side of his head against the one that laid upon his shoulder. “You always are a nuisance. But you made Mr Manboy happy, so there’s that,” he replied.

Lynette hummed contently and more tightly wrapped her arms around Silas, startling him. “That’s good… that’s good… Thanks for everything, Silas. Especially when it comes to putting up with me.”

He tried to ignore the sudden racing of his heart as he answered back, “I’ve gotten used to it, Miss Lynette. Don’t worry too much about me.”

A/N: All canon characters belong to Poni-Pachet! I’m not going to @ the creators of the OCs I used b/c I don’t want to bother all of them, but I will of course still mention their usernames! Florentia belongs to yukinonshi (OC blog is grimm-casablanca), Nana belongs to lavendel080 (OC blog is marchenland), Liesl belongs to meilc, Hazel belongs to minoux (OC blog is house-of-fables), and Lillian belongs to quirkless-wonders (OC blog is bearwiththe-goldenheart)! Lynette and Silas belong to me! Thank you all for making such wonderful OCs; it was really fun trying to write for them! Thanks to anyone who read this whole mess as well! Y’all are the real MVPs today! (*≧∀≦*)

[creativerogues]

Making Cool Magic Items For A Barbarian...

After my last post about making some cool magic items, I started coming up with ideas for making magic items specific to each class.

Like when you see “Requires Attunement by a Cleric or Paladin” on a Magic Item...

Now these are just ideas, so interpret them as you may, but I’ve added my own little notes on the side to walk you through why I think the idea could be a cool thing for a magic item to have...

...Be it a random property for some legendary item or artifact, or just a new property or feature your Barbarian discovers through whatever story elements you put them through...

Anyways... ENJOY!

Barbarian

You can rage while in heavy armor.

Not entirely useful considering most Barbarians are going butt naked 99.999% of the time, but still useful if your Barbarian somehow has a low Armor Class.

1 Additional Use of Barbarian Rage per Rest

Great for low or even mid level barbarians...

Rage Damage increases by +1. 

For example, a Level 20 Barbarian would now have a Rage Damage Bonus of +5 instead of +4, it’s a very small bonus, but it makes a character feel so much more powerful...

Your Rage Feature now applies to weapon attacks that use Dexterity.

I see this so often, homebrew subclasses or feats or something just so a Barbarian can use a Bow. I mean when your Barbarian is level 20 and has killed dragons with their bare hands, you just try to give a good reason why they can’t angrily operate a crossbow...

Your Rage now lasts 10 minutes instead of 1 minute.

Again, not entirely useful for higher level barbarians, but definitely useful in those low to mid levels of play. And besides, it’s not like combat is going to last more than 10 minutes anyways, but reading “I CAN RAGE 10 TIMES LONGER THAN BEFORE!” makes the character seem more powerful without actually ever being more powerful...

As a Reaction when Initiative is rolled, you can enter a Rage.

Another thing I see so very often is the Barbarian using their first turn to go into a Rage and charge into combat. This neat little magical property lets the Barbarian actually use their bonus action on their first turn of combat for something other than flying into a bloodthirsty rage...

You have advantage on all constitution saving throws while raging.

Again, I like to make my Players think they’re more power than any normal person, and while advantage on Con Saves could be seen as overpowered, the amount of times Con Saves are used outside of making a save against a spell and maybe the odd Barbarian Class Feature isn’t much... 

If you are able to cast spells, you can now cast them while raging.

If you’re allowing your Barbarian to cast spells while Raging, I suggest something like “If you cast a spell that requires concentration while raging, you have disadvantage on any concentration checks related to that spell”. Just so that the Barbarian isn’t casting super powerful buffs on themselves...

Instead of your Rage only ending early if you are knocked unconscious, your Rage only ends early if you fail 2 Death Saving Throws.

Yes, while the concept of a raging unconscious body may seem hilarious to you, this is also a common thing I see in combat. The Barbarian takes a bunch of damage, goes unconscious, and their rage ends, but then they get all healed up and spend their next bonus action or even their entire next turn to rage again and get back up and close to the enemy. 

So maybe a raging unconscious barbarian may not sound great, but if you don’t like this idea, don’t use it, it’s fine with me, I won’t be offended... much...

When using your Reckless Attack Feature, doing so does not cause attack rolls against you to be rolled with advantage.

Now hold on there! Yes, this is an EXTREMELY powerful ability to give to a Barbarian and almost certainly guarantees that they’ll be attacking recklessly whenever they get the chance, but maybe you want to put a restriction on this feature, maybe only enemies within a certain range of the Barbarian no longer gain advantage, allowing the Barbarian to get the upper hand on melee attackers but struggle with ranged enemies.

Or maybe this only works for attacks made with weapons, leaving the Barbarian open to spellcasters. Or maybe only attacks made with non-magical weapons no longer gain advantage...

Whatever way you want to flavor this, just remember that this is a powerful property to give a Barbarian, so don’t be afraid to hide it away from them until they reach those higher levels of play...

Your Movement Speed increases by +10ft.

Again, Barbarians like to charge in, and when they kill that first Goblin, they’ll want to move onto the next one, then the next one, then the next one and so on. So giving them that teeny little boost to speed helps, even if its only an extra +5ft to movement instead of +10ft. (Yes I know about Fast Movement for the Barbarian but sometimes you just wanna run 100+ feet a round okay?!)

You gain 1 additional Brutal Critical Die.

So at level 20, you can roll not 3, but 4 additional weapon damage die when determining the extra damage for a critical hit with a melee attack, because of course your Barbarian needs even more unnecessary damage to dish out...

When you use your Relentless Rage, you drop to 5 hit points instead of 1 when you succeed on your constitution saving throw.

This is another problem, the barbarian drops to 1 hit point, but it turns out the creature has multi-attack and then the 2nd hit still knocks the Barbarian unconscious. 

With this property (and assuming your Barbarian is raging, because why wouldn’t they be?), then that enemy has to deal at least 10 points of damage with a weapon attack...

Now a few of you may say that dropping to 5 HP instead of 1 is still not enough, in which case I’d say flavor it to your Player or Character, maybe it’s 10 HP, maybe its 1d6 + your Barbarian’s Constitution Modifier. Whatever suits you!

Path of the Ancestral Guardian

When the target of your Ancestral Protectors hits a creature other than you with an attack, you can use your reaction to grant that creature immunity (instead of resistance) to the damage dealt by the attack.

You don’t see immunities to damage come up very much in 5e, so the chance to say “Haha! NOPE!” to all that damage from something like a critical hit on the healer is a lot of fun to use... 

The Die of your Spirit Shield feature become d8′s instead of d6′s.

Not too much of a boost, but yet again, just enough to tip the Barbarian over the edge and make the Barbarian feel just a little bit more powerful.

When you use your Spirit Shield to reduce the damage of an attack, the attacker takes an amount of force damage equal to twice the damage that your Spirit Shield prevents.

Getting to double the damage of something isn’t uncommon when it comes to certain magic items, but when it comes to it in combat, those few extra points of damage can be crucial. Plus it’s a chance for the Barbarian to deal even more damage on their turn... so...

Path of the Battlerager

When you use Reckless Attack while raging, you also gain temporary hit points equal to twice your Constitution modifier (minimum of 2).

This is pretty much the only thing I could think of that could help a Battlerager, and I didn’t want to leave it out of the list, so here ya go battleragers, enjoy it!

Path of the Berserker

When you end a Frenzied Rage, you no longer gain a level of exhaustion.

As if I need to explain this one, I mean you could take this one property and turn it into a Legendary Item and no Berserker would ever complain...

You can't be charmed, frightened, grappled, poisoned or knocked prone while raging. If you are charmed, frightened or poisoned when you enter your rage, the effect is suspended for the duration of the rage. If you are grappled when you enter your rage, you can immediately attempt to break the grapple.

This effect could even expand into the ability to never be Blinded, Deafened, Paralyzed, Petrified, Stunned and more, feel free to change, edit or add to this to suit your Barbarian.

When using your Intimidating Presence Feature, if the creature succeeds on its saving throw, you can't use this feature on that creature again for 8 hours instead of 24 hours.

Again, a Feature that makes a Barbarian feel powerful, but in terms of game mechanics there’s no real visible difference, unless you’re fighting the big bad again exactly 8 hours and 1 second after you last fought them...

When you critically hit a creature with an attack using your Retaliation feature, you regain the use of your Reaction at the end of your turn. 

ATTACK OF OPPORTUNITY!!!!! But seriously though, this is another feature that basically just allows them to make a single melee attack against a creature for free, which in game terms isn’t a sizable difference in damage when the condition they have to meet in the first place is scoring a crit, but if you think this is still too powerful, just change it to suit your game!

Path of the Storm Herald

Your Storm Aura extends by +5ft, to 15 feet.

Your Storm Aura now extends to 30 feet from you in every direction.

Your Storm Aura now goes through total cover.

I’m just gonna wrap these three features into 1 little note. Storm Aura is the main thing a Storm Herald has, so increasing its range, even if it only increases from 10 feet to 15 feet, or increasing it all the way from 10 feet to 30 feet, still doesn’t really make it overpowered when you’re dealing (or healing) a very little number of points.

Also the idea of your storm aura not passing through total cover seemed really weird to me. Wind, Cold and Heat can all go around corners... right? And yes, an enemy may be hidden inside a house or behind a wall, but with these kind of powers, who would dare try to escape the storm’s wrath...?

You can change your environment choice for your storm aura whenever you finish a long rest.

Ok, I’m willing to admit something here, I kinda based this off the Blessing of Corellon from Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes (wow, I hope I’m spelling that right...)

But I’ve seen it so many now, a storm herald decides “you know what, now that I’ve leveled up, I’ll change my storm aura” and then they immediately regret changing it, but now they’re stuck with it until they level up again, which could be in just a few sessions or months...

This little property makes it easier for the storm herald to change and shift states, you know, like an actual storm...

If your aura's effects require a saving throw, the DC now equals 10 + your proficiency bonus + your Constitution modifier.

Hey look! It’s basically a +2 to a spell save DC! Wow!

Each creature of your choice gains immunity (instead of resistance) to the damage type you gained from the Storm Soul feature while the creature is in your Storm Aura.

Again, a storm herald’s bread and butter is their storm aura, if you want to make them feel more powerful, then upgrade their storm aura just a little bit.

Plus this property is great for a tundra storm barbarian or a desert storm barbarian, since tundra storm barbarians are very much about protecting their allies, and for the desert storm barbarian, who can do damage to all creatures in their aura, this stops them from accidentally damaging allies in their storm aura...

Your Storm Soul Feature now grants you immunity (instead of resistance) to the damage type described.

For example, at Level 6, a Desert Storm Herald gains Fire Resistance, but with this magical property on a magic item, they gain immunity to Fire Damage instead!

Path of the Totem Warrior

Once per day, you can cast Polymorph. You can target only yourself and transform into the beast you chose as your Totem Spirit.

For example, once per day a Bear Totem Barbarian can polymorph into a bear (which type of bear will probably be up to the DM). 

And yes, you can still rage while in this form, since you’ll still retain the benefit of any features from your class and can use them so long as your new form is physically capable of going into a rage.

Bear: While raging, once per seven days, you can choose to have immunity to all damage except psychic damage.  When the rage ends you gain one level of exhaustion.

Eagle: While raging, you gain a permanent flying speed of 10 feet, as spectral giant eagle wings carry your weight across the battlefield.

Wolf: While you're raging, your friends have advantage on melee attack rolls against any creature within 10 feet of you that is hostile to you.

Elk: While raging, when you knock a creature prone, you can immediately use your reaction to make a single melee weapon attack against the prone creature.

Tiger: While raging, if you move at least 10 feet in a straight line toward a Huge or Smaller target right before making a melee weapon attack against it, you can use a bonus action to make an additional melee weapon attack against it.

As a note, if you don’t like these ideas, simply increase the size category for the target from size large or smaller to size huge or smaller. That way things like the Wolf Totem, Elk Totem and Tiger Totem feel just a little bit better than what they used to be... Plus body-slamming a giant is cool... 

Path of the Zealot

Divine Fury Upgrade: While raging, the first creature you hit on each of your turns with a weapon attack takes extra damage equal to 1d8 + your barbarian level, instead of 1d6 + half your barbarian level.

Fanatical Focus Upgrade: If you fail a saving throw while you're raging, you can reroll it, and you choose which of the results is used for the saving throw.

Think of it as a sorta okay Lucky Feat... Except with more anger and blood...

As a reaction to failing a saving throw against death, you can choose to automatically succeed the saving throw instead. Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a long rest.

This essentially lets the Zealot survive 4 death save fails before they finally die, which I think is a cool mechanic and is very reminiscent of the barbarian features of older editions of D&D where you would just... you know... never die... ever!

While unconscious, attack rolls against you do not have advantage unless the attacker is within 5 feet of you.

Again, mostly fluff for your Barbarian to make them sound cool, because we all know that as soon as that Barbarian drops to 0 HP, that horde of enemies is gonna close in fast!

If you are critically hit by a hostile creature’s weapon attack while unconscious, you fail only one saving throw against death, instead of two.

This one is simply to stop the Barbarian from immediately dying, because creatures within 5 feet already score a critical hit against you if you’re unconscious, which in normal terms means you immediately fail 2 death saves. 

And so if that creature is within 5 feet of your unconscious body and ALSO has extra attack or multi-attack, then you’re almost definitely saying goodbye to your little Barbarian friend. This magical property here, this stops that from happening...

[mostlymovieswithmax]

Midsommar [spoiler review]

Ari Aster has released his second feature film, Midsommar for which he writes and directs and it is a vast, expansive experience that threw me through a kaleidoscope of emotions, which amazingly is something I can’t say for a large number of horror movies coming out these days. That being said however, I’m not entirely sure that I could confidently class Midsommar as a horror. I don’t know if I’d really class it as any specific genre at all. It is certainly its own beast and for that, I would commend it highly. As something that is so dense with detail I will probably be jumping back and forth to moments in the story, giving this review a somewhat non-chronological structure. I can’t possibly touch on everything, especially as I’ve only seen it once. I believe it is something that needs multiple experiences to fully appreciate and is a movie I’d love to experience again.

The talent on display in regards to basically every technical aspect of the film is to be praised tremendously. I loved the cinematography and the look of the movie; the colours and the sets were all gorgeous. Mostly set in broad daylight, this stylistic choice is not something I’d immediately associate with a movie that was going for this type of vibe. Mixed with the set designs, the look of the movie made for a visual feast I couldn’t keep my eyes off of. What made the aesthetic qualities of the movie pop that little bit extra for me was the camera work and how it moved; I think of shots like when Dani goes into the bathroom in the first act and the camera pans over the door frame and twists to show her standing in the toilet of the plane. Or when they’re driving across Sweden and the camera flies over the car and turns to end up in an upside down position, perhaps foreshadowing what the characters are in for on this journey. It’s details like this that cracked a huge smile from me as I was watching, not to mention it separates Midsommar from so many other movies that try to depict suspense and terror. Furthermore, a feature that I found to be intensely thoughtful to accompany the fantastic visual display was the editing, or more specifically the cutting of shots. Often I see movies follow a certain formula when it comes to this facet; conversations cut together with a shot of one character and then a reverse shot to show another character; wide angles to establish locations or buildings, then cutting to the inside of the buildings themselves. There’s seldom ever much of a flare to the editing of a movie but I saw Midsommar capture that charmingly to add tension or even to highlight a joke. Accompanied by the score, a lot of these shots gave off an eerie tone that made me feel pleasantly uncomfortable. I loved the low, stretched out notes of the music that went that extra step further in order to make me feel slightly distressed. The sound design was incredible and generally it isn’t a facet I’d pick up on unless it was either done very well or very poorly. There were sections where even items like cutlery or people walking would catch my ear in a noticeably pleasing way. It shouldn’t be undervalued at all; great sound design can elevate a movie so much and I’m both glad and impressed at how well it was executed here.

Midsommar’s first act may have unfortunately contained a lot of my favourite moments. It introduced the main characters and worked to convey the relationships between Dani and Christian, as well as with Christian and his friends and how they all felt about Dani. I appreciated the time put into the dynamic between Christian and his friends and how they viewed Dani, although this was sort of thrown away once they got to Sweden; I never saw any sort of resentment from them towards Dani after that. Pelle obviously felt a lot differently about Dani, going as far as to kiss her during the latter stages of the movie. I’m not sure why it was necessary to have Pelle feel this way and I don’t understand what it added to the story besides forcing some conflict into Dani’s relationship with Christian, which was being achieved on his end regardless. Along with this, we are also shown the unfortunate and upsetting demise of Dani’s family which acts as a plot point in helping Dani to decide upon accompanying Christian and his friends to Europe. Seeing what happens to Dani’s family may have been the most affecting part of the movie for me. To top it off, her reaction was absolutely chilling; I love how Aster gets such raw and believable performances in his films. Dani’s loud, pained cries made me feel for her so much and forced a deep discomfort into me that carried through as the credits and title came on screen. Something that intrigued me quite a bit during this first act is how conversations were filmed through mirrors. We would see a couple of instances of characters talking to other characters that were reflected in a mirror. These static shots that carried on for a short while added to the tense atmosphere and the conversations or arguments that were taking place, imposing a kind of separation between those we could see outside the mirror and those we see inside the mirror. The main cast we’re introduced to in America are all good and give believable and compelling performances. Florence Pugh was fantastic as Dani; William Jackson Harper was decent; Will Poulter was great and one of the stand-outs from my experience. Vilhelm Blomgren portrayed quite an interesting character in Pelle. Christian seemed to be the only one that rubbed me the wrong way because he was such a massive dick the entire time and he was never redeemed. Not to say Jack Reynor’s acting was bad (quite the opposite in fact), I just didn’t sympathise with the character. There are aspects to the characters and the decisions they make that wound me up a bit but in terms of the acting, they were more or less solid.

The secondary characters, or mainly the Swedish locals didn’t stand out as individuals to me, possibly because they were portrayed more as a collective, which is fine but I would’ve liked to have seen some character development from at least a couple of them. Now, I say it’s unfortunate that I derived the most entertainment out of this first act because after that, Midsommar suffers quite a bit from some pacing issues. This movie is almost two and a half hours long and it didn’t feel like it needed to be, especially with a plot that only allows for so much exploration. The plot itself is quite basic, but it is displayed as something so grandiose in scope that it comes across as being eminently pretentious. Could it be the insanely short production time that went into making Midsommar that makes it feel fairly lacking in a few areas? Or is this genuinely the cut that Aster wanted? Results from a quick search of the movie told me that around half an hour of its running time was cut due to the content it presented. Consequently, this will make the home video release different to some degree than the cinema release as it may come to our TV screens as a director’s cut. If this is in fact the case (and I do intend to buy the blu-ray upon its release) then could it be that we’ve not even seen the movie that Ari Aster wanted us to see? Will a director’s cut make it better, worse, or simply just longer? I for one am assuredly excited to see what the end result is.

A big problem I had with Midsommar is how early it peaked in regards to the horror. One of the first things the main characters are presented with upon arriving at this rural community is the idea of people being separated into groups depending on their age: the concept that they didn’t consider themselves adults until a certain age; that they didn’t work until they were old enough to; that they died when they reached a specific year of their life. They’re then told that a ceremony will be held the next day and while our main characters ask what it is, we see William Jackson Harper’s character, Josh smiling in a sly “I know what it is” kind of way. His friends try to ask what he knows, to which he does not divulge anything. What follows this is a scene wherein two elderly people sacrifice themselves by falling off of a cliff in front of the other members of the community. To me, this scene was beautifully unsettling for a number of reasons. Despite expecting them to jump initially, I was still shocked at how well it was executed both in relation to the story and in a technical sense. At first, the woman jumps off of the cliff, dying instantly with a bloodcurdling crunch. Of course the characters from America and the characters we are introduced to earlier from England are understandably shocked. Even Josh reels back in surprise which I found to be a little strange considering how he acted as though he knew what was going on beforehand. What did he think was going to happen if not that? We’re never told. As the old man approaches the edge of the cliff and the English and Americans clue in to what is happening, they react as I’m sure we all would to what happens as he prepares to jump. He lands in a much more awkward fashion with a smaller sound that is no less distressing. Only this time, he doesn’t die... The scene is then racked up a notch as he screams out in pain at having his leg torn off and his body broken on impact. The rest of the Swedish onlookers scream in pain with him and it is terrifying to hear. I imagine this painted a picture to most viewers that the locals we are presented with in this rural Swedish village are all somewhat spiritually connected; are able to empathise with one another's emotions in a way that makes them able to feel the sensations of those they’re close to. Undoubtedly the torment doesn’t stop there and Aster has to quite literally hammer home what this ceremony is all about. In order to put the old man out of his misery, a group of people take it in turns to smash his head in with a large mallet, causing further stress to the main characters, but stopping all of the Swedish inhabitants from screaming in agony. That whole scene… was awesome! I loved it and it stands to be maybe my favourite sequence from the movie. The unfortunate part is that after this happens, I expected everything to amp up a bit and start showing me more uncomfortable and fucked up things but sadly this wasn’t the case. In a sense, it was as if the movie blew its load on this earlier scene and didn’t focus on too many other stand-out plot beats which was pretty disappointing.  For some reason, Will Poulter’s character ‘Mark’ had slept through this ceremony and as a result, hadn’t experienced what his friends had. Whether this was done for a specific reason I’m not picking up on or simply so that he could continue to crack jokes is beyond me. I will give credit where credit is due: this movie made me laugh when it wanted me to. The inclusion of comedy in Midsommar was expertly handled and never made it come across as a lame horror-comedy.

Prior to this and upon arriving in the green fields of rural Sweden, the protagonists all get high and lie around in the grass. While the comedy kicks in here, it is also notable for the reaction of Dani as she starts to feel the grief of losing her family once more and urgently tries to get rid of it. I liked this scene and how it played slightly with the visuals which foreshadowed the inclusion of drugs and their effects later on in the movie.  Sadly with what happens to Dani’s family in the first act, I’m not sure it was that purposeful overall, despite liking how it was depicted. Yes, this event does explain how Dani acts for sections of the film and yes I did like seeing it act as a catalyst for why she goes to Sweden in the first place, but I’m not sure it was hugely purposeful when referring to the movie as a whole. It never came back in a way that affected the narrative or the story that was being told. It was just something that happened to the protagonist that caused her a great deal of upset. Almost as if they could have died in any number of terrible circumstances and it wouldn’t have made a difference. While I really liked the characters’ first drug trip sequence, I got worried early on that Midsommar was going to take an approach that put the trips and the drugs at the forefront of the movie, akin to something like Shrooms (which was just awful) and sure, they played a big part but it did more to enhance what was actually happening rather than fabricate a story that didn’t really take place, just to have them wake up in a field exclaiming how crazy their collective trip was.

As the characters start to become more and more under the influence through the drugs that they’re given, we see the world warp around them. Trees ripple and form faces; the food would shift; flowers would pulse in accordance to Dani’s breathing; characters’ facial features would distort. Dani starts seeing grass sprouting from her hands and feet, or vines mimicking her movements to show how she’s progressively becoming part of this society. Characters like Christian however start experiencing the drugs in a negative and more aggressive way, as if they’re being attacked by senses! There is unease and terror in how Christian experiences the festival, whereas Dani’s experience is comparatively happier. The contrast of how Dani was being accepted and Christian was being rejected was thrilling to see, markedly in how Dani’s demeanour changed as she found herself integrating with everyone else. Although I must say I’m not sure why they kept drinking that drugged water that looked like muddy urine. Christian almost refuses to drink it until he’s told “it’s spring water with special properties” which was all the information he needed apparently! What properties were they? Doesn’t matter; he drank it anyway. The moronic decisions manage to manifest more throughout the movie, however. Regrettably we don’t get to see much of Mark and Josh’s experience with the hallucinogens or even much of the festival because their time is cut short in a manner I didn’t find all too entertaining. Mark is the first to go from the original team. Due to urinating on a sacred tree, he is murdered off-screen and has his face cut off. This could’ve made for a superb scene if it were done right but the way it was handled came across as hollow. Elements akin to this could have worked to convey unease and terror, but they are implied rather than shown which can work in some circumstances but I would’ve liked to have seen something more memorable and haunting instead of seeing an after-product and thinking “okay well I guess that happened”. Show him being mutilated, you cowards! You don’t even have to show it; just possibly what happens in the lead up! It would’ve made for a far more compelling story beat! All that happens is a girl comes up to him as he’s eating with everyone and asks to show him something. His response is just  “she’s gonna show me” and leaves. He doesn’t question what he’s about to be shown; he just gets up and wanders off with a girl he doesn’t know in a foreign country, going purely off of Pelle’s word that everyone there is great! What a way to force that in! Josh is next on the kill list because he took some pictures of a sacred book when he knew he wasn’t supposed to because either he’s just insensitive to other peoples’ cultures, or he thinks it’s okay as long as it’s for his thesis. After this happened I kind of dropped off. With most of my favourite characters gone and the remaining characters questioning everything less and less, not only was there not much left to ground the film in a world that would consider the things that were happening to be deeply disturbing, but also from the protagonists’ perspectives as well.

I’ll acknowledge I’ve been railing on this film a considerable amount... with good reason. But despite being heavy on the criticisms, I still consider Midsommar to be a good, even great movie! I adore films that beg me to revisit them and learn more about them with each watch. Sprinkled throughout Midsommar are a tonne of small details and I’m sure I didn’t pick up on everything; in fact I hope I didn’t. Along with strange “what the hell?” moments like putting scissors under the baby’s pillow (I think that’s what it was anyway) that I still don’t understand, there also exists things that maybe don’t need to be thought about but are still nice to see included, such as goats and cows that took the immersion into this countryside village a notch higher. Or to draw from more obvious details that add depth to the people: going back to how they would all scream in unison, for instance to empathise with another’s emotions; when Dani sees Christian cheating on her, all the girls she is with cry and scream with her, possibly to experience what she’s feeling and/or to show her that they consider her to be part of their people, which also manages to contrast with earlier in the movie wherein she’s with Christian in her apartment but she’s the only one experiencing the intense pain as Christian tries to comfort her.

Upon entering the third act I started to wonder what the actual point in Midsommar was. Could it possibly be one big metaphor for grief and how we can choose to deal with it? There didn’t seem to be that grand of a point being made, either in the relationship between Dani and Christian, the relationship between America and Europe, or just the presence or influence of cults and religion in different parts of the world; those ideas seemed somewhat surface level. So I can’t help but think it was trying to convey a more metaphorical meaning. Either that or its meaning was just “Europe’s weird, man”. In this way, the finale didn’t leave much of an impact besides leaving me feeling quite hollow and disappointed, wondering what all that had been in service to.  I can’t say Midsommar blew me away with much of what it showed me. There were a few decisions made which weren’t all that original in how they were executed and there were some dumb moments that had me questioning why they were included at all. Yet I would never say it isn’t unique in what it achieves; I can’t disregard all of the jaw-dropping technical showmanship and the interesting, creepy ideas that managed to meld horror and suspense and mystery and comedy into something I simply don’t know how to categorise. I could talk for ages about this film and still not touch on absolutely everything about it. Ari Aster is clearly a talented guy and I can’t wait to pick up the blu-ray and watch it a million more times. Along with that, I am for sure going to see whatever he puts out next. These are the kind of movies I love seeing and supporting and I honestly can’t recommend Midsommar enough because it’s something I feel will resonate with different people in different ways, evoking more than a few interpretations of it. It is so worth the watch.

★★★½ 

[janiedean]

Why do you think the SW fandom is so knee-deep in SJ Calvinism? Because I understand wanting representation or being upset because a movie didn’t fulfill your expectations, but the “if you don’t ship X you’re racist” “if you don’t stan Y you’re bigoted” and the harassment over a disappointing movie is surprising just because of how pervasive it is. I was trying to find some St*rmpilot blogs to follow and the amount of hate is Yikes, especially the hate for Rose and the stans of a Certain Ship

eeeeeeh I think it’s because ep. 7 came out at the height of the... well, reaping the seeds the social justice calvinism had sown since 2014 so to speak? I mean, SW is hardly the one fandom where it happened (*cough* voltron and SU *cough*) but as SW is way broader in audience than those other shows that certainly didn’t help, but like, if you think on it, since 2013-ish (but I think before as well, I mean, I’ve been here since 2011 and already when I got here I felt like something was going very wrong when it came to politics-in-fandom-attitude), basically people on tumblr have progressively, when it came to fandoms:

pushed the idea that you have to over-analyze everything you consume through political lens;

pushed the idea that what you like and how you like it also has to be pushed through political lens and what you like says things about who you are as a person or your political leanings;

pushed the idea that if you care for something *problematic* just because you like it you’re excusing it;

pushed the idea that if you were problematic once you can’t ever not be problematic, you can’t change your mind and you can’t learn also because ‘it’s not my job to educate you’ so people either learn themselves or idek what but again, calvinism.

now obviously those politics are tumblr-politics which are also US centric like woah and are also high-school petty like woah, and since more or less then people have:

continuously other-ed lgbt people from *straight*/heterosexual people pushing a narrative where straight = bad and therefore putting it before anything automatically makes it a valid insult which added to the above means that if you ship het you’re already problematic regardless of whether you’re straight or not (and if you are.. lol);

pushed the performative feminism of Doom TM that says men and women should be equal but is like, an excuse to shit on men and on women who like men (see the rampant biphobia around and the whole ‘straight girls are so stupid if they’re into men they should try women’ discourse);

pushed the US terminology when it comes to the POC discourse, in the sense that everything works on the US-centered context where white people = white anglosaxon protestant, poc = everything else without realizing that in the rest of the world white does not equal wasp, that poc = black people only in most of europe (and no one who’s actually black or not white who lives in africa or asia and so on would describe themselves as poc because why the hell would you when your skin color/ethinicity is the norm where you live?), which also goes with the whole white passing debate which where I live would not exist but in that context is a mess because again, oscar i*saac is schroedinger’s poc (as in, he’s poc automatically for american standards because he’s latin-american but like he has the same skin tone as my mother and my mother in italy is white same as 90% of us, which means endless confusion) and assumed that all of us have to accept that terminology/context regardless of whether it’s valid in our countries;

kept on progressively putting minorities against each other in an endless loop of WHO HAS IT WORST/oppression olympics;

kept on progressively split hairs on issues that aren’t exactly, like, that important if there’s more urgent stuff to deal with because 90% of the activism here is performative;

made the 180° turn for which headcanons and shit are seen as, like, doing representation instead of, you know, supporting what rep is there never mind when people decide *one* ship is the right one and if another is canonized and it’s rep it gets thoroughly ignored;

pushed on a mindset for which if something isn’t perfect at the get-go then it’s canceled.

and so on.

like, all of that shit has been continuously not criticized because criticizing it especially if you don’t belong to a minority means that you’re out of line/discussing things that don’t concern you, but if you’re a minority and you criticize it then it’s suddenly YOU BETRAYED OUR CAUSE *INSERT SLUR HERE ABOUT PANDERING TO THE MAJORITY*, and the result exploded in toxic af fandoms, but like... if you look at the issues of the SW sequel trilogy fandom it’s all of that in a nutshell because:

k/ylo ren is automatically the worst because he’s white (horrible), a man (even worse), not canonically attractive (I didn’t touch on that topic bc I’m honestly not up for it mentally but lmao that counts too) and presumably heterosexual (or well, no one said he’s not but you know, since he’s a white dude on the bad side [supposedly] then we don’t give him the benefit of the doubt that he might be bi), so if you like ky/lo ren or relate to him you’re automatically problematic;

shipping re/ylo because automatically problematic because it’s a *straight* (evil) ship made of two white people (when there’s options to ship them both with people that aren’t white, so IT’S RACIST), they have an age gap (BAD BECAUSE POWER IMBALANCE) and it’s enemies to lovers, so it’s a context where people who don’t conceive redemption or that people can become better are basically crying problematic all the time, and the fact that people decided it’s *abusive* when it has like nothing that can equate it to a really abusive relationship says all;

ky/lux being the most popular slash ship immediately means that it’s the fault of the horrible straight (white) women fetishizing the (white) men on the dark side (when it’s most likely because for a while ky/lux was literally the only side of that fandom where people were chill/there wasn’t wank every other moment);

st/ormpilot has been declared The Right Ship because it’s two non-white men and it’s not straight which automatically turns into what I said before about hating other ships that would be rep anyway and feeds into the lowkey oppression olympics racism, because like if finn/rose becomes canon it’s still a mixed/biracial ship because he’s black and she’s asian....... except that it’s not the right ship for people who decided that finn has to be either with rey or poe (and guess what rey is white and poe is... schroedinger’s poc because oscar isaac in europe wouldn’t pass for *poc*), which to me has stank of lowkey racism since tlj came out because sorry but if ‘finn deserves better than rose’ or ‘finn should be with rey because if he doesn’t get rey then it’s unfair’ and the various other bullshit I read on the topic basically says that the white woman is *worthier* than the asian woman or that rose is a downgrade from rey which is fucking bullshit, rose isn’t even a bad character all the contrary. and that’s for the het side of it, but like then it’s not as good as stormpilot because it’s a straight ship (NOOOO THEY MADE FINN STRAIGHT/THEY’RE NOT MAKING THEM GAY THIS IS SUCH BULLSHIT = stuff I legit saw on the tag) and ngl I’m 100% sure that the fact that daisy is Standard Attractive and kelly marie t/ran is lovely but doesn't conform to the usual beauty standard western-viewers apply on asian women did play a role in there, but: what did I say before? the slash ship is automatically better than the het ship never mind that they’re both biracial and rose is actually a rep (asian girls who don’t adhere to stereotypical body shapes - and like, the rep for all body types and shapes should be valid for all women, not just white) that isn’t exactly popular especially in mainstream cinema, so people should be happy.... but since rose is Not A Dude and Not Rey and Not The Right Kind Of Representation For That Crowd, automatically rose is a shit character and deserves to be viciously hated on. and this is a thing done by people who most likely then turn on the other side and talk shit about horrible straight women who hate the only female character for getting in the way of their slash ship without realizing that their rose hate is exactly that. and of course since sto/rmpilot is the two good guys, if you ship that then you also have to hate re/ylo because how can you, a person who ships The Good Ship On The Light Side, support such a problematic enemies to lovers thing? yeah, right, hahaha.

this also tbqh also pairs up with how on tumblr people only recognize mental health issues/abuse victims when the narrative suits them - like, being a bad victim automatically means you lose sympathy and mental health issues are only valid if you aren’t ***privileged*** otherwise why would you have them, which shows transparently in how a lot of people absolutely deny that ky/lo ren is a) an abuse victim, b) obviously mentally ill however it is that he deals with it, but no, he has to be The Most Horrible In Existence Because Otherwise We Should Have Empathy For A Bad Guy Who Also Might Get Redeemed And Redemption Is Not Happening Ever Because Bad People Don’t Deserve it.

like, all of the issues sw sequel trilogy has when it comes to the fandom are direct consequences of the nonsensical social justice calvinism climate on tumblr dot com that no one took care to put a stop to since 2013 and of its ridiculous oppression olympics and pitting people against each other and that was my take. cheers.

(ps: I also ship sto/rmpilot like woah and it’s my otp but there’s a reason why I unfollowed most SP blogs I followed and why I don’t go into the tag anymore - I’m not here for the anti-rose racism dressed up as performative wokeness, I’m not here to get lectured about as a white person I fetishize poc gay men if I ship it - yes I read that too - and I’m not here to read a bunch of meta about how re/ylo is a bad ship and blah blah blah, so yeah. I feel you.) (pps: ky/lo ren isn’t even my favorite character and I care relatively but gdi the way the fandom approaches him is honestly mindboggling in that sense, and I don’t mean people who actually dislike him because fair reasons, I mean people who can’t recognize his abuse victim status and the precarious status of his mental health. like, not all abuse victims and mentally ill people are the right victim or come from the right background and you can be cool motive still murder and still recognize that he’s like that because he has issues, not because he was drawn that way. /bye)

[squadron-of-damned]

1/3) The book being praised for something you don't see in it (or isn't even there) doesn't mean that it's not a good book, you know that, right? It just means that people misinterpret it, which is kinda their problem. Not the problem of the book. I don't remember TP announcing "HEY LOOK EVERYONE THIS BOOK IS HERE TO PROMOTE FEMINISM! I AM THE SAVIOUR OF FEMINISIM IN FANTASY!!!".

This is long, so I’ll split this into points, okay? Okay. Here goes:

I cannot disagree that book being misinterpreted as something that it isn’t has no impact on the quality of that book. If my previous answer made it seem that I consider Monstrous Regiment lacking quality because of its interpretation by the readers, I apologize, that came out wrong.

Unrelated to any interpretations of it, I still don’t consider Monstrous Regiment a good book. (I read it way before I came into any sort of a Discworld community, so I know that other people interpretations don’t cloud my judgement here.) The handling of the plot, the narrative construction, the characters, and the development is simply weak. Jokes sadly don’t make a good literature.

That last sentence might come as hypocritical of me and it probably is, because if you have scrounged thorough my AO3, you have probably noticed that I stuff a lot of jokes into my stories. I acknowledge that it doesn’t make the stories a better piece of literature, but I aim to please here. I’m running a sort of a research on that and if a story has a bunch of jokes (their quality doesn’t matter much), more people read it and comment it. (I am deeply convinced that my best works are Cosette Chapeau, all the It’s Quiet In Basketville stories, Rain, if. and They Hadn’t Met at the End of the World.) OK, interruption over.

Tumblr is a hellsite and the overall approach here doesn’t help anything, true. Super annoying and super unhealthy this “Be Pure Or Be Not At All” attitude. I wish I knew where it came from. (No, I don’t really. But if I knew, I might be more focus-angry about it, now I have to be only vague-angry. Does that make sense?) While completely unrelated, the original post which has brought us here, however, was made in reaction on the Discworld Discord server. Although, that doesn’t belittle your point at all. Come to think about it, a lot of those people on the Discord server came there from Tumblr, most likely.

Back to point 2, but your ask comes to it again: It’s not well written, the character develpmont isn’t worth an old slipper if it happened at all, if you measure by something so subjective as relatableness, I can tell you I can’t relate to any single person there, and if the character development is worth an old slipper, the plot is worth, like, half a sole.

The most irking of all is the combination of being praised as the UwU Pure Perfect And The Best Book and actually being the boiled wilted spinach from refrigerator (You know the one, the one they made in your school canteen? The one which didn’t classify as goo only because there were bits in it? Like, it was edible and din’t have much of a taste, but it represented everything bad with the school canteen? No? My, what school canteen had you even? Can I see it, please?).

The fact that it isn’t a good book doesn’t make it a horrible book, though. I am saying it’s bad, but I’m picky. It’s just not good.

The fact that it isn’t a good book doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy it. You surely can. If you enjoy it, good for you. I’m glad you have fun.

Okay, book talk over, let’s look at the ladies.

Look at the characters of: Susan Sto Helin, Granny Weatherwax, Tiffany Aching. Just the main heroes, those show it the most. Or even Tiffany and Susan. You find out that basically all that they have different are the circumstances. Pratchett’s women are Strong Independent Ladies who take None Of Your Bullshit, and Aren’t Paid Enough To Solve Your Problems And Will Let You Know It but Will Solve It Anyway Because Someone Has To.

Their weakness is their pride and self-confidence.

It’s like those dress up games where you can change the hairstyles and clothes and that’s it. It might look a bit different, but the blueprint is the same. Once you notice this Independent Woman thing, you start seeing it everywhere. Ms. Cake, Angua, Cheery, Rosie Palm, Madam Meserole.

The characters which didn’t start as that evolve into it. In case of Cheery it was over the spawn of 1 book. Magrat took a bit longer, maybe. I mean, I haven’t really paid her much attention when I read about her when I was younger and then Lords and Ladies happened.

I give credits to Terry realizing that women aren’t just a romantic interest, but I would like to see the same amount of differences between female characters like he as among men. A Deciever like Lipwig is. someone selfishly-blind and sometimes blindly-stupid as Downey? Well meaning but quite useless as Verence? Good in theory but idiot in normal life like Stibbon? What about just simply driven by desire for material (and maybe emotional) security (that is Rincewind)?

Sybil Ramkin is quite the exception. Yes, she is also a Strong Independent woman, but she doesn’t rub it into everyone’s face just because. She shows her strength and independence only when there is no one to do it instead, or when she is asked to. But it’s not her job otherwise and she isn’t going to show off.

Okay, another exception is Nightshade in Shepherd’s Crown. Have read that book only once, but okay, this one had a lot of character development for one book.

There are surely some other exceptions, but the thing is that they are very very very very minor. You are more likely to find two basically same female characters than different ones.

(I am a bit salty about that because it gave me the wrong idea about what I was supposed to grow up into, but that’s more of a me-problem.)

If I wasn’t clear somewhere, let me know. My only problem is that I am not good at explaining things that come as obvious to me.

[smileyanie]

Fan account for 180520 YoonA Fanmeeting Tour ‘So Wonderful Day’ #Story_1 in Seoul Part I, credit @itnw0628

1. Before entrance

Fan meeting was held at Sejong University Daeyang Hall in Seoul, 6:00 pm 2018.05.20. Before going inside the venue, fans had to receive bingo card from the staff and fill it in. They said it will be used during the fan meeting. Bingo card has 100 words (or sentences) which is related to YoonA. Among those 100 words, we had to pick 25.

2. Opening VCR

YoonA is in the studio, doing her make up with staffs. A man (who looks like a manager) comes in and tells her there’s a change in her schedule so she needs to go now. YoonA is inside the van, and she looks outside. There are girls who wear school uniform. YoonA looks at them gently, and after that, she reappears with school uniform on. She walks past a flower garden and a bridge (note: The bridge looks like Dongho Daegyo, which is quite interesting), and eventually arrives at the front gate of a school.

3. MC Introduction

After opening VCR, Kim Shinyoung appeared on stage. On stage, there were two desks and chairs, just like the ones we use in school. She greeted fans, and asked them to call YoonA by saying “YoonA ya~”, as if we call our friends in school.

4. Greeting

YoonA appeared with school look on. She put on sky blue colored blouse and half dark blue / half white colored skirt. YoonA greeted fans.

YoonA: KSY unnie accepted my suggestion of being an MC for the fanmeeting without hesitation even though she didn’t know when or where it will be. Thank you.

Kim Shingyoung: Not at all. You know how we do.

KSY: You had a lot to think about this fanmeeting, right?

YA: Yes, I was agonizing. I even had an hour long phone conversation with SY unnie. Every single picture, every single section was selected by me. And did you receive the present when entering here? I bought them with my own money. (fans screamed) The design of the present was also selected by me, and I was thinking which present is the best for you and eventually decided that the one you can always bring by putting on the phones or your bags would be nice. Words 'SONE Day’ on the present was also chosen by myself. I even included photo cards which I took as selfie, though I’m not good at it. I hope you like it. (fans screamed)

KSY: I could feel how much YoonA cares about fans. It’s not easy to give out presents with your own money. (laugh)

YA: Since you guys come to see me, I thought I have to do something for you as well.

KSY: There are some concerns when deciding the concept of the fanmeeting?

YA: Yeah. You know I’m called 'Yoongtizen’ and of course I checked how fans thought about the concept. It seemed some of you felt burdened by the (school look) concept. But I can see many fans wear nice looking outfits here.

5. Giving out presents to fans

KSY: Yes and we’re going to pick 3 fans with the best style and give out presents.

YA: Yes, since fans must have thought hard of the style for today, we should. In fact, we have a lot of presents to give out. Today is the day of presents. (fans screamed)

Then YoonA and KSY looked around the audience to find out fans with the best style. First fan who got picked was on the second level. He wore school uniform with green tie. Second fan who got picked was on the left side of the first level. She put up full school uniform. Third fan who got picked was sitting at the very first row of the first level. She put on pink colored 3 line stripe slippers. (Note: 3 line stripe slippers are used a lot at school by the students)

YA: I know some of you might feel hurt by watching a fan with the great seat is even receiving the present, but please don’t. I will take care of you even at the very last row. (fans screamed)

KSY: As we already talked about at the beginning, the concept of this fanmeeting is 'school’. So, what is the first thing you do when you go to school? Yes, we call the roll. (she put up the book sized document) And this is the roll book for all of you who came here today. (fans screamed) And we will pick two random fans on the roll book and give out presents.

YA: OK. Since today is 5.20, I will pick a fan whose name is on No. 520. (a lucky female fan was selected)

KSY: Guys, I told you at SNSD’s fanmeeting as well before, but please don’t make this sort of facial expression (she made a mad facial expression) even though you’re not the one who receives a present. (fans and YoonA laughed)

YA: Next is….what time is it now? (KSY showed off her expensive looking watch on her wrist) Whoa! That watch. It’s called 'president’s watch’.

KSY: Because it’s a special day.

YA: Anyway, what time is it again? (fans told her it’s 6.18 pm) Got it. Then I’ll go reverse by picking a fan on No. 816.

KSY: You went reverse. Never expected it. I got goosebumps. (fans and YA laughed, and another lucky female fan was selected)

KSY: When you’re a student and if one of your friends give out presents like this, then she/he could be very popular, right? (fans laughed)

YA: It feels like today is not my fanmeeting, more like the giving out event. (laugh)

YA: Uh, is this the end? Then can I take this roll book?

KSY: Really?

YA: I want it because (fans’) names are on it. (fans screamed)

KSY: OK, you can take it. Since YA have all the names who came here today, if one of you don’t show up at next event…..

YA: (jokingly) If you don’t show up at next event…..you know what I mean. (fans laughed)

YA: This is a present for me, really. Thank you.

KSY: It is.

6. Yoongstagram

KSY: OK, time to talk about your recent update. I heard that you have an IG account to communicate with fans, and it’s called 'Yoongstagram’.

YA: Yes, I do. I sometimes check fans’ reaction and add something on the post. (laugh) Problem is, I’m not a heavy uploader. I think I didn’t completely adapt to it yet. Therefore, I got plenty of pictures I didn’t reveal. I reveal such pictures every time I have a birthday party.

KSY: I see. Let’s talk about it after we see the pictures.

First picture was at the foodcourt inside the Incheon airport. In the photo, YoonA made a pose with rice noodle and kimchi jjigae.

KSY: You like rice noodle and kimchi jjigae?

YA: Yes, I like both of them. And weirdly, I eat them every time I go to the airport. There was a time I felt bloated while eating in flight meal. So I thought it’d be better for me to eat something before getting on board. And guess what? The foods are delicious! Incheon airport is the place for good restaurants. (laugh) Nowadays, it became like a course to me. I always eat them when I go to the airport with the staffs.

KSY: Is it a foodcourt? I mean, you don’t usually eat both of them at once….(fans laughed)

YA: It is. I ordered them together with my staffs, and sometimes I eat theirs. (laugh) But, the main dish is always a rice noodle.

KSY: I see. Let’s move on to the second picture.

Second picture was kid YoonA wearing a swimsuit and inside the pool while smiling. She looked really cute and adorable.

YA: Kid Yoong! That swimming goggles and swimming cap look really cute.

KSY: How old were you then?

YA: I guess it’s around 1st or 2nd grade of elementary school. I think I liked swimming at that time. In fact, I have a phobia of water, I can’t swim. That’s why that picture feels unfamiliar. When I was a kid, I was playing at the beach and swallowed by the wave. It got me a trauma. If water is on the level of my waist, it’s OK. But it goes higher and reaches on the level of my neck, it’s not OK.

KSY: Do you have any intention to learn swimming?

YA: I want to, and I have to but It feel too scary when my feet doesn’t touch the ground.

KSY: How about taking a picture with the same pose and same outfit later and reveal it at fanmeeting like this?

YA: Ah, but I might have to take a picture and get out of the swimming pool quickly. (laugh) If I become good at swimming, then I’ll think about it.

KSY: I see. Next picture.

Third picture was a trophy case of YoonA.

KSY: Wow.

YA: It’s a trophy case at home. Trophies are mostly individual ones, since many of the group trophies are displayed at the company.

KSY: So most of them are awarded to 'YoonA’?

YA: Yes. There are trophies which were awarded to SNSD in the bottom though. When I see the trophy case, it looks quite cool. (laugh) And many of the trophies, I could receive them thanks to our fans. That’s why I wanted to show it to you.

KSY: You must have agonized it before taking the picture of it.

YA: Yeah, I was like, 'It might be seen as I’m bragging.’ (laugh) But, again those trophies were awarded to me thanks to our fans. Thank you.

KSY: OK. Next one, please.

Fourth picture was the one YoonA took in Hallstatt, Austria.

KSY: Oh, is it Europe?

YA: Yes, I made a trip to Europe. I uploaded pictures of visiting Budapest, Vienna, and Prague before. I also went to Salzburg which is famous for 'Sound Of Music’. And that place is Hallstatt.

KSY: I heard it’s quite famous.

YA: Yes, it’s used as the setting for 'Frozen’. I missed a proper timing to upload it.

KSY: Hashtag on the picture is quite funny. “I will reveal all of them when you feel bored”

YA: Yes, please wait for it.

KSY: So you just made a promise.

YA: Of course. I’m always thinking about it.

KSY: Next picture, please.

Fifth picture was the one YoonA took inside the room. And behind her, there were comments like, “Welcome, Euijoo” and other words and stuffs welcoming her.

YA: Recently I picked a movie scenario to participate in, and I had a meeting with production team and director. And production company made such things for me.

KSY: Wow.

YA: I’ve never seen such things before. I went there for greeting purpose only, and I felt touched by the gesture. So I asked their permission of taking a picture of it.

KSY: It starts on August?

YA: Yeah, I think I will start shooting from August.

KSY: Can you tell us the character of Euijoo a bit?

YA: She is a submanager of the convention hall. She is an ordinary woman, but very active and try hard to rescue people….

KSY: OK, stop. That’s it. (fans laughed)

KSY: I saw the wreath which mentions 'Exit’ at the back stage, was it from the movie production team?

YA: Ah, that’s from Hyori’s Homestay team. They sent it with the meaning of me exiting from part timer’s work at homestay and becoming a submanager. (laugh) In fact, PD and writer of Hyori’s Homestay team are here. (fans screamed) I know where they’re sitting now, but I won’t tell you because they might feel shy. I guess they’re curious about my life as a superstar, not as a part timer. (laugh)

KSY: Actually, I wanted to visit Hyori’s Homestay.

YA: Really?

KSY: Yes, as Celeb Five.

YA: Ah, it must have been great.

KSY: But unfortunately, it’s all done when we applied for it.

YA: You should’ve taken the interview.

KSY: No, I’m not talking about being a part timer. I wanted to visit their as a tourist. (fans laughed) It’s impossible for me to do a part timer work there. It could be done because it was you, YoonA.

YA: Thanks to Homestay, I received a lot of love. Please give them a round of applause. (fans applauded)

7. Q&A

KSY: OK, let’s wrap up the Yoongstagram here. Next section is a Korean class. No, we’re not literally learning Korean here. (fans laughed) The name of this section is, 'Ask YoonA if you’re curious about anything’.

Blackboard with a lot of posts on came in.

YA: Wow, blackboard. It’s been so long.

KSY: Let’s check the questions. You might think we filtered out some questions but we did not. All we did is arranging the overlapping ones, and we didn’t filter out any of your questions. It might be the first time in the history of the fanmeeting. (fans laughed) OK, YoonA, pick whatever you want.

YoonA started moving around to find an interesting one. While doing so, she made a weird and funny noise. Fans laughed.

KSY: I thought it’s the sound of a door opening. (fans laughed)

YA: OK, this one. 'What is the 3 best things after you cut your hair short?’

YA: I cut my hair short because my hair went bad, I couldn’t even comb it. That’s why I cut it.

KSY: Did you do it yourself?

YA: No. I cut it at the beauty shop. When I decided to cut the hair, I was like, 'OK, let’s cut it when I don’t have a lot of schedules.’ I didn’t expect I would have this many schedules with short hair. (laugh)

YA: First good thing is, I can dry my hair very quickly. And when my hair was long, I used to put some pieces on it to make my hair look rich. But now, I don’t need to put anything on it, and it makes my scalp condition very good. (laugh)

YA: And another good thing is, well right now it becomes a bit longer so it doesn’t feel that way, but when it was quite short, it gave me a different, more stylish image.

KSY: Yeah, more intelligent feels. I think the fan who asked you this question has her own concern about it. Do you have any advice for her?

YA: Uh, if you keep your hair long all the time, then I think it’s not bad to try getting shorter. If you feel it’s too much, then cut it by the collarbone level, because we have to avoid poverty zone. (fan laughed)

KSY: Yeah, right before the poverty zone. Let’s move on.

YA: 'You get your ear pierced one more. Did you have any particular reason behind it?’ Oh, yes I got my ear pierced here one more. How did she/he know it, btw. (fans laughed)

KSY: Why did you do it?

YA: No reason. I just did. (fans laughed)

KSY: Did you research before doing it or….

YA: No, I suddenly thought 'Well, let’s do it’ and did it.

KSY: I see. Fans might have thought, 'Oh, YoonA got her ear pierced one more. I guess it’s her way of saying she will work even harder.’ (fans laughed)

YA: (laugh) So, if I get one more, then it’s also showing our fans that I will work harder? (fans laughed)

YA: Next one. 'What YoonA wanted to hear the most from fans was 'It’s alright.’ Is it still effective? Or if it changed, what is the new one?’

KSY: Ah, you used to like to hear 'It’s alright’.

YA: Yes. When I was asked which words I like to hear, I said 'It’s alright.’ No, it’s not 'You’re cool!’, it’s 'It’s alright.’ (fans laughed) (Note: 'It’s alright’ and 'You’re cool’ in Korean can be spelled exactly the same, but the meaning could be interpreted differently by the accent.)

KSY: Accent is important. (laugh) Are you still the same?

YA: Well, yes. I still love to hear it. However, I feel there’s a slight change. Nowadays, I feel even though fans have something to expect from me, they worry that I might feel too burdened by it, and say 'It’s alright’ to me. I’m like, 'Am I forcing them to say so?’ Therefore, I feel like I have to do my work even harder.

KSY: Ah, so you feel you have to do your work harder when you hear the words?

YA: Um, I think this one is more correct. In the past, I wanted to hear 'It’s alright’ from fans, but now, I want to say 'It’s alright’ to them.

KSY: Oh, so you want to tell SONEs so.

YA: Yeah, it’s 'If you’re worried about me being in a tough situation, I’m alright. So you don’t have to worry about me.’ sort of feeling.

KSY: I see. How about telling them here, then?

YA: (with an extremely cute voice) It’s alright~ (fans screamed)

YA: I think I didn’t articulate it well enough.

KSY: It’s alright. (fans laughed) I guess this is the proper time to use it.

YA: I hope my intention was correctly delivered to our fans.

KSY: I think 'It’s alright’ needs to be said sincerely to be delivered well. I heard yours being very sincere, and I believe fans did, too. It’s not about articulating well, it’s all about being sincere.

(YoonA became a bit tearful)

KSY: You should not cry at this point. Not now. (fans and YoonA laughed, and many fans shouted 'It’s alright’, it made YoonA laugh again)

YA: OK, next one. 'What is the feeling of doing fanmeeting tour?’

KSY: Seoul is the first one, right?

YA: Yes. In fact, I’ve been doing birthday part every year at COEX Artium. I was thinking about doing it again this year. I’m planning to do it every year. Then, there’s a talk about holding a fanmeeting tour. So I was like, 'If so, then how about holding the first fanmeeting tour in Seoul as a birthday party, at a larger venue?’ After that, I called SM and told my idea to them. I was like, 'First fanmeeting tour must be in Seoul, and it must be held before my birthday.’ (fans screamed)

YA: This is an Asia Tour, and you can see there’s a gap between this one and the ones in other countries. This is why. I wanted to do it before my birthday. (fans screamed)

YA: And I know fans wanted a bigger place than COEX Artium, since it’s too small.

KSY: You accept civil complaints 100%. (fans laughed) In fact, this venue is quite big.

YA: Yeah. I think it’d be better if we hold the next one at even bigger place. (fans screamed)

KSY: How about gathering fans all around the world and hold it at Gocheok Skydome? (fans screamed)

YA; Wow.

KSY: Imagine YoonA on the wire, and moving around the audience and greeting 'Welcome!’ (fans laughed)

YA: That’s cool.

KSY: (to fans) So please stay as you are until that day comes.

YA: Yeah, I will check the roll book. (fans laughed)

KSY: (to fans) At first it felt touching but now you guys feel a bit scary, right? (fans laughed)

YA: Next one. 'You wrote lyrics for two songs. When you write it, I’m curious about the way you do it, and where you get the inspiration from?’

KSY: I was quite surprised by the news.

YA: Yeah, I wrote two lyrics on an impulse. I now even have a solo song. (laugh)

KSY: I heard writing lyrics is quite difficult.

YA: It is. If I didn’t write lyrics for 'When The Wind Blows’, I might not be able to do it for 'To You’.

KSY: Did you learn something about it?

YA: No, I didn’t. But I asked people around me before arrange it. I’m the type of person who writes what I want to say. In fact, the lyrics of 'When The Wind Blows’ was co-written with composers, but 'To You’ was done all by myself. I wanted to include what I felt during the Homestays. Half of the lyrics was about what I felt during the Homestays, and other half was the feeling I already had. Last year, I had to say goodbye to one of the sunbaenims, one of my friends, and my grandma. It was a tough time for me. That time made me think, 'About the time we spent together, I think of her/him this way, but how does she/he think of me?’ Those thoughts made me start writing, and I found out that it sort of overlaps with tourists at Homestays. So, first half was more about people at Homestays, and the latter half was more about what I felt.

YA: Weird thing is, the first sentence which came to my mind while writing it was 'It’s really strange.’ That thought came to me constantly. It’s like, 'It’s so strange I feel this way.’

KSY: I think it’s because you’re in the period of experiencing a lot, feeling a lot. People are all different, but the way they live is quite the same sometimes. You might have felt that the story of the tourists aren’t all that different from yours. By the way, I wrote lyrics, too. (fans laughed)

YA: Celeb Five? (then she danced choreo of Celeb Five’s song)

KSY: You know it!

YA: Of course I do. (then she danced even more part of the choreos, fans screamed)

KSY: Wow. I can’t be happier now. (fans laughed, and shouted 'Do it together!’)

KSY: Shall we, then? (then YA and KSY danced the choreo together)

YA: I really want to learn.

KSY: Really? If you have some time later, then please learn it from us. (laugh) You don’t have to worry about the schedule, we will match yours. (fans laughed)

KSY: In fact, Yuri said she will be the center if they do Celeb Five on radio. (fans laughed)

YA: I think she should. Center belongs to her. (fans laughed)

KSY: I see. Center Yuri. How about you, YoonA? (fans shouted 'main dancer!’)

KSY: Ah, main dancer?

YA: Uh, I think we have too many people who have to do the center. Yuri unnie, Sooyoung unnie. They are two tops. And if Hyoyeon unnie is a bit more confident, then she’s also a top candidate. But, I think no one beats Yuri and Sooyoung unnies. (fans laughed)

KSY: If you have a chance next year, then how about inviting us to your Asia Tour?

YA: I really want to. In fact, we were watching you do it, and said 'Wow, unnies are amazing. How about us doing it?’

KSY: No joke, I will visit SM ASAP. (fans laughed)

KSY: Actually, the opening VCR was filmed by Shindong from SJ. He is also the director of Celeb Five’s MV.

YA: Yes, director Shindong shot all the VCRs for this fanmeeting.

KSY: Right. Well, maybe next time, we can sort things out, and let us participate in the opening VCR at least.

YA: Got it.

KSY: OK, how about next question?

YA: You pick it for me.

KSY: (to fans) Is it OK? (fans said yes)

YA: Do it as if you’re a SONE.

KSY: I see. I think a lot of questions, fans must already know the answers. OK, I want to make you do this one. (she picked 'Please write a 2 line poet using 'SO-ONE’) (fans screamed, and YoonA sighed)

KSY: (laugh) Did you guys hear it? YoonA sighed heavily when I showed her this one. Let’s do this. Did you do it at your birthday party last year?

YA: No.

KSY: Then let’s do it.

YA: I can feel the burden of Mr. Yoo Byungjae now. (fans laughed)

KSY: Are you ready?

YA: Yes.

KSY: OK. 1,2,3! (fans shouted 'So~’)

YA: SONEs~

KSY: (jokingly) Drop it, drop it. It’s too boring. (fans laughed)

KSY: OK. One! (fans shouted 'One~’)

YA: Watch me more than you could ever want today! (Note: In Korean, it starts with 'Won’)

KSY: OK, that was good. Shall we do it one more question?

YA: This section is my favorite indeed.

KSY: I know. When we talk about fanmeeting, YoonA constantly told me she wants to have a chance to have a conversation with SONEs. Since she can’t talk with every single fan, she wants to have this sort of section instead. If we accepted 100% of YoonA’s opinion, we might have to stay in this venue for two days. (fans screamed)

YA: When I did birthday party, I am also the MC, and I exceeded the time limit while doing Q&A. (laugh)

KSY: Do you go to karaoke?

YA: Uh, sometimes. Not frequently.

KSY: Which song do you sing there?

YA: Well, I sing male singers’ songs sometimes. (fans shouted 'Dance!’)

YA: Dance? I don’t usually do it at karaoke, unless I go there with other SNSD members.

KSY: Ah, this one. I think this question really came out of curiosity. 'Please give us the information regarding the coat you wore at the airport after shooting 'Rag M’ CF.’ (fans laughed)

YA: What did I wear? (fans shouted the color and the style of the coat)

YA: Ah, I see. That one. (to staffs behind the stage) What was it? (fans laughed)

YA: Are you guys really curious?

KSY: I think they are.

YA: (receiving information from the staffs) Uh, I’m not sure I can tell you this since I’m a model of other fashion brand, but it’s XXXX. That’s it. (fans laughed)

YA: SY unnie picked a lot of interesting questions.

KSY: Fans are really curious about those things though. They are curious about 'YoonA look’.

KSY: OK, next one. 'Which app do you use when you take a selfie?’

YA: Ah. I use B612.

KSY: Do you have any particular filter you like?

YA: Recently, I’m into four ways split. There’s a filter which gives you a feel of film camera. In fact, the effect on the photocard I gave you today was from B612 as well. (laugh)

YA: Face changing effect that I used before, it was from B612, too.

KSY: I see. How about next question?

YA: 'You have a really nice voice. Could you do ASMR for us?’

KSY: You know what ASMR is, right?

YA: Yes. I had an experience of listening to it when I couldn’t sleep. There are a lot of ASMRs out there.

KSY: Right. Could you do it here, then? (to fans) Please shut your eyes off. (but fans didn’t)

KSY: (to fans) Please, shut your eyes off. (fans shouted 'We have to see her!’)

KSY: Alright, alright.

YoonA did ASMR of hers. She almost whispered.

YA: I heard there’s a special mic for it.

KSY: Yes.

YA: I actually heard a sound of slime. I really wanted to have one. And recently, I found Taeyeon unnie have one. So I asked her to give me one. She was like, 'Oh, take it. I got plenty.’ I bring one to my house and played with it.

KSY: Was it fun?

YA: It was.

KSY: I think I should ask Taeyeon when I meet her next time. In fact, she gives out something very well. She’s like, 'Go ahead, take it. I got plenty.’ (laugh)

8. YoonA asked fans

KSY: Let’s wrap it up here. Until now, fans asked YoonA about her. Now it’s time for YoonA to ask fans. You must have seen the board when you make the entrance.

White boards with YoonA’s pictures on came in. Each board had a question which YoonA asked fans. Fan had to put a sticker on the answer they like.

KSY: This section is also prepared because YoonA said she’s really curious about fans’ thought about it. First question is, 'What is the best character among the ones YoonA acted?’ What is your choice, YoonA?

YA: Well, to me the most comfortable role was Minyoung from Confidential Assignment. People who know me said to me, “You didn’t even act on the movie. It’s you.” (laugh) During the shoot, when I heard OK sign from the director, I was like, 'Really? I didn’t do anything here.’ (laugh)

KSY: Can I tell you what actress Kang Yewon told me after she watched Confidential Assignment?

YA: Yes.

KSY: She said, “YoonA became a real actress. She’s more than just an idol.” This is not a fake. I myself heard it at her house.

YA: I got a lot of compliments because of that movie.

KSY: I think the movie would have been boring if not for YoonA.

YA: Wow, thank you.

KSY: (jokingly whispering) You know I said that because it’s only us here. (fans laughed)

KSY: It was a joke. Really, you made the atmosphere of the movie quite smooth.

YA: It’s all because of the production.

YA: So, I like Minyoung, and I don’t know why, but I like Anna. I really don’t know. In fact, Anna was not the ideal role in the viewpoint of the company. But I really wanted to do it, so I pushed it. Maybe that’s why, or perhaps the role felt fresh, anyway I really like Anna.

KSY: I see. Let’s see how fans think.

KSY and YoonA started to reveal fans’ votes.

KSY: First one is Hana from Love Rain. Quite a lot.

YA: It was a cute character.

KSY: Next is Saebyuk from You’re My Destiny. Hm, similar numbers to Hana.

YA: Saebyuk is quite an old one at this point.

KSY: Many moms still call YoonA Saebyuk.

YA: It’s when I was a 3rd grade of high school. 10 years ago.

KSY: Wow, 10 years ago.

YA: I was a student, and yet I had to act living a married life. (fans laughed) I felt a bit awkward because of it.

KSY: Next one is Minyoung from CA. Let’s see. (it has a lot of stickers on)

YA: Wow.

KSY: I think you and your fans are connected. Next is San from The King Loves. (it has quite a lot of stickers as well)

YA: I think I know what you guys like. If the next one got a lot of votes as well, then we can conclude that you prefer a character with a sincere heart towards her love. (Next and the last one was Anna from The K2, and it received a lot of votes, too)

KSY: Indeed.

YA: OK, the results are, Minyoung at No.1, Anna at No.2, and San at No.3. Hana at No.4, and Saebyuk at No.5.

KSY: I guess now you know what fans think.

YA: Yes, I think fans are quite similar to me.

KSY: I think fans love the character which has the aspect of a real life YoonA.

YA: If so, then I think fans would love Euijoo, too. (fans screamed)

KSY: I see. Next question is, 'Which hair style is best suited for YoonA?’ You said short cut is quite comfortable, right?

YA: But now it got longer. You know, these pictures on the questionnaire board, I picked all of them myself.

KSY: I see. I can see blonde, short cut, black long hair with front hair, up style, brown long hair with wave. You had quite a lot of hair styles.

YA: Well, considering I was in the business for 10 years, I don’t think it’s that many. But, I didn’t stay as one style for long.

KSY: Do you have a favorite hair style among them?

YA: I stayed as brown long hair for the longest time.

KSY: I think that one is the most familiar one for fans, too.

YA: However, when my hair is brown, then fans wanted to see black. So I changed it to black, and the problem is, if I do so, my hair goes bad. So I leave it like that and don’t touch it. Then it goes back to brown again. Then fans said “Why YoonA dyed her hair back to brown?” (fans laughed)

KSY: I see. You really want to know what fans think.

YA: I cut my hair like this after I shot MV of 'When The Wind Blows’. After that, all I’m doing is root staining. But my hair turned to brown again. I guess receiving sunlight and others might have something to say about it.

YA: I like brown long hair. And I also liked blonde. However, the short cut I’m doing right now is the product of that blonde. (laugh)

KSY: I see. Blonde messed up your hair. I personally like up style, too.

YA: Up style is good. Actually, I want to raise my hair long like that again. Problem is, it depends on the role I take.

KSY: I don’t know which hair is required for Euijoo, but anyway, let’s see the result. So, YoonA’s favorite is brown long hair with wave and blonde. (They revealed votes for brown long hair first, and it received a lot of votes)

KSY: Wow. I think we don’t have to see other ones. It’s already decided. (next one was up style and it didn’t receive many votes)

KSY: OK. Next one is black long hair. Hm, it received some votes, too.

YA: Next is short cut. (it received plenty of votes)

KSY: I guess fans like short cut, too. (last one was blonde, and it received a lot of votes)

YA: Wow.

KSY: I guess you should go back and forth between brown long hair and blonde. (laugh)

YA: So you do like brown long hair. In fact, if I raise my hair long again, I would like to go back to that one. It’s good. (laugh)

KSY: Considering how fans voted, I think you and your fans are really connected. You guys are similar.

YA: I think so. Actually, I cut my front hair recently because when I did short cut first, front hair looked pretty. But now my hair got longer, and with front hair, whichever style I do, it feels too retro. That’s why I cut it.

KSY: About blonde, I think fans want to see it on stage.

YA: I know. I think I made a right choice going blonde at that time.

KSY: How old were you then?

YA: It was when I did Party, so three years ago.

KSY: OK, next question. 'Which dish would you like to eat among the ones YoonA cooked?’ (Even without revealing, we could see the stickers were all over on Mille Feuille Nabe)

YA: I can see the result already. (laugh)

KSY: (to fans) You’re not supposed to spoil like this. (fans laughed)

YA: It looks like more fans voted for this question. (laugh) It makes me feel like I’m very good at cooking.

KSY: It looks like you are.

YA: Not really. I think I said it before, but when I was not having any busy schedule, I got a driver’s license. At that time, I felt sense of accomplishment thanks to the direct result I received. I really liked that feeling. So I tried to find something which I can see the direct result. That’s why I learned cooking. I learned cooking from a teacher for certain period, and after that I googled internet for recipes and tried some. Then, I went to Homestays, and it gave me a lot of confidence. I called the kitchen there as my dream one. I did many dishes which I couldn’t before.

KSY: All of these dishes, I can’t even think of cooking. Even Curry Rice.

YA: Curry Rice is easy.

KSY: Isn’t it 3 min? (fans laughed) (note: KSY refers to 3-min instant curry)

KSY: OK, let’s see the result. It’s too obvious, though. (she revealed the votes for Curry Rice, and not many votes were on it)

KSY: (laugh) You guys were too much. Curry Rice wasn’t that appealing to you?

YA: I guess it’s because you can eat Curry Rice easily.

KSY: Do you have any special recipe for Curry?

YA: Well, putting some milk in it?

KSY: For Curry?

YA: Yes. It makes it softer.

KSY: Next one is Braised Sea Bream. (the result was revealed, and it didn’t receive many votes as well)

KSY: I see. Let’s move to the next one. (next one was Mille Feuille Nabe)

YA: No.1!

KSY: Yes, no.1! (fans laughed)

KSY: It feels like we’re doing a music show with single 1st prize candidate. (fans laughed) (result was revealed, and expectedly, massive amounts of stickers were on it)

YA: Wow, it is a lot. Does any of you cook it yourself? (some fans raised their hands)

YA: I see. In fact, the taste will be similar. (fans laughed)

KSY: Oh, there’s not much difference in taste regardless?

YA: Yes, but making it look pretty is not easy. (then she explained how to make it pretty)

KSY: I think you should be on cooking variety someday.

YA: I’d love to.

KSY: How about 'Homemade cooking teacher Lim’? (fans laughed)

YA: I really want to learn. If I was on that program, then I would’ve learned a lot of recipes.

KSY: How about opening your restaurant someday? (fans screamed) You know, there are many spot bar during college festivals. You open such bar, and cook something over and over. (laugh)

KSY: Next one is waffle. Oh, it received some votes. Right now, it’s the 2nd place.

YA: But I think it will be the 3rd place pretty soon. (next one was Jjimdak, and it received a lot of votes)

KSY: Yoongyoong Jjimdak! How come you cook it at home. It’s very difficult.

YA: This one is what I learned during the learning course. One of the dishes that I cook quite often.

KSY: So you cook Jjimdak at home quite a lot?

YA: Yes. All of these are the ones I cooked quite a lot.

KSY: I guess Curry Rice is the most frequent one, though.

YA: Well, I think I should remove Curry Rice next time.

KSY: (laugh) You’re hurt by the result. (then KSY hand counted the number of votes on Curry Rice)

KSY: Grand total of 15 fans voted for Curry Rice. I guess they were like, “Wait, Curry is being alienated so we should give some votes!” (fans laughed)

KSY: Me personally, I have one which I really want to try among these. It’s waffle.

YA: Ah, waffle.

KSY: It was quite popular after the broadcast. Do you know that waffle making machines were sold out?

YA: I know. Because of that, the company sent me a thank you letter and other products.

KSY: Really?

YA: Yes. Since it’s a foreign company, I heard that endorsement contract is not possible…(fans laughed)

KSY: I love bread, so I really wanted to try it.

YA: Really?

KSY: Yes.

YA: Well then……I will make waffle today for you.

KSY: Wow! (fans screamed)

KSY: Ah, now I see. What you did at the backstage was for this. I thought you’re doing it to eat it yourself. (fans laughed)

KSY: So if you’re going to do it, I think you have to go inside and prepare for it.

YA: Yes.

KSY: We will wait here while you prepare. (YoonA disappeared to the backstage)

9. VCR (Making Film of 'To You’)

KSY talked about how YoonA prepared for the fanmeeting, then disappeared to the backstage. Lights were off, and making film of 'To You’ was on the screen.

10. 1st Stage (To You)

After VCR is finished, YoonA appeared on stage with pretty white dress on. She sang 'To You’ live for the first time for us. She made a slight mistake during the song (perhaps due to her having cold), but she recovered well after that and finished the song.

11. 2nd Stage (When The Wind Blows)

After the 1st stage, 2nd stage began instantly. YoonA sang it flawlessly this time. We had a fan event here, which was holding up the candle light together when YoonA sings 'You are my star’. I’m not sure YoonA realized it, though.