#its been implied already but its also not a big plot point

[arolesbianism]

It's so miserable making side characters for a story and getting attached because now not only are you obsessed with a guy that only exists in your head even if they existed out of your head they'd still be basically just in your head. Like no you guys have to trust me they're so deep and intricate no none of this stuff ever comes up you just have to believe me and like them as much as I do

[starcurtain]

What in the World is Going on With Mydei's Backstory?

One thing I noticed while playing through the story is that there appears to be something very strange going on with Mydei's backstory. Namely: It's almost like he's got two different backstories going on at once.

And I wonder if that's on accident... or on purpose. On the one hand, Amphoreus's plot has my brain spinning wild conspiracy theories about time loops and multiple lives and even the whole world possibly being some sort of simulation, which would make "two simultaneous timelines" make perfect sense.

(On the other hand... Hoyo doesn't have the best track record for character timelines. Remember how Sunday and Robin's mother was killed when the stellaron fell on Penacony... the same stellaron that fell before the Astral Express crash landed... centuries ago... 😂)

But anyway, here's what I mean:

In 3.0, Mydei makes statements that suggest he lived in Castrum Kremnos:

Phainon also says that Mydei is "homesick" for Kremnos, implying this was his home at some point.

The Chryseus Leo in Castrum Kremnos recognizes him by the sound of his voice, and Mydei responds as if reuniting with a well-loved mentor:

This suggests Mydei spent long enough in Kremnos to be affectionate with Chryseus Leo (he even calls him just "Leo" like a nickname) and have learned from him as a teacher.

In 3.1, Mydei speaks about the Kremnoan royal library as if he has personal knowledge of what scrolls/slates are available there. He also calls it "my library" with a possessive but especially fond feeling, as if he's spent a decent amount of time there and loves it.

And, during Trailblazer and Castorice's visit to past Castrum Kremnos, which supposedly takes place before Eurypon's fall, an NPC on the street curses Mydei as a traitor and claims that all the Kremnoans who went with him to Okhema are "deserters."

Castorice and the Trailblazer even have a discussion about whether Mydei's choice to leave Castrum Kremnos was brave or cowardly. This indicates that Mydei's whereabouts were well-known to the people of Castrum Kremnos before the city met its downfall.

However... there's a big problem with all this: None of this actually make sense with the backstory Mydei himself states in 3.1.

According to the flashback we experience in 3.1, Mydei was thrown into the Sea of Souls as an infant.

This correlates with what we know from his leaked voicelines (skip the image below if you want to avoid the leak!)

His earliest memory is in the Sea of Souls. He himself states he has no memory of living in Kremnos before his father threw him into the sea. He lived nine years in the Sea of Souls before returning to land.

Then, he states that he met his five friends directly after returning from the Sea of Souls:

And he states that they lived together "in exile" for ten years.

But... uh... who exiled them?

It literally can't have been Eurypon, given that Eurypon doesn't recognize Mydei at all and explicitly had no idea Mydei was still alive the whole time:

A few lines later, Mydei also states:

"When we left Kremnos."

So Mydei... went back to Kremnos after leaving the Sea of Souls and meeting his friends...? And he lived in the inner city and had access to the royal library, apparently, but nobody loyal to the king ever noticed him? And then he was somehow exiled after that? For... some other crime entirely (since it wouldn't be for being the missing crown prince, given Eurypon didn't know he was back)? Or just decided to self-exile at some point, despite living presumably relatively peacefully in his home nation?

When could this even have fit in the timeline?

We're told that by "the fifth year" of Mydei returning from the Sea of Souls (Mydei would have been 14 years old) three of his five friends were already dead, and he'd already waged war with at least two different countries (Ladon and Aidonia).

We're never remotely given an indication here that there is room in the timeline for Mydei to have returned to Kremnos and just lived there as an undercover citizen. He instead specifically states that he and his friends lived in the wilds of Amphoreus, roaming the land for ten years.

He even notes that all of his friends died before he ever had a chance to bring the detachment to join up with Okhema:

There's also the entire aspect of Mydei's situation being paralleled to the children he meets in Okhema. When he asks them "How can you consider Kremnos your home when you never lived there?" we, as the players, are supposed to recognize that Mydei feels this way too: Castrum Kremnos was not his home--because theoretically the timeline is telling us he never actually lived here.

This is reinforced by the "As I've Written" chapter, where Okhema is once again posited as Mydei's only home:

So... Something is really not adding up here, especially if you think to the NPC in past Castrum Kremnos who describes Mydei word-for-word as both the "crown prince" and a "Chrysos Heir" who has already deserted for Okhema with his army before Eurypon's death.

In the Kremnos ruins, there's this memory fragment where Krateros confirms that Mydei and the detachment are already working with Okhema before Eurypon's death:

Except that this definitely conflicts with the timeline Mydei gives for his own joining up with Okhema. He says all of his friends died before the detachment went to Okhema, and explicitly that Hephaestion died after Eurypon:

So this is Schroedinger's detachment, both allied to Okhema and not at the same time. 😂

We also know that Mydei didn't live in Kremnos after killing his father, since he explicitly states:

Why would the people need to be led back into Kremnos... if they hadn't left yet...

Furthermore, some of Hepaestion's dialogue also makes it sound like Mydei already had the Kremnoan people with him at this time, and that the migrant Kremnoans were already waiting for Mydei to lead them back to Kremnos:

Theoretically, Mydei could have been traveling around Amphoreus just picking up random Kremnoan exiles and formed the detachment out of those random Kremnoans he picked up... maybe? I guess? Since it definitely doesn't make sense that he absconded from Castrum Kremnos with a whole army and his dad never even noticed!

And the icing on the cake even. During his confrontation with Eurypon, Mydei says:

He knew about Nikador's soul being split?! He knew about what had been done to make Nikador immortal way back then? And then he just... FORGOT before 3.0?! Whattttt is even happening herreeee?

The only way even part of this works as a single timeline is if the events are:

Mydei is thrown into the Sea of Souls as an infant.

Mydei lives 9 years as a feral siren child in the Sea of Souls.

Mydei finally returns to land, meets his five friends.

Mydei, despite knowing his father is out to kill him, sneaks back into Castrum Kremnos and somehow manages to find a place to live as an undercover citizen (under a fake name too, presumably?!) in the inner city even though he would theoretically be perceived as a penniless, nameless orphan at this point. Maybe he couch surfs at his five bros' houses, I don't know lol.

In some relatively short period of time (less than five years for sure), he manages to build an entire detachment army under his father's nose with no one giving away his identity to anyone loyal to the king (despite the fact that we see many Kremnoan citizens still loyal to Eurypon all the way to the end), then he exiles himself and his entire army from Kremnos, still without the king even noticing?

Mydei and his army pillage randomly for ten years, then Mydei returns and kills his father.

He leads the Kremnoan detachment to Okhema to join Aglaea's cause.

However, this still can't resolve the continuity error of the random people of Castrum Kremnos knowing he's 1) alive, 2) the crown prince, and 3) assisting Okhema all before Eurypon, the literal king, even learned Mydei was still alive, plus knowing about the plot to break Nikador's soul up and then somehow just flat out forgetting that lol.

Even Castrum Kremnos's timeline itself is confusing

There's also the weird stuff going on with Castrum Kremnos's timeline.

We know that Castrum Kremnos's last Kremnos Festival took place at the end of the Chrysos War. In 3.0, Phainon talks about this war and the tales of the Chrysos heirs involved with it as if it is something that took place long enough ago to have become the stuff of legends:

When being exposed to the present Kremnos, Gnaeus implies that a significant amount of time must have passed between Eurypon's death and the Trailblazer and Castorice's mission:

And Gnaeus also confirms that supposedly thousands of years have passed between Castrum Kremnos's last Kremnos Festival and the present:

Mydei implies that the people of Castrum Kremnos have been away from their homeland long enough for their traditions to have faded:

Aelius, who is a grown-ish looking NPC from the "Love in the Time of Black Tide" questline, notes that when he came with Mydei to Okhema, he was just a child:

All of this suggested that Castrum Kremnos's downfall actually happened years and years ago, some of it suggesting possibly decades or even centuries of lying in ruin.

The fact that an NPC aged to adulthood or near to it while Mydei didn't change at all definitely had people convinced in 3.0 that Mydei was literally "immortal" in that he did not age, suggesting he could be centuries old.

However, that... also doesn't make sense.

We have Damionis who managed to take a picture at the last Kremnos Festival, suggesting it wasn't very many years ago, given that he's clearly not an older NPC:

And Krateros, who clearly does age, is shown as an already grown man in the flashbacks with Eurypon and Gorgo.

To complicate matters even further, we have two Gorgos--one in the past and one who was Mydei's mother, but both of whom achieved the same feat. The devs even deliberately obfuscate on the original Gorgo's identity through the readables to further link the Gorgo of the past with the Gorgo of the present by refusing to state the gender of the Gorgo of the past:

It's not on accident. They want players to conflate the two Gorgos.

Andddd another edit, because I keep finding things that don't add up. When Phainon and the Trailblazer go to Kremnos to fight Flame Reaver, they run into a bunch of Kremnoans fighting the black tide. Phainon speculates that Aglaea must have rallied them, except...

That guy definitely has no idea why Aglaea would be giving him any commands, and, more than that--he doesn't even know who Phainon is. Could there really be any of the Kremnoan detachment that don't at least know of Okhema's Chrysos Heirs? And why would he imply that their "king will deal with you" if Mydei is aligned with Okhema?

I don't think these Kremnoans came from the time period we think they did...

How can we reconcile this?

We could just handwave this and say "Classic Hoyo, not great with keeping track of their own writing." We have evidence they've made mistakes (and retcons) before.

But with timelines being so central to Amphoreus's plot... I'm suspicious, enough so to suggest that there may be enough conflicting information here that this could be on purpose.

In fact, if you separate out the events that don't make sense together, it almost appears as if there could be two completely different timelines, or as if events from two different timelines have become stitched together, trying to create one coherent story and yet, like mismatched puzzle pieces, not quite adding up.

In one timeline, the one that seems most prevalent, Mydei (who ages normally) was tossed into the Sea of Souls as an infant despite his mother's protests, lived (and died) in the sea nine years, then was discovered by a band of five Kremnoan exiles who became his friends, wandered with them for ten years, and eventually returned to Castrum Kremnos to kill his father at around 19 years old. From there, he led any Kremnoans who were willing to follow him to Okhema as refugees and as a detachment army, and they've served in Okhema for no more than a few years--enough that Aglaea still calls him a youth and Mydei hasn't noticeably aged since he killed his father, and enough that Damionis, who visited Castrum Kremnos during the last festival, is still a young man.

In the other timeline, we have a much more ancient Castrum Kremnos, one which had already fallen into ruin long enough ago for its final king to turn to dust and the Chrysos War to become the stuff of legends, according to Phainon. In this timeline, a version of Mydeimos who was much more familiar with the city, one who apparently had access to the royal library and lived in the inner city of Castrum Kremnos (which Phainon says matches him having the status of a prince), suddenly decides to betray his country, possibly due to seeing his father decline into madness. He becomes a "traitor of a crown prince" according to the regular Kremnoans, but manages to assemble an army of his own loyal followers, which becomes the Kremnoan detachment that lays waste to enemy countries for years. At some point, he is recognized as a Chrysos Heir during the Chrysos War era and allies himself with Okhema, and then only after that returns to kill his father.

And the biggest hint we have to support this "alternate timelines" theory?

The game itself.

When Mydei returns to Castrum Kremnos, we actually see two different scenarios weaving together--the "truth" as we know it, with a destroyed Castrum Kremnos, and the other where the nation is whole and happy.

The assumption the game leaves players with on the surface is that Mydei is simply imagining things, envisioning a "dream" scenario where he reunites with his lost friends and gets to live in a flourishing Castrum Kremnos with his people.

However... I feel the need to point out that every time the scene cuts between the "dream" and "reality"... We actually hear the exact same sound effect that plays whenever you activate Oronyx's miracles to travel between timelines.

For comparison, Mydei's "dream":

And Oronyx's miracles sound effect:

In fact, the visual effect of swapping timelines (darkening on the edges of the screen, a flash of blue geometric shapes) is actually also perfectly identical, and you can even hear Oronyx's voice as Mydei shifts between "reality" and his supposed "dream."

If it were just the repeated sound effect, it might be easy to say it's just Hoyo reusing resources. But... why play Oronyx's animation and voice over the scene if this isn't a time shift?

Unless... all the confusion is on purpose.

Is it possible that what we're seeing unfold in Amphoreus isn't the truth? That the stories we're hearing and seeing might not be whole stories and are instead just scattered pieces? Different timelines stitched together, like someone telling stories about the past but misremembering the details? With memories overlapping, or overwriting each other, or being altered by timelines or time loops collapsing in on themselves? (Something similar happens with Tribios's story, by the way--Tribbie insists that in the ancient timeline, Tribios was completely alone and that we as time travelers with Oronyx's power are in fact only witnessing a memory, and yet Phainon notes several times that it's not possible for Tribios to have made it through without outside assistance, suggesting the two timelines are in fact overlapping, and what Tribbie remembers in her memory isn't actually accurate.)

Is it possible that the events of Mydei's backstory don't quite add up because they're not supposed to?

Is Mydei really imagining things as he returns to Kremnos... or are we actually seeing entirely different timelines or lives "resonate" with each other, collapsing into each other to create a single jumbled story that not even Mydei realizes isn't true?

Or... Maybe Hoyo just goofed again. I guess we'll just have to wait and see! 😂

[lostinlovingrevery]

Trap

Trilogy! Logan X Mute! F! Reader

The team falls into a trap

A/N: This came out WAY differently than what I originally planned lmao. It started as a fluff piece and turned into a whole ass plot.

Warnings: Plot based, Fluff, Logan being a goof, reader is mute! Sign language is used, also gets referred to as "Quiet" by the villain, reader is a mutant with the power of animal communication/suggestion and is implied to be able to do more, reader gets attacked/chased, slight body horror descriptions, villain may or may not based off an re4 monster lol, canon typical violence, mention of blood, Logan saves you and kills the bad guy (for now)<3

You watched your frosty breath dissipate into the air.

The cold nipped at your nose and cheeks. The leather of your suit had done good at keeping you warm for awhile, but you've been outside, crouched in the snow for hours at this point.

The only source of warmth you have is the sweet little fox who decided to curl up next to you and take a nap.

You glanced down at the furry creature, a small smile stretched across your face as you reached down to gently pat it's head with your gloved hand. It sleepily blinked it's eyes open and looked up at you.

You sensed that it wondered how much longer you were going to be here.

No idea

You looked around, taking in your quiet, scenic surroundings. Evergreen trees stood tall over you, blankets of snow hid the Earth underneath. The only trace of any disturbance was your - and the foxes- footprints. You looked back forward, perched atop of a small cliff, you observed the facility below you.

A place colder than the forest you were surrounded in. It seemed to have been abandoned lumbar mill, but now was a hub for mutant trafficking. A bunch of sick assholes kidnapping mutants and putting them under control, selling them off to fighting rings, slave trades, hell- there's a possibility of military contracts going in and out of this place. An anonymous tip sent to Charles.

The team all felt unease from it. The topic already a dark subject. An anonymous tip meant you couldn't fully trust the source either. What if it was a trap? Ever since the X-men have become a...public entity, the more and more you have felt like you and your friends have become a target.

A team full of mutant superheros? The world hates you.

You can't bring yourself to hate it back.

The fox, perked its ears, turning its head to a new direction as it stared intently. You didn't have to look to know why it was so curious.

"Got yourself a lil friend?"

Logan's voice warmed your cold body, as you smile to yourself, ducking your head as you heard his footsteps approach. The fox watches him with both caution and curiosity. She stands up, taking a few steps away from him, but still close to you.

"Replacing me already huh bub?" He crouches down next to you, and you look at him with the tilt of your head. A big smile stretched on your face as you greet him, before you raise your hands and sign,

Not possible.

His eyes softened at your expression. He leaned forward to peck you on the lips, which only became something more lingering. You gently put a hand on his chest to push him away, only so you could speak.

You should be at your post, You tell him, a raise of your eyebrow, before dropping yours arm back in your lap.

"Got bored. Ain't nothing happening." He says, looking over the cliff. "Plus, I missed you."

You tried, and failed at suppressing your smile as you shake your head. He already knew what you were going to say, a small roll of his eyes.

"Yeah yeah we're on a mission." He says. "What does it hurt if I come see you for a few minutes?"

You shot him an unimpressed look, raising your hands again, It's never just a few minutes with you, my love.

A large goofy grin came across his face, his hand slid across your back, his touch making shivers run down your skin. He begins pulling you towards him. "Damn right it ain't." He mumbles into your lips, capturing you into a kiss once more. You began to giggle, your hands coming up to hold onto the collar of his suit, as you curved your body into his. "You cold?" He asks in admidst of your heated make-out session. You nodded. "Let me warm you up baby."

Before you could react, he began to push you down into the snow- but the fox comes and starts pouncing on him. Excited squeaks coming from her, as she frantically pushes herself between you both, attempting to curl up on your chest and practically screeching at Logan.

"Woah! Hey - I was here first bub." He scowls at the small animal. You laugh, pushing yourself up from the snow, the fox still maintaining a barrier between you both.

We can't, love. mission, remember?

He sighs, reaching out to pet the little fox- who nips his fingers, in a playful way. "Watch it." He growls, a point of his hand. He goes to pet her again, and she allows him this time. "Reminds me of you-" He glances up at you. You leaned back on your arms, tilting your head questioningly. "Little spitfire at first, but can't resist me." He shoots a wink and a cocky grin stretches across his face.

It makes heat bloom in your face as you look away bashfully, then look back at him with lidded eyes.

"Don't look at me like that." He says with a deep rumble in his voice. "I know that look." He voices a mocking tone, "The mission, remember?" He shakes his head. You reached over, playfully pushing him away into the snow.

Despite how his heavy frame couldn't technically be budged if he didn't want it to, he allowed you to push him; while grabbing your hand and pulling you down with him.

Snow fluffed around him as he pulled you on his chest, capturing you in another deep kiss. One of his hands slid across your waist, while the other buries into your hair. Just as he predicted, you melt into him

So insatiable, you thought to yourself. The fox ran playfully around you both.

"Wolverine, do you copy-"

Scott's irritated voice comes across the earpieces you both were wearing. Logan's face contorted into disgust. Scott spoke again and he groaned, going to unmute himself from the comms.

"What do you want, Cyclops"

"Are you at your post?"

Logan looked at you with a quirked brow and you stifle a giggle. "Sure I am. Why wouldn't I?"

"Because I'm looking at you and someones tracker positions and it says you're together."

"Why don't you keep you nose out of my business Summers."

"Logan I swear-"

"Yeah yeah." Logan muted himself and Scott. "Pain in the ass."

You out an amused noise, sitting up and pulling him up by his collar. You sign,

He's right, we should get back to focusing.

"Yeah." Logan sighs, disappointment etched on his face, as he looks at you with kind regard. "Alright." He groans pushing himself up from the ground, brushing the snow off himself. He looks down at you, hands on his hips. "Y'know, we should go away for a weekend, or something'" He shrugs casually- but you notice the tips of his ears turning red, despite his already flushed appearance from the cold. "Just, you and me."

You smile, and nodded. He takes a few steps back, staring at you- like he was hesitant to leave. You blew him a kiss, which seemed to ease him, and he winked before turning and walking away. You looked at the fox who was now sitting and watching this interaction.

She yawns. A tilt of your head, you motioned for the fox to go with him.

Keep him company

She obliges, quickly hopping up and following the tracks that Logan had left behind. You watched with an amused smile, now feeling warm again from your interaction with him.

He was cute. Always wanting to be by your side. He tells you you're imagining things when you tease him about it, but always pulls you a little closer. His little visit to you just now is nothing new, during missions, work, hell even your private meetings he'll find some way to sneak into- force himself to into the topic, just so he can be near you.

He just can't seem to stay away.

Not that you minded. You reveled in his warm body pressed against yours. His voice always soothing you to sleep as he plays with your hair. His large hand calmed your nerves as he places them over yours when you begin picking at your nails. The way he watches you, every detail, with intensity as you speak with your hands.

He always listens.

He was such an arrogant prick when you first met him. You both butted heads all the time, yet somehow, with time, you became soft for the other. You found yourself watching him all the time, you'd blushed, and Jean would tease you for the thoughts that were in your head whenever you saw him - while Charles gave you a knowing smirk.

It was when you walked in on him, staring at a laptop he borrowed from Jean, trying to mimic the sign language video that was playing on the screen.

He was so incredibly flustered, but you just kissed him right there.

You both been inseparable ever since.

Static crackled over your earpiece as you heard Scott.

"We got a situation! Down in the factory-!" He sounded out of breath and panicked, so you didn't waste time to move.

Technically, you were more of discreet part of the X-men. You communicated with animals, and it allowed you to spy and gather intel on anything. You weren't a fighter, although you could fight if needed, and you could also call on your furry, feathery, or scaley friends to assist you; it wasn't a preference of yours though. You don't want them to get hurt in your battles.

However, when it came to your friends, your family. You wouldn't hesitate for a second to throw yourself into the heat of a battle.

The snow crunched under your feet, as you attempted to climb down the hill without falling, searching the area for signs of distress, listening for any shouts. Scott's distress and sudden silence afterward worried you.

Once you reached the bottom of the hill, you stealthily crouched around the old mill. Your eyes searching for something, anything. It unnerved you completely.

Things were too quiet. Too empty. Your eyes scanned the bottom, and you spot a flock a birds- crows, above you, circling the mill, likely in search for a meal.

Using your senses to call out, one flew down to join you, landing on your arm as you hold it out.

It caws, telling you that the mill was a dangerous place. Yes, you knew that already.

What do you see up there?

It informs you about a group of people- fighting, doing strange things. Some of them wearing suits similar to yours. Bingo.

It flaps its wings and takes off. You stay crouched, going along rusty assembly lines that were used to transport logs, going deeper to the large, towering factory until you found a door.

You still kept your eyes open, listening for the familiar sounds of fighting- but it was dead quiet. Other than the creepy creaks of the building, groaning against the cold that freezes it's frame.

You slipped inside to the darkness, only the windows that sat up high allowed for dim light that shined your path through old machinery.

Your steps where the only sounds that echoed through the factory. Other than small drips of a water source unknown, and creak of chains, blowing softly from wind that came through cracked windows.

You had a bad feeling in your gut.

A deep chuckle reverberated through the factory, the source coming from behind you, and the hairs of your neck rose, as you slowly turned around to see where the sound came from.

The man stood a few feet away from you. An arrogant smile on his face. He was tall - very tall. Pale skin, bald head. He just looked like a stereotypical bad guy, the kind you see in a James Bond movie.

"Ah, there she is." He tips his chin up, his voice had a hint of an accent that you couldn't place. His hands going into the pockets of his grey blazer- an absolute awful color on him by the way. What kind of person is not able to pull off the color gray? Everyone could wear gray. Not this guy apparently. "We weren't sure how you would be lured, always hiding you are. It worked out though, didn't it?"

You shook your head, reaching your hand to your utility belt to grab the knife hanging there. "I see great potential in you, beautiful. Do you know that the things you can do go so much deeper?" He tilts his head, taking a step closer to you. "You seem so unassuming on the outside, but that power inside..." He grins. You creased your brows, stepping back as he reached closer. "My colleagues.... They don't quite see the potential yet. They also say the quiet ones aren't fun. I digress. The quiet ones are always fun. Although I suppose I'll miss the banter."

You made a disgusted face, as you set yourself in a stance, prepared to fight. He looked at you with a questioning tilt of his head, and then laughed, his shoulders falling forward as he claps his hands together.

"I was waiting for a response-" He chuckled. "How silly?"

A breath passed, and suddenly he wasn't normal anymore. Your face dropped as you watched him grown taller- his torso seemingly split at the waist- his spine exposed, and extended - making him at least 14 feet tall,. His appearance was something that reminded you of a centipede.

Albeit centipedes were much cuter to you than this asshole.

It made you want to puke.

But his words, that made it worse. He didn't say it directly, but how he addressed you told you everything- It was a trap, it was all a trap. To either kill, or capture you- you loathe to find out.

He lunged after you and you immediately dodged and rolled. You began running away, weaving your way through the poles, and machinery, jumping over various obstacles.

You glanced behind you and wished you didn't- as he was chasing after you on all fours- skittering across the floor with his extended spine - maneuvering the obstacles of the mill with much more ease than you- and closing the distance between you. It was enough it made you want to jump on a chair like a little old lady who saw a mouse and scream, the sight being very unsettling, and you picked up your pace running away.

The only sounds of the warehouse was your frantic breathing, your footsteps, and your attackers laughter. You made your way through the maze you had found yourself in before finding the doors that would lead you outside.

You sensed help outside- the only problem were the doors were barred, keeping you escaping.

You felt a hand on your ankle as you were yoinked and lifted high into the air- a frightened noise escaping you as you attempted to grab something to get away. He brought you up to his face with a big smile.

"Got you!"

You punched him, his head snapping back.

"Ow!" He hissed, his head tipping forward, as a small stream of blood rolled down his nose. "Not very nice, sweetheart."

You attempted to swipe at him again, using your knife you still had ahold of, but he leaned back, extending his arm to hold you at a distance- apparently his spine not the only thing able to stretch. His other hand grabbed your wrist, shaking the knife from your grip.

"What did I say? The quiet ones are always fun. " He hummed, and you stuck your tongue out at him, "Oh, my feelings are so hurt." He mocks. "Don't worry dear, you'll be on my side soon enough."

You were left dangling in the air. You watched him pull out a syringe from his blazer, stretching his arms towards you. Your heart beating out of your chest, you frantically searched for something- Anything, to help you, when you spotted the murder of crows from earlier. All perched along the broke windows, watching the scene unfold with curiosity.

You waved your arm, and they take flight- diving towards your attacker. He yells, jostling you in the air as you swung back and forth as he tries to swipe away the offending birds. He dropped the syringe, and his grip loosened on your ankle, and you slipped out.

You prepared for the inevitable pain that would come to plunging onto the concrete floor- but it never came.

Instead, you were graced with two strong arms, catching you - like a princess. Your arms automatically wrapped around his Logan, as you blankly stare off in the distance- not quite sure how you ended up where you were. You turned to look at Logan, a cocky look on his face.

"Look at that." He purrs. "I got you."

You tilt your head, quirking a brow. He turned to look up at your attacker, still yelling and fighting off the hoards of crows.

"That guys a real weirdo, ain't he?" Logan says, setting you down carefully and pushing you behind him. He clenched his fists, his claws sliding out as he ran forward with a snarl, stabbing them into the legs of the James Bond-esque villain.

The crows took that as their cue to disperse, as the man cries out. He morphs back into his regular size, and Logan removed his claws, before grabbing the man by the collar of his ugly gray blazer, turning and slamming him against the wall. Logan's hold on him kept him up, but his legs were weak as blood stained his pantsuit.

"Who are you?" Logan growls.

He laughs through the pain, shaking his head. "We, are many. I am just one of all. All with the same goal. " He grins, a smile that sent a chill through you, a chill colder than the air inside the mill.

"You always talk like that?" Logan sneered. "There wasn't that many of you out there- and I took care of them all."

The man smirked. "Cut off one head, two more takes place." He reaches shaky hands up to pull open his collar shirt- a tattoo on his chest.

Hydra

He looked at you, a shaky breath escaping him. "You don't know- The power you have ins-"

Logan retracted the claws of one hand, stabbing it into the stomach of the hydra member, he lets out a choked gasp, turning to look at Logan with a sinister smile.

"Don't talk to her." Logan snarls. He pulled back the claws, letting the man fall to the ground. Logan steps back from the limp body, shaking his head. "Fucking Hydra." He scoffs. He turns to you, concern crossing his face, as he walks up to you, his hands grabbing onto your arms gently as he observes you up and down.

You nodded. Signing. It was a trap, they were trying to get all of us.

He nods. "Yeah, we got tricked. You heard one of us on comms, right?"

You nodded, signing Scott's name.

"One of the assholes out there had something sort of dumb ass mimic ability. Used it to draw us all out." He says. "Went a little crazy, but we handled ourselves or-" He clicked his tongue, tilt of his head. "I, handled it." He smirked.

How did you find me?, You signed.

He smiled, and his hand reached out, placing over where you heart beat. "I'm always listening for this." He says. "And when I heard it beating fast- and I wasn't the reason for it, I knew you were in trouble."

You smiled. His hand, reaching up to cup your face, leaning in to press a firm, but loving kiss to your lips. Your hands came up to grip onto the collar of his suit. Your lips parted from each other and he sighed.

"Definitely going away for that weekend soon. Understood?"

You let out a laugh, and nodded. He glanced at the body, then to you.

"What do you think he meant?" He raised a brow, "Bout your power?"

You shrugged. Signing, he said something similar when I came in here. I don't know, and don't really care to find out.

He chuckled, putting an arm around your shoulders. He noted a broke syringe on the floor nearby. "C'mon, lets get out of here. Chuck said he's putting in a call to get this place cleaned up. I think I need a little debriefing, just the two of us, after all this."

You hummed, a hand going around his waist as he led you out. You didn't see him looking at you, a face of concern. He didn't tell you yet, but he found out from the other so-called Hydra members that this trap was solely for you. The details, the why's, were a little fuzzy and he didn't care. All he knew is he needed to protect you. The best thing that's happened to him in a very long life.

It scared the hell out of him. Not for whatever power you might have. The fact that this may not be the only time where everyone gets the wool pulled over their eyes. What if this happens again? What if he can't get to you next time? Hydra could just snatch you off the street, what was the point of this ordeal?

He didn't know anything, but he sure as hell knew that you weren't going to be leaving his sight, anytime soon.

[maidenvault]

A really underrated part of how the inhibitor chips are handled in canon is the fact that they can't be removed without an invasive procedure that has some risk. Whenever a character has his taken out it’s never necessarily an easy choice, a symbolic reminder that it takes bravery to choose not to be controlled by a system, and it gives these moments a lot more emotionality and impact because it’s not just a convenient plot device to restore or preserve their agency.

The most heroic moment Fives has is when learns he has this thing in him and he doesn't even hesitate to tell AZI to get it out, even if trying might kill him, because it so brazenly defies the way all clones have been positioned as powerless pawns whose individuality and choices ultimately won't matter in the big plan. When Rex has been activated and manages to get out just enough words to tell Ahsoka what to do to help him, it's a pretty powerful way of showing how much he trusts her at the end of their journey together throughout the war. Wrecker is the most hesitant to have his removed because he's scared of surgery but sees it's what is safest for everyone.

And thinking about it this way makes me appreciate why Rex's resistance has generally only been acting to help clones that have already willingly turned on the Empire, even though they always try not to hurt the others who may still on some level not be in control of themselves and, some could say, also need help. It makes me understand why the Batch couldn't just try to capture Crosshair at some point in season 1 and make him get his chip removed, something he'd never agree to while still under its influence.

It's implied that the Kaminoans subjected the Batch and Omega to a lot of scary and probably painful tests and procedures as they grew up - so much that Omega understands Echo being triggered by waking up hooked up to monitors and she dreads going back to being used in a lab. Fandom plays this up for angst in fanworks and rightfully calls the Kaminoans horrible for denying them agency over their own bodies in this and many other ways. Even if for a much better reason, the clone troopers who've left the Empire don't really have the right to treat their brothers that way and risk their safety when they're not in a state of being able to consent to it.

Just as none of the clones can reasonably hold themselves accountable for things they've done because of the inhibitor chips, they also can't be considered responsible for saving each other from being controlled by them. It's the Emperor and the Kaminoans that did this to all of them.

[lurkingshan]

Japanese QL Corner

One show ends this week, but there are several more on the way, including a surprising adaptation. Of the six shows airing now, five are streaming weekly on Gaga and the other is available via fansub.

Takara's Treasure

I. LOVE. THEM. Their little bird watching date was precious and I loved every moment of it, including Taishin's adorable outfit and over preparedness, Takara's secret smiles, and the patient search for the wallet. I was so relieved that Taishin named his fears about them not being suited upfront instead of letting it grow into a huge anxiety in his own head, and I was also happy Takara was eager to speak with him about his impending relocation. That said, NOOOOOOOO I don't want a forced separation and time skip, show. Please I am begging.

Cosmetic Playlover

This was my favorite week for this show by far, because they actually let us see the relationship at its center! I enjoyed finally spending some time with these two as a couple, though I still find the timing and sequencing of these plots confusing as hell. Last week Sahashi gave Mamiya keys to his place and it was implied they'd been dating for quite awhile and were already serious, but this week we learn Mamiya has never spent the night and they are only just having sex for the first time. It was a real record scratch for me; I can't get my bearings in this relationship trajectory with all the gaps in the story. But hey, at least they finally let them make out a little! For a show that sold itself as toxic sexy, there has been very little toxicity or sex, tbh.

I Hear the Sunspot

*rubs temples* This show is really testing my patience. I got excited last week when Kohei and Taichi finally had a real conversation and it seemed like we were moving forward, but this week we're back to treading water. This story did not need 12 episodes; this pacing, while faithful to the manga as I understand it, does not work well for weekly live action. It's been weeks since we've learned anything new about these characters or advanced the central relationship, and the show continues to stumble with its confused depiction of Maya. I just want this show to pull together and finish strong, because I think a lot of this will be much more tolerable on a binge watch. For now I will just gaze at Kohei's beautiful smiling face and hope for a full recovery.

Ayaka is in Love with Hiroko

I said last week that the show had gotten so muddled I didn't think they'd be able to end well, and even with those very low expectations this finale still managed to get underneath them. The last several episodes made a mess of the characters, the conflict, and the themes of the show, and to add insult to injury, they capped it all off with angle kisses, a time skip, and a bizarre sex negative ending that had our "boob monster" adult lesbian refusing to have sex with her girlfriend for over a year so she could "cherish" her before randomly kissing her at the office as if that was the important resolution we'd been waiting for. A truly horrid ending that ruined everything this show did so well in its early episodes. I don't understand!! Big sigh and fingers crossed for a decent sexy gl sometime in the near future.

Mr. Mitsuya's Planned Feeding

I've just been beaming and staring into space for the last several minutes after finishing this episode. No matter what else happens in the shows, I love knowing I am always going to end my week in jql on a good note while this gem is airing. This week marked a transition point for Ishida and Mitsuya, as Ishida had a great conversation with Noguchi, found a new passion and put in for a job transfer, and had his final meeting and meal with Mitsuya as writer and editor. Which they immediately followed with a date and mutual acknowledgment of the feelings between them! And what a fantastic date it was, with every moment so invigorating and wonderfully adult. Mitsuya's quiet confidence and amusement at Ishida's nerves, Ishida's clarity on how he wants Mitsuya to see him, the mutual compliments and gestures and smiles and eye contact, ahhhhhhhhh. I also loved that Ishida got to be the one to show Mitsuya something new at the end, to get him to run with joy for the first time in ages and introduce him to a new food. I am so excited to see their dating era begin in earnest. You can find the episode with subtitles courtesy of @isaksbestpillow here.

Tagging @bengiyo to add this week's anime update.

[lizdenys]

Outer Wilds (Video Game) AO3 Tags appreciation post

Of course, no one cares about spoilers quite like Outer Wilds fans care about spoilers:

major outer wilds spoilers

Slight game spoilers

DLC Spoilers / Echoes of The Eye spoilers

art book spoilers

allusions to the dlc but nothing in depth

spoilers for a small but important part of the story

don't read it unless you've played it

as in plot and quite literally a solution to a puzzle, so don't read if you want to solve them all yourself

DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN'T PLAYED ECHOES OF THE EYE OR FINISHED THE MAIN GAME

all the spoilers ever for everything outer wilds you have been warned

idk what else to tag pretty much everything is a spoiler

I can't even write tags without spoiling

DO NOT SPOIL YOURSELF MY GOD

I'm a little afraid of posting this because it might spoil something inadvertantly

Spoilers!, but this is outer wilds, you probably know the drill

so don't spoil yourself!!

So here's the requisite Outer Wilds "There will be spoilers!" warning because there will be spoilers throughout this post from this point on, okay?

Now that we've gotten that out of the way, let's start this off like every run, with a cozy campfire, shall we?

Campfires

Campfire stories

there will be mallow roasting over a campfire

Marshmallows

S'mores (OMG how much I wish someone - anyone - got to make a s'more.)

And Riebeck is a big marshmallow

Implied/Referenced Drug Use

just two high buddies chillin and talking about stuff

Now that we're all enjoying perfectly-roasted marshmallows, let's get to it:

breaking spacetime in pursuit of science

they/them pronouns

it is more difficult than I thought to avoid gendered words

Based on my friend's inability to fly and ability to land anywhere

feldspar is a newbie to anxiety

Dark Bramble scary

Third wheeling except your crush is in love with the entirety of space

quantum tomfoolery

the tyranny of linear time

Something about the horror of eternity

the fabric of spacetime is hanging on by a thread

infinite possibilities brain go brrrrrrr

impulsive feelings about chert today

the hatchling just wants to share their findings they're so excited

little tiny bit of cosmic horror

this was written in about 20 minutes (I really need to know if this "about 20 minutes" was, in fact, 22 minutes.)

they're gonna be fine in 22 minutes just

this heist could have been a meeting

Hornfels needs an advil

somebody go save hatchling im begging get this kid a marshmallow

they can have one happily ever after as a treat

Feldspar and I both have no idea how to raise a baby in general

there is so much trauma in this owl

this literally came to me in a dream

Gabbro is depressed in this one because you can't convince me being so blase about losing their ship, and being able to meditate through a supernova is the hallmark of someone mentally well

gabbro is also doing so fine and normal and also does not have any hearing problems (lie)

They all need a hug, Except the anglers

Someone invent therapy for these three, They're going to need it so badly

Spacetime needs therapy after this

Anyway let's go die horrifically in space! ::D

trauma bonds

also i totally stole the main premise for this fic from a mod

when gossan goes low slate goes lower

hatchling was not supposed to be a kazoo player but they're really stubborn

i just think the player should be allowed to play an instrument (Me, too.)

Quartz-Typical Disregard for Ethics

canon typical disregard for affliction

There is an eject button for a reason

does it count as major character death if they come back?

Is it still considered the end of the world if its the entire universe thats dying?

the possibly applicable archive warning is major character death, but you knew that already didn't you?

the many deaths of you

Canon-Typical Suicide, thats an insane tag but its Outer Wilds sooooo

Five Stages of Grief, with a 6th secret stage (Can we call this "the sixth location of grief" please?)

i really tried not to make it sad at the end but the loops are tragic man

I Made Myself Cry

Okay, let's wrap up with all the varied "not beta read" tags this exquisite game lends itself to, nay, demands:

No beta we die like REDACTED

no beta we die like. well. you know

No beta we die every loop

no beta we die like the hatchling

no beta we die like hatchling (horrifically)

no beta we die like gabbro, chill and overstressed

No beta we die like real hearthians

no beta we die like everyone in outer wild does

No beta we die like the sun

no beta we die like the sun every 22 minutes

NO BETA READERS WE DIE LIKE THE STARS

no beta we die like the universe

No beta we die like any time-looper worth their salt

No beta we die like the homeworld

NO BETA WE DIE LIKE NOMAI

No beta we die like 5/6ths of best girl (I teared up reading this tag.)

no beta we die like the prisoner (I nearly sobbed reading this tag.)

No Beta We Just Cry

No beta we die like the fish (Not gonna lie, this one is my personal fave.)

[mintedwitcher]

So recently I've been thinking about what my ideal ending for Buck would be. The others in the main cast have stories that have clear endings for the most part (Chim and Maddie with their growing family and the heavily implied Chim becoming Captain thing and continued HenRen domestic life), even Eddie and fixing his relationship with Chris (and then maybe hopefully taking the time to assess himself and go back to therapy again because mental healthy people probably don't have minor religious crises when learning their then-girlfriend was a nun in training and simultaneously have an extended emotional affair with their dead wife's doppelganger), but Buck's story is so up in the air. Like they really don't seem to know what they want to do with his character besides make him suffer and a lot of times its not even by the results of his actions ??? The truck bombing was aimed at Bobby, the tsunami was a natural disaster, the whole blood clot thing, oh you were a 'my sisters keeper' baby and that's why your parents were distant and emotionally abusive, everything with Maddie (none of which was also her fault I am not blaming her for Doug or the PPD), BOBBY DYING and him loosing his actual father figure!!! The big Buck driven plot points have been the lawsuit and him learning he's bi and coming out, and I'm sure other things but those are the big two at least and my brain is not fully on line yet. He's such a good character and I want him to have a story that's good without the bad things happen to Buck for plot reasons guys dont question it we are good writers this is a good show guys, yknow.

I've gone off the rails. I just don't know where they're planning on going with Buck's story and idk I kinda want the series finale to be a parallel to Red with his house full of memories and maybe they play up the whole him reminiscing to some young person and we think "oh no poor Buck is alone and his worst fears came true" but instead we learn its Jee's kid hanging out with their cool great uncle (or his own kid/grandchild) before some kind of party and it pans out and his home is happy and full of love and the people he cares about and a dog because he deserves a dog. I also don't know if I want him to end up with a woman, which feels weird to say because he is bi so he could still end up with a woman but I feel like terrible internet people would use an endgame hetero marriage as some kind of gotcha he was straight all along and the Tommy of it all was just pandering to the woke mob or something stupid like that. Also the main cast is already large enough I don't know if adding a whole new character would be worth it, I'm not sure what they would need to do to make me like another SO of Buck's. I'm sure it could happen but I can't imagine what it would be like. God this got long. Really, I don't think he needs to be in a relationship for his story to be complete, but this is television and shows and movies seem to think a fulfilling life you need to have a romantic partner.

TLDR I want Buck to be happy and that's literally it but this show seems hellbent on making the man miserable.

nonnie I love you, and I agree with you SO MUCH about all the terrible things they've done with Buck over the course of the show.

here's my ideal ending: (wow this got SUPER long im so sorry) (putting this under a cut because WOW)

(for context, I would want this to be the final episode of the show.)

almost the entire episode takes place outside of work, and it's been 5-10 years since the "last" episode.

we see Buck out at a park. he's got a dog, he's on the phone, and we hear that he's talking to Maddie. he's talking about how awful the traffic is and how bad the parking situation is, how it was taking forever to find a parking space so he just got out with the dog to secure a bench. the conversation is entirely one sided, so we don't hear Maddie's responses, but we see Buck light up with joy. the shot pans out, and there's the 118, set up at a bench already with their various kids and extended families, and there's balloons and a banner that says "congrats", and everyone's thrilled to see him. they all yell out "surprise!"

the park party continues, and in the background we see a man approaching with a stroller. the shot clears, and it's Tommy. this is how we learn that Buck and Tommy are married, when we see their matching rings. Buck scoops up the baby from the stroller, and Tommy makes a joke about how he's "just chopped liver to this kid," and "clearly Evan is the favourite." Buck reassures him that Tommy's still his favourite. the 118 groan at their sappiness but it's clear they're all really happy for him.

after the party, we get to follow the others for a while.

Maddie and Chim are considering hiring a contractor to build an addition to their house so they'll have a spare nursery for Buck's baby - this is how we learn that Buck and Tommy had been trying to become parents for a few years by this point - and decide to talk to Athena about it, since she still has all of the contacts who worked on her and Bobby's house way back when.

over with Hen and Karen, they're packing down Denny's bedroom in preparation for him to head to college (or move out, depending on how big the time jump has been). we learn that they're still fostering, but that the emotional toll is starting to wear on them, and they discuss whether it's smart to keep going, and their feelings about stopping. Hen broaches the idea of working with a youth shelter instead, and Karen, always a step ahead because she's brilliant, pulls up the list of shelters on her phone that she's had bookmarked for months, places that are in need of volunteers and resources. we leave their scene on a hopeful note.

over to Eddie and Chris, and they've moved house. we see them in the back garden, sitting by an ofrenda, where we see photographs of Abuela, Pepa, and Shannon set up. Eddie is teaching Chris about their culture, about the importance of remembrance and why their traditions matter. the back door to their house opens, and a woman walks outside to join them. this woman is Eddie's fiance. I have no concrete thoughts on who she should be, only that she's a good match for Eddie and that she loves Chris like her own. maybe she's Latina too, maybe she's not, I don't know. but she comes outside and reminds Eddie that he's going to be late for his therapy appointment if he doesn't move quick, and asks Chris if he needs a ride to his love interest's house for their Big Date (Chris is meeting his LI's parents for the first time that night). there's some light-hearted joking from Eddie about how his "little boy is growing up" at that part. Chris says his partner is picking him up, "but thanks, Mom." there's some very sentimental music as Eddie and his fiance lock eyes, with the picture of Shannon out-of-focus in the background, before Chris's words are acknowledged happily.

we move on, and we're back with Buck and Tommy at their house.

the first thing we notice is that their house is full of photos. friends, family, everyone that matters to the two of them are scattered around the house. there's a framed wedding photo on the mantel, with the baby's sonogram, hand/foot prints, and newborn photoshoot pictures framed around it. Buck and Tommy are on the couch, with the baby in a bassinet nearby, and a plain white box on the coffee table. the box, Buck explains to a perplexed Tommy, will be their child's Baby Box. he's got a craft supply box sitting next to it, and explains that it's a Necessary Part of crafting a baby box, to decorate it together. Tommy knows about the Buckley Baby Box Drama by now, so he doesn't argue, and he doesn't comment on the way Buck tears up when he very carefully paints the baby's name on the lid, taking the whole thing as seriously as he would a rescue mission. once the box is done, they talk for a while, and we learn snippets of their life in the interim: we learn that Tommy chose to take a promotion on the ground, better pay and a safer career path than helicopter rescues. we learn that one of Athena's kids are starting their probie year at the 118 soon. we learn that Buck did take a sabbatical from the 118 after Bobby's death, and that it was "the best choice he ever made." just, lots of little things mentioned in passing, and then Buck tells Tommy about Red, and how he'd been so afraid that he would turn out just like him in the end, and how glad he is that he didn't, and how sorry he still feels that Red did.

then, the last few scenes take place inside the firehouse.

everyone's there, eating at the table. family dinners have been reinstated. the head chair at the table remains empty. Buck cooked, so Eddie and Ravi are on cleanup duty. Hen and Chim slip away, and Buck wanders off. we follow him to the captain's office, but we don't see any name tag on the door or desk. inside, Chim is sitting in the desk chair, leaning back, hands behind his head. he cracks a joke about Buck needing to "get back to work".

Buck laughs. then he says, "okay, smartass, get out of my chair, I've got reports to fill out. unless you want to do those for me?"

and Chim jumps up and says "no thank you, I'd rather chug antiseptic."

Buck shoos him out of the office and moves to sit at the desk, turning around a nameplate as he goes. the nameplate says Captain Evan Buckley, and when the camera pans back out of the office, we see the same thing on the door.

the very last shot of the episode is the new 118 probie walking in through the app bay doors and, when stopped, asking for Captain Buckley.

full circle moment.

[rappaccini]

... ok. yellowjackets s3 ended. the fandom's dying down. so i'm gonna say a bit i've been thinking about for a while regarding the elephant in the room.

yellowjackets has a lot of influences. greek mythology. lord of the flies. the andes flight disaster. the natural behavior of the yellowjacket insect. and windigos.

the fandom has combed over all those influences and written great (and sometimes dumb) meta about each... except for the last one.

the gist is: someone brings up that this show is strongly inspired by windigo mythology, someone else says 'well that's disrespectful and offensive, and the writers Would Never and you're disrespectful for implying they would', everyone dogpiles onto the first person until they stop bringing it up, the moderators of the yellowjackets subreddit instantly erase all discussion of it like they did with this post which is why i'm rewriting it here, rinse and repeat.

the fandom's still stuck on the question of whether the writers would appropriate the windigo myth, which is pointless because they already did. and the fandom will not talk about it. but we have to, because we've been there since the pilot and we never left.

mandatory disclaimer: the writers of a piece of fiction you like can do something in it that you don't like, including (and especially) problematic and potentially racist things. a great piece of art can still have elements in it with serious issues. instead of pretending those issues don't exist, talking about them is a more useful way to figure out what to do with them.

got it?

alright. now don't be like coach martinez and strap in:

the antlered shaman

first, on a superficial level, the leader of the wilderness cult (named 'antler queen' by the fans, but referred to in the pilot script as the 'shaman' and a certain piece of concept art as the 'wilderness cult leader/oracle') wears antlers.

... why?

deer aren't apex predators so it isn't a commentary on the food chain. if it were, the leader of the feast would be dressed as a wolf, cougar, bear or other large predator from the area.

only male deer have antlers in winter so it isn't a statement on gendered power. otherwise travis would be the 'antler king', the feast would be in summer (when female deer do look like that) or the oracle's costume would be invoking a powerful animal with a female-dominated social structure or biology.

the most important animal to the girls, the mascot of their team, the title of the series, and the inspiration for a lot of the show's social dynamics and plot points isn't the deer. it's the yellowjacket:

it's aggressive, predatory and highly territorial: the girls menace each other and kill the hikers.

it's matriarchal and lives in an almost entirely female society: men have no power whatsoever in the group the moment they land.

males are only tolerated as sexual prospects at the fringes: travis is the only male who survives, mostly by being the boyfriend.

it's cannibalistic: ....

it emerges from hibernation in the spring: the girls are highly active in season 3 after mostly resting indoors through winter. lottie 'awakens' from her medication after the crash, in late spring.

its nest is created by a single queen: jackie wanted to stay in the plane, where she initially held influence. lottie discovers the cabin, where she rules. nat arranges the building of the village, where she rules.

that single queen incubates her eggs over the winter: ... shauna's pregnancy.

a new queen emerges after every season: season 1's jackie, season 2's lottie, season 3's nat, season 4's shauna.

it nests underground, but also in attics: oh look, lottie's first big delusion occurs in an attic. oh look, a cave where they spend a lot of time, and will probably start living.

only the queen gets to breed: jackie has sex with travis, lottie's show of power as she takes charge is initiating a group sexual assault attempt against him and literally telling jackie he no longer belongs to her (and travis starts becoming attracted to her while she's in charge), natalie is the only person who maintains a romantic relationship with him as she rises to power and as soon as they're broken up she starts losing influence, shauna gives fucking birth and that is used as proof that she should lead.

wasps eat rotten fruit, which intoxicates them and makes them aggressive in late summer: doomcoming.

burning its nest is a way people assume you can dispose of it but if it survives, it becomes even more aggressive: ... oh look, their cabin is burned down, s2's editing makes it seem like it was ben, and the girls haaaaate him for it.

it does not make sense that the power animal their leader is drawn to is a deer.

... unless you consider that the westernized windigo is a creature with deer antlers.

yes i said westernized. yes, the windigo is a part of algonquian folklore, and the only reason people think 'antlers' when they think of windigos is that horror director larry fessenden slapped them on the windigo in his horror movie (2001's wendigo) to make it more scary by making it look like the western depiction of a devil or demon through giving it 'horns'.

(it's barely onscreen but the damage was done.)

yes it's shitty that this inaccurate image created by a white guy who didn't care about faithfully depicting a being important to an indigenous culture is now the popular consensus on what it looks like.

fessenden seems to have regretted that, because in 2015 when he wrote (and starred in!) a little video game called until dawn, the windigos there are far more faithful to the original myths.

(tall, pale, emaciated, cold beings that move eerily quickly; with one particular windigo, makkapitew, even given an algonquin name that translates to "one who has big teeth"... but even then, there are inaccuracies. idk where the movement-triggered vision came from.)

credit where credit's due: he tried to fix his fuck-up.

but the horse is out of the barn. everyone thinks that a windigo is an emaciated person with the head of a deer now (because 1)... fine, it does look cool. and 2) a westernized, white-dominated culture is going to resonate more with the creature having antlers, because of its resemblance to the christian devil or the greek god pan). the depiction won't stop spreading so that's what it has become.

when the yellowjackets writers were first conceptualizing this story, they started by wanting to write a lord of the flies-style survival horror story about cannibalistic teenage girls, and to make it a riff on the 1972 uruguayan rugby team's plane crash in the andes. when they decided their plane full of americans would be stranded in the mountains, the only mountain range they could have used was the rockies. they definitely came across this myth while they were doing research on cannibalism and that area.

'cannibals in the far north of north america during winter' instantly evokes a certain kind of legend. same thing as 'undead nocturnal blood-drinker in eastern europe' or 'reanimated corpse in the caribbean.' i never said ‘vampire’ or ‘zombie’ but you absolutely thought of them when you read the context because those myths are ubiquitous with those ideas. because that's what myths are for: cultures create them to make sense of phenomena that are unique to them. the windigo is unavoidable. they would have learned about it as they developed this show.

and when they did, they would have come across an image of a tall, pale cannibalistic being with antlers in the dead of winter.

that is why we have an antler queen.

and the influence is absolutely coming from outside of the story. the yellowjackets can't be deciding to invoke the windigo with the shaman's outfit, because the antlered windigo quite literally was not a concept until 2001, five years after the girls' rescue. it's clearly the crew letting their influence show.

(side note: in the pilot script, on page 62, our only description of the shaman is that she's "masked and horned." who even knows how soon the antlers entered the picture. it might have been the wardrobe dept's idea. if it was, same situation. their research brought them to the windigo.)

beyond that, the windigo myth has more to it than just the general concept of cannibals in winter and that inaccurate image. it's considered to be both a supernatural and psychological/rational phenomenon. both are represented in the plot and characterization of yellowjackets.

supernatural

myths and folklore are meant to explain important aspects of the cultures that conceive them. the windigo myth is specifically concerned with the cultural ideal of the danger of self interest during a dire situation-- particularly with what could happen if selfish or irresponsible leaders take the reins in winter specifically: a descent into disorder, violence, starvation, chaos, death and ultimately cannibalism as a result of poor leadership, resource mismanagement and the breakdown of the social order at a time when the climate's most hostile and it's crucial to huddle together and follow a wise leader.

... what happens when lottie starts pushing her hallucinations on everyone and insisting they're signs from a higher power that has chosen her as its conduit as winter sets in?

when coach ben checks out, won't help shauna during childbirth, and abandons his girls as their house burns down? (... and may or may not have started the fire?)

... when the very first act of cannibalism in the show has its roots in everyone, and shauna most of all, acting out of selfishness and violating social norms: eating a human corpse in a frenzy like a pack of wild animals. botching a burial so bad it becomes a bbq. the person responsible for rationing the food supply secretly eating forbidden meat as the group goes hungry. keeping a corpse around and playing with it. letting a member of the group sleep outside in the elements and never bothering to get her. the homecoming queen’s lower-ranked friend winning an argument and getting to stay inside. even sleeping with jackie's boyfriend in the first place violates their friendship and the high school social hierarchy.

when the second act of cannibalism occurs as a result of travis violating a fair, unrigged lottery that everyone agreed to and choosing to save his girlfriend instead of feeding the group-- and everyone but natalie especially choosing to allow a child to drown so she can live?

when the third act of cannibalism happens right as the weather turns cold because shauna wants to indulge her power over the group and humiliate natalie?

when shauna and lottie ruin the group's chance at rescue because they want to force the group to stay and bear witness to how special they are?

when the one sane adult in the group earns her place by murdering their only way out to remain in a dangerous and unqualified leader's good graces, snow falls right away and she becomes a cannibal one episode later?

when the fourth act of cannibalism is the result of a clusterfuck of selfish grudges (mel wants to kill shauna), ego trips (shauna and lottie want to feel special), personal preference (gen doesn't want her apparantly-super-close-friend mari to get eaten, van and tai want to ensure someone they don’t care about is the victim), the waste of resources (killing the livestock) and distraction (the escape plan).

furthermore, we've seen all the ways people are purported to turn into windigos in traditional folklore represented in the plot.

being overcome by greed and a hunger to do violence: everyone acts this way at some point. particularly, lottie in season 1 and shauna in season 3.

consuming human flesh: everyone does it but ben and javi, who are ostracized and eaten.

even just being in proximity to windigos is considered enough: and shauna and lottie's behavior becomes a social contagion. the closer characters are to them, the worse they become.

small details that also fit: the windigo is considered to be a gaunt, swift, terrible-smelling creature. all the girls are malnourished, came to the wilderness as elite athletes (... with shauna singled out as the fastest, lottie having the best footwork and taissa being the best overall athlete), and they fucking reek by now.

... and the windigo is typically considered to be very tall. it isn't a coincidence that the actress who plays lottie towers over most of the cast.

and at least in season 1, she was absolutely intended to be the shaman/antler queen. of all the girls she was the one framed most consistently beneath and in front of antlers, her doomcoming outfit is the first time we see the antler veil and long white silhouette, she initiates and goads on the first approximation of a sacrificial hunt and is only stopped when natalie and jackie intervene, we end season 1 with an obvious setup of lottie as the villain kidnapping natalie in the present and vowing to shed blood and let the darkness set us free in the past as she sacrifices a heart, and the wardrobe designer labeled lottie as the person wearing the oracle/aq outfit in a production still she shared post-season 1.

… it was lottie. aq/shaman/oracle was played by a stuntwoman in the pilot, and a whole year passed between its filming and the rest of season 1 due to covid, so things definitely shifted during that time... but the identity of the oracle was still consistent.

then the show unexpectedly became a hotbed for mystery box lovers, the oracle became the antler queen and her identity became such a draw that the writers pivoted away from confirming the clear frontrunner to extend the mystery. thus season 2 lottie suddenly lost the sinister qualities we were promised.

and, tangent: the antler queen evolved from a shaman into a queen as the girl under the veil changed from lottie to shauna.

on page 62 in the pilot script linked earlier, the shaman has an "unspoken agreement" with a character labeled the overseer before she initiates the feast. this is the girl to her immediate left who she nods at before the feast begins in the pilot, who is the second person who follows her after the feast is complete. who in the pilot script, is commanding the butchering of pit girl (called the runner in the script).

(the overseer's the figure to the far right in this still. she is later revealed to be misty on-page... but isn't misty in the actual episode. misty's role in the group switched between script and shooting and she took on the meat-carving/serving duties reserved in the script for a character called the butcher. odds are the writers just streamlined those two very similar roles a bit to make their ranks more distinct.

and i think you can guess the butcher was shauna, because it's stayed the same all along.)

in the pilot-- script and episode-- it's not even clear if the shaman is an actual queen in full control of the group, or if her authority is shared with or lesser than that of the overseer. there's a reason the overseer is called the overseer, that the shaman looks to her for approval, that she follows her out of the feast first, and that the script makes a point to say that their silent exchange is something "we don't yet understand."

the antlered shaman wasn't an absolute tyrant. she had a partner, and they worked together to control the group. the shaman was the ceremonial and spiritual leader, and the overseer did the dirty work of intimidating the followers (called acolytes in the pilot) and handling the butchering.

the fandom missed this, assumed the oracle was the absolute leader-- the queen-- and the 'antler queen' was born in the fandom. and then the shaman evolved to fall closer in line with those expectations because the writers got too online: now the girl who wears the antler crown is a dictator and the shaman is still present, but definitely below her in rank.

you can see the vestiges of the oracle-and-overseer dynamic still in lottie and shauna's eventual roles (shottie best ship). their roles and arcs have probably stayed the same since the early days of the show's development-- just look at how they work together during doomcoming, and how they're not coincidentally the two characters with the most windigo traits throughout the show.

for all intents and purposes, in the past, lottie and shauna just switched outfits and spots around the bonfire. (and juliette lewis's abrupt departure caused an overhaul of the adult timeline into... whatever it is now.)

tangent over.

rational

it goes deeper. windigos are now arguably part of psychology too.

wendigo psychosis is a proposed (but not proven) psychological, possible sociological condition with all its factors represented in the show:

location: this is restricted to people in the northwoods of north america, where the yellowjackets crashed. and to indigenous communities in particular, but we’re already appropriating so… well.

symptoms: hallucinations. everyone, none more than lottie. its thought this condition may be a way of understanding mental illnesses like schizophrenia or did. not a coincidence that lottie is schizophrenic or that taissa has a fugue personality.

symptoms: agitation and anxiety. everyone.

symptoms: violent outbursts. everyone.

symptoms: cravings for human flesh (everyone) or strange substances (... tai eating dirt, anyone?)

symptoms: a belief that one is being possessed by a malevolent force ("it's already in you?" / the seance’s french ghost/ lottie insisting that she-- and then later nat, travis, akilah and shauna-- speaks for the wilderness?)

contributing factor - intense trauma: the girls are starving in the wilderness after surviving a plane crash and many landed already with trauma from home.

contributing factor - substance abuse: oh look, the girls are getting high on psychotropic mushrooms, huffing cave gas and drinking fermented berry wine and polluted water.

and guys? the ethnographer who wrote a lot of foundational texts about wendigo psychosis is named lottie chicogquaw marsden. not a coincidence that the girl who leads the group deeper into mass psychosis/has come under the thrall of an entity is named lottie matthews and played by an indigenous (maori) actress.

(... but not an indigenous american actress, because again. it's a white creative team appropriating a culture they don't belong to. the horse is out of the barn.)

one of the central mysteries driving yellowjackets is the question of whether the girls are being driven by a supernatural force or mass psychosis. the windigo straddles both. either the writers discovered the myth while searching for inspiration that could do just that... or they worked that theme into the show because they found the windigo first.

cabin guy tangent

we still don't know what happened with him. probably never will.

we do know that…

he's isolated in the mountainous northwoods, and he wintered there. he's in the right place.

his cabin reeked when the girls found it. he smells like a windigo.

he's found a skeletal shell of himself. so he looks like a windigo.

he has hard liquor stashed away. substances.

he is first glimpsed in jackie's dying hallucination as she freezes to death. association with hallucination and the cold? check, check.

he's found inside a circle created by carved symbols, which is itself within a larger symbol created by the symbols carved throughout the area. the girls hold a seance to contact him, and lottie is 'possessed' then. possession, check.

it's ambiguous if he died sealing a spirit in that circle with him (which then leapt into lottie), or if his own mental illness led him to suicide. natural vs supernatural.

there's something else: documented cases of windigo psychosis often include men killing and cannibalizing loved ones. we don't know what's up with cabin guy, but we know it was planned that he had a child, and in a deleted scene from season 2 episode 7, still visible in the script (page 23), we learn he was married, had a wife at the cabin who kept a journal (... like shauna), and that their baby died (like shauna’s) and she attributes the loss to the will of the wilderness (... like the group does.)

yet there's only his body by the time the girls find the cabin... and there are no baby supplies (or women’s clothing) in the cabin.

where are the other people? what happened to them? why does it seem like they didn't plan to have a kid in the woods and/or that cabin guy erased all evidence of one? how did he end up in that attic on his own and what drove him to die like that? why did this entire plotline get cut from season 2? what about it did the showrunners decide they shouldn't reveal?

and remember that deerskull head depiction of the wendigo? remember what book ben and misty were reading that cabin guy left behind?

oh, right. it's a copy of the magus by john fowles.

and of all the covers they could have chosen, what do the set designers pick?

... a horned skull head. hmmm.

windigos in literature

beyond that tiny tease on the cover, yellowjackets also makes direct references to windigo literature in several prominent places.

algernon blackwood's 1910 short story the wendigo is about a young man who disappears from his campsite in winter, then returns some time later Eerily Different, being haunted/possessed by the spirit. javi's vanishing and return is such a reference to that, and there are shades of it in tai's nighttime wanderings.

and one of the most famous pieces of cannibal literature is lawrence macmillan's 'at the end of the world: a true story of murders in the arctic'— which has a famous line about the death of the last windigo in the face of modern progress.

“The last wendigo died in 1962, or so the story goes. Reputedly, he (it?) stood in front of the train to Churchill, Manitoba, believing that the train would stop for him, a supernatural being, and then he would be able to eat the passengers. The train ran him over. Sic transit gloria mundi.”

'sic transit gloria mundi' is the name of the season one finale, where jackie, another supposedly powerful figure according to old cultural norms (the high school pecking order) is convinced those norms are enough to win her argument with shauna, be invited back into the fold, given a food she'd now consider a gluttonous indulgence and make her the beloved queen bee again. then she dies a cold lonely death because that's not their world anymore and she refuses to accept it. just like the windigo in that story.

not a coincidence.

(yes, it's what's said when the pope dies and a new one is appointed. yes, yj has that "who created the pope" line in the pilot and in episode 10 jackie dies and lottie, who sees herself as a religious figure, takes leadership. the show is multitasking.)

it's a windigo story.

yellowjackets isn't necessarily about windigos but it is a windigo story, inspired by windigos in every aspect: in concept, in aesthetic, in major plot points and social dynamics, in the supernatural vs rational debate, in the girls who are in the running to become the shaman-and-overseer who became the wilderness cult leader/oracle who became the antler queen.

it's everywhere. it's still there even years after the show evolved and switched gears several times and several waves of the fandom saying 'that would be offensive, don't do it.'

they did. they already did.

the creators appropriated the whitewashed pop culture windigo, its indigenous origins and the controversial psychosocial phenomenon— and they removed it from its original cultural context to use it to tell a story about a group of mostly-white girls and no member of the culture the spirit belongs to.

they're just avoiding saying the word out loud and they probably won't because if they tapped into their fandom enough to start shaking up major plot points and retooling their main antagonist to make her more like what the fandom wanted her to be, they definitely know saying what they're doing will piss it off. but not saying it doesn't change that they're absolutely doing it.

i'm not saying they're right or wrong. i'm not saying they're being racist or respectful (or that you are if you do or do not like this).

i'm just saying: it happened. and it's still happening. and acknowledging that will be more useful when we discuss what this show is and is trying to be. because, like it or not, without the windigo, yellowjackets wouldn't exist or would be unrecognizable.

one more time: the writers of a piece of fiction you like can do something in it that you don't like, including (and especially) problematic and potentially racist things. a great piece of art can have flaws or questionable aspects and it can still be great. ignoring those things will not fix them or make them go away.

[s3thwrit3sstuff]

❝ Comin’ back for more? ❞

ghostface!leon kennedy x ftm!ghostface!reader | r! has had top surgery and bottom growth | porn with some plot | friends-with-benefits, implied attempt at a relationship (r! had commitment issues, lmao) | wc: 8k | not proofread

warnings: yandere!leon and yandere!reader, piquerism, carving his name into r! skin, blood kink, overstimulation, leon takes pictures and videos of r!, dumbification, AFAB terminology (clit referred to as dick), use of boypussy & boy cunt.

“Actually,” Leon sighs, “I was gonna ask if you’ve seen him.”

Her shock is evident but to Leon’s surprise, it turns into exasperation.

“Do I have to spell it out for you, Kennedy?” Ashley puts her hands on her hips and then points a finger at his way.

“He likes you. (Y/N) (L/N). He likes you, Leon Kennedy. So,” she comes around to him and despite the height difference, Leon feels slightly intimidated by her frown.

“Just fuck his brains out and tell him you’re not gonna let him go! That’s the only way you’re getting through to him, okay? God, I swear the both of you are so dimwitted!”

authors' note: heed the warnings, leon and y/n are high-key deranged, lmao. also i wrote this in a rush but enjoy!!

“Do you think he’s like…big?”

That alone was enough to make you rip your eyes away from your laptop. She chews on her glossy lip, twisting her phone to show you a Tinder profile of some douchebag that checks off everything on her list.

Awkwardly angled photos to show his jawline? Check.

Dimples? Check.

Two pairs of horrendous matching sweats? Check

A random photo of him holding some poor relative's baby to appeal to women? Check.

“Surprised he didn’t leap out from your brain,” your dry tone makes Ashley pout. “Honestly, be a little proud of me, (Y/N). He’s not holding a fish,” she turns the phone to herself. Pursing your lips, you return your attention to the report that’s been rotting in your laptop.

“Yeah, his sister is probably relieved her baby’s face is plastered on a hook-up app.” Ashley reaches over and smacks your hand. The yelp you let out turns a few heads; dark eyebags and caffeine-fueled veins already making them irritable. Exclamations of pain weren’t appreciated.

“You’re such a pessimist, (Y/N). I swear I have no idea how we ended up being friends.” An attempt was made at stifling your laughter but it tumbles out from between your fingers in quick intakes of breaths. The glaring turns into mumbling but none would speak up. Between Ashley’s status and your own, along with your golden reputation, no one could find themselves wishing ill upon the both of you.

Ashley was from a wealthy family. All you'd need to do is look at her to see she was dripped in luxury brands that were so exclusive you probably never heard of them. She met you through one of her mother's annual parties. It was an attempt on her end to play matchmaker with Ashley so she was quick to push Ashley and your sibling together.

Unfortunately for her, both you and your sibling were queer. Ashley was just glad to have real friends. How did the saying go? You win some, you lose some?

"You have your mother to thank for that. Remember how she was convinced you were a lesbian because we kept hanging out? Before I came out and everything." Ashley rolled her eyes, leaning on her elbow as she scrolled through the array of people with mild interest.

“Woah, what was that for?” Her lack of reply makes your brows raise. Closing your laptop, you reach a hand out to swipe her phone away. She gasps, attempting to swipe it back but you lean back on the chair, balancing precariously on its two legs. “Give it back, you ass,” she hisses, still trying to keep her voice low as she raises from her seat. Exiting from Tinder, your thumbs work deftly to open her messages and scoff as you go through her archived chats to see her mother’s messages were there. “You put your mom in archive jail? Woah, she must have really pissed you off,” she grunts as she tugs her phone back into her hands. You let her, folding your arms behind your head as she taps out from your intrusion. “What’s up? Did she bug you about university again? I swear she’s as anal about making those planners as you are.” “As opposed to how you live through life relying simply on your phone’s battery? Not to mention, you keep overcharging the hell out of your phone too. You should really change it — “ Ashley tucks her hand to her chest as you stand up, your chair banging as you ground it before you do so. At this point, a few people have plugged in their earphones anyway. “You’re stalling, Ms Graham.”

Ashley does this thing with her mouth. Sucking in her cheeks and chewing the insides as she contemplates spilling the metaphorical can of beans. It seems she relents as she settles next to you. There’s a sense of gratitude in her eyes as your knees are now facing her as you sit.

“These recent killings, it’s got her on edge,” she said. “She’s even been telling me I should have an escort everywhere I go. I don’t know, I just want to be normal. It’s hard enough that people treat me more like a concept or a walking ATM — an escort would just further that divide.”

A glance over her shoulder makes her words more concrete. Their eyes were clear in their intentions; flashes of green embedded in the very whites of their gelatinous orbs. Whether it was envy or greed was hard to decipher but it was clear Ashley wasn’t a person to them. She was a myth brought to life.

“You told her that?” she pushes her lips forward into a pout and you cock a brow. “Like she’d let that be an excuse. I understand her concerns but I’m not a damsel in distress. The Ghostface killings aren’t even aimed at this university, they’re completely random.”

“But you gotta admit, the close proximity would set anyone on edge. Your mother just happened to be someone who was born right on it,” you reach over to poke her cheek and she swats your hand away with a huff. “Can’t you ask her to hire secret agents instead? At least that way, nobody will see them.”

Ashley groans out that you’re the opposite of being helpful. Her phone buzzes in her hand and whatever she reads is clearly exciting enough for her to completely drop the conversation because she reaches forward and smacks your knees so hard it jerks up involuntarily.

“(Y/N), look!”

You’re half-expecting a new Tinder profile but instead, it’s a shittily made poster for a Frat Party. The curling of your lips has Ashley whining and she inches closer — her knees now between yours — as she wags the phone a bit.

“Dude, c’mon! We gotta go, everyone will be there!”

And if everyone was there, Ashley would have to be there too.

“Yeah, what better way to piss off your mother than to go to an overcrowded and overrated Frat Party,” you reply dryly. High schoolers made better posters. This one with the Comic Sans font, blurry PNGs of the hang-tight emoji, and Rick Sanchez lowered your confidence in the Earth's crust. Ashley scoffs.

“Shut up. Besides, the only reason you don’t want to go is because Mr Waitlist will be there,” she dodges your attempt to smack her arm. “Seriously, I have no idea why you choose to be in denial about your feelings for him. The chemistry between you two is insane. It’s almost sickening.”

“Almost? Guess we should try harder,” you mutter as you turn to face your laptop again. Ashley does not relent. “You should. I agree. It’s obvious you two like each other. I’ve already made a wedding plan for you.”

“Ashley,” you groan out. “Nothing is happening. We’re just...close friends.” "Again. Stage 1, denial," your eye-roll makes her inch closer and closer. "Not that anyone would blame you. He looks like some European model even with those weird side-part bangs." "Ashley." The finality in your tone makes her giggle. "(Y/N). You're attracted to him. The second you see him I swear your pupils just blow up bigger than when you're on molly. What's stopping you from just being exclusive-style?" Knowing she won't stop her sudden fixation on the topic, your shoulders droop just as you slip down your chair. Sinking deeper into your oversized hoodie, you sigh and attempt to entertain her as your fingers hover over your keyboard.

"We tried, but it didn't work, Ashley."

"Barely, tried. You had one foot out of the door before the relationship even started. I still remember you trying to keep it a secret, that's not trying that's giving up with extra steps!"

The violent shushing of a particularly peeved student causes Ashley to flinch. Pink dusts across her milky skin and she bows her head apologetically, her teethy grin gone in an instant. He seems satisfied with her expression. That quickly fades when he sees the stare you give him; his brows furrow and he frowns with a slow curl of his nose. Like a kitten hissing.

You recognize him from some of the classes you took. He was the kind of guy who'd continue to badger the professor with questions, acting so smug as he did so and never catching how exasperated they'd be. Obscenely polite because his parents were big spenders in the university's bank account. His greasy fingerprints on the steel frame of his glasses and pathetic excuse of a beard piss you off enough to curl your lips into a wicked grin.

"Sorry, were we too loud?"

The apricot sweater he wears reeks of cologne, the kind that pierces your nose and makes your eyes water from how strong it is. As he lifts his arms to cross it, Ashley straightens her back to put more distance between him.

"The two of you have been loud the second you got here." There's more he wants to say, the twitching of his lips and the tightening of his fingers prove that much. But you're staring up at him like you know something he doesn't — an omen is within your eyes and the chill it gives him shuts him up enough to leave with a comical stomp and huff.

Ashley cringes, glancing around to see if anyone felt the same as he did but is distracted by your question. "Everyone is invited to that party?" Excitement flashes in her eyes as she sees the same in yours.

"Fine. I'll go too."

The music is so loud you're convinced it's rattling your bones. People are spilling out from the threshold of doors, and windows, on the stairs and the porch, and possibly on the sloped roofs of the house. The lights are everchanging. Streams of neon blue, green, and red are flashing through the fog that's flowing down from the corners of the room. The scents. The sounds. The feeling of bodies bumping into you no matter where you walk. It was a goddamn watering hole.

You had come here with Ashley, but she split off with some of her girlfriends. Last time you checked, she'd been invested in some girl's sob story as they crowded around her with red cups in their hands and slurred words. Ashley had given you a grimace but gestured for you to just enjoy herself.

You'd try to but there'd be no point in doing so considering how vapid everyone was.

So you nurse your drink in the corner, back facing the stairs, and smile as people walk by or above you. The music isn't all that bad, typical party music with some early 2000s songs that earns a good 'oh fuck, this is my song!' from the crowd.

Scanning the front door, watching every face that comes in, your hunger becomes more and more endless. Like a predator digging its claws into the bark of trees, you're restless in that little shroud of camouflage; shifting your weight from one side to the other, sighs escaping liquor-flavoured lips; grin getting more and more grim.

The touch on your nape has your head tilting away from him. Those calloused fingerpads — which not many people in this slice of "heaven" had — press into the solid bone on your nape; it elicits a barely there moan and your features soften immediately.

The cup he's holding is perspiring in his hands and you've spent enough time under his hands to know it had every right to be red and sweating. Deft fingers pinch the rim of your cup and you give him no resistance as he pulls it away to trade his drink.

"Thought you said you didn't wanna be here, Trustfund," Leon said as he leaned on the wooden panels of the walls. The shoulder bump he did is deliberate, a soothing croon to ask you to stop staring people down the second they enter the house.

"What gave you that impression, Waitlist?"Leon grunts, downing what little is left in your cup down his throat. Risking a glance away from the entrance, your eyes chase after the trail of wetness that slithers down his chin. God, he was gorgeous. A face so pretty it's no wonder he pisses off other men around him. His odd, dry, humour doesn't exactly help either.

"The lack of replies to my messages, maybe, geez, who knows."

"Oh, poor Leon," your pout earns a frown from him. "Couldn't get your dick wet when I was going through exams? Oh, poor widdle baby," he leans away from your fingers as they invade his face to pinch to what little adolescent fat still stuck to his cheeks.

"Oh, suck a dick, (Y/N)." Your smirk as you bring your lips to the rim of his cup. "Down, boy. We're in public, don't start begging just yet."

Unamused — or attempting to look unamused — Leon simply follows your focused gaze and tilts his head.

"I'll ask then. What's up with the staring problem? You attracted to doors now or what?"

The drink goes down with an awfully wheaty aftertaste and you smack your lips together in bemusement. "Fuck - what beer is this?" "Don't be an ass, they're doing a beer run, alright? I grabbed what I could. Are you gonna answer my question or not?" You swallow with a grimace. "D'you know that kid in Mr Pinto's class? The one with glasses and that god-awful voice? That know-it-all?" Leon nods. "Yeah, kinda looks like the typical nerdy douchebag, right?"

You lean in and Leon lets you. The both of you pretend not to feel the way his breath shudders as your wet lips brush the side of his cheeks.

"I wanna kill that rude little freak. Cut him open and smear his brains all over the fuckin' sidewalk." Leon's eyes widen. As you peer at him through your lashes, his grey-metal eyes all but melt to reveal that bloodthirsty animal stalking between reason and lace-thin morality. He gulps thickly, casting a side-glance briefly to the entrance before he darts them back to you.

"Why?" He strains out after clearing his throat.

Oh, this is why you adored Leon Scott Kennedy.

It was the way he tried so hard to deny how twisted he actually was. That abashed flutter of his lashes, the skim of teeth over his rabbit-tongue-colored lips; everything contrasting to how violently he used his strength to thrust a knife into someone's rib; how easily he swiped and cleaned a hunting blade using his gloves.

The low, guttural, grunts he makes as he thrusts into you during that high. How he's so careful with his strength outside of the bedroom but during the heat of it? He's so shameless that he leaves hand-shaped bruises all over your hips and arms and even leaves indents of his teeth into your flesh. If he was really impatient, he'd fuck you all while wearing the Ghostface mask, holding that still-bloody knife to your throat as he fucked you so hard you walked funny for a day or two.

Despite how much he enjoys it though, he still asks ' why? '

Why him? Did he do something bad to you? Why not him?

Why? Why? Why?

It didn't exactly matter why. Leon never says no to you.

"He was a bitch to Ashley."

Someone bumps into him, and he braces his hand on the base rail of the stairs. Drunken laughter muffles the minute silence as he peers down at you. His broad shoulders look bigger this time. You faintly recalled Ashley slyly mentioning how he seems to work out more often now ("always jogging past near your accommodations, you must've seen him once in a while. Has he ever come over for a quick post-workout boost?" "Gross, Ashley...A few times, yeah -").

"That won't do." He said with furrowed brows. "No, it won't." Circling your arms around his waist, you pull him in with a Cheshire smile.

"Ashley's like family to me. Besides, her mom's been worried about all these — " you giggle, trying to push down the urge to by chewing on your lower lip but failing. "What?" he asks, the tip of his nose on yours as he savours the sound. "C'mon, what'd she say, babe?"

"She's worried about these Ghostface killings," you playfully hiss out. He isn't sure if it's the party, the drinks, the bloodlust, or just you but he starts laughing along with you.

"So we gotta make sure he isn't dangerous for her sake, hm?" He noses under your jaw and the way you turn your face away makes his mouth water. That neck is far too untainted for his own liking; how long has it been since you've fucked? Since he's driven a knife into someone's skull?

Ever since that awkward break-up in your car, after that honest-to-god perfect night of killing that annoying and creepy line cook and fucking under the stars in the woods. That was the last time the two of you fucked and that was months ago. It caught him off-guard. That haze of pleasure being fanned away by the typhoon that was your sudden request to just break up.

The handjob on the wooden floors of your dorm followed by a blowjob was more recent but Leon just wanted to sink into that tight hole again and again for hours for him to be fully satisfied. The only reason he even stopped was because your alarm rang for an early class, one that you apparently couldn't afford to skip. All lies. He knows the alarm was just the weekday alarm that always went off at 9 am — he knows it's because of the beat of silence that followed after you came around his fingers.

The gentle panting from both of you, the sweet kisses he was leaving on your thighs and then your face.

You only pulled away when it got too real.

It just makes him more determined to show you how deep his devotion for you was. Whatever the reason behind your fear of commitment was, there isn't a line Leon wouldn't cross to show you how willing he is to be yours.

"Exactly," you whisper. How he hears it despite the music and people should surprise him but it doesn't. His body is hyperaware of your very presence. The minute changes in your expressions, the octave changes or lilts in your voice, the wordless way you communicate with him from across the room; Leon just knows you.

"A little birdie told me that he actually has a crush on you, Mr Kennedy." Leon doesn't pause in his actions. His tongue laps at the rising pace of your pulse, teeth brushing over skin and you try very hard to continue your speech despite the hand that cups your crotch.

"Somethin' 'bout you helping him pick up his books when the fucker tripped over his own fuckin' feet." You gasped as he started mottling your skin, capillaries just imploding under his ministrations. "Fuck, Leon." The cup is crinkling under your tightening hold and Leon simply cages you in between his toned arms. It's hard to focus on anything past them as you eye the prominent veins that disappear under the sleeves of his black shirt.

"Leon, calm the fuck down." He bites your neck in retaliation and you're glad some popular song plays over the speakers because the cheers that follow mask your moan.

What a ridiculous statement. Here you are, in his hands; perfect and handsome and sexy and yet — not his. It’s all a bit fucked up for him. Growing up alone, life offered no reprieve for little Leon Kennedy. His parents dying while he was young, then going to an orphanage — it all cemented into him that he was fine being independent. A partner sounded nice but he didn’t give it much thought.

Until you came.

Stubborn, silver-tongued, rich, handsome, so fucking handsome.

Not at all his type.

Waitlist, he hated that nickname. So he crashed a little late and unprepared for his first class. Sue him. Not his fault the school plucked out his name late too. Among the giggles of the classroom, yours stood out. It made sense since you were closest to him. Ashley was smacking your arm, sharing glances his way and you turned and mouthed a ‘sorry’ that Leon knew you didn’t even mean.

But then he kept seeing you around. Bumping into him during parties, always sitting near him in classes, accidentally hitting him in the face with a ball while you were chilling on the grass.

Fate was too perfect for him.

Leon was snarky and stubborn and he had nothing to give you that you already didn’t have.

But then, the night he saw you covered in blood. Everything seemed to shift. Because suddenly you weren’t this unreachable, little asshat with a wicked tongue and Leon was no longer a mutt with nothing to offer.

Suddenly, he saw that you were just as twisted and hungry as he was. A lone wolf with its teeth stained and its ribs showing under all that extravagant fur and Leon couldn’t resist himself chasing you after that.

The man who was bleeding out next to you had been desperate to try to sleep with you. The bruising around your neck and the dishevelled state of your clothes pieced the puzzle together. Leon used that to justify killing him.

For you. Just for you.

He was finally using the sharp teeth he had. Those blunt claws he’d been desperately trying to file down dug themselves into the dirt and he ran with you all the way down to Hell. Kicking the earth behind him, his breath visible as his teeth bare into a wolfish grin and you were right there.

Two lone wolves finding each other in a world full of rabbits and squirrels and deers.

Because that's what the both of you were. Not spiders with silk-weaved webs or snakes with venomous fangs. You were a wolf stalking its prey with your tongue lolled out and eyes so wide they shine like the moon.

Unapologetic killer.

If only you’d get the fact that you’re not a solitary animal into your thick skull.

Leon grunts when you pinch his sides, forcing himself to pull away with a disgruntled glare that you return.

“Did you hear what I said about the plan?” He tilts his head. “Was I supposed to?”

You click your teeth, placing your hands firmly on his chest to push him away. Leon resists but he lets you go after a split second.

“Christ, Waitlist.”

Leon reaches his hand out but you take a turn into the living area and suddenly he’s bumping into bodies. They’re bouncing and shaking and he feels like a sailor in rough waters.

“(Y/N)!” his voice doesn’t reach past his own nose. The music is so loud he doubts you’re even deliberately ignoring him. “God fucking dammit!” Leon ignores the hand that clumsily tried to seduce him and the glossy lips that follow it, just shouldering through the sea of people.

The kitchen hails no signs of you. He’s glad to see the beer run was successful enough and grabs a bottle of your favourite to soothe whatever it is he did.

“Leon! You’re here!” Ashley pops up from across the island and Leon smiles at her way. “Hey, Ashley. What’s up?” she eyes him skeptically and places her hands on the island. She quickly regrets this because of how suspiciously sticky it is but doesn’t miss a beat as she asks him; “I was gonna ask if you’ve seen (Y/N) but I guess those beers are for him.”

Ashley wraps her hand around a can and uses the condensation to somehow alleviate the stickiness. She would use the sink but with the state of a poor boy vomitting inside it and the amount of couples fucking in the bathrooms, this was the best she could do.

“Actually,” Leon sighs, “I was gonna ask if you’ve seen him.”

Her shock is evident but to Leon’s surprise, it turns into exasperation.

“Do I have to spell it out for you, Kennedy?” Ashley puts her hands on her hips and then points a finger at his way.

“He likes you. (Y/N) (L/N). He likes you, Leon Kennedy. So,” she comes around to him and despite the height difference, Leon feels slightly intimidated by her frown.

“Just fuck his brains out and tell him you’re not gonna let him go! That’s the only way you’re getting through to him, okay? God, I swear the both of you are so dimwitted!”

Ashley walks away and Leon stands there for a second to process what he’d just been told. The beginnings of a smile threaten to crawl onto his face so Leon purses his lips and just walks on towards the hallways to see if you’ve snuck into any of the rooms there.

He instead finds another person. Quite literally, they were shoved straight into his chest (thank god the beer was in a bottle). It takes a minute for Leon to notice him, really notice him, but after their half-assed apologies are shares Leon sees who it is.

From over his shoulder, he spots your half-hidden face just as you slink out of view.

“Hey, you’re...Michael, right?” the brunette perks up considerably and nods. “You’re in Mr Pinto’s class?”

Michael jumps into the conversation. “I am!” he exclaims though considering the state of the party, it is not out of place. Leon smiles charmingly and leans on the wall, offering Michael one of the bottles he’s holding.

His hands practically tremble to take it.

“You’re pretty smart, huh?” Michael scoffs at his words, his cheeks flushed despite not one sip taken. “I guess you can say that, I mean, 4.0 GPA but yeah. I guess I am pretty smart.”

This was going to be a long night, Leon thinks as he takes a swig.

Dancing with Michael proved to be easier than talking to him. He’s much more pleasant when you can’t hear him bragging about being the smartest guy in the room or how his sister is as dumb as bricks (”It’s no wonder she resorted to bulimia as a last resort to get hitched” “Oh, wow.”).

Leon thought rich kids were already unbearable but the smart rich kids were worse. The only thing that kept him sane was the fact that he’d see glimpses of you. A sliver of (H/C) coloured through the flashes of light. At times, he swears he even hears your laughter through the crowd and music.

Michael grabs at his arms and pretends to be coy as he squeezes and asks how much Leon works out. “I see you runnin’ sometimes!” And Leon suppresses the urge to cringe at how close his face is.

Did this make him an asshole? All this pretending to be nice, if God was real, was he shaking his head at Leon?

‘ If God was real he’d open the gates of hell to swallow you up the second you were born, ‘ he thought derisively.

But then, the Devil answers his question in the form of you. He sees you dancing, hands up in the air with your teeth bared in a giant grin. Leon's entranced; your arms slither down to your neck and Leon's not sure how he sees it with the flashing lights but he can see the hickeys he left on you. Michael is speaking, his ears relay to him. But he can’t pull his eyes from you. Leon doesn’t understand how you do it.

When you’re in the room it’s as if you’re the sun; the very center of his universe and he wants to implode into you. Be devoured and destroyed within your maw. A hand on his face and Leon is now staring at Michael. God, he’s staring at Michael.

Before he can speak, Leon asks; “Do you wanna go somewhere more quiet?”

They’re in the back of the house now. Music is more muffled despite the way the walls reverberate. The wood panelling must be screaming from the LED strip lights pasted on it. All the lamps had a red cloth over them, the room would look terrifying if it weren’t for the clouds of smoke and slurred giggling from the bodies on the bean bags.

Michael’s palms get clammy and Leon pretends he doesn’t feel it. Deeper in the room, at the back, where the cove of a past reading nook was built. The heavy velvet curtains stink of weed and cigarettes. He doubts the stains at the end are anything but alcohol or vomit. Aptly named make-out nook, the windows are covered by old sports magazines so no one from the outside can gawk.

Leon pressed Michael to the window panes and he gasps, hands coming to rest on Leon’s waist. He does that annoying squeezing thing that makes Leon’s skin crawl. His lips are on him and Leon narrows his eyes, staring at the smiling bodybuilder with his bulging muscles and tanned skin. Superman underwear and all. Leon wonders what he’d think of the sight before him; if any of these frozen-in-time athletes coo and gasp at the scandalous activities this nook has seen.

The curtains rustle as Michael chews on Leon’s lower lip. He’s biting down harder than he should — Leon jerks back, hissing softly.

“Fuck, I’m sorry — Are you okay?” Michael pauses as the curtains part and your giggles flood through, tendrils of smoke slipping through your teeth. An act. You’re closing in for the kill, and Michael has nowhere to run.

Still, he looks oh-so-smug as he tightens his grip on Leon.

“Leon?” you gasped while Michael sneered at you as he took a handful of Leon’s crotch. Both pretend not to feel how soft he is. He squeezed and purred. Leon’s eyes remained on you, brows raised in a challenge. “He’s busy with me, (L/N). So move along,” Leon slid his toned arms around his waist. The sight was like a match being struck, and your eyes burned with fury.

‘ Now? ‘ his eyes ask. You nod, reaching for the pocket knife you tucked away in your (Leon’s) leather jacket.

‘ Now. ‘

Leon wanted to kiss you so badly that he felt his fingers shake as he reached for his own hidden knife.

“Dude, not cool. You can’t make out with me like 10 minutes ago then just make out with someone else!” You exclaim, clambering into the nook and letting the curtains naturally slip close. “Leon — c’mon,” you beg so sweetly when you’re pretending. Michael sighs, getting his filthy hands off Leon, and faces you.

One finger jabs at your chest and you tilt your head at it.

“Fuck off, alright? Not everyone is dying to fuck your used hole —“

He inhales sharply, lashes fluttering as metal sheathes itself into his flesh. Leon pulls out his knife and then plunges it inside his back.

Again and again and again and again and again.

Michael braces his arms on your shoulders, and your breath shudders. He looks up at you in panic. He doesn't pay attention to the knife you’re holding too, he inhales and the way his mouth opens tells you he’ll try to scream.

The blade sinks through his neck, and when he tries to swallow the blood that floods his airway you can feel his muscles and Adam’s apple squish and move it. So you twist and dig in deeper. Leon’s blade pulls out again, blood is quickly spreading beneath Michael’s legs but the room is already cast in red — as if anyone would see.

“You enjoyed the little shit, Kennedy?” Michael claws at your jacket as you tilt the knife up, slicing through more of him until he starts spasming. His choking and gasping makes you groan in relief, breathing in his death with a smile.

"He was". You don't dare pull out the knife. Not now. A little puddle of blood is fine but more than people will really notice. The thrill of it all is too much for Leon; the crowd of people being hidden only by curtains, a warm body sputtering and choking on you as you held the knife; your eyes staring up at him with nothing but adoration in them.

Try to deny him as much as you want, (Y/N). You can't hide from Leon's hunger.

Ashley's voice echoes through his head.

"Kept groping you like some sort of pervert, what a fucking loser. Heard he got caught stalking the swim team captain. Pathetic, right? Think we can drag this pile of shit to the pool?"

Why are you talking about this waste of space?

Leon grabs him and with no more than a grunt, tosses Michael's body to the window pane where he thuds and slides down onto the floor. Splatters of blood spray onto the magazine covers, forever staining them just like the vomit stains on the curtains, and Leon pushes you against the window.

You replace the knife you held with Leon's jaw, smiling into the kiss as he sticks his tongue into your mouth. Fuck, he tastes good. Like your favorite beer. He's relentless as his hands grab the mounds of your ass.

From the outside, people snicker at the thumps they can hear.

"Fuuuck, Leon — Mfph, you're so fuckin' hasty," you groan. "Sorry for rushing when — fuck — when there's a dead body next to you."

You laugh and when Leon dives in again to suck the soul of your body he tastes the heavy smoke of marijuana lingering in your mouth. Michael is grunting, attempting to pull out the knife in his neck and you're especially cruel as you dig the heel of your shoes into his crotch. When he groans spurts of blood come out of him like a deflated waterbed.

"You're acting like this is something new," you retort. Leon just focuses on your neck again. Sucking over his marks and the slight pain that follows causes you to moan, gripping onto a fistful of his hair as your legs part.

What did Ashley say exactly? Fuck your brains out and tell you he's never letting you go?

He kneels abruptly, you're still catching your breath when he licks up your stomach, his bloodied knife now in his hand. You help him by lifting up your top, watching him lap at your happy trail with a dark blush across your face.

"Gonna suck my dick? You miss it that much?" Leon does not reply. Instead, he unbuttons your pants and you're chewing on your lip in excitement, gulping thickly as he pulls it down under the swell of your ass.

There's a wet patch on your underwear and Leon moans, pulling your pants down even further until it pools at your ankles. His knife is cold on your outer thigh, you hiss softly as the edges press and nick you but his tongue lapping at your dick through the cloth derails any complaints.

"Shiiit, Leon — " he slips the knife under your underwear, the serrated edges licking at your hips before a riiiiiiip! is heard. Ashley would be pissed knowing one of the designer underwear she gave you as a gift was purposefully torn apart but perhaps she'll be forgiving knowing it was to fulfill horny, filthy, purposes.

He must be really fucking excited. Leon's tongue is making a wet spot appear on your underwear and as if flimsily slips away from your hips, you swear you can feel the growl he releases as he sucks your exposed dick.

It twitches on his tongue, flushed from his attention as his tongue laps underneath it and his lips wrap around it.

"You miss me, baby?" You let out a sound of confusion at the question. "Yeah, you fuckin' do. You're so fucking hard."

Was he...was he talking to your cock?

"Bet you're dripping for me too, hm?" "Leon, what the fuck are you — "

The knife is now between your thighs, Michael's blood smearing itself there as he presses a kiss to your cock.

"If you're gonna cut me, wipe that pig's blood off." Your sneer is the last thing Michael sees as his eyes finally cloud over. In all honesty, you'd forgotten about him until now. The thought of his blood on you just disgusted you.

Leon wipes off his blood in his signature move; simply using your ripped undergarments in replacement of his gloves. Despite your annoyance, you won't deny how hot it was seeing him do it.

"Want me to cut you?" he hitches the blade to your inner thighs, the still-warm blade makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand. "Can I?"

"...Not there. Somewhere else."

Leon stands, the tip of the blade on your stomach. He towers over you, his broad shoulders making your cunt ache for more. "Here?" You shake your head so he flicks his gaze to inspect your torso.

Taking the edge of your shirt from your hands, he instead slips it between your teeth and you narrow your eyes at him. With your hands free, you lean back onto the windows, chest rising and falling in anticipation as Leon traces the knife all the way up to your chest.

He pauses at your collarbone but you shake your head once again and so he lowers it to your pec. You shake your head but Leon is gazing at it intently. He strokes tenderly over the surgery scar then pulls the skin of your chest taut and before you can protest he digs the tip of the blade in.

You bite down on your shirt, hissing as he drags down the tip. Crimson seeps through, beading up like delicate pearls before it gushes out in small streams. Leon's knee digs up your cunt and the spark of pleasure makes you lurch forward to grip Leon's shoulders. He pushes you back, the thump once again earning giggles from the group on the outside.

"You know I love you, (Y/N). I'm sick and tired of pretending you don't love me back."

Bewildered, you stare at him with furrowed brows.

He twists the blade and you inhale sharply as he slices it, lifting the knife at the end which cuts you shallowly at the end of his...symbol?

What the fuck was he cutting into you?

"Since you're too fucking stubborn to accept it, I'll make sure you know it. I don't know what rich boarding school trauma you have or if mommy and daddy never showed you how love is supposed to work — you're fucking mine."

He drags the blade down, three quicks slices follow and your eyes well with tears while your hips gyrate down on the delicious friction he has provided.

"You think I won't understand you? Think I'll hurt you? I'm the only one in this fucked up world that'll love you unconditionally, Trustfund. I love you, (Y/N)."

The next letter — you belatedly realize — hurts more as he carves a jagged O.

"I love you. I love you, I fucking love you, I'll love you till the day we die, and even in Hell, I'll find you and I'll love you."

N hurts less, Leon's gotten the hang of the angles and how quick and deep he should do it.

"I'll burn the whole fucking world down if it meant I could stay by your side."

Your chest is bleeding, rivers of red escaping and it stings in the cool air so Leon presses himself closer. The warm of his body on yours numb out the pain of the pressure he had applied. Blood is staining your torso, dripping and mixing with your slick and his jeans and you're so turned on you can't find the words.

Leon just kisses your cheek, licking up the tears that escaped and you moan as he kisses you.

Leon thinks his ears are fucking with him. He pulls back, not far enough to let your lips leave his but far enough that he can look at you. There's a dopey grin on your face, and he can feel the shape of your lips as you speak.

"Luh — Love you too, Leon...Love you s'fuckin' much."

It's a miracle no one has pulled the curtains back.

Maybe the noises were keeping them away. Everyone's a voyeur until the chance is actually presented in front of them, right? Hearing the both of you is enough. Seeing is too embarrassing.

You're completely wrong, by the way. Ashley had chased everyone out, locked the goddamn door of this red room with a giggle. Not knowing the true horrors that were hidden.

It was for the best.

Leon has you lifted in his arm, lapping up at the blood on your sternum as his cock bullies in and out of your cunt. The gymnast staring at him from over your shoulder makes him grin and he pulls you firmly down onto his cock, groaning as you squeal.

"Fuh — Fuck! Fuck! Leon!"

You're gripping onto whatever leverage you can find purchase off without ripping off the pictures. But he's balls deep and you keen, hands finding itself tangling with the curtain rod. Leon is so rough, so intent on destroying your cunt as his hot breath protects his name from the air, every jostle and thrust makes you clench around his cock like a vice.

"Fuck, this boypussy's made just for me, huh? Sucks me in every time I pull out, greedy little cunt." His words are making your vision blur with tears, he latches onto your nipple and your arm jerks.

The curtain rod falls with a crash and Leon immediately pulls you in. He shield your naked body with his own, completely ignoring the dead body inches away. He expects horrified screams. The both of you are greeted with silence instead.

The room is empty.

More space to fuck you in, he thinks as he smirks.

Limply, you lay out like a starfish on the couch. Cunt gaping and slick with your juices and blood and his spit. His dick is streaked with blood and your cum coating it, he spits a glob off spit onto your dick and you whine, reaching for a throw pillow to hold onto as he uses his thumb to jerk it.

"Fuck, you look so fucking handsome right now."

"How...how have you not cummed yet...?" You pant out, hips lifting and twisting in an attempt to escape Leon's thumb. He presses your hips down with his other hand and you groan, eyes rolling back.

"Needa' make up for lost time," he says as he licks his lips. "Missed this hole so badly. Shit, look at the way he's winking at me."

"Stop talkin' to my cunt!" He grunts as you kick his shoulder, turning to bite into your calf with a gleeful chuckle.

"Fuck, I wanna make a movie with you." Your pretty little prince-y parts are more forthcoming than you are. Your cock jumps and he sees the way you squeeze down.

"Say less, baby." You try to kick him again but he leans back faster than you. He meanders towards his discarded pants, pulling out his phone. You try to catch your breath, one arm tossed over your eyes as your legs go lax, thighs twitching as you try to calm your heart rate.

The light from his phone feels warm, but maybe that's just you being sensitive. He makes sure it takes in all the details of his carved name, then pans down to your sopping hole and a throaty moan escapes you as his fingers slip inside with ease.

"Jesus, I can feel your heartbeat." The casual way he says it makes you whine, he pumps his three fingers in and out before curling it up, and your back arches. The cutest "ah!" coming from you.

He hopes the phone picks it up. He admires the way you as he lines up his cock to your cunt. Slides it through your lips, hissing in pleasure as he bumps his cock with yours, and you squirm, wrapping your legs around his waist. "Leon, cum in me. Please, fucking Christ, just cum in me already."

His cock is so thick. The stretch of it never fails to make your mouth open in a silent scream, choked-out moans of his name or God escaping. When his balls smack against you, you see white behind your eyelids, and Leon chuckles as he feels your walls spasm around him.

He pulls back. The streaks of liquid on his cock just make him all the more eager. Leon lets the camera take in your body as it takes him. Plowing into you with abandon, bracing himself on his fist as his hips rattle yours.

"Fuck, yes. Tighten up around me, that's it, baby. Yeah, that's it."

He angles the phone away, wanting to see your face without it blocking him. It falls onto the floor and Leon steals your breath away as he kisses yo. His mouth tastes like blood and beer and you.

His brows pinched as his back rippled with pleasure. "I'm close," he warns and you whimper, locking your ankles behind him just as you wrap your arms behind him.

"C'mon, baby. Fill me up, yeah —Nghah! Yeah! There, right there! Fill me up, Leon, please — Ah!"

Pressing his forehead with yours, he claims your lips once again and his thrusts get sloppy, uncoordinated. He comes with a moan of your name, sheathed in as deep as he could get and the warmth that fills you makes your cunt clench around him tightly, milking him as your orgasm washes over you for one last time that night.

"Fuck, (Y/N)..." Leon presses gentle kisses to your cheek, stroking your neck as he pants.

"I...I promised Ashley I was gonna jog with her tomorrow," you mumble out, whining as Leon's hips stutter into you. He chuckles, trailing kisses down your neck.

"I'll take responsibility." "You better."

"Poor Michael," Ashley's brows slope as she watches the TV replay the news.

You're honestly impressed Leon managed to sneak out with the goddamn body, he wrapped it up in the curtain if you recalled, and placed it on his backseat. Leon didn't wanna leave you in the car but you were passed out, sleeping peacefully. So he spent a good hour or two just tossing the guy's body in the school's pool.

When you came to, you were at home with him wiping you down and your chest wrapped up.

It's been a week since the two of you were official, Michael's case seemed more and more hopeless — Leon had done a good job erasing traces of evidence. Like a proper killer.

His fingers squeeze your calves, and you groan softly, curling your toes as he massages it. Ashley turns back to peek at the both of you. You with your legs splayed over Leon's lap and him casually working out the kinks in them, all while you were wrapped with a blanket around your shoulders.

"You two aren't the slightest bit scared? He was at the party y'know. Michael and that Ghostface dude," she shudders and looks ahead at the screen. "Fuck, what if I made out with him!?"

Leon snorts, shaking his head. "I'm sure you didn't, Ash." You nod in agreement, adjusting the pillows under you, ignoring the sting of the wound under the bandages.

"Bet if you did, you'd know. He'd be so fucked up you'd probably taste blood in his mouth or somethin' freaky like that." Leon glances your way, and you give him a grin.

Ashley pouts, sinking back. You reach a hand out to play with her golden locks. It makes her shoulders droop and she leans back to you.

"You didn't even know the guy, Ashley. Ya' know what they say about killers, right? They only kill the people they know, you know any killers?"

She thinks about it.

"...You scream at the sight of a cockroach and Leon can barely parallel park without getting teary-eyed..."

"Hey," Leon's ears turn red. "That was one time and everyone was staring, okay?"

Ashley laughs, shaking her head as she switches the channels. Yeah, you were right! She didn't know any killers. She was safe hiding out here in your apartment with Leon until the police wrapped up their investigations.

As long as she had the both of you, she'd be safe. Which she wasn't wrong about — Ashley meant too much to you to be hurt. Her mother didn't have to worry about the Ghostface killers attacking her, the two of them were right behind her. Braiding her hair, asking if she wants popcorn for their movie night.

[deusvervewrites]

First of all: Happy Birthday Deus!

Secondly, I have more thoughts about the whole "The Villain must Die" thing. You already allude to it in your original post, but one of the reasons that people tend to dislike it is definitely the fact that, if they were to acknowledge & accept it, they feel they would also have to "blame" themselves for liking "bad" media that does not follow this "rule".

You point out Star Wars, so some people will simply read this as "If you enjoyed Star Wars, specifically Palpatine dying, YOU ARE A BAD PERSON!"

Which is not what you said, (and I assume not what you meant) but some people will just read this into things, and feel like they have failed some invisible "vibe check" or something by liking the "wrong" media, and it all starts becoming some weird purity test even if it's often only in peoples head.

Like, stop reinventing Catholicism over here, stories can have different meanings and lessons, and one single thing doesn't mean that the story is no forever tainted and everyone who ever liked it should be branded as evil or some-such nonsense.

To use an extreme example, Metal Gear Rising Revengeance very VERY much kills its villains. It also has a very strong and important message about politics and ideology and how people justify atrocities in it. It's a different kind of story with a different kind of message compared to things like BNHA. Also, it even implies itself that the protagonist might have been wrong in killing his enemies, the fact that he did so anyway and that that was the only way he could see is a flaw that the game directly points out! So good news, liking MGR doesn't make you "bad" just as liking SU or BNHA doesn't mark you as inherently "good" or "righteous".

People need to take a step back and consider that not everything is an attack on them or what they like. Good stories are allowed to have flaws. Because most of them do. Any you are still allowed to like them. That's also fine. You can even like something and criticize it anyway, that's allowed!

This is getting long, so I want to end with another example that helped me realize how much I love villains surviving:

Fairy Tail, and the Arc of Jellal. Long Story short, when we first meet Jellal he is THE WORST. Absolute scum of the earth, sadistic maniacal supervillain that, inevitably, ends up blown up in a big anime battle.

Except, nope, ~2 arcs later, he is back, with amnesia, and involved in some other villains plot. Over the course of the arc he works with the heroes but then regains his memory and is utterly devastated to learn who he was in the past, to the point that he tries to noble suicide sacrifice himself to stop the villain. It does not stop the villain, but he still wants to go through with it to "atone", until the hero that he had hurt to most slaps him in the face and yells at him to Live and Struggle.

Because his death wont change anything. It wont heal those he hurt, or revive those he killed. He can only make up for this, only truly become better, by living.

And, spoiler, he does not sacrifice himself, but instead starts to go on a long and arduous and messy journey of atonement and it absolutely rocks. It makes him and his story a million times better than if he had died.

Anyways, sorry for the second wall of text I send you today, once again, Happy Birthday and best wishes!

One of the many things I love about Metal Gear Rising Revengeance's dialogue on the nature of violence is that, as you said, Raidon loses the moral victory at the end. When he kills Senator Armstrong, Armstrong names Raidon as the inheritor of his ideals that Might Makes Right. The entire game shows Raidon martyring himself by sacrificing his morals in an effort to save lives, implicitly comparing this to real-world warfare

[wutheringmights]

Okay but I really want to see your review of Onyx Storm though because I can’t help but feel like this one was a lot safer in terms it’s themes regarding misinformation and propaganda than the last two books. Idk how to explain it properly. It just feels hollow

I don’t blame you for thinking the book is shallow and builds nothing on the series’s supposed themes of propaganda and misinformation-- Onyx Storm says nothing about it. Both Fourth Wing and Iron Flame had major plot points centered around uncovering some truth that had been obscured by the government. At best, Onyx Storm has a plotline about Violet’s dad being cryptic as hell. It’s a stretch to call it propaganda or whatever. 

We’ve already exhausted the existing misinformation plot line in Navarre. Yarros has to take it a step further. The natural progression from “there’s a secret war beyond our borders” is “the dehumanized enemy beyond our borders is human and possibly morally correct.” After we went out of our way to meet Theophanie, I was certain this was where we were going to go. Hell, Xaden was slowly turning into one! What an easy albeit cliche way to complicate the war.

 But, no. The story refuses to evolve. The venin are still horrific freaks of nature, and it is still right and just to kill them. They’re evil, and we’re good. I won’t put it past Yarros to wait until the last minute to pull this move, but I also wouldn’t be surprised if she never does it at all. 

Onyx Storm’s biggest problem is that it spends the bulk of its time on world building that ultimately does not matter. We spend hundreds of pages going to islands that’s not even on the inside cover's map, learning about their cultures, and getting nothing of value from it. The world building is shallow, painting their cultures in cartoonishly broad strokes. Here’s the warrior nation, here’s the smart people, here’s the partygoers-- these are really basic ideas! Where’s the substance?

The most valuable world building we get is more on how the gods work in this world, but it never quite feels like it’s important. Yes, one of the big plot points at the end of the book involves one of the gods. But until now, when has religion mattered to any of the main characters? There’s a scene where our main cast sits in a tavern (drinking lavender lemonade, of all things) and compares the religious differences between Navarre and Poromiel. Why am I learning about this through a table discussion? This could have been developed organically through the characters’ behaviors. But it’s not because, despite what a hearty lemonade-fueled debate would imply, none of them have been any shade of religious up until this moment. 

I harp on the religion point a lot because it’s the most thorough world building Yarros has to offer. When it comes to the cross-isle adventure, it’s the point she falls back onto again and again. Here’s a new country, here is the god they worship, and here is how that religion colors our entire cultural understanding of these people. None are more egregious than the last nation we make contact with. They worship some luck god, and our entire experience with them is more or less just a gameshow performance for a crowd. This is the only nation we make a meaningful political alliance with. That their soldiers are present in the final battle is vital. We only know these people through a weird lottery game. That’s it. 

There are smaller world building points she throws in as well, but none have as much thought dedicated to them as the religion. For example, it seems like all of these isles have a native language with some important people knowing the common tongue. Great. So... what is the common tongue? Navarre doesn’t seem to have a native language, so is their language the common tongue? If so, why? They’ve been isolationists for hundreds of years. Why would anyone need to know their language? If they have their own language, then why does Violet and all of her friends know the common tongue when, again, they’re from an isolationist nation? 

Why is there a common language? When it appears in fantasy works, it’s less because the author appreciates pidgin languages and the worldbuilding they require, and more because they do not want to deal with the logistics of characters of multiple cultural backgrounds being unable to understand each other. That’s fine. I am more than happy to accept a common tongue the same way I accept potatoes in a European-based fantasy.  

But Yarros clearly establishes Dain as the group translator. His entire purpose in our little quest squad is to translate.You have a translator. You don’t need a common tongue. But you do, so all of the effort you went through to build Dain up as a polyglot is wasted. He never gets to do any translational work. Why are you offering two solutions to the same problem? You did twice the work for no reason. 

(Put a pin in Dain-- I will have more to say about him later.)

What stings the most is that we know that all of this effort is for nothing. None of these extra island nations matter. We will never go to them again, and what importance they have will never justify the number of pages dedicated to them. This is a waste of time. 

Why are we spending so much time world building these nations when we still have very little idea about Navarre and Poromiel? Does anyone actually know what life is like for the average citizen of either country? How do they dress? What jobs are available to them? What do they do for fun? I barely have a grasp of the level of technology in this world. In fact, I keep forgetting that this is in a fantasy world and not some urban fantasy story.

Yarros’s characters don’t really mesh with the setting either. From the very first novel, the main cast has been a little too-aware that they are characters in a book-- they know they are in a fantasy story, and they think this is all very, very cool. 

Any suggestion of a situation being dangerous is undercut by a character’s sense that this is really cool or, conversely, really annoying. Unlike the earlier books, everyone in Onyx Storm quips like they’re in a Marvel movie. Every conversation is bloated by a barrage of  jokes. No one takes the setting seriously, which means that I don’t quite believe in the world we’re in. 

Moreso, some of Violet’s narration is... you know what? Just look at this:

Xaden’s hand tightens around mine, and he leans down to brush his lips against my ear. “The shadows here are not mine. I know your skill with a dagger. I’m not discounting your ability to protect yourself, but for the good of my sanity while I try to get Halden out of whatever mess he’s created, will you please stay by my side?” I nod. How can I not? He’s not asking me to hide behind him, nor did he leave me with Tairn to keep me safe. He’s just asking me to stay close. (226)

Are you serious? Why would you say this unless you know you’re in a romantasy novel written and published for BookTok? Why would a character reassure herself that she is still a strong independent female protagonist? Why is the fourth wall paper thin? 

Here’s another example:

“Nope.” I brush a kiss across his lips, knowing I wont need to use the weapons. “It wouldn’t be the first time I raised a blade to you.” He stares, utterly bewildered, then flashes a grin. “I’m not sure what that says about us.” Is it toxic? Maybe. Is it us? Absolutely. (408)

This one manages to replicate the feeling of spotting a SEO valuable word, but in print. Yarros, you’re just lying to the audience now. We all know Violet and Xaden aren’t toxic because every time something outside the bounds of the modern Hays Code happens, you pad it with reassurances to the reader that, truly, this is a very healthy relationship. 

I’m putting “toxic relationship” on a shelf, and I’m not giving it back until people absolve characters of the responsibility of being role models and they get to be the fucked up little freaks I crave. 

Beyond annoying quips and self-aware narration, a lot of plot armor is endowed onto the main cast by virtue of them being the main cast. On three different occasions, Violet and company disobey military orders and risk being court-martial. Every time, they avoid suffering the consequences of their actions. Why? Because Violet is too important to arrest (she’s not), or she uses a clever loophole to absolve herself of blame (the law does not work like that). 

It’s staggering how much the main cast breaks military law, and how little they suffer for it. General Aetos is supposed to be a villain, but honestly, I’m on his side; I too would be pissed if these bozos kept on endangering themselves and their comrades out of some stupid belief that they are more important than everyone else. 

This is such a weird trend when the previous books were really clear about the stakes of insubordination and the consequences of rebellion. Violet was tortured in Iron Flame. Where did that energy go? If Yarros let Violet suffer the consequences of her actions, she could have had something to pad out the plot between the end of the island quest and the beginning of the final act. As is, there’s a hundred-plus page slump where nothing of importance really happens. 

But Violet and company are the heroes, so the narrative will bend over backwards and comply with irrational logic to allow them to continue to do cool heroic things like breaking the rules and stuff. 

The strangest instance of the book’s self awareness is how the narrative treats Dain. 

As previously established, I think Dain is the most reasonable character in the series. Did he mess up in the first book? Sure, but given what he knew, it was the correct decision. He has continued to be a bastion of sanity since. And, because everyone kinda hates him, I’ve made it my mission to go up to bat for him. 

Dain is never out of character. He’s still the reasonable one. But god, the narrative sure likes to make him look like a loser. His contributions to the quest are negated both by the common tongue and by another character, Aaric, being a better polyglot than him. In a ritualistic fight, he’s the first person to be knocked out; and I assume the post-fight scene features him prone on the ground and bleeding out because he’s not mentioned past it. During the gameshow scene, he’s bitchslapped-- a “gift” far more humiliating than what everyone else receives. 

At one point, the cast cracked jokes about Dain being no help and his presence ultimately being pointless. Yeah, Dain doesn’t have to be here. He serves so little purpose that he can be written out of the storyline. But he’s here to be mocked because Yarros knows the reader wants to see the loser second male lead humiliated. 

I’m not even offended as much as baffled by it. I don’t think Yarros hates Dain. If she did, his treatment would be far more egregious. Instead, every joke made at his expense feels like a wink at the audience, like we’re collectively making fun of our ex-boyfriend. The narrative has to commit to Dain being the reasonable one, but it still wants to play into a fandom joke. 

Stop winking! The fourth wall should not be this transparent. Respect your narrative, your world building, and your characters! I begging you, on my knees, to be sincere for more than two seconds. If the book can’t ascribe to its own premise, how can I suspend my disbelief?

I don’t think this is so much of a symptom of Yarros not giving a shit or being a bad writer. I think Yarros can write, and I think she cares about composing a good story. I also think she is influenced by the goals of her publishing house, Red Tower Books. While every publishing house is ultimately a capitalist cog, Red Tower Books was engineered to prioritized marketing above all else. The New Yorker’s profile on the Tracy Wolf plagiarism case provides some context as to how Red Tower Books operates. (Site note: what gives software engineers the audacity to think they can “revolutionize” everything but software engineering?)

 All Yarros wants is to sell you a good time. That means not complicating your premise with sticky moral quandaries. It means abstaining from rigorous, thoughtful world building. And it means prioritizing a figment of fun over plot coherence. She never tries to sell us anything else. We should stop asking for more. 

[emerald9d]

My Deltarune theorist saving throw

Can you believe it guys? Deltarune! Chapters 3 and 4! Just a few days away!

So I've said a lot of stuff about Deltarune. And I'm pretty open about not being big on a prevailing fan theory. But, on the off chance said fan theory is true at all, I think I can actually thread the needle on it and my own ideas.

I've said a lot about how Kris does a bunch of stuff on their own, and what it might mean.

I've said a lot about who I think Kris is as a person themself.

I've said some stuff about their relationships with others.

So how does the notion of the player being a consciously acknowledged entity in its own right fit into all that?

Well, I initially set out to disprove the notion simply by showing how much they act on their own, plus the fact that there's strong implications that there's been some weird shit going on with them since before the beginning of the game. My idea being, if those two things are the case, then how much can they really be getting forced against their will?

Well, I still hold that they largely aren't. But the thing I realized today, is that that doesn't necessarily mean they couldn't possibly be aware of the player, and even hostile towards it.

However, the only way to really square that with the rest of my ideas is to assume that Kris, in that case, would be mistaken.

Like, they'd be correct in that they're aware of something that happens to be the player. But it's possible in that case that they're misapplying blame to the player for stuff that happened before the game even began, because they maybe can't quite parse out what weirdass soul/mental shit is happening with them clearly.

Of course, if there's weirdass soul/mental shit going on with them before we even arrive on the scene, then this also implies the dreaded "third entity," thereby inviting the common "but that would make the story too complicated" complaint I've seen on discord and reddit. And... yeah I agree. That's why I don't actually believe any of this stuff. It's just that a lot of theorists would say "that's too complicated, therefor the Player must be the only metaphysical factor involved with Kris," where I would say "that's too complicated, therefor the story isn't going to really acknowledge the Player that hard and the mystery is more what the second entity even is."

On that note, I also see a lot of responses like, taking the player explicitly out of the picture robs Kris of personality and agency because that would mean they're not the one removing the soul and opening fountains and stuff. But going with my second interpretation from the end of the previous paragraph, and my previous documents, they're showing personality and agency all the rest time when the soul isn't being removed. So I never really understood that argument. Kinda feels like it just boils down to "well I like the melodrama of them opening a fountain for their own reasons so nya." Which, I mean, fine I guess, but that might end up being an idea relegated to the realm of fanfiction pretty soon.

And a ton of that fanfiction already exists, let me tell you.

Oh and one more thing I kinda forgot in my Kris assessments, particularly their dealings with Spamton. I said they might adhere to his demands to not tell the others about what they're doing out of some sense of duty or vague fear of repercussions. However, it's possible they're at least semi-aware of potential "big picture" stuff going on in the plot, and they see someone like Spamton as, like, somebody they can maybe learn something from, even if he freaks them the fuck out. Of course, it ultimately rounds out to the same problem: them quietly shouldering burdens to the point of self-sacrifice.

[vmpruiins]

I used to hate Apple when I was younger, but now I recognize she's just as much a victim as Raven is. She has the Headmaster, someone who she looks up to and respect, telling this young girl she and Raven will essentially DIE if Raven doesn't sign. He's dead ass manipulating this teen girl. He doesn't phrase it as die specifically, this man is careful to IMPLY without saying it, so he can just blame her entirely later bc 'i never said you two would die, I just said Apple's future wouldn't be secured. Blame her for wanting to step on your back so she can live lavishly!'

Like deadass this man is a cowardly butt monkey. Won't even admit he only has one case where someone disappeared after not following the story, when we have deviations already suggesting it's not the end of the world if it doesn't pan out: Ella isn't an abused orphan when the show starts, and that alone already contradicts the Cinderella story? Not to mention Ramona and Cerise existing implies the ending is not as "set in stone" as Grimm makes it out to be. Otherwise how TF would Wolf be able to have kids after dying? Where's his proof that deviations and refusal to comply result in eventual disappearences every time? Like things do not add up, and ngl it probably was setting up for a future movie that we ended up never getting. Those details feel too deliberate to be plot holes, and it feels like Grimm was being set up as the ultimate big bad.

She can be callous, oblivious, and blind to the damage she's causing, but she's still a CHILD whose being emotionally played by a grown man who doesn't want to accept a another young girl doesn't want to be ruined in all aspects of life to boost Apple up. Like as far as Apple concerned, she's fighting for her life, and Raven is just willfully endangering them both. It doesn't excuse her actions, but at worst she's just a spoiled child who is being outright lied to and being turned against her peers, and at best she's under the genuine belief Raven is willing to kill them both just because of whatever her destiny is. Also, I think it's canonical Apple doesn't know Raven will end up poor and homeless after her story concludes, like Grimm is purposely keeping that fact from her. As far as we know, she might naively think Raven will be fine bc clearly the villains don't actually die (once again, see the Wolf being a teacher despite his tale ending in him getting cut open). she still not being a good person, bc at some point one would normally stop and go "why is this person risking death by defying their story?" Or how she constantly harasses Raven, trying to get her to sign her right to a good future away. But she's just a minor antagonist, really, she's not the bad guy, and she was even on the road to siding with the rebels before the franchise got cancelled. Apple is not the evil queen bee some make her out to be

ANON i 100% agree!! i used to hate apple when i was younger too until i rewatched eah when i was older and realized how fucked her situation was, home and school life. shes being emotionally manipulated by not only the headmaster but her mother and raven’s mom??? like? damn

unfortunately we only see her relationship with her mom in dragon games but its so strained. apple had been feeling the pressure of being the next snow white, living up to her mother’s expectations while also thinking about everyone elses expectations and futures. thinking everyone would die if she and raven didnt follow their respective legacies like obviously that would make a 15/16 year old act irrationally and selfishly!!! shes literally a child who thinks she has the entire world to take care of.

the building of apple’s conflict with following their destinies is done so wonderfully imo and feels so natural and does justice to her character. it really begins with ashlynn dating hunter, thus not following her predetermined destiny. apple reacts irrationally at first and hurts ashlynn but comes to accept it despite her not fully understanding. briar follows in foot, throwing the story book of legends in the well and revealing to apple during thronecoming (i think it was?? correct me if im wrong) that she doesnt want to sleep for a hundred years. i think apple really starts to see it there and the last push being raven while they were in wonderland, seeing how badly it would affect raven if she followed her destiny 100%, revealing how much she CARES and loves raven and honestly confirming she didnt know the outcome of raven’s future.

apple at the end of the day is a child being manipulated by the adults she looks up to and has so much pressure on her and yet still comes out changed, loving and accepting. and i think that ties in perfectly with her destiny, being destined with darling after all. tbh shes kind of a great queer allegory too

and i agree that if they choose not to follow their predetermined destinies nothing would happen, like at all. red riding hood and the wolf are proof of this!! they didnt follow their destinies and theyre perfectly fine with two daughters, and they love each other. i wish we got an eah movie exploring the main characters and the way they choose to handle their destinies considering a lot of them have tragic ones like briar, duchess, cerise/ramona, etc. i do wonder who’d be the next small/minor antagonists after apple though, perhaps it’d be duchess? as she was always one.

also i HATE grimm i hate him he stinks hes so annoying actually the worst headmater ever

[ganondoodle]

(been rewatching some of those totk critique vids i liked in the past and now seeing the cutscenes again, espeically when compared to botws, ......... the way the characters move and everything is so stiff?? like i didnt rly notice it when i played the game bc i watched each scene once and never looked back bc i was so bored but now i see just ... like sometimes it feels like all thats missing is the mouse someones using to slightly move the model on its rig in real time- or the way the characters talk feeling alot more like the classical mouth open mouth closed bwabwabwa- especially on rauru and mineru

i dont wanna sound like im literally trying to find something wrong with everything of that game but ... it looks so static- like the way the champions in botw moved while talking already gave you a bit of extra character but in totk they all just kinda .. do the basic movement and move their jaw enough to imply talking?? am i crazy?? like its not that extreme in every single moment but for most of them ... right?)

-not really the point in itself but also bc i just saw the first cutscene you get after zelda gets to da paaaast again ... how the hell do sonia and rauru even find zelda.. like, its possible she was lying on the ground for a while but even then, hyrule is so BIG what are the chances that the king and queen just where there exactly, its not like she was carried by a giant bird and dropped into a tree (ww), she just kind materializes and gently plops into long grass. like its not even a cosntruct that finds her, or some hylian, no its them specifically (couldnt you have used the lil heehoo look how rich in personality da king is actually bc he sneaks out to hunt sometime info for that? .. he was out on a hunt and found her or sth? no? another case of plot shortcuts or whatever you want to call it?)-

[goofusdoofus]

!!MOUTHWASING SPOILERS!!! (im confused someone help)

Did jimmy s/a Anya Multiple times?

i just saw a Lucky Lefty video in where she discusses how its inferred that Jimmy had s/a'ed Anya multiple times before getting her pregnant and Curly knew and did nothing. But i just feel like thats not true ig? - One of Lucky's points was When Curly asked 'who did this to you?' when talking abt Anya being pregnant, she responded with 'you already know. In Lucky's words this implies that she had been assaulted before and made Curly aware of it, and he did nothing about It.

Personally i feel like Anya says this because we see her tell Curly abt the VERBAL harassment that Jimmy had been directing towards her. (during the eval scene) Also if Curly did ignore his crewmate/friend getting repeatedly r-ped why doesnt the fandom every talk about this? i feel like its a pretty big deal (e) Did i just interpret it a different way or am i missing a big plot point? (disclaimer btw im not a Curly apologist by any means, he is an enabler who brought a mentally unwell person onto a ship and then ignored the repeated red flags, he is nowhere near perfect or a good person but i didn't think he was THAT bad)

TL;DR: i guess the main thing im wondering is if this was obvious and im just stupid or is it mr v of something that isn't exactly clear and neeu.. be interpreted by the player.

[curapicas]

Oh look, the donghua is doing the heavy lifting for me and juxtaposing them on its own volition. (kind of a continuation of this)

Plot-wise, Li Tianchen's relationship with Lu Guang hinges basically on trying to manipulate and hurt Cheng Xiaoshi to do his bidding through hurting LG (worth noting this implies an understanding of such attachments, and the viciousness stems from a certain resentment of it + his twisted personality). I don't even remember if he's aware LG also has powers.

but tbh the funniest thing coming out of LTC vs CXS&LG is that, in a weird way, he was actually letting off his anger on the "right target", kinda? Technically? Of course I'm not saying LG deserves it nor that LTC was being anything but unhinged. But I do believe there's more than meets the eye (and probably informs the ways Lu Guang can be confronted on the narrative, more on that by the end)

Bc this show is competent, many characters have parallels with each protagonist, and LTC-LG are no different. There's a post I couldn't find that went on their reactions to their most precious people dying in front of them: whereas LTC loses all hope, LG has the means to go back, and thus doesn't even try to let go. Alas, they're both tacticians who, despiste meaning well for LTX and CXS, end up manipulating them into inaction/ignorance;

And they do so bc both feel adrift and out of options - but the show focus a lot on how powerless LTC feels about his life for it to not be a big factor. LTC fights so hard for a modicum of control that I don't even think it registers how he impacts LTX, meanwhile LG has so many variables stacked against him and his empathetic partner that he ends up prioritizing CXS' survival, even above their connection (he keeps to himself Emma's death, for example)

In the twins past, LG was the one that guided CXS into staying on task. And before that, he hid the photo even from the police. Tbh he'd never see it that way, but isn't this accidentally the best revenge for his stabbing? lol

Either way, LTC loses his hope, blames CXS and believes him to be what LTC hates the most, a nice guy who's secretly a jerk. Except. Who is actually closer to this description? A guy who can be polite but will stay passive if that affects CXS too much, to the point of lying about saving Chen Xiao's mom?

Curious to me he was also pretty straight forward in calling LG a jerk, and maybe it's just because LG botched his kidnapping attempt. But maybe he has pretty good instincts bc I don't think he even knows why he hates the man so much, lol. After all, for all Li Tianchen knows, everyone is a jerk who stands by and watch.

And maybe it makes him even angrier because he finally met someone who also has powers and is willing to call him "friend" and "play" with him. Considering his one friendship was with Liu Xiao, someone he's aware has plans, he might've even considered to have his own pet project on CXS. But the thing is, this person already seems to have a way more genuine friendship, and it's with LG.

Summary: LTC, if only he knew, would hate LG for not changing his past + being a guy who's very much capable of standing by and watch + having an actual friendship with CXS

DISCLAIMER: I think on his own right, Lu Guang values kindness in general. But LTC's vision is too black and white to even account for that.

While I'm on the topic of LG: while his passivity keeps him from being of any effective help to the twins, he's also keenly aware of the butterfly effect and that he could possibly make things worse instead, something CXS has been confronting throughought the story.

And yet. His objective is what ultimately makes us see this approach as instead of wise, more akin to the desperation of a grieving man - not unlike LTC who by the end of s2, gives up altogether of hope and follows the Big Bad. Besides, it somewhat clashes with the fact CXS actually does make a difference for the clients, be it by making the past more tender (Chen Bin's wife has sweeter memories, Dou Dou's life was actively made less worse) or the present better (lesbian noodles make up, Dou Dou's father and Qiao Ling reconcile), which is also something LG is aware of, since he agreed to deliver Chen Xiao's messages. So far I don't personally see a clean, objectively correct approach, thus I'm willing to bet it'll be whatever is diametrically opposite of Liu Xiao's, lmao

-kinda unrelated, but I've seen people mentioning an interview where Li Haoling-laoshi (aka the director) said he tweaked a little with Li Tianchen before s2, and he was meant to be (even more) obsessed with Cheng Xiaoshi, making this whole post even more hilarious